Rev. Andre Washington III (holy_ghost) wrote in downfallrpg, @ 2010-07-04 13:52:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2015-09-11, andre, corey |
Let There Be Light
Who: Andre and Corey
Where: The basement
When: Morning
And God said, let there be light. And there was light, and it was good. Andre thought back to the beginning of the Bible with a smile as he finished off a nice hot breakfast for a change. It was amazing the difference electricity made on your disposition. He didn't know who to thank for the hot meal, besides the Lord at least, but he wasn't going to complain. It had been far too long since he'd had a decent meal, and for a man his size, that was too long. He knew he could stand to lose some weight, but this had been bordering on the ridiculous.
Still, he had work to do, and he didn't want to put it off any longer. He'd heard something through the vents and wanted to investigate. The last thing he wanted was for something else to be rummaging around in the basement, or worse, that big nasty spider to have left a few babies someplace that the firebug hadn't been able to catch. His trusty shotgun in one hand and a flashlight in the other, he headed downstairs, silently wishing he'd had the human flamethrower with him, although he wasn't entirely sure the boy would've been up to it again so soon. He was still feeling a bit off from overuse of his own power and hoped he wouldn't have to go invisible again today. "Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death..." Andre mumbled as he started down the stairs.
Corey was already down there, shotgun on one shoulder and a can of gasoline for the generator in the other hand, Blitz prowling around him and sniffing at the walls. He'd just come out of the laundry room-- he'd put the power back on in there, too, so he could wash some clothes-- and into the first basement floor's hall. There wasn't a lot of light down there, and he was largely relying on Blitz to be his eyes.
And then Blitz growled, teeth bared and tentacles uncurling, at the sight of Andre stumping down the stairs. Corey ducked his head a little to follow her line of sight, and said, "Oh, shut up, cat. Don't think he's going to shoot us."
Andre was a bit surprised when he heard the unfamiliar voice coming from downstairs. Shining his light around, it landed on the scraggly looking man. Well, that seemed safe enough at least. His attitude changed, though, as the light landed on... whatever that was. He jumped a little- an awkward sight at his size- and he aimed his shotgun at the creature. He didn't fire yet, but wanted to be ready in case he needed to. Surely the man hadn't been talking to one of those things, had he? Composing himself a little and looking over the end of his shotgun, he asked. "Tell me you've got that thing under control." The last thing they needed was another monster running around the hotel.
"Hey, point that barrel someplace else," Corey warned, stepping further into the hall and between the newcomer and the cat-monster. If this guy proved him wrong and did shoot them, he wasn't going to be a happy camper. He doubted he'd be dead, given the poor angle and even worse light, but he'd definitely be unhappy. "Blitz is with me. And by Blitz, I mean the cat."
She hissed, as if to drive home the "cat" part.
Andre lowered the shotgun at the man's words. Blitz? The thing had a name? "Sorry, brother, I guess I'm just used to these things bein' out to eat me or somethin'." He stepped a little further down, closer to the man. "I been hearin' some noises down here. After the spiders we found down here the other day, I figured I'd better come down and have a look-see. Make sure they weren't makin' more." He gave the "cat" a wary glance. He guessed if you kind of squinted your eyes and tilted your head, it kind of looked like a cat. With a squid on its back. "Guess that was you, huh?"
"Oh, there's a couple more down here, no mistake there," Corey shrugged, not quite relaxing yet. He didn't know who this was, and whether he was still thinking of shooting Blitz, who was peering around his legs at the intruder. At least it wasn't another jumped up kid, who thought he knew everything, or if he didn't, that someone would serve it to him on a silver platter as soon as he asked. "But they're small, and further down. Was probably me you heard, I've been down here the past couple days, fixing that generator."
Andre smiled, lowering the shotgun completely. "So you're the one we have to thank for the lights and stuff," Andre said, approaching the man a bit more relaxed. He still gave "Blitz" a wide berth, though. Previous experiences with those things had made him a little nervous, even if it did seem to be the man's pet. "Much appreciated. Definitely improved my mood, and I'm sure a few other folk as well." He extended a hand to the repairman. "Andre Washington, at your service. You come in with the other guys?" he asked, referring to their friends from the mall. He thought they'd all left, though.
It took Corey a moment of looking Andre up and down before he finally deigned to take his hand and shake it. "Corey Jackson, not so much at anyone's service. I tend to be an asshole, whether I try or not, so I just don't bother." He hitched his own shotgun higher on his shoulder, and then bent to pick up the can of gasoline again. "I'll try a little, though, since I'm supposed to be here, and all. Came in before your folks got rescued, actually, been here for a few days. Mostly keep to myself."
Andre found it rather refreshing to see an older person around. There were too dang many kids running around this place. "Well, I won’t hold that against you," he said with a smile. Asshole or not, Corey was making himself useful, which was a blessing right now. "Guess I need to pay more attention to who's coming and going around here." He pointed to the gas can. "Give you a hand with anything?"
The gesture and question clicked together in Corey's mind, and he sighed. While he'd rather not have company, that was a sign, to him, and he wasn't about to say no. "Well, if you wanna keep that light shining on the floor and walls and such, I guess. I was gonna use Blitz's eyes, but this's easier." He didn't need anyone to carry the gas can. It wasn't like it was all that heavy, anyway. But the light was useful, anyway.
Andre nodded and made to follow Corey. He wasn't sure how the man would've used the cat's eyes, but who knew what strange ability they had. Maybe the cat's eyes could act like headlights. Or, judging by the rapport the two seemed to have, maybe Corey could literally "see through" the cat's eyes by getting in its brain or something. Andre stayed alert, even though he'd relaxed a little once he'd discovered the source of the noises down here. The man and his "cat" might be mostly harmless, but who knew what else was lurking around down here. "You ain't found nothin' else creepy-crawly down here, have ya? Besides the spiders or anything?" If this guy had been down here for a while, he might have run into other things that they should be wary of.
"No, there's nothing else down here. There were three spider-things left after whatever happened down here--" And something had indeed happened. The smell of scorched concrete had brought back unpleasant memories, as had the few remaining twisted corpses of monsters. "--but Blitz ate one the other day, so now we're down to two." Corey made sure Andre was going to follow along and not shoot him in the back-- as much as you could be sure about such things-- then started down the hall again, towards the second stairs down, back past the pool.
Andre had no intention of shooting Corey in the back- or anywhere else, really- although he still had his reservations about the creature he called "Blitz." Especially since he seemed to know what he was doing as far as the generators were concerned. "Yeah, we had a bit of a problem with 'em a few days back. A couple of our folk got caught by 'em, and the babies were crawlin' around bitin' people and gettin' 'em pretty sick." He was having a bit of trouble keeping up with the man, between his own bum leg and the fact that this guy was actually a little taller than he was.
"Well, won't have that for much longer. Figured I'd get Blitz to hunt 'em down today." Corey prowled down the hall, pausing to peer into the room with the pool, frowning. That probably ought to be drained. By now it hadn't been cleaned in, what, two weeks? Three? Something like that. He'd lost track of time. "It'll give her something to do, and eat, besides wasting the cat food. And having monsters in the building seems to be freaking people out." The last was said like an afterthought, as if it almost puzzled him.
"Well, that's human nature, ya know? Always scared of what we don't understand." Andre looked over at Blitz again, trying not to prove the point to Corey. "'Course, long as they're friendly, folk'll learn to deal with 'em. But they're not the ones ya gotta worry about, are they?" He followed the taller man's glance at the pool. Even in the limited light, he could tell that the pool was looking somewhat nasty. He hoped nobody'd tried going in there. Was there such a thing as monster bacteria? "Speaking of friendly, your friend here. She yours from before, or you two hook up after..." she turned into a monster was the unfinished ending to his thought.
Shaking his head at the pool, and starting off again towards the back stairs down, Corey answered, "They're just animals. Weird-looking, confused, wild animals, but animals. They're tame-able if you're patient and strong enough. That's what I did with her. Food helps a lot, heh." And being able to communicate with her, but since he was the only one who could do that, he just had to assume other people could do it just with food and patience. Patience, though, wasn't something Corey really had a lot of.
"Food helps with a lot of things," Andre said, nodding, although he knew Corey couldn't see it from where he was walking. "Tame" looked to be a relative term for Blitz. Yes, compared to the other monsters around, it was tame, but he could see it just one day deciding it had had enough crap and having someone for lunch. Corey did seem to have a way with it, though. Maybe that was his thing, playing Dr. Doolittle with the monsters. "Seems like you got this one trained, at least." He briefly wondered if she used a litter box and had to stifle a chuckle. "So what we workin' on down here anyways?"
"This's gas for the generator," Corey answered, waving Blitz ahead of him again. She looked over her shoulder at Andre, then padded off into the gloom ahead of him. "It's on its lowest setting, so it don't take much, but it still takes some. Tryin' to build up a supply, for days I can't go out for whatever reason, but I don't have much to store it in. Maybe I should use the pool, once we figure out how to drain the damn thing." Then again, maybe not. That might be dangerous. "Anyway, we're down here for that, and those monsters to feed to Blitz. She's found the stairway down," he added, hearing her thoughts about the annoying way she had to work her body to get down stairs.
Andre had figured that the gas was for the generator, but hadn't been sure if the man had had other plans as well. "I bet we could rustle up a few more cans pretty easy, between the cars out there or just hittin' up the hardware store." He gave Corey a bit more light on the stairs, making sure nothing happened to them. He could still see some of Josh's burned areas on the walls although it looked like Blitz had cleaned up the monster carcasses already. "So you're an electrician then?" he asked, although the guy didn't look like the type that should be let near anything that could go "boom."
"Yup. Did a lot of upgrades, new power sources an' shit like that, and a lot of fixes to old wiring...." Corey dropped the shotgun from his shoulder, to level it at the dark stairs below him, before starting down, the gas can now dangling from his elbow. All their talking would scare anything down here away, if they were small like what he sensed, but not and human scavengers. And those were still possible, since he couldn't "hear" them the way he heard the monsters. "Makes me useful now, don't it?"
Andre chuckled. "Yeah, I reckon it does." Certainly more than he had to offer. He could offer spiritual services, true, but when it came to more physical services, he wasn't nearly as handy. The good Lord had given everyone different gifts, after all. He shined the light down the stairs, over the man's shoulder so his shadow wouldn't block it out. The man seemed to know his way around a gun at least. He figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. "You ever in the military?" It was more likely with people their age than with the kids.
Pausing on the stairs to glance over his shoulder-- the one that didn't have a light shining over it, so he didn't completely blind himself-- Corey asked dryly, "That obvious, am I? I was in 'Nam." Too young for it, but it was far too late for that now, wasn't it? He faced forward again and continued his stalk down the stairs. The two monsters were here, and they were hungry, but also wary. "You? Or was I just really that obvious?"
"Well, not that obvious, but you hold that gun like ya know what you're doin'," Andre said with a slight smile in his voice. He was keeping alert, but still, conversation was a good thing. Kept you from getting too tense. "Desert Storm. Marine Corps." He followed Corey, leaning on the rail for a little support. "Left a little bit of myself over there, actually, but I do okay." In a way, stuff like this reminded him of those days. Searching through supposedly abandoned buildings, never knowing what was around the corner. A little scary, yeah, but damned if it wasn't a little exciting. Made him feel twenty years younger. Except for the ache in his knee. "Boy, we really did a number on this place," he said to no one in particular as the flashlight illuminated more burn marks and the faint traces of monster remains.
"Huh." Well, at least a fellow army-man was good to have around, even if it was a shorter and more recent term. Maybe Corey wasn't the only person here capable of dealing with shit, then. That was something of a relief. He followed the track of the light and nodded. "Yeah, someone sure did. Trying to clean out burn gunk and charred giant spiders from the generator had been fun, let me tell you that. The ones still living are off that way." He gestured to their left, where the wall fell away into stacks of boxes, vague in the gloom.
Part of Andre wanted to apologize for the mess, but really, they hadn't had much choice. It was either that or leave Landon and Catie to be spider-snacks. Not that it'd done Catie much good in the long run, but hopefully it had been a more peaceful death at least. Now that they were closer, he could definitely hear a little something from the left. He shone his light over in that direction. So far, he didn't see anything nasty beyond a few slightly less charred boxes. He was a little amazed that they hadn't gone up like the rest of the basement. "I'll take your word for it, and let your friend take care of 'em. Which way's the generator, anyways?" He was glad he ran into the man at least. While they didn't need everyone down here messing with the thing, more than one person should know the basics about the generator, in case something happened.
Corey could tell Blitz was already stalking, so he let her be. "Generator's off to the right. Shine your light off that way, wouldja?" There were more remains of boxes this way, more charred than the ones intact over to the left, most of them and their contents ruined. He put up his rifle again, ears open, but fairly sure they were alone down here, but for the monsters, and shifted his gas can to his hand. "Shouldn't need refilling yet, but I can top it off, and save the rest."
Andre shone the light where he was asked, and rather quickly found what they were looking for. It was old, and had definitely seen better days, but it was definitely working. "Looks like ya did a pretty good job on it," Andre said, impressed and hoping it showed in his voice. "Better'n I coulda done." He chuckled. "Best I coulda done was lay hands on it and pray a lot. Mighta worked eventually, but the Lord helps them that helps themselves, too." He moved to give Corey a little better light, so he could see the tank easier and not spill anything. Every little bit of fuel was precious, after all.
"Prayin' man, Andre?" Corey asked with a little smirk, not looking at him. His attention was focused on the generator, finding the fuel tank and unscrewing the cap. "Don't know how much good that'll do you on a fine piece of machinery like this. Never knew anyone to get God to fix a broken part. Not unless you count that apparently mechanical genius upstairs as a gift from God, or something." Not to say he didn't believe there was something out there, but whatever it was, it didn't fix machines all on its own.
"Little bit, yeah. Stuff I went through in Desert Storm kinda opened my eyes, you could say." Andre did his best to keep the flashlight shining in the right place. "But I know what you mean. He don't work that way anymore. Not that direct anyways." His eyes briefly flashed up to the ceiling, more or less in the general direction of both Verity and God. "He just gives us the tools we need to get by." His gaze returned to the generator. "That thing's pretty dang old, isn't it?" It looked like it had been around a good fifty years, easily, although that might have been due to fire and spider damage.
Tools... like Corey? Maybe. "Eh, it's a nineties model," Corey grunted, finally getting the cap unscrewed so he could start pouring. "Not too old. It'll do us for a while, long's we take care of it. Especially with said mechanical genius." He still wasn't sure he liked that kid. Jasper was cute, but his big brother was an arrogant sonofabitch. "Wanna hold the light here into the tank, so I can see how much it needs?" he asked, holding the can steady and peering down.
"Sure thing," Andre said, obliging by adjusting his position so Corey could see in. That showed him what he knew. Maybe it was just the wear and tear that it had been through that made it look older. "Luckily we got a pretty conscientious group, more or less. No one really slacking around here." At least, no one that he'd noticed. There were probably a couple of people who didn't do much, but overall they did what they had to, least if they were old enough. "How we lookin'?"
"Not too bad. It's not as much of a guzzler as I was afraid it'd be, at least not on this setting." It was thrumming and rattling a little, but quietly. Corey switched it off and it shuddered to a stop, and then he started pouring. People upstairs could live without power for two minutes, he figured. "Haven't met a whole lot of people here, yet." Mostly because he hadn't tried to. "What all we got?"
It was funny how Andre hadn't really noticed the noise from the generator until it was off. Now that it was, it was an eerie quiet. Slightly unsettled, he answered the man's question. "There's about thirty or so folk. Mostly young 'uns, tho," he said with a little bit of a chuckle. "Think there's a woman 'bout close to our age, but that's it." He wasn't sure about Joyce's age, but she was at least close. "Couple kids, I think a baby, and some teenagers. Helluva society we've started here. On the plus side, seems like nearly everyone got some sorta special gift or talent. Like your mechanical genius friend. Apparently he was good before, but now he's really good." He smiled. "Got my leg back in ship shape a few days ago."
"A bunch of kids," Corey sighed, resigned. "Just what I needed... to be holed up in this place with a bunch of kids." He paused at the sound of a triumphant yowl on the other side of the basement, and winced at the feel of a life being snuffed out. "We're down to one monster left," he grunted, and went back to pouring his gasoline. At least Blitz was happy about it. Corey just wished he could block it out, sometimes. "So what's your... whatever it is? Power?"
Andre could kind of understand how Corey felt. Sometimes it felt pretty lonely being one of the "old folks" in the group. He jumped a little at the sound of Blitz's yowl, then quickly composed himself, trying to keep the light steady. "Me, I can turn invisible. Sure came in handy when I was workin' my way across town. Things can still smell me or whatever, but they can't see me. Confuses the heck out of them." He chuckled a little. "If I'm touchin' a person, I can make them invisible too, but I don't feel too good afterwards." At least, last time he hadn't. Maybe if he kept trying it wouldn't be such a problem.
"Huh. Handy, yeah." Corey finished his careful pour, then started screwing the lid back on. "Bet you'd get better with practice. It's how just about everything works, I think, even these power things." He glanced over his shoulder at the guy and added wryly, "Just don't practice now. Think Blitz would have a heart attack if I disappeared on her." Well, probably not. She probably wouldn't even care, especially if she could still smell him. But whatever.
Andre could've sworn he actually heard a smile in the man's voice, although with the light on the fuel lid, he couldn't quite tell. "Pretty much, yeah. But don't worry though, I don't plan on doin' it unless I gotta. Takes a lot out of a brother." He shook his head as he remembered how miserable he'd felt after doing it with Landon. "We got all sorts, though. Couple of guys who can fly, guy that turns into a tiger, kid that can set things on fire... I swear, its like one of them dang comic books I read when I was a kid."
"We've all turned into X-men," Corey suggested, setting the mostly-full gas can down next to the other two he'd managed to collect. "Or died horrible, gruesome deaths, or turned into monsters. Any comic books about that?" Yeah, maybe he was a little too grim... but he was never exactly a cheerful sort, either. Whatever. It didn't occur to him to say what his "power" was, if Andre hadn't figure it out yet, himself. He peered into the darkness for Blitz, sensing she was contentedly chomping on her catch.
Considering some of the comic book covers he'd seen lately, Andre wouldn't have doubted that there were some out there that went down that road. But he didn't answer, because, to be frank, it was a bit dark to think about. "So, what about you? I'm guessin' you can talk to these beasties or whatever?" He figured that had to be the trick to getting something like Blitz to be basically a pet. "I'd say that's pretty potent these days. Better'n turnin' invisible and runnin' away."
"I feel 'em, I guess." Corey tapped the side of his head gently with the tip of his rifle's barrel. "Can make 'em understand me. I feel any of 'em that're in range, and can only talk to one at a time. I'm getting so I can see out of Blitz's eyes, a little, but it makes me dizzy. She sees things real differently from any of us, and trying to walk while you're doing that means you trip a lot." It was probably a good thing he'd run into Andre with his light. But he'd thought he could manage it, for this little while, and save on batteries... oh well.
Andre chuckled. "I can imagine." Or he could try to at least. The concept of seeing through someone- or something else's eyes had to be a little disorienting. Although he understood what Corey had been talking about when he'd mentioned using Blitz's eyes. "Still, it's danged handy, that's for sure. 'Tween that and your military background, I might just have to give you a call next time we make a supply run. If nothin' else, I know I'd feel better havin' someone who knew which end of that thing to point at what they're shootin' at." He motioned to Corey's gun with his flashlight.
"Long's you don't mind that I don't like shooting monsters," Corey shrugged. "I go out every day, anyway, pretty much. Won't hurt me to go out with someone, I guess." Someone he could stand, anyhow. Which he thought Andre might actually be. Imagine that. He brushed off his hands and looked around. "Wonder where that last spider-monster got off to. Doesn't seem to be down here no more."
Andre didn't particularly like that, but if the guy could "feel" monsters or something like that, he at least understood. "I ain't worried about that," he said dismissively. "Never hurts to have a wingman these days. Long as you don't mind shootin' the human monsters. The ones that decided to take some of our kids hostage for a bit and killed a good woman." If Corey had a way to communicate with the mostly brainless ones, that would leave them more time to deal with the ones that were more dangerous. He shone his light around, looking for the last spider. "Kinda hope it went outside. You may be able to get into their heads, but the rest of the folk around here just get freaked out by 'em."
"Those, I don't mind shootin'. I tried to get in on that rescue mission of yours, but you'd left by the time I heard about it." Corey looked around, and called silently for Blitz. She came, dangling a couple spider-legs from her mouth like she had a few extra whiskers. Or, well, a few whiskers period, since she didn't actually have any, though people seemed to expect her to. Corey half-expected her to, and he saw her all the time. "Long's nobody tries to shoot my Blitz, we're fine. They can be as freaked out as they like, if it keeps 'em out of her way."
"Don't worry about that. Not that many folk around here got guns, anyways, but I'll let the people who do know about her." It was actually kind of cute in a grotesque sort of way, the way she'd come up with the spider legs still coming out her mouth. Not like Andre was about to scratch her under the neck or anything, but it seemed a bit more domesticated that way. He wondered a little what Blitz had been before she became a monster. House pet? Or something from the zoo? Either way, it looked like they had something to keep the smaller beasties under control. "Just like anything, takes some gettin' used to, seein' something different around. People'll get used to her eventually."
"They'd better," Corey grunted. He, unlike Andre, had no qualms touching Blitz, though she sidled away from his hand when he tried to ruffle her ears, around the little nest of horns between them, and flicked her tails. "Don't be like that, girl," he told her, half joking and half stern. "She'd being a tease, now," he added for Corey's benefit. "Not letting me touch her. Not that she's really all that affectionate, anyway... wanna head back up, or see what's in those boxes?"
Andre had to admit, he was a little amused by the way Blitz was acting. Like a real pet, not just some monster. Maybe there was some hope after all. "I suppose since we're down here, might as well check 'em out. Might be something useful in there." Of course, it'd be a shame if they'd destroyed anything really useful while they were down here the last time, but the casualties of war and all that.
"Haul that light over here, then, and we'll see what we can find," Corey said amiably enough, and made his own way over to the slightly-charred boxes nearer the stairs. A morning of rifling through boxes in the dark. Though he had a feeling he'd get frustrated before too long. "Here, hang on...." He skulked his way over to the breaker box and ran his finger down the labels in the dim light. "Basement. There we go." He flicked it over to "on", and the couple of spare bulbs in the room flickered on.
Andre smiled briefly as the lights came on. Let there be light... he thought as he got a better view of the basement. His smile faded a little, though, as he got a better view of Blitz. In the dim light of the flashlight, he'd been able to imagine that she was just a large cat. But it was a little harder to ignore the tentacles and other monster-y features when he could see them better. "Nice kitty," he muttered as he headed over towards the boxes, in the opposite direction of Corey's pet. "All right, um, let's see what we got here. If there's anything useful."
Corey glanced at Andre as he skirted the monster and shook his head a bit. He supposed he shouldn't have been expecting anything different. Nobody liked the monsters-- except the kids, who didn't know any better, and him. Oh, well. "I'm sure we'll find somethin'. Even if it's just spare blankets." For himself, he didn't care where Blitz was, he just went straight to the boxes, and to work.