forum where the snow falls (7/8)

Started October 15, 2018 by super salt shaker

tune

@ardechoke yes!

(thank you! here's my guy)

Name: Micah Rolfe
Age: 22
Gender: Male
Orientation: Straight
Appearance: Tall and built like a swimmer. He's got wavy auburn hair that does what it wants and grey-blue eyes. He's got a faded tan and a scar across his jaw.
Personality: He prefers to deal with things by making jokes. That's how he copes. He's witty and gung-ho and ready to throw down with you. Also tends to be a bit of a romantic.
Equipment: A combat knife, a length of rope, a first aid kid, and his trusty pair of well-loved pistols. He keeps it all in a scuffed hiking backpack. He wears a dusty black trenchcoat with strips of colored duct tape on the arms and chest (for personalization). Well-loved and fur-lined winter boots that he adores.
Strength(s): Talking to people, offering comfort and a listening ear. Whistling. Dual-wielding (it's classy and perfect for a guy who can't handle a rifle's recoil). Making Boy Scout level knots.
Weakness(es): Commitment. Acknowledging his own pain or distress. Making long-term plans. Sharpshooting. Flirting (not so much that he's bad at it - more like it's strangely innocent and barely flirting like "ey, you, me, the shooting range so we can draw ugly stick figures on cans and use them as target practice?")
Likes: The sky. Telling stories. Fire. Hugging/holding hands.
Dislikes: The cold. He's terrified of freezing to death, actually. Being forced to tell the truth. Feeling vulnerable.
Background: (Optional) I'll develop that as we go.

Micah's forte was avoiding problems, and he was doing a pretty good job of it right now. His backpack - alarmingly light on the rations and water - bounced as he sauntered through the snowy terrain. Tmp, tmp, tmp, went his boots in the slush. If he closed his eyes, he could almost imagine that he was just hiking in the forest on vacation, in no danger of starvation, and that everything was all fine and dandy. Though if he closed his eyes, he might not ever open them again - so instead he focused on whistling a jaunty little tune. Maybe someone would hear him on his way to seek shelter. Maybe he wouldn't have to travel alone with nothing but his sick tunes and his internal monologues.
That would be great.

Fiona dug through her pack, still trying to decide what to burn for fuel, she decided to waste one of her few precious bullets for her gun and a strip of her blanket to burn for fuel. she broke open the casing and dumped the gunpowder on the ground, grabbing her firestarter she lit the gunpowder and tore off a part of her blanket, feeding it to the fire in small bits so it would last longer. sighing in relief from the heat she scooted closer to the fire to warm up as much as possible before the fire went out.

David sighed.
He had no way to get food and he only had a bullet left in his revolver, which he was saving for himself.
He watched the snow fall and he pulled out one of his notebooks and starts writing.

A strong gust of wind almost blew Micah off his feet, and he swore he felt his internal temperature drop a few degrees. He gritted his teeth, feeling the age-old fear of being turned into a popsicle burst in his chest. Ooooh, no, that's not a nice thing to think about, he reminded himself. Even though optimism was really hard to maintain in this world, someone had to do it, right? He had to make himself believe that he would stumble on a really warm shelter, or a friendly person with a fire and a need for company. Micah paused, took in a breath, and plastered a smile on his face. See, snow was hilarious and not a threat. Nope. He kept whistling.

Fiona felt a strong gust of wind and immediately covered the fire as much as she could to keep it going. no,no,no,no, keep burning, it's all the heat i will have for a while.. she thought to herself as she covered the flame, she heard a faint whistling in the distance and thought to herself see, you are insane, you are hearing whistling for goodness sakes. she shook her head to try to clear the noise and continued to cover the fire, keeping her hand on her gun just in case the whistling wasn't in her head.

David finishes the final part of his notebook and he closes it. He looks around one last time and picks up his revolver. He puts the bullet in the chamber and spins it. He then puts it to his head.

click

Maybe it was some super instinct he had suddenly developed. Maybe the radiation-induced winter was finally giving back to him in the form of a sixth sense.
Whatever it was, Micah's stomach dropped to his boots and he knew. Someone was out there with him. And that meant that either they were in trouble, or they could help him.
He cupped his hands around his mouth, looking around wildly.
"Hey!" Micah shouted, loud as he possibly could. "HEY! Anyone there? Come on, answer me! Do you need help?!

David sighs.
He spins the chamber another time.
He hears a faint voice in the distance, he then shakes his head and looks straight up. He was finally losing his mind.
He puts the gun back to his head.

click

Fiona jumped and stifled a scream, she pulled her gun up to her shoulder and glanced at the fire one last time, letting it burn out. She stood up and looked around her, not seeing anyone she debated yelling back and decided to. She set her gun down and yelled back, "Hello? who are you? what do you want?" as soon as she said it she thought to herself what did you just do…. you just invited someone who is stronger and better fed than you to come and kill you……

David looks down in frustration.
He spins the chamber again.
He puts the gun to his head again but he hears a noice outside his tent.
A faint gowling.
He opens his gun and notices the bullet was chambered to shoot.
He closes it and points it towards the door of his tent.

Urgh, no answer. Micah stifled a curse. Was he just going nuts? Nah, he believed in his mental strength. Maybe he wasn't loud enough. Maybe whoever it was wasn't in a position to answer.
"Yo! Can anyone hear me? This is really hurting my throat a little bit!"
If only he had a flare, or a louder voice, or something that made it clear that he was a living actual person looking for other living actual people…
Oh. His whistling.
Feeling stupid, Micah brought his fingers to his mouth and inhaled a (cold-cold-cold) breath of air. Then he blew, and the piercing sound was louder than anything he'd heard in a while. Like a thunderclap or something, or the crack of a whip. Surely they'd hear that?

The responding yell - the who are you, what do you want - was the most beautiful sound Micah had ever heard. God, he wasn't alone.
"Stay put, I'll come to you!" he shouted back. "I'm a friend, promise!"

David hears a faint whistling and is a bit confused.
Just then a figure’s snout pokes through his tent flap.
He fires.

BANG!

Fiona heard a ear piercing whistle and covered her ears, she shivered again now that the fire was gone and decided to whistle back, hoping that whoever was whistling was not going to kill her. She whistled the only way she could, with her pinkeys in her mouth and blew, it produced an very high pitched whistle and she hoped whoever heard it would have a fire.

Fiona heard another shout and collapsed in the snow, exhausted she shouted one last time "please hurry" she curled into a ball and another gust of wind came at her, trying to rip the blanket from her grip.

David throws his revolver to the side and quickly moves forward to punch the animal in the face as he had missed his shot. He grabs its snout.
It’s a wolf.
He quickly punches it in the snout and throws himself on top of it, pinning to the ground.
He shouts in German.
“Dachtest du könntest mich kriegen?”
(Thought you could get me?)

Micah broke into a sprint - or, well, the closest he could get to a sprint - towards the voice. He could hurry, he could do that. He pulled the length of rope from his pack, in case the person was stuck somewhere. Then he saw it. He saw her sprawled in the snow, clutching a blanket for dear life.
At the same time, a deafening bang split the air. Oh, man. That was a gun. Someone or something probably just died. It sounded like a real downer ending for some unlucky soul.
But he could focus on that later. He was too busy crashing down onto his knees beside the young woman, mind racing as he tried to think of something.
"Hey, nice to meet you," he gasped. "Don't clock out on me."

Fiona heard a voice beside her and she opened her eyes "nice to meet you to," she shivered "you wouldn't happen to have a fire or food would you?" she tried her best to sit up and grab her pack, but ended up just laying on her side and pulling it closer to her along with her gun "don't wor-r-y i w-wont shoot you." her teeth were chattering as she said it and she curled into a ball again.

David grabs the wolf’s underbelly and rolls it.
He tries to choke the wolf but it was struggling a bunch.
He continues to shout in German.
“Du bist ein lebhafter!”
(You’re a lively one!)

"Honestly, with the way you're shaking, I don't think you could shoot me if you tried," Micah commented, pulling off his backpack and rifling through it. "But let's see." He pulled a strip of jerky out of his pack, only mourning its loss a little bit, and handed it to her. "Eat this. You need the protein. Besides that, I've got… hm, a single stick? And… oh, and a threadbare sock that's too small for me… a first aid kid… oh. Here are a couple matches. Nothing we can really use for kindling…" He pursed his lips, narrowing his eyes against the chilly gusts. "Now, failing the fire, we could always huddle for warmth. I don't mean to be weird or anything, unless you're really into huddling for warmth. It's just true and I need a hug. But let's try starting a fire first… and packing the snow into a kind of fort so we can hide from the wind at least a little bit…"
He glanced at her, apologetic. "Sorry. I'm Micah, Micah Rolfe, your new best friend. And you?"

David finally gets a choke hold on the wolf and holds it down.
Continuing to shout in German.
“STERBEN SIE BEREITS!”
(Die already!)

Fiona gratefully took the piece of jerky and ate it slowly, savoring the taste of food. she listened to the guy ramble on and nodded, trying to shiver as little as possible "t-thank-k you f-for the food-d" she shivered and continued "n-nice to-o meet-t y-you M-micah-h, in F-fiona Car-rver."

The moment was strangely normal, for taking place in the middle of a winter wasteland with starvation breathing down their necks. For a couple seconds Micah forgot that the world was the way it was, that people were fighting and starving and surviving and probably doing something nuts like wrestling an actual adult wolf with their bare hands.
"'F-fiona Car-rver?' Pretty name," he chuckled. "Kidding. Nice to meet you, Fiona. Don't worry about it, 'kay?" He turned to begin packing snow together, forming the beginnings of an icy barrier. I'll just start building us a little fort, and then we can start gossiping for real."

The wolf finally stops struggling and goes limp.
David collapses side ways in the snow from exhaustion.
He mutters “Das hat gesaugt.” (that sucked.)
He passed out as his chest had a large claw mark across it, slowly seeping blood.

Fiona thought to herself this guy is awesome, and crazy for helping me and laughed as well as she could "I-i can-n help i-if you wa-ant." she started to sit up again but still couldn't, she ended up just smiling weakly at Micah and thanking him a thousand times over in her head for helping her and making her laugh.