Tara Luketic
Junior Member
Witch Hunter and Pack Rat
Posts: 71
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Post by Tara Luketic on Feb 5, 2010 23:56:41 GMT -5
It was probably a good thing that Keith moved Tara, seeing as she was fully unconscious from a mixture of pain, nausea, and exhaustion. After all, you try not passing out with a broken nose, covered in blood and two kinds of puke, and a few bits of guys for good measure. Needless to say, when she woke up, she'd first want some pills, and then she'd want soap and water. Tara didn't react much while getting dragged, just a simple groan or moan here and there. It was the same when he fixed her up, aside from her body tensing and her face contorting with pain when he fixed her nose.
Finally, when Keith had done all he could and her head looked like it belonged on a mummy, she began to come to. A soft groan escaped Tara's lips and her eyelids fluttered as her body shifted slightly, feeling the hard wood on her back. She coughed a bit, then instantly sat up and spat a few clumps of bloody gunk onto the floor. Sputtering as pain washed over her face, she would have thrown up again had her stomach not been completely devoid of anything now. For the moment, the pain kept her mind off of the gore covering her, and Tara looked around dazedly.
The last thing she remembered was killing a Boomer and collapsing, even though there was a Tank on the loose and a decent amount of the horde left. And now here she was, sitting on the rubble-strewn floor of the tavern with Keith by her side.... Wait, Keith?! Tara whirled around so quickly that her head pounded in retaliation, and she hissed as she reached up to hold it. Looking at the Southern boy, her logical, quick-thinking mind pieced together the jist of what must have happened. Her heart fluttered and her cheeks turned a light shade of pink, thankfully hidden by blood and bandages.
Keith had saved Tara, again, and even patched her up in his... own special way. The thought gave her feelings she hadn't experienced in a while, and she quickly shoved them down. This wasn't the right time to let those useless emotions take over, not after the beating they'd taken. "Uh... th-thanks, Keith..." Tara paused to cough up some more blood from her nose, then cleared her throat to continue.
"N-not sure what all happened, b-but... I'm guessing you s-saved me, again, so... thanks. A-and thanks for... for patching me u-up and all..." Looking down bashfully, she fidgeted slightly and kept her gaze locked onto the wood so as to shove the thought of the grime covering her aside. "S-so, um... wh-what about the others?"
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Post by Moro Ashford on Feb 6, 2010 11:47:08 GMT -5
Moro had seen the Tank turn away from her, focusing its fury at something downstairs. The young woman let out a low despairing moan and took a step back towards it; with an agonized groan, pain shot up her left side and she sank to the ground, leaning against one of the closed room doors.
Helpless to aid in the chaos downstairs, Moro could only listen, murmuring a quiet prayer under her breath.
"Please...don't let them die..." she wasn't the praying sort, but there was nothing else she could do. The floor shuddered as the Tank charged around downstairs. There were other voices now, drowned out and indistinguishable from the Tank's roars. "Please....."
And then, the Tank gave a dying cry, there was a crash, and near silence. Gripping and re-gripping the rifle lying across her lap, Moro strained her ears for any sign that her comrades had not succumbed to the horde.
Then-
"WE DID IT!" Moro let her head fall back against the door which she rested, her pain-glazed eyes sliding shut. A relief like she had never known enveloped her; one by one, she identified the voices she heard downstairs.
"Hey miss Moro..." Roy sounded a tad out of sorts; the mechanic raised her head, watching his shadow proceed him up the stairs. She attempted to shout something back, but gasped and clenched her side harder. She wasn't able to suck in a breath deep enough.
"Psst. Moro. Where ye' arrrre." She held a genuine, if pained, smile when he came into view. She hailed him with a nod.
"Hey, help me up, will you?" she said- her voice was hardly louder than a loud whisper. "I think that bastard cracked a rib." Her eyes then narrowed slightly; she cocked her head.
"And...are you okay? You just went all Pirates of the Caribbean for a second."
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Post by Mason Breaker on Feb 6, 2010 21:17:03 GMT -5
Mason could only sputter what sounded something like "Holysonofabitchthishurts.", followed by a long, pained moan. His chest felt like it was on fire, his head was spinning like a wheel, and he couldn't see five feet in front of him thanks to all the blood running down his face.
Another round of dust and Tank related coughing ensued, small bits of blood flying from his mouth. He was hurting bad, no lies. It wasn't fatal, but he would seriously be feeling that in the morning. And the next. And the one after that.
Still clinging onto conciousness, he glanced up at Kameko, giving a weak smile. "So......We.......We beat em.......Eh?" He would have chuckled if his chest wasn't hurting so badly, and he was already out of breath, evident in his attempt to speak. "Is........Everyone else..........Okay?"
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Post by Kameko Hoshi on Feb 6, 2010 21:41:33 GMT -5
The worry Kameko was feeling earlier just got worse. She stared helplessly at Mason, her eyes switching back-and-forth to his wounds. She hadn’t realized he was talking to her until she heard his rasping voice. The girl looked down to see a weak smile fixated on the man’s face.
“Y-yeah.” Kameko stammered. “We got him alright. He won’t be messing with anyone anymore.”
She looked around the tavern for a minute before her eyes fell on the first-aid kit covered by rubble. The girl hurried over towards it, moving the rubble out the way and grabbing the med pack. She then scurried back over to Mason and began her work.
“You’ll be fine. Just promise you’ll stay with me.” Kameko murmured to Mason as she began probing his head to find his wound. “And yes. Everyone is fine. Keith is helping Tara and Roy went to go find Moro.”
When the black-haired girl finally discovered the head-wound, she tried not to gag at how gruesome it looked. That tank really did a load on the poor Irish man. The teenager reached into the med-kit, pulling out a hand full of alcohol swaps. She had to get the all the blood cleaned off before she could do anything else with the wound.
The next ten minutes were spent by Kameko diligently cleaning the blood from Mason’s head-wound, pausing every now and then whenever the man winced. After the blood was cleaned she frowned at gaping wound. It looked like he would have to need stitches. Thankfully she knew how to do just that.
“Hey old man,” Kameko spoke as she reached into the med-kit to grab the supplies she would need. “Don’t freak out or anything, but I’m going to need to stitch up that wound on your head.”
She set to work and after another ten minutes the wound was stitched up nicely. The black-haired girl sat back, smiling at her work. She glanced at Mason from the corner of her dark blue eyes.
“There we go.” she told him. “You should be fine now. Time to look at that chest.”
After the girl exposed the man’s chest by moving away his tattered shirt, she inspected the wounds for a minute then set to work. First she had cleaned off the blood, and then decided to rub a butt-load of antibiotics on the various cuts and scratches before topping it off by bandaging the crap out of his chest.
“Finished!” Kameko chirped to Mason. “Just take it easy for awhile ‘kay?” She stood up. “Now to go see if Roy and Moro want some help.” She smiled back down at the man. “You don’t need to thank me. I’m just here to help.”
And with that she walked off.
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Post by Keith the Great on Feb 6, 2010 22:20:31 GMT -5
As Tara woke up and took in her surroundings, Keith took the time to stare at his crossed fingers in amazement. It had actually worked! He frowned, concentrating. ‘Damn, I guess I’ll haveta use this for good, not evil. Maybe I’ll need a cape...And a name...’ He was broken out of his reverie by the girl’s apology. “Oh, yeah,” he mused, mind still inching back to reality. “Yer welcome.”
He couldn’t see her expression (the downside of his makeshift medical malpractice), but she sounded pretty grateful and Keith left it at that. He beamed when he was credited with saving her. Granted, all he had done was drag her unconscious form into the bar, drop her on the floor, and follow the rule of fictional healing (bandages cure everything), but he was willing to slide over the details. “T’wert nothin’!” he chirped, though his beaming eyes and straightened posture told otherwise.
Setting his ego aside, he took a quick glance around the room to update himself on everyone’s conditions. “Weeeelllll,” he drawled, “Moro an’ Kami look pretty okay, think they’re upstairs with Roy. Dunno what happened t’ him but he got hit sometime. An’ Mason...” He paused, taking a good look at the team’s Meat-Shield-Of-The-Day. The man was still on the ground, but Kami had done a good job fixing him up. (Keith was a bit jealous, but he’d never admit it.) “Ehhh...He’ll live. Probably. From what I can tell.”
His recap complete, he turned back to his ‘patient’, brown eyes gleaming in an attempt to cheer the situation up. “How ‘bout you? You arright y’self? Can ya stand? I remember this one time El fell off the railin’ at the mall and knocked his head on one’a the stalls an’ when ‘e woke up ‘e socked me in th’ face ‘cause I’d had a goatee at th’ time an he thought I was Mustachio.” The story sent him into a short memory-lapse, but he brought himself back quickly, shaking his head to clear up his mind. “Anyway. You need anythin’? I know you got plen’y a’ band-aids, but if there’s anythin’ else, just ask.”
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Tara Luketic
Junior Member
Witch Hunter and Pack Rat
Posts: 71
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Post by Tara Luketic on Feb 6, 2010 22:40:00 GMT -5
Tara blinked a few times at his pose when he responded to her "saving me" comment, but shoved the thought aside. Her face (and consequently her head) hurt far too much for her to do any extensive thinking right now. She nodded slowly, so as not to upset her head anymore, as Keith filled her in on everyones' condition. Until, of course, he came to Mason and blatantly stated his feelings on the Irish man's injuries. Tara, eyes wide, whipped her head around to face him and instantly regretted it.
Her vision went white for a moment, pain washing through her skull and making her nearly fall back down onto it. An arm barely kept her sitting up as she groaned loudly, free hand massaging her vomit-covered scalp. When the pain had subsided enough that Tara could open her eyes and glance over at Keith, as well as find her voice, she spoke in a tight, pained tone. "Probably?? Keith, I hope you're exaggerating..." she muttered. However, a fresh, rosy blush appeared on her face again when he turned his giddy, full attention onto her.
"Uh... I probably can, but I really, really don't want to try right now. Now that you've fixed my nose, I think I'll be okay," Tara answered with a small smile. That smile turned to a grimace when she had to finally face the fact that she was filthy and crusty, reeking of blood and vomit. The smell alone made her gag, and she didn't dare to look at herself for fear of passing out again. "I have a bar of soap in my bag. Do you think you could help me to the bathrooms so I can clean myself up?"
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Post by Keith the Great on Feb 8, 2010 18:16:11 GMT -5
Keith nearly fainted himself when Tara keeled over. He sucked in a breath of air, unsure of what to do in this situation. Doctor Keith might have knowledge enough on broken noses and band-aids, but he fell short in pretty much every other topic. Fortunately, something kept her in the conscious world, and allowed Keith to release his bated breath.
“I wouldn’t call it ‘exaggerating’...” he said, twiddling his thumbs. “...S’ more like guessin’. As in, ‘I ain’t a doctor, I think he’s gonna make it, but you oughta get a second opinion.’”
His expression flipped right back to happiness at the reminder of his previous medical exploits, but fell once again at the suggestion of moving her again. Damn. “Weeeellllll,” he began, rapping his fingers on the floor for a moment before instead occupying himself by digging through the bag for the soap. “I can’t really carry you or nothin’, so I can either drag ya ‘cross the floor or stand ya up and help ya walk. Your pick.”
By the time he’d finished speaking, he’d managed to secure his grip on the slippery little soap-bar and, with a proud grin and glimmering eyes, he yanked it out of the bag and took a curious sniff. It smelled like flowers and girl, and he grimaced at the memories of ex-girlfriends that it brought up. He quickly pressed it into Tara’s hand, going so far as to force her fingers closed around it.
In the meantime, he took a moment to glance around the room and noticed that everyone but Mason was gone. Frowning, Keith decided that he might as well offer the man a little company. “Hey, Mase!” he called, giving the man a wave. “You need anythin’, either? Tar’s got a mini-closet in ‘er purse.”
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Roy Bivenmeijer
Junior Member
"Because I'm used to killing animals"
Posts: 76
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Post by Roy Bivenmeijer on Feb 8, 2010 21:26:38 GMT -5
Swaying slightly, Roy laughed at moro. He'd never seen someone with Green hair before, but she pulled it off quite nicely. "Aye, well these pilly moight not be helpin' the situation, yarg..." He reached one talon down and hooked it around her wrist, then began to pull her up. "'Tis really no challenge lassy..." he hiccuped slightly, looking down as he pulled Moro up and wondering when he'd gotten so tall... The floor'd never been that far away before...
Having suceeded in pulling the brunette up from the ground, Roy released her wrist (he didn't understand how his razor-sharp talons hadn't made her skin into lunch meat, but then again, he was freaking out too hard to care). Teetering slightly, he leaned against the wall and giggled a bit. "I didn't know that shag carpets were back in,"
At this moment, two things happened. One, Roy supressed the urge to throw up, and two, a now cycloptic Kameko come up the stairs. WHatever, that eye was pretty... "Kami, did you know shag was back in?" He rubbed the wall sureppitiously, caressing it with a gentle care. "So soft... Kami, when did I get so taaalll..." He was droning on like a stoner now, watching his arm stretch out to where she was and patting her head gently. "Hehe... you're softer then the wall Kami-kooo..."
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Post by Mason Breaker on Feb 8, 2010 22:02:12 GMT -5
Mason lifted his head slightly when Keith aproached, coughing slightly before giving an answer.
""Yeah Keith....*Cough*....Think you can grab me something ta' drink lad? Nothing strong, please. *Coughcough*"
Leaning back again, he glanced over at Tara. The first thing that went through his mind was; Mummification. What the hell. Still, he ought to see how she was doing.
Coughing again, he shifted himself slightly to face her better. "How're you doing over there Tara? I mean.... Christ, what got ya?" He was sure that it would have been a Hunter, or another Charger, or maybe even the Tank. Although, if it was the latter, she'd probably be dead.
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Tara Luketic
Junior Member
Witch Hunter and Pack Rat
Posts: 71
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Post by Tara Luketic on Feb 8, 2010 22:32:28 GMT -5
Tara nodded slowly. "Okay... don't scare me like that," she muttered, sighing. She blinked a few times at his next words, sweatdropping once he'd finished. Tara may not have minded being dragged while unconscious, but being awake during the experience was a whole different story. "Well, I guess if you help me, I can probably walk. Just... go slowly, okay?" she asked weakly.
She felt a little awkward about Keith digging through her bag, but at least her.. lady things.. were in her purse. However, when he touched Tara's hand to give her the soap, she went as red as the blood soaking through her clothes. Her grip tightened on the soap so fast and so hard that it slipped right out of her blood-soaked hands, bouncing off of Keith's head. She gasped, scrambling to pick it up again and shoving it into the pocket of her jacket. "S-sorry... and it's not that much... I just like to collect things and be prepared. That's all..."
Turning her attention to Mason, Tara winced as she finally took in his condition. "Get him some alcohol, Keith. He can't drink too much, but a little will help reduce the pain. If you're still thirsty after that, Mason, I have a water bottle here," she explained. Grabbing onto Keith's shoulder, she was just trying to push herself to her feet when Mason's question hit her like a ton of bricks. Tara dropped back onto her butt, face crimson again in embarrassment at the truth.
"Uh... well, you see, I... A Jockey grabbed my ponytail and made me hit the ground facefirst, breaking my nose. I was able to stay on my feet a little longer to kill a Boomer, but then when his vomit and guts got all on me I.. well... passed out. Of course, if I remember correctly, I did manage to throw up on him first... as well as on me...."
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Post by Kameko Hoshi on Feb 8, 2010 23:04:40 GMT -5
Kameko’s inner chibi-shelf anime sweat-dropped as she not only took in Roy’s appearance, but his words as well. She shook her head and grumbled as he patted her on the head. She then proceeded to swipe his hand away, glaring slightly at him.
“I’m not a dog thank you very much,” Kameko told him sternly. She sighed. “Roy, sweetie, your drunk…or high…or possibly even both. Just take it easy for awhile without trying to kill yourself. I have to treat Moro before I get to you. I’m pretty sure she’s more messed up than you are.”
She walked over to Moro, inspecting the woman closely. With another med-kit in hand the black-haired girl glanced up at the woman and smiled.
“Just tell me where it hurts and you’ll be fixed in a jiffy.”
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Post by Keith the Great on Feb 9, 2010 18:09:19 GMT -5
Keith nodded at Tara’s request. “Slow,” he echoed happily. “Like a turtle. Gotcha.” He had been about to hop to his feet, pick her up, then run for the requested drink when somehow, the soap managed to fly out of Tara’s grip and, by some sort of painful coincidence, smack into the back of his head.
It was actually rather fortunate; had the soap missed (or, heaven forbid, stayed in Tara’s hand), the girl wouldn’t have been able to use his shoulder as a sort of step-stool. However, the moment she lost her balance, Keith took the opportunity to slide away and grab a bottle off the bartable. He recalled where Mason had been sitting previously, and snatched the whiskey bottle that had been standing at that very spot.
Keith couldn’t hold back a grin as Tara glossed over her fall to unconsciousness. Once she’d finished, Keith piped up to clarify: “An’ I did th’ bandages.” (He felt it was necessary. Mason hadn’t asked until after he’d seen how Tara looked, and the bandages were a big part of her current appearance.)
Cheerfully, Keith sprang back over to his pals, whistling a tune as he went. He took a moment to set the bottle down next to Mason, making the assumption that the man was well enough to at least sit up and drink, before returning to Tara’s aid. He slipped her arm over his shoulder carefully, then worked on pulling the both of them up. Using all his might, Keith managed to pull her up to her knees before her weight held him down.
Once he could feel that there wasn’t much more he could do without her help, he turned his attention back to his other ‘patient’. “Forgot t’ ask, but that drink okay? Plenty to choose from if it ain’t.”
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Post by Moro Ashford on Feb 9, 2010 19:05:40 GMT -5
Moro smiled back at Kameko and attempted to stand on her own, an action that caused a spasm of pain up her left side. "Think I broke a rib," she said in a careless sort of way, leaning back against the wall for support, "don't know how much can be done for that. It'll be alright."
Her pain-glazed eyes flickered back to Roy, who was still tittering nonsense. "Maybe he should lie down," she advised. "I vote for staying here, tonight...don't think I could make it back to the mall like this." She laughed shallowly, her smile contorting in an agonized grimace as fire shot through her ribs. Clenching her jaw and feigning a cough, Moro turned her gaze to the stairwell.
"Hows everyone else?" she asked, faintly apprehensive of the answer.
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Roy Bivenmeijer
Junior Member
"Because I'm used to killing animals"
Posts: 76
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Post by Roy Bivenmeijer on Feb 9, 2010 23:13:20 GMT -5
"Are there beds here?" Drifting lazily away from the wall, Roy managed to shuffle his way behind Kameko. With what little energy he had left, he lazily draped his arms around her neck, too long arms hanging almost at her waits as he rested his cheek on her head.
Vision flickering as a result of energy deprivation and a drug/alchohol induced trance, Roy nestled himself up to Kameko. "Kami, I'm tired... and the walls here look like i could shoot them. Can we go to bed?" Totally oblivious to how else the we could be implied, he looked over to moro imploringly. "Bed?" He mewled, voice strangely empty, giving off an almost up in space kind of feel.
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Post by Mason Breaker on Feb 11, 2010 21:52:48 GMT -5
Mason grunted as he sturggled to sit upright, but allowed himself a small grin as he was finally able to get into a drinking position. Grabbing what was left of his whiskey, he took a small sip, relishing the refreshment that it brought, and boy did he need it. Raising his glass to Keith, he took another swig before trying to discern how everyone else was.
He could hear Roy rambling on like a high drunk, Kameko tending to both Moro and the psycho. Tara and Keith seemed to be doing fine, she was in good..... She was in the hands of a friend at least.
Mason himself felt like shit. Kameko's assistance helped a lot, but he would seriously be feeling this for a while. They needed to rest, but the safe room was back at the mall, and as far as Mason was concerned, the only one nearby. Where would they stay for the night? Here? It didn't seem like the best option, but it was the most availiable.
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