Rise of the Living Dead

[Unionhack]

Julius sat back down with and lifted his sandwich to finish it. Taking a bite, his eyes trailed yet again to his smartphone, whereupon his finger hovered over the call button next to his ex-wife's contact information. Whatever was going on, he wanted them to know, but as always, he couldn't bring himself to speak to her.

He allowed his mind to wander to the teenagers and the others in the cafeteria along with him. Before their arrival it had been rather quiet, and the distraction was welcome to force his thoughts away from more unpleasant topics. He considered saying hello and introducing himself, but wondered if he would come across as creepy by doing so.

In the end, Julius merely sighed and flipped over to his internet browser, upon which he would scan the recent news topics as he was doing a few minutes ago. There could have been updates or stories he had accidentally glossed over, perchance.

[Dirty Spaceman]

Church Basement

Some of the other people were coming over now, attracted by the smell and announcement of food. Especially free food. The bags did not have enough food for everybody to have a full meal, but there would be a sufficient amount for all of the evacuees to at least eat something and not starve. There were some medium-size cartons of french fries (with ketchup packets, of course), a few Big Mac burgers and chicken sandwiches, two garden and two Caesar salads, and vegetarian as well as grilled chicken wraps. Caroline had been told to lay the food out (there was an empty table set up along the wall) and let everybody pick their own food.

Cafeteria

Julius was able to piece together a decent idea of what was going on via his browsing. While the various news outlets across the vast Interwebs were of course running different sets of stories, all of them had the growing crisis at or near the top. Anchorage didn't seem to be the only city struck by this mysterious outbreak - Chicago, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Atlanta, and even parts of Washington, D.C. were among the largest American cities reporting the same sort of overnight destabilization. They, as well as a few other smaller locales, seemed to be dealing with it in largely the same manner as the Anchorage emergency forces. The "zombie outbreak" tag was already being thrown around by a few sites, but opinions on the severity and outreach of these incidents ranged from apocalyptic predictions to almost denial-level optimism. Of the few quotes that were available from police or army sources, most of them stayed quiet on the full details, and instead urged citizens in the affected areas to stay cautious, use good judgment, and be wary of suspicious-looking people or events.

[philfredobob]

While once Jacob might have felt like a hungry, hungry hobo earlier, he had recently calmed his rumbl-y tummy down. Though the sight of actual food made him rethink this for a moment, he decided in the end he would stick with something small rather than the bigger stuff; it wasn't really hunger, he was just bored.

Jacob looked over at Kayla and shot his eyebrows up and down a single time. ''Hooray, time to sate the munchies!'' He cheered with an attempt at a jolly tone. He calmly strolled over to the table, picking himself out a medium size pack of chips (or fries), leaned against a nearby wall, and started going through his food at a leisurely pace.

[Dirty Spaceman]

Church Basement

Kayla took one of the garden salads and a plastic fork to eat it with. A few of the other people started taking their food as well. Samantha would still get to have her choice of what to eat if she decided soon.

Cafeteria

Greg and Paula were just finishing up her food. They threw out their garbage, and walked towards the exit. As they passed Kevin and Eve, Greg said, "You guys don't need to rush, but remember not to take too long. We need to get to Whittier in time for the ferry."

As long as Julius was paying at least some attention to his surroundings as he browsed the news sites, he would rather easily be able to hear this being said.

[The SheoDovah]

Samantha walked over to the table and picked up one of the two caeser salads. She grabbed a spork and said "I hope they don't expect us to live off this stuff untill they resolve it. IF they resolve it, i mean. I'm grateful but it's not excatly healthy apart from the salads."

[MARS]

"I guess I do," Eve replied to Kevin's question, thankful that she could stall on asking what she actually wanted to ask. "It's probably nothing though." She noticed him glancing over and glared as she did with most everyone.

"If he gets up right after us I'm going to ask him what the [&@%!] his problem is." It felt good to swear. She didn't feel like she had to watch her mouth around Kevin and expressing herself rudely was calming.

"Though...if I think in zombie apocalypse mode for a bit he might make a good third wheel." She felt the heat creep into her cheeks when she realized what a dumb choice of words "third wheel" was. Before she could say anything more however, the worst thing she could think of happened: her phone rang. Her hands were shaking as she grabbed it out of her bag, and sure enough the contact ID was "dad". The vibrating phone slid out of her fingers, blaring a generic metalcore song into the quiet cafeteria.

"[&@%!]..." she whispered, almost at tears.

[Dirty Spaceman]

Church Basement

Kayla nodded. "And hey, even the salads aren't that good for you from what I've heard," she added. "But nah, I think they got us this stuff with the idea that it'd just be something to just tide us over for a while. Which, I guess at least, is good if it means they're optimistic about us getting out of here soon."

"They might be optimistic, but I'm not," said a tall, thin black guy who had just grabbed a Big Mac and happened to overhear the conversation. "I've got a friend who's a cop, he tells me that things got worse since yesterday. Those crazies, or zombies, or whatever they really are, apparently they got into some apartment buildings and stores overnight. A lot more people got hurt, some guys even got killed. My friend says that if things keep going downhill at the rate they're going now, he'll be getting his ass out of town in the next few days."

Cafeteria

The woman at the counter, who had settled against the wall to read a magazine, was startled by the ringtone. She looked over to see what was going on, and upon realizing that nothing was wrong, looked back down and started reading again.

[Velvet LeChance]

Hidden:

There'll come a stage where we read back over this RP and we'll all notice how Kevin's personality underwent little jumps because Velvet just kept forgetting how he'd planned to play him.

Kevin nodded along with what Eve was saying, resisting the urge to snatch another glance at the black man.

He wasn't so sure about just asking what the '[&@%!]' the other was doing. Though he knew Eve was correct when she said that he'd make a great tag-along: big, imposing, strong-looking, with their future so unclear having someone like him around would definitely be a help. And Kevin was sure he was military - or at least ex-military. It wasn't anything particular about him that gave such away, it was just the way the man carried himself. However, any further thought was interrupted by a buzzing erupting from Eve's bag: a phone.

He didn't need to check out the screen or ask to know who it was. He rather saw it in the girl's eyes herself as she brought the screen up towards her face.

He locked eyes with the girl, no clue what to offer.

[Unionhack]

Julius was likewise startled by the ringtone. He was on edge as it is, and sudden noises weren't helping.

What piqued his interest, however, was their apparent interest in him. He had felt a few wayward glances accompanied with whispers, and since the cafeteria was rather empty and the only others in the room were people who knew each other, he could only assume they were directed at him.

With the word "zombie" being thrown around on the news, he couldn't be too careful.

"You said something about the ferry?" he asked aloud, standing from his chair and crumbling his napkin as he had finished his sandwich. "We're headed in the same direction then."

[Dirty Spaceman]

Cafeteria

"Oh, that's nice," said Paula, although she didn't sound particularly thrilled.

"Are you headed anywhere in particular?" Greg asked him, trying to make more of an effort to be polite. "We were just on our way out of Seward; we're planning to leave the state for a little while until all that stuff in the city blows over."

[Unionhack]

"Just trying to get away, really." Julius clarified. "Nowhere in particular. Just going to meet with a friend."

[Dirty Spaceman]

Cafeteria

"That's good," said Greg. "With all this weird stuff going on, your best bet is to have somebody with you that you can trust. Anyway, we were just on our way out to our car. See you on the ferry, maybe, and good luck!"

[MARS]

Hidden:

Revive time

Eve did her best to swallow her fear and picked the phone back up with shaky fingers, accepting the call before she could allow herself to do otherwise. Bringing the phone to her ear, she exhaled deeply, hoping her voice would be calm.

"Dad?" The response couldn't be heard by the other around, but apparently there was one because the girl kept talking. "Yeah, I'm safe. I went home but you weren't there, and it wasn't safe. I'm out of town now."

Waiting.

"I couldn't! There was...no service!" It was evident that it was a lie even if the response was inaudible. "Look, dad, I had to get out of there, okay? I couldn't find you, I. I was scared. I'm with a friend, it's fine. Even if I did call you, you were out of town. I couldn't have holed up in there."

The voice coming out of the phone's speaker was louder now, apparently her father was upset. Eve's frown grew deeper with each wave of words until she eventually hung up and turned the phone off, banging it on the table. "God dammit!"