trans_9 | Survivalist Plot: All That Scarcity Promotes is Desperate Men and Tyrants

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Survivalist Plot: All That Scarcity Promotes is Desperate Men and Tyrants

Day 3 and 4

The remaining hours of the night are tense and ugly, marred by the smell of blood and the complete distrust sewn by Bridge's death. When the sun finally rises, it feels as if the night's been far too long and yet their chance to rest was cruelly short.

The sun peeks over the horizon and onto the parched desert. In the bright sky, if one squints, it's possible to make out that lights are still flashing on the radio tower. The rest of the town is dead, as usual.

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"You can have it, but save some for me in case this doesn't work." Not that Howard doesn't look a little queasy at the idea, but he'll take cannibalism over starving to death. He'll take literally anything over starving. "But think of it this way - we catch one of those big monsters and you can have the rest of this body all to yourself."

Howard drags the garbage bag of dead girl out of the kitchen and into the driveway. He can't lift it all the way up into the car, so he waits for Karis to help.

"Nope, and I'm betting they're either not coming back or only coming back when they end up so hungry they'll eat their morals. Ced may show up, though."

Edited 2012-03-20 04:06 (UTC)

"Yay," Karis rasps with a laugh and a grin, "Thing about being the only zombie around is that no one fights with you for food..."

She helps Howard lug the bag up into the car with a little grunt, "Moralistic idiots. They'll probably get themselves killed."

Karis dusts her hands off, "So, what's the plan, kiddo?"

"Plan is, we drag heavyweight over here into the desert, to this place that I think it their nest. We chuck her out the back and wait. Then we run down a monster with our car, pack it up and barbecue."

Not the most brilliant plan, but Howard's thinking on pretty much 300 calories in the last few days. He's amazed he got this far. He hops into the driver's seat and revs the engine.

"Any day I get to kill something with a hunk of steel moving at high speeds is a good day," Karis replies as she straps herself into the passenger seat. Safety first!

Howard drives out to the well, about a mile away from the house. They keep the windows down to kill the smell, although honestly between the corpse, Karis, and the fact that Howard's accumulating a thin layer of grime and sweat on his skin, the movement of the air does little good. Granted, it also doesn't help that Howard only feels comfortable driving twenty miles an hour.

By the time they get there Howard's overheating in the sun and looking a little woozy. If they don't get water soon, or some kind of hydration, he'll be dead by the next evening, and probably all the other living humans here will be too. The water bottles he and Diana stashed are useful, but they aren't enough to last in this brutal heat or under this sort of stress.

He stops the car and leans on the steering wheel for a few seconds before getting out and opening the back door. "Let's make this work."

Karis could bug him to go faster, but honestly - kid doesn't look so good, so she's just going to roll with it. She really needs to get him some help or something, but she has no damn idea what she's supposed to do. So she just goes with the flow for now. She clambers out and starts dragging the corpse out of the back of the truck, "Where do you want it?"

"Anywhere. But save the garbage bag. You might want to eat now, because if this ends up in the grill of the car it's going to be nasty." He 'politely' looks away so she can help herself to the corpse. Really, it's that he doesn't want to see it, not that he has any respect for Karis' eating privacy, much as he likes Karis.

Karis nods silently and then starts digging in. She's silent, aside from the occasional crunch of bone. She eats a limb or two and then stands up, wiping congealed blood from her lips. Not as good as when it's fresh, but hey. Whatever.

That done, she slings what's left of the corpse out into the field without a second thought.

"Guess we get to wait now, huh?"

Howard tries his best to just tune out the sounds, but after one particularly loud crack he has to walk over to the front of the car and dry heave. From that point on he stays at the front of the car and waits for Karis to finish up. The idea of actually having food in his stomach is simultaneously too revolting and too tempting for him to stay and listen.

"Yeah, now we wait. Maybe make some noise. I bet they hear pretty good." He hops back into the driver's seat and sees if the radio works. It's not playing music, but an emergency broadcast.

...or medical supplies...A MANDATORY EVACUATION has been called by the town sheriff. Please assemble your family and go to the nearest transport station. A shuttle will be with you shortly. If possible, stock up for provisions and bring any necessary medications or medical supplies....A MANDATORY EVACUATION...

Well, that's interesting.

"You got your axe on you, Fangs?"

"I can do noise," Karis replies. If she noticed the dry heaving, she doesn't say anything. Instead, she brings the axe out again and starts clashing the blade against her breastplate. The sound of metal clashing on metal starts to echo.

"Come and get it, assholes! Dinner is served!"

And come they do, or at least, a few straggling beasts dragging themselves across the expanse of desert. Three of them, all looking hungry, all the size of bears if bears were emaciated and stripped of fur.

They surround the corpse and start to feast on the remains.

Karis slides into the passenger seat and shoots a grin at Howard.

"Punch it."

Seatbelts are for wusses.

Howard wasn't expecting there to be more than one. Maybe he should have thought of that. But it's a bit late for that now. He winks at Karis.

He waits for the creatures to gather up in a line and slams on the gas, hard enough that he and Karis are thrown against the seat backs. The monsters don't even understand what's happening when a half ton of machinery slams into the first one. Howard loses control of the wheel.

The other two start loping away while the car slips and slides across the mess of the girl's body. Howard panics and slams on the brakes, bringing them into a fishtail turn before abruptly stopping.

The monster they ran over is thrashing on the ground, trying to get back up. Howard decides to wait in the car.

"Your turn!"

Karis barely avoids going through the windshield when Howard slams on the breaks as it is, she has to brace herself against the dash. And she's a bit squashed against it. So she shoves herself away and then almost kicks the door open.

"Time to get stuck in."

She stalks out towards the thrashing monster, axe dangling from one hand.

Best part of her day is when she gets to kill something.

The beast hisses, twists around, raises one of those overlong arms and slams its needle fingers, all five of them, right through Karis' chest, where her lungs and liver are. It's a blow that would kill a full-grown man.

But Karis is not a full-grown man, nor is she alive.

Shit.

That fucking hurt.

Well, she thinks it hurt, anyway. Her body is telling her something is wrong, but it's not exactly pain. She wasn't expecting it to move that fast. She staggers for a moment and then reaches up and grabs the arm, holding those fingers in her chest. Her other arm comes around, blade in hand, and bites into flesh and bone.

Then again.

And again.

And again.

Karis is cursing up a storm all the while.

Asshole.

The creature gives out a scream akin to a pig's squeal as the blade descends again and again. Then it stops and goes limp. Blood pools on the ground, and the fingers in Karis' chest twitch a last few times before all the life is gone from them.

Howard bolts out of the car and does something truly disgusting. Before even checking Karis' injuries, he descends on the monster and presses his mouth to one of the wounds, sucking up the blood like a vacuum. Whatever. Dehydration blows and fluid is fluid.

After a few gulps the process is yielding diminishing returns, so he pulls back and looks up. The other two monsters are perched a few hundred feet away, watching but not attacking. He glances over at Karis - they both look a sight right now, her with the monster's arm still in her and him with blood dripping from his face.

"You okay?"

Karis slowly tugs the needle-fingers out of her with a grimace. Shit. She's gonna need to patch that. Somehow. But, hey! Look at Howie. She ruffles his hair (well, tries) and grins.

"Shit, I knew you had it in you. Gettin' right in there and doing whatever. Makes me proud to know you."

She brushes at her chest.

"I'll be OK. Shoulda seen me when I took a sword to the chest..."

Howard's grin is a bit lop-sided, partially because he's trying to get past what feels like a thick wad of the taste in iron in the back of his throat. He's fine with desperate measures, but that doesn't mean it isn't gross.

"You have such weird standards, Fangs." He grabs the garbage bag out of the car. "Let's get it in here before we lose all that blood."

He leans in and squints at the wounds on her chest, momentarily forgetting that Karis has boobs. "You sure? I can stitch those back up. Nothing's easier to find than needles and thread."

"Nah. Not like they're gonna get infected or anything..." She bends down and starts helping Howard scoop the corpse into the truck.

"Let's just get this done with."

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Survivalist Plot: All That Scarcity Promotes is Desperate Men and Tyrants

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