Nightshift 42: Bill's Hardware

[ruthless_hunter]

[from here]Lockdown kicked the door to the hardware store down and barged in. There was already a zombie in here, a big one, who the bounty hunter guessed was the owner of the store. There were also two other zombies with him, so Lockdown was already outnumbered. But that had never stopped the bounty hunter

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[deadlyjuliet]

With the prospect of gaining a weapon, Grell really didn't think much about Luxord's injuries. He wanted a blade in his hands and he wanted those unnatural creatures outside to die. The best way to do that? Cut them apart until their blood ran thick in the streets. Even if it was rotten blood and therefore not the proper color at all. Which was really quite disgusting if he gave it too much thought, so Grell simply pushed that entire issue aside.

It wasn't until he felt a tap on his shoulder that he stopped and turned. "Ove--" Yes. YES.

He truly hoped Luxord didn't mind the high pitched girlish squeal of absolute delight that came out of his mouth that very moment. There it was: beautiful, gleaming, red and just the right size. Grell dashed forward and grabbed the red handle, a little disappointed that it didn't feel perfect, but more than content that it felt right. A chainsaw, a proper chainsaw, in his hands. The grin on Grell's face was undeniable as he whipped it around and laughed in glee, hugging the blade close.

"Oh, how I've missed you! Well, not you, exactly, but you! Darling, if only you were really mine, then you'd understand!" Swinging the machine around he gripped the handle tight in both hands and sighed. "How I miss you, my beautiful scythe, but this shall have to do for now until you return to me. I swear this isn't cheating."

Smiling at Luxord, Grell blew him a kiss and then put a hand on the throttle. "Thank you, love, for showing me the way. Now, if you don't mind, I do believe it's time I kill something." And lucky for him there were more than enough prey outside, hands pressed against the storefront, trying to get in. "Shall we?"

[clockmongler]

...how adorable. Ah, if only he had the heart to properly find the other man's antics as sweet as they really were. As it was, he only leaned himself against a shelf and watched from a small distance (and- would those things quit it? They received a card to the face for their troubles), a smile on his face.

"I'd love to." After all, that meant Grell would do the maiming and Luxord could stand back and not exert himself. Seeing mayhem and not having to be in the center of it? How delightful.

[deadlyjuliet]

If Luxord wanted to see mayhem, he was certainly in the right place. Grell gripped the rip cord and pulled it hard, laughing over the sound of the motor roaring to life. How he'd missed this sound! And how he'd enjoy tonight now that he had this weapon in his hands. The weight was a little more than he remembered, but that didn't stop him for long. The rotating blade sent comforting reverberations up his arms and Grell turned as one of those unnatural undead came up behind him, grinning.

The blade ripped right through the woman, half rotten face and all. The bones were weak against a chain meant to tear down trees and Grell rejoiced as he felt the blade pull and bite its way through her flesh. Straight through the neck, a nice, clean kill blow.

The head fell back and the body dropped to the ground. The rotating chain sprayed blood along the wall and Grell checked the pattern out of the corner of his eye. Beautiful! Even if the body didn't have a Record to reap, he could still use it to create such beautiful art! This was the aesthetic of being a death god and as the blade passed through a second victim, Grell couldn't stop himself from laughing. This was revenge, pure and simple, for these things being so gross and unnatural.

"Now!" he said, pivoting on one foot to face Luxord. The blade stopped spinning and he hefted the entire thing to rest on his shoulder. "If you will carry that little gift I gained earlier - I believe I dropped it somewhere-- Ah, over there, by the other saws. Shall we go somewhere a bit safer?"

[clockmongler]

As much as he liked Grell and enjoyed his company, that was something he always felt a shadow of jealousy over. That love of destruction, how he took obvious pleasure in everything around him, in the carnage he created...

It was hardly fair.

X smiled and nodded and, for once, just did as asked, retrieving the God's gift to hold to himself. So long as none of that gunk splatted onto him, the Nobody had no problems with this arrangement and would follow Grell wherever he wished, so long as that weapon of his remained working.

"Where do you have in mind, darling?" The safest area would mostly likely be on the higher ground, though he could never know for sure. Zombies were crafty.

[deadlyjuliet]

Where indeed. The sound of splintering wood said that the dead were rising from their graves (although who in their right mind buried people under the floorboards?) and the flood from outside was only getting worse. Going up seemed natural to Grell, if only because he was accustomed to watching humans from rooftops and church spires. Up was closest to the sky and where he felt more at home.

Plus it would get him away from the thing grabbing his leg.

"LET GO!" Grell turned and snapped the creature in the head with his heel, more than a little turned off by the fact that said creature had previously been sawn in half but was still moving. Honestly, didn't these things know how to stay dead? "Anywhere but here, don't you think?"

Heading to this building's rooftop actually sounded like a good idea. Should Grell need to get any new toys, they were right there. And the idea of him wielding a branch trimmer? Well, it just made him giggle. Will would kill him, but he wasn't here, now was he? Pushing all of his weight down on the creature's head beneath his shoe, grinning when he heard bone crack. Using the chainsaw, Grell pointed to the back of the store, specifically to the storeroom door. "Onwards and upwards? There must be roof access somewhere in there."

Or outside, but Grell really wasn't looking forward to going outside. Without waiting for Luxord's opinion on the matter, he started in that direction, grabbing a pair of trimming shears as he went.

[clockmongler]

Hm. Unlike in Port Royal, where those little monsters still had a sense of self, these were all mindless drones that had only one thing in mind. Really, he had almost forgotten that they were so many of them until the God was harassed by the one on the floor. They were so determined and incredibly bitey-

The Nobody felt himself being tugged backwards, his right arm being held in a vice grip by some disgusting, rotting hand. They shouldn't be this strong! It was only through the good graces of quick reflexes that he managed to grab something (a flower pot?) and pull himself back far enough to smash it into the thing's skull. Its grip loosened and it fell to the floor, evidently stunned. It would be back up before long, he could feel it...

Tonight was a bad night. Tonight was a very bad night.

In the end, the most he could do was follow closely behind Grell, completely silent. There was very little room for another option at the time. Anywhere they were not would be a blessing. Disgusting creatures, all of them...

[deadlyjuliet]

The sound of a pot smashing behind him gave Grell pause and he glanced over his shoulder in time to see Luxord leaving a stunned creature on the floor. These things were rather persistant and, unfortunately, very bitey. As evidenced by the undead man coming around the aisle, hands reaching for Grell's face, jaw open and-- "Augh, your breath is positively rancid!"

Taking the shears, Grell thrust them straight forward into the man's eyes, wincing as the points connected and sank in. Oddly enough the zombie seemed to stop moving, his arms going lax as the body sank to the floor. Unfortunately, that dragged Grell with it and the death god was forced to stumble forward, his arm following the arc of the body. Pressing one foot to its neck, he pulled the shears free and made a face at the sight of the gunk left behind. "This is why the dead should simply stay dead."

Creepy. Everything about this was simply creepy; and it look a lot for Grell to admit to that. Shaking the shears, Grell noted the head on a stick and stuck his tongue out in disgust. "Barbarians. No sense of style." Looking back to Luxord, he called out, "Come on, darling, I wouldn't want you to get left behind."

Moving over to the door (while cutting his way through the dead mobs - God bless the chainsaw), Grell shouldered it open and stepped into the storeroom. Which...was dark, but surprisingly free of movement at the moment. A good sign, if he ever saw one. Moving through the racks of inventory, Grell let the power flare up in his eyes, keeping a close watch for anything that might try to get the drop on them.

[clockmongler]

Luxord would have enjoyed this a lot more if he were not injured. It could have been a fun game, with who could survive and who would succumb to these monsters... But it simply wasn't the same when they were after him. It reminded him of the Heartless and having his heart stolen violently from his chest and, god forbid, he wasn't finding any of this and the memories it brought amusing.

Disgusting, mindless things that only targeted the living. It had been so long since anything like that had left him on their list as well. Well, so long as he stayed close to his lady with the chainsaw, he'd be fine. Blood soaked and annoyed, but fine.

"Do you see any stairs?" The sooner they found somewhere safe that they could relax and laugh at everyone else down below, the better. He was beginning to think he really couldn't salvage this date.

[deadlyjuliet]

No moaning save for the sounds left behind was a good thing. The sound of the wood creaking from down below? Not so good. The blasted creatures were pushing their way through the floors, emboldened by the smell of blood or whatever else it was that drove their mindless instincts. Grell clicked his tongue against his teeth and rounded a corner in the shelving. "Not at the moment, but there must be some in here."

Dusty storerooms always had them. Maintanence on roofs was important - vents and others things were always up there and that meant there had to be some way up. Putting the stairs outside usually invited robbers and thieves, so inside was really the onl--

"Ah~ Found it." In the left corner was a door and right next to the door a red sign, tinged with grime and hanging lopsided on the wall, but still legibly reading: Roof Access. Wood splintered to his right and Grell made a face as he saw a half broken hand reaching through. It was time to get out of here. Moving quickly to the door, Grell tested the handle and cursed under his breath when he realized it was locked. Of course. Always. At least the lock was rusty for some reason. Sighing, he dropped the shears and took the chainsaw in both hands, holding the handle against the knob. "Terribly sorry to do this to you."

With all his weight, Grell bashed the handle into the knob - and was more than a little miffed to see that it didn't budge at first. If he chipped a nail like this, he was going to be so ticked. Twice more and the handle finally gave way - and with good timing, the undead were following the noise, breaking through the floors and stumbling through the storeroom door. Pushing the door open, Grell grabbed the shears again and then looked to his 'date.' "Luxord, be a dear and grab something to barricade the door with, hm?"

[clockmongler]

He was not enjoying this, not one bit. The longer it took for the other to open the door, the more X felt the need to toss him into that oncoming group. It was self-preservation, pure and simple--as much as Luxord liked the God, he liked not becoming the first zombie-Nobody in existence even more (that was how it went, yes? If they kill you, you become one of them?). That creaking from the floorboards, the figures shuffling forward, those noises growing louder and louder...

He wasn't fearful, make no mistake. Simply very, very unhappy.

But the knob finally gave way and the desire to strangle the man in front of him went with it. A bit. Why was he being the one asked to do this? He was already carrying both his cards and the God's incessant little box, so why...?

Ah well. Crowbar, come with Uncle Luxord. That should hold it down for a bit if they used it to block the door from the other side, wouldn't it? He made plucking the item from the shelf nearby quick, sliding his cards back into his sleeve and following behind Grell as fast as he could. Perhaps it was paranoia, but if she left him behind, he was going to spend the rest of the night being the first zombie to learn how to scale walls and verbally berate a living being before choosing to eat their heart rather than their brains.

[deadlyjuliet]

Simply put, the reason Grell was asking Luxord to do things was because the death god was becoming unexpectedly sore from waving a chainsaw about. It used to be that whipping his scythe about in one hand was easy, almost comically so, but tonight he was learning something very unappealing about being mostly human. Humans were weak. And with the pruning shears in one hand and the chainsaw in the other, he was hard pressed to try to do anything other than keep a grip on his greatest prize for the night.

Also, he didn't want to chip a nail while trying to manage too much at once.

Getting inside, the death god left the chainsaw and the shears on the steps for a moment, patting the red handle affectionately before going back to the storeroom. Crowbars were lovely, but he wanted something heavy to keep those things away from him. His skin crawled with the very thought that they should ever get close enough to touch him again. He needed a barrier that was harder to break, more durable, more... Box. He needed a box. Waiting until Luxord was inside the stairwell (wasn't that nice of him?), Grell grabbed a nearby crate (bricks, apparently) and set his jaw as he started pulling it - slowly - toward the door.

Right. Humans were weak. Stupid human body. And those nasty creatures were getting closer.

"Oh, for the love of-- FINE." Hopping the box to the other side, Grell drew on every bit of power he had in him and shoved hard against the wooden box. The thing slid forward with surprising ease and he rammed it hard up against the door just in time to feel the power flicker and die, leaving a headache the size of the Great Pyramids behind. Grabbing his head, the death god cursed and pulled himself up and over the box, landing on the other side rather unceremoniously. "...door."

[clockmongler]

Well, now wasn't he feeling silly. "...you could have asked for help, love." Or have been more specific. Luxord didn't know what in the world he was doing in the middle of this, none the less what it was implied he should barricade the door with.

...Ah, II was right. He was useless.

He placed the present on the foot of the stairs, alongside the crowbar. For once in a long while, he managed to look genuinely concerned for someone else's well-being and made his way over to Grell, hand outstretched to be of assistance. Ugh, those noises. Perhaps the crate would impede the little monsters' progress, which X was truly hoping for, but they still needed to make it to the roof, rather than the stay put. He'd help the God up and come back for the tools, if necessary.

"Come now. Just a bit further."

[deadlyjuliet]

It had been a bad idea, but now, at least, those things were stopped. He could hear them, thumping against the crate, but they didn't have enough sense to do anything about it, meaning they were stuck for now. More important than the z-things outside, though, was the headache raging inside Grell's head. Cracking an eye open when he heard Luxord's voice get closer, he muttered, "Faster this way..."

Not smarter, but he could rest later when they weren't being touched by those nasty creatures. Reaching out for Luxord's hand, he pulled himself woozily to his feet and grit his teeth. For all his whining about work, Grell did and could do things when he really felt like it and this had been one of those rare times. Now that said work was done? He didn't feel like doing anything but killing someone to make himself feel better.

Putting a hand to the wall, Grell took a few tentative steps forward and was glad, for once, that he wasn't wearing heels. This was as bad as a wine hangover after drinking at an all-night gala event. "Nngh... going... to kill... someone...."

Stairs. Stairs weren't bad. He just had to not...fall over.

[going here]