Aberrant: Dead Rising - 12h: Seeking Home

[LydaLynn]

Olivia glanced up briefly at the report of a firearm. Trusting the others to let her know if she needed to move or to keep things back otherwise, she continued her examination.

[Dawn OOC]

The girl was not stiff; rigor mortis had come and gone. Putrification was also well on the way and Olivia guessed, based on the climate, that she'd only been here a few days. Aside from her throat, Olivia found only defensive wounds on the underside of her left arm. Someone with human teeth had torn at her arm. Probably infected, Olivia noted, though her blood looked normal and she didn't show any of the other signs. Perhaps someone had thought they were doing her a favor? Trying to save her from the ravages of the Z?

Draygo wasn't seeing much - birds, insects and the occasional animal. Scavengers in particular were having a great feast; the dragon-man could see them everywhere. Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of something larger than an animal moving. With a growl, he took to the air and rose over the buildings. But when he got the spot, there was only an empty road. The only weird thing about the spot was the puddle of organic goo in the pothole. It appeared and smelled like it was rotting and it had a definite meaty appearance to it. But it also appeared to be liquid.

Benedict and Jill stared at the scene in horror. Both struggled with the question of why? for a long moment. Benedict became distracted by the food - or what was left of it. Someone had not only arranged them for dinner but placed a meal out. The cuisine was typical for the area, Benedict noted. Ignoring the fact that it was rotting, he took a deep whiff of it and nodded in approval. Someone had made a fine meal, though... was that bone he smelled? Ground bone?

Jill narrowed her eyes as she caught sight of the bite mark on the 'mother'. Searching, she quickly spotted that each person here had been bitten, though none showed the obvious signs of infection.

[LydaLynn]

Finally looking up from her examination of the girl, "It was a clean death, more or less. Looks like she was bitten on the arm before her throat was slit, human teeth. But I'm not seeing any signs of infection. If this was a mercy killing, it was very shortly after the bite." Olivia stood up, keeping the screaming little voice in the back of her head walled away for now.

From the outside, she would seem clinical, detached. And the portion of her mind that was running her actions at the moment was that indeed. The rest of her thoughts would wait until they were somewhere safe. Olivia didn't touch the child's body again, taking a step back and turning to look into the building instead. She wouldn't go in if she didn't have to, but Olivia processed what information she could from where she was.

[Jillian Johnson]

Jill had trouble understanding what she saw and it scared her. She backed away from the corpses her eyes remaining glued to the bite marks, "Doc... Doc! I think you got to see this!", she yelled outside while she tried to keep the little food she had eaten from making a quick exit through her mouth again...

[Stargaizer]

Draygo was confused by the puddle on the ground. He thought about shooting it with a lightning bolt just because it confused him, but what was left of the rational side of him said the light and sound of it could draw too much unwanted attention, if there was unwanted attention to be drawn.

But Draygo also heard the gunshot. Something wasn't right, so with all the speed he could muster, Draygo flew over the group, landing just beside and behind the man with the smoking gun. His low voice rumbled through the still air. "What's going on?"

Then he saw the spectacle in front of them and his blood boiled... but this time he kept it in check. The next time he spoke it was direct first to Fox and then to Olivia. "I haven't been seen much but scavengers. One thing caught my eye, but all I could catch was an odd puddle. I think you might need to take a look at it." He offered to either fly Olivia to it or to lead the group to it, whichever seemed more agreeable at the time.

[LydaLynn]

With a nod just shy of curt, Olivia takes a breath before stepping into the house, sure she won't want to breath more than she must once inside. "What is it?" She asks as a matter of form while moving to the nearest body to examine it. Again focusing her vision as needed.

[Anatoly]

Benedict furrowed his brow. Whatever the food was, it had in some way been tampered with. That, or prepared by an absolute boor who had no idea of how to clean meat - which was in shrill contrast to the quality of the preparation in general.

"Mmm, ground bone in the food, bite marks - could it be cannibals of some sort?"

[Jillian Johnson]

Originally Posted By: LydaLynn

With a nod just shy of curt, Olivia takes a breath before stepping into the house, sure she won't want to breath more than she must once inside. "What is it?" She asks as a matter of form while moving to the nearest body to examine it. Again focusing her vision as needed.

„There are bite marks... but something’s wrong, I can’t see if they’re infected but I’m no Doctor.“, Jill tried to explain without picturing what she saw in her minds eye. She was already fighting with nausea and stumbled outside to catch some fresh air, oblivious of anything else. Maybe it was too soon for her to go on a mission...

[Dawn OOC]

Fox followed her, clasping her shoulder lightly. Jules was watching the road, looking both ways to keep them from being jumped. "Are you alright?" he asked softly, his green eyes compassionate as he watched her closely.

Olivia saw much of the same as before. The corpses were bitten by human teeth, even eaten on a little, but she couldn't immediately tell if it was peri- or post-mortem. If it had been perimortem, someone had cleaned up the blood. There'd need to be more testing to determine any other details.

Meanwhile, Draygo had something else for them to see.

[Dylan Harvey]

Cannibals, Dylan couldn't help but shudder at the thought. Like there wasn't enough of people eating other people in the world right now. At the mention of an odd puddle Dylan turned his attention away from the house.

"Lets go see this puddle." In his head he started to run through the possibilities of a super zom and what might create puddles.

[Jillian Johnson]

Originally Posted By: Dawn, OOC

Fox followed her, clasping her shoulder lightly. Jules was watching the road, looking both ways to keep them from being jumped. "Are you alright?" he asked softly, his green eyes compassionate as he watched her closely.

Jill tightened briefly under his touch but relaxed once she heard his voice. She managed to give him a weak smile and she was happy her skin tone wasn’t showing through her steelcovered body.

“It’s ok... I just... maybe I should’ve stayed back. I hope I’m not going to be a burden on this mission. I thought having something to do, something that doesn’t remind me of what happened would help. I’m going to be alright... just give me a few to catch my breath.”, Jill explained. She was happy that Fox was there and showing compassion. He was a good leader and she didn’t want to disappoint him.

Straightening herself up Jill gave Fox a determined nod slowly shaking off the feeling of nausea while she took deep breathes. She may have been tougher than ever now but the sight of half rotten corpses was something she would never get used to.

[Anatoly]

Benedict's experience with the horrors unleashed during Z-day was limited, but he understood that they were about to find out something really, really bad.

Nibbling on the family members was something cannibalistic; but they were only nibbles, not full consumption. Like trying to eat 'just a little bit off the pie', the culprit had tried to put the family back together, as if doing that would make it like nothing had happened. Almost as if whoever did this did had been of two minds, unsure, or repentant.

He felt the uneasy shifting under his skin, that gut feeling when you felt something needed to be done right now to protect yourself. He surpressed it, for now, with the thought that the people he was with were strong enough to fend for themselves.

The comments about a 'puddle' startled him from his thoughts. "A puddle you say, good fellow? What kind of puddle?"

[LydaLynn]

Olivia stood, "The results here are the same as the girl. Without more extensive testing I can't tell if the bites came before or after they were dead. For now, I'd say let's move on. I'd rather not stick around long enough to run tests if whatever did this is still out there."

She kept her voice calm and controlled, the part of her mind that was babbling in incoherent fear was safely locked away. Olivia would deal with that part of her later.

[Dawn OOC]

Draygo led them back to where the puddle was, only to find an empty pothole. "It was right here," the dragon-man grumbled angrily.

Olivia knelt next to the hole, using a gloved hand to feel it. "Nothing," she reported, looking around. "Whatever it was is gone. And removed cleanly; there's no moisture left behind."

"Perfect," Fox muttered, "just what I wanted to hear. Alright, let's check one more door and make sure that things are the same as the other house, then move on."

The next house was the same; a family tableau made of the dead, though this one was guarded by two zombies. "This is creepy," Fox muttered between shots "and I don't like it." Olivia's assessment was much the same here and the group moved on.

Gradually the residental gave way to shops. Here the places were cleaned out; there were no tableaus here. There was evidence that people had died and been moved; smear and streaks of blood were all over.

Gradually, they found the college. It was deserted, devoid of life. "This doesn't seem right," Fox muttered. "Guys, opinions on whether we should call attention to ourselves?" He held up a flare gun meaningfully.

[Anatoly]

At the scene of the puddle, Benedict observed it closely, then got down on one knee. Intently he observed the hole, then inhaled deeply, allowing the aroma lingering here to waft through his nasal cavities.

Click to reveal.. (Perception (smell) teste for the pothole)

Roll: [5, 8, 10, 6, 6, 3] + mega [2]. Total Successes: 2.

Roll: [4]. Total Successes: 0.

Analytical taste/smell activated (1 QP)

As they moved on, he mulled on, the smell lingerng in his nose, trying to make it familiar. He also tried to sample it, what it was made of...or who.

He had a strange feeling in his gut - puddles don't move on their own. And it would be wrong to dismiss it out of hand. While the area was dangerous, having some unknown Super or Zombie able to turn into water at your back might not be wise.

Benedict decided to keep his ears and nose open for things creeping up on them...

[Stargaizer]

Draygo fumed more than a bit that the 'puddle' had turned him into liar. He knew he should've struck it before returning to the group.

So, when Fox mentioned bringing undue attention to themselves, Draygo mentally kicked himself for not having done what he knew he should've. For all that was running through his head, he simply said "Fine by me."

But then he did something that no one present had seen him do. He stepped back and well away from the group and began to grow. His neck stretched out and moved from under his head to behind it. He sprouted a tail that continued to grow until it was longer than his enlarging torso. His wings spread in proportion to the rest of him and he went down to all 4 'legs'. All this happened in the span of 15 to 30 seconds, and at the end he curved himself protectively around the assembled group. Draconis gave Fox a nod and a snort that smelled more of ashes than ozone, signaling that he was ready.

His ear holes still intent on whatever conversation the group continued to have, his eyes scanned the entirety of the surrounding area for anything out of place... especially puddles of water.

[LydaLynn]

Olivia watched, fascinated, as the reptilian man changed yet again. She sincerely hoped he would be open to some in depth study later.

She wasn't sure she wanted to be around when they called attention to themselves, but with everyone was safer than any other option. and at this point, Olivia knew they wern't going to learn anything without something happening. So she didn't protest, but did step back enough from Fox that when he fired the flare, she wouldn't be right next to him. Sure a flare gun didn't have the same bang as a regular gun, but it was a good habit to be in.

[Dylan Harvey]

As they walked Dylan had been strangely quiet. He barely even looked up from where he was stepping. Running numbers and logic chains in his head. No life, zombies guarding dead families, puddles that disappear and are organic, small bites. Then he looked up.

"Small bites don't always mean nibbles. Small bites can mean small mouths. Work with me for a second. If a super zom is just a zombie with powers like you all have, and your powers seem to follow scientific lines. In theory there is no reason a super zombie couldn't be capable of breaking it self apart in to smaller parts. The most logical way for such a separation to occur would be a liquifying process that still maintains the outer cell bonds to keep over all solidity."

Dylan looked around the area nervously. "This is all hypothetical and I am making a good number of assumptions and looking at them as true to reach it. It is a possible explanation though. We haven't seen a single living person, something had to chain up those zombies. If I am correct though something like that is going to be hard to hurt, bullets might not do much unless it has a central mass that can not change form.

This theory also doesn't explain the hanging bodies, that is a human trait." He thought for another moment.

"It is full of holes Fox, but I am still missing a lot of data, that is the best I can give you for the moment."

[Anatoly]

At Dylan's words, Benedict twitched. "Did you say...small mouths?" His eyebrows angled sharply as if he remembered something important all of a sudden. "Yes, that could be it."

"What if, for instance, such a being has a central body that is normal, and makes tiny duplicates of itself. Would that fit your theory?"

[Dylan Harvey]

Tapping his finger on his chin a moment he considered. "There is no reason to think it couldn't. Remember my expertise is not in biology, you would have to ask Olivia about possible applications on that one."

[LydaLynn]

Olivia looked confused, "What had small bites? And don't forget simple explanations as well, children have small mouths and it fits Occam's Razor quite a bit better. But what are we talking about, I havn't seen any small bites?"

[Anatoly]

"I think what Dylan's trying to say that what had been taking bites from the people here might be something small - like indeed children. He's thinking that instead of an adult-sized person 'nibbling' on a person, it might be a child-sized person making a full bite."

He turned towards Dylan. "Would that be abouts what you are inferring?"

[Dylan Harvey]

"Essentially that is it. Again, I am still missing a lot of information. It is still a little early to get too set in mind on any one theory. I just think that unless we find living people we should be keeping an eye out for a super zom."

[LydaLynn]

Olivia nods, "If I had time and the proper tools, I could give you approximate mouth size, but not with what we have. Even if it is a normal bite size, however, wouldn't you we still be keeping an eye out for a super zombie?"

[Dylan Harvey]

Dylan looked around again. The thoughts he was having now were very disturbing and it showed. "The thing is what ever set this place up like this shows some level of intelligence. I have yet to hear anyone talking about encountering even a super zom with problem solving intelligence. What worries me is if that same zom set this whole thing up on its own with no human aid, that shows personality. We are at that point either looking for a super that has turned cannibal, or a zombie that still thinks like a human and has a personality to go with it."

He looked at all those gathered then gave his head a little shake and forced a smile on to his face. "Just standing around here and hypothesizing isn't going to do any good except eventually get us ambushed. We should collect more data."

[Anatoly]

Benedict nodded in agreement.  "Alright then, what's the plan? I don't like this place one bit - it's creepily quiet and there's something running around that's both eating people and displaying them. This place is no good to us unless we can do something about it."

He felt his cheeks itch instinctively as he felt ill at ease, like they were being hunted. He then resumed his normal smile again.

[Dawn OOC]

Fox was quiet for a long moment. “Let’s continue toward the college. Maybe the situation will be different there.” The handsome man lifted off the ground, rising into the air. “Keep your eyes peeled.” He paused and added, “Let’s just change that to ‘open’ shall we? Keep our eyes open.”

They made it to the university without incident, but everyone was nervous and jumpy, waiting for the attack they could feel was coming. “So what do we check first?” Fox asked the group, attempted to seem at ease. “Olivia’s clinic, Draygo’s engineering areas, Dylan’s computer lab or Benedict’s kitchen and food stocks?”

[Jillian Johnson]

"I vote for the clinic", Jill commented while she kept her eyes open just like Fox said. His calm demeanor helped a lot to ease her prior insecurities and self doubts. Part of her actually wanted that the Zombies or whatever was hiding and watching attacked. She definitely hated waiting...

[Anatoly]

"Clinic sounds like a fine choice," Benedict added, "considering that if something bad does happen, it's nice to know we have a place to get patched up."

Benedict kept his eyes open, alright, but it was his keen nose that would be the tattletale of any impending trouble. Every so often he took a deep breath, allowing the rush of breath to bring him the wealth of information hidden as particles in the air surrounding them.

[Dawn OOC]

The campus was clean. One would almost call it pristine. It was clear that someone or someones had bee taking care of the place, at least until recently. There was a recent layer of dust and despair but it hadn't always been like this.

The campus clinic was laughable. It was a small series of offices; a sign on the door announced that for emergencies, one should go to the town clinic. A map was provided. In the time since Z-day, efforts had been made to bolster the small clinic; at least one of the offices had been transformed into a store room where extra supplies were stashed, including drugs that didn't need refridgeration.

"It looks like people were building an enclave here," Fox said, frowning a bit. "I wonder what happened."

[Stargaizer]

The shielding wall of Draconis imploded to the more mobile form of Draygo once the decision to go and check out the clinic had been reached. He completely agreed with it, as medical supplies were one of the most important things, right along side of food, in this day and age.

His response to Fox was short and sweet. "Whatever happened, doesn't bode well for us trying here."

[LydaLynn]

Olivia looked over the supplies. She would have loved to have found some of the more delicate and temperature controlled drugs, but knew that was beyond a reasonable hope. What she saw was encouraging. "It doesn't look like anyone's been here in a while, but it is obvious this has been stocked since Z-day. I hesitate to take anything someone might need if there are people still around. But I also don't want to leave anything we could use behind in case we don't have a chance to get back here. I welcome thoughts and suggestions."

[Dawn OOC]

"I can always warp some stuff home," Fox said with a shrug. "Open up a gate and we can sent it through. It's handy that way. But remember, we need a home, too." He frowned. "I'm concerned about this place, definitely."

[Anatoly]

Benedict smiled, while the situation looked bleak, he seemed to have the time of his life.   "What happened here might be something we can work on. It might very well be that the people here didn't have the benefit of special powers to defend themselves. If so, we might be able to find out what happened and prevent it from happening again. And if we can't, we can always leave and check out another location."

He sniffed once, twice, eyeing the surroundings warily. "But if we don't try, and give up on the first sign of trouble, we're not going to find any habitable places. All the places we could go to have their own ghosts, their own dark recent past. We have to confront it and fight it, one disaster at a time, if we want to live in peace."

In his mind, the scenes at the houses and the story of the disappearing puddle replayed. We're going to run into trouble, I'm sure of it. Somehow I think we'd be facing it if me move on - and having it in our backs if we retreat...

[LydaLynn]

Olivia nodded, neither of them had addressed her question, but for now, she'd pack up the medicines to take with them. If they found people, or even evidence of surviving people, she could always leave what she was taking.

Pulling out a couple empty bags, she starts packing up the medicines, wrapping ace bandages around the glass vials to keep them from knocking against each other and breaking.

There was a decent amount of salvageable materials, so she passed bags to willing hands. Once she had gathered the most rare medicines and hardest to come by materials, she packed the most useful of the rest of the item and stood. "If this place proves safe, we can come back for the rest. For now, we should move on."

[Dawn OOC]

The group continued on, walking more or less toward the library. Before they got there, they found a fence, made of chain links and erected post-Z-day. No one put a fence through a quad before the zombies, and this one showed signs of zombie attack – namely a rotting finger caught in the links. “This is good,” Jules said, her voice soft. “Sign of life.”

“Yeah,” Fox agreed. “Let’s find the gate.” He zipped up into the air, then came down and led them to the right. After ten minutes, they were at a break in the fence. The ‘gate’ was a piece of plywood with a truck parked in front of it. There was still no sign of anyone, until Fox floated over the plywood, his rifle loosely in his hand. Then the crack of a rifle rang out, and their leader twisted in the air, a spray of blood arcing through the air.

Perceptions to see where the sniper is (the term is used to describe their mode of operation, not their profession). Please keep reactions to something that could reasonably fit in a round.

[LydaLynn]

Olivia doesn't bother trying to locate the shooter, instead worried about the now wounded Fox. She hurries towards him, trying to determine where he was hit and how badly he is damaged.

[Anatoly]

Benedict crouched low, the corners of his mouth creaking slightly as they jerked back ever so slightly from the sudden shock.

Click to reveal.. (Where's Waldo? Sniper perception test)

Roll: [5, 9, 6] + mega [5]. Total Successes: 1.

The scent of plywood and gasoline made it difficult to make out any smells, so Benedict decided to tiger-crawl across the ground, using the truck parked in front of the make-shift gate for as much cover as he could manage once he'd reach it.

Guns mean people, not zombies. People can (usually) be reasoned with. he thought, as he made a good attempt at preventing himself from soiling his nickers.

[Stargaizer]

There was a split second where Draconis almost made another appearance, but it was quickly decided that going all out first thing might be too much. So Draygo scanned the building, using his math minor to calculate a general area that the sniper was in based on angle of impact on Fox. He scanned the visible, UV & IR spectrums for any signs of the culprit.

Click to reveal..

1qp to activate EM Vision

Roll: [2, 3, 5, 5, 2, 8] + mega [9]. Total Successes: 3.

Perception to find sniper (with 3 extra dice from EM Vision) Roll: [2, 9, 7, 8, 3, 2, 9, 3, 6] + mega [8]. Total Successes: 6.

21/22 QP

[Dylan Harvey]

Dylan didn't scan the area. A shot was fired, he saw the blood splatter effect, that gave him direction. He heard the shot, volume gave him an idea of distance. In his mind he saw the area they were in and filled in the equations. If he saw the sniper it would do no good, if he could help his friends find them faster it would be far more helpful.

Click to reveal.. (Mathmatical Savant)

Roll: [1, 9, 10, 5, 7] + mega [6, 10, 3]. Total Successes: 6.

Int 5

Academics 3

Bonus 6 from Math Savant] Roll: [7, 1, 6, 3, 1, 6, 9, 5, 10, 2, 4, 7, 5, 10] + mega [10, 7, 2]. Total Successes: 10.

It took only a second or two for his mind to work out the problems. He whipped his head around and pointed quickly.

"That building, the shooter is there."