Era of the Afflicted: VR Playtime (IC)

"Woohoo! Roadtri--" his words were caught in his throat as this Sparra chick took him by the arm and threw the teen into the car. A bit too roughly, by his standards. He glared at the woman for a second as she shut the door and immediately his visage softened. Alexander's gaze drifted down her form. Decent face, nice hips, oddly colored hair, can't be much older than me...just my type! he decided this may not be so bad after all.

Realizing that the car was beginning to move, it dawned on him. "Hey! I thought we were walking. Hulloooo? Mr.?" Screw it. grabbing his gun, Alex stared out of the window searching for movement. Spiders and zombies and redheds, oh my.... poking Sparra he said; "I'll watch your rear--I mean the, the rear. You can watch the sides." Alex smiled and turned in to view through the window again. In the darkness of the night, the movement of several forms could just barely be seen.

With a quick frown and an unfocused look, he smiled ruefully. "Maria...."

With Alex and Sparra in the car Joker started to drive, relatively quickly, the spiders from the floor above were now jumping down onto the lower level.

"Hey! I thought we were walking. Hulloooo? Mr.?" Screw it. grabbing his gun, Alex stared out of the window searching for movement. Poking Sparra he said; "I'll watch your rear--I mean the, the rear. You can watch the sides."

Joker smiled as the car ran over a wandering Zack with a satisfying squelch. ‘Well Alex if you hadn’t missed the staff meeting you would be up to date.’

The car moved down the ramp and out onto the open road they could see the area was slowly filling with Zack. ‘Seems like the fuckers had been planning a trap for us.’ The car smashed into another Zack, this ones head cracked the windscreen ‘This really isn’t the right vehicle for this.’

They turned a corner and headed into a slightly emptier road. ‘Right, do you even know where or what Morgan’s is? Actually don’t worry, I know Sparra doesn’t so I will explain it to both of you. Firstly we are driving because its at least half an hour away, the reason we only took what we could carry is because you can just drive to it, if it had that easy access it would have been swarmed within days, the way in is over the roof tops near by.’

They turned another corner only to find the road blocked by an abandoned police barricade from weeks ago. ‘Holy shit, I’m glad I know the roads around here.’ Complained Joker as he turned the car around and started back tracking and then took another previous turn.

‘Ok Morgan’s is a hotel, shop and bar all in one, survives take what they have scavenged, trade it in and in return get a safe night sleep and a good meal. Well because of all this crap going down the owner, Captain Morgan, an army captain that got left here when the military sentences us all to rot, he’s decided that the best thing for us to do is all work together and sort out a plan.’

They turned another corner and were moving down an area with more medical looking Zacks, either doctors or patients, ‘We are getting close, this is one of the herds that came from the Mercy Haven Hospital, we are still a bit far from the hospital, thank god, that place was a Zack rave last time I was there, not fun at all, but these herds drift in a relatively large area around the hospital.’

Joker turned off into a small side road, ‘Ok I’m going to drive the car over to that buildings fire escape, all the Zacks around here can hear the engine and will be heading this way, grab everything you can and be ready to run, I will do my best to block the alley with the car to buy us a few more seconds.’

Joker turned the car into the alleyway, the far side was a brick wall with a fire escape leading to the roof of a large 5 story building, the building had previously contained the accounts and shipping departments for a large firm selling toasters over the internet.
‘Ok guys are you ready of this.’ Joker sounded confident, he had done this before a few times, but even so it wasn’t something he enjoyed.

Joker twisted the car around, the front end hit the side wall and the back end hit the other side. Joker kicked open his door and grabbed a backpack and another bag, he jumped out of the car and started heading for the fire escape ‘Move it! Zack is hungry and we are fast food.’

The car moved down the ramp and out onto the open road they could see the area was slowly filling with Zack. ‘Seems like the fuckers had been planning a trap for us.’ The car smashed into another Zack, this ones head cracked the windscreen ‘This really isn’t the right vehicle for this.’

Sparra shot a confused look ' You really think they are becoming this smart.... They can set traps ' She watched as Joker ran over one over the Zack's, she looked out of the Window into the dead city.

As they turned the corner, Sparra could see a hospital, with all sorts of Zack's, patients, Doctors, Nurses and Paramedics, it was sick. She payed close attention to her surrounding, the ground was flat and it would be easy to run on for her.

Joker turned off into a small side road, ‘OK I’m going to drive the car over to that buildings fire escape, all the Zack's around here can hear the engine and will be heading this way, grab everything you can and be ready to run, I will do my best to block the alley with the car to buy us a few more seconds.’

Sparra nodded ' Got it Joker, You got it Alex?' She asked, as she zipped her jacket down, she put her hand gun in the holder she picked up earlier, and placed her bag over her neck.

As the car came to abrupt halt, smashing against the wall Sparra lept out of the door, closely following Joker. She could have over passed him easily, but he was leading the way. She ran towards the exit making sure Alex was behind her.

‘Well Alex if you hadn’t missed the staff meeting you would be up to date. Blah blah blahblahblah blah, bla....’ that was about where Alex stopped listening. As the car rolled on down the poorly lit streets he was counting. The zombies from the mall had decided to give chase, en masse. The teen had counted about twenty normal zombies so far with six Spiders leading the pack. Each time they passed under an operational streetlight he caught glimpses of the mutated zacks. They were odd, to say the least, not what he expected. All of them walked on all fours (six or eight in a couple cases), running at a good pace along large singular claws that tipped each appendage. All of them had elongated limbs as well as a stretched out mouth housing yellowish...they was a bit difficult to make out in the barely existant light...fangs? One of them had lumps of flesh on it's bare chest...he snickered. The spider in front of the others, it had boobs.

Tightening his grip on the rifle Six became dimly aware of the fact that the man and Sparra were talking. Something about exchanges and hotels or some shit. If those things are stronger than the average zack we're in a shit-load of trouble. I should grab a notebook or something to record what I see. Could be of use for future survivors...Eh? What am I saying!? I won't be dying here. Not without at least talking to her again.
The car began to slow down into a turn and he peered out of his side-window, moving his deep brown eyes in line with the spider leading the pack. His insides grew cold, for a moment, just one moment...it seemed as if this supposedly mindless, flesh-eating beast...was staring not in his direction but at him. Alex let out a small gasp and muttered; "Bring it bitch."

It was then that he heard Sparra, ' Got it Joker, You got it Alex?' and became aware of the fact that she was hastily jumping out and the man, Joker, was already making a mad dash down the pathway. Alexander stumbled across the seats and out of the door, not forgetting his jerky. Tasty ass jerky. Keeping a brisk jog just behind the two the hormone riddled teen looked down. Up, and down, and up, and down... tearing his gaze away from her hips Alex scolded himself. Really hormones? Even when crazy ass zombies are about to tear me limb from limb you taunt me? A sigh escaped his slightly chapped lips as he mentally pushed 'Alex' out of mind. It was time for 'Six'. Sprinting ahead of the adults he risked a glance behind them back at the makeshift barricade. The spiders were already clearing the car and crawling along the walls of the nearby buildings, and, to his dismay, the leading freak was still staring. A malign intelligence glittered in the beasts eyes...a frightening change from the usual bloodlust.

Now a good ten feet in front of Joker and Sparra, Six turned on the ball of his foot and tossed the jerky container to Joker. "I'll be right with ya in a sec, I'm gunna play a quick round of chicken." grimly the boy grinned. He had been lining up his rifle with the Widow, the female spider that had apparantly taken a liking to him. The only reason he hadn't pissed himslef and ran away like a normal person was because he didn't view this as life or death anymore, as he had nearly no reason to live at this point. He viewed this as an Xbox live round of Left 4 Dead, with some sweet ass effects. A loud boom went off as he pull the trigger, the recoil knocking him back a coule paces. Turning to dash down after his new gaurdians he looked back once more. Widow was screeching and clawing at her face due to her left fang and a large portion of flesh being torn from her face. Without looking back Six ran on while cradling his right arm. It had been hurt in with the recoil. "Oi, Joker! We don't have much time! The first ones are already past the car. And call me Six." still following he remembered, "Oh, you think I can borrow a notebook? College ruled, please and thank you."

Now a good ten feet in front of Joker and Sparra, Six turned on the ball of his foot and tossed the jerky container to Joker. "I'll be right with ya in a sec, I'm gunna play a quick round of chicken." grimly the boy grinned. He had been lining up his rifle with the Widow, the female spider that had apparantly taken a liking to him.

Joker didn’t even try to catch the container, his arms were full, in fact he hadn’t even heard Six talk, Joker was already climbing the fire escape while Six was messing around.

"Oi, Joker! We don't have much time! The first ones are already past the car. And call me Six." still following he remembered, "Oh, you think I can borrow a notebook? College ruled, please and thank you."

This Joker did hear, he was just making it up the side of the building, bellow the dead were swarming.

Joker made it to the roof, the internal roof access door was shut, he checked the handle, it was locked, Joker gave sigh of relief, and ran back to the fire escape to give Sparra a hand up onto the roof, when he was helping her those rots that had been inside the building started smashing against the roof access.

‘I’m not calling you Alex or Six, I’m calling you insane. Stop taking pop shots and pissing about with note books and jerky, you can go back to your safety blanket jokes when we aren’t fighting.’ Snapped Joker.

It was all he needed now, a psycho, the kid might just be stupid or he might be suicidal. During the start there had been lots of psychos people who just stopped caring, they would drive the streets crushing zombies, only to crash and burn alive, or they would set up a fort, play some rock music and be eaten alive. Joker had considered this plan if action before, but there was no joke in dying like that, the joke was in surviving, as in survival you really died. Well most of the psychos had died within the first few days, Joker had been with a group back in those first days, it was a suicidal nut job that had finished the group off, the guy had the great idea to walk through the street with a shotgun and a speaker system playing ‘cant touch this’, from a distance it was fun, but when the guy wandered over towards their hide out only to run out of ammo and die, it meant that several thousands Zacks had suddenly been dropped outside the front door.

It was during this chain of thought that Joker heard wood snap and creek, suddenly the door to the roof bust open under the weight of rotting fist attacking it. Joker swore and brought his combat shot gun to bear.

First shot, pushed Zack back through the door way. Joker pulled out his pistol and held it in his other hand, he fired the shot gun again pushing Zack further back and used the pistol to finished off those that would try to stand up again. The shotgun was only 6 rounds remained and the pistol still have 8. But with every street level Zack pouring into the building bellow and out the door, he wasn’t going to have a chance to reload.

‘Ok, grab my bags and throw them to the next roof, then jump, cover me and I will run after you.’ The next roof wasn’t far, not a jump you would want to make if you could avoid it, but still not much risk of missing. Which meant Zack would probably make it across as well. They seemed to be becoming more energetic every day.

‘I wouldn’t want to rush you, but now would be good.’

"Oi, Joker! We don't have much time! The first ones are already past the car. And call me Six." still following he remembered, "Oh, you think I can borrow a notebook? College ruled, please and thank you."

Sparra followed quickly behind Joker, hearing every word that Alex had said. He sounded like a moron, a complete idiot with a death wish.

Joker climbed to the roof and Sparra followed, almost slipping but luckily she grabbed Jokers hand just before she did. ' Thanks she said with a sigh of relief. She checked over that she still had all her equipment.

At that point she heard the wood snap and creak too, she turned her head to the door which currently had a few Zack's coming threw. She took her hand gun aiming for one's head, perfect hit... good for her first time. ' Shit she muttered as she panicked a little.

‘OK, grab my bags and throw them to the next roof, then jump, cover me and I will run after you.’ The next roof wasn’t far, not a jump you would want to make if you could avoid it, but still not much risk of missing. Which meant Zack would probably make it across as well. They seemed to be becoming more energetic every day.

Sparra put her gun back, and began throwing all the bags to the other roof. ' Come on Six or Alex, get your ass in gear ' She yelled as she looked back to Joker ' Be careful, we still need to stick together, don't you go dying on me .

She took a few steps back, took a deep breath and went for the jump. 3,2,1 and she had lept, he heart beating so fast she couldn't catch the air flying past her. She landed on her feet, toppling forward a little. She breathed in and composed herself turning round to Joker on the other roof ' GO now I have your back '

She took out her hand gun, making shot at Zack's, her aim was surprisingly good for her first time, but she blamed it on fear.

Run run run run ruuuuun! Alexander's thoughts came in a blur as he kept pace just behind Sparra and Joker, his rifle frantically thrown into the pack on his back. He heard both of their comments about him being suicidal, and stupid, and blah blah blah. There are giant spider freaks chasing us, could we save the insults for later maybe? snapping back to the real world he heard wood creaking. What the hell izzat?

‘Ok, grab my bags and throw them to the next roof, then jump, cover me and I will run after you.’ Joker said as he, and then Sparra leaped over to the next roof.

Shitshitshitshit... he was gunning it, five feet from the ledge. Three, and the teen scooped up one of Joker's bags. One. Lift off. "Shiiiiit!" Six landed in a roll, coming up next to Joker. He took a moment to compose himself and catch his breath before assessing the situation. The zacks were coming. Fast. He'd lost sight of the spiders after his pot-shot and the fact that he still didn't see them was either really good, or really bad.

Alex looked at his new allies and noticed that neither looked much better than himself. Getting up and opening the backpack he loaded the rifle and began to take some shots into the oncoming crowd of zombies. He missed quite a few times on account of his hurt arm while running and decided to put the gun away. "We should go. It's doubtful that we can rest here."

Still running he remembered, "Hey Joker, you still have my jer..." Six looked back to see Joker's hands void of any container. "....you bastard." he said, obviously joking. He had no doubt that his insomnia could keep his body going throughout the night, but could the same be said for these two?