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Kestra15

Rapture

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Mak shot Erin a grateful look as she started engaging with young Arwen; children were quite definitely not his forte, and he was happy for someone else more confident and approachable to try and keep her calm. He also tried not to blush slightly as Wisperlee pointed out that perhaps he was not up to strength, biting back the urge to mention that he was fine as an automatic response and instead let the conversation flow. As they talked and batted ideas around the suggestion arose for him taking another trip to the hospital, and he shook his head emphatically.

 

"I don't think separating out that far would be a good idea, not after last night," he replied, his voice reasonable as opposed to fearful. "We have enough medicines to last for a while, and the hospital isn't going anywhere - and if we are going to go out again, it should be a larger group. If we're going to autopsy, we can do it here. Find one of those plastic picnic tables, set it up just on the field where we're going to be dumping rubbish anyway."

 

He looked around the room. "What I suggest is the following; James and Ez are good with weapons and Ez at least knows her drills, so have them clear out the remaining buildings so that we know they're safe and not harbouring anything. Emily can work with Micah, Erin and Petra on plans to turn the gardens into a small plot for veg, herbs, whatever we can grow - and I'm sure Arwen would love to get some fresh air. Wisperlee can work on the radio and see if we can get a system running, even if we don't start actively using it until we agree if we want to broadcast or simply listen. I'll slice-and-dice, take some photos with a digital camera so we have a record. We'll all be well within eye- and ear-shot of each other so if something occurs, we can help.

 

"Does that sound like a plan?" he finished, hoping he hadn't overstepped the mark with his ideas.

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Erin offered a quick salute at Mak's suggestions. "Aye, sir!" she agreed, turning toward Arwen, "You think you can keep an eye on the animals while we get started on the planting, kiddo?"

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Arwen was upset because they were clearly not going to go out and look for her parents that day. She wanted to cry, but crying wouldn't bring them to her, so when Erin offered for her to help out and watch the animals, she was more than willing to distract herself and get lost in playing with the dogs and cats. She nodded and smiled a bit at Erin.

 

Ez didn't want to hang out with James and clear out buildings, she wanted to dig a hole, so that she wouldn't piss anyone off with her foul mood. On the other hand, Mak was right. They were the best choices for clearing buildings. They could use weapons an not kill each other by accident. They would know what their doing. Ez briefly wondered how he knew, but didn't dwell on the thought. Perhaps she could ask later to avoid unintentionally hateful silence. She sounded her agreement with a nod, a positive throaty sound, and then began inspecting her gun.

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Micah was having a hard time staying awake. Once everyone had bedded down in the living room, the leftover adrenaline, uncomfortable sleeping arrangements, and the fact that he was sleeping next to a bunch of people he still didn't know very well had kept him from getting to sleep for several hours, and he had only had gotten an hour or two of sleep by the time Mak had woken them up again. Granted, he had slept before they had been woken up by the strange creatures, but nevertheless, Micah was not well rested. Combined with the last few nights of poor sleep and Micah was fighting to keep from dozing off in his morning coffee. When he heard Mak suggest that he work with some of the others to work on plans for a garden in the backyards of the nearby houses he stifled a yawn and said, "Sounds good," before rubbing his eyes. Maybe doing some good old physical labor would help wake him up.

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Glad to have an assigned task, Wisperlee finished the last of her coffee and rose from her seat. Dropping by her room, she picked up her bag and the small tool set she'd taken from the hardware store, as well as Jaune's ferret. The creature had spent the night happily curled up in a drawer, seemingly unaware of the consternation downstairs. As she passed the mirror on her way out, she briefly stopped: her hair looked matted and sweaty, and large bags had formed under her eyes. Ugh. Wisperlee spent most of her time behind a computer with no care to how she looked, but she hated it when her fatigue showed. Oh well, nothing to do for it.

 

"I'll take Cujo with me," she said once she was back in the kitchen. "Can you take this one, Arwen?" With that, she transferred the ferret to the young child. "I think he eats cat food." If the critter was a *he* - Wisperlee had no idea how to check.

 

"I'll get the transmitter set up to a 'hello please respond' message without revealing our location," she told the group. "I'll mention Arwen by name. Anyone hearing can send a message back, without immediately knowing our location." Of course, that did assume that anyone listening had the equipment and know-how to send a message of their own, but it'd have to do for now.

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James nodded his silent agreement to Mak's plan. To be honest, he didn't really care what he did, as long as he could keep himself busy. Keep busy and he wouldn't have to think. Trying to work out what the hell was going on wasn't doing much other than give him the hebe-jebes. He turned to Ez, his partner for the day.

 

"You okay to leave in ten? We might as well get started."

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Erin returned Arwen's smile and stood up, flexing her fingers. "I'm gonna go start looking for some gardening tools" she reported, "There's a shed out back, right?"

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Arwen smiled even broader when the ferret was passed to her. He was so cute and soft. She pet him and he seemed to take to her as he cuddled up close to her chest. She giggled a bit and followed Erin out whenever she went out back.

 

Ez nodded to James, who was ready to leave soon. She grabbed a NutriGrain bar from the cupboard and ate it quickly. There were only two left after that. Ez rummaged through the lower cabinets for a water bottle and came up with a 24oz, florescent pink bottle with orange flowers all over it. 'Whatever.' She thought. She filled it up in the sink and clipped it to her belt. Standing by the front door, she waited for James to be ready.

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Unlike the others Emily felt quite refreshed even thou she had little sleep. She was glad that she was use to getting up early and could usually handle a hard day’s work without feeling it much at the end of the day. As the group huddled in one room Emily allowed Nougat to join the group and took a spot on the floor. She sat in silence watching over everyone. Some struggled to sleep again. Some were extremely tired. Others seemed a bit on edge.

As Emily thought to herself she couldn’t really put her finger on how she felt. She felt all mixed inside but her outward appearance appeared calm. Maybe it’s because she been in such scary situations before. Well not this kind of situation but situation that were sometimes life and death.

 

As the morning sun lighted the sky Emily was eager to get out but she knew that she couldn’t go too far. So she waited to hear what everyone was thinking and what the plan of action was going to be.

 

“There are only a few small tools and a spade in the shed.” Emily replied to Erin’s question. “I was in there to find something when I was working on the generator the other day. Besides, we need a couple more tools, pipes, metal, even plants if you guys want to make a garden out back. I think we should check the neighbouring houses for more tools first. We don’t want to go too far considering what might be out there.”

Edited by DragonSpirit009

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Nothing useful, then. Damn.

 

Erin frowned as another possibility crossed her mind:

 

"Do any of you know how to test... I dunno what it's called, soil quality? It'd be a serious drawback if we end up trying to plant stuff only to find out the land's infertile three months later."

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With tasks assigned to everyone Mak worked up the strength to get out of his chair and make a start on his own job. His first task was to make sure that he and everyone else would be safe from any potential pathogens, and so it meant hunting around their base for a couple of items. He would have to consider recording what happened as well, so that they would be able to virtually dissect the creature as well as his own physical examination. Then there would be safely disposing of the creature and his own protective equipment.

 

First was a trip around the bedrooms to raid the clothing from previous occupants, not wanting to sacrifice the clothes that actually fit him despite the abundance of clothing that would be in shops; for the next day or two at least he doubted anyone would be leaving site of their home, much less an expedition back into town. Mak certainly would vote against such action. So it didn't take long for him to find some jeans that fit him and a long-sleeve shirt that didn't hamper movement, as well as a pair of leather shoes one size too big that would hopefully protect him from splashes of fluid.

 

Next, a trip to the basement where a tool bench and various DIY sundries stood in one corner. Every established house had a corner where tools and detritus from previous home improvement and repair jobs gathered, and he was hoping that among them would be the kind of protective gear that one wore when dealing with fibre-glass. It took a few minutes poking around with a torch in the darkness before he finally found a disposable full-body overall, mask, and goggles. He held no illusions that these would magically protect him from disease, but were instead a physical barrier that would hopefully hold microscopic organisms physically away from his skin and getting into his eyes and airway. Better than nothing.

 

With the protective gear sorted, he next turned to the less palatable thought of how to actually cut up the creature. He was not a biologist and only had a broad-spectrum knowledge of the animal and human bodies, but more than anything the aim of the exercise was to assure themselves that they were dealing with flesh-and-blood creatures and not hocus-pocus or Hellmouth residents. That what they were dealing with were as fallible as they were. With that in mind a precise autopsy was not the gold-standard.

 

A hammer and chisel gave him the ability to crack open a rib-cage if one exists, while a collection of sharpened Stanley knives and a spare meat knife gave him the option of slicing and dicing. Tweezers and tongs for moving things around, and a small hacksaw if required. All of them found their way into a small plastic tool-box that would make it easier to carry everything outside with. Returning from the cellar next Mak returned to the first floor and eventually found what he was looking for; digital camera and stand. Returning to the kitchen he once again fished out a couple of pairs of Marigold gloves, and finally felt he had all the equipment for the task ahead.

 

If only he actually felt ready for it.

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"I think there are bags of nutrient-rich soil for sale at places that we can go get, though that will require a trip out," Micah said, thumbing through one of the gardening books he had retrieved from the stacks of books that they'd retrieved a few days ago. Several others were placed nearby in case anyone else wanted to read them. He had finally managed to wake himself up, although he was still somewhat tired. "There's also compost and mulch, though that will depend on whether anyone living nearby had a pile going. We may want to think about getting a pile started with our own leftover food."

 

"We can worry about that later though. The first thing we should worry about is how big we want this garden to be, and where exactly we want it to go so we don't start digging up anywhere we don't need to, and maybe start taking a look at what plants grow well in this climate so we know what would be a good idea to put in it."

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When Ez agreed to get started more or less right away James nodded his acknowledgement and left the room. Returning upstairs he had a quick was and found a fresh shirt. Feeling a bit more refreshed he returned downstairs to find Ez waiting for him by the door.

 

Making sure the shotgun was hanging comfortably over his shoulder James looked over at his partner for the day.

 

"So how do you want to do this? Start with the houses closest to us or just work our way from left to right?"

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James came downstairs in a fresh shirt and looked more awake than she felt.

"I suppose that we should pick a side of the house and clear down to thee end of the block. We can cross the road and go down to the end of the other block, cross again, and then we'll just end up back here." After thinking for another moment, Ez had come up with another idea.

"We should bring some paper and pens with us. If we see things that we would like to use, we could write it down along with the address of where it is. That way, we can clear the houses without over-encumbering ourselves." Ez opened the door and stepped out into the fresh morning air. It was much nicer to breath than the stuffy living room that they had all shared.

"Left or right?" She asked blandly in the direction of the driveway. There was a soft breeze touching her face that seemed perfectly room temperature; not too hot or cold. It was good weather to read outside in. She couldn't think of that now. Ez shook her head and awaited a response.

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In reply to Erin and Emily’s question regarding tools Petra volunteered “Wisperlee and I managed to visit a hardware shop while we were travelling back, we managed to find a few shovels, spades, pick axes etc and some power tools that may be useful, they are still in the back of the Land Rover “.

 

Nodding at Mich’s comment about adding compost and things to the soil “There should be some plants in the garden, or the neighbouring gardens, that will give us a clue about the soil type in this area, for example azaleas like a more acidic soil. We can always build raised planting beds for the plants and crops that prefer other soil types.”

 

“It would probably be a good idea to visit the neighbouring gardens, and then draw out some kind of plan, mark out where the planting beds should be, composting areas etc, before we start any actual digging. Then we can plan trips to garden centres to get plants and equipment”.

 

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((Just a heads up: My laptop is away for repairs, so my replies might be spotty / non-existent until this weekend or Monday (when I'll be able to borrow a laptop).))

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((I have added a map of the street to page one, to help orientate everyone. Hope it sounds similar to what I described and people had in mind? -KM))

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Erin nodded in acceptance of Petra's plan. Still, a couple of thoughts stood out in her mind: Flowers were all well and good, but they'd mostly need things like fruits, vegetables, and maybe medicinal herbs for when modern medicines ran out, and as a city kid she personally had no idea what kind of soil all these things needed. Hopefully Micah had grabbed a book on them the other day.

 

Also, the idea of sifting through week-old trash still made her skin crawl. God knew what might be lurking in those bins. Or growing in them...

 

She rubbed her left eye and blinked a few times to relieve the sudden itch from her contacts. Maybe she should look around for some eye drops...

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((Oh so they're all in the first house of a row? Okay then.))

 

"Might as well start next door" said James.

 

He followed Ez outside and took a moment to savour the morning sunlight. In his line of work working during the day time was a rare thing, as most of his clients preferred the cover of night. That had always made things feel a bit 'Batman' to him, but as they say, the customer is always right.

 

James walked down the street towards the nearest house and tried the front door handle. It open a little, then instantly caught on a chain. James sighed, nothing could be easy could it?

 

"Kick it down or look for bolt cutters?" he asked Ez.

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Ez followed James to the front door of the nearest house. When it didn't fully open, she saw it as an opportunity to let out some of her overtired frustrations. Immediately after James asked whether they should find bolt cutters of kick it in, Ez had left a dent of a footprint on the door as the chain ripped out of the wall when the door swung open. There was a loud bang as the door hit and dented the wall from it swinging so hard.

"We should be able to enjoy the little things." She said quietly. "You can kick in the next one, if you want." She raised her gun and stepped into the house.

"I'll clear the upstairs, you take the main floor. When we're sure there's nothing living in here, we can scavenge. Sound good?" Although Ez hadn't intended on making it a question, she figured that they should work kind of as a team. These were the only people she may ever be around ever again, so she shouldn't be a total b*tch.

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In his make-shift protective costume, Mak was happy with the set-up of the digital camera and equipment so that he could get on with dissecting their kill without accidentally contaminating anything else. Even the bag of spare clothes he had for afterwards was well beyond the splash radius, with a bucket of warm water with a possibly-unhealthy dose of bleach inside of it to clean himself down with beforehand. His plan was to dissect the creature and then wrap it back up in a black bin bag or two, then dump all of the gear in another, before stripping down and throwing away his clothing, and put the lot in one of the plastic wheelie bins that he could then lock down and leave well away from their new home. Not exactly a lead-lined coffin, but hopefully enough to avoid contamination.

 

The spiny monkey thing was quite definitely dead; Micah's shot had cleanly punched a hole through the head, with one eye missing as a result and a couple of the spines now deformed and covered in gunk. The wound clearly demonstrated that the thing had a skull with brains on the inside, standard for almost every Earth-bound creature that didn't rely on an exoskeleton. A methodical round of poking and prodding with his various tools helped Mak to settle a couple other questions; the spikes were not armour-piercing but rather more of the strength of a porcupine, while the claws on it's hands and feet were somewhat more robust and could certainly do damage. Perhaps a thick leather jacket would provide some protection, but he was sure they would slice through jeans or a hoodie with ease.

 

Next came the more gruesome task of opening up the creature. Mak was by no means a mortician, and was going on the idea of simply opening up the main body cavity and letting the camera catch as much as possible for posterity and analysis by those who may know better. The skin was tough, leathery, but he could still punch through it with a knife and a bit of force - more combat-based knowledge, he grimly acknowledged to himself behind the goggles and face-mask. The bitter stench of blood easily perforated the cotton-like material of the mask and Mak did his best not to gag and wretch, turning away to take a slightly fresher breath of air as he finished opening up the chest cavity. He was mildly surprised to find a set of ribs and a breastbone that looked close enough to humans and their simian relatives, keeping the theory of it being a horribly mutated terrestrial experiment as a viable option for the time being.

 

The rest of the 'autopsy' was strangely straight-forward, and while Mak regularly turned away to catch his breath and quell his nausea there were no surprises to be found in the body. The chest cavity clearly contained a pair of lungs and a heart in the normal position, and exposing the abdomen Mak found the rope-like structure of the intestines, a stomach, liver, kidneys that seems slightly misshapen but otherwise about right, and a few other small structures that he assumed would be the pancreas, gall bladder, spleen and urinary tract. Taking the time to slice open the limbs he found nothing he could personally identify as poison sacs or excretion glands, and while the blood was dripping down and seemed closer to a dark purple than bright red, there was no hint as to what it was or where it was from.

 

Mak lost himself to the task, and it was probably a good ninety minutes or more when he finally felt he had learned what little he could. The camera was still running and he hoped that it would be enough to satisfy the others, re-running the tape, freeze-framing, zooming, and postulating. Cleaning up took another half hour as he double-bagged the remains, then the tools. Using the small hacksaw he managed to slice through the table and pull the legs off so he could stuff it into the blue plastic bin as well, and gathered up the plastic canvas that the whole affair had been set out on so the excess blood from the creature was kept away from the ground. With all the gear chucked away Mak finally stripped out of his protective layer, then the clothes underneath, leaving him in just a pair of boxers as he dumped the clothes and closed the lid to the bin, locking it shut with a robust-looking padlock.

 

With a deep breath Mak walked over to the bucket he had set aside and proceeded to strip-wash, the bleach mixture stinging his skin slightly as he made sure that everything from his brown hair to his calloused feet was feeling the slight burn. In hind-sight he should have had another bucket of water to rinse off in, and he decided that once he was done he would do that. Making sure he looked and felt clean he slung the bucket over the patch of ground where the tarpaulin had been, before slipping on a t-shirt, pair of shorts and flip-flops on, skin still wet so the clothes clung to his. Only then did he feel he could retrieve the camera and return to the house with his film, wondering how the others were getting on with their preparations.

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Once her contact had stopped trying to scrape her cornea off her iris, Erin looked out the window at the available garden space and tapped her lower lip thoughtfully. The smaller patch should probably be left for herbs and/or flowers, while the larger one was used for actual food. She suggested as much to the others.

 

"Do you think we should look for some kind of barricade?" she asked, "Something to keep little critters from eating them?"

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Micah had grabbed a spare piece of paper and a pen and a pen and was beginning to make a list of possible vegetable to try growing, ones that the books said would do well in the native climate. He briefly wondered if they should try growing wheat for bread, but Micah knew that the process of making bread out of wheat was extensive and complicated and he was fairly sure it would take more space than they had anyway, so he left it off the list.

 

"We can try, but I'm not sure how much good it would do. They were able to get inside the house without much trouble, and it's pretty secure. At any rate, I think we should concentrate on getting things in the ground first." On that note, Micah abandoned his half-finished list and stood up. "I'm going to go out and start turning over the soil. I know we have a long way to go before we actually put anything in the ground, but it's a pretty big patch of earth out there and I'd like to get started as soon as possible." He nudged the spare piece of paper with his list towards the three women. "If you have anything that you want to try growing, feel free to put it on here - just try to make it something that we'll actually get something useful out of, please."

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"Shotgun" Erin declared at Micah's intent to start turning the soil, not bothering to mention that she'd meant more along the lines of skunks and rabbits than the mutants that had taken the place of humanity. Those things didn't exactly strike her as herbivorous.

 

She went out to the Land Rover to grab the pick axes Petra had mentioned. They were pretty standard size, maybe five pounds. She whistled to get his attention and tossed him the one in her right hand.

 

"Which end do you wanna start from?" she asked with a nod to the bigger patch.

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By now Wisperlee has logged Erin's radio system to one of the parked cars. She wasn't sure whose care it was, but the keys were in the ignition so she figured it was one of theirs. Or someone who'd been planning to go out in the middle of the night. Maybe a husband who's pregnant wife was about to deliver? She banished the thought - she didn't like thinking about the people who has disappeared.

 

She's considered setting up the equipment in their own attic. That would keep it available to them if they were under attack. It would also lead anyone tracking the signal right to them though. Wisperlee didn't know yet what the creatures could do, but she *did* know what people were capable of and she was ranking the latter as more dangerous for now. So instead, she'd selected a house further away - short enough that they could make the trek to adjust the signal easily, but not so close that it would lead people to their door.

 

.....

 

Wisperlee parked the car right on the lawn - not like the owners were around to object - and got out. Carrying the equipment took a while, especially since she had to stop for breaks as she logged the heavy set up the stairs - but finally she arrived at the bottom of the attic stairs. Remembering last night's attack, she left the equipment in the upstairs hallway and mounted the last stairs carrying the crowbar she'd picked up yesterday - the metal rod made for a crude weapon, but it was better than nothing. Luck was on her side though - or maybe the critters really did not like sunlight - and she scouted the attic without incident.

 

This house was the last on the block, meaning it had a clean line of sight on two sides. Figuring she might as well enjoy the view, Wisperlee pulled an old table up to the window and began setting up the radio signal.

 

 

((Sorry about the delay - I had crazy deadlines. So Wisperlee left alone - that's intentional, as she kinda likes her space. She's not trying to be sneaky about it though, so it's easy enough to see and/or follow her. She'll spend the next hour or two setting up the radio, and then go back to the house a little after Mak finishes that autopsy.))

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