(OoC: I'll be uploading an edited version of the map tomorrow if able. The map will include pins that mark the locations of known structures and natural formations. For now I'll list them here in print, and you can reference the map I posted in a previous u pdate and your current location. If you don't know where you are on the map, PM me. However, since no stats changed this round saving basic regeneration, I'll not be sending out any messages, so feel free to post)


U pdate #15
September 1st, 4:00 PM
Current conditions: Clear skies, mild flooding (two inches standing water), 74°F. Day
Player u pdates: Two players stats have changed. Two players have changed locations.
All players are in the Southern block of the map.

Map information:
•Marcus' House: F7
•School: G3
•Store (Mr. Winston's grocery): G4
•Park: G5
•Mark's House: G6
•Dog groomer: G7
•Ace's House: H6
•Taryn's grandparent's house (burned down): H8
•Dan's uncle's house: I2

Two players are in the Southern district of the map, and two are in the Southeastern district.



Laian :
Furret :
As they journeyed Eastward, the group came up on a house with a beaten down door. In the front yard a woman lay motionless, a baseball bat rested a few feet away from her.

"They got another one." Ian said more to himself than the others. Running up to the woman to check on her, they found she indeed had no pulse. "Looks like she was beaten to death, but she isn't messed up enough for that bat to have been the weapon. At least I don't think so, but then I teach Latin, not medicine."

"I think you're right" Erin answered "But look at her. Regardless of what they beat her with, this was a brutal means of killing someone."

"Think they're becoming more violent?" asked Ian

"Or angrier." was all Erin could get out before being interrupted by Kiara.

"Look!" she shouted "There's a person in the house!"

Erin was the first one to walk toward the house where the man that Kiara saw was beginning to rise to his feet. Motioning to Kiara to stay back, Erin moved in closely with his tire iron gripped tightly.

"Hello? Sir?" he offered calmly.

"Oh, so it's three on one this time?" the man said as he looked up and saw Erin and his friends.

"No sir, we're not killers, we just want to get out of here alive." Erin answered. "We thought we would see if you were okay. It looks like you were attacked, but were fortunate enough to survive."

"Yeah...yeah I was attacked." The man answered. "Would you let me come with you? I lost my friends."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." Erin offered his consolation "Are they...are they dead?" it sounded too blunt, but he didn't know how else to say it.

"That's them in there." the man said as he pointed to two blood covered bodies "So yeah, I'd say they're pretty dead."

Erin looked at the bodies from where he stood. It hadn't been pleasant deaths they had died. Not with that much blood around them.

"So can I join you?" the man asked again.

Erin looked at Kiara and Ian, trying to decide what to do.


mrfe :
Mynamescox44 :
"Well, how about back past your place?" Seifer asked Mark "I could be wrong, but that should be close to the border of Fuller Heights. Is there an exit around there?"

"No," Mark answered "but all established exits will likely be blocked off. We could try sneaking through the woods to the other side. It's a long walk to any nearby towns though."

"You're not wrong about the exits. I couldn't even get my car in here." Seifer said "Alright, let's head out I guess.


As they travelled southwest, they came upon the house where they had found Kyle. A hush came over the chattering friends. All was silent except for their sloshing footsteps through the water until Rufus began growling. The friends all stood still as though the noise was a command to halt. And as they looked toward the house Kyle had come from they saw two men step around from behind it.

"Oh look, Bill" one of them said to the other "Now we have new people to play with. We don't have to keep entertaining ourselves with the ones we hanged on that wall anymore."

"Fresh blood..." was all Bill had to say as they walked toward Mark, Seifer, Taryn and Rufus.

"Well at least the odds are in our favor." Seifer mumbled "Three against two."

"There you are, sweetie!" a woman's voice called from around the front of the house. "You always flirt and run?" It was the woman that had nearly cut off Mark's hand. "And you, girly!" the woman pointed at Taryn "You'll pay for what you did to me!"

"How the heck is she still alive??" Taryn asked, recalling her stab wound.

"Gee thanks, Seifer." said Mark "Maybe next you could say that it couldn't get any worse."

"Well, could it?" Taryn asked innocently.

"Please don't say that, Taryn." Mark complained.

"Why not?"

Just then, a growling dog stepped up alongside the two men, looking fiercely at the three friends.

Mark sighed "That's why."

This would not be fun.

(OoC: Had to apologize for the lack of content for this scene. Wasn't really inspired. Oh well, show must go on.)

"You may come with us.", Erin said.

"Awesome, thanks! The name's Richard by the way!", the guy happily said. "Or Rick, whichever you like! I'm fine with both of the names actually! Lemme take a few things and we're off to go!"

The man got to the closet, opened the door, took a backpack and went to the kitchen. He gathered some rations he kept in one of the cupboards, then zipped the backpack and came back to the group.

"Ok, everything's ready! We can go now, sir!"

"Erin.", the young student said with a smile."And this is Kiara, Ian and Fluffy."

"Nice to meet you! So, where are we going?"

"We're going East, to the garage.", Ian answered.

"East? If I were you, I would go North, towards the lake and then East."

"Why?", Kiara asked.

"The aggressors went directly East. I managed to saw them from my kitchen after they left the house. We better be safe and take a detour, just in case they're waiting for me... well us."

"You're right. We're going to the lake then.", Erin said.

And the group left the house with a new person. Ian was the last person to leave the place. He stared suspiciously at the new member of the group, who was walking next to Erin and discussing with him.

"Something's wrong, Mr Peters?", Kiara asked softly to Ian.

"I don't know. It was sudden. At first the guy was devastated and begged for joining the group. Then, when Erin agreed to let him join us, he suddenly got pumped up, like he was a moving battery."

"He just expressed his gratitude."

"I agree. But why was he alone in this house? Did he hide to avoid any potential threat, at the cost of leaving his friends die? I am a Latin teacher, not a detective but that guy is a mystery."

"Oh please, Mr Peters. Why are so suspicious? Stop asking so many questions. The more people we get, the more chances we have to survive."

Ian wanted to add something but he remained silent and followed the rest of the group who was heading to Fuller Heights lake, to the North.

"Something's fishy about that guy. I don't like this. Not at all." Ian thought to himself, still suspicious about that Rick.

(OoC: Like Laiian said (misspelled to avoid summon), I'm just not feeling the creativity right now. Especially after hearing the news about Nintendo's d**k move, but I'll do my best.)

Each member of the group squared up with an opponent. The woman obviously didn't give Taryn a choice, Bill came for Seifer, and the unnamed man to Mark. Rufus and his counterpart had also began moving toward the other, while staying close to each's companion.
"You'll regret interrupting my play time with your friend," the woman sneered at Taryn. "Just walk away. I don't want to hurt you again," Taryn replied, already anticipating the woman's response. "You hurt me? I'm going to enjoy killing such a pretentious little twit," the woman laughed as she approached Taryn with the knife she had from before. Taryn braced herself for the fight, hoping the woman's current wounds would keep her from having to actually kill.

"How many of these goons can there be in this little town?" Seifer thought to himself drawing his knife. Bill was armed with a large pair of garden shears. He definitely had some size and weight on Seifer, although a good portion probably wasn't muscle. As Bill drew close, "Fresh blood..." was all he repeated. Seifer got the impression he wasn't too bright, even before going mad. Seifer, creeping back to keep a distance, ripped his jacket off and sheathed his knife, continuing to hold on to the jacket spread out between hands. Bill continued to close in, snapping the shears as close to Seifer as he could manage. In Seifer's mind, his best bet was to wrap the shears in the jacket when he got a chance, then strike hard and fast when Bill could no longer use his weapon effectively. *Snap*... *Snap*... *Snap*...
Bill inched in closer, keeping Seifer on his heels. As Bill slipped slightly in the water while lunging forward, Seifer made his move. It proved overly ambitious though, as he successfully wrapped the shears, Bill's footing was still well enough established to follow up with a jab from the exposed sharp end of his weapon. The blow landed solidly in Seifer's lower gut, and if not for the fact the shears were wrapped, would've probably been deep enough to be lethal. As Seifer cringed in pain, Bill chuckled slowly and low. "I'm glad you're last breath was amusing." Seifer managed to grit through his teeth and looked over Bill's shoulder, "Do it NOW!". Bill turned his head around quickly, pulling the shears with him for defense, but saw nothing. Before he could look back, Seifer plunged his knife into the back of Bill's neck, dropping the large man, and falling to his knees as well from his own wound.
"God d***, that was too close," Seifer thought, fighting the pain so he could get up and check on his allies...

(OoC: Didn't get to add the pins showing where things are, but here's an improved version of the map. Not sure why but last time it was resized to 180x180 and hard to see. Now it's remade and sized 300x300. We'll see if it looks good or needs resized again after this post)



Map information:
•Marcus' House: F7
•School: G3
•Store (Mr. Winston's grocery): G4
•Park: G5
•Mark's House: G6
•Dog groomer: G7
•Ace's House: H6
•Taryn's grandparent's house (burned down): H8
•Dan's uncle's house: I2

U pdate #16
September 1st, 5:30 PM
Player u pdates: Three players stats have changed. One player and one NPC died. ()

Laian :
Furret :
It was only a few minutes worth of walking to the lake shore as the cabin was practically lake front property. As they reached the shore, Erin and Rick discussed where they would go next, Ian stood back, still not sure that he trusted Rick enough to take his eyes off of him. Meanwhile Fluffy and Kiara were taking their leave of speaking with Ian and heading toward Erin and Rick.

"Maybe I've just grown too cynical from this whole ordeal" Ian thought aloud as he came to a complete halt a few yards behind the group. "Maybe they're right, maybe Rick is just glad for the company. Or maybe...maybe Rick isn't a victim at all. Someone had beaten him up, but left him alive. Could these killers have shown mercy? Is it in them to do that?"

As Ian debated with himself, a group of people began approaching from the West. They said nothing, just stared. Seeing this, Erin prepared himself to fight if need be, Kiara - still badly injured from their last encounter - stepped back and clutched Fluffy tight enough that the small feline made low sounds of complaint, and Ian rushed to Erin and Rick's side. Three on three. They were evenly matched save that Ian was the only one without a weapon, as Rick had grabbed a knife before leaving the house.

"Well looky here" One of the men said in a familiar voice as he approached "We meet again, Erin."

He knew Erin's name? It took a moment to see who it was as the sunset behind them obscured most of their features. As they slowly came into view Ian, Erin, and Kiara managed to make out the faces: it was the group that attacked them earlier, or most of them anyway. The ones that killed Dan, and nearly got Kiara. Erin bristled and felt rage overcoming him, he began to shake, not from fear, but from sheer anger as he saw the man that had killed Dan approaching him grinning.

"That one's mine." Erin growled the words more than he spoke them as he gestured towards Dan's killer.

"Oh your girly lived?" Kiara's attacker from before said with a smirk "Too bad. Don't worry though, I'll right that wrong this time."

"Over my dead body!" Ian shouted back, feeling protective of the girl. He had always had a special place in his heart for Kiara because he was aware of the struggles she had faced in her life. He felt the need to look out for her, making sure she did well in class and applied herself to her practicing. He had begun looking at the girl more as a daughter than a student, though he couldn't dare say it, for fear that the school board would see it poorly and transfer him.

"Okay, I have no objection to arranging that as well." the man said with a chuckle as he continued his slow pace toward them.

"Mr. Peters..." Kiara called out.

"No Kiara," Ian answered "We're going to take them on. You stay back. You're too weak to fight still."

The girl would have put up more of an argument, but the battle began as Erin could no longer hold back and charged Dan's killer, a gesture which caught his opponent by surprise, giving Erin enough time to lay a tire iron upside his head with a sickening crack. The man went down and didn't move. Erin was slightly surprised by how upset it made him that he wouldn't get to hit the man a second time, but he held his rage in check enough to fight the urge to kill the man, though he did give him a few solid kicks to the ribcage until he was fairly certain at least one rib was broken. The man was so out of it however, he didn't even wake. He'd feel it later though.

Ian took out his target with ease, sidestepping his blade and grabbing his arm, Ian managed to execute a smooth takedown that would have made any self defense instructor proud to call him their student. He then proceeded to place a hand on the man's elbow and jerk back on his wrist with his other hand, breaking the man's arm. The blade fell to the ground and the man howled in pain. Ian took the knife and delivered a sound blow to the back of the man's head with the wooden handle, putting the man went out cold.

Rising to his feet, Ian looked down at his foe. "I told you you wouldn't touch her."

"Mr. Peters!!!" Erin heard Kiara shout from behind him. He whirled around just in time to witness Rick shoving his butcher knife through Ian's back. As he held the blade in, a demented grin played across his face.

"Gives a whole new meaning to backstabber, eh, Pete?" he whispered in Ian's ear, ran his blade up, slicing Ian from lower back to shoulder blade, and shoved him to the ground.

Erin started to take off after Rick, but caught a bat to the side, sending him to the ground.

"Now it's your turn to die, little girl." Rick said as he turned toward Kiara.

"Run Kiara!!" Erin shouted as he blocked his attackers downward swing at his face with his tire iron.

A few moments later, Erin heard an ear piercing scream and that same sickening sound. Rick had stabbed Kiara too. Was this really how it would end? Had these three come this far just to be tricked by a psycho and killed?


Splash.

Rick's body fell to the water covered ground in front of Kiara. Behind him stood Ian, doubled over and pouring blood.

"Mr. Peters...you saved me." she choked out "I thought you were d" her words were cut short as Ian fell to the ground. Kiara ran to his side.

"Shh..." Ian whispered to the teen as tears ran down her face "Don't cry, Kiara. Be brave for me, like you always have been."

"I'm so sorry..." Kiara's broken words came through the heavy sobs. "If I hadn't come with Erin"

"Stop blaming yourself for everything wrong in the world, Kiara." Ian replied weakly as he reached a trembling hand toward the girl "I did this because I wanted to. I never told you, but you've been like a daughter to me...or maybe a kid sister. I'm not THAT old." he cracked one last joke, and Kiara knew he'd done it to try and make her smile, but she couldn't find anything funny right now. All she could do now was bawl. "You and Erin are going to make it out of here. Keep believing that. And when you do, then you can cry your tears..." he stopped and struggled for air "But move on and let it heal. Don't let these creeps and what they've done keep you imprisoned emotionally. And don't hate them: they can't help it. Besides..." he paused and placed his hand on Kiara's wet face "You have a brilliant life ahead of you. Now go live it, sweetie." And with that, Ian's hand slowly dropped, his eyes closed, and he smiled.

Wiping in vain at the still flowing tears, Kiara reached into her pocket and pulled out her blue ribbon that she had won at her first Gymnastics competition in training camp as a kid, placing it in Ian's right hand, she folded his hands over his chest. With a kiss on the forehead, Kiara rose to leave Ian's body behind. It wasn't until then that she realized that Erin was still fighting...


Mynamescox44 :
mrfe :
Seifer looked to his friends and to his relief, they were all okay, even Rufus. As far as he could tell they all seemed fine, or at least as well as could be, given the night's events.

"Seifer!" Taryn shouted as she saw the blood coming from his stomach which he covered with his hand.

"I'm okay." the officer reassured his friend. "It's nothing serious, just a minor gash." and though he could see that Taryn received little comfort from his words, she at least didn't try to argue that she needed to poke on him some more with that evil needle.

"Well then," Mark began "we seem to be quite the unexpected warrior band. Not a one of them have managed to take us down yet. Though I wouldn't suggest we get too arrogant about it."

"Arrogant?" the teen replied as she brushed hair out of her face "All I am is ready to get out of this nightmare. I'm going to be losing sleep over this whole ordeal for months."

The two men said nothing, just thought that they couldn't blame her for feeling that way. She was too young to have to go through this...though really age couldn't prepare anyone for what had happened tonight.

"So," Mark broke the silence finally "I guess we're going to continue our way to the Fuller Heights border?"


(OoC: sorry you two, there wasn't much I could really do with that scene. The good stuff is coming up soon. Be prepared: you'll have a tough go of it. )

One man knocked out, another one killed by Ian and Rick was taking a bath in the lake. One more man left and he was standing right before Erin.

"You guys don't have enough, huh? Think you can stand a chance?", Erin said to the last aggressor standing on his feet.

"No longer the wimpy guy, I can tell. Have we gone too far?"

"Killing my best friend was a terrible mistake you guys have done."

"Don't worry, you'll join him in a moment."

The aggressor charged Erin, who sidestepped to avoid the attack. The man lost balance and fell on the ground. He stood on the knees to get back on his feet. Erin was raising the crowbar like a golf club, ready to smash the right side of the head. But he saw just a fragment of second Kiara leaping on the man, like a wild panther.

"Kiara, no!", Erin shouted.

Panicked, he dropped his crowbar in order to come to Kiara's rescue, struggling against Erin's opponent. The fight stopped, which made Erin worried about Kiara's state. He couldn't lose her. He wouldn't stand this. He finally saw her moving on the top of the lying aggressor. Relieved by this, he helped her to get back on her feet and saw the man down, a knife stuck in his stomach. He was dead, killed in cold blood by Kiara. The last person she killed was her ex-boyfriend Don.

"Kiara, are you ok?" Erin asked her.

"I'm alright", she answered solemnly. "Ian's dead because of them so I had to do that."

"There's only one person responsible for this.", he frankly said, as he stared at Rick who finally managed to get out of the water.

Erin walked towards Rick, who was taking a break. Seeing Erin getting closer and closer, he started to run away to the East but Erin easily caught him up and laid him down violently. Rick shouted then crawled to flee from the furious beast. Erin stood to the right and kicked Rick on the side. He shouted once more. Erin was ready to make him talk, even if he had to beat him down merciless.

"Please Erin... Mercy...", he begged

"You dare begging for mercy after what you've done?", Erin furiously said to Rick. "I trusted you, let you join the group and, in return, you express your gratitude by killing one of my friends with your orchestrated ambush."

"My orchestrated ambush, yes...".

Rick laughed. It amused him, which was not the case for Erin. Erin stomped Rick's nuts with one foot to make him stop laughing

"Ah, damnit! My crouch! You son of a-"

He was cut off by another kick to his side. Erin was literally making him pay for all what he did.

"Now tell me, why have you done all this?"

"Beat me up, the defenceless person lying on the ground, as long as you can. I ain't gonna tell anything. Ya hear me? Nothing!"

"I think you don't understand what I meant to say." Erin said after kicking Rick side once more. "So I'm going to use simple words for you so you get it. In other words, spill the truth. Now!"

"Just f*** off! You won't get anything from me!"

"Very well."

Erin looked for his crowbar. If the man didn't want to talk, Erin had no other choice but being more intimidating.

"Did he tell you anything important?", she asked.

"No. He sure is persistent but he will talk. I just need-"

"Erin! Behind you!"

Erin turned back. Rick was back on his feet and rushed to the young man, holding a knife on his right hand and yelling like a mad man. A desperate move in vain, as he stopped running and finally fell on the ground, a self-made knife made with a sharp piece of glass stuck on his back.

"That was a close call, dude!", someone said.

Erin and Kiara looked to the south and saw a young teen moving towards them. He looked like a 14-years old kid, with spiky hair, leaf green eyes. He wore a sleeveless grey hoodie, a red T-shirt by the look of the sleeves, a blue bandana wrapped around his left arm, a blue jeans with holes at the knees and black and white sneakers.

"Well, thanks.", Kiara said.

"No problem, sweetie.", the teen replied with a wink."Looks like you two have been harassed by these psycho freaks. Geez... we can barely look for supplies without being taken down by these guys. Good thing I was stopping by here. This guy was going for a strike."

"They actually got my friends.", Erin solemnly said while showing Ian's body.

"Damn, sorry to hear that, dude."

Meow. It was Fluffy, who appeared from behind the young boy's legs.

"Fluffy!", Kiara claimed joyfully.

Fluffy walked towards Kiara and Erin, so happy to see them as well.
 
"Oh, so that was your cat. I found this poor kitten somewhere around. I thought it was lost and trying to flee from these jerks so I wanted to bring it back to the headquarter."

"Wait! You have a headquarter?" Erin asked.

"You bet! It's just a bit to the north-east from here. My sister and the others are waiting there."

"Waiting alone over there? With these guys around?", Kiara said

"Hey, don't worry. It's pretty much like a fortress with places to hide in order to trick or ambush bad people. We have weapons, mostly self-made weapons, but we're starting to lack of supplies so I was looking around to gather some, hopefully. Why don't you come with me and see by yourself?"

"Ok, then.", Erin said."Kiara, gather the weapons and the backpacks. I have something to do."

She nodded  and started collecting all the things left on the ground. "Lemme help ya, sweetie.", the young boy said to Kiara. She was a bit disturbed by the "sweetie" he kept saying over and over again to Kiara. They apparently found a young Don Juan who was not afraid to call the first woman he saw like this. As for Erin, he went towards Ian's body, knell and said as a tear dropped down on his face: "I'm sorry, Ian... I'll protect her, even if I have to risk my life. I'll escort her to New Heaven. There, she will start a fresh new chapter of her story: her new future. I won't fail, I promise." Then, he stood up and came back to Kiara and the young boy. Together, they went to the north-east, where the headquarter was.

After a bit of walk, they stood before a building. The young boy opened the doors and invited Erin, Kiara and Fluffy to come in. He closed the door behind them. "Tada!", the boy said after turning the lights on.

"It's... a bar?", Erin asked, astonished.

"Not any kind of bar, dude." He walked towards an old jukebox, pressed a button and, a few seconds later, "Johnny B. Goode" was resonating in the room. "Hey guys! Wake up! We have guests!"

A dozen of teens showed up in the bar. "Welcome to our fortress", the young boy said to Erin and Kiara. "If there's anything you want, feel free to ask. This place is now yours too." A young girl rushed to the young boy and hugged him.

"Chris! You're back!", she said.

"Hell yeah, I'm back Megan!", he replied, smiling.

Happy to see her brother back, she immediately run back where she came from to warn the others probably, if there was more kids in this place.

"That girl is my sister. She doesn't like when I go outside. But I always say that we need supplies and all. She understands, even though she fears the worst every single time."

"She sure cares about you.", Erin said to Chris.

"You're damn right, dude."

"I wish my brother knew what I'm going through, here at Fuller Heights. He would come.", Erin thought to himself. "Or wouldn't he? I don't know. We got quite an argument before I started going on vacations with my friends here."

"You're alright, Erin?" Kiara asked to Erin.

"Hmm... yes. It's just... all that happened... I... I... need a break."

"Hey, you two. If you need to take a nap -which I would understand- there's an empty room upstairs. It's yours."

"Really? Thanks Chris!", Kiara said.

"Anytime!"

Kiara and Erin headed to that empty room without wasting any more time. They haven't rested for a while and they really needed that. They also couldn't believe where they actually were at the moment. That place, ruled by an army of young kids, probably ready to fight for their life against any kind of opponent with strength and intelligence. It was hard to believe that. They only saw psycho killers in Fuller Heights. They were not expecting that at all. A group of kids who started from nothing but a bar to the creation of a colony... Smart kids, indeed. Smart kids.

(OoC: No u pdate tonight, sorry. Had a long day and ran on half a night's sleep. I'll u pdate again tomorrow. Again, I apologize for the missed u pdates the past few days, but life is crazy right now with everything going on with mom. I'll try to get back to u pdating every night again soon)

After the fight, the group decided to rest for a while before continuing on. They haven't had a chance since they were at Mark's, and fatigue was really starting to become apparent. Though it was far from their first choice, they were already at Kyle's house.
"As long as we're in the same room, we should be fine. We can move a dresser or something in front of the door while we're asleep," was Seifer's argument to his companion's concern for dropping their guard. They went to the bedroom without the dead body drowned in blood, and decided to let Taryn have the bed. At this point Seifer actually asked Mark for a few of the pain pills he offered before. After some light-hearted conversation, and some more stitching from Taryn's capable hands, they finally got some rest.
After sleeping a few hours, Seifer woke up, unable to sleep further. Both his allies were still out cold. Sitting alone in the quiet, his mind started processing through all the events since he arrived. The more he thought about it, the more anxious he was becoming. They made it this far with little damage, but how long would that luck hold out? How many more people would have to die by their hands? How many more corpses would line their path?
Seifer decided to check out around the house, to try and quell the thoughts that were starting to plague him. He slid the dresser just enough to squeeze out the door, but left it close enough to almost bar entry. Passing through the kitchen, he used the gas stove top to light a cigarette, his lighter still too wet from the last struggle. After finishing his cigarette while checking outside through the windows, he went outside to be sure no one was around.
Checking out the area, all seemed to be calm. Except for the pair of bodies still hanging on the one side of the house. "What was that boy trying to tell me?..." Seifer thought to himself, his anxiety finally beginning to dampen. "Was it about Bill and his people, or something we haven't dealt with yet..." Before he could finish his thought, he heard a scream from inside the house. It sounded like Taryn.
Rushing back inside and up the stairs, Seifer made it to the room as Mark was moving the dresser away from the door. "What happened?!" Seifer yelled to Mark. Mark sighed, "Obviously nothing now that you showed up. She freaked out since you disappeared." Seifer couldn't help but laugh a little, until he saw Taryn's tear filled eyes.
"I thought they took you! How could you just leave like that?!" Taryn shouted angrily. "I'm sorry, Taryn. I was just looking around since I couldn't sleep." Seifer replied sincerely. "I'd say 'Get a room', but how about I just leave you two alone in here?" Mark cut in with a smirk. Taryn's glare shifted to Mark and he looked away, knowing the joke didn't go as well as he'd hoped.
After calming Taryn down and preparing themselves, grabbing what supplies they could bring out of Kyle's house, the group was ready to set out again...

(OoC: Took the opportunity to speed up time a bit since each player slept for a while.
We're nearing the end of the RP, and as such survival will become more difficult with each round or two. Good luck all!
Additionally I will be including u pdates on more things that were initially unseen by players
And finally, Enemy stats are being nerfed a bit as they currently are a bit too OP. They will by no means be easy, and as I said, surviving is going to be increasing in difficulty as a whole)

U pdate #17
September 1st, 9:00 PM
Current conditions: Clear skies, wet/muddy (but flood water is gone), 70°F. Dark
Player u pdate: One player changed location. Three players stats changed.
Various u pdates:
Three groups of enemies changed location.
Enemies are becoming more unified as sane NPCs decrease.
Two NPCs entered danger.

Map Locations:
•Marcus' House: F7 
•School: G3 
•Store (Mr. Winston's grocery): G4 
•Park: G5 
•Mark's House: G6 
•Dog groomer: G7 
•Ace's House: H6 
•Taryn's grandparent's house (burned down): H8 
•Dan's uncle's house: I2 
•Survivor HQ: E8

Laian :
Erin's sleep was interrupted by the sound of screaming downstairs. The sound coming from a floor below him reminded Erin of the happenings at Dan's uncle's house the night before, and for a moment he lay frozen, his mind transported back to that scene. Kiara snapped to as well, but she sat straight up in a rush, throwing poor Fluffy who had been sleeping on her chest roughly to the floor. The cat let out a plaintive meow, and walked toward the rug stretching it's back legs behind it with each step.

"What's going on?!?" Kiara asked, panic in her voice. "Where's Mr. Pe..." she paused as her memory slowly began to clear up and sleep left her. "What's all the screaming about, Erin?"

The boy barely acknowledged her words with a mumble she couldn't decipher.

"Erin!" she snapped.

"What?" he came back to reality. Before he could react, the door to the room they were in came flying open and a young teen with a sledgehammer stepped in. The boy wore a sleeveless T shirt and a pair of cut off jeans. From his neck a woman's heart shaped locket hanged, the cover was open, but he was too far away for Erin or Kiara to make out what was in the picture. More prominent was the fact that his shirt was covered in blood spatters.

Erin rose to his feet and the boy charged toward him shouting angrily, his sledgehammer pulled to one side so that he could swing with his full force, and swing he did. Erin rolled to the side and the hammer crashed into the boarded up window, breaking one of the boards and causing the hammer to get wedged between the boards. The boy struggled to dislodge the weapon, leaving him vulnerable. Now was Erin's chance!

"Shoot! My tire iron!" Erin realized he had left his weapon on the other side of the boy since he didn't have the time to grab it.

Crack!

The boy feel limp on the floor as the sickening sound of skull cracking resonated in the room. Erin stood confused momentarily until what he saw on the other side of the downed boy began to sink in.

Kiara stood trembling with Erin's tire iron in her hand. She had smashed the teenage attackers skull.

"Fast thinking, Kiara." Erin offered before realizing how badly she was shaking.

Clang.

The tire iron fell to the ground and Kiara studied her hands wide eyed, as her breathing sped up rapidly.

"Kiara?" asked Erin as he stepped closer "Are you okay?"

An ear piercing scream answered his question as the ear offending Kiara began scrubbing her hands harshly against her jean pant legs. Then just as suddenly as the screaming had started, it stopped, and the girl ran for the trash can and began retching. When the stomach emptying subsided, she stood upright, wiped her mouth with her trembling hands, and turned about to see several teens standing behind her, and still several more standing outside the door.

"Are you okay?" a girl that looked to be about fifteen asked Kiara.

"Yes, I'm...I'm fine." she answered as Erin approached her.

"What was that about?" he asked plainly.

"I felt his skull cracking when I hit him..." she answered "I did that with MY hands. How on Earth can you use that thing?"

Erin paused and thought of how odd it seemed. This girl had stabbed a man to death just hours ago, and now breaking a skull horrified her? He wasn't sure he understood, but he didn't dare ask. She however seemed to read his mind as her next sentence answered his unasked question.

"I mean yeah I stabbed Rick and Don, and yes I feel worse about that than I can say, but...that sound...that feeling...it was awful." she said, misty eyed but refusing to let the tears fall. Erin instinctively wrapped his arms around her, but words eluded him. "It made me feel like a monster...like them" she whimpered into Erin's shirt. "I don't want to become like them, Erin."

"You'll never be like them, Kiara." he reassured her. "Never. You were just protecting me. They do what they do for fun."

"You two okay?" it was Chris.

"Yeah, we're alright" Erin answered, loosening his grip on Kiara who looked up at Chris. "How did he get in here? I thought this place was guarded too well for that." Erin said, slightly angered that he had nearly let Kiara get hurt because this boy underestimated their defenses.

"It is..." Chris said solemnly "Jeff was one of us. He just...snapped. He was sitting there talking to Christen and he just grabbed his head, stood up, grabbed his weapon and...and bashed her right in the head. He killed a few of the kids downstairs and came running up here. I was in the back when it happened, that's just what they told me."

He snapped randomly? This thing was hitting people still? The sane were losing it for no apparent reason? For a moment the fear of the same happening to Kiara crossed Erin's mind, but he chased the thought away immediately. Still, could he remain here? It could happen again, and to anyone. Maybe even him. That thought filled him with dread. What if he snapped like that and hurt Ki...no, no it couldn't happen. He wouldn't let it. Somehow he would make sure they were both okay.


mrfe :
Mynamescox44 :
As the group headed out of the front door, Taryn tried to think of something to say to ease her embarrassment at Mark's joke. He'd meant well, and she knew that, but she felt extremely self conscious about it now. And Seifer had chuckled at her reaction to him being gone. What if Seifer thought she was too...attached to him? Too clingy? Too needy? Would he distance himself? He was her friend, and right now she needed that badly. She decided that she needed to start trying to stand on her own two feet and quit clinging to Seifer like a scared child.

"You're practically an adult, Taryn.' She scolded herself mentally 'It's time you act like one!'

"You okay, kid?" asked Mark. He meant well again, but the look he saw on Taryn's face when he said 'kid' let him know it was the wrong choice of words. "I'm sorry, you're probably an adult, I don't know. I just...you look...younger than me. The kid thing... it's just a bad habit. Something I call teens. And I mean you may not even be a teen, you could be twen"

"I'll be eighteen tomorrow." she interrupted coldly.

"Oh...right. Well yeah, like I said that's not"

"Shut up."

Did she really just tell him to shut up? Mark didn't know whether he wanted to laugh, give her the what for, or oblige. Told to shut up by a seventeen year old. The more he thought about it, the more he nearly cracked up, and something told him that was the worst thing he could do right now.

"Excuse me?" Mark replied sounding as irked as he could manage in hopes that she would think that he took her seriously.

"I said" the teen began and followed through with a sentence riddled with expletives that basically said that she REALLY didn't feel like hearing Mark say another word for a good while...all while finding a colorful way to call him donkey.

The two men halted. Taryn flinched, wondering if she had maybe taken her point a tiny bit too far. The look on Seifer's face as he turned around and stared at her in disbelief made her feel so small she could have crawled under one of the pieces of gravel they were crunching underfoot. Her head dropped slightly, and she turned her eyes toward Mark who had a similar look on his face.

"Sorry." she said barely audible, but sincere.

"You should be."
"Don't be."
Mark and Seifer gave contradicting replies simultaneously.

"She shouldn't?"
"I shouldn't?"
This time Seifer and Taryn spoke in unison.

"No. You needed to let that out. I understand." was Mark's reply.

She somehow doubted that he really could have understood why she reacted that way. He couldn't have known that she had to show her two companions on this trek that she wasn't a child. That she was wrestling with herself inwardly and needed to prove to herself too that she wasn't a child. That his joke had made her feel silly, weak, and embarrassed. And yet looking in his eyes, she could tell he really did. She smiled a knowing and somewhat broken smile at him, and he did the same with a slight nod.

Meanwhile Seifer stood there staring still. Glancing back and forth between the two.

"What?" she asked, knowing full well what he was thinking.

"I didn't know you used language like that." was all he could say.

"I don't normally..." truth was, she had never said any of those words, had only heard most of them once or twice, and wasn't entirely sure what that one word even meant, but apparently she'd used it right. That or the men were so stunned that they missed half of what had come out of her mouth. Either seemed entirely possible at this point.

Before Seifer could respond, a crude home made javelin made out of a stick and a pocket knife flew past him barely missing his head, and stuck in the tree behind him.

Three men approached them. One with a crowbar, one with a pocket knife, and the third unarmed now that his wannabe javelin had missed Seifer.

"Aw man," javelin boy began "No wonder coach cut me from the team. Kind of makes me feel bad about killing him for it...well, not really, but..."

Great. These guys seemed even loopier than most of the others they'd faced if that were possible. Hopefully the greater lack of sanity didn't equal being even more dangerous.

Mark immediately jumped towards the guy with the crowbar, figuring it matched up with his club better. Seeing Taryn and Seifer jump towards the other two through his peripheral vision, Mark focused entirely on taking his opponent down. Swing after swing after swing, Mark and his opponent threw themselves at each other. Mark landed a couple weak shots to his assailants ribs, but received a good wack on his left arm in turn. It wouldn't do more than bruise, but it hurt enough to distract Mark briefly.

Turning away from his opponent briefly, Mark attempted to use the terrain to his advantage. He jumped to a patch of higher ground, spinning to throw a blow at his opponent as he landed, then attempted to do the same thing again with another patch of ground. As he landed, though, his foot hit a patch of damp moss and his feet slipped out from under him. As he fell backwards, towards where he had been, he felt the creep's crowbar connect solidly with his face. Landing, Mark knew something was really wrong, as he couldn't see well out of his left eye. He didn't feel any pain, so he decided to take advantage of the adrenaline and renew his attack on his opponent.

As Mark turned to strike, his opponent hesitated with a look of shock on his face as he stared at Mark. Without thinking, Mark threw a blow aimed directly at the creep's head, which missed completely. "Man, what is up with my depth perception?" Mark wondered, realizing he still wasn't seeing well through his left eye. Pausing briefly, Mark touched his lower eyelid, and saw blood on his hand as he pulled it away. Panic surged, but Mark did his best to calm himself. "Plenty of time to worry about this after I take care of him" Mark thought to himself. As he turned to throw another blow at his opponent, Rufus latched himself onto the creep's leg, and the combined efforts of Rufus and Mark brought the man down. Jumping on top of him, Mark began punching him in the face, stopping only when he was sure the guy was unconscious.

As Mark stood back up, he realized that his eye was bleeding profusely. Tearing off a piece of his shirt, Mark applied pressure to his eye, which brought on the sensation he had been trying to hold at bay - pain. "Agh!" Mark yelled, falling back to his knees in pain. Opening his good eye, he looked back towards the man who he had taken down, and saw a small chunk of something white laying in the grass. Picking it up, Mark eventually realized that it was a piece of his eye. "That's why it's bleeding so much" Mark realized, "I literally lost part of my eye."

After regaining some control of himself, Mark looked back towards the others just in time to see Taryn receive a slice across her thigh from the creep with a pocketknife. Seeing the fight still going on, Mark's adrenaline returned, temporarily relieving some of the pain, allowing him to see the fight a bit more clearly. Crying in pain, Taryn threw herself towards her opponent, taking him to the ground. As soon as they hit the ground, Taryn began throwing punches as fast as she could at her opponents face. Soon, her opponent stopped resisting, and eventually went limp. "Taryn!" Mark shouted, trying to pick himself up to get over to her. "You have to stop hitting him!"

As Mark finally reached Taryn, stumbling the whole way, he saw Seifer run over as well. Seifer pulled Taryn off the very limp creep, as Mark went to feel for a pulse. After searching for a few seconds, Mark realized that he wasn't finding a pulse because there wasn't one to find. Looking at Seifer, Mark shook his head, and was able to mumble "Dead". Taryn fell to the ground, disbelief written all over her face, and she realized exactly what she had done.

"Let's go downstairs. I'll ask someone to make a good breakfast for you.", Chris said to Erin and Kiara.

Chris left the room, followed by Fluffy and Kiara. Erin walked towards the dead boy, took the pendant and put it in the pocket. Then, he went down and sat next to Kiara. Chris went to their table, grinning and holding a bowl filled with fish meat.

"Your breakfast will be ready in a few minutes. Also, I thought I would give this to the cat." Chris knell and gave the bowl of food to Fluffy.

"It's cool. Thanks for everything, Chris." Kiara said.

"My pleasure, sweetie."

Clap, clap, clap, clap. Someone applauded in the room. Chris turned his head towards the counter and stared at the teen standing there, who was drinking a smoothie.

"Rufio...", Chris said.

Chris walked a few steps towards the teen. It's like a tension was about to raise between him and Rufio. Though, it seemed that Rufio was keeping calm, as opposed to Chris who dropped the joyful smile he usually had on his angelic face.

"I heard Christen has been killed by Jeff. Good job, Chris." Rufio drank a bit of smoothie and turned his head back towards Chris."Mind if I ask you where he is now?"

"Upstairs.", Chris replied softly after a brief silence. "He's... he's dead."

Astonishment and whispers resonated in the room. Rufio snapped his fingers to claim silence.

"Figures. Where were you when Jeff killed Christen?"

"In the back of the bar."

"Right." He drank a bit of smoothie. "Who killed him afterwards?"

Kiara started to raise her left hand but she had been cut off by Chris. "Me. I heard screaming, saw Jeff going upstairs and killed him with a crowbar in the back of his head." Again, the room filled with astonishment and all kind of whispers from the other kids. Kiara and Erin was surprised that Chris protected the young girl, who was actually responsible for this.

"Two people dead? Wow, didn't see that coming, to be honest.", Rufio said to Chris, after snapping his finger to claim silence once more. "Ah Chris... Your so-called fortress is well guarded outside, I give you that. Unfortunately, you forgot there was an inside that needs to be kept safe as well. You see what I'm talking about, right?"

Chris remained silent and nodded. Rufio drank a bit of smoothie and spilled the rest of it on Chris' head.

"Let me go straight to the point.", Rufio said to Chris afterwards. "I don't know why you claimed to be the leader. Because you found this place and got the illumination that you could create a gang of rebels capable of repelling these psycho killers? That doesn't mean you're born to be a leader, Chris. Absolutely not." He stopped talking for a brief moment. "You are not worthy as a leader, Chris."

Chris, humiliated, stared at Rufio but remained silent. He turned back and went to the kitchen instead. Erin stood up and joined Chris in the kitchen, followed by Kiara and Fluffy. Chris was washing his hair with the water coming from the kitchen sink. "F***!", he shouted. Then, he turned his head towards the door and saw Erin and Kiara.

"You came to humiliate me a bit more? At this point, I don't care any more.", Chris softly said.

"Why did you protect me earlier?", Kiara asked.

"You don't know how Rufio could be towards outsiders. I knew you would say it was you who killed Jeff so I chose to be the one to blame. He was not wrong after all. I should have been more careful and seen that coming. I'm f***ing stupid."

"You're not, Chris. No one knew that would happen." Erin retorted. "And speaking of which, I also want to apologize for what I said earlier, back in the room upstairs."

"It's fine." Chris replied softly.

"Big bro...". Chris turned his head to his right and saw Megan standing next to him. "You're ok?"

"It's nothing, Megan. Don't worry, I'll be fine in a moment."

"Good. The breakfast for our guests is ready."

"Thanks sis'. Bring it here, since they're here."

"Ok!", she said with a big smile.

She brought the breakfast within the next few seconds and put it on a table in the middle of the room. Erin took the pendant out of his pocket and said to Chris: "By the way Chris... Jeff had this pendant around his neck. Who are these people on the picture?"

Chris took the pendant and examined closely the picture. "It's Jeff. And that woman is his mother, Dana. And the last person on the photo is his big brother, Richard."

Richard. The one killed by Kiara at the lake. Kiara and Erin surprisingly stared at Chris.

"Hmmm... did I say... something wrong?", he asked, confused.

"I killed someone named Richard at the lake. It was one of them.", Kiara answered.

(OoC: Two quick side notes. First, I love the "You should be" quote. I say that to people all the time IRL, albeit jokingly. Second, what the heck is a "Grand Brother"? I realize it might be a typo, but what is it, if it's not? OK, back to the story.)

"Taryn, it's not your fault. You're only trying to survive. These people are beyond saving." Seifer was trying to console Taryn as he was tearing through the medical supplies for Mark's wound. Pulling out a patch of gauze and some antiseptic, he sanitized the gauze and placed it over where Mark's eye used to be. Taryn was in no shape to help, and this wasn't exactly a wound that stitching would fix. "You might want to take a few of those pills, Mark. This is really going to hurt for a while."
After placing the gauze, Seifer wrapped Mark's head in a layer or two of gauze, eye patch style, then wrapped it again with a few strips of duct tape to keep it all in place. "You need to keep some light pressure on it until the bleeding stops completely." Seifer advised Mark. "Thanks. You should probably look after Taryn. I'll be fine." Mark seemed to be handling the situation extremely well.
Taryn was still in shock, although she wasn't crying, just mumbling a little. She had curled up, rocking back and forth slightly while staring at the ground with her head resting on her knees. The only words Seifer could make out were "monster" and "deserve to die." Seifer knelt down beside her and wrapped her in his arms. "You're OK, Taryn. Every thing's going to be fine. Without you, I'd be lost in this nightmare." Seifer was trying to console her, but after hearing himself say it, he couldn't help but think it was true.
After a few minutes, Taryn finally said "How are we any better than them? I can't do this anymore. I just can't kill anyone else. I'm a monster..." Seifer shook his head, "No you're not. You never wanted to hurt them. That's the difference between us and them. If the choice was yours, nobody would have to die. Nobody would have to suffer. You're a lot stronger than you give yourself credit for. Feeling the way you do right now is exactly what proves you're still human." Taryn wanted to argue, but couldn't find any words to do so. Seifer was right, as much as her emotions indicated otherwise.
A little while later, Taryn finally let Seifer patch up the cut on her leg. They let Mark rest as long as possible, before getting ready to trek on...

U pdate #18
September 1st, 10:20PM
Current conditions: clear, muddy, °68F. Dark
Player u pdates: three players stats changed. Two players changed location.
Enemy u pdates: Three groups of enemies have changed location.
NPC u pdate: Two NPCs died.

mrfe :
Mynamescox44 :
The three journeyed on in silence, each wrestling with their own thoughts.

Mark kept asking himself how this had happened. He was a better fighter than that. He was more aware of his surroundings than his mistake had indicated. All night and all day he had fought creep after creep without much more than a scratch, and now in one single fight he loses an eye? How did it all happen?

His frustration turned into anger as he recalled how he'd missed that goon after his eye had been messed up, and how he couldn't make it to Taryn in time to help her, and instead had stumbled all over the place trying to get to her. He'd come along to help people, and yet here he was failing to take good enough care of himself to allow him to help anyone else. He wasn't even able to help get Taryn off of her as attacker in time to prevent his death. Not that he cared about the creep's life - he didn't. He worried about Taryn and how it would affect her.

Wait, he didn't care about the creep dying? He really didn't, and that disturbed him even more.


Taryn stared at the ground as they walked. The girl was mentally devastated, but how could she not be? She had went from having never killed to beating a man to death, even pummeling his lifeless body until pried loose from him. And then there was the woman she had attacked earlier, Taryn still didn't know for sure if she lived or not. She wasn't a dummy, she knew the men with her never checked for a pulse before answering that she was okay. They didn't know, and they were as scared of the truth as Taryn was.

'Why were they afraid to check though? Are they afraid I'll snap and do the same to them?' Images of that blind rage that she didn't know she had inside taking over and sending her tearing into her two friends flashed briefly into her mind, chased by images of the man she had just beaten lying there limp under the closed fists that she kept raining down on his smashed up face. Images of the blood that was spattering with each punch. The blood that was flowing freely from the man's nose and even his ears as she kept mercilessly pummeling him, that blood kept flying with each blow delivered by her hands...her hands, not someone else's. Her's. She had done it, and to protect no one but herself this time. Because she was angry. Those thoughts caused her to look down at her hands.

Blood. Blood covered her hands and even now ran down her arms as she held them up to look at them. Her gaze traveled farther, up her arms, to her body...blood everywhere she looked. Seeing that she was passing by a puddle of rain water, she glanced at her reflection and saw that blood was splattered across her face and her hair was matted together with the red fluid.

So much blood. Blood she had spilled. She had beaten the man to death. And for what? To survive a little longer until someone else got the better of her? And what bothered her the most was how she had become so enraged again that she more or less lost touch with reality while she tore into another human. Where did that rage come from? What happened to the little girl that wanted to be a nurse and save lives? The girl that used to try to nurse her toys, pets, and everything else back to health? How had she become this?



As they traveled on southward, Seifer resumed his thoughts over what the teen pinned to the wall had been trying to say earlier. There was something he'd wanted Seifer to know, but what? He wasn't able to get to the boy in time to find out, and now Taryn limped alongside him injured. He'd failed to protect her too. Things weren't going right. Nothing had been going right tonight, even less so than last night.

Had he not been as prepared for action as he thought he had? Was he in over his head with this? And now Taryn and Mark were wounded and stood far less chance of surviving than they did a few hours before. Had he taken them straight to the exit where he'd left his car, they would be okay and on their way to safety now. But no, he'd had to play the hero and try to save the whole community and it just might have cost these two their lives.

Seifer battled on with himself as they approached a small cluster of trees, bodies hanged suspended from them like Christmas tree ornaments. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven...seven of them dangled there, all were missing at least one body part. Perhaps equally disturbing was the fact that three people sat there staring at the bodies smiling, as if admiring their handiwork. As Seifer's eyes landed on them, theirs turned to his group. Rising to their feet, they silently looked at the three friends, and in unison tilted their heads to the right, but said nothing. Their silence was unnerving. Slowly the psychos stalked toward them, each armed with a hand saw.

As the battle began, Taryn found herself afraid to use her knife or even her fists. She was afraid of killing again. Afraid that anger would come through again.



Laian :
Before the conversation could go any farther, a shout went up in the front room causing them to run to see what was going on: a group of at least thirty goons were busting through the front door. The teens didn't back down however, and the two sides clashed and met in the middle with the sounds of battle resounding with each move. Weapons clanged together, grunts and cries of pain rang out, and the thud of bodies hitting the ground were heard.

Without so much as a word, Kiara, Erin, and Chris all dove right into the fray, while Fluffy stayed behind on a table and watched the madness.

(OoC: Mynamescox, I hope you don't mind me taking the lead on the second fight in a row (albeit solely from Mark's perspective), this is just a crucial storyline point for Mark that I really want to express well. Let me know if you'd like me to change any of the minor details)

"More? Really?" Mark was very displeased with their new threat, and he wasn't hiding it. The anger he felt towards these creeps had grown past his adamant stance on killing them, and he wondered if it would be easier to just kill everyone they fight. It'd save time, and they wouldn't have to worry about anyone catching them from behind.

Seeing Taryn so distraught pulled Mark back into reality, though. He knew he couldn't kill in front of her, and he hoped Seifer felt the same way. If there was one thing he wasn't willing to see happen, it was watching Taryn go crazy with guilt or self-loathing.

As the three goons approached, Taryn seemed to shrink from the fight. Mark couldn't blame her, she had just killed a man for the first time (that she knew of, Mark never told anyone about Taryn's ACTUAL first kill), and she was horrified that she might do so again. Mark shifted in between two of the creeps and Taryn, in hopes of sheltering her from having to fight.

Two of the creeps shifted over to attack Mark, leaving Seifer with one goon to fight off. Seeing two of them walking towards him, laughing maniacally, set Mark on edge. They staggered themselves as they approached, so Mark would have a few seconds of just having to fight one of them before the second was in position to join the fight. Thinking quickly, Mark pulled his makeshift bandage off his eye, revealing the full gory horror underneath to the creep attacking him. The sight caused the goon to pause, shocked at what he saw, and Mark took advantage of the situation and knocked the goon out cold.

The second goon recovered from the surprise before Mark could engage him, though, and the two set their feet to fight. As Mark was blind in his left eye, the goon kept inching that way, in hopes to gain an advantage against Mark. Before they had inched far enough that the creep had a shot at attacking the still-immobile Taryn, Mark launched himself at the goon. Swinging his club as hard as he could, Mark used his whole body in a well-placed strike aimed at the goon's head. Rather than connecting with bone, as Mark expected, he was shocked to see that the goon managed to use his saw to deflect Mark's blow away from his head enough to escape harm.

Realizing that the club hadn't worked, Mark tackled the goon into the ground. Landing a couple solid blows into the creep's stomach, Mark started to see red. Hit after hit after hit, he pounded the goon's stomach. Before he went to far, though, Mark leaned forward and stuck his arm into the creep's neck in an attempt to choke him into unconsciousness. As he did so, the creep managed to pull the saw into Mark's back, leaving him with a very painful cut on his back. Yelling in pain, Mark punched the goon's elbow, causing him to release the saw. Winding up, Mark used everything he had to punch the goon in the face, which connected solidly.

Taking a breath, Mark realized that his eye had started bleeding again. Tearing another portion of shirt off, Mark began applying pressure to his eye again. He looked at his opponent, who was very unconscious on the ground, and considered grabbing the goon's saw. After considering it for a couple seconds, Mark chose to stick with his trusty chair leg, and reached for it with the intent of using it to help himself up.

As he put weight on the chair leg to stand up, though, a large chunk of the thick end of the leg broke off, leaving Mark with a sharp ended stick that was 2-3 feet long. Standing back up, Mark looked to Seifer, and noticed that he had nearly finished with his opponent. He went back to his own opponent to see if there was anything he could grab from the creep, but was stopped by a scream from Taryn.

Looking back to Taryn, Mark saw that the first goon he had knocked out had gotten back up, and was moving towards Taryn with the saw in a raised hand. As the goon wound up to strike down, Mark did the only thing he could think to do - he took his new pointy stick and stabbed the creep in the back.

The goon dropped the saw, and grabbed the chunk of table leg protruding from his stomach as he fell to the ground. Taryn screamed as she saw the goon fall, and screamed once more once she realized it was Mark who had stabbed the creep. Mark looked at her, then at the creep he had stabbed, and something snapped inside him. He pulled the leg out of the creep, and proceeded to stab him once more in the back as he writhed on the ground. Looking at Taryn and Seifer, Mark saw red. Realizing what was happening to him before it set in too deeply, Mark turned to run north, away from them. As he started to run, he looked back at Taryn and said "Save me".

---

Running through the woods, Mark wanted to get as far away from Seifer and Taryn as possible. He knew he was losing it, it was just a matter of time before he was one of the creeps he hated so much, and he didn't want to be responsible for their untimely demise. So, he ran. And ran. And ran.

As he ran, Mark unintentionally replayed all the events he had experienced when the town went crazy. He thought back to the woman at his door, he thought to his first meeting with Taryn and Seifer shortly thereafter, and then meeting Kyle before watching him run off into the woods. He thought of his friends who he had watched die the third night of the attacks, how he had gone into full-isolation mode afterwards, and how happy he had been surviving with Taryn and Seifer. As soon as the memories began to fade, he started feeling angry. Really angry. Then, almost as if a wave was rolling onto a beach, Mark felt a metaphorical wave flow through his mind, replacing the memories with delusional versions of the old ones. He surprised himself by laughing out loud at the man he killed not 10 minutes earlier, and realized in shock that he enjoyed killing the creep. And then, for the first time, Mark wanted to kill.

---

Reaching a clearing, Mark stopped to take a breath. His one good eye searched the woods surrounding him for any sign of life, he was hungry. He realized now, though, that he wasn't hungry for food. He wasn't thirsty for water. Instead, Mark could only think about his next kill. He smiled at the thought of his table leg sliding into his next victim, ending life that he once held so sacred. Licking his lips, Mark began turning in circles, hoping to see anyone to kill.

"Hahaha, you're one of us now!" An unfamiliar voice caused Mark to freeze. "We thought it'd be your lady friend who turned first, but we'll definitely take you". Mark turned, and saw a group of four creeps laughing and walking towards him. "You're one of us now, big guy" The leader said, "Come on, let's go find some poor idiot to have fun with".

Mark didn't want to go with them. Mark didn't want to waste time hunting down the "right" victim. Mark wanted to kill, and he wanted to do it now. Giving himself over to his rage, Mark saw red. Looking at the group of four, Mark raised his table leg and charged them. He caught one of the younger members of the group with a solid stab to the upper chest, causing the man to fall over in pain. Pulling the leg out, Mark jumped on the leader of the group.

Mark didn't remember much of the following few minutes, it was a blur of swinging, stabbing, and wrestling. Mark stood up from a kneeling position over a corpse, and looked around at the 4 bodies surrounding him. He noticed a wet spot on his left side, and pulled up his shirt to see a nasty bruise and some blood coming from a spot where he had taken a solid hit. He pulled his table leg out of one of the goons, and sat down a few feet away. Staring at the corpses, Mark laughed. This was fun! The adrenaline, the thrill of ending someone's life, the terror he saw in the eyes of his victims as they realized it was their final hour, it was all Mark wanted to see!

He heard a yell coming from somewhere to the west of him, and started walking towards it, licking his lips in anticipation of the blood he'd spill.

"It's like the episode 45 of Star Conquest! In real life!", Chris said.

"The episode in which Mercurio and Commander Astra joined the rebel forces to get rid of Dr Oroboros' crazy drones." Erin said afterwards.

"You like Star Conquest?", Chris asked.

Kiara and Erin nodded. "Oh, I like you even more" Chris said joyfully.

"This doesn't look good though.", Kiara said. "There's too many killers here. We won't stand a chance."

"Unless...", Chris retorted before heading to the jukebox.

"Wait! What are you doing?" Erin asked to Chris, who started to rush towards the jukebox.

Successfully dodging the attacks, Chris ran to the jukebox and pressed a button. It didn't work though. "Damnit! Why don't you work?". He kept pressing the button until he heard a shout behind him. Chris turned back and saw a crazed man running to him, holding an iron bar. Chris managed to dodge the swing and stand behind the aggressor. "Oh, you-", the killer said while he turned back. He took a violent kick from Chris in the stomach and hit the jukebox. It finally worked and "Rebel yell" by Billy Idol resonated in the room, which pumped up the teens. Chris rejoined the fight afterwards, helping his fellow friends.

Erin tried to fight and keep an eye on Kiara and Chris at the same time. The enemy side was way too outnumbered that it was crucial to reduce the group. Erin rushed to a distracted foe to disarm him and grab his weapon. His unfortunate target was Kiara's assailant. She was helping a kid to fight back his assailant but another one was trying to swing a machete in her back. "Oh no, you won't.", he thought to himself before running to the bad guy. Quickly, he tackled the enemy as the speed of light and they both fell on the ground.

"Erin!", Kiara shouted, as she turned back to her left after hearing the noise.

Erin and the killer fought like two cats fighting for a piece of fish. The killer repelled Erin with a punch in his face. Kiara went towards Erin, unconscious.

"Erin! Erin! Get up! Please! Wake up!", she said as she shook Erin in order to wake him up.

"Ki... Kiara?", Erin finally said while opening his eyes slowly. They both exchanged a smile.

"I'm gonna get you! Then I'll take care of your girlfriend, ha ha ha ha ha!", he maniacally said to Erin and Kiara, as he rose the machete and ran to the two students. Again? Do they have to pair Erin and Kiara every single time? They're just friends. But that was besides the point, Erin and Kiara were in trouble and the killer was about to stab them. But the aggressor instantly stopped and fell on the ground. A self-made knife was stuck in his back, exactly like Richard at the lake. They raised the head and saw Chris smiling, who saved them from death once more. Behind Chris, another crazed killer was about to stab the kid in the back with a knife.

"Behind you, Chris!" Kiara shouted.

He swiftly turned back and stopped the arm in which the knife was firmly held. Though, destabilized, Chris fell on the ground and was in trouble. With all his strength, Chris was trying his best to repel the knife who slowly went to his heart. The blade was almost piercing the heart.

BANG!

A shot resonated in the room. The killer instantly fell on Chris. The kid turned his head to the left and see Rufio pointing a gun at him. The clip fell on the ground after the shot. It was empty. Rufio just saved Chris, killing the assailant with a bullet right in the head. Chris knew he would have some trouble once that battle ended, knowing Rufio and his arrogant personality. Chris tried to move the dead body out of his torso to see if the knife left a mark. Kiara and Erin went to his rescue and, together, they managed to move the body. Chris checked his torso. No bleeding, no wound. "I'm... I'm alive! Look!", he said smiling. Kiara and Erin replied with a smile. The front door violently opened and another guy came in.

"Enough, guys!", he said.

The few killers alive stopped the fight as soon as they heard these words. The guy moved forward a few steps. It appeared to be a young man, who probably was nineteen. He had black long hair, a scar on his right eye and wore black sleeveless t-shirt, a red bandana attached around his left arm, a dirty jean and grey shoes.

"Well, well, well, that was quite entertaining, to say the least.", he said. "But it lacks of something. Something funnier. Let's see... Ah, I know! Where's the leader of your group?"

Chris stood up slowly and walked a few step towards the guy.

"I am their leader.", he answered solemnly.

The killers laughed in unison for a brief moment until the guy standing right before Chris claimed the silence.

"That's probably the best joke I've ever heard in my entire life. No seriously kiddo, f*** off. I want the real leader."

Chris stayed still, staring at the guy. He was the leader and, this time, he didn't want to hide from danger and death. He made a mistake earlier so he didn't want to make another one.

"I see. Very well, I'll make sure you stay alive long enough to entertain me.", he said to Chris as he put a knife out of his pocket.

Chris removed the self-made knife he threw at the killer who tried to kill Erin and Kiara and went back. The guy smiled. Seeing Chris so persistent amused him so much. He knew he would win the fight easily, even with a hand tied in his back. Rufio stood in front of Chris, holding a hunting knife in his right hand.

"Leave it to me, Chris. He's mine.", Rufio said to Chris solemnly.

"No. I... I must..."

"Stay back, I say."

Chris carried out, turned back and stood between Kiara and Erin. Megan came out of the kitchen and walked towards her big brother, who hugged her.

"Big bro... You're alive. What's happening?"

He remained silent. He didn't mean to worry his sister even more. She might have thought his brother wouldn't make it. Though, seeing him unscathed was a relief. That said, a fight was about to start between Rufio and the other man.

"Johnny...", Rufio said.

"Rufio...", the man with the knife staring at Rufio said."You don't consider running away from death this time?"

"I have no intention of fleeing."

"Oh but that's what you did last time, my good old friend. You left me behind. And I got this scar, thanks to you. I trusted you. I gave you everything and I got none. This is how you thanked me. You cowardly ran away, Rufio." He stopped talking for a brief moment then slowly raise the blade, ready to fight Rufio."Now, shall we start?"

Rufio did the same. The fight between him and his old pal Johnny was about to start, anytime soon. There was no turning back. One of them was gonna meet death in person in the end.

(OoC: My apologies. It occurs to me that I have been failing to send u pdate messages. I have been keeping stats current, but not sharing them with you guys. Again, my apologies. I will try to remember to do so regularly again.)

U pdate #19
September 1st, 11:00 PM
Current conditions: Clear skies, Muddy, 67°F. Dark
Player U pdates: Three players stats have changed. Two players have changed location.
Enemy u pdate: Three groups of enemies changed locations. Enemy efforts continue to become more unified.
NPC U pdate: One NPC died


mrfe :
Walking in the direction of the noise, Mark kept an ear out hoping for another sound. Something. Anything. Just as long as he got some more action. Some more blood.

Once he'd arrived at the spot that the sound had come from, he paused and waited silently for another clue as to it's direction. After what felt like an eternity, he heard something to his right. A rustling in the bushes. Mark scooted close, weapon raised high, and thrust downward with all of his might on the source of the noise. Eagerly he pulled back his weapon to examine the blood on it...but there was none, or none aside from what had been there already, just mud.

So he waited and listened some more.

There it was! A little to the left of his last attempt. Thrusting his weapon like a spear, Mark hit something! Pulling back he found liquid running down the stick...sap. He'd stabbed a tree. Trees were alive, weren't they? So in a way, this sap was kind of like tree blood, right?

Mark grunted, this didn't feel enough like blood. The tree may be bleeding, but it didn't feel it. It didn't scream. It didn't squirm. It didn't plead with it's eyes for mercy...it didn't even have eyes...or real blood.

Mark was angry. The tree had mocked him. Stupid trees.

"Ugghhhh! There's gotta be something around here worth killing!" he shouted, and as he did, he saw something skittering around in the shadows. That gleam returned to his eye and he went rushing toward it, but he stopped when he saw something black, brown, and trembling. "Rufus?" something inside of Mark tried desperately to feel as thoughts of this creature came to his mind. Memories of raising him as a puppy. Memories of walking together at night. Memories of slaughtering people together...of mercilessly...wait, that never happened...or did it? Mark couldn't keep his thoughts straight, but a small shred of something akin to sanity struggled to fight back against the madness that had engulfed him. Mark couldn't say why, but he couldn't find a desire in him to harm this...this thing. That made him even angrier, and caused him to begin shouting things that he didn't even think were real words.

Then he heard it again. Behind him! It was closing in on him! Spinning around Mark saw the ugliest creature he'd even laid eyes on. The thing was at least six feet tall on four legs. It's eyes were blood red - a color that excited Mark - and it's teeth looked extremely sharp. before he could take it in completely, the beast lunged at him, and Mark took a big swing.

Whoosh.

His weapon went through the creature like it wasn't even there. Like it was a ghost or something. Backing away, Mark's back hit a tree, and he saw several more of the foul beasts emerging from the shadows. He was surrounded. All he could do was flail around and hope he hit something, and that's just what he did.

Ten minutes later, Mark fell to the ground panting. He hadn't managed to hit a single one of the creatures, but he was exhausted from spinning in circles and running around like the madman he was, swinging with all his might. Once or twice he'd hit a tree and thought it was one of them, only to be filled with disappointment when no blood came and he realized it wasn't his target that he'd hit. STUPID TREES!

The creatures closed in and Mark knew this was the end. This is what the others had felt like right before he killed the others, huh? He found it oddly interesting. Almost enjoyable in the sickest way possible.

Then something strange happened: the beasts disappeared. Was his mind playing tricks on him? Mark didn't like being tricked, and it made him angry. An anger that needed an outlet. He needed to pursue some more victims. Rising to his feet, he decided to go find just that. A new victim...more blood. As he traveled on, his mind began thinking of new ways to end the next life.


Mynamescox44 :
Taryn clung to Seifer shaking violently with each sob. Seifer was almost numb. He couldn't believe what he had just witnessed. Mark was gone in more ways than one. He knew Taryn needed him, but his limbs felt too thick and heavy to move just yet. His mouth refused to form words. All he could do was stare.

A few minutes passed by and Seifer finally regained enough of his composure to walk to a tree and sit against it. Taryn followed and sat next to him, her knees drawn to her chest, and her arms wrapped around them, buried her face in them, and rocked.

Seifer simply stared into the distance, until final he heard something: Taryn was mumbling to herself. For the first time he truly became aware of his surroundings. Turning to face her, Seifer placed a hand on the distraught girl.

"Taryn? Taryn, are you okay?" no answer, just more mumbling and rocking. "Taryn? Taryn!" still nothing.

'She's snapped too. They're both gone now, and it's all your fault' the words were Seifer's, or rather, his thoughts. But in his mind he could see the creep he'd just fought saying it...then the words repeated themselves:
'She's snapped too. They're both gone now, and it's all your fault!!' This time they were angry words.
'IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!!!!'

Seifer shook his head. He couldn't take leave of his senses too. Taryn needed him. Maybe there was still hope for her. He had to try.

Placing his hand on her again, Seifer repeated himself once more "Taryn, are you okay?"

"NO!!!" the girl screamed at the top of her lungs, her face still buried in her knees. She lifted her head and turned toward Seifer, tears streaming down her face from her bloodshot eyes. "Do I look okay to you?!? DO I?? Because I sure as heck don't feel okay!"

Shock spread across Seifer's face, followed by a strong feeling of pity inside of his deepest parts.

"Oh gosh, stop it with the sympathy will you??" the girl shouted angrier than she had ever been. "I don't need your stupid, worthless, no help pity! I need you to DO something! To help me!" she began sobbing so hard that she chocked and coughed herself windless.

"I know...you're right."

"Darn right I am."

"I've let you down...I'm...I'm sorry." Seifer's head dropped as he voiced his feelings of failure for the first time.

"You think?" her words hurt worse than any of the wounds he'd taken so far tonight. "Dang it, Seifer, I came with you because you said you would protect me!" Seifer started to open his mouth but was cut off "Look around, Seifer! Look!" she gestured with her arms at the scene around them. Bloody dismembered bodies dangled from the limbs of the tree that they sat under. Dead bloody bodies of their attackers lay before them, the two of them were covered in blood, and her leg was wounded. "Does it LOOK like you've helped me ANY tonight?"

"Hey now, you listen here princess" Seifer said indignantly "I've been risking my neck for you, keeping watch while you slept, fighting off the psychos and literally standing between them and you to save your ungrateful butt. So knock it off with the spoiled brat act already."

"Ohh" Taryn said with a little sarcastic laugh behind it "Okay, you want me to be grateful? I can do that! Thank you Seifer, for saving my life! Had you not saved me, I never would have gotten to see my grandparents' house burned down while their dead bodies were still on the front porch. Or seen all of the horrific things I've seen tonight. Or killed a man with my bare hands. Or been sliced open by a lunatic with a pocketknife. Or best of all, see one of the only two people that I've ever called a friend" her sarcasm gave way to another fit of tears and she finished through more sobs "lose his mind and run off to die somewhere...."

All of Seifer's hurt and anger was washed away by those tears. He knew she didn't mean the things she said, she had just seen too much tonight. They both had.

"Come here" he said as he pulled the weeping girl into his arms. "I'm so sorry you've had to see all of this tonight, Taryn. So so sorry."

"He asked me to save him." she said, a teary gasp for breath following each word.

"I saw."

"What am I gonna do, Seifer? I can't just leave him like that. I...I can't leave him out there alone."

"I'm afraid there's nothing you can do, Taryn." he answered as he pulled back to look the teen in the face. "Mark would understand that."

"But he didn't." she said, still crying but with more control over herself now.

"That's because he wasn't there anymore...not really. You saw him, Taryn: that wasn't Mark, it was them. Mark couldn't take it anymore. He wouldn't want you to chase after him when he was like that. That's why he left when he started breaking. He didn't want you to be there."

"But he did. He asked me to help him."

"He didn't know what he was saying."

"But he said it." Taryn said, something definite and final in her voice. "Seifer, I know what I said just a minute ago, but I really do appreciate everything you've done for me. But I can't go on with you and leave Mark when he asked me to save him."

"Taryn..."

"I can't. I won't, Seifer. You can come with me, or I can go by myself, but one way or another I'm finding Mark."

"And then what?" Seifer asked the kind but misguided girl.

"I don't know if I can help...but I can be there with him."

"And if he attacks you? Are you going to fight back?"

"Mark would have wanted me to. He wouldn't want to be this way, even if it meant dying to avoid it, and you know that."

"So we're hunting him down to help him...by killing him?"

"No, we're going to help him any way we can. And if killing him is all we can do...then that's what we'll have to do. It's what Mark would want, and you know that as well as I do."

He couldn't deny the girl had a point. He wasn't sure either of them could do it, but he was moved enough by her devotion to a friend, and he couldn't very well let her go by herself. He saw what it did to him to lose Mark, and he was far more invested in helping this poor girl. He couldn't imagine living with himself knowing he'd left her to die.

"Alright, I'll go."

"Oh thank you, Seifer!" Taryn said, throwing herself into him and wrapping her arms around him. After a moment, the trio-turned-duo rose to their feet and followed in the direction they had last seen Mark head toward.


Laian :
The fight began, each man taking a defensive approach, refusing to underestimate one another. Clearly these two knew each other well enough to know they were a threat. Soon the two began taking swipes at one another, each missing the first few times, but each getting closer each time. Finally the inevitable happened: someone landed a hit. It was Rufio. He hit Johnny below the eye with his blade which cut through the thin layer of skin and scraped across the bone beneath, etching a groove into it and sending Johnny stumbling back into a nearby table. Rufio - a little overzealous - charged toward Johnny as the boy regained his stance. Johnny thrust his blade in front of himself, causing Rufio to dodge out of the way and stumble over a chair.

Rufio hit the floor hard but soon scrambled to his feet, just in time to look up and see Johnny swinging the chair he had tripped over at him. The chair made solid contact and Johnny fell back to the ground. Johnny raised the chair again and brought it smashing down onto Rufio, or at least he tried to. Rufio however had other ideas. Rufio raised his knees to his chest so that the chair hit the soles of his feet, then pushed with all his might, sending the chair backwards and into Johnny's face.

Johnny dropped the chair and stumbled backwards while Rufio - ever the agile one - performed a nip up, landed on his feet, and used his crouched position to launch himself forward at Johnny, a human projectile. His shoulder landed square in Johnny's gut, and the boys fought it out on the ground.

The fight was moving too quickly to see too much of who was hitting who, but after a few moments Rufio was sent sailing backwards through the air by Johnny's legs that thrust out much like Rufio had done to block the chair before. Rufio landed back first across the corner of a table, yelped in pain, and fell to the ground holding his back.

"Rufio!" Chris shouted and began to run to Rufio's side, but his face met a goon's fist, knocking him back toward his friends.

"This ain't your fight, kid." the goon said as he turned back to watch.

The following scene seemed to play out in slow motion before the teens' eyes as Johnny ran to grab his trusty chair again, and stood over Rufio's now paralyzed body. Looking down with a smile, Johnny mouthed 'You lose' and began slamming the chair down with all his might on Rufio repeatedly. The goons cheered loudly with each hit, and the teens began rushing in. Their attempt was futile however as the goons began fighting them away so that the all out brawl resumed and none could come to Rufio's aid.

Again and again the chair slammed down into Rufio until blood began to ooze from his limp body. It wasn't until this happened that Johnny was satisfied, seeing his opponent dead on the floor. But as he stopped to observe his foe's corpse, the usual thrill of the kill didn't come. Johnny felt nothing at first. Then it happened...something wet ran down his face. Had he been cut open under his other eye too? Reaching up to wipe the blood away, Johnny looked at his hand and realized the blood was clear...it wasn't blood at all. It was a tear.

Crying? Sociopathic murderers don't cry! What was this? What was happening to him?? He'd killed at least fifty people in twenty four hours. He had laughed each time! He had no feelings!!

But this...this was his old pal...his childhood best friend. They had grown up together. They were best buds...this wasn't a person, this was Rufio.

"Best friends forever?" the image of his six year old self appeared in his mind. He and Rufio had just met and they stood on his front lawn.

"Forever." Rufio answered with an extended hand.
---
Next he saw himself and Rufio at the hospital. He was twelve and Rufio was trying to comfort him over his mother's death.
---
Now they were playing baseball on the school team together. They thought they were hot stuff for being on the team. Johnny smiled at the memory.
---
Now they were laughing at themselves when they realized that everyone made the team. His smile faded.
---
Now they were talking late at night after Johnny's first date...

"What have I done..." Johnny said, tears pouring down like the rain that had flooded the community the night before. "I'm so sorry, Rufio..." he fell to his knees and wailed "I'm so sorry! We were supposed to be best friends forever...'til the day we died...day...day WE died...?" Suddenly it all became clear.

His feelings had returned and he looked about at the creeps that were slaying the innocent teens in the room with him. He was filled with rage and disgust both at them and at himself. Rising to his feet and wiping the tears away, he knew what had to be done.

"I'll make this right, Rufio. I'll save them for you."

And with that Johnny began walking up behind each psycho one by one, stabbing them and running the blade upward slicing them wide open like he had done to so many innocents already. This time he felt no joy, but he at least had the knowledge that he was in some small way atoning for his actions against his old friend. He had taken out over half of the creeps before they caught on to what was happening. They all turned to face him one by one and charged the traitor. Johnny didn't stand a chance, but the other teens in the room were now free to make their moves and strike from behind.

When it was all said and done, Johnny had met a gruesome and painful end, but the teens had used his sacrifice efficiently and eliminated all of the killers. None felt like celebrating as it's incredibly difficult to feel any sort of joy or pride after killing someone, let alone thirty or more someones, but they were at least grateful to have saved what few of them they did. The teens in total now, were no more than seven, counting Chris, his sister, Erin and Kiara. And their base...it was destroyed and now without a door.

Erin did not understand what happened. No one, actually. "Johnny... Why did you savagely kill your old pal then turned against your allies all of a sudden?", he said as he stared at Johnny's corpse. Only Johnny could answer that question, unfortunately. Erin turned back and saw the last people standing. Kiara was comforting the kids who survived the fight, whereas Chris was on his knees, right before Rufio's body. Erin walked towards the kid.

"He should have let me fight that guy.", Chris said softly.

"He had his reasons to face him. He wanted to fix a mistake he made in the past. And, seeing how Johnny destroyed him, there's no doubt you would not have stood a chance against him."

"I see..." Chris said softly before standing up and looking at Erin. "So, you think I'm not worthy as a leader, like Rufio said."

"That's not what I meant, Chris. I-"

"I'm not that stupid, you know.", Chris cut him off. "I thought you wouldn't be like him. Actually, I was wrong."

Chris went to the stairs leading to the second floor and started to go upstairs.

"Chris!", Erin claimed.

Chris kept climbing the stairs up, completely ignoring Erin's presence. The young student sighed and walked towards the entrance of the bar. He stared at the horizon. "Well, good job Erin. Next time, use the proper words to comfort someone.", he thought to himself. He heard a mewing so he looked down and saw Fluffy looking at Erin. Erin smiled.

"Maybe you should go talk to him, Erin.", Kiara suggested.

Erin turned back and stared at Kiara and the kids. What should he do? Go upstairs and talk to Chris or leave him alone? Seeing how the short discussion they've had a few minutes ago turned out, Erin didn't want to give another shot. But, somewhere deep in his mind, he knew he had to. This time, it would try a better approach. So he finally went upstairs in order to talk to Chris. He checked one room closely. Chris was not in here. He tried another room. No sign of the young boy. "Chris?", he shouted. "Where are you, Chris?". No answers. He kept looking for Chris in the other rooms. "Scheisse... Where could he be?"

"I'm over here."

Erin turned back and saw Chris a brief moment before the young boy headed back inside the room. Erin entered the room. Chris was sitting at the foot of the bed, thoughtful.

"You wanted to say something you forgot to tell me downstairs?", Chris asked, still ignoring Erin. The boy sure was quite upset.

"Chris... I didn't mean you were a bad leader. You saw how the duel turned out. Rufio knew his opponent. Despite how he treated you, he had good intentions. He did not want you to die."

"Still, I did not help him. Well, I tried but I've been pushed away..."

"At least, you did. And Rufio may have noticed that you try to give a hand."

"I don't want to talk about that any more, Erin." Chris desperately said to Erin after a brief silence.

"Oh, we can talk about something else if you want to."

"Sure, why not."

"Tell me Chris... how did come to this bar with your sister?"

"That's quite a long story. We lived here with our aunt, in a cottage nearby the lake. She took care of us after my parents' death. We were happy together, everything was going well and...". Chris stopped talking for a brief moment then carried on."One day, my aunt went outside. I was swimming in the lake, just to be ready for next year. I had in mind the idea of joining a swimming club but that's besides the point. I was done with my training and I saw my aunt, waiting for me on the shore with a bottle of orange juice in her hand. I dried myself, took the juice and thanked her. Then I drank a bit of the juice. My head was suddenly spinning, I felt a bit dizzy. I fell unconscious and woke up in a basement, laid on a table, my arms and feet tied with solid rope. I remembered my aunt smiling at me before I turned my head to both sides and barely saw corpses. Butchered and dismembered corpses. She caressed my body, licked it afterwards. "Delicious. You taste good, Chris", she said joyfully. I asked where Megan was. She answered: "She went to Mr. Winston's grocery to buy some salt and pepper. Because tonight, you will be my dinner. Both of you!". She took a buzzsaw and turned it on. I tried to free my limbs but I was firmly tied to the table. I thought I was dead but the last thing I saw was my aunt falling on the ground and my sister standing behind her, a butcher knife in her hands. She dropped the knife and came to rescue me, though she was shocked by what she just did. I comforted her, went back in my room, put my clothes on, grab some stuff and supplies in a backpack and we left the cottage. We walked, we hid from the killers lurking around. And we found that closed bar. No one was there so we decided to stay there. At first, life was peaceful. We found food and drinks to survive a few days. But it became quite difficult and we had to explore the surroundings to find more supplies, until we found more people like us, like you. This is where I began to think about a headquarter, a base in which renegades, homeless people... all the people lost can stay as long as they wish. So the morning, I was remaking the bar and the afternoon... I was going for a supply run. Sometimes, I went back to the bar late in the evening, or the next morning. My sister was starting to worry about me so I tried my best to avoid trouble and head back to the base before the night came."

"I see.", Erin said.

"And you? Why are you here, at Fuller Heights?"

"Well, I was at a party with my two best friends, Shawn and Dan. We wanted to have some fun after the concert we performed at the prom of our high school. We've been attacked by psycho killers, they killed Shawn and I ran away. I left my friends behind. Then, I saw Kiara, tied in the basement of her house. I saved her and this is where our friendship started. We've been attacked by her ex-boyfriend, who was berserk and tried to murder both of us. We headed to the school and met Mr Peters, the Latin teacher of Fuller Heights' school. We decided to carry on our exploration with him and we went east. We saw Mr Winston who killed himself while we were talking to him and I met my good friend Dan. I thought he was dead. Though, being back together didn't last long. We faced a group of killers but we've been victorious. Unfortunately, Dan didn't make it. We decided to head to the east, to the garage. On our way, we met a survivor called Richard. He joined the group and suggested we should walk by the park then east. Thing was... it was a bloody trap. We faced the same group of killers we fought, back at the park. We got rid of them thankfully, at the cost of losing Ian's precious help, and I tried to make Richard talk, in vain. And then, you came to the rescue."

"Yeah, I couldn't let this jerk kill you, Erin. Nor Kiara.", Chris said, smiling.

So far, the discussion was going well. He managed to bring a smile on Chris' angelic face. And they spoke for a while.

"We should head back downstairs with the others."

"Yeah. Let's go."

Chris took his backpack. He noticed he took Erin's backpack as well before going in this room.

"Erin!"

"Yes?"

"That's yours, I guess.", Chris says while giving Erin's backpack back to the young student.

"Oh, thanks."

"No. Thank you, Erin. For everything you've done to me so far."

"It's ok."

They both left the room and went towards the stairs. "You know, Chris... If you ever want to join a swimming club, I can ask mine if we need another person. I'm just thinking about that, since you mentioned that earlier."

"You would do that?"

"I'll try. No promise though. It's a club affiliated to the high school I go so... you know..."

"Oh, that's alright. My last year results were really good that the principle suggested to my parents it would be best for me to join high school."

"In that case, it shouldn't be a problem at all."

"Indeed. We sure have quite a few things in common, you and I."

"I can't agree more.", Erin joyfully said to Chris.

They headed back downstairs, where the rest of the group awaited them. There was nothing else to do in this desolated bar. They had to find another place to stop by.

"Which way should we go now, Erin?", Kiara asked.

"Let's go north.",Erin replied

"Ok.", Chris said.

They started journeying to the north. Chris, however, walked a few steps and turned back, facing the bar. That place recalled lot of memories, good times. Seeing how ruined the fruit of his labor now was, he just wanted to drop a tear but he stayed strong. "Good bye, my friends.", he said.

"Big bro?"

"Yes, Megan?", Chris claimed, as he realized that the group he followed just stopped and looked at him.

"You're ok, Chris?", Kiara asked.

"This was our new home. I just can't believe Megan, my friends and I would leave it at some point. We were so used to this building and we created a nice community. If we haven't met you, I don't know where we would go."

"You're no longer alone, Chris. We'll make it through, together.", Erin said to comfort the young boy. "Now, let's go."

And they finally headed to the north, leaving the desolated place filled with bloodstains, fragments and dead bodies behind. Chris was reassured after Erin's kind words and the discussion he had with him. Although, a thought was stuck in his mind. "Still, when everything will be over... Megan and I... we won't have anywhere to go. No family to take care of us, no home... We are... homeless."

Heading North after Mark, Taryn and Seifer covered ground as quickly as possible with her leg wounded. A while after setting out, they came up on a small battlefield. There were four corpses spread out along the area. Seifer checked each, making sure Mark wasn't among them. "None of them are Mark... Did he do all this on his own?" Seifer sounded concerned, the bodies still warm. Someone has to be extremely strong, fearless, and determined to take down four people on their own.
"I hope he's okay. We have to find him before more of them do." Taryn's resolve was admirable, considering her mental state. Seifer prayed that if she was let down, it wouldn't be the push that sends her over the edge. His mind getting used to horrifying scenarios, he started playing out the possibility of him having to fight Mark and Taryn at the same time.
Quickly pushing the twisted thought out, he started to try and tell Taryn it was time to move on, but his instincts cut him off. He could tell something was about to happen. "Taryn, you need to hide now, someone's coming." Seifer whispered as firmly as possible. "But where should I go? There's no where around here to hide?!" Taryn replied frantically. "Uhmmm... Lay belly down on the ground by the other bodies. Don't move no matter what happens. They'll just assume you're another corpse." Taryn didn't like the idea, but they didn't have time to keep deliberating. Seifer laid low behind some brush, waiting to ambush whoever was coming.
From the west, a man was approaching, and started calling out. "Hey Terry, where you at? I couldn't find anybody worth hunting out there." He waited a moment for a response. "Seriously man, stop screwing with me. I'm getting tired of the games..." As he finished, he came up on the group on corpses. While he moved closer, Seifer creeped through the brush, getting into a position where he could attack the man from behind. "Holy s***!! What happened here?!" The man started examining what had happened to his group. "Where'd this woman come from?" A grin came over his twisted face. "Maybe there's still some life in her."
Taryn's heart started racing. He saw through their plan, and was going to find out she was alive and relatively well. The man knelt down, and tried to flip Taryn over. Before he could shift her weight, Seifer had managed to get behind him, and put him in a sleeper hold. Seifer has his knife in the hand not being used to tighten the wrap, just in case. The man flailed with everything he had, but the hold was too well executed for him to struggle free. His body went limp, and Seifer dropped him to the ground, letting his face hit first.
Taryn had unfortunately seen the whole thing, and seemed upset with Seifer. "What did I do now?" He asked her sarcastically, getting somewhat frustrated at her being so emotionally driven. "You didn't have to kill him! Aren't there enough bodies here already!" Taryn shouted at him. Seifer couldn't help himself, even among all the carnage around them, and chuckled a little. Taryn started to look terrified, believing Seifer was turning the same way Mark had. Seeing the fear from her, he got himself under control.
"I'm sorry, Taryn. You get upset over the funniest things sometimes. He doesn't deserve to be spared, but he'll be fine. Although he'll have one heck of a headache when he wakes up." Seifer offered a hand to help Taryn to her feet. "We should probably head East. I doubt Mark went West or he would've ran into this guy already." Taryn was still a little upset, concerned about Seifer's mental state, although he was oblivious to it. And even more so about Mark. "If you say so. It's not like we have any leads to follow."
Seifer didn't want to ask her, or go through with it, but he needed to know in advance. "Taryn... If we find a way out before we find Mark, would you be willing to leave without him?..." Taryn couldn't bring herself to answer. She simply looked down, and started walking toward their next destination...

(OoC: messages will be sent later. Everyone feel free to post)


U pdate #20
September 2nd, 12:05 AM
Current conditions: clear, muddy, 66°F. Dark.
Player u pdates: One player changed location. One player's stats changed.
Enemy u pdate: two groups of enemies changed locations. Two groups of enemies joined forces.


Chapter Three: Disastrous Beginnings

After we had finalized our plan, we set out for the hospital: it was as far as we dare try traveling in one day. From there we would journey the next day to the theater, then we would walk parallel to the dirt road that I used to drive down everyday to work in New Haven, though we would keep a good distance between ourselves and the road so as not to alert anyone.

We didn't however account for all of the horrific things we would see on the way, nor did we anticipate so much resistance. It seemed like everywhere we went someone was trying to jump us. Luckily I had brought my handgun and rifle, and as much as I hated to, I had to give Alicia the handgun. I tried to make sure she never had to use it because I didn't want to even think of how scarring something like killing would be to a thirteen year old girl, after all I knew what it did to me. Each time I pulled the trigger on another attacker it became easier than the last. The first time I did it, I found myself stuck in the moment for hours. The second time I did it, I was still overwhelmed by guilt, but I was able to tell myself that I was doing my fatherly duty of protecting my children. The next time it was less difficult to convince myself that it was right. And finally it became a normal thing. Something that was just unpleasant, like a bad aftertaste from the local diner - their food never was any good.

I felt deep inside as though I was losing a little piece of my humanity each time I pulled the trigger. These psychos were no longer human to me, just obstacles; obstacles that stood between my family and safety. I felt no shame in what I did now, and I hated that more than I had hated the nearly unbearable guilt that had plagued me the first time I killed one of them. And more than anything I hated that this made me more like them. They had killed Barbara, stolen Eric's sanity, and tried to murder my two remaining kids, and I was erasing one of the lines that separated me from them. The line between good and bad was blurring, and that scared me.

Then as we got close to the theater, we heard a voice chuckling in the bushes to our left. Backing up, I readied my rifle and out came two creeps who wasted no time coming after us. I shot the first one with no trouble, but then realized I needed to reload. The other guy broke into a dead run for the kids and I ran at full speed to catch him, but I was too late.

Boom.
Boom.
Boom.

Three shots rang out and the lunatic fell to the ground. Looking toward the kids I saw Alicia with the handgun held out and shaking like a leaf. That poor child...I'll never forget the look on her face.


Eventually we arrived at the theater and settled down for the night. Just like the night before at the hospital, I put the kids in the room they were to stay in, blocked the door off, and went to keep watch. Everything was going well, until my eyes got too heavy to stay open, and finally I nodded off to sleep.

When I awoke, there was an eerie silence in the building, and something didn't feel right. My mind immediately went to the kids, and I jumped to my feet and rushed to their room. As I got there I saw that the door was no longer blocked off, and was now cracked open.

Oh no...why did I let myself sleep?!?

I burst through the door and shined my flashlight on the bed. There were my two remaining children, sleeping soundly on the bed. An intense sense of relief washed over me like a tidal wave. I had no idea what had happened, and why the door was open, but at least they were safe.

I walked over to them and watched them as they slept so peacefully. It was beautiful...only something was wrong. I walked to Steven's side and pulled the blanket back...

Blood....
BLOOD.
Steven's blood!

I wish I could say I was calm and pulled the boy to me for inspection, but I began shouting at the sight. "No!!! My baby! My precious little boy!! Daddy's so sorry, Steven! Why couldn't it have been me???"

Alicia woke with a start as anyone with a screaming loon next to them would, and seeing what was going on she began screaming hysterically and backpeddling until she fell out of the makeshift bed I'd made for them.

"Daddy!!!" she screamed at the top of her lungs "What happened to Steven??? How did they get him??" the tears streaming down her face destroyed what little was left of me after finding my son there. "How did they get past you, dad?!? You were supposed to keep us safe while we slept!"

I rushed to the side of my last living child "I'm so sorry, Alicia. I know, I was. I don't know how this happened. I'm so sorry."

The two of us sat there holding one another and babbling unintelligibly for the longest time until finally we both just seemed to run out of tears to cry. And we sat there clinging to each other silently.

"I don't want to go back to sleep dad..." Alicia finally spoke against my chest.

"Okay sweetie. Okay. We'll stay up together until sunrise and head out."

That was the plan until that storm moved in forcing us to stay indoors a little longer. When it finally did clear up we had lost valuable time and stood no chance making it out of town by nightfall. So we took shelter in the tool shop. Fortunate once again to find an empty building, we set up camp again, but I couldn't convince Alicia to sleep again, and figured I might have a rough time doing so even after we made it to New Haven. So we sat up together, exchanging stories about the good old days with our family, back before Fuller Heights, back when their mother was still alive, and for the first time since this whole nightmare began, I heard my child laugh. The sound soothed my aching heart. And for the first time since my wife had died, I heard myself laugh too.

It may just be Alicia and I left, but I promise Claire, I'll give her a life worth living beyond all of this. Our little girl will be happy again one day.

-------
Laian :
The teens turned their journey Northward at Chris' suggestion to head to Mr. Newman's shop for shelter. They could camp there overnight and set out for New Haven in the morning. The trip was a long one and took most of the night, but fortunately they met little resistance until they were nearly there.

The scenery here seemed familiar to Erin and he finally realized why: it was the road they had taken on the way to Dan's Uncle's house the night before. His recollection was interrupted as a group of five psychos spotted them. They made their way to the teens who simply braced themselves for the fight to come.

(OoC: sorry for the short u pdate to Erin's story. It'll be much better tomorrow)


Mynamescox44 :
Seifer wasn't going to push the matter, but he still didn't like the idea of wandering around in search of a madman, regardless of who it was. Still he knew what Taryn's silence meant: he wasn't getting out of here without finding Mark, not unless he were to go alone. For a moment he toyed with the idea of trying to force Taryn to go with him if they found a way, but he knew the girl's indomitable spirit and that it was the only thing that had kept her sane through this whole ordeal. He feared what breaking that will might do to her, and he wasn't sure it would be worth the risk.

As the pair journeyed on they came across another body, this one with a large gaping wound in it's back. Corpses of the murdered were commonplace tonight, and though they still had an unpleasant effect on a sane man when he spotted them, it wasn't anything that stood out or warranted an investigation. This one was different though: it was small...too small. It was...a child.

Taryn and Seifer seemed to notice it at the same time as the girl gasped and her hands flew up to her mouth, while Seifer doubled his fists and growled out an angry sound.

Children! Truly nothing was sacred to these creeps, not even the life of an innocent child. If Seifer could get his hands on the creeps that did this, death would be a mercy to them by the time he was finished.

As horrified as she was, Taryn couldn't help but get closer to the child. She felt so sorry for the poor thing, not only had they been killed by the psychos, but how scared must they have been out here alone? Where was their mother? As she neared the body she noticed the smaller wounds surrounding the large opening.

"Oh my...Seifer, this kid has twenty stab wounds if he has one." the tears she'd become so accustomed to began to fall again, but this time it felt as though one of the only sacred things left in the world had been stripped away. "And they cut him wide open." her stomach churned as she realized she could see the ground underneath him. They had cut a hole through his body and cleaned him out like a fish. Was this a trophy, or dinner? She could hold back no longer, what was left in her stomach soon found itself on the ground. As she wiped her mouth, the girl felt a strong sense of injustice which was soon replaced by an urge to bring vengeance for this child. Taking one more look she saw the child's face was turned to the side and she realized something that broke her even more...

"It's Kyle..."

If they hadn't been before, the two were both out for blood now. The fury brewing inside of them bordered blind rage. It resembled the insanity they had seen in Mark. Something had to be done to this psycho, and it had better be painful.

"Oh I see you found my catch!" a cheerful voice called out from behind Taryn. "Well I guess we can share. He isn't a very big one, but he should be more than enough to fill you too, no bigger than you are. Now your friend there might have to do without."

Seifer took off at the suggestion, and he would have made the creep regret ever being born had Taryn's catlike agility not seen her on top of the man tearing mercilessly at his face with her nails. She had her knife, sure, but that seemed too easy for the man. She would claw his eyes out first - figuratively or literally, she didn't care - then she would show him exactly what Kyle went through with all of those stab wounds.

The screams of pain that followed were pitiful. "GET HER OFF OF ME!!!" the man shouted.

"You think I'm going to help you, you sick.." a stinging sensation in Seifer's lower back cut him short as a pocketknife pierced him, sending him stumbling forward.

"He was talking to me, you idiot." a man's voice answered.

Seifer's rage was so great at this point that pain didn't even faze him. In a moment he was turned to face his foe and the two were battling it out.

"Everybody in the shop, now!", Erin shouted.

"Oh man! They won't leave us alone, damnit!", Chris said.

They went in the shop and closed the door behind them. Erin threw the backpack away. "Everyone's ok?", he asked afterwards.

"Where's Megan?", Kiara asked to the group.

They all looked around until they saw her outside, crawling and staring at the killers, scared.

"Megan!", Chris yelled before throwing his backpack away and leaving the shop."Oh no, you won't get her, you freaks!"

"Chris!", Erin shouted.

Chris, already outside, didn't head back in the shop. He ran to the psycho killers who moved towards his sister and grabbed his glass knife. He threw it at one of the bad guys, the blade stuck in the forehead of the target who instantly fell back and died. The others stopped their progress, looked at their dead friend then Chris.

"You'll regret this!", one of  them said to Chris.

They changed their target and ran to the young boy, leaving Megan alone. Chris awaited them. "Let's see if I didn't forget how to perform the high kick I learned back when I was taking taekwondo lessons.", he said to himself. He dodged the first attack, turned back and got ready to kick the assailant right in the back. The killer didn't see that coming and was pushed straight forward.

"Yes! How does that feel, huh?", Chris said, proud of what he just did.

Unfortunately, he was so cocky that he forgot he just dodged one attack. He fell on the ground, pushed by one of the remaining guys. His right arm hit the ground so hard. Chris screamed and held his wounded arm. He turned back and tried to get up but one of the killers stomped his torso. Chris stared at the killer, unable to do something. "You fool. Take a look to the sky just before you die. It's the last time you will.". The killer raised the iron bar, ready to hit Chris' head.

"Kiara! My crowbar!", Erin said to Kiara. She put the crowbar out of the backpack, gave it to Erin who came outside the shop to help Chris. With his crowbar, he smashed the guy that Chris pushed away with the high kick. "Hey, you!", he said to the last killers. They looked at Erin.

"Wait your turn gently, please. It won't take me so long to get rid of that little parasite.", the one who was still stomping Chris said.

He started to lower the iron bar in order to hit Chris' head but a bit of dust came right on his face and blinded him. He stepped back, trying to whip the dust off his eyes. Chris saw Megan just before his head. She returned the favor by throwing a bit of dirt at the killer's face.

"Boss! You alright?", one of the killers said.

"Of course I'm ok! Don't stand there! Get'em!"

"Run to the shop, Megan!", Chris shouted.

She carried out, chased by the two other killers, but they had been stopped by Erin who stood right before them. "F*** off!", one of them shouted. "I have something much better, guys.", he said before giving a quick attack to one of the killer's side. Destabilized, he fell on his knees. As for the other killer, he managed to hit Erin in the stomach with his baseball bat. It was not enough to make Erin fall.

Chris was still fighting against his opponent. None of the killer's attacks managed to hit Chris once, considering the dirt was still his eyes and the young boy dodged them easily while stepping back. He turned his head quickly to the left to see the dead killer with the knife made of glass. "It's now or never.", he said.

BONK!

A swing hit Chris who fell back next to the dead body. "Yes! You can't escape from me now!", the killer joyfully said, as he raised his weapon in order to hit Chris' torso with a violent hit. The young boy took his self-made knife and stabbed the right leg, making the killer scream so loud that he dropped his weapon. Then, he stabbed the killer's belly multiple times. The killer fell on the ground, near death. Chris pierced the heart with his final blow to get rid of his assailant. The young boy removed the knife from the torso, stood up and turned back.

"Don't worry, Erin. I'm here to-"

Erin knocked the last aggressor out, who laid before him. Out of breath, Erin took a break. "That was... that was the last one, Chris.", he said to the teen. Chris noticed the one that Erin destabilized with a hit to his side getting up. He rushed towards him and threw his knife at that killer's head. The knife pierced the back of the head and the killer fell on the ground. "No, that was the last one.", Chris retorted with a big smile. Though, that effort came from his injured arm.

"Ah, damnit...", he shouted as he held the top of his arm.

"You ok?" Erin asked.

"Could be better, could be worse." the young boy replied to Erin, smiling.

"Let's go in."

"Ok."

Chris took his self-made knife and they both entered the shop, greeted by Kiara and the others. "You guys are ok?", Kiara asked.

"I'm alright. But Chris' arm is wounded."

"It's ok. It just hit the ground when I've been pushed away. I'll be good anytime soon.", Chris said before gritting his teeth to contain the pain.

"Let me check you arm", Kiara wisely offered.

She invited Chris to sit down. He carried out. Then, she checked the arm and moved it slowly. Chris shouted this time, he couldn't contain the pain once more.

"I see." Kiara said.

"Is it... is it broken?" Chris asked.

"No. It's just dislocated.", she answered as she held Chris' injured arm with both of her hands."I can fix it by using a technique that my ancestors knew. All you have to do is breath. And stay still. It'll hurt a bit but you are brave enough, aren't you?"

She started to perform the miracle cure on his arm, slowly moving it from time to time. Chris gritted his teeth. "That depends on the situation. Some says I am. I just think I'm too-"

He was stopped by a scream. His scream, actually. He couldn't bear the pain coming from his arm being fixed by Kiara. But at least, his arm was fixed.

"The pain... the pain is gone.", he said as he moved his arm on his own. "How did you do that?"

"Like I said, it's a technique from my ancestors."

"Well, thanks Kiara."

"No problem, Chris.", she said, smiling.

"I'mma look for some supplies.", Erin said.

"May I come with you? I know Mr Newman has a secret stash somewhere. There might be some inside."

"Well, let's go find it."

Erin and Chris looked around the shop, in search for the secret stash. They went to the back of the shop. They looked everywhere closely.

"Ah ha! Found it!", Chris claimed. "I knew he always kept it at the same spot."

He put a piece of wire out of his pocket and used it as a lockpick.

"Looks like Mr Newman managed to leave his shop alive. He's not here.", Erin said. "Good for him, I guess. That town's so f***ed up now."

"Yeah.", Chris replied as he was still trying to unlock the stash."By the way, Erin..."

"Yes?"

"You love her, don't you?"

"Huh? Who?"

"Kiara."

"No. We're just friends."

"Just friends? Right."

The stash finally opened. It contained a few rations, enough for one meal here at the shop. Chris took the supplies, stood up and turned back to give some to Erin.

"I don't know... You two seem to be close to each other. Well, I mean... from what I saw back at the bar, when these guys came and soiled the base... You did not hesitate to save her from death. I know you just protected her so... maybe I'm just saying nonsense... or maybe I'm right but you're too shy to tell her how you feel towards her."

Erin remained silent, grabbing the supplies Chris gave to him. Why does Chris talk about that all of a sudden? To Erin, Kiara is just a friend. Or maybe Chris was right. Maybe by the time they both walked together and faced all kind of  situation, he opened his heart to her and the same went to her towards Erin.

"We don't know what could happen in the future."Chris carried on. "If I'm right, then you should tell her how you really feel, before it's too late."

Erin nodded and they both  headed back to the rest of the group with what they found.

No update tonight. Having some issues with family and businesses. Long story. Update tomorrow again though.