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Topic: Zombies in Chicago
Subject: Maternal Instincts
Until Tom stepped into her plane of vision and firmly shouted her name she had only seen the passionate red of anger and grief that was now and then flashed with a bright light as the hatchet she swung hit the shield stopping it from reaching its goal.
“Amber! Stop!” His voice seared through the hysteria for a moment and she looked at his face, flushed, covered in sweat and blood, his eyes fixed intently on her seemingly panicked slightly and concerned under their outward firm resolve. A mixture that was manifesting itself as anger.
The swing of the hatchet stopped above her shoulder for a moment and briefly her dark eyes flashed with some understanding that she was not being rational. Pain surged up her right leg as that realization tried to take hold, and the body in her arms suddenly expressed its weight.
Not just a body... Joshua... Joshua Allen Klein
Her eyes pulled off Tom's only long enough to catch the dark curls pressed close to her cheek and rationality began to slip again.
"No! Get out of my way Tom!" Her arm tightened further around the tiny limp body and she started to bring her other arm back into the arc it had started before. "Out of my way or I'll take you down too, I swear to God!"
Heartsick, Murph watched Amber’s hold on the dead toddler tighten as she glanced at the dark curls that hung from it’s tiny skull… he knew what she was thinking… understood how she had been led to think it… and tried not to think it, himself… That’s not Joshua… Please, God, don’t let it be him…
When her dark eyes came back to his, he offered her a faint shake of his head in response to her threat. “You do what you need to do,” he said flatly, “I’m not movin’, Amber… I’m not lettin’ you do this… to him or yourself…” Murph’s mind registered the backswing on the hatchet even if his eyes never left Amber’s face and, nearly as quickly as he could think it, he caught her arm before it could release that chambered strike, and held it tight.
She gave him a half hearted struggle for control of the weapon, but her strength was waning. Her arm stopped locked in his grip midair.
“Listen to me,” he almost growled the words as he stepped in closer to her, doing his best to keep the axe from swinging… he didn’t want to but, just then, he made himself look into the pitiful face of the toddler that she carried – he had to be sure before he said anything more…
She followed his gaze. The boy's head swiveled back lifelessly and revealed the flushed and slightly bloated face. His eyes were closed, blood gathered at the edges of his lips and puss gathered in creases in his chubby cheeks.
“That’s not our Joshua, baby,” he insisted, his tone a bit softer but no less firm, “This man didn’t kill our Joshua…”
Tears boiled up in her eyes as her fingers relaxed and let the hatchet fall out of her grip. Letting it fall aimlessly like she had the crowbar earlier in the day. Using what strength she had left she pulled her arm free of his grip and supported the toddler's head, pulling him closer as she closed her eyes and placed a tender kiss to the corpse's forehead.
“Mine... he's always been mine... my Joshua...” her voice lowered from the murderous hysteria it had held a moment before and fell towards pitiful grief.
As Amber let go of the hatchet and the tears in her eyes welled in her eyes, Murph, too, fought against the anguish of the moment. The perceived loss and the all too real grief that exuded from her in heart-wrenching waves crashed into and around him as he relinquished his grip and, for just a moment, let her cradle the twice-dead toddler; his own hands held open and away from her to show that he wasn’t going to try to snatch the kid from her or anything. His lower lip trembled a bit as he watched her, and his eyes stung more than a little as he tried to hold his own tears at bay… even if the pathetic little thing in her arms wasn’t truly her son, Murph imagined, Amber needed this moment to tell the boy she was sorry… that she missed him… that she loved him… whatever she needed to say and do to get her to a point where she might at least try to listen to him.
“Okay,” he conceded after a moment, his tone softer still, “Okay. Yours. You’re right, Amber… Josh is yours… always has been… always will be… but,” he swallowed a lump in his throat and allowed his hands to move toward her again… one tentatively (but, still, warmly) coming to rest on her shoulder and gently pulling her closer to him as the other hand – and he almost shivered when it happened – found it’s way to the toddler’s head and forlornly, almost apologetically, stroked the dark curls that hung from it, “But this… this isn’t Josh, Amber…
…It looks like him, I know… But it isn’t, baby… I promise you it’s not…”
God, please… tell me it’s not, he begged even as he continued to reel Amber and the dead boy in, don’t let me be lying to her, now… not over this…
“Come here,” he continued, his voice softening even more, now, as his arm wrapped around her and the other slipped from the toddler’s head to cradle the limp thing’s back. The tears were harder to hold back, now, as he held Amber and the dead boy just as he had held Jenny and Mickey close to him just before he deployed… like a family… “I want you to look at him, Amber,” he almost whispered, then, “really look at him, okay? And you’ll see that this is not Joshua… Do those look like clothes you ever bought him? Do those look like anything he had at your brother’s house…”
Murph was hoping against hope that the answers would be ‘no’…
Murph would get the answer he hoped for but not in the way he had hoped for it. Reality had begun to unravel when the riots had broken out and it was getting harder and harder to grasp ahold of the frayed edges. Besides, what if the insanity was easier to deal with?
Tom was holding her and the child, as Daniel should have. Tom had never even met her son and yet he seemed to care more about the boy than his real father had. But... but something was wrong about the situation, because Tom was trying to convince her that the child in her arms was not Josh. She listened to the arguments. The answers that came to mind when he did tied her closer to reality, and told her that he was probably right. But reality was a dark coarse cloth that held so little hope and even less answers.
Willfully she let that tenuous grasp on the truth slip. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she shook her head. "No... no..."
One of the arms wrapped around the boy let go of him to push Tom back. "No... you can't take him from me. He came back to me out of the shadows... I won't let you take him from me. Mine I tell you."
Stepping back from him she held onto the body tightly and fixed her dark raved eyes on everyone that had gathered around, no doubt being the center of attention now. "None of you will." She said firmly.
Her next move was to bend down, grabbing her bag by the strap and hauling it up over her free shoulder, and then with sensibility that was too complete (and perhaps more frightening therefore) considering the fact that she was now carrying a dead toddler in her arms turned and started walking in the direction the knight had suggested they go. She limped slightly as she went, favoring her right leg and leaving a bloody foot print on pavement as she went. The hatchet gleamed in the patch of sunlight she had found, left behind with a few other items that spilled out of her bag when she fell.
Pushed away.
Again, Murph thought as Amber shoved him back.
She had started to come back, he thought, at one point… seemed to understand that what he had told her was truth… but, she didn’t want to hold on to the reality of it any longer than it took to see it for what it was. Right now, none of his talking would matter… nothing he could do would matter. Right now, Amber needed this escape from one nightmare into another, for some reason, and it was going to take more time than they had to convince her otherwise. After she told them in no uncertain terms that no one would be taking the child from her, Murph watched her gather up her things, situate the lifeless toddler on her hip, and start to walk away…
Story of my life, he sighed inwardly, watching her for a moment…
At least she’s movin’, Sarge. That’s somethin’…
…Murph’s gaze fell away from Amber and found her hatchet where it had been dropped at his feet. Yeah… somethin’, he answered through the sick sludge of memories from another life that overlapped the surreal moments of this one… He stooped to retrieve the axe…
C’mon, Sarge… don’t let that crap start gettin’ to ya, now… I mean…what? Did ya think there was gonna be some kinda ‘ride off into the sunset’ moment comin’ outta all this?
…He turned, then, and reached for where he’d dropped the SLP. I don’t know what I thought, he replied, his gaze flicking back to Amber, momentarily, as he shouldered the shotgun…
S#!^! You’ll be lucky if any of you make it til sunset. Forget any kinda ridin’ into it…
Tom Murphy’s eyes found the others, one by one, then… Father Ted, Emily, Mac, Alaster… then, flicked back towards the grocery store for an instant before coming back to the ‘knight’ who had appeared to rescue Amber from the tiny zombie she now carried. “My people need some quiet,” he said simply, forgoing any introductions or other pleasantries for the moment, “If you know some place we can do that, lead on…” he gestured towards the retreating woman with the twice-dead boy at her hip. “If not, we’re headin’ for the harbor and you’re welcome to come along…”
((OOC: Figure that Murph will take the wheelbarrow back, at this point, and either follow the Knight to whereever he was planning on going or, per the groups most recent plan, continue on to the harbor... And so long as no one tries to interfere with her taking the corpse along Amber will follow quietly.))
Posted on 2010-09-28 at 14:55:51.
Edited on 2010-09-28 at 15:00:09 by Eol Fefalas
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Topic: The One Word Game
Subject: for regularity
Prunes
Posted on 2010-09-28 at 14:11:06.
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Topic: I guess it's time...
Subject: Indeed...
you will find yourself in the warm embrace of other 2e players here. Although we have lots of other things to offer as well.
Glad you said hello finally  Let us know if you need anything. Us purple people are good to go to, but any of our residents are helpful and friendly really.
M.
Posted on 2010-09-28 at 14:10:28.
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Topic: LD Guest comic: Loaded Dice go LARPing
Subject: Niiiceee
Good to see Grugg make an appearance in the strip this week as well. 
ahhh... LARPer's.
M.
Posted on 2010-09-28 at 14:08:16.
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Topic: Zombies in Chicago Q&A
Subject: :)
I knew Murph would step in...
And of course nothing personal there shakespeare man. My character is just a loon.
And getting crazier by the moment... you all are just going to love the collab Eol and I have going on him trying to bring her back.  You all might be putting her on drugs just to keep yourselves alive soon enough.
M.
Posted on 2010-09-27 at 19:21:33.
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Topic: The One Word Game
Subject: < Historian with a love for anything Victorian
Brown
Posted on 2010-09-27 at 16:49:50.
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Topic: Hello there.
Subject: :)
We try to be friendly. That way you won't mind so much when your characters die in games. 
And... is that an LD avatar I see? How pretty! 
M.
Posted on 2010-09-27 at 15:53:56.
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Topic: Hello there.
Subject: Char sheets? 4e!?
Welcome Herald!
Well I'm sure you'll find that alot of our members are almost as old as dinosaurs and prefer the older versions of D&D, or other systems (Star Wars, Witchcraft, Whitewolf, Modern d20's, etc...), however, I know we've been dabbling some at getting 4e better represented on our boards so we welcome anyone enthusiastic about it! And don't be afraid to hop into one of the other games either, I'm not a big rules monger myself and the DM's around here are great at helping people out learning new systems.
So come on in and join the insanity!
M.
Posted on 2010-09-27 at 15:35:35.
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Topic: Zombies in Chicago Q&A
Subject: Well...
Hopefully Amber doesn't kill him.
And yeah... umm... neither free masons nor knights of columbus wear full armor. They carry swords (usually rapiers) but not full chain mail and plate. SCA members, however would... and you know maybe he works for Medieval Times or broke into the Field Museum and nabbed one of the displays. Could be a myriad of reasons why he's dressed like that.
So hopefully again Amber won't kill him or scare him off and we'll get to find out. 
M.
Posted on 2010-09-26 at 15:54:23.
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Topic: Zombies in Chicago
Subject: Payment
The sun had felt good on Amber’s skin, its warmth and light seemed to eat away at what had been bothering her.
What was it that was bothering you Amber?
She couldn’t say for certain at that moment, the adrenaline was too strong for rational thoughts. She only knew that it had something to do with the shade, that if she could just stay in the sunlight she would be okay. So she had followed the patches like the yellow brick road, further and further from where she had been.
There were noises behind her, but she gave them no heed, let the shadows take whatever is left back there so long as they left her alone in the sun.
Suddenly it seemed that the world began to slip away from under her, for a moment she floated in the heavy atmosphere and then the pavement rose up and slammed into her. There were tingles of sensation along her right side, she supposed that tingling was pain, surely the nerves along her body were sending out pain signals, but the receptors in her brain were too filled with panic to fully receive them.
Her eyes rose up from the pavement and she found herself staring into the desolate face of a young boy.
Joshua…
Lost and alone, the boy needed her. She had come out of the shadows and the light had rewarded her with her son. Amber rose up a little and opened her arms up toward him.
“It’s okay… come along…” she whispered and actually smiled a little bit as he seemed to come forward.
If she heard the small scream that came from him it obviously did not startle her, for she continued to smile and hold out her arms for him. That is until he stopped suddenly, the bloodied edge of a blade jutted through his chest.
A tiny scream fell from her lips as the blade disappeared out of view and left a dark spot on his shirt that only soaked up more blood. Instead of moving closer to her he fell to his knees, shuttered a few times and then collapsed to the ground beside her.
“Josh! Oh God no… no no no… no Josh… no Josh come back to mommy!” The tone in her voice became shrill, although there was not enough air in her lungs to make it loud. Clambering up onto her knees she gathered the small limp body into her arms, cradling it against her chest. “Come back…”
It was obvious that the child would not though, even as she tried vainly to refuse the fact in her mind. Dark wild eyes glistening with fresh tears tore from the lifeless face she held in her arms. The first thing they fixed upon was the knight standing before her, his sword dripping with blood.
Joshua’s blood…
“You… you killed my boy! You killed Joshua!”
With the skill only a mother could really have she hoisted the body onto her hip, holding it close to her and rose to her feet, her free hand gathering up the hatchet that had fallen out of her bag when she had fallen. Still holding the poor lifeless body close she rounded on the knight and began wildly swinging the hatchet at him.
“You killed Joshua! How dare you!? You’ll pay I’ll make you pay!” Air had refilled her lungs and she screamed hysterically at him.
Posted on 2010-09-25 at 20:26:53.
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Topic: Zombies in Chicago Q&A
Subject: Red Necks?
Did someone say something about rednecks?
God 'nabit! I'm getting antsy over here Olan! Do we live or do we die now?!!
M.
Posted on 2010-09-24 at 19:13:16.
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Topic: Zombies in Chicago Q&A
Subject: If...
by some divine intervention Mac were able to regain conciousness long enough to help out at all, I don't think that will really be useful. And I'm glad Amber is running.
With the blood loss and morphine he's been given I wouldn't trust him to hit the side of a barn with a gun right now. Hell I doubt he could hold one let alone fire it even if he was 'awake'
If Amber is going to die she is going to do it by her own hand or get eaten by zombies, not by friendly fire.
M.
Posted on 2010-09-24 at 17:59:23.
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Topic: Loaded Dice Filler: Get the Point?
Subject: LOL
You know I really like this one.
Although... some constructive critiscm... it looks like you're wearing a skirt.
M.
ps. My critique might be better taken if I could actually spell... 
Posted on 2010-09-24 at 15:57:34.
Edited on 2010-09-24 at 16:01:40 by Merideth
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Topic: Last one to post wins - Part II
Subject: Well...
You might be Sarah actually. Or maybe Toby, that was one cool baby, although that red and white stripped outfit was a little weird.
But certianly no Justin Beiber... if he does show up I give you full permission to PB to him the ceiling... or the floor depending on your current view.
M.
Posted on 2010-09-24 at 15:15:36.
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Topic: Last one to post wins - Part II
Subject: hmmm
Next time try taking it with milk instead of water.
You get stuck in an MC Esher work with David Bowie instead of a Mobius Strip that way...
M.
Posted on 2010-09-24 at 14:12:39.
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Topic: Last one to post wins - Part II
Subject: Thank Goodness
You guys stopped talking about fish... it is still depressing to me that I can't even stand the smell of seafood right now. 
Ohhh... but that does remind me of the PB Hampster Experiments...
I wonder if they tried to PB the Hampsters to moon rockets 
M.
Posted on 2010-09-24 at 13:41:18.
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Topic: Zombies in Chicago Q&A
Subject: Death...
I don't care so much to have input on the details on how she dies, but I would like to write up her perspective of the death scene before moving on to another character.
M.
Posted on 2010-09-23 at 20:19:06.
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Topic: Zombies in Chicago Q&A
Subject: Ummm...
was the goal really to survive this?
Ohhh... Ummm... I misunderstood. I'll try better next time.
M.
Posted on 2010-09-23 at 19:00:14.
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Topic: Zombies in Chicago Q&A
Subject: Well... I'll be...
I was pretty certain they didn't have parking lots in Chicago.
M.
Posted on 2010-09-23 at 14:54:22.
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Topic: Zombies in Chicago Q&A
Subject: Parking lot?
A few blocks from Wrigleys? Small town boy is funny...
I'll leave this up to the DM of course, but I'd imagine there isn't a parking lot... and even if there was it would probably be back behind the store... you have fun looking back there.
M.
Posted on 2010-09-23 at 14:42:39.
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Topic: Zombies in Chicago Q&A
Subject: No!
Amber's running!!
M.
Posted on 2010-09-23 at 14:32:00.
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Topic: Zombies in Chicago Q&A
Subject: Well...
It was nice playing with all of you.
Somehow I get the feeling we just created an 'All You Can Eat Zombie Buffet'
nom nom nom
OHHH! Maybe I'll get to write up an awesome death scene! It's been awhile since I've tried to write anything overly gruesome... too long really. Been trodding through 'The Dark Half' recently too so I should have some good inspiration!
M.
Posted on 2010-09-23 at 14:22:16.
Edited on 2010-09-23 at 14:23:37 by Merideth
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Topic: Zombies in Chicago Q&A
Subject: But...
I dun wanna wait! 
Come on Tom, lets just leave them all to die.
M.
Posted on 2010-09-22 at 20:41:11.
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Topic: Zombies in Chicago Q&A
Subject: :)
Supposing she is not ambushed...
No she does not plan at stopping in front of the store. I can't say exactly what direction she will go as I'm not sure how the buildings around them have cast their shadows on the ground. She's heading for patches of sunlight. If you know where those are or wish to have dice determine that I'm cool.
I'd say that the possibility of her tripping can certainly be left up to a set of dice, debris or her own feet could easily stop her running as the die see fit.
Her hearing Murph call out after her would I guess need to be determined by how far she has gotten by the time he makes it out and realizes she is auditioning for 'Forrest Gump'
I will again state that if she runs into a spot where there is no more sunlight for her to run in she'll stop as well.
In a way I see this almost like a maze for her... the edge of a shadow is likely to be perceived by her as solid as a brick wall, a brick wall doused with acid.
I know it's already 2pm so the sun is no longer directly above them so the buildings should be casting at least some shadow on the road now. Which makes it hard for me to say exactly where she would go...
Helpful?
M.
Posted on 2010-09-22 at 20:09:34.
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Topic: Zombies in Chicago Q&A
Subject: Answer:
I think she's lost it a little bit... umm... she doesn't want to be in any shadows. That would be her only goal at the moment.
I see her running almost blindly into the street where the chances of running into shadows is less. A few things might stop her... exhaustion, tripping, running into a 'dead end' (with actual objects or just running out of lighted places to run in), or perhaps hearing someone behind her telling her to stop (that would have to be pretty loud and insistent though).
As far as running from the group, that is a risk her current mind frame is willing to take in order to get out of the shadows.
She's not screaming at least while she runs...
And because she doesn't have a real goal in mind I have no issue letting you decide her final stopping point.
M.
Posted on 2010-09-22 at 19:47:37.
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