Rebuild [closed thread]

[Qyron]

January 21st, 2013

Day 90

I'm making this record in the event I get killed by Zed and someone makes it here alive and in need of help but if I was any thing near smart I would have already left this retched place.

I have set up a (somewhat) fortified position and secured enough food and water to last me for at least a year, as well as firewood, fuel and other supplies. The down side is that this place is thick with Zed and there isn't a day I don't have to get my hands dirty out there.

Why I haven't cracked yet is something beyond my comprehension but no matter how scary this world as become, I wake up every morning eager to get into the routine: get up, take a look outside, take a piss, eat something, check the damage Zed as done to the fences during the night and repair it to make sure I live to see another night and wake up the next morning to do it all again.

Oh, I was forgetting to mention I'm tending a garden but if I get killed the crops wont last for long unattended. The garlic and onion beds are growing well and perhaps I can get to seed some beans and potatoes. That if those aberrations don't get me first.

-#-#-#-​

The man closed the journal and went to look outside from his window. It was raining hard, with each drop landing on the already soaked land sending up a splash of water, and it was hard to see anything beyond 100 feet, even from a second floor. But staying inside wasn't a choice.

Very slowly, he got dressed. Fashion statements were long gone and he had grown accustomed to use working clothes and boots; it was comfortable and sturdy and that was all that really mattered. The familiar weight of his machete hanging from his belt completed the outfit. After taking a deep breath, he stepped outside his room and walked downstairs.

As expected, the building was secure. Nothing could get inside without causing a mess; he had made sure it was like so. The building was his keep and if it fell, all was lost. All the windows on the lower floor were boarded up, inside and outside, and the doors were locked, chained and barricaded.

After peeking through a series of strategically placed spy holes and spending some time hearing what was going on outside, he decided it was safe and walked out to meet the familiar grim scenario of tattered figures roaming around between the abandoned cars on the street and like any other day, when the heavy door scratched the concrete floor, the figures amassed on the fences, making it chime. Even the barbed wire that ripped open the putrid flesh wasn't a deterrent for the moaning mob; if it wasn't for the reinforcements he had placed on the inside, it would had long been felled.

«Today is not a day to be outside. At least not here.» He felt depressed as the words formed in his mind. It had been raining for three days now and it showed no signs it would be stopping any time soon. The only upside was that he was replenishing his water reserve and building it larger than before. «Perhaps the rain will wash the smell away for some time.»

He was about to step back inside when something made him walk into the rain and stare at the moaning crowd of walking corpses that sniffed the air to take his scent in.

- Hey, Zed! - His shout was received with a chorus of shrieks and moans. - Enjoy your bath.

Soaked and feeling cold, he stepped back inside, closing and securing the heavy door behind him but he could not simply get back in his bedroom and sleep the day away. Forcing himself up the stairs, he stepped out on the terrace, now with a heavy raincoat over his shoulders, to check the perimeter again, this time from above, and stand guard there until the cold forced him back in.

 

[HottieKatie]

Mia was determined. She had to find a human being today.

She had been roaming alone for too many days, and she was starting to get crazy. She knew how to take care of herself, but she needed a rest. She had been sleeping upon trees, in barns, in towers... but always with an open eye in case a Zed would come around. She had found some in her way, but each time one of those filthy creatures appeared, she just put an arrow between their eyes. Easy, as she was a wonderful archer. And as she had learned to make her own arrows, she never run out of them. Best weapon in these days, she thought. Fast and silent.

Finally she saw the building in the distance. And the Zeds around the fence.

“That must mean there is someone inside!”, she was glad.

But it would be difficult to get past them. Anyway she had to try.

For more tan a week she hadn’t had a real human contact, she was getting a bit crazy, and worried she was going to forget how to talk. After her camp had been attacked by a group of creatures she had been alone. Four days before she had meet a couple of guys, but she had had to kill them after they tried to rape her. Good luck she was an athletic and agile girl. Any of the other women she had been with in the past months wouldn’t have stand a chance. They hadn’t, in fact, during the attack.

After all the “zedness” started, Mia had found herself traveling with a group of people she had met. It was quite diverse: men, women and even some children. They had managed to stay safe until a week ago, when out of the blue, they were attacked by two dozens of filthy creatures while most of the men had gone hunting for food. Mia had been training the weak women in the camp, but it had not been enough. As much as they all fought, there were too many creatures, and only Mia and another woman survived. Unluckily, the other woman had been bitten and she asked Mia to kill her. Alone, Mia went to look for the guys in the group, only to find them also brutally murdered a mile away.

Thus, she started her journey looking for another group of people to stay with.

It had been completely unsuccessful, until today.

As she approached the building, she noticed the man on the roof.

“Perfect, there is life inside”, she was happy.

She checked the arrows on her back and counted the Zeds on the fence. Of course she hadn’t enough arrows, but maybe she could get enough of the bodies down to jump over the fence and get inside.

The rain was helping her. The creatures couldn’t smell her that well soaked as she was, and the mud she had got on her clothes to go unnoticed was helping too.

She got her bow ready and walked slowly towards the disgusting crowd.

One more step. One more step…

And then she started firing.

 

[Qyron]

Two hours could have gone by as it could have been a full day. With the weather as it was, there was little to no difference from dawn to dusk and it was useless to keep track of anything more than that. Each single day was as the one before.

He had spent some time walking around the roof, doing his patrol, as he called it, checking if the bastards down on the ground weren't trying to force their way in but it seemed that the rain was getting to them as well so he settled down as he noticed the stumbling figures walk away to find shelter in whatever building that still held a roof and some degree of structural integrity capable of keeping the rain out. Perhaps it was slowing them down or perhaps his eyes were playing tricks on him but he noticed the figures on the ground becoming clumsier, stumbling and falling to the ground and resorting more and more to crawling than to actually walking.

A faint smile came to his lips, as he crouched over the roof edge looking down into the distance, following the bigger bulk of stumblers into a medium sized, run-down, office building that had had its garage doors forced open just enough to allow a human body to slip trough and out. The idea of those things being as affected by the weather as he was ironic. Glancing over the glass walls of the building, covered with blood splatter and organic stains, he couldn't keep from wondering how the chaos that had happened inside had started: if it casually walked through the front door, inside someone too sick to actually work but not able to skip a day to go to a hospital or through that forced door already in the form of one of those walking horrors. The smile fade away when those thoughts crossed his mind.

His stomach complaining turned his attention to more immediate and tangible problems: he hadn't a had something to eat in quite a while and there were no leftovers at hand; he would have to cook something and the sooner he got to it, the sooner he would be having it. He was about to walk inside when something odd caught his attention.
Something moving around on the ground had nothing wrong about it. What was off was how it actually moved, as it didn't stumbled about, out in plain sight, dragging its feet. It was actually making a great effort to conceal itself from sight as it moved around from cover to cover, using the abandoned cars and all sort of piled debris on the road to hide.

«What the...?»

A pair of binoculars were in his hands in an instant but even with the aid of the powerful lenses the figure was just a shadow in the distance amidst the fog that was again setting down, fast, and thicker than before, yet it seemed to be heading towards his position. His mouth was suddenly dry with the possibility of facing another human being.

It was soon clear the figure was navigating a course towards the building, as he watched from his vantage point, moving from one hiding position to the next, making its best to avoid the roamers that were still standing under the rain, immobile, waiting.

«Shit!» Almost jumping down the stairs in his rush, the man left his perch. There was no doubt whoever that person was, it was coming his way, but it was also walking into a death trap as even the rain hadn't been able to drive away the mob on his front door. Moving as if possessed, he unlocked the door and flung it open, lifting the heavy door from the ground in a clean movement, to again step under rain, eyes darting in every direction, assessing the situation, trying to find the figure in the distance and how many walking corpses separated it from the safety of the fenced patio.. «There!»

Some zombies had noticed his presence and were now walking towards the gate, amassing again but with the barrier in place he direct his attention to the figure, now just a few yards away as it emerged from behind an overturned car, unnoticed. It had something in its hands. It stood completely still for a moment, looking towards the moaning group at gates and suddenly a head shattered.

After the first one collapsed to the ground, most of the crowd was turning its attention to place were the sound had come from and was moving. The sharp whistling sound of the arrow flying just inches away from his neck snapped him from the stupor and the man ran towards the gate, to pull back the heavy block blocking the gate and, as expected, the noise brought back some of the walking horrors. The chains locking the gates stretched as they pushed against the wire mesh and a gap big enough for a body to slip through but the heavy blade of the machete was waiting as the first intruder tried to force its way in. A strong kick was enough to send back and onto its companions the now truly dead undead.

- Run towards me!

His own cry sounded strange. Filled with urgency. Almost desperate.

 

[HottieKatie]

Mia started feeling better when she knew the other person had seen her. If by some awful coincidence he had got inside the building before noticing her, she would surely had died in trying to get in. But with his help, she knew she could make it inside. She had to! She hadn't fought for so long to die there. No way.

The cars on the street and other piles of things were being excellent cover points for her. She was a small girl, so mostly anything would do to let her out of the crowd's sight. And her dirty smell wouldn't tell her position so easily. Before starting the advance, she had remembered an old trick someone had taught her: cover yourself with old dried blood. Always. So she always carried with herself a little jar with dirt and blood. It was so gross, she had hated it at first, and had thrown up sometimes just smelling herself. But once she realized it made her a less easy target for the mob, she had learned to "like" it. Sometimes she dressed up so well, that she felt she was with one of the dead roaming bodies.

And thus she made her way to the building. Shooting, running, hiding. Finding a new target. Shooting, running, hiding. She got so many bodies down before she saw the door going up.

"Yes! Thank God!", she was relieved, and breathed for some seconds before continuing her killing journey to the gate.

The space the man left was big enough for her. And although the dead bodies wouldn't fit in, they tried anyway, smelling the fresh meat inside. She had to be quick, otherwise the bodies would pile around the gap and she wouldn't be able to get in.

Mia decided to go for the final run.

"Hey there, pile of crap!" She shouted to the mob to get their attention as she jumped up a near car.

While she waited for the walking corpses to get closer, she measured the distance between her and the gate, one long jump, two somersaults, and a little run and she would be inside. Thank God for her interest in gymnastics at school!

"Yeah, you hungry? Come and get me!", she went on shouting.

The nearest bodies were already moving towards her, but she needed to get the attention of the ones near the gate, those were the ones that worried her the most.

Finally she got them, some of them were still there, trying to get to the man inside, but she decided they were enough to handle.

So... three.... two.... one.... jump!

The dead bodies couldn't even see her, she umped over them as they jumped on the car and fought with each other to get the jacket she had left on it. Sad, she liked it, but she needed to leave something behind to get them busy while she run.

Once near the gate she crawled quickly besides a trapped headless body and soon she was inside. Tired from the effort, she lay on the wet muddy ground, eyes closed, breathing heavily, her whole body recovering

"Thank you", she finally managed to say.

Mia heard the man moving around her, but she was too tired to care. One minute, she just needed a minute to recover, and then she would better thank him for the help.

Unluckily she didn't have the time, as a second later she blacked out.