And If the Dam Breaks Open
Who: Sammy, Linn and Geo.
Where: The Williams' house, then the streets
When: Sometime after eight, but before the gunshots in the park.
Sammy snagged an Oreo off the plate he had balanced on top of the monitor, steadying it with one hand as he dropped back into the spinny-chair of dOOm in front of the desk. The house felt weird all dark and without his parents inside. At least they weren't going to have to be here long. Just until close to one, when he and Geo'd be leaving to catch the bus. That wasn't long to wait, right...?
MustardOhMy (08:13:17): A'ight. Bakc.
MustardOhMy (08:13:24): And quit complaining! were staying with you, 'cause *you* hav room!
MAliLover (08:14:30): Yeah? that dont mean you can invite urself sammy
MAliLover (08:14:40): i couldve had plans then wut
MustardOhMy (08:16:35): Right. PLans. Like, what, car-thiefy plans? Then having us there would be a good thing, right?
MustardOhMy (08:17:00): We'd be able to provide alibis. OR someting.
MustardOhMy (08:17:05): *something
MustardOhMy (08:17:30): And if it's really a problem we can, uh...stay somwhere else.
MAliLover (08:17:50): sorry gettin nother drink
MAliLover (08:18:10): like were. Yu is in toronto or somethin. ur mom wuould flip. ur comin here even if i didn't invite u.
MAliLover (08:18:30): dont make me come there and kick ur ass.
MAliLover (08:18:40): i will if i have to D<
MustardOhMy (08:19:01): Like my mom would know? She wouldn't unless *you* told her.
MustardOhMy (08:19:05): Which you probably would. Jerk.
MAliLover (08:19:40): bitch
MAliLover (08:19:50): I love ur mom but dude, she's a psyco
MAliLover (08:20:01): so yeah
MAliLover (08:20:10): train station at wut. nine?
MustardOhMy (08:21:07): Huh?
MustardOhMy (08:21:12): Like, what time we have to be there?
MustardOhMy (08:21:14): Or...what? And wow. cutting oyu off from SPN, M.
MAliLover (08:22:10): no i have 2 b there 2 pick u up. duh.
MAliLover (08:22:22): NO MY SHOW >:O
MAliLover (08:22:37): u guys just hav no taste
MustardOhMy (08:24:40): We have taste, but those guys would *kill* us.
MustardOhMy (08:25:05): And it's a bus. It gets into othhe station around 10:30 in the morning. So you're off by an hour and a half.
MustardOhMy (08:25:31): You can sleep in! Kind of. Ha.
MAliLover (08:26:17): haha very funny
MAliLover (08:26:27): haha very funny
MAliLover (08:26:34): oops that sent 2 times
MAliLover (08:26:41): and no they woldn't, they were gonna let that werewolf chick live if she stopped killing things
MAliLover (08:26:47): u guys dont kill things
MAliLover (08:26:52): i dont think
MAliLover (08:26:54): ?
MustardOhMy (08:26:57): Admitting you don't think is the first step in solving your problems, you know. =D
MustardOhMy (08:27:08): but seriously. No. We don't ikll thinks.
MustardOhMy (08:27:12): I mean *kill things
MustardOhMy (08:28:34): ...hoShit.
MAliLover (08:28:54): wut?
MAliLover (08:28:57): sammy?
MAliLover (08:28:59): sam
MAliLover (08:29:14): ???
MAliLover (08:31:54): SAM WTF TYPE
MustardOhMy (08:35:55): Uh. Gunsoths outside.
MustardOhMy (08:36:07): Not this road -- dun tihnk.
MustardOhMy (08:36:13): Btu still. gotta go, k? sirnes going crayz.
MAliLover (08:36:54): stay inside.
MAliLover (08:36:57): tell Gee stay inside 2
MAliLover (08:37:04): k?
MAliLover (08:37:10): dont wanna here 'bout any crazyass birdthings
MAliLover (08:37:12): k?
The AIM window on the ancient computer screen continued to blink a steady consistent orange as the chair in front of the desk spun around and around. Sammy hadn't seen the last five messages, he'd just sent his last messages and booked leaving the chair spinning behind him. Not only did he leave the chair spinning, but the curtains covering the window were fluttering in the breeze coming into the room through the open window.
Sammy slid down the roof of the garage, his mom's cellphone in hand, to land on the driveway, landing in a crouch. He straightened up quickly as soon as his eyes adjusted to the different light, and looked back at the house once before he walked away from it. He'd be back to get Geo shortly, probably, but right now... he made a left onto the sidewalk and headed up the street. Right now he was investigating. Probably not the best thing to do by yourself - especially if you couldn't scream - but he was doing it anyhow. Curiosity was quite possibly another word for stupid.
If it was, there was another stupid guy out there, too. Linn was on the other side of the street, a bit ahead of Sammy and heading in the same direction as him. Linn had been heading home, after spending the afternoon and evening wandering around out and about in town, but his curiosity had been peaked by the sound of gunshots. Gunshots that he had freakily heard behind him, from the same general direction that he had just come from. Gunshots in Marquette? What the--?! His mind was busy and focused on heading toward where he could hear sirens gathering.
Gunshots in Marquette definitely seemed really… odd, to Sammy. The small-ish town didn’t seem to be a place where you would hear gunshots – unless it was hunting season. Then, yeah, you could probably hear them. But they’d be different sounding and not so loud! Those were definitely from inside town and, yeah, it was bad. It wasn’t even hunting season. Sammy picked his pace up when he saw the other person, across the street and up a ways – maybe they shouldn’t be out and about? …yeah…
Linn's mind went through all the possibilities for why anyone might be shooting in Marquette, but his mind kept returning to the thought that guns were never a good thing if you were on the wrong end of them. And the neighborhood seemed strangely deserted, he realized, as he let his eyes scan the street in front of him. It felt wrong, all of it, and he hurried his pace, hurrying closer toward danger.
Okay, why would someone willingly go towards where gunshots were coming from? It didn't make sense! That guy up ahead was, and-- oh right -- so was he. His eyes rolled at his own stupidity as he worked on catching up with the other guy. ...who looked strangely familiar. Sammy squinted just a little until he could make out the long ponytail hanging down his back, and then it hit him who was up ahead. Linn! From...chemistry, right. Sammy found himself picking up his pace yet again until he could cross the street and walk beside the other boy.
Geo prowled the house after Herbert left, checking the windows downstairs, making sure they were locked down tight. He checked the back door twice, the front door three times, even ventured into the basement to lock the big door there, despite the fact that the upstairs basement door was locked.
And then he did the same thing for the garage, glancing out the windows every now and then at the darkness, at the windows he could see from here, tongue sliding over his teeth nervously. He found himself staring at his dad’s toolbox.
Fred Williams was not mechanically minded; it was why the Camaro was out in the driveway rusting instead of being used every day; and why they’d needed to bring in Billy to fix the door. But just being not-mechanical didn’t mean he didn’t have a toolkit that would leave some hardware stores to shame. Probably for when Uncle Joe feels like hanging around…
He pulled a paper clip out of his pocket, sliding it into the padlock. Toolkit locks were so not the most reliable. It popped open, and he managed a weak laugh. What am I even doing? He pulled the hammer and the carpet knife out of the kit, slammed the lid back down with a resounding bang. Then he snapped the lock home, padding back into the house and locking that door behind him, pocketing the knife. The hammer, he shoved into his back pocket, its wooden handle digging into his lower back when he bent over to see about the lock on Fred’s office’s door.
“Sammy? Sam, I need you down here please!”
Out of the corner of his eye, Linn saw the motion of Sammy appearing next to him. The movement, almost out of nowhere, it seemed, startled him, especially considering how heightened his nerves were because of the gunshots and everything. Without looking first, Linn shot out his hand, grabbing at the shirt collar of the person who had come upon him so quickly and without any word of warning. He threw the smaller person up against the chain-link fence that ran along the front yard of the house beside them. It wasn't until after Linn was holding Sammy's hands out against the fence, that he even realized it was indeed Sammy, from Chemistry. Oops...
It was amazing that Sammy was able to keep a-hold of the cellphone in his hand, but he did so. His fingers curled around it and held it tight as he glared at the person pushing him against the face, shaking his head in a very "What the heck?!" manner - anytime Linn wanted to let him go was a-ok with him! Yeah, the paranoia was understandable - he had enough paranoia himself - but grabbing people who simply walked up behind him? ...okay, yeah, that was maybe a bit understandable as well. Or a lot understandable. But still! He wanted Linn to let him down, 'cause yeah, he couldn't do anything while pinned and what if someone who was actually dangerous came up behind the other guy?
With an embarrassed little smile, Linn quickly released Sammy. "...hey." His hands felt to his sides, then he smoothed back his ponytail self-consciously. "Hey....Sammy," he added, as if emphasizing that he knew that this kid in front of him was not a threat. A moment later he seemed to remember what was going outside of his racing, embarrassed mind, and he pulled his eyes away from the other boy to look in the direction of where he had been walking. "Did you hear that? A few minutes ago?"
Sammy made a shape like a gun with his hand then jerked it back like he was firing before looking back at Linn questioningly. Did he mean the gunshots? When he got the answer to that, maybe he'd ask for the other boy's cellphone number so that he could communicate easier with him. That way he could stop the dumb mime routine. Yeah, he'd like to be able to do that, but at the moment he was waiting for Linn's answer, not his number.
At Sammy's motion, Linn looked back at Sammy, and nodded quickly at the mimed gun. "Yep. That's what I had thought it was too...And judging by the sirens and stuff--" Again his attention turned toward the park. "You think whatever it was is done now? You think anyone got hurt?" Linn's thoughts were turned toward possible victims as he attempted to remember if he had seen anyone in the park 15 minutes ago when he was there. There had been that little girl and her mom... and that old guy. Yeah. He shuddered.
Geo struggled to keep his voice calm – the responsible, in-charge big brother, right? – as his dad’s door slid open. This time he didn’t have to ask what he was doing. He made a beeline for the desk, pulling the top drawer open and sliding the set of Exacto-knives out. Fred would be pissed he’d messed with his desk, but he was dead careful not to touch the blueprints, the calculator or the computer idling on the CAD program. He checked the den window – closed and locked tight – before he backed out.
“Sammy, c’mon, this isn’t funny!”
He dropped the knife set on the kitchen table, adding the carpet knife and the hammer before he hit the cupboards, pulling the kitchen knives out of them and adding them to the meager pile. And…wow, was it a meager pile. That had sounded like a small army’s amount of guns out there; out in the vague direction of the park. What would a few knives and a hammer do in the face of that?
He’d just have to hope that none of it came here.
The young wereraven felt his eyes drawn to the sink…briefly breaking into a small grin at the soap. They’d just gone shopping yesterday; the bottle was full and there were two more just like it under the sink. He grabbed the bottle, and shoved the back door open, coating the back stoop in enough soap that it’d be like an ice rink. Once the stoop was covered, he shut the door and did the same to the first three feet of the floor – just to be safe. He grabbed the other two bottles, set them on the table, and moved to do the same thing to the hardwood floor past the front door.
Why, he thought, fighting the insane urge to giggle, does this remind me of Home Alone?
“SAMMY.”
Silence from upstairs; no miniature elephant pounding down to see what he was yelling about. Geo paused for a second, watching blue viscous liquid dripping from the bottle…and thinking back to the windows he’d seen when he was in the garage, the outlines of light on the back yard.
Sammy’s window had been open.
That little punk!
He had to shrug now, then tipped his hand from side to side in a gesture that seemed to imply "maybe" before he held the cellphone up, Linn's name already punched into the screen but lacking a number. Texts would be so much easier than psuedo-miming. Thank god he wasn't wearing the creepyfying face-paint or the dumb clothing and was only having to try and communicate like a mime.
Linn knew right away what Sammy was asking. But rather than rattling off his number, he actually took Sammy's phone from him and punched in his number himself. Then he handed the phone back to the other boy. He couldn't help but let his eyes wander back to the direction of the park, yet again, but he merely said, "My phone's been kinda punky lately..."
Sammy looked in the same direction as he sent his message of "Better behave 2night. Wouldn't want 2 drop calls n make someone think something really bad happened" his gaze flicked over the area, then he looked in the opposite direction, braids slapping against each other with the force of his action. "nuff bad stuff happening lately. Dont want ppl worrying more, right?"
With a small jump, Linn realized that his phone was ringing. He grabbed it out of his pocket and read the text message, at first confused, but then with a glance up at Sammy, he realized it was from him. He read it again, then replied, "Guess it didn't occur to me that people would be worrying about ME. But you..." He nodded his head quickly. "You're right. You want me to walk you home?" There was no way Linn wanted the slight boy out there when who knows WHAT was happening. He'd go check it out as soon as he knew Sammy was safe. Since Sammy... yeah. Looked like he needed to be looked after or something...
"I think that you should go back 2," came the next text as he turned his head again, an odd, dusty-bloody smell filling his senses as he spun. "'cause its weird out here right now. Like..." Footsteps sounded in the relative quiet and he spun a second time, this time turning his back to Linn, narrowing his eyes in the dark. "Frakking weird. Yeah. We shud go now." They shouldn't be outside, they shouldn't. It was becoming blatantly obvious that being in the open wasn't their best option, and yeah, they should get inside.
Linn wasn't one to get freaked out easily. He could justify sounds that appeared in the dark. He could face the unknown and the known with equal courage. But the way Sammy was looking more and more uneasy, especially the way he kept looking over his shoulder... well, it was not sitting well with Linn. So he nodded after reading his phone. "Alright, so maybe you're right about BOTH of us heading home. But lemme walk with you, yeah? Safety in numbers?" He looked at the back of Sammy's head with calm eyes.
Sammy nodded his concession to that, still facing away from Linn, trying to figure out just what was around them. He didn't want anything to be around them, no, no he didn't. "I'm not too far from here," And thank goodness for that. He was uncomfortable being even this far from the house right now. He seriously was. It was making him feel mildly ill, and the blood-and-dust scent was getting stronger. "We have to go back that way," He waved in the direction he'd come from.
A strange rustle came from relatively the same direction Sammy was pointing. No way was Linn going to acknowledge it, though, unless he saw that Sammy heard it too. Instead, Linn said, "Sure, sure. Looks good to me." He started walking calmly, not quite in the same direction as Sammy had pointed. He was tempted to ask Sammy if anyone was waiting for him at home... if they knew where he was. He himself had made the mistake of not telling his parents where he was. He wasn't going to do THAT again. Not when things were feeling so eerie.
Geo didn’t have to go upstairs to know he was gone. He charged back to the kitchen, pocketing the hammer one of the knives – the biggest he could find from the kitchen set – and the full bottles of soap before he turned near-black eyes on the spice cupboard. Pepper, salt, onion powder, cayenne powder – those things weren’t too good on eyes, yeah? Human or otherwise, most things needed to see, yeah?
He twisted the lids off each one, dumping them together in a mixing bowl before shoving several shaking handfuls into a ziplock bag that he zipped shut and bit down on the zipper of as he pounded up the stairs, shrugging out of his shirt. He barreled into his room, dropping the spice bag, the knife, the bottle of soap and the hammer onto his bed as he hit the floor, snagging the one box under his bed and dragging it out.
I’m going to kill him when I find him! He struggled out of his pants and boxers, jerking a pair of cargo shorts out of the box and sliding them on. The canvas shorts felt odd; too big in certain areas, too tight in others and they had a really awkward slit in the fabric, right above his tailbone, but it was better than walking around naked. During the full moon in his own house, sure. During this…whatever this was? Out in public No. He tightened the shorts’ belt, and proceeded to shove his makeshift weaponry into the various pockets; hammer through the carpenter loop, knife through the back of the belt, clean bottle of soap in one pocket – he twisted the lid off the other soap bottle, and started dumping spices in; stopping only when the blue liquid had a thick layer of multicolored powder coating the surface. He shook the bottle as he shoved the remaining spices into another pocket, heading down the hall barefoot and bare-chested. And mom’s gonna kill both of us.
That thought made him add his cell phone. Almost as an afterthought.
"Looks good, yeah, but it doesn't sound good." Now he was wishing he'd mentioned that maybe Linn should turn the ring off on the cellphone, and that he hadn't mentioned which direction he needed to head in. At least they weren't going directly the way he had pointed because, yes, he had heard the rustling noise as well. He took a few quick steps forward and shoved his cellphone in his pocket as he reached out and grabbed Linn by the shoulder, jerking him back and stepping back himself quickly, eyes wide. There was definitely something in the dark. Oh gods.
A little clumsily, Linn stumbled at Sammy's sudden grabbing of his shoulder. Not that he had thought he was being grabbed by something unknown or anything! Not that, not at all. He turned his head to face Sammy, his eyes finally showing just a hint of fear as they met Sammy's eyes. What was that?!
Sammy sent another text, fingers fumbling with the phone and filling his message full of typos as the dust-blood smell grew stronger, the scent filling his nose like some sort of bad perfume as he pulled Linn back further, eyes wide as he scanned the dark and caught glimpses of forms moving closer. "We need to get inside. Don't know where, but we can't stay here!"
Linn agreed whole-heartedly. With a quick nod of his head, he halfway nudged/halfway pushed Sammy in the same direction that Sammy had just pulled him. He kept his his hand firmly on Sammy's back as he began to quicken his pace, his mind running through possibilities of what kind of 'inside' they could go to. He didn't know anyone who lived nearby, yet. Slowing just slightly so he could speak, Linn murmured to Sammy, "I wish I knew how many of them there were... If it was only a few, i could probably take them..."
The thought ran through Sammy's mind that, no, he didn't think Linn could, but he didn't voice it - or text it rather - as those who had been hiding and following them finally broke from hiding to attack. Arms and hands snatched at them and cursing his lack of voice Sammy shoved his only means of communicating into his pocket as he spun and dodged grabbing fingers, pushing wayward arms out of the way as he strove to keep his classmate in sight.
This was mostly paranoia, he told himself as he blurred past the computer screen with its blinking IM window. He wasn’t honestly expecting to have to use any of this. It was a precaution. Better safe than sorry. The weight of the hammer and knife, the sticky-slippery bottle on the other side, it was just…reassuring. He slipped out of the window, poised for a moment on the peak of the garage roof…
And stared at the sky. Parts were clear and beautiful – others were the angry orange of a fire, smoke billowing into the stars. Geo took a huge breath, and hopped off the roof, letting the change slide over his body.
Quite abruptly, the pants fit right.
The things attacking were so not human - at least not normal human. They moved too fast and - Sammy's breath left him - punched too hard to be plain-Jane human. He frowned at them as he continued to move defensively, trying to figure out what they were - and then he saw the flash of white, sharp fangs.
Linn suddenly felt as though he was in his element. Running from gang-members (or whatever this strange conglomeration of people could be...) wasn't his style. But fighting back, defending himself and protecting the guy who had helped him pass the torturous hour of that chem lab... these were all things Linn was SURE he could handle with grace and strength. Not even bothering to count the group, though realizing that it was more than five, Linn threw in punches and kicks as his adrenaline took over. "Alright, Sam?" he managed to call out as he side-stepped a punch from a smaller guy and shoved him on the ground.
Sammy could only shake his head as he dodged another punch coming towards him and - with wide, fear filled eyes - pulled Linn out of the way of snapping teeth even though the move meant that the vampire that Linn had shoved earthwards could get back up and come after them again. Headlights swept down the street and gravel crunched beneath the tires of an oncoming SUV and when it was close enough - not really thinking about what it would look like to Linn - Sammy kicked the vamp out into the street in front of the vehicle. Not like it would do much to the undead bloodsucker, but surely it would slow the creature down, right?
Linn watched Sammy with surprise, not sure if he should be impressed by his quickness and agility or horrified with the way Sam so un-caringly pushed that guy out in front of the -- Linn did a bit of a double-take. As the headlights flashed over the face of the guy lying in the road, Linn couldn't help but see his face --make that, his MOUTH-- and the strange sharp teeth. Linn froze in place, no longer fighting, as he continued to stare while the SUV neared.
The SUV hit the sprawling vampire as he was getting to his feet and the SUV stopped - at least until Sammy waved it on, and his actions and the look on his face must have been enough to convince whoever was driving that they did not want to stay here. As the SUV sped off, taillights red in the dark, Sammy tried to duck as shadows flickered but arms closed around him from behind and pulled him back against a chest. Oh, no, no, no, no, no!
As the SUV sped off, Linn seemed to come to his senses. He turned to talk to Sammy, then realized with horror that Sammy was NOT where he had been. And there were a few dark forms --did they have freaky teeth like that other guy???-- nearing him where he stood. "Sam?" he called out, his voice tight. "Where are you.....?" He didn't expect an answer from Sammy. But what he DID expect was to be jumped any moment, and he wasn't at all sure what that would mean. Those freaky TEETH. Linn couldn't stop thinking about them, or wondering if they could really be what he thought they might be.
The one thought most prominent in Sammy's mind was that Linn should not be just standing still. It was a bad, bad thing to be doing right now! He kicked and wriggled in the grasp of the vampire that held him, fighting against the vice like grip. Instead of going for Sammy's neck the vampire that held him switched to holding him with one arm over his own left arm and his chest, then grabbing his right arm and pulling it up. The sharp, burning pinpricks that followed drew his eyes from Linn and he hope as strong jaws clenched down that Linn would move out of the way of any lunging vampires.
Lungeing vampires, indeed. A heavy shove landed against the small of Linn's back and he seemed to get ahold of himself -- if not mentally, then at least he got ahold of himself physically. His years of combative instincts took over as he reacted to the vampire who had chosen to step forward. A quick jab to that guy's neck, a knee to the thigh... Linn stopped thinking about teeth and bites and blood and anything else that might have fogged his brain as he just focused on getting that guy off of him. And when he was down, Linn's eyes began searching out the nearby area. Where the hell was Sammy?
Sammy was pulling away from the vampire that had a hold on him - or, rather, he was being pushed away as the vampire doubled over, spitting. Blood leaked from the crook of Sammy's elbow as he took the opportunity while the vampire was down to run up beside Linn - they could do better against the vampires together, right? The closer they were, the better it was, and maybe they should just run?
Relief flooded Linn's face as Sammy returned to his line of vision. "...Sam. We gotta get outta here," he urged. "These are..." But even as he spoke, another vampire stepped forward, seemingly unconcerned about the two of them joining forces, and his words hung there, still not voicing the obvious. He grabbed a hold of Sammy's elbow --not noticing where he had been bitten!-- and attempted to pull Sammy away from what was quickly coming to be a very bad experience.
So that's where he is... was the only thought that passed through Geo's brain as he shot over the trees, wheeling around in mid-air to slam heavily-taloned feet into the nearest dude's face. Something smelled completely, totally, one-hundred-percent off, but he didn't stop to think as one hand dug the knife into the next guy over's arm, screeching a single, high call that - quite clearly - translated to ok, I may be pissed at my brother but right now I am far more pissed at you.
The knife pulled free and he springboarded off the nearest tree to land on the next guy in line's shoulders, yanking the bottle of soap from his pocket. He saw the man's eyes widen right before the dosed liquid sprayed into his them - he went down yowling curses. The opened mouth gave Geo a very good idea of what they were facing - and that was a very bad thing.
He somersaulted to land behind Sammy and Linn, grabbing them both by their respective elbows and yowling, cursing his frustration at not being able to talk. Come on, come on!
What the--??? First vampires, and then giant man-birds? Linn tried to yank himself away from Geo's talons, not realizing that this was his friend's brother. He didn't know what was going on with the world, but he wasn't going to go down with a fight!
Sammy got what Geo was trying to do, but he also noticed that Linn was freaking out at the way that Geo looked. He signed for Geo to let go of Linn even as he pulled his own arm free of Geo's talons, grasped Linn's arm himself, and jerked his head down the road in the direction that was vampire free. They needed to run, and they needed to run now. The way Sammy saw it Geo would probably make sure that they could get away, then get away himself.
Leave it to Sammy to be saving Linn from every strange creature they came in contact with. With the feeling that Sammy had more strength and courage than Linn had previously thought, he nodded his head. "Let's get out of here," he agreed, echoing his own words repeatedly from this night. He started running, with Sammy right there with him.
Geo grimaced at the thought of letting go, but did so, vaulting back off into the night. Running distraction so Sammy and Linn could get away was more important than cursing them out right now...
But they were both gonna get it.
