The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles

[spin_kick_snap]

The last time anyone from Fandom had been in Kathy's LA, the heroes had been living inside the walls that surrounded Paramount Studios, with the exes and the South Seventeens laying claim to everything else. Since then, they'd expanded; the Big Wall pushing the borders out almost a mile in all four directions. In some spots, it was hard to tell that there had ever been a zombocalypse; the streets were clean, the buildings repaired, the blood all scrubbed away. There was a proper school, lots of farms and gardens, several churches, and even a small library. The studio was still the heart of the community, but people had started to spread out and settle. It was still a tight fit, several thousand people into one square mile, but honestly not much worse than Los Angeles used to be, back before the world died and reanimated again.

Life had fallen back into a rhythm again. People got up, got ready for the day. Kids were sent off to school, adults took themselves to various jobs, though there were fewer sales people, baristas, and aspiring actors and a lot more guards, scavengers, and farmers these days. There was a brewery down on Larchmont and a still over on Monroe. Burns Park let people enjoy a bit of nature where the kids could run around and burn off steam and a Gold's Gym practically against the Big Wall. That was where the Unbreakables spent most of their free time, with curious gawkers watching them put more and more weight onto the machines.

It was a bustling little community of survivors, as safe as a place could be, surrounded on all sides by millions of undead waiting to find a way inside to devour them all.

[For them that are there! NFB, and please wait for the OCD is up! Previous entry Next Entry]

Comments

Wednesday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy's apartment was small and sparsely furnished. The front door opened into a small alcove, where a bare full-size mattress rested against the front door. As soon as they were all inside, Kathy fastened all the locks and then pushed the mattress over so it fell over onto the floor, its bottom edge less than an inch away from the door.

There was a living room with a couch, a TV and a DVD player, though the amount of dust over both showed they didn't get much use. The kitchen was small, barely big enough to fit a card table and a single chair in it. There was a door that led to a balcony outside, facing the Big Wall, but it was locked and the blinds shut. Someone - Kathy - had taken duct tape to the back of them, ensuring they could never be opened, even accidentally.

The bathroom was normal, if small, though there were several knives in homemade cardboard sheathes duct taped to the wall, and two more inside the shower, above the spray line.

The bedroom had a bureau next to the door where it could be easily pushed against it and an empty box spring on the floor. A lamp was plugged in next to the closet, where a small nest of blankets and several more knives could be seen, taped to the wall just at hand height for someone lying prone.

"Uhh, here it is," Kathy said, uneasily, knowing the state of her current living quarters said more about her state of mind than she probably liked. "It's gonna be a squeeze to keep all of us here, but we should fit."

[For immediately after their arrival at the Mount]

Re: Wednesday Evening

[rebelseekspizza]

"We can make it work," Dante said. His fingers brushed by her arm for reasons that were entirely not on purpose.

Really.

Re: Wednesday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

"I should at least have enough blankets for everybody, once we figure out who's sleeping where?" Kathy said, appreciating that totally-random touch. After almost two weeks here, she was a little touched starved. "I asked for extra when I first got here."

Re: Wednesday Evening

[rebelseekspizza]

"I can sleep on the floor, if that's easier," Dante said.

He didn't want to. What he wanted to do was crawl into bed with Kathy and Anders for a night. Or possibly forever.

Re: Wednesday Evening

[smilestopscars]

Oh thank goodness, there was a couch. Ezra plopped himself on it immediately, not even minding the small cloud of dust that his action caused. It'd settle in a moment.

He just... sighed.

Re: Wednesday Evening

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah," Dante agreed.

He sat down on one of the couch's arms. The one furthest away from Ezra's face.

Re: Wednesday Evening

[smilestopscars]

That was going to put a stop to any errant touching that might've otherwise happened. Possibly for the best, though.

"Mmh," Ezra agreed with his agreement, sticking his hands underneath the back of his head, in the very picture of relaxation. He couldn't seem to think of anything to say, though, which maybe betrayed that he was a little rattled.

Re: Wednesday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

"Mind if I join you?"

In other circumstances, Kathy might have teased, might have invoked house rules and hashtag fox culture. Hell, in other circumstances, she just would have sat on his feet or poked at him until he shifted enough to make room for her.

Not she just stood, awkwardly, uncertain of her welcome. This was her home by technicality, but it wasn't hers. She didn't want it, wouldn't claim it.

Re: Wednesday Evening

[smilestopscars]

Ezra shifted, slowly, until he was a little more upright and there was room next to him. A little slice of it, anyway. She didn't need much, if you asked him.

He patted the space, without saying anything.

Re: Wednesday Evening

[rebelseekspizza]

It was late by the time Dante got back to the apartment. He'd found Kathy and Anders on the boxspring and he'd settled there, just wanting to be closer to them right now.

Something in that conversation with Ezra twisted in his insides. Guilt. Maybe other stuff. He wasn't sure.

He managed to doze for what felt like just a few minutes, before errant thoughts and feelings dragged him back from the brink of actual rest.

Re: Wednesday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

By that time, Kathy had moved back to the closet. It wasn't that she didn't love being curled up between the guys, hadn't missed it with every fiber of her being...but she couldn't sleep out there. Not where she was so exposed. Even having other people in the house didn't stop her blood from chanting UNSAFE UNSAFE UNSAFE UNSAFE in her veins. Once Dante had started dozing, she'd slipped off the box spring and made her way to her nest.

She hadn't yet put out the tiny light when Dante woke back up. "Hey." she said, voice pitched to not carry far, a skill she'd learned the last time she was alive in LA. "Can't sleep?"

Re: Wednesday Evening

[rebelseekspizza]

For a moment, Dante felt incredibly disoriented. Where was the voice coming fro--

Oh.

He laid his eyes on the light. Right-- she'd said she was sleeping in the closet.

"Kathy?" he asked, rolling off the bed so he wouldn't wake Anders.

Re: Wednesday Evening

[vdistinctive]

Eliot had seen worse places to live. A lot worse. He'd lived in some of them, too.

It was a totally different thing when it was a place his kid was living.

He did his best to keep it off his face, though, instead nodding approvingly at the knives placed in easy access all around.

"You got this place set up pretty well."

Re: Wednesday Evening

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy would be damned before she found herself unarmed in her own apartment. Hell, she would be damned if she found herself unarmed and needing weapons.

"Thanks, I hate it," she said, but with a little smile so he knew she was joking. Well, sort of joking. She did really hate it, but then, she hated everything about being on the Mount. "At least I don't have to share with anybody or anything. That would be pretty harrowing."

She'd been offered a place further inside, away from the Wall, to share with two other young women. Kathy had chosen to live by herself, where she could see the danger coming.

Re: Wednesday Evening

[vdistinctive]

Eliot chuckled. "Yeah, unfortunately liking a place isn't part of securing it. And hey, at least you won't have to be here too much longer."

Thursday

[spin_kick_snap]

Kathy's place was small and rather stuffy, since she only allowed the window in her bedroom to be opened and that only a few inches. People were welcome to stay inside if they wanted, or get out and explore the Mount. There were plenty of people interested in her visitors after all, and that included pretty much all of the heroes.

And they, at least, would feel no compunctions about stopping by her apartment to talk if they didn't run into them anywhere else.

[Feel free to stay put or wander around if you want. NPCs are yours for the asking! It's a rare day with no trauma, so make the most of it!]

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Kathy's apartment was a little suffocating, in a way - though Dante wasn't likely to tell her.

Still, after a few hours, he felt the need to do... something. To move. Get a breath of air.

He slipped out the door and walked aimlessly into the streets.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Well, well, well. Look at what the zombie cat dragged in. My, how time does fly."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

... and just like that, the aimless ambling came to a sudden stop.

"Didn't I kill you?" Dante said, voice sharp but restrained.

Re: Thursday

[spin_kick_snap]

Dante had been gone awhile now. It was probably stupid for Kathy to worry - okay, it was stupid of Kathy to worry - but she couldn't help but pace back and forth and watch the ticking clock. Everyone else had gone wandering, driven to it by the closeness of the walls, but Kathy was staying put, just in case.

If something happened, she'd be close enough to the Wall to hear it.

If someone happened, they'd know exactly where she was to tell her.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

It had been a while, but eventually there was a fumbling noise by the door, and then a knock.

"Kathy?"

Re: Thursday

[smilestopscars]

Foxes didn't really enjoy confined spaces. Who knew?

Well, Ezra did, and he was ready to crawl out of his skin. But since that wasn't an option, he just went out, and stayed there. Walking around aimlessly and not enjoying a single second of it.

The apartment wasn't the only confined space he was feeling the weight of.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

At some point in Ezra's walk, a guy in a wheelchair rolled out to join him on the sidewalk. The suddenness and ease which he drew up next to Ez suggested he'd been waiting. "Hey," he said, giving Ezra a nod. "You're one of the folks we let in yesterday, right? One of Banzai's friends?"

Re: Thursday

[smilestopscars]

Ezra was not very much in a talking mood. Which was unusual for him, but not during this whole ordeal. Another thing he wasn't particularly fond of was strangers joining him as if they'd known he was coming.

Still, he could be civil.

"Yes," he said, "and yes."

Civil did not mean wordy, no. At least not right off the bat.

OOC

[spin_kick_snap]

Just because Kathy's world ended doesn't mean ours should.