World War Z

[Zihark Faroda]

Ricard's back was killing him. It superseded the pain in his head, which was currently relegated to a dull throb, but the slightest movement just increased the pain. He could feel someone's arms wrap themselves around him, and though his vision was still mostly just a bright light, he knew it had to be Ashley. She was talking, but it sounded as if she were speaking to him underwater. Only a few of her words got through. By the time the wet towel began cleaning him up, however, his vision had cleared enough that he could make out things, if a little blurry, and his hearing had mostly returned but with a ringing in his ears. Ricard flashed Ashley a smile as he said "Heh, I wouldn't recommend tumbling backward down the stairs for entertainment. Not as much fun as it sounds." Ricard chuckled at himself as he went to sit up, groaning as he did so but resisting the urge to show it on his face. "From now on any dead body we come across in a place we're staying at, no matter how much of the body is missing, if it's head is intact we're smashing it, agreed?" Having fully sat up now, he turned to see the man David standing there with his daughter. "Hello there. The name's Ricard. Sorry for dropping in on you guys like that."  

[Nikki Faroda]

Ashley looked at Ricard with a concerned look as he sat up. "I wouldn't suggest that." Ashley said referring to him sitting up. Harley gentle nuzzled her head against Ricard's hand. David just looked at him, then realizing he needed a bandage grab the first aid kit from where it lay near the door. Laura tilted her head slightly and asked, "Are you going to be ok, Mr. Ricard?" Then Ashley handed Ricard the towel, "hold this here please." Ashley stood up, but before she could look for the bandages David tossed a first aid kit with gaze and ace bandages to her feet so it wouldn't hit her. Ashley managed a quick and quiet thank you. Ashley grab the first aid kit and starting dressing the wound. After that she started using a different part of the to clean the blood from his face. "Do you hurt anywhere else?"  

[Zihark Faroda]

Ricard petted Harley's head as she nuzzled up to him and looked over at Laura. He took the towel as Ashley instructed and held it where she told him to as he smiled at Laura and said "please, just Ricard sweetie, and other than a mild concussion I should be fine, so no need to worry." He laughed as he said this, his now sore and bruised body hurting as he did so but Ricard showed no signs of it. "I've been in worse pain before." He now looked at Ashley as she was dressing his wound. "Eh, just my pride at having been so careless," he chuckled in response to Ashley's last question.  

[Nikki Faroda]

Ashley looked straight in to his gorgeous, mesmerizing brown green eyes. She almost forgot what she was trying to do, but somehow she managed to hold on to it. She was trying to tell if he was lying or not about only his head and ego being hurt. Harley looked at him then stood and went upstairs to see what had happened. Ashley asked, "Ricard, can you stand?" She tried to help him to his feet. Laura looked at her father at him telling her to only call him Ricard, as if asking if it was ok. David looked at Laura and nodded a little, "I have a few questions for you two, before i start do you have any for me?" David was looking back and forth from Ashley to Ricard and then Ricard to Ashley.  

[Zihark Faroda]

"Well, I probably should wait a minute or so, but then again, there's only one way to find out, Ricard replied a he took the arm Ashley offered to him. He tried not to place too much of his weight on her as he pushed himself up off the floor. Ricard groaned as his now stiffening muscles strained themselves. Luckily, his legs didn't lock up and collapse underneath him as Ricard straightened his body. Carefully, Ricard released Ashley's arm and stretched each part of his body one by one. "Well, a little sore," he announced, "but nothing seems broken." Ricard then turned his attention to the father standing nearby. "Well, a name would be nice. Other than that I'm good for now."  

[Nikki Faroda]

"Of course, my name is David, and this is Laura." David answered. Ashley looked at Ricard, worry slightly gazing her eyes, "Yea do you know of a safe place with a bed or couch?" David saw that she didn't really seem to care that he was a guy, as long as this man whoever he may be was injured or at least as long as she thought he was. "Yes i do know a safe place that you two can stay in if you want to that is. You are a really cute couple, speaking about couples do you know where Lena is?"  

[Zihark Faroda]

"Nice to meet you both," Ricard responded. As he did so, a thought occurred to him and he quickly scanned both David and Laura with his eyes. They looked fine, and their clothes were clean, save for some wrinkles and a little dirt suggesting they hadn't changed them recently. The important thing was there was no blood, and so a very good chance that neither one of them was bitten. He figured he should ask them anyway, but Ashley's question distracted him. "The safest place right now is here," he said to Ashley, completely disregarding David's response. "I thought we already went over this. By now those things will have the building completely surrounded. Trying to make a break for it now to a possibly safe place wouldn't be very good. Though that does bring up an interesting point." Ricard turned his attention back toward David. "How did you guys make it into here? I saw the zombies making their way into the alleyway just a little bit before you entered the store, probably following you. That couldn't have been easy making your way through them though." Ricard's mind had completely glossed over David's last comments and question regarding Lena. Right now he was simply focused on how safe they were.  

[Nikki Faroda]

Ashley crossed her arm and started walking up the stairs, "Whatever you say genius." Harley followed Ashley, and Ashley started cleaning the room to make a makeshift living space, moving the half eaten body that attacked Ricard into the closet where he obviously had tried to put it. She stopped after she walked over to what used to be Lena. Not sure what else to do she walked down stairs to get the cleaning supplies she needed from behind the caster's counter. Then went back upstairs with a word, holding the towel and cleaning gallon in a way that David and Laura didn't see it by Ricard probably did. Meanwhile, David looks at Ricard, "There is a manhole in the road not to far from the ally, we came up through that and ran here." David watched Ricard waiting for a response.  

[Zihark Faroda]

Ricard glanced at Ashley as she walked up the stairs. 'Well that was suddenly quite cold,' Ricard thought as she disappeared from view. 'My head may be a little scrambled right now, but something's up.' Ricard turned back toward David and Laura. "Traveling underground huh? Not a bad idea. Couldn't have been very fun down there though I imagine." Ashley came back downstairs, and while Ricard didn't turn to look at her directly he could see her easily enough in his peripheral vision. It looked like she was finishing up what he was attempting to do. He knew he was going to have to question Ashley about what was wrong, but right now he would need to buy her a little time to clean up upstairs before David and Laura saw Lena. "So..." Ricard started, but was unsure of what else to say, "where were you guys when all this started?"  

[Nikki Faroda]

Ashley started to clean up all the blood that was around and on Lena's body. She put the stuff that was in the closet, neatly in a corner of the room. Harley came down stairs to stand guard, and get petted. In Ashley's irritation Harley knew Ashley wouldn't do it. So, she sat next to Ricard and nuzzled his hand. David looks at the ceiling as he hears Ashley moving around upstairs. "We were at home, having a family night. You know movie, popcorn." David replies. Then Laura adds, "It was my turn to pick the movie, we were watching The Lion King." David smiles a little, "What about you two?"  

[Zihark Faroda]

Ricard felt the warm, soft fur of Harley's head nuzzle his hand and without looking began to pet her. "The Lion King huh?" Ricard smiled at Laura. "That's a good movie. Good choice." He turned his head back up at David. "Well, I can't say what Ashley was doing, since I didn't even know her before all this started, but I had just finished eating dinner and was walking back to my hotel room. Nearly got run over by a car with a driver who had just turned. Ran into Ashley shortly after and we took shelter at her house for the night."  

[Nikki Faroda]

Laura starts bouncing, "It's the best." Then wiggling away from her dad and walks over to Ricard, "Can I pet your doggy?" Harley watches the girl very closely, then looks up at Ricard as if to see his answer not hear it. David looks shocked, but has started watching Laura."How did you get her to trust you so fast? Lena was always telling me how much Ashley and her aunt hated men." Ashley gets the items on the floor neatly stacked in the corner then goes back to cleaning up the blood, it's not a hard task just a time consuming one. While she doing this she wishes that she had her music and thinks to her why is there so much blood in a human body?  

[Zihark Faroda]

"Uh," Ricard hesitates as he looks down at Harley. He sees Harley staring back up at him as if awaiting an answer. Harley didn't seem to be backing away or making any threatening gestures toward the girl, so figuring it too be safe enough, replies while nodding his head and smiling, "sure." Ricard looks back at David, a look of confusion on his face that he was sure matched David's own. "Trust me? Hates men? Sure, there have been a few rough spots, but I never got the impression Ashley hated men. I've heard some stories about her aunt, but I'm sure those are merely drops in the bucket. Haven't really had time to discuss it with everything going on. Hell, it's only now just nearing 24 hours since this all began." Ricard glanced up at the ceiling for a brief moment, at where Ashley would be. His mind was racing, thinking back to all they had been through. Yeah, there were a couple times the teaching of her aunt had made Ashley do misguided things, and there was a bit of hesitance and reluctance at first, but Ricard had simply dismissed those as him simply being a stranger and Ashley's aunt trying to brainwash her. Ricard looked back at David shaking his head. "If Ashley truly hates men the way you say she does, then you'll have to ask her, cause I can't help you there." As Ricard said that though, he did now realize that Ashley did seem a bit...odd around David.  

[Nikki Faroda]

Laura started petting and hugging and loving all up on Harley, who seemed to be enjoying it. David looks even more confused now, "never got that impression?" He echos Ricard's words as if not truly understanding them or rather what thy meant. The look Ashley first gave him was one of hatred until Ricard fell down the stairs. It was obvious she cared about him a lot. Was it really possible that changed over night. That must have been one hell of a night. Ashley groaned in angry, she had gotten all but a few stains off the hard wood floor. It was a good thing most of the blood was fresh, or she would have been there for hours. The few stains that remained were so annoying. She just gave up and hide the cleaning supplies and went down stairs smell cleaner then before. It might not have been enough that she didn't get any on her clothes.  

[Zihark Faroda]

Ricard just stood there while David went into his own little world deep in thought. He had apparently shattered the poor man, or at least shattered the poor man's perception of Ashley. He looked down at Harley and Laura and smiled at the good time the two of them were apparently having. His smiled slackened slightly as he wondered how many more happy moments this poor girl would have in this new world, assuming they couldn't stop whatever it was that was happening. He heard Ashley coming back down the stairs and turned to look at her. She visibly looked annoyed now, but that could have also been due to her cleaning up the mess upstairs. "So," Ricard began breaking the silence that had fallen, "Ashley and I had found some food and water gathered up here, which is a good thing since we had to leave all our supplies back at the motel when that horde appeared. Were you guys planning to hold out here, or simply use it as a staging area for the next leg of your journey?"