Chapter Two
Destination... Green Room
The hallway was dead.
It wasn't anything new, few people ever really in the hall between the theatre and
the Green Room. Mostly because of the mythos that surrounded the people that used the
Green Room as their hangout, but also because there really weren't all that many reasons
to _come_ back there.
However, because of the Green Room Crowd, most people that liked to consider
themselves sane or normal didn't venture often into the Theatre Building unless they didn't
have any recourse. Siobhan, though, didn't feel any sort of fear or worry that she might
run into a member of the Green Room Crowd. In fact, she was rather hoping for just that
thing to happen, on the premise that they would probably know what was going on if nothing
else. But besides that, Siobhan wasn't afraid or worried mainly because she was a member
of the Green Room Crowd.
The Green Room Crowd weren't bad people, but they were a strange bunch. Yet for
all their oddities they were a loyal, tight-knit group, each member knowing without a doubt
that they could depend utterly upon each other for whatever they might need. They were
also well connected and informed. If something happened on campus, the Green Room Crowd
would know about it, and at times, take action to correct the situation. If any one would
know what had happened that was causing things like what Siobhan and the others had just
experienced, they would.
Besides that, they were justifiably considered a dangerous bunch. From their
nominal leader, so much as they might be considered to have one, Josh, who had a taste
for... well, all things female, and a talent for explosives and guns, as well as computers
and things of a mechanical nature. To Switch, a specialist that was lethal with a pair of
machetes or a sword or cane in his hands, but just as dangerous with nothing but his bare
hands, booted feet, and flaring trenchcoat. All the way down to Siobhan and Ko, the quiet
ones, with an unusual level of talent with blades in the former and explosives in the
latter.
Generally speaking, if you were in a fight for your life, you'd want the Green
Room Crowd on your side. Or at least, you sure as heck wouldn't want them anywhere near
being ranged _against_ you. But, back to Siobhan and her three students.
They moved slowly down the hall, Siobhan at the point and Amanda bringing up the
rear, with Jonas carrying Jessica in the center. Their little group was nearly halfway to
the Green Room when the door to the set and prop workroom suddenly exploded open, releasing
the well-chewed shambling remains of the kids that had been working on the sets for the
upcoming play.
"_Shit_!" Siobhan yelled, leaping back to thrust through the heart of one of the
creatures. It didn't even slow, just lunged forwards and raked its claw-like fingers across
her chest, tearing open her shirt and leaving a series of painful and bloody gashes across
her chest. Siobhan pressed her free hand against the bloody rows and caught her breath,
glaring at the creature that had done so, then bringing her saber up and around in a
backhanding slash that removed the creature's head.
"Dammit!" She shouted, harvesting yet another head as she moved. "Beheading
strokes only! Take off their heads! Nothing else stops them!"
Amanda didn't waste breath to reply, just nodded and swept her saber hard through
the neck of the snarling remains of the Director of the Drama Department. She was bleeding
freely from a tear ripped through her cheek.
Jessica and Jonas were fighting almost as a single being, Jonas having dropped to
one knee and placed himself at waist level of most of the creatures, allowing Jessica the
range she needed to lope off the drooling heads. She looked incredibly pale, but no where
near as horrified as Jonas did when he was faced with the two children that had been being
watched back in the workroom. He did what he had to, but shortly after Jessica was the only
one fighting out of the pair because Jonas was doubled over loosing his lunch.
With the four of them working together, it wasn't long before the ten that had come
out of the workroom lay in rotting heaps around them. Thankfully, for everybody's
sensibilities, the bodies of the two children had been covered by two of Siobhan and
Amanda's victims. The four had managed to come through without any losses, though not
without injury.
Siobhan's wounds were deep and extremely painful, plus were probably going to
fester and develop wound-rot, but the thing that was worrying her was how the loss of blood
would effect her later on. She was just finishing pulling off her shredded dress shirt,
undershirt and bra, heedless of the furiously blushing Jonas, when Amanda stepped over
behind her and began binding a makeshift bandage around her chest. At first, Siobhan
thought that she had gotten Jonas to give her his shirt, but then she noticed that Jonas
was still fully clothed.
Amanda stepped around Siobhan then, looking to be certain that she had covered the
entirety of the injury and that it had stopped bleeding. She was a little smaller than
Siobhan and had to look up in order to meet the unusually soft hazel gaze looking down at
her with confusion. For Amanda stood there clad only in her black denim jeans and a gray
sports bra, bright eyes looking quietly up at the woman who had spent the past five months
patiently teaching her how to handle a saber on a stage.
Blood was beginning to cake on her cheek from the gash she had gotten during the
fight, and her slender, muscular shoulders and torso was bared, for the first time that
Siobhan could remember. Amanda's uncovered skin revealed an old, intricate tracery of
pale, thin scars, covering her shoulders, torso and even her back, that her shirt had
always hidden prior. Siobhan's eyes hardened with hatred at whomever would cause such
scars on a girl as sweet and diligent as Amanda.
There was something else in those glistening violet eyes that Siobhan wasn't
willing to acknowledge right then, and so, expression unchanging, she turned her head and
walked away. Amanda's face suddenly took on a very wounded cast and she dropped that
hopeful violet gaze to the ground, shoulders slumping despondently. Jessica noticed and
looked worriedly between Siobhan and Amanda from where she was trying to help Jonas get
cleaned up.
Amanda stood silently in the middle of the ravaged battlefield-hallway, shivering
slightly from the chill breeze that swept through the hall, staring blankly down at the
off-white tiles on the floor, shoulders trembling as she tried desperately to hold back
the tears shimmering in her eyes. Then a rough callused hand passed through her field of
vision, causing her to blink startledly and allow two trails of tears to flow down her
cheeks, stinging where they ran into the wound on her cheek. Then the roughened fingers
of that callused hand gently grasped her chin and tugged her face upwards to meet the
hazel eyes that she feared had rejected her out of hand.
Siobhan gazed calmly down upon the young woman whose face she held in her hand,
then brought up her free hand and the damp remains of her white cotton undershirt to begin
cleaning the matted blood and clotting mess from her wound. Her emotions had no place
here. She was very cool and professional about the matter, getting the wound clean with
minimal fuss, then inspecting more closely. Amanda tried to glance down towards the safety
of the floor again, but couldn't look further than Siobhan's chest, the awkward bandaging
around it, and the slender silver chain with two rings on it. She colored darkly once
she realized where she was staring and cast her eyes to the wall, but ended up meeting
Jessica's eyes, who smirked knowingly, causing Amanda to blush even worse and finally
settle for closing her eyes altogether. Siobhan noticed and raised a curious eyebrow,
but chose to remain silent at the time.
"You'll have to get that sewn shut later." Siobhan spoke almost too quietly to be
heard, though Amanda picked up every word. "It'll probably scar anyways, but if it's sewn
then it shouldn't be too bad."
Siobhan unconsciously allowed her hand to drift gently along Amanda's cheek along
the wound as she spoke. Amanda sighed softly and leaned into the unintentional caress,
much to Siobhan's confusion. Siobhan moved to take her hand away, but Amanda grasped it
tightly in her free hand.
"I'll put up with anything, so long as you're there."
Siobhan blinked a couple times at that. "O-okay." She murmured, drawing away from
the girl that was beginning to frighten her a bit. "Let's on to the Green Room now, shall
we?"
And so they began again, a more battered group than before, still creeping down
the hall that had never seemed so long before. Yet again, Siobhan took the point and
Amanda the rear-guard. Not a word was spoken about what may, or may not, have passed
between the two mere moments before.
When the reached the first of the heavy grey doors, Siobhan tried to haul it open
but discovered it was locked. So she started banging on it with the hilt of her saber and
yelling. Jonas, carrying Jessica, came to stand directly behind her, and Amanda stood to
the side of the door, saber out and ready for anything. Just because Siobhan was a member
of the Green Room Crowd doesn't mean that Amanda was willing to trust all of them.
The door came open so suddenly, Siobhan nearly fell inside, as she had been bracing
herself against the door with her free hand. Then the sharp end of a cane sword came
flashing out towards her head with intents to impale. Her eyes widened suddenly and she
leaned back, bring her saber up and around intending to knock the blade away when Amanda's
saber darted in and locked the cane sword in a scissor with Siobhan's blade. Siobhan glared
furiously at the long, curly haired, bearded and mustached man in the battered top hat that
held the hilt of the cane sword in one beringed hand.
"Switch, you bloody arrogant asshole! You _ever_ do that again and I _swear_ that I
am gonna give you forbidden carnal knowledge of my _claidach-mor_!" She snarled, shooting
him a look that would have caused him to drop dead and turn to dust if looks could kill.
Jonas, Jessica, and Amanda glanced at each other and shared the same sentiment that they
_never_ wanted that look directed at any of _them_.
Switch surprised everyone though when he suddenly dropped his cane-sword and lunged
through the doorway, wrapping his arms around Siobhan's waist and picking her up into a
whirling hug. It might have gone on for quite a while, but Amanda stopped it most
precipitously, when she heard Siobhan grunt softly in pain from having her wound pressed
into the hard buttons of Switch's trenchcoat, not to mention his seven or eight necklaces
and their associated pendants, by directing the unguarded tip of her saber at his
unprotected throat. He stopped dead and let his eyes run up the saber blade to Amanda's
stern, unforgiving face.
"Put her down now." Amanda stated in a cold voice that brooked no arguments.
"I see you've gotten yourself a bodyguard, Siobhan." He said in reply, a startledly
awkward grin on his face as he carefully set Siobhan back on her own feet.
Siobhan winced and let her free hand rest upon her injury, curling a bit around it
as she stood there. Amanda noticed and her expression went from cold to worried in an
instant, hurrying over next to their teacher cúm leader and wrapping a supporting arm
about her waist, before returning her cold glare to Switch.
"That's some bodyguard you got there, Siobhan..." Switch tried yet again, finally
feeling contrite now that he noticed that Siobhan was injured. "Um... we didn't think you'd
make it."
"What are you talking about?" Siobhan began, only to have to cut off abruptly and
whirl about to take off a encroaching creature's skull with a swift backhand. However, she
also garnered another set of parallel gashes, this time in her left shoulder. "Dammit!
That is _it_! Will someone _kindly_ tell me what the fucking _hell_ is going on here?!"
Switch shrugged then ushered the four into the Green Room. Once inside with the
doors once again secured, Amanda forced Siobhan to, rather reluctantly, sit down upon the
piece of Green Room furniture fondly referred to as the Couch That Ate Chicago, or C-tac
for short. It promptly lived up to it's name causing Siobhan to sink deeply into its
thread-bare, red surface with a grimace of distaste on her face. Amanda, having gotten
Siobhan seated and apparently out of trouble, redirected her attention to Switch.
"First aid kit." She was very terse when it came to speaking with the tall,
somewhat imposing man.
"Huh?" On the other hand, given Switch's noted lack of eloquence, this may have
been a good thing.
"I need a first aid kit. Do you have one?" She drew out each word slowly as if
speaking to a somewhat slow child.
"Oh. Yeah. Over there." Switch finally replied, directing her to the alcove off to
the side.
While she went and retrieved the battered old grayish-green tackle-box that served
as the Drama Department's first aid kit from the 'kitchenette' area of the Green Room,
Switch settled his long, lanky form in a chair across from the grimacing Siobhan. Hearing
them start to talk, Amanda paused just around the corner.
"So, what happened to you?"
Siobhan glared at him. "Had saber-class in the theatre. One of the kids, Bailey,
went wild for no real reason. Highly unlike him." As soon as Siobhan referred to her
students as 'kids' Amanda's shoulders slumped, she sighed then walked out of the room.
Heading towards Siobhan with the kit, she didn't have quite the same spirit, but
when Siobhan moved to get away from her and the kit, quite a bit of it returned.
"Stay _there_!" Amanda growled, pushing Siobhan back down into the C-tac and the
straddling her lap so that she couldn't escape while she tended her shoulder. Switch
couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.
"Shut up, you! I didn't see _you_ out there helping us out!" Siobhan growled over
Amanda's shoulder at Switch.
"Yeah, well, I was told to stay here and make sure none of those things gets in
here. But, anyways, you were saying about Bailey?"
"Kid went wild, started going after Jessie. I got between, ended up running him
off the edge of the stage into the pit." Siobhan suddenly broke off with a hiss of pain
as Amanda dumped rubbing alcohol directly onto the gashes. Siobhan glared at the smaller
girl, but she just smiled sweetly back.
"Ouch. Harsh." Switch winced in thought of the twelve foot drop.
"Yeah, well, Andrew went down to see if he was okay. I tried figuring out what
the hell just happened. No drugs. -Shhhessst!_ No nothing. Only thing I got was that
he'd just been in Chem. _Hhssst!_ Then we get a scream. Nasty thing that. We figure
it was Andrew but none of us were willing to check it _Hhssst!_ out. Next thing we know
_Bailey's_ coming up the stairs. Only he's all busted and not right... _Shhhessst!_ and
he's carrying Andrew's arm to boot.
Well, I tried getting him to stop by talking _Hhssst!_ him down. _That_ didn't
work. Neither did stabbing him in the shoulder. He just kept _Shhhessst!_ coming, and he
wasn't bleeding neither... so... I took his head off. Nasty black bile in there. Yuck."
Amanda finally finished dumping alcohol on the gashes and had moved to bandaging them up
properly, unlike the binding around her chest, which Siobhan was quite adamant about
refusing to let her change now that they were in the Green Room.
"Sounds like you got to meet one of these undead things." Switch began, but
Siobhan cut him off.
"Bailey wasn't the only one. All the set workers are gone, plus West, his wife
and the two kids. They're currently Rest In Pieces in the back end of the hall."
"Shit. We were afraid they'd been changed when we heard the banging from the
prop room door. "
"What's going on here, Switch? Come on, talk to me here. Give me something I can
use."
"Here's what we know. Around eleven or so this afternoon some of the Chemboys
got up to some sort of hijinks in the lab. Whatever it is they did the whole thing went
up like a rocket, ker-BLAM!" Switch began, sitting back in the chair. "Fire was fierce
and hot. We figured wasn't nobody got out alive. Then the first 'survivor' comes
staggering out. Looks like shit, but we're figuring, guy got blown up deserves to look
like shit, so no one thinks anything of it. Soon we got, four, five, _six_ of these
'survivors' come out of the rubble.
"Everyone's all thrilled that they all made it back out, so Josh and I started
heading back here. That's when the screaming started. One of the 'survivors' had _bitten_
out the throat of some guy! When they tried to stop him, it, _whatever_ nothing worked,
until some hotshot P.I.T. went and pegged him a skullshot. Critter went down like a
gunnysack full of rocks. But by that time others've been bit, and now the _first_ guy
that got bit's gone and climbing to his feet and shambling around.
"Josh and I aren't fools. We high-tailed it back here like the hounds of hell
were at our heels and locked in with Monkey and Ko."
Siobhan stared blankly at Switch, taking it all in.
"So... you're telling me that not only did the Chemboys go and make some sort of
mutagen that makes people into zombies, but it's fucking _contagious_, too?!" She finally
yelped, glaring at him.
Jessica and Jonas exchanged a look at Siobhan's enraged reaction and decided
to stay quiet over in the two chairs against the back wall.
"God-fucking-_dammit_!" Siobhan raged, wanting to pace, but being held down by
Amanda still. "It's like we're trapped in some kind of bloody video game! It's like
Resident _fucking_ Evil for crying out loud! What the _fuck_?!"
Suddenly they were distracted by a series of knocks on the door. Switch climbed to
his feet and opened it cautiously to admit Josh, Ko and Monkey, plus a heavy-duty football
time and a powerful looking woman in a P.I.T. uniform. Josh collapsed heavily to the right
of Siobhan on the C-tac and Ko dropped down on the left. Monkey just sprawled down on the
floor and their two followers found seats in the chairs around the room.
Josh's eyes rolled across to spot a shirtless Amanda straddling and holding down an
equally shirtless Siobhan and he couldn't help the sly, though tired grin that spread
across his mustache and goateed face. "Heh. Finally got you a girl, eh, Siobhan?" Siobhan
blushed furiously, which in turn caused Amanda to blush, which just made Josh laugh all the
more. "Good to see you alive though, should of known you'd hack though."
Then his attention turned to the rest of the room, and he stopped teasing. "There's
no one else left. We're it. And we're good as trapped here, with no food and no water."
Siobhan was about ready to descend into fury again, but Amanda grasped her chin
with slender fingers and forced her to look at her. "Listen to me, Siobhan. You need to
calm down. You're not helping anyone in a rage like that.'
Siobhan took a couple deep breaths, and finally gained control of herself.
Unfortunately for Amanda though, her actions had brought the still freely bleeding gash
on Amanda's cheek to her attention. Grabbing Amanda's chin, she dabbed the wound clean
again then glanced over at Josh, as she fished a sterile needle packet out of the first
aid kit.
"Say, Josh, you got any fishing line on you?"
"Fishing line? Yeah, just a moment." And he leaned over the arm of the C-tac and
popped open the massive tackle-box that contained his Warcraft models and pulled out a
roll of fine nylon fishing line before handing it to Siobhan. "This work?"
Siobhan accepted it and looked it over. "Yeah, it should do. Now I need a favor
from you and Ko. I need to stretch her out so I can work on her face. Ko, she's gonna
be a lot on your lap, please keep her from kicking me if you don't mind. Josh..."
"Yeah, I'll keep her steady."
Amanda looked at Siobhan with an expression of startled worry on her face, then
Siobhan grabbed her around the waist, lifted her up and laid her down. Before she had
hardly any time to think, Ko had grabbed hold of her legs and wasn't about to let her
move, and Josh was holding her head very still on Siobhan's lap, turned slightly towards
Siobhan's stomach to put the gash upright.
Siobhan leaned down and whispered in Amanda's ear, causing the smaller girl to
shiver. "Amanda, listen to me. Your wound hasn't stopped bleeding. You're not going to
enjoy this much, but I need to sew it up before it gets any worse."
To Siobhan's surprise, Amanda rolled her eyes so that she could look up at Siobhan,
then reached up and grabbed her arm with both hands. "So long as you're here..."
Siobhan backed off then and readied the needle and 'thread' then soaking them in
a shallow dish full of rubbing alcohol. Pushing Amanda's blonde hair away from the wound
and taking a deep breath, she set needle to flesh and pushed it in. Amanda squealed
softly in pain, violet eyes clenching shut. Siobhan carefully stitched all the way
through both edges then pulled it closed and knotted it shut before moving to the next
stitch.
She worked very carefully and diligently, setting the stitches small and close
together. It took nearly one hundred stitches to close the four inch long gash in Amanda's
cheek, each one painstakingly drawn closed and tied. By the time she finished, Amanda had
tears freely rolling down her cheeks and had buried her head into Siobhan's stomach,
despite Josh's best effort to hold her, her arms wrapped tightly around the slightly taller
woman's waist, and the makeshift bandage covering Siobhan's wounded chest was scarlet from
both hers and Amanda's blood, her hands were coated and she'd had to pause several times
to wipe them off.
But finally she was finished, and despite her better judgment, or perhaps just to
spite it, she pulled the sobbing girl up into her arms and held her as she cried.
Destination... Green Room
The hallway was dead.
It wasn't anything new, few people ever really in the hall between the theatre and
the Green Room. Mostly because of the mythos that surrounded the people that used the
Green Room as their hangout, but also because there really weren't all that many reasons
to _come_ back there.
However, because of the Green Room Crowd, most people that liked to consider
themselves sane or normal didn't venture often into the Theatre Building unless they didn't
have any recourse. Siobhan, though, didn't feel any sort of fear or worry that she might
run into a member of the Green Room Crowd. In fact, she was rather hoping for just that
thing to happen, on the premise that they would probably know what was going on if nothing
else. But besides that, Siobhan wasn't afraid or worried mainly because she was a member
of the Green Room Crowd.
The Green Room Crowd weren't bad people, but they were a strange bunch. Yet for
all their oddities they were a loyal, tight-knit group, each member knowing without a doubt
that they could depend utterly upon each other for whatever they might need. They were
also well connected and informed. If something happened on campus, the Green Room Crowd
would know about it, and at times, take action to correct the situation. If any one would
know what had happened that was causing things like what Siobhan and the others had just
experienced, they would.
Besides that, they were justifiably considered a dangerous bunch. From their
nominal leader, so much as they might be considered to have one, Josh, who had a taste
for... well, all things female, and a talent for explosives and guns, as well as computers
and things of a mechanical nature. To Switch, a specialist that was lethal with a pair of
machetes or a sword or cane in his hands, but just as dangerous with nothing but his bare
hands, booted feet, and flaring trenchcoat. All the way down to Siobhan and Ko, the quiet
ones, with an unusual level of talent with blades in the former and explosives in the
latter.
Generally speaking, if you were in a fight for your life, you'd want the Green
Room Crowd on your side. Or at least, you sure as heck wouldn't want them anywhere near
being ranged _against_ you. But, back to Siobhan and her three students.
They moved slowly down the hall, Siobhan at the point and Amanda bringing up the
rear, with Jonas carrying Jessica in the center. Their little group was nearly halfway to
the Green Room when the door to the set and prop workroom suddenly exploded open, releasing
the well-chewed shambling remains of the kids that had been working on the sets for the
upcoming play.
"_Shit_!" Siobhan yelled, leaping back to thrust through the heart of one of the
creatures. It didn't even slow, just lunged forwards and raked its claw-like fingers across
her chest, tearing open her shirt and leaving a series of painful and bloody gashes across
her chest. Siobhan pressed her free hand against the bloody rows and caught her breath,
glaring at the creature that had done so, then bringing her saber up and around in a
backhanding slash that removed the creature's head.
"Dammit!" She shouted, harvesting yet another head as she moved. "Beheading
strokes only! Take off their heads! Nothing else stops them!"
Amanda didn't waste breath to reply, just nodded and swept her saber hard through
the neck of the snarling remains of the Director of the Drama Department. She was bleeding
freely from a tear ripped through her cheek.
Jessica and Jonas were fighting almost as a single being, Jonas having dropped to
one knee and placed himself at waist level of most of the creatures, allowing Jessica the
range she needed to lope off the drooling heads. She looked incredibly pale, but no where
near as horrified as Jonas did when he was faced with the two children that had been being
watched back in the workroom. He did what he had to, but shortly after Jessica was the only
one fighting out of the pair because Jonas was doubled over loosing his lunch.
With the four of them working together, it wasn't long before the ten that had come
out of the workroom lay in rotting heaps around them. Thankfully, for everybody's
sensibilities, the bodies of the two children had been covered by two of Siobhan and
Amanda's victims. The four had managed to come through without any losses, though not
without injury.
Siobhan's wounds were deep and extremely painful, plus were probably going to
fester and develop wound-rot, but the thing that was worrying her was how the loss of blood
would effect her later on. She was just finishing pulling off her shredded dress shirt,
undershirt and bra, heedless of the furiously blushing Jonas, when Amanda stepped over
behind her and began binding a makeshift bandage around her chest. At first, Siobhan
thought that she had gotten Jonas to give her his shirt, but then she noticed that Jonas
was still fully clothed.
Amanda stepped around Siobhan then, looking to be certain that she had covered the
entirety of the injury and that it had stopped bleeding. She was a little smaller than
Siobhan and had to look up in order to meet the unusually soft hazel gaze looking down at
her with confusion. For Amanda stood there clad only in her black denim jeans and a gray
sports bra, bright eyes looking quietly up at the woman who had spent the past five months
patiently teaching her how to handle a saber on a stage.
Blood was beginning to cake on her cheek from the gash she had gotten during the
fight, and her slender, muscular shoulders and torso was bared, for the first time that
Siobhan could remember. Amanda's uncovered skin revealed an old, intricate tracery of
pale, thin scars, covering her shoulders, torso and even her back, that her shirt had
always hidden prior. Siobhan's eyes hardened with hatred at whomever would cause such
scars on a girl as sweet and diligent as Amanda.
There was something else in those glistening violet eyes that Siobhan wasn't
willing to acknowledge right then, and so, expression unchanging, she turned her head and
walked away. Amanda's face suddenly took on a very wounded cast and she dropped that
hopeful violet gaze to the ground, shoulders slumping despondently. Jessica noticed and
looked worriedly between Siobhan and Amanda from where she was trying to help Jonas get
cleaned up.
Amanda stood silently in the middle of the ravaged battlefield-hallway, shivering
slightly from the chill breeze that swept through the hall, staring blankly down at the
off-white tiles on the floor, shoulders trembling as she tried desperately to hold back
the tears shimmering in her eyes. Then a rough callused hand passed through her field of
vision, causing her to blink startledly and allow two trails of tears to flow down her
cheeks, stinging where they ran into the wound on her cheek. Then the roughened fingers
of that callused hand gently grasped her chin and tugged her face upwards to meet the
hazel eyes that she feared had rejected her out of hand.
Siobhan gazed calmly down upon the young woman whose face she held in her hand,
then brought up her free hand and the damp remains of her white cotton undershirt to begin
cleaning the matted blood and clotting mess from her wound. Her emotions had no place
here. She was very cool and professional about the matter, getting the wound clean with
minimal fuss, then inspecting more closely. Amanda tried to glance down towards the safety
of the floor again, but couldn't look further than Siobhan's chest, the awkward bandaging
around it, and the slender silver chain with two rings on it. She colored darkly once
she realized where she was staring and cast her eyes to the wall, but ended up meeting
Jessica's eyes, who smirked knowingly, causing Amanda to blush even worse and finally
settle for closing her eyes altogether. Siobhan noticed and raised a curious eyebrow,
but chose to remain silent at the time.
"You'll have to get that sewn shut later." Siobhan spoke almost too quietly to be
heard, though Amanda picked up every word. "It'll probably scar anyways, but if it's sewn
then it shouldn't be too bad."
Siobhan unconsciously allowed her hand to drift gently along Amanda's cheek along
the wound as she spoke. Amanda sighed softly and leaned into the unintentional caress,
much to Siobhan's confusion. Siobhan moved to take her hand away, but Amanda grasped it
tightly in her free hand.
"I'll put up with anything, so long as you're there."
Siobhan blinked a couple times at that. "O-okay." She murmured, drawing away from
the girl that was beginning to frighten her a bit. "Let's on to the Green Room now, shall
we?"
And so they began again, a more battered group than before, still creeping down
the hall that had never seemed so long before. Yet again, Siobhan took the point and
Amanda the rear-guard. Not a word was spoken about what may, or may not, have passed
between the two mere moments before.
When the reached the first of the heavy grey doors, Siobhan tried to haul it open
but discovered it was locked. So she started banging on it with the hilt of her saber and
yelling. Jonas, carrying Jessica, came to stand directly behind her, and Amanda stood to
the side of the door, saber out and ready for anything. Just because Siobhan was a member
of the Green Room Crowd doesn't mean that Amanda was willing to trust all of them.
The door came open so suddenly, Siobhan nearly fell inside, as she had been bracing
herself against the door with her free hand. Then the sharp end of a cane sword came
flashing out towards her head with intents to impale. Her eyes widened suddenly and she
leaned back, bring her saber up and around intending to knock the blade away when Amanda's
saber darted in and locked the cane sword in a scissor with Siobhan's blade. Siobhan glared
furiously at the long, curly haired, bearded and mustached man in the battered top hat that
held the hilt of the cane sword in one beringed hand.
"Switch, you bloody arrogant asshole! You _ever_ do that again and I _swear_ that I
am gonna give you forbidden carnal knowledge of my _claidach-mor_!" She snarled, shooting
him a look that would have caused him to drop dead and turn to dust if looks could kill.
Jonas, Jessica, and Amanda glanced at each other and shared the same sentiment that they
_never_ wanted that look directed at any of _them_.
Switch surprised everyone though when he suddenly dropped his cane-sword and lunged
through the doorway, wrapping his arms around Siobhan's waist and picking her up into a
whirling hug. It might have gone on for quite a while, but Amanda stopped it most
precipitously, when she heard Siobhan grunt softly in pain from having her wound pressed
into the hard buttons of Switch's trenchcoat, not to mention his seven or eight necklaces
and their associated pendants, by directing the unguarded tip of her saber at his
unprotected throat. He stopped dead and let his eyes run up the saber blade to Amanda's
stern, unforgiving face.
"Put her down now." Amanda stated in a cold voice that brooked no arguments.
"I see you've gotten yourself a bodyguard, Siobhan." He said in reply, a startledly
awkward grin on his face as he carefully set Siobhan back on her own feet.
Siobhan winced and let her free hand rest upon her injury, curling a bit around it
as she stood there. Amanda noticed and her expression went from cold to worried in an
instant, hurrying over next to their teacher cúm leader and wrapping a supporting arm
about her waist, before returning her cold glare to Switch.
"That's some bodyguard you got there, Siobhan..." Switch tried yet again, finally
feeling contrite now that he noticed that Siobhan was injured. "Um... we didn't think you'd
make it."
"What are you talking about?" Siobhan began, only to have to cut off abruptly and
whirl about to take off a encroaching creature's skull with a swift backhand. However, she
also garnered another set of parallel gashes, this time in her left shoulder. "Dammit!
That is _it_! Will someone _kindly_ tell me what the fucking _hell_ is going on here?!"
Switch shrugged then ushered the four into the Green Room. Once inside with the
doors once again secured, Amanda forced Siobhan to, rather reluctantly, sit down upon the
piece of Green Room furniture fondly referred to as the Couch That Ate Chicago, or C-tac
for short. It promptly lived up to it's name causing Siobhan to sink deeply into its
thread-bare, red surface with a grimace of distaste on her face. Amanda, having gotten
Siobhan seated and apparently out of trouble, redirected her attention to Switch.
"First aid kit." She was very terse when it came to speaking with the tall,
somewhat imposing man.
"Huh?" On the other hand, given Switch's noted lack of eloquence, this may have
been a good thing.
"I need a first aid kit. Do you have one?" She drew out each word slowly as if
speaking to a somewhat slow child.
"Oh. Yeah. Over there." Switch finally replied, directing her to the alcove off to
the side.
While she went and retrieved the battered old grayish-green tackle-box that served
as the Drama Department's first aid kit from the 'kitchenette' area of the Green Room,
Switch settled his long, lanky form in a chair across from the grimacing Siobhan. Hearing
them start to talk, Amanda paused just around the corner.
"So, what happened to you?"
Siobhan glared at him. "Had saber-class in the theatre. One of the kids, Bailey,
went wild for no real reason. Highly unlike him." As soon as Siobhan referred to her
students as 'kids' Amanda's shoulders slumped, she sighed then walked out of the room.
Heading towards Siobhan with the kit, she didn't have quite the same spirit, but
when Siobhan moved to get away from her and the kit, quite a bit of it returned.
"Stay _there_!" Amanda growled, pushing Siobhan back down into the C-tac and the
straddling her lap so that she couldn't escape while she tended her shoulder. Switch
couldn't help but chuckle at the sight.
"Shut up, you! I didn't see _you_ out there helping us out!" Siobhan growled over
Amanda's shoulder at Switch.
"Yeah, well, I was told to stay here and make sure none of those things gets in
here. But, anyways, you were saying about Bailey?"
"Kid went wild, started going after Jessie. I got between, ended up running him
off the edge of the stage into the pit." Siobhan suddenly broke off with a hiss of pain
as Amanda dumped rubbing alcohol directly onto the gashes. Siobhan glared at the smaller
girl, but she just smiled sweetly back.
"Ouch. Harsh." Switch winced in thought of the twelve foot drop.
"Yeah, well, Andrew went down to see if he was okay. I tried figuring out what
the hell just happened. No drugs. -Shhhessst!_ No nothing. Only thing I got was that
he'd just been in Chem. _Hhssst!_ Then we get a scream. Nasty thing that. We figure
it was Andrew but none of us were willing to check it _Hhssst!_ out. Next thing we know
_Bailey's_ coming up the stairs. Only he's all busted and not right... _Shhhessst!_ and
he's carrying Andrew's arm to boot.
Well, I tried getting him to stop by talking _Hhssst!_ him down. _That_ didn't
work. Neither did stabbing him in the shoulder. He just kept _Shhhessst!_ coming, and he
wasn't bleeding neither... so... I took his head off. Nasty black bile in there. Yuck."
Amanda finally finished dumping alcohol on the gashes and had moved to bandaging them up
properly, unlike the binding around her chest, which Siobhan was quite adamant about
refusing to let her change now that they were in the Green Room.
"Sounds like you got to meet one of these undead things." Switch began, but
Siobhan cut him off.
"Bailey wasn't the only one. All the set workers are gone, plus West, his wife
and the two kids. They're currently Rest In Pieces in the back end of the hall."
"Shit. We were afraid they'd been changed when we heard the banging from the
prop room door. "
"What's going on here, Switch? Come on, talk to me here. Give me something I can
use."
"Here's what we know. Around eleven or so this afternoon some of the Chemboys
got up to some sort of hijinks in the lab. Whatever it is they did the whole thing went
up like a rocket, ker-BLAM!" Switch began, sitting back in the chair. "Fire was fierce
and hot. We figured wasn't nobody got out alive. Then the first 'survivor' comes
staggering out. Looks like shit, but we're figuring, guy got blown up deserves to look
like shit, so no one thinks anything of it. Soon we got, four, five, _six_ of these
'survivors' come out of the rubble.
"Everyone's all thrilled that they all made it back out, so Josh and I started
heading back here. That's when the screaming started. One of the 'survivors' had _bitten_
out the throat of some guy! When they tried to stop him, it, _whatever_ nothing worked,
until some hotshot P.I.T. went and pegged him a skullshot. Critter went down like a
gunnysack full of rocks. But by that time others've been bit, and now the _first_ guy
that got bit's gone and climbing to his feet and shambling around.
"Josh and I aren't fools. We high-tailed it back here like the hounds of hell
were at our heels and locked in with Monkey and Ko."
Siobhan stared blankly at Switch, taking it all in.
"So... you're telling me that not only did the Chemboys go and make some sort of
mutagen that makes people into zombies, but it's fucking _contagious_, too?!" She finally
yelped, glaring at him.
Jessica and Jonas exchanged a look at Siobhan's enraged reaction and decided
to stay quiet over in the two chairs against the back wall.
"God-fucking-_dammit_!" Siobhan raged, wanting to pace, but being held down by
Amanda still. "It's like we're trapped in some kind of bloody video game! It's like
Resident _fucking_ Evil for crying out loud! What the _fuck_?!"
Suddenly they were distracted by a series of knocks on the door. Switch climbed to
his feet and opened it cautiously to admit Josh, Ko and Monkey, plus a heavy-duty football
time and a powerful looking woman in a P.I.T. uniform. Josh collapsed heavily to the right
of Siobhan on the C-tac and Ko dropped down on the left. Monkey just sprawled down on the
floor and their two followers found seats in the chairs around the room.
Josh's eyes rolled across to spot a shirtless Amanda straddling and holding down an
equally shirtless Siobhan and he couldn't help the sly, though tired grin that spread
across his mustache and goateed face. "Heh. Finally got you a girl, eh, Siobhan?" Siobhan
blushed furiously, which in turn caused Amanda to blush, which just made Josh laugh all the
more. "Good to see you alive though, should of known you'd hack though."
Then his attention turned to the rest of the room, and he stopped teasing. "There's
no one else left. We're it. And we're good as trapped here, with no food and no water."
Siobhan was about ready to descend into fury again, but Amanda grasped her chin
with slender fingers and forced her to look at her. "Listen to me, Siobhan. You need to
calm down. You're not helping anyone in a rage like that.'
Siobhan took a couple deep breaths, and finally gained control of herself.
Unfortunately for Amanda though, her actions had brought the still freely bleeding gash
on Amanda's cheek to her attention. Grabbing Amanda's chin, she dabbed the wound clean
again then glanced over at Josh, as she fished a sterile needle packet out of the first
aid kit.
"Say, Josh, you got any fishing line on you?"
"Fishing line? Yeah, just a moment." And he leaned over the arm of the C-tac and
popped open the massive tackle-box that contained his Warcraft models and pulled out a
roll of fine nylon fishing line before handing it to Siobhan. "This work?"
Siobhan accepted it and looked it over. "Yeah, it should do. Now I need a favor
from you and Ko. I need to stretch her out so I can work on her face. Ko, she's gonna
be a lot on your lap, please keep her from kicking me if you don't mind. Josh..."
"Yeah, I'll keep her steady."
Amanda looked at Siobhan with an expression of startled worry on her face, then
Siobhan grabbed her around the waist, lifted her up and laid her down. Before she had
hardly any time to think, Ko had grabbed hold of her legs and wasn't about to let her
move, and Josh was holding her head very still on Siobhan's lap, turned slightly towards
Siobhan's stomach to put the gash upright.
Siobhan leaned down and whispered in Amanda's ear, causing the smaller girl to
shiver. "Amanda, listen to me. Your wound hasn't stopped bleeding. You're not going to
enjoy this much, but I need to sew it up before it gets any worse."
To Siobhan's surprise, Amanda rolled her eyes so that she could look up at Siobhan,
then reached up and grabbed her arm with both hands. "So long as you're here..."
Siobhan backed off then and readied the needle and 'thread' then soaking them in
a shallow dish full of rubbing alcohol. Pushing Amanda's blonde hair away from the wound
and taking a deep breath, she set needle to flesh and pushed it in. Amanda squealed
softly in pain, violet eyes clenching shut. Siobhan carefully stitched all the way
through both edges then pulled it closed and knotted it shut before moving to the next
stitch.
She worked very carefully and diligently, setting the stitches small and close
together. It took nearly one hundred stitches to close the four inch long gash in Amanda's
cheek, each one painstakingly drawn closed and tied. By the time she finished, Amanda had
tears freely rolling down her cheeks and had buried her head into Siobhan's stomach,
despite Josh's best effort to hold her, her arms wrapped tightly around the slightly taller
woman's waist, and the makeshift bandage covering Siobhan's wounded chest was scarlet from
both hers and Amanda's blood, her hands were coated and she'd had to pause several times
to wipe them off.
But finally she was finished, and despite her better judgment, or perhaps just to
spite it, she pulled the sobbing girl up into her arms and held her as she cried.