Outbreak! (Open to all!)

[zombie]

He just wanted to do some fishing. It was the middle of the afternoon, and he had just gotten off work. He WOULD have called his wife to tell her about where he'd be, but his cell phone had no service no matter where he was since the day before. Damn cell phone companies, he was paying out the ass for the service, they could at least make it so the damn thing could make a call. Not that he was really complaining about getting some peace and quiet without her knowing where he was, the opposite really. A few hours of sitting, relaxing and hoping something would bite. A perfect way to spend the rest of the day.

A soft moan broke the quiet of the path to the fishing spot. He stopped and looked around, a bit of fear rising in him. He saw a man, blood running down his ripped shirt, stumbling forward, moaning. “Holy hell...” he said to himself as he started towards the man. The fear had faded mostly now, replaced with worry for the stranger. “Hey, buddy, you need some help?” he asked as he got in front of him. The man moaned again, looking up at him with milky white eyes. All he could do was scream as the man's arms grabbed him, teeth sinking into his neck.

One became two.

A couple, the wife a nurse, driving down the road when they see a man stumbling down the road, blood coming from a wound in his neck. They don't notice his eyes until they park and the wife ran out to check on him, her medical instincts overriding her common sense. When she did notice the eyes he had already grabbed her arm and taken a bite out of it. The husand, a former collegiate football player, shoved the man away, grabbing his wife and hurrying her back to the car before the man could get up. He took off for the city, to get her some help. In his rush, he didn't notice as her eyes slowly turn milky white. When she sunk her teeth into his shoulder, all he could do was shout and accidentally turn the car into a tree, keeping her from him long enough for him to turn.

Two became four.

And so it began.

At 9:30pm the first one was spotted stumbling into the city, biting, of all luck, a police officer who attempted to help them. He managed to knock the thing back and, after realizing his radio wasn't working, run to the police station for help, turning while in the middle of a group of officers trying to help him. Within ten minutes the station was in a state of panic as officers would turn, bite someone, and so on, robbing the city of most of it's boys in blue right off the bat, in a move that some would call fate hating them all. The ones who survived also realized that their phones and radios weren't working.

At approximately 9:53pm, the word was given, and the bridge, which had several vehicles going both in and out, was rocked by explosions at all it's support, sending it, and the people on it, falling down into the water below. At the same time the port was also rocked by explosions, every boat docked, and the docks themselves going up in flames at the same time. The island was suddenly without an exit, or a way to call for help as slowly more and more became infected.

In the woodlands, one of them fell over into a watering hole, it's virus-laden blood mixing with the wood for all the animals to drink and join their human counterparts in becoming part of the undead. People who were at the port when the dock went up, shocked and frightened, tried to run through the woodlands to escape back into the city, a safe haven they thought. Instead, they were scratched, or bitten, or worse, ripped apart by the growing number of the undead animals in the woodlands.

By midnight, the island fallen into anarchy. Cars abandoned from where people tried to drive away, only to be stopped, either by the realization that the bridge was out, or from being pulled out of their cars by dead hands. Communications were down, there was no way to get word to anyone on the mainland about what was happening. They were trapped, forced to try and find a good hiding place, while watching friends and family rip each other apart, hoping they won't be found next. How ironic, a place that was advertised as a fun vacation spot for families, now turned into a hell people had only imagined in fiction. Those who survived had so much fun ahead of them. Could they find a way to escape? Or would they join the ranks of the undead?

Welcome to Paradise.

[dylan]

Early that morning a plane landed in a San Francisco airport. A young flight attendant stood up at the front of the plane and announced that they could now safely remove their seatbelts. Dylan, who had begun unbuckling his seatbelt the moment the attendant had started talking, reached up into the luggage compartment above his seat and pulled out his carry-on bag, which constituted all of his luggage for this trip. He turned his head up the aisle to run his eyes over the cute flight attendant one last time. Flight attendants were hardly ever guys and you had to take the opportunnity to gaze lustfully while you could.

Dylan waited for his parents before finally dragging his eyes away from the flight attendant. He followed them out. After having taken all sorts of forever to get their bags he and his family made their way toward the exit were they would get a rental car, when sexy flight attendant boy strolled up to him. His parents went on to get the car, leaving him to deal with the other male.

Sexy flight attendant boy was about six feet tall with brown hair that had spent too much time in the sun. His eyes met Dylans for a moment and he smiled. "Hey, my name's Bob. I was wondering if you'd like to go up to the new amusement park on Mockingbird Island with me."

"Um, sure." Dylan couldn't help but smile a little. He could tell that this guy wasn't one of those akward creepers who abduct cute boys and sell them into slavery or anything outlandish like that. And he figured that he might as well enjoy himself, after all he had recently been reminded that life was worthless if you didn't live it. Cute boy Bob smiled too.

"Cool, when should I meet you?" Bob asked.

"Um, probably around seven, my parents and I are looking for a house around here, I'm at the Songbyrd Hotel, OK?"

"Sure, see you then." He grinned as he turned and jogged away.

"Oooh, he was cute." Said his mom from behind him.

Dylan giggled a little. "Yeah." He grinned.

---

9:52

Bob and Dylan stood side-by-side looking at the bridge that connected Mockingbird Island with the mainland. Dylan nudged Bob with his shoulder, and looked up into his eyes. He had really started to like the other guy. He leaned up just as Bob leaned down. Their lips met, and for one sweet moment the world stopped.

Then came the explosions. And Dylan felt it. He felt the oncoming rush of undead. They felt wrong on so many different levels it was hard for him to fully focus. He heard Bob scream and felt his soul leave his body at an unnaturally fast rate. All around people screamed and died. Dylan didn't know what kept them from ripping out his throat too. Maybe it was luck or maybe divine intervention. It didn't really matter, he didn't really care, he just ran.

The Zombies, as if drawn by his sudden movement, followed him. One, the moving corps of a middle-aged woman, wrapped her dead fingers around the teenagers wrist. She snapped forward, her rotting lips dripping with blood and chunks of Bob in her teeth (don't ask how he knew it was Bob, he just did), he yelped and grabbed the heavy mallet from one of those strength games and bashed her head in. Her fingers dropped from his wrist and he turned and ran again, mallet still clutched in his fingers.

[krawn]

Mockingbird Island. Out of the way of the world. An inconsequential piece of land in a very large ocean. If The Company believed that would protect their buildings, they were wrong. Krawn's eye was fixed on his target. Like the building and building before it, it would burn. The island, no larger than it was, needed little effort to topple. He would dedicate one mutant for the job, and four for back up, if necessary. As usual, he was nearby, waiting to see the flames himself. The purge would be quick and efficient, so his selected follower would be more than the usual. Feeling he had no need for extra security when compared to the action himself, he selected Mr. Burke for this job.

Mr. Burke was a trusted member of his team. He knew Krawn's face, his name, and knew how to contact him on a moment's notice. The pyrokinetic was powerful, and dedicated to Krawn's cause. To disappoint Krawn would be to fail himself.

The back up, a small group of individuals in a white minivan down the street, shared none of these traits with Mr. Burke. They didn't know anything about the man in charge; they knew only of the cause and of the payout.

Krawn drank from his lattee, content on the job. Of course, he did not know of another villain's plans for the same island. He didn't find that out until he heard a shrill scream. Henry turned to the source of the screams. The undead were approaching him from both sides of the street, blood and bodies in their wake. Undisturbed, Krawn took another sip of his lattee, as the people in the coffee shop started to take notice and scream. Krawn would have to make sure he had time to go before he was completely surrounded. As long as he was in the building, Mr. Burke was almost certain to be safe. Zombies seemed to have a problem with fire. Krawn would focus on himself.

[metahumans]

---

Mr. Burke was in the building owned by the Really Useful Company. This company made a living experimenting on mutants, his brothers. He could not stand for such an atrocity. When Mr. Lane came to him and offered him a position in the organization and a common goal, well how could anyone refuse such an offer. Mr. Burke was a rather unremarkable looking man of average height with brown hair combed back and a beard/ goatee combination, carefully cut. He looked rather professional in his suit which did a good job of visually distributing his slight paunch.

The Scotsman scanned his surroundings. Preparing for what he knew would sound the death knell of this branch of the company and would serve as another nail in the coffin of the company as a whole. Mr. Burke took a deep breath and extended both arms out. Exhaling, he created a roaring inferno all around the room. With another deep breath and exhale the flames grew higher and hotter. Now that they were reasonably able to survive on their own, Mr. Burke turned and, pulling his pipe from his jacket lit the tobacco with a wink of his eye. He put it into his mouth and walked out of the building... and into a mob of undead. He pulled the pipe from his mouth and said, in his Scottish accent. "Oh dear."

---

Madeline Von Dawn was a mercenary, always had been always would be. And if there was one thing that she hated, more than anything else, it was incompetence. One might wonder, then, how she came to be in a van with three other mutants. There was Peter whose sweat could burn a hole through steel, Jon, who looked like he should be getting mail from AARP but could apparently bend in ways that you can only find in a freak show, and Caleb a sixteen year old brat who's there for a quick getaway.

She expected this to be a rather dull mission, all they had to do was wait for the fifth member of their party to arrive and then Caleb would teleport them away. So it came as much to her surprise when the van tipped over. Caleb screamed and his voice cracked into a soprano, Jon seemed unfazed though Madeline would forever swear that she saw him bounce, and Peter yelped like a puppy.

Madeline stood up slowly and pulled a very large revolver from her boot. She opened the door and peered out. She quickly slammed the door again. "We got Zombies!" She said.

"Zombies?!" Squeaked Caleb.

[Terra]

It all started out just like this for the traveler who ran alongside the wind...

Anywhere, somewhere...she had to get away as fast as possible! So many people were hurt by the earthquake and some of the people who saw that SHE was the reason for such a horrible "natural" event had a look of deep seeded fear in their eyes and screamed before a building toppled down upon them. Running with a look of absolute terror in her eyes, scared of what she had done to those innocent people. All she wanted to do was be a hero! If she couldn't be normal...then why not a super hero that saved people like those groups she heard so much about?! To the extent of panting with each fast paced step, she had enough of her powers for one day! The screams rang throughout her head like crazy and the memories of people chasing her away because they survived the horror she unintentionally put them through played over and over like a never ending movie reel. Somehow she found herself at a delivery company with one of their vans having the door loosely open.

PERFECT! Sneaking her way in, this is where the wind was taking her, a different adventure where she'd have a fresh start! Carefully crawling over the crates, she quickly hid in the back crouching down before hugging her legs close to her with an unheard `Wooooo` passing her lips. The look on her face was that of relief as though she juuuust escaped her bad memories and another place that recently got added to her `Oopsie sorry I devastated your town, really didn't mean to!` list. Resting her chin upon her knees for a moment, she stared off at the box with the happiest little doodle she had ever seen. Not long ago...she had a kinda normal life: foster home with loving parents and attending school where it felt more like a private school thanks to the uniforms plus friends. That was all gone when her powers emerged though. Starting this life of sneaking onto vehicles of all shapes and sizes, even boats! It wasn't so bad...and for some reason she didn't get homesick.

Almost like this WAS her life once upon a time. The yellow bag on her back holding all her basic traveling stuff was like an old friend, as with those goggles over her eyes, brown leather gloves, and that little butterfly clip in her hair she'd grown very fond of after one of her friends had given it to her. All of it gave her a feeling of nostalgia, even the shoes upon her feet and her normal outfit! Strange how it made her get a warm fuzzy feeling even though she didn't remember anything before the orphanage. It felt like the home that traveled with her everywhere. Whether she felt like maybe she found a place to belong for a fleeting moment or even when that moment had met its end...it felt so normal. Drifting off to sleep with the thought of sushi and ice cream dancing around in her head, she felt her lids become heavy just as she closed her eyes. Whenever she woke up, the next stop would be where she gets off to see the new place the wind took her.

Looking as if she were at peace...maybe even like a sweet little angel, that was broken when she started snoring a bit as though it was a bad habit, plus her body loosened up to sprawl across the space as if she was in the world's most odd bed EVER and she was STILL comfortable. Even a little drool started rolling down the corner of her mouth as she slept on her back with one of her feet resting on a crate's corner. Odd sleeping habits were pretty much her forte, except she didn't roll around or anything let alone have kung-fu fighting in her happy sleep time. Dreams of a buffet caused by her empty tummy infested her moments of slumber, talking food too! Up until a rubber duck kamikaze'd itself onto her head causing her eyes to open wide as though Hitler crawled out of his grave as a zombie! OR WORSE finding out someone other than her assaulted the adorable talking food of her dreams! Quickly looking around in a slight frenzy, she scrambled to the corner and peeked around the boxes closest to her.

WOAH! Most of the stuff she had to crawl over was GONE! Uh oh, what if the guy saw her and called the cops to-wait a second the van was still moving! So maybe he DIDN'T call the cops to report a missing teen after all...hmmm. Ducking down, she felt the jerking motion caused by slamming down on the brake. Putting her hands over her head, more stuff toppled down on her head and she closed her eyes even though her handy dandy goggles would protect any inanimate ninjas from attacking. Opening one of her eyes before opening the other, that's when she blinked a couple of times and listened to the driver yell his head off at some kid who apparently ran in front of the car to grab something. Getting the stuff off of her as she dusted off MORE rubber duckies and scrambled to the door before getting out and got it open before closing it with care.

How lucky was that? No one was behind him at the moment AND there was a neat roller coaster in the distance! Stretching a bit with a big smile across her lips, this place seemed kinda nice...plus it was surrounded by water! Pretty nice place to land on a mystery road trip to who knows where! Walking along with a smile across her lips, the first thing to do was get food! Yes, delicious glorious food! ...at wherever that roller coaster was!

It looked a lot like one of the rides advertised for an amusement park in a place called Mockingbird Island! When she finally got herself there and finally taking the goggles off of her face to have it hang around her neck, she just had oodles of fun and somehow snatching food without paying so much as a dime! Not out of a trash can like a raccoon either! She was more like that cartoon bear who stole picnic baskets...ANYWAY! When it was about nine pm, she felt like she needed a little nap after having so much fun and good food too! Where oh where did she sleep for who knows how long? Under the bumper cars, of course!

Even with her bad habit of snoring and sleeping on her back sprawled out like a bed hog would, her dreams were happy and fun filled, there was even a dance scene by a bunch of random woodland creatures...plus she was somehow safe and unnoticed! HOW CUTE, RIGHT?! What she woke up to wasn't so cute, moans here and there plus the imaginary fuzzy wuzzy animals turning into drooling zombies before fully waking up...what the crap?! Yeah that's right, the moans of zombies woke her up instead of the laughing, screaming, squealing and KAPOW KAPOW from the bumper car ride! Groaning a bit as she picked up her yellow bag and slung it over her shoulders, she crawled on out from under the bumper car rides only to see...some guy running? Hey he was holding one of those mallet things from that `Test your strength!` games! Errr she, herself didn't do too well at that game, considering her body type, go figure that one...right? Seeing a few zombies behind him, her eyes widened and she flailed her arms up and down not knowing if she should freak out in a good or bad way. THERE WERE ZOMBIES!

Were they filming a movie here?! OH WAS THAT GUY AN ACTOR!? This. was. so. COOL! But then her arms dropped to her side along with her jaw as she saw one of them rip some child up like it was a dish of cake noodles at a family restaurant. Oh. SNAP! REAL ZOMBIES! Feeling her eye twitch a bit before shaking her head, she was about to go into some heroic monologue and say something like `OK FREAKY ZOMBIES! That's gonna be the last human you eat!` but all she could do to get it started was opening her mouth since she was rudely interrupted by one of the zombies looking up to her and being all `Rrrrraaaaaaaauuuuurrrrrrgh....`.

That caused a marching of zombies coming toward her as though it was telling its buddies `FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.....`. Instead of using her powers right off the bat, she flailed her arms and rushed after the boy with ringlet styled hair. "THEY'RE REAL ZOMBIES! WHY ARE THERE REAL ZOMBIES HERE?!" Trying to get some sort of answer in her frantic filled voice, she caught up to the boy and ran along side him ceasing her flailing but looked REALLY freaked out. For a moment, she completely forgot about having powers. Goodness giant scorpions were NORMAL compared to...ZOMBIES!

However, while running she remembered: MAD SKILLS IN CONTROLLING ROCKS AND STUFF! Uh...right but there was quite a bit of them...if she used too much of her power she'd lose control...and...that could make things worse. So while waiting for some kinda answer about the zombie issue, she tried formulating a plan...some kinda plan that would be a GOOD use of her powers. Skidding to a halt there was an undead who wanted some flesh to nom away on which peek-a-boo'd itself out of the corner. Out of heroic reflexes, she made an attempt to grab the sleeve of mister `I GOT A MALLET AND KNOW HOW TO USE IT!` in an attempt to stop him from becoming part of a `crash boom bang into a zombie` pedestrian traffic accident. HOLY CRAP! Her eyes flickered a goldish yellow hue with her hair even lashing upward as though there was a gust of strong wind which caused the chunk of earth in a circular pattern below it to give way causing the lover of flesh in any variety to go bye bye.

Letting out a heavy sigh of `WHEW that was close!`, a little reminder about the zombies BEHIND them made her brain have an `OH DUR! RIGHT! THOSE GUYS!` moment though she had to be careful, she just had a slight slip of her powers just now! That whole little thing with a chunk giving way? Yeah that wasn't intentional...but it looked like it was so her secret was safe for now!

[Lisa]

So much groaning Mother?, familiar but distant. Above. That was where the noise was coming from. Many that couldn't sleep? Just like her. Not for long anyway. No. She had purpose, purpose that could not be denied. Even while she trudged through the filthy waters of Mockingbird Island's sewers she only thought of that singular purpose. Mother. Father. Awoken, she remembered. No time to sleep, they could be up there, waiting for her. Even in the pitch black she could see... unlike an unfortunate few that had fled down to escape the zombie menace above. While they had screamed that the one they found was a monster, in the end their demise was a mercy when delivered by Lisa's own hands. They would not rise again as the undead. Torn asunder and left in pieces uninfected.

Lisa's limited cognitive abilities gave her a moments pause. Her parents wouldn't be looking for here down here. Much too filthy, she had always been a clean girl a good girl.... No... they would be waiting above, wouldn't they? With a rasp her ponderous gait turned into a much more frantic charge. Just the hint of daylight, that was all she needed. A waft of fresh air, following the scent of the humans that had fled down to the sewers for safety. Lisa followed that scent, an unsatisfactory one. Impostors. They weren't her parents, but they would lead her to them. Then they could be happy, and move away from this place. That's all she wanted, but people made things so difficult. Finally the scent ended, no light was shed but nor was it needed. It lead upward, to the surface. It only took a leap from her powerful legs to burst onto the street, the manhole cover doing nothing to slow her progress.

More scents, more smells. Sweat, smoke, ...and dead things. She remembered the dead things, they would get up and walk around. They groaned and moaned, and they eat people. Disgusting. Lisa only did it because she knew her parents would be so mad if she didn't have something to eat before bed. She'd be in so much trouble if she didn't... and she couldn't handle that. She was a good girl, after all. Her senses were jumbled by the stimuli around her. The air was thick with noise and chaos. People running, people dying, people being eaten, dying and getting back up to eat other people. Too hard to think. Just had to search, always search. Dead things all around her. Annoying.

They didn't attack, but they were in her way. That wouldn't do. Nothing could get in her way, she couldn't allow it. So angry. Why couldn't they move faster?! Her mind, limited though it were went blank as anger overtook her senses. A piercing shriek left her lips as the tendrils housed within her reacted, bursting forth from beneath the macabre mask that she had crafted for herself. Though her arms were shackled they proved useful for the messy work of clearing a way. Flesh yielded easily to her onslaught. Flesh burst and bone snapped as she swung her bound arms into the unsuspecting zombies ahead of her. There wouldn't be enough of them to fit into a matchbox at that point, their coagulated blood decorating Lisa and the area around her. Gore where men and women once stood.

Lisa was running on complete instinct, nothing registering besides keeping alert for that familiar scent, those soothing sounds of her parents. Everything else was irrelevant. Anything that stood in her way would be met with her wrath. Ears automatically attuned to sounds, not moaning or groaning, not the crackling of existing fires... but the screams of the living, the frantic cries as they attempted to escape the zombie menace. Lisa did not wish to hunt them, but their sounds drew her to them. There was the slightest chance that they were her parents...after all, it was hard to catch their scent with the lingering odor of death in the air.

She had to be sure. She would be thorough, and she would rend asunder anything that came between her and her beloved parents.

[dylan]

Dylan ran and as he ran some crazy blond chick ran after him, yelling about the zombies. But then, he couldn't really blame her for being crazy, everything else is, and when the world goes crazy, you go with it.

Dylan sensed the undead just as he sensed the girl reaching for his arm. He skidded to a halt as a wave of geokinetic energy lashed out from behind him and a chunk of earth rammed the zombie out of the way. He turned to look at the girl who had emanated that wave of elemental power. He sensed her panic, but not panic for the walking dead a different sort of panic that she quickly suppressed.

He turned and stared at her. "That. Was. Awesome!" Turning allowed him to see the wave of walking dead stomping toward them. And then it happened, he felt the fear. His adrenaline had been keeping it from affecting him, but now that he had been out of danger for a moment it hit him like a wave. He grimaced with a hissed of pain. "Ah, crap."His hands went to his head. He let out a low groan. "We need to get out of here." He turned and stumbled a little, but kept going.

[timjacksondrake]

The search for Conor had been a failure, and the Justice Cave was empty and collecting dust. As Robin and Impulse had been clambering back onto the BArTMOBILE Super-Cycle to go find the Girls at Their all Girl's school, It had suddenly began to shiver and quake Robin had attempted to calm it down, but they both knew what was going on. this was the Cycle's way of saying 'the game is afoot'. Often it would suddenly take them off somewhere to solve some problem or stop some crime that they otherwise would not have known existed. Now it was doing it again.

They took off at a speed they all knew and loathed. Robin sometimes wondered if this was how Bart felt all the time, and how he could stand feeling like your skin was going to molt off of you. Their surrounding were going by too fast to be intelligible, except maybe for Bart.

All of a sudden the Cycle landed heavily on the top of a building. It was getting on in the late, and the night was soon to arrive, but there was plenty of light around. Behind them was a well-lit amusement part, and in front of them, a Really Useful Company building. On fire, as before. Robin Hopped off the cycle and ran forward, peering over the edge of the building for a better look. Three it was, across the street and up a couple blocks. There were a lot of people wandering around, avoiding the flames. He didn't pay enough attention to them to realize they were flesh-eating minions. His eyes were focused on the smoking man who had just exited the flames.

Another thing Robin hadn't realized, was that after he'd dismounted, the Super-Cycle had locked itself up. Something it did when it wanted them to complete some task. Robin found himself with a rare opportunity. Below him he could see the white van that had been at the other site. It was fresh in his mind and he it well. Now he could sweep down and apprehend the criminals inside the van, get information about the ringleader, maybe even the ringleader himself. Robin couldn't help but smile at himself.

All of a sudden, the [zombies] Civilians that were mobbing the streets pushed over the van. they were attempting to get in, but their mien was strangely violent, and Robin couldn't guess at how or why they had become so volatile.

Robin looked to Impulse. "That's one of the buildings I was talking about. The Suber-Cycle found the next target for us, and plopped us down right on top of the getaway car." There was still the question of whether or not they could take them, but who could stop Robin and Impulse? "Here's the plan: I'll drop a smoke screen into the window, and while they're blinded, you sweep in there and tie 'em up."

Robin leaped off the the building after that, his grappling hook firmly latched onto a light post and he swung onto the side of the tipped minivan. The Civilians were still mobbing the van, rocking it this way and that. Robin called out to them. "Calm down, Citizens, We'll take care of this!"

He dropped a smoke pellet into the window of the truck, as he had planned, however, rather unlike he had planned, one of the masses grabbed ahold of his boot and yanked. He was pulled to his knee, but was able to kick free of the hand. It was at this time that he finally took real notice of the people. They were blood-drenched, white-eyed, and bloodthirsty. Kinda like...Zombies......

Robin backed away from the side of the van, and looked around for impulse, hoping he hadn't been bitten, but knowing that he was fast enough to avoid contact. All of a sudden Robin realized what the Super Cycle had brought them there for. He had been mistaken in jumping to conclusions like he had.

[codychambers]

"'kay. So, I'm gonna go to the island. I need to try out the new ride. You dangle for the whole coater! It's gonna be killer!...Totally! See you later!" Cody closed his cell phone. That's right, he had a flip phone. The seventeen-year-old threw his phone into the passenger seat, put the key into the ignition and turned on the car. He sat for a moment, listening to the roar of his car. With a chuckle, he took the car out of park and pulled out of the driveway.

______________________________________________________

Cody walked into the amusement park, a sparkle in his eye. He had the American in his sites. A fast paced ride, decorated by the country's colors, moving at intense speeds, riders dangling. It even went over the water. He was going to enjoy this.

The ride was long, but the ride was fast, so Cody didn't have to wait too long before it was his turn. As expected, the ride was hard, fast, and mind blowing. When it finished, he decided to get cotton candy, rolling up his long sleeves up on the way. Unfortunately for him, fate had other plans. It had gotten dark, and the people had started to drop (and rise) like flies.

"Woah! Why are you all bloody? All of you?" Cody's voice got desperate, and the zombies took notice. They dragged themselves towards him, seeking to rid themselves of the munchies. Cody fought the urge to freak out with his entire being, pounded by flashback after flashback of his attackers. Happiness shot to hell and fear gripping him, Cody did what he thought what was the most logical thing: he screamed.

[Lexias]

Impulse looked at the horizon, bored at how slow the Super-Cycle was moving. It took a couple of minutes, but they finally got to the Super-Cycle's destination. "Thought we'd never get here," he said with a sigh. He was ready to get to action, but Robin decided to give a speech before then. At least it was shorter than usual.

Robin went and did his thing. Bart waited a second, making sure to give him enough time, and then he followed, running down the building. Turns out Tim was wrong about the civilians, though. They actually turned out to be zombies, like in one of Bart's video games.

"Cool!"

Impulse got up to the van, leaping head first into a speech of his own, hoping the Boy Wonder could keep up. "Hey-Robin! Turns-out-these-things-aren't-people! They're-zombies! Like-in the-video-games-and-in-those-movies! They're-all-bloody-and-white-eyed-and-everything! Isn't-it-cool!"

[xanadu]

Mark crouched behind a crate next to a cotton candy stall. Somehow his free day at the carnival had turned into a nightmare circus.

---

Yesterday, Mark had been sitting at the back of a ballroom that was being used by a history convention as an auditorium. He was bored out of his mind, at a history convention with his mother. It wasn't that Mark didn't like history, it was just that everyone who had spoken yet had been increadibly boring. He was just waiting for the convention to end for the day so that his mother could take him to that movie that she had promised that they would see.

Finally, the toadish man at the podium stopped talking and the audience clapped respectfully. His mom came from the front, clutching a notebook that Mark knew she had been taking notes in. Her face was darkened by something. "What's wrong?" He asked her.
She huffed. "There's a problem at the University, they want me to go back and help." She looked at him sadly. "I guess I'm gonna miss that movie.

He had convinced her to let him stay while she went back to help with whatever problem the University was having. After all the room was already paid for for the rest of the week. He went to a later showing of the movie and ended up having a one night stand with the cute ticket guy. When he woke up this morning he had decided to go to the carnival.

He had gone to get cotton candy when the bridge went out.

---

An explosion tore through the laughter of children in the carnival. The Zombies groaned as they attacked and killed and repopulated the area with even more Zombies.

That was when Mark crouched behind a crate next to a cotton candy stall. He peeked out and saw some poor kid getting swarmed. He leapt over the crate and ran to help him. He punched one zombie into another and sent them sprawling. He grabbed at the other males wrist. "Come on, we gotta get out of here."

[Terra]

After nailing the zombie, it felt like she should have some sort of victorious melody playing in the background. Well ok there was the sound of various rides and games lacing the air among screams and moans...that would just have to suffice! Hearing the ringlet haired guy tell her that was cool, for a moment she forgot about the whole `Zombies behind me wanna make me their Chinese family dinner` issue and smiled as though she already won this crazy live action game. Closing her eyes for a moment, she put her thumbs at the hems of her pocket and soaked in the moment of glory. Sweet! Someone who wasn't going to freak out at her for having powers! "Thanks! I am a super hero after all, the name's Terra!" Lucky for this self proclaimed super hero, zombies were slow.

Though she couldn't help but look at him wondering what was on, though his expression in itself seemed to remind her of the biggest issue. It seemed like he was having a bit of a migraine and she was powerless to help since she didn't even have a bottle of pain killers! At least she had a flash light...but that wasn't really needed seeing how lit the place was at the moment. Hearing the low grown pass his lips, she frowned a bit then looked behind them getting a BIG reality check. They HAD TO get out of here some how! Talk about really being out numbered here, even if the zombies were trudging along kinda slowly. That or they had to find more survivors...right!

It was impossible for them to be the only survivors, even if it's just the amusement park area...right? Of course it was, that's what she tried to tell herself. Boy were they on the same track of thought, he pretty much summed up that they had to go as well! But before she could look back to the civilian with a mallet, her eyes widened as the sight of a different kind of zombie thing that didn't look as human in the distance plowing through the ones with pitch white optics. OK so that was pretty helpful, something narrowing down the zombie population and all...but...CRAP if it could hurt its own kind...what about them?! Grasping onto her goggles before getting them over her sky blue optics, it was hero time! Those leather clad gloves were tinted by a slight gold glow as she decided to buy them a little time.

Moving her hands down, little chunks of the ground cracked before making a lift motion to bring little rocks up out of the ground. Was this a bad idea? It seemed to work last time! Pushing her palms toward the zombie cluster to fling a small pelting of rocks in their direction, some of the standing undead staggered a little more than usual. Ooook...being cautious with her powers didn't slow them down much...! Looking to her mallet wielding acquaintance, she grabbed onto his arm to tug him along on so if he fell she could help him up. "I got an idea!"

Starting off her out loud thought in a frantic, yet hopeful fashion before continuing on in a more optimistic manner, "All we've gotta do is get out of here and then head out to the bri-" buuut that's when the sight of where the bridge would be made her realize "...where did the bridge go...?! ...don't tell me it blew up or something while I was sleeping..." Sounding a little jokingly bummed toward the end as though she could sleep through an earthquake only to see the aftermath wondering what in the world happened. Of course the "...oh snap" moment scuttled on over when she heard a nearby groan, it seemed like they didn't get away from these flesh loving monsters! With all the panic going on within her head, she was getting close to losing control again, Don't lose control...don't lose control...! C'mon Terra! You gotta save these people! ...the ones that aren't trying to eat you! Just find some other survivors, keep this guy alive, find ANOTHER way out of here and you'll be set! You can do this, Terra!

With that little mental pep talk as she kept running along, she mellowed out just a bit and came to yet another halt as she noticed people who didn't look horribly disfigured in the distance! Ooooh and they were near food too...! Feeling her stomach growl and hearing it grumble for food, she narrowed her eyes a bit and pouted, but that moment of ALMOST dancing food daydreaming was murdered as a zombie clown with a comb stuck in its rainbow afro decided to try tackling them! "Try this on for size!" Snapping out those words before stopping and letting go of the mallet holder's arm, her hands glowed once more and a couple lovely little rocks lifted up from the ground and as she swung her hand like it was going into a hook styled punch, it smacked the zombie toward her new found buddy...WHOOPS! That...was DEFINITELY an accident! The tomboy blonde really thought that was going to be a lethal zombie killing blow...oh well...errrr at least he had a mallet....! Cringing a little bit, she couldn't help but mumble out an "Oops..."

[krawn]

Krawn finished his lattee. Mr. Burke had made the mistake of coming out of the building. The man could take care of himself, but he was going to get help. The leader got up from his seat, and walked toward the door.

"Wait, those things are out there! You're crazy! You have to stay in here!"

Krawn turned toward the man who called to him. The humans stood in a cluster, some trembling, some whimpering, like dogs. Krawn huffed. "What are you people scared of? You're no different from those things out there. Parasitic monsters, living off each other like leeches, you disgusting, human freaks." The mutant through a table through the window wall, and walked through the shattered glass.

A few of the zombies noticed him immediately. The came toward him, moaning from their unpleasant fates. "Hello there, Mr. Burke. Would you like a hand?"

[metahumans]

If Caleb had freaked when the van tipped and Madeline announced that the people outside were zombies. He probably beed his pants when the cloud of dark smoke exploded from the from the window. Madeline activated her mutation, her body became metal, which would allow her to retain her vision and help with her breathing. She heard va-va-va-voom and knew that Caleb had teleported away. Peter and Jon began hacking and coughing, no doubt their eyes were burning from the smoke.

The mecenary reached into the pack that she brought with her and traded in her large revolver for an M-16 assault rifle, she strapped a combat knife to each of her shins and buckled a gun belt with a Barretta M-5 around her hips. She glanced up at the noise of a Voom-va-va-va, heralding Calebs return.

"Oh my gosh! There are zombies out there, and they're killing people and... and..." Madeline slapped him in the face, gently as her hand was made of metal, though it would probably leave a bruise anyway.

"Look, Caleb." she whispered, here voice strangely hollow in her current form. "I know this is scary but you need to keep it together. You're our ticket out of here, I won't let them hurt you, but we need to wait for our associate before we leave. If we stay in the van we should be safe." Of course, the moment she said that the window on the back door burst in as the zombies reached for the four metahumans. Jon was grabbed and pulled back toward the window, he shrieked as his mutation was turned against him and his form bent and compressed to fit through the door. Just before his head vanished, Madeline shot a bullet into his head, saving him from that horrible fate.

The doors started to buckle under the weight of the undead pushing against it. "OK," Madeline whispered again. "Caleb, I need you to teleport us behind the attacking mob, can you do that?" Caleb nodded, clearly scared out of his mind, and grabbed Madelines hand and Peters. With a va-va-va-voom they were gone from the van and appeared behind the mob of zombies attacking the van. Madeline readied her gun. "Don't worry Caleb, I'll keep you safe." Not only did she need Caleb to stay calm to get them out just in case, but she knew herself well enough to know that she didn't want him to get hurt for other reasons.

[timjacksondrake]

Robin Clenched his teeth when Impulse completely ignored the mission and decided to run around the dangerously hungry undead. However, he couldn't interrogate Zombies, so it was probably best that impulse hadn't opened the door. Still, he needed to bring Bart-of-the-dead back to focus or he could get both of them hurt. or worse...zombie-fied. "Impulse, I think it's possible that the Super-Cycle brought us here for more than one reason. So here's the plan..."

A Zombie Started Climbing onto the side of the Van toward Robin, who initially moved away, still in preserve-the-raving-mob mode. As more Zombies began to claw at his ankles, he thought of something Impulse had said. "Like-in the-video-games-and-in-those-movies!" Suddenly Robin Thrust his Bo staff through the Zombie's head, and watched as it toppled back into the waves of animated corpses.

"So here's the plan, Impulse: Nut up or Shut up." He said with a smirk. If he realized they were all already dead, then they might just be able to survive.