revivalproject | This is not a zombie jamboree

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This is not a zombie jamboree

WHO: Radley and everyone
WHERE: Temba
WHAT: Zombies
WHEN: October
WARNINGS: Zombies, exhaustion from zombies

It was a zombie jamboree

Radley is certainly used to storms by now. And he’s used to how weird they can get sometimes. But the fog is new. He already feels like he’s in some kind of Halloween horror movie when the shadows of zombies first show up. And when they step out and he really sees what he’s up against, his jaw drops. “Oh, you have gotta be kidding me.” He’s seen plenty of zombie movies with Scotch and his other friends back home. This is not what he wants to be involved in. He turns and runs back into the diner and gets on the Network.

“Is anybody else seeing this?” He holds the communicator up to the window to film. He’s not sure if he wants to be told it’s just him or not.

Are any of them great Calypsoans?

Radley soon learns, unfortunately, that they’re really there. He still has the machete he found ages ago and he’s forced to use it. That task becomes harder when he encounters zombies that look like Scotch, Kalin, and other people he cares about.

And it also gets hard when he’s backed into a corner, like the night he tries locking himself and some others in the diner for safety when the zombies are coming at it from all sides.

“It’s no use!” he realizes in dismay. “They’re busting in here!” He hears them at the doors and windows. He grips the machete, knuckles white. When the first one through is a Kalin look-alike, he steels himself and attacks it, blinking back the angry, helpless tears. He can’t think about what they look like. He has to protect the people here. And he doesn’t want to die either.

Uptown, Downtown

Radley is exhausted. He is not a fighter like Knuckles and Sephiroth, but he’s been forced to act like one the last several weeks. He keeps the food going like always, fights the zombies when he has to, and tries to make sure everyone is safe. Probably by this point, anyone can see he looks absolutely run ragged. But he’s sure everyone else feels the same way. He’s not about to call attention to himself. So he puts on a smile and turns to greet whoever is there. “Hi. What do you need?”

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Fighting your way through a monster apocalypse isn't something strange or new for Gladio. Maybe that's why he doesn't look really tired compared to some others. That and he'd gone rather quickly for a secure place and discovered it was something highly manageable and defensible.

And afforded him a chance to get his weapons out.

Which was how he came here now, coming upon Radley. He's got his massive shield slung across his back by a rope, and his even larger sword in hand. Sure he looks a little tired, but he's mostly composed. And fully suited up in his uniform.

But it's also pretty clear when he manages to get in that he wasn't expecting to see Radley.

"Came to get supplies. Why are you holed up here? Place isn't very defensible."

Radley laughs a bit. "Well, I wouldn't say I've holed up here; I've been all over. But I wanted to make sure everybody could get what they needed, so I'm here for supplies too. I don't want the zombies wrecking all this stuff."

"Better they wreck the stuff than take your life," Gladio counters, frowning at Radley. "Hardly seems safe."

Radley sighs. "It's probably not. I've had a lot of experience cutting the things down by now. I'm heading back to the mines when I collect stuff here. I wanna make sure we all have enough to eat."

Experience cutting things down and being properly equipped for it is two different things. Not that Gladio can speak to other people's experiences. Or equipment status.

"I'd offer to carry some of it, but I have to be careful what what I'm moving around. This trip, was thinking about stealing some of the jars here for water."

Radley has definitely been having more experience than he ever wanted to have. He hasn't been going anywhere without his machete these days.

"Thanks for the offer," he smiles. "Yeah, taking some of the jars sounds like a good idea. I can try to get some of them too."

He's been loading a bunch of stuff in a wheelbarrow.

"Awesome. If I can wrap them up safely somehow I can put them in the shield and drag it back."

Which was something. An important something at that. Water was always going to be harder to get to than food, and people didn't always think of the need for it.

Radley was definitely all for it. Water was indeed vital.

"Cool. There should be something we can use. I guess if nothing else, we could go to the Alien Target and use some clothes to wrap the jars in?"

That's a long distance, and it makes Gladio frown to consider it.

"Let's call that plan G."

Radley nods. “We should be able to find something here.” He looks through the cupboard. “Maybe these dish towels?”

Dish towels sounds like a good plan. Gladio nods and reaches up into the cupboard to pull down every one of them that he can get his hands on.

"Good field dressing too."

Radley nods, glad to be of help. "Hopefully there's enough." He starts wrapping up some of the jars and putting them with the other items.

All they have these days is hopes, so Gladio doesn't even bother to voice it. He just takes the shield off and starts to work on filling jars.

"who ever would have thought zombies were real."

Radley laughs a bit darkly. "Some of my friends would have initially thought it was 'epic.' But they wouldn't have been crazy at all about the 'zombies showing up as loved ones' thing."

Once he gauges how much space there is for the jars and how well the dish towels work, he also starts filling some.

"Technically it is. This is definitely a story to be telling to kids and grandkids."

And yeah, Gladio gets that part. He's knocked Noctis down so many times. It keeps hurting.

If they ever make it home to have kids and grandkids. But Radley doesn't voice that thought.

"I know my friend Scotch would probably keep wanting to hear it over and over," Radley chuckles. "He was always dragging me to monster movies. He loves zombies in particular for some reason; his Duel Monsters deck is zombie-based. Oh, Duel Monsters is a popular card game back home," he explains.

Home definitely seems pretty impossible right now. But Gladio has to hope for it. Hopes to see any Noctis again, even if it isn't his.

"My friend Prompto would want to hear it too. He liked zombie video games."

Radley hopes they'll both make it back.

"I wonder what's so appealing about zombies. They look gross, they act gross, and what they want is gross." A smirk.

"Loss of agency of the self, corruption beyond one's own power and the struggle to retain a sense of self in the face of such loss tends to be the common trope tied to stories of them."

At least, that's what Gladio's found in literature.

"Huh. Yeah, those are some pretty intense tropes. I don't see too many stories about people trying to retain themselves after they go full zombie, though. Except that story about the zombie who falls in love, maybe. I think it's called Warm Bodies, maybe?"

"Never heard of that. We don't really have that concept. Our stories of romance in spite of the Starscourge might fall in with that though."

He finishes with another jar and carefully puts it onto his shield with the others.

"Starscourge?"

That sounds ... disturbing. And painful. He imagines something similar to the Death Star or Starkiller Base.

"Disease back home. Taints all of Eos, even blocks out the sun. A fated corruption dooming our world, save for the intervention of the True King."

Of Noctis. Noctis who was probably gone forever.

Radley frowns deeply. "That's awful. Was the True King able to fix it?"

"He will."

Because Billy wanted it more than anything. For it to be true. To believe in Noctis.

"So your world's still in that state back home? I'm sorry," Radley frowns.

He knows Noctis, but doesn't realize the two are from the same world.

"We're ending it, when I get home."

And that's all he has to say about that. All he can say. The pain is too much otherwise.

Radley smiles a bit. He's not sure he should say something trivial like Good Luck when it's such a critical situation, so he just nods. "Then I'm sure you will." It was that kind of determination that had finally saved his town, he supposed.

He finishes with his jars. "There we go."

Luck wasn't something that had ever figured in for them. But they were fighting fate so maybe it was appropriate to offer.

"Thanks," he says, tucking the last of his own jars in place.

"You need anything else?" Radley asks.

"You to stay safe," Gladio says with a shrug. Which wasn't something he was sure the guy could get up to, but that's just how it goes.

Radley laughs. "I'm happy to oblige." He sure has no intention of getting hurt.

"That's all I ask," Gladio says as he starts to rig up the ropes to allow him to pull the shield along with him.

"I'm about done here, really, so maybe we might as well head back together?" Radley suggests.

Sounds like a plan for now.

"Do your best to keep your hands free for fighting then."

"Well, I've gotta push the wheelbarrow, but I'm ready to grab for my machete if I have to," Radley says.

Damn. Gladio sighs. But there isn't much he can do about that.

"Get the door for me if you can. I've got to make sure I keep my sword in hand and it's awkward through doors."

"Sure thing," Radley says. When they get to the door, he opens it and goes out, then stands there holding the door.

And Gladio nods his thanks as he slips out as well.

"I'll go first. I can probably cut my line quick and get into a fight."

"Sounds good," Radley says. It makes more sense for Gladio to go first when he doesn't need to push a wheelbarrow and he's more skilled with fighting.

So far everything looks calm, but that could always change in an instant.

"I mean, I've always been told my voice is nice, so it's not a shock."

Joke said, he starts out in the direction he thinks the mines is in.

Radley laughs at that. It's the type of quip he might make himself sometime. "Your voice is nice," he agrees.

He follows. It's the right direction; he's gone that way several times now. Hopefully they'll have safe passage on the way there.

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This is not a zombie jamboree

Uptown

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mind if we handwave the rest? not in brainspace for fighty threads

Totally fine!