Welcome to Gaia! ::

Kirin pushed away the urge to throw a sarcastic salute at the four leaving members of the team. This situation was throwing him off his balance. "Don't die out there," came the flat send-off. Oh yes, all hearts and flowers, Kirin was.

"So, get some more weapons from in here?" he repeated, eyes wandering around the classroom. "Stay off your feet and rest up," he advised Jess. "If they find some crutches, you'll be in good shape to hit the kitchens."

The idea of the home ec rooms was almost enough to make Kirin drool. Not, however, over the potential food. No, Kirin was dreaming of butcher knives, carving knives, meat cleavers...

Heading over to the black board, Kirin scrounged a giant wooden ruler. Dusting chalk dust off, he examined the end critically. "Shame we can't whittle it down to a point... wait, wrong horror movie." He pulled a face and tossed it down the room to Jess. "Catch!"

He kept looking. "Chalk pointer..." Another block of wood, but this time one end was metal, with chalk inserted. Pulling out the stick of chalk left a not-too-shabby poking implement. "Could take an eye out," he grudgingly approved. Again, tossed down to Jess. "Catch! Guess you get to run the weapon stockpile."

Jumping up and down a little, Kirin continued hunting through the room. He need something to do, and if this was all he could do right now, then it was getting all of his energy - and after the stressful night they'd had, he had quite a bit of adrenaline-fueled energy built up.

Kirin was too relieved to have something to do to mind being used as Jess' arms and legs. And even if he'd noticed at all, it was only his fault for telling her not to get up.

He obliged by making his way over to the teacher's desk and rummaging through the drawers. There was indeed a compass. Not to be thrown, though, so Kirin placed it on the desk until he was finished. Pens, pens, ruler, sticky note... Helloooo suspicious metal flask.

"It would appear our teachers were less than stellar paragons of virtue," Kirin sniped, holding up the object for the others to see. Unscrewing the lid, he took a delicate sniff and immediately pulled a face. "Let's not tell Andeon about this, shall we? Sober is such a new look for him, I wouldn't want to ruin it." The flask was slipped into the deep pocket of Kirin's sleep pants. It could be useful as a disinfectant later. And no one needed a drunk lech in the middle of a crisis.

Kirin didn't discover anything else of use, so he brought the compass back to Jess, picking up the vase along the way. Handing the items over, he stood back to see what she had in mind.

"And fleeing campus after letting half the student population die in a fire has me convinced they would be nominated for Sainthood," Kirin said, voice high and mocking. He gave a snort. "How the hell did we ever think we were getting a good deal out of this school?"

Strange. He knew he'd joined for the specialist computer courses, and full room and board provided. But he didn't remember making that decision, or discussing it with his grandfather (ie. telling his grandfather was Kirin was planning, then shooting down any objections and doing exactly what Kirin wanted anyway).

"Good idea," Kirin said when Jess mentioned making torches. "In case they turn all the power off. Hopefully they won't, but luck hasn't been on our side so far." Kirin really did hope the lights stayed on, at least. Zombies prowling a pitch-dark campus wasn't anything Kirin wanted to see outside of a movie.

He winced slightly as Jess smashed the vase to pieces. "Don't make me tear up my pants again," he glared as he eyed the blood welling on her fingers. "I look ridiculous enough with one side ankle-length and the other knee-length."

Turning away, Kirin began checking the chairs. He rocked them back and forth, searching for ones with loose legs. Those metal pipe-legs would make nice makeshift bats, even with the bends in them.

"Anything else you like the look of?" he called back to Jess.

The last few hours were a blurry mass of sounds and lights in Ara’s mind. It could have been minutes or days, for all that matter; the fact still stood that he wasn’t quite himself anymore, and his rational mind had lost a lot of control over his body and thoughts. And currently, his body was asking for food, the very same way he craved meat during that premonitory dream several days ago, or the improvised breakfast. The first occurrence was easy to dismiss because it was all a dream, and he didn’t have any qualms about eating almost raw meat as it would have been ridiculous to take such a nightmare seriously. This night was not the same, however, because he couldn’t wake up, no matter how badly he wanted to. And he couldn't even control his body long enough to end this hunger absurd travesty and end his (after)life for food good.

So here he was, wandering, looking for food answer, because he was so hungry confused about the total lack of flesh sense of that whole thing.
Wearing only a large T-shirt and shorts that have seen better days, he stopped briefly to hold his head between his claws. Stop that. Focus. Think about anything but food, or something extraordinarily, epicly bad might happen. In case of doubt, Fibonacci. 1 1 2 3 5 ate8 13 21…
The redhead dragged his feet aimlessly in the dark and empty hall. It was much easier to forget you weren’t quite human anymore this way.
Light in the home economics class room. Noise. Human speech? He stopped on his track, and almost directed by his new instincts, walked quickly towards the door, and took a look inside, the human part of his brain hoping he could find someone to help him.
Ara had quite a surprise.

Good: it’s Kirin! She’s completely alive! And she’s with survivors!
Bad: they’re looking for weapons.
Worst: he’d turned into a zombie and was currently thinking how Kirin and that girl looked delicious.

He should be just crowned king of Awkwardland at this point, because he had no idea how to make the whole thing even more awful. While a look of silent horror appeared on his green face, he hoped he hadn’t exhausted his deaths quota already.

It was the crash that alerted Lucy that there was meat to be had.

"Out of my way..." she rumbled, baring her teeth at the other zombie. She was going to get that meat. She was so hungry, so very hungry, and she knew there was at least someone in there. She didn't care if this new guy helped her or not, she was going to get in.

The sound of something heavy and meaty hitting the door was the first thing to alert the remainder of Team Tallahassee that something else was out there, followed by a low, deep wail of frustration. "Let me innn..." She half growled, the sound rising in pitch as the statement went on.

The sound of human nails tearing across the wooden door filled Team Tallahassee's safe house, Lucy clawing at the door, all rational having abandoned her long before this. Even as a person, she had been over-emotional and didn't often listen to reason. As a zombie it had only multiplied tenfold, the trauma of experiencing death rattling her poor fifteen year old mind. Clutching the doorknob, she rattled it roughly, snarling, ignoring the shards of glass and wood sticking out of her face and chest cavity.

"LET ME IN!"

(In similar fashion, 'm rolling to see if she got the door open, unless you guys say it's ok that it opens without a roll. To make it fair, anything under... 30? gets the door open. Anything over and it doesn't.)

EDIT

Wait, they're still in the math room/Team Tallahassee base, right? ;;;

(( Yup, still in maths room / base. ))

Kirin caught the sound of approaching footsteps at the door. "What'd you do, teleport there and back?" he snarked, turning to face... not Andeon and company. Ara, in fact. A very dead Ara. "Oh."

Crap. This was the part where Kirin was meant to attack Ara. Only it wasn't quite happening. It wasn't like Kirin was going to let Ara eat him alive or anything. It was just that Ara seemed as stunned to see Kirin as Kirin was to see Ara. It was a little hard to answer that with a blow to the face. Just a little.

Still, holding onto the metal leg of a wobbly chair, Kirin jerked back in shock when a crazed zombie-Lucy joined the party. Swearing, Kirin fell backwards. The leg came with him, finally detaching from the chair.

Kirin didn't have any problems with attacking Lucy. His rival was out of control, and gunning for brains. For Jess' brains, since the girl was closest to the door. Kirin didn't like that. Hopefully Lucy's brain was still working in a close-to-usual manner and Kirin would be able to distract her as easily as he always did.

"My, my, little Lucy," Kirin spoke coolly, rising to his feet and pretending that fall had never occurred, "you really have let yourself go. Do share your makeup secrets? So I can avoid going around with green skin, of course."

To follow up getting his b***h digs in, Kirin ran forward and swung his new metal weapon at Lucy's suddenly-not-so-perfectly-groomed head.

((I am so sorry I'm late on responding! It's been finals week, and I've been swamped. ;^; ))

Once inside the room, Evie had been content to just let the other older student plan and plot, sitting towards the back in a corner with her encyclopedia and the broom gifted to her by Mackenzie and doing her best not to hyperventilate. She was vaguely aware of the others in the room, that they were talking about something or other and moving about, but all in all she was still too shell-shocked, her eyes looking to nowhere in particular with a glazed expression on her face.

She'd been in such a panic before that Evie had yet to realize the full magnitude of the situation, but it was all starting to come to her now. There had been a fire, and people were dead. Most of campus, probably. That meant Trace and Mason and Serenade and Aggie and Fallon and everyone else who wasn't there. Were there other survivors? Could she take the chance of assuming that? There was Kirin, at least. Evie had her. But there was the whole cast of the play, and the people in Leprosy house, and all those people that she'd never even gotten the chance to know...

In her own little reprieve, Evie mourned, sobbing to herself.

She was, however, broken from her moment of solemnity by the sound of a hellish yowl from outside the door, a voice that might have once been human calling for them. Feeling like she was in some sick version of the three little pigs, she wobbled back a step, the broom tightly clasped between two shaking hands. Evie felt no need for a sense of honor or courage on the battlefield. She was fifteen, and scared, damnit, and she wanted nothing more than to go home and hug her mom and cry. She watched from afar as the female monster attacked their door, whimpering with every crack of splintering wood, then outright shrieked when she saw another monster attack the first. H-had that been Arastoo?

Suddenly, the corner didn't feel so safe, all alone when the others were standing their ground. She wasn't crazy enough to play the hero (that's what the men were for, after all), but she at least scooted forward with her encyclopedia and broom, clasping to them for dear life as she took a position behind the others. Would she have to fight, too? Evie wasn't a fighter, and she didn't want to think about it. She was just too scared.

The blow to the skull sent Lucy sprawling, the side of her temple sporting a nice dent. At first she was stunned, her one good eye lolling back as if that had been the killing blow. She had never been a strong person, physically or otherwise -- it would not have come as a surprise. After a few seconds, however, half-broken fingers began to twitch, flailing out a bit before pressing against the floor. No, the hunger was so much stronger than that... the scent of meat was so close, she couldn't give up now. Just a little bite, just a nibble...

Stumbling to her feet, the blue-haired zombie gripped the side of the wall, digging yellowed nails into its surface, keeping herself up. The eye, still lolled back in her head, began to roll a little, sliding back to the front of her skull to stare open-mouth at Kirin, her hands working in and out of fists, yellowed tears gathering in the corners of her eyes. Between her teeth, hunks of semi-decomposed flesh had blackened, the remainder of her last meal.

"Y-you hit me!!" She wailed, the sound wavering as if something were not quite right with her voice box. Nevermind she was going to eat them, she had hit her! How could she do something like that?! That... that b***h! "You b***h!"

Lucy didn't even hear the other zombie as it spoke, too busy trying to get at Kirin and the others, and when their bodies collided she took most of the damage, her small frame snapped back at a sickening angle. Although she didn't need to breathe anymore, her mouth worked soundlessly as she took a gaping breath, the sound rattling and filled with liquid. Her death was not an interesting nor dramatic one. Sliding to the floor, the reanimated corpse that had been Lucy just lay like a lump on the wood. body twisted at unnatural angles.