( open ) our ag wing's back and you're gonna be in trouble (hey now! hey now! our ag wing's back)

[initiates]

Date & Time: October 31st, 3313, 11:59PM - November 3rd, 3313, ????
Location: Agriculture Wing, Moon Base to start. Cafeteria, warehouse, docking bay, VR rooms, Transport Pad, or Observatory later on.
Characters: Any & all!
Summary: Space Zombies are allowed out of the Agriculture Wing, slowly revving up their systems to try and infect and absorb as many of the Transports (or 12 Initiative Members) as possible.
Warnings: Log will be locked for potentially graphic violence. Please warn in threads should the violence or gore become graphic.
Notes: Specify a date and location in your top comment. You may specify multiple dates/locations. Specify a time if you wish as well.

Everything is a success at first, from the cool rush of air out of the Agriculture Wing once the doors are fully unlocked, to the heady sense of accomplishment for finally moving forward on something good for the long-term usability of the Moon Base. It's intended to remain a resource, after all, but not be a permanent home. Fraying tempers and the sense of cabin fever descending on Transports continues to showcase how important it is to get back down on Earth to regain some breathing room.

There's little enough dust between all the unmoving, unlit structures, many even supporting the barest dried husks of what once grew there. Upon the lightest touch, they disintegrate, turning into a dust that falls to the ground. The silent rows will be reclaimed and turned into functioning units, based on Transport efforts, and Transport time invested in the project.

There's just one problem. Something stirs in the reclaimed wing, among tangles of hosing and wiring. Skitterings and movements that make no sense for a long abandoned Moon Base. The further in Transports go, relying on magic or technology to generate light past the bare minimum maintained by the base, the more disturbing sights they may run into.

Of course, the most disturbing of all might be lying just around the far corner -- but don't worry, it's only a flesh wound. Try not to get surprised in the machinery, caught suffering from not looking up or caught making out with anything unsavory this holiday season, Transports. We need all of you to stay alive!

We can't bring you back right now!

Comments

[notpeterparker]

[She looks up as he approaches, confused. She's not sure if he's fully aware of what was going on outside, or just didn't care. But then again, he was like that when she met him during the rescue mission too.

She shakes her head. Even though it's Christopher, she's still afraid to move from her spot. She mentally scolds herself for crying, before wiping the back of her hand across her eyes and trying to calm herself down.]

I-I'm sorry, I don't want to play any games right now. Um...a-are the monsters still out there, Mr. Christopher?

[She'll leave her chair fort if he says yes. Not that it really mattered, because if she were attacked in here that chair fort wasn't going to protect her very well.

Of course as she says this, something else wanders into the cafeteria from another entrance...]

[inhumanity]

[Christopher half-glances over his shoulder to see it before looking back to Carol.]

Mm, shan't be for long. [He gives Carol a serene smile. The zombie has noticed them and is now heading in their direction] Close your eyes, Carol. I won't hold back against them.

[The zombie rears back and it spits. Without turning, Christopher swings his umbrella over his shoulder and opens it. The hiss of acid sings as the spit that Christopher deflected hits the floor, ceiling, walls—but not either of them. He spins his umbrella to clear the rest of the acid off and finally turns to fight.]

[Carol, hiding again is a great idea.]

[notpeterparker]

[She covers her mouth so she won't scream, right as the acid hits his umbrella. And as starts towards them, she'll crawl right back under the chairs, close her eyes like he told her too, and cover her ears. She tries not to think too hard about what would happen if he were to lose, or if there were more of those things about to rush into the room. She trusts him enough to leave her safety in his hands, because really that's all she can do.

She wishes she could do more, or at least be brave enough to say something, but all she can do now is wait and hope the fight ends quickly. When she opens her eyes again, she hopes it'll be like waking up from a nightmare.]

[inhumanity]

[When Carol opens her eyes, the scene is not that of a dream. Christopher has no choice. He has to kill them with dismemberment. Arm, leg, head from torso, until the mess left behind is completely incapable of hurting anyone. There is blood everywhere.

But at least, Christopher himself is not bloodstained, and with the body parts fallen as they have among debris, it might be easy to miss most of them.]

Shall we move back to the living quarters?

[notpeterparker]

[She barely hears him, but when she does hear his voice, she takes it as a signal to open her eyes. She doesn't see the body, and she doesn't know what he's done, and she doesn't want to know.

She scrambles out from behind the chairs and towards him. She doesn't say anything, she's too afraid to right now, but she'll reach a hand out to him, hoping that will be enough to tell him what she wants him to do.

He can take her wherever he wants as long as it's away from those things.]

[inhumanity]

[Christopher accepts her hand. And with his umbrella open over his shoulder, he walks her out into the hallway. He knows the fastest route from here to the living quarters. He merely has to kill everything between them and their destination, without letting Carol come to hard.

Easy. None of these monsters were difficult kills. That's why he doesn't tense up as a scraping starts coming towards them from down the hall.]

[notpeterparker]

[The scraping does cause Carol to tense up, not that she hasn't been incredibly tense already. The grip on his hand tightens and she speaks quietly.]

What's that?

[Maybe it wasn't a monster, maybe it was just another person. But it didn't sound like a person, and there weren't any places for her to hide out in the hallway.

With her free hand, she lifts her camera a little higher. She's terrified, but maybe she can blind it. After all, the lens she has is supposed to be special in some way - it should be able to help them somehow.]

[inhumanity]

Mm, a monster, probably. Time to have a little fun. [Christopher's free hand readies the umbrella.

And the monster leaps out the moment they turn a corner. Will Christopher kill it, or does Carol get to take a picture?]

[notpeterparker]

[Carol gives a startled squeal as it lunges, pressing the button on her camera. There's a flash, but while it doesn't actually blind the creature, Chris will find that this monster is far easier to kill then it should be.

Because it's not moving at all. Not blinded or stunned, but completely frozen in place.

She has her eyes closed during this, unaware that she froze it.]

[inhumanity]

[Christopher blinks.

Christopher tilts his head sideways.

Christopher pokes the monster's head, and then, getting no response, tears it off.

Huh.]

My, Carol. I had no idea that time itself was under your sway.

[notpeterparker]

[The headless body actually stays upright for a few more seconds, until the camera's effects wears off. After that, the body collapses.

Carol's eyes stay shut, seemingly unaware of what's happened.]

D-did I get it? Did the monster go away yet?

[inhumanity]

Wellllll, I think it may be better to say that it shan't go anywhere at all again. [Taking her hand, he starts to pull her around the corpse. No need to step over that.]

[notpeterparker]

[She quickly nods, not wanting to ask him what happened or what he had to do. The monster is gone, and she hopes that'll be the last of them. Without opening her eyes, she'll let Chris lead her away from the body.]

Do you think we're going to run into a lot more of them, Mr. Christopher? I-I can help out with my camera. The lens they gave me is supposed to be a special lens, s-so I think it can help.

[inhumanity]

[Christopher can't help the slow, amused smile.] Oh, I'm very certain that it can. Mm, should I just say which way to point and ask you to click? Then you won't ever have to see them. Unless you want to open your eyes, of course.

[notpeterparker]

Um, if you tell me where to aim, I can do that.

[Don't make her look it's too scary.]

[inhumanity]

[Christopher doesn't hear the sounds ahead. But with those bodies left around, well. Christopher knows most of the Transports have worked out that they should throw these things out of the airlocks.]

I may have a target for you already.

[He raises their linked hands to point in the direction of the dropped corpses.]

[notpeterparker]

[Carol doesn't hear anything, doesn't open her eyes to look. With a trembling hand, she raises the camera again. One of the corpses looks a lot more bloated then the others, like something might be in its stomach.

Her only response is a whimper. As soon as he tells her to, she'll freeze the corpses.]

[inhumanity]

[That's curious. Christopher pauses. Rather than telling Carol to kill them straight away, he can't resist tapping the stomach with his umbrella.

The creatures burst forward.] Now! ♫

[notpeterparker]

[She hears a wet, sickening sound. And the moment she tells her to, she starts snapping photographs. Several photographs, and she probably won't stop until he tells her to.

Hopefully she freezes all of them, but with how wildly she's aiming, it's hard to tell.]

[inhumanity]

[Christopher opens his umbrella on one that gets too close—and as probability would have it, it gets set on fire by the edge of the umbrella.] If you keep this up, you'll freeze me in time. [He sounds amused as he looks at how many are suspended in the air. It's relatively easy to quickly toss the mass into one of the airlocks and send it all away into space, with a few swings of the umbrella.]

[notpeterparker]

H-huh? Oh, I'm sorry!

[She finally stops, and opens one eye to see what exactly it was she just froze before Chris gets rid of them. What she sees makes her a little sick. They weren't zombies as far as she can tell. Bugs maybe?]

[inhumanity]

[Christopher smiles, amused.] An apology from a friend is spoken before words are said. [He holds his hand out to her again.] We ought to keep moving.

[notpeterparker]

[He'll get a smile in return, although it's a nervous one. She quickly grabs his hand again and let him take the lead again. This time she tries to be a little braver - she'll keep her eyes open and her camera ready. Or at least she'll try too.

They manage to get further without too much trouble, but one of the rooms ahead that they need to get through has one of these guys hanging around, along with a thick cloud of poisonous air. Carol almost steps inside, but takes a sudden step backwards and coughs. She can see a monster in there, but it doesn't look like it's going to move to attack them.]

I don't think my camera's going to work on that.

[inhumanity]

[Benign, serene, Christopher only smiles.] It looks like we need a breath of fresh air. This is exactly why plants are so important in a place without Nature's blessing.

[And he strides inside without flinching. It's like the poison doesn't hurt his lungs (though it does, fires calling up a dozen half-buried memories that he'll fight to keep underground) and he doesn't hesitate first to cut the monster up, careful not to puncture its lungs, and then to stand in the centre.

There, he spins his umbrella by the hook, around and around over his head, drawing in the poison. He would like to cough, but then, the trick probably won't work if he does. So he reminds his body to endure its suffering, until he has the air clear enough that, for a moment, even a human child's lungs could endure it.

Christopher hops to the side.] Now a picture, and we'll run through!

[notpeterparker]

[She wants to call out to him the moment he walks in, because even she knows the air inside is bad. And as much as she's afraid for him, she tells herself that she has to trust him. He must know what he's doing, so she has to trust him. But still...

At his command, she lifts the camera.]

O-okay!

[She also knows she has to be brave for him too, which is why she doesn't flinch or hesitate when he tells her to snap the picture. Their path will only be clear for a few seconds until the camera's effects wear off, but they can easily make it if they run.]