Striking in complete silence / devastating, isolating, until I lose control

[gotbottle]

Who: Raylan Givens and Rachel Conway
What: Saving the day! Aaaand opening up a CR can of worms.
Where: Champion's Walk, Griss Twist.
When: Backdated a few days, in the midst of monster madness.
Notes: N/A
Warnings: Violence against monsters.

She'd been driven from her apartment three days ago, driven from her neighborhood a day after that. Rachel had managed to pack a bag on her way out, slung across her body now, full of what meager first-aid supplies she could gather and everything she could possibly use as a light source.

...Not that she intends to go that route. Ever. But better to be prepared for something you don't have to do than to be pushed into that corner and not be ready.

She's been moving through the city, doing what she can, sleeping when she can. She's hardly prepared for this; she's been a book editor and a tea house waitress and a low-level volunteer for a political party, there's nothing in her background to ready her for circumstances like these. But she couldn't just hide somewhere and not try.

The side streets tonight are reasonably quiet, if demolished here and there, bearing scars of earlier skirmishes. She makes note of buildings that look like they'll stay standing, and when she comes across the odd person wandering the street, she checks to make sure they don't need medical attention and then she shoos them off to the nearest safe place.

But as she nears Champion's Walk, the odd people become groups of people, and they're not wandering, they're fleeing. She catches the ones she can, directing them to a safe place, unable to get much out of them besides "monster" and "didn't want to be trapped."

There's a knot of people running through the open back door of a business that faces Champion's Walk. She fights her way through, dodging people, and she gets out the front door. She still can't see much--there's a group of people coming toward her, and some more, lit by the few street lamps still working, congregating by some buildings on the next block.

And then a shape moves between her and a lamp, flitting by so fast there's only a silhouette, and an impression of size. Great size.

She can't just stand here and do nothing.

Back through the shop she goes, back out the back door, but instead of joining the others fleeing onto the side streets, she takes one that parallels Champion's Walk. She sees another stream of people coming down an alley, and she squeezes through, popping out into the crowd of people gathered there.

"Who's in charge?" she asks the nearest person. "Is there anyone helping you guys right now?"

Comments

[gotbottle]

She goes as far as the front doorway, and she turns, flinching at the sound of the gunshot. The door leading inside is at her back if she has to flee, but she has to know if it's necessary.

She has to know he's all right, too.

The creature goes down, stays down, doesn't seem to be anything short of dead. She doesn't call out right away; what if there's more where that came from?

But a few long moments pass with no other sign of life, and she calls out, just loud enough to be heard. "Are you okay?"

[toooldforlosing]

"I'm good. Stay there a second." He goes up to the thing, keeping the loaded shotgun pointed at its head. He doesn't want to waste ammo, but equally, he needs to be sure.

He decides it's not worth the extra shell, and turns to jog back toward her. "Let's keep moving." Before something popped out of the doorway at her back or something equally bad.

[gotbottle]

She does as he tells her, lingering in the doorway while he gives the prone creature a closer inspection. She waits, inwardly praying that the thing doesn't get up. And it doesn't.

And she's been dutiful, deferred to his appraisal and experience, but the second he declares the danger over she comes out of the doorway and goes right to his side. She put a hand on his arm, just for a moment, reassuring and reassured.

"Agreed. Let's get the hell out of here."