The office building

[duke]

The office building is just like most other office buildings. Simple, filled with cubical. Though this place seems different. The lights are out and the only thing providing light is the red glow of the exit signs. The places is scattered with paper and farther up the three story building you go the larger the mess becomes.

The last flight of stairs heading up to the roof is block partially by desk, chairs and anything you would find in an office building. Up the stair themselves there is a layer of some liquid though it is to dark to tell what it is.

You wake finding yourself laying on the floor in one of the cubicals with an urgent sense of dread. Deep down inside you just know you are going to need to defend yourself. You just don't know what from yet.

[Cadan Ashdown]

Cadan eyes were closed his head was throbbing. He was uncomfortable and he could feel bolts of pain coming from all over his back. Though for some reason he didn't want to open his eyes. He could hear he his own breath shallow and slow.

Finally he made himself take a deep breath and opened his eyes. He was laying on the floor of what seemed to be an office building there were tall windows that went from ceiling to the ground though many of them were busted out. That is why his back was in pain he was laying on shards of glass. He glanced out the window realizing he was on the second floor of the place. Outside he could see flames in the distance from what looked like a ship dock.

All the street lights were out and no one was in the streets. He stood himself up and found himself surrounded by a reddish glow of an exit sign that hung from the wall near the stairs down. The place was a mess as if a giant brawl had occurred there. It didn't help sooth that dreadful felling he had in the pit of his stomach. He reached in his bag that way laying next to him and found his switch blade and pistol. He wasn't sure how his stuff got there, in fact he wasn't sure how he got there either but at least he had something for protection with him incase those who had been fighting here before returned.

[Paige Demore]

Priya took a deep slow breath, she had a very uneasy feeling; though she couldn't place why. She slowly picked herself up off of the floor, taking in her surroundings. It was an office of some sort from what she could tell; there were no lights other than the red that shined from the exit lights. Shaking her head, Priya couldn't recall what had happened; why or how she was here. She had a slight pain in her back, from hitting the ground she assumed. Slowly Priya wandered to the nearest window, crouching below it to peek out.

Her heart seemed to stop; outside she could see a ship blazing with fire. Not just any ship, it was hers, the Athena. Priya felt a bit of panic come across her; where was the rest of her crew. Though she dared not to call out; she forced herself to keep calm. She could see what looked like more fire in the distance, this was bad. It was the first floor of the building she was on, gathering from her level with the outside.

Patting herself Priya took inventory of what she had, her pistols, two sets of push daggers. Even her sai and the four daggers usually found in her boots were present. She moved two of the knives from their sheaths and placed them in her waist-band, arming herself with one of her pistols. Priya began to move slowly through the floor, careful to keep out of full sight of the windows.

Priya prayed silently that she would find her crew soon; despite her personality she felt worry and fear for them. There was something very wrong with this place, this entire situation. She didn't want to be alone when she found out why.

[alastair]

Alastair woke up sitting in a rolling office chair his head on the desk. As his eyes opened without even moving his everything was dark. His hand and face felt wet and slimy. They were covered in something but it was to dark to know what. He didn't know where he was but he had an eerie feeling about where he was. it wasn't anywhere on the ship he fell asleep on.

He grabbed his pistol and stood up as his eyes adjusted to the darkness he realized the desk was red, red with what looked like blood. His breath began to become more swift. He was worried, something was defiantly wrong. He raise he hand to his mouth and pressed it to his lips. It tasted salty and like iron. It was defiantly blood but it wasn't his. Where did it all come from the whole place was covered in it.

Alastair backed away from the desk trying to wipe the blood from his hands on to his pants. Where was he and what was going on? He turned himself around holding his pistol level. His foot hit a metal waste basket knocking it over. The noise started him and he pulled back on the trigger. Three rounds were let loose and then he paused the glass of the window that he had shoot gave way with a shattering sound. He followed up with one more round being shot down at the broken glass, then it was done. Nothing bad had happened but if there was anything out there listening they would have heard that.

[Paige Demore]

Priya jumped, startled at the sudden gunfire and breaking glass. Sounding as though it came from upstairs in the very building she was in. Maybe it was Jeff? She waited a few minutes in a dark corner before she moved at all, slowly she crept towards the stairs. Whoever it was could be potential assistance to her; she wasn't above looking for someone to shed some light on the situation.

If there was someone upstairs who could help, and they weren't the "bad guy" in all this, they could at least help each other. Priya had no idea if there even were any "bad guys" around to have heard the shots, but she didn't want to be the only one present when and if they showed up. She would make her way up the stairs very slowly.

[Onas Knox]

Onas was tired, sooo tired. His arms were bars of lead, and his eyelids were closing on their own. In fact, the harder he tried to stay awake, the worse it got. Usually, his sleep habits were terrible, and that was putting it lightly. He didn't sleep well anymore, just rim sleep. Whenever he did finally fall out, it was more or less exhaustion. And he had slept all the previous night, so it wasn't reasonable for him to be tired tonight, it just wasn't logical. Or, well, in keeping with normal. For him.

But here he was, fighting it as always. He had his toolkit splayed out in front of him, cleaning an O2 recycler. Just as he was fitting the first of three pressure valves into its cradle, his eyes closed tight, and his head smacked the table...

Honestly, it only felt like a second. But when his eyes opened, the entire world had changed. Literally. He wasn't in his apartment, it was some junk-house, like a building in the lower region maybe. Definitely not New Dunsmir. It was dark as hell, and the only light was coming from an exit sign or something. It was only a sliver of red light, must have been a small crack. Had he been snatched? He looked around himself quietly, soaking up the surroundings. It was remarkably startling to wake up where you didn't go to sleep, and wherever he was, it wasn't good. And it stank like rotten lemons too, like he was sitting in a bag of 'em. He started to shake a little, Onas certainly had enemies, but why would anyone snag him? No one who knew him had enough money to pay anything. He was sobered a bit when he remembered that the last time he had seen a dump this bad, it was he who had been on the profitable side. Onas tried to turn all the way around in his chair, and suddenly it hit him that he was locked in the room. Not that he'd tried the door yet, you understand, but his hands weren't bound. Which meant whoever snatched him, had attempted to lock him into a room with a dropped ceiling? He smiled with closed lips, eclipsing a satisfactory thought;

'Idiots'

Onas rose and walked with his footsteps falling heel-rolled-to-toe so as not to make any noise, and crept over to the wilting door. What a dump, the door looked as though it had been rammed from the other side, probably druggies trying to make it to the roof for a snort party. 该死的地狱, it was so battered, you could see into the next room through the crack between the frame and the crumpled door. The door was still solid, but the hinges weren't unbreakable, a solid kick would probably snap it open, although, he didn't want to alarm anyone downstairs or wherever that he had woken. Onas turned and stood there, thinking for a moment, instinctively reaching too his right pocket, and gathering out his cigarettes...

Wait. His cigarettes were on the desk. The one he woke from.

So were the parts for the O2 recycler, and his ashtray. And now that he was thinking clearly... Onas looked away, and then back. He walked closer and peered at the desk, checking it over in the dim light. It was... It was his?

The question in his mind went from "Who" would do this, to "Why" would anyone do this? A chill went through his spine, and now he had to offset panic. Onas did light up a smoke, though not to think, more so as to calm down. His heart had started to beat a bit harder as you might imagine. He couldn't take his eyes off the red light in the doorframe, his imagination was pouring flashes of odd bandit's torturing him, or some Godawful Alliance scheme to test his psychosis, or even. Even Reavers. He sat down in his chair, yes, it was his chair, and tried to find some logic in all this. He mind was racing, tons of thoughts, but no useful conclusions. The saturating putrid odor sure didn't help. The smell of it was disgusting. It must have been some old, moldy, forgotten, chunk of rotting meat, dead rats maybe. It was so thick it felt like it was literally adhering to his nasal hair with each breath. It was messing with his head and clouding 粪 up. If only he could see better.

He smiled again, the same thought as last time, only this time it wasn't plural, and it was directed towards himself.

With his hands still shaky and the lighter held high enough not to leave blind spots against his retina, Onas looked around the room. He was right, it was an office of some sort. Then he turned enough to see the wall to his desk's left, that is, the wall on the right side of the door. But north orientation was forgotten, the wall was clearly seen now. Before, everything was red, it was a red light that bathed his whole world. An exit sign he had assumed. But now with his lighter bringing all the colors of the rainbow back to his rapidly tearing eyes, he wished he didn't smoke.

It just couldn't be.

His legs locked, and his eyes watered. He had nearly had himself believing it was a dream there for a second, but with the heat of his lighter baking into his fingertips, it was no dream, and it was no logical sight. Blood. Blood everywhere, and a body on the floor, some of it anyway. Onas vomited everything in his stomach, it was reavers. It had to be. There just wasn't any other conclusion. He was locked in a room with a murdered reaver victim. Oh God, was that the smell? It was... it was eaten. As he stepped closer he could see the bite marks. But it was the wall above more than the body. The blood had been smeared. Onas' eyes opened wider than he believed possible, the thick oder in the room could be 'felt' assaulting his naked eyeballs as he stared in terror. It was the blood on the wall. It was intentional. It was writing. It said...

"RUN"

_{...Somewhere in the building, gunshots started...}

[Cadan Ashdown]

The gunfire sent Cadan flying in the air almost causing him to start squeezing rounds of as well. Luckily he caught himself before he did to. They weren't far from him at all, just a floor above. It was enough to make him decide he wanted out of this filth pit.

Cadan began to walk around the floor quickly not caring to much about how much sound he made. It was time to leave this place before anyone came down the stairs. After a short bit of searching he found his way to the stairs. To the opposite side of the hallway was a battered door. On the other side of it he could hear the breath of someone. They were doing their best to be quiet but their breath gave them away.

At first he thought about going past with out alarming them of his presence then it hit him. Maybe they were friendly and would want to get away from he shooting. That would explain why they are being so quiet. They might be afraid to leave with the gunshots.

Cadan opened to door slowly keeping his body off to the side of the door and his weapon at the ready. "Everyone alwigh' in there?" he called in to the room. As he was waiting for a response back he heard a sound. It was someone else coming up the stairs. He turned now to face them, it was a female with her weapon drawn. Cadan's heart dropped. She had her weapon pointed right at him and if he turned his to try and shoot she would have him in a heart beat. "Wot the Gypsy Nell is garn on 'ere? he questioned as his heart raced. This looked like it, someone had finally gotten the drop on him. He wasn't sure what they were after from him but it looked like they had the upper hand.

---------------
Gypsy Nell = Hell

[Onas Knox]

The door opened behind Onas a moment later. He barely noticed, his mind was trying to solve a repulsive riddle.

"Everyone alwigh' in there?" the fellow asked cautiously, Onas still couldn't answer, couldn't take his eyes off the spectacle in front of him, really, he was scared stiff. Oh he heard him to be sure, but he was still scared reavers were lurking, and that was never 'alwigh'.

Onas even felt kinda bad about not bein able to answer even as he was still to shocked to move. But it was the most incredibly horrid thing he had ever seen, and he had seen, and done, a lot. The blood on the wall. The word written in it, who does that, and why? And the body itself, the cheeks had been gnawed off, the hands and feet had been eaten off, there were massive sections of its right side gone... This looked more like a 上帝该死的 shark victim. And the blood, it was everywhere, he was standing in it, had to be at least a gallon of it on the floor. Maybe more. At first, he hadn't got it, when he first saw it. It was too disgusting. But now he understood. The person before him had a toe in its mouth. He kept thinking of it as an it, but it could easily have been a woman, or a scrony fellow. But 'it', he stressed in his mind, was a 上帝该死的 reaver. Why would it eat this much of itself. How did it do it. WHAT THE 性交 IS HE DOING IN THE 该死的混蛋 ROOM WITH IT?? HOW DO YOU SLEEP THROUGH SOMETHING LIKE THAT? What the 混蛋 was going on?

"Wot the Gypsy Nell is garn on 'ere?" The guy asked again. Then he jerked his head back the other way, Onas saw it in his peripheral. Now he had to look, look into the face of certain death, the Reavers were here. He looked, but it wasn't a Reaver, just some woman with less covering her body than this thing had on. They were gonna shoot each other. Somehow it seemed fitting in all this.

But then something you can't 该死的混蛋 imagine happened, something that got every synaptic relay in Onas' freaked out mind to turn and to get his legs moving away. He backpedaled to his desk, grabbing frantically for a weapon of some sort, his tools were there, maybe he would have a screwdriver or something. The 上帝该死的 body was moving, not like, twitching, no, it was eating, and its head turned towards Onas, and its eyes opened. THIS 母亲笨蛋 WAS ALIVE!!

[Paige Demore]

Priya kept herself careful as she stalked up the staircase. She heard some noises coming from upstairs, pulling her gun closer, ready to point and shoot. She kept climbing, kept her pace slow and steady. Priya heard the voice, a man's voice. As she came to the top of the stairs she could see him, the source of the voice. Priya pointed her pistol, aiming for his heart.

She couldn't tell exactly what he was saying but it was pretty clear that he was fairly clueless about the situation as well. Her gun didn't falter though, she had no cause to trust the man in front of her. Priya took a moment to ponder; whatever was going on she'd have a better chance if she wasn't alone. Priya gave a nod to the man before her, hopefully letting him know she wouldn't shoot him.

Frantic noises came from the room that Cadan was near; her attention turned to the door that was open. Glancing back at Cadan then back to the door. Debating to herself what to do next, before that decision was made she began to move forward; heading over to investigate the sounds in the room beyond her. She kept her gun drawn and pointed ready to shoot as she crept closer.

[duke]

A scream from outside echoed through the office building. Everyone inside could hear it clearly. Then there was silence for a moment. Then again more screams. These where the kind of inhuman screams one would expect in a nightmare. Many of these screams came from above those in the office building the roof must have been covered in whatever was making this scream.

[alastair]

Alastair had heard the screams that sounded like they were right by him. It nearly made him begin shooting again but that had probably already alerted whatever it was to his location. There was no sense pinpointing himself out whatever was out there. Instead he decided it was best to get out of this building and on to somewhere safer, somewhere less open.

He hunted around the third floor for a short while when he spotted the stairs that lead down. He swiftly raced down the stairs about halfway when he realized he heard other voices down the. "Who's down there?" He called out as he raised his weapon back up and walked down the rest of the way there was a woman and a man standing around the next set of stairs down to the first floor, both of them focusing on a door across the hall. Though they both had weapons out at least it hadn't turned in to a free for all shot out yet. Maybe they could instead be of some assistance to him. They might be able to help him figure out what is going on here.

[Cadan Ashdown]

Cadan let out a sigh of relief when he received the nod Priya, for sure he would at least live a little longer but was now time to find out what was going on how they had all gotten here and what had done all of these horrors.

Caden now content that he wasn't going to be shot stuck his head in the doorway to see what was going on in there. That is when he saw it a man, or at least what used to be a man, getting back up from being dead and making his way toward the other man in the room. He didn't know how to react or what to do. He was frozen as well. Instead of helping he turned to face the girl again out of fear she might be one of those things as well.

Then, then it got even worse. Screams echoed through the place like they were in the pits of hell itself. Cadan was startled to a point he couldn't talk, even when a voice from upstairs called down to them. His gun leveled to the ready once more. He didn't say a word to the man upstairs instead he weapon and eyes bolted back toward Pryia, before she could reach he began to squeeze off rounds toward her.

Though none of them hit her, In fact he was clearly aiming down the stairs beside her. After the rounds rang out and Cadan expected her to shot him there was a thud. The sound of a body falling to the ground.

It looked human but it's flesh had been tattered and worn as if it had been dead for weeks. It most definitely wasn't human either and it had been going for Pryia like she was it's next meal. His eyes darted around again. Whats next werewolves, Cadan though to himself. "Ay yo trip down 'ere we 'ave ter get the Gypsy Nell out of 'ere." He exclaimed as he pocked his head around the corner seeing Alastair coming down.

Then it hit him, there was one more of these things in that room with the other fellow, Onas. Was he alright or had that thing cought up to him.....

[Paige Demore]

Priya kept watch on Cadan, he stuck his head in the doorway that had caught their attention. When he looked back in her direction she could see the fear in his eyes, he stared at her just a moment. Her own eyes widened as Priya heard the worst noise she could imagine; it was a terrible scream and it was followed by more. She even heard it in the very building they were in, it seemed to echo above them. Priya stayed frozen in place, her blood ran cold.

It was then Cadan squeezed the trigger of his gun, in her direction. Was this it? Was it all going to be over for her? The fear the screams had created within her kept her from returning fire at Cadan. After the shots rang out, she realized that they weren't meant for her as the sounds of a body hitting the ground came from behind her. Priya turned her head, the sight before her was gruesome, it was something that used to be human. The smell was awful, the smell of death, not recent death either. She put a hand over her mouth to keep her gag reflex from kicking in, turning back to Cadan.

He was answering the voice that had called down, a voice that sounded like a normal man. Priya hoped he was armed. She gathered herself, taking a deep breath and moved up a few steps closer to where Cadan was. "Thank you.." It was all she could muster, though it was only a whisper. She didn't want to chance gathering the attention of anymore of those...things. But from the amount of screams that sounded like they'd come from this very building, it was likely whatever they were already knew they were here. Priya pressed her back against the wall, she kept an eye downstairs and upstairs as they waited for the owner of the voice to join them.

"Name's Priya Sanai." She tried to calm her nerves but her voice had come out shakey. Her hand went to her second pistol taking a tight grip around it, she held both close and ready.

[Onas Knox]

It was dead quiet. And nasty, as it stood up on two legs, more muscle and skin simply fell off its bones. All over its body too, like meat off a bone you forgot to check in a croak-pot for three days. How did it even stand? It was literally on bones and tendons at its feet. This thing was a B-movie nightmare come to life. Onas' stomach turned into a knot, the thing was er... stumbling at him.

The smell may well have been worse then the sight. It hit him so hard, Onas might have tried to push it out of his face. It was like baking rotten lemons with mold from month old plasma discharge. It was thick too, not just in his head, but there was a visible flaking coming off every pile of pus that used to be muscle as it slid off the bones and mushroomed on the floor. If Onas had ever seen an open package of yogurt hit the floor, he might have thought it would have looked like that, if it were really only just damp enough to sort of... "puufh"

Onas turned his head slightly grimacing hard. He heard the other say something, but he really wasn't listening any more, his hands grabbed for a weapon. Anything.

The creature grabbed him with inhuman strength and tried to bite his chest. Onas had on two layers of shirts thank God, but the thing started climbing his chest. He pushed with his left hand against its right shoulder as he scrambled with his right hand to find anything to hit this mother with. It was a fruitless effort, the thing just leaned against his arm, and continued trying to bite him. Onas finally found his tool-kit handle, and swung it wildly at the creatures head, tools flying everywhere upon impact. It got the thing off him, but only for a moment.

This time, Onas' fight-or-flight kicked in, and he snatched up the first heavy thing he saw, his chair. A small but weighty wooden thing, with only padding on the small seat. It was old as who knows, and it was already shaky. But it beat a leather tool pouch. He didn't want any further menu attempts on his life, so he didn't wait, Onas swung as hard as he could at the things legs.

It was a combination of breaking bones, and breaking chair pieces on the first swing. Whatever the creature was, it couldn't walk without legs, and it was officially out of the fight. But there is some satisfaction to be had in crushing a defenseless monster at your feet, and Onas drank his fill of it, as he smashed its head over and over and over and over. Well beyond its pulp squishing sounds indicated was necessary.

He finally stopped at the sounds of voices in his direction. But he didn't perceive what the were saying. His feet gave way to dizziness, and he fell backwards into the corner of the room, crumpling up with his piece of chair. Dry heaving and crying.

At length, he composed himself, and wiped the tears from his jawline and chin with his shirtsleeve. Then he looked to the others. Friends? Or enemies?