The Walking Dead - Julie Skywalker & Shadowfax

[Shadowfax]

Ash watched as Laurence disappeared into the room before she could answer his question. Everyone had their own name for the 'dead' these days, but roamers wasn't one she had heard before. As Laurence checked his room, Ash peered round the corner into a small bathroom with a solitary toilet and sink. The room next door was a double bedroom with a dusty old bed sat in the middle. Ash kept her hand tightly clenched around the sword as she advanced into the room.

Behind the door hung an old dressing gown, now covered in a layer of dust. Infront of her was a wardrobe which she decided to check. Some people had taken to hiding in them from walkers, so there could even be a survivor inside. Cautiously, she flung the door open with a bang, but all there was in there were a few jackets and a box of shoes. Sighing with relief, she turned to head back out the room, but as she made to leave, something grabbed her ankle with a snarl. Caught off guard, Ash fell to the floor with a thud followed by her sword as the walker under the bed snapped at her heels.

[Carl]

Hearing the commotion, Laurence moved quickly into the room the woman had taken, finding her in the clutches of a gory roamer on the floor at the foot of the bed. With a cry, he moved around her as quickly as he could, his bat hefted in the air. She continued struggling with the monster as it held on with the typical vice-like grip. They were moving around a lot, and he was afraid of hitting her foot and messing up her ankle, so he waited for a good moment to strike. At length, the monster's head was against the bed frame more than it was her, so he lifted the bat above his head and brought it down in an arching motion, slamming it hard on the creature's skull.

That one strike wasn't enough, so the teen repeated the motion, hitting it again, then a third time, and a fourth time, brain matter and bone fragments falling away from the creature as its movements ceased. Breathing heavily, he pulled the bat away from the roamer's head and looked at the woman, "It didn't bite you, did it?" It would be just his luck to finally find a potential traveling partner and lose 'em to a bite immediately, wouldn't it? He didn't seen any fresh blood on her, though, all of it appeared to be from the grasp the roamer had had on her, most of it looking infected and dark.

Not ready to let his guard down and get bitten himself, he made sure to keep letting his eyes dart back to the doorway, and from there, to any place where they could be hiding, and then back to her. No matter what he had to keep surviving like he had always done.

[Shadowfax]

(I've not forgotten this. My laptops being repaired at the moment and posting on my phone is a mission haha. Should have it back on Wednesday

[Shadowfax]

Never had she been so relieved to see someone in her life. Ash watched as the teen battered the walker until it lay motionless before them. There was a brief pause before Laurence asked the question 'It didn't bite you, did it?' Ash had to check that she had no bite marks, plus it would also prove to the teen she was bite free. Mostly though for her own peace of mind.

Slowly, she removed her boot and her jeans were completely in tact. With a sigh of relief, she slid the boot back on and looked up at the teen, a different sort of look in her eye, One more of, respect.

"You're not too bad with that bat. What's your name?"

Sam timidly crept into the room at that point, which made Ash leap to her feet and roll her eyes.

"Damn it, I told you to stay downstairs!"

[Carl]

"Laurence," the teen had murmured just before the kid had appeared. At the woman's words, he said to the kid, "Look, it's not safe up here just yet."

With that, he moved effortlessly around the youngster and back into the hall. He listened carefully, but couldn't hear any noises that might suggest more roamers were in the house; if they had been, they'd surely have heard the ruckus and at least started hitting something. Although, it could never be guaranteed that anything was the way it seemed. The teenager glanced down the stairwell and back down the hall anxiously, forcing himself, yet again, not to wretch at the gore around him. He gave himself a mental kick for still being bothered by something like that after all this time, even as his stomach rolled again from the reek of "fresh" roamer brains.

He'd guard while the woman handled her kid, he supposed.

[Shadowfax]

Aah walked over to Sam and looked down at him, an annoyed expression on her face. The boy looked away swiftly, suddenly very interested in the bed frame in the room.

"One of these days Sam, you're not going to listen to me and end up getting hurt, or worse!" She told the boy, who still refused to make eye contact.

Seeing that he was in no talking mood, Ash pushed past him and made her way downstairs. She had come to the same conclusion that Laurence had that the house was safe, so she made her way towards the kitchen.

"I guess we should see if there's anything worth eating here" she called to the pair before disappearing into the kitchen.

The worktops were covered with dust and all the wooden cubhards were closed. That was a good sign. Ash pulled door after door open, finding only dishes and glasses until at last she found a small cubby in the corner with a few tins of beans, corn and fruit. These days, that was considered a three course meal.

[Carl]

As she headed down the stairs, Laurence made a quick sweep of the remaining rooms upstairs, just to be safe. A third bedroom and a bathroom... he ensured that there were no roamers in the tub, nor under that bed or inside the closet... he didn't see an attic entrance, and so with that, he made his way to the stairwell once again. He'd heard her calling out that they should see if there was any food, so, bat on his shoulder, he turned towards the kitchen at the foot of the stairs, not fancying the idea of eating in a room surrounded by guts and gore, but preparing himself to all the same in an effort not to appear weak in front of them.

When he saw what she'd found, he couldn't help grinning a little. That was the most food he'd seen at one time in quite some time.

"Look at that," he murmured, "Jackpot. I knew this house would be useful."

[Shadowfax]

"It certainly was" Ash replied, checking when the food went out of date. When she saw it was still within its use by date she laughed slightly and shook her head with disbelief.

"If we can board up with windows and find some wood I can make us a small fire to cook the beans. Nights are cold these days and it would be nice to have warm food. I'll just need to find a baking tray or something to stop us setting the house on fire"

She took the tins to the living room where she began to scout around for something to block the window.

[Carl]

"Wood... I think I saw a bookshelf upstairs. I can break it down, we can use it, maybe some other furniture too," the teen offered, "There's bound to be a toolbox with hammers and nails around somewhere too."

Without waiting for her to respond, he left the room and went to work. Ascending the stairs again wasn't what he particularly wanted to do, but things needed to get done, and he needed to prove himself to these people if he wasn't going to be spending his days on his own out here anymore. He quickly ducked into the child's room he'd inspected first when they'd searched the upstairs hallway, and there in the corner of the room was indeed a small bookshelf. He dropped his bat to the floor and began to toss the books out of the shelf, thinking to himself that they could burn the books to make a fire, and save the wood for blockading the windows.

With the shelf emptied, he began to pull the boards apart, using his legs and his baseball bat when necessary for leverage and extra power.