Move To The City, They Said. [OPEN]

[Ryan Latorren]

Clothes? Check. Food items and granola bars? Check. Cell phone? Check, though he didn't expect to be able to use it again anytime soon. Gun...? Check. Really bad smell in the living room? Double check. That poor sap that had broken into his apartment yesterday was still lying on the floor, motionless, smelling like a hellish mixture of rotten eggs and low tide. Ryan had been too sick to move the body; besides, couldn't you get infected from the body fluids or something? He couldn't find any rubber gloves or anything... and looking at the thing made him a little squeamish. Touching it wasn't much of an option. Call him a pussy, but he's just being cautious.

So, with his apartment now... occupied, he just decided to leave it be and get out of the city. He wasn't sure why exactly he'd stayed for so long, but he supposed he'd just wanted to wait for it to blow over and some kind of rescue to come. It'd been weeks past that point. Maybe months. He couldn't keep risking trips out to the supermarket, as stupid as that was to begin with. It was a wonder he'd survived this long, making runs like that for food and supplies, especially with his left arm in a cast like that. It had gotten better over time, but it still made it hard to carry the bags, so he had to compensate by being quick and silent. He'd been rediculously lucky with it so far, but that last trip almost got him killed. Then this jerk had to bust the door open... he hardly slept at all last night after that.

So, with his duffel bag slung over his shoulder, Ryan set off after leaving a note for anyone who happened to be looking for him. You never know; maybe Oscar or Jack could still be out there somewhere. L.A. was a big city.

He stepped outside of his second-floor condo apartment, making sure to check the corners and street below before he went down to the street. His apartment wasn't in the dense sprawl that was downtown Los Angeles, so there weren't nearly as many walkers around. But being so close to the massive city meant that there was still frequent activity. Two corpses, one man, one slightly shorter man. Fortunately, they were far enough out of his way that he could leave without ever alerting them. A more skilled shot could have taken them out from such a distance... but Ryan was, unfortunately, awful with that pistol. Again, his rediculous luck came into play, as he had survived this long without having to use it on a daily basis like some other people... if there were even any left around here. It'd been so long since he had someone to talk to that wasn't... well, dead. Or otherwise trying to eat him. The last person he'd spoken to had been one of the other tenants in his building... sweet old Ms. Linde. He wasn't sure what had become of her, either.

Yeah, he didn't really want to think about that right now. Stay focused, stay out of sight, and keep moving. Away from this hellhole. Maybe somewhere with fewer dead things. Though if he'd read the news right, it'd be pretty far before he found a place like that.

---

_{Word count: 591
Song: "Janie's Got A Gun" - Aerosmith}

[Elizabeth Davies]

<sub>Effy had been... well.. she wasn't sure if the correct word was 'clever', but she had certainly been lucky in being able to make the decisions she had made. Then again, who was she kidding? she always thought she was clever. Still, the decision to hole up in a gun store had been a wise one. She had found that having a gun and a selection of knives around to be extremely useful, but what did usefulness matter when the fun was really what she focused on? See, Effy would probably be considered by most to be sick and disturbing, because she saw nothing but joy in the whole situation. The blood, the dead people, the violence, the immorality.. all of it spoke so directly to her that if she were capable she may have cried from joy.

So several days after the breakout when the few survivors left had looted the gun stores, she was happy. She was happy because now she was the target of someone's sick games and violence. She had seen some, and even been a part of a brutal stabbing on the first day.. but she had yet to take her time and savour the chaos going on outside, yet to prove herself worthy of what she considered to be something not unlike heaven. The looters had seen her in there, rattled the gate, attempted to break down the metal door, and failed, while she maliciously smiled at them from behind the fortifications. At this sight, the looters had only gotten more enraged, more eager to get inside, which in turn only made Effy more excited at the prospect that they might. Long story short, however, they found a way in, but before doing so she had set enough painful traps for them to fall into before they got to her. She was saddened at the idea that they might not give her a satisfyingly gruesome time, but pleased when she saw the agony on their faces as they each stepped into her traps. After that, she had done things to those men that would be too unseemly to repeat, but had learned that despite her need for chaos and pain, the gun store was an unsafe place for her to stay. While self-abuse to some degree was what she sought, death wasn't part of it.

She had taken her time packing things for wherever she might go, but soon found her way out into the streets of LA. Relishing the ability to go into the streets and kill things without legal consequences, she would walk around, shoot the zombies in her path with no regard for whether or not the sounds might give away her location. Hell, she welcomed it.. more zombies, more carnage, after all!

There were two zombies in the street where she was standing now, one man, one slightly shorter man. She did not hesitate to pull the trigger on them, nearly giggling (though her face flinched not from its rather angry appearance) at the sight as one man's brains splattered against a wall, and the other came toward her, only to fall over in an incredibly funny way when she sent a bullet into its brain as well. That was when she pointed her gun in the direction of a young man who she thought at first was a zombie as well. He wasn't, she soon realized, but did not lower the gun. She stared at him, ever-creepy eyes following his movements. It had been a while since she had seen a real person. What kind of fun could she have with this, she thought desperately, wishing something more sinister on those who could show pain than those who couldn't.

She said nothing, confident he had seen her due to the loud banging of her gun, simply stared at him, slowly moving forward to get closer.</sub>

[Ryan Latorren]

Quietly making his way to the stairs, Ryan heard the loud clash of gunshots before he ever saw the young lady. In the prior silence, a pin dropping on the street would've been grating, but gunshots?! Ryan's reflexes took over, ducking to the floor, his duffel bag sliding off his shoulder as he did so. He was right out on the second-floor porch, nowhere to hide, except behind the railing. "Gah, shit!"

His eyes frantically scanned his surroundings, to the corpses, who had apparently been the targets, as they now lay sprawled out on the street. But where was... oh, jeez. Was she pointing that thing at him? He held up his hands above his head, hoping she would get the idea that he wasn't much of a threat.

"Ah! Not dead! I'm not dead! I'm not...!!" The realization slowly dawned on him that this woman had done two things just now; alerted every one of those things within a mile or so that there was food nearby, and also finally given him his first real social interaction. How well that would go would mainly depend on if she played well with others.

Still pretty freaked out, Ryan slowly rose up from his crouch, hands still up over his head. She still had that gun pointed at him, though she hadn't shot him in the head like those other guys... So that was a good sign, right?

"Jesus... Uh... nice shooting, there." He wasn't sure if he should come down yet... from here, he could always duck back inside if she started shooting. But that's worst-case scenario. "... You... uh, practice a lot?" Hey, conversation was a good way to calm someone down. Maybe a better way to not get shot.

---

_{Word count: 336
Song: "Peace of Mind" - Boston
(( ... oh, god. This should be interesting. ))}

[Elizabeth Davies]

<sub>She narrowly examined the blond boy in front of her. 'Boy' was indeed the term she'd use for him. Not because he wasn't older than her, which of course she had no clue about, but rather because the more derogatory term made her feel superior in a sad and terrible way. He wasn't much taller than her, and her judgmental attitude also told her that made him inferior. And with that cast on? Effy could have laughed at the inferior being who was now in front of her, if it weren't for the fact that she was immensely curious how he managed to survive being such a short handicapped stupid blond. When he burst out claiming he wasn't dead Effy raised an eyebrow as though to say "how stupid do you think I am? don't you think you'd be dead already if I didn't already know that?"

She moved around him, not saying a word, the gun still pointed at him, as he nervously babbled to the threatening Brit. She was looking him over, still curious about his ways of surviving. She wondered whether this meant he was like her.. willing to do anything in order to survive, and would gladly stoop to immorality to do just that? but she knew that couldn't be the case. As much as she'd like to think she was lucky and everything would work out, she looked at the boy and saw that it could not be the case. He was too... nervous.. and blond. Yes, Effy wholeheartedly believed in the blonds are stupid idiom. Mostly because most of her "friends" had been blond, and they were all incredibly stupid in her opinion.

"Jesus... Uh... nice shooting, there... You... uh, practice a lot?"</sub>[/color] he said, causing her to shoot him another look that clearly asked him whether or not he was stupid. Of course she practiced a lot. There were thousands--millions! of dead guys walking around. Avoiding practice, really, would be difficult. But once again, his easily impressed nature made her wonder how he had survived so far. Yet that thought did not stay long in her mind when she started considering what kind of fun she might have with this half-wit.

"Don't you?"[/color] she finally said in a droll west country English accent. She began staring at him again, her mouth sealed as it ever were again, still pondering what to do with him. See, she based her way of treating people based on the way they acted and what the funnest reaction she might get was. Not knowing too much about the boy in front of her, she stipulated from her previous assumptions that she'd much rather see an emotional upheaval in him than pain. "What do you want?"[/color] she asked, hoping he would make her job a little easier, though the short-phrased question may not have been enough to clarify what she even meant by that question. Then again, he might say he just wanted to live in about a few minutes when surely the zombies who heard the gunshots would come running.

NOTE: *flail*I knoooow!
I apologize for smearing your character a lot. Effy is a jerkface D:

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[Ryan Latorren]

Well, if Ryan were a mind reader, he'd probably take a bit of offense to those first few points. Blonde doesn't mean stupid, not by any means! In fact, the lack of stupidity was the main reason Ryan survived so long. He'd been informed, he figured out what was going on quickly, and he came up with a level-headed plan. It was almost impossible not to have figured it out, being the avid geek he was. And he was probably a Romero fan. That kind of thing helps sometimes.

But one thing that "Effy" was right about was the part about him being nervous. He got that a lot, even before the outbreak. Nervous, or maybe just cautious. As much as he wanted to try to be friendly, he wasn't seeing this playing out well. Maybe it was just that look she was giving him. Instead, he leaned forward over the railing, an awkward grin on his face. "I guess. Kinda hard to avoid nowadays, huh?" That was more of stating the obvious, really. Maybe he's just joking around, another weird thing he does when trying to be "cautious". "... I try not to confront those things too much. They tend to make a mess. They're pretty easy to fool, so."

So, to recap, not stupid, just a little weird.

"Well, aside from maybe wanting to get moving and be somewhere that isn't about to be mobbed an' shit?" At that remark, his gaze moved off down the street. Yeah, there's another two heading this way already, though they were still a pretty good distance away. Probably a lot more on the way, though. Maybe you should take a hint and watch how often you use that gun of yours, Effy. Maybe you could even learn something from this guy... Maybe. "... A Dr. Pepper would be awesome about now. Wouldn't happen to have one of those, would you?" Heh, way to open up the snark, Ryan. Still, it's better than being awkward and silent... which he already was on a regular basis.

---

_{Word count: 362
Song: "Let It Die" - Foo Fighters
(( Nah, I think he needs a good reality check. xD ))}

[Elizabeth Davies]

<sub>Effy wasn't necessarily judgmental, if you thought about it. She was simply living in a perpetual state of "no one is as good as I am" and that led to frequent assumptions that were unfair, though not truly judgmental, because she did not care one way or the other if they truly were stupid or not. She simply cared about how she could handle them, and stupidity in many cases was exactly what made that possible. Alas, the blond boy spoke, saying things Effy thought utterly unnecessary and a waste of breath... but then again, she thought most words were a waste of breath if they weren't motivated by something.. if they didn't want something. Everybody wanted something.

"I try not to confront those things too much. They tend to make a mess. They're pretty easy to fool, so."</sub>[/color] She pondered his words for a moment, not changing her stance or expression. True, they did make a mess. And true, they were easy to fool. But what kind of fun was that? did this boy not understand how to have fun, and enjoy this wondrous place they were now living in? the mess was one of the best parts, in her opinion, and simply fooling them was boring; they did not get confused, sad, angry.. if you couldn't get a reaction out of them, what was the fun in fooling them? She couldn't help but slightly shake her head. She didn't understand this guy's logic.

Still, she couldn't make up her mind on how to have fun with this guy. He wasn't responding the way she had thought he would, and that threw her off her game somewhat, as she always considered people painfully predictable. The gun still held aloft, she was uncertain of what to say to give him the impression she wanted for whichever game she was going to play on him. But her thoughts were circumvented as he mentioned the walkers about to bear down on them. Now that she had a new potential plaything she did not see the fun in hunting zombies, so she decided (quite bitterly, mind) that he was right, and they should move. So she motioned with the barrel of the gun toward the RiteAid behind them, signifying that she wanted him to go into the store. She wasn't sure whether or not she wanted to take the gun off him yet. Not because she was paranoid or scared of him, but because she hadn't decided whether or not it'd just be easier to shoot him yet. But if Effy had any kidn of personal insight, she'd already know the answer to that. She wouldn't. Living subjects were so much fun, and just shooting him would bore her.

"No,"[/color] she said in response to his question about Dr. Pepper. "Who are you?"[/color] she finally asked, hoping to be able to extrapolate at least something from the answer.

NOTE: based on your last post, Ryan and my other character Thyra would get along *incredibly* well. They should meet up!

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