Just a Day in the Shoes of a Survivor

He barely heard her voice over the sound of the gunfire and moans but she was right, especially when he looked in the direction that she fired her gun. He hurried up the ladder letting his rifle hang behind him, his boot barely being missed as a zombie had body checked the ladder trying to get him. The ragger had enough momentum that it shook the ladder and everything connected to it as far as the fire escape. He barely managed to get up before a few of the bastards were trying to scale the ladder as well. Adam reacted quickly, not thinking of the consequences or the fact that someone who didn't even know him was there and grabbed where the edge of the ladder met with the first platform they were standing on and pushed against it. 

He groaned for a few seconds before there was the sound of solid steel creaking and bending along with bolts snapping as the ladder and railing which let it glide up and down to the platform was ripped from the structure and clanged against the ground pinning several of the growing corpses that were being trampled over by others. He didn't care at this point that he might have just done something that a normal human would've had to put twice the effort and attempts. He also didn't wait to see if they were safe he just started ushering her up the flights of the fire escape until they were on the roof top.

"Yeah." He said between breaths as he stood straight up once they reached the rooftops. It was less so that he was winded and more so that his adrenal glands were spiked by the event which meant his fight mode was activated and he was drawing deeper breaths to compensation. Not to mention he was fighting his body's reflex to evacuate the meal he just had because of his fight reflex clicking into overdrive. He took a few more deep breaths looking around the rooftop, Merchant was gone, must have bugged out the moment he heard the engine of the truck though he was nice enough to leave his make shift bridges and scaffolding he had set up for traversing rooftops. 

That was good considering he wasn't sure how long the windows and boards and exits which lead from the building to the fire escape would hold out for against the bodies of the undead. He started laughing though, "We survived for now, that kinda makes us friends." He joked for a minute looking over his rifle, specifically pulling out the mag and counting the round indicator to see how many bullets he had left. "C'mon, we'll follow the stuff over there so we're not stuck here waiting for those biters to get to us." He said tapping her on the shoulder and pointing over to the make shift platforms and step ladders connecting rooftops and alleys.

"Okay I mean like I deal with that on the regular, was just trying to make a joke." He finally said a slight twinge of frustration in his tone he reached up on his jacket sleeve and ripped off the union jack patch once again showing the true insignia under it. "I get you don't trust me cuz we literally met all of maybe less than five minutes ago." He stashed the patch in his jean pocket, "So..." He said awkwardly at first, "Let's just get this out of the way and be real with one another. I'm a member of White Rabbit, I was currently hunting two guys with a partner but that's changed now that we've got Zed's in the area and those assholes in the truck driving around starting chaos and shit. One of our main things is helping survivors so this is per norm." Though the group had the biggest reputation of a small mercenary commando group when it came to the other factions and people in the territories, they did also usually try and help survivors as best they could, whether it be escorts or drawing attention from stranded survivors or even saving captives from raiders, bandits, and cannibals.

He walked over to the rickety bridge and looked it over, yeah she was right, he wouldn't trust it ether; "You're right about this bridge though, I wouldn't trust it either." He said walking back over to her, "Also I'm not telling you this so it's a thing of like; I know what I'm doing you gotta listen to me." He started to explain, "I'm telling you so you can trust me just a tiny bit enough so we can get work together to get out of this situation. If you see an opportunity to bail and you can do it safely, then go ahead; I won't be offended." He shrugged before pointing over the wall on another building which had a folding ladder folded and leaned against it. "What about that?"

"Huh... well that's a fuckin' first." He said with a shrug as she started crossing the bridge he watched for a minute holding his breath but let it out when she made it across safe. His turn, he was slightly hesitant. Sure they used stuff like long planks of wood and pipes fitting together to traverse rooftops but Merchant's also seem so.... unsafe. He took a few steps, no string or railing just two pipes and planks un evenly spaced out and it creaked and moaned. When he finally made it across he let out a sigh of relief, "How in the hell does that hunchback carry 500 pounds of gear across this stuff without it breaking or him falling." He muttered aloud though the question was rhetorical and  he was mostly talking to himself as he turned around and grabbed the thing. It wasn't even secured properly to the two rooftops. Jesus Christ that could have gone so wrong... He groaned a bit and moved the bridge over to their rooftop, just in time too because zed's had just started making their way to up to the rooftop they were on previously. 

"Lucky us," He pointed out the slower corpses that must've finally broken through the windows or something before he looked around the area. "What's your ammo count at?" The question came just from the top of his mind as he walked the rooftop looking for another potential exit from the rooftop. He did though have half a mind to stay up on the rooftops, safer for the moment than being on street level with the zombies and that truck running around the city.

"Oh..." Was the only reply he gave, almost shocked that he heard what she said. Then again she did say she was terrible about guns or whatever so, "Well I mean someone's gonna be really lucky if they stumble across it." He looked around some more before being asked what the plan was, "Uhm..." He started getting the lay of the 'land' walking near to the edge of the roof top and raising his rifle to look down it's scope as he scanned the horizon. "Ah. So..." He said unclipping the rifle sling and holding it, he flicked it onto safety but still held it pointing down at the rooftop three blocks away. "C'mere real quick and look down the scope." He remarked as he held the gun in a way that she would be able to do as he asked. "See that building a couple blocks off? The white paint graffiti that's barely noticeable?" 

"Its a marker for indicating a nearby bug out den we use if needed is near by." He explained, it wasn't exactly the infected wandering the streets that was the problem really, it was more so not knowing the path or if there was more than one group just driving around gunning down survivors and riling up the raggers to just fuck with everyone in the area. "Usually we don't bring civi's there but given the situation I'm sure they won't make too big a deal out of you hanging out for a bit before you figure out what to do." 

He looked up at the sky making a note of where the sun was, almost right in the middle of the sky which meant sometime in the mid day? Jesus time passed quickly. He wondered if Alice had caught the guy they were looking for yet or not. "The big issue beyond the dead, and the gangs is those guys in the truck. Never seen that group before and they just seem to be intentionally hunting folks down for no reason. So running into them again is highly likely." He stopped and looked at her, "You happen to know anything about that?" The question wasn't framed in any accusatory way. Often survivors who frequented these areas often knew more about the gangs and factions and how to avoid them best. So pulling on that kind of information was usually crucial to working with and helping survivors and making sure they themselves survived as well.

"I mean like, the more I can get you to trust me the easier getting us out of this situation is going to be. So it's more of a tactical choice rather than a get you to like me type of thing." He replied with a bit of a smile, when she was done looking down the scope he reclipped his rifle to the sling and adjusted it back to the length and resting position on his chest he was most comfortable with it in. "Could be" he remarked in regard to her mention of the rednecks potentially being the ones causing trouble, "Either way we don't have the equipment or man power to take them so we're gonna need to-" He dropped quickly to the roof behind the cover of the ledge grabbing Riley and pulling her down as well as bullets whipped past their heads just as they were behind cover. 

Speaking of the devils, the truck was making it's way around again the gunner blasting off rounds into the air and stirring up all kind's of commotion. "Swear to fuckin' god." He spoke through gritted teeth, he wanted nothing more than to peak his head up and take the shot to end that bastard's life, would make shit so much easier but given that he had someone with him he couldn't exactly make dumb life choices like that. Sure it would be absolutely easy, pop the gunner get down there and kill the passenger then wound the driver and leave them from the shit storm of infected they were stirring up.

But despite having been smart and only making small flexes of his abilities while she wasn't paying attention something like jumping from the rooftop to the ground and just going at them would definitely out him as what some generally referred to those rare few that were like him, in other words he'd be outed as a freak real easily. So instead they'd have to wait them out just like before and just like before he'd have to sit there helpless as a few people became victims.

"Yeah, but this is part of the job." He remarked to her comment about how it would be easier to worry about himself if he wasn't helping her. As soon as the truck went down the road he raised his head to scan the area, raggers and dead typical shit which meant that getting around was going to be a fucking pain in the ass. Going forwards he'd have to clear out areas and make it safe before getting her to move perhaps that would be a good optio- His head snapped immediately to his right to look at her when she said the last thing. 

He shrugged as soon as he stood up, "I mean I'll try almost anything once." He replied to her comment and leaving just enough time to make her think before he spoke up again. "Joking, c'mon, I'm going to boost you up that wall." He said pointing at the wall of another building to that was butted right up against the rooftop there. It was a tall wall but he was pretty certain he could get her and himself up it no problem. He put his back against the wall and braced himself, interlocking his fingers and looked over at her, "Just let me know when you're ready and don't freak out okay? I'm serious, please don't wig out on me." 

He looked up judging the distance between where he was standing and her hand. He took like two or three steps back and jogged forwards a bit before springing up, clearing half the distance then pushing off with his foot as it met the wall as one hand met hers, despite him holding the ledge with his other hand and just kind of hanging for a bit with this legs curled under him and against the wall. "That's very sweet of you." He remarked about her holding out her hand to help him up. "I forgot to mention I'm pretty good at free running and stuff." He was hoping that was enough of a pass off so that she wouldn't ask questions as he pulled himself up and over the edge of the wall. "Should be a fire escape a few buildings that way and then we just got to worry about being ground level unless you'd rather we keep going via rooftops as best we can?"

"That's true" He said in regards to her logic, he did have a bit of a time translating what she was saying and understanding what she was saying with the context clues in her sentences but he was managing, it wasn't as bad as some of the accents he heard before. "If we take street level I need you to work with me then, like if I tell you to hide so I clear an area and stuff alright?" He spoke as he started leading them to the fire escape which was nothing more than a ladder with a metal flat bar frame to prevent someone from falling to their death. He was already working on planning and which routes would be better to make a B-line for as he took one last scan over the area and painted himself a mental map.

"Alright, go ahead I'll meet you down." He said readying his rifle in one hand positioning the butt of the gun's stock against his shoulder before cracking his neck and moving away from the ladder so she could access it. He himself hung off the edge of the roof with one hand and propped his feet against the wall before letting down and essentially wall sliding all the way down to the street level and scanning the area with his rifle. Before letting it hang and switching to one of his pistols and knife. It was much more suited for this situation funnily enough.

He walked down the alley getting closer to the street before stopping and observing what he could. "I'll clear the way, across the street three buildings down meet me there." He said ejecting his mag and checking his bullets before sliding the mag back in to his pistol. "Run, now." He ordered stepping out from the alley and targeting the first near by with a shot to the head that luckily for him, turned the corpse's skull into a bloomed flower. This caught the attention of the others in the area which he capitalized on. 



He back pedaled slightly and jogged around a runner which came screaming at him just before it was stopped by the display glass of the building. Adam moved in quickly launching a kick into it's side before it recovered to knock it over. They were much easier to shoot when on the ground which he did, it stunned the zombie enough for him to run up and just start stomping it's leg before there was the sound of something snapping. The ragger trying to launch back up to it's feet at him missed as it's leg tore out from under it and Adam hopped back moving on.

He spun around noticing a slower zombie in the path they needed to take, he shot once and the zombie's head flew back and it stumbled as it bent backwards. Of fucking course, he lined up the next shot slowly closing distance and once the bastard's head was up again he fired this time the momentum of the round was enough to fall the zombie and Adam ran over quickly stomping its skull in before it could get back up. He turned he could literally hear something coming and he quickly called out to Riley where ever she might be to get back and hide. He barely had time to get the hell out of the way before the same truck from earlier came around the corner and went head on at him taking out every single zombie that was in their way.

Barely scrambling to his feet he scrambled as the gunner in the back started opening fire on him as he bolted out of the way just barely out running the fire and keeping ahead of the gunner. Before diving behind cover back in the alley which was getting pelted by bullets.

A bullet blew a chunk through the small retainer wall he was hiding behind enough of one to give him a peep hole to make sure that she was safe, she must've been because he didn't see her which could easily meant she either wasn't paying attention or she couldn't see him. Either was fine with him as he shot over the wall with his gun peppering the sides before his wall was met with more bullet spray. Eventually however he heard a sound that he was hoping for, the gun rand dry but the gunner was being fast on the reload. 

He was about to spring up from cover before he heard the distinct cha-chunk of the slide on the gun being racked. Jesus that was fast... He was stuck here if he didn't do something and he knew it. He took a deep breath resigning himself to doing what he was about to, hopefully she was somewhere she couldn't see him or she just wasn't paying attention. He sprung up from cover and leaped over the wall running for the truck, the gunner opened up with gunfire.

Adam shielded his face with his arm and just went straight for it, to the naked eye his movements seemed unnatural, almost too quick for a normal human as he seemed to be slipping the bursts of automatic gunfire, as if he was predicting where the shots were going to be and reacting to that information in the moments before the trigger was pulled. Anything he didn't manage to dodge seemed to spark off of his body as if it was smacking into some sort of small protective barrier. 

"Shit! The guy's one of those freaks!" The passenger called out before starting to take shots at Adam, luckily the passenger seemed to be a really shitty shot. He ran full force and shoulder checked the truck, the screeching of tires grinding against the ground as the truck spun, throwing the gunner from the bed of the truck and sending the truck itself into a pole which it bounced off of. He worked quickly just unloading two bursts on the fallen gunner with absolutely no hesitation as he walked quickly towards the truck. The passenger got out of the truck falling and stumbling as he got up and bolted away before Adam dropped a burst into the guy's leg which caused him to drop to the ground.

When he got to the truck he moved over to the smashed in driver's side door and smashed the window then proceeded to rip the door from the car and pull the guy out of the truck, obviously the guy was stunned not just from the collision but just by what had just happened to him as Adam was pulling him to his feet and dragging him into the middle of the intersection. Despite his fighting the grip of the driver's throat remained locked in place as Adam raised his rifle into the air without saying a single word and fired his whole clip into the air to make as much nose as possible. 

As soon as the dead and runners got close enough he stood the driver up fully, let go and kicked him into the pack just as the shambling group of dead found their way to the crawling and wounded passenger and the gunner. The screams of pain and terror as they were being fed on seemed to draw even more towards the victims as Adam moved away and towards where he last saw her take cover. Blood was leaking from his nose like he had just been had it broken though he didn't seem to mind at all. He reached behind him and grabbed a new mag, switching out his spent one for the fresh mag. "C'mon before they lose interest in their current meals."

He wiped his nose with the back of his gloved hand doing his best to clean the blood from his upper lip but he just seemed to smear it more than anything. Big level stuff like blocking high caliber bullets or super hard shots usually always caused the bleeding to occur, He slung his rifle behind him one threat that was terrorizing the city was taken care of, hopefully now they didn't have much else to worry about. He moved at a light jog to put distance between them and the feeding packs as well as the others they were attracting. He didn't say much the whole way, more so wondering if she understood what had happened or if she was as oblivious as the other times. 

Hopefully it was the second one, having to explain things, having to deal with her freaking the hell out like most usually do when they witness shit like what he had just done was way less than optimal. But given that she wasn't saying a word she either didn't see anything or she was too scared to say whether she had or not. Either way it worked for him if she didn't even bother bringing any of that up. His jog didn't really stop until the pair of them were in an alley outlet close to where the destination was, hopefully she was keeping up. 

He was catching his breath for a moment once again wiping away the blood from his nose. He seemed to have developed a small headache. Nothing to major, hopefully it would go away. "Almost there," He spoke as he caught his breath, "Just past this com..." He turned to exit the alley but stopped himself when he laid eyes on what he did. "...pound..." Usually this area was set up by a friendly force and had concrete barriers and large steel gates with tents and shit. You could easily resupply depending on the group's mood but right now...

Right now Adam was staring at a smoking burning mess of destroyed gates and just corpses. He jogged up to one of the gates which had just been completely smashed in and raised his rifle as he entered. The damage was far worse than what he originally was able to tell as he came across one of the corpses and investigated it. It was riddled with bullet holes larger than your typical gun, even the kind that being slung by that gunner in the truck earlier. Another corpse was just straight up blown to pieces and several others had soda can sized holes in their skulls. He looked around for clues before coming across a track of boot prints in the mud. These things were huge, easily triple the size of his foot. 

"We need to move now." He said sternly yet with a small hint of fear in his voice. "C'mon." He said finally pointing to the building they were literally a block away from the moment they exited this gated slaughter ground. 

He turned back to her for just a moment before turning away, "Huh? Yeah just a headache and a nose bleed. Happens when I exer-" He cut himself off mid sentence, "It's happens, I'm just used to it by now." He replied with a shrug once again wiping his nose. Jesus fuck this was the worst bleed he's had since he was a kid and first used his mental ability. He'd have to take care of it when they got to the 'bunker'. "What about you? You seem... on the verge of one of those uh, panic attack type things. You alright? We're gonna be there like..." Speaking of, he pointed at the building where the bunker was, it was set up on the top of a building. Another fire escape climb unfortunately but he pulled the ladder down like last time and lead the way. 

At the top, on the roof top was a huge garden and patio area along with a building on the roof which had been set up as small studio apartment. He got to the door and found the key and unlocked the door to the place and stepping out of the way as he walked around the building to get the generators started. When they purred to life he walked back into the place and flipped a switch on the wall close to the door The place was literally a kitchen sink, fridge and freezer, and small stove with a little bit of walking area for a kitchen floor followed by just the living room and a walled off section which lead to a toilet and a standing shower which didn't work. 

The living room was sectioned off with a small table and fold out couch on the left near the kitchen and the other half of the living area was a table, CD radio and gun case, weapons rack, and a large heavy duty trunk. Over all despite the rather spartan level of decoration and furniture the place seemed like it would be able to comfortably fit two-five people with no problem. "Bucket of water should still be in the shower if you need to flush. Rain barrel out on the roof refills the bucket." He said pointing to the bathroom before making his way to the kitchen and grabbing coming off of the top of the fridge and then walking out onto the roof, considering there wasn't really a door to the bathroom anymore when Kap had kicked it in when they were looking to clear out this building.