Nightshift 42: Lil' Tyke Toys

[mukuchi]

Mori had been content just to watch over the store. The toys and the sound of Mitsukuni's voice and the general peaceful atmosphere was enough for him. He'd shifted over closer to the aisle where his cousin and Tsubaki were, but otherwise, he hadn't done much. He really didn't need to. Mitsukuni probably knew he was somewhere close by, he

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[host_club_honey]

Honey was enjoying himself, playing with some of the stuffed toys and dolls and talking to Tsubaki. He'd noticed Takashi a little while ago and was sure to smile in his direction, whether or not he was watching. They still had a little bit before they were supposed to go back to the buses, so he didn't see any reason not to enjoy it as much as he could

[mukuchi]

Why were things changing when the night hadn't properly fallen yet? Mori didn't like the unexpected horrors one bit, and he knew that as the dark fell, Mitsukuni wouldn't either. He didn't have a flashlight, and neither of them had anything they could use as a weapon. With Mori's left arm still in a sling, tonight would be dangerous - far more than before.

Turning a corner, he spotted Mitsukuni and quickly moved to his side, looking to Tsubaki. They had to get out of here. He had a bad feeling about this place. They needs things they could use to defend themselves and this place didn't have anything they could really use, other than awkward projectiles. Gripping the box in his hands, he kept a close eye on the store and noticed that there was movement toward the back. Turning toward it, he slipped one foot back and waited.

[thecamellia]

The day had been beautiful in its own way, and the atmosphere in the store had been peaceful--the people working had seemed nice, and the others inside equally so. Most note-worthy of all, the sun had still been out, a soft twilight that hadn’t struck Tsubaki in any way but a good one. It’d been about the same time when they’d been rounded up and taken back to the hospital the last time, after all.

This time, things were different. She learned that at in the same moment as the others--blinking at the warning growing in the back of her mind, she’d lifted her chin, and the far wall she first glanced over changed right in front of her eyes. Changed, the same way the Institute changed.

The building, everything, changed. Gone wrong.

For a heartbeat, Tsubaki felt like her lungs were taking in ice as she whirled to face the front of the store. The looming figure racing towards them had the assassin on a dangerously sharp edge before she exhaled, realized the person wasn’t a threat (yet), and began to steady herself in the same moment.

[host_club_honey]

Honey held to the fabric of Takashi's jacket with one hand, Usa-chan with the other. Thankfully, his own stuffed toy was not experiencing the same sudden rot like the rest of the shop had. While he was more than adequately trained for combat, stuff that should only happen in horror movies was another thing entirely.

There was no more kindly lady behind the counter either. Had the rot affected them too? Weren't they all supposed to be safe in the daytime? And what about the others? If this was enough to unnerve him, wouldn't the twins or Tamaki be even more worried?

"We should find somewhere safe," Honey said, voice tinged with worry. "Something's really wrong."

[kagurazuki]

The day was almost over and while she hadn't gotten much done, it'd been nice spending time with Bridget. They both made it to the toy shop a bit late in the day, but there was still a little time left. She'd hoped to try to get a yoyo with the money she'd found in the ruins, thinking it might be helpful to Bridget.

They'd barely made it in the door before something strange happened. She almost wondered if they'd wandered into the wrong place, but the toys had been sparkling and new only moments before. Now they were all old and dirty and falling to pieces, just like the shop.

"What's going on?" she looked over worriedly at Bridget.

[roger_hug]

Bridget frowned and moved closer to Kagura, making sure not to get too close of course, and took her hand in his. "I .. I don't know. It was still day wasn't it?" It had been getting late, but ...

There was the scent of blood and that sweeter smell that told of rotting flesh and death. He only just stopped himself from grabbing Kagura and trying to protect her that way. Instead, he started to look around.

Were they safe inside, or was it dangerous everywhere? There was no point in fleeing if they could be safe indoors...

[kagurazuki]

Kagura didn't understand what was going on, but the smell was terrible all on its own. She took a skittish step back toward the door. Even with Bridget holding her hand, she didn't like the look of this. There was the sound of shuffling feet and the scent of moldering meat strong in the air. Something was moving up ahead, rounding the corner aisle.

When the clerk appeared, flesh rotting and bloodied, missing in places, Kagura had to hold back the urge to vomit right then and there. She bit her lip to keep from screaming, letting out only a muffled whimper. Not only was the place rotted out, but the people too?! Zombies? That was the kind of thing that was only in movies and haunted houses! They had to leave, right away!

[roger_hug]

Bridget's eyes widened as well. Not so much because the dead were walking (been there, done that), but because this meant they wouldn't be safe indoors. He tightened his grip on Kagura, picked up the nearest remotly heavy thing and lobbed it with surprising strength and accuracy at the thing's head.

He didn't bother to see if it hit, he turned and ran for the door, not letting go of Kagura as he did.

[meitantei]

Shinichi had been in the toy store, looking over some of the sports equipment in the back when everything changed.

Everything.

Suddenly, there were zombie movie rejects where perfectly normal shoppers had been. Shinichi had to fight the urge to gag. Decomposing corpses were, unfortunately, one of the really bad parts of being a detective, but it was a completely different matter when those corpses were suddenly ambulatory and coming at him.

The detective grabbed whatever came to hand (a soccer ball, it turned out) and ran towards the door.

[going here.]

[osakapwnzu]

( And back from here!)

"Why th' hell would you want a toy gun, Kuroba?" Heiji asked incredulously, not really expecting an answer. Too much mayhem for answers right now. Right now, the Osakan detective needed something to swing.

He spotted a few plastic and wooden bats at the corner of the store. There weren't that many undead left in there, thank goodness, but Heiji still had to roundhouse one out of his way.

Bat acquired, he looked back to check on Shinichi and Kaito's progress. A toy gun...? Really?

[meitantei]

Heiji's "fuckin' belt thing" comment earned the other detective a less-than-subtle punch on the arm, more out of annoyance than anything else. Agasa's exploding ball belt invention...thing wasn't exactly a widely-publicized weapon of Edogawa Conan's, and the chance that Kaito would get anything suspicious out of it were very, very slim.

Once back in the toy store, Shinichi also grabbed a baseball bat. The soccer ball had been good while it lasted, but he needed something with a little bit more weight and heft if he was going to be fighting the coming zombie apocalypse.

Fun times.

[flashyaudacity]

"Because it'll be easier for me to use," Kaito shouted back in answer, already dashing up and down the aisles to look for something that would shoot. "It beats swinging things around!"

His eyes lit up when he found what he was looking for. A brightly-colored Nerf gun, the kind that shot balls rather than darts, was sitting packaged on a shelf. He grabbed the box, tearing into the packaging to liberate the toy weapon, and then grabbed whatever ammunition he could carry. There were a few rubber balls nearby that looked like they were small enough for the gun, and he loaded those first, followed by the much squishier Nerf balls. Anything he couldn't load yet was stuffed into his pockets.

Luckily, he didn't need to put the gun to the test right away; the numbers of zombies in the store were thin, and he wasn't bothered as he hurried to rejoin the detectives. He grabbed a bat for good measure; the downside of projectile weapons was that sooner or later, he was going to run out of ammo.