Bounty Hunters: Apocalypse

"Well, he's been missing for about a week now. But that would be a nice change of pace" Ross said, shaking his head a little. "Nobody really expects to find him alive, but looking for him gives us something to do until we get a contract" he added, looking East down the street, in the direction of the community building.

You are reading this.

"Well, are we going to go, then?" Blight asked, starting to walk towards the building.

"Yeah let's- Wait!" Ross said, snapping his fingers as he remembered something else. "You've still got that camera, right?" he asked Clark, as he turned around.

"It would be a shame not to get paid for those runners and walkers" Ross added simply, motioning back at the building. "Let's get some quick photos and get going" he suggested.

You are reading this.

Clark nodded, snapping a few photos in short order. After that, they quickly left the building.

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

The walk back towards the community building didn't seem as long as the trip out. Then again, the group wasn't stopping at every third building or so this time. Ross got a bit on edge as the clouds above got thicker, making the landscape more dim, but despite his worries they made it back perfectly safe.

When they got to the building, nobody was outside, and the doorway was blocked up with movement visible in the occasional small gap. Ross approached slowly, and a voice on the other side spoke up. "There you are Ross. Hold on, I'll have this open soon; good thing Eric spotted you coming" the man said, followed by a scraping sound of something heavy being pushed along the floor. As promised, the doorway was open less than a minute later, and the man in swat gear from earlier that morning ushered them in. "We're closing up early due to the clouds" he explained, pushing a large dresser back into place as Ross stepped up to help.

Once the barricade was back in place, he stepped back and brushed off his hands. "Anything for supper tonight?" Ross decided to ask.

"They've got some kind of bread cooking on the third floor... Oh, and I think Malena wanted to see you guys" the man responded, going back to peeking out through the barricade.

Ross gave a quick thanks then turned to the rest of the bounty hunters. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm starving. I'm gonna go get some food then I'll head upstairs after I find Malena. If any of you are heading straight there, I'll bring up some bread" Ross told them, likely referring to the 21st floor as the 'upstairs' in question. Then he headed to the stairs, leaving the others to decide what to do for themselves.

edited 21st Mar '12 2:53:26 AM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

Blight headed upstairs to the 21st floor, cat close behind.

When Blight and whoever else followed entered the floor, they'd see Malena there, probably waiting for them as she looked intently at one of the maps that was set up, her backpack on the floor beside her. She glanced over and noticed Blight, and gave a small smile as she picked up the backpack. "Hey! I didn't find much good today, but I looked through my older stuff and found a few things you might be interested in" Malena said, opening up her backpack and drawing two books out of it.

The first was Bear Traps for Dummies, and the second was a NIV*

edition bible. "What do you think, ten dollars for each?" Malena asked, offering the two books for inspection. They were both in good condition, save for some bits missing around the edges of the cover for Bear Traps for Dummies; likely from some small animal chewing on it. "I've got some story books too, if you want some fun reading" she offered, patting her backpack.

edited 22nd Mar '12 5:24:04 PM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

Blight looked at the bear traps book, a look of interest on his face. "I'll give you 5 bucks for the trap book." he said.

Clark, meanwhile, opened the book he'd picked up in the hospital and began reading it.

I search the book for plot hooks.

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

Dean stepped over to Malena and took a look at what she had to offer. For a brief moment he wanted buy the bible she had, but he thought against it. One reason was because he already had plenty of bibles with him, but also because he thought it was the only she had and he didn't want to take her only bible.

Then a thought occurred to him. Although he still had his suspicions about the demon child, there was still the part of him that wanted to be forgiving. He dislike the demonic side of her, but the fact was that she was still a child and she was just as innocent despite her odd idea of cute. "Ahem, if you dont mind me asking but how much are you selling the story books for?"

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing- Wernher von Braun Until proven otherwise, Everything is Relevant

"What? No no, ten for each, not for both" Malena said, before realizing what was about to happen. The guy was going to haggle with her; she hated haggling. "Er, seven dollars" she said, before Dean spoke up and she saw it as a nice out of the haggling.

"Little kid books for three, bigger novels for five. I'll be nice about ones in a series and take a dollar off each if you take the whole set" Malena told him, having had some time to think it over before they arrived by the sounds of it.

Meanwhile, Clark would find something of interest on the very front page of the little black book. Handwritten there in black ink were the words property of Stanley Sherman. A quick look further in would reveal it to be a journal.

Natural twenty. =P

edited 23rd Mar '12 1:47:20 AM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

"Never mind." Blight said, putting the book down. "She expects me to throw away 7 dollars?! She must do business with idiots!" he thought.

Blight eyed Dean. "You like children's books?" he asked.

Jadis sighed, watching the haggling going on. It was a neccesary thing, most of the time, for hunters to haggle for supplies. Pre war ammunition was always scarce, even if you had a couple contacts within the government, so haggling made sure that prices were cheap.

Haggling over books though...

Clark noted the name in his head and then kept reading through the journal entries. It probably belonged to the poor man they'd found in the basement.

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

The journal started normal, pre-apocalypse fairly standard. Stanley was a college student trying to get into the film industry by the sounds of it. The transition to the apocalypse was both obvious and just as expected, with the 'OMFG MONSTERS ARE EVERYWHERE!' kind of reaction.*

Slowly, the entries normalized as Stanley got more accustomed to apocalypse life. He became a scavenger, and moved into a community building in Saint Clair Superior... Then Ross was mentioned, said to be one of the police there, in a high ranking too. As was Malena as a fellow scavenger, whom Stanley first seemed to like and went scavenging with a few times, before she apparently started refusing to go with him, to his confusion.

There was also, oddly enough, a bounty hunter team mentioned. A team of four, the descriptions of whom didn't fit anyone they had met in the building so far.

It was probably around this time that Clark might remember where he had heard the name Stanley Sherman before.

edited 23rd Mar '12 5:06:08 PM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

Clark kept reading, recalling the name and deciding to keep what the journal said to himself for the moment. He pondered what it meant (a previous team? Had he gotten them all killed? If so, was it intentional or a regrettable mistake?) and decided he didn't have enough data.

"Miss Domitila." He said, shutting the journal once he was done reading. "When you're done with your business, I'd like to have a word with you in private."

edited 23rd Mar '12 6:19:40 PM by Wysp

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir

The last entry in the journal was short, and simple, only two words. I've stopp The space to the right of the second p, where presumably an e should have been, was instead a tear in the paper, like the pen had suddenly been run through it.

The entry before that however, was much longer.

The bounty hunters are dead. It must have happened during that job they went out on a few days ago. Ross and Eric went to check it out the morning after, but they said they didn't find anything. Bullshit, and I knew it. Eric's been acting all nervous about it and Ross just keeps saying to leave it alone. I suspected as such but I wasn't positive until last night. A group of runners attacked and got shot down. While the police were piling up the dead, I saw that one of them was that bastard Rodger. So he not only died but got turned into a monster. Serves them right after what they had done.

There's still the matter of that nest they've been supplying with undead and not attacking. George doesn't believe me, and said that even if he did it's not like his policemen would go on the offensive against a nest. It's apparently not their job. Well fine, if they won't do something about it, then I will. I snuck into the old bounty hunters' floor while nobody was looking and managed to get a good revolver and plenty of ammo.

I've told Reyna what I intend to do, and got her to promise not to tell anybody. There's a hospital on the way to the asylum that I've seen a young boy hanging around, therefore it's gotta be safe. I'll swing by there on the way.

Malena looked over as Clark spoke up, one eyebrow raised slightly. "Okay, but no funny business" Malena said, then looked back to Dean. "So, you want some, yes? I've got stuff like, uh, Hank the Cowdog, Garfield cat, one called pirates but with like a y, and The Manchurian Candidate, and all sorts of books" she explained, trying to relay that she had a pretty wide selection.

"So you've been hitting up a library or book store?" Ross suddenly asked from the doorway, walking in with some water bottles and a basket filled with what looked like biscuits.

"Shush! Shush!" Malena stammered, putting a finger over her mouth. "It's a secret, Ross" she added, crossing her arms and frowning.

Ross simply laughed and placed the water and basket on the lone table of the large room. "Here, you guys did good today" Ross said, taking one of the biscuits and walking over to look out the barricaded windows.

You are reading this.

Blight went over and grabbed a biscuit.

"Hey, you don't happen to have any hair dyes, do you?" he asked Malena.

"The book's not for me. Its for the kid.", Dean said to Blight, pointing his thumb toward the little demon girl. "A good book will at least keep her entertained. Theres no telling what'll happen if she goes off on her own."

He turned back to Malena and resumed his haggling, "Is there anything else that you have for trade? I'll even give you some change for pennies. If I can get my hands on a press then I can make bullet jackets out of them."

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing- Wernher von Braun Until proven otherwise, Everything is Relevant

After Blight's question, Malena looked a bit offended. "This is my natural hair color!" she said loudly, clutching at a strand of her hair in an almost defensive manner.

"I think he meant to buy" Ross pointed out, still looking out the window.

Malena glanced at Ross, then looked back at Blight, settling down slightly and closing her eyes in thought. "I don't have any, but I know a place that might. I can get you some tomorrow" Malena told Blight, then looked to Dean. "Other items? Well, I've still got some good backpacks and tents from a sporting goods store. You want pennies? I dunno where you'd get a press but I've got pennies" as she went on, she dug around in one of her pockets until pulling out a small coin purse, which she flipped open and started taking pennies out of.

"You have any book in mind for the little de- girl?" Malena asked, counting out pennies in stacks of five. The end count was eighty-five of them.

edited 24th Mar '12 11:22:50 PM by FirockFinion

You are reading this.

"I'll take thirty five pennies for now. I would like to have more but as you can see I don't have much to spend.", Dean said as he took out a dime and a quarter, "However miss Malena, if you have the time, can you return here once again after we've collected our payment. If I have the money I might be interested in buying a new backpack and the Garfield book for the girl."

After taking his stuff, Dean walked over to the table where Ross had put the biscuits and removed his helm. As he set his helm on the table he said, "Ross if you don't mind me asking, but do you happen have a magnifying glass or something with similar properties?"

Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing- Wernher von Braun Until proven otherwise, Everything is Relevant

"Ah." Blight said in response to Dean.

Blight smiled, surprised by her reaction. "Good." he said, "You should try dying, then, it's almost a lost art!"

(sorry guys,been rather busy)

Alearth had obediently followed, growing increasingly bored with the landscape. When they did arrive, she stood there, sitting on the floor. She became somewhat distressed when she saw the Bible, choosing to retreat a few paces.

However, when the books were mentioned for her, she pouted.

"I Want the Kamasutra! So you Ross and girl can read it too!!" She giggled.

(OOC:It's okay. (= )

"I've got this little thing" Ross said, handing Dean a rectangular magnifying glass with rounded edges and a handle that folded up to one of the long sides. Then he went back to the window and took a drink out of a water bottle, right as Alearth spoke up about what book she wanted. The inside of the barricaded window was sprayed with spit water.

"Kamasutra? Haven't found that book I think" Malena said, not knowing what it was. She put the change back in the little purse and pocketed it, then picked up the two books and started putting them back into her bag. "Tomorrow I'll see about getting some hair dye. Let me know once you guys have been paid then or if you want anything sooner" she told Blight and then Dean respectively.

Hoisting her backpack back over her shoulder, she walked over to Clark. "You wanted to talk to me, yeah?" Malena asked, wondering if Clark was intending to buy something.

You are reading this.

Clark raised a finger to silence her, and then headed toward a window. The glass had been smashed out and a few boards hastily nailed across it, denying entrance, but it still provided a view onto the street. He waited until Malena had joined him, then spoke, still looking out the window.

"You've known Mr. Ross for a while, yes?" Clark asked. "Do the names Eric, Rodger, George, or Reyna mean anything to you?" He made no reference to the black journal, which now hid inside his jacket.

"Your mission is not to nuke the squid god." —Faramir