Andar Muerto (Kasim, Angeleanna, and Phia)

[Kasim Chionesu]

Time: 1:30 p.m.
Date: November 1, 2008
Place: San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico
Status: Closed to Kasim, Angeleanna, and Phia.

Kasim fidgeted nervously as the Humvee the Mexican government provided the Bureau rumbled down the streets of San Cristóbal. He was chosen as team leader. Him. Kasim was slightly terrified. This assignment had reports of the walking dead - no big deal to an expert marksman if it were true, but Kasim as team leader? He surveyed his partners: Angeleanna, the nun and Pierce the bird-boy...man. Surely one of them could be a better leader than him...Why was he chosen?

The streets were strangely deserted, especially since it was the Mexican holiday of The Day of the Dead. Kasim had thought there were certain celebrations or...something. Kasim checked to make sure his side holsters carried their pistols and his rifle was loaded. He didn't know what he was going to do with the rifle...his handguns could be hidden under the jacket of his suit, but the rifle was kind of conspicuous...He'd decided later.

"So..." He began as he turned to the Bird-boy and Nun, his voice sounding a little dry. He cleared his throat and began again. "Reports have come in of people conversing and interacting with the dead in spirit and corpse forms. This falls on the Mexican holiday of El Dia de Los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead. The believed cause of these sightings and interactions are prayers said by family members for deceased loved ones. We have four witnesses. One isn't very cooperative, refusing to speak on the phone or leave his house. We may have to do a personal interview. Our job here today is well...I'm pretty sure it's to put whatever is interacting with the living back in their graves."

[Sister Angeleanna]

Angeleanna sat in the back seat, one hand resting on the seatbelt across her chest. She gripped it tightly as the vehicle rocked and dipped under the potholes from the wear and tear of time. She had been watching the scenery pass by lazily and chatting quietly with whomever was interested. The humvee was exceptionally huge and almost a bit much at first glance but as the team made it’s way to the city, it was dually noted the excellent use of it. There was plenty of room to stretch if needed but the nun had carefully tucked her long limbs in and crossed her ankles. Atop her lap rested her bible, closed for now as she nearly became sick reading. It was just as comforting to have it with her nonetheless.

Shifting her attention from the hazy scenery she glanced about the cabin at her teammates Mr. Chionesu and Mr. Hawkins and smiled. It was humbling and rewarding to be paired up with the exceptional agents and even after a ten plus hour plane ride, the joy had not quelled. As Kasim checked his weapons, the nun remained unarmed and for all intent purposes out of place in the sea of the bureau people and insignias. She had opted to keep her wooden case under the seat until it was actually needed but had been persuaded to wear the utility belt It bulged oddly around her waist, each pocket holding a random but well needed item. Shifting the hand on her bible to keep it from falling off she leaned slightly towards Pierce.

“How are you doing?” She asked softly, tilting her head to keep the heavy veil from obstructing her view just as Kasim addressed them. She politely nodded her head at the boy then switching her attention onto the team leader as he talked. The team had gone over the mission briefing but it was wonderful to be refreshed on the subject. She tipped her head thoughtfully and tapped her finger at the edge of her bible. “Prayer is a powerful tool Mr. Chionesu, but to whom is what matters. What good or bad thing has caused the bodies of the deceased to re… rise?” Reanimate seemed too early of a word to use.

“Are we going to speak with the local authority first?”

[piercehawkins]

Over the past few days the life of poor Mr.Hawkins has been anything but settle. The start of this hectic phase began when he received news of his next mission. The situation had sounded like the start of a terrible joke at first, but when the information finally set in, he understood. Not only did he understand, but he was a bit excited. He would be going with two adults! Which in his eyes was much better than going on a mission with any of the other agents who had the habit of being quite dramatic at times. Drama, oh how Pierce disliked it. But, sometimes you just have to fluff up your feathers and get over it! So most of the time, he did just so. The best part of this mission was that hopefully he wouldn't have to deal with that. The one worry in his mind was the possibility that he might be the creator of the drama this time. Only time would tell. After packing his things when the time had come, Pierce soon found himself standing before the gates of an airport, ready to go!


Ten hours cooped up in an uncomfortable jet plane left poor Piercey's stomach churning. Lucky for him he got the window seat. He got a little excited when at the end of the flight his feet finally hit the ground. But, as soon as his eyes locked on to the Humvee ahead of him, that quick jolt of joyful adrenaline disappeared. Lets just say, a wide assortment of nasty, filthy words popped into his mind....with a vocabulary like his you should be glad he kept them to himself.
Eventually Pierce got into the vehicle, only by the urges of his teammates and the powerful will of an empty stomach. Yet as the car began to drive on, he wondered if he would have been better off flying on his own. Now he had spent over eleven hours in his wing brace, and now he would have to spend even more. Joy...
As the car bounced along, Pierce's hands stayed glued to his seat. ' Thank god for seat-belts ' He thought to himself with his eyes wide open. He had probably blinked....twice so far in their little road-trip.
He did have one technique to calm him down though. He thought of the strangest bird facts he knew, and for some reason that chilled him out. But, when he was finally confronted by his fellow angel, his thoughts came running out of his mouth.

" D-D-Did you know that when powered by fear or hunger a pigeon can fly up to one hundred miles per hour? " Pierce almost snapped, eyes wide open and fingers glued to his seat. With a twitch, he gained control of himself. " ...S-Sorry Sister " He corrected himself, not able to continue the conversation when Kasim spoke at last. Although Pierce had done a bit of research on the mission, he kept quiet and went back to be the nervous wreck he was.

[Kasim Chionesu]

Kasim heard the snatches of conversation from Angel and Pierce. That made him nervous. He didn't know why. Were things already falling apart? He took a steadying breath and pondered what Pierce said about hungry and scared pigeons. Was there food in the Humvee? He stretched and reached over the back seat, finding a case in the back. He flipped it open and found it held protein bars and bottles of water. He snatched a couple and gave on each to Pierce and Angel. "I forgot that airplane food isn't necessarily food in the literal sense."

>>“Are we going to speak with the local authority first?”<<

"Yes. Our ETA is five minutes." The streets were mellow and traffic was practically non-existent. "Luckily there's an English speaking sergeant at the station we are heading too. Good thing too, I haven't spoken Spanish badly since high school." He smiled reassuringly at his two companions.

[brennalarose]

"It doesn't sound like the local magic system at any rate," Phia reported from behind the screen of her laptop. "The natives don't raise the dead as a rule, at least the Azteca and Maya didn't. It'd be worth it, though, to ask if there's a bruja in town or if there's been an upswing in prayers to Saint Cyprian. Just to cover all bases, as it were." She smiled up at Kasim, then at Pierce.

"You're doing fine, dude," she said, "breathe deep."

[Sister Angeleanna]

"D-D-Did you know that when powered by fear or hunger a pigeon can fly up to one hundred miles per hour?"

Angeleanna raised her brow slightly in interest of the boy’s outburst and the reasoning behind it before smiling and reached across to touch Pierce’s white knuckled hand on the seat. One normally didn’t except a nun to be so forward but something as simple as human contact could do wonders. “I did not know that.” She spoke evenly, loud enough for the angelic boy to hear and accepted the food and water that was passed to her. In turn she handed her protein bar to Pierce and carefully twisted the cap off the water bottle and took a sip. “You’ll have to tell me more about pigeons. I do wonder if they migrate, like a swallow bird.” She raised a hand to her mouth. “But later when we have some free time.”

It was hard to remember how she felt on some of her first missions. It would never feel like old hat as the saying went -when it started to feel like that, it was time to retire- but it did get a little easier in being prepared for it. Prayer had been her tool many a times and even now she was quietly praying for the safety of her teammates and the ease of anxiety from the deceptively younger looking agent Pierce.

“…Just to cover all bases, as it were."

“I agree with Ms. Cisneros.” Angel twisted in her seat, nearly pinned by the rough seatbelt and handed off another water bottle and protein bar to Phia as it was passed to her. Through the window past the woman, the brilliant orange color of marigolds dotted the subdued landscape and movement against the color caught her eye. She looked again but only saw the brief shape of a dog before a closer building passed by, blocking her view. Frowning slightly she added, “Though the people of the land have changed, I doubt they have relinquished all ties to their former souls. The Lady of the Dead is still a prominent figurehead, often as Santa Muerte in celebration and prayer.”

Several yards ahead of the humvee, a single figure staggered into the road.

[brennalarose]

Phia shut her laptop and rubbed the dust from her eyes. "I'm just hoping this is a bunch of punks using the locals for patsies. If prayer really is doing this--and miracles happen every frickin' day--then, what do we do? How do we convince the town that Uncle Sancho's gotta go back to the Great Beyond?"

Phia looked down at her hands, then accepted the snack from Sister Angeleanna. They were shaking. Great, she really was as nervous as she felt. "Thanks, Siste--What the hell's that?" Phia asked, noting the figure in the road. Her mind seized up, going into a looping chant of Pleasedon'tbeazombiepleasedon'tbeazombiepleasedon'tbeazombie...

[Kasim Chionesu]

Kasim listened to the chatter silently, thoughtfully. He evaluated the opinions of his fellow members. Anna-Sophia's idea sounded good, and Angeleanna's insight was helpful. He was just about to suggest they utilize Phia's laptop to Google for some information when he felt the Humvee slowing. There was someone in the middle of the road.

>>"Thanks, Siste--What the hell's that?"<<

Kasim's heart skipped several beats before he realized he wasn't breathing. He breathed in, hopefully not audibly, as the Humvee slowed to a stop. The person in the middle of the road had sallow, yellowish-skin, and hardly any flesh beneath it. The gender of the person was hard to tell. Their hands were dirty, and underneath their long, crooked fingernails was enough Earth to grow potatoes in. Their clothes were outdated by at least a decade, their black hair long and lank, and their eyes were sunken back into the skull, bloodshot and lacking any intelligence.

"...Oh boy." Kasim said just as the person -- the zombie (It was insane to use that word!) threw itself on the hood of the Humvee. The driver instinctively pushed the gas pedal to the floor, and the zombie hit the windshield, breaking through -- and into the car.

[piercehawkins]

As Sister Angel's soothing touch made contact with Pierce's clenched hand, he relaxed. One of his small nervous smiles crept up onto his face as he looked towards the kind nun. Calming down at long lest, he graciously accepted the water bottle handed out to him. As his teammates spoke, he struggled to open the water bottle. He was at the point where that water bottle was about to be shoved up someone's other end, or flying out the window before finally he got it open. Although he was looking straight at the strange figure in the middle of the road, he still continued to down the liquid faster than you could say ' Chicken McNugget '

Then of course, the conversation ended as he gulped down his last gulp of water. But, it was far too late for any swallowing, for only moments later, something hit the roof...then the wind-shield ...then the car. Oh goodie

Of course, when he finally did swallow the liquid went down the wrong pipe and caused poor bird-brain to choke quietly. His eyes were wide as he pressed himself against the door, avoiding the (er..) creature. His face began to turn a shade of pale red before he finally coughed then gasped for air. Silence came from the boy, the speechless, breathless kind of silence

[Sister Angeleanna]

It was an awful lot of assuming the least and the worse and as skeptical as a nun could be, she doubted the Bureau would be called into something as simple as a prank. However Phia raised a valued question, if the dead were truly roaming the streets would their loved ones relinquish them even if they brought them harm? Love was a powerful bond, even beyond death as it seemed. Adjusting the seatbelt one more time, Angeleanna fiddled with the idea of taking it off and puling it out slowly to unlock it. Somewhere along the road she must have jerked forward, seizing it. She toyed with it and frowned as the buckled refused to unlock.

"Thanks, Siste--What the hell's that?"

She turned instinctively towards the voice, focusing on Anna Sophia before following her line of sight past the front window and out into the street before them as the vehicle slowed. Everything moved so fast, the tottering figure lurched and launched itself onto the hood and the driver hit the pedal, jerking the nun back into her seat with enough force to hurt her neck. The spray of glass went everyone and she felt it pelt the side of her face as she looked down and gripped the seatbelt with both hands to unlock herself.

The body heaved and shuddered, it’s movement’s spasming like a newborn foal unable to gain leverage. It caught the driver along the side of the head and stretched towards Kasim before kicking wildly in attempt to right itself from it’s twisted upside down pose. From the very depths of the soul’s chest a guttural scream slid past the graying mouth and echoed in the confines of the humvee.

Angel winced as the screamed bounced around in her head and she fought with the seatbelt before giving up and yanked with the God given strength she had been blessed with. The buckle strained and under the pressure finally gave, popping open. She flew up and banged her head on the ceiling, her bible falling in a heap at her feet and she raised her arms to protect herself from the flailing limbs. Her previously forgotten water bottle tipped over and poured out, running in rivulets along the cracks in the floor. The previously huge humvee seemed almost too small now as the body seemed to occupy every little space it could, wedging itself further into the space between the front seats.

“Kasim!” She couldn’t quite make him or the driver out as the body surged up, the smell of fermenting meat permeating the enclosed air. “Out!” She yelled, hoping to be heard over the animalistic screeching. “Everyone out!” No time for fighting with the thing or reasoning, priority was to get everyone out of the car in once piece. Heavenly father, she prayed as she grabbed a bunch of her skirts and slid across the expanse to Pierce’s door and reached for it to get the closest agent out of harms way.

“Phia,” she twisted her head to find the other woman. It was an instinct that always seemed on the verge of breaking, a clock wound too tight and always under the strain of action did it snap forward. It never felt one hundred percent her but she accepted it as the undeniable need to protect others. She searched the woman’s eyes, hopeful to make contact.

[brennalarose]

Phia screamed, half in shock as the glass exploded towards her face and half in horror at the thought that they may have killed someone who was already exceptionally dead. As the humvee screamed to a halt, Phie banged her head hard on the back of the seat and heard Lovelace, her trusty laptop and digital partner-in-crime, crack as it flew back and hit her in the jaw. She could taste blood. Oh god, she thought with a faint groan, We're dead.

It was the screaming that did it. She was ready to pass out from the pain in her mouth and chin and Sister Angel was shouting at people. Her first instinct was, of course, to start reaching for people. When she found no-one, she grabbed Lovelace by the handle. But, that screaming, dear God in heaven, that screaming like a tortured soul in the depths of Hell... She was frozen in place, her mind was numb, jangling with incoherency.

Mom, who's at the door/I refilled the hydroponics before I left right/The dead should stay dead, no matter what/Christ on a pogo stick, that hurts/Belle! It's not funny anymore! Get up!/Would somebody shut that thing up/I don't want to die!/Help me!

As the cascade of thoughts continued, her lips began moving soundlessly. She stared straight ahead, going through the motions of a spell, though there was no power behind her prayer.

"Saint Michael, Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray. And you, Prince of the heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into Hell the evil spirits who prowl the world for the ruin of souls. Amen. Saint Michael, Archangel, defend us in battle--!"

"Phia."

The voice and the trusted face of Sister Angel brought her back to Earth. She drew in a shaky breath.

"I'm okay, Sister," she said.

[Kasim Chionesu]

OOC: Warning: This post contains graphic violence.

IC:
Kasim did not say anything. His body was tense, his face set in a mask of resolution and hardness. He was in the middle of Angel and Pierce. While everyone reacted in their own way, Kasim reached over Pierce, popping the lock to the door and maneuvering his hands around the bird-boy. He thought for a second about apologizing beforehand for possibly touching some private areas as he wedged his hands behind Pierce's body, searching for the handle, but ended up saying nothing. His fingers gasped the handle as the screaming corpse righted itself and attacked the poor driver, ripping out his throat. Blood sprayed the wheel and the driver began gurgling. Too much noise, too much blood - There! The door popped open.

"Out Pierce!" Kasim said, reaching down and unbuckling Pierce's seatbelt. Kasim unceremoniously shoved Pierce towards the open door. "Phia you next, then you sister!" He commanded. He reached into his jacket and pulled out his Glock from one of the hidden holsters. The zombie, having feasted on the driver, now turned to leap into the back. "OUT!" Was the only word uttered from Kasim before the zombie fell into the back of the Humvee.

[brennalarose]

Phia jumped out, rolling as she hit the ground, just as the zombie fell into the back. She stood up and spat out the blood. She'd only bitten her cheek, thank heavens. But she'd left Lovelace and her walking stick behind with that thing. She drew her pistol, though she wasn't ready to fire yet. Who knew if it would actually do anything?

[Sister Angeleanna]

((OOC: Mine’s got a little graphic description above the PG-13 limit, mostly on what their attacker looks like up close.))

"I'm okay, Sister," she said.

The voice of prayer rang out, swelling within the humvee’s confines and straight to the ears of Angel. She replied, a prayer of safety and protection spilling from her lips as her words muddled between her tight lips as a severe frown marred her face. She nodded forcefully and watched the woman slip away unharmed just as the passionately thrashing body lunged after the defenseless driver. A wave of heat encompassed the nun at Kasim’s command and she swung forward just as creature swept up launching itself to the back. Angel could feel the thing dig into her back as it turned around to face them and revealed a toothless wide mouth, black lips tinted red. The single eye that hadn’t been ravaged with time wept with a thin milky white substance and swam around and around in circles as if it couldn’t focus. That didn’t stop it from continuing.

Angeleanna vainly gestured towards the dying driver. “We can’t–”

It lunged, a half snarl twisting at its despoiled face and Angel slipped behind Kasim and his weapon as it slammed into the agent, bone flecked hands reaching wildly. From the shredded column of the man’s – somewhere it seemed to become a man – throat, the screeching sound waned and he gulped, swallowing the blood that only trickled out from various thin cuts along the neck. A large shard of glass jutted from the near the jugular but whatever blood it once possessed had coagulated with time and clotted around the glistening shard.

Two hundred yards down the street, the rest of the Bureau’s equipment in the form of the regulation black van and several other agents drove lazily along. The driver, an agent by the name of Elliot Talus drummed his fingers along the steering wheel to the radio’s drummer. A flat tire? Shit, he thought. A multimillion dollar government agency and they get a flat tire and have it change it by hand. They hadn’t radioed the humvee ahead of them on account of the vague embarrassment and figured they would just play catch up. The shape of the dusty vehicle slowly came into focus and Agent Talus leaned forward and squinted before glancing at his partner in the passengers seat across him.

“Hey, Chert? Does it look like they stopped ahead?”

Agent Chert looked up from the data organizer in his hands and blinked from the change in light. “Uh… yeah. Looks like it. Better get them on radio.” He shifted his position and pushed the earpiece further into his ear. “Agent Chionesu, this is agent Chert coming up from behind. What’s with the pit stop, I thought ETA was another ten?”

“Jesus wept!” Talus gripped the wheel tightly as a single figure fell from an open door and the thinly veiled screams could be heard from it. The agent hit the gas pedal and the van lurched forward towards the team.

“Agent Chionesu! Agent Chionesu!” Chert yelled into the radio at his collar and exchanged a brief glanced with Talus before reaching for sidearm as the van closed the gap.

[Kasim Chionesu]

OOC: Violence...Again!

IC

Kasim face tightened into a grimace as he tried to keep the zombie from biting or scratching him in anyway, and was aware that Sister Angeleanna was behind him. Good; he didn't want anyone else hurt under his watch. Probably a hero complex or just his protective nature as a suit. He was relieved that Phia had gotten out, but the living bodies in the car were still at risk.

"Agent Chionesu! Agent Chionesu!" The desperate call came over the radio, but Kasim couldn't do anything about it. The zombie lunge towards Kasim lazily, and Kasim was able to whip his Glock up to a position under the zombie's chin. There was no way he or the nun could escape now without destroying the zombie. "Close your eyes Sister!" Kasim said, not to shield her from the view, but to protect the eyes from any shrapnel that was about to go flying. The zombie arched down to feast on Kasim's face just as he pulled the trigger. A mushroom cloud of clotted blood and decaying brain exploded out of the top of the zombie's skull, staining the ceiling and spraying the surface of anything close. Kasim had closed his eyes just as he pulled the trigger, because he figured if he didn't make the shot, it was over for him anyway.

He now opened his eyes as the zombie, dead once again, slumped onto him. He shuddered and rolled the corpse off of him. "Everyone all right? Pierce? Phia? Sister?" He asked after a pause. He pulled a handkerchief from the inside of his jacket and wiped the clotted blood from his face.

"Agent Chionesu! Agent Chionesu!" The desperate calls over the radio hadn't stopped. Kasim picked the radio up from where it fell on the floor and brought it to his mouth.

"This is Agent Chionesu. We just had a confrontation with a hostile. We have one fatality, the driver...Agent Chert, this may sound crazy...But we definitely have a zombie problem."