Matthew Plains's Story

Well. Here he was. Highgate. The infection in Atlanta happened so fast. Matthew was hopeful that this place was still safe. He had relatives here. He would be safe. He started to walk on down the sidewalk, and he found himself a phone booth. Calling up his Aunt, he did not notice the man coming up behind him. "Damn, she must not be home." Matthew heard the leave a message at the tone, beep! "Hey, Aunt Sharon, this is Matt calling you, just wanted to tell you that I'm coming to the house! Alright, see ya in a bit." He put the phone back on the rack, and turned around to see blood covering the glass outside. He looked at the man, throwing up blood, face implanted on the glass, and a ruined tie, business suit and khakis. "Shit, I thought this place was safe!" He took out his pocket knife and broke the glass. He stabbed the runner many times before it fell on the ground, a bloody mess, dead. Matthew opened up the phone booth and walked outside. Than from the alley way. At least 5 of them came running. Pretty scary for a 14 year old. "OH MY F*CKING GOD!"

Matthew was hopefully outrunning the zombies. But eventually he would get tired, and runners.... they don't. It had been at least 5 minutes running from those things. Then he saw the fire escape. Hell yeah! He climbed up on a dumpster and reached climbed up and over the railing. He started to run fast up the stairs, and jumped inside an apartment, locking the window. The things hit their faces against the glass, pounding and throwing up blood. Matthew grinned and walked to a room. "Looks like a playroom to me. Hello? Anybody here? Hello?" Apparently their was someone their. A little boy, no older than 6 came hobbling out from behind a curtain. He moaned, and threw up some blood. Matthew thought. He had never seen a kid zombie before. He took out his pocket knife, and cried a little bit. "Sorry little dude." He wanted to make it as quick as possible. He stabbed it in the kid's head.

Natalie laughed, "Oh honey, it's like you think you're actually insulting me. It's my second car, bought on a fickin' student's salary. It runs, has aircon, and radio. It's only meant to get me from one side of the country to the other before I sell it again and fly home."
This bitch was hilarious, probably some pampered princess living on daddy's money. Natalie grabbed a sandwhich and hopped up onto the store counter to eat it, crossing her legs and placing the crowbar less than discretely next to her. She grinned like a cat with cream and raised her eyebrows challengingly at Sassy and Soldier.

"Ok, recon then pizza and showers. Between those two we should get pizzas in. the ovens first. I'd rather discover any infected while I'm in a kitchen full of knives than while I'm getting naked," Natalie replied with a blushing grin.
She looked away, swinging her bag off one shoulder to rummage through it, "Unfortunately, and foolishly, it appears a torch did not make its way into my supplies, I kinda thought I'd be on the road before dark last night."
Yeah, she'd thought she'd miles from here by now. Instead she was just sort of taking each moment as it came. At least the company was mostly pleasant. Back to business, infected recon. She proped the crowbar on her shoulder and walked up to the large double doors where the bike guy was shining a light at the building.
"Wow, if the enterance is anything to go by we could just shut off all the rooms in the building and it wouldn't matter if there are infected in them until we had to use them because the creatures wouldn't be clawing their way through solid wood anytime soon. You reckon they're locked?"
Speaking of the infected... Natalie turned from the building towards a sound.
"Did anyone hear that?"

Matthew climbed over the mansion fence. His shoulder hurt from the bite. "Hey! Help me!" He yelled to the people inside of the mansion. Fuzzy vision. Falling. "Hel-"BAM! Matthew hit the ground with a thump. Darkness. Unconcious. Bleeding out.

Leon yawned, "You happen to have any instruments?"

"In the attic, but they're pretty old from when my brother was going through his rock star phase twelve years ago and it's even sound proofed so jam all you like but there is a lot of other crap up there too. You might have to reshuffles some stuff." Darcy replied, she was feeling a hell of a lot better since she stepped on the grounds of her home although her heart was still heavy but she'd just have to live with that for a long time.

"Ok, recon then pizza and showers. Between those two we should get pizzas in. the ovens first. I'd rather discover any infected while I'm in a kitchen full of knives than while I'm getting naked," She heard Natalie slightly embarrassed.

"There won't be any infected in the house. It's completely secure, well except the maid locked in the basement. Don't worry she's behind a massively thick Oak door."

The memory of Bonita's attack on her flashed through her mind. The glossy white kitchen, the only modern room in the house streaked in blood. The island in the center with the cooking stove where she had smeared in Bonita's blood, the shattered glass fruit bowl on the floor with the toppled chair and her half eaten apple. It was the moment her life had changed completely; one minute she was sitting there going about her usual life, the next she was on the floor trying not to be killed by a rabid Bonita, the women who had practically brought Darcy and her brother up while their self involved mother drank her life away. And now she was below the kitchen in the basement.

"There's not a single house in miles, plus it's completely quiet so it won't have attracted any of those things and even if they did find their way onto the grounds there's no way they could get in the house." Darcy said completely certain because she was certain. It was the most secure place in the whole of Highgate. Her father had been crazy about security even though the crime rate in Highgate was near a 0%.

Going up to the front door, Darcy unlocked it.

"You guys can go inside I'm just gonna put the car in the garage." Because it was her only means on transportation and it had been scratched up enough, Darcy didn't want the chance for anything worse to happen to it.

As she returned from putting the vehicle away, she noticed the four of them still stood outside on the white porch. Darcy frowned as she jogged up the steps and saw a scrawny looking blonde guy lying out cold on the ground. He had been bitten on the shoulder and he was bleeding . . . and Natalie had obviously struck him with the crowbar. Great! This just got better and better didn't it. When Darcy looked back to Natalie the women just shrugged it off sheepishly.

"Well!" Darcy asked "Is he dead?" Another mutual shrug was shared by all four members of the party.

Sighing exasperatedly, Darcy crouched down and searched for a pulse. Still alive. Wonderful. Getting up she walked in through the open door and turned on the porch and inside foyer lights. She didn't know if the power was down but the house was also Solar powered thus it wasn't a problem. "Well, bring him in!" She said leaning against the open door "Or are you going to leave him to bleed to death out on my porch?"


((OOC: By the way guys read my first two posts if you want to describe the kitchen, they're pretty long but you can skim them. It's near the end of the first and the beginning of the second. The rest of the house I'll describe later but it's pretty old like 1800's style mansions. Think Victorian interior with four poster beds and damask, velvet and silk curtain, sheets, chaise/couches, everything but I'll describe it a bit in my next post so you can follow by lead after so we're not all writing different things that don't match.))

(OOC added Marcus twice trying to add Mathew. Darn phone)

Event after event just filled Jin's New life. First Natalie was talking about being naked in the shower. After that everything was kind of a blur. Apparently during this blur they had found a young man that had somehow found his way to this very remote mansion. The odds of that happening were, well it didn't matter.

"Well we can't have him bleeding on this wonderful porch." Jin said. "Looks like we are all tied up with boys and girls now." Jin said as he hooked his arms under the feet so someone would hopefully grab his feet. "We can now play spin.the bottle."

With help he brought their latest member into their large club house. Jin liked the view bit the lighting was terrible.

"You got any candles?"

They brought the blonde guy in and Darcy instructed them to drop him on the sofa of the front room while she got the first aid kit from the kitchen and rapped up the boys arm. He was completely out cold and she doubted he'd be up untill the next morning.

Now she was tired and she didn't care to entertain her guests. They could do that themselves. The house was big enough to amuse them she was sure.

"I don't think he'll be getting up anytime soon." Darcy commented as she got to her feet and faced the group. "Candles there might be some somewhere in the kitchen. It's at the back of the house in the west wing. I'm sure you can find it. There are six guest rooms on the third. Choose which ever you like, most have an en suite." She looked at Jin "My brothers rooms on the second floor, first on the right, you can find clothes in there; you too Leon if you want them. My rooms on the second floor too, last one on the left. Natalie and Layla feel free to come and get some clothes too if you like."

With that she left the room into the foyer and up the grand wooden stair case in the center to her room on the second floor. Walking slowly through the dark hallway she entered the huge room and turned on the light. It was exactly as she had felt it - the large four poster bed with it's golden silk curtains and sheets was made up neatly, to the left was the matching vanity unit that like the bed had been there since the house had been built in the 1800's - yet everything had changed. She had changed.

Darcy walked over to the entrance over her walking wardrobe. It was a large room within the bedroom where a pin board held up photo's from Darcy's past. Friends, family the prom where she had been Queen - no surprise - High School Graduation, Graduating from UCLA, birthdays. It all seemed so far, she touched the edge of a photo then strolled past into the room.

Endless racks held couture gowns and dresses on the far side. On side was lined with enumerable amounts of designer shoes and the other closest to her held all her casual wear, tops, jackets, trousers. She had more then enough, she didn't mind sharing it with the other girls.

She silently selected a pair of red underwear, a pair of dark blue D&G skinny jeans and a black Rolling stones short sleeved t-shirt with diamonds making up the Rolling Stone Logo and walked out and across her room to the bathroom.

Stripping off Darcy turned on the hot tap and sat on the ledge of the claw footed cast iron bathtub, head in hand and started to sob. She felt numb and cold to the core. The overwhelming feelings of the past few days finally washing over her and pouring out. Finally slipping into the tub when it was full and submerged herself fully. Blocking the world out completely. The steam rose out of the top of the water. Every tensed up muscle in her body relaxed as she came up for air. Leaning back resting one hand at the side of the tub; exhaustion taking over, Darcy fell asleep.

"I swear I didn't hit him," Natalie was insisting as tuced the crowbar under her arm and picked up the new guy's feet. She and Jin carried him inside to sofa at Darcy's instructions. Darcy dismissed herself and the the others were left to wander around the massive house at their leisure.
"Assuming we have power, just switch on a light. With the amount of money her family undoubtedly spent on velvet curtains they ought to be pretty good at blocking the light in and not drawing attention to the house from the outside." Natlie said as she knelt by the sofa. She put down her crowcrowapplied a bandage to the new guy's head. "Head wounds tend to bleed a lot but I reckon that's got it sorted. I think that the bite wound should be cleaned before its covered though." She smiled at Jin,"Do suppose Miss Darcy will have something a bit stronger than water in this kitchen of hers?"

The kitchen was huge. It was ultra modern with glossy white counters, cabinets and even the floor; and it seemed to have all the latest appliances. In the middle of the room was an island with cooking stoves and opposite from the door Darcy stood at was a on one side was a huge stain glass window and to another there was a heavy-looking closed wooden door. A dim muffled groan came from beyond it.
"Ok, avoiding infected house staff," noted before turning to a wine rack. "Ooh, vintage. Perhaps omething a little younger. Let's find some spirits."
The fridge was very well stocked. A plastic-wrapped trays of h'orderves, rolled bruchetta parcels, a stuffed and glazed chicken prepared for the oven, as well as lots of raw products, fruit and vege. And on the door next to the milk and OJ... "Hey Jin, what are you in the mood for, vodka, tequila or single malt scotch?" Natalie asked with a laugh grabbing the vodka and a clean tea towel.
While she was at the fidge she opene door and smiled. Thick crusted hawaiin, cripsy meat lovers and vegetarian; the pizza boxes has at least two whole shelve sto their own. She grabbed a couple and chucked them on the counter. Walking back out to the sofa she turned on the oven to preheat.

Jin had woken up suddenly and started painting. It was late and as he recalled the pleasant evening with Natalie it had been cut short by everyone's exhaustion. Jin had waited in the hallway while everyone showered first. He checked each of the rooms until he came to the one Darcy labeled her brother's. He entered quickly and grabbed some plain black jeans and a white t-shirt. There were a lot of suits like Darcy said.

Jin saw Natalie's choice of clothes and couldn't help but admire it briefly before she noticed he was staring.

Now that he had finished his feverish painting he had turned the lights off and opened the window letting the air cool his room. Jin looked back as he heard someone moving around the house, but seeing as it originated from the top floor it was someone from the group.

He held up a long and sharp meat carving knife he had swiped from the kitchen. He smirked feeling a little safer, at least until he caught the sound of someone going on the porch. Having little regard for his own safety and no respect for people's property he stepped out on to his rooms balcony and hopped over the rail and leaped over to the corner balcony to see what was going on. He just caught a glimpse of some familiar feet and calves as they made their way out onto the porch

Leon seemed to be in his own little world when a blonde haired dude fell down, he looked to Natalie, crowbar in hand then to Jin who just shrugged as Darcy came back and questioned Natalie. She looked to all three of them and everyone returned a shrug.
"We can play spin the bottle" Jin had said.
"Doubt it, soldierboys got Hollywood's heart." Leon laughed and winked at Darcy.
Jin and Natalie grabbed him while Queen Bee instructed them, Leon helped as well but chucked him on the sofa and left to take a shower. Leon sighed as he took a steamy shower, it felt good to take his mind off of the zombies for once. He let the hot droplets of water run through his hair and drip down to splash on his skin. Leon turn the knobs of the shower and stepped out collecting his necklace straight away. He put it over his head and searched through his bag, A sweater, jeans and the essentials was good enough. He walked to the older brothers room and found a tie, not bad. His hair still wet, he scruffed it smiling for the first time in what felt like ages. He walked up to the attic and played guitar, best feeling he's had in ages. When he got tired he went to one of the guest rooms and fell asleep straight..

BANG.
Leon woke up, sweating by the sound of a gunshot. He sat up and ran his hand through his hair sighing. He got his crossbow and flashlight out then put his shoes on also grabbing out a snack. He shoved it down his throat and walked down as silently as ever. The front door was open and he heard talking, well at least that meant that they were people and not zombies. He listened closely, it was only Darcy... and, and Soldier man? He didn't want to interupt this, these two were moody. He went to the attic and grabbed a guitar. He smiled and sat by the door but not in sight and started playing music. Romantic Music. Leon had to hold in his laughter which wouldn't last long because he knew they'd want to either kill him or thank him at the moment. He risked it and continued playing but very quietly just incase zombies. But then again he's the one who shot the first sound so he would be the one who did start it. He put the guitar down and walked outside stealthily trying not to be seen. Once he was in the shadows and away from them he hit into something in the darkness.
"Oh my god." Leon grumbled.
He fumbled in his fingers turning the flashlight on, it was only a car. A random car.. was it Marcus'? He shone through the window and a figure inside shuffled around and a dog on the floor inside. It was Lilith most likely, Leon walked to the other side of the vehicle and shone the light but covered some of the light hoping not to wake the person up because they obviously had been sleeping. Yep, it was Lilith and her dog which he quickly turned his light off because the dog was starting to wake up. He was an attack dog so Leon knew not to wake it or he'd start barking and wake Lilith.

Natalie briefly considered testing the limits of Darcy's hospiltalities as she stared at coctail dresses and designer labels wondering how well they'd handle any interation with the infected. She was sitting cross legged on the carpet staring sleppily at the selction dressed in a short dark silk robe she had obtained. She patted her wet hair with a towel as she stared. She'd cleaned and bandaged the new guy's injuries, had some food, and had enjoyed hanging out with Jin for a while, but they'd all tired quickly so they'd seperated to wash and find clothes. She'd been so overwhelmed by Darcy's exstensive collection that she'd simply grabbed the robe and gone and indulged in a shower first. She'd had to hide the blush and smirk as she walked by those waiting to use the shower afterwards.
Getting impatient Natalie dumped the towel on the floor, deciding to let the long blonde hair dry naturally like she normally did even if it ended up a little curlier. Grudgingly she got to her feet and approached a chest of drawers. Jackpot. Casual wear. Expensive casual wear no doubt, but still denim and cotton instead of satin and chiffon.
She was a shorter than Darcy but they were were pretty similar in build, slim but curvy. She found some jeans and a button up shirt that fit and looked like they could hack in in the wildrness of Highgate. She set them aside To sleep in she found a comfy t-shirt to wear with her underwear and made sure the sash of her robe was very secure around her waist before making the dash but to her chosen room.
The huge wooden four poster bed was gorgeous. Natlie threw the robe on the foot of the bed and bried herself among the thick blankets and mounds of pillows. She was asleep almost immediately.

A bang woke Natalie some time later. Alert but disorientated she looked around for her crowbar abefore rememebering it was still downstairs. Foolish. She sat groggily in bed for a moment and decided since there was no screaming that it could be that bad. Pulling the top blanket with her she climbed from the bed and wandered out onto the balcony. She peered out into the night and with the little light from the moon and spilling from the open enterance door she recognised a familiar figure and the sound of Darcy's voice.
"She'll be thrilled her boyfriend's back," Natalie muttered to herself, then chuckled at a ridiculous thought. "Assuming Lilith's still with him the numbers remain even for spin the bottle. I can see that going so well. Not."
Entertaining heself with the mental image of a rabid Darcy throwing herself at the first girl that wasn't her to kiss Marcus, as well as more pleasant senarios, Natlie fetched her sketch book and pencils from her rucksack. Yes, it had made it to her room when her crowbar hadn't. Yes, she remembered her sketchbook when she forgot a flashlight. No, she would not apologise.
Still wrapped in her blanket she leant against the cool metal railings and lazily drew the people that moved around the yard below. Loose sketches by dim moonlight, that overlapped as interesected like ghosts. It was soothing and Natalie may or may not have drifted back to sleep.

(OCC: Aargh! had to rewrite this entiring thing from scratch after my browser decided to go back to the last page I'd been on effectively erasing everything I'd written after a bout of brief but severe writer's block.)

OOC: Hey SupaChocMilk, we kinda assumed your character was unconcious so we brought him inside, dumped him on the couch and bandaged him up. We can pretend we didn't if you want to continue from your last post or he can wake up on the couch.

Jin gripped is new blade at the sound of the gunshot. He then saw Darcy pull him inside. Though the soundd were muffled he made some out before sound came from the room whose balcony he was no standing on. He made back to the side he started just as the doors opened.

Jin felt pretty awkward standing on the same balcony as Natalie. He ducked into the shadows out of reflex when her door opened. He was a little stuck and simply hoped she would go back inside.

Jin held back his chuckles when Natalie mentioned spin the bottle. Jin eyed Natalie drawing and tried. To get a look from the distance but could not. He was getting cold when he noticed Natalie's body go limp. He cautiously stepped out and seeing that she did not react he took a few more. He turned to jump back to his balcony but stopped. The night air no matter how refreshing was cold.

Jin stepped up and carefully scooped up Natalie, blanket and all and walked her over to her bed and set her down. He had heard a thump during the delivery and went back to see what it was. He picked up the notebook and pencil and looked over her skill. He smiled as he felt impressed. He sat down and looking at the moonlight hitting Natalie he found an empty paper and drew in silence.

Having finished he was quite pleased though he would have done her more justice if he had his own tools. He placed the notebook down with his picture on top. He stood up and quietly left the room trying to decide where to go and what to do.

Natalie rolled onto her back and stretched her arms above her head, curling her toes, before settling back into the soft bed contently. The blankets were twisted funny and she remembered drawing on the balcony. She sat up and looked around the room, her notebook sat on the end of the bed.
Untangling herself from the bedding she crawled across to it. The sketch it was opened to was not her own, instead it was of her. It was very good, practiced lines, strong shadows and soft highlights; her face was relaxed with sleep and her hair was a mess of curls across the pillows.
She thought of the small list of people around who had the strength and the inclination to bother carrying her to bed. It was quite small list. She thought of Jin’s original weapon of choice, the artist knife, and looked at the sketch again and smiled.
Natalie had slept a while and couldn’t back to sleep now. So she slipped from bed, pulled on her jeans and coiled her hair loosely against the back of her neck, pinning in place with a pencil, before heading down stairs.
There were sounds of people moving about but other than that the house was pretty quiet. She found herself in the kitchen and realised that breakfast sounded good, no matter what hour it was. Natalie always started her day with breakfast.

Natalie had flour on her face, and a little on the kitchen bench but most of it had made it into the pancake batter. She hummed and bounced as she turned a pancake out of the pan and onto a plate, then poured more batter into the pan. The infected ran wild in the street and she was making pancakes.

"Uhgn..." Matthew woke up and felt the surface he was on. A couch? He looked around and saw he was in the mansion. He sniffed the air and smelled... pancakes? He jumped up off the couch and looked at his shoulder. A huge bandage was all over it, stained with blood. Matthew walked to where the smell was coming from. People stood around a table, just talking and eating pancakes. "Uh, hi. Can I have some pancakes? Haven't had food in days. The smell is killing me."

Lilith just blinked as she was suddenly spoken to, and asked about Harry Potter of all things. Actually, suddenly think about it made her sad. All her books, gone. That wasn't fair! She shoved her spoon in her mouth grumpily at the thought. Stupid zombie people. Then she closed her eyes and smacked her head against the wall behind her, thinking of Jake. That wasn't fair, it was a disease, a disease that'd forced her to kill her best friend, but still just a disease. Sighing she opened her eyes and poked at her pudding.
Another guy walked in and asked for pancakes. Lilith hadn't even thought about it, though the smell was amazing. Still, she was mildly annoyed as the other girl, particularly calling her ‘Lilz’. That was a stupid name, plus the only person who'd ever actually called her by a nickname was Jake, but then it had always been Lil, though he did call her Lily once her twice when he was messing with her.
"Yeah, help yourself," she offered the new guy, she didn't recognise him. Oh well. He was alive so who's, how's and why's probably didn't matter so much. She helped herself to some pancakes, now partly determined to make them disappear before the other girl came back. Yeah, it was a weak revenge but she was hungry.

The sound was almost inaudible to ears that had never heard it before. But Darcy had. The back door had been unlocked, opened and then closed.

Slipping out of her parents bedroom Darcy tiptoed down the stairs making sure to avoid all the floorboards that she knew squeaked. God! She hoped it wasn't another survivor, her house was filled to full capacity as it was.

A voice resonated from the dinning room . . . a familiar voice . . . It couldn't be! Darcy almost burst into the room with utter relief. She could cry . . .Again. But something made her stop.

Peaking around the corner of the half opened door Darcy first saw something strange on the dinning table nearest her. What was that? It looked like some sort of test tube vials containing some dark red liquid with stoppers on top, in three racks each rack having six vials and there. . . there he was. Joshua. Something stopped her from entering the room outright. Josh stood by the ostentatious fire place with his back to her. He looked different, bigger and taller and bulkier . . . and he was talking on the phone.

Darcy listen quietly, half hidden behind the door.

“Yes, the $300 million is in my account . . . Yes, I've received the paralyzing injection vials too. They better work!” Darcy heard her brother say.

"$300 million . . . Paralyzing injections?" Darcy whispered to herself, looking at the liquid vials on the table as her stomach churned and heart thrummed with the cold realisation.

Oh God! She had been right.

Could those vials possible stop the zombie-fication? She thought of Liliths bandaged arm and her pallid complexion and that scrawny blonde boy bleeding all over the sofa. Could they be saved? Neither of them deserved the fate of those infected out there . . . The zombies didn't deserve to be what they were, it wasn't a choice. Someone else had made that decision. Moving silently closer to the vials, Darcy silently picked up three and quietly and safely hid them on a dinning table chair and listened heartbroken.

"If anything should happen to me, like I turn into one of those things out there," Darcy heard her brother spit down the strange phone. "Or the money disappears from my account suddenly before I reach the evacuation point then I have means set up to make those files go global and the truth exposed." Joshua threatened down the line.

"Yes, I have the files and the hard drives in a safe place . . . for now." He continued as he turned around and threw down a brown file on the dark oak dinning table . . . And then stopped suddenly.

Darcy stood next to the vials, she looked up to her surprised brother.

"I'll call you back." He said quickly into the phone and then cut the line. "Darc-" Joshua said almost happily as he took a step forward and then stopped as Darcy took a reactionary step back.

Who was this man? Thought Darcy in distress. This wasn't the brother she had grown up with.

"Darcy!" He shouted angrily. "I thought I told you not to leave the house?"

"How could you?" Darcy hissed angrily back. "How could you do it Joshua?"

"How could I do what?" He replied calmly all of a sudden.

"It was you." Darcy accused in disbelieve even as she had heard the evidence with her own ears. "For money?!" She screamed, tears streaming down her face. "For money you damned all these people! . . . Daddy, too?"

"He was as much a part of it as was I." Joshua shrugged unconcerned. "Collateral damage. He wasn't suppose to get infected but he did and the Paralyzing injection hadn't arrived yet. I couldn't do anything about that Darc." He said calmly as he stepped forward a step.

"Don't!" Darcy said firmly. "Don't come any closer . . . You, you didn't have enough finances to last a lifetime that you had to do this?"

"Oh don't get all high and mighty with me Dracinda. You spend money like its water and talk about having enough money. Between you and mother it's a damn surprise we have anything left."

"You're blaming me?!" Darcy spat bitterly. "You have money everywhere, the stocks, the mines . . ."

"Well, as far as business and the mines in the state go, it's all going to be blown up. Kaboom! There'll be nothing left."

Darcy looked at him in horror. "Who are you?"

"Who am I?" Joshua questioned back, pointing to himself with two hands with a cruel smile lining his lips. "Who are you Dracinda? Come, you're standing up for these people?" He said pointing at their audience, Darcy had been to furious to notice.

She looked their way quickly and back, tears staining her red cheeks.

"Let's not pretend you wouldn't sell these people down the river for less then what I received for it."

"They-" She tried "The people of this town didn't deserve this!"

No, no one deserved this.

"Old people, family . . . Friends. Children, Joshua!" Darcy pleaded as she moved closer to the vials.

She nudged the corner of the rack with her fingers.

"Now, Darcy." Joshua said, a sudden quiver to his voice. "Don't do anything dramatic as you're used to doing when you don't get your way."

Darcy looked up, fixing her smokey grey eyes on her brothers cold grey ones as she picked up the the racks of vials, with three missing. Joshua hadn't noticed that.

She held the racks in her numb shaking hands. She felt cold and numb all over. She'd prayed harder then she ever had for this not to be true . . . but it was . . . What should she do? Darcy was torn. Her world collapsing around her.

"Give me those vials Dracinda." Joshua said with a calm urgency. "Would you let your own brother die . . . For these people? Do you want me to become one of those creatures out there Darcy?"

Darcy stood there stark still, shivering . . . "No . . ." She said finally her voice shaking as she took a step towards him.

There was no going back now . . . The protest of the others deaf to her ears.

Darcy stopped in front of her brother. He smiled twistedly at her. "You saved me Darc."

Darcy looked at him through red rimmed eyes as she shook her head. "Not even God can save you Joshua." She spat back at him and then with out a second thought threw the rack of vials into the large, dark fire place.

Every single vial smashed and the liquid was no more then a stain in the black char.

"Noooo! . . . You stupid bitch! Do you know what you've done?" Joshua screamed as he back handed her across the face.

Darcy went flying across the room, hitting a large cupboard.

Stunned, disorientated, feeling like she had just been smacked by a brick wall, she touched the corner of her mouth, it was bleeding and all Darcy could think was that that was not normal . . . He was changing . . . Into one of them.

Richard busted into the dinning room.

"Well, well, Joshua Morgan. The agency thought you'd be out of the state by now." Richard said as he raised his rifle to Joshua who had a crazed look in his eye.

"Freelancer? What the hell are you doing here?" Joshua questioned "Shouldn't you be busy being the Agencies lap dog?"

Freelancer? Agency? Darcy looked on confused. Did Richard know her brother?

"I was, but there were...complications." Richard said as he shifted his eyes to Darcy for a split second "You're a wanted man Joshua, you can't threaten people like the Director. Are you okay Darcy?"

And who was this Director?

Darcy looked Richard's way about to answer his question when her brother intervened.

"Darcy is it, Freelancer?" Joshua said eyeing Marcus with a raised brow, before Darcy could reply.

He grabbed a hanker of Darcy's hair in his fist and pulled.

"Argh!" Darcy tried not to scream out loud as she tried to make him let go.

"She's not as innocent as she looks Freelancer. Be forewarned." Joshua laughed insanely. "Are you Dracinda . . . hmm?"

"Did you think just because you are my spoilt little bitch of a sister that I'd let you just throw away my chance at survival and that I'd let you go?" He spat seething, pulling her hair tighter.

Darcy refused to cry out at the pain. Instead she smiled back bitterly "Argh! Why Josh? Are you afraid of joining those whose lives you've stolen?"

"Shut up! You fucking brat!" He spat back angrily, his face turning red, body shaking with fury.

Darcy was frightened, she'd never dealt with her brother like this. He was loosing his mind.

BAM! "What the hell was that?" Matthew said, mid-chew. He swallowed. He ran back into the room where a man was sitting. "Hey! Do you know where my backpack is? Where'd they take it?" Matthew looked at the man with wild eyes. The man looked back dumbfounded. "C'mon, I think this an emergency! Either get off your ass and help, or tell me where my backpack is!"

(OOC: I probably won't be able to post after like 12:00 or on the weekends because I got football practice.)