[IC] #StillNotBitten [Invite Only]

[Kuro]

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_{Location: Rushford, Ohio -- Jenkins' Diner}

Date: May 15th, 2019

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"I'd guess perhaps five... maybe six or seven more minutes at the most until it ends, which means that we should probably hurry up if we're going to hit the road." Karen responded, grabbing her rugged pack from the diner booth it sat in. Slinging the bag over her shoulder, she continued. "As you might've already noticed, though, we can't exactly leave through the front doors. That leaves us with the back door—if there is one—or the emergency exit. Perhaps one of us should check them out to see if the way out is clear while the rest gather what we can."

Once again, Karen bit her lip. Her own words worried the park ranger, who realized that if the emergency exit was their only way out, then they were likely already dead. Unless they were all capable runners or by some chance managed to be considerably lucky right now, there was a considerable chance that they could be trapped once the alarm went off.

I hope you're up there looking out for us, God. Karen prayed, despite being hardly the believer that her grandparents were.

Taking a moment to refocus her thoughts on reality, Karen walked over towards where Kale and Isla were and joined in on their conversation. "If we're leaving now, then we don't have time to worry over cooking things for later. We'll die of dehydration faster than starving to death, so I'd say to grab any juice or water you can find. I'd also snag any cans you can find as they're likely non-perishable, but they probably would have only the big food service cans, no?" Karen asked, looking to Kale for a reply.

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@ComradeMaxx@Hero@Lord Orgasmo

[mickilennial]

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_{Location: Rushford, Ohio -- O'Neal Family Tavern}

Date: May 15th, 2019

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“Omelettes are fine.” Jenn commented as she crossed her arms while she moved into the kitchen with Damien and Daniel, looking the room over in the process. “We won't get many opportunities when the power plants stop working.”

Daniel had collected some amount of granola bars and jerky, which was good. They would need the energy when they made their way out of Rushford. As Damien got to work cooking, Jenn leaned back against the wall behind her to think more about their approach once they had food in their bellies. There were a few routes that would take them toward the campsite that were a little safer than taking the main roads out of Rushford, but they would undoubtedly be longer and she knew that getting there quickly would increase their chances of surviving the virus. However, she did not want to endanger anyone at the same time. It wasn't an easy decision.

She sighed, shaking off the thought.

“I'm going to check the drawers and utility closet. Be on your guard. Don't make too much noise. Hopefully, Daniel is right and we find something useful on the way out of Rushford.”

[HokumPocus]

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_{Location: Rushford, Ohio -- O'Neal Family Tavern}

Date: May 15th, 2019

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With a pep to his step and a whistled tune on his lips, Damien plopped omelette after omelette onto a giant plate he found lying around. The presentation of their meal certainly left a lot to be desired, but it was food that they'd only have one shot to eat, so he didn't hold back at all when it came to quantity.

He scraped the last omelette into the pile and looked at his creations with pride. "I still got it," he said, though the expression on his face showed a hint of dubiousness. Gathering a messy assortment of napkins and silverware, he presented the rest of the room with the food by shoving it to the side. Now the only thing left to do before heading out was to eat.

Damien ate an omelette with his bare hands, holding it like a taco. He was glad Jennifer was propping herself up as the leader of their little group, since it meant he wouldn't have to be in charge of anything. His plan so far was just to run for it, and that probably wouldn't work out with a bunch of adults with joint pain travelling along with him. Even with this in mind, he still had some doubts.

"So..." he said, in between messy bites, "Do we risk it or take our time?" They were yet to reach a conclusion, and he was not so secretly getting impatient. The dumb teenage part of him wanted to barrel straight into danger to get it over with, but the other part of him, the part that had come to grips with his own mortality, knew it was suicide.

[Hero]

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_{Location: Rushford, Ohio -- Jenkins' Diner}

Date: May 15th, 2019

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Isla nodded once more, unpacking a few perishables she had grabbed and deciding to focus on canned goods instead. She peered at a few of them, muttering something to herself once in a while. Tomato sauce, onions...there had to be better stuff than this. Potatoes were always good, right? She could already hear her dad berating her lack of knowledge on food. Maybe she should have paid better attention on the food pyramid.

She didn't think Karen had the wrong idea, but after a while, her backpack seemed to be getting a little too heavy. The last thing she wanted was for a strap to break or for the bottom to just fall out from all the weight. Maybe she could compromise? She was probably over thinking it at this point, mentally berating herself as she went back to stuffing what she could inside.

As she stood up, she picked up her bag and was relieved to find it hadn't ripped or anything. "Kinda heavy, but...should be okay?" If she dropped it, she was pretty sure it would break and everything would spill, but oh well. "Think I can squeeze some water bottles...but uh, you know, I can handle it." Most likely, anyway.

[Supermaxx]

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_{Location: Rushford, Ohio -- Jenkins' Diner}

Date: May 15th, 2019

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Cass's expression contorted into an anxious grimace at the ranger's answer. They had next to no time left before they had to get outta dodge and they still weren't ready to go- there was still talk of what all they should be grabbing and what could be safely ignored. Thinking about the clock ticking down while she watched them go back and forth made Montoya's palms itch. Maybe she'd noticed it, or maybe Cass had just gotten lucky, but Karen decided to not-so-subtly ask Cassidy to check for ways out of the diner that didn't involve plunging through the front door's barricade and into the swarm of shambling dead just outside.

"Yeah, I'll go check it out." She agreed with a curt nod, bouncing on passed the others as she moved deeper into the restaurant.

The place wasn't exactly in tip-top condition, probably hadn't been even before the apocalypse. The wallpaper was torn in places in the back and nobody had bothered to replace it, the wood flooring was scratched and stained with grease, and shelves of cardboard boxes filled with stale food lined the hallways. The kitchen wasn't big, only barely leaving enough room for two people to pass by one another in the pathways between the stoves and counters.

Just in the back corner, next to the broom closet, was the appropriately marked emergency exit. She felt her heart sank when she got close enough to read the small, red sign beside it:

EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY
ALARM WILL SOUND

"Shit." She snarled under her breath. "So much for sneaking away."

After swallowing down a moment's panic and collecting herself, she began to look around the room for anything else of note. There didn't appear to be any other doors aside from this one and the one in the front, but there were a few windows. All of 'em were small, ancient looking things- at least the ones that opened- and there was no way they'd be fitting the big guy through any of them. But there was one that gave her a partial view of the back of the diner. Not enough to scope the whole area out, but maybe it'd be enough.

She climbed atop a metal countertop to get at it. The thing was so old that no amount of tugging with her hands was going to get it to open normally, so she slid her crowbar out from her backpack and held it tight in her fists. It took a bit of fiddling, but she managed to get the tip of it underneath the window and knocked it loose, doing her utmost not to make a racket as she did.

'Here's hopin' one of those things isn't just waitin' right outside. Ha. Wouldn't that be a stupid way to go out?'

Once Cassidy had it open, she popped her head out to get a good look at their only escape route.

[mickilennial]

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_{Location: Rushford, Ohio -- O'Neal Family Tavern}

Date: May 15th, 2019

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By the time Damien mentioned their two options getting to the camp Jenn had finished grabbing a few clean rags and strong proof alcohol for the road.

She had thought about the question a lot—though she wasn’t sure why she hadn’t mentioned it when they began looting and discussing things in the tavern in the first place. Maybe it was for everyone to get their bearings, case the building, and determine answers to other questions. The smartest choice was obviously to take their time, see what they could pilfer from buildings on the way to the camp instead of doubling the pace and just making for the bridge that led across the river and to Route 65. The sooner they arrived, the more supplies were going to be left, and the more chances people were going to meet up with their families.

But there was the risk of stumbling into the infected.

“Well, the best idea would be moving carefully out of the town, but I know we want to move fast.”

Jenn sighed as she looked to Daniel and then to Damien. Of all of them, Percy definitely had his own needs and while she couldn’t relate, she understood the agency of the situation. He wanted to find his kid. She wasn't sure about the other two, but they probably had friends and family they might've been looking for as well, but she hadn't exactly gotten their life stories yet.

“Right. Well, we can’t go off sprinting down Main Street either way.”

The blonde-haired woman moved toward a clear countertop, grabbing some of the food Damien had made before she continued on her point. She plopped her backpack on the counter, removing an old road map from her belongings—probably the most useful item she had held onto during the current crisis. As she moved the map to their general area she began to point toward Rushford, or particularly the part of Rushford they were in.

“We’re here.” She said, after swallowing a mouthful of food. “We want to head south, across the river. Once we cross a bridge connecting to Route 65, it’s a pretty fair walk. We can get there in a few hours. Give or take. The fastest and safest route would be going through these backroads. If we’re lucky the bridge isn’t uncrossable. If it is, well, then we’ll need to go to the next one. Any questions?”

[Ladypug]

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_{Location: Rushford, Ohio -- O'Neal Family Tavern}

Date: May 15th, 2019

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Percy had remained silent up to this point - though Damien making the omelettes made him feel a little.. guilty, on top of all his other frazzled feelings. Like, he really should've been the one to have had the thought to feed everyone. He was the oldest there - unless maybe Dan was? It didn't matter either way, because he just.. Fuck, he was hitting that anxious peak again. He couldn't focus on looking for anything useful like Jenn suggested they do, nor could he stomach food - he did find a bottle of alcohol before he found himself incapable of focus, though.

After sneaking a glance around the room to make sure nobody was eyeing him, he decided that this bottle was his and his alone and took a big, healthy swig from it. Maybe it'll help chill me the fuck out, he thinks as he swiftly packs it in his duffel bag. Maybe it'll help him clear his head, and maybe he could drink himself into a stupor and pretend that everything is just fine- and he made that sort of huffed nose-exhale you'd make when you're not quite in a good enough mood to laugh, but the thing you'd just thought of or witnessed was still funny. Is this how Laura felt? Is this why she drank so much? Was she just frazzled back then in the same way he felt now? Fuck. Ha.

"Well, the best idea would be moving carefully out of the town, but I know we want to move fast."

It wasn't that he wanted to move fast - honestly, he wished he could take a couple hours to just.. process everything, but that same time he felt compelled to spend on trying to comprehend everything could be better spent finding his baby, so.. He just sort of nodded in response.

"Right. Well, we can’t go off sprinting down Main Street either way."

"Aw, really? There goes my first plan," Percy said with a little snap of the finger.

“We’re here," Jennifer started, apparently unfazed by Percy's attempt at a joke, "We want to head south, across the river."

Percy nods again, both in understanding and to make sure Jennifer is aware that he is listening.

"Once we cross a bridge connecting to Route 65, it’s a pretty fair walk. We can get there in a few hours. Give or take. The fastest and safest route would be going through these backroads. If we’re lucky the bridge isn’t uncrossable. If it is, well, then we’ll need to go to the next one. Any questions?"

"Yeah, uh.. What if that second bridge is borked? What then? Could we build our own? Man, I could finally put all that geometry and shit I learned in college to practical use."

On one hand, he knows he needs to stop. On the other.. Fuck, it's better than letting that frazzled energy bounce around in his head and conjure up horrible worst-case-scenarios, right? Better to crack jokes than be paralyzed by fear. Surely. Totally. Right? Right.

...Right?

[Kuro]

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_{Location: Rushford, Ohio -- Jenkins' Diner}

Date: May 15th, 2019

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What hope they had to escape without trouble was swept away in an instant.

The sound of Cassidy fiddling with one of the windows attracted one of the nearby infected—a man of middling size. Though it was unlikely that the zombie would manage to grab the paramedic, it didn't stop the bloodied man from clicking his teeth as he nipped at the air in an attempt to tear into her flesh. As much as a threat this lone zombie was, however, it would be nothing compared to what was to come next.

As Karen predicted, the broadcasts did stop not long after the group finished picking through what they could carry. The zombies that were distracted by the broadcasts began to break off from the televisions they were glued to, and would've returned to their usual moaning and groaning had it not been for the infected man trying to bite Cassidy. The undead took to Cassidy with great interest, piling up around the window she was trying to look out of, while others pressed up elsewhere, having noticed the noise and activity coming from the inside.

Before they knew it, the large, old windows of the diner shattered under the weight and incessant banging of the infected, giving way to them to come inside.

"Shit!" Karen hissed, drawing her sidearm and pointing the weapon at the crowd that was now pouring into the diner. Though she knew how to use the pistol, the concept of firing at something living, much less the undead, was something foreign to Karen. "The front door or the emergency exit! What's it going to be?" She shouted, prepared to cover their escape.

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@ComradeMaxx@Hero@Lord Orgasmo

[HokumPocus]

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_{Location: Rushford, Ohio -- O'Neal Family Tavern}

Date: May 15th, 2019

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Damien raised his eyebrows at Percy's attempts at cracking jokes. It reminded him of those teachers who tried way too hard to be cool, down to his appearance. He couldn't really explain why, but to Damien the whole routine felt... unnecessary? The split between adult and teenager was torn down at the same time everything else was when the dead started crawling back to life, so it was annoying. Or was he just insecure? He thought back to those losers who would hide behind jokes to deal with whatever it was they were going through.

"Gonna be honest with you, this plan makes perfect sense, but that's why I don't trust it that much," he commented, sloppily wiping off a bit of grease with his sleeve. "If crossing that bridge is the obvious answer, then everyone's gonna wanna do it. Soo, we're either gonna bump into a whole lot of dead people or others." His voice sounded both immature and devious. It was the same tone he used to use when making plans to skip school or smoke weed with his friends, one that implied outsmarting other people.

But just what would outsmarting people even consist of? Damien naturally assumed the average person was an asshole, so being tossed into a world where laws were in short supply had made him start jumping to the worst possible conclusion anytime other people were involved. In his mind this entire town was a free for all, one where the humans were going to be a bigger deal than the dead.

He stretched his arms out and wrapped a hand around his golf club again. "I think we can manage to take whatever on, though."