Night 42: Wicker Street

[whos_da_man]

[from here]Junpei burst out of the Twin Pines, dragging his chair along with him. Wide eyed, with sweat dripping down his face (he was so not crying), the teen stared at the hordes of zombies in the street. What was he going to do? He could still feel Chidori's presence, so she had to be alright. She had to be - right? RIGHT

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[tostepforward]

Ayumu wasn't entirely certain just what was normal for a conveyance of this sort, but she was still fairly certain the noises it made upon striking the creatures weren't. How long could they keep moving, and fast enough that the apparently-undwindling hordes didn't overwhelm them? If they stopped the broken window on Robin's side was already proven to be a liability, and if they didn't stop then where would they go?

This was somewhat (all right, quite a bit) outside of the possibilities she'd been trained to deal with. The oversized monstrous bats the other night had been one thing, but things that had once been human? And rather dead humans, from the look and smell of them. "We'd need weapons of some kind," she replied, staring out the windows with a frown of concentration. Something had to give her a clue or an idea. "And somewhere defensible. A building sturdy enough that we would only need to block the entrances so they couldn't get inside, perhaps."

She glanced in Robin's direction, turning her thoughtful scrutiny on him for a moment. "Moving seems to be keeping them away from us for now, at the least. But how long can you continue? I'm...unfamiliar with the capabilities of something like this."

[whohitreset]

"I doubt we'll get too far through this crowd..." Matt gave another shriek suddenly as there was a zombie face directly in front of him on the windshield, the creature having clambered over the hood of the car. He frantically turned on the windshield wipers in the hopes of annoying the thing enough that it would go away, but this only resulted in breaking the devices and sending streaks of unmentionable zombie goo across the glass.

The car swerved dangerously as Matt undid his seatbelt, sat up, and reached out to grab the zombie by the collar of its tattered shirt in an effort to dislodge it. It almost pulled him out of the window instead, managing to tear free some of his shirt sleeve and dig its teeth into his arm. With a cry, Matt jerked the steering wheel and sent the car spinning sideways, finally causing the zombie to fall off to the ground.

As he stopped to catch his breath and regain his bearings, they were already being surrounded by more of the undead. He knocked the vehicle into reverse and straightened out their course.

[wearsthehakama]

Kaoru winced, Kenshin's grip was so tight now that the girl could feel the bones in her wrist grinding together. Bruise-worthy tight, even. The smell was worse outside, and as they ran, Kaoru kept her hand over her nose, dodging out of the way of lurching, lunging zombies.

It wasn't easy, not with the skirt. "They're going to come after us!" she hissed in his ear.

[tostepforward]

Well, this was certainly getting...interesting.

Ayumu was starting to like this idea less and less as time went on and as more pieces of the creatures ended up splattered across the windows. When Robin almost lost control of the vehicle while wrestling with one of them she ended up grabbing hold of a handle that seemed conveniently located for the purpose (did people in the future often drive like this when they weren't trying to escape from bizarre monsters?) and holding on as tight as she could.

There was little else that she could do at the moment, after all - there was nothing of use inside the compartment, and she wasn't about to open the door and breach what little barrier stood between her and them. She just hoped that Robin really did know what he was doing and wouldn't end up running into something a little more solid than a half-rotted corpse.

She heard the sound of Himura's voice, but rather hoped her companion hadn't, seeing as how she didn't particularly relish the idea of spending time with the man or his lady friend in this or any other situation. As such she didn't glance around toward the sound, only stared out the windows and flinched somewhat dramatically every time one of the things got too near.

[whohitreset]

Unfortunately for Ayu, Matt did hear Kenshin's voice. Wasn't this lovely? They had company! He grinned in a not-all-there sort of way, like someone trying to act cheerful when they were about one step away from losing it completely. "Himura-sensei!" he greeted, knowing well how much the red-head didn't like it. "Hop in!" That said, he reached back an unlocked the back door on the driver's side before pulling the vehicle up a little closer to the curb.

The bite on his arm was disgusting looking, though not all that deep. As they stopped just long enough to let on passengers, Matt took the bottom edge of his shirt and began trying to clean up the would as best he could. It was doubtful they'd find anything as nice as clean water right now, not with the way the Institute itself was at night. Getting bitten by a zombie couldn't be a good thing. He'd played enough games to know. He'd just have to hope the usual cliches didn't apply here.

[wearsthehakama]

Kaoru made a little, undignified squeak when Kenshin threw her in the car and dove in after her. Her head whacked against the car door on the other side, and she swore she saw star-covered zombies.

"Nice to meet you," she said automatically, and then sat up quickly to glare at her 'dear friend.' "Now isn't the time for introductions! Idiot!" Only Kenshin, only Himura Kenshin, would think the middle of a horrific scene was a perfect time for introductions. Idiot! Idiot!!

[tostepforward]

Oh, good. As if they had time to stop, much less burden themselves with more passengers. Although perhaps Ayumu could throw Kenshin and his lady friend to the creatures, to distract them enough that she could get away. That might even make him useful, for once.

She glanced around to the rear seat, wide-eyed and still clinging to the handle on the door as though to a lifeline, and gave a brief nod to the new arrivals. Her attention was quickly recaptured by her surroundings, though, as the swarm outside renewed their pounding against her window.

"Maybe we should talk later," she suggested, leaning away from the door again. This really wasn't the time or place for introductions.

[whohitreset]

"Right. We'll make it a double-date." Matt jammed the car into reverse again, pulling out from under the grip of some of the zombies in front of them before jerking it forward again and running over those that had just fallen to the ground. A light giggle escaped him at this. Such a scenario wasn't nearly as awesome in real life as it was in a video game where he didn't have to worry about dying, but the fact that he was running over zombies still merited a laugh. "Don't worry about my arm. It's... just a flesh wound."

He really didn't like his chances in this scenario either. He knew how the horror movies went. Out of the group of people currently in the car, he was the odd man out - and he'd been bitten to boot. The girls wouldn't get killed off right away, and Kenshin was the shounen manga hero sort, so he'd probably end up saving them and possibly living to see the end of the night. There was the chance that he'd go down fighting to save them, but with a red-shirt like Matt driving the car would that be necessary?

The fact that he was the driver was his only saving grace right now as far as he was concerned. He didn't want to die again. "All right, let's get off this fucking road. Think we can make it to one of the parks?"

[wearsthehakama]

Kaoru was of the opinion that they were trying to escape the Institute, but she wasn't about to argue with Kenshin's logic. At least there, they had heavy metal doors to keep them secure from the dead (which, by the by, seemed so much better than the car doors and windows). The ride was bumpier than expected, though, and she found herself holding Kenshin's arm to keep from being jostled too much.

Even worse, she was starting to look a little green around the gills. Weird Western food and the shambling dead with their smell of rot did little to appease her stomach.

[tostepforward]

"Parks?" Ayumu went back to her death-grip on the door handle once the vehicle began moving again, lest Robin decide to pull another one of those maneuvers that would throw her around again, and pretended to be trying not to look at what Himura was dumping out the window. "And aren't they a little too open, too?"

As little as she liked to disagree with the man, Himura was right: the parks were likely to be only more dangerous than the street they were on right now, if those creatures were blanketing the town as they seemed to be. What they needed, in her opinion, was a place with solid walls and doors that could be barricaded. The Institute seemed a bit far away, though perhaps it would only have the more familiar kinds of nocturnal hazards.

[whohitreset]

"You know what?" Matt suddenly yanked the steering wheel hard to the left, sending the car careening into a partial spin and nearly hitting a street lamp before it made a complete u-turn and they were headed back in the other direction. "I'm open to suggestions! There's a mechanic's place to our right and Landel's is this way. The restaurant is swarming... throw me some options, man!"

He could hear his heart pounding in his ears and he knew if his hands weren't gripping the steering wheel as tightly as they currently were they'd be shaking. He didn't want to get out of the car now. The last time he'd stepped out of a car... No, that was a completely different scenario. Completely different.

Dammit, his arm itched.

[tostepforward]

[skipping Kaoru by request]

It was a good thing she had set herself already, with the way Robin was driving. Ayumu gave a startled squeak he spun the vehicle around, turning the direction from which they'd come, and gave him a look that was equal parts "what are you doing" and "can we stop now."

She was starting to regret thinking that this was a good idea. With how fast they were going, and how little control Robin seemed to have over what was going on, she had to wonder if they were going to crash into one of the buildings soon. And if so, the impact might just do more damage than any of the creatures wandering the street could manage.

"If we have to defend ourselves we'd need something to defend with," she offered, sounding hesitant and scared. "What about that store with the cooking supplies, Robin? It's not swords, but..." But they were unlikely to find any weaponry that she was familiar with in a place like this, and if nothing else she knew her way around a kitchen knife. It was also a couple streets away, but hopefully Robin could restrain his creative-driving impulses long enough to make it there.