The Desolate

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From high above, a corpse fell to the ground with a heavy thud. Wraith was above, surrounded and trying to fight his way clear. He was pressed right up against the edge of the roof, surrounded by about eight corpses. His rifle unfortunately had fallen with the corpse he'd thrown off the edge, which put him at a bit of a disadvantage as he pulled his knife out. It was a quick exchange, and he'd managed to kill most of them before being bitten. As his last maneuver, he grabbed the last corpse and pulled it with him to the ground, resulting in another thud and and the sound of snapping bone.

With his men's numbers dwindling, Requiem knew they had to finish things quickly. Thankfully, the numbers inside were thinning rapidly. With the outside clear, and most of the inside clear, they were getting somewhere. Two casualties out of a five person team though were not good odds, even if they had managed to kill a few hundred zeds. He swung his blade, decapitating another corpse.

Golem and Slenderman met together in the combat field, cleaving and smashing zombies as they approached, and doing rather well. The two heavily armoured men were clearing a path through the dead, and with Requiem and the person they didn't know helping, the work was quickly done. The zombies inside were dead.

Requiem sighed, kicking a corpse aside as he leaned against a wall, catching his breath. "What's the status?" He called out, immediately receiving responses from his comrades. He turned his attention to the hole in the roof and faced Slenderman. "Your work I'm assuming?" He asked. That hole was going to need to be patched if the building was to hold together. It made a rather good storage space, and he'd have preferred it to remain as such.

"Sorry about that Boss, wasn't a clear way in, and they needed a safe place to stay" The tall man remarked pointing up.

Requiem sighed "Alright, whoever's up there, it's clear down here, y'all can come on down." He called, shaking his head as Golem started pulling corpses out of the building. It wasn't fun work, but it was necessary. Rotting corpses weren't good for a building, and they provided camouflage for any new corpses that showed up.
 
Mishka turned to Vye and shrugged. She jumped down from the hole with a thud and nearly slipped again, the bag was still heavy without the generator. She smiled at the people around.

"Hi!" she greeted with a smile and jumped from one shelf to the next, to get closer to these really cool men. They reminded her of papa's description of the mafia. They sounded cool. "I'm Mishka!" she introduced herself as she came closer. "Who are you?" she asked as she saw the rotting corpses. "And wow!" she exclaimed. A hundred (or so) monsters with only 3, 4, 5 people (Adam and that red head included)! "You're totally cool!"

She grinned at them again but a shuffling sound made itself known to her. She frowned as she looked. "Your footsteps are weird" she silently told the guy with a cane(who also seemed like the leader). "They sound like the d'avyol. You're not one, right?" Mishka asked, "Because that would totally suck..."
 
What she assumed was his cane was actually one of his Falcata that he was using as a brace as he'd left his cane underground. Dorian pushed himself up off the wall. "D'avyol...?" He asked curiously. He'd not heard the term before, but the options were limited as to what she could mean, "Ah, no, no, just an old injury, keeps me from functioning at peak performance at all times. Nothing to worry about." He paused to turn to the survivors of his team "Golem! Go collect Shadow and Wraith's gear, and my guns too!" He shouted outside where Golem was lining up bodies. "Slenderman, you said we needed a part. Go fetch it, and be quick about it."

With a groan he pushed himself away from the wall. The fight had taken more out of him than he had expected. He sheathed his blades as he moved "How did you lot all get out this way anyway? We've got sentries posted all over the place, tracking Zed movements." He asked, making the assumption that they were all travelling together. He bent down and lifted a corpse by the shoulders and began dragging it out towards the door.
 
Mishka shrugged as she climbed down, clutching her gun closer to her as she approached. "D'avyol are demons." she told him simply. She tilted her head slightly as he pushed himself off the wall. He seemed really tired, grabbing the bottled water she constantly had, she offered it to him with a smile.

"I was camping in here for a few days" she told him, honestly. Trying to recall how she ended in this place, oh! Right, she was running out of batteries...and it was cold in the trees. "I slipped in through the basement." she told him. "There are two exits, both of which I locked." she narrated, looking quite pleased.

She followed him as he carried the d'avyol away. She began pulling one by it's arm, pleased to find it wasn't as heavy as she thought. She made a face as her hand were covered in blood. Isn't as heavy, but seriously icky.

"I'm not sure how the others came in though..." she trailed off. "I think Vye came in by breaking a window..." Grunting slightly, when she nearly tripped over the weight. "You have sentries?" she gasped, as if just recalling. "...wow!"
 
Ash, now that there weren't any undead around, began to feel mildly awkward. Green orbs glanced over at the side door before bouncing back to the folks gathered around. Should she try to slip out while they were playing clean up? An eyebrow raised. Why were they playing clean up? The red head wiped her hands on her cargos before tucking her hair behind her ears. On autopilot, she reholsted her hammer staff on her back between her body and her backpack. The redhead eavesdropped on the conversation going on around her shamelessly. The last human she had heard before running into this group had been Adam, of course, that was before he had blown his brain out onto the pavement in front of her. With a grumbly sigh, the redhead pushed her sleeves up, even though they were already fairly slimed and in need of some scrubbing of some sort, and bent to begin dragging one of the corpses out the door, dodging the talkative blonde girl and the guy who apparently had a bad leg. She dropped the body along with the rest of the ones lined up and trekked back into the building for another one.

There has got to be a faster way to get this many bodies out of here. She grumbled into her own mind, pouting a little bit before retrieving another of the icky corpses. Why're we doing this so close to nightfall anyways...no, why am I doing this so close to nightfall? Ash paused, holding the legs of an undead as she thought it over. She could still split, it wouldn't be all that hard. Green eyes glanced back up at the sky again. It'd be dark before she reached her car though. Did she really want to walk through the city alone after dark? Ash shook her head at herself minutely, so as not to dislodge her hair from behind her ears. No, no she did not want to trek through the city at dark, hell she hadn't wanted to do anything like that before this damn apocalypse. She continued to drag her selected body out the door as she continued to think and eavesdrop. She could always hold up in one of those old apartment buildings across the road.
 
Before amber had any scarce time to follow up after the others, a group of undeniably rude zombies had cornered her off from the nearest shelf she need to scale to save her ass from being chewed on, and pushed her further away from her little group of hardy survivors.

At least she'd got to sort of make friends...well, not really, but who was judging.

She was drawn away into a less infected area, most of the zombies' attention's were turned towards the commotion the others were causing. If you could even use the word commotion. She was pretty sure there was a longer and more exuberant word for the noise of everything going on at once, though she was a little held up by trying to stay alive, and dodge oncoming swipes to think of it right now.

She kept evading the lazy goes they threw at her and neared the bathtub section.
She wished she had've had time to see what the others were doing before she turned the corner to this section, but, no such luck.

She widened her eyes when an idea popped into existence at the sight of a startlingly white vintage tub perched on four golden feet of a dog. She could maybe just fit...yes! That was a perfect idea!

She ducked under a swipe aimed for her head and ran to the tub, nearly stupidly slipping on a puddle of blood in her haste.
She reached it and pushed it over onto it's rim with all her strength. Her muscles straining under the heavy tub made of cold metal.
It balanced there, caught between the lip of the bath and two of it's canine paws.

Once she fended off any advances from the local dead, she ducked under the tub and grasped it's edge, lowering herself so she was sitting with her legs straight in-front of her.

She took her rifle off her shoulder and put it vertical in her lap to her ramrod straight legs.
Amber heaved and slowly tipped the bathtub so it fell over with a final clang onto it's shiny white rim.

She was calmly laying down now, trying to catch her breath.
She was lucky the bath was deep enough so she could raise her body up a bit, and that meant she could free herself from her iron prison.
Her now even breaths sounded really loud inside here.

And what a good time for her to remember she had claustriphobia.
 
"It's clear down here, ya'll can come down."
Just as the words called out, Mishka slipped through the hole back down inside. Vye watched the girl hop along the row of shelves until she passed the point of sight.
Vye cast one last weathered eye across the area surrounding the store. The shady twilight air had dropped in temperature considerably, and had she not wrapped her mask around her face, she was certain she would be able to see her breath puff out from her lips as she sighed.
There was little chance she could make it back to her camp and reserve supplies. At least not until next daylight.

Scoffing a bit, Vye slung the tall man's rifle over one shoulder before gathering up the length of rope, rolling it neatly and tucking it under her elbow. She supposed she ought to return them.

She plopped down into a sitting position on the lip of the hole, carefully easing herself down until her toes found the surface of the shelf. With a push off her hands, she dropped down onto the structure, and from her vantage point could see the others busily gathering up falling corpses and dragging them away in trails of slime and guts.

… Ew.

Vye walked to the far end of the shelf, preparing to dismount, when a flash of metallic yellow caught her eye. She craned up on tip toes to see beyond the aisles, and off tucked away in one corner of the building was a large piece of machinery. She strained to see through the darkness, and tilted her head. She could see knobs, and some kind of protruding arms and... wheels.

"A forklift," Vye announced simply from her perch, swinging the man's rifle off her shoulder to point in the direction. She supposed it would be easier than trying to… do whatever it was they were doing with the bodies by hand.
That said, she climbed her way down onto the floor, content for the time being to lurk on the sidelines. She still wasn't sure what these men were all about.
 
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Dorian listened quietly as she explained how she'd gotten to the area. If there were tunnels leading in to the building, they'd have to find them and either secure them or block them up. It was important to keep their sanctuary safe. She had said that she'd locked the doors though, so that meant that at least for the moment, they were probably safe.

When Slenderman returned with the part, Requiem turned and looked towards the horizon. There were too many bodies to move, and they didn't have the time to move them all. They'd have to finish clean-up while securing the buildings exits."Alright people, we'll finish clean-up next mission surface run. Let's head back." He called out before turning to the people in the building.

"You all are of course welcome to come along. We've got a small community built up, could use some people willing to help out. In exchange we offer protection from the Zeds and the deranged, as well as providing a home that can give some semblance of what we used to have. Biggest downside is that until we get the city cleared, it's underground, no daylight. We run on random draws to see who goes topside for missions like this." He explained as Golem arrived.

"Golem, my weapons if you would please?" He asked politely as Golem handed over the tools. "Thanks. Alright people, lets get moving" He called out, as the remaining members of his original group took their positions, heading back to the sewer cover. Anyone who followed would be able to see them dropping one by one through the hole.
 
Vye stood with arms crossed, feet squared in a wide stance as she listened to the man speak, furrowing her brows thoughtfully. This little "community" of theirs intrigued her greatly. She had assumed all this time that survivors were few and far between, but this day was, apparently, bent on proving her quite wrong.
She wondered how many might be down there, bustling around underground like ants, sealed away from the dangers looming on the surface above them.

The thought kind of freaked her out.

As she mused to herself, the men snapped into position and filed out the doorway. Vye followed several paces behind, Mishka's scavenged generator tucked under one arm, the "Slenderman's" rifle and rope slung over the other, and watched curiously as they each hopped one by one down into the sewer.

Stepping up to the edge of the manhole, she peeked down into the darkness of the tunnel.

The late winter air bit at her skin as it blustered through the vacant street, and she sighed a warm gust of breath into her facemask. She glanced over her shoulder toward the distance. For a brief moment, she contemplated simply dropping the men's belongings down into the hole and heading back to her camp.
For an even briefer moment, she contemplated taking them.
But—she supposed they had helped them all out. And they did offer shelter. They seemed nice enough… even if they were kind of weird.

Throwing a shrug toward the others, she balanced her gear and slipped down the rabbit hole.
 
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Ash watched the men as they filed out. She blinked. People lived underground? the red head was at a loss as she tried to wrap her mind around the matter. Mutely, she followed them at a slow pace. she didn't know why she followed them, she hated crowded spots...and dark spots. Her night vision was utterly terrible. It's one of the reasons she had a daytime schedule. However, at the same time those thoughts ran through her mind, curiosity began to try and smother them.

The redhead glanced up at the darkening sky. But she wouldn't make it back to her car before the dark settled in, that much she knew for sure. As one of the women dropped down into the hole after the guys, Ash made up her mind. It couldn't hurt to stay one night, maybe two, right? Besides, she was curious to see what this outpost of sorts looked like. She wanted to know how people functioned underground...did they turn into mole like beings? Did their eyes get bigger? Did they develop claws and fangs? The redhead sat on the edge of the hole and groped around in the dark for the latter, just barely making out its shape the deeper down. However, with a wry smile and a subtle gulp she swung herself down onto the metal bars and began her own decent into the dark. The entire time she climbed, the theme music for jaws played itself through her mind.
 
Mishka smile happily as she followed them towards the hole. She waited as they went down first. She can get so clumsy, most of her accidents in the farm caused so much problem. She hoped going with them didn't end up causing them trouble.

She shivered slightly at the cool air and looked at the darkening sky. She's missed talking to people, being with people. Misha could always leave when tell her to. She can survive alone.

Making her mind with a determined nod to herself, she climbed down the darkness.

"Wow!" she exclaimed, surprised at the darkness. "Super dark!" She giggled.

It's almost like Alice falling in Wonderland.

Mishka grinned to herself. Hey! She wasn't going to say no to an adventure!
 
Adam knew they had killed allot of corpses, but once the chaos stopped and he finally got a chance to calmly examine the area around him; he saw that they had killed hundreds of those things. It was amazing how such a small group could eliminate so many corpses. The thought almost made him feel as if they were untouchable...almost.

With the mass killing spree came another problem; mass clean up. He heard the others conversating amongst themselves but he didn't bother to intervene. He simply gathered himself and went about pulling a few corpses in a corner so he didn't have to step over them as he walked.

Night was approaching soon and he'd rather not face another attack once the darkness of the night covered them. He heard one of the girls talking about exits in the basement, both of which she had locked. There would be no way of knowing what was on the other side or if the exits were even reliable. They didn't have many choices though and the place was compromised, they needed to move now.

The others must have been thinking the same thing and he watched and some of then dropped down into a sewer cover. It wouldn't be his first choice of a way out but beggers can't be choosers he guessed. "Well, here we go" he said to himself as he dropped down into the darkness. His eyes quickly adjusted to the darkness, and he began to follow the others. He kept his knife in one hand and hush blades gauntlet ready in the other
 
She turned to the person that came after her and smiled. Mishka was pleased that Adam was still alive. "Hi!" she greeted. "You're okay!"

She giggled and followed the group as they walked forward in the darkness. "Do you know where we're going?" she asks him as she fell back to walk behind him. Mishka never did like the dark. There were many things in the dark. Some of those fears now true. She gives him another smile and looks him over again. Yup, she was very glad he's okay.

Mishka didn't want to loose her first friend after the Plague.
 
Adam couldn't help but smile seeing Mishka so happy that he was ok. It made him feel wanted, and that was rare these days. "Yeah I'm alright, gonna take more than a few corpses to kill me" he said giving a confident smile. "How about you, are you ok?" He asked her, though he knew she was more than capable of handling herself. "No I have no idea, but it's bound to be better than back there. Hopefully we'll find somewhere not flooded with bodies, dead or undead."
 
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Having landed rather haphazardly on the sewer's floor, Vye took a moment to readjust her gear, dropping the items carefully at her feet. The lopsided proportion of weight made her arms feel noodley and weak, and she grumbled to herself for want of her oversized tote back at her camp.

It had been quite the find, that tote. All leather with reinforced stitching and an adjustable strap, big enough to carry her supplies with ease but not so big as to be a nuisance. She had even grown rather fond of the musky scent, having spent countless nights cradling it possessively in her arms or beneath her head as a pillow.
And the color—don't even get her started. That stonewashed shade of olive, subtle yet bold, blending seamlessly into the background of overgrown weeds and dusty debris.

Goddamn, she was a sucker for a good accessory.

She was still pouting, leaning one shoulder against a grimy wall, when the others filed down the ladder behind her. She gave them each a nod as they appeared, allowing them to pass on ahead of her. Their voices echoed softly, hopefully, through the corridor as they ventured deeper into the darkness. Vye paused to glance up towards the waning twilight sun as it trickled through the open manhole. A single glittering star stationed itself just off-center in the opening, framed by the circular cut out of velvety sky.
Vye watched it for a moment, down in that sewer, trying to decide whether to feel envious or sorry for the poor thing.
All of its freedom, strung up there in the sky. All of its helplessness.
She wanted to invite it along with them.
She wanted to snuff the damn thing out.

With a huff, Vye ascended the ladder in three quick strides, gripped onto the metal edge of the manhole lid, and slammed it down into place.
She didn't bother to fish a lighter out of her pocket. She didn't bother to let her eyes adjust. She simply dropped back into the darkness, snatched the supplies off the ground, and followed silently after the group.
Falling into step with the others, she cast the band of men an inquisitive look, nudging one with her elbow.
"Just how far down does this thing go?"
 
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Mishka grinned back at him and nodded. "Yup, I'm okay!" she replied and looked at the darkness and found herself agreeing. "Yeah. That totally would be better." she agreed. She saw a familiar figure in the near darkness and smiled.

"Vye!" she called out in joy. "You're okay too!" she added. Smiling at Adam, she took his hand dragged him forward towards her. "You're okay!" she said with another grin. "And isn't this just like Alice in Wonderland?" she exclaimed then turned sheepish.

She's getting way ahead of herself. "Ignore me. I'm just super happy to see everyone's okay!" she honestly said. "Upstairs was such a nightmare."
 
Vye was eyeing the group of men and expanse of tunnel ahead with a scrupulous gaze when a familiar voice called out her name. She paused and fell back a step to meet Mishka and Adam as they trotted up alongside her.

"You're ok!—Isn't this just like Alice in Wonderland?"

Vye let out a small chuckle, her features pulling into a smile from behind her facemask. She had to admit, it had turned into quite a curious day. If they were all to reach this little underground colony and suddenly triple in size, their bodies stretching and unfolding like telescopes, she probably wouldn't be surprised.
She looked down at Mishka and gave a conceding toss of her head.
"All you need is a pretty blue dress, and you'd look just like Alice." She smiled again, her voice soft and nonchalant so as not to alarm the girl, "Let's just hope there's no Red Queen or Jabberwockies."

One eye fluttered closed in a wink before Vye switched her attention ahead of her once more. She had kept her concerns to herself regarding the legitimacy of these men and the place they were leading them to, but that didn't stop the thoughts from creeping into her mind on occasion.
 
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Chicago was silent, other than the sounds of car alarms, which was what Daniel needed. Anything to let him escape.
He climbed to the roof of the old apartment building he was staying in, and surveyed the area. The streets were a mess. Wrecked cars, fire and... people?

He grabbed his bag and katana, and climbed down the fire escape. "James came home all bloody, this happens? What the hell?" He muttered. He runs down the street, one of his pistols ready to fire. Running down the street, he avoids the fires, only to trip over a body.

"What the-" he begins as the "body" grabs his leg. "Get off Me!" he yells, kicking the hand. The thing tightens its grip. "Get OFF!" he screams, shooting the body. IT goes limp, and the grip slackens. Just as he gets his leg out of the things grip, a runaway car slams into him, knocking him out, and throwing him to the ground...
 
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