[4-14] The Town

[Amber Veritz]

Amber shot up at the sight of the desiccated body that laid in her bed for the night. The sun still had not risen from the horizon but she could see through darkness. Jeremiah laid there lifeless as Amber climbed out of the covers. “F-F-” A curse word tried to slip from her mouth. It was at this point that she felt the ligament and flesh in her mouth and spit back on the mattress in the pool of blood. “Oh my god no...no, no, no!” The faunus reached for her scroll and dialed up the only person she could think of: Carmelita. It took a moment but final she answered. “Carmelita, I need you now! Hurry and come to my room, we have a huge problem!”

A groggy voice replied through the small speaker. ++Ugh, Amber the sun isn't even up yet, what is it?++

“It's serious! My god, just get down here fast!” She yelled.

++Alright, alright, I'll be down in a moment!++ Carmelita hopped out of her bed, grabbed her pistol, hurried out into the hall down the stairs and into Amber's room.

As the fox woman made her way down to Amber, the cat girl had enough time to think about ending this now. She grabbed hold of Razorback and put it up to her head. Her feline ears picked up the bass of footsteps heading for her room. “Sorry, Carmel I can't do this!” She reached for the trigger.

Click.

Amber opened her eyes as nothing happened. Did her gun jam? Of all times to jam? Upon closer inspection, she had forgotten that she unloads the clip from her gun before going to sleep. She sat for a second, feeling slightly stupid, before fumbling for a clip. The lights flicked on as Carmelita stepped in, blinding Amber and dazing her a bit. A quick look at Jeremiah’s corpse and Amber fumbling around with Razorback in her hand was enough to get the police officer to intervene. Quickly drawing her pistol and firing at the cat girl with a small charge, she called out to her as she was jolted with electricity. “Hold on Amber, what happened?”

After rolling around with the feeling of needles being jammed into her body, Amber spoke up to Carmelita, looking up at her. “I don't know, I was having a nightmare and all of a sudden I woke up and he was laying there, already dead! His ear was in my mouth and everything!”

“Calm down, just give me a moment.” Carmelita knew that deep down, Amber had more control than that. She maybe be part animal, but she was always calm and level headed in tense situations. The fox woman walked around the bed over to Jeremiah’s body. Her eyepieces flashed occasionally, signifying her taking pictures of the scene. “What is there to examine,” whined Amber, still feeling the electricity float in her body, “I had to have done this.”

“I don't believe that and neither should you.” She observed the blood stains on the bed and noticed as they led to the edge where it dripped onto the floor. The carpet was stained with blood that hadn't even dried up yet. This would not have been anything too big if it were not for the fact that they were shaped in the style of a boot tread. “ Hey Amber, you don't wear boots do you?”

Amber found that question to be redundant. “No, I wear bandage wrap over my feet.”

“The we can rest assured you didn't do it. These tracks are proof.” She said as she reached her finger out to show Amber. “No only that, but if you look, they lead in both directions. Which means someone had to come in and set his body here.” With the evidence in place, the cat girl finally was starting to believe someone staged this. Her temper went straight up to the roof. “I'm having a hard enough time maintaining my mental sanity and those Sytech asshats are trying to get me to kill myself?!” Amber ran out of the bedroom, to confront her so called companions as Carmelita chased after her.

Amber was just a bit too fast for her. She made into the secondaries room, as they all laid on the beds and the couch. She flicked on the lights and yelled out. “Which one of you did it?! Hunh?!” She screamed as her fisted connected with the wall, blowing a small hole in the dry wall. The three of the remaining secondaries shot out of bed and backed away from her. “What are you talking about?!” Screamed Jazz back at Amber. “Who killed Jeremiah and put him in my bed dammit!” It was at this point Carmelita finally caught up, “Amber, wait-”

“No! I want to know! Tell me now!” She yelled out. “I'm on the verge of mental insanity and you idiots did that to me?! Look what it accomplished!” Jess stood up and yelled at Amber. “It's because of your mental insanity that I had to do it! I was hoping that one of the other primes here would have jumped to conclusions and finished you off cause there was no way I'd have had a chance in a fight with you!” Amber rushed at her and grabbed him by throat without delay, as Carmel reached for her pistol again. “I'm going to kill you! You made me think I actually murdered him!” Her claws formed around her fingers slowly, jamming into Jess’s neck slightly before another, stronger jolt of electricity stung into Amber side. She maintained her posture, fighting the sting as her claws dug into the secondary before releasing her. The half feline fell to the floor, twitching from the shock that paused her nerves. Jess ran back the bed terrified and bleeding from her neck.

[Carmelita]

As Amber groggily got to her feet, Carmelita leveled her shock pistol at Jess. Jazz and Jonah both edged away from the woman, faces pale at the turn of events. Carmelita charged a shot and held it, slowly taking a pair of Fisti-Cuffs from her belt pouch.

“You killed Jeremiah in cold blood, and no doubt were relying on Arturia to leap to conclusions. You’ve taken advantage of your friends’ trust and given in to your own paranoia. I am going to cuff you, then we’re moving out.”

Jess, panicked by Carmelita’s professional and calm delivery, pointed at Amber.

“But she was bitten! She’s been feverish, she’s going to kill us all! She even gnawed on Jeremiah’s ear when I dropped it in her mouth!”

“Quiet. Amber is sick, and her condition has worsened. I found a map in the supervisor’s room before we went to bed that showed the location of a hospital. We will be going there and finding a way to cure her, now.”

Carmelita advanced as she spoke, grabbing Jess’s arm and swiftly cuffing it behind her back. She let the charged shot dissipate into the ground.

“As for you, you’re coming with us. When we get off this island, I will be submitting evidence of your crime, including the confession and images I recorded on my earpiece.”

Jazz ran a hand through her grey hair, staring at Jess’s back in incomprehension as they made their way down to the foyer. Jonah, however, looked around nervously.

“Where’s Arturia? Shouldn’t we get her?”

“Arturia headed out to scout ahead last night. We’ll catch up with her on the way.”

Carmelita’s muzzle closed, her mouth a tight line of cold, quiet anger. Amber was eyeing Jess up with fury in her eyes, lessened only by the sight of Carmelita holding the chain of the cuffs firmly in her off hand. She frowned, sickened by the night’s unforeseen events.

“Why?” Jazz quietly asked, startling them all. “Why, Jess? Jeremiah shared tea with us in the breakroom. You both work in the same office. You were hired on the same day. Why?”

Jess’s face was one of sudden shock, and her hands balled into fists. She looked away, tears dripping down her face, and in the silence that followed the group headed out of the front doors, Carmelita’s shock pistol lighting the way.

[Albert Wesker]

Once more into a mad dash away from almost certain death. Whatever that behemoth of a creature was, if it got ahold of any one of them they were dead. That was all there was to it. All it needed was one good chomp, and their group would be down one member. It was a grim thought, and it was one that rather rapidly forced a plan into Colonel's mind to get rid of the blasted creature for good.

Trying to drive it off like a conventional animal hadn't worked. And running from it was an exercise in futility. None of their group was particularly quick on the move. Abner was the fastest among them, by a rough estimate, and even he was hard-pressed to just keep ahead of the beast. Adrenaline and fear was lending the human prime and their two terrified secondary allies enough frantic speed to keep ahead for now, but how long could it really last?

No. Running wasn't going to do it. They needed to end this.

"Abner!" the war machine suddenly shouted over his shoulder. "Draw its attention; keep it distracted!"

"What?!" 

"I have a plan." That was all the soldier program said, before he broke off to one side at the mouth of the alley, and took a flying leap, sailing up onto the rooftop of the building there, landing with a solid impact. And then he was gone into the fog.

"You...son of a bitch!" Abner growled. So much for strength in numbers! It was only the sounds of immediate pursuit behind him that kept him moving, silently cursing under his breath. 


"One chance," Colonel muttered to himself, slowing his pace as sight of the others melted into the fog and darkness of night blanketing the town. "One chance to hit that thing as hard as possible...and hope it's enough." Timing was going to be the crucial point of all of this. Readying multiple weapon systems to trigger at the same time wasn't going to be an easy task, even under optimal circumstances. And a mad rush to dispose of a crazed monster in the darkness of an alien, oppressive town was about as far from optimal circumstances as you could get.

Calculating.

His pace over the rooftop picked up, his eyes focused only on what lay before him as it swam into view through the fog. The last thing he needed was to come unexpectedly to the edge and ruin his entire plan. He could still hear the sounds of the chase from below — the beast wasn't exactly quiet in its pursuit — and was relying on it to keep track of where they were headed.

Calculating.

Held out to one side, the blade of his saber flickered brightly in the gloom, leaving a cascade of viridian sparks streaming in his wake, lighting up the rooftops like a beacon. A harsh, sizzling crackle resounded, drowning out the noise of his footsteps. It certainly gave away his position, but this wasn't exactly the time for stealth.

Calculating.

He leaped to the next building, his entire body lighting up with a dim purple outline as he went. The pale green of his eyes flared with emerald lightning, the gashes and tears in his armored exterior flickering with electricity as power output increased dramatically. "Hard and fast. All at once." Rapidly the increased output grew in intensity, flaring up into a blazing aura, surrounding the cybernetic warrior with billowing violet flame.

Calculation accomplished. Readying weapons.

His left arm shot out, fingers closing into a loose fist. The digital wireframe of the massive Colonel Cannon spread out around his outstretched hand, forming up into the skeleton of the artillery-spewing weapon. He took a particularly heavy step to one side as the behemoth of a firearm fully materialized, his balance upset for a split second by its sheer bulk, before righting himself and lurching into a last few paces to the edge of the current rooftop.

Now.

He leaped forward, onto the adjacent building, and bolted directly across it for the far corner, facing the street.

Down on the ground below, the beast had rapidly gained ground on its prey, even with Abner's relatively level-headed directions to keep them from a straight chase. On open ground, there was no way they could outrun it; but cutting corners, through buildings and down a narrow alley or two had kept them — barely — one step ahead of the thing.

But now it looked ready to pounce, and a low growl ripped from it, gaping maw spreading wide to show far too many teeth, gleaming in the dark. Pale white eyes focused in on the perceived weakest of the three — Trent, both injured and just out of his panic attack certainly was a tempting target for the opportunistic hunter — and it leaped forward, putting on a surprising burst of speed. It had worn down its prey; they were tired now. No sense prolonging the hunt. It bowled right over Abner, all but trampling and knocking the former stormtrooper aside, even as he hit the deck, tucking into a rough tumble, rolling out of the way with a "Shit!"

The secondary barely had time to let out a panicked "Oh god!" before the beast was knocked silly, crashing down to the earth as something hit it like a thunderbolt and rolling ass over teakettle across the street. A wash of purple flame, and a bolt of emerald lightning split the darkness, eliciting a mangled howl from the creature as a violent green blade tore at it, and Colonel had reappeared, seemingly from nowhere, crouched on one knee where the beast had just been.

His eyes, fixed on the lumbering predator as it regained its feet, shaking its head, narrowed slightly. Now was his chance. He bolted after it, and it surged forward to meet him. The massive cannon barrel came forward in a blurred arc, and it — along with the machine's arm — disappeared into the beast's gaping maw. Colonel's expression twisted with pain as sparks flew, the monster's jaws snapping closed on his arm, but he managed to pull the trigger, and discharge the massive gun.

An explosion rocked the immediate area, obscuring the results of the engagement in a cloud of smoke and fire. Both 'combatants' were hurled away from the blast, hitting walls on opposite sides of the street. Walls collapsed from the impact, and the blaze of purple was lost under a swirling torrent of dust and dislodged brick.

"Fuckin' showoff..." Abner grunted, getting back to his feet.

1118/2400 words, according to on-site wordcounter.

Colonel used Tier 1 Power Up: Colonel β -- 3/4 SP remaining

Colonel also used, in order:
Screen Divide
Colonel Cannon: Artillery

[Carmelita]

The streets were ill lit, and with one of the group cuffed, one of them leaning looking very poorly and another grimly holding the cuffed one ahead of her, the remaining two huddled together nervously.

Carmelita’s eyepiece displayed a picture of the map to her as they travelled. A left turn, then a right turn, and she kept glancing around for any sign of ambush. Nothing stirred. There was the sound of distant crashes, but it sounded more like buildings collapsing than a fight, so they pressed on.

The hospital hove into view, the green glow of the cross above the entrance the only light visible. Together, the group made their way to the front doors, which opened silently at their approach.

“Amber, how’re you holding up?” Carmelita asked, glancing down at the slumped shoulders of Jess.

“I’m running off quiet rage and disgust at the moment, but I feel terrible. I think… I lost a chunk of skin a bit back. My arm’s raw and exposed, and it hurts numbly.” Amber followed her statement with a soft string of curses.

There was a squelch, and Jazz examined her boot with distaste.

“Ew, gross. Dog shhhhaaaah!”

The near scream came as Carmelita illuminated what the woman had stepped in: a dead body, rotting on the sidewalk. Handing Jess over to Jonah, Carmelita crouched down and examined the man.

He wore military garments, and had a fairly large hole blown through his head. Carmelita squinted at him, working out how he’d fallen, and lined up the shot with one of the upper windows.

“There was a fight here. Stay sharp. Amber, you still good to wield your gun?”

The faunus nodded, steadfastly avoiding looking at the body and watching for any movement inside. Sharing a look, the two led the way into the hospital, weapons at the ready.

As they entered, the lights flickered on automatically to reveal a bloodbath. The entire reception was filled with bodies, uniforms of police blue, military green and hospital white mixed with patient scrubs and civilian clothing under a blanket of gore. A cloud of flies rose from the bodies at the light, buzzing as the stench rolled over the group.

“Madre de dios…” Carmelita whispered, horrified at the sight. Behind her there was the sound of retching and crying, while to her left Amber’s skin became even more pale than it already had been. “Jonah, Jazz, I’m going to ask you to keep an eye on Jess. We’ll situate you in the house opposite, so sit tight there. If we’re not back by mid-day, head to the radio tower and wait for Arturia.”

Meekly, the Syntech employees nodded, and without further comment followed Carmelita and Amber across to a small townhouse and huddled in one of the rooms. Carmelita eyed the cuffs on Jess, but left them there: she’d have to make do with the two pairs she had on her.

As Carmelita and Amber headed back into the hospital, the faunus gave Carmelita a glance.

“What do you think happened?”

“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out.”

---

The two prowled through the hospital. After the massacre in the reception, the two were unsurprised to find bodies lying in the hallways and in the wards. Carmelita kept taking pictures, saving them under the title ‘Hospital Incident’.

It was as they were entering one the main operating theatre that they found the first outlyer. All the previous bodies had been killed through gunfire or blunt trauma, but there was something off about the woman who lay face down in the doorframe. Carmelita gingerly turned her over.

The woman’s face was hideously warped. The nose had twisted to the left, her eyes were twice as big as her eye sockets and her teeth were razor sharp and way too small for her mouth. Carmelita clamped down on the horror and thrust it to one side in her mind, instead methodically taking pictures and returning the body to its previous position.

A glance at Amber showed the faunus was not nearly as composed, as she leant against a wall, shaking slightly. Carmelita, however, took a moment to compare the faunus with the woman by her feet and was slightly concerned that the swelling of her skin was not impossible to correlate with the contortions of the woman by her feet.

“We’re changing direction, we’re going to pathology,” she decided. “We need to find the case files.”

The two took off down a corridor, lights flickering on. Both of them were jogging now, a sense of urgency filling them, as if the tragedies they were seeing were occurring just out of hearing and if they could only catch them up they could stop them.

They passed the delivery ward (neither of them wanted to look in there) and headed past the pediatric ward. A young boy lay in the corridor, innards distorted and visible through a great gaping hole in his chest, and Carmelita took a moment to document the grisly spectacle before continuing.

At the stairs, the sign for pathology pointed upstairs. Carmelita took the steps two at a time, followed by Amber, and they ground to a halt at the top of the steps.

The corridor they now looked down had windows, and all the way down the windows lay shattered, bullet holes lining the walls. Patients and military personnel lay dead, another choke point not dissimilar to the reception filled with a bloodbath.

The two gingerly made their way over the mess and into the main ward. The beds were full, some of them seating two or three to a single bed. Horrible claw marks accompanied frenzied signs of fighting, and warped flesh that resembled everything from granite to hair was visible on every body.

Carmelita pushed her emotions down, taking photo after photo. Amber gulped and closed her eyes, turning to cover the doorway.

Carmelita crossed the room, and found a nurse slumped over a desk in the back midway through writing a final note. She eased the file out and flicked through the last few pages.

‘8/9/22, infected numbers increased from nine to twelve. Aside from the usual symptoms, they are becoming more irritated than usual. Increased medication dosage for patient zero and patient five.

10/9/22, overheard Doctor Bondsen talking with one of the researchers from pharmaceuticals. Apparently he was concerned that the disease might have been one of the bugs they were trying to cure, but they said there was no leak.

12/9/22, Doctor Bondsen went down to the basement to talk to pharmaceuticals again, then called to say he was taking a sick day. Patients are becoming much more sickly, and with the increase in numbers we’ve taken on additional nurses from other departments.

17/9/22, had to restrain patient zero today. The man tried to attack Dolly when she gave him his breakfast. Keeps complaining that the twisting inside of him is trying to get out.

19/9/22, the ward is full and the other departments are reporting their patients have begun exhibiting symptoms. We called town hall, and they quarantined the hospital. The police force set up a cordon, but pharmaceuticals says they’re near a breakthrough to cure this disease.

20/9/22, I don’t know why, but the men from the military base turned up with the cops. The patients have been getting even worse, and even some of the staff are being confined to their beds. Patient zero got hold of a knife and had to be put down.

21/9/22, everything’s gone crazy. Pharmaceuticals rang to say they had a cure, but the patients suddenly rioted. I hid in the closet, but I can hear gunfire coming closer.

22/9/22, I got hit by a gunshot. I’m bleeding out, but if someone finds this, I think there’s a cure in pharmaceuticals. I still hear gunfire and screams from the rest of the hospital, and patient three is still alive in here. She keeps screaming at me, but I’m ignoring her. Too tired to do anything else.’

Carmelita went to the door, and handed the folder to Amber.

“We need to get to the basement.”

As Amber opened her mouth to reply, an unearthly shriek sounded from elsewhere in the hospital. The two glanced at each other before readying themselves for combat.

[2B]

It was early in the dawn when Arturia had left the highrise, informing Carmelita of her decision and the plan she had. With some rations and water for herself, the knight had set out on a journey to the Hope upon the map.

The knight couldn’t bear the stillness in the atmosphere, it made her uneasy and restless. Each passing second the gnawing doubt bashed at the back of her mind, pushing her to move, to find Fiara before it would be too late. It frustrated the noblewoman more than anything in recent memory, the ghosts of those who’d served under her coming back to haunt her each night. It was the reason why she had left their group to scout the location alone. Because she couldn’t stay put, she couldn’t bring herself to endure the slow pace they were progressing with.

Each moment that took longer than it would by herself, was a moment that she could have used to find Fiara. Such was the knight’s internal struggle. She knew how abandoning their makeshift team would likely doom them, yet she knew that by not abandoning them, she could be dooming Fiara. And as it was, Arturia felt responsible for both groups.

The knight crept forward within the town, as she navigated the labyrinth of streets based on the aerial view of the city she’d burned into her retinas earlier, yet she didn’t exactly proceed with the same sort of slowness that they’d done before. Her movement was determined filled with efficiency of navigating upon battlefields. She held the veiled Excalibur within her grasp, faithful that should trouble come, she and her sword would be capable of handling it.. And in the worst case scenario, she would at least lead them away from Carmelita and the others.

The city in itself was something that the King of Knights found eerie, in a way reminding her of the hill where she’d met her end; It was silent, and there was nothing that seemed alive in the least; no bustling of a city, simply an uncomfortable silence.
What had happened here, was the thought lingering across the scape of her mind. This town, it had not been dead for all that long. Judging by the corpses she’d come across so far, they’d met their demise recently. A few weeks ago at at the very longest. If it had been any longer, the flesh would’ve been completely devoured, leaving naught but the bones behind.

It’d taken her an hour to traverse the silent streets, catching further evidence towards the fact, that this ghost town, wasn’t inhabited by ghosts in the very recent past. But even as she pondered in her cautious state of mind, the knight arrived to her intended destination.

473 words according to site, not counting this quote.

[2B]

The knight’s eyes showed before her a fairly large building, the doors gaping wide open, seemingly busted in. Whatever hope there may have been before, was unlikely to be there anymore, with a deformed corpse sprawled across the stairs. Arturia headed towards the doors, skirting around the corpse, keeping close attention to it, as she even decapitated the body. Given how the knight had already fought against corpses, she found it safer, considering the poor condition of her other hand. A safeguard, in a way.

As she headed inside with her blade raised in a defensive stance, the knight found she was following the occasional corpses, slashing them apart mercilessly as she went.. She hated the fact that she was mutilating the dead, but she wasn’t about to take a risk. The entrance hall was in disarray, as someone had built a barricade out of the chairs and tables to the doors, yet it had been busted open, leaving the furniture scattered across the floor, and the knight walking on cracking splinters of wood below her feet.

The knight spent time inspecting her surroundings, finding naught worth noting, even behind the reception. The entrance hall and everything within it had been swiped clean, with only the occasional slip of paper left behind. Eventually, the knight followed the trail of debris to the backrooms, a waft of something burnt assaulting her nose, causing her eyes to water, as she pressed further in. Further into the hallway, the knight’s eyes caught evidence of a charred corpse as her steps furthered her in a cautious manner.. The charred corpse laid across the vault entrance, the robust round door hanging open, revealing within it the array of destroyed lockboxes, as well as another corpse. As the knight proceeded within, she worked to ensure she was first safe within the vault, before she allowed her sword to dissipate, and began to investigate the lockboxes.

As she rifled through them, occasionally busting the few untouched ones, she could find nothing of strategical value, the boxes containing simply jewelry, checks, cash, testaments.. Until eventually, she found a small wooden box within one of them. Setting it to a nearby cart, the knight unlocked the latch and lifted the lid, as the contents of the box were revealed. Before her eyes, seemed to be some kind of a vessel flute, perhaps a modern version of one. It was sparkling azure in colour, shaped like a tooth of a dragon, perhaps two of her fists in length, sleek and slender in design, twelve holes upon the top of the device, and two on the bottom.. Within the box was also seemingly enough a carrying case designed to be attached upon one’s waist, built from very sturdy materials to protect the fragile instrument. In a way, the device reminded her of her home, Britain.. And as such, the knight decided to take the ceramic instrument with her.

The rest of her investigation yielded more of wasted time, as she headed out of the vault, the newly added package upon her waist, and her sword once more concealed in the steady grip of her right hand. She headed down the other hallway, this one seemingly less ravaged than the other, as she spent time investigating each of the offices she’d come across, even though it seemed to yield naught. Whoever had been here before her, had been frustratingly thorough. But it almost seemed like the knight was rewarded for her sheer determination, as she finally found something of use; A diary of sorts, located within the manager’s office. As she read through the pages, she nodded to herself. They’d used this place as a repository for pure, unrefined Omnilium, but that none of the shipments had came through in a long while. The journal also hinted the knight a sense of direction; in the trails of the former Manager, whom had left for the Mines where the Ominilium was acquired from, where there were supposed to be some sort of escape pods.

Slapping the small book shut, the knight packed it within the same sturdy pouch she was carrying the instrument with.

As such, the knight consumed some of the rations she had brought, together with some of the water, before she headed out once more, it was time to deliver this newfound information to Carmelita and the others.

723 words according to the site, not counting the quote.
Arturia acquired an Ocarina, as well as a protective, sturdy pouch for it.
Picture of the Ocarina

[Amber Veritz]

The faunus ran out to the hall as the shrieking continued. The wailing seemed to be coming from the floors below the girls. The hallway was exceptionally tight quarters but that was to Amber’s advantage. Just enough to swing Razorback around, while the horde of whatever was coming stayed bottlenecked between the walls. “Looks like the stairs are out of order, Carmel. What do we do?”

“Fighting our way through them isn't possible?” Carmel asked as if Amber knew how many there were. She replied simply with a negative shake of the head. “There's about to be a lot of them. Their moving fast too, so many footsteps.” When the catgirl finished her sentence, a few of the human-like beings came around the corner and slammed into the wall trying to get around the corner without slowing down. As the first one came in sight, Amber rose Razorback ready to fire. Loud bangs echoed through the hall with each shot. The larger horde of the group came crashing around the corner of the hall. There was at least thirty of these things charging toward the two. “Shit Carmel, we need to find the stairs leading up.” Carmelita had been watching Amber’s back while she focused on the crowd, but as she felt Amber's hand push on her back telling her to move, she took off forward without even looking back.

The horde hot on their trail, the ran down the hall. The faunus was getting shudders just listening to their enemies wailing and shrieking behind them. “You got any ideas Carmel?”

“Well, the stairs to the basement leading down are blocked by that massive horde, so we’ll go up.” Carmelita responded, breathing heavily as she ran. They made their way up the stairs onto the next floor. Luckily, the ghouls seemed to have a tough time making their way up stairs. “We need to find a way down, Amber!”

“I know I'm thinking! I'm thinking!” The two charged down the hall as quickly possible passing rooms and over other bodies. The quick witted faunus surveyed the situation. How else could they reach the basement and avoid the ghastly fellows behind them? A couple of seconds of tedious mumbling and a quick glance up, it hit her. “The elevator!”

“What? Im sure we wouldn't have the time to call the elevator, let alone there be enough power to get the damn thing to work?” Amber smirked, “That's the best part.” Carmelita was entirely confused. “Amber, you're making no sense.” The two approached the wooden sliding door of the elevator. Amber’s hands lit up pink revealing her claws as she dug her hands into the wood, forcing the door open. “Oh no, are you ser-”

“I'm acrophobic and we're on the 6th floor. Do you think I'm joking? Or, would you rather take your chances with the horde?” The cat girl screamed out as the horde closed in on them. “Good point, let's go.” The officer jumped into the shaft grabbing the elevator cord and slid down a little so Amber could join her. The faunus smirked as she stepped into the shaft and grabbed the cord. A quick motion of her hand and the wodden door slammed shut. The ghouls smashed against the door, wood splintered out with each hit.

“Phew, safety at last, kinda.” Amber whispered. The ghouls behind the wood finally calmed down, realizing their efforts were not getting them anywhere. “Not what I was expecting Amber, but good job either way.” The faunus flashed a grin of satisfaction, her leadership and planning skills had shinned through.

The two slid down the cord, slowly of course, trying not to disrupt the integrity of the old rope that held the elevator up. “Where do you think the elevator is?” Amber said, just above Carmelita. “Well, if we're guessing I’m going to assume above us. The building looked to be about ten stories high give or take, so it's most likely on one of the lower floors.” Amber glanced up and squinted trying to see if she could make it out from there. “I think I see it about two floors above us.”

“That's good, we won't have to maneuver around it.”

“Let's just hope it doesn't fall on our heads.” After sliding down for a minute of two, the girls had made it down to the 2nd floor, hands starting to hurt. “We’re almost there.” Carmelita’s voice rose through the shaft. Just as the hit ground level, something happened, and they both knew what it was instantly: The elevator had been shaken loose and was plummeting towards them. “Oh shit.” Amber said sinking what was left of her peeling skin. They quickly slid down the rope as the screeching of steel filled the small shaft. The elevator came into view and their reaction was to let go and hit the floor, rolling out of the shaft as it slammed down behind them with a loud crash. “We're alive!” Carmelita said thankfully. “I will never do something like that again.” The faunus said lying on the ground.

The basement was dark, so Carmelita flicked the light of her eyepiece on. “Shall we continue then?”

“Yeah, let’s go.” She said as she stood back up and dust herself off.

[Zack Fair]

The haze of dust and debris clouded the limited visibility that remained. Under normal circumstances, Abner would have no doubt that such a decisive artillery barrage would be sufficient to eliminate any threat, but everything about this island was far from normal. Instead, Abner stepped backwards and drew his shotgun, listening for any movement within the cloud.
 
Colonel appeared to share the same train of thought. Upon the soldier navi’s landing near Kristen, the young woman instinctively wrapped her arms around one of Colonel’s. Though she felt safer in his presence, Colonel merely brushed the girl aside, for she would just slow his ability to use his beam emitter if he needed it.
 
As the crumbling of the destroyed bricks quieted down, both primes could hear a pained wheezing coming from the smoke. The monster was alive, but it was also hurt. Abner stepped back a few paces, while the secondaries retreated even farther. As the dust settled, they saw the fangs of the monster coming into view. Their view continued to clear, and the monster’s massive head emerged, followed by its large body, covered in grey, matted fur. Patches of hair were missing, replaced by scars on the skin. This thing had been hunting prey on this island for a long time.
 
The short standoff ended when the beast unleashed a powerful roar, refusing to retreat despite the grievous wounds on its body. Abner raised his shotgun and Colonel activated his beam saber, but the monster had already pounced towards the two of them. This time they didn’t flee. Their opponent was limping and it was weak, so the time to strike back had arrived.
 
Even in its injured state, however, this bizarre creature was still a formidable threat. It landed between Abner and Colonel before Abner could even get a shot off. The side of its head collided with the ex-trooper, throwing him sideways. Colonel, spared from any immediate impact, thrust his energy saber into the beast’s neck as quick as he could, eliciting another roar of pain.
 
Trent summoned up the strength to grab Kristen by the arm and move away from the battle with her in tow. They weren’t going to be able to help in any capacity, so rather than stand in awe of creature and the battle with it, he moved his crush away from the chaos that the scene was rapidly deteriorating into.
 
Abner, meanwhile, landed on the ground with a thud and a curse. He didn’t want to risk damaging Colonel with the spread of his shotgun, so he instead aimed at the monster’s front left leg, and fired a powerful blast of buckshot into it. The creature, already choking on its own blood from the robot's assault, collapsed on the disabled limb with a gurgled whine. It was able to summon the strength to push off the wounded limb, however, and subsequently slam Colonel into a brick wall of a building.
 
Colonel was pinned against the structure, and quickly deactivated his saber. Reacting quickly, he placed the beam emitter against the open wound he’d created on the beast, and unleashed a charge of energy into the open gash. The monster flinched with the harsh impact, and Colonel repeated the attack a second time as soon as he was able to create a second charge.
 
The beast desperately flailed, moving away from Colonel in its struggles. The soldier navi quickly reactivated his beam emitter upon attaining the breathing room, and tried to regain his composure. Before the monster could turn around and direct its powerful fangs at the robot, however, Abner charged in from an unobserved direction and stabbed the beast’s left eye with his combat knife.
 
Once again the monster cried in agony, but still wouldn’t die. Abner knew that it couldn’t be given a second of respite, so he forced the knife into the eye socket as deep as he could. Gnashing jaws wildly searched for a victim only inches from him, and all he could think about, in turn, was how they had turned solid rock into mere pebbles so effortlessly.
 
In the monster’s limping struggles, it found the leverage to hurl Abner backwards again. As he sailed through the air, the former stormtrooper felt true panic. The two primes had only found a flimsy advantage over this abomination by attacking from a close range, which ended up being a substanstial weakpoint to the beast. With the distance it created by this development, his only, flimsy edge had abruptly deteriorated. Abner knew he'd have to act quickly in order to survive. On impact with the ground, Abner’s pistol was already in his hands, and he began firing wildly at the creature. Colonel enacted a matching plan, bombarding the creature with blasts from his beam emitter as it limped toward the downed ex-trooper.
 
At some point in the merciless onslaught, the beast finally collapsed. It dropped to the ground just before Abner, who did not hesitate to unload the remainder of his clip into the motionless monster. Once his ammo ran dry, he watched the limp body for a few seconds, looking for the faintest signs of movement.
 
“Fuck!” Abner shouted as he stumbled to his feet, holstering his pistol once he did. He stood, and cautiously surveyed the downed monstrosity. There was no predicting the movements of this horror.
 
Colonel approached simultaneously reigniting his beam saber and leveling it in a defensive position. While Abner recovered his dropped shotgun, the soldier navi never let the monster’s head leave his eyesight. Abner cautiously approached, as well, but quickly ripped his knife from its head at the first opportunity and returned the blade to its sheath.
 
“Did we get it?” Abner asked as he surveyed the apparent corpse. He continued to take nothing for granted here.
 
Colonel cautiously set his hand on the beast’s neck, intently waiting for the slightest bit of motion. He felt it, just barely. The pulse was so faint that an organic being might not be able to detect it over their own natural motions. Colonel stepped back, shaking his head.
 
“Barely functional,” the machine surveyed aloud. “Approximately a one percent chance of survival.”
 
Abner snarled as he pumped another shell into his shotgun’s chamber, and directed the weapon towards the monster’s head. A single trigger pull unleashed an explosion of buckshot that thoroughly disintegrated the creature’s head. His reaction had been instinctive and uncontrollable. While the secondaries yelped in surprise, Colonel remained motionless as blood, hair, and visceral matter erupted in his direction. Instead, he simply updated his analysis.
 
“Zero percent.”

[Remilia Scarlet]

Remilia had decided to set off on her own into the deserted halls of the hotel to explore once they had finished their meal. Well, ‘meal’ was putting it favorably, as the frozen waffles and blueberries had stayed inside their frigid prison for to long and even with the best efforts of her companion it still tasted like cardboard with the sauce of blue stuff. Freezer burn had robbed the taste from what was already food that only those with neither ambition nor time would eat. It it very clearly did not reach the vampire’s standards, something that came quite clear as she grimaces with each bite, and she was sure that if her head maid Sakuya had been here she would have slammed the tragedy on a plate into the nearest trash can and whipped up a breakfast that would have made Gin and his dumb hashbrowns cry.

But she took it down with as much gratitude as she could muster and once she found nothing of value in the manager’s room she skipped out.

The first thing she noticed as she moved back towards the lobby to access the stairs to the upper floors was the sudden lack of natural sunlight that had once peaked through the grand windows of the lobby. Wasn’t it morning when they had arrived? But a complete lack of caring had crept into the vampire as she shrugged at the sudden change in time, the place has already made it clear it was flippant on any form of normalcy. It was more the inconvenience of the sudden plunge into darkness that got to Remilia, as she was forced to grope through the vague shapes in the darkness. 

She should have stole that flashlight when she had the chance. 

The first floor held little of interest, already picked clean by scavengers with any two brain cells to rub together. The second floor had one room with its door unlocked, although the inside looked more trashed than the ones before. Inside was a disaster zone, strewed about were broken instruments. Blown out speakers, guitars with snapped strings, a mike that had flown off cord and embedded itself in the wall. Where their players were was a mystery, but the many items of vice that were left on a coffee table in the center of this destruction told what had caused it and a window shattered from the inside meant something if not anything Remilia wanted to think about. Among the many bottles and baggies on the table was a zippo lighter. It had the curvaceous body of a naked woman painted into its side, but she wasn't going to turn it down.

With so many of these rooms empty or robbed, it seemed unlikely the vampire would find a replacement for her dress. She would be fine with a vest, or a needle and string. Anything to replace the long cut across her flank given by the mad killer in their fight. It left her feeling exposed, and as the skirt of the dress sunk as the tear grew it would only mean a trip in her future when she needed it the least.

She looked back down at the tear and gave a long frown. She liked this dress.

At the fifth floor was when something stood out. As she took a corner in her lap around the build she saw faint blue light outline one of the doors. She watched it for a moment, with an internal debate if she should go in or grab Gin first, but pride would not allow her to just ignore it. She puffed her chest, marched towards the illuminated door, and swung it open with abandon.

The first thing she noticed was the smell and its source: a rotten corpse laid face up across the top of the double bed, still clothed and with a remote held firmly in his withered hand. The TV was what the light from before, but only an endless stream of static would be the dead’s entertainment. Otherwise the room seemed mundane, other than a cord plugged into the wall and pulled into a room connected to this one. A glance in and a flick of her new light showed another body, female this time, in the bath tub half submerged in a vile stew of rot. A tray was laid on the tub with nail polish, cotton balls, and ointment, and to complete the set was a live steam iron thrown in. 

The vampire shook her head and tsked as she constructed the scene. A lover’s quarrel ended explosively. How the man was killed she couldn’t guess, but if he was afflicted with the same madness as the carnival man then perhaps he had willingly stayed and watched the flickering screen until his slow death came. 

Despite the gruesome scene, Remilia was more interested in what would be useful to her and in the corner of the room she found what she was looking for: Suitcases. Four of them, two big and two littler ones that had cutesy flowers printed. She practically pounced on the two smaller ones, sure that children’s clothes would be inside.

Nothing. Empty. The other two, also empty. She tore open the shelves and the closet. Nada. Where did it go? What was the point of the luggage if there was nothing to be stored in it? And who did the two smaller luggage belong to? Remilia, left with no more care to give, kicked one of the open contains and send it hurling into the wall. At least she left a little better.

And then the giggling started.

Remilia whipped backwards the door of the room, her lighter held in front as if it would provide some comfort as she sound herself not alone. The two sets of giggling seem to cover from everywhere, loud enough that they had to be close. The vampire inched closer to the door and constantly scanned the room for anyone, her other hand on a spell card. Although they might survivors, nothing good seems to come from survivors on this island.

“We found another one, Abigail. In our parent’s room, no less. How rude of it, entering where it doesn’t belong.” the childish, emotionless voice stated. 

“Don’t be so hasty, Caroline” Another one said, although it sounded exactly like the first. If Remilia had been told it was the first person, she would believe it “It has been soooo long since we’ve had someone to play with. And teddy hasn’t spoken in a while either”

“Yes Abigail, it should play with us. That’s what nice guest would do. We have so many things we can do. I would love to do some dress up”

“She’s too short for dress up, Caroline. ”

“We can always make her taller, like what we did to the others”

“I say we play tea party. She can drink all the special teas we made, and we can see what color she turns”

As the two voices bantered over what game the play, Remilia could only imagine what “playing” with these two would end in. She had the spell card out now, ready to cast at a heart beat. This had tripped ALL her red flags, and she wanted nothing to do with it. But if they were outside the door, she could only hit one before the other jumped her. She needed to be clever to get out of this

“Can I pick what we play?”  Remilia threw out, and the two voices stopped talking. There were a few hmms, but it seemed that the two did not hate the idea “It’s only fair, since I’m the guest”

“Oh, of course it can. We’ll play anything, as long as it’s something” That didn’t sound encouraging.

“Hide and seek! You can hide and and I’ll go find you” If they’re dumb enough to accept, Remi could bolt back down to the ground floor and she and Gin could run and never look back.

“I love hide and seek” Thing one answered, although you couldn’t tell as he tone never changed.

“I do too… but I think you should hide”  Thing two added. Remila grunted at the slight complication, but the same plan held. She’d just have to run pass these two while she was at it. “And if it wins, we’ll even make it our friend!” The slight increase in something resembling emotion wasn’t worth the horrible mental images Remilia was suddenly getting of what these two’s ‘friendship’ involved.

“Yes, we will! I even have the perfect button eyes”

“But if we find it, or if it try to run downstairs, then it’ll have to play our game”

“And then teddy can talk again! He was so boring last time, all he did was scream...”

And then a sing song countdown started as they counted in unison, and Remilia bolted. The were not outside the door, leaving her the only choice to try and escape before she found out what kind of game the terrible duo liked to play.

[Gin Yatreg]

"You know, this bodies showing up out of thin air thing is starting to get pretty damn old," Gin thought. "Was that an explosion I heard just now?" He wondered.  His legs still felt like rubber for the moment, which was a new experience for him. Usually alcohol doesn't affect him this badly, thanks to his altered body, although the fact that it was scotch might have had something to do with it. Gin stumbled around the bed, and got a closer look at Jace's corpse. The weeks of decomposition it had been through led to it being fused with the wall, as if it were here the whole time. Gin knew that wasn't the case of course, the room was clean just a couple hours earlier; yet it was here now. He bent down and picked up the golden pocket watch and opened it up. While it was perfectly clean on the inside, the hands had stopped moving, and he was unable to turn the wind-up dial. "Maybe something's wrong with the clockwork?" Gin thought, turning it around. He fidgeted with the back until it popped open, and revealed a key jammed inside the mechanism. On the key was the word 'SAFE' engraved into the end on both sides. Gin put the key in his pocket and set the watch on the bed, its gears broken thanks to the key. 

Outside, a loud thump echoed through the halls. Followed by the sound of something being dragged, accompanied by erratic footsteps. Another thump, and then the footsteps once more. The pattern repeated as it grew closer and closer to room seven. Gin pressed himself against the wall, and held his breath. Finally the noise passed in front of the door, and began to grow softer as the source moved further away. Gin let out a sigh of relief and relaxed his muscles a bit. With the wall as support, he shambled to the door, he opened it slowly and peered out into the hall. 

On the floor were deep scratch marks, darting through deep crimson footprints that came before them. They led down the hall and around the corner, towards the front of the hotel. "Looks like we wren't alone here after all," Gin thought. He played with the key in his pocket, wondering what he should do next. "Remilia's safe upstairs, so I won't have to worry about it going after her. I am curious about the safe as well," He thought as he pulled the key out, "Chasing after it probably isn't a good idea, especially while I'm like this. I'd better see what's in the safe first...If I can find it anyways." 

~~~

Gin slowly moved down the hall to the front of the hotel as he cursed himself for not realizing the staff areas would be at the front and not the back. "Looks like I'll have to deal with the mystery monster after all," He grimaced. Gin peeked around the corner, and thankfully saw nothing out of the ordinary in the lobby. He didn't hear anything either, which was a good sign. His legs had finally started to get their feeling back, however he still used the wall as support just in case. Gin moved to the front desk and ducked behind it. The desk spanned a good portion of the back wall, which made it the perfect cover for Gin to get to the other side of the room. He crawled to the other end, and went back to  a crouched position once there. Just as he was about to move to the closest door marked 'STAFF ONLY', he heard a familiar sound echo from behind one of the other doors. Gin hid himself against the desk as the door slowly opened up, and out walked the monster from earlier. Against his better judgement, Gin took a peek from around the desk as the creature walked by. However, he was only able to catch a glimpse of two large, bright white, claws being dragged along the floor. Suddenly the footsteps stopped, and Gin's blood froze, along with the rest of his body. His heart began to beat faster; did it know where he was? Had he given himself away somehow? These questions spiraled around inside Gin's mind until the footsteps started back up again. His body refused to unfreeze however, not until the monster was well enough away from his position.

Finally the footsteps grew quieter, and Gin shakily moved to the staff door, and stepped inside as quietly as he could. The staff area was split into two rooms, one was a break area of sorts, with the door in the back leading to the manager's office. Gin went inside, he found a normal office, albeit  covered in dust from the long years. The safe was built into the back wall, sitting there untouched despite rest of the hotel being looted beyond belief. He moved to the safe and pulled the key out of his pocket, gently inserting it into the keyhole. He turned the key and, with a satisfying click, the safe door popped open. Gin pulled the door all the way open, and looked at the safe's content with surprise. "Is that a..." he managed to say before being cut off by a loud crash outside the staff area.

Gin slipped the object into his pocket and hopped inside the nearest closet. Just as he closed it shut, Gin could hear the door burst off its hinges. A low growl came from the other side of the thin closet door, whatever was on the other side stood there motionless for what felt like forever to Gin. Finally, it slowly walked out of the room. Once he couldn't hear anything outside, Gin stepped out of the closet and hobbled over to the doorway. Nothing was in sight for now, and he damn well didn't want that to change. He was gonna head upstairs, get Remilia, and get the hell out of there. 

Just as Gin made it to the hallway, a loud screech tore through his eardrums. "Oh no," he thought as he turned around to meet the stalker he had attempted to avoid. The creature stood tall on extremely long legs, its head barely touching the ceiling. Its head was pure white, with no facial features to speak of outside of a distinctly distorted mouth. The rest of its body was the same color, what little body it had anyway. From what Gin saw, where the legs ended led into a small chest area just big enough to house the essential bones and organs needed to move and survive. The arms that hung from its shoulders reached down to the floor, ending in sharp white claws that it dragged behind itself. The entire creature looked like a person had their legs and arms stretched like taffy, followed by their actual body getting crunched in on itself. Then had hot pure white wax poured onto their flesh,  leaving only their mouth as the remaining distinction of their previous form. Gin turned to run, he couldn't fight it in his current scotch affected state. All he could do was run and try not to get caught. His body then chose the wrong time to have a disagreement with him, as his legs gave in, sending him down to the floor. 

The creature began its charge, using whatever remained of its lungs to screech at the highest octave it could achieve. Gin stumbled to his feet and ran for the nearest unlocked door, slamming it shut and locking it behind him as he did so. It would buy him a few seconds, but not enough to find a place to hide. He needed to find a way to defend himself or lose the monster fast. He turned around to find himself in the kitchen, and his eyes fixed on the gas stove he used earlier. Gin ran over to the stove, activating a shield fist before punching the gas pipe clean off. The distinct smell of rotten eggs began to fill the room as he broke as many gas lines as he could find. Gin picked up a flip lighter and fell back to the rear side of the room, pulling his shirt up over his nose as he did so. The monster burst into the room and laid its non-existent eyes on Gin. As the creature ran around one side of the room, Gin bolted down the other and straight out the doorway. He turned around and flipped the lighter open, "Go to Hell!" he yelled before lighting a flame and tossing the light into the room. Gin booked it down the hall as the room exploded into a glorious sea of flame that broke through the aged walls of the hotel and shot up through the ceiling. 

Gin sank into a chair in the lobby, out of breath. He did not have time to relax though, as the sound of footsteps echoed from down the other hall. 

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Thanks Alex for letting me edit a finale into this. I tried to make a lead into your post so your editing would be easier. Hope this was good!

[Karl Jak]

End of Round 7

Colonel, Abner, Trent, and Kristen limped toward the nearest building.  Colonel casually snapped off the lock after it failed to open and shoved the door inward.  They group of survivors had managed to defeat their predatory nemesis, but not without taking their fair share of bruises and scrapes along the way.  They would need some time to rest and recover their wounds.

Trailing a few paces, Abner glanced over at the metal plaque on the side of the structure.

‘Radio Station Karl’ … the guy named a radio station after himself? Shaking his head, the former stormtrooper glanced up at the radio tower that protruded up from the building.  Now that the adrenaline was starting to fade away, they’d have to start devising some sort of plan, whether that meant escape, getting help, or simply surviving until the next threat reared its head.  Abner didn’t know which of those outcomes was likelier, but the last thing he expected to happen was for Karl Jak to come dropping down from the clouds in the dirigible to evacuate them to safety.

Once inside, the group found themselves in a waiting room filled with couches and vending machines.  A quick glance revealed that the vending machines were intact, which meant they might contain food or drinks.  A couple bags of stale potato chips and a flat soda was a better meal than nothing.

***

Gin thought he had earned a moment to relax in another old chair. His thoughts had been happy ones of sitting peacefully when a wide-eyed Remilia nearly exploded through a nearby door.  She glanced around the room before she settled her focus on the redhead, who felt his pulse quicken as his seemingly unhinged companion started toward him.

“Remilia… you, uh?”  One of her little hands clamped around his wrist as she uttered the words he never ever liked to hear.

“We have to run.  Run now.  No more hotel.”

Before Gin could make an inquiry or question what had rattled her, he was being across the foyer of the hotel.  By the time he’d managed to right himself, she was already half-pulling him across the threshold and into the perpetual night of the city.  “I’m good!”  He remarked before she could unwillingly drag him down any stone stairs or across concrete.  “What’s the matter?”

Remilia looked up at the hotel, and if she had any color to her features, Gin was certain it would have all run down to her ankles.  “Nothing.”  She replied as her tone started to return to normal.  “I just didn’t like that place.  We should go someplace nicer… with better food!  Let’s go now.”  Although she wasn’t running anymore, the little vampire was certainly walking at an unnaturally quick pace.

The twosome kept power walking for nearly three blocks.  By the time Remilia finally stopped, she was certain that she’d put enough distance between herself and whatever lurked in the halls of the hotel.  Certainly the ghosts inside wouldn’t linger beyond their walls, correct?

Banishing the thoughts from her mind, she breathed out as things returned to ‘normal.’  They were still stranded on an island, but at least they had managed to not get themselves killed or trapped or something else horrible.

“Where are we?”  Gin asked as he glanced around the street.

Remilia shrugged her shoulders before she noticed something strange near the curb.

A PM has been sent to Colonel – Zack Fair, with your prize and your story information.

Remilia ‘won’ Round 7.  I’ll send you a PM.

Team KFC -> Please continue to explore the basement.  After another post, I’ll have to do a quick response.  You’ve all been great about getting in touch with me, so just let me know when you’re ready.  Arturia, you seem to have a plan for at least your next post (heading back to the apartments?)  If not, let me know, and I can provide you with something.

[Carmelita]

The two women left the elevator behind as they progressed. A sign painted on the wall indicated that pharmaceuticals was further in, and the two quietly padded along the corridor.

The lights, unlike those elsewhere in the hospital, did not turn on as they progressed. For the first hundred metres or so, they relied on the light of Carmelita’s shock pistol to illuminate the area, but as they got closer to the lab a faint violet light began to diffuse the corridor.

There was no obvious source, and there were no shadows cast. Carmelita and Amber shared a look before adjusting their weapons and continuing to pad down the corridor.

Suddenly, they heard the screams of the ghouls once more, and spun to face them. Shifting shapes in the darkness around the elevator probed towards them, but every time one of them entered the violet glow they would scream and back away into the darkness, scratching at their skin.

“It seems there is some countermeasure down here after all,” Carmelita said, hoisting the barrel of her shock pistol over her shoulder. “Hopefully we can find a cure for you as well as the ghouls down here.”

Amber nodded, but glanced worriedly towards the shifting shapes in the dark.

“So how are we going to get out of here if they’re blocking the exit?”

Carmelita shrugged, and the faunus sighed.

“Guess we’ll work that out later,” she said, hoisting her blade in her raw hands with a wince. “Let’s go.”

The two turned and headed deeper into the basement.

[Karl Jak]

After their first hallway, the two women came face-to-face with a set of double doors. The little windows on the doors had been covered with what seemed to be paint of some kind, and the push bars were locked together with a heavy metal chain. Sprawled on one of the doors was the clear message. "No Hope."

Carmelita walked up and pushed at the doors, which moved a little before the grip of the locked chain held them tight. "Not too sturdy." She stated as she turned to Amber. "Probably blast through it."

"Is there a point? That message seems pretty clear," the faunus remarked as her shoulders sagged.

"We've come too far to give up," Carmelita barked. "Now are you going to gun down this door or am I going to have the fun?" After a few spurts from Razoback, the chain fell to the ground and on the doors lurched forward. Carmelita pushed ahead, knocking the door open as she stepped into a room that had a surprising degree of light given the general disarray of the hospital above. A quick glimpse revealed that it was some type of large lounge, but before either of the ladies could get a better look, they heard the thump of boots from across the room.

"You made a mistake," a male voice replied, drawing the two women to the other side of the nondescript room. A young man in a bloodstained lab coat took a few lurching steps from a door on the other side of the lounge. The word 'killer' popped into the heads of Amber and Carmelita, but the fox quickly noticed that the man's blood was his own. Whoever the doctor or scientist was, he'd been shot several times in the gut and left side, and from the way in which he lurched, it was obvious that he was not long for this world.

"Who are you?" Carmelita asked, unsure whether the dying person was a threat or not.

"Researcher..." the man suddenly paused and tilted his sweat-drench face. His brow furrowed in thought for a brief moment before he shook his head and smacked a hand against his forehead. "Can't... can't find my name." He rasped as he took one step forward too many and lost his balance. As he crashed against what seemed to be a bar, the two women moved to help him. "No!" He screamed as they both noticed something moving beneath the back of his lab coat.

"What is it?" One of the two shouted as the man lurched away from the bar. In one of his hands, he held what seemed to a broken pipe from underneath the sink of the wet bar.

As the man spoke, his voice gradually descended into a growl. "Can only fight it... so long. Only... so long. They call to me."

A feral, animal noise tore forth from the man's bloody maw as both women heard the audible snap of bones breaking beneath his skin. The bones shattered and reshaped themselves as the scientist grew before them, his head lolling back and forth as his flesh started to darken to a shade of gray. What seemed to be bone spurts jutted out from the man's back and arms as what humanity he may have retained eroded away in front of the two primes.

Razorback whirred to life in Amber's hands as the monster started to stalk toward them.

As always, fight or flight.

The thing you fight will continue to rapidly evolve/adapt as you fight it, gradually becoming even less human and more like a screeching, otherworldly monstrosity.

[Amber Veritz]

Razorback’s gears hummed as they turned it into a sword and clicked into position. The monstrosity that stood before them was once man, but now was most certainly a mindless beast that would kill them without hesitation. Naturally it came to mind to think of a tactic. Since Amber is used to fighting near-mindless enemies, this should be simple.

“Carmel, give me some support.” She whispered to her ally as the fox disappeared from sight. “No problem Amber, just remember to be careful. This thing looks tougher than the outside can show.” Amber nodded. Albeit she was not sure how Carmelita knew that, but on the other hand she was not so good at discerning details like that.

Finally the fleshy monster was done with its bone shifting for the most part, and came upon Amber. The faunus was very much prepared for this, but the sight of this creature made her exceedingly nervous. The beast took it's slimy looking arm, which seemed to have overgrown his other, and aimed to slam the cat hybrid into the wall behind her. She responded in kind with her sword. The steel dug deep into its arm, blood splattered against the ground. Unfortunately, this only seemed to be a cut to the fleshy being. Amber was now noticing that even after it's initial transformation, this thing was still mutating beyond it's already terrifying and ugly state.

Feeling even more unsettled, the faunus took Razorback behind her head, after Carmelita’s shock pistol stunned it momentarily, and attempted to kill it at it's core: The brain. Whether it is human or not, it was once human. Kill the brain, kill the being, right? It might have been the case if Amber had thought it through and she had not drove her sword into the ceiling. Concrete dust rained over the faunus's head when steel met stone. “Shi-!” She panicked before being hit dead on by the creature this time. It's blood spilled onto Amber as the fist connected with her torso. Luckily, this thing was slow or else she would have been easy prey to the wolves, or wolf in this case, as she rolled around gagging on her own breath ten feet away from the monster. Carmelita’s assistance from the shadows proved useful too as it tried to search for her like a person lost in the darkness trying to find a lightswitch.

Razorback was now out of commission for the time being, seeing as how this small room was a bad place to use it. It took Amber a few seconds to recollect herself, stand from her prone state and catch her breath. Now her blood was really boiling. Pink light formed over her fingers as claws shaped themselves and the faunus charged the beast on all fours as it's back was turned. Digging into it's fleshy back and tearing out a lot of it's skin, it shrieked in pain trying to swing the crazy cat off it's hide. She lost balance, deciding to jump off before she was thrown again, and nimbly landed on all fours a few feet away from it.

“It's that’s tough so much as it is just capable of taking so much punishment. Not to mention it’s only getting uglier and bigger. Feeding off it's own pain or something.” Amber yelled out. “Stay on the defensive, perhaps we can wear it down.” Carmelita’s voice resonated from behind the faunus. “Heh, if you say so. You know what they say: ‘If it bleeds, we can kill it’!” She cracked her knuckles, careful not to pierce herself with her claws, and stood ready for round two with Fleshy.

629/2400 Amber took a clean hit to the chest. I expect that'll be described in damage, but no matter! The only hit point that matters is the last one! :rage:

[2B]

When the Knight had made it out of the bank, darkness had settled upon her once more. It was more than just a little confusing, given that she’d left for the place, during what she had thought to be the morning. But the solitary knight didn’t pay heed to it, given she knew nothing of the rest of the island either. It was merely another set back in a constant stream of disappointments and problematic events.

The problem she had, was that she had no source of light with her. Or rather, she did.. But it was frustrating for the prideful creature to use it as such, after all, it was Excalibur, the Sword of Promised Victory, not a mere flashlight. But, the situation necessitated for the legendary sword to be repurposed as a legendary flashlight.

Arturia’s greaves were taking her through the ruinous city in the darkness of night. It had taken her more than quite frankly too much time to traverse the city with her limited light sources, the only one being the golden glow of her makeshift flashlight-sword. They’d agreed to meet up at the Hospital, which was where Arturia was headed for. She’d completely lost her sense of time in the darkness, and even her sense of direction had failed her numerous times, as much as she hated to admit it. Well, to her luck, at least she hadn’t encountered anyone or anything, nor had the wound in her hand opened.

----------

A scream echoed in the knight’s ears as her greaves kicked her to full speed, dashing across the streets towards the distress call. She knew she was close to her destination, and much to her chagrin she also heard the telltale sounds of combat nearby. She didn’t recognize the voice, but she did not expect to be proficient enough at recognizing their team by their screams.

Meanwhile, Jonah and Jazz had their hands full, figuratively and literally, as they had been forced to retreat into the upstairs of the building they’d been defending. Panic was settling in, and they’d barricaded themselves inside the the bathroom, looking out of the window for any source of hope. “Jess is done for, Jazz.” Jonah comforted the older woman as her screams echoed from below. “They’ll come back for us, I know they will.” It was then that the determined older woman began to cackle, apparently highly amused by what the man had just said.

“I won’t be dyin’ even if they don’t, Jonah. I plan to be getting out of here, ‘n working for Karl with many years to come! I’ve grandchildren waiting for me back home, ya dolt.” The woman began to tear down the curtain pipe, as she prepared to defend herself. “Come on, don’t just stand there, arm yourself kid!” she stated. They would fight their way out when the door would give in, even if it meant they’d die trying.

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

The knight stood before the hospital, eyeing her surroundings with her blade raised in hand, before she heard a loud crash from somewhere nearby, spinning around on her heels as she realized that it’d came from one of the houses. As such, the knight increased her pace, crashing through the doorway as her blade sung, biting the dead flesh from behind, catching the humanoid beings off-guard. The knight knew she had advantage in speed, yet disadvantage in both numbers and likely strength due to her injured arm, and as such she had to play it safe. There were only two figures standing in the open space, and her ears caught the sound of fighting coming from upstairs, figuring that whomever was here, had fortified themselves there.

The knight’s blade ate through the second figure as the shambling being collapsed onto the floor, and the knight ran across the room and up the stairs. Three more figures, all faced away from her and clearly heading for something in a room directly ahead, as her eyes drank in two more figures. Charging forth, the knight spun her body to generate momentum for her strike, her blade chewing through a corpse after corpse, splattering her with whatever fluids was left within.

Only after the final figure fell, the knight lowered her bloodstained blade to look at the two shaking figures before her. The wound in her hand bled once more from the over exertion, staining the gauzes beneath her gauntlet, but the knight did not have the luxury of caring about the minor pain.

“Are you okay? Where are Jeremiah and Jessica? What of Amber and Carmelita?” her questions were instantaneous, even if her breath was ragged from having sprinted a fair distance at her limits, as well as having brought down five opponents.

“Jeremiah.. was killed by Jess.. and Jess, is downstairs, dead I assume.” Jonah replied, before Jazz took over. “And cat ‘n fox are inside the hospital. The young girl didn’t look so swell.”

And as such, it was time for explanations as the two of them brought the knight up to speed of the recent events.

863 words, not counting this quote. Arturia slaid five ghouls, saved Jazz & Jonah, Jess is dead. Arturia's hand bleeds once more.

[Carmelita]

Carmelita steadily walked around the room, keeping away from the combat and pumping shock after shock into the once-person. The being had grown two bony spikes from its back that hung menacingly over each shoulder, and as static crackled over its skin it engaged Amber with jerky movements.

The faunus, flaps of skin flapping off her arm, took the opportunity for a vicious swipe, the pink energy claws scoring across the being’s flank. A stab from the spikes was blocked with a small shield of pink aura, a glittering barrier in one hand holding it in place for Amber to cut the tip off.

With a bestial scream, the being, dropped to all fours and thrust forward with both spikes, forcing Amber to back up. Carmelita darted in, a swift kick from her boot accompanied by a volley of point blank electrical shots toppling the being onto its head. Another scream accompanied its recovery as the wounds on its side covered over with bony armour and the broken spike sharpened into a acid dripping needle.

“Asymmetry, I see,” Carmelita quipped to Amber as the beast turned its attention to the fox. The faunus gave a brief snort of laughter as she took the opportunity to slice at the being’s tendons, quickly replaced by cries of shock as the still intact spike nearly skewered her in the attempt.

Any confusion over how it had seen Amber’s attack was quickly settled by the sight of a series of small eyes blinking on the back of the being's head. What remained of its hair lifted and solidified into several tendrils that whipped out, one of them catching Carmelita by the foot and the other narrowly missing Amber’s neck.

“Mierda!” Carmelita cried, diving backwards into a medicine cabinet to avoid being tripped up. She charged a heavy duty shot and let it loose, watching as it careened into the being. There was a scream as the beng scrabbled at its eyes, and Carmelita took the opportunity to activate her cloak and fade from view.

Amber took the opportunity as it came, darting in and scoring another flurry of slashes that neatly severed the bony spike and damaged the beings other side. She smiled cruelly, only to be shocked as the wounds covered over with bony armour.

“What?! How is that in any way fair?”

As she exclaimed, the being whipped round and charged her, slowed by electricity and still recovering from being blinded. Amber ducked down and slid between the beings legs, slashing out at either side and catching the beings tendons in exchange for a few drops of acid sizzling on her clothes.

Carmelita reappeared as she did so, a pair of Fisti-cuffs sparking in her hands as she slapped them on the beings outstretched wrists. The cuffs snapped as the closed, the contact pads clamping around the being’s wrists as it fell to the floor. She backed away hurriedly, snapping off more shots from her shock pistol and moving the other side of a laboratory islandsight.

There was a brief moment when the being knelt, arcs of electricity shuddering through its body. Carmelita and Amber stood shoulder to shoulder, pausing as they waited for it to keel over unconscious.

The moment passed. The juddering of the being changed from erratic to smooth, and the acid spewing spike stabbed down at the metal links that connected the Fisti-cuffs together, and the broken off spike regrew into something resembling an organic tesla ball, electricity and static gathering there and growing in intensity over the being’s shoulder.

“What.”

The being got to its feet, the slashed tendons separating all up the legs and the being stepped up onto four exoskeletal legs.

“What?” Carmelita repeated with increasing incredulity.

Finally, it turned around. It’s arms, still clasped with the electricity spewing Fisti-Cuffs, now sparked with black lines that visibly drew the current up and into the organic tesla ball. Carmelita snapped off a single shot only for it to be absorbed and a returning shot to come from the sphere of lightning over its shoulder.

“WHAT?!” she screamed as she dodged the attack.

“We got it the first time, Carmel, no need to wear your voice out,” Amber said with a weak laugh. “Wish it didn’t look so like a scorpion now…”

“How do we stop this thing?” she asked. Amber was about to reply when their slow pace backwards bumped into a bunch of canisters wired up to a medical machine.

Carmelita took the initiative, and as the being charged them she grabbed a canister and ripped it from its location, heaving it with difficulty into the being’s path. A claw slashed the canister in two, and liquid nitrogen burst into a freezing fog, diffusing through the room in an instant.

The two women dived in opposite directions as the beast screamed again in agony, slipping and sliding on the suddenly frosty floor and crashing down again. Amber hit a cabinet and changed direction instantly, diving on top of the being and slashing with her aura claws to sever the tesla ball while Carmelita cloaked again.

The being staggered to its feet. The Fisti-Cuffs had been severely damaged by the liquid nitrogen, but so had the entirety of the creature’s arms flesh and front legs, frozen solid. A screech of effort and the afflicted limbs dropped to the floor and shattered into tiny frozen chunks of flesh while the remaining two legs shifted into shaggy furred bipedal legs. Bone armour encased the being’s upper torso, the back spike and hair tendrils splaying and forming arms of bone and hair with acid dripping from the claws. The eyes lidded over, thick films of iridescence forming an organic visor that stretched right around its head and protecting each one from attack.

As the now yeti-like being swung a hefty punch at Amber, Carmelita darted in and swept its legs out from under it, decloaking to try and put the being in an armlock. The attempt was swiftly abandoned as the arm she held came to life trying to grasp her and drag her down, but the distraction gave Amber a clear shot and she thrust her aura claws at the being’s head.

“Goodbye, Fleshy!” she cried, and her hands swept forward.

“Watch out!” Carmelita cried, and leapt forwards, crashing into Amber and getting scored by her blades just as the being’s free arm had broken into acidic tendrils and sliced through where Amber’s head had been.

The two of them tumbled to the floor, crashing into a medicine cabinet which broke over their heads and rained headache pills and bottles of eye drops onto them. Above them, the being came to its feet and raised its claws for a mighty blow downwards.

[Remilia Scarlet]

The dark night made the town itself more sinister that it already was, the fog that was once chased away by the rain had returned back in full force. It would be easy for something to hide within these buildings without the street lights to push the darkness back. It was STILL preferable to be out here, in the open, than be back at the hotel of doom. Remilia still hadn’t quite got her breath back from that several block power walk away from the danger she had narrowly escaped, and even when she glances back to the building she thought she saw two pairs of unearthly eyes look through one of the darkened windows. Gin was left without an answers, although she suspected he knew she was lying, the vampire didn’t feel like she needed to share. Naturally she wanted to keep her reputation, but just as equally she’d rather he didn’t know in case he decided to turn back to try and punch it in the face.

“I’m fine, but what the heck were YOU doing?!” Remilia poked the redhead in the chest, the long claw like nail giving some displeasure “I was hearing explosions while I was run- while I was coming back down. Were you trying to cook that turkey and blew up the oven?” the scarlet devil deflected as something off to their side caught her attention.

“No! Well I mean yes, I did blow up the oven, but I was fighting for my life.” Gin defended himself, although he knew the accusation was just to deflect the topic but he knew Remilia wouldn’t talk. “Something came in from the-hey” he was interrupted when he saw the pint sized monster wander off towards the sidewalk. “Don’t just walk away from me.”

Remilia just gave a flip of her hand as response as she pulled the objects up from the ground. A plain box, slightly soggy from the weather. While she has had enough with mysteries and adventure for one day, this seemed innocent enough. With a very careful rip across the top she glanced inside to find something she didn’t expect: an old brick cell phone. Something she had the pleasure (or displeasure, from a modern perspective) when she still lived in the outside world. The 80s was an interesting time.

“What do you think?” She joked as she held the old bulky phone to her head “Match my style?”

But before any comment could be made, the phone rung.

Remilia nearly dropped it as the ringing came out nowhere, and gave it a shocked stare as she wonder who was calling. But if it meant something, she couldn’t just let it pass by. She pressed it to the side of her head, with Gin leaning in to hear as well, and pressed the “call” button to accept the incoming call.

“Hello?”

“Whoever is listening to this” Someone said from the other side. It wasn’t clear, but she could tell it was vaguely masculine and very serious “You need to report to the dock. This is not a safe place to be.”

“Who is this?” Remilia demanded, not about to put any more trust in ANYONE on this island.

“I will be returning to the mainland to escape this place. Any sane survivors, please, go to the docks.”

“How? Answer me!” Remilia yelled, but it was of no use as the man repeated what he said with slight tweaks each time. Go to the docks, he has a way off. Never Mind who or what or how. Eventually the vampire shut it down in frustrations. Slipping the block into one of her pockets she glared over at Gin “Is there a docks on the map?”

A light went off in Gin’s mind as he pulled the map out (it got a bit crumpled from his last fight) and studied the crayon scribbles

“Yeah” he answered “But that seemed like a trap”

“Of course it’s a trap. But we can overpower whatever is there and take the vehicle it has and escape. Or at least wing it enough that we can get to the crash site and pick up everyone there.”

“What about the people inside the town? You heard explosions. Plural. So someone else must be trapped here too ” Gin pointed out, which elicited a groan from the Vampire “what?”

“I’m tired of this place. I’m sick of this island, I don’t want to deal with the crazy people on it, I just want to go home and not have to worry about monsters or killers or ghosts or anything!” Remilia ranted, almost verging on a full on tantrum as she waved her fists in the air. But Gin was not moved as he gave an amused look down at the child.

“Then you can go alone, Remilia.” That hit Remilia hard. With what she knew already, going out there alone would be her doom while she was so weak. She took a deep breath and signed long.

“Alright. Then what do YOU want to do, mister redhead?”

[Amber Veritz]

This was getting pointless. Fleshy was just becoming Bone Tank by now. “Carmel! We need a new plan! This isn't working, it’s only absorbing our attacks!”

“I can see that Amber! I’ve got nothing right now! Just look around for anything that can help us smash this things face in! I'll distract it!” Carmelita maneuvered around it getting its attention by shocking it with her pistol. It seemed that most of Bone-Tank’s transformation was completed, other than his ability to mutate himself situationally. The faunus explored the rooms shelves and cabinets looking for something she could use against it. Medicine bottles with different names labeled across them littered the cabinets.

One caught Amber’s eyes. A bag labeled ‘Rick Sulliven - HIGH DOSAGE’ in big red letters with two syringes contained inside. Underneath those letters said ‘Adrenaline’. Amber smirked as she took hold of it, pulling the syringes out of the plastic. “Hey, where do you inject adrenaline?” She called out to her ally. “Well, if I’m correct you-” She was cut off as a gaint arm came towards her. “The hip!” No more than five second later, Amber had injected herself with two high doses of adrenaline.

Heart rate increased, Amber’s blood pumped through her body. Heavy breathing and a half-maniacal laughter escaped through those breaths. “TIME TO DIE BONEY!” She screamed as it screeched back her in response. Dropping to all fours, the faunus charged without hesitation. Bone-Tank responded in kind, but Amber’s focus was the sword in the stone, Razorback.

Putting all her drugged and natural force into the handle of Razorback as she met Bone-Tank in the middle, the sword wedged loose and carved through the stone, possibly to the floor above them. Stone mist showered both the combatants but it slowed neither of them. Throwing her force downward in front of her enemy, Razorback cleanly passed through stone like butter. The steel smashed into the shoulder of Bone-Tank, crushing his natural armor into splinters. A wailing screech of pain echoed through the basement when the monstrosity kissed the floor of the lounge.

“YOU LIKE THAT?! HUNH?!?!” Amber screamed over his wailing. The adrenaline seemed to bring out her destructive natural, causing her short temper to explode into pure rage. “Amber! Calm down! You're going to bring down the floor above us!” Carmelita’s pleas only fell on deaf ears though.

Razorback drove through concrete more and more, cutting clean through it. The sound of cracking bones every so often showed that it was working, but it would not be long before Amber truly did cave the ceiling in. Carmelita, knowing she could not do much to help the feisty feline, retreated to the adjacent room. At this point, the faunis might blindly cross strike her.

Holes in the ceiling started caving in above the two combatants. The concrete dust, was not just dust anymore, it was blocks. The integrity of floor above them was pretty much nonexistent by now. One more strike and the two were really going to get a concrete shower. Bone-Tank, now feeling threatened for his life with most of his armor destroyed, started panicking. Flailing crazily at Amber, he slammed into the ceiling with his arm and the whole building shook. Suddenly, the floor above them crumbled and fell over their heads.

With quick thinking, the faunus used her humongous sword to cover her head as concrete toppled on her and Fleshy. The ceiling was no more. Amber dug herself out of the rubble and stood breathing heavily. “YOU CAN’T KILL ME YOU FILTH! AHAHAHAHA!” Amber screamed out.

Carmel climbed over the rubble, glad that she took cover, and tried to calm her drugged cat down. “Amber! Breathe dammit! Calm down already!”

“I can’t! That adrenaline was a bit much for my size!” She breathed at inhuman pace, fleshy raw arms shaking with explosive energy. As the two talked though, the rubbled behind them shifted. Fleshy had somehow survived the avalanche and exploded from the debris. Another screech echoed through the hospital. “Back for more?! Alright then!” The faunus gripped her sword, ready to continue fighting.

701/1771 onsite counter. There is now a hole in the first floors floor.

[2B]

Arturia had left the two secondaries into their fortified position after she had been brought up to status, because as much as she would’ve liked to bring them with her, the news were grim; the hospital was likely swarming with similar ghouls, and Amber and Carmelita had not yet come back. It was time for the knight to go after them, and for that operation, she wished not to risk the two civilians.

As she entered into the hospital, she found no immediate resistance, given the gaping hole in the floor right before her eyes. And from there, echoed the sounds of combat, shrieks, yelps, clangs and bangs. She could not make out the the specifics of the three figures more than vaguely in the darkness, except that the combat was a two versus one situation. Judging from their weapons, the knight judged the pair to be her comrades, as she raised her blade, preparing to drop down with an attempted finishing blow.

As she took a proper stance, the knight made certain that her blow would be a thrust driven by her whole mass, rather than a cutting motion. Judging by the condition of her hand, she knew that it’d only serve to further injure herself, as well as weaken the impact as she would not be able to stabilize the glimmering blade.

‘There!’ the word flared in her mind, as time seemed to slow around her, the knight leaping from the darkness, as she fell for a few meters, before her blade ate its way through the flesh of the being, jerking the being off of it’s legs and stumbling backwards, as Arturia kicked herself off of its massive chest and landed onto her feet.

Silence ensued as the being collapsed onto the ground, only broken by Carmelita’s ragged voice, caught up to the situation. The trademark shock pistol still pointing toward the knight, she spoke “Arturia? That was one heck of a timing. I don’t think it was intending to die on our shift..” As she lowered the gun the faunus’ adrenaline fueled voice rang across the room in distress.. “Guys… I don’t think it’s going down!”


The being, Fleshy, as Amber had began calling it was standing before them, even after the knight’s sword had for certain turned its brains into a delicious - possibly even intelligence increasing - slurpee. “What...in the world..?” escaped from the courageous knight’s lips as she raised Excalibur in disbelief.

It all went by in a flash with Fleshy’s charge to his new assailant, the knight’s raised blade swiped aside in a single rage fueled trash, before it threw the woman across the room, only for her to crash into the wall before slumping down onto the floor. As the sword arced across the air in an out of control spin, it landed upon the stone pile in an angle. The steel rung in a high pitched tone, as the beast wailed in pain. As Arturia was collecting herself, slowly pushing herself up to her feet once more, something lit within her slightly concussioned mind.

The instrument! It was capable of high pitched sounds, as the knight fumbled with the carrying pouch, her mind only aimed towards prayers that it hadn’t completely shattered as she’d gotten close and comfortable with the wall.
Intact, the knight hastily brought the cold ceramic to her lips, making certain she wasn’t covering any of the holes, to produce the highest possible note it could, and she blew.

FVIIIIIIIIIIIII………...

As the sound reverberated from within the walls of the small room, the two of them covered their ears. If there were anyone standing near the entrance to the hospital, they’d only hear a high pitch of the instrument, accompanied by the pained wails of the collapsing being, as it slowly lost control of the insane strength it possessed, the incredible strength of its muscles tearing themselves apart, as the creature was slowly falling apart.

The knight blew her lungs out, only to breathe in and resume blowing, the ritual repeated for nearly five minutes. After the being hadn’t moved in a long while, the knight allowed herself to finally collapse. Her breathing was ragged and ears rang, her gaze lifted to meet the extended hand of Carmelita’s.

Though the methods had been of the most curious kind, they had squeezed through to a victory with a stroke of luck against an opponent that had been seemingly impervious to anything they were able to throw.

They had won.

769 words according to the site. That means 1632 words used for this round. Not counting contents of this quote.
Arturia was smacked across the room and hit a wall, her ears are currently ringing, and her hand is still bleeding.
The being was slain with the power of music. (Also known as high pitched sounds.)

[Albert Wesker]

The battered machine didn't even slow his pace as he marched slowly, but resolutely through the doors of the building, and right past the waiting room. His eyes flicked to one side, and then the other, taking stock of the almost miraculously intact state of the place thus far. A bit battered and worn down, as to be expected, but it seemed to be in working order, against all odds.

“See if any of the equipment here still works,” Colonel suggested flatly, shoving open the nearest door as he advanced deeper into the building. “I’m going to go check for anything unpleasant that might’ve laired up here.” The door swung shut behind him, leaving an ominous silence as the stillness of the town, especially after their frantic fight and flight, set in fully once again.

For his part, Colonel finally slowed his pace once he was out of sight, a cascade of sparks arcing over his body. He staggered heavily, hitting a wall with a solid, metallic thunk, as a myriad of minimized error and warning messages overtook his internal heads-up display. Several warnings and readouts of damage to his systems, internal and external. His expression twisting into a scowl, he was forced to look over and acknowledge them.

Complaints about dust and shards of rubble lodged in the jagged tears and punctures in his arm, where the now-dead beast had nearly taken it off.

Warnings about the damage to his arm itself, informing him that it was still within manageable levels and should only impede fine dexterity, but he should see about getting it repaired very soon lest it start to hamper performance more noticeably.

Static flickered across his vision, the plethora of warning messages winking out one by one as he acknowledged and ignored them. No time or resources to worry about repairing damage now. He pushed off the wall and slowly trudged forward again.

The first thing he found of any substance in his exploration of the station was a repository of old recordings the station had put out when it was operational. The computer looked old and worn, and was covered in dust and grime, as was perhaps to be expected, given the surroundings. But after a few moments of fiddling with it, it proved to still work to one extent or other.

With a flicker of energy, the blade of his saber went out, the emitter shifting and twisting around to reveal a second functioning hand, and the soldier navi went to work, scouring the data on the computer for anything of substance. And soon enough he found something that seemed promising. A playlist of recordings and intermissions labeled “Rumors and Warnings”. At least it was plainly named. Curiosity taking a rare initiative and getting the better of him, he set it to play, directing it through the speakers of the building.

”Hey everybody, this is Three Dog, your friendly neighborhood disc jockey. What's a "disc"? Hell if I know, but I'm gonna keep talkin' anyway! And now, a super important Public Service Announcement."

The voice of the apparent DJ of the radio station was already grating on Colonel’s nerves, but he was willing to put up with it in the interest of possibly getting something that might have been useful information out of it all.

”It might not come as any surprise to you all, but our fair little town has been in a rough spot recently. Things deteriorating, weather changing, folks disappearin’. Almost enough to make you give some credit to all the crazies talkin’ about someone up and extracting the entire island. I don’t know one way or the other what’s going on, but it sure as hell makes things tough.”

That certainly did seem par for the course, even with the minimal time and exposure that the machine had had to this island so far. It was just a little unsettling, somehow, to hear about it in such a manner, so upbeat and enthusiastic in the way it was being reported. Usually such a thing would have been noted more seriously, if nothing else. Whoever this Three Dog was, he must have been...something else.

“And on that subject...let me share some advice, straight from ol’ Three Dog, to you. We’re in a tight spot here. Supplies are gettin’ shorter every day, and that crazy plague or whatever it is they found at the hospital is just gettin’ worse and worse, making folks crazy and violent. So you got to keep yourself armed if you’re going anywhere on foot. Especially at night. And...just between you all and me...something helpful I learned the hard way back home. Never forget the importance of periodic weapon maintenance. Rifle, pistol, police baton, I don't care which. If your weapon is falling apart, the only poor asshole it's gonna kill is you. So be smart. Salvage those parts and make repairs whenever you can. Don’t rip off your neighbor for a few bullets or some extra tape, now...but old man Johnson down the street, who got his face torn off last week? Rest his soul, but he isn’t exactly using them supplies he hoarded anymore.”

Grim, some might even say morbid advice, but certainly sound. The dead had no need for their possessions anymore. And given the way that things seemed to be going whenever this broadcast was live, it sounded like such things were grim necessity rather than pointless cruelty and scavenging.

“And before I go for today, one last thing to keep in mind: For all you guys and gals tempted by the thought of headin’ down to the wharf to make a break for it, here's a tip... You see, children, the so-called monsters might just violently and horrifically rip you to shreds. But only if you're lucky... According to most of our reports on the damn things, they actually prefer capturing their victims and hauling them off to God knows where. Consider yourself, officially warned. And for god sakes...stay out of the mines. The workers there holed up and are almost as bad as the so-called ‘monsters’, by now."

"Thanks for listening, chiiill-dren! This is Three Dog, OWWWWWW! And you're listening to Radio Station Karl! We’re just as scared as the rest of you, but we’re still on the air. And we're here... for you."

Colonel just stared at the screen for a long moment, trying to process all of that. This place was a mess, and worse off than he thought. But before he had time to give it much thought, another of the recordings started up, blaring through the station’s internal speakers.

"Men and ladies, boys and girls, prepare to be astounded, bedazzled, and otherwise stupefied! I am Three Dog, your master of ceremonies! And here's... ME, hahaha, with the news!" The cheery, upbeat tone continued to be at stark odds with what the war machine was, by now, expecting to be another grim relaying of information.

"Just a friendly reminder to all you would-be bigots out there: the infected are people too. You see, children, the infected are simply humans just like you and me who've been exposed to an ungodly sickness caused by something we have no idea where it came from, and haven't had the good fortune to die. Sure, they may look like hideous zombies from an old monster flick, but their hearts, their souls, their tears, are all very much human. So please, if you meet one of your poor home town’s infected residents, leave your prejudice at the door an your pistol in its holster.” The recording went silent for a moment, the faint rustling and shuffling of papers the only noise. ”Ah, yes, one important caveat, kiddies. Those poor infected souls that prefer the dark, dank places in the city, like abandoned houses, sewers, only like to come out at night? They ARE basically mindless zombies. So kill as many as you damn well please."

"Zombies...?" Colonel echoed incredulously. He had to resist the urge to dismiss that entirely out of hand. He had had firsthand witness to quite literal zombies already, after all. If whatever was wrong with this island could turn the dead into walking corpses after only a few hours, who knows what else it might have done, even at such a time when it was apparently still new and spreading.

”In other news… There have been more and more sightings of that strange fire and fog over by the Evergreen Mills lumberyard. Got people downright spooked. Keep that in mind the next time you feel like nosing around that neighborhood."

"Remember, children, that sometimes folks will do just about anything to stay alive, and with so many people already left, or barricading themselves up to pray for rescue, shit has gone further south than it’s reasonably possible to go. So when people come a-knockin’, asking for ‘donations’ of supplies, or the ‘monsters’ go prowling at night, there ain't no shame in locking your doors, barricading the windows, and cowering under the nearest bed. When these psychos come to play, they have one thing on their minds: making your life as fucking miserable as humanly possible. Doesn’t really matter which one you get the pleasure of dealing with, they can't be bargained or reasoned with, and there ain't no use surrendering, cause they'll just shoot you or eat you anyway. So run, hide or... fight, if you've got the balls and the guns. But for God's sake, don't go wavin' the white flag. They'll just strangle you with it."

"Until next time, this is Three Dog, OWWWWWWWWW! And you're listening to Radio Station Karl! Bringing you the truth, no matter how bad it hurts."

“....wonderful.” Colonel stated flatly. Now he wanted more than ever to get out of this damn town. The recordings had given him some idea of places that might possibly be of interest, if only as locations to avoid, but more than anything it had driven home that something very, very wrong had happened in this town, and he wanted nothing to do with even the aftermath of it all.

He pushed the chair back, leaving the playlist of recorded messages to continue playing as he strode back toward the waiting room at the entrance to the building. He’d seen enough. Anything lurking here had long since been alerted by all the noise, and it would come to them sooner or later.

"Thrrreeee Dooooggg! That's me, kids. Comin' to you live from my fortified bunker at Radio Station Karl, right smack in the middle of this hellhole whoever's left out there calls home. Ain't life grand?" The voice was still upbeat and jovial enough, but there was something...off about it. Something somehow sad, subdued. Just a little less energy, and a little less...flair in the way this report had started off. It gave Colonel pause, for just a moment, as he lingered in the doorway, listening intently. "What rhymes with shoes? And often gives you the blues? That's right, it's time for the cashews! Okay, that, doesn't really rhyme... How about, news?"

"That's right, ladies and gentlemen of this no longer really all that fair town...Three Dog's got one last bit of news for you all." Last bit of news? That didn't sound good.

"Not too long ago, I reported that a cat had recently left the hospital, somehow or other, even with that quarantine in place. His name was James, good guy. Was working on a cure for this whole thing, headed for some bunker out in the wilderness around here. Turns out, it gets worse, though! I've got a new report here that said James didn't quite make it out as clean as he thought, and the poor guy was infected after all. Not too long after that, though, things started gettin' real bad. Military and police were called in to help keep things under control, but as I'm sure anyone else still around here knows, that didn't go down too well... Makes you wonder what's really happening to this town. Is it really just some kind of plague? Some kind of biological weapon? Some prime out there playin' god? Your guess is as good as mine kiddies." There was a faint clic-clack sound, just barely registered on the recording, and a horrible, muffled coughing noise, accompanied by the squeaking of a chair.

When the DJ continued, his voice was wavering and unsteady. "All I know is that ol' Three Dog ain't staying around to find out. Managed to get myself into a bit of trouble, got infected a while ago... And whether or not there is a cure coming, it's clear enough we ain't making it to get it. So...it's been a hell of a ride, boys and girls..." Seemingly with an effort of will, strength returned to the recorded voice as he finished his last report. "Thanks for listening, chiiill-dren! This is Three Dog, OWWWWWW! And you've been listening to Radio Station Karl!" And with the sound of a gunshot, the recorded message lapsed into silence, announcing its end with a crackle of static a few short seconds later.

Colonel's expression turned grim, turning away from the recording studio. There was nothing left here.

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