Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

[OAMP]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

The zombie does not appear to understand Melissa at all. It does pause slightly when she speaks, but it keeps trying to force itself upon her. However, there is a bit of hope. The slime and other gunk on the floor is making it harder for the zombie to get a grip on Melissa, the stuff is working against both of them. Throughout the entire attempt at diplomacy the monster fails to gain any ground against the solider.

Just as Melissa finishes her attempt, Jamie yells from the back room. "Melissa, are you okay out there! Can I help?!?" Her voice is a bit shakey, she sounds quite afraid, but still has hope. The zombie's head jerks to look where the sound comes from, but continues to struggle with Melissa, though distracted.

 

[xivvix]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

With the zombie still gripping her but only clawing clumsily at her fatigues, Melissa is briefly unsure whether she's better off with it not understanding or not. Jamie's voice calling from the restroom, however, shakes that doubt from her mind. Melissa had been hoping to keep the woman from seeing the fight, as the situation was taking it's toll on Jamie with each passing moment. Pinned as she is, though, Melissa decides she'd rather have Jamie's help, than a helping of zombie...

"Jamie!," she calls, sliding her face through the slime along the ground to turn in the voice's direction. "I... I could use a hand. Can you come out here?" With Jamie's legs giving her problems and currently sitting in the basket of the shopping cart, Melissa isn't sure just how fast the officer can make her way out to the floor. She gives a loud grunt, then begins pushing against the floor with her hands and knees, hoping to throw her attacker off balance enough for her to get out from under it.

(escape grapple)

 

[OAMP]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

(42 vs 42 )

The distraction is just enough, Melissa twists the other way and free's herself out from under the zombie, though it manages to grab her ankle again at the last moment. The infected holds on tight and starts yanking her back in as the two hear the sound of a cart tipping over. Locked in struggle, they don't have much time to think about it untill all of a sudden the zombie is punched in the back of the head by the sarge, dazing it for a moment and giving Melissa time to escape from the thing's grasp.

 

[xivvix]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

(lol, the dice are nice to me against the first zombie, now they can't decide what they want!)

As soon as the zombie let's go of her ankle, Melissa pushes herself backward across the slimy floor, then gets up to her feet. She wastes no time turning to Jamie, focusing completely on her attacker. Not wanting to give the creature another chance to grab her, she immediately grabs the grenade launcher from her shoulder and swings it, butt first, towards the zombie's head. It's obvious these things can't be reasoned with, the only thing to do is kill them.

(attack!)

 

[OAMP]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

Melissa swings, but her strength is gone from the fight. Still, the infected is serious wounded, though not dead. It rolls on the floor, moaning in pain a bit. Jamie moves to stomp its face in, and actually succeeds, but it is obvious she's caused herself alot of pain from this encounter as she immediately hisses and grits her teeth, almost falling over.

 

[xivvix]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

After recovering from her failed attack, Jamie stands for a moment, looking down at her former assailant. Finally, she lets out a long breath of relief and brings a hand to her forehead, suddenly conscious of the headaches that come with repeatedly falling to the ground. She takes a moment to wipe the slime from her face, then turns to Jamie. "Thanks sarge, thanks so-," she pauses as she sees the woman hissing in pain and holding her leg. "Oh shit, are you okay?" Forgetting her own troubles, Melissa hurries to the woman's side and puts an arm around her, ready to support her. "Hang on, hang on, let's get you back to the cart."

 

[OAMP]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

"I'm... I'm fine, it just hurts a bit." Jamie did not seem all that steady, but her voice said she was still in combat mode, more pissed off at the zombie then concerned for her legs. She let Melissa move her along, she didn't have much energy left for walking on her own after using it all up like that.

Back in the bathroom, their cart was tipped over, the stuff spilled out. Jamie had just flipped it over to get out fast, rather then spend who knows how long getting out of it carefully. Even a professional weight lifter would have had trouble lifing themselves up by just their arms and swinging their legs over without tipping, let alone an injured woman of slight build.

 

[xivvix]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

"Here, can you hold yourself up for a bit?" Melissa asks, before propping Jamie up against the wall. She immediately sets about right the cart and putting the supplies back in, hoping none of it had broken in the fall. "Okay, ready?" she asks, moving back over to the woman and holding her hands out to get a grip on the woman and help her over the edge of the cart. The woman isn't too heavy, but Melissa still lets out a grunt from exertion. "Thanks again, sarge. You know I don't like asking for help, but that thing was getting a little too close."

 

[OAMP]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

Jamie slowly sank back to the floor, using the wall to support her, as Melissa fixed up the cart. The sarge was definitely the one that came out worse off from that encounter, the durable goods the two had selected weathered the fall very well. A few cans had been dented, but canned goods got dented all the time just in normal transit, the food inside was still good.

Melissa had to do most of the work getting Jamie back in the cart, the fading rush of combat was really sapping the sarge's strength. Despite this, she seemed to be in a good mood, if tired. "Well, I guess we won't consider me just a burden now, eh? I may slow you down but I can still save your bacon." She grabbed one of the water bottles they had collected and opened it, taking a long drink before offering some to Melissa. It seemed the incident had restored some of her command confidence as well, as she now gave off her old aura, from before she'd hurt her legs.

 

[xivvix]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

With a smirk, Melissa accepts the water, taking a quick swig before handing it back. "Yeah, yeah, and I'm sure when we get back to base you'll never let me live down the fact that I had to ask for help from the person I'm helping." She chuckles, then smiles at the woman, glad to see the sarge is coming back to her old self. Once again, Melissa finds herself thinking that things aren't as bad as they had been seeming.

Things might not be as bad as they seem, but the situation certainly stinks, and so does Melissa. Looking down at her fatigues, the soldier sighs then says, "He slimed me," laughing as she quotes another famous movie. "Though not the way he was trying, at least," she adds. "Mind if I take a second to clean this crap off?" Her clothes might be intact, but walking around smelling like beans all day would be almost as bad as being naked. The soldier walks over to one of the sinks in the restroom and grabs a few paper towels from the nearby dispenser. She dampens the towels just enough to remove the liquids she had been rolling around in, but not enough to soak her clothes. When she realizes she won't be able to clean her back this way, she starts to remove her clothes, before glancing back at Jamie. "No peeking," she quips before finishing pulling off her pants and going back to cleaning off her clothes, body, and hair as best she can, unperturbed by standing in front of her sergeant in the underwear she had found in the clothing store.

Once she is clean enough, Melissa quickly puts them back on, and returns her focus to the reason they had been checking the restrooms in the first place: supplies. She quickly checks the room for a first aid kit, even going so far as to open up the stalls, just in case. "I think we're almost done here, Jamie" she says during her search. "Can you think of anything else we might need before we head out?

 

[OAMP]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

The sarge just lets out an amused snort and turned her back, so she was facing the door, as Melissa went to clean up. As she cleaned, Melissa could hear the woman take an occasional drink from the water bottle, but otherwise was left in peace to freshen up.

When the bluenette came back over the sarge seemed a bit impatient. "Yeah... we really need to get going. We've really spent too much time here. As long as you've made sure we didn't lose anything from that fight there I think we got everything." After waiting for a response and then getting underway, the sarge spoke again. "Also, perhaps you could hand that launcher and ammo over to me, that way you won't have to stop from pushing and we can fire it on the move." She respositioned herself as she spoke, flinching a bit as her leg snagged a bit, but she tried to hide it.

 

[xivvix]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

Nodding as Jamie speaks about leaving, Melissa checks their equipment then moves to start pushing the cart back out of the restroom. Her suggestion about the grenade launcher though, gives Melissa pause. She hadn't fired the weapon much, but trained as she is in explosives, holding on to the weapon is something of a comfort. After a few moments though, she nods, saying, "You got it, sarge," as pulls the weapon from her shoulder to hand it to the woman, as well as placing the ammunition in the cart.

Once out of the restroom, Melissa quickly picks the shotgun up from the liquid covered floor. She wipes it off, then holds it barrel down to let out any of the slime that may have found it's way inside. After cleaning the weapon, she quickly loads a new pair of shells, then slings it over her shoulder. "Okay, sarge," she says, getting behind the cart once more, "Let's get the hell out of this place." Wasting no more time, Melissa heads straight for the exit out to the street, eager to get moving towards the military base.

 

[OAMP]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

It got a bit hard to move the cart forward near the exit, the area was a bit more trashed the rest of the area, as if there had been a struggle. They couldn't be stealthy, as a result, and made quite a bit of noise, but fortunately nothing attacked them.

After working their way outside, a deserted parking lot greeted the pair. This was the backside of the mall, and as such less people parked here, and coupled with the early hour of the attack and people fleeing the area, there were almost no cars left. A nice change for the tough going of before.

There were two obvious ways out of the area. First, across the lot was an exit onto a smaller street that slowly went back into more residential areas. It went in the general direction of the soliders destination. It was quiet and offered cover, but the chances to encounter something useful was slim, if they still felt like hunting for something else.

The other option was to the left, a larger road, connecting to the main highway and later the freeway could be reached that way, no doubt littered with more debris that could aid them. Both routes were ambush prone.

 

[xivvix]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

The rattling and clanking cart makes Melissa wince as the women leave the mall, and she can't help but be on edge as they move into the deserted parking lot. Stopping the cart, Melissa takes a moment to look around. "I'm guessing those cars will be out of commission, just like the ambulance," she says, eying the few remaining vehicles in the lot.

"Alright, Jamie, eyes and ears," Melissa says, using a common phrase for soldiers to stay alert. After only a moment of checking the area of threats, Melissa begins to move the cart again, feeling time to be of the essence. "Let's get a move on," she says to Jamie, speaking a little loudly to be heard clearly over the rattling wheels, "We'll head into the residential area and head straight for the base." While the highway might seem like an easier route to travel on, the many houses lining the smaller streets should absorb some of the noise from the cart, hopefully keeping the women a little bit more safe. And in a worse case scenario, the two can always take cover in one of the houses for at least some protection.

(head for the residential area)

 

[OAMP]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

While it was hard work pushing the cart down the streets, but the two soliders made good time. They ahd to dodge litter here and there, making a winding path as a result. The houses looked intact for the most part, but there were alot of front doors open, either left that way or broken down.

From one such house smashing noises and metalic clangs, both women detected it about the same time, while the house was still three or four away. Jamie held up a hand for Melissa to stop pushing and turned back to quickly whisper. "There's something in there! We shouldn't go that way." However, going around would take awhile, and involve alot of backtracking. Perhaps it wasn't the best course of action.

 

[xivvix]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

Immediately upon hearing the crashes and clangs in the house ahead, Melissa is reminded of the sounds she had heard from the security room in the mall. The creature that had come so close to doing what the women had heard rumors of had been frantically moving about the room trying to find an exit, knocking around all manner of objects in it's frenzy. There was no way for her to know if this was the same kind of monster without moving in closer, and with Jamie not in the best of shape, Melissa decided it was best not to chance an encounter. And with the door smashed open, even just ignoring the sounds and hurrying past is dangerous.

"You're right, let's find another way around," Melissa says quietly, staring at the house the noises were coming from while slowly backing the cart away. Once far enough away from the house, she speeds up, eager tor reach the military base before it begins getting late.

 

[OAMP]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

The pair detoured around the site, a winding sidestreet took them to another small suburban street. Once again there was much litter and debris to avoid, stuff that could get caught up in the tires of the shopping cart. Fortunately it was not far to a better road. Over a small hill was an intersection with a gas station and a car wash, both deserted, or atleast as far as the soldiers could tell. This road would actually take them pretty close to the base, it was wider, had lots of small shops along it, but little cover. To one side were a few fast food resturantes, a bit out of the way from their path. That area seemed to have an unusually large amount of wrecked cars for some reason...

 

[xivvix]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

"Figures," Melissa mutters as she looks over the debris strewn street. The nearby road was too good of a prospect for her to suggest looking for yet another route, though, and she cautiously pushes the cart down the street, doing her best to avoid anything that might slow them down more. Once through the area, Melissa makes a bee line for the road, eager to get moving towards the base, though she spares a moment to check out the gas station from afar, just to make sure it's clear

 

[OAMP]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

The station was dark and trashed, but it didn't look like anything could be hiding inside. Lots of small food items littered the area, but they had plenty in their cart, no need to stop. Most of the other buildings were in a similar condition.

Up ahead was an overpass over the freeway. It had a few cars and other scrap items on it, but overall, it was pretty clear compared to some places the two had seen. However, crossing it would put them high above the surrounding area, making them an even more visible target.

 

[xivvix]

Re: Not Your Typical Work Day (xivvix)

Having stocked up on supplies at the mall, Melissa sees no reason to bother searching through the gas station. Better to keep moving and reach the base before nightfall. "Let's keep moving," she says to Jamie as she begins pushing the cart further down the road towards their destination.

Although she knows the whole city is almost as lifeless as this area, the wide openness of it drives the bleakness to the forefront of Melissa's mind. Hoping to lighten the mood a bit, she smiles and says half-jokingly, "I think the first thing I'm gonna do when I get to base is hit the showers."