#m; atlas pickett
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Arriving in this safe zone might have been a mistake. Atlas chewed on their lower lip anxiously as the new rules of the zone were read out; as if this was some sort of school full of children and not a town where they'd all happened to be living now. Was this actually happening? They couldn't leave? They couldn't do whatever the fuck they wanted after a certain hour of the night? Laws that regulated society were one thing, but...this?
"What?" They asked when the woman nearby spoke up, their eyes shifting first in her direction, then around towards whomever it was she was speaking of. But then she was scolding them for looking, and Atlas snapped back to focus straight ahead, trying to act casual - and maybe failing at it. What did casual look like? Atlas's arms folded across their chest, clearing their throat. "Right, sure...Uhm. But you think this is just...like, the beginning, then? Like, what - we'll eventually be stuck walking the halls inside a building and be banned from the roads entirely? I dunno if I can handle that idea..." Or, honestly, this one, but that wasn't as much up for debate...
in the safe zone open starter
A curfew was reasonable- Erika wouldn't want people to be wandering around at night either. However, closing off the gates entirely was unacceptable. Keeping everyone contained wasn't going to last as a permanent solution and adding more restrictions only put stress on the people inside. She needed to find a way out before that happened; or if her son was refused entry, or if the front was overrun, or any other goddamned reason she felt like leaving.
"These guys are stressed. They'll start being suspicious of everyone soon." she keeps her tone light and casual, not wanting to catch a guard's ear. It shouldn't be strange for a couple of people to be chatting together, but this place could head toward a riot, fast. "No, no, don't look at them. Just keep talking to me like normal."
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OPEN | In the safe zone
Atlas had always felt they were good at handling change. In childhood, if their parents weren't around, they figured out cooking a meal for themselves or biking over to a friend's place to crash. In adulthood, that hadn't much changed, all things considered. But this infection, it was a new beast entirely.
And these rules about curfew and no one leaves and blah-de-blah...well. Those weren't the kinds of rules Atlas liked to hear. They didn't particularly like being told what to do, even if they knew that it was for their 'safety', or whatever. The thing they also knew was that safe zones weren't spontaneously constructed overnight if the threat wasn't real. So was this whole thing truly just going to 'blow over', or was that just the military blowing smoke up their asses to try and keep everyone calm?
They were studying the walls that surrounded the 'safe zone', a curious expression on their face. When they heard footfalls of someone approaching they turned and cocked their head to the side. "At what point do you think safe zone turns into prison?" They pondered out loud. "Or safe zone becomes unsafe zone?"
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"I dunno," Atlas admitted. "Who can say?" Maybe there were no dead...undead...zombie monster things wandering around inside the walls, but that didn't mean the place didn't have problems. "They just decided to change the rules, assign a curfew, making so that we're not supposed to go past the walls." They gave a pointed look as Alfie admitted to breaking the rules, already. "What other rules are they going to make? Maybe out there won't seem so bad..." Atlas had no idea one way or the other, really. They were just spitballing to make a point. Out there, in here - either way didn't seem like a great option.
They chuckled as he went on to talk about the food. "What, no one in here knows how to cook?" Or was it that supplies were already dwindling and creative recipes were out of the zone's culinary expertise? "I've dabbled a few times in the I only have these things in the pantry and fridge what the fuck can I make with it culinary arts from time to time."
While their time outside the safe zone was short, it was enough to convince him to stay put for the foreseeable future. For some reason it never occurred to Alfie that he could run into antagonistic survivors outside the walls. It made no sense. Why fight each other when there were dead walking around like nothing? Everyone should've been sticking together instead.
"Isn't it better to be in here than out there?" they asked with a head tilt of their own. "At least there's no crazies in here..." Not that Alfie knew of at least. But ignorance was bliss. They'd happily listen to the curfew now after the fright of being out there for a few hours. "I went outside and it wasn't pretty. There was just those and a guy ready to fight me for no good reason." He didn't want to admit to the fear felt and tried to keep it all casual. "I've give you one thing though, prison's probably got better food than here. My only regret is not finding a bag of chips or something."
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"Voice of reason," Atlas repeated softly, rolling the words over their tongue, tasting them to make sense of them. "And you think blindly trusting people who have never experienced this kind of thing either is reasonable? What makes you think they know so much more than the rest of us?" Maybe those who were running this safe zone were attempting to do what was best; but one person's opinion of what was best in this situation didn't necessarily mean it was the best for the majority.
Atlas's gaze turned towards the walls once more, shoulders lifting in a shrug after a moment. "I don't know. Not necessarily. Just thinking out loud that maybe locking all of us inside isn't the greatest idea." Resources weren't unlimited, they couldn't just hide out in here forever. And Atlas had a sneaking suspicion that a disease like this would not be disappearing overnight. Or any time soon.
"Blame? No. Offer to be the voice of reason? Someone has to," she shrugged. Violet knew it wasn't really her job to be speaking up, and yet, it was a compulsive thing. "But you're exactly right; these are unprecedented times, so don't you think the best thing is to let the groups of people who have the intelligence and the organization to care for us have the space to do just that?" On some level, Violet knew it was a fairly naïve thing to say, but until things changed, it was also the only realistic way to continue about. Guards had set up the safe zone and kept it patrolled, kept the people fed. One thing she knew was not to bite the hand that feeds. "And... you want to leave?"
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A hint of a smile touched Atlas's lips, if only briefly, as they looked over Violet. To be frank, they weren't that worried about the walls holding up like she seemed to insinuate. They seemed built up well enough, and those things didn't seem exactly organized or...well, particularly smart. More so they were worried about the latter; that caging people within the walls of the safe zone would prove to have side effects that none of them could even begin to foresee.
"Can you blame anyone for panicking?" Atlas finally remarked. "I mean. Kind of unprecedented circumstances, don't you think? I doubt anyone wants an uprising..." No, but if people think those in charge don't know what they're doing, sometimes there was only one way to rebel. "Plus - the walls already are both keeping them out and us in, given the whole 'no one is allowed to leave' schtick." Not that those rules seemed to stop anyone...not yet at least.
While there was a certain level of understanding to be had, most of the people in the safe zone seemed to be getting more and more unsettled as time passed, despite the fact that they'd been given no reason to doubt the safety of the gates nor question the guards. Whether it was a kind of rampant cabin fever or just that chance so happened to land Violet in a pile of naysayers, gratitude was quickly becoming the most scant resource in the camp. "At what point do the skeptics become conspiracy theorists?" She quipped. "The walls have held for a few weeks now. I can't help but feel like the real safety issue comes from the threat of panic. You talk to the wrong person like that, and we've got an uprising on our hands - which is when those walls keep us in versus keeping them out."
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