Wildlands (rskde & BurningWillows)

[BurningWillows]

Willow half raises her hand as if she were in school, "I can help. I know where we were supposed to go. Maybe my brother stayed there, hoping I'd come back."

"Can you map it out for me?" Dakota asked, "I'm not taking you or Vanessa into the city with me. It's too dangerous. Me and Andrew can sneak in and out. Vanessa, would you be alright watching Willow?"

"I'm not five," Willow complained, "I can watch myself."

"We need to stick in pairs or groups," Dakota explained, "No one is alone. Vanessa? Is that alright?"

She just nodded, wiping the last of her tears away.

"I think I'll just watch out the window, maybe I'll spot them," she mumbles, slightly in shock as she shuffled to the corner of the window, peeking out the blinds as she curls her legs under her chin.

 

[Risky]

Andrew nods. "I'll go with you, it's better to try than to sit around and do nothing about our home being invaded." He says as he stands, grabbing the rifle from the table amd walking to the van, getting ready.

Vanessa nods. "I can stay with Willow, you guys go ahead and find whoever you're looking for." She says while still eating,

 

[BurningWillows]

Dakota nodded, hugging Willow and promising to bring Collin back.

"Hey Vanessa could you help me with the duffle bag in the garage? With those extra guns, its heavy."

Finishing their bowls of cereals, Dakota led her into the garage.

"I'm sorry I snapped earlier," she murmured, brushing up to Vanessa as she unstrapped the duffle from her bike, "That shirt is coveted by my dad so it means a lot. And I was little thrown seeing you, well uh, naked."

 

[Risky]

"Hey, I get it.. Its fine." She says, putting on a smile. "Yeah.. I'm confident about how I look I guess." She says with a giggle.

"Listen.. Just.. Be careful, okay?" She asks the redhead. "Come back home to me, whatever it takes." She says to her before turning to leave.

 

[BurningWillows]

"To you?" Dakota asks in a low, enticing voice, turning to watch her step away, "That's a specific request from a girl I just met. Only reason a pretty blonde would ask me to come back to her is if she was hoping for something."

 

[Risky]

She turns back and raises his eyebrows before leaning forward and pecking her lips. "That's just a preview baby." She says before licking her lips and walking back inside, swinging her hips as she does so, chuckling to herself,

 

[BurningWillows]

Dakota laughs as she leaves, "I hate previews, always impatient for the full thing."

With that she drops the duffle in the corner, and straps on her rifle before opening the garage door. In her pocket is directions to Collin. Pulling out, Dakota is quick to close and lock the door once more before driving over to the van, motioning at Andrew to roll his window down.

"My plan is to sneak into the city and get Iris first. Remember when we were kids and play hide and seek with dad? You and me always won. Well we need to win again. I have my rifle, so we stash the vehicles down an alley then I'll take the rooftops while you sneak through each building. If we work together, I'm sure we can find them quick enough."

 

[Risky]

Andrew nods to her, his rifle sitting on his lap. "I'll follow your lead, sis." He says to Her, waiting for her to start driving before following her lead. When they hit the city he parks his van in an alleyway and grabs his rifle, waiting for Dakota.

 

[BurningWillows]

Parking behind him, she wears a leather jacket and ties her hair up before pulling a black baseball cap low on her haid, hiding her vibrant hair.

"Perfect bro. Okay give me five to scale this building then start with that one dead ahead. I'll have your back the whole way."

Running up the fire escape, she gets into position, watching him do as she said and enter the building. After ten minutes of finding nothing he comes out and goes into the next one to the left. Every few buildings she has to move and he watched her, making sure she's in position. After three blocks she is combing a building when she spots someone in a window, looking out before disappearing. Waving at her brother whose standing on the street, she makes the gesture for '3', referring to floor three, before pointing out the building.

 

[Risky]

He runs a hand through his hair as he enters the first building, knowing that Dakota is watching over him as he searches, moving through each apartment individually in an attempt to find their friends.

He feels the gun he holds shaking in his hands.. He's not really one to be wielding the weapon, as he prefers to be passive instead of aggressive. He moves into the second building, sweeping around each room to ensure that it is clear. He looks over across the street and sees Dakota, waving at her and signing her. 'See anything?' He motions.

He waits for her response, knowing that she will have a better vantage point over the apartment building than he does. He keeps on constant watch, not letting his guard down as to not be surprised if an engagement occured.

 

[BurningWillows]

After signalling him she aims with her scope, watching the window she had seen that boy in moments before, hoping for another glimpse. She wasn't sure whether he was hostile or not, and she was definitely sending her brother in to find out. Getting up she moved to a closer roof, taking the large leaps to do so. Setting up once more she could see him now pacing, waiting on Andrew to make his move.

 

[Risky]

He moves to the next door, pushing against it lightly and finding it barricaded.. A good sign considering they are looking for their friends. "Iris!" He calls out softly, doing so a couple more times, hoping that she is in the room. "Open the door!"

He looks around again, hearing footsteps up the hallway.. Shit.. Shit... Shit.. Open the goddamn door.. he thinks to himself, now pushing against the barricade to get inside, clearly desperate to get into the apartment now that he is spooked by the footsteps.

 

[BurningWillows]

Iris' head snaps up, looking at Blake then the door.

"That's Andrew," she exclaimed, jumping up and hearing footsteps down the hall, "Shit! Help me Blake, we need to get him inside."

She starts pulling at the barricade, getting it open just enough to let him in. As he slips in she shoves it all back then turns and wraps her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.

"I'm so glad to see you're alive," she whispers, "Is everyone else okay?"

 

[Risky]

Blake runs over and helps her with the barricade, holding it as Andrew gets inside before immediately sealing it again, allowing the patrol to walk by the door.

He gets in and presses his back against the door, nearly dropping his gun as he throws his arms around her. "You're alive.." He says quietly. "We.. We thought you guys didn't make it.." He says to her, his breath ragged from running apartment to apartment.

"We've got Willow, Vanessa, and Dakota.. Now you guys.. We're still looking for Nicki and Collin, have you heard anything from them?" He asks her, pulling away from her embrace slightly in order to ask the question.

 

[BurningWillows]

Iris looks up at him, "No, we were at a restaurant down the street when the EMP hit. I don't even have usage of my computer or tablet, or I'd have tracked all of you by now."

She adjusted her large framed glasses, "If your here, I'm guessing we got a sniping redhead on our side too. This might be the best time to high tail it out of here, yeah?"

 

[Risky]

Andrew nods. "We were thinking about looking around for Collin and Nicki.. But they're across New York, in Brooklyn." He explains to her. "Hang on.." He says while going to the window, showing Dakota his hands before signing. 'Are we continuing?' And watching for her answer.

"If we're gonna keep looking, you guys should head back to the van, you just take a left when you get out of this door and follow the hallway straight, you'll go through this building and one more before hitting the alley its in, then just wait for us there." He explains to the two of them.

 

[BurningWillows]

Dakota~

She saw his signal and nodded, motioning for him to come outside before she'd make her way down to the street.

Iris~

"I'm not leaving you to wander the streets alone. And Blake here is military. Back up could help. I also know a route to Brooklyn that avoids the middle of the city. Which I'm sure is the worst place to be right now. Blake? Care helping us find our friends?"

 

[Risky]

Blake shrugs, biting the bottom of his lip. "Personally I like the idea of getting some sleep in the van.." He says to her quietly, he's obviously exhausted. "It'd be nice to have company but I would understand if you wanna search for your friends." He says to her before backing out of the room.

He follows the directions and walks to the van, getting into the back and laying his head down, curling up and falling asleep:. Feeling finally safe..

Andrew sighs as he watches Blake leave, he looks over to Iris before chuckling. "I dunno what you see in that guy, but it must be really shining clear." He says before motioning for her to follow him. He walks down the stairs to the main lobby, raising his gun.

He looks around for his sister, constantly on edge from the amount of enemy soldiers all around them. At this point he just wants to call it a day and go home.. They got Blake.. And Iris, oh thank god they got Iris.

 

[BurningWillows]

Iris~

She watched him leave, a hint of annoyance in her face the Andrew we recognized. Waiting until he was out of earshot she made an exasperated sigh.

"War hero my ass dad," she muttered, "they spent weeks hyping this guy up, trying to get me on a date. And he'd rather sleep then help me find my friend. Our friend. God, more like a brother. All four of us...we've been through it all haven't we?"

Taking his hand so she could stay close and safe to the only person with a gun, she followed him out. They waited for Dakota to show, and she did, jogging across the street when the coast was clear.

"Where's the boy?" She asked.

"He's not joining," Iris shrugged, "I'm in though. I can help us find Collin."

Jogging back to the van and bike they all climbed in and as per Iriss instruction drove around the outskirts of the city till they were on the other end closer to Their destination then before. Getting out, they left Blake and the vehicles once more in an alley and begin creeping through the streets. Dakota stayed with them, her rifle hanging over her shoulder as she carried a semi automatic and gave Iris her glock.

Hours later they were close, the apartment complex Willow had mentioned just looming ahead. The only problem? Tanks and soldier littered the street, as well as captives.

"Choices guys," Dakota whispered, "we can kidnap a soldier and steal his suit and one of us can go in. Or we take to the sewers."

 

[Risky]

"He doesn't deserve you.." He says quietly, giving her hand a light squeeze as they stand in the lobby waiting for his sister. When she finally shows up he follows her out to the vehicles, getting into the drivers seat and driving behind his sister as per usual.

They skulk around for hours and when he finally sees the apartment complex he groans at the amount of opposition in their way.. All of this for nothing.

Andrew looks around, not paying attention to Dakota before spotting something.. A command terminal.

"Dakota.. Theres a command terminal.. If I sneak over there I can redirect the troops to somewhere else, make it seem like they have trouble in Brooklyn, then we go in." He offers. "Then we bring that baby home and intercept enemy movements.. It'd be perfect.." He explains.

"I'll sneak around like dad taught us, I won't need a distraction, just some over watch, sound good?" He asks the redhead.

 

[BurningWillows]

Dakota nodded then looked over at Iris.

"Your the whiz kid here. And Andrew might need a hand. Go with him and I'll cover you both. Just give me ten minutes."

Turning she disappeared down a side street, finding a alley way with a fire escape and scaling it quickly. Getting into position she let out a low whistle, a signal her brother knew from their games growing up.

 

[Risky]

When he hears Dakota's whistle he signals for Iris to follow him. He skulks in the shadows, seeming to mold into the darkness as he slips past the patrols. A soldier turns their way and he hits the dirt, covered by a plant sitting in front of him.

The guard turns away and Andrew starts moving again, slipping over to the command terminal before snatching it and quickly moving back up the road to where they were originally. He ducks into an alley with Iris and turns the new toy on, grinning at it.

His grin drops when he realizes the entire device is in French.

"Fuuck.. Iris, you're a frequent lover, you ever speak the language of love?" He asks her as he attempts to navigate through the software on the terminal.

 

[BurningWillows]

Iris looks at him in bewilderment then begins to die laughing. She keeps it quiet but she has to hold her sides as she shakes her head at him.

"Frequent lover? Is that the best pick up line you have Andy? It's your mom whose the language nut, shouldn't you know a second language or something."

"He does," Dakota dropped the last few feet from the fire escape, rolling up and brushing herself off, "As do I, but neither of us chose French. Mom was insistent we learn at least one. I chose Russian, which will be no help in this case."

Taking the gadget from his hands, she turns it over and inspects it trying to discern the french. Eventually she gets annoyed, looking up at them.

"I could hack through this if I had a working laptop," she looked rather pissed, "the EMP is hindering me from doing anything of value. I could bypass this firewall and change the language to English in a heartbeat, if I had my tech. As it is, we are kind of screwed here. Unless you could rewire it Andrew?"

Dakota looked confused, staring at her twin brother, "How's a few computer tricks going to help him rewire an entire gadget?"

"He's in university for computer science not because he's into computers like I am, but because he's applying for a major in engineering," Iris looked up at the redhead, wondering how she knew more about the man beside her than his twin did, "Andy's top of his class in his other course for beginner's in electrical engineering. I thought he told you."

"Didn't tell me, mom, or dad," she looked rather hurt, staring at her brother.

 

[Risky]

Andrew furrows his eyebrows together. "You know mom and dad disowned me.. Right?" He asks her. "I told dad that I wouldn't join the military and he told me to get out of his face, so I started taking up other studies, see what I can do." He says.

He takes the device from her hands, biting the inside of his cheek softly before grabbing his rifle from his side, ejecting the magazine and pulling a bullet from it, the tip the exact size he needs.. He begins to unscrew the panel before pulling it off, placing the bullet down for a moment.

"This is military hardware.. So I have about a sixty five percent chance of fucking this up beyond all comprehension." He warns them as he gets working, putting two wires together before starting to type on the computer.

"Every BiOS is in English, and since they are the UN, every military grade terminal should have language access on it.. There it is." He says before typing in another command, the entire screen switching to 'The Queen's Language'

He starts typing again, and before they know it the tanks and patrols begin moving quickly in the opposite direction of them. He places the panel back on to the back of the terminal before slowly screwing it back in, sighing. "Got it.."

 

[BurningWillows]

Iris grins, highfiving him, "You did it!"

"Got to hand it to you brother," Dakota exclaimed, stepping forward and rubbing his shoulder, "You're good. Like really good. You should have told me sooner. I'm your twin, I'll always support you."

Looking around the corner to see the coast is clear Iris beckons them on, letting Dakota take point while the other two back her up.

Nicki hasn't moved from her spot at the window, still depressed over the whole ordeal. She's dozing off when the tanks begin to move, the street dispersing as trucks take the prisoners away, obviously vacating the area.

"Collin," she snaps awake, calling him over, "Collin they're leaving!"