Raven's part was seriously awesome, so far my favourite part in the whole story
[Confront Evan]
I think it should be for the best to make sure that he doesn't start any trouble. Maybe Lizbeth can prevent things from escalating.
“All rise!” The voice boomed. The suited man next to Raven helped her uneasily to her feet, her vision was still spinning and black spot filled her view, she felt like she’s just black out at any moment. Every doctor with half a brain said she wasn’t ready for the trial, they said she’d probably get hurt again. It hurt like all hell, but hey. Tradition. Raven gripped her ribs in pain and held her breath as the judge took her seat.
Yeah, so today could be a better day. It was only one day after New Orleans went to hell. Apparently it got worse after Raven passed out. An entire mortar division unleashed hell on anything moving in the town, and kill a lot of people that way.
Apparently, the entire rest of the 231st charged blindly into battle and ended killing themselves in the fog. And that’s why they’re here today, to find if Raven had any fault in what had happened.
“You may be seated.” The voice spoke. Raven collapsed back into the wooden chair with a gasp of relief. She shut her eyes and gripped her ribs tightly trying to subsidize the pain. A sudden feeling of nausea came over her and she felt like she was going to throw up.
“Are you felling alright, Officer Lee?” Her defender said.
“I-I’m fine. Just… Just, I’m fine.” Raven stammered out, opening her eyes and being blinded by the dim lighting of the court room.
“Richards, is you client with us?” The judge asked.
“Yes, she’s with us.” Her defender answered.
“Good, then let’s begin.” The judge said.
“Don’t worry about it, Lee. I’ve got you covered.” He said.
“Thank you.” Raven whispered, struggling to keep her eyes open. She fixated her eyes on one spot, the judge and refused to blink. If she did, she might not reopen her eyes.
“Officer Lee is here to face trial for the events that have unfolded at the Siege of New Orleans, even though she is low-ranking, she is an Officer that was present at the battle and must face trial.” The judge stated. “Let’s try to make it as quick as possible. Richards.” She continued, passing the spotlight onto her defender.
“My client, Officer Raven Lee, holds and outstanding battle record though only being a member of the army for a few years now.” He began. Building her accomplishments, good tactic.
“How many years, Richards?” The judge asked.
“Raven?” A voice asked. “Raven, open your eyes. Please, don’t do this.” Raven slowly opened her eyes, fighting back the blackness that called to her, longing for her return. She forced her eyes lazily open and stared straight into Aspens face. New Orleans, she was back. Raven opened her mouth to say something, but only small pipes and squeaks came out. The taste of blood was all but overwhelming. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath at all, but she couldn’t feel the pain. She’d lost her ability to feel the pain now. “Oh, thank God.” Aspen said, seeing Raven open her eyes. “You just have to hold on a little longer, alright? Help is on the way.” She said.
Help is on the way. She’d heard that saying a hundred times already, but no help ever came. She could heard the distant sounds of echoing gunfire, it was like a melancholic lullaby, beaconing for her return to the abyss.
“Communication is still down, but I think I found out why.” Aspen said. “The raiders in the city have to be using some sort of jammer, I’m starting to get the feeling they aren’t the type of Bandits we’re used to fighting.” She said. Raven slowly mover her head up and down in a jerk series of motion to show she understood.
“I’m going to try to bypass their jammer.” Aspen said. “That way we can get a signal out to base.” She said. Aspen stood and walked away from her, grabbing the CB radio off the counter. “Maybe if I can find their signal, I can… I’ll save you the technical talk. I think I can use their jammer against them.” She said. Raven was shivering, her entire body was shivering. The cold was unbearable, she felt like… Well, she felt like she was dying.
Aspen eyed her and sighed deeply. It must have hurt a lot to see her friend like this, not getting shot in the lung kind of hurt, but emotionally it had to hurt. She’d shot her friend and Commanding Officer. Come on, soldiers are people to, they have feelings. Aspen took off her drab green jacket and lowered it over Raven, in a pathetic attempt to keep her friend comfortable as she died.
There was a loud crashing sound outside, even Raven heard it in her zoned out state. It had come from across the street by the sound of it. Aspen grabbed her rifle and jumped up to the stores smashed window, scanning the area through her scope. Aspen was a tech genius, and a hell of a shot. She was one of the best sharpshooters they had, well. The best now that Raven was out of the way.
“There’s someone out there.” Aspen said. Raven mustered the energy to roll her head towards the door, she saw the doorframe and then fog. This whole ‘fighting ghosts’ thing was a pain in the ass.
“Who’s out there!” Aspen yelled into the fog, well, if they didn’t know they were here, they do now.
“Squad 33, or what’s left of it. We’re with the 231st. Don’t shoot.” A voice called.
“Thank God you guys showed up. Get in here, hurry.” Aspen said. Raven saw a blurry figure appear in the fog and approach the door. The door opened and three men walked in, each toting a gun. The lead man’s jaw dropped when he saw Raven.
“We’ve got to get you back to camp, now.” He said.
“We’ve been here forever.” Aspen said.
“Then why wait any longer.” He said.
“Raven, you hear that? We’re going home.” Aspen said. “Raven... Raven?” Her voice began echoing farther and farther away.
“Officer Lee?” A voice asked. She opened her eyes and saw Richards next to her, along with a medic and a doctor. “Are you alright?” He asked.
“Huh?” Raven asked, confused. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She stuttered, weakly.
“You passed out and hit your head on the table.” He said.
“I’m fine.” She said. Richards nodded and looked to the medic, who shrugged.
“This trial itself is killing her, we need to get her back to the hospital.” He said.
“Has the jury reached a verdict?” The judge asked. Wait, the verdict? How long has she been out? Did they seriously just notice?
“Yes we have your honor.” A man said.
“Proceed.” The judge said. Raven held her breath and silently prayed for a miracle.
“We the jury find Officer Raven Lee…” He said, the paused. Seriously, cut the drama dude. “Not guilty.” He said.
“Raven Lee is hereby acquitted of all charges.” The judge said, with the tap of a gavel. “This court is now dismissed.”
“Let’s get back to the hospital.” Richards said. Raven attempted to stand up, but felt too weak to do it. Richards grabbed her arm and lifted her up, practically carrying her over to the wheelchair at the end of the table. He gently sat her down. “I’m sure I’ll see you around.” He said. The medic began pushing her away, back towards the hospital. Her head dropped forward again as she shut her eyes and slipped away once more.
Her eyes now open and stared at her black boots, and the ground below them.
Well, the ground twenty feet below them. She sharply inhaled at the realization of this fact, that she was dangling twenty feet off the ground. She quickly looked up and saw why. Her parachute had gotten tangled in the trees. Good thing, if it hadn’t, she’d probably hit the ground hard enough the break some bones. Not exactly a pancake, but close enough.
“Why is it always me?” She mumbled angrily to herself. “Why!” She screamed out loud, as if anyone would hear. She swung her legs back and forth trying to gain some momentum, maybe she could get to another branch and climb down.
No such luck. All the accomplished was shaking the branch and making an eerie cracking noise. No more of that. Well, there’s only one thing left to do.
Sit, or hang, here and cry?
Well, actually that makes two thing to do.
She decided she’d keep the crying for another time. She reached up to her parachute strap, the one thing keeping her from a twenty foot drop, and released it. She went crashing towards the ground and landed on her side.
No need to be alarmed guys, Gravity still works!
It hurt, but it didn’t take two years of med school to figure out nothing was broken. She rolled onto her back and stared up at her tattered parachute. Piece of trash. She sat up and grabbed at her bag, taking out the pistol. She was in enemy territory alone, this piece of metal was her new best friend. But as she looked through her bag, she noticed something. A letter neatly folded, laying in there next to the creepy gas mask.
She took it out and unfolded it with numb finger, falling from the sky while getting shot at will do that to you.
‘Raven Lee,” It began ‘Your mission is clear as possible, take out the bunker. The means of accomplishing this goal are still to be determined. But mind this, the Ohio territory is a promised land to the Council. We are counting on you and your people to secure a foothold within the territory so we can wedge our way in. Be aware that the Ohio people have access to a variety of chemical weapons. Good luck, and don’t fuck this up.’
Who wrote this letter? A four year old with a colorful vocabulary? She shook her head at on word in particular.
“Your promised land sucks!” She screamed to the sky.
Miller
“Hey! You, with the bright orange hair, hands away from the gun.” Miller called. Everyone immediately turned their guns on the orange-haired woman grabbing at her gun. Marlin quickly stepped between the orange-haired woman and everyone else.
“Hey, hey, hey.” Marlin said. “It’s alright, we’re cool.” He said, turning to the woman. “Rachel, put the gun down.” He said. Her wide-eyed expression told Miller she was extremely lost right now. But she complied, placing the gun on the ground and stepping back. “See? We’re all good.”
“All good?” Miller asked. “She was grabbing for her gun.” He said.
“Yes, she was.” Marlin said. “She’s been through a lot recently. As have all of us, we just want a place to call home.”
“We know that.” Miller said.
“Then please, let us in.” He said.
“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.” Miller said, noticing Rachel’s eyes darting all over the place. Something was up with her, she was acting way to jittery from Millers liking.
“Miller, let them in.” The CO said.
“You sure about that?” Miller asked.
“Take them to the hospital, keep an eye on them.” He answered.
“Alright, but if this goes south…” Miller said.
“If this goes south we have a lot bigger problems then my reputation.” He said.
“Everyone, follow me!” Miller called to them.
“Really? You’re letting us in?” Marlin asked, his face lighting up. Everyone in his group just looked like a great weight was taken from them.
“Hurry up before we change our minds.” Miller said.
“Thank you guys so much.” Marlin said. He and his entire group walked with Miller towards the hospital. Marlin walked up next to him.
“Let’s make this clear, I have absolutely no trust for you or your people until you prove otherwise.” Miller said.
“Understood.” Marlin said.
“Just one question, what’s wrong with the orange-haired girl?” Miller asked.
“Same as the rest of us.” Marlin said. “She’s gone through too much and it’s starting to add up.”
“Is it something I need to worry about? Is she going to be a danger to my people?” Miller asked.
“I don’t know.” Marlin said.
Aspen Diaz
Aspen angrily stumbled through the thick woods, the thorn bushes tearing away at her skin. It was a melancholic feeling to be here for her, she was here. But she wasn’t there.
Her first and only goal as of now, was to find the rest of her squadron. She knew she wasn’t the only one who made it down alive, she saw others. She had to find them. They might need help. But helping people was Raven’s job, not hers. She was the techy, the computer nerd.
Why did she think it was a good idea to follow a career in tech? It sucked.
She felt her boot hit something and she looked down.
“Jesus…” She muttered, looking at the mangled, mutilated body before her. The poor guys chute didn’t open. This could’ve been her. She shook the thought from her head and hiked on, she saw the edge of the tree line up ahead.
She burst through the tree line and scanned the area. She saw the river in front of her. The Ohio river…
“Motherfucker.” She mumbled. “You dropped us in the wrong damn state!” She yelled.
“Hey, keep it down. Some of us are trying to not get shot.” A voice said. Aspen spun around and saw Boggs crouched behind a tree, looking at her.
“Holy shit.” Aspen said.
“Yeah, whatever. Let’s go. I found another soldier, stuck in the trees. We should probably help her down.” He said.
“Yeah. Sure.” Aspen said. The two of them stood and she followed Boggs’ lead towards the stranded parachuter.
Lizbeth Morrison
“I’m going to talk to him, you have my back right?” She asked.
“I have your back.” Josh said.
“Thanks.” Lizbeth said as she stood and walked over towards Evan, who saw her approaching.
“We need to talk.” He said.
“Yeah, we do.” Lizbeth said.
“Somewhere private.” Evan said. She narrowed her eyes and scowled at him.
“I know a place.” She said.
“Good, let’s go.” He said. Lizbeth looked over her shoulder at Josh, who nodded. Lizbeth began walking off with Evan following her. She lead him down a part of the hospital that was less populated and stopped at a door, she scanned the hallway and threw the door to the janitors closet open. Evan walked inside and Lizbeth shut the door as she walked in. Lizbeth picked something up off the shelf to her left.
“It’s not safe here, we need to go.” Evan said quickly, turning towards her. Lizbeth swung the wrench in her hand, smashing it against his face.
“Why are you here!?” She demanded.
“What the hell was that for?” He asked, gripping his jaw.
“Why are you here?” She asked again.
“Lots of reasons, bitch.” He said. She swung the wrench again and hit him in the temple.
“Why?” She asked.
“Because, we want the town.” He said.
“Who wants the town?” She asked.
“The bandits.” He said.
“So you’re just here to play nice until they decide it’s time for you to kill?” She asked, gripping the wrench tighter.
“Yes.” He said.
“I’m not going to let that happen.” Lizbeth said, as she raised the wrench. There was a sudden knock at the door.
“Lizbeth?” A voice asked, Josh.
“What, Josh?” Lizbeth asked.
“What are you doing in the closet?” He asked. She glared at Evan.
“Talking.” She said.
“Well, can you come out?” He asked.
“No.” She said.
“How much longer are you going to be in the closet?” He asked.
“Is there something I should know, Josh?” She asked.
“Miller showed up with a group of people from the Commonwealth.” He said.
“Shit.” She mumbled. “Buy me some time.” She said.
“On it.” He said.
“Listen to me, Lizbeth.” Evan said.
“I don’t need to listen to your lies.” She said.
“Then listen to the truth!” He yelled at her, surprising her. “The Army is coming, and they aren’t going to leave anything.” He said.
“What does that mean?” She asked.
“They’re going to kill everyone and wipe the town off the map.” He said. “Nobody’s safe here.” He said.
“And your solution?” She asked.
“Get away from here, I know a place. Just outside the Council’s reach. We’ll be safe.” He said.
“Why should I trust you?” She asked.
“You don’t have much of a choice here, do you.” He said. “You kill me, or go with me.” He said. “And if you let me go, I will make you go with me.” He said.
“Your promised land sucks!” She screamed to the sky.
I have to admit, I had to think for a moment where I heard that line before. When I got it, I knew I had to use this gif, even if I like Raven. Nice reference though
[Trust Evan]
Okay, so... I fear that I'm going to regret this. However, I am oddly unwilling to kill Evan already. If I regret this, so be it. But I would like to give him a chance.
Raven Lee
“All rise!” The voice boomed. The suited man next to Raven helped her uneasily to her feet, her vision was still spinning and b… morelack spot filled her view, she felt like she’s just black out at any moment. Every doctor with half a brain said she wasn’t ready for the trial, they said she’d probably get hurt again. It hurt like all hell, but hey. Tradition. Raven gripped her ribs in pain and held her breath as the judge took her seat.
Yeah, so today could be a better day. It was only one day after New Orleans went to hell. Apparently it got worse after Raven passed out. An entire mortar division unleashed hell on anything moving in the town, and kill a lot of people that way.
Apparently, the entire rest of the 231st charged blindly into battle and ended killing themselves in the fog. And that’s why they’re here today, to find if Raven had any fault in what had happened.
“You may be seated.” The voice spoke. Raven collapsed… [view original content]
“Your promised land sucks!” She screamed to the sky.
I have to admit, I had to think for a moment where I heard that line before… more. When I got it, I knew I had to use this gif, even if I like Raven. Nice reference though
[Trust Evan]
Okay, so... I fear that I'm going to regret this. However, I am oddly unwilling to kill Evan already. If I regret this, so be it. But I would like to give him a chance.
Raven Lee
“All rise!” The voice boomed. The suited man next to Raven helped her uneasily to her feet, her vision was still spinning and b… morelack spot filled her view, she felt like she’s just black out at any moment. Every doctor with half a brain said she wasn’t ready for the trial, they said she’d probably get hurt again. It hurt like all hell, but hey. Tradition. Raven gripped her ribs in pain and held her breath as the judge took her seat.
Yeah, so today could be a better day. It was only one day after New Orleans went to hell. Apparently it got worse after Raven passed out. An entire mortar division unleashed hell on anything moving in the town, and kill a lot of people that way.
Apparently, the entire rest of the 231st charged blindly into battle and ended killing themselves in the fog. And that’s why they’re here today, to find if Raven had any fault in what had happened.
“You may be seated.” The voice spoke. Raven collapsed… [view original content]
Raven Lee
“All rise!” The voice boomed. The suited man next to Raven helped her uneasily to her feet, her vision was still spinning and b… morelack spot filled her view, she felt like she’s just black out at any moment. Every doctor with half a brain said she wasn’t ready for the trial, they said she’d probably get hurt again. It hurt like all hell, but hey. Tradition. Raven gripped her ribs in pain and held her breath as the judge took her seat.
Yeah, so today could be a better day. It was only one day after New Orleans went to hell. Apparently it got worse after Raven passed out. An entire mortar division unleashed hell on anything moving in the town, and kill a lot of people that way.
Apparently, the entire rest of the 231st charged blindly into battle and ended killing themselves in the fog. And that’s why they’re here today, to find if Raven had any fault in what had happened.
“You may be seated.” The voice spoke. Raven collapsed… [view original content]
“How far away did you see them drop from?” Aspen asked Boggs as they trudged through the bramble before them. The seemingly endless forest was in a stark contrast to what was back in Georgia. It was a lot colder to, the Ohio winter was rolling in and taking no prisoners.
“They weren’t far from where I landed, which was just over this ridge here. Possible about one Kilo out.” He said. Aspen shook her head, Metric system. Of course she knew it, but any other American probably wouldn’t.
“So your interpretation of ‘not far’ is about a mile away in enemy territory?” Aspen joked.
“Well, you said it yourself, Diaz. They dropped us in the wrong state. We’re on the wrong side of the river, with any luck the Ohioan guard doesn’t patrol this area.” Boggs said.
“But they had to have seen us come down.” Aspen said.
“That they most definitely did.” Boggs said. “But, when they saw us come down they probably fell back to the bunker instead of going out on patrols.” He said.
“Hope all you want.” Aspen said. “If we come across any Ohioans out here in the open, we’re toast. We’d be outnumbered and outgunned.” She said, looking at her hand-me-down Beretta. The pistol looked like it’d been through hell and decided it liked it so went back for seconds. Hey mister pistol, welcome to Ohio.
“Which is exactly why we need to find our people quickly.” Boggs said.
“How many did you see come down on this side of the river?” Aspen asked.
“In total, four.” He said. “Me, you, the one I came down close to and the guy that didn’t make it.” He said.
“The guy that didn’t make it?” Aspen asked.
“His chute didn’t open.” Boggs said.
“Oh.” Aspen solemnly said. Since the very beginning it had been on everyone’s mind whether or not they’d make it to the ground alive, after that it didn’t matter. But now, the ones on the ground had a whole new fear to face; living. In Ohio.
“Right up there, look.” Boggs said, as he pointed to a chute tangled up in the trees in a clearing up ahead.
“Damn, that looks like a rough landing.” Aspen whispered.
“Your telling me.” Boggs said. “But we have a bigger problem.”
“What?” Aspen said.
“Look around you, Diaz.” He said. “We have a parachute, with no parachuter.”
She looked up at the parachute and instantly felt stupid for not realizing the absence of a person in the mess of nylon and canvas.
“Well, that’s a problem.” Aspen said.
“No shit.” Boggs said. “Look around, see if you can find anything.” He said as he walked off through the bushes. Aspen walked forwards towards the parachute, noticing something on the ground. A wadded up piece of paper. She picked it up and unwadded it, noticing a few drops of dried blood on its surface. She read it over and almost laughed.
“Huh.” She laughed. “Your promised land sucks.” She said.
“You find something?” Boggs asked.
“Yeah, just a letter.” Aspen said.
“Who’s it to?” He asked. Aspen scanned the letters for any sign of a name, and her eyes widened as she came across one.
“Holy shit…” She mumbled. “It’s-“ She said but was cut short when she felt a gun barrel on the back of her head.
“Don’t move, don’t scream.” A woman’s voice said. “Tell me who you are, and why you’re here.” She said.
“Raven?” Aspen asked. The gun barrel was lifted off the back of her head in a hurry.
“Jesus, I didn’t know it was you Aspen.” Raven said. “I thought you were one of them.”
“Hey Boggs, I found her!” Aspen said. “You just about shot me.” She said to Raven.
“Well…” Raven began
“Don’t say it.” Aspen cut her off.
“Good to see you’re still with us, Lee.” Boggs said as he joined to two. “Looks like the landing gave you hell.” He said, noticing the various scratches on her skin.
“It’s going to take a little more than a freefall to put me out of the fight.” She said.
“Good to hear.” He said.
“So, how far to the rendezvous point?” Raven asked.
“That’s the thing.” Boggs said. “We’re on the wrong side of the river.”
“This day just keeps getting better.” Raven mumbled unhappily. “How many came down on this side?” She asked.
“Us three, not counting the dead one.” Boggs said.
“How many made it down in total?” She asked.
“I don’t know.” He said.
“The plane?” Raven asked.
“It’s blown up.” Aspen said. “Crashed somewhere in the city.”
“Any chance of survivors?” Raven asked.
“A crash like that, probably not.” Aspen said, Raven’s eyes wandered to the ground.
“But, we’ll still send out a search team once we get to the stadium.” Boggs said.
“How do we get to the stadium?” Raven asked.
“Well, I have a few ideas.” He said. “Follow me.” He said as he began walking off. Aspen turned and looked at Raven.
“We really shouldn’t be allowed to have guns around each other.” She said.
“Probably.” Raven said. “But, this is Ohio.”
“True enough.” Aspen said as she trotted up next to Boggs. Raven soon fell in with them.
“I just have one question.” Raven said.
“What is it?” Boggs asked.
“How on Earth are we supposed to take out a heavily defended, heavily-populated bunker with pistols?” She asked.
“I’m still trying to answer than myself.” Boggs said.
“Sounds like they kept you in the dark as much as they did us.” Aspen said.
“Yeah, I didn’t even know I was going to be in charge until I was on the plane pretty much.” He answered.
“I hate the Council.” Raven mumbled.
“Hey.” Boggs said, stepping in front of Raven and placing a hand on her chest making her stop. “I don’t care what you like or dislike, You are a soldier under the CDC Council. And what I hear you saying, that sounds a lot like treason.” He said.
“Treason my ass.” Raven said, pushing Boggs back.
“Hey, if I recall correctly, it was your fuck-up that sent us here in the first place.” Boggs said.
“My fuck-up?” Raven asked. “Is that what they told you?” She asked.
“It’s what I know.” Raven said.
“Lee, I’m ordering you to stand down.” Boggs said.
“No, I’m not going to stand down.” Raven said.
“Don’t make me say it again, Lee.” Boggs growled.
“You know what?” Raven said. “Fuck this place, fuck you, fuck Ohio. And Fuck the Council.” She said as she turned and began marching the other way.
“Where do you think you’re going Lee?” Boggs asked.
“Anywhere but here!” Raven called back over her shoulder.
“Get back here Lee, now.” Boggs ordered. Raven responded with a simple middle finger over her shoulder as she walked away.
“Just let her go, Boggs.” Aspen said. “She’ll come back.” She said. Aspen turned and looked at Raven as she angrily marched off. Everyone has a breaking point, seems like Raven just hit hers. Aspen turned and looked back at Boggs, as suddenly the thundering report of a gun filled her ears with a horrible ringing. She snapped her head around and saw Boggs holding a pistol in his hands, smoke curling from the barrel.
Then, Aspen followed the gun’s direction, and her worst fears were realized. Raven was lying face-down in the dirt, and obvious bullet wound in the back.
“What the fuck!” Aspen exclaimed as she spun towards Boggs. “You shot her!” She said, as she rushed forwards towards her friend. But Boggs held her back.
“Leave her, she’s as good as dead. The coyotes will clean up the mess.” He said.
“To hell with that, let me go!” Aspen yelled. Boggs stuck the pistol on Aspen chest and looked her in the eye. He seemed unsure of himself, as if questioning his own actions yet unable to control them all at the same time.
“Raven Lee was a traitor to the Council. She was putting us all in danger. Am I going to have the same problem with you?” He asked. Aspen looked down at the pistol resting on her chest as she breathed heavily.
“No… No problem, sir.” Aspen said.
“Good, then follow me.” He said as he began walking off. Aspen stared at the body of her friend, this was not a state. Ohio was not just a land, it wasn’t a place. It was a graveyard. And sooner or later it was going to claim them all. “Diaz!” Boggs yelled. “On me.” He said. Aspen shut her eyes and took a deep breath before turning and jogging off after Boggs. The man that murdered her friend. She tried not to think about it as she forced her wobbling legs to obey and trudge off after him.
Funny thing about trying to forget something, the harder you try to forget, the more you seem to remember.
Why had they come so far just to rip themselves apart? Just like back in… Back in New Orleans.
Lizbeth Morrison
Lizbeth bit her lip as she looked at Evan, bleeding from his forehead where she’d hit him with the wrench. It made her feel better, in a sick way. The blood on the end of the wrench, the blood on the floor. It just made her feel like she was taking back from him after he’d tried to take it all from her.
She wanted more, more blood. Blood for blood. Maybe he didn’t kill her, but how many had he killed before?
But would killing him here and now solve any problems? Probably not, come on. Someone would find the body in the closet, and one day or another they’d find out it was her. Lizbeth trusted Josh, but he probably wouldn’t stick up for her once he found out she’d murdered a man in cold blood.
“I’m not going to kill you.” Lizbeth said, shrilly. Evan look at her with his big blue eyes and crooked smile. Something deep inside told her she’d made a bad decision, but she wasn’t going back now.
“I knew you’d come around.” Evan said, spitting blood. Lizbeth crouched down next to him and looked him in the eye, with a spiteful look.
“Listen here, and listen good.” Lizbeth said. “I’m not letting you go because I think it’s wrong to kill you, I’m letting you go because I think it might save my life. And if you think for a moment I like you, or even trust you, you’ve got it wrong. As far as I’m concerned you’re still the enemy.”
“And yet you’re willing to work with the enemy?” He asked.
“I don’t have much of a choice.” Lizbeth snarled.
“Looks like we’re a team then.” Evan said, extending his hand.
“Fuck that.” Lizbeth said, swatting his hand away. “All this is, is me using you because we share a common interest.” She said.
“Looks like we’re going to have to work on our conversation skills a little.” Evan said. Lizbeth glared at him.
“I’m going to be back here in five minutes, and then we leave.” She said, standing up and walking towards the door.
“You know we’re not so different, me and you.” He said. “Just two lost people searching for a way to save ourselves and the people we care about.” Lizbeth spun around starkly at the comment.
“Don’t you ever compare me to you.” She said. “At least I didn’t murder my way through ever problem that arose. At least I didn’t enslave, rob, and humiliate and survivor I came across. I am nothing like you, I am a survivor.”
“Then what does that make me?” He asked.
“A by-product of the apocalypse.” She said as she opened the door and walked out into the hallway, closing it behind her. She saw Josh only a few feet away, walking towards her,
“Thank God you finally came out, I didn’t think I could hold Miller much longer, he’s a little hell-bent on seeing you.” He said.
“Miller wants to see me?” Lizbeth asked. He nodded. “Good, I need to see him to.” She said as she walked past Josh, he turned and walked with her.
“What was going on in there? What did he say?” Josh asked.
I don't really see a reason not to. I don't trust Evan and even though I like him for his rough attitude, I don't want to put Lizbeth into danger by staying silent. Telling Josh about the talk could be safer for her. If shit hits the fan, this could very well safe her life.
Aspen Diaz
“How far away did you see them drop from?” Aspen asked Boggs as they trudged through the bramble before them. The seemingly en… moredless forest was in a stark contrast to what was back in Georgia. It was a lot colder to, the Ohio winter was rolling in and taking no prisoners.
“They weren’t far from where I landed, which was just over this ridge here. Possible about one Kilo out.” He said. Aspen shook her head, Metric system. Of course she knew it, but any other American probably wouldn’t.
“So your interpretation of ‘not far’ is about a mile away in enemy territory?” Aspen joked.
“Well, you said it yourself, Diaz. They dropped us in the wrong state. We’re on the wrong side of the river, with any luck the Ohioan guard doesn’t patrol this area.” Boggs said.
“But they had to have seen us come down.” Aspen said.
“That they most definitely did.” Boggs said. “But, when they saw us come down they probably fell back to the bunk… [view original content]
Aspen Diaz
“How far away did you see them drop from?” Aspen asked Boggs as they trudged through the bramble before them. The seemingly en… moredless forest was in a stark contrast to what was back in Georgia. It was a lot colder to, the Ohio winter was rolling in and taking no prisoners.
“They weren’t far from where I landed, which was just over this ridge here. Possible about one Kilo out.” He said. Aspen shook her head, Metric system. Of course she knew it, but any other American probably wouldn’t.
“So your interpretation of ‘not far’ is about a mile away in enemy territory?” Aspen joked.
“Well, you said it yourself, Diaz. They dropped us in the wrong state. We’re on the wrong side of the river, with any luck the Ohioan guard doesn’t patrol this area.” Boggs said.
“But they had to have seen us come down.” Aspen said.
“That they most definitely did.” Boggs said. “But, when they saw us come down they probably fell back to the bunk… [view original content]
[Don’t tell Josh]
Evan is such an awesome gentleman with Lizbeth ,and they are sooo cutee togheter ...hitting each other in the head with crowbars and wrenches , let's keep the lovely relation he has with Lizbeth secret ..... We don't want josh to join in .
Aspen Diaz
“How far away did you see them drop from?” Aspen asked Boggs as they trudged through the bramble before them. The seemingly en… moredless forest was in a stark contrast to what was back in Georgia. It was a lot colder to, the Ohio winter was rolling in and taking no prisoners.
“They weren’t far from where I landed, which was just over this ridge here. Possible about one Kilo out.” He said. Aspen shook her head, Metric system. Of course she knew it, but any other American probably wouldn’t.
“So your interpretation of ‘not far’ is about a mile away in enemy territory?” Aspen joked.
“Well, you said it yourself, Diaz. They dropped us in the wrong state. We’re on the wrong side of the river, with any luck the Ohioan guard doesn’t patrol this area.” Boggs said.
“But they had to have seen us come down.” Aspen said.
“That they most definitely did.” Boggs said. “But, when they saw us come down they probably fell back to the bunk… [view original content]
[Don’t tell Josh]
Evan is such an awesome gentleman with Lizbeth ,and they are sooo cutee togheter ...hitting each other in the head with… more crowbars and wrenches , let's keep the lovely relation he has with Lizbeth secret ..... We don't want josh to join in .
Her lungs burned as she ran. The thorn bushes tore at her legs and ripped at her drab jacket. Ignoring the burning sensations she was experiencing, she ran. From what she didn’t know, well… That’s a dumb thing to say, she knew exactly what she was running from: Death, mutilation, decay… She was running from the Ohioans.
How it happened, she didn’t know that either. All she knew was that they’re here, and she’s alone again. She had to find a way to get to her people, and quickly. Her life depended upon it. The events that led up to the chase were hazy in her mind, she wasn’t even sure if it was real. Perhaps this is some sick illusion in her mind? She’d been told the Ohioans had access to chemical weaponry, maybe it was messing with her mind?
On quick glance at the blood still on her hands and she knew better than that. The chemical weapons would’ve provided a much less painless death than this. Now, it was a fox hunt. She was the fox, the entire world around her is the hunter. And her only point of refuge is across a river at a football stadium.
She knew she was heading the wrong way, if she wanted to get to Ohio (where the rendezvous point was) she needed to head north, to get to the bridge. To cross the river. To get to Ohio. Where she needed to be.
No, not the case for her. She was heading due south and she knew it. She was fleeing deeper into Kentucky and farther from Ohio. No plan had yet been formulated in her mind as to how to correct this error. It doesn’t take a genius to realize, if you’re heading the opposite way as your destination, it’s going to be a little difficult to get there.
So, maybe there is a kind of plan working up in her mind right now. Not a good one, but one that will keep her alive for now at least. Her plan was simple: She was in Northern Kentucky near Cincinnati, just across the river. Meaning, the town of Covington should be close to here.
The Ohioans didn’t rebuild like the Council did in the south. Instead of just tearing everything down and starting anew the Ohioans left all the old towns and buildings standing and didn’t dick around with it too much. Meaning that here in the north, all the old towns and cities are just as they were before the infection hit. If she could find her way out of these woods, which most likely weren’t even woods just some kind of park or nature reserve that overgrew on itself, she could theoretically take shelter in a building for the night, get her bearings on the area and in the morning head out.
Now was the time she wished she had a gun, though. She came down with one originally, but now, it was resting a long ways away with a dead man. She’d lost her grip on it when she started running, and she knew she wasn’t going to run through gunfire to get to a half-loaded gun.
Now she was equipped with nothing. Well, she had a bag full of granola bars and a bottle of water. That’s something right? Not useful now, though. Actually, there is something useful in that bag if hers: The radio. That would be more useful than a gun right now anyways.
“Over here!” Someone yelled. Aspen didn’t have to look back to tell it was one of the Ohioan soldiers that had been tracking her for the last ten minutes. No, the gunfire gave it away. Those guys can’t shoot worth shit, but they got enough ammunition that they don’t have to worry about being accurate.
Aspen ducked behind a tree as a burst of bullets pounded its way into the bark sending a blast of splinters every which way. She was safe from the splinters though, and would live to get killed another day. Or, minute at the least. Now she was pinned down, if she come out from cover, she’d get shot instantly. If she stayed here, she’d get shot eventually. It all came down to, is it better to live a little longer or die a little quicker?
Ten minutes earlier
“Keep up the pace, damn it.” Boggs wined. “You’re setting us behind.”
It’d been only him talking for the last ten minutes, Aspen hadn’t found a word to say. She just didn’t want to be here anymore. Not with this… Man, murderer. Whatever you want to call him. The worst part of it was the fact that he was acting like Aspen was the problem here. Like the fact that she was still alive was an issue… Wait, was it?
Aspen had noticed Boggs hadn’t let his hand wander away from his pistol for more than a split second. Well, to be fair neither had Aspen. She was on the verge of shooting him, or shooting herself. She couldn’t tell which one. She’d been trailing a few feet behind him the entire time. She didn’t trust him enough to have her back facing him.
“Diaz.” He grunted unhappily. “Take point.”
Damn it to all. She stopped dead in her tracks, not moving. Her mind hadn’t been working with her cooperatively since they landed here, and well, this guy murdering her only friend left in the world. Well, that just tipped the scales a little. He seemed to notice her hesitance.
“Diaz.” He growled. “Is there a problem with your ears?” He asked. “Take point.”
Aspen noted his fingers tightening around his pistol, ready to pull it out at any moment. His eyes were searching her over, coming to a rest on her own pistol. It wasn’t until this time she realized she had already drew her pistol and was holding it towards the ground.
It happened like a flash of lightning really. His gun was on her chest, her gun was on the side of his head. Neither party moved, neither blinked. Neither breathed, neither existed outside their own selves. Everything else melted away into a meaningless blob as they focused on each other, anticipating who will pull the trigger first.
“You didn’t really think I’d let you live, did you?” He questioned, as if he knew the answer. “You were going to shoot me in the back of the head, weren’t you?” He pushed. “And when you got back to camp without me, you’d say what? I didn’t make the drop? Huh? I was dead before you got to me?”
“You killed Raven, you brought us all here to die. Your only intention throughout this whole thing was to get your sorry ass back home in one piece, no matter what the cost was to the people around you.” Aspen snapped at him.
“You just got me all figure out, don’t you?” He snarled. Aspen pressed her gun harder against his temple as he dug his into her chest. “You don’t know a damn thing, Diaz. And you never will, that’s the problem with your kind. You never learn your lesson.” He said.
“You’re wrong.” Aspen said. “I know everything I need to know about you. You’re just a scared little loose cannon, afraid to leave a loose end.” She said.
“Everything, huh?” He asked. “How about this?”
With one sudden motion Aspen was on her back on the floor. The force of the blow was enough to send her down. She noticed Boggs rubbing his forehead as he pointed the gun at her. She grabbed her gun and swung it up at him.
“Shame, I always liked Hispanics.” He said. Her finger tightened on the trigger.
The blood splattered her face after the sound of a gunshot ran out. She looked at the shaking gun in her hands. She hadn’t shot. Boggs body fell on top of her, giving her an up-close view of the newly formed hold in his head. His eyes were rolled upwards and his blood was spilling everywhere. Aspen quickly kicked him off and jumped up.
“We got another!” A voice yelled. The first bullet narrowly missed her skull. She fired two shots into the trees before making the most heroic choice of her life, she turned and ran.
Now
She could hear them trampling through the bushes. They were moving much more silently then her, but they weren’t running for their lives and used to fighting in urban settings.
“Just come on out, and make it easy on yourself.” One called.
“Any visual?” Another asked.
“Negative on the visual.” One answered.
“Last known location?” One asked.
“Unsure, sir.” Another answered. Aspen held her breath as if it mattered.
“Sir, radio from the bunker.” One said.
“Hand it here.” He said. “Uh-huh.” He said. “Negative sir. No, sir.” He said. “But, sir.” He said. “Understood, patrol heading to target location.” He said.
“What was that?” One asked.
“We’re calling off the search. We’ve got somewhere better to be and we better move if we want to get there and back to the bunker before dark.” He said. “You hear that, you got lucky this time! Just don’t come back, alright.” He called off into the woods. Aspen breathed sigh of relief as she heard them walking away through the bushes. She peered around the tree and saw nothing. They were gone.
She spent a couple of minutes gathering her nerve before she set out once again back in her trek towards Covington, she could already see the woods getting thinner up ahead. Perhaps the worst is now over? Dumb thing to say, but, anything to keep you moving in a time like this.
Turns out she was right, the woods were thinning. She came out on a crumbling street that she was able to follow into town. Needless to say, Covington had seen better days. After years of neglect and possibly a couple of firefights, the town’s clock tower had toppled over and crushed the bank. No more money, boo.
But, that didn’t bother her. That’s not where she was heading. Towards the edge of town stood a tall building that was around six stories high. She knew if well, inside and out. She crept in through the front door into the hotel lobby, she was relived to find it both ransacked and abandoned. Nobody had been here in a while, and nobody had a reason to come here.
She dug in her back and pulled out a small flashlight, she was glad to have it. It may be late afternoon outside, but in the stairwells and back hallways, it may was well be midnight. She made her way up to the top floor, the best place to get a good view. Then she found her way to the northern side of the building. She walked through the hallway until she found a door that had been left ajar. She gave it a slight nudge and let it glide open on its own. She stepped in and found the room a mess. Cloths, trash, everything and anything was thrown everywhere.
Other than the trash, one of the first things she noticed was the sound of a person banding on the closet door. Well, it wasn’t actually a person anymore. It was an infected. It was sad to think about. In the south, they cured the infected and killed the infection. They held the cure, but refused to give it to anyone else so the infection continued all over the place except the CDC government.
She walked to the closet door and looked at it. She wasn’t armed, there was no way she was going to kill one of those thing. The door seemed sturdy, it must’ve held that thing for a while now. It’ll hold another night. And judging by the strength of the banging, the contained infected was too weak to break down the door even if the door was rotted through and through.
Aspen walked through the rest of the room, making sure it was clear. Thankfully it was empty other than the dresser full of what looked like 80’s cloths. Weird. She shuffled into the bathroom and shined her light around. She opened the medicine cabinet and to her surprise found it stocked with Aspirin and painkillers. So the person who was in the room was an 80’s man who was on painkillers. Good to know. Then something caught her eyes, a kind of gleam coming from the bathtub.
She pulled back the curtain and smiled, a hunting rifle. A good looking one at that. She picked it up and looked it over, empty of course. But at least she could see farther with the scope. She walked back over to the room’s window and looked out. She could easily see Ohio from here. It would only take her around twenty minutes to get from here to the stadium. But, not right now. Not with that patrol out there. She pulled out her radio and turned it on.
“Paul Brown Stadium, are you receiving?” She asked.
“Affirmative. Identify yourself.” The radio crackled.
“Aspen Diaz, We… I landed on the wrong side on the river. I’m going to make my way over at first light.” She said.
“Copt that Diaz, good to know we still have you.” The radio welcomed. “Are there any casualties on your side?” He asked. Aspen paused for a moment before answering.
“Yes, three dead.” She said.
“Copy, do you have the names?”
“Charles Boggs.” She began. Good way to set the mood.
“What? How?”
“Ohioan patrol.” Aspen answered. She decided to leave the part out where they held guns to each other’s heads.
“You said there were three?”
“Raven Lee.” She said. “Boggs shot her.”
“Jesus.”
“The third one in unidentified.” She said.
“Understood, hang tight. We’ll see you at first light. Our teams will try to secure the bridge.” The radio said. “Oh, and when you get back… We might have a mission for you.”
“Good to know.” She answered as she set the radio down. She wasn’t going to question it, not right now. Not after all that’s happened. She just wanted to get across the river alive at this point. Tomorrow she was going to do something stupid, even stupider than what she did today. Right now, she has a little bit of normal. Or, as much normal as the apocalypse has to offer.
She tried her hardest to shut the rest of the day out as she took her worn-out helmet off and placed it on the bed. Moments later, she allowed herself to fall face-first into the blankets. Her dark hair surrounded her like an ocean.
Before she knew what was happening, she was in tears. She just couldn’t hold them back anymore, so they came out. The blanket was forced to absorb the sobs as Aspen continued to cry into the sheets. Why her? Why Ohio? Why did she have to come back? Why did Raven have to die? She should be here right now with her! Or better yet, both of them could be… Anywhere but here! In Ohio. Anyplace but Ohio… But she wasn’t even technically in Ohio. It was still close enough to bring up bad memories.
Suddenly those old memories flooded her mind, Ohio. The place she longed to see one more time for so long, but now that she’s here all she wants to do is get away. The past may be in the past, but that doesn’t change the fact of what happened here.
Out in the hallway Aspen heard a loud crashing sound and she instantly shot up from the bed. Something might be in the hotel with her, it could be an infected that is roaming around, free. Or it could be an Ohioan soldier looking to kill her. Either way, she knew she needed to do something. She was unarmed, minus the fact that she had an unloaded hunting rifle. She could use it as a club, but honestly, she wasn’t built for swinging a gun around like a baseball bat. She was more build for wiring computers and welding things.
Aspen Diaz
Her lungs burned as she ran. The thorn bushes tore at her legs and ripped at her drab jacket. Ignoring the burning sensations … moreshe was experiencing, she ran. From what she didn’t know, well… That’s a dumb thing to say, she knew exactly what she was running from: Death, mutilation, decay… She was running from the Ohioans.
How it happened, she didn’t know that either. All she knew was that they’re here, and she’s alone again. She had to find a way to get to her people, and quickly. Her life depended upon it. The events that led up to the chase were hazy in her mind, she wasn’t even sure if it was real. Perhaps this is some sick illusion in her mind? She’d been told the Ohioans had access to chemical weaponry, maybe it was messing with her mind?
On quick glance at the blood still on her hands and she knew better than that. The chemical weapons would’ve provided a much less painless death than this. Now, it was a fox hunt. She … [view original content]
I've seen enough horror movies to know what happens if you investigate a strange noise on your own. Besides, if it is an infected, she is more safe in her room than she is anywhere else in this hotel. A hotel room usually only has one entrance which she can guard and if something enters her room, she can still fight back.
Aspen Diaz
Her lungs burned as she ran. The thorn bushes tore at her legs and ripped at her drab jacket. Ignoring the burning sensations … moreshe was experiencing, she ran. From what she didn’t know, well… That’s a dumb thing to say, she knew exactly what she was running from: Death, mutilation, decay… She was running from the Ohioans.
How it happened, she didn’t know that either. All she knew was that they’re here, and she’s alone again. She had to find a way to get to her people, and quickly. Her life depended upon it. The events that led up to the chase were hazy in her mind, she wasn’t even sure if it was real. Perhaps this is some sick illusion in her mind? She’d been told the Ohioans had access to chemical weaponry, maybe it was messing with her mind?
On quick glance at the blood still on her hands and she knew better than that. The chemical weapons would’ve provided a much less painless death than this. Now, it was a fox hunt. She … [view original content]
Aspen Diaz
Her lungs burned as she ran. The thorn bushes tore at her legs and ripped at her drab jacket. Ignoring the burning sensations … moreshe was experiencing, she ran. From what she didn’t know, well… That’s a dumb thing to say, she knew exactly what she was running from: Death, mutilation, decay… She was running from the Ohioans.
How it happened, she didn’t know that either. All she knew was that they’re here, and she’s alone again. She had to find a way to get to her people, and quickly. Her life depended upon it. The events that led up to the chase were hazy in her mind, she wasn’t even sure if it was real. Perhaps this is some sick illusion in her mind? She’d been told the Ohioans had access to chemical weaponry, maybe it was messing with her mind?
On quick glance at the blood still on her hands and she knew better than that. The chemical weapons would’ve provided a much less painless death than this. Now, it was a fox hunt. She … [view original content]
Lizbeth looked at Josh, he trusted her. She trusted him, why would she need to lie to him? Why did she need to lie to anyone about this?
“He said some serious shit is about to go down.” Lizbeth said.
“Like what?” Josh asked.
“The army’s going to roll through here at any time.” Lizbeth said.
“No duh, Lizbeth. Everyone knows that.” Josh interrupted her before she could finish.
“No, they don’t know the rest.” She said. “They’re not going to leave any survivors. Everyone here’s going to die.”
“And you just believe that shit?” Josh asked her. “That guy is just saying anything he can to save his own ass, and you know it.”
“I do believe it.” Lizbeth said. “No one’s safe.” She said. Judging by Josh’s look he either didn’t understand anything she said or refused to believe it. She sighed. “Just watch him until I get back.”
“Can do.” Josh said.
Lizbeth walked on down to hallway back towards the lobby to find Miller, if there was one person she wanted to talk to about this, it was him. He’d know exactly what to do.
Even before she got to the door, she knew something was wrong. It was quiet. Too quiet. People tend to make noise, a lot of it. But right now, dead silence.
Something in the back of her mind told her to just turn around and go back, but she knew she couldn’t.
She approached the door to the wooden door that led to the lobby and placed her hand on the handle.
“Not another move.” A voice said. “Turn around slowly, hands where I can see them.” Lizbeth slowly reached her hands upwards as she spun around slowly. She saw a woman with bright orange hair standing behind her holding a gun aimed at her head. The woman had a deranged look in her eyes, like someone who’d just lost it.
“Who are you?” Lizbeth asked.
“You’re in no position to be asking questions.” She snapped. She walked forward, never taking her gaze off Lizbeth and pushed the door open. “Go in, slowly.” She said.
Lizbeth began slowly walking into the lobby, hands still above her head. She quickly realized what the problem was, four heavily armed people were walking around patrolling the lobby while everyone else was laying sprawled out on the floor.
“I found on in the hallway.” The woman leading Lizbeth said.
“Is she the only one?” One asked.
“The only one I saw.” She said.
“You don’t have to do this, they don’t have anything to do with… Whatever the hell it is you’re looking for.” Someone said.
“Listen here Marlin, we don’t take orders from you anymore.” Someone said. “Rachel is our leader now.”
“How stupid can you get? Rachel lost her shit, she’s out of her mind!” Marlin said. “And you follow her?”
“Yes.” One answered. “She was the first one to realize what you’ve been doing to our group.”
Lizbeth was suddenly forced to her knees, then pushed to the ground.
“Don’t move.” The woman, Rachel, said.
Lizbeth looked around, nobody was dead. Yet. They were taking prisoners, not killing people. There was obviously something these people wanted, otherwise they wouldn’t have hostages. She was able to find Miller nearby and he seemed to notice her.
“What do we do?” Lizbeth whispered.
“There’s nothing we can do.” Miller said.
“Who here’s in charge?” Rachel asked, her wild eyes still searching for something that seemed to not be there. Dead silence filled the room. “No takers?” She asked. She waded through the hostages sprawled on the floor, then grabbed one up at random, holding him by the collar. She pulled a pistol and put it against his head. “How ‘bout now? Anyone in charge now?” She asked.
“The mayor.” Miller said. “She’s in charge, but she’s not here.” He said.
“And where is she?” Rachel asked.
“Probably at the city hall, everything’s on lockdown.” Lizbeth said. Rachel dropped the man she was holding to the floor and he breathed in relief as Rachel walked over to her. She grabbed Lizbeth by the hair and yanked her up. Lizbeth yelled in pain as she was hoisted up by her hair. “Do you know where this city hall is?” She asked.
“Yes.” Lizbeth answered, through gritted teeth.
“Then you’re going to take me there.” She said, letting go of her hair.
“And if I say no?” Lizbeth growled. Within a second of the comment, Lizbeth had a sharp knife digging into her neck.
“If you say no, then we’re going to have a little bit of a problem.” Rachel said.
Choice
[Comply]
[Resist]
Aspen Diaz
Aspen silently sat on the bed, looking at the door. She knew it wasn’t a smart thing to do to go out into a dark hallway to confront an enemy. No, she’d watched enough horror movies to know that was a bad idea.
She was perfectly happy staying here, inside the room where there was light. And wall, and no unseen enemy. She gazed out the window towards Ohio and sighed. Home, or what it used to be. Not many people knew it, but she grew up in Ohio. Just across the river, in Cincinnati. It was her hometown. This was home, and all she wanted to do is run.
By now the infected that was trapped in the closet had given up its fruitless attempts at trying to break down the door. At least they eventually give up. Maybe they’re smarter than they look… That’s actually a scary thought.
She picked up her helmet and held it in her lap, looking it over. She’d had this helmet since the beginning, and even before that, this very helmet saw action in Vietnam and now it was here, this helmet has been through more than her, weird thought, but true.
She looked over the interior of the helmet and found the glossy stack of papers on the inside. She’d kept those in there for as long as she could remember. Pictures, memories of a time long forgotten but still held dear. Some were of her family, in her home just across the river. Some were from Mexico, before her family moved here. Some were her friends. Some were pictures she found while she was looting places. Yeah, maybe it was a little weird but it helped her to cope. It was like, a form of remembrance to everyone who’d died. In a way.
“Diaz, you there?” Her radio crackled, making her jump. She forgot she even had a radio.
“Yeah, I’m here.” Aspen answered.
“What is your position?” He asked.
“Top floor of the Edmunds hotel, third room from the right on the north side.” She answered.
“Copy that.” He answered.
“Is that all?” she asked.
“Just one more thing.” He said. “Where did Raven Lee die? Where did Boggs shot her at?” He asked. Aspen sighed as she pressed the talk button.
“North, northwest of my position. I don’t know.” Aspen said.
“Well, that could pose a problem.”
“What kind of problem?” Aspen asked.
“One of our snipers said he saw something in the woods over on your side of the river.” He said. “He said there was an Ohioan patrol, and they took off with some woman, northwest of your position.”
“What?” Aspen asked, now alarmed.
“We think they kidnapped Raven.” He said.
“That doesn’t make any sense… Unless they’re stealing dead bodies.” Aspen said.
“You’re right, that doesn’t make any sense.” He said. “Unless she’s alive.”
“Holy shit.” Aspen mumbled. “She’s alive.” She said. “She’s alive and I left her, and now the Ohioans have her.”
“Diaz, calm down and hang tight. There’s nothing you can do, or could’ve done. We’ll figure this out.” He said. “And we don’t have any proof that’s she’s even actually alive. All we have is the word of a sniper who just jumped out of an exploding plane.” He said.
“Doesn’t make me feel any better.” Aspen mumbled. “And the plane? Any news on that?” She asked.
“We sent out a team. No news yet. It crashed somewhere near the edge of town.”
“Keep me posted on that.” She said.
“Will do, keep your head up Diaz. We’ll see you in the morning.” He said.
“Copy.” Aspen said as she put the radio down on the windowsill and laid back on the bed again, staring at the ceiling.
She could see the faces of everyone she let down, everyone she got killed, everyone she’d crossed. They were all blaming her, accusing her. And now added to the mix was Raven. Not only had she shot her back in New Orleans and nearly killed her, she had now left her for dead with the Ohioans. What a friend she was.
She suddenly heard a sound at the door. Someone was standing outside the door to the room. And it was human, judging by the sound. Not an Infected.
“Damn it, Delilah.” A gruff sounding man said. “Why’d you lock the door?”
“I didn’t lock the door.” Delilah answered.
“Then who did? Doors don’t lock themselves!” He yelled at her.
“Maybe your drunk ass did it.” She snapped back at him.
“Fuck you.” He said, Aspen could hear the jingling of keys. Her eyes quickly darted around the room. No good place to hide unless she wanted to go into a closet with an Infected.
No, there was one place. She was sitting on it. She dove under the bed just as the door flew open and slammed against the wall. A man and a woman walked in. The man disappeared into the bathroom as the woman walked over to the closet. She pulled the door open, and Aspen was shocked to see she was wrong. There was no Infected inside. Inside was an actually living young man, tied up in the closet. The woman crouched down next to him. He tried to squirm away from her.
“You look cute when you struggle.” She said. “If your daddy would just pay up, you could go home. But it’s pretty obvious daddy doesn’t care.” She said.
“Fuck you.” The man weakly spat at her.
“You’d love that, wouldn’t you?” She asked as she stood up and shut the closet door.
“Delilah!” The man yelled from the bathroom. “Where the hell is my rifle?” He asked.
“I didn’t touch your rifle” she said.
“Well, it’s not in here.” He said. “And some of our stash is missing.”
“Someone’s been here.” She said.
“Look around, see if you can find anything.” He said.
“Diaz, you there?” Her radio spoke from the windowsill. Out of all the times, now was the worst. The woman quickly walked over to the radio and picked it up.
“Who is this?” She asked.
“Diaz?” The radio asked.
“No, who is this?” She asked.
“I found something.” The man said. Aspen held her breath, hoping they hadn’t found her. She felt a harsh grip on the heel of her boot. She was pulled out from under the bed and pinned against the wall by a strong, burly looking man. “Lookie what we got here.” He said. “I wonder what a face like that goes for on the market nowadays.”
“A lot more than it used to.” The woman answered.
“Diaz, are you there? What’s going on?” The radio asked.
“Diaz is a little preoccupied right now, I think you’re just going to have to wait to get back to her.” She said, then turned the radio off.
“I don’t know who you are, or where you came from girl, but I think you just made our day.” The man said.
“Don’t do this, my people are on the other side of that river. They’ll come for me.” Aspen said.
“Funny, that’s exactly what the kind that’s been trapped in the closet for three weeks said.” He said. Aspen felt a sting in the back of her neck and went weak at the knees. She collapsed to the floor, unable to feel anything. The man began dragging her away towards the closet.
“Welcome to your new home.” He said. “Make yourself comfortable.” He said as he threw Aspen into the closet and she blacked out.
Lizbeth Morrison
Lizbeth looked at Josh, he trusted her. She trusted him, why would she need to lie to him? Why did she need to lie to an… moreyone about this?
“He said some serious shit is about to go down.” Lizbeth said.
“Like what?” Josh asked.
“The army’s going to roll through here at any time.” Lizbeth said.
“No duh, Lizbeth. Everyone knows that.” Josh interrupted her before she could finish.
“No, they don’t know the rest.” She said. “They’re not going to leave any survivors. Everyone here’s going to die.”
“And you just believe that shit?” Josh asked her. “That guy is just saying anything he can to save his own ass, and you know it.”
“I do believe it.” Lizbeth said. “No one’s safe.” She said. Judging by Josh’s look he either didn’t understand anything she said or refused to believe it. She sighed. “Just watch him until I get back.”
“Can do.” Josh said.
Lizbeth walked on down to hallway back towards the lobby to fi… [view original content]
I might be hoping for a miracle here, but the way I see it, Lizbeth is basically a hostage in this situation. Killing a hostage would be a stupid move from these people, leaving them more vulnerable and stuff and I hope they know this. Lizbeth has a certain value as a hostage and I hope I don't overestimate it.
And Aspen has a huge problem, maybe even more than Lizbeth. That was unexpected, but a nice twist. I also see that Raven might still be alive, so that's nice
Lizbeth Morrison
Lizbeth looked at Josh, he trusted her. She trusted him, why would she need to lie to him? Why did she need to lie to an… moreyone about this?
“He said some serious shit is about to go down.” Lizbeth said.
“Like what?” Josh asked.
“The army’s going to roll through here at any time.” Lizbeth said.
“No duh, Lizbeth. Everyone knows that.” Josh interrupted her before she could finish.
“No, they don’t know the rest.” She said. “They’re not going to leave any survivors. Everyone here’s going to die.”
“And you just believe that shit?” Josh asked her. “That guy is just saying anything he can to save his own ass, and you know it.”
“I do believe it.” Lizbeth said. “No one’s safe.” She said. Judging by Josh’s look he either didn’t understand anything she said or refused to believe it. She sighed. “Just watch him until I get back.”
“Can do.” Josh said.
Lizbeth walked on down to hallway back towards the lobby to fi… [view original content]
[Resist] I don't think they 'll hurt her directly if she resist , they might attack her friends , miller ..Being one of the possible consequene of the choice,but well ...Let's take the risk ....
Lizbeth Morrison
Lizbeth looked at Josh, he trusted her. She trusted him, why would she need to lie to him? Why did she need to lie to an… moreyone about this?
“He said some serious shit is about to go down.” Lizbeth said.
“Like what?” Josh asked.
“The army’s going to roll through here at any time.” Lizbeth said.
“No duh, Lizbeth. Everyone knows that.” Josh interrupted her before she could finish.
“No, they don’t know the rest.” She said. “They’re not going to leave any survivors. Everyone here’s going to die.”
“And you just believe that shit?” Josh asked her. “That guy is just saying anything he can to save his own ass, and you know it.”
“I do believe it.” Lizbeth said. “No one’s safe.” She said. Judging by Josh’s look he either didn’t understand anything she said or refused to believe it. She sighed. “Just watch him until I get back.”
“Can do.” Josh said.
Lizbeth walked on down to hallway back towards the lobby to fi… [view original content]
Miller looked up at Lizbeth fearfully. The girl had more of a rebellious spirt than what was good for her, and he knew it. He could already see a small stream of blood running from where the reflective surface of the knife was digging into her neck.
“You going to answer me?” Rachel asked. Lizbeth swallowed hard, fighting back the lump forming in her throat.
“You won’t kill me.” Lizbeth said. “I’m a hostage, to important for you to kill.” She said.
Rachel smirked. A sly, deranged smirk showing how truly broken she was. A small laugh emulated from within her as she pulled the knife off of Lizbeth’s throat.
“You’re a smart girl.” She said. “I like that, but sadly you’ve made a big lapse in judgment.” Her hand suddenly moved downward taking the knife with it. The slick blade burrowed itself into Lizbeth’s thigh with no effort. Lizbeth let out a cry of pain as she dropped down to the floor, only to be lifted up by Rachel once more. Blood was flowing from the wound that still had the knife imbedded in it. It was clear Lizbeth was fighting hard to keep from crying out in pain.
“I’m done playing games with you shits.” Rachel said. “Anybody here who wants to take me where I need to be?” She asked. Dead silence arose in the room, matched only by the small pained whimpers of Lizbeth. Rachel twisted the knife making Lizbeth howl in pain as blood began pooling on the floor. She then proceeded to yank it upwards tearing a diagonal gash across her thigh before she ripped it out.
“Stop! For God’s sake stop!” Miller yelled. “I’ll take you to the mayor, just leave her alone.” He said. There was the deranged smile once again on Rachel’s face.
“There we go!” She exclaimed. “That wasn’t too hard, now was it?” She asked.
“Just let her go.” Miller said.
“With pleasure.” She said, taking the hilt of her knife and smashing it against the base of Lizbeth’s skull putting a silence to her whimpers and cries. She fell hard to the ground with nothing other than the tile floor to stop her fall. It was like watching someone heft a sack of rocks onto the floor. Rachel turned to one of the other guards. “Make sure no one touches her until I get back.” She said.
“And if you don’t come back?” He asked.
“Let her bleed out.” Rachel said. “She only has like, half an hour. Forty minutes tops.” She said, gazing at the widening pool of blood that slowly leached outwards as time went by.
“You, let’s go. And I suggest you hurry.” She said as she walked over to Miller. Miller stood up, towering over her.
Normally, his height was enough to deter people from picking a fight with him. But this woman’s pure insanity mixed with the fact that she was holding a gun to the back of his head made it pretty obvious she wasn’t going to be warded off by a man that was taller than her.
Miller looked around at everyone that was sprawled out on the ground. Scared, hopeless, defenseless. He’d let them down, he was the one that trusted these people and let them in.
“Off you go.” Rachel said, poking him in the back with the gun. “And don’t try to pull anything on me.” She said.
Miller began walking forwards towards the door as his gaze drifted downwards towards the resting body of Lizbeth. Her blonde ponytail rested gently beside her. It was clear that she wasn’t going to make it long on her own like this. She needed help.
Rachel seemed to notice Miller looking at her, because she turned and yelled to another one of her men.
“Take her back into the hallway, make sure no one gets near her.” She said.
“On it.” A big man said as he walked over to Lizbeth and hefted her like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder. He walked away and disappeared behind the wooden door into the hallway. Miller had no choice but to continue onwards.
He walked to the glass door that served as the main entrance and pushed it open. A long time ago, these doors would swing open on their own. But, electricity being as limited as it is, electric doors are a thing of the past.
Outside in the street the only sound was the silence, standing in stark contrast with all the crying and moaning coming from within the building. He had the sinking feeling that any moment now, mortars were going to start raining hell on the town.
The Army wasn’t going to leave anything left of this town, the people, the buildings. Nothing. They’d level the place and give what’s left of the lands to the neighboring town of Ramsey, the Council’s lapdog. Of course they should’ve told the people to evacuate, but the mayor for one reason or another had said no one leaves. Whatever that was about, she had her reasons. And he wasn’t one to be questioning authority right now.
“So, what’s your story with the girl big guy?” Rachel asked, breaking the silence.
“Doesn’t matter.” Miller mumbled.
“Actually, I think it does matter.” Rachel said. “And I’m the one with the gun, so…”
“Why do you think there’s something between me and her?” Miller asked.
“You think this is my first rodeo?” Rachel asked. “I’ve done this more times than I’d like to admit, and well, humans are pretty selfish creatures.” She said. “You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who’d stick up for someone they didn’t even know, especially these days.”
“Yeah, well maybe I’m just a good Samaritan looking out for my people.” Miller grumbled.
“We both know that’s a lie.” Rachel said. “The longer you stall, the longer she has to bleed out.”
“Fuck you.” Miller mumbled. “We’ve been together through all this for a long time, she’s like a sister to me. And I’d do anything to help my people, unlike some people among us.” Miller said, aiming the comment at Rachel.
“I had a sister once.” She said. “Before I suffocated her in her sleep because she slept with my boyfriend.”
Miller said nothing and picked up the pace a little. Not only was he apparently being trailed by a person who was a psychopath, but also not afraid to kill her own family. What did that say about his position, or anyone for that matter?
They walked the streets of this ghost town, every now and then hearing the random noise a sleeping town makes when left to its own devises, like a tin can being blown down the street by the wind. A tin can? What was that doing out here? They collected those, tin is very useful nowadays. Like it or not. Reduce, reuse, recycle.
“We’re five minutes in.” Rachel announced. “I don’t think your girl is going to even make it twenty.”
Miller came up the an intersection in the street. Straight ahead was a building, boarded up and locked. It’d gone up in flames a few weeks ago, and it wasn’t safe to enter as it could collapse at any time. To the left led down some back streets and alleys, which got narrow in some places. To his right, the city hall just down the road but out of view.
Miller had to make a decision, left or right? Mislead Rachel or give her what she wants? If he could get her in a narrow alleyway, he could possibly get her off guard and maybe get the gun. But that could fail and get him in a lot of trouble, or possibly dead.
But was giving her what she wanted any better? It was clear she didn’t just want to talk to Holly. No, she was going to kill her. Maybe Holly wasn’t the best fitted to be mayor, but she still was. But if he just let it happen, she’d leave them be, right?
Choice
[Go left]
[Go right]
Evan Banks
Evan pulled himself up and rubbed his forehead. He’d taken a hit worse than that before, the girl must’ve been a little rust on the old melee skills.
Guns are good, guns are useful. But guns run out of ammo and have to reload. The human body is the finest war machine ever built, arm is with a pipe or a wrench and it now has a way to focus its power.
Evan looked around the small closet. A few random tools were laying around, including the wrench that was flaked with his blood. He could’ve easily killed Lizbeth right then and there. The way she was holding that wrench gave him the perfect opportunity to snatch it form her hands and use her own weapon to kill her.
It would’ve been so easy.
But he didn’t. He somehow miraculously managed to keep his cool, something he very rarely managed to do. He picked up the wrench and looked at the door.
“Don’t do it.” His brother said.
“She’s going to give me away, what do you think they’ll do? Invite me in for a cup of tea?” Evan asked him.
“No. But there’s always an alternative to killing, Evan.” He said.
“Not this time.” He said. “I’ve given her a second chance and she blew it.” He said.
“Baby bro, you didn’t give anyone a second chance. You almost got killed so you ran. That’s not giving someone a second chance, that’s saving your own life.”
“Then I don’t see a reason to give a second chance then.” Evan said. He spun towards the door and reached his hand out towards the knob, but before he could reach it, it flew open on its own. Evan readied his wrench as a tall lanky teenaged boy stepped in. He looked up at Evan and his eyes filled with fear.
“Jesus Christ, don’t kill me!” He said.
“What are you doing here?” Evan growled.
“Somethings going on, some people, they’re holding everyone hostage. I just saw them drag Lizbeth off and she was bleeding pretty bad. They were headed this way, I saw them duck inside an examination room.” He said.
“And why do I care?” Evan asked. “She just tried to kill me.”
“Because if everything Lizbeth said about you is true, you owe her. Big time.” He said. Evan could feel his patience running thin. He was about to end this kid.
“Evan.” His brother said.
“What?” Evan snapped, spinning around towards him.
“Help them, do it.” He said. Evan looked back to the kid, who looked like he just shit a brick by this point.
“W-who are you talking to?” He asked. Evan looked back at his brother. He slowly nodded.
“Okay.” Evan said. “I’ll help.”
Aspen Diaz
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Aspen mumbled as she spun and stormed out of the room.
“Get back here right now, Aspen!” Her stepfather yelled as he jumped up from his big leather chair in his study and chased after her. He jumped in front of her and blocked her way.
“Move out of my way.” She growled.
“No.” He said. “You’re going to listen to me.” He said.
“I don’t have to do anything.” She snapped at his as she attempted to force her way past him. He pushed her back heavily and she went stumbling a few feet back.
“The hell was that?” She asked. He marched up to her and wrapped his hand around her neck before forcing her against the wall. He was easily holding her a foot off the ground. She gasped for air and clawed at his hand as her face turned red.
“Listen to me now you little bitch.” He began. “I didn’t bring you and your mother across to America just so you could fuck this whole thing up for me.” He said. Aspen could easily smell the alcohol in his breath.
“Can… Breath.” Aspen cried out.
“Starting now, there’s going to be a few changes.” He said. “You’re going to get out of the picture and leave me and your mother alone. You’re the only damn reason we can’t be happy you little prick.” He said. Aspen was quickly running out of energy to struggle as little black dots danced in her vision. “And when I say listen, you better fucking listen!” He yelled at her, looking her dead in the eye. “Do you understand, or is your English to weak?” He asked. Aspen attempted to nod in response.
“Yes…” She managed to croak. Without a second of hesitation he threw her to the ground like a used piece of garbage. Aspen greedily gasped at the air around her as she coughed trying to get the oxygen. He tightly gripped her arm and began dragging her down the hallway back into his study. He picked her up and threw her clumsily into a chair like the bag of bones she was. He angrily stormed to his chair and sat down, lighting up a cigar.
The smoke curled upwards and filled the room, Aspen coughed as the smoke burnt into her throat. She hated smokers, but then against she hated anyone that was anything like her stepfather. She was still breathing uneasily by this point.
“I tried to play nice, Aspen. All you had to do was play along and nothing would’ve happened. But you couldn’t even fake a smile every once in a while, so you’ve forced my hand.” He said, opening a drawer on his big desk, he pulled out a big white envelope. The only recognizable feature on the package was the logo. MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He forced the envelope into her weak hands.
“Starting next quarter, you’ll be taking classes at MIT. No buts about it.” He said. “My advice; start packing now.” He said. “Now get out of my sight you piece of shit and give me some God damn quiet.”
She weakly stood from the chair and stumbled down the hallway, using the wall for support. She managed to stumbled her way into the kitchen where her mother was hard at work cooking dinner. She saw her and smiled.
“What did he want?” She asked brightly. Aspen didn’t answer as she stumbled her way out of the kitchen and towards the staircase, her mother wouldn’t understand. She never did. To her, Ed was a saint. She tripped twice before making it to the top. She walked down the polished hardwood floors towards her room. Once inside she slammed the door shut.
She placed her palms on her dresser and stared at her bruised and battered figure in the mirror. She looked around her room at the posters of beautiful places she’d never get to visit. She walked over to her top-rate computer she built herself. Her stepfather had paid for it all since it kept her away from them. She sat down in her old office chair and picked up her red toolbox and flipped it open. There sat a picture of her and her real dad, before he died.
She was afraid to take the picture out, because if she had it out it in the open Ed might take it and throw it away. He insisted that he was her real father, and the man in the picture was just a fraud. Aspen still refused to accept his last name and still used her fathers.
She rummaged through the tools in the small box, until she found the small knife that she kept in there. The thing might be little, but it was sharper than a razor blade. Aspen made sure of that. She always kept her tools in good order, it was the only thing she could keep.
She gripped the knife in her hand tightly by the blade until she could feel the blood running down her hand. She took a deep breath a sighed. Moving closer to her computer, she typed the first thing that came to mind. ‘Goodbye world’ she typed, then hit enter. She sank back into her chair and she stared at the blood red blade, then at her shaking wrist.
Her head pounded as her eyes slowly fluttered open.
“Hey, you with me?” A man’s voice called. Aspen did her best, mumbling something unintelligible in his direction. Any sort of movement sent the whole world spinning, but in this case the whole world is a closet. She made a weak move towards the closet door, only make her already splitting headache that much worse.
“Hey, try not to move. It’ll wear off soon enough.” The man said. Aspen finally managed to find him, sitting across from her, his back against the wall he only made weak movements.
“Who are you?” Aspen asked, attempting not to choke on her own tongue. She felt like she had a pack of cotton balls in her mouth.
“Call me Train.” He said. “Cause all I am is a wreck.” He finished, angrily smashing his head against the door.
“Okay…” She mumbled. “Who are those people?” Aspen asked.
“They’re from the wasteland, they’re only here to turn a quick profit in the underground.” Train said.
“The underground?” Aspen asked.
“The post-apocalyptic black market.” Train clarified. “It’s a great place to get anything you want, granted you have something to trade.”
“What kind of stuff do they have?” She asked.
“Anything really.” He said. “Stolen military equipment, gas, oil, a working car if you’re lucky, women, quote unquote ‘cures for the infection’, drugs. Like I said, anything.”
“So I guess that clarifies why we’re here.” Aspen mumbled.
“Not exactly.” Train said. “Me and you, we’re here for different reasons.”
“And that is?” Aspen asked.
“My father is one of the head scientists in charge of making a cure for the infected in Ohio.” He said. “He made a few shady deals to get everything he needed, and when it came time to collect he didn’t have what he needed to pay.” He went on.
“So they took you in compensation.” Aspen said.
“Exactly. I get to go free as soon as my father pays.” He said. “You on the other hand…” He trailed.
“What?” Aspen asked.
“Your fate is almost certain.” He said. “They’ll take you to the market and sell you. You’ll most likely end up going to Lenny Blankenship. That or you’ll end up with Mr. Escobar, which isn’t any better. Those two alone are responsible for most of the unexplained disappearances in the US.” He said.
“Listen you little brat.” Aspen spat. “I didn’t come all this way, jump out of a plane, and get my best friend killed just to be sold on the market.” She said.
“I didn’t mean to offend. I was only telling the truth.” He said. “And what was with the ‘jumping out of a plane thing? Was that all that noise I hear out there? It sounded like a damn war was going on out there.”
“That’s because it is.” Aspen said. “I’m from Georgia.” She said, luckily it’s all she had to say.
“So we have a real war on our hands now.” He said.
“Yeah.” She said. “We do. We’re waging a war on foreign soil with only, what? Sixty soldiers?”
“Sounds like whoever put this plan together needs to be fired.” Train said.
“No, they did their job perfectly.” Aspen said.
“What do you mean?” He asked.
“We’re all supposed to die here.” Aspen said. “They don’t want us back. As of right now, we don’t even have a commander. Our commander, Boggs is dead. And he killed his second.” She grimaced even thinking of how Raven died, it was even worse to think that she might be alive.
“And you still support those people?” He asked. “After all they did?”
“I… I haven’t really given it much thought.” Aspen admitted. “Right now, I’m on whatever side doesn’t shoot at me.”
“Good luck finding one.” Train said. Aspen stiffed a laugh at the comment. Not because it was funny, but because it was true. “Look, we may not have a lot in common, but we do have a common goal.” He said.
“And what’s that?” Aspen asked.
“We both want to get out of here, and I’m assuming you don’t want to be sold on the market.” He said.
“You’d be right in saying that.” Aspen said.
“And I’m assuming you’re not paralyzed from the waist down.” He said.
“No, why do you ask?” She asked.
“Because I am.” He said. “But, if we both work together I think we can get out.” He said.
“You want me to carry you out of here.” She said.
“Yes and no.” He said. “I have a better plan, and I think you’ll be able to break down the door to get us out.”
“How will we know if it’s safe?” Aspen asked. “If they’re not here?”
“I’ve got a plan, but I’m not going to tell you until you swear you’re not going to just ditch me.” He said.
Miller
Miller looked up at Lizbeth fearfully. The girl had more of a rebellious spirt than what was good for her, and he knew it. He coul… mored already see a small stream of blood running from where the reflective surface of the knife was digging into her neck.
“You going to answer me?” Rachel asked. Lizbeth swallowed hard, fighting back the lump forming in her throat.
“You won’t kill me.” Lizbeth said. “I’m a hostage, to important for you to kill.” She said.
Rachel smirked. A sly, deranged smirk showing how truly broken she was. A small laugh emulated from within her as she pulled the knife off of Lizbeth’s throat.
“You’re a smart girl.” She said. “I like that, but sadly you’ve made a big lapse in judgment.” Her hand suddenly moved downward taking the knife with it. The slick blade burrowed itself into Lizbeth’s thigh with no effort. Lizbeth let out a cry of pain as she dropped down to the floor, only to be lifted up by Rachel once… [view original content]
Miller
Miller looked up at Lizbeth fearfully. The girl had more of a rebellious spirt than what was good for her, and he knew it. He coul… mored already see a small stream of blood running from where the reflective surface of the knife was digging into her neck.
“You going to answer me?” Rachel asked. Lizbeth swallowed hard, fighting back the lump forming in her throat.
“You won’t kill me.” Lizbeth said. “I’m a hostage, to important for you to kill.” She said.
Rachel smirked. A sly, deranged smirk showing how truly broken she was. A small laugh emulated from within her as she pulled the knife off of Lizbeth’s throat.
“You’re a smart girl.” She said. “I like that, but sadly you’ve made a big lapse in judgment.” Her hand suddenly moved downward taking the knife with it. The slick blade burrowed itself into Lizbeth’s thigh with no effort. Lizbeth let out a cry of pain as she dropped down to the floor, only to be lifted up by Rachel once… [view original content]
A narrow set of streets and alleys sounds like a possible opportunity for Miller to escape. I hope so at least. And as wishwash said, maybe Evan comes to the rescue. There's also the thing that I don't want to risk Holly's life. I still have this thought that she might have somehow helped the rest of Marcus' family out of the hospital when she escaped herself and for the unlikely chance that Sammy and Nadyia are with her right now, I'm not going to risk leading Rachel straight to them. However, even if Holly hasn't managed to help them escape, which is a pretty scary thought, I'm not going to risk her life.
[Agree to help train]
Sure, why not? That might be an opportunity for Aspen to escape. I guess what Train lacks in physical usefulness, he makes up for in intelligence, so it could be beneficial to have him around.
Miller
Miller looked up at Lizbeth fearfully. The girl had more of a rebellious spirt than what was good for her, and he knew it. He coul… mored already see a small stream of blood running from where the reflective surface of the knife was digging into her neck.
“You going to answer me?” Rachel asked. Lizbeth swallowed hard, fighting back the lump forming in her throat.
“You won’t kill me.” Lizbeth said. “I’m a hostage, to important for you to kill.” She said.
Rachel smirked. A sly, deranged smirk showing how truly broken she was. A small laugh emulated from within her as she pulled the knife off of Lizbeth’s throat.
“You’re a smart girl.” She said. “I like that, but sadly you’ve made a big lapse in judgment.” Her hand suddenly moved downward taking the knife with it. The slick blade burrowed itself into Lizbeth’s thigh with no effort. Lizbeth let out a cry of pain as she dropped down to the floor, only to be lifted up by Rachel once… [view original content]
Miller
Miller looked up at Lizbeth fearfully. The girl had more of a rebellious spirt than what was good for her, and he knew it. He coul… mored already see a small stream of blood running from where the reflective surface of the knife was digging into her neck.
“You going to answer me?” Rachel asked. Lizbeth swallowed hard, fighting back the lump forming in her throat.
“You won’t kill me.” Lizbeth said. “I’m a hostage, to important for you to kill.” She said.
Rachel smirked. A sly, deranged smirk showing how truly broken she was. A small laugh emulated from within her as she pulled the knife off of Lizbeth’s throat.
“You’re a smart girl.” She said. “I like that, but sadly you’ve made a big lapse in judgment.” Her hand suddenly moved downward taking the knife with it. The slick blade burrowed itself into Lizbeth’s thigh with no effort. Lizbeth let out a cry of pain as she dropped down to the floor, only to be lifted up by Rachel once… [view original content]
Evan slowly crept down the hallway. He could hear his heard pounding away in his ears. He was almost afraid that is, not his boots would give him away. It only took him one good look to realize who he was messing with, the Commonwealth Statesmen. The Statesmen have a way of being known, maybe it’s the way the they walk, the way they talk. Maybe it’s just the way they survive. But they’re different from the rest. Different in some way that just can’t be defined.
He hug the wall and peeked around the corner, he saw one man guarding the door to an exam room. If she was going to be anywhere, it would be there. Evan spun back around to the kid, Joshua.
“You sure you want to do this?” Evan asked.
“She’s my friend.” Josh answered. “I’m not going to leave her to die with these fucks.” He said.
Evan could almost feel a smile pull at his lips at the comment, but he suppressed the urge. Now was not the time for smiles.
“I think I got a plan then.” Evan said.
“And that is?” Josh asked.
“Just don’t get shot.” Evan said.
“What?” Josh asked, but before he could even finish his sentence Evan pushed him out from behind their cover and into the guard’s sight. Josh looked like a fish out of water.
“Hey kid.” The guard said. “What are you doing out here?” He asked.
“Any time now Josh.” Evan muttered to himself. ‘’
As if understanding the situation, Josh took off running.
“Hey kid!” The guard yelled once more. “Stop running.” He said as he started to chase after Josh. Evan stayed as close to the wall as possible, holding his breath trying not to be seen. He tightened his grip on the wrench.
As soon as he saw the guard’s figure enter his sight, he acted. He smashed the metal wrench into the guard’s skull and then wrapped it around his throat, effectively choking him.
“Stop…” The guard sputtered.
“The girl, is she in there?” Evan asked.
“Yes…” The guard said. “She’s in there. Let me go, please.”
“No.” Evan said as with one swift motion he snapped the guards neck and pushed his body to the ground. Evan dragged the body into a nearby room and silently shut the door. When he turned around, he saw Josh right behind him. He looked a little pissed.
“What the hell was that?” Josh asked. “Are you trying to get me killed?”
“Are you dead?” Evan asked.
“No.” Josh answered.
“Are you dying?” Evan refreshed the question.
“No.” Josh answered again.
“Then you’re fine.” Evan said, handing his wrench to Josh.
“What’s this for?” He asked.
“I don’t need it anymore.” Evan said, brandishing his new gun he lifted off the guard.
“Do you know how to use that thing?” Josh asked.
“Kid, I’m twice your age.” Evan said. “I know how to handle a gun.”
“What do we do now?” Josh asked.
“Now, we clear the floor.” Evan said.
“What does that mean?” Josh asked.
“Follow me.” Evan said as he slipped out from his cover and walked down the hallway, slowly, quietly. He stopped at the door to the exam room, pressing an ear to it.
“Hurry up, damn it.” One man said.
“You can’t rush this shit, man.” Another answered. “It’s like art, you got to take it slow.” He said.
“You can take it slow when Rachel shows back up and puts a bullet in both of our skulls for what we did to this girl.” The first one responded.
“Rachel can be angry all she wants, we did the right thing.” The other said.
“Well her sense of right and wrong went out the window a long time ago.” The first said.
“It was worth it I say.” The other said. Evan pulled away from the door.
“There’s two inside.” Evan whispered to Josh.
“Okay.” Josh said.
Evan reached out and put his hand on the doorknob.
“You ready?” Evan asked.
“No.” Josh answered.
“Good.” Evan said as he twisted the knob and threw the door open. He rushed into the room and aimed his gun at both of the men. The only gun he saw was the pistol laying on the edge of the sink.
“Back away from the girl.” Evan said. Looking at both of the men, he hand a very intense urge just to shoot them right now.
Both men raised their hands and slowly backed away from Lizbeth, hands raised high. One man was wearing latex gloves that were smeared with blood.
“What did you do to her?” Evan asked, looking at her leg.
“Rachel flipped her lid, man.” One said. “She stabbed her in the leg and took of with some guy to go find the mayor.”
“Yeah, we were just trying to help.” The second one said.
“Josh, get in here.” Evan called. Josh came into the room, readying his wrench as if ready to strike.
“Jesus…” He muttered as he saw Lizbeth’s body strew out on a table. Her jeans were torn open on the leg and stained red. There was a set of stitches covering the gash in her leg that looked as gruesome as it did effective.
Evan put the barrel of his gun against one of the men’s head.
“How many of you are there?” He asked.
“Like, five.” He said.
“But Rachel’s not here, so four.” The other said.
“Three.” Evan corrected.
“Oh.” One said.
“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill both of you right here, right now.” Evan demanded.
“I stitched her leg up. She’d be dead otherwise. We’re not on Rachel’s side.” He said.
“Then who’s side are you on?” He demanded.
“Nobody’s.” He said.
“Enjoy that while it lasts.” Evan muttered. “Josh, get her out of here.”
“You can’t just take her.” One man said, Evan shoved him gun into the man’s face. “Or you can, that’s cool.” He said, backing away.
“Your turn Josh.” Evan said. Josh moved deeper into the room and gently picked up Lizbeth’s limp body. He turned and began walking out of the room. Evan watched him leave, accidently letting his guard slip.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw one of the men lunge towards the sink. As fast as he could, Evan spun around and aimed his gun at the man.
The man fired first, narrowly missing Evan. Evan could hear it embed itself into the wall behind him. Without as much as a second thought, he shot the man in the head then swung his gun around to the second man.
“Dude, don’t shoot me.” He said. “I didn’t do anything.”
Choice
[Let him go]
[kill him]
Aspen Diaz
She looked over at Train, and slowly shook her head.
“Fine, I’m with you.” She said.
“Good.” He said. “Now we can get out of this hell.” Aspen sighed.
“What’s the plan?” She asked.
“Right now, we wait.” He said.
“Nice plan.” Aspen muttered.
“When Delilah is off guard duty, Ben or whatever the hell his name is will take duty.” Train said. “He’s a total ass, but drunk as shit. So it’ll be easier to take him.”
“Are they armed?” Aspen asked.
“Let me think about that, two people from the wasteland taking people hostage?” He said sarcastically. “Yeah, of course their armed. But it doesn’t matter if he’s seeing double.”
“I don’t appreciate the sarcasm.” Aspen said.
“Yeah well, I’m sure there’s a lot of things you Georgians don’t like about Ohio.” He said. “All I can say is, get used to it.”
“How long do we have to wait?” Aspen said, changing the subject.
“Who knows?” Train said. “Could be a few more hours at most. One at the least.” He said.
“Great.” Aspen said.
“Where are we going to go once we get out of here?” He asked.
“I thought you were the one with a plan.” Aspen said.
“Yeah?” He asked. “Now it’s your turn.”
“For one, we cross the river back into Ohio.” She huffed. “Then I’m going back where I belong.”
“And where’s that?” Train asked.
“Football stadium. My group’s there.” She said.
“What about me?” He asked. “You stop to think that they’d kill me?”
“Sounds like a you problem to me.” She said.
“Fuck off.” He said. Aspen sighed.
“Where do you want to go?” She asked.
“Home.” He said.
“And where’s that?” She asked.
“The bunker.” He said.
“The bunker!” Aspen exclaimed. “They’d shoot me on sight!” She said.
“Not if you’re with me.” He said. “Trust me, they trust me.”
“I have a hard time trusting anyone that says they’re from an Ohio bunker.” Aspen growled.
“Good for you.” He said. “Are you going to let your own hatred for our people stand in the way of your freedom?” He asked.
“Fuck off.” Aspen said. Train rolled his eyes.
“How about a deal.” He said.
“What kind of deal?” She asked.
“Once we get out of here, we never see each other’s faces again.” He said.
“Sounds good to me.” Aspen said.
“Good.” He said with silence soon overtaking the small closet. “So, what’s your story?” He asked.
“My story?” Aspen asked.
“Yeah, who are you? Where are you from?” He asked.
“What if I told you that there’s nothing more to me than what you see here?” She asked. “Just skin and bone with nothing else.”
“I’d say you’re lying.” He said. “But I wouldn’t say anything about it.” He said. “But, if I had to guess, I’d say you’re some sort of punk-rock rebel or something like that.” He went on. Aspen laughed.
“Something like that.” She said. “What about you? What’s up with your dad?” She asked.
“Oh, are my daddy issues that clear?” He asked. “He’s a total dick to anything that’s not his work. I’d be lucky if he even noticed I was missing by now.” He said.
“I knew someone like that once.” Aspen muttered.
“And yet here we are.” Train said.
“Trapped in a closet together?” Aspen asked.
“Alive.” He corrected. “It takes a strong person to go through a hard time and come out fine on the other side, it takes a stronger one to still be who they were when it’s all said and done.” He said.
“What’s saying I haven’t changed?” Aspen asked.
“What’s saying you haven’t?” He said, then turned his head, looking through a small crack in the door. “Soon. It’ll be soon.” He said. “Aspen, take this.” He said, reaching out his hand with a small shiny object in it. Aspen picked it up and looked at it.
“If you had this the entire time, why haven’t you used it?” She asked.
“Maybe I could kill them.” He said. “But then what? Try to crawl all the way home? I’d rather not.” He said.
“Fair enough.” Aspen said, shoving the knife up her sleeve to conceal it.
“So we’re really doing this?” He asked.
“We are.” She said. He once again turned and looked out the crack in the door. “Now or never ,Diaz.” He said.
“Let’s do it.” She said. She reached out and pounded the door with her fist.
“Hey dumbasses!” Ben yelled from outside. “Keep it down.”
“Make me!” Aspen yelled in return.
“Motherfucking fucks.” She heard Ben muttered. She could hear his shuffling closer to the door. Seconds later she could heard the door being unlocked and slowly opening. Ben quickly grabbed Aspen by the collar and lifted her up. “Bitch.” He began. “When I tell you to be quiet, I mean it.”
“And when I tell you to let me go, I mean it.” She said. Quickly bringing out the small knife and burrowing it deep into his neck.
“Fuck!” He exclaimed as blood began spilling everywhere. Aspen pulled it out and he dropped her, instead gripping his neck. Aspen regained her composure and charged forwards at him and buried the knife into his skull, finishing him. She began pulling it out and heard a snap, looking at the knife she realized the blade had snapped clean off the handle.
“Nice knife, Train.” She said.
“Yeah? It’s like an eternity old, sue me.” He said. “But right now, let’s get out of here.” He said.
“I can agree with you on that.” Aspen said as she threw the bladeless knife to the floor and walked back over to Train. Once she picked him up she was glad to find he was surprisingly light. “Thank God your not heavy or I’d leave your ass.” She muttered.
“If I had a dollar for every time I heard that one…” He said. “I’d have a dollar.”
“Stow the sarcasm.” She said. “I’m carrying you.”
“Noted.” He said.
“So, which way?” She asked.
“Out the window.” He said.
“You want to jump?” She asked.
“Not entirely.” He explained. “The building used to have a fire escape before it caved in on itself.”
“If it’s gone what good is it to us?” She asked.
“It’s not entirely gone.” He said. “Two stories down, the fire escape is still there. All we have to do is jump down and land on it.”
“Do you realize how hard that’s going to be while carrying you?” She asked. He shrugged.
“Throw me down.” He said.
“Seriously?” She asked.
“Well, you can’t fuck me up more than I already am so why the hell not?” He asked.
“You’re the boss.”
“That’s a new one.” He said.
“Shh.” Aspen quickly cut him off. “I heard something.” She said.
“Then let’s not stick around to find out what.” He said.
“Okay.” She said as she began moving towards the window. As quietly as she could she slid the glass pane out of the way and sat Train in the window sill. He looked down gulped.
“I’m having second thoughts about this right now.” He said. Aspen looked out the window towards the fire escape.
“That’s a hell of a drop.” She said.
“Damn right.” He barely even got the words out of his mouth before Aspen gave him a push and watched him tumbled two stories down, landing ungracefully on the fire escape below. “I hope you know that fucking hurt!” He called up once he collected himself.
“I hope you know I don’t care.” She called down.
“What the hell?” A new voice said. Aspen spun around and saw Delilah standing nearby holding a rifle.
“Shit.” Aspen mumbled as she climbed through the window. Just as she was about to jump and hand hauled her back through the window and threw her to the ground. Aspen rolled onto her back and looked up at a very pissed off Delilah.
“You killed Ben.” She said, sounding indifferent about the whole ordeal.
“Just let me go.” Aspen said.
“Not going to happen princess.” She said.
“Have it your way.” Aspen said as she kicked Delilah in the leg making her drop to the floor. Aspen shot up like a rocket, just in time for Delilah to recover. Aspen took one swing at her, missing by a mile. She smiled.
“So you want to fight?” She asked. “I like this.”
Aspen caught it too late. She jumped backwards, but not fast enough. The butt of the gun caught her right under her eye and sent her spiraling to the ground. She could feel blood.
“Get up.” Delilah said. “You wanted to fight, let’s fight. Get up.” She said. Aspen forced herself up off the floor and faced Delilah again. She made a sour face. “Damn your face looked like shit.” She said, jabbing the butt of her gun into Aspen’s stomach making her double over in pain. She then swung it upwards and hit her in the jaw knocking Aspen over backwards.
Aspen lay staring at the ceiling until Delilah walked into her view, hovering above her. Her face almost looked… Disappointed.
“You’re not worth the fight.” She said, aiming the rifle right at her heart. “Say goodnight.” She said. Aspen quickly grabbed the barrel of the gun and shoved it away. Delilah’s shot tore through Aspen’s side and into the floor. Aspen cried out in pain as she used all the force she could muster to kick Delilah away.
Aspen rolled over and slowly pushed herself up off the floor once again. When she turned around she saw the rifle laying on the floor. She locked eyes with Delilah for a little more than half a second before they both lunged at the rifle.
Aspen brought the rifle up, Delilah still locked on it.
“Let go of the gun.” Delilah said.
“How about you?” Aspen muttered as she brought her knee up and into Delilah’s stomach. Delilah let go of the gun and stumbled backwards. Aspen aimed the gun right at her head.
Then she pulled the trigger.
There was no flash, no recoil, no blood. No anything. There was only a small laugh coming from Delilah as she stood up.
“This is turning into a real fight.” She said.
“I don’t want to kill you, just let me go.” Aspen said as she wiped some of her blood off her cheek.
“Don’t lie to yourself.” Delilah said as she pulled out a large bowie knife from a sheath on her arm. “Come at me.” She said.
Aspen swung the rifle, and like a cat Delilah jumped out of the way just in the nick of time. While Aspen was still recovering, Delilah slashed at her with the knife. Aspen was barely able to bring up her rifle. The knife buried itself deep into the rifle’s polished stock.
“I liked that rifle you bastard.” Delilah said as she pulled at her knife.
“Then take it.” Aspen said as she used all her force to pushed the stock of the gun upwards into Delilah’s face. She stumbled backwards holding her nose, but to Aspen’s dismay still brought up the knife.
“Bitch.” Delilah said.
“Look who’s talking.” Aspen said as she swung the rifle, low. This time Delilah didn’t jump out of the way. Aspen swept her off her feet with the rifle and she fell right onto her back. Aspen hoisted the rifle high above her head, ready to bring it down onto Delilah’s skull.
Just as she began to let the rifle drop, a sharp pain shot through her foot. She dropped the rifle and fell backwards on top of it. She looked at her foot to see a large gash torn through her black boot. Aspen tried to sit up but Delilah was on her in seconds. She ran up and kicked Aspen in the face, making her fall back down. She planted her knee into her chest and held her knife against Aspen’s face.
“Enough games, bitch.” Delilah said. “Time to put an end to this.” She said as she slowly but deliberately ran the knife down Aspen’s face tearing a large gash in it. Aspen let out a scream of pain as blood ran down the side of her face. She reached out her arms for anything, just at the tips of her fingers she could feel something off to her right.
Delilah brought the knife up and looked at her face, admiring her own handiwork. She then moved the knife down to Aspen’s throat and pressed hard, Aspen could feel it cutting into her neck already. She strained more, trying to reach farther. She could feel it getting closer.
“I’m done with your shit.” Delilah said. “Good night, girly.” She said. Aspen swung her right hand upwards and smashed it into the side of Delilah’s skull with as much force as humanly possible. Delilah cartwheeled off of Aspen and onto the floor next to her. Aspen rolled on top of her and lifted her hand and brought it down once again at her face. It was now she realized she was holding the bladeless knife handle.
Even a broken knife is good for something.
Aspen continued to pound Delilah’s face with the Knife handle. Over and over, blood was everywhere. Delilah’s, her own. Blood. Everywhere.
Without warning, Delilah’s hand shot upwards as Aspen brought the knife handle down once move. Aspen felt a sharp pain shooting through her right hand. She jumped back in recoil and saw a knife stuck straight through her hand and coming out the other side.
“Fuck!” Aspen screaming in pain as she crawled away from Delilah. Delilah slowly stood up and faced Aspen, blood streaming down her face in a horrid cascade of crimson. She stumbled over to Aspen and threw herself on top of her, clasping her hands around Aspen’s throat.
Aspen wheezed for air as pain shot through her entire body. She looked at the knife through her hand and nearly cried. With her left and, she gripped the handle as tight as she could. She gritted her teeth and used all the energy she had left to pull the knife upwards. Blood shot from her hand as the large blade slowly left the bone.
Her vision now tunneling. Aspen looked up at Delilah, feeling utterly defeated. She didn’t want to die.
“Just die!” Delilah screamed at her, tightening he grip. Aspen could feel herself slipping away, her grip on the knife was loosening. It was now or never. With whatever it was she had left, she jerked her hand upwards pulling the knife complexly free.
“Sorry.” Aspen choked out, barely recognizable as a word. She jutted her left hand upwards, Delilah’s eyes widened as she let go of Aspen’s throat and looked down as her chest. The knife was stuck
stuck right in her gut. Aspen pushed it upwards, tearing apart everything that was important for life and she sliced at her heart.
Delilah fell over a knife sticking out of her heart. Aspen forced herself upwards, gasping for air. She took one step forwards and stumbled down to the floor as pain shot through her leg.
“Diaz, are you alive?” A voice asked from far off. Aspen thought it was Train calling from the fire escape at first, but soon realized it was someone else. She could hear the thunder of footsteps outside.
“Diaz!” A woman called from the door. “Are you in there?”
“I’m here!” Aspen called as loud as she could which really wasn’t loud at all, spitting up blood with every syllable.
“On me!” The woman yelled. The door to the room soon exploded into splinters as they kicked down the door and stormed the room. Five of them in total is what Aspen could count, each wearing their own gas mask. As soon as the first one saw Aspen, they pulled off their mask. Her eyes were wide as if she was looking at some strange beast.
“Aspen.” She said. “Jesus. Medic!” She yelled back at the group. A medic rushed forwards from the back of the pack and slid to a stop next to Aspen. Even he looked shocked.
“Holy shit.” The medic said, but then caught himself. “You’re going to be fine, Diaz.” He said. “You’re safe now.” He stood up and looked back to the leader. “There’s nothing I can do from here, we need to get her back of camp before she bleeds out.” He said. The commander turned to the group.
“Duval, get the stretcher ready.” She said. Aspen forced herself to sit up.
“I can walk.” She sputtered. “I can walk.” She repeated.
“No.” The commander said. “We need you to lay back Diaz. You’re safe now.”
“What about Train?” Aspen asked.
“Train?” The commander asked.
“On the fire escape.” Aspen forced out. “He was helping me.”
“Rousseau, check it out.” The commander said. A man walked forward and over towards the window. He looked down.
“Holy shit.” He said. “There’s a kid down there.” He said. “Hey kid! Come up here.”
“He’s paralyzed.” Aspen said. The commander looked at her. “He knows a lot.” She said.
“Rousseau, go get the kid.” The commander said. Rousseau nodded as he pulled a length of rope out of his bag and tied it down, like he came here intending to go rappelling when he came here. He started his descent out the window just as Aspen felt a sharp pain in her wrist. She looked down and saw a needle sticking out of it. Aspen tried to grab at it, but the medic held her hand back.
“I’m starting an IV, it’s going to keep you alive while we get back to base.” He said as he lifted a plasma bag. Aspen could see the blood flowing into her arm.
“Just like trying to fill a bucket filled with holes.” Aspen said, the pain flaring through her body. The medic smiled at the comment.
“I found something!” Someone called from the bathroom. “Painkillers, lot of them.” He said.
“Bring them here.” The medic said.
“Are we cleared for that?” The man asked from the bathroom, looking at the commander.
“You have my permission.” She said. The man walked out of the bathroom and threw a duffle bag at the medic’s feet. The medic hung the blood bag on a nearby coat rack and began rummaging through the bag of painkillers. He pulled out a small glass container filled with a clear liquid.
“That’ll work.” He said as he grabbed a needle out of his own bag. “Is that stretcher ready?” He asked.
“Yeah.” Duval said.
“Do you have a blanket?” The medic asked.
“Yeah.” Duval said.
“Here we go.” The medic said as he took the cap off the glass container and filled his needle with the liquid. He gingerly grabbed Aspen’s arm and looked her in the eyes, obviously aware that she already wasn’t all there. “This is going to hurt for a just a moment.” He said, as he jabbed the needle deep into Aspen’s arm and pressed down, releasing the liquid into her blood stream.
Aspen almost instantly felt drowsy. Her vision tunneled even move. She began breathing heavily as she fought back against it. The medic grabbed her hand.
“It’s okay, Diaz.” He said. “We’ve got you from here. Just sleep.” He said. Aspen’s head involuntarily lolled backwards against the floor as her eyelids betrayed her. Her eyes slowly closed as she became blissfully unaware of the world around her. The last thing she saw before closing her eyes was Rousseau climbing back in through the window carrying Train.
If this would be a choice to kill the guy that actually shot at him, I'd kill without a second thought. But this guy indeed did nothing. Actually, he likely saved Lizbeth's life by treating her wound and I think that should be rewarded.
stuck right in her gut. Aspen pushed it upwards, tearing apart everything that was important for life and she sliced at her heart.
Delila… moreh fell over a knife sticking out of her heart. Aspen forced herself upwards, gasping for air. She took one step forwards and stumbled down to the floor as pain shot through her leg.
“Diaz, are you alive?” A voice asked from far off. Aspen thought it was Train calling from the fire escape at first, but soon realized it was someone else. She could hear the thunder of footsteps outside.
“Diaz!” A woman called from the door. “Are you in there?”
“I’m here!” Aspen called as loud as she could which really wasn’t loud at all, spitting up blood with every syllable.
“On me!” The woman yelled. The door to the room soon exploded into splinters as they kicked down the door and stormed the room. Five of them in total is what Aspen could count, each wearing their own gas mask. As soon as the first one saw As… [view original content]
Hi Liquid. I just wanted to ask once more when your characters will be ready. I don't mean to rush you, I understand you are busy and are also a human being that does... Whatever a human does. Like I'd know that. I just wanted to ask.
[Let him go]
If this would be a choice to kill the guy that actually shot at him, I'd kill without a second thought. But this guy indeed … moredid nothing. Actually, he likely saved Lizbeth's life by treating her wound and I think that should be rewarded.
I seriously don't trust him. And there isn't really any reason to keep him alive. There's the chance that he is a threat and is really on Rachel's side so I just want to get rid of him
stuck right in her gut. Aspen pushed it upwards, tearing apart everything that was important for life and she sliced at her heart.
Delila… moreh fell over a knife sticking out of her heart. Aspen forced herself upwards, gasping for air. She took one step forwards and stumbled down to the floor as pain shot through her leg.
“Diaz, are you alive?” A voice asked from far off. Aspen thought it was Train calling from the fire escape at first, but soon realized it was someone else. She could hear the thunder of footsteps outside.
“Diaz!” A woman called from the door. “Are you in there?”
“I’m here!” Aspen called as loud as she could which really wasn’t loud at all, spitting up blood with every syllable.
“On me!” The woman yelled. The door to the room soon exploded into splinters as they kicked down the door and stormed the room. Five of them in total is what Aspen could count, each wearing their own gas mask. As soon as the first one saw As… [view original content]
Kill him killing him could cause lizbeth to die , since she could have an infection or something , but it could hurt evan since the guy could be hitting him by surprise or something , so i won't take the chance.
stuck right in her gut. Aspen pushed it upwards, tearing apart everything that was important for life and she sliced at her heart.
Delila… moreh fell over a knife sticking out of her heart. Aspen forced herself upwards, gasping for air. She took one step forwards and stumbled down to the floor as pain shot through her leg.
“Diaz, are you alive?” A voice asked from far off. Aspen thought it was Train calling from the fire escape at first, but soon realized it was someone else. She could hear the thunder of footsteps outside.
“Diaz!” A woman called from the door. “Are you in there?”
“I’m here!” Aspen called as loud as she could which really wasn’t loud at all, spitting up blood with every syllable.
“On me!” The woman yelled. The door to the room soon exploded into splinters as they kicked down the door and stormed the room. Five of them in total is what Aspen could count, each wearing their own gas mask. As soon as the first one saw As… [view original content]
Comments
Hey liquid, not to dog or anything. I just wanted to know when you were planning on submitting your characters?
I have been really busy these days, but I'm still planning to submit them soon. Sorry to keep you waiting, but they should be ready soon.
Raven Lee
“All rise!” The voice boomed. The suited man next to Raven helped her uneasily to her feet, her vision was still spinning and black spot filled her view, she felt like she’s just black out at any moment. Every doctor with half a brain said she wasn’t ready for the trial, they said she’d probably get hurt again. It hurt like all hell, but hey. Tradition. Raven gripped her ribs in pain and held her breath as the judge took her seat.
Yeah, so today could be a better day. It was only one day after New Orleans went to hell. Apparently it got worse after Raven passed out. An entire mortar division unleashed hell on anything moving in the town, and kill a lot of people that way.
Apparently, the entire rest of the 231st charged blindly into battle and ended killing themselves in the fog. And that’s why they’re here today, to find if Raven had any fault in what had happened.
“You may be seated.” The voice spoke. Raven collapsed back into the wooden chair with a gasp of relief. She shut her eyes and gripped her ribs tightly trying to subsidize the pain. A sudden feeling of nausea came over her and she felt like she was going to throw up.
“Are you felling alright, Officer Lee?” Her defender said.
“I-I’m fine. Just… Just, I’m fine.” Raven stammered out, opening her eyes and being blinded by the dim lighting of the court room.
“Richards, is you client with us?” The judge asked.
“Yes, she’s with us.” Her defender answered.
“Good, then let’s begin.” The judge said.
“Don’t worry about it, Lee. I’ve got you covered.” He said.
“Thank you.” Raven whispered, struggling to keep her eyes open. She fixated her eyes on one spot, the judge and refused to blink. If she did, she might not reopen her eyes.
“Officer Lee is here to face trial for the events that have unfolded at the Siege of New Orleans, even though she is low-ranking, she is an Officer that was present at the battle and must face trial.” The judge stated. “Let’s try to make it as quick as possible. Richards.” She continued, passing the spotlight onto her defender.
“My client, Officer Raven Lee, holds and outstanding battle record though only being a member of the army for a few years now.” He began. Building her accomplishments, good tactic.
“How many years, Richards?” The judge asked.
“Raven?” A voice asked. “Raven, open your eyes. Please, don’t do this.” Raven slowly opened her eyes, fighting back the blackness that called to her, longing for her return. She forced her eyes lazily open and stared straight into Aspens face. New Orleans, she was back. Raven opened her mouth to say something, but only small pipes and squeaks came out. The taste of blood was all but overwhelming. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath at all, but she couldn’t feel the pain. She’d lost her ability to feel the pain now. “Oh, thank God.” Aspen said, seeing Raven open her eyes. “You just have to hold on a little longer, alright? Help is on the way.” She said.
Help is on the way. She’d heard that saying a hundred times already, but no help ever came. She could heard the distant sounds of echoing gunfire, it was like a melancholic lullaby, beaconing for her return to the abyss.
“Communication is still down, but I think I found out why.” Aspen said. “The raiders in the city have to be using some sort of jammer, I’m starting to get the feeling they aren’t the type of Bandits we’re used to fighting.” She said. Raven slowly mover her head up and down in a jerk series of motion to show she understood.
“I’m going to try to bypass their jammer.” Aspen said. “That way we can get a signal out to base.” She said. Aspen stood and walked away from her, grabbing the CB radio off the counter. “Maybe if I can find their signal, I can… I’ll save you the technical talk. I think I can use their jammer against them.” She said. Raven was shivering, her entire body was shivering. The cold was unbearable, she felt like… Well, she felt like she was dying.
Aspen eyed her and sighed deeply. It must have hurt a lot to see her friend like this, not getting shot in the lung kind of hurt, but emotionally it had to hurt. She’d shot her friend and Commanding Officer. Come on, soldiers are people to, they have feelings. Aspen took off her drab green jacket and lowered it over Raven, in a pathetic attempt to keep her friend comfortable as she died.
There was a loud crashing sound outside, even Raven heard it in her zoned out state. It had come from across the street by the sound of it. Aspen grabbed her rifle and jumped up to the stores smashed window, scanning the area through her scope. Aspen was a tech genius, and a hell of a shot. She was one of the best sharpshooters they had, well. The best now that Raven was out of the way.
“There’s someone out there.” Aspen said. Raven mustered the energy to roll her head towards the door, she saw the doorframe and then fog. This whole ‘fighting ghosts’ thing was a pain in the ass.
“Who’s out there!” Aspen yelled into the fog, well, if they didn’t know they were here, they do now.
“Squad 33, or what’s left of it. We’re with the 231st. Don’t shoot.” A voice called.
“Thank God you guys showed up. Get in here, hurry.” Aspen said. Raven saw a blurry figure appear in the fog and approach the door. The door opened and three men walked in, each toting a gun. The lead man’s jaw dropped when he saw Raven.
“We’ve got to get you back to camp, now.” He said.
“We’ve been here forever.” Aspen said.
“Then why wait any longer.” He said.
“Raven, you hear that? We’re going home.” Aspen said. “Raven... Raven?” Her voice began echoing farther and farther away.
“Officer Lee?” A voice asked. She opened her eyes and saw Richards next to her, along with a medic and a doctor. “Are you alright?” He asked.
“Huh?” Raven asked, confused. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She stuttered, weakly.
“You passed out and hit your head on the table.” He said.
“I’m fine.” She said. Richards nodded and looked to the medic, who shrugged.
“This trial itself is killing her, we need to get her back to the hospital.” He said.
“Has the jury reached a verdict?” The judge asked. Wait, the verdict? How long has she been out? Did they seriously just notice?
“Yes we have your honor.” A man said.
“Proceed.” The judge said. Raven held her breath and silently prayed for a miracle.
“We the jury find Officer Raven Lee…” He said, the paused. Seriously, cut the drama dude. “Not guilty.” He said.
“Raven Lee is hereby acquitted of all charges.” The judge said, with the tap of a gavel. “This court is now dismissed.”
“Let’s get back to the hospital.” Richards said. Raven attempted to stand up, but felt too weak to do it. Richards grabbed her arm and lifted her up, practically carrying her over to the wheelchair at the end of the table. He gently sat her down. “I’m sure I’ll see you around.” He said. The medic began pushing her away, back towards the hospital. Her head dropped forward again as she shut her eyes and slipped away once more.
Her eyes now open and stared at her black boots, and the ground below them.
Well, the ground twenty feet below them. She sharply inhaled at the realization of this fact, that she was dangling twenty feet off the ground. She quickly looked up and saw why. Her parachute had gotten tangled in the trees. Good thing, if it hadn’t, she’d probably hit the ground hard enough the break some bones. Not exactly a pancake, but close enough.
“Why is it always me?” She mumbled angrily to herself. “Why!” She screamed out loud, as if anyone would hear. She swung her legs back and forth trying to gain some momentum, maybe she could get to another branch and climb down.
No such luck. All the accomplished was shaking the branch and making an eerie cracking noise. No more of that. Well, there’s only one thing left to do.
Sit, or hang, here and cry?
Well, actually that makes two thing to do.
She decided she’d keep the crying for another time. She reached up to her parachute strap, the one thing keeping her from a twenty foot drop, and released it. She went crashing towards the ground and landed on her side.
No need to be alarmed guys, Gravity still works!
It hurt, but it didn’t take two years of med school to figure out nothing was broken. She rolled onto her back and stared up at her tattered parachute. Piece of trash. She sat up and grabbed at her bag, taking out the pistol. She was in enemy territory alone, this piece of metal was her new best friend. But as she looked through her bag, she noticed something. A letter neatly folded, laying in there next to the creepy gas mask.
She took it out and unfolded it with numb finger, falling from the sky while getting shot at will do that to you.
‘Raven Lee,” It began ‘Your mission is clear as possible, take out the bunker. The means of accomplishing this goal are still to be determined. But mind this, the Ohio territory is a promised land to the Council. We are counting on you and your people to secure a foothold within the territory so we can wedge our way in. Be aware that the Ohio people have access to a variety of chemical weapons. Good luck, and don’t fuck this up.’
Who wrote this letter? A four year old with a colorful vocabulary? She shook her head at on word in particular.
“Your promised land sucks!” She screamed to the sky.
Miller
“Hey! You, with the bright orange hair, hands away from the gun.” Miller called. Everyone immediately turned their guns on the orange-haired woman grabbing at her gun. Marlin quickly stepped between the orange-haired woman and everyone else.
“Hey, hey, hey.” Marlin said. “It’s alright, we’re cool.” He said, turning to the woman. “Rachel, put the gun down.” He said. Her wide-eyed expression told Miller she was extremely lost right now. But she complied, placing the gun on the ground and stepping back. “See? We’re all good.”
“All good?” Miller asked. “She was grabbing for her gun.” He said.
“Yes, she was.” Marlin said. “She’s been through a lot recently. As have all of us, we just want a place to call home.”
“We know that.” Miller said.
“Then please, let us in.” He said.
“I don’t think it’s going to be that easy.” Miller said, noticing Rachel’s eyes darting all over the place. Something was up with her, she was acting way to jittery from Millers liking.
“Miller, let them in.” The CO said.
“You sure about that?” Miller asked.
“Take them to the hospital, keep an eye on them.” He answered.
“Alright, but if this goes south…” Miller said.
“If this goes south we have a lot bigger problems then my reputation.” He said.
“Everyone, follow me!” Miller called to them.
“Really? You’re letting us in?” Marlin asked, his face lighting up. Everyone in his group just looked like a great weight was taken from them.
“Hurry up before we change our minds.” Miller said.
“Thank you guys so much.” Marlin said. He and his entire group walked with Miller towards the hospital. Marlin walked up next to him.
“Let’s make this clear, I have absolutely no trust for you or your people until you prove otherwise.” Miller said.
“Understood.” Marlin said.
“Just one question, what’s wrong with the orange-haired girl?” Miller asked.
“Same as the rest of us.” Marlin said. “She’s gone through too much and it’s starting to add up.”
“Is it something I need to worry about? Is she going to be a danger to my people?” Miller asked.
“I don’t know.” Marlin said.
Aspen Diaz
Aspen angrily stumbled through the thick woods, the thorn bushes tearing away at her skin. It was a melancholic feeling to be here for her, she was here. But she wasn’t there.
Her first and only goal as of now, was to find the rest of her squadron. She knew she wasn’t the only one who made it down alive, she saw others. She had to find them. They might need help. But helping people was Raven’s job, not hers. She was the techy, the computer nerd.
Why did she think it was a good idea to follow a career in tech? It sucked.
She felt her boot hit something and she looked down.
“Jesus…” She muttered, looking at the mangled, mutilated body before her. The poor guys chute didn’t open. This could’ve been her. She shook the thought from her head and hiked on, she saw the edge of the tree line up ahead.
She burst through the tree line and scanned the area. She saw the river in front of her. The Ohio river…
“Motherfucker.” She mumbled. “You dropped us in the wrong damn state!” She yelled.
“Hey, keep it down. Some of us are trying to not get shot.” A voice said. Aspen spun around and saw Boggs crouched behind a tree, looking at her.
“Holy shit.” Aspen said.
“Yeah, whatever. Let’s go. I found another soldier, stuck in the trees. We should probably help her down.” He said.
“Yeah. Sure.” Aspen said. The two of them stood and she followed Boggs’ lead towards the stranded parachuter.
Lizbeth Morrison
“I’m going to talk to him, you have my back right?” She asked.
“I have your back.” Josh said.
“Thanks.” Lizbeth said as she stood and walked over towards Evan, who saw her approaching.
“We need to talk.” He said.
“Yeah, we do.” Lizbeth said.
“Somewhere private.” Evan said. She narrowed her eyes and scowled at him.
“I know a place.” She said.
“Good, let’s go.” He said. Lizbeth looked over her shoulder at Josh, who nodded. Lizbeth began walking off with Evan following her. She lead him down a part of the hospital that was less populated and stopped at a door, she scanned the hallway and threw the door to the janitors closet open. Evan walked inside and Lizbeth shut the door as she walked in. Lizbeth picked something up off the shelf to her left.
“It’s not safe here, we need to go.” Evan said quickly, turning towards her. Lizbeth swung the wrench in her hand, smashing it against his face.
“Why are you here!?” She demanded.
“What the hell was that for?” He asked, gripping his jaw.
“Why are you here?” She asked again.
“Lots of reasons, bitch.” He said. She swung the wrench again and hit him in the temple.
“Why?” She asked.
“Because, we want the town.” He said.
“Who wants the town?” She asked.
“The bandits.” He said.
“So you’re just here to play nice until they decide it’s time for you to kill?” She asked, gripping the wrench tighter.
“Yes.” He said.
“I’m not going to let that happen.” Lizbeth said, as she raised the wrench. There was a sudden knock at the door.
“Lizbeth?” A voice asked, Josh.
“What, Josh?” Lizbeth asked.
“What are you doing in the closet?” He asked. She glared at Evan.
“Talking.” She said.
“Well, can you come out?” He asked.
“No.” She said.
“How much longer are you going to be in the closet?” He asked.
“Is there something I should know, Josh?” She asked.
“Miller showed up with a group of people from the Commonwealth.” He said.
“Shit.” She mumbled. “Buy me some time.” She said.
“On it.” He said.
“Listen to me, Lizbeth.” Evan said.
“I don’t need to listen to your lies.” She said.
“Then listen to the truth!” He yelled at her, surprising her. “The Army is coming, and they aren’t going to leave anything.” He said.
“What does that mean?” She asked.
“They’re going to kill everyone and wipe the town off the map.” He said. “Nobody’s safe here.” He said.
“And your solution?” She asked.
“Get away from here, I know a place. Just outside the Council’s reach. We’ll be safe.” He said.
“Why should I trust you?” She asked.
“You don’t have much of a choice here, do you.” He said. “You kill me, or go with me.” He said. “And if you let me go, I will make you go with me.” He said.
Choice
[Trust Evan]
[Kill Evan]
I have to admit, I had to think for a moment where I heard that line before. When I got it, I knew I had to use this gif, even if I like Raven. Nice reference though
[Trust Evan]
Okay, so... I fear that I'm going to regret this. However, I am oddly unwilling to kill Evan already. If I regret this, so be it. But I would like to give him a chance.
Haha! I heard that line, and I instantly knew I had to weasel it in somehow. I tend to do that sometimes.
Trust Evan I don't wanna kill him... yet
[Trust Evan] Evan is Love
<3<3
Evan is life.
Key word: Yet.
[Trust Evan]
I have all caught up now
Cool. Welcome!
Aspen Diaz
“How far away did you see them drop from?” Aspen asked Boggs as they trudged through the bramble before them. The seemingly endless forest was in a stark contrast to what was back in Georgia. It was a lot colder to, the Ohio winter was rolling in and taking no prisoners.
“They weren’t far from where I landed, which was just over this ridge here. Possible about one Kilo out.” He said. Aspen shook her head, Metric system. Of course she knew it, but any other American probably wouldn’t.
“So your interpretation of ‘not far’ is about a mile away in enemy territory?” Aspen joked.
“Well, you said it yourself, Diaz. They dropped us in the wrong state. We’re on the wrong side of the river, with any luck the Ohioan guard doesn’t patrol this area.” Boggs said.
“But they had to have seen us come down.” Aspen said.
“That they most definitely did.” Boggs said. “But, when they saw us come down they probably fell back to the bunker instead of going out on patrols.” He said.
“Hope all you want.” Aspen said. “If we come across any Ohioans out here in the open, we’re toast. We’d be outnumbered and outgunned.” She said, looking at her hand-me-down Beretta. The pistol looked like it’d been through hell and decided it liked it so went back for seconds. Hey mister pistol, welcome to Ohio.
“Which is exactly why we need to find our people quickly.” Boggs said.
“How many did you see come down on this side of the river?” Aspen asked.
“In total, four.” He said. “Me, you, the one I came down close to and the guy that didn’t make it.” He said.
“The guy that didn’t make it?” Aspen asked.
“His chute didn’t open.” Boggs said.
“Oh.” Aspen solemnly said. Since the very beginning it had been on everyone’s mind whether or not they’d make it to the ground alive, after that it didn’t matter. But now, the ones on the ground had a whole new fear to face; living. In Ohio.
“Right up there, look.” Boggs said, as he pointed to a chute tangled up in the trees in a clearing up ahead.
“Damn, that looks like a rough landing.” Aspen whispered.
“Your telling me.” Boggs said. “But we have a bigger problem.”
“What?” Aspen said.
“Look around you, Diaz.” He said. “We have a parachute, with no parachuter.”
She looked up at the parachute and instantly felt stupid for not realizing the absence of a person in the mess of nylon and canvas.
“Well, that’s a problem.” Aspen said.
“No shit.” Boggs said. “Look around, see if you can find anything.” He said as he walked off through the bushes. Aspen walked forwards towards the parachute, noticing something on the ground. A wadded up piece of paper. She picked it up and unwadded it, noticing a few drops of dried blood on its surface. She read it over and almost laughed.
“Huh.” She laughed. “Your promised land sucks.” She said.
“You find something?” Boggs asked.
“Yeah, just a letter.” Aspen said.
“Who’s it to?” He asked. Aspen scanned the letters for any sign of a name, and her eyes widened as she came across one.
“Holy shit…” She mumbled. “It’s-“ She said but was cut short when she felt a gun barrel on the back of her head.
“Don’t move, don’t scream.” A woman’s voice said. “Tell me who you are, and why you’re here.” She said.
“Raven?” Aspen asked. The gun barrel was lifted off the back of her head in a hurry.
“Jesus, I didn’t know it was you Aspen.” Raven said. “I thought you were one of them.”
“Hey Boggs, I found her!” Aspen said. “You just about shot me.” She said to Raven.
“Well…” Raven began
“Don’t say it.” Aspen cut her off.
“Good to see you’re still with us, Lee.” Boggs said as he joined to two. “Looks like the landing gave you hell.” He said, noticing the various scratches on her skin.
“It’s going to take a little more than a freefall to put me out of the fight.” She said.
“Good to hear.” He said.
“So, how far to the rendezvous point?” Raven asked.
“That’s the thing.” Boggs said. “We’re on the wrong side of the river.”
“This day just keeps getting better.” Raven mumbled unhappily. “How many came down on this side?” She asked.
“Us three, not counting the dead one.” Boggs said.
“How many made it down in total?” She asked.
“I don’t know.” He said.
“The plane?” Raven asked.
“It’s blown up.” Aspen said. “Crashed somewhere in the city.”
“Any chance of survivors?” Raven asked.
“A crash like that, probably not.” Aspen said, Raven’s eyes wandered to the ground.
“But, we’ll still send out a search team once we get to the stadium.” Boggs said.
“How do we get to the stadium?” Raven asked.
“Well, I have a few ideas.” He said. “Follow me.” He said as he began walking off. Aspen turned and looked at Raven.
“We really shouldn’t be allowed to have guns around each other.” She said.
“Probably.” Raven said. “But, this is Ohio.”
“True enough.” Aspen said as she trotted up next to Boggs. Raven soon fell in with them.
“I just have one question.” Raven said.
“What is it?” Boggs asked.
“How on Earth are we supposed to take out a heavily defended, heavily-populated bunker with pistols?” She asked.
“I’m still trying to answer than myself.” Boggs said.
“Sounds like they kept you in the dark as much as they did us.” Aspen said.
“Yeah, I didn’t even know I was going to be in charge until I was on the plane pretty much.” He answered.
“I hate the Council.” Raven mumbled.
“Hey.” Boggs said, stepping in front of Raven and placing a hand on her chest making her stop. “I don’t care what you like or dislike, You are a soldier under the CDC Council. And what I hear you saying, that sounds a lot like treason.” He said.
“Treason my ass.” Raven said, pushing Boggs back.
“Hey, if I recall correctly, it was your fuck-up that sent us here in the first place.” Boggs said.
“My fuck-up?” Raven asked. “Is that what they told you?” She asked.
“It’s what I know.” Raven said.
“Lee, I’m ordering you to stand down.” Boggs said.
“No, I’m not going to stand down.” Raven said.
“Don’t make me say it again, Lee.” Boggs growled.
“You know what?” Raven said. “Fuck this place, fuck you, fuck Ohio. And Fuck the Council.” She said as she turned and began marching the other way.
“Where do you think you’re going Lee?” Boggs asked.
“Anywhere but here!” Raven called back over her shoulder.
“Get back here Lee, now.” Boggs ordered. Raven responded with a simple middle finger over her shoulder as she walked away.
“Just let her go, Boggs.” Aspen said. “She’ll come back.” She said. Aspen turned and looked at Raven as she angrily marched off. Everyone has a breaking point, seems like Raven just hit hers. Aspen turned and looked back at Boggs, as suddenly the thundering report of a gun filled her ears with a horrible ringing. She snapped her head around and saw Boggs holding a pistol in his hands, smoke curling from the barrel.
Then, Aspen followed the gun’s direction, and her worst fears were realized. Raven was lying face-down in the dirt, and obvious bullet wound in the back.
“What the fuck!” Aspen exclaimed as she spun towards Boggs. “You shot her!” She said, as she rushed forwards towards her friend. But Boggs held her back.
“Leave her, she’s as good as dead. The coyotes will clean up the mess.” He said.
“To hell with that, let me go!” Aspen yelled. Boggs stuck the pistol on Aspen chest and looked her in the eye. He seemed unsure of himself, as if questioning his own actions yet unable to control them all at the same time.
“Raven Lee was a traitor to the Council. She was putting us all in danger. Am I going to have the same problem with you?” He asked. Aspen looked down at the pistol resting on her chest as she breathed heavily.
“No… No problem, sir.” Aspen said.
“Good, then follow me.” He said as he began walking off. Aspen stared at the body of her friend, this was not a state. Ohio was not just a land, it wasn’t a place. It was a graveyard. And sooner or later it was going to claim them all. “Diaz!” Boggs yelled. “On me.” He said. Aspen shut her eyes and took a deep breath before turning and jogging off after Boggs. The man that murdered her friend. She tried not to think about it as she forced her wobbling legs to obey and trudge off after him.
Funny thing about trying to forget something, the harder you try to forget, the more you seem to remember.
Why had they come so far just to rip themselves apart? Just like back in… Back in New Orleans.
Lizbeth Morrison
Lizbeth bit her lip as she looked at Evan, bleeding from his forehead where she’d hit him with the wrench. It made her feel better, in a sick way. The blood on the end of the wrench, the blood on the floor. It just made her feel like she was taking back from him after he’d tried to take it all from her.
She wanted more, more blood. Blood for blood. Maybe he didn’t kill her, but how many had he killed before?
But would killing him here and now solve any problems? Probably not, come on. Someone would find the body in the closet, and one day or another they’d find out it was her. Lizbeth trusted Josh, but he probably wouldn’t stick up for her once he found out she’d murdered a man in cold blood.
“I’m not going to kill you.” Lizbeth said, shrilly. Evan look at her with his big blue eyes and crooked smile. Something deep inside told her she’d made a bad decision, but she wasn’t going back now.
“I knew you’d come around.” Evan said, spitting blood. Lizbeth crouched down next to him and looked him in the eye, with a spiteful look.
“Listen here, and listen good.” Lizbeth said. “I’m not letting you go because I think it’s wrong to kill you, I’m letting you go because I think it might save my life. And if you think for a moment I like you, or even trust you, you’ve got it wrong. As far as I’m concerned you’re still the enemy.”
“And yet you’re willing to work with the enemy?” He asked.
“I don’t have much of a choice.” Lizbeth snarled.
“Looks like we’re a team then.” Evan said, extending his hand.
“Fuck that.” Lizbeth said, swatting his hand away. “All this is, is me using you because we share a common interest.” She said.
“Looks like we’re going to have to work on our conversation skills a little.” Evan said. Lizbeth glared at him.
“I’m going to be back here in five minutes, and then we leave.” She said, standing up and walking towards the door.
“You know we’re not so different, me and you.” He said. “Just two lost people searching for a way to save ourselves and the people we care about.” Lizbeth spun around starkly at the comment.
“Don’t you ever compare me to you.” She said. “At least I didn’t murder my way through ever problem that arose. At least I didn’t enslave, rob, and humiliate and survivor I came across. I am nothing like you, I am a survivor.”
“Then what does that make me?” He asked.
“A by-product of the apocalypse.” She said as she opened the door and walked out into the hallway, closing it behind her. She saw Josh only a few feet away, walking towards her,
“Thank God you finally came out, I didn’t think I could hold Miller much longer, he’s a little hell-bent on seeing you.” He said.
“Miller wants to see me?” Lizbeth asked. He nodded. “Good, I need to see him to.” She said as she walked past Josh, he turned and walked with her.
“What was going on in there? What did he say?” Josh asked.
Choice
[Tell Josh]
[Don’t tell Josh]
Raven, no! Damn it
Fucking Boggs...
[Tell Josh]
I don't really see a reason not to. I don't trust Evan and even though I like him for his rough attitude, I don't want to put Lizbeth into danger by staying silent. Telling Josh about the talk could be safer for her. If shit hits the fan, this could very well safe her life.
Racen ;(((((((
Tell Josh, of course!
Raven* typo sorry
[Don’t tell Josh]
Evan is such an awesome gentleman with Lizbeth ,and they are sooo cutee togheter ...hitting each other in the head with crowbars and wrenches , let's keep the lovely relation he has with Lizbeth secret ..... We don't want josh to join in .
I didn't even notice the typo. Lol
It seems like a rather health relationship to me.
Aspen Diaz
Her lungs burned as she ran. The thorn bushes tore at her legs and ripped at her drab jacket. Ignoring the burning sensations she was experiencing, she ran. From what she didn’t know, well… That’s a dumb thing to say, she knew exactly what she was running from: Death, mutilation, decay… She was running from the Ohioans.
How it happened, she didn’t know that either. All she knew was that they’re here, and she’s alone again. She had to find a way to get to her people, and quickly. Her life depended upon it. The events that led up to the chase were hazy in her mind, she wasn’t even sure if it was real. Perhaps this is some sick illusion in her mind? She’d been told the Ohioans had access to chemical weaponry, maybe it was messing with her mind?
On quick glance at the blood still on her hands and she knew better than that. The chemical weapons would’ve provided a much less painless death than this. Now, it was a fox hunt. She was the fox, the entire world around her is the hunter. And her only point of refuge is across a river at a football stadium.
She knew she was heading the wrong way, if she wanted to get to Ohio (where the rendezvous point was) she needed to head north, to get to the bridge. To cross the river. To get to Ohio. Where she needed to be.
No, not the case for her. She was heading due south and she knew it. She was fleeing deeper into Kentucky and farther from Ohio. No plan had yet been formulated in her mind as to how to correct this error. It doesn’t take a genius to realize, if you’re heading the opposite way as your destination, it’s going to be a little difficult to get there.
So, maybe there is a kind of plan working up in her mind right now. Not a good one, but one that will keep her alive for now at least. Her plan was simple: She was in Northern Kentucky near Cincinnati, just across the river. Meaning, the town of Covington should be close to here.
The Ohioans didn’t rebuild like the Council did in the south. Instead of just tearing everything down and starting anew the Ohioans left all the old towns and buildings standing and didn’t dick around with it too much. Meaning that here in the north, all the old towns and cities are just as they were before the infection hit. If she could find her way out of these woods, which most likely weren’t even woods just some kind of park or nature reserve that overgrew on itself, she could theoretically take shelter in a building for the night, get her bearings on the area and in the morning head out.
Now was the time she wished she had a gun, though. She came down with one originally, but now, it was resting a long ways away with a dead man. She’d lost her grip on it when she started running, and she knew she wasn’t going to run through gunfire to get to a half-loaded gun.
Now she was equipped with nothing. Well, she had a bag full of granola bars and a bottle of water. That’s something right? Not useful now, though. Actually, there is something useful in that bag if hers: The radio. That would be more useful than a gun right now anyways.
“Over here!” Someone yelled. Aspen didn’t have to look back to tell it was one of the Ohioan soldiers that had been tracking her for the last ten minutes. No, the gunfire gave it away. Those guys can’t shoot worth shit, but they got enough ammunition that they don’t have to worry about being accurate.
Aspen ducked behind a tree as a burst of bullets pounded its way into the bark sending a blast of splinters every which way. She was safe from the splinters though, and would live to get killed another day. Or, minute at the least. Now she was pinned down, if she come out from cover, she’d get shot instantly. If she stayed here, she’d get shot eventually. It all came down to, is it better to live a little longer or die a little quicker?
Ten minutes earlier
“Keep up the pace, damn it.” Boggs wined. “You’re setting us behind.”
It’d been only him talking for the last ten minutes, Aspen hadn’t found a word to say. She just didn’t want to be here anymore. Not with this… Man, murderer. Whatever you want to call him. The worst part of it was the fact that he was acting like Aspen was the problem here. Like the fact that she was still alive was an issue… Wait, was it?
Aspen had noticed Boggs hadn’t let his hand wander away from his pistol for more than a split second. Well, to be fair neither had Aspen. She was on the verge of shooting him, or shooting herself. She couldn’t tell which one. She’d been trailing a few feet behind him the entire time. She didn’t trust him enough to have her back facing him.
“Diaz.” He grunted unhappily. “Take point.”
Damn it to all. She stopped dead in her tracks, not moving. Her mind hadn’t been working with her cooperatively since they landed here, and well, this guy murdering her only friend left in the world. Well, that just tipped the scales a little. He seemed to notice her hesitance.
“Diaz.” He growled. “Is there a problem with your ears?” He asked. “Take point.”
Aspen noted his fingers tightening around his pistol, ready to pull it out at any moment. His eyes were searching her over, coming to a rest on her own pistol. It wasn’t until this time she realized she had already drew her pistol and was holding it towards the ground.
It happened like a flash of lightning really. His gun was on her chest, her gun was on the side of his head. Neither party moved, neither blinked. Neither breathed, neither existed outside their own selves. Everything else melted away into a meaningless blob as they focused on each other, anticipating who will pull the trigger first.
“You didn’t really think I’d let you live, did you?” He questioned, as if he knew the answer. “You were going to shoot me in the back of the head, weren’t you?” He pushed. “And when you got back to camp without me, you’d say what? I didn’t make the drop? Huh? I was dead before you got to me?”
“You killed Raven, you brought us all here to die. Your only intention throughout this whole thing was to get your sorry ass back home in one piece, no matter what the cost was to the people around you.” Aspen snapped at him.
“You just got me all figure out, don’t you?” He snarled. Aspen pressed her gun harder against his temple as he dug his into her chest. “You don’t know a damn thing, Diaz. And you never will, that’s the problem with your kind. You never learn your lesson.” He said.
“You’re wrong.” Aspen said. “I know everything I need to know about you. You’re just a scared little loose cannon, afraid to leave a loose end.” She said.
“Everything, huh?” He asked. “How about this?”
With one sudden motion Aspen was on her back on the floor. The force of the blow was enough to send her down. She noticed Boggs rubbing his forehead as he pointed the gun at her. She grabbed her gun and swung it up at him.
“Shame, I always liked Hispanics.” He said. Her finger tightened on the trigger.
The blood splattered her face after the sound of a gunshot ran out. She looked at the shaking gun in her hands. She hadn’t shot. Boggs body fell on top of her, giving her an up-close view of the newly formed hold in his head. His eyes were rolled upwards and his blood was spilling everywhere. Aspen quickly kicked him off and jumped up.
“We got another!” A voice yelled. The first bullet narrowly missed her skull. She fired two shots into the trees before making the most heroic choice of her life, she turned and ran.
Now
She could hear them trampling through the bushes. They were moving much more silently then her, but they weren’t running for their lives and used to fighting in urban settings.
“Just come on out, and make it easy on yourself.” One called.
“Any visual?” Another asked.
“Negative on the visual.” One answered.
“Last known location?” One asked.
“Unsure, sir.” Another answered. Aspen held her breath as if it mattered.
“Sir, radio from the bunker.” One said.
“Hand it here.” He said. “Uh-huh.” He said. “Negative sir. No, sir.” He said. “But, sir.” He said. “Understood, patrol heading to target location.” He said.
“What was that?” One asked.
“We’re calling off the search. We’ve got somewhere better to be and we better move if we want to get there and back to the bunker before dark.” He said. “You hear that, you got lucky this time! Just don’t come back, alright.” He called off into the woods. Aspen breathed sigh of relief as she heard them walking away through the bushes. She peered around the tree and saw nothing. They were gone.
She spent a couple of minutes gathering her nerve before she set out once again back in her trek towards Covington, she could already see the woods getting thinner up ahead. Perhaps the worst is now over? Dumb thing to say, but, anything to keep you moving in a time like this.
Turns out she was right, the woods were thinning. She came out on a crumbling street that she was able to follow into town. Needless to say, Covington had seen better days. After years of neglect and possibly a couple of firefights, the town’s clock tower had toppled over and crushed the bank. No more money, boo.
But, that didn’t bother her. That’s not where she was heading. Towards the edge of town stood a tall building that was around six stories high. She knew if well, inside and out. She crept in through the front door into the hotel lobby, she was relived to find it both ransacked and abandoned. Nobody had been here in a while, and nobody had a reason to come here.
She dug in her back and pulled out a small flashlight, she was glad to have it. It may be late afternoon outside, but in the stairwells and back hallways, it may was well be midnight. She made her way up to the top floor, the best place to get a good view. Then she found her way to the northern side of the building. She walked through the hallway until she found a door that had been left ajar. She gave it a slight nudge and let it glide open on its own. She stepped in and found the room a mess. Cloths, trash, everything and anything was thrown everywhere.
Other than the trash, one of the first things she noticed was the sound of a person banding on the closet door. Well, it wasn’t actually a person anymore. It was an infected. It was sad to think about. In the south, they cured the infected and killed the infection. They held the cure, but refused to give it to anyone else so the infection continued all over the place except the CDC government.
She walked to the closet door and looked at it. She wasn’t armed, there was no way she was going to kill one of those thing. The door seemed sturdy, it must’ve held that thing for a while now. It’ll hold another night. And judging by the strength of the banging, the contained infected was too weak to break down the door even if the door was rotted through and through.
Aspen walked through the rest of the room, making sure it was clear. Thankfully it was empty other than the dresser full of what looked like 80’s cloths. Weird. She shuffled into the bathroom and shined her light around. She opened the medicine cabinet and to her surprise found it stocked with Aspirin and painkillers. So the person who was in the room was an 80’s man who was on painkillers. Good to know. Then something caught her eyes, a kind of gleam coming from the bathtub.
She pulled back the curtain and smiled, a hunting rifle. A good looking one at that. She picked it up and looked it over, empty of course. But at least she could see farther with the scope. She walked back over to the room’s window and looked out. She could easily see Ohio from here. It would only take her around twenty minutes to get from here to the stadium. But, not right now. Not with that patrol out there. She pulled out her radio and turned it on.
“Paul Brown Stadium, are you receiving?” She asked.
“Affirmative. Identify yourself.” The radio crackled.
“Aspen Diaz, We… I landed on the wrong side on the river. I’m going to make my way over at first light.” She said.
“Copt that Diaz, good to know we still have you.” The radio welcomed. “Are there any casualties on your side?” He asked. Aspen paused for a moment before answering.
“Yes, three dead.” She said.
“Copy, do you have the names?”
“Charles Boggs.” She began. Good way to set the mood.
“What? How?”
“Ohioan patrol.” Aspen answered. She decided to leave the part out where they held guns to each other’s heads.
“You said there were three?”
“Raven Lee.” She said. “Boggs shot her.”
“Jesus.”
“The third one in unidentified.” She said.
“Understood, hang tight. We’ll see you at first light. Our teams will try to secure the bridge.” The radio said. “Oh, and when you get back… We might have a mission for you.”
“Good to know.” She answered as she set the radio down. She wasn’t going to question it, not right now. Not after all that’s happened. She just wanted to get across the river alive at this point. Tomorrow she was going to do something stupid, even stupider than what she did today. Right now, she has a little bit of normal. Or, as much normal as the apocalypse has to offer.
She tried her hardest to shut the rest of the day out as she took her worn-out helmet off and placed it on the bed. Moments later, she allowed herself to fall face-first into the blankets. Her dark hair surrounded her like an ocean.
Before she knew what was happening, she was in tears. She just couldn’t hold them back anymore, so they came out. The blanket was forced to absorb the sobs as Aspen continued to cry into the sheets. Why her? Why Ohio? Why did she have to come back? Why did Raven have to die? She should be here right now with her! Or better yet, both of them could be… Anywhere but here! In Ohio. Anyplace but Ohio… But she wasn’t even technically in Ohio. It was still close enough to bring up bad memories.
Suddenly those old memories flooded her mind, Ohio. The place she longed to see one more time for so long, but now that she’s here all she wants to do is get away. The past may be in the past, but that doesn’t change the fact of what happened here.
Out in the hallway Aspen heard a loud crashing sound and she instantly shot up from the bed. Something might be in the hotel with her, it could be an infected that is roaming around, free. Or it could be an Ohioan soldier looking to kill her. Either way, she knew she needed to do something. She was unarmed, minus the fact that she had an unloaded hunting rifle. She could use it as a club, but honestly, she wasn’t built for swinging a gun around like a baseball bat. She was more build for wiring computers and welding things.
Choice
[Stay in the room]
[Investigate the noise]
[Stay in the room] I don't wanna risk her life. She has nothing to defend herself so she should just stay put
[Stay in the room]
I've seen enough horror movies to know what happens if you investigate a strange noise on your own. Besides, if it is an infected, she is more safe in her room than she is anywhere else in this hotel. A hotel room usually only has one entrance which she can guard and if something enters her room, she can still fight back.
[Stay in the room]
Oh, I don't think I mention this, but feel free to make a character at any time.
Hey guys, We had a blood drive at school today and I'm feeling a bit tired. So, don't expect a new part today, sorry.
It's ok, no hurry!
Lizbeth Morrison
Lizbeth looked at Josh, he trusted her. She trusted him, why would she need to lie to him? Why did she need to lie to anyone about this?
“He said some serious shit is about to go down.” Lizbeth said.
“Like what?” Josh asked.
“The army’s going to roll through here at any time.” Lizbeth said.
“No duh, Lizbeth. Everyone knows that.” Josh interrupted her before she could finish.
“No, they don’t know the rest.” She said. “They’re not going to leave any survivors. Everyone here’s going to die.”
“And you just believe that shit?” Josh asked her. “That guy is just saying anything he can to save his own ass, and you know it.”
“I do believe it.” Lizbeth said. “No one’s safe.” She said. Judging by Josh’s look he either didn’t understand anything she said or refused to believe it. She sighed. “Just watch him until I get back.”
“Can do.” Josh said.
Lizbeth walked on down to hallway back towards the lobby to find Miller, if there was one person she wanted to talk to about this, it was him. He’d know exactly what to do.
Even before she got to the door, she knew something was wrong. It was quiet. Too quiet. People tend to make noise, a lot of it. But right now, dead silence.
Something in the back of her mind told her to just turn around and go back, but she knew she couldn’t.
She approached the door to the wooden door that led to the lobby and placed her hand on the handle.
“Not another move.” A voice said. “Turn around slowly, hands where I can see them.” Lizbeth slowly reached her hands upwards as she spun around slowly. She saw a woman with bright orange hair standing behind her holding a gun aimed at her head. The woman had a deranged look in her eyes, like someone who’d just lost it.
“Who are you?” Lizbeth asked.
“You’re in no position to be asking questions.” She snapped. She walked forward, never taking her gaze off Lizbeth and pushed the door open. “Go in, slowly.” She said.
Lizbeth began slowly walking into the lobby, hands still above her head. She quickly realized what the problem was, four heavily armed people were walking around patrolling the lobby while everyone else was laying sprawled out on the floor.
“I found on in the hallway.” The woman leading Lizbeth said.
“Is she the only one?” One asked.
“The only one I saw.” She said.
“You don’t have to do this, they don’t have anything to do with… Whatever the hell it is you’re looking for.” Someone said.
“Listen here Marlin, we don’t take orders from you anymore.” Someone said. “Rachel is our leader now.”
“How stupid can you get? Rachel lost her shit, she’s out of her mind!” Marlin said. “And you follow her?”
“Yes.” One answered. “She was the first one to realize what you’ve been doing to our group.”
Lizbeth was suddenly forced to her knees, then pushed to the ground.
“Don’t move.” The woman, Rachel, said.
Lizbeth looked around, nobody was dead. Yet. They were taking prisoners, not killing people. There was obviously something these people wanted, otherwise they wouldn’t have hostages. She was able to find Miller nearby and he seemed to notice her.
“What do we do?” Lizbeth whispered.
“There’s nothing we can do.” Miller said.
“Who here’s in charge?” Rachel asked, her wild eyes still searching for something that seemed to not be there. Dead silence filled the room. “No takers?” She asked. She waded through the hostages sprawled on the floor, then grabbed one up at random, holding him by the collar. She pulled a pistol and put it against his head. “How ‘bout now? Anyone in charge now?” She asked.
“The mayor.” Miller said. “She’s in charge, but she’s not here.” He said.
“And where is she?” Rachel asked.
“Probably at the city hall, everything’s on lockdown.” Lizbeth said. Rachel dropped the man she was holding to the floor and he breathed in relief as Rachel walked over to her. She grabbed Lizbeth by the hair and yanked her up. Lizbeth yelled in pain as she was hoisted up by her hair. “Do you know where this city hall is?” She asked.
“Yes.” Lizbeth answered, through gritted teeth.
“Then you’re going to take me there.” She said, letting go of her hair.
“And if I say no?” Lizbeth growled. Within a second of the comment, Lizbeth had a sharp knife digging into her neck.
“If you say no, then we’re going to have a little bit of a problem.” Rachel said.
Choice
[Comply]
[Resist]
Aspen Diaz
Aspen silently sat on the bed, looking at the door. She knew it wasn’t a smart thing to do to go out into a dark hallway to confront an enemy. No, she’d watched enough horror movies to know that was a bad idea.
She was perfectly happy staying here, inside the room where there was light. And wall, and no unseen enemy. She gazed out the window towards Ohio and sighed. Home, or what it used to be. Not many people knew it, but she grew up in Ohio. Just across the river, in Cincinnati. It was her hometown. This was home, and all she wanted to do is run.
By now the infected that was trapped in the closet had given up its fruitless attempts at trying to break down the door. At least they eventually give up. Maybe they’re smarter than they look… That’s actually a scary thought.
She picked up her helmet and held it in her lap, looking it over. She’d had this helmet since the beginning, and even before that, this very helmet saw action in Vietnam and now it was here, this helmet has been through more than her, weird thought, but true.
She looked over the interior of the helmet and found the glossy stack of papers on the inside. She’d kept those in there for as long as she could remember. Pictures, memories of a time long forgotten but still held dear. Some were of her family, in her home just across the river. Some were from Mexico, before her family moved here. Some were her friends. Some were pictures she found while she was looting places. Yeah, maybe it was a little weird but it helped her to cope. It was like, a form of remembrance to everyone who’d died. In a way.
“Diaz, you there?” Her radio crackled, making her jump. She forgot she even had a radio.
“Yeah, I’m here.” Aspen answered.
“What is your position?” He asked.
“Top floor of the Edmunds hotel, third room from the right on the north side.” She answered.
“Copy that.” He answered.
“Is that all?” she asked.
“Just one more thing.” He said. “Where did Raven Lee die? Where did Boggs shot her at?” He asked. Aspen sighed as she pressed the talk button.
“North, northwest of my position. I don’t know.” Aspen said.
“Well, that could pose a problem.”
“What kind of problem?” Aspen asked.
“One of our snipers said he saw something in the woods over on your side of the river.” He said. “He said there was an Ohioan patrol, and they took off with some woman, northwest of your position.”
“What?” Aspen asked, now alarmed.
“We think they kidnapped Raven.” He said.
“That doesn’t make any sense… Unless they’re stealing dead bodies.” Aspen said.
“You’re right, that doesn’t make any sense.” He said. “Unless she’s alive.”
“Holy shit.” Aspen mumbled. “She’s alive.” She said. “She’s alive and I left her, and now the Ohioans have her.”
“Diaz, calm down and hang tight. There’s nothing you can do, or could’ve done. We’ll figure this out.” He said. “And we don’t have any proof that’s she’s even actually alive. All we have is the word of a sniper who just jumped out of an exploding plane.” He said.
“Doesn’t make me feel any better.” Aspen mumbled. “And the plane? Any news on that?” She asked.
“We sent out a team. No news yet. It crashed somewhere near the edge of town.”
“Keep me posted on that.” She said.
“Will do, keep your head up Diaz. We’ll see you in the morning.” He said.
“Copy.” Aspen said as she put the radio down on the windowsill and laid back on the bed again, staring at the ceiling.
She could see the faces of everyone she let down, everyone she got killed, everyone she’d crossed. They were all blaming her, accusing her. And now added to the mix was Raven. Not only had she shot her back in New Orleans and nearly killed her, she had now left her for dead with the Ohioans. What a friend she was.
She suddenly heard a sound at the door. Someone was standing outside the door to the room. And it was human, judging by the sound. Not an Infected.
“Damn it, Delilah.” A gruff sounding man said. “Why’d you lock the door?”
“I didn’t lock the door.” Delilah answered.
“Then who did? Doors don’t lock themselves!” He yelled at her.
“Maybe your drunk ass did it.” She snapped back at him.
“Fuck you.” He said, Aspen could hear the jingling of keys. Her eyes quickly darted around the room. No good place to hide unless she wanted to go into a closet with an Infected.
No, there was one place. She was sitting on it. She dove under the bed just as the door flew open and slammed against the wall. A man and a woman walked in. The man disappeared into the bathroom as the woman walked over to the closet. She pulled the door open, and Aspen was shocked to see she was wrong. There was no Infected inside. Inside was an actually living young man, tied up in the closet. The woman crouched down next to him. He tried to squirm away from her.
“You look cute when you struggle.” She said. “If your daddy would just pay up, you could go home. But it’s pretty obvious daddy doesn’t care.” She said.
“Fuck you.” The man weakly spat at her.
“You’d love that, wouldn’t you?” She asked as she stood up and shut the closet door.
“Delilah!” The man yelled from the bathroom. “Where the hell is my rifle?” He asked.
“I didn’t touch your rifle” she said.
“Well, it’s not in here.” He said. “And some of our stash is missing.”
“Someone’s been here.” She said.
“Look around, see if you can find anything.” He said.
“Diaz, you there?” Her radio spoke from the windowsill. Out of all the times, now was the worst. The woman quickly walked over to the radio and picked it up.
“Who is this?” She asked.
“Diaz?” The radio asked.
“No, who is this?” She asked.
“I found something.” The man said. Aspen held her breath, hoping they hadn’t found her. She felt a harsh grip on the heel of her boot. She was pulled out from under the bed and pinned against the wall by a strong, burly looking man. “Lookie what we got here.” He said. “I wonder what a face like that goes for on the market nowadays.”
“A lot more than it used to.” The woman answered.
“Diaz, are you there? What’s going on?” The radio asked.
“Diaz is a little preoccupied right now, I think you’re just going to have to wait to get back to her.” She said, then turned the radio off.
“I don’t know who you are, or where you came from girl, but I think you just made our day.” The man said.
“Don’t do this, my people are on the other side of that river. They’ll come for me.” Aspen said.
“Funny, that’s exactly what the kind that’s been trapped in the closet for three weeks said.” He said. Aspen felt a sting in the back of her neck and went weak at the knees. She collapsed to the floor, unable to feel anything. The man began dragging her away towards the closet.
“Welcome to your new home.” He said. “Make yourself comfortable.” He said as he threw Aspen into the closet and she blacked out.
[Comply] , don't wanna get her killed!
Poor Aspen!
[Resist]
I might be hoping for a miracle here, but the way I see it, Lizbeth is basically a hostage in this situation. Killing a hostage would be a stupid move from these people, leaving them more vulnerable and stuff and I hope they know this. Lizbeth has a certain value as a hostage and I hope I don't overestimate it.
And Aspen has a huge problem, maybe even more than Lizbeth. That was unexpected, but a nice twist. I also see that Raven might still be alive, so that's nice
[Resist] I don't think they 'll hurt her directly if she resist , they might attack her friends , miller ..Being one of the possible consequene of the choice,but well ...Let's take the risk ....
Miller
Miller looked up at Lizbeth fearfully. The girl had more of a rebellious spirt than what was good for her, and he knew it. He could already see a small stream of blood running from where the reflective surface of the knife was digging into her neck.
“You going to answer me?” Rachel asked. Lizbeth swallowed hard, fighting back the lump forming in her throat.
“You won’t kill me.” Lizbeth said. “I’m a hostage, to important for you to kill.” She said.
Rachel smirked. A sly, deranged smirk showing how truly broken she was. A small laugh emulated from within her as she pulled the knife off of Lizbeth’s throat.
“You’re a smart girl.” She said. “I like that, but sadly you’ve made a big lapse in judgment.” Her hand suddenly moved downward taking the knife with it. The slick blade burrowed itself into Lizbeth’s thigh with no effort. Lizbeth let out a cry of pain as she dropped down to the floor, only to be lifted up by Rachel once more. Blood was flowing from the wound that still had the knife imbedded in it. It was clear Lizbeth was fighting hard to keep from crying out in pain.
“I’m done playing games with you shits.” Rachel said. “Anybody here who wants to take me where I need to be?” She asked. Dead silence arose in the room, matched only by the small pained whimpers of Lizbeth. Rachel twisted the knife making Lizbeth howl in pain as blood began pooling on the floor. She then proceeded to yank it upwards tearing a diagonal gash across her thigh before she ripped it out.
“Stop! For God’s sake stop!” Miller yelled. “I’ll take you to the mayor, just leave her alone.” He said. There was the deranged smile once again on Rachel’s face.
“There we go!” She exclaimed. “That wasn’t too hard, now was it?” She asked.
“Just let her go.” Miller said.
“With pleasure.” She said, taking the hilt of her knife and smashing it against the base of Lizbeth’s skull putting a silence to her whimpers and cries. She fell hard to the ground with nothing other than the tile floor to stop her fall. It was like watching someone heft a sack of rocks onto the floor. Rachel turned to one of the other guards. “Make sure no one touches her until I get back.” She said.
“And if you don’t come back?” He asked.
“Let her bleed out.” Rachel said. “She only has like, half an hour. Forty minutes tops.” She said, gazing at the widening pool of blood that slowly leached outwards as time went by.
“You, let’s go. And I suggest you hurry.” She said as she walked over to Miller. Miller stood up, towering over her.
Normally, his height was enough to deter people from picking a fight with him. But this woman’s pure insanity mixed with the fact that she was holding a gun to the back of his head made it pretty obvious she wasn’t going to be warded off by a man that was taller than her.
Miller looked around at everyone that was sprawled out on the ground. Scared, hopeless, defenseless. He’d let them down, he was the one that trusted these people and let them in.
“Off you go.” Rachel said, poking him in the back with the gun. “And don’t try to pull anything on me.” She said.
Miller began walking forwards towards the door as his gaze drifted downwards towards the resting body of Lizbeth. Her blonde ponytail rested gently beside her. It was clear that she wasn’t going to make it long on her own like this. She needed help.
Rachel seemed to notice Miller looking at her, because she turned and yelled to another one of her men.
“Take her back into the hallway, make sure no one gets near her.” She said.
“On it.” A big man said as he walked over to Lizbeth and hefted her like a sack of potatoes over his shoulder. He walked away and disappeared behind the wooden door into the hallway. Miller had no choice but to continue onwards.
He walked to the glass door that served as the main entrance and pushed it open. A long time ago, these doors would swing open on their own. But, electricity being as limited as it is, electric doors are a thing of the past.
Outside in the street the only sound was the silence, standing in stark contrast with all the crying and moaning coming from within the building. He had the sinking feeling that any moment now, mortars were going to start raining hell on the town.
The Army wasn’t going to leave anything left of this town, the people, the buildings. Nothing. They’d level the place and give what’s left of the lands to the neighboring town of Ramsey, the Council’s lapdog. Of course they should’ve told the people to evacuate, but the mayor for one reason or another had said no one leaves. Whatever that was about, she had her reasons. And he wasn’t one to be questioning authority right now.
“So, what’s your story with the girl big guy?” Rachel asked, breaking the silence.
“Doesn’t matter.” Miller mumbled.
“Actually, I think it does matter.” Rachel said. “And I’m the one with the gun, so…”
“Why do you think there’s something between me and her?” Miller asked.
“You think this is my first rodeo?” Rachel asked. “I’ve done this more times than I’d like to admit, and well, humans are pretty selfish creatures.” She said. “You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who’d stick up for someone they didn’t even know, especially these days.”
“Yeah, well maybe I’m just a good Samaritan looking out for my people.” Miller grumbled.
“We both know that’s a lie.” Rachel said. “The longer you stall, the longer she has to bleed out.”
“Fuck you.” Miller mumbled. “We’ve been together through all this for a long time, she’s like a sister to me. And I’d do anything to help my people, unlike some people among us.” Miller said, aiming the comment at Rachel.
“I had a sister once.” She said. “Before I suffocated her in her sleep because she slept with my boyfriend.”
Miller said nothing and picked up the pace a little. Not only was he apparently being trailed by a person who was a psychopath, but also not afraid to kill her own family. What did that say about his position, or anyone for that matter?
They walked the streets of this ghost town, every now and then hearing the random noise a sleeping town makes when left to its own devises, like a tin can being blown down the street by the wind. A tin can? What was that doing out here? They collected those, tin is very useful nowadays. Like it or not. Reduce, reuse, recycle.
“We’re five minutes in.” Rachel announced. “I don’t think your girl is going to even make it twenty.”
Miller came up the an intersection in the street. Straight ahead was a building, boarded up and locked. It’d gone up in flames a few weeks ago, and it wasn’t safe to enter as it could collapse at any time. To the left led down some back streets and alleys, which got narrow in some places. To his right, the city hall just down the road but out of view.
Miller had to make a decision, left or right? Mislead Rachel or give her what she wants? If he could get her in a narrow alleyway, he could possibly get her off guard and maybe get the gun. But that could fail and get him in a lot of trouble, or possibly dead.
But was giving her what she wanted any better? It was clear she didn’t just want to talk to Holly. No, she was going to kill her. Maybe Holly wasn’t the best fitted to be mayor, but she still was. But if he just let it happen, she’d leave them be, right?
Choice
[Go left]
[Go right]
Evan Banks
Evan pulled himself up and rubbed his forehead. He’d taken a hit worse than that before, the girl must’ve been a little rust on the old melee skills.
Guns are good, guns are useful. But guns run out of ammo and have to reload. The human body is the finest war machine ever built, arm is with a pipe or a wrench and it now has a way to focus its power.
Evan looked around the small closet. A few random tools were laying around, including the wrench that was flaked with his blood. He could’ve easily killed Lizbeth right then and there. The way she was holding that wrench gave him the perfect opportunity to snatch it form her hands and use her own weapon to kill her.
It would’ve been so easy.
But he didn’t. He somehow miraculously managed to keep his cool, something he very rarely managed to do. He picked up the wrench and looked at the door.
“Don’t do it.” His brother said.
“She’s going to give me away, what do you think they’ll do? Invite me in for a cup of tea?” Evan asked him.
“No. But there’s always an alternative to killing, Evan.” He said.
“Not this time.” He said. “I’ve given her a second chance and she blew it.” He said.
“Baby bro, you didn’t give anyone a second chance. You almost got killed so you ran. That’s not giving someone a second chance, that’s saving your own life.”
“Then I don’t see a reason to give a second chance then.” Evan said. He spun towards the door and reached his hand out towards the knob, but before he could reach it, it flew open on its own. Evan readied his wrench as a tall lanky teenaged boy stepped in. He looked up at Evan and his eyes filled with fear.
“Jesus Christ, don’t kill me!” He said.
“What are you doing here?” Evan growled.
“Somethings going on, some people, they’re holding everyone hostage. I just saw them drag Lizbeth off and she was bleeding pretty bad. They were headed this way, I saw them duck inside an examination room.” He said.
“And why do I care?” Evan asked. “She just tried to kill me.”
“Because if everything Lizbeth said about you is true, you owe her. Big time.” He said. Evan could feel his patience running thin. He was about to end this kid.
“Evan.” His brother said.
“What?” Evan snapped, spinning around towards him.
“Help them, do it.” He said. Evan looked back to the kid, who looked like he just shit a brick by this point.
“W-who are you talking to?” He asked. Evan looked back at his brother. He slowly nodded.
“Okay.” Evan said. “I’ll help.”
Aspen Diaz
“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Aspen mumbled as she spun and stormed out of the room.
“Get back here right now, Aspen!” Her stepfather yelled as he jumped up from his big leather chair in his study and chased after her. He jumped in front of her and blocked her way.
“Move out of my way.” She growled.
“No.” He said. “You’re going to listen to me.” He said.
“I don’t have to do anything.” She snapped at his as she attempted to force her way past him. He pushed her back heavily and she went stumbling a few feet back.
“The hell was that?” She asked. He marched up to her and wrapped his hand around her neck before forcing her against the wall. He was easily holding her a foot off the ground. She gasped for air and clawed at his hand as her face turned red.
“Listen to me now you little bitch.” He began. “I didn’t bring you and your mother across to America just so you could fuck this whole thing up for me.” He said. Aspen could easily smell the alcohol in his breath.
“Can… Breath.” Aspen cried out.
“Starting now, there’s going to be a few changes.” He said. “You’re going to get out of the picture and leave me and your mother alone. You’re the only damn reason we can’t be happy you little prick.” He said. Aspen was quickly running out of energy to struggle as little black dots danced in her vision. “And when I say listen, you better fucking listen!” He yelled at her, looking her dead in the eye. “Do you understand, or is your English to weak?” He asked. Aspen attempted to nod in response.
“Yes…” She managed to croak. Without a second of hesitation he threw her to the ground like a used piece of garbage. Aspen greedily gasped at the air around her as she coughed trying to get the oxygen. He tightly gripped her arm and began dragging her down the hallway back into his study. He picked her up and threw her clumsily into a chair like the bag of bones she was. He angrily stormed to his chair and sat down, lighting up a cigar.
The smoke curled upwards and filled the room, Aspen coughed as the smoke burnt into her throat. She hated smokers, but then against she hated anyone that was anything like her stepfather. She was still breathing uneasily by this point.
“I tried to play nice, Aspen. All you had to do was play along and nothing would’ve happened. But you couldn’t even fake a smile every once in a while, so you’ve forced my hand.” He said, opening a drawer on his big desk, he pulled out a big white envelope. The only recognizable feature on the package was the logo. MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He forced the envelope into her weak hands.
“Starting next quarter, you’ll be taking classes at MIT. No buts about it.” He said. “My advice; start packing now.” He said. “Now get out of my sight you piece of shit and give me some God damn quiet.”
She weakly stood from the chair and stumbled down the hallway, using the wall for support. She managed to stumbled her way into the kitchen where her mother was hard at work cooking dinner. She saw her and smiled.
“What did he want?” She asked brightly. Aspen didn’t answer as she stumbled her way out of the kitchen and towards the staircase, her mother wouldn’t understand. She never did. To her, Ed was a saint. She tripped twice before making it to the top. She walked down the polished hardwood floors towards her room. Once inside she slammed the door shut.
She placed her palms on her dresser and stared at her bruised and battered figure in the mirror. She looked around her room at the posters of beautiful places she’d never get to visit. She walked over to her top-rate computer she built herself. Her stepfather had paid for it all since it kept her away from them. She sat down in her old office chair and picked up her red toolbox and flipped it open. There sat a picture of her and her real dad, before he died.
She was afraid to take the picture out, because if she had it out it in the open Ed might take it and throw it away. He insisted that he was her real father, and the man in the picture was just a fraud. Aspen still refused to accept his last name and still used her fathers.
She rummaged through the tools in the small box, until she found the small knife that she kept in there. The thing might be little, but it was sharper than a razor blade. Aspen made sure of that. She always kept her tools in good order, it was the only thing she could keep.
She gripped the knife in her hand tightly by the blade until she could feel the blood running down her hand. She took a deep breath a sighed. Moving closer to her computer, she typed the first thing that came to mind. ‘Goodbye world’ she typed, then hit enter. She sank back into her chair and she stared at the blood red blade, then at her shaking wrist.
Her head pounded as her eyes slowly fluttered open.
“Hey, you with me?” A man’s voice called. Aspen did her best, mumbling something unintelligible in his direction. Any sort of movement sent the whole world spinning, but in this case the whole world is a closet. She made a weak move towards the closet door, only make her already splitting headache that much worse.
“Hey, try not to move. It’ll wear off soon enough.” The man said. Aspen finally managed to find him, sitting across from her, his back against the wall he only made weak movements.
“Who are you?” Aspen asked, attempting not to choke on her own tongue. She felt like she had a pack of cotton balls in her mouth.
“Call me Train.” He said. “Cause all I am is a wreck.” He finished, angrily smashing his head against the door.
“Okay…” She mumbled. “Who are those people?” Aspen asked.
“They’re from the wasteland, they’re only here to turn a quick profit in the underground.” Train said.
“The underground?” Aspen asked.
“The post-apocalyptic black market.” Train clarified. “It’s a great place to get anything you want, granted you have something to trade.”
“What kind of stuff do they have?” She asked.
“Anything really.” He said. “Stolen military equipment, gas, oil, a working car if you’re lucky, women, quote unquote ‘cures for the infection’, drugs. Like I said, anything.”
“So I guess that clarifies why we’re here.” Aspen mumbled.
“Not exactly.” Train said. “Me and you, we’re here for different reasons.”
“And that is?” Aspen asked.
“My father is one of the head scientists in charge of making a cure for the infected in Ohio.” He said. “He made a few shady deals to get everything he needed, and when it came time to collect he didn’t have what he needed to pay.” He went on.
“So they took you in compensation.” Aspen said.
“Exactly. I get to go free as soon as my father pays.” He said. “You on the other hand…” He trailed.
“What?” Aspen asked.
“Your fate is almost certain.” He said. “They’ll take you to the market and sell you. You’ll most likely end up going to Lenny Blankenship. That or you’ll end up with Mr. Escobar, which isn’t any better. Those two alone are responsible for most of the unexplained disappearances in the US.” He said.
“Listen you little brat.” Aspen spat. “I didn’t come all this way, jump out of a plane, and get my best friend killed just to be sold on the market.” She said.
“I didn’t mean to offend. I was only telling the truth.” He said. “And what was with the ‘jumping out of a plane thing? Was that all that noise I hear out there? It sounded like a damn war was going on out there.”
“That’s because it is.” Aspen said. “I’m from Georgia.” She said, luckily it’s all she had to say.
“So we have a real war on our hands now.” He said.
“Yeah.” She said. “We do. We’re waging a war on foreign soil with only, what? Sixty soldiers?”
“Sounds like whoever put this plan together needs to be fired.” Train said.
“No, they did their job perfectly.” Aspen said.
“What do you mean?” He asked.
“We’re all supposed to die here.” Aspen said. “They don’t want us back. As of right now, we don’t even have a commander. Our commander, Boggs is dead. And he killed his second.” She grimaced even thinking of how Raven died, it was even worse to think that she might be alive.
“And you still support those people?” He asked. “After all they did?”
“I… I haven’t really given it much thought.” Aspen admitted. “Right now, I’m on whatever side doesn’t shoot at me.”
“Good luck finding one.” Train said. Aspen stiffed a laugh at the comment. Not because it was funny, but because it was true. “Look, we may not have a lot in common, but we do have a common goal.” He said.
“And what’s that?” Aspen asked.
“We both want to get out of here, and I’m assuming you don’t want to be sold on the market.” He said.
“You’d be right in saying that.” Aspen said.
“And I’m assuming you’re not paralyzed from the waist down.” He said.
“No, why do you ask?” She asked.
“Because I am.” He said. “But, if we both work together I think we can get out.” He said.
“You want me to carry you out of here.” She said.
“Yes and no.” He said. “I have a better plan, and I think you’ll be able to break down the door to get us out.”
“How will we know if it’s safe?” Aspen asked. “If they’re not here?”
“I’ve got a plan, but I’m not going to tell you until you swear you’re not going to just ditch me.” He said.
Choice
[Agree to help train]
[Refuse to help]
[Go left], I want Rachel dead! And Evan can help Lizbeth probably.
[Agree to help Train], he seems like a nice guy
[Go right] Don't think going left is going to help poor miller.
[Agree to help train] Why not ?! He doesn't seem that bad .
[Go left]
A narrow set of streets and alleys sounds like a possible opportunity for Miller to escape. I hope so at least. And as wishwash said, maybe Evan comes to the rescue. There's also the thing that I don't want to risk Holly's life. I still have this thought that she might have somehow helped the rest of Marcus' family out of the hospital when she escaped herself and for the unlikely chance that Sammy and Nadyia are with her right now, I'm not going to risk leading Rachel straight to them. However, even if Holly hasn't managed to help them escape, which is a pretty scary thought, I'm not going to risk her life.
[Agree to help train]
Sure, why not? That might be an opportunity for Aspen to escape. I guess what Train lacks in physical usefulness, he makes up for in intelligence, so it could be beneficial to have him around.
[Go left]
[Agree to help train]
Evan Banks
Evan slowly crept down the hallway. He could hear his heard pounding away in his ears. He was almost afraid that is, not his boots would give him away. It only took him one good look to realize who he was messing with, the Commonwealth Statesmen. The Statesmen have a way of being known, maybe it’s the way the they walk, the way they talk. Maybe it’s just the way they survive. But they’re different from the rest. Different in some way that just can’t be defined.
He hug the wall and peeked around the corner, he saw one man guarding the door to an exam room. If she was going to be anywhere, it would be there. Evan spun back around to the kid, Joshua.
“You sure you want to do this?” Evan asked.
“She’s my friend.” Josh answered. “I’m not going to leave her to die with these fucks.” He said.
Evan could almost feel a smile pull at his lips at the comment, but he suppressed the urge. Now was not the time for smiles.
“I think I got a plan then.” Evan said.
“And that is?” Josh asked.
“Just don’t get shot.” Evan said.
“What?” Josh asked, but before he could even finish his sentence Evan pushed him out from behind their cover and into the guard’s sight. Josh looked like a fish out of water.
“Hey kid.” The guard said. “What are you doing out here?” He asked.
“Any time now Josh.” Evan muttered to himself. ‘’
As if understanding the situation, Josh took off running.
“Hey kid!” The guard yelled once more. “Stop running.” He said as he started to chase after Josh. Evan stayed as close to the wall as possible, holding his breath trying not to be seen. He tightened his grip on the wrench.
As soon as he saw the guard’s figure enter his sight, he acted. He smashed the metal wrench into the guard’s skull and then wrapped it around his throat, effectively choking him.
“Stop…” The guard sputtered.
“The girl, is she in there?” Evan asked.
“Yes…” The guard said. “She’s in there. Let me go, please.”
“No.” Evan said as with one swift motion he snapped the guards neck and pushed his body to the ground. Evan dragged the body into a nearby room and silently shut the door. When he turned around, he saw Josh right behind him. He looked a little pissed.
“What the hell was that?” Josh asked. “Are you trying to get me killed?”
“Are you dead?” Evan asked.
“No.” Josh answered.
“Are you dying?” Evan refreshed the question.
“No.” Josh answered again.
“Then you’re fine.” Evan said, handing his wrench to Josh.
“What’s this for?” He asked.
“I don’t need it anymore.” Evan said, brandishing his new gun he lifted off the guard.
“Do you know how to use that thing?” Josh asked.
“Kid, I’m twice your age.” Evan said. “I know how to handle a gun.”
“What do we do now?” Josh asked.
“Now, we clear the floor.” Evan said.
“What does that mean?” Josh asked.
“Follow me.” Evan said as he slipped out from his cover and walked down the hallway, slowly, quietly. He stopped at the door to the exam room, pressing an ear to it.
“Hurry up, damn it.” One man said.
“You can’t rush this shit, man.” Another answered. “It’s like art, you got to take it slow.” He said.
“You can take it slow when Rachel shows back up and puts a bullet in both of our skulls for what we did to this girl.” The first one responded.
“Rachel can be angry all she wants, we did the right thing.” The other said.
“Well her sense of right and wrong went out the window a long time ago.” The first said.
“It was worth it I say.” The other said. Evan pulled away from the door.
“There’s two inside.” Evan whispered to Josh.
“Okay.” Josh said.
Evan reached out and put his hand on the doorknob.
“You ready?” Evan asked.
“No.” Josh answered.
“Good.” Evan said as he twisted the knob and threw the door open. He rushed into the room and aimed his gun at both of the men. The only gun he saw was the pistol laying on the edge of the sink.
“Back away from the girl.” Evan said. Looking at both of the men, he hand a very intense urge just to shoot them right now.
Both men raised their hands and slowly backed away from Lizbeth, hands raised high. One man was wearing latex gloves that were smeared with blood.
“What did you do to her?” Evan asked, looking at her leg.
“Rachel flipped her lid, man.” One said. “She stabbed her in the leg and took of with some guy to go find the mayor.”
“Yeah, we were just trying to help.” The second one said.
“Josh, get in here.” Evan called. Josh came into the room, readying his wrench as if ready to strike.
“Jesus…” He muttered as he saw Lizbeth’s body strew out on a table. Her jeans were torn open on the leg and stained red. There was a set of stitches covering the gash in her leg that looked as gruesome as it did effective.
Evan put the barrel of his gun against one of the men’s head.
“How many of you are there?” He asked.
“Like, five.” He said.
“But Rachel’s not here, so four.” The other said.
“Three.” Evan corrected.
“Oh.” One said.
“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t kill both of you right here, right now.” Evan demanded.
“I stitched her leg up. She’d be dead otherwise. We’re not on Rachel’s side.” He said.
“Then who’s side are you on?” He demanded.
“Nobody’s.” He said.
“Enjoy that while it lasts.” Evan muttered. “Josh, get her out of here.”
“You can’t just take her.” One man said, Evan shoved him gun into the man’s face. “Or you can, that’s cool.” He said, backing away.
“Your turn Josh.” Evan said. Josh moved deeper into the room and gently picked up Lizbeth’s limp body. He turned and began walking out of the room. Evan watched him leave, accidently letting his guard slip.
Out of the corner of his eye he saw one of the men lunge towards the sink. As fast as he could, Evan spun around and aimed his gun at the man.
The man fired first, narrowly missing Evan. Evan could hear it embed itself into the wall behind him. Without as much as a second thought, he shot the man in the head then swung his gun around to the second man.
“Dude, don’t shoot me.” He said. “I didn’t do anything.”
Choice
[Let him go]
[kill him]
Aspen Diaz
She looked over at Train, and slowly shook her head.
“Fine, I’m with you.” She said.
“Good.” He said. “Now we can get out of this hell.” Aspen sighed.
“What’s the plan?” She asked.
“Right now, we wait.” He said.
“Nice plan.” Aspen muttered.
“When Delilah is off guard duty, Ben or whatever the hell his name is will take duty.” Train said. “He’s a total ass, but drunk as shit. So it’ll be easier to take him.”
“Are they armed?” Aspen asked.
“Let me think about that, two people from the wasteland taking people hostage?” He said sarcastically. “Yeah, of course their armed. But it doesn’t matter if he’s seeing double.”
“I don’t appreciate the sarcasm.” Aspen said.
“Yeah well, I’m sure there’s a lot of things you Georgians don’t like about Ohio.” He said. “All I can say is, get used to it.”
“How long do we have to wait?” Aspen said, changing the subject.
“Who knows?” Train said. “Could be a few more hours at most. One at the least.” He said.
“Great.” Aspen said.
“Where are we going to go once we get out of here?” He asked.
“I thought you were the one with a plan.” Aspen said.
“Yeah?” He asked. “Now it’s your turn.”
“For one, we cross the river back into Ohio.” She huffed. “Then I’m going back where I belong.”
“And where’s that?” Train asked.
“Football stadium. My group’s there.” She said.
“What about me?” He asked. “You stop to think that they’d kill me?”
“Sounds like a you problem to me.” She said.
“Fuck off.” He said. Aspen sighed.
“Where do you want to go?” She asked.
“Home.” He said.
“And where’s that?” She asked.
“The bunker.” He said.
“The bunker!” Aspen exclaimed. “They’d shoot me on sight!” She said.
“Not if you’re with me.” He said. “Trust me, they trust me.”
“I have a hard time trusting anyone that says they’re from an Ohio bunker.” Aspen growled.
“Good for you.” He said. “Are you going to let your own hatred for our people stand in the way of your freedom?” He asked.
“Fuck off.” Aspen said. Train rolled his eyes.
“How about a deal.” He said.
“What kind of deal?” She asked.
“Once we get out of here, we never see each other’s faces again.” He said.
“Sounds good to me.” Aspen said.
“Good.” He said with silence soon overtaking the small closet. “So, what’s your story?” He asked.
“My story?” Aspen asked.
“Yeah, who are you? Where are you from?” He asked.
“What if I told you that there’s nothing more to me than what you see here?” She asked. “Just skin and bone with nothing else.”
“I’d say you’re lying.” He said. “But I wouldn’t say anything about it.” He said. “But, if I had to guess, I’d say you’re some sort of punk-rock rebel or something like that.” He went on. Aspen laughed.
“Something like that.” She said. “What about you? What’s up with your dad?” She asked.
“Oh, are my daddy issues that clear?” He asked. “He’s a total dick to anything that’s not his work. I’d be lucky if he even noticed I was missing by now.” He said.
“I knew someone like that once.” Aspen muttered.
“And yet here we are.” Train said.
“Trapped in a closet together?” Aspen asked.
“Alive.” He corrected. “It takes a strong person to go through a hard time and come out fine on the other side, it takes a stronger one to still be who they were when it’s all said and done.” He said.
“What’s saying I haven’t changed?” Aspen asked.
“What’s saying you haven’t?” He said, then turned his head, looking through a small crack in the door. “Soon. It’ll be soon.” He said. “Aspen, take this.” He said, reaching out his hand with a small shiny object in it. Aspen picked it up and looked at it.
“If you had this the entire time, why haven’t you used it?” She asked.
“Maybe I could kill them.” He said. “But then what? Try to crawl all the way home? I’d rather not.” He said.
“Fair enough.” Aspen said, shoving the knife up her sleeve to conceal it.
“So we’re really doing this?” He asked.
“We are.” She said. He once again turned and looked out the crack in the door. “Now or never ,Diaz.” He said.
“Let’s do it.” She said. She reached out and pounded the door with her fist.
“Hey dumbasses!” Ben yelled from outside. “Keep it down.”
“Make me!” Aspen yelled in return.
“Motherfucking fucks.” She heard Ben muttered. She could hear his shuffling closer to the door. Seconds later she could heard the door being unlocked and slowly opening. Ben quickly grabbed Aspen by the collar and lifted her up. “Bitch.” He began. “When I tell you to be quiet, I mean it.”
“And when I tell you to let me go, I mean it.” She said. Quickly bringing out the small knife and burrowing it deep into his neck.
“Fuck!” He exclaimed as blood began spilling everywhere. Aspen pulled it out and he dropped her, instead gripping his neck. Aspen regained her composure and charged forwards at him and buried the knife into his skull, finishing him. She began pulling it out and heard a snap, looking at the knife she realized the blade had snapped clean off the handle.
“Nice knife, Train.” She said.
“Yeah? It’s like an eternity old, sue me.” He said. “But right now, let’s get out of here.” He said.
“I can agree with you on that.” Aspen said as she threw the bladeless knife to the floor and walked back over to Train. Once she picked him up she was glad to find he was surprisingly light. “Thank God your not heavy or I’d leave your ass.” She muttered.
“If I had a dollar for every time I heard that one…” He said. “I’d have a dollar.”
“Stow the sarcasm.” She said. “I’m carrying you.”
“Noted.” He said.
“So, which way?” She asked.
“Out the window.” He said.
“You want to jump?” She asked.
“Not entirely.” He explained. “The building used to have a fire escape before it caved in on itself.”
“If it’s gone what good is it to us?” She asked.
“It’s not entirely gone.” He said. “Two stories down, the fire escape is still there. All we have to do is jump down and land on it.”
“Do you realize how hard that’s going to be while carrying you?” She asked. He shrugged.
“Throw me down.” He said.
“Seriously?” She asked.
“Well, you can’t fuck me up more than I already am so why the hell not?” He asked.
“You’re the boss.”
“That’s a new one.” He said.
“Shh.” Aspen quickly cut him off. “I heard something.” She said.
“Then let’s not stick around to find out what.” He said.
“Okay.” She said as she began moving towards the window. As quietly as she could she slid the glass pane out of the way and sat Train in the window sill. He looked down gulped.
“I’m having second thoughts about this right now.” He said. Aspen looked out the window towards the fire escape.
“That’s a hell of a drop.” She said.
“Damn right.” He barely even got the words out of his mouth before Aspen gave him a push and watched him tumbled two stories down, landing ungracefully on the fire escape below. “I hope you know that fucking hurt!” He called up once he collected himself.
“I hope you know I don’t care.” She called down.
“What the hell?” A new voice said. Aspen spun around and saw Delilah standing nearby holding a rifle.
“Shit.” Aspen mumbled as she climbed through the window. Just as she was about to jump and hand hauled her back through the window and threw her to the ground. Aspen rolled onto her back and looked up at a very pissed off Delilah.
“You killed Ben.” She said, sounding indifferent about the whole ordeal.
“Just let me go.” Aspen said.
“Not going to happen princess.” She said.
“Have it your way.” Aspen said as she kicked Delilah in the leg making her drop to the floor. Aspen shot up like a rocket, just in time for Delilah to recover. Aspen took one swing at her, missing by a mile. She smiled.
“So you want to fight?” She asked. “I like this.”
Aspen caught it too late. She jumped backwards, but not fast enough. The butt of the gun caught her right under her eye and sent her spiraling to the ground. She could feel blood.
“Get up.” Delilah said. “You wanted to fight, let’s fight. Get up.” She said. Aspen forced herself up off the floor and faced Delilah again. She made a sour face. “Damn your face looked like shit.” She said, jabbing the butt of her gun into Aspen’s stomach making her double over in pain. She then swung it upwards and hit her in the jaw knocking Aspen over backwards.
Aspen lay staring at the ceiling until Delilah walked into her view, hovering above her. Her face almost looked… Disappointed.
“You’re not worth the fight.” She said, aiming the rifle right at her heart. “Say goodnight.” She said. Aspen quickly grabbed the barrel of the gun and shoved it away. Delilah’s shot tore through Aspen’s side and into the floor. Aspen cried out in pain as she used all the force she could muster to kick Delilah away.
Aspen rolled over and slowly pushed herself up off the floor once again. When she turned around she saw the rifle laying on the floor. She locked eyes with Delilah for a little more than half a second before they both lunged at the rifle.
Aspen brought the rifle up, Delilah still locked on it.
“Let go of the gun.” Delilah said.
“How about you?” Aspen muttered as she brought her knee up and into Delilah’s stomach. Delilah let go of the gun and stumbled backwards. Aspen aimed the gun right at her head.
Then she pulled the trigger.
There was no flash, no recoil, no blood. No anything. There was only a small laugh coming from Delilah as she stood up.
“This is turning into a real fight.” She said.
“I don’t want to kill you, just let me go.” Aspen said as she wiped some of her blood off her cheek.
“Don’t lie to yourself.” Delilah said as she pulled out a large bowie knife from a sheath on her arm. “Come at me.” She said.
Aspen swung the rifle, and like a cat Delilah jumped out of the way just in the nick of time. While Aspen was still recovering, Delilah slashed at her with the knife. Aspen was barely able to bring up her rifle. The knife buried itself deep into the rifle’s polished stock.
“I liked that rifle you bastard.” Delilah said as she pulled at her knife.
“Then take it.” Aspen said as she used all her force to pushed the stock of the gun upwards into Delilah’s face. She stumbled backwards holding her nose, but to Aspen’s dismay still brought up the knife.
“Bitch.” Delilah said.
“Look who’s talking.” Aspen said as she swung the rifle, low. This time Delilah didn’t jump out of the way. Aspen swept her off her feet with the rifle and she fell right onto her back. Aspen hoisted the rifle high above her head, ready to bring it down onto Delilah’s skull.
Just as she began to let the rifle drop, a sharp pain shot through her foot. She dropped the rifle and fell backwards on top of it. She looked at her foot to see a large gash torn through her black boot. Aspen tried to sit up but Delilah was on her in seconds. She ran up and kicked Aspen in the face, making her fall back down. She planted her knee into her chest and held her knife against Aspen’s face.
“Enough games, bitch.” Delilah said. “Time to put an end to this.” She said as she slowly but deliberately ran the knife down Aspen’s face tearing a large gash in it. Aspen let out a scream of pain as blood ran down the side of her face. She reached out her arms for anything, just at the tips of her fingers she could feel something off to her right.
Delilah brought the knife up and looked at her face, admiring her own handiwork. She then moved the knife down to Aspen’s throat and pressed hard, Aspen could feel it cutting into her neck already. She strained more, trying to reach farther. She could feel it getting closer.
“I’m done with your shit.” Delilah said. “Good night, girly.” She said. Aspen swung her right hand upwards and smashed it into the side of Delilah’s skull with as much force as humanly possible. Delilah cartwheeled off of Aspen and onto the floor next to her. Aspen rolled on top of her and lifted her hand and brought it down once again at her face. It was now she realized she was holding the bladeless knife handle.
Even a broken knife is good for something.
Aspen continued to pound Delilah’s face with the Knife handle. Over and over, blood was everywhere. Delilah’s, her own. Blood. Everywhere.
Without warning, Delilah’s hand shot upwards as Aspen brought the knife handle down once move. Aspen felt a sharp pain shooting through her right hand. She jumped back in recoil and saw a knife stuck straight through her hand and coming out the other side.
“Fuck!” Aspen screaming in pain as she crawled away from Delilah. Delilah slowly stood up and faced Aspen, blood streaming down her face in a horrid cascade of crimson. She stumbled over to Aspen and threw herself on top of her, clasping her hands around Aspen’s throat.
Aspen wheezed for air as pain shot through her entire body. She looked at the knife through her hand and nearly cried. With her left and, she gripped the handle as tight as she could. She gritted her teeth and used all the energy she had left to pull the knife upwards. Blood shot from her hand as the large blade slowly left the bone.
Her vision now tunneling. Aspen looked up at Delilah, feeling utterly defeated. She didn’t want to die.
“Just die!” Delilah screamed at her, tightening he grip. Aspen could feel herself slipping away, her grip on the knife was loosening. It was now or never. With whatever it was she had left, she jerked her hand upwards pulling the knife complexly free.
“Sorry.” Aspen choked out, barely recognizable as a word. She jutted her left hand upwards, Delilah’s eyes widened as she let go of Aspen’s throat and looked down as her chest. The knife was stuck
stuck right in her gut. Aspen pushed it upwards, tearing apart everything that was important for life and she sliced at her heart.
Delilah fell over a knife sticking out of her heart. Aspen forced herself upwards, gasping for air. She took one step forwards and stumbled down to the floor as pain shot through her leg.
“Diaz, are you alive?” A voice asked from far off. Aspen thought it was Train calling from the fire escape at first, but soon realized it was someone else. She could hear the thunder of footsteps outside.
“Diaz!” A woman called from the door. “Are you in there?”
“I’m here!” Aspen called as loud as she could which really wasn’t loud at all, spitting up blood with every syllable.
“On me!” The woman yelled. The door to the room soon exploded into splinters as they kicked down the door and stormed the room. Five of them in total is what Aspen could count, each wearing their own gas mask. As soon as the first one saw Aspen, they pulled off their mask. Her eyes were wide as if she was looking at some strange beast.
“Aspen.” She said. “Jesus. Medic!” She yelled back at the group. A medic rushed forwards from the back of the pack and slid to a stop next to Aspen. Even he looked shocked.
“Holy shit.” The medic said, but then caught himself. “You’re going to be fine, Diaz.” He said. “You’re safe now.” He stood up and looked back to the leader. “There’s nothing I can do from here, we need to get her back of camp before she bleeds out.” He said. The commander turned to the group.
“Duval, get the stretcher ready.” She said. Aspen forced herself to sit up.
“I can walk.” She sputtered. “I can walk.” She repeated.
“No.” The commander said. “We need you to lay back Diaz. You’re safe now.”
“What about Train?” Aspen asked.
“Train?” The commander asked.
“On the fire escape.” Aspen forced out. “He was helping me.”
“Rousseau, check it out.” The commander said. A man walked forward and over towards the window. He looked down.
“Holy shit.” He said. “There’s a kid down there.” He said. “Hey kid! Come up here.”
“He’s paralyzed.” Aspen said. The commander looked at her. “He knows a lot.” She said.
“Rousseau, go get the kid.” The commander said. Rousseau nodded as he pulled a length of rope out of his bag and tied it down, like he came here intending to go rappelling when he came here. He started his descent out the window just as Aspen felt a sharp pain in her wrist. She looked down and saw a needle sticking out of it. Aspen tried to grab at it, but the medic held her hand back.
“I’m starting an IV, it’s going to keep you alive while we get back to base.” He said as he lifted a plasma bag. Aspen could see the blood flowing into her arm.
“Just like trying to fill a bucket filled with holes.” Aspen said, the pain flaring through her body. The medic smiled at the comment.
“I found something!” Someone called from the bathroom. “Painkillers, lot of them.” He said.
“Bring them here.” The medic said.
“Are we cleared for that?” The man asked from the bathroom, looking at the commander.
“You have my permission.” She said. The man walked out of the bathroom and threw a duffle bag at the medic’s feet. The medic hung the blood bag on a nearby coat rack and began rummaging through the bag of painkillers. He pulled out a small glass container filled with a clear liquid.
“That’ll work.” He said as he grabbed a needle out of his own bag. “Is that stretcher ready?” He asked.
“Yeah.” Duval said.
“Do you have a blanket?” The medic asked.
“Yeah.” Duval said.
“Here we go.” The medic said as he took the cap off the glass container and filled his needle with the liquid. He gingerly grabbed Aspen’s arm and looked her in the eyes, obviously aware that she already wasn’t all there. “This is going to hurt for a just a moment.” He said, as he jabbed the needle deep into Aspen’s arm and pressed down, releasing the liquid into her blood stream.
Aspen almost instantly felt drowsy. Her vision tunneled even move. She began breathing heavily as she fought back against it. The medic grabbed her hand.
“It’s okay, Diaz.” He said. “We’ve got you from here. Just sleep.” He said. Aspen’s head involuntarily lolled backwards against the floor as her eyelids betrayed her. Her eyes slowly closed as she became blissfully unaware of the world around her. The last thing she saw before closing her eyes was Rousseau climbing back in through the window carrying Train.
[Let him go]
If this would be a choice to kill the guy that actually shot at him, I'd kill without a second thought. But this guy indeed did nothing. Actually, he likely saved Lizbeth's life by treating her wound and I think that should be rewarded.
Hi Liquid. I just wanted to ask once more when your characters will be ready. I don't mean to rush you, I understand you are busy and are also a human being that does... Whatever a human does. Like I'd know that. I just wanted to ask.
Kill him
I seriously don't trust him. And there isn't really any reason to keep him alive. There's the chance that he is a threat and is really on Rachel's side so I just want to get rid of him
Kill him killing him could cause lizbeth to die , since she could have an infection or something , but it could hurt evan since the guy could be hitting him by surprise or something , so i won't take the chance.