It's the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fine.

Past the lobby, located by the elevator banks stood one very annoyed werewolf. The elevators were not only security controlled but locked down as well. He discovered this as he tossed away a severed hand he found upon entering the facility. The severed hand's thumb activated the panel but nothing past that. Hammer looked at Brig who shrugged unhappily and asked a question.

Brig watched as his cousin tossed the severed hand and returned his one eyed stare at the panel. With a shrug Brig considered their situation.

'Why do we want to get into what is quite possibly the host center for the virus again?'

'Because we can't get back to the Den.' Brig mouthed an O and nodded. Hammer peered at the control panel and reached up again to touch its sensitive controls.

CRACK.

Brig jumped and pointed to the now broken panel. The light dimmed and after a few half hearted sparks died completely. Hammer looked over at the other panel on the other side of the elevator bank when he heard another crash, this time not from his own doing.

The force of the explosion sent flames curling into the lobby in their direction. Smoke immediately filled the lobby and more glass sprayed down from the overhead glass art dangling precariously above them. Both he and his cousin hit the floor with a resounding 'oof'. They were now caught inside the facility with their one good exit covered by what appeared to be a ton of burning metal. Hammer immediately searched for his cousin who grabbed him in the darkness of the smoke and yelled in his ear.

On the far side of the elevator banks, near the second panel, Celeste had leaned back against the cool stone wall, her legs crossed as she puffed away on a clove to calm her nerves. It still was beyond comprehension why she was voluntarily breaking INTO the nest of those rogue kindred who considered themselves a clan. Which also happened to be the breeding ground for the epidemic of zombies now overrunning the city.

Well, the Anantya reasoned, she'd often been accused of being crazy. Maybe this was actual proof. Or, maybe she was doing this to help eliminate a potential threat to the Clan that could kill them off or even expose her kind to the general populace. Yes, she'd go with that second idea for now she decided, her icy blue eyes dispassionately watching the two large mortals as they tried in vain to open the elevator doors.

The crash and explosion roared right through her as she didn't even move a muscle, instead simply turning etheral until the initial mess had passed and she began to move through the smoky darkness without a sound, keeping up with the two noisily crawling around easily.

They were proving amusing if not helpful. Maybe she could make one into a familiar when this was all done. She did like the nature of the one eyed, surly one. He suited her.. she briefly wondered how that proposal would go over and snickered.

So would you two big strong men like the tiny little woman to open the elevator doors for you? she drawled, wondering if she should just rip the doors open or slide into the shaft and look for an emergency release.

The tinkling of glass mixed with the sharpness of a billion pieces breaking around them filled her ears. Ellis pushed Simon through the glass doors of Duibne and was briefly reminded of her incident with Nic. Good times.

The glass gave way to the inevitable rush of burning hot air, forcing Ellis to keep from curling into a ball and moving further into DI's lobby. Both she and Simon grabbed at each other, pulling themselves into the lobby running from the arid and fierce temperature and licks of white hot flames. The smoke filled the lobby within seconds and blindly they shoved their way back toward the elevator bay. Choking on the smoke, Ellis fell again in front of the elevators, right at someone's feet.

Shit, she thought to herself.

Pushing back and scooting away she peered through the smoky darkness and let her perception feel its way. There was no distinct nasty ass smell they had already begun associating with infected. It was someone else, someone very, very tall. Ellis reached up and rubbed her irritated eyes, coughing into her sleeve when finally the smoke cleared and the tinkle of a female voice penetrated the darkness.

'So would you two big strong men like the tiny little woman to open the elevator doors for you?'

Another Anantya, she recognized. Through the haze she saw one of the two men the Anantya was referring to. Ellis, ignoring her dire surroundings and using very little obvious common sense...smiled at the werewolf called Hammerthynn.

It was all a blur. One minute she'd been outside and the next flinging herself into the building to tumble and roll over the shattered glass. The blonde had slammed into the far wall and ducked behind a massive stone and steel planter as the explosion ripped through the lobby. Heat and flames had made her whimper as she curled up as tightly as she could. Acrid smoke has stung her eyes making them water as she gasped for breath, choking on the smoke before simply holding her breath.

Slowly she stood and peered across to the elevator bank where several forms were semi visable through her blurred vision. A quick mental once over and she was battered and sore but nothing felt broken or punctured. The Anantya crept quietly closer to the others, alert for any infected until a voice broke the eerie post explosive quiet, carrying above the crackle of flames to her.

'So would you two big strong men like the tiny little woman to open the elevator doors for you?'

Amberelle stopped and blinked. That voice.. that could only be..

Celeste!

The younger vampire cried out her name as she ran up and wrapped her arms around her shorter cousin in a tight bear hug.

As he landed on the ground, the glass embedded itself into his palms and and forearms, causing a disgruntled sneer to emit from Simon's mouth. The smoke filled his nostrils and stung his eyes, causing more soft cursing as he grabbed Ellis and dragged her and himself toward the elevators. His perception picked up on the other bodies standing in the murky smoke and his body tensed, waiting for the rank smell of infected to overtake his senses, but it never came. Ellis, however, seemed to have found herself at the feet of one of the bodies. The female voice drifted over to him and as the smoke parted, he recognized who it belonged to and to whom she was referring to.

Slowly he stood, his eyes traveling up the long distance from the pair of boots standing in front of Ellis all the way to the head of large body. The smoke parted a moment, revealing Iov Hammerthynn and another taller male.

'No,' he replied to the female. 'Don't break my elevator doors, please.' With his burning eyes on Hammerthynn, he walked over to the panel next to him and sighed at the sight of the broken screen.

Hammerthynn looked down at him and snorted angrily.

Walking to the opposite side Simon ran his hand over the panel and it lit up, but that was it. The entire system was locked down, as per emergency protocol. Simon accessed the main frame and began the tedious chore of bypassing the system.

In her defense, Celeste was somewhat distracted studying the couple that had emerged at their feet. There was something sinister and somehow familair about the woman that set her teeth on edge and had her hand itching for her sword. That was what she would tell herself as she tried to figure out how she was now being smothered by her amply endowed and much taller cousin. Any response she made to her name and the annoyed sounding retort from the strange male were extremely muffled.

Her arms flailed about in a most undignified manner for a brief moment before gripping the blonde's upper arms so she could wrench herself free a few inches and draw in a loud gasp of breath. Blue eyes met gold and the two De'Espionne's smiled, though Celeste's was short and the Nightswoman quickly resumed her stoney sneer.

Amby's hair was mated and clumped with dried blood, it stained her leather coat and bodysuit and over it all was a fine grit of soot and dirt. It was definately not how her normally well put together and appearance conscious cousin was found and the elder of the two couldn't help but be proud. They were trophies of her evening and Cel couldn't wait to get back to the manor and hear all about it. Of course she'd never let Amber know she was pleased, or even that she'd been worried. No, that would never do.

I see you managed to make it through the night intact so far, Cel said. Let's try to keep it that way. Disengaging herself from a slightly hurt looking Amberelle, she turned to the dark haired man and stepped up beside him to peer down at the screen.

So does this thing have an interior release? It could be quicker to just open from the inside, non?

Ellis watched with laughing eyes as Simon slowly stood and passed Hammerthynn and the other male. It was funny, again thinking of her many reoccurring situations, Ellis didn't worry much about anything, including what could be a really nasty incident. Instead she slowly stood, waving the smoke away from her face and stayed within Hammerthynn's personal space. Without looking at Simon, she asked:

'Need any help with that?' Referring to accessing the override to the system - which Simon would have undoubtedly changed her access long ago, but still - she thought she'd be polite and offer.

Simon rolled his eyes without looking at her and continued his work on the panel. The silence was only interrupted by the cracking of metal and tinkle of glass as Amberelle made her way into the bay area. She called the other female 'Celeste', which Ellis duly noted.

'Welp,' Ellis said as she stood, wiping the glass off her palms onto her pants. 'Seems like the party moved to DI. Who's your friend, Iov?' She smiled brightly at the taller male, taking in his handsome features. In the middle of blood, murder and mayhem - one should never discount the pleasantness of being polite.

Dazed, and confused, but driven by a hunger that surpassed all other thought, Fallon had wandered aimlessly for hours. Distracted, she had wound up alone, having lost touch with the pack of others of her kind. The wafting scent of fresh meat had pulled and pushed her to and fro, as she ran through the city streets.

Occasionally a noise would get her attention, and if it was coupled with the smell of untainted flesh, she would go in search of its source. Unfortunately, as the night drew on those occurrences were few and far between, and now she was just growing mad with unslaked cravings.

After an indeterminate length of time, the creature once called Fallon, found herself coming upon some sort of compound. The buildings were of no concern, but the odors of healthy flesh could be discerned as coming from within the structures, and Fallon knew she had to get in side, at all costs. The sound of something breaking turned her head in that direction and she ran unmindful of anything but getting inside.

Just before she half ran, half stumbled through the broken glass doors, an explosion forced her backwards and she was flung against an outside wall. The smoke and heat did nothing to dissuade her from her goal though, her body again pushing through the doorway.

Undeterred, her nose was able to find the sweet scent of untouched bodies, and as if impervious to the smoke and heat, she moved on.

Somewhere along the line she had shifted from her feline form, and was again more or less human. Poor Fallon, once so concerned with cleanliness, and looking her best, was now little more than a being of dirt and blood caked skin and bones, torn cloth, and
a mass of matted reddish hair, sticking out from her head as if treated with a stiff pomade. If anyone she knew had come across her now, they would be hard pressed to recognize the woman...which was probably just as well.

Barreling through doors, crashing into carts, tables, beds, an urgency drove her to find the one thing she thought. But where was it? She knew it was around her, her sense of smell was incredibly strong, yet it did not lead her to where she wanted to be.

She pressed on. Somewhere...somewhere there was food...somewhere she could satisfy her hunger...somewhere close.

Movement. There were more figures in the area. Voices. Well, at least they were uninfected. Steve walked forward, the light clipped to the P90 shining brightly. There were three of them, two men and a woman. The blonde that had just saved his ass was talking to one of them. Steve pulled off his backpack and opened it, retrieving a laptop and a satellite modem. He slid the modem into the computer, then turned it on. Within a minute, he had accessed the government's Landsat network, using a user name and password he had been issued by a close friend in the agency. He quickly pulled up the Nachton area, then swore. He looked up, keeping one eye on the dark-haired woman who had used him as a vending machine, and spoke to the group at large.

Brig felt Hammer's irritation without even having to see the expression (or lack thereof) on his face. The presence of the Duban woman set off the same alarms in him that were undoubtedly being felt by his cousin. He had yet to meet the female face to face and Hammer likely would not make introductions, especially by her request. Brig nodded his head and let an irritated sneer crinkle up his nose.

'I'm Jameson,' was all he said.

More people gathered in the elevator bay with a small human bringing up the rear. His information did not surprise Brig.

Simon rolled his shoulders, finally overriding the DI's security system. To answer Rowland's question, he activated the elevators, the four banks that consist of three large capacity elevators, twelve in total slid open their doors, awaiting occupants and commands.

'Alright. I'm heading down to the sub-levels to hopefully find some of our scientists.' And Carol, but he didn't dare say that out loud, not with Ellis here with him. He had yet to be able to contact Carol and she was first and foremost on his priority list. 'The sub-levels are self contained, but some of you might want to check out the upper levels to see...'

SMASH.

Simon blinked at the noise; something out behind the lobby had crashed, followed by more of the same. The sound was spaced apart by several seconds until it overlapped, crashing down on the broken metal and glass. Through the smoke his eyes widened when he realized the source of the noise.

The zombie horde lumbered in the hallways in the upper floors of Duibne, looking for clean flesh but finding none after wiping out the uninfected that were trapped during the lock down. As the night wore on, lack of clean flesh began to wear them down, forcing them to feed on each other but the infected flesh only seemed to anger them more.

A small group of zombies, labored near the tinted, high rise windows when the falling helicopter's blades broke through the glass and decapitated the group. They slumped to the floor, twitching angrily from the violent attack. The fireball from the exploding helicopter shot back up and lit the inside of the darkened floor - illuminating the twisted faces of the zombies. One by one, they ran toward the bright light...and out the window.

One by one, they soared toward the explosion, crashing to the ground.

With the new arivals, It was time for the cop to lose himself, and avoid the dark-haired demon who had bit him. He walked over to Blondie, figureing that he could somewhat trust her. "I'm gonna go see if there's an arms storage room around here," Steve said quietly to the blonde woman. "I wonder if theres a broadcast facility. We need to contact the military forces and tell them to stand down. I don't think we have too long before this place gets toasted. Also, I need to get into the camera grid, and see just what we're dealing with here." He walked to the receptionist's desk, and found a radio in the top drawer. This he set to the frequency of his own, then gave to the blonde. "Push this to talk. Let me know if you guys run in-" A noise caught his attention. Zombies. Dammit! Steve swung a second P90 from it's sheath on his backpack and fired with both weapons, cutting down the infected people with deadly accuracy. "I'll hold 'em off, you guys get the hell out of here," he said, picking off his enemies. Zombies fell, holes in thier foreheads, chests, and faces. He got down on one knee, then yelled, speaking mainly to the blonde who had saved his ass. "Get out of here! GO!" He cut down a large zombie, then had to duck as a second one lunged at him. He wasn't going to last long, not unless the others found a way out fast. Another group of zombies charged at Steve, and he dispatched them easily. I can't hold them off much longer, Steve thought, reloading his weapons. The zombies were gaining ground, and were now about twelve meters out. Damn!

Life is always full of choices. Good ones...bad ones...but full of them, nonetheless. And in this case - Nachton's members have that same choice.

Do those now trapped inside Duibne Industries continue in or brave the onslaught of zombies now surging on the facility?

The vampires, the werewolves and the humans standing in the lobby of DI need to make a choice. Go up into DI's center tower or go down into the bowels of the facility to search out answers?

Those who are infected will be drawn to the bright light calling out to them - where there is activity there is more to eat. The effects of the infection - for those that have had it since the start of the night will begin to feel the effects of hyper active mutation. Dr. Thorpe did indeed happen upon a strain of Eternity like virus that regenerates much like an ancient vampire but with it came the rapid molecular degeneration. For as quickly as they turn, the quicker they slow down. Death would be inevitable, some day, but the increased strength, speed and resilience will decreased.

Again...some day.

However - deep in the lower levels of DI works Nova Piestewa with the help of zombie host Dr. Thorpe. The last bit of the scientist's humanity gave him the strength to offer himself up to the vampire and with time running short for them, isolated the mutation. Young Carol, executive secretary for both DI and Tacharan accessed the small reproduction facility within the sub levels, using a preexisting manufactured delivery system. Now all they had to do was make enough to cure the infected. One question being - would it work against those who had been infected since the beginning...or would it kill them?

Funny thing about life - it was as full of questions as it was choices and choosing wisely always meant asking the right question first...well...before the military descends down upon on the town with fire bombs, that is.

Good luck.

Carol looked down at the delivery system and frowned.

'Are you sure this is going to work? I mean...well it's pretty...wow, you know?'

The Merc looked at her and raised his eyebrows.

'Well it's just...we actually had these handy? Yikes.'

The Merc replied, 'You act like you've never seen anything like this before.'

Carol blew him a raspberry. Leaning back she cocked her head to the side and watched the production line manufacture the weapons. 'So uh...how do we get to them?'

The laboratories nestled deep under Duibne Industries boasted state of the art technology and replicating machines. Weaponry, medical technology and supplies, computers and super fancy motion sensor toilets were at their fingertips - except for the hundreds of zombies. Some were trapped in sealed rooms, however like the upper floors, some loitered in the hallways, slowly feeling the long term effects of the virus and their starvation.

Carol sighed and she and the Merc both looked up at the ceiling, then back down again at her skirt. She knew exactly how they were going to get to the new delivery system and with an annoyed grunt she pushed up off the chair and kicked off her heels.

'God damn ventilation system.'

In a night filled with some truely horrific visions, Amberelle knew the sight of those infected plummeting down towards the fiery wreckage only to rise up and turn towards them would stand out. Grotesque, distorted shadows stretched out towards those gathered at the elevators as the light danced over them. That image burned into her brain and would haunt her dreams for decades to come. Steve began firing rapidly, yelling out orders but the blonde could only blink for a few seconds before that survival instinct kicked in.

She brushed past the two tall strangers to stand beside her cousin and for some absurb reason murmured Pardon moi, as she did. Even in the midst of madness inbred manners would not be forgotten it seemed. Roughly shoving the radio onto her belt and raising her own handgun she started picking them off. Neat and calm she took controlled head shots and watched them jerk backwards and crumple. Even as Cel did similar beside her it was obvious the waves of them were just too much to handle. Almost in unison the De'Espionne women yelled out, Fall back!

Slowly sliding back towards Simon, Amby yelled over to her cousin in French, Don't leave that one, up front, he's Anantya property.. She didn't look to see if Cel heard her as she took up a position beside the elevator and drew her katana.

Standing beside her younger cousin, Cel just smiled as they cut down zombie after zombie. It was kind of a rush, finally getting to cut loose and shed some blood after all the stealth she'd been engaged in so far this evening. The loud mouthed man that had been with the blonde was snapping off orders as if he was the one in charge which irked her somewhat, but she appreciated a "take charge, get the job done" kind of personality. In times like this it was probably what had kept him alive so far. But for continued survival he'd best not throw any of those orders HER way.

In another time and place it may have pleased the Creole to hear Amby's judgement was as spot on as hers still as they issued their retreat orders, but it didn't cross her mind right now. The vampire had sort of mentally adopted the two mortals and found herself taking the time to spin and force them backwards into an elevator with her. Spinning, her back pressed against the two so roughly pushed against the far wall she kicked out and pressed a few floor buttons and sighed as the doors began to close.

Don't leave that one, up front, he's Anantya property.. rang out towards her and Celeste swore fiercely. Pushing off the solid wall of men behind her, she rushed out the doors before they closed. They sprang back open as she brushed them, eliciting another round of violent swearing under her breath. Celeste ducked under one rotting and mangled form that lept for her, her hand swinging backwards to shoot it point blank in the back of the head as she reached out and snagged the back of the familar's flak jacket with her free hand. Lifting him was out of the question since she was a good deal shorter than he, so she drug him along and managed to get him roughly shoved inside the elevator without disturbing the reclosing doors.

The vampire stood outside and watched to make sure the doors were closed completely, saluting the two cousins inside with a fang filled grin just before she lost sight of them.

((men tossed and pushed around with permission))

Ellis watched the fight unfold and then sighed. Tucking her gun back into her waistband, she decided that wasting what little bullets she had now wouldn't be a good idea. Instead she turned to look at Simon and nodded toward an elevator.

'Let the heroes handle that - we'll need our bullets later.'

She swept into the elevator and turned back to look at as the others started to fall back. She considered what might happen next - trapped below with hundreds of zombies or trapped at ground level with an entire city. Yeah, this was going to be fun.