Behold A White Horse - Log 4
Jul. 7th, 2023 11:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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xp_logsAs they begin to retreat, the first creatures sense their presence and come running.
"Everyone, as soon as you have your intel, retreat back to the Blackbird. ASAP." Kevin's voice was loud in their earpieces.
"Wrapping up CCTV, Boss. Any eyes on what we can expect? Tape fritzed out sometime in the last 24, we're blind to the outside." Darcy pulled the hard drive as soon as it was ready, sticking it in an interior secure pocket to keep it from getting lost. "We ready to rock n roll with whatever the fuck's going on out there?" she asked Angelo and Sarah as she unholstered her pistol. It stayed pointed at the ground, safety on but finger just a twitch away from unlocking.
"Multiple targets. Nothing human left. Weapons free. I repeat, weapons free."
Angelo pulled a telescoping baton out of his belt, hearing that, and unfolded it. "Ready as I'll ever be."
Sarah gripped the bone in her hand a little tighter. "I love walking into an ambush. I can go in front in case we have to push through somewhere."
Darcy nodded. "Alright. We can try to go back the way we came, assuming none of the areas are completely overrun. And if they are... we do what the man said. Weapons free." She was a little out of her depth here, but she had to trust in the training she'd received. She let out a slow, deep breath, face firming into something impassive as she straightened up. "Right then. After you, Marrow."
Sarah nodded, trying to move them out into the open as soon as possible. She wasn't thrilled about going into the unknown with no cover, but that seemed to be a better idea than being pinned inside this building. They reached the door to the lobby, and she held her breath as she cracked the door. Nothing. She waved a hand and pushed the door open to clear their way to the lobby. One more door to the outside.
The creatures hadn't got into the building, yet, but Angelo could see a few twisted shapes moving around outside the lobby door. "It doesn't look like a lot, but we've got company."
Darcy flicked the safety off on her gun, hands steady. "Alright. Let's find out what sort of nightmare fodder nothing human left means."
"I'm going to open this door," Sarah said in a low voice, "and try to get them to move away from the door. Hopefully sharp and bony is enough." She pushed the door open, and the clatter of it hitting the wall echoed down the deserted city street. Three creatures like what they saw on the screen whipped around to look in their direction. As she moved out into the street, she called back, "Keep moving! Don't let them pin us."
Angelo followed her quickly, baton at the ready, and started in the opposite direction from the creatures - but not too far, in case Sarah needed help. "Right with you, Marrow."
Darcy stayed between the two of them, a small triangle of space that gave them room to move as they worked their way back to the Blackbird. She was going for distance, picking off creatures as she could, but it seemed another two appeared for every crack of her gun. "What I wouldn't give for some directed multi-target fire right now," she muttered before taking a deep breath and squeezing the trigger again.
The creatures moved impossibly fast, and Sarah barely had time to shift the bone knife in front of her before one slammed into her. The disregard for its own safety was momentarily shocking, and she yelped "FUCK!" before shoving it forward and trying to scramble back. "Are they ready for us when we get there? I think we're going to have company."
"It sounded like they're ready to take off soon as everybody's back on board." Angelo lashed out at the creature attacking Sarah, hoping they were still human enough to feel a solid hit to the head.
"These things aren't very bright, are they?" Darcy got an arm full of claw and reached out, electricity crackling along her skin as she shoved it back with a curse. A close range shot dropped it, but she made a face of disgust as the splatter hit along her hair and suit. "Oh gross, creature gore." She flicked the safety on her gun and stashed it, switching to her hands and a taser. "Push through like a battering ram, maybe? They're building up."
Sarah abandoned the bone knife embedded in the creature and pulled a thicker bone club from her thigh. "Got it. Let's see if we can surprise them in getting the fuck out of our way." Leading with a bony shoulder, and with the club to beat away anyone who reached for her, Sarah made a sound that did not match someone of her stature and rushed into the group blocking the path between them and the plane.
Angelo released his skin for an extra layer of defense and was quick on her heels, yelling as he ran - well, it couldn't hurt, even if it did nothing - and swinging his baton at any creature that wasn't knocked out of the way by Sarah's rush.
Darcy bit her lip as Angelo's yelling attracted the attention of the mass of creatures, but she followed behind, wielding her baton like a single-handed baseball bat as she cracked it over heads. "I think they like the sound of your voice," she quipped, energy crackling between her palm and the chest of a creature that'd snuck up on her. The stench of burning flesh entered the air, and it dropped with a thud, limbs twitching.
"I think I see the plane!" Sarah swung the bone at the head of an approaching creature, impacting with a sickening crack as the creature fell back into the swarm behind it. "How are we doing back there?"
"Right behind you." Angelo was faced away from both her and Darcy so they could watch as many sides as possible. "Just keep going."
"Just keep pushing through, we can do this!" Darcy was eternally grateful for the body armor as hands scrabbled at her leg. She kicked out, connecting with a chin and knocking it back into the group, backpedaling into the triangle the three of them were moving in. "Guide us towards the plane, Marrow, we'll keep the rear and sides clean." If they had to stop and check or readjust, they were probably going to be overrun. Easier for now to trust in everyone's training to get the job done.
Sarah kept swinging, thankful that she had a strong stomach and that these things didn't look much like people anymore. It was messy to a degree that even she, with built-in body horror, might have been grossed out if she thought about it too long. "One more block," she called, "I see a wing just around the corner beyond that brick building."
The team from the hospital races back with their survivor.
What had been deserted streets when they had come into the hospital were now starting to change. Shambling grey figures were lurching towards the hospital, drawn by some inexplicable force, moving with awkward but surprising speed as they closed.
"Shit." Gabriel staggered back from where he'd been keeping watch on the outside door as directed, his gun pointed at the horde that approached. "Shit, fuck, shit." He reached instinctively for his comms, then remembered they were in the middle of a tech blackout, and here they were being approached by — well, he wasn't sure exactly, but Jean had said corpses, and that wasn't great.
"No time," he murmured, though he hadn't intended to vocalize the thought. In an instant, he appeared in the doorway of the room where he'd left Jean, Amanda and their mysterious charge. "We have to go," he said, trying to sound commanding, more than terrified. "We have to go now."
Jean didn't respond at first, quickly turning her head as she felt something in her mind stirring, like a light switch being turned on, then another, then another, It wasn't like a normal mind, just a simple feeling, dim, but all encompassing: an urge, the urge to spread.
"Yes, yes we do," she said quietly. Her attention flickered toward the twitching silhouette of what used to be a security guard outside the window of the room. It sat up, parts of its skin glowing faintly green like a cracked glow stick in the darkness.
"Oh bloody bollocking hell," muttered Amanda under her breath as she looked from the zombie - her mind refused to think of the creature as anything else - back to the woman in the isolation room. "Phoenix, I don't like to ask you to do this, but do you think you can 'encourage' our patient here to get into the suit without having to go five rounds of talking her into it? When the speedster says we don't have time, we really don't have time. And my powers are fucked here."
"She can hear you. I think impending doom and potential for horrific death are plenty of motivation," Jean said, taking a step closer to the isolation room window.
"Please put this suit on. The monsters are back and they will kill us all if we don't leave right now." The look in Jean's eyes was honest and matter of fact. The woman was already scared out of her mind. Mind controlling her would only create distrust later.
The woman reluctantly came forward and picked up the suit. She put it on with a touch of experience; she'd obviously been made to don one before, and slipped the hooded helm over and closed the seals. She then stood by the door, head turned to look out the window.
"She's too calm," Gabriel muttered under his breath, and whether he was talking about Jean or the woman was unclear. "One sec. Need eyes on this." Without waiting, he zipped over to a window for a few seconds to get a better sense of how the mass was closing in on them. His hands clenched the gun tighter as he saw the corpses converging toward the hospital. It was the target, or they were, and that did not bode well.
He needed to buy some time, and so he returned to the group, appearing right in front of Amanda in order to disorient her. "Just how fucked are your powers? Like, what's within your grasp here?"
Amanda started at the sudden appearance of her teammate and resisted the urge to punch him lightly in the arm for scaring her. "Pretty much nothing," she admitted. "The whole city is dead, which means I don't have anything I can draw on. I did bring my wych with me and that has enough charge for two, maybe three decent spells. And there's this..." She drew her own gun. "Let's see if mundane tech works before we break out the magic, yeah?" She glanced over at Jean. "Looks like you might have to be the shield person, tho'."
Outside the room, the reanimated security guard had managed to stagger over and began to bang on the window.
"Sounds good," Jean replied with a nod. Her attention turned to the security guard, even as a nurse with a bent neck crawled up into view beside him.
Jean tilted her head at the two as they floated off their feet. Then, with a slight flick of her head, they flew out a nearby window. The sound of two quick thumps followed.
"Figured that might give us a head start."
"You haven't seen what's outside," Gabriel muttered. He double-checked that the gun was fully loaded, then steeled himself. "You're right," he said to Amanda, moving to just outside the room. "Bullets until we run out. Our gifts only when we really need them." That was more of a reminder for himself. He suspected that with enough warp-speed and a knife, he could probably take a zombie's head off its body. But he also knew needed enough energy in case they had to run for their lives.
"Right," he said after another second. "Hallway's clear. Let's scram." Without waiting, he led them to the stairwell, waiting for them to arrange themselves in a tactical formation before throwing open the door.
The weight of the gun in her hands was strangely reassuring - normally Amanda disliked the necessity of using them, but with the dead city numbing her magical sense, the weapon was comfortingly real. She positioned herself at the door, gun raised, as Gabriel opened it, and unloaded several shots into the face of the creature - it might have been a doctor once, to judge from the bloodstained white coat and scrubs - that came charging out. To her relief, it dropped at her feet and remained still.
Jean only took a moment to look at what used to be the doctor before picking up the pace as they entered the stairwell, the echo and squeak of their shoes bouncing around the staircase, going down, down, down.
Just before they turned the corner into the foyer she caught sight of a patchwork of glowing green eyes in the dark and stopped dead in her tracks, slamming against the wall as she felt hundreds of hands ripping at her in desperation and yearning.
What was once a glimmer was now an inferno. One more. Find the next. And the next. And the next.
Letting out a yelp, she quickly covered her mouth with her hands and hoped they didn't hear.
Gabriel didn't notice; he was taking advantage of his powers to empty and reload every clip at the crowd of zombies that was pouring into the building. "Nope," he said between shots, too panicked to be satisfied that his bullets were finding their way into these corpse's heads. "Yeah, no, no, no." He said, as some of the creatures dropped to the ground, apparently lifeless.
"Fuck, I... we need to make a run for it. You're going to have to trust me." He looked at Amanda, his gaze intense, then at the woman they were rescuing. "And stay close. I have no idea if this is going to work, but we're making a break for it."
Ever since they'd dipped into the alternate reality in the cracks between the worlds, Gabriel had known that there was a great power available to him if he could figure out how to master it. He hadn't particularly tried, but he had hoped that knowing what he was capable of. And so he did his best to expand the time bubble around him to encompass the group.
"Now," he said, when he sensed he'd pushed things to the limits. Then he began sprinting toward the door.
"GO!" Amanda grabbed their mystery passenger's wrist and yanked her into motion as soon as Gabriel spoke, hoping the panic she'd seen on Jean's face wasn't debilitating - she only had one free hand, after all. Her boots squeaked on the linoleum floor as she pushed off, running as fast as she was able.
The flash of movement in the corner of her eye, followed by the sight of Amanda and the patient running past her drew Jean's attention, distracting her from the monsters in her mind. She drew in a breath to focus, then joined them, taking a moment, with a sense of wonder, to notice how the world around them was suddenly much slower.
Gabriel shoved several of the monsters to the ground as they passed, not bothering to check whether he'd done any damage. Keeping them within his accelerated time bubble required a surprising amount of concentration, and he was able to get them past the crowd in the foyer and the front of the building. But he had not practiced this maneuver a ton, and once they reached the street, the world around them started to return to its normal speed. He tried to jump-start things again, but whatever well he tapped into was dry.
"That's all I got," he said, sounding weary. Behind them, a mass of grey figures was still pouring into the hospital, but he could see others tottering toward them further down the street. "Think it's gonna be a run-and-shoot-and-run-and-shoot until we get back to the plane."
"Everyone, as soon as you have your intel, retreat back to the Blackbird. ASAP." Kevin's voice was loud in their earpieces.
"Wrapping up CCTV, Boss. Any eyes on what we can expect? Tape fritzed out sometime in the last 24, we're blind to the outside." Darcy pulled the hard drive as soon as it was ready, sticking it in an interior secure pocket to keep it from getting lost. "We ready to rock n roll with whatever the fuck's going on out there?" she asked Angelo and Sarah as she unholstered her pistol. It stayed pointed at the ground, safety on but finger just a twitch away from unlocking.
"Multiple targets. Nothing human left. Weapons free. I repeat, weapons free."
Angelo pulled a telescoping baton out of his belt, hearing that, and unfolded it. "Ready as I'll ever be."
Sarah gripped the bone in her hand a little tighter. "I love walking into an ambush. I can go in front in case we have to push through somewhere."
Darcy nodded. "Alright. We can try to go back the way we came, assuming none of the areas are completely overrun. And if they are... we do what the man said. Weapons free." She was a little out of her depth here, but she had to trust in the training she'd received. She let out a slow, deep breath, face firming into something impassive as she straightened up. "Right then. After you, Marrow."
Sarah nodded, trying to move them out into the open as soon as possible. She wasn't thrilled about going into the unknown with no cover, but that seemed to be a better idea than being pinned inside this building. They reached the door to the lobby, and she held her breath as she cracked the door. Nothing. She waved a hand and pushed the door open to clear their way to the lobby. One more door to the outside.
The creatures hadn't got into the building, yet, but Angelo could see a few twisted shapes moving around outside the lobby door. "It doesn't look like a lot, but we've got company."
Darcy flicked the safety off on her gun, hands steady. "Alright. Let's find out what sort of nightmare fodder nothing human left means."
"I'm going to open this door," Sarah said in a low voice, "and try to get them to move away from the door. Hopefully sharp and bony is enough." She pushed the door open, and the clatter of it hitting the wall echoed down the deserted city street. Three creatures like what they saw on the screen whipped around to look in their direction. As she moved out into the street, she called back, "Keep moving! Don't let them pin us."
Angelo followed her quickly, baton at the ready, and started in the opposite direction from the creatures - but not too far, in case Sarah needed help. "Right with you, Marrow."
Darcy stayed between the two of them, a small triangle of space that gave them room to move as they worked their way back to the Blackbird. She was going for distance, picking off creatures as she could, but it seemed another two appeared for every crack of her gun. "What I wouldn't give for some directed multi-target fire right now," she muttered before taking a deep breath and squeezing the trigger again.
The creatures moved impossibly fast, and Sarah barely had time to shift the bone knife in front of her before one slammed into her. The disregard for its own safety was momentarily shocking, and she yelped "FUCK!" before shoving it forward and trying to scramble back. "Are they ready for us when we get there? I think we're going to have company."
"It sounded like they're ready to take off soon as everybody's back on board." Angelo lashed out at the creature attacking Sarah, hoping they were still human enough to feel a solid hit to the head.
"These things aren't very bright, are they?" Darcy got an arm full of claw and reached out, electricity crackling along her skin as she shoved it back with a curse. A close range shot dropped it, but she made a face of disgust as the splatter hit along her hair and suit. "Oh gross, creature gore." She flicked the safety on her gun and stashed it, switching to her hands and a taser. "Push through like a battering ram, maybe? They're building up."
Sarah abandoned the bone knife embedded in the creature and pulled a thicker bone club from her thigh. "Got it. Let's see if we can surprise them in getting the fuck out of our way." Leading with a bony shoulder, and with the club to beat away anyone who reached for her, Sarah made a sound that did not match someone of her stature and rushed into the group blocking the path between them and the plane.
Angelo released his skin for an extra layer of defense and was quick on her heels, yelling as he ran - well, it couldn't hurt, even if it did nothing - and swinging his baton at any creature that wasn't knocked out of the way by Sarah's rush.
Darcy bit her lip as Angelo's yelling attracted the attention of the mass of creatures, but she followed behind, wielding her baton like a single-handed baseball bat as she cracked it over heads. "I think they like the sound of your voice," she quipped, energy crackling between her palm and the chest of a creature that'd snuck up on her. The stench of burning flesh entered the air, and it dropped with a thud, limbs twitching.
"I think I see the plane!" Sarah swung the bone at the head of an approaching creature, impacting with a sickening crack as the creature fell back into the swarm behind it. "How are we doing back there?"
"Right behind you." Angelo was faced away from both her and Darcy so they could watch as many sides as possible. "Just keep going."
"Just keep pushing through, we can do this!" Darcy was eternally grateful for the body armor as hands scrabbled at her leg. She kicked out, connecting with a chin and knocking it back into the group, backpedaling into the triangle the three of them were moving in. "Guide us towards the plane, Marrow, we'll keep the rear and sides clean." If they had to stop and check or readjust, they were probably going to be overrun. Easier for now to trust in everyone's training to get the job done.
Sarah kept swinging, thankful that she had a strong stomach and that these things didn't look much like people anymore. It was messy to a degree that even she, with built-in body horror, might have been grossed out if she thought about it too long. "One more block," she called, "I see a wing just around the corner beyond that brick building."
The team from the hospital races back with their survivor.
What had been deserted streets when they had come into the hospital were now starting to change. Shambling grey figures were lurching towards the hospital, drawn by some inexplicable force, moving with awkward but surprising speed as they closed.
"Shit." Gabriel staggered back from where he'd been keeping watch on the outside door as directed, his gun pointed at the horde that approached. "Shit, fuck, shit." He reached instinctively for his comms, then remembered they were in the middle of a tech blackout, and here they were being approached by — well, he wasn't sure exactly, but Jean had said corpses, and that wasn't great.
"No time," he murmured, though he hadn't intended to vocalize the thought. In an instant, he appeared in the doorway of the room where he'd left Jean, Amanda and their mysterious charge. "We have to go," he said, trying to sound commanding, more than terrified. "We have to go now."
Jean didn't respond at first, quickly turning her head as she felt something in her mind stirring, like a light switch being turned on, then another, then another, It wasn't like a normal mind, just a simple feeling, dim, but all encompassing: an urge, the urge to spread.
"Yes, yes we do," she said quietly. Her attention flickered toward the twitching silhouette of what used to be a security guard outside the window of the room. It sat up, parts of its skin glowing faintly green like a cracked glow stick in the darkness.
"Oh bloody bollocking hell," muttered Amanda under her breath as she looked from the zombie - her mind refused to think of the creature as anything else - back to the woman in the isolation room. "Phoenix, I don't like to ask you to do this, but do you think you can 'encourage' our patient here to get into the suit without having to go five rounds of talking her into it? When the speedster says we don't have time, we really don't have time. And my powers are fucked here."
"She can hear you. I think impending doom and potential for horrific death are plenty of motivation," Jean said, taking a step closer to the isolation room window.
"Please put this suit on. The monsters are back and they will kill us all if we don't leave right now." The look in Jean's eyes was honest and matter of fact. The woman was already scared out of her mind. Mind controlling her would only create distrust later.
The woman reluctantly came forward and picked up the suit. She put it on with a touch of experience; she'd obviously been made to don one before, and slipped the hooded helm over and closed the seals. She then stood by the door, head turned to look out the window.
"She's too calm," Gabriel muttered under his breath, and whether he was talking about Jean or the woman was unclear. "One sec. Need eyes on this." Without waiting, he zipped over to a window for a few seconds to get a better sense of how the mass was closing in on them. His hands clenched the gun tighter as he saw the corpses converging toward the hospital. It was the target, or they were, and that did not bode well.
He needed to buy some time, and so he returned to the group, appearing right in front of Amanda in order to disorient her. "Just how fucked are your powers? Like, what's within your grasp here?"
Amanda started at the sudden appearance of her teammate and resisted the urge to punch him lightly in the arm for scaring her. "Pretty much nothing," she admitted. "The whole city is dead, which means I don't have anything I can draw on. I did bring my wych with me and that has enough charge for two, maybe three decent spells. And there's this..." She drew her own gun. "Let's see if mundane tech works before we break out the magic, yeah?" She glanced over at Jean. "Looks like you might have to be the shield person, tho'."
Outside the room, the reanimated security guard had managed to stagger over and began to bang on the window.
"Sounds good," Jean replied with a nod. Her attention turned to the security guard, even as a nurse with a bent neck crawled up into view beside him.
Jean tilted her head at the two as they floated off their feet. Then, with a slight flick of her head, they flew out a nearby window. The sound of two quick thumps followed.
"Figured that might give us a head start."
"You haven't seen what's outside," Gabriel muttered. He double-checked that the gun was fully loaded, then steeled himself. "You're right," he said to Amanda, moving to just outside the room. "Bullets until we run out. Our gifts only when we really need them." That was more of a reminder for himself. He suspected that with enough warp-speed and a knife, he could probably take a zombie's head off its body. But he also knew needed enough energy in case they had to run for their lives.
"Right," he said after another second. "Hallway's clear. Let's scram." Without waiting, he led them to the stairwell, waiting for them to arrange themselves in a tactical formation before throwing open the door.
The weight of the gun in her hands was strangely reassuring - normally Amanda disliked the necessity of using them, but with the dead city numbing her magical sense, the weapon was comfortingly real. She positioned herself at the door, gun raised, as Gabriel opened it, and unloaded several shots into the face of the creature - it might have been a doctor once, to judge from the bloodstained white coat and scrubs - that came charging out. To her relief, it dropped at her feet and remained still.
Jean only took a moment to look at what used to be the doctor before picking up the pace as they entered the stairwell, the echo and squeak of their shoes bouncing around the staircase, going down, down, down.
Just before they turned the corner into the foyer she caught sight of a patchwork of glowing green eyes in the dark and stopped dead in her tracks, slamming against the wall as she felt hundreds of hands ripping at her in desperation and yearning.
What was once a glimmer was now an inferno. One more. Find the next. And the next. And the next.
Letting out a yelp, she quickly covered her mouth with her hands and hoped they didn't hear.
Gabriel didn't notice; he was taking advantage of his powers to empty and reload every clip at the crowd of zombies that was pouring into the building. "Nope," he said between shots, too panicked to be satisfied that his bullets were finding their way into these corpse's heads. "Yeah, no, no, no." He said, as some of the creatures dropped to the ground, apparently lifeless.
"Fuck, I... we need to make a run for it. You're going to have to trust me." He looked at Amanda, his gaze intense, then at the woman they were rescuing. "And stay close. I have no idea if this is going to work, but we're making a break for it."
Ever since they'd dipped into the alternate reality in the cracks between the worlds, Gabriel had known that there was a great power available to him if he could figure out how to master it. He hadn't particularly tried, but he had hoped that knowing what he was capable of. And so he did his best to expand the time bubble around him to encompass the group.
"Now," he said, when he sensed he'd pushed things to the limits. Then he began sprinting toward the door.
"GO!" Amanda grabbed their mystery passenger's wrist and yanked her into motion as soon as Gabriel spoke, hoping the panic she'd seen on Jean's face wasn't debilitating - she only had one free hand, after all. Her boots squeaked on the linoleum floor as she pushed off, running as fast as she was able.
The flash of movement in the corner of her eye, followed by the sight of Amanda and the patient running past her drew Jean's attention, distracting her from the monsters in her mind. She drew in a breath to focus, then joined them, taking a moment, with a sense of wonder, to notice how the world around them was suddenly much slower.
Gabriel shoved several of the monsters to the ground as they passed, not bothering to check whether he'd done any damage. Keeping them within his accelerated time bubble required a surprising amount of concentration, and he was able to get them past the crowd in the foyer and the front of the building. But he had not practiced this maneuver a ton, and once they reached the street, the world around them started to return to its normal speed. He tried to jump-start things again, but whatever well he tapped into was dry.
"That's all I got," he said, sounding weary. Behind them, a mass of grey figures was still pouring into the hospital, but he could see others tottering toward them further down the street. "Think it's gonna be a run-and-shoot-and-run-and-shoot until we get back to the plane."
