[EVENT #01] AS ABOVE, SO BELOW

[oasismods]

EVENT #01

As above, so below... Twas a dark and stormy night... no, really. Despite the cliche, it actually was a dark and stormy night. Do you think it's a coincidence that it's storming in the testdrive? Honestly? Nothing is a coincidence in Oasis. So, back to the introduction of the event... The rain beats the ground in heavy sheets, leaving nothing untouched by its torrential downpour. Hey, if you don't seem to trust the clean water of the oasis just outside the walls of the city, I hope you have buckets out to catch this fresh rain. Then again, it doesn't look like it's aiming to stop anytime soon. The infected are waterlogged, but no where near sedate. The wildlife on the other hand seems to be keeping scarce for some reason. Flocks of birds seem agitated, but they stay clear of the city. Maybe you wonder just why that is... While the rain provides a new atmosphere for the tropical 'island' out in the middle of a sea of sand, it also provides opportunity for something else entirely. Something as of yet unseen by most in the city, only heard of to those paying attention. The Winter Soldier and Lexa stirred a hornet's nest unbeknownst to them. Small parties of local inhabitants invade the forests only at desperate times to collect essential sustenance to maintain their desert camps. In their endeavours, they ran into a triggered Soldier and bit off more than they could chew. Lexa found the slaughter and sent those invaders a message, stringing their bodies up in the forest. A warning. One that they blatantly disregarded and took as a sign of brighter times. It told those locals that there was more alive in the lush forests than animals and infected. There was food again. So, deep in the bowels of the city, tunnels were flooded with water. Those tunnels--catacombs--flushed out whatever filled them prior by the rain, were put back into use by those who found their way in before. They were barred off, strong enough that even superhuman strength couldn't budge the hatches without a cutting torch. Like the farmhouse, with its exit hatch, there are various other hatches outside the city for a quick escape or perhaps a safe entrance when running from infected. They had been found long ago... The Bandits Late at night, when the rain is pounding the loudest, one of the hatches will breach. Into the city a small party will fill the streets. They wear full-facial gas masks that almost seem to have grown into their skin. They carry an odd hatchet of some form with a spinning buzz saw blade and they're not looking to make friends. They'll shriek phrases like, "Fresh meat!" "You ate all the cookies!" "Free lunch!" "I'll live in your ribcage!" "I need your face!" "I'll eat your ankles!" "Gimme somethin' to pound!" "Another walking meat puppet!" "Diediediediediedie DIE!" "SQUISH!" They'll charge anyone and everyone without regard for their own life, they'll slash and hack with their axe while throwing smaller bladed weapons with surprising accuracy. They cannot be reasoned with. They want to eat you and they can think of nothing else. It's possible a strain of the Ira Virus mutated in these beings, infecting them, but leaving certain higher functions in tact. Or, it's possible that they simply fell into madness and adopted the cannibalistic tendencies of the only living humans left, the Infected. The Infected The catacombs have been breached! There was a reason they were so tightly sealed off, and it surprisingly had nothing to do with the Psycho Bandits invading the city from the depths of its bowels. Deep in the underground tunnels of the city, the infected had found themselves trapped, starving, decaying. Hungry. They were dormant, conserving their remaining energy for a desperate hunt and the dinner bell just chimed. These infected will spill outward behind the Bandits, ravenous. They run, they screech, they will tear you apart and they don't care what gets in their way. These infected are rotting worse than the rest, flesh falling from bone, leaving muscles exposed. Though they're fast and vicious, they're easily killed due to their decomposing state. [Mod Note: Infected and Bandits are not NPC controlled. Feel free to slaughter, maim, mangle, and mutilate however many you wish. Likewise, they can slaughter, maim, mangle, and mutilate your characters to your heart's content. Bandits do not transmit the Ira Virus unless they kill an infected then strike you with the same weapon. Yes, they will fight each other (infected and bandits).]

Navigation Network | Logs | OOC Taken Characters | Reserves | Applications | Activity Check Rules | Setting | Locations | FAQs | Deaths | Wanted | Hiatus | Drop Item Request | Plot Suggestions | Navigation

Comments

Castiel - OTA

[strangelic]

[ The city has been breached, and all Castiel can think is that they should have stayed in the forest. It might not have been as safe, but at least they could have hidden, stayed hidden. Now everything is coming at them at once, lunging out of the woodwork, things that are fleshy and things that are falling apart. They have souls, these screaming things, but they're far from human. ]

1. Save the angel

[ Castiel is fighting off one of the bandits, but he's resisting succeeding from his efforts, flinching away from it. They're human, and he resists killing them, all of them. If he kills them...

But they make it impossible. He stumbles back away from two of them whom he's fighting at once, and a third jumps onto his back, its mask ripped away so that it can plunge its teeth straight into his shoulder.

All it takes is a stumble, and the first two leap upon him, knocking the angel onto his back on the ground. They rip at his clothes, screaming with passion at capturing him, clearly intent on killing him, and Castiel manages to shove just one of them away before the rip in his shoulder is pulled wider.

"SO SWEET!!!" growls the invader digging its teeth into him, and the one that Castiel had knocked aside jumps the one gnawing on his shoulder, savagely jealous. For a second, Castiel is pinned only by one of the creatures, and he has just a chance to get free. ]

2. To the warehouse

[ It becomes a rescue mission. The city is full of raiders and slippery undead, and until they find a stronghold there's nothing to do but try and save as many of their group as possible, get them somewhere safe. Castiel makes his radio call to the others, and then goes off hunting for people to help.

The injury to his shoulder is healed already. The blood that saturates his clothing would be a beacon, drawing the dead after him like an alarm going off, if not for the pouring rain that's already soaked him clean to the bone. Castiel hunts for other people in a rush, trying not to worry about Dean, who can look after himself, as he more or less bee lines, first for the hotel and then the warehouse on the edge of town. They need to regroup somewhere, and Daryl has been shoring the warehouse up--it's the safest place to go. Or so he thinks.

Not quite as safe as disappearing into the forest, but they can't have everything. ]

3. Regrouping

[ It's not safe to light a fire, so Castiel moves carefully from one person to another, checking them for injuries and drying their clothes with a touch. To get cold now - to get sick - would be difficult for any of them. Life here had already tripled in difficulty, and there were so few of them who were fighters, so few who could hold their ground against the violence of this place.

They couldn't save a city, when they'd only been here a month. They'd barely found enough food to survive, they hadn't shored up their shelters, or found enough weapons, and the undead were already overwhelming them, growing more energetic by the day. This... This could undo them, unless they found a way to work together to defeat it. It seemed typical to Cas. All these people to protect, maybe he was supposed to fail them. They could all die, and he'd have to deal with that grief too. ]

Better?

2/3

[kickingand]

[ No, it wasn't better. There was nothing much better about it, but what else was he going to do? What else could he do? Dean reeked with the guilt of the situation, standing still and then starting up pacing again, drenched and yet entirely oblivious to it. Who cared about getting a little bit wet when there still might've been people out there, people being attacked and god knows what. Eaten alive?

Considering the way their lives had gone so far, that hardly seemed the worst possible outcome.

Staring back at Castiel edgily, Dean can't help but shake his head, returning to staring distantly over his shoulder, waiting for others to flood into the building. If more people don't start arriving, then Dean is out of here without a qualm about it, the only thing on his mind being getting others to safety. ]

Cas, I can't stay.

[strangelic]

[ Castiel is not unaware of Dean's discomfort, and he isn't the only one. Everyone who can fight seems to want to get back outside and slash things down and rescue the others, but is that really the best way to approach this situation? They're safe, the two of them, and everyone else... They're always so self sacrificing, throwing themselves into the fray so that everyone survives or nobody does.

But Castiel has trouble believing in that approach. They're safe, and they should stay put, let the people die who don't make it. It's not very heroic, it's not very angelic, but Castiel has a yellow streak, a desire to run from conflict, and there's nothing quite like deliberately chasing down a fight. He'd rather stay and protect the people who'd made it already.

And it's not that he doesn't care. He does. He just... He doesn't know how to care right, and sooner or later his interference will just get everyone killed instead. ]

You don't owe them anything.

1 (Let's not make this a habit, Cas.)

[zimasoldier]

[Bucky spots the three bandits mauling someone. He's already on his way when two of them start fighting over their kill. It gives Buck the time he needs to get close enough. Two makeshift blades are thrown, the first hit its mark, right in the temple of the bandit pinning Cas. The second finds itself lodged in the throat of one of the brawlers. This leaves the third to scream, "MORE MEAT FOR ME!" as he shoves his dead comrade off of him.

James is at Castiel's side, jerking the blade free of the bandit's temple, turning in one smooth motion to cut the third bandit's throat and kick it back as it flailed in its dying reflexes. When James faced Cas, his expression and eyes were blank. He almost looked like he might continue to kill everyone and everything, but he reined himself in, blinking away the cold expression of the Winter Soldier, replaced with recognition.]

There are more coming. We need to move and treat your injury. Are you able to move? [Because he can sure carry you if he has to.]

[strangelic]

[ Castiel recognizes that expression - he's seen it before often enough - but he pulls himself back, and Castiel isn't forced to defend himself from Bucky instead. Sooner or later, he has to address that, but that means not meeting Bucky in a combat situation. Right now, he pulls himself up to his feet, picking up his fallen blade which had tumbled free when he'd gone down, and then stopping to take an axe and a string of throwing knives from the downed cannibal. He's remarkably spy for someone with a bitten shoulder, but it's not like he was bitten in the ankle, and it will heal quickly enough. ]

I'm fine. I need to get back to the hotel.

[ He expected a fight about it, frankly, but there were people at the hotel who would need help fighting their way to the warehouse. And Dean... He hadn't seen Dean, didn't know where he was, and he'd already abandoned him once before. ]

Can you help me?

[zimasoldier]

[He watches Cas move, the man shows no lingering symptoms of the pain of his wound. Had the other man been in obvious pain, having trouble moving about, Bucky wouldn't have hesitated to shoot down his request and carry him kicking and screaming back to safety. Another moment's observation and Bucky nodded curtly. He himself sported a puncture wound in the side that he was ignoring at the moment. If Cas could fight in his condition, then he wouldn't stop him.]

I can. What are we looking for?

3- Regrouping

[dirtyredneck]

[Daryl started at the touch to his shoulder. The sudden dryness after having been cold and soaked to the bone was both welcome and met with some confusion. He was just going to have to go back out into the mess anyway. Once they were sure everyone that could get to the warehouse had done so.

He turned his head to look at Castiel before shrugging and going back to watching through the window, arms crossed over his chest. He didn't try to move the other man's hand away, though. If it got left, it got left.]

You think you got a miracle in you?

[He kept his voice low, so no one else could hear him ask it. He wanted everyone inside and safe. Those that couldn't fight behind sturdy stone walls while those that could went out in the cover of dark to eliminate the threat. He wasn't above looking for anything that could help pull that off with minimal injuries.]

[strangelic]

[ Castiel wasn't good at touching. Though he warmed Daryl through, it was more because he could, and to keep him from getting sick. He retreated his hand quickly enough, let it fall back to his side as he followed Daryl's gaze out through the window. He knew that even with the walls and the protection, there wasn't much safety to be had in here, nevermind up there. People would have to stay to protect those here just as much as head out to hunt for stragglers.

He'd done more than enough buccaneering as it was. Even if he was most useful in a fight, even if he could heal himself, or those who got hurt in battle, he was afraid. He wanted to stay. ]

One or two, perhaps. Nothing I could do from here.

[ He could draw their attention somewhere else, set a fire, glow brightly enough to cut through the rain and darkness, draw them away from the warehouse. But that would mean leaving it. ]

Invasion Day 1 - OTA

[dirtyredneck]

[After the initial press to get everyone evacuated to the warehouse - or as many as they could - Daryl set out not only to find stragglers, but to take down every psycho he came across. Because the number of them was vastly more than the number of him and whoever he'd end up finding, Daryl focused on getting them to fight the walkers and helping the walkers kill them in turn.

Walkers were a far easier threat to deal with than the bandits.

It was because of this that Daryl had acquired a good four of those strange axes as he made his way through the city. Mostly keeping to the streets that led from the warehouse to the gates, from the gates to the hotel, and back again. Any of the invaders and the walkers he found alone, he slaughtered without hesitation or mercy. Their lives were not more important than the lives of his people.]

1 - Getting your ass saved
[Daryl spotted a group of the invaders focusing their efforts on hacking their way through what looked like a hasty barricade of a small store front. They were pretty focused on it and the only reason to be as far as Daryl was concerned, was that there was someone inside there.

Their focus was sufficient for him to get the drop on the first of them. An ax buried deeply into the back of the man's head stopped his motion and drew the attention of the other two. Daryl pulled another of the axes out so he could hold one in each hand and do his best to fight them off and provide some cover for their would-be victim.]

Whoever's in there: Run!

2 - Regrouping Redux
[Much as Daryl would have liked, he couldn't stay out in the fray forever. He was tired, exhausted even, when he finally returned to the warehouse.

It'd taken some time before he'd been able to slip on through the gates and to the door without being seen by the psychos wandering past the building. They'd clearly noticed the fortifications on the street that Daryl had been putting up. Not nearly finished, of course. But enough to be suspicious. Between their curiousness and the walkers, Daryl had to wait for them to move on or be drawn away by noises the walkers were making further down.

Once he was inside and the door secured again behind him, he started his report to whomever was gathered in the downstairs lobby and awake to listen.]

There's a lot of them out there. Threat of walkers ain't really scaring them off. They know there's people here, that we're here. In the city. They're starting to look inside buildings now that some of us have been flushed out of the hotel and other parts. Anyone that knows how to fight, we need to take turns going out there and stopping them.

[He means killing them.]

Everyone else needs to do their best to batten down the hatches here and get to making weapons and mending wounds for those that come in. We can't light a fire, but we can still keep warm. Stay close to each other. Food's not going to be a real problem for another week or two. We got a lot of those goods that came down with the second drop ship stored away for emergencies like this. Ain't as good as fresh and with the weather, our garden's getting flooded. But it's there.

Should have time to clear those assholes out before we gotta worry. Just gotta be smart about it. Walkers were always a threat. Now any of you that ain't learned how to deal with them, you're gonna be learning. Fence duty'll be mandatory once we make sure the assholes are all gone.

[[ooc: Will match format!]]

hanako 'rosalina' nurumi

[hasitsthorns]

1; you can stand under my umbrella (ota to everyone in the warehouse)

[ Before the bandits and infected arrive, Rose is unsettled by something far more mundane. The rain. It’s coming down hard, it’s coming down fast… Her animal instincts are screaming at her to get away. A flash flood is probably imminent. The fear of drowning strikes through the woman like the lightning lighting up the sky at random intervals.

To combat these uneasy feelings, she paces throughout the warehouse. There’s a quiet song on her lips – as there often is, those who may know her have come to recognize singing as something she does often – but it doesn’t seem to doing her much good. It probably isn’t hard to notice how wound up she is. She tries to stay out of everyone’s way, really, but there’s only so much space. If anyone asks, she’ll act like nothing’s wrong but almost immediately go back to this uncharacteristically anxious state. ]

2; come at me bro (ota)

[ When her worry becomes too much to take, she slips out away from any others into the city. They don’t need to see her panic, they don’t need to know what she’s afraid of… She doesn’t need to worry them either with her unnecessary worrying about something as irrelevant as this downpour.

For it turns out there’s a lot more to be worried about than just the buckets of water falling from the sky. Rose hears them before she sees them. Her brows furrow at a shout of “Fresh meat!” Last she recalled, the undead couldn’t talk. Their footfalls are heavy, loud, but intentional in a way that the infected’s aren’t. Even over the sound of rain she can tell that much. Then a couple of them come into sight; Rose locks eyes (she thinks?) with one of them and immediately recognizes what a bad idea it was to go it alone. ]

Uh, hey, I-

[ An object is hurled towards her shoulder. The woman has fast enough reflexes that she turns just enough for it to miss sinking into her skin but still grazes it. ] Yeah, okay, I figured. [ is all she follows up with before immediately trying to sprint in a direction directly away from the crazy hostile men with knives and axes. Though as they start yelling in their pursuit of her, they start drawing the attention of their own and (unbeknownst to her because of the rain washing away their scents) any nearby infected. ]

Shit, shit, shit-

[ Just as she thinks she might get away, a wrong step in a deep patch of slick mud sends her careening to the ground. One of the bandits uses the opportunity to gain on her and gets a tight grip around her ankle. He yanks her towards him, yelling unintelligible things. With what little extra strength she has, the woman uses her weight to twist herself around and get out of his grasp. Then, instead of trying to get away, she launches directly at him. He may have a gas mask on but his neck is still exposed enough.

Pure survival instinct drives her now; she straddles his waist to keep him down before sinking her teeth into his neck and hits the jugular vein she was aiming for. He makes a sound between coughing and choking as his blood sputters out from the tear in his throat her mouth just made. Mud and blood coat her lips and neck as she lifts her head to bare her teeth in a snarl for the other man pursuing her. He doesn’t seem as frightened as she’d hoped, however, and all her growl gets her is an axe to the shoulder.

A scream of pain tears passed her throat in response. Through the near blinding pain, however, she tries to grab for the axe to try and turn it against him. She manages to get a grip on it but he’s stronger than she looks too and they begin a terrible tug-of-war for the weapon. ]

2

[dirtyredneck]

Son of a bitch...

[The sight of a human ripping out the throat of another human with their teeth was not something Daryl ever thought he'd see again. As it was, because he'd seen it before, he was nominally more prepared to act when he realized there were still more of those psycho freaks around.

He came in with one of the axes he'd gotten off a dead cannibal sometime before he ran into her. The two of them struggling made aiming for the freak's head difficult. So he just aimed for his back and raked it as close to horizontally across as he could to do as much damage as possible. The freak screams and Daryl must have hit something important because the psycho's grip weakens as one of his arms went completely limp.

And that was Daryl's cue to grab at the straps of his outfit and pull as hard as he could to get him off of Rose. Still needed to finish the job, but getting him away from the injured girl was his first priority.]

[hasitsthorns]

[ In Daryl's defense, most humans don't tear into another person's throat. Rose also isn't technically a human, but... That's another story for another time. Right now she's far more focused on staying alive than outing herself. Priorities.

The pain in her shoulder is searing but adrenaline thankfully dulls it some. Everything's a little hazy around the edges but she's laser focused on the man trying to kill her. So focused, in fact, that she fails to notice Daryl until he's right there and chopping the dude down for her. As soon as his arm goes limp and he's distracted by his own pain plus Daryl yanking him back, Rose seizes the opportunity to take power of the axe and return the favor of being sliced into. Her slash cuts him diagonally across the front. Even if the blow itself didn't kill him, the blood loss by now likely will.

Could she have left him to Daryl? Definitely. However, her blood was boiling, head pounding, and kill or be killed was a mantra roaring in her head. It begins to fade, gradually, and pain fills its place instead. Everything starts to feel... grounded again. No more do or die. She's here, in the moment. And the moment sucks. ]

Holy frick, ow. [ comes the understatement of the century, a hand pressed gingerly to her throbbing shoulder wound. ] What assholes. I can't even go a month without someone trying to kill me, gods. [ Hiiisssssssss, that's smarts. Not the worst she's had but still pretty painful. ]

Beth - OTA

[peacekeep]

Arrival:
[There's way too much rain. She's already in the middle of freaking out after waking up in one of those coffin like things, and she sure as hell isn't planning on sticking around to figure out who put her in it. Her head's pounding like nothing she's ever felt before, but the important thing is she's alive. She ought to not be, she reckons, not with what happened at that hospital. Her memory about all that's fuzzy now and she's grateful for it, because she needs to focus on survival.

She doesn't have any weapons and a quick look around the area through the rain tells her she's going to need one. She's not the cursing sort of girl but she manages to let a choice phrase slip out under her breath as she decides to try climbing up on the pod to get a better view of the area. It's not a real smart idea, she quickly realizes, because she's scraping and scrambling and can't get her footing to hoist herself up properly. She slips and hits her chin hard, crying out as she feels the skin break and blood start to pour. Great, she thinks, she's got another mark to match the others on her face.

It's right about then that the hail kicks in and she lets out a scream of frustration. Her daddy's death is always going to be the worst day of her life, but this one is going down as one of the most frustrating. ]

You ain't gonna win!

[It's shouted to the sky, right in time for hail to hit her in the face and the walkers that were shuffling nearby to come at her running.

It doesn't take rocket science for her to figure out that she can be frustrated all she wants later. She's got to run now, and she runs as fast as her legs can carry her, never stopping until she runs right into someone bigger than she is. She cries out, praying it's not a walker. Just in case it is, she reacts accordingly, and lashes out with both fists flying. It's more of an effort to push herself away than anything, but she's so worked up and confused that her self-defense methods aren't exactly up to par with everyone else.]

Dealing with walkers:
[When she finally manages to make it past the city wall and gets herself a rusted old crowbar from a gas station, she tries to find sign of any other life. She wants to be where the people are, she's not someone who can make a go of things alone in the long run. It's a little unfortunate that to get around anywhere, she has to deal with the walkers. They're faster and more ravenous than the ones she knows, and they look and smell a hell of a lot worse too. That winds up being a good thing, as the rusted old crowbar goes right through them with minimal effort. The smell they leave behind makes her gag, though. It's awful.

The gagging quickly turns to an actual issue, though, as she doubles over and empties her stomach. The few seconds it takes for it to happen are plenty for the walkers to rush up to her, and she screams for help as she frantically starts swinging the crowbar.]


Night Watch:
[Beth's new around here, and knows that some people here likely won't trust her because of it. Others may not trust her because of her age, and some others her face. She knows what it's like to be new to a group and to have to work your way in, so she suggests that she help keep watch after night falls on the city.

She ignores the rumbling in her stomach, surprised that she actually misses the regularity of the hospital food, and she makes her way over to someone else who's up late keeping watch with her. She tries to mask the stitched gash in her cheek and on her forehead by keeping to the shadows, but hopes the person manages to catch her smile. She doesn't mean anyone any harm.]

You can rest, if you need to. I don't mind staying up.

Wildcarding it up/continuation

[strangelic]

[ The church is something that Castiel has noticed in passing, and dismissed as a place to seek out supplies, which are thin on the ground anyway. A hundred years of scavenging had stripped most of the city bare, but a church was still a church. If anything there would be just books inside, but mostly those had either disintegrated or been used to light fires, and the fallen cross made it far too difficult to try to break in, at least without help.

It lets him find the church, at least, but not the girl, and Castiel's coat is wet with blood - some his own, and some belonging to the invaders - when he makes it to the clearing, and utterly drenched, head to foot. His hair is scruffy, he's still bearded and filthy from his Purgatory days, but still here he is, the brave hero come to rescue her. For a few moments he hangs back, watching as a pair of slippery walkers run off one of the cannibals, before running into the space they leave behind, moving quickly from one abandoned car to another to try and hunt Beth out, and tapping firmly on the window glass of each vehicle as he reaches them.

Tap tap. ]

[peacekeep]

[She hears the tapping nearby and slowly moves to sit up and peek out the window. She sees a man that is most definitely not a walker or one of those other awful things, and realizes that must be the man that she was talking to about getting to the warehouse. Opening the door, she slips out, leaving it open instead of shutting it behind her. She doesn't want to draw attention to herself and make danger come running back at them.]

I can hear you tapping over here.

[It comes out sounding afraid, which she definitely is. This place is different than what she's used to, somehow more dangerous and awful. It's that fear that inspires her to hurry over to his side, glad that she's not alone.]

Thank you. For coming for me. I was real worried I was going to have to be out here all by myself tonight.

( night watch )

[hasitsthorns]

[ Spotting newcomers isn't exactly hard. Rose never thought she'd get accustomed to the same faces, but... here she is. Non-recognizable people were once more comforting yet now she isn't so certain. Funny how fast things have changed.

This girl seems nice, however, and definitely doesn't harbor any ill intent. Even Rose's animal instincts aren't sensing anything off just yet, so Beth gets a kind smile in return. ]

Nah, it's cool. I prefer to take the night shifts. I'm a bit of insomniac, so. It works out, y'know?

[ Mostly it ives her an excuse to not sleep and make it seem 'normal.' It's easier to hide the fact that she goes days sometimes without rest when she isn't ghosting around at night without a purpose. People pick up on that sort of thing. ]

You alright? [ the woman asks, nodding vaguely to the injuries on Beth's face. Rose of all people shouldn't be asking that but her axe-to-the-shoulder injury is carefully concealed beneath layers of bandage and her clothes. So long as she doesn't move too much it isn't noticeable and that's just the way she wants it. No one needs to worry about her right now. ]

[peacekeep]

Me?

[Beth reaches up to touch at her cheek and nods, giving a shrug of her shoulders. She's not alright, but physically she'll be just fine. That's the important part, she thinks.]

I'll be okay. I'm just feeling tired, that's all.

[She says it with a tone that implies she's tired but too worked up over things here to let herself get any sleep. She's seen some things the past few years, but not knowing how it is she's come to be here has her worked up and after everything that's happened before her arriving here, she's not sure she wants to sleep and risk having nightmares.]

I'm hoping the watch right now helps me be able to sleep when it's time.

night watch;

[officio]

[ Padmé can't sleep. It happens frequently, here, despite her knowing all too well how important sleep is, how much they all need to stay awake and alert... but even then she wakes up in the middle of the night, unable to breath, or calling out to her children. Pleading for Anakin to listen to her.

The nightmares just don't go away... and sometimes, it's easier to keep from falling asleep in the first place. Just like tonight.

She gives a soft smile to the newcomer, shaking her head a little. ]

Thank you for the offer... but I'd rather stay awake for a while longer. It's easier with company.

[peacekeep]

[Beth smiles in return, almost knowingly. She gets that kind of feeling, especially now that she's in a place like this.]

Sleeping's hard, when you're not sure if it's safe.

[She finds a spot near the other woman and moves to sit, then offers her hand.]

I'm Beth Greene. Just arrived here not too long ago.

✪ Bucky Barnes

[zimasoldier]

✪ Right back where you begin
Buck doesn't sleep very well or very long and hasn't for a while. Tonight was no different. The rain hadn't let up in days and he was growing antsy, so he found himself in the forest, perched in one of his sheltered sniper's nests, watching the infected mill about without a clue. He just happened to notice one of the hatches just outside the city pop open with force. A bandit crawled out, looked around, then retreated back into the catacombs. James climbed higher in the tree and trained his enhanced sight to the city. Through the rain, he could barely make out movement, but it was the glowing pinpoints of the masks' eyes that gave them away. They were in the city!

Buck tapped his radio, "They're--" but his radio was lost when he slipped on wet bark that gave way under his weight. "Shit!" The radio landed in the mud at the feet of the infected he'd been watching. No time to grab it. He darted towards the city, scaling the tree closest to the wall and flinging himself over it.

[OOC: Prose or Bracketspam are fine with me.]

Option One

[zimasoldier]

✪ Torn apart from the inside (Warnings: Violence, Gore)
Bucky has no radio, but that doesn't mean he can't warn people and take care of threats. The nearest hatch to the gate, Bucky took out the group crawling out of it, shoving their bodies back down the hole and shutting the hatch. Maybe their invaders would think twice about opening that hatch again. He moved through the city, letting a part of him take over that he usually shoved away. Those skills he'd been programmed with came in immensely handy right now, as much as he hated to admit it. He was an assassin. A ruthless and cold-blooded killer. He focused solely on those glowing eyes to keep his mind trained on the proper target and away from accidental innocent casualties.

Unfortunately, that was how he missed the rotting, decrepit infected that threw itself at him. He'd ignored everything that didn't glow. The body hit him, but didn't so much as budge the sturdy Super Soldier. He choked out a startled sound when it sunk its teeth into--

metal. Thank God for the metal arm, or rather, thank HYDRA for the metal arm at this point. He threw the infected off and snapped its neck, but the noise had alerted the nearby group to his location and shattered his Winter Soldier persona.

"TIME FOR PLAY TIME!" One of them roared.

Buck easily killed two as they charged, broke an arm of the third, but a fourth threw its arms around him from behind and sunk a blade into his ribs. "IT'S MEAT-PUPPET MASTER THEATRE!" The fifth took that moment to lunge as well, piling on top of Bucky with the third and the fourth. Sharp stings of pain lanced his skin, but he ignored them. His mind wandered...

When he focused back on the scene around him, he was surrounded by the five bandit bodies, several of which had literally been torn limb from limb. Hope no one was around to see that...

[peacekeep]

Beth wasn't really a fan of the bandits. They scared her to death, so she had spent much of her time running far away from them and hiding. It was unfortunate that one of her hiding spaces happened to be where a large group of bandits were prowling near, but someone came along and got their attention. She peeked out, so she could try to figure out an escape route, and to see the face of the person who was in harm's way. The man seemed to have things under control, she quickly realized, but she gasped when he was bit. Both hands flew up to cover her mouth, grateful for the fact the things were too occupied with the fight and the man to notice the sound she had just made.

It was only after the violence stopped that Beth came crawling out from her hiding spot, looking more than a little awestruck. A long time ago, what she had just seen would've made her run away. Now, she understood and recognized the fact that men like him were the best people to align yourself with. That sometimes violence was necessary in order to survive, no matter how ugly the mess was.

She stumbled her way over toward him, her blood loss from hitting her face earlier making her sluggish and clumsy. The noise her footsteps made were enough to alert someone of her presence, but just in case it wasn't, she spoke up. "Hey, you okay? It looked like you got bit." And in her experience, a bite meant a need for amputation, or else you were going to turn.

Option Two

[zimasoldier]

✪ Race back into your skin
He'd been helping round people up and killing anything that went after the survivors. Now he'd holed up with someone in a secure building but they had been followed and surrounded. He couldn't protect them and fight these things at the same time, not without worrying that they'd get hurt in the process. Buck held his hands out trying to shush whoever was with him at the moment and urge them lower, as he knelt beside a boarded window. He gestured for them to stay out of line of sight.

"I'M GONNA MAKE YOU GARGLE YOUR LAST BREATH!"

Buck held out one of his makeshift blades to the person in the room with him. They'd need to fight their way out of this with so many of those psychos outside.

Closed to Steve

[zimasoldier]

✪ By the claws you braced (Closed to Steve)
"MOMMY DEAREST WAS THE CLEAREST UNTIL SHE LOST HER BEARING; NOW SHE'S RUSTED AND IS BUSTED AND OUT OF SIGHT AND HEARING!"

Was he being stalked? This was ridiculous! Their voices echoed off the buildings and dulled by the rain, making it hard for him to pinpoint them until the sound of an axe cutting through the rain would give him a direction. He'd sidestep it, but another would zoom past from another direction and he'd lose track of the search. They were moving in like wolves, surrounding him. Rabid, insane wolves.

"LET'S PLAY A GAME OF WHAT'S INSIDE YOUR HEAD!"

Another axe that Buck managed to sidestep. His fingers itched for a gun. He gritted his teeth, frustration cinching up his muscles with the inability to act. How many of them had he killed? Were they just now catching on that they needed to stay out of reach? He needed to find Steve. He needed to make sure he was okay, but these insane little freaks were keeping him from that.

"HIT ME! NOW! HIT ME!"

That was it. Bucky turned sharply and one of the Bandits was running towards him, flailing its weapon around. But in its other hand was a device he didn't recognise. It didn't look particularly dangerous, so he ignored it. He buried his blade deep in the bandit's chest before it could hit him, but it just leaned closer, its mask nearly touching his face. It let out a gargled laugh and hit his metal arm with the device. It stuck. A click followed as a switch flipped inside it and the sizzle of a current washed over the metal arm, sending Bucky to the ground, writhing in pain. The body of the bandit went forgotten with his blade still buried inside it as he scrambled to pull the magnetic device off his arm, but couldn't get a hold with the convulsions shaking his body.

On cue, the other bandits started closing in at a run...

GDI Bucky

[captain_america]

Steve didn't need to sleep, not like most people. He could get by on only three or four hours and not feel the fatigue longer than most. It didn't help that night in this place made him uneasy, so he spent a lot of his night awake and doing his own patrol. He kept tabs on Bucky, he had promised he wouldn't let Bucky hurt anyone and he intended to keep that promise. So if his patrol route took him passed the main gates when he knew Bucky was outside them then he was just keeping his promise.

The rain isn't really making that easy, so that night he's up on a roof under an makeshift awning when he hears Bucky's transmission, the whole one word of of it. He's on his feet and moving before he can think about its. "Buck?" he's trying to tap into his radio but all he's getting is static on the other end. Not good, really not good. He's moving over roof tops, taking the jumps between buildings at ease when he starts to hear them.

"LET'S PLAY A GAME! WHAT'S INSIDE YOUR HEAD."

He spots Bucky as he goes down, convulsing on the ground even as he tries to reach for something on his arm. The group of bandits are closing in on him and Steve takes a split second to calculate distance and velocity before he's jumping down. The garbage can lid he uses in place of his shield is flying before he hits the ground. It won't do as much damage as his actual shield will but it will knock them back and daze them long enough to get to Bucky. He lands in front of him, throwing two of the knives he has on him before catching the lid as it came back to him, deflecting a knife that was aimed straight at his head and returning the throw with one of his own burying the blade in the throat of the bandit watching as he fell. He hated it, but there were times when he had no choice.

He takes the moment of confusion to crouch down, looking at Bucky for a second before pulling the device off his arm, his attention never leaving the Bandits that seemed to be getting back up. "Buck, can you walk, we gotta move."