I love to role-play and have role played for several years.. Furthermore, I love to role play with multiple partners, as it adds more interest and opportunity to a story. I prefer to play with people who will be descriptive and post paragraphs at a time, but it most certainly isn’t a requirement! Don’t shy away from me because my posts might be a little lengthy. I would ADORE someone to jump in on this and write a story together with me. There are no requirements…If you feel like playing, simply post a response which continues the story from your own character’s perspective.

Please keep content clean and interesting. If you want more than one character, it’s perfectly acceptable for you to play more than one. After all, a story gets awfully boring if it only has two characters to help develop it! Let’s go!

((On a side note, why can't I center just part of the post? Am I doing something wrong? Do I have to actually use formatting tags in order to do that?))
 
Trish stood in place, only an empty gaping hole in the place that her heart used to be. She had heard the phrase concerning a person's heart feeling as though it was in the pit of the stomach, and yet she felt like her heart had been completely ripped from her chest. She still remembered it: the confusion and frantic running in the hallways; the way the windows shook as hail battered the worn glass and even broke a few panes of glass; and worst of all were the news stations. The newsman themselves seemed completely confused by what was taking place and they stumbled through a few hastily written notes, trying to let their viewers catch a glimpse of what was going on all over the world.

"Reports of....natural disasters..." The bad connection would fuzz out the words and help hide the panic in the anchors' eyes. "Wrecking the cities...." More static, and during this pause Trish's co-workers were already grabbing up their phones. Little beeps could be heard as numbers were hastily dialed out to check on loved ones.

Trish, unfortunately, had only been able to stare at the screen in horror, unable to process the news fast enough to pick up a phone and dial it. Her cell phone wasn't charged, but in the confused myriad of her thoughts, she hadn't even considered reaching down to the office phone that sat a comfortable arm length away.

And now, after several days of feverish walking, she stood gaping at the crevice in the ground that used to be her house. The land had been so severely ripped apart that it was not traversable by vehicle. She had almost thrown her keys to the ground in pained frustration before remembering that she would still have to get into the house....if her house was there. She remembered tucking the keys away into her pocket before the mad dash out of town, and now the keys weighed in her pocket like some kind of angry, cruel joke at her expense

She shakily sat down on a nearby barrel, covering her face with her hands as her breath and hands both trembled. A house she could stand the loss of, but Serenity? Serenity, her younger sister who had so much promise in her, was now nowhere to be found. Serenity, her last living family member had been swallowed up in the gaping mouth of earth before her. It was almost too much for Trish to handle and her fingers dug a bit into the skin above her eyes. Why hadn't she taken Serenity to work with her?

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She couldn't cry...not now. She pictured her father on his death bed.... recalled the way he had taken her hand and used the last bit of his strength to give her hand a squeeze. "Be strong....," he had told her. "Always be strong." This was the moment he was talking about and she knew it. Sitting here and crying wasn't going to do her any good. It wasn't going to bring Serenity up out of that pit.

So Trish used every last bit of her strength and got to her feet. Forcing herself to keep her eyes open, she surveyed the land around her. The walk here had been a hard one. She re-called how -loud- it had been. In some places, she had heard wailing for hours, people sobbing at the loss of their property, livelihood, and families. In other places, it had been the silence that was so loud. Her farm was one of those places. Having lived in the big city for most of their lives, her parents had decided they did not want their children to be around the influence of drugs, crime, and a rampant lack of morals. They had packed their belongings and headed to a small farm at the southernmost tip of the country. The farm was located outside a forest and there were no other houses for miles around.

It was exactly this reason that Trish knew she couldn’t stay here. With power out, people upset and confused, and police overwhelmed, looting and bad behavior was bound to take place everywhere. Those who were smarter would head straight for places of supply…. Such as her farm.
Maybe sweet Serenity had realized this and already left? She had a hard time imagining it, but she had to. A sudden sense of hope filled her being and gave her even more strength. Yes…. Serenity must have left. All she had to do was head back to town and find Serenity. Maybe Serenity had already made it there, seen Trish was not, and then headed back. Maybe Trish was wasting time by sitting here and feeling sorry for herself.

With this new thought, Trish moved quickly. She needed to gather whatever supplies she could. Allowing her eyes to sweep over the landscape, it was hard to maintain that outer and inner strength. Planks of wood, cinder bricks, and general rubble littered the premises of their land and even their sturdy and age-tested barn was in pieces on the ground. She couldn’t even fathom how much of their livestock had been killed or run off, so she instead concentrated on the animals that had wandered back, searching for the familiarity they felt from the farm. They grazed on the tall grasses, skirting any debris below their feet.

Yes, looters would certainly head this way.

Trish made her way to one of the property’s many sheds, moving wood and shingles out of the way to rummage what she could. Luckily, she was able to salvage some rope, a small canteen, a saddle, and a burlap sack. It was enough to start a trip and manage supplies, so she hung the sack and rope over her shoulder and headed towards a stray horse.

The dapple gray animal was of course, quite skittish. With a great deal of effort, Trish was able to coax the animal near enough to get a rope around its neck and once under her hand, the beautiful animal was quite content to be saddled up. Trish counted herself lucky…. at least this horse was one of the tamer varieties. Trish had to count any blessing that came her way.

Once she had the animal secured to a tree, it was time to rummage around for any type of food she could manage. Her farm mainly consisted of wheat and unfortunately, raw wheat was not of much use unless she wanted to manual grain it into flour, use some kind of paste to turn the flour into dough, and then use a fire to bake it into bread. Such a process would require a ridiculous amount of wheat anyways and so there was no sense in even considering it. However, perhaps once the farm had been rummaged through it would be worth the time to return and try to set up a camp here.

But what would she be returning for? With a small sigh, she plucked as many ripe apples as she could fine, standing on her tip toes to gather them. Every minute sound was one to cause concern. Wind rustling the leaves, a twig being cracked by the weight of the horse, a soft sigh from her own lips…. Every sound caused her heart rate to rise.

She remembered it. The day she realized she had to take care of her little sister forever. She stood at her father’s bed side as he took his last breathe, tears streaming down her face. What would she do now? She wanted to collapse and never get back up, but a small hand slipped into hers and a timid, frightened voice called out.

“Trish?” Serenity had asked in a quiet, tearful voice. Trish couldn’t bear to answer, but Serenity was aware of that. “Trish is…. Is he gone?”
The tiny hand in hers had given a squeeze, and Trish looked down into Serenity’s pale blue, sightless eyes.

“Yes Serenity.” She had mustered. Serenity had only been eight years old, while Trish had been 14. Both of their worlds completely ripped away from them, it was almost impossible to see any sign of hope. However, in all her youth and optimism, Serenity was the symbol of strength at that moment.

“So he’s not in pain any more.” A small, strained smile had spread across her lips, and Trish burst into tears, getting to her knees and wrapping her arms tightly around her younger sister, holding her close. Words weren’t needed at that moment.

After a good while of relieving tears, Trish moved her mouth closer to Serenity’s ear, whispering. “You’re all I have now… I’ll never leave you, I promise.”

Trish had to wipe away an angry tear. She heard a noise behind her and her back stiffened as she whirled around to find the cause. A rabbit moved around in the underbrush, but Trish knew the sound couldn’t have come from something so small.

“Hello?” she called out, and for one torturous moment, Trish imagined Serenity, now 15 years old, rushing out of the bushes to greet her.
She should have known better. The hairs on the back of her neck rose and she took a step nearer to the woods, to show that she was not afraid.

“I’ve got a gun,” she boldly fibbed as she slowly bent her knees and crouched on the ground. Her hands blindly groped for a stick on the ground while her eyes sought the source of the noise. Right as her fingers closed around a stick, someone leapt out of the tree line. Trish was so shocked that her eyes didn’t even have time to take in the gender or size of her attacker. However, her ears registered his voice. “Give me those!” he burst out, and in a moment they were both tumbling on the ground, several punches landing into the soft space between Trish’s ribs. The man made a grab for her sack of apples, and Trish knew in that moment that she could be in a life or death situation.

“Let go! Unf!” she cried out, wrestling to keep a grip both on the sack and on her stick. She hailed the stick down on his back, trying in panic to at least distract the man and make him grab for the stick wielding arm. It worked, and one of his hands soon had a meaty grip on her wrist to stop her from hitting hm. This left only one hand free to either throw more punches or try for the apples, and the man decided to have a go at the apples.

This of course gave Trish nothing to do with her hands, so she kicked out at the man and tried to use her elbows to gain the upper hand.
“Let go, girly!” he growled at her, and he jerked his head forward, trying to butt heads with her. He instead made contact with her nose, causing a bout of pain to run into her body and her vision to be momentarily blurred. The sack was taken from her hand and she was still recovering from the chock of her nose being smashed by the strength of the larger man.

“Those are mine!” she managed to get out as the man stood to his feet, and she swept her leg out with all her might in an attempt to bowl him over. There was an odd noise and Trish had a hard time reasoning through what had happened. The sweep of her leg had caused the man to fall, but he was no longer in her vision and yet she could hear his cry of pain. Surely she wasn’t strong enough to injure him badly enough that he would cry out!

The adrenaline still pumping through her body, she shakily got to her feet, holding her nose and still on the ready for an attack. She could hear the man still… but she could not see him. Stepping forward cautiously, she gasped and stepped back. Before her was the large pit her and Serenity had started to dig three years ago for a new well. They had abandoned the project once their pit had become 13 feet deep and still didn’t draw up any water, but Trish had completely forgotten about its existence.

Her assaulter was groaning, his leg twisted in a fashion that could only mean it was broken. He wasn’t knocked out, but merely trying to re-asses his situation, and he spied her peering over the top.

“Stay right there girly.. you’ve asked for it!” He let out a small roar, getting to his feet in anger, and yelling as he tried to work through the pain. He looked around for a grip on the well wall and found one. “I’m comin’ for ya!” he exclaimed.

Trish knew she couldn’t fight him. He was at least twice as strong as her, and she was all alone. She turned around to flee when she noticed the bag of apples. Some deity must have been smiling down on her, for the sack had JUST caught on the edge of the well, hanging from the edge in a precarious position. The man seemed to see it at the same time she did, and he made a swipe for it.

He was too late, and Trish quickly had the sack back over her shoulder. Resisting the urge to boast her triumph, she turned on her heels and dashed towards the dapple gray. She had enough apples to last her several days, and right now staying here was more dangerous than risking a few hungry days until she could find more food.

She scrambled up onto the horse, his tail swishing lazily as though he had not a care in the world for the skirmish that had taken place. Untying the rope from the tree branch, she nudged the horse into a gallop, using her hand to swat his rear into a more frenzied gallop. She didn’t know where she was going or even what she would do…. She knew only that she had to get away. As the wind swept her hair back and she passed desolate mile by desolate mile, she couldn’t help but picture those steel gray eyes of the black haired man that had attacked her. She shuddered, and not because it was cold.

Awake.
He looked around, blurried vision scanning the desolated house. Something wet, sticky streamed from his arm. He coughed, slowly getting up. Brushing the debris off of his clothes, he noticed a red stain coming from the wet, sticky feeling. It was growing larger. Name. Where did that come from? What exactly was a name? His brain was muddled, he didn't know, he couldn't know. He stumbled past another person, down on the floor, crushed beneath rock and stone, a pile of debris.

He stepped out of the skeleton of the house he once lived in. Live? What was living?

The neighborhood was burning. As he tried to figure out what a neighborhood exactly was, smoke clogged his lungs. People ran out, screamed, blood, all the blood and soot, screaming, stinging. His vision was clearer now, but his mind was muddled, and a queer feeling had started in his stomach.

An impact crashed behind him. He looked to see a car bursting in a guyser of flame. What was a car? A guyser? Flame? He didn't know, he couldn't know, mind was muddled, stomach hurting. "Go." Thought. "GO!" It was an action now, as he slowly stumbled out of the screaming, the burning.

The rest of the town fared worse. What was worse? He didn't have time to ponder as another explosion sounded. Something cut him. He wasn't sure, still muddled, still hurt, keep going, don't stop... The screams, crashes, running, running, all the while he was stumbling, the feeling, screaming, screaming...


And then he was suddenly on the highway. What time was it? How long did it take? What's time, what's highway? His lips felt chapped, his body weak. He groaned. The red stain still grew, and more red was dripping from his rib. And that's when he saw the horse.


(I know this is old thread but COMEON GUYS I WANNA RP. ;n

As I stood out side of my wrecked home I wondered why this happened? Why did this happen to me? A neighbor yelled to me "John, why don't you come here. I have a small tent that you can use... I don't have any room in my house, because I only have one room left... Can I help you in any other way?" I stood there confounded, " why would he offer this to me? What is this guy trying to do?" I answered aloud "Sure, thank-you for offering."
   After I set up the tent I set out to look for a new abode, and I tried to find one in the woods... While I was walking I remembered all the un-natural disasters, all the destruction, the death and the pillaging there was. How will I survive? What will I do? There were only one-hundred people left in the city that used to house thousands... I finally found a place that I could use. I ran through the house I found, and found money, food, a generator, and destroyed sheds, and barns...
To be continued...