Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Lol, Abeline has terrible luck as the undead. ))

Well, that was that, as the fortification defenses took Zombeline down from a distance-- after all, she was probably just going to criticize their plan of spending their time holed up in a shed-- which was all well and good but some day they'd run out of ammo and food and--- and then the unlucky creature was lying on the ground, bleeding out, thinking something poetic about what a world.... and her eyes were dull... lifeless (okay, so they were already dull and lifeless) and thankfully, being undead it didn't hurt so much when Kirin decided to go on a Cranberries toting killing spree.

Zombeline would have protested that something more poetic like Bacht would be more appropriate but.... well, her head now resembled a watermelon after it had been taken to with a baseball bat-- only less juicy and seed-filled.

And so her body was finally resting... in pieces and splattered across the debres strewn grass and Kirin's pipe. At least she could do no more harm to these poor students, which might have upset her in some way before she was their first notch on their survival belt.

Kirin grimaced as Evie broke off to throw up in one of the ditches. He decided against commenting on it, but Evie still received a distinctly cool stare when she returned. At least she was ready to get to business.

Kirin moved to Abeline's legs and crouched down. Another face was made as he touched her skin. Cold, clammy and decidedly very dead - it felt wrong to the touch, and gave even iron-gutted Kirin goosebumps. "On three," he said to Evie. "Here's hoping nothing falls off. One... two... three."

They heaved and moved the corpse further out away from the hut and its defenses. When they'd reached the designated staking area, Kirin unceremoniously dumped his end of the zombie corpse. He reached for his stake. Ugh, here came the gruesome part. He should have looked for a hammer to get this in properly... "No regrets now," he muttered, and thrust the sharped stake down into the zombie's chest. There was significant resistance - squelching of dead flesh and organs, a soul-jarring grinding of stake against bone. Kirin used his weight to drive the stake into the ground beneath Abeline. When he stood up, he was looking rather green himself.

"Let's head back," he told Evie. He brushed loose hair back from his face, pointedly ignoring the blood and zombie bits splattered over him, his icy facade daring anyone to do less.

Sue kept a very, very sharp eye to the north once Arastoo made his entrance. He'd known that the zombie would be coming, but that didn't mean he was at ease with the situation. The only good greenie was one that didn't have any chance of trying to follow up on their hunger, in Sue's mind - and once all the rest were taken care of, any zombie "friends" that they made were going to have to turn on them as their only food source. The alliance they struck up today might be mutually beneficial for now, but later, it would cause issues.

However. They really really needed it now. And so long as Ara kept his distance from the barricades and the people that belonged in them, he could be tolerated.

"Kirin," Sue rumbled once the pair had gotten back. "... You did good." As well as Sue could have hoped for, really. Kirin took the chore like a trip to the goddamned amusement park, made sure everything got done just the way it was planned to be. Brains, beauty, and the will to do what needed to be done... ********. Maybe if they managed to live through all this, Sue would have to buy her some chocolates or something.

A few beats later, Sue added; "You too, Evie." With nominally less enthusiasm than he'd said the first, of course, but hey - the fact that it was Evie, and he'd said anything at all, said something big. Sue didn't like to waste praise, but in situations like these, people needed it - even the loudmouths he hadn't necessarily always liked.

The commotion outside had brought more than the brain dead and brain starved. Lumbering out into the yard, (and it really was lumbering too -- her muscles didn't feel right,) Mackenzie quirked an eyebrow as a particularly rabid zombie darted past her, a curious and mildly amused expression painting her slowly-greening face. It was such a different sensation, not having to worry about zombies come and try to literally eat your a** off while you had your back turned. Surreal, almost, although that might have just been her liver imploding on itself (she always knew that would be the first to go.)

Hm. To go see what all the fuss was about? Or not?

With all it's 'perks,' she couldn't say being a zombie wasn't without its drawbacks. Nibbling on her fallen zombie 'comrads' wasn't very satisfying, to say the least. No, she certainly craved fresh meat, and she really, REALLY wished she meant a cheeseburger. She wasn't to the point of being driven mad with hunger, clawing through doors and people with weapons to get at fresh meat, but she could certainly see how they would get there. A scary thought, coming from someone who had not a few days ago been smashing zombie skulls in with her baseball bat. Empathy for zombie kind = not good. At any rate, the brunette pondered the situation with a quasi-serious look, emaciated fingers stroking her chin with interest. Had she only had a bubble pipe and brown coat, she would have fit the part perfectly for some hilariously-bad mystery novel.

On one side, there were probably people over there. Dead people. Recently dead people. People she could nibble on. On the other side, there were people over there. Live people. People she cou-- no, bad zombie, bad!

Grinning from ear to ear, (perhaps in a 'less than all there' way,) Mack locked her fingers together behind her back in a pseudo-innocent pose, following the zombie hoards towards its source, stopping at the edge of the giant trench of nasty-looking chemicals. On the other side, her green eyes scanned the area, her grin broadening when she noticed some familiar faces. Why, if it wasn't Team Tallahassee and Team Columbus!

"Looks like you guys have quite a party going," She called in a teasing tone across the trench of chemicals, eying it suspiciously but not without the obviously-impressed grin.

He paused, finding himself to take immediate action at Sue's command. There was a zombie, it was to the west, yes, but it was Mackenzie. Even Sue knew her name, used her name. It threw him off whatever zombie-killing groove he had managed to work himself into. His gaze shifted from Mackenzie, and instead to Sue, staring solidly at his friend for a few seconds, even as Sue launched his own attack on the zombie. Were they really going to do this?

What if Zeke came back? Would they throw rocks at him too? It seemed... disgraceful to what memories they had of their friends. Couldn't their death be... beautiful? This was ugly. This was really, really ugly. Yahya didn't want to, he really didn't. Sue knew this, right?

Yahya shook his head, even as he bent down to pick up a hefty-sized rock. He had to attack. Sue was attacking, and Yahya always followed in his footsteps. It was slowly being ingrained into his brain, to repeat Sue's action. Much like a military soldier, he followed the orders of his commander without fail. With hesitation? Yes. But, in the end, he did it. He always did it.

"I'm sorry!" Maybe if he felt genuinely sorry he wouldn't be throwing a rock at her head, but some part of him still felt guilt, felt like he was doing some great wrong as he lifted the rock and aimed at her head. Later he'd figure out how to cope with his guilt, later when this was all said and done, and if he survived, he'd have to come face to face with the facts that he was attacking people he knew, people who couldn't help but be what they were. If he'd be able to cope with it at all was... uncertain.

Adrenaline rushed through Joanne's limbs, the stiffness of days past lost now in the intensity of the situation. They may not have been surrounded or in a real pinch, but it felt like they were. From what she understood, this was their only chance to make it out alive. That was enough to make anyone antsy.

She was determined to make up for her previous failure. Determined to show them that they didn't make a mistake by taking her in. Joanne picked up the brick she had dropped before. She didn't know the girl in question this time, so the pangs of remorse she felt were small enough to push aside. She was doing them a favor. They were already dead. She was just helping remind them of that fact. She inhaled, aimed, and threw the brick as hard as she could.

Joanne didn't like lies, but repeating them to herself was the only way she was going to make it out alive.

'Take out Mackenzie!'

"Uh wuh?"

In a true show of absentmindedness, Mack's jaw went slack, her eyebrows furrowing with the utmost confusion as Sue's rock flew towards her, pelting her smack dab right in the stomach, sending her reeling backwards a little, completely shocked, although she knew in the back of her mind she shouldn't have been. Hey, this wasn't fair! She had only wanted to talk! Well, maybe take a nibble, but it would have just been a TINY nibble! Very tiny! No actual HARM would have come to them, and now look, they were throwing rocks and s**t at her! What the ******** was that, a tin can? And there went a shoe! Ok, well that one was kind of silly, but the tin can could have given her tetanus or something!

"s**t!"

Barely avoiding another rock as it came hurtling down at her, Micky lurched back, rubbing her arm where Yahya's rock had grazed her, tearing off a patch of skin. It didn't bleed of course, but she was surprised that it did ache a little. Surprisingly, she felt a little swell of pride at how valiantly both her old team and her old friends were fighting, even if it was against her. The human part of her, the part that was sadly very likely to die out sooner rather than later, wanted to cheer them on, yell encouragements. A smash to her shoulder (courtesy of Evie's throw -- nice arm girl! Ever thought about softball?) brought her back to reality, and she winced, trying to fend off the attack.

"Hey! HEY! OW! What the ******** hells are you-- OUCH! I didn't even bite you yet for ******** sake, stop the attack! How did that thing go? Let ye who is without zombie bite cast the fir... wait, no, don't listen to tha--"

The sound of rock smashing into Mackenzie's skull filled the air, her eyes widening unnaturally, and she lurched forward a little, as if about to throw up. Instead, she merely collapsed, twitching violently, the blow having effectively disabled practically all function of her brain.