Alexander Chase's Story

"You know folks, it might behoove you to know that there is a fuck-ton of infected coming this way. Largest horde I've ever seen to be honest..."
Leo paused and looked at the group behind him, for he second he thought that it must of been one of them who had spoken, but no one seemed to of heard the voice and it definitely hadnt sounded like anyone he knew.
Great... Leo thought, shaking his head, Im going crazy.
And then the voice spoke again, at first Leo wasnt able to catch what it was saying, but the last few parts he understood,
"...Any of you are members of any known/unknown resistance groups working against the NDO? An odd and random question yes, but it's very important for me to know."

Leo blinked and looked up, since he realized that that was where the voice had been coming from.
Leo was surprised to find a man sitting way up in a tree.
He couldnt see him clearly, but from what he did see, the man didnt look quite human... odd.
NDO? Leo thought,
No... him, Aarti, and Alex werent exactly working against them... but they werent working with them, either.
They were just kind of... not really doing anything.

"Uh... no. I mean... I dont think so." Leo called back, not sure of his answer.

Barnaby watched as Mando fired off the gun, before he started to panic himself. While he and his guards knew that Mando was not firing at him, those on the wall may not realize this and Barnaby didn't need this turning into a shootout he wouldn't survive. Quickly turning around, Barnaby looked up at the wall and held his hand up, trying to signal to the men up on the wall not to fire. To be safe, he looked at one of the guards nearby. "Tell the guys up on the wall the man is just having a spaz attack please!" One of the guards quickly hoped on his radio to inform, Barnaby watching before he suddenly felt someone grab hold of him.

Barnaby was caught off guard as the young woman hugged him, Barnaby just standing there before he awkwardly patted her on the back. "Yep...you are welcome miss." She then quickly scampered behind him as Mando approached again. Barnaby looked at the woman before back at the slaver. "So, do we have a deal here or not Mr. Ortega?" Barnaby was still unaware of who exactly Mando had attacked, as the woman in question was out of his sight and so it left him with little go on. He did hope they got out ok, in fact he kinda hoped they could find their way to the wall. Atleast that way they may have a chance to get noticed by the guards.

One thing the walls did have was various ladders and rope variants as well to allow quick access in and out of the city. The only thing was that these ladders were under heavy guard, and could only be deployed form the inside and only in certain circumstances were they ever deployed. Hopefully the guards would feel somewhat merciful on the unlucky sap running for their lives.

***Belial***

Belial chuckled as the boy's uneasy response. Belial decided to get down to their level more, so began hoping down the branches before landing a few feet away form them. He wasn't surprised at the odd and uneasy looks. He got plenty of them from people who lived in relative safety, so he'd expect people who had to watch their backs for infected and slavers twenty-four/seven to be even more cautious. "Well least it means we won't be trying to kill each other then!" Belial said with a smile

"None of you know where any might be, hm? I've got a very important job to do and it would really helpful if you did let me know." Honestly, Belial was really only making conversation cause he was bored. He wasn't really expecting any solid information out of these people, but it was a good way to break the ice, at least Belial thought it was. "Don't let my odd appearance put you off! I've had my fill of meat lately, so I'm just looking for any bits of info people can give me and maybe a nice conversation while I'm at it!"

(OOC: Ignore the Alexis Rivera tag, that was me accidently clicking it while trying to get Alex. Sorry!!)

***Barnaby***

Barnaby pinched the bridge of his nose, looking over at the little firestorm that was started. "Fuck a duck and call me a monkey..." he mumbled to himself. He looked back at Mando, "Right then...I'll go get the stuff rounded up, then we'll finish this business. See you in a few." Barnaby said before he turned around. He looked at the slave girl and gestured to his guards. "Just stick with them if he scares the bageabis out of you." Barnaby said before he turned and began making his way back towards the gates. "Oy...I am one lucky son of a bitch aren't I..."

***Belial***

He looked around at the group, still getting the uneasy looks from them. None had spoken up yet, and it was somewhat irritating him on the inside. "What? I heard you guys have some good chit-chatting earlier! Fuck the boy was brave enough to speak up, come on! Besides, not like you haven't seen disfigured folks like me before!" Course he should be smarter than this, to realize how these folks were not exactly going to be forthcoming with him. After all, he certaintly wasn't the prettiest of guys on the block nowadays.

((OOC: I would of posted earlier but I had a shitload of homework to finish DX ))

Aarti stared at the man, unable to think of anything to say. She was doing her best to hide her surprise... it wasnt everyday she saw someone who looked like... that, but it was clear she was failing.
She wished that Leo had kept his mouth shut and pretended he hadn't heard the man speak, but what was done was done.
"Sorry! Normally people like you... I mean, the ones that look kinda like you..." Aarti trailed off, lost of words.
The way the man looked shocked her, if he hadn't spoken Aarti would of guessed he was one of the infected.
Maybe he was, maybe he just wasn't fully infected...?

Suddenly the new kid, whatever his name was, took a few steps back,
"I was just passing by, I don't want any trouble. I got sloppy just for a minute but I'll get out of your way...Sorry I didn't answer you, I just couldn't hear you."
Truthfully she was kind of disappointed, being around Alex and Leo was surprisingly boring, and Aarti didn't know if the blonde and her brother were going to stick around or not... maybe not, Alex had been planning to kill her, after all.
But still, having a new addition to the group would of been fun.

Aarti flashed a smile, wishing she could use the kids excuse of 'I didnt hear you'

***Belial***

He chuckled, look at the young woman. "'People like you.'? Some might interpret such a comment to be racist!" He said with a chuckle before looking towards the boy backing away. "As for you, now you can hear me. And besides, who cares if you were just passing through! Now you've got people to talk with."

He looked back at Aarti. "To let you know, I am the same, but I'm not the same. To go any further in-depth would be...confusing. Not to mention it wouldn't really make my employer very happy." Belial sat down on the ground, looking around at them. "So what brings all of you folks out into the middle of butt-fuck nowhere? Granted it's a nice forest," he said while looking around. "Butt it's certainly not a friendly one with all of the groaners and moaners wandering about for a snack."

Aarti's face went red with embarrassment, "Sorry."
She was glad that the man didn't seem offended, but she reminded herself to be more careful with her words.

Alex was listening to what the man was saying, and the words 'my employer' caught his interest.
He was working for someone?
"So what brings all of you folks out into the middle of butt-fuck nowhere?" The man said, not giving Alex a chance to question, "Granted it's a nice forest, but it's certainly not a friendly one with all of the groaners and moaners wandering about for a snack." He continued as he looked around.
"Well... i've been traveling with these two idiots," Aarti said, pointing at Alex and Leo, both of them didn't look like they appreciated what she called them. Then Aarti hushed her voice into a whisper that was still loud enough for everyone to hear,
"Honestly they're both complete dumbass's."

Alex narrowed his eyes,
"You said something about a hoard of infected heading this way... did you actually see it with your own eyes or did you just hear it from someone?" He asked the man, completely ignoring Aarti.

Nicholas answered the man. "Just escaped a small town and trapped them with a wall of fire. The fire was necessary because I alerted all the infected by killing a crawler. I'd rather have a group of infected than one crawler on my ass."
He looked at the group and looked away.
"See ya." Nicholas turned around and walked away deeper into the jungle.

As he was walking away, he shook his head, disappointed in himself, he could've died just from being sloppy.

"Idiots, eh? guess I'll have to take your word on that one then." Belial said while placing his hands behind his head and leaning back against a tree. "As for you boy," He said while looking at Alex. "I did see them. In fact I had walked through a part of it. And boy, there were plenty I'll tell you what!"

He looked at Nick though next. "Right, and that point would be~? What? Besides, Crawlers are pretty adorable! Cute little fuckers I tell you what! They always squirm around though when I try to hug them...but I'll admit that when they scream it can be very annoying..."

Taylor remained silent, observing cautiously, and as she was about to open her mouth to talk, there was a voice from behind her, up in the trees. She whipped her head around, instantly spotting the man among the trees and watching him, knowing that behind her Max was doing the same, gun still in his hand, but pointed down. Although abnormal for him, he wasn't really talking. For once, he was taking a tip from his sister and watching.
Looking at the man, he noticed strange things about him, the type you see on newly affected and the like, although he surly was a man. He allowed a slightly confused expression to take over his face, not even trying to hide his curiosity as he all but stared. Taylor was different. Pushing a blank expression on, she glanced at the man, watching him speak for a few seconds, then turning to see how Max and Scout had reacted, Scout now standing, ears perked and watching.
They watched him jump down, one of the boys speaking with him, and then the girl. The man replied, then the newest boy replied, turning around and walking away. Taylor knew this didn't matter. Either within the next week they would find each other crossing paths, or they would never meet again, and it was what it was. Taylors blank face slipped into a bit fo a smirk, although not for any reason necessary other then the man was searching for NDO's.
Watching him talking to them, She glanced at her brother, signally for him to say something, and he slowly nodded, twitching his fingers so Scout would sit again, then speaking up.
"N-NDO rebels?" He shook his head slowly, gaining more confidence. "We don't mess with them, they don't mess with us." Taylor watched, interested, and waiting to see how the situation would unfold.

As Nicholas walked through the bushes, to get away from that group he looked at his watch, which showed 2:00p.m. "Shit!" He thought. Nicholas was worried because it was going to be dark in 4-7 hours, and Nicholas didn't know how long it would take to find another town. "Looks, I'm going to have to run."

Nicholas sprinted into the "never ending" forest. Nicholas had been running for 2 hours and a bit, and he had still been in the forest. He stopped suddenly, and hid behind a bush. As he peaked through, he saw a massive horde of infected coming his way, and it would most likely make it to the group that he just came from. "I can't take them all on... I bet that huge guy could take them on though." Nicholas quickly climbed up the tree with ease, and this tree was very high. The only infected to get him would probably only be a Crawler or a Nightmare, but luckily it was daylight... for now.

Nicholas sat on the highest branch that could support him. He grabbed the stage curtain that he took from the nightclub and strapped himself to the tree, in case he fell of while sleeping. As he watched the infected passing through from underneath him, he thought; "Those guys better move quickly..." He wasn't worried about the other man though.

***Belial***

Belial watched the dog with a smile as one of the young man spoke. "N-NDO rebels? We don't mess with them, they don't mess with us." he said. Belial then pouted some, looking back at him.

"A shame, least on the fact it means I have to keep searching for the rats now. Good for you folks though, it's not usually a good idea to get mixed up with those folks. You folks already have enough trouble dealing with the infected, it'd only be worse to now have to worry about running into any enforcers." The boy who spoke about leaving had done so a few moments ago, but the other people didn't seem so interested in separating.

Well, judging by the blonde haired woman's look, was far to excited to see what might occur. He then looked between them all, his one eye looking over each and everyone of them. Quite a group he had to say, and he certainly liked how the women looked. Twas a shame that there wasn't a women alive that he'd want to sleep with that'd feel the same way about him. Shaking his head, he then stood up, brushing himself off. "Well, I can't say I envy you folks. lotsa runnin', lotsa hidin'. Course some of oyu look good in a fight, which is also my preferred method of handling things."

There was a distinct groan that came from a ways away. Belial could hear it easily, but he wasn't sure if the others may have picked up on it. Turning to look, he could see a single infected blindly strolling through the forest. At the moment, it had failed to notice them, but Belial knew that it only meant the rest of the horde was not far behind. He grinned, chuckling some before looking back at the others. "And unlucky for you folks," he said while using his thumb to point over his shoulder, back at the walker. "that would be your warning to get the fuck out of here. Unlike you folks, they don't want to nibble on my flesh. Can't blame them though, I probably taste pretty damned awful..." Belial said while looking himself over.

Watching the moves of the man, and his eyes, Taylors head was turned before he pointed and spoke. The first infected, although slow, and groaning, was not a good sign, and sadly, one that Taylor knew very well. It meant that they had not a lot of time, and by the looks of this place, the nearest city was probably miles away. Not nearly enough time to get there.
Glancing back at the man, giving him a quick once over, interested in what he was saying, though not enough so that she was going to ask. She looked at Scout quickly, the dog back on his feet, a low growl sounding from his muzzle, but a quick meeting of eye contact shushed him. The fortunate side of having such a well trained dog tended to involve the fact that they didn't have to worry about unpreventable noise.
Taylor turned back to the man, hearing him finish his words and simply increased her smirk. "How fortunate for you." She said, taking a few steps the oposite direction as the zombie, then turning back and looking at the group, especially her brother and dog. "I believe there are taller trees this way, and we should at least try to get ahead of the horde, before we do anything."
Max shrugged, taking a step towards his sister then pausing. Were they going to work with the trio, or would now be the time to split? He turned back to them, and watched.

Aarti clapped her hands together,
"Well! Thank you mister, for giving us the warning... I guess we'll be on our way now!" She exclaimed, flashing a smile as she picked up the backpack.
She was grateful that he had taken the time to warn them, even if it was just so he would be able to ask them if they were working with the NDO, it was nice of him.
And as nice of a guy he probably was, he creeped Aarti out.
Sorry...

Aarti pointed at the boy and the girl,
the girl had just spoken, something about taller tree's and at first Aarti wondered if she had meant to suggest climbing them, but Aarti decided against it. They'd probably be trapped up there once the hoard passed through.
"Anywho, I hope you two don't mind if we tag along, do you?" She asked although she wouldn't listen if they said no.
There was no way Aarti was going to go back to wandering around the monster-filled world with just two people, it just wasn't going to happen.

Max shrugged at the girl, turning towards Taylor for a confirmation. No matter what Max said, or how manly he tried to be, he always took his sisters thought into mind, considering she knew best often. She gave him a look only understandable to him, and he turned back to the trio, nodding his head, and beginning to walk.

"Of course. But we need to get moving. Fast." He said, glancing around, seeing his tracks from where he came, then just deciding on going with Taylor. Scout stood quick, sheepishly sniffing the girl before trotting over to Taylor and Max, who quickly aimed his gun at the infected, hitting it once then turning back. He knew he had hit it where he meant too, and he didn't need confirmation.

Taylor, while beginning to walk, pulled her backpack around to her front, beginning to dig through it. Max watched out of the corner of his eye, expecting the trio to be right behind them, considering they had just asked to come with, and said just loud enough for them to hear, although he wondered what the plan of the lone man would be.

"Hungry, or are you all covered?" He figured they were fine, but then again you never knew. Majority of people just went day to day, finding as they went. Although Taylor and Max weren't like this, they tried to take in more food every day, and he looked around constantly for berries or other plants he knew were safe to eat.

Leo hadnt heard the guy talk, instead he was focusing on how easily he had shot the infected and how little he seemed to care.
Leo didnt think he would of been able to do that.
Its been six years, A voice inside Leo's head snapped, Get over it. Six years... it didnt feel like that long.

How many people -infected or not- had Leo killed altogether?
Alot, and Leo wished that he could turn his brain off and for once, stop thinking about it.
The world was different then what he wanted it to be, it had been like that for a long time...

Leo shook his head in attempt to clear the thoughts, and was disappointed when they didnt go away but instead remained swirling around in his brain.

"We're fine, thanks." Alex replied rather coldly, he didn't like that Aarti had made a decision without him, but mostly he wasn't keen on traveling with two strangers he knew nothing about.
He didn't know their names or who they were, what they were doing here-
For fuck's sake, im acting like Leo. Alex thought as he let out a sigh. He glanced back at Kiddo who appeared to have forgotten what was going on and Alex noticed that he looked like his mind was elsewhere.
"Leo!" Alex said, "Get your head out of the clouds, we're going!"

Aarti rolled her eyes and ran up to the blonde haired girl and her brother.
" I'm Aarti, by the way." She said while throwing on another smile as she introduced herself, "And, uh, that's Alex, and that's Leo." She continued, pointing to the other two.
After a few short seconds that to Aarti felt like hours, she began talking again.
"Also, I aplogize in advance for Alex's rude behaviour, he's always been a bit of a grump and he thinks that he has to look out for everyone... its annoying, but he means well."

Taylor sighed, hearing the boy's objection, but smirked anyways. She could tell, without looking, that they were going to end up coming with them anyways. It was just how it would work. Max glanced back at the boys, just in time to see Leo's face, looking at the now dead infected. Then Taylor heard the boy telling the other one to come, and heard footsteps as the girl ran to catch up to them. She listened as she spoke, grabbing a handfull of some dry food out of her bag, and cupping her hands, crouching down and letting Scout eat out of her hands.

She stood back up, walking to be back next to Max and closed up her bag, pulling it back onto her back. She didn't look back to watch the boys behind them; it was a bad habit of hers- she didn't really like looking behind her. She just relied on the fact that because she didn't talk much, she could often enough hear things.

Max glanced at the girl as she walked over, nodding and listening to her. "I'm Max," he said, then glanced at his sister. "That's Taylor, and the dogs Scout." At this, Scout's head lifted, as he trotted in between Max and Aarti, looking at her, then circling behind the whole group, checking out the boys.

He kept walking talking to the whole group next. "We should probably figure out something to do.." He looked at his sister, but her face looked straight ahead, bare of emotions, and all thoughts kept hidden. He hated that she could do that.

Leo nodded as Max spoke, but he had no idea what he had said. He was hardly aware of Aarti's chatter, Alex's cold mood, or the fact that Taylor wasnt speaking at all. He was just following them, not at all knowing where they were heading to.
He wasnt being very helpful, was he?

Suddenly Leo's foot hit something, and he realized that he had walked right into the dog, Scout.
The dog quickly jumped out of the way, and Leo just managed to keep himself from falling flat on the ground, "Sorry!" He said quickly.
Scout just looked at Leo plainly before walking back to Max and Taylor.

Leo frowned, he felt a bit stupid for even apologizing to the animal, it wasnt like it could understand him... but still, it must of hurt.

"So... does anyone have any idea on where we're going to go?" He asked, hoping that no one noticed that he had accidently kicked the dog.

((OOC: Sorry for not posting recently))

Leo sighed when no one said anything, maybe they didnt have the answer.
Thats probably it... He thought, staring at the ground as he walked, None of us knows where we're going.
That was the scary thing. There was a horde of zombies behind them, they were no doubt going to catch up with them sooner or later, and no one knew where the fuck they were headed to or what they were going to do next.
Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.

Something he saw out of the corner of his eye caught Leo's attention, he stopped walking immediately, curious to find out what it was.
Dont be an idiot, A voice inside his head snapped, Keep walking! Ignoring it, Leo stayed where he was.
The group, Aarti, Alex, Taylor and Max, were still walking ahead of him, they probably didnt even know he wasnt following them anymore.
Turning around, Leo saw it again, he was surprised at first, then wondered if his eyes were playing tricks on him.
A deer, the first living animal Leo had seen in... awhile. Most animals were either infected or fully dead now.
He walked up it and was surprised not see it runaway, the thing only stared at him like it was just as surprised to see Leo as Leo was to see it.
"How the hell arent you infected?" Leo asked, he didnt want to be mean, but the thing should be dead.
Just then, he realized that the animal was wounded, its hind leg looked as if it had been...
Leo took a few steps back.
Markings only human teeth could have made were what covered the deer's left hind leg, along its side were claw marks. How couldnt Leo have noticed them before?

Looking behind him, Leo's eyes widened when he saw that the group was no longer in sight, they had disappeared behind the foliage.
He was going to run after them, but it was the low growl that was suddenly growing louder that told Leo that he should really start to get moving.
The deer obviously had the same thought as him, because it tried to run away, but a hand quickly reached out from the bushes and snatched is leg, within seconds the animal was no longer infront of Leo.

Turning back around, Leo's plan was to catch up to the group and warn them, but that idea was quickly ended when he was face to face with an infected.
"...Shit."

Taylor heard noise behind her, turning her head and looking at Max, nodding her head behind them, then walking a few large steps, to a huge tree. "We'll be stuck here for a while, but sniping from a tree for a few days sounds better then facing a horde head-on," she said, finding the largest tree in the area. She pulled out her knife and put it in her mouth, beginning to climb. She used bumps in the tree that were large enough as hand and footholds.

In places where there weren't any, she pulled out her knife and dug an inch wide hole in, with enough space for at least a 2 finger grip, then climbed on, stopping every 2 or 3 feet to do this, but working fast. She was pretty good at climbing trees, and the fact that she was thin, but tall, helped her be able to toss herself higher. The tree was about 60-65ft tall, so not the tallest in the forrest, but tall enough that it would work for their purposes.

She stopped about 15ft from the top, at the second to highest branch that would support her. She glanced down, holding onto the trunk and putting her legs around the branch for more support. She saw Max, gun out and pointed towards where the horde was, Scout pacing two feet each way, obviously sensing something. Max would go up last, having been the most used to climbing trees, and since he would carry Scout up with them.

It probably was not a good idea to be taking a dog up into a tree, but they had done it since they were children, and Scout was well behaved enough. Max looked into the woods, realizing they were missing the young boy. "Shit," he whispered, tracing their tracks back silently, but with a bit of a kick in his step. They must've been pretty close to the horde.

He walked about 10 feet, then stopped in his tracks, glancing at the boy, a mere inches away from the first infected. There were no others right next to them, although he was sure they would be there within minutes. He pointed his gun and took a quick shot, hitting the infected in the head, the force being enough to throw it back, then running over, bringing his foot into it's chest, cracking whatever was left of the body.

Max looked at the boy quickly, pushing him towards the way he had come and running. "Get up that tree," he said, signaling in the direction of it and hoping the other two had already climbed up. He patted his leg, Scout running over, but barely able to keep still. Obviously, the horde really was close.