TICKETS, PLEASE

[egghead]

"Anything that has booze in it." She laughed at her own crappy joke, then shook her head, her red hair falling in her face slightly. "Nah, it's vodka."

The atmosphere had lightened up a little, it was almost hard to imagine that they were just running for their lives. "What about you, huh?" She didn't peg somebody like him for an alcoholic, but then again there were more shocking things in the world.

 

[Atom]

"Well..." He pondered over the question thrown back at him while he lifted his hair up and ran his fingers through it. "Anything disgustingly sweet." Fixing his glance down, his hair fell back in place.

"I don't drink much though, you might be able to tell. It's probably not a good idea for me to often anyways.." Another laugh escaped him as he nervously dragged his finger through the dust on the floor.

 

[egghead]

Rachel's smile stretched wider after hearing his answer. He might have been an adult, but he was such a kid. "Tell you what," she said as she tucked her arms behind her head. "If we make it out of here, I'll buy you a drink. The sweetest damn one."

 

[Atom]

"Damn, are you kidding me? I'll have to buy you one, I owe you after all." Though, he knew if he reached into his wallet all he would find was something even more less than lint. His smile faded and bit and he shifted his gaze toward the doorway to the hotel.

"I wonder if he made it out..."

 

[egghead]

"He's a big boy, he can take care of himself," was all she said. It didn't seem like she cared much about the object head, but her chest hurt when Declan mentioned him. She didn't know why, it was probably just heartburn.

"Let's get it moving," she said suddenly, standing up. "Maybe we can find a way outta here."

 

[Dingus]

Gertrude excaped the torrent of beasts alive. Over the blood drench landscape, he began to search for his trusted claw hammer. He spotted the wooden handle lodged under one of the brutalized corpses. After reaching and grasping the handle, he pulled it out with a loud squelch. Turning towards the direction his teammates ran towards he found that there was a large building in the foggy distance. He began a stride over towards the urban monolith, hoping that they were unharmed.

 

[Atom]

As much as he didn't like the answer Rae gave, Declan shrugged lightly and agreed. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Hopefully from now on he could be more of a help to both of them seeing as this place wasn't normal at all. "Okay.." With a sigh he lazily stood up along side Rae.

 

[Dingus]

Drenched in the blood of his enemies, Gertrude stumbled towards the hotel. His stumbling was not caused by any injuries but by exhaustion. Gertrude had never been so angry and fearful in his whole life. As an assassin he had been through many fights but this recent brawl left him feeling sick to his ass. Perhaps it was gore. Perhaps it was the amount he killed. Perhaps it was because he was alone yet again. The hotel looked as dusty as anything else in this town. Gertrude took a glance to his right. Then a glance to his left. Nothing but foggy landscape. Just then a loud screech and choking sound echoed through the streets.

Fuck limping.

Gertrude bolted for the building before anything can show up to oppose him yet again. He really wished he knew how Rae and Declan were doing. Lost in thought, he slammed into the door. It gave a lot of resistance as if it were blocked. After the previous fight Gertrude felt like he had no fear left to feel. Whether he wanted to or not. With the last bits of strength he had within his large body, he began to furiously bang on the door. He wasn't completely sure if the other two were in this building but there was something in his mind, something he couldn't point out, that said they were here.

 

[egghead]

The loud banging sliced right through Rachel's thoughts and turned her head. There was somebody...or something at the door, desperate to get inside. "See?" she said to Declan. "I told you he's a big boy."

After giving the knob a good shake, the door swung open to let in a gust of stale air and a man covered in blood and chunks of flesh. To anyone else, he would have looked frightening, but Rachel didn't bat an eyelash. "What's shakin', bacon?"

 

[Dingus]

"LOCK THE DOORS AGAIN."

Gertrude stumbled in with the stomps of his boots making him sound akin to a thunder clap. Perhaps even more frightening than the replicated sound. Looking around the main lobby, Gertrude noticed somebody standing in the corner. It was Declan. Gertrude approached him and simply said,

"You owe me at least three times now..."

And spun around to face Rae and commented,

"Not much, how are you?"

He stunk of iron.

 

[Atom]

After the sudden burst of noise and energy happened, Declan only placed his hands in his pockets, looking away. He was both relieved and frustrated, even if it made him a bad person.

Gertrude's remark simply pissed him off even more. The cold wall he gave Declan only reminded him of people he hated. He watched as Gertrude now began talking to Rae as if nothing happened, with scowling eyes. If only he were at home doing absolutely nothing as usual, anything would be better than this. The fact that he was now stuck with an uptight asshole and some chick with probably a thousand weird fetishes, he couldn't help but rethink why he was alive in the first place or better yet, died an hour ago.

 

[egghead]

The small talk gave the situation a tiny sense of normality. It was almost like they weren't trapped in a run-down hotel in the middle of a monster-infested town.

"Eh, can't complain." She placed her hands on her hips and looked him up and down, her face cracking with a grin. "You look like hell, buddy. Maybe you should ditch those clothes."

 

[Dingus]

Gertrude stood there in shock not sure if she just outright demanded him to strip. Perhaps he was reading into it too much. He took off his jacket, slung it over his should, and rolled up his sleeves.

"I was getting pretty warm. You think I look better like this?"

His white button up shirt still splotched with blood that wasn't his.

 

[Atom]

"Yeah don't worry you two, I can leave so you don't have to bother getting a room." Declan scoffed and began walking away, almost stomping his feet.

He walked through a set of double doors and began exploring around. The wood floor looked covered in a mixture of dust, blood and occasional glass. There was a light flickering from somewhere, the buzzing of what probably was the bulb interrupted the silence. Despite being a bit nervous, he walked on and to his surprise, there was a bar. The lightbulb was a fluorescent one above a large shelf of what appeared to be alcohol, still good too.

Declan sighed and took a seat placing his head in his hands, losing his jumbled thoughts to the buzzing.

 

[egghead]

After he gave her a sneak peek of his delicious arm muscles and veins, Rachel couldn't stop herself from staring. "Much better," she agreed with a wink.

Twisting back towards the doors her moody little boy went through, she motioned for Gertrude to follow before heading through them herself.

What was behind the doors was another room, bigger and crustier than the lobby. There were tables littering the floor, each covered in a thin layer of grime and vases filled with flowers that wilted long ago.

 

[Atom]

After listening to the buzzing of the light go on enough, he threw a thought around in his head and settled on 'fuck it'. He walked over to the suspiciously untouched alcohol behind the bar and grabbed some of what looked like rum. He didn't have much knowledge of all the stuff on the shelf but he knew rum when he saw it due to Glen. After opening it, he grabbed a shot glass, pouring one.

Declan had only done this a few times in the past but figured he needed it at this point. Grimacing at the taste, he laughed at himself quietly and then made a new shot, this time of vodka. Rae said it was her favourite. He could hear the two coming from Gertrude's imposing foot steps. With a heft sigh, Declan leaned against the bar and looked toward the boarded window, a small crack leaked in some light putting all the dust flying around in the air on display.

 

[Dingus]

As Gertrude and Rae followed the youngest member of their trio, Gertrude noticed Declan pouring himself some drinks. If Gertrude had traditional eyes they would be gleaming in the dim lights of the hotel's bar.

"Hey, barkeep! Mind pouring me something good?"

Gertrude did a half jog over to a bar stool and slid right into place. Perhaps he would learn to like Declan if he actually watched what he says and does most of the time.

 

[egghead]

Once her fishnet-clad legs stepped through the door, Rachel knew she was home. Along the walls were rows upon rows of booze, all of them calling out for her to drink them.

She strolled over to the counter. "Heh, for me?" she fingered the rim of the shot glass before grabbing the bottle beside it. After taking a long pull from its neck, she slammed it back down and burped loudly. "Oooo yeah, I needed that."

 

[Atom]

Declan lowered his gaze and snickered a bit at Gertrude's remark. "I have no idea what you like." He grabbed the shot originally for Rae and took it himself without hesitation, though regretting it afterwards.

"So, help yourself." With that, he threw the glass over his shoulder, not caring where it landed. It hit the dusty floor and shattered, adding to the rest of the broken shards from who knows when. At least Rae seemed to be enjoying herself. That woman....she must have seen and been through things much worse.

He had no idea why he was drinking stuff he didn't even like, or even drinking for that matter. As if now was the time to.

 

[egghead]

"Don't mind if I do~" Rachel sang as she plucked several bottles from the shelves and dumped them onto the bar. They were all pretty dusty, some of them even had cobwebs. Oh well, booze was booze.

Grabbing a drinking glass from behind the counter, she filled it to the rim with some marshmallow vodka then slid it over to Declan. Flashing him a sinister smile that dared him to take a sip, she leaned in closer to see what he would do.

"It's sweet," she promised. "Trust me, I'm a bartender."