The old man was gone before Roberta even had a chance to say thank you.  She settled for reaching out to take the boys arm.

"You're with us now," she said reassuringly before turning to Rod.  "Which way now?"

In reply to Roberta Johnson (msg # 64):

Rod nearly jumped with surprise, and then nearly punched a blind old man for touching Roberta. "The fuck...?" He said, and stared at the kid with the gun, and then back at Roberta and the others. "Well, shit...yeah let's go." He said, shaking his head and heading for the car.

Roberta grabbed the boy by his free hand and dragged him after Rod.  She wasn't sure what their plan was, but moving sounded good.

Standing on the ATV's foot pegs and surveying the confusion in the crowd the young redhead's demeanor struck Roberta in an odd way. It reminded her of the saucy, arrogant girls from college that would come into a frat party and stir up trouble because they knew they wouldn't get in trouble for doing so. It was as if the teen was watching people react to mayhem she had caused.

Rodrigo was a man, all man, so it took a double take for him to notice the police issue handheld loud speaker. It struck him odd too, since those police hand held models often had settings allowing them to mimic sirens. Hadn't someone said it was a police siren that had been used to try to lure the horde away?

Ivy cut her eyes away from the poster lamenting Taylor Swift's role in society at large and happened to spot a brown smokey the bear style hat with a slightly tarnished badge pinned to the front of it. A momentary thought struck her, 'why doesn't she wear her hat?', but the thought was quickly lost in the jumble of things running through her mind.

Troy smiled at the sight of the suppressed bolt action rifle strapped sideways to the back rack of the ATV. His smile fell away in a moment when he realized it was the rifle from the forward lookout position overlooking highway 75 north of town. A position that was portable hunting blind set up on top a rooftop only accessible by climbing a maintenance access ladder running up the side of a forty foot tall warehouse.

Ashton stopped in his tracks and looked at the ATV and the red head again. She had come from the north, rode up with the understanding of what was going on in a moment when even those in the know actually knew very little about what was actually happening. Yet, she just told them to head south to reach her home by taking a route along a highway known to be a common thoroughfare for the undead. An uneasy knot formed in his stomach.

"Well fuck..."

Troy unslung his Marlin lever gun and started attaching the Liberty Suppressor to the threaded barrel.

In reply to GM (msg # 67):

"She's got one of them cop loudspeakers...the ones that make siren noises." Rod pointed out, gesturing at the redhead with his chin and he was suddenly concerned. Granted it could lure those dead dumb things away...but it could also call them to an area. It sounded like the sooner they got into the car the better off they would all be. He made sure Roberta and the kid, plus anyone else that was coming was following along and keeping it.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:37, Wed 12 Feb 2020.

"The other guy had those air horns," Roberta replied to Rod as she continued to pull the boy along with them in the direction of the car.

"Maybe she'll use it to lure them in the other direction."

"We need to head east." The boy said. "My uncle was tracking them on a map on his wall. There aren't as many of them to the east."

In reply to GM (msg # 71):

"Got it, little man. Let me check for gas station in that area." He plans to check the maps as soon as they get into the car. "For now we gotta get the hell outta here."

Roberta opened the back seat door of the Subaru and shoved the boy in.  She had him scoot over so she could follow.

"What's your name?" she asked, dumping out the maps on the seat between them to find a local one.

"Do you know if there are any gas stations east of here?"

Ivy wasn't sure what vehicle to go to, so she just asked, "We splitting up, or all going together?"

In reply to Ivy Talbot (msg # 74):

"If you got a car, take it and follow along. Having extra won't hurt. If we need to put the gas in one, it will be the medical cruiser."

The boy said, "My name if Timothy Jacob Van Orsten, but you can call me T.J. I drove my grandfather and myself here in my uncle's old Jeep Cherokee. It's full of our stuff, we've been living out of it for a while. But, there is still some room if we need it."

T.J. held up his hand to let the keys dangle from his thing fingers. It wasn't in immediate view, but it was probably close enough to be useful.

As the crowd seemed to condense into two flows of people either trying to crowd around the Reverend and hear what he is saying or trying to make their way away from the church to get to safety somewhere else, the Red head on her ATV reached into her thigh pocket and pulls out a handheld CB radio and begins talking to someone.

She scans the crowd as she does so, noticing the looks from the gathered group near the Subaru and turns slightly as is she is hiding her mouth from their view. As and after thought she reaches back and shifts bit of tarp over the rifle strapped to the back of the ATV.

Roberta grabbed the keys from TJ and tossed them to Ivy with a descriptor, "Jeep Cherokee!"

She continued to paw through the maps looking for something local.  What state were they in, again?

In reply to GM (msg # 77):

Rod did not like what the redhead was doing. There was something off about it. Granted, he had very little trust for the majority of humanity-even before dead people starting walking around. "We need to get out of here! Everybody pick a car and we go! Más rápido!" He says, getting the medical cruiser ready and making sure everybody was loaded in. Something bad was coming, and he wanted to be on the road before it did.

Ivy chose the Subaru. She climbed into the back behind the passenger seat and waited. In her mind, they should've left ages ago, and was glad that Rod was realizing that. She was aware that he didn't plan on going to Arkansas, but right now that didn't matter. Right now, all that mattered was surviving.

Troy set his feet, cursed under his breath, and put a .30-30 bullet through the Mindy Carver's firey red head.


He worked the lever action on his black marlin rifle and quick stepped toward Mindy and her ATV and all the town gear she had stolen. The hillbilly river guide had no idea why she had decided to murder this peaceful town but he damned well wasn't letting her get away with it.

The Cherokee keys flew through the air to land on the ground as Ivy ignored them to run around and push TJ into the middle of the back seat, crumpling the pile of maps between them against Roberta.

"Watch out!" Roberta responded indignantly.

The rifle shot in the middle of the crowd galvanized everyone's attention to the present. People stopped shuffling about and stared with shocked faces and open mouths. It was such an unexpected event that even the normally unflappable Reverend was stunned to shocked silence.

The girl's lifeless body fell to the ground as if a switch had been thrown an simply turned her muscles off. There was the unmistakable sound of her bowls and bladder releasing their contents. A pinkish mist settled over the ATV, her corpse as it fell, and the ground. The scene wasn't like in the movies. Her head didn't burst open like a gore filled balloon, instead it simply arced in the direction of the bullet's trajectory slightly as the bullet passed through her skull leaving the other side through an opening about the size of a golf ball, but there was a lot of blood and flecks of grey matter.

It was a moment that no one would soon forget as the teen's body crashed to the pavement.

Troy picked up the CB radio and spoke into it. His hands shook a little, his whole time in the army he'd never fired a gun at someone he could see clearly.

"There's been a complication. What's the next move? I'll bring Mindy."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:46, Wed 19 Feb 2020.

"Who is this!" a voice shouted.

Troy thought for a moment. It was Brad Griffin! He and eight other teens had been exiled two months back for trying to take over the community at gunpoint. The sheriff and a handful of volunteers had managed to subdue most of the teens and forced the others to give up.

It seems like they were back and with Mindy's support. And most likely the support offered by her grandfather's weapons hoard as well.

Soeaking into the CB radio.


"It's Troy, Brad. Mindy's been shot by a crazy redneck and all I've got is a first aid kit!"

"Where are you? If she doesn't get some help soon she's gonna die!"
This message was last edited by the player at 20:46, Wed 19 Feb 2020.

In reply to GM (msg # 83):

Rod ground his teeth, and froze after seeing the girl shot. Granted he had not actually shot anyone-but had seen people killed as such before. Mostly by cops, and mostly for the crime of running away from them. That being said, he had not been expecting it. If anyone wanted to want to help the girl, the smell and the location of the wound suggested it was too late.

"We are going! NOW!" He snapped, and started the car. He was not going to let Roberta and the others end up the same way as he began to hit the gas and turn the wheel.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:55, Wed 19 Feb 2020.

"South and then east!" Roberta shouted, struggling to pull the maps from beneath TJ's leg where they'd been shoved.  She knew they'd just end up in the woods if they went east now.

Sorting through the maps, she pulled the one with the most local detail.  It looked like a county map.  Frantically, she unfolded it and lay it across herself and TJ's lap.

"Where are we now?" she asked the boy as she turned the map right side up.