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Post by Skynet on Jul 13, 2009 19:48:26 GMT -5
Ben marched Pauley the Zombie to the Dick's Sporting Goods entrance and broke the glass door with a well-placed kick. He still had a very bad feeling about this place, but Dick's seemed like a safer bet than say Macy's or the Food Court. At the very least he would be able to find weapons.
He was greeted by the familiar smell of death. The cashier lay draped across the checkout counter with his head at an awkward angle. Clearly, he had been there several days. Pauley growled and strained at his restraints like an eager dog. Ben stepped gingerly around the body. “Behave yourself,” he snapped at his companion.
Other than the dead man and the random sporting equipment scattered all over the floor, Dick's was relatively clean and peaceful. Ben decided to check out the rest of the mall. He hesitated in front of the rifle display briefly, but then kept moving, figuring that he had his hands full at the moment. Food Court it was, then. His stash back in Michaels was running low anyways. May as well stock up.
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Sukhoi
Civilian
?Girl?s a mind-readin? genius, can?t even figure out how to eat an ice-planet.?
Posts: 15
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Post by Sukhoi on Jul 15, 2009 1:48:49 GMT -5
Flaps, check. Landing gear, check.
Dmitriy ran through the pre-landing procedure list. Now, if only he could find a not two crowded street to set his fighter down on. Navigation systems went down somewhere over the Arctic circle so he had been using the sun to dictate his direction.
It had been less than 10 hours since he had first taken off, fleeing the air base in Petropovlovsk. And in that scant time, he had learned the truth about the world. The truth that had avoided their isolated home until now. Of course the first thing that sprang into the pilots mind was the fact that it was the American's fault. Who else could produce such a horrendous thing? But then again, that was also why he was flying there. If the Americans made it, then they may have a cure, or at the very least, an antidote that could stop you from turning.
Deep brown eyes flicked to a red warning light. "Chöt!" Somehow, in the last few hours his fuel supply had dwindled from and eighth tank to... empty.
Bang
The left thruster flamed out from fuel starvation and the right followed quick pursuit with another resounding bang. Airspeed began to drop quickly and Lt. Col. Tskolan dipped the nose of his Sukhoi Su-34 lower to make up for the lack of thrust. Despite this, he knew that even at 12,000 meters he could only glide an unpowered plane so far. He quickly ran a few quick checks on his ejection seat, for there was no way to land his baby now. Making sure his survival pack, side arm, and personal defense weapon were secure, Dmitriy braced his back against the ejection chair, grabbed the launch handles, and turned.
Light. Sky. Earth. Plane. Sky. Earth. Sky again. Then snap. Parachute.
At 3,000 feet, a bit low for his liking, the chute popped. Lifting the pilot roughly from his chair. He drifted for almost a mile before getting close enough to prep for a landing.
Before him loomed a large complex like building, an American 'mall', and from his drift patterns, he was headed right for its roof. Now Dmitriy had never been one for parachuting, but he stuck the landing well, only bruising one knee and an elbow. Quickly he disentangled himself from the chute and drew the survival pack around to his back. But not before removing and quickly assembling his AK-74 compact personnel defense weapon.
Flipping its small laser sight on he cautiously began to move into the building, slowly calling out. "Любой там? Этот Подполковник Тсколан в российской воздушной национальной гвардии. Есть ли там оставшиеся в живых?*" He repeated the call in English, then very broken Chinese, then again in even worse Japanese.
[[ * = Anyone there? This Lieutenant colonel Tskolan in the Russian air national guard. Are there survivors out there? ]]
[[ edit: for the record, the fighter crashed into the ocean a few miles off the coast. ]]
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Post by Shiro on Jul 15, 2009 20:55:38 GMT -5
From his view from the roof, the rushing horde that quickly covered the parking lot must have looked like a wave from the ocean.
Thousands upon thousands of infected rushed toward the sound of not only the car alarm, but the plane crashing as well. They flooded the pavement and gathered around the car with the blaring alarm. It wasn't long however, that they discovered that there was no life here and turned toward the mall, rushing the entrances.
Gray and Jak happened to be just inside of these and before Gray could say anything, the infected were on him. He swung wildly, screaming incomprehensibly as they tore through at a ludicrous pace. He felt his bat make contact a few times before he was carried with the crowd which was in so much of a frenzy that they seemed to not notice the fact that Gray was still living. He screamed again and reached for Jak, hoping that they could stay close enough together to try and formulate an escape plan.
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Post by Skynet on Jul 15, 2009 22:51:48 GMT -5
Ben felt the horde before he saw them approaching in a giant seething wave. And, just like in a tsunami, his first instinct was to get to higher ground. Ben slapped a caribiner to Pauley's restraints and secured him to a railing. Hopefully zombies were not cannibalistic towards their own kind. But if they were, then no big loss. If he could capture one Pauley, he could get another one later if he needed to.
Then Ben looked to the ceiling, where a hanging display of canoes promised safety . The owners of Dick's had conveniently left the rope used to hoist the display. So Ben shimmied up the rope like a pirate and huddled on top of a red kayak to wait for the storm to pass. He pulled the rope up hand over hand so that the zombies would not be able to reach his refuge.
Even from 40 feet in the air, he could smell the rotting flesh. This combined with the swaying of the kayak made him feel mildly ill. Because of this, he thought he was imagining things when he saw the two human figures being carried along with the horde like so much driftwood...
[[Yes, it was necessary to keep going with the wave thing...]]
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Sukhoi
Civilian
?Girl?s a mind-readin? genius, can?t even figure out how to eat an ice-planet.?
Posts: 15
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Post by Sukhoi on Jul 16, 2009 4:12:26 GMT -5
Dmitriy stiffed at the sudden rush of noise. Yes, he had heard something outside, but his concentration had been so focused on getting into the building that he hadn't chosen to look up. ( quite the bad idea ) Three quick paces, a door, then two more paces, and the pilot was sticking his still helmeted head around the corner of a hallway. The sight before his eyes made his stomach drop, and nearly his weapon as well. "Bozhe' Moi." As if there was any god who would allow this sort of chaos to happen. It was then that his eyes picked out two figures that didn't seem to be quite as ragged, or dead, as the rest of the tidal wave. Unless they shifted to the other side of the hallway, there was a good chance that he might be able to grab ahold of one of their hands.
Safing the AK-74 before sliding it back onto the survival pack, Dmitriy quickly used the survival cord, a 20 foot length of nylon rope, to tie himself to the roof-stairway, door handle. He loosened his knife if he needed to make a very quick getaway, but if his guess was correct, the swarm would be pushed forward by those behind it and would not have the time to turn into the narrow side passage.
Two seconds.
One second.
Now! Desperately he reached out, hoping to grasp one of the living human's wrists. The pilot suddenly began to second guess himself. Were they human? Were they infected. What if they killed him? Why was his helmet still on? And was this horde to be the common ritual of his new found life? The airman blinked away his questions, knowing that they should be answered in due time. And chöt if he was going to let the possibility of speaking to a survivor be passed up.
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Ren
Survivor
Posts: 67
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Post by Ren on Jul 16, 2009 5:36:25 GMT -5
Neena heard the loud roar before seeing anything, she turned to the nearby exit, judging distance if she could, which was mostly impossible because of the darkness outside, before turning and running to the first open shop. She fumbled slightly at the wall, searching for the long pole used to close the shop gate, finding it and quickly pulling on it to make it go down. She struggled slightly, the employees at these places made it look so simple, before finally tugging it to the floor as the first few infected had gotten through the outside door and were running at her. Finally, it moved faster and hit the ground with a loud clang. She dropped the pole and flipped the small lock at the bottom, stepping back out of reach and watching the zombies swipe at her through the gate.
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Post by Skynet on Jul 16, 2009 7:42:24 GMT -5
[[ Are you kidding me? Those things are sturdy as hell because just think of all the lawsuits if one fell on someone's head. I'd climb that shit!
Dude... this is like the 12th mall scene and and I'm having to stretch my imagination a quite a bit, let Ben be Batman if he wants to be Batman!]]
When the horde was well on their way, Ben breathed a sigh of relief. He slid back down the rope silently, mentally thanking his good sense for leading him to Dick's instead of some pansy-ass clothing store. Leaving Pauley strapped to the railing, he set off on a brisk jog. He couldn't let the horde get away with those other survivors...
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DJAtomika
Civilian
Oh no you didn't.
Posts: 47
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Post by DJAtomika on Jul 16, 2009 7:46:22 GMT -5
The horde came, like an unliving wave of flesh that consumed the carpark and the front portion of the mall almost instantly. He tried to, reached for, and grabbed Gray's outstretched hand, pulling the youth amid the sea of living corpses and making a mad push for the interior, just as he saw someone reach out and actually grab his other hand and pull.
Their unknown rescuer lugged them into a narrow side passage, using the momentum from the rushing horde to secure their escape and prevent anything from following them. Jak stumbled into the hallway and leaned against the wall, panting heavily.
'Damn, man. Whoever you are, thanks for the save.'
He extended his hand, although wearily, for the man to shake.
'Name's Jak. This here's Gray.'
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Sukhoi
Civilian
?Girl?s a mind-readin? genius, can?t even figure out how to eat an ice-planet.?
Posts: 15
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Post by Sukhoi on Jul 16, 2009 14:40:55 GMT -5
The helmeted man nodded briskly, untying, wrapping up, and storing his nylon cord he had used as a safety line. Before he even accepted the proffered hand he redeployed his AK-74, un-safed it, and nodded at the door leading to the roof access stairwell. "We speak soon." His english was heavily accented, broken, but understandable. "Go, stairs to roof, now. Okay?"
He was obviously not waiting for one of the other two to move first. Yes, one of them had a baseball bat, and even though Dmitriy had a gun, the kid would be able to cover their retreat just as well as the other him. Well, he hoped. The only thing running through the airman's mind as of that moment was Why the fuck did I leave Kamchatsky? He threw a quick glance over his should as he entered the stairwell, "Tui Durock, you want be eaten? Follow." His voice was slightly muffled by his helmet and accent, but an order was an order no matter what language.
As he looked back he though he might have spotted another figure, or perhaps it was another zombie. No matter, to the roof it was. His ejection chair had luckily fallen not to far from where he had landed, and he wanted to get to it and active its emergency transponder. Its signal would be picked up by any military search band radar for almost 100 miles.
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Post by Shiro on Jul 16, 2009 15:49:02 GMT -5
Before he could make heads or tails of anything, he and Jak were pulled from the ocean of zombies by some strange foreigner. He introduced himself and Jak took the liberty of introducing Gray to him. Then it was time to go to the roof apparently. Gray was tired of rooftops. Sure, they seemed safe, but somehow the motherfuckers got up there no matter what you did.
As they were leaving, Gray looked over his shoulder to see another survivor standing in a sporting goods store. He stopped, letting Jak and the foreigner climb up the ladder without him. He offered the other a wave and then motioned for him to follow them before turning his attention back to the two men and following up after them.
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DJAtomika
Civilian
Oh no you didn't.
Posts: 47
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Post by DJAtomika on Jul 16, 2009 22:08:45 GMT -5
Jak, ignoring Gray for now, followed the soldier up the stairwell and to the rooftop. He pulled the pistol from its holster and moved to the edge of the roof, peering down to look at the carpark and the entrance.
The mall's entrance was swarming with the living dead, climbing over cars, moving into the mall to look for sources of life to kill and eat. He sighed and sat down, panting lightly and shaking his head.
'This, sucks.'
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Sukhoi
Civilian
?Girl?s a mind-readin? genius, can?t even figure out how to eat an ice-planet.?
Posts: 15
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Post by Sukhoi on Jul 18, 2009 1:29:58 GMT -5
Dimity quickly moved to his somewhat banged up ejection seat, righted it, and began to fiddle with the transponder. As he worked the pilot removed his helmet, running a slightly scarred hand through his unkempt hair. When one of the survivors spoke; he did not understand exactly what the man had said, though the tone was all he needed to hear, Dmitriy shot him a quick smile, "Это походит на бога, взял де-" He caught himself mid sentence. It was doubtful that any of these people could speak Russian. "As if, ah, god shit on us." He gave another smile, a half question on his face as he wondered if he had gotten the right words out and had not insulted the man.
"CHÖT!"
Dmitriy swore as he stood, kicking the seat. All of the damn electronics had been fried. The airman gave a resigned sigh and walked back a bit closer to the rest of the survivors. He first approached the one near the building's edge. Sticking out his hand, as the man had done a few minutes ago, he swallowed and summoned all of his English speaking skill. "Hello, my name is Lieutenant Colonel Dmitriy Tskolan." His first name was straight forward enough, pronounced how it was spelled. But his last name was definitely Russian. Instead of being pronounced phonetically, it sounded more like Soaklawn.
He peered over the edge, his hand still extended, "Bad time to run out of, ah..ah." He frowned and made a motion with his left hand of a plain flying the falling. "Yes."
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DJAtomika
Civilian
Oh no you didn't.
Posts: 47
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Post by DJAtomika on Jul 18, 2009 2:54:28 GMT -5
Jak chuckled. The guy was Russian. Great. He seemed friendly, funny. He nodded in response to the Russian's joke and smiled, shaking the man's hand warmly.
'Yep. God shit on us alright.'
As the Russian gave them his name and rank, he also explained the reason why he went down, in the form on hand signs. At first, Jak didn't get what Dmitriy was implying, until he pieced together that the chair, and from the Russian's clothes, that the Colonel was a pilot, and that his plane had run out of fuel. He had to bail out of his plane via ejection seat and parachuted onto the roof of the mall, which, coincidentally, was where they were.
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Post by Skynet on Jul 19, 2009 20:32:52 GMT -5
The survivors, now safe, were making plans. Suddenly they turned and as one made for the stairs leading to the roof. Ben stared after them. He made his decision when the youngest among the others waved at him. They had noticed him- it would be stupid not to follow. He strode over to the ladder, his stomach sinking with every step. He had been away from other humans so long... what if he had forgotten how to interact?
Too late now... he would have to figure out how to deal with these people. And he would just have to go back for Pauley and his supplies later. “Hi,” he croaked once he was at the ladder.
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Post by Shiro on Jul 20, 2009 3:06:28 GMT -5
Gray smiled at the man, "Been a while, huh?" He offered him his hand and then dropped it and simply hugged the new comer, "Sometimes dropping formalities and using physical contact helps."
He let go and backed away from the other before taking the highest rung he could reach and starting to climb the ladder looking over his shoulder, "I'm Grayson Jonas, you can call me Gray." He looked up, over the swarm in the mall and shook his head, "I guess there's no going back for the doctor..."
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