NIGHTSHIFT 42: MAGUS PARK

[zeus_incarnate]

The shift was familiar enough, in it's own way, but it came too soon. He wasn't sure if any of the others in the group aside from Stefan had been around long enough to witness this before, but he wanted to reassure them that this was just like the changes the institute underwent at night

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[mizuhomaiden]

Zombies. There were zombies. Animated corpses, pulling themselves from the ground. Regular townspeople suddenly with their flesh rotting off them. Zombies, searching for live flesh to devour, brains to feast upon, bring their stench and decay with them. Zombies.

Zombies terrified Sheena.

There were unnatural, long dead bodies fueled by mana as they coveted the warmth they once had. Maybe it was the fact that zombies had once been people - living, breathing people.. It was the fear that she, herself, upon her death, could possibly be denied final rest and used by the darkness that evil controlled. She didn't really understand that this was the root of her fear. They were nightmares brought to life (no pun intended) that terrified her so much

[byname_bynature]

After speaking with Keman, the rest of the evening was spent in uneasy silence. Somewhere along the line, Artemis realized that they would never make it back to the institute before dark. Yet again, they would be trapped on buses with monstrous staff members. Or worse.

Apparently tonight was 'worse'.

He watched as the bench decayed underneath him and Haku--the swings and playground rusting over and collapsing in some places. Part of him had expected this, but he still gripped Haku's hand tightly as it happened, his heart-rate skyrocketing.

"It seems we're here for the night," he observed. It was still quiet, though. No sounds or sign of life besides scattered groups of patients in the park.

[faithful_frost]

Haku was expecting this, but that didn't make it less annoying. With a frown, he scanned the fog around them. "It would seem that things are going to be unpleasent for us all," he said softly. He was calm, as though he dealt with this sort of thing all the time.

Then it began. He could hear the soft sounds of screams in the distance, and the shifting of earth in the park. "No matter what, stay with me Artemis."

[byname_bynature]

Artemis stared out at the playground, catching sight of nurses shambling out of the fog. For some reason, though, he couldn't muster the logic to start running away. They could run when they needed to. Hide somewhere. Beat a cat's brains out with a fencepost. Really, there wasn't any rush.

"I understand," he said, still strangely serene about the whole experience.

Then the ground underneath the bench opened up, and a hand grabbed Artemis' ankle. He was awake enough to scream, now.

[faithful_frost]

As soon as there was movement ever remotly close to either of them, Haku was moving. He grabbed Aremis's by the armpits and hoisted him up and away from the hand on his ankle. A swift kick to the rotted flesh and it was then simply a matter of getting them out of the park.

But where could they go? Keeping hold of his friend's hand, Haku started to run -at less than full speed- for the main street.

[numberonemonkey]

One minute Chihaya was happily eating his ice cream with a new friend, talking about planets and interstellar travel and then...chaos.

Everyone was running. Finding friends. Protecting loved ones. They all had...someone. Chihaya had only himself, in a place he didn't know. He wanted to curl up into a ball and scream out loud for Kagetsuya.

He ran to the nearest tree, trying to decide what to do. Were the buses safe? Should he follow other people? This just wasn't...right. Everything he'd been through to end up here, like this. He found himself constantly praying Kagetsuya was somewhere safe.

[liveforthispart]

[from here]

Goddammit! They were mobbing this place, too! It actually looked worse here than in town. Where the hell did all these bastards come from? Kanji kept running in as he reached the park, scanning the area for his friends or anyone he knew. Aside from the mass of mutant zombies, there weren't too many people over here. His guess was wrong. Just his freaking luck...

Wait. There was someone over there. One person. Some girl ran to a random tree and was just... What was she doing? She wasn't seriously trying to use the tree as cover, was she? It didn't look like she had any weapons on her and it looked like she was alone. Dammit...

He shifted direction and sped up his pace to head in her direction. Luckily, she wasn't all that far off from where he'd come in. "Hey! You alright?" he yelled as he ran up. "What do ya think you're doin'?! Don't just stand there!"

[numberonemonkey]

Chihaya was trying to work out a plan of action. He ought to be good at this kind of thing but it always seemed that he was only ever prepared on paper. He needed to help people. So long as he had somebody to focus on, he could func- someone was running at him! Chihaya spun round the tree, thinking it might be a super fast zombie or something, when it spoke. And asked if he was alright.

He peeked round the tree.

"Um! I- what? Okay!" he panicked, about to run. He stopped and looked back. "Where should we go? I've only been to the burger place!"

[himetsuru]

[from here]If the pair had questions about where to go amidst the flood of zombies in the park, the answer was given to them moments later. A lone woman with long blonde hair streaked with blood and other fluids leaped off of the back of a bench not too far, a battle cry proceeding her. Wielding what could have once been a person's leg bone in each hand, she landed on a zombie that had gotten dangerously close to the pair, bearing it to the ground. The splintered end of one bone weapon was thrust into the zombie's lower back while the other one was repeatedly beat against the thing's head. One, two, three, four strikes and the skull cracked under the woman's strength. Pulling her arm back, she then thrust the weapon directly into the brain just to make sure the thing was dead

[udo_retrovirus]

[Spawning from...nowhere in particular, and for his brothers.]

Junior had heard the stories about the buses breaking down a few weeks ago from Omi, but this? Seriously!? He'd seen an old zombie movie or two, so he knew the breakdown, but how the hell were there even this many people in town to begin with?

They were disgusting, and they almost reminded Junior of those Asura-series Realians they'd seen in Shion's subconscious: slower (as far as he could tell, at least, there weren't any of the real fast ones) but with just as much intent to harm and attempt to eat them all. He also knew from what he'd seen back home that you had to take out the heads. Being stuck in this small body had always been annoying, but now while he felt like he wanted to fight, there was no way he could take out the zombies without a weapon. Especially not without his guns. He couldn't even reach most of their heads. Dammit!"I'll put on a show for you, then" he grumbled. Junior dove between the legs of an ambling zombie, rolling a little ways before getting

[purpletaint]

There was comfort, and there was strangeness. Distrust and something too much like relief. Some denied love, covered by both a false and violent hate. This filtered calmly through Albedo's mind, giving to a content sensation. He sighed on the warm skin again, some vague clarity pushing through

[falseblack]

Somewhere between the fantastical and the realistic points of Nigredo's mind, there came the birth of a schism. And sometime between nightfall and rising of the dead, the child briefly entertained panic. He understood, yes, that this place was 'special', and such occurrences were bound to happen. Illogical, they were, but possible. Therefore, letting the realism of the situation affect his judgment and eventual reaction was perfectly, unconditionally logical

[udo_retrovirus]

They were both fine, except for being perfectly calm in the midst of an invasion of ankle-biting heads and the zombies that went with them. Nigredo, Junior would've almost expected it from, and maybe Albedo now, but combined with the fuzzy feeling he was getting, it really made him wonder...

Then it hit him. Oh, they didn't. It'd explain why it looked like they'd gotten into a fight, but were perfectly fine. Junior resisted the urge to punch them, promising himself silently that he was going to kill them both. Later, once he made sure they survived the zombies.

Nigredo had asked him something, hadn't he? That bite on his ankle itched and stung just a bit, but he could still move with it, just not too fast. So long as these zombies kept stumbling around, then maybe they'd be okay.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just been trying to find you. Do you know what's happeni--" Junior looked up to find a particularly close zombie that was headed right for them, screamed in surprise, and grabbed his brother's arms in an attempt to drag them to their feet

[from_lienea]

Stahn could really have done with a map; he wasn't sure where he'd seen Leon last, and by this point he had no chance in hell of finding him again except by chance.

Trying to find a safe zone, he somehow ended up in what looked like a freaking graveyard--holy hell, were zombies actually coming out of the GROUND here??

He wasn't remotely used to unarmed combat, but without any weapons, he was reduced to desperately kicking out at the zombies and praying for a tree branch low enough to yank off. Gotta get out--WHERE?

[spandexorgtfo]

Kratos had been enjoying some time by himself in the park, and he would have been perfectly happy to stay there if it weren't for the fact that zombies were now joining him. Caught sword-less, there was only one option, really: Run. Fast.

Sprinting through the park and dodging decaying limbs left and right, Kratos finally caught sight of a familiar mane of hair. "Stahn!" His pursuers were starting to close in, and in desperation Kratos lashed out with a fist and managed to catch an undead foe on -no, through the forehead, sending all sorts of fun juices flying everywhere. "STAHN!" Kratos looked frantically around for the boy who should have been accompanying him. "Where's Leon?!"

[from_lienea]

"I don't know! We got separated." Dammit, dammit, dammit; the poor guy had to be terrified. "We have to get out of here--the rest of the place isn't nearly this bad." Or at least, the rest of the town had shelter besides just trees. As much as he wanted to find their friend, priority was staying alive. Leon would find them later; he always did.

"There's probably knives at the restaurants--have you looked there yet?" They needed to have some kind of plan, even if they made it up on the fly. Which was definitely their best option.

[spandexorgtfo]

"Wonderful," Kratos muttered under his breath. Leon was missing, but he figured that the young man could take care of himself. What he was genuinely worried about was Stahn running off and doing something stupid in trying to find his friend. He was drawing on his experience with Lloyd, and right now crashing around rashly on a "rescue mission" sounded like a very Lloyd-ish thing to do.

He kicked a zombie away from him, wincing at the crunch. "I've been in this park the whole time," Kratos said testily. "Do you think I've looked anywhere else?" Although now that he thought about it, Stahn had a point. "But that is a valid suggestion. Twin Pines, then?" Once they had something with an edge in their hands, they'd have a lot more options open.