12 Hours Later (OPENING TOPIC)

OOC: This topic takes place 12 hours after the lights went out. My character Harvey is who turned on the lights, before going asleep. It is to be assumed that your characters snuck in during the night after seeing the light.

Harvey awoke with a jolt, nestled under a blanket he found by the front door of the supermarket. His head hurt, and the slash across the back of his left hand hurt more. It stung like fire, skin sizzling with throbbing heat, but the boy ignored it long enough to heave himself up with an oomph. His skull cracked on the spear of his headache, and he gritted his teeth. He was thirsty. Where was something to drink?

He could vaguely remember rounding the Mart. He could vaguely remember spotting the generator, peculiar with a wire leading to the adjacent river. He could vaguely remember collapsing in its safe light. Harvey trudged around a nearby shelf, toppled over and lying on the floor in its own broken product. He knew there had to be something there. He continued down the long center aisle of the store, a message hanging from a sign above. Welcome to Murky Mart! it greeted him. A cartoon penguin stood beside the cursive letters.

A blonde figure sat in the corner, her grey eyes narrowing as a figure came near. Normally, she would've attacked the the approaching person, but a cut on her leg, which had just scabbed up, kept her on the ground. As she didn't want to cause more bleeding. A scowl set on her face, the former coyote cast a harsh glare at the boy. If looks could kill, he'd be dead.

Another girl was seated near the back of the mart, she kept her distance, her hands wrapped around her rifle while grasping her faction mask. Biting her lip, she glanced around, painfully aware that she was way out of her element. Not to mention way too close to people for her liking.

A red-headed teen sat close to the shelves of stocked food, a clasp was in her laps, causing her to finger with it boredly. It had been 12 hours since the lights all over the world went out, it hadn't been that bad besides for the new nightcrawlers that had appeared. Her jeans were ripped open, a bloody wound visible for all to see, Audrey didn't care at all however she had found a container of drugs and meds to help her last. The sound of someone coming through made her look up in curiousity, only seeing an older boy stumbling through. All though he did look very dehydrated, Audreys eyes narrowed glancing at her flask and quickly picking it up, it was heavy enough plenty to spare. "Hey Boy!" Audrey snapped with a crooked smile as she popped off the lid of the flask the liquid splattering against the cold hard floor. "You thirsty? take it then!" She demanded shakily handing it to him chuckling to herself and muttering slightly.

Roy O'Brian was having a relatively bad day. Scratch that, the worst day in his life. Even the initial day the ash had set in was not as bad as today. It had only been 12 hours since the damm lights had went out, yet it seemed a lifetime ago. However, his trip to the mart had been rather uneventful thanks to his trusty lantern.He was set up behind a sheaf with his measly belongings around him, not drawing attention to himself from the others. Turning the volume up on the headset of his CD player until the music was deafening,he listened to the same CD again. He thanked God for this CD player because it had blocked out the screaming of the unlucky ones, which most likely included his family.

Harvey glared out at the girl, but didn't flinch. It was too late to flinch. If she was going to shoot or stab him, she would have done it by then. But he stayed wary, eyeing the flask. Was it poisoned? He'd seen people handling poison in the Black Market during his first and last time there. He'd seen people suffering from poisons. He didn't take it, no matter how nice she looked.
"Who are you?" Harvey's voice was low. His hand was on the knife that lay under his shirt. He'd yet to see the Coyote behind him.

It'd been one really long ass night.

After the lights went out, she'd been separated from everyone she knew. There'd been so much screaming and the stench of blood in the air. She, like many others, had been sent scattering across town through the night. The young woman couldn't have been sure how long she was wandering, nor what streets she had turned on - it had been too dark to tell, and she'd been too frightened to stop moving. Eventually though, the echoes of screams and gunshots slowly died down to a quiet nothing. It had to be some stupid luck when she'd seen it, the lights of that old supermarket come blaring on.

Lily had wasted no time then, sprinting to the old store and walking in through a back door, hidden behind many abandoned trucks. She's stayed in the back of the store then for a while, coming to terms with what exactly had happened with little tears, before pulling herself together and going to explore the rest of the store.

The girl was surprise that more stuff hadn't been taken. As she got closer to the center isle, it became more obvious that she wasn't the only one there.

Of course, she cursed silently at herself. Someone had to be there to turn the lights on.
Not willing to show herself so easily still, she hid behind a shelf, peering around the corner every few seconds to try and get a look at the strangers. Two of them, as far as she saw anyways.

/long intro posts yey.

Mostyn leaned against a shelf holding his side with one hand and holding his flashlight in the other whilst his gun stuck out of his back pocket slightly, although it was hidden under the bottom of his hoodie. It was dark grey, save for the spot his free hand covered, which was stained by his blood to more of a burgundy. When the lights went out, Mostyn was scavenging for batteries and bullets. Before he knew it, he was running, shining his flashlight around him wildly and firing at any nightcrawler he could manage to see, which were few. One had managed to cut his side before he got to the safety of Murky Mart.

Mostyn noticed two voices nearby, getting up and beginning to approach the voices. As he rounded the corner into the isle the voices were coming from, he saw the redhead facing away from him, and the boy facing towards him.

People began to stir, which put Shey on edge. While she didn't want to cause bleeding on her leg again, it was getting harder to control the urge to lunge at the closest person. Part of her knew that this would be a terrible idea, as many people here are armed, and if they survived this long, good at shooting. Resigning herself to stay huddled where she was, Shey started to check her wound, glancing up every now and again to glare at whoever was closest. In this case was a blond haired teen, who hadn't noticed her yet. She'd make him notice her. A small growl like noise rumbled in her throat. Possibly loud enough for him, and a few others near her to hear.

Audrey shrugged, if he didn't want it then fine - it's more for herself anyways. The red-head blinked a smile sticking onto her face, the world turned dark 12 hours ago and yet she acted like she simply didn't care. With a sigh the Red-head closed her eyes and shook her head firmly, "Fine if you don't want any, I'll drink it all. " She spoke with an annoyed tone as she clamped the flask with one hand and sighed in satifaction when the liquid ran smoothly down her itchy dry throat. "Sucks for you, man." Audrey said with a chuckle as her deep brown eyes rolled, gazing off at a diffrent direction. Her brown eyes quickly snapped back to Harvey, a crooked smile on her face "Names Audrey, Audrey Todd." She answered her hand digging into her pocket, noticing that this dude was touching something underneath his shirt. "You can also call me Audball, It's what cool people call me. " Audrey said with a smirk pulling out a small pocket knife from her pockets and dropping it onto the ground, "what can i call you friend?" Audrey asked an eyebrow raising thoughtfully.

The sound of another person approaching made Audrey look around the shelves, her eyes narrowing in suspicion - how many people were in this market and who exactly had turned the lights on anyways? The thought had made her a bit wary of her surroundings but she needed to stay calm - yes she needed to stay calm in a situation like so. Audrey had managed to get a glimpse of what the stranger looked like, you could see the blondeness of his hair for miles. "Hey blondie quit snooping, your suck at it." Audrey said sternly moving strands of her red-hair out of her face and tucking it behind her ear. The sound of a growl had made Audrey more nervous as she had reached for the bow behind her back, but still had not placed it out in the open where everyone could see it. [even though you could see it very well from behind her ;-;] the growl had her very worried, what else was in this market and where?

"Steady... Steady..."

Carefully placing each foot in front of the other, a girl's bright blue eyes were peering to the side of the handheld lantern shining at her. A very plain lantern it was, minuscule in size and a solid black with a small bulb of light dabbed in the center. Yet, the shaking in her arms said otherwise as the palm of her free hand quickly moved to the bottom of the light source to balance it. Strapped around her shoulder was a plain white bag filled with all of her essential possessions.

Twelve hours ago, this world was devoid of the light supplied by the generators. Long before that, sunlight was stripped away from Earth by the toxic clouds of darkness called Ash. And with it came the Nightcrawlers, creatures of the Ash and carnivorous, merciless beasts. This world seemed so hopeless that most of her family had decided to surrender and threw away their lives. But her? Not so much. She still believed in the hope that was scarcely available - there was still a chance for this apocalypse to end.

For a survivor, she wasn't exactly the most attractive, even if most might believe so. Her dark hair was pulled back into a messy side braid wrapped with a crimson red ribbon. A small ornament even hung around with a small chime! from any movement. Her skin color was quite pale, someone would believe she was a hospital patient rather than a worker and her blue eyes, while vibrant, were all the more dull in the bleak area. Any sort of curves she had weren't even much to get the attention of the opposite gender.

Here she was, Violet "Vivi" Waltz, one of the few remaining humans on the surface of Earth. If school was still in session, she'd be a junior getting ready to graduate into her senior year. What a gift it was to suddenly be thrown into a desolate event. Like others, she had thought about simply ending her life. But... The number of people who still wanted to live for a reason, they needed help. What she wanted to do was give this assistance - after all, she could treat a few injuries with the minimal knowledge she obtained from her internship.

Exhaling softly and quietly as she inched towards the entrance of the mart and past it, Vivi thought about how silly she probably looked. The market was a scary place now, looking forever haunted. The sign that used to be so innocent and childish suddenly seemed so evil and cruel... Something about that penguin tells me that it owns a knife... she mused to herself, but her reasons for it were equally as strange. After all, how does the penguin expect to live with all the Nightcrawlers around without a weapon~?

Gripping her hands tighter around the lantern, she tried her hardest to make sure not to resist turning back and running away. She had to keep moving forward, no matter how terrible these survivors might be. Deep down, she was really hoping that people would ignore her, but the likeliness of that was low.

Finally crossing over the first few steps into the mart, Vivi let out a sigh of relief as she set her lantern down on a shelf with her bag, slumping her back onto it to rest for a brief moment. She was planning to ask if anyone needed any help... And most of all, she was disregarding the large scratch on her shoulders, covered by her clothes, but bleaching the black fabric into a bloodier color. It didn't help much when the shelf she was sharing was with someone else, and her feet just so happened to slip right then and there on the leather of her bag, causing her to fall back onto the boy behind her with an oomph!

"Oh, I'm sorry!"

OOC;; Yes, the guy is Mostyn. Gosh darn it Mount. ;-;

"Damn, and I thought I was finally decent at it," Mostyn responded with a smirk. He hadn't meant to snoop, but it didn't matter much."Name's Mostyn."

His smirk lasted all of another second before he heard the growl come from behind the boy ahead of him. Mostyn frowned slightly whilst he stuck his hand into his back pocket, grabbing tightly onto the grip of his pistol. Before he could do much else however, he tumbled forward as something fell onto him. As Mostyn put his arms forward instinctively, he pulled the gun he still held out as he was knocked to the ground. Getting out from under the weight on top of him, Mostyn turned to look at the girl who had just fallen on him. Oh. It was a girl. Probably a clumsy girl.

Whilst getting to his feet with a groan, Mostyn stuck his gun back into his pocket, hoping that the weapon had gone unnoticed. He offered a hand to the girl who now lay on the floor of the store. "You alright?" Mostlyn asked, oblivious to the fact the wound in his side had reopened, fresh blood starting to soak into his hoodie.

"Jesus Christ," Roy mouthed silently as more and more people seemed to be appearing. And with more people, a bigger chance that one of them was a psychopath. Every so often he would peak around the corner to update what was happening. There was now five known people in the mart including himself and whatever the hell had made the growling noise. He had long since abandoned his headphones as they mess with one of his most important senses. The real question was, would he reveal himself or keep hiding. Revealing himself would ease suspicion that he bad intentions, but hiding meant he could escape if things went south. Deciding to take the former, Roy took a deep breath, gathered his belongs and rounded the corner of the aisle. He took a few steps before yelling a bit to loud,"Hello!"

"Harvey," the boy said grimly. He trailed further into the store as he did so, not caring about the bitchy girl or the bitchy newcomers around him. He cared only for what he was looking for, and what he found; a bottle of warm water, partially hidden under a mess of newspapers, the gleam of plastic the only thing that signaled it out. That was why it remained untouched; the light revealed it. Harvey drank the water thirstily, and when this thirst was quenched, he poured some on his face. Only now was he so grateful to be alive. Only now did he care about the people popping up around him. A post-apocalyptic world was not a fun place.

Harvey appeared once more from where he found the water, knife now in hand, returning to where Audrey was. Yes, there were new people all right. He cleared his throat, but didn't say a word. His knife gleamed like plastic.

They heard her, but she received to response. [i]'Fine then. Time for some fun...'[\i] Shey thought with a grim smirk. If no one would see her, she was sure they wouldn't see her coming. Reaching for her knife which was strapped to her thigh, she slowly slid it out. Shey would feel her adrenaline building, the rising thrill of going for a kill.

Fuck the others, she was sure they didn't like this girl and her attitude anyways. Rising to her feet silently, she kept the pressure off her wound, and stared at her next victim. Audrey, as she had said. But after death, one would have no need for a name. She'd just join the bodies of the dead, scattered in the streets like rubble, trash. Well, not before she  got a good meal in first.

With speed rivaling her old gang's namesake, she rushed forward her. Shey blond hair flying like a curtain behind her seemed like a curtain of death. A sign of what Shey thought was to come. Knife in reverse grip (for savage attacks like this) she slid on her knees, pushing her hand with the knife forward before jerking it back, stabbing at the closest body part to herself: Audrey's leg.

Audrey's forehead wrinkled, Mostyn seemed to be a joker maybe mister popular in high school? or maybe he was the charming rebellious jokester, who knows? who cares what he was in the past is gone now. Now everyone was leaving in a world of fear, in a world were you have to be prepared for the unexpected. Right now Audball was leaving in the world of Be killed or be killed, no matter how cruel it sounded she needed to take all risks to survive. "Audrey, but i perfer to be called Audball." She replied, a smile appearing on her pale face. Audrey turned to Harvey - the guy suited the name very well, he seemed to be like a smart kind of guy. Audball slightly blinked, as she watched Harvey vanishing behind the market shelves, Whatever there was plenty of other company here. Now there was this Mostyn guy, and this girl that ran into him it should be a rather intresting talk. Audrey watched the two interact boredly, not saying much but keeping quiet and staying tucked away besides the market shelf.

Audrey's gaze turned back over to Harvey who had wandered back towards them, "Got lonely wandering around the store?" The red-head asked him with a chuckle, oblivious to the knife that he was carrying a pocket knife but the light that reflected off it made her notice it, although she pretended like she didn't notice it and carried on like nothing happened.

A high pitched screech came from Audrey, as she had felt this little blondie attack her. Her eyes quickly snapped towards her watching her movements she quickly outstretched her arms pulling very harshly at her hair, what was with this girl she must be seriously crazy or have anger problems, Like Audrey should talk anyways, she was Bipolar something worse then little anger issues. Audreys teeth grit painfully as she felt the sharp pain of a knife poke harshly though her leg. Anger bubbled inside her - this girl really pushed it this time, Audrey attempted to shove Shey off of her, reaching for one of her arrows on the ground crying out in pain from the stab wound on her leg.

They hadn't noticed her. Of course they hadn't, with everyone making so much racket. She'd kept to herself, sitting in the shadows of the center aisle, spooning Fancy Feast cat food into her mouth with an almost rabid ferocity. Over the course of the last twelve hours she'd scouted most of the store, avoiding the other survivors when she could. There was actual human food all around them, she discovered, but when you got so used to eating cat food, it was the only thing that could really comfort her right now.

With so few people left, there would be an abundance of supplies... but she'd have to share it with all these idiots. Gangsters, loners, psychopaths. And now they were fighting.

Seren told herself to stay out of it. Just stay quiet like she always did, let them kill each other, and keep eating her cat food in peace. But instead she found herself standing up, drawing her handgun out of her pocket, and rushing forward, silent as a shadow. She yanked the Coyote roughly by her blonde hair, trying to pull her onto the floor and off the struggling redhead, with her gun held to the back of her head.

Her face was a blank mask, and her voice was hardly louder than a whisper.

"Not food."

Of all the things to happen, it was the screaming that suddenly woke Allen up from his slumber underneath a few towels he had found in the back of the store. It jerked him awake, forcing him to sit up far too quickly in his weakened state from the wounds he had received earlier that night. As soon as he sat upright, his head quickly began to spin from the sudden motion that he wasn't used to. Quickly holding his head into his hands, he used those few moments of recollection to look at the damage that had been done to himself before he made it to the mart. Well, he definitely needed a new shirt. His forest/lime-ish green colored shirt had been reduced to rags while his dark jeans were crusty with blood from scratches and gashes he had received from nightcrawlers. He was so thankful to have had that flashlight, otherwise he would not have survived with one foot out of the door.

When he finally could see straight, he stood up, trying to ignore the pain that shot through his body from the wounds, but they still managed to get a few groans and grumbles from him before he picked up the machete that was fortunately still laying on the ground by his side. Making his way over to the uproar as quickly as he could, he stopped when he saw the two girls fighting. Good Lord, it wasn't even day one and they were already trying to kill each other. He wanted to do something, but he had no idea how to break up a cat fight. "Hey!" He shouted loudly but a little uncertainly. "Break it up, you two! Break it up!"

Without hesitation, she took Mostyn's hand. It was a warm clasp around and it was a bit comforting. But she just gave a small smile and a nervous laugh as a response since she was glancing over at the boy's side, noticing the amount of blood spilling out from a possibly reopened wound. Even if it wasn't her fault, her words were fumbling as she stood up and pointing at the injury nonchalantly, "Oh, are you hurt? I'm so sorry!" Vivi didn't even know whether it was her own fault, but quickly assumed it was. Her hands were swiftly found in her bag, taking out large wrap of ivory white bandages. She didn't even wait for his permission to do anything, of course. Over this entire time, she had figured out that it was useless to wait for someone's approval, especially when they would deny any help. Unfazed, the girl had unzipped the boy's jacket and lifted up the shirt underneath slightly to at least help with stopping the blood from spilling out further.

The next few events happened so quickly. The other girl, Audrey, was it? The redhead was stabbed, and it hasn't even been a day... Why were people trying to kill each other already? One moment, her hand was still binding the bandage around Mostyn. The following second, it was holding onto her handgun firmly.

The sound projecting from her mouth was firm and strong without wavering.

"Please don't fight!"

Whatever this was... It wasn't going to end well.

Mostyn looked at the girl awkwardly as he quickly began to bandage the reopened wound on his side that he himself had failed to notice. What he did notice, however, was what was occurring nearby.

In such a short span of time, a girl he had failed to see previously stabbed one of the other girls, Audrey. Just as quickly as the attack occurred, people were acting to try and stop what could go from an assault to a murder. Mostyn was quick to take his pistol back out, flicking off the safety and aiming it at the ex-Coyote. Even though he didn't want to, he'd pull the trigger if he had to. "Stop her!"

Harvey rushed forward as the crazy girl began to stab Audrey. As a newcomer he had never seen, yet didn't have time to question, grabbed the Coyote, Harvey grabbed Audrey by the arm and short of dragged her back away from the psycho. "I am a doctor." he said quietly to Audrey. As the commotion grew louder, however, he yelled it, "I am a doctor! Shut up! Tie that bitch up somewhere!" The last sentence was barked at the cat food enthusiast that grabbed Shey by the hair. Harvey got a little commanding when the injured came into play. He didn't like commotion.

"You, put the gun down. We aren't shooting anybody!" he almost growled at Mostyn, pulling a smuggled bandage from his jacket pocket and ripping it with his teeth.

As the commotion happened in the front of the store, a girl sat in the back of the store, cradling herself with her back pressed against the wall. On her knees was a picture, a black and white picture of a frowning old man. "Oh Weston." she cooed silently. "I miss you already, darling." The girl had a knife, a jagged-edged Huntsman knife, and she picked it up from the ground beside her. Running it along her finger tip, she drew blood, little drops of vermilion that cascaded down her skin. She carefully traced the cut finger along Weston's face, along his mouth and into the form of a smile. "Ssh, baby. You don't have to be sad. We're always together." she whispered.

It was the clamoring from across the store that spooked her. She gasped lightly, clutching the photo to her chest, before folding it up and putting it in her bag along with some other questionable materials. She had plenty of time to wrangle what she needed from her previous home. The girl shakily stood and began to walk to the commotion, the panicked voices drawing closer and closer. The group grew in her head with each second, with each new voice that entered the scene. There were too many for her to kill, especially there. She frowned, and settled behind an adjacent shelf, face pressed to the opposite side of where the Coyote was sitting, looking between the cracks of some cereal boxes on the shelf.

Lillian's eyes narrowed ever-so slightly as more people rushed into the clearing. First there was three that she could see, then four, and now six maybe ... ? And - for Christ's sake - there was a Coyote among them? The young woman had never seen on herself, but she'd heard stories, plenty of stories from the men who shared her bed; the ones who were lucky enough to get away. They ran like animals and ate the flesh of their prey raw. The moment the blonde Coyote had pulled her knife out, Lily had gripped her own instinctively, ducking away from sight behind the shelves; ignoring the screams and shouts that followed.

She had thought this place was safe, but maybe it was stupid to think anywhere was safe anymore. Fuck it all, Lily thought, trying to ignore the sharp fear stabbing at her heart as she shuffled backwards, not looking where she was going but unable to turn away from the sound. "What do I do... What do I do...?" Her knuckles turned white from the grip on her small weapon. She backed away faster and started to turn around - ...

"How about start with watching where you are going." A voice behind Lillian growled. Through all of the commotion, no one had seemed to notice a tall, thin girl slip inside. It had been her intentions to find shelter and get out of the streets, she didn't know how much longer she could handle the sweet smell of decaying flesh. But after witnessing someone slash someones stomach open, she realized no one was guarding the back... and Tara was hungry.

After looking down at the girl who had bumped into her and sizing her up, Tara held a single finger up to her lips as if to gesture for the girl to be silent. She then turned and began to rummage through the shelves.

Roy stood dumbstruck a few yards away from everyone in plain view. He was one part scared that they were stuck with a coyote, a savage that would kill them all given the chance,one part angry that Mr. Goodwill over here had decided not to kill the coyote. Couldn't he see the danger? It also raised his mind to another question, stay or run? As far as he knew, this was the only safe place left, but how safe? Roy sighed, he would have to stay, nightcrawlers were worse than humans afterall. Deciding not to get involved with this stuff, Roy sat down a few yards away from the group in plain sight and took out his CD player. He relaxed as music started playing in his ears. Music was never deadly at least, it was only good. However, relaxed as he may be, Roy put a kunai into his hand.

As sudden as she moved to attack the red head, another person yanked on her hair, causing a cry of shock. As much as she was expecting people to react to her attack, but not yank at her hair. Unwilling to fight the sharp pain, Shey let herself be pulled back. However, not before cussing out the girl whom held her hair in a painful manner. It was only when the boy from before, whom had woken her up from her slumber had said not to shoot her, did Shey pause. Her rational side, or rather non Coyote self questioned his thought process. 'I'm a liability... why not shoot me? Are you an idiot?' Shey wanted to laugh, though the situation didn't allow it. In this world, you can't play the kind card, it'd get you killed.


The mute girl sat far away from the action, however she had a perfect view of it. A coyote? Here? Why did she attack that girl? What were they going to do? These questions flowed like a river, questions which were most likely never going to be asked. Biting her lip, Nicole glanced down at her mask. Would she get the same kind of treatment because she was part of a murderous group as well? The thought scared her. Usually, she was far away from the battle, but Nikki wasn't in her zone. She was too close, and at any moment one of these psychopaths could spot her. Shivering in slight fear, Nicole gripped her trusty rifle and hesitantly watched the more extroverted group in front of her.

The girl had paused long enough to allow Seren to let go of her hair and wrap her arm around the Coyote's neck. She leaned in close, pressing her gun to her temple. "No knife," she whispered, taking them both a step backwards away from the others. Even in a position like this, someone as unpredictable and ferocious as a Coyote were dangerous. Just being this close to one was insane.

Her vacant stare traveled to the boy with the bandaged side, the one who'd pulled his gun out. Mostyn, was it? She'd been doing her best to tune out all their conversations, but she couldn't have helped but overhear some of their names. "Help," was all she told him. "Back rooms." Seren kept her finger on the trigger. One sign of hostile movement, and she'd blow this girl's brains out all across the floor. The doctor might be the peaceful sort, but Seren had lived through too much to let herself get killed trying to herd around a Coyote.