Rapture

[Fortune86]

James moved further into the attic, keeping his eyes peeled for signs of any other unwanted visitors. He found it a little odd that neither Mak or Whisperlee could identify the animals that had startled them, but then again maybe it was some barely known kind. He was no zoologist himself, and it was dark anyway. Everyone haven just woken up wouldn't help either.

 

As he slowly crept towards Whisperlee James noticed little shards on the floor, as well as what looked like smears of blood. The attic light wasn't really bright enough to tell properly.

 

"Did it hurt you?" he asked Whisperlee. He put his hand out in case she needed to steady herself on something.

[Mistress of Whispers]

"No," she replied somewhat sullenly, "but I did, because I'm -" She couldn't bring herself to admit she'd been dumb enough to run through broken glass, but there was no denying it either, so she just fell silent. She used the hem of her t-shirt to brush most of the glass off her feet, then accepted James' hand to pull herself up. She winced slightly as the remaining glass dug in deeper, but gritted her teeth as she let go of James' hand and stood on her own. If she was gonna be stupid, she'd have to be tough, right?

 

"I secured all the windows," she said, "but we need to check if everything's clear - here and below." And then come morning, she'd ask him for shooting lessons, because she felt woefully under-equipped throwing vases at monsters.

Edited October 20, 2015 by Mistress of Whispers

[Quhanta]

(Ez didn’t say the thing about Arwen out loud., but I can roll with it.)

 

Ez was still fully dressed; she had even fallen asleep with her boots on. Some seemed to have done the same, but others were in their different versions of pyjamas. No one seemed to care, though. Well, Micah did, but she was still pleased with most everyone’s response time. She thought of that while doing a ground floor sweep with her gun and flashlight pointed in front of her.

Mak was in a panic; everyone was, in their own way. That was to be understood, with everything that was going on. One of those monsters had gotten into the house. If only briefly, one of those horrific creature found its way into their base. This was a problem that they needed to fix quickly. Whisperlee was closing all of the upstairs windows, Erin the downstairs ones, and Micah, Petra, and, presumably, James were blocking the back and front doors, as far as she knew.

Before Ez decided what to help with, Petra made a valid point about Arwen. Heeding her advice, she ran back down the hall to get the child from her hiding place. She pushed through the door quietly and checked the window. It was closed tightly and locked. Ez closed the curtains and walked to the closet, speaking calmly in her motherly tone.

"Arwen, it's me." She crouched beside the closet door; it was silent from within. "I'm going to open the door now, okay?" Ez listened, but there was still no sound. She opened the door a crack and shone her flashlight into the small closet.

The closet was empty.

Ez flung the door open and searched all around it, pulling down all of the hanging clothing.

“Arwen?” She almost yelled. Ezmerelda paused, stared at the torn apart closet, and then heard the smallest voice.

“Officer Ez?” It came from above her. She stepped back and pulled down a duffel bag and there was Arwen, crammed up onto the high shelf in the closet.

“Arwen.” She was relieved. “How did you get up there? Why didn’t you come out when I asked you to?”

“I used the door and the bar, but I can’t get down.” Arwen felt terrified. She was crying hard and trying to breathe while on the shelf, cramped between it and the ceiling. Ez reached up to get her down, but she wasn’t the tallest person. She grabbed the child under her armpits and pulled her down off of the shelf. She caught her as the rest of her came down. Ez almost lost her balance, but she kept her composure and held Arwen like she did when bringing her to bed.

“Are you okay?” She asked, but Arwen was crying too hard to make a comprehensive response. Arwen squeezed her arms and legs around Ez and didn’t want to let go. It was scary by herself. They went quickly back to the living room, where Ez sat down next to Mak on the couch, still holding the crying child. It was a quiet, hard to breathe kind of crying, so she just rubbed her back for a few minutes. ‘Now where the hell is my booze.’ She thought, craving a drink.

[Fortune86]

James noticed how Whisperlee face changed when she got to her feet and wondered how she had managed to hurt herself. Looking down again he saw her bare feet, the shards of glass on the floor, the blood stains and put all the facts together. She'd cut her feet on the pieces.

 

"Of all the stupid..." he started to sigh, but cut himself off before chiding her further. Now wasn't the time to scold someone who had been so badly frightened. He could always tell her off when her feet had been seen to.

 

He pushed the shotgun back around so that it lay down across his back and then as gently as he could picked Whisperlee up, bridal style.

 

"Don't freak out" he grunted in her ear. "I'm just taking you across the floor. There's still glass all over the place."

 

Whatever she must have thrown must have been thrown with some force. James's shoes crunched pretty much all the way back to the attic hatch, where he put the slightly older woman down. Unfortunately she'd have to get down the ladder on her own, there was no way he could carry her.

 

"Go down and get someone to help you" he told Whisperlee. "I'll check it out up here."

[Mistress of Whispers]

"Well excuse me for being more concerned about keeping the monsters out, than maintaining my pedicure," Wisperlee shot back, though not without humour. She was about to protest James' picking her up, but sighed and relented when she realized he was right - no point in walking through glass twice.

 

She carefully made her way down the stairs and was immediately greeted by Cujo. Good - she figured the massive dog was probably the best protector short of a gun in the house.

 

((@ Fortune, given that Wisperlee is moving rather slowly, James has time to stop her and ask about the 'monsters' bit if you want.))

Edited October 20, 2015 by Mistress of Whispers

[Kestra15]

Everyone was running on instinct. Mak was lead by Erin to a place on one of the chairs in the front room and took a seat, staring straight ahead for a moment as he tried to assimilate what he'd seen. It wasn't anything he was familiar with - certainly not a cat or badger or raccoon or any other small, furry countryside animal that could sometimes find a way into houses. It was very distinctly abnormal, like nothing he had ever seen before. He couldn't even hazard a guess as to if it was mammal, lizard or otherwise.

 

"My nerves are shot, that's all," he managed to reply to Erin's concerned question as he noted Wisperlee head upstairs and James come down with his firearm to hand. He took a few steadying breaths and in the dim light of the lantern Erin could see some semblance of colour return to his face. He was still far from fine, with a thin sheen of sweat glistening on his pale forehead and his breath quick and shallow, but at least he didn't look like he was going to pass out. But there was no doubt the adrenaline high was starting to kick in as he suddenly got up and in a few moments had flicked on the other lights in the room, giving them a warm - and more importantly, safe - glow.

 

The sound of commotion from upstairs took his attention, but before Mak could move James was already on the way up. Mentally he was trying to count off who was still to emerge and he couldn't help but wonder if it was Wisperlee who was caught up in what vaguely sounded like another scuffle. Wanting to dash up after James rational thought stopped him after a couple of steps; James was armed with a shotgun and was clearly comfortable with it, while Mak didn't have so much as a cudgel to hand. Resigning himself to staying downstairs Mak instead started on a head-count. Erin, Micah, Emily, Petra, and now Ez and Arwen were downstairs and all in sight. James was presumably with Wisperlee and Alistair had yet to emerge, but he guessed the man would likely link up with the other two and assist in whatever commotion was occurring upstairs. He turned, and made sure the door to the cellar was secured tight; there was no way they were going to sweep that until the rest of the house was definitely secured.

[Fangirl05]

Okay, Mak was in shock, but he didn't look like he was going to dissolve into a full-blown panic attack at least.

 

Erin wondered if she should maybe find him a blanket or grab him some kind of weapon from the kitchen; a butcher knife or meat cleaver or tenderizer or something. Something that might make him feel a little less exposed.

 

"Did it come at you?" she asked as she peered out the window, remembering the shattered thing on the floor.

 

Her earlier train of thought reminded her:

 

"Hey, which one's your room? I'm gonna go get my knife and get you that bow of yours."

 

Oh, God...

 

"That thing actually works, right? It's not just decorative?"

[Avialae]

Micah hesitated for a moment when Petra asked him to move the refrigerator to block the back door, not sure who was going to take care of the front, but then he saw James, who he hadn't seen downstairs before, move to take care of it, and he nodded. He took one side of the fridge, let Petra take the other, and in a few minutes had it lodged firmly in front of the back door.

 

"Are there any other doors beside the front and the back?" Micah asked the room at large, hoping someone would know. He then jumped involuntarily as he noticed a blur of movement out of the corner of his eye; all the talk of strange creatures moving around had left him on edge. Oh; it was just one of the Erin's kittens; it had probably noticed the activity in the kitchen and come to check on what was going on.

[Kestra15]

"It's a proper bow," Mak assured Erin with a weak smile as he moved near to where Arwen and Ez were sitting, but not taking a seat himself. Adrenaline made it impossible for him to just sit down at this point, but he refrained from pacing the room for the time being. "But with James upstairs with his shotgun I'd imagine it best let them sweep down before we start fetching our weapons - just in case we end up in the firing line. And no, it didn't get me. I...reacted, threw my tumbler at it. Missed horribly," he added sheepishly.

[Fortune86]

James kept an eye on Whisperlee as she slowly made her way down the ladder. He hoped she wouldn't catch some of the glass in her feet on the rungs and fall off or something, but she made it down to the landing okay. Cujo greeted her at the bottom and for once James felt he saw the appeal of keeping dogs around.

 

Turning his attention to the task at hand James suddenly thought that he should question Whisperlee about what she had seen. It'd be good to have some clue as to what he was looking for.

 

"Can you tell me anything about the animal?" he asked before she moved out of earshot. "Like colour or something?"

 

James already worked out that the animals weren't very big, not if one of them had matched to squeeze through a cat flap at speed. Of course even if they were much smaller than him, that didn't mean they weren't dangerous.

[Mistress of Whispers]

Wisperlee looked up the ladder at James. Animal? Either he had the biggest balls ever, or - Then she recalled that James hadn't been present at the meeting. He doesn't know.

 

"They're not animals," she began. Then the scientist in her reared up and she amended: "Well, maybe they are, but none that we know. Unidentified Biological Entities. The one I saw looked like..." she waved her hand to show that she hadn't been able to make out much in the dark "bipedal, black exoskeleton, overly large head, multiple sets of eyes, mandibles, dog-sized - and by that I mean Cujo sized."

 

By now the vast dark attic behind James was making her nervous. She kept imagining the shadows behind him moving, as if one of the creatures was going to pop up behind him. She knew that technically speaking it made no difference if James knew what he was up against or not. As the gamers' creed said: a shotgun blast to the head, is a shotgun blast to the head. Her nerves were rankled nonetheless though, and she resolved to remain at the foot of the ladder until the attic was cleared and James came down.

[Fortune86]

James raised an eyebrow. Not animals? Multiple sets of eyes? Either he had missed something important or someone had found a stash of weed. Bad weed.

 

"Okay..." James said as he readied the shotgun and turned back to look into the attic. "You stay right there. Don't let anyone else come up. A hole in the chest will put a crimp in anyone's night."

 

Slowly and with the gun pointed slighty down in front of him James began to inspect the attic. The lone bulb didn't give much light, but thankfully James had developed some good night eyes over the years. All that sneaking around in the dark had paid off.

 

As he moved James noticed that apart from the pieces of glass and blood there were other oddities on the floor. The attic probably hadn't been used much even when the original owners lived here, so there was a layer of dust over everything. He could see his own foot prints and what he assumed were Whisperlee's, but there was another set of track too, some very different.

 

After checking the nearby stack of boxes and behind an old chair, James crouched down a little to look at the unsual marks more closely. They were an odd shape, almost foot and hand like, but with some kind of claw marking. A monkey perhaps? James knew they were some pretty strange kinds, and that would explain how it got through the attic window. They were supposed to be good climbers after all.

 

As he continued to check the old furniture around the attic and any boxed he came across James felt more and more sure that the odd creatures were some kind of monkey or ape. Either a type that weren't well known, or maybe diseased, if not both. Sick animals could look very strange, especially if they lost a lot of fur or suffered from some kind of skin condition.

 

After a few minutes James was happy that the only living thing left in the attic apart from himself were a few spiders that had set up home up in the rafters. Making sure the safety was on the shotgun he walked back over to the hatch and looked down at Whisperlee.

 

"All clear."

Edited October 21, 2015 by Fortune86

[Mistress of Whispers]

"Good," Wisperlee replied. "Let's join the others downstairs? I haven't swept this floor yet, but I've been in every room to close the windows and nothing attacked me." She didn't think the creatures had the self-restraint NOT to attack on sight, so that was as good a sign as any.

 

She hobbled a little ahead of James, indicating that she was fine walking on her own. She stopped at her own room to pick up a pair of socks though, as she could hardly go on dragging blood through the house. She hesitated briefly, wondering how much it'd hurt to put on socks over injured feet and if that was at all hygienic. She quickly abandoned the second question: she'd stepped on old glass, walked across a musty attic and a hallway where people had spent the day tracking mud and dirt. The hygiene ship, she felt, had sailed: she'd just have to clean up good and ask Mak for that antibiotic cream he used on Emily. As for the first question, it turned out that the answer was "quite a bit." Still, the gritted her teeth and pulled on her Wonder Woman socks.

 

Cujo was staying close to Wisperlee, even positioning himself between her and James. The dog wasn't sure what was going on, but he smelt blood and anxiety. The loss of his old family made him nervous, and he was determined to protect this one.

 

((@ Fortune, Wisperlee is fine going downstairs to where the others are, or staying with James as he clears the upper floor.))

[Fortune86]

"I'll check the rooms" said James with a sigh. "You get your feet sorted. It's not like you'd be able to do anything other than get in the way any way."

 

Even though the window was shut the attic was still vunerable. James wondered if the mutant monkeys were strong enough to smash through glass. There wasn't a lot they could do about it now though, not unless they wanted to board up the hatch.

 

He rolled his eyes as Whisperlee struggled to put some socks over her injured feet. It would be a lot less of a hassle of she just asked for help, but she just had to be awkward. Well he wasn't going to baby her, she was old enough to think for herself.

 

James left Whisperlee and entered each of the other rooms, checking under the beds, inside closets and even pulling the shower curtain back to check the tub.

[Fangirl05]

"Meh, no shame in that" Erin shrugged, "I can't hit the broadside of a barn in the best of conditions, myself."

 

She cast a worried look at Ez and Arwen, but she wondered; first they find that swarm of creatures in the hospital before they found the girl, and now said creatures were attacking their home?

 

Judging from Arwen's reaction, she either didn't know she was drawing them in if she was, or she was a damned good actress.

 

Or she could actually be doing nothing. Still, it was a weird coincidence, she thought.

 

"How're you holding up?" she asked her.

[Mistress of Whispers]

Wisperlee hobbled into the living room, followed by Cujo.

 

"There was one in the attic, but it fled" she told the others. Then she quickly added: "I'm fine." Stupid, but fine. "James is clearing the upper floor. All windows are closed and shuttered."

 

With that little service announcement done, she hoisted herself up on the kitchen top and opened the first aid kit that was still out from the night before. She cleaned the pincers with rubbing alcohol, then carefully peeled her socks off. Looking back, she noticed that she had left tiny smudges of red where she'd walked. Great. She'd have to clean that up later.

 

"Mak, can you describe what you saw?" she asked while pulling the first glass splinter from her feet.

[Quhanta]

Ez saw Whisperlee on the floor, pulling glass out of her feet and decided that she would be of help. Arwen got piggybacked over to Whisperlee's location on the floor and Ez couched down next to her.

"Do you mind if I help you with that? It might be less of a strain to have someone else doing it." Ez was using her calm military voice, but the mom voice kept creeping in and out as she tried to force it away.

Arwen cuddled her face in against the side of Ez's neck and whimpered softly. She didn't want to let go or be left alone again, and she knew that something horrible was going on. All of the adults were panicking, so that meant that she would be helpless. 'Grown-ups are bigger and stronger, but they're all hurt, so that means I'm going to die.' Arwen thought horribly to herself. She repeated it out loud, but in question form, out there for anyone to answer.

[Salix]

Petra smiled her thanks at Micah for agreeing to help her move the fridge. Just before they pushed it into place, she asked Micah to pause while she checked to make the back door was locked and the cat flap was down, then with a final shove the fridge slid in front of the of the door, effectively blocking it.

 

Micah had just asked if there were any other doors, when she noticed the young man flinch and a look of alarm flick over his face, to be replaced just as quickly with a look of relief. Turning to look in the same direction Petra was relieved when she noticed that it was only one of the kittens prowling.

 

With everyone’ nerves on edge, Petra thought that it would probably be a good idea if all the occupants of the house were accounted for, which included the animals. Scooping up the kitten Petra searched until she found the rest of the cats, who were snuggled up with their mother in the box they had been transported to the house in, obviously Mama cat had taken a liking to the box and deemed it a suitable enclosure for her brood. Popping the adventurous kitten into the box with its siblings, she took a quick headcount to make sure they all the cats were accounted for, including Erin’s kitten.

 

While she was counting cats Whisperlee returned, somehow it appeared that she had managed to get glass into her feet. Ez quickly volunteered to help her remove it, but it was obvious that she was going to be hampered by the child who was still holding onto her.

 

“Arwen” Petra addressed the child in a gentle and she hoped soothing tone. She lifted her hand and gently placed it on Arwen’s back. “My name is Petra, and, well I was wondering if you would help me with something?”

 

Looking at Ez Petra raised an eyebrow questioning if she should continue. Arwen seemed to be in Ez’s care and Petra didn’t want to overstep her mark. She was about to continue speaking when Blackie made her appearance, and started to happily fuss over Petra, licking her hands and pouncing up at her, in her excitement Blackie’s enthusiastically wagging tail tapping against Ez, Arwens and Whisperlee’s legs.

 

[Quhanta]

A woman had touched her back. Arwen flinched and let out a high whimper. Ez wasn't too sure about just dropping the kid off with someone else, but it's not like anyone was going anywhere. Arwen looked up into Ez's face and the woman gave an easy nod to let her know that she could trust Petra. Something about her face and the way she held herself sometimes made Ez think of a naturally good mother. Arwen gave Ez a quick squeeze with her arms and tried to grab Petra's hand before climbing down off of Ez's back.

"What can *sniff* I help you with?" She asked quietly.

[Salix]

Petra gave Ez a nod, to acknowledge that she understood the other woman was trusting her with Arwen safety. Taking the child’s hand gently but firmly she helped her stand.

 

“Well Ez is going to help Wisperlee with her feet, see she has some glass in them.” She let Arwen look at Wisperlees injuries so that she could see and understand that while the other woman was hurt, she was not hurt badly.

 

“I was hoping you would help me find a bowl and some kitchen paper and some water, so when Ez and Wisperlee have got all the glass out, they will be able to clean Wisperlee’s feet”. Also you could help me hold Blackie and Cujo and keep them out of the way.

 

At the mention of her name Blackie turned and gave Petra and Arwen a lick on their hands, while wagging her tail. Cujo only had eyes for Wisperlee, waiting for a signal from her that she was okay.

 

[Mistress of Whispers]

Wisperlee hesitated. She was (or more accurately: had been) on Cambridge's book club, laser tag team and zombie games team, which made her more sociable than others in her class. Still, she was at her best with software programs and intricate technical equipment, not to mention she'd spent the last week before the event cooped up in her apartment while a mysterious white van waited outside; all in all she was NOT accustomed to physical contact. There was also the matter of pride: she was the one stupid enough to walk on glass, she should fix it. Wisperlee was about to decline Ez's offer, when Ez and Petra switched Arwen from one woman to the other. Well, now it would be rude not to take the offer of help. In a group this small, she didn't want to be the rude one out. Somewhat reluctantly, but with a smile, she handed the pincers to Ez and positioned herself so it would be easier for the other woman to get all the glass out.

 

"Thanks," she began. "Oh! I found Jaune's ferret last night. It's currently living in a drawer in my room. Would Arwen be okay with a pet?" Given that Ez would effectively be responsible for any pets the young child had, she figured she should ask her first.

 

She noticed Cujo's anxiety and deliberated her options there. On the one hand, the dog's size and strength meant it might be best to sequester him when he was nervous. On the other hand, that would only make the bull mastiff *more* nervous. Finally she decided to keep a close eye on him.

"C'm here, boy" she called. As the dog settled to her right - away from Ez to her left - Wisperlee softly scratched his head. That might help settle Cujo, plus it would give her advance warning if he tensed any more. She almost-imperceptibly shook her head at Petra, indicating that she wasn't sure the dog was safe for Arwen to be around right now. Had Cujo been smaller, she would have gambled it, but his size amplified even the tiniest risk.

Edited October 22, 2015 by Mistress of Whispers

[Quhanta]

Arwen cringed a little bit when she saw the blood, but she understood that it wasn't as bad as it looked. She looked at Whisperlee in a bit of confusion when a ferret was mentioned as a pet for her, as she hardly knew what it was, but slightly recognized the name.

"Maybe we could figure that out after." Ez offered to Whisperlee as she took the pincers from the woman. She quickly looked about and quite easily found a mostly clean ash trey for her to use to hold the broken and bloody bits of glass. Arwen stayed with Petra, doing all that she was told in a quiet, but interested manor. Ez shifted to sit nearer the dog, so as to be sideways, rather than in front of the woman. She moved Whisperlee's foot across her knee and got to task at gently working her way along her foot, picking out the glass shards from bottom to top.

"Where did the glass come from? Can you tell me how old or dirty that it may have been?" She asked her questions as though they were part of a routine or procedure, which they kind of were. Gloves would have been nice, but she could just wash her hands instead. It's not like Ez had any open wounds anywhere on her hands.

[Mistress of Whispers]

Oops. Wisperlee had planned to bring up the ferret when Arwen was out of earshot, but the girl had better hearing than she thought. 'Sorry,' she mouthed to Ez - if Ez wasn't happy with Arwen having a pet, it'd be a lot harder to say no now.

 

"It was an old vase," she answered Ez' question, "and I walked around a bit in the attic and the upstairs hall. So I'd say plenty dirty."

[Quhanta]

Ez wasn't really picking up on the fact that Whisperlee was asking her for permission to give Arwen Jaune's ferret. She was a bit more focused on the task at hand and keeping an awareness of how close people were to her.

"When was the last time you had a tetanus shot?" She asked casually, but it was a serious question. Usually you would only need a shot once every ten years and only for metallic protrusions, but it wouldn't be bad to get a little medical history from everyone. Hopefully, the people who used to live in this house liked to have rubbing alcohol or peroxide on hand. If they dared return to the hospital, which Ez might volunteer to do, she would have no issue in grabbing updated vaccines for everyone. It was an odd thought, but it wasn't entirely out of place within the context of what was going on at the moment. They should also create better barriers when it's daylight again, but Ez digressed to returning her attentions to Whisperlee and her injury.

[Kestra15]

Mak paused to think about how to describe the creature he'd seen. "Imagine...a monkey, but more scaly than furry, with sharp teeth and spines and red eyes," he said succinctly. "That's kinda what I saw." He looked over at Wisperlee's feet, concern evident on his face. "A little antiseptic cream should help once they've been cleaned up, and if they start to show a hint of infection we can use the antibiotics as well to keep them well."

Edited October 23, 2015 by Kestra15