About the same time he realized the situation had escalated into something far beyond his control, what could only be described as a sudden lurch caused him to tumble forward into the doorway, startling the three other people who were forced to put their game of mahjong on hold for the time being.
One of the three took a few steps forward towards the man on the floor as he gasped and wheezed, clutching his chest, a wild eyed look on his perspired face.
"Murdoc? What has happened?" The young Asian asked.
The older man panted and mumbled incoherently in a panicked frenzy.
"Thhrzzssz! Bloody! Gah! Everywrr…" the man from Stoke on Trent said in a British accent too thick for the fourteen year old girl to understand. He stumbled awkwardly to his feet, trying to gain leverage.
From in front of the sofa the large African-American man interjected, "Man, what is wrong with you? You're scarring the poor girl! Spill it!" The third man remained silent, shifting uncomfortably in his green and yellow band shirt.
"Go," the man mumbled under his breath, eyes glued to the ground as he tried to catch his breath. The years of smoking heavily had caused his lungs to beg him to stop, but the man was relentless.
The three looked at him each with puzzled expressions.
"Go? Go where?" the large man asked, furrowing his brow.
The man looked up to answer but was cut off by a distant crash and a loud rumble.
The young girl jumped.
"What was that?" she asked, looking at the door he came through. She gasped when his hand reached for the edge of the door and slammed it shut.
"Dammit girl, we 'ave ta RUN!"
He made a mad dash for the front door and the three others exchanged looks then followed behind without question.
As the four bandmates ran, the blue haired quiet one glanced back and to his horror saw the building known to him as Kong studios collapsing in on itself, but even more frightening was the intense aura of evil emanating from the building. How this was possible, he didn't know.
"Hurry," the olive skinned man wheezed as they ran through the gate into the graveyard where the zombie inhabitants slowly limped toward them. The tall, lanky man whimpered in fear as the heavyset drummer punched the jaw clean off an approaching reanimated corpse.
"Murdoc, you have to explain what is happening," the girl managed to get out in between breaths. She was also clearing the path of the walking dead as they ran past the graves and entered the polluted wastelands around the former recording studio.
"Buildin's collapsin'," Murdoc gasped, still leading the others to an unknown destination.
"Gotta hurry… He's comin'," the old Satanist wheezed.
"Who?"
An explosion from within the building caused pieces on concrete to come raining down all over the area.
"Over here!" Murdoc rushed under a protruding rock and the others followed, taking shelter in the crevice.
The four gasped for breath as the sounds of raining rubble could be seen and heard from all around them.
"Murdoc, just what the hell is going on now," the drummer asked, clearly more annoyed than frightened.
Murdoc, still regaining his breath sat with his palms flat on the ground, a look of terror completely enveloping his face.
The others looked at each other worriedly.
"Murdoc?"
He blinked and regained focus on the man addressing him.
"Russel. Somethin'… happened out there… I don't know if I can explain it now."
His response only puzzled the three even more.
"Please Murdoc, why has our home been destroyed? We must know," the youngest asked. Her violet hair concealed her eyes, but not enough to hide the look of distress and confusion emanating from them.
Despite this, he ignored her question.
"We can't stay here much longer, Noodle! We need to get further away! I can explain later," he said with a sense of urgency.
Noodle and Russel exchanged worried glances and nodded finally.
"Okay," Russel replied.
Murdoc looked over the top of the rocky structure and waited for some of the falling debris to lessen. He clutched his fists tightly and bit his lower lip while the other three waited.
"Okay… GO!"
The four darted off through the wasteland in the direction of the unexplored dead forest ahead. Neither band member had ever set foot there in all the years they occupied the Kong residence, either because some were too fearful of what they may encounter, or because it simply didn't appeal to them.
At least the three others thought no one had explored it.
Now was not the time to be making any objections however, since it was to be assumed something was after them, which would explain why they were running.
"Hurry, through here!" the throaty voice of the bass player ordered. The others obliged and ran past low branches over rocks and dead grass. The woods were cold and dry making it harder to continue a rapid pace in the midnight air.
Having no idea where the eccentric bassist was leading them the others had little choice as to where to go since the threat was most likely getting closer by the look of the running man's need to flee.
Branches continued to snag shirts and pant legs as they ran and they kept a quick pace despite the taller blue haired man tripping a number of times as they went down ledges.
After what seemed to be an eternity they arrived at a strange clearing with stone floors. There were three weathered pillars forming a triangle within the outside of the stone circle floor. The tree others looked around the area bewildered, but Murdoc walked directly to the center of the circle and fell to his knees, brushing dirt and leaves from the center.
"What is this place?" The large, pupiless eyed man asked.
The olive skinned man continued to feverously clean the stone floor with his hands, ignoring the question.
The tallest of the four, the one with the sunken in eyes stepped up to the man, his breathing uneasily quickened with alarm.
"Murdoc, did you do something bad? Is that why we're running?" he asked.
Murdoc stopped and looked up at the looming man over him, looking him right in his fractured eyes and he watched the man gulp.
"Get out of the moonlight, 2D," he growled.
He backed away from the crazed bassist, startled.
When he finally cleared away the brush enough he stood up, revealing a circular pattern with designs and strange writing on all around it. A star like shape was in the center of the circle, looking as if uncovered for the first time in decades.
"Com'ere," he simply said.
"What is this about?" Russel replied suspiciously.
"It- ahh! I don't have time for this rubbish! All of you just come here and stand in the bloody circle, for chrissakes!"
"And what if we refuse?"
Murdoc paused, the chilly wind flowing through his hair.
"Then you die."
There was a seriousness in the way the man replied that brought shivers down their spines. A deathly seriousness never before seen in the man from all the time they've known him.
The four formed a ring around the ancient stone circle and stood silently, awaiting any further instructions.
"Erm…"
"What is it?"
"We have to hold hands."
"What?"
"Yeah, look I don't like it either but that's how it's gotta be done, mate."
Reluctancy was soon replaced with silent agreement as the four members of the band Gorillaz clasped each other's hands.
Murdoc closed his eyes and began mumbling something in a low voice. They weren't sure if it was Latin, or some dead language, but they've never heard him speak anything other than English or bad French, so they remained as baffled as ever.
The wind abruptly started picking up, howling through the dead branches like the whispers of lost souls. The air swept past them furiously, then swept through them. The three silent band members were forced to close their eyes shut as well as the cold air harshly stung their faces.
Sudden warmth radiated from around them but they couldn't see what was causing it, and they felt the ground below them sink lower yet somehow they remained stationary.
The girl's grip tightened to the hands she held as beads of sweat formed on her brow.
They felt air currents swirling around them, hot and cold, like a dragon breathing fire in winter.
Then, as quickly as it had started, the olive skinned man grew silent and there was nothing.
No light, no chilling wind or heat, just the sounds of breathing.
They opened their eyes.
