Ea walked the narrow side streets with the warm evening sun warming her face. The city looked all in all normal if the surrounding barricades and electrified fences, which they called walls, weren't counted. Streets were kept clean and buildings seemed outside completely normal.
Ea just had felt like getting some fresh air before locking up with her own peace at the library. The woman was slightly surprised it was so quiet evening despite the beautiful weather. She dared to make a guess that there was some community event again, which in they never invited her since it was sure she wouldn't come.
"I'd better get this walk finished, before people start returning to their homes", Ea said to herself and moved forward slightly faster.
Not too long time had passed until she could hear closing up voices and her mood went down a bit.

From outside this building looks just like a normal, natural white brick building only with the letters B NK OF (original place name has been taken down and A has dropped) and digital screen, that used to tell temperature and time, on the roof.
Despite the rough times humanity has gone through, there are some things that never change. One of those is the feeling inside of the bank. Something in the essence of the air tells you to stay as quiet as you can - even the dust you notice while looking outside seems to fall as silently as it possibly can.
The lobby has only a few black little chairs for customers to wait at and one once decorative, now barely living plant stands in the far away corner. The big windows have been secured with metal bars. The bank worker stands calmly behind their table and smiles greetingly for all that walk in, unless they are at the vault returning people their tresures or placing them to safety.
On the desk stands a piece of cardboard, most likely ripped from a box, that asks you with neat handwriting to wait calmly if the clerk isn't around.
You could be tricked to imagine it's a normal bank in a normal world if the ceiling lights didn't flick and the side wall didn't have ill patched holes left after a pistol and fire axe.

You are free to enter the short corridor with a few doors that used to lead on the rooms for private banking discussions and the bank manager. One small office space was now transformed into a makeshift emergency room for those who need it. On the door hangs a crumpled paper that says: "The Doctor is always in".

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.

From the outside Safe city Wunsch looks more like a mix of junk yard and a ghost city than a place that cradles hundreds of people. Around the city there is half of a mile wide area that has been cleared from trees, cars and such as much as possible, so that keeping a watch is easier.

On the south-east side of the wall there is the main gate and outside that to both sides there are broken asphalt roads and same kind of buildings as inside the walls, small apartment complexes, little playgrounds and a sports track.

On the North side of the haven there is some more housing area. Walk of an hour takes you to a walking road that used to be the main shopping strip and the roads crossing it have smaller boutiques, cafeterias, sport equipment stores and what not.

To the west there is a wide and calm river that used to be what divided the city. Most of the bridges have been exploded away during the early days of infection spreading on the area. No-one has been to the other side but the older inhabitants claim that an expedition must be taken there as there is a hospital, some factories that made clothes and steelware and maybe even survivors. All of these are in the distance though so no-one has taken up on it yet.

Rebecca sat under a tree near the library with her trusty baseball bat at her side. Her gaze was fixed on the setting sun, which had calmed her from some reason. This day had been too long for her. The morning was filled with tiresome work with her parents back at the house, and in the afternoon, she was running errands for some of the senior citizens in the area. While she sat in her comfortable spot, she sighed and closed her eyes. "I really wish you were here. I'm so sorry that I couldn't protect you." She uttered in a whisper. She wanted to cry, she really did. But crying couldn't bring her young sister back. If only it could.

Ea barely managed to avoid the people by returning her own tracks back towards the library. It had made the walk a bit less fun but at least she enjoyed the slow sunset. Just before passing her, Ea noticed someone sitting on the barely living grass with a blue gist. Ea didn't like people, but this one seemed only beaten down and she felt a bit bad for her.
"Hi, it's a very beautiful evening, yea?" Ea started carefully. Without thinking about it she added motherly advice that she had learnt to use with the kids: "Make sure you're back home when the sun still can be seen. I don't pay attention to the daytime infected anymore, but I still flinch to the sounds of triple amount coming during the dark."
Some citizens we're always on the watch during the night in case of the wall giving up to the clawing and pushing. Ea hated the job when ever her turn came up even though it wasn't too dangerous, the wall hadn't given up in years.

Alex stopped running along the roofs of the buildings in the city on the roof of the library. He liked stopping there and pacing because usually not a lot of noise was made around there. The library was a place to pass time and despite not having a lot of books or readers people still adhered to the stay quiet rule of the library. After a bit of pacing on the roof he flopped down on the edge of the roof with a light thud and a sigh. He pulled out the photo of his family for a moment gazing at it while the sun continued to descend below the horizon putting it away when the sun finished it's decent. He though about sharpening his sword while he stared up at the twilight after sunset. Instead he started humming a soft tune and watched as the stars came out.

"Hi, it's a very beautiful evening, yea?" Rebecca opened her eyes slowly and glanced at the woman in front of her, nodding once as she continues to stare silently. "Make sure you're back home when the sun still can be seen. I don't pay attention to the daytime infected anymore, but I still flinch to the sounds of triple amount coming during the dark."

"Sure...Thanks...Uh...Yea'." Rebecca raised up from her spot, and reached for the bat that was leaning up against the dead tree. As bad as she felt, she would have wished to stay outside after hours just to let off some steam on a few zombies. Oh well. "Guess I should go home." She thought.

As the sounds of the infected outside the walls increased so did the bitter anger in Alex's throat like a slowly rising bile. Usually he could ignore the groaning throngs of infected, but tonight it was getting on his nerves so he thought he might try to find someplace quieter to sleep where the groans couldn't be heard too easily.

He remembered there should have been a large sofa in the library still. There's an idea.. he thought. Better than a lot of my other choices. With that decided Alex sat up and looked out to the outer walls of the city flipping off the zombies that he could hear but couldn't see. With that done he went up to the edge of the library roof and with a few practiced flips, grabs, and a bit of bouncing he was on the ground in no time there were two people over by the tree not too far away but he let them be, and slipped in the front doors of the library.

Ea looked through the expressions running on the young woman's face, but felt it was none of her business anymore. She might easily be ten times tougher than she was! "Well, if you need anything, the library is usually always open. The waterpipe in there works too, so if you're thirsty or something..." she still said.
"I'm off to look around places now. Sometimes people bunk at the library and I don't want to mistake them as the infected, you know..." Ea chuckled to the memory of this happening once.
She didn't wait for an answer but waved her hand lazily and left towards the doors and peace of the building.

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.

Rebecca stared at the woman as she walked past her and towards the entrance of the library. "She seems...alright." She then thought. With one hand on her weapon, and the other in her pants pocket, Rebecca took a last look at the library before heading in the opposite direction. Dusk was rapidly approaching, and she could hear a faint howl of the infected in the distance. Rebecca walked at her own pace, not really enthusiastic to rush home as the mysterious woman suggested just moments ago. Her stomach rumbled loudly, causing her to roll her eyes in amusement. "Guess I forgot to eat again..."

These days, Rebecca doesn't have the desire to eat like she once did, long before the attack. She would be lucky enough to keep down a piece of bread or an apple. The cause of her new attitude was obvious, but she didn't want to face the reality of it. She twirled the bat between her hands as she continued to walk home, thinking about her new surroundings. "I've never seen anyone around my age here. Maybe I'm not noticing something." Rebecca had the tendency to talk to herself more than talking to another person. Well, besides her parents if you want to get technical. But even then, she would give them simple nods and grunts here and there. Her observance just might be true, though. Maybe she did need to be more aware of her surroundings. Then again, how much longer this 'calm' would keep Wunsch together until the next wave of attacks?

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"

"Mom? Dad? I'm home." Rebecca yelled flatly as she closed the apartment door behind her. Inside, the living room was illuminated by a small candle. "Guess they went to bed already." She thought as she made her way over to the couch. She was too exhausted to even walk the rest of the way to her room. With a sigh, she took off her shoes one foot at a time and placed them next to the couch. Another day gone, another day lived. She placed her head onto the soft cushions and stared at the flicker candlelight, waiting for sleep to overtake her.

"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.

Skylar ran at a brisk pace down the street, past the library, as the sun began to set and people hurried home. They were still cautious about their whereabouts, even more so at night when they wanted nothing more than to drown out the sound of Infected beyond the wall. The wall was fairly sturdy, and there were always eyes watching it. For these reasons, Skylar loved the night. There was rarely anybody around once the sun set, leaving her plenty of time to get to business.

This night, however, she'd been able to get to work far earlier. Community events were taking place all over the city, and the Elite were no exception. They, in particular, seemed to love their parties and get togethers and held them more often than others. This left ample opportunity for this mischievous young woman.

Suddenly, as she took a quick glance over her shoulder to make sure nobody was after her, she came to a halt with a thud. She fell back on her hands, dropping the can of spray paint she'd been carrying and let out a short "oof!" When she looked up, she lay eyes on a tall girl--surely taller than herself--with brown hair pulled back into a ponytail. "Sorry!" she exclaimed, her Scottish accent slipping through her mouth.

A heavily armed man with a backpack full of belongings opened the scratched door, pistol cocked on his right hand. His eyes inspected the living room and nose sniffed the musky air. Going from room to room he checked the apartment for any hostility. After he was satisfied with the result he slammed the backpack on the mouldy couch and walked to the firestair. After checking the possible escape route through the ladder he slammed the window shut. He was a newcomer, the people here were totally unknown to him, he didn't have any reputation here and he was unemplyed. Last contract as a guardsman had ended on the gates of the city andleft him with a few litres of pure water, few valuable jewelry and some information on what to expect. He spared a smile and checked the kitchen. Naturally it didn't have any electricity or water you could call drinkable, but at least the walls were sturdy.
Arto could approve the place, it was far better than he was used to. Now, to find a job of some sort, some booze to celebrate and a good night's sleep. But, first a small gift for the uninvited guests. He took a pipebomb he had himself forged out of metal scrap, pipe and explosive and a simple string. The living room had a simple tv-station, the tv itself long ago wrecked. It had a drawer underneath, which was quickly trapped using valuable duct tape. Should someone decide he would save his belonings in the only intact drawer...
When he was satisfied, he left a note on the drawer: "Please keep intact". Then he left the apartment, sliding another piece of paper on the nametag: "Arto Rantala". He was now the official resident of the building.

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...?"