Is it fucked up that I've already written up a list of all the characters on that list and exactly when and how they are going to die?(If they are, anyway)
Is it fucked up that I've already written up a list of all the characters on that list and exactly when and how they are going to die?(If they are, anyway)
One time when they were young, Rosalyn and Isaac were on vacation to France. It was the first and last time either of them had been out of the country. There was this doomsayer who liked to sit outside their hotel some days and preach about the end of the world. The two of them were only six at the time, and their delicate ears often sat at the edge of the window after their mother and father pretended to go to sleep in the other room. "Everything is going to change..." He said. At the time, Rosalyn believed him, and spent the next month of her life preparing for the end. It wasn't until Isaac pulled her out of her state with kind words that she managed to realize there's no such thing as the end of the world. Shit happens... But nothing so bad that it can cause us to cease to exist... That was until yesterday.
"We can't stay here." Larry spoke softly. They'd been sitting in that room for hours, waiting for the dead to go away outside the window. Claire never said a word if it wasn't to Rosalyn, and she didn't expect that to change for a long time. The girl was raped... Her sense of innocence was all but gone.
"Where would we go?" Anna replied. "The things are downstairs, in the street, outside the door... You tell me one way to get out of here, and we'll follow you, hon."
He fumbled through his words, not knowing what to say. "We could just try to walk through them..."
"What...do...you mean?" Isaac asked.
Larry sat against the wall, not caring about the dust that coated it. "Damnit... I don't know. We don't know if these things even hurt us yet. Maybe they just walk around and groan."
Rosalyn glanced up at him through the deathly air of the room. "Do you wanna go find out?" That single sentence quieted him down. "I didn't think so."
"Yeah, and I suppose they were just walking around trying to hug Rosalyn downstairs." Anna said sarcastically. "Oh, come here, Rose! I just want to hug you like I just wanted to hug the kid!" Rosalyn shot an angry glare in her direction. She looked over to where Claire sat on the floor and praised the fact that she wasn't paying attention to the conversation. She sighed when she realized what she had said. "Sorry... That was in bad taste."
"Well, if you have any better ideas, I'd like to know." Larry said in annoyance.
"We could..." Isaac started. They all started to gaze in his direction, making him blush. He never did like to be in the spotlight. He took a moment before Rosalyn gestured for him to continue. "We could go out the window..."
"What are we, three stories up?" Anna asked him. "We'd never survive the fall. And even if we did, that doesn't solve the problem of the hundreds of dead people waltzing down the street."
"No, he's right..." Rosalyn spoke up. "There's a fire escape only one room right of us. We would have to jump, but unless you guys have a better idea, that's our only way out of here."
Larry sighed before he turned around and checked to see if it was the truth it was. Rosalyn knew what she was talking about. There was a rickety old fire escape just above her room and to the right. She'd always questioned its ability to hold anything substantial... It was very old, but it would have to do. "Uh... This doesn't look safe..." He called from the window.
"Look down." Rosalyn smirked. She got up from her seat and began to approach the window herself. "I can go first if you need to be sure."
Larry frowned. "If you want to kill yourself, go ahead." He took a step back. Rosalyn could tell he wasn't serious, but she took the step towards the window anyway. "No, Rose! I didn't actually mean it."
"You really think...we can...make it?" Isaac asked her.
"Sure, we can, bud." She smiled. "It's only about six feet. You did the long jump in high school. You can do this."
"Yes... But I had... I had a running start..." He replied.
"Dammit. Let me up." Anna said, stepping forward.
"Hon...no... I'll go first." Larry put his hand on her shoulder.
Anna blew a bit of steam through her nostrils. "I've had a really shitty day today, Larry, and I really need a victory. I'm the lightest out of anyone here, anyway."
"Except Claire." Larry told her. She took a step back, defeated, but poked her head out the window anyway.
"I can make this." She said, putting her foot on the windowsill firmly. She put her other foot there as well and climbed out to an area where she was able to jump from. Within a moment, she leaped from their vision, and they heard the loud crash of metal accompanied by her shouts. "Shit!"
"Anna!" Larry cried, rushing up to the window. Rosalyn did the same. They were relieved to find she had only slipped on her shoe. The shoe had fallen off her foot, revealing a dark green sock underneath. When the shoe hit the ground beneath, there was an audible increase in the wailing of the dead below.
"I'm okay! I'm okay!" She called back, gradually climbing over the rust of the fire escape. "Damnit! I just got those shoes!" Larry laughed for a moment into his sleeve, and when Anna saw his reaction she lowered her brow in anger. "Larry, this isn't funny! I lost my fucking shoe. Do you know how much these costed?"
"$49.95." Larry smiled back. "I was there with you the day you bought them."
Her anger went away and she looked slightly impressed. "You actually pay attention to my shopping?"
Rosalyn wiped her hand in the air. "Guys, we have more pressing matters right now than your shoe."
"Right..." Larry replied, climbing up onto the windowsill himself. With a leap, he casted himself to the balcony next to his girlfriend. "Made it." He called back, climbing over the railing.
Rosalyn turned around to see Isaac standing in the center of the room staring down at Claire. She saw his gaze and was only more frightened.
"Isaac, what's wrong?" She asked him.
"It's just... What happened to her... It's...it's really sad, Rose." He frowned in a way that he only did when he was empathizing. Isaac had never been very good at putting his feelings into words, but one thing he was exceptionally good at was empathizing. From what she'd seen, he was able to perfectly grasp the emotion someone was feeling just by sharing a moment with them. Rosalyn knew that maybe if her brother wasn't autistic, and didn't have trouble with his speech, he would make the world a better place with his empathy.
But right now, that wasn't what mattered. "Yes, it's sad, Isaac. We'll take care of her though. If you want to go and jump out to the balcony, I'll get her to come with me." He nodded and walked behind his sister, toward the window. As he started to climb into it, she knelt down to the little girl cowering in the corner of the room by the side table. "Hey, Claire." She said in a soothing voice.
"...Hi..." She replied, still having trouble making eye contact.
"We're trying to get out of this room now. Do you want to come with us?"
"Are we going to go home?"
Rosalyn thought for a moment about the question. She wasn't sure she knew where home was for the girl. Then again, she didn't even know where her own home was anymore, but she lied. She needed this girl to come with them. Letting her stay in that room might just have made her situation all the more grim. "Yeah, we are. And we'll bring you with us."
She began to stand up slowly, and positioned herself in front of Rosalyn's eyes. "I'll come... But only if you promise not to hurt me."
She smiled at the girl. She wasn't always good at keeping promises, but this one she didn't have any problems with. "Of course I won't. None of us will."
"Rose!" Larry shouted from outside the window. "You coming?"
"Just a minute!" She replied. She stood up and took the girl by the hand. "Now, I'm going to have to ask you to jump. Can you do that?"
"I don't like to jump." Claire squeezed her hand. "Do I have to?"
"Yes, you have to." Replied Rosalyn. "We all really need you to. So, you need to be strong, okay? You need to be brave."
"...Okay." She sighed. She puffed up her chest, as though she was trying to make herself believe she was a victorious warrior, returning home.
Rosalyn had had many child patients before, but not many had been as cooperative as Claire had been.
Rosalyn helped the girl over to the window, but when she poked her head out of it and saw the street full of dead people, she cowered in fear.
Rosalyn patted her on the back and tried to reassure her that everything would be all right. Of course, in the back of her mind, she wasn't sure
whether it would be.
Claire climbed up onto the sill and was visibly shaking. There wasn't a thing that Rosalyn could say to calm her down, and she didn't blame her.
This line of thing even used to scare her. "On the count of three..." Anna and Rosalyn said at the same time. They both looked embarrassed, but
Anna gave her the job. "One... Two... Three..." And that was it... She lept.
When she landed, she screamed. She only barely managed to get her right foot and left arm on hold of the railing before she collapsed. Anna and
Isaac both helped to pull the girl up, and once she was over, she sat on the metal grating, hyperventilating. She turned around and vomited through
the grate down to the street below. Isaac turned away in disgust and Anna tried to help her up.
It was Rosalyn's turn. She stepped up onto the wooden frame that was never meant to be stepped on. She tried to give herself the same
countdown but she couldn't force herself to do it. Just... Come on... Damnit... Damnit! When her feet left the floor, her heart stopped.
When she landed, a fierce pain shot through her left leg. It was like that of a knife being driven into her calf. She screamed in terror and Larry's eyes
went wide. "Rose! Oh my god!"
"What? What is it?" Anna asked, turning around.
Rosalyn glanced down whilst holding tears from her eyes. There was a sharp metal rod jutting from her left leg. How could she have been so
stupid? She was a doctor... It was her job to analyze the situation, and she couldn't even notice a piece of rebar?
"Help! Get her off of there!" Larry cried.
"No, I got it." Rosalyn said, sweating into her hair. She had watched surgeries like this before. As long as it wasn't a pivotal point on the body,
where there were lots of arteries, she should be fine. She gave it a tug, and to her surprise, instead of her foot leaving the shrapnel, the piece of
metal was ripped out of place. She climbed over the railing and grunted as she sat on the stairs. When she looked past her aching foot, she could
see the flailing arms of the dead beneath her. They knew she was there. She didn't care about the bar in her leg, and ripped it out like a giant
splinter. It hurt a lot, but she had gone through worse... The tears flowed to her eyes and she could only barely stop them from escaping.
"Well, at least now you have a weapon." Anna laughed, trying to take heat off the fact that Rosalyn was bleeding from the leg. Although it hurt a lot,
the bleeding could have been a lot worse. She was lucky it hadn't hit an artery.
"Two weapons..." Rosalyn chuckled through the pain. She reached behind her belt and grabbed the gun that had been strapped there earlier. It still
had six bullets left...
"Not like that matters." She sighed. She managed to pick up Claire and began to walk up the stairs of the fire escapes. She grabbed Larry and
Isaac along her way. "We'll meet you on the roof, Rose, when you're ready to follow us." They all followed her without question.
Except Rosalyn... There was another way out of this... The stairs led to the roof, but on the other side of them, the ladder was retracted up to the
first story height.... She looked around the street and found the hardware store that had just been built there. The windows hadn't been broken out
yet... Rosalyn looked down at the gun and the rebar in her hand as she stood up. This fire escape had two exits...
Chapter 16: Streets Run Red
Rosalyn Tamlin
One time when they were young, Rosalyn and Isaac were on vacation to France. It was the fir… morest and last time either of them had been out of the country. There was this doomsayer who liked to sit outside their hotel some days and preach about the end of the world. The two of them were only six at the time, and their delicate ears often sat at the edge of the window after their mother and father pretended to go to sleep in the other room. "Everything is going to change..." He said. At the time, Rosalyn believed him, and spent the next month of her life preparing for the end. It wasn't until Isaac pulled her out of her state with kind words that she managed to realize there's no such thing as the end of the world. Shit happens... But nothing so bad that it can cause us to cease to exist... That was until yesterday.
"We can't stay here." Larry spoke softly. They'd been sitting in that room for ho… [view original content]
Chapter 16: Streets Run Red
Rosalyn Tamlin
One time when they were young, Rosalyn and Isaac were on vacation to France. It was the fir… morest and last time either of them had been out of the country. There was this doomsayer who liked to sit outside their hotel some days and preach about the end of the world. The two of them were only six at the time, and their delicate ears often sat at the edge of the window after their mother and father pretended to go to sleep in the other room. "Everything is going to change..." He said. At the time, Rosalyn believed him, and spent the next month of her life preparing for the end. It wasn't until Isaac pulled her out of her state with kind words that she managed to realize there's no such thing as the end of the world. Shit happens... But nothing so bad that it can cause us to cease to exist... That was until yesterday.
"We can't stay here." Larry spoke softly. They'd been sitting in that room for ho… [view original content]
I noticed you guys kinda went away. I'm back now though. @NoHopeLeft @WildlingKing @#TeamSarah @CaptainDoctorGhost @Lehfeels @CaptainTise @LiquidChicagoTed
I noticed you guys kinda went away. I'm back now though. @NoHopeLeft @WildlingKing @#TeamSarah @CaptainDoctorGhost @Lehfeels @CaptainTise @LiquidChicagoTed
Chapter 16: Streets Run Red
Rosalyn Tamlin
One time when they were young, Rosalyn and Isaac were on vacation to France. It was the fir… morest and last time either of them had been out of the country. There was this doomsayer who liked to sit outside their hotel some days and preach about the end of the world. The two of them were only six at the time, and their delicate ears often sat at the edge of the window after their mother and father pretended to go to sleep in the other room. "Everything is going to change..." He said. At the time, Rosalyn believed him, and spent the next month of her life preparing for the end. It wasn't until Isaac pulled her out of her state with kind words that she managed to realize there's no such thing as the end of the world. Shit happens... But nothing so bad that it can cause us to cease to exist... That was until yesterday.
"We can't stay here." Larry spoke softly. They'd been sitting in that room for ho… [view original content]
Hey guys sorry if this part seems lazily written. It was just really late when I finished it.
66.6% of readers chose to [A. Climb the ladder.]
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Fuck it. Rosalyn was tired of losing. She remembered when Larry asked her if these things were just walking around and didn't cause any harm.
Rosalyn was armed with a handgun and a rebar and an urge to find out.
She fought her way up onto her feet. The wound on her leg had stopped bleeding for the most part. It felt as though it wasn't actually that bad. It
was painful, but it wasn't painful enough to keep her from getting supplies from that hardware store on the street. She pulled herself up by the
railing and gazed down into the river below her. The hundreds of groaning dead down there didn't scare her. Isaac and the rest of them had run
from them up to the roof, but the roof was only a temporary solution. Rosalyn was tired of running.
"Rose! Are you coming?" Anna shouted down. It was clear they had all already made it to the roof. Do you need us to come help you?"
"No! I got it!" She shouted back. She looked down through the grate at the walkers below. "I got this... I got this..."
She turned and began to walk towards the ladder leading down to the ground level. As she placed her wounded foot on the top rung, she braced
herself. Pain shot through her leg as she was forced to put her weight onto it. She felt adrenaline filling her mind as she took each step towards the
ground. Each step, she was closer to the enemy.
When her feet hit the bottom of the ladder, Rosalyn smiled. She began to lower herself with only her arms, letting her feet dangle below. She held
herself up with her left arm while grabbing the next rung down with her right. Normally this kind of strain would kill any normal person's arms, but
Rose was strong. She used to wrestle for sport, but quit when she realized she wasn't quite good enough to continue in its pursuit.
When her hands hit the bottom rung, she was far enough down that she would be able to drop down to the ground with little to no sound, and she
waited. There were still a few dead people lurking below her. They hadn't taken notice of her yet, even though they were right beneath her. God,
these things were dumb... Rosalyn questioned if they had any ability to do anything other than walk and grunt.
After a moment, the things below her began to diffuse out of the way and gave her about a six or seven foot circle around her. She took this
opportunity to drop into the horde unnoticed. She tried as hard as she could to be quiet and not bring attention to herself. For one thing, the dead
might not notice her, and for another, she didn't want to worry the people up on the roof. They weren't expecting her to be risking her life for a store
full of nails. But she liked to risk her life. She felt alive.
Once she managed to stand up, amidst all the dead people walking around her, she looked down at the rebar in her hand. It was her only weapon
after her gun ran out of bullets, so it better work. She cracked a smile before she walked straight into the horde.
The first walker she came across, she raised her right arm above her head and brought the rebar down hard into its skull. It collapsed onto the
ground, dead, but its comrades around it took notice. They began to close in on her, inch by inch. Every second they moved they grew faster and
faster. And for the the second time in her life, she felt intense fear. It hit her by surprise. She'd always forced herself not to be afraid, and normally
she wasn't. But now... There were so many of them... They were all closing in on her... They smelled like shit and most of them didn't even look
human anymore... It was so much easier to make a decision to do this before she had done it.
But there was no getting out of it now. She lifted her gun in the air and pressed it against one of the dead's foreheads. When she pulled the trigger,
its brains flew out of the back of its head and it collapsed to the ground. Somehow, she felt that body shots wouldn't be as effective. They never
had been to her.
When Rosalyn was a child, Isaac was bullied in the school yard. He would get beat up quite often for being different. When Rosalyn defended him,
they would gang up on her and beat her too. One day, a teacher took her aside, and told her that the boys were never going to stop, no matter how
much people punished them, and that one of the times she should just hit back. That teacher taught her to aim for the face because it's closer to
the brain, and they're more likely to remember that way. And so, since those days, she had never hit anyone anywhere but the head. It almost
became instinct. This was part of the reason she wasn't very good at wrestling. She never could fight her temper down enough to restrain herself
from punching them in the face...
The moment the gunshot rang through the air, the hundreds of walkers in the street instinctively began to sift through the street towards her. They
were slow, and they were dumb, and Rosalyn was agile. It wasn't easy to slip through them and manage to find a way out without them grabbing
hold of her, but she managed to do it. Any time something grabbed her anywhere on her body, she would respond by smacking it away with the
rebar.
The dead weren't the only ones alerted to the gunshot. "Rose!" Isaac began to shout from on top of the roof. "Rose!" She didn't have time to look
back. Her brother would just have to stand atop that building screaming until Rosalyn reached the hardware store.
The farther Rosalyn moved through the street, the thicker the horde came. It wasn't too dense, but she was always within arms' reach of one of
them. She wasn't safe just yet. A few of them got a bit too close and she was forced to turn around and shoot them down with one of her remaining
bullets. Her gun had only one bullet left in it when the thought soaked into her mind that this was a bad idea.
Minutes passed... and then more... and more... Rosalyn was fighting through a flurry of waving rotten arms with nothing more than a metal cylinder.
She only had one bullet left... She needed to save it.
She passed through more sections that appeared to have an open passage, but then closed immediately as she passed through them. Eventually,
she managed to have a huge following behind her. She was faster than they were, and even with her wounded leg, they couldn't catch her. All she
had to do was not stop... but she was running out of breath...
And there it was... There was an open circle off to her right where there were no walkers in sight... A place to rest for a second or two. She darted to
it immediately and stood there in the center a moment. But when she looked back up, she realized she had killed herself. She turned around 360
degrees and realized there was a thick wall of walkers closing in on her. There was absolutely no way she could make it out of this... So she turned
the gun on herself... She was already dead. Might as well make it official.
She began to count to five. She had to do it before those things reached her. She didn't want to find out what would happen. One... Two... Three...
Four... Four... Four... No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make herself count past four. Her teeth clenched and her eyes were held tightly
shut. She heard her brother's screaming in the distance, but she knew this would be a better way to go than to the hands of those things...
And then she heard another scream. It was a deeper voice, coming from her left. She opened her eyes and lowered the gun from her head. It
almost sounded like Larry... She raised her gun in the air and shot down one of the walkers that was blocking her vision. She saw him there, but
only for a split-second. She saw his terrified face as a dozen of the dead landed on top of him. When he fell out of view, the only thing Rosalyn
could hear was his terrified shrieking. It eventually became louder and louder... and then quieted down until it couldn't be heard again. Rosalyn
heard the sound of those things tearing apart the flesh of the man. She didn't need to see him to know he was dead.
Rosalyn hadn't even known he had come down. How could she have been so stupid. He came down to help her. He didn't have any weapons, and
he didn't think the things would hurt him. And now he was dead. He was dead because of her... He was dead because of her... Rosalyn couldn't
wipe the thought from her mind.
The guilt overtook her and she fell onto the ground. The walkers around her were only inches away, but she didn't care anymore. She was in so
much pain... She just needed it to end... They were so close that they could almost grab her by the hair and do the same thing that they had done
to Larry. That's when she heard the gunfire.
There was gunfire like the cavalry, echoing throughout the street. The first of them to go down were the ones nearest to her. They toppled on top of
her, covering her with disgusting black ooze and rotten smell. Then gradually, one by one, the hundreds of dead in the street became dozens. And
dozens became a few. When the last one fell to the ground. It was clear what had happened. She could see them through the hole that had landed
in the thing's head.
There was a giant yellow hummer, rolling over the corpses of the dead. Riding on top of it, standing through the skylight, were a few men with
machine guns at their side. They all wore military armor. She recognized only one of them. There was a man with an itchy looking mustache on his
face. What were they doing here?
"Wait! That one's alive!" One of them called, pointing to Rosalyn under the mound of bodies. "Get her up!"
One of the other men strode toward her. He had yellowish-brown eyes and a kind-looking smile. His baseball cap faced the opposite direction it
was supposed to. He quickly rushed over and extended his hand. Rosalyn was not quick to grab it... It seemed as though her world had ended.
"What have you done?" Rosalyn asked, glancing down at the hundreds of dead bodies lying in the streets. She glanced at the fire escape she had
dropped from and saw Isaac, Anna and Claire rushing down as fast as they could. Anna was the fastest among them. "You killed all these people!"
"That's an odd way to say thank you." The man laughed. "The name's Cameron."
He held out his hand for her to shake it, but she swatted it away. "I don't want your help."
"Seems like we just saved your life." Cameron told her. "Seems like that deserves at least a thank you of some kind."
"Cameron... leave the girl alone." The man with the mustache said. He grabbed something off of his belt and showed that it was a radio. "Dr.
Oberson, sir." He spoke into it. "We have survivors here. Two women... a man and a little girl... Yeah...? I recognize this one... It was one of them on
the street. Alright." He put it back and smiled at the woman in front of her. "Good news. You're in."
"Into what?" Rosalyn asked.
"The community." He replied, sporting a kind smile. "The new civilization? Don't tell me you don't remember. It was only two days ago. You were at
the front of the crowd... Welcome to the new world!"
Rosalyn ignored him and turned to see Larry lying on the ground with four or five dead people piling on top of him. The only part she could make
out was his face. The expression of horror was forever carved there... When Anna finally made it down to the street and dropped down, she was in
tears. She cried with passion and anger. When she dropped to her knees, her first instinct was to kiss her boyfriend on the lips. It was their last
kiss...
When Anna glanced back up, her eyes immediately fell into Rosalyn's. Their normal caring blue color almost became like lightning as an emotion
that couldn't have been anything but rage filled them. "You killed him! You killed him! You killed him!"
The wound was unlike anything else Thomas had seen before. It was shaped like a bite and was oozing black pus mixed with dark blood. He
wasn't sure why, but when Parker stood up and trained his gun on him, Thomas followed.
"When did you get that?" Parker shouted at him, in a threatening tone.
Brandon turned and put his hands in the air, trying as hard as he could not to be afraid. It wasn't working. "It happened this morning... When we
were clearing out the building."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
He frowned and pointed at the rifle being aimed at his chest. "Why do you think?"
Will and Usui scrambled over each other to see what was going on, and a few of the younger patients and doctors stood up from their table and
formed a semicircle around the bitten man just as they had with the squad's entrance. It was almost as if they had rehearsed it. There was Cecil,
the man and woman with the dark red hair, and a two others Thomas didn't recognize.
"Just hear me out!" Brandon yelled at them. "Just hear me out...before you kill me..."
"We're listening." said the woman with the red head.
"No, we're not." Cecil replied angrily. "This man is bitten! We've all seen what happens to people with a bite! They get sick, and they die, and turn
into one of those things and kill everything they can find!"
The woman frowned. "Stop being such an old asshole. The guy's a person just like us."
The man who looked to be his brother took her by the arm. Thomas remembered his name being Trevor. "Violet... come on."
"Cecil's right. We can't let him live." One of the other people in the circle mentioned. He had short black hair with a stubble and didn't look terribly
older than Thomas. He spoke with a higher tone of voice than normal, but had great intensity inside of it. "Stuff like this is the beginning of the
end..."
"You know what's the beginning of the end, Mitch?" Parker asked him. "The moment we start killing people every time shit starts to get bad. You
want him to die? Do any of you want him to die? Then you do it." He held the rifle out in front of him and gestured towards it sarcastically when no
one came forward. "No? I didn't think so. Now, we're going to do something, but we're gonna hear him out first."
"...Fair enough." Cecil grunted.
"You folks done?" Brandon asked in an annoyed fashion. "Good. My name is Brandon Fuller, and I just wanted to tell you all that I'm sorry. I'm sorry
that this happened to me, and I'm sorry that I wasn't able to help. I am the chief of surgery here, and a few of you might have needed my
knowledge. I am so sorry that I couldn't live long enough to help you."
"You're not the only one around here who can sew up a wound." Cecil yelled.
"No, but I am the only one around here who can properly sew a wound together micrometers from someone's vital organs."
"What are you getting at?" Parker asked him. "You're not making an argument for life..."
"I'm not arguing, no." Brandon replied. "The only thing I want, is a last wish."
"And this is?" Parker said.
He sighed for a moment, and looked around the room. Thomas, Parker, Cecil, Will, Trevor, Violet, Usui and Mitch all stood around him, waiting to
hear what he had to say. When he prolonged he answer, Thomas started to wonder if he even had one. "When I'm gone... remember me. I never
had anyone in life... I grew up in an orphanage, and was never adopted. I never married and I never had any children. I am the first and last of my
family line, and I've managed to get myself killed before making a mark on society. I want to have one last moment in the real world before having
to leave it."
"What are you asking?" Thomas asked. What he had asked for didn't even sound like an answer.
Tears started to pour to his eyes. He put off the answer for another ten seconds. "Just give me something to do in my last few minutes. I want to be
known... I want to be loved..."
"Don't tell me you're asking what I think you're asking." Parker lowered his brow. He had an angry aura around him. "Because if you are, you ain't
gettin' it."
"I don't know what I'm asking!" Brandon screamed, dropping to his knees.
"Can't you see he's broken?" Violet asked them, standing in the middle of the circle in front of the man. Parker and Thomas put their guns down so
they wouldn't accidentally shoot. "Where is your humanity, people? Let him have his last wish."
"I don't have a last wish..." Brandon confessed. He again, flexed his arm and tried to erase the pain in his shoulder. "I'm nothing... When have I
done anything that meant something... Just kill me. You'd be doing the world a favor..."
Parker raised his gun back in the air, but Violet raised her arms out to the side, forming a human shield. "Put the fucking gun down, man!"
Brandon crawled under her arm and knelt before Thomas. When he looked up into his eyes, Thomas could see the man literally had nothing. The
only thing he had left was his life, and that was draining away by the second. He put out his arm and took the barrel of Thomas' gun. He placed the
cylinder around his forehead with both hands gripped on it. "Just kill me... Get me out of this hell."
"You don't have to!" Violet cried. The tears were flowing to her eyes now too. "You can let him go. Give him some supplies and let him live out
there. At least he'll have a chance! But don't kill him!"
Thomas gazed at her brother Trevor, and he saw a strange apathy on his face. Everyone else around the circle was in shock and terror, but Trevor
looked like he didn't care. Thomas could almost see a bit of a smile on his face. Mitch looked even more scared than anyone else, and was visibly
shaking. Cecil shrugged and put his hand on Thomas' shoulder. "Just do it, son."
"No!" Parker protested. "Tom, you can't do this. It's not right. We have to let him live."
Thomas gazed down into Brandon's eyes just before he closed them. His fingers closed tightly around Thomas' gun and pressed it even tighter
against his forehead. He was ready for whatever Thomas would decide.
Chapter 17: The Victim
Thomas Garter
The wound was unlike anything else Thomas had seen before. It was shaped like a bite and was oozi… moreng black pus mixed with dark blood. He
wasn't sure why, but when Parker stood up and trained his gun on him, Thomas followed.
"When did you get that?" Parker shouted at him, in a threatening tone.
Brandon turned and put his hands in the air, trying as hard as he could not to be afraid. It wasn't working. "It happened this morning... When we
were clearing out the building."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
He frowned and pointed at the rifle being aimed at his chest. "Why do you think?"
Will and Usui scrambled over each other to see what was going on, and a few of the younger patients and doctors stood up from their table and
formed a semicircle around the bitten man just as they had with the squad's entrance. It was almost as if they had rehearsed it. There was Cecil,
the man and woman wit… [view original content]
Chapter 17: The Victim
Thomas Garter
The wound was unlike anything else Thomas had seen before. It was shaped like a bite and was oozi… moreng black pus mixed with dark blood. He
wasn't sure why, but when Parker stood up and trained his gun on him, Thomas followed.
"When did you get that?" Parker shouted at him, in a threatening tone.
Brandon turned and put his hands in the air, trying as hard as he could not to be afraid. It wasn't working. "It happened this morning... When we
were clearing out the building."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
He frowned and pointed at the rifle being aimed at his chest. "Why do you think?"
Will and Usui scrambled over each other to see what was going on, and a few of the younger patients and doctors stood up from their table and
formed a semicircle around the bitten man just as they had with the squad's entrance. It was almost as if they had rehearsed it. There was Cecil,
the man and woman wit… [view original content]
Chapter 17: The Victim
Thomas Garter
The wound was unlike anything else Thomas had seen before. It was shaped like a bite and was oozi… moreng black pus mixed with dark blood. He
wasn't sure why, but when Parker stood up and trained his gun on him, Thomas followed.
"When did you get that?" Parker shouted at him, in a threatening tone.
Brandon turned and put his hands in the air, trying as hard as he could not to be afraid. It wasn't working. "It happened this morning... When we
were clearing out the building."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
He frowned and pointed at the rifle being aimed at his chest. "Why do you think?"
Will and Usui scrambled over each other to see what was going on, and a few of the younger patients and doctors stood up from their table and
formed a semicircle around the bitten man just as they had with the squad's entrance. It was almost as if they had rehearsed it. There was Cecil,
the man and woman wit… [view original content]
Brandon is going to die either way, letting him leave just means that there will be another walker to deal with later. It also appears to be what he wants.
Chapter 17: The Victim
Thomas Garter
The wound was unlike anything else Thomas had seen before. It was shaped like a bite and was oozi… moreng black pus mixed with dark blood. He
wasn't sure why, but when Parker stood up and trained his gun on him, Thomas followed.
"When did you get that?" Parker shouted at him, in a threatening tone.
Brandon turned and put his hands in the air, trying as hard as he could not to be afraid. It wasn't working. "It happened this morning... When we
were clearing out the building."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
He frowned and pointed at the rifle being aimed at his chest. "Why do you think?"
Will and Usui scrambled over each other to see what was going on, and a few of the younger patients and doctors stood up from their table and
formed a semicircle around the bitten man just as they had with the squad's entrance. It was almost as if they had rehearsed it. There was Cecil,
the man and woman wit… [view original content]
Chapter 17: The Victim
Thomas Garter
The wound was unlike anything else Thomas had seen before. It was shaped like a bite and was oozi… moreng black pus mixed with dark blood. He
wasn't sure why, but when Parker stood up and trained his gun on him, Thomas followed.
"When did you get that?" Parker shouted at him, in a threatening tone.
Brandon turned and put his hands in the air, trying as hard as he could not to be afraid. It wasn't working. "It happened this morning... When we
were clearing out the building."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
He frowned and pointed at the rifle being aimed at his chest. "Why do you think?"
Will and Usui scrambled over each other to see what was going on, and a few of the younger patients and doctors stood up from their table and
formed a semicircle around the bitten man just as they had with the squad's entrance. It was almost as if they had rehearsed it. There was Cecil,
the man and woman wit… [view original content]
I liked it a lot. Didn't expect Larry to die like that, but it was very thrilling. I guess Rosalyn just got more than one new problem, with her getting to Obersons community after all and Anna being royally pissed off at her. I'm looking forward for Rosalyn's next parts, she is probably my favourite PoV right now.
Ah. Thanks for the input. Yeah, if this was the game, Larry would be determinant at this point. The climb the stairs, climb the ladder option determined his fate. I actually have to rework to story now because I was banking on him living. :P WildlingKing's going to be disappointed.
57.1% of readers chose to [B. Make Brandon leave.]
This man was a threat, but how could Thomas kill him? Even though it appeared as something the man wanted to happen, Thomas couldn't do it.
Killing was wrong, no matter in what form. "I'm not going to kill you." He said, ripping the barrel of the gun away from Brandon's head and from his
grip. "You may be dead, but I'm not going to be the one to do it."
Brandon looked up at him in an act of confusion. He wasn't making any effort to keep the tears from his eyes now. He reached over with his arm
that wasn't injured and took Thomas' gun. He tried to aim it back at himself, but Thomas ripped it away again.
"Wha..." He cried. "Why?"
"Because there's a better way." Thomas replied. "You're going to leave. We'll give you a gun. Food. Anything you need...and you'll go make your
own way. If you're going to die, you're not going to make one of us a murderer in the process."
Brandon only looked confused. He laid down on his back, looking at all of the people around him. Cecil sneered. "You just showed up... Who the
fuck gave you the rights to call the shots? Just give me gun. I'll do it, boy." He reached over with his seemingly frail old hands. Thomas was
surprised to find they were stronger than he imagined. Quite soon after it happened, Parker and Mitch grabbed the man by the arms before he
was able to aim the weapon.
"What the hell?" Parker shouted at him.
"He said we're not hurting him, you old fuck!" Mitch cried. "Get that through your skull."
Thomas turned to find Will and Usui still standing towards the back of the circle, as though they weren't sure how to respond in a group of people
they'd just renounced. Will had his eyes trained on Brandon, who was on all fours beside the wall, and Usui had his eyes on someone different...
Violet... He looked at her as though she were the only thing here that mattered. Thomas agreed that she did look rather attractive, but he thought
the look he gave her was almost...possessive. He was behind her, so she couldn't notice. When Usui saw Thomas looking back in his direction,
his eyes darted away, rather embarrassed.
"The man is broken, can't you see that, you sons of bitches?" Cecil cried as he was pressed against the wall. "He asked you to kill him! I'm giving
him what he wants."
"No. You're not." Trevor stepped forward, next to the old man. He had an oily voice and spoke quietly, yet confidently. He looked directly into
Cecil's eyes in such a threatening way it caused him to look away. "You're doing what you want. And what you want doesn't matter here. It never
has. You are the janitor."
"I was a surgeon!"
"You WERE a surgeon." He shot back. "You haven't been a real surgeon since before any of us got here."
"Go to hell." The old man sneered.
Trevor remained apathetic to his outburst. "Oh, I'm sure I will. You'll be waiting there a while before I finally show up, though."
"No... You don't know the meaning..." Cecil was boiling with rage. "You don't know the meaning of hell! You all think it's so funny to poke fun at me
because I'm the old one. Well guess what!" He quickly pointed a finger angrily in Brandon's direction. "He's thirty! I'm eighty! And he's going to be
there long before I ever show up! At least I'm still fucking alive!"
Thomas gazed to Brandon on the ground, and was surprised to not see him tripping over himself. Instead, he was in shock from the man's
speech. It was as if they didn't know he had it in him. Thomas couldn't lie. He didn't see it coming either. "Just calm down, man..." Mitch said,
waving his hands in front of him for Cecil to see.
Will walked into the center of the circle and pulled something off his belt. He presented it to the group and Thomas could see that it was his hand
gun. "You see this, people?" He threw it at Brandon and the man caught it. Will then pulled out his shot gun and aimed it at the rest of the men.
"This man is walking out of here. If any of you harm him, he ain't gonna be the only one harmed, and it'll be a lot worse for you."
"Will..." Thomas stuttered. "Why?"
"What do you mean, why, Garter? We already decided what's going down. You're the one who fucking decided. I'm trying to help." He turned to
Brandon and helped him stand on his own two feet. He spoke quietly to him, but not quietly enough that the rest of them couldn't hear. "I'm sorry
this happened to you, sir. I really am. But you understand why we're doing this, right? We're not going to let it happen to us..."
"...I understand..." Brandon sighed.
"Then go. The gun's got five bullets. Use them well." Will patted him on the back. They all watched as Brandon opened the door to the stairwell
and stepped out. Just before he shut the door, he shot an emotional look over his shoulder. He knew it was the last time he would leave the
workplace, and his coworkers and patients knew it would be the last time they ever saw him. When the door finally shut behind him, Thomas knew
it was done. It was over.
Until about three minutes after the door shut, there was utter silence. No one wanted even to sit down after what they had just experienced. Violet
was the one who finally broke the silence in the air with her words. "Brandon was a good man."
"He was..." Mitch agreed.
"Better than most of us." Trevor pitched in.
Thomas saw the three of them who had only just shown up. They stood amongst the circle, but they couldn't speak of the man as if they knew
him. They could, however, participate in the moment of silence.
There was a woman standing there. The last one who hadn't even said a single word yet. She had black hair hanging down her back and she was
standing on crutches, but when she opened her mouth, they were surprised to hear not normal speech, but song. "Amazing grace... How sweet
the sound..." She had a particularly beautiful voice. It echoed through the room like it were the only sound there. No one objected to the song.
"That saved a wretch like me.... I once was lost but now am found. Was blind, but now, I see."
"T'was Grace that taught...
my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear...
the hour I first believed.
"Through many dangers, toils and snares...
we have already come.
T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far...
and Grace will lead us home.
"The Lord has promised good to me...
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be...
as long as life endures.
"When we've been here ten thousand years...
bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise...
then when we've first begun.
"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see."
As soon as the last verse of the song concluded, they all heard a gunshot echoing from behind them. They instantly knew what it was, and a few
of them rushed to the window to see. Thomas was among them. He reached the window first and gazed out to find the herd of the dead slowly
moving towards the hospital. He gazed down all six stories of the building, and found, just outside the entrance to the emergency room, beside
the army truck, there was Brandon's limp body, sprawled out on the ground. The gun was lying beside him.
There were hundreds of walkers approaching the building where they stood, and from this high in the air, Thomas could see all of them. He
wished for amazing grace to save them.
Damn it Brandon! Very bad place to shoot himself... I guess the groups situation just got even worse. What would have happened if Thomas would have shot him?
57.1% of readers chose to [B. Make Brandon leave.]
This man was a threat, but how could Thomas kill him? Even though it appeared as som… moreething the man wanted to happen, Thomas couldn't do it.
Killing was wrong, no matter in what form. "I'm not going to kill you." He said, ripping the barrel of the gun away from Brandon's head and from his
grip. "You may be dead, but I'm not going to be the one to do it."
Brandon looked up at him in an act of confusion. He wasn't making any effort to keep the tears from his eyes now. He reached over with his arm
that wasn't injured and took Thomas' gun. He tried to aim it back at himself, but Thomas ripped it away again.
"Wha..." He cried. "Why?"
"Because there's a better way." Thomas replied. "You're going to leave. We'll give you a gun. Food. Anything you need...and you'll go make your
own way. If you're going to die, you're not going to make one of us a murderer in the process."
Bran… [view original content]
57.1% of readers chose to [B. Make Brandon leave.]
This man was a threat, but how could Thomas kill him? Even though it appeared as som… moreething the man wanted to happen, Thomas couldn't do it.
Killing was wrong, no matter in what form. "I'm not going to kill you." He said, ripping the barrel of the gun away from Brandon's head and from his
grip. "You may be dead, but I'm not going to be the one to do it."
Brandon looked up at him in an act of confusion. He wasn't making any effort to keep the tears from his eyes now. He reached over with his arm
that wasn't injured and took Thomas' gun. He tried to aim it back at himself, but Thomas ripped it away again.
"Wha..." He cried. "Why?"
"Because there's a better way." Thomas replied. "You're going to leave. We'll give you a gun. Food. Anything you need...and you'll go make your
own way. If you're going to die, you're not going to make one of us a murderer in the process."
Bran… [view original content]
If Thomas shot him, the walkers would have started coming up the stairs, but less, since the sound would have been muffled from the fact that it was in a building. And it would have been Violet who did the protesting instead of Cecil.
Damn it Brandon! Very bad place to shoot himself... I guess the groups situation just got even worse. What would have happened if Thomas would have shot him?
57.1% of readers chose to [B. Make Brandon leave.]
This man was a threat, but how could Thomas kill him? Even though it appeared as som… moreething the man wanted to happen, Thomas couldn't do it.
Killing was wrong, no matter in what form. "I'm not going to kill you." He said, ripping the barrel of the gun away from Brandon's head and from his
grip. "You may be dead, but I'm not going to be the one to do it."
Brandon looked up at him in an act of confusion. He wasn't making any effort to keep the tears from his eyes now. He reached over with his arm
that wasn't injured and took Thomas' gun. He tried to aim it back at himself, but Thomas ripped it away again.
"Wha..." He cried. "Why?"
"Because there's a better way." Thomas replied. "You're going to leave. We'll give you a gun. Food. Anything you need...and you'll go make your
own way. If you're going to die, you're not going to make one of us a murderer in the process."
Bran… [view original content]
But... But... Your just gonna leave a cliff hanger like that? All the walkers piling up outside, and nothing? Damn suspense is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
But... But... Your just gonna leave a cliff hanger like that? All the walkers piling up outside, and nothing? Damn suspense is so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Comments
Is it fucked up that I've already written up a list of all the characters on that list and exactly when and how they are going to die?(If they are, anyway)
I'm OK with that. And I'm not OK with the fact that I'm OK with that.
Chapter 16: Streets Run Red
Rosalyn Tamlin
One time when they were young, Rosalyn and Isaac were on vacation to France. It was the first and last time either of them had been out of the country. There was this doomsayer who liked to sit outside their hotel some days and preach about the end of the world. The two of them were only six at the time, and their delicate ears often sat at the edge of the window after their mother and father pretended to go to sleep in the other room. "Everything is going to change..." He said. At the time, Rosalyn believed him, and spent the next month of her life preparing for the end. It wasn't until Isaac pulled her out of her state with kind words that she managed to realize there's no such thing as the end of the world. Shit happens... But nothing so bad that it can cause us to cease to exist... That was until yesterday.
"We can't stay here." Larry spoke softly. They'd been sitting in that room for hours, waiting for the dead to go away outside the window. Claire never said a word if it wasn't to Rosalyn, and she didn't expect that to change for a long time. The girl was raped... Her sense of innocence was all but gone.
"Where would we go?" Anna replied. "The things are downstairs, in the street, outside the door... You tell me one way to get out of here, and we'll follow you, hon."
He fumbled through his words, not knowing what to say. "We could just try to walk through them..."
"What...do...you mean?" Isaac asked.
Larry sat against the wall, not caring about the dust that coated it. "Damnit... I don't know. We don't know if these things even hurt us yet. Maybe they just walk around and groan."
Rosalyn glanced up at him through the deathly air of the room. "Do you wanna go find out?" That single sentence quieted him down. "I didn't think so."
"Yeah, and I suppose they were just walking around trying to hug Rosalyn downstairs." Anna said sarcastically. "Oh, come here, Rose! I just want to hug you like I just wanted to hug the kid!" Rosalyn shot an angry glare in her direction. She looked over to where Claire sat on the floor and praised the fact that she wasn't paying attention to the conversation. She sighed when she realized what she had said. "Sorry... That was in bad taste."
"Well, if you have any better ideas, I'd like to know." Larry said in annoyance.
"We could..." Isaac started. They all started to gaze in his direction, making him blush. He never did like to be in the spotlight. He took a moment before Rosalyn gestured for him to continue. "We could go out the window..."
"What are we, three stories up?" Anna asked him. "We'd never survive the fall. And even if we did, that doesn't solve the problem of the hundreds of dead people waltzing down the street."
"No, he's right..." Rosalyn spoke up. "There's a fire escape only one room right of us. We would have to jump, but unless you guys have a better idea, that's our only way out of here."
Larry sighed before he turned around and checked to see if it was the truth it was. Rosalyn knew what she was talking about. There was a rickety old fire escape just above her room and to the right. She'd always questioned its ability to hold anything substantial... It was very old, but it would have to do. "Uh... This doesn't look safe..." He called from the window.
"Look down." Rosalyn smirked. She got up from her seat and began to approach the window herself. "I can go first if you need to be sure."
Larry frowned. "If you want to kill yourself, go ahead." He took a step back. Rosalyn could tell he wasn't serious, but she took the step towards the window anyway. "No, Rose! I didn't actually mean it."
"You really think...we can...make it?" Isaac asked her.
"Sure, we can, bud." She smiled. "It's only about six feet. You did the long jump in high school. You can do this."
"Yes... But I had... I had a running start..." He replied.
"Dammit. Let me up." Anna said, stepping forward.
"Hon...no... I'll go first." Larry put his hand on her shoulder.
Anna blew a bit of steam through her nostrils. "I've had a really shitty day today, Larry, and I really need a victory. I'm the lightest out of anyone here, anyway."
"Except Claire." Larry told her. She took a step back, defeated, but poked her head out the window anyway.
"I can make this." She said, putting her foot on the windowsill firmly. She put her other foot there as well and climbed out to an area where she was able to jump from. Within a moment, she leaped from their vision, and they heard the loud crash of metal accompanied by her shouts. "Shit!"
"Anna!" Larry cried, rushing up to the window. Rosalyn did the same. They were relieved to find she had only slipped on her shoe. The shoe had fallen off her foot, revealing a dark green sock underneath. When the shoe hit the ground beneath, there was an audible increase in the wailing of the dead below.
"I'm okay! I'm okay!" She called back, gradually climbing over the rust of the fire escape. "Damnit! I just got those shoes!" Larry laughed for a moment into his sleeve, and when Anna saw his reaction she lowered her brow in anger. "Larry, this isn't funny! I lost my fucking shoe. Do you know how much these costed?"
"$49.95." Larry smiled back. "I was there with you the day you bought them."
Her anger went away and she looked slightly impressed. "You actually pay attention to my shopping?"
Rosalyn wiped her hand in the air. "Guys, we have more pressing matters right now than your shoe."
"Right..." Larry replied, climbing up onto the windowsill himself. With a leap, he casted himself to the balcony next to his girlfriend. "Made it." He called back, climbing over the railing.
Rosalyn turned around to see Isaac standing in the center of the room staring down at Claire. She saw his gaze and was only more frightened.
"Isaac, what's wrong?" She asked him.
"It's just... What happened to her... It's...it's really sad, Rose." He frowned in a way that he only did when he was empathizing. Isaac had never been very good at putting his feelings into words, but one thing he was exceptionally good at was empathizing. From what she'd seen, he was able to perfectly grasp the emotion someone was feeling just by sharing a moment with them. Rosalyn knew that maybe if her brother wasn't autistic, and didn't have trouble with his speech, he would make the world a better place with his empathy.
But right now, that wasn't what mattered. "Yes, it's sad, Isaac. We'll take care of her though. If you want to go and jump out to the balcony, I'll get her to come with me." He nodded and walked behind his sister, toward the window. As he started to climb into it, she knelt down to the little girl cowering in the corner of the room by the side table. "Hey, Claire." She said in a soothing voice.
"...Hi..." She replied, still having trouble making eye contact.
"We're trying to get out of this room now. Do you want to come with us?"
"Are we going to go home?"
Rosalyn thought for a moment about the question. She wasn't sure she knew where home was for the girl. Then again, she didn't even know where her own home was anymore, but she lied. She needed this girl to come with them. Letting her stay in that room might just have made her situation all the more grim. "Yeah, we are. And we'll bring you with us."
She began to stand up slowly, and positioned herself in front of Rosalyn's eyes. "I'll come... But only if you promise not to hurt me."
She smiled at the girl. She wasn't always good at keeping promises, but this one she didn't have any problems with. "Of course I won't. None of us will."
"Rose!" Larry shouted from outside the window. "You coming?"
"Just a minute!" She replied. She stood up and took the girl by the hand. "Now, I'm going to have to ask you to jump. Can you do that?"
"I don't like to jump." Claire squeezed her hand. "Do I have to?"
"Yes, you have to." Replied Rosalyn. "We all really need you to. So, you need to be strong, okay? You need to be brave."
"...Okay." She sighed. She puffed up her chest, as though she was trying to make herself believe she was a victorious warrior, returning home.
Rosalyn had had many child patients before, but not many had been as cooperative as Claire had been.
Rosalyn helped the girl over to the window, but when she poked her head out of it and saw the street full of dead people, she cowered in fear.
Rosalyn patted her on the back and tried to reassure her that everything would be all right. Of course, in the back of her mind, she wasn't sure
whether it would be.
Claire climbed up onto the sill and was visibly shaking. There wasn't a thing that Rosalyn could say to calm her down, and she didn't blame her.
This line of thing even used to scare her. "On the count of three..." Anna and Rosalyn said at the same time. They both looked embarrassed, but
Anna gave her the job. "One... Two... Three..." And that was it... She lept.
When she landed, she screamed. She only barely managed to get her right foot and left arm on hold of the railing before she collapsed. Anna and
Isaac both helped to pull the girl up, and once she was over, she sat on the metal grating, hyperventilating. She turned around and vomited through
the grate down to the street below. Isaac turned away in disgust and Anna tried to help her up.
It was Rosalyn's turn. She stepped up onto the wooden frame that was never meant to be stepped on. She tried to give herself the same
countdown but she couldn't force herself to do it. Just... Come on... Damnit... Damnit! When her feet left the floor, her heart stopped.
When she landed, a fierce pain shot through her left leg. It was like that of a knife being driven into her calf. She screamed in terror and Larry's eyes
went wide. "Rose! Oh my god!"
"What? What is it?" Anna asked, turning around.
Rosalyn glanced down whilst holding tears from her eyes. There was a sharp metal rod jutting from her left leg. How could she have been so
stupid? She was a doctor... It was her job to analyze the situation, and she couldn't even notice a piece of rebar?
"Help! Get her off of there!" Larry cried.
"No, I got it." Rosalyn said, sweating into her hair. She had watched surgeries like this before. As long as it wasn't a pivotal point on the body,
where there were lots of arteries, she should be fine. She gave it a tug, and to her surprise, instead of her foot leaving the shrapnel, the piece of
metal was ripped out of place. She climbed over the railing and grunted as she sat on the stairs. When she looked past her aching foot, she could
see the flailing arms of the dead beneath her. They knew she was there. She didn't care about the bar in her leg, and ripped it out like a giant
splinter. It hurt a lot, but she had gone through worse... The tears flowed to her eyes and she could only barely stop them from escaping.
"Well, at least now you have a weapon." Anna laughed, trying to take heat off the fact that Rosalyn was bleeding from the leg. Although it hurt a lot,
the bleeding could have been a lot worse. She was lucky it hadn't hit an artery.
"Two weapons..." Rosalyn chuckled through the pain. She reached behind her belt and grabbed the gun that had been strapped there earlier. It still
had six bullets left...
"Not like that matters." She sighed. She managed to pick up Claire and began to walk up the stairs of the fire escapes. She grabbed Larry and
Isaac along her way. "We'll meet you on the roof, Rose, when you're ready to follow us." They all followed her without question.
Except Rosalyn... There was another way out of this... The stairs led to the roof, but on the other side of them, the ladder was retracted up to the
first story height.... She looked around the street and found the hardware store that had just been built there. The windows hadn't been broken out
yet... Rosalyn looked down at the gun and the rebar in her hand as she stood up. This fire escape had two exits...
[A. Climb the ladder.]
[B. Climb the stairs.]
I noticed you guys kinda went away. I'm back now though. @NoHopeLeft @WildlingKing @#TeamSarah @CaptainDoctorGhost @Lehfeels @CaptainTise @LiquidChicagoTed
Climb the ladder
Great chapter!
[B. Climb the stairs.]
I'm still here, I just forgot to comment on the last part. It's great that you're back
[B. Climb the stairs.]
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
Ah alright.
I'll catch up at some point when I have time, no worries
Alright haha
I think climbing the stairs will be easier for Rosalyn, and less dangerous. I feel like a really bad accident could happen if you choose the ladder.
[A. Climb the ladder.] Stairs = bad
Awesome part!
I think Rose is in a bit of trouble with rebar in her leg.
Why are stairs bad?
Yeah that's a bit of a problem.
Hey guys sorry if this part seems lazily written. It was just really late when I finished it.
66.6% of readers chose to [A. Climb the ladder.]
————————————
Fuck it. Rosalyn was tired of losing. She remembered when Larry asked her if these things were just walking around and didn't cause any harm.
Rosalyn was armed with a handgun and a rebar and an urge to find out.
She fought her way up onto her feet. The wound on her leg had stopped bleeding for the most part. It felt as though it wasn't actually that bad. It
was painful, but it wasn't painful enough to keep her from getting supplies from that hardware store on the street. She pulled herself up by the
railing and gazed down into the river below her. The hundreds of groaning dead down there didn't scare her. Isaac and the rest of them had run
from them up to the roof, but the roof was only a temporary solution. Rosalyn was tired of running.
"Rose! Are you coming?" Anna shouted down. It was clear they had all already made it to the roof. Do you need us to come help you?"
"No! I got it!" She shouted back. She looked down through the grate at the walkers below. "I got this... I got this..."
She turned and began to walk towards the ladder leading down to the ground level. As she placed her wounded foot on the top rung, she braced
herself. Pain shot through her leg as she was forced to put her weight onto it. She felt adrenaline filling her mind as she took each step towards the
ground. Each step, she was closer to the enemy.
When her feet hit the bottom of the ladder, Rosalyn smiled. She began to lower herself with only her arms, letting her feet dangle below. She held
herself up with her left arm while grabbing the next rung down with her right. Normally this kind of strain would kill any normal person's arms, but
Rose was strong. She used to wrestle for sport, but quit when she realized she wasn't quite good enough to continue in its pursuit.
When her hands hit the bottom rung, she was far enough down that she would be able to drop down to the ground with little to no sound, and she
waited. There were still a few dead people lurking below her. They hadn't taken notice of her yet, even though they were right beneath her. God,
these things were dumb... Rosalyn questioned if they had any ability to do anything other than walk and grunt.
After a moment, the things below her began to diffuse out of the way and gave her about a six or seven foot circle around her. She took this
opportunity to drop into the horde unnoticed. She tried as hard as she could to be quiet and not bring attention to herself. For one thing, the dead
might not notice her, and for another, she didn't want to worry the people up on the roof. They weren't expecting her to be risking her life for a store
full of nails. But she liked to risk her life. She felt alive.
Once she managed to stand up, amidst all the dead people walking around her, she looked down at the rebar in her hand. It was her only weapon
after her gun ran out of bullets, so it better work. She cracked a smile before she walked straight into the horde.
The first walker she came across, she raised her right arm above her head and brought the rebar down hard into its skull. It collapsed onto the
ground, dead, but its comrades around it took notice. They began to close in on her, inch by inch. Every second they moved they grew faster and
faster. And for the the second time in her life, she felt intense fear. It hit her by surprise. She'd always forced herself not to be afraid, and normally
she wasn't. But now... There were so many of them... They were all closing in on her... They smelled like shit and most of them didn't even look
human anymore... It was so much easier to make a decision to do this before she had done it.
But there was no getting out of it now. She lifted her gun in the air and pressed it against one of the dead's foreheads. When she pulled the trigger,
its brains flew out of the back of its head and it collapsed to the ground. Somehow, she felt that body shots wouldn't be as effective. They never
had been to her.
When Rosalyn was a child, Isaac was bullied in the school yard. He would get beat up quite often for being different. When Rosalyn defended him,
they would gang up on her and beat her too. One day, a teacher took her aside, and told her that the boys were never going to stop, no matter how
much people punished them, and that one of the times she should just hit back. That teacher taught her to aim for the face because it's closer to
the brain, and they're more likely to remember that way. And so, since those days, she had never hit anyone anywhere but the head. It almost
became instinct. This was part of the reason she wasn't very good at wrestling. She never could fight her temper down enough to restrain herself
from punching them in the face...
The moment the gunshot rang through the air, the hundreds of walkers in the street instinctively began to sift through the street towards her. They
were slow, and they were dumb, and Rosalyn was agile. It wasn't easy to slip through them and manage to find a way out without them grabbing
hold of her, but she managed to do it. Any time something grabbed her anywhere on her body, she would respond by smacking it away with the
rebar.
The dead weren't the only ones alerted to the gunshot. "Rose!" Isaac began to shout from on top of the roof. "Rose!" She didn't have time to look
back. Her brother would just have to stand atop that building screaming until Rosalyn reached the hardware store.
The farther Rosalyn moved through the street, the thicker the horde came. It wasn't too dense, but she was always within arms' reach of one of
them. She wasn't safe just yet. A few of them got a bit too close and she was forced to turn around and shoot them down with one of her remaining
bullets. Her gun had only one bullet left in it when the thought soaked into her mind that this was a bad idea.
Minutes passed... and then more... and more... Rosalyn was fighting through a flurry of waving rotten arms with nothing more than a metal cylinder.
She only had one bullet left... She needed to save it.
She passed through more sections that appeared to have an open passage, but then closed immediately as she passed through them. Eventually,
she managed to have a huge following behind her. She was faster than they were, and even with her wounded leg, they couldn't catch her. All she
had to do was not stop... but she was running out of breath...
And there it was... There was an open circle off to her right where there were no walkers in sight... A place to rest for a second or two. She darted to
it immediately and stood there in the center a moment. But when she looked back up, she realized she had killed herself. She turned around 360
degrees and realized there was a thick wall of walkers closing in on her. There was absolutely no way she could make it out of this... So she turned
the gun on herself... She was already dead. Might as well make it official.
She began to count to five. She had to do it before those things reached her. She didn't want to find out what would happen. One... Two... Three...
Four... Four... Four... No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't make herself count past four. Her teeth clenched and her eyes were held tightly
shut. She heard her brother's screaming in the distance, but she knew this would be a better way to go than to the hands of those things...
And then she heard another scream. It was a deeper voice, coming from her left. She opened her eyes and lowered the gun from her head. It
almost sounded like Larry... She raised her gun in the air and shot down one of the walkers that was blocking her vision. She saw him there, but
only for a split-second. She saw his terrified face as a dozen of the dead landed on top of him. When he fell out of view, the only thing Rosalyn
could hear was his terrified shrieking. It eventually became louder and louder... and then quieted down until it couldn't be heard again. Rosalyn
heard the sound of those things tearing apart the flesh of the man. She didn't need to see him to know he was dead.
Rosalyn hadn't even known he had come down. How could she have been so stupid. He came down to help her. He didn't have any weapons, and
he didn't think the things would hurt him. And now he was dead. He was dead because of her... He was dead because of her... Rosalyn couldn't
wipe the thought from her mind.
The guilt overtook her and she fell onto the ground. The walkers around her were only inches away, but she didn't care anymore. She was in so
much pain... She just needed it to end... They were so close that they could almost grab her by the hair and do the same thing that they had done
to Larry. That's when she heard the gunfire.
There was gunfire like the cavalry, echoing throughout the street. The first of them to go down were the ones nearest to her. They toppled on top of
her, covering her with disgusting black ooze and rotten smell. Then gradually, one by one, the hundreds of dead in the street became dozens. And
dozens became a few. When the last one fell to the ground. It was clear what had happened. She could see them through the hole that had landed
in the thing's head.
There was a giant yellow hummer, rolling over the corpses of the dead. Riding on top of it, standing through the skylight, were a few men with
machine guns at their side. They all wore military armor. She recognized only one of them. There was a man with an itchy looking mustache on his
face. What were they doing here?
"Wait! That one's alive!" One of them called, pointing to Rosalyn under the mound of bodies. "Get her up!"
One of the other men strode toward her. He had yellowish-brown eyes and a kind-looking smile. His baseball cap faced the opposite direction it
was supposed to. He quickly rushed over and extended his hand. Rosalyn was not quick to grab it... It seemed as though her world had ended.
"What have you done?" Rosalyn asked, glancing down at the hundreds of dead bodies lying in the streets. She glanced at the fire escape she had
dropped from and saw Isaac, Anna and Claire rushing down as fast as they could. Anna was the fastest among them. "You killed all these people!"
"That's an odd way to say thank you." The man laughed. "The name's Cameron."
He held out his hand for her to shake it, but she swatted it away. "I don't want your help."
"Seems like we just saved your life." Cameron told her. "Seems like that deserves at least a thank you of some kind."
"Cameron... leave the girl alone." The man with the mustache said. He grabbed something off of his belt and showed that it was a radio. "Dr.
Oberson, sir." He spoke into it. "We have survivors here. Two women... a man and a little girl... Yeah...? I recognize this one... It was one of them on
the street. Alright." He put it back and smiled at the woman in front of her. "Good news. You're in."
"Into what?" Rosalyn asked.
"The community." He replied, sporting a kind smile. "The new civilization? Don't tell me you don't remember. It was only two days ago. You were at
the front of the crowd... Welcome to the new world!"
Rosalyn ignored him and turned to see Larry lying on the ground with four or five dead people piling on top of him. The only part she could make
out was his face. The expression of horror was forever carved there... When Anna finally made it down to the street and dropped down, she was in
tears. She cried with passion and anger. When she dropped to her knees, her first instinct was to kiss her boyfriend on the lips. It was their last
kiss...
When Anna glanced back up, her eyes immediately fell into Rosalyn's. Their normal caring blue color almost became like lightning as an emotion
that couldn't have been anything but rage filled them. "You killed him! You killed him! You killed him!"
End of Chapter 16
I think people might not have noticed I updated.
Chapter 17: The Victim
Thomas Garter
The wound was unlike anything else Thomas had seen before. It was shaped like a bite and was oozing black pus mixed with dark blood. He
wasn't sure why, but when Parker stood up and trained his gun on him, Thomas followed.
"When did you get that?" Parker shouted at him, in a threatening tone.
Brandon turned and put his hands in the air, trying as hard as he could not to be afraid. It wasn't working. "It happened this morning... When we
were clearing out the building."
"Why didn't you tell us?"
He frowned and pointed at the rifle being aimed at his chest. "Why do you think?"
Will and Usui scrambled over each other to see what was going on, and a few of the younger patients and doctors stood up from their table and
formed a semicircle around the bitten man just as they had with the squad's entrance. It was almost as if they had rehearsed it. There was Cecil,
the man and woman with the dark red hair, and a two others Thomas didn't recognize.
"Just hear me out!" Brandon yelled at them. "Just hear me out...before you kill me..."
"We're listening." said the woman with the red head.
"No, we're not." Cecil replied angrily. "This man is bitten! We've all seen what happens to people with a bite! They get sick, and they die, and turn
into one of those things and kill everything they can find!"
The woman frowned. "Stop being such an old asshole. The guy's a person just like us."
The man who looked to be his brother took her by the arm. Thomas remembered his name being Trevor. "Violet... come on."
"Cecil's right. We can't let him live." One of the other people in the circle mentioned. He had short black hair with a stubble and didn't look terribly
older than Thomas. He spoke with a higher tone of voice than normal, but had great intensity inside of it. "Stuff like this is the beginning of the
end..."
"You know what's the beginning of the end, Mitch?" Parker asked him. "The moment we start killing people every time shit starts to get bad. You
want him to die? Do any of you want him to die? Then you do it." He held the rifle out in front of him and gestured towards it sarcastically when no
one came forward. "No? I didn't think so. Now, we're going to do something, but we're gonna hear him out first."
"...Fair enough." Cecil grunted.
"You folks done?" Brandon asked in an annoyed fashion. "Good. My name is Brandon Fuller, and I just wanted to tell you all that I'm sorry. I'm sorry
that this happened to me, and I'm sorry that I wasn't able to help. I am the chief of surgery here, and a few of you might have needed my
knowledge. I am so sorry that I couldn't live long enough to help you."
"You're not the only one around here who can sew up a wound." Cecil yelled.
"No, but I am the only one around here who can properly sew a wound together micrometers from someone's vital organs."
"What are you getting at?" Parker asked him. "You're not making an argument for life..."
"I'm not arguing, no." Brandon replied. "The only thing I want, is a last wish."
"And this is?" Parker said.
He sighed for a moment, and looked around the room. Thomas, Parker, Cecil, Will, Trevor, Violet, Usui and Mitch all stood around him, waiting to
hear what he had to say. When he prolonged he answer, Thomas started to wonder if he even had one. "When I'm gone... remember me. I never
had anyone in life... I grew up in an orphanage, and was never adopted. I never married and I never had any children. I am the first and last of my
family line, and I've managed to get myself killed before making a mark on society. I want to have one last moment in the real world before having
to leave it."
"What are you asking?" Thomas asked. What he had asked for didn't even sound like an answer.
Tears started to pour to his eyes. He put off the answer for another ten seconds. "Just give me something to do in my last few minutes. I want to be
known... I want to be loved..."
"Don't tell me you're asking what I think you're asking." Parker lowered his brow. He had an angry aura around him. "Because if you are, you ain't
gettin' it."
"I don't know what I'm asking!" Brandon screamed, dropping to his knees.
"Can't you see he's broken?" Violet asked them, standing in the middle of the circle in front of the man. Parker and Thomas put their guns down so
they wouldn't accidentally shoot. "Where is your humanity, people? Let him have his last wish."
"I don't have a last wish..." Brandon confessed. He again, flexed his arm and tried to erase the pain in his shoulder. "I'm nothing... When have I
done anything that meant something... Just kill me. You'd be doing the world a favor..."
Parker raised his gun back in the air, but Violet raised her arms out to the side, forming a human shield. "Put the fucking gun down, man!"
Brandon crawled under her arm and knelt before Thomas. When he looked up into his eyes, Thomas could see the man literally had nothing. The
only thing he had left was his life, and that was draining away by the second. He put out his arm and took the barrel of Thomas' gun. He placed the
cylinder around his forehead with both hands gripped on it. "Just kill me... Get me out of this hell."
"You don't have to!" Violet cried. The tears were flowing to her eyes now too. "You can let him go. Give him some supplies and let him live out
there. At least he'll have a chance! But don't kill him!"
Thomas gazed at her brother Trevor, and he saw a strange apathy on his face. Everyone else around the circle was in shock and terror, but Trevor
looked like he didn't care. Thomas could almost see a bit of a smile on his face. Mitch looked even more scared than anyone else, and was visibly
shaking. Cecil shrugged and put his hand on Thomas' shoulder. "Just do it, son."
"No!" Parker protested. "Tom, you can't do this. It's not right. We have to let him live."
Thomas gazed down into Brandon's eyes just before he closed them. His fingers closed tightly around Thomas' gun and pressed it even tighter
against his forehead. He was ready for whatever Thomas would decide.
[A. Shoot Brandon.]
[B. Make Brandon leave.]
[B. Make Brandon leave.] shooting could make walkers appear
Awesome part!
Shoot Brandon
Where's he going to go I'd he leaves? To take a stroll in a horde?
Ah, I haven't had the time to read these long parts. Nice job though
[B. Make Brandon leave.]
[A. Shoot Brandon.]
Brandon is going to die either way, letting him leave just means that there will be another walker to deal with later. It also appears to be what he wants.
[B. Make Brandon leave.]
What did you guys think of the last half of 16?
One vote for [A. Shoot Brandon.] and another for [B. Make Brandon Leave.]
I liked it a lot. Didn't expect Larry to die like that, but it was very thrilling. I guess Rosalyn just got more than one new problem, with her getting to Obersons community after all and Anna being royally pissed off at her. I'm looking forward for Rosalyn's next parts, she is probably my favourite PoV right now.
Ah. Thanks for the input. Yeah, if this was the game, Larry would be determinant at this point. The climb the stairs, climb the ladder option determined his fate. I actually have to rework to story now because I was banking on him living. :P WildlingKing's going to be disappointed.
I have to say, I wasn't expecting Larry to die, and I half expected Rose to die. And she's probably still not safe since Anna is pretty pissed at her.
57.1% of readers chose to [B. Make Brandon leave.]
This man was a threat, but how could Thomas kill him? Even though it appeared as something the man wanted to happen, Thomas couldn't do it.
Killing was wrong, no matter in what form. "I'm not going to kill you." He said, ripping the barrel of the gun away from Brandon's head and from his
grip. "You may be dead, but I'm not going to be the one to do it."
Brandon looked up at him in an act of confusion. He wasn't making any effort to keep the tears from his eyes now. He reached over with his arm
that wasn't injured and took Thomas' gun. He tried to aim it back at himself, but Thomas ripped it away again.
"Wha..." He cried. "Why?"
"Because there's a better way." Thomas replied. "You're going to leave. We'll give you a gun. Food. Anything you need...and you'll go make your
own way. If you're going to die, you're not going to make one of us a murderer in the process."
Brandon only looked confused. He laid down on his back, looking at all of the people around him. Cecil sneered. "You just showed up... Who the
fuck gave you the rights to call the shots? Just give me gun. I'll do it, boy." He reached over with his seemingly frail old hands. Thomas was
surprised to find they were stronger than he imagined. Quite soon after it happened, Parker and Mitch grabbed the man by the arms before he
was able to aim the weapon.
"What the hell?" Parker shouted at him.
"He said we're not hurting him, you old fuck!" Mitch cried. "Get that through your skull."
Thomas turned to find Will and Usui still standing towards the back of the circle, as though they weren't sure how to respond in a group of people
they'd just renounced. Will had his eyes trained on Brandon, who was on all fours beside the wall, and Usui had his eyes on someone different...
Violet... He looked at her as though she were the only thing here that mattered. Thomas agreed that she did look rather attractive, but he thought
the look he gave her was almost...possessive. He was behind her, so she couldn't notice. When Usui saw Thomas looking back in his direction,
his eyes darted away, rather embarrassed.
"The man is broken, can't you see that, you sons of bitches?" Cecil cried as he was pressed against the wall. "He asked you to kill him! I'm giving
him what he wants."
"No. You're not." Trevor stepped forward, next to the old man. He had an oily voice and spoke quietly, yet confidently. He looked directly into
Cecil's eyes in such a threatening way it caused him to look away. "You're doing what you want. And what you want doesn't matter here. It never
has. You are the janitor."
"I was a surgeon!"
"You WERE a surgeon." He shot back. "You haven't been a real surgeon since before any of us got here."
"Go to hell." The old man sneered.
Trevor remained apathetic to his outburst. "Oh, I'm sure I will. You'll be waiting there a while before I finally show up, though."
"No... You don't know the meaning..." Cecil was boiling with rage. "You don't know the meaning of hell! You all think it's so funny to poke fun at me
because I'm the old one. Well guess what!" He quickly pointed a finger angrily in Brandon's direction. "He's thirty! I'm eighty! And he's going to be
there long before I ever show up! At least I'm still fucking alive!"
Thomas gazed to Brandon on the ground, and was surprised to not see him tripping over himself. Instead, he was in shock from the man's
speech. It was as if they didn't know he had it in him. Thomas couldn't lie. He didn't see it coming either. "Just calm down, man..." Mitch said,
waving his hands in front of him for Cecil to see.
Will walked into the center of the circle and pulled something off his belt. He presented it to the group and Thomas could see that it was his hand
gun. "You see this, people?" He threw it at Brandon and the man caught it. Will then pulled out his shot gun and aimed it at the rest of the men.
"This man is walking out of here. If any of you harm him, he ain't gonna be the only one harmed, and it'll be a lot worse for you."
"Will..." Thomas stuttered. "Why?"
"What do you mean, why, Garter? We already decided what's going down. You're the one who fucking decided. I'm trying to help." He turned to
Brandon and helped him stand on his own two feet. He spoke quietly to him, but not quietly enough that the rest of them couldn't hear. "I'm sorry
this happened to you, sir. I really am. But you understand why we're doing this, right? We're not going to let it happen to us..."
"...I understand..." Brandon sighed.
"Then go. The gun's got five bullets. Use them well." Will patted him on the back. They all watched as Brandon opened the door to the stairwell
and stepped out. Just before he shut the door, he shot an emotional look over his shoulder. He knew it was the last time he would leave the
workplace, and his coworkers and patients knew it would be the last time they ever saw him. When the door finally shut behind him, Thomas knew
it was done. It was over.
Until about three minutes after the door shut, there was utter silence. No one wanted even to sit down after what they had just experienced. Violet
was the one who finally broke the silence in the air with her words. "Brandon was a good man."
"He was..." Mitch agreed.
"Better than most of us." Trevor pitched in.
Thomas saw the three of them who had only just shown up. They stood amongst the circle, but they couldn't speak of the man as if they knew
him. They could, however, participate in the moment of silence.
There was a woman standing there. The last one who hadn't even said a single word yet. She had black hair hanging down her back and she was
standing on crutches, but when she opened her mouth, they were surprised to hear not normal speech, but song. "Amazing grace... How sweet
the sound..." She had a particularly beautiful voice. It echoed through the room like it were the only sound there. No one objected to the song.
"That saved a wretch like me.... I once was lost but now am found. Was blind, but now, I see."
"T'was Grace that taught...
my heart to fear.
And Grace, my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear...
the hour I first believed.
"Through many dangers, toils and snares...
we have already come.
T'was Grace that brought us safe thus far...
and Grace will lead us home.
"The Lord has promised good to me...
His word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be...
as long as life endures.
"When we've been here ten thousand years...
bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise...
then when we've first begun.
"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch like me....
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind, but now, I see."
As soon as the last verse of the song concluded, they all heard a gunshot echoing from behind them. They instantly knew what it was, and a few
of them rushed to the window to see. Thomas was among them. He reached the window first and gazed out to find the herd of the dead slowly
moving towards the hospital. He gazed down all six stories of the building, and found, just outside the entrance to the emergency room, beside
the army truck, there was Brandon's limp body, sprawled out on the ground. The gun was lying beside him.
There were hundreds of walkers approaching the building where they stood, and from this high in the air, Thomas could see all of them. He
wished for amazing grace to save them.
End of Chapter 17
Damn it Brandon! Very bad place to shoot himself... I guess the groups situation just got even worse. What would have happened if Thomas would have shot him?
Well shit, things happened. Great chapter!!
If Thomas shot him, the walkers would have started coming up the stairs, but less, since the sound would have been muffled from the fact that it was in a building. And it would have been Violet who did the protesting instead of Cecil.
Yep. That was the last Thomas chapter in Part 1.
DAMN IT BRANDON. Awesome part anyways!
But... But... Your just gonna leave a cliff hanger like that? All the walkers piling up outside, and nothing? Damn suspense is so thick you could cut it with a knife.