[IC] Free For All

[MikkishtheLeprechaun]

@Strong Potato

The zombie horde definitely noticed what Zanii had done, but they didn't know Zanii had done it. Most of these undead even had eyes too damaged to see, and all hunted primarily by scent. Instead, as a reaction to the danger that was the 4 (Mostly Mikkish) every zombie in the general area was now limping towards them.

@Gentlemanvaultboy@Karkinos

Worse yet, the elevator was growing tired of it's passengers who refused to leave. Yes, the elevator was getting sick of em. The ground beneath them slipped forward, moving them out and into the zombie infested mall before they had time to react. Then the doors closed, quicker than any normal elevator, and it moved on back up.

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

Dog was content to wait for a bit. The smell was unbearable, no one liked him, and he actually doubted that the zombies were going to go after the big clown. That just made sense, didn't it? There was no real point in going out there when the big guy was perfectly safe.

That's when the elevator tipped itself forward and almost spat his and the blob girl out onto the ground. Dog tumbled into a sitting position, resting on his haunches as every undead monstrosity but one seemed to home in on their position. He stood, grimacing, as the first one stepped forward. Dog reached back his arm and plunged it forward as the thing clumsily lunged at him, wide mouthed. The strike went into its mouth and Dog felt three fingers wrap around the things crooked teeth and with a heavy grunt he he lifted, ripping the entire top half of the things head clean off. The body stumbled for a moment before collapsing on the ground, the half-head cracking against the ground a few feet away.

That was it, right? That's how it was in all the movies. You take out the head and the thing dies. That was Zombie rule #1.

Rule #2, though, was don't get bit. That was another important rule that jumped through his mind, at least for him and Mikkish, as four more of the things stumbled toward him. The safe space that Mikkish has cleared out was rapidly beginning to be filled in, and not getting bitten would be much harder than it sounded if these things were able to come at you from all directions. Dog whipped his leg out at one of the newcomers, sending the thing moaning to the ground, before his spin and bringing his leg high. The next zombie in line had its head shattered like a melon under the force of dogs heel. The other two, however, were right behind that one and Dog felt their grasping fingernails dig in to his arms an shoulders as he brought his leg back on the ground. With their snapping jaws so close he reached up and dug his fingers into both their chests, sinking their their putrefying flesh and holding them at length by their rib-cages as they snapped at him. "Zanni, I think these guys are more interested in us than what you've got to say."

And there were more coming. He could see that their were more coming and that this was only going to get harder the more their were. You couldn't fight them out in the open, there needed to be a choke point. His eyes fixed on the pair of escalators headed to the upper level. Those could work, but there was a sea of these things between them and their small group. He looked grimly between the zombies currently struggling in his grip, then had a idea.

"This way!" He shouted, lifting both zombie bodily from the ground. He brought them close, pressed his shoulders into the chests just low enough to be out of biting range, and let out a scream as he charged into the sea of the dead using the two zombies as a battering ram to clear a path to the escalators.

@MikkishtheLeprechaun@Strong Potato@Karkinos

[Strong Potato]

"Alright. Show us what you got, mouthwash(@Gentlemanvaultboy)!"

Thinking this was kind of a race, Zanni widened his smile and started running towards the same destination.

"Hey Billy, got a present for you. A surprise make-over!" Zanni started chomping into zombie faces, legs and hands, leaving the victims more gruesome and disabled than they were before.

"Gotta love a midnight snack," said the clown while grinding some fingers from an undead adolescent between his teeth.

Zanni also noticed a certain blob(@Karkinos) coming out of the elevator, but kept running.

[Karkinos]

The first floor of the basement lays out before her - a shopping mall! It truly feels like Christmas beneath the concrete holding room with a massive tree to boot, its lights glaring off the store windows, row after row.

The excitement of consumerism hangs heavy and palpable in the air, and while the crowds are a tad overwhelming, and everyone looks like they've dragged themselves straight out of bed - well, for little Candelabra, she's far too sunken into her own head to mind. In fact, she would have preferred to stay put.

But she found herself on the floor - this was the second time of collapse. On one hand, it was embarrassing; she was in public - there were people in droves, flooding the storefront, coming in from all sides. But, on the other hand, Candelabra was unused to company, and introducing a foreign concept turned up to eleven would only make it entirely unrelatable. In addition, she was sulking. So the sullen girl of slime stayed put.

When she heard the ding of closing elevator doors from behind - (And was that a disconcerted grumbling?) - she made no protest. A prone Candelabra face-planted the floor.

Was it obvious to the surrounding world that Candelabra wasn't paying attention? With the curiosity she could muster, this was the extent of her hearing:

SMASSH!

Crrr-UNCH!

(Snap! Snap!)

"This way!"

"Alright. Show us what you got...!"

Maybe it was a little exciting, like an action-horror movie. Something B-tier on the late-running monster movie marathon of a sci-fi channel. Something you watched when you were too bored or depressed to care. And Candelabra was too young to be that depressed.

[Shadow Dragon]

Vinashy looks at the door, and it makes a ding. The door slides open, and he steps in. "Humm, strange magics." It closes behind him, and begins to desend. He sniffs deeply, and his eyes glow softly. He licks his lips. Ah, blood! The sweet scent of living flesh.

[MikkishtheLeprechaun]

The awful stench of decay intensified as chest plates busted open and rotting heads ripped from their necks. In the chaos of the fight, Mikkish didn't even notice when the elevator opened once more and pushed another unfortunate soul into the fray @Shadow Dragon.

Just as the corpses shambled obliviously around Zanii, they behaved the same way towards Candalabra. This wasn't due to them seeing her as kin, like they did with Zanii, but rather due to their preferred diet of human flesh. In her girlish form, some occasionally glanced their rotting eyes at her in curiosity, but ultimately went for Mikkish, Dog, and now Vinashy.

@Karkinos@Strong Potato@Gentlemanvaultboy

As the might of magical energies pulsed through Mikkish' body, his fists tore through the rotting cadavers with much more ease than his appearance would imply he could. Suddenly, one of the escalators seemed to burst with gore, as Mikkish let out a dash attack which either destroyed, heavily maimed, or knocked the zombies off and onto a floor below. He ran past a horde into a store full of bladed weapons. Swords, axes, knives, even morning stars intended for nerdy collectors. They weren't crafted necessarily for sending back the dead, but they could perform that task.

"In here!" He called to everyone else.

[Illiren]

"A Minotaur? Well that would be fun, we probably should not." Ashley looked ahead at the blocked way. "Let's find another way around." Ashley began taking a few steps back, slightly concerned about her companion's coughing fit. If he started getting sick or something that would be bad. She kind of wants to keep him around, not that he was a great conversationalist, she just didn't want to be alone right now.

"Whatever caused the cave-in is probably is busy with that so we could slip past it. can you still walk?" referring to his leaning on the wall and apparent difficulty breathing.
@King Cosmos

[Shadow Dragon]

He wraps his cloak around his body, and bolts. He floats into the room, and scans the walls. He lifts a massive scythe off the wall, and twirls it experimentally. "This will suffice." He turns to Mikkish. "Can you see any bows? That would make a fine weapon for fighting these inferior corpses." As he gets closer, the air begins to smell of blood.

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

Dog felt the undead bounce off left and right from his two struggling shields. He could hear and, because of his size, feel Zanni tramping along beside him, occasionally knocking a zombie or two into his path due to his sheer girth. It was almost as though they were having a race, and with each bump and jostle from one of the undead he felt himself grow a little more frustrated, a little more into it as the rush of combat began to take over.

There was no doubting the pang of uncharacteristic anger that flared up as Dog saw that both he and Zanni had been beaten.
Mikkish had made it first, blazing across the finish line in a shower of gore and dismantling every zombie on the escalator. Dog growled and forewent the escalator entirely. As he approached it he couched and leap, his powerful legs propelling him upward onto the banister of the second floor. Seeing Mikkish dodge past another hoard into some shop Dog reeled back and threw one of shields at the zombies that had turned to follow him. Somehow he'd managed to put a spin on the zombie, and when it slammed into the hoard its flailing limbs snapped as it took most of them to the ground.

He laughed to himself and took that moment to turn and survey the carnage down below. Between him, Mikkish, and Zanni a wide hole had been punched in the hoard down below, paving a blood soaked pathway straight to the escalator. But that hadn't stopped those coming in from the sides around the elevator where, he noted with some disdain, the slime girl was still hanging around. Dog looked over at the other zombie he'd picked up, then at the festive Christmas tree sitting in the middle of the room.

Could he make that happen?

He thought he could.

The zombie slammed into the Christmas with enough force for its stomach to burst, but that sound was dwarfed by the ominous wooden cracking and as it tipped, leaned, and tumbled over from the impact, breaking in half and falling to the left of the slime girl forming a makeshift barricade the zombies would have to climb over to get to her. At least from that side.

He heard Mikkish calling for him and hopped down off his perch, rushing into the...medieval arms store? "Oh-hohohoho," He said, rubbing his hands together. He walked over to the long glass case containing a bastard sword to big for anyone to actually use and smashed the glass, pulling the thing out of the debris and letting it drag along the ground as he made his way back to the door to actually help that slowpoke and, maybe, just engage in a little more wanton violence. He wasn't a swordsmen by any means, but he figured a simple HACK HACK HACK would suffice for this crowd.

@MikkishtheLeprechaun@Karkinos@Strong Potato@Shadow Dragon

[Karkinos]

Ye Ol' Convenient Munition — ding; the doors of the storefront whip open, and a girl steps through, her expression dark, her nose... gone — either smashed in, or ridden of altogether. She strides forward, her feet stick-sticking on the ground, her hands resting in translucent black sweatshirt "pockets." Her straight-ahead stare never wavers; she seizes her prize:

A visored helmet hanging on the wall. Decoration, but Candelabra promptly sits it on her head. She wanders around with this new visage as it clearly proved a detriment to her vision — she staggers into a weapon rack, removes herself with effort as the hilt of a longsword drags the floor, its blade impaled through her torso.

Candelabra's shoulders shake in a fit of silent giggling.

She swings her arms in a facetious march, albeit with such horrific spacial awareness that herself, or her sword, must have bumped into someone on the way to the front of the store. This was not with the intention to leave, for two reasons: the BO outside had gotten ridiculous, and the sounds of butting heads was growing from competitive to violent, to the point where someone had nearly flattened her under the girth of the Christmas tree, something that would take her a good few minutes to recuperate from. Bothersome.

Candelabra never doubted a day at the mall could be so chaotic. It must've been Black Friday. Did that correspond with the holidays?

Regardless, if she was going to trail the group of familiar faces as she currently was, the least she could do was cover their expense. It was the polite thing to do.

Through the visor, she recognized the vague semblance of check-out, ringed the bell mainly because it was there, then spat a medallion out into her hand like a rotten tooth, laid it on the counter.

"What is this?" a rasping voice called out to her. "I don't think I can take this."

Candelabra, not understanding, lets another medallion roll from the back of her throat, down her tongue, onto the counter.

"How are you doing that?" asks the voice, suspicious. "Still, I can't take this money."

(Candelabra is unaware she is interacting with a literal cash register right now.)

[Strong Potato]

Enjoying the flesh festival, Zanni had to take a moment to clean his eyes. Did he actually lose the race to a human? Zanni could not believe it. He must have cheated somehow. Zanni started walking in @MikkishtheLeprechaun direction, occasionally biting off some fingers pointing towards him.

"You know pointing with your fingers is rude..."

These humans are all strange creatures. But something was off.
The ones he met were a little extraordinary...

"Leave some kitchen knives for me, I love throwing them at audiences", Zanni said.

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

Dog wasn't two steps to the door when the slime girl wandered inside. Dog paused and watched as she went past him, her eyes fixed with some profound sense of purpose. She grabbed up a decorative helmet and stumbled into a weapon rack, accidentally impaling herself and knocking a assortment of blades to the ground. This didn't seem to bother her at all. Some deep, deep cash must have gone into her development. What he wouln't give for a body like that.

His eyes were taking off her as Zanni shouldered past him into the store. The two past one another as the clown wandered back to talk with Mikkish and the girl tottered up to the counter to...pay for the helmet.

No matter what this whole exchange was enough of a break in the action to at least let him cool down a little and think things through. The unread weren't here yet, so there was time for that. He reached forward to tap the slime girl on the shoulder, then stopped after he saw the state of his hand. And his sleeve. And his shirt. And a little on his pants, no doubt. He had not been able to avoid splatter and it chilled him to the bone to think just how long it would take to get the stench off his hands.

He wiped his hand on his shirt as best he could, deciding they were in a mall anyone so he would be able to get a new one, and crouched down to tap the slime girl with a hand that was mostly clean. "Uhhhhhh, hey." He said. "I don't think we're expected to pay for any of this stuff. I think it's like, y'know, kind of rules of nature in here."

@Strong Potato@Karkinos@Shadow Dragon@MikkishtheLeprechaun

[Shadow Dragon]

Vinashy looks at Dog confused. "Rules of nature? Rules clearly don't apply here. Unless you think that a talking metal box is normal." He grins, showing his fangs. He turns to Zanni. "Clown. Do those zombies still have any blood in them? I'm thirsty." He licks his lips. He takes a massive recurve bow off the wall, along with a quiver full of arrows.

[MikkishtheLeprechaun]

@Shadow Dragon@Gentlemanvaultboy@Strong Potato@Karkinos

Mikkish picked up a couple of samurai swords, intending to dual wield them both. In theory, he would be a badass bladed whirlwind of death, but when he actually held one in each hand, all while lacking any idea how to efficiently use the weapons aside from hacking and slashing, he realized it would be far too clumsy. He tossed them aside, and instead picked up a decently heavy morningstar and a war axe, not much different from a melee class Skyrim character.

Seeing the vampire, Vinashy, he nearly mistook him for a zombie and stepped towards him with weapons ready to strike. He stopped himself, however, when he realized Vinashy was speaking like an intelligent human. He paused awkwardly.

"I think there is a gun shop here too. Way better." Mikkish said, considering Vinashy might be a vampire. In his world, many vampires preferred dated weaponry as they were usually quite old themselves.

At Zanii's question, he simply pointed to the case holding various knives, ranging from folding pocket knives, to hunting knives, to kunai. He then walked outside and began his killing spree once more. Seconds after he dashed out of sight from the other, a mess of gory bits splashed the windows.

If one listened, they could hear the word "STARS" being uttered in a low growling voice.

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

"Huh?" Dog said, confusedly looking the new guy over. "Nah, it's totally normal. You put your token in, the electronic voice goes 'OH! That's a Winner!' and a prize comes out the bottom."

It struck Dog that this might not be entirely normal even for people that had been manufactured in Labs. Ordinary folks did the same stuff the slime was trying to do, bringing money into big stores like this to buy whatever they wanted. Dog didn't get that. It seemed much less exciting. "At least, uhhh, that's how it worked where I was raised."

He felt Mikkish slide past him back outside and all too soon heard the now familiar splattering sounds commence again as more viscera splatted up against the glass. "You know, in movies they tell you that you shouldn't get any of that stuff in your mouth or eyes, or else you get infected with whatever made the zombies in the first place. So we should try to avoid that."

The low, rumbling "STARS" reached his ears at about that time. "And that too. Maybe. I don't think that's friendly."

@MikkishtheLeprechaun@Shadow Dragon@Strong Potato@Karkinos

[Shadow Dragon]

".....What is a "gun"? Some kind of magic? And this..toe-kin object? What do they do?" He lifts a large knife off the wall, tests it's weight, and slips it into his robe. He looks at Dog curiously. "What are you? A Werewolf?"

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

"If you want to think about it like that, yeah. Werewolf isn't that far off I guess. And tokens are those big things she's using to try and buy stuff." He pointed down at the blob girl. "Guns are...I don't like 'em. They make way to much noise, hurts my ears. You ain't from around here, huh? What sort of time capsule they pull you out of?

@Shadow Dragon

[Shadow Dragon]

"Last I remember, I was asleep in my castle, deep in Reaper's Hollow." He looks around, and lifts a large hammer. "Three questions. Is there anything else in here that could be deemed useful, anyone got any blood to spare?" He looks at them, then grins.
"And what, pray tell, is a time capsule?"

[Karkinos]

Candelabra doesn't have an immediate response. She's disoriented by a "rules of nature" that, through connotation, she would never apply to a shopping mall. And she can't insert herself from there as the figures she can hardly discern go on about their own misunderstanding. The girl reaches an epiphany: they don't know who one another are. And it may have been obvious that this is another world entirely, but Candelabra, someone who barely saw the full span of her own home when she could, was just beginning to recognize the full extent of their abduction.

The worst part was she couldn't share any of this, maybe turn the discussion into one speculation and answer-seeking - she can't speak. It was times like this it became so inconvenient, and it forced her attention to drift to other things, like a hint of red in the limited vision her helmet allowed.

"'Stars?'" cries the register. "Nngh, someone go kill that thing. I'm already sick of these zombies."

[Gentlemanvaultboy]

Dog signed, but just a little happily. He was used to doing what metal boxes told him to do. They usually knew things he didn't, and it was comfortingly familiar to be given a mission from one even in these circumstances. "Okay. You and me can have a longer talk after whatever made that sound is dead and we've found a safer home base than this. I'd love to know what this Reapers Hollow is. It sounds pretty old school."

With that Dog turned on his heel and marched out the door, instantly stepping into a puddle of tick black blood left behind by Mikkish's earlier escapades out here. Still resting the giant sword on his shoulder he made his way in the direction he thought that "STARS" sound had cone from.