Worse Monsters Than Zombies (Mr. M & Rizu)

[Mr Master]

No one really knew how or why it started. A satellite crashed unexpectedly shortly before it happned, and there was an unexplained explosion deep in what used to be Soviet Russia. A popular rumor was that Hell was full, and the spirits of the dead had to return to their bodies. Whatever the reason, the dead rose, and walked the earth in search of meat and God only knows what else.

The major population centers fell within weeks. The rest of the world was threatened only days later. Within three months. only the smartest, luckiest, or toughest humans managed to survive. The walking dead outnumbered the living a dozen to one, and it no longer mattered why it had happened; it was enough just to survive.

Of course, in the depopulated world brimming with life-hating zombies, not everybody kept to civilized behavior. With the zombies, at least they'd only eat you. Given the state of the remnants of humanity, one could never tell what they would do, given the opportunity.

So for the survivors, merely escaping the notice and the clutches of the walking dead was no guarantee of any sort of safety. Yet people still survived, and still hoped for a future.

This is the world they have been given. May God help them.

 

[Rizu]

Judging by the sun's position it was probably about an hour after twelve. Tatianna stopped for a moment and placed a hand on her hip, the other slightly lifting the of her hat to wipe off sweat tickling her forehead as it rolled slowly down. She sighed and looked around the ghostly country road upon which she traveled. It was quite seldom did she come across cars, or any human evidence for that matter, besides the concrete, yet up ahead there appeared to be a small green city limit sign.

Not a sound could be heard from the still forest valley she passed through. Only once in a great while a single bird would call, echoing faintly from miles away. It's funny how the trees remained unchanged, unmoved, completely unaffected by this nightmare. Just kept to themselves and still reached for the sun, day in, day out. Tatianna adjusted her sunglasses after swigging water from a piss warm flask and wiping her mouth on her sleeve. All of her clothes were skintight, to prevent the undead from grabbing onto loose fitting cloth, and her hair was cut short into a bob for the same reason. On her back, a long fierce katana sparkled in the light, on her side hung a worn knapsack filled with essentials. Food was running low and this town approached in the distance, 'Perfect timing...', she thought aloud. Though the quietness of nature most likely meant the population from this town might still reside within the city limits. Just perhaps not the civilized beings they once were...

More and more cars appeared on the single road. Some banged up pretty good, others stained red, broken windows, open doors, some even still contained the remains of victims unlucky enough to be trapped in their seatbelts. A small gas station finally rose from around a sharp bend looking as if it were inhabited recently... She walked over to investigate.

 

[Mr Master]

Like so many buildings inhabited by survivors, the signs of reinforcing were obvious; the plate glass windows were cracked and protected on the lower halves by plywood and salvaged sheet metal, letting light in through the upper halves. The doors to the office/shop area were closed, and all but one set were locked with large chains. The doors to the garage were rolled down, and presumably also locked from the inside.

The fact that nothing was hanging open was a good sign, as was the fact that, despite a few apparently-formerly-animated corpses about, nothing was blocking the one remaining open door. The fact that no one could be seen in and about the place was not as good, but understandable; if there were survivors, they'd be laying low as a rule so as not to attract the attention of any wandering dead, much less any wanderers dressed like hiking ninja speed-skaters.

Despite the vague ridiculousness of the outfit, though, it was protective and practical, so it didn't inhibit Tatianna as she went to investigate. This wasn't her first time through something like this, so she knew what she was looking for.

 

[Rizu]

She eyed the building for another ten, fifteen minutes from behind a crooked Elm not far from the road.
"Well. That's that, then, isn't it?"

No matter how many house raids, how many of these damned dead were slain, how many ways she has felt flesh tearing, how many times she has brutally murdered former human beings, this part never got easier. And she imagined it never really would. Reaching into the back pocket of her pants she pulled out a small stone. It remained one of the only things she clung to from her life of normality. Her mother had found it on a vacation on Cape Hope. It was smooth, golden and warm. Always warm. It helped as a way to wind down from stressful days at the office, and even now brought Tatianna inner peace. Her mind slowed and all of the world's problems and her burdens began to disperse as she focused on this little speck of stone.

As she approached the building, cautiously, she removed her hat placing it in the knapsack and drew out the katana. Now, only inches from the doorway, she could feel the cold air the building held within it's walls. Though she had been sweating just a few minutes earlier, Tati couldn't help but shiver as chills ran up through her body. She inhaled deeply. Hmmm. Looks like the gas has been dried up for a while. That part didn't matter, but it did however, give her the advantage of smelling a decaying body, walking or otherwise. Her grip tightened on the sword handle and her senses multiplied. Her skin tingled, she felt every molecule touching her body. This way, nothing could sneak up on her, since the approached would send off a chain reaction alert.

She crept in the open backdoor, her back against one wall, eyes forward watching for movement in the short dim hall. The first room on the right had only a single dingy toilet, though she leaned in and snagged the toilet paper quickly off the roll without looking away from the very end of the uncharted hallway. Something didn't feel quite right here...

The silence was thick and eerie. Like it hid a secret. The office was empty, besides the papers strewn across the make shift desk and tiled floor. The last room at the dead end of the hall was the only room with the door closed. Tatianna's stomach flipped as she held her breath and heard faint shuffling on the other side of the door. She closed her fingers around the cold doorknob and shut her eyes.

"Give me strength..."
She flung the door open revealing a large, almost empty space with a single window spilling light onto the blood encrusted floor. A figure stood on the opposite side of the room and slowly turned to face Tatianna. His dry cracked lips snarled even as his milky white eyes looked so docile, almost kind. Her heart raced as he reached out to her and began shuffling forward. This man wore an old tattered stained jumpsuit. Lightblue. It read 'Bill' over his left side. He was impossibly thin. It seemed she blacked out for the next thing she knew, Bill was not moving. He lay sprawled on the floor, the head separated from the body.

 

[Mr Master]

She barely heard the sound of footsteps in the hall. She was turning, however, to see a smudged-cheeked young Hispanic man with a wispy mustache appear in the doorway, clad in a stained t-shirt and jeans. He looked at her and the decapitated body with wide eyes. "Holy shit!" he breathed. "Who the hell are you?" He backed up out of the room, down the hall she had come from.

<assuming the natural choice of her following to speak to him>

As she stepped back out through the door, there was an immediate sense of something wrong, a presence to her rear side, but before she could turn, a sudden shock and pain exploded above her kidney, as someone jammed a taser into her back. She fell, her legs going rubbery, as her assailant kept tasing her [, bro]. She fell on her back, and through the haze of pain and encroaching blackness around the edges of her vision, could see a heavyset bearded white man in a John Deere cap, face contorted in rage.

"You fucking killed Bill!" he snarled, jamming the taser right into her breast, pain lancing from her electrocuted nipple. "You bitch, you killed Bill!"

The Hispanic boy ran back and pushed the other man away. "Be cool, man." He abruptly flipped Tatianna over on her belly as she twitched uncontrollably. "Just get that arm."

They trussed her, using plastic zip-ties to bind her wrists and ankles. Then they flipped her over again, and the bearded man backhanded her viciously across the face before the boy again pushed him away. "Just get her legs!" They picked her up and carried her further into the garage, straight toward the locked-up vehicle bays.

<pause for reaction, mostly internal I would imagine, as otherwise it'd just be a big block of narration, what with the tasing and all>

 

[Rizu]

Staring into Bill's sad face, Tati was surprised to feel eyes on her from behind. A man! She gasped, eyes wide. But his face. He didn't look excited, he looked.... horrified.

"Wait... Hey wait a minute!"
She followed the man slow at first, but he was exiting. Fast.

"No, please, hang on!" He was going to leave. Once she got through the door frame, her side seared with pain. Despite the momentum she arched her spine, fell backward and sprawled across the dirty tile floor wincing. Tatianna gasped for air, but mid breath let out a shriek as the second stranger tased again. There was not even enough time for defense, her muscles freezing up every few seconds, she held up her limp hands slightly in front of her, tears falling from her face.

The burley man had heard, very clearly what his partner had said before clamoring back out into the hall, but looking up past this young woman he saw Bill. Rage burned inside his chest, hatred for this bitch he didn't know. He wanted to hurt her. Hurt her like she hurt Bill. As she wriggled on the floor, her chest heaved outward, he finally noticed what lovely full breasts she sported. He almost grinned as he shocked one. She cried out and attempted to roll onto her belly, shielding her most vulnerable spots.

The Spanish kid ran over and helped. Her skin screamed as she twitched and let out a long groan. She closed her eyes and became blissfully unaware the men were binding her limbs, until her faced was slapped so violently she tasted pennies in the side of her cheek. Tatianna looked up as the two lifted her. She ached to be back on the road with the hot arid air on her skin, the sun warming her face. Not in the dark cold place. With these two.... And she knew that worst of all-
This was only the beginning.

((Sorry I'm not sure where this is going and I don't really like to control characters that aren't mine and the ball is pretty much in your court with me all tied up. =P So tag!))

 

[Mr Master]

((You did great, actually; I'm open to having more backstory; I was figuring on letting that come out later, but yeah, you want to add that mental motivation, I'm open to that, so feel free where appropriate.))

They carried her into the vehicle bay, and though she couldn't move much at all, still paralyzed from the tazer, she could catch a glimpse of what was there. One of the maintenance bays had the hydraulic jack up, and a car with no wheels, apparently loaded full of concrete rubble, was on the lift. A thick electrical cable ran down from the ceiling, through a crudely-drilled hole in the roof, and fed into the sunken maintenance bay. In front of the other garage door, there was a 4x4 truck with armor plates crudely welded onto it, and several bicycles, including a couple of those pedal-powered rickshaws.

The men dropped her unceremoniously onto the concrete floor, not hard enough to injure her, but clearly not caring if it happened accidentally. The Hispanic boy climbed down a short ladder into the maintenance bay, and the burly guy shoved her over to him, He held her while the burly guy climbed down, and Tati was with-it enough to feel how his hands crawled all over her chest, squeezing her breasts (though she couldn't feel it as well in the one that got tazed). From the new angle in the greasy pit, she could see that there was a hole knocked low in the back wall, and crude steps leading down into it. Once the burly guy came down, he grabbed her feet and started carrying her down.

The hole led to a crudely-hacked staircase, that broke into a large sewer tunnel. The stink of it was everywhere, but it was old, and fading. The pipe was dry, and lit at occasional intervals by LED lights wired into the power cable... actually, there were several power cables winding through the pipe. They marched down the pipe to another break, this time into what seemed like a boiler room. The power cables all came through here to what looked like a hastily-rigged collection of marine deep-cycle batteries, hooked into a power box in the wall. Through a door and up some stairs and she was being carried through what looked like an elementary school, the old decorations for a Christmas long gone still festooning the hallways. It might have been sadly charming if it weren't for the occasional blood smears along the brightly-painted lockers.

Feeling and control was slowly returning to her body, but a shift in grip left her looking mostly at the worn tile floor, and if she moved her head too much, she'd give away the fact that she was conscious. She wasn't sure whether or not that'd be a good idea.

Finally, the two men banged through an old wooden door, and into what seemed to be the school office. "Hey, Mayor!" the boy shouted as they came in, "we got fresh meat!" They flung her bound body onto the broad desk that separated the student area from the secretarial area, and she landed face-down on the hard wood.

((more reaction, and if you want to reveal her ability to move and talk, by all means... your call))

 

[Rizu]

((Dunno if it's too soon but I'm going to set up for back story foundation nowish. It wont get referenced for a while but at least I know it's there and not just thrown in last minute =P))

Everything at this point seemed so unreal. All of the adrenaline from killing Bill, the shock of finally finding another person, then being tased viciously for the first time ever. As she was dragged through this seemingly simple establishment, it became apparent the facade is a brilliant and key factor in hiding. Her eyes fluttered as she was dragged and carried through the cold cement prison, it was nearly impossible to keep track of how to navigate the building's newly constructed layout. She had missed the feeling of a man's large hands groping her body, as much as she was afraid, a deeper primal part of her stirred.

This sewer maze was a blur. Besides a view of the floor that passed by quickly, she caught only a few other sights while pretending to sleep. Wires. Lights. Rooms... Lockers... Blood.

She woke up in her parent's dark living room sitting criss cross legged on the thick burgundy carpet. In front the rabbit eared television played a movie without sound, behind her, her parents looked about ten years younger cuddling on their old loveseat, gazing dreamily into the TV set. There was a doll propped in Tati's lap staring blankly up at the ceiling. She jumped up and spun around.
"Wh... Where are they?" She whispered.

Her voice was shrill and childlike. Suddenly the room took on a darker tone, the burgundy carpet became a crimson red and the light the television screen spat onto the floor became sharper and jagged. There was movement down the hall... A shadowy figure slouched out of the darkness. Tatianna screamed but no sound came out. She pulled at her parents to get up. To do something. But Mom and Dad didn't even acknowledge her existence, nevermind the desperation. The intruder, who was once the nice man next door, advanced onto the living room carpet and slowly moved to the loveseat, arms outstretched. Her parents didn't move. It was a great movie. Yellow teeth tearing flesh. No screams. Blood pooling. They didn't flinch. The movie was great. Tatianna covered her ears and shut her eyes tightly mumbling.

"-fresh meat"

The wood floor hit her like a brick wall and she whimpered. In a flash, they were in some sort of office. Tatianna coughed and sputtered looking up from the floor. She wriggled slightly remembering the zip ties that bound her.

"Fucking cowards..." she croaked

Her katana was dropped when the electricity shot through her, but the knapsack still hung at her side. Though in this position there was no way to get into it...

 

[Mr Master]

Pain exploded across her face after she cursed. "You keep a civil tongue in your head, meat," growled the burly guy. She was dragged up to sit on the counter, her arms still bound painfully tight behind her; her fingers were beginning to lose sensation. When she could focus, she saw in front of her what looked like a frumpy, middle-aged woman, entirely normal, but for her pragmatic men's hunting clothes and the cold, almost inhuman glint in her eye. She may have seemed like somebody's mother, but the way she gripped Tati's jaw and squeezed, forcing her mouth open so she could get a look at her teeth showed she wasn't feeling particularly motherly right now.

"Not bad, boys. At least this one's not half dead." The woman looked Tati in the eyes. "If you wanna keep those pretty teeth, I'd think hard about whether you wanna go biting anyone while you're here. Or anything like that. There's worse things we can do to you than kill you, and you can be assured we will do them if you give us reason to." She stepped back and gave a critical once-over of Tati's form. "So this is what triggered the door at the garage?"

"Yes, ma'am," said the boy, behind her, where he was standing while holding one of her arms. "Wandering in with a sword and everything. And she, ah..."

"She killed Bill!" snarled the burly guy who was holding her other arm, and punched her hard in the kidney before he grabbed the hair at the back of her head and dragged her head back, exposing her throat. "And I say she ought to replace him!"

The Mayor-woman, whoever she was, held up her hands in a calming gesture. "Relax, Tom, she might do that eventually. But we have other uses for good meat like this, don't we? I know Bill was your brother, but you just focus on getting your frustrations out in other ways."