Don't Dead, Open Inside || Action

[postocular]

Who: Carl Grimes, a bunch of zombies, and you
Broadcast: kinda?
Action: Waystation
When: Right now


(( ooc: This is a blanket content warning for blood/gore/death. So! There are zombies ahead and you’ve found yourself on the waystation! You have two options: evacuate, or fight them off. Things of note to remember: Being bitten or scratched are the easiest ways for infection. We don’t suggest being eaten. Magic will be hit or miss depending on player preference/discretion. Characters who become zombies will be treated as in-character deaths. Standard rules apply! The event will last a total of 24 hours. Have fun, and enjoy all the undead things. If there are any questions or anything at all, feel free to pm this journal or hit me up at skorozima. ))

[ The Fleet has been floating along its predetermined path for the past few days, getting further and further away from the Yadrolla System and toward unknown territory. Along the way, those oh-so convenient waystations continue to pop up at their usual intervals. Identical in every way to every other, boring waystation. Neat, right? There are even some of those familiar orange-skinned aliens and some human travelers milling about and generally minding their own business. It’s a good place to stretch your legs, get sodas of questionable flavor, and take those nifty new pets for a walk!

Interrupting the general peace of the waystation, a shrill siren starts, and a robotic voice comes over the intercom as well as all communication devices on the station and surrounding spacecraft, repeating a monotone message. ]


ATTENTION. THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. LOCKDOWN IMMINENT. ATTENTION. THIS IS AN EMERGENCY. CALMLY EVACUATE USING THE NEAREST EXIT. LOCKDOWN IMMINENT..

[ Soon, it becomes apparent to those on the waystation what the emergency is. A gaggle? A murder??? Just.. a lot of undead. They’re not in any particular hurry, shambling and stumbling along.. until they spot what looks like some good eats. That seems to get them excited, arms stretching forward, teeth gnashing, and more growling than any sort of verbal mishmash meant to be words. THEY’RE NOT A WORDY PEOPLE, OKAY?

For those looking to escape, it’s quite easy to outrun them unless you’re not paying attention to your surroundings. Corners can be tough! Just don’t get bit or scratched and all is well, except for their incessant attempts at making you a snack. For those who haven’t come across them before, or have run into some variation of them in another world, they’re resilient up to the point of losing their head or the brain being destroyed. Limbs being broken or missing don’t seem to slow them down, just send them a little off-balance.

All they know is attack and eat.

For those of the fleet still on their ships, they gravitate around the waystation, seemingly not wanting to go anywhere. There is a short window of time from the emergency alert to the entire waystation going on lockdown. Those wishing to help evacuate can do so- but they have to be quick!

Once the lockdown is in place, communication ceases with the waystation. All the rest of the fleet can do is sit and wait, and hope for the best. The doors will re-open twenty-four hours later, once it’s clear the situation is handled and they can regroup, count their losses, and wait once again for the perished to rejoin their ranks. ]

Comments

freezing

[candothat]

[The undead approaching Nami falls to the ground and Chekov, wielding a plastic umbrella from one of the waystation vendors, scrambles around it and grabs Nami's wrist.]

Okaytimetorun!

[Just in case that wasn't understandable, he takes off down the hall, pulling her along with him. She might want to follow; the downed zombie is recovering pretty quickly from having its legs swept out from under it by a souvenir umbrella.]

bless you Pavel

[mikangirl]

[Umbrella, you have an umbrella-- it's so bizarre that she switches to staring at him stupidly as he snatches her wrist and pulls her along, and then Nami stumbles after him, picking up speed as her brain catches up.]

They're people. I bought a necklace from that-- [Well, it's not really a cheerful travelling vendor now, is it? Such an unlucky break. She feels sick.]

he is TrYinG

[candothat]

I'm sorry, Nami.

[He takes a few turns with the confidence of someone who knows where he's going. They finally come to a stop in a hallway that is, happily, empty.]

I am sorry.

he is a good man

[mikangirl]

[Nami follows him with all the blind faith of someone who hopes you know where you're going, and turns to glance behind them as they halt, fingers white-knuckled on her staff.]

So am I.

[...ah.] Thanks. Are you okay...?

[candothat]

[The hall is still clear, but it likely won't stay that way for long. Hopefully long enough for them to catch their breaths and regroup.]

Yes, thank you. [For now. He gives Nami a quick once-over.] And you? You haven't been bitten?

[mikangirl]

Untouched. Probably gonna throw up later, but-- [She glances sharply down the hallway.] Do you have any idea what's going on?

[candothat]

Later is a good time for that. [As sympathetic as he is to that particular feeling... pass. Hard pass.] This is an infection, I think, spread through biting and maybe scratching. Someone who seemed familiar with it told me that everyone infected is dead already. Nothing can save them.

[mikangirl]

[S'okay, Nami always does her come-down reactions with efficient after-disaster planning.]

I wish knowing that made it easier.

...who was familiar with it? One of ours?

[She has a bad feeling it's to do with the Fleet. Or more particularly, Atroma and glitches.]

[candothat]

I do as well.

[It sure didn't make exposing a handful of them to the vacuum of space feel any less like murder, but that's not something to think about now.]

Yes, one of ours. Daryl Dixon? He's new. [And a little too well-informed.]

[mikangirl]

[She blinks, glancing up with surprise.] Daryl? He's back?

[And knows about this stuff? She never knew him well enough the first time round, but he sure was a surly paranoid type person. She's beginning to guess why.]

Guess we can ask those questions later.

[candothat]

He is. Is that bad?

[He'd really rather not think about his new shipmate's possible involvement with this whole tragedy. It can't be a coincidence that he knows so much about a thing that befell the station when the Fleet arrived...]

Hopefully there will be a later for all of us. [A nervous glance down the hall. Was that a growl?]

[mikangirl]

Ah-- no, it's not, it's just a surprise. [She didn't mean to make that sound so ominous. It comes down to simply being a person she recognises who may or may not be involved in this. Not much time for other explanations, though-- she tenses at the drawn out sound just heard at the edge of the hallway and turns, bringing her staff back up again.]

So do you only fight with umbrellas?

[Shaky joke (TM).

...please don't be recognisable this time. That's all she asks.]

[candothat]

[Since now is not a great time to talk about Daryl, he'll accept that and move along.]

Umbrellas, brooms, mops. [Joking. Probably.] I usually try to avoid fighting entirely.

[Which is definitely the most encouraging thing he could say now that three hungry zombies are rounding the corner. Don't worry Nami, Pavel and his umbrella-wielding skills will protect you. Help.]

[mikangirl]

[Nami holds her breath as they come round the corner. And then lets it out as this time, at least, she recognises none of them.]

Sorry. [It's the softest mutter, and it's not actually aimed at Pavel. But she glances at him a moment later.] I can handle these ones.

[The tip of her staff sparks with electricity.]

[candothat]

[He nods and stays back, fully ready to do something stupid if necessary but confident that Nami can indeed handle them. She has a lightning staff, after all. That's way better than an umbrella and a can-do attitude.]

[mikangirl]

[Hey, don't knock can-do attitudes, they can get you pretty far. She makes it fast as she can, not really wanting to watch her own handiwork as she lashes out with the staff and leaves a trail of dark black smoke (or cloud) in the air-- which ignites into full lightning-style voltage as it hits them.

Put into perspective with the knowledge these are just as much victims as they are, she flinches when the zombies hit the ground a moment later, still smoking.]

[candothat]

[It's gotten him this far, so.

Pavel has seen a lot of things. Zombies being zapped to crisp by lightning from a magic cloud has not, prior to today, been one of those things, and he's torn between impressed and somewhat horrified. Nami looks like she's on the horrified end of that particular spectrum.]

Thank you. [There's always time for manners.] We should look for somewhere safer to be until this is over, probably.

[mikangirl]

Yeah. [She offers him a wan smile over her shoulder, looking closer to throwing up than ever. These people are already dead-- she'll just keep telling herself that.]

We can probably barricade ourselves in one of the bathrooms or something.

[candothat]

[He wishes there was something that he could say or do that would help, but nothing will. Nothing ever makes it easier. It's just a matter of compartmentalizing and self-deception until there's time to feel.]

I know where there is an empty room. Or it was empty, it hopefully still will be.

[mikangirl]

[It's not something that will traumatise her for life. Nami would far prefer to be able to have this reaction than reach the point of not thinking of them as victims at all. She hesitates at the suggestion, thinking things over. Her other option is to stay out here and find others, and maybe that will draw her out again eventually-- but it's probably wise to at least find a quiet place to get their bearings.]

Well, let's hope for the best. Lead the way.

[candothat]

[That's the spirit! But it still sucks. It'd be nice to be stuck in a soft, comfy universe where space adventures never involve having to kill things.

He takes them down a few quiet corridors--again with more confidence than someone whose arsenal is limited to an umbrella should probably have--and stops at an open door.]

I don't hear anything. Do you?

I'm sorry I may be tired

[mikangirl]

Not so far...

[But she's paranoid enough to lift the staff and shake it slightly; a small bubble lit up drifts off the end, and she blows it into the room.] Give me a moment.

[Let's see if anyone tries to eat it.]

your first tag was so good though

[candothat]

How does it do that?

[The staff, obviously. Not that he should be thinking about the staff and how it works when they're waiting to see if there's anything in the room that's going to try to murder them.

But, judging from the uneaten status of the bubble, it looks safe.]

I wish I'd kept a copy

[mikangirl]

Weather tech.

[She doesn't say anything more until there's been a few long moments of nothing trying to eat it then she sighs, edging into the room, glancing back at him.] At its core, it's chemistry. Create heat, cold, electrical charge, mix according to needs.

[It's science according to One Piece. Don't examine too closely.]

me too ;;

[candothat]

Ah. [Pavel isn't a chemist, but he's pretty sure that's not how it works. He glances down the hall one more time before following her into the room.] For all of the technological advances in my world and time, we have nothing like that.

Of course, we also don't have diseases like the one here, so I'm disinclined to complain about the limitations of my universe.