Halloween Zombie event / Duibne Industries - Open to Tacharan, All Others Invite Only / The Voice 17 years ago

Duibne Industries - Open to Tacharan, All Others Invite Only

Carol Hedley was not happy. Duibne Industries was in full lock down because of an 'incident' that occurred fifty four minutes prior in the Special Testing area. That section was not Duibne Industries public pride and joy but it was its money maker. That section is where the weaponary, viral and bacterial genetic testing occured under direct supervision of Dr. Vincent Thorpe and vampire Liasion Scientist Nova Piestewa. It was located beneath DI in the basement levels and was easily sealed off from the rest of the building.

That was, of course, till some fucking numb nut broke protocol and opened the sealed section. Haz-Mat (hazardous materials) teams were dispatched but DI security reached that section first. Blind luck, stupid luck but some sort of bad luck opened that fucking door and now Carol Hedley was trying to contain a potential bio weapon from escaping into the city. Oh no wait...

THAT HAPPENED ALREADY.

So Carol Hedley was indeed unhappy. Very cute and stylishly dressed...but still very unhappy.

The Voice 17 years ago

Duibne Industries
Sub Levels 1 -5 INFECTED
Levels 2 - Penthouse - UNINFECTED
Ground Level - UNSAFE

Congratulations Clan Tacharan, you have an epidemic on your hands. All medical trained Tacharan are to make their way to Duibne Industries. Sewer travel is not recommended. Street travel is not recommended. Secured transportion can not be procured for your safety, proceed into the city at your own risk, proceed to Duibne Industries at your own risk.

Have a nice day.

((ooc - Use STREETS OF NACHTON if you are making your way to Duibne, if you are already here feel free to move about the facilities, but beware of listed INFECTED areas.))

Nova 17 years ago

Nova had missed her work. What with one thing and another (boyfriend, if that’s what he was, getting almost murdered, father and brothers trying to liquidate her assets and then frame her for a murder they may or may not have conspired to commit, etc etc, blah blah blah) she hadn’t been in the lab much lately. It had changed in her absence.

For one thing, there were zombies –everywhere-. And for another, they’d changed all the phones to a new system. She beat the receiver of one such phone against the wall, unable to force the device to bend to her will any other way. From one end, she could still hear the electronic operator droning away.

‘If you know the party you want to reach, say their last name now, or hold for operator assistance.’

“Mother. Fucking. Piece….”

Suddenly, she heard ringing coming through the receiver – she froze and listened, holding her breath as the phone rang and rang.

‘Hello.’

“Oh thank you, thank you, I’m trapped, you have to help me…”

’You’ve reached the office of Pearce Mufauquin. Please leave a message after the tone.’

Before the tone could sound, though, someone finally did pick up the phone. She heard a whispered moaning on the other end before throwing the receiver down and stomping it to pieces in revulsion.

In retrospect, this was a pretty bad idea. Cell phones didn’t work in this part of the building. She’d just cut off her only means of communication with the outside world. Cursing her own temper, she took a good look around. All the doors into her lab were double sealed; there was no way to get in now that she had locked everything down. She pulled up the vinyl shade that covered the window, and just as quickly pulled it down again. Yep, the zombies were still there, pressed grotesquely against the four inch glass. Sure, no way to get in, but there was also no way to get out.

Sighing, she looked down at her lab bench. Clamped tightly in her vice grip was a single finger that squirmed and struggled valiantly in spite of being quite separated from its body.

“Well. Might as well get to work.”

Carol 17 years ago

'Please find me Nova Piestewa.'

Carol Hedley sat crossed legged in Duibne Industries Security section located on the fifth floor of the main tower. Exactly ten levels above the sub level where the contimination had started. She was thankfully dressed in combat boots, camo fatigues and a tight red shirt with an angry crayon on the front holding up a middle finger. Carol Hedley had one simple request.

'Please find me Nova Piestewa.'

The security team that had been sent down to secure the breach had been decimated, along with approximately 65% of the rest of the compound's team. Simon was no where to be found and currently not answering his cell phone. Nova was somewhere in the building, that's what the security logs say at least, but was not answering her cell phone which meant she was in one of the sub levels which COULD mean she was either dead, infected or dead and infected. Carol, at the moment, was responsible for Tacharan and Duibne Industries movements in Nachton's darkest hour. She really was unhappy.

'Miss Hedley we can't find Nova Piestewa.'

Carol looked up at the haggard security guard who had managed to make it back up to the fifth level without his team. He was covered in blood but not his own. It was him, Carol and about fifty monitors showing nothing but either empty corridors, zombie filled levels or running people on the sidewalk out front. They couldn't find anyone if they tried.

'Yeah. Well, I hope you do find Nova Piestewa because...well there is no because. We just need to find her.'

Scientist 17 years ago

Dr. Thorpe moved quickly with the collective, searching out the rest of the clean flesh left on the sub levels beneath Duibne Industries. He could smell them but they could not find them. There were doors and secured locks holding them back and even though they had maintained their ability to do basic functions, passwords were lost within the cloud of the collective hunger. Sub level 2 was their prison - the DI security had let them get that far, but the rest of the building had been sealed off once the error had been realized. Still, Dr. Thorpe needed to get out. He wasn't sure why, but he needed to GET OUT AND FEED.

He had been banging his bloodied hands on the locked elevator door for the past twenty minutes when he lifted his nose to the air and inhaled deeply. There was a recognizable smell mixed in with the clean flesh. Fighting to use the collective consciousness he struggled with the scent until...Dr. Thorpe smiled a bloodied, rotten smile.

'Nova,' he whispered.

Uninfected 17 years ago

Sergeant Mitchell washed the rest of the blood off his skin as quickly as possible before he returned to the control room with Carol Hedley. He was scared out of his fucking mind but Carol was just sitting there, staring at the monitors with her cell phone in front of her. Mitchell knew it was bad that none of the other Tacharan had checked in yet, especially the leader. Rolling down his sleeves he quickly walked to her side and leaned forward over the computer console, using the keyboard to call up schematics of the sub levels.

'Unless they've figured it out, there are the air vents to use. They're small but someone small - 'maybe' someone my size but definitely a small female, could fit.' He looked at her - he wasn't suggesting Carol go crawling into the air ventaliation system but she wasn't stupid - he was trying to think of a way that Dr. Piestewa could make it out of the sub levels. If she was still there.

If she was still alive.

Special testing wasn't monitored visually for obvious reasons, but everyone's location was tracked from hallway to door. Everything was locked.

'My best guess is that Dr. Piestewa is still at her last known location, just sealed in,' he checked the log again, 'her offices.'

Sergeant Mitchell shrugged. It was the best they had at the moment and until the Leader had reported in - there wasn't much else they could do but watch.

Nova 17 years ago

Nova considered herself a pretty down to earth sort of person. She didn’t freak out over broken nails or squeal and jump on a chair if a mouse skittered by. In fact, she handled lab rats and mice all the time in the course of her work.

Zombie rats and mice, however, were the most disgusting things she had ever seen. She shuddered as she reached in with gloved hands and picked up another specimen. She wasn’t taking any chances – she worked with cages that had the gloves built in, passing them to a buffer cage and then into the study cage. They had to be kept separate because they would go cannibal fairly quickly.

Gross gross gross.

She worked as rapidly as possible, speaking into a recorder rather than taking notes, making slide after slide. There were still many things to try, and so she did not panic, but there was an intensity about her, something frantic in her movements that underlined the meticulous, careful nature of her work. Later her voice would sound breathless, muttered, entirely unlike her usual brassy loud tones. Keys clacked, mice squeaked, scopes clicked, and, almost out of hearing, the zombies moaned. Sweat ran in rivers down her neck.

Something creaked in the ceiling.

“Who’s there?”

She wasn’t expecting an answer, but she got one anyway – a thin, high wail from almost directly above her. She crept toward the flashburn button that would send a burst of chemical flame through the air ducts, but did not press it. The lab had its own vents, separate from the rest of the system, precisely because they wanted no risk of some experiment escaping and causing mass chaos. Pressing the burn button wouldn’t do any good, however – the zombies weren’t in her part of the system, but the public one, the one with no direct access to her lab.

Plaster fell down like snowflakes, swirling around her head.

Could they break through?

Well if they could use the vents, so could she, and she was willing to bet that she could get into her vents faster than they could get out of theirs. Only if she hurried, though – she could hear the scraping metallic sounds that indicated they were making good headway. She shoved her box of slides into her gym bag and hung her recorder around her neck, then climbed up onto the table and ripped off the nearest vent cover with a soft grunt. She started to climb into the small opening she had created for herself, then thought better of it – instead, she swung her legs down hard into the vermin cages, smashing them to smithereens and letting loose a hoard of zombie vermin before swinging back up into the vent system and throwing the cover into place behind her.

That was when she realized that she had nowhere to go. She crawled slowly through the ductwork, making as little noise as possible, but all too quickly found herself at the drop that led to the boiler room. There was no time for indecision; if the zombies found that flashburn button, she was well and truly baked.

She dropped down and landed in a heap in the room below. Behind her, a panel swung closed and sealed, and she could hear a roar of flames. She cringed and moved to the adjacent drop, not knowing what she would do if she encountered more zombies, but knowing that she couldn’t figure out a cure from inside a boiler room.

Her phone chimed, then, and she looked down. She had signal now, and apparently she had missed several calls. Carol, some guy she didn’t know, Security, Carol, Dr. Peabody, Security…geez, you’d think there was some sort of crisis going on. Deciding that the quickest way to get information out would be to tell Carol, she auto dialed, then wedged the phone between her ear and her shoulder and continued crawling.

Carol 17 years ago

Fuck.

Despite her better judgment, despite the fact that she had a perfectly fine Merc ready and willing to do what she was doing, despite the fact that she KNEW she should have gone to college at Stanford and interned out there instead of Nachton, despite the fact that her mother said she'd regret not developing her sense of right and wrong - Carol planted one hand in front of the other as she maneuvered through the crawlspace in the infected sub sections of Duibne Industries.

She was trying to be quiet but the moans and screeching she was hearing through the thin metal separating her and probably a hundred zombies was unnerving to say the least. She had to get to Nova. If there was someone that could figure out what the fuck was going on, it was Nova. At least that's what Carol kept telling herself as she tried to fight down the inner scream of terror that wanted badly to escape from her mouth. She was crawling over fucking zombies, for god's sakes.

Nova would know. Nova would know. Nova had to know.

Carol kept chanting her mantra quietly just as her cell phone began to ring.

Nova 16 years ago

“Carol? They've infiltrated the lab. I'm crawling toward the stairwell, I think...shit, maybe I'm not...uh, anyway I'm okay, I'm on my way...somewhere...fuck.”

Nova's lab coat snagged on a screw in the vents, effectively cutting off her disconnected rant as she struggled to free herself. Soon enough, she was down one lab coat and continuing down the long tunnel.

“Are the patients okay? Shit, are you okay? What's happening?”

Carol 16 years ago

The rump shaking thump of her ring tone was blaring in her back pocket and any amount of stealth she might have had dried up instantly as she reached for her phone.

Flipping it on she whispered, 'Two seconds, two seconds!'

The screeching and moaning below her suddenly stopped. Carol squeezed her eyes shut and stayed perfectly still - that was until the panel she was crawling on pushed her up. She scrambled forward, cutting her bare legs on the edges of the now empty section, narrowly missing being grabbed.

'FUCK THE PATIENTS, I'M ABOUT TO GET EATEN - WHERE ARE YOU???'

The panels of the crawlspace began to drop beneath her, forcing her to crawl faster. The crawlspace came to an intersection and she scrambled to the right, further into darkness when suddenly gravity took over and she began to slide down. Carol was plunged into darkness as she gained momentum until she finally hit the bottom, dropping through the panel and into a room. Carol crashed onto a desk, scattering papers and computer equipment and bounced onto the floor.

Dazed but still scared out of her mind, she slowly opened her eyes. Her legs were cut and bleeding, her head throbbed painfully as well as her elbows and hips. Sitting up slowly she tested each limb, relieved to see that nothing was broken. With a deep sigh she looked around the room and recognized it immediately and also found where her phone had fallen.

Quietly she whispered, 'Nova? Are you there? I'm in your lab.'

Scientist 16 years ago

Dr. Thorpe staggered down the hallway leading to the elevator banks. He passed the other infected who were raging against the doors leading to other labs, attacking any uninfected unfortunate to be left in the sub-levels of Duibne. He desperately was trying to hold onto the last bit of humanity and ignored the fresh smell of clean meat when he reached the elevators. Reaching out he pressed the call button but nothing happened. Something was missing. Dr. Thorpe looked down at his shirt and saw the dangling card. Looking back at the elevator he noticed the illuminated card slot above the call button. Struggling he reached down and pulled his card, inserting it into the elevator.

It opened.

One goal accomplished, Dr. Thorpe set out to accomplish another. Finding Nova.

Nova 16 years ago

Nova had what she would describe as a 'bad moment' in the ventilation shaft – an instance where confusion turned to panic, where directional disorientation carried over into everything. On the phone she heard nothing but indignant squawking, and all around her was a world of senseless tunnels and mindless moans.

And then it passed. That was the only way she could explain it – a certain clarity washed over her, and her bad moment simply went away. This wasn't like the raid, where she had to handle a gun and shoot people and get lost and frightened and deal with hostages.

No, this – this was science. She could do this. She could figure this out.

“Okay, I'm coming back.” As an afterthought, she added: “Watch out for the rats.” Hanging up the phone with a soft click, she stretched out flat in the narrow vent, then rolled over and squirmed herself back onto her hand and knees. She crawled back to the first intersection and then, instead of being baffled at which way to go, she looked both ways and worked out which one made sense. One sloped down – duh, that was the way to go. Not rocket science, not by half, but Nova had never been exactly in tune with her sense of direction before. It had always been hard.

As the vent sloped even more, though, she realized a critical mistake – she should have gone down feet first. There was nothing for it now, though; the vent was too narrow to turn around without wasting time she didn't have. She didn't know how she knew that time was short, having never learned to consciously acknowledge each aspect of her perception. The heightened smells and sounds and sights were simply absorbed into her brain, which then processed and spit out a message in her mind – “hurry the fuck up, Nova.”

So it was, then, that she returned to her lab head-first, a queer re-birthing into a land of chemicals and stainless steel. She struck her head on a cabinet, heard herself groan, swear, opened her eyes and saw stars.

It was at this moment that her presence of mind left her; she had remembered the zombie rats.

“Gahhhh!” She stood, ignoring the scream of protest from her aching head, and began flailing wildly, her arms swinging around, her feet stomping, her ponytailed hair swinging around like a bullwhip. It looked as though she had quite suddenly, in the midst of a crisis, taken it into her head to perform a primitive rain dance.

“Get 'em off me, get 'em off me, get 'em...”

She turned to Carol, breathing hard, and realized several things at once:

-There were no rats on her.
-There were no rats in the lab.
-There were no zombies in the lab.
-Nova looked like a tremendous dork.

She froze, straightened her posture, and looked around slowly before turning back to Carol and asking what was, in her mind, a highly pertinent question.

“Where'd all my zombie rats go?”

Carol 16 years ago

'Watch out for the what?'

Carol immediately spun around and then climbed onto one of the lab tables. 'Fucking rats? Gah....' Carol shivered and made a face. As she kept a wary eye on the ground, Carol tucked her phone back into her pocket and knelt down to hug her knees. The situation in Duibne was becoming more and more precarious, to say the least. She made it to Nova's lab, just barely, and now she was further down in the ground with nothing above her but the dead or dying.

'Fuck it.'

Carol slid off the table and decided either she gets eaten by something or not - whether it's rats or a lab assistant there was no point in freaking out about it. That was until there was another crash landing from the ceiling. She fell back against the counter top, knocking Nova's surveillance monitors. Suddenly the room was filled with tinny moaning and screeching causing the little hairs on her arms to stand up with fright. She didn't know whether to run from whatever fell out of the ceiling or back away from the monitors - all she knew was that she was having one fucked up night.

Reaching behind her, Carol flipped a couple switches and pressed several buttons, silencing the intercom.

“Get 'em off me, get 'em off me, get 'em...”

It was Nova. Carol ran to Nova, trying to calm her when the vampire seemed to realize where she was. With a pathetic shrug she snorted.

'I'm sorry - but we have no zombie rats here.'

Amberelle DeEspionne 16 years ago

Deep in the shadows, tucked safely in one of the gutters under the sidewalks, a small cat rested. Golden eyes stared out a large grate and up onto the streets above. Which were filled with undead just.. wandering. Amberelle had skirted around all of the Dubine complex in her safe little passageways, peering out at the building periodically trying to see if there were any signs of the still living. And, for any clue as to how to enter the Tacharan stronghold. She was 0-2.

She rested her chin lightly on her front paws and curled up as tight as she could. The Anantya was perfectly still except for her eyes which constantly darted to and fro and the tip of her tail, which twitched slowly in agitation. The situation was not looking very good and the young vampire found her spirits drooping considerably.

Ellis Duban 16 years ago

Ellis and Simon moved swiftly in the shadows towards Duibne, taking advantage of the zombies fascination with the fire she caused. The streets were cleared which was lucky since the shadows were providing very little cover to begin with. There were small fires along the way as they traveled the short four blocks over to the DI towers. Smoke rose from broken in windows and bodies with missing heads or blown out skulls lay littered in the streets. Ellis slowed as they neared the main south tower and whispered to Simon.

'Even if we get in, what about the zombies inside?'

Simon Huntington 16 years ago

Duibne Towers stood dark and unwelcoming with smoke rising from the roof top of the south tower and the surrounding buildings void of zombies but full of dead bodies. The night had turned from painfully loud to eerily quiet. Ellis slowed down to a quick walk and held him back slightly with her hand. They did not finish their awkward encounter from a few minutes ago on the downtown strip, instead they pushed on towards Duibne in hopes of catching up with someone not infected - maybe something from the clan at least. So far, nothing.

Simon shook his head as he turned in a circle to survey the area. 'I don't know, but we can't stay out here. They're bound to be back soon.'

Amberelle DeEspionne 16 years ago

Inside the cement tunnel, the small golden furred cat's ears twitched. A voice. She tilted her head to the side, ear turned towards the closest opening back to the streets above. Yes, that was definately voices, and even with the odd distortion of the sound within her tiny haven she could tell they sounded far too coherent to belong to any of the undead she was avoiding.

Amberelle crept cautiously to the storm gutter's opening and looked outwards. Golden eyes flicked this way and that until they came to rest on the two Tacharans she had been seperated from earlier. Her nose twitched as she sniffed, fairly certain they were not infected but far too cautious at this point to take any risk. Once she was satisfied, the Anantya slid up onto the road. She was crouched, belly low and tail curled tightly to her as she crept along beside an overturned newspaper stand towards them.

Simon Huntington 16 years ago

Simon strained to sense his surroundings but his abilities were so beyond taxed that his perception flickered in and out. Still, he knew he was better off than Ellis who was still showing signs of regenerating - the open wounds on her face had closed but the bruising was still painfully purple and red. She would even be able to break out into a full run if necessary. Simon took her by the elbow and walked her closer to the tower entrance, crossing the littered street.

Suddenly Simon caught movement out of the corner of his eye and instinctively he reached for his gun only to find that he was painfully unarmed, thanks to being tossed around from the explosion. His eyes zeroed in on a small cat that was staring at them. The thought occurred to him that it might be infected, but dismissed it after noticing the absence of the rank smell. Shape shifter or just a curious cat looking for help.

Slowly Simon whispered, 'Listen cat - if you have any lives yet, I suggest you get the hell out of dodge.'

Amberelle DeEspionne 16 years ago

If it were possible for a cat to smile, Amberelle did. She liked Simon, he didn't have the same attitude as most of the kindred even half his age. Plus he was concerned amidst all this mayhem for a little alley cat. Yes, the young Anantya decided, she definately liked him.

Stepping into the street cautiously the cat took a few more steps then was more of a blur as she finished walking to them, shifting back to herself in the blink of an eye. Caked in dirt, soot, dried blood and other bits she didn't care to identify Amby knew she was a pretty gruesome sight. But as her eyes scanned Ellis she was silently thankful for the fact that she'd come out of this night a bit better off than these Elders had. So far anyways. The fate of Aishe and the other man.. Nick wasn't it? Well that was unknown but vampires were resiliant so she would hold out hope for them.

Looks like I have a few lives left, non?

Simon's motion towards nothing more than air had not gone unnoticed and she shrugged the heavy backpack off and held it out to him. There were still quite a few toys stuffed in there from their resupply run.

Grinning at him mischeviously, she shrugged her blood matted braid over one shoulder and rested a hand on her hip. I thought you two might be able to use a little help still? Amberelle looked at them, her golden eyes curious.

Steven 16 years ago

Steve watched the three people ahead. They appeared to be human, or at least non-zombified. He tightened his grip on the P90. He had a ton of ammo, a good gun, and no plan whatsoever. He turned on the laser sight and aimed for the nearest figure, a man. Hmm, they still didn't see him. He wondered what was up.

Ellis Duban 16 years ago

Ellis' ears began to ring. She shook her head slightly, trying to rid her head of the annoying noise...tingle almost. Her eyebrows furrowed as Simon turned away from her to speak to what appeared to be a cat. Good, she wasn't the only one that was completely out of it.

'You're talking to a cat,' she murmured under her breath. She blinked slowly and watched the cat come forward and shape shift. 'Man...you anantyas. No fair.'

Amberelle stepped forward covered in grime and offered up her bag of weapons. Ellis watched Simon reach forward and retrieve a nine millimeter and just as she lifted her hand, something caught her eye.

'Oh hey...' Simon turned to look at her and Ellis nodded towards his chest. Ellis shook her head again, trying to clear the pain. 'Pretty light.'

The light being the small red laser dot dead center on Simon's chest. No pun intended.