Cole's Journey: Lock & Key

[Laraqua]

"So people can still leave and be safe?" she asked. "There were noises and my step-daddy said if I'd wait where I was told that they'd come back for me when they ewhackwooeighted but I don't think he's coming back, is he?" She looked around sadly. "I think they left without me."

[Garrett]

"Maybe your folks just got-" killed? "-held up somewhere and couldn't get back to you. I really don't think they would just leave you here, unless your dead or something, you're not are you?" I say in a somewhat joking tone, though I was legitimately worried.

[Laraqua]

"Dead?" she asked with the cautious smile of a kid who can't tell if an adult is joking. "How could I be dead? I don't think zombies can talk."

She looks back around the silent streets of the deserted town with the cars left abandoned by the side of the road.

"There's really not many people left here are there."

She pauses for a moment then asks, "Do you believe in zombies?"

[Garrett]

"Well I didn't, but hell anything seems possible in this place. In fact I think I saw a zombie when I was running to the asylum, but who the fuck knows."

[Laraqua]

She winces at his swear word. "Who're you looking for?"

[Garrett]

"My sister, I thought she was dead but then I learned she was just brought here." I say in a somewhat angry tone.

[Laraqua]

"Oh, I'm sorry." She falls silent after that and they make their way in silence over to the pharmacy doors. The windows have all been newspapered over with several prints of Missing Persons fliers. "There's always more and more of these but they never used to put them up here." The little girl stops outside the posters and looks them over. Cole can either drag her inside, wait with her, or leave her out there as he enters.

[Garrett]

"You wanna wait here or you wanna come with me?" I say, standing in the doorway trying to see if it's safe.

[Laraqua]

"I'm looking for my folks," she says softly. "I can go in in a minute."

The pharmacy seems deserted, ransacked, with only a few grimy bottles and boxes cluttering the shelves in this room dimly lit from stray strands of light coming in through the fly-specked papers stuck to the windows. The painkillers are likely somewhere in there.

[Garrett]

"Alright, just scream if you see anything." I say casually, walking through the doors and looking around for the pills I was sent out for.

[Laraqua]

Cole finds the painkillers after a relatively cursory look, as well as a couple of Health Drinks that look tempting, and a bottle of water. The cash register on the counter looks tempting. Maybe there's still some cash in there?

[Garrett]

I grab the health drinks and the water, as well as the painkillers of course. As I pass the cash register my greed pushes me to take some and I actually laugh out loud, I got 30k dollars in my coat pocket, and I'd set that on fire in a heartbeat to get out of this god forsaken place.

[Laraqua]

Cole spots a baseball bat beneath the counter as he pauses by the cash register.

[Garrett]

Ooo, that might come in handy. I think as I grab the small club. "Aight kiddo, time to go." I say as I walk out the door, putting the water and pills into my various coat pockets.

[Laraqua]

The baseball bat feels firm and decisive in his hands. It's a step back from his gun but it's still better than nothing. As he opens the pharmacy door he has a moment's thought that she might not be there anymore. Perhaps swooped up by some fell thing or otherwise spirited away into the fog. But no, for better or worse, she's still there perusing the missing person's notices plastering the windows.

"They're not there," she says in a sad little voice. "They're not missing. They just left."

[Garrett]

"There wouldn't be a missing person flier for an adult kid, they probably got herded out of town in some evacuation thing and assumed the same happened to you. Now come on, we need to get moving so I can get back to my search." I say, trying to be comforting as I start walking towards the stoner's house, grabbing her if she lingers.

[Laraqua]

The little girl is silent for the rest of the journey and other than the consistent detours of which Cole is beginning to recognise and the journey is easy and without any real risk. It's odd. The town seems less dangerous now. More ... abandoned. Empty. Neglected. Yet at least it feels somehow safer. There's no more sounds of distant baying hounds nor the scrape of violent steps behind them. All is quiet. Calm but for the slight breeze that ruffles his hair. Finally they reach the apartment building within which the stoners currently wait.

[Garrett]

Well this can only be a good thing. I think to myself as I walk through the town, noting how much safer it feels. "Here we are." I say simply pulling the girl to the apartment that reeks of weed and knocking softly on the door, opening it if nobody answers.

[Laraqua]

"Are you going to leave me here?" she asks as they head up into the apartment building. As they head upstairs the scent of weed and the sound of music can clearly be heard. "I want to go with you."

The door opens to reveal the stoner guy who blinks at him a couple times, then looks down at the little girl. "Oh, man, you came back! That's great news. D'you bring the painkillers?"

[Garrett]

"Yes I am, and no you don't; you've seen all the scary shit that's out there." I say in response to the young girl's questions. As I approach the door I guzzle down most of the water, leaving a few gulps so the girl can take her medicine. (I remember in an earlier post you said I was thirsty, I assume I still am.) When the door opens I look with contempt at the stoner. "Yeah I did, I brought a scared little girl to. Watch her." I say dragging the girl into the apartment, when I reach the sofa table I put the bat, water, and pain killers down. Then take my knife and head back out the door without another word.