Rapture

[Fortune86]

James hadn't gotten far when the front door opened and Mak exited the building. It seems he had heard them pull up and come out to greet the two of them. It didn't take long for Mak to see the blood and come running over.

 

Asking him if he was okay Mak put his hand on James' arm as he tried to check him over. James shook him off and just carried on walking.

 

"Oh we're just fine" he said dryly. "Turns out farming is a real blast."

 

Moments later Erin came running out the door, having responded to Mak's earlier call.

 

"Jesus H. Christ, what happened to you two?!"

 

Seeing the shock on her face James stopped and shrugged.

 

"We had an encounter with some non-indigenous wildlife."

[DragonSpirit009]

“Think there is two. One on each floor.” Emily spoke as she sat on rail of the truck. “Might have to get the generator running first.” Before she could say anything further James was already walking away. She had to admit what happened earlier did shock her but she is over it. She guessed it might be because she was raised in a different environment than him.

 

When Emily finally got off the truck and followed James she could hear his reply to the others. He was annoyed that’s one thing for sure.

 

“Don’t mind him guys.” She spoke. “We ran into a bit of trouble on the farm. A leopard to be exact.”

 

[Fangirl05]

"Leopard?!" Erin repeated in horror, "My God, these things are even more ruthless than I thought!"

 

Which again raised the question of how Arwen had stayed under their radar for about four days... She looked back up at what she thought was the right window thoughtfully.

[Kestra15]

"But you two are fine, I take it?" Mak said, trying not to take James' shrug-off as personal. It would appear that they were not the only team to have had run-ins that day, and he started to worry more about Micah, Wisperlee and Petra. He cast a quick, nervous glance at the countryside around them - he knew there was a local zoo and so the idea of some of the animals escaping was not exactly beyond belief, but to think that among all the other hardships of lack of power, random disappearances and no hot showers they now had a child and escaped wildcats?

 

"Did anyone hear where Micah and Alistair went off to?" he then added, looking at his blood-covered companions.

[Fangirl05]

"I think they're at a radio station, or something" Erin answered, "I left a note inside for whoever got back first to find so they'd know where everyone was."

 

She swallowed nervously at the mention of Micah. She still kind of looked at him as a little brother; plus, he didn't strike her as exceptionally bright. The idea that he and Alistair might've run into those things had her feeling moderately terrified.

[Avialae]

The strange man didn't listen to Micah's peacemaking attempts and continued to attack Alistair, pushing his companion down onto the floor of the radio station room. Micah dashed forward and tried to shove the stranger off of Alistair, but he pushed Micah back with surprising strength. The pressure from the stranger's other hand was enough to keep Alistair from rising to his feet, but Micah's companion was at least able to grab his knife in the brief time his arm was freed and bury it into the stranger's arm as he reached down to pin Alistair again.

 

Micah took out the gun Alistair had given him earlier and swiftly buried a round into the stranger's shoulder (he'd been aiming for somewhere that would hopefully not kill the strange man). As the stranger turned his attention towards Micah and loosened his grip on Alistair the other man buried his knife deep into one of his legs and then quickly got to his feet, grabbed the box with what few radio parts he'd already been able to identify, and ran out of the room. Micah immediately followed after him, leaving the injured stranger behind.

 

The two men returned the way they came, over the roof, through the fence, and back to the car. Alistair handed the keys to Micah as they climbed in, since although he wasn't badly injured there were already bruises forming on his arms where the strange man had grabbed him. Micah completely forgot about the difference between American and English traffic laws on the way back home, but since there was no one else on the road it didn't really matter. As he pulled into the driveway of their home, seeing that they were the last people back, Micah wondered just exactly what had happened back there, and what everyone else would think of what the two of them had done.

 

OOC: Sorry this took so long . . . it was hard to figure out what to do by myself, especially since Peelzies and I hadn't established the character of the NPC yet.

[Fangirl05]

Oh, thank God, they were back.

 

"Guys!" Erin called to them as she jogged up to their ride, "What happened? Did you manage to get in touch with anyone?"

[Mistress of Whispers]

(Sorry for the short post I don't have much access to a computer for the next week or so, so unless there are other plans could we just assume that Wisperlee and Petre get back to the others without any further events?)

 

The ride back to the farm had been uneventful, even if Wisperlee's hackles were still raised. The eerie silence outside the hardware store, the feeling of being watched at the gas station. And something else had been scratching at the back of her mind; a post or a picture she'd seen shortly after the event. Tumblr? A blog? She'd have to check her laptop as soon as possible.

 

Pulling up to the other parked vehicles, she took off her motorcycle helmet and shook out her blue-streaked white hair. Mak, Erin and Micah were outside, looking worried. She also caught a glimpse of someone going inside, maybe James or Emily? It was hard to tell. Petra's car was still behind her and pulling up too, at least.

 

"What happened?" she asked of the people still outside. They looked like something had happened, and it saved her from having to talk about finding and losing three people right off the bat.

 

((Edited post to reflect Kestra's below. Tnx for the info, Kes!))

Edited September 15, 2015 by Mistress of Whispers

[Kestra15]

((GM Note:

 

As it stands everyone has now returned to base, and are as follows:

 

Mak - outside with the vehicles.

Erin - outside with the vehicles.

Micah - outside with the vehicles.

James - going in to wash off the blood.

Emily - going in to wash off the blood.

Ez - Inside with Arwen.

Arwen - Inside with Ez.

Alistair - NPC.))

 

[Fangirl05]

Wisperlee rode in before Micah had a chance to answer her and asked the big question. She looked back at the group to see if anyone was going to answer and sucked in a breath to do it herself:

 

"Mak, Ez and I lost Jaune at the hospital, he just popped out of existence like in a commercial or something! And then Ez found a little girl alone in one of the rooms, which I think is a little suspicious, and is inside with her now, and we might've gotten chased out by what looked like a hoard of the lovechildren of Slenderman and the Bonies from Warm Bodies!"

 

She took another breath:

 

"James and Emily are back, too, they went inside to wash, they said they got jumped by a leopard at the farm, which I'm damn sure those things let out in order to pick us off quicker!"

 

She pointed in the direction of the hospital, and looked around nervously, like she thought one of them might pop up now and try to kill them all.

 

Wait a minute...

 

"Eh, where's Petra?"

[Avialae]

Micah was surprised when only a few minutes after he'd pulled into the driveway, another car pulled in behind him. He'd almost forgotten about Wisperlee and Petra by this point. He heard the car door on the side slam as Alistair got out and walked into the house, saying something about wanting to take a nap.

 

"We didn't get a chance to use the radio," Micah told Erin. "There was someone already there, but he wasn't friendly. He fought with us, and wouldn't stop even when I tried to talk him down. Together, we managed to injure him and get away. We managed to get ahold of a few radio parts before he found us, but I don't know if they'll be helpful." As he recalled the incident, Micah's fists clenched as he began to realized that the two of them may very well have left the stranger to bleed to death in that radio station. But it wasn't like they had had a choice with the way he was acting, and they couldn't very well go back there now.

 

Erin then started to babble about everything everything else had seen that day, and Micah listened as closely as he could, though not everything the girl said made sense. A little girl, a leopard, and - "Wait," Micah said suddenly. "You actually saw Jaune vanish?" Just this morning he wouldn't have believed it, but after his talk with Alistair Micah was at least willing to entertain the possibility that Erin was telling the truth.

[Fangirl05]

Erin was pretty sure she actually went pale when Micah said he and Alistair had been attacked; her face had felt cold, that had to mean there was less blood in it, right?

 

"Yes!" she turned to Micah with wide eyes, "He was there and the he was just-" she snapped her fingers, "gone! Right in front of us!"

 

She finally remembered to ask, "Um, this guy you said attacked you, did he look kind of... Not human, if that makes any sense?"

[Mistress of Whispers]

Lovechildren of Slenderman and the Bonies?

 

The mental image, no matter how oddly specific, struck a resonance with Wisperlee. There was that nagging sensation again, that she'd seen something but....

 

Ignoring how rude it was, she pulled up her phone and began flipping through old files. It must have been one of the first things that morning, before she'd realized what was going on.

 

"We also," she said still without looking up from the phone, "had the idea we were being watched. Didn't see anything, but it sure put Cujo on alert."

 

"I think I -" there it was. Looking back at the picture, knowing what she did now, it made her shudder. What was a small and blurry picture before, was the face of malice now.

 

Enlarging the picture as much as she could, she turned the phone around and held it up for the others to see.

 

"Did they look like this?"

 

 

((@ Fangirl, I think Petra is actually right behind her, but Salix hasn't had chance to post yet. Just assume Petra's car is pulling up?))

[Fangirl05]

((Is that really what they're supposed to look like?))

 

Erin's face screwed up in confusion at the image; she honestly couldn't really make heads or tails of it. From her perspective it kind of looked like a giant, three-eyed Venus fly trap-lizard-snake type thing. With maybe a stag in the background.

 

"Eh," she said unhelpfully, "sort of, I think? Maybe?"

[Mistress of Whispers]

((Is that really what they're supposed to look like?))

((Or we're dealing with multiple baddies.

@ Kestra, is this what Erin et.al. saw?))

[Kestra15]

Stood outside as the vehicles made their way back, Mak took a step away from the house and looked across the fields before their residence. While he was clearly relieved to see everyone back, there was no mistaking that he looked most grateful when Wisperlee, Petra and the dogs stepped out their vehicles. The fact that no other survivor was with them answered the question of if they found anyone, and he declined to press for a story just yet. A lot was starting to weigh on his mind now - much more than 'simple' survival. That morning their list of things to do had thankfully narrowed down to making their house a habitable home; make sure they have electricity, make sure food won't go off, stock up on medicines and clothing, keep in touch with each other wherever possible, and remain cautious for other survivors who they could join forces. Looking over the flat countryside of Cambridgeshire Mak scanned the small copses of trees that stood, delineating the borders between farmers' fields or minor roads or the Busway, their main transport link to the other villages and city of Cambridge. Looking for movement, for a sign of what was to come.

 

Because it now seemed like they were going to have to shift their mindset from survive to defend. What was it that had attacked them at the hospital? The report from James and Emily that a leopard of all things had escaped was worrying. He knew there were zoos local to the city, so wildlife was escaping from there it would be chaotic to say the least. He wondered what would survive, what would flounder, and what would simply be fodder for the predators. Crocodiles and the big cats would likely do well enough, and things like elephants and giraffes would also probably survive simply due to their size and the abundance of vegetation. Farmstock would be quick to disappear once the predators were free - James and Emily could lay testament to that. But what about good old two-legged primates? Was his little group safe?

 

He couldn't help but snort as he thought about the 'jail break' that was occurring in the animal kingdom. Is that what had chased them out of the hospital? A pair of baby giraffes perhaps? All they had heard was footsteps on the floor, and through the window just something tall and elongated. No words had been spoken, no direct sighting, just an impression through frosted glass. Had they run away from nothing more than llamas or some other benign scavenger? Not that he was brave enough to go back and check, or curious enough to ask someone else if they wanted to go see. But perhaps they should avoid Cambridge for the time being - too urban, too many corners and backstreets and big buildings to lose themselves in. They'd managed a modest drug supply and there were small village pharmacies they could raid in the meanwhile, and the impulse-buy that was the observations machine would probably end up being their best grab. All he needed to do next was get that textbook from the village library in Histon (if the book was still there!) and they would have enough to take care of immediate medical emergencies.

 

Rubbing his head, the urge for a glass of red wine struck him again. No, not a glass. A whole bottle, maybe two. He was a drifter, a graduate without a future. Nothing had prepared him for this.

 

Zoning back in on the discussion behind him Mak turned to face Wisperlee and Erin as they stared at Wisperlee's phone, whatever it was on the screen making the pair distinctly paler and uncomfortable. He walked over, weaving around the dogs as he did, and gently took the phone from Erin to examine the picture himself. Just like Wisperlee he visibly shuddered at the photo and refrained from asking Wisperlee if this was just a screenshot from a computer game; if she was showing it around then she had her reasons and likely had decided it was real. Knees threatening to give out from under him for a moment Mak took a deep breath and tried to put the emotional impact to one side, and instead studied the picture.

 

"I...I don't think so," Mak said, bringing the phone closer to his face and tilting it back and forth, trying to get as much information out of the murky picture as he could. "This looks...multipedal, hunched forward on four legs or so. And that head is big, wide - and bug-eyed. What we saw was almost definitely on two legs and had a very thin head. I don't think it was this...but we never saw it clearly, so I can't say for sure."

 

He handed the phone back to Wisperlee, visibly disturbed, and looked around the countryside once more. There was a couple more hours before darkness, but he was feeling distinctly exposed. The cooling air did little to help the shiver that passed through his body, a cold sensation settling in his gut and the most primal centres of his brain. What remained of the team was home now, and he didn't fancy risking anyone else disappearing today.

 

"Let's get inside," he said softly, turning to the rest of the group. "Get cleaned up. Eat. And...think."

Edited September 19, 2015 by Kestra15

[Mistress of Whispers]

Wisperlee felt goosebumps rise on her skin when she realized Erin and Mak had seen a different beast. How many of these critters were there?

 

She was about to agree, when Petra's car pulled up behind her. "Let me just get Cujo," she said as she turned back, "Petra and I got a bunch of equipment that should be useful is setting up the farm - or a defence perimeter."

 

Rushing back to the car, she helped Petra get both dogs out. "Did you decide on a name for Blackie yet?" she asked before briefly nodding towards the others. "They've had a spooky experience too. Let's head inside?"

 

Cujo was already running up into the farm, looking for Nougat.

 

((@ Salix, hope you don't mind the bunny hop! I reckon since Petra is right behind Wisperlee, it'd be weird if she doesn't show up at this point.))

[Avialae]

Micah shook his head upon seeing the grainy image. The creature in it didn't look like something that was real, with a vaguely mushroom-shaped head with three eyes and a mouthful of sharp teeth, and two legs - or what Micah assumed were legs, anyway, sprouting straight out below it. If it was something that existed in real life, Micah would say that it had to be a demon, even though it didn't look anything like the way demons from Hell had been described to him as a child. That would explain a lot, though - if this Rapture was the work or the Devil rather than God. The Devil wasn't like God, after all. He could make mistakes. And now, maybe he had his servants walking the earth looking for the souls that he had missed. But then, what did that say about God? Why was he not making any move to stop the Devil? He could if he wanted to, after all. Was this world so full of sin that God had finally given it over to Satan?

 

"No," Micah said to Wisperlee out loud, shaking his head at the picture she was showing him and Erin. "What Alistair and I saw was definitely, well . . .human." Or at least the strange man had looked human, anyway.

[Mistress of Whispers]

"It's a automatic blog pic, taken at the time of the event. I saw it before I knew, so I didn't think anything of it, until Erin mentioned beasties." She really hope that name would stick, before someone started calling them demons.

 

She looked at Mak, Erin and Micah. These people were her family now, and she found herself thinking fondly of them - even Erin, witch whom she had clashed just a few days ago. Funny how quickly those things changed. No doubt there would be other clashes to come, but she'd weather that storm then. Of course, the next storm might be closer than she'd like; she still needed to tell them that she'd had warning of strange sightings, but ignored them because it seemed 'too improbable'. She hadn't wanted to cause a panic, but in hindsight, if she had told them, maybe they wouldn't have gotten hurt.

 

Wisperlee looked briefly at Mak, and wondered if he'd be angry. She considered not telling them at all, but immediately dismissed the notion. She'd never gone around asking permission or forgiveness in her life, and she wasn't about to start. The only thing to do, was just tell them and then see where the chips landed.

 

"There's more we need to talk about, but let's have a sit down first." With that, she stepped into the house.

Edited September 21, 2015 by Mistress of Whispers

[Salix]

((@ Wisperlee, thank you for the bunny hop, and for keeping Petra involved.))

 

 

The journey back to the others was uneventful, Cujo and the little black dog were getting along well and they were both soon snoozing, leaving Petra alone with her thoughts. She had hoped to stop off at her home in Hawkingsthorne, and leave some kind of message for her boys, she still had the strong feeling that they were alive and ‘somewhere out there’ and she wanted to let them know that she was still here too, however Wisperlee was setting a fast pace, it was plainly obvious that the younger girl was eager to get back to the others, and Petra though that it would be terribly selfish of her to delay them any further. She consoled herself with the though that she could make the journey home and leave a message another day.

 

She felt her heart lift when they arrived at the farm house, she slowed the Land Rover to give Wisperlee enough time to park her motorcycle next to the vehicles, and take off her helmet. Mak, Erin and Micah were outside too, and while Wisperlee walked across to talk to them, Petra manoeuvred and parked the Land Rover so that the boot was nearest the house, ‘less of a journey to take out all the equipment’ Petra thought.

 

She had just switched off the engine when Wisperlee opened the passenger door, allowing Cujo and the little black dog to jump down.

 

Wisperlee asked "Did you decide on a name for Blackie yet?" before briefly nodding towards the others. "They've had a spooky experience too. Let's head inside?"

 

At Wisperlee’s question Petra though that Blackie was as good as any other name for the little dog, but she felt a shiver of trepidation run though here at the news that the others had had a spooky experience too, but at least she and Wisperlee weren’t the only ones that were ‘jumping at their own shadows – I really do hope that it is only shadows that we are jumping at’ Petra thought.

 

Petra rolled that thought through her mind as she opened the back door of the Rover and dragged out some of the rucksacks that contained the spare clothes they had gathered, the heavier equipment, spades, shovels pickaxes etc could wait for another day, but Petra thought that it would be a good idea to take out the clothes and other smaller items, as she guessed that most people would be wanting to have showers, and would then want a set of clean clothes to change into.

 

She placed the rucksacks neatly in the hall and walked out to the car for a second load, and also to find the bag with the laundered towels they had found in the gym. She was just making another trip back towards the car when she noticed ‘Blackie’ sniffing intently at the ground near the truck.

 

“What have you found little one” Petra asked the dog. The dog said nothing; instead it circled around the truck pausing to sniff the ground, and then the air every few steps. Petra looked at the truck and noticed that there seemed to be patches of some kind of reddish congealing liquid, splattered on the roof and bonnet of the truck.

 

‘Is this part of the spooky experience that Wisperlee mentioned’ Petra wondered. A shiver of unease snaked its way up her spine. With one last look to check that all the vehicles were secure, Petra called Blackie to her and walked back into the house, making sure to lock the front door, and went to find the others.

 

[Fangirl05]

"Yeah, inside sounds good" Erin agreed with a slightly frantic nod. The idea of being out in the open like this had had her practically twitching with terror all afternoon.

 

She dashed inside and tore down the note; no point in leaving it up if everyone was home.

 

Huh. Calling this place 'home' came surprisingly naturally.

 

"Dingo, you here?" she called, "Dingo!"

 

Thankfully the kitten scampered over to her and rubbed himself all over her shins with a purr. She picked him up smilingly and nuzzled the top of his head.

 

"Glad to see you're still in one piece" she greeted him as she scratched him under his chin, "You wanna go meet the new girl?"

 

Oh, God, what if she was allergic to dogs and/or cats? And didn't Jaune have a ferret somewhere around here?

 

Meh, that thing had probably been eaten by a hawk or something by now.

 

But still, Arwen being potentially allergic to the animals was a real problem. Maybe she should just show her the cat first and find out, then decide from there.

 

She headed up the stairs to where she'd left her and Ez.

[Quhanta]

Ez had moved onto the bed with Arwen when the girl had just burst out into a sudden wave of tears. Neither knew what had caused them, but Ez did not hesitate to move everything out of the way to hold the little girl in her arms once again. The two of them stayed there for quite a few minutes after the crying had died out and a silence filled the room. Outside, they could hear more cars pulling into the driveway and some people coming inside. Arwen took her head off of Ez's shoulder and looked up into her eyes.

"My mummy is gone, isn't she?" The voice that came out was even smaller then the little girl seated on Ez's lap.

"When I was a little girl, like you my mommy left me with some bad people. She left me on purpose and never came back again because she didn't want me anymore." Arwen hugged herself close to Ez's chest again. She felt lost and the woman's arms around her and stroking her hair made her feel a bit safer. "Your mommy did everything that she could to go back to you because she loves you with her whole heart. If she could, she would be here with you right now." Ez hesitated before speaking again, still in a soft tone. "We don't know where your mommy is, or if we can find her, but I promise that I will look for her, okay?" Ez knew that she would probably never find anyone in this child's family, but she had to say something to her.

Arwen met Ez's eyes once again and smiled. It was a strong and hopeful smile. No lies were told, but some important truths were omitted.

"Thank you, Officer Ez." She just moved the girl off of her lap and next to her hip on the inside of the bed.

"You should finish your food." Ez changed the subject, handing Arwen back all of the food she had brought up.

[Fortune86]

God his clothes stank. After he had managed to get inside the building James had headed straight for the upstairs bathroom, stripped off and practically jumped in the shower. He used a liberal amount of shower gel and shampoo, not feeling at all guilty at using so much, not when there had to be about ten tonnes of the stuff lying around in abandoned shops and houses around the country.

 

When he had gotten himself as clean as he was going to get James wrapped himself up in a towel while he looked for some new clothes. He couldn't put the stained stuff back on again, blood was near impossible to get out properly, so he settled on some black slacks and a white shirt. Once again he hid his hand gun down the back of his trousers, hidden from view by the loose shirt, but put the empty shotgun in a cupboard in his room.

 

Clean and decently dressed James was about to head downstairs to see what was going on when he heard a strange voice. It sounded way too high pitched. Curious he walked over to a nearby door and pushed it open to see Ez and a little girl sitting on the bed.

 

"Where'd the brat come from?" he asked.

[Fangirl05]

Erin wondered where James had managed to find his new outfit; it made him look nice enough to make her smile.

 

And the he had to open his mouth and refer to Arwen as a brat. Now she was mad.

 

She stormed silently up behind him and punched him hard in his right kidney.

 

"Arwen, this is James" she explained in a growly voice, "He's a jerk."

 

She nodded at Dingo, ignoring James now. "I came up to see if you were allergic to any animals" she told her, "We have a bunch of dogs and cats living with us, you see, so I just wanted to make sure."

Edited September 24, 2015 by Fangirl05

[DragonSpirit009]

Emily did a quick dodge to the back and switched on the generator so that they at least had some warm water. There was no way she was going to wash all this off in a cold shower. Waiting a minute or two to see if the machine was running smoothly Emily then went inside their current home. She made a bee line to “her” room hoping that she had still some extra clothes left.

 

Opening the door Nougat tried to greet her with a jump but she quickly pushed her off. “No. No. No Nougat. Go say hello to the others. Go!” she said as she pushed passed her dog. She had heard that the others have returned so hopefully they will entertain her till she is clean.

 

Quickly Emily grabbed some clothes and went to take a shower. The water was low and the longer she showered she felt it getting warmer. After several minutes of scrubbing she finally felt clean. Getting dressed in some jeans and a men’s t-shirt and covering the head with the towel Emily left the bathroom.

 

“Can one of you ladies help me please?” she asked as she entered the living room.

 

((I think they are in the living room… I have no idea where everyone is O.O))