Submitted, i used the pretty same character present in TinyCarlos' story, i was unsure about lone survivor and main group, but i chose the last one, i was also unsure about teenager and adult, because i'm only 17-18, but i prefer an adult character.
Hey Raging_Blades, I have 6 other votes besides yours but it's a tie with the other two options. Would you care to change your vote and be the tiebreaker? :P It's okay if not, we can wait for another vote if necessary.
Hey Raging_Blades, I have 6 other votes besides yours but it's a tie with the other two options. Would you care to change your vote and be t… morehe tiebreaker? :P It's okay if not, we can wait for another vote if necessary.
(Just my luck, someone else will suddenly vote.)
[We should leave the house, but find somewhere else in town to stay.]
Everyone will follow the news and leave the town. More people out of town = more walkers out of town, therefore the town will have less people, and less walkers.
Yes I'm a tiebreaker. That's one thing to check off my Bucket List!
(Sorry, this part is pretty boring! I promise it'll get more exciting soon ;D )
[We should leave the house, but find somewhere else in town to stay.]
"I think we should find somewhere else to hole out here in town, at least for the night. It's going to be hell trying to get out of the city," you say. "We can go somewhere more out of the way so we can avoid rioters, but still close enough that we can actually get there."
"The kid has a point," E.J. agrees with you. "If everyone's being told to evacuate, traffic's going to be a pain in the ass right now."
You nod. "Exactly."
"I agree with Elias," Thalia says. "And I know a place we can stay in. There's a Pam's Klub near the outskirts of town, to the south. It's out of the way enough that there won't be too many people, but there's enough food and supplies in there to sustain us for a few days if necessary."
"Sounds good to me," Jack says.
"Alright," Uncle Pun says. "We can go there. Did you come here by car?"
"Yes, Jack drove us in his truck," Alice replies.
"Then we can take that and my van," Pun says. "Elias, Jen, and Dixie can ride with me."
"Okay," Jen says, while Dixie only nods. You say nothing.
Stephany raises her hand slightly from beside Jen, and you almost laugh at the motion. "Wait - Mr. Pun, shouldn't we pack some stuff before we leave?"
Stephany does have a point, you think - even if this doesn't end up being super long term and the government takes care of it tomorrow, it might not be safe to return to your house for a bit, and there's no telling how long you'll be away. It'd probably be better to be prepared just in case.
"Good idea, Stephany. Jen, can you take Stephany, Alice and Jack to your room and pack a few bags?" Jen nods. "Alright. Eli, you can pack a bag of your own, too, if you want."
"I think we should leave in about half an hour," Thalia speaks up. "We need to wait for things to quiet down a little outside first - but we can't wait too long."
You retreat back to your room and retrieve your backpack off its hook by the door, dumping all of its current contents - your schoolbooks, schoolbooks, some card decks and a few snacks. Then you move to begin packing for your 'trip' - and realize you aren't sure quite what you should pack.
You're able to fit quite a lot into your backpack, but in the end not everything you want to take is going to fit. So what's the most important?
(Pick the two most important things from the following list.)
(Sorry, this part is pretty boring! I promise it'll get more exciting soon ;D )
[We should leave the house, but find somewhere else in to… morewn to stay.]
"I think we should find somewhere else to hole out here in town, at least for the night. It's going to be hell trying to get out of the city," you say. "We can go somewhere more out of the way so we can avoid rioters, but still close enough that we can actually get there."
"The kid has a point," E.J. agrees with you. "If everyone's being told to evacuate, traffic's going to be a pain in the ass right now."
You nod. "Exactly."
"I agree with Elias," Thalia says. "And I know a place we can stay in. There's a Pam's Klub near the outskirts of town, to the south. It's out of the way enough that there won't be too many people, but there's enough food and supplies in there to sustain us for a few days if necessary."
"Sounds good to me," Jack says.
"Alright," Uncle Pun says. "We can go t… [view original content]
(Sorry, this part is pretty boring! I promise it'll get more exciting soon ;D )
[We should leave the house, but find somewhere else in to… morewn to stay.]
"I think we should find somewhere else to hole out here in town, at least for the night. It's going to be hell trying to get out of the city," you say. "We can go somewhere more out of the way so we can avoid rioters, but still close enough that we can actually get there."
"The kid has a point," E.J. agrees with you. "If everyone's being told to evacuate, traffic's going to be a pain in the ass right now."
You nod. "Exactly."
"I agree with Elias," Thalia says. "And I know a place we can stay in. There's a Pam's Klub near the outskirts of town, to the south. It's out of the way enough that there won't be too many people, but there's enough food and supplies in there to sustain us for a few days if necessary."
"Sounds good to me," Jack says.
"Alright," Uncle Pun says. "We can go t… [view original content]
(Sorry, this part is pretty boring! I promise it'll get more exciting soon ;D )
[We should leave the house, but find somewhere else in to… morewn to stay.]
"I think we should find somewhere else to hole out here in town, at least for the night. It's going to be hell trying to get out of the city," you say. "We can go somewhere more out of the way so we can avoid rioters, but still close enough that we can actually get there."
"The kid has a point," E.J. agrees with you. "If everyone's being told to evacuate, traffic's going to be a pain in the ass right now."
You nod. "Exactly."
"I agree with Elias," Thalia says. "And I know a place we can stay in. There's a Pam's Klub near the outskirts of town, to the south. It's out of the way enough that there won't be too many people, but there's enough food and supplies in there to sustain us for a few days if necessary."
"Sounds good to me," Jack says.
"Alright," Uncle Pun says. "We can go t… [view original content]
So far, the next part I've been writing has been really, really long. I have it about halfway done so far, but...
I was wondering, would you prefer I posted it in two parts - what I have done now, and then the rest later - even if it meant the first part would have no voting? Or would you rather I wait and post a HUGE wall of text with a voting option at the end?
Hey guys no part yet because I have a question...
So far, the next part I've been writing has been really, really long. I have it about h… morealfway done so far, but...
I was wondering, would you prefer I posted it in two parts - what I have done now, and then the rest later - even if it meant the first part would have no voting? Or would you rather I wait and post a HUGE wall of text with a voting option at the end?
Hey guys no part yet because I have a question...
So far, the next part I've been writing has been really, really long. I have it about h… morealfway done so far, but...
I was wondering, would you prefer I posted it in two parts - what I have done now, and then the rest later - even if it meant the first part would have no voting? Or would you rather I wait and post a HUGE wall of text with a voting option at the end?
(Sorry, this part is pretty boring! I promise it'll get more exciting soon ;D )
[We should leave the house, but find somewhere else in to… morewn to stay.]
"I think we should find somewhere else to hole out here in town, at least for the night. It's going to be hell trying to get out of the city," you say. "We can go somewhere more out of the way so we can avoid rioters, but still close enough that we can actually get there."
"The kid has a point," E.J. agrees with you. "If everyone's being told to evacuate, traffic's going to be a pain in the ass right now."
You nod. "Exactly."
"I agree with Elias," Thalia says. "And I know a place we can stay in. There's a Pam's Klub near the outskirts of town, to the south. It's out of the way enough that there won't be too many people, but there's enough food and supplies in there to sustain us for a few days if necessary."
"Sounds good to me," Jack says.
"Alright," Uncle Pun says. "We can go t… [view original content]
(Just a reminder that "Rema" is AllThatRemains. :P Also, no voting for this part, sorry! The people have spoken. So this is part 1 of 2.)
You decide that first aid and medicines should be your first priority, so you fit as many useful items pertaining to that in your bag before moving on to your next priority, food and water. By the time you've finished packing those things, there's not a lot of room left, but you still manage to fit two rolls of duct tape, two flashlights, and 3 packets of batteries into the front pocket.
Once everyone is finished packing and 30 minutes has come and gone, you all move to the front door, preparing to open it and get out of dodge as fast as possible. This time the choice hasn't been left up to you - your uncle's already made the plan clear; you're all going to storm out the front door as quickly as you can and take out any dead that get to you before you get to the cars. The plan is basically just to move fast and watch each other's backs. Not the greatest plan of all time, but it'll work, you think. And it's not like you have many other options.
You've got a meat cleaver handy to chop any rioters with, and Jen's got one of your butcher knives. You've done your best to arm the others without any weapons with knives from your kitchen too - E.J. a bread knife, Jack a boning knife and Stephany a small paring knife (only for emergencies.)
As your uncle moves to the door, he pauses, turning to you. "Wait, Elias," he says. "Take this." He withdraws a small gun - a handgun of some sort, you think - from his belt and hands it over to you. "I've got my shotgun, and I'm a better shot with it anyway. You're going to need that."
"You know I don't know anything about guns," you try, but he shakes his head.
"I'm not going to hear it. It's simple - just point and pull the trigger. Breathe in to steady your hand when you do. You need to have one, even if it's just for emergencies."
"Okay," you sigh. You put the gun in your pocket, as you're pretty sure you're going to be handier with the cleaver, what with you never having shot a gun before.
Uncle Pun glances to all of you one by one, checking silently that you're all ready, and when no one objects, he opens the door. Immediately you're all face to face with the rioter you saw before out on the porch, and Thalia moves forward beside Pun to smash its head in with her bat. Two hits and it stops moving, and you all rush down the stairs into the driveway. There are two more creeps roaming there, in between the cars, and Dixie takes one out with her hatchet while Jack stabs the other in the head with his knife.
You all get in your respective cars - you, Dixie, and Jen in Uncle Pun's car and Stephany, E.J., Alice and Thalia in Jack's - and drive out of the neighborhood, Uncle Pun following behind Jack's truck.
As you drive south in silence, passing quite a few ghouls on your way, you notice traffic begin to get worse and worse; eventually, about 2 miles out from where you're at basically a standstill behind a line of other cars. About 5 minutes into this, your uncle curses quietly from the front.
"Traffic is really bad," Dixie comments from the passenger seat.
"Yeah," you agree. "If this is how bad it is just trying to get to Pam's Klub, I don't want to imagine how hard it would be to try and leave."
"It's because the news are telling everyone to evacuate, like E.J. said," Jen says. "Everyone and their grandmothers are trying to get out of the city right now. We could be here a while."
"We don't have a while," your uncle says, sounding displeased. "It's going to be dark soon."
As soon as he says that, a commotion from about 3 cars ahead of you gets your attention. Even through sealed windows, you can hear the screams of the car's passengers - there are multiple monsters at the car's windows and doors, trying desperately to get in. And you can tell it's only a matter of time before they do. "Shit!" Uncle Pun says.
"We can't stay here!" Jen murmurs, at the same time that Jack jumps out of his truck in front of you. He's rushing to the passenger door and grabbing Stephany, pulling her out in a near-panic, as Thalia, E.J. and Alice all hurry to your car.
You all exit the car as fast as possible and start off wordlessly away from the direction of traffic - but Jack stops, turning and rushing back to his truck. He pops open the trunk and retrieves something before slamming it - a bit too loudly, you think - and rushing back to the group.
"Thought this might be useful," he says, holding up a crowbar.
"Great," Thalia says. "Now we need to get out of here. Looks like Pam's Klub isn't a possibility."
"But where can we go?" Alice asks. There are a couple of creeps approaching from behind you guys, and you can tell you're not the only one who notices them.
"Anywhere but here!" Jen says. You break into a run, moving fast along the side of the road and scanning the buildings around you for somewhere safe to hide out as the others follow close behind you.
Eventually, Dixie stumbles and stops, panting, and you're all forced to wait beside her. The run - about a two or three minutes of running - seems to have tired her out, and you won't lie - you're a little winded too.
"I can't -- run anymore," she pants. "I'm not ... feeling too hot."
"You might have to run," Thalia says sharply as you spot three creeps coming towards you from your right. You grab your cleaver, preparing to fight, and see Alice tense up beside you, raising her gun.
As the first one reaches you, Alice shoots it in the chest - and it doesn't seem to do anything. She shoots it again, then a third time, all while it keeps coming, outstretched hands now less than a foot away from grabbing her.
Uncle Pun shoots it once in the head with his shotgun, and it crumples instantly to the ground. "Don't waste your bullets," he says. "It's the head or nothing. These things don't die easy."
Taking the advice to heart, you take a step forward towards the next one, then swing at it with your cleaver. It's a lot more difficult to cut through the skull than you anticipated, and though it falls limp against you, clearly dead, you have to tug a bit to pull out your weapon. By the time you've got it free, you glance around you to see that there are a whole lot more monsters now than you'd first seen, and they're all slowly enclosing upon all of your positions.
"Shit, how many of them are there?" E.J. growls as he kills one with his knife. You shake your head, disbelieving, and move to the next one, desperately fighting to keep yourself and the others alive. But they just keep coming. You aren't sure how much longer you're going to hold out.
One of them finally grabs you from behind, and you gasp as you struggle, unable to swing your cleaver to kill it. You're thrashing desperately to avoid getting chomped on, and then suddenly the grip on you is yanked away; you spin to see Jack has pulled the ghoul back and is smashing its head in with the crowbar he retrieved earlier.
"Thanks, man," you gasp as it falls down dead at your feet.
"Don't thank me yet," he replies frantically, turning back to scoop up Stephany, who had been huddled behind him, and start running towards a building on your left. "This way!" You glance back before following him, wanting to check that everyone is alright, and spot Alice struggling to fight off a rioter, unable to raise her gun enough to shoot it whilst she struggles. You dart over and stab the thing in the head, yanking your cleaver back out just before it falls dead and ushering Alice and the others with you. "Come on!"
You all run after Jack to the building, which you're slightly surprised to see is a bookstore. As you all skid to a stop in front of it, he explains himself; "Rema's family owns this bookstore -" you make a puzzled face at him; you'd never known that - "but the point is that the lights are still on." You raise an eyebrow, confused. "Someone's in here."
Since Jack's got his hands busy carrying his sister (who looks a little annoyed to be being carried like a sack of flour, despite the fear also in her eyes) you step forward and try to open the door - and it opens. Glancing to the others, you enter the store and walk carefully through the well-light hall, taking note of the shelves and shelves of books around you.
"Hello?" When a minute passes and no one answers, you let yourself untense a little, spinning to look at the others. Thalia, Uncle Pun and E.J. are pushing some of the chairs set up for reading to the door to barricade it, while Stephany, who has been set down by Jack, joins Alice and Jen as the three set off through the store, looking at the books. You're a little uneasy about them going off on their own, but you trust Alice to protect them if necessary, and even if she falls through, you're pretty sure Jen can hold her own.
"There sure were a lot of them out there," you say to Jack, shaking your head.
"Yeah, man, I know," he replies. "This is... it's worse than we thought, isn't it?"
"Maybe," you concede. "There are definitely a lot more 'rioters' than I thought there would be, at least."
"I'm starting to wonder if the government will even be able to fix this," he says, his tone cautious. You furrow your brow, about to reply, when Dixie does instead from a little farther behind you.
"Don't lose hope," she says. "I have faith in the government. All of this will be sorted out soon, you'll see." She smiles at the both of you, though you can't help feeling that the smile is somewhat weak.
"At the very least, they aren't going to give in without a fight," you add.
"Okay," he murmurs. "Hey, Eli. I'm going to go help your uncle and the others with blocking the door. Can you check on Stephany for me?"
"Sure, Jack," you say, raising one hand to wave as you start off through the store.
It takes you a few moments to find them, but eventually you do, among one of the nonfiction aisles.
"Elias, look at this!" Alice says to you, holding up a book on the topic of first aid.* "Don't you think it might come in handy?"
You're about to tell her that she won't have to worry about needing the information for long - as surely the military will roll through soon - when an unfamiliar voice cuts you off.
"It very well might," says the voice, and you all whip around to stare at a short, slender man standing at the end of the aisle. You're about to take a few steps back in apprehension - he did spook you - but then you spot the girl by his side, even shorter than he is (even shorter than Stephany!) and with long dark hair and green eyes. It's your friend Rema - one of the people who was supposed to meet up with you today.
"Rema!" you and Alice say at the same time, and though you attempt to move to her, Alice gets there first, hugging her friend.
"Hi, Alice," Rema says as they pull apart. "I'm glad you guys are okay."
"We're glad you're okay," you tell her, smiling in spite of yourself. "What happened? I mean, you never showed up at the meeting today..."
"Sorry," Rema apologizes. "I was here this morning, helping Cousin Mark with the stock. When he turned on the TV back in his office, he told me I should stay here. What with everything happening and all." You nod; that makes sense, you guess. "I would have called you, but my phone is dead. Are Jack and Aaron with you?"
"Jack is," you tell her. "We don't know about Aaron. He didn't show up either."
From beside her, the short man speaks up, smiling. "Well, you're all welcome to stay here in the store for as long as you need to." He glances at Alice. "I see you've found a book that interests you."
"Oh," she says sheepishly, eyes widening. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean -- I can put it back --"
"No," he laughs. "It's fine. Lord knows it's going to be boring waiting around here until the army comes through. And you're one of Rema's friends, so she can always ask you to give it back later."
As he finishes speaking, Jack's voice comes from behind you. "Eli? What's going on? I heard--"
The others are all behind him; he stops in his tracks as he looks from you to Rema and her cousin and back again. "Oh."
"I'm Markus Paulson," Rema's cousin says, voice friendly. "I was just telling your friends here that they can stay as long as they'd like. I know how crazy it is out there right now."
Everyone takes turns introducing themselves, and finally Markus motions for you all to follow him somewhere. "Come on," he says. "I've got a few more staying back in the office right now. You can meet each other."
(Just a reminder that "Rema" is AllThatRemains. :P Also, no voting for this part, sorry! The people have spoken. So this is part 1 of 2.)
… more You decide that first aid and medicines should be your first priority, so you fit as many useful items pertaining to that in your bag before moving on to your next priority, food and water. By the time you've finished packing those things, there's not a lot of room left, but you still manage to fit two rolls of duct tape, two flashlights, and 3 packets of batteries into the front pocket.
Once everyone is finished packing and 30 minutes has come and gone, you all move to the front door, preparing to open it and get out of dodge as fast as possible. This time the choice hasn't been left up to you - your uncle's already made the plan clear; you're all going to storm out the front door as quickly as you can and take out any dead that get to you before you get to the cars. The plan is basically just to mov… [view original content]
You follow him and Rema back to the office, which is more spacious than you were anticipating, and immediately see three people sat on the floor. A fairly skinny woman with long mousy brown hair and blue eyes sits next to a tall, slender man with short brown hair; a third person, a man who looks to be about 30, sits a small ways away from them, fiddling around with a knife. The first two look to be intent on a book they're sharing, but they glance up as you enter, and then all three stand.
"I've brought some more guests," Markus says, and then you all begin your introductions all over again.
You learn that the tall man's name is Miguel Conroy, and mousy-haired woman is his girlfriend Gabrielle. The other man's name is AJ.
"AJ and E.J.," Markus comments with a laugh, shaking his head. "That's sure a coincidence."
"So what's brought you all here?" Gabrielle asks kindly and a little shyly.
"We were trying to get to the Pam's Klub down a ways," Thalia sighs. "But we didn't make it."
"Too many dead ones?" AJ asks.
"Yeah. It was just... impossible. It's chaos out there right now," she says, nodding.
"Are you all locals?"
"We are," you say, pointing to yourself, your uncle, Alice, Stephany, Jen, and Jack.
"We are too," E.J. says.
"I'm from Topeka," Dixie says. "Here for a few months on business."
"I'm sorry you happened to be here during this, then," Uncle Pun says, glancing sidelong at her.
"Why do you say that?" AJ asks. "Do you think this is just a local thing?"
"We haven't been able to reach any national news channels, but from what we've seen, this shouldn't go that far," Jack replies, though he looks a little skeptical himself. "It might just be centered around this town, or it might extend to the whole state. There's no way to know."
"I guess you're right," Miguel says. "If this were a national - or, heck, even global - thing, you think someone would have heard about it."
"Right," you mutter.
"So are you three local?" Alice asks AJ, Miguel and Gabrielle.
"We're not," Gabrielle tells her while gesturing to Miguel, still smiling. "Miguel and I were down here to see the aquarium, of all things. You know, that big one - Sea Life."
"You came all this way for an aquarium?" Jen asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Gabrielle really likes animals," Miguel laughs. "But especially fish. She's studying to be an aquaculturist."
"College students, then?" Thalia asks.
"Mmhmm," Gabrielle affirms. "We're taking a gap year, though, to 'see the world,' I guess!"
Before you can comment, Dixie stumbles a bit from beside you, and you rush to support her with an outstretched arm.
"Is she okay?" Gabrielle asks worriedly.
"I don't know," you say quietly, frowning. Dixie waves you away with an arm.
"No, no, I'm fine," she says. "Sorry, just got a little light-headed for a second."
"How's your wound feeling?" Alice murmurs, moving to the woman's side. "Maybe it's got an infection..."
"I'm fine," Dixie repeats. "I'm just tired. Don't worry about me."
"You should really rest," Gabrielle says. "I'm sure you'll feel much better once you've gotten some sleep." She moves away from Miguel's side and to Dixie's instead, putting an arm carefully around her waist. "Come with me, I can show you where Markus has set us up tonight."
"Okay," Dixie sighs, and Gabrielle beams at her, leading her away and chatting with her cheerfully as she does. You look around at the others, still frowning.
"Is she going to be alright?" Stephany asks in a small voice.
"Of course she is, Stephany," Jack assures her. "She's just tired. Speaking of... it's getting late. You--" He reaches out to tickle her sides - "--need to get in bed before the tickle monster gets you."
Stephany laughs a little, but pulls away eventually, frowning. "Jack, I'm too old for the tickle monster," she grumbles. "I'm 13."
"Nobody's too old for the tickle monster," Markus chuckles. "But either way, your brother has a point. It's getting dark out. How about we all go to bed? When we wake up, hopefully this whole thing will have been sorted."
"Sounds like as good an idea as any to me," you murmur.
The others all nod or speak words of agreement, so Markus gestures to Rema. "Rema, you can lead the other girls to where you're sleeping. Us boys can stay here in the office."
"Goodnight," you say to Jen and Alice as they turn to follow Rema out.
"Goodnight, Eli," Jen says. When the girls have left, the seven of you remaining all settle down onto an admittedly uncomfortable floor. You aren't complaining, though - after what you've seen today, you think you're all pretty lucky to have gotten out of it relatively unscathed. One night on a hard office floor can't be too bad in the long run.
Sighing, you let yourself drift off to sleep.
~~~
A shrill, terrified scream jerks you awake, and you bolt upright, glancing around. Jack has sat up, too, and you can see the others all stirring also.
Without thinking about it, you jump to your feet and rush out the door and towards where you think the scream was coming from. You make your way into a dark carpeted room with boxes upon boxes of what you assume are books - and what you see horrifies you.
One of those -- things -- has gotten inside, and it's on top of Gabrielle. She screams again as you watch it tear out a chunk of flesh from her shoulder and eat it; you can see that it isn't the first chunk it's eaten, either - she's bleeding heavily, and thrashing and struggling weakly, but it's got her firmly held down.
You immediately rush forward, realizing you left your cleaver in the other room - but the gun your Uncle Pun gave you is still in your pocket, so you remove it with a shaking hand, pointing at the creature -- you hesitate, realizing you've never shot a gun before. What if you miss and hurt someone else--?
Before you can decide to pull the trigger, you see Jen dart forward from where she had been fumbling for something on the ground, and then she stabs the monster straight through the head with her butcher's knife. Immediately, it falls limp on top of Gabrielle, and Jen yanks the knife back out and shoves it off of the other girl.
The lights turn on suddenly, and instantly you're confronted by a sight even more horrible than it was in the dark. Gabrielle is bleeding profusely from numerous wounds to her shoulders and her stomach, places where her flesh has simply been torn away.
You shudder and look away, unable to deal with what you're seeing - but you look directly at the creep that was eating her. You're shocked to realize that it's not just any creep - it's Dixie. Though her face is bloodied and ... different, the hair and clothes are enough to confirm it - as well as the wrap on her arm. You take a few frantic steps backward, reeling from the information.
"Gabrielle? Oh my god, Gabrielle!" Miguel shoves his way past you and drops to the ground beside her, eyes wide in horror. "Gabrielle, oh my god, honey, look at me--"
She's coughing, and glancing this way and that, but her eyes can't seem to focus on him. Jen moves to your side, looking just as horrified as you are, and as you glance around the room you can see that Jack has made his way to Stephany, shielding her from seeing what's happening, and Markus and Uncle Pun are standing in the doorway. You can see AJ and E.J. standing just behind them. Thalia, Rema and Alice are both in the corner of the room, and Thalia's up and with her hand still on her bat - obviously she had been ready to act, just as Jen had done. Alice is simply staring in shock, as is Rema. You can still hear Miguel sobbing and pleading with his girlfriend to be okay.
"How ... how did this happen?" Alice gasps from where she is sat, and you look at her, shaking your head. You can't imagine how it's even happened - one minute everything was fine, the next --
"The bite," Jack says quietly. "It was the bite."
"What?" you ask, turning to look at him.
"Dixie was bitten by one of those -- things. You said, it yourself, Alice... it could have been infected... and it was."
"Oh my god," Jen mutters from beside you.
"It's... it's the bite?" you ask, voice hollow.
Alice stares at you, her own eyes wide.
"That woman we saw in the store... she must have been bitten, too. But... you saw how fast she... turned... when she died..."
Wordlessly, you find yourself looking at Gabrielle again. Miguel is desperately trying to stop the bleeding, but his attempts are doing nothing. No one has gone to help him simply because it must have been as clear to everyone else as it was to you that Gabrielle wasn't making it out of this.
"Miguel..." you try, but he isn't listening.
Gabrielle coughs in his arms one last time and then falls still, dead. He stares at her for a second longer before gritting his teeth and burying his face into her neck.
No one is doing anything. Just staring in horror. But you remember what Alice was talking about. Clearly dying speeds the transformation up, and Gabrielle was certainly bitten...
No one is doing anything. You realize that there's a very real possibility that Gabrielle will come back... and you've got a gun. Uncle Pun gave you a gun.
You remember what Pun said to you earlier. The head or nothing.
You know what you have to do, but you aren't sure you can do it.
[Pull Miguel away, and tell everyone you all need to leave the room.]
[Get Jack to pull Miguel away, and shoot Gabrielle in the head.]
You follow him and Rema back to the office, which is more spacious than you were anticipating, and immediately see three people sat on the f… moreloor. A fairly skinny woman with long mousy brown hair and blue eyes sits next to a tall, slender man with short brown hair; a third person, a man who looks to be about 30, sits a small ways away from them, fiddling around with a knife. The first two look to be intent on a book they're sharing, but they glance up as you enter, and then all three stand.
"I've brought some more guests," Markus says, and then you all begin your introductions all over again.
You learn that the tall man's name is Miguel Conroy, and mousy-haired woman is his girlfriend Gabrielle. The other man's name is AJ.
"AJ and E.J.," Markus comments with a laugh, shaking his head. "That's sure a coincidence."
"So what's brought you all here?" Gabrielle asks kindly and a little shyly.
"We were trying to get to the Pam's Klub … [view original content]
You follow him and Rema back to the office, which is more spacious than you were anticipating, and immediately see three people sat on the f… moreloor. A fairly skinny woman with long mousy brown hair and blue eyes sits next to a tall, slender man with short brown hair; a third person, a man who looks to be about 30, sits a small ways away from them, fiddling around with a knife. The first two look to be intent on a book they're sharing, but they glance up as you enter, and then all three stand.
"I've brought some more guests," Markus says, and then you all begin your introductions all over again.
You learn that the tall man's name is Miguel Conroy, and mousy-haired woman is his girlfriend Gabrielle. The other man's name is AJ.
"AJ and E.J.," Markus comments with a laugh, shaking his head. "That's sure a coincidence."
"So what's brought you all here?" Gabrielle asks kindly and a little shyly.
"We were trying to get to the Pam's Klub … [view original content]
You follow him and Rema back to the office, which is more spacious than you were anticipating, and immediately see three people sat on the f… moreloor. A fairly skinny woman with long mousy brown hair and blue eyes sits next to a tall, slender man with short brown hair; a third person, a man who looks to be about 30, sits a small ways away from them, fiddling around with a knife. The first two look to be intent on a book they're sharing, but they glance up as you enter, and then all three stand.
"I've brought some more guests," Markus says, and then you all begin your introductions all over again.
You learn that the tall man's name is Miguel Conroy, and mousy-haired woman is his girlfriend Gabrielle. The other man's name is AJ.
"AJ and E.J.," Markus comments with a laugh, shaking his head. "That's sure a coincidence."
"So what's brought you all here?" Gabrielle asks kindly and a little shyly.
"We were trying to get to the Pam's Klub … [view original content]
You follow him and Rema back to the office, which is more spacious than you were anticipating, and immediately see three people sat on the f… moreloor. A fairly skinny woman with long mousy brown hair and blue eyes sits next to a tall, slender man with short brown hair; a third person, a man who looks to be about 30, sits a small ways away from them, fiddling around with a knife. The first two look to be intent on a book they're sharing, but they glance up as you enter, and then all three stand.
"I've brought some more guests," Markus says, and then you all begin your introductions all over again.
You learn that the tall man's name is Miguel Conroy, and mousy-haired woman is his girlfriend Gabrielle. The other man's name is AJ.
"AJ and E.J.," Markus comments with a laugh, shaking his head. "That's sure a coincidence."
"So what's brought you all here?" Gabrielle asks kindly and a little shyly.
"We were trying to get to the Pam's Klub … [view original content]
[Pull Miguel away, and tell everyone you all need to leave the room.]
We obviously know that the bite kill you, but at this point in the story we are not sure if the bite is the reason of the transformation so we have to ensure before we do something wrong...
You follow him and Rema back to the office, which is more spacious than you were anticipating, and immediately see three people sat on the f… moreloor. A fairly skinny woman with long mousy brown hair and blue eyes sits next to a tall, slender man with short brown hair; a third person, a man who looks to be about 30, sits a small ways away from them, fiddling around with a knife. The first two look to be intent on a book they're sharing, but they glance up as you enter, and then all three stand.
"I've brought some more guests," Markus says, and then you all begin your introductions all over again.
You learn that the tall man's name is Miguel Conroy, and mousy-haired woman is his girlfriend Gabrielle. The other man's name is AJ.
"AJ and E.J.," Markus comments with a laugh, shaking his head. "That's sure a coincidence."
"So what's brought you all here?" Gabrielle asks kindly and a little shyly.
"We were trying to get to the Pam's Klub … [view original content]
[Get Jack to pull Miguel away, and shoot Gabrielle in the head.]
"Jack," you mumble. "Come... help me." You've raised the gun now, and he glances from it to you and back again before he seems to realize what you intend to do. Turning to Stephany, you hear him speak to her softly - "don't look, okay?" - and then move to Miguel, reluctantly grabbing at the man. "Miguel, you need to ... stay back," he tries.
But Miguel is frantic now, and considering he's so much bigger than Jack, it's easy for him to pull away from the other's grip. "No! No!" You let out a shaky sigh, but before you can do anything, your Uncle Pun has moved from the doorway to help grab Miguel.
"She's going to turn, son," he tells Miguel gently. "If we don't stop it."
You step forward around them and look at the poor woman, looking so small where she's lying on the ground. It doesn't seem real - all the blood and the horror you just witnessed... but it is. Two women are dead.
Shakily, you raise the gun and point it at her head. You're trembling so badly that your aim is probably horrible - but you remember what your
uncle told you, and you draw in a deep breath to steady your hand.
BLAM!
Her brains spatter against the floor. At least you know she's not becoming one of them... You hear Miguel give a dry sob from behind you.
You feel sick. The first time you've ever had to shoot a gun and it was - it was this.
Shutting your eyes tightly, you turn away and stumble backwards until your back is up against a stack of boxes. You're trying desperately to calm yourself down, but it's hard. You're still in shock over what you just had to do.
A timid hand on your shoulder makes you flinch, eyes flying open, but when you look, it's just Alice come to comfort you. There are tears in her eyes, and she hugs you gently.
A moment passes and then suddenly loud thuds from the front of the store interrupt your little 'moment.' Surprised, you pull away from Alice and glance around you; everyone else looks just as shocked, besides Miguel, who is simply cradling a lifeless Gabrielle in his arms with a hollow look on his face.
"What's happening?" Stephany asks worriedly.
Shaking his head, Uncle Pun gets up to leave the room, and, warily, you start after him. In the front, you can spot a good deal of the rioters just outside the glass doors, pounding on them mindlessly as they try to get in to attack you. There are various shelves and objects pushed in front of the doors from earlier to barricade them, but you can tell they won't hold forever - especially since the doors are glass.
"Oh shit," you breathe to your Uncle. He simply nods once to you and then leads you both back into the other room.
"There are a bunch of them outside the front doors," he explains to the others once you're back. "Must've heard the gunshot."
"They're trying to get in," you say. "I don't know how long the doors will keep them out."
"Is it still dark out?" Jen asks. You nod.
"We need to leave now," Thalia says. "Before more of them show up."
"Hold on," E.J. says. "If it's still dark outside, maybe we should wait. Wouldn't it be better to leave when we actually can see what we're doing?"
"Maybe if we wait, things'll quiet down outside," Markus suggests.
"That's not going to happen--" Jen starts to say, but Rema cuts her off.
"Do you really think ... he ..." She's looking at Miguel, who still hasn't looked up from where he's gently rocking his girlfriend's body. "... that he's ready to leave right now? Maybe Cousin Mark's right and we should wait."
They all continue to debate it as you sigh and back up against the wall. You need to speak your own mind on the issue... and maybe you'll be able to convince everyone one way or the other.
[ "Thalia and Jen are right. We need to leave now. There's no telling how long until they break in." ]
[ "E.J. and Markus are right. We should wait until things quiet down and we can actually see what we're doing before trying to leave." ]
Comments
Submitted, i used the pretty same character present in TinyCarlos' story, i was unsure about lone survivor and main group, but i chose the last one, i was also unsure about teenager and adult, because i'm only 17-18, but i prefer an adult character.
Hey Raging_Blades, I have 6 other votes besides yours but it's a tie with the other two options. Would you care to change your vote and be the tiebreaker? :P It's okay if not, we can wait for another vote if necessary.
(Just my luck, someone else will suddenly vote.)
Is it too late?
No it isn't, everything's still tied up. Quick man, be the tie-breaker! It's a once in a lifetime opportunity! :P
[We should leave the house, but find somewhere else in town to stay.]
Everyone will follow the news and leave the town. More people out of town = more walkers out of town, therefore the town will have less people, and less walkers.
Yes I'm a tiebreaker. That's one thing to check off my Bucket List!
[We should leave the house, but find somewhere else in town to stay.]
VOTING CLOSED, I'll post the next part shortly!
(Sorry, this part is pretty boring! I promise it'll get more exciting soon ;D )
[We should leave the house, but find somewhere else in town to stay.]
"I think we should find somewhere else to hole out here in town, at least for the night. It's going to be hell trying to get out of the city," you say. "We can go somewhere more out of the way so we can avoid rioters, but still close enough that we can actually get there."
"The kid has a point," E.J. agrees with you. "If everyone's being told to evacuate, traffic's going to be a pain in the ass right now."
You nod. "Exactly."
"I agree with Elias," Thalia says. "And I know a place we can stay in. There's a Pam's Klub near the outskirts of town, to the south. It's out of the way enough that there won't be too many people, but there's enough food and supplies in there to sustain us for a few days if necessary."
"Sounds good to me," Jack says.
"Alright," Uncle Pun says. "We can go there. Did you come here by car?"
"Yes, Jack drove us in his truck," Alice replies.
"Then we can take that and my van," Pun says. "Elias, Jen, and Dixie can ride with me."
"Okay," Jen says, while Dixie only nods. You say nothing.
Stephany raises her hand slightly from beside Jen, and you almost laugh at the motion. "Wait - Mr. Pun, shouldn't we pack some stuff before we leave?"
Stephany does have a point, you think - even if this doesn't end up being super long term and the government takes care of it tomorrow, it might not be safe to return to your house for a bit, and there's no telling how long you'll be away. It'd probably be better to be prepared just in case.
"Good idea, Stephany. Jen, can you take Stephany, Alice and Jack to your room and pack a few bags?" Jen nods. "Alright. Eli, you can pack a bag of your own, too, if you want."
"I think we should leave in about half an hour," Thalia speaks up. "We need to wait for things to quiet down a little outside first - but we can't wait too long."
You retreat back to your room and retrieve your backpack off its hook by the door, dumping all of its current contents - your schoolbooks, schoolbooks, some card decks and a few snacks. Then you move to begin packing for your 'trip' - and realize you aren't sure quite what you should pack.
You're able to fit quite a lot into your backpack, but in the end not everything you want to take is going to fit. So what's the most important?
(Pick the two most important things from the following list.)
[Food and water.]
[First aid / medicine.]
[Things you can use as weapons.]
[Tools (batteries, duct tape, flashlights, etc.)]
[Clothing.]
[Food and water.]
and
[First aid / medicine.]
Ahh! ;-; This is difficult choosing just two. Weapons aren't too hard to find so I'll have to go with..
[First aid / medicine.] and [Food and water.]
[First aid / medicine] and [Things you can use as weapons.]
You can use the "weapons" to find(hunt) some food later
[Food and water.] and [First aid / medicine.] , essentials ^^
[first aid/medicine] and [tools, battery's, duct tape! flashlights, ect]
Some duct tape is never not useful, besides I bet everyone else will think to take food and water, if not there is some already there anyway.
[First Aid/Medicine and [tools, batteries, duct tape, flashlights, etc.]
Food and water is relatively easy to find, however Medicine is not. And the tools can be used as weapons anyways.
[Tools (batteries, duct tape, flashlights, etc.)]
[Things you can use as weapons.]
Hey guys no part yet because I have a question...
So far, the next part I've been writing has been really, really long. I have it about halfway done so far, but...
I was wondering, would you prefer I posted it in two parts - what I have done now, and then the rest later - even if it meant the first part would have no voting? Or would you rather I wait and post a HUGE wall of text with a voting option at the end?
Hmmmm how about two parts?
Maybe two parts?
Whatever you think is best.
two parts?
So that's now four votes for two parts THE FANS HAVE SPOKEN!!!
[Food and water.] [First aid / medicine.]
Wow, Loving it so far. Submitted a character, keep up this fanfic!
Just submitted a character
Great story so far, I'm eager to see what shall happen! And also I submitted my own character.
I'M SURPRISED THIS STORY HAS FANS but yes they have spoken lol :P I'll post the first part now, sorry I fell asleep.
Thank you!!
I will, and I hope you enjoy it (especially when I finally get around to adding your character!)
Cool! Thanks!
Thank you!! And thanks for submitting also!
(Just a reminder that "Rema" is AllThatRemains. :P Also, no voting for this part, sorry! The people have spoken. So this is part 1 of 2.)
You decide that first aid and medicines should be your first priority, so you fit as many useful items pertaining to that in your bag before moving on to your next priority, food and water. By the time you've finished packing those things, there's not a lot of room left, but you still manage to fit two rolls of duct tape, two flashlights, and 3 packets of batteries into the front pocket.
Once everyone is finished packing and 30 minutes has come and gone, you all move to the front door, preparing to open it and get out of dodge as fast as possible. This time the choice hasn't been left up to you - your uncle's already made the plan clear; you're all going to storm out the front door as quickly as you can and take out any dead that get to you before you get to the cars. The plan is basically just to move fast and watch each other's backs. Not the greatest plan of all time, but it'll work, you think. And it's not like you have many other options.
You've got a meat cleaver handy to chop any rioters with, and Jen's got one of your butcher knives. You've done your best to arm the others without any weapons with knives from your kitchen too - E.J. a bread knife, Jack a boning knife and Stephany a small paring knife (only for emergencies.)
As your uncle moves to the door, he pauses, turning to you. "Wait, Elias," he says. "Take this." He withdraws a small gun - a handgun of some sort, you think - from his belt and hands it over to you. "I've got my shotgun, and I'm a better shot with it anyway. You're going to need that."
"You know I don't know anything about guns," you try, but he shakes his head.
"I'm not going to hear it. It's simple - just point and pull the trigger. Breathe in to steady your hand when you do. You need to have one, even if it's just for emergencies."
"Okay," you sigh. You put the gun in your pocket, as you're pretty sure you're going to be handier with the cleaver, what with you never having shot a gun before.
Uncle Pun glances to all of you one by one, checking silently that you're all ready, and when no one objects, he opens the door. Immediately you're all face to face with the rioter you saw before out on the porch, and Thalia moves forward beside Pun to smash its head in with her bat. Two hits and it stops moving, and you all rush down the stairs into the driveway. There are two more creeps roaming there, in between the cars, and Dixie takes one out with her hatchet while Jack stabs the other in the head with his knife.
You all get in your respective cars - you, Dixie, and Jen in Uncle Pun's car and Stephany, E.J., Alice and Thalia in Jack's - and drive out of the neighborhood, Uncle Pun following behind Jack's truck.
As you drive south in silence, passing quite a few ghouls on your way, you notice traffic begin to get worse and worse; eventually, about 2 miles out from where you're at basically a standstill behind a line of other cars. About 5 minutes into this, your uncle curses quietly from the front.
"Traffic is really bad," Dixie comments from the passenger seat.
"Yeah," you agree. "If this is how bad it is just trying to get to Pam's Klub, I don't want to imagine how hard it would be to try and leave."
"It's because the news are telling everyone to evacuate, like E.J. said," Jen says. "Everyone and their grandmothers are trying to get out of the city right now. We could be here a while."
"We don't have a while," your uncle says, sounding displeased. "It's going to be dark soon."
As soon as he says that, a commotion from about 3 cars ahead of you gets your attention. Even through sealed windows, you can hear the screams of the car's passengers - there are multiple monsters at the car's windows and doors, trying desperately to get in. And you can tell it's only a matter of time before they do. "Shit!" Uncle Pun says.
"We can't stay here!" Jen murmurs, at the same time that Jack jumps out of his truck in front of you. He's rushing to the passenger door and grabbing Stephany, pulling her out in a near-panic, as Thalia, E.J. and Alice all hurry to your car.
You all exit the car as fast as possible and start off wordlessly away from the direction of traffic - but Jack stops, turning and rushing back to his truck. He pops open the trunk and retrieves something before slamming it - a bit too loudly, you think - and rushing back to the group.
"Thought this might be useful," he says, holding up a crowbar.
"Great," Thalia says. "Now we need to get out of here. Looks like Pam's Klub isn't a possibility."
"But where can we go?" Alice asks. There are a couple of creeps approaching from behind you guys, and you can tell you're not the only one who notices them.
"Anywhere but here!" Jen says. You break into a run, moving fast along the side of the road and scanning the buildings around you for somewhere safe to hide out as the others follow close behind you.
Eventually, Dixie stumbles and stops, panting, and you're all forced to wait beside her. The run - about a two or three minutes of running - seems to have tired her out, and you won't lie - you're a little winded too.
"I can't -- run anymore," she pants. "I'm not ... feeling too hot."
"You might have to run," Thalia says sharply as you spot three creeps coming towards you from your right. You grab your cleaver, preparing to fight, and see Alice tense up beside you, raising her gun.
As the first one reaches you, Alice shoots it in the chest - and it doesn't seem to do anything. She shoots it again, then a third time, all while it keeps coming, outstretched hands now less than a foot away from grabbing her.
Uncle Pun shoots it once in the head with his shotgun, and it crumples instantly to the ground. "Don't waste your bullets," he says. "It's the head or nothing. These things don't die easy."
Taking the advice to heart, you take a step forward towards the next one, then swing at it with your cleaver. It's a lot more difficult to cut through the skull than you anticipated, and though it falls limp against you, clearly dead, you have to tug a bit to pull out your weapon. By the time you've got it free, you glance around you to see that there are a whole lot more monsters now than you'd first seen, and they're all slowly enclosing upon all of your positions.
"Shit, how many of them are there?" E.J. growls as he kills one with his knife. You shake your head, disbelieving, and move to the next one, desperately fighting to keep yourself and the others alive. But they just keep coming. You aren't sure how much longer you're going to hold out.
One of them finally grabs you from behind, and you gasp as you struggle, unable to swing your cleaver to kill it. You're thrashing desperately to avoid getting chomped on, and then suddenly the grip on you is yanked away; you spin to see Jack has pulled the ghoul back and is smashing its head in with the crowbar he retrieved earlier.
"Thanks, man," you gasp as it falls down dead at your feet.
"Don't thank me yet," he replies frantically, turning back to scoop up Stephany, who had been huddled behind him, and start running towards a building on your left. "This way!" You glance back before following him, wanting to check that everyone is alright, and spot Alice struggling to fight off a rioter, unable to raise her gun enough to shoot it whilst she struggles. You dart over and stab the thing in the head, yanking your cleaver back out just before it falls dead and ushering Alice and the others with you. "Come on!"
You all run after Jack to the building, which you're slightly surprised to see is a bookstore. As you all skid to a stop in front of it, he explains himself; "Rema's family owns this bookstore -" you make a puzzled face at him; you'd never known that - "but the point is that the lights are still on." You raise an eyebrow, confused. "Someone's in here."
Since Jack's got his hands busy carrying his sister (who looks a little annoyed to be being carried like a sack of flour, despite the fear also in her eyes) you step forward and try to open the door - and it opens. Glancing to the others, you enter the store and walk carefully through the well-light hall, taking note of the shelves and shelves of books around you.
"Hello?" When a minute passes and no one answers, you let yourself untense a little, spinning to look at the others. Thalia, Uncle Pun and E.J. are pushing some of the chairs set up for reading to the door to barricade it, while Stephany, who has been set down by Jack, joins Alice and Jen as the three set off through the store, looking at the books. You're a little uneasy about them going off on their own, but you trust Alice to protect them if necessary, and even if she falls through, you're pretty sure Jen can hold her own.
"There sure were a lot of them out there," you say to Jack, shaking your head.
"Yeah, man, I know," he replies. "This is... it's worse than we thought, isn't it?"
"Maybe," you concede. "There are definitely a lot more 'rioters' than I thought there would be, at least."
"I'm starting to wonder if the government will even be able to fix this," he says, his tone cautious. You furrow your brow, about to reply, when Dixie does instead from a little farther behind you.
"Don't lose hope," she says. "I have faith in the government. All of this will be sorted out soon, you'll see." She smiles at the both of you, though you can't help feeling that the smile is somewhat weak.
"At the very least, they aren't going to give in without a fight," you add.
"Okay," he murmurs. "Hey, Eli. I'm going to go help your uncle and the others with blocking the door. Can you check on Stephany for me?"
"Sure, Jack," you say, raising one hand to wave as you start off through the store.
It takes you a few moments to find them, but eventually you do, among one of the nonfiction aisles.
"Elias, look at this!" Alice says to you, holding up a book on the topic of first aid.* "Don't you think it might come in handy?"
You're about to tell her that she won't have to worry about needing the information for long - as surely the military will roll through soon - when an unfamiliar voice cuts you off.
"It very well might," says the voice, and you all whip around to stare at a short, slender man standing at the end of the aisle. You're about to take a few steps back in apprehension - he did spook you - but then you spot the girl by his side, even shorter than he is (even shorter than Stephany!) and with long dark hair and green eyes. It's your friend Rema - one of the people who was supposed to meet up with you today.
"Rema!" you and Alice say at the same time, and though you attempt to move to her, Alice gets there first, hugging her friend.
"Hi, Alice," Rema says as they pull apart. "I'm glad you guys are okay."
"We're glad you're okay," you tell her, smiling in spite of yourself. "What happened? I mean, you never showed up at the meeting today..."
"Sorry," Rema apologizes. "I was here this morning, helping Cousin Mark with the stock. When he turned on the TV back in his office, he told me I should stay here. What with everything happening and all." You nod; that makes sense, you guess. "I would have called you, but my phone is dead. Are Jack and Aaron with you?"
"Jack is," you tell her. "We don't know about Aaron. He didn't show up either."
From beside her, the short man speaks up, smiling. "Well, you're all welcome to stay here in the store for as long as you need to." He glances at Alice. "I see you've found a book that interests you."
"Oh," she says sheepishly, eyes widening. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean -- I can put it back --"
"No," he laughs. "It's fine. Lord knows it's going to be boring waiting around here until the army comes through. And you're one of Rema's friends, so she can always ask you to give it back later."
As he finishes speaking, Jack's voice comes from behind you. "Eli? What's going on? I heard--"
The others are all behind him; he stops in his tracks as he looks from you to Rema and her cousin and back again. "Oh."
"I'm Markus Paulson," Rema's cousin says, voice friendly. "I was just telling your friends here that they can stay as long as they'd like. I know how crazy it is out there right now."
"Thank you," Thalia replies. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Thalia."
Everyone takes turns introducing themselves, and finally Markus motions for you all to follow him somewhere. "Come on," he says. "I've got a few more staying back in the office right now. You can meet each other."
TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT PART (sorry!)
Awesome job. Putting both parts together probably would be too big, so this was probably the best idea.
Can't wait to see what happens next!
You follow him and Rema back to the office, which is more spacious than you were anticipating, and immediately see three people sat on the floor. A fairly skinny woman with long mousy brown hair and blue eyes sits next to a tall, slender man with short brown hair; a third person, a man who looks to be about 30, sits a small ways away from them, fiddling around with a knife. The first two look to be intent on a book they're sharing, but they glance up as you enter, and then all three stand.
"I've brought some more guests," Markus says, and then you all begin your introductions all over again.
You learn that the tall man's name is Miguel Conroy, and mousy-haired woman is his girlfriend Gabrielle. The other man's name is AJ.
"AJ and E.J.," Markus comments with a laugh, shaking his head. "That's sure a coincidence."
"So what's brought you all here?" Gabrielle asks kindly and a little shyly.
"We were trying to get to the Pam's Klub down a ways," Thalia sighs. "But we didn't make it."
"Too many dead ones?" AJ asks.
"Yeah. It was just... impossible. It's chaos out there right now," she says, nodding.
"Are you all locals?"
"We are," you say, pointing to yourself, your uncle, Alice, Stephany, Jen, and Jack.
"We are too," E.J. says.
"I'm from Topeka," Dixie says. "Here for a few months on business."
"I'm sorry you happened to be here during this, then," Uncle Pun says, glancing sidelong at her.
"Why do you say that?" AJ asks. "Do you think this is just a local thing?"
"We haven't been able to reach any national news channels, but from what we've seen, this shouldn't go that far," Jack replies, though he looks a little skeptical himself. "It might just be centered around this town, or it might extend to the whole state. There's no way to know."
"I guess you're right," Miguel says. "If this were a national - or, heck, even global - thing, you think someone would have heard about it."
"Right," you mutter.
"So are you three local?" Alice asks AJ, Miguel and Gabrielle.
"We're not," Gabrielle tells her while gesturing to Miguel, still smiling. "Miguel and I were down here to see the aquarium, of all things. You know, that big one - Sea Life."
"You came all this way for an aquarium?" Jen asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Gabrielle really likes animals," Miguel laughs. "But especially fish. She's studying to be an aquaculturist."
"College students, then?" Thalia asks.
"Mmhmm," Gabrielle affirms. "We're taking a gap year, though, to 'see the world,' I guess!"
Before you can comment, Dixie stumbles a bit from beside you, and you rush to support her with an outstretched arm.
"Is she okay?" Gabrielle asks worriedly.
"I don't know," you say quietly, frowning. Dixie waves you away with an arm.
"No, no, I'm fine," she says. "Sorry, just got a little light-headed for a second."
"How's your wound feeling?" Alice murmurs, moving to the woman's side. "Maybe it's got an infection..."
"I'm fine," Dixie repeats. "I'm just tired. Don't worry about me."
"You should really rest," Gabrielle says. "I'm sure you'll feel much better once you've gotten some sleep." She moves away from Miguel's side and to Dixie's instead, putting an arm carefully around her waist. "Come with me, I can show you where Markus has set us up tonight."
"Okay," Dixie sighs, and Gabrielle beams at her, leading her away and chatting with her cheerfully as she does. You look around at the others, still frowning.
"Is she going to be alright?" Stephany asks in a small voice.
"Of course she is, Stephany," Jack assures her. "She's just tired. Speaking of... it's getting late. You--" He reaches out to tickle her sides - "--need to get in bed before the tickle monster gets you."
Stephany laughs a little, but pulls away eventually, frowning. "Jack, I'm too old for the tickle monster," she grumbles. "I'm 13."
"Nobody's too old for the tickle monster," Markus chuckles. "But either way, your brother has a point. It's getting dark out. How about we all go to bed? When we wake up, hopefully this whole thing will have been sorted."
"Sounds like as good an idea as any to me," you murmur.
The others all nod or speak words of agreement, so Markus gestures to Rema. "Rema, you can lead the other girls to where you're sleeping. Us boys can stay here in the office."
"Goodnight," you say to Jen and Alice as they turn to follow Rema out.
"Goodnight, Eli," Jen says. When the girls have left, the seven of you remaining all settle down onto an admittedly uncomfortable floor. You aren't complaining, though - after what you've seen today, you think you're all pretty lucky to have gotten out of it relatively unscathed. One night on a hard office floor can't be too bad in the long run.
Sighing, you let yourself drift off to sleep.
~~~
A shrill, terrified scream jerks you awake, and you bolt upright, glancing around. Jack has sat up, too, and you can see the others all stirring also.
Without thinking about it, you jump to your feet and rush out the door and towards where you think the scream was coming from. You make your way into a dark carpeted room with boxes upon boxes of what you assume are books - and what you see horrifies you.
One of those -- things -- has gotten inside, and it's on top of Gabrielle. She screams again as you watch it tear out a chunk of flesh from her shoulder and eat it; you can see that it isn't the first chunk it's eaten, either - she's bleeding heavily, and thrashing and struggling weakly, but it's got her firmly held down.
You immediately rush forward, realizing you left your cleaver in the other room - but the gun your Uncle Pun gave you is still in your pocket, so you remove it with a shaking hand, pointing at the creature -- you hesitate, realizing you've never shot a gun before. What if you miss and hurt someone else--?
Before you can decide to pull the trigger, you see Jen dart forward from where she had been fumbling for something on the ground, and then she stabs the monster straight through the head with her butcher's knife. Immediately, it falls limp on top of Gabrielle, and Jen yanks the knife back out and shoves it off of the other girl.
The lights turn on suddenly, and instantly you're confronted by a sight even more horrible than it was in the dark. Gabrielle is bleeding profusely from numerous wounds to her shoulders and her stomach, places where her flesh has simply been torn away.
You shudder and look away, unable to deal with what you're seeing - but you look directly at the creep that was eating her. You're shocked to realize that it's not just any creep - it's Dixie. Though her face is bloodied and ... different, the hair and clothes are enough to confirm it - as well as the wrap on her arm. You take a few frantic steps backward, reeling from the information.
"Gabrielle? Oh my god, Gabrielle!" Miguel shoves his way past you and drops to the ground beside her, eyes wide in horror. "Gabrielle, oh my god, honey, look at me--"
She's coughing, and glancing this way and that, but her eyes can't seem to focus on him. Jen moves to your side, looking just as horrified as you are, and as you glance around the room you can see that Jack has made his way to Stephany, shielding her from seeing what's happening, and Markus and Uncle Pun are standing in the doorway. You can see AJ and E.J. standing just behind them. Thalia, Rema and Alice are both in the corner of the room, and Thalia's up and with her hand still on her bat - obviously she had been ready to act, just as Jen had done. Alice is simply staring in shock, as is Rema. You can still hear Miguel sobbing and pleading with his girlfriend to be okay.
"How ... how did this happen?" Alice gasps from where she is sat, and you look at her, shaking your head. You can't imagine how it's even happened - one minute everything was fine, the next --
"The bite," Jack says quietly. "It was the bite."
"What?" you ask, turning to look at him.
"Dixie was bitten by one of those -- things. You said, it yourself, Alice... it could have been infected... and it was."
"Oh my god," Jen mutters from beside you.
"It's... it's the bite?" you ask, voice hollow.
Alice stares at you, her own eyes wide.
"That woman we saw in the store... she must have been bitten, too. But... you saw how fast she... turned... when she died..."
Wordlessly, you find yourself looking at Gabrielle again. Miguel is desperately trying to stop the bleeding, but his attempts are doing nothing. No one has gone to help him simply because it must have been as clear to everyone else as it was to you that Gabrielle wasn't making it out of this.
"Miguel..." you try, but he isn't listening.
Gabrielle coughs in his arms one last time and then falls still, dead. He stares at her for a second longer before gritting his teeth and burying his face into her neck.
No one is doing anything. Just staring in horror. But you remember what Alice was talking about. Clearly dying speeds the transformation up, and Gabrielle was certainly bitten...
No one is doing anything. You realize that there's a very real possibility that Gabrielle will come back... and you've got a gun. Uncle Pun gave you a gun.
You remember what Pun said to you earlier. The head or nothing.
You know what you have to do, but you aren't sure you can do it.
[Pull Miguel away, and tell everyone you all need to leave the room.]
[Get Jack to pull Miguel away, and shoot Gabrielle in the head.]
Gabrielle seemed so nice, but..
[Get Jack to pull Miguel away, and shoot Gabrielle in the head.]
Just submitted a character
I tend to stick with one character for these kind of things so.. yeah.
[Pull Miguel away, and tell everyone you all need to leave the room.]
[Get Jack to pull Miguel away, and shoot Gabrielle in the head.]
[Get Jack to pull Miguel away, and shoot Gabrielle in the head.]
[get jack to pull Miguel away! and shoot Gabrielle in the head]
[Get Jack to pull Miguel away, and shoot Gabrielle in the head.]
[Pull Miguel away, and tell everyone you all need to leave the room.]
We obviously know that the bite kill you, but at this point in the story we are not sure if the bite is the reason of the transformation so we have to ensure before we do something wrong...
[Get Jack to pull Miguel away, then shoot Gabrielle in the head.]
[Get Jack to pull Miguel away, and shoot Gabrielle in the head.]
"Jack," you mumble. "Come... help me." You've raised the gun now, and he glances from it to you and back again before he seems to realize what you intend to do. Turning to Stephany, you hear him speak to her softly - "don't look, okay?" - and then move to Miguel, reluctantly grabbing at the man. "Miguel, you need to ... stay back," he tries.
But Miguel is frantic now, and considering he's so much bigger than Jack, it's easy for him to pull away from the other's grip. "No! No!" You let out a shaky sigh, but before you can do anything, your Uncle Pun has moved from the doorway to help grab Miguel.
"She's going to turn, son," he tells Miguel gently. "If we don't stop it."
You step forward around them and look at the poor woman, looking so small where she's lying on the ground. It doesn't seem real - all the blood and the horror you just witnessed... but it is. Two women are dead.
Shakily, you raise the gun and point it at her head. You're trembling so badly that your aim is probably horrible - but you remember what your
uncle told you, and you draw in a deep breath to steady your hand.
BLAM!
Her brains spatter against the floor. At least you know she's not becoming one of them... You hear Miguel give a dry sob from behind you.
You feel sick. The first time you've ever had to shoot a gun and it was - it was this.
Shutting your eyes tightly, you turn away and stumble backwards until your back is up against a stack of boxes. You're trying desperately to calm yourself down, but it's hard. You're still in shock over what you just had to do.
A timid hand on your shoulder makes you flinch, eyes flying open, but when you look, it's just Alice come to comfort you. There are tears in her eyes, and she hugs you gently.
A moment passes and then suddenly loud thuds from the front of the store interrupt your little 'moment.' Surprised, you pull away from Alice and glance around you; everyone else looks just as shocked, besides Miguel, who is simply cradling a lifeless Gabrielle in his arms with a hollow look on his face.
"What's happening?" Stephany asks worriedly.
Shaking his head, Uncle Pun gets up to leave the room, and, warily, you start after him. In the front, you can spot a good deal of the rioters just outside the glass doors, pounding on them mindlessly as they try to get in to attack you. There are various shelves and objects pushed in front of the doors from earlier to barricade them, but you can tell they won't hold forever - especially since the doors are glass.
"Oh shit," you breathe to your Uncle. He simply nods once to you and then leads you both back into the other room.
"There are a bunch of them outside the front doors," he explains to the others once you're back. "Must've heard the gunshot."
"They're trying to get in," you say. "I don't know how long the doors will keep them out."
"Is it still dark out?" Jen asks. You nod.
"We need to leave now," Thalia says. "Before more of them show up."
"Hold on," E.J. says. "If it's still dark outside, maybe we should wait. Wouldn't it be better to leave when we actually can see what we're doing?"
"Maybe if we wait, things'll quiet down outside," Markus suggests.
"That's not going to happen--" Jen starts to say, but Rema cuts her off.
"Do you really think ... he ..." She's looking at Miguel, who still hasn't looked up from where he's gently rocking his girlfriend's body. "... that he's ready to leave right now? Maybe Cousin Mark's right and we should wait."
They all continue to debate it as you sigh and back up against the wall. You need to speak your own mind on the issue... and maybe you'll be able to convince everyone one way or the other.
[ "Thalia and Jen are right. We need to leave now. There's no telling how long until they break in." ]
[ "E.J. and Markus are right. We should wait until things quiet down and we can actually see what we're doing before trying to leave." ]