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nolimitationWord Count: 735
The moaning outside keeps getting louder. By now, it's less a sound produced by once-human throats than a force of nature, constant and tireless like the pounding of waves or the howl of a hurricane. Periodically, the din is interrupted by the cheerful ding of the teleporter, shortly followed by a frenzied bout of screaming, a brief, almost confused silence, and then a resumption of moaning with one new voice to the atonal chorus.
"How many are out there?" Olivia asks quietly without moving from where she's sitting, knees to her chest, under one of the desks.
"At last count?" Shaun pops up to peek out the back window before dropping back down to his seat on the floor with a little shrug. "Lots."
Peter snorts, while Georgia groans and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Really, Shaun? That reference stopped being funny literally before we were born."
He shrugs. "Yeah, but it seemed appropriate. Would you rather I sit here and count them? I mean, I can try, but there's a lot of them, and they keep moving... plus, they all have the same face..."
"I was just hoping I could maybe get a rough estimate?" Olivia's doing a considerably better job than Georgia at keeping exasperation out of her tone -- not that Georgia's trying -- but it leaks through anyway. Georgia can't exactly blame her; the noise of the zombies outside would shatter anyone's nerves, especially anyone who didn't grow up after the Rising. As long as they've been stuck in here, she's a little surprised they're not all climbing up the walls or at each other's throats by now, her and Shaun included.
"Too many to drive through."
Olivia has to lean over and tilt her head far to the side to actually look at Peter from underneath the desk, but she makes the effort just to give him an exasperated glare. Up in the front passenger seat, Peter gives her a smile specifically designed to get under someone's skin -- Georgia recognizes it, because Shaun has one just like it. She sighs, and edges her estimate of just when they'll all be at each other's throats forward a few hours.
"What? That's what you're actually asking, isn't it?" Olivia clenches her jaw and looks back down at her hands, folded on her knees. Peter sighs and twists around to look at her more directly over the back of the seat, his voice softening as he goes on, "Look, Olivia. I know that you're--"
"Don't."
It's soft, but even so, Peter shuts up immediately. Georgia casts a sidelong glance to Shaun around her glasses to see if he's picking up whatever she just missed, but gets only a quick shake of his head in return. Entirely unhelpful, and more than a little concerning -- if there's one thing she can't handle right now, other than zombies gnawing on her intestines, it's being stuck in close proximity with two near-strangers having an emotional conversation in code. Maybe she can head it off before it really gets started.
"We're not in any actual hurry to get out of here," she points out, the interruption seeming to startle both Peter and Olivia. "The van's designed and stocked to hold out for a couple days at least. People know we're here -- someone's going to come along and pull us out before we're in any real trouble."
"And until then, we sit here and wait while people are dying outside," Olivia mutters, bracing her forehead against the heel of her palm. Georgia just gives her a flat stare over the top of her glasses.
"Do you want to go out there and stage a rescue? Even if you could stop them from being eaten, they're already--"
"Person," Shaun corrects. All three of them turn to stare at him, and he waits for a second before shrugging and explaining, "Person is dying out there. Singular. Sure, he's doing it a lot, with frankly alarming frequency, but we don't have to overstate the drama of the situation."
For a second or two, no one speaks, and then Peter tilts his head to one side, frowning. "We're on a space station in another universe, trapped in a van surrounded by an army of zombie clones, and waiting to be rescued by a bunch of superheroes and robots. I don't think we're running out of drama any time soon."
The moaning outside keeps getting louder. By now, it's less a sound produced by once-human throats than a force of nature, constant and tireless like the pounding of waves or the howl of a hurricane. Periodically, the din is interrupted by the cheerful ding of the teleporter, shortly followed by a frenzied bout of screaming, a brief, almost confused silence, and then a resumption of moaning with one new voice to the atonal chorus.
"How many are out there?" Olivia asks quietly without moving from where she's sitting, knees to her chest, under one of the desks.
"At last count?" Shaun pops up to peek out the back window before dropping back down to his seat on the floor with a little shrug. "Lots."
Peter snorts, while Georgia groans and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Really, Shaun? That reference stopped being funny literally before we were born."
He shrugs. "Yeah, but it seemed appropriate. Would you rather I sit here and count them? I mean, I can try, but there's a lot of them, and they keep moving... plus, they all have the same face..."
"I was just hoping I could maybe get a rough estimate?" Olivia's doing a considerably better job than Georgia at keeping exasperation out of her tone -- not that Georgia's trying -- but it leaks through anyway. Georgia can't exactly blame her; the noise of the zombies outside would shatter anyone's nerves, especially anyone who didn't grow up after the Rising. As long as they've been stuck in here, she's a little surprised they're not all climbing up the walls or at each other's throats by now, her and Shaun included.
"Too many to drive through."
Olivia has to lean over and tilt her head far to the side to actually look at Peter from underneath the desk, but she makes the effort just to give him an exasperated glare. Up in the front passenger seat, Peter gives her a smile specifically designed to get under someone's skin -- Georgia recognizes it, because Shaun has one just like it. She sighs, and edges her estimate of just when they'll all be at each other's throats forward a few hours.
"What? That's what you're actually asking, isn't it?" Olivia clenches her jaw and looks back down at her hands, folded on her knees. Peter sighs and twists around to look at her more directly over the back of the seat, his voice softening as he goes on, "Look, Olivia. I know that you're--"
"Don't."
It's soft, but even so, Peter shuts up immediately. Georgia casts a sidelong glance to Shaun around her glasses to see if he's picking up whatever she just missed, but gets only a quick shake of his head in return. Entirely unhelpful, and more than a little concerning -- if there's one thing she can't handle right now, other than zombies gnawing on her intestines, it's being stuck in close proximity with two near-strangers having an emotional conversation in code. Maybe she can head it off before it really gets started.
"We're not in any actual hurry to get out of here," she points out, the interruption seeming to startle both Peter and Olivia. "The van's designed and stocked to hold out for a couple days at least. People know we're here -- someone's going to come along and pull us out before we're in any real trouble."
"And until then, we sit here and wait while people are dying outside," Olivia mutters, bracing her forehead against the heel of her palm. Georgia just gives her a flat stare over the top of her glasses.
"Do you want to go out there and stage a rescue? Even if you could stop them from being eaten, they're already--"
"Person," Shaun corrects. All three of them turn to stare at him, and he waits for a second before shrugging and explaining, "Person is dying out there. Singular. Sure, he's doing it a lot, with frankly alarming frequency, but we don't have to overstate the drama of the situation."
For a second or two, no one speaks, and then Peter tilts his head to one side, frowning. "We're on a space station in another universe, trapped in a van surrounded by an army of zombie clones, and waiting to be rescued by a bunch of superheroes and robots. I don't think we're running out of drama any time soon."
