Settling In For the Night

Posted on Fri Apr 12th, 2024 @ 11:25pm by Hale Stratton & Ethan Thompson & Alonzo Blazevic & René Rouen & Reuben Baptiste & Vienna Quinn & Calista Sutton & Thea Matthews

1,840 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Winter is Coming
Location: House Outside of Blast Zone, Maine
Timeline: 5 September 2010 - 7:15 p.m.

[Heading for the Strip Mall]

Hale walked around the house and gestured for Vic and Reuben to join him. When they did, he spoke quietly because sound carried these days, "House is occupied but we're staying the night. Vic, you, me and Vienna are going to get supplies and hurry back while Reuben, you stay here with everyone else. I don't get a bad feeling from them but you never know, so keep your head on the swivel."

Reuben nodded, "I checked the barn, there are a couple old fashioned hanging lanterns, some possible items to use for defense. It is clean and doesn't smell to bad, like hay, earth, and old animals. Upper hayloft has some old hay. Doors and walls appear solid." With that report Reuben snapped his fingers and Kenny came quickly over.

Vic looked over the house and nodded slowly before returning her attention to Hale and Reuben. "They seem more scared than anything else; I suspect that they have seen their share of trials before they got here. More than perhaps our group has" she was kneeling, and she leaned against Jasper who supported her without question and was panting through a sort of smile while she scrubbed at his chest. ~"Zeit zu arbeiten, alter Kumpel"~ She whispered to the Shepherd and he jumped to attention, letting her lift herself off the ground utilizing his shoulders and she nodded to Hale. "I am as ready as possible for the supply run, what do we have for extra weapons for Vienna?"

Vienna had stood quietly listening to the conversation until now. “I have my hunting knife, but that’s it until I can get my bow and arrows from our family hunting lodge.”

"I'm going to want this back," Hale said, "but for now, take this." He passed over his Sig and spent a minute showing Vienna how it worked. "Don't shoot unless you have to. Come on, let's get going. I want to get back before it gets too late."

The walk down to the strip mall didn't take long and there was some immediate luck to be had. Two cars in the parking lot in front of the convenience store; the question was now whether the owners were about and if so, what condition were they in.

Hale pulled out his knife and slipped into the store. He heard a moaning sound off to the right; before he followed, he took a quick look down the aisles and found a woman going through one of the shelves. When he got her attention, he said quietly, "sounds like there's one of the not-dead-enough in the back. Maybe the storeroom."

Thea had spent what felt like forever alone, she’d dedicated herself to protecting her unborn child. Hearing the moan she wasn’t going to argue, nodding she looked towards the storeroom and slowly headed towards it.

Vienna was looking around when she heard the moan, not wanting to come face to face with an undead she followed Hale and the new woman to the storeroom hoping it would prove a safe haven.

Hale stepped in front of Thea. "I'll take care of it, ma'am," he said. "Best you go back and join my friends." He followed the sound down the right side of the room to a small storage area that doubled as an office of sorts. He found a young man there, one of the not-nearly-dead, bumping up against an opened crate. Hale dispatched him quickly and wiped his blade on the hem of the kid's shirt. It could be said that taking a half-life was more of a mercy but it still felt wrong and he stopped a moment, eyes closed, and then continued on. Work to be done. He cleared the bathrooms and then came back out front. "We're good," he said to the group. "Priorities are food, medical supplies, and light sources. I'm going to see about getting one of the cars going."

Vic caught Hales eyes as he came out, saw the regret in them and noted it to herself, deciding to check in on him in private later.

[Outside of the Convenience Store]

After returning to the office and rummaging through the clerk's clothes, Hale found a set of keys which he took with him outside. His theory being that the vehicle belonged to someone inside the store and he was, the door unlocked. Late 90s Jeep Grand Cherokee. Not a vehicle he would have chosen but still, it would fit everyone and get them back to the house provided there was gas.

After pushing the seat back to make some much needed leg room, he started the vehicle. Half a tank. Enough to get us back to the house and then some, Hale thought. Siphoning gas. We'll have to make sure we have tubing and all of that. But still, room for supplies and a safe trip back.

[Back Inside the Store Again]

He shut down the engine, opened the hatch in back and went back into the store. "Good news all," he said. "The Cherokee outside has a half a tank." He held up the car keys. "Thanks to the recently departed clerk, we've got a ride back."

Vic turned her attention to Thea and looked her over visually before approaching her more closely. "Im Vic, group doctor. I'm gonna do a very brief and very quick field exam here just to ensure you haven't been bitten. Once we get back to our current base camp I'll do a more thorough one and we'll see if I can't do something to get you some form of status on your passenger too."

Thea offered a nod of her head and a warm smile. “Thank you. I’m Thea Matthews, and this little one is my daughter.” She rested her hand on the visual bump she had. “I was looking for vitamins, I’m almost out and other stores were in too busy places to be safe right now.”

“I’m Vienna Quinn” Vi offered a polite smile. “I might have something in here...” She motioned to the bag that she’d managed to throw a few things into upon first entering the store. We should have time to look for more before we go.” She looked at Hale, “Do we? Have time?”

"I think so," Hale said. "Grab what you can and if you want to move stuff near the door, I"ll start loading." He noticed a stack of plastic-wrapped water bottles on a display near the door and picked two up. "Starting with these."

[Back at the House]

René had volunteered for kitchen clean up where the worst of the smell of decay was the worst. Fortunately he had found cleaning supplies and a jar of Vick's Vaporub in a junk drawer. His first order of business was to get anything not salvageable bagged up and out of the house. He had then set about cleaning surfaces. Once with bleach, and a second time with Lysol. The odor wasn't totally eliminated, but it no longer permeated the entire house. He hoped a third cleaning in the morning would completely eliminate the smell from the house.

"I'd recommend moving the fridge out of the house and to the back," she commented as she continued sorting through dishes and food to find things that were salvageable. "Maybe we should have asked for a can opener," she said pointing to the dead automatic can opener now on the floor as he continued working on cleaning the surfaces. "Do you think everyone else will be back tonight?"

René glanced at the refrigerator. It was definitely a four person job due to the weight and size. He looked out the window at the darkening sky. "I hope so. I don't know how far they were going."

It was a curious question of hers. Calista was trying to figure out where everyone was going to sleep. If they wanted to get everyone in the house, she figured that Killian and herself could take the guest room that they had planned on taking until they could figure out their game plan for traveling across country with limited resources and everything seemingly have gone to shit. "We might need to clean up the master bedroom where the other smell is coming from. There's a king size bed in there that we could maybe flip the mattress to make it more palatable."

René didn't much care where he slept. He had a good sleeping bag that had once belonged to Vienna’s father. "That's a decision for Commandant Stratton. He is our groups leader." He cast his eye about the kitchen. "This is about the best we can do. We're going to lose what little light is left pretty soon. We should probably see if the others need help." He hung up the damp rag on the stove handle to dry.

Killian continued working on clearing out the dining room table of miscellaneous boxes of magazines and newspapers. It looks like the hoard upstairs was also downstairs as well. The oil lamp was now working and he had found some oil in the barn earlier that day to make sure that they had working light after the sun went below the horizon and dusk was gone.

Alonzo moved towards Killian. "Oil lamps," he commented. "Haven't used one of those in a good while. How much oil do you have?" he asked curious if it was going to run out any time soon.

Reuben and Kenny quietly entered the house, almost wraith like. Old habits were still ingrained from his time in the service. He quickly assessed the house. His assessment was he and Kenny should sleep in the barn, better and easier to secure and it didn't have the smell of dead and rotting things. "Hello everyone. There is plenty of oil, a couple more old fashioned hanging lanterns in the barn. Farm implements that can be turned into weapons against the..." Here he paused, considering what to call the individuals who reanimated, that was it reanimated. "...reanimated."

"Zombies," Alonzo said speaking up. "They are textbook or rather storybook zombies though I don't think it's witchcraft that brings them back after death. We may not know why they reanimate, but we know that they do."

Alonzo was tired. Tired of running, tired if fleeing, tired of losing humanity inch by inch and day by day. "If you don't want to call them zombies, fine, but I am done with seeing them as people. Humanity is gone. I've looked at their faces, into their eyes. There's not one spark of soul left."

"They are dead" added Alonzo. "They are dead and they walk. We are at least fortunate they do not seem to comprehend running."

"Dead man walking," Ethan said. He had a trash bag in hand and had been going around the room picking up debris. "Long but has a ring to it."

 

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