josh bennett (pkaltered) wrote in downfallrpg, @ 2010-04-10 14:55:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2015-09-01, josh, josh and verity, verity |
Zombie Apocalypse Survival Plans
Who: Verity and Josh
When: early afternoon
Where: the lobby
Josh had two states of being these days: flushed red, hot and sweating or just out of the shower with wet hair. He was in the latter state as he walked down the steps from the first floor to the lobby level, slowly so he wouldn't get warm again anytime soon. He was quite possibly the only person in the hotel for whom a lack of hot water wasn't a problem; his showers were icy cold and he liked them that way. He stepped through the stairwell door into the lobby, damp hair dripping onto the neck of his t-shirt, and paused when he saw Verity doing... something on the other side of it.
He hadn't seen the guy since he and Joyce had brought him here to the hotel, and he'd been so out of it by the time they'd gotten here that it was kind of embarrassing to think about it. He thought for a few seconds and then began walking in that direction, curious about what he was doing.
Jasper was behaving at least a little bit again, so Verity had relaxed and was happily back to work. He was pretty sure the battery would suffice to power the space heater, and now he was just tweaking the machine itself a bit, trying to make sure it wouldn't fluctuate too much. Verity didn't know a lot about eggs, but common sense said that baby birds, even baby monster birds, would be kind of delicate. He didn't want to just cook them, after all. Besides, a space heater was kind of a fire hazard, and in the event of that disaster, they had whatever fire extinguishers were on hand and nothing else. Maybe they could get the top off a hydrant, but the water pressure was probably falling and there was no hose to handle it. Verity liked to think ahead about these things. Fire. Bad. It gave him a little more sense of place.
Jasper noticed Josh approaching first. The poor kid looked very tired and wasn't even helping beyond handing his older brother the occasional wrench. He blinked owlishly at the newcomer and poked Verity's upper arm. He looked over and smiled automatically. He was getting to like having people wander by and ask about what he was up to. "Hey. Josh, right?" The guy who'd ridden home behind him. That was really all he knew.
Josh hadn't seen the child sitting on the other side of Verity, and he blinked a little but didn't stop his approach. He might've been more hesitant about approaching two people his age or older, but somehow a child and a person his age were less intimidating. "Hey," he said in reply once he was close enough, nodding and hoping he didn't look too awkward. His hands had slipped into the front pockets of his cutoffs, and he slouched a little as he looked down at whatever Verity was doing. "Josh. Yeah." Could he be any more monosyllabic if he tried to? "Wh-what're you doin'?" he asked, hoping that Verity wasn't one of those horrible people who'd give him a smartass answer to his question and embarrass him out of countenance. Not that that ever took much, sadly.
Verity was getting to really enjoy this. Maybe he'd move his operations permanently downstairs. Then he wouldn't have to worry about Jasper and Juny running around and knocking anything over when they were building pillow forts or whatever. Though moving it upstairs again if something went wrong would be a pain. "This? Well, right now I'm getting a space heater rigged to a car battery. Which sounds kind of insane, I realize, given that it's still pretty much summer and everything. I realize. But the reason is that this guy Tayne... You've probably seen him, the one who turns into a tiger, medium tall with brown hair, maybe thirty? Yeah. Him. He fought this monster apparently and found that it had laid eggs. So we're trying to hatch them. See what happens. Maybe we can raise them for meat or something. Or guards. Which would be cool." Verity realized that Josh wasn't used to his habit of blathering and stopped. "...Um, I talk too much." Behind him, the little boy rolled his eyes.
Josh sat down nearby, not close enough to crowd Verity or get in the way but close enough to hear what he was saying. He folded his legs into Indian-style and wrapped his fingers in the hem of his t-shirt to hopefully keep himself from fidgeting. This talking-to-people thing was a lot to get used to for him. "I th-think I've seen him," he said of Tayne. Josh still hadn't put a lot of faces with names; most of his time at the meeting where everyone had introduced themselves had been spent with his head down, looking at the floor. He wasn't sure what he thought of monster eggs hatching, but he was glad to know about it so he wouldn't accidentally fry a baby monster... thing if he saw it running around the halls. He knew that wasn't likely, but one could escape. You never knew.
He was nodding along to Verity's words, not thinking anything about the sheer number of them, and he was surprised when Verity said he talked too much. "'S'nothin' w-wrong with that," he said shyly, trying not to stare at him. That might seem weird. "I don't talk enough... I guess." He glanced up again, this time at the blond child sitting on Verity's other side. "Y-your brother?" he asked.
That was kind of a weird thing to say. Was there a... quota for talking? Verity glanced over at Jasper. "Huh? Oh, yeah, that's Jasper." He wasn't sure where to go from there. Introductions usually consisted of more than a name. But what could he say? He's my middle brother, with September worse than dead? The smartest fifth-grader ever, knowing Jasper wouldn't or couldn't speak? Jasper hadn't even turned out to have a power of any sort yet. "He's my assistant," Verity settled on. Jasper might not be as helpful as he would have been back home on their workbench in the garage, but he was passing the occasional wrench over. That was something?
Josh wouldn't have been surprised to discover that Verity had found his comment weird. He'd had so little experience interacting with people in ordinary ways, and he'd lived for nearly a year as a homeless person, paranoid and fearful. It was still hard for him not to jump at strange noises even though the hotel was supposedly safe. "Hi," he said to Jasper once he'd been introduced, not wanting to be rude by ignoring him. He watched Verity's hands at work on rigging the heater to the battery and finally asked, "Did you always know how to work on engines and stuff?" He didn't remember if Verity had said he had a power in the meeting or not, although he wouldn't have thought of what he was doing as a power, exactly.
"Yeah, I'm an engineering student. I guess maybe I should say that I was an engineering student, but I'm still doing all this stuff, and I'm learning some new stuff, so I guess it's more of a practical education now. Plus I worked in a garage, so car stuff is really easy for me. It all makes intuitive sense, y'know?" He checked his wires again and smiled. This was about done, and he thought he'd made some basic improvements. "But since all this, I... It's hard to explain. I can kind of see inside machines. It's like one of those fancy 3D renderings with interactive functions, but all mental. And I can change them in small ways. So overall, I'm customized to be our gadget guy, in the gritty superhero team that seems to have become our lives."
"It's good you c-can do somethin' practical like that," Josh said, his tongue tangling up a little over the three-syllable word. "Useful." All he could do was boil water and set things on fire, which actually had been useful when he'd been attacked by crazed mutant things in the street when this had first started. Also he was producing gallons of sweat, it seemed like, but that wasn't useful for anyone, least of all himself. When Verity said he could see inside machines in 3D, he said, "Sounds like a video game, kinda." He'd played those on occasion back home, although there hadn't been anything like that at the lab.
"Yeah, kinda like that, except no power ups or save points. And the monsters can't be auto-targeted. Which bites." Verity was glad for the video game comparison. He knew he was the world's biggest remaining nerd, but it was nice to hear that there were a few lesser nerds still about. "Makes it easier to get up to stuff like this. Once this is ready I need to put the finishing touches on my alarm system, get the lights running... and if Terry says it's okay, I have tentative plans for an elevator. One using a pulley system, I mean. Enough pulleys and we'll be able to move supplies or injured people or whatever around a lot more freely. And as someone living on the twelfth freaking floor, I can see a lot of value in that."
Josh smiled as he pondered auto-targeting the monsters that had attacked him. It would be handy to be able to play video games here; it'd be something to do. Sometimes, ways to occupy himself were sadly lacking. "It'd be great t-to have lights again," he said, almost wistfully. It was a touch of normalcy that would make everyone feel better, he felt sure. He also felt reassured that people were making plans like that, plans for how to make their lives-- such as they were right now-- run more smoothly. Josh himself was too tentative to feel confident in anything he might suggest, so he'd mostly been keeping to himself. "H-how'd you end up all the way on twelve?" he asked idly.
"Voluntary exile." Verity shrugged. "My friend Rowan is the guy with the wings. You've got to have seen him. Hard to miss. I'm pretty sure he just wanted to be all the way on the top so he could just run up to the roof and fly around whenever he wants. But the justification was that there are suites up there, so all of us could kind of have an enclave. Our rooms all connect, so the kids can play whenever they want, and me and Rowan and Liah can all hang out. ...Not that doors are a problem for Liah." He shrugged. "And, um, the lights wouldn't be for casual use. That'd take too much juice. Emergency situations, is what I'm thinking. And we should really all be sure to start sleeping on a diurnal schedule." Verity enjoyed thinking out loud.
"Rowan," Josh replied. "Yeah, I s-saw him fly off the roof the other day." That had been cool beyond description. Josh had been outside letting the rain pour down on him, it had stopped, and Rowan had emerged from the building to take off. He listened, trying not to look overly wistful at Verity's explanation of how he, Liah, Rowan and the kids all lived essentially together. It sounded nice. He had trouble imagining letting himself go enough to feel that comfortable with someone else, or several someone elses, as much as he'd like to. He pushed back some damp strands of hair that had fallen into his eyes and asked, "What's... diurnal?" It wasn't a word he remembered hearing before.
"Huh? Oh. Just means, like... daylight. Up and down with the sun, like the rugged settlers who lived in the imaginations of patriotic Americans... and nowhere else. Just to keep our use of light down, even things like battery lamps. We're good for now, but power cells and light-bulbs are going to keep getting harder to find, and we should conserve. Though I guess eventually the batteries will deplete anyway... Rowan thought I should try making chemical batteries then. Might work." His usual mulling out loud. "So, yeah... blather blather. Where're you living? Somewhere that requires less stairs, right? Like, y'know, a sensible person?" Verity reached over and patted Jasper's shoulder. Just out of habit. He didn't even really mind being ignored just then.
He would feel silly admitting it, so he didn't, but Josh liked hearing Verity talk. He was so unselfconscious about it, so matter of fact, and he seemed to have a lot of knowledge about various things. Josh had always gotten along best with people who talked a lot, because he wasn't so great at the talking part of it. "I c-can make my own light," he offered. "If there's somethin' to burn." It was disappointing that they'd have to conserve light even once they got some going again, but this new life of theirs was filled with all kinds of disappointments, he'd found. A half-smile quirked his lips upward when Verity accused his own self of blathering, and he replied to the question, "106. I was s-sort of out of it when we got back--" As Verity would be well-aware of, since Josh had been riding on the back of his cycle. "--and I picked the closest one I could get."
"Oh, yeah, you looked pretty bad." Verity was vaguely ashamed to realize he hadn't been paying much attention. By then he'd been hot and overstressed and just intent on getting their loot home and rejoining his little brother. He was never sure what to do with Jasper when he volunteered to go out for whatever errand needed doing. If he left Jasper here, there were plenty of people to look after him and a whole building for defense, but if something did happen, a fire or an attack by the other group, then Verity wouldn't be there, and he simply couldn't see anyone else protecting Jasper properly. Bringing him out into the city was an even worse idea, bad enough for any ten-year-old kid, but especially for one who'd gotten so unpredictable. "At least you've bucked up now a little. You look a little less like the living dead."
"I felt bad," Josh said with a little shrug. "If you and Joyce didn't come along..." He trailed off, seeing no need to state the obvious. He couldn't have survived another monster attack right then, as burned out as he'd been. He glanced at Jasper and then back at Verity, not wanting to stare at the child. Did he ever say anything? Josh wondered. It was fortunate that he didn't have anyone he had to look after, because he felt like he could barely take care of himself. He smiled, his cheeks coloring just a touch when Verity said he looked less like the living dead. "Yeah, helps t-to have water... and not be sleepin' behind dumpsters and stuff." Living on the streets hadn't been the most soothing lifestyle before the world had changed, and it definitely hadn't been after.
"Yeah, things are... surprisingly comfy here, all told. I'm not sure I like our location for, well, practical purposes. Too big and too many windows. This'd have been written right out in my old zombie apocalypse survival plans." Oh, he missed those plans. The end of the world had seemed like so much fun. "But I guess if you're forming a motley enclave of those too lucky, skilled, or stubborn to die..." Heh, that sounded like an awesome tagline. If anyone ever made movies again. "Then if you can have soft beds and decent kitchen facilities, you should run with it. Go out in style, a step above Holiday Inn. With lots of pillows to build forts with."
Did Verity really have zombie apocalypse survival plans? Josh might've thought anyone else was kidding, but with Verity? He wasn't so sure. "Sh-should be underground," he said. "No windows, a door that can be guarded all the time." It only made sense to him. As depressing as it might potentially be to live underground, it would be a lot safer. "I like bein' here, though," he added softly, shifting to pull up his knees and wrap his arms around them. "Better than where I was." There were people, and there was food, and even if he didn't talk to very many of the others, he still felt a part of something. That was important when there wasn't much left.
"Nah, not underground. Escape options are too limited and that's a lot of potential collapses to worry about, unless we found an underground bunker that was already there. Like, ala Stargate SG-1. That'd work. I think a jail would be great, actually. Really secure, lots of space, probably lots of food supplies that'd last until judgment day. ...Which may have come and gone. Oops." Ew. He didn't like to put it that way. Verity was very uncomfortable with religion, and these ideas just kept intruding. "But I guess while we're here, we're here, and we should make the best of it. Which for me means elevators and windmills and emergency lighting systems, pretty much... Ah, well, we do what we can."
Josh thought that a jail would be creepy-- at least if it was like the ones he'd seen in prison movies, with floor over floor of barred, enclosed spaces, iron stairs and catwalks everywhere-- but he didn't say so. It'd be good if they needed to lock someone up for whatever the reason, but otherwise? Ech. Depressing. But then, if it was the end of the world, he guessed it was supposed to be depressing. He hadn't had a ton of experience with religion, either, although he'd attended masses with his mom when he'd been a lot younger, and Verity's comment about judgment day kind of floated on over his head. For him, religion was kind of there, but it was nothing that had ever held a lot of meaning to him. He nodded, agreeing that they should make the best of it, although he felt relatively useless in the grand scheme of things in this new world.
Since Josh didn't voice any objections, Verity saw no reason he had to stop babbling. "I'm definitely taking ideas, too. One of these days I have to catch up with What's his name. Terry. The boss." Verity had never been good around authority. Home schooling had allowed him to stay shy of any figures other than his parents who seemed to be older, wiser, and more important than he was. His last few years in college had been very awkward, as he'd been afraid to ask for help or even just for clarification from professors who struck him as somewhat scary. "Make sure he's okay with this. I can get the alarms and lighting in in the next few days, I bet, and then I'd want to move on to either the elevator or the windmill thing, but those are big, and will probably get in everyone's way, so I feel like I should get someone's okay, you know? Maybe even some help, though I don't think we have too many technie-minded do it yourselfers here. Everyone who's seen me at it has just seemed confused. No insult meant. It's not everyone's cup of tea. I guess it can be just me and Jas. Right, kid?" He punched Jasper's shoulder and grinned, though he actually wouldn't let his brother near the elevator project. It was dangerous.
"I bet he'll be glad... there's someone wh-who knows how to do things like that," Josh offered. Josh himself had never talked to Terry. Of course, he didn't really talk to many people, so that wasn't surprising. He tended to be a bit leery of authority figures, himself, possibly because his stepfather had been the ultimate authoritarian type, and Josh hated him in a way he'd never hated anyone else. He definitely wasn't insulted when Verity said there weren't many technically minded people around. He certainly wasn't. Most of the time he thought he was pretty much useless at just about everything. "M-maybe you could tell people what to do, and then they could help," he suggested. Surely even a technically inept person could follow directions. He figured he could even do that.
"Yeah, for basic stuff, that'd work. I guess for projects like my windmill and junk. That's... Well, a lot of it is more carpentry than anything else. I might actually need to ask around for a hand, there. I can figure it out, but I don't work with wood a lot. It's just not something I'm practiced in." Who would be good with that? He could try a note or something. "We'll need some serious raids for raw materials, though. I wonder if we can get a truck through anywhere? I think that Tayne has one that he got here. Maybe he could go for wood and stuff from a Home Depot? At least that isn't the kind of place that's likely to be full of monsters. Wouldn't have been a lot of people there to start and there's no food except maybe a vending machine." He was pretty sure he could happily live in a Home Depot, and so could Jasper.
"Maybe," Josh said when Verity mused about getting a truck through the streets. "I-if there weren't too many cars blocking the road." He knew there were a ton from what he'd observed, himself, before he'd gotten in here. He was feeling kind of useless in this conversation, since he didn't know anything about machines or carpentry, but at least Verity didn't seem to mind. It was kind of nice to have someone to talk to with whom you didn't have to feel like you were going to put a conversational foot wrong at any second; he'd experienced people like that before, and it was always a long time after before he'd take a chance with anyone else again. He lapsed into silence then, but it didn't feel horribly uncomfortable to him. He'd be fine with watching Verity for a while longer and then moving on to see what else he could find to do. When someone else came up to talk to Verity, maybe he'd just slip away.