Coffee & Donuts (Mauricio)

[Generalfoley]

Jeff was quiet as he drove past the checkpoint into Empire City. The last outing he and Mauricio had was not the best one they've had. Sure, they both had a good time, they had a good, long laugh after they took out a large horde of zombies, but the mess...

It wasn't pleasant.

Which is why his truck was covered in zombie... everything when they pulled in. It was also why they had very basic, very clean clothes on, while their faces and their hair were pretty much caked in the dried blood of the horde Mauricio blew up.

As spectacular as it was, the mess just didn't seem worth it.

Which is why Jeff was wiping off his face with a white towel before he pulled into a makeshift parking lot next to a bakery he loved oh so much. Hell, most survivors did.

"Alright, kid, come on." Jeff hauled himself out of the truck, stretching a bit. He was sore from the mess the explosion caused, seeing as he was in the midst of a tsunami of zombie innards and infected brain matter. Just breathing while caked in the stuff caused him to expunge his stomach of anything inside. Must've been quite a show for Mauricio, seeing as he gagged the entire way back to EC.

Jeff led Mauricio to the front of the bakery and walked inside, smiling at the woman at the counter. "Hey Marge," He said, weary.

"Hey Jeff. Rough day?"

Jeff chuckled. "With Mauricio, every day is a rough day."

"So the usual?"

"Yep." Marge nodded, heading to the back to fetch the donuts of which everyone loved.

Jeff sat down at their usual spot and sighed contently.

"So how're you feelin' with your probation almost up?" Said probation was for flying a plane laden with explosives right into the face of the statue of liberty. While not an obvious act of terrorism, Mozzie, the leader of EC, decided some sort of punishment was in order.

So he was stuck with Jeff, and restricted to the boundaries of Old New York and Empire City, mainly the two taking the attention of the undead denizens of the Big Apple, taking the heat off the EC Scavengers and the construction crews expanding the walls.

[SobeitOnion]

Fun.

It was a double plus good explosion excursion that Mauricio had had with Jeff. Of course, his idea of fun was a bit more clean than Mauricio's. A boom to the left, a pow to the right, and a small nation's worth of TNT to the front. Lighting the scene with pyrotechnics of a grand design, The Chairman rained fiery justice upon the undead.

Naturally, when anything squishy rips violently into thousands of fragments, they tend to fly in many, many directions. Including the direction of Jeff and Mauricio.

The ride back was pleasant, the smell was bearable, but the zed-blasting resulted in some chunks flying into his mouth. For the whole of the ride, Mauricio did all he could to disengage the taste and remnants of the offending wads of meat.

He didn't realize they had gotten back to Empire City until Jeff hopped out of the truck. Still concerned with his zombie breath, Mau followed Jeff right into the familiar bakery. He wasn't listening intently, Marge said something, Jeff responds, dialogue was had.

Finally assured that his mouth was cleaner than the purest of waters, Mau tuned into his surroundings. Ah yes, the smell of sweet delicious baked goods. He sat down at the spot that he and Jeff always sat at, third down from the door, next to the battered window.

"So how're you feelin' with your probation almost up?" Mauricio's face twisted into discontent, and then cooled to something calmer, but not quite. The question that burned like tequila. Starts like a fire, then numbs. The Wizard of Mozz decided that his flight accident merited punishment. A court without proper use of evidence is one that fails the people. At least he got off on probation, tagging along with Jeff.

"It feels good," Mauricio said. "It means I'll get to do what I came here for, " a smile spread across his face "lulz, explosions, explosions, and travel." The doughnuts arrived, a cluster of edible Eden, and The Chairman's eyes targeted a fine specimen. His hands struck on the doughnut like a perfect German dive bomb and just as fast hauled it into the eating port. Mmmm. He looked back at Jeff, sheepishly smiled, and said, with crumbs falling from his mouth, "Heck, maybe see home base." Mauricio continued nomming on his doughnut, eyeing a potential and worthy sacrifice.

[Generalfoley]

Jeff saw Mauricio displayed content at the talk of his probation and chuckled. Fair was fair, since he did, technically, blow up the Statue of Liberty.

"It feels good. It means I'll get to do what I came here for; lulz, explosions, explosions, and travel." Jeff threw up a half-smile as the food and drinks came. He took a sip of his coffee - nice and hot - while Mauricio swept a donut out of the box and devoured it, like a monster from some TV show he saw once.

"Heck, maybe see home base." Jeff raised an eyebrow at that, taking another sip of his coffee. "So you have a location set in that hurricane of a mind of yours? Shocking. So where's this home base?" Jeff asked as Marge came back with a fresh pot of coffee. Jeff noticed that his cup was empty, and he had taken gulps rather than sips. He put his mug on the table as Marge refilled it.

"Thanks Marge," he said with a smile.

"Hey, did you hear about Joe and Mike?" She asked, a slight smile on her face. Jeff chuckled internally. He knew Marge had a thing for the Irishman.

"No, I didn't. Weren't they still missing?" She shook her head. "No, Joe came in earlier this morning, said that he and Mike took a plane and flew over to Europe and stayed there for the year." Now that was something. Jeff raised an eyebrow.

"Really now?" He said, gripping his mug. "That's a surprise. He tell you how they got back?" She nodded.

"They crashed a gigantic Russian cargo plane into the Canadian Wilderness around thirty miles north of here, before blowing it up with something called PETN," Marge shrugged, which made Jeff blink before looking at Mauricio.

"There's the source of that boom we heard months ago," Jeff said, before Marge departed.

"I wonder where they got the PETN..." Jeff mused aloud before he took a sip of his coffee. He picked up a glazed donut and took a bite, wondering about the insane duo.

[SobeitOnion]

Mauricio swallowed his doughnut after savoring the taste and texture of it. Apocalypses really makes the flavor shine through thought The Chairman. The experience of the flavor, the essence, the sweet taste of a doughnut were temporarily jostled when Jeff asked him "So you have a location set in that hurricane of a mind of yours? Shocking. So where's this home base?"

"Yeah," replied Mauricio, "Back in Phoenix, Arizona, or what's left of the people there." The Chairman paused, thinking of home, then continued "You know, it'd be good to see how my folks are doing, maybe scrounge around to see where they might have ended up." Thinking of home didn't elicit much from the Chairman but good memories and a nagging sinking feeling that his family might have been offed in the chaos. The mix of feelings soured the doughnut experience, and he put down his half eaten doughnut.

Marge came by for the usual round chit chat, this time with news about old friends, Joe and Mike.
"Hey, did you hear about Joe and Mike?" Mauricio shook his head, and Jeff replied that he had not, wondering if they were still missing.

Marge informed them that they had stopped by earlier. After having spent a year in Europe they apparently made it back. Mauricio was about to ask how they made it back, but Jeff beat him to the punch by asking first. "He tell you how they got back?"

And then, trigger words. Marge said a magical sentence with colorful words. She said "They crashed a gigantic Russian cargo plane into the Canadian Wilderness around thirty miles north of here, before blowing it up with something called PETN." CRASHED. RUSSIAN. BLOWING UP. PETN. The Chairman's eyes lit up like Christmas lights, and a grin spread wide across his face. "So that's what that explosion was," said Mauricio, echoing Jeff's comment.

"I wonder where they got the PETN..." murmured Jeff. Mauricio chimed in, "They could have easily picked some of it from hospitals. Most scavengers would leave it behind, since what they are after stuff like penicillin." Regaining a taste for doughnuts, Mauricio picked up the one he had set down. He continued with some doughnut muffling his speech, "Bu iff ah know dem, dey'd mos likely, mmmf, mmm, dey'd mos likely fin' some in abandnd bunkrs er thru some, mmmmmmmmm, das good, thru some armfs treders." Mauricio snagged another doughnut.