|
|
|
|
|
AMItotic rolled 1 100-sided dice:
80
Total: 80 (1-100)
|
|
|
 Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 10:37 pm
If anything, Evie was good at deluding herself. She was on a special mission, approved by Sue himself, something vital and absolutely necessary to the survival as a group. Evie with her whittled down broom-spear and her encyclopedia was a heroine, bold and brave in a world full of monsters, and with her heart of gold she would do her best not to let her dearest friends down. She would find the broom-closet, and it would be full of brooms, and she would rush them down to the groundkeeper's hut and have them working as stakes in no time. There would be applause and approval, and Evie will be the hero, even though secretly she'd been scared inside. Everyone got scared, though, right? It was simply a character flaw that made the protagonist more sympathetic to the audience. She was likable if she was capable of being scared. And she was going to be even more liked once she came back with the brooms. She would be so liked even Sue wouldn't be able to say anything, and he'd even let her pet one of his cats.
Yep. That was totally how this situation was going down. Evie already had things planned out and everything. It was perfect.
Perhaps it was slightly crazed internal monologuing, but Evie found that thinking about the positive kept her from thinking about the zombies, and it was a rather effective avoidance tactic. The girl had made it through the breezeway without seeing so many as one of the green-skinned creatures, and her spirits were starting to feel up as she climbed the stairs of the East Wing, where she knew on the opposite end of the hall was a janitor's closet, stocked full with brooms and maybe even some other things like chlorine or rakes. A rake would make for a pretty good weapon, Evie was sure of it, and if she brought one of those back, she'd be even more liked. Her plan was foolproof, and she even hummed a note of approval as she began to jog down the hall, caring little about the clacking noise her boots made against the tile and pieces of shattered glass and certainly not bothering to 'check her six', whatever that meant. She'd heard the phrase tossed around a few times, and was honestly curious as to why anyone would want to do math problems in a time like this.
But it was no matter. She was almost to the broom closet now, and her heart began to swell as she thought of the praise she'd soon be receiving. Oh, yes, Evie hadn't caught on to the whole gist of the zombie apocalypse gig at first, but now that she had a handle on things she was going to be the best little survivor that she could be, and all the other survivors would be so proud. She wished she could call her parents: no doubt that they would be proud, too. Evelyn Esther, Zombie Hunter Extraordinaire. Evie liked the sound of that.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:24 pm
Solitude was comfortable for Joanne, but hiding in a broom closet for days might be considered taking it to extremes. Even for her.
She was not in good shape, mentally or physically. All she'd had to eat since the fire was a bit of beef jerky one of the janitors had left in the closet. There was a sink, so she had water, but she didn't drink very much so she wouldn't have to find a bathroom. The batteries of the flashlight had given out, so she was in the dark. She was just sitting in the dark on an overturned bucket, thinking about what would happen.
Without a watch, there was no way for Joanne to know how long she'd been in hiding. A few days was her guess. Ever so often she heard people- at least, she hoped they were people- near her door. Every time she crossed her fingers and held her breath, waiting for them to pass. Every time, they did. Leaving Joanne in what she assured herself was peace.
She would wait for them to settle it, then make her escape. Without knowing more about the situation, that was the only decision she could make. Since she had nothing else to do, she spent most of her time dozing off, waiting for everything to end.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:51 pm
Evie paused when she came to the old broom closet, the door tightly shut without so much as a hint of its innards. Even though she was certain that things would turn out just fine, she didn't want to get cocky. No, the protagonist was often punished for hubris, and Evie had to make sure she didn't fall under that category. She eyed the door suspiciously, then reached for the handle, pressing two fingers on the cold metal as if she expected an alarm to go off. The girl waited for two seconds, to make sure nothing was going to happen, then shoved the door open with the greatest push she could muster, barreling into the dark closet with a cry.
In all honesty, Evie had not actually been expecting the sight of much of anything, except maybe brooms, so when she saw a body crumpled in the far corner of the room, she shrieked, knocking down all sorts of buckets and cleaners as she stumbled back out of the room. She winced, the cacophany echoing down the hall and into at least half of the rest of the building, but most of her was still in GET THE ******** AWAY mode, so she focused more on freeing her foot from an errant mop, scrambling out of the door with her broom pointed inward.
"I-I swear to God, I know how to make Zombie-kabobs!" Evie yelled into the room, her hands shaking and the broom wobbling in her hands. From the edges of her vision she saw where her encyclopedia had fallen a few feet away, and she almost wished she hadn't been so paralyzed in fear so she could at least go after it. "S-so don't even think about eating me!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 12:17 am
To a normal person, Joanne looked dead. Not undead, as while her skin was the unhealthy pale of a person who'd spent days in a dark room, there was no green to it. Just the natural death of someone who'd, say, starved in a closet.
The shrieks permeated her consciousness, and she slowly blinked. Another dream, her mind told her. None of her dreams had been at all peaceful, and while it was a relief not to be eating anyone in these, being eaten was not any better. Frankly, Joanne wasn't sure which dreams she liked less, preferring not to think about them at all whenever possible.
It took several long moments for her eyes to start adjusting to the light streaming into the closet. The door was open. There was a person standing there. That was enough to make Joanne scream and clutch her makeshift bag to her chest. Someone had found her, her plan had failed, and she had no idea what to do.
Fortunately for her, her discoverer seemed equally terrified. Breathing deeply, she peered over the top of her bag. A girl. Greenish hair, darkish skin. That was about all she could make out with her eyes still hazy from days in the darkness. Her ears worked perfectly however, and the threats she heard sent chills down her spine.
"I won't eat you," she whispered. Joanne was starving, yes, but not that starving. Not ever. It didn't occur to her that the girl might be there for entirely innocent reasons. She was holding a weapon, and to Joanne, that meant she was an enemy. Or at least someone to be assuaged. "What do you want from me?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 12:27 am
...Well.
That voice certainly didn't sound hungry. Nor did the girl's skin look even the slightest bit green. Still, Evie couldn't help but be shaken, given that this was her first encounter with someone outside the safety of the math room. Therefore, she kept the broom-spear raised, shuffling the few feet to the giant textbook and using it to prop open the door so she wouldn't have to. She eyed the girl carefully, doing her best to keep up a suspicious face.
"I want you out here so I can see you," Evie demanded, not thinking about the bad logic behind wanting to lure a supposed monster towards oneself. "And I want you to stay away from me until I know you're not green like the other bad guys." Her gaze went to the ground of the broom closet. "And bring some brooms with you. I need 'em for a special mission."
There. Those were reasonable demands, right? If the girl was human, then she'd have some help. And if she wasn't, well, she'd be so busy carrying brooms that Evie could make her escape. Foolproof. Evie idly began to wonder why they hadn't let her into Barren Pines for her planning abilities.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 12:37 am
Directions. Directions were safe and comforting and meant that Joanne didn't have to think. Which worked for her, since her brain was still trying to catch up with the situation. They were all reasonable too, if a bit odd, and she was all too pleased to comply.
Or she would have been. But her legs were stiff from being in the same position for so long, and when she tried to stand, her knee cried out in pain and she sat down again with a thump. This was not going to go as planned.
"I... I want to help you. I really do." Joanne was pleading, terrified of what this girl would do to her for her failure to follow simple directions. "But I hurt myself. I don't think I can get up on my own."
Sure enough, there was a bunch of gray fabric wrapped around Joanne's knee, some of it stained with blood. She continued to try to get up, but the pain was too much for her. Much as she tried, she wasn't able to stand on her own.
"If you want to take what you need, I won't get in your way. I promise." This would be best for both of them, really. Her captor would get what she wanted without anyone bothering her, and Joanne would get her quiet hiding place back. Except it wasn't quiet anymore. Now that someone had found it, the safety that it had once assured her was gone. Anyone could stumble in, and if they did, she wouldn't be able to fight back.
Struggling to weigh her options, Joanne tried to dig for information. "If I may ask... what's going on? Out there, I mean."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Dec 09, 2009 8:08 pm
Could zombies feel pain? Evie stared curiously at the figure, who genuinely looked and sounded like she was in pain. Her leg looked wrapped up, and now that Evie took a closer look, she didn't seem all that greenish, either. Cautiously, the girl took a step into the broom closet, her weapon still brandished but at least lowered. Her eyes narrowed as she closed the distance between them, peering intently at the girl's skin, until finally something clicked and she knelt down, a sympathetic look lighting up her face.
"Oh my God, I'm so sorry, I thought you were one of the bad guys!" Evie's words rushed out of her mouth as she looked at the wound, being careful not to touch it. "I just didn't want to get eaten or anything, given that we're getting attacked by zombies and all--I'm Evie, by the way." Somehow assessing the situation with a nod, she stood again, beginning to collect the many brooms and mops that had been thrown about by her entrance.
"I'm part of a group of us that're still alive, and we're building, like, this fortress thing out of the groundskeeper's hut so we can stay alive until help comes." The plan seemed so much better to Evie when she wasn't thinking about the offensive half of it, and it helped her sound more upbeat and enthused about the whole situation. "They sent me out to find things to use as spike material, to help fortify it."
She tested the weight of one particularly thin broom in her hand, then looked back to Joanne. "You should probably stay with us. We'll be safer than a broom closet, that's for sure."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2009 2:52 pm
Joanne flinched as the girl moved in closer. She'd done all she could to try and convince her she was harmless, and now she just had to hope it worked. In her present state, if attacked, there was no way she could fight back.
Not that fighting back had even occurred to her before that moment, the thought making her even more uncomfortable.
Fortunately, she seemed to pass muster. Breathing out slowly, she tried to move out of the way of the rest of the brooms. "I... see," she said, which was only about half true. "I'm Joanne. I know about the... the zombies." That was something she never thought she would say out loud. The words tasted awful in her mouth. "I'm glad other people are doing okay."
Even if she couldn't bring herself to work with them, Joanne was truly relieved to hear that there were others, and that they had a plan. Maybe she could help. Not that there was much of anything she could do, since she wasn't athletic in the slightest, but there had to be some way she could contribute. Some reason not to stay in the closet.
"I don't know how well I can move," she admitted. Her stomach picked that moment to growl noisily, and Joanne blushed. "And I'm hungry. But if I have a little time to recover, there may be something I can to to help, if you take me with you."
It was her only option, really. The closet was clearly not safe anymore. But Joanne doubted her ability to truly make a difference, and she felt sure that Evie would pick up on her lack of confidence.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
