The Last Stand

[pheliskougra]

It's a dark stormy night might be a cliché in story-telling, but it's also stark reality now: the patter of heavy rain and the crack of thunder rousing you to conscience.

You are inside your sedan, face-first into the deployed airbag. Your chest hurts a little from the yanking of the seatbelt, but besides that minimal discomfort you seem uninjured.

The car is halfway into a ditch beside the road, the left-side light still on. The engine is stopped, and the whole of the car is askew, stuck in an odd angle. There's a crack on the windshield, passenger side, and the rain is washing off what seems to be blood.

You remember... a person, running into the road right in front of you. No time to stop, and you only had a glimpse before hitting the person, losing control of the car and crashing.

Probably you should do something about your current situation.

Who are you?

Why were you going to Union City?

Comments

[aeons_crackshot]

None of those names mean anything to Annabelle, but she nods in understanding. This place is, thankfully, not her home.

"Is there a canal in Canal Park? That could be useful." Zombies don't swim well, and travel by water can be faster than going overland.

[pheliskougra]

"Yeah, it's actually Whistler's Creek, the Canal was built for flood control back in the 50's. Whistler's Creek meets the Union River down that way." She points eastwards, while the street you're following head North.

Just a block down the street, there's the hardware store Ed mentioned.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle nods, fixing those directions in her mind, just in case. She grins when they reach the hardware store. "Time for a bit of breaking and entering, I think."

You never know what will come in handy, right?

[pheliskougra]

Monica, maybe surprisingly, does not protest the delay. "We'll probably need some tools to secure the apartment." Yes, she's considering holing out with her husband.

The front door is not locked, fortunately. But as the street outside, the interior is a terrible mess, half looted.

Also, some head-bashed-in-not-undead-anymore-corpses. Four.

Someone kicked ass there and seemingly escaped with an intact hide?

[aeons_crackshot]

So it seems.

"Looks like there's at least one more survivor out there," she says with a fierce smile. "Maybe we'll run into them on the way."

[pheliskougra]

Monica gives a nod, glancing around. "Maybe. What should we take? Hammer, nails, a saw?" Backpacks are loaded up, so being frugal might be a good idea.

[aeons_crackshot]

"Those three, but not much more," Annabelle replies, thinking. "We're about at the limit of what we can carry."

[pheliskougra]

She nods, moving to the right where the nails are. Tools seem to be to the left and back of the store, closer to you.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle picks up a hammer and a saw, then.

She...may be picking them based on weapon utility rather than arts and crafts, we're afraid. What, it's not like she has experience with them in their usual uses!

[pheliskougra]

And while you're picking a good long-handled sturdy hammer... there's a noise coming from the back, like someone dropped something heavy like a cardboard box.

[aeons_crackshot]

An instant later, Annabelle has a gun pointed at the noise. "If you're alive, start talking. Otherwise, I'm clearing this place with bullets."

[pheliskougra]

"YOU are alive?" A female voice calls from the back.

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle represses her most sarcastic answer.

"You run into any walking corpses that can talk?"

[pheliskougra]

"They hiss and screech and growl. Not far that much." Very suspicious tone. "If you are alive, look for my glasses: they fell off somewhere near the counter."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle rolls her eyes. "Sure, sure. Give me a minute."

It can't be that hard to find a pair of glasses in here, right?

[pheliskougra]

Actually it's not: some nice frames with thick lenses, laying on the floor halfway under the counter.

yeah, good reason to be hiding, if you can not really see the zombies you're fighting.

[aeons_crackshot]

A very good reason. "You might want to duct tape these on, for safety's sake," Annabelle advises as she walks toward where the woman is hiding.

[pheliskougra]

A slender, black-skinned hand shows around the corner of the door into the back room. "Yeah, I got my lanyard here. Gimme."

[aeons_crackshot]

Annabelle presses the glasses into the woman's hand.

[pheliskougra]

And the hand retreats... after a minute, a pretty black girl peers out, hair pulled up and held back with an elastic cloth headband. She watches you and Monica warily. "Now who're you two?"

[aeons_crackshot]

"I'm Annabelle Newfield, and this is Monica," Annabelle explains. "You have a name I should use?"

[pheliskougra]

"I'm Kelly. I work..." Then she glances around. "...well, used to work here." The store is obviously out of business, what with the zombie infestation and all.

[aeons_crackshot]

Yeah, zombie invasions tend to kill the housing market.

"Good to meet you, Kelly. You need to head somewhere?" Unless she wants to stay here by herself.

[pheliskougra]

"Out of town? Another fucking country?" Anywhere but there, it seems. "You gotta spare gun? My fuckhead boss fled out the back door with his, and locked me in here. I've been hiding in the storeroom since."

[aeons_crackshot]

"Asshole," Annabelle comments. "Yeah, I've got a spare." Or two, or six. You know, just in case.

"Anything in particular you favor?"