The Mormon chuckled in response to the mall Santa's surprising yet innately disturbing responses. "Ho ho ho" Elder Rivers said. It wasn't quite Christmas yet, at least Elder Rivers didn't think it was, but he already felt a bit of the spirit. Still, spending a holiday without his family and Mormon brothers was like... spending Christmas without his family and Mormon brothers. As the chilling thought came to pass, Elder Rivers shrugged off the bad thoughts, turning them off like a light switch.

By then, Elder Rivers had noticed that Santa wanted Elder Rivers to follow, and so the Mormon did exactly that. "Coming!" he said.

Travis narrowed his eyes at the man as he approached, perking up the second he saw the tank. No one else was dying because of him. No one else was dying around him, if he could help it. His hands were shaking as he watched Ryland's lips begin to change colors, first purple, and then nearly completely blue.

"She's dying, man…", he murmured, placing a hand on top of his head as he sat back on his ass. Just a few days ago, he was laughing with the old man about some of the people who were coming down with this "sickness". They had discussed that the victims were most likely on some sort of bad drugs, and would be brought back to health, but would probably get away with murder. He never thought it would come to all of this, and he damn sure never thought he would be the hero, running around saving people…only for them to die before they even had a chance.

However, as the man approached them, and explained that he was there to help, Travis clutched his gun a little tighter, his sheltered nature not wanting him to trust this stranger. After a second of fighting his own hand, his face shaking in frustration, he let go of the gun, and sighed, reaching out to take the tank.

"Th…Thank you.", he stuttered, not meeting the stranger's eyes. Ryland's mouth dropped open, and a small breath left her chest, and her body fell still, "What? No no no…You don't survive all this shit to die like this. C'mon…"

He passed the tank to Shannon, not even gesturing for her to obviously hook it up and get it running as he placed his hands over Ryland's chest and began pumping. After a few seconds, he pinched her nose and held her head back, blowing in her mouth.

"Give me a break, girl…C'mon…"

Irene looked towards a guy just appearing, he looked a bit scary for her but he seemed to want to help the guy's friend. She wanted to help but she was scared that the guy with the gun would shoot her, if she even makes a step forward. Irene looked at the guy bringing in the tank and giving it to the guy with the gun. "Does she suffer Asthma or something...?" the korean girl asked while she still stood in her place, scared shitless still. What if that guy killed her or something? Irene sighed wanting to help the girl, as she went closer to them, and placed her comfy bookbag on the girl's head for comfort. Irene looked at Travis and back down at the girl, as her index finger went to her neck to feel it, she still had a pump. "I can hear her. Just keep doing what you are doing... if not. I can find some Inhelor or something..."

Ivan's hand hovered in front of the hospital's front door.
Carefully, he opened the door, tactically breeching it as he drew his Makarov and AK bayonet in either hand; CQC would allow him to switch to melee combat instantaneously. He scanned the ground floor of the hospital. There was no way this was abandoned. It was too clean, too new, too smelling like chlorine. Sure enough, there was some group of Americans, huddled around another. One of them appeared to be fondling a woman's breast. Ivan had a poor opinion of the West, but this was ridiculous. Fortunately, it only confirmed his suspicions.
He kicked open the door, and stared at them from under the cold, reflective lenses the mask provided.
"И вот я думал, что я пошел бы целый час, не видя групповое изнасилование. Является ли она синеет? Есть ли у вас некоторые странные удушья фетиш?" he asked them.

Maddox watched as the oxygen tank was taken from him and as the group tried to swap it out for the empty one, trying to help the young woman who looked to be getting worse. He really hoped that she didn’t die right there…not right in front of him at least. It’s not that he was affected all that bad by death; especially since he didn’t know her, but she was young…he couldn’t even really tell if she was a woman yet, and no one deserved to die that young.

The thought reminded him of the “God” that he had once believed in…how the supposed lord and savior of all humanity could let things like this happen to such…innocent seeming people while liars, killers, rapists, and thieves walked free everyday. That was why Cael Maddox chose not to believe; and if there did end up being a god in the sky watching over them, he had some unsavory words floating on the edge of his tongue that he wanted to say to him/her. Maddox new that he wasn’t necessarily a “good” person; that he had done some things that he wasn’t particularly proud of, but now that he had gotten out of prison…and especially now that the whole city had erupted into chaos and death, he really just didn’t feel like seeing this innocent girl die when he had tried to help her against his best instincts.

He began to look around at the group before him, a bunch of kids really. Not that he was old or anything, your thirties are really supposed to be the prime of your life, but seeing all of these teens made him feel old for whatever reason. He wasn’t even sure how to talk to them. He didn’t give one fuck about that kitchen pissing Just Beiber douche bag, and he imagined trying to relate to this bunch would be a crazy task to say the very least…or rather it would have been had he met them before the world had gone to hell, but he was pretty sure that things were different now. As far as he was concerned there were going to be two kinds of people in this situation: Survivors and The Walking Dead, and despite the fact that it pissed him off to even think about it as he listened to them ask questions and talk amongst themselves while trying to save the young woman's life, but he realized that these kids would have a lot better of a chance being among the survivors if they stuck with him, but his brain was yelling at him to just “Walk away you idiot! You did your part now get the fuck out of here”. He decided not to listen to himself, but he had a very bad feeling that this was going to come around to bite him in the ass. 'Maybe I should break the tension a little bit.' He declared to himself.

“Hopefully that will help her.” He spoke trying to lessen the always sarcastic, narcissistic tone that his voice always seemed to have attached to it. “Something tells me this is a little more serious than asthma kid.” He replied to the Asian girl who seemed like she didn’t have a clue in the world what was going on. “Hey, do you not know what’s happening outside? The whole world is going to hell. What are all of you doing in here anyways…shouldn’t you be in school or something.” He asked the Asian, and then addressed the group as a whole, realizing that that ass hole-ish sarcasm snuck into his last question.

Just about that time he heard a door crash open, and out stepped a man clad in what seemed to be military gear…a gas mask covering his face. Instinctively Maddox placed his body in between this man and the young adults as to protect them. ‘What the hell am I getting myself into?’ he asked himself hatefully. Grabbing his axe from behind his back he readied himself for a conflict as the strange man began talking at them in what appeared to be Russian.

Luanne covered her ears as Dot fired blindly into the crowd of walkers. By the time she was done, even more started coming for them and Dot had run away. She wouldn't blame her sister, as the girl was weak, but it occurred to Luanne that protecting her was going to be a tougher job than she had first imagined.

"Dammit Dottie, how'm I s'posed ta protec'chu if'n y'all go runnin' off like ya do?!"

Most of the other group had already run after her sister, and things were about as fucked as they could get in the pharmacy, so Luanne followed suit, swearing as she went. She just wanted to wake up, have a bowl of grits, and head off to school. She wanted to, but she couldn't. It was frustrating and nauseating and she was angry as Hell. When she reached the group near the back door, she brandished her baseball bat at them menacingly.

"You stupid sons o' bitches," she announced to the two women who were already there, "Everythin' was goin' fine 'til y'all showed up! You got any idea what'chu did, breakin' our burricade? Dern near killed us! Hell, might still kill us if'n we don't get outta hurr. Where the fuck is m' gatdam comp- comper- m'damn com-pants-station!?"

As far as Luanne was concerned, these damn yanks could just stay back and beat off the deadies until she and Dot were safe and sound. Who the Hell did they think they were?

Dot was relieved to hear her sister's unmistakable drawl coming from behind her. The thought of her leaving her own flesh and blood behind, that she had considered it, even for a moment... It was a horrifying prospect. She wasn't sure she agreed with Luanne's opinion of these people, though. Nobody deserves to be left for dead, out in the harsh streets.

"C'mon, Luanne. We gotta get outta here. These folks seem decent enough..." She was practically begging. Dot was tired. Tired of facing the world as a duo. They weren't gonna make it on their lonesome. They were just kids. Just kids...

"Ma'am?" she addressed the woman who seemed to be the most important, judging by how the other two were treating her. "C-can we go with ya?"

Santa glanced back as the Mormon declared that he was in-fact following him. He guided River through the halls, passing by many stores which had signs of intrusion, what with broken windows, which led to both glass in the hallway corridor and glass left within the stores. Santa cocked his head to peer into a few of the random stores, noticing various broken shelves and other assorted damages. Oddly enough, as the Mormon pondered upon, the mall-complex was ominously empty, of various creatures.

Growling a bit, Santa continued trekking in the random direction that was chosen, holding out the iron bar ready for whatever danger could come. Well, this was a surprise! Santa gestured towards the Mormon, before pointing out a vehicle that was behind red ropes, one of those cars for some random mall contest probably. Surprisingly it was still there, and at this distance looked potentially usable.

Though, Santa slunk a bit down, lowering the iron bar. It was not in fact a merry sleigh. But maybe, with a little Christmas Magic, it could be! Growling a bit more, Santa pondered on whether or not this device could be turned into a proper Christmas Sleigh. After all, he was Santa, and he needed the sleigh. "HRO! HRO! HRO!" Santa declared enthusiastically, at the concept of turning the thing into a workable sleigh.

As he walked through the halls, Elder Rivers had realized that in spite of the obvious signs of damage, there was no blood anywhere. It was almost as though people made an organized effort to have everything lifted off the shelves before taking off. Elder Rivers had calculated, however, that not many of these people made it very far. That is, if the horde of zombies waiting just outside the broken automatic doors were any indicator.

With his mind occupied with other things, Elder Rivers had blindly followed Santa. He was too distracted with what happened to be cautious of anything attacking. If something did attack, he was doomed. The last thing he could do was die an honorable death, the way his partner would have wanted. The Mormon would be loyal to his church to death. Then, God would give Rivers his own planet for all the wives he was too young to marry before he died.

Before he knew it though, Santa had stopped. "What is it?" Elder RIvers asked. "What's wrong?" Then he realized it. Before them was a car. Elder Rivers wondered why, of all things, the car wasn't stolen amongst the chaos. Nonetheless, it seemed that Santa wanted to make the car his getaway vehicle- or rather his sleigh. Elder Rivers nodded to communicate his understanding.

He crawled under the roped and opened the driver's seat door, which swung open without much effort. Alas, there was no key inside.

Ah excellent! The driver's side door of the red SUV, which was a Ford Explorer opened up! Santa was elated by this fact and scurried around and over the red rope, taking an exaggerated step over the rope, to the passenger seat on the front side, and opened the door. Oh this was a stroke of serendipity, both doors were easily opened. Santa glanced at the back seats, and placed his iron bar back there.

As for his backpack, he slung it off his festive Santa jacket, and gingerly placed it on his lap. He glanced at the Mormon and decided to question him in a terse and concise manner. As such Santa made revving noises, while cocking his head slightly askew to the right. Though Santa quickly tilted his head back when he noticed the hat was now askewed.

This vehicle would be designated to serve the holidays! Santa just knew it was a matter of how much Holiday Spirit would need to be applied to get this Proto-sleigh to work.

Callum - Pharmacy

Callum was in shock, pure and simple. He kept staring at the headless body that flopped to the ground pouring blood all over the floor. He trembled a bit then closed his eyes and time seemed to stand still. Suddenly he was back at home, back with his sister in the home they received from their parents. Callum was wearing a soccer uniform and Holly was running around trying to make sure everything was ready and that they had everything. In the pharmacy a tear would come to his eye, as the memory played out Callum would seem to just be in a lull. So he did not really feel anything as David tried to get him to come with him.

As the man started to leave Callum smiled slightly and then 'woke' up and fell to his knees as he realized the memory was just that, a memory. His senses told him that he needed to get out of there, and so he did springing up and sprinting after David and the others from the group. The smaller girls were a bit angry it seemed but Cal was far to out of it still to really comprehend. He latched himself to David's side and just made sure to stay near him.

________________________________________________________

Holly Smithen's - Shopping Center

BANG! BANG! BANG!

BANG! "Where is he, motherfucker where is he!" Holly was screaming at the top of her lungs as he used the benelli shotgun to start blasting zombies coming to close to her. She had entered the shopping center where she dropped off her brother Callum earlier and trying to be quiet worked for a bit before she accidentally set off a stores alarm. Then she had a problem. She was forced to head to the second floor and jump down to the first to even get away from the swarm of reanimated dead and even then had to shoot her way back to the patrol car where she started the engine and took off down the road crying hysterically. She passed a pharmacy being attacked by the dead and pitied the souls inside. Her next stop was the hospital, since who knew maybe her partner did manage to get him before it got to crazy. She had told him to take Cal to the hospital since that was where the government said help would be at.

She drove like a maniac running zombies down and taking the long route to the hospital. Arriving Holly realized that her shotgun was very much empty, so she left it in the patrol car, took the keys and took her emergency knife from her boot. It appeared, from her killing earlier that a direct shot to the brain ended these things so hopefully it worked the same with a knife... She kicked herself mentally for not getting any Riot gear from the department but figured she could always go back after checking the hospital. She approached warily and started clearing hallways searching each room and hall. She made it through most of the hospital then saw a masked man holding a russian Makarov and had a bayonet in the other. Unholstering her sidearm, Holly moved to the doorway and saw the man was speaking to a group of mainly kids, one of them on the ground. Holly's heart sunk but she focused on the situation at hand.

She raised the gun and pointed it right at the back of the masked mans head. "Memphis Police Department, drop your weapons." She wondered whether she even had any more authority but shrugged, hopefully the man had been arrested before and would obey.

Elder Rivers looked carefully at Santa, trying to read his movements. Car engine noises probably meant that he was confirming he wanted to use the vehicle. God knows what the rest meant. "I'm sorry. There aren't any keys. I can't start the thing." Rivers explained. He hopped out of the car and put his hands on his hips. Tapping his feet, Elder Rivers tried to come up with a plan. Should the car suddenly work, it would be a Christmas miracle.

"Santa" he said "you know how to make this work right? With Christmas spirit?" The Mormon traced around the car, looking around the ropes and at the register center for any keys but to no avail. Despirited, the Elder stepped back into the vehicle and shut the door. "Hmm..." he hummed, reclining into his seat. "Do you have a key in that bag? Or something to start the car?" Elder Rivers asked.

Unable to start the car, Elder Rivers resolved that an actual sleigh would be a better choice. Then, as Elder Rivers relaxed, his eye drifted off to something that was right in front of him- a store selling now mobiles.

"Santa" he pointed to the shop before him. "Look"

Santa would have been frowning at how the vehicle would not work. Santa opened the door as he placed his backpack down and grabbed his iron bar with concrete. Stepping out of the vehicle he slung his backpack on. He glanced at the Mormon as he asked if his Christmas Spirit could start the car. And he knew anything was possible with the proper holiday cheer. He gave a nod, just when the Mormon pointed to something far better. He glanced in the direction to see a most spectacular sight!

An actual snow mobile! Santa threw both of his arms in the air ecstatically. The Mormons truly had a knack for finding holy things. Yes, it was a Christmas Miracle.

Santa rushed towards the store, peering through his goggles at the machines. Now THIS, was a Christmas Sleigh! Not a mere Proto-sleigh that'd need constant work to even be considered a sleigh. But it was an honest to goodness sleigh. For the moment, Santa was content to just bask in the sight of it. And of course start humming 'Jingle Bells.'

The door of the red SUV was kicked open, a Mormon hopping out. Elder Rivers was unsure how useful a snow mobile would be without snow, especially inside of a mall, but with nobody around, it seemed like a decent form of alternative transportation, if only for now. Slowly, Elder Rivers made his way toward the store, carefully stepping over shards of glass. Several machines had already been lifted, among other things.

"Santa" he started "Do you want first pick?" Elder Rivers looked around the store. It seemed that the vehicles already had keys on them. He figured that whoever ran the shop thought that nobody would get too far in a snow mobile while inside a mall. He wondered what the speed was compared to a moped. Coincidentally, before Elder Rivers, was an actual moped- mall cop attached.

"Sorry" he whispered, before carefully lifting the moped. Turning it on, Elder Rivers did a donut around the SUV and stopped before the glass in front of the snow mobile store.

This was a most important decision, Santa knew he'd have to carefully select the proper one to be a sleigh. Santa peered on, while he continued to hum more Christmas Carols. Wandering to the back he had found the one that would serve as the sleigh. Pretty standard thing, but, it had some tinsel on it, making it a perfect sleigh. Well, as perfect as it could be in a mall instead of the natural snow. Plus it had the key in it.

Santa hopped on the machine and turned on the ignition. It purred on, as Santa began driving it forward. The treads were moving, and it was making a hideous scrapping sound against the store floor, and wasn't really going all to fast... But it was still moving which is what mattered. Santa paused as he got off the machine and confirmed, okay the store door was open. He got back on and drove the thing out, crunching a bit of scattered glass in the process. Noticing his Mormon compatriot retrieved a moped he glanced back at the SUV, while getting off the snowmobile sleigh.

Peering between the two of them he growled annoyed. The SUV would need more work to become a Christmas Sleigh, but surely it would be more mobile, and had more room for presents. But the Snowmobile was far more festive, and would be much easier to go around in. But that was just for snow, and it lacked space to carry more presents.

In this conundrum, Santa gestured with his iron bar pointing between the two of them. He had to make a decision. Christmas would depend upon it. Santa glanced at the Mormon, while he continued the gesturing pointing pattern.

Selina
"Ma'am? C-can we go with ya?" Selina wanted to say yes. She’d never hated kids. If she had, she wouldn’t have agreed to have a family with Kate. Wouldn’t have been so ecstatic when they had found out Kate was pregnant.

They had started baby shopping as soon as that pink stick had confirmed Kate’s pregnancy. Baby blankets, small pink onesies, hanging mobiles, a beautiful crib…That was all back home, in their apartment in New York. Selina had praised the gods that neither girl had pets. Leaving a cat, dog, bird, bunny, or even fish behind in this hellish nightmare would have kept Selina awake for hours at night. And already, she was barely getting any sleep.

But forget all of that for now. She was usually good with kids. But this girl had struck a chord. This one had insulted her family. Right now she was seeing red, so to speak.

“Listen here, you little bitch,” she spat at the twin who had found it somehow beneficial to scream vulgarities at them, “This is my fucking wife, my fucking baby. Would you do anything for your sister? Well I would do anything for my family,” she growled, jabbing a finger in Kate’s direction, “I was not about to wait outside that hell hole of a pharmacy so those things could have devoured us. Why don’t you little fu-“

Before she could finish her sentence, Kate’s hand (typically very gentle and caressing) collided with her cheek.

“Ow,” she whimpered rubbing her cheek, her rant abruptly halted.

“Now you listen here, Selina Gupta, you will not tell these girls to go fuck off. They have no one, and quite frankly, you know they’ll have a harder time surviving. And for that matter, so will we." Turning to the girls, she said, "You girls can come with us, Selina doesn't mind.”

Selina grumbled an inaudible, and begrudging agreement, and before she could protest, Kate began the introductions. David had made it out with the small boy latched onto his side, looking very much like an unwillingly babysitter. He was saying something like, “We’ll be okay, kid, don’t worry.” Huh. Imagine that. David actually comforting a kid. Selina nearly laughed, until he said,

“Why’s your cheek so red?” She then proceeded to become extremely silent, glaring daggers of death at her highly confused brother-in-law.

Meanwhile Kate was still doing introductions, “I’m Kate, this angry lady here is Selina, my wife, and this guy is my brother, David.”

David waved half-heartedly to the two girls, while Selina exaggeratedly rolled her eyes.

“We have to get out of here,” David piped up, glancing back to the pharmacy with concern, “We need to find safety…”

Both women turned to him, prepared for whatever idea he had in mind, but he just raised his hands and said, “You two are the smart ones. Figure something out.”

At that moment, a patrol car zoomed by at top speed.

Selina wanted to scream, and she figured so did the others. Scream for whoever it was to stop, wait. But by the time they had reacted, the car had already sped off.

"Zombies don't drive, right?" David stated dully, looking unhappy with their missed opportunity.

"No, but people can." Turning to the group, Selina said, "If we can find a car with keys, we can follow in that general direction. And if not, we follow on foot. Whaddya guys think?"

Dot was relieved that the hostilities had ended so easily. She knew Luanne's temper wasn't yet soothed, and resolved to get a move on before she accidentally said something nasty enough to change the pregnant woman's mind.

"I'm Dot. She's Luanne. We're twins." She was attempting to keep it simple and impersonal, in case things got ugly. It was harder to leave someone behind when you knew their life's story, and Luanne was right: family did come first. "I think the hospital's that way. Maybe they've got some kinda emergency center down there. Ain't a bad spot for an emergency center." Dot actually felt rather proud to have come to such a conclusion. She needed these people to think she was useful.

The tank was thrust into her hands, as Travis more or less literally placed Ryland's life in her hands. It was a little heavier than expected and she stumbled a little; she'd expected a lot more guidance and support but no one volunteered to escort her to the room. What if more.. things, showed up?! She lingered a little longer in case there was a volunteer, before she twisted her body and tried to quickly and efficiently navigate herself down the hallway with a large heavy canister held in both hands.

The fact that she was trying to move quickly resulted in her being unable to move quietly, her feet landed quite heavily per footstep against the marble flooring and she was scared she was bringing obvious attention to herself. She heard a foreign language behind herself, and she wondered if the older man or Travis were foreign; the language used sounded definitely European, and neither of the two looked like they suited the bill. The way they spoke was urgent; despite it being impossible to translate, but Shannon couldn't go back and resolve the issue. She was already resolving Ryland's. Her inability to breathe.

It was a chore to get a hand to the handle without dropping the tank but Shannon accomplished the feat. She pushed downwards, and there was an abrupt clicking noise and a quiet "bleep". The door was locked. The only justifiable reasons she could think of for the locking is that someone left and didn't want anyone to go in, they were hiding in there, or they'd locked something else in. Shannon thought quite quickly on her feet and decided there was only one solution, she took a step back and raised the tank over her head. Taking a deep breath and a few moments to aim, she swung the tank as hard as she could against the doorhandle.
It made a dreadfully loud sound that probably travelled to Cael, Travis, and the Korean but once again she didn't have time to check. The handle had fallen from the door and there was a softer clicking noise which Shannon assumed was the door unlocking. Using her body to open the door, she entered the room that she believed could save Ryland.

(OOC: gonna leave it there for if people wish to come with Shannon and we can decide whether she encounters anything inside. Talk on OOC though I just thought this'd be easier to notice here.)

"I..."

Luanne would likely have continued her verbal assault in the midst of a zombie apocalypse if Dot hadn't pleaded with her. She would also have said something exceptionally rude and laced with profanities if her sister hadn't made with a quick, concise introduction. An introduction that Luanne took to mean 'Please stop talking now before you say something everyone will regret'. Thus, she bit her lip.

Luanne still didn't trust these folks, and was fairly certain that they were lying, but she supposed that Kate and David seemed nice enough. David had saved that little boy from the store, and Kate slapped Selena when she was yelling at her.

"How's a girl have a baby with another girl, though? Can they even marry each other? Why would two girls marry?"

These thoughts occupied Luanne's mind as she looked around for cars with the keys still in them. At least none of these folks knew how to hotwire one of the things, because that would tell her to stay right away from them. She rapped gently at the window of each car with her bat to make certain there were no walkers inside before moving to the next one, making sure to check each thoroughly. Thankfully most of the zombies had moved around to the front of the store, but because of the gunshots more would likely come from all over soon. The screaming yankee bitch was right; they needed to find a ride.

The Mormon took another few laps around with his moped, looking back at Santa to see what he way doing, noticing that Santa still hadn't picked a vehicle. He still seemed somewhat fixated on the idea of driving an SUV in spite of not having a way to turn the car on. Elder Rivers looked at the snow mobiles and wondered why Santa didn't just take one. Then, he had an idea.

Elder Rivers drove into a gift shop, taking several reindeer horn-ears, and a bottle of wood glue. He placed the ears at the front of each snowmobile, carefully gluing them together. With as much strength as he could muster, Elder Rivers pushed the vehicles toward the SUV, lining them up in front of the car. Finished, he rubbed his hands together and sighed, proudly putting his hands on his hips to look at his work.

"There" he said "Maybe we can't get the car to start, but we can have the snomobiles drive the SUV until we can find a key for it!"