The Hunt For Eden [Started]

[Time Travelling Toaster]

"The...the eyes! There was something in the house with us!" Chloe cries as Patricka pulls her back towards the house.

She ducks her head down, tears falling from her eyes, "I'm...sorry, sor...sorry," she sobs, feeling herself being pulled back into the house.

 

[BrailleOperatic]

"Ah, oh come on. Don't cry. It's not that bad, honest." Laz was a little stuck as to what to do. He wasn't accustomed to crying women, let alone women crying about monsters. What was the appropriate technique for dealing with this situation? A hug? A pat on the head? Friendly words of friendship? Do nothing and let the other girls deal with it and just remember he was only there to document the experience? Hey! That one sounded good! He should do that! And so he hung back a little, shut up, and let the girls deal with the crying Chloe well he just watched their backs.

 

[Bibliomancer]

"We need to be careful about drawing attention to ourselves." John said. "I'd prefer not to have to test out these fortifications tonight unless we have to and we don't know what is creeping around outside looking for us."

He paused. "Are you alright?" He asked Chloe. "What did you see?"

 

[ae86gamer]

Birds, mutated of course, flew above the survivors' head. They were large, about as big as bald eagles. They watched the survivors closely, slowly preparing to attack.

One of the birds had had enough and dove down, intent on hitting the survivors. The other four birds quickly followed suit.

 

[NeoAC]

Spoiler: OOC

I knew you would get bored sooner or later, ae.

"What the-" Emma turned around after hearing a gust of wind saw the former birds swooping down towards them. "Damn it!" she cursed as she brought her shotgun up. "Get inside! Now!" She took aim at the flock and fired off one of her precious rounds, hoping to buy enough time for everyone, and eventually herself, to get inside.

 

[BrailleOperatic]

Laz didn't need to get told twice. It may not always be the most honorable dignified way of doing things, but when it came to surviving, running like a scared dog in the rain was far and beyond the most effectove of tools. "Move!" He pushed on Chloe and Pat, attempting to hasten them inside while simultaneously attempting to try and wave his lone razor in the general direction of whatever was attacking. The net result, though less than graceful and more than slightly awkward, made him feel like he was at least accomplishing something.

 

[Jav3lin]

Patricka felt the adrenaline rush kick in as she heard the yelling. Something was going on and someone was pushing her toward the house.

She decided to just go with it and ran toward the house.
However, she wasnt very good at running in gowns. Not that anyone could specialize in it, but right there in that one moment, she realized that getting good at running in something so hard could potentially save her life.

"Laz! Is that you?"
She called as she peaked over her shoulder.
What she saw was far from what she had hoped to see. She had hoped to see a scared man trying his best in a bad situation. However, there were two birds gaining massive speed on them and closing the distance rather quickly.

"GET DOWN!"
She screamed. She instantly let her legs go numb and fell to the grass. Laz, running behind her, tripped over Pat as her feet stopped moving and suddenly the three of them were all huddled up on the ground.

The strange turn of events had however potentially saved one or not all of their lives, for the two birds had missed their target and the door was closer than ever.
"Go! We can still make it to the door!"
Patricka yelled as she started getting on her feet again.

 

[TheSentinel]

The commotion caught Aldus' attention, as he essentially tuned everyone else out. A shot was fired, meaning something was up. He looked up, seeing a flock of what looked like the size of flying badgers. Reacting as quickly as he could, he lifted the Auto to his shoulder and sighted one of the flying badgers, before pulling the trigger. Recoil kicked through his shoulder, making his body shutter. Not knowing if his shot landed, he decided to obey on of the girls shouting at him to get in the house, and sprinted towards inside.

 

[BrailleOperatic]

Laz landed flat on his face as he stumbled over Pat. He felt the dirt invade his nose, and enjoyed the sensation of his brain knocking about in his head. But the adrenaline pounding through his veins dulled the pain, killed his senses, cut out everything that wasn't not dying. As much as he would have enjoyed laying on the ground and pretending that he wasn't in a very dangerous situation, he was and so he couldn't. And so he had to stand up.
There was rush of air as the the birds passed overhead, the wings flapping loudly, barely skimming over the pile of people Laz had fallen into. They missed once. They weren't likely to miss a second time.
Pat had gotten to her feet before Laz. As he scrambled up he put an arm around Chloe and pulled her to her feet. No more time for laying down. "Keep moving," he urged as he once more began to usher the two women forward.

 

[Jav3lin]

Patricka stumbled onto the wooden porch and grabbed the handle on the door, allowing Laz and Chloe to enter.
But then she looked back. They had forgotten Emma.

"Emma!!!! Get over here!"
She screamed out and felt like her lungs would give way.

 

[NeoAC]

Emma fired off another shot as she kept backing up. She didn't even know if she was doing any real damage to these things. From Patricka's shouts, it sounded like everyone else had gotten in. She was close enough she figured that she could break for the door now. Yeah. Yeah I can make that.

She dropped her weapon to her side and took off for the doorway. She knew she didn't need to cover much distance, but she still ran as fast as she could. She made it in past the door and helped Patricka slam it tight.

 

[ae86gamer]

Spoiler: OOC

You know me too well, Neo. xD

Luckily for the survivors, Emma's shotgun bullet connected with one of the attacking birds. It fell to the floor with a thud, it's death going unnoticed by the other beasts.

The other mutated birds squawked even louder, their large talons trying to grab a hold of the running survivors.

The bullets from Aldus' gun tore away at bird's wing, ripping it to shreds and spraying it's blood across a large patch of grass. The remaining beasts landed on the ground, angry that all of their prey had gotten away. Though the anger didn't last very long as they started feasting on their dead brethren.

 

[Bibliomancer]

When he first saw the birds, John fired at the birds with his shotgun, then turned to run. "Let's get inside." He yelled. Wheeling to fire a second time, he reached the door and hurled himself into the house. After Emma and Patricka closed the door, he looked around.

"Is everyone inside?" He asked, looking to see if anyone was missing. "I was hoping those things couldn't fly, but I guess they can." He paused, "I'm just glad we didn't lose anyone." He said as he checked his shotgun.

 

[BrailleOperatic]

Laz was breathing heavily, staring blankly at the door. That had been close. Too close. He didn't ever remember being that scared or that close to death. But, more than anything, he was pissed he didn't get a picture. "They couldn't have waited until morning?" He muttered under his breath, all the while writing mental notes to always bring the camera with him.
When he was done making his own special curses at his bad luck, he looked around making sure everyone was okay. Emma and Pat were inside, keeping the door closed; John and Aldus were up and at 'em, guns drawn and ready; Chloe was...ok crap he still had his arm around her from when he pulled her up. He let go with a jump. They were safe; he didn't need to keep her so close.
"Um...who wants to help me move the couch into here?"

 

[ae86gamer]

Spoiler: ZOMG! So many OOCs! D:

Sorry for not posting. Been sick and just couldn't think of anything to write. This will change.

The mutated birds continued to fly around the barn long after they had finished feasting on their dead flock members. Despite being safe, the survivors could not stay inside the barn forever. At some point they would need water, food and more weapons. They'd have to leave, move on, and try to find a more suitable place to live.

Because of the outbreak, newpapers stopped being printed, so they had no way of knowing what places were being overrun by those monsters and what places weren't.

 

[NeoAC]

Spoiler: OOC...again

Don't worry, ae. I couldn't think of anything either. I'm drawing some inspiration from something I watched recently.

"Here," Emma said, putting her shotgun down on a nearby table. She picked up the other end of Laz's couch and helped him move it to the door with minimal effort.

"Now that that's set, what the hell was that about, Chloe? You trying to get us all eaten? God, I don't care if next time a mutant's trying to tongue kiss you, you don't run out the door! Not at this time of night! If you do it again, I'm going to shut the door behind you, and then you'll be entirely at those freaks' mercy, and sister, I don't think they're the compassionate type!"

She picked her gun back up and made her way back upstairs. This was entirely too much action for this time, and now the mutants knew they were holed up in here. They would have to leave and find another place tomorrow. For now, those windows needed to be boarded up.

 

[ae86gamer]

Spoiler: OOC

Okay.. no one else has posted. I'm doing a mini time skip!

The survivors had finished boarding up the barn and stayed in the barn for several days. They had been lucky enough to find a small chest full of canned food and plastic jugs of water. Some of the other things in the chest included a few medical supplies, like gauze and bandages.

A few days later, the food and water supply was beginning to run out. The rag tag team of survivors definitely needed to move on. Perhaps south to the less populated areas, or north towards the cities. Either way they needed to get going.

 

[Jav3lin]

Patricka moved toward the window. It was light out, the sun had newly risen and she hadnt slept for the past two nights. She felt a stinging pain in her eyes as she denied closing them, although that was exactly what every fiber in her body was demanding of her.

She performed a long blink, trying to divert her attention to the scarred land and the broken images that the sun brought forth.
It had been a tough week. Holed up in a barn, life and death situations and fear for her safety and the others was common, everyday glamour that she had to learn to enjoy.

She had taken this entire night shift of lookout duty. She just couldnt sleep. The simple fact of knowing what had happened to those people, the families... it was just too much for her to handle. It was tearing her up inside, piece by piece, morning by morning.

"We have to move north... it's the only way"
Patricka realized she had talked to herself. She felt like she was going crazy, she'd been all alone for all night... she talked to herself from time to time but during the course of this week she had engaged in self-conversation more often than she could count.

Someone was behind her, moving around.
"Hey, its nice to see you're up"
Pat said with a smile, hiding her feelings and fears, as she turned around to greet the first of the survivors to wake up. She had started to feel lonely.

 

[NeoAC]

"Tough to sleep when you're trying to keep people alive that don't seem to appreciate the service," Emma replied. "I don't know why you took the whole night, Pat, you didn't have to. I would have taken a few hours for ya."

It had been rough. Chloe kept going on about the monster she had seen, and it was getting on her nerves. She even tried to make another break for it, but this time the group managed to stop her at the door. She was getting to be a burden.

"So, I've been thinking, we don't have much food left here. We should probably take it and start heading North. If we can make it up to Knoxville, we should be able to find enough goods still there to restock. Maybe even find a gun shop, so I can get enough bullets that I can actually fire more than one shot if we have to take some more of those things on."

 

[Bibliomancer]

"We'll have to be careful though." John replied, coming into the room. "We don't really know what's happening out in the rest of civilization. If Knoxville has fallen, we could be walking into a nest of monsters and I don't fancy being caught out in the open without more ammo then we have."

John paused, taking a bite of an apple he had found in the kitchen. "If we travel light, keeping out of sight and scavenging when we can, we should be able to make it to a town or a city provided we don't run into any large groups of beasts." "Either way, we should head out soon, the longer we stay here the more we risk monster attack, and I'm not sure how we'll do against a big group of them."