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It was a incredibly risky move to confront the Harbingers on their own turf. but with the rumors about a potential weapon that could defeat the undying, Aaran could see why it was hard to ignore such a thing. Plus they could get vital supplies if they tried hard enough.

But it became apparent that they were severely outmatched, and no sooner had they amassed at the edge of the zone had they lobbed grenades at them, gunfire soon following.

He had been thrown back by the initial explosions, feeling something burst in his ear but not enough time to stop and think what happened. His ears ringing painfully, he ran to hide behind a few cement blocks before a ear piercing wail silenced everything, the few undying shambling away towards the sound.

Aaron sighed, holding his aching head. Everything sounded distant and quiet. He must have busted his eardrums.

Broken jaw. Difficulty speaking. Swollen tongue.

She had only been here because she had to be here--everyone who could come had been told to come. This was a matter of, quite literally, life and death. She was willing to jump into the fray when told to, that was her nature. That her security was threatened was only extra incentive.

This type of skirmish, with hoards of desperate violent people, guns, and flailing fists, treated no one well, but especially not a woman closer to fifty than forty who had never done anything more than laundry before Day Zero and who didn't have the heart to hurt anyone. She wasn't sure which faction had done it, wasn't sure it wasn't someone from her own faction with bad aim, eyes, or memory, but one moment she was trying to fend people off--to just survive--and the next she was doubled over, clutching her face. There was blood in her mouth and she knew that she had bitten her tongue. Trying to probe gently in the turmoil, she couldn't do much without eliciting intense pain. She was almost certain her jaw was broken.

The best she could do was to use her arms to shield her face as she tried to get somewhere where she wouldn't sustain additional injuries. While she moved, she probed at the inside of her mouth with her tongue even though it was quickly swelling up. Most things seemed to be in the right place, but her jaw felt crooked, off center.

She eventually found a place to crouch down and hide, not standing up again until the cease fire stopped the fighting.

Wataru had hung back. He was very good at hanging back, after all, and awful at fighting.

Of course, this wasn't necessarily the smartest decision. Everyone had been whipped up into a frenzy, and Wataru hadn't counted on the fact that in a fight, people didn't necessarily look where they were going. Sure: no one else with an umbrella wanted to hurt him at all. But they also needed to go places, and quickly, and Wataru was just kind of in the way.

So he'd been whacked in the back by someone's stray umbrella, and he hadn't really been looking in front of him. Where had Renita gone? Lenny? Oscar? ...Sawyer?

He didn't know. They'd all just run off.

Of course, he hadn't really expected them to be able to stick together, let alone try. But now he'd been smacked painfully in the forehead. He crawled to the side and waited for something to happen.

A ceasefire. Bless, he thought fiercely, even though he hadn't been online in a bout thirty days. Anything that meant violence was stopping was great in his book, though. He could...he could start looking for people. Where had his umbrella gone? He fumbled for it, and picked it up as though it was a shield. It kind of was: it let other current residents of the apartments identify him. White with a big pink flower. Recognizable.

It was looking a little more dirty than when he'd last seen it, though. ********. Well, that didn't matter.

She wasn’t entirely sure where she was. Off the battle field, out of the chaos, that was certain. It had been chaos. It reminded her of the day after…or the day after that. Only closer, more crowded, more explosive. Her ears were still ringing. Gently, Autumn shook her head. It hurt. She must have conked it pretty hard, seeing as she’d broken something in there. That was the only explanation for the loss of sight.

Autumn blinked again, and again, and again. She kept hoping that this time something would be different. Something would change. But it didn’t.

She remembered very vividly the last thing she’d seen. It had been the sight of faces in terror. She remembered the eyes, mostly, wide and afraid. The battle, the chaos, and then nothing but the ringing in her ears and the pain in her head.

It shouldn’t have even been a battle. That didn’t matter. None of it did. All that mattered was that they had survived, or well, most of them. Autumn wondered where Joy Ann was. And Shaun. She hoped they were ok.

Her jaw clenched in pain and frustration. She wanted to care about her friends, she wanted to worry. But she was scared, more scared than she had been that first night all alone. That first night the unknown had been a huge factor. This time…. Autumn knew what was out there. She also knew she was pretty much useless in her current state. She was going to die. None of her training mattered, none of her efforts.

With a sigh, Autumn put her head in her hands. That alone stopped her hands shaking, but it didn’t ease the pain in her head. Or help her sight return.

Water seemed to be in short supply; July hadn't had much to drink in the last few nights. He felt bad enough to begin with, but had been eager to explore the zone for a chance to scavenge even for a partially drank bottle...anything would have been great at that point. He didn't want to worry Jay much, so really he hadn't said anything. Swallowing past the dry lump in his throat, he felt a sense of dread overcome him. What if the exploration yielded nothing? Think positively. July tried to remind himself. Despairing would lead to panic.

Rubbing his neck tiredly, he had gone silent as the snipes came into view. The resulting chaos was horrible; it was more like everyone for themselves. As close as he stuck to his husband it didn't do him much good when he hit the ground, having been knocked over as people screamed and tried to avoid the oncoming bullets. Someone not far from him had been shot, the smell of blood made him pale, feeling ill. At some point, he was stepped on, kicked even at one point resulting in a light hairpin fracture. All he knew was it hurt. Badly. He felt a twinge of pain run up his right leg, screaming at the white hot pain racing through his body. He covered his mouth past the yelp, as he grabbed with his other hand for his leg and pulled it close. Wincing he held it for a moment cringing at the dark angry bruise already forming. Even stretching his ankle hurt, and running was out of the question.

July looked around wildly for both his husband, he remembered screaming his name. ”Jay?” He called out, pulling himself to a stand as he winced gingerly hobbling a step or two and finding it was more difficult than he’d given it credit. Bad timing considering every hand that could be spared would be needed to further their chances at survival. He felt uneasy, resisting the urge to chew on a fingernail.

While he searched for the other in the immediate area, July also looked around him too see if anyone else might need help. They might have had their given factions, but those living were at risk. In the chaos, it was certain a variety of injuries had come from it. His eyes rounded with nervous fear as he licked his dry lips a few times to try and keep himself from panicking.

The sky was still grey as the noise of screaming bullets pierced through the air, the sound of something heavy hitting the ground as another returned a moan of pain. The smell of iron from blood filled the air as voices grew louder than they had before, people shifted as some surged forward to the gate while others moved to separate searching for their own group. Something dark from above landed on the ground as people turned shoving and pushing before an explosion erupted. The air, the heat and the colliding force of another body sent Harper tumbling into the ground. Her ears ringing as her body screamed from pain of glass and pavement scraped and bashed into her body, she didn’t move. For a few minutes she stayed there as the feeling of something wet started to seep though her clothes. It was warm but it didn’t take long for it to cool off, clinging in its sticky nature as Harper finally opened her eyes. Red, she took her hands and tried to rub her face but stones and shards of glass scratched deeper leaving her rubbing her eyes into her sleeves. People were still running around, others screaming, she stared at the blood on her hands, on the ground as a wound from her leg dripped at a steady pace. Someone for a moment stood in front of her, he looked at her before crumpling to the ground, and it wasn’t until afterwards Harper realized the sound of something like a bullet tearing into clothes and flesh.

Scrambling to her knees she crawled over to him, shaking him as her head started to spin. “Come on, get up we have to meet, we have to…” He rolled over looking at her for a moment before scrambling to his own feet. Holding out a hand he helped her up before running off into another direction, somewhere a voice yelled. Maybe it was familiar she couldn’t tell anymore, blood kept dripping down near her eye as she tried to walk forward. There were more bodies, moving ones coming to the wall, Harper tried to move faster but she couldn’t get her legs to work like she wanted to.

A wail pierced through the air, as everyone grew silent. They left, or at least that was what she could gather from others, her mind living in a fog. Soon the gate open a white flag waved in the sky.

[ 9. Blood loss. Blood loss from wounds. Fatigue, dizziness, difficulty carrying out actions. ]

Well, it had all seemed like going out towards the area deemed Zone One had some promise to it. It seemed inhabited by bandits, which didn't seem very good actually, but there had been rumors around the Apartments about some sort of something that could help with the infection that had caused this whole mess in the first place. Promising.

It didn't seem to go so well. The gunfire was so very loud and frightening, causing her to freeze in place at first, clutching her umbrella close. This was not the sort of thing to bring into a gunfight, she thought to herself. (And thank goodness she hadn't allowed Duchess Dirtypaws to follow her out this time!) But some kind soul managed to grab hold of her and pull her back behind some remaining bits of awning. Just in time too, because they were bombarded by grenades and overwhelmed by more gunshots. Things went flying, it got so very dusty. There were more bodies on the streets, more than she had seen initially enter the area. Some of them looked so terrible, like they were aching to attack them just for being ... them. There just seemed to be something... so off with them.

A shot rang just over her shoulder, causing the air to whistle just slightly in her ear. A body dropped and one of the bandits - because he didn't look like any of her own people - gave her a nod and tried to push her back towards some cover. Was it because she was old? Well, she wondered if this was the proper time to try to see if she was battle ready. Oh goodness, there was just a whirl of activity, it was hard to tell what to do really. They went on, disposing of sick looking individuals as Juliette held onto her umbrella.

Juliette joined with the others as the truce rang out and sat upon the pavement, huddled as close as she could with those familiar. Someone pointed out the blood on her shirt and it was then that realization had dawned on her that she had been struck at some point. A bullet? Debris? She suddenly felt very dizzy and a hand pressed against her side and her leg, trying to stop the bleeding. Her body felt heavy and swayed until it slumped over on another someone else - she didn't know who. It was hard to tell with her head whirling.

When she finally came too, well a little, she heard a voice filling her in on what had transpired with the Commodore, the other leaders and the bandits. All she could do was nod. Tasks. Okay....

She didn't remember when her head hit the ground. O maybe it wasn't the ground. Maybe it had been someone in the crowd. Maybe it was an Undying for all she knew. Her head rang and, worse, when she tried to open her mouth, something angry and white shot through her nerves and made the teen whimper and tear up immediately.

Survive. That's all Fantasia remembered thinking in the chaos. Deer frozen in the headlights until something slammed against her face. Useless. Running and running and barely paying attention to who was shoved away or down or jumped over or anything beyond her immediate path forward. And now...here. Another wild card, worse than the Junkyard.

She bristled as the nurse looked her over, instincts screaming for her to get out and find someone familiar. And she would, eventually. Time and time and time was needed first. And then, something not useless had to be done. They needed those weapons. She did. Even though Fantasia knew a firearm or anything sharp in her hands wouldn't prove the safest.

But then, safety no longer existed.