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Snippet #2453723

located in The Haven Universe, a part of Live Together or Die Alone, one of the many universes on RPG.

The Haven Universe

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Character Portrait: Elliot Xanshi
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Gettin' Our Shit Back Together

November 11, 2013


Pops and cracks came from each of Elliot's joints as she stretched her limbs and torso, the aftermath of their attack late at night had dragged long into the early hours that ended with grim news. Festering thoughts were pushed deep into the recess of her mind, especially in daylight with their perimeter breached, there were more important things at hand to occupy her thoughts.

Volunteering to run the collection of fence material would keep her focus and would be part of an improvised morning exercise, though she wasn't sure if Josh would think the same.

With long-legged strides, Carl walked in haste towards the asian pretty boy, tossing the haversack at the dawdling teen.

A scowl.

A curl of the lips.

"Right. I'm taking over Josh's spot cause he seems a little high-in-heaven and I don't want to have to wait for the two of you to take yer time with them supplies," the drill tone order cause a slight disheartening in Elliot, irritated by his attitude and dreading the most likely infuriating trek to the mill.

Before the asian could respond or retort, Carl had already turned heels and headed out, his skin itched at the thought of their safety area being open and vulnerable for too long. The sooner they got the supplies, the sooner they can bar up the entrance and the longer they would survive in this hell on earth. Maybe he could get a little attention with the stuff he'll bring back

The breaching area looked like all hell broke loose with broken dirbries, fresh and not so fresh blood painted the ground they walked on and bodies, litters of them scattered like autumn leaves. The world outside their little community was like a winter wonderland, contrasting greatly to the gruesome artwork back inside. Bare branches with a few evergreen here and there blanketed by white powder, the whole scenery made Elliot thought of it as a black and white horror film or game setting, expecting one of the many monsters that the internet had conjured up to pop up and chase them. She snorted at how ridiculous the thought was given their current situation, a yawn escaped her gaping maw before hugging herself for warmth, looking at Carl's back as her mind wandered.

Elliot didn't know much about the guy in front of her, only knowing that he was arrogant, prideful and stupid. She was impressed that he was striding head on without pause through the bushes and trees, but she would've liked it better if he didn't make small remarks that were rather offensive and a tad racist, unsure if he knows what he's saying or just an ignorant moron who likes to mouth off.

"...ing kids population would be low cause majority are a bunch of weak pu-"

"What's in these bags?" Elliot interrupted one of Carl's ungodly tangents, preferring to hear something that made her feel assured then agonise over what they should do while he complain about everything but himself. She needed to organise her thoughts and plan out how they are going to get the materials back and how they would need to deal with the roaming corpses around if they so happen to appear in vast quantities. It was already bad enough that she gets nervous waiting while doing nothing but barging head first towards the mill without a basic plan was suicide!

A bit ticked off for being cut off, Carl looked over his shoulder to see the pretty boy was keeping up with him steadily, assuming that he would've lagged behind and complain to him to 'take it easy'. Like hell he would do that if that happened.

"The usual kit stuff, nothing complicated that you wouldn't understand."

That abrupt answer was the last thing Elliot got from Carl before he turned his head around and blab some more, teeth gritted together behind pursed lips, contempt boiled deep in her gut.

"Kacking prick..." The muttering blew out into white mist blown away by the wind.

Carl ignored the muttering, focusing on the direction they had to take to reach their intended destination with careful measured steps, checking behind every tree they had passed and sneaking around bushes to make sure they weren't going to be jumped at unsuspectingly.

Elliot watched the surreal-ness that is Carl, only a few feet behind gave her a full view of his little 'sneaking about' for a while now, especially when they passed trees with thick trunk or when there's a bush just reaching the knees. They were wasting more time than she had wanted to, ready to snap at him before she noticed the slight hesitance in his pace. She felt god smacked by the realization of Carls action.

"You have got to be kidding me," she looked at him with utter astonishment, never in her lifetime have she meet anyone as clueless and bleak as Carl.

"Assumptions, assumptions. You can't prove nuthin'," Carl deflected Elliot's accusation, clearly peeved by their predicament.


1005

The day was beginning to show but hidden behind heavy clouds as snow coated both Carl and Elliot, curses and blame being batted around for nearly the majority of their trekking and feel the pressure on finding the right way to the mill. Elliot, the least bit impressed by Carl's ability to find a solution, took matter into her own hands by simply using the sun's position and their shadows. Once she got the idea on the coordination, she began to jog in haste as to make up for lost time, feeling her thigh and calf muscles beginning to burn.

Sounds of heavy footsteps crunching atop dead leaves, twigs and thin layer of powder were mixed in with shaky breath as the two runners were screwed for time if they didn't reach the mill in time before midday.

Elliot, intending to continue the pace of her jog till they reached their destination couldn't help but hear odd intervals of footfalls between Carl and her own feet, the sudden dreaded feeling began to curled itself deep in her stomach. It was faint enough that she can brush it off as nerves but she couldn't stop noticing how they seemed to have an extra or two pair of feet hitting the frosty snow. We shouldn't've argued earlier. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! she berated herself.

Oblivious to Elliot's thoughts, Carl focused on keeping level headed and circulate the air flow in a constant rate to keep up the pace he was in, jogging up hill in the damned snow was horrible to anyone's legs.

As the sounds of Carl's deep breathing changed, Elliot could hear it a bit clearer with something else to them, something that really got her heart pumping and muscles working, her legs taking faster steps and practically leaping forward, wanting to distance herself from the noise behind them somewhere. She could hear her partner was also speeding up by the synchronising footsteps they took.

"Why the hell are you speeding up?!" the sudden loud question cut through the silence with such intensity that it scared the heck out of Elliot, almost causing her to trample over herself.

"Shut up, Carl! Fuckin' shut up!" Elliot hissed lowly to the idiot with much venom as the sound she had been wanting to put distance between them was closer than before. This only egged her faster in the direction she assumes is still north, not giving a single care whether Carl can keep up with her sudden persistency to outrun their rotting enemies, knowing full well what they were capable of.

Tired? Yes. Panic? Yes. Was he angry? He was freaking furious. Carl hadn't a clue about the damn walkers behind them and when Elliot began to bolt, he knew something was up and followed right behind, taking a quick look over his shoulders to make out blurry figures in the snow fall heading for them. He wanted to strangle the pretty boy, let the walkers get to him and ruin up his image. The only problem was that the asian bastard was faster than him, even only being a couple of years older, he wasn't used to this long period of mobility.

Scenarios of all manner spread like wild fire inside Elliot's mind, rushing to find a certain event that matched their situation and use it to get to safety. The trees and bushes around them were becoming sparse, long branches not there to snag at her hair, clothes or where-ever it could get a hold of and slow them down. Apart from the stampeding horde behind them and their terrifyingly loud animalistic cries, there was another sound that came ahead of them, creaks and groan of something huge and heavy that brought a sense of hope inside Elliot. They managed to find it, but the corpses found them first.

"Mill up ahead!" Her breathless voice yelled out, no point in being quiet anymore.

Thanking god that it snowed to slow down the walkers enough, Carl was feeling the burn a lot more in his lungs then he is feeling it in his legs, which were numb and losing all manner of sensation at that moment. With trees beginning to thin around them, there was no chance of stopping and climbing up one to hid themselves from being mauled at. He wasn't sure if he can cover the distance to the mill with how shitty he was feeling then, a brief thought of just letting the walkers get him shocked him enough that he was determined to get to the mill. Whatever it takes, he wasn't going to get eaten.

Elliot was focused in her running, when the sight of the wooden structure came to view, she nearly cried out in joy but knew that she didn't have time to feel that way, not with the danger right on their heels.

It was all flat and clear running for the two of them as gravity no longer pulled them down, sprinting hard towards the wooden windmill and buy some time inside it. Carl looked over his shoulder again to see how far they've gotten away from the walkers, but what he didn't take account for was that gravity still applies to them and not being burden down by their weight anymore, they were charging at them with speed that shoot fear throughout his body, looking straight ahead to see Elliot not so far away from him and he could see that his footing was shaky. He had to buy himself time and just make up an excuse once he was inside.


1050

The sensation when falling was one that anyone can say is a shock to the body and Elliot was definitely shocked as she felt herself being taken off balance, the feeling of wet and cold mush pressed against her hands first before her entire body wasn't pleasant, shooting her body with icy cold stings. She saw Carl leaping over her to sprint ahead without looking back, her expression livid and black.

Carl didn't think twice about what he did, nor did he care as long as he had the walker be busy for a while, the mill mere metres away. There was no sound behind him apart from the horde, expecting a cry of betrayal or something that sounded angry, but the growls were the only angry thing he could hear. He tore at the wooden door, grunting at the effort of getting the rustic hinges to comply before slipping through the small opening. Closing the door was harder but he managed to pull them shut, peering out to see the hordes coming but there was no sign of Elliot anywhere.

Ignoring the fact that he was stuck inside, Carl raked through the bag for the gun he stuffed in there somewhere, mentally chastising himself for not having it out to begin with. He tucked it behind him, looking around for a way out or an idea on what the hell he was going to do now. He definitely had to continue with the mission, spending his time to check out things inside the mill and pilling up the suitable materials near the door. The stuff he collected weren't much, especially if they were to board up the perimeter but better than nothing.

Carl doesn't know how long he's been scavenging, but he jumped out of his skin when a loud slam come from somewhere above him, his heart slamming against his rib cage.

"What the fuck?!" he cursed under his breath with frantic eyes searching the ceiling, his head swivelled from left to right whilst crouching low to the ground, straining his ears to catch the noise of whatever it was up there. He made his way towards the stairs that lead up towards the second level, the trap door was open but the thump and shuffling noises weren't coming from that floor.

There were lots more stuff on the second floor though that can wait as Carl got a much bigger situation, no doubt that he wasn't alone in this windmill and he wasn't sure if it was a walker or living person. He walked slowly, alert for any sudden human or inhuman noises, picking up the faint sound of objects scrapping the wooden floor briefly and following the noise trail towards the second stairs. The door was pad locked as something above it tried to pull it open to no avail, after an angry tugging it went silent.

Taking the gun in his hand, Carl slowly began to make his way towards the door, creeping up the steps one at a time, hearing nothing from above him. As if it heard him, there was a loud whack at the wooden door that caused him to flinch backward, lose his footing and tumble down the steps.

The state of mood Elliot was in is between a murderous intent and lost of inhibition, which is practically the same thing if it ended with Carl's skull crushed under her boots. The snow, which is a first she seen and experienced, wasn't dampening the darkening fire that burnt inside her, added with the lack of sleep and gruelling body work with corpses all night as the catalyst, she was in a fragile state, a ticking time bomb.

She hacked at the door with brute strength, sound of a body falling down only brought a wry smile from Elliot that matched her bilious eyes. Having a better idea, she brought down the hatchet against the old hinges that broke in contact. The wooden panel feel to the first step down, bits and pieces of the door flow as the hatchet chopped away at the wood.

Hiding behind crates and barrels, Carl crouched close to the floor with a tight grip on his gun, wincing at the pain he got from falling. He carefully peered around the corner to see the mangled door dangling loosely but no sign of the aggressor yet. Whoever it was, they were fast at getting the door down.

Elliot stood in front of the crates and barrels that Carl hid behind, hatchet hanging loosely in her right hand as she contemplated about Carl's life and his deserving of it, wondering what's it like to break through her moral-restraint and do what she really wanted. Killing someone she really hated or deserved to die was always one of the things she wanted to try to do, one of the things on her illegal/immoral bucket-list. Society had gone to shit, there's no one to tell her that she can't kill someone, it's about survival of the fittest now, a Darwinian era but, she was the only one stopping herself.

It was quiet for sometime but Carl didn't want to be the first person to out himself, which will be placing him at a disadvantage. There was a faint scrap close to where he was as his eyes grew wide and froze on spot, waiting for the next sound. He yelled out as the crates he's been leaning on was pushed hard against him, those stacked on top fell and buried him underneath. Kicking and pushing the objects off him, he grasp around blindly for his gun that he had dropped, eyes searching the room for whoever it was.

"Hey." Elliot merely said to the guy who left her as bait. He didn't answer her but gapped like fish out of water, probably surprised to see the person he had offered to the walkers standing over him. She just sneered at him before kicking his gun over, not wanting to take too much time anymore. "Get your ass up, we got work to do."

Carl was surprise to see Elliot up and standing, though her appearance was something else like she's ran through a sprinkler of blood. He followed his blood drenched partner back down the ground floor, the atmosphere between them was thick and tense, hopefully they would get the job done without anymore problem.


1400

The wind had picked up as the day passed, the big sail above them creaked as it slowly turned. Both partner had salvage as much materials they can, Elliot having found a cart that is used to transport loads of hay and pulled by horses. Carl as usual was mouthing off about something that she didn't give a two cents about, ignoring him to the best of her ability and wished she was deaf at that moment. It's bad enough that she had nothing else to listen to, but manoeuvring a heavy cart wasn't an easy task, especially when they were going down hill for three miles and chances of them getting attacked again was still in her mind.

Carl liked to talk just cause he can and think that people like hearing him talk, so Elliot being the only one who hated that was an oddity to him. The asian he knew off were loud and talkative but here he was with one and this one was the quietist one he have ever met.

"You should loosen up a little, sure we're working and I like to get back as much as you do but you're just so damn quiet." Opinionative.

"Shut. Up." Stoic.

A breath of disbelief escaped Carl's lips as he rolled his eyes, feeling his grip slightly loosening from the cart handle and quickly fixed his grip, not wanting the whole thing to start running away on them.

Tam was right when it was all down hill from the mill, having reached back to the Vanners in half the time it took them to get there. They haven't met any major problem during the trip back, just one stray but it went down without a hitch.

Carl was now boosting about their mission while Elliot was completely exhausted and easily reactive to anything anyone says, and after the event with Carl, she was ready to explode.