Week 2
It was nearly a week before anything else developed and in that time the group fell into a sort of routine; there were regularly scheduled practice times and meal times and honestly little else to do aside from Jalia�s school-work and no one else had any great interest in architecture.
Victoria and Mara were practicing target shooting together, Victoria with her guns and Mara with her bow, when Victoria�s cell phone began to ring. Knowing that they weren�t allowed to distract themselves during practice, she ignored it and hoped the caller would leave a message.
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At this same time in a different portion of the sprawling mansion Z chose to pick a fight with Genji, who defeated him easily without breaking a sweat. Knowing what I now know about Genji, it�s no surprise at all, but that comes later and at that time it was quite surprising to all who witnessed it.
It was then that Genji got the bright idea to test Z�s abilities in the encounter room. Using the encounter room�s interface they confronted Z with progressively stronger opponents and after a while they came to two very important discoveries: 1. Z will defeat most opponents in physical combat except when they are significantly more powerful than him and 2. magic and psionics degrade Z�s abilities quickly and efficiently until he is defeated. These results firmly in hand, they rushed to the main meeting room in order to inform Carthis.
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Mickey left his room to discover the source of the sounds of combat, but was distracted by a door. It was a perfectally normal door, or so I�m told, but there was what for them was a big change: it, like the rest of the doors, now had a nameplate, which displayed �William� warmly for all to see. Unsure of how to react, he hurried to the main room to confirm his suspicions with Carthis.
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Victoria and Mara completed their training slot, allowing Victoria an opportunity to pick up the message on her cellphone. After listening to it she let out a small squeak and rushed to the main room to share the news with Carthis.
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They all arrived in the main room at about the same time. Mickey managed to blurt out his question first, his voice clipped with concern, �Why�s a nameplate appeared on the last door?�
Carthis responded with a slight chuckle in his voice, �The final member of the group is coming. Al-�
Victoria cut him off with her concerns, �I got a call from John down in Rosemont. The zombies are still there and there�re even more of them now!�
Carthis glared at her for a moment before continuing, �Yes, I know. As I was about to say, you have a couple of problems to deal with. One is the continued zombie presence in the Rosemont area. In addition to the zombies, the power-source there is almost twice as powerful as last time,� he held up his hand to stop any further interruptions, �To make it all the more interesting, there�s also a run-away train on the BNSF. You need to deal with the Rosemont problem first and meet your new member there, then you need to stop that train before it gets to Union Station downtown.�
There was a silence in the room for a full minute before Mickey spoke, �Umm... How will we recognize the last member?�
Carthis cracked a grin, �Oh, you�ll know, he�ll be hard to miss. And don�t forget to give him this,� he tossed Mickey one of the spare comms, �He�ll need it.�
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What drove Bill, for that was what William preferred to be called, to fight the zombies was much more personal than the rest of us. During one of the zombie incursions he and his little sister hid in one of their neighbor�s apartments, but that didn�t save her life; she was killed by a stray bullet. Her death drove him to such heights of vengeance that his technical genius went into overdrive, allowing him to complete his huge mech-suit in a matter of weeks. It cost me more alcohol than I care to think about to wheedle this information out of him and I�ll probably be in for it if he ever finds out that I set it down in writing for all to see.
By the time Carthis and the others were discussing him, he was putting the final touches on his arsenal and preparing to mount his solo attack on the Rosemont Horizon. Even as he suited up and headed there, he knew that something was wrong. Everything around him was quiet but most of his sensors were blaring. As soon as he entered the Horizon he was set upon by a large group of zombies, but made quick work of them with his assault rifle until it clicked on empty. To some that may seem the end of a short but bright career, but they�d be wrong. He didn�t even hesitate when it clicked, he simply stashed it, drew his sword, and continued to kick ass. He had killed over 100 of the zombies before the rest of the group even arrived.
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The group arrived to survey the battle ground. The door to the building was caved in and the bloody, segmented remains of the zombies lay scattered about like rag-dolls. They cautiously followed the path of destruction until they came upon Bill, his mech-suit caked with blood and zombie-bits, and no �live� zombie in sight.
Bill, hearing them approach, turned to attack, expecting more zombies. Z immediately fell into a defensive stance in front of Jalia, but it ended up being unnecessary as Bill lowered his sword, �Who�re you?�
Mickey stepped forward with a bit of a flourish, �I am Mickey and we,� he indicated the group, �have been fighting the zombies as well. We were sent to look into the continued zombie activity here and were told that we�d meet a potential new member. Would that be you?�
Bill just kind of stared at him for a second, �I could be...�
�Well, if you�d like to join us, you�ll need this,� he produced the comm link, but was hesitant about approaching without an affirmative.
Z took the comm from Mickey and walked over to hand it to Bill. At this point everyone, including Z, was convinced that Bill was an android like Z, not a human in a suit, so imagine their surprise when, by their estimation, he reached up and removed his face to reveal a human one beneath it. He took the comm from Z�s stunned hand and placed it in his own ear. Z came out of his own form of shock, reached up, and poked Bill gently in the cheek before pronouncing, �He�s squishy!� There were many hastily stifled giggles before everyone burst into laughter and Bill was forever known as �squishy.�
The new friends made their way further into the Rosemont Horizon and nearly stumbled into a gigantic hole leading down into the bowels of the building. As they stared in shock the ground began to rumble and shake. Z grabbed Jalia and ran for the exit, the others not far behind. They barely escaped before the entire building collapsed. Bill and Mickey shared a shudder at the intense feelings of evil and magic emanating from the remains of the building.
While the others surveyed the damage, Z did some quick calculations and announced that the run-away train was in the Aurora area. Genji�s voice crackled over the comms, �I�ll handle clean-up at the Horizon, stop that train before it hits Union Station!�
Bill just kind of shrugged, �No prob, but I want to stop by my place and pick up more ammo first.�
So, after a quick trip to Bill�s apartment, the members not in mech-suits climbed onto those who were; Jalia, Victoria, and Mara clambered up Z and found solid hand-holds while Mickey and Rose did the same with Bill�s mecha. Z and Bill headed for the train station at a good clip and everyone who was hanging on for dear life slipped at least once but they all made it there in one piece.
Luckily, Z pulled up short, allowing his passengers to observe the twisted, demonic face on the front of the locomotive. It wasn�t that someone had painted a face there, but that the train itself had grown one.
Z took a running leap at the train. Just when it seemed that he would land unscathed, a tentacle rose up from the train�s side and struck him hard. Mara lost her grip and went flying into the air as Z landed off the side of the tracks. Bill managed to both catch Mara and land atop the train. Z kipped up to his feet and jumped through the open door of a passing boxcar and found himself surrounded by white blobby things, which were floating through the air like ghosts. Jalia and Victoria climbed off Z and began exploring, but Jalia just couldn�t shake the feeling that the white blobs were really white blood cells.
Bill and his hangers-on found their own way onto the train and met up with the others. They made their way to the locomotive and discovered the scariest thing possible about the train: it was a demon. I don�t mean possessed or demonically affected, it was a demon shifted into the form of a train.
Just when they thought things couldn�t get any worse a deep, grating voice, which could only be coming from the train itself echoed through the engine, �Choose your enemy!�
They did try to maintain their silence, well, all except Rose who sarcastically responded with, �What, like killer ninja robots?�
The train didn�t respond, it didn�t need to. A veritable army of �killer ninja robots� appeared to challenge the group. Z and Bill made a valiant effort to defeat the robots and protect the others, but it had been a long night and Z�s batteries eventually ran down, leaving Bill to finish the robots off on his own. Rose tried to help with a spell, but Bill finished the last one before she could finish casting.
Then, scarily, the voice returned, �Chose another enemy!�
Mickey, who had been resisting saying �the stay-pufft marshmallow man� throughout the entire encounter suddenly blurted out, �Pink fluffy bunnies! Pink fluffy bunnies with Easter eggs!�
This served as enough distraction that Bill managed to thrust his sword into the fiery furnace heart of the demon, which began to waver and disintegrate around them. They leapt to safety, Bill dragging Z behind him, and made it out just in time. As they recovered their feet they saw two things that would bode ill in the weeks to come: several pink fluffy bunnies, which retreated into the distance, and the shadowing form of the Jabberwocke.
They limped back to the mansion, barely making it back before daybreak, and subsequently collapsed into bed.
Week 1
Chapter 3 coming soon