(OOC: With the success you had on the crafting roll, you could have created three or four really effective cordage cutters easily. Good call, good RP too.)

Jason spotted his nook for the night. On the billboard above the pharmacy there was on of those access catwalks for maintaining the signs. It was about a yard wide and ten yards long with a guardrail all around and a ladder access. He could easily set up a tarp and hammock up there, plus the day looked like the night would fall on reasonably clear skied. He could even prep a nice hot meal and go through his gear.

As he climbed up the billboard's ladder Jason realized that the height gave him an unobstructed view for a long ways, miles in come cases. He would be able to check out the group on the highway easily enough. And, it occurred to him, it would be hard to sneak up him up there. That ladder creaked and popped like an old grunt's bones through a public address system.

Jason was about to climb off the roof of the pharmacy when he thought about those damn kids.  The one thing that wasn't in those bins was food.  They may be very good at salvaging, but if there were a lot of them, they would go through food very quickly.  With a last minute decision, he reached into his bag and pulled out the box of Moon Pies, he held it up for the kids and then went back down into the shop, tossing it into the bin.  The kids were doing a lot for this area, they were making it safe, they were leaving these supplies.  Besides, he didn't need the fat, it was bad for his heart.  He did grab a single bottle of beer and a bottle of the strongest liquor they had, Everclear or Bacardi 151 if it was there.  He came back up and held up the beer in a salute before climbing down the side and going over to the billboard, picking up a few sticks as he moved.

All of this climbing and going up and down ladders was really starting to wear on his bad leg.  He really favored his right leg as he went up the tall ladder.  It didn't take long, he set out the hammock and put the blanket down on it.  If it started to rain, he could always put up his tarp, but right now it wasn't needed.  He spent a few minutes with the binoculars while there was still light, checking out the group by the road as well as the surrounding area.

The rocket stove gave off almost no light when something was cooking on top of it.  It fired up quickly and he put on the small pot, filling it with water.  A pack of Ramen noodles along with some beef jerky would be his dinner tonight.  As the food cooked, Jason took the one, lone beer and cracked it open, drinking it slowly and savoring the taste.  He sat with his feet dangling off the sign, the rocket stove next to him cooking his food.  It wasn't a bad moment in this shit hole of a world.

Jason checked the highway again. Glassing the truck and car with his binoculars and realized on the people was missing. Curious, and cautious, he scanned around until spotted the third person. The one that looked like it might a younger person or teen maybe.

And then he spotted the white horse. A horse! Then he thought it was just his luck to find the equivalent of a post-apocalyptic Walmart and someone else, who already has a car and a frigging two-and-half-ton truck!!, finds the horse he needed to load up his supplies.

Then the person climbed onto the horse as if they had done it a thousand times and accidentally fired a pistol as if they had never handled one before. Especially on horseback since the horse, and its new rider, bolted for the hills to the east like hell was nipping at their heels.

"Well, damn." Jason said without thinking about it.

At the distant pistol shot the band kids seemed to melt into non-existence until they seemed materialize from the shadows below and reclaimed their bicycles. Before he could have said a word it seemed, they were pedaling like the devil was after them instead of the horse.

Jason continues to shake his head.  There was nothing he could do from his vantage point.  There was really nothing anyone can do except the teenager riding the horse.  He does pay attention to where the kids were going though.  Making a guess that they would be at the school.  It made sense, after all the school shootings of the last decade, most schools could be secured against casual intruders and it would give them enough room.  He had seen more than one school fortified against living and dead intruders.

"Dumb asses."

He put some pieces of beef jerky into the ramen noodles, giving the pieces a couple of minutes to rehydrate before taking it off the heat.  He continued to watch what was going on as his food cooled.

The band kids rode off and headed further into town. About a mile away the took a left, away from any of the schools, and disappeared among the bend in the turn. He did spot the street sign, though even with his binoculars he couldn't read it, but it was near an old billboard for a dance studio.

He watched in amusement as a small gaggle of undead tried to pursue the kids on their bikes. They mostly stumbled, fell, crawled upright again. But it was also sobering to watch since the undead never stopped, even pursuing the kids off the main road. It might have taken them nearly twenty minutes to cover ground it took kids on bikes three minutes to cover, but they never stopped.

Jason tried to get a good idea of where the kids were at, he had no intention of going after them, but if something came up and he needed to find them, he wanted to know where they were.  He turned his attention back to the people on the highway, there were only 2 of them now, he had to wonder exactly what the Sam Hell they were doing?  It was a bad idea to just stand out on the road.  The Zed were not smart and had a tendency to end up on the path of least resistance as long as their was nothing to distract them.  That meant that herds could form on roads.  He had avoided more than one herd that was just walking down the road.

He poured in only about a third of the seasoning packet for the Ramen noodles, too much salt wasn't good for him and the beef jerky already added a good amount of flavor and sodium.  It was actually pretty good.  The Jerky had softened but still added a nice texture to the soup mixture.

With the sun going down, he was concerned that he would throw a silhouette so he spread out the yoga mat and lay upon it, his rifle in easy reach and his binoculars in hand.  He continued to watch the group by the road, but he kept an eye on the whole area.

They evening was shaping up well. Not ideal. Not perfect. But, well.

Jason had eaten well, enjoyed a beer, and was reasonably comfortable. The weather was good. A little hotter than he would have cared for. And there wasn't much that could get to him on the billboard.

There was a squeal of rubber that drew his attention.

Looking over the edge of the catwalk Jason saw two kids on their bikes rolled up quickly and locked their brakes up. The two BMX bikes were parked side by side as the end of a matched pair of black skid marks. That made Jason smile. How long had it been since kids rode bikes anywhere in recent decades?

As he watched, one of the two boys released the latch an opened the window at the front so they could both quickly enter the pharmacy. A short time later the pair came out through the sky light and set out sleeping mats on the rooftop. There the pair just talked and seemed to be getting ready to wait the night out.

Jason lay down on the Yoga mat, taking off the rest of his gear, the weapons, the leather guards on his arms and his right leg.  Last of all, he pulled up his left pants leg and undid the strap, unrolling the silcone cup that kept on the artificial lower left leg.  He hadn't removed his leg in almost 2 days, it was good to get it off.

He didn't draw attention to himself, but he did look down at the kids on the Pharmacy roof watching to make sure that they had not attracted any unwanted attention.  Most of his attention was focused on the people on the road though.

The people on the road seemed content to simply be on the road. Maybe they had experienced something traumatic recently and preferred the openness. Maybe they were afraid to leave now that one of their number had gone missing on that horse. Hell, maybe they were waiting for someone.

He sighed. It didn't matter really, Jason was just bored.

The kids on the roof were reading from what looked like copies of Time magazine. They were very still and only moved in order to turned pages or get comfortable.

Jason took out one of the two books that h3 had found to be worth its weight to carry, the SAS Survival Guide.  Even for an old Marine, it was worth reading.

He kept an eye on the kids and an eye on the people by the road...  were they going to go after the girl on the horse or just leave her behind??

Movement caught Jason's eye. It was one of the two on the highway. It looked like a man just took off after the girl. He moved well, following the horse's hoof impressions, but didn't appear to be equipped to be out overnight.

He had no idea how but the pair at the road seemed to have spotted him.  Jason quickly put on his leg, his tactical vest, weapons, and made his way down the ladder.  He left his bedroll and hammock up above, if he had to abandon it he could replace it.

He hit the ground and quickly stepped between two buildings, a place he could watch the approach to town but could still fall back unobserved.

(OO: you aren't required to meet the others. if you guys meet up I will combine the threads.)

The two and half ton truck pulled up outside the pharmacy. It was led off the interstate and through the little town by a Subaru Outback. Damned good car for cruising the end of the world in comfort Jason thought.

The big truck was loaded down with boxes. He was surprised too. Explosives, grenades, ammunition, etc. It was like they had pulled the truck into a field resupply depot and went shopping. He spotted binoculars and night vision goggles on the dash of the Subaru and their was an AN-PRC 110c radio still in the pack frame.

He sighed. Things like this just didn't fall into you lap. They were probably part of some recruitment group to fight the hordes of undead. Or, worse, they were on some crazy mission into the heart of undead country up north to save the world. Or what was left of it.

But, the woman was attractive and the man seemed curiously tough, carrying himself like someone who had seen trouble before the world devoured itself.

Jason watched the others pull away in their vehicles. Climbing back up to his gear on the billboard's walkway he spotted the truck disappearing over a wooded hill off in the distance.

He hadn't minded the kids knowing where he was camped out it would be almost unavoidable in this town, but he didn't like the idea of having anyone else, especially anyone who was as cold as that woman knowing where he slept at.  He had seen the band kids go through several houses.  He had to assume that they had taken anything of any worth from them, but he could also safely assume that they had cleared them of any threats.  He moved to one of those houses and slipped inside, silenced pistol in hand.  He switched on the flash light, a sheet of red plastic over the lens in order to not attract attention or ruin his night vision.

He would proceed as he had planned, finding a small boat and moving out

Jason got lucky and found a place. It still had all of its windows and doors intact. Judging by the state of the house it had been abandoned during the evacuation of the small town, so the only odors were dust and a little mildew. And the house was fully furnished still, some linen and all the food was missing, but there were several beds to choose from. It even had a real fireplace.

Jason knew how to be unobserved, he stood back away from the windows, making sure not to generate any light except for in the few rooms without any windows.  He choose one of the beds, it was the guest bedroom.  It was on the side of the house that he wanted.  He needed to refill his water, so he went down into the basement, draining water from the hot water heater.  It was clean, and while it was best to filter it, it wouldn't be contaminated.  He ran it through his filter and portioned some of it off into empty water bottles and filled a pan up with water, putting in a measured amount of dried lentils.  They needed to soak over night and made a hearty, healthy and filling meal.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:46, Sun 27 Sept 2020.

Jason discovered a collection of cookbooks, a bible (it is the south after all), a shelf of old Louis La'mour novels, and a very old, and very uncommon anymore, set of encyclopedia Britannica. There was a decent collection of not terribly rifled through cookware and an ignored can of sardines in mustard sauce. All in all he was looking forward a decent night's sleep and a full belly.

He made sure all the entrances were locked and the dead bolt thrown.  He even took the plastic cordage and put trip wires on the stairs.  The plastic cordage was strong and transparent, it was difficult to see at night.

The bed wasn't in bad shape, the springs were good and the mattress firm enough that it would be good for his back.  As he sat down, laying his gear out, Jason hung one pistol from the bedpost.  He took out one of his phones and turned it on, seeing it had a 78% charge, he nodded and set an alarm, making sure he wasn't going to sleep in too late tomorrow.  He took his meds and took off his leg, letting out a sigh of relief as he lay down.

Jason's night passed restfully. He awoke feeling refreshed and ready for a hearty meal. The day was clear and already heating up.

Jason lights the rocket stove, a handful of dry wood was enough for his pan of coffee to cook up the beans, rice and beef jerky.  It produced so little smoke, he wasn't even worried about using it indoors.  He never rushed about, he sat, sipping the coffee as he looked over the map, trying to get a good idea of where he was going to go that day.  There were a number of marinas and while all the larger boats were likely gone, destroyed or had infected on them, many beach spot marinas also had small boats like kayaks or canoes that you could rent for the day.  One of those would be perfect for his own needs.  He had to wonder if those kids had found the moon pies yet?

(OOC: Chattanooga had quite a 'river community' of people that spent a lot of time on the Tennessee River for recreation. They even had an annual festival known as Riverbend that runs for the first week of June every year and gets about 100k participants during this time. There is also several companies that are all about some river activities; paddle boarding, kayaking, canoeing, fishing, skiing, river diving, and jet skiing. Soddy-Daisy has Soddy lake and it is part of a state wide Angler's circuit. You can probably find a john boat with a trolley motor in record time, Soddy-Lake is actually apart of the Tennessee River Estuary System and you could navigate it out to the Tennessee and cross to the river.)

Breakfast was good. He was lucky, the house had been abandoned but not wholly looted. So when mother nature called he found several things that made him rethink leaving the little town; soft, multi-ply toilet paper, a master bathroom with basket full of books and magazines, and a rain barrel under the gutter near the bathroom window. He wondered how long it take for his legs to fall asleep as he read.

There was a big advantage to keeping a low profile, you didn't attract attention from th e living or the dead.  He loaded his rifle with the slim, 10 round clip, it was enough rounds to react to a threat and besides, the banana clips could get caught on things.  He took a few minutes to clean out his cookware and refill his water bottles before he was ready to head out for the day.

Jason endured another meal of 'road fare' before taking his meds and preparing for the day. Oiling his weapons he had an odd thought, 'Why do the kids stay?'.

Checking the house Jason found some new reading material; a collection of Tom Clancy novels, technical reports about the creation of various solar collectors made from common materials, and very old book missing its cover but containing extremely detailed information, diagrams, and pictures of edible and medicinal plants commonly found 'through out the southeastern United States and especially the river valleys of the Tennessee Valley Authority watershed'. It was an old book, post Great New deal, but written before the second world war.