Rapture

[Fangirl05]

What Erin thought was another person left behind turned out to be just James gawking at a man hanging by his neck in front of the bus stop!

 

"Oh dear lord!" she squawked at the sight, "Don't look, Dingo!" She covered the top of his head and earned a shallow scratch for it.

[Salix]

Once Petra had received the ‘wave’ from Mak she set off after James and Wisperlee. Trying to keep the bikers in her sight at all times, while making sure that Mak and Nay were keeping up, she was conscious of the fact that she was driving faster then she had been; the explosion and Emily’s accident had spooked her, all she wanted to do now was to get to Oakington as quickly and as safely as possible.

 

Fortunately the rest of the journey to Oakington went smoothly. Following James and Wisperlee’s example she slowed her speed once she entered into the town, noting that it too had the feeling of quite and stillness.

 

Frowning she noticed that James had stopped his bike and had got off to go and investigate something that was caught in the railings. Putting the car into park a short distance from his bike, she kept the engine running as she walked over to James.

 

“James what is……..” her question was cut off abruptly as she finally made sense of what she was looking at. She watched with horrified sorrow as James cautiously walked near the poor man, they both jumped when the poor mans slipper fell off his foot.

 

“Oh gawd no…….is there anything we can do?” Petra didn’t want to think about what the poor man had gone though in the last few hours/minutes of his life, the despair and loneliness of thinking that he was the only one left, and that death was the only option.

 

“We should….we should cut him down” she heard herself say. Warily she walked closer to the poor man.

 

[Fortune86]

James nodded and moved further forward towards the corpse with Petra. The cord had been expertly tied, making James wonder if the man had been in the armed forces or something. However the weight on the knot meant that it couldn't simply be pulled loose.

 

"Have we got anything we can cut with? A pen knife or something?"

[Fangirl05]

Erin frowned at the sight sadly, then more seriously and leaned forward in her seat as she unbuckled herself. "I told them we should've left Juane" she said to Micah, "Maybe we could've saved this guy if we did."

 

She made sure Dingo was securely in the box before heading over to the bus stop, unsheathing her knife as she did. She whistled like a phone alert at his asking for a knife and wriggled hers between her first two fingers.

 

"You might wanna stand back" she suggested. She pulled the rope taughter to keep the body from swinging - dear God don't let it tear open my stomach - and got to sawing.

[Fortune86]

Rather than standing back James instead took hold of the body to help steady it. While he didn't relish touching a corpse, even a fairly fresh one, he didn't like the idea of letting the poor sod just drop to the ground like a sack of potatoes either. As Erin sawed away at the cord James held of the man's dressing gown. Once it was free he would hopefully be able to lower the body down on his own.

[Salix]

Seeing James step up to steady the body, Petra swallowed down her own squeamishness and took hold of the other side. She didn’t drought James’s strength, but thought that the weight of the man when he was released from his constraint, together with gravities help, would be quite considerable. At the very least she could offer some assistance in helping to steady the poor man.

[Fangirl05]

It didn't take as long as Erin expected to cut through the robe belt. When it was about three-quarters of the way severed, she sheathed her knife in favor of her hands. "Brace yourselves" she told the others. She yanked the cord hard both ways and it tore neatly.

 

She helped them lower the body to the ground for inspection: she warmed her fingers for comparison and touched them to his cold bicep, squeezed the muscle and bent his arm at the elbow.

 

"Cold to the touch," she thought out loud, "but there's no odor and rigor hasn't set in." She sat up straighter. "I can't say for certain without a thermometer, but I'm guessing this guy's been here about... Two hours, give or take?" She sighed. "At least we didn't miss him waiting for Juane."

[Avialae]

Micah had actually begun to settle into a light nap by the time Petra arrived in Oakington, perhaps as a way to cope with the stress of being caught in the explosion or simply because he hadn't gotten the best night's sleep last night, and he didn't fully awaken until the sound of Erin's voice roused him. Drowsily trying to gather his wits together, it took a minute of him looking at James, Erin and Petra gathered around the dead body before he fully realized what was going on. When he did, a wave of emotion that Micah couldn't fully identify swept through him. They had arrived too late to help this poor soul, and now he was damned forever. He'd heard people at his family's church speak of people doing things like this when God chose to make his presence known to the world again. They'd always been really matter-of-fact about it, even a bit smug, since they knew they wouldn't be there. But now that it turned out that Micah was, he just felt a huge sense of loss, not just for the poor man's soul, but for their group as well. Had they been able to reach this man when he was still alive, they could have helped each other. Who knows what the older man might have known? But now all that potential was gone. Micah swallowed, thinking. How many other people left behind might commit suicide after finding themselves alone? How many had done so already?

 

Clutching his Bible in his hand, Micah walked over slowly to where the other three people were standing around the body laid out on the street. "What should we do with him?" he asked them in a solemn tone. "There's probably a cemetery around, but I'm not sure I like the idea in burying him in a grave meant for someone else. I could dig one myself, but I'm not sure where would be a good place." Micah paused, something occurring to him. "He doesn't have anything with him with his name on it, does he?" It seemed unlikely seeing as the dead man was in his pajamas, but this man could have lived anywhere and it was suddenly important to Micah to at least know this dead man's name.

 

OOC: This is mostly for other people, since my character doesn't have any mobile devices with access to the internet on him, and I don't know how British TV/radio works, but is it now okay for us to have NPCs posting on the Internet or making broadcasts wanting to find people/seeking information on the Rapture? It's what most people would probably do, especially the Internet, since it's still active and it would be really easy to do - and anything they did make would be easy to find since there would be very little activity otherwise.

[Fortune86]

James knealt down beside the corpse and tried checking the pocket on the chest, but all it contained was a tissue. Standing up again he looked and round and remembered the dressing down that he had seen folded up. Walking over to it he picked it up and gently unfolded it again. On the right hand side was a monogrammed name.

 

"Charles" he said aloud. "If this was his dressing gown, his name was Charles."

 

James held it up so the others could see the named, sewn in golden year thread, then folded up the dressing gown again.

 

"If we are going to bury him, we'll find a fresh plot in the graveyard. I dunno if he was religious, but I doubt at this point it matters."

[Fangirl05]

((Erin's been trying to do that for the last couple days, but so far no one's responded.))

 

Erin hoisted the body - Charles, dammit! - onto her back and stood up. "Anybody know which way to the boneyard?" she asked. She raised her eyebrow at Micah's bible. "Have you had that the whole time?" She looked away in confusion. "Why am I surprised?"

[Avialae]

Micah stepped forward hesitantly and gingerly took the dead man in his arms, off of Erin's back. He didn't think carrying a dead man was something a woman, even one like Erin, should do. "Before we head off, we should probably wait for the others to find us. I don't want them to find the empty car and motorcycle and not know where we've gone." Unbidden, memories of the morning and their fruitless search for Ariella came to his mind. She wasn't Raptured, Micah thought to himself, trying to drive out all doubts from his mind. Jesus doesn't forget things. Ariella probably just wanted to travel on her own, away from Jaune.

[Fangirl05]

Erin rubbed the side of her neck as Micah lifted Charles' body off of her; she'd been waiting for said body to sink its teeth into her. It was kind of surprising her heart hadn't broken through her ribs.

 

"Well, the bikes are upright and the car didn't crash," she said, "so they'd probably rule out us being Raptured. We could leave them a note: 'Gone grave digging, back in an hour.'" It occurred to her that it might take longer depending on how hard the dirt was. "Maybe."

[Fortune86]

"Maybe something a bit more informative than that" said James. "We don't want them thinking something has happened to one of us. And instead of just lugging the poor guy round like a spare backpack we should wrap him up in a sheet or something."

 

He looked around at the various shops dotted up and down the street.

 

"There has got to be something in one of these we can use."

[Fangirl05]

"Burial shroud it is, then" Erin agreed,, although she really didn't see what the point was. It wasn't like they were trying to dodge the cops or anything.

 

She walked off in the direction James had nodded to look for some kind of white sheet.

[Kestra15]

((OOC: The odd sporadic, panicked message might find it's way onto a forum or board, but a lot of internet sites seem to be unable to load or not even registering as having existed. -KM))

 

2nd May, 1300hrs - Oakington

 

The last two members of the convoy arrived just as James, Erin, Petra and Micah had lowered the body to the ground and was debating what to do with it. Content to park up a few metres back and not particularly wanting to go check on a corpse, Mak instead powered down the ambulance and sat in silence for a few moments. It had been a while since he was here in Oakington, but the sleepy little village didn't change much and in spite of the Rapture it looked deceptively normal for the satellite settlement. In the middle of Cambridgeshire's flat countryside, farmer's fields that were just starting to show growth and isolated copses of trees were the only items of interest to be found in the almost-linear settlement.

 

After spending a half-minute watching Emily through the rear-view mirror and judging her to be asleep and not unconscious Mak stepped out of the ambulance and picked up his backpack, clipping the waist-strap in place so the kitchen knife was now settled safely at his hip. He hoped not to need as he stretched his legs, waving to the others to let them know he had seen them.

 

"I'm just going to check out the place I mentioned," he said as he drew nearer to the small group, pointing to the white-washed building he had in mind. The Busway ran through the village at this point as it linked up some of the further-out villages to Cambridge itself, a quick and efficient route and - if Mak was right - would be completely clear of traffic thanks to the specially-designed car-traps. Only the specially adapted buses could run that route, and they never ran overnight. If they could find one and bring it back to Oakington they would have an easy way to get into the city centre, load up supplies, and come straight home again.

 

Leaving his companions to their macabre task Mak set off to check if the building was uninhabited.

Edited November 7, 2014 by Kestra15

[Mistress of Whispers]

((Wisperlee pretty much left messages on every still-working part of the net when she was in the hospital's server room. She even hacked some few major news/government sites, since there's no one to catch or prosecute her for it. Anyone checking UK websites would probably find her messages - as long as the internet still holds....))

 

Wisperlee watched as James and Erin cut the hanging man down. She could imagine his despair acutely - the sensation of having lost everyone, of being along in a desolate world. At the same time she felt more alone than ever, as if the stranger's departure made the world more barren than before. In a way, she supposed, that was true. With so few of them seemingly left, every death or new disappearance brought their number down sharply.

 

She watched as James, Erin, Micah and Petra struggled to bury the body. She felt disinclined to help - not out of disinterest, but because she was feeling profoundly tired. She spotted the ambulance that still held a few people and walked towards it with no particular purpose in mind.

[Fortune86]

While they waited for Erin to return with something to wrap Charles in James looked around. Where was the cemetary anyway?

 

"Does anyone know where the graveyard is? I've never been here before."

[Fangirl05]

As expected of a small town, it was annoyingly hard to find what she was looking for. She did pass a couple of restaurants, but anything with tablecloths either had them too short or the wrong color.

 

Eventually she came across what she assumed was the town flag; It took a few minutes to get it down. There were words on it that looked to be machine embroidered, but the logo on the front looked like a patch that had been sewn on.

 

She sat cross-legged on the sidewalk and slid her knifed along the edge of the logo experimentally. It was sewn down tightly, but a little finagling managed to work the blade far enough in that she could cut a few seams and get to pulling it off.

 

"Note to self," she thought out loud as she worked, "find a sewing kit." And maybe some dental floss. You never knew who might need stitches when.

Edited November 10, 2014 by Fangirl05

[Fangirl05]

((Bump.

 

Hey MP, any chance our characters can come to a ceasefire?))

[Marcus Pheonix]

((I guess, I'm not sure how though. Sorry I haven't posted, I haven't been able to think of a way to incorperate Jaune into whats happening... and most likely he'd just stuff it up anyway))

[Salix]

Petra shook her in the negative head at James’s question about anyone knowing the location of a cemetery.

 

“I’ve never been her before either, but I think I see something that looks like a church spire over there”. Raising her hand she pointed in the direction of the spire, which looked like it wasn’t too far away.

 

“Perhaps when Erin returns with the shroud we should head in that direction? Micah do you remember seeing anything that looked like shoves or spades packed in any of the vehicles?”

 

[Avialae]

Seeing the other members of their group arrive, Micah was just a little peeved that none of them tried to help the four of them but just stood around them like stones. They weren't even doing anything else, like unpacking the loads of stuff in the cars or helping with Emily! It didn't occur to the young man that the others might be grieving the loss in their own way, and might need some time to themselves.

 

Then Petra's voice caught his attention. Turning so that he could see her better - the dead weight he was holding obscured a great deal of his view, he tried to remember if he'd seen any digging implements in the car he'd ridden here in but unfortunately drew a blank. "I'm sorry, I don't," he told Petra apologetically. "Maybe you should ask someone who helped pack the cars? I think it was Mak . . . " Micah looked around as much as he could, trying to spot the other man. Not finding him, the young man turned his attention back to Petra. "And, uh, we won't necessarily find a graveyard just because we find a church. They're not always in the same place." Well, at least they weren't in his country, and Micah assumed that the situation would be the same everywhere. He paused as something occurred to him. "We'd probably at least find an address for one at one, though, so it wouldn't be a waste to go." And Micah would certainly feel a lot better just knowing where a church was. He didn't bother to address James' earlier question about knowing where a graveyard was - he figured it was pretty apparent that the young man didn't, since Micah's nationality was fairly obvious.

 

 

OOC: I had read that Wisperlee did that, I was asking more along the lines of if we were allowed to write out responses or not.

[DragonSpirit009]

Emily didn’t react much to the stopping of the ambulance or the voices of their group talking outside. She just lay on the floor with Nougat sitting next to her. The pooch’s tail wagged left and right as she listened to the voices causing Emily to occasionally receive a ball of fluff in her face. She didn’t want to get up for knowing if she did her headache would return instantly again. So she decided to stay were she was listening carefully to what the others were saying.

[Kestra15]

As Mak had mentioned, the building he had in mind was certainly big enough to hold the whole group.

 

When Oakington still had a working train link, a small station-house had been built just off the platform adjoined to the village's first pub, a convenient one-stop shop for those visiting the village or just about to make the journey home. But as personal cars started to become more commonplace and cheaper to maintain Oakington spread to the west of the old station-house, while another small locus built up two miles east to form the next village along. Soon it became too expensive to maintain the meager train station - indeed, the entire train route - and the station-house was shut down indefinitely. As Oakington established itself as a village a second pub sprung up in a location more central to the new roads spreading out over the countryside, and the rail-side pub found itself losing business.

 

Some forty years earlier the two buildings had been bought out, the walls separating them knocked down, and the resulting home was certainly spacious. The ground floor composed of a large living room and kitchen, with a sizable guest bedroom coming off from the living room and a downstairs toilet on the other side of the room, with a walk-in larder and access to the back garden available from the kitchen. Upstairs were four large bedrooms, one with en suite facilities, and a slightly larger bathroom. An attic accessible by ladder lead to storage space, while the single-room cellar could be reached by the door underneath the set of stairs in the ground-floor hallway.

 

Having lived in the more sensible semi-detached house next door to this poor man's mansion Mak had a good knowledge of the building, having had a passing acquaintance with his neighbours and occasionally being invited over for a social drink and chat. Knocking on the front door yielded no response from occupants former or new, and it was securely locked. Doing a slow circuit of the house Mak looked up to see that the bedroom above the larder had an open window, but he fancied that as a last resort; no need risking breaking a leg climbing if the back door could be accessed. Sadly his former neighbours were sensible enough to keep both doors locked, and with a sigh Mak considered the window again.

 

It took him a good five minutes to finally slip through the window, having had to leave his backpack at the back door and even then managing to scrap his ribs and hips on the way through, his injured hand making the going a little slower still. However as he dropped to the floor without ceremony he did his best to ignore the aches and pains from this latest abuse and instead simply congratulate himself on his first successful break-in. Taking a moment to catch his breath Mak picked himself up off the floor.

[Fangirl05]

"Aaand that's the last of them."

 

Erin brushed the bits of excess thread off the flag and held it up for a last-minute inspection: the circle of words looked awkward without the logo in the middle; as did the little holes where it used to be sewed down; and the whole thing would probably only cover up to the body's - "CHARLES'"!! - knees; but again, without the appearance of a Deus Ex Machina it was probably the best they were gonna do.

 

The group was still clustered where she'd left them. Micah was in the middle of denying he knew where the local cemetery was. She raised her eyebrow at that; why exactly did any of them think a tourist would know the layout of a town that probably wasn't even on the map?

 

She loosed a quick whistle to get their attention. "Yo," she waved the flag over her head, "found something."

 

She lay it out next to Charles's body and rolled him face-down onto it. It took a little finagling to get the flag folded behind his head in a way that it wouldn't unravel.

 

She hoisted him over her shoulder with a displeased face, both for the fact that the flag only reached about mid-thigh on him and for which end of him was facing her. She tried to ignore the last one.

 

"Well," she decided and started off toward the church spire, "off to the boneyard."

Edited November 25, 2014 by Fangirl05