"Come on!" Vivi hissed at the others and started sprinting toward the hospital, grabbing the sleeves of the other two men and dragging them with her. "Whatever else is left in there, it's a hell of a lot better than what's out here. Now go!"

A zombie reached out for Dante right before Alex turned to run. He reacted instinctively, reached for one of his kitchen knifes and pushed it right though the zombies eye socket. He left the knife, only to get dragged into the hospital by Vivi. She was surprisingly strong, for a girl!

Vivi felt the viscera from the zombie's punctured eye spatter on her cheek and flinched, but didn't stop until they were safely inside the hospital--or so she thought. She slammed the door shut and locked it, then leaned against it. Breathing heavily from the adrenaline, she glanced around, only to notice a small group of three zombies making their way slowly but steadily down the hallway toward them. With a yelp, she drew the sharpened pin from her pocket and ran toward them, driving the object through the inner orbit of the eyesocket of one zombie while elbowing another in the face with her opposite arm.

As she turned to take care of the fallen zombie, the third stepped out from the shadows and bumped into her, knocking her off-balance. She fell to the cracked, bloodstreaked linoleum, searching frantically for a makeshift weapon--perhaps a fallen IV pole or something--but wasn't able to find anything. She tried to get up but slipped on the gore-slick floor, her ankle folding over with a sickening crack. She looked over at Dante, eyes wide with shock.

"Damnit, help me!"

Outside, the roaring engine and blades of a helicopter slowly fade in to earshot. And outside, Justin and a few other people sit in a helicopter, observing the ground and the status of the groaning, shambling undead. A small smile twinged at the enigmatic man's face--he hadn't been out in the field like this for many months and was starting to grow bored. His thoughts were interrupted by the helicopter pilot's voice in his air-phones.

"Hey! You know what to do, right?!" "Damn straight! Won't take long judging by the looks of things!" Justin responds, having to yell to be heard over the flapping, spinning blades of the copter. "Well, great! How's it look down there?" "Well, not many survivors, as far as I can see. Wait, I think some just ran into that asylum over there!" "That one? Over there? With three stories?" "Yeah. I think the mission will go more smoothly if you drop me there and get the other operatives to their destination." "Alright! Sounds like a plan, Abrimov! Don't forget to wear your communications device so I can contact you! And, well, you to me as well."

The radio chatter between the enigmatic man and the rugged helicopter pilot with scarlet hair fades out as the helicopter dips to the roof, hovering over the flat top as Abrimov checks to see if he's got all his gear. "Alright! Get out there, Justin, and make us proud. Good luck." "Keep your luck, I won't need it." Justin responds, making the pilot laugh as he jumps out of the helicopter, falling to the roof and landing hard, stumbling and catching himself on the ground, tossing his air-phones off and over the side of the building. "Ouch! Shitty landing, Robert!" The man mutters into his earpiece. "Sorry, time's a wastin'! Call us when the mission is complete, and we'll order extraction." "Roger that, Abrimov over and out."

And with that, Abrimov stands up, dusts himself off and opens the door to the third floor of the sanitarium, talking quietly to himself. "Well, this is the second time I've had to come here. I wonder what about this place makes it such a hotspot for this stuff?"

[[And before one wonders, the 'extraction' idea won't work when he calls, so his objective becomes to survive as well.]]

He is paralyzed with fear, as Vivi stabbed one of the zombies, and elbows the next. But she slips into the bloody mess, and the cracking sound wakes him up. The thought of the pregnant woman runs trough his head, as he almost throws himself towards her, kicking the zombie in the head. There isn't much power behind the kick, so the zombie just stumbles back while Dante tries to help Vivi up. "How are your foot??" He asks, while looking around for the police officer. Her foot doesn't look too good, so he lifts her up, bride style. "We need to find Alex. If there is more creatures in here, we can't let him go around alone!" He looked at the police officer; "Do you have a gun?"

Dahlia, before the outbreak, could say she was as much of a scavenger as afterward, playing to the weaknesses of man for profit. What was she before? A drug dealer, catering to a population that sounded more like cave-men - "Me caveman, me want" - was the chorus she heard every single day. Money, merchandize - and simply more. And now, with the outbreak, the market was simply new, not different.

She had been following survivors for some time now, trying to rid them of their worth. Her last group was a couple that happened to have a reinforced pick up and more guns than she could carry. Paranoid red neck types, preparing for the apocalypse since Y2K and easily in the night robbed by a yellow-eyed girl they had taken in, looking no more a robber than she did a a mass syndicate drug dealer.

Their loss.

Now, she had been watching the mental patients evacuate the hospital over the course of the last week, waiting for a perfect time to invade the place, sure that the bounties would be many and somewhat safe sleep was assured. Having to avoid some of the other squatters there, she managed to get in through a second story window and well planned out climbing scheme for the closest oak tree. She had been there two days, and already in the mental institute she was hearing voices below - and then above.

It sounded like a helicopter, rattling the ceilings and broken window panels, she was made alert upon her hospital bed camp site, currently polishing what looked to be a Winchester double barreled shotgun. A thump from above and the snowing of ceiling popcorn indicated a landing of something much smaller than a helicopter - but a person.

Dahlia frowned, standing up cautiously as she heard the helicopter fly farther away, and placed the curve of her back against the right wall of the entrance. Like clockwork the door to the third story roof opened. She really wasn't above the idea of surprise, and just as the man stepped in the room, she lifted her shot gun barrel to his right ear, inches away, and a smile touched her full lips. A handsome man with glasses and a ponytail. She was unimpressed.

"Why hello," she spoke with politeness, as though greeting one of her flower-shoppe customers. The illusion was then heralded by a loud pump of the Winchester in a dramatic fashion, taking aim. "Check in is the bottom floor, I'm afraid. Give me your weapons.." she eyeballed his watch and ear piece, reminded of her mafia thugs she used to get in her shop, she went on, ".. and electronics.. and I will send you on your way, Sir."

The sound of moans came from below, zombies inevitably. She grew uneasy, but it obviously didn't shake her much. Reinforced unrecoverable ward, bars on the doors and windows - this man was more of a threat now. Sending him below was reasonable, once she got his valuables and weapons from him of course.

Ryan shook his head,"Unfortunately no. My gun is back in my car at the central mall. I was just patrolling when all this happened." He felt embarrassed about leaving his gun back in his car. Scratching his head, he thought about where else he could get a gun, unless he was able to get back to his car.

The man smiles slightly to himself as he hears the click and remains still. "Well, well, I only just got here and already I'm being mugged. What a world we live in today." he says, dryly, not moving a muscle. Appearing calm and serene, he talks to her as if he would talk to an old friend or a casual acquaintance. "Well, now, this won't do at all. You can have my gun, dear." He shifts his head slightly, nodding backwards to the MP5 on his back. "...but I'm afraid I can't give you my electronics, see. That's my way out of here after I complete my mission, and I'm not being stranded. That's a fate worse then death. You can have the watch though." He slowly reaches over another hand and drags his watch off of his arm, dropping it to the floor with a 'clink'. "I'm afraid you'll have to get that SMG off of my back, though, I don't feel like giving the wall a scarlet paint job at the moment by risking you shooting me." He pauses, thinking quietly before nodding very slightly. "Tell you what, you let me keep my gun and my earpiece, and I'll lift you outta here too when I'm done with my mission. Sound good? My headquarters is a nice place, you know. Completely furnished and everything. I mean, shit, it would have to be."

A thoughtful grin touched her painted lips at the other man's reply, as though he were used to these kind of situations. Perhaps he was, thought Dahlia, admiring his calm air if nothing else. He was like her, a vain creature, she could tell, and all ready she knew she didn't like him. Perhaps it was his way of having everything under control that she disagreed with.

She breathed her words, her answer to his statement an amused one, "What a world.."

The florist shoved her gun barrel into his hairline behind his ear, speaking eloquently from behind the handle of her gun, her finger tightened a fraction upon the trigger, a low clicking could be heard in stress. She circled behind him, the proximity making her ready for any sudden movement he might do.

"Tell me then, this mission of yours, Mr. Earpiece," she watched him closely, the business woman, wanting to negotiate, but not without his gun. Her lack of movement to get his weapon was her only peace offering, until the talking was over at least. And she was impatient.

Her voice was soothing, and rational. Perhaps she could have made for a better peace maker without the gun. She tilted her head lightly, raising a well shaped brow. "I am not one to be saved, but maybe you are. I want to know who you are and why you thought coming to this lovely place alone was such a good idea." The idea of throwing him downstairs naked was sounding more and more appealing every second.

She didn't have much of a taste for men in suits. For all she knew, he was just as bad as everyone else, maybe even worse than her.

"Well, technically, I'm not supposed to tell you. Company secrets and all that." He answers, still remaining still and cool, his head tilted to one side. "But I don't give a damn about keeping secrets; after all, that's not what they hired me for. I work for Rosenkov, you heard of them?" He pauses, then continues without waiting for her to respond. "Never mind, it doesn't matter if you have or not. They are a research organization, and they have a sub-branch that is named Loyalty. Completely hidden, off-the-record, not even the feds know about it." He says 'feds' with an ounce of disgust, like he couldn't stand the policemen. "I'm a cleaner. Slang term, you see. Basically I'm in charge of....eliminating any unwanted persons in the secretive branches. Whether my superior suspects that they'll blab or that they'll use our research for their own purposes, I take 'em out, smoothly and silently." He breaths out slowly, eyes closed, not making any moves toward his gun. "It's not a job for everyone. Having to kill your friends for the company isn't very easy, especially when you don't even like the company. But they pay really well. Really well."

He chuckles quietly, moving a hand slowly to push up his glasses. "Well, I went off on a tangent, it appears. But it makes everything clearer in the long run. You see, Rosenkov is dispatching operatives to search for survivors who have been bitten but are not yet a zombie. We're looking to study the effects of the transformation, see what we can find out. We're looking to find perhaps a vaccine for the virus or a limiting agent that will stop it dead in it's tracks...or so the official story goes. Personally, I just think that everyone in the branch is a bunch of sadistic bastards who like watching people suffer. All the better when I have to end up putting a .45 caliber through their eyesocket." He says, tapping his foot slowly. His words always slow and deliberate, calm, giving the illusion that he was the one in control though he's visibly tense. "Are you satisfied? Or are you going to put my brains all over the walls? Karma's a bitch, I always said."

Alex ran up some staris as fast as he could. 5 of the things shambled towards him. "shit" he muttred "I don't have enough bullets to deal with them all. He heard the sound of vioices from a room next to him. He dove in and quickly locked the door and turned around. There were 2 people in there A girl with a shotgun and a man in a suit. he pulled out his pistol warily and said 'who the hell are you!?"

"Agreed." Vivi winced as Dante picked her up, her foot dangling uselessly. "I think I seriously fucked up my ankle, by the way. I don't know if it's broken...maybe just dislocated. Don't worry about it. We need to find the others and get a group together before these rat bastards--" she nodded in the direction of the zombies--"decide that we'd make a tasty snack." She wrapped one arm around the back of his neck and motioned to the floor. "My weapon, if you wouldn't mind...it's shiny and pretty and took me goddamn forever to get it that sharp. I'll not leave it behind."

"We'll see if Alex have any weapons.. I'll be damned to know why he ran away!" He held Vivi with one arm, and picked up the hairpin. "Do you know of anything else we can use as weapons?" He didn't look at Vivi, though it was her he talked to. "I'm thinking, maybe an ax, you know.. In case of emergency.." He looked around, kicking the only zombie there was left in the hall, then ventured forward. Vivi was very light, but he couldn't help feeling shaken. All the people around him, killed the zombies merciless, and he didn't think he could do the same thing. Well, besides the zombie he stabbed through the eye. "Ah, we should find water too. If we're lucky, the water supply still works - should check a tap or something.." He mumbled to himself, looked at the policeman. "So, what's your name?"

"Ha, I probably scared him away...I tend to do that to people." In spite of the pain, Vivi looked at Dante and grinned wickedly. "Do I frighten you?" She wasn't sure if it was the pain or survival instinct, but her head felt clearer than it had in years. The voices had died down to a whisper, and she wasn't jumping at shadows, as she had in the first days of the outbreak when she locked herself in her room.

"Also, tap's more than likely fucked. I heard people saying they'd be shutting down the utilities, before those people, you know...turned. They started to evacuate the hospital, but it was too late, and they weren't careful enough. Everything got overrun. I tried a couple of the taps on the third floor, but they wouldn't work. There's one in Ward D, though." Vivi fell silent for a moment, then decided to be polite and introduce herself. Though social graces never concerned her before, she decided that since the world was going all to hell, preserving any sort of civility was important.

"I'm Vivi LeFleur. That's not my real name, of course. Well, Vivi is, but I made up the last name. Clever, right? My parents died when I was a little girl and I got stuck here, so I kind of don't associate myself with the family anymore, if there are even any of them left. What's your name?"

[ ooc: Reno. We live in the age of firefox automatic spellcheck and Microsoft Word. Come on man. ]

She liked standing behind him, watching the back of his head that could easily be gone in any passing second. Narrowed yellow eye following the barrel of the gun to the hint of a glistening hairline that did not show in the candidness of his voice. He didn't sound nervous, hell he even joked about it.

So what if she was a hypocrite, and even a hypocrite couldn't take to this man's honesty. She saw herself in the man, his need to survive, his need for efficiency completely supported by reckless, impersonal selfishness. Dahlia was standing there, listening to a man spew his abilities of killing friends for money and secret organizations. "I am capable of betraying and murdering you, I have no signs of trustfulness, and I have made my deal with you worthless" is all she heard from the lovely bastard. Privately, she spoke her goodbyes to him, a respectful goodbye - one to a fellow scumbag.

"Satisfied indeed," she spoke to the four-eyed man, her voice more or less a purr. "I think the job looks good on you, personally, a good career choice."

The lifted the barrel slightly, mentally counting down from three the moment she would blow off his ear piece from behind.. smiling into her gun as she did so, imagining the strap metal of the inner micro electronics shattering in his eardrum--

". Hell, if I looked as good as you did in a high dollar suit, who needs friends.. I mean really?" The florist laughed with girlish mirth, iniquitous: a villains laugh. It echoed off the walls.

Three... two..

"..A pleasure, really - good bye Mr. Ear--"

Krack. Click. The door across the Unrecoverable Ward locked and a man with a beard stood before it. His meaty hand lifted a pistol and Ms. Dahlia hesitated a heartbeat.

"What the--"

[ooc: I love FireFox's spell check >_o]

"Dante. Dante Blood. And you don't scare me.. I just dislike hospitals." He smiled back to her. Maybe she wasn't so crazy after all. "And I doubt that it was you he ran from.. Maybe it was the policeman," he said, jokingly, looking at the man, then stopped. The hall went in two directions, with lots of doors and some moaning, but he didn't see any zombies.

"If he's smart, he didn't try and lock himself up in a room.. Is there any stairs? I noticed that the hospital is in three floors, so maybe he ran up.. Or, outside? Is there a back door?" But he could also have jumped out of an window.

Even if he can defend himself, I don't want to leave him behind.. There's a bigger chance or surviving against the zombies if we are many.. But if the government, or anyone else, doesn't get this on track, then most of the food will be wasted, and there's no way the rivers won't get damaged..
Dante shook his head, and focused on where they where now. "So, stairs or back door/window?"

"Nice to meet you, Dante Blood. I really don't like hospitals either...well...I mean, they scare me, but I guess I do like them, after all." She noticed him looking around warily and nodded. "I tried to destroy some of the stairs leading up to the third floor after the outbreak, but I wasn't strong enough to do it all by myself. I don't know if you'll be able to get up the old wooden ones in the lobby area--" she paused, motioning toward a large wooden door that had been heavily barricaded "--but there are some metal ones near the back of one of the wards. They'll probably be safer, too...I think."

She hated to admit it, but she was starting to get nervous, too. It would have been all right if she could walk or run by herself, but now that her ankle was messed up, she was more likely to be a burden to whoever was unlucky enough to end up stuck with her. She sighed heavily.

There's no time for self-pity, though, she told herself, straightening up a bit. I don't know why the hell he wants to go looking through this hospital, but I guess it's the safest place in the city right now.

She extended a long, skinny arm and pointed down one of the hallways. "Go down there, and when you get to the T-intersection, take a...right, I think. You might have to pry open the doors to get into the ward--they used to be magnetically locked, but I don't know if they're working now or if they're stuck shut since the power's off. I'll tell you more when we get there."

Instantly, Justin saw his opportunity and, indeed, he took advantage of the confusion; spinning around, left elbow extended to knock the barrel away from his head as his right hand moved to his hidden shoulder-holster which contained his .45 caliber 1911-A1, pointing it directly at the woman's head whether he knocked the barrel or not away from him [I'll let you decide.]. A sly grin spreads across his face as he stands perfectly still, handgun laser point right between the girl's eyes. "Sorry, darling, I would have loved to have let you put me down...but my life is not yet out of season." He makes a mental note of the beefy man in front of the door pointing his gun at them, but he decides the girl that was about to turn his head to dust was more of a threat.

[sorry I don't use firefire fox and I cn't get into Spellcheck right now :(]
"wow, wo, wow" Alex said as the man in the suit took out a gun and pointed it at the girl "what the hell was that" Alex stepped back a bit.

"Then I guess we'll take the metal stairs.. I don't want to risk falling trough them" He said, smiling a bit. He blew on some of his bangs and tried to create an overview of the hospital in his head. Then he went down the hallway that Vivi pointed out, and turned right.
"Do you know where the kitchen is..? If, there is a kitchen.." Most of the food would go bad after some days, without electricity. The surviving people would hurry to the stores to try and steal food that would last the longest. Or, the smartest ones would.

He could feel a headache was sneaking onto him, while he tried to find all the info that was stored in his head. They say it would rain tomorrow, and we should find shelter before that. Whatever caused this outbreak, might as well have done something to the weather.. Maybe toxic rain, or something.. I've watched too many movies...

He stopped in front of the big door. "I'll have to put you down for a minute.." He gently put her on the floor, and tried to open the door. He couldn't, so he began searching for something to break it open with.
"You weren't sure, that it was this door, were you?" There were no windows, so he wasn't even sure it was the right one. He found a flat metal tube, wondered why they would have such thing, when he heard moaning coming from a bathroom.

"I know there's a kitchen, or at least a toxic waste dump." Vivi snorted, remembering the barely edible "food" provided by the hospital. "All the food might have gone bad, although there's a huge backup generator that used to kick in when the power went out from storms or...whatever. Like, crazy patients that somehow broke loose from the nurses and orderlies and turned it off."

She paused for a moment, trying to remember if that was the correct door. "It should be. Then again, all of the hallways start to look the same after a while." She managed to remain fairly calm as he searched for a way to open the door, but started freaking out again once she heard the moans. "Pick me up, pick me up, pick me up!" Vivi flailed her arms comically as she tried to find something to brace herself against, then managed to hoist herself from the ground. She hopped toward Dante on one foot, damn near falling down again in the process.

"They're gonna eat my brainsssss!" Her eyes went wide and she let out a nervous, crazy little giggle, wrapping the fingers of her right hand around her left arm and looking around. Then, as soon as the mirth had come, it disappeared and her face went serious again. "But seriously, get us the FUCK out of here, NOW!"

He stared at her, when she started giggling, it scared the shit outta him. He raised the metal tube, and swung it towards her. It connected with the head, of the noiseless zombie, whom had been limping after her, creating a crack at the targets head. He gasped for air, as the whole thing had surprised him.
"First, you tell me, what the hell you are doing at this hospital!" He pointed at her; "I need to know, when you'll break down, and how to prevent it!" He was just as serious as her, and kept a firm grip at the metal tube. He didn't want to leave her behind, but it would be a serious risk, if she started giggling uncontrollable when they were trying to be sneaky.
He didn't want her to think, that he would leave her, so he started opening the door with the pipe. "We are going to get out of here, but we'll have to find Alex.. I won't leave him here." He said, certainly.

[Ooc: Hey guys, I have a super busy weekend, with starting school and having to plan a friend's birthday party. I won't be able to post until Monday. Feel free to drop me, or if not - pretend Dahlia passed out or something.]

She straightened up and stared at Dante, looking rather like a little girl who'd just been chastised. "I...my parents died when I was very young, and since I had no other family, I ended up here. I'm sorry. I was just nervous, I guess. And...scared." Vivi bit her lip and hugged herself, looking at the floor.

"I'm sorry. I know I can be annoying sometimes, but I try not to be a bother to anyone..."

[Occ: It's cool, we'll just hit her in the head, and drag her unconscious body with us =3]

He laid a hand on her shoulder and tried to get eye contact with her, "Sorry, I should not have brought it up .." He tried to smile, but soon gave up because the moment seemed awkward. He turned toward the door, only to notice that something pushed against it. "Is there .. Someone on the other side?" He was about to go to the door when he heard the now familiar moan. "Shi-" He pulled up in a Vivi piggyback, and ran down the hall with her, "Where are the other stairs?" In the background he heard the door break and it sounded as if more people came pouring in, but he did not turn around to see.