In the hallway-
"I...yeah, that's right," said Harvey. "It's just, I-I'm not very good at talking to girls, especially p-pretty ones."
"Thank you," said Jamie with a smile, leading Melinda and Harvey around the corner to the left.
"For what?" Harvey looked confused.
"For calling me pretty. Girls like it when you compliment them."
"Oh...yeah. You're welcome."
"Relax, Harvey. We don't bite - as long as we stay uninfected. But then we wouldn't be so pretty any more if we were infected. Red eyes are so unattractive."
Harvey chuckled.
The group reached the lobby of the headquarters building, which was well guarded. The SF troopers were only interested in keeping people out, however, and let them leave without a second glance.
In the operations room- Major Jackson waited to see if Cynthia had any more questions for him.
Outside headquarters-
"I'm sorry," said Jamie as she led them outside. "I've seen too many people die too. You have to either laugh or cry, though, and I prefer to laugh." She led the way to a Humvee and opened the passenger door for Melinda and Harvey. "It's just a short ride to the armory."
In the operations room-
"Sure," said Carmichael. "I'll have one of our cooks come over. She should be here by the time you're done with Major Jackson." He stepped away and spoke into his radio.
"So, do you have any particular music recommendations, ma'am?" Major Jackson asked Cynthia.
Outside headquarters- Melinda and Harvey got into the Hummer's front seats, while Jamie got behind the wheel and started the engine. "So, you looking forward to the party tonight?" she asked.
In the Hummer- Jamie pulled out and began driving through the streets of the base.
"Sweetheart?" Harvey asked Melinda, sounding a little disappointed. "Yeah, I should have expected a beautiful woman like you would already have someone. Of course, a lot of people don't after yesterday. You're lucky you've still got him. But, yeah, there's a party. Cynthia's organizing it. She's really pretty too. Her guy didn't make it. I wonder if she'll dance with me?"
"Well, you'll just have to ask her," said Jamie.
"Ask h-her?" stammered Harvey. He looked as nervous and scared as if he were confronting zombies.
In the operations room-
"List of songs?" said Major Jackson to Cynthia. "Ma'am, there are a number of songs that we know, but these are the sorts of things we play all the time. John Philip Sousa, parade music, that sort of thing. We can play that too, sure, but we also want to play music that's popular. We'll have to learn and practice anything we don't already know, but we pick things up quickly and we have time before tonight. I've always been a classical music guy myself, though I am partial to jazz as well - there's a lot of classical influence in jazz. But the troops have varied tastes and preferences. A mix of various types of music would be good, but there would be some songs that some people will dislike. What kind of music do you think just about everybody would like? I know Lady Gaga has been big in recent years. Do you think her songs would go over well?"
"Umm, I dunno. I'd think soldiers'd like Marilyn Manson more. Something heavier than Gaga. Maybe songs like "Sweet Dreams"? They're nice enough that anyone'd like them 'cause they're not too heavy. Ooh, I know! I can go ask them." She jumps a little, boobies jiggling, at the prospect.
-Actually I was single when this mess started, I wasn't in any relationship for a long time. But when this thing started, my co-workers had barricaded themselves and left me outside to die. Then he came with his family and saved me. I was a bit afraid at the beginning, I'm mean, a bunch of nomads bikers wasn't my style, but it was better than being thorn in pieces and they let me joined. Well, they were actually a real family, and now I feel like they are my own.
In the operations room-
"That's a great idea," said Major Jackson to Cynthia with a grin. "There are probably a decent number of personnel eating breakfast in the cafeteria right now, in fact. That should get us a representative sample. I'll take you to them." He led Cynthia out into the hall and through the building.
OOC,[b]Melinda[/b] is moving to the thread linked below.
In the operatons room- Airman Colby Torres sat at his station in the operations center, monitoring the network to make sure that everything continued to function. It was a little disappointing that all of the pretty women had left the room, but chances were they would be back at some point. Lt. Colonel Carmichael paced around the room, keeping an eye on activities and checking that everything was running smoothly. He nodded to Colby as he passed his workstation.
Colby continues his as expected of him. But since yesterday he's been curious as to what else he can dig up. He's hesitant to dig into things he's not supposed to have his fingers in at the moment with the Lt. Colonel roaming about in the room, so rather than sticking his knows in places he knows it will get slammed in the door if he was caught...he instead will attempt to try and see what he can find on the web (however much of that still exists). He'll attempt to reach out search for any other signs of people being out there who still have access to a network of sorts. Possibly civilians, other military bases, etc.
In the operations room- Colby could only connect to the base's local network. Access to the Internet had been down since early yesterday morning, shortly after all of the chaos had started. He knew that the base had somehow been in communication with other facilities around the world until some point early yesterday afternoon, when all communications had gone dark. They'd been operating blind since then, which was one reason people were so nervous. The local network did have status updates throughout the base, but they reported that conditions were normal. There were periodic attacks from the infected in Cheyenne, to the east, but the reports said they were all repulsed. The status reports didn't mention anything about casualties or successful incursions into the base, but he knew from scuttlebutt that such things had happened yesterday.
In the operations room-
Everything continued without incident for well over an hour.
Lt. Kathryn McCoy returned to the operations a few minutes past 9:00 AM, looking splendid in her spiffy new Air Force uniform. Lt. Colonel Carmichael approached her when she entered. "Congratulations, Lieutenant," he said.
In the operations room-
"I'll forgive your lack of protocol, Lieutenant, seeing as you're new to this," said Lt. Colonel Carmichael, starting to walk with Kathryn. "You're supposed to salute superior officers. You have to remember that you're not a civilian any more. Where is Colonel Everett, and did he say what this is about?"