IT STARTED WITH ONE BITE
Craig looked up from his plate at the sound of a belch, his eyes dropping promptly after landing on the sounds host; Marzia. The entire table; the brunette's partner included, had raised their eyes to find the source only to be met with the woman's grinning face before erupting into boisterous laughter. Felix knitting his brows while he muttered out something almost incoherent…something to do with his being jealous of just how loud she'd been able to make it? At least that's what Craig assumed he'd heard which caused him to double over in his seat further and between his chuckles he struggled to suck in a few breaths in the time it took for the group to settle back into an afterglow of silence. Within a minute, Brian had regained enough composure to offer his own snarky criticism to the hilarious scene that had just unfolded before them "I bet you can't do that again, Marzia." He suggested, causing both Felix and Craig to lean forward in their seats in suspense; the taller of the two ramming a fistful of French fries into his mouth to stifle whatever giggle that may slip out of his lips. "Oh, yeah?" The Italian challenged, locking eyes with her adversary prior to straightening her posture and inhaling a gulp of air in preparation of this feat…in a matter of seconds; with all eyes of the table trained on her, she forced out the most pathetic sound any of them had heard.
Marzia was the first one to make a sound after that display, a cackle ripping through the quiet that had fallen over the clique as she battled for breath with more trouble than the men she'd eaten with. Clutching his stomach, Mini heaved out an unclear "What was that?!" minutes before he was able to collect himself and pick himself up and off of his Irish friend. Felix smirked at his girlfriend along with offering her a fist which was met accordingly; only for Brian to add his fist into the duo while sporting a cheesy grin. "Don't try to play it off like you didn't want this." He defended, taking his hand back in order to cross his arms over his chest. Craig rolled his eyes at his roommate's ridiculous joke, the smile plastered onto his face causing his face to ache. It was really nice to have a break from the chaos of the convention; despite how much it may add to their egos.
Once they'd all cleared out the conversation, the gaggle set their sights back on the plates they'd each ordered; which despite being mildly cooled remained appetizing enough to dine on. Although, by the time they'd picked up their utensils once more they were interrupted by a familiar voice asking for their attention with a meek greeting "Excuse me? I hope everything's going well at this table but unfortunately I'm going to have to ask you to pay for your table now. You see, I'm afraid we're closing early today due to some dangerous conditions." At that mention, Felix stirred while reaching into his pants for his wallet; he'd refused to let anyone else pay against all protests, swiftly passing his debit card to the petite woman who swiped it from his hand thereupon whirling on her heel to make a beeline towards the register. A look of disbelief appeared on Terroriser's face as he glanced outside of the windowed walls of the restaurant-sunny, not a cloud in the sky. In fact, people were passing by in a hurry. This was ridiculous. "Are you kidding me?" He growled, a sneer taking hold of his mouth before any of his friends could offer a solution. "Maybe some threat was sent? I mean, it is a pretty big event." Mini tried, forcing a slight apologetic smile onto his face although he couldn't deny that he was feeling let down as well and that burger was looking really good right now.
Marzia and her boyfriend busied themselves with murmurs, sharing a once over towards their phones with confused expressions on their faces. Just before Brian could complain again, their server returned with Felix's card in hand; the receipt fluttering onto the table because of how briskly she'd made the exchange. "I want to eat here, which is what I-we came to do. How the fuck are you going to force us out when all we came here for is to eat? It says you're open 'til six and it's only three!" The Terroriser snarled, looking to his British roommate for support only to be met with the sight of Craig forcing a good five inches of his double into his mouth; not giving his friend so much as the return of a glance to put all of his attention into the food he had in his hands. "Well," The woman was silent for a moment, biting her lip during the pause she'd taken "I'm really sorry, but all I can offer is to box that up for you all really fast, sir?" The group nodded collectively; in spite of Brian's exaggerated sighing, allowing the lady to pick up each individual plate vanishing into the catching after their sights locked on one another again. It wasn't long before their server came back, four boxes in hand labels of their contents on every container. "Here you are." She murmured, jogging into the doors labeled for employees while the gamers stood, gathering their belongings and filing out of the building.
"One sec," Mini announced, darting back into the café to snag a handful of salt packets which he shoved into the pocket of his jeans "gonna need these for the take out." He muttered, jogging back out to his friends. Brian shrugged in ignorant response to whatever Craig had been doing, taking off on their quiet walk back. It seemed like he still held a grudge over their food with the way he took every opportunity to roll his eyes at the boxes in Pewdiepie's hands. Felix felt a vibration against his upper thigh; but seeing as his hands were full and tension was high, he thought it might be best that it wait for later. On their trek, the mood around the city had changed-people were being risky in their cars and the ones who were on foot were running about as if they'd left their ovens on. Upon the affirmation of a pedestrian crossing sign, the four were startled into a stop by the screech of tires accompanied with a loud honk. "What the hell?" Marzia hissed, raising her hands as if to display annoyance back to the driver; who hadn't stopped pressing on his horn even now. "Whatever." Brian snapped, leading them on to continue their walk back to the convention center.
Fifteen minutes later, the group was making their way through the winding hallways and the busily set-up areas to their booths which were shockingly barren considering most of them had planned on meeting friends at their booths to talk or shared their booth setup. Dumbfounded as to why they'd all been ditched; as well as the con, the four chose not to delve too deep into it and dispersed once the food had been divided properly to store their food safely. All of them languidly strolling into the elevator prior to marching down the empty corridor and into their rooms; side-by-side, the couple into 404 and the friendly duo into 405. No protest could be offered when Brian snatched Mini's box out of his hand and slammed both of their boxes into the small fridge their room was accommodated with. "Let it go, man. We'll eat together later." Craig sighed, falling onto the couch in the suite with a groan. He reached into his back pocket for his phone just as Terroriser threw himself across the entire couch; not a concern for Mini in spite of his oppositional grunt, a small smile making its way back over the two. "Did you get a text from anyone?" Mini questioned with a raised brow, scrolling through his phone to read over the slurry of messages he'd gotten. Brian shook his head while he lifted his out of his front pocket and slid his lock screen away. "Nah, but I got a few calls from Evan. One from David because he's too shy to admit he loves me, but not anything else." The brunette responded with a smirk; at the same time bringing his phone to his ear to listen to a voicemail Evan had left for him.
The smirk that had glued itself on Brian's lips fell within seconds, his face first taking on an expression of befuddlement then twisting into distress; which greatly conflicted Miniladd's smirk. "Alright, what'd you get?" He snorted, bringing his eyes up to meet those of his panicked friend who'd just pulled his phone away from his face. "Well, it's not good. Ev was saying something about people dying and something's biting people. He sounds terrified and he acts like it's what's killing people." The blue eyed man recited, lifting himself off of his bespectacled roommate and strolling over to his bed so that he could slide the grey hoodie he'd brought onto his frame. "You seriously believe that? Like zom-." Craig began, pushing himself off of the seat in the time he used to stuff his phone back into his pocket. Without being allowed to finish his question, Felix and his girlfriend bashing the door that connected both of their rooms open with frantic expressions on their faces. "No time for arguments, we're leaving!" Marzia commanded, stomping into their room to shorten the distance between the four; Felix matching her steps. "Yeah, not happening." Craig mused, glancing away from them to search for the remote to the television in their room. "Well, we aren't giving you a choice, honestly." Felix scoffed, his patience worn thin with the argument they were met with. The Swedish gamer taking a threatening step further into their room. "We don't have time for this…" Marzia muttered under her breath, stealing a glance from her boyfriend just in time to earn a word from Miniladd's bunkmate. "Craig," Brian pleaded, his voice wavering slightly as he met the British man's eyes "Can we trust them for just one minute and do what they want?" Seeing an unfamiliar expression on his companion's face, the confrontational boy deflated; a sigh escaping his lips. "Alright, fine. I'm not leaving with nothing though." His words were hardly over a whisper, but the room remained unmoving while Craig filled a small pack with items the group may need if they run into trouble. Despite the urgent feeling to the situation he refused to be unprepared.
"What's going on..?" Brian pried, looking over Marzia during their wait for the elevator to ring in alert that they had reached the bottom floor. "It's…not safe." The woman searched for a way to safely describe the situation to her acquaintance but found nothing in time to tell him appropriately; the 'Ding!' sounding much more like a siren than a bell in the heavy silence that hung in the air around them. Felix led the trio behind him with a firm, but cautious step. "You have to be quiet." He stated, his eyes surveying the lobby as if he were afraid they'd be followed or preyed upon. It made Craig nauseous, really. How they played along with whatever the hell it was that Evan and David were throwing at them; despite how rattled it clearly made Brian. Felix reached for Marzia's hand, taking it and pulling her towards him as inconspicuously as he could; the two of them being the leaders of the party only to escort them all out. Taking notice of the distress leaking off of Brian, Mini placed his hand on the older man's lower back; trying to offer some form of comfort to his close friend. To which the Irishman loosened up, pressing into the touch while avoiding eye contact with his friend. The two in tow of the couple ahead made it through the doors just in time to catch a glimpse of Marzia dashing off to their left and toward the parking garage of the Sheraton, the Swedish man gasping in horror of the sight before them and taking a split second to take it in.
Just ahead of the trio a man half sprawled across a car door with a woman crouched over him, the scene before them causing bile to rise up in their throats. The female's face was painted with crimson, her right leg twisted beyond any comprehensible reason as if to show she'd been quite damaged before. Her face was beaten severely; clearly bludgeoned recently and past recognition as well, but that didn't slow her from descending on the man's stomach and savagely latching her teeth around a lower portion of his small intestine only to snap her head to the left and tear out a fraction of what she'd been aiming for. It was all the anonymous man had in him to scream, no words could be formed. A primal and guttural scream one can only imagine in horror stories. A squelch waking the trio from their fear-induced trance and causing Felix to let a wheeze escape his throat before he could control himself. The woman's head twitched upwards at that noise; ceasing her assault on the man before them, her ratted hair flicking onto her face and gluing itself to her cheek with the maroon shade that enveloped her upper body. The three boys took this as an opportunity to escape and sprinted after Marzia, Brian bringing his hand to Craig's and enclosing it with his tightly in one swift movement just before they'd taken off after their Swedish escort. The monstrous woman charging after them as if they would be her last meal and barreling up the avenue behind them at speeds they'd never expected a woman who had suffered such severe injuries to meet. They hugged a wall, tracing Felix's tracks with a panicked precision; grunts and swift steps meters behind them that would emit an unnatural cracking noise with every few stomps. "Come on!" The familiar Swedish voice called to the pair that was trailing him, leading their gaze to a shaded area they all recognized. The parking garage. He was making a mad dash for the elevator, only stopping to meet their sights and lean over where the button panel should be. It was only seconds before Brian and Craig stumbled into the confined space and the doors swiftly shut behind them; the tallest of them having slammed himself into the back wall due to being unable to bring them both to a stop in time, Adrenaline. There was little chance the…woman; or whatever she was had followed them in there, but the three still hurried out of the elevator. Marzia was crouched behind the hood of an SUV, her gaze locked on the ground when the three approached her. "Are you all okay?" were the first words uttered amongst the panting pack, her eyes finally lifting from being lost in the cement to scan over each of the boys. They looked okay; alive. It took everything in Felix to muster a small nod, but the almost relieving wave of emotion flooding amongst them was cut short by the British man pinning a glare directly on the couple before him and panting out "What the fuck is going on?"
The banana bus squad goes to PAX Prime and get to feature in cool panels and meet up again. At least half of them, the ones that decide to go. It's all fun and games, sure, until some outbreak causes the entire convention to nosedive and any inkling of fun that was being had was lost to the monsters that began to become popular in the world. The problem is that when friends are near one another, they tend to want to try and group up. Which is a little hard when none of you can locate one another.