Northern Winds [NC-17] (IC)

[Stygian]

More ghoulish figures hinted at the corner of the street, closing on them, and it only took seconds for the killed to be replaced by a new one. This figure seemed different though, somehow. Much less ragged, though its hissing and snarling and sharp fangs and claws were unmistakable. It was only when it pounced on and grabbed Aisha that the difference was noticed.
   'Oh, God...! Help me!' the thing foamed, its voice horribly distorted, moaning and panicked. The panthress looked up into the mare's face, twisted in terror and by blackish veins, spreading under her skin. Her eyes glowed a fiery color, and for a second Aisha thought she could somehow see another face behind the horse's, snarling. 'It... hurts! HELP ME!' she shrieked, lifting the huntress off the ground with impossible ease, her fingers closing around the feline's neck.
   Quite suddenly, something rumbled behind them in the street, and then a red flash of lightning split the sky, reflecting off the thick clouds high above and for an instant illuminating the looming, steep-roofed buildings. They seemed not beautiful or tasteful any longer, just dark and jutting, wedge-shaped forms cutting the sky. A shudder went through the ground, and they heard a sharp crack. Up ahead, water sprayed out of the road as a pipe was broken.

[Aisha deCabre]

Aisha had stayed near the car for a while, watching and waiting for the others through the chaos of the crowd having to disperse around them.  She became more concerned...Gareeku didn't seem to hear her calls.  It was hard to discern where he had gone...she just hoped that he had escaped the creatures.

But seeing the recent disturbance had brought her out of those thoughts.  Someone from the fleeing crowd rushed in and tried to force the gryphon from her seat, intent on taking the car...and before anything could be done, he was taken care of by one of the most hideous things she'd probably ever seen, before it picked a target: Mel.

Aisha was knocked back slightly by the force of the magic that she had sent against it in retaliation...the creatures were getting closer, and everything was getting more and more overwhelming.  They couldn't take much more.

The panther was intending to just hurry to the others and tell them to get the hell out, before she was promptly knocked over and grabbed.  The force of the attack was quite unexpected...her Dragonblade was shaken from her grip, and she let out a loud roar.  Shocked, Aisha stared wide-eyed up at the face of the strange equine who was screaming in pain, begging for something to end...there was a presence she couldn't pinpoint...

All concentration was gone then as the mare gripped her neck.  Unable to reach her boomerang from that position, Aisha just tried to pry her grip off, kicking at the creature with outstretched claws on her feet.  All around them, the sky was conjuring an unholy storm, and water spewing into the sky signified the very earth was losing it.  They others had to move!

"Get...going...don't...!" she managed to gasp to the others, growling with insistent urgency as she swiped at the possessed mare's face.  Her own expression was twisted in a grimace of choking anger, feet kicking as she was lifted...if she could just find a way to reach her boomerang...

[SpottedKitty]

Kerya was beginning to reconsider perching right at the back of the carriage. Her view out of the window behind her was only of a narrow slice of the street, and the doors blocked off most of her view to the sides. And someone's head was in the way when she tried to see who barged in at one of the front doors. She could see the snow leopard jump up (and not come down again), but that was all.

One of the people who'd found a seat turned to give the little stoat a few reassuring words, but that only added to her worries. He was tall and thin, white-haired with greyish-brown fur, and yet another species she didn't recognise. Even in the dim light inside the carriage, though, she was sure she could see... pieces... missing from his muzzle and throat. He seemed friendly, and uncannily talkative for a zombie — if he really was one — but still, it made her uneasy. The noise of another struggle just outside came from somewhere out of view, and she wriggled about to try to see what was happening.

What kind of people are Sebastian's friends, she asked herself, not for the last time that night, she suspected. And where is he?

[Mel Dragonkitty]

From her aerial view the dragon could see the onrushing water and the onrushing zombies. The ground was shaking like an animal trying to rid itself of a plague of pests. Aisha was down but in a moment the car would be beyond escape. "Drive. We will meet you," she shouted to the griffon behind the wheel. With a sweep of an arm a strong blast of wind made a momentary clear spot in the road in front of the vehicle. "Go!"

[Sunblink]

...Keaton and Deirdre:

Both Gryphon and jackal were momentarily jostled from their exchange of insults and threats at Richard's interjection. Deirdre reacted with absolute surprise as she craned her head around to stare, wide-eyed, at the Undead primate, with ears quirked upright and eyebrow arched to the top of her finely-sculpted forehead. Meanwhile, Keaton appeared nothing short of indignant, maybe even enraged, her expression exuding infuriation. Brandishing her fangs, the jackal was just about to snarl an angrily-fired insult, probably regarding Richard's sterility, when Deirdre released a bloodcurdling scream.

Chocolate-hued irises swiveled towards the door, which was wrenched off of its hinges by the ghoul on the other side, and watched with shock as Deirdre attempted to scramble backwards, fending off the ghoul with her feet as she groped for her sword. She didn't caste any spells. None of them were ideal for using within a car--fire would ignite the gasoline in the tank, obviously.

Fortunately that tension didn't last long, as the ghoul was dispatched thanks to the whirling discs Mel fired. Cogidubnus entered the car, seating himself beside the shaken Gryphon and remarking on her choice of weapon. Deirdre normally would've responded in kind, but at the moment she was just in shock--regardless, she knew they couldn't stay any longer. She fumbled for her keys, twisting them in the ignition. Gripping the gear shift, she was about to slide it into position when Aisha was seized by another, shrieking mare.

Keaton screamed out a vicious curse. "FUCK! Aisha!" she shouted. Mel yelled something from above, then proceeded to clear the streets with another powerful gust of wind.

"Drive! We will meet you."

Deirdre stared reluctantly back at Aisha, clearly not wanting to leave the melanistic feline behind. Whether or not she was affiliated with someone she loathed, she didn't want any unnecessary blood shed. Keaton herself looked just as horrified at the idea of abandoning the feline, but, there was nothing else they could do. Stalling any further would just cement their doom. "Gods dammit!" Deirdre snarled. Inhaling shakily, she quickly prepared the car, engine roaring to life, and floored it, the tires whirling against the concrete as she sped off.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Gareeku]

Every so often a flash of white could be seen in the crowd, there one second and gone the next. The exact identity couldn't be told, but it kept moving from one place to another. A pair of eyes scanned the area, looking for a way through to relative safety. Everywhere there was absolute chaos, with people running in all directions.

Then, he saw it. Held above the ground, Aisha seemed to be in the grip of an equine woman. It didn't take a genius to work out that something was clearly wrong. As the pantheress struggled to break free of the equine's grasp, as large flash suddenly lit up the surrounding area as she would feel herself become free of the equine's grip; a large blast of magic had thrown the seemingly possessed equine away. Aisha would then feel someone catch her in a pair of arms.
"You okay?" Gareeku asked as he looked at her, concern clearly evident on his face as he spoke. "I think it goes without saying that we need to get moving. I think there's a train station not too far from here. A mile or two maybe."

[Stygian]

The many ghoulish creatures as well as the crying bystanders spread throughout the street, and were suddenly accompanied by more voices, distant and spectral like that of the man from before. Ghastly apparitions hinted amid the pandemonium, moving effortlessly through solid matter and air alike, forms shifting between corporeal and wispy, fiery forms.
   When it seemed as if there was no easy exit, all passages blocked by the chaos or the destruction, finally the ground split. Flames gushed out, and something more; black and deep blue and purplish-hued tendrils, billowing amid the flames, as something rose from them. The other creatures backed up, avoiding the thing that came howling up from the underground.
   If death could be given a face, then the unfortunates still standing outside the club were fairly certain that it would be something close to what they saw then. Wreathed in billowing darkness that seemed like a cloak around it, the thing rose and towered over the poor bystanders. The parts of its flesh that were visible were crumbling and decaying before their very eyes, gray and black flesh in a tall and gaunt physique with holes eaten in it. It had no face, just an off-white skull-like mask with dark openings for eyes. And in these glowed deep, dark purplish fires, flaring yet icy as they fixed on Gareeku and Aisha from above. The thing made a howling, mournful sound, bone-chilling and hollow, and stretched its bony, claw-like fingers for them, advancing on the adventurers.
   Then, the creature's moaning was split by a louder, and far more steady sound. An engine revved high, and then came a metallic thump and a break in the roaring sound. Something flew from the side of the street and over a standing car, almost into the black monstrum, then hit the ground and skidded sharply around. There was a metallic clack as the white-clad figure on the black, sleek machine swung a large, dark gun at the wraith's face.
   The sound of a short-barreled shotgun is always as characteristic and striking, but the explosion of the solid shell that followed was quite surprising. The black, hooded wraith let out a bone-jarring howl as the explosive slug ripped its mask and head asunder, and it shredded and crumbled into thin air. Stygian didn't spare it a second glance, but simply turned to eye the truck standing on the other side of the street, into which a pair of figures were right then trying desperately to break into, and then snapped his head around at Gareeku, Mel and Aisha.
   'Holy shit, will you get in the car already?!' the bat snarled, then pulled back full on the throttle and burned around and off, tires screeching, in pursuit of Deirdre's escaping vehicle before too many of the remaining abominations could react.

[Aisha deCabre]

Above the chaos, Aisha could hear tires screeching from all around, from those escaping.  The atmosphere had grown darker, hellish, with ghouls rising from several breaks in the ground.  However, that was hard to concentrate on...the panther was slowly choking from the equine's grasp around her neck, and fear was slowly setting in.  But just as she thought everybody had left her to die, a flash of light filled her vision and she was able to take a deep, gasping breath as she was let go.

Expecting to feel the impact of the ground as she fell, she had her eyes closed...and unexpectantly had landed softly instead, thrown straight into someone's arms.  Opening her eyes again, she was only partially surprised to find that it was Gareeku.  There was just a pause, before her face registered a quick smile of gratitude, and she threw her arms around him.  "Anyone ever told you that you are brilliant?"  She chuckled.  "Thank you."

Listening to him, however, she nodded her quick agreement and let herself down, picking up and replacing her weapons.  "Yeah, we'd better..."

The sound of thunder and screeching interrupted the panther's speech.  Looking around, there was panic, and more monsters ravaged the people around them.  And above was quite possibly the most fearsome apparition, like a reaper, headed straight for the two stragglers...three, she recounted after a moment.  Mel was hanging in the air, blasting a way out for the car, which now seemed to be too full to include them.  There wasn't time to think or run from the thing then before Stygian suddenly appeared and shot at it, rendering it dead.

He roared at them to get in the car...just moments after said car dashed away from the scene, the bat following swiftly after them.  "How the HELL can we do that?!  None of us can drive!" Aisha roared back, clearly aggravated...the streets were covered with beasts, evil-made.  But that was when she spotted a couple of other people fighting over a car, just trying to take it out of there.  "Dammit..." she growled, turning her gaze between Mel and Gareeku, and drawing her boomerang.  "I'd rather not have to help steal, but the situation doesn't call for morals.  Come on."

After a moment, one of the two frightened car thieves, having managed to unlock it, would suddenly be roughly grabbed by the collar of his shirt and slammed against the side of the vehicle, a bladed dagger-like thing at his neck and an angry, red-eyed black jaguar in a dress with a sword at her hip.  "Out of the way," she growled, and shoved the nervous guy off...at least they only looked like panic-stricken citizens, unarmed but for a lock pick.

She called out.  "Gareeku, Mel, hurry!  Ride!"  She looked the both of them over, sighing.  "I don't suppose any one of you does know how to drive.  Else I'm going to fetch one."

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel landed beside the truck. "Drive? I read a book about cars once. I understand the principles of how it works." She looked to the wolf but he didn't appear any more confident than Aisha so it looked like she was elected. Wings tucked away she slid into the driver's seat and looked down to find the first problem. Her book had shown three pedals; left for forward, middle for backwards, and right for stop with a lever to change the left to fast forward. She touched the dash with a hand, a jolt of electricity started the engine without resorting to the crank. Moving the lever one place to fast forward she pressed the leftmost of the two pedals to have absolutely nothing happen. Experimentally she pressed the remaining pedal. The car jerked backwards with one harsh jump. She pulled her foot off in surprise and the truck slowed. Experimentally she moved the lever another notch to no result. The third notch and the right pedal did the trick. With the truck moving forward she smiled bravely at her two rather nervous looking passengers. "I guess cars have changed a little more than I guessed in the last 150 years."

[Stygian]

By the time Mel realized how quick the car could go if she changed into second gear, Kerya could see and hear Stygian as he came up behind the car ahead and swerved around them, pressed close to the tank on his large bike. He had stuck the shotgun down between his leg and the air filter, an awkward position as he swayed the motorcycle's tail up before them and around the cars on the road. There seemed to be fewer of those creatures around, but the sky was still dark and the surroundings just as inexplicably dark. It seemed that the whole town was under the effect.
   Navigating the hectic traffic seemed more the problem than finding the way. So long as they were actually going away from the club, things were improving. But it didn't help that Stygian was basically doing eights around them, and that Deirdre with her cataracts was far from the best driver they could have picked, and was trying to dodge the bat as well.
   A screech from above called Stygian's attention, and he looked up. The next second he was forced to pull hard out of the way to avoid a screeching winged something diving down for him. It clipped his ear and raked his cheek, nearly loosening the glasses he was wearing against the wind, then tumbled past and into the car instead. The windshield cracked as it struck, and thrashed all over the hood, blocking what little vision Deirdre had.

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog felt himself press into his seat shortly after Dierdre slammed on the gas, the wolf glancing over at the panicked gryphon as they sped off. His head turned slowly back to the road, the wolf's ears suddenly standing on end and his hands suddenly digging into the armrest as they managed to just miss a car parked on the side of the road. He cringed again as they managed to somehow make it over a somewhat gaping pothole, and the wolf looked back over at Dierdre. His glasses fallen haphazardly down the bridge of his nose, the wolf looked at the gryphon with wide eyes.

"Are you sure you've driven this thing before?" the wolf said, glancing between the gryphon and the road. Gripping the armrest, the wolf chose a spot to stare outside the passenger window, and kept his eyes glued there. He studiously ignored the sudden and jarring jerks and swerves that occurred when least expected.

Cog twitched again as Stygian came up alongside them, the white-clad bat armed with a sawed-off shotgun as he drove. He began to simply figure eight around them, and Cog began to instead follow the bat with his eyes, his expression falling as he saw the creature fly out of the sky and attack the bat. His expression darkened yet again when the creature simply grazed Stygian, tumbling through the air straight at them.

He tried to crawl inside his seat, a deathly grimace painting his features. "Shit! WATCH OU-"
He cut short, the creature cracking and slamming into the windshield - Cog cursed, reaching for the button to roll down the windows. Dierdre wasn't the best driver under normal circumstances, and if he really couldn't see...

[Boog]

Richard nearly lurched onto his face as the car roared away from the source of the pandemonium, the Red Sands. If his stomach still worked properly the dead man would probably have regretted grabbing at the side of the car and keeping his head level with the window. Instead, he just regretted looking out the window. Deirdre was doing her best to keep dodging everything in their path, true, but that everything included shadows, discarded pieces of trash on the road, and the occasional leaf fluttering by. While he was impressed that the gryphon had avoided all these obstacles both real and imagined so far, the odds of her continuing to do so well were poor indeed and sooner or later he was certain she would end up colliding with something that was actually there.
The odds didn't improve when Stygian started doing tricks around the vehicle. It was probably best that Richard wasn't driving this time, as it was his opinion that when bikers start doing that the only logical conclusion would be to run into them. After all, they were the ones in the smaller, lighter, easily pushed over vehicle; only made sense for them to be the ones who got out of the way.
However, driving conduct was a tad vague on what to do when a large raptorlike THING slams into the windshield. Thus, with a yelp of "Ohfuck!" the zombie improvised as best he could. He nudged the back of the drivers seat, muttered "You may wanna lean forward or something," and reached forward to press the window switch down. With any luck, he could grab one of the things wings or something while it was flailing and yank it off the car.

[Stygian]

More things moved past, catching up with the car at an unlikely speed as they made a turn, drifting wildly over the road. A spectral form passed right through the car and through Kerya, making the stoat go numb all over and then shiver painfully, the image of the screaming face caught on her retinas.
   Outside the car, Stygian slid back behind the car to avoid being forced onto the sidewalk as it skidded, watching Richard reach out and grabbing the thing flailing and ruining the paintjob on the engine hood, starting to tug at it while it dug its claws into him. As they turned into a long straight street, the final one before the station, more of the things dove down against them. Hitting the clutch, Stygian let go of the accelerator and swung up the shotgun, firing as accurately as he could while driving with his left hand only. He ducked under one shrieking, winged thing, and hit the other in the chest and sent it tumbling into and over the car. Then he caught sight of what was ahead.
   Of course they would, you idiot! the bat snapped to himself. Shit! This is going to suck. He stuck the shotgun in between his knee and the tank, and then accelerated past the car.

A long way down the street, about a kilometer or so, a man stood. Towering and grim in looks he was wreathed in mist, hovering around his shape and blurring the outlines of his coated form. His eyes dimly glowed an icy blue-green, fixed unerringly down the long street as he scowled at the approaching vehicles. He snorted.
   People were still around the station, but most of them expressed quite some confusion and fright. They could see, if not directly sense, the strange shifting in the sky and the sudden darkness. Many lights had gone out in the whole town, for some reason. And a few were also staring at this imposing figure, standing right out in the middle of the street for no apparent reason and shrouded in mist. Most were moving away or inside.
   The man reached behind him, and grabbed a handle sticking up over his shoulder. Still as a statue save for his arm, he swung a long, heavy mace, cruelly studded with spikes, down to his side until it almost touched the ground, the mist swirling around his movements. For a short instant, thunder cracked in the sky, and the light cast a shadow of wings that weren't there on the street below him. And then the first few drizzling drops of sudden rain started trickling down, another peal of thunder hitting closer this time.

[Gareeku]

Looking on as the others got into a car, the wolf grimaced. It seemed that they were travelling by car every five minutes. Getting in the car that Aisha and Mel had obtained, Gareeku held on as Mel got to grips with driving, grimacing slightly from the jerky ride.

[SpottedKitty]

Kerya was taken by surprise when the carriage suddenly lurched and shot forwards with an incredible amount of noise, a loud roaring and an earsplitting shriek. She realised there was still some room on the seat in front of her, no-one else had climbed in after all. Another sudden lurch made up her mind, the seat had to be more comfortable than sliding back and forth on the shelf. She wriggled back down and settled herself more comfortably, pulling her staff down as well and clutching it firmly against her shoulder.

She wondered briefly if the lurching and bouncing was normal. After all, this was the first time she'd ridden in one of these carriages. The others' reactions, though — shouting, clinging to their seats, flinching and closing their eyes — convinced her that her first thought had been right, the birdlike creature directing the carriage was completely and utterly insane. Then Sebastian appeared at last, riding an even noisier ridiculous-looking two-wheeled machine. What finally made Kerya curl up on the floor, though, was a winged monster crashing into the front window. That was actually a little better for a few moments: she could still feel every bounce and lurch, but not being able to see the obstacles they (hopefully) hurtled past was less nerve-wracking.

Then, as they do, things got worse. Wraithlike figures appeared from nowhere and flew around the carriage. The little stoat squealed and froze, body arched like a bow, then she collapsed in a shivering heap, sprawled half off the seat. Out of the corner of her eye she saw one of the wraiths float up through the roof: it must have passed right through her body. She stared wild-eyed about her, gasping for breath, her heart hammering in her chest, and squeezed herself into the corner between the seat and the door. Nothing worse than the rough ride happened over the next few minutes, and her fright gradually faded.

[Aisha deCabre]

With haste, Aisha watched Mel as she approached and fiddled with the truck.  Listening to what she said, the panthress had almost the same kind of grimace that the wolf had, while trying to find a way to fit in the vehicle.  Her weapons were the only thing that hindered any kind of seating, so she placed them on her lap and hummed, trying to put something in her mind to quell the nervousness.  Funnily enough, the first thing she thought about was, I wonder when I'll get to finally change out of this dress.  All this running isn't good for it.

Then, when Mel got the thing moving, her claws latched on to the back of the seat.  It was hard finding a way to fit a seatbelt.  Having not been familiar with operating cars herself, though she has seen enough of them, at least someone had gotten it moving.  It was a matter of moving it out of there.

"Maybe I should've threatened someone to drive for us," the panther muttered with a snort, and looked to the path ahead of them, hoping that it would be clear enough for them to be cooped up for two miles.

[Stygian]

The clouds began to swirl above, and the rain began hitting the streets hard. Thunder struck once, twice, and the road began to slick unnaturally fast. Stygian skidded with the last turn past a car up ahead, racing out of sight of the ones behind. If I can just get him to follow me...! the bat thought.
   There was a sharp crack as a lightning bolt struck right next to the motorcycle, ripping up the road and spraying sharp shreds of asphalt. Stygian swerved, and then dodged another flash that made a car jump and its tires explode. He reached down for his gun. Two shots left. This is going to be...
   His thought was cut short as a crack ran through the road and down under him. The water lines! No! His grip slipping, he fumbled as he tried to turn out of the way, leaning dangerously. And then, from the end of the road, a blasting shockwave rushed forward, a thundering rush of water and crushed stone that flew up as the street was split in two. Stygian jerked and threw his bike around, skidding straight down the road, hoping that it would absorb the shock.
   Richard managed to pull the thing blocking the view off just in time for the ones in the car to see the motorcycle being hurled up in the air, spinning around its length axis. Another form was flying next to it, tumbling like a thrown toy, amid the crushed stone that was rushing right toward them.

[Boog]

Richard was getting a far better look at the winged creature than he wanted, horrible limbs flailing and clawing. Oh gods, how he hated these things... With a final tug he managed to dislodge it from the windshield, smiling as the car jerked with the "thwump-BUMP" of the beast's last moments. Serves it right!
Another illuminating crash of lightning, silhouetting various shapes against a sky otherwise too dark to see them against.
The first, a furrae figure flying as though god had decided that, for a few moments, what he really wanted was a hackysack that could yell.
A motorcycle, spinning almost gracefully, and giving a useful hint as to who the first shape was. Crap!
The rest of the shapes? Nothing interesting. Just rocks.
"Ohhh..." The musician slumped back down the back of Deridre's seat, turning away and bracing himself. "... No." Really, it was all that needed saying.

[Sunblink]

...Deirdre:

Over the screeching of the tires, the screeching of those in the car, and the screeching of those outside of it, Deirdre was uncertain if she could even think straight. Amalgamated with her cataract-clad, blurred gaze and the raucous, riotous pandemonium raging in the beseiged city as it was overrun by monstrous demons and apparitional abominations, it was doing numbers to her normally carefully-constructed stability, pushing her dangerously toward the brink of breakdown. Despite all her impulsive urges which hadn't been smothered by her more predominant Adventuring instincts, Deirdre remained frighteningly resolute, or at least as resolute as one could possibly be in such a situation. She still looked terrified. But at the very least she wasn't breaking down. That was the very last thing they needed.

In the back, Keaton was relatively subdued, clinging to the handle of the door and uttering curse after curse under her breath, occasionally punctuated by a yelp when they swerved or pivoted too haphazardly around an obstacle or just barely skidded out of the way of an incoming projectile. A loud bump and another obscenity signified Deirdre to the fact Keaton had probably hit her head when she jerked the car to the side, making all occupants sway in their seats.

"What the FUCK, birdbrain?!" Keaton exclaimed, "Can you even DRIVE THIS THING?!"

Bitch. Deirdre would've liked to see her doing better. And her without her glasses... they were in such a state of panic Deirdre hadn't grabbed them from under the dashboard. It was far too late to grab for them now. Cogidubnus, while far more polite, had echoed similar questions about Deirdre's driving abilities, making the Gryphon grip the steering wheel tighter and glare at the contorting atmosphere looming before the glassy barrier of her windshield, so ripe with demons and so horrifying. Deirdre didn't say anything--

--Though she did in fact scream when the flying creature had plastered itself onto her windshield, obstructing her vision. Deirdre instinctively released the gas pedal the best she could, attempting to maneuver the car in a manner which would fling the unsightly beast off out of her eyesight, or at the very least pry it. Otherwise, for the first time, she actually seemed to be breaking down. She was breaking down. It shouldn't have happened to a former Adventurer. It shouldn't have. But in a way, this tangent of paranoid reasoning was almost understandable. Now she was totally helpless. They couldn't see where they were going. They were going to die if something didn't happen--

Breath after strangled breath escaped her throat as she squeezed her eyes shut, then opened them wide, just in time to see the monster barricading their sight be pushed off by Richard's ministrations and the almost palpably electric shockwave coalesce toward them, throwing vehicles and detritus into the air almost in an immense, synchronized wave, as though the darkness itself were opening its very maw to welcome Deirdre inside, to swallow her whole and drag her kicking and screaming into the abyss.

Behind her, Keaton was peeking around the seat and letting out a stuttering gasp uncharacteristic of her previously abrasive nature. Even she had been shellshocked out of her last few words, only capable of murmuring a handful of quietly diminishing profanities as she watched Death itself approach. Deirdre didn't see her, but if she did, she would've realized how remarkably similar their expressions were, how their eyes widened and their ears flattened and how they both thought, at that moment,

I'm going to die.

Deirdre's hands, locked in a death-grip on the ribbed rubber of the steering wheel, clenched tighter and tighter to the point the cheap material squealed and her knuckles bulged beneath her skin. Screaming aloud, Deirdre twisted the steering wheel around, whirling it on its axis and forcing the car in a sharp turn which its mechanics probably couldn't sustain, tires grating and grinding against the chipped concrete. Foot collided with the pedal as Deirdre put as much force into that turn as possible, hoping against hope that this last-ditch evasive effort would work.

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[Mel Dragonkitty]

Mel's progress with the unfamiliar technology was uneven and jerking, but with the addition of a shielding spell to the vehicle it was rather more fearless than it perhaps should have been for a driver of no experience. Mel refused to look at any of the less likely creatures beside or in the road, nor at the vehicles she shared the road with and kept the truck going in a very straight line at a moderate pace, no matter how big the thumps and bumps against the shield were. The others had to be at the train station by now judging by the pace they had set. Mel hoped they could catch up and she pressed a little harder on the forward pedal.

[Stygian]

The car managed to steer to the side, but only enough that it dodged the main part of the wave. The shock still hit it hard though, tearing into the right side of the car and making it bank sharply, before it too was thrown to the side. The rear right wheel was stripped of its tire, and smashed completely as stones and water flew in through the windows. The hapless occupants felt as the machine did a slow roll through the air and then hit the ground sideways, spinning on end. Screeches and honks were barely audible over the grinding of metal. Sparks flew as the machine went round and round, before finally it made a slow crash into a car standing parked on the side of the opposite lane, and then stopped, balancing on its left side.
   The motorcycle on the other hand made a long, low arc through the rain, and then hit the ground, rolling and bouncing along the veritable trench that now ran right down the middle of the street, spraying bits of metal as it tumbled. When it reached the end of the scar in the asphalt it was moving slowly, and then it was stopped solidly by a huge boot.
   The man gazed, still frowning hard under the cover of the rain, which seemed not to hit him so hard as the rest of the surroundings somehow. His eyes made a long, careful sweep from side to side, searching. For a couple of seconds, the only sounds were the smattering of the rain, and the thunder above. His eyes focused when they found the white-clad form, and he took a step.
   The smacking, hard sound of the blast was clearly recognizable. Metal smashed into metal, and then the motorcycle exploded in a fireball across the street, completely swallowing the man in it. Thunder rolled above, and cracks and steam spread outward through the ground from the explosion. Staggering to his feet, bruised and scraped raw and soaking wet on top of it, Stygian approached the devastation, holding his shotgun high.
   'You fucked up my bike,' the bat snarled. 'You fucked up my bloody bike!'

[Cogidubnus]

 Cog groaned a little bit as rain started to patter on the windshield, his eyes reflexively closing and then looking at the only-slightly blind driver next to him. He seemed to be keeping it together so far, squinting violently, and Cog let himself relax just slightly as he looked back at the road.

A man with a massive mace stood in the center of the road, and shortly after Cog found himself staring at a massive shockwave heading for them, tearing into the highway and throwing the detritus of the road straight at them. The wolf's mouth opened slightly, both of his eyes opened wide, and with the small squeak of leather his claws dug into the armrest beside him.

"Oh, shi-"

Deirdre swerved, and the next few moments were simply a series of unintelligible, fragmented images and the sound of screeching, tearing metal and impacts, the wolf slamming against the roof of the car and then the door, and then back against the roof as the car began to flip through the air.
The car slammed into the ground violently, smacking Cog into the dashboard, and with a few more unwanted collisions they slowly came to a stop next to another wrecked car, leaning up against it sideways.

Cog was still for a few moments, plastered up against the windows, before letting out a small groan. He pushed himself up, his slightly bleeding nose leaving bloodmarks on the glass, and blinked slowly as he twisted his neck to look up at the others. His hand started trying to find a latch, or something to get out of the car. He doubted the mace-guy would sit in the middle of the road forever.

"Are be stobbed yeb?" the wolf said, a line of blood running down his muzzle as a dull thud echoed out from the highway to the car.

[Mel Dragonkitty]

The truck turned the last corner onto the street with the train station and Mel brought the vehicle to a halt. The street was in the midst of a heavy rain and thunder storm of decidedly magical overtones.  Fortunately there was still enough visibility to see that the road was too ripped up by the same forces to continue by car. "End of the line, I'm afraid. But the train station is only a block from here." Mel looked at the rain then at Aisha in her thin dancing dress. "You will catch pneumonia." The dragon unfastened her long suede jacket and shimmied out of it. "Put this on."

[Sunblink]

...Keaton:

The instant Deirdre jerked the steering wheel and the car swerved perilously to the side in a last-second effort to evade the incoming shockwave, Keaton once more felt herself being flung in the opposite direction, plastering her briefly against the window of the car before she pried herself off and scrambled for safety. Or, in this case, relative safety--considering the size of their impending destruction and the proportionate size and structure of their car, they didn't stand a chance. At least Deirdre's quick maneuver would prevent the car from sustaining too much damage, or from them being obliterated on the spot--

But gratitude was irrelevant. Keaton's first instinct was to duck behind the seat which was in front of her, hoping it would suffice as a shield.

It didn't. Cacophonous shrieking and wailing, the protesting squeals and screams of shredding metal and rupturing stone, and then Keaton felt herself being thrown about while those hideous noises continued their caterwauling. Keaton couldn't even hear her repeated cursing over the violent racket. The car's occupants were thoroughly rattled while the car somersaulted through the air, sailing for a few, gloriously horrifying moments before its unhappy reunion with the ground, thunderously jostling the interior. There was another scream, piercing just above the wailing of the metal. Keaton heard the glass over her splinter and break during one of the car's many revolutions as something pierced through it, the cold fragments showering her body--fortunately on her back, where she wasn't as sensitive. More abhorrent sounds, then the car skidded to a stop, balanced on its left side.

Keaton thought she was dead at first.

An exhausted moan reminded her of her continued existence, but given how dizzy Keaton was at the moment she could barely comprehend anything close to gratefulness. Twitching, she tried to adjust to the suddenly disproportionate positioning of the vehicle, groping around in the darkness of her closed eyes for anything. Once or twice she grazed past a few dusty shards of glass, then her eyes opened, and she struggled to register the current angle of the car. At the moment Keaton was slumped against the door, flattened, her head aching and spinning wildly, but otherwise unhurt. Keaton let out a slightly insane laugh too delirious to be sincere, then tried to lean upright, just enough for her to get a proper perspective on the assorted locations of her companions.

She heard Cog moan something--that was enough of an indication that he was alive. What of their driver, though? Ah well. She'd find out soon enough. While inspecting her body for injuries, Keaton wearily spoke up, "Alright, who's dead and who's not? Sound off."

~Keaton the Black Jackal

[SpottedKitty]

Even a pounding heart and lungs gasping like a demented smith's bellows could only sustain complete terror for so long. After a few minutes, Kerya began to take notice of what was happening around her again. It was sheer bad fortune that the first thing she noticed was the jackal and the please-by-the-Lady-don't-let-him-really-be-a-zombie sharing her seat staring out of the front window, struck with horror. She peered over the back of the front seat and saw a mass of rocks and debris rising like a wave along the street. The carriage lurched and swerved to one side, but not quite far enough to escape the destruction. Kerya was thrown across the seat as something smacked into the door at her back, then the carriage flipped and twisted, bouncing and spinning along the road with a horrendous screeching of tortured metal.

The next few moments were little more than a confused jumble for the little stoat. She remembered bouncing off the roof at least once, and she landed on each of the others at least as often as they landed on top of her. Something thumped against her ribs, and she heard sharp fangs snap together just behind her left ear, along with a gasp of pain as her elbow rammed into something soft. Eventually the wild ride ended and the jumbled mass of bruised fur and flesh settled against the side of the carriage.

Kerya moaned and opened one eye. A drop of freezing cold water promptly splashed into it. More water splashed onto her muzzle, and as she blinked her eyes clear she could see the far side windows, now above her, smashed and letting in rain from outside. Somewhere behind her someone laughed, then asked a question she was too dizzy to hear properly. So they weren't all dead, then. In her own case, Kerya counted that as a pleasant surprise. She dug her claws into what she hoped wasn't someone's pelt and tried to pull herself up. "What happened?" she asked unsteadily. "Are we there yet?"

[Stygian]

Closing on the wreckage, Stygian lowered his gun. However when the steam had cleared and the burning wreckage was exposed, only shreds of a coat were left of the man. His body was nowhere to be seen. Which of course means that he's not very hurt at all. Bloody tactician, the bat hissed in his mind.
   Knowing that danger was imminent and that there was little he could do to avert it, Stygian spun around and dashed off toward the keeled-over car. 'Hey!' he shouted, glaring at the undercarriage and the broken rear axis. Reaching the vehicle, he went around and peered in through the opening where there used to be a rear window. 'Status?' he asked, scanning the occupants. They seemed thrown around as dice in a beaker, but other than that...

[Aisha deCabre]

It was hard to tell whether or not it was fortunate that the scenery on the outside of the truck was horrendous enough to distract from the nervousness of being cooped, with a somewhat inexperienced driver, and speeding up quickly.  She could tell that Gareeku wasn't too happy either, but perhaps everyone had the same mind...so long as we get there in one piece.  The panthress, digging her claws further into the seat fabric, couldn't help but wonder how the others were doing.

But finally, after a long view of the city as the streets were being ripped by unnatural storms and quakes, and squelching a fear of being rained upon by rocks, Mel had stopped the truck and called the end of the line...looking ahead, the road was just too torn up to continue safely.  Rain fell from the sky as red lightning continued to pierce the gloom of the clouds.

"Two blocks?  Brilliant," Aisha sighed with a bit of relief, but also with just a bit of haste to get there.  At Mel's offer of her jacket in the rain, however, she only just remembered through the intensity that she was wearing something that wasn't cut out for such weather.  "I'm a jaguar, rain doesn't bother me," she pointed out...but after a second, she took the jacket with a grateful nod.  "But cold rain, everyone hates.  Thanks."

Water pelted Aisha's head as she opened the door to the truck and looked out ahead.  The huntress thought that she could spot the train station, or at least a sign.  With the panic still behind them, there was haste to be made.  She waited for Gareeku as he got out of the truck as well.  "You'll be alright?" she asked...the wolf wouldn't be as prone to cold as she was, but it felt right to ask.

As they started for the train station, the girl rather eager to find shelter while waiting for the others, she couldn't help but cast more nervous glances around.  "The hell is this, the apocalypse?" she growled.

[Gareeku]

With the car finally coming to a stop, Gareeku let go of his grip on the seat and climbed outside. It seemed that the others in the other car had not come to a normal stop like they had, what with their vechile lying upside down on the road.
"I'll be fine." the wolf replied. Looking around, his eyes narrowed at the destruction. "Well people will know where we've been from these wreckages."

[Cogidubnus]

 Judging by how the car had stopped spinning about, Cog figured that they really had come to a complete stop. Pushing himself off the door and sniffing, then hacking as sucked up a deal of blood, the wolf spat out the copper-tasting stuff and shifted himself onto his feet, now standing on what used to be the door.

He heard Stygian outside the rear window, and adjusting his glasses so that sight was again possible he sighed, a fleck of blood bubbling out from his nose.
"I beel like shib." the wolf said, gently trying to get his limbs in motion again. He managed to move all his of his respective body parts without any blinding pain, and aside from a bloody nose he seemed to be alright.

Now the more immediate problem of escaping this cage of twisted metal. He could crawl over the seats, and get his hands nicely cut by the numerous shards of glass as he clambered over, or he could try getting out from the opposite direction. The windshield had already splintered quite nicely, and it wouldn't take anything more than a heavy tap on the spiderwebbed glass to shatter it completely.
Smashing it with his foot would be awkward in the enclosed space, and running a hand over his slowly-clotting nose he took a deep breath, making a tiny flicking motion towards the windshield. A tiny wave of force emanated from his hand to strike the glass- to his surprise, rather than simply shatter, it simply cracked a bit more and tumbled forward, the entire windshield detaching from the car and sliding down the hood.

Sliding his body up over the dash, the wolf managed to slip his boots through the newly-made hole and out of the wrecked vehicle, sliding out and landing on the ground roughly, right next to the now-shattered windshield.

[Stygian]

Stygian snorted and rose to his feet again, examining the wreckage. The car was fortunately a sturdy, heavy piece, meaning that it had worked like a shield to the occupants. Wouldn't be surprised it it's got a concealed rollcage inside either, he thought. Which makes this a lot better.
   Watching Cog get out and hearing the others move, Stygian walked around to the other side and put his hands against the undercarriage. Finding an oily grip, he tugged gently, feeling the machine move. 'Everybody still! I'm going to flip this back,' he called out, and then pulled.
   The machine's solidity and heaviness was a bit of a blessing even in getting it back on the right end. Straining a bit, he slowly lowered the car until he had to alternate his grip, and then couldn't hold on much more. Swearing as he cut himself on a torn piece of the bodywork, he finally let it slip and bump the last few inches into the ground.
   With the vehicle down, the bat spared no time in wrenching the right back door open and looking in. 'Everyone alright?' he asked. 'Sorry, but we've got to move.'