and then there were none. [open and accepting]

[keating]

↪ ʀᴏᴅᴇɴ ᴄᴏɴɴᴇʟʏ ✧
Tags: Valentin, Adeline

Roden nodded slowly as Adeline told her story. He considered himself a fairly good judge of character, and this woman was waving any red flags in his mind. With the security that they had, he certainly didn't think this 100-something pound girl was going to be a threat to them in any way, and she seemed too smart to try anything with the belief that she'd get away with it. He wasn't going to take her weapons either; he didn't particularly like taking weapons away from people, unless they've proved to be an obvious threat. He stepped back and to the side, allowing space for Adeline to come in. "Alright, welcome to Kingsdale. Any available small house you can find is yours." The small houses were pretty much all the same little one story homes perfect for someone living on their own or with a partner. People weren't required to live with someone else considering there were more than enough homes to go around in their now-small community of less than 100. Larger houses were, of course, reserved for families, though there weren't really many families in town nowadays so there's not much use of them anymore. "We're having a gathering tonight where you can meet the other teachers and farmers," he added.

[vordic.]

──────────────────────────────────────────────────
Ｖａｌｅｎｔｉｎ ． Ｍｏｓｃｏｖｉｃｉ
─── [| town member // thirty-two // cis-male // bisexual // 6'3ft // tom ellis |] ───
─── [| tags ;; Roden, Adeline || location ;; Front Gate || mood ;; Alert |] ───
──────────────────────────────────────────────────

Valentin listened intently as the two conversed, his dark eyes staring harshly at the young girl. He deeply concerned the towns current food supply, and to allow another inside would be another mouth to feed. Valentin stepped aside himself once Roden did to let the girl inside. Valentin lowered his gun finally, and slung it over his shoulder. He grabbed his walkie-talkie and prepared himself to make a quick announcement to the rest of the guards over it about switching every hour for tonight's meeting. Valentin quietly waited for the girl to move along before speaking into the speaker. His eyes darted back to Roden with a hint of anger yet concern in his pupils.

[rookfern]

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ━ — - -
. sam silverhawk // . 27 years // . male // . pansexual // . location: outside town // . tags: latamer


━ Sam tensed, his grip growing white-knuckled around his knife as Latamer fired off a few shots. No doubt every mourner in a nearby radius knew exactly where they were now. He muttered a short-winded curse and watched as a small mourner fell from the tree. His throat clenched at the sight of its mangled leg and the fact that it was still crawling at them with an inhuman fervor. Sam glanced to Latamer, waiting for the younger man to fire off the last shot. The youth seemed to have stilled, though, lost in his head.

"damnit, kid..." Sam hissed under his breath and shouldered past Latamer. Forcing down the bile in his throat, he landed the killing blow on the miserable creature. He wiped the leftover muck off his knife blade and toed the dead mourner with the tip of his shoe. Now he realized why Latamer had frozen; the thing had been just a kid when it had turned. Forcing a harsh breath through his nose, Sam jerked his head up and glanced around. "We've gotta get moving. Don't want the other mourners to get the drop on us."

[sinensys]

⚔⚔⚔ ＲＩＡＨ　ＧＲＡＩＲＥ ! ! ──────────────────────────
─────────────────────　i. scavenger. ii. tagged: roma. iii. location: kingsdale.

it was getting colder. riah knew that it wouldn't be long before the cold snuck in, idly creeping creeping - a vine as deadly as the poison ivy. but a bigger thing on riah's constantly whirring mind was the mourners: how would they react when the frost would begin gnawing on the mourners' bones like some starved and frightened beast? how would they react when the cold would start to truly pinch the nose and any uncovered skin? and just how much would the snow interfere with scavenging and hunting, when riah would consider taking their dog hunting? well, there was some snow now, but it didn't seem like it was here to stay.

but riah wasn't gonna stay in kingsdale all day either; they had better things to do than sit around. it was darkening, and so riah figured now would be the time to go out and search that shack they saw last time but didn't get to explore. they weren't the most comfortable wandering in the night - once the eyes adjusted - when there were the sounds of bats, owls, pine martens, and badgers, but they hadn't done anything else useful the whole day. they really couldn't afford to just sit around; no one really could.

so maybe riah should have planned, but oh well. it was too late to weep over that. no, now it was time to be outrageous, which suited them just fine, honestly. there's nothing wrong with being a little outrageous in a ridiculous time like today where people became mad beasts - halfway between zombies and werewolves, honestly. might as well. and if riah died, then they died. to hell with it. there's really not much to look forward to anyways.

riah left their small home, leaving the napping britanny dog dubbed stark to lie in their bed. riah didn't envy him at all (maybe a little). they wandered leisurely towards the gate, slinging their rifle over their shoulder. maybe they ought to have brought someone with them, riah idly thought. yeah, that'd be a good idea.

[Elillium]

xx
𝘢𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘦𝘥𝘭𝘦𝘳
x..x location: the front gate ╌ tagged: valentin, roden ╌ form ╌ wc: 501
_________________________________________________
x

adeline's hands dropped gently to her sides. "thank you," she nearly whispered as she walked furtively through the
opening the men made as they stepped aside. she didn't say anything, and despite her curiosity, she did not ask
any other questions. after weeks on the soft, mossy forest floor, the hard concrete street below her as foreign.
her boots clicked with every step she took farther from the men. she had eventually walked far enough to be
alone in the dark, deserted street. she couldn't help but feel out of place. it had been a long time since she had
been in any form of civilization.

she gawked at the buildings, which were almost untouched. adeline stopped, at the end of the street, she noticed
that she was now in the back corner of the facility. she could begin to see the line of fencing and barbed wire
glimmer as it reflected the moonlight. in front of her was a large, open plot of land, at least three hundred square
feet of empty yeard, which she could definitely. beside the empty grass, stood a small house. it was modest and
slightly dirty on the outside. the eavestrough was caked with dead leaves, and some of the window shutters had
fallen off, but apart from that, it was a home. adeline stood at the end of the footpath that led up to the front
door, peering in the windows as if she expected to see someone, sitting watching television, or eating at the dinner
table. but it was empty and dark. adeline knew it was empty by the way the front door had carelessly been left
half open, and a chair had been tipped over at the top of the porch stairs, preventing anyone from getting in.

she approached the porch, picking up the wicker rocking chair and placing it on a diagonal in front of the large
living room window. pushing open the front door caused a long, loud creak, and the house fell silent again. inside
was fully furnished, undamaged by the elements. a lamp had been knocked over, and the curtains off one of the
windows had fallen down, but it was, perfect. adeline set her ruck down by the door, shutting it behind herself
and falling into darkness. her hand instinctively went to the switch on the wall, but no light followed the satisfying
click. she was not surprised, there was almost no possibility that there would be any remaining electricity in the
world. still in the dark, she reached through her ruck to find her flashlight. she pulled it out and headed to the
kitchen, where she rooted through the drawers to find a barbeque lighter hidden behind a tray of silverware. with
the lighter, she walked around to the fireplace, where on the mantle sat a row of decorative candles. she lit them
each, smiling slightly as the living room lit up with warm light. she took a few steps back, flopping onto the couch
carelessly.

[ʙʀᴏᴏᴋʟʏɴ]

𝑨𝑨𝑹𝑶𝑵 𝑩𝑹𝑰𝑺𝑩𝒀

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ forty-six ] [ male ] [ located: kingsdale prison ] [ tagged: open ]

Aaron sat on his cot, staring at the walls of his cell. Most people would have gone insane by that point, but not Aaron. He’d grown used to the darkness and silence over the past few months. No, Aaron’s mind was plagued by a much more serious problem; boredom. The man thrived on contact with other people and external stimulation, so being locked in a prison cell understandably sucked for him. A guard had graciously given Aaron a tennis ball, which he’d been continuously bouncing for thirty minutes straight.

[keating]

↪ ɴɪɴᴀ ᴡɪʟᴅᴇʀ ✧
Tags: Everyone?

Nina sat on an empty porch near the stables, resting her head against the back of the chair she was seated in. That young girl who'd found her outside, Lucy, had taken her back in the morning and she was accepted once it became clear that she wouldn't be able to travel alone. She wasn't entirely sure if she would be staying permanently or if she was even allowed to, but she was going to take advantage of the comforts and the generosity that this little place and its people had to offer. She hasn't seen or heard anything out of the ordinary since she'd woken up in the medic's place. She's lucky she hadn't been more injured than she was, and was grateful that her legs, though sore, still worked just fine and didn't seem to be broken in any place. Her arm, on the other hand, was definitely broken. She now had a bandage wrapped around her hand and forearm, all the way up to her elbow, with a makeshift sling made out of an old t shirt. She was pretty tired and numb all over, not having much desire to move and join in on the people starting to gather around the town's center, but she knew that if she wanted to stay in this place, she should try to develop good relationships with its people.

So she walked over, trying not to limp or stagger or make her injuries a bigger deal than they had to be. She looked around, taking in her surrounds and what was currently going on. There was a much-needed bonfire outside with what she'd been told was the mayor's house nearby, people walking in and out of its doors. It wasn't as cold as other nights, but some still preferred the coziness of the indoors while others enjoyed the heat of the bonfire. She herself wanted to be near the fire, so she took a seat on one of the pillows that were set up around it. There were a few chairs and blankets on the ground as well.

She didn't realize how hungry she was until the pungent smell of fish (perhaps salmon?) filled her nostrils. People carried around plates of meat, fish, and even fresh vegetables and cooked them by the fire. Portions were humble, as she assumed there was a limit on how much food people could take. This wasn't an all-you-can eat buffet, it was the apocalypse. They were probably trying to ration as best they could, but from the looks of it, they were pretty well off. She turned her head towards the mayor's house, where most people tended to be entering and coming out of. Considering the size of that house there must be a sizable kitchen in there. A bit too shy to get up and take their food, Nina sat there in silence, watching and listening to the comforting crackling of the flames before her.

[keating]

↪ ʀᴏᴅᴇɴ ᴄᴏɴɴᴇʟʏ ✧
Tags: Aaron

Roden slowly opened the door to the cell that their only prisoner been locked in since the death of one of their own, a plate of food in his hand. He sat down in a chair by the cot that the other man was sitting in and handed him the plate. Roden was aware that 3 months was a long time to be imprisoning someone, but with what he's been accused of, he really has no other choice. Kingsdale has always had a fairly low crime rate, so criminals were often taken elsewhere. All they had in town was a small cell within the sheriff's office, the place Roden used to work as the town sheriff. Aaron was taken out of the office and was allowed to go out upon supervision, but he spent most of his nights in the cell. Roden hated it, but the safety of the people was his number one priority, and as long as this guy won't talk he felt stuck in this position of keeping him isolated from the others until he found some answers.

It had been nearly 3 months since a teenage boy by the name of Angelo had decided to scope out the base of a neighboring group, Norwick, which had a hostile relationship and negative history with Kingsdale. He'd brought back information about their security but was seen by the guards and shot at. Although the boy got away unharmed, Roden was angry that he'd risked his life like that and let himself be seen, in turn risking the safety of the town as a whole if they were to find out that Angelo was part of Kingsdale. Still, Roden understood that he was just a kid, and punished him by informing the guards that he was not allowed out of town for another 6 months. Angelo was a good kid and took the punishment without complaint. No less than a week later, the boy had been found on the floor with a wound in his chest; a newer townsperson named Aaron was standing nearby, staring at the boy with a bloody blade in his hands.

The boy didn't survive, and Aaron acted confused, claiming he woke up holding the knife but has no recollection of killing Angelo. Naturally, this caused gossip and rumors to fly around about Aaron being a traitor from Norwick and going for Angelo out of fear that he'd say something about Norwick's security that they didn't want Kingsdale to know.

Towards the first few months of the outbreak, Kingsdale was attacked and almost completely raided by Norwick, and it's been rumored that they'd been plotting against Kingsdale ever since the first attempt. It's been nearly a year since it happened and there's been nothing heard from them, but every time a Kingsdale townsmember stumbles upon their land, even on accident, they'd been threatened and shot at, so tensions were clearly high between the two communities. Roden's wanted to form an alliance with them, but their leader is an angry 6'7" man who wants nothing to do with them. Part of him wondered, if they were going to attack, what were they so hesitant about? They had far more weapons and manpower than Kingsdale did, which was another reason they really needed more people with good fighting skills to join their side, but then there's the other part of him that worries about outsiders being part of another hostile group, perhaps Norwick, trying to gain an upper hand on them and learning about Kingsdale's area and their daily routines.

After what was only a few seconds of silence but felt like several minutes, Roden finally spoke up. "How're you holding up?" He spoke quietly. He had no anger for the man, just worry for his people. He knew Aaron had been waiting too long and that things had to change. Roden was strongly against the idea of execution and leaned more towards the idea of banishment if the crime was bad enough, but that wouldn't really solve any of their problems if Aaron truly was a traitor. He'd just go running back to Norwick or wherever he came from and tell them all about Kingsdale. "What am I supposed to believe, mate?" he whispered, leaning forward. "What am I supposed to do here?"

[ʙʀᴏᴏᴋʟʏɴ]

𝑨𝑨𝑹𝑶𝑵 𝑩𝑹𝑰𝑺𝑩𝒀

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[ forty-six ] [ male ] [ located: kingsdale prison ] [ tagged: roden ]

Aaron looked at the plate of food, unable to keep his stomach from growling. He stopped bouncing the ball, holding it in his hand as he sat silently for a moment. “You could believe me. That would be nice.” He replied after a moment, a deadpan look on his face. Even after being imprisoned for months on end, his personality had not changed a bit. “You know what it feels like to be confined to the company of guards? Not fun. I crack a joke, just to get the guards to smile for once, and they tell me they can’t be seen carrying out polite conversation with a murderer.” Aaron shook his head, a laugh falling from his lips. He began to devour the food with the hunger of a starving wolf. Evidentially his large appetite had not changed either.

[keating]

↪ ʀᴏᴅᴇɴ ᴄᴏɴɴᴇʟʏ ✧
Tags: Aaron

Roden sucked his teeth and looked down at his hands. "Even if I did release you, people are angry, and for good reason," he reminded him. He's probably safer in here than out there, where he has no idea what people will do to him after believing he'd killed one of the town's very own, and a teenager at that. He couldn't release him out of town in secret, because even Roden doubted the man's integrity. Although it seemed very out of character and he seemed genuine when claiming his innocent, the evidence presented to them was too strong to ignore. For it to be proven that he truly was framed, they'd have to find the real traitor first, and Roden didn't even know where to begin with figuring out who it was. It could be anyone, and the last thing he wanted to do was to cause panic within the town and point fingers at the innocent. As long as people believed that the perpetrator was locked up, they felt safe. "I hope you're innocent. I really do," he added. "But until we find the real murderer, if they really are in town, there's not much I can do." If the murderer isn't you, he thought silently, though he didn't say it out loud. He was being honest about wanting Aaron to be innocent, though he didn't quite love the idea of a murderer running amok and people not knowing about it. Roden sat in silence for a moment, racking his brain about what steps to take next. "You're sure you don't remember anything that could help us?"