Aberrant: Dead Rising - Chapter 8a: The Refuge Does Dallas

[SkyLion]

"Home sweet home." Jon sent over the radio as they pulled up to the compound. From the exterior it was quite imposing looking, all high walls made of reinforced concrete faced with a facade of homey bricks. At eother end, strong steel gates were protected by guard stations, a testament to the (formerly) very real threat of corporate piracy.

Jon got out and punched in his access codes allowing the convoy to enter and the few shamblers lurking about were easy to dispatch.

"So what's the plan?"

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan and Fox quickly get directions and the quartet of supers are on their way to their destination. Dan and Fox set them down in the back Yard and Dan unhooks himself from the harness.

He readies his battle rifle and nods. "Let's go."

[SalmonMax]

Myfwany got on the sled and held on. She couldn't help be nervous. If his fingers slipped or the rope broke...both remote possibilities, admittedly. Still. It was too easy to imagine getting dumped into the middle of a seething cesspit of zombies.

And, horribly, easier to imagine what would follow.

She put that from her mind though, as best she could, and closed her eyes. After a moment of relaxing and focusing, she could 'see' the intricate web of 'connecting energy' that seemed to form the foundation of her abilities. She wasn't sure what to call it...but she knew it seemed to link living things that shared an environment together. In theory at least, she could use it to find living things in her area.

Time to put that to the test.

[Mr Fox]

Fox enjoyed the flight over the city in a perverse kind of way. It was beautiful in it's silence, almost tranquil. At least it would be if they could do away with the zombies. Following Jasmine's directions it only took a matter of fifteen minutes or so to make it to her house. Thanks to the winter things didn't even look that bad. Except for areas where fire had ravaged a neighborhood or building you could almost believe the plague had never happened. The plague had happened in the fall and it was only just now full on spring and the grass hadn't even gotten out of control yet. Jasmine's backyard was fenced in and free of zombies and except for avoiding the tree when coming down for a landing was a good place to set down. Fox quickly unhooked the harness and made ready to fight if it was called for, but mostly he looked to the house wondering if they would find any signs of life or hope for her parents.

[Jasmine Gentian]

Jasmine climbed off the sled carefully and took a deep, shaky breath. She was trying to ignore how loud her heart was pounding, and how dry her mouth was. She hadn't even realized it until she had tried to lick her lips and realized her tongue wasn't wet enough to moisten them. Her palms on the other hand were sweaty, and she gripped the machete in her left hand a little tighter than usual.

After a moment, she steadied herself and began to walk towards the back door. Her fingertips rested warily on the doorknob, and she closed her eyes for a minute. Then she opened them, and rattled the knob. It was locked, so she jerked it a couple times. Then she gave up, and pulled her arm up and around before jerking it down, breaking the window with her elbow. The glass shattered with a sharp noise and hit the ground like little crystals. She reached in, and unlocked the bolt that secured the door. Then she carefully pushed it open, and stepped inside.

The first thing that hit them, overwhelmingly, was the smell of rotten food. It was almost always the first thing that you could smell, breaking into a home, grocery story, or any other place where any food might have been residing. It was especially bad in this small, sealed in back porch, because there was a small array of what looked like it used to be five or six pumpkins that had rotted away long ago. It was a testament to how well the house had been sealed up that no critters seemed to have gotten to them before they could rot.

It was Halloween.. we carved pumpkins. Denali carved that awesome freakin' haunted castle. The rest of just did regular old faces, he always had to be a showoff..

Jasmine took in a shaky breath, and stepped over the pile of pumpkin gunk. She called out, a little warily.

"Mom.. Dad.. guys? Is there anybody here?"

Silence answered them, and her companions saw Jasmyne's face go a little ashen. Her lips pressed closer together, and she headed inside, ahead of the others. The first room they reached looked like a family room of some sort. Here were the trappings of everyday, suburban life. There was an overstuffed couch, and what looked like a well-worn armchair. There was a big shelving unit on one wall that looked like it had been hand made by an amateur with a good eye. Pictures hung on the wall of a handsome looking man who worked hard, and an average looking woman who was beautiful in her authority. Pictures of children too, not just Jasmine but others, a girl and three boys. The one picture her parents had managed to get of all of them at a studio showed Jasmine to be the second oldest.. she had an older brother, it seemed, and the other three were younger, with the other little girl being the youngest. She was a baby in the picture with all of them, and Jasmine looked no older than ten.

A good sized flat-screen TV hung on the wall. Books crammed most of the shelves, books on health and science and wiring.. books of poetry by Maya Angelo, and almost every Stephen King book known to man. There were books on how to draw anime, and a whole shelf on books about cancer and leukemia - too much for idle curiosity. There were DVDs, too, and at least three video game systems with matching games.

But there were signs of movement, too, and hurrying. The ottoman for the big armchair was knocked out of the way, like someone had tripped over it and not taken the time to put it right. There were a couple spots on the shelves where it looks like some books had been grabbed in a hurry. It was enough to stop most of them, as they looked around and wondered about the family who had lived here and what it must mean to Jasmine to be back. Everything was silent in the house, there were no sounds of life or movement other than the ones coming from the group. For those who were accustomed to fighting, they could sense no danger.

Jasmine moved ahead as the others stopped to look. She was afraid to look too hard, afraid of all the memories that might come flooding to the surface. She was here to find out what happened to the people that had lived here.. she couldn't let herself be bothered by the things. She moved through the arched doorway into the dining room, and rounded the corner. Nothing in here was disturbed, except for one picture - she was still trying not to focus on what was around her, but the absence of something so familiar couldn't help but draw her attention. It was the wedding picture her mother kept on the buffet. It had always occupied a place of honor between candlesticks and flowers and whatever other decorations the season had called for. There were no other pictures in here - that was the most important one, and her mother had always loved how handsome her Dad looked in that picture. She never would've left without it. Jasmine's heart fluttered with hope, and she moved through the doorway, into the kitchen.

In the den, all was quiet. And then they heard it - a high-pitched, piercing, heart-wrenching shriek. The group covered the distance in seconds. A quick glance in the kitchen revealed open cabinets and broken plates, empty cabinets with a stray can or two of food that lay discarded. Jasmine was slumped against the refrigerator, sobbing. They had to round the corner, as she'd had to, to see it.

Slumped in one of the chairs, his head tilted back at an unnatural angle, was something that used to be a man. He had darkish-colored skin, and his head was shaved bald, as if he was the type to treat it with a razor every couple of days. His mouth hung open, at least the part of it that hadn't rotted away. He was dressed in what looked like they had been pajamas - a pair of plaid flannel pants and a black t-shirt that read "University of Dallas". Part of his skull was collapsed, as if it had been bashed in with something solid, maybe more than once. The walls and cabinets in the kitchen, upon closer inspection, were coated in a fine spray of blood, as if the man had been moving when he was hit. Maybe he had been a zombie, and whoever had beaten him had been fighting for their life. Maybe had had been trying to defend his family. It was impossible to tell, the body was too rotted to know the difference. The scene was horrific, and it took them a moment to register anything else. But behind him, on the wall, was scrawled in big, shaky, curvy handwriting.

"Takota, Jasmine, or anyone else - Took the kids. Went to New Mexico, to Carl's sister Ruby. Please follow. I love you. Mom/Nina"

[SkyLion]

Jon marveled at the view from the air. The city was silent and haunted. The world had indeed ended with a whimper. This was a strange and personal hell, most personally for Jasmine.

Each of us has lived another life, and for each of us, a personal hell, a bitter reminder.

Jon's thoughts grew dark as he creeped behind Jasmine. The stench in the place was overwhelming to his sensitivities and a patina of metalic blood graced each inhale the way the notes of a wine sing to a sommelier's palate.

"There is death here." he said warily.

Deep within his body cavity, a Lovecraftian horror churned with excitment and the others recoiled at the sickening burbling sounds emmanating from his gut. Embarrased, Jon burped slightly into his fist and the sounds subsided.

"My apologies." he offered while he placed one hand on his abdomen as if to calm himself.

They moved on into the family room. He ran his finger through the dust on the bookshelves, noting their contents. The whole house was surreal and Jon for a moment had the feeling of being on some kind of twisted, voyeristic reality TV show.

Jon looked sadly as Jasmine took note of the arrangments, in particular an empty spot in the dining room, but he said nothing. He felt an empathy for her and knew she was a fighter like him. Like all of them. The one's who survived.

Jon flinched, jumping with surprise as the eerie calm was pierced by a bloodcurling screech. His body jolted with a visible vbration as adrenal glands poured an inhumanly large dose of hormones and neurotrasnmitters into his bloodstream. His eyes dilated as he rounded the corner in a blur stopping at Jasmine's feet.

"Dear God!" he breathed. He stood there in shock at the grisly scene, but as the other's rounded the corner, something even more terrifying happened.

With a wet slurp, a slimy 6 foot long worm-like creature spilled onto the floor from under Jon's heavy greatcoat, and right next to Jasmine. Tightening into a coiled mass it reared one end, opening it's many tentacled, mandibled maw with a sound that mixed equal parts hiss and gargle. With the lightning speed of a striking snake,it literally flew across the room aiming directly for the undead thing's jugular. The maw clamped down, followed by piercing mandibles and vampire-squid-like fanged tentacles wrapped around the head, while the thick, greenish black body lashed itself across the zombie's torso. It's body pulsed and fattened as it sucked the blood out of the corpse with frightening speed, the cadaver visibly shriveling into the clothes as it's rotted, pustulent fluids drained dry.

It was the first time any member of the Refuge had seen the awful truth of what Jon had become.

Click to reveal.. (For those who haven't seen)

For an animated idea, cheack out this vid at 6 minutes, 50 seconds,

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan wheeled on John with cold murderous eyes, then just as suddenly, he turned away. "God that was disgusting Jon."

He moved back to Jasmine in the kitchen. "Sorry for your loss. But at least your mom and the others made it out. If you want we could go look for them." He left out the part that they could be gone too.

[SalmonMax]

Myfwany's reaction was not so measured as Dan's. On seeing the dead man, and seeing Jasmine's reaction, she went to her knees beside Jasmine to put her arm around the younger woman and try to offer support.

Jon's little display had her up on her feet and staring at him with fury.

"Get out of here right now, Jon," she said coldly. "Don't say anything, don't try to apologize. Just go outside and wait there."

She then huddled down next to Jasmine again, whispering, "I'm so sorry..."

[Mr Fox]

Morgan rushed from his search of the house back down to the kitchen as quick as he could to hear the last bit of what Myfwany said to Jon. He didn't know what had happened but he thought perhaps it was best he didn't know. Seeing Jasmine on the floor crying a Jon with tentacle out and a corpse in the room he figured the dead one was probably Jasmine's father and Jon had just snacked on him which was completely disgusting, but far worse, it was the height of rudeness and lack of empathy for Jasmine. He gave Jon a hard look, "Maybe you should wait out side."

He stood near Jasmine to offer any comfort he could and waited.

[Wesson]

Mean wile Wesson, was seeing the city from a ground level, and he was sickened by what he saw. Broken windows were the norm. The streets were littered with more than just old packaging of fast food. There were blood stains, abandoned cars,broken glass, half eaten bodies. He took this ll in stride. It sickened him, but it was the way the world was. No point in dwelling in the pain of others. He had more than enough to bath in.

Walking past an electronics store. These people, like nearly anyone else thought one ha to walk before one could run.One did not need wires to transmit power. Wires were just easier to control. He went into the store.Today he was going to get some tools he needed to rebuild a world.Pulls out two trash sacks he carried with him, he went to work. These were the tools people leave behind in times likes this. Well there wasn't really a power grid to power them. SO what was the point of a sodderring iron, or lap top if you couldn't turn them on. Still he needed ll the tool he could get, Besides he was going to put together a newInternet at the base. Gathering a few lap tops,and other tools he pulled out his radio.

"I am board casting to all open ears. My name is Wesson, and I am here to help in any reasonable way.If you need food,water or just about any other aid I will do my best to help you."

[Adrian Moss]

It took him about thirty seconds to realize he'd been totally boned. It took him about five minutes to get things rolling. They had their goody list and their list of stores. They had a road map and Jon had cleared out the worse of the zombie infestations ... and they had Min.

It hadn't taken much begging. She could either hang out here ... alone, twiddling her thumbs waiting for the Flying Circus to arrive, or she could help them do their jobs and go scavenging. It was too bad they didn't have Wesson. He would have made moving the cars out of the way much easier.

Still, doing something mission-specific beat the hell out of sitting around with their thumbs up their asses so they were gone. Shopping lists were going to be filled - damnit.

[Adrian Moss]

The two miles to the Walmart Mecca-Mecca was done in about ten minutes, so fifeen mintes had been burned. They let people know were they were, if they were within range of the headsets (like Wesson surely was) and proceeded to scout out the area, the same two man teams. Min volunteered to come along, so Priest tasked her to come with him and Rhonda.

They didn't find anythint on the outside, but when they tried to get open a door near the back, Priest's ole Spidey senses went off. They had boogies. The tactic now was to go in the front open some doors, and use Preist as bait to lure them out.

Now was the time for Halogen Flashlights and pistols. Priest lead the way by about five meters. Colt and Willy backed him up, in case something funky weird happened. Everyone else stood by the vechiles like a firing squad (except for Sarah who remained with the dogs in the cab).

Zombies First - Looting later. It really sucked if you tried it the other way around.

[Jasmine Gentian]

Jasmine watched in horror as the unthinkable happened, almost frozen with disgust, and shock, and eventually, anger. Finally, Myfwany and Morgan's words began to sink in, and she held out a hand to Morgan, accepting his help up. The machete was still clutched in her left hand, and she slowly shifted it to her right after letting go of Morgan's arm. Her grip tightened on it, and her brown eyes had darkened to an almost pitch black in the dim light and oppressive atmosphere of the home.

"No.. there's no "maybe" about it."

She swung the machete around in a single, slow arc. Her lips curled in a bit of a sneer, and her words cut into Jon like daggers as she spoke.

"I'm gonna tell you this, and I'm only gonna tell you once. You ever lay another hand - or tentacle - on me, or another member of my family - dear or alive - and I swear to God I'll cut those things out and choke you to death with them so fast you won't have time to blink."

She turned the blade in her hand in a practiced, threatening manner.

"Now.. I suggest you get the fuck out of my house. And you may want to find another way back to the compound. They might be willing to carry you.. but I can't make any promises I won't throw you off the goddamned sled. It would make my heart sing to watch you hit the pavement from two hundred feet up, you sick son of a bitch. Whether you lived through it or not."

Click to reveal..

Roll for Intimidation: 6d10 → [4,8,8,5,7,9] = (41), 4 suxx - 1 Diff = 3 Total Suxx

[Mr Fox]

Fox flinched at her words and was damn glad her ire wasn't directed at him. Not that he would have been afraid in Jon's place, but if looks could maim Jon would have left in a bag.

He kept his mouth shut waiting for Jas to cool down. She had to be in a lot of pain right now after discovering her father dead, last thing she would want would be polite words of sympathy. Better that he gave silent comfort through his presence. When she was ready to gather her belonging he would be there to help.

[SkyLion]

Jon hangs his head and holds an arm out to the hissing creature.

"Return." he says softly. Seeming reluctant, the worm like predator closes it's maw and slinks back across the room and up under Jon's coat.

Jon's voice is low and his eyes dark as he addresses the diminuitive girl before him.

"He wasn't your family anymore...I am...truly sorry for your loss."

He turns slowly and walks past Fox and the uncommonly speechless Bond, then stops.

Over his shoulder he adds, still in a soft reserved tone.

"I wouldn't go around threatening people Jas. They protect me you know, and have prevented me from taking my own life. You are welcome to try and God knows I deserve it, but and this is not a threat...I couldn't guarantee your safety."

And with that he is gone, a blur even to Jasmine's enhanced reflexes.

Jon runs outside and back to his lab, blowing past all obstacles in his way. Once there he enters his underground quarters, closes the door behind him, sinks to the floor, and weeps.

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan said nothing, Jon deserved every word of that tongue lashing. He looked around and then back to Jasmine. Much like Fox, he was there in quiet sympathy, waiting for Jasmine to show him what she wanted loaded on the sled.

[Wesson]

Having picked up the call.

"Five by five, will be there shortly."

He made his way back to the base, hopping the wall just as easy did on the way out. He found Min missing. That wasn't right. He let her do her thing. He was a bit upset. He was alright with his own death wish, he knew he had nothing to fear here. Min was...

He hopped over the wall again, ran to where priest had told him to go.He spoke over the radio.

"Look I am going to yell, reply if you like.I am just making sure we are alone but tell me where you are. I am pretty sure anyone who hears me will be friendly. "

Then yelled

"Priest, where are ya?"

[Jasmine Gentian]

Jas looked around at the other four people in the room slowly, and they could see her visibly relax at Jon's departure. She took a slow, steadying breath, and then let it out. Then she walked over to one of the drawers, and opened it. There were several carefully folded linens, and Jasmine pulled out what appeared to be a large tablecloth - large enough to cover the dining room table they had just passed. Then she turned around to the other three in the room.

"I hate to ask this of you, I know he's obviously not a threat to anyone, and so there's no real reason to burn him. But I'd like to dispose of my father's remains. It seems.. wrong.. to leave him like this. Could I ask one of you gentlemen to wrap him in this and take him outside? There's probably some fireplace wood stacked up against the house. If you could just lay him out on that old picnic table, and move that wood underneath it, it'll be a halfway decent pyre, I suppose. Better than most people get these days. I know it'll take a few minutes of our time, and I'm sorry to ask it. But at least I won't have nightmares of him still sitting here.. I'll be out to light it in a minute, I just don't think I can do that part myself."

She swallowed again, then shook her head to clear it. Jim stepped forward, and took the tablecloth from her quietly, walking over to her father. She relaxed a little, and smiled faintly at him, her voice almost a whisper.

"Thank you, Jim."

They waited a moment as he draped the tablecloth across the corpse, and loosely wrapped him in it. Then he picked it up. It wasn't hard, even without any supernatural strength. Between what the body had lost over time, and the revolting treatment it had just received, it probably didn't weight over a hundred pounds. He carried it gently out of the kitchen, back to the door they had entered from. Jasmine turned back to the others, and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Okay, Mom probably took all the luggage we had when they left. But there are probably still boxes downstairs, we always kept the big boxes for stuff in case we had to send it back or something. Myfwany, if you could grab some of those and start packing any books that look like they're useful to the refuge, that would be great. There should be lots of medical and construction stuff in there, and the encyclopedias, and that sort of thing. The place doesn't look looted, so there should be a generator in the garage, too. Mom wouldn't have been able to take it without Dad or Takota. Load that up, and anything else you see that might be useful. Whoever's left can start looking around down here and in the basement for anything you think of that looks useful. I'm gonna take the upstairs, and see if there's anything there we need."

[Priest]

"Oh," came back the almost jovial reply, "I'm getting ready to walk in side the WalMart Mecca-Mecca and do some Zombie-fishing. I have your grand-daughter here on the firing line outside. Care to come along? I'll hold up and let you play Gumby Wiggler with me? Come back."

One of the New People would be much more pleasing to Priest's eyes than Colt and Willie. It wasn't that he didn't like or trust the men, but one less risk for them was one greater chance of them living to see some grey hairs on their heads.

[Wesson]

"I will see what I can do.If you get Min hurt, you will wish the zombies get the before I do. But let's hope they are not in this part of town"

He was making noise, and making sure nothing caught him off gaurd. He would make a lot of noise stop listen, to make sure nothing else moving.He always had his eyes open and was looking at everything mainly for movements.

[Priest]

"Keep talking jack Ole Man and I'll leave you and your gerital behind," Priest jokes, winking to Min.

"I'll take point," he says in a more serious air. "I sense the danger so I'm safer. You stay on my Seven," he chops over his left shoulder. "That way I can safetly dodge to my right."

"Here is your flashlight and your pistol," he offers them up. "You may not need them, but you just might and you can still beat something to death with the pistol grip."

"Everything good? Grand, let's go in."

With that Priest led the way, moving down the central corridor toward the rear of the mammoth building.

[Dawn OOC]

"Granddad, I can be useful here," Min said, her voice a bit tight. Still, she returned Priest's wink easily; it was almost nice in that it was from a man who hadn't shown sexual interest in her. Min wondered if it was the first sign of interest, but shrugged it away. It was a matter for later. She was feeling like she did when she was drunk - empty and loose. Grinning, she finished loading her gun and flipped the safety on. This is what she did, what felt right to her. If only she could be in the point team.

Priest and Wesson crept through the store first. Things weren't pretty. It had been looted extensively, particularly in the food aisle. Clothing hung askew or were trampled to the ground; even a soot circle marked where people had burned books and cards for fire.

They worked their way back, and the closer they got, the worse Priest's 'spidey sense' went off. There was something back there; when they reached the doors that led to the back, they found them blocked with shelves, carts, whatever could be stacked together.

[Priest]

Well, climbing over the barricade would be awkward. Blowing it up would mean going back for explosives (and it was such a tiny barricade). There was only one real solution for this vexing dilemma.

"Wesson, hop you ass forward and clear out this mess. I'd do it but I got these brand new fingerless gloves on and I don't want to get them messed up."

The guy played at being a superman. If he was half as good as Dan or Fox, this would be over fast.

"I'll stay focussed on you. Something really bad is right around the environs here. I almost feel like it's waiting on us to make our move. Let me know if you are too scared."

[Wesson]

Looking to Min. His tone was light and cheerful.

"I know, you are many things and two things you are not is stupid or helpless."

Talking to Priest his tone changed.

"Scared?No. I am also not stupid. The issue of being me is simple. They aren't likely to hurt me. It just takes me a wile to hurt them as well. So you still want to cowboy up?"

Pulling out a pair of glow sticks, he cracked them on, and set them on the ground. Light was light, no need to rely on flash lights for all the light. He started to yell.

"See, here is what I see. We should get more light in this place if we are going to have a fire fight.We wouldn't want to shoot anyone by mistake would we?So if they give us any sign of being human we don't shoot first.But if they don't well I can't make any promises."

He carefully started to move the object away form the door.

"Priest, lock and load."

[Priest]

"Well yeah ... we could crack open the back, get a generator they are bound to have here, put some fuel in it and get the emergancy lights on ... except we can't get in the back because that is were the bad shit is. Going in the front, were we have time to use our guns on it, is the Choice Selection for the day."

Priest motioned his men forward once he was moving again. Hand-held flashlights made more sense for his men, since their shotguns were autoloaders, not pump-action. Your chances agains the undead were better that way.

One thing that bothered Priest was the lack of zombie bodies. This place had been occuppied somewhere after the collapse. Had the survivors attempted to bolt? If so, why the barricades? Mysteries were for the campfire. It was hell to be in one, because all to often somebody died.

[Wesson]

"I brought that in my truck. Didn't think to bring it."

As he carefully moved the barricades. Made his way threw the the junk.His path was narrow for a reason. If he had to block thi way again it would be much easier.Getting to the door he opened it with every intent to slam it if he had to.

"This is our test"

[Dawn OOC]

Shopping carts, benches and other debris were piled high, but it was so interlocked that Wesson was able to pull it away in chunks. As the first mass scraped to a stop, all four men heard a soft moan from behind the door. "Well, shit," Willy muttered, bringing his gun up a bit more.

Another moan rang out, and then the mass shifted a little, as something pushed against the doors - and moved them a couple of inches.

[Priest]

"Oh yeah, that's not good," Priest mutters.

"Guys, this thing is heavy as hell, or Freakishly strong," he calls back to Willy and Colt. Or both.

"Wesson, drop one of your glow sticks that way," he motions toward the direction of the pushing, "and tell me what you see."

"Oh, by the way, you ARE in danger. Thought you might want that confirmed."

At the same time he put the Light down so that the mirror was focused on the part of the mound that was moving. He holstered his pistol and drew his shotgun. Unlike the other guys guns, his was pump actions, metallic grey-black with a folding stock. It was his first shotgun, the one he had history with, if not a lucky run.

Priest waited for either the wall to fall, Wesson to get pulled over it, Wesson to break it down, or something to come over. All were grisly options, but he'd been down this road before.

"I got you old man," he murmured staring down his gun. He wasn't going to make Min a sole survivor.

[Wesson]

"You keep calling me old man, I will show you a old man can do."

Wesson was a vet, of two wars now. It was that he was stupid, it was that he was not afraid of death. He put broke out another glow stick, and turned it on and threw it down at the noise. Clicking his radio on. He spoke calmly.

"Fox, Dan, or whoever is listening there is a problem. Come here as fast you can. There will be blood."

He told them how to find them. Talking to the team.

"Min, promise me you will not try any heroics. None of you are going to die. I will not let that happen."

[Dawn OOC]

The doors swayed again, heaving against the weight of debris holding them shut. This time, the light from the glow sticks revealed a hint of desicated and rotting legs and bodies pressing against the door.

There were a number of them.

[Priest]

"Fall back - Colt, Willie! Firing line."

"Wesson, give me a quick body count and then get out of there. You may be zombie proof but I would really, really not want you to test that on my watch."

Priest picked up his halogen and started to back up.

"Everyone, we got lots of zombies coming through the door. Steady and accurate. Steady and accurate."

Priest was grinning like a mad man. This was were he felt the closest to her. Maybe one day ...

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan practically snarled. He set the box down on the sled and started Hitching up to leave. He was the only one who was strong enough to carry it alone if the need arose, and they just might need the sled.

"Fox, Jasmine, Bond and Myfwany, hurry up. We can come back later, but our friends need us Now!"

[Wesson]

To say that Priest's words fell on Def ears would be lying. Wesson heard the, he simply chose to do what he knew he had to do. Picking three metal rods,well he only needed two but more was not bad he them into the ground in front of the doors.One on each side. It wouldn't likely keep for long but if he was lucky it would keep long enough. He took the rummage that made the barricade, and did the best he could to rebuild it. How long it would last well, all the time mattered now.

"Preacher, you have enough on your plate without worrying over me. But, you would make a good chaplain."

Click to reveal..

Str+Might (5 autos): 6 sux, 300 kg.

1d10=7, 1d10=6, 1d10=1, 1d10=3, 1d10=3

The bars didn't sink easily or well; the concrete and tile flooring resisted the iron bars Wesson had scavenged. But it might help hold the doors - for a bit.

[Jasmine Gentian]

Jasmine had gotten halfway down the upstairs hall by the time she heard the announcement over the headset, and was halfway down the stairs by the time Dan was yelling. She jumped the last couple and ran out onto the sled, grabbing hold of one of the ropes with one hand to steady herself for the flight. They dead were dead, and she shoved it to the back of her mind for now. She would deal with it later, right now it was the living who mattered. She thumbed the button on her headset.

"We're on our way back, just try to hold out for a few more minutes!"

[SalmonMax]

Myfwany hurried out just a moment after Jasmine. She climbed onto the sled and secured herself as best she could.

"What's going on?" she asked Dan breathlessly. "Zombies? Scavengers? Is anyone hurt?"

[Mr Fox]

Fox cursed, couldn't things go one hour without dead people showing up to crash the party? He ran quickly to the sled and hooked himself back to the other strap opposite from Dan. "Aright we're gonna make this a fast trip back so everyone hold on tight to the bars. Once everyone was settled the two men lifted off with what was becoming practiced ease. He definitely wanted to learn a faster way of moving people and things about. This flying was fun, but strapping to a sled sucked. Once they got back he was going to start trying to figure out a better way immediately.

They moved faster than was comfortable with the folks on the sled and almost lost the goods taking off because of the acceleration, but luckily Bond and Jasmine were able to spare a hand to hold em in place.

[Dan Hawkins]

They Set down on the roof and Dan quickly showed them the access hatch. He pried it open for them and looked to Fox. "I'm gonna stay in the sky and try to thin the heard from out here. "Get the others back up here topside and we'll get them to the trucks and write this stop off." With that he flew off back towards the front of the store to do as he'd said.

[Jasmine Gentian]

Jasmine muttered to Myfwany through gritted teeth as she grabbed onto the generator, holding it firmly in place as they began to move.

"Not sure, Doc - sounds like a fight's brewing, the old man didn't say much."

She spared a glance down at the yard as it disappeared behind them, wondering if she'd get a chance to come back and burn her father's body before the scavengers got it. Then she clenched her jaw again, and righted the generator on the sled, bracing it with her body for the trip.

Once they hit the roof, Jasmine hopped off and hurried down the access hatch, moving towards the sounds coming from inside the building.

[Priest]

{Note: Help is ten MINUTES away. No landing on the roof yet, okay?}

"Leo, turn that truck around now. Everyone take five steps toward your vehicles. We've got a swarm going on. Colt, Willie, head to your vehicle now. Now means NOW!"

"Min, stay close to the Hummer, clear?"

"Wesson, if they come through in too big numbers, run and jump onto the top of the SUV. I'll get onto the Hummer, and we'll pull back a hundred yards up the road and go at them with rifles. We fall back, rinse, repeat."

"Understood?"

[Wesson]

Pile it higher and Deeper. Wesson has a P.H.D, didn't brag about it much but it was something that made made him smile now. He took the rumage that he had moved out of the way to get to the door and put it back in front of the door pushing it as close to the door.

Clicking his radio on to board cast.

"How are my angels? Do you have an ETA? We are dealing with a horde. At least in the dozens."

Pushing the carts,shelves and what have you into the door.