Aberrant: Dead Rising - Chapter 11d: Go Home, Young Man

[Dan Hawkins]

"Damn." He looked to James and then Adam. "Get some rest then Adam if there's a place."

"James, I'm gonna go help Myfwany. See if you can raise Fox again."

He took off after the Doctor and the teenager, his own superior speed allowing him to quickly catch up to Myf. "She's not rational right now, she's mad that we all told her no."

He shrugged. "Remember what happened to the last guy that caught her in a bad mood?"

[Courier]

James watched Kristin and then Myfwany leave and didn't try to follow. I really should have a word with Kristin... but not in public.

James turned back to Adam and Julia and said, "A map might be useful. So would knowing where the enclave is located. Um... are there any multi-floor buildings inside the wall with the stairs knocked out?"

James got out his radio and tried to contact Fox.

[BlueNinja]

Adam watches the interplay between the other novas, with a facial expression that could best be summed up as "whut?" When Kristin runs off at super speed, he blinks in surprise. "She's pregnant, with some kind of super-speed?"

Julia grins. "That's cool," she says. "Why is she so sad? She's a super-hero like uncle Adam."

With another brief wince, Adam kneels down and starts sketching on the floor. "The enclave is north west of Vegas, up in the mountains. The only permanent building is a one-story 'ranch house' that's now a tourist attraction, plus a couple of shelters we set up and a dozen RVs. Which were defueled after we got them there." His fingers trace the buildings, vehicles, and the wall, with surprising accuracy given his exhaustion and the occasional trembling of his fingers. Once done, he pauses, then points at one of the small rocks in the garden. "There's downtown. About fifteen miles from the edge of the city by road, maybe ten in a straight line. Almost twenty-five to downtown, then another five more to the Strip."

,,

Click to reveal..

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2558230/

3d10: 10,7,6

Per 3 + Navigation 1 - wound penalty 1

Forgot the mega-Perception. Final total successes are the same.

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2558257/

4d10: 8,1,4,2, first die mega.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Vision blurry with unshed tears, Kristin's superhuman physique propelled her through the garden like a gazelle, slipping through the garden with inhuman strength and grace. Though overreaching branches slapped at her, many snapping from the speed of her pace, the teen who grew up on a farm still kept the presence of mind not to step on any of the food-bearing bushes or foliage.

Looking ahead, she saw the spreading branches of a tower koa tree, its majesty falling over the majority of the garden and headed straight for it with a cry muffled by biting on her lip. She reached it, small hands gripping pale bark with unnatural strength and pulled herself up into the green boughs with an instinctive skill that would shame a monkey.

High up in the tree, hidden in the green shade of the leaves, Kristin settled down in the crook between two thick branches, legs braced against trunk. Alone, emotions flaring wild with the hormones of adolescence and pregnancy, Kristin buried her face in hands and let the tears flow.

[Dawn OOC]

Fox answered with a crackle of static, "Fox here. What's up, James?"

Behind his voice, they could hear the sounds of the wind and what sounded like some kind of raucous water bird screaming.

[Courier]

James said, "Hey Fox. We've made contact with two communities and their supers. One is local to Hawaii, the other is a teleporter who just fled to here from Las Vegas. He says the 400 person Vegas enclave is being over run, right now, by a pack of teleporting super zoms and maybe 1000 normal zoms. He's seriously out of juice. It will take him maybe an hour to recharge enough to put us back there."

James paused then remembered to add, "Over."

[Dawn OOC]

There was a long pause. "I can't get to Vegas," Fox said, frustration clear in his voice. "I've never been there. Now I wish I had. We'll meet back up in an hour when he's recharged and go and see if there's anything we can do to help. Over."

[BlueNinja]

Adam listens to the interplay over the radio. "Heh, tell him he's not missing much." He flexes a hand, and stands up again. "I could probably drop you there, but I'm too tired to bring anyone back again." He looks at Hoku beseechingly. "Is there somewhere I can get a nap now?"

[Dawn OOC]

Hoku looked at him as if weighing him or his words. "There would be places at the hospital," he told Adam. "You could go with the doctor when she goes to the clinic to speak with the other medical personnel." He looked over at the rock-man. "Wana'ao, would you walk anyone who wants to see the clinic over there?"

The still-silent Wana'ao merely nodded, looking to Myfwanny and Adam to see if that was now.

[BlueNinja]

Adam glances at Myfwany, then nods gratefully to Hoku. "Thank you for the hospitality. I will try not to overstay my welcome." He takes Julia by the hand and waits for Myf to leave, so as to follow her.

[Courier]

James looked at the others then at the Hawaiian supers. That question you're thinking about asking them? Don't. Foot in mouth is a bad thing in a first contact. This also includes that other question, or even that compliment.

James asked, "Do you have any questions for me?"

[Dawn OOC]

Hoku looked a little confused. "Why would I have a question for you? Unless you're prepared to do the trade negotiation on behalf of your Refuge." He looked at James with interest, waiting for his response.

[Courier]

James replied, "That's a good question. I guess I have to say while I have a good idea what we need and what we can offer, I'm lacking in the authority department. We're thrilled to find you're here and organized, but we weren't expecting it. On the mainland there's a lot more dead areas than live. Did the other islands make it through this well?"

[Dawn OOC]

"It was a bloodbath, to begin," Hoku said, his voice sad. "Then in time, the Auka returned, and we began to protect the people and take the islands back." He smiled. "Since then, life has been better here. Not a paradise, but better than many have. Truly, Hawaii is blessed."

[Courier]

James asked, "Auka? That's your word for magic, super powers, whatever we are? If I may ask, have you seen any magic other than the supers and the zombies? We've found a city where everything dies, even the zombies won't go."

[Dawn OOC]

"Auka are us - the good and beneficial gods of Hawaii," Hoku said. "We are not as we once were, but we are still her protectors."

He cocked his head at James. "There is only the magic of the gods. We have had no trouble with magic gone awry."

[SalmonMax]

It took Myfwany a few minutes of just walking along the path Kristin had taken, hoping the girl hadn't changed direction because she had no idea how to 'track' someone, before she took a moment to pause and listen. The noises of the forest jumped into her ears, rustling and yelping and gnawing and splashing...one by one she tuned each one down until one was left...a girl crying.

The redhaired doctor quickly oriented on that sound and resumed her stumbling, not terribly stealthy pursuit. Finally she got to the point where the source of the crying wasn't in front of her, but above her. Looking up, Myf saw nothing but the green canopy of a large tree.

"Kristin?" she called. "Kristin, are you up there?"

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Doctor Shattuck's voice calling up at her startled Kristin, who immediately tried to choke back on her tears while her hands shot. trying to catch her suddenly precarious balance. Her small fingers dug deeply into through the bark and into the thick branches as she caught her breath and rubbed her eyes on her broad shoulders. She tried to keep silent, but she could still hear the doctor shifting against the thick brush.

"No! Go away!" the blond teen yelled back. "I'm not gonna fall, so don't say anything about the baby. It's always about the baby, the baby, the baby! What about me? Don't I matter anymore?" Myfwany could hear the over-developed girl rustling in the branches, could see the canopy shifting, but Kristin so far stubbornly refused to come any lower.

[BlueNinja]

After a moment of listening to James and Hoku converse, Adam and Julia follow the doctor into the garden. For a few minutes, they just wander, until they hear Kristin shout down from one of the taller trees in the area. Orienting, Adam leads his niece along the paths in that general direction. "Why's she so unhappy to have a baby?" Julia asks.

"I don't know, sweetie. Some women are happy, because they were trying to have a baby. Some women weren't trying to have one, and when they find out they're pregnant, they're not too happy about it." They walk on in quiet for a moment longer.

"Was mommy happy when she got pregnant with me?" the girls asks quietly.

Adam stops, kneeling down in front of her on the path. "When your mommy found out she was pregnant, she was happy, and a little worried. She found out right after your daddy was sent to basic training for the Army, and she was worried that she wouldn't be able to do a good job taking care of you by herself."

"She was the best mommy ever," the girl says, tears starting to roll down her face.

"Yeah," he says, taking her in a hug, "she sure was."

[SalmonMax]

"I didn't ask if the baby was up there," Myfwany called back. "I'm here looking for you!"

She rubbed her forehead, fighting off a bout of irritation over having to deal with this rather than heading to the hospital. Immediately she felt guilty though. Kristin hadn't asked for this, and between adolescence, pregnancy, and God only knew what her mutations were doing to her, she probably couldn't be held responsible for her irrationality at the moment.

"Hold on a second, I'm coming up," Myf called. She closed her eyes and concentrated, until the wind whirled around her and made a pinwheel shape in the long grass around her. It whispered in her ears and she felt she could almost understand it. In some way she realized this was a manipulation of energy, but in another, deeper, sense she felt as if she were simply 'speaking' to the air...and that it was listening to her and obeying.

Kristin heard something coming, like a howl of a storm through treetops. She heard branches lashing and a gust of wind blew leaves out in a long prominence, like a solar flare. Then, up through the halo of leaves and twigs that swirled madly around her, rose Myfwany; eyes closed and long red hair whipping wildly around. She levitated up, then sank back a bit to sit on another large branch, in easy sight and speaking distance to Kristin's own.

Then the tiny tornado she'd ridden spun itself out. The column of dust and debris slowed and spread and vanished.

Myfwany opened her eyes and gave Kristin a tired smile.

"I'm not worried you're going to fall," she explained gently. "I'm worried I hurt your feelings without meaning to. I just came to talk to you...if that's okay with you. If not, that's okay too."

[Courier]

James smiled in achknolegement and near approval and replied, "I hear that. I feel it too." James tapped his heart and said, "Everything I do is fire, or war, or sex. The best word for all that is Ares. I hear the call of divinity."

James shrugged then said, "But I don't like puzzles. If we are gods and the super zoms are monsters, then where did we come from? And... fair warning. Screwed up magic doesn't have to be obvious. I've been inside that dead city and there's nothing that feels wrong to me."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan sighed, He was a third wheel pretty much wherever he went on this mission, truly unneeded. He Thought about Violet, and smiled.

"Myfwany, Kristen call if you need me. I'm going to head to the base to meet up with Fox."

with that Dan left to meet the expedition leader.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin gripped her perch even tighter as the Koa tree branches twisted in the miniature tempest. Her jade-coloured eyes were wide and her mouth dropped open at the sight of the ascending, red-haired doctor. She knew Dr. Shattuck was one of the supers, she supposed, but she didn't know she could do this.

Recalling that she was mad at the doctor, Kristin snapped her mouth close into a stubborn pout and hunched her shoulders, turning slightly away. The buff teen sat in petulant silence, trying to surreptitiously wipe her eyes. The tense silence stretched, broken by Dan's statement, then stretched again. Myfwany was beginning to consider how to get down when Kristin suddenly began to talk, nearly startling her off her branch.

"It's just... ever since I said I'd have the baby, it seems I don't matter any more. Every time I want to do anything, everyone is all, 'You have to think of the baby'. I thought about the baby enough! I said I'd have, and I will. But I'm not just gonna sit around and do nothing while I still can. I'm not even showing yet!"

One of Kristin's hands plucked at a thick branch next to her, ripping off the bark, then marring the tough wood beneath. When she continued, her voice was eerily cold for someone so young and she wouldn't meet Myfwany's eyes. "I swore I'd have the baby, but I don't want it and I don't care about it." Under the verdant shade, Myfwany caught the shimmering track of a fresh tear. The frost faded under a tired melancholy. "I don't think I could get rid of it even if I wanted too now. My... my body won't let me, just like it wouldn't let me die in Paradise."

"Zombies, the normal kind, can't hurt me, bullets barely hurt, it takes someone stronger than- stronger than human to cut me deeper than just the skin, if they can even do that much now. And even if they do draw blood-" Before Myfwany could react, Kristin reached over her shoulder and pulled her axe. In the same motion, the axe whirled in her hand, snapping smaller branches and bit more than halfway through the branch she had been picking at.

Cutting off the top two joints of the fingers of her other hand. The doctor's preternatural senses could hear the soft plop of the joints jouncing through the lower branches of the Koa tree.

Other than a sharp hiss, Kristin didn't make another show of pain, simply leaving the axe in the tree and shoving the stumps of her fingers at Myfwany. Myfwany grasped it in firm, yet gentle fingers, planning to do what she could, but it was her turn for her eyes to widen.

The bleeding had already stopped, the stumps covered over with new, tender flesh. Over the next minute and a half, Kristin watched Myfwany with a resigned calm as Myfwany watched the stumps grow into fully formed digits.

"-it doesn't last. It heals over as if nothing has happened. Nothing shows... Not on the outside."

[SalmonMax]

Myf nodded. Kristin wasn't the first person who healed that fast she'd dealt with.

"I just want to tell you two things," she said. "Two things you may not have heard before, and that you need to know so you can make informed decisions. After that, if you want to go fight zombies I won't stop you."

The doctor let that sink in, then held up a finger.

"One. Your baby might not be super. When it's born, it will be the first child of a super I will have ever seen, so I have no basis for forming expectations. We still know almost nothing about what transforms a normal human being into a superhuman powerhouse. It might be something you can pass on. It might not be. The reason that's important is because you put a lot of strain on your body when you go jumping around, running up trees and so forth. You don't feel that strain, because your tissues and body systems are changed. But the baby's might not be, and it's at a very delicate stage right now. I don't say this because I value the baby more than you. I say it because you can take care of yourself, and the baby cannot. Just keep it in mind."

She took a deep breath, then went on.

"Two. There's a guy in the enclave I know. He's a lot like you, powerwise. Supernaturally tough, heals incredibly quickly, increased physical stamina and strength...sound familiar?" Myf smiled. "He's not identical to you, but has a lot of the same issues...and one of them is a touch of overconfidence. There was a time when a bunch of us, including this man, were planning on bringing a team through the ceiling of a building to stop the members of what was once a doomsday cult. They'd rigged the roof of their building with bombs though. Bricks of C-4, basically. The cult leader had the detonator. We were calling someone...Dan I think...to try to disarm them, when this super got impatient. Completely believing in his own invulnerability, he grabbed one of the bombs and yanked it up."

Myfwany shakes her head slowly. "The explosion not only collapsed the roof, but it set off the other bombs nearby. When I arrived just seconds later, James was dead. Not injured. But I was there quickly enough that I was able to save his life. Barely."

She smiles. "The moral of this story is that no matter how tough you are, somewhere there's something that can hurt you. And that, Kristin, is a cautionary tale all for you."

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin wrapped her thickly muscled arms around her torso, rocking in the 'V' of the splitting trunk, her legs keeping her steady. Myfwany could see her breathing grow more rapid. "It's not my baby, I don't want it," Kristin whispered. "It's growing in me, but it's not mine, never!"

Kristin slowly turned to look at Myfwany, jade eyes full of bleak resignation. "I know things can hurt me. Oh! I know, even if it usually takes a lot more." There was a curious note to her tone, almost patronizing. "The others from Paradise, they didn't tell you what happened to me there, did they? They don't even know everything Hornsbeck did to me."

Kristin snorted and broke eye contact with Myfwany. "Violet told me about James, some anyway. He heals fast, but not like me. It took him a long time to regrow his eyes, right? And you helped too, I think I heard." Kristin's small hand clenched another branch with the splintering of wood. "Hornsbeck poked out my eyes with a red-hot poker. Twice. I forget why, I did something that made him angry, I guess... They grew back in half an hour or so. He... cut off other things too. They all grew back. Good as new." Her bark of laughter was ineffably bitter.

The brawny teen began to shudder, though she didn't seem to notice. "The baby... the baby will get its chance to live, but no more of a chance than I do. That's as far as I'm willing to go - you can't ask me for more."

[SalmonMax]

"Kristin..." Myfwany cleared her throat, then shook her head wryly and beckoned the girl. "Come over here. I'm going to lose my voice shouting at you." She smiled.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

Kristin took a couple of deep breaths, her shudders subsiding, then pushed off her perch. Muscles coiling and flexing with inhuman strength and grace, Kristin swung and flipped through the branches with ease. Kristin hunched down next to Myfwany on the other side of the trunk, pulling her knees up to her chest. She gave the doctor a very brief grin, then looked down, staring at nothing in particular, trying not to dwell on Paradise.

[SalmonMax]

Myf just smiled back, content to simply stay with Kristin for the moment...intuiting perhaps that further words weren't really necessary at this point.

After a few minutes, the doctor said, "If you ever want to talk, Kristin, my door's always open. And just because I'm a doctor doesn't mean I only talk about medical things." She grins. "Believe it or not, I'm a pretty regular person under all the 'doctor stuff.' I even have a hobby or two, I think. I'm going to head back to the others. Do you have a radio so you can keep in touch while you're by yourself?" She paused, then added, "Or, you could come back with me, if you're ready."

[Dawn OOC]

Dan

Dan found Fox at the Air Force base. He was in a room labeled 'Map Room' which unsurprisingly held maps. "Hey, Dan," he said, glancing up from what he was looking at. "I'm glad you're here. I want another set of eyes to look at this."

He turned and showed Dan a map of the area. Someone had taken the terrian map and had made notations on it. They seemed to be systematically searching for something. Who or what it they were hunting wasn't noted on the map, but Dan could tell it was centered around the volcano that loomed over Honolulu. "What do you think, Dan?" Fox grinned like the vulpine he was named after. "Seems like something we should check out... as a friendly gesture to the natives, right?"

James

Hoku nodded. "Yes, misused magic can be both subtle and dangerous." He tilted his head. "I know not where we came from, but I believe that this is the world trying to restore balance. I read a series of books - fiction - where the authors proposed that super-predators arose to weed out overpopulated species. I believe that the Earth itself is attacking us, and we must adapt and return to the old ways in order to appease her. Since Hawaii has changed their actions and embraced harmony, we have had few issues."

Adam, Myf and Kristin

A voice like rocks grinding rattled the air behind Adam. "Are you ready to go to the clinic now?" Wana'ao asked. He didn't sound or look impatient - though his expression was hard to read - but there was a hint that he was eager to be on to other things. "If the women require more time, I can return for them later." The two in the tree could hear him; there were small islands nearby that had heard that bass rumble.

[BlueNinja]

Originally Posted By: Dawn, OOC

Adam, Myf and Kristin
A voice like rocks grinding rattled the air behind Adam. "Are you ready to go to the clinic now?" Wana'ao asked. He didn't sound or look impatient - though his expression was hard to read - but there was a hint that he was eager to be on to other things. "If the women require more time, I can return for them later." The two in the tree could hear him; there were small islands nearby that had heard that bass rumble.

Click to reveal..

http://invisiblecastle.com/roller/view/2585846/ Awareness 4d10 -> 6,2,2,5

Adam whirls around, one arm sheltering Julia and pushing him behind her as the other reachs for the steel bar he left behind. A moment later, his brain catches up with his instincts and he lowers both hands. "Sorry, sorry, just a little on edge. Um, yeah, I'm certainly ready to leave." He glances around and upwards, not seeing the women from his place on the trail below.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

"I don't want to be like this, all crazy and berserk and hormonal and stuff," Kristin said softly. "I don't like being all mopey either, I just can't help it." A voice rumbled from below and the heavily muscled teen gave Myfwany a tremulous grin. "I have a radio, but I think I've been hiding in a tree long enough. I'll come with you."

Kristin gave her eyes one last scrub to make sure any tears or wetness was gone, then scampered swiftly and surely through the branches, dropping the last fifteen feet with a twisting somersault. Seconds later, the branches rustled again and Kristin's blond head popped near Myfwany's feet. "Do you need help getting down, or can you do that wind-thing again?"

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan made his way over to Fox and peered down at what he was looking at, wondering exactly had Fox second-guessing himself.

It turned out it was a map of the Island with markings all around the caldera. "Think that's where they've fought zombies, or found supers?"

[Courier]

James nodded and said, "Congratulations. I've heard that vocalized other ways but you're the farthest I've seen in implementation. The old ways is probably our future, but I think we're not done dealing with the sins of our past just yet."

"The ultimate super-predator seems to be the superzombies. I can believe living in balance avoids whatever creates them, but that's... vague. We need to know what causes them so we don't end up paying for someone else's mistakes."

James added, "The worst one we've seen so far was as big as two houses and could also teleport. It took six supers to put down. If it'd been smarter, and some of them are, then we couldn't have won that fight. It could have fled, reproduced, and just exterminated humanity."

James shrugged and said, "But from what I've heard you've never had serious problems with super-zombies, maybe with the exception of whatever is going on around that volcano?"

[Dawn OOC]

Adam, Myf and Kristin

"My apologies," Wana'ao said to Adam's startlement. A corner of his lip twitched. It might have been a smile as he said, "Didn't know I was that quiet." It was the first hint of personality.

Myf smiled at Kristin. "I've got this, thanks," she told the younger woman as the wind picked up. Moments later, she settled to the ground, straighening up her wind-blown clothing. "Ready."

Wana'ao waited with seemingly endless patience as Kristin and Myf got out of the tree. Once everyone was ready, he turned and led them out of the garden. Twenty minutes of walking later, they were in front of a hospital. It appeared to have power, at least marginally. Wana'ao led them past the empty front desk to a set of stairs. "Take these up to the third floor," he instructed them. "I cannot take you up, for safety. Make your requests to the doctor on the third floor."

Dan

Fox shook his head. "I don't know," he said, still with that fox's grin, "but I'm a little curious about it now. Want to come with me to check it out?"

James

Hoku sighed. "I believe we have told you that we haven't had that much trouble." He tilted his head, his black eyes a bright as a bird's. "Why do you find that so hard to believe?"

[Courier]

James gave an embarrassed shrug and replied, "Habit? Experience? I mean no offense, it's just... look around. You've got a paradise here. You've come through this better than anyone. I admire what you've done, but it's not completely real to me.

"I didn't build your walls and security, I didn't kill your zombies, I haven't explored your island. On some level I know there are a few thousand zombies milling around on the other side of that wall." James nodded to a wall.

"Sorry, I just..." Keep wondering if this isn't too good to be true. Norman all over again. James said, "Please, tell me about the old ways."

[Dan Hawkins]

Dan nodded. "Let's go. Want to hoof it, grandstand in the sky, or just open a gate?"

[SalmonMax]

Myfwany nodded and headed down the dimly lit - but lit! - hallway to the stairs. She listened to her shoes clacking on the linoleum. For some reason being in a hospital again made her feel uneasy though. It brought back memories she'd successfully buried for a long time. She even thought for a moment she could smell that disinfectant smell in the air, thick, but never quite thick enough to disguise the smell of sickness and injury that permeated everything.

Was it logical for a doctor to hate hospitals?

She went to the third floor and paused to look around and take stock before going too far ahead.

[BlueNinja]

Adam and Julia follow tiredly along, the nova leaning slightly on the handrail as they ascend to the top. He also looks around at the top, though had he been left around he might have simply picked the first room with a bed from the entrance. Or maybe even without the bed.

[Krysti-Lynn Magnussen]

The over-developed teen girl bounded down the tree then walked loped at Myfwany's side, opposite the stone man. He was pretty creepy and trusting any man was difficult for her. Adam only got a bit of a reprieve since he was with his niece and she seemed fine. If she found out different... well, she saw how Jules dealt with Hornsbeck. Kristin looked down at her hand, making a fist, thick, sculpted muscles dancing beneath bronzed flesh. I can do the same.

Kristin followed Myfwany up the stairs, her own steps far more silent. Looking over her shoulder, her wariness about Adam lowered even more, seeing him looking exhausted, needing the rail for support. She almost never got physically tired like that anymore - though from what Doctor Shattuck said, she might as her pregnancy progressed. Emotional exhaustion was what brought her low nowadays, and the nightmares it inflicted on her.

Keeping it is a mistake. That's all my life is, one mistake after another. Showing off when I got so strong, not being fast enough to stop Jacob, going after our fathers. Violet...Violet was the biggest mistake of all, but one I probably needed to make.

[Dawn OOC]

James

Hoku frowned. “Why? You are not Hawaiian. They are not your old ways, and they will not serve you,” he said flatly. “You should explore the Northern European or Native American ways.

“This is not a one-size fits all fix,” Hoku continued. “You must find your own way, James, to make peace with the world and stop the advance of the zombies.”

Dan

“Let’s fly,” Fox said, looking incredibly pleased with himself. He was always happiest when exploring something, and this was still true. He and Dan walked outside, carrying the map. After a moment to orient themselves, the two men took off, lifting into the air.

Within a few minutes, they were on the lip of the caldera. The volcano was not completely dead; smoke drifted up in a lazy plume from the eastern face, opposite where they were. The lowest point of the caldera also sported a crack that issued some smoke. It largely obscured the bottom, but both men could see the still forms in the bottom of it.

Myf, Adam and Kristin

“Aloha?” A slightly overweight man walked out of an office and glanced at them, mildly curious. “You the mainlanders?”

“Yes, we are,” Myf said. “Are you the doctor here?”

“Yes, I’m Dr. Akina,” he said, stepping forward and offering a hand. Myf introduced them all. “What can I do for you?”

“A few things,” Myf said. “I’m here to talk zombie research and Adam and Julia need somewhere to crash. Do you have beds they could use?”

“Yes, of course,” Dr. Akina said, turning and pointing to a room. It was a standard room, with three beds with curtains that could be pulled. “As for research, shall we head to the labs? Don’t worry, your friends will be alright here.” Myf agreed, and Dr. Akina turned to Kristin. “Would you like to come or stay here with your… friends?”