forum I'm in the mood for another apocalypse roleplay... (CLOSED for now, welcome to stalk)

Started March 06, 2021 by @Becfromthedead group

tune

(My bad. Gonna fix it)

Earl unholstered his pistol, finger on the trigger. "Have you been bitten?" He asked.
He literally asked.
How was he supposed to know? It could be…the flu. Really bad flu.
"Tell me now."

"He… he has… I'm alright…" Tohru whispered, gesturing at the guy a few chairs down, "He hasn't fully turned yet."
The other young man gave a weak nod.
"Please… please end it… please…"
Tohru gritted his teeth. "Earl… I hate to ask this of you, but… would you do it? I-I can't…"
He looked up, wiping some of the tears from his face.

"Course." Earl said, switching the safety off. He felt sorry for the guy who got himself bit.
"Find rest in the afterlife."
Bang.
He holstered his pistol, forming a cross on his chest, hoping that this wouldn't bite him in the ass later.

Levi jumped as he heard the gunshot downstairs, and unconsciously grabbed Lis's arm. "What was that!?" He squeaked. Embarrassed, he cleared his throat and said, "What are they shooting down there?"

Tohru jumped pretty significantly at the sound of gunfire, even though he had been expecting it. But after that, he was completely silent, blankly staring at the half-zombified corpse in front of them.
It's not even him. Why do you care?
Yet he swore that just for a moment, when he had been the one holding the gun, that it was indeed Noah at the other end.

Lis whipped around, then guessed, "A gunshot?"
She listened for more, but nothing else happened.
"Probably just a stray zombie, they only fired once, yeah?"

Bean hugged Tohru tightly. She didn’t know what to say. All she knew was that he needed them right now. Luka was still holding Kas, looking for a place to sit down. Lilac looked down at Mori. “You okay, kiddo?”

Tohru accepted Bean's hug and buried his head in her shoulder, continuing to cry, though his sobs had softened up into silent tears. How was he going to explain this? Should he?

Mori screamed at the gunshot, tightening his hold on Lilac to a death grip. A couple tears rolled down his cheeks and he buried his face in her shoulder, trembling violently. Kas flinched as well, seeming uneasy as he looked around. He wasn't nearly as shaken up as Mori, though.

Luka and Lilac sat on the floor, holding Kas and Mori close. Lilac brushed her fingers through the youngest’s hair, in an attempt to calm him. “It’s okay…it’s over…” she whispered. Luka looked around, keeping watch in case something snuck up on them. Bean rubbed her fingers along Tohru’s back, hugging him. “Shh…it’s okay…we’re all here if you need us…”

Earl looked to Tohru. "Hey. Hey. Look at me man." He said, rubbing his back in comfort.
"It was a mercy. It was better to do that then to leave him to his fate."
He knew how Tohru felt. He had done this before. To…
No. He couldn't think about that day. Never again.

Rachel raised an eyebrow at the gunshot. It was only one, but who knew what it was for? A misfire? Not if it was her brother shooting.
Or something else?

Once Tohru had collected himself a bit, he gave a nod.
"I know… it's just… I've had to do that before," he said, his face paling a bit, "My um… my boyfriend at the time-"
His voice cracked and he fell silent again.

Lis started gathering some supplies and said, "Yeah, um… why don't we hurry up and get some supplies, then we'll head back down. Seems like they should be okay, right?"

Mori hiccuped and sobbed weakly into Lilac's shoulder, obviously not very reassured. He gripped the fabric of her shirt tightly in his small fists. Kas tried to get out of Luka's hold, wanting to get up and go see what had happened. He knew he probably wouldn't be able to help much, but considering the number of people up there, they had likely already handled it themselves.

Levi over his shoulder nervously before joining Lis to gather things. "I don't know what half this shit does." He muttered to himself. He hoped everyone downstairs was okay, gunshots were never a good sign.

(Question, are they in the States? If so, where?)

"It's okay Tohru. I understand how you feel. My sister…" Earl trailed off. He could let him connect the dots.
He flopped down next to Tohru, wiping his brow. It was too fucking hot here.
"Just…don't let it get to you. We all are going to have to do some things that we don't want to do in the apocalypse. The only thing we can do is adapt and overcome." Earl said, clapping Tohru on the back.

(Yeah, kind of northeast US, they're heading down the east coast)
Tohru gave a silent nod at first. So Earl understood. He understood well. And Bean, too. Sure, she hadn't had to straight up shoot someone she loved, but it still was fresh. Everyone here had lost someone, of course. It's just that his wounds, like Bean's, were still pretty fresh.
"It wasn't so long ago. I thought we might make it out together, you know?" Tohru whispered, "It was what? Two weeks? Maybe a month…? We'd made it almost two years into this hellscape together at that point."

(Few Google searches later, and I have the information I need)
(Would it be reasonable for them to go to Alabama? At least, sometime in the story?)

Earl was silent. He wasn't particularly one able to talk about this subject. He and his sister…didn't speak about it.
It was a touchy subject at best.
"It was a few days after the apocalypse started…" He said, taking a long pause to make sure he didn't burst into tears, let sadness and grief overtake him.
Earl hadn't had time to grieve. He was always focused on helping his sister survive, learn. Surviving himself.
"My…she…parents. Were bitten. Rachel and I, were protecting our toddler sister. Tracy. They…" He took a shaky breath. It was like reliving a punishment, working in the yard. Lying.
The disappointment. It hurt like a nail in the foot.
"She got bit. I had to…kill them all. Put them out of their fucking misery."

(It would be a bit off their path, but if they're going to the western Florida keys, it would be reasonable, yeah.)
"Oh… god…" Tohru sighed, "I'm so sorry…"
He lowered his head as a twinge of guilt passed over him. After all, he had completely abandoned his family. The apocalypse started and he never even tried to reach out to them. But he'd fought like hell for his boyfriend, for some of his classmates from university, for a couple of professors. But even trying, he wasn't enough. And when it was just the two of them left, Tohru had to turn on Noah before Noah turned on him. That last pained smile was seared into his memory.
"It's… it's a lot. It really is."

Bean nodded in agreement. She set her hand on Tohru’s back, rubbing circles with her fingers as she stayed silent. It really was a lot….wasn’t it? Hell, most of the group wasn’t over 16…they were just kids. Luka pulled Kas back down. “You are in no condition to walk,” he told him. Lilac sighed softly as she held Mori close. “I know it sucks…I’m so sorry…” she whispered.

Kas huffed indignantly and crossed his arms. "I can walk. Probably. I want to see what's going on anyway! I heard a gunshot. Something is obviously happening up there." Mori cried a bit harder, obviously very shaken up. He still refused to speak, his soft cries the only sound he'd made in hours.

Tohru wiped the tears from his face, determined to not show anyone else what he was feeling.
He let out a heavy sigh. That said, he was comforted by the touch of others.

Lis finished stuffing her bag full of medical supplies, then she zipped it up and slung the bag over her shoulder.
"Whenever you guys are ready, we can head back down. We can always grab more supplies if we need."

"I'm done," Levi confirmed, swinging his bag over his shoulder. He looked through a window on a door out of curiosity. He yelped and stepped back quickly. "There's a dead man in there." He said, his voice lowered. He walked back to Lis and bounced on the balls of his feet, ready to leave even faster.

Aspen stayed fully silent, the memories of the hospital hitting her like a freight train.
The sick patients, eating lunch and sometimes dinner with her mom in the hospital cafeteria, the way she first met Madison there.

God, Madison she thought to herself, her mind filling with the memory of the older girls smile, she missed Madison, her older sister like ways.

When they finally got to the top of the stairs, she lead them to the left wing, and into the supply room, she shivered before waving her arms towards the shelves of medical supplies, "well, here ya go" she said to them, keeping her eyes casted towards the ground and her feet.

Bean smiled sadly as she hugged Tohru softly. “Wanna head back?” she asked, quietly as to not make him any more upset. Lilac sighed again as she held Mori close. She brushed her fingers through his hair, staying quiet, Luka shook his head. “It’s probably nothing…it was only one shot after all,” he told him.

Rachel shrugged. "I'm done. I kind of want to see what's going down there anyway."
She spun on her heel to turn around, walking down a short amount of the hall, her boots clicking on the floor. "Let's go see what shit Earl caused."

Earl frowned. He somehow felt like someone had been…blaming him for something that didn't happen. But no one did.
No one but Tohru and the others were here. "The fuck?"

(~Brother senses~)

Once Tohru was pretty sure he was ready to go, he gave a slight nod.
"No reason to leave the others worrying."
He slowly got up, a dull ache seeping into his whole body. God, he felt awful. But maybe he'd be able to get more rest here at least.