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

[meat_mooks]

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.

Comments

SMOKE

[meat_mooks]

[Cedric, Howard, Karis and Diana.]

In this arid climate, fire spreads fast. The monsters, being excellent mimics if not especially bright, learned from the crew cooking one of their beastly brethren and, after a few burnt and combusted casualties in the name of discovery, found out how to use matches with their spindly fingers. Three of them wait outside now, waiting for the smoke to flush their prey out of hiding.

The smoke rises first, up to the top floor where everyone's sitting around or sleeping. The broken-down stairs may stop the monsters from climbing, but it doesn't stop their reach.

Then the fire spreads to the top floor rather quickly, straight across the house like a flaming knife cutting through the center. Soon enough, the two halves of the top floor are separated, leaving Howard and Cedric in a room with the ladder and Diana and Karis in the room with the rope of bedsheets.

DIANA AND KARIS

[meat_mooks]

Re: DIANA AND KARIS

[keep_surviving]

Diana is rudely awoken from her nap by the sound of fire crackling, igniting her own heart to start beating in a panic driven rhythm, she knows that sound well.

She jolts upright and looks around. Karis is still in the room, same as when she’d fallen asleep. She can taste the smoke snaking its way through the room and feel the heat of the flames licking at the door.

A fire? Where had a fire come from? Surely none of the crewmates would have been stupid enough to start an accidental fire? But that only left those things outside to be the culprits, and since when did monsters start fires? Aren’t they supposed to be scared of the stuff?

“Really?” She complains loudly as she stands. “No one said the hulking messes of flesh could use fire. Isn’t this against the rules or something?”

Screw Howard and his inability to understand the concept of a lookout. And while she’s on the subject... “So much for keeping watch.” She says offhandedly to Karis.

Her gaze travels to the window and she sees the rope of bed sheets is still tied there. Relishing in the relief that she fell asleep in this room and not one of the others, Diana rushes over to check it’s not caught fire. Even if it’s not, there’s probably the monsters down there, waiting to pick them off. But caught between burning alive or running for her life, Diana feels the latter is the better option.

She casts a glance over her shoulder to the other person in the room. “You coming? Or do you prefer to be barbequed?”

Diana keeps catching the silhouette of Drake in the shadows of the flames encompassing the door. And Karis’ zombie look is not helping. She wants out of here now.

Re: DIANA AND KARIS

[teethofneedles]

"I'm coming, girlie," Karis hisses. She's not any happier and she shoulders her way over to the window. Fire is one of the few things that'll really hurt her without even trying to. She glances out the window and then draws her axe, slipping her wrist through the loop on the end of the haft, "You sure you wanna go first? Don't know what's down there."

She shoots Diana a grin, "Hell of a day, huh?"

Re: DIANA AND KARIS

[keep_surviving]

Diana returns the grin with a bemused smirk. “It’s been absolutely fabulous.”

Karis has a point, Diana doesn’t want to be the one that gets the greeting party of monsters. Just as she’s about to answer, her eyes widen as if she’s suddenly remembered something.

Diana dashes to the other side of the room and crouches to pull something out of the floorboards, working with urgency, knowing the door’s about to give any second. By the time she returns to the window she’s carrying two satchel-like bags, one resting on each hip.

“You first.” She gestures their exit, just as the door collapses into a pile of kindling and a wave of intense heat blasts through the room, flames leaping in to start crawling across the carpet.

[teethofneedles]

"Just what I wanna hear," Karis shoots back. She pauses with a frown - what's the girl going back for? And then she swings over the edge and starts scrambling down the rope. She moves fast for a corpse.

After a few seconds she's on the ground, weapon out as she checks their immediate surroundings.

[keep_surviving]

Diana drops down not soon after, half climbing, half falling down the rope. She makes a conscious effort to keep behind Karis, whatever was down here, she wanted it to spot living corpse first.

[teethofneedles]

Karis takes a few steps forward, head jerking from one side to another.

"Think it's clear for now. Let's find Howie and whatshisface..."

[keep_surviving]

Diana nodded. "Let's go around and check if the truck's still there. It's the first thing Howard would go for if he got out."

Plus, she and Howard had hidden some of the supplies inside it.

[teethofneedles]

"Right on," Karis took one more quick look and then headed for the corner of the house. She trusted Diana to follow. Mostly because Karis was the one with the weapons.

[meat_mooks]

The car is still there. Howard and Cedric didn't take it. That's because its tires have been slashes and entirely deflated.

wah wah

[teethofneedles]

"Well. That's just great," Karis ground out, "They're smart enough to slash tires."

Speaking of which. There weren't any around here. Right?

[meat_mooks]

LOLNOPE

Two of them are hanging around downwind, catching Diana and Karis' scents. Karis doesn't seem so interesting to them, although she may still be edible. Diana's fresh.

The hang around the periphery like two lions waiting for gazelles to bolt.

HOWARD AND CEDRIC

[meat_mooks]

[theboywhodied]

Cedric instinctively drops to his knees and covers his mouth, before he can make an even bigger splat against the ground. He's just told Howard that he's staying, but there's not really going to be a place left to stay soon.

"The ladder!" he gasps, propping himself and staggering over to the wall. It's not likely this old structure will last more than a few minutes, he thinks, remembering all the falling they've done here. They need to get...

"Out. Food. Blood," he says, a running commentary of his thoughts. He pushes back for a handful of at least one.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard pulls up his shirt to cover his nose and mouth and nods. In a way, he's proud of Cedric finally getting his priorities in line. Howard keeps coughing and barely manages to eke out "get the bottles, we can last longer without food".

He throws open a closet and looks for something, anything, a backpack or a duffel bag or anything. There, a briefcase, they can fit the bottles in there. When Cedric returns Howard stuffs them in and grabs Ced's wrists again.

"Metal ladder. Hot." He pulls Cedric's sleeves over his hands, then heads over to the window and tosses the briefcase out. He pulls his flare gun from his jacket pocket and starts to head down. He's coughing too hard to tell Ced to hurry up, but the increasing heat and decreasing oxygen in the room should be motivation enough.

[theboywhodied]

Cedric almost leaps across the room to claim the bottles, balancing a large number as Howard does his thing.

If his eyes weren't watering, Cedric would've rolled them instead of blinking and ducking down. We do have metal. Cauldrons. But this is a horrible time to argue, and he's too busy coughing to use his mouth for any other purpose.

He climbs down the ladder, just barely catching himself from slipping once or twice. Time to make that grip even more painful and desperate. Falling would not only be fatal but hurt Howard too.

Somehow, they survive without any falling bodies making a mess. That will probably come later.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard pulls away from the ladder and doubles over coughing. After a moment, he straightens back up and gulps down air, motioning for Cedric to follow him to the car and holding the flare gun at the ready. At the very least, no monsters have attacked them yet, while they were vulnerable and couldn't breathe. Maybe it was just an accidental fire.

Howard rounds the corner and finds the car's tires are slashed. And that's when terror sets in. Whatever's hunting them, it's somewhat smart, smart enough to realize that they'd use the car to escape.

Unless it's Clef and Maxine getting payback for them killing the girl, but they aren't the type, are they? Still, the idea of being betrayed by other humans is less terrifying than the thought that they're food for monsters smart enough to close off technological escape routes.

For a moment Howard's knees go weak and his chest feels tight. Then his brain kicks back in. The tires are too deflated to be driven on, but they still have legs. And they'll need to get away from this fire before it spreads.

He grabs the briefcase and starts jogging down the street, upwind. No need to waste energy on sprinting if the monsters aren't hot on their tail.

He's got Cedric. He'll find Karis later. And Diana would do the same for him.

[theboywhodied]

It's hell when the smoke catches up with him. Cedric almost collapses, stabilizing on his knees while his lungs try to force in some breathable air. Gathering enough of a supply to run takes too long, but he does. Somehow.

The loss of the car is a problem. He knows in his heart Clef and Maxine wouldn't do such a thing---they knew Cedric was coming back for them! So either someone else is alive or it's the monsters.

Probably the monsters.

He swears to Merlin and runs, right behind Howard. "Do you think the others---"

That thought ends with a coughing fit.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard glances over his shoulder. The smoke is moving down and away from them, blocking off their view of the street, but Howard thinks he sees something coming quickly through the smoke at them. Maybe it's just his watering eyes. He hopes.

He grabs Cedric by the wrist and keeps running with him, not stopping to let him catch his breath. He's not sure what Cedric was about to ask, but whatever it is doesn't merit an answer right now, at least, not to him.

Across the street and two blocks down, Howard tries a front door. When it doesn't open, rather than taking the time to pick the lock he breaks the window with a rock, kicks in the rest of the pane and climbs in. He holds a hand out to help Cedric in.

"You okay?"

[theboywhodied]

Honestly, Howard, Cedric's not completely pathetic. He runs as hard as he can, diving into that window hole with a roll. He comes to a crouching stop, shaking his head.

"Terrified, but I can move. And I figure that's what you mean," he says in a strained whisper. "Not an accident, huh."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard breathes deep, trying to get all the precious air he can in his lungs. "Nice roll." He means it.

He's still desperate to put as many walls as possible between him and the outside, so he walks into the kitchen and sits down on the tile floor, catching his breath. There's an island there, so he rests his back against it. "We'll find another car and get the others later, if they're still alive."

He's about to say more when a particularly upsetting sound hits his ear. It's the sound of claws against the locked door outside, then a thump, then the cracking of glass shards under weight. Which must be the window they broke.

[theboywhodied]

Cedric scrambles into the kitchen as quietly as he can, nodding. There's no way he's leaving them. They'll just route around the...

...monster. He stiffens, looking wildly around the kitchen for a weapon. He'll take a wooden plank if he has to, but a large knife would be better. He sweeps his arms for any sign of either, locking onto the first usable item if there is any.

"Back door!" If there is one.

[meat_mooks]

Unfortunately, by the time Cedric finds a back door, the monster's in the kitchen. Sniffing at him. Less than five feet away.

On the upside, there is in fact a big butcher knife in one of the drawers.

Howard watches in terror.

[theboywhodied]

Damnit. It's cornered him, he's going to die---and this time, there's no convenient escape route. He'll have to go down this time, a repeat of before.

"How about an appetizer?"

He twirls the blade and slashes with it, making his last eye contact with Howard. Over the island, he tries to gesture with his eyes. Run.