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Post by Skynet on May 11, 2009 13:16:36 GMT -5
[[This takes place inside the Planetarium a couple days later, after they have secured it.]]
Gillian had a headache. When she was much younger, she used to get migraines from stress. But living in the seventh circle of hell made the very idea of “stress” laughable. Now she had a much larger family to hold together, and the consequences if she failed would be catastrophic. For the moment she was alone in the dome of the planetarium and there was nothing to do but think
Jill sure as hell was no genius. And she was a terrible Christian. But despite her lack of faith or smarts, she believed there had to be a way through this. She squinched her eyes shut and massaged her temples.
The zombies could not die, but they could. That was the basic dilemma. By sheer statistics, her little band of comrades would fall, one by one, sooner or later until they were all dead. So what was the point in prolonging their misery? It was a dangerous train of thought. But even as she contemplated the idea of suicide she knew that was no option. Millions of years of evolution fought against that. She wouldn't be here if she didn't want to survive.
There were really only two options: They needed a cure, or they needed an ultimate weapon. Jill really didn't think there was a cure.
What do mortals have that zombies don't? And could they use it as a weapon? That was the biggest question of all...
Just then she heard footsteps. One of the others was coming to join her. She kept her eyes closed, but her fingers found the handle of the machete and closed around it, just in case.
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Post by Shiro on May 11, 2009 14:17:42 GMT -5
"BOOM, HEADSHOT, MOTHER FUCKA!"
Gray came around the corner into the dome quickly, laughing, his bat swinging in his right hand. He was pretending again, all by himself. He wanted Donovan to play with him, but he assumed that the kid was too high and mighty for silly games. Gray ran through the dark, open dome before he looked up to see Jill before him. He stopped short and staggered backward, regarding her with wide green eyes, "Holy shit, Jill, you fucking scared me."
He boy clapped his hand over his chest and bent forward, placing his hand holding his bat on his knee. He looked up at her from this stance and smiled best he could through the rapid beating of his heart and the panting from running, "What you in here all alone for?" He stood and circled her before putting his hands on his hips and bending a little closer to her face, "You waiting for a sexy man like me to sweep you off your feet?"
Gray laughed and stuck out his tongue at her before mocking to run away, "But in all seriousness, what's up?"
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Post by Skynet on May 11, 2009 18:49:10 GMT -5
Jill's eyes shot open. “Sweep away, baby,” she cooed, pursing her lips at Gray and blowing a playful kiss. “Nah, I just had to get away for a bit. Clear my head, you know?”
She paused and looked down, picking at a hangnail, deciding whether to share her thoughts or not.
“Do you ever wonder when it'll finally be over? I keep wondering, this is all just like some crazy-ass video game, but then it's not, you know, because we can't win, logically, but I don't know, there's gotta be something...” she rambled off into incoherence. Then she took a breath and started again. “I don't know. I'm a problem-solver, you know? My parents were total shits, but I made do. And D came along, and the insurance wouldn't cover his surgeries, and I did some things I'm really not proud of to get the money, but I still made it work. But it's like, this is the one thing I can do fuck-all about, and it really gets to me.”
She changed topics abruptly. “If you could be anywhere, with anyone in the world, where would you be?”
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Post by Shiro on May 11, 2009 21:33:06 GMT -5
A smile spread across Gray's lips and he looked to the ceiling of the dome, exhaling and closing his eyes, "Right now? If I could be anywhere with anyone..." He was silent a moment. This was a big question. He wanted to be in about thirty places with a few people, but he had to choose one place and one person. He went through the list of places he had been and people he had met before making a decision.
"In the alley by 10th, fucking Justin." He smirked and turned to look at her, "Yeah... right now I think that would be the best. But anywho, to change the subject-- about the whole zombie thing. Who cares? It's fun right? I know one day we'll find somewhere safe to be and then it will be over... Or we'll die. I don't care, really. It's every dude's dream to be in a real life video game."
He seat down beside her, taking his bat in his hands and tapping the floor with it, "What about you?"
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Post by Skynet on May 11, 2009 21:57:23 GMT -5
“Well damn,” Jill grinned jokingly, “And here I thought you coming onto me actually meant something.” She threw a sideways glance toward the young man. “I wish I could say Donovan's father, but in all honesty he hasn't been around for a long time now. He got the hell out while the getting was good and the sneaky SOB is probably sitting in some underground army fortress laughing his ass off at us.”
“D's pretty much all I've had for a long time. I was seeing a doctor at the hospital I worked at for a while, but he was a condescending asshole. Hmm... I'd have to say my best friend Magda. Mags had it all together, even when I didn't, but it wasn't like she was smug about it. She fronted a lot of the money for Donny's treatment even when everyone else thought I was dogshit for dropping out and keeping the baby in the first place. Then later she let us crash through some pretty rough times.”
“It's kind of ironic that I'm still here and she's not. Like...she deserves it more than me.”
Jill saw Gray's eyes darken a bit, and she was instantly sorry for being such a downer.
“But I keep thinking, there's gotta be a way out of this, something we can use against those motherfuckers. If we keep on like we are, they'll pick us off one by one. They've got the stamina and the numbers.” The corners of her mouth quirked up a bit. “I was never into videogames. I was always the little dipshit who punched in the god codes that defeated the whole purpose of the game in the first place.”
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Post by Shiro on May 12, 2009 23:28:09 GMT -5
Gray shook his head and chuckled, "Sorry, babe, you're a little too old for me... but who knows," he winked, "I might be into that shit." He laughed and stuck his tongue out at her before pacing around, arms crossed behind his back.
He thought long and hard about what she had said, "What do we have that they don't have."
He began. We have brains. We have the ability to communicate. We aren't dead.
But all of these were obvious. Gray was stumped, and honestly, wasn't that critical of a thinker to begin with. He spoke his mind and was never afraid to sound like an idiot. He didn't like anything that was too complicated. Short and sweet was how he rolled.
Gray looked back up to her, his eyes catching the light from the window down the hall, looking as if they were glowing in the darkness that surrounded them, "I dunno, Jill... Maybe we don't win. Maybe the human race's days are over and it's time for the infected to inherit Earth."
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Post by Skynet on May 13, 2009 8:34:35 GMT -5
“I don't buy it,” Jill said flatly. “All of us made it this far. We've gotta be here for a reason, and the whole 'It's just their time' isn't gonna fly. Otherwise, what the hell are we even fighting for?”
She was silent for a moment, digging the toe of her boot into the floor. “I didn't pay thousands of dollars and sell myself over and over just so that my baby would grow up in this shitty zombie-infested world. I want him to have a life, an education and a wife and 2.1 kids,” she said plaintively, “I don't really give a fuck about me or the rest of you either, except that I know there's got to be a way.”
She thought for a moment. "Do you think there are other survivors out there? Not those retards we keep meeting who are basically just zombie fodder, but people who actually have a plan and who are actually fighting back."
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Post by Shiro on May 14, 2009 1:13:32 GMT -5
Gray shook his head, "Don't get so worked up over it... it's a waste of energy."
He knew exactly where Jill was coming from, but did she assume that he hadn't already had these same thoughts. Gray wasn't a brainless zombie whacker and he had half the mind to tell her that. He didn't like the fact that she sounded like she thought he was an idiot. He scoffed and began to walk away from her.
"Every human is doing as much as he can, Jill, do you really think anyone is just going to lie down and let those mother fuckers have him?"
He whirled and looked at her, pointing his bat in her direction, "People like you are why so many have been infected! They spend all their time thinking about what they can do to stop it, or prevent it! The truth is..."
He stopped and lowered his bat. He lowered his gaze as well. His cocky stance faltered and for a moment he looked like a puppy lost in the snow.
"The truth is... you can't stop it. So you fight. You fight to survive."
He shrugged and shook his head before looking down to his feet again. He took a sharp breath to try to hold back the tears but they came anyway.
He screamed.
The last thing he needed right now was to show weakness. The second to last thing he needed right now was to look like a pussy in front of this girl. But he couldn't help it. He just felt...
"I feel so helpless."
He dropped to his knees with the realization and looked up to her, tears streaming down his face from his glowing green eyes.
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Post by Skynet on May 14, 2009 11:27:22 GMT -5
Strangely enough, Gray's distress brought Jill back from the darkness of her thoughts. “That's not what I meant at all,” she explained gently. “It's just that we have to start thinking longterm. Fine, so maybe we can hold our own against them for now. How long until some meathead decides he wants to repopulated the world with me? I can't fight off humans and zombies too.”
“I've been brainstorming, every second of every day. There's gotta be something we can use against them. They don't much like fire, but it doesn't slow them down any. I keep thinking of explosions, and radiation, but we don't really have that at our disposal. Electricity maybe? But all the power plants are down.” Her mind whirled for a second. “Firehoses? As a defensive weapon? We could powerwash their putrid flesh right off their bones.”
She giggled a little bit, “OK, I know it's ridiculous and insane. But maybe we have to think outside the box if we want to do better than just survival.”
Survival depended on them believing in something believing in something besides themselves and their guns. If just once someone gave up hope, well, that's when crazy shit like kamikaze runs started happening. Desperation was dangerous. It was only so long until they ran out of bullets, and that was a fact that Gray couldn't ignore.
“What I'm saying is, maybe we don't have to be helpless.”
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Post by Shiro on May 14, 2009 17:42:27 GMT -5
Gray was silent. He remained where he was, listening to her words echo throughout the planetarium. He knew that they didn't have to feel hopeless, but it was obvious that they were. He knew that nothing could stop them. He thought it was retarded. He was tired, frustrated, and pretty much finished with zombies at this point. The main thing he wanted to do was get up and walk away, leave these people and go back to surviving on his own. It was a hell of a lot easier.
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Post by Skynet on May 15, 2009 0:07:04 GMT -5
Jill stood abruptly and dusted off her pants, which now hung too loosely from her frame. “Whatever,” she said shortly. “I'm done talking, I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall.” She turned on her heel. “I'll keep trying to think of things that could help us and you...you do whatever the hell it is you do. I don't get you.”
She headed for the exit. Her migraine, although it had receded briefly, was now back in full force from trying to make her point known. Just because she wasn't content to live like a squatting derelict didn't mean she was stupid. Just because she wanted her old life back, no matter how shitty it was before, didn't make her naïve. It made her more of a fighter than he would ever be.
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Post by Shiro on May 15, 2009 15:40:25 GMT -5
He looked up to see her walking away and sighed. "Just tell me when you guys leave, ok. I don't want to wake up one morning and be alone. I want a warning first."
He rested his chin on his knees and closed his eyes, not even trying to hold back the tears anymore.
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Post by Skynet on May 15, 2009 16:29:20 GMT -5
As Jill left, every single wound, every little cut and nick that she had endured over the past few days was throbbing. Her entire body ached from tension. Who was he to try to take away the one thing that kept her going? It was the same as if she had scorned the name of his dead boyfriend that he cared about so much.
For a second, she longed to turn back to Gray and comfort him. But she kept walking steadily. Every time she opened her mouth, it seemed, she made things worse.
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Post by Shiro on May 15, 2009 20:02:25 GMT -5
In truth he wanted her to come back. He pulled his bat to his chest and hugged, thinking about the last time he saw his brother alive.
I'm going to go find food, Grayson, stay here.
He had said. Gray watched him go and knew he would be back. He clutched his brother's pistol in his right hand while holding his bat in the same fashion he did now. He sat in the darkness of their abandoned 711 waiting for Gavin to return. It had been a few hours and Gray was getting tired. That was when he heard rustling. He stood and aimed the gun at the door. It opened and a figure entered. In panic Gray fired three times. Hearing a very human groan he rushed forward and dug for his flashlight. He dropped his bat and the gun and rushed forward in realization. He shined the flashlight at the figure and dropped to his knees when he saw the shock of blond hair and the calm green eyes that stared back to him. Gray had killed his brother.
In the darkness of the dome Gray let out a pitiful sob and rocked back and forth slowly, bat to his chest and knuckles white from the grip he had on his arms.
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Post by Skynet on May 15, 2009 20:51:59 GMT -5
Jill, a little bit off in the darkness, was flooded with memories as well.
“Hey babe,” he said gently, brushing a single tear from her cheek. “It's only for two weeks and then I get the raise. I promise. And who knows, when I complete this assignment they may even make me Colonel.”
Jill turned away from him. Two weeks was too long. The only thing keeping them fed was the change jar in their tiny kitchen. D was coming home bloody and bruised every day from school, and he was flunking math because the obnoxious couple in the upstairs room kept him up all night with their moans and cries that no seven-year-old should ever be forced to hear.
“Don't do it, Ben,” she said adamantly. “The money's not worth it.” Even though she knew they needed it to survive, she still turned away from him.
He brushed the top of her head with a kiss, and then without another word, he left with suitcase in hand. That was the last she saw of him.
“Asshole,” Jill muttered into the darkness, not sure if she meant herself or Gray or the AWOL Benjamin who at this point was most likely dead or worse.
Letting out a gigantic sigh, she decided that this was not the time to be turning people away.
“Hey Gray,” she said loudly into the pitch-black dome, unsure if he could hear. “Let's see if we can get the telescope to work.”
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