"Thanks for the offer, but I don't do impotent old men", the biker replied. "But it sounds like ya have sum experience in the matter, eh." The biker didn't seem to get agitated by the redneck. Instead, he turned at Alex. "I can take a look at yer bike at some point", he said, though he was not clearly making any promises on the exact time. The clothing the big tattooed man had suggested, he knew quite a bit of bikes - the black leather kutte-vest suggested a biker.

"Sam'd be better on the other side of the bars, and I'd lose the key when he's in."

---> Exterior

Upon entering the stockade Dominic marvelled at how crowded it was in there as Cookie and one of the fort women argued with one another and Alex having found Lyle and Justin was just passing him through the doorway; the Frenchman nodding his head in farewell to the stranger.
Moving deeper into the building so as to find out what had attracted so much attention he catches sight of the brutally beaten body on the ground "Merde" he mutters under his breath as he realises what had occurred. He couldn't say that the guy hadn't deserved it but there had to be far better ways to go.
It was just as he was about to leave that he catches the tail end of Jays comment; turning to catch sight of Sam for the first time "Fils d'une chienne....he's worse than a bloody cockroach!" he exclaims shocked to see the Southerner still alive after their last encounter. The same encounter if he remembered correctly where NM caught his bullet.

Cookie eyed Dominic with an appraising look.  Very apt !  "Ya got that right," she said.  "Come on, youse guys, we gotta have a talk, and I gotta go talk to the big boss here...Again...."  she levied a deep sigh into it, and strolled away from the stockade before she was drawn to use the bat again on some deserving individual.

----> Exterior Scenes
This message was last edited by the player at 19:40, Fri 18 Apr 2014.

"Well Sam as always it’s been a pleasure" Dominic said without even attempting to hide the sarcasm in his voice. Turning his back on the Southerner he turns and follows Cookie out of the stockade; with Vega dead there was no need for him to be there anymore.

---> Fort Exterior

((OOC:Sorry for late posting, life is in the way as always~))

Justin nodded to Lyle and followed him out of the stockade, the entire scene was an...interesting development to say the least. He allowed himself to listen in on the conversation and observed the argument, that Vega character not turning worried him a bit. Justin had seen plenty of zombies, and he knew how they acted, how they turned, how they moved, and him not turning worried him. He didn't really have an opportunity to examine him for bite marks, or anything else like that, but still, he was shady to being with to say the least.

>>TO EXTERIOR<<

Jay gave a nasty grin at Sam before exiting the building. -> Fort Exterior

TIME BUMP

Shortly after the departure of the away-team.

The late morning sunlight filters in through the bars of the jail cell. The dead man's body has been moved and a new resident lies incapacitated on the bed in the corner.

Flashback

The night of The Fall

The Atlanta PD Tahoe was parked half up on the curb in front of the house. A black mailbox laid in ruins before it. The lights were flashing, the driver's door was open, and not a soul was stirring anywhere to be seen. The silence of the aftermath was eerily peaceful. But Karen found no peace in her heart as she slipped in the smashed open sliding patio door. Her sidearm was out before her, under-mount flashlight beams bouncing off blood-stained stainless steel appliances. Karen's breathing was hard and fast. There was a tempest of terror behind a very thin wall, that wall being simply the hope that she'd find her boy alive in this house. Karen stepped over Allison's brutalized body, her boot squishing against the carpet. Dave was at the base of the staircase. But the dead were not here. Karen took note of the bullet wound in Dave's forehead and moved on. Up the stairs, she looked right, clear. She moved left. Clear. Karen opened the last door at the end of the hallway. And there she saw him.

Kaidan!! Put the gun down, it's over now. I'm here.

Present Time

Fort Dixie, Stockade

It was the sound of the gunshot that always woke her up. Karen wrenched herself upwards and into a sitting position, hair falling in her face and gasping for air. The side of her head was searing. She sat, trying to catch her breath, cold sweat dampening her back. She clutched her head with two hands and tried to gather her composure.

"Oh good, I'm glad you're awake." Anne Marie said, sitting on a wooden stool across from Karen's jail cell. "You know, if you hit a person in the wrong spot, or right spot, depending on how you look at it, they might never wake up. You suffered quite a blow to your head, knocked you clean out. I bet it probably hurts real bad, doesn't it?"

Anne Marie didn't wait for an answer. "Yeah, it sure seams those Caravaners you came in with don't really like you a whole lot. I've heard the story, and I have to say, I see their point. But, you know, the world is a complicated place- always was really- and I can see something else too, Karen."

"You have a background in, what was it, SWAT or something? Thats cool." Anne Marie hopped off the stool and walked toward the bars. "You know our situation with those people out in the woods, you know exactly what we need. I think someone like you could be very useful in that situation. But we have to trust you Karen."

Anne Marie begins to pace around the hall, changing the subject. "Your son went out to St. Louis you know. He and some of the guys went out there for something. Did you know that?" Anne Marie was beginning to work her way under Karen's skin.

Keren kept her position, sitting on the bed, staring at the floor. This was not the first time she'd been held against her will and she was not happy to be back in that situation. Ann-Marie kept talking and Karen pretended not to listen. Until she mentioned Kaidan's whereabouts.

"Then you need to let me the fuck outta here so I can go out and bring him back!" Karen demanded fiercely, rising from the bed and grabbing the bars on either side of Ann-Marie's face. "You want to trust me? Give me some goddamn space to earn it then."

There was a brief knock at the door to the cell area before Loa entered. The young doctor (veterinarian) appeared uneasy but tried her best to conceal it. She was only moderately successful. After a few years experience in field work she had learned how to mask her emotions to make things easier on a patient, but she was jailer. Sure she understand, that Anne-Maria enrolled her for her sympathetic disposition, but she couldn't help but feel at odds with it all, even though she didn't know Karen, or for that matter, Kaidan that well.

Though she had never gotten along with him much near the end, her heart yearned for Tim to be back, so at least she'd know she'd have him, even if he could never have her back.

In Loa's hands was a tray holding some warm food and some modest medical material. Loa said nothing, glancing to Karen with some poorly disguised empathy before averting her gaze to her feet. She seemed to be waiting for A-M to tell her what to do next; it was obvious there was subtext to the two's relationship.

"Oh good" Anne Marie said as Loa entered the room "Loa here is going to take a look at that bump on your head. If you behave, she has some nice warm food for you." Anne Marie took out a metal hoop with keys dangling from it. The item looked as old as the Fort it self, its metal color had long ago faded to rust, just like the jails bars in the prison. "Loa, go ahead" Anne Marie used the old keys to open the cell door, and allowed Loa inside to do her examination.

As Loa went to work, Anne Marie began looking around the jail house as she spoke to Karen in her cell. "Trust. You know, nobody trusted me when I first came here. I'm not from around here and at that point people weren't very trusting of outsiders. I'm from New Mexico, a flight attendant. I'm used to being an outsider. Toby, he stood up for me. He convinced the others to let me in, said I would have to earn my way, but he would vouch for me. So I earned my way. I repaid my debt with the only currency worth anything anymore; hard work and loyalty."

Anne Marie walked over to the bars again, looking right at Karen as Loa looked at her head wound. "Trust will be given in exchange for loyalty Karen. We will let you out- but you are to stay here. No going to look for Kaiden, no running away. If you stay, and help us take care of our security, then when Toby returns we will talk about your permanent role here at Fort Dixie, along with some privileges. You'll have a safe home for you and your son, food to eat. But if you leave Karen, if you sneak off... you won't be coming back. Trust for loyalty Karen. Do we have an understanding?"

Karen calmly allowed Loa to tend to her wound. As the woman poked an prodded and nudged Karen's head, she listened to Anne-Marie. Trust for loyalty. Karen had played that game before. She'd been playing it her whole life really. She played it with her parents when she was a teen. She played it with her boyfriend when she got pregnant with Kaidan. And she played it with the United States Marine Corps in Iraq until her convoy was blown to shit and they shipped her home with nothing but a "thank you kindly" and a Purple Heart. That was pretty much when Karen grew tired of playing the trust for loyalty game.

Then Anne-Marie told Karen the rules of the game. "No, no, no! You don't understand, they're not safe there!" Karen waved Loa away as she shot to her feet and approached Anne-Marie. As the words left her mouth, Karen knew how they sounded. They sounded like Cookie was right about her. They sounded like she knew about some yet hidden danger back in St. Louis. But that wasn't the case. She clarified.

"They... Are not safe there... With him."
This message was last edited by the player at 12:56, Tue 17 June 2014.

Anne Marie frowned. "Look, Karen. You're a military girl, you know how this works. Around here I'm your commanding officer. You're free to go, but you report to me." Anne Marie turned to leave to prison building. "See Gabe about your shift on the wall. Congratulations, you got what you asked for." She walked purposefully out the door leaving Loa and Karen in the prison.

To Toby's Office-->>

Ann-Marie was clearly unwilling to comprehend the gravity of the situation. As the stone-cold woman left the building, Karen muttered "fuck..." and walked out a moment after her, not paying any mind to Loa.

Karen felt trapped. Ann-Marie had her by the balls now. Karen didn't want to face life out there on the road again. There was safety in numbers. It was proven by how the Caravan banded together to sack St. Louis and get their people back. Nobody had ever had her back like the Caravan had each other's. Still, Karen found herself hopelessly on the outside of the Caravan group. The Fort seemed the only hope for her and Kaidan now.

------> To Exterior
This message was last edited by the player at 06:18, Mon 21 July 2014.

-Time Update-

Luke quietly approached the stockade after observing the guards, Colton's men, step away from the stockade upon the entrance of Toby. Of course Luke wanted to welcome the guy, but he had business of his own, and the head honcho was going to have to be the distraction that would allow the mustachioed millenial prime ration snatching time. It wasn't a regular thing with Luke, mostly because they never had any food to steal, but he was getting desperate, they all were, and weaker by the day. Since Colton arrived, despite the nastiness, they were likely to eat soon, and Luke rationalized that all he was doing was 'ruining his appetite' for the dinners that would inevitably be dolled out once the trade was completed.

Practically purring with self congratulation regarding his subterfuge, the young man silently closed the stockade door behind him. Sure it might be trouble to get out without being noticed, but he'd worry about that when his belly was full. He'd just say he were guarding supplies..yea..

An airy breathing sound hissed out of the handful of rock and timber cells, the contents dark except for the indistinguishable shapes of Black-Rabbit's undead mules, swaying in their chains and rot.
Stupid bandits, way to guard our own stockade, and as if there is only one set of keys, dumbasses.. He thought to himself, even the voice in his head sounding tired and hungry.

His own key easily gave him access to the cell, and while the presence of the undead disgusted him, he knew they were effectively de-clawed by the natives, their jaws, their arms, all gone. Mainly they served as repellent or shielding, yet not even their presence would restrain him from getting into the bags they carried. Heh, coulda sworn this one looks like Tim..

Being as quiet as possible, and avoiding the 'mule' as much as able, Luke was able to unbuckle one large pack, catching it barely as it fell from the threadbare shoulders of the biter.

Fuck this is heavy, must be good stuff..
This message was last edited by the player at 07:26, Sun 11 Jan 2015.

Luke sat on the cell floor, the undead chained to one another and the wall, breathing in that airy, jawless way. Such was his hunger he cared not for their faded gazes. Thin fingers fumbled as they tried to quickly undo the bag's clasps and zippers to get at the contents. This task should have been easy, but the cell was dark with the only light coming from the bars that viewed the inside action of the fort courtyard. That and Luke was in a hurry to remain undetected but fulfilled.

Giving up, he unsheathed a small blade from his his belt, expertly stabbing the side of the bag and twisted the blade handle, before drawing it back like he was killing a walker the long way. Tossing the knife aside he held his hands aloft under the slit in the bag to catch whatever spilled out.

"..The hell.."

Sand. It all just poured out through the cracks in his cupped digits. Its a trap!

-from Fort; Exterior

Sam was first in through the stockade door, swinging it open wide and continuing to move the twenty or so feet to the last cell on the end of a row of various sized cells. Behind him Luke, Saito and Mahmoud would provide covering fire as the battle began to turn to the benefit of the undead. Colton's people tried to regain control while the Fort inhabitants unfortunate enough to become trapped were killed by either walker or bandit. The smoke billowing into the sky became darker and darker as not only building but people and biters were engulfed in wild flame.

Toby was soon to arrive on scene, wounded and out-of-sorts. Sam gave him a wary, condemning stare before revealing the stockade keys that by all rights Toby should have had. Perhaps Sam had swiped them, or the southerner hadn't trusted Toby with their only way out.
Silence aside, a composed but hurried Sam led the way into the dark cell. It was empty but for a couple thin, frail furniture items. Perhaps this was the 'luxury' cell.

Quickly he threw aside the small table and chair that barred way to the outer wall. Passing off his axe to Bill, he  squatted down, running his finger tips through the dirt of the cell floor. After what seemed like too long, his fingers found purchase in the soil, and he pulled upward as he rose to stand, pulling lose a stiff panel of wood. It revealed a tunnel just wide enough to fit a man if he sucked in his gut. Despite the potential freedom on offer, the tunnel was forebodingly pitch black..

"Get in, and keep goin till ya get out." He stated simply, in a tone that dared anyone to question him as he turned to shoot a steely look at everyone, knowing he didn't have to remind them how close they were to being burned, eaten or murdered.
"Chief and yours truly'll follow yall and close the hatch." Sam volunteered himself and Toby, again sharing a silent secondslong moment with his superior before stepping aside to let everyone file in.

"Now get the fuck in that there hole." Was all he added as he accepted his weapon back from Bill.


OOC:
Note: once you enter the tunnel, please end your post with -Escape and/or -to Chapter 4. A new thread will be provided in the next day or so for the new period of the game/time shift of a few months.

-from Fort Exterior,

Cass stayed close to Ricky, surprised that they made it even to the stockade from the madness outside. Weak but determined to live, she clutched her rescuer's shirt with one hand as if she might be swept away in all of the confusion of the scattered group of survivors entering the stockade. She noted some were missing amongst the gathering, the doctors for the Caravan and Fort were missing as well as some of the younger members of the groups, such as the brothers and the boy named after a state.

"Lets go in together. I will keep holding on to you so we don't get separated." The frail but focused young woman whispered to Ricky, distrustful of the intimidating man who showed them the tunnel, yet understanding their options were limited.

-Escape to Chapter 4 (whenever Ricky goes, Cass will go)

from Exterior --->

Karen threw her arms in the air as Dominic and the chopper crew took off and began circling the Fort. She thought of the sound of the helicopter that had airlifted her nearly shattered body off that roadside in Iraq, and the feeling of lying there in the dirt, bleeding and burnt, waiting for them to get her. Karen pointed her arm straight out, and said "We're going under the wall" as best she could with hand motions. With everyone sealed inside the brig and the dark tunnel opening up to swallow the Caravan one at a time, she volunteered. The ex-cop drew the gun she'd been issued before she was ex. The one with the under-mount flashlight, and pointed the blue beam into the chasm. She had no way of knowing where it lead, how long it would be, or what hazards lay before her, but it didn't matter. Not while knowing what hazards lay behind them all. Karen slid her body through the trap door, silently agonized by the thought she'd never see her son again.

Exit Karen

Holding the axe, Bill watched as Sam displayed the trap door, the last means to escape. Bill had never known about the trap door, but he was beginning to realize there were a great many things he didn't know going on here, like the tension growing between Toby and Sam, exchanging stares.

Karen was the first to dive down the tunnel, and Bill admired her courage. Bill had so many questions, but there was no time. Sam took back his axe, and Bill's proximity to the trap door suggested that he go next. He eyed the small group of survivors in the room. Some of Bill's only friends in the world died tonight, but he couldn't think about that right now. He didn't know what was on the other side of the tunnel, but he followed Karen down into the darkness.

-Escape!

-from Fort Exterior

Once inside the stockade, Hector was able to reunite with Aishe, who had long thrived upon remaining unseen and pulling through when the going got rough. A smile from the tall survivor broke his stoic composure, if briefly. Letting his friend Aishe go first into the dark and, in this situation, welcoming tunnel, he followed soon after. This was going to be bad on his back.

-Aishe and Hector Escape!

The cowboy was physically exhausted an losing blood fast. His arm was broken and with both the medically talented people circling high above he was unlikely to get any relief any time soon. Hopefully he could fashion a make-shift splint on the other side of the tunnel, wherever that was...

Having caught up with his brother now, after the incident in Nashville which left him feeling much the same as he did now, was conflicting. Benson knew he would never again trust his brother because of what happened, but he also knew that Brady's skillset would help the Caravan make it through a hopeless winter. The almanac was calling for a particlarly cold and wet winter in the south this year, if that meant anything.

With Brady's help, Bohannon lowered himself through the hatch and disappeared into darkness.


Exit Benson Bohannon
This message had punctuation tweaked by the player at 23:45, Sat 21 Feb 2015.

Brady never expected to see his brother after Nashville. He also never meant for the gun to go off. But in this moment, in the heat of battle with Fort Dixie burning to the ground and his brother bleeding out, Brady Bohannon didn't know what to do. There was no opportunity for apologies or explanations or rationalizations about what happened. But now he saved his brother's life. He was trapped under that guy with his arm smashed to bits. And now he wasn't. So they had to be even, right? Brady never knew Benson to be the forgiving type...

Brady helped Benson down the hole and into the secret tunnel. Secret even to him. Toby never said anything about it to anyone, apparently except for Sam. What was going on between them anyways? Brady didn't know and right now he didn't really care.

Exit Brady Bohannon

<< -From Fort Exterior- <<

Ricky was glad to see just how many people made it this far. He could feel Cass' grip on his shirt and he placed a comforting arm around her. Growing up, he never really had to play the strong-older-brother role and he was never good with helping others emotionally, so this was all a little new to him. His heart raced in his chest and the sounds of fighting outside only strengthened his resolve to make it through this alive. He nodded his head in acknowledgement to Cass' suggestion of entering the tunnel together. "Just a little further and we're home free."

>> -Escape >>