forum where the snow falls (7/8)

Started October 15, 2018 by super salt shaker

tune

David finishes the final part of his notebook and he closes it. He looks around one last time and picks up his revolver. He puts the bullet in the chamber and spins it. He then puts it to his head.

click

Maybe it was some super instinct he had suddenly developed. Maybe the radiation-induced winter was finally giving back to him in the form of a sixth sense.
Whatever it was, Micah's stomach dropped to his boots and he knew. Someone was out there with him. And that meant that either they were in trouble, or they could help him.
He cupped his hands around his mouth, looking around wildly.
"Hey!" Micah shouted, loud as he possibly could. "HEY! Anyone there? Come on, answer me! Do you need help?!

David sighs.
He spins the chamber another time.
He hears a faint voice in the distance, he then shakes his head and looks straight up. He was finally losing his mind.
He puts the gun back to his head.

click

Fiona jumped and stifled a scream, she pulled her gun up to her shoulder and glanced at the fire one last time, letting it burn out. She stood up and looked around her, not seeing anyone she debated yelling back and decided to. She set her gun down and yelled back, "Hello? who are you? what do you want?" as soon as she said it she thought to herself what did you just do…. you just invited someone who is stronger and better fed than you to come and kill you……

David looks down in frustration.
He spins the chamber again.
He puts the gun to his head again but he hears a noice outside his tent.
A faint gowling.
He opens his gun and notices the bullet was chambered to shoot.
He closes it and points it towards the door of his tent.

Urgh, no answer. Micah stifled a curse. Was he just going nuts? Nah, he believed in his mental strength. Maybe he wasn't loud enough. Maybe whoever it was wasn't in a position to answer.
"Yo! Can anyone hear me? This is really hurting my throat a little bit!"
If only he had a flare, or a louder voice, or something that made it clear that he was a living actual person looking for other living actual people…
Oh. His whistling.
Feeling stupid, Micah brought his fingers to his mouth and inhaled a (cold-cold-cold) breath of air. Then he blew, and the piercing sound was louder than anything he'd heard in a while. Like a thunderclap or something, or the crack of a whip. Surely they'd hear that?

The responding yell - the who are you, what do you want - was the most beautiful sound Micah had ever heard. God, he wasn't alone.
"Stay put, I'll come to you!" he shouted back. "I'm a friend, promise!"

David hears a faint whistling and is a bit confused.
Just then a figure’s snout pokes through his tent flap.
He fires.

BANG!

Fiona heard a ear piercing whistle and covered her ears, she shivered again now that the fire was gone and decided to whistle back, hoping that whoever was whistling was not going to kill her. She whistled the only way she could, with her pinkeys in her mouth and blew, it produced an very high pitched whistle and she hoped whoever heard it would have a fire.

Fiona heard another shout and collapsed in the snow, exhausted she shouted one last time "please hurry" she curled into a ball and another gust of wind came at her, trying to rip the blanket from her grip.

David throws his revolver to the side and quickly moves forward to punch the animal in the face as he had missed his shot. He grabs its snout.
It’s a wolf.
He quickly punches it in the snout and throws himself on top of it, pinning to the ground.
He shouts in German.
“Dachtest du könntest mich kriegen?”
(Thought you could get me?)

Micah broke into a sprint - or, well, the closest he could get to a sprint - towards the voice. He could hurry, he could do that. He pulled the length of rope from his pack, in case the person was stuck somewhere. Then he saw it. He saw her sprawled in the snow, clutching a blanket for dear life.
At the same time, a deafening bang split the air. Oh, man. That was a gun. Someone or something probably just died. It sounded like a real downer ending for some unlucky soul.
But he could focus on that later. He was too busy crashing down onto his knees beside the young woman, mind racing as he tried to think of something.
"Hey, nice to meet you," he gasped. "Don't clock out on me."

Fiona heard a voice beside her and she opened her eyes "nice to meet you to," she shivered "you wouldn't happen to have a fire or food would you?" she tried her best to sit up and grab her pack, but ended up just laying on her side and pulling it closer to her along with her gun "don't wor-r-y i w-wont shoot you." her teeth were chattering as she said it and she curled into a ball again.

David grabs the wolf’s underbelly and rolls it.
He tries to choke the wolf but it was struggling a bunch.
He continues to shout in German.
“Du bist ein lebhafter!”
(You’re a lively one!)

"Honestly, with the way you're shaking, I don't think you could shoot me if you tried," Micah commented, pulling off his backpack and rifling through it. "But let's see." He pulled a strip of jerky out of his pack, only mourning its loss a little bit, and handed it to her. "Eat this. You need the protein. Besides that, I've got… hm, a single stick? And… oh, and a threadbare sock that's too small for me… a first aid kid… oh. Here are a couple matches. Nothing we can really use for kindling…" He pursed his lips, narrowing his eyes against the chilly gusts. "Now, failing the fire, we could always huddle for warmth. I don't mean to be weird or anything, unless you're really into huddling for warmth. It's just true and I need a hug. But let's try starting a fire first… and packing the snow into a kind of fort so we can hide from the wind at least a little bit…"
He glanced at her, apologetic. "Sorry. I'm Micah, Micah Rolfe, your new best friend. And you?"

David finally gets a choke hold on the wolf and holds it down.
Continuing to shout in German.
“STERBEN SIE BEREITS!”
(Die already!)

Fiona gratefully took the piece of jerky and ate it slowly, savoring the taste of food. she listened to the guy ramble on and nodded, trying to shiver as little as possible "t-thank-k you f-for the food-d" she shivered and continued "n-nice to-o meet-t y-you M-micah-h, in F-fiona Car-rver."

The moment was strangely normal, for taking place in the middle of a winter wasteland with starvation breathing down their necks. For a couple seconds Micah forgot that the world was the way it was, that people were fighting and starving and surviving and probably doing something nuts like wrestling an actual adult wolf with their bare hands.
"'F-fiona Car-rver?' Pretty name," he chuckled. "Kidding. Nice to meet you, Fiona. Don't worry about it, 'kay?" He turned to begin packing snow together, forming the beginnings of an icy barrier. I'll just start building us a little fort, and then we can start gossiping for real."

The wolf finally stops struggling and goes limp.
David collapses side ways in the snow from exhaustion.
He mutters “Das hat gesaugt.” (that sucked.)
He passed out as his chest had a large claw mark across it, slowly seeping blood.

Fiona thought to herself this guy is awesome, and crazy for helping me and laughed as well as she could "I-i can-n help i-if you wa-ant." she started to sit up again but still couldn't, she ended up just smiling weakly at Micah and thanking him a thousand times over in her head for helping her and making her laugh.

"Whoa, you might want to rest up, there," Micah said, alarmed. "Here - I'm almost done. But if you want to help, how about you take these bad boys…" He handed her the stick and the matches, and after a moment of thought, the sad lonely sock that was in his pack, too. "And try to get that fire going again? I could look and see if there's some crumpled up paper in my pockets or something that I'm missing. Does lint burn?"
He rounded off the top of their little makeshift den, thinning his lips as something occurred to him.
"I should investigate that gunshot from earlier," he mused.

"g-go a-ahead-d, and-d yes-s lint b-burn-ns." Fiona took the supplies that Micah had given her and giggled weakly, "i-ill get-t a fire-e going, y-you go-o se-e wh-hat that g-gun-nshot w-was." she shivered again and pulled her blanket farther around her before setting up the stick and the sock and lighting the match to get a small fire going.

Micah nodded, and half-smiled. "See you in a bit, partner. Stay warm." He pulled one of his pistols out, slung on his backpack, and clambered up the sides of the fort, back into the wind and snow and cold.
"Alright, Mikey Rolfe, you're a big boy," he told himself softly, getting to his feet and adjusting his hood. "Investigating a probable murder? Hey, no biggie. Missions like this are to die for."
He set off in the direction that he'd heard the noise, whistling and shouting and hoping someone nice answered.

David meanwhile was still passed out. Blood still slowly seeping out into the snow.
The snow itself was now a shade of salmon as the pool slowly gets bigger.
Meanwhile the gas lamp in his tent starts flickering as it’s fuel runs out.

Dean stumbled through the slush, AK-57 locked, loaded and ready to go. He continued in the direction of the gunshot.
You fucking idiot, what if it's a trap. He thought.
Thankfully the slush was already freezing over, meaning no more trudging along.
He continued, getting weird hot-flashes. The air grew hazy around him, and he steadied his gun.
Upon getting closer, he saw a light.
Was it fire.
He steadily and expertly crept closer, rolling his feet for silence, and sticking out his elbows for balance and to steady his gun.
"Hey!" He exclaimed to two figures by what was indeed a fire.
His rifle didn't waver. He meant them no harm, but he wanted to guarantee his own safety.