Zombie Apoc AU (Open)

Fran's eyebrows raised and her mouth creased into a slight frown. And just what would he and his 'colleagues' need with panties...? On second thought, she didn't even want to know. She glanced over at the window. The car alarm had fallen silent a bit ago and only a few straggling zombies could bee seen outside. Looks like they'd have a bit more time for resting. A deep black plume of smoke rose from the street they just escaped. Given the other chaos engulfing the town, she didn't think too much of it for the moment.

Ahhh yes, her favorite question. Always a fun one to dance around. The simplest answer would always be 'yes, I am a doctor', but it would never be the most accurate. "Well, not in the strictest sense. But...more or less, yes." Fran replied, her tone jovial. "In fact, I have the makings of a cure for all this nonsense waiting back in my lab." She wisely opted to leave out the part about her involvement with the initial outbreak. Achille seemed friendly enough, but she had no way of knowing how he might react to leaning that most of...well, all of this was pretty much entirely her fault. For some reason, people usually got all worked up in those kinds of situations.

"I was sort of hoping you would be willing to help escort me back there. I hardly have any ammo and it's a fair distance from here. I could really use a second set of-" Damn it, don't say 'eyes'. "Uh, what I mean to say is, two heads are better than one yes?" She made sure her smile was audible in her voice, hoping very dearly for an affirmative answer. If he didn't then...well it would certainly complicate things, but Fran still had no doubt she'd be able to make it. Eventually.

After just one glance at him and the state of the tools he put on the dashboard told Zacharie enough. He’d been attacked again in the store. It looked like he had considerably less luck than his RED companion, but they were both in a relatively safer place now. He dismissed Ian’s apology with a wave of his hand and a shake of his head. No need. He looked into the rear view mirror and began to back the truck out of its parking spot. He missed rolling over the fallen zombie from earlier by a few feet. With no time to waste he steered the truck towards the store with the intention to find another exit into the street from behind the building.

“Fire?” Zacharie responded with a hint of confusion, there were plenty of fires around. His sense of smell had been filled with smoke and the stench of the dead for so long that he was more focused on ignoring it. As they made a turn in the direction of the smoke bellow, Zacharie rolled down his window and looked outside. Sure enough a very dark plume of smoke was rising up in the distance. He was actually surprised that he hadn’t noticed it sooner. “I believe you are correct. It must be a gasoline fire, from what my best guess.” Pausing as he looked into the distance to gage its origin, a loud THUNK was heard from the back of the trunk, shaking it and its passengers. The spy peered into the rear view mirror; a zombie had latched onto the truck bed and was attempting to climb up it.

“Right then, let’s follow that smoke!” Zacharie said with a tone of urgency as he looked away from the mirror and back to the road. He turned the wheel sharply and swerved in attempt to shake the unwanted passenger. He could hear the sound of the body dragging and scraping on the asphalt he hit the gas and sped off away from the horde.

Gordon looked up at the woman on the roof as she looked over at him. "No matter how prepared or skilled you are in this situation, it's only a matter of time." He looked around for any zombies that would be lurking about but as of the moment, it seemed as if they had ceased their attack in the area. He looked back up at the woman. "Skills? Nothing more than hunting and military experience." He had almost mentioned that he was working as a mercenary for RED but he quickly bit his lip to silence himself. It would probably be for the best not to mention that fact. Nevertheless, a distant explosion caused him to look backwards for the source but based on how he heard the sound, it seemed to be quite far away from where they were at the moment. Smoke billowed into the air as Gordon felt himself frown in response. How unpleasant that this would happen. If this was caused by the monsters, then their safety in the town was nonexistent. Not that there really was any safety in the first place! However, the explosion was more than likely caused by a human meaning that there were definitely other survivors in the midst of the zombies. Hopefully.

"Anyway, are you intending on staying up there?" Gordon asked. "I'm hoping to at least find others and find some safer place so we can at least get this situation sorted out." He hoped to at least get closer to where the explosion was to see what was going on. If they could find other people in this town then that would be much more preferable than just the two of them. He slung the bag over his shoulder. Despite the current mess of the zombie infestation, for some reason that was unknown to him, Gordon kept a calm composure in the face of the monsters.

"I see that you're quite skilled as well. But it's better to be with others rather than be alone. No?"

"Hah, with any luck, we needn't go quite so far as hell!" Fran said with a chuckle. Given that they'd just spent the last half hour fighting their way through a ravenous horde of living corpses, she must have a very odd definition of hell indeed. "But I appreciate your enthusiasm! You and I can be back at the sawmill in no time at all. Then I finish up the cure, we bring the townspeople back to life, then we have a glass of wine and wait for this whole thing to blow over." It seemed simple enough, and her companion seemed bloodthirsty enough to slaughter anything that got in their way. It couldn't be any better actually.

"Oh yeah, there is plenty of food around. Let's see...there's some beef jerky, chips, ooh, snack cakes!" Fran snatched up a package of powdered sugar doughnuts for herself, the allure of something sweet and her high spirits bringing her appetite back.

"You know," She said between mouthfuls, "I bet we could really use someone with your iver back where I work. If you love killing things so much, which, pardon me, I could not help but notice that you do." Achille was certainly a man she wouldn't mind having on her side on the battlefield. And the color red would suit him so well! She thought with a small smile.

Zacharie had been to town enough times on his own to know the general layout of the streets; navigating around any apparent mobs of zombies was easy enough. After a few blocks the hanger-on that had attempted to latch itself to the vehicle gave way. He watched for a split second in the rear view mirror was it flailed about and tumbled down the street in a bloody heap. It was almost a comedic sight, but his amusement really didn’t show on his face.

He made a turn down one of the more commonly traversed streets, weaving out of the way of the occasional crossing zombie. Most of them were either attempting to get into and out of buildings, sometimes both at the same time, stumbling and falling over one another. They really weren’t as intelligent as their former selves, were they? As Ian spoke up he gave him a quick sideways glance. Oh right. The older man was so focused on getting the hell out of that parking lot that he nearly forgot to introduce himself proper.

Well, they’d been introduced before, but perhaps something nicer than a revolver to the head was in order.

“Ah, I was in town for the evening, I took the taxi here.” Zacharie responded quickly, looking back to the road and making another turn down a side street. “To be honest this isn’t what I was expecting when I arrived, but that is obvious. The name is Zacharie Volkov, by the way.” He would have offered a hand to shake but keeping both hands on the wheel was top priority, keeping that plume of smoke in clear view was the second top priority.

That was in fact the truth. The Sawmill was strangely emptier than usual, even the BLU base was barren upon closer inspection. Zacharie took it upon himself to head into town, if no one was around for him to pester he would have to find his own amusement. He had plans to have a nice dinner and perhaps go to the bar and schmooze with the locals over several drinks and a cigar. But when he arrived the tiny town was in a state of pure pandemonium, its inhabitants were only brain-dead shadows of themselves and those who were still alive were quickly joining them. How inconvenient.

“And what about yourself?”

"I stayed here last night. It, uh... It wasn't like this then." Ian responded almost shamefully, anxious fingers fiddling with one of the switches on the nail gun. "I came to town just for... a change of scenery. Woke up late this morning and -- well, I guess a change is what I got." Of course, the optimistic statement was completely twisted by his grim tone. The Medic had actually come into town to study in a setting that was less distracting than the quickly-populating BLU base... but anyone here would be too preoccupied fighting for their lives to do everyday tasks such as that.

As far as he knew, he was the only person from the day before to survive the morning. The thought caused him to swallow nervously.

"I'm Ian. ...Harris." He tried to return the sentiment with the same air of professionalism as the Spy's, but ended up tacking his last name onto the end by mistake. He knew there was something he'd been forgetting this whole time, and turns out it was a proper introduction. There was something else, too. "Oh -- and thanks for bringing me with you." He knew Zach wasn't obligated to do that; he could have just shot the young man the first time he exited the hardware store without another thought... but he didn't. And for that, Ian owed the man his sincere thanks.

He looked through the windshield now. The smokestack he'd pointed out earlier was larger; they were steadily getting closer. Hopefully nothing dangerous would be waiting upon their arrival.

Eric looked at the bike basket doubtfully. It wasn't that she doubted it could hold her weight, hardly, but the idea of being carted around by someone who had tried to blow her up wasn't very appealing. A moan from a man near by reminded her that no matter how unpleasant, it wasn't much of a choice. Reluctantly, she climbed on the bike and watched the horde behind them slowly inch away.

She glanced over her shoulder at the soldier, noticing the plumes of black smoke raising into the sky near by. "So, where are we even going?"