Adja's stare deepened. "I was... I was afraid of that." She bit her lip and shook it off with a physical shake. She had her notes; she had written everything important down. For now it would be best, as Lixi said, to rest. Or at least try it.

She nodded. "I'll show you where we keep the extra pillows," she said, conceding. She might as well make them comfortable so that they could rest. Sleep, to her, sounded like a myth.


(shoooooort post. xDD)

((Short posts are ok too (-:))

Lixi fallowed Adja to the small cluttered closet. All forms of linnens from blankets and pillows to towels and cleaning rags were piled in on shelves in what resembled some slight form of organization. She felt sorry for the overwhelmed young women, who seemed to point her in the right direction then wander off.

"Adja, it wasn't your fault. You only did what you needed to to protect yourself. You didn't know what it was. " Lixi reached out to Adja, laying a hand firmly on her shoulder. "You have to forgive yourself Adja, or you will never be able to clear your mind enough to make sence of things. If anyone can puttogether these pieces, its you. I believe in you, now you have to as well. That spirit picked you for a reason, and you beat it once. Well do it again, but we have to get through this first." Unsure of what to do next, she extended both arms and hugged Adja like a dear friend, hoping the girl wouldn't slap her for it.

Adja tensed and pushed her away. It wasn't often that she was touched, and she did not like it. Between her issues with personal space and the events that had unfolded tonight, now was not a time for tenderness. She wanted the puzzle pieces to fall together, not to sit and ruminate on events of the past.

"Its hard enough to live with the regret without you reminding me that I need to let it go," she said stubbornly. She guarded herself from crying. She was... she was tired, that was all. It didn't matter what was in the past because the past was done and there need be no more dwelling upon it. It had just been a long day, a long eventful day... and she was tired. She clenched her jaw, but even so felt tears well up in her eyes.

She pivoted back to the linen closet, and pulled out some old pillows that had gone flat with age and yellow from disuse, as well as a few blankets. Despite the unseasonal warm weather they had been having (apart from the acid rain and the like) it got cold and drafty in their shanty. Keeping her eyes down, she handed the pile to Lixi, not wanting her to see the emotions she was struggling to hide.

Sighing Lixi shook her head. She mumbled a quiet good night to Adja and dropped the subject. Everyone was tired, it was no time for pushing for a bonding experience. Taking the pillows and blankets in hand she headed back to the living area, noting how much the old linens still smelled of basil, and something else lixi couldn't quite define.

Jason first. Need my coat back, I feel so naked without it. it wasn't even that she wanted to wear it, she was plenty warm enough. It had become the one consistant in her life, as familliar to her now as the false human skin she'd been wearing since she first came to this planet. The human rumbled an inconsistant staggered snore and rolled over onto his back as lixi took the leather trench from under him, but niether woke nor fought her when she rolled him back onto his side on the pillow instead. "Can't have you drowning in your sleep." She said as she lay the blanket over her sleeping friend.

The alcohol must have hit lixi harder than she'd anticipated, for she stumbled a little when she kicked the leg of one off the extra chairs and half fell onto the couch. Martin didn't seem to have moved to much since she'd left to seek Adja.as she landed with a solid thump half draped across his legs, his arm flopped from the back of the couch across her. It instantly squeezed her tight in against himself like a sleeping child with a teddy bear.

"Hey now... none of this. I was just trying to bring you a blanket. I still have to go talk to Arminos and Sophia" she knew he was asleep and wouldn't here her, but thinking aloud was one of her usual less than flattering habbits when drinking. "Come on, let go." She found herself have to struggle at least a little to pry off the sleeping mans arm. Did his breathing change? Hope I didn't wake him. she thought as she observed him for a moment before heading to the porch to speak with the two out back.

Martin's breathing did change, but only in the same sense that he briefly stopped snoring like a chainsaw. He was awake long enough to acknowledge that something about his environment had changed, and fell promptly back to sleep as the change was accepted. A lingering sadness remained, however, as he realized that perhaps he was alone again.

But he was having the most wonderful dream!

He was tall. Taller than he normally was: towering over the city like a goliath. His long legs gave him the appearance of a stork, and he carefully stepped betwixt the buildings as people made way for him. He felt like a benevolent god, with all the power but no desire to use it. Then, as if stepping out of a comic book, a flying saucer appeared: shiny and glowing with an alien light.

Whirr whirr whirr...

He did what any god would do and shot laser beams from his eyes.

ZZZAP! "HAHAH! NO ONE DESTROYS MY WORLD!"

ZZZAP!

But with every zap of his newfound laser vision, he found himself getting smaller and smaller while the martian invasion continued, until he was the size of a cockroach. He chose a large sewer rat as his steed and retreated into the sewers. There, he met the King of Rats, and persuaded him to defeat the martians with his godlike language skills. His army of rats swarmed the aliens after being granted the gift of flight by the Rat God (who was also the Rat King, and looked oddly enough like George Clooney if he were a rat), and they saved the town from being enslaved by beings of another world (the enslavement part was a recent development, unbeknownst to the rat military.)

He felt like he could do anything.


Dreams did not come for Adja, because she hardly slept. Her mind was buzzing with this world she had now encountered, and the endless frightening possibilities that this door had opened for her. She did not feel the guilt of the burden she had placed upon her brother; she had learned to deal with such things by pushing them aside. It was less, now, the fact of situation and much, much more the events which had caused it. Dwelling did nothing when the effects were irreversible. To her, Martin's affliction had become so much a part of him that it had ceased to be an issue. But now, with this new information, and the discovery of the bookmark... she wondered again if she was forgetting something. Her memory did her very little: clouded with images of shadows and sterile rooms. How their father played his role would be beyond those memories, but those memories were just as painful.

When someone you love leaves you without warning, its hard to even look back at the fond memories.

She sat in her bed, which was little more than a hard mattress on the floor, and for the first time in what seemed like years... cried.

"Hey, Arminos, can I talk to you?" Lixi announced her approach loudly before she'd even touched the screen door. She wasn't sure what she'd walk in on if she didn't.

"Excuse me love, my full attention will be yours again in but a moment. Arminos mumbled to a very overwhelmed looking Sophia. He scrambled up gracefully and met Lixi at the door, ushering her back into the foyer the door led out of. He looked at her with tears still clinging to the lashes of his human form.

"Sorry to interrupt... have you been crying?" Arminos swiped a hand over his face and then held it up, motioning for her to forget it, though he said nothing. Lixi suspected it was for fear of his voice showing any kind of weakness. "Anyways... Are you tired at all or do you think you'll be talking with Sophia for a while yet?"

"Im content to sit and speak with her all night. Weariness is now matter." his answer was curt and overly verbose, he must have been feeling better.

"Right... well, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and hope you'll at least watch out for us enough to tell me if anything is coming or happening that requires my attention."

"You matter to my Illiana. That is enough for me. No harm will come to this house or it's inhabitants without my warning to you first." He bowed in a showy manor and clutched a fist to his bare chest.

"We really need to get you some cloths... Here. In case you get cold." She handed him the blanket. "I'll be asleep on the couch. I need to rest, real rest, without dreams. Get me if anything, ANYTHING seems strange. Adja isn't to be bothered unless it's essential either. Let the girl alone." almost as if it was timed, Lixi heard Adja sobbing from another room of the house. Her heart went out to the girl.

One of the hardest parts to leaving heaven hadn't been the separation from her people, or the loss of her powers, it had been loosing the ability to comfort these people when they were in true anguish. Lixi hadn't fallen at the time of the war. Her fall, as well as Joel's, hadn't happened to somewhere in the early Egyptian kingdoms. In the time before her fall, Lixi had been part of the violent warrior house for a short time, but before that, she was a simple guardian. Weather it was wrapping a mourning widow in invisible arms of comfort as she wept for the loss of her husband, or holding tight a child to keep it from the jaws of the wolf that just killed it's mother to preserve that child's purpose and destiny, there pain had always been something Lixi felt as real as if she were experiencing it herself. She now felt Adja's pain just the same even with the walls and doors between them. It was a helpless feeling to not be able to comfort her, and it was a nearly hopeless pain that surged out of the girl.

She wandered away from Arminos, and marched back to the living room. She looked in on Jason once more, then looked back at Martin, coming closer to the couch as she did. I want to protect them. I need to... but can I? Is there really even a point? Feeling the hopelessness of the situation now more than ever herself, Lixi did the only thing she could think of. She sat down on the couch, and puller hers up, curling into a tight ball. With her trusty coat as a blanket, and Martins bony knee as a pillow, she closed her eyes, and let herself weep silently, feeling all of Adja's pain wash through her, as well as all of her own doubt.

April 4th, 5 am, just before first light.

Lixi sat up suddenly, confused, disoriented, and a little hung over. She glanced around the room to see Martin, still snoring, who had scooted down sometime in his sleep. She'd sat up abruptly enough that she didn't recall how she was laying, but she figured he must have clung to her like a teddy bear again at some point, for his arm was still flopped behind her. You're lucky I was drunk human... she thought this to reassure herself that she was still a hard ass even with her compassion for this group of people, though in the back of her mind she doubted her conviction.

A noise from the kitchen drew her attention, and Lixi looked up in time to see Jason standing in the archway between the two rooms, smirking at her. You kids have fun last night? See what happens when I'm to drunk to chaperon.

Lixi rubbed the back of her neck as she clambered out from under the one leg her drunken host had managed to drape across her own legs and stretched as she stood up. "Have you seen Sophia or Arminos?"

"No. They apparently went for a walk to watch the sun rise or something sappy like that." Jason said with a note of dismay in his voice. "She left a note on the door. It's definitely her handwriting, though I think she's been around that arrogant piece of shit way to long. She's starting to sound overly gramatic and proper."

Lixi took the note from Jason, a concerned look on her face. "That's because it was him that wrote it. He's a scholar. He can mimic handwriting, and he has known her since the Pharaohs were building the great pyramid of Giza." Lixi dropped the note and ran out to the porch, Jason close on her heels. "Damnit! God damnit!" She cursed as she slammed the side of her fist against the door frame. She turned to storm back in, but stopped as something caught her eye.

A small black sliver of something lay on the porch. It almost looked like a sunflower seed hull, but much larger. About the size of a thumb to be exact. She bent and picked it up, knowing immediately what it was. "Well that's how he took her out of here at least..."

"What is that? Can we fallow them? If he has Sophia we..."

"No. We can't go after them now. For one, we have no way of knowing where he took her, I just know how he took her. It's a scarab wing." She pushed past Jason back inside and marched heavily up to Adja's door. Giving a light knock on it she spoke loudly through it. "Adja? Are you in there? I think I know who we need to talk to. Maybe it's a false end, but I suddenly can't help but think he's involved."

Adja did not like being woken up like this, particularly since she did not recall ever falling asleep. She did recall sobbing, much to her own embarassment, and hoped that it did not show on her face. Regardless, she did not look in a mirror. Adja had sworn off mirrors years ago after a prolonged study session that left every mirror in the house shattered as a means of ridding her living space of any possible portals to the spirit worlds.

She sat straight up in bed, trying to keep tabs on why she had been awoken. Oh right, angels, she thought with very little hindrance of the gravity thereof. Shaking off the last moments of a dreamless sleep, she stumbled towards the door of her room. "A-a false end," she asked, still trying to comprehend the extent of her awakeness. It was about that time that she noticed the shell in Lixi's hand and her eyes widened, as if to keep them from popping out of their sockets. And then to counter the wideness, she then narrowed them. "Arminos is gone, then, isn't he?"

Martin woke up to yelling, again. The peace was nice while it had lasted, but apparently it wasn't meant to last. The fact that he was still alone on the couch, while not an alien state for him, made him slightly sad. That washed past when he reassumed his normal "easy come, easy go" attitude. But this frantic yelling was a problem.

He sat up and felt his brain beating like a drum. He'd been hungover before, but never like this. He put the disorientation behind him through sheer stubbornness and stumbled over to the source of the yelling. "What's all this noise about," he said, finding a medium between yelling and mumbling. "We gettin' attacked by zombies again?"

"Yeah, he's gone. Took Sophia with him. It doesn't look like she fought it, but that doesn't mean she went willingly. There's not much to be done about that though. Anything Arminos knows about manipulating this world he'll have learned from Joel. He's hidden under joel's skirts for as long as I can recal in that regard. So if he's using the Theleman methods, then odds are Joel is too." She looked back at Martin and sighed. He looked sad, though he was hiding it. "Martin would you do me a favor and grab my coat from the couch? I was using it to cover up with while we were sleeping and think I left it there." She'd needed a distraction, as what she was about to tell Adja next was of a nature she thought may make him uneasy. "We need to find the local gathering of Thelema. We need them to help us open the door to get to the plain Crowly's hiding on. I think he may have something to do with this.

Martin grumbled something about always having to do what he's told no matter where he is or whose side he's on and that he really ought to be doing bigger and better things with his time than hang around a bunch of snotty chicks but oh well at least he got to view the eye-candy. Vulture mulled in an uncharacteristic silence over the events of the night prior. She wasn't angry so much as she was curious what the half-helled was getting at. The natural way of things indicated that a purging was going to happen; and as much as she hated being trapped in this idiot of a host, an idiot host was better than floating consciously into nothingness for another couple of centuries. That, and consequence would have it that she needed to be tied to the Mayhir family somehow or that would add quite a bit more time to her sentence.

However, that didn't seem to be the case with this one. Curious.

"Thelema? I haven't heard that name in years," Adja said as soon as Martin was out of earshot. It was unsettling how much her new company had begun dragging out things that she had discarded long ago. Nonetheless, she still remembered a thing or two. A few newspaper articles from two years ago: some of them legitimate, some of them clearly tabloid. She kept tabloids because no matter how ridiculous they may seem at times, there was always a grain of truth if you sifted through it carefully. "If memory serves," she continued, unlocking the door to the study and leading the way through. "There was a conspiracy theorist who made statements about them 'hiding in plain sight.' He wrote in the editorial section of the Times for a few weeks and then disappeared. I assumed they had just stopped publishing his rants; they were quite offensive."

She leafed through a pile of papers gone yellow with time, in a stack that seemed to be organized by year. She pulled out the clippings and handed them to Lixi. As she walked past, her gaze lingered on the bookmark she had found the night before, as if it held the answers to this as well. When she found herself staring, she quickly looked down again and brought herself back to business. "Can you make anything of them?"

Lixi looked over the stack of clippings she'd been handed, skimming for any crucial details they may hold. "Well, they're mostly a panarama of pop culture appealing acusations. It does appear that there are allot of them all written by the same person. My guess is that'd be as good a place as any to start. Plus, it says he's from here. I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you don't have internet? No offence meant in any way, you and your brother just seem like you wouldn't care for it. Maybe if we can get Jason to somewhere with wifi, if anywhere is still functional midst the zombies, he can get us the adress of this author. Let's go talk to him."

She turned and headed back to the door. Just as she was headed out a rather put off martin was heading toward them with her coat. " And hey my cranky friend, don't get so upset. I wasn't trying to boss you around. I asked you to grab my coat because I was trying to find a subtle way to tell you that it was nice crashing with you last night. I don't mean to boss you around." She took the coat from his hand and reached up to softly touch his cheek in a warm friendly gesture. "You're no foot soldier. We're all equals in this if you ask me, we just have different strengths and weeknesses. You are no less or more important than myself, your sister, sophia, anyone." Standing on her tiptoes and steching her neck to reach the tall mans level, she kissed the opposite cheek from which her hand was on quickly before stepping away and continuing down the hall to where she'd left Jason.

He had sat down on the back porch, clutching the blanket that he'd found there to himself dramatically. He staired off into the yard and kept repeating "I can't believe she's gone" like an actor trying to appear more traumatized than he was. Lixi processed this for a moment. Clearly his distress was real, why he put on this overblown act was beyond her. It occured to her that he probably had little experience with real human emotion or interaction beyond what he'd seen on tv and in movies. He seemed to have been quite a shut in. Snot dripped from the tip of jasons nose and big childlike tears rolled down his face as he turned to look at her pathetically.

"Jason..." lixi huffed quietly, trying to keep the lack of patience in her voice from showing through. "Look, I know you're freaked out right now. But you need remember sitting here falling appart won't get her back. We need action. We need your help. We have to eliminate the joel issue if we want any chance of finding her. Arminos was working with him. A beast can't function without a head, so kill joel, kill the rest of this issue. 'So are you with me?" She reached down and extended a hand to help him up. He nodded and stood, still clutching the blanket. "Oh, and by the way dude, arminos was using that blanket, not sophia." Jason looked disgusted, but at least he quit snivelling. He quietly held it out to Adja, assuming the blanket belonged to her in the first place. "Now, the real question, how do we wanna go about getting to where we're going. The city is probably overrun by zombies now. That's a whole lot of risk between us and some wifi. Any suggestions?

"No," Adja replied quietly. "We don't have internet." Having the internet would have made her research much easier, but was something that was not encouraged to her during her stay at the 'hospital.' They kept all of her connections away to make sure that the negative influences in her life did not know where she was and so that she could get all the help she needed without distraction. And when she was... 'released,' there was no possible way for a house like Martin's to have a connection in his line of business. Electricity came from a generator; water came from a well pump. Martin's boss had been quite insistent on keeping her underlings quite off the map, and treating the smallest member with the same amount of protection was the best way to ensure no one got caught. Thusly, there was nothing in the means of a paper trail: which meant no bills. Which meant no water, no electricity, and no internet.

She was almost afraid to step outside the house. She had become a shut-in, and the threat of zombies and demons only made it worse. Tackling the incorporeal was fine when you were in a study, but stepping outside into it... well, she was a bit agoraphobic. She felt a pit in her stomach, but nodded. She would have to prepare, gather materials... meditate.


Martin turned a very bright red hue at the kiss. It was so unexpected, and he forgot all at once just what he was mumbling about as a stupid grin traveled across his face. So dumbstruck was he, that he did not say anything... and by the time he had decided that there was something to be said, she was already gone.

Don't get so hot and bothered over it, Vulture warned him sharply, still wary herself about the girl. She could feel what he felt, but with some stubbornness she fought and countered it. She talked him down off of his cloud to avoid losing it herself. She just wants to use you, like every other girl you've met. Adja uses you for your house, Jordan uses you as a peon, and Lixi is just keeping you around until she's done with you. Once she's bored with your low-brow sense of humor, she'll drop you like a rock. And just like that, the blush faded and he went back to his usual 'hey, whatever man,' attitude, and followed her to Jason, trying very hard to remember the awesome dream he'd had.


Through the headache of tears of what had to be the first time he had ever felt truly betrayed, Jason tried to focus. But it was more than difficult to keep focus when the world around him had shattered; the only girl he'd ever loved leaving him for someone that up until now had been nothing but hostile. It was like something out of a romance novel, but he'd never imagined he would be the one left out to dry. In his head, he'd always seen himself as the humble-yet-handsome type that won the girl out in the end. But that didn't happen this time. FOCUS, he yelled at himself.

He rubbed at his temples to make the headache subside, and it worked if only for a moment or two, to get started on a different topic other than his own pathetic blubbering. They were seven miles from the metropolis part of the city, which meant that, yes, wifi would be scarce, but it would be safer for them to stay out there in the middle of nowhere rather than face the hordes of zombies that may be gathering. So his choices at this point were to stay where it was safe, or go where there was information. And truth be told, he was starting to get antsy without an internet connection. His fingers were itching to get to a keyboard. He could feel his WPM dropping by the minute.

"We will need to head further into town, unless there's a public access site out here in the boondocks. Most retail stores have an internet connection to run their inventory, and hacking into those was the first thing I learned. An easy guess at the password and I can do pretty much anything. So... I dunno... a gas station... or a grocery store? There's gotta be some kind of convenience store around here somewhere." Sometimes it was easy to forget that they still lived in the 21st century. This house seemed so archaic and out of the way that it seemed the whole world should follow suit.

{alright I'm sorry I'm back for a little bit! Sorry again about my absence! but i'll try and keep up this time!
Sorry but I didnt read all the huge blocks of text and these things I call words from you guys but I did read the last few posts.
So Sophia is kidnapped from Arminos, Lixi is wondering about whether she can protect everyone? and I kinda ogt confused by Martin and Adja? tell me if I got anything wrong XD }

Sophia crossed her arms and stopped, ffrozen to the spot, "I'm not going any urther until you tell me where we're going Arminos! Last time I checked this could be considered kidnapping." Arminos stopped and a small smile corssed his features, 'Last time I checked my love you came willingly." Sophia held up a single finger, "Only because you told me you would show me the real reason behind my falling. And all you've shown me is nothing but this crap around us!" She gestured around her to the barem nothingness that surrounded them. She had lost track of how long they had walked, and only vaguly rememberd the sun coming up. The surroundings were depressing to say the least and she was getting tired of Arminos's attitude. From the blubbering baby he was the night before once Lixi had spoken with him he had turned instantly cocky and had the ego of an elephant!
Arminos nodded, his smile fading, "And I will my Dear, just be patient." Sophia scoffed, Yeah easy to say stay patient when your not the one being led around like a lost puppy. Sighing she rolled her eyes and continued to follow Arminos, still staring at the back of his head, "And to think, I felt sorry for you!" The reaction she recieved was a mere laugh from Arminos and a shrug.

{wow.. that post sucked! -.- }

((To sum up: Adja was studying and trying to make sense of things and now suspects Cthulu Mythos to be a key component in what's going to happen next while also stumbling upon a memory of her father... now suspects that he might have a hand in this somehow. Lixi spoke with the voice in Martin's head and with the new information that Adja is proposing, started adding two and two together. Lixi is also deducing that the way that Arminos and Sophia left, that they should also be researching Theleman ritual, but Adja doesn't have anything on that in her study. So to get any further information on the next step, they need to get out of the house and find a wifi connection so Jason can search for a Thelemic temple nearby and now they are contemplating the next safest step. So. That's the actual plot, which was buried under layers and layers of "oh poor me" and a rather ridiculous dream about aliens. I'd say feel free to add your own spin on things with Arminos kidnapping Sophia, but its not really my place to do so.))

Lixi nodded at Jason's comment. She never would have thought about that even. The concept of technology was something she grasped, but didn't know well. She knew it was a powerful tool, but had no idea how to access it. She knew she'd already explained to Jason why she was so adverse to it, but she was starting to pick up on a very clear aversion, even worse than her own, coming from Adja. Perhaps it wasn't best to take everyone along.

Maybe she should stay behind. Martin and I can escort Jason... no... that's no good either. That leaves her here totally by herself in all this. can't risk that. Damnit. Not this again. I'm not making this decision, I can't make this decision. I can't make a decision when there lives are the things at jeopardy. Lixi stared off in obvious internal conflict for along moment, mulling over the difficult choice at hand. After some time she finally looked back up, and glanced back and forth between the three humans. "We've got a choice to make... and I won't make it for you. Neither option is safe. Both have allot of risks. It's your lives at risk here. I'm no shepherd. I haven't been a guide in millenia. I'll not be the one to lead the lambs to slaughter." She'd begun to babel on. Her paranoia was showing, and for the first time the stress of the situation, of her past, was displayed on her frazzled face.

"It would appear that we have 2 people who are in the business of gathering info, 2 people who are good at being the more physical defense, and two places to accomplish different objectives." she sighed and paused briefly before continuing. "Now, we could split up. Adja could stay here with either Martin or Myself, while Jason and the other go off to search via more high tech means. Or, we could all just venture forth. I don't like the idea of splitting the group up, it's not gone well so far. We're already down two people on my watch because of it." Hearing the words aloud was harder than just thinking it. On my watch. I lost them. I trusted Arminos, when I knew I shouldn't, and I lost Sophia. It's all happening again. "But.. I am at your disposal, and I will do anything you wish."

----

Arminos led on through the desert landscape, ignoring her latest quip. He had to find the old women, had to get her help in this. Joel had been in her company when Arminos had first contacted him about this, and he'd been the one to show him how to find her lair deep within the desert. Arminos felt certain she'd been Joel's teacher, perhaps she would have some answer as to how he could restore Sophia's memory.

He led on for miles, taking her in what felt like circles, till finally the small hill of rock, well warn down and rounded by the constant onslaught of the wind carried sands, came into view. He had to circle it twice before he found the small fissure into which one had to slide their hand to trip the magical switch, opening the blue glowing portal that served as a door into her cave.

"Come, my love. There is a friend in here. Someone powerful. Someone who can help us. I'm sure of it."

Adja had already been silently motivating herself to get outside. Normally she would have holed herself up further into the shack and vowed not to face the horrible things that came with fresh air and sunlight. It was a prayer, but not to any god. It was to herself. Praying to someone you couldn't see did nothing if you didn't do anything about it yourself. But that's the way that mantras and prayers and the like worked: you stop thinking about it and it allowed you to move forward. Me as ek het force quand je n'en niemand... she repeated over and over in her mind, occasionally letting it slip past her lips, but otherwise she was silent.

Martin took a more direct approach. "So... you're saying that we have the chance to stay here while you and Patches go out and face a hoard of demon zombies trying to find an internet connection?" His face twisted into a smirk. "For real? I mean... I ain't exactly like... I dunno... an expert on survival tactics, but I seen a LOT of horror films. Know what I learned? You don't split up in a zombie apocalypse. That's how the zombie hoard gets so big: some douche is like 'Imma go mow 'em all down on my own,' and sooner'n you know it he's all 'BRAAAAINZ' and then you've got the world's biggest undead douchebag." Somewhere along the line, he was pretty sure he lost track of his mission statement. "I ain't stayin' here and missing out on an opportunity to kick some ass."

During Martin's monologue, Adja had faded back into the hallway and retreated to the study. If she was going to be leaving, for she had already made up her reluctant mind, she would need to be prepared for anything. She grabbed a bag and began stuffing it with every travel-ready book on how to ward off 'evil,' regardless of whether or not they had any basis in reality. Oh, what was reality anymore? She prepared salt and sage and anything that she knew for certain would work, but quickly before this wavering moment of bravery left her, and returned to the others, lips tight and ready.

Lixi tipped her head, trying to filter the two sets of dialog she was hearing while hanging onto both. Martin's rant was a clear statement of his intent to keep the group together, so it required only minimal attention simply for sake of being able to respond in a way that showed she was, in fact, paying attention. This ones ego was all to fragile. Best to take care not to break it.

It was Adja's barely whispered inner chant that she was trying to grab as best she could, though she was having a hard time discerning the language through the whispers. French maybe? Italian? It sounded to fluid to be Latin, but perhaps. Not staccato enough to be Aramaic. She though she picked up some mention of strength or guidance on a journey.... Strength as I go, maybe? Or as I go? She was still pondering it when Adja retreated. I'll check on her in a minute. This first. She smiled and turned her full attention to Martin, who had just finished his rant.

"Well, I must say I'll be glad for your help." A look of stern seriousness came to her face as she stepped forward within a few inches of him "But I need you to remember something. You're protecting your sister and Jason while we're out there. You can't worry about me, ok? These things would have one hell of a time killing me, and I wouldn't become one of them even if they managed to. So no matter what happens, you can not worry about me. Protect them, please. Will you do that, as a favor to me?" She was touching his cheek again. It seemed to rattle him, but in a positive way, so she hoped perhaps it would help get her point across with little argument.

As Adja re-entered the room she let her hand come back down to her side. She turned her head to look over what Adja carried with her, but did not change her over all body stance. She wanted to be sure she heard Martin agree to worry only about the other two. He struck her as the stubborn gentlemen who'd try to play the hero and save everyone if it came to it, and she wanted to be sure that wouldn't happen. She noted the look of determination on Adja's face, and the bag she carried. Looks like she's made up her mind as well. Lixi Nodded and offered the girl a week smile, though weather it was of comfort, approval, or sympathy was indecipherable even to the one that gave it.

An immature smile wriggled its way across his face as he promised. "I...uh... yeahsure." His face turned beat red. He already knew that Lixi could take care of herself and though he really cared about her, this was a mission where both of them would be playing defense. He could always save the princess later. He was content with this.

I find it sad how very little faith she has in you and your sister. Listen to her, acting like you're dumb enough to come to her rescue. How conceited. The smile on his face dropped and the blush faded.


((I'm having trouble concentrating tonight with the noise in my apartment. Expect me to be sparse. >>))

((Totally fine :-D I didn't give you much to work on with the last one anyway))

"Good. Well then, it looks like Adja's ready as well. Martin, if you have any additional weapons, preferably blunt weapons, we could probably use them. Baseball bats are great, tire irons, golf clubs, guns if you like to use them and are a good enough shot to hit the head." She glanced around for a moment, Jason had resumed his near fetal huddle. "Jason, do you have everything you need for now? Laptop has enough charge to do what we need to do if we don't have a power supply on the ready?"

Jason opened his laptop case silently and held up 2 spare batteries for it, then gestured at the small .38 caliber handgun and spare clips he had tucked in it as well. He looked up to her with a half smirk. "What, you think Sophia would ever let me leave the place unprepared?"

Lixi smiled and slapped him across the back like a coach prepping a star player."Good. Well then, once we're ready, I think our best bet is gonna be to continue with the car we swiped last night. I'm willing to bet the cops are busy enough with all this chaos that they won't be looking for one stolen car. Jason, you can keep the laptop going and let us know when you catch a signal. When you do, we'll find it's source and try to get a secure enough environment for you to do your thing. How long do you think it'll take you to hack in and get what we're looking for?"

The awkward young man thought about it for a long moment before shrugging. "Honestly, it all depends on the network, for one, and then how elusive this dudes address is to find. So, if I had to guess, 15, maybe 20 minutes? Did you want me to do some quick research on Thelema while I'm at it?"

"Lets just wait to make that decision based on how secure we can get once we find a signal." Lixi stepped off the porch and looked around for a minute. At least this much had worked out fine. There didn't appear to be any zombies around, and the car was still there. On the horizon, the sky was still a pinkish red, even in the daylight. Clouds of smoke could be seen in a few spots over the city, and the distant sounds of sirens we're just on the edge of audible. "Let me know if there's anything I can do to help get ready, if not, then just let me know when we're good to go. This is going to be interesting."

At the phrase "blunt objects" Martin's eyes lit up. Blunt objects he could do. He usually stuck with knives, but there were days where he just wanted to hit something. The backyard was practically littered with things that he had built out of scrap materials he'd found in the trash solely for the purpose of hitting them with a nine-iron. He went around the house and collected a nice variety: an aluminum bat, set of bent golf clubs, a curtain rod, and a frying pan. He piled them into the back of their stolen car, feeling like a contributing member of society; proud and more than ready to take care of business. He nodded in approval of Jason's guns. "Nice," he commented.

Adja froze up at the doorstep. This house had protected her for so long that she had thought that she might never leave and saw nothing wrong with that. It was her shelter from the world where she could create her own; one that made sense, one that didn't persecute her for the 'nonsense' that she spoke. But now she was about to walk out into a world that had called her a lunatic for the things that were now coming out as truth, and she still hesitated. She'd wanted people to understand, not to suffer. And with the air smelling of acid and the sky beginning to boil red, somehow she felt that this might be her fault; that she had wished it upon them without thinking.

That was enough to get her motivated. Even if it wasn't her fault, she felt that should make things right in case it was. As bad as she felt, though, she couldn't help but feel a vindictive smile curl on her lips as she thought about the skeptics. Oh, they must be really paying for it now. She stepped out into the now-dead weed garden that was once their front yard, keeping her satchel close by as if it were the last thing tying her to sanity.

"There's... uh... I think its a gas station up the road like a mile or so," Martin said as they all got to the car. "Never thought of them havin' Innernet, but I usually just stop in there for cigarettes."

((ahk! Got busy at work all of a sudden. I'll respond to this via phone.))
((duh-duh-duh-DUH Triumphant return!))

Lixi watched as Adja and Jason climbed in the back, then gestured toward the drivers seat when she noticed Martin's gaze wander in her direction. "You should probably still drive. You know the lay of the land best m'dear." She clambered into the passenger seat, hoping the cutesy bit at the end would hide the nervousness in her voice. The zombies wouldn't pose much of a problem this far out of town, but if they had to head in to find this author or the temple, it could get hairy.

They drove on for a little while without so much as a glimpse of anyone, dead or alive, but the closer they drew to the city, the deeper the red hue got. At one point she noticed a dark smear on the road that puddled at fairly regular intervals, as though someone had been bleeding profusely from one leg as they walked up the road. Wonder if they were still alive at the time? Moments after the thought was through her mind, she got her answer. A reanimated corpse stood in front of them on the road, straddling the still corpse of a man with one totally blood soaked pant leg. Even in the early morning light Lixi could see that the man was missing a large chunk of both his leg and pants up near the hip. Guess 'were' is the key term in all this.

"Run them both over... try to hit the one on the grounds head with the wheels. He'll be getting up soon enough. Best just to deal with it now. Please Martin... just run them both down." She looked straight ahead as she said it, her tone cold, totally void of any emotion, and her stare was vacant and empty.

Jason sat in the back with his laptop already out and whiring away on his lap all the while. He was to numb after all they'd seen the last few days to care anymore. This was his life now, and he accepted it. All that mattered to him now was finding a signal so he could get the clues to start him on his path to finding Sophia.


****

Arminos lead Sophia behind him, lightly pulling her along the hand he nearly forcibly held onto. The pitch black cave they wandered now only by touching the various walls. He counted the number of turns and coridoors they passed by, hoping he'd kept track correctly, and that he remembered Joel'd instructions for navigating the Labyrinth correctly.

Off in the distance a soft noise could be heard. Like something large, roughly the size of a human, scuffling about in the dark... but higher up... as though it came from the cieling.

Martin smiled an oddly cruel smile at the order; and immediately stepped on the gas. He wondered, vaguely, why he hadn't tried driving before. It was much more fun to make your enemies into roadkill than it was taking them out back with a shovel and then running away. Probably cleaner, too, but he had a strong feeling that Boss would have had him offed if he even suggested it. He let a maniacal laugh escape his throat as he dropped the pedal to the floor, but was stopped as soon as he heard the sickening thump from hitting the bodies. He thought he heard a "pop" as the car ran over one of their heads. Well, that's one of them, Vulture said gloomily. He considered stopping the car just to make sure, but it was much more his style to keep driving.

Adja simply shuddered at the noise, very certain that this was the sort of world that she was trying to avoid.

It wasn't long before they reached the convenience store: the speed at which they had been moving at ensured that. Martin slowed the car to a stop, where the engine made protesting noises from being driven at a high speed without much time to slow down. (It would have helped if Martin knew anything about driving stick. Shifting gears was not something he had learned as a part of his job description.) When he took his hands off the wheel, he noticed that he was twitching horrible, and quickly tried to hide that by shoving his hands in his pockets and fishing around for his lighter and a smoke. "We're here," he declared, seeming to be a little amazed at that himself.

A single zombie with a torn up right side began hobbling there way from beside a wrecked car on the other side of the road. The creature was moving fairly slow from it's injuries, so Lixi took a moment to survey the scene as she climbed out of the car first.

"Will you pop the trunk Martin? We should take care of this one, then take a look around real quick, see what it looks like outside before venturing in. Adja, Jason, it's up to you weather you want to wait in the car for us to clear it out first or if you wanna come in." she lifted the trunk as she heard the release triggered. Picking a heavy wooden baseball bad as her club of choice she headed for the corpse, which was just now approaching the parking lot from the road. "Batter up..."

"That's what I like to hear," Martin said, pressing firmly on the button for the trunk. He hopped out of the car and took hold of his trusty nine-iron. "I'll hit 'im low to bring him down, you get him in the head." That was the sort of thing that he'd always wanted to say. Maybe he'd seen it in a movie once... maybe twice. It wasn't a particularly clever line, admittedly, but it made him sound so badass. He grinned, and started half-singing a song to draw the zombie's attention towards them. He thought this song to be appropriate: "Kill the zombies by shooting them in the head/ They can't eat you if you make them dead..."

The zombie lurched forward at the sound, somewhat enraged (not so much at the words, but it was probably safe to assume that it didn't like his tone.) "They'll limp around in blood and cover things in stains
They'll moan and groan and try to eat your flesh and brains" He readied his 'beatin' stick' as the undead came closer. When it came within ten feet with them, he rushed at the creature, proudly brandishing his nine-iron like a sword and took a swing at its stomach. "FOOOORE!"

It was less that she wanted to help and more that she didn't feel safe in the car. Adja jumped at every noise and took this opportunity to get out of the screaming metal deathtrap they called a vehicle and grab a pan to properly whack something with. She didn't say anything to Jason, who was already taking the initiative to do the same. Not a word passed between them: Jason was too far out of his element to offer anything and generally preferred quiet when it came to things that involved...well... the possibility of being eaten alive by ravenous undead. Adja, on the other hand, was busy flipping through one of her books, and chanting: "Tueri, ostendi, regreri. Tueri, ostendi, regreri." It was recognisably Latin, and not her usual choice in lore, but at this point she would try just about anything if not to see that it would work. They began searching the grounds for threats, survivors, anything really.

Lixi cracked a smile at Martin's giddy reaction to the chance to bash something with a golf club. She had to fight not to giggle when he yelled four, feeling considerably less cheesy for her own silly sports line when she'd headed toward the Romero. As soon as he'd taken it's legs out and sent it sprawling forward She raised the bat and brought it squarely down on the back of the creatures cranium before it could begin to get back up. A satisfying crunch rose through the bat and reverberated through her arms as she heard the sound of it. Blood spattered all across the ground around it, and even got their boots a little.

This zombie was a different quality of person than the previous two they'd seen. They'd been low life's, a street walker and a villainous thug. This man, on the other hand, looked like he'd been a typical suburban jack off. His Honda, that now sat in the ditch, spewing steam presumably from the radiator, looked to have been a nicer middle class vehicle before the wreck. His dress shirt, that was now speckled with the remainders of his undead blood, matched neatly with his slacks and tie. Probably a corporate worker on his way to the office when the chaos derailed him. In the back of her mind, Lixi wondered what this mad had done to deem him unworthy of heaven, which was in fact, far easier to get into than what the Christians believed. In order to end up here, you had to have done some truly heinous things in your life, or simply done enough that you, yourself, felt you only deserved fiery punishment for the rest of your days. She shrugged to herself and gave the mans skull a few more whacks till it cracked fully open, and it's pinkish gray contents spattered across the road with his blood.

"Well, that was a good way to start off the morning after a nice quiet night with good company." She smiled at Martin as she said this, then started to glance around. She saw Adja and Jason walking in tandem, Jason with his laptop tucked under his arm. "We should probably go in with them, looks like that's where they're working their way toward. Honestly, I'd feel better if one or both of us went in first and cleared out at least the main room before we bring them in and barricade ourselves off. I'm sure your sis can work some powerful hoodoo and what not, but personally I trust a weapon over a prayer when it comes to Zombies."