??? THE STREETS - DOWNTOWN SEATTLE

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

Downtown Seattle is (depending on who you ask, approximately) bordered on the north by Stewart Street, the east by I-5, the west by 1st Avenue, and the south by James Street. The neighborhoods known as Pioneer Square and Belltown overlap heavily with it in purported borders.

The "Banking District" is dominated by the Columbia Tower, which may have been ground zero for the Zompocalypse in Seattle.

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

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

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

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.

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

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.


...MOVE TO COLUMBIA TOWER THREAD

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

((and so on...))

[Dr. Jar]

Ashley had brought Swat gear to wear, with the knowledge that they were going somewhere so dangerous. He would have told Patti to be careful, but not argued with her logic in coming. However, he had told Seth that he should have stayed in case this mission of only a handful of people went sour. Seth was important and there were other people who could have taken his place. They lacked enough levelheaded men and women in the enclave.

He did, of course, protest to the presence of Kyle and his probably evildarkdevilmagic, and gave him sour looks whenever he was anywhere approaching close by, and voiced his objections to his presence to Sir Seth, but overall didn't seem overly fussy about it. What was another soul who offered to come die for them in the end? The sooner that this was over, the better.

Ashley carried a rifle, handgun, and his crowbar with him, just in case of anything particularly exciting that day, though he only kept the crowbar close at hand, and seemed particularly gung ho about being in the front and beating away any zombies that dared approach them.

[Dr. Maneep Pamplemousse]

Patti had also opted for the SWAT gear, though she didn't think they would run into any gunfire. Still, flying debris had proven quite dangerous when wielded by Demons, so she decided to wear it anyway. She had her sidearm, her shotgun, and her trusty framing hammer at hand. She had half a dozen road flares in the elastic on the front of her vest (but low enough that any accidental or malicious ignition would not burn her face).

As they moved down the street, they kept close to the buildings, as Joe had suggested, to limit visibility. Once they got past their regular neighborhoods, they slowed considerably and cleared every corner before rounding it.

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

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.

[Gillsing]

Ben-
"Better safe than sorry, eh? We're a lot more now than a single guy armed with a dog. Who knows what that might stir up?"

Ben was thankful for all the guns. They were pretty much the only thing that had even driven a demon away, apart from Luke's magic, which he didn't know if Kyle could pull off. He'd even brought one of the handguns for himself, in case he'd somehow end up close enough to a demon to hit the head. That didn't seem likely unless he was being assaulted by that same demon, in which case pulling a gun and aiming would probably not be an option. But better to have a gun and not need it than the other way around. He certainly didn't think he had the muscle memory to start shooting people as a zombie, so that shouldn't be an issue.

And of course he'd brought an extra amount of flares, plus his trusty flare-stick! Never go on a monster hunt without it.

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

Seth talked excitedly about the possibility of getting the mummies. Stevie said "Fuckin' A" a lot, and Kyle's voice didn't carry well in the open air, but he spoke with them as well.

After walking up Westlake, they suddenly reached a site of disturbing memories for Patti and Ben.

Westlake mall towered above. As they approached, they could see the barricade of clothing racks and debris they had hastily tossed together was still in place, skeletonized corpses and knockoff designer clothing and tchotchkes tangled up in them. The monorail tracks soared above. The trees were wild and full of house sparrows, and tall grass grew out of every crack it could find.

There were a few dozen zombies in the neighborhood, but they were easily outpaced due to cars blocking the way.

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

((Really? Neither of you guys has an opinion about that? Maybe Gillsing is internetsploded, but Brett? 'Kay... Moving on then...))

They passed Westlake Mall, wove through cars piled on Pine and Pike, and kept on 5th. As they went, this unusually bad-ass crew put down any zombies that neared with ease. Ben hadn't been out this far before, and considered it surprisingly easy to move through the city like this. Not that he was the sort to let that make him any less careful. The smell of death was bad, so people used their favored counter-measures (mentholatum under the nose, kerchiefs, etc.). As many zombies as they still faced, they could see that hundreds had been killed by other people before them, and left in the streets to rot. Some were skeletons, some more recent.

As they went, some were surprised to see other people out in the streets, scavenging or wandering. They'd move with purpose from place to place, wave at other humans genially, and the few with guns would save their bullets, using clubs or spears for all zombies that came too close.

They passed by the mother of all Seattle libraries - architecture by Rem Koolhas! What now, dog? It had a few broken windows, dead or semi-dead zombies all about it, and was generally encrusted with dust, pollen, and bird crap. The crows in this area became a little more aggressive, especially when they mistook a human for a zombie. Joe almost got mad enough to shoot one.

Kyle-
"I bet there's some good magic books hiding in there."

[Dr. Jar]

"No." He offers Kyle, and continues walking out towards the zombies, to get better clearance on the path ahead. He pays very minimal attention to the other humans, so long as they aren't threatening anyone present, and keeps an eye out for the tower before them.

[Thy Dungyeon Maestyr]

Kyle-
"*jerk*"

[◊◊BLOODBEASTER◊◊]

Seth-
"Whoa magic books... you know on the top floor they got that big reference section they never let you into unless you get a permission slip from your mom and ten priests or something. I wonder what's in there... Oh that'd be so dope! The art museum's down here too! We should get looting sometime..."

[Dr. Jar]

Ashley makes a growling noise, but doesn't say anything else. His face becomes a little grumpier at the mention of both looting and looking for anything possibly evil and magical.