Zombehs

Dungeon Crawl Village- Like Etrian Odyssey with base building

Herro.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Gregory Irving

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‘Huh…’ This sort of luxury was something Gregory had never before expected to experience, much less now that he was an subnatural. Allowing his attention to wander, he wound up blinking hard to keep himself from staring at any of the other patrons as they judged the odd group. Drumming his fingers against the palms of his hands, a slight sigh escaped as the lift’s doors closed and it began to ascend.

The penthouse was every much as impressive as he might have expected, and he gave it about as much attention as he paid the officer’s briefing. It wasn’t like he had planned to leave the hotel even before the warnings given. Once only the four guards remained, Gregory headed to claim one of the dozen rooms as his own. The luxury of it all would probably be wasted on him as his, but he sure as hell wasn’t about to have a roommate for however long they were stuck here.

The gym a few floors down and the swimming pool both saw a fair amount of use, and while he tried his hand at the supplied violins a few times, he gave them up as a bit too different from what he already knew to pick up quickly before long. Things were a bit of a blur if he was to be honest, and it wasn’t like the sleeping pills helped. Sometimes it was the middle of night when he awoke and headed down to the gym, tiring before heading back up to the penthouse to sleep it off. Not healthy, but it was easy enough to stick to and left little waking time to dwell on things.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Gregory Irving

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Sitting cross legged atop the roof, Gregory looked up from the phone in hand as another voice transmitted through it. Seemed like the situation to the south had been dealt with if the fading golden pillar was any sign to go off of, but frankly he had no idea what was actually happening anymore. Guess that was sort of inevitable when he isolated himself like this. Drumming his fingers against the rooftop, he let a few more moments of silence pass before he stood and watched as the loaded APC began to move again. Turning around a few times, he looked over what remained of the town from his vantage point and figured it’d probably be best to be back when USARLIN decided to pull out.

Dusting himself off as he stepped out of the fairly untouched building, Gregory took a few moments to study the streaks of blood he walked past as he headed east back the way he had originally came. If the transmissions were anything to go by, things had gotten pretty messy with the others. Probably worse than just looking at the aftermath of what had happened to the town before they arrived. For a moment he wished he had his notebook on hand, but the thought disappeared with a frown. His pace was measured despite the apparent all-clear the map displayed, and he glanced about at the relative calm that seemed to have settled for the moment. Not like there was anyone calling on him to hurry his ass anyways.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Gregory Irving

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Peering into the building, Gregory quickly sighed in relief at the clean conditions within. That wasn’t to say the place wasn’t trashed, but at least there weren’t blood splatters and signs of a desperate struggle within. He glanced towards the map again, studying the movements it displayed before he flicked out the baton and stepped inside. Pausing after a few steps as Brent’s voice cut through the silence, he restudied the map as the other student spoke, but ultimately dismissed it as something that he couldn’t be concerned about. There were other groups closer, and he’d just wind up as another casualty if he decided to head over there.

Putting aside any plans of rummaging through the building for the moment, Gregory made his way up to the building’s top floor before finding a window he could use to clamber up onto the roof. The apartment building probably would have worked better for this, but he had a feeling Brent wouldn’t have appreciated his presence there. With a shake of his head, he clipped both baton and phone back onto his belt before finding something to tie another bundle of rope to, forcing the window fully open, and then hopping out for the roof top.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Gregory Irving

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Sighing in relief as the construct stopped its pursuit to wander north towards the offensive support instead, Gregory studied the map for a few moments before determining the other three weren’t threats either. Well… the two that continued towards the theater were close enough that he didn’t want to hang around, but he probably had a minute or two before they’d start to move away from their destination. Looking around at his rather bleak surroundings, he frowned for a moment and brought the phone up. “Off. support. Collector heading towards you.”

With the bad news delivered, Gregory decided to make his way further west. While the closest buildings were pretty much levelled, it looked like there was one on the north side of the street still standing. Way further than his original position, but it was about the best he could get going from the map. Flicking the baton out and refolding it as he walked past busted up stores, he occasionally paused to look in through shattered windows and glance at the map on his phone.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Gregory Irving

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Fighting back the urge to vomit as the stench nearly forced him away from the opening, Gregory settled for looking away after taking in the conditions. Probably been a bit too much to hope for sewer channels in a small town like this. Taking another glance, he shook his head again as his eyes watered from whatever the hell was in the air down there. ‘Next time, gas mask...’

For now he had to bolt though. Tucking away the flashlight and looking at the map again, Gregory figured his best bet was to head north a bit before actually cutting west like Brent had mentioned earlier. ”Evac, I’d stop driving straight. Elephants are about to be on the road north of you,” he called into the phone before booking it away from the open manhole.

”Brent. Passing by south of you. Maybe duck out of sight? Coming to a stop as he rounded the corner of the building, he spared a glance out from the corner back towards the theater and then at the phone in hand.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Gregory Irving

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Biting back the urge to curse as the staircase shook and rattled from the demolition happening inside, Gregory forced himself to stop gripping the handrail and continue making his way downwards. A spike of panic punched into his heart as the stairs tilted sideways, and he looked up to see the top pull free of the roof. With imminent collapse looming overhead, he booked it down another flight of stairs before just swinging over the handrails and falling the remaining story or so.

Grunting as he pushed himself off the ground and to his feet, Gregory unclipped his phone before he bolted out of the alley. Even without Brent’s warning, the other elephantine constructs weren’t exactly subtle. The ground rumbled as they bulldozed their way towards him, and a quick glance at his map showed they were making a rather steady pace towards him. “You do mean east right? West brings me face first into one south of you,” he muttered into the phone before he sprinted across the street and ducked to keep low with the damaged buildings.

Even just a glance with his eyes told him that nothing in this quarter of town would do much to impede the massive elephantine constructs. They could just step through or over or knock aside what was left of the buildings. Best case scenario for him? They noticed all the fuss the offensive support was raising to the north of him and went to deal with them instead. For now though, rather than run through the area filled with tripping hazards and difficult terrain, Gregory ran to a manhole cover and tapped it quickly. Drawing a line to the south, away from any of the other students, he ducked aside to let the metal disc rip free and fly off before kicking a bit of rubble down and holding a flashlight over the entrance. ‘Please don’t be empty…’

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Gregory Irving

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Moving from room to room revealed little of interest, and instead just made Gregory want to stop and climb back up to the rooftop. Things like a hard to see splatters soaking into the dark carpet or a cushion savaged and torn apart. About to sigh as he exited from another screening room, he found himself stumbling instead as the building shook violently. Different from the rumbles caused by the elephantine construct just moving about, and the sound of cracking concrete and screeching steel told him enough that he didn’t bother going to investigate.

Pocketing the baton as he bolted for the stairs to the rooftop, he wrenched the fire alarm pull station down as he rounded the corner and ran up, drowning out his movements with the alarms that blared to life. Taking several steps at once, he shut the rooftop door behind him to somewhat muffle the alarm before pulling out his phone.

“Wasn’t seen by it, unless there’s small observers. Isn’t likely it heard me either. Seems to sense things without line of sight. Might be motion based, but don’t bet on that. Let others know, busy.” Having hurled the bundle of rope off the roof by then, Gregory placed the phone back on his belt and looked down to the ground, at the door, and then the ladder down to the fire escape stairs past that. From the rumbles he could feel, it didn’t seem like the construct was about to stop any time soon. Grimacing, he bolted across the roof for the ladder and stairs and hoped the construct didn’t decide to emulate the Kool-Aid man.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Gregory Irving

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He supposed he was fortunate in a manner. Unlike Brent who had to head off in his own for some time from the rest of the support group, his position was pretty much along the way the offensive supporters had to take. Ducking out of the group when he was close enough without a word, he stepped into the movie theater as quietly as he could and looked around at the lobby.

It wasn’t exactly a pretty sight. While not torn apart and warzone-like, he could see it hadn’t gone missed by the clockworks and paled a bit at the sight of red streaks marring the marble tiles. Yeah, he didn’t want to spend a lot of time here. Investigating for survivors wasn’t his task anyways, and he didn’t want to go wandering about in the building by himself anyways. Get to the rooftop as quickly and quietly as he could, and maybe there would be something he might be able to do. Probably not though.

Tiptoeing his way up the stairs, Gregory couldn’t help but look around constantly. Some lights had all been destroyed, while others flickered and lent the building an ominous atmosphere. If only he had Brent’s power and a hearing aid. Maybe he’d be able to hear more than the hammering of his heart. Fingers drummed against the side of the pepper spray can while he flicked out and then collapsed the baton in his other.

Thankfully nothing jumped him as he ascended to the theater’s rooftop, and Gregory peeked out to make sure that was also clear. The flyers off in the distance made him a bit wary to step outside immediately though and he stepped away from the doorway to glance back down the stairs. There were windows down below that’d give him just as good a view of the area, but did he really want to poke around and just hope he didn’t run into a construct that decided to hang around? On the other hand, he also didn’t really want to be out in the open rooftop where the flyers would be able to spot him pretty handily and chase him down.

Hm… it took a few moments before Gregory decided to tie up an escape rope at the rooftop before exploring the floor beneath. At least that way he had something to bolt towards other than the ground entrance if he did run into something hostile. Leaving the bundle coiled up so nothing on the ground came to investigate the dangling rope, he made his way back down the stairs.

—(••[ 𝕎𝕀𝕊ℍ𝔼𝔸𝕋𝔼ℝ ]••)—

Gregory Irving

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“Ah shit.” Sniffing a bit as he returned to the dormitories, Gregory picked his pace up to a run as armed guards entered the building some hundred meters away. Course he didn’t know if they were here for him, but he wanted a chance to get out of the partially soaked clothes if they were. By the time he reached the doors, the light on his cuff had already started to blink and two stony expressions greeted him when he stepped inside. Ignoring the water that flowed and dripped off his jacket, they didn’t spare more than a glance and then a, “Wait here,” before silence resettled.

Their escorts didn’t seem to care if he looked around as long as he kept pace, and there was still much of the school he hadn’t seen yet. His looking around didn’t stop until they had all wound up in what looked like a control room or something, and he was nudged into a seat. The Commander’s voice proved to be equally distracting though.

As the hour finally came to an end, Gregory blinked a few times as he processed and went over all the information that the briefing included. Well they didn’t seem to want him dead at the least. Still… the idea of suppression was laughable, and he was pretty sure the Commander hadn’t missed his snort when his name came up. Well, hopefully the others would be fine while he kept out of the way.

Five mile retreat though? Well hopefully the base was next to a paved road then, or the order never came. Prodded out of the room by the guards once more, he glanced around the dining hall and then towards the umbrella in hand. Tapping the end of it against the floor, Gregory looked towards a nearby clock and then shrugged. Who cared if you’d get fat eating before you slept? He might be dead by the time dinner hours rolled around…

Get some food in him, grab another few hours of sleep, and then head on over to GZ to make sure his aim was still only describable as atrocious? Sounded like a plan. Not a great or even good one, but it was a course of action at the least.

He moved through the meal line quickly, forgoing hot foods for stuff that didn’t have lines. Cereal, the dairy fridge, fruit bar, and so on. Eating was done in a similar fashion, and he was out of the hall with umbrella in hand before everything had a chance to fully settle in his stomach. Uncomfortable damp clothes and a cozy bed were a fine motivator to do so after all.