Malcom Torrance's Story

OOC – Hi, np and actually not searched by these three yet :)
P.S : I'm not sure when will Glory be back, which is kind of bad, so for the time being I'll shoot and assume his characters went to check other floor. We can always correct it later :)

Step by step, she reached next floor. Quiet it was at first, too quiet one would say, but something caught her attention. A corpse lying, face to the floor, she kicked it.

Nothing…

Zara used her bat to turn corpse onto it’s back, first noticeable thing was head wound.

Enough to kill infected, but who…

She heard a sound, as if someone was doing something in hurry, question was who it was and what was that person doing. Zara took an easy way out of this situation, risky one as well, she began to speak and hit nearby wall lightly yet loud enough.
"Come on out, infected or not, I don’t care…"
She heard scratching coming from behind one of many doors on this floor, risk of checking it now was something she wouldn’t take. She decided to stay where she stood, simply to be sure that nothing unexpected catches her of guard.

Thwack! She didn't think she'd ever get used to the sound of a skull cracking. The baseball bat in her hand swung out again to make contact with the creature one last time. Just to make sure. Lucy Quinn breathed heavily from the excursion. Beating an infected really took it out of you. Standing as still as a mouse she listen carefully. Bright green eyes studying the surrounding. Silence. Dead silence.

She almost laughed at the pun but that was dangerous. Just as this silence was both haven and the sudden possibility of immanent danger. Right now Lucy was running on adrenaline and this was no time to stop. If there was one, it was more than likely there were more. She'd gathered in her travels they came as a collective however one didn't have the time to study them when one was constantly fighting to survive.

And that was how Quinn had survived, constantly on the move. From one place to the next. Never staying anywhere too long to get cornered because somehow, someway . . . They always found you. Sighing, the Pharmacist cleaned her bat on the infected at her feet. Her face contorted in disgust at the beast and yet a wave of sympathy shrouded it as she thought for the Grace of God I. It wasn't as if these poor people had wanted to turn into creatures of nightmare. It had been out of all their hands, yet sometimes she wondered if they were the lucky ones and not her.

Rounding the corner of the derelict building she threw the duffel bag she carried in a dumpster for safe keeping. If this place was safe she'd come back for it. Carrying around a big bag like that didn't help when being attacked by zombies. Tightening the straps of her backpack, Lucy un-holstered the gun from around her waist. The same gun she had taken from Terry the infected security guard from her work. Poor Terry. He hadn't deserved what happened to him but this was no time to think about that.

Slowly, testing it, she attempted to open the door to the apartment block. The other hand lifted to hold the gun directly out in front of her. The door gave easily, creaking eerily as it opened into a darkened hallway. Reaching into the back pocket of her jeans Quinn pulled out a flashlight and unfaltering, switched it on. Her arms now crossed out in front of her, one shinning a light, the other holding the gun steady. Too many rooms in this building. Too many meaning more chances of a surprise and not the kind she liked and yet the height of the building and the additional escape route of a fire exit staircase would do nicely for a couple of days. If, Lucy thought, she hadn't just made herself somebody's dinner.

Zara waited, who would it be she did not know, and would they really come out? No one could be sure, but indeed someone came out, a man in a lab coat.

“Who would have thought…scientist?” Zara asked smiling.

I wonder why is he here…


OOC - btw, you can tag characters in post, very useful and something you already know :)

OOC- Oh sorry, I didn’t realize I wasn’t.

Malcom jumped, fully expecting to either be shot or torn apart as soon as he stepped out the door. Rather, it was a small girl that couldn’t have been older than twenty. This was probably the last thing he was expecting. Was she with a group? Was he saved? “Why yes,” he managed to get out. “I am a scientist. May I ask who are you?” He eyed the girl’s bat nervously.

Zara didn’t expect him to be so seemingly calm when he replied, she wondered how he even managed to survive until now.

“Just a girl that wonders whether to kill you or not…” She replied with a cold voice.

I don’t trust him, but it feels like…he won’t be a problem.

Question is...what will he do? His choice will determine what she will do.

OOC- I see, and sorry for late reply :)

Malcom’s eyes widened.
“Kill me? Please don’t, miss. I don’t mean any harm to anybody, I got trapped here by some of the Infected. Are you with a group? Maybe if it doesn’t burden you you could let me come with you all?” He couldn’t tell what she was going to do. Her face gave nothing away. He hoped that if she was part of a group, another member would come and take pity on him. If not, he’d have to convince this girl somehow that he’d be useful to them.

Zara looked astonished, he reacted just like a normal, scared human being. There’s literally nothing that makes her feel afraid of him, but at the same time she feels like staying secretive when nearby him, at least for now.

“Ugh, fine, if you insist, do you have some kind of weapon?” She asked.
"And don't call me miss, Zara is enough..." She added.

Malcom shook his head, inwardly relieved she had spared him. “Well, no. I’ve been doing a lot of running. All I have is a pen and notebook.” Realizing Zara might not like that at all, he quickly tried to retcon it.
“But I can work with almost anything. I used to work for the army as one of their scientists.”

She sighed, it had to be army.
"Don't take me wrong, I just dislike army in such situations, but fine if you say so..." Zara took out an old knife she took of the corpse, then threw it towards him.
"Catch" It should be rather easy, thanks to fact that knife was sheathed.

Malcom fumbled with the knife a little before catching it with both hands.
“Thank you,” he said. It was small, but he still felt let safer with it. It also meant the girl, Zara, was willing to trust him somewhat. He looked around.
“Do you have a team?”

Zara thought for a moment before replying to his question.
“Maybe, doesn’t matter now, I want to search each flat on this floor” She paused.
“You can help me or stab me if you want, but that won’t be really convenient for you, feel free to go with either.” There was a sound coming from behind one of the doors leading to flat that is yet to be searched, sound of something scratching at door.

Malcom guesses from her response that she either had a team but didn’t want to tell him, or was terrified so trying to lie. She didn’t look that scared, so Malcom assumed it was the first choice. Before he said anything, however, he heard a scratching from one of the doors.
“I guess we should go take a look at whatever’s in there,” he said.

She chuckled, though she didn’t know why she would chuckle at such moment.
“You’re so right, mister scientist…wait what’s your name anyway?” She said, slowly walking to where scratches could be heard, to door with blood splattered underneath.
She wondered what happened here, surely someone died but this much blood is weird.

Malcom followed her to the door, being sure to let her in front of him just in case.
“I’m Dr. Malcom Torrance,” he responded. “I worked for a special division of the government when the outbreak began. We tried to look for a way to end it before it did too much damage. As you can see, we didn’t have much success.”
He looked over her shoulder at the door that seemed to be standing in a small pool of blood.
“Say, that seems like an awful lot of blood for one body.”

She turned to him, calm, yet noticeably worried.
“I see Malcom, What do you know about this thing so far? And let’s say…what if there’s something unusual there?” It was just her hunch, but that amount of blood seems to be way too suspicious.

Scratching suddenly stopped, unpleasant if not dreadful silence began.

Malcom stepped past Zara and closer to the door. The silence was as menacing as the scratching. He knelt by the blood and took out his notebook and started leafing through the pages.
“Well, let’s see. Copious amounts of blood... sudden ceasing of noise after hearing us talk... I’d say there’s a few solutions. We can assume there’s an Infected in there, unless we’re about to meet someone who’s carrying around bags of blood. That Infected might have mutated. Swelled and bloated, and it might have just now... Well... burst. There may have also been more than one, and they might’ve just turned on each other. There’s a few other possibilities, but most are similar. I think if we go on there we should try and rush it.” He stood back up and put his book in his pocket.
“What do you think?”

“Fine by me, shall I kick door out? Oh, but before that…” She had to make sure it’s one that you push inside, if not, no chance with kicking.
“Alright, seems doable, so ready?” She looked at Malcom, awaiting his word, it may be a better idea to give him bat…but she won’t ever leave that precious thing with anyone, it saved her too many times.
“I’d give you a bat, but I think it may come in handy in my hands."
She smiled, handy in hands, that was rather desperate joke…even for her.

Malcom smiled at Zara’s wordplay.
“It’s alright, you’re probably better with that than me. When you’re ready, I’m right behind you.”
He took the knife out of his sheath and held it in front of him in a defensive stance. It was only one silly thing, he could take it. Right?

In that case Zara aimed for locking mechanism, close to ,but not at handle…that would end up rather unpleasantly for her, door let go with a loud noise and surprisingly easily was broken down.
Something was wrong, inside…darkness and once light came from Zara’s flashlight, there was…nothing inside, nothing alive or living dead, just blood everywhere.
“That’s…weird.”

Something was very wrong about this...something they missed.