My Zombie Shelter (open to everyone)

[gearhead73]

"How does it look?"
The question hung in the air and as I rolled through the responses that I would have usually given, I instead paused and took in the sight before me.
She had a pretty long laceration that ran almost right down the center of her back from the shoulder blades to just above her waist. The areas that were stitched were red and inflamed a bit, but it looked to be more from strain than infection or anything. It was actually a pretty remarkable example of properly executed field medicine that River had managed to pull off. The blood had already started to dry and it didn't look that much worse for wear.
As for the rest of her back, it was in a word, beautiful. Her skin was fair and relatively blemish free, save for a small birthmark above her left hip. She was thin, too thin and the raised outlines of her ribs shown, even in the dim light. Her waist narrowed into her jeans and reminded him of a time when the delicate shape of a woman before him didn't seem so foreign.
I couldn't have stopped myself if I wanted as I traced a small outline of the gash lightly with my fingers. I knew I should be, but as my head was preparing for her to turn and try to kill me, the rest of me had decided it was worth it. My throat was dry and I could hardly form words as I croaked out an answer.
"It's looks...good...just lay still for a bit and let it dry a bit. Your shirt will keep opening it up if it gets into the wet blood and then you move."
I had given my assessment, but my hand had continued to absentmindedly make light circles on her lower back well below the injury.

 

[prettyserpentine]

I could feel his fingers on my skin and it made me shiver a little. I bit my lip and lifted myself up on my elbows very slightly. I glanced over my shoulder at him, my eyes wide and nervous. I looked down at his hand, and then at my own hip. I could see the faint outline of my right hip bone, and the very faded old stretch marks from my pregnancy. I could see the 'm' of the tattoo I'd had done when I was at college. I looked up at him again. I wasn't sure if I should say anything. If speaking would scare him, like a deer or something. I just smiled a little, and tried not to be so nervous. I tucked my hair behind my ear.

 

[gearhead73]

It was many minutes before I looked up to see her looking right back at me. My hand froze on her back, but absolutely refused to leave it. I searched her face for a sign, a look, anything to let me know if things were good or I should prepare for my demise. She was shivering, but not from cold. It dawned on me that she was probably as nervous as I was about whatever was happening between us. A slight smile formed on her lips and I took this as a sign that she didn't want to bludgeon me to death, right now.
I moved forward and lay beside her on my side with my head propped up on my elbow, making sure my hand never left her back.
"What are you thinking?" I managed just above a whisper. I steeled myself for her response, awaiting the inevitable fight that we seemed to use too often to escape one another.

 

[prettyserpentine]

I thought for a minute, looking down at my fingers. What was I thinking about?

"Peas." I said. Nice, Pandora, real nice. Very smooth.

He was looking at me and I suddenly felt like my scalp was prickling. I looked up again and blurted out. "Is it bad that I like that? The feeling..." I felt colour rush into my face and I felt a little tortured. "...of you being here..." I swallowed. I clasped my hands together and held them close to my chest. My hair slipped out from behind my ear and separated us.

 

[gearhead73]

As torturous as it was, I lifted my hand from her back and pulled her hair back behind her ear so that I could see her.
"I don't think so." I noticed the hue of her cheeks.
"I like being here with you too. I have kind of...tried to find ways to be around you all day."
I didn't know how she would react to me expressing the things that I had in my head. If history was the most accurate predictor of future results, this could turn out to be an awkward existence behind these walls. But I decided that at least if I had said it, she would know where I was coming from.
"I have spent so long trying to insulate myself from feeling anything, good or bad. I figured that it would be easier that way. I quit caring about living or dying, being happy or sad, I just became an animal."
I was starting to air thoughts that I had never dreamed would need sharing, but something told me that she might understand.
"Then yesterday afternoon, I find this place and people who didn't know or care what I had done, or where I'd been. They needed a team member, and asked me to be one. Then...last evening I meet a woman in the most absurd miserable way possible, but within hours I realize that she knew pain just like me. In fact everyone did. So, I start feeling that maybe I'm not so alone after all and you and I...we found strength and safety from one another last night...and I realized how much I missed it."
I leaned forward to where our foreheads were resting together.
"I like you Pandora."

 

[prettyserpentine]

I wondered how hard it had been for him to say all that. I swallowed, and kept looking down, even when he moved my hair away. Just that basic human contact and I felt my heart start to hammer against my ribcage. I looked up at him through my eyelashes. "You aren't alone. We all have each other now, we can all care for each other." I tried to keep the emotion out of my gaze. I felt like I wanted to tell him something deeper, explain how he wasn't alone, how I wouldn't let it happen. My lips twitched a little.

I swallowed, and squeezed my fingers together. My eyes felt like they were on fire. "I don't want to be alone anymore." I gazed at him, my forehead wrinkling a little in perplexing lines. "Not just from a safety standpoint. I've been on my own for ages, the company is nice."

When he rested his forehead against mine, I gasped a little, my lips parting. I blushed again. Here we were, at the end of the world.

"I like you too," I whispered. "Especially when you're not trying to shoot me. Or break my face..."

 

[gearhead73]

I smiled. It was so Pan to wait until I expose my soul, let her into the inner sanctum of my head and lay all of my feelings before her...so she can stomp on my nuts.
"Well, how bout I promise to cut back on that then?"
I pulled my head back and then placed light kiss on the cut on her nose. We were so close now, just inches apart. I could feel her breathing on my neck. Her lips were parted and I could no longer fight the urge to cover them with my own. In an instant I changed our relationship forever with our first kiss.

 

[prettyserpentine]

He kissed me on the bridge of my nose and I eased a little, but then, it was like slow motion. I felt his lips on mine, and it felt so alien, so like something I'm not used to. I flinched and felt the twinge in my back, and I gasped. Shit. He was going to think I was mad. I grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him to me. My brain was screaming at me, what are you doing for the love of god woman, and the image of Joel telling me to close my eyes floated in my mind. I gasped again, my mouth opening.

I didn't know what the hell we were doing, I really didn't, but nobody did, and I was beginning not to care as I inched my fingers up and into his hair, holding him to me.

 

[gearhead73]

When she first pulled away I braced for the venomous words or the sting as her hand contacted my face. Instead, she grabbed my shirt and pulled me into a deeper one that pulled the air from my lungs. It wasn't just its ferocity that made it so stirring, it was the communication of a shared need that touched me so deeply. Her fingers snaked into my hair pulling me tighter, more securely into our joining.
I can't speak for her, but here in this place, on a bed, life in shambles all around us, I felt as happy and safe as when I learned I was going to be a father. I know she didn't love me, but that was ok. For me this wasn't about love, or even sex. This was about for a little while feeling comfort from the fact that I wasn't alone, that I wasn't too damaged, or broken. This was about finding my way back to humanity and life, and sharing the journey with someone I cared about and could trust.
I broke the kiss for just a moment.
"Pandora..." I whispered. "...can I stay with you tonight? No expectations, no promises, just two people not wanting to be alone?"

 

[prettyserpentine]

I had missed someone saying my name in a faint sort of caring way. It was nice. He drew back and looked at me with worried and expectant eyes.

"Yes, that's fine," I said with a slight smile. I scanned his face. He had worry lines like mine. I couldn't understand why at the end of time he was lying here with me when there was a nineteen year old somewhere on the premises with no stretch marks and everything fighting gravity with the greatest of ease. I gently rubbed my hand against his upper arm. I had missed human contact, the silences between sentences. "But you have to promise, no dangling me from the tower."

 

[gearhead73]

My smile returned as our repartee resumed.
"Just tonight, or like ever again? 'Cause when you heal up, there's this thing I read about in hustler one time..."
She was rubbing my arm the way that couples do when they speak without words, and I took the hint to just shut up and be there. I settled in closer to her and returned my hand to her lower back. I made small circles keeping in mind her injury to avoid hitting it. I'll admit that I was turned on, how could I not be. Her shirt was still up and even with the cut, she was feminine and beautiful. I had to restrain myself from just going for it, but my finger were guilty of plunging below the waist of her jeans, just bit.
"It's...it's been a long time for me, since I've been...like this with somebody. I hadn't realized how much I have missed it."
My hand stopped caressing her, but stayed on her back.
"I didn't think there could ever be anyone...after Fiona. I was in such a dark place...for so long."
I realized at last that I just needed to shut up, and get my shit together.

 

[AnonymousSpecto]

(*Ahem*My last post was just me describing my first character that was near your area observing you all while trying to head for a mountain farther from your fort to get to an underground facility to meet with a contactee of his. I was just showing the clothes my first character was wearing and gear he had on plus equipment.) Jacob: 'Okay, maybe I am a little too worried', I thought to myself. I was near this fort area that was close to the mountain I was heading towards, there I saw people. After such and such happened, that being the outbreak, my team and I fled from the facilities that were being infected because of the mess we caused. I had gotten a broken leg from falling infrastructure as the building we were in started exploding due to the employees turning and just plain messing with machinery and equipment, trying to destroy it. We headed for a camp set up near by with other members of our organization from other facilities, they said the same thing had happened with their testing too in their area, it seems whatever solution was being used with the tests was tampered with and stuff happened. Any ways, through all that we made it to the camp and got healed up, and my leg finally coming back but now with a limp and slight drop in effectiveness. But then we found that someone there at the camp was dying and their bodied was left unattended, they disappeared and then came back with like all of the camp turned along with them within a night leaving mine and someone elses team to fend for ourselves. But things got too hectic and before I knew it, I am pushed into a raft down a river with supplies and get knocked out by my members with them last saying, "Don't worry, as long as SOMEONE gets to where we need to be, it is all worth it, now this will only sting, probably, I don't know just hold still!!!". With no time to protest I was knocked unconscious, that is what happened. And since then I have been yearning half a year now and five weeks to see someone new. Because all I saw wear survivors out for blood when they recognized who I was from the news, and monsters who had bad tastes. I learned a new skill though, more like a warning. Don't underestimate the keenness of civilians anymore. They are likely honed know because they need to 'survive' as they call it, when they don't even think twice to kill and scavenge instead of interacting and getting information to use to actually find out where they could go and reestablish society or what not. 'People just get some sort of rush with this survivor thing, it is so stupid, get what you need and advance to the next best thing when it is there, don't just lolly around and think you have to go stone cold commando on your environment like it is a movie. Preserving your life when there is a clear opportunity to move on' Uhhhhgggg. I am getting ahead of myself right now, yeah, I am cautious because one slight sound, crack of branch, rustle of bush, startle of animals and I am found, either dogs could hear or the people who do guard watch do. So now I walk swiftly and quietly. 'One step, two step, tree step, four step, fi..' SNAP!!!!! That would be an old fashioned hunters leg holding jaw trap. The one where you step on it and a set of metal iron jaws clasp on your leg crushing your ankle bone and holding you tight. Well I dodged it before it could get a hold of me, but as I noticed, it was not just made out of metal, it was made of steel, and so with that came a realization that a loud sound was made echoing through the area. Now the zombies were miles away so they would not have heard that, but since I am in the woods near the fort, like almost right next to the entrance area, the sound would be heard by those inside. Damn, hunters gotta leave their taps out too long for the most inconvenient time. Anyways, I better start hurrying, no doubt whoever lives in that there fort is gonna hear.

 

[gearhead73]

OOC: *facepalm*
IC: It's amazing how seemingly innocuous events can work together to have a direct impact on your life and the life of others. Similar to the butterfly effect, where a gentle flapping of wings can cause a tsunami, a unnatural snap in the middle of the woods hundreds of yards away from someplace can set of a chain reaction of occurrences.
Birds fly away chirping, alerting deer who in turn run. This scares a fox who then runs across a pasture ouside of a twelve foot high block wall. The scent of even this small predator causes the animals that had been set to graze and mill around to stir and make the various nervous noises that animals do when danger approaches.
Such were the way things were going today. I had just opened my heart to Pan and awaited for her to hopefully do the same when I heard the goats in the yard baying or whatever they do.
"Somethin's up hon." I told her. "Stay here and let me see what's going on."
I jumped from the bed and decended the stairs grabbing the AR10 on the way. A quick pull of the charging handle to chamber a shell and daddy was ready to go to work. I didn't notice anything in the immediate area, so i climbed the stairs to the tower for a better vantage point. There was nothing inside the compound so I looked outward toward many vast pasture fields that surrounded us. Again, nothing stodd out, but being the ever thorough one I lifted the rifle to my shoulder and started scoping the area.
Even though the trees were hundreds of yards away I could crank the magnification up and getter a better look. I didn'tsee anything at my first glance, but there just seemed to be something off about the whole thing. I slid the chair over to the wall, and lowered the legs of the bipod. This may take a while, but there was anything in the trees, even as far away as they were, eventually I would see them. Whether friend of foe, I now had someone that I would do anything to protect. If they didn't want to end up breathing through their forehead, they would be careful how they made themselves known.

 

[prettyserpentine]

OOC: Right okay darling, I'm stepping in here. It says in the original post on this thread that if you want to be involved in the RP within said thread, that you need to come to the gate. Not stealth around the gate. And stealth badly, I might add. Considering your character is wearing a shitload of hi-tech gear and the fact that you are blatantly attempting to lure us outside the gate, I'm a little concerned in involving myself with a Mary Sue character, not to mention one who is on his way to a secret government compound and will most likely be able to defend it all single handedly or with the use of some super-sensitive boobytraps. I don't know how you dodged a steel bear trap with a broken leg. That was pretty impressive. I myself enjoy acrobatics. I have been known to attend a few Cirque du Soleil performances and boy, those kids are flexible. So. My point. If you're stealthing around the woods, laden down with three 25 litre backpacks armed with about eight guns, various knife kits and tool kits and water bladders and a freaking axe, how did you not just lose a leg? Not to mention all your enhanced vision stuff.

Now I'm nerd-raging. Ugh. Romero would be ashamed of me. Anyway. You want to get involved? Come to the gate. And I'd advise toning down the GI Joe a little bit. How you made it this far laden down with all of that stuff is miraculous at best. That said, I am, as I mentioned the other day, very excited about a new RPer. But we are quite realistic, I can't speak for the others, but I myself am quite trepidatious about all the secret agent stuff. But thus far I have been open minded, and will continue to do my utmost to not be a nit-picking Z-head.

There. Now. I'm going to get a nice cup of tea and finish my ironing. Have a super fun day.

 

[AnonymousSpecto]

OOC: (Hey also guys, if you read this please read the whole thing carefully and all, just to get everything I have written down.) Well all that equipment really is not that advanced, I had to look up equipment people could use and such without it being too advanced, because this equipment that has all that super advanced weaponry and stuff really that is the description, but it is just normal helmet made to have a really clear plastic/glass, I really don't know, face piece for protecting my face, and a little fabric thing wrapped around my head. I just have air force goggle on and they aren't that special, normal bags that do carry a lot of equipment, I was trying to do that because in one of my posts I said that I had a lot of stuff people could use. I did not have a broken leg, I said it got fixed in my post but just a little limp, and me dodging the trap was mostly out of a stroke of luck. I mean you two are really good with a rifle and could shoot me pretty far with pretty good accuracy. Also, what does it matter that me stepping on a trap triggering a loud noise to be apart of the story is bad. "Kristie", she got involved by having a branch break and you guys noticed her, and started interacting with her without have her come to the gate. I also said I was trained, my character, but not saying I am super government agent trained, if your athletic then you can be pretty agile, plus pretty good at fighting, if I say like I used some sort of martial arts move, that is not unrealistic, any person being trained professionally must learn some form of self defense, and if i like know stuff like that then it pretty normal actually. I am not using GI-JO persona and all, I am pretty a normal character. And the whole facility thing is not that special, any one, with enough money and power, could secretly take control over a portion of underground space and build a compound/facility area to hold whoever or whatever, all they have to do is hide. I was not planning on adding super advanced drones and ninjas and shit. A simple area underground, plus it is not defended by anyone else, I will soon find out. Because with the second character I was had, I was typing how he was there and saying that he had to wait for someone, that being my first character. He was saying how he also was worried that someone would find it and how he didn't want anyone and any survivors come and raid the place or a hoard of zombies to come. Indicating that the place wasn't that special and that no crazy advanced stuff was there. Also my first character was supposed to move around stealthily and all but I was saying how he started getting paranoid about how people had gotten very aggressive and savage and so I was saying he was getting a little paranoia from that, so thus showing he would be off a bit on his stealth stuff, plus don't forget he is not as agile as before, he broke his leg, which did get fixed and all but will also shows he lost a bit of his bodies effectiveness. Please, go a little easy on me, I am making it realistic and all, I am sorry I didn't explain things more clearly and what not, i should have so I wouldn't seem to be passing a character off as from a movie. Also can I say, this is a story, i know you guys wanna make it realistic, but like the whole thing with the animals chain reaction and all, that is too much over analyzing for a story, I know it is what might happen in real life, and you guys I am stopping you from putting that on the story whenever you want, but for me why can't we just pretend the animals didn't hear anything and progress onward. Also, please don't do respond back to me with annoyed expression and explaining how what I wrote down was confusing and too out there and nit picking at it a bit and then end with trying to say something nice so you guys don't look like you are doing any of that and don't look antagonizing. I am sorry guys, but could ya calm down a bit. I will try to explain and not sound too much out there as a character.

 

[AnonymousSpecto]

OOC: Plus I am in the woods, near your place, but trying to stealth, I am paranoid and have a bit of a limp leg that is not broken but less effective than it used to be. Soo, yeah, but um, I am trying here. Unless you guys would suggest me drooping this character completely and choosing someone else.

 

[gearhead73]

OOC: ok look, I don't give a shit what you wear, what you know, how you were trained or whatever else, but dude, seriously?!?
We could hear the branch that Kristie broke becasuse if you recall, she could see us at the time. We were all about 30-40 yds apart, totally plausible.
Have you ever seen a steel trap? I have, in fact I have set them, Chuck Norris on speed couldn't beat that fucker, they close in an instant. I was willing to let that go, but if remember, the compound was half a mile away fro the car, IN THE TREES where you are. There is no fuckin way on God's green earth we could hear that from inside the fucking building behind a 12 ft goddamned brick wall.
CONTEXT! that is all we are asking for. If you wanna be a GI joe, 003.5 secret jackoff resposible for the end of the world, who am I to crticize, but if you want us to interact in the story, you need to help out a bit.

Can we please move on?

 

[AnonymousSpecto]

I am sorry okay, sure I will do that, can we calm down, I know it was a little confusing and for some reason was really bad of me. Plus it was also stupid of me to do that, I understand, but could you not get so serious or angry at that, I know I have to do that in order for it to make sense, I got it. But please just calm down, don't take it too seriously, it is a story, we are trying to have fun in it, I made a few mistakes, just calmly tell it to me, please try not to get soo serious about it or cold. I will try to do what you had said.

 

[prettyserpentine]

I waited for an hour after he left. I might have dozed a little. When I awoke I wondered where he had gone. I pulled my shirt over my head, went into the bathroom and used the scissors to cut open my shirt at the back, cutting the fabric away and leaving it backless. I tied the bottom of it around the back, so it clung tighter to my chest and gave my back a chance to heal properly.

I walked down to the kitchen and lifted my bat, tapping it once on the floor before holding it over my shoulder and taking off at a brisk stride to the watchtower, where I found Randy, sitting with his rifle, scanning beyond the wall. I coughed as I entered the top of the tower.

"Cruising for chicks?" I said as I stood with my bat over my shoulder, my hand on my hip.

 

[gearhead73]

I had been sitting there scoping the area for about 30 minutes and had seen nothing. Well, not nothing, there was what was promising to be a pretty nice buck eating at the edge of the field. I put the crosshairs right behind its shoulder and moved my finger to the trigger. I watched the grass around its legs and noted that the winds, at least where he was grazing were calm. It was well over eight hundred yards as close as I could estimate, but with a few adjustments to the turret of my scope, I figured a zero hold would put one right in the sweet spot.
I didn't intend to kill it, but it had been so long since I had been hunting just for recreation, and the meat, that I couldn't help at least going through the motions. My mind started to wander from my past days hunting with my Dad and uncles to school, work, Ireland, and of course Fiona. As I thought about those days together so long ago my mind eventually wandered to Pan and the kiss we had shared less than an hour before. I could still feel it on my lips and the heat of made me long to be back there, on that bed, with her in my arms.
I heard coming up the stairs of the tower so I struck my best Mark Wahlberg pose and put on a show of scanning the area.
"Cruising for chicks?" I heard her say.
"No, I saw one a little bit ago, but she was missing half of an arm, so I figured I'd just wait for you instead."

 

[prettyserpentine]

I clicked my tongue. "Well lets face it. She would only need one hand for what you'd need her for."

I moved up to his left and looked around at the forestry. The breeze was a godsend against the flayed skin of my back. It felt fantastic. "The animals are a little restless. I wonder what's out there. Probably just a falling tree or walkers or something." I leaned over the little wall, leaning against my bat, squinting my eyes and looking out into the wilds.

 

[gearhead73]

She moved up beside me and I couldn't help but take notice of the modification to her shirt. It was tied and the back and clinging much tighter to her front, Star Wars had never seemed, so exciting.
"That's true, but it would be awkward cuddling afterward."
I watched her looking around, but my eyes would scan her body and that's when I noticed what looked like a tattoo. This peaked my interest, and I was about to ask her about it, but never got the chance.
"The animals are a little restless. I wonder what's out there. Probably just a falling tree or walkers or something."
"Yeah, I heard them making noise when we were..." I lowered my rifle and leaned it against the wall. I walked over behind her and placed my hand on her hips.
"It was nice...with you...", what is it about her that turns me into a blubbering idiot? "I'm glad we...I mean it, I really like you."

 

[prettyserpentine]

I looked around, my hair covering my shoulder as I turned my head. "I gathered that. You keep mentioning it." I spoke low, and smiled at him coyly, looking up through my lashes. I glanced down at the rifle. "It sure doesn't take you long to drop your weapon, does it?" I looked out over the wilds again. "I wonder how long it'd take for you to get it up again."

Snickering, I lifted my bat and held it in both hands. "Did you see anything out there? I was thinking we should probably all take turns out here, you know, keeping lookout. You seem to be doing a sorry job at it." I smirked as he laid his hand on my hips.

 

[gearhead73]

I was happy to hear that our moment of tenderness hadn't dampened the banter any.
"For the record, my weapon is always ready, can fire multiple times, and..." I decided that continuing the innuendo would do nothing but leave me sleeping alone again.
"Did you see anything out there? I was thinking we should probably all take turns out here, you know, keeping lookout. You seem to be doing a sorry job at it."
"You're ready to trade in your plush bed for another night in the tower?" I said with a chuckle.
I gently turned her around to face me then moved closer, until our bodies were touching and her butt pressed against the railing.
"That was a special night for me too." I said while lifting her hair around her ear.

 

[AmenRa]

I had taken Max outside and dug his hard, rubber Kong ball out. I threw ball with him for a bit while Pandora and Randy were in the watchtower.

I thought about that for a minute. A watchtower. This place had been designed from the start to be defensible. The only thing was that with the three people we had right now, not counting the ones missing, it wasn't that defensible. At least not for long. Three people couldn't hardly hold all the defensible positions of this compound. True, the front gate was the only access. And, since the undead couldn't climb the sheer walls, and I doubted they had access to ladders or scaling gear, we would be okay from them. But, should an outside force, read that as a group of marauders hell bent on taking this place, attempt access it would be hell.

Theft, looting, and general savagery was rampant since the end of the world. There was no law except that which one's self made. A quote from John Wayne in The Green Berets came to mind: "Out here, due process is a bullet."

Damn if that wasn't the truth.

I had decided we'd make our supply run first light in the morning. Move out with the sun. Traveling at night with those things out there was just too dangerous. If we found ourselves unable to return tomorrow at dark we'd find a place to hole up until we could move. This was all depending if Randy and Pan were okay with it.

I scratched Max behind the ear.

I stripped off my shirt and decided to go for a run. The compound wasn't large enough to get a serious one in, but it was big enough that a couple of laps would do me right.

Hooyah. The only easy day was yesterday.