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Post by ghostlight on May 28, 2009 14:08:54 GMT -5
He took a long drag from his cigarette; he had to close his eyes from the cherries’ glare in his night vision goggles. Blowing soft smoke rings he scans the streets from his vantage point, secured in a small corner of a demolished rooftop. His clothes blend into the rubble of the building so well he is almost invisible.
The scream alerts him before he even sees the movement. A small shambling movement of a child and two bodies’s slowly giving chase. "Where did you come from kid?" his mind is cold and calculating as he moves the goggles, he lifts the rifle from his lap and resettles his back against the pile of rubble he is using as a nest, he trains the barrel along the path of the larger body’s as he lays his cheek on the stock of the gun.
His scope finds its target, the report from his weapon is deafening but he is use to it, the empty jacket makes a soft clink on the floor between his boots. As the bullet tears through the firsts head in a fountain of brain and skull and gore he notices something important, the body falls and the child does not react, "This is wrong...this is..." a live body suddenly runs from the ally and scoops up the child, he hears her trying to sooth the child sooth the cries of fear and despair. Then the cries stop and the screams begin again as the zombie child chews through her throat.
He stands rifle trained and ready the report is instant as the child and woman are torn in two, there bloody and mangled skulls cover the wall she has now slumped against. "Jesus fucking fall out Christ there getting ...fuck what are they gettin smart...god this is just what I need". He drops the goggles back over his eyes he scans the area one last time before turning slowly.
Dropping to one knee he lays the rifle down and begins repacking his gear, carful to leave no trace of him being there, he is well trained and good at what he does him is a hunter of things in the darkness. Giddien Deshane the last member of Halo, an elite rescue squad sent into this god forsaken pit of hell before the official lock down was enacted and now he is trapped like the other live bodies.
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Post by Noah on May 28, 2009 14:59:50 GMT -5
Noah the Dogboy hears the report of gunfire. He begins to smell the air. His nose is keen from long periods of time spent as a zombie. He can smell gundpowder, a quarter mile away. He begins to run in that direction awkwardly on all fours. As he gets near he smells cigarette smoke. He crawls up onto the rooftop and finds where the smell is strongest. Someone had smoked here and they'd left...that way. Noah follows the trail of cigarrette scent. He found where the person had stopped smoking, but the scent that lingered in his clothes remained to guide Noah. He was on the mystery person's trail.
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Post by Leon Silverblood on May 28, 2009 15:16:20 GMT -5
Leon follows Noah out of the bar and down the road, curious. He scans with his binoculars but finds nothing. Swearing to himself, Leon draws a flare gun and points it skyward. He draws a .22 pistol as well, the lightweight sidearm that shares ammunition with his rifle and keeps life simple.
He fires the flare up into the night and waits, staying out in the open where he has the best line of sight and where the newcomer can see him. Nothing can come around a corner, no zed can sneak up on him as long as he keeps his eyes peeled. He turns slowly, constantly, watching for zeds whose attention he may have drawn, pistol cocked and pointing wherever his eyes go. "Noah. Stay with me. Back to back. And for fuck's sake, do you have a gun?!" he whispers.
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Post by ghostlight on May 28, 2009 19:30:16 GMT -5
A shadow seems to move across the rooftops, Giddien makes almost no sound, his gear secured in a way that made him almost impossible to hear. From rooftop to rooftop he moves only coming to a blind drop once, the leap was easy. He made it without even thinking, from two stories down to one, from one to the street below.
As soon as he hit the ground he had rolled, coming to his feet, his hands where suddenly filled with a knife in one and handgun in the other. His stance was tight and low, rotating slowly he watched for only a second. He had changed course and was headed toward the all too bright flare. Giddien had taken off his NVG's because of this all too bright red light that now washed the buildings around him in a sickly bloody light. He had come down to street level close to where the flare had been popped and saw a figure standing in the middle of the road. “God please don’t let them know how to use flares” he stepped out from his cover and put his hands up.
His clothes, normally a perfect camouflage in this ruined city was no good now in this deathly red glow. “Please tell me you’re a live body” he shouts to this new figure.
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Post by Leon Silverblood on May 28, 2009 20:04:41 GMT -5
Leon was still turning his slow circle, his hearing tweaked, his eyes scanning a world that seemed to be full of motion from the living light. A zombie couldn't have snuck up on him, but a shuffle and a drag and a moan really isn't the height of stealth, anyway. And they don't move very smoothly either. Even the weak human eye catches their jerky movement rather easily. And zombies were the only thing he was really listening for. A human wouldn't very well turn around to kill him, and wouldn't surprise the hell out of him either. One tentative survivor communicating with another tentative survivor beneath flarelight is done with great caution because of the likelihood of unsprung nerves. And it was indeed Leon's nerves that came unsprung, Leon who's reflexes responded to his eyes almost too fast for his own good or Giddien's.
As Gidden's hands came up, they were the first sign of anything within 50 meters, so catlike had he been, and even from the respectful distance the man had chosen, he startled the hell out Leon. Sirens and flags and bells galore all crashed into each other in his mind as the hint of movement registered in his periphery. He squeezed the trigger once, twice, three times, harder each time, his arm seeming to jab the pistol out at Giddien's chest with each squeeze of his fingers. His eyes nearly popped out of his head and it was several seconds before his chest and abdomen unclenched enough for a gasp of a breath.
"Ho-lee SHIT!" he panted as he dropped the pistol to the ground and put his hands on his knees. After a few more seconds he looked up, still panting but grinning now, and coughed the word out in relief "Safety!"
That damned close, he thought, to accidentally killing an unarmed ally. God he needed to relax.
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Post by ghostlight on May 28, 2009 20:37:26 GMT -5
Giddien lay flat in the gutter on the opposite side of the road, his arms crossed over his head; "God damn it switch to decafe would ya" his voice was the perfect image of calm as he slowly stood. He had almost missed it in the flares light a sudden jerk, but that’s all it took the strangers arm had jerked and his already spring wound body had reacted.
"I guess that was my fault." there was no surprise in his voice no anger. He holstered his gun in the leg rig and slid the knife into its sheath at his chest. “Decafe...I miss coffee...anyway the name is Giddien Deshane and you are?” his voice carried well he didn’t have to raise his it much. He started brushing himself off as if nothing had happened, still watching this obviously jumpy live body.
“You’re a live body, that much I can see, unless the natives really are learning that is.”
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Post by Noah on May 28, 2009 20:37:39 GMT -5
Noah doesn't like this new person. He crouches at Leon's feet and growls, barring his teeth. He's ready to bite this person if need be.
"Grrrr..."
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Post by Leon Silverblood on May 28, 2009 20:57:34 GMT -5
((Check your PMs Noah!!!)
"Heh. Sorry. Gettin a little jumpy...High stress...for years...Christ. How do you do it? I'm Leon, by the way. Medic. I don't know about coffee, but we got somethin with kick back at the elbow room. Follow me." Leon turns, his breath steadying more with each passing second, and heads toward the tavern. He leans down and presses something to Noah's neck. A small dose of epinephrine. Hopefully enough to clear the nut's muddled mind, but not nearly enough to jack him up.
"Noah. Buddy. You're human, bro. You blast, you don't bite. How about a shot of rum, huh? Let's go get you some alcohol to clear your head."
In a few minutes they're stepping into the tavern, and Leon turns around to add some chairs to the barricades. After a few of these and some whiteboards and some plywood, it looks a little secure.
"Giddien, that's ValJohn over there behind the bar. Ask him for whatever you like. He'll fix whatever he wants, but it helps maintain a semblance of normalcy. Liquor's on the back wall behind the bar. Coffee...Mm. Sounds good. Val?"
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Post by Noah on May 28, 2009 21:15:33 GMT -5
Noah pees on Leon's shoe. He does not like being called a human.
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Post by ghostlight on May 28, 2009 21:18:44 GMT -5
Giddien can't help but laugh to himself "alcohol to clear the mind" what was the world coming to. He studied ValJohn for a moment before unslinging his rifle and walking toward the bar, "Coffee would be nice if you have some". Giddien leaned his rifle against the bar.
ValJohn grunted then said "It's old" and Giddien laughed a full and humor filled laugh, he leaned forward and took ValJohns face in his hands "By God man lets cook the shit out of it then shall we?"
Too shocked to give any real reaction ValJohn stepped back and mumbled to himself as he began making the coffee. Giddien sat down, a new look washed over him, before he had seemed like he was cut from a piece of steel, cold and unbreakable. Now the steel seemed to be melting away making him more human and it showed on his face. He was tired.
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Post by Leon Silverblood on May 28, 2009 21:28:02 GMT -5
Leon lifted his shoe and stared in disbelief. Then he looked up as he heard something he didn't at all recognize. His mouth hung open for several moments before he finally said "ValJohn! You SPOKE! Two years and I've never heard a peep out of you!!"
The answer, as the surly old cook turned away to actually comply with someone, was a certain finger waved carelessly over his shoulder.
"Well. I guess he just likes you, Giddien. Hey could you toss me a bottle of somethin from over there? And fill me in a little. Where ya from, man? How'd you wind up in Malton?"
He glances down at his shoe again, then the "dog," Noah. He shakes his head and runs his fingers through his hair, then catches an idea. He takes a piece of rat jerky from days long gone, the first days of the Elbow Room when Lachryma brought this as if it were a welcome treat. He hated to admit to himself the things he'd eaten, and tossed this piece in Noah's general direction, not thinking about how much he'd had of it.
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Post by ghostlight on May 28, 2009 21:41:41 GMT -5
ValJohn shrugged from behind the bar, otherwise ignoring the conversation.
"Giddien Deshane, of Halo...or I was we where dropped in the center of Santlerville." the steel was back but his eyes, they were so alive they didn’t seem to belong to him. "We were sent in here under orders to evac several important people, nobody knew what was going on and we didn’t ask, that wasn’t our job." he sighed softly as he reached for a bottle and tossed the first thing he grabbed.
"This outbreak...infection whatever the fuck you want to call it" as he spoke he had taken a smoke out of one of his many pockets and put one in his mouth "It was bullshit this was a testing ground..or something...I don’t know Pauli could have told you more." he leaned forward some as he clicked his lighter on.
He exhaled and looked a Leon, "Where I’m from, there is no from anymore its how have you survived...and I have survived pretty well I think…but hell I would be better if there was at least one of my guys left..”
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albub
Full Member
Posts: 193
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Post by albub on May 28, 2009 21:47:09 GMT -5
Dan looks up drunkenly, then brings the empty quart bottle to his eye and looks through it like a telescope at the newcomer. He giggles like a schoolgirl.
"Hey Leon, who's the new guy?"
Dan is secretly happy that he is no longer the new guy.
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Post by Leon Silverblood on May 28, 2009 22:14:33 GMT -5
Leon drank deep, then shrugged and poured half the bottle into a bowl and set it on the floor.
"There are lots of rumors about it being a test, some new military weapon or something. You oughta meet the Quartly Study Group. I had an interesting chat one time with a fella named Charles Darwin about the virus. What happened to your team?"
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Post by ghostlight on May 28, 2009 22:29:38 GMT -5
"We didnt know what to exspect and when a dead body gets up and starts coming at you over and over..its a little unsettling"
The smell of coffee fills the bar as Giddien mashed out his smoke under his heel, "If we had only known....if we had only understood why they armed us the way they did." he looked up at Leon and looked him over "I cant shake the feeling that this is going to get much..much worse befor it gets better" Giddien began to undo the secure straps and buckles that held his gear in place. The rigging undone he set his pack down next to his rifle. "But you already knew that didnt you Leon?" his voice was cold and sharp as ValJohn thumped a large coffe mug infront of him.
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