[Shoot her. You can't leave Rema as one of those things.]
As much as you don't want to have to shoot your friend, your feelings of trepid… moreation towards shooting her are not as strong as the immense guilt that washes over you. You left her here, let her become one of these things - and you can't bear to leave her like this. To shoot her would only be mercy.
Sighing, you raise the gun in your shaking hand and point it at her head. She stares up at you, face still uncomprehending of anything, and from behind you Lizzy starts to say something in protest - but you've already pulled the trigger.
Jack looks up from beside you, uncovering his face to stare at Rema's body, unmoving now and slumped on the ground. "We should bury her," he starts to say. "She--"
"What was that?!" Lizzy says, voice shriller than usual in her anger. "Why did you do that?"
"It was our fault she died, Lizzy!" you tell her. "I couldn't leave her as one of those … [view original content]
[Shoot her. You can't leave Rema as one of those things.]
As much as you don't want to have to shoot your friend, your feelings of trepid… moreation towards shooting her are not as strong as the immense guilt that washes over you. You left her here, let her become one of these things - and you can't bear to leave her like this. To shoot her would only be mercy.
Sighing, you raise the gun in your shaking hand and point it at her head. She stares up at you, face still uncomprehending of anything, and from behind you Lizzy starts to say something in protest - but you've already pulled the trigger.
Jack looks up from beside you, uncovering his face to stare at Rema's body, unmoving now and slumped on the ground. "We should bury her," he starts to say. "She--"
"What was that?!" Lizzy says, voice shriller than usual in her anger. "Why did you do that?"
"It was our fault she died, Lizzy!" you tell her. "I couldn't leave her as one of those … [view original content]
[You're right, we need to help. Dev's plan could work. We can cover ourselves in dead blood and sneak in.] Wow, I've been gone for a good month and come back to see all this. I remember making Alice and this thread had no comments or anything. I'm happy you were able to write her so well! I didn't expect the romance plot to come out but as a hopeless romantic this is great and I can totes see my character doing that. I might make another character down the road
[Shoot her. You can't leave Rema as one of those things.]
As much as you don't want to have to shoot your friend, your feelings of trepid… moreation towards shooting her are not as strong as the immense guilt that washes over you. You left her here, let her become one of these things - and you can't bear to leave her like this. To shoot her would only be mercy.
Sighing, you raise the gun in your shaking hand and point it at her head. She stares up at you, face still uncomprehending of anything, and from behind you Lizzy starts to say something in protest - but you've already pulled the trigger.
Jack looks up from beside you, uncovering his face to stare at Rema's body, unmoving now and slumped on the ground. "We should bury her," he starts to say. "She--"
"What was that?!" Lizzy says, voice shriller than usual in her anger. "Why did you do that?"
"It was our fault she died, Lizzy!" you tell her. "I couldn't leave her as one of those … [view original content]
Oh wow, Alice is your character? I hope you're okay with the way the story's been going regarding her - I will admit I was hinting at a romance with her and Eli, but I didn't think many people had noticed. xD At least you don't seem opposed to it! I hope you're liking how I'm portraying her! And sure, make another character if you'd like!
[You're right, we need to help. Dev's plan could work. We can cover ourselves in dead blood and sneak in.] Wow, I've been gone for a good mo… morenth and come back to see all this. I remember making Alice and this thread had no comments or anything. I'm happy you were able to write her so well! I didn't expect the romance plot to come out but as a hopeless romantic this is great and I can totes see my character doing that. I might make another character down the road
By the way... it's too late for you guys to change your votes, but I think it's funny that everyone seemed to forget two things... 1) It was raining, and 2) there's only one walker around they can use for blood...
By the way... it's too late for you guys to change your votes, but I think it's funny that everyone seemed to forget two things... 1) It was raining, and 2) there's only one walker around they can use for blood...
[You're right, we need to help. Dev's plan could work.]
"Jack's right," you whisper. "Even if whoever's inside isn't Jen or the others, we need to make sure they don't need help. We could try Dev's plan." You're thankful that the rain seems to have let up; you aren't sure if it would have mattered, but you do worry a little that rain might have 'washed off' the scent, so to speak.
Lizzy glares at you. "Yeah, well where would we get dead blood to cover ourselves with, Einstein?" she snaps. "The only roamers around here are the ones in the herd!"
"There is another one," Jack says softly.
There's a brief silence as you all slowly catch on, before Dev speaks. "Wh... what? You don't mean..."
"It's the only way," he cuts her off. "It's... she'd want us to do it. To save the others."
"He's right," you say softly. "Okay. Let's go, then."
It's a short walk back to where Rema's body is. Once you're there, you reach for your meat cleaver, but find yourself empty-handed. It takes you a moment to remember that you left it back with Alice.
"Shit," you murmur, right before Lizzy steps forward, taking out what looks to be a pocket knife from her jeans.
"You had that and didn't tell us?" Jack asks.
"What does it matter?" she replies, raising an eyebrow. Then, with a sigh, she stoops down next to Rema's body, clicking the blade out into place. "It's a little small, but it should work," she remarks, before pulling Rema out some from under the log so that she's easier to access.
"This is wrong," Dev murmurs.
"She'd want us to," Jack insists, but you notice that he is refusing to look.
"We're only doing what we have to," Lizzy tells her friend as she plunges her knife into Rema's ... no, the body's rotted shoulder and drags it down some, exposing the flesh beneath and getting blood all over the blade.
"We're defiling her corpse," Dev says, sounding horror-stricken. No one answers her.
Lizzy sets her knife on the ground and starts using her hands to apply blood to her already-bloodstained clothes. Bit by bit, she smears more and more on herself until she's completely covered. Then she looks at Dev. "Dev, come here," she says to her friend, who reluctantly does as she says. You move to the corpse and call Jack over also.
Eventually, all of you are sufficiently covered, and you stand to return to the farm. The herd has probably reached it by now; you wouldn't be surprised if it's already reached the trees. As soon as you get to the farm, you'll have to check for the others as quickly as you can so you can go back and warn Alice and Thalia.
"I'm sorry," Dev mumbles, you presume to Rema, before you all turn and head back.
Just before you reach the edge of the woods, Lizzy turns to you, muttering out instructions. "Keep your head down," she says. "Walk slowly, like one of them. As long as you don't run, they probably won't notice you."
"Probably?" Jack echoes skeptically. She doesn't reply.
As the four of you emerge from the forest, you can see the herd is almost upon you. Slowly, you make your way through it, careful not to move too fast and alert them.
Amazingly, none of them seem to take any notice of you. All four of you reach the house unscathed, though it takes quite a while. Still making gradual movements, you open the side door and then quickly head inside, the others following. You're thankful that the door isn't particularly loud as it shuts. You'll probably be okay.
Someone was in here - you're sure of it - so, softly (you still don't want to let the rioters outside know where you are), you call out to the seemingly-empty house. "Hello?"
There's silence as you all move forward, glancing around. "Stephany, are you here?" Jack asks from behind you. You take a few steps through the hall towards the kitchen.
Without warning, someone moves into the doorway in front of you - but it's not Jen, Devin or Stephany. It's a young man with light brown hair and hazel eyes; he has a distinctive scar on the right side of his face. "Hi," he says, as you stare at him in shock. "Are you the people who live here?"
"Not anymore," you tell him truthfully. "We're... moving on. But we lost some of our people when we... left. Have you seen them?"
"No one's been here since me," he says. "I'm sorry. The place looked like it'd been recently raided. When I got here, there were some people in the woods. They tried to attack me..." It's then that you notice the somewhat fresh-looking blood on the side of his shirt; he's injured.
"Are you alright?" Dev asks him, at the same time that Jack asks, "Did these people have any hostages?"
He looks at Jack as he answers. "I didn't see any. But they could have. I don't know, I'm sorry. Did they attack you, too?"
You don't say anything for a moment, looking at Jack; Lizzy speaks up instead.
"Yes," she says.
"I'm sorry to hear that," the man says to you kindly. "My name is Phenix. It's nice to meet you kids."
"Elias," you say. "Nice to meet you." The others introduce themselves as well, and he smiles as they do, though you think his smile looks somewhat sad.
"Are you sure you didn't see anyone?" Jack asks. "Where did the people go? The ones who attacked you? Can you show us?"
"Uh, yeah, about that," Phenix says, with a weak, forced-sounding laugh. It's then you notice just how frail this man looks - and it's not his build, either. He looks like a strong man - built well enough - but even as you look on, you see him sway slightly on his feet. "I'm not going anywhere." You stare in confusion for a moment before he reaches down to grab the bottom of his shirt; slowly, he lifts it, to reveal a terrible looking wound on the lower left side of his torso. It takes you a minute to recognize it for what it is - a bite.
"Oh my god," Dev gasps.
"It happened when I was trying to get away from the people in the woods," he says, still smiling, though you can see the sadness in it now for sure. "I was out of ammo, so... I figured I'd hole out in here until ... well. You know. I thought I'd have less chance of hurting anyone. Since I couldn't... take myself out."
"I'm sorry," you say to him.
"It's not your fault," he tells you. "I'm... I've already accepted it." He sighs. "I wish I could help you. I could try to show you the direction the people went, but I don't want to endanger you."
"I don't know if it'd be a good idea anyway," Jack says quietly. "There's a horde of them, right outside. We only got through because of..." He gestures down at his bloodied clothes. "Well, this."
"I was going to ask about that," Phenix says, laughing a little. "Thought it might be rude to ask why you smelled so bad... I understand. You should go. I'll be fine." He pauses, looking away. "Well. I won't be fine, but... You know what I mean. You kids shouldn't worry, is all."
[Okay. We'll leave. Good luck.]
[We'll leave, but first... Jack, lend him your gun.]
[No. You can come with us. We can use some of the blood on our clothes to cover you, too. You can show us where the bandits went.]
A character was only introduced and he's already bitten. Bad Luck Phenix! But I think that he can [come with us. We can use some of the blood on our clothes to cover you, too. You can show us where the bandits went.]
[You're right, we need to help. Dev's plan could work.]
"Jack's right," you whisper. "Even if whoever's inside isn't Jen or the others, w… moree need to make sure they don't need help. We could try Dev's plan." You're thankful that the rain seems to have let up; you aren't sure if it would have mattered, but you do worry a little that rain might have 'washed off' the scent, so to speak.
Lizzy glares at you. "Yeah, well where would we get dead blood to cover ourselves with, Einstein?" she snaps. "The only roamers around here are the ones in the herd!"
"There is another one," Jack says softly.
There's a brief silence as you all slowly catch on, before Dev speaks. "Wh... what? You don't mean..."
"It's the only way," he cuts her off. "It's... she'd want us to do it. To save the others."
"He's right," you say softly. "Okay. Let's go, then."
It's a short walk back to where Rema's body is. Once you're there, you reach for your meat cl… [view original content]
[You're right, we need to help. Dev's plan could work.]
"Jack's right," you whisper. "Even if whoever's inside isn't Jen or the others, w… moree need to make sure they don't need help. We could try Dev's plan." You're thankful that the rain seems to have let up; you aren't sure if it would have mattered, but you do worry a little that rain might have 'washed off' the scent, so to speak.
Lizzy glares at you. "Yeah, well where would we get dead blood to cover ourselves with, Einstein?" she snaps. "The only roamers around here are the ones in the herd!"
"There is another one," Jack says softly.
There's a brief silence as you all slowly catch on, before Dev speaks. "Wh... what? You don't mean..."
"It's the only way," he cuts her off. "It's... she'd want us to do it. To save the others."
"He's right," you say softly. "Okay. Let's go, then."
It's a short walk back to where Rema's body is. Once you're there, you reach for your meat cl… [view original content]
[You're right, we need to help. Dev's plan could work.]
"Jack's right," you whisper. "Even if whoever's inside isn't Jen or the others, w… moree need to make sure they don't need help. We could try Dev's plan." You're thankful that the rain seems to have let up; you aren't sure if it would have mattered, but you do worry a little that rain might have 'washed off' the scent, so to speak.
Lizzy glares at you. "Yeah, well where would we get dead blood to cover ourselves with, Einstein?" she snaps. "The only roamers around here are the ones in the herd!"
"There is another one," Jack says softly.
There's a brief silence as you all slowly catch on, before Dev speaks. "Wh... what? You don't mean..."
"It's the only way," he cuts her off. "It's... she'd want us to do it. To save the others."
"He's right," you say softly. "Okay. Let's go, then."
It's a short walk back to where Rema's body is. Once you're there, you reach for your meat cl… [view original content]
[You're right, we need to help. Dev's plan could work.]
"Jack's right," you whisper. "Even if whoever's inside isn't Jen or the others, w… moree need to make sure they don't need help. We could try Dev's plan." You're thankful that the rain seems to have let up; you aren't sure if it would have mattered, but you do worry a little that rain might have 'washed off' the scent, so to speak.
Lizzy glares at you. "Yeah, well where would we get dead blood to cover ourselves with, Einstein?" she snaps. "The only roamers around here are the ones in the herd!"
"There is another one," Jack says softly.
There's a brief silence as you all slowly catch on, before Dev speaks. "Wh... what? You don't mean..."
"It's the only way," he cuts her off. "It's... she'd want us to do it. To save the others."
"He's right," you say softly. "Okay. Let's go, then."
It's a short walk back to where Rema's body is. Once you're there, you reach for your meat cl… [view original content]
[You're right, we need to help. Dev's plan could work.]
"Jack's right," you whisper. "Even if whoever's inside isn't Jen or the others, w… moree need to make sure they don't need help. We could try Dev's plan." You're thankful that the rain seems to have let up; you aren't sure if it would have mattered, but you do worry a little that rain might have 'washed off' the scent, so to speak.
Lizzy glares at you. "Yeah, well where would we get dead blood to cover ourselves with, Einstein?" she snaps. "The only roamers around here are the ones in the herd!"
"There is another one," Jack says softly.
There's a brief silence as you all slowly catch on, before Dev speaks. "Wh... what? You don't mean..."
"It's the only way," he cuts her off. "It's... she'd want us to do it. To save the others."
"He's right," you say softly. "Okay. Let's go, then."
It's a short walk back to where Rema's body is. Once you're there, you reach for your meat cl… [view original content]
The way I see it, whose to say he won't turn in the process of searching for the direction that the bandits went. He may end up biting one of the members of the group, then they become a zombie. It's too much to leave up to chance, so I say [We'll leave, but first... Jack, lend him your gun.]
[You're right, we need to help. Dev's plan could work.]
"Jack's right," you whisper. "Even if whoever's inside isn't Jen or the others, w… moree need to make sure they don't need help. We could try Dev's plan." You're thankful that the rain seems to have let up; you aren't sure if it would have mattered, but you do worry a little that rain might have 'washed off' the scent, so to speak.
Lizzy glares at you. "Yeah, well where would we get dead blood to cover ourselves with, Einstein?" she snaps. "The only roamers around here are the ones in the herd!"
"There is another one," Jack says softly.
There's a brief silence as you all slowly catch on, before Dev speaks. "Wh... what? You don't mean..."
"It's the only way," he cuts her off. "It's... she'd want us to do it. To save the others."
"He's right," you say softly. "Okay. Let's go, then."
It's a short walk back to where Rema's body is. Once you're there, you reach for your meat cl… [view original content]
"We don't have to leave you," you tell him. "You can come with us. We need to know where those bandits went... And we can't just leave you to die here alone..."
"You're right," Jack says, at the exact same time that Lizzy utters a shocked-sounding "What are you doing?"
"It's not safe," Phenix tells you. "I might turn. I don't want to endanger you folks--"
"Please," Dev says. "Please help us. Our friends... my brother... those bandits are the last chance we have to find them. You have to show us where they went!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait," Lizzy says. "This guy is bitten. He's going to turn! We can't take him with us!"
"Too fucking bad, Lizzy!" Jack says. "You'll have to deal with it, because we are! We aren't just going to leave him behind!"
Phenix, who has been silent for a while, looks at you. "If... if it's what you want me to do... then I'll help you. I know what it's like to lose people you care about."
"Fuck this," Lizzy says angrily, crossing her arms and looking away.
"Lizzy --" Dev murmurs to her, trying to grab her shoulder, but she jerks away from her outstretched hand.
"Whatever," Lizzy says. You guess that's affirmation that she's still going to go along with what you all have decided... even if she's going to be bitchy as hell about it.
"If I'm going to show you, we should go now," Phenix speaks up. "There's... there's no telling how long I have left. We can't wait any longer."
"Okay," you agree.
"Besides," Jack says. "We have to get back to Alice and Thalia as soon as possible to warn them about the horde outside."
"Right," replies Dev, nodding.
The four of you make sure to distribute some of the blood from your clothes onto Phenix's before you go, though you aren't sure how much it matters anymore - he's looking pretty bad. It's possible that the dead would mistake him for one of them anyway now. As soon as you're done getting what you can onto his clothes, you're out the door.
Rioters are all around you - the herd is still passing by, though you think you can see the end of it approaching, so at least it isn't endless. But it's still huge. Thunder rumbles above you; no rain is falling, thankfully, but it sends a chill up your spine anyway. You creep towards the trees, feeling a familiar sense of terror grip you. If they see you... if they notice you...
You're almost to the woods...
And then Phenix stumbles and falls from where he's walking to your right, letting out an involuntary cry of pain. Immediately, Dev and Jack rush to his side; you look on in horror at the three of them, the dead already turning to look behind you. He'd been too loud. You don't know what you were thinking... He was so weak... But all you have to do is make it to the woods. Then he can show you where the bandits went - where Jen went.
"Elias!" Dev cries, and you almost yell at her for speaking - but then you see that her words haven't done anything. The herd is already headed your way. Maybe not all of them - you don't exactly stop to look - but at least a good portion of the biters are now lumbering towards you instead of onwards towards the city. Dev is simply trying to warn you, to get you to move - as you're still frozen in place after having witnessed Phenix fall.
"Run!" you shout. "Just run!" Jack nods and moves to your side and the two of you break into a sprint; Lizzy is to your left, and as she sees you move she starts to run, too. It takes you a moment to realize Dev is lagging behind; when you turn to look, you see that she's stopped to help Phenix, and is trying to get him onto his feet. Three of the dead reach them then, and Dev screams as she's taken by surprise; she manages to finish pulling Phenix to his feet and then spins, whipping out her handgun to fire off a bullet at the one that's just grabbed for her (thankfully short) hair. She misses; you can see how much her hands are shaking, and it becomes clear to you that Dev doesn't do so well under pressure. "No, no, no!" she cries out in terror as it reaches her and grabs her shoulders.
"Get the fuck away from her!" Lizzy shouts as she shoots the rioter that's about to devour Dev. She rushes forward to her friend's side, but even as she runs, she's firing off more bullets, dispatching the other two that had reached them previously. But the rest of the herd is reaching them now, and it looks like no one is getting out of this alive, no matter how many bullets Lizzy is firing off. Just as many seem to miss as seem to hit their targets in her desperation to get Dev up and moving.
It takes you less then a split second to realize that you need to help, so you spin on your heels and take a few steps forward, raising your own gun. Jack takes the hint beside you and raises his, pointing at the herd.
"Come on!" you shout to the others as you begin to fire into the crowd, taking out as many of the biters as you can before they can get to them. Jack does the same, and together, though you're using quite a bit of ammo between the both of you, you manage to thin out the crowd a bit - and just enough for Dev to finally get Phenix and get out of there, Lizzy at her side. They run for the trees, the horde of dead right behind them, and then Dev nearly falls as a biter reaches her; she stumbles, and her gun drops from her hands and clatters onto the ground. Before you can react,
Jack has shot the monster straight in the head and Dev is up again - but the numerous dead right behind her stop her from picking her gun back up. She puts an arm around Phenix, who's also lagging some, and they both run towards the edge of the trees behind Lizzy. You shoot a couple more of the monsters that are getting close - you hear Jack's gun clicking, empty - before you turn and run off into the forest, the others close behind.
You don't know how long you run for; it feels like it can't be long, but at the same time your legs ache like you've been running forever. You don't look back; the five of you just sprint on into the woods, no longer caring about where the bandits went, for the moment at least - right now you think the only thing on your minds is escape. Finally, when you don't think the dead are chasing you anymore, you slow to a walk, glancing around the others to check that they're alright.
"Everyone okay?" you ask, still panting heavily.
"I used up all my ammo, but besides that, peachy," Jack replies.
"We're fine," Lizzy says.
"Phenix isn't," Dev tells you quietly, voice concerned. She's still supporting the man as he walks, though he looks pretty out of it - probably feverish. "He isn't looking too good..."
"I'm -- I'm fine," Phenix gasps, even as his head lolls a bit around his shoulders. "I'll be fine... Listen, we're almost... almost to where they attacked me..."
"Alright," Jack says. "Just... hang in there, okay?" You feel bad - you dragged this dying man out here, made him help you when all he probably wanted to do was die in peace. But you have to find your sister and the others... you have to. And maybe... this way, you can make sure that he doesn't turn.
You walk for a while longer, still aching from your run, when a noise from somewhere off to your right, and in front of you, makes you falter. It's a growl - like one of the dead is coming, but from the opposite direction that you ran. You raise your gun, though you have little ammo left, wary - before Jack calls out to Lizzy. "Behind you!" There are two of the ghouls creeping from the trees behind her, mouths unhinged as they prepare to tear into her flesh - probably drawn this direction by your copious amounts of gunfire - but Lizzy isn't looking at them. She's looking behind you.
You turn to look, eyes widening, and see Dev with Phenix - who is limp in her arms, head down. It seems like she hasn't noticed yet - she's been practically dragging him this whole way anyway - but Lizzy fixes that quickly. "Dev! Get away from him!" Dev looks at Phenix, then gasps, almost dropping him in her shock but instead settling for holding him out from her a bit.
"Phenix? Are you okay?" she asks, shaking him. Her eyes are wide with fear. You think you see him stirring in her grasp... maybe he's okay after all --
All of a sudden, you hear Lizzy cry out from behind you. When you whip around to look at her, you can see that the two monsters have grabbed her while she was distracted by the situation with Phenix. They're tugging at her, and she screams as she tries to reach for her gun even as they continue to tug her, though she's still managing to pull far enough away to keep them from biting her - for now.
Then Dev screams. You turn your head to look and see that she's desperately pushing a reanimated Phenix away from her face - even as his jaws snap closer and closer to it with each lunge.
Jack's out of ammo - you're the only one with a gun here. Time seems to slow down as you realize you have to do something...
[No. You can come with us.]
"We don't have to leave you," you tell him. "You can come with us. We need to know where those bandits went..… more. And we can't just leave you to die here alone..."
"You're right," Jack says, at the exact same time that Lizzy utters a shocked-sounding "What are you doing?"
"It's not safe," Phenix tells you. "I might turn. I don't want to endanger you folks--"
"Please," Dev says. "Please help us. Our friends... my brother... those bandits are the last chance we have to find them. You have to show us where they went!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait," Lizzy says. "This guy is bitten. He's going to turn! We can't take him with us!"
"Too fucking bad, Lizzy!" Jack says. "You'll have to deal with it, because we are! We aren't just going to leave him behind!"
Phenix, who has been silent for a while, looks at you. "If... if it's what you want me to do... then I'll help you. I know what it's like to lose people you c… [view original content]
[No. You can come with us.]
"We don't have to leave you," you tell him. "You can come with us. We need to know where those bandits went..… more. And we can't just leave you to die here alone..."
"You're right," Jack says, at the exact same time that Lizzy utters a shocked-sounding "What are you doing?"
"It's not safe," Phenix tells you. "I might turn. I don't want to endanger you folks--"
"Please," Dev says. "Please help us. Our friends... my brother... those bandits are the last chance we have to find them. You have to show us where they went!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait," Lizzy says. "This guy is bitten. He's going to turn! We can't take him with us!"
"Too fucking bad, Lizzy!" Jack says. "You'll have to deal with it, because we are! We aren't just going to leave him behind!"
Phenix, who has been silent for a while, looks at you. "If... if it's what you want me to do... then I'll help you. I know what it's like to lose people you c… [view original content]
[No. You can come with us.]
"We don't have to leave you," you tell him. "You can come with us. We need to know where those bandits went..… more. And we can't just leave you to die here alone..."
"You're right," Jack says, at the exact same time that Lizzy utters a shocked-sounding "What are you doing?"
"It's not safe," Phenix tells you. "I might turn. I don't want to endanger you folks--"
"Please," Dev says. "Please help us. Our friends... my brother... those bandits are the last chance we have to find them. You have to show us where they went!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait," Lizzy says. "This guy is bitten. He's going to turn! We can't take him with us!"
"Too fucking bad, Lizzy!" Jack says. "You'll have to deal with it, because we are! We aren't just going to leave him behind!"
Phenix, who has been silent for a while, looks at you. "If... if it's what you want me to do... then I'll help you. I know what it's like to lose people you c… [view original content]
[No. You can come with us.]
"We don't have to leave you," you tell him. "You can come with us. We need to know where those bandits went..… more. And we can't just leave you to die here alone..."
"You're right," Jack says, at the exact same time that Lizzy utters a shocked-sounding "What are you doing?"
"It's not safe," Phenix tells you. "I might turn. I don't want to endanger you folks--"
"Please," Dev says. "Please help us. Our friends... my brother... those bandits are the last chance we have to find them. You have to show us where they went!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait," Lizzy says. "This guy is bitten. He's going to turn! We can't take him with us!"
"Too fucking bad, Lizzy!" Jack says. "You'll have to deal with it, because we are! We aren't just going to leave him behind!"
Phenix, who has been silent for a while, looks at you. "If... if it's what you want me to do... then I'll help you. I know what it's like to lose people you c… [view original content]
[No. You can come with us.]
"We don't have to leave you," you tell him. "You can come with us. We need to know where those bandits went..… more. And we can't just leave you to die here alone..."
"You're right," Jack says, at the exact same time that Lizzy utters a shocked-sounding "What are you doing?"
"It's not safe," Phenix tells you. "I might turn. I don't want to endanger you folks--"
"Please," Dev says. "Please help us. Our friends... my brother... those bandits are the last chance we have to find them. You have to show us where they went!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait," Lizzy says. "This guy is bitten. He's going to turn! We can't take him with us!"
"Too fucking bad, Lizzy!" Jack says. "You'll have to deal with it, because we are! We aren't just going to leave him behind!"
Phenix, who has been silent for a while, looks at you. "If... if it's what you want me to do... then I'll help you. I know what it's like to lose people you c… [view original content]
[No. You can come with us.]
"We don't have to leave you," you tell him. "You can come with us. We need to know where those bandits went..… more. And we can't just leave you to die here alone..."
"You're right," Jack says, at the exact same time that Lizzy utters a shocked-sounding "What are you doing?"
"It's not safe," Phenix tells you. "I might turn. I don't want to endanger you folks--"
"Please," Dev says. "Please help us. Our friends... my brother... those bandits are the last chance we have to find them. You have to show us where they went!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait," Lizzy says. "This guy is bitten. He's going to turn! We can't take him with us!"
"Too fucking bad, Lizzy!" Jack says. "You'll have to deal with it, because we are! We aren't just going to leave him behind!"
Phenix, who has been silent for a while, looks at you. "If... if it's what you want me to do... then I'll help you. I know what it's like to lose people you c… [view original content]
It's actually kind of odd because I didn't mean for it be such an 'easy' vote xD I mean, Lizzy might be rude and mean, but she's a good shot. Dev doesn't do well under pressure and misses shots, but she's kinder than Lizzy. It's weird, I thought a few more people at least would go for the good shot :P
[No. You can come with us.]
"We don't have to leave you," you tell him. "You can come with us. We need to know where those bandits went..… more. And we can't just leave you to die here alone..."
"You're right," Jack says, at the exact same time that Lizzy utters a shocked-sounding "What are you doing?"
"It's not safe," Phenix tells you. "I might turn. I don't want to endanger you folks--"
"Please," Dev says. "Please help us. Our friends... my brother... those bandits are the last chance we have to find them. You have to show us where they went!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait," Lizzy says. "This guy is bitten. He's going to turn! We can't take him with us!"
"Too fucking bad, Lizzy!" Jack says. "You'll have to deal with it, because we are! We aren't just going to leave him behind!"
Phenix, who has been silent for a while, looks at you. "If... if it's what you want me to do... then I'll help you. I know what it's like to lose people you c… [view original content]
It's actually kind of odd because I didn't mean for it be such an 'easy' vote xD I mean, Lizzy might be rude and mean, but she's a good shot… more. Dev doesn't do well under pressure and misses shots, but she's kinder than Lizzy. It's weird, I thought a few more people at least would go for the good shot :P
[No. You can come with us.]
"We don't have to leave you," you tell him. "You can come with us. We need to know where those bandits went..… more. And we can't just leave you to die here alone..."
"You're right," Jack says, at the exact same time that Lizzy utters a shocked-sounding "What are you doing?"
"It's not safe," Phenix tells you. "I might turn. I don't want to endanger you folks--"
"Please," Dev says. "Please help us. Our friends... my brother... those bandits are the last chance we have to find them. You have to show us where they went!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait," Lizzy says. "This guy is bitten. He's going to turn! We can't take him with us!"
"Too fucking bad, Lizzy!" Jack says. "You'll have to deal with it, because we are! We aren't just going to leave him behind!"
Phenix, who has been silent for a while, looks at you. "If... if it's what you want me to do... then I'll help you. I know what it's like to lose people you c… [view original content]
[No. You can come with us.]
"We don't have to leave you," you tell him. "You can come with us. We need to know where those bandits went..… more. And we can't just leave you to die here alone..."
"You're right," Jack says, at the exact same time that Lizzy utters a shocked-sounding "What are you doing?"
"It's not safe," Phenix tells you. "I might turn. I don't want to endanger you folks--"
"Please," Dev says. "Please help us. Our friends... my brother... those bandits are the last chance we have to find them. You have to show us where they went!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait," Lizzy says. "This guy is bitten. He's going to turn! We can't take him with us!"
"Too fucking bad, Lizzy!" Jack says. "You'll have to deal with it, because we are! We aren't just going to leave him behind!"
Phenix, who has been silent for a while, looks at you. "If... if it's what you want me to do... then I'll help you. I know what it's like to lose people you c… [view original content]
[No. You can come with us.]
"We don't have to leave you," you tell him. "You can come with us. We need to know where those bandits went..… more. And we can't just leave you to die here alone..."
"You're right," Jack says, at the exact same time that Lizzy utters a shocked-sounding "What are you doing?"
"It's not safe," Phenix tells you. "I might turn. I don't want to endanger you folks--"
"Please," Dev says. "Please help us. Our friends... my brother... those bandits are the last chance we have to find them. You have to show us where they went!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait," Lizzy says. "This guy is bitten. He's going to turn! We can't take him with us!"
"Too fucking bad, Lizzy!" Jack says. "You'll have to deal with it, because we are! We aren't just going to leave him behind!"
Phenix, who has been silent for a while, looks at you. "If... if it's what you want me to do... then I'll help you. I know what it's like to lose people you c… [view original content]
[No. You can come with us.]
"We don't have to leave you," you tell him. "You can come with us. We need to know where those bandits went..… more. And we can't just leave you to die here alone..."
"You're right," Jack says, at the exact same time that Lizzy utters a shocked-sounding "What are you doing?"
"It's not safe," Phenix tells you. "I might turn. I don't want to endanger you folks--"
"Please," Dev says. "Please help us. Our friends... my brother... those bandits are the last chance we have to find them. You have to show us where they went!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait," Lizzy says. "This guy is bitten. He's going to turn! We can't take him with us!"
"Too fucking bad, Lizzy!" Jack says. "You'll have to deal with it, because we are! We aren't just going to leave him behind!"
Phenix, who has been silent for a while, looks at you. "If... if it's what you want me to do... then I'll help you. I know what it's like to lose people you c… [view original content]
(Whoa, very close voting in this one! Sorry about any errors in this, I wrote it on no sleep [pulled an allnighter] at 8 AM. So there's probably a lot of errors, lol.)
It takes some deliberation (which thankfully all transpires in the span of a brief second), but in the end you turn to Lizzy and fire your gun at the rioters that are grabbing her. You hit one of them in the head, and it falls; the other you hit in the shoulder, but Lizzy manages to take advantage of the lessened grip on her to grab her gun and spin around, shooting the biter in the face without hesitation. Then she whips back around, eyes searching for Dev, who you turn to look at too.
She's still struggling to keep Phenix away from her, his snapping jaws coming closer and closer with each lunge, and Jack is already rushing to try and help her - but you can see that he will likely be too late. Before you can try and rush over as well, Lizzy fires off a bullet straight into Phenix's head just as he's lunging for Dev's neck. Dev staggers backwards, face splattered with his blood, and watches with wide eyes as he falls down at her feet, unmoving. You glance at Lizzy, who looks back at you, and for a moment you can see the fury in her eyes - then she looks to Dev, and her expression softens.
But then her gaze shifts from Dev to Jack, who seems to be trying to offer a few half-hearted words of comfort to a panicked-looking Dev, and grows angry again. Her gaze moves back to rest on you yet again, cold and angry.
"You would have left her to die," she says to you accusingly, but quietly, as if she doesn't want Dev to know how close she was to death. "She didn't have a gun. She could have died."
"I was-- I just--" You can't really think of what to say to defend yourself, so instead you fall silent, looking down at the gun in your hands. It's then you notice that you only have one bullet left. Shit. You guess you used up your ammo a lot quicker than you meant to.
"No," Lizzy says to you, louder now. "You don't get to look all sad and ashamed and weasel your way out of this! You had the gun and you still left her to fend for herself!"
"Jack was going to help her," you reply.
"He wouldn't have helped her in time," she fumed. "I only barely managed to --" She cuts off abruptly, apparently thinking of something. "Dev, are you bit?" she asks.
Dev, who looks horror-stricken, just shakes her head.
"Thank God," Lizzy says. She looks at you again. "No thanks to you, Elias."
"Would you leave him alone already?" Jack snaps. "This isn't about Dev at all. This is about you having a problem with Eli."
"Okay," Lizzy replies. "You're right. I do have a problem with him. But it's only because I'm sick of him - and you - treating me like shit. Neither of you listen to me! If you did, maybe we wouldn't be in these god damn situations all the time!"
"Treating you like shit?" you echo, raising an eyebrow.
"You would have let Dev die!" she says, voice rising. "When you two were the reason she was even in danger in the first place!"
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Jack says. "How is any of this our fault?"
"We didn't do anything to her!" you insist.
"Lizzy, please, just calm down," Dev tells her softly, looking concerned. But this time, glancing at her doesn't make Lizzy falter. Instead, it only seems to make her more angry.
"No! You know what? I'm fucking sick of this!" Lizzy shouts suddenly. "You --" she jabs a finger in your direction, "-- keep making these fucking stupid,pussy ass decisions and you won't fucking listen to me when I tell you you're wrong! Your weakness almost got Dev killed! If you had just offed that man Phenix before--"
"Offed him?" Jack interjects. "What the fuck does that mean?! You would have had us kill him?"
"That or left him!" Lizzy snaps. "It was him or us! Like you just saw! But I wouldn't have wasted a bullet on him - like you did with that thing in the woods earlier!"
"That thing was our friend Rema!" you tell her, getting angry now.
"Not anymore, it wasn't!" Lizzy tells you, eyes narrowed and breathing somewhat erratic in her apparent rage. She looks wild-eyed, like she's ready to jump on the next person to push just the wrong button. "Those things aren't people, not anymore! They're just monsters! And you wasted your ammo on one! It didn't feel anymore! It didn't think!"
"She was our friend!" Jack yells.
"Like hell that thing was your friend! It wasn't human! And you wasted a bullet on it!" Lizzy shouts. The same damn argument again - you'd think she was a broken record. You steal a glance at Dev, but she's only looking at the ground, like she can't bear to meet any of your eyes. Clearly she doesn't know who to side with in this conflict. Or maybe she's just still recovering from her scare a moment ago.
"And going out here - and going back into the farm in the first place - everything you've done has been stupid! I'm not putting up with this shit anymore, not when it's going to get me killed! Who the fuck do you think you are?!" Lizzy spits. Her wild-eyed look has gotten worse, and she's taken a few threatening steps toward you.
"The people who took you in and let you join our group when you were alone," you tell her coldly. Jack nods at your words, as if agreeing.
"If you don't agree with the way we're doing things," he snaps. "Then you're plenty welcome to leave. And leave Eli alone! You've done nothing but butt heads with him since you got here. What Eli - and our group - does is his business, not yours! Just leave!"
"What?!" Lizzy replies. You see her wild-looking eyes widening now from the furious slits they'd been previously.
"I said leave!"
Dev stops studying the ground then and looks to you, eyes wide and fearful. It looks like she's trying to silently ask you for help with the situation - like she wants you to do something. And she has a point - this argument has gotten out of hand, fast.
But before you can do anything, a gunshot rings out.
Jack falls to the ground, gasping and clutching at his chest, blood bubbling up over his hands. You whip around to stare in horror at Lizzy, who's still got the gun raised.
"Fine," Lizzy says. "I will." She looks down at her gun, frowning at it. "Damn," she mutters. "Looks like that was my last bullet." Without another word, she turns and starts to stalk away. "Come on, Dev. Let's go."
Jack coughs from where he's laying at your feet, and you tear your eyes away from Lizzy for the moment, sinking to your knees beside him.
"Eli?" he's mumbling, and he's trying to get up now, blood spilling faster from the wound in his chest. "Eli, what's..."
"Jack, stay still, shhh, stop, stop moving--" You're frantic, pushing him back down and trying to stop the bleeding with your hands. But even you can tell that this doesn't look good.
"Eli, it hurts," he groans, gritting his teeth. "Stephany. Where's Stephany?" Your eyes widen as you realize just how confused he sounds; the pain must be immense if it's muddled his brain this much.
"She's... she's fine," you tell him softly. "Jack, just be quiet, hold on, I'll - it'll be okay --" But you're realizing quickly that you don't have any medical supplies on you. Jack coughs again, moving his head to the side as he does, and this time you see blood on the grass next to his face.
"Eli," he breathes, face screwed up in pain. "Keep her... safe..."
"I will, Jack, I promise," you choke out, before you glance behind you. Lizzy is a good ways away from you now, but Dev hasn't moved from where she was stood, seemingly frozen in shock.
It's beginning to dawn on you just what has happened - Lizzy has killed your best friend. He's not dead yet, but you know it's only a matter of time. And you're just letting her get away.
"Don't... don't let me come back as one of ... one of them. God, this hurts," Jack coughs, and he smiles weakly at you. "Don't tell Stephany I was... a pussy about it though, okay?" His smile fades as he grits his teeth again, shutting his eyes. "But it -- hurts. I ... it hurts to breathe, it..." He lets out a ragged breath.
"Shhh," you tell him again. "You can tell her yourself, you're going to be fine-- You just need to stay still, I can go get Alice, and you'll be fine, she'll fix you up, and you..."
You trail off, the situation fully hitting you. Your best friend is bleeding out on the grass, in agony, while his killer is just walking away...
"Oh god," you breathe, standing shakily.
You've only got one bullet left in your gun.
You turn to face Lizzy and see that she's pretty far away now. You're not even sure if you can make the shot. Dev, on the other hand, is still standing where she was the last time you checked, though she's looking at Jack now, eyes still wide with shock and brimming with tears. She still makes no move to either follow Lizzy or come to your aid with Jack.
You have to do something...
[Use your last bullet on Lizzy, even though it's a difficult shot. You have to try and stop her from getting away.]
[Use your last bullet on Dev, point-blank range. A life for a life - Lizzy shot your best friend, so you'll shoot hers.]
[Use your last bullet on Jack. End his suffering and make sure he doesn't turn.]
[Save Lizzy.]
(Whoa, very close voting in this one! Sorry about any errors in this, I wrote it on no sleep [pulled an allnighter] at 8 AM… more. So there's probably a lot of errors, lol.)
It takes some deliberation (which thankfully all transpires in the span of a brief second), but in the end you turn to Lizzy and fire your gun at the rioters that are grabbing her. You hit one of them in the head, and it falls; the other you hit in the shoulder, but Lizzy manages to take advantage of the lessened grip on her to grab her gun and spin around, shooting the biter in the face without hesitation. Then she whips back around, eyes searching for Dev, who you turn to look at too.
She's still struggling to keep Phenix away from her, his snapping jaws coming closer and closer with each lunge, and Jack is already rushing to try and help her - but you can see that he will likely be too late. Before you can try and rush over as well, Lizzy fires off a b… [view original content]
[Save Lizzy.]
(Whoa, very close voting in this one! Sorry about any errors in this, I wrote it on no sleep [pulled an allnighter] at 8 AM… more. So there's probably a lot of errors, lol.)
It takes some deliberation (which thankfully all transpires in the span of a brief second), but in the end you turn to Lizzy and fire your gun at the rioters that are grabbing her. You hit one of them in the head, and it falls; the other you hit in the shoulder, but Lizzy manages to take advantage of the lessened grip on her to grab her gun and spin around, shooting the biter in the face without hesitation. Then she whips back around, eyes searching for Dev, who you turn to look at too.
She's still struggling to keep Phenix away from her, his snapping jaws coming closer and closer with each lunge, and Jack is already rushing to try and help her - but you can see that he will likely be too late. Before you can try and rush over as well, Lizzy fires off a b… [view original content]
[Save Lizzy.]
(Whoa, very close voting in this one! Sorry about any errors in this, I wrote it on no sleep [pulled an allnighter] at 8 AM… more. So there's probably a lot of errors, lol.)
It takes some deliberation (which thankfully all transpires in the span of a brief second), but in the end you turn to Lizzy and fire your gun at the rioters that are grabbing her. You hit one of them in the head, and it falls; the other you hit in the shoulder, but Lizzy manages to take advantage of the lessened grip on her to grab her gun and spin around, shooting the biter in the face without hesitation. Then she whips back around, eyes searching for Dev, who you turn to look at too.
She's still struggling to keep Phenix away from her, his snapping jaws coming closer and closer with each lunge, and Jack is already rushing to try and help her - but you can see that he will likely be too late. Before you can try and rush over as well, Lizzy fires off a b… [view original content]
[Save Lizzy.]
(Whoa, very close voting in this one! Sorry about any errors in this, I wrote it on no sleep [pulled an allnighter] at 8 AM… more. So there's probably a lot of errors, lol.)
It takes some deliberation (which thankfully all transpires in the span of a brief second), but in the end you turn to Lizzy and fire your gun at the rioters that are grabbing her. You hit one of them in the head, and it falls; the other you hit in the shoulder, but Lizzy manages to take advantage of the lessened grip on her to grab her gun and spin around, shooting the biter in the face without hesitation. Then she whips back around, eyes searching for Dev, who you turn to look at too.
She's still struggling to keep Phenix away from her, his snapping jaws coming closer and closer with each lunge, and Jack is already rushing to try and help her - but you can see that he will likely be too late. Before you can try and rush over as well, Lizzy fires off a b… [view original content]
[Save Lizzy.]
(Whoa, very close voting in this one! Sorry about any errors in this, I wrote it on no sleep [pulled an allnighter] at 8 AM… more. So there's probably a lot of errors, lol.)
It takes some deliberation (which thankfully all transpires in the span of a brief second), but in the end you turn to Lizzy and fire your gun at the rioters that are grabbing her. You hit one of them in the head, and it falls; the other you hit in the shoulder, but Lizzy manages to take advantage of the lessened grip on her to grab her gun and spin around, shooting the biter in the face without hesitation. Then she whips back around, eyes searching for Dev, who you turn to look at too.
She's still struggling to keep Phenix away from her, his snapping jaws coming closer and closer with each lunge, and Jack is already rushing to try and help her - but you can see that he will likely be too late. Before you can try and rush over as well, Lizzy fires off a b… [view original content]
Comments
[You're right, we need to help. Dev's plan could work. We can cover ourselves in dead blood and sneak in.]
Rema
(
[You're right, we need to help. Dev's plan could work. We can cover ourselves in dead blood and sneak in.]
Hey, Sardines. Did I submit John Kozlov or Zaphaeus?
[You're right, we need to help. Dev's plan could work. We can cover ourselves in dead blood and sneak in.] Wow, I've been gone for a good month and come back to see all this. I remember making Alice and this thread had no comments or anything. I'm happy you were able to write her so well! I didn't expect the romance plot to come out but as a hopeless romantic this is great and I can totes see my character doing that. I might make another character down the road
Oh wow, Alice is your character?
I hope you're okay with the way the story's been going regarding her - I will admit I was hinting at a romance with her and Eli, but I didn't think many people had noticed. xD At least you don't seem opposed to it! I hope you're liking how I'm portraying her! 
And sure, make another character if you'd like!
John Kozlov, I believe!
Ah, thanks.
Cool story, Sardines. I'm anxious to see what is going to happen next.
Oh... oops. I kinda forgot.
and lost this thread... okay, next part coming soon! Today probably! 
Don't worry, I can wait x)
By the way... it's too late for you guys to change your votes, but I think it's funny that everyone seemed to forget two things... 1) It was raining, and 2) there's only one walker around they can use for blood...
[You're right, we need to help. Dev's plan could work.]
"Jack's right," you whisper. "Even if whoever's inside isn't Jen or the others, we need to make sure they don't need help. We could try Dev's plan." You're thankful that the rain seems to have let up; you aren't sure if it would have mattered, but you do worry a little that rain might have 'washed off' the scent, so to speak.
Lizzy glares at you. "Yeah, well where would we get dead blood to cover ourselves with, Einstein?" she snaps. "The only roamers around here are the ones in the herd!"
"There is another one," Jack says softly.
There's a brief silence as you all slowly catch on, before Dev speaks. "Wh... what? You don't mean..."
"It's the only way," he cuts her off. "It's... she'd want us to do it. To save the others."
"He's right," you say softly. "Okay. Let's go, then."
It's a short walk back to where Rema's body is. Once you're there, you reach for your meat cleaver, but find yourself empty-handed. It takes you a moment to remember that you left it back with Alice.
"Shit," you murmur, right before Lizzy steps forward, taking out what looks to be a pocket knife from her jeans.
"You had that and didn't tell us?" Jack asks.
"What does it matter?" she replies, raising an eyebrow. Then, with a sigh, she stoops down next to Rema's body, clicking the blade out into place. "It's a little small, but it should work," she remarks, before pulling Rema out some from under the log so that she's easier to access.
"This is wrong," Dev murmurs.
"She'd want us to," Jack insists, but you notice that he is refusing to look.
"We're only doing what we have to," Lizzy tells her friend as she plunges her knife into Rema's ... no, the body's rotted shoulder and drags it down some, exposing the flesh beneath and getting blood all over the blade.
"We're defiling her corpse," Dev says, sounding horror-stricken. No one answers her.
Lizzy sets her knife on the ground and starts using her hands to apply blood to her already-bloodstained clothes. Bit by bit, she smears more and more on herself until she's completely covered. Then she looks at Dev. "Dev, come here," she says to her friend, who reluctantly does as she says. You move to the corpse and call Jack over also.
Eventually, all of you are sufficiently covered, and you stand to return to the farm. The herd has probably reached it by now; you wouldn't be surprised if it's already reached the trees. As soon as you get to the farm, you'll have to check for the others as quickly as you can so you can go back and warn Alice and Thalia.
"I'm sorry," Dev mumbles, you presume to Rema, before you all turn and head back.
Just before you reach the edge of the woods, Lizzy turns to you, muttering out instructions. "Keep your head down," she says. "Walk slowly, like one of them. As long as you don't run, they probably won't notice you."
"Probably?" Jack echoes skeptically. She doesn't reply.
As the four of you emerge from the forest, you can see the herd is almost upon you. Slowly, you make your way through it, careful not to move too fast and alert them.
Amazingly, none of them seem to take any notice of you. All four of you reach the house unscathed, though it takes quite a while. Still making gradual movements, you open the side door and then quickly head inside, the others following. You're thankful that the door isn't particularly loud as it shuts. You'll probably be okay.
Someone was in here - you're sure of it - so, softly (you still don't want to let the rioters outside know where you are), you call out to the seemingly-empty house. "Hello?"
There's silence as you all move forward, glancing around. "Stephany, are you here?" Jack asks from behind you. You take a few steps through the hall towards the kitchen.
Without warning, someone moves into the doorway in front of you - but it's not Jen, Devin or Stephany. It's a young man with light brown hair and hazel eyes; he has a distinctive scar on the right side of his face. "Hi," he says, as you stare at him in shock. "Are you the people who live here?"
"Not anymore," you tell him truthfully. "We're... moving on. But we lost some of our people when we... left. Have you seen them?"
"No one's been here since me," he says. "I'm sorry. The place looked like it'd been recently raided. When I got here, there were some people in the woods. They tried to attack me..." It's then that you notice the somewhat fresh-looking blood on the side of his shirt; he's injured.
"Are you alright?" Dev asks him, at the same time that Jack asks, "Did these people have any hostages?"
He looks at Jack as he answers. "I didn't see any. But they could have. I don't know, I'm sorry. Did they attack you, too?"
You don't say anything for a moment, looking at Jack; Lizzy speaks up instead.
"Yes," she says.
"I'm sorry to hear that," the man says to you kindly. "My name is Phenix. It's nice to meet you kids."
"Elias," you say. "Nice to meet you." The others introduce themselves as well, and he smiles as they do, though you think his smile looks somewhat sad.
"Are you sure you didn't see anyone?" Jack asks. "Where did the people go? The ones who attacked you? Can you show us?"
"Uh, yeah, about that," Phenix says, with a weak, forced-sounding laugh. It's then you notice just how frail this man looks - and it's not his build, either. He looks like a strong man - built well enough - but even as you look on, you see him sway slightly on his feet. "I'm not going anywhere." You stare in confusion for a moment before he reaches down to grab the bottom of his shirt; slowly, he lifts it, to reveal a terrible looking wound on the lower left side of his torso. It takes you a minute to recognize it for what it is - a bite.
"Oh my god," Dev gasps.
"It happened when I was trying to get away from the people in the woods," he says, still smiling, though you can see the sadness in it now for sure. "I was out of ammo, so... I figured I'd hole out in here until ... well. You know. I thought I'd have less chance of hurting anyone. Since I couldn't... take myself out."
"I'm sorry," you say to him.
"It's not your fault," he tells you. "I'm... I've already accepted it." He sighs. "I wish I could help you. I could try to show you the direction the people went, but I don't want to endanger you."
"I don't know if it'd be a good idea anyway," Jack says quietly. "There's a horde of them, right outside. We only got through because of..." He gestures down at his bloodied clothes. "Well, this."
"I was going to ask about that," Phenix says, laughing a little. "Thought it might be rude to ask why you smelled so bad... I understand. You should go. I'll be fine." He pauses, looking away. "Well. I won't be fine, but... You know what I mean. You kids shouldn't worry, is all."
[Okay. We'll leave. Good luck.]
[We'll leave, but first... Jack, lend him your gun.]
[No. You can come with us. We can use some of the blood on our clothes to cover you, too. You can show us where the bandits went.]
A character was only introduced and he's already bitten. Bad Luck Phenix! But I think that he can [come with us. We can use some of the blood on our clothes to cover you, too. You can show us where the bandits went.]
[No. You can come with us. We can use some of the blood on our clothes to cover you, too. You can show us where the bandits went.]
[We'll leave, but first... Jack, lend him your gun.]
[We'll leave, but first... Jack, lend him your gun.]
[No. You can come with us. We can use some of the blood on our clothes to cover you, too. You can show us where the bandits went.]
[No. You can come with us. We can use some of the blood on our clothes to cover you, too. You can show us where the bandits went.]
The way I see it, whose to say he won't turn in the process of searching for the direction that the bandits went. He may end up biting one of the members of the group, then they become a zombie. It's too much to leave up to chance, so I say [We'll leave, but first... Jack, lend him your gun.]
[No. You can come with us.]
"We don't have to leave you," you tell him. "You can come with us. We need to know where those bandits went... And we can't just leave you to die here alone..."
"You're right," Jack says, at the exact same time that Lizzy utters a shocked-sounding "What are you doing?"
"It's not safe," Phenix tells you. "I might turn. I don't want to endanger you folks--"
"Please," Dev says. "Please help us. Our friends... my brother... those bandits are the last chance we have to find them. You have to show us where they went!"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait," Lizzy says. "This guy is bitten. He's going to turn! We can't take him with us!"
"Too fucking bad, Lizzy!" Jack says. "You'll have to deal with it, because we are! We aren't just going to leave him behind!"
Phenix, who has been silent for a while, looks at you. "If... if it's what you want me to do... then I'll help you. I know what it's like to lose people you care about."
"Fuck this," Lizzy says angrily, crossing her arms and looking away.
"Lizzy --" Dev murmurs to her, trying to grab her shoulder, but she jerks away from her outstretched hand.
"Whatever," Lizzy says. You guess that's affirmation that she's still going to go along with what you all have decided... even if she's going to be bitchy as hell about it.
"If I'm going to show you, we should go now," Phenix speaks up. "There's... there's no telling how long I have left. We can't wait any longer."
"Okay," you agree.
"Besides," Jack says. "We have to get back to Alice and Thalia as soon as possible to warn them about the horde outside."
"Right," replies Dev, nodding.
The four of you make sure to distribute some of the blood from your clothes onto Phenix's before you go, though you aren't sure how much it matters anymore - he's looking pretty bad. It's possible that the dead would mistake him for one of them anyway now. As soon as you're done getting what you can onto his clothes, you're out the door.
Rioters are all around you - the herd is still passing by, though you think you can see the end of it approaching, so at least it isn't endless. But it's still huge. Thunder rumbles above you; no rain is falling, thankfully, but it sends a chill up your spine anyway. You creep towards the trees, feeling a familiar sense of terror grip you. If they see you... if they notice you...
You're almost to the woods...
And then Phenix stumbles and falls from where he's walking to your right, letting out an involuntary cry of pain. Immediately, Dev and Jack rush to his side; you look on in horror at the three of them, the dead already turning to look behind you. He'd been too loud. You don't know what you were thinking... He was so weak... But all you have to do is make it to the woods. Then he can show you where the bandits went - where Jen went.
"Elias!" Dev cries, and you almost yell at her for speaking - but then you see that her words haven't done anything. The herd is already headed your way. Maybe not all of them - you don't exactly stop to look - but at least a good portion of the biters are now lumbering towards you instead of onwards towards the city. Dev is simply trying to warn you, to get you to move - as you're still frozen in place after having witnessed Phenix fall.
"Run!" you shout. "Just run!" Jack nods and moves to your side and the two of you break into a sprint; Lizzy is to your left, and as she sees you move she starts to run, too. It takes you a moment to realize Dev is lagging behind; when you turn to look, you see that she's stopped to help Phenix, and is trying to get him onto his feet. Three of the dead reach them then, and Dev screams as she's taken by surprise; she manages to finish pulling Phenix to his feet and then spins, whipping out her handgun to fire off a bullet at the one that's just grabbed for her (thankfully short) hair. She misses; you can see how much her hands are shaking, and it becomes clear to you that Dev doesn't do so well under pressure. "No, no, no!" she cries out in terror as it reaches her and grabs her shoulders.
"Get the fuck away from her!" Lizzy shouts as she shoots the rioter that's about to devour Dev. She rushes forward to her friend's side, but even as she runs, she's firing off more bullets, dispatching the other two that had reached them previously. But the rest of the herd is reaching them now, and it looks like no one is getting out of this alive, no matter how many bullets Lizzy is firing off. Just as many seem to miss as seem to hit their targets in her desperation to get Dev up and moving.
It takes you less then a split second to realize that you need to help, so you spin on your heels and take a few steps forward, raising your own gun. Jack takes the hint beside you and raises his, pointing at the herd.
"Come on!" you shout to the others as you begin to fire into the crowd, taking out as many of the biters as you can before they can get to them. Jack does the same, and together, though you're using quite a bit of ammo between the both of you, you manage to thin out the crowd a bit - and just enough for Dev to finally get Phenix and get out of there, Lizzy at her side. They run for the trees, the horde of dead right behind them, and then Dev nearly falls as a biter reaches her; she stumbles, and her gun drops from her hands and clatters onto the ground. Before you can react,
Jack has shot the monster straight in the head and Dev is up again - but the numerous dead right behind her stop her from picking her gun back up. She puts an arm around Phenix, who's also lagging some, and they both run towards the edge of the trees behind Lizzy. You shoot a couple more of the monsters that are getting close - you hear Jack's gun clicking, empty - before you turn and run off into the forest, the others close behind.
You don't know how long you run for; it feels like it can't be long, but at the same time your legs ache like you've been running forever. You don't look back; the five of you just sprint on into the woods, no longer caring about where the bandits went, for the moment at least - right now you think the only thing on your minds is escape. Finally, when you don't think the dead are chasing you anymore, you slow to a walk, glancing around the others to check that they're alright.
"Everyone okay?" you ask, still panting heavily.
"I used up all my ammo, but besides that, peachy," Jack replies.
"We're fine," Lizzy says.
"Phenix isn't," Dev tells you quietly, voice concerned. She's still supporting the man as he walks, though he looks pretty out of it - probably feverish. "He isn't looking too good..."
"I'm -- I'm fine," Phenix gasps, even as his head lolls a bit around his shoulders. "I'll be fine... Listen, we're almost... almost to where they attacked me..."
"Alright," Jack says. "Just... hang in there, okay?" You feel bad - you dragged this dying man out here, made him help you when all he probably wanted to do was die in peace. But you have to find your sister and the others... you have to. And maybe... this way, you can make sure that he doesn't turn.
You walk for a while longer, still aching from your run, when a noise from somewhere off to your right, and in front of you, makes you falter. It's a growl - like one of the dead is coming, but from the opposite direction that you ran. You raise your gun, though you have little ammo left, wary - before Jack calls out to Lizzy. "Behind you!" There are two of the ghouls creeping from the trees behind her, mouths unhinged as they prepare to tear into her flesh - probably drawn this direction by your copious amounts of gunfire - but Lizzy isn't looking at them. She's looking behind you.
You turn to look, eyes widening, and see Dev with Phenix - who is limp in her arms, head down. It seems like she hasn't noticed yet - she's been practically dragging him this whole way anyway - but Lizzy fixes that quickly. "Dev! Get away from him!" Dev looks at Phenix, then gasps, almost dropping him in her shock but instead settling for holding him out from her a bit.
"Phenix? Are you okay?" she asks, shaking him. Her eyes are wide with fear. You think you see him stirring in her grasp... maybe he's okay after all --
All of a sudden, you hear Lizzy cry out from behind you. When you whip around to look at her, you can see that the two monsters have grabbed her while she was distracted by the situation with Phenix. They're tugging at her, and she screams as she tries to reach for her gun even as they continue to tug her, though she's still managing to pull far enough away to keep them from biting her - for now.
Then Dev screams. You turn your head to look and see that she's desperately pushing a reanimated Phenix away from her face - even as his jaws snap closer and closer to it with each lunge.
Jack's out of ammo - you're the only one with a gun here. Time seems to slow down as you realize you have to do something...
[Save Lizzy.]
[Save Dev.]
[Save Dev.]
[Save Dev]
[Save Dev.]
[Save Dev.]
[Save Dev.]
Nobody wants to save poor Lizzy, so I just want to be nice and get her at least one vote. [Save Lizzy.]
It's actually kind of odd because I didn't mean for it be such an 'easy' vote xD I mean, Lizzy might be rude and mean, but she's a good shot. Dev doesn't do well under pressure and misses shots, but she's kinder than Lizzy. It's weird, I thought a few more people at least would go for the good shot :P
[Save Lizzy.]
x))
It kind of the opposite of The Walking Dead game.
Dev is nice, but utterly useless in other areas. So Doug.
Lizzie can shoot well, but she can be kind of snappy and dumb. So Carley.
(So, a dislike for some reason. Whatever.)
SMH......I knew something like this would happen. [Save Lizzy.]
[Save Lizzy.]
[Save Lizzy]
[Save Lizzy]
sorry Dev tough choice.
[Save Lizzy.]
(Whoa, very close voting in this one! Sorry about any errors in this, I wrote it on no sleep [pulled an allnighter] at 8 AM. So there's probably a lot of errors, lol.)
It takes some deliberation (which thankfully all transpires in the span of a brief second), but in the end you turn to Lizzy and fire your gun at the rioters that are grabbing her. You hit one of them in the head, and it falls; the other you hit in the shoulder, but Lizzy manages to take advantage of the lessened grip on her to grab her gun and spin around, shooting the biter in the face without hesitation. Then she whips back around, eyes searching for Dev, who you turn to look at too.
She's still struggling to keep Phenix away from her, his snapping jaws coming closer and closer with each lunge, and Jack is already rushing to try and help her - but you can see that he will likely be too late. Before you can try and rush over as well, Lizzy fires off a bullet straight into Phenix's head just as he's lunging for Dev's neck. Dev staggers backwards, face splattered with his blood, and watches with wide eyes as he falls down at her feet, unmoving. You glance at Lizzy, who looks back at you, and for a moment you can see the fury in her eyes - then she looks to Dev, and her expression softens.
But then her gaze shifts from Dev to Jack, who seems to be trying to offer a few half-hearted words of comfort to a panicked-looking Dev, and grows angry again. Her gaze moves back to rest on you yet again, cold and angry.
"You would have left her to die," she says to you accusingly, but quietly, as if she doesn't want Dev to know how close she was to death. "She didn't have a gun. She could have died."
"I was-- I just--" You can't really think of what to say to defend yourself, so instead you fall silent, looking down at the gun in your hands. It's then you notice that you only have one bullet left. Shit. You guess you used up your ammo a lot quicker than you meant to.
"No," Lizzy says to you, louder now. "You don't get to look all sad and ashamed and weasel your way out of this! You had the gun and you still left her to fend for herself!"
"Jack was going to help her," you reply.
"He wouldn't have helped her in time," she fumed. "I only barely managed to --" She cuts off abruptly, apparently thinking of something. "Dev, are you bit?" she asks.
Dev, who looks horror-stricken, just shakes her head.
"Thank God," Lizzy says. She looks at you again. "No thanks to you, Elias."
"Would you leave him alone already?" Jack snaps. "This isn't about Dev at all. This is about you having a problem with Eli."
"Okay," Lizzy replies. "You're right. I do have a problem with him. But it's only because I'm sick of him - and you - treating me like shit. Neither of you listen to me! If you did, maybe we wouldn't be in these god damn situations all the time!"
"Treating you like shit?" you echo, raising an eyebrow.
"You would have let Dev die!" she says, voice rising. "When you two were the reason she was even in danger in the first place!"
"What the hell are you talking about?!" Jack says. "How is any of this our fault?"
"We didn't do anything to her!" you insist.
"Lizzy, please, just calm down," Dev tells her softly, looking concerned. But this time, glancing at her doesn't make Lizzy falter. Instead, it only seems to make her more angry.
"No! You know what? I'm fucking sick of this!" Lizzy shouts suddenly. "You --" she jabs a finger in your direction, "-- keep making these fucking stupid, pussy ass decisions and you won't fucking listen to me when I tell you you're wrong! Your weakness almost got Dev killed! If you had just offed that man Phenix before--"
"Offed him?" Jack interjects. "What the fuck does that mean?! You would have had us kill him?"
"That or left him!" Lizzy snaps. "It was him or us! Like you just saw! But I wouldn't have wasted a bullet on him - like you did with that thing in the woods earlier!"
"That thing was our friend Rema!" you tell her, getting angry now.
"Not anymore, it wasn't!" Lizzy tells you, eyes narrowed and breathing somewhat erratic in her apparent rage. She looks wild-eyed, like she's ready to jump on the next person to push just the wrong button. "Those things aren't people, not anymore! They're just monsters! And you wasted your ammo on one! It didn't feel anymore! It didn't think!"
"She was our friend!" Jack yells.
"Like hell that thing was your friend! It wasn't human! And you wasted a bullet on it!" Lizzy shouts. The same damn argument again - you'd think she was a broken record. You steal a glance at Dev, but she's only looking at the ground, like she can't bear to meet any of your eyes. Clearly she doesn't know who to side with in this conflict. Or maybe she's just still recovering from her scare a moment ago.
"And going out here - and going back into the farm in the first place - everything you've done has been stupid! I'm not putting up with this shit anymore, not when it's going to get me killed! Who the fuck do you think you are?!" Lizzy spits. Her wild-eyed look has gotten worse, and she's taken a few threatening steps toward you.
"The people who took you in and let you join our group when you were alone," you tell her coldly. Jack nods at your words, as if agreeing.
"If you don't agree with the way we're doing things," he snaps. "Then you're plenty welcome to leave. And leave Eli alone! You've done nothing but butt heads with him since you got here. What Eli - and our group - does is his business, not yours! Just leave!"
"What?!" Lizzy replies. You see her wild-looking eyes widening now from the furious slits they'd been previously.
"I said leave!"
Dev stops studying the ground then and looks to you, eyes wide and fearful. It looks like she's trying to silently ask you for help with the situation - like she wants you to do something. And she has a point - this argument has gotten out of hand, fast.
But before you can do anything, a gunshot rings out.
Jack falls to the ground, gasping and clutching at his chest, blood bubbling up over his hands. You whip around to stare in horror at Lizzy, who's still got the gun raised.
"Fine," Lizzy says. "I will." She looks down at her gun, frowning at it. "Damn," she mutters. "Looks like that was my last bullet." Without another word, she turns and starts to stalk away. "Come on, Dev. Let's go."
Jack coughs from where he's laying at your feet, and you tear your eyes away from Lizzy for the moment, sinking to your knees beside him.
"Eli?" he's mumbling, and he's trying to get up now, blood spilling faster from the wound in his chest. "Eli, what's..."
"Jack, stay still, shhh, stop, stop moving--" You're frantic, pushing him back down and trying to stop the bleeding with your hands. But even you can tell that this doesn't look good.
"Eli, it hurts," he groans, gritting his teeth. "Stephany. Where's Stephany?" Your eyes widen as you realize just how confused he sounds; the pain must be immense if it's muddled his brain this much.
"She's... she's fine," you tell him softly. "Jack, just be quiet, hold on, I'll - it'll be okay --" But you're realizing quickly that you don't have any medical supplies on you. Jack coughs again, moving his head to the side as he does, and this time you see blood on the grass next to his face.
"Eli," he breathes, face screwed up in pain. "Keep her... safe..."
"I will, Jack, I promise," you choke out, before you glance behind you. Lizzy is a good ways away from you now, but Dev hasn't moved from where she was stood, seemingly frozen in shock.
It's beginning to dawn on you just what has happened - Lizzy has killed your best friend. He's not dead yet, but you know it's only a matter of time. And you're just letting her get away.
"Don't... don't let me come back as one of ... one of them. God, this hurts," Jack coughs, and he smiles weakly at you. "Don't tell Stephany I was... a pussy about it though, okay?" His smile fades as he grits his teeth again, shutting his eyes. "But it -- hurts. I ... it hurts to breathe, it..." He lets out a ragged breath.
"Shhh," you tell him again. "You can tell her yourself, you're going to be fine-- You just need to stay still, I can go get Alice, and you'll be fine, she'll fix you up, and you..."
You trail off, the situation fully hitting you. Your best friend is bleeding out on the grass, in agony, while his killer is just walking away...
"Oh god," you breathe, standing shakily.
You've only got one bullet left in your gun.
You turn to face Lizzy and see that she's pretty far away now. You're not even sure if you can make the shot. Dev, on the other hand, is still standing where she was the last time you checked, though she's looking at Jack now, eyes still wide with shock and brimming with tears. She still makes no move to either follow Lizzy or come to your aid with Jack.
You have to do something...
[Use your last bullet on Lizzy, even though it's a difficult shot. You have to try and stop her from getting away.]
[Use your last bullet on Dev, point-blank range. A life for a life - Lizzy shot your best friend, so you'll shoot hers.]
[Use your last bullet on Jack. End his suffering and make sure he doesn't turn.]
[Use your last bullet on Lizzy, even though it's a difficult shot. You have to try and stop her from getting away.]
[Use your last bullet on Lizzy, even though it's a difficult shot. You have to try and stop her from getting away.]
We should've save Dev.
[Use your last bullet on Lizzy, even though it's a difficult shot. You have to try and stop her from getting away.]
[Use your last bullet on Jack. End his suffering and make sure he doesn't turn.]
[Use your last bullet on Lizzy, even though it's a difficult shot. You have to try and stop her from getting away.]