[ PRP ] What is your [Mark, Rep ]

[Baneful]

Rep registered Cael later than Mark did, he was too busy being outraged about their small scale activism and was stacking reports in a surly sort of way as Mark still aimed way too high. It was only when he heard Mark refer to himself and Rep as if speaking to someone else that he stopped what he was doing and slowly looked around. He set his mouth in a very thin and what he hoped was a neutral face. It was sort of like staring down a T-Rex, you found yourself going very quiet and still in the hope it wouldn't see or hear you.

But Mark kept talking and he slowly felt his gut twist as he braced for the inevitable snapping point.

Coming to it took him a while to realise that he wasn't just laying on the training fields but instead was in a jungle. Either it was the jungle on Deus and Cael's throwing arm was getting a lot ******** better, or it was a completely different jungle. He wasn't sure which was worse.

Rolling over he let out a groan as his muscles protested and he flexed his shoulders. There were birds, that swayed it probably in the direction of a non-Deus jungle. He hated these places it was always damp and hot and full of plants and bugs and sna-

Like shot he stood bolt upright, sweeping leaves and squishy leaf litter off his coat shivering and trying not to think about the <******** slithery scaly bastards.

His phone couldn't be ignored, it was practically a compulsion at this point, and setting aside his panic, he fished it out to see what it was buzzing about.

 

[Zoobey]

"Alpha one to beta one, answer, over," Mark said on the phone whenever Rep chose to respond to the call request. "Answer, over." The reception was actually fantastic.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Rep made a very pouty sort of face. "Er. Excuse me. I'm the alpha." he said, tetchily.

"But I'm alive, what is it and what the ******** happened?"

 

[Zoobey]

"Fine I can be sigma, whatever," responded Mark just as exasperated. "What happened let me see, right. We went on strike. I changed it so nobody can log in with their e-mail now and I think it worked?"

There was what sounded audibly like gunshots and yelling in the background of the Death Assistant's phone. "We're close to one of the bases that had a tower at least, that's nice. Anyway, since your specialization is extreme terrain anyway and I mean this is like, pretty extreme, can you come save me? Just go towards the base and-"

The call cut off.

There were no flashing lights or giant neon signs or even a GPS to point Rep the right direction, so he would have to do with the next best thing years of tracking and experience in extreme terrain provided: following a trail of very obvious blood dragged through the lowest part of the canopy, leaving a tunnel of destroyed foliage behind, which would make it actually rather pleasant to walk through.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Rep looked at his phone as it cut off with a look of concern. There was the fact that Mark had at least sounded like he might not have been in absolutely imminent danger. Gunshots were one thing but the man had sounded sort of casual about the whole thing.

"Was" Rep said to his silent phone before putting it away. He always ended up in these places no matter what he did, and Mark was probably fine and would be fine without his help. No one actually needed him.

None of this changed the fact he was going to go up there anyway.

He had no idea where he was going at first until he came across the blood, the smell unmistakable to him at this point - it was amazing how used to the tinny smell you got after a good few years at Deus. It wasn't far different from tracking an animal - something he was actually very good at given his many years of hunting on leave - just much, much easier.

Tracey was back he noticed, the fallen angel re-emerging when the adrenaline kicked in back in the office and lingering with keen attention ever since. < very quickly be yours.>>

 

[Zoobey]

It seemed Rep was just exactly step too late; by the time he got to a clearing, which was probably where the camp site had been, everyone was gone.

Had been.

There was now a charred, enormous black crater where anything should have possibly resided. What remained of what was possibly a radio tower was also gone, bits and pieces scattered all directions.

A little further away from the mess was some loose rope and Mark's cellphone. It had no signal, and extremely low battery, buzzing incessantly while asking for some sort of password to unlock it.

Even further away from that radius was a charred black mass of coat that looked a lot like Mark half-buried face down.

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Rep picked through the crater with one hand reflexively extended, ready to summon Tracey if he needed to, completely on guard for anything which could have caused it coming back around for more.

He ignored the cellphone, he ignored everything except the figure of what might have been Mark or another hunter, rapidly hurrying over to them and stooping to touch them.

"Hey!" he said, anxiety brimming over. "You awright?"

 

[Zoobey]

The Death assistant coughed and rolled over, revealing about three other cellphones clutched preciously within his arms. "I-I saved them, my babies."

It was probably best not to tell him he had lost one during the whole fiasco. He checked one of them to see if they still had signal, which it didn't, and then sighed, flopping over to the side as if the charred dirt was some mattress. When that proved to be extremely uncomfortable, he turned to the other side, and looked dramatically right at Rep, coughing a few more times. "What-what day is it today?"

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

Rep let out a breath he didn't know he was holding as Mark rolled over, alive and mostly intact. He checked his own phone at the mention of them, just making sure it was all right. Twitter didn't have any reception here either.

Mark rolling around in the dirt bothered him and he extended a hand vaguely in his direction to help him up if he wanted it. "It's ******** Wednesday, or was before we ended up here. I don't know how long I was out."

 

[Zoobey]

"Oh, so January fourth." For some reason, Mark knew this without checking his cellphone. He checked it however, just to make sure. "Um, it's not like, Boss's birthday is it, I seriously cannot remember why we're here."

Because the bodies, the explosions, and going on strike had nothing to do with any of their predicament obviously.

Behind them, bits and pieces of debris were starting to move, and then slowly coalesce, gather themselves into human-shaped objects before standing fully upright. Their skin melted from charcoal black to regular flesh tones, their eyes took on a burning green, and they were stumbling, very slowly, towards where Mark was.

Baneful

 

[lizbot]

baneful

Text to: -7

Mark's breaking up with you, he's not going to be friends with you anymore. Have a nice life.

 

[Baneful]

"When even is his birthday?" Rep said idly. He might have thought Cael hatched from an egg if he hadn't met that young man in a weird ******** dream world which implied that he'd been a kid once like everyone else. "Or is that another classified mystery like H's name?" Maybe it was his birthday. Maybe he didn't remember either.

Rep's phone buzzed and he shot a glance at it, immediately stricken by the text that had just loaded in his phone like a final spit on this already turning problematic day.

Minus ******** seven.

He didn't want to lose another friend, he had so ******** few these days, maybe three if he counted b0nez and the idea that even Mark was going to leave was actually startlingly upsetting. Of course, he would though, there was no reason why anyone stayed. He was a bad person, a shitty excuse for a human being who couldn't do anything right.

"Dwight says you aren't going to be ma mate any mair." he said, lapsing back into slang and his accent a little more in his dejection, but as he looked back up he noticed the movement and summoned Tracey in a hurried flash of shadows.

"Is that why you came out here?" he said irritably "Behind you." And he put himself between the nearest of the creatures and Mark. "Because you could have just ******** told me and I'd have left you alone."

 

[Zoobey]

"I'm sorry," Mark said dramatically, still not bothering to pick himself up from the floor, "it's true. I should have told you but I was too scared to tell you but I guess I can tell you not that the cat is out of the bag and stuff. I'm no longer doing sexy threesomes with anyone, including you."

Of course they had never had a sexy threesome, but even the possibility of one being wiped was a big deal for Mark.

"I-" a horrific ear-piercing roar interrupted Mark's monologue for a second, "I've always wanted to consider doing a sexy threesome with just us and maybe Lucky, but now Dwight says I can't have lucky either so I guess it's just me and stuff." In between this time several reanimated bodies split further, duplicating, themselves in succession until there were not just tens, but hundreds shambling towards them like a slow stampede. "Maybe I'm just lying to myself, maybe I deserve this."

Baneful

 

[Baneful]

If Rep had one major flaw, it was always taking what people said to him with a large helping of earnestness. There was no reason for his allies to lie to him that he could feasibly see, so when Mark spoke up, he took his comments with deathly seriousness. He didn't hear actual threesome, he didn't hear cheating on Harrison because he'd long ago filed Mark under the same category as B0nez which was that he was someone who talked a big game but like a dog chasing a car wouldn't know what to do if the car stopped and would probably be very upset about it. He heard that Mark didn't want to be his friend any more and that was the thing that mattered.

He turned in the direction of the roar, Tracey on his shoulder. "You wouldn't have ******** me anyway." he said. "That's all talk. I don't think you've ever ******** anyone, and that's fine. Who cares?" He shrugged. "And you don't ******** deserve anything bad, you are an awright guy."

But he was still wounded by the implication as he ran in the direction of the zombies, quite happy to take his pain out on something tangible. "But if you want me to ******** off and no even be your friend then just ******** say it." And there was a crack in his voice as he snarled, paranoia taking over everything else, imagining Mark talking about how ******** stupid he was with Dwight all of the time. "Instead of going behind my back."

 

[Zoobey]

"Well I mean Lucky, me and Caroline were totally going to have a sexy threesome," Mark began, even before Rep finished his tirade, and then suddenly stopped. He managed to sidestep about two zombies before tripping and collapsing to the ground rather helplessly. Why he didn't just summon his weapon or any weapon to fight was beyond anyone.

"What the heck Dwight?" This was loud enough to attract more zombies. "No no no, look here. This is how it all began. Yesterday Caroline, Lucky and I were going to have a sexy threesome. Then I texted Dwight and he got jealous and was like oh you should break up with Lucky cuz I'm angsty and have trust issues, and I was like fine, whatever it was incest anyway but like in the Kylo Ren sort of way you know? And then Dwight was like bro, Rep too, and I was like well what would happen if Lucky died then who would have a backup sexy threesome with me and Caroline but I was like not feeling it so I asked a favour bro to bro, besides I still have Kostya." He paused and brightened visibly, despite two undying gnawing at his ankle. "We're friends now?"

Baneful