Spero Tempus; Or How To Survive A Zombie Apocolypse (Now Open!)

Reginald

"Thank you, Marianna. And Patrick can stay in here, for now." Pastor Samuel replied. His nephew started to object, for a moment, but Reginald quickly silenced him with a look. Using his canes, the elderly man started to follow Tara.

Mariah

"Ok, then. Let's go!" Mariah then started to head toward the area where she held her classes.

"Hmm... That's good. You know, we should really try heading out to sea on a flotilla. The dead can't swim and we can fish to survive. We could even make a few greenhouses on the decks," Scott mused.

Wulfgang marveled at the smoothness of the run. Usually he'd have run into at least one zombie by now, but the streets were quiet. He turned corners as needed, leading the group along the pre-described path. The way was much quieter than it should have been. no activity to be seen or heard.
As he rounded corners he kept expecting to see something, even if it was the corpse of one they'd already downed during a scouting mission. It was somewhat creepy, and certainly unnerving.
He traveled like this for several blocks. "Where the hell are they?" he thought, "I’ve heard of a good run but this is ridiculous." he considered where they were. They were getting close to the house where the zombies had been congregating. He supposed it made sense that they'd all have been drawn to it, but it still unnerved him. He saved to the party to keep quiet as they went and kept going, leading them around the detour. It wasn't until right before they would have reconnected with the original rout that he saw the first undead of the trip, a set of three. He raised a hand to the others to call a stop, then gestured for them to prepare to shoot. He himself took to one knee and readied his crossbow, knowing that once someone fired a gun they'd have to move fast. He took to one knee, the survivalist's motto flying through his head "one shot, one kill, move silent, move fast," he took aim, and let fly one bolt.

With a soft twang he sent the bolt flying, straight and true, flying clear to the first zombies head. He didn't wait to see if he'd hit, his hand already moving for the next bolt to load. As long as the others didn't start shooting he was confident he'd be able to pick off all three before they got close enough to be a problem.

Kelly Martinez

Spotting the three zombies Wulfgang had pointed out, she pulled out her silenced 9mm, taking careful aim as she picked off the other two. Silencers weren't very easy to find, and were handed out to 'civilians' as she tended to label most of the community. With that in mind, she felt it prudent that she be the one to handle the work before someone caused all hell to break loose.

Three zombies on this run so far...that was suspicious to say the least, but the various alternatives weren't exactly bright and sunny, "Wulfgang," she whispered when she got close enough to him, "we should consider pulling back now. This is far to easy for a return to be a walk in the park." she said, observing the available escape routes, the fire escapes easily being one of the better, but potentially hazardous.

---------------------------
Rebecca Walsh

Looking out over the streets, she noticed something peculiar. Looking over at a fellow patrolman, she spoke up, "It awfully quiet out...I haven't seen a zombie yet, you?" she asked, looking back out of an eerily silent Chicago.

She had a really bad feeling...

Wulfgang nodded once then let his vision pan around from right to left. "I've been thinking that myself," he whispered, "I’d like to scout ahead to where those three were, see what I can pick out from there," he bit his lower lip for a moment. The zombies weren't bright enough to plan out an ambush, and the acoustic sink hole they'd circumvented could account for some of the scarcity in this part of the city, but even with that they were having a damn lucky run. "Even if we decide to turn back, there's a house around that corner that's locked up pretty well, might have some supplies in it. I’ve seen it a few times while scouting but never had the backup to make picking the locks safe. If we can get in there, clear it out, we might be able to use it as a safe house for longer expeditions," he mused, still whispering.

He glanced around at his companions, it would be a shame to go back empty handed, again. No one complained, but he knew people got discouraged when the scavenging teams came back with nothing. People were getting worried, and rightfully so. Scouting was dangerous and the farther they had to go for supplies the more likely they were to run into zombies. Every bullet spent brought them one closer to the day when their magazines were all empty. Wulfgang had some ideas on how to prepare for that day, but he lacked the authority and resources to implement them himself.

After this run, he hoped to change all that.

Peter looked mutinous. What was the problem? There were less zombies than ever and the three that they spotted were taken down silently. Were they always going to be running and hiding? The Community needed food and supplies, particularly ammo. He wanted to give both of them a piece of his mind, but he knew he was on thin ice already. Thus, he held his tongue.

He glanced around. There had to be some buildings they hadn't checked out yet. They needed to return with something.

((Hm. With Alec gone, I am not sure what to do with his doctor, for the moment. Since she is somewhat important. Hm. Think your gal could temporarily take over as main doc, Mariah?))

(That sounds good)

(ooc: as no one else is posting i'm moving on.)
Wulfgang started forward without another word, taking the commander's silence as permission. His weapon at the ready he approached the corner, signaling the others to follow at 30 yards. They wouldn't be close enough to save him, but they were far enough back that they wouldn't betray his position either, and you never know, some crack shot might put down a charging zombie at 30 yards before it hit him. The odds were against it, but it was, theoretically, possible.

He got to the corner and looked around, scanning all three streets, then giving each a more thorough examination.

Nothing.

No zombies, no scouting teams, not even a cat. The pavement was cracked by weeds growing up through the asphalt, but no living thing stirred.

He gestured the rest to advance while he approached the house, scanning the exterior for signs of trouble. It stood as he remembered it, all the windows intact, the lower most windows covered with metal fencing, the door solid and shut tight with a deadbolt that had to be at least three fingers thick. It'd take a small army to bust down that door, and even then, he felt like the wood would break before the lock did. Luckily he had no intention of breaking the lock.

"Fan out, keep eyes up and down the road, weapons ready and quiet. This should take about five minutes, if I can focus." he sotto-whispered to the group and reached into one of his pockets for his lock picks.

kneeling in front of the lock he closed out everything but what he was doing, just him and the lock. This house had all the signs of being full of supplies, but only if he could crack that lock quickly. He felt around inside, six pins, no tricky springs or gadgets inside the lock to foil him. This lock was made to stop brute force, not finesse. Absently he considered that he needed to grind himself a bump key one of these days, when the time and tools presented themselves.

He started picking, gently prodding. Pin one: click. Pin two: click. Pin three...

Kelly surveyed the streets, the buildings...even the shady alleys of the barren city. This whole situation felt...wrong, deep down in the pit of her stomach, something was screaming that this entire situation was off; the subtle clicks of the lock-pins hammering away in the unnatural silence.

So far they had only come across a small group of undead; an equally unnatural occurrence ever since the known world was plunged into this hell. She had only been aware of a slightly similar situation before...

---------Flashback...

A small scavenging team had been sent out to recover weapons and ammunition a couple of months back, a mission she hadn't been assigned to. The team had at least seven people, each very well trained for their job and and very well armed for their run into the city.

The lookout towers had confirmed a pretty clear straight shot to their destination, and scouting teams sent out earlier had agreed to this. All-in-all, the mission was, for all intents and purposes, a piece of cake.

Twenty minutes into the mission, shots rang out from within the city, the scavenger group had disappeared from the view of the guard towers. No one knows what happened exactly, everyone has their theories and speculations; however out of the seven that had gone out, only one had returned...and he had to be put down due to the injuries he had sustained....

((While I would like to continue this, it would be hard to do so at the moment. Alec's gone, and Mariah won't be back until college is over for her, about three weeks or now. Give or take. Hm.))

(ooc: how many people are in the scavenger group? i know that there are 4 PC's, but how many NPC's? Also, i'm thinking once they get inside and start looking around, finding goodies, that's when the massive hoard shows up outside. What do you think?)

Wulfgang pushed the final pin into place, and turned his tension wrench with a satisfied smile. The bolt opened with a rasping scrape of metal on metal. The door had swollen somewhat since it was hung, and was pressing against the frame. He turned the handle, set his shoulder against the door, and motioned one of the others he cover him over the shoulder.
"Five, four, three, two, one..." he wispered and then threw his weight against the door, breaking it out of it's two years of inactivity and swinging it into the house.

He paused, glancing around the inside. He pulled a small hand generated flashlight out of his pocket and started shining it around inside. Everything was covered in two years of dust, the entry hall was carpeted, clean like no visible blood stains or mud smears, but no footprints in the dust either. There were archways leading into other rooms, likewise untouched. Living-room to the right, some kind of family room to the left, A staircase up and a hallway directly in front of them, what looked like it might be a closet down the hall, and at the end of the hall what looked like a dinning room. Nothing alive. Nothing undead. He gestured for the others to come in and fan out so he could secure the door.