Chris lifts his hand trying to block out the dazzling light "You wanna drop that please? And yeah I'm leaving, I'm not getting sucked into someone elses circle of fire. The dead are our enemies, not each other. Are you staying Vivian? Anyone else thinking of leaving besides you Sid?"

Chris K

"Sorry," Vivian says, clicking the light off.

"I want to get back to my family," Sid says. "Like, in California? If you're going west, we can go together, for a while anyway."

"I wasn't planning on leaving," Vivian says quietly. "I don't agree with Malcolm's decision, but the people here need me. Well...some of them. But..."

She pauses. Despite the darkness, Chris K can detect her uncertainty. "...if you're leaving anyway...what are your plans? Where will you go? What will you do?"

Chris sighed quietly and rubbed his hair with his hand. "Plans? All Ive really been doing since... all this - is head west, trying to get to where my sister was and see if I can find her. Its a long shot I know, but until a better option comes up thats it. I though this might be that better option - and it would be if Malcolm wasn't so set on his revenge. As for more immediate plans, head out tonite, try and find a vehicle in town with fuel, and then head off to find somewhere to hole up tommorrow, when they may well come looking for us. Thats about it. I was assuming I'd be alone, so that was enough of a plan for me. I can be persuaded otherwise if anyone else wants to come along. Sid?"

Chris K

"Sure!" Sid says, then lowers her voice sheepishly. "I was just going to go by myself, but I'd love any company. Okay, maybe not any company, but you're cool. I think I can trust you."

She pauses, and when she speaks again, she sounds slightly more hesitant. "Do you really think they'll come looking for us?"

"Maybe," Vivian answers. "They can spare the food, but after Malcolm took a team across the entire state just to kill some people, I wouldn't put any petty revenge past them. Getting a vehicle is a good idea. There's some pretty good hunters in this group, but I don't think they can track a car across highways."

"They?" Sid asks. "Not we?"

Vivian is silent a few seconds before answering. "There are a few other people here that I think might want to go. If you give me a few minutes, I can get them. Chris, your sister - where is she? Or was she, at least?"

"Silicon valley" Chris says simply. "A long shot I know. But... shes my little sister. What else am I gonna do?"

He Pauses "If your gonna round people up then we need to move fast - the quicker we leave, the further we can get away. As for supplies - the less we take the better. I think a day or twos food, max, but plenty of water - they can spare that."

Chris moves to the shelves, and opens his rucksack and starts picking some food and water to put in. He picks food that doesn't need any preparation, and enough for about 5 meals.

Chris K

"Silicon Valley?" Sid repeats. "Cool! I'm going to Los Angeles, but we can do, like, ninety percent of the trip together!"

"They - we..." Vivian hesitates, then sighs softly. "There's plenty of food. Take more than a day's worth. You don't want to watch each other starve. I'm not joking."

Sid inhales as if she's about to speak, but Vivian's voice has a hard edge that seems to give her pause. After a moment, Vivian continues. "Get what you need. I'll talk to you outside."

Wasting no time, Vivian leaves the basement. The footsteps are awkwardly cautious in the dark, but she is clearly moving as quickly as possible. After a moment, Sid starts putting more food into her bag.

Chris shrugs and starts adding more food to his pack (he'll take about 12 meals worth - 4 days) and some more bottles of water.

As he loads his bag, he asks Sid "So, I don't know you that well, but we'll have time for that. Key things at the moment I suppose - what weapons do you have? Can you drive? ANy other hidden talents I should know about?"

Chris K

"I don't have any weapons," Sid says proudly. "When I run into trouble, I...I run out of trouble."

Her voice sounds even prouder after that bit of wordplay. "Fighting gets you killed! That's what I've seen. Like, we've go so few people left alive, and they're dying fighting for what? Food, territory, whatever? You can always come up on more of that. But, like...okay, one time, I was with Malcolm and Vivian and some other people when they found this house full of guns. We already took everything we wanted and were leaving when some other guys showed up and attacked us for...I don't even know why. Now, I ran, and if they ran with me, everything would've been fine. We wouldn't even have been touched! But instead they stayed and, like, got shot to hell. I thought Vivian's friend Gloria was gonna die, she got shot and kept passing out even after we bandaged her."

Sid makes a soft pfft sound, seemingly to herself. "We don't even keep the house. They ended up running away anyway, just with a whole bunch of new holes."

Chris K hears the sound of a closing zipper, then Sid moving past him towards the basement stairs. "Anyway, I don't know how to drive. But I could learn if someone, like, showed me. I can learn anything - I've seen that, too."

As Chris K and Sid leave the basement, Sid reaches into her things and drops a folded piece of paper on the kitchen table. There is just enough light coming in through the window for Chris K to see the name Malcolm in large letters on the paper.

Once outside, Chris K and Sid see Vivian and Rose. Rose steps forward, smiles, and raises a hand to wave.

"Hey," she says quietly, looking at both Chris K and Sid. "Vivian said you're leaving because of Malcolm's revenge trip. Is that right?"

AS Sid drops a note he smiles and says "I left mine in my bed space".

AS Rose approaches him Chris listens and nods "Thats about the size of it. I don't wanna get caught up in someone elses vendetta - theres too few of us left to waste time on that. Are you thinking of coming too?"

"I tried! I tried to tell them!" Rose takes a half-step towards Chris K, almost lunging, her hands gesticulating unconsciously. "Killing those people won't bring Buster back. It might even get more of us killed! And even if it doesn't, it won't do anything! Nothing good, I mean. It's not like they're going to come after us! We crossed half of Arkansas, they'll never find us even if they try, and they won't! We already killed one of them, but everyone just wants revenge! Not even an eye for an eye - they want to wipe them out! For no reason except to kill them!"

"Shh, shhhhh," hushes Vivian, glancing up at the farmhouse.

"You know, I don't think they even killed Buster," Rose says more quietly. "We were all shooting in the dark. I think we killed him. I told them that, but they didn't care. I...can't be a part of that anymore."

"You could have just said yes," Vivian says, stepping up beside Rose. She levels her eyes at Chris K. "I'm coming too. Someone has to keep you all safe."

Chris looked at Rose as she spoke "I did wonder if Buster was friendly fire..." When Vivian offered to come as well he said "Nice to know you care... Ok. 10 minutes, be at the main gate, gather what you need and can carry on your back - we'll be walking for few hours at least I would think. Bring plenty of water, and some food. ok?"

He motioned to Sid and headed toward the gate. He tried to remember if they had posted a guard, and who was one, and if they had tried to keep out of their line of sight as they left.

Once at the Gate he dropped his bag, and quickly re-organised it to make it more comfortable to carry.

"You sure about this Sid? Still time to change your mind"

Chris K

"What?" Sid asks, spreading her arms. "Why would I change my mind? I was planning this before you did!"

She drops to a crouch beside Chris K as he organizes his pack. "This isn't even about the revenge tour, you know? I knew these guys were crazy before that. I was always just staying with them for as long at they were going west. It looks like they've stopped now, so I've got to keep moving."

Rose and Vivian emerge from the house shortly thereafter, and it is time to leave. While the farmhouse does keep night guards, there are fewer trustworthy combatants to go around now that Malcolm has taken many of the most combat-ready members back to Lonoke. The farm only has one guard at this hour, and Chris K knows exactly where he is and what he's doing. They cannot leave via the front gate, but the hole in the fence at the back of the fields still exists, making it the easiest - and least visible - means of exodus.

When the group approaches the fence, however, they find a snag in the plan - at least two walkers in the vicinity of the fence's hole, standing in place and slowly moaning. Perhaps they had been chasing an animal that dashed through the hole, or perhaps it's just bad luck they chose to put down roots there, but the four will have to deal with them before they can leave the farm.

Chris pauses when he spots the walkers, and motions the others to stop. He then crouches down to double check how many walkers there are - hoping any others will be silhouetted on the sky line

Chris K

Chris K's caution is rewarded. Though they are not visible against the sky, Chris K's low vantage point reveals two more walkers; one lying prone, its legs probably crippled in some way, while the other is in a listless sitting position, staring at nothing. Those, plus the standing walkers, make for a total of four.

"I'll handle it!" Sid volunteers, unprompted. "I'll distract them. You slip out and go! I'll catch up."

Without waiting for a response, she starts walking purposefully along the fence. It's clear she has a plan in mind, but what exactly that plan is not clear to anyone else.

Chris says to the others "Wait here a second" before jogging after Sid and standing in front of her. He says "Please tell me your plan before you head off - so we know what to do, and can tell if its going wrong and you need help. We can't be going off solo without letting the rest of us know what is happening now there are only four of us"

Chris K

"Wha--hey!" Sid's voice mixes both indignant and guilty tones. In the dark, Chris K can see her cross her arms and turn her head away from him, even though he couldn't read her face anyway.

"Fine," she says, her voice hushed. "I'm going to make some noise up here and attract them. The rest of you can slip through the hole while they're busy. Then I'll run back and follow you, and we'll be gone before they can catch up. Okay?"

Chris nods "Yeah good plan. But we could just attract them away from the hole and finish them off through the wire - thats what we did on the way in and means they can't follow us. How do you feel about that."

Chris K

"Like, with a gun?" Sid asks. "We'll wake everyone up. So much for our getaway. I've got a knife, but we'd have to stab them in the forehead if they're up against the fence, and we're talking, like, the human skull here. That's gonna be tough."

Her arms come up in an exaggerated shrug. "You can try, I guess, if you're worried about them getting into the farm, but we don't got to worry. If we just move quick they won't catch us. They're dead, they're all messed up."

Chis shakes his head "No. No Guns. Use a knife. We did it before when we came in and there were more of them. We should aim to take one each" he gestures back at the others" and spread out so they don't strain the fence. It should be fairly quick. They'll likely get so close you can go for an eye shot. Ok?"

if Sid agrees, he'll brief Vivian and Rose, and get to work on the Zeds

Chris K

"Uh-huh," Sid mutters dubiously. She looks in the direction of the fence while she shrugs her backpack off her shoulders. "You know you can't go straight through the eye to the brain, right? It's, like...diagonal."

Nonetheless, she pulls a knife from her pack and moves up the fence, giving him room to work.

ooc


20:46, Today: Chris K rolled 10 using 2d10+6.  Attack walker.

Chris K

The first walker presses against the fence, but killing them proves easier said than done. Chris K plunges the knife into the walker's eye, but it's not a clean kill; the blade lodges in the bone, and Chris K has to jimmy the blade until it finally penetrates the brain.

The walkers are not cooperative, either. While Chris K is killing the first, the other two do not press against other sections of the fence but attempt to reach past the first. This puts additional pressure on the fence while leaving their heads out of reach. Even as he finally kills the first, the other two start to moan loudly.

"Crap!" Sid whispers furiously. In the dark, she gesticulates wildly at Chris K. "Just - go to the hole! Let me do my plan!"

Cursing quietly, Chris nods, and then heads to the hole, gathering Vivian and Rose on the way "Quick lets get through." He crawls through first, and holds the hole open as they come through keeping watch. Once they are through, they start circling the farm to take them back to the main entrance and towards town, in the opposite direction from where the known walkers are. They move steadily, but at a pace Sid should be able to catch up. Once they are about 200 Metres from the gap, he'll say "Ok, lets wait here for Sid to catch up"

Chris K

Chris K returns to the hole and leads Vivian and Rose through. Fortunately, the walkers stay with Sid; unfortunately, he can track their location because they continue moaning loudly. Chris K, Vivian, and Rose all get through the hole without incident and take off down the fence.

When Chris K stops, it only takes seconds for Sid to catch up. She is breathing heavily, as if she was sprinting, but doesn't want a break. The group continues moving even as the groaning fades behind them, heading towards town. The space is so clear around the farmhouse that it's impossible to be sure they haven't been spotted by the guard, but if they are, the farmhouse gives no indication of it.

The road from Milton to the farmhouse is fairly short by car, but takes hours on foot. Chris K, being military, is used to long marches and sets the pace. Sid proves to be more physically fit than she appears, and maintains the pace without trouble. Vivian is clearly less prepared for the march; while she does not complain and doesn't allow herself to slow the group down, she's obviously tired by the time they reach Milton. Rose is definitely the least fit, tiring quickly, and forcing the group to take breaks in their march so she can catch her breath.

Despite the delays, nothing prevents the group from reaching Milton. The sun is just peeking over the horizon as they enter the town limits.

Chris tries to hide his frustration at the pace, but realises he is going to need to adjust to this after being used to setting his own pace for so long. As they get to the edge of town, he slows for a rest "We have two options. Hole up for a while and then go, or find a vehicle and go straight away." He pauses and then asks Vivian and Rose "Can either of you drive?"

ooc
Ive lost track of time - we fast forwarded a week or two at some point right? So theres a good chance the layout of the town would be known to Chris from visits or just passing through during tht time  - including Rileys location? So what does Chris know about the town - specifically - walker hot spot, ocations of any vehicles or fuel?