Digital Collapse [[OPEN]]

[Kaleidosaur]

It wasn't long before the two arrived back at the room Scooter had been in before. Scooter peeked inside, noticing that his mother was still sleeping. He tip-toed into the room and sat down on the bed.
"That's mommy. Don't talk loud though. She's sleeping," Scooter whispered. Annette had been looking at Scooter's mom the instant they entered the room, and she had a slight frown on her face, from what Scooter could tell. She shook her head, seemingly shaking off whatever made her upset.
"Scooter, maybe we should find you something to wear. I think your mom will be sleeping for quite awhile, and we shouldn't disturb her." Annette told Scooter, speaking softly still. Scooter was confused, but he nodded, and hopped off of the bed again.
"I don't want anyone to laugh at me for wearing a dress." he replied, crossing his arms over his chest. Annette walked over to a closet in the corner of the room that Scooter hadn't noticed before, and she opened the door. Sure enough, two dufflebags containing clothes were inside, one for Scooter's mother, and the other for him. Annette noticed that some of the clothes for Scooter seemed like they would better fit a younger boy, so she only took out what she thought might fit him. Scooter took the clothes, then stared at the floor.
"Um..." he started to say, shuffling his position a little.
"Is something wrong?" Annette asked, placing a pair of shoes in front of Scooter's feet.
"I can't do it when you're looking. Turn around and close your eyes." Scooter instructed. Annette smiled softly, then nodded, turning around. It must have been obvious to her by now why Scooter was acting so childish. She closed her eyes and covered them with her hands, letting Scooter get dressed.
"All right. You can look now." Scooter announced. Sure enough, he was fully dressed, including the old running shoes on his feet. Annette smiled and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Let's find somewhere to eat so we don't bother your mother. Maybe somewhere nice outside, hmm?" she asked. Scooter headed to the door without another word, and started to look for a way outside. He felt like he needed some sun right now. He would check behind him every now and then to make sure Annette was still there, and he wasn't alone. Her heels clicked on the hospital floor, but Scooter still wanted to be sure she was really there. After quite a lot of walking, Annette and Scooter had made it down a few floors and near a separate wing of the hospital. Scooter scratched his head in confusion. So far, they'd only found a lot of broken windows and busted doors. There didn't appear to be an exit anywhere near them.
"Is something wrong, Scooter?" Annette asked. She spoke quietly for some reason, and Scooter wondered why she seemed so cautious suddenly.
"I can't find a door outside." Scooter responded, still scratching his head. He took a few more steps and turned a corner, then froze in place. There was a man ahead. A very large man. A stranger. Scooter ran and hid behind the wall again, heart racing. Annette's eyes narrowed as she sneaked over to where Scooter stood. She put her finger to her lips as if to say 'keep quiet', then tried to listen for whatever it was that scared Scooter so much.  

[Little_Gory]

Mega let his mind wander as he allowed his lungs to slow their ragged breathing. He had a song stuck in his head, but he couldn't name it. Nor were the words clear to him, either. Tum-te-tum. Ta-te-ta. Something about... Cigars? La la la... Ugh, this was the absolute worst. He tried to distract himself by concentrating on his breathing. In, out, in, out. In. Out. In... Out... He made a conscious effort to slow it. He watched his chest and belly rise and fall to the rhythm of the small whooshing sound his breath made. He looked further down his body and realized he still wasn't wearing his shoes. One of his toes had been cut by the broken glass on the window, and dark blood was oozing it's way out of the wound just below his toenail. Where were his shoes, anyway...? Oh, there they were. They had managed to cling to him by the knot between their laces until he made his graceful entrance into the building. Now, they lay above his head in a small pile of glass and rubble.
Suddenly, Mega heard something that sounded like a soft voice. He waited, holding his breath until he heard the shuffling of footsteps through debris. His heart jumped. Another cerebyte? He rolled over and scrambled to his shoes. He fumbled to get them on his feet. The cut on his toe complained in protest to being jammed so hard into the confined space, but he ignored it and did up the laces. His heart hammered in his chest as he rose to his feet. His eyes were filled with the static of a headrush, but he didn't stop preparing his defense for the upcoming attack. He whipped out the hunting knife, still wedged securely in his waistband. [[ It was in his waistband, wasn't it? Too lazy to go back and check.... ]] Ready at last, he stood silently, listening as his vision cleared. He couldn't hear a thing. Maybe he had imagined it? Maybe the thing had gotten distracted by a fresh corpse... He decided he would sneak up and try to get the jump on it. He really needed that medicine now, so there would be no absconding. His hand was starting to really look like a mess. And it hurt like a bugger. He could barely close his fingers without it sending a burning pain halfway up to his elbow. He dismissed the pain with a roll of his shoulders, then took a deep breath and began his sneak down the corridor. He tried to move his feet as slowly and quietly as he could, but he was a big guy and the floor creaked under almost every step. He winced every time, but decided since the cerebyte hadn't launched itself at him yet, it was still distracted. His heart fluttered in anticipation as he neared the corner. He would have to be fast.  

[Kaleidosaur]

Annette's eyes narrowed as she heard what sounded like creaks in the floor, coming closer. Scooter watched her for a moment to try and figure out what she was thinking, but he couldn't quite discern it. Gently, Annette guided Scooter by the hand so that he was behind her, then she pressed him closer to the wall, and took one step further. Scooter became more and more nervous with the odd silence that seemed to wash over the hallway. He had no idea why anything that was happening was actually happening, or what any of it even meant. It was frustrating, the more he thought about it. Annette stood closer to the centre of the hallway, and reached into the inside of her pocket for something. She kept her hand there and kept her eyes focused ahead as she took a breath. Scooter's eyes were trained on Annette with utter uncertainty. The boy's wide brown eyes widened, however, when he saw what exactly the woman he trusted had kept stowed away in her jacket pocket. It was a gun. A real gun! Why was she carrying something so dangerous around? What did she plan on doing with it? Was she actually going to kill someone? No matter how scary the man was, Scooter didn't want Annette to kill him. His heart pounded in his chest, and he grasped at the fabric of his shirt as if to block out the sound it made in his ears. Don't kill him. Don't kill him. Don't kill anyone. No, don't kill him! Annette seemed to notice Scooter's gaze, and silently slid her hand back from out of her jacket, the gun slipping soundlessly back to wear it sat before she reached for it. She still kept her eyes forward, but it was as if Scooter's mental pleas had reached her just through his unrelenting stare.  

[Kandaru-chan]

A lone figure stands on a rooftop, partially shrouded in the exhaust coming out of the top of the pipes nearby.

((here comes a new challenger...))
Name: Seifer Ardos
Age: 23
Basic Appearance: Seifer has messy but short black hair, a clean-shaven face, and wears baggy and tattered dress clothing. His pants are light grey and his shirt is a button-up black colour. On top of his clothes, he also wears a greenish-grey tattered cloak which covers most of his body when standing still. He has large bright green eyes and very pale skin.

Seifer shuffles around in the ash that has gathered on the rooftop. He kicks it up and lets it fall around him slowly in the air like snow. CRUNCH he hears in the distance, followed by some muffled cries for help.

"Oh joy. Another one" he mumbles to himself. He shuffles over to the ledge of the rooftop and calmly hops over it, using his teeth to hold onto his cloak as he wrapped it quickly around a nearby pipe. He used the pipe to slide down to safety. He walks a little further and then hears what sounds like a cerebyte's screech. Seifer realizes that to the left of him are the cries for help, and to the right, cerebyte screeching. Not wanting to make a dumb decision, Seifer runs his way quite quickly to the cries for help. After only about 5 minutes, he comes across a mass garbage compactor. He walked his way around it until he found another pipe, and swung his cloak around it and held it in his teeth to climb up. He reached the top and leaped for the top section of the compactor.

Faye turned around and saw a young man with messy but short black hair and a cloak over top his clothes. He had very large bright green eyes and very pale skin, but the most unique factor about him was that he seemed to be lacking any arms.

"Hello to you, young man. I am stuck in this compactor and need to be removed if I am to survive. My foot was crushed and is no longer-" Faye explained her story to Seifer as he slowly walked in circles around Faye's trapped body. Before she could finish, he propped a foot up on her head.

"What do I get out of it?" he asked bluntly.
"I... I could assist you in your travels, if you assist in mine." she replied, finding it hard not to stare at the tied-off sleeves where his arms would be.
"and how do I know you're not just a fancy cerebyte... or worse?" his eyes glinted as he spoke. It was somewhat... eerie.
"I do not have any proof of what I am. I am unsure myself..." Faye said, somehow ignoring the fact that Seifer was now pushing his foot down hard on her. He was quite strong in his legs.
"Normally I would just take what I need at this point, but I've grown tired of using fireflies to attract people." He shook his hip and a lone firefly flew out of the jar on his side. "I figure that using something as... unique... as you, would be far more effective. Fare thee well, Faye." He said as he jumped away from the compactor in the direction of the hospital.

"How did he know my name..?"  

[Little_Gory]

Mega forced his mind to go blank, feeling a shiver of dread run up the back of his neck. Every encounter like this could mean the end of him. He didn't much like the killing part, either. But it was what he had to do to survive. He knew that, he knew it, but it was so hard to accept. Sometimes he thought that one day he would wake up and it would all have been a horrible dream. Just a nightmare. Mama would come into his room to wake him up for school and... Stop. He snapped back to attention and shook the memories of simpler times away. It was now or never.
He sprung from his readied stance and charged around the corner, holding his knife high to - hopefully - induce a surprised reaction from the cerebyte. But what he saw around the corner wasn't a cerebyte at all, but a woman and a young man. He slammed to a stop, grasping the corner by his fingernails to keep him from falling forward. He was so shocked at seeing other survivors that he forgot to lower his knife. He stood and gaped, for a moment wondering if this was just some clever ruse put on by the cerebytes. They were just playing a trick on him. There were probably some down the hall hiding in the rubble laughing at him now... The thought soon evaporated, and left him in thoughtless, blubbering awe.  

[Kaleidosaur]

Annette almost reached into her pocket for the gun again when the large man Scooter had seen was suddenly staring right at her. She kept her eyes locked on him, her stance strong. Scooter retreated down the hall a little with fright. He'd never seen a man so large before, or so dirty. The sight of him from a closer distance almost made him utter a high-pitched squeak. Annette still stood where she was, waiting for the man to attack. If he were a cerebyte, he likely would have by then, so she lowered her guard if only a little. Just because he didn't appear to be a cerebyte, didn't mean he wasn't. Furthermore, even though he may not have been a cerebyte, that didn't mean he was an entirely safe person to be in the presence of. A simple miscalculation could mean death for her and Scooter, so she needed to act cautiously. She started by studying the man's stance. Though he held a weapon, Annette wasn't entirely sure if he would use it once he saw who he was up against. With a short breath, she addressed him in hope that he wasn't a threat like he feared.
"We won't try to hurt you. Lower your weapon." she spoke. Her words were spoken with the softness she'd used toward Scooter, but with a stern undertone that suggested she meant what she said. Scooter watched the two of them ahead of him with wide, unblinking eyes.