Post by Mr. C on Oct 30, 2009 9:20:54 GMT -5
“Whoa, whoa, wait.” Diabolik stopped them, standing up from the table just as they were about to head out to fortify the arena some more. He and his mentor and friend Urahara had been somewhat quiet this entire time as well, they minded their own business well enough. But this was where they finally had to stand up for themselves.
“Why in the hell aren’t we spending time trying to get better radio reception? Why haven’t we tried (this is a shocker) looking online?! Didn’t any of us remember a laptop? Don’t we just have a damned phone?!” Diabolik glared around, his arms spread as he shouted out to the men in the arena. No one spoke up, but not one seemed to remember they had either of these things,
either.
“I don’t know why the hell you guys are all so stupid to think we should just wait this out. That’s pointless! We shouldn’t just trap ourselves in here and hope for the best. Isn’t that why we were all brought here? To work together to find a way to stop this? C’mon Urahara. Let’s not just wait here to die, let’s go out in to Bakersfield and find something to contact the rest of the world with.” And with that, Diabolik and Urahara turned to go. Diabolik spat on the ground as they left, but before they could even get to the door, a loud bang was heard, followed by frantic screams for help.
Everyone inside rushed to the door, the screams were human, that’s for sure. The vocal chords were fresh, strained but not corroded and decaying like the ones on the zombies. This one was very much alive still and in desperate need of help. Upon arrival they slowly swing open the big, metal, boarded up doors and in stumbles a young woman. She manages to limp two more steps in to the arena before falling, her firearm falling to the side as she went down. She was certainly frightened and wounded too, (although the fear and adrenaline had put an end to that for a moment) but from first inspection there were no signs of her being infected, no visible bite marks. And as the girl stood up, she was wearing a torn and bloodied but still unmistakable piece of Asylum Merchandise, an “Oblivion’s #1 Fan” t-shirt.
Quickly Warrior and JDV rush over to help her walk further in to the building, but as soon as they touch her arms, she begins to panic and starts screaming – completely gone with hysteria.
“WHERE IS HE?! WHERE IS HE?!”
Warrior and JDV immediately stepped back, startled at the sudden outburst, and Warrior did his best to try and calm her down. Stepping in front of her, he attempted to help her slow her breathing and to tell her story slowly. But even through Warrior’s best attempts he couldn’t help her, she was frantic.
“You need to calm down. We’re friends, here! We can try to help you! Just tell is who you’re talking about.”
“OBLIVION! WHERE IS HE?!”
Warrior took a step back and looked away from the sobbing mess of a girl, attempting to find help in his comrades behind him. But all of them did the same, looked away or down at the floor, no one wanted to be the one to deliver the news to her. Or perhaps none of them wanted to hear this news either. Oblivion was one of the most beloved roster members, and they all tried to ignore the fact that he never made it here. To them, he was still alive out there somewhere, but they knew that this girl wouldn’t take the news that way.
“Oblivion… never made it.”
“No-no-no-no-no… THIS CAN’T BE TRUE! I NEED OBLIVION! I LOVE HIM YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND! WE WERE GOING TO GO AWAY TOGETHER!” Now she’s bawling horribly, shaking, terrified and angry. She was a complete emotional mess, and she falls to her knees, sobbing in to her hands. Through painfully labored, quick breaths her arms fell to the sides and she looked up at them, tears rolling down her unusually pale cheeks.
“I just wanted to see him once… before I died.”
“Why in the hell aren’t we spending time trying to get better radio reception? Why haven’t we tried (this is a shocker) looking online?! Didn’t any of us remember a laptop? Don’t we just have a damned phone?!” Diabolik glared around, his arms spread as he shouted out to the men in the arena. No one spoke up, but not one seemed to remember they had either of these things,
either.
“I don’t know why the hell you guys are all so stupid to think we should just wait this out. That’s pointless! We shouldn’t just trap ourselves in here and hope for the best. Isn’t that why we were all brought here? To work together to find a way to stop this? C’mon Urahara. Let’s not just wait here to die, let’s go out in to Bakersfield and find something to contact the rest of the world with.” And with that, Diabolik and Urahara turned to go. Diabolik spat on the ground as they left, but before they could even get to the door, a loud bang was heard, followed by frantic screams for help.
Everyone inside rushed to the door, the screams were human, that’s for sure. The vocal chords were fresh, strained but not corroded and decaying like the ones on the zombies. This one was very much alive still and in desperate need of help. Upon arrival they slowly swing open the big, metal, boarded up doors and in stumbles a young woman. She manages to limp two more steps in to the arena before falling, her firearm falling to the side as she went down. She was certainly frightened and wounded too, (although the fear and adrenaline had put an end to that for a moment) but from first inspection there were no signs of her being infected, no visible bite marks. And as the girl stood up, she was wearing a torn and bloodied but still unmistakable piece of Asylum Merchandise, an “Oblivion’s #1 Fan” t-shirt.
Quickly Warrior and JDV rush over to help her walk further in to the building, but as soon as they touch her arms, she begins to panic and starts screaming – completely gone with hysteria.
“WHERE IS HE?! WHERE IS HE?!”
Warrior and JDV immediately stepped back, startled at the sudden outburst, and Warrior did his best to try and calm her down. Stepping in front of her, he attempted to help her slow her breathing and to tell her story slowly. But even through Warrior’s best attempts he couldn’t help her, she was frantic.
“You need to calm down. We’re friends, here! We can try to help you! Just tell is who you’re talking about.”
“OBLIVION! WHERE IS HE?!”
Warrior took a step back and looked away from the sobbing mess of a girl, attempting to find help in his comrades behind him. But all of them did the same, looked away or down at the floor, no one wanted to be the one to deliver the news to her. Or perhaps none of them wanted to hear this news either. Oblivion was one of the most beloved roster members, and they all tried to ignore the fact that he never made it here. To them, he was still alive out there somewhere, but they knew that this girl wouldn’t take the news that way.
“Oblivion… never made it.”
“No-no-no-no-no… THIS CAN’T BE TRUE! I NEED OBLIVION! I LOVE HIM YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND! WE WERE GOING TO GO AWAY TOGETHER!” Now she’s bawling horribly, shaking, terrified and angry. She was a complete emotional mess, and she falls to her knees, sobbing in to her hands. Through painfully labored, quick breaths her arms fell to the sides and she looked up at them, tears rolling down her unusually pale cheeks.
“I just wanted to see him once… before I died.”
As the ghouls rushed in, Cross immediately went to work, doing what he does best. The first one to reach him Cross stopped its advances by palming it’s head and crushing the rotted, decrepit skull in his grip. Then, squeezing the lifeless sack of skin that once was the zombie’s head he wound up and tossed the beast in to the fray bowling over a handful more beasts before unsheathing Brandrwulf and setting to work on the rest. To Brett, this was no big deal – he’d been fighting zombies for weeks and it had almost become a sport. Through the monotony he’d even made a game out of killing these poor souls, finding the most creative ways to take them down. But the others weren’t so lucky.
Cross was barely in to his fifth kill when there was a sharp scream from the far corner of the room, Brett wasn’t going to take his eyes off of the fight he was engaged in, but without even looking back he instantly knew that one of the warriors holed up in this hall had fallen, and before he could finish off another couple of zombies another man pleaded for his life before his voice cut and gurgled out. Another man had his life taken by the zombies. And after then, it was a slaughter. Cross kept fighting to save his own skin, but all around him the war in the hall turned in to a slaughter – every living man around him fell. Cross dispatched the last zombie directly before him and finally got the break to look back, and as he did the entire scene behind him was painted in blood. Throats torn out of nearly every man back there, and a handful of these fallen warriors were being desecrated further as the zombies continued on after their adversaries passed and continued on to devour their guts as well.
Then everything stopped, the zombies all hobbled back from Cross and left their prey. Brett stood alone in the center of the hall of death, and when he was finally able to tear his gaze from the slaughtered men around him, he looked up to see the Goddess of Death, Hel, sauntering towards him. She smiled her half-smile at him, and winked at the God of Midgaard as she stepped closer. Half of her was the body of a beautiful goddess, but then split straight down the center and her other side was horrific and disgusting – she was half beauty and half zombie, half deity and half undead.
Doing her best to seduce Cross, she moved in closer and stepped right up before him. Their eyes touched, and despite how disturbed one half of her was, the beauty of the other was unparalleled, and she had a special allure to her – one he couldn’t quite understand. She brought her one rotted arm up and wrapped it behind Brett’s head, and then with her other hand she pressed a finger to his lips and hushed him softly, telling him not to fear. That the world was already hers and it would be easier to just give in, to finally stop fighting against what was already his destiny. Brett stared in to her eyes and slowly, no matter how his mind pleaded him not to he brought his hands up and placed them on either side of her head, one on the side of evil and one on the side of beauty.
“NO!”
As the woman’s arms fell to her sides, everyone surrounding her had stepped in to see if she had truly died – none of them could believe how fast it had all transpired. But as they all leaned in, Cross who was standing behind them, lost in his own mind, turned to the girl and knew something was amiss. With a yell that boomed throughout the arena, he ran in, shoving everyone out of his way and made it to the girl just as she began to startle awake. Cross hit her still running at full speed and tackled her to the ground. Her skin was paler now than before, and the only color on her was in the blue veins that shown through from beneath her waxy skin along her neck and arms. Her now yellow, bloodshot eyes snapped open as Cross pinned her down and she screamed out and struggled to bite him. All of the men behind him were shocked, but in the few moments that this took, none of them could act out.
In one fell swoop, Cross had the girl pinned to the ground, and as she reached up to claw his heart out, he swatted her arms away and then with fists clamped together he drove them down, blasting them straight through her face. The nose gave way first as he brought the club down, and the splinters of it drove through her brain, killing her instantly. But then on the follow through, her upper jaw and skull shattered, and her eyes no longer encased in bone flopped out of her face, brain squishing out of her ears as her lower jaw dislocated and rolled to the side as well, held to the rest of her demolished cranium by a thin stretch of pale skin.
As the woman’s arms fell to her sides, everyone surrounding her had stepped in to see if she had truly died – none of them could believe how fast it had all transpired. But as they all leaned in, Cross who was standing behind them, lost in his own mind, turned to the girl and knew something was amiss. With a yell that boomed throughout the arena, he ran in, shoving everyone out of his way and made it to the girl just as she began to startle awake. Cross hit her still running at full speed and tackled her to the ground. Her skin was paler now than before, and the only color on her was in the blue veins that shown through from beneath her waxy skin along her neck and arms. Her now yellow, bloodshot eyes snapped open as Cross pinned her down and she screamed out and struggled to bite him. All of the men behind him were shocked, but in the few moments that this took, none of them could act out.
In one fell swoop, Cross had the girl pinned to the ground, and as she reached up to claw his heart out, he swatted her arms away and then with fists clamped together he drove them down, blasting them straight through her face. The nose gave way first as he brought the club down, and the splinters of it drove through her brain, killing her instantly. But then on the follow through, her upper jaw and skull shattered, and her eyes no longer encased in bone flopped out of her face, brain squishing out of her ears as her lower jaw dislocated and rolled to the side as well, held to the rest of her demolished cranium by a thin stretch of pale skin.
As the two gods embraced, each with their hands about each other’s heads, moving in to kiss, Cross’ brow furrowed and his grip tightened. Then, with a quick flick of the wrist he gripped both sides of Hel’s head and twisted, spinning her head nearly all the way about and snapping her neck. No longer receiving the impulses from the brain, her legs gave way and she crumpled to the floor, falling in to a heap. And as she hit the ground, the zombies looked on, but unlike what the warrior predicted, the zombies didn’t die off, and in fact the groaning picked up once again and they moved in to finish him off. And now Cross, up against a hall full of zombies, including the newly revived and eviscerated undead warriors that had fallen prior, had no idea what was left for him – he was for once at a complete loss for what to do.
As Cross stood, wiping the blood and brain specs from his fist on to his leg, everyone moved in to make sure she was truly dead this time. But without looking for any length of time they unanimously decided that dead or not, she had to go. So, with Xplode grabbing her legs and Cross (the only one who had the intestinal fortitude to go so close to the demolished head) holding her arms, they went to move her outside, but an entire mess of papers fell out of her pockets. As they landed, many of them face up, it became quite clear how obsessed with this man she actually was. There were over a dozen pictures of Oblivion, and each of them adorned with hearts. She was completely obsessed with this man, but even through all of these pictures, one stood out in particular, a piece of paper that fell face-down on the floor, with “OBI + ME 4E” scribbled on to the back of it very frantically.
They set the girl down to go through the papers, and when they found this one, Warrior turned it over and discovered it was actually a pamphlet for a military safe-house in the deserts of Arizona where the zombie infection was least prevalent.
“My god… There’s been a place to go this whole time?” JDV asked as they all moved in to read the paper themselves, it was almost unbelievable. They spent weeks holed up in this arena because of Warrior’s request, thinking (as always) he knew best. When in reality, there had been a place to go with real food and real security this entire time. The thought of being angry crossed their minds for just a split-second before being replaced by the sheer thrill that they could actually make it out of here alive. Arizona was barely a day’s drive out from here, and many of the men who made it to The Asylum Safe-house had driven themselves. If they took the armored car Diabolik and Urahara came in, and pooled all of their gasoline together they’d be safe in no time. And, who knows, maybe some of the friends they were waiting on were already there. As everyone marveled at the pamphlet though, and they excitedly began to make plans to leave this moment, Tom Roberts and The Creep stumbled over to inspect the paper.
“Oh yeahhhh! I heard about that on the… on the radio when we were comin’ out to here. There’s a safe-house in Arizoney. Creeper and I drove right by it and we said “Hey! You know… We should tell someone about this.” Too bad we're all dead though, right Creep?!”
They set the girl down to go through the papers, and when they found this one, Warrior turned it over and discovered it was actually a pamphlet for a military safe-house in the deserts of Arizona where the zombie infection was least prevalent.
“My god… There’s been a place to go this whole time?” JDV asked as they all moved in to read the paper themselves, it was almost unbelievable. They spent weeks holed up in this arena because of Warrior’s request, thinking (as always) he knew best. When in reality, there had been a place to go with real food and real security this entire time. The thought of being angry crossed their minds for just a split-second before being replaced by the sheer thrill that they could actually make it out of here alive. Arizona was barely a day’s drive out from here, and many of the men who made it to The Asylum Safe-house had driven themselves. If they took the armored car Diabolik and Urahara came in, and pooled all of their gasoline together they’d be safe in no time. And, who knows, maybe some of the friends they were waiting on were already there. As everyone marveled at the pamphlet though, and they excitedly began to make plans to leave this moment, Tom Roberts and The Creep stumbled over to inspect the paper.
“Oh yeahhhh! I heard about that on the… on the radio when we were comin’ out to here. There’s a safe-house in Arizoney. Creeper and I drove right by it and we said “Hey! You know… We should tell someone about this.” Too bad we're all dead though, right Creep?!”
The zombies continued to stumble forward, shuffling and groaning that groan that drove deep in your brain and buried deep, that hellish noise you’ll never forget in a million years. Brett was outnumbered more than a hundred to one, but this time there was no chance for retreat. A Viking knows when to retreat, but he also knows when he needs to tough it out and fight with honor. This was the end of the world, he was the only man left, and he had to defend it. So, with a yell, Brett raised his mighty, legendary sword Brandrwulf high above his head and yelled a booming battle cry, one that shook the very foundation of the hall. He was ready to fight as hard as he could to escape his fate, to save his realm, to be true to the title of The God of Midgaard.
But as the sword was raised high, and Cross yelled to the heavens, something incredible happened. Brandrwulf began to shine bright, the light illuminating from the hilt all the way up the blade, it grew brighter and brighter until it encompassed the entirety of the steel, and then when it became too much for Cross’ eyes to handle, as he turned away and shielded himself from its intensity, a white ring of blinding white light shot out from the sword and engulfed the hall. It beamed out in every direction, covering the land and soon engulfing the whole world. The zombies cried out as they were engulfed in the purity and Cross struggled to maintain his footing as the whole world shook with the luminosity. But then, when the light faded, and Cross felt safe to open his eyes once more, the zombies were no longer dead men, women and children – they were all back to normal, healthy people. Even the warriors who were so brutally slaughtered before were back to full health, and not one of them knew what was going on. But then, the next thing Cross checked was where Hel went to, but alas she had disappeared during what had transpired – somehow living to fight another day.
For now though, Midgaard was safe. Brett looked down at the blade, and in his reflection off the blade, he could see the face of Odin, beaming wide and proud: proud of The God of Midgaard for revoking the prophecy of the Norns, proud of The God of Midgaard for saving the worlds from Ragnarok.
