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Post by Lunapocalypse on Apr 28, 2011 2:26:05 GMT -5
"C'mon Anna," Alex whispered intently, "What's taking so long," scanning the darkness of the square. It was close to impossible to see anything; her breathing against the window constantly misted the glass pane, furiously wiping the damn thing down every thirty seconds.
CRACKOOOOM
Skeleton crawling out of her skin, figuratively speaking; Alex had jumped so high from the thrash of lightening. It had been right over the top of them; it was like the damn storm was just sitting over the island, tormenting the survivors.
At the same time she had seen something a little off about the square; things which looked out of place, "One Mississippi. Two Mississip-"
CRACK
'Anna!' the light cut through all of the fog and rain, illuminating the entire place. Anna was stuck close to the most open spot, and lining the skirting of the village square rooftops were countless hooded crows; their red eyes reflecting the light, "Damn!" Alex hissed.
"What's wrong?" Elizabeth called. Alex turned, hushing her aggressively.
"Keep quiet! We've got a problem outside. Anna's in trouble," another flash and crack of thunder shook the roof over their heads, Alex prayed Anna wouldn't run from suck, "Just stay put," the frenzied girl mumbled under her breath as if to send the message telepathically.
Waltzing over to the counter, picking up the can of spaghetti, Alex drew her knife stabbing it into the top of the tin and tearing a hole out of it, "Stay inside," she ordered the couple, heading back for the door.
'Hopefully no one wanted spag to eat,' she thought to herself as she quietly stepped out into the square. FLASH. CRACK. Even after timing the thunder and lightening the sound still made her jump. Alex waited, steady, tin of tomato pasta combination hand grenade ready.
"One Mississipi-" the lightning flash first, the tin flew through the air second, the thunder hit third. A loud clank resonated off the cobblestone pavement as all of the spaghetti sloshed out; ever crow in the vicinity perked up, shrieking, and pile drived towards the can, "Run Anna!" Alex screamed, heading back into the shop as fast as possible before any of the crows could redirect her way.
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Post by NotAvailable on Apr 28, 2011 2:34:44 GMT -5
Anna had seen the illuminated can slam against the wet ground and practically burst open, splashing sauce over her pants and shoes. When the crows dove for the can, Anna bolted into the direction of Alex who was booking it back toward the shop. Her footing was slipping and sliding everywhere until she was close to the door. She tried to slam on her breaks, metaphorically speaking of course, when her boots skid passed the store entirely, sending her into a tumbling frenzy into a trashcan.
Crashing into that, the crows had began darting toward her once again. Anna sloppily hurried to her feet, slipping on some more ice and what smelled and looked like rotting beans before diving through the open door, where Alex slammed it closed behind her. The crows continued flying toward the door, ramming their bodies into it as they did so.
As the survivors had tried to catch a breather, the crows had took it upon themselves to patrol the door, fluttering around it, hoping they'd slip up and come back outside. Anna panted and sat up on her rear, brushing herself off a bit.
"Christ, that was close....dammit, I still didn't get any meds for Keith....what do we do now?" she asked, looking back at Alex.
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Post by Lunapocalypse on Apr 28, 2011 2:51:47 GMT -5
Looking down at her knife; it was entirely possible it could work. There was one charge left. Alex sat on the option for a moment before shaking her head, 'Not yet,' wiping the blade on a curtain and slipping it back into its sheath, "Pretty much a death sentence if we set foot out there," she replied to Anna, most or less justifying that there wasn't a lot they could do; unless Keith could wait out longer than the crows.
Putting a hand on Anna's shoulder, "You alright?" it had been pretty darn close, she had to agree; they had made it through the trial, though. Alex didn't want to speak her thoughts out loud, she was fairly certain this was only foreshadowing what events might come of their time here on the island, "C'mon. Is there anywhere else in here you haven't checked?"
There might have been a medkit hiding underneath a set of shelves, just waiting to be found; the whole place was pretty bare though, any hopes of finding something for Keith would be neigh on impossible.
Alex had been looking at the shelves at the time, something nagging her brain; like looking at a running tap trying to figure out what's wrong with it before realizing you were wasting water. At least that was how she figured it.
Hand to chin, "Roller wheels..." it probably sounded stupid being said out loud, but it was true. All of the aisles shelf units sat on roller wheels. Locked in place of course, but movable none the less, "We can use these," Alex said, receiving a few dumbfounded looks at her inanity, "No, really!"
The locks were quickly kicked off and she moved two together, lining them up with the door; they were fairly small, and with the shelves removed would fit right through, "Then we bolt a couple of the shelves to the front and back," she snapped one on for example, the DIY-ness of the whole thing acting quite the charm, "And sit a few on top. We could roll right through the square in our own personal moving fortress. It's hard as nails metal, so the birds won't be able to break through," pitch made, time to see what the board of directors thought of the idea.
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Post by NotAvailable on Apr 28, 2011 3:04:33 GMT -5
Anna nodded when asked if she was alright, not like she hadn't encountered this before, she has many times, but usually with someone hanging around to help her fight 'em off. With the very few shells she had, she wasn't ready to spend them on a bunch of birds. Thinking of this, Alex had mentioned an idea of building a fortress out of shelves so they could move about freely outside.
Anna squinted a bit, pursing her lips to contain laughter as Elizabeth raised a brow. "Seriously?" she asked, not very humored. Anna shrugged and leaned her back up against the wall next to the scratching door. The scratching hadn't been present at the time.
"I guess it could work. I mean, what do we have left to lose? Sure it's pretty damn random, but it sounds effective," she said, sucking back a laugh between those sentences. Elizabeth sighed and shook her head.
"They're both insane," she told her husband.
"No, just desperate. Do you want your damn medicine or not?" Anna asked, impatiently. The woman nodded nervously. "Yes, yes, we do, fine, whatever, just...do what you have to do, please," she pleaded. Keith groggily looked up at the two woman and the slumped his shoulders.
"Yeah...please...?" he echoed.
Anna cracked her knuckles and looked over at Alex. "Alright, looks like we're building a mini defense mech."
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Post by Lunapocalypse on Apr 28, 2011 3:21:41 GMT -5
"Gahd," Alex stood to her fullest in whimsical pride, "I'm gonna figure this out, it's gonna work, and then who's gonna be laughing?" she started getting to work on her balls to the wall idea, unfastening winged bolts on the shelving, "Reckon you could help me out with my crazy idea at least?"
It didn't take too long with two pairs of hands on the job; taking off all of the shelves, "See, the top and sides of the shelves have holes as well. We can fasten them to both ends with about a couple of centimetres between each," they got started on that, doing the same with the top. The entire thing was surprisingly sturdy and could be pushed up against a door so not to be attacked by any birds, "Worst thing that can happen is we could get shat on. You think zombie birds can sh*t?" Alex looked to Anna curiously.
"Elizabeth. We'll need you to open and close the door for us," the pale girl held a couple of shelves in hand, "C'mon, get yer backside in there," she ushered Anna to take the helm before getting to work on screwing the shelves in place and locking them in, "Someday... I hope somebody does this for me... when I break my leg," she span the lust nut and knocked her fist against the metal, "Okay. In your own time."
Squeek of the door opening was their cue; as soon as cold air and rain drops hit the metal they were moving, "Closeit-closeit-closeit!" Alex barked at the woman as soon as they were free, hearing the door slam shut behind them, "Go wherever Anna! Got no clue to where we can find what Keith needs!" Alex shouted over all of the cawing, hard rain, and flashing thunder. One glaring problem were the gap beneath the shelves, a bird slipped underneath incidentally having its head crushed by Alex's foot.
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Post by NotAvailable on Apr 28, 2011 3:30:04 GMT -5
Anna had been trying to move briskly, Alex keeping up pace. Then she went and heard a loud squawk and crunch. She'd stopped moving and looked back and down at Alex's shoes. She grimaced and started moving forward again. "Great, bird brains on your prada, deary," she joked. There were multiple sounds of chirps, pangs and small little indentions in certain places every now and then.
Trying to peek out of the small cracks, she'd seen what looked like a convenience store down the road. They just had to manuever around tables, chairs and corpses to get to it. That being thoroughly planned out mentally, she'd noticed something in the distance. Looked like a human figure.
"Got company near the convenience store down the road. Wonder if it's a zombie or a person..." she told Alex before muttering a "move a bit to our left, there's a dead guy in the way."
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Post by Lunapocalypse on Apr 28, 2011 3:46:51 GMT -5
"Nggh!" Alex skated out of the way, narrowly missing the corpse, "Thankee," pushing several more times to gather momentum. With the ground as icy slick as it were it was possible to simple hold onto the sides of the shelves and just slide to victory on the rain slick parade.
Alex peeked over Anna's shoulder to spot the figure she had seen, "Okay. We'll rock up as close as possible to identify it. If it's hostile, leave'im ta me," she announced as they moved onto more solid pavement; one of the wheels had been rattling pretty hard from behind, Alex fearing it might give way.
"He's just standing there," Alex mused while trying to get a picture of the figure through two cracks at a distance, flinching from another kamikaze bird, "Birds're kinda ignoring him too-" once the figure raised his arms in a drunken state and shuffled towards them the two untouchables could tell it were a zombie, "Yep. If we dispatch him he might get some of the birds attention off of us. Get ready,"
Bracing herself, "Spin!" Alex locked her left leg up and pushed away with her right foot, spinning the entire fortress around 180 degrees; Now she had the helm; but control wasn't something to focus on at the time, "Keeping pushing along! I gotta aim!" propping one boot on a shelf and letting the other skid along the ground, the muzzle of her Browning poked through a crack in the shelves.
PAP. It had been a surprisingly quiet report, but the brain matter exploding out of the back of the zombie's head was clear to sea, body dropping limp to the ground.
The fortress crashed into the convenience store door, no time to make things look pretty; Alex had already been unscrewing the shelves, propping them up and tucking the nuts and bolts into her pocket, "In we go!" hand dropping onto the door handle like a rock, the girl practically fell through to make way for both of them.
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Post by NotAvailable on Apr 28, 2011 4:11:11 GMT -5
Anna had moved into the store, it was pretty spacey and large for a convenience store and from the looks of things, it too was looted, but there was still some things lying around the ransacked place. They split up to search for something, anything, that could be of use. Moving briskly into one of the short aisles, Anna had noticed a silver flask on the ground near a corroded puddle of blood. She'd knelt down, picking it up and wiping some excess blood off of it on her pant leg. It was completely untouched near the drinking piece.
Either way, she shook it about finding it half full before placing it in her jacket pocket. Holding her shotgun out and forward, she'd carefully moved around the shelves and took a peek around to see there were feet hanging out from behind the counter. Moving closer, she'd looked over said counter finding a man in uniform, lying dead on the floor.
"Huh...musta been the clerk," she said, kneeling down to look at him. He had, what looked like a bullethole in his head and in his grasp, a Browning handgun. She carefully unwrapped his fingers from the trigger and handle, releasing the gun and holstering it. She searched his aapron pockets, finding a key to the store room in the back of the store.
A bit of shuffling and something being knocked over, Anna yelped and quickly took aim at whatever it was by the counter. Something small and furry had been hiding behind a box of People Magazines and a clip for the handgun.
"Alex, come take a fricken look at this," she called from where she knelt.
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Post by Lunapocalypse on Apr 28, 2011 4:24:26 GMT -5
The two front wheels of the fortress were locked so it wouldn't float away, quickly slamming the door shut so no crows could flock through the opening between the top of the frame and top of the fortress. Alex watched back through the window at the angry mess of feathers, superp*ssed at once again being cheated out of a fresh meal.
Flapping her arms removed some of the rainwater which drenched her, "Yuck," wiping her boot against the closest edged object to remove the bird residue she had gathered on the sole, "Serves it right, but maybe its blast radius could have been a little less larger," taking awkward steps down an aisle locating a cloth to wipe off the rest of the coagulated crap.
Huffing a breath, "What'd you find?" Alex asked, stepping over to where Anna waited; she spotted the handgun magazine. Nice find, nothing to write home about in such a gun toting nation. That was when she spotted the clump of fur moving about.
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Post by NotAvailable on Apr 28, 2011 4:31:26 GMT -5
Anna nodded a bit before clicking her tongue a few times, loudly. The lump of fur had flinched a pair of yellow eyes had flashed at them. Ears pushed back, the creature had been startled and hid behind the magazines once more, a small cry emitting from it's frail body. Needless to say, it was a cat. Well, a kitten, more or less. Made sense when Anna and Alex looked over to see a small dish of water and half eaten cat food beneath the register.
"A cat. There's a cat alive in this store. Also, I found these," Anna responded, tossing the keys to Alex, which she caught without question.
"The store room door looked in tact, we can check back there for supplies...meanwhile, I'm grabbing this cat," she said, looking back down at it with a smirk. She hadn't seen a living animal since, technically, a few minutes ago, but those were crappy infected birds, they didn't count.
"C'mon, kitty, kitty...come on out...my little girl would love to have you...c'mon..." she cooed, clicking her tongue at it and trying to grasp ahold of it. It meowed and bolted off into the store.
"Dammit, get back here, flea bag!" she chirped, getting up to her feet. She caught an awkward glance from Alex before smiling nervously. "What? I want the cat!"
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Post by Lunapocalypse on Apr 28, 2011 4:54:27 GMT -5
Alex shook her head with a wry smile, "Poor thing," she stepped around the counter to take a good look at the door it had escaped through, "Thought I'd closed that freakin' thing properly. I hope he's okay," she had her hands on her hips in regret, "Maybe we can look for him later?" the suggestion was made. It was probably surprising to find Alex were a bit of an animal person as well; un-reanimated of course.
Stepping back to look over the counter, "Dead guy, not by the undead," checking the scene around him, "Struggle is pretty lack luster, but it's evident enough," the pool of blood glistened, "And that is recent," the whodunnit had begun. Someone else was on the island, and they didn't seem any fonder of living people than the undead, "Least they aimed for the head. Won't have to worry about him getting back up."
Aiming for the rear door of the convenience store, after a little trial and error Alex find the correct key to get into storage. It was dark, the lights weren't working, but it seemed the clerk had thought of that ahead of time. A torch sat ready for use, flicking it on did well to illuminate the place showing all of the wares available. MEDICAL stood out rather well in red, Alex clamped her hand down on a field kit and dragged it out, "If there's anything else you want, try to keep to a weight limit. Still gotta carry all this stuff back."
The case hit the floor with a clunk, forgotten for the moment while the dark haired girl went on a search for something of her own desire. It wasn't immediately discovered as there were no boxes of rounds or shells left over; Alex knew her hidings spots well, though, discovering a load of .45ACP stashed around the side of the ammunition cabinet, pocketing it, "Okay. We should probably get back to Keith quick. Might run into Salem on the way."
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Post by NotAvailable on Apr 28, 2011 5:06:55 GMT -5
Anna had unholstered the Browning and released the clip inside, checking it to see somehow it had more than half of it's rounds unused. The extra mag would be of use to Elizabeth that way she could get her Colt back ASAP.
Looking back at the clerk's suprised face she'd noticed the bullethole was between his eyes. There wasn't any residue around the flesh of it, so maybe he didn't pull the trigger afterall. Didn't matter, the guy was dead now and his weapon was hers.
When Alex came back with some ammunition and the medical supplies, she had slung her shotgun over her shoulder and holstered the sidearm once more.
"Alright, let's get moving."
Hiiiissss!!
Anna looked down by the shelf they used for cover on the way in, the kitten had been standing nearby, back arched, fur standing on end as it hissed madly at something near the entrance.
THUNK
Both women looked over at the large store window to see an infected had appeared, slamming the palms of it's hands against the glass, smearing blood and mud over it. It's jaw was hanging half way off as it groaned hungrily.
Two others had began shuffling toward the windows after it, a glazed, hungry, look matting their faces as they pushed themselves up against the store windows and door. Anna wondered just where the hell they'd come from, the centre square had seemed empty besides the damn crows. How'd they get there so fast? Of course looking past them, they could possibly notice the corpses on the pavement weren't there anymore, meaning these things were them.
"Oh come the f**k on, already. This is ridiculous."
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Post by Lunapocalypse on Apr 28, 2011 5:20:53 GMT -5
"Friggen hell, shoulda put bullets in them when I had the chance," Alex stepped ahead, ready to deal with the carriers, "They'll push their way through, and then the birds'll be able to enter easily. We need to sort this fast. Grab Salem once you get the chance!"
Being fresh off the zombie production line meant they still held a lot of stamina left in them, rushing Alex after pushing the shelves out of the way. She managed to get one shot off before being swamped by the second and third, shunting them out of the way, "I'll take care of them!" giving Anna direct access to the shelves and skittish cat.
Meanwhile a dark cloud flooded the sky, far darker than the weather hanging over the island. One giant synchronized caw filled the air as the flock of crows cascaded down onto the convenience store, some making it through the door while others crash landed into the windows attempting to break their way through.
Alex dispatched another zombie before ducking towards the ground, as the birds broke through they flew into the last zombie at a breakneck speed; literally breaking its neck and severing the top half of its body from its legs, "Get back to the shelves!" the PI cried, crawling to the medkit, "We are leaving!" shoving the medkit to slide across the ground for Anna to grab.
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Post by NotAvailable on Apr 28, 2011 5:36:27 GMT -5
When the crows came bursting through the windows like some sort of almight force, Anna had rolled beneath a swift flock of p*ssed off birds and grasped ahold of the cat and tumbling behind the counter. The cat suprisingly didn't resist as it was too fightened to react. Anna patted herself down for a second before slipping the kitten into her hoodie and zipping it up, getting into a crouch and taking cover on the edge of the counter.
Alex had yelled for her to get to the shelves and slid the medkit her way. Extending her leg, she'd stopped it with her foot and reached over, grasping onto it and pulling it toward her. The cat squirmed inside the jacket, meowing haphazardly as the redheaded woman had taken a leap of faith toward the shelves, holding the cat protectively in her jacket.
"More trouble than you're worth, eh?" she muttered before a crow had came down on her, pulling at some of her hair. She growled and smacked it aside with a hand before crawling into the shelves. She'd kept one hand tucked beneath the lump in her coat, adjusting the kitten before pulling her shotgun out.
"Goddamn crows in my goddamn hair!" she yelled, standing up and taking a shot at the small flock. The spray had killed five of the bastards and with a cock of the shotgun, she'd taken aim at them as they'd flew passed the women and made a nice little u-turn to get back at 'em.
Of course the damn weapon decided to inconvenience her and failed to fire.
Anna, fiddling with the newly jammed weapon, glared and swore under her breath. "Alex, get in the shelves while they're trying to peck my eyeballs out!" she ordered, smacking two of the crows with her shotgun.
"Go on! P*ss off!" she cursed at the crows, swinging the weapon around like a mad woman. Wasn't much to do since they had the unfair advantage over them. Which was flying.
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Post by Lunapocalypse on Apr 28, 2011 5:53:13 GMT -5
"I'm coming-I'm coming-I'm coming!" Alex sprinted through the store door too fast to control, sliding on her ass into the mini moving fortress fumbling with the nuts and bolts in her pocket and screwing the shelves back in place, "Shoot over my head! Over my head!" frantically closing up the opening. She'd fastened two in place when she shouted again, "Standing! Shoulder! Over my shoulder!" praying Anna wouldn't blast her head off while putting up the rest of the shelves, "Sick'a these motherf*cking crows in my motherf*cking convenience store."
The PI put up the last metal plate in time to block a crow from dive bombing inside, a teeth clenching crunch emitted, "Done! Roll!" Alex shouted, hypertension building up like a bad day. Medkit in hand, the shelf fortress began to move back in the direction they had come from, "Every little thin', is gonna be aaaalright."
The duo made it twenty odds metres before the rattling wheel from earlier snapped off and the entire thing tipped to one side, scraping along the ground; a wide margin of a gap had opened at the bottom Anna's end for any means of bird to clammer in and rip them to bits, "Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Alex stuck the handle of the medkit in her mouth and wedged her fingers into the cracks between plates, lifting the shelf level again so they could move, "Gnnnrrr!" growling the word 'go' to continue.
Arriving back to the square; Elizabeth had been watching out of the window after hearing gunshots, waiting feverishly. Alex felt her body tensing ever so gradually, her claustrophobia setting in from such tight conditions, just barely she could be heard muttering 'hurry' over and over again while crows continued to slam into their defenses.
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