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

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante rolled his eyes. "Get a life," he said.

But he did scoop Max right up like a roll of tissue paper. He jumped into the air, forming a platform of energy under his feet when he couldn't quite get high enough - all instinct - and pushed off of that, too.

He landed neatly on a seventh floor balcony.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"You know that's bullshit, right?" Max checked. "I just wanna make sure you know your whole 'jumping higher by jumping in the middle of your jump' thing is actual bullshit. Physics thinks you're an asshole."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Physics can kiss my ass," Dante retorted, setting him down. "Physics and me decided to see other people."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Well glad to see the breakup didn't make you bitter," Max retorted, knocking out the rest of the glass from the window frame. "After you," he said. "It's your girlfriend's burned out old bedroom."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shoved past him into the room. So... fuck. This was where Kathy had lived. Before.

He put the thought out of his mind. "There's got to be something not burnt to shit in here."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

The worst part was, you could still see little bit's of Kathy's personality in the wreckage. The impromptu bed hangings made out of colorful fabric and strung with what had probably been fairy lights. Tattered remains of books, shelved nearly away in the charred book case next to her bed. Melted picture frames on the wall, filled with pictures that had cracked and bubbled from the heat or just smears of ash. On her desk was a laptop that Dante probably recognized from school, the edge of a bright sticker still visible under the grime.

"...Yeah, I'd say good luck with that," Max drawled. "Best bet is to look for something metal or flame-retardent, I guess. Anything particular she'd like?"

He was rooting through a charcoal chest of drawers.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante thought about it for a while, as he rooted through another one of her cabinets. "Christmas ornaments," he said finally.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"I'm sorry what now?" Max asked, frowning. "Of everything in her house, you're thinking Christmas ornaments?"

Under a mound of ash and tattered cloth, he found the remains of a small bullet vibe that Dante would also probably recognize. At least before the fire had gotten to it.

"Aww, not so little, is she?"

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante looked up. ... and scowled. "Drop that," he snapped.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

Max rolled his eyes but complied. "What? I wasn't gonna bring it back and give it to Nick as a souvenir."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah, I'm sure that's gonna be a real relief to Kathy if she ever finds out you fondled her sex toys," Dante said. He moved on to the next cabinet.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"It just looks so cute," Max said. "I bet she covered her face with her pillow before she came, just so no one could hear." He tucked it away again and continued to poke around.

"So, Christmas ornaments? We're not gonna find them in here, probably. But why ornaments?"

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante ignored him throughout that whole rant about Kathy's sex life - Max had no idea and Dante was happy to keep it that way.

"They were important to her family," he said, coming to the same conclusion. Down the hall was the next step. "She gets Christmaszilla as fuck every year and misses 'em."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

Max nodded, for once not making a snide comment. Instead he opened the door and glanced down. "Uhh, so there's no floor here in the hallway," he mentioned idly. "Looks like it starts up again a couple of yards down towards the...living room?"

He was guessing.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante glanced past him. "You can stay up here if you want," he commented. "I mean, this is my deal."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

Max was looking around the room, his back to Dante. Maybe that's why he quietly answered, "She was my - not my friend. Never really my friend. But my teammate. She and St. George were the good ones. We were the good guys, but they were good. I guess..."

It just seemed right he should help, since he was the reason she was back.

"Besides," he added, turning around and giving Dante his trademarked cheeky grin, "let you miss out on my witty commentary? No deal."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante snorted softly. "Suit yourself," he said, though for once, he sounded genuinely amused.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Also," he said in a conspiratorial whisper, "I like it when you hold me."

Not that that was exactly necessary here. There was about a foot of space between Kathy's side of the hall and the gaping hole in the rest of the it. Looking down, it was easily a twenty foot drop, as the floor of the apartment below them was mostly missing, too.

Still, the floorboards creaked alarmingly under their feet and sagged as they stepped. Not a trek for the faint of heart.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"I think you can make that," Dante said, rolling his eyes as he glanced from Max to the hallway on the other side.

... He was still getting ready to snatch Max back up if he fell.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"You have no romance in your soul," Max informed him, inching down the hall towards where the main rooms likely were. Christmas ornaments would probably be somewhere thataway, right? Because if there was some kind of shared attic or basement storage space, he was letting Dante check that on his own.

"She ever mention where they kept this stuff?" he asked, back flat against the wall. "Ever just randomly mention that ornaments were always kept in the hall closet under the towels or something?"

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Nope," Dante said. Keeping up the rear - no pun intended - as he shuffled after Max. "Living room sounds like the right idea, though. I don't think this place was all that big..."

A beat.

"I don't know. Where do people keep Christmas shit anyway?"

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Most of these places aren't," Max agreed. He was familiar with the LA version of 'shitty old apartment,' even if this was the first time he was in the Koreatown version of it. "Most families have a closet somewhere to stash holiday shit." Or a chest somewhere, but if that was the case, they were probably fucked. So he wasn't going to mention that.

"Where does Kathy keep her Christmas shit? She probably keeps hers in the same place her family did. Most folks who grow up with families do shit like that."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"And suddenly I feel like I'm about to fail a relationship pop quiz," Dante muttered. "Um..."

Right, think back to last Christmas. "...Living room, yeah. I think."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Okay, now what's her favorite color and what does she do when she's feeling sad," Max asked, because he was an asshole.

The hallway wasn't particularly long, ending in a T with the kitchen off to the left and the living room directly in front of them. The living room was in shambles and the fire had raged long and hot here.

But not hot enough to completely destroy a giant, hardwood table, still surprisingly sturdy looking. And not hot enough to completely destroy the two skeletons by it, one wearing a mostly-melted sneaker that was still pink under the ash and dust.

"Fuck," Max said softly.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante's mouth curved in the wannest smile it had carried in a while.

"Her dad went zombie right after she died," he said. "Raven had to kill all of 'em."

Should he bring the shoe, too? Maybe not. Too morbid to be a momento.