Thread: Generation 2

The library is a high, modern looking building with a lot of metal and glass construction. The glass windows in doors and whole downstairs have been replaced with tight nailed planks as a part of the earlier stages of claiming the city as a haven for people.
On the inside the building has a high ceiling and a balcony like upstairs can be seen on the further end of the library. Main of the shelves are empty and most of the tables and chairs have disappeared for better use. All the computers and other things librarians worked with are intact. The coffee room behind the loaning counter is messy and paperwork no-one has interest in is scattered around.
A greyish white staircase leads to the upstairs where are half empty shelves, some beaten up computers and one huge sofa no-one has had the strength to steal for their own living place. Lights aren't on since the only power supply is used for important things like the bank, small hospital modificated from a church and elite's houses.

Once inside the library Alex stopped to admire the building's inside. He'd never really been in the library so the place was relatively new to him so he had to do a bit of looking around.

The whole place was pretty gutted. Alex could understand the chairs and tables being taken away for various reasons but why so many of the books were missing he couldn't imagine why. Some dumb idiots probably thought they'd be good weapons or something.... he thought sarcastically.


After some searching and exploring he found the sofa on the second floor he leaped into the thing sighing as he feels himself sag into it bringing his sword around to the front so he's not laying on it. Holding onto the handle he closed his eyes and would eventually fall asleep if he could relax more which might take him awhile.

Ea opened the doors and felt sudden urge to barricade them aswell, but managed to resist. She didn't know why but talking with the young woman had made her feel very restless and jumpy. How grand it would be only to take care of burglars for example... Such a threat she was ready to accept at any time to place the infected.

Ea walked around in the downstairs, nothing major had happened in there and no-one seemed to be around. Then she climbed the stairs up only ending up to jump backwards with the golf club ready on her hands. Couple of seconds passed before the brain managed to convince her body to put the golf club back down since there was a normal human napping on the sofa.

"Uhm, excuse me?" Ea started when her heart still was trying to calm down.
"If you are awake, I'm sorry for raising my weapon. If you're sleeping, like you seem to, I'm just going to go upstairs myself... Sleep well in that case", Ea tried carefully and stood there for a while to give the other person time to reply if they wanted to.

Hearing someone speak to him but not understanding anything she'd said Alex woke up in a slightly bad attitude he was on the edge of actually falling asleep and he could feel that almost drug like feeling ebbing away from the back of his mind as he woke up. Alex's left eye opened slowly to look at the woman all the bitter anger at being awake coming from his eye as he commented "I was almost asleep...thanks....I suppose you want me to leave?....get out of your bed?"

Ea tilted her head a bit, pondering the slightly hostile attitude targeted towards her but decided it was only grumpiness from waking up. Looking at the irritated and sleepy expression on the other one's face made her eventually let out couple of chuckles.
"No, I have a living place in the upstairs", Ea grinned.
"I'm sorry about waking you up, but I like to know who is taking shelter in the library during night time, especially", Ea continued calmly. "If you want to stay here all your nights, I'm not stopping you. Could you just tell who you are and I'll leave you alone."

Sighing loudly Alex opened both eyes and sat up in the couch. He was glad he didn't have to leave the couch to sleep, but he was awake now and it would take him another 10-20 minutes till he could sleep again. Since the woman was offering to let him stay in the library for the rest of his nights he tried sounding as polite and grateful as he could but anyone could tell the motion was hard for him "Thank you....I'm Alex I don't have a place of my own...so i sleep around usually on the streets" normally it was actually the roofs of buildings but that wasn't the point and most people who knew him didn't even want him there if he was too close to their homes, thinking he'd prank them. He thought it slightly odd she didn't know him he thought everyone knew about him usually pointing at him calling him "That prankster." So he was going to try to behave so he could stay on the couch.

"What? On the streets?", Ea uttered a laughter. This kid hadn't kept informed about what happens in Wunsch.
"I heard there is still a bunch of apartments open for takers in the Badger's Hollow. Most of those should have even furniture on place, since citizens decided to feel all law obeying towards that apartment bulding. Only because the keys were brought down from the elite", Ea seemed a bit annoyed and looked meanfully around the emptiness in the library.
"I heard they threw burning books on the zombies from the walls in the beginning", she added helpfully. "Didn't do too much good though... You just end up with a torch that doesn't care about being the BBQ meat more than it minds about mauling its past fellow citizens. And they lit up the barricades here and there breaking through", woman rolled her eyes.
"But, back to the business. Your name, please?", Ea emphasized the word 'please', letting the lad know he had avoided answering.
"If it helps, I'm still Ea Cipriani. I'm amazed if you haven't been gossiped about me, but I don't mind about being the city lunatic", she grinned.

Listening to her explain that some places in Badger's hollow he made a mental note to check it out tomorrow hopefully the people would run him out of the place because of his reputation. listening to the description of how most of the books went away he smirked he thought fire wouldn't bother the infected and the story confirmed it. When she repeated her question about his name af if he didn't answer that. so he answered a bit agitated that she hadn't listened to him the first time. "I told you..It's Alex...Alex Talbot the town prankster?.." he looked at her oddly after she gladly admitted to being the town lunatic "Nice to... meet you... E"

Ea made disapproval wave with her hand when Alex said "E". Her name had been shortened already enough. "If you take any more letters off, I won't have name at all, will I?"
"My dearest apologies for not paying attention, mr. Alex Talbot, the town prankster. Usually people answer with wrong name with the first time anyhow so...", Ea shrugged a bit but it was clear she wasn't sorry at all.
"I've never heard our town has a prankster so I guess you can't be too good one", woman grinned happily with challenge on her voice and stare she targeted to Alex.

"Don't need a name if yah got a title right E? or should i say Town loony?...and don't call me Mr." Alex said a bit mockingly at her attempt to get him to call her Ea finishing a bit angrily the Mr reminded him of his dad and he was always trying to avoid thinking about family. When she challenged his pranks he looked her square in the eyes "Oh? so i guess you want to experience one of my pranks yourself then?..." his pranks were why he was on the street and he was fine with that if he got a few laughs out of it. "I've got plenty up my sleeve"

"Alright, Mr. Alex. I just happen to think that you don't need a title if you have a name that can be said politely", Ea said in a calm voice. She gave another, better look to the young man and decided to believe he really could pull off something interesting in the area of annoying other people.
"Let me see what you have got. Doesn't necessarily need to be today, but during your visit at least. If you impress me, I'll make sure other people know this is your place for good did you want it or not", Ea nodded to her own decision.
"Heck, I'll even carry all bookshelves and books you don't want downstairs and find you real furniture in here", she continued.

Alex's eyes narrowed for a moment she called him Mr. again. "Ok Ea stop calling me Mr. and I'll keep calling you Ea deal?" His eye twitched in the corner fighting between letting a tear out for having been reminded about his parents again and keeping himself from hitting Ea who seemed to have accepted him staying in the couch he'd claimed as a bed.
He was glad for the challenge for him to prank her it allowed him the calm himself more. "I'm not sure that you want me t-" Alex stopped when he noticed she was more talking to herself than him after a while. His mind began to spin thinking of different ways to prank her and what that would need.



His thoughts were interrupted by a bang outside the library that seemed a bit out of place. He couldn't figure out why but something felt wrong about it. It was much louder than the usual bangs and wails of the infected outside of the walls.

"Sounds like a deal", Ea agreed. Before she came up with anything else to say a loud noise cut the silence. She saw the pondering expression on the young man's face.
"There's definitely something going on... Keep a weapon at hand", she said with a calm voice knowing that each and every citizen always had something with them. She pulled the Sig Sauer from back of her pants and made sure it had ammo. She didn't click the safety off only because knew it could be done on muscle memory when needed.
"I'll just get my club from the downstairs... Then I'll go look around outside. There shouldn't be leaks in this building other than front door and that fire ladder door", Ea explained fast and pointed towards the furthest away wall. "If you want to go out, you can use either. If you wanna stay in, your sofa is a great place to watch over both."

Scarlet let out a low hiss of fear as she flung herself towards the door of the library. That's where everyone was, right? It was boarded up, so it had to be safe!

...Right?

"Hello!?" she called, her voice slightly hoarse. When she received no response, she hurled herself at the door and whacked it with the old pipe she had been using as a weapon. Small, thin, cracks spiderwebbed across the glass. "Oops..."

She could hear them behind her... lurching... moaning... hissing...

It was disgusting. She would have gone out to destroy as many as she could, but she had tripped earlier and her ankle was sore. The library was her last resort and her last hope.

Alex's grabbed the handle of his Katana squeezing the grip tightly for a moment. His silent response to her instructions about grabbing a weapon. He gave the sig sauer she whipped out a momentary sour look. He understood people's need to have a ranged weapon but guns would eventually run out of ammo and he'd seen too many die because they ran out of ammo and freaked even if they had a decent melee weapon as a backup weapon.Shrugging his prejidices about the gun away he headed off towards the front entrance. There was no way he was just going to sit on the sofa and watch.


As he got closer to the front door he watched as a shadow struck the glass cracks spiderwebbing across the glass. Alex switched internally to defensive mode one of his hands moving to the handle of his sword the other moving to the front door handle. Grabbing the door he flung it open and almost cleaved a girl's head in two but some part of him recognized her as human so he didn't pull his sword out for the attack. That didn't stop him from cursing under his breath about her being right there. He made a frustrated noise and was about to say something when he noticed how close the infected sounded they were right on her tail.


Motioning for her to get inside he called out into the space of the library "Ea! two things! One! THEY are inside the city. TWO! we have a guest." He said we because he was sleeping there now and until he stopped doing so he would continue to consider the library his and Ea's. He took a moment to look back at the girl She has a weapon...good then he noticed how she was standing. Favoring one side, which meant she had some type of injury regarding the side she favored.

Scarlet darted into the building and past the stranger who had let her in, thanking him quietly and glancing back to make sure he had closed the door.

Ea! Two things! One! THEY are inside the city! TWO! We have a guest.

Scarlet glanced about before noticing the only other person in the library, a woman. She looked competent enough, and a gun protruded from her pocket. 'Thank God,' Scarlet thought, knowing that her pipe wouldn't hold off a hoard of those flesh-eating bastards for long...

"Uh..." she began, once everything was confirmed to be safe, "Hi. I guess there isn't anyone else here...?"

Ea heard the cracking noises from the door while she was grabbing her golf club from its hiding place under the service counter. When Alex shouted the news, she was already hopping over the table. Ea walked fast pacedly to the door and gave a quick glance to the woman and where she had come from. "There's no-one else here than just us and soon some zombies."

"It won't stand any more beating", she mumbled to herself while gently poking the door glass with her foot to hear it make crunchy noises. Then she looked at the woman again: "Can you walk or crawl the stairs up? It's the safest place at the moment", she pointed to where they had been with Alex. "You're bleeding a little. Some of those bastards out there are lured by blood like sharks, so you'd better keep a weapon close by and hurry up in case they come in by hordes."

Ea turned away again and stood still listening and seemed quite calm all in all. She could hear the growling and gasping that was disturbingly human-like. "Yeah, there are some sharky ones there", she said with a lowered voice.
"You'd better be ready to do some chopping, Alex", she grinned and did a practice swing with her club.

Scarlet frowned, despite the woman's logic.

"I'm fine. Just a little hurt. I can still do damage!" she argued, taking a few limping steps to prove herself. The woman, Ea, however, looked at her sternly so she gave in, hobbling up the stairs.

"Uh... I'm Scarlet," she said, feeling awkward that she hadn't introduced herself.

Ea waved her hand as a mark of hearing the woman and listened a bit more. It seemed like the infected had stopped to the small steps leading the last metres to the door. It wouldn't take long from them to figure out their limbs though.

"I'm Ea and it's a pleasure to meet you in such lovely conditions!" she turned around to see the woman and made a curtsey.
"You don't happen to know how those have got in the town?" she pointed outside to indicate she meant the zombies like it hadn't been clear who she meant.

Scarlet scowled. Was Ea implying that it was her fault the zombies were in?

"Aren't they everywhere? I've been on the run for days."

The girl cringed a little in remembrance of her several run-ins with the dead and dying. It had been one hell of a week, especially since she was American and unfamiliar with many of the people in this German town.

Alex got an almost sadistic grin as Ea mentioned doing some "chopping." pulling his katana out he swung the sword in a completely vertical then perfectly horizontal each slice in the air making a crisp swish through the air."Don't think I'm not Ea..."


When the person who'd come in protested that she could still fight he turned to glare at her a few moments. It was clear though that Ea's eyes had caught her gaze and not his. Alex was about to add that she needed to do more than swing her pipe at the infected, that movement was also necessary. If you couldn't move well you'd die even if you had a rail gun for your weapon, but she backed down and went to a safer location. And though Alex wasn't going to admit it, he was going to protect her, no matter what. Her predicament reminded him of one his sister had been in once.




Alex watched the interactions between Scarlet and Ea from the corner of his vision. When Scarlet questioned the location of the zombies Alex instantly knew Scarlet was from out of town. He barely turned his head so he could see scarlet better but still keep an eye on the door. "The town should have had a wall that protects the inhabitants from the infected. If they're in the town there's a breach in the wall..." His voice was even stating the facts he learned when he'd found the town himself.

Ea took the angry glares and objections with emotionless face. She started to already feel irritated with the woman, since she lacked the interest to be understanding for her wounds and stress. She just nodded to what Alex stated and refused completely to argue with this new comer.
Ea hadn't mean the statement as an accusation but now when thinking about it, how could they know what caused the leak? Woman could have broken the wall from somewhere, cut fence here and brought down furniture barricades from there.

Sudden crushes against the door cut short her ponderings and she lifted her golf club ready. How did the infected get close so silently?
"Should we kick the door in and let them come to visit?" she suggested to Alex in sudden adrenaline rush.

Scarlet felt a shout of disagreement rise to her lips, but she dare not say anything against Ea's ideas. She did seem very competent, but what would that mean if an army of those bloodthirsty things rushed in at once?

She had already seen enough people die, the man she loved amongst them. She didn't need to see these people get attacked as well.

"A...Are there any other guns?" she asked from the top of the stairs.

Ea uttered a laughter. "If we happen to get a cop or a soldier, I'll get you your gun. I'm just surprised that you are that clueless", she started. Somehow this woman now got on her nerves so she continued: "Some people amuse themselves when on watch by shooting the infected as target practise - it pretty much never kills or even seems to affect them. Gun is not a good weapon against the infected. It's the way to defend against other survivors on the edge of insanity or greed."

Ea said all of this while placing herself better for a kick and waiting for the agreement from Alex to do what she had suggested. "We might need to do a double kick to get it down", she said while gave a look to the metal hinges.

Alex returned his gaze to the front door and was about to answer Ea about kicking down the door when Scarlet spoke up asking about guns. Alex didn't have any and it wasn't his space so he let Ea answer the question but Alex's eyes kept trained on the door since now there were new shadows outside. And these were gauranteed to not be friendlies. His gaze shifted for a moment to Ea as she mentioned the uselessness of guns. It was mostly true but a good shotgun to the head of the infected, or a well placed sniper shot would take down the infected but ammo for those guns were rarer than the guns themselves. Keeping that in mind he stayed silent.


Taking a stance where he could kick the door then quickly return to a fighting stance his demeanor taking on that sadistic quality again "Ready to knock it down when you are Ea"

Nodding, her way of silently surrendering, Scarlet sat at the top of the stairs, wincing at the pain in her ankle, and watched as the pair readied themselves to kick down the door.

"On zero! Three... Two... One..." Ea counted and put all her strength to the kick following. The door gave in but was left to hang from the bottom hinge, having a group of infected pushing it away from top of them.
The following moments turned into a blur in Ea's mind leaving only images from here and there. She swinging her club, kicking some of the infected on face when they tried to crawl from under the door, others coming over the door in clumsy manner, Alex's concentrated face that made him look older, Scarlet on the stairs, more kicking and hitting.
Ea worked completely on instincts and what ever she had learnt during the long years of the infected being around.
Slowly actual thinking returned little by little which wasn't necessarily even good since the group of infected was slightly bigger than they had expected and they kept coming through the door.

"ZERO" Alex yelled out as he and Ea kicked down the door. Regaining his stance he waited till the infected came at him. He moved quickly when they came close enough to him his movement fluid, practiced, and deadly. he leaped from one infected to the next slicing the neck open or snapping the neck.

He was numb to the world, nothing existed outside of killing the infected. getting vengance for his family. He saw nothing, only felt what he needed to. A rotting hand grabbing at him. he threw it, not caring where it landed just knowing that he threw away from the library, Ea, and Scarlet.

He began to slowdown, he could feel it. And that was when he registered where he was and how many of the infected were left. he was a few feet past the doorway but not so far that he couldn't get back if needed. He weaved and rolled back to Ea he could tell she was realizing the same thing. There were a lot of infected, more than the usual roving pack that would go after just one person..damn is there a crack in the wall? there shouldn't be this many...

"Any ideas? Any ideas?" Ea kept repeating when a sudden feeling of panic swept through her head. She hadn't felt worried over getting killed herself or surviving from the infected for ages and for a second felt confused about the long lost feeling. Why now? Never even with the kids... Ea gripped tighter to her golf club and got a hold of herself again.

"Alex, upstairs!" Ea suddenly ordered. She gave a fast look towards Scarlet and Alex. "We can hold them longer in the stairs, right?"
It wasn't the ultimate solution, but it was always better to fight back as long as possible. There was also the point that if they went up, Alex could protect Scarlet and she could go and check out the situation outside by climbing down the fire ladder if the area under them wouldn't be too crowded.

Alex had almost reached Ea when she commanded him upstairs, and so he just continued at speed past her. due to not needing to avoid infected on the way up the stairs, he was up the stairs in a matter of seconds taking the steps 2 and 3 at a time. He paused for a second the inital rush of the infected fighting leaving his mind not too far from the stairs were a few bookcases. Luckily, and unluckily, they looked heavy and great for a barrier Alex darted over to the bookshelf and pulled it over. The loud thud of the bookcase falling on it's side should have given anyone fair warning of what he was planning but he still called out "Ea! your turn! GET UP THE STAIRS! and without a second warning Alex started to shove on the bookcase and it began to inch toward the top of the stairs where it would easily cover the gap in the railing where the stairs met the landing he and Scarlet was on. The strain shone clearly on his face but he refused to pump his adrenaline to give him that extra help it gave Ea more time to get behind the bookshelf as well as he may need it if they all needed to run. Or, to be more accurate, he'd probably be carrying scarlet out while Ea followed or something like that.