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Post by Marmalade Boy on Jan 1, 2008 5:56:52 GMT -5
Rio frowned,
"I'm not saying anything" She said to both Theo and Cass, "Do whatever you must, but I'm not killing him"
Rio stated, hoping that it would make her look big, but turning her attention back to the melting snow. By now Rio thought that the snow was melted, or melted enough to be used by Cass, so she gave a final check to see that it was done enough, and wrapped a grimy tea-towel over the handles of the metal bucket, as not to burn her fingers on the heated metal. Lifting it up, making sure not to spill any, she made her way over to Cass and offered her the bucket,
"I think it's all melted Cass" She said, "Would you like me to fetch some more?"
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Post by theokor on Jan 6, 2008 7:06:48 GMT -5
Theo sat on the ground, brooding in his own thoughts about what had happened. At first he had thought of ending it for Red when Cass suggested it, but seeing Kin tensing around the cold body pushed the thoughts straight out of his mind. Turning off the gas as to not waste any he picked up one of the spare buckets and headed out of the room, muttering as he went "it was just a suggestion, I just wanted to get this over with so he didn’t keep suffering." with that he pushed his way out of the small room, barely noticing the two new comers as he stormed off down the corridor towards the stairs up, his bucket clattering over the walls as he went.
On the roof he dropped the bucket and walked to the edge of the building, looking out over the white city. Distant dots on the horizon and the occasional crack of gunfire the only signs of life in the otherwise silent city. Suddenly without warning Theo ran across the roof and kicked the bucket he had dropped, a loud clang echoing out over the city as it flew back and hit the stairs down. Jogging over to it he fetched the bucket and set it back on the snow before picking up fistful’s of the white powder, packing it down into a hard ball and throwing it into the bucket, his throws getting harder and harder until he catches the side of the bucket and it tips over, throwing out the collected snow and forcing him to start over.
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Post by kinrrataiyath on Jan 6, 2008 16:39:51 GMT -5
Cass didn't reply to Rio immediately. Her eyes were on the boy as he shuffled his way out of the room with a mumbled explanation. The kid had issues, that was plain to see, but so did they all. They were stuck in a post-apocolyptic city with brain eating neighbours. It was a bit hard not to go through life without a problem or two... or ten. Everyone had their breaking point somewhere along the line. Everyone lost a little bit of sanity to this mess. Some just held in a bit longer than others, and for that Cass had to give him credit. She made a mental note to have a chat with him later as she turned her attention back to Rio.
"Thanks, this is good. I think the kid's gone off to get more anyway," she said as she accepted the bucket and balanced it lightly on the bed beside herself. "I need a cup. We'll only be drenching him if we try to make him drink out of this. Kin, you mind propping up his head?" Her voice had dropped to a more neutral tone and her eyes only flickered up to the person she was speaking to for a moment before returning to watching the bucket. The worst of the crisis was over. Now they were stuck with the wait.
Kin was quick to oblidge the request. It gave her a reason to unwind from Red a bit but still remain close to him. Having Cass sitting on the bed and all the people gathered around made her feel just a bit uneasy about hugging him, but it was for body warmth, right?
Wordlessly the scientist scooched up a few inches and tucked an extra pillow under her unconscious beau's head. She wrapped one arm around his shoulders, ready to help nurse the water down his throat when the cup arrived. Her focus was on the task at hand. If she let her mind wander, even for a second, she'd begin to wonder if maybe Theo was right. Maybe they were only prolonging the inevitable.
"You two coming in or what?" Cass asked when the silence had gone on too long. She looked towards the little boy and the stranger hovering in the hallway, looking like they'd fall through the world if they dared to step across the threshold. The room was already pretty crowded, but two more bodies were two more sources of warmth.
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Post by Marmalade Boy on Jan 6, 2008 17:28:43 GMT -5
Rio nodded at the request for a cup, opening her rucksack to take out a neon orange plastic beaker, which was clean by Malton standards and handed it to Cass with a smile,
"That's the only one I have, is it good enough?"
Rio asked, before taking her rucksack off entirely and putting it in the corner of the room, feeling a little better to get some more weight off herself for once, traveling didn't give her the luxury of not having to carry a heavy bag.
Meanwhile John, who watched Theo leave the room in a huff and caught the words of his in his little ears, wondering for a second why he was so angry. It wasn't like they had shunned him for his suggestion was it? Nevertheless, he was snapped back into reality by Cass' words, making him jump a little. He quickly and without word shuffled into the room, and took a better look around, finding the situation of being in a room with two lovers in bed a little weird,
"Umm, hiya"
He said quietly to Cass, still a little afraid of her... (which showed, much to his embarressment)
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Post by Red Dawson on Jan 7, 2008 16:15:23 GMT -5
It had been like dangling on the edge of nothing, hanging at an impossible and precarious angle, rigid in the succumbing darkness and silence. A familiar ferocity pulled at him with intangible appendages with a confidence based on inevitability, yet he swayed not to its embrace - a determination, a final goal kept him fixed on the precipice of oblivion. Then the void of silence was filled with vague echos, faint at first yet slowly building in strength if not clarity, and soon the emptiness of nothing was filled with a distant notion of sensation. There was a sudden shift that teetered him away from the feral void, pulling away from that dark place yet not completely freeing him from its enduring hold.
As Kin adjusted how his head was resting, Red's eyes opened slightly with the motion. The world was awash with color - although drab due to the neglect and trauma that it had witnessed, it was overly vibrant compared to where he had been - and the hues ran together in motion-filled blurs as his eyes failed to focus. Getting in touch with the world was fleeting at best and he was but an observer, only able to get a hint of the sensations that presented themselves. Sounds were warped, smells were skewed, and the only thing he felt was a faint bit of warmth near by. And then there was the light of the world, twisted in swirls like a watercolors bleeding into indistinction. It was a painful sensation and his eyelids fell shut to shield him from the aching experience.
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Post by kinrrataiyath on Jan 8, 2008 10:01:28 GMT -5
For a few precious seconds, the young boy earned the full attention of the snarky soldier woman. She squinted curiously at his distant stare and very timid stance. Children, she knew, were not fond of strangers in strange situations, but surely by now he would've gotten used to it. How had a kid of his age survived this long anyway? And then, upon further inspection, she recognized a look in his eyes that she so rarely saw anymore.
Fear.
But it couldn't be directed at her, right? Right. She wasn't even trying to be scary... yet. Still, Cass had never been known for her maternal instincts. Rather the opposite in fact. Children took to her about as well as a fish did to land. She would've spent more time in contemplation on John, but just then Rio put a bright orange beaker into her line of sight.
A beaker was not a cup, but it was smaller than a bucket. Cass gave it a thorough inspection, which by her standards meant a quick peek inside to make sure there were no green, glowing contents to be wary of. When she was satisfied, she nodded to Rio and dipped the beaker into the bucket of warm water.
"It'll do fine," she assured the woman. So many godd*mn new faces. At least the names were getting easier to remember. Theo, Rio, Red... In fact, she couldn't think of one that went over four letters. Huh, wasn't that nice and simple?
"He's awake!" Kin whispered in sudden delight. She'd noticed the eye movement as she was adjusting the pillow to her liking. At first, she had thought it a trick of her mind, taunting her with the possibility that he could survive this. The fluttering of his lashes had been brief and small, but after a thought she was sure she had seen it. He was awake and he was going to live. Her heart leapt up into her throat and refused to come down.
Cass turned around to look at the "patient" the second she heard Kin's exclamation. Kids and strangers could wait until after she'd made sure that Red survived.
"Good, help me with this," she instructed the scientist as she held the beaker to his lips. Very slowly she began to pour the warm water into his mouth as Kin stroked his throat to ease its way along. She had to admire his will power. He had been on the verge of death when she'd found him, but here he was almost an hour later fighting to stay alive. Too many others she'd known had given up long ago.
Too many people had been lost to this hell, but Cass had grown used to it. There was nothing else that one could do.
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Post by Marmalade Boy on Jan 8, 2008 13:18:07 GMT -5
John squirmed under Cass' stare, and to him it looked like she was examining him. What for, he didn't know exactly, but he could guess that she was looking if he'd make good dinner, he'd heard rumors of things like that, which answered the question to why there wasn't any children around the city anymore. Thankfully, she diverted her attention back to Red, ceasing his wondering whether he'd be pie or stew and Rio lifted him up in a mothers hold, bouncing him slightly as she did,
"Will that be alright?" Asked Rio, "I could put on some soup or something for him"
Rio refrained getting closer to Red to take a look at him, he was crowded enough without Rio and her cargo going to take a peek at the wounded man. John squirmed into Rio's grip some more as she got closer to Cass, which Rio ignored and shifted her grip on John...
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Post by Sarah the Bullet on Jan 9, 2008 1:50:50 GMT -5
"I think it's time for us to get some food set up," Sarah said to Sandy, and she quietly dragged her off downstairs...
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Post by kinrrataiyath on Jan 11, 2008 15:47:48 GMT -5
"This'll do," Cass replied absently. Most of her concentration went to pour the warm water down Red's throat without choking the poor man. That's all that he needed now. Survived the bitter cold outside only to be drowned by the people trying to save him. "Maybe you could go check on the kid outside though. Think he went to get more snow or something."
She knew full well that Theo had gone off to vent, but he'd been gone too long now. Better to keep the whole flock inside and sulky than have to chase them down in this weather at night.
Meanwhile, Kin watched over the unconcious man like a hawk over its nest. She would not be persuaded away from his side now, even though she'd been uncomfortable crawling onto the bed in the first place. Her fingers gently coaxed the water down his throat while she waited for a sign; a finger twitch, a whisper, a breath, anything that would tell her that he was coming back.
The guilt was beginning to creep into the back of her mind. It was her fault that he was in this position, cut off for so long from his friends. If she hadn't stayed at the Needs, if she had just told him to go... but she didn't. Now here they were months later attempting to pull him back from the edge. She did her best to ignore the thoughts, focusing instead on making him comfortable while Cass scooped up more water, but the sibilent whispering of accusation in her mind would not be silenced entirely.
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Post by mock on Jan 12, 2008 0:53:37 GMT -5
((written on the assumption that Mock has been home for about a week. I don't want to muddle this thread up by having one more person return home at this particular moment))
By the time he could walk and talk again, Mock was 3 months older and it was winter.
It didn't look like much else had changed.
There were still zombies, most notably, and there was one shambling towards him as he extended his arm out to it in the devestated parking lot. This wasn't very smart, what he was doing, seeing as how he had only just gotten better. The old folks in the barrio had only just let him walk out a week ago, once the infection had subsided and he'd woke up out of his fever-coma. After all the treatments and the transfusions and the holistics and the praying, they'd given him as close to a clean bill of health as they could. And all without killing him, or letting him die. He guessed they just didn't believe in "rebooting" people.
So within one week of his 9th (or 90th) life, Mock was out here in the snow waiting for a zombie to take his arm. He felt the brittle hands close tightly around his forearm, felt the penetrating cold through his jacket. He manouvered around to the side of the zombie and jerked his arm away, slipping it loose from it's grip. He took the offending arm and wrenched his body to the side, twisting the zombie off balance and sending it tumbling into the show. He shot it between the eyes so it wouldn't follow him home.
Eddie had been badgering him to practice basic hand-to-hand, escaping holds etc for weeks before the last attack. Not so much encouraging him, but frequently pointing out how easily Mock could have his ass handed to him once a zombie got up close. He never did much listening to Eddie, but after being nearly killed yet again, he figured there might be something to that.
Of course, Eddie never came back. So he didn't know everything, did he?
He had offered to show Mock some things, but the idea of sparring with a lunatic who pretty much always got carried away didn't appeal. Practicing out here with the zombies was doing him a world of good. He'd never be Bruce Lee but it felt good to reinforce his weaknesses a little. Maybe it was just because he'd been in space for a few months, but he felt like he woke up into a different body. or maybe he just started to notice that he was growing up. Since the outbreak, after all, he'd aged a few years. He was a little bigger, a few inches taller. He just hadn't had the time to stop and look.
He stretched his legs, still aching from such extended inactivity, and considered smoking the joint one of Victor's guys had given him from his growop. Seeing as this thing was probably worth like a million dollars in Malton-bargaining, he kept it in his coat and climbed up onto the skyway, hopping his way back the the hotel and letting himself in via the roof.
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Post by Marmalade Boy on Jan 12, 2008 7:21:52 GMT -5
Rio nodded, giving up on the squirming John and setting him on the floor again, where he quickly grabbed onto Rio's leg like it was the last solid thing on Earth, Rio sighed and shook him off, where he then just stood in the safety of Rio's shadow,
"I'll go check on him, will it be alright if I leave John here? He shouldn't be much trouble, unless he wants to be!"
Rio giggled, taking off John's hat to ruffle his hair, which he squirmed away to and made sounds of dislike, but not actually saying anything. Rio put this down to just being difficult around strangers, but John was thinking differently, not really wanting to be left alone around a dying man and someone he thought was out to eat him. Of course, this really ruined his tough guy image he was trying to project, but by now John didn't care, and Rio had already replaced his hat back on his head and was walking towards the door, although waited for an answer from Cass...
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Post by theokor on Jan 14, 2008 5:56:33 GMT -5
Theo had long since gotten over his frustration, the now dented and battered but snow filled bucket sitting alone by the stairwell while the man himself stood on the edge of the building, his breath once again condensing as he looked out down into the alley by the hotel, something had caught his eye. This particular something was one of the walking dead, although at this point it was laying face down frozen in the snow. Leaning over the edge a little to get a better view Theo couldn’t help but think that it looked so peaceful from up here, just laying asleep in the snow without a care in the world, sure he would get up again eventfully, and more then once he had came around with the taste of blood in his mouth but he always failed to remember what he had done while one of the dead and upon leaning further out he had a moment of foolishness in which he believed it must be peaceful.
By now the man was leaning far out over the ledge, any further and he would fall. Standing on the edge of a building staring down into an alley is never a good idea, but with snow on the roof and strange thoughts in his head the man gave one more slow look around. And then, he fell.
And then with a jerk he stopped falling, still staring down into the alley it took Theo a moment to realise what had happened, slowly he turned his head up to see what had stopped him and was surprised to see his own hand, having automatically reached out when he fell, gripping to the edge of the roof as his body swayed a little below it. Slowly warm crimson blood began to trickle from where the sharp roof edge was cutting into his frozen fingers as he just hung there as if trying to decide to climb back up or pull his hand away. Eventually he swung his other hand up to the roof and slowly pulled himself back onto the now blood stained snow of the roof. For a moment he just knelt on the edge of the roof, his warm blood mixing with the frozen snow under his hand before shaking his head and walking back over to the stairwell, any further thoughts of suicide were cut off as he went to pick up the bucket and hissed as the metal handle cut further into his bleeding fingers, switching hands he made his way back down into the hotel.
Stumbling a little as he hit the last step Theo made his way up to Reds room just as Rio was looking to leave, with only as much as a "sorry I took so long" he sat the bucket back on the small cooker and lit it, glancing towards where Cass was slowly pouring water into Reds mouth he stammered slightly "h-how is he doing?" Theo managed to get out, already knowing he would regret hearing the answer.
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Post by Red Dawson on Jan 15, 2008 11:43:02 GMT -5
A warmth began to spread through his body, concentrated towards his core and making a determined yet slow march to reach his extremities. It was as if the ice that had frozen a multitude of pin-prick wounds was slowly beginning to thaw, allowing the injuries to once again let their presence known through a series of aches. The dull pain made his body wish to slip back to that dark place, free of physical sensation, yet his mind kept him in this world of hard reality, not wishing to once again teeter on oblivion. He had a purpose; there were things he had to be assured of. The time for nothingness could wait until he came to the end of his journey. The warmth helped keep him on that path and he tried once more to let the light in.
When he finally moved his eyelids up to get a sliver of the world around him, it still held the harsh visual experience that he had just recently witnessed. The amorphic shapes of color still swirled and melted together, but this time it was softer and more a blurring of reality than a chaotic rearrangement. The view amplified the distant echos, bringing a touch of clarity with the union of sight and sound and, although still muffled and incoherent, he began to calculate that the noise he heard was most likely voices. Yet with this new found interpretation of the world came an increase in the underlying uncomfort - as if his body had been dragged by a motorbike down an endless road of glassy ice. There was little energy left in him, and it took that just to reopen his eyes on the occasions that his eyelids slipped back shut.
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Post by kinrrataiyath on Jan 15, 2008 15:57:35 GMT -5
Cass glanced over her shoulder, acknowledging Theo with a short nod of her head. Well the good news was he hadn't gone and done something stupid while off on his own. She was about to give him the very vague response of "Kin said..." when she was cut short by another squeak of sound from the worried scientist. Her focus changed abruptly, jumping back to Red with hawkish scrutiny. This time, however, she saw it too. His eyes were open, albeit faintly, and when she touched his cheek, he didn't feel quiet so cold.
"Better," she reported after a minute. "He's starting to wake up. Don't doubt he'll have frostbite from this though. Keep that water coming and-" Once again, Cass was cut off by a muffled sound. She really hated being interrupted, but even the building was aganist her today. It sounded almost as if the door had closed again, but who would be wandering around still? A quick check of faces in the room told her that any number of the Cosway crew could've just mosied on home. Still...
"Theo, anyone behind you when you came in?" The soldier's eyes snapped back around to rake over the long-haired man shuffling in through the door. All this sudden activity was hard to keep a handle on, but the good news was that it kept her focus off John. If the poor boy figured this woman was out to make a paste of his liver, then at least he could take comfort in the fact that she was amply distracted at the moment.
"Shhh..." murmured Kin over the distant drone of people talking all around them. Red was in distress, pain, God knew what else, and she could only sit here and watch. The inactivity on her part was tearing her up, yet there was nothing she could do to relieve it. She mollified herself with giving him what comfort she could provide. Her slender fingers brushed his hair away from his face and kept the pillows propped up beneath his head. If she could have forced her body to give off more heat to warm him, then she would have. All the while she murmured to him, hoping, praying that her voice would bring him back from the edge.
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Post by Marmalade Boy on Jan 16, 2008 2:17:43 GMT -5
Rio sighed and shook her head as Theo entered the room again, taking a look at the snow-bucket on the gas cooker and kneeling besides it, keeping a good eye on the melting snow. Not that it was going to explode or run away, but watching it to see everything was fine with it was some kind of default reaction for Rio. However, she noticed the slight red-liquid marks on the handle and back up to Theo, seeing his bleeding hand and for a moment wondering what had happened. After deciding it'd be better to ask, she asked:
"Are you alright Theo? What did you do to your hand?"
And for greater emphasis tugged out some home-made bandages from her pocket and began to unravel them, partly listening for Theo's reply and partly listening in for any more information on the cold-crippled man lying on the bed...
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