Sea of the Dead [Dead End - d20 Zombie Apocalypse]

[Erasmas]

While Mason rests, wandering in and out along the border of sleep, Blake and Jim take vigilant watch over the entrances into the kitchen. The barriers seemed secure, but caution certainly appeared to be in dire need on a day like today.

Francois went about tidying up the kitchen as best he could, with some help from the others that could lend it. After about an hour, the time spent found Francois adding the last of the spices to his creation while Victor finished up dressing Viola's injuries.

It was now nearly ten o'clock at night and exhaustion was evident with everyone, worn alongside bloodstained clothes and the weight of sorrow from the events of the last several hours. The meal that the cook had prepared was fantastic, warming your bellies and putting some small amount of normalcy back into the day as it drew to a close.

[GunnDancer]

During the quiet of the evening, Victor makes his way over to Viola. A thought weighs heavily on his mind as he squats down next to her. Earlier he had laid her out in a clean corner of the kitchen where he couldn't really fix the damage caused by the slashing claws of the undead... but he was determined to try again in the morning. Maybe daylight would bring better results.

"Viola... I need to talk to you. It's kind of a sensitive subject..."

Leaning close he whispers tentatively in the gymnists ear.

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"I'm going to ask you something a bit crazy, and you can say no if you want but you're the only one I think will actually be able to do this..."

Glancing down at his bandaged thigh, his bite wound aching, Victor shakes his head a little.

"It sounds crazy but given what happened today I dont' think it is... I-I need you to kill Mason and me in the event we turn. I've seen enough zombie movies to know it's a strong possiblity..."

[Erasmas]

Things quiet down for you here in the kitchen, giving you the chance recuperate and prepare yourselves for what the next day might bring. The area of the Sun & Sea Restaurant had been silent both upstairs and the one below since you finished with your fight, at least as far as you could tell. Occasionally, you would hear thumping footsteps running somewhere nearby or screaming off in the distance. But all and all, it seemed as though you might actually be able to get some amount of sleep despite the trauma that your mind and body had been subjected to today.

Blake spends an hour cleaning off his broom handle, sharpening the jagged end into a point and wrapping a strip of cloth around it to form a better grip. Jim fiddles with his chair, hammering the legs and the supports back in with the palm of his hand and cleaning off what he can from the wood. There were some cracks and loose joints that there was little he could do about, but it seemed to help.

Talking it out with the others, you decide that taking turns at watch while the others sleep is probably the best course of action. Blake volunteers to go first, citing the fact that he is used to pulling all-nighters for his job anyways. After a few hours, he will wake up Jim, and so on.

Halfway through the night, however, you are all ripped from your slumber by the shriek of a woman somewhere in the ship. It was immediately followed by thousands of hungry howls and a din of noise as those creatures moved undoubtedly towards wherever that poor woman was. Then, a noise you hadn't heard - blam blam blam - gunfire! The noise of the creatures continued on for another couple of hours before finally dying back down to the level that allows you to eventually drift off back to sleep.

When you awake, sunlight seeping into the stairwell that leads below, you stretch and moan. It was not the best night of rest you have had, sleeping on the hard floor and with those things out there... but it was sleep nonetheless.

[Thump]

Stretching luxuriously, Viola gives her wound a once-over, and satisfied that it appears to be healing, she stands up slowly, with her broken leg feeling not quite so broken.

"Da. Good morning, comrades.

She then takes the cleaver, noticing its chipped and dulled edges, and takes time to sharpen it.

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Taking however much time we have to repair at least half its damage.

[GunnDancer]

Grunting stiffly as he gets up off the floor, Victor gives himself the once over.

"Still thinking... don't crave brains... I'm going to chalk that one in the 'win' category"

Deciding to give anyone else he hadn't treated yet the once over, he attempts to patch up some wounds he hadn't attended to yet. As he does this he raises the obvious question.

"So... now what?"

[moomoo]

Francois wakes up with a loud yawn.
He sets about to make his kitchen knife somewhat sharper again.
When Victor asks his question, he just shrugs:
I don't know, I'm just a chef. I guess we start with a nice little breakfast and then decide what we do.
He then starts off making some omelette and bacon.

[Umbranar]

When Mason wakes up his visioen is much clearier then the night before. Although he is still gravely wounded he tries to get his wrench in a better shape. Never had such a wild night before...bit strange the bites do not seem to effect me and Victor at all. I remember the first people turned in mere minutes.

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Repairing the wrench as long as were not moving out.

[Erasmas]

Spending the morning hours checking on wounds and repairing weapons to the best of your abilities, things seem to be less severe than they did last night. However, if the small remnants of blood here and there on your clothes and in the kitchen, or the barricaded entrances into the room weren't enough... the very fact that you had these kinds of wounds and these weapons were certainly enough to make you realize that the situation outside of this room was very likely still was nothing less than "severe".

Still, Francois managed to make a nice hearty breakfast, consisting of some eggs he thought ahead to pull out last night, before the bodies were all stacked into the freezer. He also made beignets (a kind of french powdered doughnut, you are told) with a honey drizzle over the top.

[GunnDancer]

While the others are repairing weapons, after Victor goes about patching everyone up the best he can, he scours the kitchen for the first aid kit he knows will be in there. As he does this he speaks out to the others in the kitchen.

"So... we're all going to have to leave sooner rather then later. So I just have two questions: One, Is there a safe place to be found on the ship that has a restroom and two, is there a safe way to get there?"

[Thump]

Viola momentarily pauses from her repairing of the meat cleaver, and hears Victor's questions. She laughs, and then the entire impact of the past day hits her. The blood everywhere... so much blood... on her hands, on her clothes, everywhere... it's a lot to handle. She sighs, puts down the meat cleaver, and leans back on the wall.

"Well, you two didn't die immediately from your wounds, did you? I mean... the old man had his throat torn out, and God only knows what happened to the others..."

She sniffles a bit, and then turns to Victor.

"There should be a room right down the corridor for that... but it might not be safe. If worst comes to worst... you could aways use a bucket."

[moomoo]

When Francois has cleaned up everything used during cooking and put it more or less in its rightful place. He gathers the others and starts explaining what he knows about the ship so that they might get a battle plan ready for when they go out. He tries to give a description as accurate as possible about Decks 10 and Decks 9 and ends with If we can get to Deck 8, there is a bridge we should be able to defend in case of incoming danger. What do you guys think?

[GunnDancer]

Victor glances over at Viola and flushes a bit.

"I don't need to go or anything, but I imagine in the next few hours it's probably going to be of critical importance that we're in a place we can defend that has running water and flushing toliets."

Looking over at Francois, Victor rubs the back of his head in a nervous gesture.

"I trust you and Mason. You guys know this ship a lot better than anyone else so if you think Deck 8 is best then I think we should head there."

[Thump]

Giving a small smile, Viola starts to formulate a few ideas, speaking while almost lost in thought.

"Well, if we're going to head to the bridge, we should probably get some sort of protection against these abominations.

"Though... what do we do when we clear the bridge?"

[Erasmas]

Blake pipes up.

"Hail the f^cking Coast Guard and hitch a ride home! I don't know about the rest of you, but I want off of this floating death trap."

[GunnDancer]

Hearing Blake pipe up into the conversation, Victor nods thoughtfully before speaking.

"Alright people, smoke 'em if you got 'em..."

Tucking the apron satchel into his belt, he pats the pilfered first aid supplies through the thick cloth. It might only hold the meager supplies right now, but he planned on snatching up as much first aid gear as they could carry.

Francois, see if you can make a few more packs out of aprons and load them up with non perishables... I know this is a cruise but who knows when we'll get to stop and eat like regular folks again."

Taking a deep breath, he approaches one of the exits and gestures to either one.

"As my Dad always says... when in doubt, go right. Of course, he got lost quite a bit..."

[moomoo]

Francois quickly goes to work on his own apron packet. He fills it with a bit of power food as well as some tin cans for the long term.

When he is ready, he looks at the others: Ready to get out of 'ere when you are.

[razorback]

Jim, feeling better after the food the nights rest, kind of drifts in his mind a bit as the others plan around him, his thoughts on whether he is healed or if something is slowly simmering in his blood.
As a man of science, you have to consider that whatever was done to these other people might slowly be incubating inside you and the others he thinks grimly to himself.

As the others gather together to find a safer place to hold out, he snaps back to attention. Grabbing his chair, he stands up as a thought pops into his head.

"Hey, do you guys think that we can turn the tops of these tables or something else into some kind of moving barricade? Kind of like the police use their shields against mobs or riots?"

[Thump]

"Hmm... probably not. They're too large and bulky. Besides, they could just turn around or flank us, and we'd be defenseless if they did so."

Eyeing the battered food tray that Victor has, Viola pipes up quickly.

"Hey! Maybe if we can find more food trays like Victor's, we can make shields! The only question is... how would we fix them to our arms?"

[razorback]

Jim ponders for a moment before he responds.

"You're probably right... I was thinking mobile barricade... you no, best defense is to not be there, but second best is to be able to being kept from being hit"

[Erasmas]

Victor grabs the serving trays as Francois lends him the ice pick. Holding each one still in turn, Mason hammers on the impromptu awl with his wrench, easily puncturing four holes into each tray. It causes no small amount of metallic echo throughout the kitchen and soon, moaning can be heard outside the doors and from down the stairwell.

As the athlete starts working with the twine, Viola and Francois attempt to help... but it ends up being a "too many cooks in the kitchen" type situation. Between that and the fact that the twine seems entirely too fragile, it begins to look as though the shield idea will not work out. However, Victor then hits on an idea... instead of using the chef's twine, perhaps taking the shoe laces out of the zombie's shoes would work better!

[moomoo]

When he has put on one of the shields, Francois congratulates Viola and Jim:
Très bien, good idea.
He adds to that:
I zink we can better leave soon, before too many of them are together outside.
After which he moves out to one of the doors.

[GunnDancer]

As Francois readies himself at the door, Victor joins him, frying pan held high, shield at the ready.

"If someone would be so kind to open the door and then rapidly move out of the way..."

His heart races, pounding like a jack hammer as readies himself for whatever lies on the other side of the door. His wounded leg gives a slight twinge as he remembers the bite.

"Not this time you undead bastards..."

[razorback]

As Victor and Francois head towards the door, Jim joins them, chair raised slight above his head in order to bring it down quickly and efficiently, even if the chair shakes just a bit as the nerves get to him.

"Ready when you guys are."

[Thump]

"Let them come. We will show them exactly WHY THEY DO NOT PUT THEIR HANDS DOWN THERE."

With that, she picks up her meat cleaver and crutch, and takes her place among the others.

[Umbranar]

Still a bit stiff from last fight but I cant wait to give them bloody biters more than they bargained for.

[moomoo]

Seeing that everyone is in battle stance, Francois puts his hand on the handle.
OK, I will open the door at 3, 1.... 2.... THREE
He swings the door open and...

[Erasmas]

Having moved the prep-table-barricade away from one of the swinging doors that lead out into the restaurant, your group tried to convince themselves that they were prepared for battle once more. Steeling yourselves, Francois gives the door a slight nudge to cause it to swing and when it returns, he grips the edge and counts.

When the door is flung back into the kitchen, you see the small hallway that was intended to keep the entrance to the kitchen somewhat "hidden" from the eyes of the dining guests. Moving out into that hallway, Victor leading your ragtag crew, the pentathlete sees a solitary thing standing in the middle of the tables and chairs - an obese man that was dressed like he wanted everyone to know that he was a tourist. Blood and chunks of gore clung to the front of his shirt like vomit on a frat boy on Saturday night. His demeanor, similarly, reminded you of a drunk that had forgotten why he had entered a room and was looking about as if the furniture might remind him of his purpose.

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The location, just to clarify


And if you guys intend to engage... then we will need Initiative rolls, please!

[Thump]

Spotting the zombie almost immediately, Viola moves in to take immediate action against it, meat cleaver resting on her shoulder, sauntering close to it.

"Hey! This is a private boat! You're not invited here! So I say GET OFF!"

With that, she bangs her crutch on the floor, catching its attention, watching its hungry glare with amusement.

"See this blood on the blade? There will be more on it. It will be yours."

[Umbranar]

Wait for it so we have the first swing! Mason says as he goes forward and readies.

[moomoo]

Francois follows quickly behind Mason, holding his ears and eyes open, he says silently:
Please don't shout all the time, more zombies will come.