stateofdecay | Event: Itinerant Horde

THE HORDE ARRIVES...

Friday morning brings with it biting temperatures, a thick fog which dissipates not long after the sun rises, and many, many zombies. As the Horde shambles into the area, the survivors of the Quad area are setting finishing the last touches of their plan and getting into position for their operation to Split and Destroy the Itinerant Horde.

This post will be used for all miscellaneous scenes set during this plot line. There will be a second post going up for mission scenes which will count for plot success activity tomorrow morning. Characters who volunteer for missions all know the plan but will not receive their own assignments and partners until late this evening, at which point the Cascade Hills teams will be dispatched to their locations.

Meagher Valley teams will be positioned Saturday morning, Providence Ridge teams Sunday morning, and Trumbull Valley teams Monday morning. The Horde is impassable by car, so please be mindful to note which side of the Horde your character is on at any given time. Those on teams will be prepared to camp out for a few days at their final locations, and will have safe elevated spots scouted for them ahead of time, but are also welcome to shelter at any community once the Horde has cleared it (ie, if you are assigned to Loch + Keogh, you can return to Whitney Field after the Horde clears it on Saturday afternoon).

If you have any questions about logistics, please do not hesitate to ask me either here or in the #questions channel on the Discord server. I realize this is a little complicated but I'm happy to help figure out where your character will be and be able to get! I'll have team assigns for people at about 9pm PST tonight, and the post for mission scenes will go up tomorrow morning.

FRIDAY 10:45 AM

The Horde reaches Morgan's Crossing in Cascade Hills.

Beau Betancourt and Ares Makepeace are positioned here to make the first attempt at splitting the horde with Burton Wolfingbarger (Biker) and Vic (Deadhunter) [18].

FRIDAY 2:45 PM

The Horde crosses the Kelenqua River at the Bridge Fort in Cascade Hills.

FRIDAY 5:30 PM

The Horde passes the UU Church south of Lowl.

FRIDAY 9:30 PM

The Horde passes through Downtown Lowl.

Arlo Rattray and Mud are positioned here to make the next attempt at splitting the horde with Otto (Responder) and Keller (Responder) [12].

SATUR. 8:00 AM

The Horde passes Loch and Keogh Self-Storage in Cascade Hills.

John Hwang and Margarita Son are positioned here to make the next attempt at splitting the horde with Carly Vega (Scav) and Howie Standish (Lundegaard) [7].

SATUR. 1:45 PM

The Horde passes by Whitney Field Depot.

SUNDAY
12:30 AM

The Horde passes the Wind Farm in Meagher Valley.

Mara Kaufman and Gideon Ames are positioned here to make the next attempt at splitting the horde with The Witch (Deadhunter) and Della Heydecker (Responder) [15].

SUNDAY 6:00 AM

Approximately halfway through its journey through the Quad area, the Horde passes Grace Lutheran Church in Meagher Valley.

Roswell and Billie Kaplan are positioned here to make the next attempt at splitting the horde with Nolan (Scav) and Bell (Network Agent) [6].

SUNDAY 4:45 PM

The Horde passes through the village of Sawyer's Crossing before passing Lundegaard Lumber.

MONDAY 6:15 AM

The Horde passes Camp Winchester on its way to Marshall.

Bunny Rabbit and Lola Bellison are positioned here to make the next attempt at splitting the horde with Brandson Gunn (Lundegaard) and Elwood Gunn (Lundegaard) [16].

MONDAY 11:40 AM

The Horde passes by the city of Marshall in Trumbull Valley.

Reggie Goodleaf and Angel are positioned here to make the next attempt at splitting the horde with Bug (Deadhunter) and Amy McBride (Scav) [20].

TUESDAY 4:00 AM

The Horde reaches the town of Spencer's Mill in Trumbull Valley.

Dutch and Edgar de Leon are positioned here to make the next attempt at splitting the horde with Foxy (Deadhunter) and Mickey Wilkerson (Network Agent) [6].

TUESDAY 5:00 PM

The Horde reaches the town of Fairfield, where the Quad teams intend to lure any remaining zombies to the Fairgrounds on the other side of town.

Carter Betancourt and Court Slaughter are positioned here to make the final attempt with Jonah Shaw (Responder) and Big Mike (Biker) [19].

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John shakes his head, pretends to be absorbed in the way his blanket drapes over Maggie's knees. “I did not think I could eat,” he admits. “A horde of 10,000 is hard to fathom. I did not feel hungry, just—”

Lightheaded. Sick. Afraid.

As if to save him from finishing his sentence, John’s stomach growls audibly. He tenses, waiting uneasily for Maggie’s reaction. “Hm.”

"Hm," Maggie returns. She understands the feeling he is describing: an anxious adrenal high that tightens your bowels in to a stone and shrinks your perspective until a singular point of anticipatory dread is all that remains. During the last few years of her PhD program, when she was left alone to write, she felt this way all the time. She never really found a fix for this feeling, but she believes wholeheartedly in the curative power of food, so she instead developed little tricks to force herself to eat when eating felt impossible.

"I like to pretend sometimes that I am a soldier in the trenches and this is my only chance to eat." She unpacks two quarter-inch thick bars made of sunflower seeds and honey and four small sour apples. She offers him half of her rations, holding them out to him expectantly, and instructs him to, "Look straight ahead and let your eyes unfocus. Try to think of something nice or think of nothing at all, if you can."

John stares down at her food, absently scratching at the skin of his left index finger until it starts to bleed. A part of him would like to firmly, resolutely reject her offering. Our relationship goes one way, he would tell her. Me to you. Even the smallest bit of reciprocity will upset his understanding of where he stands concerning her: upon a careful higher ground, some distance away. An ounce of kindness from her necessarily forces his reconsideration of everything.

But he is hungry. Sighing, John accepts a sunflower seed bar and apple without complaint. Thinking of something nice feels impossible, as does thinking of nothing at all. Taking a careful bite of the sunflower seed bar—looks like bird food, tastes fines—he settles on the image of his blanket draped over her knees. That's as empty-headed as he can manage.

"Did you learn how to do this when you were alone?" He means the time before she arrived at Lundegaard, in between her PhD program (of which he is hazily aware) and her tenure as Lundegaard's doctor, nurse, herbalist, and resident witch. He assumes she was alone the entire time: the way they found her.

Without consciously deciding to, Maggie moves to lay her free hand over John’s to stop him from scratching, the way she wishes someone would do for her. The raw, cracked skin at her knuckles and down the side of her palm bares testament to her lack of such a person. But she hesitates and he stops on his own.

She looks away, lets her vision relax until the view from the water tower is just a formless blur.

“When I was young, do you mean?” She asks, presuming that he must be referring to the long empty evenings that turned into long empty weeks she spent alone in the little apartment her mother rented for them in Petropalovsky’s city center. They haven’t spoken about many other times in her life. “No. I did not have these sorts of problems until I was older.”

The image changes in his head without him intending it to change—imaginary Maggie draws her knees toward her chest, curling in on herself. John frowns as her reply surfaces old memories. Ditching school to spend a day by himself; the final leg of his Greyhound bus to the seminary, Milwaukee to Madison. When he was a child, he thought he didn't mind all that time spent alone, but something about right now, sitting next to Maggie, renders these memories ugly.

An impulsive thought to give her more blanket strikes him then, which he satisfies it like scratching an itch. "I honestly was not aware you had problems," he says. Another bite of the sunflower bar, a muttered, "This is good," under his breath.

Event: Itinerant Horde

SCENES: SATURDAY: Maggie & John on the water tower

SCENES: SATURDAY: Maggie & John on the water tower

SCENES: SATURDAY: Maggie & John on the water tower

SCENES: SATURDAY: Maggie & John on the water tower

SCENES: SATURDAY: Maggie & John on the water tower