Once Upon a Time, there was the End. (IC Thread) [PG-13]

[LilyDiana]

Arianna still lived in the same apartment as Before, it was on the seventh floor, and she'd boarded up the windows and fortified the place quite nicely. Jennifer had contracted the infection three years ago, and Arianna had killed her. When she was still sane, Jen had asked her to, and she had done it as the last and only thing she could do for her friend. It had been quick, peaceful. She had used a vial of morphine she'd stolen. Given too quickly, morphine will slow respiration to a dangerous level. Arianna had administered the drug and then sang Jennifer to sleep, holding her hand until her grip slowly went slack. She'd cried the last of her tears that day.

An empty bag on her back, Arianna made her way down a deserted street. Her blonde hair pulled back from her face, she wore a faded tank top and worn jeans. Her fathers gun at her hip, his knife sheathed opposite that, she walked confidently. She could take whatever came at her. In the light of day, though, the danger was less. That's didn't mean she wouldn't have to fend off any uninfected yet desperate people. She was headed for an arsenal she'd marked out weeks ago, but hadn't yet had the chance to get to. If she was going to try to get to this place everyone whispered about, this "Sedar Creek", she'd need plenty of supplies. New York to California was a long way to go.

Upon arrival, she found that she wouldn't need her wire cutters, someone had already cut their way through the barbed wire. Where they still here? Or was this made earlier and they were already gone? It was a chance Arianna was willing to take. She easily scaled the fence and heaved herself over it, landing on the other side with a quiet thud.

[SilverAce]

"C'mon already!" Spencer hissed at Emily who jumped down next to her. The two teenagers walked quietly through the downtown area. No one dared to live here, and the sun some through the clear blue sky. The perfect time of day to go through the abandoned city. Spencer kept her two pistols at the ready, prepared to shoot any Infecti's. Emily began taking pictures, turning and snapping, turning and snapping. The click of the camera shutter was loudly rebounded off of the walls.
"Can you please keep it down?" Spencer hissed over her shoulder, catching a movement in the shadows up ahead. She whirled around to come face to face with a boy.
"Well, fancy meeting you here..." Kevin grinned at Spencer, who still had a pistol pointing at his forehead. He mildly ignored it and Spencer lowered the gun.
"You know, someday she's gonna pull the trigger..." Emily said, still snapping shots. Spencer put her pistol in it's holister and rolled her eyes at the boy. Kevin was Two years younger than her, yet a cocky bastard...
Kevin grinned and follow the two ladies as they began making their way back down the downtown area.
"What are you even doing here?" Spencer pestered Kevin, who stuck his hands in his pockets.
"Following you, what else?"
Emily rolled her eyes, still snapping photos. "Stalker..." she muttered.
"Why yes! Yes, I am," Kevin grinned proudly.
Spencer kept on walking until they reached it...
"Well, well, well! Ladies and gents, I give you the hospital..." Spencer announced.
THE HOSPITAL

[Sammbone195]

Solomia quickly but quietly turned around, holding her breath. It probably wouldn't matter if the noise came from an infected person; they could probably smell her scent anyways. But if it was another person, another survivor, odds were they would be somebody hostile - a raider, maybe even a group of them; every time she had seen them, they'd been in groups.

Solomia's heart pounded almost frantically as she crouched down and neared the window. Holding her gun near to her chest, she let out a breath and peered over the window sill. Her eyes widened a little when she saw a girl, a young woman, blond like herself, trudging up the small hill and towards the building. She didn't look exactly dangerous, but her weapons made it obvious that she could handle herself well. Solomia made sure not to be noticed as she rose to her feet, keeping herself in the shadows of the walls. Sweat trickled down the side of her face; it was hot, and the scenario wasn't helping very much.

Hundreds of thoughts passed through her mind. Was it safe to call out to the other girl? Maybe teaming up wouldn't be a bad idea. But was the girl a threat? She had come by people before who were horrible to her, who injured her, took her things, and left her for dead; she managed to survive, but she knew better than to just trust random people. Maybe she should hide.

Silently, Solomia decided to go with the latter idea, for now. She knew it was better to hide like a pussy than to be sorry. She made her way to a nearby doorway, holding her gun out, just in case an infected person were to attack her; and cautiously turned the doorknob. The door easily opened without even a creak, and Solomia slyly made her way inside the empty room. She closed the door behind herself and sat down in the corner

[LilyDiana]

Arianna made her way slowly up the hill, her sharp eyes scanning the building carefully, looking for signs of any infecti's or humans. Her gaze passed over a window, and she saw a flash of what looked to be blonde hair. It disappeared as quickly as she saw it, but it was enough to confirm that someone was here. It wouldn't have been an infecti, they wouldn't have gone near a window, not with the sun shining full force. She weighed her options, she needed these supplies desperately if she were going to make the trek to California. If there was only one person in there, she would be alright, she didn't want to kill them and didn't intend to. That was her last option. Perhaps negotiations could be made. But if there was a whole group of people in there, she'd be in it deep.

She was a goner if she didn't get these supplies anyway. Arianna kept moving onward. She used the same entrance the first intruder must have utilized: a broken window. Careful not to cut herself, she slid herself into the room. It was dim, dust could be seen swirling in the air where the suns rays caught it. The silence hinted that whoever was here was probably laying low, because they had seen her coming. As insurance, she drew her gun, keeping it pointed toward the ground before her as she went forward. There were a few different rooms, she checked each one, opening the doors quickly (to surprise anyone inside), gun pointed inside. She saw that some of them were filled with food items, things like M.R.E's. How had this place escaped being raided for so long? One seemed to contain boxes of ammunition, perhaps grenades.

Next to the room of ammunition, there was another door. Following the same routine, she yanked open the door, aiming her weapon at the unknown contents of the room. She found herself aiming at a girl, clearly younger than herself, who was crouched in the corner of an empty room. Slowly, she brought her gun down, again pointing it at the floor, backed up a few steps. "You don't shoot me, I don't shoot you." she told her. Arianna was prepared to bring her weapon back up and fire if the girl made a move to do the same, though she truly did not want to. But if it was her life or the girls, well, her father had always told her that keeping yourself alive was the main goal.

[SilverAce]

Kevin looked at her with wide eyes.
"Whoa... who said we're going in there? I'm not going in there!" the 14 year old boy said, backing up. Spencer rolled her eyes and made her way through the thick grass that grew wildly. Emily followed behind her, looking at the building, but not snapping any shots. Spencer raised her gun at the door, and kicked it down. The hospital wasn't very big, and the contents that she had needed was just down the hall on the main level. Light filtered through the halls, and lit the place up nicely.

Spencer put her gun back, knowing that the Infecti's wouldn't take such a chance in a sunlight lit place like this. She gave Kevin a look, and motioned her hands in front of her, showing him to go ahead. He shook his head, and Spencer walked on in. Emily kept pace with the rushing Spencer, and Kevin decided to wait.
She kicked down the door and rushed in. Doctor Lens needed some antibiotics only found in the hospital. Spencer heard the fall of a medical table, and whirled around with her gun aimed to see it.

[Sammbone195]

((I GREATLY apologize for not posting for so long. I've had no access to the internet for what seems like foreverrr :( ))

Solomia, not having much confidence in the other female's words, kept her stance, her gun still pointed straight at her.

"How do I know I can trust you?" her words came out harsh. It'd been a while since she had spoken more than a few words aloud due to her lack of human contact in the past long months, or however long it'd been.

Realizing that her hand was shaking, she brought her other hand up to steady it, hardening her expression a bit more. Maybe she was more afraid of survivors than she was of the people who were infected. She pushed herself to her full stature but kept the gun aimed at the stranger. After seeing that the other blond wasn't moving, she slowly lowered her weapon, her eyes glued to her possible enemy. "I'm just here for supplies; nothing more."

[SparrowHawk]

It was quiet, almost to quiet. Nothing seemed to be moving, no sounds or moaning was echoing in the air today. Nothing. Sure Kyle had to admit that it was nice to feel normal; just hanging out in a tree enjoying the sun as if it was a regular day, but those days were gone. Forever maybe. Kyle took out an apple he had been saving for a rainy day and decided now would be a decent time to eat it. No running from moaning, stumbling creatures, no shooting anybody in the head, no blood slurping, organ squishing sounds; a nice break from insanity.

Just as the tender juices of the rarity in his hand tackled his taste buds it happened. CAW! Kyle bolted to his feet and stared at the crow in curiosity as it watched him eat his red fruit. Slowly, Kyle took another bite of the irresistible delicacy, and just like clock work the crow spoke. CAW! "You jealous?" He almost wanted to laugh. He began to mow down on the apple until it was just a simple core. Wiping his mouth on his sleeve he held the core in the air. "Yum. Here, have the rest." Kyle let the core fall to the ground, making sure the crow say it drop; immediately the black winged bird flew past him and landed on the ground, hopping towards its next meal. The core had landed right next to a corpse, one that wasn't moving. The crow stopped hopping for a moment and then continued forward, its beak dug into its lunch and began devouring it. Kyle's eyes widen in horror as he almost fell out of the tree.

The crow was eating the corpse.

CAW! Another bird flew past him in the tree and landed on the ground and began to eat the rotting human flesh as well. CAW! CAW! CAW! CAW! CAW! CAW! A flock of black suddenly swarmed Kyle as he tried to make his way off the branch and onto a roof near by, not even daring to land on the ground knowing the Infected were probably gathering near his once peaceful tree. Spotting a small opening Kyle leaped forward and landed in a dive roll onto the roof. He immediately began roof hopping, trying to gain as much distance from the tree as possible in the shortest amount of time. Majority of the crows gave up on chasing him realizing he was alive and more of a challenge then someone unable to defend themselves. One landed right infront of Kyle, causing him to lose his balance and fall down onto the solid roof. Its eyes were lined in bulging red veins and its size was stronger and bigger then that of a regular crow. This is so messed up. That was the only thought running through Kyle's head as he slowly made his way onto to feet and around the bird. It flew away once he was on the other side of the roof, giving up on an impossible feast.

Kyle simply stood on the roof for several minutes after catching his breath. That was not supposed to happen today. Once back to a regular paced heart race he loomed over the edge to see how many were on the streets today. Some stragglers were walking about but nothing to serious, nothing he couldn't handle if he were to land ground anytime soon.

At his leisure Kyle decided to walk a top the roofs, just seemed safest on high ground where the Infected were less likely to hangout. Scouting the lower ground Kyle spotted a wall that looked to be shielding a building. Perhaps that could be his next camp for a while, assuming it wasn't taken. Without further ado he made his way towards the building, checking over the edge every so often to see how many fools were stumbling about. Luckily, none of them bothered to look up because they were to busy drooling blood. Finally, at the wall Kyle spotted a small spot where it looked like someone had cut through the barb wire on top. Are they still here? Is this place taken? Would they mind housing me? Maybe they moved on? Are there still Infected inside? Questions flew through him mind until he decided it may be worth the risk. This place looked like an arsenal and if he was actually going to go through with his plans of going to Sedar Creek then he was going to need more then a couple of arrows.

Kyle somehow managed to make his way over the wall without getting sliced or drawing blood from the barbed wire at the top but his landing was not as great. Even though he was almost always very nimble, his ankle decided this fall was the last straw of the day. Just as his feet made contact with the ground pain shot up his leg and he landed with a relatively loud THUD! If anyone was still around, there was no doubt they heard his entrance.

[LilyDiana]

Because the girl still had her gun aimed at Arianna, she made sure the girl could see that her finger wasn't even on the trigger. The corner of her mouth twitched in an ironic smile. "That's thing, you don't know if you can trust me, I don't know if I can trust you." she shrugged, "That's how the world works, these days." As she lowered her weapon, Arianna slowly holstered her own gun, a sort of act of good faith, but kept her eyes locked with the person before her. "I'm only here for supplies, as well." she told her, "There seems to be enough here that we can both have as much as we want."

[SilverAce]

"Damn Birds..." Spencer hissed annoyingly as a couple of pigeons flew off through a wrecked wall. Putting her gun back, she searched through the cabinets, looking for the medicine Doc had asked of her until coming upon six small bottles of them. She smiled a bit happily, and took it all, stuffing them in her bag. She heard the loud clicks of the shutters as Em decided she wasn't done with the photoshoot of this place.
Once done, the two made their way back out, to meet the shaking Kevin, who screamed at every moving shadow. A lot of kids were like that nowadays. The ones who gossiped were the first to slowly loose their mind, until a sliver of it was left to hang on to reality. Kevin was unfortunately one to not be as strong as Spencer, who was stone. End of story.
The three carefully made their way back to the downtown area, jumping over fences and walls to get there, and were once again, walking back down the streets. Spencer's arm shot out in front of the other two, and she formed a protective stance in front of them, her gun aimed at the creature in front of the three.
"Get behind me!" Spencer hissed as the two peaked around her slim body at the creature.
It was in broad daylight, ruling out the possibility of it being an Infecti.
And it was more animal than human like. It was about eight feet away from the group, and it growled strangely at them. Making a chortling bark with it's strange wolf-like snout. It had a hairy hunch, and bear paws, with a stub for a tail. It's back legs were thick with muscle, and it's black beady eyes were slitted at Spencer. It stood on it's hind legs, and Spencer saw it's brown wiry fur sticking out in strands on it's back, legs, and arms, left it's underside showing pinkish skin, with a few claw marks from more than likely the Infecti's.
It roared loudly, until finally deciding to dash clumsily into a building. Leaving the three humans on the street alone.
Spencer stood up straight and sighed glad she didn't have to shoot in front of Kevin and Em.
"What the hell was that?" Em asked curiously at the confused Spencer who stared at the building where the creature had darted off to.
"Well it's not the strangest thing I've seen this week. But it might take second place, behind the Infecti's..." Spencer said as they continued their way back to the school.
Spencer had never seen an Infecti before, but Em had producted an expirement with deer camera and left them through the night.
Seven cameras she set up.
Six disapeared.
The seventh camera she managed to capture one picture of it, and it had chilled everyone straight to the bone... Spencer didn't know where the picture was, but she sure as hell ain't gonna forget about what she's fighting exactly...

[Sammbone195]

For a moment, Solomia still hesitated. But she forced herself to lower her gun and tucked the weapon into the waist of her shorts, her jaw still clenched and her eyes fixed on the woman.

"I'm taking what I want, then I'll leave," she stated, pushing her way past the other blond and back out into the hall. She figured it might be a good idea to keep her gun ready, just in case. Shifting the bag on her shoulders, she made her way down the dark hallway, searching for any signs on the door that might indicate where the weapons were being stored.

She couldn't help but glance over her shoulder over ten or twenty seconds. It felt weird to be around another survivor; it was something that would take a lot of getting used to. There was no point getting used to it though; Solomia liked being alone - it meant there were fewer things to hold her back.

Then she heard a thud, and her eyes widened from the sudden surprise. Her gun was out immediately; she didn't even need to think about it. No doubt it was an Infected; there was no way this many survivors could just happen to be drawn to the same place at once.