Nora Crawford #072

Nora Crawford. Twenty Three. Hunter

[oldmanschwartz-deactivated20140]

Reiner had been watching Nora since she wandered into the mess hall. He had already eaten his own food and was now nursing a cup of black coffee when he watched her body twitched and tense to signal a nightmare before finally waking up with a jump and a loud enough scream others looked at her. Reiner would be lying if he said he was surprised by the action; he had men under his command that did the same thing. High amounts of stress where you fear for your life almost daily and seen things most wouldn’t dream of seeing can make it hard to sleep at night sometimes. 

Huffing loudly, the sound more like a warning growl  to draw the few eyes to himself as he stood, Reiner pulled himself up and collected his cup and plate to walk over to Nora and sit at her table in front of her. Reiner had learned long ago people stared at his intimidating form, so he could provide the slight kindness to take attention away from Nora. “You doing ok?”

[noracrawfordx]

Nora looked around a bit discombobulated before being embarrassed by her actions. She was the one who they looked to for strength and guidance and she was getting a fucking nightmare. This is not how life worked. Nightmares had plagued her ever since the walkers had came to life but that was a secret she kept to herself. Half the time she didn't sleep at night and the only way to get a good sleep sometimes was to get drunk off her ass and to pass out in her bed. Even then she woke up covered in sweat, screaming at the imaginary geeks inside of her head.

She heard the warning grown, raising an eyebrow as she looked over at Reiner. She didn't need protection. Looking up, she met Reiner's gaze and nodded, "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

[noracrawfordx]

-Nora had fallen asleep at the table as she tried to eat something, taking a break from the wall. Suddenly she woke up with a slight scream and a startle, realizing that she had another nightmare- Fuck. -she murmured, realizing where she was and some people were staring-

[oldmanschwartz-deactivated20140]

"You would be surprised how short their attention span is when they smell fresh blood close to them." Reiner replied, taking back his gloves and putting them over his bound hands. He flexed his hands to test how much flexibility he had before zipping up his coat all the way to his neck. "Even if it isn’t all of them, getting some numbers away from the wall can prove to help." Reiner replied, pulling up his scarf so that it covered the bottom half of his  face. 

[noracrawfordx]

"Fine. I'll wrap them." She muttered, moving to the back of the wall and pulling out a first aid kid. As she began to wrap up her hands, she raised an eyebrow, "And now how will we get them away from the wall?"

[its-alex-thompson]

I shouldn’t have yelled. You don’t need it. You’re just as stressed out as everyone else. -He goes to grab the creates from the corner-

[noracrawfordx]

I know. I understand why you're yelling though. -moves into a closet and starts to bring out some things to pack the buses up with- I'm trying to be strong. I really am.

[its-alex-thompson]

-Alex gently moved the child who was sitting in his lap on to the floor and stood up, leading her towards the kitchen to get her some food- You need to rest and clean up before you go out there. You look dead on your feet.

[noracrawfordx]

Most of us are and there are no signs of it stopping. I don't have time to rest. -smiles at him slightly- Oh come, I can't look that bad.

[nhlthots]

[Now that she was awake, Keltie was noticing how bad the soldiers from outside looked. She frowned slightly as Nora walked by, almost unrecognizable, covered in gore. Biting down on her lip against the bile, Keltie rummaged through her bag, figuring she and Nora were about the same size and pulled out some fresh clothes. She walked over to the other girl, holding her breath, and held out the pile of clothes.] You can’t rest in that.

[noracrawfordx]

-Glances over at her, looking at the clean clothes in her hands and smiles slightly- Thanks. These should work but they're only going to get ruined once I get back out there. I don't mind the dirt. I just need some food, maybe some water.

[its-alex-thompson]

-Alex was sitting on the floor with a few young kids who were playing cards when Nora walked it. He looked up at her as she walked by. She looked just as bad, if not worse, as Reiner did when he came in earlier that day- It’s nice to see that you’re still alive.

[noracrawfordx]

-Nora smiled slightly over at him, her lips slightly chapped- It's nice to be still alive. I could use some water and food if you've got any to spare. I need to get back out there.

[noracrawfordx]

-Nora walked into the mess hall after spending days on the wall, feeling like the walking dead. She was covered in zombie guts, her hands were bleeding through her bandages and she needed a few hours away. Maybe to get some sleep and some food in her stomach-

[oldmanschwartz-deactivated20140]

"They are getting attracted to the blood on your hands." He replied, whistling crisply to the other guards. "OI!! Cover your open wounds!! Gloves, fabric, tape, anything you got!!" Reiner’s own hands were covered in skin tight gloves from his military days, so he didn’t need to worry about it.

"Unless you have a better idea, Nora, you all need to be as invisible as possible." Reiner pulled off his skin tight gloves and offered them to Nora before he started binding his hands expertly. "Don’t tear those; those are real Prada." Reiner joked, flashing the woman a playful grin despite the dark atmosphere.

[noracrawfordx]

"They've seen us. There isn't anything we can do." Nora sighed, looking at the gloves he offered her. "I won't be able to shoot with those. Keep them. I'll bind my hands myself. There is a first aid kit here somewhere." She fought the urge to roll her eyes at his joke, she didn't think he was funny.

[oldmanschwartz-deactivated20140]

Reiner worked his jaw as he thought, the joint popping slightly as he did. His brow furrowed and he looked down at Nora’s hands, seeing they were all cut and bleeding from being raw and working with the pole. Reiner glanced down the wall and saw there was a larger number of guards in this sections (not a bad thing). If their hands were like Nora’s, the smell of fresh blood would attract the walkers. 

"You need to cover your wounds on your hands." Reiner replied curtly. "That’s the first step."

[noracrawfordx]

"And how are we doing to do that?" Nora knew what he was thinking but while Nora's hands were pretty bad, she knew most of the people on the wall were experiencing the same thing. "I can't shoot with my hands wrapped." She continued, "There has to be another way."

[noracrawfordx]

[oldmanschwartz-deactivated20140]

Reiner laughed at Nora’s reply. “I’m old, not senile!” He joked, stepping around the girl to move her to her other side. “We need to either lure them away or find a way to spread them out to make it more manageable.” Reiner stated, his voice taking on the same of a officer as he slipped into his past ranking. “We allow them to keep batting at this side and the wall will fall.”

[noracrawfordx]

"And how do you suppose we do that? We have everyone around the wall and they are spreading out on their own." She didn't even bother looking as she let another arrow fly, sending it into the top of the head of a zombie. "They just naturally come to this side."

[oldmanschwartz-deactivated20140]

Reiner moved his way down the wall, swinging his own metal spike with a sickening crack against a zombie's head to send it back to the ground as he walked his way to Nora. "Too much of a risk." He replied simply, his eyes dancing around the clustering zombies. With the fire, it would only make it harder to fight them close hand. And if they breached the wall they would hand a flame threat as well. "We need to lure them away from the wall." Reiner replied, his eyes dancing at the forest.

[noracrawfordx]

Nora shook her head, "Don't you dare get off this wall. It'll be a death wish. We'll figure out a way." She quickly stuck her pole into two more heads before handing it off. "Move quicker or I'll find someone in the mess hall who can do your job better then you." She commanded the boy, moving back to her bow and arrows. Shooting a few zombies down as they walked. 

[oldmanschwartz-deactivated20140]

Even with the wall groaning under the numerous zombies against it, and how people were slowly becoming overwhelmed by the waves of the undead, Reiner still had yet to show any signs of faltering. But what did come about was the soldier side of him. He quickly started helping people, taking up their weight and ordering them to go bind their blistering hands and quickly replenish their energy with water and food in small quick shifts. Reiner may not be respected yet amongst others, but the way he held him self with authority, power, and calmness quickly had others following what he said. 

Reiner whistled to Nora. “How you doing, Nora!?” He called, moving towards her. The soldier had shedded his hunting rifle and instead stocked up on close range weapons. Where his rifle was he had two machetes strapped to his back. 

[noracrawfordx]

"I'm fine," She shouted back him, shooting another arrow and hitting a zombie before looking at the person beside her with a pole and rolling her eyes. "Give this to me," She snapped, not meaning to be mean but there was so much to do on the wall and people were beginning to get exhausted. "Go take a break," Nora commanded before beginning to knock in some zombie heads. "The bodies are piling and giving the zombies more and more room to get to the top of the wall. I think we should try to burn them." She turned to the older, much more experienced man next to her. Forgetting everything that was said previously, "What do you think? I think the wall could withstand it."

[noracrawfordx]

They had finally made it to the center of the herd where most of the zombies were approaching them. Nora had never seen this many zombies in her life and she was nervous as it appeared that the group of zombies coming out of the woods would never stop. Handing out long poles, she ordered a few people to work along the walls and run the pole through the heads of the undead. Nora stood along the wall, covered in zombie guts and she did her best to quickly shoot out as many zombies as she could before they approached the wall. The wall itself was shaking and she was exhausted from shooting for hours without a break, her hands were blistering and sore.

[n-ar-cissus]

"You’re still trying to protect me. Real or not real," he whispers. "Real," I answer. "Because that’s what you and I do, protect each other." 

[melodyofmay]

[claytonjennings]

Clay nodded slowly, “Yeah, I guess.” He watched as she shot another zombie and then focused on killing a couple more before he replied to her. “I hope not us. They should get all the people in the mess hall to come clean up afterwards.” He chuckled and he couldn’t stop himself from smirking as he imagined Daph having to help pile up dead zombies. “I’m a bit concerned about the ammo, I mean… we’re not sure how many are coming. I’m just hoping that everyone here can actually get a zombie’s head with only one shot.”

[noracrawfordx]

Nora laughed, "Somehow I don't see that happening either. Since most of the people back at the mess hall are women and children. Knowing my luck, I'm at the top of the list. I bet Doc would want some for experiments at least." She took another shot, "Well, if it gets to be too much. I know Henry stocked the wall with poles so we can always just go for the head as zombies reach for us at the wall."