Fort Benworth, Ohio (w/ Sugo)

[reylo]

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck. The Lake Eerie-bordered town of Fort Bensworth was being evacuated, all radio stations echoed the same thing: "all citizens are to leave the city and go to Toledo, where they will be reuinited with their loved ones, supplied a safe border and medical access. Those unable to drive may recieve a free bus ride to the city. Please leave in haste. Anyone still in the town by nightfall will be left behind."

She'd first heard it at just past seven in the morning, after a news report of another man being attacked by someone - a tweaker they'd assumed until now, but evidently that was not the case. They wouldn't evacuate because of a tweaker - and even a tweaker wouldn't have kept coming as they were being shot. She'd seen that from her third floor window. Now the news played a repeat of the same monotonous message, occasionally interrupted to say that the CDC would be having a press conferance the following morning to alert the country as to what was happening. No one should panic.

Yeah, right. Aria was well beyond panicking, especially since seeing a man keep walking through a machine gun clip of bullets through its chest. She'd quickly packed up her car with whatever she could think of - bathroom supplies, blankets, clothes, the pistol she kept locked in her sidetable. The world was going to hell and she hoped - no, she prayed that she was one of the first to realize that. She prayed even harder when a cop stopped her, said she should be heading west and not east. She lied through her teeth about going to get her disabled mother and even then the man in uniform didn't want to let her go.

What the fuck was going on that made cops want to abandon the elderly? That was her.... fourth clue that something was wrong, and the fifth was seeing a man be shot down through the narrow brush between the main road and a side road. Luckily her destination was close by, and she had no disabled parents to help. She'd never been more glad that her mama had been taken by cancer six years back, that her father had a place in Toledo already.

The department store was on the far end of town, and towards it Aria switched on to a back road. There were naught but a couple cars left in the parking lot and a cruiser in the front. She parked in the shipping area and pocketed her keys. For the first time in twenty four years of life, her ability to pick locks treated her well, and she was in to the back room with relative ease. Her hazel eyes scanned the room quickly, glancing for any sight of security... None.

The back room was mostly furniture, so she swiftly moved in to the front of the store and made a quick list of what she would need to get - toiletries, clothing, food. She hada heavy duty backpack that her father had given her a few years back, trying to get her to go camping with him, and it had spaces for quite a bit. She tried to be as sneaky as she could as she swept through the aisles, though it came as no surprise that the place was virtually empty. She ducked in to the clothing section and grabbed a couple pairs of sturdy pants and some shirts, tucked them as neatly as she could in to her backpack while still maintaining a sense of urgency. Some batteries went in to the lower pocket of her cargo pants, and then she moved towards the food aisle.

Noodles, kraft dinner, canned meats. She went to grab a tube of powdered juice to shove in the side pocket of her bag when the familiar sound of footsteps began to sound not far off from her.

 

[Sugo]

It was somewhat late when he first heard the back door swing open and the sound of someone coming in was fairly obvious, it clearly wasn't one of them if it was one of them they A - wouldn't be able to pick a lock and B - wouldn't move with such intent, and such intelligence, he'd had a run in with a couple of the creatures on his way here and because of that he knew just as good as anyone what they where like and picking locks was most certainly not in their repertoire. Because of this he'd jumped up, flicking on a torch and starting to move through the dark aisles of the department store that he'd once worked at.

Before whatever fucked up shit had happened he was a manager at this branch department store just out of town, and after he'd seen the things going off on the news and the people fleeing to the local large city where the government was gathering all of the people who hadn't succumb to whatever was happening yet. However he'd decided to stay behind, there was a hell of a lot of supplies in this place and way more than he'd be able to consume before it all went bad, however he stayed and anyone that came along he would show to the back where he kept all the good stuff, the tins, the add water to gain a feast type of foods that he'd gathered from the shelves and brought into the back away from any damage that may come to them if the creatures where to get in, he'd been very careful and made sure he'd locked all the doors.

The power had gone out a while ago and he was now mainly relying on torch light and had lost his security cameras, he walked with confidence and no fear as he walked through the store, he didn't carry a weapon as he didn't feel the need to, he knew whoever was there wasn't one of the creatures which meant that they could likely be reasoned with when it came to 'I have the supplies you're looking for come with me I'll show you' that was if they pointed a gun at him of course. "I know you're out there don't worry, I've got supplies you can take some if you'd like" he said quite loudly as it echo'd throughout the mostly empty shop floor, it was only the two of them in there as far as he was aware he'd heard no one else come in, his torch light was shining down the aisles as he walks. "I'm unarmed, I know there has been rumors of people going mad and attacking each other" he says trying to reassure whoever was there.

He stood fairly tall, about 6 foot 2, and carried himself confidently, he still wore his uniform the blue polo shirt and black trousers with the badge sat on his breast sayings 'Hi I'm Damien how can I help you?' he continued to walk, scratching the short black hair on his head as no one responded.. hmm peculiar, he thought walking through the aisles checking them all looking for the person he could swear he heard come in.

 

[reylo]

As soon as she heard footsteps, Aria was put on the edge. She debated dashing even though she figured that the steps would belong to another human rather than one of those things. She'd never been the social type, never been the friendly type. Here she was raiding a store in the dark, not even with a flashlight out, just so that hopefully no one would catch on to the fact that she was there. After freezing she dashed to the end of the aisle with as light of feet as she could manage, and pinned herself against the shelving unit away from where the steps were coming from...

And then he spoke, and Aria could see the beam of a flashlight hit the wall at the back of the aisle beside her. She held her breathe as she hairs on the back of her neck rose, and then the light switched to the next aisle. She should come out, show herself. He wasn't one of those things and right now she would need people... right? She could get help, get him to Toledo, make sure that her dad was doing okay, go from there.

"Aria." She spoke with a feigned confidence and didn't move at first. "

I... I'm Aria." She slowly moved in to the aisle where the light shone revealing a gently freckled, slender face and chest-length ash brown hair that she'd thrown over one shoulder. Her bag looked big on her and she was significantly smaller than him, maybe 5'4" tall - if that. She was dressed down in some black cargo pants and a loose grey tank top that was layered under an open red plaid flannel. "I... Is it safe here?"

She couldn't get over what she'd seen outside.

 

[Sugo]

He had almost flicked the flashlight from that aisle and onto the next but then she appeared, in the light like a dear caught in the headlights, he gave himself a moment to just look her over, it had caught him off guard for some reason he'd not expected a woman, nor had he expected one roughly his age and pretty. He then realized he was blinding the girl with a torch and pulled it down shining it at the floor giving them enough light to see each other but not giving her a face full of flashlight, he then started to walk towards her. She seemed... shaken... nervous... who wouldn't be, in a scenario like this it was only the fact that he almost couldn't believe what was happening that caused him to not be in a shaken position that she was, he walked forward still until the light was shining at her feet and he was stood some 5 foot away from her. "Yeah.. Yeah other than the door you came in through the whole place is locked down, I thought I'd best make sure that it wasn't something I didn't want in here before I locked my self in..." he said softly looking at her, admiring those youthful freckles and long well maintained hair, if this was anything like the movies based on scenarios like this that hair wasn't going to remain shiny and well maintained for long.

"Come." he says softly turning around. "I've got a back up generator in the back with light and the more important supplies, I need to lock that door you came in through too" he says softly as he starts guiding her in a specific direction walking with confidence and a smile on his face, he knew people would come here for supplies but she was the first and that gave him confidence and happiness that what he was doing wasn't a waste of time, there was so many useful supplies here - someone was going to need them, he couldn't use them all to himself. He walked to the back of the store and then towards the door she'd came in through, moving to it and closing it, while she'd broken the lock picking it it had a Yale lock on it which allowed him to lock the door comfortably so nothing he didn't want in could get in. He then turned to face her, "You came in right next to where I was, that was why I heard you, I had security cameras before the main power went out, but those aren't in action anymore." he says with a soft smile on his face as he looks at her moving from the back door she'd come in towards a door with a large red sign saying 'Staff Room' he pulled some keys from his pocket lifting them towards the lock.

As he unlocked the door he realised something. "Oh, sorry Aria" he says softly turning around to face her. "I'm Damien" he says gently with a playful point towards the badge on his uniform before smirking a little and turning back to open the door moving into the room that was once the staff room. There was a large pile of good supplies in one corner of the room, he'd pulled a mattress through from the store and thrown that down on the floor with the two sofas that where originally in here either side of it, he'd only spent one night on it but he'd put some sheets over it to make it comfortable, there was a basic camping kit for cooking that he'd also grabbed from the store front and a large extension cable was coming from a door in the room that lead to the boiler room which also held a back up generator. "It's not much, but I'm happy I had somewhere comfortable to stay last night, when shit hit the fan." he says with a light chuckle moving towards the supplies to get her some.

 

[reylo]

So this was where all the good stuff had been. Aria had managed to get her hands on a few things of canned tuna and chicken, some off-brand Mr. Noodles and no name Kraft dinner, but the place had been short on a lot of it, as well as a lot of other stuff. She'd just figured someone, or multiple someones, had already taken what they needed from the place. The last thing expected was that they'd be hoarded in the staff room.

Really thinking about it, though, this was a good idea. There were enough supplies to last ages, even with people coming to get stuff of their own. She'd seen movies like this, knew that locked doors were a godsend. There was a generator to keep the place lit, and everything useful could be kept together. This boy, Damien, he'd had a good idea.

"I'm glad I was on the third floor. There was one of... them... just outside my building." She paused, and once she was in the staff room Aria finally took a moment to relax and look over Damien. He'd gotten this little grin on his face when he pointed at his badge that said he couldn't be much other than genuinely helpful. It made sense - they were both in the same mess, right? He was cute, though - with black hair and a sparkle in his eyes and obviously enough smarts to set up a good place to stay before things got bad.

She wasn't going to lie - a sense of dread had filled her since the first report aired on the news, down in Atlanta.

"Sorry about your lock, wasn't really aware that anyone was here." Aria tucked her hands in to the upper pockets on her pants and walked further in to Damien's set up. "There's a cop car out front, probably abandoned at this point but I didn't want to risk it so...." Her voice trailed off, and she eyed the ground near Damien's feet.

 

[Sugo]

He looks at the stacks of cans listening to her mindlessly talking about events, things that had happened to her, how close she'd been to one of the creatures, he just allowed her to talk on, it was good for her to talk, he knew that the human contact for him was nice so he was sure it would ring the same for her, he pulled a few cans of beans, canned spam and other rationing type foods and held them up. "You can take a bunch of these, 10-20 cans should probably do you, then get to wherever it is you need to be going." he listens to her talking about the cop car and about his lock and smiles softly. "The Locks fine, it's not like I didn't want people to come in and get supplies, just, a knock on the front door would have been nicer." he says pointing towards the baby monitor that sat on the side running on batteries, obviously the other one was at the front of the shop by the main door.

"I don't know about that cop car, not seen any police men around so.. yeah.." he says trailing off before he sat in the comfy leather sofas that he would often find himself lounging in during or after work and looks up at her, from here he could get a sense of how pretty she actually was, he has was so long and she clearly looked after it, a lot better than he did that was for sure, he just went with the easy route of shaving his hair to take care of it as that was he wouldn't have to deal with it much. He closed his eyes a little bit and leaned back in the chair before perking up and looking at the clock on the wall, it was about 10 pm. "You can have a good meal if you like." he says standing up moving over to the fridge that was running on the generator and opening it.

It was full of good foods, packed meats that would likely go off quickly, beef cuts, vegetables, eggs, milk all the stuff that would go off fairly quickly which he'd planned to eat over the next few days. "Well, as good as it can get from cooking on this shitty thing." he says pointing at the camp stove, it did it's job, but it wasn't very good. He reached towards the radio turning it on, the message that he'd already heard and she had likely already heard rang out telling them to go to Toledo, he quickly turned it off. "Useless, they're giving us nothing useful repeating that bullshit over and over." he says before moving back over to his seat shutting the fridge before lounging back down on the sofa pulling a bottle of water from the pack that sat near him, then looking back to her. "You can take a bunch of these packs of water too.. 6 bottles a pack, and it's nice water too." He says holding the end of the bottle out to her offering her a drink.