[hr][center][h1][color=firebrick]Black James![/color][/h1] [img]https://v.cdn.vine.co/r/avatars/6AE78329E91063505631975227392_pic-r-1396533712688c4afde8ecf.jpg.jpg?versionId=ZnGOSit0zozlhxpJk0w6QVx4cSozVRdq[/img][/center] [hr][center][b]Location:[/b] Newnan Courthouse Clocktower [b]Interacting With:[/b] The About To Be Dead [/center][hr] It wasn't clockwork. That was apparent. Nothing was clockwork anymore, nothing ran smoothly. The best one could hope for in this day and age was success with minimum collateral damage. Nonetheless, Newnan (such as it was) pulled together, beating back the swarm of Dead and Living invaders both. They seemed to tumble over each other like ants; angry, angry ants biting and ripping part a rival colony. This was Newnan. It wasn't pretty anymore. But it [i]was[/i] a home for the living, and the living fought very hard and very ugly to keep it. The living invaders were either hunkered down or running like hell for any possible exit. They had killed enough of Newnan's people. Now that the tide of the battle was turning, it was their opportunity to reciprocate. Case in point: There was one fellow, seemed to be having some difficulty making it over the inner wall. Black James squinted his eyes, trying to figure out who would be quite as mentally daft as to attempt to scale the Newnan Inner Wall with all of the bullets and dead people flying about. He raised Alicia's rifle to his eye, peering through the scope. [color=firebrick]"Wait wait wait... I don't know you, Squirrely-Man. An' [i]that[/i] means you gotta die."[/color] James felt that this kill deserved a personal touch. He quickly but carefully set down the weapon in his hands and hauled up the Anti Materiel Rifle he called Vera. A heartbeat later, a silenced round exited the gas recoiled barrel, traveling faster than the speed of sound. It entered the man as he bent over the top of the Wall, less than an inch from his rectum, literally tearing a new hole in his ass. It nicked lumbar vertebrae on its way through, chipping off sharp points and causing a cacophony of internal damage as the splinters pinballed about his innards. But the real damage occurred when the bullet, now tumbling ever so slightly, made it past the arch in his lower spine and slammed hard into his cervical vertebrae. It found the hole in the center, obliterating the spinal cord and exploding bone after bone in rapid succession, faster than human thought could hope to match. It destroyed his neck entirely and ripped the back half of the man's skull out of his head. He didn't even have time to feel it. While he didn't have the optimal vantage point to see the extent of the damage Vera had caused, James saw enough to know that they wouldn't need to call the School Nurse about this particular boo-boo. The fine, red mist that quickly blew away in the wind was an excellent indicator of the man's passing from this world in a swift and dramatic fashion. The ebon-skinned hog hunter gave the tiniest smile, and whispered [color=firebrick]"...hatchetman..."[/color] before switching back out to his previous rifle. In the distance, along the path of the offending round, the crown of a mighty tree splintered and collapsed onto the ground below. [hr][center][h1][color=steelblue]Ashton Holloway[/color][/h1] [img]https://31.media.tumblr.com/bcfab66a674d39bfaaddc28bd62d4470/tumblr_inline_ne41kcr5UN1s5par2.jpg[/img][/center] [hr][center][b]Location:[/b] Newnan, Building to Building running combat [b]Interacting With:[/b] Meg, Newnan, Edenite [/center][hr] The three volunteers that joined Ash and Meg were well known to the good Captain; they had been with him since almost the beginning. They were part of his original group back in Virginia, working for his father in the distillery. He had seen them around town even before a giant lump of shit slammed, sumo-style, into the maniacally flailing, ever-spinning fan known as human existence. The three teams armed and split up, each taking a section of buildings and set to the task of cleaning house. A few of the Dead in familiar surroundings did little to slow down vigorously motivated teams of five, and given the blessed absence of Edenites in their search, all three teams were able to take three buildings each in short order. Team Ash wasted no time blowing through their allotted buildings, with little incident outside of jamming a blade into a dead guy's face. Until the last building, anyway. Things had gone a little too easy. Given the day so far, easy made Ash nervous. He approached the door with knife and carbine at the ready. It was a dwelling, one of a few actual houses inside the inner wall. Something didn't seem right. Some detail that his conscious mind didn't point out that his subconscious powers of perception screamed at him. [color=steelblue]"Meg, you stick behind be. Umm... eyes to the back. Make sure no one sneaks up on our six, ok?"[/color] It was more for her protection than his actual worry concerning a sneak attack. Ash liked the girl. She still had a sense of pragmatic optimism that the apocalypse hadn't yet taken away. That was a kind of strength. Annoying at times, but strength nonetheless. Newnan needed harder men like himself for situations similar to the one they found themselves mired into presently, but to look forward, Newnan would need people like Meg to maintain their humanity. Slowly scouting from room to room, the team met zero resistance. Then a bedroom door swung open, followed immediately by the report of a large bore handgun. Instinct kicked in, Ash going to one knee and firing off a single shot of his own to answer for the unwanted guest's. He tried for a quick and dirty headshot, but his haste affected his aim. It was a neck shot. In one side and out the other, the man was dead anyway. The invader dropped his weapon and slapped both hands to his neck, reflexively trying to keep his life's blood from spilling away. He looked at the assembled group of Newnanites and slumped to his knees. He knew he was dead. Pure instinct to survive fueled his gurgling attempt to plead for his life. Ash looked coldly at the man, carbine still trained on him. He glanced to the men around him, the Virginians, and spoke in a low, cold voice. [color=steelblue]"Do it. Save your ammunition."[/color] The remaining three set upon the already doomed man, knives opening him up with cathartic ferocity.