"Let's do it," Orphan says. He tosses off quick texts to Val and to Falx to let them know what's up. "I met two other Arrows as the party, they're supposed to come over later after one of them gets past his hangover," he explains.
Orphan's car is a big, older-model sedan - a decomissioned highway patrol car. It doesn't look like much, but it's sturdy, it handles well and it's fast, plus it has lots of room in the trunk and back seat for carrying stuff. The front seats are very clean, but there is a lot of stuff on the floor and seats in back, most of it covered by blankets. It's clean back there, too - Orphan sometimes lived out of his car while on the road, but he's never used it for a garbage can - but rather cluttered. A big Maglite flashlilght, a baseball bat and a fishing pole are visible sticking out from under the blankets. Between the driver's and passenger seats is a CD case, the discs all in cases and neatly arranged. They cover a pretty wide range: Wagner, Stravinski, Chuck Berry, Howlin' Wolf, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Talking Heads, Metallica, Nine Inch Nails, Slipknot and the soundtracks for the Lord of the Rings movies, as well as a couple CDs of eastern instrumentals, Buddhist chanting and ambient/nature sounds.
"I'll try to answer your questions about Granite Park as best I can, but I wasn't there when the thing with the zombies went down, and there's a lot I don't know," Orphan explains. "Apparently some stuff happened before Val got involved, which is why some of those guys were in the park that night in the first place, but I don't know the details. Our first job in tackling this is going to be to gather intel, both on-site and from whatever first- or second-hand sources we can find."
Teegan plunks down in the passenger seat of Orphan's car and immediately helps herself to his CD's, tossing the NIN CD in the player. " I do a cover of these guys..." She mutters as the CD starts to play.
She lets them get on the road before she starts to talk about Granite Park. "Well, all I know is that Valkrye and some other people went to Granite Park and at least one person didn't make it back alive. I've been to Granite Park when I was a kid and it wasn't a zombie infected death trap. I need to know what happened, who was involved, why were there casualties, who they were, who's responsible and most importantly what can we expect when we go there to investigate?
Orphan listens to Teegan's questions, then starts to rattle through what he knows.
"Three people died in the most recent incident, a couple nights ago, all three of them mages. One of them went by Ghoster, I don't remember the other names at the moment. There were two survivors. Val was pretty torn up when I found her. She'd fought her way out on her own with Ghoster, but she wasn't able to keep him alive long enough to get him to a hospital. I found her in her car with his body. She'd tried to keep him going, but he bled out on her.
"The other survivor was this guy named Ollie. He was at the party last night, a skater dude. He apparently got freaked when people started dying, and he took off." Orphan frowns and shakes his head. He looks at Teegan as he continues. "The guy was supposed to be her freakin' mentor, and he left her for dead, abandoned her there. He came back later, after I found her, all apologetic, saying he thought she was dead, but I dunno." He thinks over last night's talk with Val, as they'd arrived at the party. "Val wants to stay out of it, says it's between her and Ollie, and I suppose that's fair enough, especially since I wasn't even there at the time, but what he did..." He shakes his head again.
"West asked yesterday about baggage and, well, I maybe should have mentioned that I know what it's like to be abandoned. I've pretty much made peace with what happened to me, knowing why it happened, but I haven't forgotten what it felt like, and I'd die before willingly putting someone through that. For a mentor to do that to his student... Val might be able to deal with him, but I gotta tell you, I don't know that I'd ever be able to trust that cowardly fuck."
Three mages?! Holy shit... She thinks as Orphan recounts what he knows. "He fucking ran?" She asks in disbelief as he describes Ollie's role in the fight. She agrees completely with Orphan's vaguely harsh words about him but her scars suddenly give a flare of discomfort and she remembers the fear she felt as she watched her unit get gunned down in the sand. "At least they made it out though." She adds, expressing some understanding for Ollie's questionable behavior.
As they pull up beside her Explorer she asks him one more question, "What do you think we can expect when we go back there?"
In response to Teegan's comments about them making it out, Orphan nods and replies, "Yeah, that part's good. I don't think much of Ollie, but I wouldn't wish him dead, and who knows, maybe he can pull his shit together and come out of this stronger. And Val... well, hell, she'd Awakened two or three days earlier, she had essentially no training, yet she stuck it out with people dying and freaking out and running away all around her, and she not only pulled herself out of that mess, but also pulled another guy out, getting clawed apart the whole time, and did every thing she could to save him. That's fuckin' heroism! If that doesn't sound like Arrow material, I don't know what does."
"As to what to expect, I honestly don't know, and I think the first key to survival is not having any expectations until we have something to base them on. The only thing we know for sure is this: assloads of zombies. From what Val said, they just kept coming and coming, completely overran her and the others. So, whoever or whatever we're up against, it's something or someone capable of making piles of zombies."
He gets out of the car as Teegan goes to her Explorer. "As far as I can tell, none of the bad stuff happens during the day, so I don't think we should go near the place at night until we've had a good chance to scout things out during the day and use some magic to see what we can find out."
"That reminds me, I forgot to ask until now.... what path do you follow, and what Arcana are you strongest in? The more bases we can cover, the more likely we'll be prepared for whatever this ends up being about."
"Valkyrie's tough but I think she has different motivations than a typical Arrow. Like, remember what West was asking us? About warriors and guardians... We'll see, I guess." She walks with him to her truck and opens the driver's side door with her key-less entry button. Her truck was an older model but it still had nice qualities, like the remote key. "I'm Obrimos with Forces and Prime as my main Arcana... Although, I kinda failed to mention that I don't have a whole lot of practice with magic. After I Awakened I came straight here.. My teacher thought I should come here and learn more about the Arrow before going straight into war. Although I feel like I could have picked it up faster that way." She climbs into the driver's seat and tells him she's going back to the Circle of Creation for a shower. "After that though I think I'm going to try out that shooting range. I feel like geting some practice in after all that talk about zombies."
"Sounds great. Let's head on back. Maybe Val or the other guys or West will be there. If not, I want to see your shooting, and maybe get some tips from you."
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