Subject: "Of course it is,"
Author:
Posted on: 2010-09-29 16:30:00 UTC
said Galenfea bitterly, hitching up her backpack. "Any convenient way of getting there that doesn't go past the cemetery? Let's walk and talk; this place is starting to wig me out."
She crept out of the alleyway, keeping close to the wall and looking all around for anything else - bot or zombie - that might attack them.
"Let's. We should be careful how we phrase our request, though. That guy's looking more stressed-out by the minute."
"All right, let's see if we can find him. He really needs a deputy of some sort, but I don't really know anyone well enough to suggest someone who might be capable."
Edward was in the middle of directing some newcomers to set up camp off the chalk roads, so Galenfea and SttQ waited until he'd finished. At length, he turned to them. Galenfea thought that he really did look tired, and a little wobbly on the AK47 he was still using as a crutch, but she didn't mention it.
"We were wondering, given that we're really short on first aid supplies, if it would be a good idea for me to go and retrieve my first aid kit from my house. It's much better stocked than the one I've been using, but I didn't have time to grab it on the way out." Or sense, she mentally added. "I got here without running into any bots, and I'm pretty sure I can find the way back there. If it's going to be a while before the Ypurs arrive, we may need it."
exhausted as he was, had not quite been able to process Galenfea's words, SttQ decided to summarize their request.
"Can Galenfea and I go get a bigger first-aid kit at her house, please, sir?" she asked, giving her best blue-eyed-puppy impression.
Edward shook his head a little.
"Sorry," he said, "It's been a long day." He looked from one to the other. "Are you sure you can get back without being caught?"
Galenfea nodded. "As sure as I can be," she said. "There's only a couple of us, we can be sneaky."
He thought for a moment, then nodded. "All right, but be careful - if you meet trouble, come straight back."
Galenfea grinned and nodded. "We will."
said SttQ, "let's move out. You lead the way, I'll cover you. And maybe, if my house isn't too far from yours, we can also go there for more shotgun ammo. My thirty shells won't last very long."
that would be easier to carry than the box alone, and she had a feeling she'd need to keep her hands free. Then she and SttQ went over to the door. Galenfea peered out first, the image of two orcish arrows slamming into the wall near Boromir's head going through her mind's eye in a flash. She couldn't see anything, though.
"Come on," she breathed, slipping out. SttQ closed the door behind her; it looked just like part of the wall from the outside, and Galenfea hoped they'd be able to find it again. Together, they headed off down a small, ominously silent side-street. Several of the houses had broken windows and doors, and Galenfea eyed the dark holes uneasily, aware of how easily bots might be lying in ambush.
SttQ didn't like this. It was too quiet. She and Galenfea had been dodging in and out of alleys for fifteen minutes now, and they hadn't seen a single live spambot. Or Ypur, for that matter. Was the invasion over? If so, where were the people? While there had been many Boarders in the bunker, the city's population was a lot bigger than that. So, again, where was everyone?
Not a sound could be heard, save that of the two girls' steps as they ran across the deserted street to yet another alleyway, and the croaking of the crows circling high over their heads. It was uncanny.
whispered Galenfea. She was also unnerved by the silence and emptiness, and the crows circling overhead. Her friends said she'd read too many fantasy books at an impressionable age, but she'd always been unnerved by circling birds, especially carrion birds. What did bots do to people they caught, anyway?
She shuddered and put the thought from her head.
Suddenly she heard something other than the sound of her own feet and SttQ's. It sounded like another pair of feet, moving slowly but purposefully along the road at the end of their alley. Her heart leaped into her throat and she flattened herself back against the wall.
"You hear that, or am I going crazy?" she whispered.
I hear it too," SttQ whispered back. She pressed herself against the wall next to Galenfea. Tiny pinpricks of fear were traveling up her spine. The rhythm of those steps... She couldn't shake the feeling that she'd heard something like it before. In a movie, maybe...
Then it dawned on her. "Oh, shi... Galenfea, get behind me!"
SttQ jumped to the middle of the alleyway, planted her feet firmly on the ground and raised her gun. If what she feared was true, she was going to nail the damn thing right between the eyes.
wishing for a moment that she had a sword. Then she remembered that she was a danger to herself and others with a LARP sword, let alone a real one. So when SttQ raised her shotgun, all Galenfea could really do was put her hands over her ears and wait for the bang. Hopefully, whatever was out there was alone.
A controversial
Paused. And looked towards them. Turned. And began shuffling in their direction.
SttQ took a second to aim, and squeezed the trigger. The report of the gun thundered through the dead silence.
She hit the thing in the middle of its forehead. It didn't fall backwards like a living human would. Instead, its legs spasmed, and it pitched to the alley wall, its body twitching and jerking as it slid down to the trash-littered concrete. The thing's tongue lolled out horribly for a moment, and then it was still.
Slowly, with shaking hands, SttQ lowered her gun, and turned, ashen-faced, to her companion. Her mouth felt bone-dry as she said, "Galenfea, I think that was a zombie."
was "What?"
She bit her lip, looking down at the dead zombie, feeling sick at the sight; taking a shotgun blast to the face did not make for a very attractive corpse.
She had always lived in fear of being thrust into a scenario that was likely to turn into a horrible movie, but up until this point the closest she'd come was having to room with four cheerleaders at her college orientation week.
"Oh, Hell, no," she muttered. "I don't know the zombie movie tropes, but I'm sure this is one." She looked up at SttQ. "Do you think this is what's happened to everyone?"
to try and fight down the panic Galenfea's question had sparked. This was not the time for that.
"That," she said, "would explain the broken doors and windows we've been seeing, but I'd... rather not think about what's going on in those houses. We gotta move fast. Either we do what we set out to do, and get your medkit and more ammo for my gun, plus some extra weapons, or we race right back to the bunker and alert everyone. I know I'd go for the first option, but I'm not going to play captain here. What do you think we should do?"
"Well... the bunker's secure. It'd take a while for anything that wasn't armed with explosives or the like to get in there, and they'd make a lot of noise doing it." She looked around. "I move we keep going - we're not far off now anyway, we might as well get what we came here for. How much further is it to your house?"
said SttQ, "so it shouldn't take us too long to get there. You probably know the street; it's the one with the city cemetery." She paused, realization setting in. "Oh, crap."
said Galenfea bitterly, hitching up her backpack. "Any convenient way of getting there that doesn't go past the cemetery? Let's walk and talk; this place is starting to wig me out."
She crept out of the alleyway, keeping close to the wall and looking all around for anything else - bot or zombie - that might attack them.
and fell into step with her. As she talked, she occasionally shot a glance over her shoulder.
"There is a fairly easy way to get there, but it'll take a bit longer. If we turn right at the end of this street, then left at Simon's Soup Shop, it's about a quarter of a mile to the videogame store. There, we turn into Beech Avenue (you know, the one with all the oak trees), and after half a mile, we'll reach the zoo. If we go into the alley that runs next to and behind the zoo, we'll be able to enter Mr. Macy's back garden by breaking away some boards; they're practically rotten, so that shouldn't be a problem. Then, we traverse a few back gardens (don't worry, the walls separating them are fairly low) till we reach mine. And yes, I did remember to bring my keys. This way, we won't even have to see the cemetery."
"All right," she said. "I live down a side street from Beech, so that's not far out of our way anyway. I'm definitely prepared to climb over and under some fences to avoid having to go past the cemetary during a zombie attack."
She peered nervously around another corner before darting across an alleyway. The sun was beginning to get low in the sky and the alleyways and narrower side-streets now looked almost as threatening as the empty doors and windows of the houses. Still, it was probably best to keep to the sides of the road - less chance of being seen themseves, and potential hiding places for zombies and bots were also potential hiding places for her and SttQ.
As they reached the end of the street, though, she paused at the sound of a metallic scraping from around the corner on the right.
She ducked behind a nearby mailbox, pulling Galenfea along with her. Resting her gun on the mailbox, she sighted along it, and asked in a hurried whisper, "Galenfea, quick. Where do spambots have their CPUs? In the head, chest, belly? Quickly now, I need to know what to aim for."
racking her brains. CPU... spambot CPU...
"In the torso, but I don't know exactly where..." she said.
said SttQ. "In that case it's probably..."
At this point, the spambot turned the corner. The bullet hit it in a particular spot, and it went down in a shower of sparks, electronic voice fading. "WANT CAaannnndyyyyy..."
SttQ got up. "Figures. CPU was where the heart would have been. Damned unoriginal pieces of crap. All right, girl," turning to Galenfea, "lead on."
and ducked around the mailbox, stepping carefully around the still-smoking remains of the bot, in case it should either move or explode. She wasn't sure which prospect scared her more.
Again, he hitched up her backpack and headed at a fast walk towards the sign for Simon's Soup Shop, which she could see further down the road.
"Different variety?" she asked, jerking her head back towards the bot. "The original ones wanted pictures."
answered SttQ. "Must be a new model. When I was running for the bunker this morning, I swear I could hear a whole group of bots chanting something about candy." She looked up and frowned. "Shouldn't the street lamps be on by now?"
She'd not noticed until SttQ mentioned it, but it was indeed getting dark, and she'd have expected at least a dim glow as the street lights started to come on.
"Power must be out," she said, wishing she had her torch. Oh well, she could grab it when she got her first aid kit, as long as they weren't too much longer getting there. "How robust are the power lines around here? I can't imagine anything made of metal would have taken the risk of attacking them."
certainly wouldn't," came the gloomy reply. "However, the power station always has people working in it, no? And for some of the things around here, people are tasty treats. No station workers means no electricity, and no electricity means no light." She shook her head. " Damn those zombies."
to be highly automated," said Galenfea thoughtfully, "But I supppose that sort of backup wouldn't run forever - it's been hours since this started - and an attack on the power station may also have caused damage to the automated system." She shivered, squinting down the road. Now that night had started to fall, it was getting very dark very quickly. "Zombies... zombies are more active at night, aren't they?"
I'll try and get something good up today.
A controversial
[I was just afraid you'd think I'd abandoned this RP, just because I'd started up a new one.]
Finally, she said, "It... would make sense. These things are nearly brainless, but not completely. They're predators, and all predators instinctively know it helps not to be seen. So, yeah, you're probably right. But as long as we keep away from too-dark corners, we should be fine. After all, these things are slow and anything but subtle. We'll always hear them coming."
even more so."
Galenfea squinted. At least without artificial light her eyes were adjusting well to the dark. She could see the shape of the sign she was heading for and moved out into the middle of the road to keep away from doorways, broken windows and alleyways. SttQ walked beside her, shotgun at the ready. Galenfea didn't like guns as a rule - came of growing up in a country where they were all kinds of illegal, she guessed - but she had to admit that she was glad of this one.
Fortunately, they made it to the soup shop without incident. Galenfea had never seen it dark. Somehow that was creepier than anything else.
at the soup shop. Suddenly, she said, "You know, just yesterday evening, I was in there with a couple of friends, celebrating a birthday. God, I hope they're safe. We always used to hang out there. Seems like years ago now. Weird what a day can... Wait a minute." She stopped and turned towards the shop, all senses on the alert. "Did that door just open a little?"
The dim light might have been playing tricks with her eyes, but she thought that the dark space where the door was ajar did widen a little. On the other hand, when she looked at another shadow for comparison she thought the same - maybe it really was just the light?
She looked harder, leaning forwards a little.
"I'm not sure," she said quietly, but looked around for a weapon, just in case, and started to edge past the shop towards the sidestreet on the left. Weapon... weapon... even a stout stick would do. Surely zombies would go down the same as anything else if beaten about the head, and even bots must have some breakable electronics.
They were even with the door now, and Galenfea shot it a nervous look. Maybe it was just the dark playing tricks with her, but the opening did look a little bigger.
At that moment she also heard the squeak of a badly-oiled hinge from the other side of the street and froze, hissing a swear word through her teeth.
"What now?" she whispered, still staring at the soup shop. "Hide? Run? Panama?"
((PS: 'Panama' is a Clive Cussler reference, in case you're curious. :P))