Cousin Vlad's Story

The other side of the street echoed with the sound of a shaking backpack, the thing about apocalypses was that noise attracted more than animals, and Vlad had ran in enough groups to know better than to run towards them. They could be bandits, psychos or worse... He'd certainly met a few colorful types on his way to Kansas.

Vlad saw the car, and the group of people around it and lowered his hunting rifle, raising his hands in a surrendering gesture and letting the rifle hang from its strap on his shoulder. If they knew he was friendly, they wouldn't kill him, right? Then again, if they made a move for guns, he could probably bolt back off down the road.

"Opa! Ya druzhelyubnyy!" Vlad shouted, hands above his head. "I friendly! Amerikanskiy."

Grant's eyebrows went up as yet another person approached. "You people followin' me? This is weird." He looked the newcomer up and down; the guy looked kind of dirty, with an unshaven face and worn clothes. "Yeah, we friendly too...Russianinsky." He flashed the guy a thumbs up.

He took a step back and took a wide look at everyone that had gathered. "Well we can probably head up to the house. I was planning on heading up to Fort Yates soon, since me n' the chick that lives there are out of food. Maybe we can head up there together, watch each other's backs, gather more supplies that way. C'mon."

Once they got up to the house, Grant slowly went in, looking for Abby. "Mom? I found some dogs, can I keep them?" He joked.

Abby tousled her hair dry as she made her way back to the small house. She smiled as she saw Grant wondering how he had been so fast. Her face soon turned to confusion at his remark.

'What are you talking abo-' she peered through the open front door inspecting not only two vehicles but a small group of people, slowly she turned around to face grant smirking 'You went for food and you come back with this?' She laughed 'Unless of course THIS' she gestured outside to the strangers 'is your idea of food, in which case i am not game my friend' she tried to hide her laughter. She couldn't believe it, she hadn't spoke to anyone in weeks and within a hour of meeting this guy another four people turn up.

Grant chuckled at Abby's remark. "More like I went down the street and found this. Apparently your house is where all the cool kids are hanging out these days." Grant turned around to face everybody. "With that, though, I should head into town to go grab food. Anyone wanna tag along?"

Bridget couldn't help but hold back a smile at the amount of people gathering, and how nice Abby seemed to be. As Grant was asking about going into town, she cleared her throat and spoke up. "Well, if I could get some help moving it all, that bus I rode in on has quite a few boxes of bottled water and cans of food, chips, even some bread that's not stale yet. I'm happy to share it if I can stay here for a few days or a while," she said, watching people for their reactions.

"Opa! Hahaha!" Vlad replied, he hadn't understood a single word except 'tag along' and 'food' and he bumbled in his own language as he followed them like a lost puppy. They hadn't shot him, robbed him or yelled at him yet and that was enough for him to do his best to befriend them.

"Privet. Ya ostavlyu svoye snaryazheniye zdes' ty ne protiv?" Vlad asked Abby, pulling his camping backpack off his shoulders and dumping it by the house of the door and pointed at it. "I sleep outside, I no bandit, I friendly." The russian nodded a few times to make sure she got the point and turned around, smiling stupidly at Bridget & Grant. "Privet!"

Then finally, he turned around to face Grant and moved to pat him on the shoulder. "Tag along?"

Abby smiled at Bridget 'Sure you can stay! I'm Abby by the way'

The house was small with only one bedroom, a living room, bathroom and a small kitchen/dining area, still she could make room for everyone to camp down. She was just glad for the company.

'Ican help you move everything'

Stepping onto the porch she could get a better view of the obviously foreign guy, she couldn't really talk she was was from England but she definatly couldn't speak Russian. Her face turned to confusion as she tried to interpret what he was saying before he turned to face Grant and Bridgett. She leant around the Russian so they could see her and raised her hands questionably 'Privet?' She mouthed at the pair.

Grant simply gave Abby a shrug, he didn't understand a word the guy was saying. "Alright. How about you guys get to work movin' stuff up from the bus, meanwhile Putin and I head into town and grab what we can find. Sound like a plan?" He realized he didn't even know the guy's name, so when he asked to tag along Grant nodded and held out his hand. "Grant. You?"

Grant returned the handshake firmly. "I'm Grant, in case ya' haven't heard me say." He gave a friendly wave back to Rachel in the back. "I've actually got my motorcycle parked out back, maybe I'll just follow you on that." He turned around to face Vlad (who he still didn't know the name of), the biker patches on the back of his jacket more obvious now. "Maybe Gorbachev here can ride with you," he hoped he didn't take offense to the name-calling, as it was meant in jest. "Whaddya say, pal? Head into town, get some food? You game?" He hoped that he would understand him.

Vlad shook his head. "Vlad, not those russian." The man grinned again, showing his yellowed teeth and put his rifle down by his bag and rummaged around in his backpack until he pulled a lengthy lead pipe out of it and rubbed the sweat from the stylized S tattooed on the side of his neck. "I ready, biker man."

"Where truck?" Vlad asked the group. "Broom broom?"

Rachel waved at Abby. "It's nice to meet you. I'm Rachel." She looked around. "Where are you guys from? I'm from California."

"This is my truck, man," Axel said to Vlad, chuckling to himself. This guy was really something. He wondered where he was from. "Where are you from, foreigner?" he asked him.

Grant headed outside along with Vlad and Axel. Straddling his bike, he turned around to them. "Alright boys, let's hope there's some good shit layin' around in Fort Yates. I'll see ya' there." He got a small head start on his bike as he zoomed off down the road.

The ride there was pretty peaceful for him; but he couldn't help but wonder how Axel was doing with Vlad in the truck. It wasn't that he didn't trust the foreigner, it was just that it was harder to form an immediate bond with someone you had trouble communicating with. One way or another, he thought they'd be fine. In his mirror, he could see the truck close behind him as he pulled into the small town.

It wasn't long before he pulled up to a grocery store. The place was probably picked clean, but then again, it wouldn't hurt to check. After cutting his engine, he stood the bike up and stretched his legs outside of the store.

"Russia! I hope is ok there." Vlad seemed to ask, but really, he was just stating that he hoped his home country was doing well, which it probably wasn't. The russian would jump into the truck when allowed to, settling into the passenger seat, it'd been a long time since he'd been in a working vehicle. "Comfy!"

When they arrived, he'd jump out and stretch his shirt to reveal a holster and a pair of american dogtags(which didn't bare his name). Inside the holster was a small 22lr pistol, still bearing it's pricetag.

"You go, I stay, protect truck and bike from steal." Vlad said, making sure he didn't flash them with the muzzle of the gun. "Unless you want me go." Vlad quickly added, realizing they might not trust him with their vehicles.

Axel jumped of of the truck. He nodded at Vlad. "I've got the keys, but if you want to watch it anyways, go ahead." He walked up to Grant and whispered, "How in the hell does a Russian get to America during an apocalypse?" He pulled his gun out of his bag, checking to make sure it was loaded.

Rachel walked onto the porch and set her box of cans down. "I owned a little boutique in California. Nothing too excited. Well... I was a mom, too." She looked down, not wanting to remember Nina's frail little three year old body.

"Sure. Make sure no one messes with the rides." Grant said, stuffing his keys into his pocket before turning to Axel. "Beats me. Maybe he got here before everything went down?" Grant checked the gun he had strapped to him. Although he kept it around, it wasn't loaded; he sure as hell didn't want to shoot anybody. In fact, he had kept it around before the end of the world as he knew it, but that was more as a symbol; and intimidation tactic if it ever came down to it, but it never really did.

Although he wasn't packing heat, he did have a few weapons that could help him. After everyone had gotten sick, he had raided a police station. Because of this, he had a few pairs of handcuffs, a taser, and some pepperspray. Cautiously, Grant moved up to the grocery store door and looked inside.

Will was in the middle of reading a book on the Egyptians he'd found when he heard something that mad his spine crawl; motors.
"Son of a bitch..." he quickly put his book haul into his duffel bag, grabbed his axe, and ran out of the store. He tried to follow the noise, but the now heavier bag gave him even more difficulty then he thought. After a few minutes though, he arrived at the source of the noise; the grocery store. At first, he thought maybe the truck in front of him was just Storm and Jude going on a joyride. That theory was squashed when two men, both armed, exited the truck along with a man in a leather jacket pulling up next to them.

Deciding to wait and see what happened, Will hid with baited breath as one of the men entered the store while one stayed behind with a rifle. Will couldn't see the other man which worried him. The man looked imposing and rugged, but Will had been wrong before. Thinking back, he decided to try and to talk to the man. "Well, I haven't been shot today. Why not go two for two?" he joked to himself as he took a deep breath and reached for his pistol, taking the magazine out and placing it in his pocket. If this man wasn't dangerous, Will didn't want to twitch and kill an innocent guy.

With another deep breath, Will jumped out of the corner he was hiding behind and pointed his gun at the stranger.

"Hey, guy. Are you friendly? Because I don't feel like getting shot today. I know you don't either. So, let's just both put our guns down and talk." Will shouted to the man, as he hoped this wouldn't end in blood.

When Grant got back outside, he helped the two others load up all the things they had found. These supplies would last for a good while. "Hey," he said, tapping Vlad's shoulder, "You want that?" He asked, pointing over to an abandoned car in the parking lot.

He had his toolbox with him, which including a lock picking set. Kneeling down carefully, he started to unlock the door of the car, so they could rig it up to start.