open!

[shootingshields]

Characters: Peggy Carter, open!
Date: throughout Turtle Dive Event
Location: Various!!
Situation: Various!! Comments will contain threadstarters, but also feel free to start your own. c:
Warnings/Rating: violence against zombies. also i have no preference as to whether you reply [action] or prose.

Comments

[depicted]

As Peggy breaks in, Dorian offers the creature that grabbed him a hand to bite. It doesn't even get through his finger before it's gagging, and with Peggy having won him his torch back, Dorian arms himself, spinning around and taking the opportunity to slam the torch (lit in a second) into the creature's gut.

They probably need to leave fast. Dorian calls into the house, "Hello? Anyone here in need of escort to the Palace?"

[shootingshields]

The offered bite doesn't go unnoticed, and though Peggy's curiosity is even further piqued, that's not the important part right now.

The important part is the tiny voice calling out to them in response to Dorian from behind a closed door. Peggy keeps her torch at the ready, but makes her way over, just as it opens the tiniest crack, and a young kedan boy, no older than eleven or twelve, peers out. When he sees neither of the moving bodies in his house are jiangshi, he clambers out, and without really thinking, grabs at the edge of Peggy's coat, but she's not particularly fazed by the gesture. It's probably something of a comfort for the kid.

She lifts her torch a little higher, just in case, then turns to Dorian. "To the palace?"

[depicted]

Dorian nods. Again, he steps out first, not because she can't take care of himself but because he is expendable. "It's clear."

[shootingshields]

She doesn't actually get that impression from him. Peggy's a strategist and a realist, and if he can't be hurt, she'll let him do it. She has a knack for telling when people think lesser of her, and that's not the case right now.

Moving her gun to the same hand as the torch (after putting it back out for now), she lightly touches the kedan's shoulder, urging him to follow her as they leave the house.

Outside is just as dreary as it was when they left it, but she continues onward. The boy still doesn't let go of her coat.

[depicted]

His own torch doused again, Dorian walks ahead of Peggy so that they might keep the child between them. He falls back enough that he can speak to her quietly. "Do you know any routes to the Palace with fewer open spaces?" It is too easy for masses and knots to form in open fields. Small groups, clever though they may be, will be easier to handle in his opinion. Anything that would bottleneck the jiangshi would help.

[shootingshields]

She takes a glance around where they are and frowns a little. Her tone is just as low when she replies. "I think if we go that way," and she makes a gesture up ahead, towards the left, "the streets get more narrow. It should be easy to trace a trail through the rest of the sector from there."

The child overhears and nods in agreement.

[depicted]

With their confirmation, Dorian takes the proposed path. There is one jiangshi nearer to the beginning of those narrow streets, but its limbs are already broken and twisted. He can easily dispatch it without troubling Peggy (and hopefully the child will not be too much disturbed by a burning corpse) and does so. Now it is a matter of keeping alert, for while they have an advantage now in avoiding a great press and limiting the points of attack, there are also more opportunities for ambush and surprise.

[shootingshields]

The child spots the corpse and hides his face against Peggy, just before Dorian sets it ablaze, and Peggy's got her own gun out and on it till it's form is no longer entirely humanoid.

She keeps her gun out as they walk, eyes alert and watching the windows and doors. It's eerily quiet, save for the distant sounds of a city under attack, but Peggy's far too used to that. She listens for particular noises, that of the walking dead. She urges the boy to walk quickly, her own pace fast enough, and it's not for another few streets over that another jiangshi appears.

It's attempting to climb through a window, but it stops and turns its attention on the three living bodies coming towards it. It darts suddenly with aim for the child, but Peggy shoots it in the neck, and it stumbles.

[depicted]

Dorian moves between them with Peggy's help, using his torch to dispatch the body. But when it falls back, it clatters against some rubbish, and the noise catches the attentions of others.

Yes, there are two more from up ahead. The bodies look like they're in good condition, perhaps from people who were killed when the jiangshi attacked, and they move quickly.

[shootingshields]

Peggy swears under her breath, and pulls out her lighter, shoving the kedan boy behind her to free up both her hands: one for torch, one for gun.

One of them moves in a bit of a zigzag as it runs, perhaps in an attempt to confuse her aim. It doesn't work, because she fires at it and the bullet lands neatly through the chest, then she gives it a kick, sending it towards Dorian and his lit torch.

With that brief reprieve, she finally lights up her own, trying to ignore the feeling of terrified fingers clutching the back of her jacket. She jabs it at the second jiangshi, catching it just below the hip.

[depicted]

Dorian takes care of the jiangshi sent his way and discards it when he is certain it will burn down entirely, then brings his fire to join Peggy's and finish off the other jiangshi more quickly.

"Are you both all right?"

[shootingshields]

Peggy nods and says, "Yes, I'm fine," before putting out her torch once it's safe to again. She looks down at the boy, who nods as well, with clear gratitude towards them both (even if the terrified is there, too).

"We need to keep moving," she adds, once that's all settled, and she's already walking without waiting for a reply. She listens carefully for the sounds of feet other than their own, for the most part picking and gesturing at empty streets successfully. The kedan child follows them without a single complaint.