calm before the storm [OPEN]

[Ella]

It was quiet, with the occasional sounds of panicked kids huddled in the shelters, just ragged tents put up to form some block from the wind. Ella was here alone, she'd lost her friends while racing through an abandoned supermarket. There had been five of them then, now, there was only her, she didn't know if the others were alive. Two were definately past help, one had gone down firing bullets and the other had succumbed to this infection ravaging the previous inhabitants of the city. The other two were missing, presumed dead or infected. With difficulty the girl pulled her head out of her memories, ripping her thoughts away from losing the guys. The only way now was forward, except now she was alone. Ella shifted, a breath of air escaping her lungs into the chill autumn air. She pulled the sides of her baseball jacket tighter, crossing her arms over the soft fabric, the sleeves pulled down over her hands.

Sat quietly, with her back to a wall starting to crumble into dust, feeling the cool metal of her Beretta 92F press into her lower spine, somehow reassuring in these dark times. She was safe here, as safe as she could be considering the zombies roaming the streets, and the military air drops. She moved her gaze to scan the area, 180 degrees around. Her back was guarded by the wall. Seeing absolutely nothing hostile around except perhaps a few survivors rummaging through bins to find whatever they could, shuffling around in the streets trying to look inconspicuous. Bless. Ella scowled as she sat against the wall, thinking deeply about nothing in particular. She shifted her legs to a more comfy position, her right leg flat on the ground, preventing the concealed Glock from digging into her leg any more than it had been already.

The survivor camps really were...well, dreary. These people, they couldn't be blamed, they had nothing to live for. Ella considered getting out of the city, at least she had considered it before remembering that the situation was the same the world over. Here, she knew the back alleys, the streets, the safe zones. If she hopped cities or moved elsewhere, Ella surmised that she wouldn't have much chance. She'd likely end up like those poor bastards out there, stumbling around in search of victims. Or, the preferable option, dead.

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muse: not much at all
tags: anyone
notes: apologies, i suck at starter posts

[Gyan]

"Hurensohn!" Gyan swore as he pushed the motorcycle harder down the desolate street. His stomach curled as the vicious screams from the hunters behind him tore away at his ears. The bike was streaking along the concrete, but the German was horrified that the mutants were keeping up as easy as though it were a game. Gyan yanked on the handlebars at the next turn, spewing up gravel and debris into another wave of infected that were shambling into the intersection. Ignoring the burning in his legs and arms, Gyanara thumbed the gas again, causing the bike to jump onto its back wheel before zooming down the road.

The sun was setting, and the cool autumn air made Gyans skin prickle. As soon as he thought the coast was clear, the man skidded the bike to a hault, swallowing a lump in his throat. His bike was nearly out of gas, and there was no way he'd be able to get all the supplies he'd gathered back to the camp with just his hands. Panting in exhaustion and stress, Gyan ran a bruised hand through his sweaty hair. And that was his mistake.

He heard the snarl, but wasn't quick enough to dodge as something like an enormous snake wrapped around his neck. Luckily Gyan had thought to raise and arm up, giving himself a little breathing room as the vile-smelling tendril squeezed hard, dragging the exhausted man down the street and towards the alleyway. Hopelessness washed over him as Gyanara reached out, grabbing a street light with the nook of his knee. He felt a jerk and a snap, and screamed in pain. The Smoker's tendril had pulled him so hard and sudden as to crush the wrist under it like powder.

Gyan took a second to be thankful it wasn't his neck.

Wriggling and pulling against the monsters grasp, Gyan hooked his other knee around the street light and doubled his grip. The harder the monster pulled, the more Gyan felt his wrist crunch and tear. With his right hand shaky, the boy managed to fumble for his flare gun. In a split second he decided that signaling for help would be a better use of the one shot than wasting it trying to hit the Smoker who was slowly crushing him to death. He squeezed the trigger and felt his retinas burn at the brilliant light that shot into the sky. The grip around his neck loosened suddenly, allowing Gyan to pull his head out of the tendrils squeeze. His injured arm wasn't as lucky though, as the blister-ridden creature screamed again, wrapping the tentacle up his limb and squeezing harder. Gyan pulled against it, dragging the disgusting monster into the light of the street lamp. It was a tug-of-war that the German man knew he couldn't win by himself as he tried to yank his arm free. Unarmed now and desperate, Gyan felt the tears streak down his cheek as more infected began tearing down the deserted street towards their trapped dinner.

[Ella]

It was the sound of a roaring engine that caught Ella’s attention at first. For a moment she wondered who in their right mind would be using a motorbike in these times. Well sure, she was up for a bit of reckless activity, but there was only one engine rumbling through the streets. Unless the rider had someone on the back, and that was unlikely since she heard no shots, they were alone. Glancing once more at the shuffling survivors, Ella pushed herself up off the ground, off the wall. She wanted to see who had the balls to ride through the streets on a loud machine attracting zombies. They’d have to have guts, either that or be absolutely desperate.

As the girl moved down the street, keeping her back close to the wall, the sound of unholy shrieks became more audible. Distantly from a street corner she could see a disturbance, of what she couldn’t see but that was where the sound was coming from, far enough away from the safe zone that the military weren’t going to worry about losing one more guy in a city full of demanding survivors. Since no one else was moving a muscle to even go see what the commotion was about, Ella started to run. She made it perhaps a half mile west before halting abruptly, hearing a gunshot. Stopping at corners and taking a peek round with her icy gaze, the girl had made it to a small precinct, a large tree rising out of cracked concrete in the center. Across the other side of the precinct Ella spotted the source of the engine sound – a bike laying almost discarded, unwanted, on the ground. It was then that Ella heard the sounds of the hunters, and following the line of sight she spotted a man with his leg hooked around a streetlamp. It took only a second for the guy to scream at the precise moment that Ella reached behind her and grabbed her Beretta, the 92F comfortingly cold in her hand. Calculating the distance, she raised the handgun, aimed, and fired, watching as the bullet thudded moments later into the Smoker’s side. Hoping to at least have distracted the beast for a moment, enough for the guy to wriggle free and either go for a close combat attack or get the fuck out of there, Ella took aim again and fired, this time missing. Groaning, she saw the bullet thud into the wall behind, cracking the stone and shattering it, pieces of red brick flying out from the impact. It was only by sheer dumb luck that a few pieces thudded into the zombie. ”What are you waiting for, get the hell out of there!” Ella yelled at the guy.

Having brained the zombie, luckily by a bullet in the side and a few shards of brick flying into it’s head, Ella crossed her fingers and hoped it’d stay down. She glanced down the street, seeing more zombies lumbering awkwardly towards them, and fired off two more shots. Four shots down, and with a need to conserve ammo, Ella shoved her Beretta back into it’s concealed holster at her spine and searched for something to brain the zombies with, coming up with a longish lead pipe. It was no gun, but it’d have to do.

[Gyan]

Even in this time of near-death and desperation, Gyanara found the time to roll his eyes. The Smoker, while having had its grip loostened in confusion, obviously payed no notice to the bullets that dug into its side. Not wanting to waste anymore precious seconds up in time, Gyan took the opportunity to stand up straight and grab the tendril with his good arm. The man expertly wrapped his hand around it and stomped down hard with his leg, twisting his body and violently dragging the monster closer to him. With a quick back-roll that slammed the creature into the concrete, the German tied the monsters tongue around the pole and made his way over to the girl who was waving a pistol around like they were in an old-west shoot-out.

"Legen Sie, dass die vor euch jemand ein Auge raus zu nehmen," he said with a nervous attitude. Suddenly, the previously broken street light near them shone, and Gyan felt his heart stop. The girl was absolutely beautiful. Moreso than any damsel and royalty he had ever seen in Europe. Reaching into his backpack, Gyan quickly drew out his camera and took a shot of the girl. "Es ist so werde ich immer in der Lage sein, Sie zum ersten Mal sehen, immer und immer," he said with a small laugh. Upturning a storm drain a few feet behind them, Gyan beckoned his savior towards him as he slid down the stairs into the sewer. It was going to be their safest way out of the undead-infested streets.

As he landed with a soft thud, the man stood in the way, ready to catch the girl should she slip on the grimy ladder.It wasn't that he doubted her dexterity, but falling into that water filled with God-knows what would be a horrible way to die. Carefully taking the time to check around him, he saw nothing but dim brick and murky water in the vaguely-lit tunnels. It surprised the man that there was power down here, for most of the city was without. Most of the city was without a lot of things, as were everybody. Gyan clenched his teeth, he had seen much worse, though. Alexandria was certainly not the only zombie infestation he had covered, and it wouldn't be the last for the photographer. Gyan looked up again, feeling a lump in his throat. The beautiful maiden had only been a few feet behind him, surely it shouldn't have taken her this long to follow him down.

[Ella]

Ella swore under her breath, the monster hadn’t even registered the bullets she’d placed in it’s side. What the hell did it take to down these things, any normal human would have been either mortally injured by her shot or dead, but then, these things were hardly human. As the man took advantage of the beast’s confusion, using the time to stand up and take the beast down. Ella turned her gaze back to the approaching zombies, lumbering down the street in pursuit of their prey, now two instead of one. No wonder they were so excited, they probably hadn’t seen this much fresh meat in a few days. She spared no glance back to the man, seeing as he had the situation over there under control, having done something involving a tongue a pole. Ella didn’t really want to know exactly what right now. As he approached, he spoke nervously. Except, the words were…German? Ella knew a few snatches of German, but really not enough to get by. She recognised the word ‘eye’, but really that was all. With time enough only to give him a curious, slightly confused look, the girl stood under his scrutiny. She glanced up at the flickering streetlight, totally oblivious as to why he was staring at her or what he had previously said. Then he took out a camera.

With a streak of blood on her left cheek from some fight earlier that day involving a pissed off homeless man, Ella hardly looked presentable. So, why? She gave the guy another confused look, not knowing again what he had said, before glancing over to the approaching mob of infected. When the girl's ’cy blue gaze turned to the man again, he’d overturned a storm drain and was disappearing down it. Deciding that she’d rather take her chances with the sewers instead of up here, Ella almost ran to the opening in the street as the man slid down the stairs. She followed quickly, making sure to seal the storm drain afterwards so no infected would get in. Climbing down the ladder quickly, Ella’s boot slipped. She fell only a few feet to the ground, so no harm done, but the idea of falling into whatever lurked in this rotten sewage was a chilling one at that.

Straightening up, she glanced around, noting that whoever he was, he was doing the same. Another experienced survivor then. She followed after him, taking her time as she was smaller in size than the man, and had to watch where she stepped more so. Watching where you stepped in filthy water was harder than it appeared on tv. That was the reason why she took longer in following down the sewer, though when she caught up, Ella looked up at the guy, speaking the only complete phrase she knew how to say in German. ”Sprechen Sie English?” Not even sure if that was completely right, but if not then she’d just go with the flow. Not the flow of the sewers though, even if it was safer than above ground.