"Holy shit," Dale said looking through the window, wondering if they would have been better off if he accidentally shot one of them instead of leaving them to try punching the ghoul. And he still couldn't shoot it because the two of them were still by it, and a third was getting closer.
"Hey, let's make sure nothing's hiding in the attic," he said to Jerry, as he cautiously approached the door.
Og watched the man in the gas mask charge towards the sound of the scream, reloading his weapon as he went. He ran to the window closest to the commotion and peeked out, racking his own shotgun as he took cover. The ex-con peeked out and saw the ghoul he'd shot earlier bite into one of the other bounty hunters who tried to pry it off his friend.
He cursed. With the general messiness of his gun, there was no way to guarantee he could hit the ghoul without harming any of the others. In a snap decision, Og followed Nathan outside, his entrenching tool swinging in his grip.
The hits keep rollin'!The ghoul only grunted/inhaled slightly in response to Red's hitting, without letting go as it prepared to start tearing its mouth away. Before it could however, Cranston got up enough to shove the knife through the open gash he already made in the ghoul's throat, aiming upwards. The knife plunged up through the back of the throat, meeting little resistance until it reached the bottom of the skull; but by then Cranston had already shoved enough momentum into it.
There was a muffled cracking sound as the tip of the blade pierced the bottom of the ghoul's skull. Alone, it wouldn't have done much to the ghoul, but after all the punishment the ghoul had taken already, it was the final straw. The ghoul let go of Red's arm completely and lurched upright; the inhaling noise it had been making constantly at least somewhat since Nathan first heard it finally stopped, and it let out an exhale as the solid, glowing red eyes faded out entirely, revealing empty sockets. The ghoul was dead.
With the ghoul's death, the farm was silent except for the bounty hunters themselves and the burning barn, which had started to collapse. The bounty hunters may have expected more in their professionally justified paranoia, but in the end there was nothing left to meet them. This left them with time to search the rest of the farm for supplies and tools before figuring out how to burn the house and pen down.
The attic was mostly empty, and had a roughly oval-shaped hole on one side, about seven feet long and five feet wide, which was where the sunlight was coming in. It was low enough along the angled roof that they could actually just step out onto the roof itself. There were two boxes, one filled with old monotone photos and letters and envelopes which seemed to come from the civil war era. The other box held two things, first an old, shallow metal helmet with a flat brim, straight from world war one; the second an old, small, black revolver, probably 9mm. There wasn't any ammo for the revolver there though. The only other thing of note in the attic was a slightly faded out ritual circle in one of the corners opposite of the hole in the roof.
Stepping out onto the roof itself yielded almost nothing; the only thing interesting up there at all was the remains of a weather vane, which was currently little more than a metal spike on a foot-long pole that could be easily removed. Since there was nothing else, Dale and Jerry also had plenty of time to go back to the second floor and check there more thoroughly for useful items. A couple of the beds still had sheets and blankets, for what good that might do them, but there were no pillows. One of the bedrooms had a swiss army knife on top of a dresser, and an intact computer tower under a desk. Other than that there was a plethora of old clothes amongst the different rooms; based on the sizes and styles, the last residents that cared about clothes were a young-adult male and a somewhat older couple, likely the parents.
Meanwhile, Eve and Tank were the first to check through the first floor. They would find that besides the living room and kitchen, there was a garage, a small office-like room, and another entrance to the cellar. The garage looked cleaned out already, and any food in the kitchen had long since spoiled. However the kitchenware was still there and mostly intact, save for a few broken dishes and a missing butcher knife from a knife block in the corner. The office held mostly tax paperwork and such, but in one of the drawers there was a small envelope with 'emergency' written on it in black marker with a backwards r. Inside the envelope was some cash.
The inside of the cellar was dark, and it seemed to be some kind of bomb/storm shelter, which meant it was pretty bare bones besides a few cots and shelves. Once their eyes adjusted to the dark though, they would see one heck of a find on one of the shelves; a few dozen industrial-sized food cans, containing such wonders as beans, spam, and a couple other vegetables. Well, it may not have meant much for the bounty hunters themselves since they were presumably getting food as part of their agreement with the sheriff; but it may come in handy for the town.
For those outside, a closer look around the edges of the house revealed an old mountain bike against the side of the house, hidden from afar by some bushes. The tires were wrecked, but the the rest of the bike was intact. Over in the animal pen was the pile of trash the first giant rat had been sorting through. It was, obviously, mostly just trash, but there was also a perfectly fine if somewhat dirty crowbar in there.
Whatever may have been in the barn was lost in the fire, save for the metal heads of some of the tools in the shed part of it. The handles were burned away, but there was still the important parts of a pitchfork, a rake, and a couple hoes. There were also a few shovel heads, both large and garden variety.
You are reading this."Guess what's fair would be to split everything we find between us all, probably find someone in town with connections to the photos, or just some crazy old-timer with a love of this crap from the war," Dale said to Jerry as he looked at the bedroom. "But I'm tempted to say that that gun should be Rocky's share - poor bastard's been trying to punch the zombies. Since we're probably all going to be in town for a while, we sure as hell don't need him running up to them and getting in our line of fire, or just being zombie chow. Then again, it looks like it might be an antique instead of an old piece of junk, we could be better off selling it and letting the guy buy his own gun with his share, probably something from this century. And you and I probably don't need this," he picked the knife up for a second and put it back down.
No, the only item he grabbed so far was the biggest, thickest bedsheets he could find. He to pull them off of one of the beds as he spoke, "Might as well go see what they have in the kitchen, hopefully we can fill this sack up with some food. Oh, and when we go back to town, we can get a screen and see if these farmers had any good porno on that thing," he pointed at the computer.
He kept the circle out of mind for the time being, though. He'd be glad to burn it down with the rest of the house once they ransacked the place.
edited 5th Nov '12 11:57:41 PM by nman
"Well, this was a busy day..."
Og slid his entrenching tool back into its belt loop as he walked over to where the wounded Red was finishing up his search. He barely gave the mountain bike a glance.
He winced at all the blood oozing from the bite mark. "That don't look too good, friend. If you've bandages, I know a little about first aid."
edited 6th Nov '12 11:59:38 AM by mantlemask
The hits keep rollin'!"Uh... whatever you say Dale..." He holstered his guns and then grabbed the knife, the 9mm, and the WW 1 helmet, stuffed the knife and the revolver into a pocket in his coat, then followed Dale down he stairs. "Hey if anyone cares there's a computer tower upstairs."
"Somebody barbequin'?!"Stephanie trudged down the dirt trail with a measured gait, her eyes, hidden behind polarised military sunnys, scanned the area to and fro. She'd been walking since dawn and hadn't seen a soul apart from a lone bus driver who whizzed past her a half hour ago. She was bored but not unawares as she was walking and she had spotted the smoke rising in the distance, it wasn't coming from the town, she had doubled checked her small map to be sure, that was still a few miles off.
Deciding it might be worth checking out she decided to head off the road and head for the smoke, and so now she trudged. She swore she heard gunfire and patted her REC 7 for reassurance, deciding to take her headphones out, Steph turned off her ipod and put it in her pack and was soon once again heading for the smoke. The smoke had gradually been increasing and as she grew closer, she could definitely hear some sort of commotion.
Breaking into a brisk trot Steph jogged the last few hundred yards into a clearing to see some figures moving around an old farmhouse and what was now a mass of burning rubble that used to be a barn. By the figures movements Steph recognised them as humans, at least by their tendency to wander around in broad daylight. Steph noticed the weapons most of them carried around and decided to proceed with caution.
Going closer Steph raised the black bandana that had been hanging around her neck and placed it over her face and nose and then quickly swung her Barret around and flicked the saftey off. Warily, though not displaying any aggression, Stephanie approached.
"Hey! Is everyone okay?!"
It obviously isn't fast eoughJerry walked outside and noticed the newcomer. "Who the hell are you? Some kinda bandit?" Noticing the bandana and shades, then he examined the rest of her attire. "Ex-military by the looks of it." He muttered to himself. "I'll help ya Red." He said pulling his first aid kit out of his pack.
"Somebody barbequin'?!""Steph Tanford, but call me Artemis," She called back, "Bounty Hunter!"
The man who spoke second, began tending to the injured fellow before she could say anything else.
She approached a little closer as they didn't appear alarmed by her presence, she spotted the various monster corpses scattered about and approached the man dressing his friends wound. "You did well here." Seeing the charcoal corpse, "Ghoul bite?"
edited 7th Nov '12 5:42:57 PM by Icarus24
It obviously isn't fast eough"Yeah, they're somethin, I've seen one take 20 9mm rounds and barely flinch," looking closer at how much and the type of damage the ghoul took, She half chuckled, "I'm Steph, but most call me Artemis." She slipped her bandana down to reveal her feminine features.
edited 7th Nov '12 6:18:05 PM by Icarus24
It obviously isn't fast eough"Crap happens."
Nathan perched himself on the porch of the house, his heavy boots casually slung over the stairs. This encounter had by and large been a waste of resources, but not necessarily a large one. He cursed himself for being to lazy to enchant his arsenal before hand, an felt a lesson learned.
He began waving his stressed arm to and fro, gyrating his shoulder to check for any possible sprains, or cracks in the bone.
To the law and for the good of man. All I need to live by.After Jerry had finished treating him, Red pulled himself to his feet and thanked the other bountyhunter. Most of the glass wounds would disappear eventually with little to no scarring but, for now, they had stopped bleeding. The bite mark would just have to be tolerated until it fully healed. He put his newly acquired bike chain in his backpack, picked up his gas container, and took off his bloodstained shirt. He went in the house to find a new shirt. Stepping into one of the bedrooms, he ruffled through the piles of old clothes and found a plain, white long-sleeved shirt that wasn't too out of style. He slipped it on and headed back out of the house."Hey!" he addressed to all of the bounty hunters within earshot. "What's saying we hurry up and finish looting, burn the rest of the place down, and head back to town? I don't want to be here come nightfall."
OOC: I have ran into a glass door, don't ask, and I can honestly say the wounds disappeared within a few days. Haven't been bitten by a ghoul though so I can't really say about the bite...
Seeing she was being left alone by the others for what appeared to be more urgent matters, Steph stood back and waited, watching the group dynamic. From what she could gather they were also Hunters, though she swore what looked like a little teenage girl walked passed her. More seemed to be in the house, though it seemed as if the idea was loot and burn, so maybe they were scavengers. Either way, she'd already made her way here, no point just walking away, apparently they were headng into town anyway, and if they were Hunters there may be a chance she could join, for a slice of the profits of course.
edited 7th Nov '12 7:53:20 PM by Icarus24
It obviously isn't fast eough

Shooting the ghoul would have meant having to pull his gun out of the holster so Cranston opted for shoving his knife ito it's throat and up.
Trump delenda est