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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2017 13:34:43 GMT
[attr="class","scapebold"]"What a mess," Art groaned. It wasn't something that needed saying; the streets had been in disrepair for a while now, and obviously no one had the first priority of cleaning them up. In a way, it was sort of like a bachelor going home to a messy apartment that he'd never bothered cleaning up. Even knowing how it's going to look, one can't resist saying "what a mess" every now and again. This specific example was something that Art had a lot of experience with, back in the day.
This mess cut a bit deeper, though. Wherever he had been before, the streets had always been his home. Not in, like, some back-alley urchin sort of way, but rather the literal streets. Art's metaphorical wings of freedom were cars of all sorts, fast, beat-up, stolen (only the one time), or maybe even the occasional motorbike, which he considered cheating because of how easy it was to maneuver. So today, he'd taken time off from the usual survivor routine of vague despair to come map the streets and see if there were any routes that could still be used in an emergency.
With a sigh, he resigned himself to the fact that it was a wasted task. Just like in every apocalypse movie he'd ever seen, cars littered the streets and the roads were in egregious disrepair. Some lesser-used one-way streets were no longer one-way, and so there were actually a few paths people with small vehicles and a smaller regard for their continued existence could use in a pinch to get from a very specific Point A to a very specific Point B very fast, but none of that was really so useful. Even so, Art dutifully noted down where these paths were on a city map he'd brought along. Hah! A printed map in this day and age. How barbaric.
Art wouldn't just let the day go to waste, though. He'd brought some packing tape along and made a point of showily breaking into a few decrepit-looking office buildings to search for supplies. His best turnout had been a few packs of batteries, although secretly he most valued the small stash of snack foods he'd picked up. He'd always wondered what cubicle workers had put in their desk drawers.
As he headed back, day sort of well spent, Art's ears pricked up. Was there someone else roaming the streets? Or was it going to be some godawful mutant murder pigeon or something? He reflected now that he'd been making a lot of noise breaking into buildings the fun way, and resolved to be a little more discreet next time. "Yo, anyone there?" Hearing his voice echo through the streets made him feel a little silly and a little nervous at the same time. CRUNCHY CHEESE PUFFS ARE REALLY THE SUPERIOR CHEESE PUFFS
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Post by Bay Lockwood on Mar 26, 2017 20:13:12 GMT
Bay wasn't exactly sure what she was looking for on the streets. She figured that there might be something hidden in the abandoned cars or the rubble that she could use, but so far the only thing she had found were a few rabid rats that had nipped at her heels before she managed to stomp on them and get out of the area. She continued wandering randomly through the streets before she found one car missing it's doors. She wondered what possible reason people could have for taking the doors off of a car, but it didn't really matter to her at the moment. Bay crawled into the car and sorted through the few belongings in there. As she crawled into the back seats she saw a latch inlaid into the ground. She pulled it open to reveal a nicely folded blanket in the compartment in the ground. Bay smiled and pulled the blanket out. She tried to see if the fabric would fit in her backpack, but it was too big, so instead she wrapped it around her shoulders as she climbed back out of the doorless car.
Bay looked up and down the street, trying to determine which way might be best to go. She walked left down the street and every corner she turned she checked to make sure there wasn't a flock of murder birds or a giant bear or something standing in the middle of the street. You never know with the apocalypse. Bay flexed the fingers interlaced in the brass knuckles as she walked. She preferred to walk with them on in case something tried to sneak up on her, but she kept that hand hidden under the newly acquired blanket. She had to keep up her innocent appearance. She smoothed down the light pink pleated skirt she wore as she walked. It was covered in dirty spots, but it helped her with her look as well.
As she rounded another corner Bay heard some noises, some of which sounded like somebody walking, which transitioned into noises that sounded like breaking into something, or at least trying to. Bay stayed hidden for a few minutes while she listened. Eventually she moved to try and see whoever was doing whatever it was, but then she heard a voice call out, assuredly to her. Bay paused and tilted her head before hunching her shoulder and peeking around the corner. Her wide eyes inspected the guy standing about ten metres away from her. Bay let her eyes tear up slightly, but didn't cry yet. "Are you mean?" She asked in a quiet voice, trying to make herself sound as childlike as possible. If this guy had been looking through the houses maybe he had something that she could convince him to give to an orphaned child in need.
She wrapped the blanket tighter around her shoulder and kept her hand with the brass knuckles hidden. Bay still didn't know if this guy was safe to be around.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2017 21:42:29 GMT
[attr="class","scapebold"]"Mean? What the heck?" It sounded like a kid, but why would a kid be wandering the streets in this sort of situation? Actually, Art decided, kids would be kids no matter what, especially in this sort of situation. "Uh, well, I'm slightly above average I guess?" Wait, no, even adults didn't get those sorts of jokes sometimes. "Sorry, I mean I ain't a bad guy." Technically true, at this very moment, in this very context. The best kind of truth.
He looked over at the source of the sound and eventually locked eyes on half a face. He was also pretty sure there was another face-half behind there, and probably a body as well. There didn't seem to be any horror-movie level mutations just yet...at least that Art had seen personally. This kid...well, she was a little older than the one he'd delivered, but she had a similar air to her. In other words, the sort of kid that made a guy like him go "Man, I shoulda settled down and had children and gone straight."
"Anyway, I ain't mean, but then I probably ain't the only guy wanderin' the streets right now either. You should get goin' back to...wherever the heck you're staying, before something nastier pops outta the woodwork." Art pondered whether he should escort her home, but decided that would probably be kinda shady under the circumstances.
CRUNCHY CHEESE PUFFS ARE REALLY THE SUPERIOR CHEESE PUFFS
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Post by Bay Lockwood on Mar 26, 2017 23:55:06 GMT
The guy that Bay had spotted generally didn't seem like a child murderer. He didn't have any crazy third arm sticking out of his back or a gun pointed around, so she figured that she was in the clear for now. He also seemed to be trying to make jokes, even if he quickly backpedaled away from them as if he thought she wouldn't get them. Bay decided that it was safe enough to come out further from behind the wall. Before doing that she stuffed the brass knuckles into a pocket in her skirt. Easy access if things went south. So with that thought Bay stepped out from behind the wall hesitantly and continued to gaze at him. All of her movements suggested those of a scared child. It was her best act after all.
"So you're nice?" Bay asked, kind of in a rhetorical question, as he made eye contact with her. She kept the water eyes stick going as she cautiously eyes him, trying to gauge the best way to manipulate him into giving her stuff. He provided the perfect opening when he stated that she should get back to where she was staying. Some people just made it so easy. With those words the waterworks started. Tears began to slide down Bay's cheeks, a trick that she had learned in the beginning of the apocalypse.
"I d-don't have anywhere to go." She whined as the tears continued to flow. She pulled the blanket closer still as if she had always had it and it was some sort of security blanket for her. Bay shifted her footing slowly from one foot to the other. "Do you r-really think something worse is out here?" She questioned, letting the sound of fear make her words waver. "There were some rats back there, b-but I was faster than they were." Bay looked behind her down the road, as if the rats might still be chasing her. She knew for a fact that she had stomped on them hard enough to break whatever weird mutant skeletons they may have, but she figured a cute little girl would be more likely to run from rats rather than stomp the life out of them. She looked back at the man expectantly.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2017 0:36:41 GMT
[attr="class","scapebold"]Art sighed as the girl came out. He felt a little silly with himself for having imagined the horror movie possibility. There were some things, at least, that were still firmly within the realm of fantasy. Her state of dress was pretty chic, too; usually the horror movie little children wore plain white rags or something, right? It had been too long since he sat down and watched one of those, and definitely not because they were too scary or anything. "I guess I'm nice, probably? I gotta nice smile at least, or so I've heard," he said, grinning easily. Still, there was something that bothered him.
"Kid, you got nowhere to go? Did you just blow into town or somethin'?" The thought of a youngster like her trying to survive the streets here were a bit much, even if it wasn't quite so dangerous as the wilderness. Enjoying corn snacks was one thing, but subsiding on them was unacceptable. "Whether or not somethin' worse is out there is kinda beside the point. You're gonna starve, or worse, you're gonna have to eat rats." Speaking upon the point, Art looked past his new acquaintance suddenly, wondering if any rats were coming.
"Anyway, get it together. Can't see the rats in front of you if you've got waterworks spoutin'." Art reached into his coat pockets, grabbing a handful of napkins that he'd salvaged from one of the office buildings. Never know when you'd need some napkins, after all. "Here, wipe your face. And don't even think about giving these back to me, litterin' ain't a crime anymore." He began to walk towards her for a moment and then stopped, afraid of chasing the kid off. His morals may have been loose in some ways, but he tried to be a good person in the ways that counted, which usually meant not letting children go off and die during the apocalypse.
CRUNCHY CHEESE PUFFS ARE REALLY THE SUPERIOR CHEESE PUFFS
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