InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Brian what did you take?"

David Zimmerman (soeccentric) wrote in immune_ic,
@ 2011-11-30 12:27:00

Entry tags:

# 2011 [11] november

WHO: David vs and Brennan
WHAT: While out walking, David encounters two things that scare him, a swimmer and Brennan. He's honestly not sure which one he's more afraid of.
WHERE: A pier on Liberty Island, not too far from the safehouse.
WHEN: Backdated to yesterday, afternoon.
RATING: TBA, medium?
STATUS: In progress.

It was nice to get outside.

David was fully, completely and totally aware that he was living in one of the few places that he could legitimately say that, and he didn't take it for granted. He tried to get outside every day, at least once a day, even if it was just for a little bit to get a breath of fresh air (or… as fresh as was possible with the current state of things). Liberty Island barely ever saw infected. The closest they got was the occasional swimmer that got too close to shore, and even then, they just looked like beached people.

For once, David's mind wasn't on ghosts. Of course, he had his EMF detector in his hand, because well… it'd be his luck that the one time he actually encountered something would be the one time he didn't have his detector with him, but he didn't have to worry about that. He just… wasn't looking at it. Not as actively as he usually did.

It wasn't long before David found himself at the pier.

David couldn't help but think that this place had to be beautiful in its time. Looking out over the rippling water and slightly crashing waves, it was almost easy to forget the danger that bubbled underneath and on the opposite shore. And the sun was just beginning to set, bathing the whole area in a beautiful, orange-pink glow. Times like this, it was a little bit easier to believe that maybe, given enough time, things could be okay again. Good things still existed. It was just a matter of remembering that and letting it win the battle against all of the bad things out there.

He didn't realize until just then that he'd subconsciously walked halfway down the pier, and he was standing, glancing over the edge at the water. He'd read somewhere once that these beaches used to be prime clam digging territory. It was a shame that most of those clams were probably dead.

His depressing thought, however, didn't last long. While he stood there, pondering and half-reminiscing, a close lapping of water caught his attention. He snapped to full attention when he noticed that the lapping was coming from below… below the pier.

David's thoughts instantly went to old movies, when a person broke the surface of the water and was soaking wet, but none the worse for wear, but that thought was completely admonished by the sole fact that the thing coming from the water was not human. Or… at least not a living human, anyway. "Shit!" David shouted and jumped back at the sight of the mangled, surfacing swimmer. He nearly tripped over his own feet and fell over the opposite edge of the pier into the water as he tried to back up to get away from it, but he didn't, so he straightened up, tried to collect himself and moved right on.

Recovering quickly, he turned and walked toward the end of the pier. He didn’t run… but he definitely walked a little faster than he usually did.

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scratchthesky
2011-12-16 12:08 am UTC (link)

"Sometimes even stronger people have to run." Brennan responded quietly. He wasn't in particular habit of being anything but patronizing around David, but, on the other hand, he wasn't particularly inclined to being surly, just distant, and it surprised him that his mood around David had never been prone to its usual fluctuation, much like it is now.

Brennan would never admit it, especially to David, but he has run before, many times, and long before the Outbreak. He was stubborn, yes, and he refused to bend, but it also made him very vulnerable to change and left him with poor adaptive skills. Brennan had long been running from his mother before running from infected, and he had run from both with the same fervor, at least in the beginning.

There were a number of times, early in his training, when he had tried to run. He was an architect, for Christ's sake, not a murderer, and even though it was a matter of survival, a matter of 'us versus them', he couldn't help but imagine how his father felt when he shot his wife point blank. The thought of potentially killing someone he had met, or knowing that he was killing someone's husband or wife, daughter, son really messed him up for a while. He wasn't a violent man, he was prone to passive-aggressive fighting at his best, basic fist-fighting when he was drunk. And before the Outbreak, he had never been particularly devoted to God before, but his fear, and there was no other word for it, however undignified, and his anxiety were almost too much and he prayed so often he sometimes wondered if it was enough to make up for years of forgetting. There were a lot of things Brennan didn't share with the people he has been living with on Liberty Island; most of them only knew his name and his grumpy disposition, and nobody asked for more. He'd never been the kind of person to make friends quickly or easily, nor was he the kind of person that begged for attention, and when he merely became a guard on the island, he slow let his purpose here define him, to the point where even he has begun to question if there was anything more to him.

Brennan regarded David for a second more, before focusing his eyes on where the body of the swimmer had been. He couldn't see it any longer, the current having pulled it under and out to sea by now. Force of habit ran a prayer for their soul and for his through his mind, and before he could check himself, he quickly crossed himself. He hoped he hadn't been caught and latched onto David's speech, hoping to divert any attention away from himself. He didn't need to have the rumor that he was some Bible-thumper to run through the camp. Most mentions of God nowadays were stilted and tainted by radicalism and he didn't need to give the survivors something else to hate him for. God was his way of dealing with the fact that he was a murderer, and God helped him to sleep at night; he didn't need them to take Him away.

"I've seen some fish carcasses wash up on shore, stripped bare." He commented quickly. He almost sounded shaken, and he covered that up as best he could. No need for weakness. "I haven't seen any infected fish or sharks, but the possibility is high. If dogs and cats and the like can get infected, I don't see why fish couldn't." He realized that saying such might fuel a fire of panic in David, but he wasn't going to lie, because regardless of how Brennan might treat him, David wasn't a child. "More reasons to be careful near the water."

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