My Zombie Shelter (open to everyone)

[prettyserpentine]

I was nervous. This whole place made me nervous. I didn't want to get too comfortable. I followed Randy inside, propping my bat against the wall and hugging the backpack to my chest.

"Is this where you guys live?” I looked around cautiously. It wasn't exactly homely.

It was kind of dark. And warm. I looked around for somewhere I could eventually curl up, but just stood in the one spot, wobbling a little on my feet. "Is there somewhere I can clean up? Maybe get a little water? I don't need to stay, if there's no room..."

 

[gearhead73]

"Is this where you guys live?” she asked her voice a little shaky with the obvious fear of being in this kind of a place with a stranger.
It was a simple enough question, but as I thought about the answer, the whole things seemed ridiculous.
"Well, yeah, I suppose. We just found this place this afternoon. There were three others before me and Mike showed up. Alli was with Mike when..." I said pausing when the thought of my encounter with Pan flashed back.
"When you and I met in the trees. I'm not sure what happened to her and the other tow haven't been seen since we have been here."
As I explained how we got here, that fact that there three people that I couldn't account for started to make me uneasy. Were they dead? Or undead? Where did they go. Suddenly I didn't feel so secure and I absentmindedly run my fingers over my rifle to feel some security.
"Is there somewhere I can clean up? Maybe get a little water? I don't need to stay, if there's no room..." her question brought my out of my thoughts.
I had remembered that Alli had looked clean when I saw her during the "search", so there must be a shower or bathroom of some sort here.
"To be honest I don't know. I haven't had time to scope the whole place out, but there isn't one on this floor that I saw. Maybe there is one on the second floor."
She was a little wobbly on her feet. It was kind of hot this time of year and I knew that she hadn't hydrated in the last few hours.
"Let's get some water in you and check out your injuries, then we can take a shower...I mean find a shower together...just c'mon"
'WTF!' I thought. 'I never get tongue tied.'

 

[prettyserpentine]

He looked a bit uneasy, and it made my stomach churn. Not to mention he'd only been here since this afternoon so he was as much of a noob as I was. My eyes widened as I noticed him run his fingers over his rifle. I shifted towards the wall, curling my fingers around the handle of my bat and holding it taut in my hand. Was he going to kill me? Was there some reason to be afraid? A million thoughts began to swim through my head and I looked down at the lantern. It was pulsing. Or was that my eyes? I scrunched them closed and opened them again. Oh god...

Then he suggested water. It was the best thing he had ever said to me. Even as I was sizing up how I could incapacitate him if it looked like he was going to shoot me. But I figured he might not, when he started blabbering about showering together.

"Yeah buddy, you wish. Like I said. Dinner first." I lowered the bat a little and leaned on it, exhaling slowly and blinking to focus.

 

[gearhead73]

"Yeah buddy, you wish. Like I said. Dinner first." she said after looking like she wanted to brain me with her bat.
I had lost my edge and hated that feeling, so I just turned and headed back to the kitchen where I had found all the stuff stored from before. I walked in and over to a couple of cases of water tossing a bottle to her.
"Here, wrap your lips around this while I look for something to clean up your face."
I started rifling through the cabinets and found a bottle of peroxide and some cotton gauze.
There were a few boxes piled on a chair so I set them on the counter and scooted the chair to the center of the floor.
"Have a seat." I directed as I moved the lantern to the countertop as well so I could get a better look.

 

[prettyserpentine]

I set the bat and the backpack by the chair and took a seat. God, sitting down felt amazing. I could have cried with happiness. An actual chair. I stayed leaned forward, didn't want to get all the blood from my back on the chair.

Randy tossed me a bottle which I promptly fumbled and dropped, but once I opened it and took a drink, it tasted like, better than anything in the world ever. Actual clean water.

"Oh my god, this is the best thing I have had in my mouth in weeks. Maybe months. Thank you." I looked up at him, a little flushed. I knew I looked like shit, but I really meant it.

I tilted my face a little so he could look at my nose properly. I don't think it was broken. And with the lantern it gave me a good light to look at him. He had nice eyes, and a good jawline. I wondered what it felt like. Then I felt my heartbeat pick up again and blinked my wide green eyes with the sorely mismatched pupils. Not doing too bad here, I thought.

 

[celestialdragon]

I walked into the place and was instantly on guard. It felt like it had at one time been some sort of prison compound. I wandered around and eventually found the kitchen, where there was a crate of apples. Oh my god. . . Apples. . .

Back in Iowa, my boyfriend's place had an apple orchard. We with our friends would go and pick apples, climb the trees, and just lay in the sun, laughing about nothing. At night sometimes I'd sneak over to his place, and we'd make love out in the orchard. . . I shoved those thoughts aside as the darker images of what happened that morning, him getting dragged down. I tried to save him, but to no avail. . .

Save yourself, love. Just don't forget me. . .

James! NO!!

Shaking my head of the flashback, I grabbed a few apples and started eating one with my kukiri as I wandered back, where I found Randy attending to Pandora's nose.

"So you did that to her? What'd you do, thought she was a zombie or somethin?" I asked leaning up against the door.

 

[gearhead73]

"Oh my god, this is the best thing I have had in my mouth in weeks. Maybe months. Thank you."
I really wanted to come back to that, but I had a tsk at hand and the sooner I finished the sooner I could get some sleep. The fighting and the bickering were catching up to me and as bad as I stunk, a shower could wait. I just wanted to get into that tower and isolate myself for a bit.
I started cleaning off the blood, bark and grime. I noticed that her one eye was a little dilated and groaned inwardly as I was going to have to put sleep off for a bit. I was n EMT, but the many first aid classes I had been forced to attend told me that not only was she dehydrated, she had a slight concussion. Whether she liked it or not, we were spending the night together.
I had most of the surface dirt off and started dabbing at the cut. Green eyes seemed to be examining my features as I worked. She had a thin oval face and was actually quite pretty. her long black hair, while mussed and dirty would probably shimmer and wave in the summer breeze and sun when clean. All in all, she was pretty, and being this close to her started to bring parts of my being alive that I had buried deep years ago.
"Almost done hon, just hang in there a few more minutes. The cut isn't as bad as it looked, you'll be right as rain in a day or two."
I gave a slight smile trying to reassure her that she would be ok. Somewhere, in the back of my head I thought that as long as I had anything to say about it, I would make sure of it.

 

[prettyserpentine]

I looked around at Kristi, eating the apple with that machete looking thing. "I hope you washed that. I'm pretty sure I saw you stick it through a walker's face back there." I flinched a couple of times as Randy wiped the blood away and did his doctor-type thing. He was careful, and when he smiled his eyes crinkled a little. It was friendly. Made me feel safe.

Kristi asked if he had done this to me. "Well it was an accident. Tensions were high. I kind of ended up kissing a tree. But it's fine. No harm, no foul."

I looked back at Randy again. "Can you sew stitches? I got kind of slashed a day or two ago, I think I need a couple in my back, and I just don't bend that way." My hand drifted down to the brown furry arm sticking out of the kid's backpack and I gripped it, like a stressball. I hated having to rely on other people. I'd done okay on my own, even though it broke my heart. My thumb stroked the fur.

 

[celestialdragon]

I shrugged. "I always wash my weapons after I use 'em." I took another bite of the apple. "Understandably, tensions are high."

I heard her ask about stitches, and I could tell she was uncomfortable. "I can," I volunteered. I was going through training to become a paramedic, and I knew how to do stitches. Did one on James after a nasty fight with thorn bushes. . .

Pushing that aside I looked at Pandora and felt bad for her. I could tell she hated relying on people. I was the same way.

 

[gearhead73]

"Well it was an accident. Tensions were high. I kind of ended up kissing a tree. But it's fine. No harm, no foul."
My eyes flashed to River, who had this Crocodile Dundette thing going on as she leaned against the counter. I wasn't sure how she would react. Women seemed to get a bit testy about shit like that especially after they had bonded on the ride back.
"Just a misunderstanding..." I said trying gauge whether or not me and the Iowa Ninja were gonna have issues. As I finished the job on Pan's nose I let a finger caress her cheek and I looked into those emerald eyes that were starting to look a little better.
"I'm sorry about that, I didn't mean to hurt you." I said in a low tone. I had hoped we would have some privacy when I apologized, but the time seemed right and I meant it.
I gathered up the bloody gauze and moved toward the trash can where I had thrown the empty peach container earlier.
"Can you sew stitches? I got kind of slashed a day or two ago, I think I need a couple in my back, and I just don't bend that way."
Snapping back into my regular shtick, I hold up the hand that she had bitten.
"I probably could have until you decided to make a Scooby Snack of my digits here!"
The pain had left a long time ago, but I wiggled them for emphasis anyway. This time there should be plenty of light for her to see me wink.

 

[prettyserpentine]

I winked back at him. "Alright Kristi, sew away. I promise I won't yell. I'll just squeeze my hands nice and hard. No point wasting any pain stuff."

I swept my hair away from my back and let it hang down over my chest, lifting my pretty badly tipped tee shirt up so she could see the damage. I held the backpack in my hands, and opened it. There he was, the faded brown bear. I held onto him. Best comforter ever.

 

[celestialdragon]

I looked at Pandora's back and whistled. "That looks fantastic!" I said sarcastically. I looked over at Randy. "Fetch me some brandy from the kitchen, I got to clean this out."

When Randy left, I rolled my eyes. "Looks like I know where his mind is," I said with a sigh.

 

[gearhead73]

Pan started to lift her shirt and I turned toward the door.
"I'm gonna go check the perimeter."
I grabbed another lantern and a box of matches. Just before heading out the door, I turned to see the gash that ran the length of her back. I thought about us on the car when she was lying down. The pain must have been brutal, but she never said anything. Then again, I hadn't really come off as the 'open up to' type. I walked out the door with a little more respect for Pan...dora. she was tougher than she looked and those parts of me that I had buried to protect myself started to awaken even more. For the first time in months, actually years I felt...human.

 

[prettyserpentine]

I scowled. My face felt much better with the dried blood washed off and cleaned up.

"He's alright. He just feels bad. Everybody has baggage with this whole thing. Even kids like you."

 

[celestialdragon]

"I know what you mean," I said as I cleaned the wound with the brandy. It was rudimentary medicine at this point, but hey, I had to make do. "Survivor thought that I was just a kid who missed the strike when it came. Zombies came and got him. He was dying, he wasn't ever going to transform. Put that one out of his misery." that was a sad day indeed, and I pushed other thoughts out of my head.

I started sewing her up. "You had somebody? Back before hell broke loose?" I asked.

 

[prettyserpentine]

I glanced down at the bear. "My family." I grimaced as the brandy soaked into my wounds. I squeezed him tighter. "They didn't make it. I lost them in Kansas. They never made it out of the city." I hung my head. I didn't think I'd ever forgive myself for what happened. I'd gone over a hundred different ways to save them... But nothing could change what had happened. We couldn't have stopped it. I shook a little, closing my eyes.

"What about you? Any family or loved ones?"

 

[celestialdragon]

I nodded, slowly stitching, making my stitches nice and even. "yeah, my troupe of friends, which included my boyfriend. My dad. My mom had already passed, bless her heart. My dad never made it out, and my boyfriend was caught in the horde that morning I told you about."

 

[prettyserpentine]

I bit down, the pain was pretty sore but not unbearable. My head was still reeling. "I'm sorry. I know what it's like to lose someone... I lost..-" I bit down again, almost burying my face in the soft fur of the little bear. Sometimes I could imagine we were at home, and I was tucking the bear into bed beside her...

Another stitch brought me back to the present. "How is it looking?"

 

[celestialdragon]

"Honestly? Hellva lot better than before," I said. "Just a couple more stitches to go."

I concentrated on my task, letting her set the tone for a bit, sensing her unease.

 

[prettyserpentine]

"Good. I can't wait to find somewhere to sleep. I might be able to get to actually sleep..." Words couldn't describe how much I wanted that. I waited patiently for Kristi to finish up and tried to keep my mind from wandering away.

"It's funny. I've been alone for months, I think, and today I've met more people than I've seen in ages, and I kind of want to be alone again. Isn't that weird?”

 

[celestialdragon]

"Not at all," I said calmly, finishing up my stitches. "You're used to the solitude, and now, meeting people has you feeling nervous, because you're afraid to trust them, to care for them, in these times."

 

[prettyserpentine]

"Yeah. I like the quiet." I smiled, and dropped my tee shirt back down. "I think I'm going to check this place out. Maybe have a bite to eat, a shower. And sleep." I looked up at Kristi. She was so young, but she had really done herself proud. Such a survivor. I smiled at her, probably too much like a mom. "You did good, kid." I got up, picked up my things and headed for the door. "Get something else to eat. And rest too. I think Mike is taking perimeter."

 

[AmenRa]

OOC:

I don't mean to offend anyone, but this has been on my mind and I've got to say it:

I have not given anyone permission to use my character, which means none of you have any right whatsoever to write my character's responses or actions into any of your own posts unless you are referencing such actions or responses that I have already written.

I appreciate you all wanting to move the story along, however if you must do so without being respectful enough to wait for me to post my character's responses then I must withdraw from this thread with my character and leave you to your own defenses against the undead.

Thank you for considering my point of view,

-Ra

 

[prettyserpentine]

(OOC: My apologies. I assumed that was the norm in RP in order to move the story along. Please don't leave on my account, I'm new at this. But I respect what you are saying, and will have more consideration in future)

 

[gearhead73]

OOC: Sorry man. I should know better. I got caught up in the action and went with the flow. Please don't leave the thread, your writing adds an element to the story that keeps it realistic-ish.