itstopped | Re-Entry 08: Video/Spam

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Re-Entry 08: Video/Spam

Help!

[The cry goes out while the video is still turning on. The picture, when it appears, is chaotic: Felix Gaeta, ashen grey and soaked with sweat and tears of panic, but only for a second before the shaking camera turns on what looks like an empty Western ghost town, caught from a high vantage point, shingles visible at the bottom of the screen.

Not empty. There are snarls and yowls and a terrifyingly organic sound coming from below.

Felix's voice cuts in again, tight with fear. He's not a hero. He's not a fighter. He's the one at the controls, and for all that he's usually good at staying calm in a crisis, it's a lot frakking easier when there's a console between him and it. He sounds a little hysterical.]

SOS! SOS! I'm pinned down in the-- oh, gods-- [There's another furious roar from below; his voice hitches, the camera shakes.] --the CES. Something attacked us. I think Dean is dead. I--

[There's a scream from underneath, unmistakeably human. The communicator drops against the shingles--] Dean? [--and cuts out.]

[Open Spam for Level Two/Infirmary, Later]

[After it's all over, after they've done what they can with Dean's corpse and patched up whatever needs to be on the survivors, Felix is set adrift into the aftermath. He should get cleaned up and then stay with Dean, he knows, or else he should get back to work and keep something like this from happening again. But he can't seem to make himself go to the latter just yet, not with Dean dead less than an hour, and the former...

He's always known that the death toll exists here, but he's never had to really confront it before, not in a way he couldn't brush off and ignore. The truth is that it scares him more than almost anything else about the Barge, even here, even now. It's not ignorance; it's not that he's never seen anything like it before. It's that he has.

The pull to sit by Dean's side and wait is powerful, but in the end, he winds up haunting the door to the infirmary, still red-eyed and disheveled, constantly peeking inside.]

((Right after/congruent with this, obviously.))

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[ Oh jesus christ. It had to be Dean, didn't it. Steph's already pulling on her suit. ]

I am en route to your location, armed and ready. Is anyone else coming?

Edited 2013-05-19 23:46 (UTC)

[There's a nasty grating sound as he fumbles the communicator back up, the picture gone out.] I don't-- I don't know. We're, um, we're on the northwest side, near the center, I think. We were on our way to--

[Oh, frak.] Iris, she's in here too, northwest corner. I don't know what happened to her.

Got it. Can you confirm any injuries? [ If Dean is alive or is Felix is hurt, they take precedence. Otherwise she needs to find out about Iris. ]

I-- injuries? What? Dean is being torn the frak apart down there!

If you're hurt or in immediate danger you're my first priority. If not, I need to make sure Iris is in the same condition.

What the frak are you talking about? Do you hear what's going on here??

[ She's running too fast now to roll her eyes, but the impulse is there. ]

Iris hasn't called for help. If that's because she's physically unable to I'd like to make sure somebody knows about it. Do me a favor and let the next person who contacts you know she's in there.

On my way.

[ Grabbing a sidearm and not even taking the time to bother with much else. Good thing she wears a sports bra as a matter of casual dress. ]

Stay on the line, Felix.

Gods dammit, are you coming or aren't you? [He remembered Iris enough to mention it, but beyond that, he couldn't care less about her right now; the dogs are still snarling and growling below him, although he hasn't heard that human voice again since he dropped the communicator, and all he can think is that Dean is going to die, is dying, is dead, and he'll be next.]

Frak it-- SOS! SOS! Is anyone else on this channel? I need help! Warden down! We are unarmed!

Oh, thank gods. [He doesn't know Steph, he doesn't know what the hell she's even doing, but Racetrack found him in the middle of nowhere once. He trusts her. He lets out a shaky sound, takes a deep breath.] I'm here.

I'm practically at the door, Jesus, bite the hand that jumps in front of monsters for you, why don't you?

[ But she hears the communicator drop and she once again has to resist the urge to roll her eyes as she shouts into the communicator. ]

I don't think yelling at the thing is going to help!

I want details. Tell me all you got.

[ She's not exactly a Marine and this isn't deep space navigation, but she can shoot and she does good in a crisis and she is not leaving a frakking friend to handle whatever that is alone. ]

[He's done with her until she shows up or cuts out; he doesn't have the breath to argue. He's just going to repeat the distress call until Racetrack chimes in.]

[By the time he gets the message, Dean is in the infirmary.]

[Which doesn't mean he would have gone. If Dean was dead, he was dead. So it went. He'd been back before, would be back again. No skin off the marquis's nose.]

[And yet he has skills to contribute. He's not planning to share the fact that he intends to with anyone other than (probably) Dean, but plans occasionally change.]

[He goes to check on Dean to see the extent of the injuries rather than out of sentiment - he won't be awake yet. But when he sees the man who made the call hovering in the doorway, he wonders if this might be valuable after all.]

[He speaks without announcing himself, his tone neither passionate nor morbidly curious. There is information it would be beneficial for him to know. That's all.]

What was it?

Um-- [Start where? At the beginning. He takes another deep breath, trying to steady himself.] Answered a distress call, were heading bearing northwest when we got pinned down by a pack of dogs. Both guns missing. All doors locked. I got-- Dean got me up onto a roof, and then--

[ She wasn't lying. She shoves her comm into her utility belt, pulls out a compass, sprints the last few feet to the door and throws it open, more than grateful that she's stopped wearing that stupid mask and cape with her costume. It never did do much to stop her getting concussions.

Northwest, to the center. Good thing she has a compass, right? She finds the direction and starts sprinting again, shoving the compass back into her belt and replacing it with her taser. Her staff is in her other hand, and she presses the button to extend it to full length. She has no idea what she'll find but she's sure it won't be pretty. ]

[ She's still here, listening, and he can probably hear the sound of enforced-regular breathing from someone who has had to divide her time between sprinting and jogging before. Who knew training would come in this handy? ]

[ Racetrack doesn't get there more than ten, fifteen seconds after Steph. Soon enough, at least, to see the other woman charging in. No idea who this person is, but - ]

You got a compass?

[ Pretty clear what they're both here for, and if she runs, Racetrack will keep up. ]

[He's peering inside again, but at the voice behind him he turns, blinking, squinting at the man without much recognition. This is... the guy who lives next door to Dean, he knows, and the one who tried to get him to sell secrets during the takeover. He doesn't know him beyond that, and he doesn't know why he's being asked now.

On the other hand, does it really matter this time?] Some kind of dog.

[ Steph slows only long enough to see who it is that's joined her. She doesn't really know Racetrack, but she's seen her on the network. She picks up the pace again. ]

Yup, keep going straight and you're northwest. Never leave home without a utility belt full of crap. [ And she's used to snarking and running like hell at the same time, so... ]

[This information registers. He doesn't look at Felix. Instead he's looking at Dean's body. From here, he can't see much.]

Some kind of dog.

Only one?

[Steph isn't wrong at all: it's an ugly, grisly scene they'll find when they get there. The glimpse of the environment given through Felix's communicator holds accurate, a sprawling, dilapidated ghost of a Western town stretching out in front of them, complete with windmill and saloon. The one end appears empty, but...

It's not far from the center that they find them. Or just him, now. The ground is absolutely covered with blood and bits of gore, soaking into the dust and staining the ground and the wood of the porch Dean must have run up onto before he was attacked. There's not much person left there, otherwise. What there are are hungry, snarling dogs, fighting over the remaining meat.

Incongruously, there's a leg lying abandoned nearby, but it only takes a second glance to see that it's made of metal.

The human survivor doesn't spot them right away. He's up on the roof covering the porch, huddled and defenseless, his attention on what's happening below him.]

[He just shakes his head and turns away again, folding his arms tight across his chest. His eyes are dry again, but stinging, and he wipes quickly at them anyway.]

Why aren't you in there?

[This, vaguely accusatory. Sitting by bedside is the sort of thing people like Felix ought to do, so why isn't he?]

[ Steph slows as she sees the dogs, and then she has to try very, very hard not to throw up.

She ends up heaving a little in her mouth. There isn't enough mouthwash in the world.

The taser seems like the way to go for a start. She turns to glance at Racetrack, hoping the woman doesn't have significantly more guns planned first. It is really hard to fight alongside someone when you have to avoid being shot by them. She whispers. ]

Dogs first, then Felix?

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Re-Entry 08: Video/Spam

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spam

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spaaaaam;

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spam! racetrack has joined your party

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spam! cw: blood 'n' guts

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