ophiocordyceps: (only dying.)
𝚍𝚛. 𝚌𝚊𝚛𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚎 𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚍𝚠𝚎𝚕𝚕 ([personal profile] ophiocordyceps) wrote in [community profile] fleetstreet2014-11-24 08:47 pm

there's no running that can hide you now, 'cause i can see in the dark;

[ Nothing much changed, really. In the end, Beacon as it had existed for roughly ten years, didn't last. Radio silence. Then the new head's order. Caroline will eventually cling to the belief that, had she had years inside of Hotel Echo - military base and research facility, the only one of its kind on the entire planet - she could have found the cure. Or at least, a vaccine.

It's not true, of course. Four years or four weeks roughly amount to the same thing.

The facility had been "shut down", as the call had said. There's something about seeing a seasoned military sergeant turning paper white, especially after she had heard him talk about encounters of the closest kind with hungries of insane numbers.

Caldwell had seen a few burn shadows when they had been flown to the base -- the word describes them well. Whatever chemicals is in these bombs, and even her scientific interest doesn't go that far -- burn whatever they touch, and what's left is dead land.

Apparently, that's what "shut down" means.

So they had decided to screw the government and run, but you don't get very far these days. They had humvees, but they had made noise, and weren't made for the kind of trail Jean had sent them on. Nothing humans still had on their side was.

So they had fled on foot.

She's lucky, she only has three hungries on her trail.

She's unlucky, because even three hungries can go on for pretty much all eternity, while she can't. Not even with adrenaline pumping through her veins, she can't. She feels the absurd urge to stand still, look at them, the insane curiosity that must have killed so many of her kind, but her legs keep going, somehow. It feels as if she is removed from her own body, in a way. She's watching the running, she feels the fear, and she feels not a single thing at the same time.

She hopes it stays that way when they get her. She had seen what they had done to Jean Selkirk, who, in falling, had saved her life by being the more eligible meal.

"Saved", in context, might as well be translated as "prolonged by a few minutes that, in the greater scheme of things, weren't of any importance whatsoever".

What she needs is a miracle.

Even if she ever had been a believer of some kind, this seemed like an absurd thing to ask for in the given situation. ]
grandwitchhuntress: (seriously?)

[personal profile] grandwitchhuntress 2014-11-25 08:22 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Sorry Caroline but Gretel has no idea who you are, which probably shows in her somewhat blank stare. There is a spark of interest somewhere in there though, because Gretel is hungry for knowledge, she has been trying all her life to understand what the fuck happened to the world, but she's never really had any opportunities to get the sort of formal training that Caroline has. ]

You figured that out?
grandwitchhuntress: (it's hot out here)

[personal profile] grandwitchhuntress 2014-11-25 09:01 pm (UTC)(link)
[ Huh, seems like someone kind of likes to lecture a bit. Well, good thing Gretel doesn't really mind listening as long as people are saying something worthwhile. ]

Fungus. So people are basically turning into mushrooms.

[ She starts walking and nods for Caroline to follow her. They shouldn't keep standing around like this. ]
grandwitchhuntress: (Focused)

[personal profile] grandwitchhuntress 2014-11-25 09:20 pm (UTC)(link)
I've wondered about that. If the people who are infected are still kind of in there, you know? Just watching their own bodies doing shit they don't want to do but they can't stop it any more.

[ She used to try to talk to Hansel about things like that but he wouldn't have it. He wasn't the biggest fan of creeping himself out.

Now she wishes that she could stop wondering things like that, because now there might be a hungry out there wearing her brother's face.

She hopes not. She hopes they just fucking ate him.
]
grandwitchhuntress: (Focused)

[personal profile] grandwitchhuntress 2014-11-26 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)
Good. I wouldn't wish it on anyone to be a prisoner in your own body. Better to just... be gone.

[ Be a fucking flesh eating mushroom. ]

I guess you haven't figured out how to stop it?

[ She has a feeling even she would have heard about it if a cure showed up, even if her contact with other human being is very, very limited most of the time.

Caroline might notice that their direction is starting to take on a very... steadily upwards type of character the longer they keep walking.
]
grandwitchhuntress: (pretty)

[personal profile] grandwitchhuntress 2014-11-26 09:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Somewhere safe. Ish.

[ Gretel is still working on remembering how to talk to people who aren't Hansel. People who don't understand her every look or gesture. People who actually need words to get what she wants to say. ]

It's where we... where I keep my stash of supplies. It's a bit of a climb so not many hungries come there.

[ She tries to sound at least a little bit reassuring. Like she knows the first thing about what the fuck they are going to do now. ]
grandwitchhuntress: (it's hot out here)

[personal profile] grandwitchhuntress 2014-11-26 10:16 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes.

[ It is good thinking, and it has served her very well for years now. She's still alive after all. ]

There's water there, and some food. I'll keep watch while you sleep.

[ Keep going, is what she's saying here, even if it is not in so many words. You can do it.. ]
grandwitchhuntress: (Condescending)

[personal profile] grandwitchhuntress 2014-11-28 05:55 pm (UTC)(link)
Sorry lady but I don't trust your exhausted ass to have my back if we get in trouble. We can talk about taking turns when you're not more or less sleeping on your feet.

[ But she does appreciate the fact that Caldwell intends to pull her own weight. No that there is any room in the world for freeloaders anymore, they've all been weeded out. ]
grandwitchhuntress: (it's hot out here)

[personal profile] grandwitchhuntress 2014-12-02 06:09 pm (UTC)(link)
They ate who?

[ Gretel isn't sure what just happened, but quite clearly Caroline decided to skip a few steps in the conversation and decide to assume that Gretel had spontaneously turned into a mind reader.

Had Caroline been Hansel, that migh even have worked. But she isn't, so Gretel is left feeling mostly confusion and annoyance mixed in with just a touch of curiosity.
]