games are hard to come by, open!

[Maik Anders]

let’s get down to business to defeat the Huns.

In a time before zombies and vaccinations and panick, someone had driven down Interstate 80 and they’d littered. They had rolled down their window and they had tossed out their empty Cola can—or maybe it hadn’t been empty—and it hadn’t been picked up. Perhaps the people that usually volunteered to pick up along the side of the roads had been distracted with surviving zombies and vaccinations and panick.


Mikey had found that can.


Happily entertained by a simple newfound toy, he kicked the can along the road. He hit it with his left foot and the metal went scraping against the asphalt until it came to a stop. He shuffled over and kicked it with his right foot, the metal once more scraping against the asphalt until it came to a stop. And the process continued. He zigzagged his way on the stretch of road between Reno and Elko, kicking a harmless can. His satchel bag thumped against his hip as he moved, sometimes walking leisurely and sometimes jogging along. His primary weapon, a baseball bat decorated in blood-encrusted nails, dragged behind him. He couldn’t remember where he’d gotten it. He didn’t know who had owned it once upon a time. He didn’t know the sort of person that would think to hammer nails into a bat for maximum damage, and he didn’t think much about the fact that that owner was apparently no longer around to wield the weapon.


With one good kick, Mikey was sad to see the crushed Cola can disappear underneath an abandoned car. However, he was not yet ready to see his game come to an end. Without a care in the world or much mind for the fact that he was not in safe territory, he eased casually on over and moved to kneel right on down to the ground, shifting to his hands and knees to peek underneath the vehicle for his can.

did they send me daughters when I asked for sons?

[Maxine Petrie]

She'd been watching the kid kicking the coke can across the street. Of course she had.

Max was sitting in one of the cars, slouched down in the seat so that only the top of her hat could be seen through the windows. Anyone walking by would probably mistake her for one of the infected or dead, and dismiss her right away. Her bike, never far away, was cleverly hidden in the brush in a nearby gutter.

Her target was supposedly a runner, someone who frequently used the roads for travel, specifically this road. She'd been told they would either be walking or on a bike, in their mid-thirties, tall, dark, and extremely in need of a good killing. So they told her. She hadn't decided yet whether that last part was true or not.

This kid though, he obviously wasn't her target. Too young, too small. But the longer she watched him the more interested - possibly confused or mildly alarmed - she became. He seemed to be wandering around without much of a clue, not realizing the danger he was in every second he was exposed. Dragging a spiked bat behind him like it was a stuffed bear. Crawling under a car and exposing himself to incredible risk for...a pop can?

She frowned, looking frantically all around him for any signs of trouble, and then wondering why in the hell she cared so much. He was nothing to her; an irrelevant civilian. And yet...he was just a kid. Maybe more than that, but for some reason his young age, his obvious naivete, made her feel the need to look out for him, at least for the moment.

Slipping out of the car (that was conveniently missing the driver's side door), she crept as quietly as she could over to the car he'd disappeared under, all the while keeping a watch out for trouble. She crouched low just in case they were being watched, and so that her cover wouldn't be blown if they were, coming up next to where he was kneeling under the car.

"Hey," she said to him, quietly so her voice wouldn't carry too far. "What are you doing? A walker could have come up and bit you by now..." It was meant as a friendly warning, but it came out a little harsher than she'd intended. Almost scolding.

ooc: you and your awesome songs <3

[Maik Anders]

you’re the saddest bunch I ever met, but you can bet before we’re through

He stretched his arm out as far as he could. He leaned forward. Unfortunately, the pop can was just a bit too far and the space beneath the vehicle was just a bit too small for his position. So he slipped from his knees to his stomach, shimmying further underneath and reaching once again. He felt quite proud of himself when his fingertips slid against the crushed edges of corners of the can, managing to prod and coerce it just within reach so he could grab it. In the long-run, it probably would have been considerably easier to just get up and move around to the other side, but this didn’t occur to Maik and he’d managed to get the can through the hard way regardless.


Holding on tightly to it, it scraped against the cement as he scooched himself backwards so he could get to his knees to finish crawling out. Before he could manage to free himself entirely, a voice whispering harshly right beside him startled him just enough to prompt him to jump, cracking his head against the underside of the car. He winced, squeezing his eyes shut—but he managed to carefully extract himself the rest of the way, his free hand coming up to rest gingerly over the throbbing bump. He didn’t even think about the dirt and gristle that had stuck to his palm. Filth happened. He didn’t fret on it. Instead, his attentions were caught by the pretty lady crouched beside him. He hadn’t even heard her approach!


“Hi.” He greeted, grinning broadly. To answer her question, he held up the can. “I – it, uh. It, um- heh-” He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, his smile tight and wide as he stopped himself from speaking in the effort to let his brain finish out what he wanted to say. That happened sometimes. He felt lopsided and out of order, but that was okay. He chuckled, shaking his head as if that could rattle everything back into sense before opening his eyes again and thrusting his free hand out towards her for a courtesy handshake. “Mikey.” He introduced happily, skipping over the explanation.

mister, I’ll make a man out of you.

(ooc: <333)