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JANUARY TEST DRIVE MEME
You awaken to godawful static overlaying a female voice that's too monotone to be anything but a recording. The static makes it difficult to understand the warning, but it's clearly a warning if your surroundings tell you anything...
You're buckled into a sturdy seat bolted to the wall behind you. Around you, there are dozens of others like you, some awake and others still unconscious, but it seems most of the seats lining the walls are occupied. The lights are dim, likely auxiliary lighting, leaving you mostly in the dark. You smell smoke and hear the sizzling crackle of electrical systems popping and shorting out. Some of the seats were jarred off the wall, leaving the occupants either wounded or dead. Count yourself lucky all you have is a headache and various aches accounted to whiplash.
You appear to be in a drop ship or an escape vessel of some form but the pilot is dead and the hull bears a massive gash where it buckled under the impact and sheered off. Through the door-sized opening, you can see vegetation. The air that wafts in is heavy with a humid heat, but it's obviously breathable.
Once you make your way outside, you'll see greenery: Trees, grass, and shrubs tangled with vines that grow wildly and suffocate the trees they climb. In the distance, behind the ship, you can make out a sandy desert that seems to stretch on endlessly. Forward through the trees, however, you may see a crumbling wall, but more importantly, you'll see signs of civilisation. Buildings and other structures seem contained within those decrepit walls. Maybe the natives can fill you in on what's going on, because the last thing you remember isn't being in an escape shuttle. As a matter of fact, you don't remember much about your arrival or where you are. But it's going to be a bit of a hike, better get moving. Though you might want to grab the backpack of supplies under your seat before you go.
With that, the power dies, leaving the drop ship in the dark, crackling and groaning as the hull cools from its catastrophic re-entry.
no subject
Have you seen this? Here?
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[He let out a huff of air that could easily be mistaken for a sigh (it's totally a sigh) and turned on his heel to head back to her. He stopped short of where she was, crouched down, flipped the knife in his hand expertly so he could hold it out to her handle first.
He could find another tool and he'd rather her see him giving a peace offering in exchange for what he was about to tell her.]
It's caused by a virus. Ain't no one that's human that's immune. Animals seem to be and I don't rightly know what you are, but you look human enough. Hell, I don't even know if the whole Jolly Green Giant look is 'cause I'm seeing things or not.
[Daryl rubbed at his face, feeling more exhausted than he should have. The crash had taken it's toll long before he woke up.]
Everyone's infected. You die, you'll come back. Few minutes, few hours, it'll happen. Only way to stop it is to take out the brain before they get back up.
no subject
She finally leaves up kneeling by the packs, rising to stand and raising a hand to wave the knife Daryl's offering back to her off. ]
Keep it. If you're not just some mad man, you may really need it after all.
[ The universe has a lot of weird shit in it, she can't discount something making the dead rise. A parasite, maybe some kind of fungus, who knows. ]
But you're wrong. I am not human. I am no "Jolly Green Giant", either. [ Whatever that means. ] But you are, aren't you? Human, I mean. From where? Terra?
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[He stood up, flipping the knife a couple times before sliding it into the empty sheath on his right hip. He had four of them, clearly marking his own preference for being well armed at all times, and that was the one that was closest to the knife's size. It came naturally and without thought once he'd been given permission to keep the blade.]
So if you ain't human, what are you?
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[ Because there was no "us", only her, and there was only so much mispronouncing of Zehobereian that she could take right now. ]
And I am not sure if you have noticed this, Terran, but we crashed here in a drop ship. From space. Wherever you might think we are, with these infected of yours, this is not going to be it.
no subject
[He said first, jaw clenching as the rest of his body stiffened in muted anger. Not at her, but at himself. Because even if she was right, he was still infected. He could still spread it. Therefore, it didn't matter if it was Earth or not. But he thought it was. Felt like it was. Know better once night fell and he could get a look at the sky and the stars.]
Recognize some'o the plants I've seen. Some of the birds, too. Looks like Earth to me. Pretty sure I wouldn't be able to if it weren't.
[He wasn't going to let on that he'd never actually seen a drop ship before.]
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[ On the bright side, he could always request she shank him in the head should he fall. She would hardly be repelled by such a request. ]
Are you certain? [ That he recognized plants, wildlife, was actually enough to give Gamora pause. That couldn't be right. ] But the only sign of civilization I've seen are ruins. I knew Earth was a backwater, but not that much of one.
[ Which, in retrospect, may be an insulting thing to say directly to someone from Earth, but too late now. ]
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The ruins I saw are of a city abandoned a long time ago. From before the outbreak. But the rest of the world ain't much better. It's been going on a couple years now. Most o'the population is dead and walking. The rest surviving however they can.
[He had no reason to not believe her claims of being an alien. He saw the dead walking damn near every day. Anything was possible and likely after living that reality.
He did feel kind of bad that this was her introduction to the planet, though.]
Sorry for such a shitty 'Welcome to Earth', but... welcome to Earth.
no subject
Your entire world fell to walking corpses?
[ Something about that seemed so very wrong, but it wasn't like there was more than one Earth. Still, walking dead? Shouldn't they have decomposed, fell apart? ]
In only a few years. [ Maybe she should ask how long Earth years even were, but later. ] You said it's an infection?
no subject
[He could go into detail, how it only took a few weeks for all the major cities to fall because no one knew how to handle the dead. No one figured it out well enough before there were too many to fight. But what was the point?]
A virus. A doctor explained it to me once. One of them ones that ain't transferable to animals. Only humans get it. Don't know the technical term.