Nightshift 42: The Bookworm

[tightsofmight]

Worst Case Scenario: they got stuck in town when night came.

He hated being right.

It started out subtle. Hinamori had barely finished her sentence before he realized that the sunlight had all but died. Things got a little cooler, wisps of grey marking their every breath. Peter turned to the window in horror. A splatter of blood blossomed before his eyes on the glass, welling up from the centre and drying as soon as it was born. Beyond it, the paved street cracked. Half-fleshed hands sprouted from the divide, pulling up even more gruesome bodies behind them.

"GAAAH!!" he shrieked, clutching at his throbbing head. His spider sense was going psycho, harder than it ever had. He tasted blood, leaking in a thin trail from his nose to his lips.

Get up get up get up

He pushed past the sensation, shooting a look up to Hinamori, then to the rest of the store when the floorboards started to creak. The clerks behind the counter didn't look so friendly now.

"Zombies," Peter whispered in disbelief, rising from his chair. "Oh my god, they're all zombies..."

The pain in his head began to fade. He took no solace in that.

Comments

[idolism]

He shook one of his hands, flicking gore away as he looked away from Hanatarou and around at the undefended windows, a furrow dug deep in his brow. Logically, the amount of deaths was so minuscule in comparison to the danger in the hospital, but here, now? He wondered how it could be possible for the majority of prisoners to survive this night.

This poor fool, dead weight and not even human.

As for safety, well… The vampire shot a glance at the open window, which would soon be festering with zombies once they got the hang of crawling in, but the muffled shouting of a familiar female provided an answer for him. He cocked his head sharply, eyes narrowed. So Hinamori was defending the roof. But that couldn’t last long--the bookstore was only one story high, and people flocking to the roof made it more of a target. Eventually it’d be…

But the principle was right. “Up,” he uttered decisively. “If you want to live, get off the ground, now.”

Aidou hadn’t spent time investigating his surroundings for nothing--some buildings were more useful and more protected than, say, this store, which had no good defendable points. Unless one could be sure there was no possible way for the uncoordinated foes to breach the premises--and unfortunately, none of the buildings in the town center fit those requirements--higher ground was the only other option. Because even Aidou wasn’t confident in the possibility of fighting one’s way to the outskirts of town without losing one’s life in the process.

The roof of this building was too vulnerable, though… it’d mean crossing some distance to get to a better location, like the hotel, which would be better for providing cover…

[mitase.livejournal.com]

Hanatarou was rather fond of remaining as alive as a shinigami could be, so he just gulped and nodded in response to Aidou's statement. He followed the look toward the broken window, only then realizing that he should've been paying attention to begin with and noticed the presence of another shinigami on the roof above.

Showing off his utter incompetence in front of Hinamori again wasn't exactly high on his list of fun to-do items, but then getting eaten by the undead ranked even lower, which overcame any reluctance he might have shown. The only real problem for him was getting up there in the first place.

He edged over toward the window, holding his book-weapon as though ready to swing at any opponent who came near, and eyed the distance from the sill up to the edge of the roof. This was going to be...difficult. Especially since the crowd of things around the door was starting to edge over toward the window, and he'd have to move fast enough to not get grabbed.

Without letting himself take enough time to actually think about what he was doing, the healer hurled the book into the face of the closest creature, hopped up onto the sill, then jumped as high as he could, just barely managing to grab hold of the edge of the roof.

Unfortunately, this left him a dangling target for the walking corpses, and with a shriek that didn't even pretend not to be girly, he kicked wildly at the ones grabbing at his ankles as he struggled to pull himself up onto the roof and to relative safety.

[idolism]

All things considered, ground level was bad, but he’d be damned if he felt better on the roof of some building while a horde of zombie things crowded around…

As whoever he was seemingly took Aidou’s advice to heart, the barrier situated across the front door heaved forward.

This was exactly like a stupid movie; Landel was probably enjoying turning Aidou’s life into this horrific farce. Where were they coming from? How many was he supposed to expect? Would this last all night? (He didn’t think the answers would be reassuring.) What could he do?

One thing was covering his back. He moved around the scrabbling creature on the floor, slipping around the still-standing shelves until he was at the back, where the door leading to the store room stood open. He couldn’t sense anyone alive inside, but even if there was… Aidou couldn’t take that chance and bring bigger risk on himself, could he? Slamming the door shut, he did the same thing to it that he’d done to the entrance: pulling the nearest shelf across it, he blocked off the back of the store from the part he was in. At least it would take a while for any to get past either obstacle.

Otherwise, the vampire needed his own way out, and his own advice still stood--

The high-pitched screaming brought his attention back to the person he’d been stuck inside with, and the many reaching arms piling in through the broken window, trying to drag the male off the ledge. And bite him. Those gaping mouths were seeking flesh… Aidou was not going to put other lives ahead of his own--and right then, his standing wasn’t looking good--but he still closed the distance at a run, leaping onto the sill and kicking out with both feet until he recoiled, bringing his legs underneath him again. He kicked again, the toe of his shoe connecting with an eye socket hard enough to feel something squish against it before the howling creature fell back into the crowd.

And then they were starting to turn towards him, too.

Making his own grab for the bottoms of Hanatarou’s feet, Aidou surged upward, pushing the other up even as he fended off a creature, a silent snarl on his lips. Keeping his balance wasn’t the problem, but if the zombies got a hold of him, or he got kicked in the head himself, gods--This was just a nightmare!

[mitase.livejournal.com]

One second he was struggling to pull himself up, feeling the clammy hands pulling at his ankles and nails digging into his skin (and were they chewing on his shoe?), and then the next they were gone and Hanatarou found himself being shoved up. He didn't bother to question his continued good fortune and instead just used the boost, combined with sheer almost-hysterical adrenaline, to claw his way up onto the roof.

[and up to here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/679596.html?thread=55714476#t55714476)]

[idolism]

Being pawed at and not having the total authority to make it stop wasn’t a situation Aidou at all coveted, but this instance was worse than anything else he’d encountered. Alucard had been one thing, the other undead ex-humans another.

This, though… This made disgust burn him from the inside out, made him want to lash out at anything that moved.

Undead hands were grasping at his legs, his ankles and shins and calves, grabbing at his waist, at the ends of the sweater he wore, clutching, touching, groping. Mouths hung open, emitting deafening moans and foul stenches. Trying to bite him, pull him into their sea of mindless hungering.

It was sickening.

The vampire’s eyes flared a feverish red, and he bared his fangs, his impromptu companion forgotten. Now it was just him, alone, and he wouldn’t fall, not after everything! Digging his nails into the window pane above his head, he kicked back one after another, never letting them and their decayed rows of teeth get near enough to have their way. With a lull that would last only a heartbeat, Aidou swung himself upwards, putting all of his strength into his arms. And then when his natural momentum came to an end, it was a matter of propelling himself up feet first, better than most gymnasts. When being hounded by zombies and working with a set of distances where even an inch of miscalculation would mean failure, most gymnasts wouldn’t have been able to flip themselves and catch the edge of their foot on the top of the window, just enough for them to find balance and touch their hand to the roof edge.

Then it was a simple matter of lifting himself up.

Aidou wasn’t like most anything, and he could make it seem easy.

_{[to here]}