"You reap what you sow." - Kea Dupont

The somnolent sound of crackling fire fills the room. A child sits by the fire, skinning the pelt off of a small creature. He lays them side by side on the ground. Occasionally, he takes a peek at the woman in bed.

The room feels warm and cozy. Its near impossible to be in this state of comfort in the snow. The woman's vision slowly returns to her like an opening of a show's curtains. She sees the shadow of the dancing fire from the fireplace on the wooden ceiling. She is lying down, covered by a heavy, soft blanket. Beneath her is a pillow made of straws that gently tickles her neck with any movement of her neck. Her mouth is dry with thirst. Kea realizes her consciousness returned.

Outside, the sun shines down brightly onto the field of snow. There is a small wooden shack standing tall and strong in the field. Numerous trees surround the shack, obscuring it from sight. The back of the shack is facing a steep upward hill. The impassable terrain marks this area an ideal hiding place. A horse stands next to a withered tree where a little girl is sitting. She holds a stick in her hand with a string attached to a hoop at the tip of the stick. Her hand motions for the stick to sling the hoop towards her, she then catches the hoop with the end of her stick. The hoop falls to the ground as she lowers the stick. She repeats this monotonous activity endlessly.

There's large man in the field, brown skinned, tending to the horse. The horse nickers at the touch of his hand. Charlie's known this grouchy horse for over a lifetime, yet it still rebel against him at times like a spoiled child.

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Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Group G NPC compendium updated.

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This message was last edited by the GM at 21:32, Fri 12 Apr 2019.

Keas eyes open, her glazed, blurred vision searching for something recognizable in her surroundings. Finding none gets her blood flowing, instincts coming back, vision refocusing. She takes a deep gulp of air, feeling the binding of the bandages against her skin she yelps in surprise. Casting off the blankets and looking down at herself.

She recognizes the wound, feeling the muscle tighten around the hole left by the gunshot from before. She looks up and see's a kid looking back holding a dead animal and bloody knife in front of her.

The ex chef yells, frantically searching for her revolver while simultaneously trying to escape her bed. She stumbles and falls from a combined effort in getting wrapped up in the blanket and her body not quite responding yet. With fearful eyes on the boy she begins to scramble towards the nearest entrance.

Assuming she can get outside shes frozen in fear of her alien surroundings. Her eyes wide, focusing on the horse and the man, and then finally the small girl.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:31, Sat 13 Apr 2019.

Another day, another frigid morning on the mountaintops, where starvation and hypothermia were imminent threats. A log cabin and ramshackle shack occupied by strangers of tentative allegiance to one another marked one of the precious few presences of humanity in this frigid, inhospitable landscape. One of these strangers, a man named Charlie, had chosen to endure the cold and the struggle to eat; as much as the mountain's icy bite oppressed them, it was better than dealing with walkers. He'd gotten used to waking up without hearing their haunting moans. It was a hard, but simple life -- until recently, that is.

As Charlie ran a brush through the mane of his horse, Bitters, he couldn't stop thinking about that stranger Mike had taken in. Isolation was safety, security, the only unknown element was what the traps would catch. This stranger was the opposite; her bullet wound was an ominous reminder of what Charlie had hoped to escape, and her situation carried the implication that trouble was about to follow from their intervention. Desperate people, itchy trigger fingers, unpredictability, it had been a constant worry for the past few days. His thoughts went to the gunman that shot their new guest -- would he try to track her?

A sharp whinny from Bitters made Charlie jump, dashing his thoughts with her sharp, annoyed huffs; he must have tugged on that beautiful black mane harder than she'd liked. "Sorry, girl," said Charlie, patting the Hanoverian on the neck, who seemed at least slightly placated by the apology. The journey had been hard, and much of his survival could be attributed to this stubborn steed that delighted in its ornery. While he brushed the dried mud out her flank, Charlie's eyes wandered, once again, over to Wren, who was quiet as a mouse, just like always.

Charlie was torn; part of him wanted to be proud of Wren's quiet strength during their exodus from the reservation, very rarely had she whined about their situation, never had she disobeyed an order. He was also of the mind that she had withdrawn into a shell from the trauma of it all; as much as Wren wanted to hide it, nobody could take the loss of their home as well as she -- he certainly hadn't. That the young girl believed her father -- his brother -- had survived the fall of their home was an uncomfortable issue he took great pains to sidestep at every turn. Hope was powerful, and if Gordon being alive kept her will strong, then Charlie wasn't about to express his doubts.

Suddenly, a banshee-like scream tore pierced the silence, making Charlie flinch and dig the brush into Bitters' flank, which in turn made her whinny even louder and slam into her owner, sending him sprawling to the ground. Upon seeing Rufus fleeing the house and calling for Mike, Charlie feared the worst. "Wren, stay with Bitters!" he barked, scrambling to his feet and grabbing the woodcutting ax he'd leaned against the tree. Gripping his weapon tightly, one thought burned inside while trudging toward the house: would that woman have to die today?

As it turned out, she was keen to kill herself; Charlie stared at her with disbelief once she'd ran out after Rufus without any clothing on her chest save for a bra; the sight was no less uncomfortable now that she was awake. At the very least, the lack of any visible weapon made her significantly less dangerous, and for a man looking for any reason to keep his ax blade clean, that was important. "You're gonna freeze to death if you stay out here, woman!" Charlie said, reaching out to grab her arm. "Dammit, stop!"
This message was last edited by the player at 05:22, Sat 13 Apr 2019.

Even interruption

When Kea flips off the blanket, the young boy's head snaps to the woman. He stands, drawing the rifle from his back out of instinct. Kea spots her revolver hanging on the boy's belt, dangling among the pelts he had previously skinned. The boy flees when Kea screams. He sprints out of the door, yelling a name. "Mike!"

Wren gets up from the ground at the sound of the starting scream. She does as Charlie commands, abandoning the stick in her hand and runs behind Bitters. Her eyes lock onto the shack.

The door burst open, they see Rufus dashing out to the snow shouting Mike's name. Charlie hears heavy footsteps in the distance, presumably to be Mike, who is currently chopping firewood nearby.

"Where am I!" She yelled at the man, still frantically searching her surroundings. She recoiled back from him as he reached out and drew her arms inward, wrapping herself either in modesty or to conserve body heat as the cold air kicked in. Waking her dulled body up.

"Who are you, where am I!?" She repeats.

Panic was an understandable response to waking up in an unfamiliar environment, Charlie could relate with this woman in that regard. However, her hysterics would become a danger if she wasn't calmed down. "You're on a mountain in negative twelve-degree weather," he said, his voice terse -- speaking to women had never been his strong-suit, much less half-naked, terrified ones. "We're not going to hurt you," To illustrate that point, Charlie let his ax fall to the ground while he held his hands up in an attempt to placate her, "So come inside before you freeze to death," It came off as more of a command than a request.

In the distance, Bitters watched the raucous scene with detached interest. She was more interested in attempting to part the snow beneath her hooves to get at the delicious grass beneath, to poor results given that hooves weren't meant for digging. Wren's presence was met with similar indifference.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:08, Sat 13 Apr 2019.

The sounds of snow being trampled grows louder and louder. Kea sees a giant coming up from behind Charlie. The giant gently pulls Charlie to the side to present himself to Kea. Down below him, is the little boy Kea saw earlier next to the fire.

The large man speaks, his voice is calming, and deep. "Hello, we're not going to hurt you." He repeats Charlie's words and sets his own ax down to the side. Both of his large hands holds out in front of his chest, facing Kea. It almost look like he is trying to placate a raging lion. Kea sees the young boy staring at her. His eyes are fierce with distrust. She can see her revolver dangling on his belt still.

"My name is Mike, you're safe here. Rufus and I found you unconscious in the snow. You lost a lot of blood from that wound." Mike gestures his hand at the young child next to him, introducing him to Kea. He notices Kea attempting to cover herself with her arms. "Can we talk by the fire? I left your clothes in your backpack, under the bed." Mike raises an arm at the fireplace.

"How far-" She says through chattering teeth. "How far are we from where you found me." She breaks eye contact quickly to glare at the boy with his revolver. She begrudgingly takes a step back towards the building.

"I want answers, are you people sane?" She trudges back into the house backwards, never taking her eyes off them.

"Sane?" Rufus repeats the word. He looks up to Mike. "Is she asking if we're crazy?"

Mike shakes his head and smiles down at the boy. "No, she's asking if we're not crazy." He glances back to Kea.

"We're sane. We don't have any reason to attack you." Mike answers. "We found you about two to three miles away from our shack. Why don't you take a seat by the bed and tell us how you ended up this way yesterday?"

Charlie fell silent once Mike made his presence known -- the man had a way with words, if anyone could calm this woman down, it'd be him. This faith was well placed considering he'd managed to talk her back into the house, and as Charlie was about to pass the threshold, he waved Wren over. The warmth of the cabin had an uplifting comfort, making it feel more impressive than its handcrafted simplicity implied.

When he was sure the woman wasn't looking, Charlie stared at Mike, briefly glancing at their guest every now and then. "Yeah, tell us about the people that shot you," he said bluntly, with a terse edge to his voice. "I need to know if you're a danger to my niece," there was a momentary silence in which his eyes flicked to Mike and Rufus, "And Mike and his boy."

Kea says nothing until she has backpedaled to her bed and quickly snatches her backpack and rifles through it, finding her short which will have to do for now. She puts in only, rushing through the process. Once her modesty is covered she takes a few moments to calm herself. Speaking through gritted teeth.

"Cannibals, cannibals had me and my friend." She starts. "We were trying to leave when someone drove a truck through their gates and brought walkers." She takes another deep breath. "I dont know how I got shot, but I got separated from my own. How long have I been out, how far..." She trails off, closing her eyes as if searching her own memory for something.

"I need to find a church, across a river. I need to find a town." She says opening her eyes.

Wren makes her way across the snow field to the door. She carefully slips through Mike and Rufus to Charlie's side. She studies the strange woman from behind the large bronze skinned man's leg.

"You been out for over a day." Mike gently closes the door behind him. "Let's keep the cold air out." He smiles warmly at Kea, taking a seat on a stool next to the fire. Rufus follows him and stands over his shoulder. The young boy have his eyes set on Kea,  "Come on, let's talk by the fire." He pulls up a chair next to the fireplace. "Charlie." Mike nods at the other giant. "You too young lady." He gestures for Wren to come over. Wren passes a glance at Mike, then to the strange woman. Her gaze falls on Charlie, seeking guidance.

"I know the town, I can take you there when you get better... but what about your friend? You also lost a lot of blood, you won't make it far out there in your condition." The giant's fetches a large metal canteen near the fire and pours its liquid content into a coffee mug. He slowly passes the mug to Kea. "Here. Careful, its hot." He offers her another smile. "How are you feeling?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:19, Mon 15 Apr 2019.

"I'll be fine." She lied, shaking her head at the canteen. For every bump, bruise and cut on her body, for every pint of blood lost she wasn't about to indebt herself to strangers more than she already has.

"I want to go there now." She says, focusing on Mike.

"Cannibals," Charlie said, pressing a palm to his face, "Probably turned into wendigos too, huh?" he added with a short scoff, then he immediately became aware of his skepticism in a world that was now occupied by flesh-eating monsters. Ultimately, he decided that grilling this woman over such a thing wasn't worth it at the moment, "I'll have to take your word for it," if they hadn't found their little home yet, then they were probably safe for the time being.

Mike was his usual genial self, as he'd been when Charlie and Wren happened upon him days ago. Nodding to Wren to take his seat, Charlie remained where he stood, not feeling the urge to rest his feet. "I'm with Mike, going on foot to that town -- in your condition no less -- is suicide," Charlie said, rubbing his chin, "I mean, you could make it on horseback, but..." the man's hard brown eyes resting on the woman. "If I knew why you needed to get there so badly, I could lend mine," curiosity won the day and despite his misgivings about strange people, Charlie knew Wren would never let him hear the end of it if he'd let this woman march off without any help.

Kea sees a saddened frown on the giant's face when she rejects the drink. Mike places the mug on an end table next to the bed. "I'll leave this here if you change your mind." He says, forcing a smile that is soon taken over by a look of concern.



"Good, then you can get out of my shack." The young boy comments coldly.

"Rufus." Mike addresses the boy by name. He shoots him an reproachful look.

"Its what she wants!" Rufus argues.

"Be nice, she's hurt, scared, and a guest in your shack." Mike replies. The young boy crosses his arms and pouts. He glares at Kea when Mike looks away from him.

Wren sits down in the chair. Her eyes fixes on Kea, studying her meticulously like a bacteria under a microscope.

At Charlie's offer, Mike turns his head towards him. "Maybe you can give her a ride?" He looks back to Kea. "You don't look like you're well enough to ride on a horse's back. Why are you in such a hurry to go there? Miss...?"

"Because that's where my friends are." She says, her voice more calm now. "They don't know where I am, they might think I died or they might think worse. I need to find them before they give up on me being found." She says.

"And I ain't gonna be found bein' cooped up here. How did you people not know what was going on in these mountains?" She asks, her tone accusing.

Wren turns her head to look at Charlie in the eye. "If we let her borrow Bitters, are we going too?" The little girl asks quietly. Her voice is almost inaudible to Kea.

Kea notices Mike's eyes widen slightly at the second mention of the cannibals. There is a brief pause.

"We try to stay away from them." Mike answers flatly.

"Are those the bad men that eat people?" Rufus asks.

"Yes. That's them." Mike sighs. "If your friend's out there, maybe we can go find them and tell them-"

"Did you eat people? Are you a can-neh-bal?" Rufus interjects and scowls at Kea. Mike frowns and glances at the boy reproachfully.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:12, Thu 18 Apr 2019.

"Absolutely not," Charlie said to Wren, "It's too dangerous for you," bad weather, walkers, and now cannibals? There was no way in Hell he'd be letting his niece run into any of that. "It'll just be the woman and me, Mike doesn't need to put himself at risk for a stranger -- I needed to start earning my keep anyhow," his tone had a finality to it, he was set on this course of action.

Then, Mike's reveal had Charlie turning towards him with a sharp glare in his eyes. "You knew about these people? And you didn't tell us?" he said, crossing his arms.

Kea watched the mistrust in the group start. She looked down at the boy and shakes her head. "No, I was chosen to be eaten. They do a vote every week I guess. I had just gotten refuge with them. There was no hint, I had no idea they were cannibals." She shakes her head again, wanting to dislodge those thoughts from her head.

"Do you think you could give me my gun back, honey." She asks the boy.

Wren nods in acknowledgement. "I understand. I'll wait here if you go." She shifts her attention back to the conversation between the adults.



Mike glances over at Charlie and Wren. He nods slowly. "I'm sorry, I should have." He admits. "I came across them before. They won't be a danger to us if we steer clear from them."

When Kea asks for her firearm, Rufus quickly grabs the pistol off his belt and hides it behind his back with both hands. Mike turns his attention to the child, confused.

"Gun?" He asks. "Rufus, did you take her gun?"

"No." Rufus replies, he looks away from Mike's scrutinizing gaze.

"What's behind your back?" Mike asks, Rufus doesn't answer and steps back when Mike reaches out his arm. Mike stares at the boy for a brief moment. "What did we say about stealing?"

"Its not stealing, we saved her." Rufus argues. "I was just borrowing it." The child reasons did not amuse Mike. Who stretches out his hand, palm up.

"It belongs to her, we don't take other people's belonging without their permission." Mike's hand hangs in the air. He then crouches down, waiting for the boy to hand over the gun. Slowly, and with great reluctance, Rufus sets Kea's revolver on the giant's hand. "You have to apologize to her for stealing."

"I said I borrowed it." Rufus ignores Mike and turns his head to the side.

Mike looks to Kea with an apologetic smile, handing the revolver back to her. "Sorry about that." She sees Rufus sticking his tongue out at her the moment Mike looks away from him.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:33, Fri 19 Apr 2019.

Kea exhales a deep breath. Calming herself down, these weren't bad people.

"Thank you, thank you." She opens her eyes again. "Some people put a truck through the front gate, music blasting. Horde came in and I think they cleared the place out." She reveals. "They're all either dead or scattered in the forest. Some weren't bad people, a couple of them I think are going to be at the church." She looks to the native American man.

"I don't have anything to offer. You're right I'm not good enough to travel on my own. But I need to find my people and if they're still around they are there." She says, focusing her tired eyes on him.

"If you bring them here I'll be out of ya'lls hair in a night. I've already burdened ya'll enough."

Charlie's glare doesn't relax with Mike's explanation and apology. "If this woman is right and they're scattered throughout the forest, we'll just have to hope they can't make it up here," he let out a huff -- Wren would know this to be one of his "angry tics" that signified his attempts to calm down. However, it was clear Mike's omission had shaken some of Charlie's trust in the man. Kea's dialogue became a welcome distraction from his annoyance.

"Having you out of our hair is all I want," said Charlie, there was no malice in how he said this. "If you're rested up, I'd like to leave now," he waited for her by the door. "And just so you know -- good people or not, if I see one of those cannibals in the woods, they're on their own." On this, he was firm and unmoving. Any community with a cannibalism voting policy was nothing but evil in his eyes.

Wren stares at the crackling fire. She seems to be deep in thought after Kea's tale. Kea also notices Rufus stealing a glance at the giant when she re-tells the story.

"You should keep your hunts closer to the shack for a few days, Rufus." Mike comments to the boy.

"Its no trouble, you can stay here as long as you want." Mike smiles at Kea, gesturing both of his hands in front of him. "If... that's okay with you, Rufus." The giant asks.

"Yeah, whatever. I don't care." Rufus dismisses him and sits by the fire. He resumes his work on skinning the small critters before Kea's previous sudden interruption.

"I still think you should stay in bed. Please, at least take something to eat for the road." Mike waves his hand at the wall behind him. There's several strings of meat jerky hanging.

"Those are safe, they're not people meat." Rufus comments while gutting a squirrel carcass.

"Charlie, follow the creek North, you'll see the town in two hours or less." Mike instructs. "Its still bright outside, you should have enough time to make it back before night."

Wren stands, walking over by Charlie. "Don't worry about me, I will be safe here." Charlie sees her looking up to him in the eyes. "Be careful." She adds.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:19, Fri 19 Apr 2019.

Kea looks to Charlie. "Are we going to ride that horse outside to get there? I've never ridden a horse before."

At times, it helped to be reminded why Charlie continued to survive; Wren's reassurance soothed the edges of his cagey mood and looking into her innocent eyes thawed his cold demeanor somewhat. "I always am," he lied, patting his niece on the top of her head affectionately. For the longest time, the pair of them had been inseparable; they were the last of their family, maybe even the last of their tribe. Leaving Wren alone with relative strangers of all people felt dangerous. Mike's omission of their neighbors reared up nastily, as all ugly truths did. Would she be safe here with him and Rufus?

Leaving things to chance had never worked out for Charlie. "Actually... Wren, grab your coat, learning the lay of the land would do you some good," he said to his niece, "We are," to the woman. "Get ready soon, the both of you -- I want to be back as soon as possible." The door was opened and shut as he passed through the threshold, leaving a gentle waft of snow lingering in the air.

Outside, Charlie picked up his ax and trudged through the snow to Bitters, whom he'd tied to a distant tree, and was still pawing at the snow without making any progress. "Here," said Charlie, kneeling and clearing out a small square-shaped hole of frozen -- but still green -- grass. Bitters expressed her gratitude with a huff before chomping at her new patch of greenery. "We'll be saddling up in a little bit," Charlie walked a short distance to another tree, where a saddle rested -- its age showing through the cracked leather on the harness. Fortunately for him, Bitters was too concerned with a feast to protest against Charlie fastening the saddle on this time.

Small miracles did exist after all.

Wren stares at Charlie blankly when he refutes his previous decision of her company.

"Okay." He sees a faint smile surfacing on Wren before she turns away to fetch her coat. She wastes no time getting herself ready to venture out. Within a minute, Charlie sees Wren coming out of the shack, standing by Bitters, all prepared.

Kea's eyes anxiously follow Charlie out the door. "Riding a horse, huh?" She says to herself. She had never ridden a horse, the only time she had seen a horse were on police mounts in the city.

She takes another deep breath to calm herself and goes to grab the rest of her things under her bed. "Are you guys family?" She asks Mike, slipping her backpack on.

Mikes slowly shakes his head at Kea's question. "I stumbled on this shack and found Rufus here. I asked him if I could stay for a while, he said okay." Rufus seems to be listening to the conversation but does not make any comments.

Mike stares out of the door. "We met Charlie and Wren a few days ago wandering in the mountains. I brought them back here."

While he waited for the woman, Charlie continued to sift the snow covering precious grass -- Bitters desperately needed the energy. "If you get spooked with Wren riding, I swear to God you'll be put to pasture," he said, patting the horse's neck with a grim smile. It was an empty threat; no matter how much grief this testy mare had given him in the past, she'd saved what was left of his family. Bitters, by and large, seemed unconcerned with her rider, instead single-mindedly gobbling grass with the greed of a starved animal.

When Wren joined him, Charlie's gaze remained fixed on the cabin. "That woman. What do you think about her?" he asked, as was his habit whenever he and Wren were alone. In the past, Wren had been highly opinionated, and Charlie's half-hearted, sarcastic requests to hear her thoughts gradually became sincere as they bonded. She was less talkative these days; Charlie was hoping to change that.

Wren looks up to Charlie when he expressed interest with her opinion. She double checks the door to make sure the woman is not within audible range for the conversation before she speaks.

"She's very scared." She say. "Like a deer that's caught in a trap." Wren brings up her index finger at the analogy. "People like her get in trouble by lying about being okay. I don't think she understands the danger out here when she's not feeling well. And I think..." She glances at the shack door again before looking back to Charlie. "I think Rufus is mad that she's rude."

"Rufus, the boy?" She asks, surprised to here this wasn't Mike's home. She looks at Rufus with a surprised and then sad expression. He must have lost his family, the fact that he's alive and running the place shows resiliency, and for Mike to defer to the boys wishes showed mercy.

"Thank you then Rufus, for saving me." She tells the boy.

"That's right." Mike affirms Kea. He doesn't appears to be surprised at her reaction.

The boy turns around to look at Kea. "You're welcome." Rufus replies and quickly shifts his attention back to the animal carcass in hand. "I'm sorry for taking your gun." She hears the boy apologizing with a barely audible voice.

Mike places his large hand on Rufus' ushanka hat. A satisfied smile surfaces across his face. He is pleased with the exchange between the two.

(!) They will remember that.

There was a soft chuckle from Charlie, who couldn't stop seeing his brother's influence on little Wren with her empathetic insights. "I think you're right," he said, tightening up the last saddle strap to Bitters's slight discomfort. There was an unspoken understanding between the two of them; people like Kea, the stubborn and the prideful, had never met with happy ends. "Rude or not, at least we know her limits -- maybe more than she does." The giant hoisted himself atop the saddle and scooted back, making room in the front for Wren.

"Well, I'll be back, hopefully with my friends. Thank you again." Kea didnt know what to say to excuse herself so she repeated her thanks. Fixing her clothes and taking a deep breath before going outside.

Walking over to Charlie and the small girl. Kea looks at the horse with fear.

"Can it really hold three people?" She asks.

"She," corrected Charlie, patting his horse on the neck. He sized the woman up; she was curvy, but not nearly big enough to be a burden. "Yeah," he nodded, "She can handle you, we're not going too far anyway," comments on her weight were left unspoken, as nothing good had ever come from sharing opinions like that. Charlie held out his hand for her, "Don't think I caught your name."

With assistance from Charlie, Wren climbs onto the horse's back in front of him.

At the unfamiliar scent and sight of the woman, Bitters rears out of agitation. His front hooves kicks the air, threatening the woman.

Wren grabs hold of the horse's neck. "Bitters! Stop it!" Her words have no effect on the horse.

Charlie held a faint hope that Bitters wouldn't act up around this stranger, but past experiences made him expect the worst. True to the native man's pessimism, Bitters was predictably spooked. "Easy, easy!" said Charlie, patting the horse's neck. "You -- woman," he pointed to the stranger, "Grab a handful of grass, approach her slowly, let her eat it." He then pointed to the patch of frozen grass he'd cleared for the horse. Food was the fastest way to winning this troublesome steed's trust, in his experience.

Nearby Down - Grimur

This peaceful town was the ideal location for a brief respite. Most of its inhabitants either abandoned their homes, or are now struggling to maintain balance walking on the empty streets. Even so, there's never a time where a crowd of ghouls traveled in groups. Its as if the serenity of this town remain undisturbed when the world ended.

Until last night.

Grimur's recalls the absurd noise he heard last night in a second floor apartment he had chosen as a safe house. A song was playing on the streets. He couldn't make out the lyrics, but he was able to identify its genre. Someone must have had a death wish playing hardcore metal through speakers that loud in middle of the night. The music lasted for a long period of time. By the time Grimur decides to check it out, it was gone. Aside from the music, he was sure he also heard series of moans originating from a hundred ghouls outside. As a result, he leave the mystery unsolved until morning.

And so, the sun rises.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Your character has been spawned!
This group is an experimental group, as such, some additional mechanics are added. Please refer to the group G compendium for more details.

Its up to you to decide how long your character stayed in this town. Or why he decide to come here. As of now, you are free to post, and some supplies are added to your inventory.

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This message was last edited by the GM at 02:40, Mon 06 May 2019.

Kea takes steps backwards as the horse rears back. "Oh god, oh Jesus is this a joke?" She asks, how bad could her luck be to go from being lost on the Mountains to cannibals to stranded on old Mcdonalds Farm.

She looks to the Native incredulously yet she bends down to try to grab as much grass as she can. When the horse calms down enough to stand still Kea slowly moves forward with her hand outstretched, trembling.

The horse nickers when Kea attempt her second approach. It takes a few steps back away from her before slowly advancing towards her hand. The horse seems as frightened as the woman and her trembling hand. The wild look in its eyes are no longer present when it finally nibbles the grass off of Kea's hand.

Bitters appears to be docile. For now.

It was impressive that the woman managed to stay calm despite her fear; Charlie didn't want to let it slip that their wellbeing in those crucial moments relied on Bitters staying obedient. "Good job," he said, letting out a low sigh he'd held in for an uncomfortably long time. "Come on then," once again a hand was proffered, Charlie seemed confident in his ability to heft this stranger up with one arm alone. "You'll wanna hold on tight."

Whenever the woman decided to mount up, he planned on setting Bitters to a brisk canter as best suited their forested environment and the urgency of the task at hand.

Nearby Town

Grim woke with the sun. As usual. Since the power grids died, along with most everyone he knew, when to sleep and rise was largely dictated by the sun. He didn't eat breakfast because he didn't have food. Or water. But that wouldn't dampen his mood. The town was downright sleepy and that is what he preferred. It would make scavenging easier. Or holding onto his spoils easier, rather. He had already been robbed three times; losing all his non-perishable goods, water, and a policeman's service pistol he did not know how to use anyway.

He'd rolled out of the corner he'd taken refuge in and crawled into the hodgepodge of clothing he had the gall to call an outfit. Meticulously he redid his leg and arm wrappings (slowly winding the fabric  was the closest thing he had to a morning routine now) laced his clunky boots, and lastly secured the helmet over his head. It was black with a tinted, blue reflective visor that obscured his features and there was some viscera spattered across from yesterday. He scraped it off, took up his spear, and peeked out into the hall of the apartment.

He was fairly sure the first and second floor was clear. Today he would go through the rooms and see if he could find food and water. First he wanted to go to the roof. Some rotna fólki had been drawn by the music last night. He was a little jealous of whoever still had such good speakers. He looked both ways then stepped into the hall with a bouncy step, making his way to the roof access. He tried to whistle the tune from last night while he walked.

On the Roof - Grimur

On his way towards roof access, he finds no traces of any inhabitants in the building. At least, the second floor seems vacant to Grimur. A burst of sunlight assaults Grimur when he opens the door leading to the roof. The sun is shining bright. Even the broken bottle pieces on the ground are glittering in the corner of his vision.

When Grimur approach the edge of the roof railings, he notices a large crowd gathering in all directions around a white cargo truck in the distance. It looks like it crashed into an electric pole. The front of the truck is damaged beyond repair. Grimur can't be certain, but it looks like the windshield of the truck is missing. Possibly shattered into pieces from the frontal impact to the pole.

On top of the truck sits a lone person. He is sitting on the edge of the cargo and drinking something out of a bottle. His feet are dangerously close to the crowd. Their hands are just barely out of reach.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:51, Mon 06 May 2019.

Unsteady but determined. Kea hoisted herself up on the horse with Charlies help. She wraps her  arms around Charles as they move. Holding her breath until a minute passes in trot.

On the Roof

Grímur blinked a few times in the sudden light. Even with the tint over the motorcycle helmet's visor it was uncomfortable. He strolled leisurely to the edge of the roof and finally ceased whistling as he surveyed the area below. Dead person, dead person, another dead person - aha, an alive person! On a crashed truck, with seemingly not a care in the world. Interesting place for a picnic. Not that he was one to talk. He had taken up some questionable positions since the beginning of the end and was about to take another one.

Grim put a boot up on the edge of the building, bent his knee and rested an arm atop it. He leaned forward to get a better look at the man. He grinned. "HELLOOOO!" he shouted, projecting his voice in a way that could give most operatic singers a run for their money. He waved his other arm, brandishing the large spear, wobbling precariously. "That's a good spot!"

He guffawed like he'd just told a hilarious joke then sighed, reeling in the sudden wave of giddy hysteria. "I think mine is better though! Want to come up?"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:21, Tue 07 May 2019.

One the Roof - Grimur

At Grimur's call, the person on the drop turns their head to locate the source of the voice. Its hard to make out their face at this distance, however, Grimur notices spots of blood on the person's head.

The man stands. For a moment, he looked as if he is about to shout back until something stops him abruptly. Instead, he waves his arm back at Grimur. He stares at the bottle in hand and pours the content down in his belly. Once he's done, the man sets down the bottle to the side and pulls something out of his bag. He touches his head, then at whatever he has in hand, then touches his forehead again. He repeats this process until he reaches for the bottle. The stranger assumes a stance of tossing a football. He motions the movement a few times. On the fourth time, he tosses the bottle at Grimur.

*CLUNK*

The bottle shatters on the roof. There's a sheet of paper inside.

On the Roof!

Grímur stared at the man for a few seconds after he tossed the bottle. Then he pushed himself away from the edge and bounded over to read the note. It was written in blood.

"Ógeðslegur..."

He started to tuck the note into his jacket pocket, realized what he was doing, and let it flutter to the ground. He went back to the ledge and peered at the stranger. It was probably a good idea to be quiet... The apartment didn't have dead people in it yet and he'd like to keep it that way. He put the butt of his spear on the ground, leaned into it, and put one hand up - the universal gesture for wait.

"I'll save you!" he couldn't help but yell, as if the man needed clarification. There was quite a bit of bravado in how he crowed the proclamation. He straightened up again, lifting the spear, and gave a small bow - he slid one foot back, still bowed, and left like he was exiting a stage.

He moved over to the edge and studied the perpendicular building. The gap looked manageable to him. He was pretty sure he could jump it. He was very good at jumping. However if the man needed to come back to this building and wasn't a good jumper, especially given the head injury, that could be... problematic. He'd basically just be taking him up somewhere higher to inevitably fall into the hungry, dead mouths below.

So Grim resigned to searching for a ladder, or something to bridge the gaps. If he was lucky there might be one up on the roof, but if not he would go back into the apartment building and search for a maintenance closet or something of that nature. He would also collect as many bedsheets as he could find and/or carry back to the roof.

On the Roof - Grimur

Grimur searches the apartments room by room. Luckily enough, no one thought their bed sheets would worth anything when they abandoned their homes in such a short notice. In a matter of minutes, he's collected more than enough bed sheet to allow a prince to climb into a tower.

Grimur sees no ladder in sight that he could use. He does sees an alternative object that could serve as a makeshift bridge. One of the beds he searched had a somewhat solid wooden board. Its hard to tell if it will hold if someone does walk over it.

In the Pines - Charlie and the woman

With Charlie's help, Kea ascends onto the horse's back. At Charlie's signal, the horse trots off into the trees.

As Mike instructed, Charlie steers the horse along the stream. There's no signs of the town yet. It'll be a while before they reach their destination. The group estimates they're about half way to the town. Having three people on its back, Charlies notices Bitters trotting slower, and heavier than usual.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:38, Tue 07 May 2019.

On the Roof

Grímur towed his newfound goods back up to the roof. On the way back he also looked for something he could use as a small weight to help throw the sheet down - a rock, a brick, a toaster, anything. He shifted the sheets bundled in his arms and waved enthusiastically at the man again to show he had in fact returned. Then he set about tying the sheets together in a rope. He double then triple-checked the knots, trying to ensure it wouldn't come undone.

Once the sheets were tied together in a long rope, he wound it up a few times and slung it over his shoulder. Grim brought the plank over. He bridged the gap between the buildings. He took a moment to look down at the alley below - trying to see if there was a fire escape or anything to hold onto if worse came to worse...

"Vinsamlegast ekki brjóta," he told the makeshift bridge, putting up a gloved hand as if to pacify it. "Vinsamlegast ekki brjóta, nei..."

Taking up his spear he moved back to the edge and gave the man a thumbs up. Then he hopped up onto the ledge like a cat and hurriedly tried to cross the "bridge." It really wasn't very thick. Calling it a bridge was somewhat insulting to actual bridges.

Being a heavy burden on his horse's back was in itself a burden on Charlie's conscience; with Bitters's, well, bitter temperament, it was easy to forget how she'd whisked Wren and him to safety not too long ago. "We're dismounting at the edge of town," he said, looking over his shoulder at Kea, "It'll give the horse some time to rest -- hide her from your cannibal buddies," he wasn't about to get over that troublesome reveal any time soon. "We'll go to your meeting point, and if they're not there, we'll be leaving in five minutes. Mike can decide what to do with you then, I'm..." Charlie held his opinion back, but Wren could see the hardened frown, eyes that darted around uncomfortably. Strangers were always a danger; he'd told her that in the past.

On the Roof - Grimur

Grimur spots a few loose bricks in the corner of the rooftop. They are heavy enough to serve as a proper weight for his purpose. He also sees the fire escape in between the first gap he would have to cross. Should the bridge collapse, they could be the fail safe that he could latch onto. It is quite a drop from the rooftop. If he suspends himself on the edge of the railing for a fall, it will mitigate some of the landing impact.

Now that the makeshift bridge is in place, Grimur should be able to cross safely.

The man stranded on the truck locks eyes on Grimur's every movement. Grimur still can't see his face, but he can tell the stranger is watching him closely with concern.

On the Roof

Grímur tossed the brick over to the other roof. There were fire escapes below. That was good. He felt the back of his neck prickle and turned his masked head to see the injured man staring at him. He gave a thumbs up. Considering how high up he was, and how rickety the bridge looked, there was something entirely too loose and relaxed about Grim's body language. It was more appropiate for someone taking a stroll in the park, not hopping around building tops.

He stepped onto where the bridge met the ledge and began to cross. Assuming it didn't break, he would take the board again and repeat the process with the next gap until he was above the stranger.

On the Roof - Grimur

Now that Grimur's directly above the cargo truck, he has a clear frontal view of the destroyed vehicle. Parts are sticking out of the hood. it doesn't take a proper mechanic to determine that this vehicle will no longer run. He sees the stranger squinting and smiling back at him. The upper left of his forehead is stained with blood, presumably his. The stranger has a short, brown straight hair. There's a few pigments of blood in his scruffy beard as well. Despite his current condition, he still has a fair face.

"You're insane." The stranger speaks in a raspy voice. His voice sounds both exhausted and sick.

There's a good distance between the truck the stranger is standing on and the building. The sidewalk in between is currently occupied by a crowd of ghouls.

The truck trembles mildly when the desperate hands claw against it. A few straggling ghouls notices the scene. They shambles towards the truck and decides to join their friends in the mosh pit.

On the Roof

Grímur tilted his head innocently. Who me? Hm. Walking on the roof didn't seem like a very big deal. He reasoned it was not much crazier than blasting music and crashing a cargo truck. He disappeared from the edge of the building to tie his rope blanket off on something and in a moment returned, the end of the blanket now wrapped around the brick. That way he could anchor it down to the street.

"How sick are you?" he called down. He leaned over the ledge. "If I distract them in the other alley, will you be well enough to climb up?"

He hoisted the rope blanket demonstratively. Noticing the dead people getting more excited, he whistled sharply at them. "Stöðva það, ljót!"

On the Roof

"Mild concussion, dehydration, " the stranger touches his forehead, "and alcohol intoxication."He nods slowly at Grimur's second question.

Only a handful of ghouls turn their heads to Grimur at his call. Most of them are still mesmerized by the stranger's flesh standing just out of their arms reach. If he lowers the rope of bed sheets, the stranger will need to leap across the ghouls to grab onto it. Between the stranger and where the rope will land, there's about twenty four rotting hands waiting to grab hold of the stranger. If he jumps now, he will only have one chance with this leap.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:11, Wed 08 May 2019.

On the Roof

Grímur's helmet bobbed as he nodded. Concussed, drunk. Well, hopefully he could still climb.

"Okay..." He drummed his fingers on the ledge. "I'm going to lower this rope. Then I'm going over there," he pointed to the next building, "and I'm going to make a lot of noise. Lay back, don't make noise, don't let them see you anymore. Come climb over when the rotna fólk leave. Okay?"

His head tilted inquisitively. If the man agreed, he'd lower the rope then cross over the makeshift bridge to the other building. He dropped down to the fire escape then started banging the end of his spear against the metallic railing, making a terrible racket, and commenced absolutely belting Life's a Cabaret at the top of his lungs. The dead people were going to get quite the performance.

Grimur rolled 21 using 2d10+7. Agility.

On the Roof

"Alright, let's give it a shot." The stranger says. He shoots a smile at Grimur before he lies flat on to of the cargo truck.

Grimur himself descends down to the fire escape and begin his performance. Object of permanence does not appear to be one of the ghouls' strong suit. A few of them begin shambling away from the truck and towards Grimur to watch his performance. One by one, they attend the show. After about a good several minutes, nearly all of them are reaching their hands out to the performer.

Meanwhile, the stranger carefully climbs down from the top of the truck. Grimur sees the stranger retrieve something from the front seat before heading for the rope. A few ghouls notice his presence and limp towards him. However, by the time they realize their original prey is on the move, the man is already half way up the building. He crosses the 'bridge' and stands over Grimur. The stranger offers his hand to pull Grimur up back to the rooftop.

On the Roof

The shambling mass of rotten people was not Grímur's favourite audience he ever had, but beggar's could not be choosers and the show must go on. He kept banging the metallic end of his spear against the railing to the beat as he sang, his voice pleasantly carrying each note and loudly projecting in a way that spoke to formal theater training. It didn't seem to matter to him all that much that the crowd had the cognitive faculties of a handful of raisins. He sang his best. He was even dangerously close to enjoying himself. There hadn't been many chances to be unabashedly noisy the past few weeks. It was very nice.

Once the man was safely on the roof, Grímur turned to the crowd one final time. He spread his arms out, as if all the sickly moaning were cheers of admiration, and gave a neat bow. "Takk fyrir, takk fyrir!" he called. He gave another small bow then ascended the fire escape.

He was a little surprised to see the sick man waiting to help him. "Aha!" He laughed and accepted his hand. "My hero!"

He helped heft himself up over the ledge. He scrambled quickly to his feet and let out a big, relieved whew! "Were you the one playing the music last night?" he questioned. He took off his helmet (he'd learned it hiding his face made people nervous) and wiped his brow, smiling and looking entirely too pleased with himself. "Well, glad you did not get eaten in any case. My name is Grímur, my American friends call me Grim, but of course they are all dead now."

No correlation, he was sure. He offered his hand for a handshake, though he guessed being pulled up had already been a weird handshake anyway. He glanced at the man, trying to get an idea of how badly injured he'd been.

On the Roof

Grimur catches a heavy scent of whiskey and scotch when being up close to the stranger. The stranger points his finger at the crash scene below at Grimur's first question.

"That truck I was driving was, its a bit of a story." The man accepts Grimur's hand and return a firm shake.

"Halló, Grimur." The stranger's eyes look up to the sky, as if trying to recall a lost memory.

"Gaman að kynnast þér." He enunciates his words slowly. Its clear he's not a native speaker like Grimur. The stranger pauses briefly before speaking again. "Ég heiti..." He looks back to Grimur.

"Ralph." Ralph offers Grimur a smile. "Thanks for saving me."
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:58, Wed 08 May 2019.

Grímur's pale eyes went wide and he laughed. He was surprised to hear someone speaking his native tongue after so long. Even if it wasn't particularly good. Not for the first time it occurred to him if things continue this way, he will probably never see home again, and that isn't a pleasant thought so he stops thinking about it.

"Ekkert að þakka," he waved a hand dismissively, like it was no big deal. "It was no problem. Not like I had anything better to do. There's no more TV. Boredom will kill me before the dead do."

It didn't sound like he was joking. Had he helped the stranger out of good will or simply having nothing better to do? He secured the motorcycle helmet back on his head, took up the spear, and deftly hopped up on the building's ledge. "I was going to search this apartment, before I saw you," he said, strolling across the makeshift bridge. "We will have to lay low until they get bored and clear out, anyway. Maybe we'll find water to clean your wounds."

He hopped down onto the next building and turned to help Ralph across. "How did you come across a working vehicle? And why would you crash it, that wasn't very smart of you. They are hard to come by."

He'd only seen a couple. All the cars he'd checked had been drained of gas or had unfriendly people driving them.

Ralph covers his embarrassment with a soft smile when Grimur laughs at his Icelandic. He crosses the last gap with Grimur.

"Well I... One of the tire gave out." Ralph closes his eyes for a moment and touches the wound on his forehead before answering Grimur's question. "We didn't find the truck." He sighs heavily. "I came from a hotel resort up in the mountains, we had fences around the place. Someone drove the truck through and lured the dead inside with that music. I need... I need a moment." Ralph turns away and sits on down on the railings.

Kea gently rests her head on Charlie back as the horse continues its canter to town. She used most of her energy attempting not to get sick, focusing on her own breathing as she inhaled, held and exhaled. Only when Charlie speaks does she lift her head. Attempting to hide her discomfort with a smile.

"I can see why we made cars." She said.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:30, Thu 09 May 2019.

"Okay." Grim leaned on the railing too and shoved his hands in his pockets. "Don't pass out."

He wondered if there was a lot of people at the resort. He made a mental note to stay away from there. "Why did they do that?" he pressed after a moment, even though Ralph kind of looked like he wanted to throw up. "Were they crazy? Did you piss them off? That's why I stay away from big groups, they're all crazy, or pissed off, or shaking me down for ammunition or cans of beans, so if you want to go back you will have to take yourself there, I've already been robbed quite a lot and it's getting annoying."

Rappelling Ralph up the side of a building had been fine, but trekking up to the mountains to find a bunch of probably crazy people apparently didn't meet Grim's requirements for an amusing way to pass time.

On the Roof

"Hmm." Ralph chuckles in amusement at Grimur's suggestion.

"The person that did this,... he's pretty angry with me. But I'm not the reason why he did it." Ralph rests both of his hands on his knee. "There's probably nothing to go back to now." An air of melancholy shadows the man when he stares off the rooftops. He draws in each breath heavily for the next few seconds before speaking again.

"I like your voice. You used to sing?" He asks.

On the Roof

"Ah." Grímur nodded wisely after Ralph explained the man's actions... Somewhat vaguely. "Kúkalabbi. Pissed off at everyone, then."

He settled further back against the railing, looking much more comfortable than someone pressed against a hard rail had any right to be. He was waiting for Ralph to get his bearings so he could search the apartments.

"Oh, thank you. Yes. For alive people," he answered. His head tilted. It was hard to tell what he was conveying with the helmet. Nonplussed? Amused? "Musical theater, mostly. I wanted to make a proper living off it one day, see Broadway." He laughed, mostly at himself. "I still might even though no one is there anymore. I'm going to California too, to see Hollywood. Also Arizona. I haven't been there yet. I want to see the, uh, big hole... Grand Canyon, já?"

He nodded again, sounding very confident in his sightseeing plans.

Near the Church

After following the stream for some time, Charlie, Wren, and the woman find themselves near the town's border. Charlie hitches the horse in a secluded area, safe from prying eyes. Wren bids her farewell to the horse with a hug. The three of them head towards the town on foot.

Almost immediately, they see the trampled bushes and tire marks on the road leading into town. They see the church up ahead, and just across the street is a truck that had crashed into an electric pole. There's a rope descending down from the top of a building. The driver presumably used it to escape from the ghouls that's scattered around the truck. There's at least fifty of them wandering around the area. The trio does see the church, however, they will definitely attract unwanted attention from the dead if they approach it directly.

On the Roof

"I don't think there's much left to see in Broadway." Ralph comments. The man dusts off his knees and stands. "Grand Canyon." He repeats the words. "Now that's something still worth seeing. I used to jog every weekend on a mountain trail, its good exercise."

Ralph gestures his hand at the roof escape door. "I'm better now." He says. "If you do end up on Broadway, send me a ticket to your show."

On the Roof

“Of course!” Grímur chirped. “Front row seats. It’s a good thing you were a runner. You’ll have to beat the crowds.”

He bounded ahead to the fire escape, leading the way back into the apartments. There was an energetic bounce in his step. He was a little glad to have a real person to talk to, one that even seemed friendly. Talking to himself had been getting old. He hadn’t really noticed how unhealthy the isolation had been until now.

“This is where I slept.” He led Ralph to the room he had hunkered down in last night. Some of the furniture had been rearranged as a precautionary barricade and moved again, there were blankets strewn on the couch, and other basic amenities the homeowner hadn’t deemed important enough to take. “I didn’t sleep in the bed. It feels like bad luck. Does that make sense? Anyway, you can rest here if you like, I would offer food but I have none. I’m going to search the other apartments for something to clean your wounds.”

He made a small gesture, somewhere between a wave and salute, and continued on to search the other rooms.
This message was last edited by the player at 07:30, Fri 10 May 2019.

A distant mountain town could never have been good news, large congregations of the living never were. As Charlie marched through the snow, ax firmly in his hands, he could see why. The snowswept buildings carried the voices of the dead, their moans echoing eerily in the air. "Stay close to me, Wren," Charlie warned his niece, trusting her to remember what he'd taught her to do in situations concerning walkers: mimic his every move, call out possible threats, and let him carry her to safety. Their goal soon became clear, with the small caveat of a direct path being blocked by a small army of walkers. "Goddammit," he muttered, "Thought they'd be frozen up here."

While the horde may be riled up, Charlie could count on their consistent stupidity. "We'll take a long way around," he said, beckoning for the girls to follow him as he attempted to move around them at a wide berth. Whether that took them around buildings or not, he didn't care -- anything was better than alerting walkers to their presence.

Not on the Roof : Grimur

"Can't say I understand the bad omen behind sleeping in used beds. Let me help you search." Ralph replies to Grimur.

They scavenge the empty rooms and found a few useful supplies. They also manage to find some water and food.

Ralph sniffs the opened bottle of water. After determining the water is maybe safe for ingestion he downs the entire bottle. The man leans against the window from the room Grimur was in. Right outside, they can see the crashed truck and the lopsided electric pole. The ghouls are now scattering around the area after Grimur's show.

Not on the Roof

Grímur set their finds down. He removed the helmet and set it down on the couch, next to the spear. It wasn't a great haul but it was better than nothing. He didn't think he could survive off cereal forever though.

"This first aid kit doesn't have much left." He shook it and frowned, the nearly empty rattle confirming his suspicions. "Let's clean you up. You have a lot of blood on your face." He wrinkled his nose at Ralph. "Did you know that?"

He waved Ralph over. Frankly he didn't know much about first aid beyond knowing having dirt and blood all over your injury wasn't good. He really hoped he didn't need stitches. He poured some of the water on the towel. "I don't know what I'm doing," he commented cheerfully. He leaned in close and wiped away the blood as best he could. He moved gently and slowly, like he was afraid the towel was going to deliver some kind of finishing blow.

"That's okay?" he asked softly. His eyes were wide. He was still cupping Ralph's face with a towel, and after a few seconds he seemed to collect his bearings and set it down. "Now we..."

He opened the first aid kit, not entirely sure what to do next. His finger hovered over the contents. It looked suspiciously like he was doing eeny, meeny, miny, mo.

Not on the Roof : Grimur

"Is that what it is, I thought it was strawberry jam." Ralph moves his finger to his forehead.

After Grimur cleans his wound, Ralph chortles at the sight of him at a loss on the next steps. Ralph's hand moves in front of Grimur's finger, halting further movements. "I got it from here doctor, thank you." The man shoots him a smirk. He works swiftly to dress his own wound with the content of the medical kit. Its painfully clear to Grimur that Ralph's experience out matches his by a mile. In the end, a piece of bandage lingers on his forehead, covering the wound.

"We will work on that." Ralph muses.

Not on the Roof

"Will we?" Grímur asked dubiously. He didn't want to make it a habit. He dried his hands and set the towel down. "Were you a doctor? You're very fast."

After a moment his right hand twitched. He picked up the towel and started drying his hands again, despite them already being dry. Something hadn't felt right the first time.

Kea took out her revolver, she made no attempt to use it but seeing the walkers and having it in her hand gave her a sense of security. She said nothing, continuing to listen to Charlie and focused on keeping herself together.

Not on the Roof : Grimur

"I ammm." Ralph answers, then quickly adds, "a veterinarian." He shoots Grimur an embarrassed smile and quickly looks away. He abruptly stands and approach the windows again. The man rests both hands on the window with his head down.

Ralph slowly raises his head while leaning closer out to the window. "About that resort, I think I just saw someone I know. I'm not sure what they're trying to do..."



Charlie and the woman

"I will. You lead, I follow." Wren walks up behind Charlie. She tails closely to him while the three of them sneak around the ghouls.

They have a clear view of the front entrance to the church. Unfortunately, there are too many undead wandering around for them to sneak in safely.

The trio manage to successfully sneak around the hrode on the streets. However, reaching the rear end of the church they see the other side is also flooded with undead. They spot a window in the far end of the church. Its not possible to tell if its locked at this distance.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Map for Charlie and the woman
https://i.imgur.com/q7jA63K.png

---

This message was last edited by the GM at 03:37, Sun 12 May 2019.

Not on the Roof

Grímur blinked in surprise. He slunk quietly up to the window and peeked out. "Kannski er það örlög..." he mumbled then laughed. "They didn't come with you? They should really take the roofs, there's a lot of dauður outside."

He leaned in closer, dangerously close to outright pressing his face into the glass, and gave a slight shrug. "Let's go say hello." He collected his gear and fixed the tinted helmet on his head again. "Come on!"

Without waiting for Ralph, he bounded out the door descended the stairs (two at a time) looking for the apartment's rear exit. He seemed entirely too excited to go meet the people considering they were perfect strangers.

On the Streets

"Nope, there was a wave of... dauður, between them and me. I had to lure them away with the truck."

Ralph follows Grimur out to the street through the rear exit of the apartment. The back alley is in a better shape than the main street. There's only but a single ghoul sitting next to a dumpster. It hasn't notice Grimumr or Ralph yet, but if they are to circle around the building they will have to go through it.

Grímur led the way out of the apartment, confident and sure-footed, like he'd walked this route a hundred times before. It's very unearned. It's the cocksure prancing of someone that doesn't have a good sense of self-preservation.

He froze when he saw the dauður. He put a gloved hand up for Ralph to stop. The small man, more a cobbled together bundle of rags in his current setup, hoists the spear up in both hands. He stepped lightly forward. He tapped on the hilt, counting in his head (einn, tveir, þrír) because if he doesn't he might miss the first strike.

In a few seconds the dead is granted its final rest via a spear jabbed through the side of its head. Grímur pulled it out with a subdued squelch. He knocked the bits of brain and skull off on the dead person's shoulder and an airy chuckle bubbled up from within his helmet. He tilted his head and continued down the alley, peeking out at the end for the trio they'd spotted.

On the Streets

While on the Church's backside, Wren points her finger across the street. "Charlie, look." She whispers quietly. On the other side, there are two men looking at their direction. One of them have their forehead bandaged, he's waving both of his hands above his head. They don't look like the shambling ghouls on the street. "Are they cannibals?" She asks.


Meanwhile, Grimur and Ralph spots the trio sneaking around the church across the street. There's no way for them to get to them without alerting the ghouls in between.

"I know one of them. She came to resort a few days ago with her friend." Ralph points out. "I haven't seen the other two before."

Ralph raises both of his hands and waves at the trio.

Every second Charlie spent listening to the inhuman, guttural groans of these monsters filled him with dread. Where some might see shells of humanity in their glossy eyes, Charlie could only remember the hordes that toppled a home he and thousands of others painstakingly protected. "Stay calm," he whispered through clenched teeth, though given how effortlessly they managed to avoid detection, the girls didn't need his encouragement. Unfortunately, more walking corpses were shuffling aimlessly around every inch of the church. Times like these, Charlie had to remind himself that he'd decided to risk his life and the life of his niece for a woman who hadn't shared her name when given a chance -- several times.

Wren's warning had Charlie staring at the distant strangers with a steel-eyed gaze; he didn't dare wave back. A gloved hand wiped away some sweat from his forehead. "Okay. Okay...woman," he jerked his head toward the window, "Take Wren, both of you try and open that." The native man gripped the handle of his ax, closer to the blade. "Quietly. I'll watch your back." Whatever game those two men were playing at, Charlie afforded them the same suspicion every stranger warranted.

Kea saw them through the haze. A total stranger and a familiar face. Ralph?

"I know him." She said, holding up her arm and waving back. "Thats Ralph, we can trust him." She told Charles. Her eyes flitting between him and the walkers nearby. She nodded at his command and moved over to the window. Looking to open it as quietly as possible.

Charlie and the Woman

Wren nods at Charlie's instructions. She creeps up slowly behind Kea.

While moving past the dumpster, Kea's vision slowly fades. She looses balance of her body and nearly tripped.

*Clunk*

Kea hears the sound of an aluminum can when her vision returns. The undead gathered near the window turn their heads. Two ghouls growls and shamble towards Kea. A pair of their neighbors decide to follow when they spot their movements. Now there are four of them crippling towards Kea and Wren.

Wren immediate response is to quickly back away from the window. She holds up her skinning knife, unsure to fight or to flee.


Friends On the Other Side

Grimur sees the woman waving back from across the street. When the woman and the child approach the window, four ghouls shift their attention to the pair.

"Uh oh. They're in trouble." Ralph says. He scans his surrounding for a way to safely cross the street without alerting scattered horde of undead.
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:45, Thu 16 May 2019.

With how well things had been going, there had to be at least one slip-up; the woman delivered in that department. Charlie had a feeling her injury would catch up on this woman. Eventually, he'd just hoped it wouldn't be in a situation where walkers nearly surrounded them. Seeing those creatures approach his niece hit the native man with a jolt of primal fear. "Back, back," he hissed at Wren, approaching the alleyway and gesturing for her to get behind him -- fighting had always been out of the question for someone as vulnerable as his niece. The woman was free to do whatever she liked, seeing as how she got them into this mess.

With four shamblers slowly encroaching on their position, Charlie had little confidence in his ability to take down all four at once. Instead, he noticed the dumpsters, and an idea formed on the spot. Charlie approached the biggest dumpster just outside of the alley and set his ax on top of it so that he could grasp the handle on the side. With a small grunt, he attempted to guide the massive improvised barricade into a horizontal spot opposite of the smaller dumpster. Hopefully, the wheels weren't too creaky; he wanted to do this relatively quietly.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:01, Fri 17 May 2019.

Grímur did not recognize any of the people. Obviously. He took a hand off his spear and waved regardless. He paused and watched the ghouls shamble toward the little group without much of a change in posture, like he wasn't processing the danger - or, pessimistically, didn't even care. It was hard to tell with his face hidden.

"Hm. You don't think they can handle them? Four is 'trouble' to you?" He spoke lightly, pleasantly, as if pondering the odds of a gamble back on the riverboat. The helmeted head tilted slightly. Conspiratorially. "Observe. Trouble."

While Ralph had been carefully studying how to cross the street, Grímur elected to walk brazenly down the rest of the alley, a jaunty spring in his step, like there wasn't a care in the world. It looked very much like he was marching onto a stage. When he came to the end and stepped smartly into the street proper he even gave the spear a flourishing spin before taking it in both hands again.

He glanced around to see what ghouls had noticed him before doing anything else. First thing's first.

Sucking in air and then forcing it out of her lungs. She stood back up with a dizzied grimace.

"Back honey." She growled out at the girl, making sure she was out of harm's way. A kid was going to be hurt if Kea kept making mistakes. Now wasnt the time to be useless.

With her revolver ready she saw what Charles was doing, if she needed help moving it she would lend her fading strength to move the cart.

Charlie and the Woman

Charlie's strength puts the dumpster's resistance to shame. Without breaking a sweat, he aligns the dumpster against the other, forming a small barricade for the undead. Wren turns her back on Kea and dash back towards the alley, running pass the dumpsters to Charlie's side. While Kea remain still, she sees four ghouls approaching in her direction. Two of them are nearly within arms reach.

Grimur

When Grimur walks out towards the street, he can hear Ralph hisses out to him from behind. "What!? You're insane, come back!"

Grimur's appearance in the open street immediately attract all ghouls close to him in the vicinity from nearly all directions. They loom over him with insatiable hunger. While standing on the street, he sees the other group across the street forming some sort of a barricade with the dumpster to fend off the dead.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

Map of current status.
https://i.imgur.com/ExelaeA.png

---

This message was last edited by the GM at 17:41, Thu 23 May 2019.

Once the dumpster was in place, Charlie slammed his foot down on a wheel brake that could, with luck, hold against the encroaching walkers. He eyed the other dumpster, then the woman, who was taking a worryingly long time to get to safety. Still, her concern over his niece had to be repaid somehow. "Wren, start moving the smaller dumper the same way I did," Charlie said, before maneuvering through the gap in their makeshift barricade. With the walkers so close, the giant of a man didn't ask for the woman's permission to guide her back through the gap with an arm thrown over her shoulder.

On the way back, he saw that the smaller horde had become fixated on a man across the street who, for some reason, decided to attract their attention. "At least they're not looking at us..." Charlie said, moving to help Wren shift the dumpster into place.

Kea was slow to react, a combination of shock and the gunshot wound that had been bothering her since she forced herself to come with. She felt a hand on her shoulder and instinctively backed away from the walkers, her gun still at the ready but her eyes drifted past the immediate threat to see the man Ralph was with run towards them.

"What is he doing?" She asked, finally shaking herself back to reality and following Charlies direction.

Grímur wandered lackadaisically out into the street. Then he wondered what he was doing. Oh well, he was already committed to causing trouble now. "HELLO!" he shouted, checking both ways. "DEAD PEOPLE, COME TO ME!"

The upbeat tone of his voice suggested he either didn't understand the gravity of the situation or he had some kind of legitimate death wish. The streets were pretty congested. He probably couldn't run them around like before. Especially if he wanted to come back for Ralph. Though he supposed he didn't have to, but it was nice having some human contact that could actually talk back for a change.

Hm, maybe they should stick together. Back to the apartments! He turned on his heel and jogged back down the alley, looking for a way to prop the door open. Did it have a latch? "HEY, THIS WAAAAY!" he grabbed Rufus' arm as he sped by and dragged him along with him. A muffled laugh came from his helmet. "Look, I made friends!"

Charlie and the Woman

Charlie and Wren make one final push to set the other dumpster in position. Together, the garbage wastes containers form a formidable barricade to the ghouls. Kea retreats back behind the barricade. The two tailing ghouls comes into contact with the dumpster. They seems to be unaware of the metal boxes obstructing their path. They bend over their upper bodies forward and reach their arms out at the trio.

On the opposite side of the street, they see the stranger shouting on the street before retreating back into the alleyway with Ralph.

Grimur

Ralph wide eyes never once left Grimur, like watching a horror movie expecting the bloody end to a character. On his way back, Grimur feels a brief touch on his shoulder from one of the ghouls. It nearly catches him.

Ralph follow Grimur's lead, unable to provide a response to his act. They dash back into the apartment with an army of undead in pursuit.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Updated Map:
https://i.imgur.com/CWMJNbT.png

---

Charlie stood in front of his barricade in utter disbelief at what just happened. "Uh..." He grabbed his ax, keenly aware to avoid the grasping walker hands, "I don't know, but he just made our lives easier." With luck, maybe the walkers would be too occupied with the trio's strange benefactor to ever notice them. "We're not going through there," Charlie said, pointing down the alley and walking to the right, toward the corner of the church. He peeked out to see how many walkers, if any, were in front of the church.

"Ooh, they're fast!" Grímur chirped. One almost grabbed him! He let out another shaky laugh, riding that fine, exhilarating line between completely thrilled and terrified. He kept one gloved hand wrapped firmly around his spear, the other still pushing and dragging Ralph along. "Up, up, up the stairs!"

He indeed was steering Ralph to the stairs. Back to the roof. The problem was, it would probably be hard to go up side by side - so if it was too narrow, Grímur would take up the rear and whatever happened happened. He was glad the dead were so stupid. They tended to bump into each other and pile up.

Kea says nothing more to the Native American man, her silence in agreement with his tactical appraisal of the situation. She keeps close to the two as they check other directions.

Back in the Apartments

Ralph and Grimur climb back up the stairs to the roof. Once they are back on top of the apartments, Ralph slams the door shut with his back.

"How do you say... insane," he pants, "in Icelandic?"


Charlie and the Woman

Charlie peeks around the corner of the church to get a view at the front entrance. By now, most of the ghouls are receding from the door. Thanks to the stranger from the street, the undead are marching slowly down the street.

"We should thank that man if we see him again." Wren whispers from behind.

It looks to be safe enough to sneak inside now.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Update Map:
https://i.imgur.com/iO03IKG.png

---

"I'm not sure I wanna get within twenty feet of a man who does stuff like that." She replies to Wren.

Charlie and the Woman

"What do you mean?" Wren tilts her head while looking at the woman. "He was very brave and kind to help us."

Grímur grinned under the helmet. "Brjálaður. Why?"

He let out a slow breath then banged on the door loudly, three times, and listened for any angry groaning or thumping around. "Keep them interested, okay? It'll keep the ones outside filtering in. They're like..." He tried to think of the English word then shrugged. "They're very stupid. They just follow each other."

Then he moved over to the edge of the building, trying to see if all the dead had filtered into the apartment, or if they were lingering on the streets still. He'd decide what to do next depending on what he saw.

On the Roof, Again

"It'll be good to know if I ever introduce you to any of my Icelandic friends." Ralph throws Grimur a wry smile. "I think most of them are still downstairs." Ralph carefully pulls the door, allowing only a tiny gap through. He peeks, then opens the door.

"We're up here!" Ralph shouts downstairs. The sound of busy footsteps intensifies.

Grimur observes the streets and notices the horde moving towards the alleyway leading to the apartment. His assumption is correct, they are simple creatures that follow mindlessly. The street is slowly clearing up of the undead, and he can see the trio sneaking around the corner of the church.

"Haha," Grímur called over his shoulder. Dryly. He put a boot up on the roof's ledge and leaned forward, resting an arm on his knee and peering down at the mob. Oh, good. If they weren't all filtering into the apartments he would have crossed to the next roof and tried to lure them off the edge. Then some might be incapacitated at least. This worked better though.

"Let's give them a few minutes to come inside," Grímur suggested. "When they're in, we can go down the rope and sneak around the alley again. Then we'll shut them inside. If they break our door let's cross to the next roof."

He whistled a little tune while he waited. It was all very nonchalant.

Charlie was about to express support for the woman's opinion, but then he remembered she hadn't yet introduced herself. "Strangers won't help you out of the goodness of their hearts," said Charlie, who scanned the immediate area on the off chance that he missed any walkers. When he was satisfied that could move up unmolested, the older man faced his niece, "We'll be seeing that man again when he wants to cash in on his 'bravery and kindness,'" the bitterness in Charlie's voice was unmistakable, it was clear he was speaking from experience. "Remember what I taught you about people like that," Charlie was referring to his brief lessons to Wren about how strangers will attempt to take advantage of her age; he always stressed that she needed to be wise beyond her years to see past lies and deception.

"Come on," said Charlie, who stepped out onto the sidewalk and headed to the church door, "We don't know when that horde'll be back."

Charlie and the Woman

Wren follows closely behind Charlie to the church door after it is cleared of ghouls. A few of them lingers at the back of their comrades, marching slowly off the street. They don't hear anything from inside the church itself, it is possibly vacant.

On the other side of the street, Grimur and Ralph descends on the makeshift rope Grimur constructed earlier. They land behind the crashed truck. Charlie and the others are on the other side of the street. They see the native man with a woman, and a small girl.

Wren taps on Charlie's shoulder and points her finger at the direction of the truck.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)

You're now merged!
Current location
https://i.imgur.com/XPZYSPI.png

---

"Brave and kind looks more like dumb and reckless to me, honey." She explains her reasoning. "I sure hope they didn't get killed for it is all." She eyes the church entrance, her mind focused on the goal, ignoring the pain.

"Well, lets get to it."

Grímur was first to descend the makeshift rope. He made it about halfway down doing the methodical, careful approach, then ended up just sliding the rest of the way. The gloves stopped the rope burn. He patted Ralph on the shoulder and tilted his head to the smashed truck. "Now that the dauður cleared out grab anything you left behind."

He looked around and noticed the little trio still across the street. He removed his motorcycle helmet and propped it under his arm. He waited for Ralph to get his things, or collect his breath, then pointed excitedly across the street. He rocked on his heels. Between jumping around rooftops all morning and aggravating hordes of dead, Grímur didn't seem to have much of an off-switch.

He tugged Ralph's arm again and led him behind the truck so they could break line of sight from the straggling dead in the street. He hooked an arm under Ralph's and dragged him quietly and quickly across the street to meet the others, barely resisting the urge to skip. He couldn't help it. He hadn't met normal people in a long time.

"Hi!" he greeted. Quietly but definitely not lacking in enthusiasm. "I'm Grímur."

He'd caught his breath now, but his cheeks were flushed pink and there was definitely... some kind of energy around the eyes that gave the friendly smile a more manic quality. It could be nerves, adrenaline, or maybe the guy was just... kind of out there. He wasn't that tall or imposing. He was definitely good-looking - more pretty than anything - and his white-blonde hair stuck up in a variety of exciting directions from the helmet. His clothing was a baggy hodgepodge of material that made him look amorphous and androgynous. He toted a big, metallic spear in one hand.

He stuck the butt of the spear in the ground and leaned into it. "My friend Ralph says he knows you." He still had an arm hooked under Ralph's and he hoisted it in an introductory manner. "I don't know many people here, and the ones I did are mostly dead, or eating each other, or both, so I think that makes him my best friend now. Hey, are you from the resort too? Where are we going now?"

Charlie, Grimur, and the Woman

Ralph jogs swiftly behind Grimur. He stands besides the blonde haired man during the introduction.

"Thank you for helping us Grimur. I'm Wren." The little girl introduces herself to the stranger.

"Hello." Ralph waves his hand with a smile at the others. Wren waves back. His upper forehead is wrapped by bandages. Only a few spots of red pigments are seen on his covered wound. He also carries a heavy scent with mixture of scotch and whiskey. To Kea, Ralph's appearance and condition is not as well as she last saw him.

When he spots Kea, his smile fades. "You don't look so good, Kea, are you injured?"

"Good lord!" Kea exclaims when her attention is pulled to the stranger from earlier. Regarding his appearance with mistrust. Her eyes shift over to Ralph and become a mixture of the same mistrust and now worry.

"Ralph!" She offers a smile. "I'm glad you're alive. I-I..." She looks instinctively reaches her hand up to gingerly touch the wound on her back.

"Someone shot me when I jumped out the window. I don't know who it was, I don't care it's no one I wanna see again. These people found me bleeding out and helped me get back on my feet. Now they're helping me find Kelly and Thomas. What happened to you?" She asks.

Seeing those strangers again made Charlie tense up, and he found himself gripping his ax with box hands in anticipation for a possible attack. It never came, and as one of the men approached with the friendliness of a neighbor asking for a cup of sugar, Charlie wondered if Grimur was playing an elaborate trick, or if he really was this implausibly nice. Cynicism kept Charlie doubting, but once Wren gushed with appreciation, he settled for a relaxed grip on his weapon. "There's no we yet," said Charlie, who already found Grimur's chipperness grating, "I'm helping the wo- Kea," finally, "get back to her people. I'm Charlie."

From the look of things, Ralph fit that criteria already. As much as Charlie wanted to leave, he told Kea they'd investigate the church, and he intended to keep his word. "Ralph, have you seen anyone go into that church?" he pointed at the looming structure, "Kea thinks we'll find people inside, but..." he gazes meaningfully up the street, where the horde of walkers had gone. "...unless they got inside before Grimur's fans, I'm not holding out for a miracle."

In Front of the Church

"You look pale, you must've lost a lot of blood. I'll need to take a look at that wound later." Ralph sighs and waves his hand at the truck. "I drove that truck and led the horde off the resort. Then I crashed."

Ralph nods at the native man's introduction.

"I was unconscious for a while, and I didn't see anyone when I was awake."
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:22, Mon 10 June 2019.

"You survived all of that?" Kea was shocked. "Did you go back to the hotel, did you see anyone else?"

In Front of the Church

"I couldn't go back, I was stranded here until Grimur rescued me." Ralph nods his head at Grimur. He then points his thumb to the truck. "That truck doesn't run anymore." He looks past Wren, Charlie and Kea, appearing to be searching for someone else.

"Is Ingrid with you?"

Grímur smiled as the little group introduced themselves with all the friendly passiveness of a golden retriever. His smile widened when Ralph mentioned his daring rescue and his chest puffed out. Hearing Charlie was helping the woman, he fixed him with a knowing look. Like look at us, aren't we heroic! It was always nice to meet new people. Especially when they aren't trying to gnaw your appendages off.

"Nice to meet you, Kea. And Charlie and Wren." He gave a small, half-bow to the little girl with a short flourish of his hand (the one unoccupied with the spear) like an actor after a play.

He listened to them talk about the church and someone named Ingrid. Well, he couldn't help with Ingrid. But if they wanted to know if people were inside there's only one way to find out! Without further ado he fixed the motorcycle helmet to his head and took up the spear in both hands. He sauntered closer to the church, looking for a way inside.

For the most part, Charlie let Kea and Ralph's conversation play out without interjecting -- he was the outsider here, and his role only extended to getting Kea back to her people. Thoughts of wandering cannibals and Mike hiding their existence continued to haunt Charlie, who couldn't stop wondering how isolated they were in this part of the world. A portion of him wanted to keep moving with Wren after the business with Kea was concluded, but was that too extreme a reaction? It was undeniable that living in the mountains had been the most peaceful time of their lives after the departure from the reservation. The question was, was this quiet isolation about to end?

Those questions would have to wait, as Grimur's spontaneous action spurred Charlie back to his natural state: terse alertness. "What are yo-" It was like talking to a wall, Grimur passed by without a word, and Charlie was right behind him, looking annoyed at the man's blissful ignorance to the danger around him. "Keep it quiet, or you'll bring your admirers back," he warned, while also looking around for a way inside. Of course, the most apparent entrance would be the front door, but Charlie doubted that any entryway would be unbarred nowadays. Nonetheless, he wanted to test it anyway.

Kea shook her head. "No... I'm hoping she's here. I'm hoping they're all here, Ralph." She says, she offers nothing more than a tired and sad smile as Grimur enters the conversation to introduce himself. "We were just talking about your exploits." She mentioned while getting ready to fall in behind Charlie, she turned her attention to trying to find a way inside.

In Front of the Church

Wren observe the the full motion of Grimur's performance. She seems delighted, although not at Grimur's grandiose display. "I like your weapon, its very practical." She says quietly to the man before walking over to Charlie by the door.

To Charlie's surprise, the door knob shows no resistance when he turns it. The front door is unlocked. There are windows at the front side of the church, however, they are all boarded up with planks of wood and metal scraps. It will take sometime to deconstruct the barricade, if the group had any tools to do so.

"Well, let's hope they're in here." Ralph comments and proceeds to follow closely behind Charlie.

An airy chuckle came from within the helmet. "They did take a liking to me, didn't they?" he commented pleasantly to Charlie. He rounded the church, idly running the end of his spear along the siding, listening to the rhythmic taktaktak. All the windows looked boarded up tight. Probably wouldn't be worth the effort in prying off.

Churches were a funny place these days, he thought, staring up at the steeple. Did people still go there for respite and shelter? The dead didn't much care that they were sacred places. They violated the sanctity of a natural death, after all. Why would they care about a church? It was just another building now. He wondered if people had come here for safety in the beginning. He wondered if it had helped.

He came back around to the front of the church by the time Charlie tried the door. "Aha! Sometimes it's the most obvious solution!" he declared. Oddly congratulatory, like Charlie had just cracked some kind of puzzle.

He hopped up the stone steps and readied his spear into a battle-ready stance. He wasn't sure what the deal was with the people they were looking for, he was just happy to be along for the ride. "Is god still here, I wonder," he commented. More to himself. He took a step into the church, briefly moving a hand through the air as if he could feel some sort of holy spirit that way. He gave a slight shrug. The jury was still out, apparently.

He looked around to see if it looked occupied. He wanted to leave any calling out to voices the person they were looking for was familiar with.

"Huh," said Charlie, who expected the door to be boarded up like the windows at the very least. "Either someone was in here, or they didn't get to the doors in time," he mused to himself in a low voice. His quiet ruminations were subsequently interrupted by Grimur's joyful (and loud) return, which made Charlie raise a finger to his lips with a glare. "We don't know what's in there," he said, staring inside the church, which would undoubtedly be dimmed of light thanks to those boards. There wasn't a whole lot of time to light the place up.

Though pressed for time, Charlie came up with a basic plan that at the very least, could work in some improvisation. He pointed to his niece, "Wren, stay out here and hold the door open. Watch for the horde, and let us know if it wanders down the street," then to Ralph and Grimur, "You two are with me, we stick close and check every corner." Lastly, there was Kea, whom Charlie didn't want to endanger due to her present state of injury. Nonetheless, he pointed at her as well, "Stay behind us, call out for your friends...quietly."

Their little group wasn't anything like the men and women who called each other family back at home, but Charlie dared to hope that mutual survival would ensure at least some cooperation. "We don't have much time until it gets dark, are you with me?" he asked, gripping his ax and ready to enter the church at any moment.

Kea gave the Indian a thumbs up. "I'm ready when you are Charlie." Stepping into position behind the trio of men. Attempting to ignore how odd they all were in relation to one another.

Church Interior

There are no immediate threats roaming inside the church. At an immediate glance, this entire place is a mess. The benches are not properly aligned by any standard church protocol. Papers and clothes are scattered in the room. It appears that a large amount of people left in a hurry. In the back is a hallway leading to the backroom. There's light coming through a window at the end of it.

There's no one inside.

"If god is still here, he would be pretty upset at the mess." Ralph comments, walking next to Charlie as instructed.

Wren steals a glance into the church before turning her head back out on the streets near the door. The girl keeps her back glued to the door. She seems tense, but vigilant at the task assigned to her.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Map of church interior:
https://i.imgur.com/kaKoAGu.png

---

An empty meeting place wasn't unsurprising, but Charlie couldn't stop himself from hoping Kea's friends would be inside, ready to take her off his hands. "Okay..." he said, rubbing a hand over his face, "Uh... Kea? You and Ralph look around for any sign of your people. Grimur, you're with me," beckoning the Icelandic fellow to follow, Charlie walked down the back hallway, where an unopened door loomed ominously.

"Stand back, off to the side," Charlie said, planting his back against the wall beside the door. Reaching for the doorknob, he tried to open the door. If anything -- or anyone -- were inside that room, at least the two of them would be relatively clear of danger.

Grímur had nodded and put a finger over his lips when Charlie chastised him. Or where his lips generally were, what with the tinted helmet hiding his face. He wasn't sure how he felt about the church appearing empty at first glance. He'd gone in with zero expectations, as he often did, and did not have a personal, vested interest beyond the fact they were all people, therefore they should work together. Maybe they were further in? Under a bench...?

He laughed at Ralph's comment. "I think he would be more mad about the mess outside."

He looked around idly, humming quietly. He perked up when Charlie beckoned to him. "Okay!" He sounded like him and Charlie were about to go off somewhere terribly fun. He opened the visor of his helmet so he could see better in the church. He would be taking this search very seriously.

He followed along. His humming turned into a brief bout of hymn-like singing (Heyr Himna Smiður.) He had a pure, melodic voice and it carried high, reverberating in that eerie, pretty way music did inside churches. The uncanny feel of the tiny performance was spine-chilling against the ruined backdrop of the church. He couldn't really help himself. The acoustics were good in here.

To his credit he did shut up once Charlie and him reached the door. His readied his spear, moving back and to the side as per requested.

Once they were inside Kea gave her best attempt at a hail Mary. "Thomas? Kelly? Ingrid?" She called out in a steady but low voice. A deep frown etched across her face and an icy pain emanated from her belly.

She saw the closed door too and followed the rest of them as they got ready to open it.

Church Interior



"Hm, maybe that's his wrath." Ralph scratches his chin. He stands by close to Kea, watching for any movement in the room.

When Kea calls out the names, there are no replies.

Unlike the front door, Charlie finds the door knob to the backroom jammed. It looks like someone purposely damaged it. The door itself isn't locked, but there's something on the other side preventing it from opening. Charlie might be able to forcefully push it open.

Right next to the door is the window leading out to the alley. It is not barricaded like the other windows. Charlie and Grimur can see the ghouls moving on the street. They are moving at a much slower pace than before.

Charlie exhaled loudly like a bull on the verge of charging. A jammed door was the last thing they needed, and a cursory look at the horde congregating just outside the window was an unwelcome reminder of their tentative predicament. For a while, Charlie stared at the door, then the window, mentally guessing how long it would take them to break the door down and check inside before they were cornered inside this deathtrap of a building. "Stand back," he said, "I'll try to do this quietly, but get ready to run if they hear us." Without further ado, Charlie braced his shoulder against the door, then sharply slammed against it once, twice, however many times it would take to push it open.

"If you can break that quietly I will give you two-hundred dollars," Grímur whispered. He stole a glance at the dead bumbling by the window, noting that one wasn't barricaded. For some reason he looked mildly amused by the fact they were wandering back into the streets. "I'll make sure none try to get through there."

He slid his visor's helmet down and took up a position by the window, figuring Kea could assist with whatever, if anything, was inside the backroom. Their only good exit was the door they came through and this window, so he wanted to keep the route clear. Unless there was a backdoor he'd neglected to notice when circling the church before. Maybe they wouldn't notice? He kept a close watch on the dead, pressed against the wall and peeking out just enough to have sight on them.

Church - Interior

Charlie throws a few slams against the door. Whatever's behind the door is study enough to withstand the force, preventing the door from opening. A moment later, they hear growling noises coming from inside the room, and the sound of someone trampling over furniture.

Kea only looked towards the door as she heard the growling noises. Finally she tore her eyes away and focused them on the Native man.

"Well c'mon, put your back into it." She said, the anxiety in her voice palpable.

Kea's insistence made Charlie roll his eyes -- injury or no, he was the one doing all the work here. "I hear something growling behind the door, it can't be your friend," he argued, despite knowing full well that he could be wrong. The walker behind that door could be Kea's friend. "Unless you want to risk bringing that horde down on us to find out?" His question was pointed and direct -- he couldn't force anyone to live without knowing what happened to their friends.

Grímur stood guard, dilgently peeking out the window to ensure their path was still cleared. When he didn't hear the door give, his helmeted head turned to regard Charlie and the others. His shoulders slumped theatrically.

"It won't open?" he questioned in a stage whisper. "There must be no one in there. If they have not answered yet, they either are dead or not interested in being our friends."

He shrugged. "I can help break it, if someone else will watch the window."

Kea's face scrunched in annoyance at Grimur. "I'll watch the window then." With her revolver out she moves over to the window and takes a look at whats around them.

Taking Kea and Grimur's vigil over the window as an affirmation to keep going, Charlie tested his strength against the door once again. Sharply throwing his shoulder against it, he did his best to keep his exertions as quiet as reasonably possible.

Church - Interior

This time, Charlie feels the obstacle behind the door giving in. With a final push, the door opens, dragging the furniture behind it to the side. The light from the window reveals the legs of the undead in the room. They shambles for the brown skinned man at the door with their hands raised. One of them is a blonde woman, there are no visible injuries from an immediate glance. The other ghoul is bald, who has a bite mark on his forearm.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Map of current status: https://i.imgur.com/rqqGrL3.png

---

Charlie expected to encounter undead once he'd heard screams moments before, and with time precariously short, he gripped his ax tightly -- this was going to get messy. "Two of them," he said, sounding exasperated. This situation had been a mess of unnecessary danger from the moment he stepped into town, and, being the cynical stick in the mud that he was, Charlie didn't imagine today would get any better. Not wanting rush headfirst into a confined space, Charlie waited for the male walker to reach the threshold before raising his ax high and slamming it down squarely on the dome of the walker's head with blue-collar strength.
This message was last edited by the player at 05:23, Fri 26 July 2019.

With palpable tension, Kea keeps her revolver trained on the door as the occupants within are revealed. Only then does a sigh escape her lips. "It's not them." she says.

Grímur blinked in surprise. "Now what?" he asked, sounding terribly invested despite having no sweet clue who this woman or her friends were. "Where else would they go?"

He stood on his tiptoes to peer over Charlie's shoulder, watching the second undead... the one that was still alive. Well, or not dead. Honestly, Grímur found it all very confusing. No matter. It would be very dead momentarily.

He skirted around Charlie, hopped deftly over the dead-dead-undead and jammed his spear up through the other one's chin through its brain. He yanked the spear back out with an exceedingly unpleasant sound and shook it a few times, dislodging the viscera.

"Gross," he stated, as if that much was not obvious.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:48, Thu 01 Aug 2019.

Church Interior

Grimur and Charlie quickly dispatch the two ghouls in the room. There are no signs of anyone else inside. The floor is covered by empty cans and plastic bags. It looks like those two were living off of their own stash of supplies, until they both turned.

The axehead buried itself into the walker's rotted, fleshy head with the sickening sounds of torn skin and cracking bone. That was enough to put it down for good, but Charlie's attempts to dislodge his ax from the walker didn't bode well for the second one bearing down on him. He nearly gave up on saving his ax before Grimur rushed in with the deft agility of a gymnast and speared their second problem through the head -- maybe this kooky foreigner wasn't all talk after all. With a heavy grunt, Charlie's ax lost its grip on the walker's cleaved head, and the body crumpled to the ground, oozing black blood all over the sanctified floorboards. The native nodded at Grimur, as good an indication of his appreciation that most people never got to see.

The now unoccupied room looked as barren as Charlie feared, and with Kea's confirmation, this venture was at a high risk of being a dangerous waste of time. "Help me search the room real quick," he said, gesturing for Kea to follow him into the room while being sure to mind the growing puddles of blood around the dead walkers. Anything even tangibly useful would be better than walking out with nothing. Firstly, Charlie wanted to search the pockets of the room's former inhabitants, having come to terms with the need to loot the dead long ago.

"They must have left something, somewhere." Kea exclaims as she follows Charlie into the room. Searching around for anything of value.

"Oh honey where are you?" She murmurs to herself."How did everything get this bad this fast."

Church Interior

Given the abidance of cans in the room, its natural for one to assume there are still consumables hidden somewhere. Charlie discover a few cans that's half opened. The weight of these cans indicates they're not empty. However, when he examine them closely, an army of cockroaches emerges from the vessel. It looks like the insects got to them first.

Kea's fares no better with her search. The corpses have no useful information or clue for her. In the corner of her eyes, she catches a symbol carved onto the door of the room.

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
https://i.imgur.com/vgxAjUk.png

---

Outside of the room, there's a piece of note on the ground. It reads:

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
To Kea, and Ralph,

Thomas says we can't stay here, there's a horde outside and we have to move. Thomas and I are heading North I think, we're not really sure. He says he'll leave marks on the way. I don't know if we'll see each other again, so Kea, Ralph, if you're readying this, please stay alive!

-Kelly

---

This message was last edited by the GM at 20:31, Wed 07 Aug 2019.

Grímur shook the end of his spear off. He tapped the spearhead against the ground three times with a purposeful rhythm, then his helmeted head turned, listening to Charlie. He helped poke around in the cans idly and when the cockroaches emerged he laughed loudly - too loudly - and clamped a hand over his mouth. Except his visor was down, so all he did was smack a hand against the closed helmet.

He let out a string of Icelandic, probably swears. Something that sounded like 'kakkalakki' was recurrent. The bugs weren't the people they were looking for, he wisely deduced.

"We should catch them," he suggested brightly. "Good protein, yes?"

Well, at least if they caught and ate some bugs things would not be a complete bust. Technically. Not exactly a lucrative prize.

Church Interior

"Good source of protein and diseases." Ralph muses at Grimur's suggestion.

"If stuffing yourself with roaches keeps you quiet, be my guest," Charlie growled, having long grown irritated by Grimur's lack of care and volume control. However, he stared inside the half-empty can for an uncomfortable length of time before setting it down. No, he wasn't that desperate yet. With his fears that this visit to the church is a waste of time fulfilled, Charlie gave the bodies one last rueful look before facing Kea. "We can't afford to comb the entire town for your people. For all we know, they're-" Dead? Charlie couldn't bring himself to be that harsh, "For all we know, they're hiding somewhere else. What're you going to do?"

Kea unable to turn anything up releases a long, pained sigh as she moves her hands to her face to wipe her cheeks. Leaving the room, she turns away from Charlie as he speaks to her but in doing so finds a scrap of paper on the ground just large enough to be worth picking up. In desperate hopes she turns it over and reads the writing on the back through tear filled eyes.

"Ralph, damn it come here!" She says to the man and hands him the note. She takes a step inside the room to locate the symbol she had mistaken for vandalism before. Now it had a purpose, something to be tracked.

"They wrote a note." She says to Charles, finally acknowledging his existence. "They ain't here but they gone north, and they leaving a breadcrumb trail. But wheres Ingrid?" She turns to Ralph.

Church

Ralph reads the note and examine the symbol on the door. "Yeah, this is Thomas." He runs his finger through the symbol. "I haven't seen her Kea, where did you last saw her?"

Grímur slid his helmet's visor open, purely to shoot Ralph an offended look. "Bugs do not..." he started. Then he just narrowed his eyes at the man and slowly slid the visor closed again. He elected to ignore Charlie's tone. What a big and cranky man. It was almost like the apocalypse affected some people's moods.

He didn't know anything about the note or Ingrid or whoever else so he didn't offer any input. He had none. "Can we discuss this elsewhere?" he asked politely. "Preferably not surrounded by the dead? I will be fine but it is the rest of you I am worried about, really."

He moved out of the room and back to the window. He looked outside. If he saw a good opportunity to leave he would step outside the church, obviously under the impression he was to lead their merry little expedition - despite not knowing where exactly they were going. He thought it might be a trend.

Kea takes a moment to think to herself. Trying to piece together the events from just before she blacked out.

"I-I think she was standing on that shed. Getting ready to jump over. I ah," She closes her eyes, trying to piece it all together. "I told her to just head straight... I shot my gun tryna give her room from the walkers. I passed out after that." She looks at Ralph.

Church

Grimur sees the ghouls spread sparsely on the street. Most of them are cluttered in the alley by now. It should be relatively safe to head outside without being noticed.

Ralph listened to Kea's retelling of her escape. He nods in affirmation on the details. "She's not with Thomas and Kelly, I didn't see her either. She's probably still up in the mountains, or maybe she couldn't leave the resort. We should head back there and look for her, Thomas can take care of Kelly, we'll catch up with them after we find Ingrid."

"I hope they can last until morning," Charlie sides into Kea and Ralph's conversation with a frank grimace at the two of them. "Because it's almost night. The temperature's going to drop; if they can't warm themselves..." He sighed, loathing that he had to be the bringer of cynicism again, "...I wouldn't get my hopes up, that's all."

Without any meaningful loot to grab, Charlie heads to leave the room but stops at the doorway. "I gave you your ride into town, Kea, but I've gotta get out of here." Specifics were out of the question with these two strangers. Something stops him from walking, still. "Do you three have a plan to get to this resort?"

Kea looks deep in thought. Trying to figure out what has to happen for Ingrid to survive the coming night.

"Why don't we come back with you. Where you found and took me is near enough to the resort. Will you allow that?" She asks.

Charlie's first thought was to say no, but he didn't give voice to it. The plan was to see Kea off with her people, then be content to forget them as they hopefully lived their lives as best they could. He knew they would be hard-pressed to find shelter with night encroaching soon, and even at his most jaded, Charlie wasn't a monster. "I- Yeah- You can come, just for the day," he said, looking to the three strangers with an uncomfortable feeling akin to walking into a wolf's den. "It'll be slower -- can't all ride on the horse," Charlie admitted, the realization that their swift journey to town had led to an agonizingly slow walk back to the cabin.

Still, he'd given his word. "Let's go, we'll have to move quick," Charlie didn't wait for them as he walked outside the church and beckoned Wren along -- after a short compliment of her watchfulness. Though the rest of them would be walking, Wren would have a seat on Bitters' back.

Timeskip - Near the Cabin

Thankfully, Bitters was safe and sound when the group concluded their search in the church. Their trip back to the cabin was a time consuming task on foot, especially with a few extra breaks on the way to accommodate Kea's condition. By the time they reached the snowy mountains near the cabin, it was nearly nightfall.

Ralph had been constantly looking over her shoulder, checking his surroundings for hidden dangers. As the distance between the group and the cabin shortens, he seems even more agitated. When the cabin comes into view, the man stops in place.

"Are you okay?" Wren inquires from the back of the horse.

"Hm? Yes, why don't you all go ahead." He pauses for a moment. "I need to... take a breather."

In her state Kea had spent most of the journey back without saying a word. Her eyelids growing heavier by the hour until she had to shake herself awake again. Only when Ralph started to fall behind did she raise her head and look into his eyes.

"What's wrong, Ralph?" She asked.

Near the Cabin

"Dizzy, head trauma." Ralph searches for a tree and leans against it. He rubs his hand softly against his head injury. "You feeling okay Kea? This long walk isn't good for someone who lost a lot of blood."

There was plenty of time to think on the way back to Mike's cabin. Charlie thought about Mike, who'd hidden his knowledge of cannibals, a problem he didn't expect to go away any time soon. He thought about Wren, the only person that mattered, and if he could keep her safe amidst all this uncertainty. And he thought about these strangers, and whether he could trust them. With his mind occupied so much, the journey seemed shorter than it was -- breaks notwithstanding. When the cabin came into view, Charlie let out a sigh of relief.

Although the warmth of the cabin beckoned him strongly, Charlie's attention got drawn to Kea and Ralph's exhaustion. Their long walk left him a little short of breath, someone who took great pains to stay physically fit. Guilt crept past the hard exterior he'd kept up. "Do either of you need help getting to the cabin?" Charlie asked as he helped Wren down from the horse. He didn't want to say outright that Kea looked the weakest; women usually took offense to that.

Kea's eyes narrowed, Charlie gives her an out, she takes it. Turning and giving him a tired smile. "Thank you Charles but I'm tougher than I look. If you wanna go ahead I'll help Ralph along when he's ready. We've... been through alot in a short time." She says.

Charles? Getting misnomered shouldn't have been a big deal, but it got under Charlie's skin in an unexpected way. "Alright, just...don't stay out here too long," he said, with a nod to all three of them. "Wren, head inside." Charlie guided Bitters to the same tree he'd hitched her at before, after some encouraging words to urge the tired horse along. After she was secure, he headed for the cabin, side-eyeing the group of three along the way.

Kea smiled at Charles and Wren as they left but then focused her eyes on Ralph. Her expression turned grim, almost annoyed.

Near the Cabin

Wren gazes at Kea and Ralph before nodding her head. With Charlie' help she hops off the horse. The child makes her way back inside the cabin. The cabin door opens with a kid wearing a ushanka hat standing at the entrance. In the distance, Charlie sees Mike making his way over to him hauling a bundle of chopped wood in his left arm and an ax in his right hand.

Kea, Ralph & Grimur

"Nothing's wrong Kea." Ralph shoots a smile back at the woman. Though through his eyes, Kea can tell the man's aware of his futile attempts at deflecting the topic further. He sighs, lowering his voice.  As Ralph explains, he's visibly nervous. The man runs his hand through with mouth before speaking again.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:50, Sat 07 Dec 2019.

Charlie mentally steeled himself for a conversation and met Mike halfway; he exhaled, then gestured to his small group. "Found them in town; one of them's Kea's friend," he pointed to Ralph. "The other one, uh," his finger drifted over to Grimur, "Nobody knows him, but he seems harmless." Charlie looked apologetic as he leaned onto his ax, "I promised them shelter for the night, is that a problem?"

 She closes her eyes, sighing.

Near the Cabin

"Not at all." Mike replies, looking past Charlie at Kea and the other two men. Its unlikely that he'll be able to see their faces clearly at this distance. Despite that, he squints his eyes, trying to get a better look on their faces. "Hm... This little cabin will be a little crowded." The man scratches his head.

Rufus steps out from the house and walks over by Charlie and Mike. He stares at the strangers next to Kea with a scowl on his face. Mike turns to him and asks. "We have guests over, is it okay if they stay for the night?"

Rufus hesitates, then nods. "Yeah, whatever. But they can't sleep on the couch, that's my spot."

Kea, Ralph, & Grimur

 Ralph sighs heavily. "I guess I have to try. I'm even more nervous than the time I did my first surgery." He slowly makes his way to the cabin, where Charlie and the others are standing.

"Wren and I can sleep on the floor if we need to," Charlie says, silently assuring himself that it will only be for a single night. "How are we doing on meat?" he adds after he realizes that a food store for three will be tested by their doubled number.

Kea thought of an excuse, anything to help.  She asks.

Kea, Ralph, & Grimur

"I don't know about that, but I hope so." Ralph replied to Kea as the trio slowly make their way to the cabin.

"That's kind of you to offer." Mike smiles. "We have enough for one with this many people." Mike stepped to the side to greet Kea. As soon as the large man sees Ralph waving back, his smile drops to a fierce scowl. The scowl fade as fast as it lingers on the man's face. His face is now fuming with rage that Charlie has never seen before. Mike storms towards Ralph with his ax raised.

"I TOLD YOU IF YOU EVER COME BACK I WILL KILL YOU!" Mike shouts. Rufus freezes and stares at the man, perplexed. Charlie can see Wren peeking out from the door in the cabin to gawk at the sudden yell from Mike.

Ralph halts in place with both of his hands up in the air. He takes several steps back as Mike approaches with heavy, furious steps. "Wait, hang on, Mike!"

Charlie had never heard Mike raise his voice before, and he generally thought of the cabin owner as a level-headed man -- which made his sudden mood swing all the more shocking. Stupidly, Charlie was too shocked to initially react to Mike's threatening advance. "Mike- MIKE!" he yelled, snapping out of his stupor and clumsily stumbling through the snow toward Mike. He didn't think twice about reaching for the ax handle with the intent to wrench it out of Mike's hands. "Stop, dammit!"

Something cracks inside Kea and she unholsters her revolver with a serious expression, pointing it directly at Mike and steps in front of Ralph.

"I have no time for this crap, stop it!" She orders.

Charlies wrestles the ax out of Mike's hand, however, that did not stop the man from stomping towards Ralph. Mike makes a move to shove Kea aside, but halts when he sees the barrel of her revolver.

In the distance, Rufus arms himself with his rifle with its barrel pointing at Kea.

Kea sees the man's face bearing down on her with rage.

"You know what he did!? What his people did? To my wife and my kid?" Mike points his hand at Ralph. "They ate them, like... like animals!"

"Cannibal." Rufus mutters. The child adjusts his rifle.

Charlie was about to step between Mike and Ralph, only to freeze up when Ralph was declared a cannibal by Mike. Given Mike's earnest-seeming reaction, Charlie couldn't ward off a newfound suspicion toward him; what if Kea and the foreigner were the same? "Ralph, is that true?" Charlie asked tersely, his hand gripped the ax handle tightly.

Near the Cabin

Ralph's eyes darts between Mike and Charlie.

"It's... it's true." He looks down. "That's what we did."

"Out of the way." Mike commands at Kea. It doesn't look like he'll take no for an answer.

"No!" Kea roars back.

"I need his help, you arent going to kill him do you get me Mike?" She yells to him. "Put the axe down and let's act like dang adults here!"

Mike raises his arm with the intent to shove Kea aside, but the giant stops himself after taking a deep breath. His face is still red with rage, but his eyes are no longer ignited with fury. It doesn't look like he'll charge at Ralph this very second. Still, you should choose your next words very carefully.

Charlie stared at Ralph, stunned at his admission. Silent fury began to swell up inside Charlie, whose grip on the ax tightened, its weight seemed to disappear. He wanted to bury it inside Ralph's neck, and it was only the rational reminder that children were watching that tempered this otherwise uncontrollable urge. "Mike, our kids," Charlie interjected, jerking his head in Rufus and Wren's general direction. He approached Mike's side and fixated an icy glare at Ralph and Kea.

"I'm not letting a cannibal near my niece, Kea," Charlie said slowly, with thinly-veiled venom in his voice.

"Mike he is going to suffer for what hes done, in this life and the next." She says between ragged breaths.

"But hes my best chance to get back to my people. That's all I care about right now." She turns her head to glare at Ralph.

"And you will help me."

Mike turns his head at Rufus, who's looks to be ready to shoot his rifle at anytime. The man takes a deep breath before he speaks.

"Rufus. Could you take Wren inside?" The large man asks.

"But the cannibal!" Rufus replies.

"We'll handle it." Mike states. The boy slowly lowers his rifle and leads Wren into the cabin.

Ralph meets the eye of every glare in his direction before giving out an exhausted breath. "I will, Kea."

Charlie let out a sigh once Wren and Rufus were out of sight; children didn't need to hear what Ralph had done, and Rufus shouldn't have to witness what Mike might stoop to. Not unless Charlie could talk him down. "I'll watch him, Mike. He won't do anything without supervision," he said, with a firm, diplomatic tone that sounded practiced. "Once Kea's ready to find her people, they'll both be out of our hair."

Kea sighs in relief and her shaky hands drops to her side. "Thank you." She mutters out, closing her eyes and focused on the cold air touching her skin.

"I ain't wanna be here neither. As soon as we find my own, I'm gone. I promise you that."

From the treeline, a red headed woman emerges with a bow in her hand. She approaches the group with the string pulled, aiming at Charlie and Mike. After her previous words, Kea's vision starts to fade. She feels a temporarily weakness in her legs, forcing her to lower herself closer to the ground.

"Back away assholes or you'll have an arrow sticking out of you." She calls out, marching towards the group. She stands besides Kea, the woman on the ground.

Mike takes a step back from the woman. "We're not hurting her, calm down." The large man says.

"Kea, are you okay?" The woman glances at Kea from the corner of her eyes. "What's wrong with her? What did they do?" She asks Ralph while her stare daggers at the two men.

Ralph kneels by Kea's side and checks her pulse with his hand. "Severe blood loss. She strained herself too much by moving around. She needs to be inside."

"She can come inside, but you will stay out here, Ralph." Mike states. "Charlie, give me a hand?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:35, Wed 01 Apr 2020.

Her visions swirls amd she doesnt feel herself drop, simply that she lost feeling in hey knees. Voices new and old could be heard. She turns her head, feeling like an eternity before she spots a face looking down at hers.

"R-red?" She mumbles, her eyes unfocused. She brings a hand up to touch her forehead. Her other hand drops the revolver she was holding.

"W-Stop." She says to no one in particular.

Sami stayed back within the trees, an arrow nocked in her bow but with the weapon by her side. She watched Ingrid dash towards the group with some surprise. However it was apparent after a few seconds that the African American woman, whom she now knew was named Kea, was Ingrids friend. Sami watched the proceedings from the trees, not willing to involve herself in someone elses conflict. She didn't exactly try to stay hidden, just made no attempt to move towards the cabin.

It wasn't until Kea spoke that Sami stepped forward. Kea looked hurt, the man was right about that, and she looked like she knew Ingrid. Red?"

Sami didn't speak as she followed Ingrid, asuming that the invitation to enter the cabin was offered to her as well by inclusion. She was wary, but these people were trying to help Kea, perhaps she could stay a bit until she was well again. See Ingrid and Kea off then Sami could be on her way.

Kea's weakness brought out Charlie's concern, but he only took a step before a woman warned him to stay back. His jaw clenched as he stared straight at an arrowhead that could easily puncture his skull, and he took a step back as the woman demanded. Mike's composure held more firmly than his, which made Charlie feel just a bit more ashamed at succumbing to pressure. "I can get her on my own. You just watch them," Charlie said under his breath. He was over six feet tall and still well-built despite their food shortage; Kea wouldn't be too difficult to move.

"I'll move Kea. Don't shoot, alright?" Charlie warned, and he approached Kea slowly to put the bow-wielding woman at ease. Kneeling down, he hooked an arm under her knees and braced the other against her back -- bridal style. From the corner of his eye, a teenage girl caught his attention. That she was silent didn't put Charlie at ease, and he couldn't help but keep her focus on her on the way back to the cabin.

Ingrid moves herself in between Kea and Charlie when the man advances toward Kea. She picks up the revolver that fell out of Kea's hand.

"Its fine Ingrid, they're the ones who found Kea and bandaged her wounds. Let them take her inside, I'll explain." Ralph says. Ingrid pass the revolver back into Kea's hand, giving her a firm squeeze. "Be careful. I'll come talk to you in a second." Ingrid slowly back away from Charlie. Her gaze lingers on Charlie until he help Kea inside the cabin.

"Now who's this?" Mike turns over to face the stranger that followed Ingrid out of the bushes.

"She's with me, I found her alone in the woods. She's..." Ingrid turns to Samindi. "I don't think you told me your name."
This message was last edited by the GM at 07:55, Wed 08 Apr 2020.

"I didn't." Was all Sami said, looking between Ingrid, Charlie and the older man.

She still wasn't completely sure about Ingrid, let alone anyone else now with her. They seemed to be helping Kea but all the same they seemed fairly hostile towards the other man, Ralph, who also seemed a friend of Ingrid. They went so far as to demand he stay outside.

Sami shrugged, "Just helping." She casts a side eye to Ingrid. "I found her alone in the woods."

She stopped short of the cabin, rethinking her intention to go inside. She stopped silently and decided that she would remain outside with Ingrid and Ralph. The cabin was too confined and she didn't trust the large men yet. At least out here she could run if things didn't turn out so friendly.

Kea puts up no fight as Charlie collects her. Between faint breathes she recites a short prayer.

"Please God tell me shes real, tell me Red is here God almighty. Please..." She keeps her eyes closed.

"Well, young lady, my name is Mike." The large man speaks to Samindi. "You can come inside if you want. Make sure you say hello to Rufus, he's the boy that owns the cabin." Despite his burst of fury from earlier, Mike manages to force a smile on his face. "But you be careful around this man and anyone else you might find in this mountain. They're not good people." He says, glancing at Ralph.

"Well. Mike." Ingrid glares at the man. "You are also from this mountain, maybe you should take your own advice."

"No, Ingrid, he's right." Ralph sighs. "We're not good people, what we've done at the motel is something we can never justify."

Ingrid mouth motions for words but stops. She bites her lip, making a silent decision to not talk more on the subject. She looks to Samindi.

"I'm going inside to check on my friend. You should get some rest inside, you look tired." Ingrid turns to Ralph. "Ralph, I'll be back with Kea, then we can get out of this stupid mountain."

The hostility from Ingrid and her mysterious, standoffish companion were hardly surprising, but being denied the simple courtesy of a named introduction put the man in a fouler mood than normal. "Charlie," he said while staring at the teenaged girl with a disapproving frown. He nonetheless passed by her without another word. Edging the cabin door open with his foot, Charlie stepped into the comfortable warmness of Mike's cabin and breathed a long sigh as the mountain chill melted away in seconds. "Your friend saved us a trip," he told Kea, with the enthusiasm of an uninterested co-worker. "How soon can you leave?"

"When the lights stop dancing." Kea replied, gesturing towards a place for her to sit down. She kept a hand on her head.

"Girl you shoulda stayed at home." She said to no one in particular.

Considering just walking off yet one more time Sami sighed and sat down outside with Ralph. The warmth of the cabin was a strong temptation but the two large men seemed equally angry about something. Mike seemed to have calmed down a bit but Charlie certainly didn't like her for some reason. She didn't want to consider what would happen should anger be directed to her while she had nowhere to run. Sure it was cold, but better to be cold and alive.

She looked to Ralph but did not say anything. She caught what the man said about doing terrible things. Probably no worse than what she had already seen. No worse than what she was running from.

She drew out a bottle of water from a pouch on the side of her backpack and took a drink. Her stomach grumbled slightly which she continued to ignore. She sat in quiet contemplation, trying to work out just how she got here and what she was doing next.

Inside the Cabin

Wren stands quietly in the corner, clutching her hands together below her waist as she watches the events unfold. Rufus holds his rifle steady by the door. He tenses up when Charlie walks through the door with Kea, but relaxes when he recognizes them.

Momentarily later, a red haired woman steps through the door with haste. Rufus jumps in front of the door with barrel aim up at the woman.

"Hey! Who-" Rufus' sentence is cut off by Ingrid when she brushes his rifle to the side.

"Don't point that at me, its not a toy. You'll hurt someone. Kea!" She rushes over by where Kea is sitting. "Kea, I'm here, I can't believe I found you! Let's get out of this mountain, coming here was a bad idea." She holds Kea's hand with her own.

Outside

Ralph and Samindi sits in the cold, outside of the cabin. There's a horse nearby, pacing in place. Its curious gaze lingers on Samindi for a brief moment before lowering its head to inspect the snow on the ground.

Mike stands in between the cabin and the pair that's resting outside. He keeps a good distance and maintains his sight on Ralph.

"Mike's not a bad man, he's a really good guy." Ralph says quietly out loud. "It stinks that this is how you got acquainted with him." He shoots a smile at Samindi.

Sami glances over to Ralph, only briefly before her gaze falls back on the horse as she replies to him. "So you're saying I should go inside and leave you here?"

She turned her head to the cabin door. Decisions. She wasn't comfortable being around that many people, and more inside the cabin. Though after the way Mike treated Ralph if he still said Mike was a good man, well, there must be some truth to it.

Outside

"I'll be okay, Mike is looking out for me, see?" Ralph nods his head ever so subtlety at Mike, who is still staring at him like a hawk. "I know Kea and Ingrid, they're innocent people who are trying to survive in this mountain and ended up mixed in with a bad community. They won't hurt you."

The man leans back against the tree. His hand massages the side of his forehead, where half of it is covered up with bandage. He seems to have suffered from head damage recently. "Aren't you cold out here?" He asks.

Sami looked towards Mike then back to Ralph. She doesn't reply to Ralph as she stands.

Slinging her bow over a shoulder she turns towards the cabin. She looks towards Mike, half expecting him to stop her even though he made the invitation earlier. Sami opens the door and steps inside to join the others.

Inside

What awaits on the other side of the cabin door is a young boy who looks to be around the age of ten. He must be Rufus, the boy Mike mentioned earlier.

Rufus steps in front of Samindi with his rifle raised. "Who are you? Why are you in my house?" The young boy asks.

Sami frowned at the boy and rolled her eyes. Great. Now I have a gun in my face. The boy was much younger than her but was quite close to her height. "Your house? Mike said I should come inside. You must be Rufus?"

Sighing she asked, "So can I come in?"

Looking into the room past Rufus Sami could see Charlie and Ingrid attending to Kea. Standing in the corner she saw a young girl of similar age to the boy, wringing her hands worriedly. Meeting eyes with the girl Sam smiles and raises a hand in a wave.

Inside the Cabin

"Yeah, that's right!" Rufus announces with pride.

When Samindi waves at the girl with a smile, the young girl catches the gesture. She looks hesitant at first, but she returns a wave and a faint smile.

Rufus looks over Samindi from top to bottom then steps aside. "Okay, you can come in. But you can't use the beds, they're taken."

Samindi sees a nice cackling fire dancing in the fireplace. There are several skinned small animals hanging around the walls of the cabin, and buckets of small beast's innards. The cabin is very crowded with this many people inside. It will be difficult for Samindi to move across the room to where Ingrid is without bumping into someone. However, the cabin is small enough for her to engage in any conversation that is going on.

Samindi feels something poking the side of her waist.

"Hey." Rufus asks after poking her with his finger. "Are you a cannibal?"

"Sure, no beds. No problem" Sami began to move into the cabin as Rufus poked her, asking if she was a cannibal, "What? No, of course not." It did worry her that he would ask. Ingrid mentioned an old cannibal camp nearby, maybe this household had some experience with them. He stomach curled at the thought.

Moving across the room Sami tried to slip between those helping Kea without bothering them and reach the corner with the small girl. Taking off her backpack and lying her quiver and bow against the wall behind her Sami sits down cross legged next to the girl. "Hi. Lot's of people huh? What's your name?"

Inside the Cabin

"Hello." The young girl greets back at Samindi. She appears to be around the same age as Rufus. Her darker skin tone gives away her native background. "My name is Wren." Wren's reserved posture loosens slightly once the she introduces herself. "I'm with Charlie." She points to the large man in the room who shares the same skin tone as her. "...Are you a friend of Kea?"

Charlie stepped away from Kea out of courtesy to her and Ingrid, and with more people entering Mike's cabin by the second, he was starting to feel too big for such a small house. Without a present task, his attention turned to Wren, whom he smiled at when he saw her standing far enough away to see everyone. Keeping everyone in her line of sight was an early lesson, and to his relief, she seemed to take to it like a duck to water. Charlie's smile faded as his mind wandered to the danger he'd unwittingly landed them in. If this mountain had a cannibal infestation, then they might have been better off taking their chances elsewhere. Suddenly, their surroundings felt less like an isolated oasis, and more like a prison.

The creaking of the door caught Charlie's attention to the small girl who so rudely refused to give her name. He wouldn't have thought much of her arrival if she hadn't started to talk to his niece. Paternal instinct pushed Charlie to inch his way past anyone between him and Wren brusquely. Looming over the two of them, Charlie watched the girl with a stern, distrusting look in his eyes. "Tell me about yourself before you start talking to my niece," he stated, his voice was calm and serious. The more he looked at this girl, the more she reminded him of children back at the reservation; she acted tough and looked capable, but at the end of the day, she was still a child.

Charlie pushed his reservations about treating a kid so suspiciously far into the back of his mind.

"These people are nice, Red." Kea says between breaths. She forces herself to meet Ingrids eyes. "How did you get out?" She asks.

Sami looked up to Charlie as he confronted her and turned back to Wren. "Hi Wren. I'm Sami." She looked back up to Charlie, "From Georgia."

Sami continued, speaking to Wren although answering both of their questions. "No, I don't know anyone here. I met her," She points to Ingrid, "A few hours ago. I helped her find Kea." She smiles, although it doesn't reach her eyes, "I'm not from around here. I don't like the cold" She looks gratefully towards the fire, she didn't realise just how cold she was until she was warm again.

Sami reaches into her pack beside her. It was practically empty although she does fish out one can of food, it's label faded. Looking to Wren she tosses the can in a hand, "What you think it is?" Taking out her knife she pokes a hole in the top and folds the lid open. "Hrm. Peaches." She fishes one slice out and eats it. "I never really liked them. You want some?" She offers the can to Wren.

She did overhead Kea speak positively of the others and gave her a quick glance as she said it. That was both Ralph and Kea now speaking well of these people.

In the Cabin

"I waited." Ingrid replies to Kea. "They got through the barricade Kea, everyone inside is either dead or..." She sighs. "Anyway, one of the guard and I got out when we had the chance. They followed us all night. Where's Thomas and Kelly? Are they not with you?" She asks.

"Peanuts?" Wren squints at the can and guesses.

"Its obviously tomatoes." Rufus comments.

When Samindi offers the can of food to Wren, the little girl shoots a nervous look tat Charlie before looking back to Samindi. "No. But thanks." She smiles.

"Can I have some? I'll trade you for some meat jerky." The boy asks.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:08, Mon 20 Apr 2020.

She shakes her head, both to say no and to shake the spots out of her eyes. She lifts her head to look at her friend.

"No, we got separated, once I got shot everything after was just a, like a nightmare. In and out. Then I woke up here." She says, looking over to the rest of the room.

"I tracked them down to where we were supposed to meet. All I got was a note, Red." She said, her voice morose.

"They went north, wishing us all the best but it was too dangerous with the walkers around. We just came back from finding that when you found us." She finished her story.

Sami nodded to Rufus, "Sure." She offered out the can in one hand with an open palm in her other hand, expecting the jerky.

She kept her ears open and followed the other conversation going on in the cabin. She was still cautious of the others, but if they were looking after kids then they couldn't be bad people. She was more curious about Ingrid and Kea. Kea had also just confirmed she had been shot, which worried her.

Now that Sami introduced herself, Charlie couldn't quite see her as a dangerous stranger, but a reserved teenager. From her point of view, he must've looked dangerous. "Go ahead, Wren," Charlie said, smiling at his niece. She'd never complain, but he could tell how hungry she was. "Thank you for offering that, Sami." Charlie seemed a great deal calmer now that introductions were out of the way.

Kea's explanations managed to put the grim matter of the cannibals back on Charlie's mind, unfortunately. "Do you think those people are still out there? The..." he looked at Wren and Sami, "The you-know-whats?"

In the Cabin

Wren smiles back at Charlie, delighted with his permission to accept the canned food. Both Rufus and Wren takes a slice out of the can.

"Its tastes sweeter than real peaches." Wren says.

After Rufus swallows his own slice of canned peach, he hands over some homemade jerky to Samindi.

"The you-know-whats? You mean the cannibals?" Rufus interjects. "Its not a bad word."

Ingrid looks disappointed at the news. However, her immediate concern for Kea's well being takes over. "Are you able to walk like this, Kea?" She inquires.

Kea takes a moment before replying.

"I wont be mountain climbing anytime soon. I think I can handle small trips." She says, gingerly touching at her wound.

"Where we going Red?"

In the Cabin

"Off this stupid mountain. The map that Thomas gave us shows a town up North, we can try to find him and Kelly in that direction." Ingrid turns her head over to Samindi. "You can come with us too, I think its better than staying up here in the mountains. There's nothing left here for anyone."

Sami smiled to Wren as she took the peaches and even chuckled a little as the girl was surprised by the sweetness. "When all the peaches are gone you can drink the juice!"

She looked the Charlie and her smile didn't fade. "She's cute."

She didn't expect to see kids around, she hadn't considered herself one since all this started. Sure the larger communities she had passed through had quite a few kids but here up in the mountains it was a surprise. She supposed she could understand Charlies surly protectiveness.

Listening to the others she didn't seem bothered by the mention of cannibals. As Ingrid turned to her after mentioning that Kea and her were going to head North Sami frowned and looked around the cabin, "Nobody else coming?"

Seeing Wren fed and happy, despite the former being more important, weakened the stoic shield Charlie had put up long ago. The edges of his mouth curled into a slight smile -- which he hid behind a gargantuan, weathered hand. "Yeah," Charlie said, for lack of a better way to explain how much Wren meant to him. Samindi seemed to understand, at least.

Overhearing Ingrid's conversation, Charlie furrowed his brow; he'd heard so many stories like this. "Finding a town won't work; big communities never work." His tone was laced with bitterness and worry, and he looked around the room with a tired expression. "There's plenty of game up here, and the walking corpses are slower in the cold." He didn't fully want these people to stay, but neither did he want to think about their fates should they venture into the wider world.

"Besides. The town we went to was abandoned. What makes you think further north will be any different?"

In the Cabin

Wren looks down when she hears Charlie and Samindi's discussion about her. She looks to be embarrassed, but they can see a faint smile on her face.

"Ralph is coming with us." Ingrid states.

"But he's a cannibal. You should be friends with cannibals." Rufus interjects. The red headed woman looks to the child.

"Its not that simple, it wasn't really entirely his choice, its... its more complicated than that." Ingrid replies.

"He eats people, he's bad." Rufus reiterates and glances over to Samindi. "You shouldn't go with bad people like that."

"Anyway, being by ourselves hasn't worked out either." Ingrid addresses Charlie's question. "Up North is where Thomas and Kelly went, and if we want to find them again that's where we go. Plus, we don't have a place to stay in this mountain, and there's about a hundred of those things walking around somewhere out there right now looking for us."

"You don't have to worry about them, Mike controls them. He won't let them get close to the cabin." Rufus states.

Kea looks up as everyone speaks and waits for a lull in the conversation.

"In my state we'll need Ralph. I'm also all for getting off this gosh forsaken mountain too." She chimes in.

"You, I'm sorry. I don't know who you are." She says to the Indian woman. "I'm Kea, I'm sorry you found me in such a state. We aren't always this ramshackle." She smiles at her.

Sami turned from Wren to Kea as she was addressed, "I'm Samindi." She looked sceptically at the injured woman, unsure whether to comment further. Deciding to go ahead she continued, "I don't want to get involved in your trouble. Just let me rest a bit and I'll go." Sami did give a look back Wren and she bit her lower lip in thought.

The woman was bleeding out ten minutes ago. It didn't inspire confidance in following them North.

"You can stay here until you're ready to go," Charlie said to Samindi, sounding far kinder than he'd been to Kea and the other adults. Children were his weakness, as Wren would have been aware given her attendance at his riding classes on the reservation. "My niece was hoping for another girl to talk to, isn't that right?" He looked at Wren with a smile and a gentle pat on the head.

"You heard my thoughts," Charlie said to Kea and Ingrid, his tone becoming grave once again. "I think it's a bad idea, a foolish one at that. If Kelly and Thomas are alone out there, in or out of that town, then..." He wished he didn't have to say it in front of the children, "Then they're dead, most likely."

"Thanks for your thoughts, but we can take care of ourselves." The red headed woman replies with spite. "Ralph doesn't look good either, he needs a place to rest. I'm going to setup a fire outside. Kea, let's leave in the morning. We'll take it slow." Ingrid turns to Kea with a determine look in her eyes. Her mind seems made up.

Wren lets out a smile at Samindi when Charlie's pat her on the head. "You should stay with us for tonight." She says. "Its not safe outside after dark."

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Timeskip imminent, all characters will take their rest at the cabin.

---

"They're survivors, we all doing something right making it this far." Kea says to Charlie. "Can't go your whole life thinking the worst. Even if we dont find them, its still a way off this forsaken mountain. I'm happy with that." She says with a sigh, wrapping her arms around herself.

"We can leave in the morning, and be gone."

The sun sets, all traces of light vanishes in the mountain. Wren and Rufus is sleeping soundly in the cabin. On Mike's insistence, the veterinarians is not allowed inside. Ingrid, the red headed woman decides to stay outside of the man.

Kea and Samindi find whatever respite they could in the cramped cabin.

Charlie, Mike, and the strange man Grimur took turns keeping watch. Mike volunteered for the first shift, and Grimur had the secon. This gives Charlie a fair amount of time to rest before his turn.

Charlie wakes near the time of his shift. He sees the shadow of a man standing outside from the window. The size of the man's figure is too small to be Mike. As he looks around, Mike is no where to be seen.

After a begrudging sleep on the floor, Charlie heard the faint ringing of his wristwatch signaling the start of his watch. As he rose and rubbed his eyes, a silhouette came into focus right outside the window. A feeling of unease washed over the man, who slowly reached for his axe, not taking his eyes off of that shadow. Grasping the wooden handle of his trusted weapon, he gently rose to his feet and made for the door, taking care not to tread on anyone or otherwise wake them up. "Who's there?" he whispered firmly.

The person outside doesn't respond to Charlie's whisper. Its likely that they did not hear him.

The man stands with his face back against the window, as if keeping watch.

Charlie exhaled as his momentary fear left him; the silhouette had their back to the window, meaning it was one of their own on watch duty. Pulling his hood up, Charlie left the cabin door and walked outside. "See anything suspicious?" he asked, staring out into the vast darkness. Though Mike's cabin was secluded and defendable, that fear of the dark still lingered inside Charlie. Thoughts of hungry cannibals creeping out of the shadows made him grip his fire axe tightly.

Charlie can feel the icy cold breeze enveloping his entire body when he step out of the warm cabin. Grimur did not notice him until Charlie poses his question.

"Not at all, can't really see much." Grimur turns around. What he says is true, it is nearly pitch black out here. A nearby burning campfire is the only thing Charlie sees. That must be where Ingrid and Ralph is.

Charlie hears Bitter moving in the snow along with her occasional nickering from where he left her.

Grimur stretches, letting out an exaggerated yawn. "Your turn." He says with glee.

The prospect of standing out in the cold, pitch-black outdoors wasn't something Charlie was looking forward to doing. Still, Grimur deserved his break, and his willingness to do watch improved Charlie's opinion of the man. "Go on in and warm up," Charlie said, jerking a thumb behind him, toward the door. He pulled up a chair by the cabin wall, brushed the snow off with a gloved hand, and sat down, resting his ax on his lap.

With a long wait ahead of him, Charlie's eyes looked for anything of interest. Bitters' nickering pulled his attention to where he'd left her. Sorry, girl. Don't have any stable for you. He made a mental note to start building a makeshift shelter for the horse sometime in the future.

Charlie then noticed the campfire further out, where Ingrid and Ralph must be sitting. He didn't necessarily like them, but he didn't dislike them either. Strangers just couldn't be trusted so quickly, not after what happened on the reservation. All it took was one person to screw up a decent community. Charlie kept his focus on the campfire the most during his watch.

The fire dwindles in the dark like a dying candle light. Finally, the light vanishes when Charlie hears a woman's yelp and the sound of something heavy falling into the snow. He hears a loud neigh from Bitters. From his time spent with the horse, Charlie is familiar with this kind of sound. Something spooked the horse.