Nothing Left to Fear || Closed

  • salander.

    salander. (150)

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    One of these days letters are gonna fall
    From the sky telling us all to go free
    But until that day I'll find a way to let everybody know
    That you're coming back, you're coming back for me


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    Sarah Rollins || Brendan Lindenburg

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    Abigail Mann || Kennedy Dawkins

    'Cause even though you left me here
    I have nothing left to fear
    These are only walls that hold me here
    Hold me here
    June 21st, 2017 at 03:24am
  • salander.

    salander. (150)

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    Brendan had been running for what seemed like hours now, not being able to shake the things that tirelessly seemed to chase him. They seemed unaffected by the cold—unaffected by anything really. He didn’t know if they were alive or dead, didn’t know what they were(he knew they were at one time humans, but the similarities stopped there), and didn’t know if they would ever stop. The cool night air was seizing at his chest, climbing up his wind pipe, and his breath was coming in quick, short bursts as he pumped his legs as hard as he possibly could. Last he checked there were two or three of those things behind him, but he hadn’t had the luxury of looking over his shoulder in a while. His sneakers pounded at the pavement, coming up on a cross street and realizing there were two of these once-humans charging for him.

    He made a hard right turn down the cross street, realizing that he was in some sort of subdivision and his eyes frantically searched the homes for any indication of shelter. He spotted one with a front door that was wide open and pushed himself even harder to reach it. Brendan trampled through the front yard, stomped hard on the dead flowers in the flower beds, and managed to vault up onto the porch. Swiftly, he entered the house, slamming and locking the door behind him. He took only a few steps away before he heard the barrage of fists and bodies against the barrier. With wide eyes, he stared at it, hoping it held. He soon heard the roar of an engine pass by and the sounds of those things faded away. His leaned forward, hands on his knees as he gasped in desperate breaths of air. Brendan hadn’t run that hard since track in high school and he could tell that he was severely out of shape.

    Zombies. That’s what the news had called it while they were still broadcasting, but Brendan was having a hard time accepting that word. Zombies were just urban legends, the subject of movies both bad and good, and the stuff of comic books. The moment he let himself believe they were real was the moment he had to accept that his world had been thrown headfirst into a horror movie.
    Bang. Bang. Bang. Abby could hear them banging on her apartment door as if they knew she was huddled within. Their groans filled her with fear as she stared at the flimsy wooden door, wishing that she’d had the money to move into a place that had the funds to provide their tenants with nicer facilities. She’d always been concerned about the door, knowing that if someone wanted to break in, it’d only be too easy. That fear was coming to fruition as she feared at any moment the fiberboard door would splinter and she’d find herself at the mercy of however many zombies were at the other side of the door.

    These zombies were different than the ones that she’d indulged on a passing whim. Those “If the zombie apocalypse happened now, what would I do?” sort of questions. These zombies didn’t lumber and weren’t slow. These zombies didn’t eat people, they just bludgeoned them to death with their fists and other body parts. These zombies looked just like humans, not some Thriller music video rejects. Abby had been in her apartment when the call came for everyone to seek shelter. Cop car, fire truck, and ambulance sirens had blared up and down the streets outside of the apartment building all night and when dawn broke, it seemed the emergency services had reached their limit. Buses weren’t running. Businesses locked their doors tight. The only living souls out on the street soon found themselves swarmed. Abby knew this because she’d watched it all happen from her window.

    Her heart leapt into her throat at the sound of crackling wood and she hopped up from her kitchen floor, socks slipping slightly on the laminated flooring. Her gaze never left the door as she felt around blindly behind her. Her hand rested on the knife block behind her and yanked the first knife out that her hand met. She was pleased to find she’d picked the biggest chef’s knife to use, thought she didn’t know how effective it’d be. Knives meant close quarter fighting and she wanted to keep her distance as much as possible. The door let out a loud crack and she squeezed her eyes shut, hot tears trailing down her cheeks at the thought that was running through her mind: Its fight or die now. No third option now.
    June 23rd, 2017 at 12:39am
  • allison hendrix.

    allison hendrix. (100)

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    Sarah leaned her back against the wall, knees drawn to her chest and baseball bat in hand as she tried to get some sleep. It was difficult. The air was freezing and it was hard to get some sleep when there were bodies shuffling outside. The occasional scream would sound in the inky black, and would make sleep impossible. The last time she’d gotten a decent sleep was before the world had gone to hell. The world had gone to hell and she’d made the mistake of wanting to go back home because it was safe and home was home. It was possibly the worst idea she’d ever had. She’d made it as far as the first suburban neighborhood she’d come across before she realized just how awful her line of thinking had been. Cities meant people and people meant zombies.

    It still struck her as weird. There were zombies. Zombies existed and had killed and were killing hundreds of thousands of people. For a moment, she thought back to college and the late night, half drunk discussions of their imaginary zombie apocalypse teams. Who would be good in an apocalypse, how they’d survive, all of it. When it came down to it, however, none of it had mattered. Her friends were scattered across the country, each working their own jobs. When the news had hit, the group chat had lit up. Not about their fantasized teams, but trying to keep track of who had died. One by one, the group chat grew smaller and smaller until phone lines had gone down. Sarah’s chest ached at the memory.

    There was a sound from the downstairs of the house she’d taken refuge in. She’d slipped through the backdoor earlier, cutting up the steps and barricading herself in an office. Her fingers wrapped around the grip of the bat, pulse pounding in her ears. She stood up, creeping along the floor and trying to avoid any loud sounds. She found the staircase and stepped down it, slow and surefooted. Shit. She’d forgotten to check the front of the house. Stupid, she berated herself. Once she got to the main floor, her grip tightened and she rounded the corner. There was a figure, bent over and panting. Her pulse picked up.

    “Don’t move.”
    Kennedy Dawkins was going to die. He’d accepted that. He’d made fun of that movie, Zombieland, with the opening about the guy who’d been so preoccupied with video games that he hadn’t realized the apocalypse was going on until some hot girl had showed up and turned into a zombie right on his couch. Sure, Kennedy’s story was a little different, but it ended up the same. Stuck fending off a zombie in his apartment because he’d laughed at the news stories and called it fear mongering. Instead of being smart about it and stocking up on food and weapons, all he’d done was run to the liquor store and buy some rum and bourbon. He had his father’s old revolver stashed in his closet, a couple boxes of bullets shoved into his ‘apocalypse bag’. But of course, he had none of it on him when the shit hit the fan.

    Instead, Kennedy James Dawkins decided to be kind to his neighbor and let the old man in. Within thirty minutes, said old man was lunging at him, teeth bared and nails digging into Kennedy’s arm. Kennedy had grabbed the closest thing to him - a vase - and slammed it over the man’s head, kicking at his chest. He scrambled to get up, launching himself over his couch and into the hallway of his tiny apartment. He dove into his bedroom, kicking the door closed and flicking the lock shut. He ran to his closer, grabbing his bag and anything of use lying around. There wasn’t much - a pair of jeans, a t shirt, a half empty bottle of bourbon, and two half empty water bottles. He shoved it all into his backpack before realizing that he should probably grab the gun. He fished that out as well, hand shaking as pounding started in on his bedroom door.

    He ran over to his window, suddenly praising the man who’d built the building for adding a fire escape. He shoved the pane up and climbed out, looping one leg over the window sill as the pounding on his bedroom door grew louder. He tugged the pane down once he was out and started down the fire escape, taking the steps two at a time. He was three floors down from his apartment when he spotted motion out of the corner of his eye. He whipped to the right, gun trained on the window when he saw her. A woman. A woman crying and holding a kitchen knife. He thought back to Zombieland, and the main character’s number one rule - don’t be a hero. He’d never seen the end of the movie, but he figured that the main character died because he tried to be a hero and was an idiot. He looked down to the miraculously empty alleyway beneath him, and back to the crying woman. “Fuck me,” he muttered under his breath.

    Kennedy leaned over and pounded against the window, motioning for her to come towards him. “Come on,” he called, the urgency in his voice apparent. “You need to come with me right now if you don’t want to die.”
    June 23rd, 2017 at 05:00am
  • salander.

    salander. (150)

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    Brendan could feel the slightly warmer air of the home burning at the inside of his throat and lungs as he desperately tried to suck in more air. His heart was hammering in his chest, his legs were cramping up already, and his fingers were numb from the cold. There were a few more thuds at the door behind him before the house fell silent. For the first time in what had seemed like hours, everything seemed still and he had a moment to let it all sink in. His mind wondered to where his family was, if they were set on surviving like he was. He wondered if he would ever be able to see them again.

    He jumped suddenly when he heard a voice, too caught up in trying to catch his breath to notice anything else going on around him. His head shot up and he took a quick step back as he righted himself quickly. His eyes took in the woman that stood just to the side of him, studying her closely. She’d spoken, which meant she wasn’t one of them, but that didn’t mean just because she wasn’t one of those things that he was necessarily safe. Next, his eyes took note of the bat in her hands and he slowly lifted his up in surrender. Brendan wanted to let her know that he wasn’t a threat, that he held no weapons of his own.

    “I was just,” he started breathlessly, pausing for a moment to suck in a deep breath of air, “I was just trying to find someplace safe.” His chest was rising and falling hard as he still fought to catch his breath. He forced himself to breath in through his nose and out through his mouth, like he’d learned back in high school track. He kept his gaze on her, watching for any inkling that she was going to charge at him or that she immediately wanted him to leave. “I didn’t know this was anyone’s home,” he said, immediately thinking that she was an angry homeowner that was mad he was intruding.

    “I promise, if you just give me a few moments to catch my breath, I’ll leave,” he told her honestly, hands still up by his head.
    Abby ran the back of her hand over her cheeks, clearing away her tears though she they were pathetically replaced by more. She had never been a stalwart sort of person, able to face fear or anything anxiety-inducing easily. Honestly, throughout her life, she’d been a terribly shy person; the kind of person who was constantly chastising herself for not having more of a backbone. Now that she was faced with her own death, she felt weaker and more scared than ever. Even if she had a knife, she knew that there was a chance she wouldn’t even use it or drop it out of fear.

    Swallowing hard, she started scooting down the line of her counter, not knowing where she was going. There was only one way in and one way out of her apartment. Perhaps if she locked herself in the bathroom and waited there it would make things a little easier. Maybe someone would come by her apartment and distract the zombies from wanting to attack her and go after them. She frowned at that thought, knowing that she didn’t want anyone else to die, especially not for her sake. The sudden pounding at her kitchen window had her jumping and letting out a sharp shriek. Her head spun to face him, loose curly hair whipping around her face for a moment as she brought her gaze to his.

    Her expression crumbled for a moment, wondering who the guy outside her window was. She turned back to the door as it began to bow inward, a clear sign she only had moments to get out. Throwing the knife aside, she charged toward the window and threw it open. She pulled herself through the window and onto the fire escape, fingers clumsily trying to jam the window shut as much as possible behind her. The moment she got outside, she was immediately met with the cold and she drew in a sharp breath of air at the contrast. She was just in leggings, an oversized sweater, and some fluffy woolen socks—definitely not dressed for the occasion. She drew in a deep breath of air as she wrapped her arms around herself, taking just a moment or two to look over the man before the sound of her door finally caving in brought her mind back to the moment at hand.

    Abby immediately began to run down the stairs, hands floating just above the railing in case she slipped in her socks and needed to catch herself.
    June 24th, 2017 at 12:17am
  • allison hendrix.

    allison hendrix. (100)

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    Sarah looked for any possible sign of a weapon on him, specifically a gun, that was within his reach. It was like the second everything had been declared an emergency, people just started turning on one another like there wasn’t enough to deal with. She let herself relax the minimal amount when it looked as though he wasn’t going to be able to shoot her. She still kept her grip around the bat tight, even with his hands up. She quirked a brow at how out of breath he was. It might have been a small miracle that he’d managed to get this far without being turned.

    “Oh, it’s not my home,” she said quickly, unsure as to why she wanted to make that clear. It’s not like it would have made a difference if it was her house. Or maybe it would have. Everywhere that she’d taken refuge had been empty of homeowners or others just making camp for the night. The quiet in the house made her feel uneasy. She stole a glance behind her, as though a zombie would appear out of nowhere and turn here then and there. She looked back to the man in front of her, cocking a brow at his next words. “Where exactly do you plan on going? It’s freezing and it’s dark out.”

    Slowly, she let the bat fall to her side. She’d seen enough horror movies to know that trusting anyone right from the start was a horrible idea, but she figured that if worse came to worse, she’d be able to take him. She stepped slowly towards the window, lifting the curtain to the side just enough to see through. She jolted when a stray zombie passed by. She kept almost deathly still, her heart pounding in her ears as she let the curtain fall back down painstakingly slow. She turned back to the man, shaking her head slowly at him. “They’re more active at night. You’d be turned within minutes if you left now.” She gripped the bat tight in her hands as she watched him.

    “The house is big enough. You can stay here if you like,” she offered, humanity winning out over logic.
    Kennedy winced at her shriek. He probably should have thought that over, a shot of guilt jabbing through his stomach. But then again, he was pretty sure that in the long run, it really didn’t matter when it was between her shrieking or her dying. He moved to try to get the window open, but suddenly she had it open and was pulling herself through. He jumped back, making sure that she had enough room to get out. He stared at her as she stared at him, opening his mouth to say something but instead motioning for her to move. It was probably a good thing that he kept quiet, considering that the only words that were coming to mind would have had him quoting Sarah Connor.

    He hesitated as she started down the metal stairs, glancing to the window before taking a step towards it and tugging it down. It was hard to do from the outside, but with two sharp tugs, it came crashing down. He caught a glimpse of the zombies - four, at least, - stumbling through her kitchen. He ducked down and followed after the young woman, praying to whatever heavenly being was listening that neither of them died before they got to the alleyway. His gaze kept moving between her, the stairs, and the narrow spot below them. There was a possibility that they could brake into someone else’s apartment, but it was risky. Best case scenario, it’s empty and has provisions, but they’d still be stuck with an eventual zombie horde intent on spreading their virus. Or eating their brains. With all the adrenaline racing through his system, he was finding it hard to remember just what the news had said.

    “You got a way out of here? A car or something?” He questioned, holding out on the hope that she might have a vehicle or something. The metal of the gun brushed against his other hand, and it felt freezing. Shit, he’d just remembered how cold it actually was out. If she didn’t have a car, they needed to find somewhere to crash. Apartment buildings were out of the question. They were in a residential area, which meant that their best bet was a home. A storefront might be possible, but he didn’t want to count on it.

    “I’m Kennedy, by the way. Take a left once you hit the ground.”
    June 24th, 2017 at 05:20am
  • salander.

    salander. (150)

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    Brendan swallowed hard as he slowly felt his breathing return to somewhat normal, pulse still pounding hard at his temples. If he’d thought about it now, knowing that this was the way things would take a turn, he probably would have focused more on his endurance training than just working out to keep in shape. A heavy breath of air let him as she mentioned that it wasn’t her house, glad that she wasn’t at least a protective homeowner. Now, if this was some sort of safe hold for her, he didn’t deny that she may try to chase him away on mere premise that she’d established herself here before him.

    He eyed her carefully, keeping his clear blue eyes on the bat she held for a few long moments. He paused for a moment as she questioned him, shaking his head a bit. “If you’re going to give me to die at the hands of another human or one of them, I’ll hedge my bets out there with them,” he said honestly. “They at least don’t have bats,” he added with a poignant glance to the weapon at her hand. A breath of relief left him as she lowered her bat, but he was still on edge. He didn’t trust her. He didn’t think he’d trust anyone for a long time because of the terror that faced them just outside the front door.

    Slowly, he dropped his hands back to his sides, not making any sudden movements for fear that she’d change her mind and take a crack at him with that bat. He kept his hands from near his pockets, stiffening a bit when he noticed that she’d stiffened up dramatically. Brendan strained his ears a bit and heard steady footsteps outside of the house. His eyes widened a bit as he stared over at her. When she finally returned her gaze to his, he still wore a hurried and slightly anxious look, like he didn’t know exactly what she was going to do. “Don’t you think I know that?” He asked her, brow furrowing slightly. “I’ve been running for miles now with a few of them on my tail. It’s like…it’s like they don’t get tired like us humans do anymore. I just saw this door open and took an opportunity to utilize the safety of the house.” He paused for a moment, shaking his head a bit. “I don’t know how much longer I would have lasted out there.”

    Brendan’s gaze swooped around the dark house, straining his ears again to listen in and see if he could hear anyone in any of the other rooms. “Have you checked this place? Made sure there aren’t one of those things hiding away in a closet somewhere?” He asked, shooting her a careful look.
    The metal of the fire escape was cold against her feet as she nearly flew down the stairs, feet barely touching one stair before the next stair was taken. Abby’s hands were trembling uncontrollably, whether from the cold or fear, she wasn’t sure. Glancing over her shoulder to the man who'd undoubtably just saved her life, she paused for a moment before continuing to keep up the momentum of going down the stairs. “I have a car, but the keys are in the apartment,” she told him, breath pluming up in front of her as she reached the last platform of the fire escape. “I just watched a few Youtube videos on how to hot wire cars and pick locks…for what it’s worth,” she added softly, knowing that she was probably going to turn up to be more of a liability to this guy more than someone to help him.

    She hit an icy patch on the metal rungs of the fire escape as she stepped over to the weighted ladder and her footing gave for a moment. A soft noise of surprise left her as her hands immediately reached out and gripped onto whatever they could find. Abby let a out a shaky sigh as she gathered herself, shoving the ladder down as quickly as she possibly could. Once it hit the ground, she shot a glance skyward to make sure that they weren’t being followed before quickly maneuvering down the ladder.

    “Abby,” she introduced herself hurried manner. Once her feet hit the ground, she realized that her toes were starting to freeze and she was quickly losing the feeling in her feet altogether. She glanced around worriedly, trying to make sure that none of those zombies were going to be following them and took a left like Kennedy had advised. She hoped he knew what he was doing, because she definitely didn’t. Abby didn’t even have a moment to spare for questioning anything, she was just concerned on blindly following.

    “Do you know where we’re going?” She called out as she walked hurriedly down the sidewalk, eyes peeled for the next threat to come out of nowhere and try to attack them. She suddenly felt very vulnerable; no shoes, no weapon, and out in the open, empty street.
    June 24th, 2017 at 07:01pm
  • allison hendrix.

    allison hendrix. (100)

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    Sarah rolled her eyes at him, even though he was right. If it had been her that had barged in to some house only to find somebody else there, she’d prefer to try against the zombies rather than someone that could actually think. She felt a little annoyed with herself for offering him the safety so quickly. Just because he hadn’t yet attacked didn’t mean that he wouldn’t. It wasn’t just the zombies that had become so savage. Even though she hadn’t traveled that far in an attempt to make it home, she’d still seen far too much. It didn’t matter how much she needed food, she was going to avoid any and all grocery stores for the rest of her life after what she’d witnessed.

    “I’m just saying,” she shrugged. She tried to hear any strange noises coming from outside, but it was silent. The zombie had just kept on going, then. “They’re probably not going to get tired. If they’ve lost most of their brain functions, they might not be able to feel pain or exhaustion. So they just… Keep going.” She frowned at the thought. Maybe it was something else, Maybe their all consuming rage overrode any other thing, so it wasn’t that they didn’t feel it. They just didn’t care. “A couple of idiots were making too much noise awhile back, and drew a lot of them out. It wasn’t this bad earlier.”

    Sarah thought back to earlier. She’d slipped through the backdoor, listened for any noises, then she’d hightailed it up the stairs and barricaded herself in the first room that she’d come across. Which had been incredibly dumb, now that she was thinking about it. “Ummm, no,” she admitted, ducking her head. “It’s been pretty quiet, but all I know is that the kitchen and the office upstairs is clear.”
    Kennedy frowned at her answer. “Well shit,” he murmured, focusing more on getting down the metal stairs without breaking something than her words. “Uh, can you actually do it?” He asked, hoping that she’d say yes, of course. If he had any amount of luck, she was secretly great at hot wiring cars and picking locks, and just didn’t want him to know. Thinking back to the luck that he’d had so far, and he was positive that she had almost zero clue on how to get into the car.

    His hands darted out in an attempt to grab her as she almost slipped. He was two steps behind her, so if she’d fallen, he would’ve been too far to catch her anyways. He followed her down the ladder, heart pounding in his ears. It sounded almost like a roar. It was close to deafening. But he needed to keep it together. Not just for him, but for - Abby, she’d just said. Abby. “Nice to meet you, Abby,” he said, shooting her a quick, manic grin as his feet hit the ground. He glanced over to her, wincing when he saw that she was without shoes. Shit. They needed to find her shoes. It was cold enough that being without shoes could make it harder for her to run.

    “Uh, yeah. Definitely,” Kennedy lied, jamming his free hand into his pocket. It was fucking freezing. Why it all had to go to hell when it was winter, he’d never know. “You want to try to get into a car?” He tried thinking of where else they could get one if she couldn’t do it. They could try to make it to the highway. There were abandoned cars along the entire stretch. Some had to have keys in them. The only downside was the undead. Or living dead. “We could try a car dealership, but that’s around a mile away. Highway’s closer, but you’ve got no shoes and no weapon.”

    He swore under his breath. They just needed to get out, somewhere to the country side where they could be safe. “Alright, first thing’s first. We’re getting you shoes.” He looked around, for the first time wishing that the little quaint neighborhood had been overrun by stores. He hurried forward, although the second he moved to cross from one block to the next, he froze. “Jesus,” he breathed out, eyes wide. Bodies littered the street corner. No zombies appeared to be around, but the scene before them was gruesome. He felt like he was going to puke. A couple of feet away, he spotted what appeared to be the gruesome corpse of a woman around Abby’s height. “Come on,” he said, bracing himself for what he was going to do. He bent down, and began untying the dead woman’s shoes.
    June 24th, 2017 at 10:16pm
  • salander.

    salander. (150)

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    Brendan brushed a hand over his hair, still on edge from the run he’d taken and what could await him around every corner. He still was very unsure of the woman in front of him. She had a visible weapon and he wouldn’t doubt that she had some others tucked away somewhere. He hadn’t even had time to grab a weapon before he’d almost been attacked; he'd just taken off in defense instead of trying to fight back. He studied her for a few moments before clearing his throat a bit. “I’m Brendan, by the way,” he said, figuring he may as well introduce himself if they were going to be spending the night in the same house.

    His expression dropped a bit at the thought of the things outside never tiring. That put them at a great disadvantage. “You haven’t happened to hear any updates on if this is everywhere or just a localized thing?” He questioned, wondering if they’d quarantined the area. There could be a chance he, or both of them—he found himself thinking, to reach that quarantined checkpoint and prove to whoever was guarding it that they weren’t infected and that they weren’t one of those things. He was hoping that this thing hadn’t gone global; he didn’t know what he would do if there wasn’t at least one place on Earth that was safe for them.

    “I think we should probably thoroughly check this place out before we do anything else,” he told her. He shot a glance around the place before turning to her. “Would you prefer to check each room together or just split the rooms up and check them separately?” He questioned. Brendan honestly didn’t know what he felt more comfortable with, though together would be the smarter option since she had a weapon and he did not.

    Before she had a time to answer, there was a loud thud upstairs that had him jumping suddenly and shooting a wide-eyed glance toward the noise. Brendan’s eyes darted to the woman for a moment, merely listening in for any sort of other noise. “Please tell me you have a friend up there hiding,” he said softly, shaking his head slowly.
    Abby wrapped her arms around herself as a cool wind blew past them, shrinking as far as she could into her sweater. She knew that the moment she stopped walking she would immediately become vulnerable to one of those things attacking her. “And I don't know. I haven’t really had the need to hot wire cars or pick locks until now,” she told him softly with a shrug. She twisted her lips to the side as they passed by a few empty cars with their doors thrown wide open. She shot a glance over to Kennedy as he spoke, giving him an odd look at the grin on his features. “Same, Kennedy,” she said softly, pulling her sweater over her hands as she continued to walk.

    She turned to glance over her shoulder at Kennedy, frowning a bit at his answer to her question. Abby didn’t have much faith that he had a plan or knew where they were going, but moving constantly was better than being stuck in an apartment with zombies trying to bust down your front door. The girl paused for a moment as he asked if she wanted to get into a car. It would have been nice to at least have a barrier between them and the cold, but if she failed to break into a car, they’d both know how inept she was and surviving. Her eyes widened slightly at the mention of a car dealership a mile away knowing that she couldn’t make it a quarter of a mile without shoes in this cold.

    Abby followed behind Kennedy as he started forward, straight into a headwind that had her gasping slightly from just how cold it was. She doubted she would survive a day in this cold, let alone however long it took for this all to blow over. She had been too occupied on keeping her head ducked to block out the wind that she didn’t see that Kennedy had stopped. Thankfully, she managed to avoid hitting him, but definitely stopped closer to her back than she would have liked. She was about to ask him what he’d stopped for but merely stood on tip-toe and peeked over his shoulder. Her mouth dropped open at the sight, a soft little whimper leaving her at the mangled bodies that covered what would have normally been a quiet street corner.

    When Kennedy leaned down and began untying a dead woman’s shoes, she felt hot bile biting at the back of her throat as she realized what he was doing. She quickly turned, bracing a hand against the side of the building as she gulped in cool air. “Oh God,” she whispered, hand clutching at her stomach as she tried to keep what little food she’d eaten in the past few days down. Tears were streaming down her cheeks again as the bodies had reminded her of just how dire of a situation she found herself in. Her hand left her stomach and clamped over her mouth. “Let me know when you’re done. I-I can’t look at it any more,” she told him over her shoulder, purposely keeping her eyes to the sky.
    June 25th, 2017 at 05:00am
  • allison hendrix.

    allison hendrix. (100)

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    Sarah sighed, moving the bat to one hand before she reached up and scratched at the back of her neck. There was still a part of her that was expecting to wake up from the nightmare, to be pulled from hell and blink her eyes open in her tiny apartment, her cat whining to be fed. She frowned at the thought of her cat. It had hurt leaving her behind, but when it came between probably dying because she’d have to carry a giant cat container around or her living, she chose the latter. “I’m Sarah,” she answered. Brendan. He looked like a Brendan. She almost asked him where he was heading, but kept quiet. She didn’t need to know that.

    “I saw somewhere that the same thing was happening in London, but I’m not sure if it really was. The last ting I heard on the news was that it was at least across the nation,” she said, her heart sinking at the thought. “I mean, there has to be quarantined spaces, though. The CDC is probably safe, or places in DC. I can’t imagine they’d let government officials be turned. They need somebody to take if it ever all… Stops.” Even if it did stop, it would be a long time from that moment. She assumed that hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people were already turned. How long would it take to restore order, to take care of every single zombie?

    Sarah cocked a brow as she looked him over. He probably didn’t have a weapon. He hadn’t pulled anything on her yet, and there was nothing in his hands, nor anything that looked to be stuffed under his shirt or along the hem of his pants. “We should probably go to-“ Her words cut off at the thump upstairs. Her eyes immediately shot to the ceiling, her heart sinking. “Fuck,” she breathed out, shaking her head slowly. “I’m on my own.” She glanced around, trying to form a plan even though her panic was making it hard to think. “You - you need a weapon. Or something. You can’t - you can’t beat it to death with your fists.”
    So the car was out. Kennedy tried not to let himself be disappointed, but it was difficult. A car would make things so much easier for the both of them. In vain, he wished that his rebellious teenage years had been more along the lines of criminal activity than wearing too much black and listening to shit punk music. “That’s fine. Maybe we should skip the car thing, though, just in case. We’ll still get out of here.” His voice wasn’t portraying the fear that was struggling to grip him. He jammed his free hand into his pocket so she wouldn’t see it shaking so violently. He was positive that his heart was going to beat right out of his chest.

    “Yeah, yeah. That’s fine. Just… Keep watch.” His voice sounded faraway and distant, like it was someone else talking. He almost felt drunk with his movements, as though he wasn’t entirely in control. He bent down, knees on the ground as he worked on untying her shoes. Don’t look at her. Just look at the shoes. He kept repeating those words over and over in his head, the rest of his body on autopilot. He almost had them off when the smell hit him. It jarred him out of his stupor-like state, and he wrenched the shoes off as fast as he could. He scooted back on his hands, panic taking over as the need to get as far away from the dead body as possible hit him. He shot to his feet and darted away, vomiting the second his feet stopped moving.

    “Oh my god,” he mumbled, tears stinging his eyes. They were dead. They were all dead and he and Abby were probably going to die too at some point, most likely at the hands of a fucking zombie. He glanced around, looking to Abby so he wouldn’t have to even think about the ground that was littered with bodies. He walked over to her, forcing himself to calm down. It wasn’t working. He held out the shoes, finding it hard to look her in the eyes. He’d just raided a woman’s dead corpse. He didn’t quite know how he was supposed to feel about that.

    “Put these on. We’ll… We’ll head towards the highway, see if we can find a car with the keys still in it.”
    June 25th, 2017 at 05:47pm
  • salander.

    salander. (150)

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    The man carded a hand through his hair, glancing over to the young woman he found himself stuck in a house with. “Well…I’m sure you’d be lovely to meet at any other time, Sarah,” Brendan said, shaking his head a bit, “but…given the state of things…” His voice trailed off a bit, not really knowing where he was trying to go with his statement. A sigh left him as he shook his head, looking away for a brief moment before returning his crystalline gaze back to her. “Sorry, if that sounded rude. I’m sorta having trouble coming to grips with everything that’s happening,” he explained quietly.

    He listened silently as she recounted what had been happening around the world, knowing their outlook was grim when she mentioned that this was at least nationwide. Brendan ran a hand over his face, turning from her for a moment and it almost looked like he was about to start pacing anxiously, but he decided against it. They had that thump upstairs to deal with and he didn’t have a weapon to fight off whatever it was.

    “If if even does stop,” he murmured to himself darkly, shooting a look up the stairs before his gaze swooped back to Sarah. “Stay here,” he said, voice dropping even softer as a few shuffling noises resounded from upstairs, “I’m going to run to the kitchen and see what I can find. If they start coming down the stairs, get to the kitchen and we’ll get out of here,” he told her. His gaze was drawn up the stairs once more before he turned and as quickly made his way down a hallway that he hoped lead to the kitchen. He first had to step through a dining room, which looked immaculate and like it hadn’t been touched or looted, before he found the kitchen.

    He darted over to a few of the drawers and pulled them out as quietly as possible. Brendan knew he’d hit the jackpot when he pulled open a drawer of kitchen utensils. His gaze immediately landed on a meat tenderizer with a long enough handle. He’d feel comfortable swinging this at one of those things without them being able to take a swipe at him. He turned and walked back to where he’d left Sarah, noting that she hadn’t left her spot. “Again, would you feel more comfortable if we searched the rooms together or separately?” He asked her, voice dropping down to a whisper.
    Abby frowned slightly as her throat clenched, a sob threatening to rip from her throat, and she forced her gaze to survey the area to be sure they weren't about to be ambushed by zombies. That would be the last thing they needed, apart from Abby screaming like she felt like doing. Instead, she swallowed the feeling down—along with the feeling like she needed to vomit—and drew in slow, shaky breaths of air through her nose and let long, quivering breaths of air out through her mouth. “A car may attract to much attention anyway,” she told Kennedy with a shaking voice.

    She winced a bit when she heard Kennedy vomiting behind her, eyes slipping shut for a moment as she focused on anything by the slight tinge of death and decay that was reaching her nose and the bile that still threaten to spill from her stomach. “Shit,” she whimpered, sniffling loudly and dragging her hand underneath her eyes to try and hide the fact that she had been hiding. She was sure that Kennedy knew she’d been crying anyways. She glanced over to Kennedy as he walked over to her, keeping her eyes on him so she wouldn’t have to look anywhere else.

    “I used to…fucking…grocery shop at this store,” she told him, reaching out and taking the shoes from him with shaking hands and shoving her feet into them. They fit a bit looser than she would have liked, so she tightened the shoelaces a bit more to try and compensate. Still, they were shoes and her feet were immediately grateful for the barrier between her skin, her socks, and the cold pavement. “I’d probably seen these people before,” she added in a tight voice, tears welling up in her eyes as she sniffled and tried to keep herself from breaking down.

    She shook her head, setting her jaw as she shot him another look before starting toward the direction she knew the highway to be. “Thank you,” she said softly, knowing that he didn’t have to stop and get her shoes. It was probably ten times more unpleasant for him as it was for her and she was thankful that she didn’t have to go through it.
    June 25th, 2017 at 06:58pm
  • allison hendrix.

    allison hendrix. (100)

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    Despite the situation at hand, Sarah let out a snort of laughter. It was almost ridiculous, the act of introducing themselves to each other in the midst of a zombie apocalypse, with some sound thumping away above them. “Likewise, Brendan,” she said, the corners of her mouth twitching up just a little. “It’s fine, really. You’re allowed to be a bit rude give the state of things,” she continued, feeling a bit bad for him. The last thing he should have been worried about was whether or not he was being a little bit rude. If anything, she’d found it kin of funny.

    She gave a nod at his order, creeping towards the steps to see if she could make out anything. It was dark, but whoever had been there before her had covered up most of the windows, so she’d left a dimly let lamp on. It created shadows on the walls - from what she could see, anyway - but none were moving. There was another thump, and it made her jump back a bit. She was thankful that he wasn’t there to see. They needed to take care of whatever it was, not have her running away. Besides, this was their safest bet. Out there was just asking to be killed or turned by. She returned to where she’d been before he’d left, not wanting to be near the steps any longer on her own.

    Sarah jerked her head towards Brendan when she heard him approach, eyeing the meat tenderizer with a shake of her head. The two of them were absolute zombie horror movie cliches. what with her and her baseball bat, and Brendan with his meat tenderizer. The thought made a quick smirk flicker across her lips before it fell. “It might be better together. If one of us were to get caught, yelling for help wouldn’t really be the best idea.” She wasn’t sure if the zombies were able to figure out how doorknobs worked, but she didn’t want them to be pounding against the house anyways.

    “Do you want me to go first?” She asked him, taking care to keep her voice as soft as his was. She stole another glance towards the steps, her pulse spiking. “Or did you want to?”
    Kennedy let his gaze roam from left to right, watching for even the slightest hint of movement. He winced as Abby spoke. He’d never been in that one, preferring to shop at the one that was on his way home from work. He couldn’t imagine going back there. “Hey,” he began softly, realizing that he didn’t actually know what he was going to say. “It’ll… It’ll be…” He kept trailing off, floundering for words. What, it’d be alright? It wouldn’t be. People were dead. Their friends and family members could be dead or turned or in the process of either. Nothing would ever be okay, not for a long time.

    “It’s no problem,” he mumbled, following after her. He jogged forward until he was walking in stride with her, fingers wrapped around the gun once more. It wasn’t much, but it was reassuring. He slowed down, a realization coming to mind. “This might be a terrible idea, but should we head back into the grocery store, grab some food before we leave?” He really wasn’t too excited to admit that his backpack contained nothing but bullets, water, bourbon, and clothes. It was kind of pathetic, really. Not for the first time, he silently swore at himself for not listening to the news.

    “Or we can keep going, go somewhere else. I just… You don’t have anything on you, and I don’t have food. There might be something in there that you could use to defend yourself, too.” It was mostly likely gone through already. The second that people had heard that there were zombies, it was like something straight out of a dystopian novel. People racing to the stores, taking whatever they could. Shooting each other over something as stupid as microwaveable mac and cheese. It made him sick.

    “We don’t have to, though. Go there. It might be easier to go somewhere else.” Kennedy wasn’t sure where else they could go, but he figured that it would be hard for her to go back there. And truth be told, he really didn’t want to have to turn back and see all the bodies again. The image was burned into his mind anyways.
    June 25th, 2017 at 08:03pm
  • salander.

    salander. (150)

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    Brendan clutched the meat tenderizer in hands, feeling a bit more confident now that he knew his only option was no longer just run. He didn’t know how he’d be able to anyway. He could already feel his muscles starting to cramp up from how hard he’d had to push himself to get away from those things, how cold it was, and how abruptly he’d come to a stop. He shot a glance over to Sarah as she spoke, nodding in agreement to her comment about yelling not doing any favors for the two of them. Drawing in a deep breath of air, he glanced up the stairs, another thump resounded from one of the rooms. He jumped slightly, muscles tightening on instinct as he gripped his weapon of choice a bit tighter in response.

    “I’ll go first,” he decided, though he knew it was stupid to put himself in line of danger. He wasn’t the most chivalrous man in the world, but he knew that he’d look like a dick if he let a woman put herself in the line of danger merely because he was scared. “Just…stay close behind…and run if you need to,” he murmured, shooting her another glance before steeling himself. He wasn’t going to like this, but in order for him to at least be able to relax and maybe try to sleep, they needed to be sure the house was completely empty.

    Slowly, he walked up the stairs, as sure-footed as he possibly could be. The last thing he needed was to trip and put the both of them in danger for being too clumsy. “Do you know how many rooms are up here?” He asked in a whisper, merely turning his head slightly to her, not bothering to tear his eyes away from the direction they were walking in. Once he reached the first landing, there was another thump and he paused for a moment. “That’s definitely not another human,” he murmured before continuing on up the stairs.

    He lead the two of them down a long hallway, deciding that checking the furthest door away from them may be the best way to start. What set him on edge the most was the lack of noise. The thudding seemed to have stopped and there was no movement he could hear anywhere else in the house. It set him on edge, knowing that something was waiting just around the corner for the two of them. As he reached the last door, he shot a look in the near darkness to Sarah before reaching out and slowly turning the handle with his free hand. Brendan pushed the door open with his foot as he held his breath for whatever waited them on the other side.
    Abby had always been an anxious sort of person; a rabbit-hearted girl in a world that seemed full of brave lions. She’d never experienced the sort of anxiety and fear she was experiencing at the site of nearly obliterated bodies lying openly in the street. She knew things were bad, but she never could have imagined things were this bad. “No,” she said quietly, sniffling back tears as she swiped the sleeve of her sweater underneath her eyes once more. “Thanks for trying but…no.” She set her jaw again against the deluge of tears that threatened to swell forward. “This could have been me,” she murmured, nose tinging red from her tears and the cool air that blew past them.

    She noted him slowing down and followed suit, shooting a worried glance over to him and looking stymied when he mentioned heading back to the grocery store. Despite not wanting to backtrack or risk seeing the corpses again, she knew he made a good point. Without food or water, they’d never survive, even without the threat of zombies breathing down the back of their necks. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth as she tried to think things through, trying to clear through the chaos of her own mind to focus on what they needed to do to survive. She stopped walking altogether, glancing around for a moment to be doubly sure they were not being followed. “We don’t know if we’ll be fortunate to have the time to actually stop someplace,” she told him, glancing up at him for a moment.

    “I couldn’t hear anyone inside either; human or…not,” she spat out, feeling pathetic that she couldn’t bring herself to say the term ‘zombie’ out loud. She didn’t want to panic herself or Kennedy if she did. “I honestly don’t know who I’m more afraid of running into,” she said, shaking her head a bit and running a still shaking hand through her hair. She turned and started walking back to the grocery store. “I was stupid to think my apartment was safe enough from everything,” she murmured to herself under her breath. “I didn’t even bother packing a bag or getting anything ready to leave. The news lied. Said the government had it all under control.” Her gaze hardened a bit as she spoke. “I was fooled into becoming just a sitting duck.”

    A heavy sigh left her and she curled her lips in between her teeth. “Do you have any weapons on you?” She questioned as she stopped just outside the door, she purposely kept her gaze from the sidewalk, though it was like the smell was increasingly getting worse. “Clearly, physical strength is not my strong suit,” she told him with a shake of her head.
    June 25th, 2017 at 09:34pm
  • allison hendrix.

    allison hendrix. (100)

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    It was selfish of her, it really was. But Sarah felt relief flooding her veins when he said that he would go first. It didn’t help much to assuage the panic that was making the bat in her hands shake ever so slightly, but it was something to hold onto. “I’m not going to leave the first person I’ve talked to in days behind. It’ll be fine,” she whispered back, forcing bravado into her voice when there was none. “Besides, all my stuff is in one of the rooms. I’m definitely not leaving that behind.”

    She probably stayed closer to him than need be as they crept up the stairs. Step by step they went, her almost bumping into him as he turned his head towards her. “Uh, no? I went into the first one that I found.” Saying it out loud made her realize just how stupid she’d been. Things were different now, she wasn’t able to just wimp out because she was too afraid to check the other rooms. What if there was a horde of them, and she was suddenly stuck in the house with no way out? At that moment, she vowed to herself to do better, because she sure as hell wasn’t going to let some virus-infected zombie turn her into one of them. When he stopped, she did bump into him, letting out a soft squeak of surprise.

    Her heart was going to come out of her chest, she was sure of it. Maybe it was beating so loud that Brendan could hear it, or hell, maybe even the zombie that was thudding against the door. Because there was no way that it wasn’t a zombie. The entire planet’s luck had run out, and they were all screwed. She followed behind him, feeling like that at any second something was going to jump out and just kill them both. She paused right behind him, grimacing at him as he looked back to her. She braced herself as the door swung open.

    It wasn’t much, but a little bit of light coming from the window in the room illuminated the hallway. And it was just enough to see a big, lumbering shadow lunge for them. Without thinking, Sarah shoved Brendan out of the way so it couldn’t get him, swinging her bat and hearing a sharp crack as it hit against the zombie’s skull. It stumbled into the doorway, giving her enough time to take some steps back. The moonlight lit its face, and when she saw the decaying flesh hanging from its cheek, panic took over and she froze, eyes wide and bat raised - but not moving.
    “But it’s not you.” It was all Kennedy could come up with. Usually, he was fairly decent at comforting people, but he was out of his depth when it came to death. How were you supposed to comfort someone about the zombie apocalypse? The movies hadn’t covered that aspect of it. No, the hero of the movie somehow came out triumphant without any issues. For an instant, he resented every single movie he’d ever seen that had zombies in it. None had prepared him for the horror that he’d just witnessed.

    He watched her as she spoke, waiting for her to arrive at an answer. He wasn’t planning on forcing her to do anything, but the longer he thought about it, the more he wasn’t sure as to whether or not they’d find a grocery store on their way to the highway. And even if they did, would it be worse than the one they’d just come across? “Okay, so we’ll check it. We’ll just… avoid looking in the direction of the…” He trailed off, voice catching as his mind’s eye flashed him an image of the dead woman. There’d been so much blood. He blinked, shaking his head slowly before clearing his throat.

    “Hey, it is what it is. I thought the news was fear mongering, so I ran out and spent a shit ton of money on booze and pizza. All I packed in my emergency preparedness bag was like, bourbon, half filled water bottles, and a single change of clothes,” he said, offering her a self deprecating smirk. It fell a little as she continued on. “Look, they fooled you. They fooled a lot of people. But it’s not your fault. We’re supposed to be able to trust them to do the right thing, and they didn’t. They fucked us over. But we’re still around, and we’re going to stay around. We gotta live long enough to get revenge on those bastards,” he said, glancing to her out of the corner of his eye, allowing a faint, joking smile to slip across his features.

    He lifted the hand holding the gun from his pocket and held it out in front of him. “Used to be my dad’s. It’s nothing special, but it works. I’ve got enough boxes of bullets to keep us safe for awhile, but we’ll need something quieter in the long run.” He stopped when she did, frowning at the door in front of him. It was closed, as though the store was just closed for the day instead of for the foreseeable future. “You want me to go in first, check it out?”
    June 26th, 2017 at 05:46am
  • salander.

    salander. (150)

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    Brendan found himself feeling less and less confident in the use of a meat tenderizer as a weapon the more he though of how close he'd have to get to one of those things to use it. He was by no means the bravest person, but he wasn't know for tucking tail and running either. But he definitely was beginning to regret his decision in weapons. Something that put far more distance between him and whatever he was attacking would have been preferable. He noted how she said she wasn't going to just up and leave him, but he knew that words were just words until actions backed them up. He wasn't ready to trust anyone in the current climate of things.

    He shot her a look as she bumped into him and let out a noise, eyes widening in warning before he drew in a deep breath and gathered himself for whatever lay on the other side of that door. Before he knew it, he was being pushed aside and Sarah was swinging her bat at a shadow figure in the room. Had it been a human, it would have no doubt stumbled from the impact, but it stayed rooted and not at all stunned. Brendan had ducked a but as she swing, hands coming up to shield his head a bit, before he realized that she wasn't going in for a second swing. She was frozen, and at the worst possible time too.

    "Move," he bellowed before stepping in between the two of them as the zombies pitched forward on it's toes, as if it were about to lunge. Brendan gripped the meat tenderizer in both hands and swung down at the top of the zombie's head. It made a noise like a watermelon being cracked open on pavement followed by a slosh of something liquidy and thick hitting the hardwood floor beneath his feet, and Brendan's stomach gave an uneasy churn . He could only see the silhouette of the zombie against the street light, but he could tell my the noises he'd probably punctured into the brain. The zombie froze now, hands blindly reaching out before dropping limply to it's sides. Brendan looked up and realized that the meat tenderizer had punched a hole in the skull, sinking in almost to the handle.

    He let go of the weapon just as the zombie's body pitched backwards, not wanting to be dragged down with it. The solid body hit the floor with a resounding thud, and Brendan found his hands trembling at what he'd just done. That thing had once been a person, someone's sibling, someone's child, and he'd just annhilated it. He swallowed hard, remaining still for a moment to let it all sink in and to listen out for any other indications of zombies in the house, but could hear none. "Are...are you alright?" He questioned, voice trembling uncontrollably. He spared another glance over his shoulder to her, swallowing hard as the weight of what had just happened and what could have just happened sink in.
    Abby wanted to be reassured by what Kennedy was saying, but she had fallen in too deep into her own worried mind. He was at least trying, which was more than what anyone else would offer in the situation they found themselves in. She merely shot him a look and a nod off the head for a 'thank you', not knowing if she trusted herself enough to talk at the moment. She sniffled again dabbing at the remnants of tears on her cheeks with the sleeves of her sweater. Abby felt pathetic for crying, even though it was a warranted reaction to what she'd seen. Still, crying wouldn't change what was happening and it certainly wouldn't save her from anything either. She cleared her throat to try and dissipate the lump that had formed in it from crying.

    "I guess we can't change anything about what we've done in the past now," she murmured, glancing over to Kennedy and shaking her head a bit. "Though...pizza sounds really good right about now," she added, despite the fact she'd felt like vomiting not a few moments ago. She couldn't remember the last time she had an appetite for food, though her apartment was decently stocked. "I'm just...I'm not doing you any favors by being out here in socks and...being under-prepared. I'd understand if you left me in the dust." She shrugged her shoulders, wrapping her arms around herself to keep out another biting wind. A frown pulled at her lips when she noted the fluffy grey clouds rolling in; a clear precursor to snow.

    She went even colder when he pulled the gun from his pocket, swallowing back her fear for a moment. Abby never really had been around guns too much and was always afraid of seeing them out in the open. Still, she knew their survival could hinge on that gun, though she wondered if she ever held him back too much or ever did anything he didn't like--would he turn the gun on her instead? The petite woman shivered a bit at the thought, squeezing her eyes shut for a moment before turning and heading into the store without another word.

    Pulling open the door as quietly as possible, she tried to listen out for any sounds or signs of movement in the store. She'd got the door open halfway when an automated chime sounded from above her, letting whoever may still be inside that someone else was trying to enter. She should have remembered it did that, but she didn't. Abby jumped and screamed despite herself, losing grip on the door and clasping a hang over her mouth before she'd stopped screaming. She turned from the closing door suddenly, knowing their cover had just been blown, if not by the chime then by her scream that was echoing against the buildings around them. A shaky breath of air left her as she turned back to Kennedy, shooting him an apologetic look. "Sorry," she whispered, heaving in deep, chilling breaths of air to try and call herself down. Her stomach dropped slightly at the thought that she'd just sealed a death sentence for the two of them by being so loud.
    June 26th, 2017 at 03:14pm
  • allison hendrix.

    allison hendrix. (100)

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    Sarah felt like there was molasses in her veins. She blinked at the zombie in front of her. Later on, when she’d try to recall what had happened, it would come to her in flashes. Blinking. Move. Shifting back. A swing. A crack. But then everything swung back into motion, almost hyper realistic. Everything was sharp, even in the dark. In the morning, the blood splatter and bits of brain would paint the wall red. But then, all Sarah could see was that there were now darker spots against the beige walls. She took another step back as the zombie dropped back, even though it wasn’t going to land anywhere near her. She kept stepping back until hers was against the wall, eyes wide and staring at the corpse lying on the ground. She was waiting for it to move, to twitch, to do something.

    She looked over to Brendan, suddenly fighting back desperate against the urge to just start sobbing. This was a new kind of hell. Maybe that was it. Maybe she’d died in her sleep sometime ago and this was hell. And when she died here, it would take her to another kind of hell, just living through horror and death over and over and over for the rest of eternity. She blinked at the man in front of her before shaking her head, fast and short shakes. She was most definitely not alright. Not at all.

    “Are - are you?” She asked, finding it harder to speak louder than a whisper. Her voice shook as his did, and deep down, it made her feel a tiny bit better. At least he was handling it about as well as she was - which wasn’t good. But at least she wasn’t alone. She looked back to the zombie, and could feel the bile rising in her throat. She wondered if that had been the owner of the home. Someone had to have shut him in there. Or her. She hadn’t caught that good of a look at it. Not that she wanted to, that is. She glanced down the hallway, suddenly feeling as though she couldn’t muster the strength to look in the rest of the rooms.

    Sarah looked down at her hands. They were shaking violently, her bat trembling. Glancing back to Brendan, she watched him. What was she supposed to do? They couldn’t both freak out. “We should - we - we should check the other rooms,” she managed to get out despite the stuttering. Her voice was thick with unshed tears. She didn’t mean to, but she glanced back down to the dead body. It was like she couldn’t stop looking at it. “I can’t - I don’t - I - We should close the door.”
    “I’m really going to miss pizza,” Kennedy said, almost growing sad at the realization that he might not ever get to eat his favorite foods ever again. It was dumb to be sad about that, but still. That was a part of him that might be lost forever. He frowned at the thought. There were a lot of things that he’d lost forever, probably. He might never speak to his parents again. Or his friends. Even his coworkers, a group of people he’d never been fond of, he found himself missing. He sighed, taking care to keep his gaze forward and not looking left or right. He could see the bodies at the edge of his vision, but he refused to give in and look.

    He shrugged. “I’m not going to just abandon you,” he said, glancing over to her. “Besides, we got you shoes. We’ll get you a weapon, and then we’ll be well off.” He was struggling to remain optimistic, but he felt like he had to since he was traveling with someone else. Internally, he thought they were fucked. What were the odds that they’d find food, find her a weapon, make it to the highway, find a car with gas and keys, and make it to somewhere safe without anything happening? The odds were small. Slim to none, if he really thought about it. It was enough to make his stomach churn. He might die that day.

    He watched as she eyed the gun, and then just went into the store. Apparently she wasn’t fond of guns. Great. He’d been planning on finding something else to use as a weapon, knowing that shooting a gun would attract attention like - like a door chime and Abby screaming. A gust of wind bit at his back and he frowned, but he didn’t urge her inside. He really didn’t want to freak her out anymore than she obviously already was. “It’s fine,” he replied softly. He glanced around them, trying to spot any signs of movement. There was nothing yet, but he had a feeling that something would be arriving soon.

    “You ready to head in?” He asked, struggling to be gentle with his tone. They needed to get inside and get the stuff, and get the hell out. He’d step in first, but she was standing in his way and he kind of had this feeling that if he put his hand on her shoulder and moved her out of the way, she might scream some more. “I just - they might be coming. We might be able to hide from them if they don’t see us.”
    June 26th, 2017 at 05:22pm
  • salander.

    salander. (150)

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    Brendan drew in a breath of air when he noticed that Sarah seemed to be on the verge of a breakdown. He turned completely to her, knowing that having her freaking out right now would help neither of them. “I’m fine,” he told her, glancing over what he could see of her in the dark to make sure she wasn’t hurt and that none of the blood or whatever had spilled out of that zombie’s head had gotten on her. “You’re fine,” he reassured her quietly, locking eyes with her. He’d never been good at calming down anyone, but he found that he was especially bad at calming down women, just judging from past experiences with ex-girlfriends.

    He glanced down to her hands, knowing that relying on her to act if they ended up finding anything else wasn’t the smartest thing to do. Quickly, he turned back to the corpse of the zombie on the floor, yanking the meat tenderizer from the skull with a loud squelching noise, and shutting the door quietly behind him, pushing the legs of the zombie awkwardly to the side in the process.

    “Are you going to be okay to check the rest of the house?” He asked her quietly before turning to face her. He was still pretty shaken from what had just happened, but he’d come to terms with doing what he had to survive. Despite them still looking quite humanoid, these things that would charge at them, do anything to take a chunk out of them, and do just anything to see them bleed. It was either them or him and he knew he wasn’t just going to sit back and accept things, just because he was afraid of seeing a little blood. Maybe he’d fooled himself into believing that this was just some bad dream or it was just like watching a movie. Maybe it took him seeing someone else in danger right before him to realize what he had to do to survive.

    “Look…I can check the rest of the rooms by myself if you don’t think you can do this,” he told her, his tone lacking any sort of judgement or cruelty. He let out a bitter laugh, shaking his head as he looked away for a brief moment. “Don’t…think of them as human,” he murmured, bright eyes returning back to hers. “They may look it…but they’re not,” he added, “not anymore.” He glanced over to the dark spots of blood on the wall beside them, remaining quiet as he attempted to listen in for any other sounds of movement from the rooms around them. He figured that it wouldn’t hurt to let the two of them try to regroup after the surprise of opening door to that.
    Abby carded a hand through her hair, teeth clenched together slightly against the cool wind that hit her dead in the face. A soft noise left her as a shudder racked through her. “Y-Yeah, sorry,” she apologized again before wincing and glancing around nervously at his next statement. This time she pulled open the door quickly, knowing that if nothing decided to try and come find them after the chime and her scream, there were likely nothing that could harm them in the main part of the store.

    As she took a few steps inside, she was immediately relieved to be out of the cold wind for a bit and got the idea of maybe checking for an employee break room and hoping there was a jacket somewhere in there for her to put on. Better a second hand jacket off of a hook somewhere, then having to steal something off a corpse like they’d done with her shoes. Glancing over her shoulder to Kennedy, she watched him for a few moments. “See if you can’t lock the door behind you. It’ll keep us from getting out faster, but it’ll also keep things from getting in,” she murmured before turning and focusing on gathering what she needed from the store so they could get out.

    Conveniently enough, she spotted some pull string bags up near the front of the store with some local high school mascot on them. It’d do for what she needed it for. She grabbed it and popped the tag off of it before turning and regarding the rest of the building. Other than a few places where end caps had been knocked over and a few blood splatters, the place didn’t look like it had been looted yet. Maybe the people more prone to looting were deterred by the near stack of dead bodies outside the front of the building. Abby pushed that thought aside and focused on finding herself a weapon next. She didn’t know if she’d ever feel comfortable enough using one, but it’d be a little reassuring to have.

    She turned and marched down one of the aisles, grabbing a couple handfuls of protein bars and shoving them into her bag. They were disgusting in her opinion, or at least any of the ones she’d tried, but they’d be the best thing to tide them over when their food options got thin. There would be no more pizza, no more cheeseburgers, no more beer with friends, or late nights getting drunk and making meaningless conversations with strangers. “Let me know if you find anything…weapon-like,” she told Kennedy softly, shaking her head as she picked up a pair of salad tongs before placing them back where she found them.
    June 27th, 2017 at 02:09am
  • allison hendrix.

    allison hendrix. (100)

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    United States
    Sarah found herself calming down just a little as they locked eyes. It wasn’t much, but it had helped. Brendan was human, as was she. She wished that she could be rational about it all, that she could just tell herself that she was fine and that she’d do better next time. But she wasn’t sure if she could be rational about it. It was the fucking zombie apocalypse. If anything called for something to be irrational, it would be that. “Thanks,” was all she managed to get out. She’d said it lamely, her voice seeming quiet in the dark aftermath of what had happened.

    She winced as he pulled the tenderize out, the squelching noise making bile rise in her throat. She forced it back down, wincing at the taste and mild burning. But she wasn’t going to throw up, not in front of him. She needed to prove to him that she was capable of handling herself. She needed to prove it to herself as well. “I’m fine,” she answered, taking care to avoid eye contact with him. If he got one good look in her eyes, he’d probably know that she was ten seconds away from a full on panic attack. But she had to hold it together. If she froze like that again, she’d be dead. “I can check the rest out the house,” she added, her hands gripping the bat so tight they stopped shaking.

    “I can do this,” she reiterated. “I just hadn’t gotten that up close to one before. I’m fine.” Brendan seemed nice. He wasn’t mocking her or making her feel bad for freezing and putting him in even more danger. She finally looked up to meet his eyes, sighing softly. “This is so fucked up,” she mumbled, letting out a soft, disbelieving laugh. Maybe she was hysterical. Or in shock. Or both. She let one hand release the bat, reaching up to shove her hair out of her face. She looked around the hallway before looking back to him.

    “Thanks for that, by the way. I probably would’ve been dead if it wasn’t for you.” That sentence brought on a whole other range of emotions, most of which were terror at the realization that she’d almost died. Her hand dropped down to grip the bat once more. They needed to do something or else she was going to burst into tears right then and there. “We should probably start checking the other rooms.”
    “Don’t worry about it,” was what he said. Kennedy wondered if she’d realize just how dumb that was. Don’t worry about sounding a chime and screaming, which might have alerted a whole horde of zombies that there were two humans gallivanting about in a grocery store. He knew that it really wasn’t her fault, but he also knew that she was probably beating herself up over it. He winced as he followed her in, the chime sounding once more.

    “Yell if you need me,” he said, giving her a nod. He turned around, finding a deadbolt at the top of the door. He locked it, looking the door over before he found a similar one at the bottom. He did that one too, keeping an ear out for anything that might be around. He stepped back, ducking into an aisle. The windows make him nervous. He wandered down the aisle, realizing that canned pie filling wasn’t going to really be useful to them. At the end of it, however, he did find a thing of Oreos. He tugged his backpack off and unzipped it before shoving two of them in. It wasn’t that healthy, but it’d be nice to have something other than beef jerky and non perishables all the time. At that thought, he continued down, wandering through aisle after aisle until he came across a display of beef jerky. At least it was protein.

    Kennedy shoved a couple of bags into his backpack before stepping towards the canned goods. He grabbed what looked to be the healthiest items, tossing them in along with a can opener. He found some lukewarm water bottles in a case, and tugged on the plastic until it opened up. He shoved as many in there as he could that would fit, and slipped the backpack straps over his shoulders. It was significantly heavier than before, but they could add some more without it hindering him too much. “You got it,” he called, taking care to keep his voice down.

    The next aisle over had camping gear. He picked up a mallet, weighing it in his hand. It was heavy enough to do some damage, but the handle was way too short. They’d have to get extremely close to do any damage, and he would have liked to avoid that. He took a couple of steps farther down and his eyes widened. An axe. The most cliched zombie weapon he could have dreamt up, right there in front of him. “Would an axe work?” He called, lifting it up and taking a mock swing through the air. An axe could work.
    June 27th, 2017 at 05:57am
  • salander.

    salander. (150)

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    Brendan knew that if Sarah didn't get her head wrapped around the idea of survival in this hellish world, there would be no way she'd make it. Now, Brendan was not going to just up and leave her, but he knew that if it ever came down to him or her because she couldn't pull her own weight, he'd more than likely pick himself. Then again, these were just thoughts and he knew that what he would end up really doing in that sort of situation could be massively different.

    "Yeah," was all Brendan could bring himself to say, making sure his hand was clean before he brushed it through his hair with a sigh. He shot a glance over to the now closed door and drew in a deep breath of air. "I couldn't tell if it was because he was...older or not, before he because a...thing, but he seemed to react a little slower that the others," he murmured quietly, shaking his head slowly. He shot Sarah a look and said, "I don't mean to freak you out or anything, but if that had been one of the ones chasing me earlier, you might not have been so lucky."

    He paused for a moment, knowing that what he'd just said probably wasn't going to help her not freak out. "I'm only telling you this because I honestly don't want to see you...or anyone else become one of them or...die," he added, hesrt dropping at the thought of seeing someone ripped apart in front of him. He couldn't help but to grin for some reason at her laugh, shaking his head a bit. "You've got that right," he murmured, "part of me just wants to wake up and be back in my bed...but the other part of me knows this is...a reality now."

    He readjusted his grip on the meat tenderizer, glancing sidelong over to her as she thanked him. "Don't mention it. You sort of did the same for me back there," he told her softly before turning down the hallway and making his way to the next door. He quickly opened the door this time and was relieved when he was met with what looked like an empty study. He took a few steps into the room, glancing under a desk just to be sure there wasn't anything hidden from him. "Do you think it'd be worth it if we searched the place for supplies or anything like that while we're at it? In case we have to leave in a hurry." He didn't know when he started talking in terms of "we" or if she even considered them a "we", but he knew now that there was strength in numbers and being alone would be extremely dangerous.
    Abby frowned a bit as she picked up a few odds and ends around the store, weighing wether or not they'd be worth shoving into her bag to take with them. She did manage to find a pair of cotton gloves and a raincoat, which was at least more protection from the wind that just her sweater alone. She grabbed a pair of gloves for Kennedy before leaving the area. A horrid floral print scarf caught her eye and, yet again, she reminded herself that something was better than nothing when it came to keeping out the cold. She grabbed it and wrapped it around her neck a few times with a heavy sigh.

    Her gaze was drawn to Kennedy as he spoke and saw the flash of an axe through the air. "Yeah, that would work," she said softly as she begun to make her way over to him. She grabbed a few things of matches and shoved them into her bag, making a mental note to grab some sort of watertight container to put them in. She looked at the axe in his hands and nodded a bit. "Better than my bare fists, I suppose," she quipped with a wry laugh. Abby reached into her pocket and produced the pair of gloves she'd picked up for Kennedy.

    "I got these for you. I figured you may need them," she said softly, looking up at him with a small smile. "I would have picked you up one of these lovely scarves, but I didn't know how much you'd be willing to compromise your masculinity for the sake of keeping warm," she said, plucking at her scarf with another laugh. She glanced around for a moment, eyeing the windows carefully for any signs of movement that she could spot. There was nothing yet and she was slightly thankful she hadn't attracted any unneeded attention to the two of them.

    She pulled the bag from her back and looked through it for a moment. "Do you think it'd be smart to grab some ibuprofen, pain killers, anything like that?" She questioned, thumbing through her bag before glancing back up to Kennedy. She was trying her hardest to think of things that would be useful to them, to try and prove that she wasn't completely hopeless. She at least had a decent mind for quick thinking, however much that was worth now. Running her tongue over her lips, she jumped slightly as the buildings heating unit kicked on, eyes widened for a moment before the air left in her lungs left her in a large rush of air. "God damnit, Abby," she murmured to herself as she ran a shaking, gloved hand over her face.
    June 27th, 2017 at 02:15pm
  • allison hendrix.

    allison hendrix. (100)

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    United States
    “Maybe it was the grace of God,” Sarah deadpanned, finding it easier to go for the joke than really think it over and accept the fact that had Brendan not been there, she would’ve been dead. “It could’ve been because he was older. His body’s not as in shape as others are?” She wasn’t sure how it all worked with them. For a second, she wished that her phone was still charged to look it up online. She felt her stomach twist at the realization that things were so different now. “I know you’re not meaning to, but you’re kind of not helping,” she mumbled, frowning.

    She got it, she did. He was just trying to make her feel better, but all his words were doing was reminding her that she’d probably be dead within the week if she kept freezing up like that. “Sorry,” she said, her voice a bit more clear. “I’m just… Stressed.” That might have been the understatement of the year. She caught sight of his grin, her eyes starting to adjust to the inky darkness of the hallway. “There’s some plus sides to this, you know. No more taxes. Or rent.” It was dumb, but a part of her wanted to make him grin again. It made everything feel the smallest bit more normal.

    She took in a deep breath before following him back down the hall. Every step made her heart beat faster, but she forced herself to keep calm. She would not freeze up like last time, dammit. She’d keep her cool. She could do this. She could. She had to. She stood in the doorway of the study, watching as he looked around, quirking a brow at the use of ‘we’. That was new. She’d assumed they were two individual ‘I’s, merely sharing a place for the night. It wasn’t that she necessarily minded, though. They’d probably live longer together. “This might be the best place that - that we come across for awhile,” she said, stumbling over ‘we’.

    “Most houses are going to have been looted already. This one seems like no one’s really disturbed it except us. We might find some backpacks and water bottles, some food too, maybe.” Sarah shrugged her shoulders, straining her ears to hear even the slightest bit of movement. “They might even have some camping stuff. That’d be useful.”
    When Kennedy finally looked over to Abby, he almost had to slap a hand over his mouth to muffle his laughter. The scarf seemed to contrast everything else she was wearing, and for whatever reason, it struck him as funny. He held out the axe to her, watching as she held it. “I don’t know. I bet you’d do alright in a fight against a zombie,” he said, offering her a faint smile. It grew, however, when he saw the gloves that she’d grabbed for him.

    “Oh, thanks. I didn’t even think about gloves,” he said, gratitude filling his voice as he tugged open the packaging and slipped them on. “I compromised my masculinity years ago. I’d wear the hell out of that thing,” he said, shooting her a wide grin. His gaze followed hers, but the windows were clear. He caught sight of a body in the middle of the road, and cleared his throat as he looked away.

    “Yeah, definitely. Maybe those and a couple of first aid kits? We’ll have more to worry about than just zombies after awhile.” He looked over the rest of the camping items, eyes lighting up when he found some weird sort of contraption. “Water purifiers. Huh. Didn’t even think about those.” He grabbed a bunch and shoved them in his bag. Those would definitely come in handy once they were out of the city. For a moment, he wondered if they’d remain together that long. Would they eventually part ways, or was this it? For all they knew, the two of them could be the last contact they have with humans. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that.

    Kennedy tensed as the heating kicked on, the unfamiliar sound making his blood run cold. He let out a shaky chuckle, ignoring the way his hands were shaking as he shoved them into his jacket pockets. “Scared me too,” he murmured, trying not to make a big deal out of it. A part of him thought that he’d never be able to relax again, not really. “Do they have a pharmacy in here? We could take some medicine too, in case anything happens and we’d need it.” He looked around, spotting the faded white letters against the graying walls. “There’d probably be pain killers back there, too. We could check?”
    July 3rd, 2017 at 12:51am
  • salander.

    salander. (150)

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    United States
    Brendan couldn’t help but to let out a bitter laugh at Sarah’s comment, shaking his head slowly. “I don’t know if God’s here anymore,” he murmured darkly, knowing what she’d said was meant to be a joke, but he couldn’t stop his own retort from leaving him. He shook his head again, feeling slightly bad that when he was put under pressure or was genuinely scared he became the world’s biggest jackass. “I think it may be too early to tell,” he murmured, “not that I want to be around more of those things for the sake of learning.” His crystalline gaze rounded on her when she spoke and his brow furrowed a bit.

    Instead of some smart retort he could make, he bit his tongue and merely looked at her. Once she apologized, he looked away, knowing that the both of them were under a lot of stress from the situation they had been thrust into. They were bound to react in ways that weren’t normally like them. “You don’t have to apologize. I can be an asshole when I feel backed into a corner. It’s not personal, at all,” he explained, running a hand through his hair. He took another cursory glance around the hallway, to be sure there wasn’t anything else that could come at them. A soft laugh left him at her next comment. He could have turned it into something more downhearted, to say that they wouldn’t have a home or wages to have taxed or have to take rent out. Pointing that out wouldn’t help out their situation at all, so he decided against it.

    “We can sleep in now, too, if we wanted to,” he added with a wry grin. He took once more glance around the office-type room, knowing there wasn’t many places for anything to hide from the two of them. Brendan turned back to Sarah as she spoke next, readjusting his grip on the meat tenderizer. “True,” he noted, nodding a bit. He hadn’t even realized they were talking in terms of teaming together, but he wasn’t about to have a go at survival alone. “C’mon, let’s check the next room.”

    He slowly stepped out of the study and started down the hallway toward the next room. If he had to take a guess, he would have bet the next room was a bathroom or bedroom of sorts. They didn’t have many rooms left to check, which Brendan found slightly relieving. “Do you think we should try to stay here as long as possible then?” He asked, shooting a glance over his shoulder to Sarah. He drew in a deep breath of air, stopping just in front of the slightly cracked open door. “We’ll search for stuff later,” he murmured, deciding that it was best if the two of them checked the place for more zombies before they started to gather materials. He pushed his toe in between the door and the frame and nudged it open quickly, raising his weaponized kitchen utensil as if to strike. He breathed out a slightly sigh of relief when there was nothing initially in the small bathroom, but there was the matter of the closed shower curtain. He grimaced a bit as he eyed the flimsy fabric.

    “If there is something hiding in the shower, that is way too B-Horror movie,” he murmured to himself as he slowly stepped into the small room. He reached over to the counter and grabbed bottled soap from the countertop. He tossed it at the shower as a precaution, satisfied when he heard it slip through the fabric and onto the bathtub floor. He strode over to the shower and quickly pulled back the curtain, glad when he found it was completely empty of zombies.
    Abby studied the axe in her hand for a few moments, completely oblivious to the fact that Kennedy found her newfound accessory so funny. She weighed it a bit in her grasp before glancing up to meet his gaze. A small twitter of a laugh left her, more nervous than anything. “Let’s not count on it. I tend to underdeliver…or…I used to,” she murmured softly before shaking her head a bit and letting out a dry laugh. “Is it past tense now? Living before all of…” She paused motioning outside. “…this?”

    Another laugh left her at the mention of compromised masculinity and she shot a look over at him. “You look pretty manly to me. And getting pizza in the face of an apocalypse and shoving pretty much only bourbon in your bag is pretty damn manly,” she jested with a wry grin. “It’ll be better for you to be warm than to worry about masculinity anyways. I’m not going to judge you and I could potentially the last living person you see,” she added with a small shrug. She realized how grim that sounded, so she quickly said, “My opinion is pretty important, I guess.” She offered him a cheeky grin.

    She glanced around the store as he mentioned everything they could pick up to place in their bags. “We should each get at least one first aid kit. In case we were to get split up,” she said softly, stomach dropping slightly at the thought of facing zombies alone. She swallowed hard and shook her head a bit, not wanting to voice just how scared she was. Though, when he admitted he’d had a similar reaction to the heat kicking on, it made her feel at least a little better. “I guess we’re both a little jumpy,” she murmured with a slight grin. She started toward the pharmacy area of the store, thumbs tucked under the straps of her bag.

    Abby made a point to stop by the end cap where she’d found her scarf, grabbing one of Kennedy and chuckling quietly to herself in doing so. Grabbing a few first aid kits for the two of them, she drew in a deep breath of air before rounding the pharmacy counter to look for what she could. However, the sight that greeted her behind the counter had her stopping abruptly and staring wide-eyed at the floor. One of the pharmacists was sprawled on the floor, leg completely ripped from the body and pristine white lab coat was splattered generously with blood. “Oh my God,” she breathed shakily, immediately recognizing the man. They were merely acquaintances, making small talk whenever Abby had a prescription to fill.

    She closed her eyes for a brief moment, drawing in a deep breath of air through her nose. She could do this. She could make it a point to not be affected by this. This was her reality now and there was no option but to face it. Opening her eyes, she directed her gaze to the shelves instead of the corpse on the floor. How he got this way, she didn’t want to know. All she knew was the quicker she found pain killers, the quicker she could get away from the dead body.
    July 3rd, 2017 at 03:14am