[open] There'll Be Bluebirds

[splendid_roman]

Who| Ian Chesterton and open
What| Bike fixing, monster fighting and air raids
Where| Around main street
When| Week 1 & week 2
Warnings/Notes| No warnings yet, but will add as needed. A few prompts, please specify which you're going with when you reply, because sometimes I need things idiot-proofing. I am open to Ian being injured, but not killed just yet.

Prompt 1 (Pre hellarena)
Ian thought the bike was his best find. Being able to outrun anyone or anything trying to kill him was bound to be useful. That was until he tried riding. The squeaking it made was so loud he stopped immediately and sat with one foot on the ground, holding his breath to see what might have heard.

When nothing immediately materialised through the fog, he breathed a sigh of relief. The bag he'd found had some WD-40 in it, which hadn't seemed that useful at the time, especially in comparison to the rest of its contents. Now, though, it was all he needed to make the bike usable without attracting attention. He applied a liberal dose of it to all the bike's moving parts and then wheeled it along to see if it had got rid of all the squeaking.

Prompt 2 (Pre hellarena)
It was a walker, not that Ian knew what it was called. Or even cared at the moment. It had appeared out of the mist in front of him and when he ran, it was faster. Or there was another one, he wasn't sure. Some fire would probably help him right now, but he didn't rate the chances of getting the fire making kit out and starting a fire before they stopped him. Probably painfully and possibly terminally.

He stood his ground, pulled out his lead piping, which made him think of Cluedo, not that it was very relevant at this point. When it approached he took a swing and hit it as hard as he could.

Prompt 3 (Start of hellarena)
When the air raid siren started, Ian froze. It wasn't a sound he'd heard for twenty years, but it immediately took him back to his childhood and nights spent in their Anderson shelter, the adults trying to keep the mood cheerful, but never knowing when you came out if your house would still be there.

An air raid siren could only mean one thing - bombs. And the best way to guard against bombs was to get underground. Despite the rising heat and sounds of something nearby, he ran for the houses in search of a basement, ignoring the way they seemed to be melting.

Comments

2

[paidinbeer]

Orc had seen these creatures in action now and was well aware of how strong they were. It had caught him off guard at first and had he not been lucky he might have broken his arm in the process.

This time he watched as Ian took a swing at the creature while another closed in on him from behind.

Two against one was hardly a fair fight.

Mindful to avoid the stretched out limbs and long grasping fingers Orc charged in with the thundering foot stomps of a heard of rhinos. The sound didn't seem to distract the walkers from Ian, but Orc's fist slamming into it's side knocking it off it's feet seemed to do the trick.

"Hi." He greeted Ian plainly.

[splendid_roman]

Ian had heard something behind him, but didn't dare look round until he was sure he had a moment when the Walker in front wasn't in a position to attack. "Hi." He smiled at Orc briefly.

Despite having felled the Walker with his lead pipe, it was of course getting up again and the moment Ian's back was turned it got a grip his ankle. "What does it take to kill you?" He hit it over the head again, which didn't make it lose its grip, but somehow unhinged its head, revealing all its teeth.

[paidinbeer]

"Beats me." Orc grumbled as the one he had attacked was starting to drag itself off the ground and towards them. "Maybe we can't?"

Deciding to try and help Ian while his own walker was dragging along Orc shifted position and tried to stomp on it's back with a sickening crack.

[splendid_roman]

"That would just be typical." Running away wasn't necessarily going to get them far, and they'd be leaving these two for whoever stumbled into them next. And that assumed Ian managed to get this one to release his leg.

"I'm going to set light to it," he decided. While he had Orc around to keep an eye on them he pulled a fire lighter and dry piece of wood from his bag. Although Ian kept one eye on the walker dragging itself towards him all the time he did it.

[paidinbeer]

Orc took a step back with his arms spread wide to make sure nothing was going to rush them while Ian got the fire ready.

Unfortunately, he was not looking up. A dollop of something fell from up high landing on his shoulder causing him to shout. The sound of sizzling could be heard as he hissed in pain and his head snapped up to see where the goo had come from.

Wide eyed, even Orc was frozen in terror at the sight of a giant spider suspended over them hanging from a telephone pole. It's giant glassy eyes reflected the duo in the dim light.

It was drooling the acid.

[splendid_roman]

Ian looked over at Orc and then above him. He swore, and then out of habit from spending his days in a school, apologised. He hurriedly lit a longish piece of wood, wishing he had more time to make a proper torch.

Before he could do anything to help Orc he needed to deal with the Walker at his feet. He bent over and set light to its hand. It screamed in pain and let go of his leg.

Hoping that would at least hold it off for a bit, he turned to Orc and held out the torch. "Here, take this."

[paidinbeer]

Orc took the torch, snatching it from Ian and throwing it upward. It spun in the air till it connected right in the middle of the Spider's face causing it to his and make an awful shriek before dropping down ontop of Orc.

The torch clattered to the ground still burning as Orc roared in fury and wrestled with the beast, rolling into the street.

[splendid_roman]

Ian picked up the torch and followed. Both Walkers shuffled after him, but since they weren't moving so fast they shouldn't need to deal with both at the same time.

"Get off him!" he shouted at the spider, for all the good it did. He brandished the torch at the spider, burning one of its legs. It shrieked again and turned its attention on Ian.

Ian ran towards the Walkers, hoping that maybe Walkers didn't like spiders either.

[paidinbeer]

Orc had to catch his breath as he rolled to his feet. His chest felt heavier then usual and he blamed the fact that even if he had cut back on drinking, he hadn't worked out enough to make up for his abusing his body for so long.

Seeing the spider hobbling after Ian who was racing towards more monsters Orc let out a snarl and surged forward seizing a lamp post and wrenching it from the ground with a strained growl. His muscles quivered as the cement fell away in crumbles and the object felt weighty and unwieldy in his thick hands.

For the first time he wondered if some of his strength was missing when other peoples powers were gone.

Shaking off these concerns Orc rushed the spider, swinging the pole down on it from behind and splitting it open in the street leaving it's sizzling acid guts dripping from his lamp post.

[splendid_roman]

Ian turned in time to see Orc hit the spider with a lamp post. For a moment all he could do was gape in astonishment. He hadn't known Orc was so strong.

His hesitation was his undoing, when a walker caught up with him and clamped his teeth around his leg. Ian let out a howl of pain, but had the presence of mind to swing round, so the walker ended up in the remains of the spider. It soon let go as it was burned by the acid.

Ian collapsed to the ground, bleeding, and hoped Orc would be able to take care of the other walker.

[paidinbeer]

Orc saw the injury and it made his eyes wide with shock before narrow with fury.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" He roared lunging and bringing the lamp post down on the walk pinning it to the ground. The impact sent vibrations through the post into Orc's hands making them sting.

It continued to writhe though, not killed by the show of force. With a twist of his wrists Orc sent it tumbling across the road where he struck it again and again till the lamp post was bent and twisted.

And still the thing lived and squirmed broken on the ground.

With another furious shout he swung the pole again and left it on top of the walker before stomping over to Ian breathing heavily.

"Are you OK?"

[splendid_roman]

Ian stared, open-mouthed at Orc's reaction. It was good that he was dead, he just hadn't expected to see such anger. "I'm fine," he managed weakly after a moment. His ankle hurt like hell and he rolled the trouser leg up to look at the bleeding bite marks.

"I think it's only broken the skin. I hope none of those things can smell blood." A pack of walkers or spiders would not help things at this point. He started taking of his clothes, so he could use his tank top to bind it with.

[paidinbeer]

Orc was still looking at him sideways, like he wasn't sure what to do next.

"If that bite is like...infectious. You know like a zombie or something..." He started, but still unclear as how to ask "Do you want me to kill you"

Hopefully Ian would get the idea...if not then Orc would just play it by ear.

[splendid_roman]

"Or it could be poisonous and kill me," he said, his tone more confident than he felt. Either way, there was nothing he could do about it now. And unfortunately for Orc, Ian wasn't good at picking up subtle hints.

"I just need to bind it with something to keep the dirt out." He started stripping off, so he could get to his shirt and use part of that as a bandage.

[paidinbeer]

"Maybe we should find some other adults to help." Orc muttered scanning the horizon and finding only more shuffling monsters looming at them from a distance.

"Shepard is good people...we should find her." He suggested "Can you walk?"

Because this neighborhood was becoming increasingly unfriendly and if Ian needed to be carried Orc could do it.

[splendid_roman]

"I'm fine," he protested. But clearly binding his wound was going to have to wait. "I have a bike nearby anyway." It wouldn't carry them both, but Orc could probably run faster than he could at the moment.

He stood up, not putting any weight on his leg until he was standing. Then he tested it and winced. "I'll just limp." He hoped the approaching monsters would do wonders for his pain threshold. After all, he'd rather have a painful leg than face any more of them.

[paidinbeer]

"A bike?" somehow it seemed strange to Orc there would be a bicycle in the arena. Then again given the setting this would be the perfect place for it.

"Do you have anyone your looking for? Anyone you can count on?" Safety in numbers right? That wasn't always the case with Orc but maybe Ian would be better off with a crowd.

"I think the french guys have taken over one of the houses..." He added unhelpfully.

[splendid_roman]

"I can count on me," he said firmly, gritting his teeth and starting limping over to where he'd left the bicycle. "It's too dangerous to spend too much time with other people." Or so he believed.

Despite being friends with a couple of the Frenchmen, Ian wasn't so sure about crashing their house. Especially when he was injured and might be a hazard therefore.

"I'm better off on my own," he concluded.

[paidinbeer]

Orc sighed and breezed past him to pick up the bike in one hand and bring it to Ian so he wouldn't have to limp as far.

"No one is better off alone." He argued setting the bike down. "Even monsters need someone."

[splendid_roman]

"Thank you," he said, for the bike and sat down on it. "It won't be forever. Once I die I'll be back in the capitol and then I won't be alone any more."

[paidinbeer]

Orc seemed to chew on that idea for some time and nodded gently.

"I guess that makes sense. It's just so...sad you know?"

His voice gentle with a bit of waver to it, like this was the first time he actually felt sad for others in the arena other then himself.

[splendid_roman]

He shrugged. Maybe it was, but it would be better all around. "I don't think we have time to chat about it." He nodded over at the indistinct figures that had got closer. "Take care of yourself." He started pedalling, mostly with one foot, getting himself away from the oncoming monsters.