Seven is the magic number

::recovery

Was Steve actually going to consider his input or were they just having this conversation because he needed to keep Russell’s mind off of leaving? He isn’t sure but he doesn’t feel like asking. There’s only so much snark he can inject into a conversation before he gets bored with it . . . or before Steve decides to smack him for being ‘a little shit’.

“Probably. Depends on how it’s holding up but it had three floors and a cafeteria along with a bunch of other stuff. Pretty thick glass too.”

He starts walking towards the dead — now dead dead body and glances around. “Where are we gonna put it?” The sooner they got this done with the better.

Three floors, a cafeteria, and thick glass. That alone was pretty good, and Steve doesn’t even know what the ‘other stuff’ was. Though none of that would really matter if the state of the place was bad, which it probably was considering how quickly people liked to empty places out. Still, it would be good to at least check the place out before writing it off as a lost cause.

“Hmmm... okay.”

Steve looks around as well. “I guess moving it a bit into the treeline wouldn’t be too bad. It doesn’t have to a considerable distance away from the camp.” He looks around again. “Or we could just bury it.”

shesfuckingweird-deactivated202

❝—Poking? Who said I’d be poking..❞

#shesfuckingweird #yeah true #bopbop

"That look does not inspire confidence, poking lady.”

shesfuckingweird-deactivated202

❝If that hurts….

—-I’d hate to be your knee… ❞

Looks down and sneers.

#shesfuckingweird #bopbop #yeah I miss people too

"...”

“Don’t poke my knee please.”

shesfuckingweird-deactivated202

magicnumbersteve:

*Bop*

❝……..❞

Might have done it one more time. Only harder.

#shesfuckingweird #:P #I'm fine how are you~#bopbop

“Ow.”

shesfuckingweird replied to your post: Bops his nose.

Bops it again.

*Bop*

#shesfuckingweird #bopbop

Bops his nose.

*Bops back*

#shesfuckingweird #ask #bopbop #the image isn't loading for some reason booo

::recovery

His gaze jumps to the walker just as Steve notices it heading their direction as well. Russell sighs and folds his arms. He was in no condition to deal with walkers — not with his hands or a melee weapon. Might pull on something just right and then he’d be back at square one. Something Steve might not mind but he was in no hurry to be bedridden again.

He watches Steve stab a stick through the eye and flinches when it falls over but continues thrashing and reaching for him. Right as the stick hits the brain he looks away and only glances up from a pile of leaves when Steve picks up the conversation where they left off.

“Sure I’ll draw a map or something.”

One hand rubs over his forearm — bunching up his jacket and then smoothing it out. “It’s pretty easy to find if you know where to go.” He gestures towards the downed walker with one arm, “Shouldn’t we move it or something?”

“Hmm.”

Steve thinks Russell is being a smartass by saying that he’ll draw a map, but since Steve prefers the kid staying at camp instead of physically showing them where the center is, he decides to let the comment go. “That’s good.”

Steve looks back at the walker. “Yeah, we probably should move it.” He’d rather burn it, but smoke will attract too much attention, both of the dead and undead kind. He sighs. Why couldn’t the walkers move themselves after they died? “Do you think the center would be a good place to stay if anything were to happen to the camp?” Its always good to have more than one backup plan.

#OOC #shesfuckingweird #Steve the movie man~

When I see the commercial preview for Entourage, I think of Steve.

//Oh my god me too

::recovery

Oh shit. He didn’t know that? Trying to keep himself as low-key and un-useful as possible was not going well. Not going well at all. Russell rubs at his arms and shrugs his shoulders, “Yeah there might be.” He’s mumbling and looks at the walker in the distance rather than Steve.

Or it might bring more walkers their way but Steve was running this show so Russell doesn’t say anything. They can wait it out and see what happens.

Sharing bits of his past with Steve sounds too much like a bonding experience but there’s no way to explain how he knew about the urgent care without doing so. He takes in a breath and sighs heavily, rolling his eyes before giving in and talking about it.

“One time gran and I were driving to visit some folks. Some friend of hers — anyway she started feeling real sick and we stopped there to get her checked out. It’s kind of rural and might have been hit but it’s kind of on the edge of town anyway so . . .” He shrugs.

The scabs along his forearms are starting to itch but he doesn’t risk doing so with Steve right there.

Strange change of pace, first telling him that there was a center near by and then acting like he didn’t know for sure. Steve arches his brow. If Russell is backpedaling because he doesn’t want him to know about the place, then he’s cutting off his nose to spite his face, since Steve is sure the kid needs some pain killers still.

But he doesn’t call Russell out on it when the kid decides to explain himself. “Well then I guess- ah damn it.” The walker sees them and growls, slowly turning towards the both of them. “Hold on bro.” Steve walks toward the thing. He almost shoots it before seeing a large stick on the ground. Without breaking stride, he picks the stick up, gets a bit closer to the walker, and stabs it through it’s eye. It falls to the ground but doesn’t die right away, so Steve has to force the stick deeper into it’s head before it stops moving.

Steve stares at the thing for a moment before turning around and making his way back to Russell.

“If the people I sent out don’t come across it, then you could tell them where it is.” Or Russell can go there, accompanied with someone else of course, if they wee desperate for supplies.

#Recovery #aintnokid

::recovery

Great — sure that was a word for it. Not the one that came to mind but he knows that Steve would assume the best in this sort of case. Russell sighs to himself but doesn’t argue because it’s not going to get him anywhere other than ‘tied to a tree’ apparently. Actually, now that he was thinking about it — that might be an improvement over the current situation.

He glances down towards the knee that was now covered with some torn up fabric and shrugs. “It’s just dirt and rocks. I don’t think it’ll get much worse. 'Sides Nate would be irked if I dug into his stash.” On second thought . . . Yeah he was going to do that after he’d walked a little.

“We need more medical supplies. There’s an old urgent care center not that far from here.” Russell lifts one eyebrow, gauging Steve’s face for his reaction to the suggestion. It was subtle and it’s not like he was the one asking to go find said supplies.

“Did you send someone out to get fire wood or something?” He squints against the sunlight and gestures towards a silhouette moving through the trees. “Or is that a uh not so alive roamer?”

Steve raises his eyebrows. He knows about the lack of medical supplies, but the urgent care center? “I didn’t know there was a care center close by.” He must have missed it somehow.

Steve squints in the direction Russell gestures to. “I sent a few people scouting for some supplies, but I’m not sure that’s one of ours...” As he kept looking at it, he can’t recognize the form of the person, nor the shambling way it walks. “...Yeah that’s probably a dead guy. It might go away on it’s own after a while.” Normally it isn’t nessissary for them to waste ammo and energy on the creatures since they tend to wander off on their own. But it doesn’t hurt to keep an eye on it until goes somewhere else.

“If they come back without anything useful, I’ll tell them to go there after they rest up.” He says, occasionally taking his eyes of the zombie to look at Russell. “How did you know about the center?”

::recovery

Be good? That’s a matter of opinion but he won’t play devil’s advocate anymore. Russell bites down on his bottom lip and stares at the ground while he considers his options. If he can keep his temper in check for a little while yet then he can walk outside the camp. That might give him enough of an edge to run again.

Fuck that’s a stupid plan.

His eyes widen when Steve echoes his thoughts and he very nearly panics — thinking he’d said that aloud, but no Steve’s only continuing their conversation about what would happen if a huge group of the undead showed up. He stops walking to look in the direction he points and considers the logistics of getting to this supposed cabin. At least Steve had an idea of what to do should shit hit the fan.

“Yeah Steve I’ve got a shit ton of walker’s on speed dial to overrun this place. The fuck man? I’m just,” he trails off with a sigh and shakes his head, “never mind.” Russell couldn’t have normal conversations anymore. The others . . . they didn’t want to try and talk with him. Whenever he started to act like himself they’d shut up even more and run the other direction.

Ironic as it is Steve is the only one he can be himself around.

Within reason.

“It don’t matter anyway. You got it under control so that’s great. Everything’s . . . . great.”

“Hmm...” Nope, he did not like Russell’s tone. Not that it’s really offensive in anyway. Steve just dislikes how miserable he sounds. It wasn’t making him feel confident that he wouldn’t try to run away one day. “Yeah, everything’s been great so far.” But what was he supposed to do? Punish Russell for being upset? Because that will totally make him not want to leave more.

Of course, there was always the option of breaking the kid down until he was too submissive to leave, but there’s a limit to how much Steve is willing to push people, if for no other reason than the fact that they might break the wrong way and lead to something horrible happening. And though he’s unaware as to how bad Russell’s mental state is, he has a feeling that he shouldn’t push him too much further if he can help it.

“...You’re going to need to do more with your knee. I know you just bandaged it, but you should clean it out too. You don’t want it getting infected.” Despite the camp doing well, there currently wasn’t enough supplies that would help should anyone get sick. Though he did have a few people currently scouting for some more supplies.

::recovery

“A bit.” Russell reiterates with a roll of his eyes.

That was an understatement and then some. Nate talked nearly nonstop and when it wasn’t driving Russell insane he was kind of thankful for that change of pace. Hearing someone else talk distracted him from his own problems — namely that of not having any family left or a place to call home beyond Steve’s fucked up camp.

His face twists up when Steve implies they might do something other than sleep and he glares at him.

The weight of an arm around his shoulders slows him down and he seems to physically shrink underneath it but he keeps on walking anyway. What Steve offers next gets him to stop.

“Seriously?” Skeptic of anything Steve has to offer he doesn’t quite believe the carrot on the string is legitimate. Could be poison. “Yeah that might be alright.” It might be enough to keep him from going through with it someday. As of right now he’s only got a few scars he keeps covered up with the long sleeves and sweatshirts.

No one yet has seemed to have an issue with his choice of wardrobe.

“Do you have a plan for when the walkers show up?”

Because it wasn’t a matter of it — it was when. Also he was eager to change the topic.

#aintnokid #Recovery #[nah son you're not allowed to be that sad #is your sadness attracting zombies???#stop attracting zombies with your sad]

“Yeah, seriously.” It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. If he never lets Russell stretch out his legs away from camp, he may go crazy and do something reckless to escape. If he lets him leave like he promises, that might calm his nerves somewhat, but it may also give him a taste of freedom too tempting not to follow through. “But you have to be good if you really want it.” Ultimately though, Steve figures that it’d be better to give Russell a little leeway here and there to keep him contented enough to stay in line.

“Plan? Walkers show up all the time bro. Unless you’re referring to a horde.” He pauses, contemplating on whether he should tell Russell what he plans to do, before deciding there’s no harm in it.

“If you go a little ways in that direction;” He jabs a thumb into the distance. “There’s a cabin. It’s small, but it’ll fit all of us. Assuming we know they’re coming in advance, we’ll hold up in there until they bypass us.” He removed his arm from Russell’s shoulder and stares at the tents. “Hopefully nothing bad would happen to the tents. Maybe collapsing them before we leave would cause less damage in the long run...” He trails off for a moment.

“Anyways, why do you ask? Know something we don’t, hmm?”

::recovery

He’s glad his back is to Steve — otherwise he’d have seen Russell go ashen at the suggestion of having Nate share a tent with him. That would be way too reminiscent of when they’d been in the truck together — sleeping front to back with Nate being an ass and mouthing off against his ear. He shudders and turns back around with his arms folded in front of his chest — attempting to look as nonplussed as possible.

“If you haven’t noticed by now Nate’s the one who does most of the talking.” Russell typically kept his mouth shut while Nate would ramble on about whatever the flavor of the day was. Either women or alcohol. On occasion he’d shake it up with a random as fuck topic.

It had only been weeks and already he was starting to forget about Gran and Statesboro and the smell of charred siding.

Russell quirks one eyebrow at the threat and very nearly makes one of his own. Except it wouldn’t be a threat. He’d seriously considered it a few times. Really Steve? Because I’m ‘this close’ to finding a way to off myself.

His gaze drops to the ground, and while some things have changed — his lack of a poker face sure hasn’t. Guilt prevents him from looking back up.

#aintnokid #Recovery #[pfft #poor nerd #don't be sad nerd Russ #you can go out for walkies if you're good]

Steve smiles. “Ah yeah, he does talk quite a bit, doesn’t he?” Though Nate’s constant chatter occasionally annoyed him, for the most part he didn’t mind it. Hell, he enjoyed their conversations and talked just as much as Nate did. It wasn’t his problem if Russell didn’t appreciate the company.

"But that shouldn’t be a problem, since all you should be doing is sleeping.“ He doesn’t mean to insinuate that they might do anything other than sleeping, but for whatever reason his tone makes it sound like he is. He wrinkles his nose, not liking the mental image he inadvertently gave himself.

If he knew Russell entertained the idea of killing himself, he would be less hard on him. As much as the kid gets on his goddamn nerves, he doesn’t want the idiot to die. He needs him. But Steve doesn’t know, so he interprets Russell’s silence to mean that he did not want to be tied to a tree like a misbehaving dog.

He sighs and picks up his pace until he’s beside Russell, then places an arm over his shoulder. “I know you’re going stir-crazy, so I’ll tell you want; if you’re on your best behaviour for a little while longer, I’ll let you leave the camp grounds- with supervision- and let you walk around or whatever. Sound good bro?”

::recovery

That gives Russell pause — literally as he stops walking to look over his shoulder at Steve. “Uh huh, sure.” There’s no way Steve would actually follow through with that threat. He’s pretty sure the last place he’d want to be is stuck in the same tent with him and Russell can’t imagine spending any more time with the guy.

One of the reasons he’ll never admit to leaving is that he was afraid of turning into them — of no longer caring and just going with the flow of things and giving into status quo. He shivers and picks up the pace, practically feeling Steve’s presence behind him.

He kneels down and reaches in for his backpack, digging through the few medical supplies he had left over from getting his ass kicked. One bandage later and he was practically good as new.

“Maybe I’m bored of being stuck in the camp and keep saying ‘shit like that’ just to see what you’ll do.” Russell points out, voice monotone as he turns around and looks at Steve.

#aintnokid #Recovery #[gdi Russell #stop sassing Steve #you're going to get smacked upside the head]

You little shit, Steve grumbles in his head. “Well, if you object to me staying with you, then I’m sure Nate wouldn’t mind sharing a tent with you for a while. You can talk about old times and how much of a prude you are, or whatever it is you two talk about when I’m not around.”

Despite having concerns about his own well being should he decide to bunk up with Russell, he doesn’t think Nate would be at any risk if the trucker were the one to stay with the kid. Not that it was hard to believe so, since he was speaking hypothetically and therefore there was no real danger in anyone’s part. But if Russell tried to escape again, then having someone sleep in the same tent as him would have to be a reality.

“Hmm?” Steve isn’t sure how he feels about Russell apparently goading him for a reaction. The temptation to smack him across the back of the head intensifies. He refrained again because if he didn’t, Russell might stop talking to him about wanting to leave, and it was better for the kid to have that out in the open instead of internalizing it and giving Steve a false sense of security.

“I am so close to just tying you up to a tree or some shit.”

xdiscessum-deactivated20150914

❝Then why even have him around if he’s so defiant? A good leader keeps their members in check, you know, I mean, you’re making it a little too obvious you’re playing favourites. ❞

❝….But who am I to tell you what to do, or how to run things. After all, I ran away from my own group cause the guy was a total asshole. to everyone.❞