HalfLife2.net Zombie Con - Chapter 1.5 "A Dark Night for All."

[Sloth]

Welcome to 1.5 -> All of those that have applied and see this post can play basicallly.

This is my intro, Smoke is following on with his POV - taking me around and explaining things that have happened. The groups this time round will be chosen more on what you're doing, where you have chosen to go. Enjoy and good luck.


My eyes fluttered open to a dimly lit room. Somewhere in the back of my head I could feel a dull throbbing. Where the hell am I? Lying on a mattress in what looked to be a Hotel? Hotel! The Halflife2.net Convention! I must have had too much to drink and passed out half way to my Hotel Room. But why is everyone moving around so quickly, why are Darkside and Mikeal looking at a map. And why in gods name is Evo holding a hammer, more to the point why does Ennui have a massive piece of plyboard?

The reaction in my brain was most likely described as; 'OHSHI-.?'

Zombies, the memories came flooding back. The elevator, the basement and the security guard who had hung himself. He had been wiggling, moving and growling at us. The world has gone down the shitter.
Around me, many of what I assumed to be 'netters' were franticly busy. They moved with tools in hand and a sense of urgency. Carrying what looked to be a box of nails, Hetic Glenn stopped.
"Oi! Stefan's awake." He began to walk over to me, by then I had began to sit up in my bed. "Good to have you back mate" Glenn turned to a figure unscrewing a board from the wall.
"Smoke can you look after him, I've got to get this finished." The Englishman smiled before rushing off.

The figure, whom I now knew was Smoke, put the screwdriver down and walked over to my bed.
"Had a nice sleep you slacker?" He laughed as he stared down at me. "Better show you around, give you the tour - and an update."


Smoke's 2nd part of the intro should be up later - just wanted this here during my unblocked window. {been blocked for exams.}

[Smoke]

Helping Sloth to his feet, Smoke reached out to steady him as he swayed, an after effect of the injuries he had sustained

"You took a nasty bump on the head, not sure what happened, but we got you in here quick as we could." Smoke said.

He directed Sloth toward the windows, boarded up with plywood and bits of chairs. Outside the windows light was no longer visible.

"Wait..wh-.. what time is it man?" Sloth asked hazily.

"Nine thirty, more or less." A voice to the side remarked.

Sloth glanced to his left to see Darkside poring over a map, presumably of the Corinthian.

"We managed to seal most of the entrances when it started, but some of them got in, people died." Darkside said, as much to himself than for the benefit of those around him.

Sloth took a good look around him for the first time since waking up.
The room was dark, the emergency lights having faded away while he was sleeping. Light came from a number of parafin lamps and candles dotted around the room. In the artificial light he made out several shapes. Figures scurrying through the darkness carrying tools, equipement and plenty of wood.

"We best get you busy then, I think everyone is gathering in the main lobby for a discussion as to what we do now." Said Smoke.

"In any case, lets head down there now." He continued.

Sloth looked around for a moment, then grabbed a small wax candle and plunged into the corridoor of the 2nd floor of Hotel Corinthian.

The night has just begun.


GM Note - Post, then I'll work off it. I'm leaving it up to you to decide what you want to be doing at this point. Barricading, shouting curses at the zombies outside, talking about preperations, that sort of stuff. Whatever.

[Darkside55]

I have a room, he remembered. I have a room I can go up to right now and sleep in.

But more people would probably die.

He looked haggard. Creases were already forming under his lower eyelids. His black hair was damp from sweat, matted to his forehead. His clothes were wrinkled and covered in blood; some from people, some from zombies, none from him, thankfully. He'd almost gone into a fit when he got zombie blood on him; had he not been restrained and dragged away from the front line he might've committed sacrificial suicide. Turns out, one can only turn into a zombie through a direct bite or intravenous contact with the blood; something carried through the saliva, presumably. The experience had rattled him to the core. He busied himself to avoid thinking about it. He'd rather sleep, though. Sleep sounded real good.

But his eyes remained sharp; the brown orbs kept their focus, scanning the map as he pointed out sectors and drew lines on the white sheet of graph paper. As he worked, he relayed plans to 'Grizz,' as he called him. He seemed to enjoy barking orders to others, and Darkside was happy to provide a steady stream of them. There was a lot of work to be done to secure the hotel. To make sure another incident like the one in the secondary lobby didn't occur again.

"I've quartered off these floors into sections," he informed Mikael, pointing to areas of the map blocked in black sharpie. "These," he continued, pointing to areas with checkmarks, "are secure. The rest of them need to be barricaded. Same deal as the rest of these areas; windows boarded, all outward-facing doors not marked with a circle, board 'em up. I think you can take it from here." He gave the man a light smile, then headed for the corridor, intercepting Smoke and Sloth.

The second floor held a few conference rooms; another, smaller administration area; an "Employees Only" breakroom stocked with a couple snacks, a water cooler, and a microwave; and two sets of public restrooms. The floor opened out into a balcony overlooking the main lobby, connected mainly through escalators, but with stair and elevator access. Thanks to the power outage, the elevators were out, and the escalators had become stairs themselves.

"Did you get him up to speed?" Darkside asked Smoke, hurrying up to his side.

"I gave him the basics."

Darkside nodded. "Not much you need to know, more than what's already been said. We managed to corral the panic-stricken mob of con-goers and employees down into halls A and B. Most of the fighting took place around Exhibit Hall C...we couldn't have forced people to stay in there if we tried."

They stepped onto the black, serrated stairs, descending single-file. "Almost halfway through it all, some of your boys came dragging you up from the basement. Saw the action, stuffed you in the stairwell, and rushed in.

Never heard a powerdrill sound better than earlier today," he laughed. "After everything, Grizz's giving me the rundown, and I'm filling them in on what happened up here, complaining about how--before the zombies came in--we were looking for a security station and only found a cramped fileroom. Then Piggy pipes up, 'We've seen a security station, in the basement!' Took a few guys with me, got control of the radios, and that's how we rounded people up." He smiled again. "That, and a few envoys up to the roof.

Finally found a map of the damn place, and it was in the place I was looking for a map for." They stepped off the escalator and turned toward the joined halls.

"And now, we're deliberating on what to do next." Sloth, who'd been quiet through the recap, simply nodded.

Personally, Darkside thought, the next thing I'd like to do is head back to the fourth floor.

[Azner]

OOC: Where the f*ck is jintor.

[riomhaire]

I look around. Where am I? Some sort of abstract, geometric room. The walls, floor, furniture, all tan...or are they light blue? They seem to shift everytime I change focus. Whatever it is looking at it makes my eyes hurt when I stare at it for too long. There're people sitting at the tables. Strange faces; indistinct or totally abstract. They're all talking, all of them. So many voices it's impossible to make them out. My attention is drawn to one desk. Out on it's own like a lone island nest to a vast continent of tables. It is almost barren but it calls to me. What is it?

The lights go out. Total darkness. Nothingness. I franticlly reach out for something. Anything to hold. I need to know that I'm still here. I need to interact with something. Where am I? What is happening? The lights come back on. Chaos everywhere. People screaming. Fighting. Dying. Where am I? Something grabs me. What is it? I turn to face it. Zombie.

I wake up. I'm in a hotel room. Where is everyone? Where is Jintor?

[Azner]

Looooooooooooooooooooool

[riomhaire]

OOC: Azner, isn't I thought that the point is that we've already gotten a room for the night and there has been a time interval between now and when the last thread died. This is all very confusing. I seem to always be the last to understand what's going on in this goddamn convetnion :p. Anyawy, I'll play off of what Smoke said.

As riomhaire wakes up we tries to take in his surroundings. He spots a familiar face, Anzer.
"Oh. Hey buddy, rested? Maybe we can be a bit more useful now. I think the rest of 'em are meeting in the main lobby. I heard something about it before I drifted off. I couldn't help it. I'm still jetlagged. Why couldn't they have this in London? Back to the matter at hand: Let's all go to the lobby!"

[Sloth]

GM Note: Rimfires - you're on the right track, some time has passed and the Hotel is in a bit better shape, I'll PM all the players now - get just to remind them.

Edity: Gmnote: This is a way of restarting it that didn't mean a shitload of work for the GMs - you will be deciding on the groups you are in by what you plan to do - ie all the people sleeping would be one GM controlled group. But for the moment all is needed is for you guys to throw arough ideas of what to do next, the Hotel is secure {for the most part} what would you do now?

[The Monkey]

OOC: I'll be posting tomorrow evening.

[dekstar]

Shit!
Dekstar wakes up with a jolt from his chair. His back hurt, his neck ached, and his nerves were frayed. He got up and pottered over to Darkside who was busy talking to Mikael. Taking a glance over Darkside's shoulder he checked the map. Darkside got up and walked off, giving a quick smile to Mikael and ignoring Dekstar completely.
"Anything I can do?" Dekstar asked helpfully...

[TollBooth Willie]

OOC: I'll post as soon as I get my shit together.

[Acepilotf14]

OOC: How should I start?

[Dog--]

OOC (I don't know what that means, still): Same question as Ace, but also - could I have a very short summary of what happened that was important, and where we're supposed to be at?

[Acepilotf14]

OOC: OOC means Out of Character. The C can mean other things, though.. context.. different people will say different things.

[Sloth]

GMNotey: You've just finished what you're doing and are going to meet up with the others to discuss the plans from here on in. Some guys are waking up after a nap, other might have been finishing off a section of 'cade etc... Think about it.

[Azner]

Azner looks at the jolting Riomhaire. "Hey buddy.." Riomhaire mentions and continues about how they should get down to the lobby. "Im with ya, just leme get somethings together." Azner replies as he packs a few candy bars into his pocket and tail behind Riomhaire

[Jintor]

It had been a mere few hours since the Outbreak, which was what the man (well, child, really, compared to the rest of the current inhabitants of the Hotel Corinthian) known to most of the people here as Jintor had mentally named whatever the **** it was that had happened yesterday. Zombies. Zombies, zombies, zombies.

By rights he should be on a plane, heading home today after the end of the first official HalfLife2.net Con. By rights he should be at home, studying for his Higher School Certificate that would be occuring around this time, next year. By rights he should be at home, playing Team Fortress 2, drinking coke, trying to work up the nerve to talk to girls. One girl in particular...

Instead he was here, with maybe a hundred or more other men (and a few women), barricaded inside a modest hotel for fear of the killer corpses wandering the streets outside. Here, on the second floor, weaponless and equipment-less but for a single radio, Jintor was the watchdog for the night.

He sighed, and sipped his coke.

Looking out the window he could still see much of New Little Odessa, often by the light of flames. Sparodic gunfire and screams sounded in the distance, sirens wailed somewhere to what he assumed was the east. At least there weren't any zombies inside the Hotel anymore, he mused; Darkseid and his team had made a complete sweep of the hotel. Thank whatever gods were watching for his organisational skills and complete zombie paranoia.

The Corinthian was safe, a complete and total blue-zone (Ha-ah!) barricaded off from whatever the hell the outside world had become in the last twenty-four hours. Right now, if what Darkseid and Smoke had decided was pulling off, many members except for the essential few on guard duty at windows or higher up would be gathering in the main lobby to discuss what would happen next. Supplies? Food? Ammunition? Other survivors?

If Jintor knew his fellow forumites, (and he had the disturbing feeling he didn't really know them at all), they would argue at cross-purposes. The younger ones and the idiots would be gung-ho. The people in their late 20s and 30s - the forum elders, so to speak - would probably have more experience of life and therefore be less likely to want to risk theirs in any form, and would probably advocate holding the fort until relief arrived. Or maybe not. This was Halflife2.net after all. Zombie invasion threads had popped up as a matter of routine, but until now, nobody had ever bothered to take them seriously... [1]

He hoped something important would happen. With over a hundred mouths to feed, Jintor knew that they would definately have to forage the stores, the markets for supplies. And that would probably mean a party to go outside and get stuff. And that would mean more fighting, more risk of infections. That would mean more death. More zombies. More horror.

And then what was the extent of this Outbreak? Was it just city-wide? Was it country wide? Was it, gods help them, world-wide? He thought of his family, back in Sydney, hopefully safe... but they thought he was just at some important game developer's conference in America, not in a zombie-infested hellhole...

Jintor sighed, and took another sip of his coke.



[1] Well, except for Darkseid.

[TollBooth Willie]

Jintor's Cakemuffins

Willie paces nervously, thinking everything that has just transpired. He wonders what he did to end up here, stuck in a conrete Hell surrounded by lurching meatbags. "So, what's the plan then?" he ask Jintor, sipping his coke.

[Jintor]

Jintor turned, surprise evident on his face. "Willie?" he said, then grunted as his normal expression reasserted itself and he turned to face the windows again.

"Get down to the main lobby. We're being democratic, and talking about what's happening next. And get your hands off my coke!"

[Atomic_Piggy]

David hadn't been sleeping, rather staying awake of cokes and snack bars. This was immpossible. No, it was no impossible, improbable.
He rose out of bed groggily, and drank down the remainder of his coke. A look of horror crossed his face as he realised there was no-one else in the hall but him.
Where was everyone?

[TollBooth Willie]

The Scrubs Janitor

Willie fiddles with his hair for a moment, noticing how it's grown a little too much for his tastes.

"Alight, alright I'm going. I want to see your Aussie ass down here soon." he says to Jintor. Willie heads downwards to the main lobby.

[Krynn72]

The commotion of other people stirring from their sleep woke Krynn. With an annoyed groan he turns over on his side and tries to continue sleeping. Then he is hit with the pains of a splitting headache. The pain is so startlingly intense that he jolts upright and presses his hands against his forehead. "gaaaah, mother****er!" he exclaims.

After a moment he gathers his composure and looks around the room quizzically. He can see that several other people had started waking up, while others remained asleep.

Where the hell am I? I dont recognize any of these people. Then he begins to remember the events that brought him here. Hes at the hl2.net convention... but thats not the important thing. No. What was important was what he saw in his taxi ride to the convention center. The cabbie had the radio tuned to a news station, and they were reporting several violent riots breaking out all over the city. The sound clips that they played were horrifying cacophonies of people screaming in fright, yelling, crashing and other fleshy sounds that krynn never wanted to hear again. As they continued on their way to the hotel, they bore witness first hand to these "riots." As they drove past a restaurant, Krynn watched as the patrons inside scrambled and fled out the door while a man inside was gnawing on flesh of someone else.

The cabbie was flooring it by this point, dodging fleeing pedestrians, overturned vehicles and debris from car crashes. "The **** is going on?" the cabbie screams as he sees someone get tackled by a person who can only be described as "rabid." Krynn knew what was going on, but couldnt bring himself to actually say it. A zombie outbreak? Even after seeing it first hand, he still had trouble believing it.

When they finally had made it to the hotel Krynn got out, and began to walk dazedly to the hotel, forgetting all his baggage in the cab as the cabbie sped off. The hotel looked calm enough, and as he entered through the main doors, he could see that the hl2.net convention was gearing up. Someone offered a greeting and some kind of pin with a word written on it as he walked by, but krynn ignored them, stuffed the pin in his pocket, and instead headed directly to the room that said "Dive Bar" above the door. Krynn never drank, but after seeing what he had in the cab ride, the only thing he could think of doing was getting plastered.

From there his memory was iffy. He tried remembering how he had gotten to this room. ZOMBIES! He was attacked by zombies while in the dive bar!

No, not zombies. He remembered them saying as much. Who were they then.

From the other end of the room he heard someone say, "Why couldn't they have this in London? Back to the matter at hand: Let's all go to the lobby!" Krynn looked up at the person, and remembered him. More specifically he remembered his fist slamming into the man's stomach. He squinted to read the nametag that was still on his shirt. "Riomhaire"

"Riomhaire" Krynn tried saying, but it what came out was just some garbled noise. He cleared his throat and tried again "Riomhaire!" The man looked over at hearing his name. Krynn struggled to his feet, feeling the unfamiliar effects of a hangover. "Sorry for attacking you" he said in apology. Riomhaire obviously recognized him, but it was clear it was only as "the drunk guy who punched me." Then krynn remembered the pin in his pocket. He pulled it out, and saw that it was a name tag, the word on it was "Krynn." He fastened it to his shirt, and looked back to riomhaire.

[Mikael Grizzly]

Mike was feeling fresh, unlike most other survivours, as he managed to get a few hours' worth of sleep hiding in an obscure cupboard in the hotel. In hindsight, it was not that bright of an idea, but manageable. He unscrewed the last few bolts and the tabletop came off the metal legs.

"Here, it goes on this window..."

He attached the top to the window with help from a fellow .netter. Soon, most of the windows were covered and he was confident he could let the others finish by themselves. One thought kept pestering him, so he found Sloth and Darkside.

"Hey guys, there's one thing that worries me - drinking water. As long as the plumbing and water plants work, we can get tap water, but once they go out... I think we should start amassing water ASAP."

[Darkside55]

Darkside remembered a quip one of his favorite professors had made about public speaking. "I asked why they wanted me to speak, of all people, and they told me it was because I was 'dignified.' I guess that's a nice way of saying 'old.'" They're going to want me to speak, he knew, but not because I'm dignified. It's because I'm crazy.

It was packed inside the exhibit halls. A thin wall lined with rows of double-doors marked the partition between the halls; all the doors were open to give the impression of one giant room. Furniture had once filled these rooms; circular couches and tables and chairs. Anything that hadn't been confiscated for use as part of a barricade was now pushed up against the outer edges of Exhibit Hall A. Even with all the space, the host of people was staggering; it was certainly nowhere near the biggest convention Darkside had ever been too (there were roughly 800 people in attendence, [not including hotel staff] and he had seen congregations well into the ten thousands), but without anything to space them out, the scene looked like a sea of people.

The sense of tension and expectancy that hovered over the crowd was palpable. Everyone was gathering en masse at hall B, standing before the stage set flush against the southern wall, which had previously been used for showcasing large video demos of upcoming Source games. It struck Darkside that everyone was waiting for someone to start, but nobody had taken any initiative. There were people up on stage, he could see, but no one had said anything yet.

"Let's try and get closer," he said to Smoke and Sloth, and the trio formed a sort-of human wedge, allowing them to push through the crowd to the front. Even at this distance he couldn't tell who was up on stage, partly due to the poor lighting and also owing to the fact that he had not yet met everybody he knew from the forums.

I'm going to have to speak, he thought, because I'm the only idiot here crazy enough to have taken the thought of a zombie outbreak seriously.

"Well, we'd better get up there." He shot a grin at Smoke and Sloth and headed for the stage.

[Atomic_Piggy]

Piglet can hear talking outside of the small hall he was in "Well, we'd better get up there" yelled a voice. He walked over, and as he was turning the handle, it fell off. He stared at the broken handle for a brienf second, dumbfounded, before his primitive side kicked in and he began banging on the door.

[Bob_Marley]

Bob was slumped in a corner of the hall, catching a a bit of kip before he moved onto his next task, whatever that may be. after he'd helped barricade the hotel up he'd decided to get some rest before he got roped into something else.

He ran through the situation in his head once again. Zombies. He'd known this day would come for a long time, but he hadn't thought it'd be like this. At the moment it didn't look good. The hotel was defensable, but supplies would probubly be short, let alone weapons and other useful equipment. And they were in a city. There was no communication with the outside world it seemed, so the whole place could be crawling with zeds or there could be a military clean up team moving in wiping out the last pockets of 'em just a few hundred yards down the road and they'd be none the wiser.

He realised that he knew next to nothing about this country as a whole. All his planning had more or less been based on being in England, where population density and low weapon proliferation had made him believe that he'd probubly last a matter of hours, maybe a couple of days before the zeds go him. This was different though. Now there might be a chance. And this might be an isolated incident.

He pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind. That was all hypothetical. There were more pressing concerns.

There seemed to be a great deal more activity in the hall now, he stood up, slowly, shaking off the blearyness of sleep. He noted Mikael and Sloth heading toward the stage with a couple of chaps he didn't recognise. And a banging at the door. he decided to check it out.

Walking over, he noticed that someone was hitting it with quite a bit of force, and that the handle looked a bit loose. Noting the timing, he pushed the door open and narrowly avoided getting punched in the face by piggy.

"Calm it down mate!" he blurted out.

[riomhaire]

"Riomhaire" Krynn tried saying, but it what came out was just some garbled noise. He cleared his throat and tried again "Riomhaire!" The man looked over at hearing his name. Krynn struggled to his feet, feeling the unfamiliar effects of a hangover. "Sorry for attacking you" he said in apology. Riomhaire obviously recognized him, but it was clear it was only as "the drunk guy who punched me." Then krynn remembered the pin in his pocket. He pulled it out, and saw that it was a name tag, the word on it was "Krynn." He fastened it to his shirt, and looked back to riomhaire.
Riomhaire hearing his name turns around to look into a familar face. If it was anyone else they probably just tbe thinking of him as "the drunk guy who punched me", but this man had done something no other forumite could, he had pronounced riomhaire correctly. Amazed, riomhaire doesn't say anything. The man reachers into a pocket and pulls out a nametag "Krynn".

"Hey, you're the guy with the Christmass dog avatar, aren't you? When's the last time you changed that thing?" he says, smiling. All is forgiven and they move on to the lobby together, with Azner.

As they reach the main lobby everyone is already talking so riomhaire just announces to the room in general
"I'm up for anything that needs to be done. Supply gathering, searching, zombie hunting, more barricading, whatever. Just as long as it isn't suicidal. Also, having so many people packed in one space when there are possibly zombies in the building doesn't seem like the safest thing". On realising the truth of his own words, he begins to come aware of all the exits and where the staircases are and possitions himself for a good view of as many as possible.

[Azner]

Azner looks around, trying to spot at least someone he met on the first day besides Krynn and Riomhaire. "WILLLIE? BITCH WHERE ARE YOU?" He shouts as he trys to find Willie while keeping close to Riomhaire and Krynn. "Hey Krynn So how'd you get here? Any idea whats going on out there?" he asks.

[Ennui]

Barricades, barricades, barricades. Once they had swept the ground floor and ensured that there were no rogue zombies inside the hotel, Ennui had spent the next several hours finding heavy things and moving them about. They were pretty much finished, or at least for the moment acceptable, and other people were beginning to wake up and mill about.

This situation needs to be handled by the right people, Ennui thought, his mild paranoia warranted given the drastic nature of the situation. I have to make sure that happens. He was all too aware of what that might entail, with the loaded pistol tucked into his waistband.

People were heading into the big ballroom. Ennui followed them, making his way towards the stage at the front. There was no time to **** around.

[Smoke]

Gm note - It helps if things you do make sense when put beside wht other people are doing. I mean, if one person is screaming at you for help, the last thing you do is pull out a bar of chocolate and chow down. Just an example, not a big issuse but I want to get it out there.

Also, Atomic_Piggy, why did that handle fall off? You can't control that, remember. We have no intention of putting you in a cage in regards to what you can or cannot do, but deciding the handle should fall of is a world event, something you cannot do. I should stick a zombie in there to teach you lesson! ;)

Also, where the hell are you?

Post to come.

[Evo]

Evo turns around wondering wtf has been happening and why he still has a hammer in his hand!

He notices activity going on but decides to wander around to where nobody else is and slumps in a corner.

[CyberPitz]

Pitz snapped out of his trance. "Where am I?" he muttered to himself. He had forgotten everything that had been happening recently. Maybe due to the shock, or the lack of sleep, or possibly the intense pain growing in his leg. Either way, he stood there for a second, thinking. Everything came back to him in a flash, and he began gasping for air, as if he had been holding his breath.

Looking around, Pitz realizes that everybody is running around, doing something. He felt left out, and unimportant...and quite frankly, disposable! He notices Evo wondering around with a hammer in his hand. So Pitz walks over, "Hey Evo...what are you doing? I'm feeling kind of useless, mind if I help you out with whatever you're doing?"

[Krynn72]

Riomhaire, Azner and Krynn stepped into the lobby outside the exhibit hall. The commotion coming through the doors made it difficult to hear anyone say anything. Riomhaire explains his intentions to the nearest few people, but Krynn notices that not many of them are likely to take any sort of initiative. Azner shouts out for willie, but the sound couldnt have traveled far with all the noise coming from the exhibit hall.

The throbbing from his headache had started to quell, and he was able to think clearly enough to answer Azner's question.

"I came by cab from the airport. My flight was a bit late, so i didnt arrive until after most people had already gotten here. I guess some time after most of you all got here, all hell broke loose out in the city. As me and the cabbie were driving here, we saw all sorts of crazy shit. At first, I just though it was a riot, like the news reports said... but then I saw someone getting chewed on by this nasty looking mother****er." Ive played enough games and watched enough movies to know what he was. When I left the airport, it was calm enough, so I guess the infection or whatever it is wasnt very widespread at that point." Krynn looks out the window, and sees that its dark already. "But I have no idea how much its spread since then."

Krynn notices a bunch of people now listening in on his story, many of them looking more worried now than before. He shut up, thinking he was doing more harm than good by telling his story. Suddenly he heard the clamor in the exhibit hall become significantly quieter. "I think someone's about to make a speech" Krynn says to Riomhaire and Azner. He enters the exhibit hall, and starts pushing his way through the mass of people towards the platform where someone is standing, awaiting everyone's attention.

OOC: GMs, is it ok for me to make up this background story? I know its more of a world event, but I figured it wouldnt really factor directly into our situation. If im making too much stuff up, let me know.

[Smoke]

OOC: That's fine, so long as it doesn't conflict with what he have in mind, I see no harm in it.

[Evo]

Evo turns around to look at Pitzy and says "Hey man, I ain't doing much, just checking out this place some more. How you feeling now?"

[The Monkey]

OCC: I believe we said there were 721 members on the convention, as well as hundreds of other guests.

The Monkey was in the food storage. Not because he wanted to eat, no, he couldn't eat, not even if he wished to. All the food was gone. He was here to see, to observe, in horror but also with a kind of strange fascination. This is where they had stored the bodies of the zombies that had broken into the hotel. They had locked up the bodies here because it was the only place in the hotel where it was cold enough to prevent the bodies from rotting to quickly. They were lined up, looking almost like dolls. The Monkey had never seen a dead person before, and the first such experience couldn't have happened in a more unappealing circumstance.

They were nothing like the zombies in the games. They were just...dead. They would've looked just like ordinary dead people if it weren't for the blood around their mouths. In fact they looked just like they did while they were "alive". And yet... there was something strange about these, something malicious that was apparent even when the bodies just lied there.

He had come down here often during the last couple of days. Some of the .netters with some education in medicine has performed autopsies on some of the zombies, but they hadn't found anything interesting. The Monkey had no education in those matters; he didn't know what to look for.

He liked it here. This was the only place in the world right now where he felt like he knew what was going on. Death. The bodies before him proved that not everything has gone mad in the last couple of days. People still died. That was a comfort.

[Beerdude26]

INSERTION OF BEERDUDE26

"TAXI!", Beerend yelled. A cab quickly stopped.

"Where to, mate?"
"Hotel Corinthian."

The cab veered off, narrowly avoiding a pedestrian that suddenly ran across the street. Beerend looked at the man.

"He's in a hurry..."

While the cab was driving, Beerend thought about the HL2.net meet-up. It had even been in the local news in Belgium, seeing as it's not every day almost an entire internet community gets together. Suddenly, the car stopped.

"What's the matter?"
"Traffic congestion, man. We'll be here for some time."

Beerend took out his cellphone and checked the hour. He only had 45 minutes left before the big ceremony started!

"Right, here's the fare and a 5 dollar tip. I have to go. What's the nearest metro station?"

"Just down that street and to your right. You'll see it."
"Thanks."

Beerend got out of the car. Instantly the buzzing noise of car horns squaling away deafened him. He went down the street and went right. Indeed, a metro station was about 30 metres ahead of him.

While buying a ticket he noticed something odd; there wasn't that many people around. "Normally the metro is filled to the brim at this time. Oh well." He went down and waited for a train. After about 5 minutes one arrived. He got on. Suddenly, he heard a man shouting "HELP!" behind him. "HOLD THE DOORS! PLEASE!"

Frantically, Beerend looked for a way to block the doors, but to no avail; the doors started closing. "Too bad for him, he'll just have to wait for th... Oh. My. God."

Out of nowhere, seven crazed people jumped onto the man, tearing his clothes apart and, it seemed, even more...

"Holy shit. Poor guy. What were those people doing to him? Holy ****."

Beerend let the incident go and proceeded to look on the map. He was three stops away from the Corinthian Hotel. He arrived at the first stop. Absolute silence. Not even an announcer voice. Same with the second stop.

There were people waiting at the third stop. Beerend exited the train and saw others enter. A few people were bleeding and crying. Beerend stood still, wondering what could have happened. As the train departed, he heard a loud scream from within the train. Shocked, he could see a faint image beating another person to the ground.

"This isn't ****ing normal.", he thought as he looked at the ground.

There were bloodstains on the ground. A lot of them. Suddenly, he heard an inhuman scream echo from the walls.

"Oh shit. Oh shit. OH SHIIIIIIIT."

Beerend sprinted upstairs, jumped over the ticket machine and ran outside.

A car had driven into a pole left of him. Several other cars had driven into its rear end. Looking to his right, he heard several people screaming, gunshots firing.

"This isn't ****ing happening. This isn't ****ING HAPPENING."

It was. A zombie outbreak was happening in the middle of this city. He had to get to safety, quickly. Hotel Corinthian was a few blocks away to the east. He ran down the street to see zombies chewing on several corpses. Beerend had trouble keeping down his lunch. "I need to get up high."

Going back towards the metro station, he scanned several of the alleys for fire ladders. The last alley had one. "Right, these alleys are hardly a metre or two, three wide. Nothing I can't handle..."

Looking through the rubbish, he searched for a weapon. He found a small cast iron bar, used for reinforcing concrete. He started climbing, making an incredible racket. "Dammit!"

His fear was valid; he had attracted the unwanted attention of a zombie that had just wandered out of the metro station. Beerend started climbing faster. The zombie wandered in pursuit.

"Please don't know how to climb...", he prayed.

The zombie clamped on to the ladder and started climbing, rather fast. "Shite." Beerend prepared to jump from one ledge to the other. Just as the zombie had reached the top, he had mustered the strength to make the jump. He jumped off the ledge and landed rather well. He looked behind to hear the moaning zombie staring at him, devoid of any life. The zombie was wearing a gray suit and a striped tie, but its eyes were almost completely white.

Beerend put the iron bar into his backpack and continued his parkour route. Twelve roofs and two near-falls towards a certain death later, he arrived at Hotel Corinthian. The top roof was too high for him to reach; he had to jump down about four metres for the next roof level. "Hopefully this ends well..."

He jumped, landed and made a tumbling move, successfully taking in most of the pressure. "I am never doing that again. Ever."

Beerend went towards one of the windows and peeked inside. All he could see that there were stairways next to the window. He started knocking on the window, hoping that someone would hear him...

[TollBooth Willie]

Heading downstairs to the main lobby Willie could hear shouting over the roaring commotion.

"Wonder who that could be?" Willie follows the sounds of the voice, hoping to find the source. Across the lobby he sees Rimfire, Krynn andAzner shouting like a ****nugget.

[Sloth]

GMNote: Don't reply to Beerdude's post in any way... I'm using him otherwise.

[CyberPitz]

Pitz limps and catches up to Evo. "Not bad, though I think something is REALLY messed up in my leg. It's getting worse before it gets better. No need for self pity, though, I want to help. I'll tag along with you, though, to see what's up."

[Azner]

Azner follows Krynn and Riomhaire toward the Convention Hall. "Willie" Azner shouts as he spots Willie in the distance. "Jintor, you too.. anyone seen Deathmaster or anyone else who was with us yesterday?" Azner asks before attempting to get some of Jintor's coke.

[Jintor]

OOC: What the shit, Azner. I'm the second floor, far away from you guys.

Beerdude: We're in the USA, New Little Odessa. Not London. Far away from London.

I need to make a fact sheet thread later.

[Smoke]

OOC: Going away for 3 days.

Bai.

[Evo]

Evo turns back around to Pitzy with a slight smile "ah that is good to hear mate, let us just sit down here for a bit and see what the rest of the people are up to."

[Beerdude26]

OOC:OOC:
Beerdude: We're in the USA, New Little Odessa. Not London. Far away from London.

I need to make a fact sheet thread later.What the?! I was absolutely certain that this was in London! Fine, I'll rewrite some stuff, brb

[Azner]

OOC: What the shit, Azner. I'm the second floor, far away from you guys.

Beerdude: We're in the USA, New Little Odessa. Not London. Far away from London.

I need to make a fact sheet thread later.

OOC: Then how'd Willie spot me shouting like a ****nugget?

[Krynn72]

OOC: Jintor told willie to gtfo of his room, so willie started heading downstairs while Jintor stayed. Also, im waiting on darkside's epic speech before I post again.

[CyberPitz]

Pitz heeds Evo's advice, and sits down. He is noticing people rushing around, as if they were on a mission, or just so stressed out that they need to speed walk everywhere....This is getting intense.

[Evo]

Evo turns around to Pitzy and says "It is times like this that I wish I smoked, something to calm my nevers eh? Heck even some alcohol would do right now. Whats say we go find a bar or something in a bit?"

[Mikael Grizzly]

Not bothered by anyone, Mike snatched a few large canisters and filled them with tap water, as a personal drinkable water supply when the plumbing stops working...

That done, he returned to looking for Darkside and Sloth, the unofficial leaders of our little HL2.net survival camp, worried that the self-professed zombie expert Darkside neglects the issue of drinking water supply.

[riomhaire]

Riomhaire begins to feel agitated by all these people milling about doing nothing in such a dangerous situation. Someone needs to take charge. Not him though, I'm not a good leader. Besides, he hates being the centre of attention. The small group that's suddenly following makes uncomfortable enough as it is. I'll see if I can do something else worthwhile. Who's most likely to be doing something right now? Darkside and Grizzly.

He scans the room for the furry Pole and the mad American. He spots them. Darkside is making for the stage. Good, hopefully he can do the organising. Grizzly's beginning to walk off somewhere. Taking once glance back at Anzer, Krynn and now Willie too, he says "I'm going to see what Grizzly's up to." and he sets off after Mikael to ask him what he's doing and if he can help.

[Sloth]

OOC: I wait for Darksied's epic speech also... Many it be epic.

[The Monkey]

OCC: I thought we were in New York...

The Monkey wakes up. "Shit", he though. "I've fallen asleep with the zombies." He opened the door out of the food storage, and saw people running all over the place. He suddenly remembered that there was gonna be a gathering in the main lobby. He started to make his way towards it together with the rest of the crowd, when he spotted to people sitting down by the wall. He recognized them as Evo and Cyberpitz.

He walked over and sat down next to them. "What's up? You might like to know that all the food is gone. God only knows how we're gonna feed 800 people. Thinks are gonna turn ugly real soon if we don't find food and water within the next couple of hours."

[riomhaire]

OOC: We are in New York. Some other memebers just got a little confused.

[CyberPitz]

Pitz notices Monkey walking towards the bench. "Hey man, hows it hangin'?" as Monkey unfolds about the lacking in food, Evo chips in about needing a stiff drink to calm his nerves. Pitz nods his head in acceptance. "You going to tag along, Monkey?"

[Jintor]

OOC: We are in New York. Some other memebers just got a little confused.

OOC: Until either Sloth or Smoke contradict me, I rule we are in Anytown, USA, except this one is called New Little Odessa.

Also waiting on Darkseid's epic speech. (May it be epic for ten thousand years)

/EDIT From Sloth's Original Post in the Zombiecon Signup thread it has become apparent that we are actually in New Little Murmansk. Please note this for all further development.

[Sloth]

OCCGMNOTEYLONGLINEOFTEXT: It is basically Any-small-city USA... But all the same

[The Monkey]

OCC: So what happened to New York?

"Sure", Monkey responds to Pitzy's question. "I could use a drink." But maybe we should stick around and hear Darkie's speech before we go?

[Darkside55]

Darkside, Sloth, and Smoke entered stage right. The off-stage wing was abuzz with people whispering in hushed voices, gesticulating wildly--many pointing to the stage in what was obviously a heated discussion about who was going to go out there and say something to all those people.

"Hey," Darkside said, giving a noncommital wave. A half-dozen heads turned in his direction; even in the dim lighting Darkside could make out the names on a few of the tags. It did not escape him that most of them happened to be the big whigs of Halflife2.net. "You uh...you gonna go out there?" he asked. "Crowd seems restless. They're waiting for a show."

"That's what I've been saying!" someone remarked. "We have to get out there and calm them down."

"And what're we going to tell them," another quipped, "that there are zombies outside? That we're running out of food and water?" Darkside hadn't been aware of that last point. He'd been too busy plotting out defenses and delegating where to push furniture and which windows to board to really check on foodstuffs.

I thought we'd at least have enough to get through a few days, he lamented.

The group descended into another bout of arguing. Sloth shrugged, and Smoke made a sideways remark. Yeah, Darkside thought, I knew it'd be me, damn it.

"I'll do it," he grunted, pushing past the standabouts without another word, before they could start their arguing and wild hand motions again.

It hadn't been the first time he'd stared downstage at a packed hall. He'd done it before, twice before that he could recall, and one of those times in front of a large crowd of his peers, just like this. There'd been lights, lights that had gotten in his eyes; there was no light this time. And there'd been seating, but most people now stood.

The swaying of bodies abruptly stopped, the din trailed into silence, and as Darkside stood facing them they stared back up at him expectantly. He was immediately aware of the scene, his mind began to watch it from all points: him on the stage, the viewpoint from the crowd, overhead for some reason. He pulled his thoughts away from that omnisituational awareness. He had to start talking.

Darkside rarely wrote speeches, even when he knew he was going to speak in front of a crowd. The reason being that he always felt it was better to speak unrehersed, like you were talking to a group of friends. It was much more natural. So the first thing that came out of his mouth was, perhaps, not the best thing to say to a crowd of wary and panic-stricken attendees.

"So," he yelled loudly, "enjoying the con?"

He couldn't see their faces in the light, but he imagined what they'd be like, all wide-eyed and slack-jawed. He heard some nervous tittering, and what he thought might've been disgruntled growls, but all of it escalated how funny it was to him. He couldn't even explain it--not even to himself--but he just wanted to bust up laughing then and there. He probably would've laughed like a maniac. Instead he coughed, and proceeded.

"I'm going to keep this short and sweet," he yelled, trying to make the accoustics of the empty hall work for him in lieu of a microphone, "because the situation is exactly the reverse. We've got a long way ahead of us, and what's going on out there damn sure ain't sweet.

I'm not going to lie to you. Earlier today, or maybe it's already yesterday, a zombie outbreak occurred in New Little Murmansk, and possibly elsewhere in the country. Possibly elsewhere in the world." More grumbling, lower and distressed. People probably didn't want to think about their own cities, their own countries, their family and friends. "We don't know the situation right now beyond this hotel. As far as we know we're possibly the only survivors in this entire city.

I'm not saying this to scare you. I'm saying this to you because this is where we are right now. This is our situation. We're packed, we're running out of food and water, and we are beset on all sides by creatures who will kill you, who WILL eat you, and if you're so unlucky then by God they will turn you into one of them.

So what we have to do RIGHT NOW is work out a system of survival. That is what we're doing here: surviving. The goal is to survive for as long as we can, and hopefully that's longer than them." He stressed the word. He wanted them to see that it was clearcut, us and the enemy. "Thankfully we're in a hotel, so everyone who is in this building, barring staff, has an assigned room. I'm going to be delegating some people," he gave a look toward the group of staffmembers offstage, "to help with accomodations. Everyone who's for the HL2.net convention, you're going to be sharing some rooms with each other. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is going to be sleeping on the second or third floors.

Staff," he continued, "you're staying here too." And to this, angry shouts broke out; indignation, and fear, and 'We have families!'

"I realize I'm putting you in a position," he yelled louder than before, holding out his arms in a symbol of appeasement, "but you have to understand: if you go out there, you will be torn apart. I know I'm putting you in a terrible position, I know what I'm asking, and I am sorry. I truly am. But you go out there and it's suicide. And on top of that, you endanger everyone in here. For that reason, I'm asking you to stay here. For that reason, I'm also going to be assigning guards to the entrances and exits." He stopped talking for a moment, knowing that it was likely he would have been drowned out by the clamour. He let them rage, rage on and on, until their fire died down just a little, to the point where his own voice could drown out theirs.

"THE NEXT THING I WILL DO," he began again, "is to assign people to foraging teams. Most of you will not want this job. Most of you I will not ask for this job. Most of you who would ask, I will reject for this job. But we're going to need people getting out there and securing us supplies: food, medical supplies, bottled water. We don't yet know if local water, tap water, is safe to drink; I don't know when or if we'll get that knowledge. So for now we're going to be drinking bottled water, and we're going to need a lot of it. Supplies are going to be strictly rationed from now on. Do not expect to be getting any full-course meals while you're here.

That's what we're going to be covering tonight, and tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll be issuing plans on how the groups will rotate, how we'll bring in food, and how we're going to protect ourselves out in the field. But tonight, get your new sleeping arrangements--which we'll issue soon--and sleep well, because we're protected here. As long as you're in this building, you are safe. We're making sure of that.

Rest easy, Halflife2.net, hotel staff." Despite being nonreligious, as an afterthought he added, "God bless."

He exited stage right, back the way he came, and began bustling people out to go grab the hotel customer invoices and start moving everyone to the fourth floor and above. Before the night was over, that's where he'd be. He was looking forward to it.

[Krynn72]

"we're running out of food and water"

As krynn listened to the speech, he had heard pretty much what he expected to hear. He would have suggested the same approach. But they were already out of food and water? ****ing hell, that was fast. It was especially bad news for him, since he hadnt eaten or drank anything since the little can of coke, and package of peanuts on the flight here. He was very hungry. Oh, and the alcohol, but that didnt count.

As soon as Darkside's speech was over the crowd started getting rowdy. Some of them were calmer now that there was a plan, some of them were more angry. Krynn started pushing his way through the crowd, trying to follow Darkside. Krynn figured he would offer his help, since he didnt need sleep after sleeping through the whole beginning of this mess.

[Mikael Grizzly]

Mike spotted riomhaire approaching.

"Hey there, ol' friend. Heard the speech Darkie said? I propose, and please don't at me like I am some kind of a screwball, that we volunteer for scavenging - the earlier we do it, the better positions we get - and on the side secure us some loot... they're dead, they won't care."

He looked at riomhaire, waiting for a response.

[Bob_Marley]

Having heard Darkside's speach, Bob knew it made sense. He hadn't known that the food situation was so bad, but everything else made perfect sense in the short to medium term, which right now, is what mattered. Dig in, stockpile whatever supplies we can lay our hands on and get ready for a long stay.

All fine and sensible, but Bob had never been one for last stands. So the last part bothered him. Have to get thinking on how to get out of here in one piece with as many guys as I can if the whole thing goes pear shaped, he thought to himself.

That wasn't the immediate concern. Bob decided to head over to where he had seen Sloth and Mikael go earlier, just behind the stage. They seemed to be the kind of chaps who were sensible enough to not get themselves killed too quickly and Mikael, at least, willy enough to get out with some handy booty.

And one of the guys he'd seen them with before was this darkside chap. Its never to early to introduce yourself to the guy who's running the show

Bob slipped behind the curtain in time, just catching Mikael say "... they're dead, they won't care."

"All right lads?" Bob asked.

[riomhaire]

Mike spotted riomhaire approaching.

"Hey there, ol' friend. Heard the speech Darkie said? I propose, and please don't at me like I am some kind of a screwball, that we volunteer for scavenging - the earlier we do it, the better positions we get - and on the side secure us some loot... they're dead, they won't care."

He looked at riomhaire, waiting for a response.
"I was thinking the same thing. Got to do something to keep away boredom :p"

OOC: I'm going to Paris tomorrow and I won't be back home until Monday evening. I doubt I'll be on the internet much but if I am I'll make this thread my first priority. For the moment you can do what you will with my character. Take it that I'm volunteering for scavenging and will go out with Mike and whoever else, but I'm not suicidal and sacraficing myself to save others is not something that's likely to happen and I'm not prone to heroics, so don't be putting noble words in my mouth that I wouldn't actually say.

[The Monkey]

The Monkey had listened to the speech from where he sat. "How the hell are we gonna feed 800 people? If it was 80 it would've been another issue, but 800? That's impossible."

In his mind, a thought began to stir. "What if we... disposed of some of them. That would make things much easier." He was afriad even to think it, and it was something that he would never share with the rest of the group, unless he absolutely had to...

[Mikael Grizzly]

Upon seeing Bob approach, Mike shifted his attention temporarily.

"All top notch, brother. Say, you wouldn't mind giving us a helpful hand on scavenging expeditions? We sure could use a couple of good men."

Turning to rimmy.

"Boredom indeed... say, I have an excellent method for searching dead bodies - we need a large, but lightweight plank, and when we search a body, we place it over it's head and arms and one or two guys stand on it, to prevent it from moving."

Turning to Bob Marley:

"What do you think?"

[dekstar]

Dekstar had followed Darkside into the conference room and listened to the speech.

"I want to sign up for those foraging teams. I want to help" he thought. Dekstar was by no means a strong guy, but if they needed lookouts he should sign up.
I only want to help, he thought.

[riomhaire]

Riomhaire doesn't even notice Bob until Mikael starts talking to him. Suprised, he turns to Bob and says
"Oh, sorry mate, didn't see you there. How do? Anyway, Mike, sounds like a good idea. We'll need some weapons too. Hard, blunt, but light enough to carry seems good to me. Should we go talk to Darkside, he seems to be in charge now. GLaD it's not me."

OOC: Not gone to Paris just yet :P

[Ennui]

Ennui pushed through the massive crowd and had made his way to the side of the stage with several other forum staff members when Darkside began his speech. He waited to hear something that he disagreed with, to challenge, his hand slick with sweat hovering above the grip of the pistol in his waistband. However, listening to him speak, he slowly relaxed. This guy might be bossy, but he was no idiot, and having him in charge of things was, all things considered, probably a good idea. When Darkside's speech was over and he walked off the stage to the right, Ennui hurried over to speak with him, standing in front of him.

"Darkside, or whatever your real name is; well played. There are some things we should discuss."

[Krynn72]

By the time Krynn got through the crowd and caught up with Darkside he saw Ennui already talking with him. Krynn just walked up along side them and waited for a chance to speak.

[Evo]

Evo turns around after listening to the big speech and decides the best thing for it would be to go and help with the scavenging right away

[Sloth]

OOC: I will be away for a week or so, relaxing with mates at the Beach after finishing 13 years of school... To mark this event I hereby give Darksied the powers of GM.5 - what he types is cannon, unless overridden by Smoke or Jintor, this will last untill I get back. Smoke, Jints and Darky PM, Email and just get in contact to figure out how these teams will work.

[Mikael Grizzly]

OOC: It's written canon, Slothy, CANON.

[Jintor]

Jintor listens to the speech over the radio, eyes still watching the burnt-out city landscape, but ears and brain whirring, ticking away. He heard Darkseid's first line - "Enjoying the con?" - and chuckled softly to himself as he watched around the flames, so as not to lose his night vision (Who'dve thought comic book advice would be valuable one day?). And he heard what he thought he'd hear.

"Running out of food and water". "Creatures that will kill you". "System of survival". "Guards on entrances and exits"... well, Jintor had already gotten a few people on watch, and someone had jury-rigged up a few radio-comlinks from the security section... and, of course, "foraging".

There was an idea.

He could go out. Go out into the city, with a small party of people, and grab as much food as he could carry and hightail it back to the Corinthian. This place would be safe -

- safe -

...safe.

How could they be so sure of it?

How would they ensure that the hotel was going to be safe?

Barricades would not hold indefinately. Jintor doubted very much that there were enough weapons in the hotel to arm a foraging party AND defend the hotel. Although given the current situation out the window it wasn't going to be like constant gunfire or anything, but still... and then, what about the zombies themselves? Would a good whack with a blunt stick take them out? Or did they require... he shuddered... decapitation?

He began to worry. He had to get down to Darkseid and whoever else was in charge of the refuge, but he couldn't abandon his post - according to what one of the guys had told him (a half-glimpsed badge, a mop of dirty hair; he had no idea who he was), his was the only window facing this side of the hotel. Damnit! But he had to go find Darkseid!

Clicking his tongue, he reached for the radio, flicked a switch, and begun to speak.

"This is Jintor, up in Room 201 on the Second Floor. I've commandered the PA system - no, don't worry, there aren't any zombies within sight. I need a replacement up here on watch right now, there's stuff I need to do. Repeat: requesting a replacement watchdog upstairs, right now. Thanks, and stay safe."

There. That ought to do it. Someone would be up soon (hopefully somebody trustworthy, but everybody has to be trustworthy in this life/death situation) and he had to get downstairs.

(He sipped his coke, and waited.)

[Darkside55]

The noise was off somewhere in the distance, too high above his head for his ears to grab it, too far behind him for it to reach. It was the most curious effect, walking offstage: all the outside clamour in the audience just went away, poof, vanished. Even his inner monologue seemed to have turned off, sparing him the replay of the speech for analyzing and dissection.

As he headed past the curtain line, a skinny guy who'd been loitering in the shadows stepped in front of him. Ennui, the narration kicked on again. Ennui, from Jintor's group. The one with the handgun.

"Darkside, or whatever your real name is; well played. There are some things we should discuss."

Eyes behind heavy lids surveyed this kid. He's the one with the gun, his brain kept repeating. Riomhaire said he had a gun. No spare ammo. Yeah, I remember that part. "My real name is Darkside," he monotoned. "Just like this mask is my real face."

Ennui looked at him like he was off. "...What?"

"Haha, I'm just ****ing with you." Darkside smiled. "I'm shit tired, man. Drunk tired. It was something the Fett once said. I dunno. My name's Andre." He looked over Ennui's shoulder to the crowd of people still gathered there. "Hey, hang on one sec."

Darkside stepped around him gingerly, walked over to the layabouts and began issuing a series of orders, asking them to arrange themselves and get the crowds set up into rows ordered by floor, and move everybody on the second and third floors up onto the fourth floor and above. "But don't stick anybody in my room unless they're women. No, actually on second thought, don't stick anybody in my room unless they're ugly women. I need sleep." Who are you kidding? his brain laughed. You'd hit an ugly woman.

Shut up, he told himself.

He turned around to Ennui. "Right then, what'd you--"

Darkside was cut off by "The Drunk's" sudden appearance at his side. Krynn wasn't how he'd pictured him on the forum. He was roughly the same height as Darkside, but where Darkside had an average, unassuming frame, Krynn was huge. And Darkside'd figured him younger. It was probably his avatar, he reasoned. Really youthful and happy, that dog.

Darkside liked Krynn. He hadn't realized until much later that it was him he'd checked alongside the old accountant--what with the pressing matter of an undead horde having broken into the building--but he'd later spotted the man's tag identifying him as a con-goer. Seeing who it was, he'd like to have spoken to him more (and under better circumstances), but he and Grizz had rushed off to secure the building.

"About those things you wanted to talk about," Darkside said to Ennui, still looking at Krynn. A second interruption was coming toward them, he saw, in the form of Dekstar. Darkside had grown fond of Dekstar these past two days, going as far as to consider him his righthand man.

I have a feeling more people are going to be coming up to talk to me. He smiled. Mr. Popular tonight.

Sleep was a fleeting dream.

[Beerdude26]

OOC: I will be away for a week or so, relaxing with mates at the Beach after finishing 13 years of school... To mark this event I hereby give Darksied the powers of GM.5 - what he types is cannon, unless overridden by Smoke or Jintor, this will last untill I get back. Smoke, Jints and Darky PM, Email and just get in contact to figure out how these teams will work.OOC: But what about meeee D:

[CyberPitz]

Pitz found a chair after the speech. He was just unsure as to what to do right now. "I'm not going about by myself....suicide....." he murmured to himself. Everything was STILL Setting in. It's kind of like winning the lottery. Except, you won a shit load of zombies trying to get a quick taste of you. Not a pleasant thought. "Maybe I'll just relax for a few...."

[riomhaire]

Oh great, riomhaire thoguh, Darkside's finished his speach and everyone's talking and nothing is getting done. Grabbing Mikael, he leads the man towards the stage and gives his own, short announcement.

"Anyone volunteering for scavenging come talk to me and Mikael," and walks off to a nearby empty space. Darkside may not be happy about me stealing his spotlight, and I don't really like it either, but we have to get things done. I hope Grizzly isn't pissed off either.

[Mikael Grizzly]

Mike smiled to himself when riomhaire was speaking... less work spreading the knowledge around. He took out a notepad and started writing down the priorities they'd have to acquire, starting with bottled water, food and medical supplies, through clothing to batteries, fuel and weapons. Heh, a busy day.

Seeing riomhaire approach him...

"Thanks for announcing it... now we'd have to start preparing... can you get the top off that table?" *points to the table in the backstage* "It looks light enough to carry around and sturdy enough to resist a struggling zombie underneath it..."

We need to set the hierarchy right.

[riomhaire]

"What? With my bare hands? I'd probably need a crowbar or at least a screwdriver, if not a drill."

[Krynn72]

Krynn waited until he got Darkside's attention before saying anything. Darkside looked like he had already enjoyed a week of sleepless nights. Taking command of 800 people in a zombie apocalypse would probably do that.

"You look like shit Darkside" he said with a grin. Krynn noticed that Darkside's eyes glance past him. Krynn turned to see Dekstar coming up. Darksides going to be a busy man tonight, no need to make it worse he thought.

"I'd love to stay and chat, but it looks like you're going to be getting real busy soon. I just came to offer my help. So let me know what to do, and I'll get out of your hair and go do it."

[Mikael Grizzly]

"Rimmy, you're an intelligent fellow and this is not Oblivion. I think there's a screwdriver lying on the table..."

That said...

"A propos crowbars - don't you think they'd be at least appropriate for fighting zombies?"

[Jintor]

GM Note: If anyone wants to play watchdog, post within the next two days or I'll assign generic NPC#2341 to the job. And at least acknowledge that I took over the PA system, damnit. It took me ages to rewire.

[The Monkey]

The Monkey walked over to Rimfire and Mikael. "I'd love to help with the scavenging. When are we leaving?"

[Azner]

Azner stands at the side of the stage listening to Riomhaire make the announcement about scavenging. "Hey Riom, you probably don't want be out scavenging, you know what i can do?" Azner shouts while attempting to discuss with Willie about visiting Stiggy after this zombie madness.

[Mikael Grizzly]

Mike smiles talking to Monkey:

"It's around noon, I say, in about one or two hours, as soon as we get a dozen or so of us... enough for three four man teams to raid for supplies. We need backpacks and tools, can you get them for us?"

Turning to Rimfire:

"Get everything talked through with... Azner, right? I'll be back in a few minutes, gotta talk to Jintor about telling people about our endeavour."

[Darkside55]

"About those things you wanted to talk about."

A click, and the buzzing whine of a microphone sounded overhead, filling the hotel. "This is Jintor, up in Room 201 on the Second Floor. I've commandeered the PA system - no, don't worry, there aren't any zombies within sight. I need a replacement up here on watch right now, there's stuff I need to do. Repeat: requesting a replacement watchdog upstairs, right now. Thanks, and stay safe." Well, that was odd. What'd he need to do that forced him to step away from his post? It was a mystery Darkside'd have to solve later.

Ennui opened his mouth, but Krynn spoke before him. "You look like shit Darkside," he said with a grin Darkside returned. "I'd love to stay and chat, but it looks like you're going to be getting real busy soon. I just came to offer my help. So let me know what to do, and I'll get out of your hair and go do it."

Well that was certainly serendipitous, Darkside thought. "Well, you heard Jintor, and that watchtower's our first line of defense, so I'll leave you to the position of manning it, since Jintor's apparently caught the runs or something and had to bolt."

"--volunteering for scavenging come talk to me and Mikael." Darkside turned to see Riomhaire and Grizz--why was he away from his post?--as they exited the stage. Riom nodded to Darkside, who nodded back and gave Mikael a curious look. The two walked past the trio of Ennui, Darkside, and Krynn and headed toward a wooden table stowed against a wall. Vague mumbles of dialogue reached Darkside's ears now and then, and more people kept coming up to speak with those two.

Nice of them to take one of these duties off my hands. I'll review their picks for scavengers in the morning.

Ennui cleared his throat.

"Hey Riom, you probably don't want be out scavenging, you know what I can do?" Azner was shouting. Why was he shouting? He's standing a foot away from Riomhaire. And when did Willie and Stigmata get up here? Place is getting packed.

His ears tuned to the conversations occuring on the far side of the wing, Darkside overheard Mikael tell Monkey that they would be leaving, "in one or two hours, at noon."

"Hey Grizz," Darkside called, "you're more tired than I am, man. It's like eleven at night or something." Darkside considered asking him about who he'd left in charge on the second floor, but Ennui was looking exasparated.

"Well, what is it?" Darkside asked. "Spit it out already, man. We're on the clock."

[The Monkey]

"So..." said Monkey after learning the proper time, "will be leave at noon tomorrow or at midnight tonight? 'Coz I don't know about you, but going out in the dark when there're zombies around don't make a whole not of sense to me. But then there won't be any breakfast for the people in the morning."

After finishing talking, Monkey overheard Darkside say something to Ennui though the murmur of the crowd: "We're on the cock." He deemed it best not to investigate it further.

[Mikael Grizzly]

"Wait, it's--- oh great. I kept thinking it's 10 AM while we're closer to 10 PM... well, then we'll be leaving at noon tomorrow, should give us enough time to prepare the gear and equipment, as well as catch some sleep."

He chuckled and saying that he'll be right back, scurried off to Jintor's place, leaving riomhaire temporary in charge and noting that he wants some time to speak with Darkside after he's back.

[Smoke]

The city slips into reverie, the coming night flows over hotel Corinthian like a blanket, smothering the bloodshed of the day in an inky soup.

A military helicopter races through the night, searching for suriviors.

Far below things are not so etheral, as the undead wander the streets, moaning incoherently and pounding on doors, walls, themselves. They will find no sleep tonight, or ever again.

We move nearer to the hotel itself. Surrounded by wailing corpses it seems a desperate sanctuary. The living having barricaded themselves inside their shell.

We move inside the hotel. Something stirs in the dark. Lifeless eyes open for what seems the first time. Slowly at first, taking in surroundings, peering left to right, looking for a source of food.

It picks something up, a soft agitated moan, not unlike a lover, escapes from it's parched throat. But it's not sight that excites our friend, it is sound. He has remarkable hearing, and uses it to pinpoint the position of his prey.

"What the hell is that? Is that a helicopter? Shit!"

Our friend rises, and pushes the door open. The portal sways with hardly a sound, being well oiled. He steps into the open hallway, his prey having moved away. The space is silent, and he stumbles away in search of food.

He passes a sign that reads "roof access"

[Acepilotf14]

OOC:Someone find me.

[Smoke]

OOC: What do you mean, find you? If you can't take the initative and post on your own...

[Acepilotf14]

OOC: Not 'completely' sure what's going on, so I am confused. And I only have 5 initiative, so I'm kinda slow.

[Smoke]

OOC: Not 'completely' sure what's going on, so I am confused. And I only have 5 initiative, so I'm kinda slow.

OCC: You need to work on your initative, 5/100 is pretty damn bad.

Just read the thread, figure out where you would realistically be in this situation, and post.

[Acepilotf14]

OOC: I'll try.

Ace woke up. How long had it been? Jesus... the last day was frightful. What the hell had happened? He ahd barely gotten into the big hotel, and had completely forgotten about the covention. He hadn't seen anyone else, and supposed everyone was dead. The corrdiors echoed as he muttered to himself, shivering. The night was restless... he needed to find food and warmth. He started walking aimlessly around the hotel...

[TollBooth Willie]

"Maybe if Cananada isn't a zombie ridden rathole, that sounds good." Willieacknowledged Azner.

No sense in sitting around doing nothing. Willie walked over to Mikael, "Looks like you guys could use another hand or two."

[riomhaire]

"OK, we need to search the hotel for gear. Mike, do you want to stay here or will I and," turning to the room in general "who else wants to help search the hotel?"

[The Monkey]

"I'll go", Monkey says. "I would't be able to sleep tonight anyway."

[Smoke]

Gm note: Queries/complaints/rants/most OCC go here now.

http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=135192

[Mikael Grizzly]

Back from asking Jintor that they could use some "advertising" about the foraging teams, Mike had the entire plan more or less formed when riomhaire asked him about searching for gear.

"Allright, time for a busy night. Stash the found stuff in my room, floor four, room eighteen, Rimmy-baby has the key. Look for backpacks or any kind of bags that can carry large amounts of stuff. Baggage carts will work too, in a pinch. If you can find keys to any cars that are parked in the lot or know how to hotwire them, then mark the car and the keys and dump them in the room. Monkey, Azner, I have a special task for you guys. We need eight sturdy but lightweight planks. I'll explain in the morning what we need them for. At nine AM we gather in my room along with other scavenger wannabes and divide the gear. Any questions? I'll look for any tools we might need."

[Smoke]

The exhibit hall is still clamorous, people are yelling to get the attention of other conventionists, forcing everyone else to speak louder and louder until the noise is crashing off the walls like a constant explosion.

One figure in the crowd is not shouting, however. he is looking upwards, craning and tilting his neck.

"Listen" he says, but nobody takes notice, or even hears him,

"LISTEN!" he shouts more forcefully, his voice raising just above the din and quieting those next to him. They in turn hush their neighbours and so on. In a matter of seconds the hall is silent.

No, not silent. Many of them realise. something is outside, something man made and repeating.

"A helicopter!" He whispers.

"GET TO THE ROOF!" One man cries.

"We're saved!" Shouted another.

As one, the crowd spilled out into the halls, headed for the stairs with a communal desperation.

[Ennui]

Just as he is finally given the opportunity to address Darkside, Ennui is once again interrupted, this time by the growing cacophony and chaos that has immediately erupted on hearing the helicopter.

"Dammit," he said, rolling his eyes in irritation, "I'll get up with you later - just wanted to talk to you about a few things I was planning on doing, namely painting SOS signs on the roof tonight and then a small exploratory forage tomorrow. You know more than I do about the situation right now. Go handle this. By the way, Andre, call me Chris. And I love Star Wars."

Ennui then walks away. No point in following them all up the stairs, he thought. One more person screaming and jumping trying to signal on the roof isn't going to make a difference, and I'd rather not get trampled on the stairs.

He wanders to the lobby to recheck the barricades for the hundredth time, and stares through the thick glass at the moaning horde of bloodthirsty undead. 17 rounds in this clip. More than 17 zombies. This is so unreal. He rubs his eyes - it's been how long since he slept now? - and collects himself. I'll be damned if I die surrounded by people I know from the internet.

[Acepilotf14]

Ace heard some screaming down the way, and started jogging toward the sound. He heard the familiar beat of helicopter propellers, in the distant, and vague sounds of SOS calls from above him. He decided to hurry, and a new hope rose in him.
There are more survivors! Maybe they can help me!
He continued down the hallway.

[The Monkey]

As soon as The Monkey heard the sound of the helicopter he started running for the stairs but stopped immediately. Nearly 800 people were trying to force their way up a staircase that was one metre wide. You didn't have to be a genius to figure out how this is going to end. He started hearing screams as people pushed on from the back towards the narrow opening.

[Bob_Marley]

"OK mate, I'm up for that." said Bob

Hearing the next things to come out of Mikael's mouth bob worked out where he would start hunting about for useful stuff. Well, first off there were the kitchens, as per his original suggestion, then there was the third floor, where the chaps had dumped their stuff after escaping the lift. After that he could make it up as he went along.

"Right o, I'll get on it"

As the crowd surged up the main stairwell Bob decided that he'd check the kitchens on this floor first.

"Would anyone who's actually seen a helicopter before come and give us a hand trying to do something useful?"

[Darkside55]

It took him a moment to notice the silence in the hall was no longer the effect of his ears filtering out background noise. The hall had gone silent, down to every last man--including those grouped behind the wall of stage right. Something'd quieted them, all of them. It didn't bode well. Darkside put a hand on Ennui's shoulder to bid him hold his tongue a moment longer; Darkside made a sudden move toward the stage to find out what brought the silence, but then he heard it: from overhead, just barely audible.

whup whup whup

The high panes in the exhibit hall, black as pitch since sundown, now flickered with brief flashes of a white cone, spilling against walls and floor. A light. Roving. Searching.

whupwhupwhupwhupwhupWHUPWHUPWHUP

"It's a helicopter!"

"GET TO THE ROOF!"

"We're saved!"

It was the second time Darkside'd watched a scene move in slow motion that day. The disconcerted feeling of being underwater, all movements slowed, all noise pitched down, every event draining of color and allowing one to focus on the scene as a whole, right down to the smallest detail. Son of a bitch, his mind lagged. This is really, really ****ing bad.

The whole of the exhibit halls surged en masse toward the exits. "STOP!" Darkside shouted, mustering up his loudest voice as time resumed its normal tick. "STOP! REMAIN CALM! DON'T GO OUT ALL AT ONCE; GOD DAMN IT SOMEBODY STOP THEM! SEAL THE DOORS!" He knew it was in vain. A third of that wave of bodies had already ebbed out into the lobby. As they flowed out, more were carried along in their wake. Darkside could not even check for damage control with the commotion. Someone's going to get trampled, or worse. And I can't pull that same zombie trick twice, not unless I want to cause more panic. ****!

"Dammit," Ennui says to Darkside's back. "I'll get up with you later - just wanted to talk to you about a few things I was planning on doing, namely painting SOS signs on the roof tonight and then a small exploratory forage tomorrow. You know more than I do about the situation right now. Go handle this. By the way Andre," he said as an afterthought, "call me Chris. And I love Star Wars."

Darkside could only give him a curt nod in response. Control of the situation had left him, and it'd taken his tongue. He turned around to the remaining lot of people standing there onstage with a helpless look on his face, his eyes falling on every individual in turn. Then his face set, eyebrows narrowing to a point, mouth forming a hard line, and his eyes boring into them. And without another word, he walked past them all, down the wooden steps of the stage, out onto the exhibit hall floor, and out into the lobby.

Can't head them off, can't route them, he thought as he moved. Tailing them doesn't do anything either. So I'm going to try for a cordon.

Wish Ennui--Chris--hadn't walked off with that gun.

He jogged to the base of the stairwell. The scene was such that he couldn't even find a good metaphor for it; it was like something bloated trying to squeeze itself into a tube too thin for its girth. He stood off to the side, and--knowing how his voice would echo in the lobby--he boomed:

"EVERYONE STAY CALM! WE ARE SENDING DELEGATES UP TO THE ROOF! REMAIN CALM AND STAY IN THE LOBBY! I ASSURE YOU WE WILL GET HELP, BUT IT WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE TO GET UP THERE IF EVERYONE'S TRYING TO DO IT ALL AT ONCE!" And a little softer, as if imploring the people closest to him, "If we all try and get up there, and nobody ends up getting up there because of crowding, and they pass us by..." He let the statement hang.

Slowly, a good number of people began to move off. But not enough. Damn it.

He needed some help. He knew where to get it.

Darkside headed toward the basement level.

[Jintor]

The sudden bright lights hit Jintor's eye a mere half-minute after Mikael's departure. "Jesus ****!" he says, holding up a hand to shield his eyes from the blinding whiteness. The steady whupwhupwhupwhup that had been on the edge of hearing suddenly jerked into fully-realised loudness as the helicoptor shifted its bearings and begun - impossibly - to descend.

Screaming erupted from below.

Oh, ****. thought Jintor. He turned, and raced back to Room 201, grabbing the radio. The screams and shouts echoed through the night - the stupidity of the mob, damnit! And there wasn't any assurances that the entire hotel was zombie-free... there was going to be another crush in the corridors, the stairwells. He could hear vague shouts, shouts in command - STAY CALM! DELEGATES... IMPOSSIBLE... - but the surge and the noise of the crowd drowned out most of the voice. Cursing, swearing, he flicked on the PA system once again, cringing at the feedback, and yelled:

"EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU IDIOTS STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING RIGHT NOW, OR SOMEONE IS GOING TO GET ****ING TRAMPLED!"

[Darkside55]

"EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU IDIOTS STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING RIGHT NOW, OR SOMEONE IS GOING TO GET ****ING TRAMPLED!"

Darkside'd barely hit the landing of the basement stairway when Jintor's voice came over the intercom system. Trust Jintor to hivemind with me, he smiled. Saves me a trip down to the security station proper. "Think I'll head up to 'The Watchtower' instead," he said aloud. "On the way I can make sure the crowd's dispersing.

Didn't want to be in a dusty basement barking PA orders anyhow," he mumbled, heading back up the stairs.

Had he stuck around a moment longer, he might've noticed the shuffling.

[Acepilotf14]

Ace continued along- He hoped he would find someone soon, the dark was beginning to worry him, all he had on him was a Cell phone, a notepad and a pen. He still had no idea what was going on, and was beginning to get hysterical.
What will happen? How can I get out of this MOTHER****ING place?

[riomhaire]

The whole lobby is chaos. Running. Shouting. Screaming. People crawling over eachother like rats. Idiots. The sensible ones are screaming to stop but they are drowned out by the lemmings. Riomhaire grabs onto the nearest furniture. He clings on as hard as he can. I don't want to get knocked over or I'll get trampled. Someone is going to get trampled. Someone is going to ****ing die...and come back. Where the hell is Ennui with that gun I gave him?

[Mikael Grizzly]

Mike grabbed a chair that sat near the backstage and rested upon it. The sudden mass hysteria turned him slightly apathetic, but nonetheless, his head was busy calculating how the nearest future would turn out, what to scavenge, what to get, where to stash the loot...

[Ennui]

Surveying the seething mass of people stampeding excitedly up the stairs to the roof in the main lobby, Ennui ran around the edge towards the back stairs, beckoning to a nervous-looking riomhaire on the way. He was running towards room 201.

[Krynn72]

Krynn had only started up the stairs to the second floor when he heard a commotion behind him. He stopped on the stairs, trying to get a better idea of what was happenning when all of the sudden a massive crowd of raving lunatics came around the corner, heading straight for him. Krynns eyes widened as they sped full speed towards him. "JESUS ****!"

He quickly turns back around, knowing that he didnt have enough time to get out of their path. He bolted up the stairs as fast as his body could move him, and he sprinted out into the saftey of the second floor hallway, slamming his body into the far wall just as the crowd would have overwhelmed him. Krynn took a deep breath, with a pissed off look on his face. "****ING IDIOTS" he screamed at them as they all ran up higher and higher. None of them paid him any mind.

He started towards the room where Jintor was on guard, when he noticed that Jintor had just ducked back into the room. He started walking towards 201 when he heard Jintor's voice over the PA system again.

"EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU IDIOTS STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING RIGHT NOW, OR SOMEONE IS GOING TO GET ****ING TRAMPLED!"

****ing Krynn is going to get trampled

Just was Krynn was about to go in the room, he noticed some one running his way. No, two people, Ennui and Riomhaire. He kept running into these guys. Hopefully they dont hold a grudge. Krynn figured he would know what they were up to soon enough, so he just stepped into Room 201.

He entered just as Jintor was putting the radio down. "Dont think thats going to help much, they damn near stomped me flat without giving a thought." Krynn takes a look around the room before continuing. "Im your replacement, go do what you gotta do."

OOC: Can I get a description of whats in the room, and where everything is?

[Mikael Grizzly]

OOC: I guess it's something like this, since I think it's essentially a security station that is also the hub of the PA system.

http://www.chi-sa.org.za/Articles/CRS4.jpg

[riomhaire]

Riomhaire follows Ennui into room 201 and stations himself near the door.

[Darkside55]

The stairs were still packed as he crested the top of the basement stairwell. Some people were starting to head off, others were milling about, unsure of what to do. Most people were still headed up. There'd be no getting past the crowd to the second floor this way. Darkside wondered how they were going to get anyone up to the roof.

Well, someone's bound to get up there sooner or later before the search ends.

Darkside squeezed out of the stairway, trying to be as careful as possible not to bump anybody too hard--one wrong push, someone's down, someone gets stepped on. Back in the main lobby, he laughed to himself: everyone'd made a mad dash for the stairs because they were trying to head to the roof. Darkside, who was trying to head for the second floor, simply took the empty escalator.


OOC: Room 201's just a lookout. Jintor rewired the PA system to work up there. It's little more than a conference room with some windows and a microphone. The real security station (like what Grizz posted) is downstairs in the basement. That has all the cameras and whatnot.

[The Monkey]

The Monkey managed to draw his attention off the chaos and started to search for Azner so that the two of them could start looking for the planks that Mikael had told them about.

[Ennui]

OOC: You mean elevator? Where's there one of those?

Ennui hurries into room 201, Riomhaire one step behind him, nodding at Jintor as they entered. They shut the door behind them. "Shit just hit the fan," Ennui remarked, taking the pistol from his waistband and pulling the slide back, "so we came up here to wait for things to calm down."

[Darkside55]

Darkside heads down the second floor balcony to Conferrence Room 201, which, despite having been abandoned only moments ago, now seemed to be a hotbed of activity.

"Anybody mulched yet?" he asks, sauntering up to the doorway.


OOC: No, I mean the escalator. Power's out, so the elevators aren't working; neither is the escalator, but they still function as stairs. Smoke, Sloth, and I used them on the way down to the exhibit halls.

[Bob_Marley]

Bob Headed out of the hall, across the lobby to the restaraunts, and beyond them the kitchens. And kitchens meant cooking utensils, and probubly alot of them in a place like this. There were still people packing into the stairwell. Numpties.

The Big wigs had circumvented it by going up the elevators rather than the stairs and anyone with a shred of sense left was either with them or hunting for handy things. And so thats what bob was doing.

He opened the door to the restaraunt. The furnature had been cleared out for the barricades. He continued on. He booted the door to the kitchens open and began to hunt high and low for anything that might come in handy.

[riomhaire]

Location: Room 201, the PA system hub.
People: Ennui, riomhaire, Krynn and Jintor

Ennui steps into room 201 and gives Jintor a nod. He's followed by riomhaire and a few moments later by Krynn. Riomhaire shuts the door and stations himself near.
"Shit just hit the fan," Ennui remarks, taking the pistol from his waistband and pulling the slide back, "so we came up here to wait for things to calm down."

Jintor puts his microphone down but before he can reply to Ennui, Krynn buts in.
"Don't think thats going to help much, they damn near stomped me flat without giving a thought." Krynn takes a look around the room before continuing. "I'm your replacement, go do what you gotta do."

Looking at Ennui, riomhaire begins to speak.
"Careful with the gun, hotshot. Wow, that sounded dumb. Don't ever let me say hotshot again." After a moments pause he continues with a sly smile "Maybe all the idiots packed on the roof ain't such a bad thing. A few might fall off. Natural selection at work. Should we make any more announcements to the hotel?"

While waiting for an answer, riomhaire opens the door a crack to see if the rabble has passed yet.

[Azner]

Azner looked around. "This is madness" he muttered as he was knocked around. Willie was somewhere near him... he hoped. He tried to find someone he knew, he felt scared, yet a sense of relief that there was a chopper above this building. "The **** do i do?" he muttered as he followed the flow of the crowd to the roof.

[The Monkey]

As the lobby very slowly begins to empty as people manage to make it up the stairs (and the escalators that a few of them have discovered), The Monkey spots Azner in the crowd amd begin to elbow his way to him.

[Ennui]

riomhaire opened the door to peek out and yelped quietly when Darkside, out of nowhere, pushed it open all the way and sauntered nonchalantly into the small conference room. "Anybody mulched yet?"

"None of us were stupid enough to take the main stairs, so your guess is as good as ours... and judging from that racket," Ennui said, nodding in the direction of the stairwell, from where a cacophony of shouts was continuously emanating, "chances are that at least a few people are now part of the carpet." He noticed Darkside looking at the handgun he was holding. "Seventeen shots. We're sticking in here until things calm down a little bit."

[Smoke]

Something is coming up the stairs, something loud.

His semi primitive mind makes the tentative connection between sound and a possible source of food. He moves towards the open stairwell with a soft moan as his scuffed shoes respond to the movement of shaky legs.
He moves closer to the stairwell, sound bounces from wall to wall as the crowd acends, frenzied shadows echo from wall to wall as the lone candle valiantly struggles against the flucuations in the air.

He lets out a moan that seems more a roar than anything else. He seemes pleased, if it can be called that. He moves closer to the top step, stays there, swaying slightly.

The first man to climb the stairs and reach the carpeted floor finds himself face to face with a lone figure. Even through the darkness he can see the pale skin and a glint of glazed eyes.

The candle finally sumbits, plunging the stairwell and hall into darkness.

The screams only get louder.

[TollBooth Willie]

Willie pulled Azner out of the frnzied crowd toward him "Just stay together, and keep away from these morons until it's all clear."

The whole debacle reminded him of something from Animal Planet...Was it about water buffalo? Or zebras?

[Ennui]

A chill raced down Ennui's spine as he listened to the dull roar of sound issuing from the direction of the stairs. I could swear the timbre of that screaming just changed, he thought nervously, but it's probably my imagination ****ing with me.

Ennui closed the door and looked around to see if there was anything useful to barricade it with, if the need should arise.

[riomhaire]

Location: Room 201, the PA system hub.
Persons: Darkside, Ennui, riomhaire, Krynn and Jintor
"Jesus Darkside! How the hell did you get into the room without me seeing you? You must be a goddamn ninja...did anyone else hear that?"

[Azner]

Azner spotted someone who seems to be elbowing toward him, but was not sure. "What the ****" He shouts as a hand grabs him and pulls him aside. "Just stay together, and keep away from these morons until it's all clear." the voice said. It was willie, He was out of the stampede and not going to get crushed, He gave a sigh of relief.

[The Monkey]

The Monkey spotted the people he knew as Willie and Azner in the crowd and talked towards them. "Do you know where the rest of the people have gone?"

[Lucid]

Lucid wakes up in a sheetless bed with a burnt out blunt in between his fingers, having not slept for close to a day.. he groans, sitting himself up feeling as though he hadn't slept at all... sliding his headphones down and pausing his iPod.
He turns to his side and picks up his cellphone... only to realize that the battery is dead... "****..." he says to himself quietly.
He finally gets up after a few minutes of grogginess and puts his shirt on.

He walks into the bathroom and pulls out his canteen, he pours some water into a glass cup and splashes it into his face.
He grabs a towel and wipes his face off and hangs it back up.

He heads out of the bathroom and opens the door, leaving his room.
He walks into a fairly busy hallway and bumps into AcePilot with enough force to knock us both off of our feet a bit.
"Holy shit dude, watch it!"

OOC: You'll have to excuse my the long delay for my replies, as I'll be having extremely limited internet access for the next few weeks... but I'll try to post as often as I can.

[Sloth]

GMnotey: Try and put your location, even if its a bit open to thought, just to help others. Like what rimfire is doing.

[Acepilotf14]

Ace stumbles a bit, then leans back on the wall.
"That's okay. Hey, do you know what the **** is going on?!!"

[Krynn72]

Location: Room 201, the PA system hub.
Persons: Darkside, Ennui, riomhaire, Krynn and Jintor

Damn, its getting cramped in here Krynn thought as Darkside walked through the door. "Well, arn't you the popular guy" he says to Jintor. "Everyones come to stay with you while the mob tramples itself on the stairs. Speaking of wh... A strange noise catches Krynn's attention and makes him trail off mid sentence.

Did anyone else hear that? Riomhaire asks.

"Yeah, I heard it too. A sudden feeling of dread washes over Krynn as he stands there staring at the wall... listening. As he listens he can hear the happy shouts and yelling of the stampeding mob turn into shrieks and screams, and then it sounds like all hell breaks loose. What used to be the sound of hundreds of people running up stairs turned into a random assortment of crashes and clamor. Its almost as if the entire mob did an about face, and people fleeing down the stairs as others run up them, clashing into one another.

Krynn's eyes dart from the wall to Ennui. "I think we're going to need that soon" he says, gesturing towards the pistol in Ennui's hand.

[Darkside55]

"Jesus Darkside! How the hell did you get into the room without me seeing you? You must be a goddamn ninja!"

"You'd be surprised how often people say that."

The clamour down the hall intensified. The very walls seemed to groan in complaint at the number of people packing themselves into the confines of the stairwell. Perhaps as a subconcious reaction to that thought, and the amount of people grouping around Jintor and the rewired radio serving as their PA system, Darkside shifted a few paces to the side.

"Well, aren't you the popular guy. Everyones come to stay with you while the mob tramples itself on the stairs. Speaking of wh--"

"Did you hear that?" The room skipped a beat. Everyone hushed, straining to hear what Riomhaire had. There'd been something, a muffled noise that came through the walls, but Darkside hadn't quite caught it.

He heard the next one.

His immediate thought was that someone had gotten trampled. He knew it would happen; everyone in the room knew it would happen. In a darkly humorous flash of wit he recalled the Einstein from Half-Life. "We tried to warn them, but they would not listen." And now, judging by the panicked screams issuing from the stairs, someone or someones were injured or dead.

Nearest to the door, Ennui pulled the gun from his waist and shut the open portal. He turned and scanned the room, eyes lingering on the larger pieces of furniture.

"I think we're going to need that soon."

Darkside eyed them both curiously. The crowd wasn't coming out here; they were stuck in there. Although, we had a use for the gun earlier. Ennui had seen him eyeing the firearm. He didn't know what Ennui thought of that, but he'd make an effort in the future to mask his own gaze around that one. His eyes are sharp. Darkside filed that away.

He'd thought about asking for it earlier, but Ennui had walked away, and Darkside had become preoccupied. Possession of the gun would have been a major boon--not necessary, but handy. Everyone in the room likely assumed that a gun would be an invaluable tool in dealing with zombies; this was untrue. While certainly helpful it was not the best weapon to deal with them, and Darkside had a feeling that very few people at this convention could handle a firearm that was not made of polygons.

No, the real use for a firearm is controlling people who still have the brains to fear it. He could've used the gun to stop the crowd from surging up the stairs. Now people were dying, and everyone else seemed to want to board up inside the conference room.

Darkside reopened the door and stepped outside without another word. He couldn't do much, but he wanted to assess the damage. The floor was still empty, meaning people hadn't started flooding out yet; either the body (bodies?) had gone mostly unnoticed, or the stairs were too packed to let people out through the doors.

The continued screaming told him it was probably the latter. And as he came closer to the stairwell, spying the exit door straining against its hinges, it was pretty much confirmed.

Open the door, then usher people out, he thought.

[Lucid]

Lucid adjusts himself, "I'm not quite sure but I believe I heard the sound of a helicopter? And in our situation, that usually leads to chaos."

[riomhaire]

Location: The hallway outside Room 201
Persons: Darkside, riomhaire
"At least two people stay in that room," riomhaire says as he follows Darkside into the hall, straining his ears for any tell-tale sounds and keeping his eyes peeled for a long, rigid object to use as a weapon.

"If someone's 'gotten up', we need to find him fast. If one...you know...zombie," the word sounds ridiculous to his ears, but that is the reality "gets to the crowd...well...it won't be good. You know what I mean."

He checks to see if anyone else is following.

[Acepilotf14]

"We should probobaly go and see what's happening."
Ace started off towards the stairwell.

[Krynn72]

Location: The hallway outside Room 201
Persons: Darkside, riomhaire, Krynn

"At least two people stay in that room"

**** that, im not going to be stuck here if they do something stupid Krynn thought to himself. He hurried out the door, figuring that at least Jintor would stay on watch.

Krynn caught up to the others in the hall just as Riomhaire was looking back. Darkside was looking at the door to the stairwell. The small window on the door revealed what was behind it, a mass of people pushing back and forth on each other in the cramped stairwell, franticly slamming up against the walls and the door itself.