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The RV ride had been long but they'd managed somehow. Carrying what little supplies they had managed to pick up along the way was their only chances to stretch their legs. Ash sat on the steps to the RV. Sitting outside the Eisenhower Tunnel the RV had to stop outside of it after the massive line of cars had stopped them.
Shadow let out a huff before shoving his head under Ash's hand. "Hey buddy." Ash's kind voice made the dog's tail start wagging. The biker walked out carrying his shotgun. "Gonna scout ahead?" Ash asked Mark as he checked his gun and machete. "Yeah. Turns out there's a fire station and rescue crews that used to work in there." Ash looked at the tunnel and all the cars that had probably trapped their occupants during the outbreak.
"We should all go. We'd be able to find it faster." Ash stood up and smiled at the one eyed biker.
Kiku over heard the conversation taking place between Mark and Ash. When she heard the proposal to travel in one large group, red flags went up. She's always been cautious, knowing full well that traveling in a large pack in unknown territory can be dangerous if not insane. She swung off the bunk over the cab of the RV, using the skills her father taught her she landed so soft she did not wake a soul still sleeping inside. "I wouldn't advise that." Her voice rang out from behind Mark, "A group as large as this would draw attention, not to mention we also have a baby with us. It would be better to send out a small group, say 2 or 3 people."
Mark jumped hearing kiku's voice. "She's right. Why don't me and Kiku go and check it out. You stay here with kids. You can bond with the baby." Mark crossed his arms. His leg eye gone Mark was still adjusting to using only his right eye.
Mark had traveled through the tunnel before on his motorcycle when he was a prospect. He sat idle for so long he shut off his bike and just walked his bike through the tunnel until he was close to the end. Mark missed the feeling of a motorcycle underneath him.
The biker looked at the tunnel seeing the abandoned cars. "We should check the cars for supplies to. I don't know about you but I'm getting tired of Rice." Mark pulled his bandanna over his injured eye as he walked to the tunnel.
Kiku jumped down from the RV, avoiding the steps all together. She didn't wait for Ash to reply to Mark's statement, she was itching to get out of that RV since Texas. Streching her legs she pulled one of her kunai out of the pouch, just in case she'd need it right away. She twirled it on her finger as she followed Mark into the dark tunnel before them. She'd never been this far west before so the Eisenhower Tunnel was a new thing to her. She wanted to gawk and admire the beauty of the architecture behind this tunnel. She walked 2 steps behind Mark, looking left and right just to be sure the next few feet were relatively safe. Every nook and cranny were hiding places for walkers and people with bad intentions.
Mark clicked on his flashlight tucking it into his vest. Moving to the side he climbed into the side walkway. "This way." Mark called to Kiku. "We can follow this." The biker unsheathed his Machete as he looked over the cars. The light stirred a few bodies in cars but they lacked the strength to break out of their tombs.
"Lots of people got trapped in early on." Mark commented as he watched the walkers trapped inside pull against their seat belts. Mark was glad he had his Chopper at the time. It was easy to navigate between the cars and for him to get his daughter out of the city. "Are you getting along with everyone?"
Kiku looked at the poor people who never stood a chance, watching their reanimated bodies struggle to break free made her very sad. It made her think of her best friend and fiance, somewhere out in the world and for all she knows, they're like this. She snapped back to reality at his question, "Um.. Fine I suppose." She saw an empty car and ran over to it, inspecting it just to be sure. She tried the door and it was still unlocked, no surprise there. They probably got out and made a run for it, not bothering to lock their own car. Taking a seat she began digging through all the compartments for anything and everything. She reached down and pulled the trunk lever, "See if they left us some luggage."
Mark opened the trunk and shined his light inside. A spare tire was covering a duffle bag. Placing the spare tire on the trunk of the car next to them he zipped open the duffle bag. Personal effects and couple of cans of corn. Mark dumped the bag out and placed the cans in the bag. "Got some corn. Better than nothing." Mark said to Kiku as he shut the trunk.
The car lit up when Mark had shut the trunk. Inside Kiku had just turned on a flashlight she'd found in the glove box, the kind that winds up (x) and uses LED lights. "Handy," she said as she climbed out of the driver seat, "the rest isn't worth taking." She'd found a few things she found interesting but honestly they held little use in her life now. If power wasn't an issue anymore should would have gladly taken a few more things, but for now this new flashlight would mean the world to her. No need to hunt down batteries, it uses manual power to activate it.
Post by Clementine on Jul 30, 2015 13:46:44 GMT -5
Dakota wasn't the only one growing. It was only now that it was evident with Clem too, at least to anyone who had known them for months or years. The inches add up, even in nutrition-starved post-apocalyptia. Clementine especially had shot up like a sprout over the last year. Despite being about a year younger than Dakota, she had nearly caught up in height. A whole 4'10" now.
Clementine was looking over finishing touches to her latest drawing, though lost in thought it seemed. She had developed her natural skill quite a bit over the last two years. Too bad she didn't have any pictures from when it all started to compare to her latest work.
It was that two years she was counting over in her head though. Then it hit her while she was filling in the sky of her picture. "It's felt like summer so long, I must be 11 by now." Suddenly, she felt more grown up. She wasn't any more grown up than she had been a second ago if course. Her conscious mind was just playing catch up, because she never really thought about it. "Weird."
She pretty much missed the gist of the sudden conversation until it was too late to object. Snapping her dark eyes up from her drawing, Mark and Kiku were already out the door when it sunk in. Too late. She screwed up her face and sighed in annoyance. Clem mumbled to herself, "Guess I can be helpful around here."[/i]
Getting up from the bench, she stretched out slowly from her legs up to her back and arms. She hadn't realized just how ready she was for any real exercise. First, she would check in on baby Lee. Between her and Dakota, they had done their share of changing diapers and bottle feedings along the way. That was one way she had found to be helpful, which made Clem smile. She'd be helpful right now by properly introducing Ash to him.
Clem smiled over to Ash, "Hey, Ash. I know you've already kinda met him, but this is Lee." She cradled the half sleeping infant up into arms, gently rocking him. Already, she felt like something of a big sister to little Lee. She held him up toward Ash, "Lee, this is Ash. You can probably call him Papa Bear when you're old enough."
Ash watched Kiku and Mark leave to investigate the tunnel. "Alright have fun." He told the two as he pulled himself up. Shadow laid down outside the stairs keeping his head up and looking around. Ash moved over to Clementine and the baby. "Hey little Lee." Ash said softly and crouched down to him.
"Don't worry little one. We'll get you a hat to just like your sisters." Ash let out a chuckle before standing up again. "Speaking of little. You're getting taller Clem." Ash moved around to the side of her placing his hand on the top of her head and measuring her to him. "Holy crap. We're gonna have to teach you how to drive soon." He pointed at Lee. "You stay young don't grow up like your sisters. Making me feel old." Ash wasn't that old. He'd turned 46 but he was starting to feel older with the girls growing up.
Mark shined his light around the cars until the light came across a white car. Across the car symbols were painted across the car in blood. He's got the whole world in his hands.[/color] Mark walked around the car examining the phrase written on the cars around it and further down. He shined his light on the wall and was met with more writing. Anyone seeking SALVATION should head to the Denver Convention Center.[/color]
"What the hell." Mark stared at the phrases unsure of what to do. They needed a place to settle down but he didn't know what was hidden inside the tunnel. Spotting a door with EMERGENCY PERSONNEL ONLY! Written in bold letters. He grabbed the handle and gave it a twist. It opened on squeaky hinges. "Hey Kiku! Over here."
Clementine smiled down to baby Lee and back up to Ash. She laughed softly, "I never really thought about having a little brother before. But it feels like he really is. Kind weird since we just found him."
She cradled the baby to her shoulder, needing to shift his weight. Clem smiled up to Ash after he measured her height compared to him, "You're not old, Papa Bear." Freeing one hand from the baby, Clem did a quick comparison of her own. "I don't feel that tall... but I guess I am."
Shifting the infant's weight one more time, she continued with a half-serious, half-joking gleam, "Driving. That would be a good way to show I can be more helpful than I get to be. And Koda got to learn a little bit already, so another year, I bet I could do all the driving for you."
The long miles had passed day by day, and day by day, a collage of stickers and cutout drawings had grown along one wall in the RV. One team up drawing by the girls had blossomed into a still growing collaborative art wall. It had grown organically up around one window, and along above the back of the bench. There was no pattern to it, but one cut out picture flowed into the next, forming a few cohesive scenes. Strategically placed stickers were the girls' choice of adhering the pictures to the wall.
The project did its job of keeping Dakota's mind distracted, at least while she was doing her part of it. Since the day she thought she had lost Ash to the crazy man who kidnapped her back in Miami, Dakota had formed and lived by the idea that to show or give into emotional weakness was to risk her very survival. Not easy for an adult let alone a little girl growing into a young woman.
By allowing herself time when danger was least, usually before sleep, she had managed an imperfect balance... until now. Going to Colorado was supped to be their last, best hope to find old friends, old family. Now that they were finally here, so close, something inside dreaded that it was a futile hope. Losing the truck she had called home, the place she felt safe enough to let her guard down before dreamtime had broken imperfect balance she had maintained since thinking Ash dead.
The last 50 miles before arriving at the tunnel, Dakota had gone quiet, even when awake. Drained, she couldn't bring herself to even draw further. The Eisenhower Tunnel's great altitude of 11,000+ feet, didn't help matters with making her stomach a little queasy, but that would pass. When Kiku and Mark left to check out the tunnel, she slipped past Ash, Clem and baby Lee to climb up into the now empty bunk above the cab. She fished out the dancing flower toy from Clem's bag, bringing it with her. She lay with the covers over her head, but that blocked out the light the toy operated on. Pulling the covers back far enough for the light the toy needed to dance was more than she cared for. Koda quickly pulled the covers back over herself and the flower she had meant to watch. She hugged the cheery flower toy , tears of dread refusing to be kept back any longer.
Clementine watched her friend climb out of sight without a word. She put baby Lee back down, checking on his diaper before leaving him with a rattle. ”I'll be right back.” She smiled between Ash and baby Lee, before pulling herself up on the edge of the bunk. She peered at the lumpy blanket, ”Hey, you know you're only supposed to use that cheer yourself up.”
The dancing flower found the light of day again, gently handed out from under the covers to Clem. Dakota did not emerge with it. It's goofy smile began to sway again to its unending dance. ”We're not going to see any of them again, are we. Anthony and Vivian or Tala. Not really. We came all this way, and I don't know where here we would look.”
Clem looked to the smiling flower, and back to her hidden friend. ”I was only kidding about the flower... but I don't know. Maybe we won't see any of them again. The important thing is, we're here now. Whether we find one or two or all of them or none them, we have to remember at least we gave ourselves a chance to find them, and if nothing else maybe we can finally find a home. A real one, with or without them.”
Dakota peeped her head out from the covers, drying away her eyes. She smiled, watching the dancing flower, the whimsical tchotchke coaxing a giggle out of her. ”I hope we do find that at least. I love how that wall is turning out, but this RV, just isn't the same as the old truck. Which is weird, because the truck was smaller.”
Clem smiled and shrugged, “You can never tell with stuff like that. But you know what? Maybe they'll find us instead.” She lead Dakota back down from the bunk, back down to Tori, Ash and baby Lee. Putting the dancing flower on the bench, she gave some paper and makers to Dakota. It was time to add a couple flower pictures to the wall.
Kiku looked at the writing on the car as she went to where Mark was standing. She stopped and stared at it, silently examining it. Finally she spoke a single word as she moved forward to meet Mark at the door, "ominous."
Once the 3DS' batteries were going on half empty, Tori decided to shut the system off to reserve power and find something else to do. That something else was mostly scratching the cover of the 3DS and playing with it like it was an action figure of some sort. Tori missed her TV remotes back home since she always pretended they were wrestlers suplexing and body slamming each other until she accidentally turned the TV on with them. The redhead was taken out of imagination land when the RV finally came to a stop.
Tori looked up to see they were in front of a tunnel and next thing she knew the biker and the Asian were going out alone. The redhead chose to be quiet, figuring she was still too new to the group to be in any position to offer a suggestion unless asked directly. Tori leaned back on the bench and looked around at all the images on the wall of the RV. It was starting to look like a little art gallery in here. Helped to brighten up the otherwise depressing mood. When she saw the two about to go to work, she set the 3DS down and walked over to them.
Shauna Kelly: That helped, thank you
Oct 4, 2021 14:40:44 GMT -5
Ayita Hunt: dang, January was my last post.. Jeez it's been a hot minute. o7 guys, sorry for the complete disappearance, life got.. a little interesting this year.
Oct 18, 2021 22:34:19 GMT -5