Cookie stepped back, changed her grip, and headed a mean strike between Vega's legs.  That ought to take the fight out of him.  She then surveyed the results with the same dispassionate look.  "You need to learn that the lab rats can still bite," she said, in a flat voice. "But it seems it will be a short lesson with no time to make amends.  Name some more names and I'll lessen your suffering."    She'd break every bone in his body and leave him to die slowly otherwise.

The force of the bat striking his skull sent Vega to the ground. There he lay, moaning as the blood trickled across his forehead. The already dark cell faded to black as visions of the awful things he'd seen ran once more through his mind. Vega would be able to answer no questions today. If tomorrow did indeed bring with it a new day, perhaps Cookie's concussive show of force would be enough to persuade him to cooperate. That is, however, only if the severe head injury does not claim his life overnight...

In reply to Vega (msg # 30):
Cookie eyed the downed man, then the guard.  "If he dies tonight, it would be easier to deal with him if he has two broken arms," she said, hefting the bat in that same thoughtful way.  "He used the Caravaneers as lab rats, turning them undead.  I don't have any fellow feeling for someone that treats humans like animals."

<FROM Stables>

Lyle walked through the dooe without any warning. He took a quick glance at the downed figure of Vega, and shrugged it off. That bastard had it coming, it was only a shame that Lyle wasn't the one to actually do it. Seeing the girl he needed, Lyle cleared his throat and jabbed his thumb out of the door. "Jersey Girl, I need to rap with you. Wanna step aside or just chat it out here?" He leaned on the wall of the entrance. Waiting for the woman's response.

<FROM STABLES>

Justin followed Lyle up to the door and let him walk in by himself. He wasn't quite as bold to barge in on the meeting or whatever was going on in there, so he just hung around by the door waiting to be told to come inside or for the others to come back out.

"In a minute," Cookie said, tone level as a ruler, and methodically smashed the humerus of both of Vega's arms. *CRACK* -pause- *CRACK*.  They needed his brain - he didn't need his arms.  And killing was really too good for him, though she admitted he might have a fatal concussion now thanks to her - a broken-armed zombie was fairly ineffective.   She calmly shouldered the bat and looked over the other shoulder at the guy who'd hailed her. The look on her face was a pleased smile, with flat dead hazel eyes...nasty job well done.  She flashed a stunning smile to Sam, swung around on one Bates boot heel and faced the man who'd spoken. "Let's have a word outside."  And sashayed out, as if she'd just stopped into a boutique to do a little shopping.

As Cookie took her steps out, Vega's broken body began thrashing violently. He was having a seizure. His limp, broken arms sung unnaturally. Suddenly, he vomited. Vega had no food in his stomach, but the amount if internal bleeding he'd suffered colored the vomit entirely red. The blood continued to run from his mouth as his body came to a stop. Vega was dead.

But perhaps his death would still prove to answer some questions. Given enough time, Vega would not turn...

The brutality of Cookie's demeanor didn't phase Lyle. In his opinion the man deserved it. He didn't have any mercy when testing and killing others, so why should they have any for him. Pausing for a moment to see Vega cough out his last moments of life, Lyle headed out of the stockade with the jersey girl.

"Okay two things." Lyle held out his thumb and index finger. "One of them is pretty important, the other is just being a pain in the ass." He jabbed his thumb over his shoulder and pointed to the garage on the other side of the fort. From here it was easy to see all the parts that laid across the floor and the hoods of the cars popped open. "Firstly. We need more parts to get the cars running. I fixed them all up the best I could with the parts I had, but it still left only five of their cars in running shape. Our cars are fairing better, but they are on their last legs too." Lyle pulled out a small list he scratched together from a worn paper and pen. He made a detailed list of everything they need and what they have. It was best to be prepared just in case they run into any abandoned cars and had some spare room left. "Unless I can get all the cars fixed, I don't think we can get everyone out safely if an emergency hits."

Lyle let Cookie inspect the list to see if there was any corners they can cut. "Secondly. You need to get fat Janice off my back. I know it's more of a personal problem, but I can't keep working when that bitch is on my case about everything."

"It wouldn't be much of a problem if she pulled her weight around here. But all she does is yell and threaten me and Jee." Lyle looked back inside and pointed to Vega's body, "I mean fuck, that asshole would have been more help..." Lyle slowed down when he noticed something. More importantly the lack of something. Stepping back inside Lyle looked into the cell and carefully looked at Vega's body. There was no up and down movement in his chest. He wasn't breathing. "I think he's dead."

In reply to Lyle Carranza (msg # 36):

Cookie eyed the list.  Unlike most females, she'd had to depend on a variety of beater vehicles to get her around New Jersey, where people did not walk unless they HAD to, so she was familiar with basic maintenance.  "Work with what you have, try to find out where there are any auto supply stores or local garages that might have stuff, anyplace that has a motor pool will have a repair shop, you may need to make a raid," she said, as calm as ever.  "You'll have a few days to accomplish that, I have another matter to attend to.  As for Janice, leave her to me." She didn't really care if Vega was alive or not; he'd demonstrated a complete disinterest in being helpful, so he may as well become undead...and if he didn't, she could use him as a basis for research.  "We're not staying here indefinitely, we have to get our own place.  Now why don't you tell me everything you know about that Vega ?" 

Sam's mirth continued as Cookie tormented the former tormentor, his hoarse laughter bouncing off the prison walls as the man continued to stonewall the interrogation. He had to hand it to Brownie, she was colder than he'd given her credit for. She'd left him for dead weeks before, so it was nice to see her at least get her hands dirty.
Before she stepped out to handle one of her men Sam returned her smile with his own yellowed jaws.

"Get the fuck outa my stockade, grease monkey." Sam would scold Lyle, spitting a stream of tobacco juice at the man's feet after he'd entered the cell. "Say your piece to Maxine and get lost or you'll be the one cleanin up this mess."

Naturally he eavesdropped on the conversation occurring within his station, being obvious about his close presence all the while.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:07, Sun 06 Apr 2014.

Lyle glared a bit at Sam when he spat at his shoes. Goddamn hick. But he returned to stare down Vega's body. "Now hold on, both of you." Quietly Lyle started counting, keeping a mental timer as to how long it would take for him to turn. Lyle had seen people turn quickly from a bite, even while they were alive, but also sometimes a person could stick it out for a while longer. This was another thing, Vega was dead and yet he hadn't come back yet. "How long has it been since he croaked? Probably 4 or 5 minutes, shouldn't he had turned by now?"

Unholstering his fire ax from his side, Lyle stuck it between the bars and nudged Vega's limp body with it. "This is weird. As weird as geeks can get at least." Standing to his feet, Lyle looked over at Cookie. "Maybe it's just me, but it shouldn't take this long. Somethings up."

Cookie rolled her eyes.  MEN.  Wasting time arguing. "Girls, girls, you're BOTH PRETTY," she quipped.

She eyed the body with a vague interest.  Had that maniac actually come up with a vaccine ?  Or did not everyone change ?  Or was he still alive ?  "He was working on a vaccine, I think, if what he was doing to our people was a field trial," she said.  "Not that he'd share that information or its results with us.  Give him a kick." 

Sam grunted and spat tobacco juice at Vega's corpse, "They don't always turn, dumbass.." He didn't want the two near the body, or lingering around, and he especially didn't care for the grease monkey. "Ain't your name Carranza? Sounds like a taco-vendor name to me. You and Toby should get along." Sam nawed on, trying to get in Lyle's head.
When Cookie spoke up the southerner shook his head, scoffing slightly. "This is fuckin' brilliant, a rookie mechanic and long time waitress solving mysteries together."

Anne Marie walked from Toby's office to the jail house. She saw Sam and two of the Caravan members, Lyle and Cookie, standing just outside the door. She couldn't hear them at first, but Sam looked like he was being aggressive, and Lyle looked concerned about something. Cookie seemed nonchalant, un-phased by whatever was going on with the two men.

She reached the trio in time to hear the crack about the mechanic and the waitress solving mysteries.

"Hi Sam, making friends?" She teased him. Sam was a little rough around the edges, but she could stand him. In a fight, she'd rather be on Sam's side than not.
That's when she noticed the blood specks on Cookie's jeans. Then she noticed them on Sam's clothes too. It looked fresh, fresh blood was distinct from the regular grime that usually covered Sam's clothes.

"I love your jeans by the way Cookie. So sorry about the blood on them though, where did that come from?" She said with a smile. It had been so long since she had been shopping and she could not help but envy Cookie's style, even now with Zombies crawling all over the place.

Lyle crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "Eventually, all of them turn." He ignored Sam trying to bait him into a fight. Even though Lyle was sure he could take on the man, he wasn't stupid to try. Turning back to the corpse, Lyle slipped his ax through the bars and nudged Vega again. Still no response, still no breathing, and still no turning.

When the door swung open, Lyle turned to see Anne-Marie. He gave her a nod. He didn't mention the body, she'll soon find out anyways, and either Cookie or Sam would explain. What Lyle really wanted to do now was figure out why Vega isn't turning.
This message was last edited by the player at 04:21, Thu 10 Apr 2014.

A big figure filled the doorway. "Now ain't that a bit rich comin' from a dixie hick", the big biker said. He wished, he had been there for the interrogation, but seeing, Vega was already dead, he simply shrugged. No point crying over spilled milk, even though it would have been good to keep the modern-age Mengele alive.

"Shame you don't know the whole story, but then, what were you, the mayor of the trailer park ?" Cookie said sweetly to Sam.  She was debating using the bat on him, but who knew, muscle might be needed.  And you couldn't kill everyone that annoyed you, otherwise you'd be digging graves all day.

She gave the girl a look that said, 'And your little comment just MADE my DAY', then, with a blank look on her face, shrugged the shoulder not holding the bat.  "See ya," she said.  No explanation would be forthcoming to anyone.  "If he wakes up, ask him about his experiment - if he tried the stuff on himself ever.  Or spike his head, whichever you need to do." 

When Anne-Marie arrived on scene Sam answered her with a characteristic expression, spitting a heavy wad of tobacco onto the ground amongst the group. He offered a sinister grin to Lyle as the man stopped short of challenging him for his lack of social grace. He was altogether pleased with himself until a familiar voice emitted from the entrance.

"I don't recall inviting you into my prison, but then again I guess you'd feel right at home, jailbird." The large Southerner turned to face Jay, his yellowish smile widening, "You ever take it up the ass in the pen, boy? How'd you like to be my whistlin' dixie?"

Cookie's comment earned a grunt from Sam who was more focused on ruffling Jay. "Just get the fuck outa my stockade, Maxine."

<<from exterior>>

Alex follows Dominic to the stockade, which seems at the moment to have a crowd gathered in it.

As he enters, he hears a tobacco chewing fella say,

There is obviously a sense of tension here, which of course puts Alex into his ready-for-combat mode, however, he calmly says, "I'm looking for Lyle."

"Stay in the prison, best place for you, saves time anyways," Cookie said with casual insult to Sam, along with the one-shouldered shrug, and sauntered out.  "Yeah, what now ?"  she asked the gathering crowd, narrowing her eyes.  A drop of claret dripped from the bat onto the ground, new stains having been recently added to its inglorious palette.

Alex does his classic assessment stare..."I'm here to see Lyle about some mechanical advice, that alright with you?", matching the bat carrying woman's attitude.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:38, Thu 17 Apr 2014.

Lyle steps up to the new guy, "That's me." Turning back to the group, he just shrugs it off. Cookie will deal with the Vega and Sam problems, and besides Lyle actually had his own plans that he didn't want the others to know. For now he'll see to what mechanical advice he can give. Lyle looked over to Justin, "C'mon Jee."

"Just so you know. We're low on parts. I'll give it a look but I ain't promising nothing." Lyle stepped out of the stockade, glade to get the hell out of their. The tension was so thick, it was almost suffocating.

<TO The Exterior>

A long pause as Lyle leaves the stockade, Alex is face to face with Cookie, "Ma'am, name's Alex, nice talking to you.", he leaves.

As he catches up, Alex says, "Well, I'm looking to make my bike a bit more stealthy, can you help me with that?"
This message was last edited by the player at 09:45, Thu 17 Apr 2014.

She smelled the blood before she saw the body. The prisoner lay on the ground, next to the small wooden Civil War era bed, blood pooling underneath his head, bruises forming on his exposed skin, his limbs extended at odd angles. It was gross, really gross, but Anne Marie was getting used to things like this. Everything in this new world had become gross.

Anne Marie stood staring at the mangled body for a moment as the men outside traded snarky remarks. She began to hear other voices. More people were coming up to the prison, and more people wouldn't make this situation any better.

"Sam!" she cried, summoning the southern brute inside the prison complex. "Can you get some of these people out of here? We don't need rumors flying around about what happened here. By the way, who... nevermind."

"Cookie," Anne Marie ran out the front door to where Cookie was standing with some of the men. "Toby wants to see you. Can you come with me?" she said in a tone that indicated she was not really asking. If Cooke wanted to show everybody how sassy she was than Anne Marie would just have to follow her lead.

"I don't recommend you steal parts from my bike," Cookie said to the scruffy armyish guy Alex, and Lyle.  Sheesh, as if they should require reminding on something basic like that, but that was kind of the day she was having.  She eyed the Fort girl with the same narrow look and a head tilt that conveyed annoyance.  Jersey girls had attitude in buckets. "I just CAME from there, what's he want now ?"  She rolled her eyes.  "And you people gotta learn to keep prisoners properly contained, especially the dangerous ones.  And you need better guards than that one."