Rapture

[Fangirl05]

Having slipped out of the room unnoticed, Erin wrestled her knife out of her belt loop. Probably not a good idea to leave it on the floor like that.

 

Something padded across the floor behind her.

 

She whirled around on it with a war cry, knife at the ready. Dingo skittered out of her way.

 

"Dingo!" she beamed at him, opening her arms. The kitten trotted up to her as if she hadn't tried to stab him a second ago.

 

"Ah, Dingo, thank God you're okay" she hugged him and rubbed his back, "You're keeping an eye on your family for me?"

 

She looked around suspiciously and held him up to her face:

 

"Don't tell anybody, but I think Arwen might have something to do with this."

 

Oh yeah...

 

"I gotta get back down to the others" she put Dingo down and started out the door, "I'll see you when this is over, boy."

 

She headed back down to the living room.

[Mistress of Whispers]

"My last tetanus shot?" Wisperlee tried to remember. "I think six, maybe seven years ago?"

 

She listened attentively while Mak described what he saw, then replied with a worried look: "That's not the one I saw. Mine was black, sleek, more like a humanoid insect than a monkey." She didn't bother to state the obvious: there was more than one currently in the dark outside, possibly gearing up for second run on the house.

 

"The farm has shutters, so that's something," she turned to security issues, "but we should consider nailing some of them shut tomorrow. One less weak point."

 

She winced briefly as Ez extracted one of the larger pieces of glass. Beside her, Cujo stirred, but he seemed less tense than he'd been a moment ago - if the humans were talking, things were going to be okay.

 

((@ all - pssst, Wisperlee is sans h. Kinda confusing since my forum name is Whispers, but the char's name is Wisperlee. ))

Edited October 25, 2015 by Mistress of Whispers

[Fangirl05]

Erin took up her position by the window again, watching for an ill-conceived frontal assault. She wondered...

 

"Hey, do any of you think they won't come back?" she asked the window, "They've already sent a couple of theirs in and they ran out after being attacked. Maybe they'll lose interest now that they know we're not such easy prey."

[DragonSpirit009]

Emily was on one knee on the floor next to Nougat holding the dog back from barking at the doors and windows. She had forgotten how protective she can get when people were threatened and how strong she was when she wanted to attack. At least she had calmed down a bit but she was still giving small growls. Nougat’s head moved in every direction in order to get a scent from whatever might have entered their home.

As everyone gathered she watched silently as they talked about what was going on.

 

((Sorry for the silly post but I have no idea what is going on))

 

[Fangirl05]

((Eh, let's see... Mak, Ez, Wisperlee, Erin and Arwen are down in the living room, I believe James was last seen up in the attic, and... Yeah, I'm drawing a blank with Micah and Alistair.))

[Quhanta]

"Maybe you should be counting our rations tomorrow." Ez suggested, in a purely medical tone. "You shouldn't be on your feet and a lot of the safeguarding of our weak points will require a lot of walking around." Sensing that there may be some negative feelings toward her suggestion, Ez decided to add something a bit more blunt.

"It's actually extremely important to know what food we do and do not have. An accurate list will do all of us a lot of good. Don't just veto my suggestion because you're unhappy with it. It's a valid position that I'm not trying to make sound better than it is. It's important, but probably just as boring as correcting code, but less infuriating." Ez removed the last smashed piece of glass from Wisperlee's foot.

"We're just waiting on the pan and disinfectant from our nurses now."

[Mistress of Whispers]

"Hey, do any of you think they won't come back?" [Erin] asked. "They've already sent a couple of theirs in and they ran out after being attacked. Maybe they'll lose interest now that they know we're not such easy prey."

 

"You're making unproven assumptions," Wisperlee pointed out, though in a friendly tone. "They might not be coordinating their moves, which means 'the others' don't know that we repelled two. Even if, we still wouldn't know if the two we caught were a recon or attack force. If it was recon, since we don't know if they were coming or going when we chased them off, they might have what they came for. All in all, I suggest we brace for the worst."

 

She looked out the kitchen window, squinting her eyes against the dark. "I don't know if they can see in the dark, but they waited for it to make a move and we know that humans *definitely can't*. So we need to decide if we want to risk going out now to nail the shutters close, or stick together and wait until morning light."

 

Wisperlee hoped that made sense. It's what she'd done countless times in zombie assault sims, but games were a far cry from the real thing.

 

"Maybe you should be counting our rations tomorrow." [Ez] said

 

Wisperlee raised an eyebrow at that, clearly unhappy with the suggestion, but she let Ez finish. When the other woman was done, she nodded in response.

 

"Fair enough. And I indeed have experience with boring, tedious work. Though I still want someone to give me combat lessons once I'm well again." She was *not* counting on vases as her only line of defense again.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Mistress of Whispers

[Quhanta]

"How about this; if you stay off of your foot and let it heal by tediously counting the rations, I will help you out with some combat training. If we find more bullets, I might even teach you how to shoot. But you have to let yourself heal first, okay?" Her voice was irritatingly swerving into mom voice when she didn't want it to, especially at the end. The rest of the time, she could hold the medic's monotony. Ez was already thinking that everyone should know how to protect themselves, but now that there came a global situation of needing to be able to handle one's self, it was more than necessary for everyone to learn. Starting with Wisperlee may incite Alistar to help teach the others that, hopefully, will swallow enough of their pride to ask to learn.

"Your feet are an important part of fighting." She added at the end.

[Avialae]

Micah frowned when no one answered his question about there being any other doors in the house. Since no one else seemed to be doing it and James was still upstairs, Micah decided to check to make sure that all the windows and doors were closed on the first floor himself. It was slightly difficult because he didn't know the layout, but he had eventually made a full circle of the first floor and was heading back to the living room when he saw something dash out of the coat closet. Thinking it was just another one of the numerous animals in the house Micah didn't raise his gun at first; but when he saw the giant head with sharp fangs, the sharp spines, and the mottled scales he realized his mistake very quickly. Moving forward as the creature dashed down the hall Micah quickly drew Alistair's borrowed gun and shot the creature squarely in the back of the head in what would have surely been a fatal shot to a human, though he wasn't sure at all about this thing. It slid into the kitchen, limbs thrashing wildly, Micah following close behind. Was it dead? He couldn't be sure given its strange appearance, but at least it wasn't moving, for the moment anyway.

 

OOC: I believe Alistair's writer hasn't been responding for some time. For now, I think we should act like he is still in bed -- he may end up being Raptured, but that is up to Kestra.

Edited October 26, 2015 by Avialae

[Fangirl05]

"Meh," Erin shrugged, "just wishful thinking, I guess."

 

And then somebody's gun went off.

 

Erin raced toward the sound and found Micah staring in shock at... Whatever that was seizing on the floor. She spent a second alarmed over whether or not he had shot the mother cat, but closer inspection revealed that no, that thing was most definitely not a cat.

 

In fact, it kind of looked like the creature Makhad described.

 

She inched closer to it, knife at the ready in case it lashed out.

[Mistress of Whispers]

Wisperlee jumped onto the floor without even thinking, the animal part of her brain propelling her to readiness NOW. Grabbing a cutting knife, she fell back slightly; she knew she was *not* the best fighter in the group, and she didn't want to be in the way. More importantly though, she wanted to see what the creature would do first. Perhaps they were victims of the event as much as the humans were? It could be parallel universes colliding, with all of them caught in the bleed-over.

[Quhanta]

The gunshot expelled the medic and motherly intonations from Ez immediately. The tweezers and ash trey hit the ground and she was up on one knee with her gun pointed toward the motion in the kitchen. There was this twitching creature with fangs and a big head sprawled out in the middle of the kitchen. As James was still upstairs, Micah had to be the shooter. The gunshot was also not from a shot gun, so that further insinuated that Micah was she shooter. Ez stepped forward, but paused before rounding the corner into Micah's line of sight.

"Micah!" Ez yelled. "I'm going to be coming around the corner. Do not shoot me." She was very insistent on that last part.

[Avialae]

Micah kept the barrel of his gun trained on the strange creature, hands shaking violently now that the decisive moment seemed to be over. The creature didn't seem to be getting back up, though. In fact, it almost seemed like it was dying. Did that mean that its internal systems worked more or less like a human's? In any case, if a mere bullet could harm it, then it couldn't be a demon, regardless of its horrific appearance.

 

At some point Erin had entered the room and stood next to the creature with a knife drawn in one hand, seemingly waiting for it to make a move. Of course, the others must have heard the gunshot. He must have scared them, but there was no avoiding it. He then heard Ez call out to him. "I understand," Micah said to her, turning his head in the direction her voice was coming from, gun still focused on the monkey-like creature's body. "Come in."

[Fangirl05]

Erin poked the unmoving thing in the side and jumped back. Nothing. She figured that meant it was safe to get closer to it, so she knelt down and flipped it onto its back.

 

It felt... Weird. Platypus weird: porcupine-esque spines on its back; skin that felt soft and kind of leathery, like a really old human; patches of scales all over it; angler fish teeth. She shut its eyes just so she wouldn't have them on her anymore.

 

"Eh, Ez?" she called to her, "You wouldn't happen to know anything about suspected animal experimentation in the area, would you?"

 

She tilted her head a bit as a though occurred to her:

 

"Kinda looks like I imagined a Chupacabra would."

 

 

[Fortune86]

James doubled checked every window, cupboard and hiding space he could think of, but he found nothing out of the ordinary. Whatever the hell the creatures were, they weren't up here. He was just starting to relax and considering joining the others down stairs for find out what was going on when a gun shot echoed up from the floor below.

 

Leaping over the bed that stood between him and the doorway James raced out into the corridor and down the stairs. As he ran he lifted the shotgu's strap over his shoulder to make the gun easier to use. He stopped in his tracks when he caught up with Micah and Erin, both of whom were staring down at the ugliest looking beast James had ever seen.

 

"What the is that?"

[Quhanta]

Arwen yelped when the gun went off and attached herself to Petra's leg in a koala-esque hug.

After Micah's affirmation, Ez stepped into the room. The disgusting looking creature was dead, she assumed, but until it took a bit more pain, she didn't want to assume that it wasn't part opossum. When Erin was close enough and rolled it over, Ez slowly applied her boot to one of its appendages to cause pain. It didn't move.

"Not that I know of," she responded to Erin. "I was here because a drug lord wanted to start shipping more than drugs. I don't know of any illegal experimentation." She knew that just because she wasn't informed, didn't mean that there wasn't something out here.

"These things, if they're from a lab somewhere, it's highly unlikely that they're causing the disappearances. This may sound redneck of me, but are aliens on the table?"

[Kestra15]

"Aliens...makes everything sound far-fetched," Mak chuckled nervously, joining the group that had gathered around the downed creature. With the house now confirmed as being secure, and the whole ground floor lit from a variety of battery-powered torches and lanterns, Mak's adrenaline surge was finally starting to abate. The fight was over and they had a casualty to prove that he hadn't been hallucinating or seeing shadows. Not that he wanted to prove it to the others; if they had written his encounter off as tiredness and tricks of the light he wouldn't have taken offense, given he had probably had less sleep than anyone else and certainly hadn't been in a proper bed for a few nights. No, it was to prove to himself that he wasn't going mad and that there indeed was something else out there.

 

"But does it matter what we call it?" he continued, slipping through the group and kneeling down next to the creature; with all the knives and firearms to hand he was not so afraid of being attacked, and if he was he had faith in his companions that they would protect him before he came to serious harm. Grabbing a wooden rolling pin from the counter he poked, first cautiously then much more viciously at the creature. From his, Ez and Erin's poking he had to assume it was about as dead as a creature could get. Almost absently he nodded up at Micah. "Good shot, by the way."

 

Mak made a few more jabs at the creature as they stood staring at it, talking half to himself as he did. While his degree had been in the physical sciences one could not study the world in which they lived without taking heed of those that lived in it, and he had the most rudimentary of biological knowledge. He was taking on a more normal colour as he knelt and spoke, the tangible challenge that was deciphering their kill having a calming effect that allowed him to focus mind and body.

 

"Nothing to suggest it isn't terrestrial in origin," he started, poking the four limbs. "Arms, legs, knees and elbows in the right places and right angles, certainly had the strength to move in our gravity. Face is face-like, like you'd expect from any animal, though the skin...not quite leather, not quite human skin. Puts me in mind of the palm of a monkey or ape, but all over instead. Spikes on the back for protection, so all fours is probably normal but can move on hind legs as well. Sharp-looking...but not exactly armour-piercing," Mak suggested as he tapped the spines with the end of the rolling pin. "And blood - or something like blood - coming out the wounds. Extremely dark, almost purple in hue...if that means anything to anyone." He turned to the cupboard under the sink and pulled out a pair of marigold gloves. After a moment of hesitation, he grabbed a second pair and a black bin-bag, stretching the protective gloves over the first pair.

 

"I'm not up for a late-night vivisection, and I don't want it lying on the floor leaking. Who knows if it is toxic to us or the pets?" Taking several steadying breaths, Mak committed to lifting the creature off the floor into the bin-bag. There was a slight sigh as air was exhaled, enough to make Mak pause and nearly drop the creature, but once common sense informed him that it was simply air leaving the body he carried on with the grim job of disposal. "If I leave it out back - like, literally by the door - then we can play with it during daylight hours. If anyone wants."

 

He tied up the bag, the spines proving their worth as some managed to pierce the bag, but since it was just to keep fluids from leaking across the floor as they disposed of it outside Mak wasn't too concerned. He had two thick layers of plastic between him and the corpse. He crouched. "If someone wants to get the door, someone keep cover on the door, and I'll just drop it outside." He paused, scanning the see of faces as a sudden thought occurred. "Where's Alistair?"

 

* * * * *

 

No sign of struggle. No panicked, thrown-back bed-sheets. His day clothes sat neatly by the bed. A week ago it would have been absurd to assume he had simply disappeared of the face of the Earth, but today it was eminently possible. Alistair had vanished.

Edited October 28, 2015 by Kestra15

[Fangirl05]

"Like I said," Erin piped up in response to the question of what to call it, "it reminds me of a Chupacabra." She shrugged. "Some people have thought the Chupacabra was an alien, so why not?"

 

So it probably wasn't the biblical Apocalypse, but...

 

"What's with the cross-species invasion?" she asked nobody in particular, "Sure, aliens will kidnap humans from time to time, but never an entire planet at once, and it's usually only one species at a time that does it."

[Salix]

Petra caught Wisperlee’s shake of the head regarding Cujo and shepherded both Arwen and Blackie out into the kitchen. After a quick search she found a large bowl & filled it with slightly warm water; she supervised as Arwen added a dash of disinfectant (the kind that was suitable for putting in baths etc), and then handing the kitchen roll, that had been sitting on the kitchen counter to Arwen to carry, Petra was just about to pick up the bowl when suddenly there was a deafening bang and something came crashing into the kitchen.

 

She, Arwen and Blackie all uttered yelps of alarm. Instinctively Petra quickly pushed Arwen so that she was shielded behind her; the frightened child was clinging to her leg as Petra carefully withdrew the axe on her ‘free’ side, from its pouch on her belt.

 

As the ‘creature’ stopped moving Petra noticed that Micah was standing behind it, his gun still raised and a wild look in his eyes, his hands shaking. Not wanting to spook or surprise the young man Petra kept very still, Arwen was still shielded behind her, and thankfully Blackie had the sense to stand still too.

 

It was only when she heard Ez yell that she was coming around the corner and Micah expression calm as he answer her, that Petra felt it safe to relaxed a little, and let out a breath that she didn’t know she had been holding.

 

The group all watched and listened as Mak examined the creature, and gave his critique on its appearance and physique. Petra had never in her life seen anything similar to the animal that now lay dead on the kitchen floor, it could be some sort of mutant monkey type thing, or as Erin had suggested, something that had escaped from a laboratory.

 

As Petra watched Mak she could feel Arwen move cautiously out from behind her. For a second it crossed Petra’s mind that perhaps the young child should not be exposed to the sight of such a scary looking creature, but Petra quickly dismissed that idea. Arwen was going to be exposed to a lot of new experiences, and possibly hardships, it would be unfair to keep Arwen in ignorance of what they may face.

 

She kept a comforting hand around Arwen as they watched Mak place the creature into a bin-bag.

 

[Mistress of Whispers]

Wisperlee shrugged non-committaly at the aliens question. "It's possible in theory, and certainly more likely than the biblical end of days - no offense, Micah. The universe is a pretty big place and if you go by the Fermi paradox -" She caught herself and stopped. No one was going to be interested in the Fermi paradox right now.

 

"However, Mak is right that their physiology is remarkably similar to ours. The odds that an alien species would not only develop like us, but also be able to walk around in our exact atmosphere and gravity unhindered, are pretty low. It's more likely that they actually *are* from earth, either ours or a parallel version where hedgehogs apparently rose to be the dominant species. If we're going through the collision of parallel universes, we're either caught in the pre-event bleed through or the post-event horizon. That also means these creatures aren't the culprits; they're hapless victims just like us. The most plausible however, is that we're still on our version of earth and these critters are an experiment gone awry." She fell short of invoking Occam's Razor, but her money was on the fumbled experiment, or MAYBE the parallel universes.

 

"More to the point though: does it matter? We woke up in our own little version of the Walking Dead, but with monsters instead of zombies, and we just have to battle through it. We're better off focusing on how to deal with it, rather than how it happened."

 

As she spoke, her eyes focused on a point in the distance over and for a moment she felt she *knew* where the creatures had come from. A cold, dimmed sun. Twilight on a muted prairie. Desolation. Before she could hone in on it though, the feeling was gone again.

Edited October 29, 2015 by Mistress of Whispers

[Fortune86]

Aliens? Parallel Earths? Chupacabra? James didn't know what the hell the creature had been but one there was thing he knew for sure, if any of them came near him it was going to get a bullet to the face.

 

As Mak dropped the creature out of sight into a bin bag James gave himself a mental shake. He knew the attic and upper floor were clear of...mutant monkey things...and the others probably had this floor well checked out, but there was still the cellar. With a grunt James went back to the stairs, but as he did so a feeling crept over him.

 

In his line of business, trusting your gut was important. Listening to your intuition might be all that keeps you alive when a deal is about to go wrong, or keep you moments ahead of the police. Right now a part of him was telling him that as much as he searched, he wasn't going to find anything. The creatures had gone, save for the one in Mak's bin bag, and James somehow knew they weren't going to encounter any more just yet. Where they had gone he didn't know, but there weren't going to be any answers right now.

 

Of course double checking never hurt either. James slipped down into the cellar and gave the dusty wine racks and broken toys a cursory glance, but there was nothing out of the ordinary. Like in the attic the floor was covered in grime, but the only footprints he saw were his own.

 

With a shake of his head and musing if anyone was ever going to sleep again that night, James went back upstairs to join the others.

[Quhanta]

Ez accepted the scientific logic of the others en lieu of her idea being far fetched to begin with. Alternate dimensions was going in a similar direction that she had been on, but Wisperlee showed more education in her explanation than Ez knew. James' expression, she inferred, was similar to explaining the feeling in her as well. It's to the point where it doesn't matter where they came from, so long as they knew how to kill them and keep them out of their commandeered house.

"Should we start external fortification at first light?" She asked broadly, but she wasn't too sure that she'd get an answer right away with what happened right after.

 

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

 

Arwen fell completely silent and grew very pale. The monster was so scary that she found it hard to move. Petra's hand was a comfort, but she felt this thing inside of her that made her sweaty and very uncomfortable. There was this hot feeling in her gut that she really didn't like. And then it came up. Arwen fell to her hands and knees in the kitchen and threw up twice. After that, her body didn't need to vomit, but she was still crying hard.

"I'm sorry." She panted out over and over again.

[Salix]

Petra moved with the child as she threw up, crouching down to hold Arwen and making sure that her hair was out of the way, while murmuring soothing and sympathetic noises. She had more experience dealing with sick children then she would ever want to, dealing with her boy’s illnesses as they had grown up, invariably they had managed to contract whatever childhood illness was doing the rounds, be that chickenpox or measles, at the same time so she was well use to being able to multi task.

 

Ripping off a handful of the kitchen roll, she cleaned up Arwen’s face, she then dipped another handful into the bowl of water that was still on the kitchen counter, and mopped the child’s face again, telling her as she did so that she was okay, and that she had nothing to be sorry for. Arwen was very pale, but even as Petra watched, colour began creeping back into her cheeks.

 

Fortunately the child had managed to throw up on the floor, and had managed not to get anything on herself. Petra quickly cleared up the mess, and handed Arwen a drink of water.

 

“Sip that slowly” she warned the child, using a kindly, calming voice.

 

While the Arwen sipped the water Petra set about brewing some tea and coffee, after everything that had happened she thought that it would be unlikely that anyone would be wanting to go back to sleep.

 

[Fangirl05]

"Sounds like a plan" Erin agreed with Ez's plan to barricade the place, "I hope this place has a stash of hammers and nails, though. I left mine across the Atlantic."

 

She looked up at the sound of someone throwing up and crying. Judging from the pitch, she guessed it was Arwen.

 

Yup.

 

She felt bad for the poor kid. More-or-less abandoned by her parents, left alone with pretty much no food or water for four days, and now this. Come to think of it, it was kind of amazing that she hadn't freaked out more before now.

 

'Course that could've happened sometime before they found her...

[DragonSpirit009]

Emily struggled to keep Nougat calm after the shot went off. She growled and barked a couple of times but eventually she pulled the dog away from all the commotion into her room. After getting Nougat in the room Emily leaned against the door and gave a deep sigh. Now a bit composed Emily joined the group where the creature was shot.

She just got there in time to see Mak putting it in some plastic bags and taking it out. She followed him out to make sure he would be safe.

“After we have a look at it in the morning I’ll get rid of it. It’s not safe to keep it around.” Emily spoke at Mak came back in.

 

When the group gathered again Emily also noticed a missing face. Before she could ask where the other guy was Mak had already took the lead. This made Emily uncomfortable.