Forums » General Roleplay » Rot World (ENDEDed!)

Savage, that is what the world has become. The Savage are what chase us, undead killers. I’d call them zombies, but zombies are slow, and stupid. Savage have rotted brains revealing their animal instinct, running full speed at their prey, swarming like fire ants to consume your mind, feeding on ur memories. And so the world fell, and began to rot. No one is safe, how will you survive the Savage? The last of the survivors are in two groups, bandits who set up shop in a town or abandon airport and keep a safe perimeter from the Savage and then there are the Nomads who travel from place to place searching for answers, food, and survivors. This has been going on for almost a decade now, bullets are scarce as is gasoline for cars. People use bow, swords, crossbows, hand axes, and knives, riding hoses or walking everywhere... welcome my friends to the adventure that is Rot World.

Atlas was somewhere between the ages of twenty and twenty five, and a katana sat on his back. He had just chopped a Savage in half. Atlas was fairly good at killing them at this point, his sister stood across the room. “Hey Kirsten” he called to her, “It’s a Hershey bar, your favorite.” He opened the packaging and took a bite. Atlas tossed the bar to his sister, it hit the floor. This was the only fault in Atlas, he was alone, and his sister Kirstin had died a little more than a year ago. “Fine, don’t eat it.” Atlas teased and continued browsing the convenient store for any salvageable food or supplies.

Nick Kell's eyes slowly fluttered open, his vision slightly blurry. He didn't sleep well last night, a pack of Savage had recently migrated to his neighborhood and they kept him up all night with their bloodcurdling screams of a mating call, or whatever it was they were doing when they made those god awful noises. It was the typical strategy, lay low for a while to make them think there wasn't any pray here, that way when he did eventually began moving about again they would be less likely to notice him. He would then set up some traps around the areas he felt the Savage would most likely gather, some would see it as a waste of time as he didn't even really do anything with them when they were caught, but the Savage had a good sense of self preservation, they wouldn't stay in a place where they felt threatened. Speaking of which, he heard a strange sound coming from beneath him, in the convenience store. It was the sound of a Savage shriek, but was suddenly cut off buy some sort of slashing sound.

"Looks like I've got company." he said, he knew it couldn't have been in fighting, Savage don't use weapons, so it was another survivor. He grabbed a crossbow from across the room and slowly opened the door on the floor, giving him a good view of the store, and he saw a tall man, around his age, throwing a candy bar across the floor.

Atlas's hand clasp his sword once more, "I know you're there boy." For the last four or five years Atlas had been carving the words Death Storm into walls, and into desist Savage bodies. His katana swung, cutting a shelving unit in two. The name Death Storm was to scare off anyone in the area, and if Atlas had ever come across peaceful travelers he spread the rumors of a man by that name who could cut down a hundred Savage by himself. This was mainly to protect his sister and him from bandits in the area, if a man like that can cut down the blood lusting savage no bandit squad would be able to take him.

Atlas of course was a skilled swordsman but in his ability a swarm of ten or more would mean his demise. "Lower the cross bow, or taste the metal of the Death Storm." On Atlas's side hung a mask, yellow rubber mask with a smiley face on it. But under the eyes was carved out and stained red to look like it was crying blood. To be honest his sister made it out of red sharpie and scissors, but it did still look fearsome.

Death Storm... wait, he's heard that name before. Many a traveler had come and gone from his little haven, all of whom have heard stories and rumors of the infamous Death Storm, a man said to be able to cut down a hoard of a Savage singlehandedly. This was certainly the predicament, sure he wasn't a blood thirsty Savage, but in his opinion, a blood thirsty human was MUCH worse. He contemplated what he should do, rumors and speculation aside, the man certainly had good senses, to be able to tell he was watching him from the ceiling, and seeing as he just killed a Savage, an athletically challenged human would be easy for him to deal with. On the other hand however, he knew he wouldn't be able to harm him, he was perfectly safe up in his little fort, even if the man could reach the entrance, all Nick would have to do is close it and barricade it and that would be the end of it. In the end however, it was always good to be on good terms with other survivors, so he decided to do as he said.
"Alright, fine, no need to be hasty." He replied, with a little uncertainty in his voice. He shoved the crossbow through the entrance, to show that he was truly unarmed, not the best decision from a "fighting" stand point, but then again he had no intension of fighting... first and foremost, he needed his trust.

Atlas looked at his sister, who slowly vanished. Somewhere in the depths of his mind he knew she was dead, but at times when he was alone he forgot. He looked at the boy walking forward, he raised his sword above his head and dropped it into it sheath. He picked up the boys crossbow and shoved it back into his hand as he walked past him, "Sorry about that," He chuckled, "I hate acting serious but you never know who wants to send a bolt threw your chest and who doesn't." Apart from starting this rumor of a blood thirsty Savage slayer, he was light hearted.

"The metal of Death Storm," He said mocking himself in a deeper voice, "You almost wet your pants." Atlas looked around Nicks little hide out picking up food and medical supplies, "Nice little place you got here?" He swung his collection of new supplies back to his side in his black satchel. "I'm Atlas." He held out his hand.

It was all too quiet, the occasional scurrying noise of a rat or a mouse is the most you'd hear when you'd cleared away the rotten savages. It wasn't weird or strange that someone would threaten or shoot first and then ask questions later, in fact if they did ask questions first they'd be thought of as stupid or insane.

The road was clear from as far as could be seen outside the convenience store. A newspaper page flew up in the wind and hit the window. For a few seconds, all was quiet.

"HOLY SHIIIIIIIIIIT!" Jaiden screamed running down the middle of the rod, his legs were moving so fast his ass and torso seemed to be falling behind. A bow and quiver flung over his shoulder as he bolted straight for the convenience store with a horde of 30 savages chasing after him. How he got into this predicament was a stupid campfire story waiting to be told.

He quickly shut the door behind him and slid a metal pipe through the door and handle then tried moving a shelf in front of it completely oblivious that Atlas and Nick were standing there right behind him. He was too bus scared out of his mind trying to run from death.

Nick was surprised, he didn't expect the infamous Death Storm to be so... nonthreatening, he actually seemed pretty laid back, a strange contrast to what he had heard and seen not to long ago. However, it's better then having the man rob him or worse, so he just smiled and replied.
"Uh, Nick, Nick Kell, nice to meet you." He reached out his hand and shook Atlas's, trying not to react to the man's tight grip. Suddenly, the door flew open and he turned to see yet another new face entering the store and scrambling to bar it shut. "Oh look, more company."

Atlas looked over at the window and saw the savage running at them, "Dammit, What have you done?" The first savage hit the glass, and another, and another, the glass filled and finally broke. "Don't run!" Atlas swung his katana cutting three in half with one swipe, their top halves crawled toward the boys, "Savage are too fast, we must stand and fight!"

It was like a dance almost to Atlas, he had done up this rumor of Death Storm so much that he had almost begun to believe it, of course three guys couldn't take on thirty savage. Atlas cut down two more and then a third, there were too many. Atlas backed away still swiping at the undead hoard. "Kirstin..." He whispered, cutting threw the face of a mindless savage. Was this the end already?

Nick began to panic, he had never seen so many savage in one place before, the average pack was only 5-7 max, but this... this was a whole tribe. He fell to the floor, his legs giving out, his breathing stiffened and his heart was racing.
"Oh my god, oh my god, we're gonna die, we're die, that's it WE'RE GONNA DIE!!" He exclaimed in his head. Instinctually, his eyes darted around the room, it was in his nature to look for a way out of a tight spot, and believe it or not, it paid off. His eyes landed on an X made of red tape on the ceiling near the entrance of the store, he remembered putting there, but what for. The curiosity was enough to calm him down and thus he was able to remember. He thus got back up to his feet, grabbed his crossbow and took a few steps back.
"Atlas, get back!" He exclaimed, he wanted to wait for him to step back, but the Savage were breaking through, he needed to take this shot. He aimed the crossbow up and fired at the X, the bolt piecing through the ceiling, and a moment later, the whole front side of the store came crashing down, crushing some Savage that were unlucky enough to want first pickings.

(Thanks for joining Don't be tripping, I thought this RP was dead)

At first Jaiden was caught off guard, mixed feelings about whether or not seeing people was good or bad in this situation.

"Are you crazy?!" Jaiden yelled over the horde, at first he did what Atlas asked, He pulled out his bow and started to draw his arrows fast and on target. Every shot was as easy as the last but it was the size of the horde that was tough. Due to is adrenalin his mind has an uncanny ability to slow down whatever he sees so that he can react to it

Jaiden picked them off easily but it was the size of the horde itself that was the problem. There were too many. It was all avoided as the whole ceiling came crashing down, Jaiden coughed as the dust raised up and tried to clear it by waving his hand in front of his face "nice going but, how are we supposed to leave now? Seeing as that's our only exit"

Atlas watched the roof collapse, it took most of the savage with it sealing the rest outside, he then saw Jaiden pick off the stragglers and some of the crawlers. Atlas flicked his blade cleaning it of blood, and putting it away. "Well met traveler," he said as though nothing had happened. The he turned to Nick, "well aren't you the clever one, saved my ass today you know." He patted Nick on the back as he went back to collecting things for the road, once more.

"I'm Atlas," he said to the other guy, "hope you mind the blood and crushed entrance in your home." Atlas had shifted his attention back to Nick. Finishing his collection, which was basically stealing right in from of Nick, Atlas headed up a ladder to the roof. "Hey you two are welcome to travel with my sister and I." His mind for a second forgot his sisters absence and she began to haunt the roof as he exited the interior of the shop.

Jaiden was panting, trying to clear his head, his survival instincts always kick in when shit hits the fan. He sat on the counter and tried to catch his breath "I have never ran that fast in my life" he panted in between words as he tried to catch his breath. "I ran a mile, just to get away from those freaks..." finally able to catch his breath he pulled out a canteen from his back pack and drank half of it. He held it out to the other two as an offer for some clean water, of course he had to do some pretty bad things to get it.

He placed it on the counter as an open offer "Just please don't steal it, it was really hard to come by" his offer was there should they take but an offer never goes without a warning in this new world. He hoped off the counter and nursed his right shoulder, his bow shoulder. His bow looked pretty high tech with custom adjustments made, it was a compact competition bow with an aim sight down the center of it "Atlas like a mini globe?" he asked him with a cocked brow "Just call me Jai" he shrugged looking around the store for some things that'd come in handy like food, water or small bolts and screws to create spring bombs and other mini contraptions.

Jaiden managed to scavenge some nuts and bolts from the shelves and one can of beans but as for the rest, it was either destroyed or out of date.

Jaiden followed after Atlas, Cocking a brow at him in suspicion when he mentioned sister. What was confusing is that he said sister and pointed to his right but no one was on the roof with them. Never question someone if they show small signs of insanity, the brains does what it has to for the person to live their life with the pain they bare in their heart His father was a wise old man, brings a whole new meaning to the words A wise old man once said.

"So where are you and your 'Sister' headed?"

Atlas stood up on the roof alone until Jaiden came up asking him a question, Atlas pulled out his map. "We are here, he pointed to an area around Dallas. And there were rumors of a survival camp around the San Antonio area," He paused folding the map up, "I've come from St. Louis, and this is the best lead I got, and we are just about four days away." Atlas had his own canteen, he didn't trust anyone for all he knew the boy filled it with bleach and wanted him to drink it and die so he could rob him.

"Where do you come from Jay?" Atlas stumbled for a moment, "Is it Jay or Jai?" The moaning of savage came from bellow, Altas shifted his attention to it, exactly a dozen left, screaming, trying to claw over each other to get up here but to no avail. "You and that Nick kid will have to pick these guys off if we hope to escape here, or we just wait them out." Atlas was in no rush, the were sealed in, "It's up to you, the sooner we get there the better, but it would be nice to rest here for a few days before our last four days."

"I wouldn't worry too much about them." Nick said as he climbed up onto the roof with them. "They won't stay long, not after what happened. You said they've been chasing you for a mile right, that means the one's in the front that were crushed were the faster, healthier one's, the most dangerous. The Savage may be primal and bloodthirsty, but they still have a sense of self preservation, we took out they're strongest hunters in one fell swoop, what you see now is them panicking." He explained, they did seem to be acting much more erratically then they were moments before. "Soon they'll realize that they can't eliminate us, so in order to protect themselves, they'll just run away, they should be gone by night fall." He concluded. Nick pulled up a chair and sat down, he used the roof as a sort of porch so there was a table and a couple of chairs up there for when the weather was nice. "I don't mind you guys staying here, you've pretty much already made yourselves at home, truth is though, the supplies around here are running low, I'm barely getting by on my own, and now with the entrance sealed up like that, it's gonna be harder to get in and out quickly, hate to say it, but this place isn't safe anymore." He lamented.

Jaiden took a seat on the edge of the building with his legs hanging off the edge over the savage "It's Jai" he scoffed "We could stay here and wait it off or..." he pulled out a bunch of letters and a map from his back pack "We can do something about this pandemic" from the bottom of the pile of letters was a small picture of a girl "This girl right here" he pointed at the picture and showed her to them "Carries the Anti-virus in her blood and she's being held hostage by bandits that moved here recently, actually, they've just moved into that building a few blocks down" Jaiden pointed at the large community centre"

"For years i've been trying to track this girl down when the military lost her, the bandits have been using her as leverage however, the military either don't care for her or t takes them 4 years to send help" he shrugged looking down at the savage trying too reach him from street level.

"From the letters i intercepted from a courier sent back and forth from the military and a science lab had one specific letter that caught my eye" he looked through the small pile of letters "this one" he handed it to Atlas "It says that her blood, combined with a few different elements can be used to create a weapon that could destroy the Savage upon inhalation and leave the people who aren't infected unharmed"

Jaiden rooted through his back pack once more and took out a map with this current town and St Louis circled "Here in this town is the girl, in St Loise, where Atlas came from is where one of the scientist didn't believe the military was going to help now resides. He can help create the weapon but i need others with me, it took me so long to come here and i don't think i have it in me to travel alone anymore"

"Whoa, whoa, hold on a second there?" Nick interrupted. "First of all, we don't even know if what you say is true, you could be totally bullshitting us. Second, even if this girl does have some sort of anti-virus in her, who says we'll even be able to get to her, You said yourself, the government can't even touch these guys, how three random survivors gonna bust her out. And finally, even if by some miracle we manage to get our hands on her, do you really think we'll be able to transport her across two states all the way back to the place THIS guy tried so hard to get away from, with bandits most likely on our tail? His idea however, is much less risky, not only is it a shorter distance, which means less time in the wastelands, but there's also the possibility of shelter and safety. So our choices are pretty much between risking our lives for something that could be total bullshit, or risking out lives for something that is MUCH less likely to be bullshit, you do the math." He paused for a moment, letting his points sink in. He looked over the ledge at the remaining Savage, that already seemed to calm down and about to give up. He had to admit, the idea of a cure, or a mass extermination did sound tempting, but Nick was a man of reason, he was used to weighing all of his options and taking the best course of action that was within his ability, and this, this just seemed like too far of a long shot.

Atlas was silent, he stared at the picture. His sister smiled as him as the wind carried her ghostly fog away from his mind as she tended to do sometime. Atlas's eyes stayed glued to the photo unyielding to it's memory, Atlas opened his mouth to speak threw his frown but word wouldn't come out as a single tear slid down his face. He struggled to smile and through wavering emotion he spoke as he tried to hold tears back, "She's real," Atlas said, "She's, she's definitely real." Another tear appeared as he finally pulled his eyes away from the photo, "but the mission you speak of will be very different then you expect it to be..."

His eyes shot back to the photo sounds of a little girl giggling and calling to her brother filled his head and rivers began to flow from his eyes. "We have to steal a corpse from the bandits, I watched her die." Still trying to hold together a smile, "They hunted us, they shot at us, and a stray arrow..." He relived the moment in his head seeing the arrow cut threw the little girls heart. He saw the bandits take her body and he knew why they were hunting them. Savage bites littered his body, they were immune, both of them.

Atlas refused to break his smile, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a photo of himself, the two photos fit together along with their mother who had long ago been eaten alive. "I never knew where her body was," Atlas said final composing himself a bit, "help me give my sister a proper burial and I travel with you back to St. Louis."

Jaiden did't know how to tell him she was alive, from his mental condition it may cause him to go overboard "sure man" Jaiden placed a gentle hand on his shoulder "we'll bury her" a soft smile gracing his lips. He placed all the letters in his backpack "Here" he said handing Atlas the photo "it's yours" he slid it into his hand.

"You're right man" Jai shrugged and pulled a few beers from his back and placed them on the table, he had a smug smile "Found em" or so he claimed. He took one and opened the cap with the edge of the table and took a seat at the table "anyway, sure you're right, what's the point keeping hope? it's overrated right? wrong! it's what keeps me going, it's what keeps me sane and it's what keeps me human" Jaide took a sip and placed his feet on the table, finally finding people to share his beer with, he longed for this kind of communication "Atlas my man" he pulled up a chair "Don't worry, have a drink and i promise you, it'll be okay"

"I didn't say give up hope, I said be reasonable, do you even have a plan?" Nick shot back, their silence being answer enough. Truth be told though, he was finding it challenging to go against the escapade now that he knew the circumstances, he couldn't help but think of when he lost his family, how there was no one to help him, to hold him, to tell him that it was going to be alright... to not lose hope. He sighed in defeat. "But I might have one." He then retreated back into his bunker and returned moments later with a makeshift map of the area. He rolled it out on the table for the two strangers to see. "I know these bandits you're talking about, they've been here for about a week, I've been lucky enough to have avoided any direct contact with them. Dead or alive, they'll probably be keeping the girl in the basement, either to muffle her cries or hide her stench from the Savage, but she'll definitely be guarded. There are plenty of entrances so getting in will be easy enough, and with "Death Storm" here to take care of the bandits while Jai and I carry the body, we should be able to get out. But once we're out, we'll need to find a way to prevent them from following us, that's where I come in. Give me a day and the pathway to the south exit will be littered with traps, one's that we'll activate as we go along to throw off our perusers. Once they've lost sight of us, we break for this intersection, there's a manhole there that we'll use to get into the sewers and travel the rest of the way out of the city... through the east exit. This way even if they pursue us out side of the town, they'll think we went south, this should buy us enough time to give the girl a proper burial and make out way to St. Louise. It's a long shot, but if this works, it'll be worth it." Nick finished his explanation, waiting to here the two's replies.