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 Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 7:40 pm
The sprint to the math classroom wasn't long, but that didn't mean it any less of an adrenaline rush. Later - if they survived all this - Sue might look back on these times and feel a certain wistfulness. He'd gone from being one of the most disliked people in the student body, to one of the few survivors. People had gone from giving him a wider berth in the halls to depending on him for decisive action. And every day, something came up to force him to prove that he'd earned what he had - his friends, his virtue, his very damn life.
Having people trust him without question... this wasn't something he would ever get again in his life. If this ever ended, if he survived it, it would only be a matter of time before his social circle was reduced to his cats and the few people that would tolerate him and his unpleasantness.
They made it to the classroom without incident. "Lucky, lucky," Sue panted, half-shoving Sam through the door before entering and locking it behind him. "Welcome to survivor camp."
Survivor camp, as expected, wasn't much to look at. Just a little room, some collections of supplies. One corner was taken up with some laid-out scrawls and drawings, lists; this is where Sue crossed to, producing the map from his shirt. This was the most important piece they had yet, so he cleared a space dead in the center of the arrangement to lay it down.
While he smoothed it out, Sue instructed his new foundling; "There's a green gym bag on the shelf there - help yourself to a Clif Bar, some water. Lemme know how you're feeling after that, and we can talk."
Can, should, would. Sam had arrived in interesting times, after all, and there was no one better to explain them than Sue himself.
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Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 8:32 pm
Maybe it wasn't long, but it felt longer to Sam now than it had before. Now that he knew everything, the true realization of how long it had been... but he just pushed himself harder. Which wasn't something he'd done a lot of back then, in his eyes.
Oh, yeah, sure. He was a decent student, studied and all that. But he wasn't the type to go above and beyond. Some people might have said he worked hard at his photography. Really, that wasn't work in his book. He did it so much because he liked to do it. There was no need to push himself. If anything, he'd only ever really pushed it for the sake of someone else. They needed something, he'd do it. Even that didn't count in his book. That was something different all together.
He was the kid to joke around with. The kid who liked to hang around in trees and snap pictures of interesting people and scenery when the impulse hit him. He liked to sit around and watch lame youtube videos he could spam people with later on. Idly, in the back of his head, he wondered if that one guy with the glasses had updated since he'd been out. When he realized, he could have laughed, although it might have been tainted, bitter. Way to have your priorities, Sam.
He didn't complain when Sue gave him the extra push into the room, doubling over so his hands were resting on his knees, breathing deep and taking a moment there to pull himself back together again. Relief poured through him, coursing through his veins and giving him a rush he hadn't known since that brief moment when he'd realized he was free of that damned room at last, before the gravity of his escape had sunken in. He'd done it. He'd made it back in one piece, again. 'Lucky' was right. Seemed like he was nothing but these days.
With a deep sigh, he pulled himself up straight again and took everything in for the first time. The pink haired boy swallowed dryly when he took in their new surroundings - home sweet home, for now. For how long? If no one had come to rescue them yet, when would they? Shouldn't the fire have had them here from the start?
The questions, though, didn't linger for long. Not when the offer of food and water was dangled so tantalizingly within reach. There wasn't an ounce of hesitation in his gait when Sam crossed the room, and he surprised himself with how eagerly he tore into the bag. When he ate the bar, to be honest, he hardly even tasted it. A nice trip to the cafeteria would have done him a world of good right then; he probably would have loaded his tray to the brim and then some. He could have taken an entire jar of peanut butter straight, hell, make it two.
But this would do for now. Anything would, and the same went for the water. It would do for now, and he felt better for it to have something in him at least. Sam idly rubbed at his bare arm; now if he only had a shirt. It was the small things, right? If he'd only held on to it a little longer. Might have had some holes, but... at least he didn't have any of those in him yet.
"Thank you, " he murmured as he turned back to face Sue, flashing him a weak smile. "I needed that."
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Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 10:35 pm
Yahya had been out for a while, a lot longer than he should have, but he lost track of time again. Initially he had attempted to follow after Sue and keep an eye on his friend, but like how he had lost his hold on time, he had lost sight of his friend... and his cat. Sue would kill him. Sue would probably bash his SKULL in if he lost Columbus. Sue had, after all, entrusted the kitten to his care. If anything happened to Columbus, it would be his fault, and Yahya couldn't bear the thought. The kitten had been hanging in one of the mesh side pockets of his backpack. It was likely that Yahya had been paying too much attention to finding Sue that the kitten had managed to jump out and wander off without his knowledge.
It took him a solid two hours to find the sneaky little kitten. He should have suspected it, that the kitten would go where there would be food. The kitchens. And that was where he found Columbus, practically swimming around in a pot of old and burnt chili. By the time he had gotten Columbus cleaned up, and covered up his mishap by collecting some food, Sue and his companion had already made it back to the classroom. Oops, Yahya had intended to get back before his friend (to avoid the possibility of Sue realizing that Yahya had been wandering around without a partner, really, honestly, he had forgotten in his panic to find his kitten).
He peeked his head around the door, glancing quickly to Sue... and then to Sue's pink-haired friend. If he jumped in on the conversation and pretended like nothing had been amiss, everything would be well! "Oh, another non-zombie!" he exclaimed with a friendly smile, Columbus chiming in with a sweet little meow of his own. He was adorable, even if he did smell of burnt chili. "I'm Yahya," he waved, confident that Sam really wasn't a zombie. Sue would've gone ape-s**t on the kid otherwise. "I think I've seen you around before, it's nice to see more people who are... not undead."
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Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 10:46 pm
So caught up in his own affairs, Sue was, that Yahya's entrance went unnoticed. "Yeah, you looked it," Sue agreed with Sam. "They've got some blankets around if you need to catch some winks - they take turns watching here, so you should be fine to nap. When you feel up to it, though, there's some pretty big stuff going on I ought to talk with you about."
Meanwhile, Stripers had come nuzzling up to the little kitten, Columbus. It was unusual to see her so affectionate, but something had obviously gotten her attention, and she was conversing with him in a low, happy purr. You smell like food, Stripers commented casually. Where did you get the food.
At Columbus' answer, Sue's eyebrows flew up. His attention flicked over to Yahya, torn between worry and... well, worry, really. The only difference was that one was a relieved, anxious flavor of the emotion, while the other was the gritty, angry version that Sue was more comfortable expressing.
"Columbus got into the kitchens, did he?"
There was no bashing in of skulls yet, but of course, Yahya hadn't answered yet.
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Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:25 pm
Sam knew this place was safe. But it didn't stop him from flinching when someone popped through the door; exhaustion and shock would do that to a guy. But even though his nerves were frayed, once he recognized the other boy, a shaky smile graced his lips. Again, no one he'd known up close. But he recognized him, had seen him at a distance before. The hair helped him stand out. Put them side by side and they were bound to make somebody crave a watermelon. "I'm just glad to see someone else period, " he admitted. For all the talk of zombies, he'd yet to actually see one of them. But with somebody else speaking of them, it was harder to chalk it up to crazy talk.
But kitties made everything better. Especially when they were the tiny, fluffy kind and not the kind with giant teeth ready to gnash him to bits. Some little hint of normalcy in the hell he'd found himself wandering aimlessly into. "Aw... " he murmured, and his smile grew just a tiny bit brighter when he saw the other cat come creeping out to nuzzle up to the smaller one. It would have made for a great picture. Just the kind of image he could imagine on the front of a holiday card. Maybe in one of those coffee table books.
Oh! Right. Introducing himself. "Uh, sorry. Nice to meet you." Wish it had been under better circumstances. "My name's Sam, " he went on, tilting his head in a curt little nod. He seemed like a nice enough guy, softer around the edges than Sue was, at least at a glance.
Speaking of. He turned back to his savior of the day, shaking his head. "I'd rather sleep later. Please, just tell me now, " he said softly. Wonderful as sleep sounded, Sam would rather just hear whatever was left to tell now. It wasn't like things could be much worse (he hoped) than he'd heard already. He'd handled this much information already; he knew he'd rest better once he knew everything. He'd missed out on too much already.
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Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:57 pm
Oops. Should he have seen that question coming? Probably. But, it had looked like, at least for a little bit, that Sue hadn't caught on to anything at Yahya's arrival. Maybe it would be better to pay more attention to Sam, but he couldn't ignore Sue without upsetting his friend obviously. Chewing on his bottom lip, he knelt down beside Columbus, petting the kitten tenderly. He wanted to pet Nibs, but didn't want to pressure her if she wasn't comfortable with him, so his kitten got all of his affection. "Yeeaaaah... I did manage to find some food that wasn't completely spoiled, though!" he flashed Sue a hopeful smile, as if that success would cover for his slightly larger failure.
"Oh, have you been hiding? I'm glad you managed to survive!" He hadn't considered hiding as a tactic for survival, if only because Sue had found him first, and fighting seemed like the best option for them. But, he was genuinely happy someone had managed to avoid violence altogether and protect themselves. It was the path, really, that Yahya wished he could have taken. He'd give up an arm to be able to avoid all this violence altogether.
Yahya's attention was caught by the soft 'aww' Sam made, and while he wanted to scoop Columbus up and offer him up to the other boy for petting, he didn't. Columbus was socializing with another cat, and that was very important for young kittens. "When I get the chili smell off of him maybe he'll like to take a nap with you?" Yahya was all about making friends, which really made fighting zombies all that much harder. Some of them had been his friends.
"No need to apologize! It's nice to meet you, Sam." His attention was focused more clearly on the pink-haired boy, though he couldn't help but cast an anxious glance to Sue. He really hoped the boy wasn't mad at him. "Are you sure you don't need to rest right now, you look pretty exhausted?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 12:33 am
Okay. On one hand - food was good. They needed more food. The granola bars they'd gotten from the lockers weren't going to last them forever, after all.
On the other. Yahya had gone out on his own. He could have gotten killed, and Sue would have never known what happened until the zombie Yahya came over to sample his brains.
But back on the first, Columbus had gotten lost. Even if the kitten wasn't so sick now as he had been, he was still so little and uninformed about the world. Sue knew that some of the ferals around the school had become zombie snacks. Columbus would hardly be a mouthful, but....
"........ Don't do it again." He didn't yell this time. He could be angry without yelling. Even if yelling was so much more satisfying.
Having properly reprimanded Yahya for his carelessness, Sue turned his attention back on their new companion. "Rest's better for the dead, anyway," he commented darkly. "We've got a lot going on, and you might as well hear about it now."
"Like I told you - we're outnumbered. Way, way outnumbered. We've got just a handful of us against a school full of them, and we're not going to last long like this. Eventually, they're going to get the idea to swamp us, and then we're going to be dead and done, you see?" Maybe that was too blunt a way of putting it, but Sue didn't like to mince words. The cats didn't do it, and he didn't either. "So we're getting organized first. We're going to take a shot at them tomorrow, mow down their numbers. And I know you've gotta be tired as hell, but there's so few of us... we need help. Or else we're all dead, sooner or later."
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 4:03 am
From what Sam had gathered about the situation, more food definitely didn't sound like a bad thing. He knew he could go for some more of that - but even just the way Sue spoke kind of said it all for the gravity of the situation. A run to the kitchen could now turn deadly; not just because of the lunch lady's casserole.
... okay. Bad joke. Kind of cliche. But he'd take a cheap mental laugh where he could find it.
"Hiding... yeah, " the pink haired boy answered awkwardly, his smile unwavering. Let him think that's where he'd been. It was easier in the long run, saved him questions he didn't want to answer. Lucky for him the subject seemed to get dropped at that, and Sam really did brighten when Yahya mentioned the wonderful little bundle of fluff and purrs might actually curl up with him for awhile. "Really?" It was probably the happiest he'd looked since before he'd been snatched away by who-knew-what in the first place, a hint of the way he used to look as he bounded around the school with his camera in tow.
He threw Yahya a grateful glance when he seemed genuinely worried about him. It was nice, but he shook his head. Rest could come soon. Right now, he just needed to know. Sue seemed eager to tell him now that he'd said he'd wanted to know, and there was a part of him almost relieved by the boy's bluntness about now. At least it'd lay everything out on the table. No more surprises.
Sam nodded slowly as Sue began, wincing slightly, but understanding. Yeah, he'd gotten an idea of just how deep they were in for it. Six against an entire school, seemingly. Not good odds at all. And in most any horror movie he managed to get through, that's what it came down to. The final stand against the last living humans, monsters swarming in from each side. Who would have ever thought it'd be relevant to compare his situation to a horror flick, right? So 'mowing down their numbers' was a plan that made perfect sense, when he thought about it that way.
... except doing it in a movie and really doing it were kind of two very different things. Especially when your name was Sam and you've only ever killed bugs. The thought of having to take down things that looked like his fellow students, right after he'd watched that other boy die. It was something he never wanted to see again.
But did he have a whole lot of choice? "How are you going to -- I mean, if there's so many of them, how are you going to fight them?" he asked. If this was a grand plan for going out in a blaze of glory...
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 9:37 am
He really had expected to be yelled at. Sue was supposed to go off on him for walking around without a partner to watch his back. But, for some gracious reason... Sue didn't. Yahya had no clue what he had done to deserve to not be yelled at, but he was grateful for it. He really didn't want Sue to be upset with him, and though Yahya knew he was, without yelling it didn't seem so severe. So, he'd take being scolded with an apologetic smile, ducking his head meekly as if to imply that he wouldn't do it again. There really wasn't any guarantee, especially if Columbus ran off like that again. But, he'd do his best to be more conscious of it. "I'll try," he promised softly, mostly hoping that Sue really wasn't paying attention, because that was far from a satisfactory answer.
Yahya's expression turned grim as Sue explained their situation, knowing that they needed help, but he didn't want to put Sam at risk when the boy did not seem well. Sam needed to rest, and did not need to have his head filled with worry over the upcoming battle. Sue should have waited to tell him, so Sam could get a good rest. He wouldn't now, not when he was plagued with such dark thoughts. Yahya frowned, disapproval clear on his face. "We've been working on a sort of... gauntlet run." Yahya filled in for Sue, because now that Sam had been informed, there was nothing else to do but give him all of the information.
"Sue can fill you in more on what exactly goes on. I can hardly keep it straight." It was hard to keep the pout of his voice, and with a sigh he scooped up Columbus and drew the kitten into his lap. He needed someone to sooth his stress, and well, the kitten was the perfect choice. So, he pet him and tried to ignore the chili smell.
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 1:59 pm
Just in case Yahya thought that Sue hadn't caught that little comment - he had. His eyes flicked over, his habitual frown deepened. He wanted so badly to disapprove - so badly. After losing Zeke and Piper, he just... he couldn't lose Yahya too, all right? But they couldn't lose Columbus either. The kitten was completely dependent on them. They'd made a promise to the little guy, and even when the world went to Hell, they were going to keep it.
Just... please. Please. Not at the cost of Yahya's life, or his humanity. He was the only human Sue had left that he needed to protect. If he was gone, then... Sue wouldn't have enough to care about anymore. Not enough to keep on like he was, pushing so hard, struggling so much. Not looking back.
It wasn't something Sue wanted to consider. He refocused on his words.
"Pretty much what Yahya said. We've got a spot picked out - by the dorms, where I found you today. We're going to set up defenses and draw out the zombies. Feed them to the rest, and I bet there won't be enough left of them to come back again." Sue inhaled. "Better not be, anyway." To go through all this risk and work, and then have it be for nothing....
No. This was going to work. It was the one hope they had left, it had to work.
"We need people. The more people we have to hit them before they get near us, the better everyone's chances of coming out unharmed." There. Frame it like it needed to be framed - not as killing zombies, but protecting the living.
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Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 6:14 pm
Okay. So that laid one of Sam's fears to rest, sort of. It didn't sound like Sue was out to die just to take out as many 'enemies' as he could. Plans that didn't revolve around a kamikaze strike were always a plus.
But it didn't mean it was flawless. The pink haired boy frowned faintly as the plan was roughly laid out before him, idly wrapping his arms around himself, half-wishing he'd grabbed a blanket if just to cover himself up. If they managed to have blankets and food here, maybe they'd managed to scrounge a few shirts while they were at it.
"So... basically you're going to kill them. Again." That was what it boiled down to in the end. What Sue was describing to him was a 'kill-or-be-killed' type of scenario. In one sense, yes. When he thought about it the logical way, it made perfect sense. If these 'zombies' were going around killing everyone and if they were at the point of devouring each other, without help from the outside, it was the only chance they had to survive. The last gleaming remnants of humanity this campus had, if what Sue had said was true.
If only it was that easy to go through life just based on logic. Sam wasn't an unreasonable person, but he could be an emotional one. These weren't faceless creatures they were dealing with here. These were wolves in classmates' clothing. He wouldn't just be sitting by helpless, he'd be the one killing them. There was no joke, no pun, no little wisecrack that could soften that blow. "How are you going to - how will you do it? Hit them, I mean." There had to be more to this plan. It couldn't just be about luring them out and hoping they dealt with each other. Right?
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