RPApocalypse {M ~ IC} (H)

[CrumpetCannon]

I stared, positively flabbergasted (God I love that word) at the scene playing out before me, namely the massive fuckin' bus coming close to being rammed bonnet first into a nearby tree, before a guy with a fedora charged out to promptly utter the single worst joke I'd ever heard.

I groaned. Loudly.

"Ohh, we certainly know how to pick 'em. For all our sakes, we'd better hope none of the Shadow's bestial puppets heard you driving that thing through here"

My instincts as a group scavenger kicked in and I was forced to acknowledge one thing. While there was strength in numbers and we could certainly use the help... More mouths to feed.

I didnt get up from beside the stew pot, but I did turn to face Soul, a new idea springing excitedly across my mind.

"Tinned food, hm? By any chance do you have any..." I leaned forward like a dog sighting a particularly choice bone. "... Vegetables?"

One could dream.

[Gillykat]

Gillie walked over to them,yawning. She had a knife at her side."Hey."she called out."Room for one more?"

[Craze]

I kicked a rock and watched it stumble across the forest path. It was cold outside, but not as cold as it was last night. I had another restless night, switching sides all the time. Eventually, around 5 in the morning, I decided to get up and go for a walk.

I know. Not the smartest thing to do during an Apocalypse. Not to mention I had nothing to defend myself with, what was I thinking? After a while, I had decided to turn back for our settlement instead. Not that I was that essential to the group, I just didn't feel much for dying.

"Well..." I said, after I walked into the group. "There I was, thinking I was up early." I smiled and rubbed my temples. "New guy?" I asked with a nod towards SoulReaper.

[The Cockatiel]

Tiel heard something utterly inexplicable and stopped walking. A bus? Who in their right mind would be driving any kind of vehicle out here? Then again, who in their right mind would be here in the first place? Although, they didn't really have a choice. She didn't really have a choice. It wasn't like gaming, where you could pull out or restart or grab a different character off a roster. Shouldering her rifle, the stock fitting comfortably in her cupped hand, she rested her other hand on the handle of her makeshift knife and started walking toward where it sounded like the bus had stopped. The knife wasn't really a knife, just a jagged piece of metal duct taped to a slender piece of broken cinderblock. As she got closer, she thought she heard voices. Which was also very weird, because unless those alien-demon-things could talk in English (and some very weird English at that) she hadn't thought there were people around here. Unless, perhaps, she thought in dry humor as she heard a joke, they mean to kill us with their comedy. Lowering her rifle so she could shoot, or stab, anything that attacked her, she quietly advanced toward the camp and saw real people. Backing up a little so she wouldn't spring at them unawares, she approached with an, "Ahoy the camp!", her rifle back on her shoulder. The bayonet gleamed slightly, since she'd made sure to keep it polished, but the rest of her looked as patched-together as her knife. T-shirt ripped at the shoulders and waist, knee length cut-off jeans, ragtag sneakers, and the seatbelt from a plane instead of a normal belt, buckled over her shirt.

[Oren]

Before I could shake Soul Reaper's hand a multitude of things happened. First, a bus that somehow still had gas and worked had been driven through most of a forest and parked right by our campfire. Secondly, another new survivor showed up out of nowhere armed with a rifle and I think a bayonet on it. I momentarily face-palmed at the current situation and the recently told joke as I tried to quickly think about how to handle all of this.

"Yeah, he's new. Craze, SoulReaper. SoulReaper, Craze. How about you two go and grab the canned stuff that SoulReaper has and bring it back. Grab a knife or something just so that you're armed and be careful."

I turned towards Crumpet

"Hey, we may need a bit more food than that. You can cook up some of whatever Reaper's got when he and Crumpet get back. Also yes, some veggies would be nice for once."

I then turn towards the Bayonet chick.

"Hi. Welcome to our camp. Please don't shoot us or be stupid. Have a seat, some food, and we can exchange name's and what not when I get my head screwed on strait."

I glanced over at Gilly.

"Good morning Gilly."

I then finally focus my attention on Bus Guy.

"Okay, you, dude. First off, why the hell did you drive a bus through a large forest to our camp where you could have very easily been tracked by Hyenas, Lizards, and who the hell knows what so that within minutes we could all be very swiftly torn to shreds. Secondly, where the hell did you get a bus!?"

I inwardly heaved a deep sigh

I was wrong. It's going to be a lloooonng day

[Wobbles]

My head felt like an automatic machine gun. This way! No, that way! Here! There! Nope, nope go over HERE now!

A bus, bang, took out my favorite tree. I liked that tree! I almost took my sword to the driver, but another person showed up. Apparently I was the greeter - Kurls' salutation was, eh, a bit, not ME enough. So I approached her and grinned.

"Heya. What's your name? I'm Spidey." I turned for a second as Craze entered camp. "Look what the duck dragged in!" I called, before turning back to the newcomer. "Busy morning. Never had this many people show up in one day!" I gave a short nod and returned to the small circle gathered around the fire. I sighed heavily.

"I'll go with 'em," I said to Kurls. "I'm stronger than I look!" With that, I spun again and marched off towards Soul and Craze. The mist was finally beginning to clear, and I gave a small shiver. It was still cold. "Let's get moving."

[The Cockatiel]

"Shall I accompany you or stay here?" Tiel asked. Kurls' greeting had irritated her somewhat - as if she was going to shoot someone! - but she didn't really blame him. He didn't know who he was dealing with yet. "And I have a few extra weapons back at, well, I guess you could call it my base. It's a basement, actually, so that would be a fairly accurate description. My name's Tiel, by the way," she added.

[Oren]

I nodded at Spidey in confirmation for them to go. Still waiting for the explanation for the bus, I turned toward Tiel with an apologetic expression.

"Sorry, Tiel right? It's just a bunch of things suddenly happened so I'm a bit off right now. I'm Mane, or Kurls, which ever you prefer. If you don't mind to wait here for awhile, once Spidey and the others get back I can go with you to collect you weapons. Until then I guess just wait for the food to be done. Or help me figure out what the hell I'm going to do about this bus."

I turned back to the bus, looking it over and humming a bass line and beat-boxing to it as I thought.

Well, on the bright side, at least now we have transport for everyone in case of emergencies.

[Wobbles]

The Quexilaka hissed at his monitor. More of the insolent man-beasts. "I thought the last Boral raid would teach them," he growled to his superior. His accents were sharp, quick. He blinked, the constant flow of blue momentarily cut off. The taller, standing Quexilaka glared down at him. The upwards flowing blue turned a shade deeper, and he let out a disapproving cluck.

"Fix it, Zadra. You seemed to have successfully multiplied them. Our audience grows restless."

He turned on his heel and walked to the opposite side of the room and flipped a switch. Hundreds of holograms popped up, each showing a forest scene. Several contained 'man-beasts.' A fire crackled in one, where a tallish man was crouched, stirring some liquid in a bowl.

"What do you propose we do about it, Eder?" Zadra asked. Eder cocked his head, then stretched his purple features into a grin.

"I do think we have some hungry pets."

Zadra smiled and turned back to his control panel. "I shall test the Losal on them."

~*~*~*~

The earth shifted as if parted by a great hand under it, and a blur of beige shot from the newly formed hole. It paused, raising its unearthly blue eyes to the sky and sniffing, then let out a guttural scream and bolted to the right. The thing was as slim as a starved child, with nasty sharp teeth gnashing and drooling everywhere. It smelled flesh. And smoke. And fire...where there was fire there was humans. Where there was humans, there was food.

Food, of course, being the humans.

It screamed again and continued to run towards its target. It was almost there, but there was this big - yellow - thing? It hissed at, then swiped at it was a claw, ripping a chunk of the metal out. With a pleasured screech he tore savagely at the metal, going straight through the bus, leather seats and all, before bursting out the other side.

Mmm... humans.

[CrumpetCannon]

I whirled around at the sound of screeching metal, seeing the terrifying creature rend solid metal and durable upholstery apart with naught but its claws and apparently the sheer motivation of its insatiable hunger, I suddenly felt a bit humbled about my craving for vegetables.
But then I remembered this thing was likely not just passing through our camp to pick some juicy berries, it was very likely, nay, a certainty that this creature wanted to eat us. I was always good at the art of deduction.

I scrambled away as best I could from my crouching position near the stew pot, striving to put as much distance as possible between me and this bipedal nightmare weasel. The only available weapon was this tiny little knife and the boiling water in the pot, and as appealing as the prospect of unloading the pot's contents upon the creature's head was, sustaining food was a rarity in the apocalypse, and I'd rather not waste this flavourless concoction on such a relatively small fry Shadow puppet.

"Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit" I back pedalled wildly, swinging my arms in ridiculous flailing motions, as if they could keep the damn thing away. "Monster in the bus! Someone shoo it away!"