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You Hit Like a Biscuit! (SpiderBiscuit) [m]
End of the world and supernatural monster killer things, go!
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Victors consciousness melted away his past memories flooding in his mind his own thoughts seemed to scramble and fall apart as the flashes of his childhood and growing up coming to a frozen still of when he had met Emily, and soon the others. He reached out to them but they seemed so impossibly far away, falling further away from his grasp before slowly disappearing all together only leaving him in darkness before his own body seemed to fall into dust.
Anna gripped the mans hand as the others tried to slow the bleeding, her eyes had already dried from the shock of it all, her insides felt as if they had shattered completely. He wasn't going to another minute if that, she choked on her own tongue as she watched the life in his eyes fade away. She stood defeated, looking down at his blood that now soaked all her clothing, tears flowed more freely from her face as she turned away from the two looking towards his belongings. If she had just tailed them instead maybe things could have gone better, because she had decided to act on impulse she had lost the last of her family. Anna grabbed Victors bag throwing it over her own shoulder and turned back to the other two wiping her eyes dry. "We... we can't stay here, those creatures wont take long to get here.. " She choked on her own words staring back at his lifeless body, She pointed off into the distance off the main road "I've got a small cabin...a day and a half from Denver, we ca- - we can stay there for now. If we move quick it'll only take the day to arrive, please come with me." The woman took a deep breath, shaking visibly from what had happened. / / / / / / / / / Brett threw his arms out to the sky spinning in bliss of his kill. "I did it! Just like you wanted. They'll never know. It's just like you said!" He snickered to himself before peering at the horse a sinister smile filling his face. "You can't live neither! No witnesses she said only my prey can be aware!" the cowboy plunged his makeshift blade through the neck of his steed quickly silencing the cry the animal gave. He paused for a moment becoming still contemplating in thought for a moment. "Does that make me a witness of she?! Nobody is worthy to lay eyes on the path she has created for us. I am no exception!" Brett pulled a small blade from his pocket grinning as he eyed the point of it before plunging into the socket ripping his own eye out. He admired his work for only a moment before repeating the process on his other. "Praise her...praise her... She will be my eyes SHE will guide me!" The cowboy grabbed the large satchel from the horse dragging it on the ground behind him as he continued further into the woods muttering to himself with the occasional outburst of laughter. |
Emily walked, hands down at her sides, eyes straight ahead. The weight of Victor's death hung in her chest like the heaviest of clouds before a storm. The man played such a central role in her life for the past several weeks and now he was just...gone, the only evidence that his life ever happened rest in Emily's bag in the form of his journal and the lifeless husk they'd left behind on the road several miles ago. She couldn't cry, she couldn't scream. She felt the emotions as a whirlpool draining her energy, her thoughts. Nothing could bring Victor back. He was gone. Forever. She'd stayed there and felt his last heartbeat, followed by the escape of his last breath. His face was still warm as she drew her hands over his eyes, closing them for the last time. |
Anna took point, cutting through small groves of trees. She didn't say much to the others as she reminisced on her past with Victor, as much resentment she carred towards him after the reckoning all amounted to nothing. "She's right.. if we stayed there's no way we would have survived, not this close to the city." Anna pointed in the distance, skylines rose over the trees not far from them half turning her head towards the other two. "So.. you were planning to head straight through right? Why would you do something stupid like that? Denver has more horror stories surrounding it than Lovecraft wrote in his lifetime Anna's voice seemed to be lack of any enthusiasm still impacted from earlier events.
The city seemed towered over the wilderness they wandered, Anna pointed at a reasonably sized shack indicating her home. She waved them forward holding the makeshift door open for the two women. An odor of mustiness and food on the edge of spoiling filled her room causing her to immediately open on of her windows. "Sorry, its been awhile since I've been home, I was running low on supplies generator must have gone out and rotted whatever I had left." She made herself comfortable on a worn futon gesturing for the other two to join her as the stench slowly dissipated from the room. |
Emily pressed her lips into a thin line, not wanting to talk about why they'd chosen Denver. After all, it was her idea to go through there so she could see her childhood home. They'd wanted to see firsthand what was in the cites and document it. Scientists to a degree, though they were more like field scientists than any that lived their days in a lab. |
Anna scratched her head in confusion before leaning in closer to the two, in her mind nobody that was right in the head would even consider traveling to Denver, even the most skeptical scavengers started to avoid the city. |
“Of course we heard the stories; we're not deaf,†Emily shot back, folding her arms. “You don't have to come with us. But whatever the fuck it is that's spilling over into our world isn't gonna just go away. The stories are why we're going there, more than anything.†|
"So, whats the plan then? You can't just go into the city like any other and expect not to be caught, in fact anyone that steps past a certain point seems to attract the attention of everything in there at once." Anna clenched her jaws to the point her teeth may have shattered in her mouth, she wasn't even sure why she was trying so hard to dissuade them in the first place if they wanted to rush to their deaths it wasn't her problem. |
“It wasn't going to be a one step process. We didn't live this long being fucking dunderheads. We were going to scout and take it one or two steps at a time. No one would benefit if we charged in head first and died on our first excursion,†Emily said frankly, mildly annoyed at Anna's ignorance, though she knew it wasn't her fault. She'd never been with them during times of combat; she had no frame of reference for their abilities. |
Anna shook her head in disagreement to Emily's statements, they wouldn't have known the things she had and could not blame them. She bit her tongue at the anger that she seemed to be target of at the moment taking a deep breath before speaking again. One step at a time isn't going to work I'm afraid, I told ya people never seem to come out alive no matter how 'little' they plan to enter and 'scout' something gets them. Anna twirled he rhair in thought of the situation, gauging the supplies the two had on hand and what she held in storage. "I believe in these circumstances would to over prepare and assume we make it through the city in one go, and deal with whatever is inside as we come across it. |
Emily was back to her sitting position, not willing to expend the strength it took to stand and the tears fell freely. She missed Victor, more than she ever thought she could miss another human. Yoruba, on the other hand, was still on her feet, both fists still clenched and trembling. “It doesn't work like that. He's seen both of us fight and he knew we weren't ones to make brash decisions. He knew that. And yeah, I didn't like him. So fucking what? He liked her and he didn't even bother to even tell her!†Yoruba pointed down to Emily who appeared to barely hear the words she was saying. “I dealt with him for her sake, just like he dealt with me, and look where we are now! Knowledge that could potentially save Emily down the line is lost and we have to get to fucking Seattle to figure it out. Tell me his fucking secrets were a good idea, and I'd tell you you're a fucking imbecile.†Yoruba stopped and shook her head, exhaling through her nose, “But. There's strength in numbers. If you want to join us, that's fine. But don't think I'm going to forget that you're now defending the name of someone that you yourself were threatening with a loaded fucking gun.†|
Anna returned back tossing a bag of potato chips at the fuming woman and another towards Emily. She nibbled on a piece broken piece of chocolate glaring slightly at the woman. She pulled out the gun she had threatened Victor with and pointed it straight at Yoruba pulling the trigger several times in the blink of an eye. Click, click, click "I never had the means to kill him or any of you, only planned to ever hate him if everything that happened was as fucked up as it seemed at the time. I figured if he believed it was loaded and that I was as vengeful as it seemed he would give the information to me instead of being his dismissive self." |
Yoruba's gun was out the second she saw a flash of metal – much could be said about the strength of her reflexes – and holstered after the second click she realized the gun was almost empty. “I suppose nothing can be said of your intelligence, then. Do you know shit about guns? Rule number one is never point a gun at someone you don't intend to shoot – empty or not. I learned that rule when I was five. It's a rule to live by, or die by if you're stupid enough not to follow it. It's a miracle you're still alive, honestly,†Yoruba snapped back, “If the stuff doesn't do a damned thing, then that dead motherfucker is leading us on a suicide mission across the country only to die and his name should be cursed further. If he saw me as a liability it's only because I fucked his squeeze before he ever had a chance to.†Emily winced at the words, though she knew there was more than a little bit of truth to them. She, however, kept her mouth shut, and Yoruba continued,[b] “Look at the odds, sugar. If the chances are high that he collected nothing but stories, going to Seattle is useless and he is literally leading us all to our deaths from the grave just because he was spiteful enough to keep it to himself. You're doing nothing to clear his name. Do you hear me? Nothing. If anything, you're making me hate him even more if only because the little shit still continues to put Emily in danger even as a corpse.†|
Anna tilted her head dumbfounded by what the woman was saying she shook her head confused and annoyed at this point at the words coming out of Yoruba's mouth. "You really shouldn't speak bad about Victor, You're making assumptions and I'm really emphasizing the 'ass' part of that I don't believe those set of choices would be as bad as you make it out to be. Remember originally I was told the goal was to see if northwest was better, as in Canada, or Alaska, NOT Seattle. I just happened to remember his old collection and got a little too overzealous, we were quick to jump at conclusions without thinking first, You saw how he quickly he broke and shut down after I showed up, He was fine with me killing him there and then, with that kind of guilt eating away at him and the shitty memories he had of that place, I really think now Seattle was the LAST place he would ever have wanted to be. Victor would never would have considered bringing another person with him back there, not after his family was murdered and especially not after what happened between us." She choked on her own words taking a moment to regain composure of herself wiping a tear from her eye. She gave Yoruba a stern look before pointing a finger towards Emily who still seemed to mourn her brothers life. "You don't have to have liked Victor, but we shouldn't spew bullshit nonsense to transform his persona into that of a despicable human being when he was anything but. Especially with a person who genuinely cared about him here." |
“I shouldn't speak bad about Victor,†Yoruba repeated under her breath, exasperated. “And tell me, Anna, why not? Why can't I talk about him? You know, the word 'ass' is indicative of stupidity, which I am not nor am I showing any sign of it. On your end, however, I see a lot of hypocrisy, mind changings, and an inability to stick to one story. When you say we you really mean you. You were the one that suggested this nonsense and you are the one backpeddaling again on things you just said. How does that make any sense?†Yoruba was fierce and regardless of how cool-headed Anna appeared to be, her words said anything but and Yoruba was quick to point that out. Emily hated to agree, so she kept silent. The flip flopping on virtually every topic was not a good omen so she pressed her lips together and bowed her head. |
Anna nodded in agreement for once since they arrived in the cabin. "Sure, I can with a lot of what you said. I'm the one who suggested any of this nonsense, I'm just saying if you don't like the ideas I came up with then place them on me, and not Victor. We don't know what I said was really his intention, and since he's dead, we never will. That's all." |
Yoruba squeezed the bridge of her nose, shaking her head, “Fine, fine. You're right, you're right. I surrender. The blame is on you, then.†Emily remained silent, her eyes staring straight ahead. Her mind was in a place where Victor still was, cracking DnD jokes and crouching to pat Max on the head. The dog whined then, as if on cue, and nudged Emily's hand with his snout. Her eyes moved, and she attempted a smile for the dog's sake and moved to scratch, as if in Victor's stead. “I'm glad we can at least agree on that,†Yoruba said in regards to their expectations.
When she and Yoruba were alone, Yoruba took the opportunity to own up to her mistakes there as well and sat down beside her, back against the wall. The small shed had a window and light spilled in through it's gap, the tattered remnants of a curtain fluttering in the breeze. The warmth on Emily's cheek did nothing to warm her disposition, the very core of her being cold. “I'm...sorry about what I said about Victor,†Yoruba said, breaking the silence, “It's not...it's not him I have a problem with. I mean, yeah, I wasn't fond of the guy, but I knew he'd never hurt either of us – me or you. I trusted him. I don't know why I said what I did. Something about that woman woke up the worst parts of me I guess. I'll do better next time.†Admitting defeat was never easy for a woman like Yoruba. She was pig-headed. Intelligent, but stubborn and by the time she realized she was on the wrong road, she'd be too far down to turn around, so she'd ramp the gas up. Emily knew this and looked at Yoruba through the sides of her eyes, not bothering to shift her head. She let the silence grow for a while, resting in the moment of the apology. It wasn't often that this happened. Still, an apology could never actually retract the words and the empty space in her chest ached, “I'm not...not gonna say it's alright. Because it isn't. It just isn't. Anna was right; he wasn't here to speak for himself. Please, just...let him rest. But, Yoruba...it will be okay, alright? Don't stress, please, we need to be as strong as ever to make up for his absence. You said it yourself, you can trust him. We can't...trust Anna just yet. Everything in me wants to, but for the time being we just can't. Especially with how quickly she changed her mind in the beginning. I can't trust her.†Yoruba nodded, lifting her eyes and stopping mid-sentence when she heard the door's clasp unlock. “Thanks. We could use the sustenance,†Yoruba said when she saw that Emily was once again in that dream world. Victor's death was not going to be easy to overcome. |
Anna didn't say a word to the two as she dug through Victors pack, she pulled out the fresh meat he had caught the prior day and paused while making sure it was still good. "This can't be more than 2 days old..." she sat silently for moment eyeing the carefully cut meat portioned into rations for his previous party. She took the meat out placing them on a hot skillet and added her own sides to go with. |
Yoruba kept with the mode of silence, barely making a sound as she went through the various parts to see what she had to work with. Likely, she'd have to rummage through cars and the like to pick up more parts, but if she could form the base of whatever would come of it. The tension was thick in the air, Yoruba pensive at her having to admit defeat, and Emily broken from the recent death. She picked up a few specific parts, rearranging them by category so she could take stock of what they had. Things were looking bleak. There would not be much ammo unless she could find a way to turn more common finds into it, but she'd be able to create a few flash pods, at the very least. Still, she was worried about time. One day was not going to be enough time, and she hoped Anna realized that. She'd tell her, but she hated her.
Emily's hand rest on Max's head, giving his favorite spot behind the ears a scratch whenever he whined, but her eyes stared straight ahead. She only was shaken out of her revery when Anna came to sit down beside her. “A month, maybe two. The exact date is in his journal,†Emily responded, voice soft, barely audible, and cracked. She'd spent the past while trying not to cry – and she'd failed. A tear slid down her cheek and she shook her head, “But since I met him, we'd been inseparable.†She mustered a smile, running a hand through her hair, “He actually caught my lame ass jokes.†Her eyes drifted to the last bit of meat that Victor caught and she sighed, looking back down, “I'm not really hungry.†|
Anna glanced towards Yoruba's work while Emily spoke, she only hoped the junk there would be more useful to the woman than herself, she had wasted a good portion of supplies trying to experiment herself to no avail. She returned her attention to Emily for the time being who seemed to be affected the hardest from her brothers passing. She flipped through Victors journal a small itch of curiosity filled her when she mentioned the entry. |
Just because Yoruba was occupied with her activities did not make her oblivious to the conversations going on around her. Pre-Reckoning days, she let herself get completely absorbed in her work, music blaring. Now, however, she worked hyperaware of every noise that went on about her, including the conversations. She worked quickly, having formulated a brief mental plan and wrote out some of the more complicated bits, complete with a diagram and measurements.
Emily tried to muster a smile, “I didn't really give him much of a choice. After I found out he had Max, I was going to leave so he might as well get used to my presence. The rest is...was...history.†Again, she could feel that too familiar lump forming in her throat and she bowed her head. “Truth was, I was lonely. Sure, I was surviving traveling the east coast wastelands, but I wasn't living. I needed a friend and then I found Victor...†Yoruba swallowed, pausing what she was doing for a moment. She should have been more kind to Victor. But what was done was done. Victor was gone, and she, like Emily, would need to move on. Before the other two ladies could tell that she was eavesdropping, she resumed, her mind busy with the project at hand and the parts of Emily's life that she hadn't been there for. How different would things be if she hadn't fucked up so royally with Payali? Emily looked down at the plate and sighed, “You're right. Won't last a day in Denver if we're not properly fed.†She cut off a piece with her pocket knife and took the bite, willing herself to chew. “Yoruba, you finding anything?†she mustered, doing her absolute best to stay on a neutral subject that wouldn't bring her to tears again. “I've got layouts of a couple new things made up. But I don't think we'll be ready to go into Denver tomorrow. I'll need at least one more day. Tomorrow, if you'd be willing, could you and Anna see if you could catch anything? We'll need to overstock on food because we don't know what we'll be up against when we get in there. Also, some of the cars along the freeway will probably have guns or ammo. We'll need to do a thorough search if Anna hasn't already.†|
Anna fell silent as Emily spoke before rising to her feet. |
Emily clenched her fists, shaking her head and looked down. “No,†she said, “No. This isn't your fault. That insane man would have found us whichever way you look at it. If it didn't happen then, it would have happened later.†If one listened closely, they'd notice the slight tremor in Emily's voice, and the undertones of anger and regret, “He's been hunting us since we were back East. Some sicko is paying him to take me back to marry him. What the hell he sees in me is beyond me, but the fucker threatened to kill Victor before. It might be part of the reason he left the rest of us alive. Women aren't a threat to him, apparently.â€
Yoruba looked up from her drafting, turning to Emily, “You never told me any of this.†Her lips were pressed into a thin line and Emily could see that her fists were clenched. “I thought he gave up. Victor and I left, we got far away and we thought he was gone forever. I was wrong,†Emily bowed her head. Yoruba stopped what she was doing and moved over, placing a hand on her shoulder. “No. None of us can be blamed for Victor's death okay? None of us but that insane man. He'll get his. You'll see. He shows his ugly mug again, we'll kill him. If neither of you want to, I'd be happy to do the honors,†Yoruba muttered. “For now, go hunting with Anna. It might help clear your head.†Emily nodded slowly, biting her lip, “Alright. Alright, I'll go. It's probably best we go in over stocked than under.†“Damn right.†|
"Hunting you? Why didn't you just set a trap and take him out yourself?" Anna asked before clasping a hand over her mouth, she didn't mean to put Emily on the spot, instead speaking without thinking first as usual. "I mean... I'm sorry... I'm sure there's a good reason it wasn't possible..." |
“It wasn't that simple,†Emily said sadly, “He travels with a group, and horses. If we managed to trap him, we'd only really be able to trap his horse and he'd walk free. Besides. I'm not the engineer, and I don't think Victor was either. That's Yoruba, and I thought he was gone by the time she came back around.†Emily's green eyes searched the ground as if looking for answers. She knew she should have just shot him then, right between the eyes, but he was surrounded by his cronies. They were outnumbered and outgunned. Traps wouldn't have fixed it regardless of how quickly Anna felt she could have dealt with him.
“He was insane before, but this? This is worse. Before he would have said something snarky before trying at least.†Emily reached over to pat Max's belly to remind him that she was still here, even if Victor couldn't be. “I can follow trails just fine, thank you.' She looked ahead, grateful, at least, that they didn't belong to some settlement. The settlements she'd seen were relics of an ancient time where racism and sexism were both alive and well, despite the fact that all of humanity had much larger problems that should be paid attention to first. “Overstocking is the goal,†Emily said, sliding into the river, “I suppose this will work just fine. I wonder how Yoruba's doing with her projects.†|
Anna's thoughts wandered as she tightened a knot on their fishing net. "What was your relationship with Victor like? He obviously had a thing for you with those few entries you were the focal of. Did you care about him in that sorta way? Anna stood to her feet nodding appreciatively of her handiwork, a couple of fish had already tangled themselves within their net as she grabbed several bits of sticks and leaves. |
Emily was silent for a moment, following Anna's lead in setting her own secondary trap, in case any of the wandering deer were in a herd. “My relationship with Victor? It was happy, mostly, up until the end,†as she spoke, Emily seemed to be in a different world, looking back at better times, “I...I did, but things got complicated.Really complicated. Before the Reckoning, Yoruba was my girlfriend. Shit happened and we broke up. It was just before the Reckoning, so of course those feelings for her hadn't yet died, but feelings for Victor were already there and growing. I didn't want to choose, so I just...I guess I just chose neither.†She bowed her head, eyes sad and wistful, as though her not making a decision was what ultimately lead to Victor's death. The notion was preposterous, of course, but she couldn't help but wonder if there was some sort of butterfly effect that could have kept him alive if things had even been just a little different.
“I've always loved fish, even before the Reckoning when that was the only thing in ready abundance. Sushi was my favorite,†Emily said, dreaming of the rice and seaweed, soysauce there, but hardly touched. Her eyes went over to where they'd laid the traps and she sighed, “There's a couple of possibilities I suppose. One, we're being too loud. The other...something has scared them out of this area. Let's pray it's not the latter.†|
Anna nodded while retrieving the few fish she could before they escaped their trap. "I don't think he'd blame you for that, so don't let it eat at you. If he cared about a person their happiness was always the thing he would strive for." |
"I...I know," Emily murmured, bowing her head. She was seated on the edge of the bank, watching the nets beginning to do their job. When there were three or more she set to work retrieving them and cleaning them. "He always seemed to put himself last. Almost to a fault. I think that's why Yoruba trusted him. Maybe not liked him, but she respected him more than I ever thought was possible from her. She's ah...not exactly friendly to newcomers, if you haven't noticed."
The haul was decent, despite being only fish. They must have been impervious to anything that scared away the land dwelling creatures. It was enough to get them for a few days. Likely, they'd have to take the extra time to salt them and let them dry out, and it would give Yoruba extra time to prepare...whatever it is she was working on. "I don't know if my love for them is strong enough to survive off of them, but it seems I don't have a choice, huh?" Emily said with an attempt to crack a joke. Yoruba, as expected, barely turned from her work until she got to a proper stopping spot. She was hunched over the small work bench, her hands blackened with oil, one holding some small like object steady, the other with some tool that Emily didn't know of prying into said object. When she finished with the prying, she straightened and stretched, "I won't complain. Food is food, and we'll need the sustenance. My progress has felt slow, but I have a couple of things I'll need to test out before the sun goes down. If either of these works, I'll need one or two more days to craft extra. But the supplies you gave me, Anna, seem to be doing the trick. Whatever the fuck is in Denver won't be ready for these." |
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