When he made it to the bottom of the stairs in one piece Hank let out a small sigh of relief. Relaxing a little he looked around, taking in the ruffled blanket and discarded food wrappers. When he saw the bear in the window his hand tightened. Damn it. Walking over he gently removed the lost toy and looked out the window, wondering how he could have missed such an opening. Taking it back upstairs he reached out and gently put a hand on Addie's shoulder when she started to cry. We'll find her. She can't have gone too far. Giving a gentle squeeze he looked toward where the window would have let her out, hoping she went straight after getting out of the basement.

Stuffing the pill bottle into the same top pocket as the cigarettes he'd found, and the Bourbon into his now rather battered rucksack, Dominic would consider Karen's question concerning Addie "She seems nice enough, perhaps a little too nice to have survived out here for this long...why? You reckon she's killed her?" Dominic asked, raising a single questioning eyebrow at the former cop. He'd quickly run her story through his head again; of how she'd been knocked out during the storm and woken up to find the girl gone "hmm her story is a little thin now that you mention it but...I dunno, why bother? I mean there are no cops, no forensics she could murder her and leave the body in the middle of the street and no one would come looking for either of them, unless..." Dominic paused as a thought slowly materialised from the back of his mind, the same part of his mind that had led him to murder those two Lost Boy kids down by the canal, but there was just something about the way that it insisted that something wasn't quite right that meant he couldn't quite let it go "...unless she's leading us into some kind of a trap?" Dominic quietly suggested having finally succumbed to his minds paranoid mutterings.

He had to admit that it did make some kind of twisted sense; a pretty young girl with a tearful story of a missing child was almost the perfect lure to attract a group of well meaning people into an ambush. After all if Addie had been knocked out by a falling branch then why had Suzie left her to wander off alone into the storm? Alternatively if someone had hit her and taken the girl then why hadn't they taken her too or simply killed her and removed the loose end entirely? "there are too many holes" Dominic muttered to himself, wishing that Izzy was here to help him make sense of the paranoid mess he'd found himself tangled in "Karen I think you and I need to have a serious word with Addie...we'd need to get rid of Hank though, the guy's too nice he'd try to interfere, Katherine too" Merde! Could she be in on it too? She's about the right age to be a Lost Boy! "Oh god, I can't believe we've gone and wandered into this, it's so bleeding obvious!" Dominic said in an agonised voice as he went to peer through the tiny bathroom window, almost expecting to see a band of armed men or Lost Boys coming to kill them as every part of his body started to scream that they should leave this house right this instant and run before it was too late.

Kat covered Hank as he descended the stairs to the basement, following once he reached the bottom of the stairs. She noticed the same things he did, signs someone had stayed there, a broken window used as an escape, the teddy bear. When he grabbed the toy to bring back upstairs, Kat looked for the most obvious route someone would take from the window, noting the treeline and road. She quickly followed him back upstairs, glad he was there to console Addie as she wasn't good at that sort of thing. Instead, she placed her pistol on the kitchen counter and pulled out a map from her bag. The map had notes and other markings on it, obviously added after it was printed. Neighborhoods and buildings of interest were marked in colors like green or blue depending on what supplies they held, a small key in the corner defining which color meant what. Other areas had red "X"s over them. It took her a minute to orient her location on the map, but once she did, she trailed her finger over the road she believed Susie would have taken.

"If it was me, I would have taken to the forest, but I doubt Susie would have done that. With you injured" she nods towards Addie, "she would have probably tried to find someone to help or medical supplies. Following the road, the first big structure she would hit would be . . . this church here." Kat looks up from her map, pointing to the church in question on the map. "It would make sense, all things considered."

Handing the bear over to Addie Hank moved to the table where the map was set up, giving her room to grieve and hoping the discussion would be a good distraction for her. Looking over the map he nodded, using Katherine's finger and the street names to figure roughly where they were. Before this churches were meant to be safe places. He tried to imagine himself in Suzy's shoes, running scared, looking for somebody who could help. She must have bolted soon after the storm passed. Which meant there was a good chance she was still there or close to it. As long as it hadn't been taken over by some crazy cult, but he didn't mention that horror trop out loud. When the others come down we can head out.

"What do you want to do?" Karen paced the room anxiously. "We could try to figure out Addie and see where this thing goes, or we could just blow this whole thing and get out of here. Do you want to bail?"

Karen sat on the bed.

"If the trading post wants us dead, why not do it last night? They had more than enough opportunity. What would they get out of leading us out here first?" the story kept spinning in her brain. "They said they worked with the Lost Boys, maybe they struck a deal? maybe they're leading us to them. Maybe Kat is one of them? Dominic, if this whole thing isn't true, then the alternative is so fucked up that whatever it is is bad for us. If it is true, do we get enough out of it to be worth the risk?

Should we just turn back?"

"Non, we can't bail...if this is genuine then we'll alienate the only friendly group in the area" Dominic replied as he took a seat on the bed beside her. It wasn't the trading post of that much he was certain because like Karen said why lead them out here to do it? Why not simply shoot or enslave them during the night, though from the way that place was set up it wasn't really in their interest to do that. A deal with the Lost Boys was possible but they must have worked really quickly to set that up as they'd only arrived last night and it wasn't like there was phone network anymore which meant that they were either unlucky enough to have been found by the only Lost Boys in the place or Addie was working for a third party.

Shrugging his shoulders in response to the question of whether this whole venture was worth the risk, though truth be told they'd had no choice but to accept else they'd have been trapped there trying to pay off their debt, Dominic would then listen as Karen suggested turning back "Non, me and you are going to get Addie to tell us the entire story, beat it out of her if we have to, and if it checks out we'll just have to keep our eyes open if it's a trap...we cut her throat and go back, Katherine's too if she's in on it...not our fault if they were jumped by Zeds" Dominic said in a low voice, not wanting any of what they were saying to drift downstairs to the others.

Upon returning to the others Dominic would see a tearful Addie clutching a teddy bear as Hank and Katherine looked over a map "I take it the bear belonged to Suzie then?" Dominic asked, quirking a quizzical eyebrow at Hank "Why don't you and Katherine take a look around outside and make sure we haven't missed anything...we'd look like a right bunch of idiots if we overlooked a set of footprints" he suggested with an amused smile, all the while planning how he would get Addie to talk.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:14, Wed 24 Jan 2018.

Ya, she must of left it behind after she broke the window downstairs to get out. Hank agreed as the other two returned from upstairs. Katherine's map says there's a church nearby. If Suzie was going for help that'd be the first place she'd hit after this place. He tapped the map. We move now, there's a chance she's still around there. One way or another he thought grimly, picking up the crowbar with his other hand. Sighing he looked to Addie. Did you two pass the church before you found this place? If they did then it was all the more likely she ran back to it.

Moving to look at Katherine's map his eyes would follow the road from their current location down to the church much the same way that Katherine had with him noting that it was the only discernible landmark in the area making it an obvious place to head towards...or to use as prearranged location for a trap "You sure this is where she's headed? because it's a long way to go if we're wrong" Dominic asked, looking about the three of them in search of a definite answer before then shrugging his shoulders "D'accord, if you're sure that's where she's headed then lets get moving"

"I'm sure it makes the most sense. Otherwise she would get lost in the woods." Kat replies, folding the map and shoving it back into her bag. "As far as I'm aware, the other scavengers from the outpost haven't checked that church on any of their runs. Then again, it's not really my sector, I'm assigned more south." The statement was matter-of-fact, small talk as she picked up her pistol from the counter top and holstered it, ready to leave for the church.

Despite the fact that she was almost half his age, Dominic would find himself agreeing with Katherine's logic that the church made the most sense, besides which if Suzie had become lost in the woods then they'd probably never find her anyway, and so it was with a single nod of agreement that Dom would then head for the door.

The walk to the church would prove to be an easy one, consisting mainly of muddy fields dotted with the remains of the long dead cattle that had once grazed here.

It was also during this time that he and Karen would drop back to quietly interrogate Addie concerning her story, though it quickly became clear that short of torturing her that they wouldn't learn anything new from her and perhaps not even then leading Dom to believe that she probably was telling the truth...or at least what she believed to be the truth in any case.

After about an hour or so of walking they would finally reach St Andrew's church with the modest, white painted timber building having seemingly taken a battering during the storm with a pair broken windows, several sections of collapsed fencing and the weather vane wedged in a nearby tree being all the evidence needed to support that particular theory "huh...has anyone ever proved that Zeds don't rise from out of graves?" Dom asked, eyeing the small, debris littered cemetery that out the back. At times it was hard to remember which parts of the old zombie stories were still fiction and which were liable to bite you in the ass.

Hank let out a quiet sigh of relief as they followed Dom out, glad they a destination and they hadn't had an argument about it. The longer they waited the further a lead Suzie could gain on them, and the longer it'd take them to get back the others. He and Wyoming had bought some time by drawing the hoard to the Lost Boys truck, but by now there was a chance they would have lost the undead and circled back.

Finding himself out front with Katherine he tried to keep focused on the mission at hand. So, how long have you been with the Trading Post? He asked her, keeping an eye out for any shambling figures or crawlers closing in. Though it seemed their only dead company they had were the former cows decaying where they fell. Swallowing he shook the thought of a cheeseburger out of his mind.

Looking the church over Hank shrugged. If they do and the storm didn't bring them up, we should be fine. He glanced to Dom with a humorless smile, Too bad we don't have Benson to try and stir them up.

Katherine kept her head on a swivel during their walk to the church, not even batting an eye at the field of dead cattle. She turned to face Hank when the man asked his question. "I haven't really kept track of the days, but I'd guess a little over a week. They don't usually take in people for more than a couple of days but it's hard to throw a 'little girl' out to the streets, especially alone." She continued scanning their surroundings as she talked. "They started me out working the garden, I had to practically beg them to let me join scavenger runs. I guess they were worried about my safety, even after I told them I've been out here alone for the past few months." Her head tilted down slightly as the last words left her lips, her footsteps slowing briefly.

Kat literally shook away whatever dark thought plagued her mind as her attention went back to their present situation. The church had seen better days, that was clear, but it did look deserted. She drew her pistol with the quickness of someone familiar with their weapon. "Let's just get this over with." She sighed, approaching the church with caution.

"Benson would be charging by the hour for this little rescue mission" Dominic said with a snort of laughter as he followed Katherine towards the front doors of the church, searching the nearby countryside for any sign of trouble as he went.

From the angle that they approached the wind beaten church they would be able to see that the cemetery was thankfully devoid of dead hands clawing their way out of graves and nor were there any lurking in amongst the trio of abandoned cars sitting within the small, overgrown parking area "Those cars might be worth checking out...maybe we could even get one started and save ourselves the walk" Dominic said as he drew his sword.

Placing a hand upon the handle, he would wait long enough to make sure that everyone was armed and ready before giving it a turn pushing open one half of the double doors; the hinges squealing far louder than he would have liked.

Before the door was even fully open he could smell the stench of decay coming from within the church. Sprawled around the neatly arranged pews in amongst the branches, leaves and assorted rubbish blown in through the broken windows were  the remains or roughly half a dozen dead parishioners…or what he hoped were dead parishioners as he watched a trio of Zeds lurch towards them; seemingly abandoning the closed door at the far end of the church, though in fairness that may have just been his imagination.

With no way of knowing how many more Zeds were hiding in amongst the pews or even up in the gallery overhead, Dominic would take few steps into the church before standing his ground and waiting for the dead to come to him.

Hank nodded at Katherine's answer, the advantages of being a lone kid not always apparent. Much like with the Lost Boys he briefly wondered how he and Tom would have turned out if they had run into the Trading Post instead of the Caravan. He paused when he realized she had fallen a little behind. Alone for a couple months? She was definitely someone not to underestimate.

While he knew it would take more then a few surprise hands to bring Benson down, the probable look on his face would have to be enough for Hank. Following the others to the church he wondered how many people had fled there in the beginning, and how long they stayed before seeking "safer" havens. The brothers had run across several churches before finding Dom and the others, and he hoped this hadn't turned into a "Jonestown" scenario.

Ignoring the odor that accompanied any closed space holding dead bodies Hank prepared himself for the worst and hoped for the best. Luckily it was mixture of the two that greeted them, no Suzie jumping with joy but also no Suzie trying to eat them, yet. Taking a couple steps to Dom's left he turned briefly to Addy, Stay here, keep the door open. Not only would it help air out the place but if for some reason it looked like they were going to be overwhelmed it'd save precious seconds in getting out. Facing the three obvious threats again he quickly scanned the other bodies, hoping these were the only ones that decided they didn't like staying dead.

Taking two quick steps forward, Dominic swung his sword at the rightmost Zed, the blade crashing through it's jaws to sever its head in a spray of gore. However it was as he was in the process of pivoting so as to drive his blade into his next target, figuring that Hank would be taking out the one to the left, that a pair of hands would snake out from beneath one of the pews and grab hold of his ankle, pulling him off-balance.

With his fumbled shot doing little more than scratching the Zed's already tattered cheek, he'd quickly turn to look down and watch as the crawler sunk it's teeth into the sturdy leather of his boots prompting him to give a single shocked cry as he stamped down on the things head, crushing it between the sole of his boot and the dusty stone floor just as the hand from the other Zed grasp his collar. A look of horror spreading across the former medics face as he braced himself for the teeth that would be sinking into his neck any second now.

Karen was too proud to sit this one out. Too bad though...

She joined the others in the fight to liberate the holy place from the grip of the dead. She readied her police baton, raised it, waited for the third zed to reach for her and SMASH.

Karen's blunt instrument caught the zombie in the side of the neck. The thing's head craned and crinkled over weird as bile suddenly exploded up and out of Karen's esophagus. The zombie spun out of view as Karen's head dropped downwards. vomit erupted forth from her mouth like a geyser. What little food she had eaten in a long time, the delicious meal from container town, splattered all over the floor. She doubled over, clutching her stomach.

The zombie, with broken-neck head-flapping grace, lurched for her back. It tried to get a mouthful of her jacket, but its mouth was not where it was supposed to be. The zombie kept up the attack however, flopping its head around trying to learn the new angles as Karen heaved two to three more times. She stumbled a few steps away, the zombie matched each one. it was like a trying to run away from a bee... while puking.

She needed help.

Karen clumsily fended the mouth of the zombie off as she backed into a corned and puked again. Two more zombies suddenly appeared from the pew area. one wearing her Sunday best, the other half naked and missing its entire front. He was just a face, an empty rib-cage with arms, and pants. What was even keeping him together?

They had faced worst odds then this. Though they would see what toll a night of drinking would take soon enough. Taking his target he swung for the head, no time to disable before finishing it off. A sickening crunch greeted the connection of solid iron utility tool and skull. It took a moment for the zombie to realize it had pieces of skull in it's brain as it staggered another step or two before tipping over sideways.

Cursing under his breath as he saw Dom go down and Karen erupt Hank scrambled over the pews to get behind the one going for their medic. Help Karen, I've got this one. He called to Katherine, pulling Dom's attacker back.

Feeling the pressure on his collar being suddenly removed as Hank pulled the Zed off of him, Dominic wasted little time in regaining his balance so that he could turn to face his attacker. Drawing the buck knife he'd taken from the Lost Boy he'd killed by the canal, Dom would slam the blade down to it's hilt into the things skull, knowing that had he tried to kill the thing using his sword that he'd probably have hit Hank as well, assuming of course that he'd found enough space to swing the Civil war era sabre he carried.

With a seriously ill Karen backed into a corner and surrounded by three Zeds, it was clear that things were going horribly wrong for them as another pair of Zeds stumbled into view from somewhere in the vicinity of the altar.

After wrenching the knife free of the Zeds skull Dominic would quickly sheath the blade and move in to finish the job Karen had started by severing the dead man's lolling head with his sword before grabbing the collar of Karen's jacket and hauling her towards the open doors "Deal with them while I get her the hell out of here!" Dominic shouted as he continued to drag the puke stained blonde out of the way.

When the smell of death hit her from the open church doors, Kat couldn't help but lose her composure and start gagging, almost dry heaving. She had faced the smell of rot before with little problem, but her body seemed to be more sensitive to it today. When everyone sprung to action, she was trying not to waste her previous meal. Hank's urging for her to help Karen pulled her back to the current situation, drawing her attention to the puking blonde and three zeds. Her right hand went instinctively for her pistol but she decided against using the weapon that would draw more dead to their location, opting for her hatchet instead.

Kat rushed the half-naked zed, pulling her tiny frame towards her target, wielding the hatchet with both hands to get more force behind it. She jumped at the near skeletal zed as she closed the distance, using the momentum of her run to carry the hatchet cleanly into the skull of her target with a quite audible crunch of bone and squelch of soft brain tissue, forcing the now limp body roughly to the ground with a definitive thud. As the near skeletal body dropped, Kat saw Dom eliminate the zed with the hanging head, leaving the Sunday-best zed as her immediate target.

"Over here, asshole!" Kat called out to gain the zed's attention as Dom got Karen to safety. She easily pulled her hatchet from her last target's mess-of-a-skull, still wielding it with both hands. She held her weapon like a baseball bat, closing the distance to her target before sidestepping it and kicking in it's right knee. The sudden loss of support forced it on it's belly for an easy dispatch with a downward swing by the petite survivor, splitting the zed's skull open about a third of the way down.

Hank let Katherine go to town on her targets as Dom dragged Karen away, impressed at her zeal. Moving around to the other side of the pews he headed to the alter, giving the approaching zeds a closer target and putting the wall behind him. As they turned and started trying to shuffle through a row he risked a glance to the door at the end where the original cluster had been when they entered. There had to be someone in there, or at least recently if there was a way out of wherever it led, otherwise the zeds would have lost interest. Right?

The feeling of hands smacking into his ankle as the lead zed tripped on the corner of the pew snapped him back to the situation at hand. Smashing the crowbar down to break the grip he took a step toward the alter. A downward swing finished the job. Keeping the other one's attention Hank slowly made his way back toward the door, risking quick glances backward to make sure he didn't get surrounded.

Karen and Dominic stumbled out of the church. Karen made her way to the flower pots that adorned the church steps and puked into one. Stomach sufficiently empty and all dry-heaving aside, Karen slumped down to the ground.

vomit clung to her chin, her hair stuck to her face, and a tear rolled down her cheek. "I can't do this, Dominic..." She said as she ran her hand up and down her thigh, firmly massaging her aching muscle.

"I have fucked up everything I have ever tried to do. School, the army, relationships... Kaidan, even you guys. What did I do to the universe to deserve this karmic fucking punishment?"

The sounds of grunting and the heaving of mushy flesh emanated from inside the church, eerily scoring Karen's self-reflective moment.

Hauling Karen outside and into the fresh air, Dominic would turn to watch as Hank and Katherine dealt with the Zeds within the church, leaving Karen to puke in peace before turning to half-heartedly listen as she bemoaned her life up until this point and how she had failed at everything she’d ever attempted “Karen look around, none of us are doing particularly well out here…since I took charge of the group we have done nothing but stumble from one disaster to another with more people dying as a result than I care to think about” Dominic stated  in a tired voice as he fished around the inside of his backpack “…now the way I see it, I can either keep on going, learn from my mistakes and do whatever it takes to keep myself and the group alive, or I can go behind that shed and blow my brains out” he said pulling out a threadbare T-shirt that had been destined for bandages and held it out to her so that she could clean herself up a bit as he fixed her with a stern look “now you listen to me Karen, you’re a pain in the arse liability with more than a few strikes against your name, however if I thought you to be a lost cause I’d have killed you a long time ago, So I need you to man up, put your big girl pants on and stop crying, ok?...now are you up to helping us inside? Or would you prefer to stay out here and keep watch?” Dominic asked, more than a little aware of the fact that the others were still inside and that he really should be helping them clear out the rest of the Zeds so that they could search for the missing girl.

Reaching into his bag he’d produce a bottle of water and hold it out for her to take with his expression softening to a weary smile “it’s not a trick question Karen, if you honestly don’t feel well enough to fight I’d sooner you say so…I’m not going to hold it against you, I promise”

Backing to wall Hank waited for the zed to get close enough before lashing out, his first swing knocking it to the floor while the second finished it off with a cracking of skull. Stepping next to the door he gave a knock. Suzie, or whoever's in there, we'll have this place cleared out in a little. He looked over the former congregation, "Or at least enough to make a run for it. And if you are Suzie, Addie looking for you with us, she's outside.

Lorenzo had been quiet all morning. Which wasn't all that unusual. Surly, pissed off silences were very Lorenzo-like. But this time felt different. He didn't look mad. Other than the usual, vague look of annoyance that seemed to manifest every time someone looked at him for more than three seconds. He was just... Quiet. Goddamn, even bordering on solemn. Not even prospective jabs at Dom pulled him out of his funk.

He lumbered on after the group as they went on their wild goose chase in Bumfuck Nowhere with no interjection. He stayed toward the back, watching their flanks. And having breakfast, which was apparently nips of whiskey he'd squirreled into his flask the night before. Why they brought along a little kid was beyond him. They were bringing a kid along to find what he assumed was an incredibly dead kid. Or whatever passed for dead in Zombieland. With the Caravan's remarkable string of luck, they would probably just end up with more dead kids than they started with. More dead fucking kids.

When they got to the church he swore he could smell something reeking. He eyed the cars in the lot. Might be able to rig something up. That was neither here nor there yet, first they had to check for the kid and for things that could bite him in the ass while he worked. "Gonna check outside," he said to the group's back, and went off on his own without waiting for acknowledgement; he wasn't even sure if they heard him.

It was a super cursory look around the perimeter of the church. He cut through the little graveyard and checked the borders of the little trees lining the property. He wondered what made the dead buried here different from the dead who could walk around. His grandmother's influence told him because the grounds were sanctified. Maybe there were people in there, clawing at their coffins. Well, good. They could stay there. It's what they deserved, the dead fuckers. He flipped off one of the gravestones just in case.

By the time he finished the survey and returned to the front, Dom was outside with a somehow even worse looking Karen. Now that was a feat. His pace slowed a bit, dark eyes narrowing at the pair, which knowing Lorenzo looked very judgemental, but he honestly was just thinking, wondering if they'd just found something really bad or if Karen's instability just made her constitution shitty. More dead kids, maybe.

"Good shit," he snarked at the pair. "Move it."

They weren't even in the way. He brushed by, machete out, taking the little steps two at a time. He moved into the church and split the skull of the first zed he saw from behind.

"Hey, Papi's home!" he sang as he wrenched the blade out. The force made him stagger a bit, he didn't have the use of his other hand to brace himself. The corpse fell. "Who wants some! I'm real scared, real loud, and reaaaal tasty!"

The church had great acoustics so he kept calling out to get the zeds' attention. They were dumb as rocks and tended to prioritize whatever was loud, moving, or alive. Lorenzo was all three. He moved up further, using the pews on his side to kind of coral the stragglers that took interest in him, and worked to systematically do what he did best. Kill a lot of shit. The church was getting cleared faster with him on the scene. With his bum arm he probably wouldn't last in a real fight but zeds were easy. This was the most cheerful he looked all day, really, in a sort of blood-thirsty, psychotic way.

"Yo, just make them dance around the benches," he instructed Hank, ignorant as to why he was posted up by the door. Then he seemed to notice the kid over the dead zed and something close to alarm came into his tone. He already wasn't happy about her being there and now she was in the way trying to kill shit? "And- you, fuck, get out! You trying to get bit, stupid?"

Damn it. He hoped the lack of response was just whoever was on the other side being scared. As it was it looked like they would have to clear the church instead of just leaving a path to escape from and closing the doors. With Dom taking care of Karen it looked to be an up hill battle with just Katherine and him.

At Lorenzo's grand entrance Hank gave a sigh of relief. Even with just one arm the other man was worth more then his weight in a fight. Bout time you showed up, I was getting worried you'd miss all the fun. And I'd be careful to stay on her good side, she's got a vicious side to her. He called, moving up to the pews. Taking the opposite side of the pews as Lorenzo he bounced in and out, keeping the remaining zombies' attention split between the two of them. It was a tactic that had served the group well before. While not the fastest way to take out those of the congregation that decided not to stay dead, one or two falling with each pass, it kept them from being overwhelmed. Of course if Dom and Karen were here the whole process would have gone a lot faster but they made good time.

Anything useful out there? Hank asked, grunting as he smashed a skull and sent the body sprawling sideways. With two real meals behind him clearing the church was one certainly easier, but months of rationing and poor nutrition still had an effect.