charlie west, also known as 'cactus the angry elf' (littledeadly) wrote in immune_ic,
The issue of trust hadn't really occurred to Charlie. She was aware of the lack of trust between Leah and Rodeo, but other than that, she figured Brandon, Evan, and Leah trusted her as much as she did them. It was probably for the best that she didn't know-- it would've made her kind of uncomfortable to work with them knowing that they didn't have her back as much as she had theirs. Personal issues aside, she considered the Stones and Evan her allies as well as her friends.
The silence was comfortable to her, familiar. Moving up the stairs, quick and quiet, reminded her of slipping into position before a bust, of taking down bad guys back in Boston. There were distinct differences, of course-- the bad guys were already dead, here, and some of their footfalls sounded like drunken elephants stomping up the stairs, echoing off the walls (she really needed to give these people some lessons in stealth)-- but the aura was the same. She kept her pistol raised as they moved upwards, though. There had been an incident a few months ago with a zombie cat, and she really didn't need another fucking undead ball of fur tackling her face out of nowhere.
That dead guard, though... the lookout area was quiet, and seemed relatively undisturbed by the past few years of chaos. It seemed to her that the guard had taken his own life, and hadn't died too long ago-- there wasn't enough of a stench for that-- but forensic science had never really been her forte, and she wasn't a detective. Still, it was strange to see someone who wasn't dead from the infection. The last time she'd seen that had been in that cabin in the woods, seeing those bodies piled in that pantry... and seeing the man dead from a crushing blow to his windpipe, courtesy of her boot. The hairs on the back of her neck prickled uneasily at the thought.
Her attention shifted, slowly, to the view outside. This was an excellent sniper perch, with good visibility and a nice clear angle on most of the grounds. Even as they looked around, her fingers itched to pull her rifle from the case strapped to her back and start taking shots. Instead, she pulled her own pair of compact binoculars from a pocket, quickly scanning the area for threats. Evan was right about the shufflers, but they did tend to be the stupidest of the undead.
"Most of 'em are wearing fucking jumpsuits, looks like. Or guard uniforms," she noted. That explained the guard-- no way to get out, facing starvation, and an army of undead at your door? Yeah, she'd shoot herself too. "Got a couple leapers on the far roof, east side. Not a threat right now. Runners we ain't gonna see 'til shit starts getting noisy, probably. No climbers, though. That's a good sign-- means they probably can't get over this tough bitch of an outside wall." She put down the binoculars to give the rest of the group a grin. "This place is looking better by the minute."