Cures and Mayhem [invite]

[Gideon Barnes (DELETED 8781)]

[FOR THE CURE]

A cure for the leeches. Gideon wanted and needed that cure. All of it. He knew with enough time, prayer, and patience that eventually things would favor the rightful side. The side of natural law. When he heard that the compound needed hands to help protect the cure, no one needed to ask him to sign up. He wasted no time going there and talking to a commando and letting his intentions known. He would protect the cure with his life because the cure was needed.

After he signed up, Gideon sent a text to his brother and partner in crime. If he didn't know about this already, he would. Especially after things with his wife.

To: Esli
From: Gideon

Message: Brother. God is good as always. There is a cure for the vampire epidemic. We need to protect this cure. It may be our only chance to get one up on the pariah's of our world. I've included the location to the compound. Talk to the Commando named 'Rex.' He'll sign you up and give you access to the compound and all the floors inside. We'll talk more when you get here. Check in on floor six. Be swift and safe.

With that done, Gideon moved throughout the compound, inspecting the security measures that remained. There was work to do here and he and his brother were the ones who could get it done and see this through. They would need to be offensive and defensive, but mostly the former. Eventually, the first floor would be breached and they needed to prepare for that.

And while that was going on, Mona needed to be prepared for things on the outside. Which meant he needed to reach out to her. Chances are, she wasn't going to be happy with him and he couldn't blame her. Hopefully, she wouldn't go insane with three kids at home by herself. Even if they slept pretty good through the night, it was still a big responsibility. But, she wouldn't be alone. He planned on talking to Esli and having the women work together and hopefully...depend on the other while he and Esli took care of things here. A message was made for Mona all while he moved down another corridor, making plans for the compound silently in his head.

To: Mona
From: Gideon

Message:
There's a compound with the cure for vampirism on the east side of town. Stay clear of it. Esli and I are going to help keep it safe. It's our only shot at getting the upper hand on the vermin. Keep the kids safe. Stay away. Please. I'll be home soon. Pass the time with Lasair.

He should have said more, but now was not the time. Only pricks say what was on their mind in a situation like this and not face to face. Mona deserved better than that. She was amazing, even if their life was crazy and unorthodox. Gideon hit send and then moved to the main floor to exterminate as many vampires as he could, before retreating to one of the upper floors to wait for his brother, as indicated.

[Esli Barnes]

[FOR THE CURE]


Esli stared at the words in front of him. He read them slowly for the fourth time as if there would be something hidden and to be discovered. Nothing but what Gideon was conveying came through. Well, sort of. He already saw the warnings in the messages due to the content and what was being suggested for action.

A cure. That really was hard to believe but then again so was the alarming rate that the vampire population was rising to. It was beyond epidemic. It was becoming the active extinction of mankind. Artificial intelligence was in a race for domination with the vampirism spreading across the populations. Could this discovery, the news delivered or intercepted, be a sign of that? Either way mankind was appearing to have drawn the shortest straw in what they perhaps blindly initiated to begin with. Nothing about that fact could compel him more to act than what it had already cost him… her. His wife.

Lasair was so heavy with the weighted emotional, psychological and physical reminder of the wickedness and evil that was in the world around them. She lost sleep. She tossed and turned fighting what she couldn’t defeat. Esli was present for it. He spent the hours his head was on a pillow watching, waiting for her to win the internal battle that he couldn’t fight for her or rescue her from. He did everything he could think of to support her. Saying nothing, saying what he felt, asking her what he could do, apologizing for what he was sure he could have prevented from happening if he had not failed somewhere. When massages, silence, contact and even distance ran him into walls he invested hours on his knees praying when the days turned to weeks.

Grief for the couple was not entirely the same. It couldn’t be. He wouldn’t possibly know how it felt to have a life deep within his body supposedly safe from harm only to have it extinguished by some demonic force. And that is how he saw it. No words were available to him for what took place. Their child, God’s blessing, was murdered. She was subjected to feeling the loss in her bones, her worn stretched muscles that no longer cradled the moving hope they had for the world they lived in. She was continually haunted in mind and body.

Esli was not out of the woods either. He felt the loss in every second of every hour they saw their way through.What inspired her to smile had lost it’s meaning.The sun rarely saw her fiery head. She lost track of her days and nights. It took his hands lifting her to get her into the shower, to cleanse her and wash her. But the pain, the reality remained. Nothing could wash away the truth. Everything routine was gone. Understandably he had not heard the sound of her laughter and knew it would perhaps be gone for good. She was grieving and it was hers to own and to work through. His love would not fail to continue for however long it took. With the guidance of God he would do what was right. He had his own ideas on what could make a difference, shift what was going to be the darkest period either of them have ever faced.

Even more so as he glanced at the words sent from his brother. If there was a cure he wanted his hands on it. He wanted to reverse what damage had been done and destroy the power of what was against everything God had created. He could be accused of being vengeful, unforgiving and questioning. It would be accurate. Those are warning signs that his faith was taking a hit. The way he saw it he had to do something more than sit in the dark and lose his wife. God needed to set that flickering light in her soul on fire once again. There was only one answer. Rise. They both had to along with their brother. Esli wasn’t about to leave Lasair behind when there was a war that could be won if Gideon’s information was certain. She had every right being in the front lines making it happen. He never made decisions for her before and he wasn't about to try doing it now.

“Lasair.” His voice was soft as he sifted through the layers of cotton and pillows to find her. The sun was bright, the rays seeping in through the smallest cracks and warming the space exposed. His hands searched slowly, gently to make contact with her body. “Gideon messaged. He has found out information that suggests there is a cure for this evil that is plaguing the world. It is being held in a secured place. We can stop it from spreading. But he says they need help protecting it. Obviously it is in great jeopardy of being destroyed before it can be used.”

Hopefully she was listening. He waited. He was not expecting any particular reaction. His wife had been on an extended tour of personal hell that was invading both of their lives. Given that alone he was prepared to hear anything or nothing. Elsi would act as he was called to in the manner that God would expect. That meant he would consult with his wife. He errored in not doing so before and it cost them God’s blessing. He would not fail again.

"Come with me. God's will shall be done."

[Charles Crafter]

[FOR THE CURE]


Charles had studied the situation beforehand. When it came to business, or rather running cons, he could be fantastic, when it came to fighting not so much. Nevertheless, he realized that just by fighting the vampires in this situation gave him an edge in the future with the right kind of people. If he failed he still might get help from some. If they succeeded however who knows how many vampires might turn human. But that was more a side thought in his mind, still, it was there at least, a sign he wasn't all conman perhaps.


Charles looked at others present, a kind smile upon his face, one practiced so long it was instinctive to wear it. Some were here for money of course, some were here because they actually believed the cure would save people. Whether from a statistical sense or from a moral standpoint. No doubt some of them were vampires themselves, it wouldn't have surprised him at all if that were true.


His eyes glanced around the room looking for the ones that'd stand out, of course there was the possibility they wouldn't after all, some having the abilities that would allow them to get around things like that. He didn't stand out either though, despite being a sorcerer, his abilities were weak, his equipment and fighting skills were too actually. He actually might have been more useful to the opposing side then this one, but he didn't care who he was useful to, he cared who was useful to him.



"So, this might be where they're hiding the cure as they work on it." He said to himself shaking his head, "Can't help but think they'd at least try and have more then one place where they were making it. Even if it just meant sending it digitally. I mean if the military is involved you'd definitely think it would have a back up."


Course there are who knows how many other reasons they wouldn't. Private business wanting to keep the profit to themselves, who the government is simply guarding out of necessity. Eh, doesn't matter. What matters is making all this work out in the end.


He began walking around the rooms looking for people who would actually know what they were doing, even if he wouldn't be as useful fighting, he could be useful maybe in the more intellectual parts of this. It may have been more a military thing, but hey, at least it'd be something relatively close to what he was used to.

[Lasair Barnes (DELETED 9516)]

[FOR THE CURE]

The bouts of depression were severe, but they also came in waves. Some days were easier than others. Those were the days Lasair remembered that she hadn’t lost everyone. She still had Esli. By default, she had Gideon; the days spent with Gideon’s young ones were good days, the maternal need to care for the children eclipsing all else. She helped Mona as much as she could when she was there, the only time she smiled was at the children, their bright oblivious happiness helping to lure her out of the dark space into which she had crawled.

But the nights after the days with the children were always hardest, remembering what she had lost. The baby boy with Esli’s eyes. She dreamed of him at night time. She dreamed that she had him in her arms, his small fingers grasping at her chest while he fed, the weight of him as she danced him to sleep. The dreams, so bright and secure always turned to nightmares. The nightmares were too gruesome to repeat; she couldn’t talk to Esli about them, not fully, though he would always get the gist. In her dreams, she watched her baby die. Every single night, over and over again, she watched him die in so many different horrific ways, and there was no way that she could help him.

The day time was easier, somehow, with the light of the sun dancing upon her eyelids, the warmth seeping into her skin. In the day time she was safe from the terrors of the night.

And there were days she forced herself out of bed and into a shower, Esli at her side, if only to try to be strong again. For him. For them. She was terrified that if she did not bounce back she would lose him, too. And she may as well dig her own grave, if that were to happen.

When he came to find her, his voice cutting through the gloom, her heart swelled with guilt. She was asleep again, and it was day time. And she hadn’t got out of bed. But he wasn’t angry with her. She didn’t know if that was better or worse. She rolled onto her back, eyes still heavy with sleep blinking at her husband. It took a few seconds for the words to sink in, and her fair features twisted into a scowl. It was a foreign expression for the Irishwoman. She had never been so furious.

“A cure?” she repeated. “I don’t want to cure them, my love. I want to ******* slaughter them,” she said. The words were spoken with such vehemence, and yet she was in bed, her legs bare, one of Esli’s shirts hanging loose over her torso. What was she doing to help with the slaughter? She was doing nothing. Absolutely nothing. She pushed herself into a seated position, fingers curling around Esli’s neck.

“Can we do that? Can we find the woman who took our baby and make her pay…?” she asked, eyes wide and hopeful.

[Gideon Barnes (DELETED 8781)]

[For The Cure]

Gideon hadn’t seen his younger brother for a couple of hours after they split up. He decided to start wandering the other corridors in search of his brother. They had hunkered down on six and devised a few plans and tactics before going their own way, which meant that he could be on any floor now. And there were a fair few in the underground compound.

Gideon decided to start where most the action was at, believing his brother was engaged in some battle that may, or may not need his help. After trudging through the pariah filled floor on the main level, which resulted in his bits a little too sore for his comfort, he had no choice but to retreat back to the elevator. Without Esli. It wasn’t a feeling he liked, but he had been shot a few times and was losing blood. He was also getting tired, given he was a one man show at the moment. Still, where the high hell was Esli at?

After making his way down to the first floor, and coming up empty handed, Gideon decided to change his tactics. He first sent a text to his brother’s phone. Since he could get reception on this floor. Then, he sent one to Lasair, making sure she hadn’t seen him and even wondering where she was. Would she stick back with Mona, or would she join their cause and open a can of whoop ***? Work smarter, not harder was something that came to mind. Each time the elevator opened on a new floor, he shouted ‘BROTHER,’ waited, and then carried on with his search. He had just hit a new floor when Gideon saw someone. Or, the back of someone. A very human someone, given the feeling GIdeon got from the guy in the long corridor. Hopefully, this human someone was a potential ‘friend,’ or ally in this case as Gideon wasn’t really looking to make friends. Still, an ally was better than a foe any day of the week. He prayed to God that he was right. That this human was here to help the compound and not working with the vampires.

Gideon shouted at the male’s back as he stepped off the elevator. “Hey!” He shouted, this time a little louder than the last time. His steps quickened to catch up with the gu and then Gideon moved around the guy. A badge. He saw a badge. Was it the same as his? Gideon looked down at his badge to make sure they were one of the same, before he continued. He didn’t need to waste any more time looking for his brother, not if someone had seen him already. “Hey. Did you see a guy about yay tall?” Gideon moved an arm to his shoulder, just a little higher than it and made a cutting motion with his hand. “Dark hair. Long. Paladin. Couldn’t have missed him.” Gideon looked the guy in the eyes, because if he was going to lie, Gideon would see it in his face, and eyes first.

[Jade (DELETED 9682)]

It had been six weeks since that fateful night Jade’s life had changed forever. One chance meeting inside that bar had brought her down the red brick road from which there was no return. At first it hadn’t been too bad given there was plenty to explore and much to learn. Once the novelty started to wear off, the killer had begun to miss the little things from her human life. The sun. Real food. Running the trails and seeing the wildlife. Things that she had taken for granted until there were no longer available to her.

To add insult to injury, her sire had seemed to have disappeared into thin air. She hadn’t seen him in quite some time nor had she heard from him in any form. Apparently, she was being left to her own devices. That wasn’t going well at all. She was constantly getting spotted when trying to feed if not shot at. It was getting to be a right pain in the *** to go to the black market for her nightly fix. She had heard tales of vampires that fed off their own kind. It was becoming a tempting option.

The news that there was a cure being developed had been music to her ears. A chance to have her life back the way it was before this damn insanity. She really didn’t care what the hell any others thought of the issue. It really didn’t even matter if it was safe...it was hope in a bottle to the fledgling. Something that she knew would have to be protected as all costs given she was quite sure there were many others that would want to find and destroy it.

She had made several inquiries before she had found someone willing to tell her where the military facility was located. Following the river east from town, she had found the building as described. Following the advice she had received, she found the security personnel in charge of conscripts and signed up without a second thought. Security clearance in hand, she headed to the bottom floor in search of the terminal so she could study the pictures of her fellow militia members. The last thing she wanted was to accidentally injure one of them.

Faces memorized, she took the elevator back to the ground floor in hopes of killing off or at least seriously injuring some of the attacking hordes. Given her fledgling status, the woman was careful to only target those who she was fairly certain she could gain an upper hand on. She may not like her current existence, but she had no desire to visit the mysterious Shadow Realm she had heard rumors about; especially not when her chance for a normal life was close at hand.

Being attacked by one of their own blindsided the killer and she had to be thankful for her immortality at that moment. If she had been human, she would have been on her way to the hospital. In her current state, she could – and would – keep on fighting.

[FOR THE CURE]

[Charles Crafter]

[FOR THE CURE]

Not much had happened yet, there weren't too many people on the side of this thing apparently. Which was just a bit worrisome, that sort of thing could get you killed since the odds were very much against you. Nevertheless, people had still joined it, so at least there was that, they might try harder in an attempt to keep up. Or play it smart, if they had any intellect about them.


Finally however, something other then failing at attacking happened, a man showed up apparently looking for someone. Charles turned around at the shout his eyes spotting him quickly, and the badge, which made his worry of getting attacked and killed or sent to a hospital become much reduced. And thus just a bit relieved.

He didn't have to wait long before Gideon explained what he was here for, looking for someone, and giving out height, hair, as well as a class. Charles had to consider it for a moment, it was possible he'd seen him, but he couldn't be sure about that. This guy was wearing a badge, so it's reasonable that either the other guy was to or he was against the cure, which didn't sound quite right, but was possible.

He shook his head, "Sorry, don't think so. I might be able to try and help you look for him though? I'm not doing much good at some of this other stuff so I should probably make myself useful."


That part was certainly true. Of course behind those somewhat joyful eyes, which had become just a bit noticeably less so after all this fighting, was the mind of a conman. Just waiting for this to turn into something useful by instinct. It wasn't something that showed, it had gotten so into his nature it was like breathing. Charles was a conman, and a conman had to be many things, but a deceiver was always one of them.

[Esli Barnes]

The travel through the interior of the building became a challenge. He had his briefing and was privy to those who would be considered trustworthy and invested in protecting the cure. Fangs or not it was apparent the cure wasn’t an altogether bad thing for some with cool blood pooling in the center. It didn’t change his mind on how he saw things. He wanted the world cleansed of the abomination and no mercy would be given when it finally happened. Esli ignored asking questions, doing any meet and greet. He was finding being in the same room with anything nearly dead pushing his limits of tolerance.So off he went hiking through the corridors patrolling for whatever wasn’t welcome. Orders were orders. Plain and simple it was attack with everything he had and defend what was stored in the location at all costs.

Which he did. But he sort of had some early issues with his hair trigger tolerance of those that seemed to be distracting him from his main objective. Perhaps it was common for some to get along with the dead but he missed that memo. Hell, he missed a lot of things and when he finally pulled out of his coma he would admit as much.

Back to the beginning. Esli wasn’t exactly sure what he expected to happen once he arrived with Lasair and signed up for the call of duty. But he found out fast and what happened next was rather quick. Nameless faces came from out of nowhere. His fang bearing radar had his heart pumping double time with a rush of vengeance that he couldn’t curb long enough to match a name or a face. Everything was going at a breakneck pace and at a rate that hardly gave him time to ask for identification. This was his first issue of several. A few hits seemed to be making a dent in things and slowing down those trying to invade. Briefly. Then he found the haze of vampire chaos swirling around him that had him looking eye level at what appeared to be the waist of something he never seen the likes of before. From there it was downhill, or down a hall, down kneecaps, bouncing off walls, blood loss and a few last thoughts. It could have been the boat size boot up sent up his *** or the send off kiss he gave the ceiling. No one could expect him to think clearly either way. While the sirens wailed in the rush of being whisked away what came to the paladin’s mind was odd at best.

Lasair is going to be mad. Oliver will be ecstatic.

Still [FOR THE CURE]

[Gideon Barnes (DELETED 8781)]

****.

Was the only thing Gideon could think about when the guy said he hadn't seen his brother. But a suggestion of looking for him brought a nod from Gideon. "Yeah. That'd be great. Thanks." Gideon said, as he started moving down the corridor to where he heard some sounds of hurried feet and things crashing to the ground. "My name's Gideon. You knew to the cause, or worked here?" Gideon asked, wondering how much the guy knew about the layout of the place and the cure.

"Think it's possible? To be cured of an affliction like vampirism? It's not a cold that can be wiped away. It embeds itself inside a person and then turns them into...a monster. A shell of their natural form." Gideon shook his head. It just wasn't right. Being what they were and not being able to die. It defied the rules of everything. A darker power was at work here. Maybe the devil himself...or something more sinister. He didn't know, but whoever, or whatever it was...wasn't natural and he was determined to restore the natural order of things. "There's a red headed woman in here. If you see her, she's a friend. Here to help. I've seen a few others with badges, but don't know any of them. And if you see a woman with dark hair and a few tattoos, she's a friend too." gideon mentioned casually as they took a turn down a corridor and came face to face with a guard who gave them a quick look over, saw their badges and pointed down the hall. "We've got intruders. we're going to make a stand down the hall. I suggest you stand with us, or move to another floor." Was all the soldier with the assault rifle said before he jogged down the hall.

[For The Cure]

[Ephraim Steele]

[FOR THE CURE]

It was an opportunity that had presented itself at the most appropriate time; a chance of incalculable value to wage wholesale war upon the vampire scourge. It was a moment of divine intervention if Ephraim had ever witnessed one, and he truly believed to have been witness to many moments of such circumstances where the Lord’s power coincided with the will of men, making the impossible, possible. These brief moments, these numerous moments of infinitesimal power exerted upon the realm of men were as close as these modern times came to true miracles. Heathens plagued the earth more numerous than the monsters that he had come to the Great North to hunt, and like a host of locusts they were set to devour the faithful, to swallow the world into a darkness apart from their Savior. It was a dark time for true believers of the Faith.

Even the devout found holding on to their beliefs, their righteous way of life, a task that few of them were truly cut for. Ephraim himself had devolved into baser instincts, feelings and thoughts unfit for a man of God, and with those moments he felt himself distant from the light that granted him strength. He hoped that, with joining the cry for help against these monsters that he stood to redeem himself in the eyes of the Lord, that the blood sacrifice that he had come to lay upon the Altar of Abraham would be sufficient in the eyes of God.

He didn’t have to check his phone. He knew that Sawyer would understand the message that he had sent her. The urgency underscored with the code he had given each of his little band of Hunters;

The Sword of Gabriel is prepared to strike.

The message had preceded the base’s coordinates and the radio frequency that the emergency broadcast had been used, calling for the aid of all available bodies of appropriate skill and power to come to the aid of the military personnel at the CFB Longslade outside of Harper Rock. The facility was already under attack, vampires by the dozens pouring through the broken doors of the base’s shattered face. It would appear that, for all intents and purposes, that War had laid his hand upon the restless city of the damned. It was high time, then, that fear was shaken into the hearts of these monsters.

Without a word, the tall, muscle-bound man moved for the broken doors at a slow jog, his hand moving to pull the blade from its scabbard at his hip. The ******** blade was too heavy and unwieldy for the average man to strike with one hand, the weapon designed for a one-two hand style, but with the blessings of God and the power of the sorcerer Osmond Falvieri and the skilled enchantress Jenna Wolcroft, he was blessed with incredible strength and speed, surpassing the average man time and again. He was a specimen of particular quality, his body a toned machine, a tool of God to strike at his enemies upon the earth as he saw fit. Ephraim Steele was a weapon of the Lord, a warrior of God in the highest, and he would not fail to fulfil his purpose in this place. He would not allow the sacrifices that he had made, that he had watched the others make, be for naught.

As he moved through the door, a vampire leaped at him from the darkness. A mouth full of fangs gleamed in the naked moonlight that managed to faintly pierce the smoke that still clung to the air of the threshold. Clawed fingers curled in wicked talons that slashed through the air with deadly purpose, though they were well wide of their mark, the tall blonde man already behind the fool vampire before he even realized that the paladin had taken a step. As the vampire turned on him, Ephraim’s weapon howled at the air, a sound that rattled his bones as the blade split the air in its path, until it met the side of the slender vampire’s head, cleaving through the temple and sending the top of the man’s skull flying into the darkness, the ruined remains of brain tumbling through the air to splash against a wall somewhere in the dark. It was the first of many to come.

He moved into the dark, his hand raised as he saw the barrel of an assault rifle pointed at him. He could see the figure holding the weapon, and knew immediately that it was no vampire that held the weapon fixed on him. He moved closer in the din of combat that surrounded them, and murmured into the man’s ear.

“I am here to answer the call. I’ll see what I can get done here, if you can see to it that my access is seen to by the time I return.” The man nodded consent, ready to speak when the paladin’s blade whipped through the air again, catching a lean, emaciated man that had thrown himself through the air at the commando, the tip of his blade piercing the man’s throat while the vampire’s weight and momentum sent him sliding down the long weapon, until his head was separated from his shoulders, the light weight of the body thumping into him almost unnoticed as the head tumbled between them both and rolling into the darkness. Instead of blood, a black, inky smoke clung to the air between them that made Ephraim’s features twist into a frown, his hand lifting to tug angrily at the curly hair of his thick beard. His eyes strayed back to the entrance, watchful for his Lieutenant, knowing that Sawyer wouldn’t be far behind him, now.