[IC] Overgrown

[Voltus_Ventus]

10:32AM - Overgrown: Act 1 

The city glimmered in the morning sunlight, the glass that was left in it's tall spires shining brilliantly throwing colidescope effects across the city rooftops and floor. The metropolitan center was only just waking up, large, flamboyant flowers were opening their petals, mutated deer were grazing the grass in streets and other such creatures were hunting and being hunted, all in all it was a normal day, the few survivors left in the city roaming it's streets and buildings, however at a distance from eachother except a small group of them, who were in the same block.

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The morning sunlight fluttered through the grimy windows of the trashed department store, coming down in shafts of dusty illumination. Grahem woke up to the suns warmth on his face - a nice change from waking to things trying to kill him, with a yawn and stretch of his arms he sat up and smacked his lips, surveying his surroundings closely he found nothing was different from last night, his bag was still in it's place, the door was still closed, his mug was by his side, ready to be filled with coffee and a security camera's light was still blinking showing the power was still on. rummaging has hand through his bag he found a box and smiled, pulling it out he ripped the shrink rap from it's surface and read it with a stifled grin.
'O'neil's Instant Coffee', taking a sachet of the grount bean from the box, he returned it to his bag and readied his coffee making equipment, a plain white mug and an empty canteen, 'empty?' he thought to himself disappointedly as he stared into the empty water container, deciding not to sulk about it he got up and walked to the toilet in hope that the taps were still working. Entering the male toilet first out of respect of old rules, going from rusted tap to rusted tap he was repeatedly disappointed by the lack of running water, until that is he got to the last tap, with a shake and a few unhealthy clangs water poured out, none of that crappy, purple tinged, infected stuff but fresh water. Smiling to himself triumphantly he filled his mug and walked back into the main room, opening the coffee sachet with his teeth he poured the contents into the now full mug and sat on a couch and opened up a 4 year old newspaper.
"S- sports huh?"
Whilst reading the moldy newspaper and sipping on Luke warm coffee, he heard  the low rumbling -it wasn't hard to not hear it and it was even harder to not recognize it. Lowering the newspaper slowly he gulped, a large snarling beast was glaring at him from across the table in-between them, the timber wolf's yellow wooden teeth were bared at Grahem menacingly, it's amber eyes locked onto him. As he reached for his bag the wolf approached him, the sound of it's rustling leaves and scraping bark echoing off the foyer's walls, he was groping for his cleaver in the bag when he clutched something large and dry, sighing in frustration he gripped the lump of jerky and tossed it in the direction of the wolf, making it chase after the easier food. As the wolf was concentrated on ripping apart the dry meat Grahem bolted off the couch and out of the front door, running down the open street away from the department store.

[Whirlwind]

Emmi sat on the moss covered sidewalk beneath her, watching a turtle walk lazily in front of her. She had her two bags on her back, one smaller one of medicines and one larger one with all her other supplies, except her bow which was on a sling around her. She smiled at the turtle, and was talking to it about her morning and his. ”It is a brilliant day I think. The sun is shining. The animals are out and about. You’re proving that right now. How are you this morning? Your spines are looking especially shiny today.” she smiled at the creature who paid her no mind. She pushed some of her massively thick and wavy hair from her face when she saw a man running down the street. ”How strange Oliver,”(she decided to name the turtle Oliver)”There’s a man running down the street. You see that?” she asked him, looking curiously over at the guy and tilting her head. In her tranquil state, his panic did seem out of place, but then again she had no idea what he was running from at the moment.

[Apokalipse]

Magnolia’s legs ached, her head pulsed, but she pushed herself on. Sweat coated her body like skin, causing her clothes to stick to her slick body, her perspiration feeding the hungry coarse clothe. Sprinting through the forest, the young woman didn’t dare pivot around to glance at the taunting grips of nature. If asked why she would attempt such a thing, Magnolia would give the simple – to her, at least – and truthful answer: “Piper did it.” While that would be such a hard thing to grasp – how could someone force her to attempt the dangers of the new wild? – it was a relatively average happening in the ex-bartender’s life.

“Run faster!” Piper commanded, and though she usually demonstrated a certain amount of rebellion to such typical orders, Magnolia complied. Her arms swung like pendulums at her side, slicing the air and propelling her forward. Behind her, the ropey vines reached for her like octopus tentacles, itching to snatch her and devour her carcass.

Alas, Magnolia could not run forever and she felt herself slow. Her lungs squeezed painfully with each breath and her legs burned with white fire, muscles compressing in on themselves. Desperate pants escaped her mouth unbidden, acidic slivers of terrible acquiescence in the form of agonizing breaths. With salty tears, she accepted her inevitable death and, as if sensing her resignation, the vines reached her, snaking around her ankle. It pulled tautly, sending Magnolia crashing to the ground and her nose slammed devastatingly into the once-concrete forest floor; a sickening crunch and a rush of blood alerted the dormant Piper and active Magnolia of their shared body’s broken nose.

The lucky vine that won the prize began to drag the fox-like woman deeper into the recesses of the woods, ready for a feast. That was when Magnolia felt the push. It wasn’t a physical push, but a strong mental shove that caused her mind to scatter with pin-pricking, sharp pain. Magnolia was drawn into the back of her own mind, replaced by the daring Piper.

The change was so abrupt and sudden that it was eerie. Magnolia’s desperate crying face altered into the smirking countenance of Piper.

“Bitch, don’t think you can get me!” The alter-ego shouted shrilly, her voice breaking with anxiety covered with bravado. She pushed her shoulder into the floor and propelled her body into a roll, landing on her back. Digging into the backpack carried especially for her, Piper grasped the cool metal of the gun and drew it on the squirming vine. Grinning gleefully, she pressed her finger harshly onto the trigger. Bang! Bang! Bang!

Once released from the grips, Piper struggled to her feet and darted from the breakthrough of the forest that was oh-so-near. The freshness of the air, unfilled with a cluster of towering trees, except for the uncommon bunch, hit her like a cool breeze and she breathed in deeply. Slouching, Piper relished in the rare moment of control.

“Give – me – back – my body!” Magnolia cried and tore Piper from control. Instantaneously, her body straightened and her features softened.

“Finally, the city.” She breathed, though she blinked when a boy – no, man, rushed past her into a breaking run. Figuring that it didn’t mean much good, she reluctantly began to run again, puffing and puffing.

“Hey! What are we running from?”

[Wintergrey]

Astrid sat in the control room of the hydro electric pump watching the small screen off to the side of her. Pushing show Cherrios into her mouth she glanced around at her surroundings. The control room was covered in fast growing weeds, vines hung from the ceiling that hadn't been their yesterday. Everyday Astrid had to wake up cautiously with her spear, for fear that something had managed to break in. For now the metal-beam held the door closed from the mutants out there.

Pulled up on the screen was the CCTV; the videos on played on showing her most of the city. Clicking a few buttons with her mouse she shifted to a new area. She had mapped out the parts of the CCTV that were still up, a few of the cameras had been damaged by the ... plants? Was that really the right word to call them? At the point she had seen so many disgusting and beautiful new hybrids of nature that she wasn't quiet sure what exactly everything was.

Sighing she turned away from the screen and looked out the front window of the control room Astrid could see the forest that had surrounded the outside of the city. Most of the city was taken over by the Hybrids, but outside of the city was just ridiculous. It was so vastly populated with things that wanted to eat her that running into it would be an automatic death sentience.

[Automaton]

Josh sat on top of a building, looking down at the street's below, the plants covered allot of the street he had just run from, how he got into town he couldn't tell you, homemade flamethrower and allot of luck, the cuts on his ankle stung to no end "I am going to kill the next tree hugger I see" he said moving to some shade to get away from the sun. He followed a guy here to empire city, the only lead he had to go on was this letter he had picked up in Odessa. He looked around a little while longer and then moved back into the building.

[Voltus_Ventus]

The voice caught him off guard, even after the fall of humanity it seemed people wouldn't leave him be, turning around to find the source of the voice one of his feet got caught on a root and he tripped, going face first into the concrete road, a sickening crack sounding from his nose, mumbling to himself he started to raise himself from the floor when he realized, someone was behind launching himself from the floor, he produced his cleaver from his bag and held his nose with his other hand as blood dripped from it. Shaking the blade menacingly at his pursuer, he yelled at her.
"B- Back off!" his voice came out nasally as he clutched it, "I D- Don't want t- trouble!", with those words he started to back off, keeping eye contact with the woman infront of him, holding the his weapon shakily  infront of him. He'd never had to kill another person before, only plants and botanicals but never another human, he'd hurt a few before, sure who hadn't but he didn't know if he could go far enough and kill someone. "What do y- you want?!" he called out, if the raider wanted something she could have it, whatever it was it wasn't worth his life, the smell of gunshots was strong from beyond his bleeding nose so he could only assume that it was coming from her.
All of a sudden he felt a deep pang in his heart, looking at the floor where he fell his heart skipped a beat, there it lay broken, shattered into tiny white pieces of stardust, his mug was gone. The feeling of losing his mug was more overpowering then the fear of being held up by an armed woman, so despite the woman being in that direction he shuffled towards the pile of shattered mug and knelt next to it, just looking into the heap.
"my mug."

[Whirlwind]

Emmi watched another girl show up, and begin running alongside the first man, making Emmi’s eyes light up. Perhaps this was a race! She smiled and mentally cheered them both on until the man fell and hurt himself. Quickly bringing her hands to her mouth, she wondered if he was okay. He seemed to be frightened by his fellow runner, shoving a knife towards her and making Emmi feel he must be very sad to turn on his friend like that.

She stood, brushing her shorts off. ”Well Oliver, I bid you good day,” she waved to her turtle friend before walking cautiously up to the forlorn looking man with blood on his face, waving in a friendly fashion to his cohort before tiptoeing closer to the man. After all, she didn’t want a blade pointed at her.

”Excuse me… sir? You seem to be bleeding. I can help with that,” she announced, not noticing his broken mug he was now distraught over.

[baskets]

Two - no, three - gunshots in the distance caught Kelsey Granova's attention. Driven by instinct, she stuffed the canned ravioli she was examining into her backpack, dropped to the ground, and gripped the baseball bat in her hand tightly. She listened intently to her surroundings; all she could see were the scavenged aisles of the small convenience store she was looting. Kelsey was gripped by fear; gunshots were not exactly a welcome sound. After several minutes of silence, Kelsey slowly emerged from between the aisles, tiptoeing to peer over the shelves. Damn being short, I can't see anything, Kelsey thought, climbing onto a shelf slightly to get a better view. She peered over just in time to see several figures run by the storefront. They were moving too fast to be sure, but Kelsey guessed it was a man and two women, and it looked like a pursuit.

Kelsey reasoned her options out for a moment. She could sneak away quietly, or she could stick around and see how these events played out. Both options had their benefits, but sticking around appealed to Kelsey a little bit more. She tightened the straps of her backpack and made her way out of the convenience store, slowly following behind the three running about the streets without a care in the world.

When the runners stopped, Kelsey hid a good distance away behind an abandoned car in the street, out of sight. Were these guys for real? They were out in the open, the guy was about to cry over a broken mug, and one of the women was preparing to treat his wounds. Out in the open. Kelsey almost groaned out of frustration. From the looks of it, none of them were very old. At the very least, none of them looked older than her.

Kelsey stepped out from behind the car, slowly inching towards the small group that had formed. She began planning her escape if things went poorly; hopefully that didn't have to be the case.

[Apokalipse]

Magnolia was a kind lady, one who would never harm another human being even if she was being threatened. It came as a tremulous shock that staggered through her heart when she realized that he felt threatened. At first, disbelief gripped her and she turned around, glancing to see who he was shaking his cleaver at. When it was clear that it was only the two in the vicinity, Magnolia thought back to any random blackouts that could have happened when she arrived. Nothing. Just to be sure, she asked Piper,

“Did you do something to him?” She muttered aloud, her brow furrowing in worry. Piper was a cruel being that couldn’t define the word ‘mercy’ if her life depended on it.

“Heh, I wish.” Piper answered, through Magnolia’s mouth, shrugging Magnolia’s shoulder. It would be disconcerting to anyone who would witness this act, but Magnolia has long since got used to the discomfort of others.

Deciding that Piper should be believed, evidence was on her side after all, the nice woman took a light step forward to the quivering man. Without her noticing, he had begun to distress over a broken coffee cup. “Excuse me, sir, I have no intention of hurting you. Can you please talk to me? Is…someone else after you? Something else after you?”

If he was going to answer, it didn’t show, but it seemed not to matter. Just that moment, another female had appeared. The girl waved to her, carefully creeping up on the man, and though Magnolia wanted to advise her not to – Magnolia was well-versed in the ways of the crazies and this guy must be lose in the head if he’s co-dependent on a mug – she decided it was best that she said nothing.

“Excuse me…sir? You seem to be bleeding. I can help with that,” the girl proclaimed and Magnolia instantly regretted not saying something. She probably though that she did it. What she must think of poor Magnolia to terrorize such a pitiful guy!

“U-Um, I didn’t…mean to scare him. I wanted…” she drifted off, forcing down the reaching hands of Piper who desperately wanted to resolve this situation through a different means.