Event | Turtle Dive | January 20 - 23 | Underwater zombies crave your briiiiiines

[ironwood]

Characters: Any and all PCs
Date: January 20th - 23rd
Location: All Sectors
Situation: Tu Vishan continues swimming along the ocean floor after his monumental dive, but it turns out there are a whole bunch of undead that want in on the party!
Warnings/Rating: Underwater situations, violence, potential gore; to be updated as noted.

>See the comments of this post for various situations and areas available for tagging.
>Each header will be set for a date and/or area.
>Feel free to start your own header for specific situations.
>The Palace subplot will be run in a separate log.
>Refer to the two OOC posts for further details. 01 | 02

Comments

[tearsinnajar]

"Yeah, I caught the gist of it." Her tone isn't quite chiding, but what did he think she did for a living? But she's quickly on to more important things. "We should get moving."

Despite its relative ineffectiveness, drawing her gun makes her feel a bit safer, and she does so, stepping around Nate and advancing down the alley.

[assworthsaving]

"Hey--" Drake rolls his eyes. It's just like her to go running off and, under better circumstances, he'd normally find that quality utterly attractive. But not right now- not with so many zombies around that can't be dealt with easily. And certainly not with her injured.

He doesn't waste a second and quickly catches up to her, standing side by side and giving her a pointed glare, admonishing her just a little.

"And you need to stay close. We're not getting separated again."

[tearsinnajar]

Running off? She'd call it taking initiative. There isn't time to linger with taking stock and hugging it out. They're not in the clear, not yet, so obviously someone had to get moving. With that in mind, she glares at him right back. "Then try to keep up."

[assworthsaving]

He didn't want to stand around and hug it out, what he wants is for her to stay close. Especially considering just how easy it was to get separated in the first place. Drake flashes her an incredulous look, the pitch of his voice raising just slightly.

"I am keeping up, you ran off." So he moves ahead of her, taking point and keeping his gun out. Bullets may not work on these zombies, but it slowed them down.

[tearsinnajar]

It's her turn to roll her eyes and mutter something under her breath about male pride as he takes point. However, she does feel at ease with him in the lead; he still has more experience with this sort of thing than she does, not to mention a better reaction time. Sticking close, she strains her ears to make out the sounds of the approaching undead, and tries to mentally map out the best route to take to safety.

[assworthsaving]

It wouldn't do them any good to go waltzing into a herd of zombies, so extra caution is being exercised. Were these any other zombies there would be less hesitation. When he finally nears a corner he presses his back against the wall, peering around it and keeping his ears sharp for what his eyes can't see.

"Through here." And he takes them down one of two paths available. Luckily he knows the way to the palace, having spent much of his free time mapping out the place.

[tearsinnajar]

Her footsteps are light as she takes the path indicated. Even her breath is light and shallow, as she wishes not to make any noise. Avoiding the living she could handle; but these things weren't natural—who knew if they had extra sensitive hearing, or something to that effect? She can't help but check over her shoulder to make sure that they haven't been followed. A little paranoia goes a long way, sometimes.

[assworthsaving]

It carries on like this for a while longer- the silence, save their own light footsteps, the only thing audible for some time. Likely the noise from others in the distance were providing ample distraction and keeping the zombies from closing in on them. But it's not long before Drake hears something and stops, placing his arm in front so that she would do the same.

"Did you hear that?" he croaks after a couple of seconds, voice barely above a whisper. It had sounded like raw meat hitting pavement, but of course there is nothing now.

[tearsinnajar]

"Hear what," she replies, her own voice a hushed whisper. She hadn't been able to make out anything from the ambient sounds of the city in turmoil, but her eyes are darting around, looking for an escape route regardless.

[assworthsaving]

Nothing. The sound still hasn't repeated itself, but he knows what he heard. Inching slowly, carefully, against the wall in the direction he thinks it came from, he attempts to seek it out. Because it's better to get the jump on it before it surprises them. But there's nothing around the corner that he eventually reaches.

He remains still, gesturing for her to keep listening, and when another minute goes by with silence as the only response, he allows his arm to go slack.

"Figures--" As soon as the word leaves his mouth, something seemingly falls from above and grabs his arm, knocking the gun out of his hand. Long, curved nails bite into his skin as he struggles to jerk the creature forward into Elena's line of sight.

Caught completely off-guard, and disgusted by the sight of its gruesome appearance, there's a lot of undignified screaming going on. Drake flails wildly, pressing a palm to its forehead to keep from biting him and finally manages to stumble back enough for Elena to take a shot. But he loses his footing and his back hits the ground before she can, taking the creature with him as it lands on top of him, still struggling in its attack.

All of this occurs within seconds while he begins to panic and shout orders, not realizing that Elena's hesitation is likely due to not having a good enough shot.

"Elena--! Elena, get it off me! Get it off me!" He's managing to keep its head away, but its other hand begins to snake up along his chest. The two are literally a tangle of limbs for a few seconds, Drake's leg occasionally blocking any possible shot. "S-Sometime before it eats me would be great!"

[tearsinnajar]

This is nearly every one of her nightmares rolled into one terrible moment. She can't get a bead on the creature. Sure, she has decent aim, but she's no Annie Oakley. Her heart is in her throat, knowing that if she can't shoot the zombie she may very well wind up having to shoot Nate if it bites him, and she's not sure she could do that. There has to be something she can do, she just can't stand aside and watch this just happen—she's not Princess Buttercup in The Princess Bride, after all. Why in the world she never just picked up a stick to beat that rat off Wesley she could never—

A stick. There's an idea. She grabs the first blunt object she can find—a piece of what used to be a chair, probably originating from a nearby restaurant. It must have gotten broken in the chaos. A pity for the owner, as wood is a luxury around here, and this piece is thick and heavy. It must have been pricey. Anyway, it makes for a great club and she doesn't need to kill the zombie, just distract it long enough for Nate to pry free and get running. The pain in her arm doesn't even register as she swings it, hard, into the creature's face.

"GET THE HELL OFF OF HIM," she screams, punctuating every other word with a bludgeoning.

[assworthsaving]

And that he was not expecting, but he's too busy trying to push the zombie off him to be enamored with her attack prowess. There's struggling and the sound of wood slamming against slick meat and it's enough to make him queasy. Then he finally manages to pull his leg up enough between him and the zombie, placing his shoe against its stomach and launching it off of him when there's an opening.

Though still moving, twitching, it seems temporarily incapacitated and Drake doesn't waste a second before springing to his feet, grabbing his gun, and looking for an exit.

"Down there! Go!" There really is no time to acknowledge that his arm is bleeding, how close that was, or how the zombie managed to get a jump on him in the first place. They just needed to get out of there. Fast.

[tearsinnajar]

Her heart is pounding in her ears, in time with her feet as they hit the ground. She's given up on stealth and throws everything into getting the hell away as fast as she can.

Well, almost everything. She casts glances behind her to check on Nate—she can't lose him now, not after they found each other again. The red ribbon of blood streaming from his arm worries her, and she hopes to god that it's not a bite.

[assworthsaving]

He's trailing closely behind her, unable to feel any pain in his arm from the amount of adrenaline pumping through his body. Blood has stained his shirt and pants, but he knows he didn't get bitten so he's hardly worried.

Every once in a while he looks behind him to make sure they aren't being followed because he can barely hear anything over the pounding of his feet and laboured breathing. They had to be close to the palace, and he focuses ahead, watching Elena and hoping there aren't anymore waiting to jump them.

[tearsinnajar]

The palace can't be too far from here and it seems that they've momentarily lost their pursuer, so she looks for a place to momentarily hide, and more importantly, assess Nate's injury. An alcove in the wall seems a decent place, so she stops and ducks out of sight, reaching out to pull Nate to her.

"Please don't tell me you got chewed up," she says, her breath ragged.

[assworthsaving]

"I'm getting this weird feeling of deja-vu..." he chuckles weakly, referring to their earlier conversation. But he humours her anyway and raises his arm so she can inspect. No bites, just a few deep, red lines, but he'll live.

"Anyway, the palace is just up ahead, you can patch me up there where it's safe." While he doesn't mind a quick pit stop to catch their breaths, this isn't really the time or the place to be taking care of wounds or assessing damage. Assuming she is aiming for the former. "I don't think we'd manage too well if we got attacked again."

[tearsinnajar]

No bite marks. That's a relief. The scenario that had run through her head, however briefly, is something she doesn't want to ponder further or live through. She forces a grin at him and responds: "Yeah. The whole thing's like old times, isn't it?"

She leans out of cover and checks for any unwelcome guests. She really wants to return his earlier favor, but he's right. The palace is close by, it would be foolish to linger too long now. Besides, if it's one thing he's good at, it's bleeding.

"Just don't pass out from blood loss on me," she admonishes, and grabs his hand, pulling him along with her and in the direction of safety.