Cycle 1

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Marie:
Looking from outside her short, thick, ombre-d curtain, Marie looked about her. The sun was just raising into the east and she watched it move, ever so gracefully, and push the hues of cold blues and purples into shades of pinks and hideous oranges. Her black corset as matted in blood that crusted off the laces onto the forest floor. The purple skirt accompaning the corset was torn in so many places it could no longer be defined as a long skirt. Luckily, it still retained it's flowy behaviour; it also retained what looked like fresh blood. The familiar smirked into the sun and threw the platinum sword into her sheath located on her spine. "Good morning." She spun on her heels and strode casually, grinnin at her collection of the dead that snarled at her as she made her leave. Being a Familiar, she could slip away into any form and dash away without being touched. That technique has gotten her out of more situations than she could count...unfortunately, she desired to use it for something more meaningful - like, I don't know, her true purpose of living still to this day and in this pain she has been fermenting in.

David:
Time almost stood still when the first RPG rocket hit the camp. David an his brother jumped up from their table at the chow hall, grabbed their rifles and ran to secure the armory. Once the doors were locked tighter than Fort Knox they ran over to the watch towers and shot back with the others. After about an hour of shooting the Vietcong just, stopped. It seemed like something out of a movie, silence filled the forests of Vietnam so much that you could hear a branch snap from a mile away.
David and his brother Michael set up a snipers perch on a tower with a couple of other marines. Taking watch as the dusk turned to night.
Flood lights lit the area but the light only went so far before being engulfed by the darkness of the jungle.
"Almost reminds you of the neighborhood back home huh David," Michael made conversation, "How it goes from calm to chaos to needle dropping quiet."
"Yeah," David replied not taking eye off his scope, "It's crazy."
"Can't wait to get home, mom probably cleans our rooms cleaned twice a day waiting for us. I almost feel bad that I'd be the one to mess it up with less effort than it took to clean it. I can almost see the look..."
"We have movement," David trained his scope on a group of Congs crawling low through the brush, "Almost didn't see em. Three up ahead about a hundred yards."
Michael locked onto what David was seeing.
"I see them. Should we fire?"
"Not yet. Get on the radio tell Joseph that... HOLY SHIT!!!"
Just then an RPG rocket found its way to the tower next to them. The explosion lit up the darkness as it sent shards of flame across the ground.
The two brothers fired at will. Killing a few but the Vietcong moved like ants. One moment there was one then the next there was twenty filling right behind him.
David locked on to a group of them with RPGs. Aware he had only a few rounds left in his M14 he shot down two of them but the third had noticed when the first was shot and fired his RPG at the brothers before David fired his last round and killed him.
"No hard feelings Michael!"
He grabbed two two handfuls of his brothers uniform and threw him off the 20 watch tower. Right as Michael hit the ground the rocket struck the tower and detonated.

David shot out of his bed with his pistol in hand an trained on the door. His breathing heavy, head and shoulders covered in cold sweat, an muscles tensed.
He took a few minutes to calm his breathing and relax his body.
Every night since his escape he had waken up to that same nightmare memory. Thankfully this morning he didn't actually pull the trigger like he did last week, scaring the snot out of someone walking down the hallway.
After he was relaxed he set his gun on the nightstand, got out of bed, opened the curtains and stared as the sun rose slowly over the horizon at the start of this new day.
Just below the horizon he could make out the figures of the rotten undead corpses limping aimlessly just outside the walls to our camp.
"Stupid pieces of shit."
He opened the window and stuck his head out and shouted to the zombies, "FUCK YOU!!!"
Then pulled back inside and proceeded to get dressed like nothing happened while muttering to himself, "Gooooooood morning end of the world."

Pearce:
"Hey Jim," Pearce said as he walked down the hall to the cafeteria for breakfast. His AK slung over his shoulder and 1911 in a drop leg holster at his side, in what the camps survivors have tried to make a weapons free zone. Because if there's one thing Pearce does better than David O'Connor every morning, it's telling everyone "Fuck you and your stupid shit" without saying it. At first.
When he got to the cafeteria Axel dropped a scoop of eggs and bacon onto a new tray and handed it to him.
He took the tray with a smile on his face and saluted his way, then went to get a cup of coffee where a protest group had formed up to oppose guns in the cafeteria again.
"We don't want guns where we eat," The kept shouting, "We will not stop until this is a gun free zone!!"
He walked over to the coffee brewer but one of the guys stepped between him and the brewer.
"No coffee until guns are removed," the guy said.
Pearce put his hand on the guys shoulder.
"Look," he said calm, "buddy, it's too early for this shit. Let me get my coffee and I won't kick your ass until noon when I come back for my afternoon cup okay?"
"I'd like to see you try bub. All talk an no play, no coffee until you take you guns somewhere else."
Pearce sighed.
"I'd step out of the way son," David said from behind him, "There are a lot of people here who will happily kick your ass for a cup of coffee, me included but if Pearce is involved you either kiss your ass goodbye or step aside."
Pearce pointed to David with his thumb and nodded in agreement.
The guy crossed his arms, straightened up and stood there.
Pearce looked back at David.
David locked his pistol into his holster.
Pearce did the same the swung back around nailing the guy in his nose. Then stepped aside while David Spartan kicked him where the sun didn't shine.
The guy cried in pain as Pearce let loose every pissed mans punch he had in him while David stood behind. All the other protestors stopped protesting and stared in shock and fear at the scene taking place.
After about ten minutes (David kept the time) Pearce stopped and stood up straight.
"Tired," David asked.
"Bored," Pearce responded, "you mind getting him out of here?"
"No problem."
David took over and practically drug the guy who was now drenched in his own blood across the cafeteria and threw him out onto the street while Pearce poured himself a cup of coffee.
He looked over to the other protestors.
"Anyone else?"
None spoke, but instead dropped their signs and walked out with nothing else to say because they got the message. He had told them "Fuck you" an didn't even have to say it. He didn't need his guns to beat the shit out of em. If he wanted to he just would. No warning.
He sat down and took a sip of his coffee feeling pretty damn good about himself. Then spit his coffee halfway across the room as he remembered he didn't like coffee.
He stood up, grabbed his plate and walked away. He poured his coffee down the drain and got a cup of apple juice on his way out.
He took a sip and smiled.
"That's more like it."

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