Rapture

[Salix]

Petra had just shut and locked the front door, and watched Blackie wander off to explore the house when a thought struck her ‘It’s probably not a great idea to leave a blood covered truck sitting outside, gawd only know what the smell of blood could attract’.

 

She could hear that some of the others had gathered in one of the rooms, and they were talking, probably bringing each other up to date on the various ‘happenings’. At that moment Petra didn’t think that she could deal with any more news, she felt like she needed some time by herself, so she unlocked the front door, making sure to close it again after herself, and went to examine the truck.

 

There didn’t seem to be too much blood or gore, but the truck could still benefit from a good wash down. Casting about Petra spied an outside tap attached to one of the farm outbuildings, not too far from the house. Further investigations provided her with a hose and a selection of detergents, obviously the previous occupants had used this concreted courtyard area for washing their cars/farm vehicles.

 

The twilight hour was waning by the time Petra had got the truck cleaned. Fortunately Emily, or so Petra guessed, had left the keys for the truck tucked in the windscreen visor, so she was able to move and position the vehicle to get it scrupulously clean. Petra was just hosing down the courtyard area for the 2nd time, she wanted to be quite certain that there was no bloody residue to attract anything’s attention, when she thought she heard a noise.

 

[Quhanta]

Emily introduced herself and explained her situation. ‘It was a barn accident. It must be hay splinters.’ She thought. Arwen smiled brightly at the candy and things that she was given.

“You’re giving me a present?” She was a bit confused, but showed great appreciation on her face. She was staring at Emily and Whisperlee, not knowing the name of the ladder, and smiling greatly.

 

------------------------------

 

Ez watched from the back of the room, in spite of her better judgement, smiling at the child’s happiness.

 

[Mistress of Whispers]

"Those are yours now," Wisperlee affirmed. "Use them wisely, padawan. I'm Wisperlee by the way. Your name is Arwen, right? Did you ever read The Hobbit?" She figured that girl was too young for Lord of the Rings, but the Hobbit was a children's book.

 

Across the room, Cujo was gobbling up pieces of apple. He didn't bother chewing them, but just gulp them down one by one. That reminded Wisperlee - the dogs needed to eat too.

 

"Excuse me for a sec," she said to Arwen as she got up and walked to the door. She whistled as she exited the room. Cujo, knowing the signal, happily bounded after her. Nougat and Blackie joined the big dog, recognizing that a whistle must mean something and their buddy certainly seemed excited about it.

 

(Outside...)

 

Wisperlee picked one of the big bags of dog feed from her bike's sidecart, and walked back to the house. Opening the bag, she poured the kibble on the ground outside, close to the door. She didn't bother with bowls, figuring the dogs wouldn't mind and it was easier this way.

 

A small movement from the corner of her eye caught her attention and she tensed for a moment, until she recognized it was a ferret attracted to the smell of food. That must be Jaune's. Picking the animal up, she offered it a piece of kibble which it eagerly took. Right, she tried not to think of Jaune's fate, you'll need a new trainer.

 

[Kestra15]

"If you think that you've had some of that leopard bone in your arm, probably best if we start you on antibiotics," Mak said gravely as he watched Emily's treatment. "If you're not allergic to any of them, I'll grab you a box - seven day's worth is normally what doctors prescribe so I imagine that'll cover you." He was quite glad the girls were getting on well with the child; Mak had never had much time or experience around them and was never quite sure how to act.

 

"Once we're done with food I think we'll turn the generator off and go to torches and lanterns - we've got plenty of batteries we can recover, and I don't want to over-use the generator." He also didn't want to draw too much attention to them with the noise of the generator.

[Fangirl05]

Erin smiled a little at Wisperlee's gifts of sorts to Arwen. She was glad that the women were proving her point about everyone being nice besides James, although she did wish the other men would do the same. She wanted the girl to feel like she could trust all of them, not just the girls.

 

She smirked a little cruelly at James' being mobbed by the dogs. Served the little SOB right, insisting on being a jerk.

Edited October 10, 2015 by Fangirl05

[DragonSpirit009]

“Thanks Whisper.” Emily spoke as she looked at her arms. Luckily it only looked like scratch marks and not something really bad. When Mak suggested that she should take antibiotics she felt a bit nauseous. She never liked taking medicine.

 

“No I have no allergies from what I’m aware off.” She as she took the medicine from Mak. “I’ll go switch it off in a minute or so. So get the lamps and everything ready. We might need to get extra containers of diesel. With everything that is happening we might need it and some paraffin lamps. I saw some in a store this morning. I know we have enough batteries for everything but I think we should get them just as a precaution.”

 

[Kestra15]

((Ready to move on to Day 5?))

[Quhanta]

(Sure!)

 

Ez made quick work of cleaning up the food and dishes for Arwen. The left over spam was put into the fridge. 'That should keep it overnight, at least.' She thought. Arwen was excited and happy about how nice everyone was to her. She looked all around her at all of the people and her surroundings, and then she got very dizzy suddenly. She slouched forward a bit and burped quietly, tasting an odd mixture of Spam and Spaghetti O's. She excused herself and then called out.

"Officer Ez? I don't feel good." She was in a bit of a whiny voice, but it was evident that she was not just complaining. Ez looked around. No one was still talking to her, nor would anyone miss her for the night, so she thought it would be a good time to take her back and put her to bed. Ez walked over and felt the child's forehead and cheeks with the back of her hand. 'A small fever, but sleep should fix it.' She thought.

"Don't worry, you'll be alright in the morning. Lets get you to bed."

"Okay," she mumbled, "Can you carry me, please?" Not hesitating, Ez picked Arwen up and Arwen grappled the front of her, head on her shoulder and arms around her neck. She waved to the group of people as Ez carried her off to bed in the room that she was already familiar with.

[Fangirl05]

((Yeah, okay.))

 

Erin frowned a little in thought at Mak's suggestion of shutting down for the night.

 

"Do you think one or two of us should stay up and keep watch?" she asked, "I don't wanna dismiss the possibility that these things know how and where to find us."

 

She was more than willing to volunteer if no one else was; watching a man-child blink out of existence right in front of you can leave you a little wired for sleeping.

[Avialae]

(Fine with me.)

 

Micah was surprised to see a little girl come downstairs with Ez and Erin. He didn't remember anyone talk about finding someone friendly among everything that had happened that day, even if it was only a child. He mostly sat back and observed while everyone else interacted with the little girl with the strange name - despite being from a large family, he wasn't really that good with children, especially female children.

 

As he walked over to the kitchen to put his empty plate in the sink he was stopped by the sounds of meowing. The kittens they'd picked up earlier were gathered in the kitchen, obviously hungry; apparently someone had forgotten to feed them. He wasn't sure if anyone had gotten any cat food, so he went back to where the food was laid out, put together a plate of meat with the last bits of what was still on the plates, and took it back in the kitchen for the kittens, who promptly tore into the food. When he came back in, Mak was talking about packing in for the night. Suddenly Micah realized he was profoundly tired from the events of the day. "Sounds good to me," he said.

[Kestra15]

May 5th, 0330hrs

 

In agreement with others, Mak had taken Erin's suggestion of a watch and between the group hashed out a plan that would have those who were able and willing to spend a few hours up to keep an eye and ear out. Despite how tired Mak was feeling after the previous night's poor sleep he put his name down in the rota, taking that awkward slot in the middle of the night where one would end up not quite getting enough sleep either side of his shift. No heroism, just plain luck. With rooms shared out once again now Jaune had gone and the young girl Arwen had taken up residence, Mak managed to grab some floor space in one of the rooms for some semblance of sleep.

 

Pleasant dreams eluded him that night; instead he kept replying that strange moment when Jaune had disappeared. That whirlpool-like distortion, like the ground had all at once shifted and shimmered to allow for a rabbit-hole to drop him into another world while remaining completely solid, appeared in his dreams time and again. Sometimes Jaune stepped onto it as before and disappeared; sometimes it appeared a few feet further away and it was Mak who nearly slipped down into that vortex; sometimes Erin was caught in a shimmering mid-air version that snatched her away. And always on the edge of his thoughts there was the knowledge that this wasn't isolated, wasn't the only one. It was as if there was another moving nearby, creeping, watching their house, waiting for the moment to pounce.

 

Almost feverish Mak woke up, catching his breath as he hurriedly disengaged from the tangled, sweat-soaked sheet he'd been wrapped up in. Sitting up and taking deep, steadying breaths he noted he was only twenty minutes away from taking his watch. He wasn't going to get back to sleep for a little while, of that he was sure; he was wide awake, adrenaline surging through and washing away the ache in his shoulder and back from a lack of mattress the last two nights. Doing his best not to wake his room-mate he got up, splashed water from a bucket they had left in the bathroom for those who needed a mid-night freshen-up, and pulled on a long-sleeve shirt and jogging bottoms before going downstairs and relieving the prior watch-person. He settled into the comfy chair near the single battery-powered lamp that was running in the front room and rested his head on his hand, staring at the curtain-covered window as his watch began.

 

He remembered his head feeling heavy and eyelids rolling down, but actually sleeping? It was as if he'd jumped forward in time. One moment it was just before two, and now it was half three in the morning. No dreams, no recollection or awareness of time passing; he may as well have slipped through a crack in time and deposited back in his chair. He sat up straight and shook his head, running a hand through the mess that was his hair, and sighed. He was craving a drink, a long night's sleep, something to relax him and let him rest of hours on end. But red wine would be his downfall if he started now, and there was so much to do. With everything that was going on it would probably take all summer to set up a reasonable, long-term residence here. He already had plans on converting the gardens of the houses on their road into one allotment to save Emily risking her life on a long transport, using the houses themselves as storage for the excessive amount of equipment they may as well scavenge while everything was intact and the roads were usable, and he wanted to raid the library with Wisperlee to get every and any useful book out and bring it back as a resource that would have to replace the Internet.

 

Getting up out of the chair he moved into the kitchen to grab a glass of water, leaving the lamp to shed it's weak light in the front room and give barely any light to the kitchen. It didn't matter, he'd already committed to memory the layout of the room and knew which cupboard they'd stored the plastic glasses. Rubbing his eyes he let his body take him to the cupboard, open up and grab a glass out as he blinked, eyes blurred from the rubbing. Turning away from the cupboard he looked over to the sink...

 

 

..and screamed.

 

Automatic reflexes took over, the instinct of fight-or-flight, and the glass was sent hurtling across the room at the creature. However while Mak had been caught off-guard the thing was already well aware of Mak and moving fast, causing the plastic glass to shatter against the marble of the kitchen wall while it in turn jumped off the counter and scampered away towards the back door. It slammed into the door, causing it to shudder in the jamb as the creature ricocheted off it. With a shake of it's head it recovered and darted through the plastic cat-flap, racing out into the night.

 

Belatedly Mak started forward and pressed his head to the glass of the door to try and catch a glimpse of where it ran out to, but the shadows of the trees and cloudy skies meant he could barely make out the bulk that was their generator much less such a small creature. Shuddering hard Mak did his best to gulp down air, trying not to throw up there and then in fear and adrenaline.

[Fangirl05]

As expected, no one immediately volunteered, so Erin took the eleven-to-two watch. It was uneventful although the midnight hour had her feeling particularly on-edge. Whether it was just her being superstitious or... Not was up in the air.

 

She greeted Mak with a simple wordless nod when he came down to relieve her. She felt a little guilty that he had to be up so early, but hey, she needed to sleep, too.

 

Actually falling asleep took her about a half hour, so she wasn't too deeply asleep not to be woken by Mak's scream.

 

She rushed downstairs without bothering to grab her knife - not a wise move, she decided when her thoughts had slowed some - to find Mak staring wide-eyed at the kitchen door and what looked like shattered cup or maybe a small bowl on the floor.

 

"What happened?" she demanded.

[Quhanta]

Ez missed the initial shift check, but still somehow managed to get five to seven. It wasn't bad. Arwen would sleep through it. In the middle of the night, a scream woke the two girls in very different ways. Ez jumped up, grabbed her gun and flashlight, and stood at the foot of the bed facing the door. Arwen whimpered and started crying a bit. The silence that followed was most terrifying.

"Get into the closet and don't come out for anyone but me." Ez demanded quickly. Arwen nodded and did as she was told, tears streaming down her little face.

"Are you leaving me?" She asked in a small voice.

"I'll be back. I promise."

"Mummy said that, but she never came back." Ez stared into the strikingly blue eyes of the child that will have to grow up far too quickly. Ez spoke in a solid and promising voice.

"I will always come back."

"Promise?"

"I promise. Now hide." Arwen sucked in a breath and Ez closed the closet door and bolted toward the kitchen, where she thought the scream had come from. Ez put her back against the wall on the corner before the kitchen, peaked, and then walked into the room. She found Mak pressing his face almost touching, if not pressed against, the glass sliding door, Erin looking confused, and a magic plastic cup or bowl that was somehow shattered. 'Someone was scared.' she thought.

Edited October 18, 2015 by Quhanta

[Mistress of Whispers]

Wisperlee went to bed feeling relieved that no one was angry with her for withholding information, but it did not last long. She was barely lying in bed, staring at the ceiling, when she heard the closet door softly creak open. From the darkness beyond the door, a spindly-legged creature emerged. She recognized it from the blog post, a black insectoid with too many eyes. She tried to casually roll onto her side, but she couldn't move. Instead she lay there as the creature crept closer, leaving her line of sight as it entered her blind spot. She felt the mattress move softly and she struggled against the paralysis. A soft clicking sounded near her chest, barely audible over the beating over her heart. She was certain that the next - and last - thing she'd see was the creature's mandibles, when a scream pierced the night.

 

She bolted upright, paralysis and creature both gone. It was just a dream. She sat, disoriented for a moment, until she remembered that the scream *was* real. Wisperlee raced downstairs barefoot in her t-shirt and boxers, to find Mak, Erin and Ez looking out the window.

 

"Are we under attack?" She barely bothered to wait for a reply. "There are windows open upstairs. I'll get them." With that she turned to race back.

[Salix]

The noise turned out to be Wisperlee feeding the dogs, and when the young girl stood up it looked like she had Jaune’s ferret sitting happily in her arms, and was hand feeding it dog munchies. Smiling to herself Petra finished putting away the car cleaning things and went inside the house.

 

Petra’s intention, after she had had a very quick shower, was to go down and have a bite to eat with the others, but she made the mistake of lying down on the bed, just for 5 minutes she told herself. As soon as her head hit the pillow the lack of sleep from previous nights took its toll, and she was out like a light.

 

The next thing she knew she was woken by a scream, and then a few seconds later it sounded like there were a lot of people thudding down the stairs. Cautiously Petra opened the bedroom door to catch a glimpse of Wisperlee dashing past her. Grabbing the belt that held the axes Petra began buckling it about her waist as she moved as quietly as possible down the stairs, and joined the group that was gathered in the kitchen.

 

[Quhanta]

Whisperlee dashed in and then back out. Closing all of the windows was a good idea and she was on it. Petra came in quietly with axes on her belt and Ez was momentarily impressed, despite the serious nature of events. She turned to Mak, who was staring out the glass door. Gun in hand, she moved over to look through the kitchen windows and then back to where people were gathering.

"Mak?! Is there any immediate danger inside or just outside the house right now?" She demanded in an articulate tone. There was a child hiding in a closet upstairs that she was supposed to be protecting.

[Avialae]

Micah would have volunteered to take a shift, but the exhaustion he was feeling prevented him from reacting too quickly, and before he could speak up the watch list was filled until the morning. He didn't feel that great about it, since several of the people who had volunteered had no way to defend themselves if something strange did happen to break into the house, but he was too tired to get into an argument now. Not to mention, if the picture Wisperlee had showed him and Erin was real, then all the weapons on Earth likely wouldn't help them out.

 

He spent a little while before bed looking at his house on the iPad Wisperlee had given him, "saying goodbye" as she had suggested earlier. It was still light over where he lived, so he could see it clearly, and as he thought, there was no sign of human activity there, even indirect ones like lights. Before he would have felt relieved at that, but he didn't know how to feel now. After a few minutes he turned off the iPad and drifted off.

 

Micah faded in and out of sleep for a while, images of the scene of the radio station earlier haunting his dreams. Mak's scream wasn't enough to wake him fully, but the various sounds of feet thumping on floorboards and voices floating up from the floor below were more than enough to complete the job. Grabbing Alistair's gun, which the other man had never come to take back after giving it to him earlier, Micah held it squarely in front of him as he made his way down the stairs. Seeing the light on in the kitchen, that was where he first headed, only to see half the people living in the house already gathered there. Lowering the weapon for a moment, he asked, "What happened here?" blushing a bit as he noticed Wisperlee was - by his standards - nearly undressed.

[Kestra15]

"It was.......I don't..." Mak burbled for a moment, then visibly shuddered as he closed his eyes and took a very deep breath, held, then exhaled slowly. The tension in his body visibly dropped, though it was clear he was still on edge, and he pushed himself away from the door and turned to face the group.

 

"Something - don't ask me what - was in the kitchen," he said, voice betraying that he was by no means over his experience. He was trying to ignore it long enough to consider the practicality of the situation. "Escaped into the night. Check all the windows are sealed, and we'll reconvene in the living room."

Edited October 20, 2015 by Kestra15

[Salix]

The news that there was a young girl hiding upstairs in a cupboard momentarily surprised Petra (as she hadn’t been with the others to hear that news, and meet Arwen last night).

 

Looking at Ez Petra spoke gently “Perhaps you should go and get her and bring her down stairs with us, whatever was here seems to have gone now, being in the company of others has to be less frightening then hiding away in a cupboard, in the dark, alone”. Petra made sure to inflect her voice upwards at the end of her speach, indicating that what she had said was a suggestion only, and that Ez had the final say on whether or not the child should join them.

 

Mak still looked as white as a sheet. Catching Erin’s eye Petra asked “Erin would you go with Mak to the living room, maybe get him something to drink to calm his nerves? – Heck we could probably all do with a dink to calm our nerve, Petra added quietly.

 

Glancing about the kitchen Petra looked for something that they could use to block the back door with. The kitchen table looked promising, it was a solid looking wooden construction, but even tipped over in its side Petra didn’t think that it would prove to be heavy enough to withstand any blows or shoves against the back door; then she noticed the fridge; it was only being used at the moment to store food, as power was limited, so they wouldn’t have to worry about any food spoiling, but it was also big enough, and probably heavy enough to block off most of the back door, and more importantly the cat flap, and should anything succeed in moving it then they would probably all hear it.

 

“Micah, would you mind helping me move the fridge over to the block the back door?”

 

[Fangirl05]

Erin nodded at Petra's request, although in her own mind she decided against the drink suggestion; she was pretty sure she knew what she had in mind, and was damn sure it would do more harm than good right then.

 

She made sure the windows in the kitchen were locked, prayed to whatever that the kittens and their mother were all inside, then tugged Mak into the living room and say him down in one of the chairs. She gave the doors and windows a once-over before turning her attention back to him.

 

"Are you hurt?"

[Fortune86]

When the dogs abandoned him to go in search of more food James quickly grabbed another slice of bread and jam and ate it before the wretched creatures came back. As the events of the day began to catch up with him James began to feel tired. The others were talking about keeping watch, well if anyone wanted him to take a shift they could just ask.

 

Making his way up to his room James double checked his weapons, knowing that he needed to take extra care now a kid was running around the place, and laid down to get some sleep.

 

A few hours later he woke up. It wasn't that he wasn't tired any more, but that he just couldn't sleep. After spending some time staring at the ceiling James got up and went and sat by the window, resting his head against the cold glass. The night sky was a lot clearer here than back in the city and James found his thoughts turning to his two missing older brothers. Where the hell were they?

 

James didn't know how long he had spent staring out into the darkness, but a scream and a bang from downstairs snapped him out of his reverie. Just as James was turning his head to look around he saw something move through the window from the corner of his eye. Turning back for a moment he stared out into the near gloom outside. Had someone ran out of the house?

 

With a frown James got up, grabbed the shotgun, made sure it was loaded and began to head downstairs. By the time he reached the kitchen some of the others had already gathered. Mak was there, looking very disturbed and saying something about something being in the kitchen. As Mak was ordering all the windows to be sealed James looked over at the back door. There were scuff marks on the wood, and the cat flap was awry.

 

Petra asked Micah to help her move the fridge against the back door so James went the other way to secure the front one. There was no cat flap here to block, but James made sure it was shut and locked.

[Mistress of Whispers]

Wisperlee ran back up the stairs, passing James as he came down. She noticed he was carrying a shotgun, but had no time to comment on it. She'd been Cambridge's reigning laser tag champion for three years in a row now, and it showed in her speed and stealth as she moved - in no time at all, she'd shuttered and closed all windows on the top floor. She was about to go down again, when she heard a sound coming from a hallway closet. Bracing herself, and mentally admonishing herself that it was likely one of the cats, she opened her door to find... stairs? Not a closet then, but stairs leading up to the attic. And attic where, she could immediately tell from the cold coming down, a window was open.

 

She crept up the stairs silently. The attic was largely empty - just a place to store old furniture and boxes. Moonlight filtered in through the open window. Flipping on the light, Wisperlee frowned as she scanned the room - the single bare bulb clearly wasn't enough to properly illuminate the room. Still, she could make out the essentials: a cabinet holding a vase near the door, something large (a standing mirror, perhaps?) covered with a sheet, a pile of boxes...

 

Something shot out in the dark. Wisperlee barely had time to register spindly legs and a black exoskeleton. She reached for the vase on instinct and threw it. Her aim was excellent, and the glass connected squarely with the creature before shattering on the ground. The creature, perhaps not expecting any resistance, changed course with an almost fluid movement and fled out the window. Wisperlee didn't hesitate, rushing behind it to close and shutter the window lest the creature reassessed the threat she actually posed. It wasn't until her knees buckled under the rush of adrenaline and she sank against the wall, that she noticed her feet were bleeding and pierced with tiny pieces of the vase.

[DragonSpirit009]

After grabbing a slice of bread with some cold meat Emily went outside to switch of the generator. With the sudden quietness Emily stood there for several minutes and listened. It was a haunting quietness. No city noise or people talking or anything. It reminded her when they stayed in the bushveld for hunting or even tracking animals. Thou she didn’t hear the normal noises of human life she did hear other things. Feeling a bit nervous Emily returned to the building and locked the door. She thanked Whisper for feeding the dogs and then retired back to her room. Nougat followed happily and quickly made herself comfy on Emily’s bed. She could only smile as she herself got into bed while Nougat lay by her feet. It didn’t take her long to fall asleep. She was rather exhausted to begin with.

 

As the night passed Emily suddenly woke up from a low growl. Nougat was still lying by her feet but she pooch looked straight at the door.

 

“What is it Nougat?” She whispered as Emily sat up. Nougat gave another growl but this time louder. Emily slowly started to panic because she knew something was off. Suddenly someone screamed and Nougat jumped off the bed and barked at the door. Ready to attack whatever was behind the door.

 

Emily herself jumped out of bed and grabbed Nougat’s collar before opening the door. The dog with eagerness tried pulled away still barking continuously.

 

“Nougat! Stop! No!” Emily spoke as she tried to hold her dog back. Everyone was gathering in the living room shocked from the scream. “What happened?” Still trying to calm the barking dog.

 

[Fortune86]

As James was looking around wondering if he should follow Petra's example of putting something heavy against the door just in case he heard a loud smash from above. Thinking of the jaguar from before and thinking that whatever had frightened Mak may be yet another wild animal, James instantly tore up the stairs and seeing that the way to the attic was open, quickly raced up the ladder.

 

By the time he poked his head through the hatchway James was just able to see Whisperlee slam shut the attic window. He frowned as he pulled himself up, wondering why that window had been open to begin with.

 

"What the hell is going on?" he asked Whisperlee, who looked just as shaken as Mak had. He still had the shotgun slung over his shoulder, but he took a hold of it just in case something else was lurking in the shadows.

[Mistress of Whispers]

Cujo had been relegated to the downstairs hall, but bounded after Wisperlee when she ran back upstairs. The attic stairs were too small and steep for the big dog to navigate, leaving him to stand guard below. He growled at James when he passed, but made no move to stop or attack him. He nearly joined Nougat and her human when they went down, but finally decided to remain where he last saw his own human. His body language clearly signalled his rising anxiety - Cujo was not a happy, or friendly, dog right now.

 

One floor higher, Wisperlee nearly jumped when James came in. It took her a moment to recognize him, silhouetted against the open door.

 

"There was a ..." she searched for the right description for a moment, but came up blank, "a thing. I think Mak saw one too, downstairs." It wasn't the best explanation ever, but it'd have to do. She squinted her eyes as she scanned the rest of the attic. Everything seemed quiet, but she couldn't see behind the pile of boxes, nor behind a large wardrobe, from here.

Edited October 20, 2015 by Mistress of Whispers