Misery Loves Company

[Ruby]

Ruby sat on a rooftop with her knees pulled to her chest, tired after a morning of scavenging, her treasures in a bag next to her. She looked down at the infected who hadn't noticed her since she reached the roofs. They shambled through the streets, filling them. It was late afternoon and the sun was hiding behind clouds of grey. She had really hoped it would be sunny today. It had been a while since the sun had come out. 

She grabbed her bag and stood, entering the building through the small window behind her . She didn't bother to lock the window behind her as it was still day time and she wanted some fresh air before it got too dark. She made this small apartment her shelter a couple of months back. It had everything she needed: a roof over her head, somewhere to sleep, and a fireplace to cook. When your biggest concern is infected, you can't pass up a second floor shelter. Though, she pushed the couch in front of the door just to be safe.

Ruby walked over to the couch and removed her katana from her back, placing it on one of the cushions. She then took off her brown leather jacket and draped it over the couch's arm. Leaving her revolver in the holster on her leg and her hunting knife in its sheath on her waist, she made her way to the kitchen with her bag and emptied the food she scavenged onto the counter. Today she managed to find three cans of Spam, two cans of beans, and a bag of instant mashed potatoes. She would be good for at least a week because she still had some water  on a shelf in the fridge. Quickly, she put the food in the cupboard and walked over to the kitchen table, bag still in hand, and sat in a chair.

She reached into the bag and pulled out two large bottles of  gin she had scavenged from the pub down the road and an opened pack of cigarettes she found in an abandoned apartment, along with the glass ashtray it laid next to for who knows how long. She took a long swig of her gin straight from the bottle and grabbed a cigarette from her pack. Even though she knew they were probably beyond stale, her mouth still watered. She put the butt in between her lips and lit the end with a lighter, inhaling the rough smoke. 

The initial drag confirmed that the cigarettes were indeed stale, and immediately irritated her throat. She continued to smoke anyway, hoping to get used to the feeling. With a few more gulps of gin, the cigarette didn't feel nearly as bad and became smokable. She ashed her cigarette before standing and walking to the parlor to start the fireplace for dinner. 

Opening the apartment's coat closet, there was firewood stored. She took a few good pieces, put them in the fireplace, and started it. Not wanting to wait there for the fire to pick up, she stood and walked to the kitchen, grabbing the lantern along the way. She placed it on the center of the table for when the sun went down, and finished up her cigarette, stubbing it out in the ashtray and exhaling the last of the smoke in her lungs.

[greyfeathers]

Grey made his way through the streets of York soft and quick as a shadow. He stayed close to the buildings, both to stay hidden and to possibly duck into one in case he ran into just too many infected. As much as he had seen, as much as he had done, the bastards still scared the living daylight out of him. The way they looked, shells of former human beings that just won't move on, the way they charges you no matter how much lead you were spitting at them, and his personal favorite, the screaming. God the screaming...those sounds would haunt him to the end of his days.

Grey dashed across an intersection as soon as he saw infected to his left. Low on ammo for his shotgun and his pistol, the .45 he kept on him from his Delta days, he would rather not get into a fight just yet. He ran out of ammo for the Glock he had found days ago, but it would still make a decent club if the situation called for it.


After a few close run-ins with infected that thankfully didn't turn bloody, Grey was more than ready to find a nice building to set up camp in. Maybe a nice three star hotel with soft beds, clean sheets and room service, something nice for a change. Like hell something like that still existed nowadays...

Grey eyed a church belltower, knowing that from there he could see quite a bit. But then again, it was exposed as hell. Just a little bit of wind would make the stay there unvearable, and if the infected found a way up well...it was a long way down to the cobblestone street.

Infected behind him dashed whatever thoughts he had on the belltower. Now he had to run. After weaving a course through a half dozen decaying streets, he spotted smoke. Smoke meant fire, and fire usually meant people. Maybe that three star hotel wasn't such a stretch after all...


Damn it, the infected were close. Too close. He skirted that last corner too quickly and drawn their attention. No time to pick the lock on the apartment complex door, and breaking it down would be tantamount to suicide. So Grey decided to climb to the roof. Infected thankfully were too stupid to look up without reason, and it was certainly a better way to make his presence known to whoever was in this building. Infected didn't climb on rooftops.


Grey jumped, gripping the overhang and lifting himself up. Making sure it was steady, he walked along it and began climbing on the windowsills. Before long, he had reached the roof. He looked back down and sure enough no less than four dozen infected crowded the street he was just occupying. Damn it that was too close...he had to be more careful next time.

Well, that was one part of the plan over with. Now he had to deal with whoever was occupying the building. Hopefully he wouldn't find that he was better off with the infected. Just in case, he decided to figure out an escape route beforehand. He swung around the chimney and landed right outside a small window, before taking a knee close to the edge of the roof. Running across the rooftops seemed to be the best option, but if theybhad guns he would be an easy target...

[Ruby]

Ruby had the gin to her lips when she heard footsteps on her roof. She put the bottle down quietly and pulled her loaded revolver from her holster. It wasn't until she stood that she realized she was catching a little bit of a buzz. She walked over to the wall dividing the parlor and the kitchen and put her back against it.

The footsteps came closer and it almost sounded like they landed right in front of her open window. Fuck, I left the damn window open. She peeked out from the wall and noticed a shadow. She thought about going for her katana on the couch, but that was directly across the room from the window, it was too far.

She stepped from behind the wall and to the left into the entrance to the kitchen so she could see the window clearly, though still not being able to see the outside of it. Taking her gun in both hands, she aimed in at the open window and pulled the hammer back so whoever stood outside could hear it.

Ruby took a deep breath. "Who's out there?"

[greyfeathers]

Grey turned around immediately, terrified more at the prospect of the infected below hearing the unknown woman's voice.

"Shhhhh..."

Grey looked back down and saw that the infected thankfully hadn't heard. He moved slowly back toward the window, hands out. The last thing he needed was to make a bad first impression. Nowadays, bad first impressions were usually a person's last. He stood in front of it, looking through and seeing a revolver pointed at him. Great. Just great.

"Just another survivor. I was looking for a place to crash and saw the smoke." Grey spoke as softly as he could, just enough so that whoever was inside could hear. He wasn't sure if this was just a sentry, or just another lone wanderer, just like him. Either way, he decided it was best to get on her good side.

"Infected are right downstairs. Mind if I come in? You can see my hands."

Grey moved them slightly to show that he was currently unarmed. Right now he had to get inside. If she turned violent when he was well, she wouldn't be the first person he had forcefully disarmed...

[Ruby]

Ruby saw his empty hands, but continued to aim her gun at the window as she made her way to the couch. She took her katana from its sheath and placed her revolver in its holster after decocking it. Feeling better  with a quiet weapon, she stepped closer to the window, her sword at her side.

"If you ever tell me to shh in my own house again, you're going to regret it." she said quietly, but loud enough for him to hear it clearly. Walking closer to the window, she noticed the sun was getting ready to set. Ruby sighed. "You can come in, but just for the night. If you pull any funny stuff, I'll make sure you regret that, too." 

[greyfeathers]

Grey stepped through the window slowly, hands always stretched away from his body. As he got in he looked at the woman currently in control of the situation. Okay, this might not be so bad after all. He noticed the katana at her side and immediately felt a pang of jealousy, and a healthy dose of respect. It wasn't his weapon of choice, but damn if it wasn't lethal...

"Nice sword..." Grey stepped to the side towards a small chair and slid his backpack off his shoulder onto it with a heavy thud. He had previously stowed the shotgun in it for extra freedom of movement but the .45 was still in it's holster at his hip, and his knife still in it's sheath over his chest. He looked over the apartment carefully, taking note of positions hidden from he field of view. Not many existed.

"If I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead...you've got nothing to worry about from me."

Grey lowered his hands, making sure not to bring his right too close to the holster. Provoking a firefight was not something he wanted to do, though judging from the smell of stale tobacco and alcohol, there wouldn't be much of a fight...unless she was a lot faster than she currently looked. If she had survived out here this long, the latter was the most likely.

"So, you interested in introductions, or would you prefer we remain total strangers?"

[Ruby]

After the stranger entered the apartment, Ruby closed the window, locked it, and closed its curtains. I don't need anymore surprise visitors tonight. She watched him plop his bag onto an armchair and wondered what he could possibly be carrying around that made his bag seem so heavy.

The stranger turned around and looked over the apartment. Ruby gave him a quick up/down and noted his knife and the gun in his holster. She looked up at him when she heard him speak. "If I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead."

She raised an eyebrow at this as he continued to say that she had nothing to worry about. She watched his movements, they seemed stiff to her.

"So, you interested in introductions, or would you prefer we remain total strangers?" His talking caught her off-guard again.

She cleared her throat and looked at him. "First of all, that's arrogant to think that you know my skill level. I mean, I have survived this long haven't I?" she calmly asked him.

Ruby walked back to the couch to re-sheath her katana before making her way to the kitchen and sitting in her chair. She pulled a cigarette from the pack on the table, lit it, and took a drag. "I guess we can do introductions." she exhaled the smoke through her nostrils and crossed her legs.

"My name is Ruby." she propped the elbow of her smoking hand on the table and used her free hand to push the pack towards the free chair closest to him. "You're free to have one if you'd like."

[Jagged03]

Jason was pretty sure York and claustrophobia were synonymous. It doesn't help that the infected clogged the already narrow streets of the old town. Jason has been stuck in the UK since the beginning of it all and the country has only gotten worse. The infected numbers have climbed rapidly since the outbreak. The English countryside used to be relatively safe but you have to be on your guard out there nowadays.  


The masked man sat just under the window of a shop on a surprisingly clear street. He had been chased this way by some thugs but he lost them. Despite a unfavorable ratio of infected to humans, people still found ways to be dickheads, especially if you're a foreigner in what used to be their home country. It was dark out so visibility within the shop wasn't ideal but some moonlight managed to sneak its way in and the shadows were that much brighter. Jason squinted through his mask to try to focus his eyes. Something about this place made him feel uneasy. 


He lifted his head slightly so he could peek out of the window. "All clear" Jason thought as he scanned outside. "Might as well do some shopping to see if I can find something nice for myself." he said quietly to himself as he stood up to scavenge some shelves. Jason ran his hands along the empty shelves in the dark, hoping to find something. He rummaged and rummaged but found nothing. Jason let out a tired sigh. 


He had began to ponder on what to do next when a thump from the floor above him interrupted his thought process. Jason immediately drew his pistol as his eyes shot to the ceiling above. He waited for another sound but it never came. Jason cautiously moved towards the stairs at the back of the shop, aiming his 1911 at them the entire time. The stairs creaked and groaned with every step as the large man moved up them. He felt as if they were going to give out under his weight at any moment but he remained calm and kept his movements slow and restrained. Jason reached the top and was greeted by a hallway with numerous doors leading into various rooms.


As he was about to move, Jason heard a shuffle from an open door to his right. He went to turn his gun onto the black abyss that was the doorway when an infected lunged at him, rotten hands reaching for its meal. Jason reacted by grasping one of its wrists and pulling it towards him as he side stepped out of its path. Once the infected was off balance and stumbling, Jason placed a hand on the back of its head and smashed its face into the closed door to his left. With a mix of the sickening sound of the infected's face shattering and aged wood and metal giving way, the door tore from its hinges and flew to the floor with the zombie in tow. Jason believed himself to be in the clear as he caught his breath from the heart attack he nearly had. As he stood hunched over, hands on his knees, an eardrum shattering roar from an infected erupted from the now open room to his left. 


Jason then heard poundings on the remaining closed doors in the hallway. Without wanting to find out what was about burst from the rooms, he sprinted to the end of the hallway and jumped out of the window to the street below as he heard a symphony of doors crash open behind him. The buildings in York aren't very tall so Jason was able to roll away safely. He quickly scaled the building in front of him to the rooftop. Rooftops were the only completely safe place to be to avoid infected. He looked to the street parallel to the one he was just on. Unlike, the previous one this street had plenty of walking corpses on it. But that's old news. What caught Jason's eye was a small amount of light seeping through the closed curtains of a window.

[greyfeathers]

Grey relaxed when she did. Good. That went well.

"No offense Ruby, but I've seen plenty of people survive shit situations because of sheer dumb luck. And I'd say finding a second floor apartment that was still in good condition..."

Grey raised his arms and gestured towards the room a cold look on his face as he recalled exactly what he had to claw through even before the Apocalypse. Oh, he didn't mean to diminish her skill. On the contrary, he knew what he was capable of. And the tiniest part of his old self that still remained was scared shitless of what he was now.

"...a healthy supply of booze..."

Now he gestured towards the bottles of gin sitting on the table next to her. His cold expression gave way to one of irritation. While he was out freezing his ass off out in the rain, too cautious to squat in a building for fear of getting mauled on, she was probably still in here swilling gin and laughing at not only him, but for every other unlucky son of a bitch in the world. Her offering him a smoke just made things worse.

"...and cigarettes is pretty damn lucky!" Anger bubbled up inside him, and for just a split second he tried to reach for the .45 that stayed silent in it's holster. He stopped though, realizing that the first person he had seen in months, a complete stranger that had done him no wrong was now on the receiving end of all his bottled up desperation, anger and...pain. Pure, crystalline pain.

Grey fell to the floor and leaned back against the wall, mouth agape at what he almost did.
"Shit...Shit I'm sorry..."
For the first time since the Apocalypse, Grey felt remorse. Actual remorse. This wasn't a survival situation. He had no justification for his actions, no excuse to hide behind. Had he finally, truly gone over the edge?

Grey regained control of his breathing seconds later, emotion gradually being reigned back in by military discipline. He got back up and stood in a corner.

"The journey into the city was...pretty gruesome."

And now it was his turn for introductions. What a wonderful first impression this would be!

"I'm..."

For a second he almost said it. Who he used to be. But the name caught in his throat. That man was killed of long before the world came to an end...

"I'm Grey. Nice to see someone else survived hell..."

Grey turned his head towards the window as a muffled scream erupted from somewhere in the distance. He knew it all too well. His hand drifted close to his .45 again, just in case...

"And it looks like someone else won't..."

[Ruby]

The man's words hurt Ruby even though he apologized, and his anger was unpredicted. She mentally panicked for a second, hoping his bout wouldn't be the death of her, but appeared cold and uncaring on the outside. She smiled at him on the floor as she dragged on her cigarette. "I've only been using this as my shelter for some months. My guess is someone abandoned it to try to get into little survivor groups or colonies or whatever they're calling them these days." she exhaled whatever smoke didn't sneak out as she spoke. "I'm the one who has kept it so clean in here."

She looked to the gin bottles. "I'm sure there's a decent amount of booze still left in England, I really only take the gin." she told the man. "There aren't many people around nowadays, not that I've seen anyway. I'm sure I'm the only scavenger intentionally making pit stops for booze to drink this loveliness away." she motioned towards the outside. She took one last drag from her cigarette that had smoked itself and blew the smoke out as she stubbed it in the ashtray.

Ruby looked at the man who was now standing in a corner. "I don't need to defend myself to a stranger, but you're doing the same thing whether you're in a group or by yourself. Just because I choose not to share this little apartment with other people doesn't mean that I'm living the high life. It means I go scavenging on my own. I means I deal with infected and shitty people on my own. It means I eat alone, drink alone, and spend my time alone, and coming across people like you only reminds me why I do."

She heard the man said his name was Grey, but didn't have time to respond before a scream interrupted their conversation and directed her gaze to the window. She removed her revolver from its holster and set it on the table and stood from her seat.

She walked over to the cupboards and removed a can of Spam and a pan and walked over to the fire. She looked at Grey, her bad mood forgotten after hearing the scream, "It's getting dark fast and if people are outside they'll be looking for shelter for the night, this fire needs to go before we attract attention. But I lit it to cook, so would you like some Spam?"

[greyfeathers]

Grey only felt worse after Ruby's reply. Way to fuck things up. As the scream just now started to fade away, Grey continued to look out the window, unwilling to let his guard down.

"Please..."

Part of him was sad that the fire would go out. It was comforting to have one again, and a disappointment to see it go. He knew she was right though. It would draw too much attention.


"Won't they be able to smell it though?"

[Ruby]

Ruby fiddled with the container until the Spam fell out onto the pan. She broke it in half and placed it over a jimmy-rigged grate and let it heat up over the small flames.

"I'm more concerned with people seeing the smoke than smelling it. Most should be in some sort of shelter by now. I don't know many people who would volunteer to go out into crowds of infected at night. Regardless, I don't need any more people thinking I'm a motel," she said sarcastically as she looked at him, and continued, "so the fire needs to go out when this is done."

The meat not yet sizzling, she made her way to the kitchen. She turned the lantern on low for some light and walked over to the cupboards. "As for the Spam, the only people that will be smelling it is us because the window is closed. I don't know if you've ever smelled Spam, but it's not exactly steak. I don't think I'll ever be able to stand it." She opened one of the cupboard doors and pulled out two glasses and took out a pan from a warm fridge.

After pouring the contents into the glasses and putting the pan back, she placed one glass onto the table and came back into the parlor and handed the other to Grey. "Are you thirsty? When it rains I put containers on the roof to collect the water. Or if you want gin you can help yourself."

The meat started to sizzle and upon checking it, had started to brown. Ruby flipped it and waited until it sizzled again. When it was done, she used the shovel to scoop ashes onto the wood, smothering the fire, and took the pan to the kitchen.

She transferred their dinner from the pan onto little plates on the kitchen table. "I suggest we eat in here where there's a little light. Unless eating in the dark makes you happy, in which case, don't let me stop you." She put a fork beside each plate and sat down. 

[greyfeathers]

Grey looked at the spam closely. The crap he had eaten on the job made it look like a gourmet meal. And the offer of gin was damn enticing. It had been awhile since he had a drink that didn't come out of some kind of jerry rigged distilerry. He moved towards the bottle and poured half a glass. He didn't want to impose.
As Ruby set the table and served the spam, Grey couldn't help but feel obliged to at least return some of the kindness showed to him. So he moved over to his backpack, opened a zipper in the backnl pocket and pulled out two small cylinders and promptly placed them on the table before taking a seat.

"Salt and pepper. Help yourself."

Grey started eating, almost forgetting the infected outside. Boy was he glad he didn't decide to go to the belltower. As much a view it would give him, it wouldn't be the same as a nice clean apartment, even if he just got the couch. It would be better than the sleeping bagbhe had been using for so long, that was certain.

[Ruby]

Ruby took a forkful of Spam and chewed it as she watched Grey place salt and pepper on the table. She swallowed before she spoke. "You talk about my luxuries and you're carrying around condiments in your bag." she picked up the salt and put a light coat over her dinner, then did the same with the pepper. "Thank you. I can't remember the last time I had salt or pepper."

She took another bite before speaking into her hand to cover up her bad table manners. "So," she started. "where do you plan on going after tonight? Do you have a shelter of your own? Or do you just wander?"

She took a sip of water and ate another forkful, amazed at how a little salt and pepper made Spam taste so much better.

[greyfeathers]

Grey poured some salt and pepper on the spam before eating. Definitely one of the better things he had eaten recently.

"The salt I collected myself. Must have spent a couple hour on th beach doing so."

Grey took another bite, followed by a sip of gin. The alcohol slid down his throat gently, nothing like the hard moonshine he had gotten used to drinking. He set the glass down before looking over to Ruby.

"Just wandering..."

Grey had been looking, hunting alone for so long he barely realized the Apocalypse had happened. But in all probability, he was dead by now. Robbed of a purpose, Grey could only wander. Maybe that was what he would search for now. Someplace he could find a reason to live again.

"I'll find someplace to stay. I can always make shelter."
The camping tent he had in the bag had been a lifesaver on many occasions. But with infected around, he would have to be careful about using it. The countryside wasn't as safe as it used to be...