DEPLOYMENT 8: When the Wild Wind Blows

[walking_nuke]

[PHONE - THANKSGIVING NOVEMBER 24 (Evening, OPEN TO ALL)]

[Balin's already heard about this. It's a good thing he's been asking around, and that Quinn let him know what happened last year in Mayfield. And yet, that phone call from Jack Smith left him wondering. What were Mayfield's leaders up to now?]

[He decides to actually respond to Jack's

Comments

Day 2 /placeholder

[forever_cheery]

[It's a good thing you're out there, Balin. Aurora ventured out on her own a little too far and the cannibals caught on to her. She's really not prepared for *anything* in this situation. Being an amnesiac ghost from the Other Side doesn't really give you survival skills. So about all she can do is run for her life and yell for help.]

Heh, sorry, I didn't know whether to tag back or not. XD;

[walking_nuke]

[When Balin hears the sound of someone calling for help over the din of roaring, ravenous cannibals, he ducks behind what remains of a nearby house, readying his revolver and his hatchet. It sounds like they're coming this way ... and he intends to take the cannibals by surprise while they're too focused on their would-be prey.]

[As Aurora runs past the house, followed by the cannibals, Balin steps forward from behind cover, hurling two of his scavenged hatchets toward the heads of the cannibal pack. He unholsters his revolver while fishing for a third hatchet.]

Hope you like steel an' lead, 'cause it's dinner time!

[Not giving the cannibals a chance to react, he's already unloading the revolver on them.]

no worries!!

[forever_cheery]

[Aurora trips and scrambles off behind a slab of fallen concrete as Balin lays into the cannibals. She watches him, wide-eyed and panting for breath, amazed anyone was around to heed her pleas. After a moment of getting herself back together, she picks up some discarded bricks, and starts hurling them at the cannibals. She's got a pretty decent arm on her, at least.]

Y-Yeah! Take that!

:D

[walking_nuke]

[Expending all six shots in the revolver wasn't enough to end the pack of cannibals, but it did thin the herd considerably. There's no time to reload, though, so Balin deftly holsters the revolver moments before the pack falls on him.]

[-but Balin is a soldier, and he's been in plenty of savage melee fights with the Crusties. The first cannibal to get into melee range with Balin gets its face split by a swift uppercut-like swing of his hatchet, sending a spray of blood flying.]

Get some!

[The fight gets only more savage from there. Balin is using both his knowledge of CQC and the hatchet to disarm and disable the cannibals, though he isn't intending to leave any alive; whenever he's got one down for the count, he finishes them off with a hatchet blow to their neck. He's also taking advantage of Aurora's brick-chucking to finish off any of the cannibals struck by them.]

TURKEY DAY

[rapier_ex]

Balin! The food!

... It's actually good!

[walking_nuke]

[Looking as surprised as Virginia in that userpic!]

Say what? They ain't kiddin'-?

[rapier_ex]

It's better than good! It's great! -Just gonna bite right into that drumstick.-

[walking_nuke]

[Judging from his expression, Balin's still skeptical, although seeing Virginia happily dig in ... but considering having watched what the Milkman did for a week, and what Quinn told him happened last year in Mayfield, he's half expecting the turkey to be laced with the Milkman's incurable poison.]

Day 2

[rapier_ex]

What do you think you're doing! -Virginia had been looking for him. It wasn't safe to be out on one's own, even for someone like him.-

[walking_nuke]

[At first Balin almost points the revolver at Virginia, a split second before he recognizes her voice. He lowers his aim accordingly, looking relieved but a little indignant.]

Keep your voice down, I'm trackin' a group of 'em.

[A beat.]

Sealand's bunker was closed off by'a time I got back, an'ere was a pack of'ese fuckers waitin' around. I didn't have much of a choice.

[rapier_ex]

Doing it alone? Haven't you learned anything here? -Virginia sighs. She understands, on some level, her companions frustrations with her, now.-

I'm doing this with you.

[walking_nuke]

[Trading linefaces with Ginny like a boss.]

Yeah, well, I figured you an' Caesar were in'at bunker. Didn't even know you were out here lookin' for me.

It ain't like I was plannin' on takin' 'em on all by myself.

Day 2

[idkmybfforin]

[Utsuho has found herself in a bit of a dilemma.

She needed food and energy badly--all that flying kept her metabolism burning white-hot--yet the instant she landed on an unfortunate ghoul, crushing it to death with her feet, its fellows had surrounded her before she could take off again.

These only had hatchets, rather than guns, but there were five of them gathered into a loose, jeering, shrieking circle around the raven. She had her great wings mantled and tented over her kill, ripping chunks of the putrid flesh away and shoving them into her mouth at great speed--but not fast enough.

One ghoul approached too close, and the hell raven hissed, jolted her head up, and threw the corpse's skull at it. The force bowled the ghoul over, but it still got up again.

She kept up her hissing act, lunging by half-steps at any ghouls that came too close. There was an animal-like sort of accord between the ghouls and the hell raven--but that wouldn't last long.]

[walking_nuke]

[Balin happens across this standoff, approaching from the areas generally behind Utsuho. Because of that, he doesn't notice what the hell raven's eating, especially with those huge black wings and the group of cannibals surrounding her, obscuring her full form. All he can tell is there's a woman trying to scare the cannibals away by pretending to be an animal. In his mind, those wings mean "captive of Mayfield" and therefore someone who needs help.]

[Balin steps out from cover, taking a few steps before putting all his strength into throwing one of his scavenged hatchets toward a cannibal's head. Without pausing, he turns and takes aim at another cannibal with the revolver, also aiming for a headshot.]

lj stop it this is not furniture

[idkmybfforin]

[Okuu jerks her head up again, glaring over her shoulder at the dull, thwacking sound of metal meeting flesh. The ghoul who had been so introduced to the hatchet clawed wildly at the back of its head before toppling over in a twitching wreck--the other one merely collapsed, with a less-than-neat hole in its head.

The other ghouls follow her gaze--and the hell raven seizes on the momentary distraction. She rushes at the first one she can reach, using her wings to cover the distance that much faster in a half-jump. She intercepted the ghoul's rising hatchet arm by grabbing hold of it--then savagely wrenching the rotted human off its feet. She swept it at the next one like a particularly gruesome flail, hissing terribly--and leaving the half-eaten corpse in full view.]

TIME TO FLIP SOME TABLES

[walking_nuke]

[The way the standoff dissolves causes Balin to pause before firing again-he was about to fire on the cannibal Utsuho just took down, although he's also taken aback by her appearance. She's huge, and she's still hissing like a snake-or maybe more like a goose since she's a winged humanoid. Okuu is the best Canadian Goose ever.]

[More than that, though, Balin notices that all that blood and gore around her mouth ... and then he sees what she had been coveting-a half-eaten human. For a moment, Balin's aim lowers as his mind grapples with that-was that the half-eaten body of another survivor? He couldn't tell from this angle, though it's clear that the girl was the one eating the body, not the cannibals. Balin's left wondering whether he should worry more about them or the woman-]

[-but the roar of another charging cannibal forces Balin out of his confusion, reminding him of exactly who is the greater threat here. He turns and unloads a few rounds, aiming for the cannibal's face while reaching for another one of his scavenged hatchets.

Day 3

[commentboxtroll]

If you're done screaming at the world...

[Sure, focus on the cannibals. That left him to miss that someone has tracked his stupid ass down, most likely because it was better than watching everyone in the bunker slowly get sicker and sicker.

Caesar will be grabbing him by the arm and hauling him back, in a direction away from the dangerous group.]

Come on.

[walking_nuke]

[At first, Balin resists.]

-Caesar, you crazy?

[Yes, he's asking this even though he was the one who's spent most of his time out in the open.]

You seen how'ese fuckers move-?!

[commentboxtroll]

I'm not the one threatening to nuke somewhere that's already nuked.

[So no, he isn't the crazy one here.]

Have you seen how they move? Worse than us, now. They've gotten slower. [If they're only now beginning to feel sick, it's only worse for the ones who drove in from the direction of the bomb site.] Now move it. We have to go.

Reposting!

[walking_nuke]

[Balin's a little too "excited" by the current state of events-and equally aggravated by the onset of radiation sickness-to listen to Caesar. Initially.]

Bullshit it's already nuked! You know'ey're prolly gonna hit'a reset button once we're all dead an' dyin'! I'm a fuckin' Demolitionist, nukin' shit is what I do-

[Before he can continue, Caesar's observation does knock some sense into him, and he stops talking altogether. He also realizes that he's never told Caesar the full extent of his Logos Abilities ... and it wasn't really the best of times to break that sort of news.]

[With a glare, he glances back out toward the direction of the cannibals.]

Ahright. Okay. Fine. But if'ey catch up I'm not gonna keep runnin'.

[No longer resisting, Balin turns and follows Caesar away from the roaring hordes.]