Endgame Earth

[NovaAurora]

    Nova pressed on with the thunderous claps of Katelyn's rifle echoing behind him, holding Himawari against him as best he could as he neared the entrance to the lobby. Without a backwards glance he flung the door open with a grunt and stepped inside the room now occupied by a good deal of the non-armed furs, Jave, and Sarah. He went over to a desk and propped up Himawari against it- she was alive, but she didn't look so good. Scratched, bleeding, and apparently very cold since her jacket was nowhere to be seen, she resembled a freshly-killed corpse more than a breathing human. All the medical supplies he had brought were still in his humvee, and there was no way he was going back out there now. He would never be able to make it out and back without being overrun. When he had first run out of this building after meeting Harold, he thought he remembered glancing Jave with Himawari in her car as he ran past the convoy. Maybe he could at least shed some light on what had happened to her. Nova walked up to him looking very exasperated and said, "Hey, as you can see, she's not doing so well. If I recall correctly you were the last one to speak with her, before she just... ran off and came back leading on an entire horde of those things. What did she say to you? Was she acting alright? Do you have any idea what possessed her to do what she did and nearly get herself killed?"

[Byracka]

Jave stumbled in awe of the authority and sternness in Nova’s voice. “There was… she… she told me.” He felt his throat choking up, eyes staring and stuttering on the last word. Trying to catch any details from his and Himawari’s conversation, but it was scattered in the surrounding confusion. Outside there had been screams, gunshots and now all of a sudden Himawari is carried in here, bleeding and unconscious, or even dead. “She told me, and I’m not sure I remember correctly it was all… sorry” he had spoken to quickly and again stumbled off. “She told me that there was a voice talking to her, something about that she didn’t have much time left, what happened to her?”
Sarah was in chock but she couldn’t let any of her emotions show through while she was keeping the crowd calm. Everyone was anxious and it was showing, the other furs tensed as if they wanted to run away the young ones grabbed arms of the older others shook their heads in denial but most of them simply looked at her in despair, silently asking: what now? And she didn’t know the answer. After glancing she saw Himawari leaned against the table, seemingly unconscious, or even dead. If it was the former then just maybe she could help.

[Ventus Fall]

Himawari was unconscious, but she did not know this. In fact, she was dreaming, but she thought she was still running away from the Consumer, trying to kick it in its face. The Consumer stood up over her and grabbed her. She tried to scream, but she had no voice. In panic, she tried to hit it hard.
She then remembered her backpack was still in her car. She had left it behind.
Himawari tried to squirm her way out of the COnsumer's grip and opened the door. She grabbed the bag and got her pocket knife. When the Consumer grabbed her leg again, she turned her body around and stabbed it in the eye. It growled and staggered back, letting go of her.

She rushed towards the compound, but saw no one in any of the buildings. She tried to call out everyone's name. Nova, Jave, Sarah, Katelyn, Ip. But she couldn't even make a single squeek.
Confused, she stood against a wall hopelessy.
What could she do next?



In the meantime, her unconscious body started to get warmer. Not because of the somewhat warmer inside of the building. Her body was getting feverously warmer and sweat startedto form on her skin. She was also now breathing heavily, as if she was having trouble breathing.

[NovaAurora]

    A feeling of dread came over Nova as he remembered the conversation he had with Himawari just before leaving the HQ. Even though that was just over a day ago now, it felt like an age. She had warned him that something like this may happen around consumers, and these were no ordinary consumers at that, so who knew what they could be doing to her. Nova clutched his forehead with one hand and then looked up at Jave. "What's happened is that she appears to have gone out and actively contacted the consumers, and led them back here, but she was attacked in the process." he said. "She had told me that she has some special kind of... bond or connection with them and that stuff might happen to her, but I never thought it would be this bad." He looked over at where Himawari lay again, and was startled to see her gasping and heaving, sweat pouring from her brow even though she should have been hypothermic. At the same time he heard the furious roar of the consumers he had injured outside the door of the building and knew they'd be able to break in easily. "Jave! Sarah! Defend that doorway," he yelled, "keep them off of us as long as you can, barricade it if you have to, but I need to see if I can get through to Himawari! If she communicated with them once, maybe she can do it again..." He got down on his knees next to her and cupped her chin in his hands, turning her head so she would be looking right at him if her eyes were open. He shook her shoulder with his other hand and spoke forcefully, "Himawari, are you there? It's Nova, please, wake up! Talk to me now, come on we don't have much time goddammit! Wake up!!"

[Ventus Fall]

Something warm encased the lower part of her head. She lifted her hands to touch her own face and try to feel what was happening. When she realised she was dreaming, she let out a gasp and was so relieved. Nova and others weren't gone, they were still here. She was just trapped in the dream.

And, once the realisation came, she was able to open her eyes and saw Nova's face immediatly. She was kind of startled by this, as she didn't expect the furry wolven face to be right in front of her.
She held Nova's hands. They were nice, fluffy and warm.
Himawari let her hands drop and blinked her eyes a few times. The cold started to get to her again and she realised she had been sweating and that she wasn't wearing her jacket anymore. It stunned her a bit to find out she still survived the devasating cold with what she was wearing.

"Nova? How come I'm still -" She stopped, realising by the sounds coming from outside that there were bigger problems. Not only that, but her plan didn't exactly work out as she planned. Then again, she knew that the moment she tried to run away from the Consumers.
The question 'What's going on?' would also be irrelevant, as she knew what was going on. Because she couldn't think of any 'useful' questions, she decided to just look questionably at Nova and wait for him to speak. She had no idea what else to do.

[NovaAurora]

    Nova's eyes widened as he saw Himawari begin to wake up. She looked scared and confused, as if she was having trouble differentiating reality from whatever she had been experiencing unconsciously. She said a few words and then just sat there in somewhat expectant stunned silence, so Nova spoke again. "Oh, thank goodness you're awake, and alive more to the point. As you're obviously aware we've got a massive problem on our hands. I don't know what the hell you did, but from what Jave said to me I'd guess that other... part of you... took over or something. If you can remember, I need to know what you communicated to them. Even better would be if you could do it again and somehow get them to stop coming after us, at least for the moment. We're trapped here, Himawari, and you're the only option we have other than trying to fight them and praying for a miracle." He was getting upset and he knew it, not at Himawari as she assumedly had no control over what she did, but at himself for getting everyone into this mess. At how he had taken it upon himself to lead these people and now had utterly no control over the situation. At how all their fates potentially rested in the hands of a human, albeit one he trusted greatly, but a human nonetheless, and that he had no idea what would happen next. 

[Ventus Fall]

Himawari shook her head with slight anger. Not directed at Nova, but at herself.
"I was stupid to think I could controll it and help you. Your group." She paused for a brief moment and lokoed around. She missed her backpack, or to be more precise: her father's pocketknife. It was probably still in her car.
She tried to stand up, her legs shaking. She collapsed quickly on the ground. She cursed a few words silently. Himawari didn't like being so weak.

"You're weak."
She could hear the voice speak to her.
Himawari remarked to it without anyone letting hear what she was saying: "You just showed me you are no stronger than me." She grinned fleetingly.

Once she regained some more strength she stood up again and leaned against the desk.
"I could try. Though I'm not sure this will work. But if it does and anything goes wrong with me..." Himawari hesitated. "You just consider me as one of them, allright?"

[NovaAurora]

    Nova watched with concern as Himawari struggled to stand up. She seemed to be fighting more than just her physical weakness, as if she was wrestling with some inner forces he had no concept of. She was finally able to stand up on her own, but with much difficulty. "What... what do you have in mind?" he asked hesitantly. Then he grimaced to himself, it didn't matter what she had in mind, whatever it was had to be better than nothing. "Actually," he said with a sigh, "you don't have to bother... explaining or anything. But I don't want to have to kill you, how will I know if something is 'going wrong?' You're clearly not yourself when being influenced by the consumer side of you, and I don't know what it even really looks like!" He could hear the monsters outside getting closer, angrier. The fact that he found himself caring so much for the life of this clearly severely affected human was rather distressing to him. He never left one of his own behind, always did everything he could for those in his resistance, but there comes a point when an individual may have to be sacrificed for the good of the group, and she wasn't even a fur... And yet he didn't want anything to happen to her. He had a feeling that they were going to need her far beyond the present moment if they were to survive here.

[Takamei Edevane]

Ip stood up, looking around at all the furs looking around for the generator. He looked back, in front of him there was a large metal storage unit. "Looks promising" he said to himself. Without delaying any longer he placed his paw on the handle, it was so slightly warmer than it should have felt.  It should have been freezing cold due to the lack of heating and it being metal. Something wasn't quite right. Nether the less he opened it up and inside was a decent looking generator. "Wonderful. Hey guys! I found it!" Letting the others know, there was no time to get it out and just poured in the gas. Pulled the ignition, and it began to rumble.

[Byracka]

It was with fleeting steps and a heavy heart that Sarah took her eyes from the unarmed furs, holding both her paws up and doing her best to calm them down before she turned around. She walked beside Jave and whispered in his ear "Is this what you tried to tell me about Himawari?" Jave nodded. She rested her paw on his shoulder as a silent apology. The end seemed to be closing in, it seemed best to close any untied strings.

Sarah went up beside Nova and Himawari, she felt sorry that she never had the time to get to know them better and once they acknowledged her presence she was ready to speak, but swallowed her words. How could they be helped if she had almost given up herself, this wasn't like her. But this wasn't like the other times either, now their leader stood trembling, and she had no idea what was going on outside.

She searched for the words again, looked at Nova, Himawari and Jave and breathed "Hey...we're going to make it. This isn't when our story ends."

[Ventus Fall]

Himawari looked up when she heard Ip's voice. She was partially relieved, however, she knew she still needed to be some kind of decoy in order to make sure the others could get to safety.
Running her trembeling hand quickly through her hair, she looked at Nova, Jave and Sarah, and said: "You guys find some place safe. I'll... see what I can do."

Without looking back or listening to what anyone might say, Himawari walked to the door and went outside. The Consumers soon let their eyes fall on her and started to rush towards her. She closed the door behind her and ran off.
"You think you will survive?" The voice laughed.
"I will..." Himawari replied.
"Ha! How?"
She hesitated for a brief moment. "With your help."
"You think I will help you?"
"No," she said quickly, "But you can and will save your own self being if given the chance. I know you tried to kill me. Us. Back there, but think reasonably. If you would have succeeded, then you would have brought about your own demise."
She could feel the thing inside of her think.
Behind her, the Consumers were closing in on her fast. Himawari was getting nervous. If she had to die, so be it. Rather kill the thing inside of her along with her than let it live, but she had to give the others a chance of survival.
"Fine," it eventually said, "But you'll be mine from now on."

Himawari blacked out and felt a warm and comforting darkness envelop her.

[NovaAurora]

    Nova gasped as Himawari jumped up and dismissed them all, glaring at her as she marched out the door to greet the approaching horde. Her apparent lack of concern frustrated him, but he was astonished to see them all start chasing after her. He knew it would be fruitless to pursue her, and she was buying them more time after all, so he merely stood in stunned silence as she disappeared from view. He had heard Sarah speak behind him but had no words to say back. Instead he announced over his shoulder as he too marched defiantly out the door, "If there's a time to act it's gonna be now. I hope Ip and Katelyn found something over in the garage... we need to get that vault open and fast." Normally he would have liked to give an order or command at that point, but he saw no point in it. They were beyond any sort of orderly structure. Until he remembered... He whipped around and stuck his head back inside the door to the large main building. "Sarah! Jave! All of you! Get to the convoy and grab all your stuff from your vehicles! Weapons, ammo, medical supplies, anything we can use, take it and bring it inside!" he yelled, before darting off once again to the garage, hoping desperately to find that some progress had been made on opening the vault.

[Luke White-Heart]

Luke scrambled around the vault, desperatly trying to find some way to open it. As time wore on, eventually he started shooting the door, but all he accomplished were a shallow bullet wound on his leg and wasted ammo. After what felt like hours, Luke slumped against a wall, defeated. Are you giving up, love? said a voice. Luke sat up and looked around, searching for the source of the voice.
Oh, come on, Luke. You know it's me. Then Luke understood. It was Daniel...but only in his head. "Great," he said out lout to no one in particular, "I'm talking to a ghost."
You'll figure it out, love. It's in your blood.
Luke tilted his lupine head in confusion. In his blood? What the devil did that mean?
He glanced over at the wall again, thinking hard. He heard rapid paw steps growing near, and he looked to see Nova, running toward the vault.

[NovaAurora]

    Nova ran up to the garage panting lightly and looked around. There were several others, but quickly he identified Ip and Katelyn, Ip bending over what appeared to be some kind of generator. Nova's heart jumped with the sudden sign of hope as he went over to examine the situation. "You found a generator!" he exclaimed. "Excellent work, but have you found what it powers? Any computers or terminals or anything? We haven't got much time, the consumers will leave us alone for the moment but..." he found himself getting slightly choked up suddenly, at the thought of their time perhaps being limited only by how long it took the consumes to rip Himawari to shreds. Regaining his composure and coughing once he continued, "In any case, spread out and try to find something. I'll go look back in the armory itself." He turned and started jogging past the garage and into the adjoining bunker-like building, but stopped as he noticed Luke standing by himself against a wall near the entrance. Nova remembered the car ride over, how sullen he had looked, and immediately was concerned again. He walked up to Luke and asked, "Luke, is everything alright? We're fighting for our lives here, I'd really appreciate it if you could aid in the search or something, or at least go over to the convoy and perhaps help retrieve supplies..." He looked over Luke's shoulder into the room behind. "I don't suppose you noticed anything in the bunker huh?"

[MrRazot]

Warren had been standing guard alone in the vault room. His initial search of the building had not been too successful and having lost everyone else, he'd figured the best thing to do would be to be at the vault immediately should any progress would be made. It was a long-short while he'd been there and his sword probably wouldn't last against one of those "super consumers". Especially considering how risky it could be if one of the consumers got into the vault and used whatever was inside.
The sign of progress was however quite blatant as the florescent light bulbs on the ceiling flickered on, revealing the room under a new light. The brown mess of rusted metal and poorly maintained furniture and metal plated walls in the damp contrasted with the pure smooth vault door. Warren's boots were almost orange with the mixture of water, rust dyed mud. The interesting bit came however when a small section of the wall slid open and a terminal slowly pushed out, making it look as though it had always been there, if not for like the vault door, it was also untouched by the neglect that had been brought on by the past years.


Warren would be lying if he said he hadn't been at least a little frightened by this sudden turn of events. He therefore carefully approached the wall terminal as the screen flickered on the black screen to show a wireframe model of the vault door and various information regarding the interaction. Pasted across the screen was a message that conveyed a simple two word command. "Swipe Card".
There was also a keypad and retinal scanner, so Warren assumed that besides needing a key card, you would also need the correct iris print and a key-code. This would obviously require hacking unless there were any still living members with registered access to the vault.


"well damn" Warren said to himself. He knew the retina scanner could be hacked pretty easily if he had a photograph of someone. There was also bound to be a key card that someone dropped. Perhaps it could even be possible to hack the admin computer to register a new user. He ran his paws around the terminal to see if he could perhaps open it up and try hack it from the inside. A few screws undone with one of Warren's multi-tools he kept on him and he carefully removed the front panel to reveal the circuitry. Warren smiled as this showed the terminal to be very out of date and could probably be hacked with a phone. God how he missed the internet.


Warren put the front panel down and made sure that none of the circuitry got damaged and the screen remained in the state it was. He wondered if he could go and find someone to let them know if the development. He also pondered upon whether he could go and look for any broken smart phones or data tablets or even keycards. Or if he should just stay put and wait. If he could hack this now, he could get what was inside and help the others. He looked again at the circuits.
"one of these have to open something..." he said to himself and started searching at least the room for anything.