Keeping Warm [Open]

[James Furnell]

James had his hood up and stood with his back to the corner watching the flames. 'His' barrel was filled with table legs which had a nack of burning slowly. The group were mostly settled around the dual-set of barrels acting as a community fire. James' plan was to fill each corner with barrels, sort of a heating system. The only problem was; they were running low on wood. Sure it'd last for another week, but not if they found any more survivors...

"You hungry?" He asked one of Darlene's boys. The child looked up at him, but said nothing. It was such a terrible thing that any innocent child should see and live through such times...but hopefully, 'live' would be the key word.

[Eddie "The Mutt" Sillian]

Eddie shifted a little barely awake. He was leaning his back against the wall near the fire, one long lanky leg drawn up to his chest with an equally extensive arm lying across his knee. He wore a cap, an SS cap as it happened that he had stolen from a fanatic he knew when it all happened. It was drawn low over his shaded face, covering all but his lips in which were clamped a dog end, the only sign of life on the figure.

He hadn’t moved in about ten minutes, deep in thought, his right hand resting on the huge head of Jones, his Alsatian who was sprawled on the floor next to him, head lying in his lap, Malificent was lying further away, nearly on top of the fire, warming her belly luxuriously. She was lying on her side, occasionally stretching her huge limbs out and flexing her paws. The dogs had adapted fairly well in the group environment, and had, for the most part, accepted the humans as their pack. Of course Eddie was the alpha well their alpha anyway, but they saw it was nearly a merging of packs, James was another alpha, the alpha of the other pink and hairless dogs. They were content to recognise his superiority but not really to follow his orders. They had also noticed the pups.

Of course the dogs thinking was different to Mutt’s. He saw them as a foot up, now he had someone to watch his back, and for the moment he could watch theirs, until the time came to move on. But not yet. He had been surprised by how well the dog had taken, particularly Mal, he had been sure she would have tried to dominate the children, but as of yet she hadn’t. Not yet.

He had barely spoken to Darlene, he hadn’t paid any of them much attention at all really, just noticed the fact that the wood was burning faster than it had with just James and himself, and that they now had more mouths to feed. He took a deep drag on his cigarette and allowed the smoke to spill through the air above him in a thick column. His roll ups were potent and vicious. Made the unsuspecting cough and hack. No wonder he could barely run.

[Jia Hawthorne]

Jia was lying on the floor at the opposite end of the room from Eddie, her backpack emptied and rolled up for use as a pillow. Since arriving at the Incan—a little more than 24 hours ago, as far as she could recall—she had barely said five words to anyone, and so far no one had prodded or bothered her about it. Most of that time had been spent either sleeping or pretending to sleep. Now she was simply lying on her back, clearly awake, trying to count the ceiling tiles to avoid thinking too much. She avoided being anywhere near Eddie especially: the odor of his smoking was overbearing.

That course of action pushed her far away from the fire, but so far her heavy winter jacket guarded well against the cold, and the fires burning inside the bar did spread a bit of heat around the room.

A voice murmured something softly. Jia turned her head and watched as James addressed one of the two small boys huddled by the fire. She couldn’t help but smile a little. She’d always had a soft spot for kids, though it broke her heart to see them so lost and scared in this small piece of hell they were all trapped in. Maybe… just maybe… it was a sign that hope for the future still existed in this place…

…or maybe it was a reminder of all of the precious things they still could lose…

With a quiet sigh, Jia turned her head and stared at the ceiling again.

[Eddie "The Mutt" Sillian]

Eddie dragged on the cigarette, face contorted in concentration in an attempt to smoke the cigarette without actually destroying the fabric of his cap as the smoke coiled around it. He blew out gently and watched it twirl ahead of him in the darkness looking rather graceful briefly before he descended into a hacking cough which racked through his lungs and shook his ribs, it was probably caused by exhaling so much... it often did that. He coughed so violently that his hat fell off and twirled onto the head of the dog who leapt up in shock and grumbled quietly, shifting away in a little contempt.

Eddie grumbled himself and dragged himself to his lanky feet, standing, as always, rather lopsidedly that might have minded anyone watching of a stray dog kicked once too often. He threw his cap to the floor and shuffled over to the fire, leaning over it briefly, still panting to catch his breath after the harsh cough. The warmth hit him like a wall, the rush of heat tingling over his skin, wrapping it’s way into his lungs along with some more smoke, it made him draw back and walk away toward teh colder air.

He began to pace, still smoking the ragged dog end as his heavy boots clumped over the floor. He cast his weary eyes over the two children, not too far away and observed them in a manner reminiscent of a wolf eyeing a couple of foxes. Could be interesting, but not dangerous as of yet. He turned his eyes away and paced up and down again, his eyes fixing on the other girl, the student sitting on the floor. Jia. He gave her a cursory glance but didn’t know enough to judge her, not yet. Still pacing, he finished the cigarette sadly and threw the remains into the fire with fair accuracy.

[Jia Hawthorne]

Forty-five... forty-six... forty-seven...

A sudden bout of harsh coughing from across the room startled Jia, and she looked over to see Eddie double over, while still keeping a grip on his cigarette. The attack lasted for several minutes until he dragged himself to his feet and began nervously pacing the room.

Suddenly Jia found something more interesting to watch than a bar ceiling. Even after the fit had past, the man continued to smoke, apparently oblivious to the fact that he was killing himself by inches and lungfulls, and probably harming his companions as well. It was sort of pathetic, really, the way he clung to his addiction while the world spiraled into chaos around him. In just eighteen years of life, Jia had seen such behavior so many times, and it both baffled and irritated her.

Particularly right now, because it reminded her uncomfortably of Travis.

She watched Eddie finish the cigarette at last and pitch the remains into the fire. Good, she thought, maybe the air would get a chance to clear a little. She probably would've preferred a quick death by the zombies than a virus slowly eating her away from the inside-

A scream echoed outside. Feral. Inhuman. It was distant, but Jia was upright in an instant, body tense, poised to stand at a moment's notice. She felt fear at the edge; it electrified her instead of keeping her rooted. In some dim corner of her mind, she realized she was getting used to this...

[Eddie "The Mutt" Sillian]

Eddie continued to pace, now unobserving of his companions, lost in the pits of his own thoughts. His mind raced from face to face, corpse to corpse, the list of people who had died that he had known. They passed over him, doing little to change his mean expression, instead only setting his teeth.

That was, until the scream. It echoed far away, rippling around the dark streets, into Eddie’s ears. He jumped as if he had been shot and in an instant, his gun was in his hands. Both of his dogs had perked up and snarled before settling down again. The smell wasn’t strong, there was no risk yet. Both Mal and Jones settled back into a doze as Eddie, still nervy, slipping his gun back onto his side.

“Fuckin’ ‘ell... no bleedin’ peace ‘ere.” His voice was little more than a murmur, the harsh accent ringing cold in the quiet, stuffy room. His hands patted wildly down one side for a moment until he located something in a pocket. He withdrew a packet of tobacco and paper and in deft movements that no one would assume his scarred and pitted hands capable of he had rolled another cigarette and slipped it between his lips, lighting it reverentially.

Scars covered his throat and shoulder, though they were somewhat obscured by his clothes, they ran down his forearms and his hands, vicious slices and bites, obviously caused by some kind of animal mauling. Not all of them had been caused by his own dogs, the moderation caused in a fight with some drug handlers who had brought their own pets. Malificent had been rather protective of him since then.

He dragged ferociously on the cigarette, scars on his throat flexing as he breathed in and felt the rush of smoke in his lungs. His heart raced a few beats before calming down into the slow steady throb from before the feral scream. He hated this.

[Jia Hawthorne]

Jia scowled. So much for clearing the air. But she did take notice of the gun, previously concealed beneath his clothing. The way he had pulled it after hearing the scream made her a little nervous. Hopefully he knew how to handle it well enough that someone didn't accidentally get their head blown off.

She pursed her lips together. Three months ago, she had had very strong opinions about guns. They were the weapons of choice for cowards too afraid to face up to their own problems, or blow-hards who thought they had a right to be top dog because their gun was bigger than anyone else's.

Three months ago, Jia had known how to protect herself against cowards and blow-hards. But street-fighting and a token knowledge of martial arts was a poor defense against zombies.

"Hey," she called out. "Your gun. Can you show me how to use it?"

[Eddie "The Mutt" Sillian]

At first, Eddie didn’t move, not realising that the voice was directed toward him, it took a few moments for him to surface from the depths of his thoughts and he turned and looked down at the girl who had spoken, seemingly to him. He glanced at the others noting they hadn’t moved, she must have meant him. He hesitated before answering. He was considering refusing, but the fact was that he would be ostracised if he did and he couldn’t afford to do that. Besides, it was always better to have two fighting rather than one.

“Awrigh’, if ya like.” He answered, pulling the gun out of his folds of clothing and looking at it. He could use it, he’d done gun training but the problem was, he was a shit shot, poor vision and edgy hands more used to a cigarette than the kick of a gun meant that he tended to miss a target more than ten metres away. Still, he could show her the theory, they couldn’t shoot in here since they would draw attention to the building, and he couldn’t waste the bullets.

He glanced around the room, wondering if he could afford to let her shoot something once or twice but was hesitant to make any noise. The shriek had unnerved him, and this had only surprised him. He wasn’t used to people talking to him unless they either wanted something from, or wanted him dead for something... or when they shouted that he had just picked their pockets. Of course, a police officer would never do that. And the dogs often helped to emphasise that point.

“Come ‘ere an’ grab the gun.” His strong London accent always contrasted so much against that of the people living around here, it hit him sometimes, how different he seemed to the rest of them and how much more cynical he was. Perhaps that was London for you...

[Jia Hawthorne]

Jia got to her feet and shrugged out of her heavy jacket. She had only a thin, long-sleeved black shirt on underneath, and the sudden rush of chill air made her shiver. Her long brown hair was tangled from sleep, with overgrown bangs drooping into her eyes. She ran her fingers through it, trying to comb it out of her face as she approached Eddie.

Despite her dislike of the cigarette smell, she made certain not to let it show, at least while the man was watching her. Instead she focused on the weapon he grasped. "I don't need to fire it here," she said. "Just show me how to work it."

[Eddie "The Mutt" Sillian]

Eddie handed her the gun casually, the cigarette hanging from his lip at one side of his mouth, smoke streaming out of the other side. “’s not ‘ard.” He thought about the way to explain and visualised holding the gun himself. He raised a mucky hand and gestured what he meant.

“It’s best if ya use both ‘ands, if your new to it.” He raised two hands together as if he were holding an imaginary gun. “Straighten ya arms out, but don’ tense ‘em too much or ‘ey’ll ‘urt from the recoil.” He demonstrated with his own arms and turned to Jia, lowering his arms and observing the young woman.

Now that he was faced with her, his tired, hard eyes took in her details, filing her in his compendium of people, so far not a threat and because of this, was near the bottom of the pile. He ran a hand through his spikey and rather wild dark hair, making it stick out at even worse angles.

[Jia Hawthorne]

The gun was heavier than she expected. She gripped the weapon with both hands, paying close attention to Eddie's pantomime gestures and making sure to keep the barrel pointed away from anyone. He warned her about the recoil, and Jia raised her arms and aimed at a back window, experimenting with the position of her arms. Straight without locking the elbows... harder than it sounded...

As she aimed the weapon, a brief but intense rush of adrenaline filled her. She could practically feel the energy lurking within the gun's metal casing, passive, waiting for that small burst of kinetic fire to unlock its deadly potential. She imagined staring down the sight into the wall-eyed gaze of an enemy, her finger squeezing the trigger as it sprang at her...

Jia drew a breath and slowly let it out, lowered her arms, and handed the gun back to Eddie. "Thanks," she said, feeling a little dizzy. She leaned against the wall and slid down into a crouched position, her arms resting on her knees.

No wonder guys got off on those things.

[Darlene McGregory]

Curled up in a ball beside the fire, Darlene watched the boys and snuck in a glance of the others out of the corner of her eye. She sat on the floor with an old bible spread open on her lap. A red crayon was in her hand as she scribbled away on the pages. Being shut in the basement for so long had turned her into a shell of her former self. When once she would be the lively host of every holiday party and bible study group, now she had become the quiet little loner sitting in the corner mumbling to herself as she retold her story to the old book.

Since she had left the basement, Darlene had closed herself off from the others. Even the boys seemed distant from herself. It was not from a lack of love or caring that she had done this but she had closed into herself as a way of trying to fend off the rest of the world. That is what had become of it.

She had never expected to be huddled inside of an old bar with a group of strangers trying to survive the End of Days. No, this is not how it is suppose to happen. Or was it?

Matthew had been playing on the floor with one of the two dogs. Unlike his mother, Matt had become more social since coming to this new place. The dogs seemed to take his mind off of his troubles and he actually seemed to be enjoying himself. He even laughed as the dog had licked his face.

John had chosen to seek out human contact. He had connected with the man who had rescued them from the basement, James. It was possible that he was missing a father figure in his life and was trying to look u to this new man ever since he had seen the corpse of his father lying on the floor of their dining room. It was a sight that no child should have had to see and John had seemed to take it hardest of all.

When the scream had sounded, Darlene sat there unstartled. She had lived through the weeks of Ira clawing at the door and making similar noises for her to react to them any longer. She knew that she should cringe or panic even but she did not. She just sat there and continued to read.

"Your dead will come back; their dead bodies will come to life again. Those in the dust, awaking from their sleep, will send out a song; for your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the shades."

The boys hurried over to her looking for protection. Darlene offered them a hug but that was all she could give.

[Eddie "The Mutt" Sillian]

He watched her, noting her behaviour, the flutter of her breath and the seeming rush of excitement. He knew the feeling, the power that coursed through his veins when holding the gun, of course against the undead it was no good, they didn’t know a threat and they didn’t understand but a human was different...

Humans knew the danger, to see someone who might normally overpower you cower at your feet was an unbelievable rush, something too few understood. Perhaps that was for the best, if people knew then there would be no end of gun crime, people trying to out bluff one another. And dying in the attempt.

“It’s better if ya close one eye, means ya don’ get such a bad perception. Some people don’ bother sightin’ too much. Got summat rushin’ at you an’ you don’ get much time to aim.” He took the gun back and carefully slipped it back under the heavy clothing, some of it remnants of his police uniform, some of it stolen or ‘aquired’ and all of it grimy from a life outside. He nodded to Jia and answered simply; “ ’salrigh’. Better to ‘ave two gun ‘ands ‘en one.”

All through the amateur instruction of Jia he had been dimly aware of his dogs, but paid little attention until he heard the sound of a child’s laughter. He shot a look toward them, seeing Malificent, his normally aloof and stony Malificent lick the face of the child, wagging the short stump of her cropped tail. The sound of the child’s laugh had been like a ripple of past knowledge. It was the first time he had heard the noise in month, his ears more accustomed to the harsh screams of rotting vocal chords. It sent a chill down his spine, but he wasn’t sure if it was bad or good.

The voice that spoke in the gloom stopped his thoughts and had there not already been a chill spreading down his spine, there would have been now. The mother, that odd woman with the two boys was quoting the bible. It made him cringe, he couldn’t contain his words. “Well, if ya see any bloody dew save us a bit. ‘m parched.” He wasn’t smiling, he disliked religion and the fact people still clung to their faith at times like these made him sick. “Any god that does some shit like this dun’ deserve followers.” He growled, mostly under his breath.

[Jia Hawthorne]

" ’salrigh’. Better to ‘ave two gun ‘ands ‘en one."

Jia had been thinking along similar lines. Unfortunately, having two gun hands wouldn't do much good if there was only one gun between them. She started thinking about trying to acquire a firearm of her own... somehow. It would mean venturing outside again, but she had already been expecting that. For all that she had been inside the bar for a day, it was obvious that what meager stocks they had were already dwindling.

She lifted her head and opened her mouth to ask Eddie where a good place to find a gun might be, when a gentle but clear voice spoke from the gloom...

"Your dead will come back; their dead bodies will come to life again. Those in the dust, awaking from their sleep, will send out a song; for your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the shades."

Jia had browsed through the Bible a few times; her grandmother had been a devout Catholic, and the language was familiar. Funny, the passage that... oh, what was her name again, Darlene...? The passage that Darlene had murmured touched a nerve, but the words hardly made it sound like the Hell-on-earth that existed now.

"Any god that does some shit like this dun’ deserve followers," Eddie muttered.

"What makes you think God did this?" Jia had never decided one way or another what God meant to her, but she knew what Grandma Katie believed, and right now that was good enough. Sighing faintly, she shook her head. "Horror like this... only humans are capable of it. I think we did this to ourselves."

[Darlene McGregory]

Darlene ignored the words of the others for now. Who was she to question their belief or non belief, that was for God and God alone to do, however wrong she may have thought they were.

The boys had been scared by the screaming, most likely it brought back the horrible memories of the creature that had once been their father. She knew he/it was the reason that they did not sleep at night. She too dreamt of him breaking through that old door, pushing the washing machine to the side and running down the stairs to devour her. The difference between the boys and herself was that she actually deserved it.

After what seemed like a long period of self-loathing, Darlene broke out of her shell momentarily and hugged the boys. Part of her mind still remained in that dark place but she was conscious of the rest of the world to understand that the boys needed her. They are what kept her from completely losing herself to the hate that boiled below the surface. "It really isn't fair that you have to go through this." She whispered into the boys' hair.