luckys e v e n smells like a s h b r e a t h e smoke f i r e
we are seven struggling surviving
s m e l l t h e d e a t h we are six
Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2014 8:36 pm
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it happened so fast. six weeks ago, a hospital in the northeast was shut down, quietly. there was nothing in the news about it. no one wondered where the patients went. four days later a woman collapsed in an airport, coughing. one week went by. cities started evacuating, but no one knew. it was too late. hospitals packed with coma patients who started getting back up, dragging about like some half-dead thing. rabid, hungry for flesh and the blood of their would-be saviors. the people infected through bites got back up faster, in minutes or seconds. the evacuations stopped. and people like us are the only ones left. raiding, killing, just trying to survive. x x
TAKEN WITH THOUGHT, STILL PRONE TO CARE outfit | theme | profile A wet, hard blow echoed through the empty level with a crushing air of morbidity. Anthony sucked in a shaking breath, and grimaced down at the emaciated corpse, which strained futilely away from its broken body before its useless twitching stopped. The entire level stunk of rot and feces, but Anthony was long past gagging on the stale air. The adrenaline settled, his heart fell back into a smoother rhythm, and the realization hit him. Katie. A sinking feeling came over him as he turned away from the corpse and toward his partner, whose ragged gasps had eaten up the silence.
The thing, the corpse, had surprised them. Anthony had thought he'd swept the room, but he must’ve gotten lazy -- this was the seventh or eighth apartment they'd checked, in the past couple hours and they’d found nothing. He had started to think that the creatures had already been starved out, here. But then one of the things, surprisingly lithe for its frail body, launched itself -- it was on Katie before he’d had time to react. He’d managed to pry the thing off of her but too little, too late. Now, he stood before her, frozen in place by some ingrained awareness of what had to be done. ”Katie? Can you hear me?” Anthony knelt before the body, alive only in the most basic definition of the word.
Her breath bubbled and frothed red at her lips; her eyes stared off at nothing. <********> The deep gash on her neck, bleeding fast, was a testament to Anthony’s failure. There wasn’t a whole lot of time, he knew, but Anthony was somehow unable to lift the wrench he had taken as his weapon. Katie drew a sharp breath and choked on the liquid rushing into her lungs, her eyes seeming to refocus. His muscles acted of their own accord, taking a firm grip on her shoulder and bearing the wrench down with a resounding, chilling crack. Despite himself, Tony gagged, and could feel something warm splatter across the front of his shirt. His mouth filled with a coppery taste, and struggled to hold down whatever was still housed in his stomach.
Anthony tried not to look at her – what he’d done to her – and instead, dug in his bag for one of his jackets. The group, the seven of them, had split off into smaller groups to cover each level of the apartment complex, trying to build up their rations. They were supposed to meet back down on the first floor, but things had been quiet. Surely someone would’ve come back to rendezvous after sounds of an altercation. Anthony draped his coat over her, trying not to think of what would happen to her if there were more living corpses on this floor, and started to head back to the first floor.
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Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 3:35 pm
”Il nous dit la mer est méchante. Mais poursuis toujours ton chemin” Even under her breath the words were deafening, they echoed off of every surface and Poppy bit her lip, falling silent. ”Always pursue your path.” she whispered to herself, her pale hands tightening on the grip of the lead pole that she had armed herself with. Her nostrils were filled with the putrid air that she had quickly grown accustomed to though still she blinked in a futile attempt to see slightly better in the gloom that pressed in around her. It was claustrophobic, but so was everywhere else that they had stayed. That was the way of things now, claustrophobic, filthy, terrifying. Poppy was surprised at how quickly she had become accustomed to it, hell she’d been right in the middle of everything when s**t had hit the fan. The redhead didn’t sleep much anymore, no one did, and when she did manage to catch ten minutes here or there she was plagued with nightmares, no...memories of that day. The day when they really had lost control of everything.
But that didn’t matter anymore, none of it did. It didn’t matter that she had been a nurse, no amount of training could ever have prepared her for what had happened. They had been so unprepared. The young woman shuddered as she thought about it before pushing the thoughts from her mind yet again. No more. She’d said it so many times, she wouldn’t allow it into her mind anymore, that was over. This was her life now. The floor she was currently on seemed quiet enough, but Poppy knew better than to let her guard down, she had seen what happened to people who let their guard down, even for a second. She was exhausted, but she was used to it, everyone was exhausted nowadays.
Slowly, she pushed open the apartment door, it was slightly ajar and the silence was heavy as, silently, she stepped across the threshold. She’d managed to pick a few other apartments clean of what little was left in them but it wasn’t enough. It was never enough. First things first, she needed to clear the place, ensure there were none of those...things lurking. A quick sweep soon told her that she was safe, but for how long was always the pressing question. Swiftly, she moved to the cupboards and frowned at what she was met with. Nothing. And the next one, nothing. More and more nothing until finally, right at the back of one of the lower cupboards she found a few tins of canned fruit, spaghettiOs and some corned beef. Okay. That was good. As she unzipped her backpack she heard something and whipped around. Nothing. No...that sound had been elsewhere, further away.
The redhead scooped the cans into her backpack before hastily doing it back up and swinging it onto her shoulder. Her mind flashed to the other members of the group. s**t. They covered more ground when they split into smaller groups and usually there were two of them at a time but Poppy and her partner had agreed to split up on this floor, cover as many of the apartments as possible. ********, what if something had happened? But a quick glance into the last couple of apartments told her that whatever it was, it wasn’t here. Poppy fingered the locket that hung around her slender neck. ’Please be nothing.’ Her mind flashed to the others as she moved quickly but quietly. It was about time they all started heading back to the first floor anyway, right? Her heart raced as she took the stairs as quickly as she possibly could without losing her footing.
By the time she reached the first floor she was out of breath, she caught sight of Anthony in the reception area and instantly, light eyes scanned him for any sign of harm. Blood on his shirt. His blood? She eyed him warily, about to ask him what had happened when suddenly...wait, he was alone. But...”Where’s Katie?” her accent was soft as she studied him expectantly, but the look on his face told her more than words ever could. A heavy sigh passed her lips as she pushed a few loose strands of hair from her eyes. ”s**t.” What more could she say? ”I’m sorry.” she sighed and touched his arm gently. ”Are you okay?” again, she took a step back to look him over. Where were the others? They should’ve been back by now, right? Once again she felt her heart rate pick up. ”Have you seen any of the others?” she glanced back at the door to the stairwell, willing them to come through at any second.
Avery knelt beside an overturned cabinet, picking through canned goods. Peaches! There was a prize! Greedily, her hands, shaking in anticipation, gripped the can and pushed it into her duffel bag. She and Poppy had split up, but she didn’t wonder why. It was faster that way, and probably Poppy was hoping something would happen to her, while they were making their sweep. She had a feeling that the other girl, a natural redhead to Avery’s fading roots, had some animosity toward her. But she wasn’t willing to admit that her particular character traits were faults.
After all, Avery was one of the last to have joined the group, and she was very much aware of what exactly had kept her alive. The strong lived. The weak merely clung to life and served as mere stepping stones to her prolonged survival. A little reluctantly, she picked up a can of asparagus and an unopened box of crackers. She didn’t bother to open the fridge – she wasn’t willing to risk her lunch for what meager findings it might find. She considered, for a moment, what her partner might think – she might have called her wasteful, that she was overlooking possible resources for her own comfort. Perhaps she was projecting. It didn’t much matter.
The sound of a bang had her suddenly standing bolt upright, her heart drumming frantically in her chest. In a moment of fear, she called out, ”Poppy?” No answer, but she heard a door close somewhere. Avery picked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder, pausing only as long as it took to glance over the counters for anything of use, and half jogged to the door, peering around the frame into the hall. No sign of her partner. No sign of anything amiss. For a moment, she stood there – muscles flexed and ready to move – but there was no sound. She could’ve sworn she heard a voice on the bottom level, and moved quickly to the stairs. It wasn’t a long way down, but at the bottom of it she was rewarded with the sight of Tony, spattered in blood. ”What happ--?” She didn’t finish, she didn’t need to.
Poppy put her hand on Tony, and apologized. Avery’s heart started to sink, but she swallowed hard. Buck up, kid. Everyone kicks it eventually. Get it together. Avery took slow steps down the rest of the flight of stairs, and jogged the bag on her shoulder, rattling its contents. But her eyes were wary, and when she took another careful step toward Tony she held out the hammer in her hand with something like menace. ”You didn’t get bit, did you?” With the hammer, she gestured toward his arms. ”Show me.”
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Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2014 10:53 pm
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A sigh escaped Robbie's parted lips as he shoved a can of Campbell's Tomato Soup into his dirt-covered black canvas backpack. It was a good find and would prove useful to the group, no doubt, but this sort of scavenging work was not for Robbie. He'd rather be using the gun slung across his shoulder to shoot stupid-a** zombies, their inky blood bursting into macabre fireworks around their misshapen bodies. See them fall to the ground with a thud, their motionless bodies a sign of his victory. Physically become the heroic characters in his video games, fending off monstrous creatures with nothing but a gun. What he didn't understand was that in real life, he didn't get three lives, and if he messed up he couldn't simply restart the game. There were no cheat codes to lower the levels of the zombies, or raise his own levels, and the people surviving with him weren't just characters in a game but real people, with real lives and real stories.
Back when the first zombies started to wreak havoc on the public, it had been Robbie's birthday and his friends had brought him to a shooting range as a gift, not wanting him to be inside playing his video games all day. Robbie was ecstatic, shooting target after target with glee. When the first contorted, disfigured shape stumbled into Robbie's field of vision, he shot it without question. Delighted with this feat, he turned around to share it with his friends only to realize that they had all been bitten. Robbie understood what to do from his video games.
Shoot them all.
Ridden with extreme guilt, it took Robbie a while to recover. To cope with it all, Robbie put himself in a video game scenario. He convinced himself he was the main character of yet another video game, and continued on.
Soon enough, he met with other survivors, and they grouped together to ensure their continued survival. There were seven of them, and currently, they were gathering supplies. Robbie's least favorite part of it all.
Walking out of the apartment room he was in with his backpack half-filled, Robbie heard loud noises. A grin spread across his face like wildfire.'Zombies. Finally, time to shoot some of those ********> He sprinted down the stairs, his backpack and gun hitting his back as he did so, and ran right through the door. Downstairs, he found Tony, Poppy, and Avery."Come on man, you didn't leave me a zombie to shoot? That's just rude."Robbie joked with a sliver of disappointment in his eyes. Until he noticed the blood staining Tony's shirt, and the fact that Katie wasn't with him."Oh s**t. Did they get her? Are there any more of them?"
TAKEN WITH THOUGHT, STILL PRONE TO CARE outfit | theme | profile Poppy was the first one down, probably brought by the noise, but she stood a little ways away for a moment, wary of him. He should’ve expected it – every conflict they had with the creatures could kill. Any minor injury, any shared blood could put them out. She seemed to decide that he was alright to approach, but was asking where Katie was. Still shaken, perhaps a little nauseous, Anthony shook his head. ”I – she’s—“ He didn’t have the heart to finish the sentence, but Poppy seemed to understand. She was sorry.
Katie had been just a kid – sixteen or seventeen—and one of the first to join the group. He’d found her wandering the streets in the first weeks of the, well, whatever this was, just as people were becoming scarce. In more ways than one, she had saved his life. Her death wasn’t deserving of her. Tony was a little surprised when he felt Katie’s hand on his arm, but he took in a deep breath to steady his heart and nodded. ”I’ll be alright,” but she read his mind. Where were the others?
Anthony looked back at the stairs, but saw Avery standing there. He didn’t know how long she’d been there, and in a way he almost wasn’t sure he was relieved to see her. Avery was, perhaps, more of a hindrance to the group than an asset, but no one could say so. Just as he was about to say something to her, she spoke first, taking a step forward and holding out her weapon. Threatening him. Anthony looked surprised, but complied. Whether or not he liked the way she went about it, she was probably right to be cautious. He unbuttoned the cuffs of his shirt and rolled up his sleeves, turning his arms in her view. The blood on his clothes fell only in small splatters, not enough to be from an injury of his own.
Robbie chose that moment to come down the stairs, grinning. Despite how inappropriate it seemed, as Robbie often did, Anthony was glad for the break in tension. Were there more? Anthony was helpless to answer with any authority, ”I didn’t check.” They had cleared the first floor when they’d first arrived, so they knew that – if it came to it – the only enemies they would encounter would have to come by the stairs.
ironic cat
S T A T i C H0RR0R
Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2014 9:17 am
She was used to it now, hell, it wasn’t like she wasn’t used to death. The redhead had seen many patients die, but that was before; when she could’ve done something about it, when she could do everything within her power to stop an illness, a disease. This wasn’t like that. It was a different feeling altogether, and knowing what happened...when you left them behind. It sent chills down her spine. But she was fine, she was used to it. Katie had been with them for a long time, since right near the beginning, before she’d found the group definitely, Poppy frowned, it would be strange for a bit but...they’d move on, they always moved on. What other choice did they have?
Just as she asked where the others were there was a sound behind them. The stairwell. Poppy whirled around, tense, but it was only Avery. Oh thank god. She’d started to worry that something had happened to the other woman. They shouldn’t have split up, it was a bad idea on her part. Her brow furrowed as she demanded that Tony show her his arms. ”There’s not enough blood for it to be his.” she muttered, but there was no arguing with Avery, the younger woman was stubborn – which wasn’t always a bad thing; then again, Poppy couldn’t talk, she could be stubborn when the time called for it.
As expected, nobody listened to her and Tony rolled up his sleeves, exposing his arms for Avery to inspect. ”I think you can put that down.” she said dryly, reaching out and pushing Avery’s hammer slightly out of her way. ”One death is enough for today.” her tone was icy and just at that moment Robbie chose to appear, although she’d certainly heard him coming. A heavy sigh passed her lips as the younger male joined them; sometimes he really needed to rein it in. As much as she appreciated his humour and light-heartedness the majority of the time, there was a time and a place and this most certainly wasn’t it. ”Robbie...” she sounded tired as she shook her head at him.
Did they get her? Well, that didn’t need an answer; there was enough evidence for him to see already, regardless Poppy nodded slowly and turned to look at Tony. It was then that Robbie asked if there were any more of them. They had only cleared the first floor upon their arrival so chances were there were plenty more waiting to take them by surprise. All the noise wouldn’t have helped their situation. ”I would think so, a place like this.” she shrugged, turning her attention to Robbie. ”What do you guys want to do? Stay here and scout out some more apartments? Move on? What did everyone find?” she needed something to do; they couldn’t just stand here like sitting ducks. Besides, Poppy always liked to stay busy after they lost someone, just until she got used to them not being around anymore. Call her soft but the young woman wasn’t completely devoid of emotion, not yet anyway. Humans were an endangered species nowadays, the least they could do was try and preserve some sort of humanity within themselves.
The redhead barely gave them a chance to respond before dropping her backpack at her feet and opening it for them to inspect. ”There wasn’t a lot.” she admitted. ”That’s barely going to last us.” light eyes glanced back to the stairwell. Maybe the others had found more; maybe she’d just picked the dud apartments. She hoped so; heading back up those stairs and into the unknown wasn’t particularly appealing to her right at that moment, but...whatever needed to be done.
Anthony didn’t argue. Avery hadn’t expected him to, even after Poppy had grumbled something about there not being enough blood. She didn’t believe her, but it didn’t matter. Even a nick could kill, and it wasn’t something that Avery was willing to risk, no matter who it was. She wouldn’t be the one to have her throat torn out in her sleep. But when Anthony rolled up his sleeves, there was nothing there and Poppy seemed to, unquestionably, agree that he was good enough. Avery begrudgingly let her hammer fall back to her side, but kept a tight grip on it – she usually did.
One death was enough for today, Poppy was saying. But her tone was something else. The girl was shockingly cold to all that had happened. But they had never been a big group, maybe eight or nine at their biggest – but the weak went first, and they went fast. For what it was worth, six still seemed like a big number. Robbie chose that particular moment to interrupt inappropriately. Avery was, honestly, surprised the boy was still alive – that he had even made it to the group. He was too gung-ho, too stupid to see when he was walking straight into harm’s way. He’d kill himself, or he’d get someone else work. Poppy seemed exasperated, but Avery pointedly ignored him, at least, until he asked if there were more.
She would think so? Avery snapped back, ”You think?” Her tone was acidic with sarcasm, but Poppy was already starting to ask what they would do next. Stay or leave? ”We can’t stay here.” Avery answered, and her tone suggested that she would consider nothing else. The thought of what would happen to Katie up there – eaten or changed, was not a thing that Avery could handle. ”Who knows how many more there are.” She added, though the thought of going back onto the streets wasn’t appealing, either. The things were fast, they were like starving animals – and in the streets, in the open, she had seen them descend like trained predators, tearing until their fingers broke and bled.
Every time she closed her eyes, all Avery ever saw was blood. She woke up in the middle of the night gagging for want of air without the metallic, hanging scent of torn and rotting flesh. Of oil spilled from mangled cars. Poppy was opening her bag, and Avery pulled her jacket in closer around herself, taking in a deep breath of rot to try and clear her mind. She was right, she hadn’t found much. The younger girl gripped her own bag, but was visibly reluctant to show what she had found. When all eyes fell on her, she finally unzipped the duffel bag and held it open. She had found a nice little stash, but it wouldn’t be enough to last the six of them more than a couple of days.
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