Return From Madness

[cats]

IC: A boy outside a slightly worn down house is looking up at the stars. His father steps outside and watches his son briefly. "You should head off to bed son."

The boy continues to look up at the night sky. "Dad if all of those shooting stars were the aliens leaving, will we have power again soon."

The father ran his hand across his chin, he hadn't shaved a few weeks, as a result his face was covered with small hairs, but it wasn't what one would consider a beard yet. "Sure son, soon the American government will be back on track and we'll be fine." The father new this wasn't true, but wanted to give his son hope.

The young boy not being able to remember what life was like before the invasion, was silent working together idea's in his head. "Will they send angels to stop the soldiers."

The aging man stopped, unsure what to say to his son. He wasn't even sure if the aliens were gone, and if they were. Did they take their slaves with them, maybe these sightings are simply illusions of peoples fears. "I hope so son, now off to bed."

 

[The GrandMage]

Nathaniel

The scout perched atop the wreckage. It looked like at one time it had been a bus. He moved his omni blaster back to its holster, and glanced around the horizon again before nimbly leaping down and starting off again.

He hadn't seen anyone since he'd woken up, which could mean anything at this point. He was lost and confused, and knew nothing about what had happened to him. He knew enough to know he'd changed, if the term could even reference something this radical.

The whole world had changed. And all that was left was him. He had strange equipment, and skills and abilities he'd never even known were possible. Something very important had happened in the period he couldn't remember.

But his biggest worry was finding other people.

 

[rengadeirishman]

Daniel O'Daugherty

He ran. He kept running until the strange city was behind him. What Happened? he thought to himself Where am I? What am I? As he left the city limits, he slowed and took stock of his situation. He looked at his huge sword, still stained with blood. What happened to my world? he thought desperately, unable to conjure any memory. He slung the sword on his back where it somehow felt familiar. I have to find others, someone has to know what happened. and with that thought, he continued running

 

[cats]

By the bus

Under some rubble not far from Nathaniel, a 12 year old boy and his eight year old sister hide behind an over turned car. The boy tightly grasps his sister's mouth. He holds perfectly still, scarcely breathing, listening for signs that the soldier has gone away.

His sister twitches her foot knocking a few pebbles inches down the street. He whispers in her ear "Quiet sis." And she resumes her motionless posture, trying to breath around her brothers hand.

 

[cats]

"Strange city"

IC: A young lady looking to be about 25, watched Daniel run from the slaughter he had just committed. She had heard tells of the massacres these blue fiends bring, but she had thought they were exaggerations. One of these demons had just killed her brother. The shock hadn't settled in just yet.

"That is right you better run from me!" She then slumped down and debated weather or not she should do something about the bodies.

 

[The GrandMage]

Nathaniel

Nate sighed, and looked around. "What in the world happened to this place?"

An overturned car was nearby. Nathaniel imagined finding a car that actually worked, but faced with the post-apocalyptic sights he'd seen already, chances were slim. He reached a hand up, running it through his short-cropped hair. He pulled his hand around, looking at his palm for a moment.

"Damnit all, where is everyone? Should I even be looking for other people? I definitely didn't look like this before. What if I have some kind of disease? Is that why I'm alone? Or is everyone else dead? At least in the movies tehre are newspaper everywhere talking about the nuclear blast or the dead walking amongst the living. But when you really do wake up in a post-apocalyptic time, there's no news at all. Fantastic."

Nathaniel shrugged, and continued on down the road, looking for some sign of humanity. "I wonder if there's still cows. Man, I could for for a nice big juicy steak, with some french fries, and plenty of ketchup... Crap, now I'm hungry again."

 

[lycanthropedude]

Joushein Kravilez

Josh, seeing the ruined town ahead, stopped running and let sobs come over him. His body shook violently, as he went down into a heap upon the groundafter a minute or two, he crawled over and leaned against the trunk of a nearby tree. As his eyes cleared, Josh took in his surroundings; the environment that was now his.
The sky, in the early throws of sunset, was darkening from blue to violet. Clouds glided lazily on the horizon, taking on their pre-evening silver and red hues. Josh thanks the stars above for a familiar sky. However, the tree was an odd type, unknown to him, as was the land. The mountains, frighteningly, were on the wrong side! I must be very far from home! he thought.
As he looked down, Joushein, saw for the first time the gangly long legs that were his own. The hands as well were those of a man, not the boy he was! What is going on? What's happened to me? Josh looked around feverishly, looking for someone to give him an answer, when by chance he found someone. A man looking vaguely familiar emerged from the town moving at a good clip.
Although the gargantuan sword in his hand appeared very imposing, Josh felt a stong pull to follow this man. And follow he would.

 

[cats]

Palo Verde, formally "by the bus"

IC: A man came running down the rubble lined street. "Josh! Jessica!" The man franticly looked around shouting again for the children. "Josh! Jessica!" Then suddenly he froze like a dear caught in head lights. He was starring right at Nathaniel.

 

[The GrandMage]

Nathaniel

Nathaniel stopped, and looked at the man. He looked back around the area. He scratched at his chin, and shrugged. It wasn't like he had a lot else to do.

"Excuse me, are you looking for... Some...one?"

Nathaniel turned his head, noticing teh man was staring at him. "Okay. Judging by the fact you're staring at me like that, I take it to mean the way I find myself is a bad thing, then?Perhaps it is some sort of post-apocalyptic disease, then? That's not precisely comforting. Or maybe I'm a well-known or wanted killer of some sort? I have this gun thing, so that might be it. Granted, I don't exactly recall how things got to be this way, so maybe it's a normal thing these days?"

 

[cats]

Palo Verde

IC: 'Excuse me, are you looking for... Some...one?' The man didn't move, the rummors the blues were moving north again were true. His life may very well be over. 'Okay. Judging by the fact you're staring at me like that, I take it to mean the way I find myself is a bad thing, then?Perhaps it is some sort of post-apocalyptic disease, then? That's not precisely comforting. Or maybe I'm a well-known or wanted killer of some sort? I have this gun thing, so that might be it. Granted, I don't exactly recall how things got to be this way, so maybe it's a normal thing these days?'

"Sorry sir!" He wasn't about to put the children at risk. "I don't understand your confusion. Please let me go."

 

[The GrandMage]

Nathaniel

"Sir?" Nathaniel glanced down, and then around the area. He looked back at the man. "let you? Okay, now I'm seriously confused. Perhaps I should explain, since you at least seem to have some clue as what's going on with the world..."

"I have no idea where I am, or why I look this way, because the last thing I remember is I was a college student trying not to get worked up over finals. Next thing I know I'm some sort of freak wandering around a world that looks like teh set to a Mad Max movie. Now I seriously doubt you acll everyone sir, and the fact you're asking me to let you go tells me two things. One, that you're scared of me, and two, that you're scared of me because I hold some sort of authority."

"Let me tell you right now, any authority I may have held at some point, it's gone. I'm just trying to figure out what the hell happened to the world and hopefully get some food in my belly and a roof over my head. You don't need to ask me to let you go. Your life is your own, rise up and live it. Best of luck in finding... well, whoever it is you're looking for."

Nathaniel turned back to his original direction, and just started walking again. The world was always a strange place, but now it seemed like a bad acid trip. He had a feeling things were only going to get worse. But at least now he knew something more than he did: He shouldn't look for people. At first, his thought had been finding some form of civilization.

One man might show fear, even a whole group. But after a while, without anything to hold that fear in check, it rots into anger. Civilization was now his bane, he was an exile. For what, and since when, he had no idea.

But he knew one thing: If he was to live, it was to be on his own.

 

[lycanthropedude]

Joushein Kravilez

As Josh ran after the blue haired man, he looked again at his hands and feet, the latter of which were traversing the land faster than he thought was possible. Josh thought back to his last memory before the battle...ney, the slaughter in the field. He remembered the sheep, grazing contentedly on the hillside; he thought of his mom, who probably still cried herself to sleep every night. Josh thought of his two little sisters, Anna and Marishka, he wanted to hear they're laughter again...
Joshein snapped out of his reverie, only to realize that he had slowed and lost track of the blue man with the large sword. Josh felt tired, mostly mentally, as he ran all the things he thought he knew through his head. Again he found a tree and leaned back into it, running his hand over his face....no stubble, so he still must....be......very......zz....young.....zzZzz.....ZzzZzzZz....

Sleep over took a slender man with blue hair and sword. Asleep, he looked peaceful, and yet he didn't know that the entire world was fearful of his power...

 

[rengadeirishman]

Dan

Dan had lost the person following him, and managed to come back around behind him. He saw that the man who looked like him was asleep. He decided to pull up a bit of grass nearby the man like him, and sleep himself.

 

[cats]

Palo Verde

IC: As Nathaniel walked by the old car the kids dashed in away screaming as they moved as fast as they could. The young boy tripped only 20 feet away from Nathaniel and bounced up as quickly as he could, his sister was now feet in front of him stopping and turning around seeing her older sibling had fallen, but quickly fear returned and she continued running away. The man no longer paralyzed by fear ran to the little girl grabbed her and continued on to the boy.

 

[cats]

By the Shady Tree

IC: An aging blind man was stumbling threw the grassy fields with his walking staff. He had been blind a number of years, but still lacked skill at navigation. His staff hit what he thought was a rock hard, in the head. Hearing the sound of a living creature, he pulled his stick back. "Please excuse this blind beggar." Considering he might of stumbled upon bandits he threw in "I have nothing of value." He then ran his stick down able to see it was a mostly grown man.

 

[The GrandMage]

Nathaniel

Nathaniel scratched at his head. "Okay, that was just fuckin' weird. Maybe the blue hair means I was in some kind of evil biker gang or something? I wonder what happened to my motorcycle, then? Well, maybe not. Whatever."

Nathaniel turned, and started off in the opposite direction from the people, still confused as to what was going on. He sighed, grasping at his belly as he went. "What I need is a small hovel where I can hide and befriend a blind man until his family runs me off. Because a Frankenstein moment would at least have some clarity involved. Well, let's review what we know: I look strange. I have a strange gun. I suddenly know how to do lots of crazy shit, but have no memory as to what's been going on. I inspire fear in people. The world seems to be post-apocalyptic..."

Nathaniel nodded to himself as he went over every fact. "Yup, there's only one solution. I need to get a super-up car, a hat or helmet of some kind, and ride around this world working as a bounty-hunter, making a name for myself in rough dives until eventually I save a settlement that's willing to accept me, and I get the girl. Or I could just wander from town to town, fighting evil as I come across it. The problem with the whole post-apocalyptic anti-hero is that they tend to continue wandering the barren wasteland at the end. Not a lot of hope for sitting around, reading a good book, and getting mediocre meals on a regular occasion."

"...Except that one movie about the soldier trained from birth, who killed the genetic test-tube soldiers. But he was emotionally dead. And he didn't really get the girl. He did get acceptance, though. Most of them are emotionally dead, or at least aloof. I guess I need to cultivate an uncaring attitude towards the world. If people keep screaming and running away, that won't be too-"

Nathaniel stopped talking, his eyes locking on movement on the horizon. "Is that a deer? Oh gods, venison!"

Pulling his omniblaster around to his front, Nathaniel took off at a quick run, following the movement on the horizon, and hoping for food.

 

[lycanthropedude]

Joushein Kravilez

....*CRACK*..."Huh, what?"
"Please excuse this blind beggar," said on old man as he opened his eyes to reveal the white glossed pupils. "I have nothing of value."
Joushein could see that, as the man was dressed in dirty brown britches, a simple servicable shirt, and sun-bleached and tattered light brown overcoat. What Josh found odd was the language that the blind man spoke. Odd that it was not the language that Josh knew, but yet he understood it...
Trying the new language, Josh said, "Where am I, sir?" The only thing more startling than speaking the new language and his own low accented voice was the other man stirring awake next to him!
Remembering the fight from yesterday, and feeling a bit fearful, Joushein pulled backward, crab-walking away as he added, "and who are you!?"

 

[lycanthropedude]

By the shady tree

He felt his walkingstick get hit as he heard the man shuffle away. "I'm..." he started to answer who he was when he heard the sounds of another person.
Taking a cautious step back, he set his staff lightly on the ground infront of himself as a meager barrier to the growing number of people nearby.
Remembering the first question, he answered, "This is Northern California or Southern Oregon...I'm not quite sure, sir."

 

[rengadeirishman]

Dan

Dan woke up and saw the old blind man. He rose and picked up his sword. "I'm Dan, don't rightly remember my last name, or how I got to be how I am, you were following me. Who are you?" dan asked the foreign man "And dont be afraid
sir, we wont harm you, leastways I wont, and if he does I'll kill him."

 

[The GrandMage]

Nathaniel

Nathaniel raced like the wind. Or a nice sports car. Instinctively he'd made himself lighter, and taken up a running position he'd have thought would have gotten him a face-full of dirt. It was very impressive. So engrossed was he in figuring out how he was running, he almost failled to notice the people he was coming across. Stumbling from his run into a walk that got him shoulder-first into a tree, Nathaniel groaned and looked at the gathered.

Two more blue-toned hairdos and a pair of white, glossy eyes. "Well, damn. You're not food at all, are you. Although you mnay have food! And that is a plus!"

Nathaniel swung his gun around into it's holster, and grabbed the blind man in a bear hug. "And a blind man! I've won the lottery!"

"Ack!" the blind man shouted, waving his arms about. "What in the world is going on!?"

Nathaniel set the man back down, and looked at the others. "You know, that's an interesting question. I seem to have a spot of amnesia. Any of you know how the world went and got itself into the pile of shit it's in now?"

 

[rengadeirishman]

Dan

"Thats a fabulous question and one I wish i had the answer to." Dan said looking at the newcomer with a gun. "I am Dan, don't know who my pal here is, where i am, how i got here, or really anything else." he said "And no, we dont have food."

 

[cats]

Blind Man

IC: 'These to young men seemed quite hostile. I don't see why to people who asleep to next each other would want to kill each other. Oh wait maybe there married. But there both male, thats not aloud, why if Arnold was here he'd knock some since into them.'

Suddenly the Blind man found himself in the air held in the arms of a mad man shouting about the lottery and food. "Whats going on here!" When his feet firmly touched the ground he swung himself free of the mans clutch.

The man rested on his stick listening to the rest of their jabber. "The world went to shit? Why did those blue bastards return! Why if I still had my sight I'd..."

"Well you don't want to know. As for food, well I have none. I beg for meals. It's my job," he patted his ribs causing a drum like sound, "and as you can see I am not to good at it." He smiled at his own joke, humor lessened the hunger after all.

"Well as for you three though. Unless you also happen to be blind. There is a town round here, named Palo Verde, I am sure you can find work there."

 

[The GrandMage]

Nathaniel

"Blue...bastards?"

Nathaniel glanced at the other too, and ran a hand through his own hair. He gritted his teeth, and processed this new information. It didn't precisely mean it was them, but still...

"And who are they? Should I be on the lookout for them? Are they dangerous? I think I should know. After all, if things are that bad you're cursing them... Besides, it's important to know what's going on. After all, if my amnesia is caused by stress, or repression of memories due to loss of loved ones, well, perhaps I should know."

 

[cats]

Blind Man

IC: The blind man nearly slapped Nathaniel, but two things kept him from doing so. One he wasn't completely sure where he was and two, he had amnesia apparently. So instead the blind man waited for another of his new companions to answer the question.

The silence was short but very awkward. "All right, I understand these two don't want to tell you because something would be better off forgotten. They may in fact envy you, and to an extent I do too. But if your body is still able to fight them you must know." The man paused considering how to best explain what had happened.

"About a decade ago, a bunch of people disappeared. Now I know this isn't that sort of thing people would normally notice, but a few cases drew attention. The one the media liked was in LA a man disappeared while driving his son to a store. So the car crashed and the kid came out and told his story and no one believed him. Turned out when they checked his home that the 8 year old boys story held water. Any how I am boring you, best we can figure the soldiers' masters probably ate the abducted people, or dissected them or something."

"Some time later a bunch of aliens sneak attacked us. They completely wiped out our military in a few days. Back then we had power still, so most people saw the aliens on the TV. I personally saw them in person. They looked human, sorta. They had funny builds, unnatural fair skin and blue hair. But I remember the eyes the most, one crystal blue eye, and one brown. It almost reminded me of my daughter, but..."

"Lets move on to other things, shall we. Bush is out of office, and probably dead. That makes most people happy. Not sure why."

 

[The GrandMage]

Nathaniel

Nathaniel turned towards the others, and sat ehavilly on the ground. "Aliens? Ain't that a kick in the head. Mister, I'll tell you something, you people with the one blue eye? They ain't aliens. I knew a guy, disappeared. Yeah, it's all coming back now..."

"I was in college back when it started. I knew a guy. Up and diappeared. Didn't cause much of a fuss. Then they came. Fear was everywhere. The old way of life came to a halt, and things changed. How they changed. Not too long ago, one of those guys with the one blue eye? He was around. Gone now. Dead. But I found out something. Yeah, now I know why my memory is gone. That guy with the one blue eye was teh same guy from college. Just woke up one day, didn't know what had happened in the last decade..."

"Can you imagine, someone you use to know? Turns out they didn't even know what was going on. And now, now they're just waking up as themselves again, wandering around, trying to figure out what happened. Fear turns to hate easilly, especially when you sense a weakness. Can you imagine the pain, of killing someone close you thought was lost, because they didn't know what was going on? They weren't themselves, you know, but when you do it, WHen you sense that weakness and go in for the kill, then you find out..."

"They weren't what you were scared of, anymore. They're just scared and lost, confused about what happened to them and the world. But by then, by then it's too late. Because you didn't care why they were weak, all you cared about was that they were."

"That would be a hard thing to handle..."