[center][sub][b][h3]T H E   S P A R L I N G S :   S U R V I V A L   S Q U A D[/h3][/b][/sub][/center]
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[center][color=#7ea7d8][b]J A S O N   S P A R L I N G[/b][/color][/center][indent][sub][color=#7ea7d8][b]Location:[/b][/color] [i]Jason's Room --> Kitchen, Sparling Home[/i][/sub][sup][right][color=#7ea7d8][b]Timeframe:[/b][/color] [i]Morning[/i][/right][/sup][/indent][sub][hr][/sub][indent][sub][color=#7ea7d8][b]Interaction(s):[/b][/color] [i]Holly Holloway [@Kuro], Lila Sparling[/i][/sub][sup][right][color=#7ea7d8][b]Previously:[/b][/color] [i][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5436697]Group Playthrough[/url][/i][/right][/sup][/indent]
Jason was woken up by the buzzing of his phone and he rolled over immediately to grab it in case it was dad and not just Zia Carina bugging him to go help with the garden or Zeke or Liam pinging him in another Zombie Apocalypse meme on discord. He shook his head to clear it. That'd all be gone soon and he honestly didn't know what the world would look like without it. Pulling the phone to himself, he remembered to keep it plugged in at all times. You could never quite know when the power would finally give up. There was the old generator Great-Grandma had kept for her and Great Gramps' ice fishing shed, but it was vintage 1970s and Lila was the one who'd been working on it. They needed to take all four cars - Mom's, Zia's, Lila's, and his - and all the spare tanks in the shed and empty a gas station.

Jason had paused in thought, but now he rolled onto his back, flicking and tabbing through his phone and... it was neither dad nor the crew. It was... [i]Holly?[/i] She was... out of food. A tightness invaded his chest. That was a [i]thing[/i] now: a thing to worry about. He'd actually snuck into town a week ago, in his full gear, and emptied the old general store that had once been the Sparling Arms of all its good stuff. He'd [i]seen[/i] zombies too: one or two in the distance, but they hadn't seen him and he'd made it out to a tongue-lashing from his mom and a smirk of praise from Zia Carina. He flipped out of the group chat and over to private messages. There, he paused with his fingers over the screen. [color=7ea7d8][i]What to even say...?[/i][/color] Holly was cool. They weren't like... best friends or anything, but she'd been the first person to play with him when he'd been the 'new kid' in Miss. Merriweather's Grade One class. [color=7ea7d8][i]Fuck... Holly.[/i][/color]

His fingers moved without much direction from his mind as he entered his message. His thumb hovered over the little 'send' arrow for a second as he reread it. Disregarding the consequences, Jason pressed it and waited. 

[center][hider=Message to Holly][img]https://i.imgur.com/Oju3s1p.png[/img][/hider][/center]
There was no more sleep to come. He could hear footsteps in the hallway and the buzz of Lila's stair lift. The house was waking up and he had a solid six and a half hours of sleep in him. It'd have to do. Still, there was a problem and all of Mulberry needed to get ahead of it. Kicking off his blankets, Jason mixed throwing on some clothes with working at his phone. [color=7ea7d8][i]What to name you, what to name you...Eh, fuck it. Alliteration.[/i][/color] Jason took about three minutes to prepare his welcome message. There were some he didn't like, like that snarky bitch Hailee, but she was still probably [i]marginally[/i] more useful alive than as a zombie, though being bit might improve her disposition. He smirked. [color=7ea7d8][i]Lila, Holly, Harper, Kit, Zeke, Liam, Carson, Alena, Harry... ugh, Lee. Fuck it: Davey too.[/i][/color] He hit 'send' and bounded down the stairs. He could already smell the bacon and eggs.

[center][hider=Message to Survival Squad][img]https://i.imgur.com/PFZGYJM.png[/img][/hider][/center]
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[center][color=#bc8dbf][b]L I L A   S P A R L I N G[/b][/color][/center][indent][sub][color=#bc8dbf][b]Location:[/b][/color] [i]Kitchen --> Garage, Sparling Home[/i][/sub][sup][right][color=#bc8dbf][b]Timeframe[/b][/color] [i]Morning[/i][/right][/sup][/indent][sub][hr][/sub][indent][sub][color=#bc8dbf][b]Interaction(s):[/b][/color] [i]Jason Sparling[/i][/sub][sup][right][color=#bc8dbf][b]Previously:[/b][/color] [i][url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5436697]Group Playthrough[/url][/i][/right][/sup][/indent]
[color=bc8dbf]"Jason, you shitlord!"[/color] Lila was holding up a pair of pizza pops still sealed in their plastic wrapper. [color=bc8dbf]"You call [i]this[/i] food?"[/color] She tossed them onto her lap, wary of eating garbage food but warier of wasting good food when this had to go first. 

[color=7ea7d8]"What?"[/color] he blinked and raised an eyebrow, busy going through the cupboards. [color=7ea7d8]"[i]I[/i] eat it."[/color]

[color=bc8dbf]"That's like... a [i]reverse[/i] endorsement."[/color] She rolled up to the microwave, an arm's reach from where he was bent over, searching for something, and flicked him in the side of the head. 

[color=7ea7d8][i]"Oww!"[/i] Lila, what the fuck?"[/color]

[color=bc8dbf]"Did you maybe stop to think that this was freezer food?"[/color]

[color=7ea7d8]"Yeah... [i]so?[/i]"[/color]

[color=bc8dbf]"And the electricity could go out anytime now?"[/color]

[color=7ea7d8]"Did you maybe stop to think most of the good stuff was gone before I risked my neck to get there?"[/color] He shrugged defensively. [color=7ea7d8]"...Was better than nothing."[/color]

Lila glanced down at the processed food in her lap, suddenly feeling like... a not-good person. She sighed. 

[color=7ea7d8]"Why you so on edge?"[/color] her brother prodded, and her response came in the form of a snort. He let out his own and smiled faintly. [color=7ea7d8]"Yeah, yeah. Besides the [i]obvious[/i]."[/color]

[color=bc8dbf]"You're telling me that huge random whatever-it-was noise last night didn't get to you?"[/color] Absently, she opened the wrapper and slid the pops into the microwave.

He came up with some bags of pasta and twisted her way, shrugging. [color=7ea7d8]"It was fuckin' zombies, Squeaks. That's a reality now."[/color]

Lila had not seen a single one, to be honest, and there were fleeting, semi-lucid moments as she lay half-awake in bed, or sat in the shower or staring at her computer screen when it almost occurred to her that this was all some sort of giant sick joke for a reality TV series, but then she quickly dismissed the thought. If anybody was going to be pranked on national TV, they wouldn't pick the girl in the wheelchair. They wouldn't dare kick the pity object while she was down, or besmirch the inspirational. Truth be told, she hadn't seen a zombie because she hadn't left the property, and hadn't even been outside alone. It was all still a nightmare, but one that went on and on and that she found herself just kind of sinking into as an unwanted reality. It was all gone: New York, her position in the orchestra, her YouTube channel, her friends: Judith, Liv, Carter, and Nitesh... She realized that she was drifting. [color=bc8dbf]"Ugh yeah. Sorry."[/color] She shook her head to clear it and punched some numbers into the microwave to start it up. 

Lila made her way to one of the lower cabinets, bending over at the waist and pulling a couple of things out. [color=bc8dbf]"If you're gonna go bring Holly food, at least not the fettucine. You know it's dad's favourite."[/color] 

She tossed him some penne instead and he juggled the bag for a second. Lila rolled up to him and held out her hands expectantly. [color=7ea7d8]"Wait... what are you talking about?"[/color]

[color=bc8dbf]"Already forgot you added me to the group?"[/color]

He stood there sheepishly. [color=7ea7d8]"Oh yeah, [i]that[/i]."[/color]

Lila rolled her eyes. [color=bc8dbf]"Stay safe, Chop-Chop. Okay?"[/color] Just then, the microwave let out its four satisfying beeps and her pizza pops were done.

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[color=bc8dbf]"Now I've gotcha!"[/color] Lila crowed out loud. She was in the garage, sitting on a cushion on the ground, Great Gran's old generator, vintage 1975, before her. She pulled the ripcord with everything she had, nearly falling backwards in the process. At first, she'd been convinced that she just didn't have the strength or balance to do it, but she'd commandeered Jason yesterday evening and the result had been the same: it roared and then sputtered, roared, and then sputtered, roared once more, and then lost its idle. Again, it repeated this routine and she was now confident in her diagnosis: the carburetor was gummed up. After Great Gramps' passing, the generator had sat there for years with gas in its tank and lines. That had gone bad, turned into a resin, and choked the fuel supply to the engine. It over-revved trying to get more, choked when that wasn't coming, tried to rev high again, but then failed and died.

There was nobody here to witness Lila's victory, but it still felt good. The struggle to be useful was always a real one for her and this was a tick on the positive side of the ledger. She'd have to achieve with her mind and her hands what she couldn't do with her body. Reaching for her notepad, she scribbled 'carburetor' into it under her list of 'high priority supplies'. It was only a temporary fix, of course, and gas stations would probably be dangerous, but it would see them through the transition to something more sustainable and at least Jason and Winnie were enthusiastic about getting gas. Herself? Less so.

Done with the journal, Lila set it aside, shrugged into her sweater, and took a moment to adjust her position and pull her knees to her chest. [color=bc8dbf][i]Deep breath. Hand on seat.[/i][/color] Her muscles strained and she heaved herself back up into her wheelchair with all the grace of some lobe-finned fish hauling itself onto land from the primordial muck. One after the other, she settled her legs in position, adjusted her feet, and released her brakes. It took her about four minutes to zip-tie the pitchfork onto her seat, and it changed the chair's entire center of mass, but she at least needed to [i]feel[/i] as if she had a fighting chance should - [color=bc8dbf][i]That's right. Fuck. It's literal zombies.[/i][/color] - appear. Jason would need all the help he could get and... likely more for his idea to succeed, but it was the right step, in theory, and it would be safe enough if she traveled with her siblings. Lila was about to exit the garage when she realized that she couldn't actually reach the switch with this favoured weapon of the medieval peasant affixed to her wheelchair. She pulled out her phone and prepared to eat crow.

[center][hider=Message to Jason][img]https://i.imgur.com/Md5CGfo.png[/img][/hider][/center]