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Post by ∆§Indea§∆ on Nov 19, 2012 15:48:46 GMT -8
"Uuuugh...thanks..." Micah murmured. The acid taste in his mouth making him want to chunder some more. He wiped the vomit from his mouth with the napkin and smiled wearily at Alex. "Sorry, dead corpses... and gore still... turns my stomach. N-not that there is anything...fucking wrong with not feeling sick.." Micah made his way to the kitchen to where Patti was getting the food supplies and looked for the back way out. The kitchen was a mess, the staff had obviously fled in panic mid-cooking. Thankfully the backdoor had been closed somehow behind them. "Let's go get the bloody trolley to load up, shall we?" He called out to Alex.
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DKender
Only One Skeleton has the Power to Control both Life and Death, Light and Dark, Words and Blank Space, Our Humble Lives Continue Only by the Grace and Magnanimity of This Skeleton
Nay, let us walk from fire unto firey skeleton ...
Posts: 9,204
Gender: Unknown Skeleton
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Post by DKender on Nov 19, 2012 17:30:44 GMT -8
Alex followed Micah to the back, staying close until he was confident that Homeboy wouldn't collapse or be sick again. Then, he launched Operation Special Project Cinnamon. Portage Cafe had many fancy pants teas in stock: Earl Grey, English Breakfast, Darjeeling, Jade Green, Lychee White, Sweet Liquorice Mint, Chamomile Citrus, Chai, and Vanilla Rooibos. But no cinnamon tea. Daaangit. Maybe Alex could grab some cinnamon sticks and put one in hot chai for Ione. Would that make her happy? It was worth a shot. After his tea venture (he took a variety of flavors), he relied on Patti and Micah's know-how to gather the best food supplies. Alex kept a sharp eye on Micah as they loaded the cart, and he followed Patti's directions strictly.
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Post by Dr. Maneep Pamplemousse on Nov 19, 2012 17:32:46 GMT -8
Patti opened the back door cautiously and peered out. The trolley (cart, dammit!) was only a few feet away and she grabbed it and pulled it closer to the door. She started accepting bags of food from the guys and positioning them as best she could in the cart. "Let's go to the other end of the alley. There's still a mob just around the corner here." She took off, pushing the cart, flinching as the wheels squeaked.
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Post by ∆§Indea§∆ on Nov 19, 2012 19:10:36 GMT -8
They made their way to the other end of the alley, Micah kept an eye out for any surprises. The alleyway was still alleyway-like unlike the streets, nothing much had changed it. Rubbish littered the sides, abandoned bins lay at their sides. Posters of now dead bands and events wallpapered the wall with the graffiti. A slender asian zombie came sliding out from behind a large dumpster. His neon green mohawk splattered with blood and gore. His band shirt was ripped and all Micah could make out was 'fu....ogt', strangley red suspenders still remain intact. He could have been an extra from some music video. Micah took a swing at the kid's neck. He missed but the force miraculously sent it's head crashing to the brick wall with a sickening thud. Punk died in the 70's, prick. He followed the others out.
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Post by Dr. Maneep Pamplemousse on Nov 19, 2012 19:43:36 GMT -8
The group rounded the corner and she directed them to the left. "Around the corner and we'll be back on Terry. The next target is Cuoco, about halfway up the block, on the right." She gestured for Alex to take the cart, then ran ahead to distract some zombies. She ran up the side of the street opposite their destination. Most of the mob that had gathered in front of the cafe had already filtered down the alleyway, though as slow as they were, they had probably got confused when they were in they got in the alley and nobody was there. She reckoned they had probably entered the parking garages back there, looking for anything they could find. There were maybe half a dozen zombies on the street at the moment and she took one of them down, a polo-clad Amazombie, who she pretended not to recognize. She kicked it in the gut, knocking it to the ground, then she dropped down to it's chest, caving its face in with the hammer. Another thing with a short-sleeve button-down and a pocket protector shambled up to her. She bull-rushed it into a bike rack, sending it over backwards. She kicked the rack over on top of it, then walked around and crushed its skull.
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DKender
Only One Skeleton has the Power to Control both Life and Death, Light and Dark, Words and Blank Space, Our Humble Lives Continue Only by the Grace and Magnanimity of This Skeleton
Nay, let us walk from fire unto firey skeleton ...
Posts: 9,204
Gender: Unknown Skeleton
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Post by DKender on Nov 19, 2012 22:45:25 GMT -8
Alex took the cart from Patti and charged behind her. As they traveled, he chatted between labored breaths. "Cuoco ... bet it has ... chianti, right? And we found ... fava beans. Micah. We got ... to make Dr. Victor ... fava beans with nice ... a nice chianti. HA!" He paused. Was that joke in poor taste, considering the death surrounding them? Maybe he could play it off as a genuine suggestion! "They taste so good together!" He made the run without having to kill anything. Patti and Micah did a remarkable job culling troublesome zombies. Missus Patti was so strong. Alex watched her fight with admiration as they reached the restaurant.
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Post by Dr. Maneep Pamplemousse on Nov 20, 2012 12:39:55 GMT -8
Apparently the mob in the alley had attracted more attention than the scavengers had and they were able to get into the storefront at Cuoco with no additional fight. The inside was rather orderly, as if the place had been uninhabited before or even after the shit went down, despite the door having been unlocked. Inside, they found more variety than Patti had originally reported (or expected). Apparently the front served as both the fresh pasta spot "Cuoco", as well as the gastro-pub "Brave Horse Tavern", and the Tibetan dumpling house "Ting Momo". They were able to get two more large bags of flour, a variety of cooking and seasoning oils, vinegar, a large sack of root vegetables (sweet potatoes and parsnips), a plethora of charcuterie (salami, prosciutto, and such), a mess of cheeses, mushrooms, and several flats of eggs that they were able to balance on top of everything else. The street was still mostly clear when they moved down to Cactus, with only five zombies threatening them. There were several more at the far intersection that took notice, but they were into the restaurant and barricaded before the creatures had reached the door. The inside smelled strongly of rancid shrimp. In Cactus, they found a variety fresh and canned (roasted and/or pickled) peppers (Micah called them capsicum), avocados (probably from the southern hemisphere, this time of year), some vacuum packed slab bacon (that Micah deemed to be sufficiently cured to still be safe), bags of tortillas, canned black beans, more mushrooms, several hands of bananas with only minimal browning, sacks of limes, more additions for their growing collection of spices (including cinnamon sticks), Mexican chocolate, and a selection of tequilas. Before their exit, Alex and Patti got into a short argument about whether she should go out on her own to draw away the dead. Patti won out when she pointed out that the cart was getting increasingly difficult to maneuver and that they were going to need a wide berth to get back safely. She told them to park the cart in front of the cafe they had started at as soon as she cleared the way, then run down to the gym, where they would get the last few things they needed. Patti busted out the Harrison street emergency exit, running out to the middle of the intersection and giving an ear-splitting whistle. Once she had the attention of the zombies in the immediate area, she took off down Terry, zigging and zagging, bashing zombies as she went. There were a dozen behind her and another dozen ahead. She whooped and hollered and crashed into a slight teenager, dashing the thing's brains out against a cement planter on the sidewalk. Now at the far end of the block, she had twenty zombies behind her, all following, and twenty or thirty within eyesight. She gave a loud whistle again. At the far end, she saw Micah and Alex muscling the cart across the street, with Alex breaking off to engage a straggling zombie that had taken a detour to give them a taste. Patti yelled some obscenities at the top of her lungs, waving her arms in the air. She headed east on Thomas, cracking a few skulls as she went, then she paused at the intersection of Thomas and Boren. She gave another loud whistle then kicked in the front door of the Amazon building that stood at the corner. She ran up and down the lobby, slapping the windows and making sure as many of the undead saw her as possible. When they started to come into the building, she ran for the stairwell, giving one last whistle before closing the door behind her. As she had hoped, there was an emergency exit on the ground floor with her. She peeked into the alley and saw a few zombies still shambling by. She closed the door and waited. When she heard a wet thump against the stairwell door, she shot out into the alley, and quickly out onto Thomas, back towards the gym. Her tactics had succeeded better than she had hoped and there were no zombies between her and the gym. She moved quickly but as quietly as possible, hoping the mob in the Amazon building would attract more attention than she would. When she got to the gym, she saw Alex and Micah waiting impatiently inside the front doors, with furniture staged to barricade. Micah opened the door and the three moved a loveseat and some large plant pots in front of the door. The lobby was very sparsely furnished and there was little of nothing to barricade with. They had only to hope that nothing saw them enter, because the barricade wasn't going to hold up to much.
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Post by Dr. Maneep Pamplemousse on Nov 20, 2012 13:03:33 GMT -8
Patti puffed heavily for a minute. "That was the harshest workout I've had since this all went down. Let's move away from the windows." Once she had her breath back, she clarified their goals. "We're looking for a few things here that should be pretty versatile." She addressed this part mostly to Micah, as she figured Alex was pretty familiar with what they were after. "Resistance bands look like over-sized rubber bands, probably in a variety of colors. We want as many as we can get, they don't weigh much and they won't take up much room in my bag here." She patted the messenger bag on her hip. "Also, kettle bells. They look like small cannonballs, with a handle on top. We want a few, but nothing heavier than 30 pounds. Maybe five or six, tops. They'll go on the bottom of the trolley and I can carry a few and use them in lieu of my hammer."
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Post by ∆§Indea§∆ on Nov 20, 2012 19:03:41 GMT -8
Micah followed the other two around the building rather uselessly. He had never been one for the gym, preferring to just get fit by doing his own thing. Besides that he lack the motivation to put that much work into his body, he never put on much weight so what was the point anyway? Hanging out with grunting stinking yuppies and bogans, while godawful music blared from speakers wasn't his style. It was a reasonably nice gym as far as they go with wooden floors, although the deep purple walls did scream 80's workout video somewhat. "So did you guys gym it up before? Your not going to start wearing fucking leotards are you? Imagine a zombie in a leotard." Micah smirked.
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DKender
Only One Skeleton has the Power to Control both Life and Death, Light and Dark, Words and Blank Space, Our Humble Lives Continue Only by the Grace and Magnanimity of This Skeleton
Nay, let us walk from fire unto firey skeleton ...
Posts: 9,204
Gender: Unknown Skeleton
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Post by DKender on Nov 20, 2012 19:11:52 GMT -8
As Patti reached Rain Fitness, Alex almost embraced her in a relieved hug. But he refrained. She probably wouldn't appreciate the gesture. Alex stayed near either Micah, Patti, or both as they explored. The fitness center was clean and well-equipped. In another life, he might have enjoyed visiting. At Micah's question, Alex snorted. "Leotards? Naaah. Those are for gymnasts." He sighed wistfully. "Carly was a gymnast. A really good one, too. It helped with cheerleader routines and stuff, but she was best on the uneven bars ..." Images of Carly in her favorite black and pink leotard taunted Alex as they scoured the gym. He found kettle bells in a mirrored room that was mercifully unoccupied by zombies. Stooping to gather the weights, he caught a good look at his reflection. Thoughtfully, he removed his shirt and spun once. Despite the days without a regular workout schedule, he still looked fiiiine. Must be all the fighting, running, and furniture moving. In the men's locker room, Alex found a navy blue polo that fit him decently; he also killed a pair of muscular undead men who wore boxing gloves and swung at him with dangerous precision. Was it motor memory? A coincidence? These zombies didn't retain ANYTHING from their former lives, right? It must be a coincidence. As he made his way towards Patti, a zombie suddenly stepped between them. The undead woman, whose long brown hair was tangled and loose, limped on a severely broken leg. She was also nude, though a layer of dried blood from a gaping neck wound coated her torso like a hideous leotard. Alex cried out with shock, glanced away quickly, and ran in the opposite direction. "PATTI! MICAH!" He heard the zombie follow, but couldn't bring himself to look again.
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Post by ∆§Indea§∆ on Nov 20, 2012 21:14:21 GMT -8
Micah was bored shitless as the others traversed the gym. He guessed he could clean off the blood, but more than likely he would be covered in entrails again before the day was out. The mirrored walls reminded him of Vietnamese restaurants back home, dingy little places that always had a wall of mirrors to make it appear larger, but all it really did was make him feel self conscious while he ate. Nobody wanted a panoramic views of themselves slurping down hot soup. The music in those places had been shithouse too, 70's schmaltz. Micah suddenly heard a blood-curdling scream coming from Alex as he suddenly hurdled towards Micah. The guy looked like he'd seen a ghost, a saying that was now odd considering the current circumstances. "Are you okay Alex? What's wrong mate? Is it a fucking ghost or something?"
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Post by Dr. Maneep Pamplemousse on Nov 20, 2012 21:44:56 GMT -8
Patti had found a warmup area with all manner of resistance bands. She was almost done stuffing them into her bag when she heard Alex screaming. She ran towards the locker room, where she had last seen him. Alex-
"Ican'tkillhersorry!" Patti went into the room and, sure enough, there was a stark naked thing, all up in her grits. She barely had time to side-step it, causing it to slap wetly against the tile wall. She backhanded the hammer into the thing's skull and watched as the body fell limp to the floor. She covered the body with a few nearby towels. "Coast is clear, kiddo. No more scary naked ladies." As she turned towards the door, she heard a wet slap, a footfall in a water puddle. She turned and looked towards the shower stalls but saw nothing there. A flash of motion in her peripheral vision turned her towards a dark doorway and a sign that read "Sauna". There in the doorway stood a hulking shadow that froze Patti's blood. The figure took another deliberate step, into the dim light of the locker room. The thing stood six-foot-four and weighed in in the neighborhood of three hundred pounds. The massive skull carried an ugly face, all the more ugly for having half of its flesh removed. Shiny white teeth gleamed from its mortuary grin and the unblinking eye stared Patti down malevolently. The torn face ripped any thought from her mind that this might be a survivor, but the balance and control that the thing moved with hinted at some higher level of (intelligence?) than the random hordes. Patti turned on her heel and nearly slipped on damp tile in her haste to exit the room. "RUUUUUUUNNN!!!!"
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Nov 20, 2012 23:56:10 GMT -8
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DKender
Only One Skeleton has the Power to Control both Life and Death, Light and Dark, Words and Blank Space, Our Humble Lives Continue Only by the Grace and Magnanimity of This Skeleton
Nay, let us walk from fire unto firey skeleton ...
Posts: 9,204
Gender: Unknown Skeleton
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Post by DKender on Nov 21, 2012 0:20:33 GMT -8
This is what Alex says as he passes Patti in the locker room, shortly after his not-a-scream: "Ican'tkillhersorry!" Okay! Now to present time.When Alex reached Micah, he meekly turned, expecting to see Patti. But she was still in the locker room, probably gathering useful knickknacks after handling the threat. "It ... it was ... I couldn't do it ..." To Alex, striking a naked woman with a sledgehammer was just one toke over the line. "Don't go in there." Suddenly, Patti shouted, "RUUUUN!" Moments later, she sprinted from the locker room, tailed by a hulking, monstrous creature. It was faster than most undead; Patti's quick reflexes and fitness obviously saved her skin. A slower person would not be so lucky. Alex felt dizzy with fear. Most zombies were shorter and smaller than him. This one made him feel like a child. Oh shit. "HYAAAA!" He grabbed Micah by the hand and started running. It should be noted that Alex let Micah lead as they ran away - he will never admit this, however. (OOC: I assume that the entire group retreats. But if Patti or Micah do anything different, or if you guys have something to add, I'll edit this lalala.)For a terrifying moment, Alex thought the creature would catch up. Then, there was a horrible crash: the sound of something glass-like shattering. The zombie had charged full-speed (and perhaps head-first!) into a mirrored wall. It was now sprawled over an abandoned yoga mat, motionless. Perhaps their reflections confused it. Perhaps it slipped on an abandoned barbell. Whatever the case, it appeared to be redead ... (OOC @ Christopher: How was that zombie characterization?
OOC @ Brett and Indea - If that ending was too anticlimactic, and you want a real deal fight, feel free to uh turn this into a JUMP SCARE moment. Oh my gooosh he looks dead, but he isn't really! His arm must have absorbed most of the blow or something clever like that! Oh no!!!)
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Post by Thy Dungyeon Maestyr on Nov 21, 2012 2:01:04 GMT -8
((That is just silly, DeeK. :-) I meant: did the thing recognize a subtle social cue on Patti's face when it saw her, and feel motivated to eat her? Did it go about trying to eat her using only the kind of tasks it could do in life automatically, without thought? I just didn't want anybody making it pull a feinting maneuver or open a combination lock; it didn't have to go all Three Stooges in this piece. Hehe.))
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