(Thank you so much! If you suddenly decide you want to be a girl then you totally can change it back. Now I'm going to start so we can get this moving!)
Rampion I wandered the streets of the now almost desolate New York. It was true, I had grown up here all my life but never had I properly explored it, never gone shopping or seen a Broadway play. My parents only had one child and cared for me greatly. But it was almost more punishment than reward. I walked slowly. I was sad, devastated even at their death, at the death of my nanny. But I had grieved and it was time to find new people, time to survive.
The virus had come up suddenly and my family had watched the news every day, seeing more and more deaths, more riots and murders. It had not only killed people, the virus seemed to make them crazy. My mother would look at me and shake her head.
"This is why you don't go out Rampion. People are horrid and evil and you wouldn't last a minute." And in those nights, watching the deaths on our small screen I had agreed with her and momentarily forgot about my thirst for freedom, art, and the adult life.
The frying pan I held in my hand was heavy, and the long knife I kept in a small leather satchel that had once belonged to my father felt dangerous. I knew not how to use either of these as a weapon and I worried that I would soon have to. A trash can fell over behind me and I jumped. Turning quickly, hair on end and ears pricked. Nothing. Nothing was there. I turned and resumed the long walk. Before leaving the home I had almost never left, I had picked a comfortable pair of walking boots and jeans with a long denim shirt that had also been my fathers. Out of the two of my parents, I think I loved my father most. It was horribly to say, I knew it. But it was true and I simply couldn't lie.
"H-hello?!" I called out loudly, my high and reedy voice bounced off the walls of deserted and high apartment and business buildings. I hoped some one would hear my calls.
Kelli I barely noticed the bodies anymore. I tried not to look at their faces as I stepped over another pile, refusing to acknowledge the fact that they had once been living people, with hopes, dreams and ambitions for the future. They had had families and friends and... no. I shook my head. I wasn't going down that road of thought again.
I had been forced to sensor my own thoughts over the past couple of months. I couldn't bare to remember those I had lost, or what was going to happen to me. If I did that, I may as well have just curled up in a small corner and let the anguish eat away at me. But I wasn't going down without a fight.
There wasn't any reason that I could see that explained why I had been chosen to live. How was it that I was immune to this virus? Millions of people had died, some right in front of my eyes. So why not me?
My only hope for now was that there was someone else out there. Someone like me. Was that too much to ask?
"Is anyone there?" I screamed out, praying for a miracle. But my voice was soon lost to the wind.
((Icy--should we assume for that we are all in the same state, just so it is easier to find every one? If so I will post again with a reply just so we can get this moving! And for everybody here there is now a discussion thread here: topic87074.html ))
As I called out a second time I thought I heard another voice, I turned myself in the direction I heard it come from and began to quicken my pace, before I knew it I was at a jog. Who knew that seeing another person would be so exciting, who knew I would be running to greet a stranger. Mother would be furious.
I was long past due for a hair cut when the virus struck, as I ran my hair whipped across my back, it was a good five inches below my hips and I had braided it this morning before leaving.
"Hello! Is some one else there?" I called out louder this time, I called again hoping I was headed in the right direction. My yells seemed to drift out of my mouth and get lost in the alleys I was passing. I stopped short. The news stories, before the towers had stopped broadcasting. Had told of a group forming, a group of rebels that called themselves the savages. A group run by a man named Harrison. I could only hope this voice was not a member of that group. We could make our own team! I thought getting a bit excited. I would have to take a chance. And I thought this chance was worth taking.
Two females on the streets below had located each other. I picked up my rifle and clambered out onto my balcony and found one of them. She was blonde, and very attractive. I chuckled at the cast iron frying pan dangling from her belt. I swung over the balcony's railing and pulled my menthol coated bandana over my nose to keep the smell of dead folks out of my nose. I grabbed the rope I had affixed to the railing and slowly and silently rappeled down. I landed behind a burnt out car and pulled my rifle off my back.
The blonde girl continued to call out to the other female off in the distance. She stopped for a moment, lingering on a pile of rubble. I scuttled up behind her and grabbed her, pulled her down, and covered her mouth to keep her from screaming. She squirmed under me, trying to scream.
"Shut, up, shut the hell up!"
She managed to clip my temple with her frying pan. I winced in pain and hit it away from her.
"I'm not gonna hurt you. I have a safehouse up in that building. Get your friend you're calling and follow me. I haved food and water. You'll also be safe from the savages. Come on."
Slowly, I let her up, unsure of whether she was gonna attack me with the her knife or not.
"There are no absolute rules of conduct, either in peace or war. Everything depends on circumstances."
I stood atop a heap of bricks and old trash, left out to rot. No one would come to collect it on Mondays. No one would call the town to complain about it's smell. It was then when a boy--no a man grabbed me. Covering my mouth, making my last yell die in my throat. I reached for the frying pan and swung it wildly, he knocked it away and I shrieked.
"I'm not gonna hurt you. I have a safehouse up in that building. Get your friend you're calling and follow me. I haved food and water. You'll also be safe from the savages. Come on."
I stopped. Shut my mouth slowly and bent to retrieve the pan he had knocked away moments earlier. I looked him up and down. Older than me. Taller than me, obviously stronger than me. I was shocked to find him...good-looking. I had never seen a boy not my age or older than me. And most of the boys my parents introduced me to looked nothing like the adventure heroes I read about. I brushed a stray piece of hair behind my ear and and looked up at him trying to appear brave. Squaring my shoulders and all that. I was five feet. I doubted it looked impressive.
"Why--why should I believe you...sir what if you are trying to trick me?" I asked. To my surprise my voice was strong and almost confident. Well maybe that was a stretch. I gripped the pan tighter.
Last edited by Tabithalillian on Sat Sep 03, 2011 10:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I walked through what I used to call "home". My shoes crunched dead leaves beneath me, and I could only hear my breath until I heard voices. Wait, voices? I thought I was the only one here, let alone alive! I quickened my pace, trying to get close to the voices. I heard a loud clang! nearby, and practically ran towards the sound. I saw a blonde girl holding a frying pan, and man touching his temple.
"What the hell?" I asked myself. The girl turned around and her eyes widened.
"Were you the voice?" she asked. Voice? Oh, she must be talking about the other girl.
"What? No," I said. She dropped her head in disappointment.
"You aren't plagued, are you?" I asked them.
"No! Of course not!" she cried. I turned to the man, and he shook his head.
"Are you?" he asked. I crossed my arms and shook my head.
I jumped at the sounds of another voice behind me. Turning quickly and raising the pan again I looked at the girl with curiosity.
"You aren't plagued, are you?" She asked looking at both me and the man behind me, who I took an involuntary step towards as she spoke. I wasn't used to people. And I certainly wasn't used to a post virus infected world.
"No! Of course not!" I said, I looked to the man who had spoken to me earlier, took another step towards him and he shook his head no.
"I wouldn't be here if I were, would I?" I asked, almost as if to confirm to myself that I did not have the virus. "Who are you?" I asked pursing my lips slightly. Praying that these two meant me no harm.
Suddenly the man behind me didn't seem so terrifying. There were worse people out there, he could have killed me if he wanted to, and he had not tried. Only made me stop screaming.
"I guess it was stupid." I whispered aloud. I blushed. Stupid.
April walked the deserted street, her arms wrapped protectively around herself. Dead. All of them. Jerr, Zane, Killer, Javy, and Blaze. Her family, dead. The only people in the world she cared about. April didn't give a rat's ass if the rest of the world died, as long as her gang was alive.
"I have a safehouse." April whirled around, her eyes flashing. She heard people talking. She quietly turned a corner and spotted two girls and a boy chatting. She wasn't the only one alive? She wasn't alone! Her relief quickly turned to a burning anger. They should be dead, in place of her gang. Those stupid kids, who probably had everything and never knew what is was like to starve. To be almost beaten to death. To watch someone you love die, and know that you can't save them. Like Thayne.
She wanted to run out there and throw a dagger in each of their stupid faces. She really wanted to. She was quietly walking towards them, pulling a dagger out of her back pocket when snap! when a branch shd stepped on. Their heads snapped towards her. April cursed, quickly hiding the dagger and eyeing them catiously.
“I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then." - Lewis Carroll
So now another female had found me. My lucky day. I asked her if she was diseased, and obviously she wasn't. I didn't want to take both the women to my hideout and consume what little supplies I had three times as fast, but they were both young and attractive, and I couldn't shake the image of my old friend raping that girl before shooting her, and I couldn't let that happen to either of these girls.
"I guess you can come along too. But you're gonn need to be able to climb a rope to get to my-"
I was cut off by someone crunching something beneath their foot. I whirled around and saw a young blonde woman looking sheepishly at us. For a moment, I wondered if the plague had somehow affected men more than women. The girl took a timid step forward. Jesus. Another mouth to feed. I stepped forward.
"Hi, listen, my name is Alexander and I have a safehouse just a bit west of here. I guess you're welcome to-"
I slipped on some piece of rubbish in the streets and fell, my M14 discharging as it clattered to the ground. The three women leapt back at the crack of the weapon. I stood back up slowly, and when I was halfway up, found myself with a knife to my throat.
"Hey now, let's be cool about this."
She kneed me in the stomach.
"Shut up. Just hand me the gun and take me to thesafehouse and give me all your supplies."
"Can those two come with me?"
She shoved the gun barrel into my back and sent me marching.
"Sure, whatever. They're gonna die either way..."
We walked for about five minutes before arriving at the rope ladder to my safehouse. The girl with the gun forced the three of us up first. As soon as we got into the apartment, I grabbed the blonde's shoulder.
"Give me the knife you have. Now."
She complied and fumbled about before pulling the blade out of its scabbard and handing it to me. I leaned over the balcony andsaw our captor nearly here. I hurriedly grabbed a few cans of food and prepared to hand them to her. When she reached te top, I rushed her. She dropped the gun on the floor, and I seized the opportunity and shoved the blade up under her chin.
"Take the food I'm offering and get the hell out of here or I'll open you up. Understood?"
"There are no absolute rules of conduct, either in peace or war. Everything depends on circumstances."
(Please, no one reply to Loller's current post. I've asked him to edit it. See, April ha sa innocent face. Looking at her, you wouldn't guess she'd be capable of killing you. So, she's gonna be the sweet traitoramongst the group. )
“I can't go back to yesterday because I was a different person then." - Lewis Carroll
(Don't worry. I will wait to have Rampion reply to the last post but I do think I will have Harrison start in so we can get the other side of things moving too))
Harrison
I walked through the abandoned streets of good 'ol NYC. The city of times square. I laughed and kicked at an empty can that had blown into my path. Bodies in the allies, I could smell them from opens windows in apartments. It was time to get some new rebels together. Ones that were actually immune, actually still alive and not rotting in some damned club house back there.
I took my hands out of my pockets and rubbed my temples. I hated bringing new people together, it was such a chore. But they just flocked to my natural leadership and wonderfully easy to trust face. Adjusting the hat I wore I continued the virtually pointless walk.
I could be silent, and I knew I was fast. Part of me wanted to find a little innocent ignorant rich pansy and murder him where he stood. There were no police. I could do it. And I could vanish before any of his friends (if he had any) were around. But I soon heard a scream, not a terrified one. Just a scream to find some one. And then by the ensuing sounds I gathered she had found them. I walked closer. Ducking into a building and dashing up the stairs. Taking a front row seat from an above balcony.
Below was a man, and two girls. One small and with an awful lot of hair. Not my type, I chuckled. Another tall and skinny and obviously looking for a companion. That was better. And a girl, waited for them, just behind them. Approaching slowly. I saw the anger in her eyes, but it was well hidden. I wondered if she could see me. I wondered if she would be a lovely addition to my group. I waved. A small one. And let my self laugh again. What a grand time.
I wandered the streets wobbling on my two back legs. I'm so used with hunting as my wolf-sisters did, I could barely remember how to walk like 2-leggers. My sharp ears pointed towards... voices. Not howls, like my sister's voices, but two-leggers voices. Ah, what were they called again Hamons? No... Hm... Oh, right! Humans!
I tried to scream 'help' I really tried. But what came out? A throaty howl. I shrugged it off and, shifting for fours, rushed to the group.
Saw me before I could shift to four legs, looking at me as if I've came from an insane asylum.
"H-H-helo." I uttered, infinitely proud of myself.
"Fantasy is a way of looking through the wrong end of the telescope."
"The writer who breeds more words than he needs is making a chore for the reader who reads!"
She wandered behind the garbage cans. Something smelled good, and she wanted it. There had to be something still good! It's not like she could get sick, her stomach could handle anything.
She dug through the garbage until she found something. It was a piece of old bread with a few bits of mold on it. For a minute she stared at it. Finally she sniffed it. She'd eaten worse smelling things.
She ate it quickly, she didn't want to taste the fowl bread. What little she did taste was awful.
Someone was moving around? She squinted, trying to make sense of the figure, or figures moving around. Her eyesight wasn't all that good, and she started to slowly move closer.
A small hiss passed her throat, warning anyone that got to close that this was her turf.
Anthony Mercer
"Screw it all," he screamed as he threw a chair through the opened window. "WHY?!"
He sat down on his bed and sobbed loudly into his hands. Before he had met Leonard this bed never seemed so big and empty, but now that he was gone he knew just how much more space he had, and he hated every second of it.
Looking up he wiped his eyes. His gaze settled on the closet. Their closet. Slowly, he rose and walked over to the closet. Inside he found all of Leonard's clothes beside his own. After he had died he simply didn't have the heart to get rid of them. Sometimes he would often pretend that Leonard was still alive, just away.
"Anthony," Leonard whispered softly. "I don't feel so good."
Anthony stroked the young man's light blonde hair. Leonard has always been scrawny, but it was really showing, and he looked dreadful. "I know, it's going to be okay."
Leonard frowned. His bottom lip started to tremble. "A-Anthony... I really love you."
"I love you too," he said, kissing Leonard on the cheek. "Don't forget that I'll always love you."
"Am I going to die?" Leonard looked up at him with tearful eyes.
Anthony looked like he was about to start crying. "I-I don't know," he said, choking up every time he tried to speak. "But you're strong. We can get through this, we're going to move far away from here. We're going to move far away from this shit, and we're going to be happy."
Leonard hugged Anthony. His arms were weak. Anthony held the smaller man tightly in his embrace, tears falling down his cheeks. "Anthony," Leonard whispered into his ear. "I think I'm dying."
"No," Anthony said, hugging him tighter. "I don't know what I'd do if I lost you."
"It's okay," Leonard replied. "You're a strong man, I'm sure you'll be able to beat this thing."
"I love you, Leonard," Anthony said. He lowered his head and started to weep into Leonard's shoulder. "I love you so much."
"I love you too, Anthony," Leonard said, his voice getting softer by the minute.
The machines he was hooked up to started to beep, and Leonard fell limp. Anthony grew pale and looked up at the monitors, then back down at Leonard. "Leonard! No! You can't die!"
Doctors rushed in and made Anthony step back, but despite their best efforts they couldn't save him.
Do you want Peace, Love, and Happiness? ~Good, because so do I. Before you can do that, you must do one thing. ~Imagine ALL the people. That or sit on the couch eating nachos.
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