Sanctuary? {Open}

[Elletnah]

River had spent the last four months living off the land. Going from abandoned place to abandoned place in utter stupidity when she had a perfectly good house, in the country, with a generator. But she didn't want to be there because of memories. River realized she was being sentimental and stupid and that she should go back. With a little reinforcements of course. Well that and her bed was infinitely more comfortable than the back seat of a car.
First off she had to make sure the house was clear, she wasn't going to get stuff to reinforce a house that someone already took over. That and she needed measurements for the door and stuff. 
The house looked just as abandoned as it did the week before when she finally decided to move back in. After unlocking the front door she made some loud noises and waited for something or someone to come down. She kind of hoped her big brother would come bounding down the stairs demanding to know how the hell was there. But no such luck. She was by herself, like she had been since her mothers death, and it was getting slightly lonely. She had starting thinking out loud, plan out her day, just to make sure her voice still worked. River dumped her back pack in the secret compartment under the stairs, stuck extra ammo in her pockets and slung a quiver full of arrows over her back.
River locked the door behind her and went to the very modern and fuel efficient truck she had found on the road, it got the job done and she saved fuel. She knew there was a small hardware store in town but she was almost certain that it would have been raided shortly after the outbreak began. Closer to Houston was a Lowes and a Home Depot so she figured she could find the plywood, planks, hinges, bolts, nails, drill, and black out curtains: pretty much anything she would need to fortify the house. Unfortunately the Home Depot was a good drive away so it was a last resort, the Lowes was infinitely closer but any large store was a nightmare after the K-Mart debacle. She had nearly been killed fighting a group of walkers and had only managed to get out because she was a fairly good climber.
She popped in a pop CD, one of the things she managed to grab before being over taken, and jammed out. Parking a few blocks from the store she crept up to the store and found the parking lot littered with paper, shopping karts, dead bodies, and walkers. The doors were stuck closed and the few walkers were within range for her to hit them with arrows. Inside the store would be another story. 
Close to where she was hiding was a tricked out convertible, huge speakers in the doors, in the trunk the works. "Man you must have been compensating for something." She said looking at it. The car gave her an idea, if she could kill the few walkers in the parking lot and manage to pry open the doors without making a sound she could clear it out with little trouble if she put her CD, the only one she had, in the little mid life crisis cranked it up and let it roll down the fairly empty main road, it was on a hill.


River picked off the dozen walkers in the parking lot and the few hiding behind the parked cars. Fortunately for the car to roll down the hill it wouldn't need gas, cause her truck needed it more. She used the crow bar she found a few weeks before to pry open the doors and and blasted the music as loud as the speakers would allow, let it roll and ran.
The amount of walkers that came shuffling out was baffling. They must have been hiding in there when things went all pear shaped and they somehow turned. After giving it a good twenty minutes River figured the coast was clear and quietly drove her truck to the front of the store. The inside was fairly intact, so her original thought of the walkers was obviously wrong because if there had been people staying in there the supplies wouldn't be relatively untouched.
First she hit up the wood section, getting as much as the bed of her truck could carry. Next was the hardware section where she loaded a basket with hinges, packages of bolts and nails, door knobs and screw drivers. Down the aisle with the electric drills she found several walkers feasting on a dead woman, after putting they down with a knife to the head she went about her business. "Apparently my genius idea didn't draw all of them away."
River tossed the best drill she could find and a few back up batteries in her basket and almost forgot a hammer.

"Of course I forgot the hammer, I got the nails but no hammer." She mumbled to herself as she rounded the corner on the hardware aisle once again.

[zephyris12]

Emilie stood with a watchful eye as she browsed the selection of tools and hardware. Up and down the walls there were endless amounts of little metal thingies and weird shaped objects, whose function was completely foreign to her. A couple of times her hand would reach out, then draw back uncertainly, not knowing what was junk and what was actually useful. Her other hand laid steadfastly on the knife at her hip, in case a walker should assail her within the cramped aisle. It was a hell of a pain getting in here. The walkers were everywhere and as vigilant as ever, looking lazily for their next potential meal. It wasn't easy, but she managed to scale the fence to the gardening section, where she found an open door and a few walkers among the graveyard of plants. Neglected and hungry, they reminded her of herself; a shell of what she once was, but now always starving, thirsty, or huddled from the chill of the night. She had dispatched several walkers, including one still bearing the Lowes logo. The amount of people that were trapped in here, it was insane. Probably forced to hole up against a herd that passed by, and were simply never able to leave. Like an animal in a trap, she thought to herself.

She was so focused on the strange tools and doo dads on the wall, that she almost missed the voice.

"Of course I forgot the hammer, I got the nails but no hammer."

Emilie quickly slunk around the corner quietly as a figure moved into the aisle, apparently on a quest for nails. Emilie clamped her hand over her gun, in case she needed to draw at a moment's notice against the unknown entity, and she held her breath for fear she would be found.

[Elletnah]

"Ah! There they are! Good old fashioned hammer!" River said excitedly. She dumped a few in her basket, they could make good make weapons if they need arose.
River put the basket in the cab of her truck and noted a few walkers that had been drawn to the noise but hadn't made it there in time to follow the car. She sighed and silently closed the passenger side door. A few things left to grab before I leave.
River grabbed a large bag and headed over to the impulse buy section. She dumped what was left of the boxes of candy in the bag and unloaded the coolers for the flat soda. "Mountain Dew how I missed you." She said to one of the bottles.
She heard something metal hit the floor and roll only a few aisles away from where she had gotten the hammers. She quietly laid down the bag and pulled her bow out and an arrow from the quiver. She notched the arrow and quietly drew the bow string back. On light hunters feet she quietly went over to the aisle where the noise came from, "Here walker walker walker. Fresh meat." She mumbled to herself.
"If your not dead I would come out, or you might get an arrow in your butt." River said loud enough for who ever it might be to hear her.
She rounded the corner bow drawn ready to fire.

[/blockquote

{[{It could either be Emelie or a group of Walkers, I'm cool either way!}]}

[zephyris12]

Damn it! She thought to herself, hearing the metallic clank as a wrench fell to the floor.

 Emilie stepped out quietly from behind the shelf, gun loaded and aimed for the strange woman's face. She saw the bags of candy and hammers, and felt slightly stupid for not noticing the woman's presence. Her eyes widened in anticipation, her finger taut against the trigger should she need to shoot. She got a good look at the girl, and she was honestly beautiful. The hunger everyone had faced over time gave her cheeks a rather gaunt, yet pristine look. Her green eyes stared at Emilie with intensity. She stood only an inch or so taller than Em, with about the same build, and long brown hair. Behind her shambled a few walkers, but Emilie didn't warn the girl. She might need them to her advantage.

"I don't want any trouble. And I certainly don't want to shoot you." Emilie said to the girl, with a slight French accent, the feeling of adrenaline having kicked in.

She always hated adrenaline; it made her shaky and anxious, and she felt like she would pull the trigger accidentally at any moment, or at the slightest of provocations. But if there was one thing Emilie had learned, it's that adrenaline served her well, and still always had. She looked at the girl with tense blue eyes, waiting for a response. 

[Elletnah]

A small blonde girl stepped out from behind the shelving. She looked nervous and had a gun pointed at Rivers head.
"I don't want any trouble either." River said, she looked tiny and barely a formidable opponent if it came down to it so River released the tension on the bow string and lowered her weapon.
River looked the girl up and down, she looked in her late teens, young probably was still in high school when it all went down. Her long blonde hair was up in a ponytail and she had strikingly fierce eyes.
"Names River..." said hesitating, she was well aware her name sounded ridiculously fake but she blamed it on her closet hippie parents.
River heard moans from behind her and groaned, "One moment please." She said dropping her bow and pulling her hunting knife, she took out the few that had heard her and tried to keep the noise to a minimum so as not to draw the rest.
"We can stand here threatening each other and possibly get eaten or we can get the hell out of here and continue threatening each other at a later date. We can make an apointment for a later date, I can pencil you in but I would like to get back before it gets dark." River said looking back over at the open doors.
Shit, I forgot the damn curtains. "Actually hold that thought, be right back. I forgot something." 
River jogged over to the window treatment section and dumped all the blackout curtains she could find in her fresh empty basket. 
Jogging back over to the girl, "So where were we? Oh! Yes, threatening each other. So..."

[zephyris12]

Emilie lowered her gun shakily as the girl lightened her grip on the bow. She was breathing hard and shaking visibly. God she must think I'm pitiful, she thought to herself.

"I'm Emilie," she said, her voice surprisingly even and confident. She looked at the girl, whose name was River, and saw her turn her head. She must've seen the walkers. River took her knife and went to kill them, then ran off again for blackout curtains. What a strange girl, Emilie thought.

Emilie looked River up and down once again and decided to give her an answer.

"I don't want to threaten you. Or kill you, for that matter. Actually, I'm actually pretty glad you came." She scratched her head awkwardly, realizing how incredibly awkward and humorous this whole confrontation had been. "I think, I might take you up on that, because I can't really think of any good threats as of now."

(sorry it's so short and choppy, it's a filler post because I'm cooking haha)

[Elletnah]

"Nice to meet you Emillie. I do believe we should get out of here before my small distraction draws any more of our dead friends." River picked up the bag full of candy and soda.
"We can continue the threatening at my place. I got a truck, it has quite a few hard ware pieces in the bed but the cab is free." River said.
She was taking a chance, but quite frankly she was lonely and after four months all by herself she was going a little bonkers and she could really use the help fortifying the old home stead.
River opened the passenger side door and offered it to Emillie.
"I won't bite, I promise."


[{Yeah thats not creepy at all}]

[zephyris12]

Emilie warily stepped toward the door. She was skeptical of this girl and her quick willingness to trust, but what choice did she have? She was tired of being alone, cold, and hungry all the time; ever since she and Kat were separated, it was like a part of her was missing. She and Kat had functioned as a machine, knowing the ins and outs of each other, knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses and learning to compensate and complement them. But now that she was alone, she felt so vulnerable. She had to resolve herself not to cry in front of the stranger. But she missed Kat so badly, and just like with her mother, she didn't know if Kat was alive or dead and it made her feel all the more sick. She looked at River again, and decided if need be, she could handle her easily. She'd trained for confrontation. So she sat down on the slightly rough feeling seat and closed the door.

"So, where is this place of yours? Is it safe?"

((OOC: Do they stay at her house? Or does something happen?   ))

[Elletnah]

River climbed in the drivers side and shut the door.
"Not at the moment, but it will be." She said evasively.
She started the engine and ran over a walker on the way out of the parking lot. The way back seemed shorter, she didn't take a different route but the whole time she was going over in her head what she was going to do with all the supplies she had. Darkness was coming soon so she would use the curtains to block out any light they might give off from the generator. In the morning she would be bolting in these sturdy metal brackets into the frame of the door on either side, her grandfather was certain to be rolling in his grave at the thought, and she would slide the sturdiest wooden planks into them, to hold the door shut. (something like this) There would be three of them, one right between the knob and the dead bolt, one at the top and one at the bottom. The back door would be rigged the same, the windows would have wooden sheets covering them so light would not escape and give her location away to both walkers and marauding people.
The windows were another story, the sheets of wood were going to be nailed to the window frame and and a little square would be cut out of each one of the ground floor and the hinges, knobs and latches would be used so that there was a sort of peep hole, or a hole for weapons to fire through. On the second floor the wood sheets would be attached by hinges to the frame with a knob so it could be opened easily and a latch to hold it shut, so if they needed to be opened it would not pose a problem. The blackout curtains would be kept up at all times, just in case. 
She would put a lock on the garage door and use what was left of the planks and sheets to make a barricade to protect the generator, the side door to the garage would be boarded off completely. She planned for her next outing to try to find a sporting goods store that might still have weapons and ammo but that was highly unlikely. She needed to find food and fuel for the generator, the few cans she had would only last her so long, even with conserving and only using it when needed. Thankfully her houses water ran off a well so water would not be an issue but she didn't have a readily available supply of food.
The sun was beginning its descent when they pulled into the houses drive. "Home sweet home." River said turning the engine off.
"So here is the deal, I need help fortifying the house. I can do it myself but it gets done quicker when someone helps. What I don't need is dead weight. If you want to stay you are more than welcome to but you have to pull your own weight. I have some food and the candy you saw me raid from the hardware store, I also have a running refridgerator courtesy of my generator so the flat sodas will actually be cold in a few hours and you are more than welcome to a few." River said looking at Emillie.
Looking back to the house she continued, "This is my home, not Oh I found it and it is mine, it is my home. I grew up here my grandfather built it with his bare hands." She looked back to the girl, "If you are willing you can stay and after the fortifications are done we can go look for supplies and anything else we might need."
"What do you say? Its not much and I don't know if it will stand up against a large attack but it has warms beds, limited electricity and safety. Do you want to stay?"


[{I think they can fortify the house, that should take a few posts, then go out to look for supplies, when that is done maybe she can talk her into going to look for her friend Kat}]

[zephyris12]

Emilie looked with a less than critical eye upon the old white farmhouse. If she did decide to stay with River, this would be the first real home she had had in the past few months. She got tired of old semi trailers, abandoned tents, train cars, run down motels, and anywhere else she could possibly stay. This house, even though it was completely different than her suburban home in Decatur, Georgia, would have been the first real home she had. It had been rough, being all alone, after she and Kat had been through so much together. It was their nomadic tendencies, as a matter of fact, that got her and Kat separated in the first place. They had been staying in an old diner for the night when all of the sudden some  idiot came through, popping off rounds and running from a walker. Or so it appeared. The next thing Emilie and Kat knew, there were 4 dozen walkers following the man, and he decided to come into the diner for shelter. The broken windows and barely-standing doors offered no resistance to the horde of dead men and women, and they pushed right through. Emilie was being chased further and further away from Kat, who had to run to avoid the man's fire. Why he began shooting at them they never figured out, but it drove them apart. Emilie and Kat had spent days searching for each other, with no luck.

Emilie squeezed back a few tears. "I'd be glad to take you up on your offer. And- And don't worry, I can definitely pull my own weight. How would I have survived..." She can barely choke out the word, "...alone this long if I couldn't? This is the first place I've had to stay in such a long time, and if you'll have me I'll gladly stay."

The words hung in the air for a moment. "Are there a lot of walkers here?"

((OOC: I need to get a post template for Em but I have no idea how to make them xDD ))

[Elletnah]

River looked at the girl sitting beside her. She looked so sad, like she had lost things. Probably her parents, family, just like her. Everyone was an Orphan after the apocalypse. She had been alone for nearly four months. It made her miss her parents, her brothers.
She smiled when Emellie said she would pull her own weight, "It's good to know. I just got the generator working again a few days ago." She saw her on the verge of tears, "We all lost people, I wasn't always by myself. My dad and brother died in this house, my mom a few months later."
"No, theres not many walkers, a few will pass through but I figure if we keep noise to a minimum and light we should be okay, as long as a large group of them doesn't come through, then again we keep quiet. Its safe, We'll be safe."
River sighed and ran her hand over her eyes. "Its getting late so I say we bring in the power tools and curtains and we can fortify the house tomorrow. I have some food inside and there is always old candy and flat soda!"
River grabbed the bag of candy and one of the baskets out of the back seat. "Can you grab the other one? I'll unlock the door." River climbed the stairs and pulled her gun to check the sides of the house and wiggled the door knob to make sure it was still locked before pulling out her keys. She gently set the bag and basket on the floor and made a banging noise, just in case. When nothing came out she looked back to the truck. "All clear! You can come in now!"

[zephyris12]

Emilie smiled at the girl and wiped her eyes. She reached back and grabbed the other bag, following the girl to the doorstep.
"So your family is gone too?" She asked innocently, before realizing how rude it was to ask. She quickly stammered an apology. "I-I'm so sorry! I just.. Let's get inside."
((FILLER POST))

[Elletnah]

River smiled sadly at the girl, "Yeah, they're gone. My father and brother died in this house my mom a few miles from here at an encampment. I have another brother but I haven't spoken to him since before the telephone lines went down so I don't know what happened to him or if he is still alive. I like to hope that he is." River said sadly.
"Its okay to ask me that, we're all orphans now that the dead have taken over the earth." 
River made one more trip to the truck to get the last basket out of the back seat, and she closed the door behind her.
"So I have cold water in the fridge, the stove runs on gas as does the hot water heater if you want to take a shower. All the water comes from a well so try to keep it short. If you take water from the facet use the filter attached to it." She said pointing to the britta filter. "Just a precaution." 
River runned her hand over her face trying to think, "There are five bedrooms upstairs, the master bedroom and the one at the end of the hall had dead bodies rotting in them for a few weeks so I would not recommend them right now and the one with the big R on the door is my room so that leaves you two to choose from." River walked up the stairs hopping Emellie would follow, "There are clean sheets and blankets in the hall closet," She said pointing, "You can use the lights but try to keep it to a minimum because we are running on a generator. Though if you have clothes you want to wash you can use the washer but you have to hang them out to dry, trying to save fuel for the generator." River said, knowing she forgot something.
"Oh! The bathroom is over here, towels are in the pantry in there, I have some shampoo, not conditioner sadly, its on my list, wash rags are in there too. Try to conserve the toilet paper. We have a septic system, my dad was trying to live off the grid when this all happened, he was working on getting solar panels for the house last I heard. I think that is everything." River said nervously scratching her head.
"Like I said I have some food, but I think we should wait to cook until we have nailed up the curtains. They're blackout curtains so if we turn a light on if there are walkers out there they won't see it and think it is dinner time for them."

[zephyris12]

Emilie made a mental note of all the details of the tour. Her eyes lit up when she heard the words "hot shower."
She turned to River. "You have a hot shower? It's been so long since I've had one of those." Emilie was so grateful and excited that River had allowed her into her home.

"And yeah, I know how you feel about your brother. My mother is in Connecticut as far as I know but I don't know if she's alive or not." She gave a small sigh, averting her gaze to the homey interior of the quaint little farmhouse. It was nothing like her house in Georgia, but she appreciated the quiet feel of the house. It was here that she felt safe for the first time in a long time. She began to remember with a feeling less than fondness all the places she'd been with Kat. A run down motel, a mini-mart, so many places unsuited for survival. It was especially ironic in the motel, a place once so inviting to wayward travelers was now run down and cold.

She looked River in the eyes and grasped her hand. "Merçi! Merçi beaucoup! I really appreciate this. And I promise, I will pull my weight. I will hardly be a burden at all."

[Elletnah]

River smiled at the girl, she had kinda always wanted a little sister, being the only girl had been exhausting. "I suppose for your first night here you can take a longer shower."
"I'm sorry to hear about your family," She said leaning against the wall, "My dad and younger brother were attacked by our neighbor, they died in their rooms. I buried them a few months later." She said her voice trailing off. "Its no problem, I was starting to spend a little too much time by my self, I was starting to talk to myself."
"Any way, get your things up here and pick a room and we will get the curtains up so you can take a shower." River said going back down stairs.
She unloaded two hammers and two packs of nail and set them aside. Next she split the curtains into two piles, one for the second floor and one for the second, and set them next to the hammers and nails. Satisfied with her little work she stepped back and waited for Emellie