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 Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 6:00 pm
The world outside of the town. there are crops, there is a large forest, beyond which is waste land.
Beyond the wastes? who knows.
Walkers prowl the world. Between roughly 10am and 2PM walkers stay within the trees, pained by the heat of the sun.
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Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2011 7:13 pm
ooc: This can go anywhere you want in the time line around your first post. I just didn't want to lose it so I stuck it in here.
Night was falling quickly, and yet Sullie was unable to move any faster than the slow jog she now found herself pushing through. The trees creaked and groaned against the evening breeze as she followed the road.
How long had she been running?
How many times had she so very narrowly escaped the Walkers?
How much longer would she be able to escape them at all?
Slowing to catch her breath, the girl, small and frail looking, leaned against a tree and took in her surroundings. She had changed her course upon finding tracks in the dirt.
Large tracks.
Tracks walking without dragging any limbs, or stumbling.
Strong, healthy tracks. Tracks of the living.
Hoping to follow them to a village or town, the girl had soldiered on, but now that night threatened her, nipping at her heels, she was beginning to lose that hope.
…Until she heard screams echoing across the land. Sullie drew in a deep breath and bolted. She ran, chasing the source of the echo, and pushed her emaciated body to it’s final limits. It was do or die, find help, or give up. She couldn’t go on anymore like this. It seemed with every step she took, the light vanished a little more, dimming steadily into black…
In the back of her mind, Sullie imagined the Walkers stirring, she imagined them realizing their hunger…imagined them sensing her warm…-
”No!” She cried out loud. She had been alone too long, she had been trying to think like them for too long in order to survive…she was going insane.
Hot tears stung her eyes, frustrated, exhausted, and when she finally saw walls looming in the distance, Sullie’s knees threatened to buckle in relief. Rather than collapse, she pushed her already screaming muscles harder, her lungs burning in her strain.
The doors of the town finally came into sight, and Sullie flung herself against them. Pounding for all she was worth…
Unfortunately, as tired as she was, and as weak as she was, her tiny, skin and bone fist made little difference and fell at her side. She reached up and slapped the door weakly, barely making a sound, her head resting against the metal.
“Please,” she whispered. “Please…” She said it louder...her other hand brushed against a large stone, the size of her fist and she gripped it, gritting her teeth in determination…with what strength she had left, Sullie struck the stone against the metal and listened to the sound ring out in the open air.
She struck the door harder, her resolve rising up within her again. “Please…!” Her voice rose to a scream. "Please! Help me!"
It was nearly dark. The walkers were probably making their way out of their wooded hideaways. "Please let me in!" She shrieked.
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 8:44 am
There was a bang against the large metal door that made Felwood jump. "A little skittish for a guard, friend." Konnor noted, sitting in a larger seat to acomodate his armour. It was the Felwood Guard's first day, which meant that a hunter needed to be present. usually guards were safe to protect the city without supervision, but on their first days it was better safe than sorry. "That door is solid, it's stood for my entire life, the walls are so flat that the walkers would have to grow suction cups to climb it. Nothings getting through that door."
"Sorry, Herra Konnor." Herra was an honorific used for leaders. Konnor found it funny that a guard would use it on him. "I am no herra, Guard." Konnor chuckled. "Hunters are just men doing their jobs. The only man you need call Herra is Herra Simon Mayor."
The Guard nodded as something banged against the door again, louder this time. It sounded strange. as if with something harder. there was a groan afterward and Konnor turned to the Guard. "Hey." he said, clapping his metal plated hands together. The guard had been in a sort of trance, but was instantly snapped out of it. "You keep your mind." Konnor commanded. "They have never breached the wall. We have never been overrun by walkers... but theres a reason we-"
A third bang, and this time something that Konnor did not expect. Words. Human words. not groaning or screaching, but english... Help? it was asking for help... no... She was asking for help.
"What the-" he started, standing up and stepping towards the door. he couldn't have... it wasn't... There was a moment of silence as he ran his hand over the metal gate that kept them safe for so long and then a scream to be let in.
"Go!" he shouted, turning to Felwood. "top of the wall, see what is out there." the guard nodded, but didn't move for a moment. "GO!" Konnor shouted. The guard ran as quickly as he could up a guard tower and stepped out onto the walls walkway. He peered over the side and then returned t Konnor. "It's a girl." Felwood said. "I've never seen her before. She must have been out there for days..."
Konnor nodded and grabbed the handle of one of the doors.
"Master Hunter, what are you doing?" Felwood shouted, rushing back across. "She's probably been infected!" Konnor ignored him and started to pull, sliding the doorway open. "Hunter! I- I cannot let you..." he raised a bow to Konnor but he ignored him. Konnor knew that the arrows that the boy had were not powerful enough to pierce metal.
"I'd rather know for sure." Konnor said. "And if she is... I'll kill her myself."
The door clicked into place, being held back from springing closed by a metal pin. The Hunter ran out and grabbed the girl under the arms. She looked too weak to move. He looked up at the forest as walkers began to amble out.
Konnor dragged the girl inside and kicked the door pin free, allowing it to slide back into place. He was almost instantly thrown aside. he smacked his shoulder against the ground and forced himself to sit up. Two healers, cloaks covering their entire bodies, hiding every part of them, making their gender impossible to guess, stood over the girl, knives out.
Where had they come from. A moment ago Konnor was alone with Felwood in the gateway and now...
They descended on the girl like a pair of hyenas, ready to gorge themselves on their prey.
"Wait!" Konor shouted, forcing himself to his feet. One of the healers pinner the girl down while the other moved to stand over her. "Check her!" Konnor shouted. "Do your freaking job and check her you morbid sack people!"
The Healer standing over the girl looked as if it's head might have turned to Konnor fro a brief moment before crouching down on the girl. It looked over the girls arms, grabbing her face and moving it side to side. it took it's knife and slit the girls ragged clothing up the side before tearing the shirt and trousers away.
Konnor didn't turn away. he didn't even blush. Anywhere else in the world and he would have been embaressed seeing a young girl stripped naked as the day she was born but not here. This was the inspection. Nobody entered the town without an inspection. There was no place for modesty.
The crouched Healer turned and checked down her legs before flipping her over onto her front. Konnor waited, hopeful as the Guard stood away, eyes averted. The healers finished their inspection and stepped away from the girl. their weapons vanished inside their cloaks and they walked away.
Konnor watched them go for a moment before taking a long coat from the guard house and wrapping it around the girl.
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 11:13 pm
Sullie collapsed in a fetal position, curled up against the door, her back to the cold steel, her eyes toward the forest. She wanted to see her death when it came for her. This town had been her last chance, her only hope, and especially since she had come upon it entirely by luck...but all that was lost if they refused to let her in.
Maybe there was no one to let her in at all.
Maybe she was the last person alive.
From a distance, Sullie could hear them. The walkers. They were coming...preceded by the groans and screeches that always came with them. Sullie groaned, too, and hugged her knees close to her chest, laying on her side in the dirt. She had no fight left in her now...she was too tired...too hungry...and she couldn't see the point of-her back lost the support of the steel as the door came open behind her.
Before Sullie had a chance to even look, someone grabbed her under the arms and pulled her inside. Her eyes had time to take in the first walker come out of the trees, and the door close between her and the monster...but that was all before she was suddenly set upon by two new monsters.
Healers.
Sullie screamed and covered her head with her arms in a poor attempt at protecting herself as they rushed her. From somewhere nearby, Sullie heard a man cry out for them to stop and check her, was he trying to defy them? To protect her?
There was no time to react, no time to even breath as the Healers changed their tune from execution, to inspection and Sullies' clothes vanished in a few clean swipes of the knives meant to take her life. They flipped her, turned her, touched her...and Sullie lay limp and expressionless all the while. She was numb to their prying eyes, numb to the fact that strangers were staring as she lay naked in the dirt...She had more bones showing than skin lately anyway...
Finally, after what seemed like eternity, the Healers backed away and their blades vanished amidst their robes. Sullie slowly turned onto her side, and drew her legs up to her chest, hugging her knees as she stared off blankly across the street.
She was safe.
She was finally safe.
There would be no more running...at least not for now.
Boots came into her line of sight, and Sullie closed her eyes tightly as a long coat was placed over her and wrapped around her.
She was safe.
Finally. Safe.
She survived.
...She alone...
Her body began to tremble as her adrenaline wore off, and her chest began to ache as tears streamed down her cheeks. She was alive...but everyone else...Covering her face, Sullie curled up inside the large coat as sobs, violent, gut wrenching sobs tore through her as the last two weeks came crashing down on her psyche.
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Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 3:46 am
Konnor stepped back, his hand moved up to his hair in a subconscious movement of confusion and his armoured finger plates caught on his hair. "Ow." he growled, un-hooking his hair from his fathers gauntlets.
He looked down at the girl curled in a ball with a coat wrapped around her. "It's impossible... how... she can't be here..."
"How did she pass the inspection?" Felwood asked, crouching down and looking at the girl.
"The walkers alone... the sheer number she would have had to get through to get here." Konnor said, astounded. "We don't even know how far the nearest settlement is... Why did she run? Why would anyone leave their settlement?"
Felwood looked up at Konnor. "Maybe they were overrun."
Konnor sighed. He was probably right. "We need to get her to a..." what? To a what? healers didn't actually heal. it'd been so many years since he'd seen someone in need of medicen... history told that everyone used to get sick, but man kind had evolved past that. Nobody got sick anymore, except when they died.
So what happened when someone broke a leg or starved themselves like this girl? Well if they broke a leg outside the walls they wouldn't pass inspection, and it'd been so long since anyne had got injured inside... The only thing Konnor could think of was the word Keeper. even if he didn't know what to do he'd know who to ask.
"Go get Relnin Keeper. Or Kovin Hunter. and a flask of de-con." Konnor ordered. "I'll watch the gate until you get back." The guard nodded and made for the town at a run.
"Why are you here, walker?" he muttered, looking at the girl. It was a strange thing to call her, a walker, she wasn't dead but all they knew about the world utside the gates told them that she literally culdn't be alive right now. "How are you here?"
He sat back against a wall, not sure what to make of the girl. she was sobbing, crying, how long had she been out there to have become so bone tighteningly thin? How had she survived without water? He didn't see any flasks on her when he dragged her in. nor when the Healers had cut her old life away from her.
Konnor's minds eye poured over the girls naked body again, it was remarkable really, she had been out in the wilderness for god only knows how long and she didn't have a scratch, not even a scuff mark from where she tripped over a tree root or cut herself on a sharp rock. Preacher often spoke of miracles being reserved for the faithful. He often spoke of how the world had ended because there were no faithful left. But this was a miracle... if they were reserved for the faithful, then how was she still alive?
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Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:07 am
Sullie’s was so dehydrated that her tears dried out and left her sobbing silently in the dirt. She made it. She was alive…she was the only one still alive…she was alone. Two men spoke somewhere nearby, standing over her as she lay wrapped in a large coat that one had brought for her. Sullie lay staring across the ground, buildings and people looking out of proportion from the angle she rested in.
Her hearing seemed dull, pulsing in and out as her adrenaline wore off and exhaustion set in. How long had she been traveling?
Her stomach twisted and growled, cramping painfully with hunger and her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth. She couldn’t remember the last time she had food or water…in fact, she couldn’t remember anything after leaving her town.
As she lay there, two boots came into her view, leaving her vision obstructed and she looked up to see one of the two men crouching over her. They were speaking, but not to her, it was like she wasn’t even there.
They didn’t know how she came here. They didn’t think it was possible. She shouldn’t be alive.
They were right…so why was she? How was she? She couldn’t remember…
She opened her mouth, turning her head to find the man who remained. "...Wa-" She coughed, the sound coming from deep within her throat as it was dry as a desert. "..water..." She said quietly.
"...Please..."
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Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 11:38 am
The girl spoke, Just another piece of evidence that the girl was a figment of his imagination. he'd had too much moonshine and now his mind was playing tricks on him. But he hadn't drunk any moon shine. Others had seen her. She was real. "Ok, walker," He didn't have a name for her to replace the impromtu offensive nickname he'd given her yet. "I've sent someone for a de-con u- for some decontaminated water. they'll be back as soon as possible." He sighed, noting how dry her tongue was, how cracked her lips were. there were very few things he could do to help. The Keeper had once read to him that in the most dire circumstances- but no, she'd beenwithout water for god knows how long now, a few more minutes while Felwood went and got water wouldn't hurt her any more.
He hoped.
Konnor looked up the main road, but beside a few drunks making their way back from the tavern it was empty. Thoughts began to flow through his mind, words that the Keeper had once told him when he was expected to take over as Konnor Keeper.
He knelt down next to the girl and moved the coat aside, revrieving her arm. He pinched the skin together and released, watching as the skin slowly sagged back into place. her hand was cold to the touch. He pushed the arm back under her coat and raised her head up to look at her face. her eyes were sunken, he placed a pair of fingers on her neck. Her pulse was weak.
"Crap." he sighed. Not a moment of use in his entire life and now his knowledge about dehydration comes in handy.
He looked back up the main road. still nothing. "Ok, look. your dehydrated, severely dehydrated. my friend has gone for water, but you can't wait..." he hitched her up to look at him. "I'm going to have to- god I can't believe I'm saying this, but its either this or piss so-" He shook his head, took a breath and closed his eyes. his hand gripped her jaw and he pressed his lips against hers.
Oh god, Oh god, Oh god, Oh god! he thoguht over and over as his saliva passed into her mouth. It wasn't much, it was barely anything, especially now his own mouth was drying out, but it'd sustain her for a little longer, it'd hopefully stop her from having a seizure. but still... Oh god, Oh god, Oh god, Oh god! I'm basically raping this girl!
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Posted: Mon Oct 31, 2011 3:59 pm
Sullie coughed, whimpering softly as the man pinched her arm and tried to explain that she was dehydrated. She couldn't focus on what he was saying. Her eyes were feeling heavy, her throat and mouth were burning-but the next thing she knew, he had propped her up in his arms and was cupping her face with his hand, holding it steady.
Sullie's arms were laying limp across her stomach, her eyes looking up at him lazily, trying to focus...then his mouth was on hers and her eyes were as wide as could be.
She wanted to fight back, to push him off, but she was so tired...and her throat burned so badly. Her first kiss...and it was like a drop of water in the desert...
Sullie's eyes closed, trying to pretend it was a dream but caught up in the relief his moist tongue was giving to her dry mouth. She leaned her chin upward slightly, meeting his kiss with whatever little bit of strength she had left...all but sucking the moisture from him as he kissed her.
Once again, Sullie found herself asking "how?"
One day she was happy and alive with her town, the next she was running alone, starving in teh forest...wondering when a walker would tear her guts out...and now...? Now she was being kissed for the first time by this stranger, sprawled in teh dirt in the middle of the street.
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Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 6:11 am
"What the hell are you-" Felwoods voice.
"You can stop now, Romero." Keepers voice. "We've got a decon unit." Konnor let go of the girl and handed her to the keeper, stepping away, backing away and staring out at the sky. He wanted to spit, he had expected not to enjoy the 'kiss' but he hadn't expected the taste. It was just painful that he didn't have the saliva to spit.
"Severe Dehydration, malnutrition... Yeah you were right to come get me." the Word Keeper said. "I assume you were kissing her for the moisture not the thrill, boy."
"Yeah." he said, breathing hard and placing his hands on his hips. He continued to stare up at the sky, avoiding the girl. "Didn't know what to do. Remembered your teachings."
"You did good." the Keeper acknowledge, tipping the water up for her to drink.
"Thanks." Konnor said, letting out a breath and bending over and resting his hands on his knees.
"We'll get some food in her... nothing that expands, meat, some veg... She'll live, but I can't understand how. Closest settlement is a weeks walk away."
"How could you possibly know that Renlin?" Felwood asked.
"I read." Keeper said. "If you hadn't given up, you'd know that aswell." he added, looking up at Konnor. "I still don't understand."
"Yes you do." Konnor said.
"She died a long time ago, boy. You need to move on."
Konnor didn't need to be reminded of the darkest time in his life. Oh god... it'd been- this girl was...
Konnor ran to the edge of the entryway and threw up. He just realised that the walker was the first girl he'd kissed (even if it wasn't enjoyable, but to save her life) since then... in eight years since Amirandi had been taken by the walkers and he'd been unable to save her...
"I'll take that as a no." Keeper frowned. "Ok, come on, we need to get her up to the tavern. Only place that has meat this late in the week."
"What about the gate?" Konnor asked. "I sent for Kovin, he'll be here soon." The Hunter nodded and moved to help the girl up.
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Posted: Tue Nov 01, 2011 9:21 am
Sullie's mind felt fuzzy, unable to stay in control of her thoughts and actions. Now that the adrenaline had fully worn off, the full affects of her body's condition were taking their toll on her. Her limbs ached, her stomach twisted in painful cramps as it begged for food, and despite the attempt of the hunter to help her with his kiss, her mouth and throat burned in a rage with desperate need for water.
Two men joined them, and Sullie was passed to the elder of the two. Her eyes wouldn't stay opened, no matter how hard she tried...but soon she was surprised to feel a bottle against her lips, and water...finally...pouring down her throat. She coughed, spluttering as her muscles rebelled against swallowing something for the first time. Eyes widening, Sullie tried to sit up straighter, her hand weakly grasping the man's wrist as she tried to drink again.
The actions around her were lost on Sullie as she downed the water in a frenzy. Finally, she stopped to breathe, her lungs burning...and they lifted her up to take her somewhere.
Sullie sagged against the one who had given her the water, and slowly turned her head to the one who had kissed her before.
"...Thank you..." she whispered softly as she faded into unconsciousness.
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