(Day of Broken Glass) Burn

[Edenor]

Already covered in blood he finally got himself calmed down after having had his fun smashing the Mooncalf into pulp when he realized just how drained he was now. Leaning against the wall he watched the two and realized the looks they were giving him and could only shrug with a sheepish grin before seeing the man in black enter. They were quicker on the draw than he was at the moment though and were already shooting at him before he could think to tell them not to. Growling he began to head that way, carefully walking to avoid the burning debris of the building but at least it was easier to get to them this way than the place he had originally stumbled in through.

Of course he had his own gun, but all it could do at this point would be to draw more attention and if this person dressed in black was one of the ones that caused the explosions the last thing he wanted to do was attract more of them. Instead he reached behind his back, his left hand reappearing a moment later to reveal a large dagger about as long as his forearm and as he drew closer he called out just loud enough to be heard over the fire. "You have blades idiots! Be silent in killing or you'll just keep attracting more of them!" Of course he couldn't know that there were only three around, or that one was dead and another wounded but at this moment he had already risked himself once to come help here and he'd sooner leave them on their own than be put at real risk again.

When he was within a few steps of them he suddenly rushed forward and stopped next to the two he had told off for shooting but as he stopped his left arm snapped forward, the blade suddenly releasing from his hand in a flash headed towards the man in black. It wasn't as strong a throw as he could manage but with his weariness from fighting during the day catching up he knew at that moment it was the best he could do and he could only hope for the best.

[Aaron Hunter]

The sense of smell is often greatly underrated. People love to be able to see the wonders of the world through their wide eyes, or hear the powerful sound of music or the gentle nuances of the sea lapping against the shoreline. Food critics will wax lyrical about the joys of the most amazing meal and how their taste buds have been set alight by complex flavour combinations, and who can say that they don’t adore that luscious feeling of holding a fluffy pillow or the warmth of a lover next to one’s body. Smell can find itself being ignored, the poor relation of the senses family, often harbouring negative connotations. People turn their noses up at a bad smell, and folk don’t like it when someone kicks up a stink. However, smell is the oldest of the senses to have developed, and has its origins in the rudimentary senses for chemicals in air and water. Even lowly bacteria have such senses, giving them the ability to respond to chemicals in the air and water of their surrounding. Smell is unique among the senses because it enters directly into the brain, hitting the olfactory bulb, which is effectively a processing centre. Other senses such as vision and hearing must take the more tortuous journey from the sensory organs that are the eyes and ears, and commute through the brain’s relay station, the thalamus. In other words, a smell will elicit a reaction quicker than any other sense.

Who can deny that comforting feeling of smelling freshly cooked bread that reminds you of childhood when granny was baking; episodic memory that evokes such a heartfelt reaction. It should really come as no surprise that fashion houses such as Chanel and Dior spend millions upon millions of their hard earned cash developing new fragrances. Their scents can entice and captivate, with their alluring notes of fresh flowers or deep spices. Even without the added enhancement of perfume and cologne, people have their own unique odour. Maybe pheromones exist and play a part in giving a person their own, individual scent? Whatever the case may be, There is something that attracts us, or indeed detracts us, from a particular someone.

Humans had their own, general, smell. Aaron Hunter had grown to be able to detect the differences between a human scent and that of a fellow vampire. Perhaps it was the food that humans guzzled down that influenced their odour, or maybe something as simply as having oxygenated blood due to their necessity to breathe? Maybe it was nothing more that Aaron’s killer instinct that had given him such a keen nose for the scent of a potential meal, it mattered little. The bottom line was that humans had a different smell to vampires. The woman that had been left bleeding out over the floor of the abandoned asylum was most certainly a human. Not even her cheap $5 perfume could mask that fact. The three rather dishevelled looking characters - probably due to the explosions and subsequent chaos – who were attempting to pepper him with bullets and blades, were a different kettle of fish.

Aaron felt like he had been rolling around in a tropical jungle on a bed of green ants. Although he had covered his entire body to the best of his ability, including ill-fitting leather gloves and a blood-soaked balaclava, the harmful rays of the sun were still causing him to itch like crazy. Aaron had heard of certain vampires that could somehow shuffle around in the sunshine without being burnt to a crisp; daywalkers was the term that was banded about. Unfortunately, the smoking vampire had not yet managed to fully master this skill, so the rays of the morning sun were never going to be in his good books. Luckily he had developed a power that allowed him to rush at incredible speed, reaching his destination in the blink of an eye, helping to minimize the effects of the sunlight. Rather than been deep-fried, Aaron was more lightly grilled. He thought that he had caught sight of another two people dressed in black running away from the building, but he couldn’t be sure, such was his focus on avoiding being toasted.

Having burst into the old movie theatre - bright orange flames and thick black smoke bellowing out of crumbling walls - to investigate cries for help, Aaron was confronted by an additional menace. Not only were tentacles of stinking smoke trying to grab at his body, but three people huddled closely together were also attempting to turn his chest into a sieve. Through the haze of the smoke, it was tricky to determine the identity of the individuals, and their scents were disguised by the stench of burning furniture.

Fortunately for Aaron, the first gunslinger to fire his pistol looked wounded, fairly badly in fact, and his weary aim was poor. He wouldn’t have been able to hit the widest cinema screen with that kind of shooting. His accomplice, a woman with striking purple hair, was also clearly not a member of the rifle club and sprayed several shots well wide of her intended target. Having successfully avoided the gunfire, Aaron took his eye of the ball for a split second, not noticing the spinning dagger as it flew towards him. The first he knew of it was when the blade slammed into his left thigh, like a crunching tackle from a Giant’s linebacker. “Motherfu….”, yelled Aaron as he hopped around, stumbling over a discarded waste bin before he had time to complete his expletive.

Ripping off the damp balaclava, unleashing locks of dark shoulder length hair, Aaron gazed down at the knife, yanking it out of his leg. He glared into the foggy hallway, trying to weigh up his opponents. They didn’t look anything like the urban ninja that had attacked him only moments earlier. They just looked, well, regular. Were they hapless victims of the attack, or perpetrators of the assault? Either way, Aaron couldn’t take any chances. He drew out one of his hand cannons, getting ready to unload a few clips. The dude with the beard who had struck him in the thigh was definitely going to be the first to get a faceful of lead. Aaron paused, an element of doubt creeping into his mind like the smoke that teased his ankles. “Who the hell are you?” yelled Aaron as he took aim from behind the cover of the overturned bin.

[Stryge (DELETED 7204)]

Oh, ****. He's a vampire. When the newcomer had taken off the black mask, something had clicked for the wounded shadow. Ever since his turning Stryge had been able to identify other vampires on sight. It had nothing to do with their appearance really, though there were a few necromancers out there who probably needed to avoid ever going out in public. Instead it was as if somehow everyone around him had a special color, but not a color he could see so much as feel. Humans tended towards earthier tones. Yellows and oranges and browns. Vampires, on the other hand, consistently gave off auras that were deep and passionate. Sometimes cold. Pi's color was flaming red. Lancaster more of a cool blue. Now that he was not distracted by the damned balaclava, Stryge could see this man's color more clearly. A deep royal purple.

Why would vampires be trying to blow us up? The voice in his head seemed to be slurred, like his his brain had gone on an all night bender. Stryge tried to work through the possibilities, but the gears in his mind were moving more and more slowly. He had had no time to rest, and no blood, since he had acquired who knows what kind of injuries from the explosive blast. For all he knew he was bleeding internally right now. His defense against the torpor that daylight brought was minimal, and he could feel the strength leeching from his body.

"Hang on y'all, he's a vam-" was all Stryge got out before his legs gave out from under him and he sat down heavily on the floor, legs splayed out like a doll that had been played with violently by a maladjusted child. He used the Fareye to point at the spot were the long-haired vampire had taken cover, trying to finish his sentence, but nothing came out except a sickly wheeze, and then Stryge's eyes rolled back in his head and he was lost to the world.

[Nerissa Clemming]

Nerissa scowled at the the mace guy. What he said made sense, but with the state she was in at that moment there was no way she was going to switch to her dagger. With how tired she was from the daylight hours, she could very easily take a wrong step and fall into the fire, and her knife throwing skills were mediocre at best, so she ignored him as she reloaded her Catheryn. When the newcomer took off his balaclava and shouted at them she hesitated. The smoke and flames made it difficult for her to see exactly what he looked like, but the same something that told her to get involved in this mess told her that he wasn't her enemy.

Before she could shout an answer, the injured man shouted something then fell to the ground. She dropped her weapon and fell to the ground next to him. "Crap, we don't have time for this!" She looked up at the mace guy and said with annoyance "We're wasting time, this guy needs to get out of here now and there's no way I can carry him." She then turned her attention back to the newcomer and said "We're not your enemy, there's been a misunderstanding, However the real enemy will show up any minute if we don't get out of here. Mind giving us a hand?" She hoped she wasn't making a mistake for trusting this guy, but she hadn't been steered wrong before. She's been in more close calls and poor situations than she would like, but she continued to trust whatever it was that was guiding her, and right now it was telling her they needed to get out quickly. The flames had begun to climb up the walls and Nerissa didn't have to be a carpenter to know that with the building already weakened from the explosion, the ceiling would start crashing down around their 'safe zone' any moment. "He said the emergency exits were in the back, we can get out from one of those."

[Edenor]

As the chaos continued around them between the fire and this newcomer it became quite clear just what the person in front of him was even as the woman spoke that the one in front of them wasn't an enemy. How quick they had been to shoot and then forget about it. He wouldn't, he had acted as best he could in the situation only to find himself staring down the barrel of a rather large handgun. It had made his eyes narrow and already he was about to use his powers to attack instead before things calmed down which was likely a good thing as it might have drained him to the point of not being able to stay awake any further. He would trust in their judgment for now and approached the man who's leg had been struck by his thrown dagger and held out a hand calmly to help the man up, "I seem to have misplaced something of mine. Mind returning it after you get up?" He wouldn't apologize, it was the most correct action he could have taken then and so he felt no remorse for it.

Hearing the woman's words he knew she was correct. They had been loud with their guns again and if it had attracted another like them chances were it would attract the attackers as well. It wouldn't be fun to deal with that with the current baggage that the male on the floor had become. Glancing at the woman he said calmly figuring at the current moment things were calm enough but didn't know how long these people would remain calm even without the humans coming to play. "You go find the way out then and we'll go from there."

His mind was working in a way it hadn't had to in a while at this point as he started working out what they might have to do. Pulling out his own automatic pistol that fired rounds better suited to a full sized rifle he flipped it around and handed the grip towards the man in front of him, "You are covering my *** but if you can avoid shooting it would be preferable. I'll carry dead weight and hopefully there is an exit she can find us to get the hell out of here. I don't want to end up burning to death by sun or fire today." It was the best thing he could think of and hoped everyone would do it, he was hurt but it was just ribs and he didn't have to breath anyways, the man in front of him would likely heal soon but leg wounds could cause issues trying to carry others and the woman at least had an idea of where they might find a way out. Best case scenario, they get out unnoticed and have time to trgroup. Worst case they all die in the flames. He couldn't help a crooked smile as he murmured to himself, "Ahh good times."

[Aaron Hunter]

Apparently several butchers used to suffer nasty injuries while they tried to carve up slabs of meat on their giant chopping boards. When the more ham-fisted meat mongers slashed downwards with their cleavers and knives, they would occasionally completely miss the juicy cut of beef or rack of lamb, and plunge their sharpened tools deep into their own thighs. Clumsy, painful, and if the less than skilled workers were extremely unlucky, lethal, a misplaced boning knife could easily puncture the femoral artery, causing huge, often fatal bleeding. Fortunately for Aaron Hunter, the blade that had moments earlier thudded into his leg had missed any important blood vessels, lodging itself into the rectus femoris muscle of his left thigh. Sure, it hurt like a *****, as if a gargantuan wasp had rammed its stinger directly into his soul, but it would heal soon enough. Aaron wondered how long it would take for the bearded knife thrower’s head to recover if he smashed it repeatedly with a stainless steel steak beater.

Despite harbouring enough pent up anger to power an armada, Aaron was actually a nice guy. There was clearly some freaky **** going on right now, and confusion was king, so it was a reasonable assumption to make that the guy standing in front of him, and the man and woman huddled together in the opposite corner of the cinema entrance foyer, had acted on impulse. The chilled out drummer would somehow have to let this slide, for now at least. The time for apologies and explanations would have to wait.

Aaron got to his feet, gingerly due to the wound, and gazed intently into the eyes of the man who seconds earlier had been in the crosshairs of his gun. There was something peculiar about him, a strange familiarity even though the two had never met before. His scent, something in his blood was nagging at Aaron like an unscratchable itch. This was going to annoy the hell out of Aaron, almost as much as the gash on his thigh, but yet again, an explanation would have to be put on the back-burner. Holding out the blade in the palm of his hand, Aaron returned the dagger back to its owner. “I believe that this belongs to you?”

Eyeing up the gun being offered to him, Aaron grinned like a naughty schoolboy who’d just sneakily stuck a “kick me” sign on the back of the class nerd. “Nice pistol, dude,” exclaimed Aaron, “but mine’s bigger. You can keep it, and I’ll cover your *** with my own gear.”

Aaron shouted across to the purple haired woman, hoping that her injured companion would also be awake enough to comprehend the information that he was about to impart. “There was a human across in the old asylum, some kind of crazy terrorist with a sword the size of the Empire State. I had to take her down. It was an eye opening experience.”

He paused, looking back towards the entrance of the theatre as thick, stinking grey smoke continued to swirl around the lobby. “I think that I saw two more of them outside, but I can’t be sure. Maybe they caused this mess?”

And it was a mess. The old movie theatre was in a shabby state already, even before the explosions had ripped through its guts. It was clear that the motley crew of vampires who had been thrown together needed to get the hell out of Dodge before the situation worsened. The sun was going to be a problem, a major problem. Aaron was feeling rough, wound or no wound, having been unceremoniously dragged from his slumber. He assumed that the others would be feeling equally terrible, especially the poor guy who was slumped on the floor next to the purple haired girl. “Ok, dude,” said Aaron as he turned to his newly acquired companion, “time for you to do your packhorse duties and help out the crippled guy.”

Aaron smiled mischievously, stroking his stubble. “By the way, that’s a pretty cool beard,” he said with honesty in his voice, before his tone became more serious, “but if you ever pull a stunt like sticking a knife in me again, then I’ll shave it off with my fuckin’ teeth.”

Stretching out his arm to gesture that the other man should lead the way, Aaron finished saying his piece. “After you, amigo.”

[Stryge (DELETED 7204)]

JULIE

What a clusterfuck! Julie Powers grimaced as Robert, AKA Bravo, tightened the bandage on her leg. It was a through and through he told her. Apparently that was a good thing, as long as it missed the femoral artery, better at least than having a bullet lodged in her leg. She really couldn't understand at that moment how anything could be better than the searing pain that was shooting straight from her leg into her brain. Robert had chastised her for calling him by name when they were out in the street, but goddammit how were you supposed to think straight when you'd just been shot? Julie was beginning to think coming on this expedition was a huge mistake.

It had really been Robert's idea. He was her boyfriend, and had introduced her to Anastasia Duke, the leader of the Humanity First movement. Julie had lived in Harper Rock for about a year, and in that time, she had never seen any evidence of vampires (it still sounded ludicrous, talking about them like they were real). But Robert, who had lived here most of his life, had assured her that they were, and the other members of Humanity First reinforced this belief. Julie, who was originally from Michigan, had joined the US Army right out of high school, relying on the GI Bill to get her through college. She had worked with munitions and explosives in that time, before eventually being discharged. The time she had spent in the military had left her fairly jaded when it came to the supposed altruism of US foreign policy, and so after college, she had traveled to Ontario for work. She was even considering becoming a full-blown ex-pat. She had met Robert in Toronto, where they had begun dating, and eventually he convinced her to move back to Harper Rock with him and get a job there. And that was when he had discovered Humanity First.

She would have considered the whole group nothing but a bunch of crackpots, but she trusted Robert, and he had assured her that it was all real: the vampires, the zombies, other, even less describable creatures. They had shown her pictures from inside the Quarantine Zone; video feed of vampires caught in the act with their victims. Ultimately, Julie had come around. And now here she was, blowing up buildings for Humanity First, and getting shot in the process. She had never taken a bullet the entire time she had been in the military. Goddammit! she groaned mentally.

She and Robert had been teamed up with another woman, Karen. They were given the task of getting into the Quarantine Zone through the sewers (something Karen apparently already knew how to do, though god knew how) and bombing several buildings in the hopes of driving the blood sucking vermin out into the daylight, where presumably they would be burnt to a crisp. Karen would take point. (With a katana of all things! Didn't they have guns where she was from?) Robert would provide cover with his AR 15. And Julie, well, she would plant the bombs. It seemed like an awfully small force to Julie. but Anastasia had assured them that they would have the advantage of surprise, and that, if they stayed in the daylight, there would be very little risk of actual interaction with vampires. In spite of that, amongst themselves, Julie, Robert, and Karen had decided on code names and masks, in order to avoid any possible repercussions from being identified. And so Julie became Alpha (prompting a joke from Karen about alpha females), Robert became Bravo, and Karen became Charlie. And then everything went to hell.

They were supposed to wire several buildings to blow in succession, starting with a movie theatre and ending with the old Corvidae Flats building, which reports indicated was still being used as a residence for vampires. The other buildings were really just shots in the dark; they had no actionable evidence that vampires were residing in them, but what the hell, even if they missed the vamps, maybe they could blow a few zombies apart. When Julie triggered the first explosion, Robert had been standing guard by the supermarket, and Karen had moved on to scout their next target, the asylum. But apparently someone had actually been in the movie theatre. And apparently that someone wasn't too thrilled about getting blown up. As she was running to her next target, Julie had felt what seemed to be a small explosion in her leg. Thankfully, Robert had helped her to an abandoned building to take cover. It was a miracle that the shooter, whoever they were, hadn't taken any more lethal shots at them. They had chosen not to carry comms, a stupid move in hindsight, but they had planned on staying within line of sight of each other, so that the comm couldn't be potentially used against them in a hostage situation. But Karen had botched that plan by running too far ahead. Now she was off at the asylum doing god knew what, while Julie was laying there bleeding on a dirty floor. Julie was worried that something might have happened to her, and told Robert as much, but Robert had assured Julie that Karen was able to take care of herself. How do you know? Julie had thought morosely. She had started to suspect that Robert and Karen were screwing.

"Holy ****! Check this out!" Robert was looking out onto the street through the dirty window of the abandoned building they had taken shelter in. Julie was about to angrily remind him that she had been shot in the leg, and couldn't just go running over there the second he saw something cool, but she was cut off by Robert describing what appeared to be a female vampire running into the flaming theatre. She listened raptly as soon he began describing another blood sucker make a dash for it. And then his voice dropped low. "Oh ****," he said. "They got her. They got Karen." He didn't bother to use her code name. Julie asked what he meant, but Robert seemed too distraught to answer, so gritting her teeth through the pain, she hobbled over to the window to look. She saw a male figure who obviously wasn't Karen wearing gear that was obviously hers.

Julie's eyes narrowed. They needed a plan. The vamps had done exactly the opposite of what they had been planning for, running into the burning building instead of out of it. She turned to Robert. "Hey, we need to talk about how to finish this." Robert was slouched against the wall despondently, his head in his hands. The assault rifle lay forgotten by his side. Julie was getting angry.

"Hey fucknuts!" she growled at him. "We have a goddamn mission to finish, and I am not going to die out here!" She kicked him. "Get the **** up!"

"Ow, hey, what the hell?" Robert glowered at her, but he got to his feet and grabbed his rifle.

"We have four confirmed vampires in that building right now," Julie gestured toward the burning theatre. "I don't know what the hell they're doing in there, but we need to either get them out, or burn the whole place down around their ears." She was disturbed by the fact that three creatures who supposedly were destroyed by sunlight had just run down a daylit street, but she was still hoping that prolonged exposure would do the trick. If she was lucky, all three of them, as well as the one she had blown up, were in a world of hurt right now.

"We are going to go round to the back, where there are probably emergency exits, wire them, and blow them. Then we are going to take cover, sit back, and pick them off as they come out. Or, if no one comes out, we sift through the ashes. Either way, I'd say taking out four vampires earns us a ticket home today. Now can you do this, or not?"

Robert stared at her for a moment, then nodded his affirmation, pulling his balaclava back over his face. Julie nodded back at him, doing the same. When this was over, she was definitely breaking up with him.

They grabbed their gear and headed toward the back of the cineplex.

STRYGE

His world was a haze of colors, mostly dark, and pain, mostly internal. Nonetheless, he was able to swim through both towards a light that beckoned him, a fluttering light that matched the fluttering of his own eyelids. For a second, he hovered on the brink of consciousness. He felt his body being carried, bouncing around, each jerk and tug exacerbating the pain that ate at him. Still, for a moment, he was able to gasp the first thing that came to mind, the driving thought that had pushed his subconsciousness to the brink of consciousness. "Cut down the curtains" he whispered hoarsely. He had no desire to burn to death outside. And then, once more, his mind was dragged down to the murky depths, and he spoke no more.

[Nerissa Clemming]

Nerissa stood up and slung Catheryn over her shoulder. She was more than ready to get out of there and decided to stake out the back of the theater while the others got ready. She walked down the halls that had the least amount of damage. She walked quickly down the halls, glancing at the old movie posters that still hung on the walls. A few of the movies she recognized, but she never actually got to see any of them. It was around that time that she ran away from home and living on the streets made it difficult to enjoy things like going out to the movies. With a smile Nerissa recalled a time a couple years ago when she successfully sneaked into a movie theater to watch Now You See Me. The theater wasn't all that big on security which made it very easy for her to walk in with another family. She really enjoyed the movie, loving how the magicians were always one step ahead of the police, which was how she viewed herself at the time. Heck, she saw herself that way still, only she was much more arrogant about it than she probably should.

She finally located an emergency exit at the end of the least damaged wing, an unlit exit sign hanging above it and a warning sign on the door that read 'ALARM WILL SOUND'. Nerissa scowled and hoped that the power wasn't still hooked up. She tentatively pushed on the door handle and breathed a sign of relief at the silence that followed. She turned back to the men behind her and said "Looks like we're in luck! If I remember correctly there should be a building next to us we could hide in, or we could make a mad dash for the Flats. Either way we're going to need somewhere we can regroup then go after the humans that started all of this." She took off her rifle and cocked it, "And I wouldn't be surprised if their waiting for us somewhere. You guys have any ideas on what we should do?" She was more than willing to take complete control of the situation, but despite her confident tone she was fighting off the exhaustion gnawing at her. It was taking a lot of her will power to not curl up on the floor and take a nap. So she figured it would be smart to hear what the others had to say before she got the chance to get them all killed. She had heard of the Shadow Realm from her sire and she would rather not have to deal with that on top of everything else that had happened.

[Edenor]

Thankfully the man wasn't too heavy, otherwise he doubted he would have been able to make it as far as he had with him slung over his shoulders in a standard Fireman's carry. It was the best way for him to deal with the unconscious man and while he knew it wasn't comfortable from personal experience it could be much worse being dragged around instead. He had found the threats of the other that was still up that he had stuck with a knife to be most amusing. 'Shave it off with my ******* teeth.' That was one he hadn't heard before as a threat, found it to be quite a mental image and decided he might have to save that for his own personal use later on should the opportunity present itself.

Following the only woman in their group he stopped away from the exit she was near, leaning against a wall with the man still over his shoulders to help take some of the weight off of him and let him rest a bit. Rest. Oh how nice that sounded and even though he didn't want to he felt his eyes closing to give in to the exhaustion. He knew it wasn't right and he growled angrily at himself. Fortunately his ribs weren't completely healed from his mad bashing of the Mooncalf and his right hand went up to them and pressed on them himself until he heard and felt the breaking of the rib again. A hiss of pain escaped him but it had him awake again and that was what was needed. If he slept or lost his alert state he died. Couldn't let that happen and especially not under these circumstances.

It was then he heard the man on his back, his voice barely audible but with how close he was he couldn't have not heard it. Lightbulb went off as soon as he heard the words and he laughed out loud before calling to the others, "This guy on my back has an idea so simple I can't believe I didn't think of it. We gotta use the curtains. They should be plenty to keep the sun off us." Had the man been conscious he'd have likely given him a slap on the back for seeing an easy solution to what he had not even started to think of yet. Of course they would have to go back in the sun, and especially him weighed down with the wounded man would definitely need some covering to not burn to death in the sunlight. Then the woman spoke up about the others waiting and he frowned deeply.

He knew some of the layout of the QZ but not all of it by memory, and he finally set the man down to go over by the woman, "They are most certainly waiting, across the street in buildings that give them the best view of these exits. I don't think they would be watching the front because that is exactly where we wouldn't want to be to leave from." It made sense, set the building on fire, they know that at least one of them is in here and it would make a great trap that they could easily fire across should any of the other exits open. "We are gonna need a decoy if you want me to get him out." He jerked his head towards the man who had given him the idea of curtains. He hadn't even bothered to look around yet but that could wait, without a plan and just running out was likely to get them all mowed down before they even had a chance to escape. then another lightbulb went off, "Know how far to the nearest sewer entrance?" He didn't use it, that little trick of his to walk over the water left him able to come and go as he pleased from the area without having to worry about the sewer entrances. He hadn't bothered to learn his way in or out of the QZ using them because of it.

[Aaron Hunter]

The group was pinned down. Fire and thick, choking smoke was blocking one direction, and it seemed likely that the other two terrorists were lurking outside, like hyenas stalking their prey before rushing in to pick at their dying carcasses. On top of that, like a giant orange vulture of death circling in the sky above them, was the sun, ready to fry them with its fiery fingers. Aaron was a free bird, not a caged budgie, and the feeling of being cooped up frustrated the hell out of him. Being trapped inside a crumbling building with a bunch of strangers was definitely not his idea of a fun day out. There was no way that this derelict movie theatre was going to become some kind of tomb for him, or his new acquaintances for that matter. Aaron was going to get out of the shithole; they were all going to get out.

The wounded man, who was slung over the shoulder of the bearded guy like a sack of coal, had come up with a reasonable enough suggestion. If the rag-tag troop could take shelter under the huge cinema curtains then they may have a half decent chance of avoiding the harmful rays of the morning sun. They could use it like the shell of a giant tortoise, and scurry for safety, as if they were taking shelter beneath Harry Potter’s cloak of invisibly, or the elven equivalent in The Lord of the Rings that kept Frodo out of sight of the orcs. It could actually work! There was, of course, the one glaring caveat to the success of the hare-brained scheme, the small matter of the decoy, which was brought up by the dagger-wielding fighter who was doubling up as a packhorse. In order for the tortoise to win the race, the hare would have to take the scenic route to the finish line.

“I’ll do it,” said Aaron, faking enthusiasm to hide his reluctance, “I’ll be the decoy. There is a sewer entrance near the eastern fence. I figure you guys can make it if I go in the opposite direction and draw away any fire.”

This was a really crazy idea, like the time that Aaron thought that he could fly at a friend’s house party and decided to jump out of a second floor window. That alcohol fuelled dare didn’t quite go to plan, and the foolhardy teenager nearly broke his neck. There was a distinct possibility of an equally disastrous outcome to this voluntary act of lunacy. There was a fine line between bravery and stupidity, and Aaron was potentially about to leap across it.

Turning his attention to the bearded man, who only minutes earlier had been in the sights of his gun, Aaron threw his thoughts into the pot. “Ok, Buffalo Bill, you take your knife throwing circus and the dude on your shoulder, and make a run for it with Calamity Jane over there.”

Aaron smiled at the purple haired woman as she readied her rifle. It wasn’t really the time for smiling and joking, but Aaron always tried to use humour to defuse a tense situation. Laughing kept him sane as a child, even when there was precious little to laugh about.

“There’s a disused fire station across the way,” continued Aaron as he rubbed the wound on his thigh, hoping it wouldn’t hinder his progress, “so I can try to make a dash for cover while you lot do a vanishing trick.”

How strange that Aaron could find himself being burned alive while charging towards a fire station. Sadly the firefighters were long gone, like his own deceased father, a former fireman from New York. Grabbing the balaclava and leather gloves that had served him so well during his sprint from the asylum, Aaron wiggled his fingers, limbering up, ready for action. “Right, guys,” he said loudly, psyching himself up, “any questions or brilliant additional ideas, or should we just get this show on the road?”