"So now we have a live explosive device that could kill us all? Maybe we should just put it behinf those trees over there and get rolling. It would be embarissing to be killed by our own folly, when we've survived everyone else trying to so far."

Johnny eyed the device excitedly, but he was also kind of anxious.

"I think we should keep it... Against my better judgment. Who knows when a large explosive with a remote detonator could come in handy?" Johnny said, Throwing the suggestion out to the group.

OCC- The hell is the next murder???
It's been over a week... Just wanting to know.

Gremlin grinned and nodded vigourously. "It goes pop! We keep it, we make zombies go pop! Good, yes? Gremlin find somewhere to put the detonator where it not be fiddled with." The excitement of explosives was making his sentences even more peculiar than usual.

Night fell upon the group and they turned in. The matter of the bomb was thought to have been settled. Gremlin would try to either find or make a detonator for the device and turn it into a particularly convenient weapon against anything they encountered, living or dead. However, as the group fell to sleep, a figure was seen outside the bus. Dressed in crudely fashion desert gear, the figure walked around to the front of the vehicle and propped open the hood. Their fingers worked quickly on the device, tearing open the thin packaging and unscrewing the case. The device was simple enough, an ignition system comprised of an incendiary fuse and a radio was fed into a large flask of jet fuel. The tinkering shadow seemed dissatisfied with the device however. "The Hegemon knows how to keep his men in line. This thing could have sent any mutinous crew up in flames."

Carefully prying the fuse from the device. The mechanic unwound some of the tape holding the device together. They slid under the bus and crawled towards the fuel tank. A scrap of salvaged duct-tape held the fuse firmly on the bottom of the tank. "Once they get that engine revved up, the fuse will ignite and burn through the thin metal of the tank, then 'KABOOM!', no more damn survivors. Maybe then I can focus on what really matters. One way or another, that Hegemon is going to win, and I'd better be on his good side."

The killer returned to the bus and fell asleep near the other passengers.

When morning finally came, Gremlin did a final inspection of the bus. The bomb was nowhere to be found. He reasoned it must have degraded and fell apart. The other survivors gathered around the bus while taking a break from their scavenging to watch Gremlin bring the beast to life. The killer watched this with a disappointed grin. "Ah well, one's better than none." they thought. Gremlin finished hotwiring the vehicle and the engine began to hum. He triumphantly honked the horn and shifted into first gear. The bus lumbered forwards in a victory lap, sputtering around the survivors. As he began to turn, the bus exploded in a brilliant orange blossom. Fuel covered shards of metal and glass were sent streaming through the air. Rain ducked as a scrap of the steering column streaked past his head. The survivors looked on in terror as the bus continued to roll along. A roughly humanoid shape now lolled outside the window, its features bloodied and burnt. Now it seemed they were truly alone in the desert

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Now you've got to walk if you want to survive. Your only hope is to make it to Vegas before you all starve to death. Oh, and you might want to find out who killed your beloved Gremlin. That's a bit important too.

OOC: Bugger. Oh well, bout time I had a string of bad luck. And lets face it, exploding in a Purple Monstrosity is a cool way to go!

"God effing damn it!" Al screamed. He had been all but certain that the killer was still among them, and now the bastard had taken down their de facto leader.

"Alright, now we've got two major problems. Our murderous friend is still among us, for one. Another is that we've gotta find another way to get to Veg-"

A paranoid streak started to run through the man, random facts that he'd picked up finally colliding together in what he believed to be the answer to one of the problems. "Johnny! Is there something you wanna tell me?"

"Shit! Gremlin!" Rain yelled stagering to his feet.
He looked around the group.

"Is everyone alright?!"

"Motherf**cker!! That was our ticket outta' here!" Stompy exclaimed as he saw the Purple Monstrosity erupt into a fireball. "Damnit! Damn them all!"

After calming down, Stompy decided to find all the supplies that hadn't been loaded up, and placed them in a pile. "Right, this is what we have left. It also seems that we now have to walk." Stompy stated, kicking the ground in rising anger.

"I suggest we move for now, and tonight, we lynch the killer, who is still with us. Just a suggestion, but I think we need to move away from here, and quick. And, if we're moving, then the killer's chance to strike is a little lower, as they have to focus of surviving too."

"So the killer is still here? I thought we killed him? But we were wrong the first few times. But first I think we should grab the last remaining bits of our stuff and get outta here. There's a soon to be swarming hoard of zombies about to come after us."

OCC: for a minute there I thought we might have actually got him you know, how many of us are there left anyway?

Bradley stared at the flaming bus as it rolled, it was a reminder that the clock was ticking, his own death was ever closer and he was wondering if there was any chance of outrunning it.

"Anyone notice how zombies seem to have become the least of our worries, were doing just fine killing each other" he said whilst still staring at the bus.

Johnny saw the bus explode and immediately dropped to the ground.
he had said to just find a different transportation, there were plenty around, why did no one listen why was the bus such a good idea to everyone. Sitting on the compacted dirt of the side of the road, Johnny looked up and down the lines of the cars. The sun glinting off of the cracked and dusty windscreens. The flames were high into the air within seconds and the smoke pouring off of them was alarmingly large and noticeable. After a good few minutes of mutterings, cursings and silence, Johnny lifted his had and stood up.

"We need to move. Now. The burning bus is a large beacon to the hegmon, they will already suspect that something is amiss because we killed their men, now they know for sure that at least something has happened." Said Johnny his voice cracking and broken. It seemed like only a few days ago that gremlin and him had been sitting on the roof talking about life.

"We need to move, we can't do anything for him," Johnny said, nodding his head towards the bus," The best thing to do now is to leave, we need to pack up our stuff and just leave. I don't trust the cars anymore, we will have to go by foot." Johnny continued, picking up his gear and shouldering it.

Everyone just looked at him.

"Look," said johnny getting angry, tears were forming in his eyes," I'm leaving, I'm not going to stand around and wait to die, gremlin wouldn't of wanted us to die, that's why he tried so hard to get us out of this. I've got a compass and I know generally which direction LA is in, I plan to take a walk across the desert, it's not very far away. Is anyone coming with me?" Johnny finished, wiping at his eyes.

Johnny turned and walked over to the supplies they had left, Picking up a few ration packs from the army base and several bottles of water. Turning, he waited for a response from the rest of them.

As the fireball consumed the bus Laura stood in apparent disbelief, lips slightly parted and fingers trembling. A sheet of purple metal careened just inches away from her feet, and she pulled back and started stumbling backwards. She fell to the ground and sat there, watching the smoke climb. When Rain called out she finally spoke, "I'm alright. I- I think everyone's alright. Gremlin..." She got to her feet and brushed the dust (and ash) off herself before walking over to the group. "We need to leave, and soon," she looked at Johnny, "but we lost a lot of resources on that bus, and we can't afford to take a murderer along with us."

"Laura, I know that we can't bring a murder along with us, but we have to move, now! The exploding bus is, as Johnny said, a beacon for not only those cultist guys, but zombies. We'll have to deal with the murderer later, when we're far away from the site." Stompy said as he was packing up supplies for the journey.

"We've lost too many people here. I'd not like this place to be my burial ground, if I have a corpse left. We need to move out, and soon." With his voice getting louder, Stompy found a pack pack, placed as many supplies as he could into the bag, and said "Look, we'll decide what to do as we pack up for moving out. It'll save time when we actually have to move out. How about that?" posed Stompy.

Johnny looked at the sun, then at his watch, Quarter past noon. Wiping his brow with the back of his hand he shouldered the pack that was sitting on the ground. Johnny shaded his eyes and looked at the rest of the group, Stompy was packing things next to him, he understood the urgency of the situation as much as Johnny did. After all the orienteering Johnny had done as a child and the amount of camping he had been through, Johnny knew that at any moment they hegmon could be swooping in from all sides.
Looking off into the distance, it seemed as if little jutting piece of rock or ground seemed to look like it was moving towards them, like a car of angry men with guns. Johnny shook his head, the heat must be getting to him. Putting the second strap of his old rucksack around his arm, he also placed a bottle of water in his pocket, his pants slipping slightly.

"Move it guys, Really, I'm leaving within the hour, I actually know what i'm doing with this, Pointing to the compass in his hand," I hate to rain on your parade, but every minute you waste is possibly one of the last you'll have." Johnny said, his eyes darting back to the horizon.

Raising the compass on his palm, he pointed his hand straight out in front of him.
he sighed and shook it, the blast had flicked dirt and sand up under the protective case.

After fiddling with it for a bit, he got a result.
"Look guys, I think that La is that way, pointing out across the desert. It shouldn't be too far, we did most of the traveling on the trucks. But then again, Galt knew pretty much everything, so for all we know we could be somewhere completely different." Johnny said to no one in particular, his voice trailing off. " We should head that way anyway, I'm sure I can see some type of building or structure a ways off, it's small." Johnny continued, Placing the scope of his rifle to his eye, his hand throbbing where the fingers had been severed.

"Yeah, it's something at least, it's too far off to tell what it is... What do you guys think we should do?" Johnny said, his voice wavering when he realised that he was trying to get people to follow his directions, even though he himself was sure about the proper direction.

Since the Purple Monstrosity's destruction and Gremlin's death haz had been unusually quiet. During the group's packing Shaz said, apparently to no one, "I think we should go in a route slightly diagonal to Las Vegas for a while. The zombies will probably still be more numerous in the cities for a while so the majority coming for the smoke will be coming from Las Vegas. We'll miss most of them if we don't go straight for Sin City for a while."

"One of us probably has maps of the area- we'll need to look at those to plan our route to Vegas." He began, when he finally realized what Johnny had said. "No Johnny, we're not going to try to go into LA. And you're staying with us. You've got some explaining to do."

OOC: I think I remember Galt saying we rolled through the state, therefore placing us in Utah. And with my characters vast experience on the roads (band tours and such) she'll know what's going on.

Laura watched Stompy finish packing abruptly. He looked around a bit, and she looked at him and answered what he hadn't asked, "Most of our supplies were on the bus already, there isn't much left to take." She climbed on top of a nearby heap of car and viewed the landscape as people talked. She cleared her throat and everyone looked up at her. She then declared in a loud, clear voice "That appears to be Zion Canyon over to our left. So making an estimation, on foot we'd probably get to St. George in 10 hours. 12 if we take a detour off the I-15 in an attempt shake anyone coming to get us. If we can get a car in town it'll only take us about 2 hours to get to Vegas. If not, it's about 13 hours to Mesquite and then 26 more to Vegas." She hopped off. "Now if Johnny here wants to avoid the highway and roads, the best plan is probably to go south to the Grand Canyon and follow the river to Las Vegas. We won't have small towns to get supplies from, but I suppose we could" she smiled a bit "live off the land." She chuckled quietly and then added, "The Grand Canyon route will be over a day walking though, and I don't know where'd we sleep."

She felt suddenly useful. She'd been to a lot of concerts in Las Vegas, she knew it well.

[Stompy for lynched! And Gremlin was the best character!]

OOC: I go for Stompy too. He's too calm about it all.

IC: Rain began to trudge forward. 'One foot infront of the other' he though to himself. Laura seemed to know where everyone was going. 'Fuck this is stupid. Why does somebody want to hunt us? Was it for that smashed computer part back at the base? Were we apart of something going on?'

OOC: Voting for Pie to lynch. The methods of murder all add up.

Johnny turned to al.

"I have explaining to do? Are you joking?" Johnny said, staring the other man down.

"Why would I need to explain anything? eh? If you're accusing me of killing gremlin, you've got to be joking. Gremlin was perhaps the closest thing I had to a friend, Yes I know that's sad, but friends are kind of scarce when we are situated it what can only be described as the APOCALYPSE! Why would I kill the only person that has had positive social contact with me? That would be stupid to say the least. But I love how you you immediately jump to the conclusion that I did it. So shut your stupid face before I cut it off and let me do what I want." Johnny said, his voice getting louder towards the end.

"So just get lost and leave me alone." Johnny mumbled, turning back towards the pile of supplies.

OOC: PurpleRain, we should probably wait for Johnny to decide if we're sticking to the highway or not. Also, can everyone voice their suspicions and maybe give reasons why? So far nobody's said anything.

Well, I believe I don't know enough about this lynching business to start voting. And I have no theories as to who did it.

Stompy noticed, while packing, that both Killion and Purple were staring at him, angry glances that screamed "You did it, didn't you?"

"Right, I've had enough!" Stompy exclaimed, not being able to take it after a while. "I'm not the murderer. I just wanna pack up, and get away from here. Call me crazy, but we've had nothing but trouble since we got here; it's bad luck. So, can we please focus up on packing up and getting out, instead of planning on who we're killing next? You know, so we don't starve to death while pointing the finger" Stompy was flushed, and his throat was sore.

He would readily admit that he didn't feel any emotional loss with the death of Gremlin, but that would be because he didn't know the person too well. "Look," he sighed, "we can start lynching after we leave. Please. I'd like to not die here, on this accursed soil. How about it?" Stompy asked slowly. He knew that there was a strong chance he would be lynched, and was scared about it, but he also had a stronger urge; to keep moving.

"I'm not saying you did do it Stompy, but I don't think I want to trust you anymore. My trust for most of you is growing thinner when it should be getting stronger in this type of world."

"I'm surprised you trusted me Rain. I thought in this world, trust was a lot more fickle and rarer to obtain." Stompy said stoically, feeling funny someone had 'trusted' him.

"Don't trust that I'll come to the rescue. You and I both know that I'm not that type of person. But, you can be damn sure that I'll not be the one to weaken our already weak defences, and leave all of us, including myself, open to attack. I don't want to have your blood on my hands. Or anyone's, for that matter."

"Now, take this." Stompy said, handing Rain a bag containing supplies. "As the medic, I think your survival is ranked quite high up there. Now, you would kindly help the others?" Stompy asked, preparing to pack more supplies. "Frankly, the sooner we get outta here, the better."

"Hmm."

Rain looked uncomfortably at Stompy's new kindness. Everyone around him was basically all right. A few bruises and some blasted ear drums, other then that, no shrapnel had hit anyone thankfully.

"Stompy, I don't know who's the good guy and the bad guy here. I'm somewhat causious around everyone at the moment. If you can give me a good reason why I should trust you, that you won't kill me in my sleep, I'll have your back."

Rain sort of started to feel that maybe Johnny was behind this after his outburst at Al. Then again Johnny was accused of killing a friend and he didn't exactly have that many fingers to arm a bomb properly.

'Gah, why6 can't thinks be in black and white' Rain thought to himself.

"I'm telling you, would I really want to kill the only person here who could heal my injuries? Or remove people who could help me escape the trouble we're bound to get into? Please, I'm not stupid. You and I both know that we're a lot safer in a large group than by ourselves." Stompy responded.

He wasn't so sure he'd been able to convince Rain to trust him, as he himself didn't trust the others too much, but he knew that what he was saying was what he meant. He thought it was stupid of the murderer killing people, as it would make it easier for whatever's out there to get the murderer themselves in the end. But he acknowledged that there's more to it. What, was the question Stompy asked himself.

"I don't know. I'm not a killer, I can't judge peoples fates. I do my best to heal them. You seem to think street smarts, but so would the killer. I'm letting you off only for the reason I believe you wouldn't be stupid enough to kill off your own team. Things are too complicated."

OOC: Changing my vote to Pie. That outburst made you suspicious. I wouldn't vote for you but you're number 2 on the list.

Al took out his rifle suddenly and aimed it at Johnny, putting everyone on edge. "SHUT. UP. JOHNNY." After realizing what he had done, he relaxed his grip on the gun and put it away. Perhaps the paranoia of bring in a situation where one of his own was killing everyone was getting to him...

'Deep breaths, deep breaths...' Al began talking after a good ten seconds. "Out of everyone that's died thus far, most of them have been under extenuating circumstances. Irish killed himself, Sigguard was send into the wilderness, Galt shot Maeror in the effing head, and both Galt and Patrick were shot by a Hegemon blockade. No way I can track any of those to anybody."

But then he finally got to the explanation. "But let me get back to the point at hand. When Rob was murdered, it was done with a gun. While you've claimed that you have no training with a firearm, everyone here has learned that a headshot will kill anything, zombie or not. The very first murder we had, the one Sigguard was framed for, was done with a knife. At the time, anyone could've gotten the means, but only three men that I know of had the experience- Maeror, Sigguard himself (being an Army man), and you. Both of the other men have since been lynched. But the one that's sealed the deal for me was Gremlin's, the one that's just happened. That bomb would've taken some amount of mechanical expertise to remove, must less modify or put back on the bus. I know that you've got a lot of experience dealing with broken machinery..."

He laughed scornfully under his breath. "Oh, and nice trick trying to kill yourself earlier with the whole 'wall-punching' thing. Threw me off the trail for a while." Another deep breath. "Laura, someone, please tell me I'm not crazy."

OOC: I didn't list Dane (Thebigz) for the simple reason that no one seems to know if he's still with us or not- either he rock n' rolled his way into a horde of zombies, or we're still waiting for his number to come up. I'm not accusing stompy because I can't seem to find his skillset on page 3 with everyone else's- can we get a clarification on these two, Galt?

OOC: Who was that guy that died in the electronics store? We all believed Dane's story, but for all the characters know he could've been murdered.

Laura was taken aback by Johnny's threats, and gasped when Al held a gun to him. After Al's speech she looked thoughtfully into the ether. "It makes sense. It really does. I thought it was Johnny from the start, but then Maeror seemed so dangerous... But Johnny always goes missing, and he doesn't like any of us. And now he's trying to lead us into the desert after a mirage, where we'll all be counting on him to survive." She puffed out her chest and said, "We're going to go along the highway," then suddenly seemed weaker; saying quietly with lowered brows "And maybe Johnny shouldn't come along."

EDIT: Stompy's 15?! Blimey.