On Death's Doorstep

[Le post]

It was pointless trying to stay discreet, the man, and whatever else was in there, had already heard them coming through the window, "Shit," There was no way out of this now, if these men had the intention of killing them this was this was the end. Phil stood upright and slowly made for the door, with no means of defending himself, or even making himself look slightly more aggressive, this was quite the bold, yet moronic thing to do in the situation. He remained silent as he cautiously turned his head around the door to face a single figure in the blackness. He looked relatively calm as he stared at him, he made no quick movements to launch sharp instruments in his direction, but that made him no more wary about him. He fully stepped out from behind the door and clearly showed him he wasn't something to be scared of, if anything, he was a decoy while Alex made an escape out the window, Phil was useful in that respect at least.

[graybeardhalt]

The figure slowly raised his arm straight forward at Philip.

“You know this is a gun, and you know that it’s hard to trust people now-a-days. Now why don’t you just stay right there so I can get a good look at you,” the man grew silent and began to move closer, slowly and cautiously. “You been bit? Scratched?” The man finally stopped in the light, showing Philip his features so he would see there was nothing wrong with him. His skin was heavily tanned, as if he had spent an awful lot of time outside, so much so that it was leathery and rough. His hair fell easily past his shoulders and was greasy and unkempt, as if it hadn't been washed or brushed in a very, very long time. It looked as if his face had once been very hard-set and rugged, but with the 3-day old beard around his chin and the hair made him seem deranged and the look in his eyes wasn't helping. He wore a beat up leather jacket that had cracks in several places, and extremely warn denim jeans that had tears in several places. The straps of his backpack were hard to notice because they blended in very well with the dark color of the jacket. Easily sticking out from the top of the backpack was the barrel of a long rifle and something silvery glinted off the side.

“And you can tell your friend that it’s useless to try and sneak back out there. The hoard’s moving through again and the only way out’s right behind me,” Jake said, never taking his eyes off Philip.

[ballerscuba]

Davey turned around and watched as the van came to a stop. "Oh," he thought, "so now we're the A-Team, are we? I think I can deal with that. Although, no one can pull off the needed B.A. Baracus like yours truly. Ain't nobody can pity the fool like me!"

Davey turned back to where Mason was standing. "At ease, Ensign," he said, then walked over to where Lewis was standing. He watched as Ichiru hugged Lewis. He scoffed underneath his mask. "Must be a pity hug," he thought. "There's no way Ichiru would go for a guy like Lewis. I mean, he hasn't shown that he's a nerd even in the slightest sense. I doubt he's ever even watched Lord of the Rings. Completely useless."

"So, Fred," Davey said to Lewis, "finally decided to reunite with the rest of the gang, so you brought the Mystery Machine to come and find us? What happened to your ascot? Your ensemble looks incomplete without it. But, now that you're here, can we bum a ride to Secronom? I'm afraid I don't have any cash or grass, so there's really only one way left I could repay you."

[kain17335]

Alex never was much of a sneaky type, and the fact that their new guest had already seen him gave little point to trying to sneak his way out. Not that Alex had thought about it, the whole reason why they were in here was because of the horde nearby.
He stood up, stepping in between Philip and the doorway. Glock clutched firmly in his hand though he chose not to raise it. Seen as it would likely only make the situation worse. The fact that there was a gun pointed at him did make him anxious however, sound was still a factor in all this as well. And a gunshot would be like a foghorn for all infected nearby.
"Pointing a gun at us doesn't help with trust either..." Alex blurted, though afterwards he didn't really felt as if it was a good thing to say. Nothing might have been worse, however.

[ThatOneGuysBro]

When the boy finally caught his breath John noticed the odd man was now behind him. Taking it as a sign that he should scout around the corner he was eager to prove he wasn't wholly useless. His gun in both hands drawn and ready his back was nearly fully exposed.

When the pain ripped into his leg he half-wailed, momentarily losing control of his body over the shock and pain. To his own surprise he still managed to cling his fingers to the weapon, however vain it was. As the weapon was taken from away John felt naked for the first time. For so long a time it felt he had always had one in his possession, something to at least allow him to fight if, when it came to it, his back was against the wall. Feeling so utterly defenseless, all on the spur of this spontaneous betrayal, John felt surely he would die.

When he took his leave John was far from satisfied with this closure.

"Why don't you kill me now?" he ululated like a beaten dog. "You've already got me, why don't you finish the job?"
Not bothering to spare a farewell glance the man gave a final rebuttal as he left on his way.

"No need to. I've got what I wanted and managed to rid myself of a liability. How will you manage against that I wonder?" and with that he vanished beyond the bend.

Over the one irregular groan from earlier a number of other shambling groans livened the air.

'Shit, shit, shit' was the only thing that ran through John's head as he tried to cope with the pain. Slowly and pathetically he rose to an uninjured leg and managed to scrounge what wasn't taken; that being only the cigarettes, a scarce few matches and the empty pistol that rattled as he futilly checked the chamber. Reaching underneath he was able to rip a shred of cloth of his wife beater from underneath and knot it firmly around his wound. The cloth soaked quickly.

With an unsightly limp and an empty gun John hobbled down the streets and alleyways, finding an increasing thicket of infected roaming aimlessly. When the numbers of infected were enough to make him uncomfortable, enough for someone who was handicapped and without a means to defend themselves, a sports department store was spotted in close juxtaposition. A few number of the revenants roaming near the front entrance John sneaked into the alley as best he could and looked for a back door... until he found it.

[sleix]

Phil's eyes flickered around the room, trying to get a feel for the layout if they needed to attempt an escape, but alas, it seemed there was no other exit that wasn't barricaded in the room, had this man been holed up here for a while? There was nothing evidently suggesting so, it looked like a meh hideout at best, one to be left behind after patching up for reloading your weapons. Phil lowered his arms, the mans stare didn't waver from him, nor did the aim of his gun, "Shooting at us will bring more than a hoard of infected charging in this direction, and to be honest, I don't think any of us want that."

[lukuz13]

July 7th, 2022 Thursday. Huntington, West Virginia

-"That still does not answer my question, Private. Why in the *hell* would you bring even *more* people here? We're already a big enough damn target as it is don't you think?!" A rather rough and rude voice may have awoken a half asleep Migaki, a voice Brian and Lucy had been introduced to mere seconds before.
"Oh, I'm sorry Red, are you the one calling the shots now? Because I swear you just recently got that big shiny badge on your chest." The woman escorting the group shot back, looking up at what they may call the 'gatekeeper' of a large metal gate that lead to what appeared to be a college. The walls were decrepit, but reinforced with random slabs of steel and metal all the same. It had a rough look, but it was far from rickety.
"Don't you give me that shit and answer my damn question, I think it's a pretty reasonable concern, wouldn't you? I mean, how do *you* know they ain't wolves in sheep's clothing or something worse? There's a lot of psychos out there, Kat."
"You think I don't know that? I actually go OUT there to MEET the psychos you're so afraid of Red, not just sit behind a damn gate all day."
"Hey! I went on my fair share of raids just the same as you, you can't-"
"Yeah, but none you didn't have to. Funny how you're always the first to volunteer for guard duty ain't it?" She sneered, earning a very angry look from the red-headed man sitting on top of the gate. "Listen, you can be mad at me all you want, but we both know the Captain's policy. Now unless you want me calling him, I suggest you open the damn door before our friends come find us."

This earned a longer silence, as well as scolding from the man she called Red, but he didn't seem to wish to argue any further. Instead, he pulled at a lever and, with the help of a few others, winched the gate open just enough for the group to slip inside.
Brian, having grown uncomfortable from the conversation, feeling like he was intruding, and quite tired from carrying Migaki, followed behind along with Lucy through the narrow opening.

Inside they were greeted with over a dozen men with even more guns than the six or so that accompanied Kat, each of them helping pass supplies they scavenged to the appropriate person. Suddenly, the man from before hopped down, a metal syringe in hand as he walked up to each with a large frown.
"Always gotta have it your way..." He mumbled as he jammed the edge of the needle into some of the men's arms. They grunted in pain, but seemed to deal with it all the same.
"You know me." She said simply with a grin that was only momentarily disrupted by her turn with the syringe, each time causing the device to dispose of a vial of blood.

As he came to Brian, he had to let down Migaki, one of the men helping to keep her up should she have trouble standing on her own since it was his turn.
"We...have an injured girl, she broke a-Guh!" He grunted sharply at the sudden stab. The man was not gentle.
"Yeah, yeah. I'm sure Kat promised you a wonderland of free medicine and bullets that wiped all the big baddies away." He said in the deepest sarcasm he had heard in quite a while, ejecting the vial and handing it off to one of his men, before going after the others to do the same. "We'll get the results back in a few minutes. Isn't hard to test for the virus, damn thing leaves a trail a mile wide, so just...stay tight here where we can shoot you if you cause trouble easier." The man said nonchalantly.
Kat gave the man a glare and sigh, pushing him aside, quite aggressively at that, and added.
"You guys said you were clean, right? You'll be fine. Dickface here is just being hard on civvies. Though...with weapons like that, you don't much look like civvies. Mind if I ask how you got em while we wait?" She struck up a small conversation with the three, her tone quite different from her 'friend's'. Brian was a little too distracted making sure Migaki is able to stable alright and not hurt further, and didn't answer right away.


-Harrison stared in rather disbelief as Lewis showed himself at such a time, rather impressed that he had suddenly shown up...but also confused, and a little frightened really. He knew he wouldn't have just packed up and came all this way just to visit. Something must have happened...but he'd ask that later. He watched Ichiru run up to the man and laughed at the rather odd look on the man's face at her mix of hug/punch, while Roy and his family hopped out of the back a rather disappointed face due to the lack of gas, and various other things, but nevertheless happy to see his friends...it was funny to think how recently he had really met them.
Regardless, Cassidy, alerted by Ichiru's call, slithered out of the backseat, one of her favorite toys in hand, which she held tight, suddenly squeaking out in a high pitch, even for her.
"Auntie Ichiiiii!" She quickly collided with the woman's slender legs and mushed her soft toy against her in the group hug, so to speak. She quickly went on about how she missed her and things she did while she was away, and how things were scary too but Mr Sampson saved them too. Some of what she mentioned, rather in a hurry were 'strangers' and 'smokey smells', and 'loud banging noises'. She was a little too worked up, and even began to cry a little, perhaps out of fear, or maybe just excitement it was hard to tell with her.

Harrison took the opportunity to approach Lewis before Davey had summed up his pool of references and give the man a shoulder hug, a small worried look however conveyed another meaning for getting closer.
"I...was never so sure about Catherine. Think she had a screw loose because she just vanished one day." He quickly stated, feeling bad for accusing her of such...but not wrong. "New guy is...a stranger who's starting to piss me off. Apparently worked with Secronom, the head cheeses that caused this mess." He added with a quick whisper. He paused this summary, however and gave Lewis a more serious look. "What happened, Lewis? I know you didn't just come for a reunion, did you?"
He took a small step back as to not interrupt Davey's own greeting, waiting for him to start answering whoever he wished to first, with J.P still struck in awe while he watched.

In the distance, with the van now quiet, the softest droning could be heard, no louder than they weren't use to hearing really, as the dust the van kicked up slowly began to settle again.


-As Philip, Alex, and Jake had their own manner of stand off, a soft shuffling came from the back door as a battered and apparently limping man made his way to a nearby window. He couldn't be spotted, or not much less, by the men inside, but the sound was enough to give him away. John had only his gun and wounded leg to help him, as the voices from inside he had just heard silenced themselves in his presence. Only the beating of rotten fists on the front door, a strange music to go with this conversation, filled the small store...but occasionally, yet another set of fists would join the others.

[thatfallout3guy]

Lewis rubbed his head, shrugging and looking to Ichiru with a sort of apologetic grin, "Alright, look. This probably seems bad but-" Lewis stopped, hearing the woman suddenly call for Cassidy, completely ignoring him in favor of the little girl. He took the time to get away from the half crazy woman. Looking to Harrison, he gave a quick smile. He was eager to learn what had happened.

As Harrison finished his brief recap, Lewis sighed with regret at Harrison's question. He was about to give his answer, when the familiar voice of Davey, spouting references he could never understand, interrupted him.

He sighed at Davey's suggestion of Secronom, "That won't be necessary, Davey. We can't go to Secronom for now. The shop got burned down by some... confused people. Some shots got fired, and now we're only a couple minutes away from being a dying roach swarmed by fire ants," Lewis then stopped, the familiar cries of the beasts raging through the city drowning him out for a moment. When it quieted down, Lewis looked to Harrison, "So, ready to go digging for a safe hole to hide in? Again?"

[ThatOneGuysBro]

Still very confused and shocked from being betrayed, coupled with the strains the bullet wound had put on his mind and body, John's thoughts were aflutter at some times and nonexistent at others as he spiraled into an ambivalent twilight of urgency and aimlessness. However, when he had heard faintly the voices from inside only afterwards to quiet themselves he instinctively felt something pernicious would happen if he pressed beyond the doors. No, in this new epoch in time it took little less than common sense to know that poking around in the business' of others would only be asking for trouble. People had become cynical, distrusting and generally hostile, all in order to sustain their own well being. It was only natural. Anyone who had the gumption and will power to live this long no doubt had gotten their hands and their morals soiled by now. Killing those who had turned to half-dead, simulacrum man-beasts, former family, friends and neighbors, had blurred the line where shame and law intersected to protect public order, well being and the lives of people. Somewhere along his journey this was the conclusion John had slowly come to, now finally consolidated by the bullet in his leg. 'Only a fool would trust his life in the hands of another.'

In any case he didn't feel he had much choice if he wanted to live to see tomorrow. Either he leave to find an abandoned lodge, further risking death in his crippled state, or he chance sheltering in this seemingly inhabited sports department. For a moment he froze, thinking briefly over how he would handle the situation if it turned for the worse beyond the doors. If he was lucky he could bluff his way out by mimicking a threatening impression with an empty chamber. But he wouldn't be able to hide his wound. On top of things he was growing hot and started to sweat more than usual as a mitigated dizziness ate away at his senses. Finally having gone over a course of action slowly and nervously he pushed opened the heavy, creaking door.

As it turned out luck wasn't on his side. Only one foot drawn inside with a hand on the door's edge and the other concealing the empty gun behind his wounded leg he found himself in a worse case scenario, or close enough. A lad seemingly about John's own age was on the other side of the loaded barrel of a dirty, mean looking man who seemed to have lost his sanity possibly even before the outbreak. He gave him all sorts of uncomfortable vibes. Off to the side was a cold looking man, perhaps in his early 30's or late 20's he thought. John thought he was in the middle of a shake down, the poor guy being robbed before killed by the two he assumed were companions of a sort.

This was the last thing he needed. His fingers gripped the gun tightly in sheer frustration of his timing. He stood frozen, half his body still hidden behind the door, prepared to try and bluff his way out of the situation, but with no ammo and in a wounded state the two men in a chase or in a struggle would certainly be able to overpower him with minimal effort.

'God damn it.'

[graybeardhalt]

“No shit, Sherlock, that’s why I didn’t shoot you as soon as I saw you shuffling around,” Jake replied, trying to put on a fiercer tone, but failed to keep the slight hesitation out of his voice. “Now why don’t you answer the damn question instead of being Captain Obvious before that door gets busted-“The sound coming from behind him caused Jake to stop immediately and whirl around towards the back door. He was sure he had heard something hit the back door, but he didn’t know if it was something alive or dead.

Seeing a head peaking through was not something he had expected to see and he quickly drew the gun towards the new face, as if he had completely forgotten about the others. "Just what the hell do you think you're doing?" Jake asked, slowly moving towards the back door. "Thought you could just wait for us to let our guard down and then come in and kill us all? Maybe have a little fun before you actually finish the job? Or maybe you're just a little rat, snooping around ahead and going back to tell the big boss man that there's 2 easy targets, like sitting ducks in the sports store." Jake stopped about 10 feet away from the back door, gun still pointed directly at this nervous wreck of an intruder. "Well? Aren't you gonna answer me?" During his entire questioning, he had never once looked back towards the other men. It seems as though he had forgotten about them as soon as he looked away, but there was no sure way of telling that. His eyes never once left the intruder and his finger never once left the trigger.

[poorformmate]

As the group and their entourage cut across the final no-man's land and into the perimeter of the repurposed facility, Lucy kept her eyes low, confining herself to herself. She did not fail to note the defenses, however: definitely impressive, the product of many wishing for just a fraction of safety. And, given the oddly relaxed posture some of the inner guards displayed, it wasn't exactly on the brink of falling either. Ears lying dormant as the captain and their friends argued their worth, Lucy allowed herself to also relax a little; there had been little chance to let their guard down recently. At that point, it had become a sort of body-armour you forget you're wearing - only by removing it did you realise how much it strained you.

Lucy glanced at Migaki, rigid, still clinging to Brian's back without a further word. Miscommunications aside, Lucy felt a little guilty for going ahead, or not at the very least warning them of the possibility beforehand. No-one could survive up to this point by being completely fragile, but it the girl had a soft centre, and obviously considered trust a very important thing. Lucy felt the outer world dull further as she considered the nature of their bonds, pensive, her body acting as though bidden by some outside force. Did...I hurt her? Looks like I've done that to most - shot, in Brian's case. They both stand strong, carry burdens well.

The focus only returned with the familiar barbs of sarcasm, enough to make her try and make her communicate through a look "fuck you" through her retinas as hard as she could to the medic. He didn't seem to notice. When he left, Lucy sighed and stretched with her gun still firmly in her hand, almost swiping the captain.

"Luck again," she responded to the open query with a slight smile, a sort of reward in her eyes to their escort. "The others in our group were...lost a while ago so these probably aren't all in the best of condition, but..." Another smile, this time a seething lie that knew it was one. "We're hoping you big bad soldiers can protect us better."

[sleix]

If there was any opening for assaulting the somewhat depraved old man, that time was now, but he turned his attention to the figure shambling through the back door. Phil stood silent, observing the scene unfold before him. The vicious man who had similarly questioned the duo seemed to be skeptical about how genuine the innocent appearance of anybody was, this was a man who had felt betrayal, or was it merely these grim times that had warped his vision of trust?

The new arrival in the store stood stock still, whether out of fear or shock was unknown, he didn't appear to be aggressive or in the least bit threatening, but he didn't look like a man Phil was preparing to trust with his, quite litteral, life from the offset, and Phil sensed the feeling was shared between the "Group".

"Can't we all just put the fucking guns away and find out everybody's intentions first?" The lack of possessing one himself made Phil uneasy about them in his environment, even if he knew no shots were going to be fired if anyone wanted to live in this Store for longer than a few minutes. In an ideal world there'd be a mutual agreement to dispatch the infected outside and discovering a fortified bunker that of which was zombie free, but this wasn't an ideal world, or an ideal situation to be in.

[ThatOneGuysBro]

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing?"

The boy felt himself swallow his own heart as the barrel of the menacing lunatic thrust its way to his head. Besieged by a plethora of theories and inquiries in so jeering a manner did little to amend the situation. Silent throughout the length of the interrogation John managed to regain a little of his mental composure as he studied the man in his own way. He guessed the man's only redeemable quality was his ability to kill. John already grew to dislike this barbarian of a man even more than he did Wraith in the thirty seconds he had been hostage to his questioning.

"Can't we all just put the fucking guns away and find out everybody's intentions first?", the young man spoke; the only one John thought who would not gouge him for a can of beans. That far from meant he could find himself in affable company with the guy, however. 'Find out everyone's intentions? Is this guy stupid?', he sneered to himself. Still half his body hidden behind the door he turned his attention back to the dirty man and responded.

"You kill... you kill me and then you take my shoes and you take my shirt. Then what? I'm only here to get away from them, same as you. And I'm hardly worth more dead than alive." An obvious lie, he knew. An injured kid with an empty gun was nothing more than fodder for the feast, but he bluffed as best he could. He coughed. "And for your 'big boss man'? He's dead. And so are all his men." His voice slowly rose and became more steadied, a subtle anger rising in his words. "And I couldn't be more happy for them. I have more important things to do than plotting to kill every gun slinging passerby I come across. So... you gonna kill me if I come i-"

For the length of the exchange John was sweating hard and his body had been heating up as a dizziness gripped at him. Before he knew it his eyes shut and everything went black. He fell past the threshold into the store, face forward as he fainted, for all to see his leg wound and the pistol by his side.

[graybeardhalt]

"Aw, shit," Jake said, his voice full of disappointment and regret. He pinched the bridge of his nose with one hand, sighed deeply, and holstered his gun as he walked towards the collapsed boy. Without any hesitation, he wrenched open the door a few more inches and grabbed onto the boy's shirt, dragging him slowly in. "Wasn't ever gonna shoot you, dumb ass," he grumbled as he continued to pull him in. "Geez, people these days. Hasn't everyone had a gun pointed at them at some point? I mean really, it's just sad." Jake continued to ramble on in a subdued mumble, answering his own questions as soon as he asked them. When he had pulled the boy a decent way into the store, he went back to close the exit, not wanting to risk a stray getting in.

Once that was finished, he turned back to the boy, studying the wound. "Shit. At this rate he'll bleed out," Jake hissed, quickly dumping his back on the ground and rifling through it. Inside there was an assortment of stuff he had gathered: food, water, medical kit, etc. but even with all of that stuff weighing it down, none of it clinked around when he moved the pack. In between each item, there was a thick strip of cloth, rolled up several times to maximize the dampening. Jake pulled out the medical kit and went to work, cleaning and dressing the wound as fast as possible, making sure to tie it off as tightly as possible. While doing this, he continued on with a conversation that the others could only hear one side of. "Yeah, yeah, I know how to clean it, shut up. I cleaned out plenty of your wounds, you know. Oh don't even talk about that, that was a long time ago and I had no experience. Just stop talking, I'm trying to concentrate. Okay, seriously? You're going to be that childlike?" Jake would occasionally glance up in anger and annoyance at something, but nobody else could really tell what it was. He continued on, though, despite the "distractions".

[kain17335]

THis whole thing had happened rather quickly for the young German, his pistol still firmly gripped in his hand as he rose up. The man that had been pointing a gun at him and his companion now walking straight past them to help this random man form the street. The boy looked rather frail and weak. Alex wondered if the bullet wound was the only one this boy had.
Slowly, Alex took a step closer to the boy, watching as the man now muttered to himself as he dressed the wound. Truly it sounded as if the man was having a conversation with someone like he were on the phone.
In the darkness he could still make out the faint sheen of steel on the ground, the boys gun was now on the floor still clutched in his hand. He kicked it out and picked it up. It felt lighter than he'd thought. However it was not a gun that he had used before, though the only guns Alex had ever held before all this were older than he was.
He quickly slipped it into his pocket, if this boy awoke and was deemed able enough to walk and not shoot him, Alex probably would give it back, he had little use for a gun like this. Perhaps Philip would make better use of it, they would have to wait and see.
Helping this boy seemed odd however, he was shot in the leg and losing blood rather quickly, before all this something like that would have meant immediate medical attention and a few weeks in a hospital. But here, even spraining your ankle could mean life or death. There was no sense in helping him, and it seemed the only thing he had worth anything was the gun he carried. It did show a lighter side to this new survivor, perhaps he might be trustworthy. As much as that word might mean now. Trust is a commodity that few had the ability to have.