damned_institute | Night 52: Main Street

Tifa's joy from finding the right road was aborted with Zack's observation. There were indeed a pack of them sleuthing slowly down the street. While they were a potential threat, it did not send the same chill up her spine the way the monsters in the institute did. Those things were anything but human. At least here they were just average, deranged citizens. True they were undead, but a skull fracture was a skull fracture.

"Hmmm..." She murmured quietly. "Well, we could try a thunder clap. Maybe it'll distract them." Though knowing how mediocre their strength was in this place, who knew how powerful or controllable the materia was. She had been able to freeze a door lock, but that had been mere inches away. For all she knew it could accidentally hit them by accident. "There's always the back up plan of running for it if it doesn't work..."

When Tifa gave her opinion, Zack found himself grinning. It was good to know that he could rely on the girl to go along with his stupid plans. Whether they were overly confident or assured in their ability to run fast, it seemed like it had been decided; he was finally going to be able to test out his materia.

The soldier pulled it out of his pocket and held it in his hand again, staring down at it as he tried to feel for any sort of power. But the small marble-shaped object would really only come to life if he used it, and so he focused on the crowd of zombies and took a deep breath.

"Here goes," he said to his companion. "Get ready to run." And with that, he concentrated, a small ring of energy gathering around him as the spell was prepared. Then he released it, but instead of there being a huge burst of lightning that took down a few of their enemies, there was just a lone bolt that hit only one of the undead. It fell to the ground, but there was no way of knowing if it was down for good or not.

Either way, they were about to get a whiff of sizzled zombie flesh, but that was all in a day's work, wasn't it? And the bright flash of light had been enough to attract the other zombies' attention; all of them were slowly turning to face them.

"Well," Zack said with a sigh, "that could have gone better."

It was foolish, but with Zack's constant exuberance rubbing off on her, Tifa allowed a trickle of hope cloud her skepticism when her friend volunteered his materia for summoning a clap of thunder. She stood silently beside him, keeping her focus on the crowd of undead instead of the thunderous beat of her heart that grew with her own anticipation. Her hands gradually came together, squeezing her flashlight until her knuckles turned white.

Finally, the hairs on the back of her neck rose, signalling the beginning of thunder. She saw the strike and her heart fell before the boom hit her ears seconds later. It had only been one clap of lightning and had only fried one zombie.

Crap.

"Yeah," Tifa agreed quietly, walking back slowly from the suddenly interested gaggle of zombies looking their way. Tapping Zack on the shoulder, she broke out into a sprint the only path available to them. Hopefully the bar was on this side of the street.

She knew better, but the brunette couldn't help but look back just to make sure Zack was right behind her. "Well--"She screamed between panted breaths. "--now we know!" It wasn't the best joke, but if you can't laugh at a hoard of zombies trying very hard to eat you, what can you laugh at?

While that had been a complete failure (and more than that, he didn't know if it would work a second time, nor did they have the chance to try right now), Zack figured they at least knew what the materia was capable of now. Maybe in another situation it would have been helpful, but at this point? It seemed like Tifa had the right idea.

Tightening his hold on the pry bar as he put the materia back into his pocket, Zack took off after Tifa, hyper-aware of where the zombies were and when he'd have to try and take one down with a well-timed swing.

They were going in the right direction for the bar, but they were going to have to cross the street once they got far enough down it, which was easier said than done. He didn't know if Tifa knew the way, but he could always pull forward if need be, once they got that far.

"You've got that right!" he yelled back to Tifa as he pulled up next to the girl. He even managed a laugh to accompany hers, because the situation was pretty ridiculous if he thought about it for too long. Besides, it was kind of fun in an exhilarating, life-threatening way.

Eventually they came up to a zombie and he swung out with the pry bar, aiming right for its head. If there was a telltale place to attack something, especially a humanoid creature, it was there.

Even if one went down, there was always another to take its place. With Zack occupied, Tifa took up position behind him in his blind spot so he wouldn't get overwhelmed. It didn't take long before another lumbered up close to them.

Putting up her guard--and favoring her left since her right was still a bit sore--, the young fighter judged the distance between it, her, and the length of her foot to its head. She stepped in and twisted around in a complete circle, bringing her foot up into an arc and slamming the heel of her sneaker into the zombie's brittle head. It worked well. A bit too well, actually, as its head literally broke and spun back behind it. The sight alone made Tifa shiver in revulsion. Even with its lack of senses, the undead man kept moving closer.

Tifa slowly backed up until she was almost heel to heel with Zack. "Okay, so where was that bar exactly?" Not that she was nervous or anything! This was nothing unusual for her, but most of the time, when she kicked something, it usually didn't come back for seconds. "I don't know how well we can barricade it--don't touch me!" Her last words were ragged with annoyance, having to deal with a feisty handed zombie that kept inching for her neck and head.

It took an uppercut to the stomach and a well-placed fist to the temple before the zombie was leveled to the pavement. Its hands were still clawing at the asphalt in search of her. Whether reflexive or stubborn, this proved to be an ill-conceived strategy. "Can we make it to the door?"

They made it a little further before one came after Tifa, and Zack spun around right in time to see her take it out with her bare hands (and feet). It was a pretty impressive sight, enough that he actually paused for a moment just to watch. She'd clearly come a long way, and while that should have been obvious by now, Zack kept being struck by the time difference between him and his friends in all sorts of ways.

"We're just about there," he told her as he kept an eye on the dispersed horde, wanting the mindless creatures to know that he wasn't going to be taken by surprise so easily. A little further down the street, on the other side, he could see the double doors that led into the bar. Zack was hoping that the bar itself wasn't crowded with these things, though they seemed to prefer the outside for whatever reason.

Or maybe he was just telling himself that.

Moving further away from the downed (yet still clawing) zombie, he nodded toward those doors. "It's there," he said, "across the street. We're just going to have to run as fast as we can... barrel through them." And hope that their claws didn't scratch and their jaws didn't bite -- not too much, anyway.

He bent his knees slightly, preparing to run again. "All right. One... two... three!" And then he took off across the street, expecting Tifa to follow. His pry bar was held in front of him as he got ready for one of those things to get in his way. And if they did? He'd smacked them down.

Zack took the lead and that was just fine with her. He made a better bulldozer anyhow, and his weapon could keep the zombies at bay the way her fists couldn't. Hunching her shoulders inward to make herself less of a target, Tifa followed right behind the former SOLDIER's path. A few hands grabbed her, and every time the brunette stopped breathing, hoping against hope this wouldn't end in cuts of bites. The last thing she needed was to get injured again. Her track record was lousy enough.

The doors into the bar were in sight, and Tifa hoped they were unlocked as well. In front of the entrance, she turned around to the growing crowd of undead. Her back pressed up against Zack's to encourage motion into the bar while an idea struck her outside. Neither of their materia were going to help thwart the zombies, but she figured she could attempt to obstruct them. Summoning a spell of ice, she coated the concrete before the door with a thick skin of black ice. It may be a waste, but that was no excuse not to try. At least it'd be amusing to watch them slip. Maybe a few of them would skull themselves right into a coma.

Edited 2010-11-09 01:49 (UTC)

[From here (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1002702.html?thread=73807566) and still ignoring Tifa and Zack's existance. :c Nothing personal gaiz]

Claire couldn't help but glance up at the street lights with some apprehension. She was sure she was imagining things, but...this place was weird. She was more than aware that the rules were different here, that the threats were different. Bella had warned her about the monsters lurking in the mirrors. She herself had seen a woman emerge from a rip in the air. As much as she wanted to believe the flickering shadows were nothing, it was hard to convince herself of that when she was alone in the dark with a stranger, not a clue where she was or where she was going.

Luckily for her, the first building on the block had an sign across the fron reading Bill's Hardware. She perked up immediately.

"Is this the place?"

"It's okay. I know this is pretty scary for you." Carter gave her a comforting pat on the shoulder and a patronizing little smile. Women just couldn't handle sneaking about in the dark, it wasn't suited to them.

Except for Tiger.

And the women from the German and French undergrounds.

And the German barmaid that helped out Colonel Hogan.

And Wilma Deering from the Buck Rogers comics.

And Kairi two nights ago.

All right, so some women weren't suited for sneaking about. It still meant he was obliged to be protective. "Yeah, that's the one," he said with a slight nod. He still wasn't really sure what Claire wanted with the hardware store but there was little to do about it. Even if she was one of the crazy ones, she was a Future crazy one and that meant she knew more than him. Carter rubbed one of his cold arms and took a quick look behind them as they advanced on the store.

Nothing. Just a cat.

Pretty scary for her? Who had been the one clinging to her arm like a little kid? Teeth were gritted in silence, but Claire chose to keep her mouth shut. Men. Seriously.

She approached the glass door and pulled. Locked, of course. But this was far easier to handle than the locked doors of the Dharma stations, all steel and barricades. This? This was a snap.

Claire tucked the knife into the brim of her pants and drew her flashlight from her pocket. She looked around her and over Andrew's shoulder, left and right. Still as dead as the grave. Using the flat, bulbless end, she punched through the glass above the handle with a great crash!

The first hit made a web of cracks like a baseball hitting a windshield, but it didn't go through. She pursed her lips and hit it again, putting all her muscle into it. CRASH!

Success.

Claire glanced around furtively, then hastily reached inside (not without nicking the back of her hand a bit - she was expecting it, so it didn't hurt so bad) and turned the knob. The door swung open easily. There wasn't even an alarm going off.

Something was starting to get a little fishy...

[To here.] (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1004067.html)

Edited 2010-10-26 19:42 (UTC)

[From here. (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1004067.html?thread=73882915#t73885475)]

Still nobody on the streets, even after breaking in the front door of a reputable business. People must sleep awful deep in this town, Carter mused. "Here, it's this way," he said, beckoning Claire further down the street. Something twitched in the lamplight and made him stumble as he whirled to look at it.

Shadow. Just his shadow. Carter took a few calming breaths to try and get himself back together.

She strolled out after him with a bit of a bounce in her step. Things were looking up. They weren't out of harm's way yet, not by a long shot, but with the axe on her shoulder and the promise of a fully cooked meal ahead Claire's spirits were lifting. She suspected the place might be closed at this hour, but they could still snag something from the storage room. Maybe even use the kitchen if they were lucky. Real ovens with flames that turned on and off with the twist of a knob - no matches or kindling required. Her stomach was growling again already.

Andrew had pulled to a stop, blinking at something she couldn't see. Claire drew up next to him and searched for anything suspicious. She saw nothing. Heard nothing.

She tilted her head at him. "You okay?"

While it might have been easy to jump at shadows, especially tonight, that didn't mean Carter or Claire could let themselves get distracted. Their talking was enough to draw the attention of hungry critters who normally didn't get much in the way of live prey out in Doyleton.

A pair of small, beady eyes gazed on them from the darkness between two buildings. After a moment, a second set of eyes appeared, and they both stared at the patients expectantly. They were ready to attack at any second, eager to sink their teeth into their next meal.

[Jansen]

"It's, uh, nothing." Carter's bright smile was a bit strained this time. "Boy, the light sure plays tricks with your eyes around here, doesn't it?" Making you see your shadow dancing around without you, that was just silly.

The silence was starting to get very creepy. The German woods had insects and sometimes birds, and almost always patrols to listen for. Somehow it was even more unsettling when you didn't hear the voices of oncoming soldiers on the wind.

The tension in his grin wasn't missed. Claire found herself checking her own shadow. She caught the tail end of something that might have been a flicker, but the shadow was still now.

"Yeah," Claire blinked at the dark shape, frowning, then turned back to Carter. "I think the lights might be going out. There's nothing here."

Thus far, the town was empty. Nothing to worry about. Yet it was unfamiliar to Claire, and far colder than anything she was used to. Couple that with the twitching shadows and Andrew's nerves, and she was starting to get a bit spooked herself. Claire shivered, warming her free fingers with hot puffs of breath and darting her eyes from window to window.

"Let's just keep moving, okay? We don't have a lot of time."

Edited 2010-10-31 19:21 (UTC)

Claire was wise to tell Carter that they ought to keep going, but that hardly mattered to the two large rats who'd set their sights on them. Letting out a hiss between its sharp teeth, one of the creatures grew impatient and leaped out of the alley. The second followed a split second later, and together they charged at the patients in front of them.

They both darted straight toward the female, not thinking of what would be easiest to bite, but only that they hungered for flesh and blood. Neither of them would be satisfied until they were filled, and one of them eagerly extended its claws as it jumped at the calf of her leg.

The constant wavering of the shadows actually made Carter react slower when something solid jumped out of the alley. By the time he even registered they were real they had already jumped Claire.

"Hey!" Carter shouted, running at them with the crowbar automatically raised. "Hey! Bad dogs! Down!" They were almost rat-shaped but far too big to be rats, hence they were dogs. Carter didn't think quickly on the best of nights and his brain jumped to the nearest heuristic for 'largeish biting mammal'. "Yah!"

Something zipped out of the alley. Claire only caught it from the corner of her eye, and with the shadows flickering it took her a beat to realize that this was something physical. Something animal.

She didn't have enough time to dodge. Just enough to turn and scramble back, heft the ax from her shoulder with a cry and swing it down on instinct. The creatures were a mess of fur flying out from nowhere. She had no idea what the hell was attacking her, save for that they were big with spindly tails whipping behind them.

She'd find out once they were dead.

Though it tried to deeply dig its claws into Claire's legs, it wasn't any match for an ax. The blade struck into the creature's side, crushing many of its delicate bones. Giving a piercing shriek, it lost any grip it might have had on the woman, spewing blood as it flew onto the ground. It still squirmed, trying to get back up in an attempt to at least get one bite of dinner, but its movements were hindered by the injuries it had just taken.

The second rat's attention had been drawn to the man with a crowbar. But instead of seeing a potential weapon, all it saw was food. It hungered for the sweet flesh that was practically right in front of it. Hissing, it leaped toward the man's legs, fangs bared as it tried to get a good bite.

Carter wasn't a violent man. His creations did violent and wonderful things but that was with wires and buttons and clocks, not with his bare hands. He'd never even fired a gun at a living person, although given his aiming skills it wouldn't have made much of a difference. When he killed it was from a distance and the sight of another's blood shed at his hands was a distant and easily avoided sight. When Claire's ax sank into the first dog's flesh (it was a dog, of course, anything that size was a dog, it was just a funny dog with a bare tail and incisors and claws, ha ha) he almost stumbled in his tracks.

Then the second rat turned on him and desperate human survival instinct kicked in. "Get away! Bad dog!" he screamed, and slammed the pointed end of the crowbar down sideways towards the rat's eye.

The thing had been clawing into her pants when the ax hit. She was lucky. If she had swung the ax a moment later it might have landed a bite, and then she'd be risking an infection on top of everything else. That miserable boar hunt from ages ago had never left her mind. She'd been sick for days after the stupid sow had bit her.

One thing was for certain: she wasn't giving it a second chance. The moment the creature reeled away Claire was raising the ax again. This time, she was aiming for the head. As soon as this one went down for good, she was going to have to help out Andrew with the beast barreling towards him. He only had the crow bar and was trying his best to whack the animal away from his feet. While there was something to be said for blunt force, sometimes you were just plain better off with a blade.

God, she could use her old rifle right about now. She could have shot them before they even left the alley and been done with it.

Edited 2010-11-06 00:44 (UTC)

The ax slammed down into the injured rat's head, splitting into the skull like a coconut and spilling blood and chunks of brain onto the pavement beneath it. It barely even had time to make a sound before it fell limp, clearly dead.

Meanwhile, Carter's crowbar smashed into the second rat's eye, and it gave out a horrid shriek as it stumbled back. Part of its head was dented in now, dark red liquid pouring from its damaged eye as the creature stumbled back with a low gurgle. But instead of making another charge at the man, it fell onto its side, feet sporadically twitching, but otherwise remaining still.

Carter screamed again, wordless and desperate, and he brought the crowbar down several more times before he realized the rat had stopped moving and his frantic motions gradually slowed. He stared at the creatures in glass-eyed horror, more disturbed by them dead than alive.

Of course Carter had killed people. The way his shadow twisted and danced behind him in the dull lamplight was testament to his works. But he'd never done it up close and personal, never done more than cleanly snapped the necks of chickens on his family's farm and then gone about life as normal. Carnage wasn't an easy concept for a man who, looking back over his life, could not recall a time when he had ever truly been angry.

"I...it..." And there was mattered fur and squish and blood had spattered onto his hands. The crowbar hung slack in Carter's hands as he stared at the carnage he and Claire had wrought on the...the poor confused things, they were only animals...just dogs...strange-looking Future dogs...

"I didn't mean to..."

The head cleaved in two with much more ease than a human's had. Maybe the bones were a little more delicate. Claire only scowled and wrenched the ax out from the mess of gore. Blood pulsed out from the crevice and welled up around the gray insides of its head, flooding it long after the creature had gone still.

She turned back with every intention of driving the ax into the thing attacking Andrew, but it looked like he no longer needed her help. He was doing just fine with the crowbar, whacking away at it even though it had clearly died five hits ago. There was nothing more to do but lower the weapon and wait for his fit to stop.

The man looked so confused. His eyes were as wide as saucers.

"You had to," she said. There was no dressing up the facts. Her lips thinned and she set about cleaning the ax, stoically wiping the red off with the bottom of her shirt. "Them or us, remember? They're animals. If they attack you, you attack back. Sometimes you don't get the luxury of talking things out."

She smiled softly at the lukewarm joke before focusing on the carcasses. Gently, she toed the thing that had tried to bite her until it rolled over, stubby feet seeming to twitch in the air. A look of horror swept across her face. That - god, what? But they were so huge.

"Rats?" Claire backpedaled for a moment, scrambling for some memory of her mother's nature shows about giant rodents the size of dogs. She kept drawing blanks. A bit fearfully, she toed the beast again for a better look at its face. There was no doubt about it. "Oh my god, I didn't know they could get this big..."

"Oh. They're rats. Right." Carter nodded slowly, gaze fixated on the large beasts. His heart was beating so fast it hurt. He liked mice, but he didn't mind killing rats, they were much worse than dogs. But nobody had mentioned rats this size just roaming around in the future towns--monsters, yes, but monsters were great and fantastical things, not something mundane grown huge and terrible.

"There was...I remember, me and Kairi, we were upstairs. I think. It was in the institute. There were all these cages of animals, and they were all funny looking, like someone had messed with them...you think maybe that's where they came from?" From experiments? He swallowed hard and looked up mournfully at Claire. "I was gonna go back and let them all out. I really was. I didn't know they were going to make 'em into monsters." If he'd helped them escape when they were little rats he wouldn't have had to kill them when they were larger rats.

Carter backed away from the corpses, flinging a quick glance down the street to the still-peaceful diner. They should go. They should tell someone. Carter didn't know what they needed to do but they needed to do something so he wouldn't feel so scared.

"So they were experimenting on them?" Claire murmured, brows forming a deep furrow. Her mind whizzed back to the Dharma stations scattered over the island. There were a few with cages, like they could have held animals at one point. Sawyer and Kate had said they'd been kept in polar bear cages for the time they had spent with the Others.

She considered the two groups for a moment. The asylum and Dharma. Was the research still going on? She had found the pit full of skeletons in the Dharma uniform once, so whatever faction was stationed on the island had been wiped out a long time ago. But it wasn't so crazy to think - no, it was very possible - that Dharma still existed on the mainland. Maybe they were allied with the people in the institute, and that's how they were able to take her off the island in the first place. It was difficult to believe the two could be unrelated when the island itself was so hard to find. Hearing about these secretive experiments only made it all the more likely.

Andrew was still badly shaken up. It was odd to Claire, who had grown so used to this kind of mayhem that it was hard to remember that she was once the same way. A lot of people from the plane were. Only necessity had changed them.

Still, it left her at a loss for how to help him out. She bit her lip as she looked him over, transfixed by his woeful gaze. "It's okay. You can't fix everything, Andrew." Hesitantly, she strode over to clasp him on the shoulder. Her hand was a little wet from cleaning the ax off, and it left its shape behind in red on his shirt. "Let's just focus on what we can do. All right? We've gotta take care of ourselves."

She drew away, the ax reclaiming its place on her shoulder. They weren't the most comforting words, she knew, but it was the best she could do. "How about you show me that restaurant?"

Carter wasn't sure he wanted to eat anymore, but he lead the way to the restaurant anyway."I know," he sad reluctantly, as he turned away from the corpses of the rats. His shadow remained a few moments longer, as if still looking at them before following its owner along.

"I just feel sorry for the poor things. They're not monsters, just...animals." He'd psyched himself for horrible bug-eyed thing but he hadn't expected to be beating them to death himself. There was comic book violence and then there was blood and pulp and that horrible hissing noise. It wasn't like bombs at all...bombs were clean. You didn't have to go toe to toe with whatever you were destroying and get the mess all over your hands.

If only they were Nazis instead of rats. That would make it much easier.

[To here. (http://community.livejournal.com/damned/1007106.html)]

Night 52: Main Street

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

I'VE BEEN WAITING FOREVER TO USE THIS ICON FOR REAL.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject