[First Post(-ish)] Home Sweet Home....

[Jack Malloy]

The first thing that hit Jack Malloy was the smell of something cooking in the survivor's sleeping/eating/generally living area. Something heavy with spices that made the air almost heavy, made him salivate and lose all interest in anything else, his eyes droop and memories of the past eke into his head.

The second thing was the window sill while he pulled himself up in the first floor window, cracking his head on the top sill as he lifted his legs and body inside from the fire escape ladder. "FUCK! Ow, you useless fucking piece of..." A hand smacked out, breaking a chunk out of the old wood. Which did little more than make his hand hurt as well.

Stumbling inside, he pawed at his clothing for cigarettes - but it appeared the crumpled packet of Marlboro Reds had fallen out his pocket at some point, probably when he'd had to clamber about inside that fucking burnt-out shop. A little glance was cast outside, down to the bottom of the ladder in the false hope that it'd just fallen out as he'd made his entrance. No such luck.

There'd been at least 5 cigs left in that packet. Which meant 5 more cigs he'd either have to 'requisition' from the stores, or tap off of his little ragtag band of survivors. Almost idly, he wondered where the fuck they'd got to - surely someone should be patrolling, or at least investigating the noise of his entry? Useless, bleeding useless.

He strolled down the long corridor that encircled the first floor, rubbing at his head as he walked, idly looking in the rooms for some sign of life. Nothing. Reaching the large foyer stairs before the living area, he descended into the foyer/reception area first before investigating that enticing smell. The barricades were still at their usual formidable height and impenetrable strength - pretty much everything in the ground floor had been put to use, piled with anxious necessity months before.

The emptiness of the reception rankled him a little, so he in turn continued around on himself, through the little corridor that led to the stairs down to the cells. Looking through into each little barred enclosure - their doors opened inwards, as their occupants weren't in any danger of trying to flee. A few piles of canned food, worryingly few as usual, more of ammunition - which was all well and good, but you couldn't live on it - and a few guns and other assorted weapons in the first.

In the second, piles of blankets and bedding, a few mattresses, things that made survival comfortable - in no way easy, but a little easier. The cells were dark, however, just the light of the little lantern at the door, so he returned to the foyer, after pocketing another packet of Marlboros, then up the stairs.

Malloy pushed open the door to the living area with a slow, quiet, easiness, the smell of the food returning to him and making the old juices flow again. Stepping into the room, the attempts at homeliness almost seemed less ridiculous now, with the smell of fresh cooking. The washing lines, laden with mismatched clothes retrieved from the remnants of the Mall, the moth-eaten mattress beds on the floors, the worn and faded leather couch that he remembered from his days working here.....

Pushing a particularly ugly beige pullover hanging from a washing-line out his way, he started towards the little makeshift kitchen in the old shift-room's other side.

((Anyone who wants to hop in as the culinary creator can feel free))

[Liz Burke]

Liz sighed. There wasn’t nearly enough supplies in her backpack for everyone in the group, she needed more. If this group idea was going to work then everyone was going to have to work together. She catered on the medical sides of things, but she needed help going to the clinic to get more equipment. Liz needed just the basics even, she had very little left. A half ripped bandage, one syringe left, and one bottle of alcohol sterilize wash. A pity pathetic medical kit, even for a doctor.

Now was a good time as any to get to know everyone, she had been briefly introduced to the man who ‘saved’ her, but still didn’t know his name. It was time, she thought so anyway. Liz exited the bathroom and slung her backpack onto the mattress that she had been allocated. “Hey.” It was a introduction to break the silence. The smell of food filled her nostrils – it was a lot better to what she had been having in the last three months of hell.

“You got five minutes?” Liz needed to talk to someone about the supply situation. He seemed to be the ringleader of this little circus, so he was the perfect candidate to question. “I just want to thank you again for what you did out there – I would have alerted the city to my whereabouts. Thanks.” Liz know, as well as James did, that if she was a normal run of the mill office clerk with nothing to compensate towards the group he wouldn’t have bothered making sure she got inside the barricades safe. Liz’s highly recommended medical background proved the perfect taster and reeled him in.

“I’m low on medical supplies. Are there any lying around here?” She thought about the situation at the clinic. “The clinic – its fortified.” She looked confused.”I don’t know why exactly, but...” She thought for a second. Would he even risk his neck to help the others? What if he was wounded, he’d want medical supplies then, so he’d have to help her. “It’s the best options for supplies.”

[Svernic Borcopf]

Third floor of a police building at the end of society was a lonely place at the best of times, but today was especially boring, nothing moved, absolutly nothing, the only thing that moved was the air. Cold wind washed over his bald head as Svernic stared out into the nothingness of the city. He could see a distant flicker, a light, a fire, a foolish move by all accounts.
The infected loved a light of any kind, maybe the light would draw them all the way over there and allow them to be alone tonight.
It had been two days since he had joined the group and he couldnt figure out who was what, he had spend his first night here under the eyes of the shadow man only to learn the next day that his name was Jack Malloy. He knew that there was a medicaly trained woman here as well but he hadnt gotten to know anyone yet. He had been told there was another woman, an asian woman, but he hadnt even seen her around.
At least the Doc was in.
He heard some cursing and scrambling and decided to investigate.
He knew it would be the Shadow man but was willing to use any excuse to get out of this third floor hell, he didnt need the company, but didnt want to be here either.
So clutching his hammer he took the clinically clean stairs down to the second floor.

[Jack Malloy]

Malloy turned his head at the introduction, half-ignoring it as he made his way towards the food. There was just a saucepan, boiling atop a little gas stove on one of the worktops - no-one around even tending it...how peculiar. Putting it out of his mind for the moment, he turned and focused on the doctor.

"Hey, don't worry about it. Was the least I could do - didn't want to have Infected crawling over the place either, particularly when I was out scavenging on my own." Which had been a stupid thing to do, sure, but he did it all the time. And no-one seemed to volunteer to go out with him, how strange.....a sardonic smirk almost broke the listless look on his face.

"There's some stuff down in the cells, for what little use it will serve - thats where we keep our supplies. Sorry for not giving you the grand tour, been otherwise occupied - seem to find something or someone new every time I step out this damn place." It was certainly true, not that he was necessarily annoyed by this state of affairs. The more the merrier - until they stopped pulling their weight, then it was just a case of a pointless extra mouth to feed. One had to be pragmatic when there was Infected around trying to eat your face everytime you went out searching for food.

Realising something that he should really have done already in the interest of keeping up polite pretenses, he offered his hand to the woman. "The name's Malloy, by the way. Jack Malloy." He looked up a little at the sound of someone coming down from the mostly abandoned upstairs, guessing it was the latest arrival - Svernic. Good to get most of the group together anyway, he guessed.

[Liz Burke]

Liz just couldn’t get to grips with all this. It was all very surreal. Zombies? For real!? It was all very Hitchcock and Wes Craven for her. She had seen movies, computer games, but a real zombie? What the hell had gone wrong in the world?! What had happened in Williamsburg!? Liz had lost everything. Her job, since all the patients died or turns into them things outside, she had lost her family – her husband had turned, killed her one son, she didn’t know if he had turned. Her other son, the other twin, he was missing. God only knew what had happened. In her mind he was alive and well, but in her heart she knew he was dead too.

Now she found herself in this place, a dank, damp, police station, with Jack. Jack Malloy. What kind of a name was that anyway? Malloy? She couldn’t argue with his first name, it was her husband’s name – or her walking zombie husband’s name now. Liz took his hand and lightly shook it, “charmed, I’m sure.” At least she knew who he was now, and more importantly knew where the supplies were kept in case she had to use them to fix up the broken bodies in this shit hole.

“Don’t worry about a tour, grand or not.” She glanced around. “Homely.” She muttered. But it was better than the street for sure. “How many of us are there hiding in here?” In her mind there were at least 9 or 10 – and all able to give something to the group. A doctor, a cook, an ex soldier – but that was all in her mind. Maybe she was just hoping for all that.

[Svernic Borcopf]

"Figured as much," Svernic grumbled as he realised who it was, he would have known if it was a hunter, one of the feral zombies who could bounce around the place. It was one of them who had taken a cleaver too the cable wire and killed Thomas, the screaming would have brought him running. If there would be any screaming, they could be creepy, really creepy, their silent, predatory movements as they slinked through houses.
But they still were infected and that made them dum as a post.
The Doc was talking to Jack about the supplies.
The conversation made Svernic wonder, how long could they hold out, they would need to get some new food and couldnt last very long if the infected swarmed here in numbers that they couldnt fight. A few days was easy, but when the days became weeks, Svernic didnt want to think of the consequences.
Ammo was another thing.
As a child raised in Borvak, in a Borvakian family, he had attended the Borvakian Church, a church that focused on the tales of the old ways and the principles of those people that carried on to have significance in todays world. So he would sit, listening to the tales of his ancestors in his native tongue, told by true masters of the story and the bardic traditions of his people, mesmerised by the stories of dark haired men who worked the land and their destinies using strong weapons like the hammer, the axe and the sword.
Much like his own.
So he had never understood the significance of guns, it was why he had carried the hammer.
A weapon, but also a craftsman's tool, something so practical it had to make sense and it did and so he kept the weapon and so he stood here in the police station of Wiliamsburg, hoping to work destiny to a fine point that would reap him some reward.
Or at least his survival.

[Jack Malloy]

Malloy tried to think how many people there actually still were in the Police Station. After couple of long food runs, he'd returned and the whole place had got quieter and quieter.....which was a little creepy. "Well, there's you, and me, and Svernic...." - he motioned to the large silhoutte in the corridor outside.

"And there was a young female technician, somewhere around." He nodded slowly, then frowned. "The last doctor.....came to some complications dealing with the whole 'stuck in a barricaded building surrounded by crazed dead people' thing. A couple of others came to complications more directly with said crazed dead people."

Malloy was finding it difficult to deal with this doctor woman's attitude. There was a certain supercilious eye she used to cast over the building, and him, which rankled him somewhat. What the fuck did she expect in this wasteland? A fully staffed sparkling white hospital with a personal army of Marines to protect her? Some people.....

"Evening Svernic, enjoying the Station? How you settling in?" Jack flashed a glance to the man, nodding slightly. His brain was slowly reverting to its earlier setting, refocusing on the delicious smelling food. *I wonder how long that's been cooking for....what it is, even?*

[Svernic Borcopf]

Even though he had been blocked out by Jack the question had left the sombre giant was mulling the last few days over in his mind.
After meeting the Shadowman he had come here for safety inside the police complex. The first night was interesting but in a bad way, lone cries pierced the night of the city, he had heard it before but from within the safety of the compound they seemed further off and even creepier than before, like wolves inthe forest.
The sentry duty as the worst, it was the macabre monotony of the whole situation was too much for Svernic, just the greay city scape punctuated by the howling winds and dead cries.
There was a few things that needed touched up, dents and cracks in the walls caused during the more violent riots but he would need a few more supplies. Once he was done with this batch of sentry duty he would have too make a list of what he needed.
They couldnt spend too long in places where valuable supplies were, the infected had the bad habbit of doing the same.

[Liz Burke]

Liz knew it was better to be here than out on the street, here she had a chance of survival, if he knew how she could help in providing for the team then there was a chance he’d want to keep her alive – especially knowing she was the only doctor in the joint now. A child doctor, but a doctor nonetheless. In her medical training she had to do surgery on adults first, then specialise in childhood surgery.

“Well, safety in numbers, I guess.” She said with full confidence. Three of them. Well, four to be exact, but he didn’t seem too sure about the Asian woman, so for now she would think of it as a team of three. Less to cover medically, she thought.

Liz turned to greet the man who had silently entered behind her. “Hi.” It wasn’t much of a grand meeting, but it was sufficient, especially after the ordeal she had just been through. “Liz Burke,” she said with a smile, “guess you’re one of the three that’s hiding out here.” Humour wasn’t her strong point, and at this moment in time it was more nervous humour. The type that just blurted out when there was nothing else to say except scream and cry.

[Svernic Borcopf]

"Its somewhere to be other than out there," Svernic shrugged and pointed forward too the expanse of grey waste before them, "Names Svernic, Master Svernic Borcopf, with "C's"", he added.
It had taken him years as a child to learnt hat his own name was spealt with two C's and not two K's. He didnt know why, he didnt ask why, there was no point in doing so, especially now that there was no one to ask.
Maybe his dad was out there, but he reasoned that he was on of the infected by now.
Not letting the thoughts darken his mood he stuck out a meaty paw that almost Eclipsed Liz's own hand, but gently so, his parents had taught him to be propper with women.
And in the end of days, the only thing that seperated him from the infected was that he remembered more than the primal basics, but also what it meant to be a man.
"So your the medic?" He asked, trying to make some basic conversation. This close too the origin incident that had sparked the riots it was hard to make conversation since it mostly centred around the basics of day to day life because there was nothing else that mattered.

[Jack Malloy]

Malloy listened for a moment, then let the two make their greetings. Turning away, he casually removed the Glock from his holster - ostensibly so he could check the clip and look over the gun, something he found himself doing a whole lot more often since this madness started, but instead of reholstering it after giving it a thorough surveying, he placed it on the worktop beside him, just far away enough so he could lift it quickly and easily.

He wasn't actually threatening the two new arrivals per se, but he knew this technique worked. Having the firearm there, and conspicuously so, automatically put him in a position of control - and leant a certain deadly weight to his arguments.

Once their introductions were complete, Malloy cut in at Svernic's question. "Yes, Liz here is the new medic I mentioned - tell us about that, Liz. I'm fascinated - not going to go crazy on us, I hope?" He was only half joking - given the last doctor's speedy and quickly descending exit from the group.

[Liz Burke]

Liz felt his gentle grip, he was a lot more gentle than Jack. Jack had grabbed her arm and dragged her across a street – albeit, he did drag her to safety. But still, this man was a lot more gentle.

“Tell you about what?” What did they want to know? About her being a paediatrician? “Well, I’m a paediatric surgeon. I got my degree for TX state university and passed out as a doctor – the run of the mill kind.” She thought about why she didn’t stay an adult doctor, she didn’t know why she quit? “But I decided to go back to University and specialise in paediatrics – childhood doctoring.”

Liz had risen to the head of dept at Williamsburg hospital – it was just outside the city centre, but there was no hope getting to it because the military had taken over it. God only knew what they had done inside to the bodies.

“What about you pair? Any skilled abilities underneath that rugged charm?” She smirked. “And where is our fourth member?”

[Svernic Borcopf]

Silently Svernic cursed in the corne of his mind, a child doctor, what use was a child doctor in the middle of an infection outbreak. But all he doctors would be trained in basic trauma, he was sure of it.
He remembered health and safety workshops that now seemed fairly usedfull in light of the appocolypse, all that the on site health and safety guys had to do was to do enough to keep the victim alive until the medical authorities could get to him.
On reflection though the survival rate of any would caused by the infected was seriously low.
Not even one percent would be his gut insitinct.
"Well the dirt must ha washed fi mah skin if yer not knowing im Labour born and bred," He chuckled at the doctor, "And no body knows the shadow man, but ah eckon this be his Chambers of Darkness and not just for the barred windows."

[Jack Malloy]

A little chuckle escaped Malloy's lips at the 'down home' country charm of Svernic's reply. It was truthful though - the man was built like a brick shithouse, and was formidable enough for Malloy to even consider that possibly a bullet wouldn't be enough to stop him. It was lucky he was an ally, otherwise in these days of want and scarcity, it would be difficult to justify using a whole clip to stop the man.

Considering the doctor's question, he wondered how to word his reply. Difficult to say he was as the crookedest damned cop she'd ever met, and that was probably his biggest skill. "I'm a crack shot, and I guess I'm the closest thing to a leader we have right now. And I know this city like the back of my hand - I've been a cop for years, a beat cop for 2 of those. Difficult to know more about it, short of being a taxi driver."

He smiled at the hefty builder's nickname for him. "I could live with the name Shadow Man." For someone who lived perpetually in the shadows between right and wrong, the murky grayness of moral ambiguity, it wasn't half bad. That and the fact it was dark all the fucking time.

[Liz Burke]

The shadow man. Yes, that filled the paediatrician with a whole lot of confidence. “So, an cop – of some sort, an Asian technician – who hasn’t showed up yet, and Svernic,” She turned and gave him a smile, “who is...” Liz waited him to fill in his profession.

Liz didn’t want to press the two for too much information; she didn’t want to be evicted from the police station after the first time she actually spoke to her future shack buddies. But, subtly she would get to know that as time went on; Liz always liked to know her surroundings.

The food was making Liz hungry now; it had been a long time now since she had had a decent meal. She had been living in crisps and biscuits, like the other survivors in her former group. But this food, it was mouth watering.

(Sorry it sucks, I didn't know what to write lolz)