LIFE STORIES - BEAU CHARDUFOND

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

A wet arm slapped the surface of a low dock. Another followed, then the man himself.
A naked, elegantly muscled guy pulled himself out of the water, soaking wet.

He reached in and pulled out a wet, miserable dog. It was on the skinny and small side
of medium sized, long hair on its droopy ears sodden and dripping. Next, the man pulled
out an airtight bag, and shook the water off of it. He stood and stretched.

Nearby, an old man looked at him from a deck chair, taking in the scene with not much
more interest in evidence than a single cocked eyebrow.

Naked man -
" 'Allo."

Old Man-
"Yeah. Um. Hello."


Naked man -
"What is zis area? I swim across from Ba'llard."

The man spoke in a heavy French accent, and unwrapped the plastic bag,
removing wrinkled clothing.

Old Man-
"Yer in Interbay. Some'd say Lower Queen Anne. Y'swim from
Ballard France, son?"


Naked man -
"Ahaha! No, I live 'ere several year. It is peaceful in Queen Anne?
You sit outside with no monster? Ba'llard is no good."

The skinny dog shook its body furiously, spraying droplets all over. It couldn't shake enough though,
and looked miserably soggy, its tail looking thin as a rat's with drippy strings of hair hanging off the tip.
The man pulled on his wrinkled black twill pants, not bothering with underpants apparently.

Old Man-
"Naw, it's fucked up around here too. But they don't like the dock as well as the street...
Ya go in for the commando?"


French man -
"Mm? Oh I was in French military, not now. *sigh* I 'ad wished there are places without
so many monster. C'est dommage."

The man pulled on a crumpled white shirt and shivered a bit in the chilly morning air.

Old Man-
"So even ex-commandos do without shorts. Just don't get a boner when yer talkin' people up.
Maybe you could say it's a banana. Wait, we don't have those. Maybe you could say it's a toy banana."

The lil' doggy kept shaking. The man pulled out the last item in the bag, a nearly worn out pair of leather shoes.
He sat on the ground and put them on as the dog shuddered in the cold.

French man -
"Ahaha, I would imagine so. Do you live in a settlement? I 'ear of some but
never find them."


Old Man-
"No way. People can't be trusted. Buncha shits is all that's left of us.
Plus grandstandin' assholes think they're gonna save tha world."


French man -
"Trying to save the world? Where do you see 'zis?"


Old Man-
"Huh? What do you care?"


French man -
"Well, I am looking for the mummy. Do you 'ear about this? No one knows, so far."

Suddenly the man shifted in his seat, and the little dog stopped shaking,
staring intensely at a possible threat.

Old Man-
"Um. Huh. You want the mummy?"


French man -
"Yes, I see it on the video. I want to kill it. I do not know if this will 'elp, but I want to do it.
Do you 'ear of it? Or do you know where there is settlement?"

The man started to laugh, which little dog found annoying but non-threatening,
because he went back to shivering and shaking.

Old Man-
"Ah, another bird-brained world saver. Hell, I don't remember where the dumbasses
said they were. Find one of their stupid fliers and they say on it."


French man -
"Oh well, merci..."

The man walked towards the road in soggy shoes, the wet dog following closely behind.
He carried no weapons, or anything else for that matter.

A flier was it?

The old man hadn't been lying. There were zombies, and they seemed less interested in
the waterfront than the streets. There was a short walk uphill to a main street,
and several zombies along the way...

French man-
"Chou, en avant!"

The man gestured to the dog, who went running through the crowd of zombies. The man continued
walking casually. The zombies seemed a bit confused by the dog running underfoot.

After a bit of Keystone Cops action, the zombies got a bearing on the nice French cuisine.
They went for the Frenchman!

Chou-
"AIP!"

The man cast about, quickening his pace, until he saw a length of wood sticking out of the soft earth
on a patch of landscaping, a construction marker for work that would never be done.
He pulled the stick from the ground, as the zombies closed in around him. He jabbed the stick at
the closest zombie, hitting it squarely in the chest. He used his strength to shove the former
businesswoman back into the others.

French man-
"*whistle* Ici!"

He whistled for the dog to come, and used the stick and his elbows to shove the zombies
down an embankment.

The zombies tumbled into a heap and tried to get up in a mostly useless way. Chou caught up
and kept vigilant for anything coming close to his master.

There were more zombies up ahead, but the man knew their pace and knew his own.
As he went, he used the obstacles such as ditches and cars in the road to confuse them,
so that he didn't even need to jog to stay out of arms reach.

There were hundreds of zombies within sight, over a dozen within short range, and several
close enough to keep his vigilance and pace sharp and brisk.

He had no idea where to find this flier, but had to make a choice. Go toward the Ballard Bridge,
go toward downtown, or go uphill into snarled residential areas...

French man-
"..."

While it seemed as though downtown would be likely to be full of zombies, the other options
weren't better. He'd been in residential neighborhoods, they were generally full of starving
desperate people, and he had nothing to give them. (Or nothing to have robbed from him...)
The bridge was up and snarled with wrecked cars on the Ballard side, why would this site be any better?

Downtown it was.

He tried knocking on the large front door, and failing that, he moved to bang on the rolldown.

French man-
" 'Allo! Anyone?"

Someone moved a curtain off to the left, a moment passed, and the door opened.

American man-
"Come in, quick! Damn."

                                                                         

The man stepped in quickly, Chou was also eager to get away from the creeping creeps.

French man-
"Merci. Sorry to bother."

The man closed and blocked the door. Dead hands beat the thick glass from outside.
The men quickly moved into the lobby - very dim, with no one else in sight.

American man-
"Jesus christ, no bother. Wow. Hm. What were you doing out there? You don't look like you
came to trade... Unless you're offering your bod. Huh huh. Ahem, sorry."


French man-
"Ahaha, perhaps if you had the 'ome address of the mummy. "


American man-
"oO Wow. Oh my god. Hot as hell and French. Did I just pass out while masturbating?
What's going on in here?"


French man-
"No, it is real, but you are sweet. I just swim across from Ba'llard.
I 'ear something about flyers? Do you know?"

American man-
"Not sure what you mean. The accent, I'm sorry."


French man-
"Mn, do you know about a flyer? With information about monster."


American man-
"Oh..."

The man, who was ridiculously tall and skinny, leaned against a counter as they spoke, practically
sitting on it. Suddenly, a woman and another man came into the room. She was dark-haired and
cranky looking, and he was a punk rocker.

Woman-
"What the hell is going on, Jeffrey?! Why are there zombies trying to
beat down my door?"


Jeffrey-
"Oh, excyuuuse me, Katy. I only had to save a sexy French man's life, you know?"


French man-
" 'Allo. I apologize. It's true, Jeffrey 'elps me."


Katy-
"Okaaaay... What are you doing here? Looking for a handout?"


French man-
"Oh no no, I am fine. I 'ear about a flyer, with information. I am looking for something,
I want to know more about monster."

People looked at each other, a bit tense, a bit paranoid. But they had no reason to
conceal information.

Woman-
"I guess so. We have it in... Wait a minute. The place that made it is, like, less than
a mile from here. Why not just go ask them about it?"


French man-
"Oh yes? Where is...?"

The next day,

Marie and Stevie were trying to walk Seth through all the intelligence from the news studio,
when Kenny ran in.

Kenny-
"Hey, another lone gunman like Humbert is hitting up the back door.
White dude with fluffy hair."


Seth-
"Whoa-- I guess I should go down and check it out. Someone let him in yet?"


Kenny-
"They let him in-"


Marie-
"They'll be taking the north stair up. Kenny, just make sure the guy comes here first.
Seth, take it easy."


Stevie-
"Who's Humbert?"

Kenny paused before running out the door.

Kenny-
"Weird black guy on a scooter. I partied with him on scavenging run
a few weeks ago."

He took off.

Stevie-
"Is that the skinny guy from the enclave across from Pan-Pac...?"


Seth-
"Oh, that's Jalil... I never met a Humbert. Damn... this is weird. "


Marie-
"Well, I can see we've lost all focus. We can stop for now, but tell me,
what do you want the most out of our new data, Seth?"


Seth-
"Hmm... Well, as much about monsters as we can get. Different kinds, where they are,
any ideas on how we could defeat them... Also, the status of different nearby areas,
as far as we know."


Stevie-
"Yeah, like we should maybe re-do our big map, to show the new info. Like those, uh,
'solid flyers' in the U district."

Kenny popped in, delivering a sexy dude and cute-ass dog.

Kenny-
"Here you go!"


Sexy guy-
" 'Allo. You make flyers?"


Seth-
"Oh! Uh, yeah..!"


Stevie-
"Damn, that's a cute-ass dog! C'mere, boy!"


Marie-
(little whistle at Seth) "Yoohoo, Seth... Sir, this is our president, Seth Clemans. And you are?"


Seth-
"Oh yeah, sorry. Haha... Hi."


Sexy guy-
"My name is Beau Chardufond, this is Chou."

Chou waited hesitantly, looking at Beau, who nodded at the dog.
It trotted over to Stevie to get petted.

Seth-
"You saw our flyer?"


Beau-
"No, I just 'ear there is one from za 'otel nearby. I find string here, it's nice.
Big building."


Kenny-
"There's way bigger just down the street, just-"


Stevie-
"Kenny, can you go back to the roof? We need somebody up there."


Kenny-
"Pssht."

He left.

                                        Stevie-
                                        "Good boyeee!"


Marie-
"The flyer... We've got an update in the works, but it isn't ready yet.
Maybe you can transcribe the notes?"

Beau-
"Certainly. Do you 'ave information on mummy?"


Seth-
"Well, a little bit. We've been trying to find out more, investigating the news studios
where the tapes were sent. Not a whole lot yet, but we've found out there are other mummies,
not just in Seattle."


Beau-
"...That is bad news... *sigh* Well, I will find the mummy here, at least."


Marie-
"Uh... what? How?"


                                        Stevie-
                                        "Yeah... Haha.
                                 You're a feisty frenchman."


Beau-
"Not sure yet. I am looking for 'zem. Not in university, not Fremont, not Ba'llard,
not Queenanne... maybe downtown, but you don't find them."


Seth-
"Whoa-- you've looked for the mummies in all those places?
You've BEEN to all those places? How?"


Beau-
"I walk. Sometimes I swim."


                                        Stevie-
                                        "Wow. You've been looking for
                                 them this whole time? Haha. Great!"


Marie-
"Yeah, I heard the water around here is really bad for your health.
But, yes, why do you feel so driven, if we may be so bold?"


Beau-
"Mmm.. it's 'ard to explain for me. When it first 'appen, I am in University for facility,
geological survey. I see in my 'otel, video of mummy. All the people around, they try to do
something at first, but become 'opeless. They do nothing. They die... 'Ze, ehh... ballon?
Flying ones? Not like zombie, you can't look at them. People give up, dies around me,
die or become ballon. Then they die, falling at once. It begins again. Over and over...
I think, maybe the mummy dies, it will stop. Maybe not... but what can I do?
I stay alive for now, but everyone dies? I can't wait for it. I don't know... does it make sense?"

Stevie-
"Not even a little bit."


Marie-
"You lost me in the middle, but I gathered that was something about the unique monsters
from the U District. And that you hope killing the mummies will end all of this. That is
a sentiment we share - one of our long term goals."


Beau-
"Sorry, it is so very strange. I am glad to 'ear about this. No one else wants to! I don't understand.
It is just small monster, why not try? Die 'iding or fight and die? Maybe we can win."


Seth-
"Yeah! I was sayin' that the other day, it's just teenagers. What if you kill them, and *poof*
everything's normal again? I mean, I doubt that, but why not try? At least if they're planning
anything else, it would stop it."


Beau-
"Yes."


Stevie-
"Fuck yeah! You wanna join up? A place to stay until we figure this out?"


Marie-
" "


Beau-
"It is a good idea. At least until I know where to go, or if we go to fight mummy together.
I like it. Merci."


Seth-
"Yeah...!"


Marie-
"Well, I'm going to work on this more, but you guys should maybe check out the facilities,
if you're going to stay. Right Beau?"


Beau-
"Yes, I wish I 'ad something to give. I 'ave only myself and Chou."


Seth-
"Oh gosh, don't be silly. We humans gotta stick together, right? I'll show you around!"


Beau-
"Merci."

Seth stood to open the door for Beau. Beau glanced to his dog who trotted over obediently,
his fluffy tail trailing behind him.

Seth and a handsome man with a cute fluffy skinny dog came out of Marie's room,
and into the comm center.

Seth-
"So this is our community center, this is where everyone eats.
We have a real chef and everything!"


Beau-
"Hourra, I smell real food. I eat cans of green beans yesterday, cold. Chou will be 'appy."


Chou-
"*snuff snuff*"



Seth-
"Oh yeah, the food here is great. We have chickens and geese, so eggs too...
We can find you a room later, I don't remember if anyone needs a roommate but--
oh look, here's some of our residents."

Near the food...

Volya-
"It's President Liar again. Salutes, everybody, if you wanna be one of cool kids!"


Hector-
"Mang, he's looking at us."


Kerry-
"What are talking about Volya? It doesn't even make sense!"


Seth-
"What are you-- oh man, it's like that thing with Ione, isn't it? Well whatever.
Everyone, this is Beau."


Beau-
" 'Allo, very pleased. This is Chou."

Chou- *stares at Volya*


Volya-
"Don't sic your pit bulls on me because you don't likes the truth."


Kerry-
"Shut UP! Beau, I'm very pleased to meet you and sorry about-"

Jaylyn-
"Weh!"


Volya-
"Yeah, silence dissenters like Putin! Who is KGB? You gonna have Stevie
give us dioxins poison? Fuck that shits!


Tyrone-
"You're crazy like a big dog, fool."


Col. Teddy-
"I see... So it all starts to come unravelled, as predicted!"

Seth-
"What are you guys even talking about?"


Col. Teddy-
"Oh I think you know what I'm talking about!"


Anna-
"I don't so fuckin' enlighten me, ya prick."


Col. Teddy-
"Please. I knew it wasn't a good idea to let my son rent an apartment near such riff raff."


Chantelle-
"HEY! Knock it off, weirdos! Your bad vibes could flatten a souffle at fifty paces!"


Seth-
"Seriously, what is it!? Everyone's getting on my case today, what's the deal?
If you have a problem, just say it!"

Beau-
"I assume this is unusual."

Seth-
"Sorry, I don't know what's gotten into them."

Chou-
" *low grumble* "


Anna-
"You jackass! You always think you know what's best, but what did that
get your family? Cowering starving in a building for how long?!"

Jackson-
"Anna, maybe that's too far."


Col. Teddy-
"This whole situation is insane! A bunch of yoyos, caging themselves in the heart
of a warzone! It'll end in pine boxes, I tell you!"


Volya-
"Yeah, pine boxes full of stupids, you knows what I mean?"


Jaylyn-
"WEEEEEEEH"


Kerry-
"I'm so sorry. Volya, NO ONE knows what you're saying! I have to go."


Basil-
"Dreadful."


Seth-
"Ugh. If you aren't even gonna voice a REAL complaint, I'm out of here.
If you think of something coherent later, why not write it down.
Beau, let's get you some food on the patio."

Beau-
"Very well..."

Chou-
"*watchful look at loud men*"



Ashley-
"Those two half-wits are probably high." Ashley enters, wearing his best werewolf face. 
"Clemens, Sir, I apologize for their stupidity."

Seth-
"Thanks Ashley. I hope everything went okay on the trip, let me know later.
I'm gonna get some food for this new guy first. This is Beau."


Beau-
" 'Allo."

Seth, Beau, and Chou went toward the patio (possibly followed by Ashley). The arguers argued on.


Patti kept a low profile in her corner as Seth came onto the patio, followed by Beau and others.
Chantelle helped pick out some nice food for the new guy.

Seth-
"Omigod, I am so sorry Beau. I don't know what's going on."


Beau-
"I 'ave seen worse. So much fighting at University... Ba'llard is very unfriendly.
I get robbed more than once."


Seth-
"Geez, I'm sorry..."


Chantelle-
"You're lovely, Beau. I hope the idiots don't ruin your appetite."

Beau ate buttered toast with a fancy bean and pepper paste. Chou happily munched on kibble.

Beau-
"Merci, young lady. How wonderful, I 'ave not eaten warm food for month or more."


Chantelle-
"That is why I do this. You are so sweet, you're like a month of back wages in a smile. "


Bryce-
"*glurk* Think I barfed up a little bit. Someone got some water? Thanks."


Ashley-
"Good to meet you." He looks back towards the door again, and takes a halfstep closer to it. 

Handsome. Healthy. Friendly. Cutesy dog to lure in women. AND FRENCH.

Wait. Maybe he didn't even know French. The accent was probably a sensual incubus trick. Alex smiled.

You're mine, Devil! I took one semester of French in high school!

"Bonjour Monsieur. Je m'appelle Alex. Uhhh. Vous etes originaires de cette region?"

Beau smiled at Alex.

Beau-
"Oh! Vous parlez français? Non, je suis resté ici pendant plusieurs années, mais je suis
né en Île-de-France. Avant de, je me suis enrôlé dans La Royale, la marine,
sur la base de Brest."


Ashley-
"We're glad to have someone else join us, Mr. Beau. What is your last name, Sir?" 
He asks, somehow assured that this man was...important somehow. 

Beau-
"Beau Chardufond. Sir, you are Ashley? Forgive me, are you military or...?
I was telling young Alex I was in la Royale, French navy. That was years ago, 'owever."


Beau-
"Wow, really? What did you do?"


Beau-
"Mmm... this and that... intelligence."


Bryce-
"Jesus Christ. James leBond. Figures."

Oh, Lord. His smile was gorgeous, too.

"Intelligence, huh? Your name is Beau, huuuuh? Convenient." For an incubus!!! "Vous etes beau ..."

Hold it! If he really was human, perish the thought, Alex probably shouldn't behave so strangely.

"Je suis desole! Je me suis souvent repenti d'avoir parle. You know, I'm going to stick with English. I'm probably insulting your mother right now, you know, unintentionally. HAHA! HA!"

Beau-
"Haha. Ce n'est rien. You are funny. "

"!" His respect for Beau seemed to grow immensely, and he straighten up, staring back at others, suddenly.

"Chardufond, Sir, nothing so illustrious, I just like giving due respect, and clearing up confusion. Have you come with news? I heard the others discussing a plan, and we have found...information that may be important to our future."

Beau-
"Oh I see, that is very polite, merci. I am only in military in France,
here I am only worker like anyone. I wish I know more, you know more of
mummy than me, sadly."

Seth-
"Beau just came here, he pulled the string. He's been all over up north,
wants to help us with the mummies."

Beau finished his toast and nodded.

Beau-
"I just swim from Ba'llard today. I am interest in the flyers you make, to find others
to fight mummy. I know of other areas, monsters, maybe 'elpful to you. You to me,
as well, I know nothing of the downtown, the news studio. It is of great interest to me.
I am afraid I am no soldier, I am a geologist. Of little use now. I wanted to create map,
but it was destroyed. I will do my best to 'elp, whatever the case."

"Thankyou for your help... We could use someone who knows more about this...I think we are barely scratching the surface of what we need to combat them properly."

Beau-
"It is true. 'Ow many weapons must one carry? Is every city different? My imagination
cannot grasp it. To even believe in the ghost, it seems ridiculous. But then.. *sigh*"

Bryce-
"Yeah, we could, like, do bilingual fliers, for all the French people in Seattle."


Beau-
"Haha, I'm sure 'zere are more language than just French in Seattle. Spanish would be best.
Then Korean and Chinese."


Bryce-
"Gee, ya think so?"

Seth-
"Omigod, those guys have gone bonkers. It must be contagious. I have no idea what they're going on
about, but they're all pissed at me for unknown reasons. They won't even tell me! Poor Beau showed up
after it started. Ione was already giving me that crap this morning. If you find out what it is, let me know."

Beau-
"I should let the president do 'is work, perhaps. If it isn't too much trouble, I would like to rest."


Chantelle-
"Oh sure, you can get away from all this madness. Do you know where Marie's room is?
She usually manages that stuff, I can take you there."


Beau-
"Merci, Ms. ...?"


Chantelle-
"Oh, Chantelle."


Beau-
"How lovely, it suits you. Yes, please excuse me everyone, I will love to talk to you all later.
Seth, I am for your 'elp. Please meet me later."

He touched Chou lightly on the back, and the dog grudgingly moved away from the kibble to follow his master back inside.



"Well, if they can't or won't vocalize opposition, then they are probably just jumping on someone else's bandwagon and have no idea what they are supposed to upset about. If they're jumping on the gay-bashing bandwagon, then I might have to kick all their asses, in alphabetic order."

Beau raised his eyebrows in an inscrutable expression at the last bit, but still looked unfailingly pleasant.

"Later, Beau."

Beau-
"Thank you Patti, I am happy to know you."

Chantelle-
"Yeah, baby! You, me, and Lashonda. And, uh, other people. See you!"

Chantelle walked after Beau, leading him back to Marie's office.

Seth caught the tail end of knuckleheads dispersing, yakked a bit with Anna, and so on...


The afternoon wound its course, Dinner got made and served. People lingered to try to enjoy the evening.
Notable absences, as expected: Derek and Ione. Several people talked about how nice meeting with Emmett was.
That's where we find ourselves...

Seth sat on some couches of people talking with Beau.

Marie-
"They all just randomly die at the same time? That is the weirdest thing I've heard of since...
earlier today. What can it mean?"


Beau-
"Sorry, it is 'ard to explain because it's so strange. The 'umans look into the face of the ballon, and...
they change. Unrecognizable. They are mindless, floating, they become the same.. Then... they just
fall to the ground after some time. Dead. I saw it happen 'zree time over. Dead bodies cover the street,
no one to remove them."


Seth-
"God... How did you get out?"


Beau-
"It's not 'ard to avoid them outside, actually. Just run... They don't seem to follow.
Inside, is 'arder. They look in windows."


Stevie-
"I'm positive we'll see 'em too, since they fuckin' fly. How do people kill them?"


Beau-
"I wish I know. 'zey are very strong if they get you. I saw one tear a man's arm. I don't know,
maybe fire. I never tried. I didn't know fire for ghost until I do it on accident. Before I just run,
Chou wakes me up. He knows."


Sarah-
"Aww."


Marie-
"Never saw anyone kill one? That seems unlikely. Well, maybe we have
a different culture around here."


Beau-
"I think so, in University everyone is 'iding in buildings. Never going outside, not for food
or anything. Only a few go out, I try to get people to leave, 'zey don't go. I saw people
trying to catch a ballon, but can't. It floats away."


Anna-
"If they try to come kill ya, ripping arms and whatnot, somebody would have no choice
but to kill one in self defense. I guess you didn't see that happen."


Ashley-
"What are you talking about? And how do we kill them? Do you know anything about
the really powerful ghosts, Sir?" He asks, leaning his weight back on his heels.

Beau-
"Ah we are talking about creature in University area. "Solid flyers" someone 'ere say. I don't
see it anywhere else, thankfully. Unfortunate, as Anna says, I don't know 'ow to kill it.
They are easy to escape, usually. Perhaps with weapon they will go away or can be killed.
I don't know of the strong ghost either, sadly. Oh! I see a strange thing in Fremont,
I think it is a bus from far but... it is just strange metal, sliding on 'ze road. I just run.
Maybe it is a ghost."

Beau-
"So we have talked about the downtown, but I am curious...
'As anyone been to the Capitol Hill?"


Sarah-
"Sandy told me you guys went up there, right Anna?"


Anna-
"Oh, we didn't get very far. But yes. It's a mess up there."


Beau-
"I 'ear things, in University. I 'ave choice to go there, or to Wallingford.
I 'ear... it is madness."


Anna-
"That sounds about right. It's... they barricaded a lot of streets, but not sensibly.
It's just everybody staking out turf. They have chained up zombies to scare
each other off, using guts and skulls and stuff for displays. I'm not sure, but I think
I saw ghosts stuck to the side of buildings, floating in place."


Beau-
"It is vile.. I am glad I don't go there."


Stevie-
"Yeah, also good you stood on the straightshot to downtown. 'Cuz I heard
Queenanne has a lot of assholes too."


Beau-
"I figure so much, the worst people are in residential. 'Zhey have nowhere to go,
no food. 'Zhey will rob you or kill you by now."


Sarah-
"Or worse... they'll eat zombies and turn into ghouls."


Beau-
"How strange, I feel I know so much until I come 'ere. There is so far to go."


Bryce-
"Yup, straight on to Montezuma and mad mummies, yo."


Beau-
"I don't understand..."


Sarah-
"You think the mummies are in north Africa Bryce?"


Bryce-
"Yes. Yes I do. When are you goin' Beau?"


Beau-
"Haha, that will be a long swim. I do go to Egypt and Morocco once. No mummies then."


Stevie-
"Well that's a shame, they musta been hiding in a hole, waiting for the sucker punch."


Seth-
"Eugh, bet Egypt is crawlin' with mummies now."


Marie-
"The mummies we've seen didn't look very Egyptian though."


Seth-
"Yeah, I meant... oh nevermind.

Stevie-
"So you were in the service?"


Beau-
"French navy, La Royale."


Stevie-
"What kinda boats didja man?"


Beau-
"Well, all sorts. I go on the Charles de Gaulle once, an aircraft carrier. Submarines,
some frigates, though I do not pilot those, haha. Mostly small patrol boats,
I pilot a helicopter a few times. It has been years though."


Sarah-
"Wow, we could totally get a helicopter. Even fuel it up, I bet."


Seth-
"That would be intense. Imagine seeing the city like that now...
Wonder if they still got one at the news studios. I didn't look.


Sarah-
"That's exactly what I was thinkin.' But I don't know that there's much point
going out on one now. Wouldn't want to waste it on something unimportant."


Beau-
"It may attract bad attention. These days the only things in the sky other than
birds are not good."


Sarah-
"I hadn't thought of that. "


Anna-
"I bet that'd go way faster than a ghost."


Stevie-
"Boats are a lot less wasteful than helicopters. You could get pretty far on one,
especially if you can sail."


Beau-
"I could sail, for sure. I would worry about the sea though, what creatures
may be there?"


Bryce-
"Zombie lochness monsters motherfucker. *pew pew fingerguns*"


Seth-
"..."

The knock at the door was answered by Monty. The doctor admitted was Bebe.
The waking of Beau then happened. And words were words wordly.

Dr. Bebe closed the door to Beau's new bedroom behind her. The pretty dog yipped
him to consciousness.

Dr. Bebe-
"Yoo-hoo," she said softly. "I know this is a bit of a weird way to wake up.
Sorry. I'm Dr. Melange..."

Beau sat up from Abdul's long unused mattress to smile at the doctor sleepily.

Beau-
"Mm I must be dreaming to imagine such a beautiful young woman.
A pleasant dream though, 'allo Doctor."

She maintained control, putting away a blush that threatened to undercut her authority.

Dr. Bebe-
"Hello. " She sat down a bag near the bed. "Your name was...?"


Beau-
"I am Beau Chardufond. This is Chou..."

The silky dog came to inspect the doctor guardedly.

Chou-
"*snuff*"


Dr. Bebe-
"Aww ;D "


Beau-
"Do I get the check-up? My 'ealth is good, though I am very glad to sleep on
the bed and not eating green beans cold again. Haha. "


Dr. Bebe-
"Indeed it is a checkup. You can't be too careful these days. But what is really
troubling is the possibility that you are a monster posing as a man."

She used a silly voice to emphasize that she didn't take that possibility very seriously.


Beau-
"Oh yes, I hear that at 'za back door. I was so confuse, 'favorite ice cream',
I thought 'zey would bring it to me! Hahaha... How shall we test eet then?"


Dr. Bebe-
"Easily enough. First, take off your shirt, if you don't mind..."


Beau-
"Of course..."

Beau unbuttoned and removed the heavily wrinkled shirt. He still smelled a bit like sea water,
though not unpleasantly.

Beau-
"And now...?"


Dr. Bebe-
"mmm... It's an interesting contrast. The last time I saw someone with your build
shirtless, it was a man with many scars from a life of violence. And here you are,
not a spot on you.... I'm going to stand behind you and I'd like you to continue to
face forward."


Beau-
"Mm yes m'aam. I am lucky to be in military but 'ave leetle to do but travel
and paperwork. It is 'ze easy life, at least before."

He sat up straight and closed his eyes. Chou watched with his impassive doggy face.

Dr. Bebe-
"I'm going to prick your back several times. I want you to tell me each time
you feel something."

She pricked his back with a lil' pin.

Beau-
"Ah! There it is. For neurological response? Interesting... Two.... three,
four... five..."


Beau-
"AH! ... Perhaps too much pressure."


Dr. Bebe-
"Sadly necessary. Most undead operate their bodies by some telekinetic force rather than
through the use of the nervous system, which suggests the possibility they have no ability
to use nerves. You just demonstrated to me the use of nerves..."


Beau-
"I see...! Quite clever. Do I pass 'za test then, or do I require further examination? "


Dr. Bebe-
"Hmm... Maybe some further testing of the nerves..."

She stood close, her bosom brushing lightly on his arm, and ran gentle fingers across his back.

Dr. Bebe-
"Let me know whenever my hand leaves your skin..."


Beau-
"What a shame that it will...! Heehee..."

She hovered in his personal space like a softy succubus ready to strike, fingers tracing
the muscles of his back. She didn't let up as she continued the exam.

Dr. Bebe-
"What is your favorite ice cream?"


Beau-
"Mm dulce de leche... Do I fall into a reverie? Ice cream and beautiful doctors... 
hmmm. *blissed out sleepy face*"

His flirtatious demeanor seemed about half earnest, half playful.

Dr. Bebe-
"Mm, good... And how sexually active were you, before all of this?"

Her hand left his back for a half second, then returned.

Beau-
"Haha yes, 'ere and there, 'ere and there... Sadly little time, too much work, blah blah,
as 'zey always say. It must be nice living with so many beautiful people.
I look forward to it myself. "


Dr. Bebe-
"Well, you will certainly add a beauty of your own to the collection."

She looked at his mouth as he spoke, for medical reasons? She was in his space again, close,
and brushed against him accidentally. She cast a quick glance down the front of the man.

--At least a bit, not like, raging or anything. He did have a cheeky look on his face.
Was bluff-calling in order? Or was the amusement to all parties involved enough as it was?

Dr. Bebe-
"Oh you cheeky thing... As long as you aren't un monstre, we can do the full exam
another time. You do look like you could use a hernia test...
Too much work on your abdominals. "


Beau-
"Anything for you, love. Hahaha... "






Later...


Beau turned to his new roommates with a smile.

Beau-
" 'Allo my friends, we only briefly meet yesterday.
'Ow are you this morning?


Monty-
"Just fine. How did your house call with the doctor go last night?"

Basil-
"Ho-ho..."


Beau-
"A gentlemen never tells... Ahaha, I kid, it was and she was lovely, of course.
So, what do you fellows do before 'za monsters?"


Basil-
"Monty drove a lorry and I scripted java in my crude way."


Monty-
"So nothing exciting, basically. Heard you were a French navy seal,
with MMA styles and shit."


Beau-
"I wish it were 'zat exciting! For navy was most just travel, paperwork and sitting
on boats. Not so bad at least! Here I am engineering geologist, it is about the same
but I do not get paid for the boat. Haha...
Do you two go to outside? I 'ear not everyone does. I do not blame if so, I do not like
to fight, myself. "


Monty-
"I go out there sometimes. It's pretty damn disgusting."


Basil-
"Oh I know what the French navy gets up to, if you follow my meaning. "


Beau-
"Hahaha, I swear I am innocent... "

The Comm Center was noony, with blue light illuminating the space as best it could.
Several people sat in different areas, shooting the shit. Beau was lost in contemplation,
sitting alone. Col. Teddy was talking to Lilla, Susie, and Kenny about his take on the
Derek/Ione situation - an unpleasant buzzing noise. Basil and Kerry had put in earplugs
to dull it while they read. Sonya and Kaito talked quietly elsewhere.



Creepy Ione and Derek appeared!!!

Kenny-
"Hey bro. You alright? Ready to get back to work?"


Lilla-
"Yeah, Derek. How ya feeling, there, sweetie?"


Derek-
"I ain't going back to work, no. I'm gonna get what I need, and I'm gonna leave."

Beau-
"..."

Beau observed the strange new people quietly. Was it just like Ballard again?

Col. Teddy-
"Bully for you, sir. And the straw that broke your back...?"


Derek-
"Religious freedom. I'm being oppressed, dude."


Kenny-
"What? I never heard nuthin' about oppressing peop-"


Ione-
"People won't respect our religious beliefs about homosexuality.
It's wrong and we should be allowed to say that."


Kenny-
"Oh. Yeah. Huh. I guess I agree with that."


Susie-
"What? No one said you couldn't say anything, but that just seems rud-"


Derek-
"I was in pre-law, Susie, I think I know a little bit about The Constitution.
It's called Freedom of Speech?"


Teddy-
"Indeed! A principled stand! I'd take one myself but for my poor son's ill wife.
Things like this cannot stand! A damnable hippy commune, this!"


Susie-
"..."


Beau-
"..."

Beau rolled his eyes, but kept to himself. Chou stood on guard, the angry voices agitating him.
Sonya leaned over unexpectedly, breaking Chou's attention a moment.

Sonya-
"I'm sorry, it doesn't usually like this."


Beau-
"Mm, yes, thank you. I hope I 'ave not brought my unluck with me..."



LATER...

Seth-
"...I don't think anything would surprise me at this point. Do tell."

Seth noticed Beau watching intently with a concerned expression.

Beau finally got up from his seat, gesturing for Chou to stay behind. The dog whimpered a bit,
but sat down, watching his master intently.
Seth looked ill, he was pale and dark around the eyes. Was this volatile situation too much
for his constitution? Beau stood near him, hoping to visually add to the sizable opposition
to the instigators. He spoke quietly to the tall man.

Beau-
"Seth, do not engage them. I see this before... It does not go well."


Bryce-
"What do you mean? It's just more noise!"

Seth took a deep breath and spoke with more force than his gentle demeanor
typically allowed.

Seth-
"If you're going to leave, just do it! Quit wasting our time!"


Beau-
"..."

Derek, Ione, and Kenny headed down to the garage, got Derek's truck gassed, and went to
the back barrier to Terry. ((403 building - The streets!)) Along the way, Lilla, Susie, Seth, Bryce,
Beau, Chou, Volya, Hector, and any PCs who want to followed them. They ran into Anna and Sarah
on the way downstairs, and they ended up going along as well.

Seth watched as Kenny, Derek and Ione packed their bags into the truck. He looked peaked,
and leaned against the back of an SUV no one would ever drive again.

Bryce was in a cluster around the driver's side with Susie and Lilla, pouring last minute
pleas onto Kenny.

Bryce-
"This is insane! It just can't end well!"


Susie-
"Yeah you remember the shape Sharma was in when he got back!
You guys think you could do better than Eddy and those guys? They had guns!"


Kenny-
"..."


Derek-
"Shut up bitches!"

Beau approached Seth, as they hung back from the drama.

Beau-
"Seth... These people 'ave gone mad. I 'ope you do not bother with it."


Seth-
"I don't know... It's hard to not feel hurt about it.
I thought were like family, all of us."


Beau-
"...When I was in University, 'ze people think that 'ze church were holy ground,
no monster would tread. They live there, no monsters at first. I was there,
not because I believe in a god, but I feel I must be with people.

Over the days, they begin to force others to leave. Weak, or ugly, or the different race.
I go, disgusted, when I see this. I see later they are dead. All of 'zem. 'Ze church is full
of monster. God does not help them. This is what 'appen.

I do not feel badly, when I see 'zis. Do not feel badly for these ones, the hateful ones.
Do you understand me?"


Seth-
"Yeah... Yeah, I do."

The truck rumbled smoothly, a re-awakening creature. It rolled out to the street,
Terry avenue. Where would they go?

Beau-
"It is madness to use the car. The roads are filled with debris..."


Sarah-
"I don't think there's anything about that expedition that isn't madness."


Anna-
"*whistle* Hey Ukraine, let's close this gate."


Volya-
"...Yeah."

They started closing the barricade.

Seth looked to Bryce. He looked confused, and just trudged over.

Bryce-
"I don't know. The hell is going on..."


Seth-
"I hope this isn't the start of something worse. I can't handle it.
I can't handle this.."

Bryce shook his head, wet-eyed.

Sarah-
"Ione! She was stupid, arrogant, but even so, it's just unbelievable."


Beau-
"Extraordinary circumstances lead to strange and terrible behavior, sadly.
I am always sad to see it."


Sarah-
"You're gonna have to tell us everything. We haven't seen anything like this before.
Most of our neighbors are pretty cool."


Beau-
"I 'ope it is not just luck that it doesn't 'appen before. I like to imagine I only 'ave unluck,
and it is not inevitable."


Sarah-
"I hope the unluck doesn't rub off on people."


Beau-
"I 'ope not as well... Sad to think I bring it with me."


Sarah-
"I was kidding, I don't believe in luck."


Beau-
"Haha. I didn't before either.

Anna and Volya came back.

Anna-
"Well, alright. Time to go put out some fires."


Sarah-
"Not literally I hope, though would it even be surprising by this point?"


Anna-
"Yeah this day really went into the shitter."

Volya was glum and said nothing.

People began moving back to the stairs. Beau collared Seth before he got to the stairs.

Beau-
"May I speak with you in privacy?"


Seth-
"Oh, yeah. Sure."

After Lilla, Susie, & Kenny went upstairs and Derek, Hector, & Ione drove off, Volya, Sarah, Anna,
Micah, and Ashley headed in. Seth, Bryce, and Beau were trailing behind when Beau got Seth's attention.
Bryce politely stayed some distance away in the alley, leaning his head on the wall waiting for them.

Beau waited a moment for everyone that was leaving to be out of earshot. They walked around
a tall van for privacy. Beau spoke quietly.

Beau-
"If this is start of something terrible, I 'ope you will not go down with 'zis place.
So few are willing to look for the mummy, I wouldn't want to lose the only one I find."


Seth-
"..."


Beau-
"Old man tells me the people here want to save the world. There is more knowledge 'ere than
I find in all of the rest of the city. You 'ave more than I find rest of the city. I 'ope you will not waste it."


Seth-
"..."


Beau-
"I will probably leave soon. Please consider doing so yourself.


Seth-
"......"

He looked sadly at Beau, who gave him an intense gaze, nodded politely, and moved along
toward the stairs, whistling for Chou.


LATER...


Chou was the first to arrive, bounding down the stairs with his long legs.
He stopped short of Bryce, and barked once.

Chou-
"ARF!"


Bryce-
"Quick Lassie, get Dr. Bebe! *wheeze*"


Chou-
"*whine*"

There were heavy footsteps descending the stairs, and then a Beau appeared.

Beau-
"Oh no, what 'appens?!"

He quickly knelt to check Seth for a pulse.

Bryce-
"He *wheeze* collapsed! Gotta-- doctor.. first floor."


Beau-
"He is alive... I will move 'eem very carefully."

Beau knelt on the stairs, and indeed, carefully pulled Seth off of Bryce, cradling
his upper body to keep his head from lolling, in case of spinal injury.
Bryce tried to move a little bit, but grunted in pain.

Bryce-
"OH that hurts!"


Beau-
"Where do you 'urt? Perhaps you break a bone."

Bryce gestured vaguely at his midriff, then managed to successfully sit up on his butt.

Beau-
"The first floor? I will take Sethe. Please do not move,
if you will 'urt yourself."

Beau lifted Seth somewhat easily, like he was an unwieldy sleeping bag, and moved
cautiously down the stairs. Chou stayed behind with Bryce, looking him with big brown doggy eyes.

Bryce-
"*wheeze* You're all right, Lassie. "

He clumsily followed, holding his torso in pain.


Moving to Zaitun -- Bebe's clinic

Later on...

In the clinic, Kaya and Wil chatted softly while Bebe and Columbo discussed some procedures.
The light was bright from a mixture of lamps arranged with mirrors and crystals for enhancement,
including a large chandelier procured from the nearby antique store. It was incongruously fancy
with the formerly spare, stainless steel kitchen that was now the clinic.
They heard some heavy, slow footsteps from the hall.

Out of sight-
" 'Allo? Doctor?"

Bebe stood, opened the door and saw the approaching people in the dim light of the hall.

Bebe-
"Come along. Nurse Columbo, do help."

Beau was carrying the unconscious president, and Bryce hobbled behind him.

Columbo-
"What the sheet man, did we get attacked?"


Beau-
"No, it is accident."


Bebe-
"This way."

She helped Beau put Seth onto a bed.

His eyes fluttered open and closed a couple times. He was semi-conscious but dazed.
Bebe looked to Bryce.

Bebe-
"Nurse Columbo, check on that man."

Columbo came over to Bryce.

Columbo-
"What happened, dude?"


Bryce-
"*wheeze*"


Beau-
"Seth passes out on the stairs, onto young man."


Bebe-
"Passes out? We'll need to know more."

Columbo set to checking Seth's vitals as Beau explained.

Beau-
"Young man tells me, 'ee just falls into the apples. Er-- goes unconscious."


Bryce-
"He's been sick. *wheeze* He-- was having trouble, and just passed out on
the stairs. I tried to catch him, he fell on me on the stairs."


Beau-
"I think young man 'as the broken rib."


Bebe-
"Nurse Columbo, confirm the broken rib."


Columbo-
"Okay. Hey kid, how does this feel?"


Bryce-
"AHHH! OW!"


Columbo-
"Confirmed!"

Bebe gently coaxed Seth to consciousness, helping him to sit up.

Bebe-
"Hey Mr. President. You okay there? How you feeling?"


Seth-
"...what...? I'm tired."

He looked totally white and had a sheen of sweat over his face.

Bebe-
"Well, you're obviously sick, Seth. But I can't let you sleep yet. In fact, if you don't
stay awake, I'm going to have to put a needle in your arm. Do you want that Seth,
do you want a cruel needle piercing your tender flesh?"


Seth-
"No..."


Bebe-
"What happened to you just now? Why are you in my office?"

He shook his head.

Bebe-
"Alright. I am told that you passed out on the stairs. Do you think that going up
the stairs was too much exertion for you?"


Seth-
"...Really? I don't... I do that all the time."

She put a stethoscope on his chest. His heart rate seemed normal, if a bit slow, and
his breathing was horrible. It was rattling and labored.

Beau-
"Is it perhaps emotional stress? Eet was an upsetting scene downstairs."


Bebe-
"Oh no. We can definitely say that Seth is suffering from a respiratory ailment.
A fairly severe one. In fact, I would recommend that everyone that doesn't feel
like getting sick, leaves."

Beau nodded and gave Seth a sympathetic look as he left.

LATER...

Zoe-
"Hello, mister."


Beau-
" 'Allo young lady! Is Ms. Marie in?"


Zoe-
"Lemme check onter availabiliddy."

Frank and Chou snuffed at each other and made crazy faces, and shortly, Beau was inside.
Marie was working on the big map.

Marie-
"Hey, it's the man of the hour. Ready to make your contributions?"


Beau-
"Certainly I am. Maps are good for me. Do we have a deal, if I 'elp with this,
I can be your humble student? 'Zere is so much I do not know."


Marie-
"It's no problem, but I wonder what it is you think you can do with this information
that we cannot. You seem... Well, you can explain yourself or not."


Beau-
"Well... To be honest, I may leave soon. I would like to come back to share what I find,
but I feel finding 'ze mummy is most important to me. I would like to find good places
to look. Before I just walk around, it is not a good method."


Zoe-
"I don't understand you at all, mister."


Marie-
"Well, we'll hate to see you go... I'm not sure what I think of any of this - the heroics,
the campaigning, the Reconquista, if you will... People like you and Seth...
Here's a pencil. Show me on the map the places you've been since this began."


Beau-
"Yes m'aam."

Beau marked the main drag of the University district, all the way to the edge of Capitol Hill.
He then traced a path through Wallingford, Fremont, and Ballard, then across the water
to lower QueenAnne, and all the way to 403.

Beau-
"I see much of University, fairly quick through Fremont, it is complete wreckage of cars.
I spend longer time in Ballard, and go to look at the bridge. I don't see Aurora bridge,
but Ballard and Fremont bridge are inaccessible."


Marie-
"Now mark all the places you can remember seeing les ballons, with Xs..."

Marie and Beau, knowing he seemed likely to leave soon, made the most of the day. They pushed him
to the limit, trying to remember every useful thing about the monsters, places, and people he'd seen,
and in return he pushed himself even farther, transcribing or memorizing everything he could from
the news station intel. A plan began to come together in his mind...

Beau-
"So... most likely place this began, is the Columbia Tower? The tallest building
in Seattle. It make sense. I wonder how they do it?"


Marie-
"I think people that played a lot of video games and watched a lot of horror movies
have a better handle on this than I do. Ben said they might have opened a portal
to another world in that building - that the ghosts were coming out of something
like that. If that's true... Is the portal still open?"


Beau-
"Hmm... 'zis would be a good thing to find out. Perhaps I go there first. Though...
I imagine if I were mummy, I would put such a thing on the very top."


Marie-
"You saw the video. If that's from a portal, and the portal is still open, you'll be able
to tell without going into the building. And you won't be able to go in and come out alive."


Beau-
"True. Seems simple enough. Marie... I must admit, I like to imagine if I kill mummy, it will help.
I know now, is hopeless optimism. 'Zere are too many, killing one will not help. 'Owever, perhaps
if I find one, I can capture it. Do you imagine at all, 'zis could be possible?"


Marie-
"... No. If you find one, you might be able to kill it - say, if you trapped it in a building and
started a fire with a powerful accelerant... I don't know. But capturing something that
could do all of this..." She gestured at the map. "It seems very unlikely."


Beau-
"Mmm it is true, no doubt. I wish I was more of a fighter."


Marie-
"The French navy trains people for low self esteem rather than combat?"


Beau-
"Well, I shouldn't imagine I will run into mummy by chance. I 'ope to return soon.
Thank you Marie, one day I should like to take you sailing."


Marie-
"Oh, you devil."

Beau and Chou stepped out of Marie's room, and into the comm center to retrieve a drink.
He saw a familliar lad, walking absently through the hall.

Beau-
"Oh young man, sorry I do not get your name before."


Bryce-
"..."


Chou-
"..."


Bryce-
"I'm Bryce. You are Beau."


Beau-
"I'm so sorry for your injury. I think you save the president from worse though,
so eet is rather heroic of you."


Bryce-
"Heroes are people that succeed. Anybody would try to catch someone who's falling."


Beau-
"Even so, he has no broken bones, yes? It is good."


Bryce-
"Oh yeah, I broke some ribs for him. I guess I am pretty cool."


Beau-
"Cool, yes. You are."

Bryce strolled as he talked, toward the kitchen. Beau followed, and picked through
the wine selection.

Bryce-
"Oh just drink whatever, it all sucks. This bullshit here was probably 55 dollars
a bottle."


Beau-
"Mm, the French must be fussy about it, you know. Ah, pinot noir is good.
I forget, 25 to drink in US? You look old enough for France at least, haha."


Beau-
"Ugh, 21. I'm not supposed to do this. Something about possible
internal bleeding... Whatever."


Beau-
"Just drink a little then. It is good for you, haha."


Bryce-
"Mmm.. I feel like I'm having a conversation with some kind of devil."


Bryce-
"What are we talking about? What's your game?"


Beau-
"Hmm game? Well if I am a devil, I suppose to tempt your soul away
from you. Why I would want that though, 'zey are not real. Hahaha."

He poured himself a generous glass of the dark wine and offered to pour a glass for Bryce.

Bryce-
"Okay... On hon hon, whatever, whatever. Didja have a point?"


Beau-
"Point? Perhaps I do not understand."


Bryce-
"Didja have something you wanted to talk about? Not to be off-putting,
but it's been a fuck of a day."


Beau-
"Ah, just making conversation. I will be leaving soon."


Bryce-
"Oh? Is it not sexy enough for you here?"


Beau-
"Haha, I suppose sexier than I have been before the monster.
Well, I feel I must do things in the city. I need to find the mummy."


Bryce-
"Wow, you're even more serious about that than Seth is. So uh, what do you
got for that? Y'know, rocket launcher. Mummy sniffin' dog."


Beau-
"Mm I hate to say, I do not know. I would like to capture eet, if I could.
I will kill it, if I must. May I be perfectly honest?"

Bryce looked around.

Bryce-
"I suppose this kitchen is a good enough place for perfect honesty."


Beau-
"I cannot kill the zombie. I feel uncomfortable in place like 'zis, I will not be 'elpful.
I just... I see 'zey are 'umans and I can't... "


Bryce-
"Oh god! You're like those Twinkie kids. They're a bunch of wusses too-- I mean,
no offense. You're just more willing to run around in the stuff."


Beau-
"It is not difficult. I do not feel what I 'ave done is special. I 'ope I can at least discover
secrets, maybe that will 'elp. The mummy though, they are not blameless, like the zombie."


Bryce-
"*shakes his head* Blameless has nothing to do with it. They're just like, human shaped
toasters or garbage. There's nothing left there, man. You gotta be able to kill those things."


Beau-
"They just wander, I can walk past them. Sometimes Chou confuse them, or I push them
over. Do 'zey need to die? Well, I know it is embarrassing. That is why I will go, I will be
more 'elpful with something else."


Bryce-
"*shook his head again* Yeah... I guess so man. There's an American expression, I don't
know if you've ever heard it before. Lemme tell it to ya and tell me if you understand it.
'I hate to see you go, but I love to watch you leave."


Beau-
"...Mmm... 'zey are synonyms, I'm afraid I do not."


Bryce-
"You'll figure it out eventually."

Beau went out on to the roof to drink his glass of wine. There was a large pigeon coop,
and a young black man with dreadlocks. He was sitting on the far side of the roof.
It smelled strongly of marijuana, and it took Beau a moment to realize it wasn't
from it being smoked, but a large garden of the leafy plants. There also seemed to be
other various vegetables and herbs, which grew with varying rates of success.
Chou ran around on the roof, sniffing the air and looking over the edge at the city.
Beau walked to the other side of the roof, walking over a plank-bridge to greet Ibi.
Below on the patio, he saw two young people sitting.

Beau-
" 'Allo, we do not meet before?"


Ibi-
"Wow, I'll say."


Beau-
"I am Beau, do I interrupt you in your duties?"


Ibi-
"Not at all, my man. I'm Ibrihim, people call me Ibi."


Beau-
"It's a good place to be, on this roof. The sky is so different now.
Do you see interesting things here?"


Ibi-
"Just the stars, but that's pretty different now, isn't it?"


Beau-
"Indeed. Reminds me of being far from land, on the water."


Ibi-
"Yeah, I never thought about it. Why stars are like this. But, Briar said
it was that we couldn't see the stars before because of light pollution.
It's a crazy thing to imagine, that light, as good as that was, could be pollution."


Beau-
"It goes away in an instant, at least."

The skyline was indeed devoid of lights, except a few dim lights at PanPac, and from the far side
of Denny, further west.

Beau-
"The marijuana is growing very well. Sad, eet is still illegal in France.
Can you believe?"


Ibi-
"Hahaha, it isn't still illegal in France! Unless you know something about
France we don't."


Beau-
"Haha! Most think my accent is so stereotype. I am from France."


Ibi-
"No, it's beautiful. I'm just from boring ol' here. I have some cousins that live
in Germany, I don't really know them."


Beau-
"I think place is only boring for those born 'zere. I think the same thing
as I go to other countries."

The hatch to the roof flew open, and art kids emerged, shaking into the cool night air.

Casey-
"Hey! We heard you guys talking."


Beau-
"Ah, 'Allo! Oh so many lovely young people here."

Everyone blushed 'n stuff.

Beau-
"That's sweet, you're great."


Beau-
"Are you students?"


Casey-
"Yes! Do we look really young?"


Beau-
"Not too young. Students 'ave the energy, excitement.
What do you study?"


Ibi-
"We're all from the art school, it's that building over there."


Beau-
"Oh wonderful! Do you make art for the building?
I see in the community center."


Casey-
"That's us!"


Briar-
"We do what we can. There's so many new people, you came alone
didn't you?"


Beau-
"I did."


Briar-
"That's pretty amazing. Did you know a guy named Humbert?"


Beau-
"I hear this name before, but only here. I only know my dog, haha."

He whistled and Chou came running from the other end of the roof, agile feet
crossing the plank like it was nothing.

Briar-
"He's SO CUTE! I met him the other day, but only just for a few moments."


Beau-
"He is a good ally, he wakes me when ghosts come."


Briar-
"Aww! We got a kitty for that job. I don't know how good cats are at it though."


Casey-
"Yeah, I guess we're not really dog people but for that guy we'll make
an exception. He's like a perfect little unicorn."


Beau-
"Heheh, Chou will get the big head."

The youths laughed good-naturedly, like they had any other choice.

Casey-
"Wow, I don't even know where to start. I'm glad we have you here.
You're so interesting, it'll be great to have a lot of conversations with you."

Beau looked hesitant for a moment.

Beau-
"Well... I would like to consider this my 'ome but... I may leave soon."

Everyone gasped!

Briar-
"No! Why?"


Beau-
"It is very lovely 'ere, but... I look for something. The mummy."

There was a lot of heavy silence, in a short space of time.

Ibi-
"Yeah... I heard that. I don't... I don't know what to think about that.
I think everyone's been saying that, but it's just pretty unbelievable."

Beau nodded.

Beau-
"This is first place I find where anyone who 'as interest.
I feel I must do it. To help. I am no warrior or artist."


Casey-
"You could learn to be an artist! Aww... Sorry, that was stupid."


Beau-
"No, you are all lovely. Perhaps we talk more, even if I may leave?"


Casey-
"Oh yeah, sure!"

They wanted to talk more, but it was difficult to think of something to say.
Beau sipped his wine and told them about some slightly exaggerated adventures
of world travel and the high seas.

Casey wished he was mega-smooth, so he could bust some moves, but their
age difference seemed insurmountable the more Beau talked. Ibi felt feelings
and stuff. People came and went from the adjacent rooftop, and the stars
turned in their paths.

Beau took turns flirting with the youths, and sussing out their personalities.
He found Ibi to be very prudish, perhaps out of some religious shame about
his sexuality. Casey was as cheerful as a child and always looking for an angle
to insert himself into a narrative. Briar was especially interested in stories of
a life very different from her own.

After Beau had finished his wine and gotten an unrequested refill from
an eager art student, and took turns talking with each of them, he stood with
Casey looking at the skyline and chatting while the others ate snacks nearby.

Beau-
"This lip jewelry, what is it for?"


Casey-
"What? Oh... Ha... I dunno, just 'cause it looks cool.
I know that sounds stupid."


Beau-
"Oh no, it is lovely I just... I wonder 'ow is the kiss with it?"

Casey wobbled really hard on his feet.

Casey-
"Uh! Haha-- Uh, guess you'll have to find out sometime... Ha...!"

Chou seemed interested in something. Beau looked to the dog, dropping his
flirtatious smile. He was perched on the edge of the roof, looking off into the night,
his head cocked to the side, in classic canine curiosity.

Beau walked over to the dog, kneeling to get the dog's point of view.

Beau-
"Qu'est-ce que c'est? Quelque chose d'intéressant?"



Chou-
"*Wheeen. Arf!*

Beau recognized this arf. It was not a hostile sound, but rather the recognition
of humans. Beau leaned forward, his eyes searching the street below.
Chou wiggled his nose and he followed the point to a few forms, clambering
between cars on Aurora. Beau stood, and turned to look at the kids.

Beau-
"Humans. Do we call or...?"


Casey-
"I don't know... They won't be able to hear us."

One of the forms in the distance fell to the ground, and the other staggered to help.
Their body language displayed injury.

Beau-
"I... I will go down there."


Casey-
"Oh my god! What if it's a trap?"


Briar-
"You should get someone else to go with you."

Beau could sense every moment he was wasting precious time. He only nodded to Briar,
and ran for the stairs.

Beau ran from the stairwell, and through to the parking garage, only hesitating for
a moment to remember which direction he should run. Chou followed him, a bit agitated
at the sudden burst of action.

Del and Eve were on guard duty.

Beau-
"There is-- Ah-- people. Outside, in the cars...!"


Del-
"They need help?"


Beau-
"Yes, I think. They are injured. I go, someone else too?"

Del handed Eve the radio. Beau nodded to him, and ran for the door, his dog following behind.


Beau, Chou and Del ran outside in the darkness, Del was armed with a broomstick club, and
handed Beau a high powered flashlight. They took off running, Beau had to orient himself,
remembering where he'd seen the figures. They must have been on Aurora.

Beau called to his dog.

Beau-
"Cherche!"

The dog sniffed the air, and ran in the direction Beau expected. They came to the fenced
barricade, and Chou whined, running along it. Del started to open the fence, but Beau
clambered over it before he could open it fully, and helped pull it open from the other side.

Del-
"Damn damn damn!"

Chou ran ahead while Beau helped Del get the fence closed. The dog waited in the distance,
as they ran to catch up. Dark figure of zombies undulated in the beam of light, but the men
ignored them as they ran after the white dog.

Two blocks west, they came to a clot of car wreckage, and the dog seemed confused, crouching
at the blockade of cars and looking to his master.

Chou-
"*wheen!*"

Several dark figures loomed, but it was not them they were looking for. Zombies shuffled and grabbed
at two figures which shakily clambered over the tops of the dented and rusted cars.

Beau-
" Here!"

He waved the flashlight at the shaky figures. The humans staggered raggedly in their direction,
looking almost zombie-like. The lady had long hair matted to an over-sized army jacket, dark stains
all about her. The tall Asian man was panting and desperate eyed.

Del ran past them and ran up to the first zombie he could see, leaping into the air, kicking it in the chest.
It flew back into another zombie, knocking them down.

Beau jumped on the hood of a car, trying to be careful as he maneuvered over them, but slipped and
stumbled a few times on the irregular surfaces. He came to the staggering figures, and offered a hand.
Neither accepted, just throwing themselves over the wreckage as best they could.

Lady-
"..."


Tall man-
"Where-- *pant* What--"


Beau-
"Close, two blocks."

Another zombie got close to Del, and he crushed its face, shoving it in the direction of yet another
zombie. He turned back, thinking to just stroll after his Beau and the others, but realized they
were running away as fast as they could. He hustled after them.

Del-
"It's just a couple of zombies!"

The back door parked at Eve with quick raps. She dropped the radio.

Eve-
"Oh god! Um, Sorry!"

She opened the door to bloody people, stern Beau, and jovial Del.

Eve-
"The test Del! Did you..?"


Del-
"Oh, jeez. Sorry, Beau! Come on, we can't let them in yet."


Beau-
"Mm? Oh-- ...Really?"

Chou-
*whimper*


Lady-
"*bleeds profusely*"


Eve-
"Um, both of you, what's your favorite flavor of ice cream?"


                                                                  Man-
                                                                  "Wh-what?"


Beau-
"*sigh* They test for 'uman, is confusing. Can she even speak?
Is this necessary?"


Del-
"Damn, fuck it, I'll take the blame, Eve. You stay here I'll get 'em to the clinic.
Radio up to have someone send the doc down!"


Eve-
"OK! OK!"

Del and Beau helped the people to Dr. Bebe's clinic.


As Beau and Del brought the bloodied people into the clinic, it was very dim - only tap lights
and a small brazier going. Seth stayed totally unconscious. Wil began to stir abruptly,
and staggered to his feet at the intrusion.

Wil-
"What's going on?"


Beau-
"Where is Dr. Bebe? We find 'zese people..."

Del-
"Eve's calling for her on the radio. Dude, um...?"

Wil-
"Wil."


Del-
"We just rescued these guys off the street. Do you know anything about,
uh, first aid?"


Wil-
"Hardly."


Man-
"Sorry, I ... I do..."


Beau-
"I only a bit as well. Sir--"

He gestured to the man to help the woman on to a bed, and cast about the environment
for medical supplies. As he found them, he sat them on a table next to the tall man, for him to use.

He tutted at Chou, and pointed out the door. The dog trotted away into the hall, dutifully.

The new man stood weirdly teetering for a moment. He abruptly seemed disoriented, his eyes wet
in the gloom.


Joe-
"We should be running. It isn't safe. We should go..."


Del-
"Looks like it's on you, Beau! DUDE! Wake up!"

Seth woke up.

Beau-
"Sir, you are safe. Please--"

He started unwrapping gauze, and gestured to Del.

"Take her coat off, please."

Seth sat up wearily, blinking.

Seth-
"What.... what's going-- on?"

The new man continued wobbling, and Del gripped him tightly.

Man-
"It isn't safe.. Don't... her coat is holding her blood in..."

Del-
"Knock it off, dude!"

Wil stepped up and reached for the lady's coat. He started to open it but slowly,
worried by the confused man's statements. Indeed, flowing blood was visible as
soon as he opened the jacket - but he felt like he had to keep on.

He lifted her head and shoulders with one arm, losing his limb into an inky mess
of bloodied hair, then retrieving it as soon as he got the coat off one sleeve and out
from under her back.

It seemed like a successful maneuver until the last sleeve was removed - and blood
gobbed out of a very deep bite wound on that arm (her left).

Wil-
"God damn it!"

Beau snapped on a pair of rubber gloves, grabbed a bit of rubber tubing and quickly tied it
on the woman's upper arm to stop the blood flow to the wounded arm.

Beau-
"Please, the gauze..."

Wil grabbed the unwrapped gauze and handed it off, and Beau held it against the woman's
wound firmly.

Seth-
"Oh no..."

Seth got out of the bed, and stood to the side, watching with bleary eyes.

Man-
"...isn't-"


Del-
"Oh no you don't! Sit down!"

Del forced the guy to take a seat, as gently as he could. The man went silent for the moment.
Some blood dribbled off of his hand onto the floor.

Bebe finally came bustling in with Casey at her side.

Dr. Bebe-
"Oh, what I wouldn't do for an ER doc right now."


Kaya-
"What's going on?"

Beau made way for the doctor, but kept the pressure on the woman's arm.

Beau-
"I am sorry, I am no doctor. I 'ave applied tourniquet to the arm.
How can I 'elp you?


Dr. Bebe-
"Normally we avoid tourniquets these days, but for this owwie I'll make an exception.
Check on victim 2 and if he's got anything less bad than this, no tourniquet, yes pressure.

Seth, get back in bed and stay.

Wil, sanitize yourself and stay with Kaya.

Del, you and Casey clean yourselves up and get out of here. If there's something dangerous
out there tonight, we'll need guards at posts again.

I have Columbo coming down right now. Thanks, Beau..."



Man-
"...not safe..."

They sorted the mess out. Thierry came down with Columbo and Briar, then sent her packing.
The Universe didn't come crashing down.


Seth couldn't get back to sleep. Beau and Thierry stood nearby him, talking quietly, while Bebe
and Columbo operated on the woman. The man had been sedated and breathed unevenly on
a stretcher nearby.

Thierry-
"What happened to these people? Can you enlighten us at all, Beau?"

Beau-
"Oh... May I in French? It takes so long for me..."

Thierry-
"Oui. Allez-y..."

Beau-
"Je suis sur le toit avec les étudiants, Chou voit quelque chose ... Deux personnes.
Ils ont l'air blessé, donc je descendre les escaliers. Del et je vais dehors, et les trouver
sur Aurora. La femme saigne abondamment, l'homme est confus. Nous les amenons dans,
à la clinique...

Je voudrais savoir plus..."

Seth-
"That sounds interesting."

Thierry-
"It's not very informative. Avez-tu vois quelque chose de les suivre?"

Beau-
Honnêtement, je ne comprends pas ce qu'ils fuient. Il y avait très peu de zombies.
L'homme est trop confus pour expliquer. Il avait très peur de quelque chose. Il dit seulement:
- "It's not safe... we should go." --and so on. Oh, il dit aussi qu'il sait premiers soins.
Peut-être que militaire? La femme semble avoir une morsure sur le bras d'elle.
Probablement juste de zombie ..."

Thierry-
"Oui. Merci, merci... Seth, they were only being chased by a few zombies, but were in
this condition, coming over the Aurora cars. Nothing else in sight. The unconscious fellow
claimed to know first aid, Beau thinks he might be military. Neither offered an explanation,
but the man - rather disoriented - kept saying it isn't safe here. That's all."

Seth-
"Hmm-- I guess if they came from that way, that rules out PanPac escapees, that was--
my theory. I can't imagine it was just zombies, after all this time. Some other kind of monster?
I guess once he can talk, we'll have to get his story."

Seth sat up in the bed for a moment, and massaged his throat.

Beau-
"*shakes head sadly* There can always be something. Not just zombie, maybe not
even a monster. People can be as dangerous, or more."

From nearby, Bebe chimed in. The dead quiet of the post-electric world let her hear even
their soft conversation.

Dr. Bebe-
"Everything that wasn't directly caused by undead appears environmental - falling through
glass, that sort of thing. Unless humans are now attacking with fingernails and teeth."

Thierry-
"Thank you, doctor. That was disgusting."

Beau-
"We still do not know why they flee. Perhaps it is just bad situation. There are many cruel
people in 'zis world. Perhaps the injury is after they flee, I don't know..."

Seth-
"--So maybe something like the PanPac escapees, but worse? *sigh* I could buy it, I guess.
That is both awful, and a little less scary than the idea of new monsters."

Bebe-
"No reason to suspect new monsters, but no reason to suspect humans either.
Votre vision de l'humanité est sombre, mon ami."

Columbo-
"Tous peuvent cesser de parler français s'il vous plaît. Jesus sheet."

A while later, Columbo had stayed behind to watch the patients, Thierry had stayed in case
anyone turned into a zombie, Wil and Kaya had fallen asleep, and Dr. Melange had finally
gone upstairs again to get more sleep.

Thierry and Columbo sat across the room from Seth and Beau, occasionally talking quietly.
Chou napped obediently in the hallway.

Beau-
"Seth, do you feel these people, their fear, perhaps it has something to do
with a mummy?"


Seth-
"Oh? I hadn't thought of it. What, like... Something the mummies did?
I can't imagine they're just strolling around out there."


Beau-
"Why not? If you are mummy, what would you do?"


Seth-
"Hm. Well, I'd probably throw a stupid mummy party for jerks, and then...
hang out with creepy blood guys, go eat a bunch of candy, do all that childish
'parents aren't home stuff'... Yeah I guess maybe I would strut around like
I owned the place. But still... What are the odds?"


Beau-
"There are not that many people living. We do not know how many mummy
there are... It is possible, yes?"


Seth-
"I guess so... Wow, you're really that committed to hunting down the mummies?
What if you get one and like, kill it or whatever. Then what?"


Beau-
"I suppose I'd look for another..."


Seth-
"That doesn't sound like much of a life though... What if it didn't even help?"


Beau-
"*Sigh* and Dr. Bebe says I am bleak. It would be good revenge at least. I don't know
anyone, what does it matter what I do? If I don't stop here, no one would care if I live."


Seth-
"Aw man. Don't make me get mushy on you, dude."


Beau-
"I don't know what 'zat means, but no need. I do not mean to be dramatic,
it is just true. If I feel it is not fulfilling, I will do next thing. Right?"


Seth-
"But-- what if you get killed?"


Beau-
"I don't get killed yet, right? Eet is morbid, but anyone can die at anytime.
I may as well do something to 'elp, yes?"


Seth-
"You're leaving, aren't you?"


Beau-
"I am sorry. I am no 'elp here, I do better to gather intelligence."


Seth-
"..."


Beau-
"Haha, I am not so cool to be sad about." He leaned in close to whisper.
"I would ask you to go with me, before you are sick. Maybe I come back and you come along. I don't ask anyone else 'zis."

At that moment, Thierry was distracted by Columbo complaining about Dr. Bebe.

Seth-
"...!"


Beau-
"--So I will be back by time you are well, I'm sure."


Seth-
"...I hope so."


Beau-
"Don't 'ope, it's true."


Seth-
"Okay. Goodbye then..."


Beau-
"Goodbye for now. Mr. Thierry and Mr. Columbo, thank you as well."


Thierry-
"Thank you. On behalf of our unconscious new friends."


Columbo-
"It's been real, francês."

He nodded once more to Seth, and walked out into the hall, to Chou's delight,
and moved to the stairs.




As Beau came into the hallway, he and Casey noticed each other. Casey had a bucket,
which he quickly set down. He walked over.

Casey-
"Already?"


Beau-
"I am sorry to say..."

Casey turned his head down in lament, and Chou gave him the cutey eyes.

Casey-
"..."


Beau-
"I will like to see your art when I return. Art is important for the new world."


Casey-
"Mm. I guess..."

He glanced off, as though he just recalled something, and back again.
He lightly touched Casey's elbow.

Beau-
"I remember... I have a curiosity. Will you show me...?"

He moved a little closer. Casey's eyes twirled wildly as he tried to remember
what Beau was talking about. He blushed.

Casey-
"Erm, "


Beau-
"What was it... Something about lips? Yes, let's see..."

He put his hand on Casey's back, and moved close to kiss him.

Chou-
" *huff* "

Casey-
"omigod "

They kissed, big time.
Beau held him close and kissed him passionately and amused himself with the feeling
of the lip-ring against his lips and tongue.

As they parted, Casey's eyes were closed, mouth open, almost a parody of sensual ecstasy.

Beau-
"Heheh, it ees very interesting, as I suspected."

He held him close for just a moment longer. He stepped back, letting his hands run
from Casey's elbows to his fingers.

"Merci, mon beau artiste."


Casey-
"OMG, I forget what you say when someone says 'merci'."


Beau-
" 'De rien.' --and I am glad..."

He moved to pick up his rucksack again. Casey fumbled a bit and stood back. He looked at Beau solemnly.

Casey-
"...*siigh* ... Why?"


Beau-
"I will be 'appy to see you again. --But I must search for the mummy.
I must know what they do, how we may stop them. At the very least,
to avenge 'ze dead. Forgive me..."

He bowed his head to Casey, and turned to leave. Chou looked at Casey with dark
shiny doggy eyes, and followed his master.


An alarm went off. Beau awakened. He could hear Basil and Monty stirring elsewhere
in the apartment.

He shut off the small digital watch on the nightstand. Chou stood up expectantly,
and Beau got out of bed, pulling on the new pair of pants he'd been given. Should he stay
and eat breakfast? No... He'd already been given so much. He thought also, the longer
he stayed, the less likely he would be to go out again.

He finished dressing, and checked his new duffel bag-- a few cans of soup, a few chocolate bars,
a couple bottles of water, a ziploc bag of kibble for Chou, a flashlight and a small, out-dated
digital camera.

No guns? No explosives? He laughed to himself, would I even remember how
to use them?

He picked up his bag, and he and Chou left the room.

They came into the living room, to find Basil and Monty both coming out of their rooms.
Basil was in a bathrobe and Monty a t-shirt and boxers.

Basil-
"Well then. Any parting words of wisdom for us, mysterious monk?"


Beau-
"Mmm I will say... best of luck, and I 'ope I will return soon. I will miss warm food
and pleasant conversation. Chou listens well, but 'as little to say."

Chou-
"*Snff.*"


Monty-
He laughed good-naturedly, probably waking a neighbor.
"He didn't ask if the dog had an opinion. "


Beau-
"Hahaha, I 'ope to see you again, friends."

He gave them a friendly nod, and headed for the door.

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

Beau and Chou came out of the barricade onto Westlake. The morning sun was coming through sparse mist,
and he stood in long blue shadows.

He heard wheels, and stopped to consider an approaching man on a razor scooter.

Humbert-
"Hey. Nice dog."


Beau-
"Thank you. Ah, scooter is a good idea. Using the feet ees so slow."


Humbert-
"HahaHA! A French guy! Is that where you got the C.A.D? France?"


Beau-
"Haha I actually get Chou in Egypt on the whim, lucky for me he is
a very good dog. I am Beau, what is your name?"


Humbert-
"I'm Humbert. That's an Egyptian dog? It's my peoples? Hey little guy,
can you give me a black power fist?"

Humbert made a black power fist at Beau expectantly.

Beau glanced down at Chou.

Beau-
"Serre."

The dog sat up and poked out a paw vaguely, but it was no proper
black power fist.

Chou-
"*Huff.*"


Beau-
"Haha, perhaps he is too white dog, that's sad. Humbert...
I hear of this name... 403 building, they mention you. I just leave there,
do you visit them too?"


Humbert-
He seemed satisfied with Chou's performance. "Sometimes I hang with
their boys when they come out, but I don't go in. It's like a roach hotel.
I mean, maybe they got roaches maybe they don't, but people go in and
don't come out, y'know?"


Beau-
"Mm yes, I understand. It is 'ard for me to leave after only one day, warm food
is a pleasantry that is difficult to give up. You do not live with anyone? I find
it troubling to stay anywhere for long, myself."


Humbert-
"Walk and talk? I'll follow where you're going. Not like I have any schedule to keep...
Yeah, it was a little touch and go when I first started running into ghosts, but I think
I've noticed patterns... Like I can pick out places they don't go, y'know? I haven't had
a real problem in a long time."

Beau nodded and began walking southward at a casual pace.

Beau-
"Oh yes? Chou is good for waking me when the ghost comes. Certain buildings seem worse,
old ones, offices.. At first I do not know how to kill them, I just run from the building!
Haha. What do you notice?"

Humbert tossed the scooter over his shoulder and strolled.

Humbert-
"Some of it is instinct - I couldn't put it into words. I just feel like I've never seen
a ghost like this, and build up a stronger feel over time.
But yeah, like you said - old places, offices. For me, any place that was important to people.
But there's buildings no one gave a shit about - or very few people. And if you come by a place
at the right time of night, check it from a distance... Just feels like I can tell.
Maybe I'm foolin' myself about that."

Beau-
"It makes sense. The buildings people care about... That sounds like old tales, ghosts
haunt their former homes and the like. Ah, very strange to think any of that could be true!
If you don't mind me to ask, do you have a goal now? Other than just to survive."

Humbert-
"Nope. 'Just to survive' sounds good to me."

Beau-
"It is 'ard enough to do, isn't it? Oh! I hear something... last night some injured people
come to 403, 'zey say their settlement is attacked by the possessed. Do you see these?
I 'ave only heard of them, early on."

Humbert-
"The possessed? Yeah... Didn't think of them as possessed until Kenny told me about
the 403 experience with 'em. I just thought they were creepy psycho super zombies.
Anyhow, they find it hard not to show their ass.
By that I mean this - They look like zombies, and if they acted like zombies, they could
slip right past you. But they're always laughing, or doing cartwheels, or some other
dumb shit.
Anyhow, I killed at least two of 'em."

Beau-
"Wow! I hear they are difficult to kill. Destroy the 'ead like the zombie or
something else?"

Humbert knew the easiest way through the wall o' cars like he had it memorized. They started
walking an easy circuit through them to continue on Westlake.

Humbert-
"Yeah. But one hit ain't always enough, so... I just crushed up the head to nothing
that time. I guess they're a lot more powerful at night, but I wouldn't fuck with that."

Beau-
"Ahh in the day, brilliant. A good time to hunt for them. Amazing there are so few
zombie 'ere, I suspect more downtown. Anywhere you suggest to avoid?"

Humbert looked at Beau sardonically.

Humbert-
"Yeah... The way we're going."

Indeed, in the length of Westlake visible ahead of them, over a dozen scattered zombies
were visible. Not much, but more than if they'd gone the other direction.

Humbert-
"So what do you want downtown, man...?"

Beau was tired of the conversation that resulted from being honest about his motives.

Beau-
"I have interest to make a map - what areas are safe, who is where..."

Humbert-
"I don't know. Seems like a waste of time. Guess you could use it for barter,
if you could figure out how to make copies without gettin' carpal tunnel syndrome."

Beau-
"Mm yes, I used to work with maps so perhaps it is just a reminder of the past.
Good idea for barter though."

As they walked, they saw a Metro bus stopped in the middle of the road, the doors forever
jammed open with some Francis Bacon-esque unidentifiable ham-hock. On the front
of the bus there was still a bicycle hooked up to the rack.

Beau-
"Oh! I could use transportation myself."

Humbert operated the gizmo holding the bike on the front of the bus, then passed the bike
Beau's way.

Humbert-
"These things are a little weird. I used 'em a few times."

Beau-
"Merci! I 'ave one before, but I must leave it in Ba'llard."

Beau tested out the bike, spinning the pedals and wiping a bit of long dried blood
off the handles.

Beau-
"Well perhaps I shall get going. It was very nice speaking with you Hum'bert,
I 'ope I shall see you again."


Humbert-
"Arrivederci, homes."

Beau continued to The Streets - Downtown Seattle!

Beau bicycled south on Westlake, ignoring zombies. Chou was happy to be able to run.

The day after the ElCor+Popo runs, early in the morning, before the Pan-Pac run,
Beau wheeled a bicycle down Westlake avenue toward the heart of downtown,
casually veering away from the zombies. He saw some other men on bikes and they
exchanged friendly waves. Downtown really seemed more civilized than Ballard
somehow. The morning sun was working away at a cool light fog that hung a few stories
above the street level. Long bright blue shadows covered most streets, painting
the aftermath of this Apocalypse in Prussian blue. He had to pass through between
or over cars occasionally, but at this point it still seemed worthwhile to pass the bike
over such obstacles.

He reached the terminus of Westlake, and over a little courtyard he found himself
at 5th Avenue - beneath the monorail and near the northeast entrance of Westlake Mall.
The entrance was packed with wire racks, clothes, other miscellany, and the bones of
human corpses. Rats scuttled around hoping for an extra morsel to fall off
the unnatural vine. Chou barked in doggie disgust.

Beau sighed, and continued to roll his bike beneath the tracks of the monorail. At least
he knew a place to look for new clothes if he needed to, and didn't mind digging around
near skeletons. On the other side of the mall there was a large wreckage of cars. He was
amused to see a tree that had nearly been knocked over by a car had started to grow in
and out of the wreckage, buds of green starting to form with the changing season.
He passed the end of the monorail, noting that the car was still at the dock, never to
move again. He followed fifth avenue which seemed relatively open compared to closer
to the waterfront. He could see the blockage of twisted metal from a distance.

The Columbia Tower... Where is that from here? Can't really see it through the buildings
from the street. It's the tallest building, they always say.

The buildings here were tightly packed, and it made it hard to see further south.
Birds chirped everywhere, seagulls swooped in the sky, no cars or human noises
to cover their sound. He could even hear the sound of the water nearby, and the wind
blowing through the corridors of buildings. Trees here were thick and healthy without
the exhaust of cars to dampen their growth. It was almost pleasant. A brilliantly colored
goldfinch flitted through the street, dodging a zombie just for fun.

Zombies staggered after him ineffectually. Sometimes there wasn't much space so he had to
speed past them, he and Chou confusing them. Storefronts were on both sides, with large
glass storefronts. Some were broken, there were signs of water damage, fire damage,
doors hanging open. The worst thing was the bodies and body parts. The bodies here
were less likely to be burned, and the air was fetid with their scent. A cluster of crows picked
at something inscrutable and Beau averted his eyes. He passed expensive clothing stores,
their contents relatively untouched.

Around Convention place 5th became to blocked, and he had to go up a block to 6th.
The glass bridge over the road covered a massive blockage of cars that had attempted to
get on to the freeway during the exodus.

He pedaled the wrong way down the one-way road, going on to the sidewalks as necessary.
A zombie nearly caught the cloth of his shirt once, but was easily dodged. He came to the
overpass that went next to I-5. He looked below and saw an eternal wall of cars.
Broken windows, bodies, a lot of damage from people moving over cars trying to escape
from them, dented roofs... Some zombies still wandering, or just standing in the wreckage
unable to move. Rats ran wild through the streets nearby him.

Another trip down to 5th to avoid a wreckage, and suddenly there it was. It was strange
how the buildings blocked it until he was right in front of it. The huge black monolith of
the Columbia Tower. It was alarming to see it, in the initial moment because that
expectation had been there that it might have still been spewing ghosts. It just gleamed
dully in the early morning light.

He rode his bike around the building, avoiding the blockage in front of a freeway on-ramp.
Mobs of over a dozen zombies wandered here, it seemed it would be safer to move on foot now.
He stashed the bike on top of a red sedan so he could spot it easily later, and starting jogging
along with Chou. There were several entrances on all the sides of the building, but he was too
hesitant to enter them yet. He looked up at the huge building, there didn't seem to be any ghosts
spewing out of it. Near the pinnacle he could see seagulls tracing lazy arcs in the air.
Some of the windows were broken.

He passed in front of the south entrance, stairs leading down to a courtyard and large doors.
The courtyard was full of bodies and body parts and the stench was unbearable. He pulled
his shirt over his nose, and Chou whined as they passed.

On the south face of the building there were small balconies that were nearly obscured by
a lush, overgrown garden. The healthy green leaves swayed in the wind.

Agitated zombies were forming the kind of interested mobs that could track him down
if he didn't get out of sight quickly. With a few fancy moves and ducking behind cars,
he avoided their line of sight to escape to the lush courtyard up a flight of stairs.
The clumsy angry mob made slushy irritated noises, as he hid among the trees to collect
his wits.

He saw an entrance to the building ahead, a small innocuous door. The inside seemed
empty. He decided to take a chance and duck inside.

Beau and his chien stepped into the Columbia Tower. It was the largest building for
thousands of miles, and this area of it looked like a mall that someone had barely
bothered to populate with shops. Cavernous open space filled with dull grey filtered daylight,
multiple levels visible, escalators, elevators a food court far below, a gift shop nearer.

A few lonely, dark, human-sized blotches stained the still scene - a lone zombie in the
food court, not noticing him, and a dark floating woman bobbling in a high ceiling's corner
like a stray balloon. She wheeled about slowly as Chou growled.

Beau dropped his bag and grabbed for an unlit torch tucked in the outside pocket,
he moved slowly but carefully, watching the ghost in his periphery, and keeping an eye
on Chou's movement.
He kept the torch low, and flicked a lighter. The torch crackled as it came to life,
rising up high as though it were reaching for the ghost's vapors.

Was there something that had her attention? What would get its attention more than
a human?

Beau walked slowly over the mezzanine, the torchlight sending shadows shooting out
to crawl around the distant walls. What was he even looking for? He couldn't expect
to get to every floor of the enormous building. He thought about bomb defusing robots,
he'd seen them demonstrated once. It was too bad he couldn't send one in his stead.
Perhaps if he could get to the stairs, there would be a clue about what had happened here.
How it had all begun.

Was there something that had her attention? What would get its attention more than
a human?

He opened the stair door easily. As interior stairs with no windows, they were utterly
dark. His torch light spilled yellow over cold dusty concrete and pipes running up
the corners. Chou whimpered a bit and did not want to go inside.

As Beau stepped in as quietly as he could, he heard faint noises. He stood still.

It was a distant susurrus as of people talking, mixed with moans. A croak like groan
randomly sounded and died. Another one elsewhere. A distant scream. He couldn't tell
where any of it was coming from.

Beau wished he could brave whatever horror must be lurking up the stairs, but he
knew better. It was surely filled with many, many ghosts and who knew what else.
He tamped down his curiosity, and returned to the mezzanine. What next then?

He considered a moment, why would the stairwells in particular hold so much horror?
It could be that it was just echoing the sounds of the many floors above, but what if
it were something else? This was the tallest building in the city, what advantage would
that have?

He watched the spinning ghost's feet in the corner, and thought about it. Something
released on the top floor, would cause a mass exodus, down the stairs after
the elevators filled. Something that made its way down the stairs could kill hundreds
of people that would become undead, and attack others. This was the epicenter of
the disaster, and the stairs were the first place that was hit.

He felt cold with the eerie realization, and decided to go back outside.

As Beau moved across the broad mezzanine, he heard more distinct and intentional
sounds from the mezzanine below. He walked softly to the edge of the platform and
looked down.

Someone was dragging a twitching zombie across the floor, as it streaked liquefied flesh
on the linoleum behind it. Someone stepped in behind, and followed. They seemed to be
having a light-hearted conversation, but he couldn't make out the words.

Beau-
" ! "

Beau snuffed the torch against the wall, and crept closer, as quietly as he could.
He gestured for Chou to stay back.

Chou was hella alarmed. Dark ghost above bobbling away, unknown weirdos below,
and being told to stay back...

Chou-
"..." (transl: "This sucks.")

Beau went to an escalator, now a frozen stairwell, and moved onto it as quickly as he could
while still remaining mostly silent. He got down about halfway and paused, laying very low
against it, to see if he could hear them better.

Voice one-
"-all the fingers in the world. What is flesh to you?"

Voice two-
"Flesh is nothing. I care for it not."

Voice one-
"But the deliquescence! The delight! The way it quivers and releases oily greases
in anticipation of your touch!"

Voice two-
"Fuck the flesh. I'm done with it. Got bored. Can't wait to go home."

Sickly voice-
"Quiet, demons. You bore me... S-see, you alm-most missed one... Bring that t-to me."

Voice one-
"Fine, you boring nonce."

Beau heard a strange noise. A groan, a shriek, an otherworldly vibration. A metallic noise,
and it ended.

Voice one-
"What are you gonna do with all the sad sacks?"

Sickly voice-
"h-heh.. heh... No concern of y-yours..."

That voice... that stuttering, sickly voice... it reminded him of something.

Beau-
" ... !! "

He gathered his nerve, and moved to peek over the edge of the railing.

Gutless Boy and two creepy undead lieutenants were chatting under a swarm of dark ghosts,
mutely bobbling about above them. Beau could make out some kind of wires going from the ghosts
to GB's hand...

                                                  Gutless Boy-
                                                  "I w-wish I had enough w-wires for all of ..them."

Beau-
" !!!!!! "

They're his balloons!

Beau could feel his legs trembling as he ducked back behind the railing. The mummy!
There it was..!! But... what could he do?

He slowly backed up on the stairs, into the gloom of the mezzanine. He felt a trickle of sweat
run maddeningly down his back. His mind raced, a bouquet of dark ghosts, right next to each other...

His sweaty hand still gripped the stubbed out torch.

Gutless Boy- (out of sight)
"The e-enchantment is so expen-s-sive. T-the effort... I just... they're b-beautiful."

He struck the lighter low as he crouched, the torch in his hand shaking as he lit it with a quiet crackle.
Chou whimpered in anticipation as Beau crept around the railing, to glance over and take his aim.

He dropped the burning torch on the ghosts below.

There was fireball after fireball, ectoplasm tearing apart like newspapers burned with gasoline,
black smoke curling in a massive mushroom cloud past Beau. Chou yelped and ran up beside him.
The dark ghost up above began to descend.

Through the dark smoke in the air, he saw the demon-possessed corpses standing, and with them,
the damned mummy, his hand full of half melted wires.

Gutless Boy-
"N-no! G...Goddamn it... You up there..."

The demon dead began to laugh.

Beau-
"Merde."

A ragged man and his dog entered the alley in the dark of night. Several silver eyes fell upon them -
raccoons that liked the look of his dog's paltry meat. The man picked up a few stones and threw them
at the beasts. His dog barked.

A stirring from within, before he even knocked. The door opened a crack.

Monty-
"Roomie! You're back. Um... What's your favorite type of cookie?"


Beau-
"Wh-- nn, madeleine."

Both of them looked like they'd been soaked by a rainstorm, and dried in the sun.

Monty-
"You look terrible, man. Get your ass in here. Hey Woody, go wake up the doctor if ya can."


Wil-
"Sure thing."

They brought the man inside...

Dr. Bebe paced. Wil had awakened her a few minutes ago, and she told him she'd see
the patient in her apartment. Beau. Been a while, eh monsieur? The knock came. She let them in -
just Beau and Monty.

Monty-
"Here ya go, doc. It's a tumble dried french guy."


Dr. Bebe-
"Merci, Monty. You can stay for now."


Monty-
"Thanks."

She sat Beau down on a barstool she had brought closer to the lights. She turned on
a mini-flashlight and began inspecting him.

Dr. Bebe-
"What did you do to yourself, garçon?"


Beau-
"...It is 'ard outside..."

The man's voice was quiet and hoarse compared to the last time, and his eyelids were heavy,
falling closed frequently. The grubby dog flopped on the floor in a rather undignified way,
completely exhausted. They both smelled like salt water and mildew.

His vitals seemed okay, he seemed to have a slight head-cold and was obviously tired and stiff.

Dr. Bebe-
"I'm given to understand it's not so bad through much of downtown.
Did you scale Capitol Hill, or some such folly?"


Beau-
"No it's *groan* downtown, not friendly sometime..."

Notably he seemed to be again, missing anything other than his dog, clothes and
a rather undersized flashlight.

Dr. Bebe-
"Well, lesson learned, maybe this time you'll stay...?"

With many rooms available after the siege, Beau was easily able to find a place to stay
the night of his return, a few weeks later. The room had a few pieces of furniture left -
most notably the bed.

Beau took all his clothes off the moment he got the door closed behind him, and availed
himself of the fresh bucket of rain water he hauled from the roof. He washed his body
with the cold water, sitting on the tiled kitchen floor. What a strange experience...

He gave Chou as good a washing as he could with the limited means, but the dog would
need more water for his thick fur. The dog seemed to appreciate the cursory job though,
and shook himself off vigorously.

Beau used the tiny flashlight to light some candles, the room better illuminated with
golden light. He hadn't heard much news of what happened in the 403 since he'd left,
but that there was an extensive attack on the building, and he was staying in the room
of a dead man.... again.

It was hard to feel very perturbed about that by this point, how many dead people's
rooms had he stayed in since the beginning? Probably most of them. He made his way
to the bed, shivering a bit, still wet in the cool night air and got into the bed. It seemed
a ridiculous luxuriance after the past few weeks. He nearly invited the wet dog to join him.
Taking pity on the weary beast after a few minutes, he pulled a throw rug onto half of
the bed, and let the dog jump up.

He rolled his tired eyes around for a few minutes, his thoughts wordless and jumbled,
and he fell asleep.

Black plexiglass gleamed in the sun. Tall grass and weeds swayed in the shadows.
An impossibly large door opened on a cyclopean beige lobby. An escalator went to hell
at a casual pace.

Gutless Boy-
"You... thing... You are so boring. What ...should we do w-with you?"

The demon dead began to laugh.

Beau-
"Damn you, no! You are supposed to die!"

He cast about for a weapon, and found nothing within reach.
Chou whined and hid behind him.

Beau-
"You want to fight me, fight me! Don't use these demon. I am not afraid
of you or to die."


Gutless Boy-
"But you didn't fight me... Did you? So ... boring... What should we do w-with you?
T-to make... you less... bo-ring."


Beau-
"No! 'ow do you do this to people, you don't even know them!"

He crept along the wall, keeping his eyes open for something he could throw or use to attack.
His feet began to sink into the floor, and he realized the room's floor was made out of some kind
of mattress-like material - and he had slipped between it and the crack of the wall! His movement
was slow and difficult.

The mummy floated above the ground, levitating toward him.

Gutless Boy-
"Living things bore us... I will m-make you... interes-ting..."

Something was happening to him. He was dying on the inside. He'd be a shell
and no one would be able to tell...


A knock at the door.   A dog's barking. Beau had woken up long ago, and then drifted off
again. Now this.

Beau stumbled to the door, nearly forgetting to pull on his boxers. He opened the door
a crack.

Beau-
"Mm-- hello..."

Seth and Bryce stood in the hall, Seth carried a paper bag of food, like a take-home
lunch from grade school.

Seth-
"Hey, wow... I'm glad you're back. We brought you some breakfast..."


Beau-
"Ah, hm.. thank you."

His voice was a bit hoarse, and Chou whined behind him. Bryce whined behind Seth.

Bryce-
"Let us in?"


Beau-
"..."


Seth-
"Uhh you don't have to..."


Beau-
"Mm I... I need to rest."


Seth-
"Want us to bring you anything else?"


Beau-
"No."

He moved to shut the door.

Seth seemed like he might have wanted to stop the door closing, but Bryce held him back.
Beau was alone. Out in the hall he heard soft voices and people walking away.

He sat on the floor of the kitchen, with Chou, and opened the paper bag. An egg sandwich
and a can of Coke. He gave half the sandwich to the dog, and ate his half still sitting on the floor.


Some time passed... Beau continued laying in bed, trying to sort his feelings out. It was almost
like getting to the 403 was a shock to his system, and he hadn't quite accepted it. He felt like
he might be still lying in an abandoned building on the waterfront, and dreaming he was here.

Now what to do... he had something to explain, but it was too painful. Too shameful.
Did they really need to know? Of course. He'd want to know if he was in their position.
Maybe... maybe he'd just try to get cleaned up and re-situated, and the way to talk about it
would occur to him. He couldn't just stay here forever.

Chou looked uncomfortable and nervous, probably sensing his master's feelings. The dog needed
regular pet food and a good bath. It was easier to motivate himself to get out of the room with
that in mind.

Sitting on the kitchen table was a stack of clean clothes, and some basic toiletries, delivered by
his fellow Frenchman this morning. At least he could think more clearly if he made himself
more civilized. He hoped.








A few hours passed. The breakfast party dispersed, Chantelle
rested a short time, went back to work, and then...

The lunch crows began to flock. Joe and Becky were near the kitchen, bullshitchen.

Joe-
"...pretty much the worst."


Becky-
"I know."

A man passed by them, going toward the supply store.

Beau-
"Pardon."


Joe-
"Whoa."

He followed the man, standing near him as he reached the supplies.
The man in the striped shirt dug around in the pet supplies, finding a brush and
a can of dog food. He didn't pay attention to Joe.

Joe-
"Soo... Do you remember me?"


Beau-
"Hmm? Oh... Sorry. I meet a lot of people last time, it's a while ago."

He scrutinized Joe a bit, but didn't seem to get a look of recognition.

Joe-
"I know. I'm surprised I recognize you. You saved my life, with that Del kid. Just... thanks."


Beau-
"Hm-- oh!"

He glanced behind Joe to Becky, who he seemed to recognize better. She waved.

Beau-
"That was a strange night. You are welcome... anyone would do it. I am lucky to
see you on ze'roof. Chou sees you first, you should thank him more than me, haha."


Joe-
"I heard about your dog. We ought to hang out some time. Me and you and your dog.
And Becky. Possibly Bryce. I kid."


Beau-
"Ah yes! Perhaps so. Bryce...? Oh yes, he is a pleasant young man. Becky, I don't see her
when she is awake. I am glad she is looking 'ealthy."


Joe-
"We're glad you're looking healthy, too. Hey Becky, c'm'over here. This guy saved your life."


Becky-
"OK... Thank you."


Beau-
" 'Allo, I am pleased. I think the Doctor Bebe saved your life, but I am 'appy to help."


Becky-
"It's the Modesty Olympics. You get the silver."


Joe-
"Oh, Becky."


Beau-
"Haha." (He didn't look like he understood.) "Well, I'll be on my way. It is nice to talk to you."

They waved good bye. When he was gone,

Becky-
"So are you gonna try to bone him, or what?"


Joe-
"Wouldn't you like ta know..?"

ANOTHER DAY....

Beau and Chou stood on the weedside of the roof, looking out toward Lake Union.
The stanky was janky, but being a smell full of life in a world full of death, it was
more pleasing than it had ever been before. Ibi had made some small talk with him
earlier and disappeared. Now he was alone in his contemplation.

A wily del appeared.

Del-
"Mm, so... Welcome back?"


Beau-
"Mm? Ah, thank you. You-- oh I recognize you, you have the different hair before. Hello."


Del-
"Why yes I do. What do you think?"


Beau-
"It looks good to me. Funny, I go and when I come back, everyone is different.
I only get my clothes dirty, haha. ...Are you feeling well? You look sad."


Del-
"Oh, well, I'm starting to feel better. I came up here expecting you to be a little more
sad yourself."


Beau-
"I hope it is not my reputation now. Well, sometimes there are things to be sad of,
I'm sure you know."


Del-
"Aw, don't go that way just as I'm starting to pick up. Hey, anyhow, I was just thinking
about the good ol' days. I remembered that last night you were here."


Beau-
"Oh...? Ah yes! I remember, we go out to find the 'urt people. Following Chou in the night,
it is quite adventurous! Usually if I do something like 'zat, no one is there to see it.
It is more fun to share, yes! "


Del-
"Heh, actually, that was kind of weird and horrible. But exciting. I heard you were hanging out
with Casey when it started."


Beau-
"That's true. I always find interesting people to talk to on 'zeh roof."


Del-
"Haha. I caught that. So, like, Casey is an interesting guy, then?"


Beau-
"Yes, all you young people, it is so interesting. The artists, it is interesting to think
what they do now. How to make art when to most it is only to survive from each day.
It is a good conversation."


Del-
"Well, I'm no artist, but I know what you mean... Casey was wondering how you were,
but didn't want to bother you. Thought I'd bother on his behalf."


Beau-
"Ah! That is sweet, you are a good friend. Perhaps I should go say 'allo..."


Del-
"Yeah, that would be cool. He's probably in the top floor community center at 320..."

Daniel Milani's guitar gently wept, and Casey painted some kind of furious abstraction.
His demeanor seemed otherwise calm. The sun was somewhere above the building,
leaving the room in bright bluish shadow. Casey didn't bother with extra lighting on his art.
Color wasn't as important as value on a piece like this.

Then Beau walked in.

Casey-
"Beau?"


Beau-
" 'Allo. Del talks to me."


Daniel's Guitar-
"♫ meedle meep doh meedle meedle mee doh ♫"

Daniel clearly wasn't paying attention and kept playing, allowing the other men
to ignore him.

Casey-
"Hey I didn't, wait,"


Casey-
"What did he say?"


Beau-
"Oh 'ee tells me everything..."


Casey-
"What 'everything'? Oh my god!


Beau-
"I am joking, he just tells me you like to know how I'm doing."


Casey-
"Must be feeling pretty good to bust a guy's chops like that."


Beau-
"Hahaha, sorry. "


Beau-
"I feel okay, it just feels strange to be back to civilization. Outside is not friendly."


Casey-
"Aww. Are you starting to feel better now?"


Beau-
"In a sense... 'zere is business to attend to, but to be around people is good.
It is nice to see you. You don't 'ave big style difference like the others."


Casey-
"It's not too boring, is it?"


Beau-
"Oh no. It is funny to go away and come back and everyone is different.
Plus, I like 'ow you look before as well. "


Casey-
"Thanks."

The guitar playing man had become an inanimate feature of the background. Casey had
set down his supplies and was talking softly with Beau in the opposite corner of the room.

Casey-
"Hey, let's go out on the balcony."

The balcony was much more narrow than at 403, just running along the outside edges of the
Comm Center here. There were several doors in the floor-to-ceiling windows, leading out to it.

Beau & Chou followed Casey out on to the balcony. The dog seemed more weary than he had before,
and plopped down at the first opportunity, his muzzle poking out the railing as he sniffed lazily
out at the city with his fluffy white hair blowing gently in the breeze.

Beau-
"It feels like to be on a boat again. I hope we can go sailing soon, I'll take you."

Casey's hair also swayed in the breeze. He closed his eyes and exhaled, then turned back
to the naughty French guy.

Casey-
"Really now?"


Beau-
"Yes. People say it might not be safe, but I swim through the water and it seems okay.
Do you like to go to the water?"


Casey-
"I do. I used to go swimming at the lake, but I got swimmer's itch one year and just forget it
after that. But being on the water... It's awesome."


Beau-
"Okay, we will do that then. "

Beau leaned his head back for a moment, and then slumped a bit against the wall,
and slid down to take a seat on the floor of the patio.

Beau-
"*sigh* 'Zis place is like a mirage, it's 'ard to believe it. There is trouble here while I'm gone,
but it is back to normal by the time I come back. "


Beau-
"I don't want to depress you. We should talk about nice things, right?"


Casey-
"I don't know, yeah... It isn't exactly the same. I know you know that, but...
I mean, it took a lot of work to make it OK again."


Beau-
"Yes, I imagine... it is bad timing for me to leave, I cannot help."


Beau-
"..."


Casey-
"Aww. No, don't be that way. You do what you feel like you need to. But if you wanna
stay more... You know we'd all like that. I'd like that..."


Beau-
"Oh? Other places people don't want me to stay. I wonder if you are a siren
'zat leads me beneath the water, heheh.."


Casey-
"Never. We'd come up with swimmer's itch."

He leaned a little closer.

Casey-
"There's a lot of things in the world that I don't want to think about right now."


Beau-
"You want to do something else instead?"


Casey-
"Yeah, I was thinking about... Last time before you left..."


Beau-
"Ah yes, I remember that. Where was I, I think...."

He leaned in, touched Casey's neck and kissed him, big time. Casey's brain was a circus
of cellophane-winged bats today, but he let himself get all into it. Victory!

Beau-
"Do you want to come to my room, and we can talk about 'zat in further detail?"

Casey rocked on his feet. Whoa.

Casey-
"Yes. Yes I would."

They ended up going to Casey's room instead. With Briar at the gallery and Ibi gardening,
they had the place all to themselves, and it was nice...



The early afternoon light was lighting up the world outside the window, but not falling directly
into the condo. Casey and Beau had the place to themselves for a time. After doing (redacted),
they relaxed in the nice comfortable bed. Casey looked at his toes, poking out from the end of his sheet.

Casey-
"Heehee. I feel alright."


Beau-
"I'm glad. I do as well."

Chou and Buddy were scampering around in the living room, both glad to have a dog friend.
Beau sat on the edge of the bed, putting his shirt on. He paused for a moment, considering
the fairly swanky room. He turned to look at Casey.

Beau-
"What do you most want in life? Now, after everything 'as changed."


Casey-
"More moments like this, of course! But you're a man of the waves,
aren't you?"


Beau-
"Haha, it's true. Well, there's also something else of course..."


Beau-
"Will you think it's silly or strange if I say I want to destroy all the mummies,
and bring the world to peace again?"


Casey-
"YES! Of course it's silly."


Casey-
"When were you ever able to change the world before this happened? Nobody can
do anything. Crazy stuff happens and it's all you can do to be OK."


Beau-
"*sigh* Oh well."


Beau-
"I suppose I 'ave some business to get to..."


Casey-
"Indefatigable! Did I pronounce that right?"

A sensitive creature in the other room sensed something was about to happen,
and ran to the door of the bedroom. Its new friend followed.

Chou-
"Wouf!"

Beau comported himself and headed for the door.

Beau-
"Goodbye, I will see you again probably."


Casey-
"Au revoir!"

Then the Casey was alone again.







At Seth's room...


There was a knock at the door. Bryce shrugged and went to answer it.
Beau stood there all pensive-like.

Bryce-
"Here to take me away from all this? I'd be delighted."


Beau-
"Hm? Oh, sorry, can I talk to Sethe?"

Seth came up behind Bryce.

Seth-
"Oh! Looks like you're feeling better."


Beau-
"Yes, thank you. I'm sorry to be rude earlier, to both of you."


Bryce-
"Sure, you kids go on without me. I'll survive... somehow..."

Bryce retreated to the room, picking up his headphones on the way.

Seth-
"So uh, what's up man? You don't have to explain yourself if you don't want to."


Beau-
"..."

Beau silently moved to sit on the couch, and leaned on his knees in contemplation.
Seth followed, trying to not let his concern show.

Beau-
"I don't know if I should say."


Seth-
"You can tell me anything, I swear I've heard and seen enough that nothing
will bother me any more."


Beau-
"It's not just 'zat... It's...


Beau-
"I 'ave too much pride. It is shameful."


Seth-
"What is it? Is it something I can--we can help with?"


Beau-
"I--I found 'zeh mummy."


Seth-
"...what?"


Beau-
"The one in the video. I find it the first day I go..."


Seth-
"What happened? Obviously you're here to tell the tale..!"


Beau-
"I... I try to fight but I'm no good. Sethe... I can't fight anything. Really.
'Zat's one reason I go. I am terrible. Useless. Coward."


Seth-
"Jesus Christ Beau, you tried to fight a damn mummy?
That's about the last fucking thing I'd call cowardly."


Beau-
"I try to burn it, doesn't work. I don't know if I do it right. I 'ave to run away...
I don't see it again in weeks, just trying to go back, to get 'elp. No one believes.
No one wants to help..."


Seth-
"Where was it?"


Beau-
"Columbia Tower."


Seth-
"Jes-Damn! Wow. God, we've got to go there."


Beau-
"No...! How-- I don't know..."


Seth-
"This is big news, we've got to tell the council. I won't tell them anything
bad about you, I promise."


Beau-
"Sethe..."

He caught Seth's hand and gave him a meaningful look.

Beau-
"Thank you. No one believes it, no one cares. Thank you."


Seth-
"Yeah, um... no problem..."

Seth led the way, almost too fast, up to the comm center to gather the council.

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

THE TRIP TO COLUMBIA TOWER...



Kyle groused about gettin' attitude from the dude, but Seth talked him into staying. Beau said the paramilitary
street to street stuff was probably unnecessary, because he didn't run into real trouble until he was right there.
Joe said whatever, dude. He continued to move all commando with the other armored gun guys.

They didn't really slow down, aside from waiting for the commandos to "clear" each block they came to,
and were soon past the library.

They came upon the towers, and all eyes but the commandos went to Beau. What now, man?

Beau-
"Well... I enter on the side with 'zeh plants, mummy is below on ground level.
We definitely don't go in the stairs, there are many ghosts or something else..."

They decided to get out of sight of the zombies before proceeding, and Beau led them around to
a small courtyard on the far side of the building. As promised, it had overgrown small trees
keeping zombies from paying attention to it.

Once in the courtyard, the strategy became clear. The rear team would wait in the courtyard
while the forward guys went in. Stevie had brought two radios, which would hopefully not be
too fuzzed out by intervening structure.

If Beau was right, using the darkened interior stairwells was suicide, but these lower levels
were united by defunct escalators with a modicum of daylight, and might be where all
the action is anyways.

The problem now was a minor quibble. The forward team was to consist of Joe, Ashley, Patti,
and Kyle, but Kyle wasn't into that.


Joe, Patti and Ash stood near the building, looking in with Beau. Beau was pointing out
where he had gone down and encountered the mummy. The entrance to that escalator was
visible through the lightly tinted glass.

Joe-
"This whole scene is sheisty as hell." He glanced back at Kyle and Seth talking,
with Ben and Steve nearby. "What's the holdup? We should just get in there and get it done."

Beau-
"I don't understand this, I think no way is the mummy still there...
We find clues perhaps but... I don't know. *sigh*"


Joe-
"Oh, Beau. I'm sorry. Yeah, I bet we'll be fine. We have flares, we won't
fuck with the dark stairs... Whatever."

Seth-
"Man! Does this mean we gotta wait around more? I wanna get in
there damnit!"


Beau-
"I don't think they find much, but I am worried. It's dangerous inside..."


Stevie-
"No way. I know it's FUBAR, but those guys all have a lot of experience
running like hell. No sweat."


Seth-
"Yeah, you got out okay Beau, and those guys got the big guns!"


Beau-
"...Yes."


Stevie-
"OK, you're skeptical, I get it. Anyhow, how bad do you wanna go in there, Seth?
Startin' ta feel a bit itchy myself."


Seth-
"Oh for real! So I'm thinking, the mummy's probably not there yes. But, there *was*
a mummy there, so we could find mad clues and that's exciting. We might be able to
find out where it went, where others of them are, what their next sheisty plan is...
Good stuff."


Beau-
"If we find something, what will we do next? If we know where the mummy goes,
do we go there?"


Stevie-
"You know it, navy!"

Stevie-
"Jesus! They found something."

They heard three very fast shotgun blasts from somewhere in the building (down?)

Seth-
"Damn! So how long do we have to wait before we go? What if they need their bacon saved?
What if it's the damn mummy and I don't get to get a shot in?!"


Beau-
"No it's probably just talking zombie. To use guns inside seems like bad idea,
doesn't it?"

Kyle-
"You're right, dude. Ghosts can probably hear and this building has to have
a thousand of 'em, right? How about we stay outside and hope for the best?"


Seth-
"But-but the mummy!"


Beau-
"I don't think-- well if they are shooting, it's not a good idea."


Seth-
"Stevie, the radio!"


Stevie-
"You got it..."

He picked up the radio.

Stevie-
"Rear to Scout, do you copy? Rear to Scout!"

A few seconds later, they had heard no reply and no further shots.

Seth-
"Dudes, we have to go in there. They could be in trouble and we have no way
of knowing!"


Beau-
"I don't know, it seems a bad idea. Maybe if you have to, we should stay
some people out here. I don't think they let me go inside..."


Stevie-
"Bullshit, we should go, now!"


Kyle-
"Who's gonna live to tell them we're all dead?"

They heard more gunshots.

Seth-
"OK, Ben, you stay with Beau and the rest of us go in. Sound good?"

The ne'er do wells took off to do no well inside. Stevie handed off the radio to Ben,
and he and Beau were left standing in the overgrown garden.

Beau-
"It's a bad idea but I 'ope they are okay."

Beau glanced around nervously, keeping an eye on the zombies that passed, moving toward
the sound of gunfire.

Ben followed Beau's gaze, and hoped that the zombies would lose interest. Because he didn't
quite feel up to fending off a horde virtually alone. A few he could manage, but if more came along...

Ben-
"You've been here before, so do you think there'd be any way to lure away a large group
of zombies to some other place, and then lose them and get back here quickly?"

They probably wouldn't have time though. Surely the others would be back before anything like that
could be done.

Beau spoke quietly, the zombies seemed to be ignoring them in favor of the muffled, but still quite
loud racket from within. The overgrown garden worked well to shield them from view, but it
could easily be lost if enough monsters took notice. Chou watched them carefully.

Beau-
"Mm, yes. Last time I am here, there were many zombies following. They 'ave trouble
with doors, we can go in one, and out the other and they will be confused and lose track.
I am trying to not go inside though, they worry I am a spy for monsters..."

He said the last part jokingly, but looked at least a bit annoyed about that idea.

Indeed, the zombies weren't very good at picking out the source of the noise. They seemed to be
circling the block looking for a way in, but the overgrown hedge trees at the entrance to this plaza
were totally baffling to them.

Beau and Ben were still concerned enough with them they didn't notice movement within, and due
to the thick plexiglass of the doors and such, even Chou's keen senses didn't detect the figure
emerging onto the mezzanine within, not far away...

Emerging from the pitch black stairs to hell.

Ben-
"Ah. Good idea."

Ben could see how Beau might be a 'spy' or the carrier of some kind of supernatural 'bug'.
But without any actual indication Ben wasn't willing to give much credence to that suspicion.
Surviving against the odds applied to everyone who was still alive, and Ben didn't find it that
unlikely that Beau had managed to get away fair and square from the mummy. Never hurt to be
aware of the possibilities though, so Ben made sure to watch his back.

Beau-
"You know, I do think the mummies use 'zis building. I don't know for what purpose,
but this is where they start all of this. Does he live here? But, look how tall this is.
70 stories? 80? I just 'ope we can find something and leave, I hate to think we must
go through the whole thing one day."

Beau-
"It sounds silly, but I wonder what would 'appen if we get a helicopter and
go from the top--"

The door behind them swung wide quickly, and hearing this, they turned their heads.
They expected to see escaping friends. Instead this

Bloody Monster-
"..."

and it didn't slow for a second, walking straight at them. Chou peed in shock.

Ben instinctively brought up his bokken to fend off the... attacker? Well, if he was attacking,
he'd have to change his course, because Ben stepped backwards and to the side to delay
any decision he'd have to make.

Ben-
"Oh crap!"

Beau-
"!!!"

Beau stepped back, pushing Chou with his foot, and out of the way of the creature.
He held his hands out like a gunslinger with no gun.

It didn't slow at all! Also, it didn't swerve to attack the men as they avoided it,
or look back at them as it walked by.

Bloody Monster-
"..."

It was strapped with an improbably large backpack, jammed with unknown contents,
and quickly left the plaza for the street. Ben remembered he had the radio, but didn't know
that calling for anyone was necessary or prudent at the moment. 
Ben lowered his bokken again.

Ben-
"Huh? What was that? Damn. If we only could follow and see what he's doing."

Ben could think of a number of things that could be contained in that backpack. Had the mummy
just sent out a drone with a backpack filled with enough explosives to blow up the 403? Naaah,
that was just good ole "Terrorist!" thinking. But was the mummy using mindless monsters to
send stuff to some other place? Was it some kind of planned evacuation, or spreading out?
Or was it a desperate move to sneak something away from the present invaders?

Ben got out the radio, thinking that following looked more and more like a better idea than
staying put. Then he realised that the radio would only put him in contact with the scouts,
and not with Seth's group. The scouts who already hadn't responded, and who were probably
too busy fighting to consider the strategical ramifications of following a monster-man with
a backpack to a possible new mummy-hideout. Looked like Ben had to stay put after all.

Beau-
"I'll follow! I'll come back when I find out!"

Beau went jogging after the creature, with nervous Chou following.

Ben thought the thing was only speed-walking, but had a good lead, would probably never tire,
and so would be impossible for him or Stevie to catch up to. It also had headed up hill, and judging
by the direction Beau was moving, was turning the opposite direction from the 403 - where Stevie
had said they were going.

Nonetheless, due to it only speedwalking, fitness maniac Patti might be able to marathon up on it
eventually. 




Joe had some SWAT gear on, but was a little too large to fit into the armor comfortably & went vestless.
That plus only having one gun, a light baton, and fewer flares made his gear lighter than Ashley's.
With his long tall-guy stride, he was covering the distance pretty quickly.

Seth was even lighter, having hardly any equipment, and was more of a runner to begin with.
He caught up to Joe and slowed to keep pace with him and talk.

Seth-
"Dude, what are we gonna do? We gotta follow this thing, right?"


Joe-
"Yeah, I can't believe we didn't think about gunfire drawing monsters in that building -
we shouldn't have *huff* This thing's our only lead now..."

They ran over debris, past zombies, jumping over cars and the like. They considered calling out
to Beau, but didn't want to potentially draw the monster's attention.

Ashley saw the guys run around the corner at 6th. He kept slogging.

Joe and Seth could see a fork in the road ahead. One way was the continuation of 6th Avenue,
the other I-5 South. Cars were piled and crushed around the entrance, making foot traffic
the only way to go - and limiting the speed of it.

Then they saw the creature. It was moving very swiftly, walking up onto a car at the on-ramp,
over the top of it, wobbling slightly as it dented the roof, but remarkably stable. It never slowed,
kept going.

Beau seemed to be pacing himself and much more capable than the guys trying to catch up.
He tossed Chou onto a car and followed the thing's path directly. It really did seem oblivious
to the pursuit. The thing and its pursuer were on the highway...

Seth-
"Man, I wonder how far we should follow this thing. What if it's going to like, Oregon?"


Joe-
"*huff* *wheeze* Don't say that, man!"

As they began to run on car roofs, they noticed something very uncanny.
The thing was trailing massive amounts of blood, making the passage slippery.
Where was it getting all that juice from?




Ashley was persistently running after Beau who was running after the deadite. He was at least
intelligent enough not to yell after them, but decided that a bit of jogging was safe enough along
the way. Still, it was getting hot in his armor and his bag was heavy, though the cargo was
too precious to drop. He continued onwards, putting the sword back within the bag.

As he rounded the corner to 6th Ave and got a short distance before he saw Seth and Joe.
His fellow tall guys were easy enough to make out in the tangle of abandoned cars. He followed them,
tiring himself out some in trying to close the distance, but tenacious as ever. They went onto the highway.

It was weird thinking about the highway. It was always symbolic of leaving town - something people
had mostly given up on the idea of achieving.

As he got onto the highway, he could see that the travel was happening entirely on the roofs of cars now.
Well... He could probably catch up in a little while...

Seth and Joe could see Beau & Chou much more clearly now, and he seemed oblivious to them.
Of course, running on the roofs of cars was incredibly noisy, and he was focused on his target.

Up ahead, they could see it. The thing was mostly black or blackish red, and seemed to be flowing
with an inexhaustible supply of blood, from every orifice. It was absurd and horrible.


Seth used the spear as a sort of walking stick, trying to stay balanced on the cars. Taking a misstep
was a sure way to a twisted ankle. Some of the cars were wrecked and jagged, and everything was
rusted and awful. Probably get tetanus while you were at it.

He got a look at parts of the city he'd never been to. Trapped zombies looked feebly on as they were
pinned immobile between wrecked cars. Overpasses were lush with growing vines that trailed down
like a forest canopy. Random buildings were charred, a couple were completely demolished. How? Why?

The Sound was visible on occasion, glimpsed between buildings. It was, of course, boat-less and empty.

The footfalls on car roofs was noisy indeed, and lazy zombies gathered on the sides of the road to watch.
One fell off an overpass in a rather grisly display.

Ashley paced himself for a stretch before picking up speed again. He was glad the thing was only
moving at a swift walking pace or this would be impossible. Up ahead, he saw Seth & Joe catch up
to Beau.

As Seth and Joe neared, Beau suddenly noticed the noise they were making and turned to see them,
startled.

Beau-
"Ah--! What do you do?!"

He nearly lost his footing for a moment, but regained his balance and kept following the monster,
letting the men talk to the back of his head.

Joe-
"*huff* We were about to ask you the *huff* same, dammit."


Beau-
"I must follow the blood guy. 'Zeh only thing I'm good at doing. "


Seth-
"Whoa, it is a blood guy, isn't it? Well, I mean, we wanna follow it too, but how far
should we go? What if it doesn't stop until after dark?"


Beau-
"I won't stop, I 'ave a torch, I must find where it goes."

Joe had an expression that said "loading, please wait." He panted and clambered on
the blood-slicked cars.

Joe-
"...OK, Seth, I think this mission is too dangerous to risk many people on.
You should go back. I'll stay with Beau."


Seth-
"Man, really? We brought the whole SWAT team just to go to the tower, you guys
don't even know where you're going yet! What if you need more backup?"


Joe-
"I went into the tower first to keep you safe. That turned out stupid, but it's a lesson learned.
I'm saying *huff* I'm more interested in the safety of you guys than you are, so trust me *huff*
to keep Beau out of trouble, OK?"


Seth-
"Tch, I guess. If you guys don't come back I'm gonna be pissed so you better do it."


Beau-
"I'll find it, don't worry."

Seth gave them a lone fingergun, and stopped on a car, letting them pass in front of him, and away.

Joe, Beau, and le chien clambered over cars a bit farther. They had both realized there was probably
room on the shoulder to move more easily, but didn't feel like spending the time to check it. Finally,
this endless clamber over the roofs of cars took enough of a toll on their endurance that they
checked it out. They immediately felt like idiots for spending so much time running over the tops
of the cars, and were able to breathe easier hustling on the even ground. The only impediment was
overgrowth from the highway's edge, but that could be powered through with a nominal effort.

It was a bright sunny day in this world of death. Hawks, pigeons, rats, and more patrolled
the immobile vehicular mausoleum for food, and errant zombies strained to catch up with
the swifter creatures in the pursuit.

Joe-
"Damn what a day!"


Beau-
"Everything to me is a long strange dream."


Blood Guy-
"..."


Joe-
"Are all French guys poets?"


Beau-
"French is poetry, it makes sense..."

Chou-
"*houfhoufhoufhouf* Aip!"


Joe-
"I'll buy that."


Blood Guy-
"..."

The thing entered the tangle of highway over Tukwila. The forced march for the humans was
barely tolerable. They drank all of their water, and discussed more than once how they would
try to catch up to it again if they lost sight of it.

At length, they saw more humans on the highway, coming the other way. They didn't know
quite what to say. The people seemed to be doing tactical maneuvers as the weird monster
loped over car after car, oblivious.

One man got behind the thing, across the highway from them, and gave them
a thumbs up sign.

Joe-
"What? DON'T!"


Blood Guy-
"..."


Guy-
"What?"

The guy pulled the trigger. His dudes followed suit, and Beau and Joe ducked.
Beau had to grip his dog. A moment later, the shooting stopped.















Another time...



'Twas a knock at the door.

Pets-
"Hiss!" and "Arf!"

They were answered by a bark from the hall.

Bryce-
"If it's my mom, ..."

Seth answered it.

Seth-
"Word up."


Stevie-
"Our boys are back!"


Seth-
"Oh good! I'm guessing by the smile on your face that it's good then! Where are they?"

He stepped aside and the dudes came into the room. Bryce sat up straight.

Beau-
"..."


Joe-
"..."

The door closed. Discussion was had. And plans formed!

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

The brave heroes gathered at the bike pile behind 403 for the mummy hunt! The food sickness
sufferers had packed bread to fill their stomachs as the hollowness gradually turned to hunger.
People had water, food, and weapons.

The first to arrive were Beau and Chou, followed by Seth, Thierry, Stevie, and Marie. Thierry
and Marie were just there to see the others off.

Stevie-
"More of this kinda stuff... Excitin'."


Thierry-
"That it is."


Beau-
"..."


Marie-
"Seth. This is too much. Going to Tukwila?"


Seth-
"Well, um, yeah. This is for real, I need to know what's going on out there."


Marie-
"We can't have our president in constant danger like this.
With all the weird enclaves out there, we need stability."


Seth-
"Aw man, it's just... I never get to do this kind of thing!"


Marie-
"How can you be excited for this--?"


Thierry-
"Marie."


Marie-
"--OK. We need to resolve this, though. We can't have our president be a giant
mortal question mark, like Schrodinger's cat."


Seth-
"We have to find out everything we can. Who knows what thing these monsters are planning next?
We have to be proactive. It's not like we're going off to cruise the world or something.
Beau and Joe got down there and back on foot. It's not a big deal..."


Stevie-
"Yeah, what the hell are you gettin' at?"


Marie-
"I don't know, Stevie... Seth, you have to admit, it's dangerous. You don't have to go
personally. Do you not trust other people to succeed?"


Seth-
"Ugh well, yeah of course I do. These guys will go discover the secrets of the universe
and do the final battle with the mummies while I sit at home. I mean, I'm not dumb,
I won't get into trouble..."

Joe and Kyle showed up.

Joe-
"'Sup?"


Beau-
"'Allo."


Kyle-
"Hey."


Marie-
"Right. We'll talk about it if you get back."


Stevie-
"That's cold as hell, Marie. Take it back."


Marie-
"Fine, when."


Seth-
"*sigh*"

Marie went back inside. Thierry made a soulful expression at el presidente and followed. 







Later...

Becky-
"Pretty birds. That has to be good luck, Joe."


Joe-
"They were eating a dead person, Becky."


Kyle-
"That's a popular thing to do these days."

The highway journey continued. They went beneath overpasses, through barbed thickets of
sweet smelling blackberries. Ben tried to remember if he was allergic to bees or not, as huge
fluffy bumblebees wove through the vines clumsily. Trapped zombies waved from cars, looking
as if they thought the passers by would come to help them. They went through a dark tunnel,
though the bright daylight at either end made danger easy enough to avoid. They walked further,
and came to a deeper, darker tunnel.

Still, they kept on. For some reason they found themselves being extra quiet in the tunnel, then
speaking up again as they reached the other side. The first thing they saw as they emerged was
one of the hawks from before, flying low overhead, being harassed by a dozen crows.
The noise was impressive.

Stevie-
"It's Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom in this joint."


Seth-
"I wonder if we could train one of those to fight for us..."


Beau-
"Le fauconnier? I think there are too many zombie, not enough falcons.
If we talk to the birds, why not the pigeons for delivering messages?"


Seth-
"Yeeesss... I like the way you think."

((Someone asks about the blood guy))

Joe-
"Just some kinda kooky blood guy, I guess. One in the dome seemed to work.
Still don't get what the blood was about. It must've had an unlimited supply
to spray everywhere, but why would it need that, aside from just being disgusting?"

The stuff didn't smell like much, and did look like blood, so it was hard to say anything
about it with a passing examination.

Beau-
"I do not want to think about this..."


Joe-
"Dead things. Nothing significant, man."

Eventually, someone got Joe to stop digging that hole, and the fighters rounded
the westward bend of the highway. Tukwila was in sight, but the mall was still
a good hike away. The bicycles made the trip a lot easier than it had been for Joe
and Beau on the way out.

They saw smoke coming off the highway in the distance. Some cars were on fire.
Becky pointed out some less obvious smoke rising from down in the valley -
random fires at different locations around Tukwila.

Beau-
"I remember this from before... We did not see these fires, but the
men on the highway. They say a vampire may sleep in a car."


Joe-
"Yeah, I bet that's vampires burning."

The houses were too far away to see anything about. The closest houses showed
no sign of residence, but given they'd have to be fully camouflaged from vampires
at night, there'd be no reason to flaunt yourself in the day either. 

The afternoon sun the world hot and still. It boiled particles loose from the wall
of cars, putting an artificial smell in the air, underlying the errant strains of choking
petrol burn and death. Shining iridescent flies buzzed in the air. To one side, wild trees
mostly concealed the tall hill from view. To the other, Tukwila lay low and grey -
so paved over and developed that no trees could hide the damage of humanity lingering
there. The effort of the journey had people a little loopy, as perhaps did the crazy feeling
of being somewhere other than Seattle after all this time.

Patti went first, shambling past a line of cars. Seth hopped the guard rail and hid nearby,
watching the cars for reaction. A zombie looked at her, waved its arm briefly, then went
back to staring at the distant smoke rising. He considered what that might mean,
and crept along, looking at the zombies in other cars.

He looked back in annoyance at the kids screwing it up. Joe, of all people? Whatever.

Next Stevie came around the pile of goofballs and shambled by. Ben chatted with Joe and
company for a moment before giving it a go himself, then Ashley. Beau just held Chou
out of the way. Seth kept making his observations. Above, Steller's Jays flew through
the canopy like oversized shuriken tossed by a blue-themed ninja clan. They were
uncharacteristically quiet.

Patti and the others formed up and strolled back past the zombies in people mode, and
the things grasped uselessly at the air, not knowing how to operate their seatbelts, or
otherwise trapped. Seth hopped back onto the highway, and everyone got back together.

Seth-
"Yeah, I don't know. I don't think you have to be Brando, but it's slow.
We'll try the fast guy distraction, using the bikes."

At the offramp, they had a big hassle. Aggressive drivers had clogged the shoulders to
where they had to pull the bikes over the tops of cars. The sides of the offramp were covered
in extremely tall grass and blackberry bushes infiltrated the cars for a way. Shy wrens
made weird buzzing calls and white-crowned sparrows sang noisily from short trees.

On Southcenter Parkway, they finally had sidewalk again. Tall grass and overgrown trees
couldn't do much to obscure the super-wide multi-lane roads. They bicycled a car-clogged
grey river. Partway down, they saw a terrible thing.

A black bear paused from its zombie-eating to glare at them as they passed. The victim
wiggled pathetically in the driver's seat of a humvee. The beast had pulled off an arm
with a good chunk of the chest and began to eat right there on the hood.

Becky-
"*sigh* I guess it'll have to be me. Looks like that zombie just couldn't bear
the Tukwila traffic."

Stevie and Joe went ahead onto the overpass that led to the mall, and destroyed some zombies
while the others plotted. Stevie cut the tops of heads off with his katana, and Joe kicked them
over the edge to Interstate 405 below. Seth looked up at the mall, now visible in front of them
as they rolled their bikes onto the overpass behind the fighting guys. He seemed annoyed.

Seth-
"On second thought, let's do the zombie walk."

The mall parking lot was full of zombies. The things were slow enough and crowd dynamics
were such that it seemed luring them away would require buzzing them repeatedly, corralling,
and other difficulties. The zombie walk - if it succeeded - would be quicker.

Seth-
"I watched you guys do it, and I think it's easier than Dr. Bebe said. Just avoid eye contact
and move slow, like when you don't want to get noticed or beat up by humans. We leave
the bikes on the bridge here.

We have two radios, so we'll do two teams. If it gets messed up, try to stay with your team,
and either fall back, or run and hide in the mall - whichever makes sense depending on how
far you got.

When we get inside, go to the first shady-looking spot on the left, and hide there until we
can all group up. If one group is in and the other is out, we'll use the radios to plan the
next move.

I'll take Stevie, Kyle, Ben, and Beau on my team, the rest of you guys on team two.
Don't touch a gun until you're inside, and even then think twice about it. Let's not use
flares until we're well inside as well. Remember we can impale ghosts too, if we have long
enough weapons.

This is it, dudes. Patti, you have the radio. Anything anyone wants to say before
we get funky?"

Peeps rested their bikes on kickstands and guardrails and such.

Stevie-
"Alright! Let's do this thing!"


Kyle-
"No giggling, OK lady?"


Becky-
"I'm serious as a heart attack. Keehee."


Joe-
"Yeah... This so isn't going to work, but you'll just have to see for yourself,
won't you?"


Seth-
"Oh ye of little faith..."


Beau-
"Into the bag, mon chou..."

Chou-
"*whine*"

Beau tucked the dog in a capacious backpack and hoisted him.
The adventurers set out!






There was 500 feet to the closest entrance, through a parking lot with hundreds of zombies in it,
and only a few dozen cars worth of obstacles for them. Getting out onto the concrete, there were
probably a thousand zombies within line of sight. To the east there was a large, ambiguous
black pile of something. The air smelled like death, far worse than on the highway.

Seth's group set to staggering first, then Patti's. At first, a few zombies seemed more interested
in them than they would have preferred, but they kept their heads cool and didn't let their act
down. They were one with the horde...



As part of the act, it was easiest to focus on one of the lead guys. Just keep that person's ass
in your sight and don't eye contact a zombie for even a second. Ben was following Beau,
marveling at how still the dog stayed in that backpack. Beau didn't bother moving
shambolically - just stayed painfully slow and avoidant. Ben saw zombies get so close...

It was extremely disturbing. If they decide to mob, no way to avoid getting touched now...

Patti wasn't using a focal point, trying to use her plotting to pick a path. The crowd dynamics
were hard to predict, but she'd done well, and didn't come within several feet of a zombie until
she was nearing the sidewalk. The zombie was a blackened blood-covered security guard with
no arms.

Ashley used Patti as his focal point, but it was a tricky path to tread. Zombies came close
enough he could hardly resist the urge to kick them away...


Staggering into darkness, several zombies followed them in. It wasn't the desperate pursuit
of hunger, but simply a case of zombie see, zombie do. The pretenders tried to mill around,
misdirect, and otherwise shake off the tail, before assembling in the first relatively private area
to the left. It was difficult in the dark and heedless of their efforts, at least six zombies had
followed them pretty closely. When they were pretty confident it wouldn't draw down
the horde, they put the dead down quickly.

                                                                          Stevie-
                                                                          "Say good night, Gracie."

It turned out the closest entrance had been to a department store, and the rendezvous spot
on the left was a small forest of ladies clothing racks. They could hear distant thumps and shuffling -
zombies throughout the mall. Still, it seemed safe to finally start talking quietly, and everybody
had made it inside without incident.

Kyle-
"Wow, that was pretty amazing. Who woulda thought that'd work?"


Becky-
"Keeheehee."


Joe-
He lit a flare. "It's too dark in here. We're gonna get ghosts, and I don't care if the zombies
in here can see this."


Seth-
"Yeah, fine, for the moment. Now let's figure out how we wanna do this..."


Beau-
"Tranquille, Chou."

Beau's backpack-
"*whine*"


Kyle-
"Hey, anybody else see the armless zombie?"


Becky-
"Oh yeah, she was sad."


Kyle-
"Um... I was talking about a man zombie. Black guy in bicycle gear."

Kyle-
"I guess it's time to drop the actin' and get down to business.
Kill any zombies in the way?"


Becky-
"They seem... afraid of the place?"


Joe-
"What if the mummy is down there, right now?"


Beau-
"We need to capture it if we can. Kill if we must-- but maybe we can interrogate,
find out more."



Seth-
"Only if it's like that scene in Reservoir Dogs."

Joe-
"Take a flippin' flare, Becky. You don't even have a pointed stick."


Becky-
"I don't, but I have this bracelet that says it's worth twenty-five hundred bucks."

Ben looked around at the fancy jewellery and considered how it might actually be worth something,
even during the apocalypse. And almost certainly after the apocalypse, if it would ever come to
an end. But it didn't seem like the best time to weigh himself down with loot, and it wasn't as if
he knew what would be worth taking anyway. In fact, weight was probably a much smaller concern
than the time it would take to grab each little piece of jewellery. It wasn't like he'd brought along
a bag that he could just empty a tray of rings into, armed robbery style.

Ben-
"So, how do we capture the mummy? Just grab him and have one or two guys tied up
holding him? Should we spread out to prevent him from catching all of us at the same time
with some telekinetic blast, or wouldn't that matter?"


Joe-
"We can't know what he can or will do until we get there, but that sounds like a good plan."


Stevie-
"Yeah! We see his ass, we spread out and hit 'em from all angles..."

Everyone lit a flare who was going to, and the posse bobbed their heads around the corner
like giant deadly meerkats. They immediately saw the thing.

Down the hall at the food court entrance, light streamed through the doors out and
the skylight above, showing some kind of truly immense snake-like creature, thrashing
in place, so large they could only see a small part of it through the broad hall. It was
at least six to eight feet thick with an irregular surface, and judging by its movements
(because its full length was not visible), it was at least fifty feet long - maybe more.
As it thrashed it pounded the floor with its massive weight and shoved around debris
like nothing. Odd bits of it would fall off from the violence.

Joe-
"I just don't even know. Christ."


Becky-
"Ooh, ghosts up high."


Kyle-
"Good eyes."

Indeed, several dark ghosts bobbed near the skylights of the food court uselessly. Down low,
the thing was exactly what people were beginning to suspect - an arm monster, with the stolen limbs
radiating from a long line of unknown stuff, as opposed to the ball-like core of the ones at
Columbia Center. The ends were just more of the same - arms, arms, arms - no head, tail, eyes,
or direction. It was about sixty feet long - the entire length of the food court. Its thrashing basically
guaranteed that it would hit anyone trying to pass through the area, although a daring soul might
be able to time their movement to run from restaurant to restaurant along the periphery, throwing
themselves behind the counters whenever it got close. Luckily, there didn't seem to be any ghosts
down low, behind those counters, who could say?

Stevie-
"What do we do chief?"


Seth-
"Shit, well we can't go through there without some fancy footwork or
gatling guns."


Beau-
"What an abomination! Why do they build such things?"

Chou whined from Beau's backpack.

There were three ways out of the food court. One was the hall back into the mall proper -
the passage in which they stood. One was an exit to the street - clearly visible on opposite side
of the creature from them. The other hall labeled "Restrooms" but probably containing other
utility doors and such.

The food court itself was only slightly wider than the thing was long, rimmed with smashed debris
of the former furnishings - a tripping hazard for anyone trying to run niche to niche.
The restaurants on the edges of the court were just counters in front of kitchens - the customers
were meant to eat at seats where the thing now thrashed. Finding shelter in them meant
figuring out how to get behind the counter quickly. Some had open access, some possibly locked
short doors, and so on. The surest bet was vaulting the counter, but not everybody on the team
was athletic enough to do that.

Up high, there were skylights and dark ghosts and a big modern art sculpture hanging from
the same beams as the lights. The creature's thrashings didn't seem to reach quite that high,
as none of the lights or sculpture were broken (just powerless).

There was an incongruous mirror on the west wall - probably one-way glass leading to some
kind of security room.

Stevie-
"OK, all that's straight past here is the way out of the building, so if this is his guard dog,
he's in one of the restaurants, or down the restroom hall... Whaddya think?"


Kyle-
"I'm guessing that's a security booth up there. Seems like a good spot to watch for people
and throw hexes at us, but I don't feel hexed. I really get a feeling they ain't expecting shit."

Joe-
"As fast as that thing is moving, trying to go around the edge is just too dangerous.
Can we stop it?"

Ben looked up at the sculpture hanging above the food court.

Ben-
"In the next room there is a monster. You can't hurt the monster with your weapons.
You Have To Burn The Rope."

Of course, that didn't take into account that the real boss was nearby and should probably not
be alerted by a big, modern sculpture crashing to the food court floor. Nor did Ben have any idea
of how to get up there and actually cut those ropes.

"Hmm... speaking of ropes, if we had enough ropes, we could perhaps tie some ropes
around sturdy things and then toss the other ends to that thing, and hope it grabs on
to them, and sticks to one side of the food court. A bungee cord would be awesome,
as it would provide its own springiness, keeping it from breaking."

Kyle-
"I wouldn't count on anything slowing it down for long.
Look at the smashed up tables and shit all around here...

I see two possibilities. Bring down the sculpture like you
said, or go outside, hotwire some SUVs, and smash 'em
through the doors there, and go to town. The second one
is a sure-fire zombie draw and I don't know how to hotwire
a food processor, so..."

Seth-
"Alright, I think if the mummy is fucking around in that security room, he might
come shambling out if we drop that sculpture. I don't think he's gonna come out
shooting fireballs or anything though, and we can throw a big net on him or whatever
we're gonna do to catch his stupid ass.

I got monkey styles, I bet I can climb up there... Drop the sculpture, easy peasy.
Just need some big scissors or something."

Joe-
"What, drop the sculpture to lure the mummy out? Why would we want to..?
How would...? That shit doesn't make any sense, man."


Stevie-
"Ugh. I'm getting sick of looking at this shit, and sick of this place. Let's just fucking do something
and get done with it!"

The wires that it was hanging from looked surprisingly thin. Stevie tossed his flare up to the roof,
causing a few people to tense their muscles. He hit a ghost, and the chain reaction burned most of them.
The three remaining slipped out of sight, somehow. Then he used his freed hand to fish a tool out of
his pocket and hand it to Seth.

Seth-
"Man what kinda medieval warriors are we that we don't have fire arrows. Alright,
death-defying time..."

The food court was somewhat square shaped, making the corners of it less likely to swatted at by
the thrashing thing (the radius of its movement was mostly circular). A pile of shattered plastic
and twisted metal near them (thrown clear of the clean-swept path of destruction) attested to the
relative safety of their location. Seth stepped out into the skylit area, kicking a bit of debris aside,
and considered the options. If he stood on a rail meant for the disabled and climbed onto a store awning...
Nope, nowhere to go from there. Well... If he went from the rail to a narrow ledge the other way,
he could move sideways on that until he got to the plexiglass awning over the TCBY, and from there
might be able to reach one of the lighting fixtures with a leap...

Beau-
"Oh no... It seems like a bad idea..."

Seth wished he'd learned some of that parko -- parker? park-eh- That stuff Micah did. Like that
French guy in that movie. Yeah... Anyway, he made a jump for it...

Joe-
"Kyle, watch our ass. Everyone with strong arms get a flare and watch for those leftover ghosts
to come back. Crazy motherfucker."

Seth clambered up the lighting fixture quickly because it didn't seem like it was going to support
his weight. It was all bent out of shape by the time he got fully up onto the frame.

He was on a sturdy metal frame suspended from the ceiling. It would support his weight,
but was not designed for humans to climb on. Its edges were hard and sharp, and it was too narrow
to really rest on. He climbed very carefully to the nearest wire suspending the sculpture...

Seth handled the task fairly easily, monkeying his way over the top of the frame, clipping wires.
Each one made a "ZPPPP" sound as it burst. The sculpture groaned and listed.

Beau tried to keep his eyes averted, but kept looking back, like he might try to make a run to break
Seth's fall, as if that was something that would be possible or even helpful.

Seth-
*sweat*

Ben didn't know if his arms would be strong enough, but if only one to three ghosts appeared near Seth,
it seemed quite likely that thrown flares could simply miss the intended target, so it'd be handy to have
backup flares to throw. So Ben lit a flare mostly for that reason.

Ben-
"Wow. Never thought we'd actually do it."

Ben kept close to Joe so that he'd be able to hand over his flare. Joe was probably more accurate
with thrown stuff, and at the very least had longer arms.


The thing's thrashing blew nasty wind in people's faces. This one was different from the other
arm urchins in that it was damaging itself more brutally. The hands that lined it weren't sturdy
enough to hold up to this, and many were broken off or smashed beyond recognition, though enough
still had grasping ability to cause a problem if someone got close, and the worse risk was being
speared with several filthy jagged bones.

Seth held on to tenuous wires and bits of architecture, hoping that the flailing thing couldn't
reach him. There were several more wires to get to, and the sculpture wobbled and listed strangely.

Finally, he had cut one too many wires from a given side and it violently lurched down, half of it
crashing close to the floor level, then being run into by the monster.

The monster slammed into it, then jerked back the other way. Its movement was destabilized,
causing it to hit areas of the room it hadn't before. It thrashed dangerously close to the homies!
They had to step back and shield themselves from chunks of sharp plastic, broken metal, and bone,
and the creature swept through the close debris.

Seth hurriedly tried to complete the task. Meanwhile, just as it had become difficult to do anything
about it, two ghosts jerked free of the wall and started jellyfish-floating toward him!


Sticking to his plan, Ben got closer to Joe, offering him a backup flare in case the ghosts survived
the initial barrage.

Ben-
"Here!"

They should have flare guns for this kind of deal.

Joe-
"Thanks, Ben!"

Joe bullseyed one of those things, and Patti and Stevie very nearly got the other. The one-two of
fiery near-misses caused the thing to shrink back into the wall!

The torches this time fell with enough fire on them to seemingly cause the thing pain, because it
bucked with each flare that bounce off of it, flailing half free of the sculpture!

Ashley was nearly hit by flying debris, but kept his attention sternly on possible mummy hiding
spots. No movement, still!

Seth cut another wire - three left to go, but the thing finally burst loose and came crashing down
completely. The sculpture pinned the monster! With its flailing movements, it still made it unsafe
to reach the exit to the street. However, for as long as it remained pinned, it was possible to reach
the restroom hall - and any other kind of access doors that may be hidden back there.

Seth worked his way back to the food court floor.

Seth-
Holy balls, you guys!


Becky-
"Go team. Siss boom bah."


Joe-
"Your enthusiasm is overwhelming. Take another torch."

People quickly worked their way to the restroom hall, waving torches at restaurants passed in case
any major clues jumped out at them. Each had signs of violence, but nothing noteworthy on initial
examination. The monster bucked mightily, letting them know escape would be a lot more difficult
if they couldn't finish this quickly.

Kyle-
"Man, this shit's pretty intense."


Beau-
"En effet, garçon sans sourcils!"

Chou whined from Beau's backpack, just to let y'all know he was still there and still cute.

Seth-
"Okay so a couple people check out the restrooms, and the rest of us should go through
these restaurants. They don't have much to them, just the front and a small kitchen
in the back probably. We should split up so we can get out of here quicker. Teams of two?"

Joe-
"Teams of two, when the mummy could be behind door number three? I don't think so."


Seth-
"Oh c'mon, it's not like he's Jason. I think he'd be in our grits with the REE REE REE music now,
if he was ever gonna do it."


Stevie-
"Actually, Jason would wait for us to be alone, or boning."


Seth-
"Yeah so we don't go alone, we don't get Jasoned. We might have to worry about things if it's more like
Scooby-Doo though... I call dibs on being Daphne."


Kyle-
"Uh hey I found some stairs, maybe go up to that security room. Wanna go there first?"


Seth-
"Whoa, that'd be pretty dope. Maybe we should? I don't wanna see rotten teriyaki just yet anyway."

Ben lit another flare. He didn't think he'd need it, what with everyone else having one, but conserving
resources was for the less crucial missions.

Ben-
"Yeah, that security room sounds like a good place to check out first."

And splitting up into teams of two didn't seem like a good thing, but if they only had so much time
before their only exit was blocked, then that might be what they had to do. Then again, maybe there was
an alternative exit, that wasn't obvious when entering the mall?

Patti made sure a new flare was quickly accessible, but chose not to light up again just yet.

Patti-
"Sorry Seth, but teams of two seems like a recipe for disaster. I know it will go slower, but it's far too
dangerous. If the gutless boy has even one demon dead with him, two people could be dead or joined
with the enemy before the rest meet back up with them."


Beau-
"Joining the enemy and this, not as much a risk in day. But it does seem more than two is best."

"Hmm... yeah, let's check out the security booth."

Seth-
"Okay, let's check it out... as many as will fit anyway."

The pink flares were the only light source in the crowded narrow stairwell. Seth and Beau went first
and people moved about two abreast. Before anyone could see into the room, they heard Beau's assessment.

Beau-
"No mummy in this room."

Everyone emptied out of the stairs into the small security room. Text adventure time.


You are in a room with four sides. There is only one way in and out, and only one WINDOW.
On the NORTH SIDE of the room, there is a WALL CLOCK that is still ticking, and the door back to
THE STAIRS. On the EAST SIDE of the room, there is a large one-way WINDOW overlooking
the food court below. In front of the window are two toppled CHAIRS and two SKELETONS
without arms. On the WEST SIDE of the room, there is a TABLE with some PAPERWORK in
binders and such, a defunct lamp, and charging equipment for radios, with one RADIO still in place
and an upright OFFICE CHAIR. On the SOUTH SIDE of the room there is one more OFFICE CHAIR
and a bank of powerless CRTs hooked up to dead computers - SURVEILLANCE EQUIPMENT.


> __

Ben-
"Look for keys and stuff?"

> EXAMINE PAPERWORK


The PAPERWORK seems to be incident reports about trivial things from before the Z-P, logs of
lost and found items, requests for time off, post orders, and so on. There are no keys on the desk.
>__

Ben-
"Hmm. Nothing here."

> EXAMINE SKELETONS



The SKELETONS are mutilated, long dead security guards, pools of dry decay surrounding their bones.
Their UNIFORMS are surprisingly intact, but hella disgusting, having had a body liquefy from within them.
One has a HACKSAW in its lap - an ideal tool for severing arms, blade encrusted with darkened old ichor.
>__

Ben-
"Guh... At least it's dry decay."

> EXAMINE UNIFORMS

Ashley looked around, this wasn't as promising as he would have liked, but there was still no way
the mummy hadn't heard that thing fall. He was beginning to get anxious, but maybe there was
a clue hidden in all of this mess. He began to look through everything in the area.

>Search the other uniform, and turn on the radio.

Patti started worrying that they had cornered themselves. She went to look out on the food court,
to see if anything was coming to investigate the noise.

>EXAMINE WINDOW

ASHLEY picked up the radio and flicked it on. It did nothing. It didn't look compatible with the chargers at home
and the apparatus here was clunky enough it was probably not worth it to pack along.

He and BEN examined UNIFORMS. They could find the former men's wallets and cell phones - sad artifacts of
a kind everyone was now well familiar with. BEN's had a notebook with numbers for security offices and illegible
incident notes. It also had the HACKSAW in its lap.

PATTI looked out the WINDOW onto the fallen sculpture and thrashing creature. A few armless zombies looked
tentative at the edge of the food court. It seemed likely the monster would escape by bashing the sculpture apart -
in a minute or an hour, impossible to tell.

The rest of the group looked through the environment for anything else of use.

>__

Ben-
"Oh well. Maybe we can use this to saw off the arms of the mummy? That'd show him.
We could saw off the legs too. We don't need all of him, do we?"

> PUT BOKKEN IN BELT
> TAKE HACKSAW


Not everyone thought keeping the HACKSAW was a good idea.

Seth-
"That thing is disgusting!"


Kyle-
"That's a good idea to pare the jerk down, but I can just use my axe, y'know."


Becky-
"Huh, can I see that?"

BECKY examined the creepy HACKSAW for a moment, then handed it back to BEN.

Becky-
"It's from Foster High's wood shop."


Joe-
"Hm. Gutless boy looked so young, I wondered if he was in junior or senior high.
Guess now we know."


Stevie-
"I got the SATA drives from the tower there. Wanna bounce?"

They exited THE ROOM. You're tearing me apart, LISA.
> __

Ashley-
"He's like one of those school shooter teens, but on a grander scale. I'm not surprised in a sense."

He frowns, and exits with the others to attempt a different door. "SATA drives?" 

Stevie-
"Just the video from the security cameras, if we're lucky."

> EXAMINE FACTS

Ben-
"I guess I must've had the timeline wrong then. I didn't think the mummy started cutting off
arms until way after he started the zompocalypse, at which time he could've gotten this
hacksaw from wherever. But I guess a high school wood shop ought to be a lot less convenient
than any hardware store, so maybe the jump to that conclusion is warranted.

The fact that the two security skeletons were still in their chairs does indicate that they were
killed before or during the first night. I kind of assumed that they'd been killed and then
sat around for all this time until he just recently got their arms. But if they were killed in their
chairs it would've been by a dark ghost, and then they would've turned into zombies and
gotten out of their chairs. Well, presumably."

((Pretend that that wrench is the hacksaw.))

Your cool adventure game interface has been terminated. REBOOT your system to continue.
>__

Seth-
"Seriously though, I wouldn't haul that thing around. You'll get tetanus or something.
Alright, y'all don't want two person groups so we'll split like before. Patti, your guys
are on rotten teriyaki duty, and my guys will look at the restrooms before joining you.
You won't be able to safely check restaurants on the other side of the thing, so don't try
it. We'll plan more when we meet up."

At the bottom of the stairs, Seth's crew went toward the restrooms,
and Patti, Ashley, Joe, and Becky went out to the food court again. They had three armless
zombies to keep them company out there...

Meanwhile, Seth led Stevie, Ben, Kyle, and Beau down to the end of the restroom hall. There
were two restrooms and three unmarked doors down here besides the stairs. Stevie spoke with
Ben as they went.

Stevie-
"Alright, Sherlock time. Lessee... We were kinda assuming the mummy was at the
Columbia Center in person when he set it off. He was definitely there later on, and
the joint was important. But maybe that was a remote deal on day one. Then again,
why was there a messenger boy going between here and there? Maybe there's more
than one mummy in western Washington. After all, we know there's a different one
in Germany.
Some of these armless zombies have so much blood on 'em it makes it seem like that's
how they were killed - like it happened early on. After all, armless security guards up
there were dead long enough to turn to bones. All the dog and gory show down here
really makes it seem like this is a hot spot for mummy shit and probly was from the
beginning.
Well there was only one mummy video in the region and one we know of from Germany,
so maybe it ain't safe to assume more than one mummy in the area yet. The guy in
Germany went by Osiris and Kyle thinks blood guy's symbol meant he was made by
a mummy that thinks he's Anubis. He was talkin' like if there's one mummy per
Egyptian god, there ain't that many. Maybe they gotta be pretty spread out to cover
the world. So maybe messenger boy was for a demon, or from a demon to the mummy..."

Stevie seemed willing to really do the Sherlock with Ben while they went through the place.
The group eliminated the broom closets and such while Stevie was yakkin' and finally got
ready to go into the Ladies' room.

BTW to all, by now it was seeming like they really weren't going to find a mummy here today.
The security guard room had seemed like the most promising spot, and they eliminated it.
But what could they find before they had to leave..?

Ben considered letting go of the hacksaw, but seeing as it seemed to have belonged to the mummy
for a short time, it seemed prudent to hang on to it due to its potential magical and/or historical
value. And surely Ben wouldn't get tetanus or anything, because what kind of butterfingers
would accidentally saw himself? Was it even that sharp? He lifted it up to inspect the teeth right
in front of his visor.

Then he continued Sherlocking with Stevie.

Ben-
"Maybe he set off the ghost cloud at Columbia Tower and then went straight here?
Not that I know how a bandaged mummy with no guts would be able to travel
without attracting a lot of attention, particularly after that video. Though the
general public didn't see the video until after Columbia, so maybe that could've
worked?

When we get back I suppose that I could see if there were any reports about a
mall massacre in Tukwila, but this would clearly have been headline news if it
had happened at any time before Columbia Tower."

The bathroom was lit only by pink flares. It smelled of ancient dooky, so only slightly
worse than the average metro bus.

Stevie-
"No way. The Tower went off pretty much right at the beginning." Yeah, Ben thinks back,
the time code on the tower video lined up with his memory of that night at the mall,
and the first thing to go bad was the traffic. "You're right this woulda been headline news
before Columbia Tower, but the damage here looks old enough I'm thinkin' it was later
that night. Still, hard to imagine the mummy gettin' anywhere in that chaos.
So assuming there's only one mummy - Gutless Boy is Anubis - he was probably down here
and set off the ghost bomb remotely, maybe using demons for help. Then in the interim
he got up to Seattle somehow, maybe piggybacking a blood guy. Then Beau sees him.
A little while later... Maybe he's already gone back here, but if all that is true, it doesn't seem
likely. Damn.
Gotta ask Becky how far away that Foster High School is. We might be able to check it out
before it gets dark, at least. For history, even if he ain't gonna be around."

Seth, Beau, and Kyle looked in the stalls while the yakkers kept lookout. Ben was able to wrap
the hacksaw in paper towels and carefully wedge it in his backpack.

Ben-
"Well, it couldn't have been much later that night, because I don't think a couple of
security guards would just sit around in their chairs while the world was going to hell.
If this mall was anything like Westlake Center they would've been way too busy keeping
zombies out, and hiding from ghosts. Well, maybe it wasn't quite so bad out here that
early? And I guess no one would sit around in a chair to have their arms sawed off.
So maybe they were under some kind of spell?

And Foster High School is definitely on our list now. If this was truly a supernatural
'school shooting', who knows what kind of clues he might have left there? Seems like
that'd be the place that caused him to hate everyone. And we might even be able to
find out his real name. That could annoy him. Or maybe even hurt him."

Maybe Ben wasn't going to saw off any mummy-limbs, but hurting the mummy still seemed
like a good idea.

 Kyle seconded the notion a name might be useful for magic. They cleared the ladies' room
and moved on to the men's. At this point it seemed like a formality. No one was expecting
more than maybe a dark ghost or zombie.

Stevie-
"Y'know, that American mummy video was in a tiled background. Maybe it was a pool.
Ya think there's one at the school?"

A fireball coming out of a bathroom stall briefly illuminated Kyle. He staggered a moment.

Kyle-
"OK, blind. Glad I led with the torch. The dude had me."


Beau-
"Good job, Kyle."

Within moments, they were on their way to the food court.

Ben-
"Hmm, maybe we shouldn't put our magic expert on the front line? Not saying that anyone else
is expendable, but... you know..."

Ben pondered how Gutless Boy would've gone about filming his freaky gore stuff at a pool.
Maybe he managed to get permission, or maybe it was just considered a student prank or
something? Certainly didn't seem impossible to get away with, but then some people at the
school would've known that it was him in the video. Assuming that they survived, and
watched it when it aired.

"Maybe he did film at the school, but since he'd have to do it before sending the tapes to
the news stations, I would've thought he would've wanted to do it in a more private place."

Stevie-
"Yeah, and since he snail mailed it, ya gotta imagine he filmed it at least a few days before.
Maybe if the pool was closed for a long time? Still seems like a pretty long shot. And of course,
wherever that was, he ain't there now. Oh, the wheels spin slow."

The teams met up in the food court. A few armless zombies had joined the debris on the floor,
and people hadn't recovered much from the restaurants they could reach - except for more tools
from Foster High's wood shop! Oh handicrafts, why must you be the domain of the evil?

A few hours left until sundown! According to Becky, Foster would be a quick trip on the bikes,
leaving time for brisk investigation (or crazy freaky mummy war) and finding a hiding place
before sundown. The crew split into teams and did a runner! It was a big relief from the tension
of creeping, as they jogged past the pathetic undead in the mall, then the parking lot, then
the street! ((The only reason for the creeping was the possibility the mummy was there, to keep
from having a zombie swarm on the heels in addition to that mess. Getting on the bikes and
jetting meant the things couldn't keep up, no need for sloth.))

They went back the way they came, working their way through the jammed intersection of
Southcenter Blvd. and the I-5 offramp they'd used. Instead of going home, they kept west,
heading past the Sexy Goods Superstore and a few less exciting businesses. The street they were
on had massive overgrowth under an elevated rail to the left and apartment buildings
to the right, and they were biking up a moderate incline. No fun.


While riding his bike, Ben wondered if the best hiding place from vampires wouldn't have been
the mall. Surely no vampires would expect humans to hide in a building surrounded and
filled by zombies? Maybe they could find another?

Though it'd have to look like the zombies were always there, not as if they had just chased
a bunch of humans inside. Because that would be quite the signal flare for vampires.

Ben-
"*huff huff*"

The road swerved this way and that, the overgrowth in front of apartments getting denser,
until it came to a large intersection. Becky pedaled right. The bikes had to go single file
intermittently due to patches of congestion, but mostly the cars were less frequent out here.

Largish residences and a massive wild lawns lined this street. It was a hill, but they were
on a level parallel street. Occasionally they could see down some distance through the foliage
and houses. The cars here weren't blocking the road much at all, usually abandoned
lonely crashes. A few dozen zombies were visible from any given point, but the quiet bikes
didn't draw attention from any that didn't happen to be looking the right direction when
they slid by. They were in suburbia. What was this world like, compared to Seattle proper?

The houses got a bit larger as they went. These wide, easy streets designed for fat-ass SUVs
and boat haulers were the reason the "green" Pacific Northwest looked like a massive
grey smear from outer space. The trees on formerly private property grew larger, then smaller,
and finally they came to the school...

It was at a significant intersection, which meant there were more zombies in line of sight
than usual. Seth gestured for people to pull into a residential lane nearby, where they started
to ditch their bikes.

                                                                              Stevie-
                                                                              "I got these ladies."

The wrecking crew busted some heads and ran into a nice secluded piece of yard, where they proceeded
to fall about the place. Seth went first, slouching into a bench. Beau sat next to him, Joe rested against
some bushes but kept his hands on a weapon, and so on.

Seth-
"Damn what a trip. I thought you said Foster was real close."


Becky-
"I forgot how much of that trip was uphill. Oh yeah, because after I got to the mall,
I wouldn't bother coming back."


Joe-
"I'm glad we found a spot to rest, but don't get too relaxed."


Kyle-
"Yeah, think we got that, dude. On the plus side, all the water we're about to drink
will lighten our backpacks a bit."


Beau-
"True and good..."

Those who had been paying attention to such things today may have noticed that Beau hasn't
killed a single zombie. Mostly, he's jujitsu'd them out of the way and kept on. He pet Chou
reassuringly. The dog was bothered by the sudden change in activity from the humans.
It was easy to imagine he thought their resting was because they'd all become sick instantly.
He whined quietly, and went from person to person, snuffling at them, each in turn.

Ben was too exhausted to say much, and just petted Chou feebly when the dog came by.

Ben-
"At least it'll be downhill on the way back, right?"

He wondered if they'd be able to find a completely closed off room to hide in during the night,
where they'd be able to light some candles for ghost protection. But a place like that would also
be the perfect hiding place for vampires during the day, so they'd better get to it well before nightfall.
Wouldn't do to stumble into a lion's den when it was about to wake up.

Patti smiled as she flopped Chou's ears. She rubbed him roughly on his neck, scratching
intermittently. She seemed well rested. She drank casually from her straw.

Patti-
"We should pick out a place to overnight before we get to the campus. The bigger, the better,
so we can find an internal room where we can light candles without flashing the Bat Signal."

Ashley (To Patti)-
"Not a terrible idea." He had been quiet himself through most of the trip, and kept close
to the others. He had assumed that Beau hadn't done much out of exhaustion rather
than out of a change in attitude. He had pursued this thing for quite a while at least.

Ashley stood near Patti and offered the dog a hand. He had either not seen, or not noticed this
dog breed that often. It was pretty he had to admit, and the dog was friendly. He wondered,
idly, why he brought his dog with him everywhere. Was it just a principle of how he chose to act?


Beau spoke quietly to Seth as Chou went around to check out the humans.

Beau-
"Seth, I think we will find 'zeh mummy."


Seth-
"Well I hope we do too."


Beau-
"No I mean, the others think 'zere is no way... I think we will find it."


Seth-
"Oh? Why's that?"


Beau-
"I look for mummy for so long before, but I don't know where to look.
When I hear place mummy may actually be, I go there, and there it is.
That means to me, if I find it that easily, there must be other mummies.
There are no odds for me to find the only mummy at random."


Seth-
"Well, you sound pretty confident. I don't think I need to discourage you,
'cause I really hope we find it and I don't want to jinx it. I hope you're right."


Beau-
"..."

Stevie sat on a large flat-topped rock near Seth's side of the bench.

Stevie-
"Hey, whatcha guys talkin' about, if ya don't mind?"

Elsewhere on the grass, Kyle and Becky chatted.

Becky-
"So what's your 'thing,' kid? What are you doing here?"


Kyle-
"Uh... I'm a wizard, supposedly. I have to confess, I'm probably useless.
At least I can kill zombies only half as fast as the rest of you guys...
How about you?"


Becky-
"I like Joe. Someone that likes Joe should be there when he dies."


Joe-
"I heard that."

((Someone asks what Seth and Beau are talking about))

Seth-
"Oh we're just talkin' about the mummies. Do you really think there's only one here?
He says 'we' in the video, y'think he means collectively across the globe or whatever,
or are there just bunches of 'em?"


Stevie-
"Me and Ben were talkin' and think we don't have much reason to assume there's more than
one locally. I mean, we've heard one name - Osiris - and had another one implied - Anubis -
and it suggests there's only one for each god. So if that's true, there's only so many over
the whole planet. Right?"


Seth-
"Mm I guess, but doesn't it seem weird we might get special attention from the
sole mummy in like, the country?"


Stevie-
"If there's any elsewhere in the country, they mighta done a tape too, and the news
agencies only had Osiris and Gutless Boy... I dunno. Guess we'll see."

Beau kept quiet.

After he'd gotten a bit of a breather, Ben decided to join the mummy-talk.

Ben-
"Didn't that German mummy talk about how humans had ruined the environment?
And is our Anubis supposed to be the god of the underworld? Maybe we're getting all the
dead people, and they've got some sort of nature's revenge going on in Germany,
with insects and animals attacking people? Though I think the German guy had a couple
of zombie girls with him, so maybe it's undeath all over."


Stevie-
"Yeah, probly death all over. Unless the bear on Interurban knows something we don't."

Beau spoke quietly to Seth, not very audible. Chou returned to him.

Beau-
"*mumble*"


Seth-
"Oh, OK guys. Seems like, just in case there is a mummy, or something tough, we should
have our guns available. I do think we should zombie walk in there and use the guns as
a last resort still... Becky, you know the turf. Any suggestions on how to proceed?
We're looking for clues about the mummy kid's identity and location."


Becky-
"There's the office and there's also the school district's offices just past the pool.
Seems like the places to look."


Seth-
"OK. Same teams. We'll go to the closer one..."


Becky-
"The school office."


Seth-
"...and the fightery team will go to the one a little farther out. Becky, you
mentioned the pool. Maybe you hit that building on the way back, huh?"


Becky-
"Sure."


Seth-
"OK, Patti still has the radio. Let's turn 'em on and go for a stroll."

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

How to reach the school's administrative offices would be fairly obvious - somewhere near the front -
so they didn't need Becky guidance at the school. Beau put Chou in his backpack again and Seth's team
set to zombie walking. The school's main entrance was just across the street, in a courtyard framed by
overgrown grass and small unruly trees.

Beau-
"..."


Seth-
"..."


Stevie-
"..."


Kyle-
"..."

... and Ben!

No one torched the room.

Looking around the papers and such, Ben found a class schedule - with room numbers.
No yearbook staff as a class, but journalism and visual communications both seemed like
they might have equipment the staff would use after hours. Journalism was on this floor
of the building they were in, but further in. Vis Comm was in the other building. Probably best
to cross the courtyard to get to it, so they didn't have to deal with upper floor unknowns at all.

They didn't bother zombie walking now - just efficiently putting down trouble as they walked
through the hall. This hall had a lot of large windows facing the courtyard and they could see
the zombies out there were generally not paying attention to their passage - distracted by
something at the east end of the other wing. Whatever.

The zombies in the hall with them moved with a purpose that probably had escaped them for
months now, but which their shambolic bodies were ill equipped to pursue. Stevie particularly
was on point eliminating them.

Beau walked near the back and spoke with Seth quietly.

Beau-
"Perhap I should have brought a gun as well."


Seth-
"Do you think we're actually gonna run into something here?"


Beau-
"As I say, it happened once before. Is your gun ready?"


Seth-
"It will be. Aw man I wish this was a difference circumstance where I could turn that
into a dirty joke..."


Beau-
"Fire away, ami."


Seth-
"Okay okay, back up, I'll be you..."


Seth-
"Ees your gahn read-ee?"


Seth-
"It's always ready for you, babe. Bahaha!"


Seth-
"Okay that wasn't that funny, but it made me feel better."


Beau-
"Sorry. I did not understand, but I like the look of your face when you say it."


Seth-
"See the gun is a metaphor, symbolizing... eh, yeah. Maybe after all this you can
teach me French so I can tell dirtier jokes. Your jokes are dirtier, aren't they?"


Beau-
"..."

Stevie finished off the close zombies in the hall and followed the guys into the Journalism room.
Kyle chatted with Seth as they looked through binders and piles of paper. The room smelled like
dusty rat shit, but less deathy than the hall had.

Kyle-
"I feel kinda stupid out here. Magic expert. I don't know anything I can use on
the fly, y' know?"


Seth-
"Well you're also our... uh, teenager expert. 'The Kids These Days' and whatnot. Any ideas?"


Kyle-
"Nothing better than this. Well, there are a lot of photos in here. It's, like, car washes and
sports shit, but maybe we see him in the background flashing gang signs?"


Seth-
"Man I wonder what a kid that would do this would be like. Would he even have a picture
in here? Or maybe I should say 'kids''... I find it hard to believe there's only one around here.
One kid rolling around Seattle sending waves of monsters, then down here making giant
Human Centipedes? It's hard to imagine..."


Kyle-
"If they thought they were gods, maybe they managed to get cultists to serve them...
In which case, what happened to those guys? Mummies as well, or did they turn them
into something else? Or are some humans secretly agents of the mummies?"


Seth-
"Oh man that'd be awful! Why would anyone want to do that? Hm, maybe it's like
the zombie ho's in that German video... but I think they were already dead... Eugh."


Beau-
"This is disgusting. Maybe leave out the implication of sex."


Seth-
"Yes, let's forget it forever."

None of the pictures present had names attached and nothing resembled yearbook files at all.
Probably this was just stuff for the school newspaper, or which several months of copies were
on hand. Beau paged through them furiously.

Kyle-
"Yeah, man, I don't even think there's a point in taking any of this stuff with us.
It's crap."

They shooed a couple of rats out of the doorway and shuffled out into the hall. A few more
zombies were stumbling around the fallen ones from before, and Kyle and Stevie got rid of them
as well. Beau and Seth didn't even bother to look in that direction.

They quickly came to the back door. They could go out there, cross a short courtyard, and enter
the other wing over there. They stepped out into the day, now finally cooling off, long rays
of the sun casting the courtyard in shadows. There were scattered zombies about, and they
could see something weird walking generally in their direction, from the area of the stadium.
Beau found something about it disturbingly familiar.

Beau-
"No! He does this before... Have 'zeh gun ready!"


Seth-
"Oh shit... is this it?"

Seth carefully drew the gun, keeping it low.

Seth-
"I ain't shootin' this unless I have to..."


Stevie-
"A little bit closer, baby cakes..."

Stevie readied to throw his flare, but waited for the slow-moving creature to come closer,
for a surer aim. It obliged, coming steadily nearer.

Tiny Monster-
"..."


Seth-
"Oh my god... it's a baby...?"


Beau-
"..."

Stevie-
"Here goes!"

A baby? Just a baby? Probably less of a threat then? Psycho-Ben was a bit relieved that it
wasn't actually the mummy, but... could it be a demonic undead? Or was it more like
the blood guy – some sort of semi-autonomous undead, set to wander the school with
a bunch of carefully selected balloons?

Ben-
"I wonder if those ghosts are some special people the mummy really hated?"

And therefore he captured their ghosts and imprisoned them, forever forcing them to travel
the grounds of the High School of Hell!

Psycho-Ben sure had some imagination.

Kyle-
"Might be, Ben. Convenient they stuck all the ghosts together for us, though."


Stevie-
"Here goes!"

Stevie tossed the flare, and the ghosts went up in with a loud rolling hiss. As the black smoke
rose and the black tatters rained, the silvery wires attached to the tiny monster's arm fell slack,
like weird whips. It still held its arm aloft awkwardly, and spoke.

Tiny Monster-
"Sseth...."


Seth-
"JEZUS SHITBALLS CHRIST!


Beau-
"She is possessed... They can know your name, non?"


Seth-
"G--I'll... I'll do it... I should, shouldn't I...?"

Seth tried to get a hold of himself.

Stevie-
"Yeah, you seem the best at these things, but I'll do it if ya need a break."


Tiny Monster-
"Sseth...."

Ben was about to let someone with a real weapon handle the situation, because he didn't want
the others to look at him like some guy who had just bashed in a dead baby's head with multiple
two-handed blows from his bokken. But then it struck him: Noise bad.

Ben-
"Uh, don't shoot. We don't want to alert anyone else who might be around.
Better to do it with..."

... Ben looked at Stevie's katana and his own bokken, and Kyle's axe. If it was true that
the possessed didn't have any powers during the day, they should be able to handle this one.

Kyle-
"Alright. People already think I'm some kinda crazy creep anyways."

He started toward the little thing.

Seth moved to stop Kyle, holstering the gun, when Beau stopped him.

Beau-
"Let someone else do these things sometime..."


Seth-
"..."

Kyle went forward, then Ben, then Stevie. The thing reached back with its arm as if to use the wires
as whips, but rather slowly. Kyle's first blow knocked it down. It didn't twitch much, but they
decided to make sure and put in a few more thwacks with their respective implements of
destruction, sending juicy dark chunks into the tall grass nearby.

Zombies had finally staggered up on them, and they put those things down with fury. It was strange.
Fighting zombies, once you got used to it, was like being an action hero. You could do the kind of
showy, stupid moves that wouldn't work against humans, and they worked quite well. Stevie and
Ben looked like chubby samurai of doom.

Beau stood near the door they intended to enter, and opened it when everyone was ready to go in.
Inside, the long hall was much more empty than the other wing's had been. The men dusted off
and composed themselves, when they heard a weird sound, like horseshoed footfalls or
high heels, only staggered and clumsy in rhythm.

The source of the noise rounded a corner and staggered into view.

It was about Stevie's height, staggering on strange, rigid leg replacements, and somehow arranged
itself into a sassy pose. Its voice was screechy and weird.

Large Monster-
"Fools! KNOW ye not what thou
trespass against?! I COME FOR SETH!"

Seth-
"WHAT? You come for ME? WHY?"

Ben-
"Waaaiitaminute... Isn't Seth also an Egyptian god?"

Or was it some snake god in that Conan movie? Ben wasn't entirely sure, but he didn't rule out
that ancient Egyptian stuff got reused in fantasy fiction. Snake? President Snake? Hmm...

Seth-
"Huh? No I'm not...!"


Large Monster-
"FOOL! SETH IS THE UNMAKER, THE RUINER, THE SUNDERER OF LIMBS! ALL of the beauty
you Here BEHOLD, is the work OF HE!!!"


Kyle-
"Shit, you're right, Ben. I fucked up."


Seth-
"NUH UH! SHUT UP!" He couldn't hear Ben and Kyle's quiet talking over the screechy dude
and the flare hiss, and was addressing the creature alone.


Kyle-
"Seth, uh, man, that's another name for --"


Large Monster-
"FOOL! You don't KNOW?! WHY ARE you ALIVE? You're Sup^posed to be _DEAAD!!!"

The thing was very whiny.

Ben-
"Uhhh... so Anubis is Seth?"

That might explain the arm centipede, if the mummy had been trying to create a snake.
Though Ben wasn't sure if the actual Egyptian god that was called Seth was a snake-headed guy
or a crocodile-headed guy. Didn't one of those guys have a cobra head? Or was that just from
Stargate? Clearly Ben should have researched all this when he first heard the German mummy
call himself "Osiris".

Seth kept yelling at the monster.

Seth-
"What?! Us dead? No way! YOU are! Look at you, you're some kind of...
stupid... lumpy guy!"


Large Monster-
"I AM NOT SUPPOSED TO BE BEAUTIFUL! I AM A WORM OF THE GODS!
WHAT ARE YOU, PEASANTS?!!!"


Kyle-
"SETH! HEY! I was wrong! The mummy wasn't Anubis. He was Set, also known as Seth -
a god associated with snakes, but also depicted with a dog head!"


Seth-
"Huh? The mummy has a dog head?"


Large Monster-
"Stop IN^SULTING _US!!! HE does ^NOT have a DOG HEAD!!!"


Seth-
"Y... your momma has a dog head! BOOM in yo' face! Whatever's left of it, HA!"


Stevie-
"Seth, man, ignore that dickless freak down there. Think about what Kyle's sayin'!"


Seth-
"The--huh.. oh. Oh, so not ME Seth. Some other Seth. That's... confusing."


Beau-
"Ah... Now I understand this! Hahaha!"


Large Monster-
"SHUT UP AND DIEEEE!!!"

Ben approached Seth.

Ben-
"Yeah, well, you've gotten a surprising amount of coherent words out of this guy."

Ben certainly wanted to hear more from the monster, but not death threats. Or death requests?

Seth nodded to Ben, but seemed confused still. He tried anyway.

Seth-
"Hey-- YO! Where's your little mummy friend AT anyway?"

Beau continued laughing. Perhaps it was just the broken tension, Seth's confusion,
or this thing's screechy voice, but it started to become infectious...

Beau-
"Hahahaha!"


Large Monster-
"SETH IS AT HAND! I AM SETH'S HAND!"


Stevie-
"Then what's he need all the extra arms for, asswipe? Or are you his wanking hand?!"


Large Monster-
"_SHUT UP! YOU'RE ^STUPID! You're ALL ^STUPID!"


Kyle-
"Hehehe, oh, man, that's egg on my face, man. Hoo ..."


Large Monster-
"I HATE YOU SOOOO _MUCH!"


Beau-
"That voice! Hahaha!"

Seth tried to hold it together...

Seth-
"No, but for real-- the mummy *snrk* I-- where-- The mummy... *SNRK*"

Taunting the monster worked just fine, apparently. But it didn't seem to give any
useful information. Although...

Ben-
"Hey... That sounds familiar. He sounds just like Seth! 'Hate you all,
why won't you die?' Huh."

Seth-
"Huh? I never said that-- wait-- oh man!"


Stevie-
"Bahaha you fell for it again!"


Seth-
"Oh man! Hahahaha!"


Large Monster-
"IT'S NOT ^FUNNEEEE_EEE!!!!"


Beau-
"HahahaHA!"


Kyle-
"No, *snrk*, that's right, Ben, *snrk* Oh, hehehe..."


Stevie-
"Hahaha HAHAHA! Jeez, I mean-"


Large Monster-
"STOP MAKING FUN OF MEEEE_EE!!!"

Ben-
"We're not making fun of you. You're making fun of you.
Are you some kind of laughing stock? Who are you?"

Large Monster-
"_{I AM} PHILLIP ^VOLLAN! My cousin _will KILL you ^ALL!"


Stevie-
"Who is that? Gangsta strollin' Roland Vollan?"


Kyle-
"Hehe, Cinamarollin' Weevil Bollan?"


Phillip-
"THAT'S IT! I'M _COMING DOWN ^THERE!"


Seth-
"Stop, guys! Hahahaha! Uh, stop!"


Beau-
"Hehehehe, hoooo, désolé, désolé."


Seth-
"Seriously, though, how are you gonna get down here wobbling on
those toothpicks?"


Phillip-
"God ^DAMN IT!"


Stevie-
"HAHAHA!"

Suddenly, gunshots started to break out elsewhere, and a rumble from
within their building echoed it.

Phillip-
"You SEE^EE? They've _awakened the ^HOUNDS! ^HAHA^HAHA!!!"

Seth went for the gun.

Seth-
"Oh snap! Rolly's cousin, I'd presume."

Phillip-
"_STUPID IDIOT! I said HO^UNDS! My C^OUSIN is in the S^WIMm_ing POOoo_ol---"

Suddenly, fast zombies running on all fours burst out the hall closest to Phillip,
knocking him down so hard his head broke on the far wall. The things spilled
into the hall ahead of them and started galloping forward.

Seth-
"JEEBUS!"

He tried to aim quickly at a head and fire at these freaky things.

Ben immediately started running back towards the doors they'd come in through.
His first thought was that they could perhaps trap the fast moving zombies at
the doors and take them on one by one.

His second thought was that they'd have to be on the outside to do that, and wasn't
there a bunch of zombies out there? Would he have to keep the doors closed to prevent
them from coming in after hearing the gunshots?

Ben-
"Oh, crap..."

indeed, the zombies outside seemed confused - gunfire was coming from two
locations now - but the ones in line of sight of this window-lined hall were
heading your way. They were sparse and slow in the tall grass.
Kyle had followed Ben. He spoke loud enough (for a change) to be heard
in the ringing between shots.

Kyle-
"Shit, man, fast zombies, slow zombies. What do we do?"

Seth's first two shots were right in the dome, and the third apparently didn't hit anything.
More "hounds" came out to replace the two down.

Stevie-
"BRING IT ON!"


Beau-
"He said the mummy was in the swimming pool! Patti found him there, I know it!"

Elsewhere, there were a few shots from a smaller calibre weapon, followed by more
submachine gun fire.

Ben turned to catch a glimpse of the 'hounds', and seeing that their number hadn't
gone down, he figured that his first idea was probably the best one. He tried to
make himself heard over the distance and from inside his helmet:

Ben-
"Come on, back to the doors! Let's trap 'em, shoot 'em one by one!""

He then headed out the doors to clear the immediate area of slow zombies. All they
needed was a bit of time, unless the whole school was full of 'hounds'. Then they'd have to

find a way to block the doors... with zombie bodies?

Seth took up the rear, letting the others get there first despite being one of the faster runners.
He wanted to draw any 'hounds' from the others. He took three more shots.

The first shot was really wide, because of the distraction of trying to understand the
new agenda. The second hit a hound in the neck and didn't slow it. The third hit one
in the head and took it out. Stevie moved close by Seth, ready to step forward if the
zombies got too close for comfort.

Ben, Kyle, and Beau got out into the courtyard. Kyle ran to take out a zombie that was
getting close and double back, and for a weird moment Ben remembered soccer in
junior high PE class. Seth and Stevie got to the door at the same time as the hounds,
forcing Stevie up to bat.

Stevie-
"Come on!"

The first attack hit the head but the thing's forward momentum shoved him off balance
and the second attack missed. The closest remaining one snapped at him but he managed
to step back.

As they backed out onto the courtyard, the gunshots from elsewhere died down. Now,
the hounds were coming sloppily, falling over each other and barely managing to
get out at the fighters one at a time - just as Ben planned.

It seemed like there were over a dozen in sight, with even more behind the
surging mob.


Ben looked inside and saw what they had to deal with.

Ben-
"Damn. That's a horde. Can't let those out in the streets. We should just shut the doors
and give them a sliver to poke their heads and arms out of."

Because that ought to make them sitting ducks. Ben looked around to see if there might be
any way to keep the doors shut after they left, or if they'd actually have to fill one or both sides
with enough corpses to prevent the doors from budging.

Seth-
"Hoo..."

Seth kept blastin'.

One of Ben's plans was coming to fruition without much effort. Seth could easily aim
at the things this close, and as they emerged, he blasted them. One clambered over
another over another, and his gun shots were about a second apart until he ran
out of bullets. The clumsier ones coming over the top Seth and Stevie took out with
spear and sword, and the door was officially jammed up.

Meanwhile, the regular styled zombies began to thicken. Beau didn't destroy them -
just tangled them up and knocked them down. Kyle used a standard overhand axe
to the head on anything he could get to.

Kyle-
"Nope!"


Beau-
"Il ne s'arrête jamais..."

Kyle's moves were as clumsy as one would expect of a gangling nerd in a hurry, but zombies
were clumsier. Beau was like something out of an action movie, and his pretzel zombies
didn't manage to untangle themselves.

Seth-
"Damn that's hot!"

In the distance, some peeps came into view across yon field. 'Twas the source of earlier gunfire,
and it looks like everyone came out of that encounter none the worse for wear.

Beau-
"...I don't see the mummy..."

Ben glanced in the direction of the other group. Indeed. No mummy. Whatever that meant.
One thing at a time.

Ben-
"Time to go, right?"

Ben tried to help out by knocking some zombie skulls.

Ben managed to take out two. Together with the others, they'd really made the area feel safe
to move through. But yes, if they didn't do that moving soon, it could get ugly.

Ashley-
"Hey, it's just us!"

A wild Ashley appears wielding a single sword. It was becoming a catchy club it seems.

Seth-
"Oh haha, Beau-- they didn't run into the mummy, that's just silly! He might still
be around here though, so we should keep an eye out."


Beau-
"Hm..."


Seth-
"Hey Ashley! Are you guys okay? There's sure some crazy stuff around here."

Patti-
"I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there was a mummy, it just wasn't the mummy.
Maybe one of his friends, he seemed quite dim and was armed to the teeth... with arms.
I'm not entirely certain he is destroyed, but we messed him up, threw him in the pool,
and tossed some flares on 'im."

Patti was still armed with the lifeguard pole, having lost her hammer to the mummy,
but she used it fairly effectively to trip a zombie into the tangled pile Beau had created.

Ben-
"Well, we've got a school full of fast zombies, and a monsterguy on peglegs.
Seemed harmless now, but who knows what kind of powers he might get when night falls?"

Ben really wanted to get out of there.

Ashley-
"Patti, do you want my crowbar?" He offered. He still had a sword, though it was
getting dull and was becoming more of a blunt force trauma object at this point.

"... Maybe we should try to question the peglegged thing. It is a shame it was not our mummy, but it was /a/ mummy that we destroyed, I hope."

Stevie-
"Ben was in the back and didn't see clearly - the fast zombies broke peg-leg's neck.
He's done."

He admittedly did think that mummy's powers were a little lackluster for powerful magic
using beings, but maybe it was worse at night. This made him leery of staying too much longer.

Ashley-
"..Fast zombies?"

Seth-
"You-wha-you- MUMMY?! Are you--w-seriously?! Did he-- like with the wrappings and--
Did you look for any clues? ..I gotta see this!"

Seth ran off in the direction of the pool, Beau considered for a couple seconds, and followed.


Seth came running across the field to the swimming pool, not even sure where it was at first.

A mummy? A damn mummy was here? And it's DEAD?
He couldn't get over it. His heart pounded and he was already exhausted from the earlier fight,
but adrenaline kept him going for the moment.

The place was freaky and seemed like the kinda place dark ghosts would be into.
As he came into the swimming pool area, the stench of death was horrible, zombies lurched
toward him, and a weird "splick splick splick" sounded from the swimming pool itself.

Seth-
"Damn..."


Beau-
"I was right. Désolé."

Joe followed them in. He looked at Seth earnestly and spoke, before going to the zombies.

Joe-
"I'm sorry, I shoulda known you'd feel bad about missing the fight. Look in the pool.
We should just get out of here."


Seth-
"Nah it's okay it's just-- god damn. What do we even do?"


Beau-
"We need to get it out..."

He looked down into the gory pool. The thing that must have previously been a mummy
was floating in the nastiest pool since World War II, looking like an epileptic sea anemone.
Two road flares burned under the hideous water, but didn't illuminate much.

From down by the zombies, Joe spoke.

Joe-
"You get it out, and you're fighting it again. I don't know what to do about that. *ugh*
Shame Kyle didn't come in with the axe."


Beau-
"This pole. We use it, but must hold on. It will grab and throw it in the water. Help?"

Seth helped Beau out, as the zombies came staggering toward them in the wretched gloom.
The multitudes of hands gripped on to the pole and nearly yanked the skinny men into
the horrid gore, but they maintained their ground and reeled it in.

Essentially, all they had to do was keep their grip while the awful thing climbed the pole,
and leap back at the last moment to avoid getting ensnared themselves.

Joe was able to look cooler for sure, dispatching several zombies with karate, rifle-strokes,
and general bad-assery. When it was just down to whatever zombies could make it
through the front door one and two at a time, it got even more easy.

The mummy-thing moved about randomly grasping at everything, causing Beau and Seth
to do a lot of fancy footwork to avoid the grip.

Beau-
"Sorry Chou."

Beau's backpack-
"Yip!"


Seth-
"So what do we do with this damn thing? Can't drag it outside through all that...
Can't even get a good look at it!"

Seth avoided the crawling horror, trying to figure out ways to break its wrists without
getting ensnared. The thing looked mostly like a red glittering mess at this point.

Beau-
"I... I have an idea, if you can hold it down some'ow..."

Seth teased the thing with his spear. It seemed like the one thing these mindless agglomerations
would respond to - touch. They tried to grasp at anything that touched them. He scuttled back
toward the life guard tower, then slipped beneath it and out the other side.

The thing jammed itself partway through and mindlessly tried to climb. Seth ran around to
a good position and pressed his spear into it, holding it - at least for the moment - in place.

Seth-
"What's next?!"


Beau-
"Eh... It's 'ard to see..."

The humanoid body was covered with the writhing arms and it took Beau a few seconds
to find the head. It was nearly unrecognizable as such, resembling a crunched up paper bag
wearing a wig more than a human visage. The arms were a little thinner in that area,
but still there and moving.

Beau-
"Disgusting... We-- I 'ave to take it. Sethe, take care, I will do it quickly."


Seth-
"Do what?!"

Beau took out a hunting knife and a crumpled towel from his bag. He pulled his sleeves down
over his hands as much as he could, and went for the head with his knife.

Joe-
"JESUS."

And so it went! It was decided they wouldn't even go far from the neighborhood they were in.
One, it had a moderately high zombie density. Two, it had a lot of big bushes to lose the bikes in.
Three, tons of houses to choose from meant tons of places vampires would have to eliminate
in their searching.

They rolled a few blocks away, dropped the bikes in a ditch at the side of the road, where bushes
grew over the top. It was awkward, but they ran through the bushes to lose the trail of zombies
attracted to the first maneuver, and came up on a house with nothing on their tail.
No slow walk required!

They looked for a way to break in that wouldn't leave signs they had done so, and found
an unlocked basement hatch-door. They tossed in a road flare ahead of them, dropped in,
bolted the door from the inside, and then went about securing the house.

They ran into no zombies, no ghosts, and no humans. The house was only a few decades old
and whoever was living here before the Z-P never came home. The garage had a nice empty
space for an SUV.

The basement seemed like the best place to avoid flarelight being seen, on the odds a ghost
did show up after dark fell completely. Retreating from their would be a bit more difficult
if it became necessary, though, so they went with a room upstairs. The only window on it
was a skylight. They covered it with something hopefully not too suspicious, picked
a guard rotation, and tried to sleep...

Night was going to be about eight and a half hours. They spent the first half hour with
everyone awake, sorting things out. They locked or blocked all the doors, made sure
two flares were lit at all times, ate, and settled in. After that, watch would rotate
every two hours. The first two hours was Seth and Beau, second was Stevie Ashley
& Patti, third was Ben and Kyle, and last was Joe and Becky...

Beau and Seth sat in silence for a bit, while people fell asleep. Beau pet
Chou nervously.

Beau-
"..."


Seth-
"Man, that was really cool earlier, I never saw your moves before!"


Beau-
"What? Chopping off heads... It is not a cool move. Eugh."


Seth-
"No I mean-- well actually that was pretty badass in itself-- I meant you tying
those zombies up in knots. You could be the next Bond!"


Beau-
"Bon- Bond, yes, the cinema spy... Well. Thank you."

He was still lost in some kind of thoughts, but seemed to be coming around. Seth put his chin
on his knees and listened to the quiet breathing of the sleeping people around him.

Seth-
"Hey, wanna talk about something?"


Beau-
"OK. This is probably a good thought. I am not doing well alone."


Seth-
"Y'know it didn't work out perfectly, but I'm feeling really optimistic about
the mummy hunt. That's *two* that have been seen, I bet we can find more!
I'm so glad to finally doing this and now I have someone to do it with!"


Seth-
"...*snrk*"


Beau-
"..."


Beau-
"Ah yes. Do it with me. Hahaha."


Seth-
"Hahaha, careful what you wish for!"


Beau-
"Never. It is better to be free. What do you think?"


Seth-
"Oh gosh you're gonna make me blush. Not in front of everyone...! "


Seth-
"Hehehe!"

He had to cover his mouth to stifle giggles, his sides were already a bit sore
from earlier laughing fits.

Seth-
"Well all joking aside, I hope we'll get to be mummy hunting partners again.
I really like having you around, actually our whole group earlier was like
my dream team. --But you especially hehe."


Beau-
"Oh? What is good about me?"

He seemed to exorcise the last of his inner demons, as he leaned forward
on his knees, relaxing.

Seth-
"Ohh? Well I suppose you deserve some ego-stroking after what you did today.
I like how you have a sense of humor, and aren't afraid to jump into action.
I always feel like other people are trying to rein me in, but I don't with you.
You're the first person I ever met who wanted to go get the bad guys too,
that's gotta endear you to a fella. Not that the sexy guy with a cute dog act
doesn't do it enough. "


Beau-
"Go on..."


Seth-
"Oh you're the worst! "

He pulled that 'light slap on the arm' maneuver.

Seth-
"Well what do you think, fancy man?"


Beau-
"It is strange how French are assumed to be of a certain class, in America.
I am of 'umble birth, not so different from you...

So what do I think? I think... You are very brave, and very beautiful.
You have an easy charm, perhap the rural background? They elect you
the leader of 403. I say, Seth Clemans for King of Seattle!"


Seth-
"Oh my gawd, you're really going to make me blush now. Awww!"


Seth-
"Nah, I wouldn't want to be King. Even President is too much these days.
I wanna be... a knight. Ooh or a Ronin. Wander the Earth and wipe out evil.
Is that what you wanna do?"


Beau-
"We could do worse... Sethe."


Seth-
"Yeah...?"

He put his chin back on his knees to stifle another giggle, maybe it was just because
he was tired... maybe.

Beau-
"At the end of this all, you should leave. With me."


Seth-
"...Oh man. I....... find that really hard to turn down but... I... I don't know..."


Beau-
"Cute dog..."


Seth-
"Erm... That is a very cute dog..."


Seth-
"OK, I'm super considering it. Hmmm I wonder if I could work this out..."


Beau-
"What is to stop you from doing as you like? Nothing."


Seth-
"Well yeah but... all the expectations. You know how it is, everyone thinks
it's impossible, dangerous, pointless, blah blah. They didn't even want me
to go on this mission! I'm getting really sick of it."


Beau-
"It does not have to be you as leader. It would be so easy to go as you please."


Seth-
"Yeah... They're always telling me I should just trust other people to take care
of things, so maybe I should just take that to its natural conclusion, huh?
Well, you lay out a convincing argument Mr. Chardufond."


Beau-
"Good, good.... A while ago, I spoke of the ideas America has on French people.
Another one, perhap more justified, is that the French are good at seduction."


Beau-
"I am willing to test this theory..."


Seth-
"...!"


Seth-
"Whoa."

Some time later, Seth and Beau woke Patti, Ashley, and Stevie, then went to bed themselves. They were quickly asleep. Chou fell asleep as well.

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

Everyone seemed to sleep pretty easily, except for Patti, Joe, and Beau, who stirred occasionally.
Beau and Joe both woke with starts once or twice. The Ben and Ashley watch continued...

Not long before it was time to wake Joe and Becky for the last watch, about two hours before dawn,
there was a sudden loud rapping at an outside door, and someone yelling.

Voice-
"AAAIEE! THERE'S VAMPIRES OUT HERE! LET US IN!"

Joe, Beau, and Patti woke with starts, and were quickly awake as well -
though more groggy.

Beau-
"What are the odds? Do we do it?"

VOICE-
"HELP! PLEASE!"

It was a young lady's voice, it seemed.



Joe, Becky, Stevie, and Patti went out one door. Kyle looked at the others in bewilderment.
Beau stood quietly and followed Seth through a different door (Ashley close behind), leaving
Kyle and Ben alone.

Kyle-
"The fucking vampires?"

Seth, Beau, and Ashley disappeared quietly into the dark halls of the house.


These guys stalked the hall quietly, peering out windows they passed as stealthily
as possible, and were on edge listening to every little sound.

Finally, they heard some noteworthy noise that was not coming from the direction
of the porch conversation. They crept up to the windows nearest and peered out quietly.

Nothing.

Beau-
"...did you hear that better than I?..."

Beau-
"The intelligence from Steve Pool said they are frenzied, but
capable of speech. It suggests they are as smart as a drug addict, perhap."

Seth-
"Hm, in that case I won't be surprised if they do an attack at the front, and just try to
bust in back here, or cause some other kind of trouble. Keep checking windows?"

From around the house, the other conversation was muted, but they heard
one voice more clearly for a moment.

Woman's Voice-
"Hey that's mean! We don't look like zombies."

Suddenly, something flew into view from over a fence, and hit the lawn.
It was a messed up zombie, that had apparently been flung through the air.
It tried to right itself clumsily, but was pounced on by an unnaturally
strong woman that followed it over the fence.

She pulled it to its feet.

                                                         Lady Vampire?-
                                    "There we are... Fresh enough!"

She started ferociously sucking at the nasty-ass earhole.

Seth-
"HOLY FUCKING SHITBALLS."

Apparently, they didn't have super hearing - or at least, not super enough to
hear Seth over the racket of two more vampires hopping over the fence...
Did they hop, or did they float down? It was a strange movement,
that left no doubt of their supernatural nature.

Vampire 2-
"Not fair, bitch! Gimme!"


                                                         Lady Vampire-
                                                      "Fuck you, dude!"


Vampire 3-
"God damn you, we neeeeeed!"

She clung tenaciously to the zombie, while the others grabbed at it. Vampire 2 pulled off
an arm and vampire 3 a lower leg. They started sucking at their purloined pieces.

Seth had to make a call...

Seth-
"Damn I don't think we wanna go out there, we don't know what those things can do...!"


Vampire 2-
"*SLURP SLURP SLURP*"


                                                         Lady Vampire-
                                                      "*SLURP SLURP SLURP*"


Vampire 3-
"*SLURP SLURP SLURP*"


Seth-
"Shit, why didn't we bring fucking garlic bread?!"


Beau-
"Chut, Chou... Let's go back. It sounds like a fight elsewhere."


Chou-
"whiiine"

Seth, Ashley, Beau, and Chou came in and quickly assessed the situation.

Beau-
"There are more behind the building, bleeding the zombie. At least three."

In a briefly shocking moment, the door shattered, which left the vampires kinda
wondering what to do with their hands for a moment. Maybe that was the only
reason they didn't break it outright - to have something to make a racket with.
They waved their fists and groped at the air, now more obviously than ever held
at bay by an unknown influence.

Darrell-
"THAT'S YOUR FACE, FOOLZ!"

Marielle-
"LOOK INTO MY EEEEEEEEYES!"

The Other One-
"You just aren't taking us seriously, and that really BLOOD!
BLOOD! BLOOD!"


Stevie-
"Watch out now. Don't wanna cut yerselves."

Joe went for it, jabbing the flare at them.

Joe-
"..."


Becky-
"No contact."

They dodged the flare, cringing away for just a moment and hissing, but still staying
very nearby. Kyle returned.

Kyle-
"Who wants some fucking rotten minced garlic?"

More figures flew onto the deck behind the first group of vampires.

Backyard Vampires-
"BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD!"


Beau-
"These are from behind the 'ouse."

At that point, it was starting to get a little long and tense. Everyone working at
something worked furiously, while people with pokey objects generally rebuffed
frisky vampires without doing any real damage. Kyle was using a kitchen towel
to smear extremely stinky old minced garlic on Seth's spear. It's gonna be scientific
in this joint. Dr. Bebe would approve. Outside,

Vampire Two-
"SMOKE 'EM OUT! GET SOME FIRE!"

Darrell-
"AND LET YOU HAVE 'EM WHILE I'M GONE, FUCK YOU!"

Lady Vampire-
"ARRGG! DOWN IN FRONT, COCKSUCKERS! WE NEED BLOOD!"

Marielle-
"LOOK INTO MY EEEEEEEEYES!"

The Other One-
"WE ALL NEED BLOOD, BITCH!"

Vampire Three-
"BLOOOOOOOOD!!! GIVE US YOUR BLOOOOOOD!!! BITCHES!"


Stevie-
"Hey, Kyle, rub some of that nasty stuff on my babies."


Becky-
"No comment."


Joe-
"I believe the expression you were looking for was, 'Hey-O!' Meanwhile,"

Joe swiped at them uselessly. They were bouncy like a bunch of freshly-filled balloons.

Kyle-
"...I don't get it."


Beau-
"Maybe when you're older, garçon."

Seth-
"See, this is why you guys are my dream team. Cracking wise in the
face of danger. Whistling while you work?"

He gave the vampires a couple good pokes with the stank-spear.

Marielle-
"BLOOD! I-- AUGH! AUGH!!!

Whether it was because the spear is a better weapon for the circumstance or because of
the garlic, the vampire he hit the hardest recoiled in pain and ran to the back row -
though she couldn't resist staying close to the dangerous food.

Seth-
"Just wait until we get some Kimchi bombs, jerks!"

Lady Vampire-
"BLOOOOOOOOD! BLOOOOOOOOD!" She let out a creepy loud lustful moan.

Marielle-
"I WANT TO SUCK YOUR BLOOD! I WANT TO SUCK YOUR BLOOD!"


Chou-
"whine"


Beau-
"Sethe... We really should find... a way. How do we kill these things?
It cannot be so 'ard. Recall, the mummy."

Seth-
"Hm, well Ben's thought seems sound. We should be careful to not accidentally
'invite' them, but maybe there's some other way to get them in here?"

He eyed the broken glass door. Beau spoke with him a bit quietly, while others tried to
sort out the new security situation.

Beau-
"Why bring them in? Perhap what happens in that case is not so useful to us,
perhap it is. But we can merely step outside and zey will come to us."


Seth-
"I'm just curious what would happen, they seem so hellbent on needing that invitation,
what would happen to them without it? You're right though, it's worth a shot.
Hm, I guess we can always just hop back if worse comes to worse. Watch my back?"

He edged toward the door. Beau gestured for others to get ready for action, and they did -
drawing weapons, standing nearby, on high alert. Outside,the vampires seemed to have
mixed feelings about the shift in activity they could see within. They hesitated, but then
the Asian one started to lurch forward, and Marielle saw it as someone potentially
getting in front of her in the blood bank line, and tried to paw her way out in front.

Their steps turned into floating, then flying at Seth's direction. Beau encouraged Seth
to stay outside for the moment. Marielle still seemed to be a little damaged from
the garlic spearing earlier, but still flew at the man with the weapon in question.

Lady Vampire-
"BLOOD! BLOOD!"

Marielle-
"BLOOD! BLOOOOD! AIEEEEEE!"


Beau-
"Steady!"

Seth stayed in place, spear at the ready to spear anything that got too close if need be.
Maybe he could hook one inside, or just smash it into the other. What was the worst
that could happen?

Seth missed with the spear move, getting the tip tangled uselessly in the Asian vampire's
blazer and nearly jerked out of his hands. He stumbled absurdly for a moment and then
jerked his spear free, landing on his feet back inside the house.

The vampires had kept coming! Their momentum pulled both straight through the door
into the house.

Seth-
"D-damn! What now!?"

What now is this: Marielle crashed into Beau, sending him back on his hands like Neo
in the Matress. I mean Matrix. She then bounced improbably off him, then back out into
the night sky, like she was a particle in a 3d video game where the physics had gone all stupid.

Asian lady vampire skidded across the ceiling, over everyone else's heads into the living room,
bounced off the back wall, then began to tumble back the other way. It was a very strange
movement. Her eyes rolled and body was both tense and convulsant, like a seizure,
but with more flailing of limbs. Meanwhile, she was held to roof as if by gravity, and inexorably
rolling back toward the way out, as if it was downhill.

Lady Vampire-
"NnnnNNNnn"


Kyle-
"Damn it!"


Joe-
"CHRIST!"


Chou-
"YARP!"

Kyle was in a good position to swipe at her, and dragged her down from the ceiling,
with an axe in her shoulder! Shit was happening too quickly.

Seth tried to spear her in place with the garlic-scented spear. With a thick SCHUK sound,
he impaled her through the gut, and sent her with a slap to the ground. She writhed
and twisted, but he kept a firm grasp on the spear.

Seth-
"Shiiiit... I hoped they'd explode or somethin'! Stake anyone? Not like as in meat
but as in wooden pointy thing. Don't get confused 'cause the garlic, damn it."

((Stevie decapitated a vampire))

Stevie-
"That's tha news, suckas! HaHA!"


Kyle-
"Sorry, Seth. Looks like it worked. I mean, it would've been hella
weird if it hadn't."


Becky-
"Three cheers for decapitation! Hip hip, hooray!"


Marielle-
"YOU GUYS FUCKING SUUUUCK!"

Suddenly, there was a tremendous crushing, metal crumpling, glass exploding,
wood splitting sound from another room (street side) and the house shook.
Subsequently, a flaming gas can was tossed in through a window nearby,
explosion très imminent.

Chou-
"YARP!"


Beau-
"BOMB!"

It was a mad scramble. Ben did as well as a guy like him should be expected to do, but in that
moment, it was hard not to feel like his body was made of numb, heavy clay. He expected to die.
He noticed something then that others had not. No time to speak or think or say more than
a syllable. Run, run, run.

Patti had to move around this and that obstacle, slow a fraction of a second to give a helpful
push or pull, and was out in the hall just behind Joe. Her and Joe helped load the others into
the hall as they came.

Seth and Ashley were both thinking about the slowpokes, too. They went to help Ben.
Along the way Ashley ran into a coffee table he hadn't seen and flew over the top in entirely
the wrong direction. Luckily he was able to get back to his feet before explosions, and it did
put him in position to shield others with his body if need be - bringing up the rear behind Ben.

People ran into Patti's hall - Becky, Kyle, Stevie, then

BAMF!

Ashley felt hot shards of plastic scrape at his body in a few spots, and a concussive force and heat
at his back. The fastest way to avoid the fire was the direction Seth was already pulling Ben to -
behind the counter of the room's kitchenette. Ashley whipped around that corner and hit
the ground last. A bit of fire licked overhead, then was replaced with oily black smoke.

In the hall, Patti was vexed to see a number of peeps didn't make it out before the explosion -
but she was pretty sure a number of them had gotten to relative safety in the kitchenette.

It was hard to tell this early, but Ashley felt like he probably didn't have too bad of damage
from all that. Go team! Of note to those with ghostsplosion experience - the fallout of
a gasoline explosion is far more noxious. In the seconds before the choking was to begin,
Ben was finally able to say something, if he so desired. (Incidentally, the helmet will provide
at least a bit of protection from the smoke at first.)

He'd noticed Beau and his dog went out the broken sliding glass door.
The groups in each location:

Beau-                                                                                
"Merde."                                                                             

Ben-
"Beau went outside! Where do we go?"

Ben looked around to see if there was a route that wasn't covered in flames. If they moved quickly
they might be able to rush through flames, but he'd much rather keep close to the floor to avoid
the smoke. And he couldn't move quickly while staying low.

Seth-
"Sheeee-it. Outside."

Seth kept low and scuttled for the formerly sliding door, to Beau and to also semi-fresh air.

Stop drop and roll stop drop and roll...


Outside, Beau was keenly aware he went exactly where the vampires wanted him to go.
He had to think quick...

Death from above! Marielle isn't going to go tumbling into the house so easily this time.

Marielle-
"AiEEEEEEE!"


Chou-
"AIP!"


Beau-
"..."

Beau tumbled forward, trying to grab at a part of the vampire that wasn't the scratchy bitey end.

She knocked him to the deck! He was in exactly the worst place to be! She tried to suck some blood
out of his forearm, which he had barely covering his neck. Well... Time to upgrade yo greaves, son.

Marielle-
"AAARGGH!"


Chou-
"AIP!"


Beau-
"..."

Chou's gnawing must have distracted her and he got flipped her end over end, freeing himself
from the grip. At the same time, he pulled a Steven Seagal thing and dislocated her arm.

She floated away as if pulled on an invisible wire, and he could see her arm wriggle and pop
into place pretty much instantly.

Darrell-
"YEAH! GONNA GIT MY BLOOD ON, FOOL!!"

Dudes were back.


Seth, Ben, and Ashley got out to the porch as Beau was scrambling to his feet.
Marielle was out on the lawn getting ready to jump at Beau again, and other
vampires were flying in from the sky. It seemed absurd - jerks swooping
through the air impossibly. Such was life in the Z-P.

Anyhow, y'all about to get hit.

Darrell-
"GIMME THAT BLOOD, ASSHOLE!"


Dudes-
"BLOOD BLOOD BLOOD!"


Marielle-
"SOUP IS ON! BLOOD SOUP!"

Darrel and The Other One went for Seth. Vampires 2 & 3, AKA the Dudes, went for
Ashley and Ben. Beau was the furthest from the rest, as was Marielle, and she went
after him again.

Ashley! He swung his sword up at the one just as it was about to tackle him! It sunk
into the thing's chest deep, and he spun with its momentum letting it crash into the deck.
To keep the sword from breaking, he had to pull it back out at the last second. The back of
its head and many bones were crushed up, but it seemed to be regenerating before his eyes!


Now that Beau was on his feet again, he tried a more advanced move. Obviously
arm breaking was little help. Were they like the zombies? As the vampire flew at him again,
he attempted to grab her midair and get her pinned to the ground.

Marielle-
"You wanna FUCK me while I suck your blood?!"

Beau managed to redirect her into the decks's stairs and loosely pin her there,
but didn't establish decisive control.

She tried to get a grip on his neck - unsuccessfully, for the moment.

Beau wrestled with the vampiress, trying to get her in a good pin.


But what then? Could he really damage her head with his bare hands? Despite being
a ravenous monster, she did look like a normal woman...

Chou chewed at the woman's legs valiantly.

Beau-
"Arrêter... tortiller...!"

Marielle-
"GrrAAAAAH!!!! YEAH, BIG BOY! Nn!"

She got Beau in the eyes! She spread his arms and opened her mouth wide,
fangs glistening in the moonlight! Oh shit naw!


Beau tried to break the vampire's gaze!

Beau-
"...!"

Marielle-
"GOD DAMN IT!"

Beau had been in the middle of attempting a certain move when his eyes were locked,
and the momentum caused his forearm to pass between them at the last moment.
He gained control of himself enough to clutch the upper part of her face and try to
push it away. She was unnaturally strong, and the fangs still moved ever closer
to his beautiful man skins.

Ashley made a split second decision, and decided that Beau might need his help more
than Seth did at the moment, but only so slightly. He dashed over to try to attack
the vampire from the back, hardly realizing that his jacket was falling apart and
slipping down his arms from being burned through at the back. Bits of shirt were
burned off as well, creating an outfit that looked more like modern art than
a respectable set of attire.

He pulled his arms back and swung like he was hitting a home run. At the very least
it would distract her.

Marielle-
"eeeEEEEEEEeeee!"

Ashley had cleft deeply through her back, severing the spinal column partway through
the thoracic area. She flew off of Beau, spasming and flopping, and her legs dragged
her loose upper parts down onto the lawn.

Ben-
"*something hard to hear through his helmet*"

The vampire that had been angling for Ben saw an opportunity to go for Ashley's back
and took it.

Vampire-
"*tssssssst!*"


Beau-
"Watch out!"

Ashley doesn't really know what he's supposed to look out for, and is afraid of swinging
the sword in a random direction for fear of hitting one of his living friends. Instead he turns
and holds his weapon out to protect himself and stab outwards at the vampire's face or chest.

Ashley-
"Nobody pulls that on me."

Unfortunately he has to leave floppyvampire to Beau to defend himself properly.

Ashley was too slow and the thing grabbed him, and started hauling him into the sky!
Ben waved his torch at its pants on the way by, but it didn't take.

Vampire-
"HaHAHAHA!"

Marielle was out on the lawn trying to regenerate from a grievous wound,
so Beau was free to give this a try.

Beau-
"..."

He tried to leap and grab the vampire's leg, to no avail!

Seth fell off the railing of the deck into the bushes below. Darrell and The Other One
were about to pursue him, which meant they had their backs to Ben and Beau.
As for Ashley... There was just about nothing they could do!


Ashley cut the elbow area deep enough that it popped the rest of the way off under
his weight! He plummeted into deep grass, blacking out. What happened?
All anyone saw was him falling and disappearing. The vampire flew out of sight
over a fence, cursing.

Vampire-
"Fuckity FUCK fuck!"

Beau grasped at Darrell, while Ben easily set The Other One's hair on fire.

Beau-
"..."



Darrell-
"ARGG! BYUTCH!"

The Other One-
"AIEEEEEEEE!"

The lady vampire flew away, following disarmed boy over the fence, trailing sparks.
Beau flipped Darrell onto the deck with his arms in a joint lock.

Out on the lawn, Marielle floated back to her feet.

Marielle-
"YOU ASSHOLES!"

Stevie-
"Put away tha gun, please! See about Ashley."

Kyle ran up onto the deck to see if Ben and Beau needed help. Ben was spraying Darrel with WD-40. I
t was a little messy, but a sufficient amount his the monster's face.

Darrell-
"YOU FUCKIN BITCHES S'POSED TO PUT BLOOD ON MY FACE!"


Kyle-
"Yikes."


Chou-
"GRRR *chewchew* GRRR"


Beau-
"Into the fire with him."

They torched the homie and tossed him in the house! They could see him wriggling and
spasming, and some unknown force pushing him back out. Apparently, throwing them
in from outside doesn't count as invitation - perhaps because the humans are not
considered "in" themselves. Who can say?

But he was rolling across the ceiling back towards them!

Nasty Ball of Fire Darrell-
"GRAGGHL BARGLE HNGGG"

Kyle whacked Darrell back into the house with the dull side of his axe. The vampire tumbled
around and began to float back toward them.

Kyle-
"Damn."


Chou-
"AIP!"


Beau-
"This is absurd!"

Up on the porch, Darrell stopped his telekinetic tumbling. Beau and Kyle looked back
out to the others.

The group came together on the lawn near the deck. Time to come up with a plan and quick.
Disarmed guy, The Other One, and Lady Vampire were still out there, & who knows who else?

Becky-
"There's the school... Hell, I don't know. How about the office building
down on Southcenter Boulevard, or the Lover's Package?"


Stevie-
"Too dangerous or too far. There was some kind of small utility building
by the electricity towers on the way here, seemed made outta concrete."


Kyle-
"That still sucks - lotta time out in the open to get there."


Joe-
"Hey, Ashley. We killed three and scared off the rest - for the moment."

Beau-
"Well. We know from the file that the mummy was 'Michael Vollan',
and that he lived near 'ere. We must go zere, find clues to the other
mummy. It is early, so we may be able to do this and go home tonight."


Joe-
"Wow. No rest no peace, huh?"

Ashley forced the door open and everyone filed into the living room. Joe opened the blinds quickly, 
casting a modest blue-grey light over the room. It was unmarred by violence. There were a few
pictures of the family around the blandly decorated living room, but it seemed the parents
had stopped taking pictures of young Michael sometime around the age of 10. People broke into
twos to check out other rooms.

Seth, Beau, and Chou walked boldly into the hall to the rooms, followed by everyone but Kyle
and Becky, who went the other way to the kitchen. Seth led his team into the first room on the left.
The remaining three person team went to the first room on the right.

Seth's team determined they were in some kind of small den or craft room, which had been
set up with a computer. The environment suggested it had been used by grandmas, but Beau
started to remove the hard drive anyway.

In the front hall computer room, Seth's team finished up.

Beau-
"I have a good feeling about zis."


Seth-
"...If only we could get to gutless boy's livejournal..."

They moved on.

Ben and Stevie had a lot to go through in the man's closet and stayed in that room.
There was nazi memorabilia and VHS tapes of westerns, some porn, tennis rackets,
and lots more boxes of military models. Pretty much an all-American dad.

Joe-
"Hey, me and Becky first because we both got fire?"


Seth-
"Sounds good to me, but if there's another mummy in there, don't kill it
before I get in there, OK?"


Joe-
"Copy that."


Becky-
"Fun."

Joe and Becky went in, and people watched their flare light fade.
A few moments later, the call went up.

Joe-
"All clear! Come in."

Kyle and Stevie stayed outside. Why cram everyone in a small musty space?
Ashley and Patti were first in, followed by Seth and Beau. 

Joe-
"Might still be hiding ghosts so stay sharp, but it looks like everything
interesting here is fuckin' long since done."

A few shredded bodies lay amid rusty chains and blades, in the roughly cleared out center
of the storage space. Ma and Pa. Their body parts were not as rotted as they should have been,
and jiggled slightly in place - somehow left unalive to experience the pain of their unmaking
for all eternity.

Beau-
"Terrible... Terrible."

He called Chou to heel and kept him in place.
The dog didn't like this scene at all.

Beau-
"If zey are not...? I am sure they were in league, using the internet to
communicate before... Can we destroy zese body without burning ze building?"


Seth-
"Well, taking the heads off always seems to work..."

The guys worked to send these pitiful corpses to rest, and then returned to the streets.


THAT WAS THAT!

Our brave heroes went gallumphing back to the 403, and word of their mighty
deeds was sown among the people of them there Tukwila hills. The moral of our tale:
Vampires ain't shit, mummies ain't shit, and humans rule 4evar.

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

LATE AFTERNOON THE NEXT DAY,



THE TUKWILLIONAIRE'S CLUB RETURNED!   The following things happened:

Marie laid some more cold-blooded vibes on Seth, after her initial warm, human response
of being glad they were alive. Thierry seemed to be in the Marie camp in some ways, but was
unreservedly happy for their success. After people settled in, the council had an
intelligence meeting. Ben and Stevie were set to work poring over the data from the hard drives.
They quickly eliminated two of them as not belonging to the kid and deprioritized them.
They did a cursory look at the meeting, but realized nothing exciting was going to be found
quickly. They committed to getting to work on it in the morning and tried to unwind.

After the meeting, Kyle fumbled awkwardly with his hands and went back to the 320.
Becky and Joe went for drinks and invited Beau. Bryce snagged Seth and dragged him
away to their room. Ashley, Patti, and Ben did what they did.

Over dinner, people were boisterous and excited. Many people from both buildings elected
to eat at the 403, in honor of the conquering heroes. There was a mixture of elation that
the mummies could be taken out, and fear that there were more out there than they could
possibly know. Generally, it came down in the positive side. At last...

Night fell. Ashley and Patti were hanging out in Ashley's room, Alex and Micah were
hanging out in their room, and Ben had been invited to have drinks and shoot the bull
with Seth and other in the Comm Center... 

Seth-
"Gah damn."

He put the bottle all in his mouth and made like this:

                     

Thence, Beau materialized. He smoked a fine link, hand-rolled by the kindest gay moslem
in a seven block radius.

Beau-
"Sethe. What brings you to drink with anger?"


Seth-
"Omigawd this place is the worst ever."


Beau-
"Quoi? It is an end of days Shangri-La."


Seth-
"For real. Ugh, just everyone. It's horrible."




Beau-
"Truly? Tell me everything. Or nothing."

Long ago someone had dragged some ugly couch cushions on to the roof which made
good seating for lazy smokers. Seth rested on one and gestured to the cushion next to him.
Beau sat easily.

Seth-
"Just like-- Marie, Bryce, freakin' DEREK of all people... Also, we don't have any
new leads on mummies even with that nasty head and the hard drive. It's just, ugh!
What do you even do? I'm sick of it."


Beau-
"*siiigh* This is no good. Do not look at these problems as a whole, and add them
to something that is otherwise good to you. Take each as one. Freakin' Derek?"


Seth-
"Tch, yeah. Oh right, he left before you came here. Remember I said one time
about how some people left because 'religious reasons?' Boom, one third is back.
He's all weepy about it so I can't just throw him out but man that shit made me
so mad. I got to be 'the better man' and stuff, but sometimes if ya don't wanna be
the worst man."


Beau-
"Problems, they 'ave solutions. Summary execution."


Seth-
"Don't even tempt me!"


Beau-
"To ask Beau not to tempt is to ask ze fish not to swim."


Seth-
"Oh you're terrible. I'm interested what the next temptation is, but that
summary execution one is still on my mind."


Beau-
"Zis Derek, 'e has been a terrible bigot?"


Seth-
"Yeah, ugh. He just totally lost it, and it was my fault too I guess. He was particularly
tweaked about the gays, y'know. I think he was always on the edge of a breakdown though,
that was just an excuse. He came by himself, I know one of his party didn't make it so...
I guess I gotta find it in my heart and shit. *drawn out sigh*"


Beau-
"Mais oui... This is a nuisance, but livable. And the other... Marie?"


Seth-
"Oh she's all cranky and disappointed in me. It's like having your mom be mad at you
for flunking... everything. She got mad that I went out on that mummy mission,
thinks I should stay home doing paperwork and only go outside in a bulletproof
Pope-mobile."


Beau-
"This is not good for a working relationship. What of this idea we discuss before?
Do you think it would cause too much furor if you were to abdicate?"


Seth-
"Yeah I'm hella thinking of it. I mean, I never even thought we should *have*
a president, just work together y'know? Well... I know some people will be upset
but maybe I can think of a way to spin it."


Beau-
"Should you resolve to do this, would it be a relief? Would it ease your nuisance
with Marie?"


Seth-
"Yeeahh... it's... It's just hard. It's been my identity since the shits all went down,
what's next if I'm not that anymore?"


Beau-
"You are a champion of ze enclave, still loved and revered."


Seth-
"Oh now you sound like you're revving up for the next temptation.
What's next, Diable?"


Beau-
"Whatever your 'eart desires... Are you done wid problems for now?"


Seth-
"Oh man you're the worst. Yeah, flip the flippin' problems the flip off.
I shall obliterate them all from my mind with this powerful elixir..."

Beau eventually left and Seth found his positive outlook gradually fading. What the hell, booze?
Get with the program!





Morning in the 403, and everybody totes made it through the night without being murdered, amirite?
Who's eating breakfast with whom?

Beau-
"I cannot believe you know zis joke, Basile."

Basil-
"How could I not? I'm a man of the world."

Monty-
"You guys are filthy, man."

Volya-
"So, like, sexy ladies, you wants my biscuit? It's good biscuit, da?"

Ione-
"Like, I already ate, scrub."

Ricky-
"So you want my biscuit?"


Ione-
"Oh. My. God."

((Derek straight up got moided!))



Beau-
"I will volunteer, I 'ave very small experience with 'zis
in intelligence."

Thierry made his assessment.

Thierry-
"Good. Beau, Patti, Ashley, and Susie, if you're able, go with Dr. Bebe,
tend to Derek, and try to deduce what happened.
Everyone else, stay here. Other volunteers, make sure
no one leaves the room."


Susie-
"OK, ... I can do it."


Dr. Bebe-
"Without further ado..."

So yeah, shortly, Derek was dead. After some morning ruckus, some regulators came back
up in here to figure out what went wrong for our young man.

Derek zombie initially seemed resigned to life under a couch, but on seeing the humans,
began to flail again. He tried to get out from under the couch. There were hand shaped
marks on his neck, and other obvious signs of strangulation. Hence Susie's notion of his
death by murder.

Dr. Bebe-
"Time of death is confounded by zombiism. It slows the process of decay considerably,
and as we are fortunate to not come into frequent contact with the recently dead at
the clinic, I haven't been able to study the phenomenon in a comprehensive way.
On the other hand, based on the state of disarray in the room and what I know of
zombie psychology, he was probably ...

This is distracting. Ashley, it's OK to dispatch him if you let me know afterward
which damage you caused, and try to keep it to a single blow."


Beau-
"Ms. Siegel, you know this man when he is alive, perhaps you should not
watch this... "


Susie-
"Of course..."

Dr. Bebe moved close to the zombie, leaving enough room for someone to swing on it,
but obscuring it from Susie's view. Susie looked away. Beau contemplated the scene.

Ashley did succeed at the one-hit kill, but his weapon was messier than the doctor
would have preferred. Nonetheless, it was pretty obvious he had been strangled to death.

Dr. Bebe-
"I'm no expert in taphonomy, but looking around the room, I'd say he'd been a zombie
for hours at least. A bored zombie would account for a lot of the nonsense disarray,
like over by the dresser. The wreck here is obviously from its struggle with Susie.
If he was last seen at dinner, time of death is between about eight PM and more roughly
seven AM? He was not killed by a zombie, vampire, or ghost, so it must have been
a demon dead, human, ghoul, or something else we don't know about."


Beau-
"The laughing dead will do more than choke someone. We should know if
this happens. If he 'as blood still, I think it is not a vampire. I suppose we
do not rule anything out, but 'uman seems almost certain."

Beau looked around the room for signs of a break-in, and didn't find anything more than
the random destruction caused by a confused young zombie with no meat in front of him,
and its subsequent encounter with Susie. The young lady composed herself as well as
she could. The doctor kept the corpse mostly out of her sight.

Beau-
"Ms. Siegel, is the door unlocked when you come to it this morning?"


Susie-
"No, but a lot of people don't lock their doors... guh."

Dr. Bebe handed Ashley some sanitizer. She was already wearing gloves and did much the same
test he had. Some of the neck marks were distorted, but at least one hand impression was
shockingly clear.

Dr. Bebe-
"The attacker had hands no larger than my own, so a medium height man or a tallish woman,
probably, though some people have abnormally sized hands for their height... At any rate,
I can use my own hand size to compare to suspects."


Beau-
"It's 'ard to imagine, someone with hands smaller than 'zeh delicate doctor, can do this atrocity.
It is true though. There are still many things to investigate but it is strange... "

Beau took a look at the bed, to see if it was still made or if it had been slept in. Based on the shape
of the slightly disarrayed blankets, it was easy to envision someone getting out of the bed and
not returning. But was it a zombie that got out of bed or a human?

Beau-
"I think either someone comes in when he is sleeping, or he lets the person in himself.
We should talk to his neighbors to see if they 'ear anything."

At that point, Ashley mentioned seeing Columbo. People took notice.

Dr. Bebe-
"*sigh* Columbo did have a bit of an argument with the man at dinner, but it seems
a bit much, doesn't it? Still, Derek's attacker wasn't a large person, so we can safely
assume he was drunk or otherwise impaired when the act took place - it could have
been anyone."


Beau-
"Is there some way to assess the alcohol in the deceased? I still have a 'ard time imagining
how drunk one must be for a large man to be choked without anyone hearing."


Dr. Bebe-
"The smell... It seems very likely. Well, shall we shut down the scene and head back up
to the comm center?"


Susie-
"Please. Let's go."

Beau-
"Taking a print is a good idea. We can use it to 'break a tie,' how you zay?"


Dr. Bebe-
"Like narrow down the suspects and then compare. It would save time. "


Beau-
"Too bad we don't have better facilities. We could take a fingerprint from the body itself.
I think our rudimentary means will render that impossible, but... The doorknob, perhaps?
From the inside, the killer will touch the door on ze way out."


Dr. Bebe-
"Right! Only Susie has touched the inside knob since the killer, and only once.
Nobody touch that inside doorknob on the way out, and we'll check it for prints as
soon as we can."

Ashley asked about Hellen.

Dr. Bebe-
"...What? No. Of course not. I wouldn't keep a demon dead in this building overnight.
Of course not."


Susie-
"Whut."


Beau-
"That doesn't seem possible. Wouldn't we know?"


Dr. Bebe-
"Oooh, I see. Yes. We have a specimen in the clinic that was a demon dead
yesterday in the morning, but long before evening, its powers were neutralized
through exorcism. We kept a watch on it last night. It could not have escaped,
and even if it had, it would be unlikely to succeed in such a crime. It's quite weak."


Beau-
"... Yes, I trust the doctor. Why would a demon do this particular crime any'ow?"


Susie-
"God, what even? How can you know it's weak? They lie. They trick people.
Jesus."

 Shortly thereafter, the investigators
  returned from the north hall.  A small crowd was arguing and beginning to get swarmed
    by looky lous.  It was hard to tell where anyone in particular was.

Dr. Bebe-
"We're bac- Oh what now?"

Chaos continued to reign. Patti and Ashley's questions got drowned in hubbub. Dr. Bebe waded into the crowd.

Emmett-
"Columbo? What?"

Edda-
"I don't trust that guy."

Ivan-
"Ah man, this ain't good."


Basil-
"Hear hear! Calm down, people!"

Monty-
"They can't hear you."


Becky-
"I heard you like Asian girls."

Ben-
"Whut."


Chantelle-
"They think Columbo did it? What did Alex yell?"

Nora-
"I don't know, fuck I need a drink."


Breanne-
"What a mess! What a mess!"

Bryce-
"Quiet, ma, you're making it worse!"


Chelsea-
"Oh my god, I knew it! I mean I didn't know it, but you know, I knew it, you know?"

Lasse-
"I don't."

Mega-
"I wish I stayed in bed. But not like Derek! Alive in bed..."


Ozzie-
"Um, we should really try to be quiet until this sorts out, and encourage others to do the same."

Zoe-
"Nobody will listen! It's the preschools alled- over again!"


Kenny-
"Why did ya do it Columbo?"

Kaya-
"That might not be the best--"

Wil-
"Tell us what we want to know, man!"


Thierry-
"From suspect to convict in two sentences? Shut up, Kenny."

Sharma-
"Ooh, it'sh on now!"
(Ooh, it's on now!)


 Joe-
  "Hey, break it up, guys! If there's a suspect, we gotta treat
this like civilized human beings! A trial before the execution."

Stevie-
"Hey! Hey! Damn it."

Dr. Bebe-
"What the hell is going on here?"


Nat-
"*ulp*"

Luke-
"My car keys..."

Richie-
"*double ulp*"



Marie-
"Get back here, Volya!"

Tarina-
"Yeah, for all we know, you did it."

Volya-
"...I KNEW IT! Always against Ukraines!"

Ricky-
"Huh?"


Susie-
"Jesus Christ!"

Beau-
"Merde..."

Who will take control?









THE NEXT DAY after the Ione & Derek tragedy, people woke up to find Seth, Beau, Becky, Kyle,
and Jarvis had taken off in the wee hours of the morning. Patti saw them leaving from a distance,
but didn't find out why until later. Beau had received an address from Ben that might point to
a mummy or mummy clues in the somewhat distant city of Enumclaw.


(Enumclaw is more rural than Tukwila and a bit farther away, but still in the geographic region.)

During some kind of hasty encounter at the last minute, Seth abdicated his power to Thierry.
All of that happened before breakfast, meaning that people arrived for eggs, spam, and
"Wanna vote for a new president, or just accept Thierry?" People went with Thierry, but many
had some sadness, wondering what inner strife had led their beloved numero uno down that
path away from them. It was a weird, sad day in both buildings.

Joe was badly upset by the situation, wishing Becky, Beau, and Seth all the best while cursing
them for being reckless. He had to be directly discouraged from going after them several times
during the day. Patti was pretty good, throwing out some figures and common sense.
Joe was still hella annoying for a good stretch there.

The next day, Seth and company got back from their mission, feeling OK. They weren't able
to interrogate the mummy - had to destroy it - but they did accomplish that, and also made
friends with cool vampire hunters in the Cascade Foothills. On learning of the number
of mummies, Seth became extremely disheartened, but Beau encouraged him. Still, the enclave
was sometimes pretty depressing after that for a while. (The Enumclaw mummy was named Shezmu.)