Zombiedude101

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

@Atrophy I updated my post to account for yours you got in just before me.

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

Grand Ridge - Conference Room
_{@Surtr Inc@Atrophy}

---

Nate struggled to follow the multitude of conversations going on in this room, though he was able to pick up a few names here and there. Much of it looked to have descended into a dick-measuring content when in came the presence of a real, live fucking bat in the room - flying straight out of the ass of some blue haired guy who, who in turn couldn't necessarily be pinned down as a guy or a girl. As far as Nate was concerned, they were androgynous

In fact, judging by the silence on his part, he'd taken this better than the others had - and who could blame them? None of this shit was normal in any sense, even-

"Quiet!" All light in the room disappeared. Not faded, not seeped out - disappeared, as though it was never there or as though they were covered in a shroud of dark. It was an almost terrifying experience and would've been even moreso for Nate had he not already been through his own self-discovery of powers and the wonderful things to be done with them. Not helping to tarnish the intimidating visage once the lights were back on was the owner of that voice that had told them all to shut the fuck up, a shorter, skinny guy - one whom Nate had already pushed aside in his mind as yet another face in their crowded group.

More bickering followed. Billy, the guy who'd been the earlier bat's original target slunk back into his chair whilst Penny, who he did know (if only by their earlier acquaintance and her 'bumblebutt' monicker) laid into another girl, Claire for laying into him. Yeah, this was a clusterfuck - and for a change he didn't stick his hand into the grinder. Not least because he too was pondering on the implications of it all - thank you for raising that, Penny - then the other girl, Britney, started giving her own explanations for it all.

At least she had a rough idea of what it was they dealing with. Perhaps too much, though he'd never quite put two-and-two together in this instance... at least until she presented to the collective group this diary of hers which at one point had been signed and scrawled by a John Reid. The same John Reid who rang absolutely no bells with him but, as Britney would explain, was the kid they'd seen under attack in their dreams. Now he was dead dead, for-real dead.

And worse yet, all the shit he'd seen and consumed in years' worth of video games and other media... this whole thing was a clusterfuck to take in. He was an 'awakened'? Something like that usually came out of a game, like a character class in one of those crazy JRPGs or a monicker given to the protagonist by some oracle types. Hell, there was even a fucking word for his phasing-through-shit power, it was an 'abstraction' - with all the burdens and responsibilities that entailed. So he'd be expected by this dead guy to be a 'Guardian' for this town? The same town in which he'd spent a tiny fraction of his life in contrast to Bellevue, where he was still the loner, the lost new face.

Claire raised that point before considered doing so, thankfully at first, though he felt a quick pang of shame when Penny laid straight back into her for her 'cowardice', pointing out that Scott Reese (who, yes, also had an 'abstraction' - one that turned him into Bruce Banner's backwoods cousin) was still out there and ready to do more harm to them. Or, for that matter, to other people - what about his Uncle Quent - would he be able to handle that if he ran into him on the job? Especially without even knowing what he was getting into?

Even then, what could Nate do? Penny's argument was poisoned with her last comment - the one about Claire's friend in the coma. That, of all things, managed to strike a personal chord with him and for that, he had to get some kind of retort out, even if it was a poorly humoured one that went back to their earlier conversation, "Hey, you should probably put those used tampons away before they start flying around the room again and hit someone in the face like the bat hit your uh - friend, there." He was, referring to Billy sat next to her. They looked familiar, maybe they were actually... whatever.

Either way, it was a bitch move, even if she was right about the rest of it all.

Investigation into a murder was another matter, though... one he'd still have sooner left to the likes of his Uncle Quent - the man was a veteran cop of the West Coast's biggest city, after all. For emphasis, Britney decided to drop another bombshell on them. Great.

"Threats?" Nate finally threw his arms up, "You mean like that cannibal-monster thing that tried to make your not-dead friend dead before he could go on to die just now?" It was a legitimate question - the idea of a thing like that coming after him freaked him out. Even if he could just let it pass through him, just having something like that... no. "Would guns even work on them?" Shit. That was a thought he'd spoken aloud, though now he'd said it - he meant it. This was Montana, right? And people like Quent had all kinds of stuff on hand for shooting - probably even some of these guys, too.

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

Grand Ridge - Conference Room
_{@Surtr Inc@Prosaic@Atrophy}

---

As he was prone to do from time to time, Nate had almost slipped up on attending this little group meeting on account of being distracted with his thoughts on recent events. It was only a prompt from his phone (thank god he'd set an alarm) that he'd kicked into gear, stepping up the pace to arrive.

When he finally hit the door however, he felt a pause overcome him. What did he hope to achieve by showing up here? Understanding? Direction? Friends? Perhaps at least - if there were others like 'them', that would be something. As far as talking about his powers stood, the trio of girls had been the only others to discover the truth about his power and even that was because they'd seen it in action. Nobody else would or even could understand, there was no talking about it either - not even to Quent or Viv. Last night, he'd tried to picture how that conversation would go.

'Hey, guess what? I can walk through walls now!'

At best they'd think he was bullshitting them for the fun of it. At worst? That the pressure from what happened with Mom was finally catching up - and treat him like some kind of mental case.

Nope to that, Nate decided - besides, Quent and Viv already had enough shit on their plate without him throwing more onto it. Biting the bullet, Nate stepped inside just as the conversation was already ongoing, allowing him to catch the tail end of one discussion.

"-luminati dude was like ‘He’s an Awakened’ and then I woke up, which is pretty crazy timing, if you think about it, right?” The speaker in question was a tall, almost lanky guy with thick black glasses. Then an asian girl spoke up affirm what he'd heard last, "I also had that nightmare,"

So that dream did mean something?

Eyes flickering across the room was quick to recognise Lynn, Aliana and Penny, all sat close by one another. As for the rest, most of the faces here he could vaguely recognise and perhaps even put a couple of names to at a stretch, but it was only the trio who'd been showboating their powers to one another that he felt any real sense of familiarity. He quietly slipped past the others, aiming to take a seat beside them.

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

Mfw my character's relationship table reflects my real social life.

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

Grand Ridge - Outside
_{@Surtr Inc@Prosaic@Atrophy}

---

Stalking wasn't exactly Nate's forte but the girls seemeed preoccupied with whatever it was they were focused on, probably . Lynn seemed to be leading the trio, taking them on a path which led towards the edge of the academy - out of the way of others, in other words. Once or twice he had to duck down behind a trash can or tuck into a space in the wall - and he was surprised even so they didn't catch his fat ass behind it. Eventually they came up to where the collective campus' trash was dropped for collection... and Lynn was drawing a symbol on the wall? What? Was this some kind of satanic ritual thing that the weird girls around this place did?

Before he could continue down that line of thinking, the symbol began to glow. And then-

What?!

Nate fell backwards, almost knocking over one of the trash cans he'd been knelt behind to watch this little scene. A pillar of flames had erupted from the symbol, scorching the ground and plants around it - Nate could almost smell it, if only for a second. The girls almost seemed surprised by it too, just a little - or at least like they were enjoying the show. Which confirmed that feeling in Nate's gut - what was going on? The curly haired blonde seemed excited for sure, then she followed up with a trick of her own - blasting a bunch of pens into the wall like the birdshot from the twelve gauge Quent got him to try out at the range that one time.

At least that time Nate didn't end up nearly knocking over the cans and catching their attention when he saw that - but it was still mindblowing to watch. The collective memory of all eighteen years' worth of video games he'd run through couldn't hold a candle to seeing something like this.

Finally, the third girl - the other east-coaster with wild hair - stepped forward, looking to show off what he could only guess was a third trick? It had to be - Nate could see a glow emanating from her wrist, then... nothing? Literally, nothing - she disappeared. Then, so did Lynn - leaving only the curly blonde to watch. It didn't last long - both reappeared in the span of a couple of seconds, but hell - that made three things that Nate hadn't expected to see today, nevermind one.

Only thing that he couldn't help but notice was, like him, they took it in stride. Most people would've freaked at that - Nate? Maybe not so much, at least after the first couple times - but here they were, laughing, joking and showing off - Lynn scrawled another sigil on the wall and watched as a gust of wind blew from out of nowhere, scattering loose trash all over the place.

Again, the curly blonde started talking about it - how great it was, then dropped a name for the other east-coaster - Aliana. She made some good points, too - it wasn't like people wouldn't notice if they went ham on the place, throwing pens and chairs around or blowing up a classroom. What would he do if he was invisible? Peek on the answers for a test? Check. Sneak inside of a bank vault? Check, sorry Quent. Hang out in the boys' showers? Well, seeing as he didn't need to be invisible to do that already, it was kind of a moot point - though, genders swapped, no - that was a line he wouldn't have crossed. What would Mom have said to that? Jesus.

Tossing her bag at the wall in a surprising change of tone, she started calling herself out, then... calling them out. She made the point he'd thought up just a couple moments back about not freaking out, then pointed out that after what happened at the camp, this couldn't have been just a coincidence. Right. It all made sense now - a few people had said Reese had turned into Bruce Banner's redneck cousin, complete with Hulk rage and the like - even a car slamming into him hadn't stopped him for long. So he had a 'power'? Maybe it had made him crazy?

A sharp sinking sensation hit him in the gut when he realised what the implication of that line was - he was still wanted, after all. If someone saw him around here, no doubt there was a good chance Quent could've been one of the first-responders to that call. And he'd be going up against that. Nevermind more people going crazy like Reese.

After that thought had been planted in their heads, the conversation seemed to take on more of a serious tone. Nate watched as Lynn stepped back over towards the wall again and began to draw yet another symbol. Moments after she was done, it began to glow blue, then it tore away from the wall and...

"Shit!"

Nate fell back against one of the trash cans, knocking it over and reflexively drew his arms up to shield himself from the incoming chunk of debris - it loomed in overhead, about to crush his head and...

What the fuck?

Colour had bled from his vision, leaving a mass of light and dark patches which encompassed the space around him - a mass of gray overtaking the blended brickwork and metal colours of the building. When he tried to find some measure of stability, pressing a palm into the stone ground, he instead felt his entire mass lurch inwards as it sank through the stone and beyond, his arm being absorbed all the way up to his elbow. Mouthing a silent yelp, he stopped - tried to take a second to breath, then pulled back upwards, the sensation like passing through water - albeit without any damp to it.

Was he dead?

Am I a fucking ghost? He recalled the rushing sensation where that chunk of the wall should have smashed him square in the face, like he'd stuck his head on the front of a rollercoaster. Maybe it had and, hell, there was something on the other side, but... no. No, he wasn't dead. He couldn't be...

It clicked just then, this was just like the trio and their powers. Blinking, Nate shifted his weight forward, drove a palm into his knee to force himself to stand - because at least his feet hadn't sunk into the ground - then pressed the other palm into the stone to give himself the needed push. This time, he felt solid ground beneath his feet - and the sensation of being immersed in water dissipated, colour seeping back into view.

Only then he realised that the trio had been watching. Somehow, something in the sense of words poured from his mouth as he adressed them in deadpan, "What, you never saw a guy fisting the ground?"

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

Grand Ridge - Hallway
_{@Surtr Inc@Prosaic@Atrophy}

---

"Lawson!"

Nate had only just slipped out the door when he heard the distinct growl of one of Grand Ridge's finest tutors - Norris wasn't one of his, but he recognised the man as hardass who wasn't above giving people shit, like he was to this blonde with the curly hair. Tempting as it was to slip back inside the bathroom, Nate considered whether that would just leave the man to give him shit once he was done reaming her out, particularly with one of the campus security guards at his back. That and he was curious as to what was going on - maybe she was the reason why the alarm had just startled him?

The two went back and forth with accusatory tones - Nate took particular offense when she threw a gesture his way and referred to him as 'bumblebutt', but given the hardass professor and campus security were here he kept his mouth shut instead of telling her to go eat a bag of dicks. Come to think of it, she did seem kinda jumpy - she had her arm held behind her back and she seemed to be going real hard on the guy, giving out whatever she took. It was almost admirable, but-

Yep. His line of thinking was cut short when the professor seized her by the arm - there'd be hell to pay if they pulled that shit with him - and marched her them into the girls' bathroom, the security guard in the doorway. Guess the guy's patience ran out. More back-and-forth went on in the resonant confines of the restricted space, but Nate couldn't make it out - instead, he slunk back into the confines of the male bathroom, keeping the door half ajar so he had an idea of when they were gone.

Eventually, footsteps and the grumbling of the Professor indicated that he was gone. Nate leaned out again, peering towards the doorway on the opposite side of the hall and watched as the blonde tore into the campus security guy and talked him into leaving, before coming out herself. For a moment, he tempted to make a crack at her when - holy shit, it was the same two people from the camp following after her - the darker skinned girls with the wild hair.

And they seemed to know the blonde, so Penny was her name, at least - the others he wasn't sure of, Lynn or something was a name he thought he might've pegged for one though. Listening to them speak with the door held open by a slight crack, he heard something which suggested that one of them - Lynn again, was it? - was responsible for the alarm.

"What happened was... how about I show you two just what happened?"

What was she even talking about?

Their small group started up the hallway. Again, by all rights - Nate should've just dropped out - but something pushed him to follow. They were up to something, after all.

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

Blacksmith Square - Home

---

"He's... an awakened."

Light spilled into the room through where the curtains had been left parted, momentarily blinding Nate when he first opened his eyes, startling him further. Only half-undressed, he still wore the same boxers and shirt he'd thrown on the day before, the rest of his clothes haphazardly draped over the back of his chair at the other side of the room. "Ugh," he barely mouthed, his mouth feeling dry to the point it was like stone, before fumbling around the side of the bed for the bottle of juice he'd left there the night before. First time he felt it, he knocked it over, but a half-assed effort to lean over the bed and pick it up rectified that and his notions of thirst were quenched with a couple of gulps. Despite actually getting down at a reasonable hour last night, he felt as tired as he would've if he'd been sat at his desk until two or three in the morning - he even checked the clock to make sure it wasn't an early hour.

The dream was probably to blame for that.

Awakened?

In that dream, Nate had seen something that looked like a tattoo on the kid's chest. There was a familiarity to it, one he realised when his thoughts drew back to the mark he'd noticed out of the corner of his eye whilst toweling down from the shower, an abstract symbol seared into the back of his neck. Touching it didn't seem to bring about any sort of sensation different to what it normally would've felt like, but the fact it had just appeared overnight was enough to raise questions. The weirdest part? At first, he'd thought it was pure luck that Aunt Viv and Quent hadn't yet seen it, plus his own habit of wearing a hoodie or a shirt which allowed him to keep it covered up. That in itself would've taken some explaining to do, not to mention it would have probably meant getting a lecturing call from Dad about impulsive decisions. Yet, in the end, it seemed only he could see it - Quent had caught him quickly making his way back through the house after a shower with just a towel around his waist and made no mention or glance towards the new 'tattoo' and these suspicions had been confirmed when Aunt Viv had noticed a 'discoloured patch' on the back of his neck - not quite yet healed from the night of the party - but made no mention of the brand either.

It was yet another reminder that this wasn't a long-term hallucination induced by the shrooms.

People had died, seen some fucked up stuff. He almost died and he'd definitely seen some fucked up stuff there, no amount of desensitisation able to blot out the thoughts of people stampeding to get out of that fucking camp, dead bodies left right and center.

Blinking, he checked the clock again and realised that about five minutes had passed since he'd last taken notice and groaned, eventually shifting his weight out of bed. There was a faint, almost musty odour in the air and Nate quickly figured out the cause - himself. Grumblling again, he slipped out of his old clothes, kicked them towards a small heap on the corner to put in the wash pile later, then gave himself a quick spray of deodorant. Better.

Once that was done, he threw on some fresh clothes and headed downstairs, ready to grab something to eat. Viv would probably be sat downstairs or something whilst Quent, he figured, would've been out working again. No surprise there - it had been a busy week for the man since that clusterfuck at the camp. The way Nate had heard it, Sheriff Reese was barely a couple inches from becoming an exhausted wreck in the wake of hearing from over a dozen eyewitnesses that it had been his kid who'd gone on a bender, butchering people left and right, to the point he'd left most of his deputies to pick up the pieces, taking witness statements and co-ordinating with other agencies from out of town.

This shit was on the national level, even.

And Nate, for his part, had bullshitted his way out knowing any part of it - when Quent had inevitably checked by to figure out where he'd actually been that night (and if, by extension, he'd seen or heard things happen at the party) he played dumb. To corroborate his story, that night he'd got home, slumped into the shower and stuffed his clothes under the bed, out of sight and acted as if he'd got lost, wouldn't have known how to get there. Most of the other folks who'd been there couldn't have known him yet, so he'd hoped that nobody could ID him.

Besides, even if he told the truth, how could he have explained it without causing any more bullshit for himself? Oh gee wiz, Uncle Quent - you sure aren't gonna believe this, I went to a party to get wasted and have a good time but instead had to steal a boat so I didn't get skullfucked by Bruce Banner's redneck cousin! Aunt Viv didn't need any of that crap on her plate and neither did Quent, not when they'd been good to him like that. It's why he'd kept it a secret and slipped out the moment he could, narrowly dodging half a dozen Deputies (Quent probably one of them) in the woods. That call he'd made to 'Quent' had never gone through, which meant it was probably just a hallucination he'd had - maybe from all the stress.

On top of that, there was one other thing that definitely went beyond explanation. And guess what? I'm dreaming about phasing my ass through shit! Nate had no means of explaining it, no idea what it meant - but the morning after the shitshow at the camp, he'd woken up from a shitty dream about it, only to find himself half-sunken into the bed, a distorted sensation of being immersed in water overwhelming him - it was just a dream, but it felt real. Another time he imagined that he'd been caught off-guard by Viv's early return from work when he had first been trying to hide the mark on the back of his neck, accidentally backing into a closed door - only for colour to bleed out from sight and for him to step through, almost seamlessly. Or at least that's what he thought had happened, tired as he was. A dozen other dreams where accidents of the same caliber had occurred, all supposedly caused by necessity or by something catching him off-guard.

His thoughts drifted back to the latest dream again, of the two kids who'd narrowly been saved from that thing by those three weirdos in renaissance garb. Never before had he dreamed about something with that degree of clarity, nor had he ever come up something like that before.

What would Mom have figured?

No, Nate shrugged the thought off. She wasn't here, no point thinking on it now. Instead, he gave off a low chuckle at just how fucking stupid it all sounded, even more stupid that it had actually happened.

"What's funny?" A feminine voice asked, jolting him from his thoughts. His gaze shifted over to find Aunt Viv, reclining on the couch as she filtered through the newsfeed on a tablet. She remarked again, "Something must be, otherwise I wouldn't be seeing you down here so early."

"That's very observant of you." Nate shot back, deadpan. Living with Viv and Quent was like living in a boxing ring, only instead of sparring with fists they used words. "But the only thing that's funny around here is your taste in daily propaganda." He thumbed towards the crappy reality show that was being broadcast on the TV.

Sucking in a breath, she idly reached out with the remote and shifted to another channel - the news this time it seemed, judging by the faint noise about the recent spate of murders in the area, "You can skip the sarcasm."

"Hey, don't hate a critic for peddling his craft," Nate threw his hands up for a moment, then turned towards the direction of the kitchen and headed over to the fridge, leaning down to get a peek inside. "On rations?" he groaned, finding it relatively sparse. Viv didn't take long to call back, "Forgot to fetch some groceries last night and I don't have the heart to make your poor Uncle Quentin head out when he's busy with things already."

"Sorry I asked," he said, a pang of genuine remorse for his blunt remark hitting him, "Screw it, I'll get something in town, I guess. Any suggestions?"

"Breakfast there is good for the money." There was a pause, just for a moment, before she spoke up again, "You good on that front?"

"Yeah." Nate admitted. He wasn't about to bullshit and try and bum more cash off Viv of all people, especially not when Dad mostly had him covered. It wasn't like she couldn't afford it, but there was something in that which felt wrong - like taking advantage of their decency. After all, they never had to take him in, Dad could've easily got him a spot in a dorm at Grand Ridge if that had been the only option on the tables. "Thanks, though, Aunt Viv. I'll see you later, yeah?"

One more time, he heard a reassuring note, "Call me if you need anything."

The only thing on his mind that he needed right now, food aside, was beyond her help. Repressing a faint, half-assed snort, Nate stepped out and set off - on the way, he could at least drop by Grand Ridge - see what was going on there, maybe catch up on some work. It wasn't like he had anything better to do.

---

Grand Ridge - Bathroom
_{@Surtr Inc@Prosaic}

---

It hadn't taken Nate long to reach the place - for all the shit people might have given him for his weight, he could cross a good walking distance in short time. Setting up in the library, he logged into the student account set up for him and began to check up on some of the work he'd not quite caught up on in the week. It wasn't long before he found himself tending to other [i]needs[i] however, but as he washed up, looking at what remained of his submission that was due for the next week, he realised in hindsight could've done it from home on his own computer. Fuck it, he'd-

A loud pop and clatter erupted from somewhere close by, definitely, followed almost immediately after by the shrill sirens of the fire alarm. Was that a gunshot? It almost sounded like those you'd hear popping off at the shooting range, like Quent had shown him that one time. By all rights, he should've run - should've at least left it, but something stupid told him to go and investigate - or so he figured as he stepped out.

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

Karma looked on in shock and horror as Scott began chopping people up she saw as the others all took off like a bat out of hell looking to get inside far away from this mad man she tuned around and ran for the cabins as fast as she could Karma just managed to get inside the girls dorms right before door slamed shut she looked to others as the shock began to where off

"what the hell is going on this insane shit is like something out of a god damn horror movie and of corse it all takes place in the middle of nowhere with little to no cell reception"

@PharaohAtem

Pharoah, I know you said you're dealing with dyslexia but could you try and work on your punctuation and structuring a little more? Put it through a proofreader or something.

And without being a stickler about post length a little more would be preferred next time.

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

@Prosaic@Surtr Inc@Duoya

_{The Campsite - Docks}

---

Nate expressed little in the way of dissent when the 'chickenshit' of the two girls suggested she didn't want to find out what the commotion was - the three of them stood frozen by the docks, speculating on just what the fuck was going on. Thoughts drifted and began to take form as words in his mouth when the three of them were met by a taller guy running from the camp, tears staining his face and babbling away at them.

"Oh Jesus Christ, you have no idea how happy I am to see you right now Lynette, Jesus fucking Christ, someone fucking died, my god, someone fucking died over there, Jesus Christ, oh fuck." Died? Nate felt a weight drop in the pit of his stomach, horrified at the thought - what if he'd stayed by the fire, "One of the professors got fucking chopped in half... There was some kind of monster over there... Oh god..." It was then, in an instant, that horrific speculation shifted to abject terror - punctuated by the loud crash of a tree in the distance that would've caused him to fall into the lake if not for the guardrail catching him where he stumbled.

The sound of a tree falling in the far distance quickly forced Chad to jump, before he began to whisper as loudly as he could again.

Oh, shit.

The guy kept on going, but his voice faded into the background as Nate's thoughts drifted towards the next course of action, on what to do next, when one of the girls - Lynette, the guy had called her - jabbed a finger towards boathouse and led them in. Nate followed suit, slipping into the disused building and pressing his mass against a corner to peer out. It was too far off at this point to really make anything, the dark didn't help much either, but the screams and frantic voices were still out there - and for a split second he swore he saw a flash of bright life in conjunction with the distinct rev of a car's engine.

What now, dial 911?

No - something else - instinct won out o nthis one. Nate frantically dove into the pocket for his phone, tugging it out and unlocking it - he brought up his list of contacts and flickered down the alphabetically categorised list.

Quent.

He was going to catch shit for this, but what other option did he have? People were dying, for fuck's sake. He could die here tonight - right there in the moment, the only thing Nate gave a shit about was hoping that Quent had his phone with him he swiped to call the Deputy up. The display froze for a few seconds, which elicited a panicked "Oh-shit!" from him, but then it transitioned to the dialling screen and, within seconds, the phone picked up, almost magnetically drawing it to his ear.

"Quent?! C-Can you get this?!" The words slipped out, mentally isolated fro mthis stood around him, "There's a guy at the camp site killing people! He's already killed one of our teachers!"

It felt like an hour before he heard a voice back, "Why do I care?" It was harsh, rasped - as if Quent had endured another fifteen years' worth of age, intersparsed with a dull screeching tone.

"What?!" He couldn't be for real, "C'mon, Quent - I'm not joking! People are dead!"

"Interesting." The voice-that-wasn't-quite-Quent let off a chortle, before the phone went dead. Was this someone fucking with him? Nate swiped over to sift through his contacts again when he saw a skeletal appendage scrape across the screen in place of his finger, then blinked again to find his whole hand was devoid of any meat - just bone, coated in flecks of rust.

Noise from one of the others prompted him to briefly shoot them a glance, only to be seized once again in the throes of abject terror. Stood before him were not the three he saw before, but emaciated figures clad in torn, rotting clothing. All stared at him, their gaunt faces drawn so tight he thought their skin might split - and then it did. Decaying flesh sloughed off, emphasising the corpse-like features.

"W-what the fuck?!" Nate yelped, backing up further against the wall with such haste that he caught the back of his head on a low hanging beam - an act which would drag him back to reality. Blinking again, he no longer saw three corpses - just his companions, same as they were before.

Vivid Recollections: Into the World Unknown (Season 1 COMPLETE)

@The One There are some inconsistencies in her bsckstory which bug me too. If she's 21, why would her mother be 89? And her dad was 50? Seems a weird age disparity there.