forum //where the dead men lie// >>closed<< stalkers welcome tho 0.0

Started May 24, 2021 by @Celeste_X0X0_ group

tune

"S'alright," Gus replied, trotting ahead of him around the side of the hotel. "I dunno how else we coulda beat that thing. At least we got some real good gear out of all that." He nodded at Jez's new weapon. "Y'ever used one before? I can teach you later if you need some pointers."

Jez laughs "yeah I guess so" he says following Gus "uh no I only know how to use handguns. Pistols n such" he shrugs, reaching the front of the building and jogging out into the road and grabbing his other bag.
"this is getting a bit heavy…" He grumbles, though straightening up and clearing his throat.
"Watch I'm gonna have the lungs of a smoker after this" he jokes, looking up into the darker sky, the flames providing plenty of light for the boys. But also drawing way too much attention

(Putting this there for Hufflepuff when they get back since it's on the last page ^^)
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Elodie gave a snort, the sound coming from low in her throat.
She slapped Jesse's arm lightly.
"Shut up– im not that timid" she said laughing.
"And im not that kinky either" she added.
She exhaled slowly and sighed into the dark night sky.

Write:

Jesse raises her thick eyebrows "right we'll see about that" she jokes, looking up and blowing smoke in her face before handing the cigarette back to Elodie. "You seem like a bottom" she chuckles, rolling onto her side, her elbow propping her head up as she now looked down at Elodie.

Gus grinned, his teeth flashing in the firelight. "Smoke sure does a number, don't it? I saw you give up some clean water fer that molotov back there. You can have some of mine once we're safe." He started off at a quick march down the street, head switching left and right to make sure nothing was about to attack them. "An' tomorrow I'll show the ropes of that rifle. It's not too diff'rent from a handgun really, jus' has more recoil and shoots farther. Great fer huntin' and scarin' things off. See any other monsters around yet? That ruckus musta woken 'em up."

"Thanks that'd be nice actually. I could use a drink" he says, shaking his head as they walked.
He went to the other side of the street to get away from the smoke "ive never done well with smoke in the first place-" he pauses "Well I know not many people do. I just….react terribly to it" he rolls his eyes.
Jez looks around, looking in any windows of the buildings or dark areas he wouldn't notice at first glance.
"I…I dont think so. My visions a bit blurry so I'm not the best lookout. But I don't see anything" he says with a sigh, reaching to his pocket for his durag but realizing he had used it for the Molotov.
darn….that was my favorite one…
"You think there's any grocery stores nearby? I don't know this town too well" he asks Gus

(guess who's coworker called in sick today and needed someone to cover for them TvT)
"I ain't familiar with it neither," Gus admitted. "I just got here a couple days ago. But I think there might be some stores jus' west of here, by the highway comin' in. Y'wanna swing over that way 'n check? Might be dusk by the time we get there, but I got a flashlight."

(Ugh that's the worst. I'm sorry :,(

Jez keeps his eyes on the sky, watching a bird fly overhead and out of his sight, the sky itself darkening by the minute.
"Yeah that'd be fine. Let's just hope we don't have to burn another building down" he jokes. Just then a beam fell with a loud snap, craching to the ground.
"Lets get going. I hate this place already" he shook his head, patting the duffle bag that hung from his side.
I got a gun out of this though. I hope I get used to them though…

(yeah, but at least it's just today. The other girl was technically supposed to work all weekend and monday but luckily other people filled in for her as well ^^)
"Sure thing." Gus led the way down a side street, cutting towards the fast-food and supermarket district that sat right next to the hotels. Soon the sound of the fire devouring the building faded behind them, but the thick smoke could probably be seen for miles.
"So….." Gus remembered Jez's remark from a moment ago. "Y'don't like smoke, huh? Is it one o' them lung problems? My big brother's kid has asthma, or somethin' like it. Is that your trouble too?"

Jez stops and looks down to the ground for a second, his throat burning with every breath he took.
"I was diagnosed with a lung disease a while back." He admits, starting to walk again.
"Uh hypersensitive pneumonitis. The doctors said it's pretty serious. I had only…what 7 years to live" he says with a shrug, trying not to.think about how long ago that was.
"Moral of the story though- my lungs are a little stupid sensitive to.chemicals and things like that. I dount the second hand smoke didn't help much either" he jokes

Gus slowed in surprise, his gaze swinging around to try and see Jez's expression through the lengthening shadows. "Shit," he said eventually. "That, uh…..that's gotta cut up your tune some. I mean—that can't be fun." He honestly wasn't sure how to react, which was an unfamiliar situation for him. Jez didn't seem too upset, but he would hate to act like he wasn't sympathetic. "You're so healthy-lookin', I never woulda guessed. There ain't nothin' you can do, not even t' slow it down?"

Jez gives him a soft smile "not really but I've come to terms with it. That was about five years. But hey maybe I'll die before then. With the way things r' goin" he shrugs "but I'd keep it to yourself. I'm still holding out hope on finding more people and it'd be more trouble if they knew" he let out a small laugh, trying to keep the conversation lighthearted

Gus saw that Jez was trying to take the chat to less unhappy places and did his best to cooperate. "You can trust me. I won't tell. I mean, to hell with anybody who makes 'trouble' jus' cause you're hurtin', but I unnerstand. In a way, you do got a point….y'could be sittin' around in a hospital or stuck in some numbskull job right now, but instead you get to see history happenin' all around you and be a part of it too. Yeah, it isn't good history, but y'know. Minor details."

Jez chuckles "yeah you've got a point. I'd rather be here than in some hosptial" he pauses "Thanks Gus" be says patting his shoulder "youre a good guy ya know" he says, facing him as he walked with Gus, walking backwards now, his hand resting in his pockets now.

(Sorry it's short. Reaction time lol)

(all good!)
Gus blinked, then scoffed and waved Jez away with practical modesty. "Naw, I'm jus' bein' a decent human being. Nuthin' to brag about." But still, he couldn't stop an almost bashful smile from spreading across his face as he looked down. "You ain't so bad yourself, Jez. I think it's pretty lucky we ran into each other, seein' as how there's only a few folks left 'round here."

"Practical modesty isn't somethin you find a lot. So it's kinda special I'd say" He says, turning around and walking by Gus' side, his face heating up a bit. He wasn't used complements or anything near it.
"I'm glad I found you too though. I'd have gone insane if it weren't for you" he chuckles

"Well I guess we should stick together then," Gus replied, lightly punching Jez's shoulder. "Even though I reckon I might be kinda crazy already, so I dunno if I'll be much help, heh."
As he was saying this, he caught sight of a tall sign on the side of the road. "Hey, would you look at that, a dollar store! Reckon that'll have what you're lookin' for? I'd say let's find someplace bigger, but most big stores I've seen so far are already plum empty."

Jez goes to reply to Gus, meaning to tell him how much of a help he's already been.
Though when Gus pointed out the dollar store all his previous thoughts vanished.
"Oh good idea. Maybe it's still in tact. I wanna be able to actually sleep tonight" he says, mumbling the last sentence with an eye roll.
"I'm glad it's not winter yet but I'm definitely not looking forward to those nights" he scoffs

"Me neither. Y'know, we're headed to DC, but maybe come winter we should drift south a bit, so's all we gotta worry about is monsoons 'n stuff." He trotted to the electric sliding doors of the store and started wedging them open with difficulty. "Hey, come help a beanpole out, would ya? I ain't good at strongman stuff."

"I doubt they looted it since the doors are shut." Jez laughs, jogging over there to help.him out, wedging his arm in between the doors once it opened just enough to do so.
Pulling it open, he uses one of his legs to kick it a little, which helped a bit. Soon they broke open with both of the boys' help. Jezariah stumbles back against the now open door.
He looks it over, the doors only open just enough to squeeze through "uh….well we can slip through it" he says, "maybe that's a good thing" he says stepping through the doorway and looking around the dark store.

Gus followed, freeing his backpack from the gap with a sharp tug. "I think you're right about that. This could be a nice place to spend th' night, 'specially if there's a back room." He pulled out his flashlight and tapped it against his knee to stop it from flickering, then panned it across the interior of the store. "Looks like we'll find some good stuff here. What all were you lookin' for? I don't need a whole lot myself but I can help snoop around if y'give me a grocery list."

Jezariahs eyes skimmed the shelves as he walked by them, his fingers picking up the dust from the past few months.
He wipes it down on his shirt before turning to Gus "oh…let's settle down first. I'm tired" he says through in a sort of grumble, heading towards the back.
"It's a store. Surely they have a back room- oh here we go" he smiles, arriving at a large metal door with a sigh reading "employees only"
He twists the handle but it jams "Ah its locked. You see any keys around?" Jez turns to look at Gus

Gus went to the checkout counter and started rummaging around, tossing aside papers and various tools in search of something useful. "Heyyyy, ain't we lucky sons o' guns tonight." He lifted up a small ring of keys and jingled them. "Bet this opens up everything in th' store if we know where to use 'em." Going back to the locked door, he tried a few keys until he found the right one and pushed the door ajar. "Sweet. Cute lil' break room and more storage, looks like—and there's the furnace 'n 'lectric panel. I see a door to the back of the buildin' too. Let's jus' make sure that one's locked." He set his flashlight on the small desk in the corner and went to secure the room, shrugging off his backpack as he did so. "Wish we had a spot fer a fire, but oh well. We got plenty of canned stuff now. Hungry?"

Jez steps inside, his eyes wide. "Wow we are lucky." He replies, dropping both of his bags with a thud and a sigh
"Goodness. I dont know about you but I've had enough fire for one day" he jokes, sitting down against the wall, leaning the back of his head against it
I gotta cut my hair
Jezariah looks back to Gus "Ah starving." He replies, pulling his bags to his side and unzipping them, setting out all the food and drinks he had.
"This is all I got. I got two things of bread too. But…" He picks the package up "theyre kinda squished" he shrugs "beggars can't be choosers though"
"Take all.you want. What's mine is yours"

"Same here," Gus said amiably, taking out some beef jerky and a bag of chips from his own supplies. "Maybe I can make some kinda sandwich." Selecting a handful of seemingly random food items, he wiped the soot and grime off his hands and began the process of putting them together. After a peaceable silence, he glanced over at Jez. "So, y'said I could take a look at those weird books you found, once we were settled for th' night. They in your backpack?"

Jez watches as Gus puts together the sandwich, his mouth already watering and his empty stomach now more apparent to him now that they weren't running out of a flaming building and away from a pissed-off screamer ready to eat them for dinner.
He nods "uh right. Lemme get those," he says, slipping them out of his bag and setting them down.
In total, he set down 4 items. Two hardcover books and two notebooks. All of them were battered and damaged from this and that. Including blood and water.

The books covers read:
"influence"
"Record"

And in quick cursive writing, the coverless notebooks read

"I'm dying so here's to one last drink before I go"

"Test subjects." with the words "everything gone" scribbled over the page and the words, everything in ink.

Jez looks up at Gus from the books "whoever wrote those notes was…." He pauses, pursing his lips together. "Deranged" he finished his sentence, shaking his head.