Chapter V: Dead By Dawn

Death.

It was something each person still alive had come to terms with, in one way or another. Some had lost mothers. Some had lost loved ones. Death had claimed them.

Death.

And yet, somehow, this motley crew had come together and made something of a new home for themselves.

A beat cop searching for Redemption in the bottom of a bottle.
A cute redhead with a personality like a silver lining.
A soldier of God doing His work to redeem the world.
A musician with a gearbox for a head and a heart of gold.
A surfer with ancient Chinese magics and a penchant for doing good.

So many had already been lost; would the group be able to survive? Would this be a haven forever? With Alex's death a VERY recent and vivid memory, his body lay on a table in the teacher's lounge where the group had gathered for breakfast moments before.

Jeff and Eric walked out of the spare room attached to the lounge where he'd setup a small library of his own. Gathered around Alex now was Jeff, with a dour look of defeat on his face, Eric, looking like its his fault for not helping more, Dani, whom left Katie with Melissa and was just now seeing Alex for the first time, and Danny, covered in a layer of sweat and looking exhausted already at 9am.

The room was silent, perfectly still for a very long and painful moment while everyone's eyes meet and silently acknowledge that Alex Christophe was dead.

"Dude..." Jeff finally said, breaking the silence.


Exits: [School Halls][Jeff's Library]

The small redhead has tears in her eyes as she steps forwards torwards where Alex's body lays, a deep breath shaking her tiny frame as she reaches out, softly brushing his hair back with one hand.

"I hope you're in a better place. And maybe one day we'll meet again," Dani whispers, before leaning forwards and placing a quick, soft kiss on his forehead, before stepping away, taking another deep breath and mustering up the force of will not to release the tears she wants to.

The air in the small lounge tensed up, and each person there had a slightly harder time breathing as the small redhead approached Alex's body. Jeff visibly wiped tears away, showing some long-since-seen emotions from the surfer. It was quiet and Dani's words, though said softly, were powerful in their own way.

The girl's hand brushed the boy's hair gently, moving to caress his cheek as he lay silent on the table. His body seemed awkward and uncomfortable, she thought. Pain slide through her heart like a knife, her emotions heightened beyond any point she'd ever been before. Slowly she leaned over and kissed the boy's forehead, wishing him her last words.

And that's when it happened.

Everyone was so focused on the event, out of reverence and loss, that each was unable to miss it. For as quickly as it went away, Dani's lips were lit by a soft silver-white light when they touched Alex's forehead. She herself hadn't noticed the light, but she definitely felt the power that flowed through her in that instant. She had felt...hope. In immeasurable quantity.

She gave pause a moment, trying not to break here in the middle of it all. Tried not to think about why she felt hope at Alex's death, and what that meant for her.

"D-Did you..." Jeff said softly as he leaned and half turned toward Douglas.

And that's when it happened.

Alex's corpse violently coughed, as if choking before taking in a deep breath of air and beginning to cringe as if in pain. Blood flew from his mouth with no regard, hitting the ceiling, the wall, Danny's shirt and Dani's shoulder. His right hand gripped at the edge of the table, his knuckles whitening.

"I-.....I'm....not-t.......dead....dammit!....." Alex's corpse said, his breath becoming ragged and shallow, but a little more steady. Blood bubbled across his cheek as he struggled.

With a look of disbelief, Eric visibly gasped as he saw his comrade-in-arms seemingly come back from the dead.

There are forces beyond us that are assisting against these minions of Hell. Perhaps it is magic, perhaps it's luck, or perhaps it's Alex's sheer stubbornness that brought him back from the grave......or s***, maybe he never was dead and temporarily unconscious....but that can't be!! I SAW HIM DIE BEFORE MY EYES!....and I could do nothing to prevent that loss..., the young man thought these words to himself, until he steeled himself and began to make his thoughts known to the group of refugees of the now ravaged realm. The state, or realm if you will, of Indiana.

"I don't know how you did it pal, but you managed to cheat Death...again. The Gods must be crazy, but it appears that they favor, and possibly love you. I could do nothing to save you, since you are a man, and not a machine, but here you are...back into the arms of the waking world. Welcome back to our group of stalwart and steadfast survivors. I know now that if anything shall decide to threaten to take your life from your lips, and decide to act on it, I will be here to prevent that loss and send that Dead-Beat Hell Hound back to the fiery circles of Hell, maybe even to the ninth circle, the one where Lucifer, the former Light Bringer now resides with a wicked smile on his countenance. Together, this group will beat back the tides of war and force the vile controller of these apocalyptic screw-heads to do more than just choke on his own tongue in surprise of our might, minds, and magic. He will rue the day that he ever set his eyes on our brave and ancient world."

Growing more confident as he orated his speech, Eric Grange, a former garage rocker with aspirations of becoming both a world renowned engineer and guitarist for his band, broke out his guitar and baby amp and started to

Perform check Dice Roll: 1d20+12 d20 Results: 3 (Total = 15)

play one of his band's more well-known songs...well...well-known to the drunken crowds of Stonewall's Pub at his local university. "Let us recuperate and form our next move, my faithful friends! Let the sound of Flannel Fiasco drive us to excel in our endeavors!!"

The grizzled cop stood silently at the back of the room, standing slightly apart from the others. Douglas hadn't known Alex half as well as anyone else and so as a mark of respect he left them to their mourning. He looks so young. What a waste of life, another soul lost to this cruel world. His gaze followed Dani as she planted the kiss on Alex's head and he was touched by the tenderness and sadness he saw. As Jeff broke the silence and half turned toward him Douglas really wasn't sure what he had saw; was that light really coming from her or was it just shining from somewhere else, a mere trick of the light. Whatever it was he didn't look like the only person to see it.

And that's when it happened as Alex's corpse jerked to life. A look of shock entered Douglas' eyes as he instinctively reached toward his gun before his hand dropped back down, hoping nobody had noticed. He gingerly stepped toward the corpse as Eric's speech and music washed over him, his eyes locked onto Alex to see what would happen next. Enough corpses had come back to life only to need putting back down again, Douglas hoped this would not have to happen again here.

Eric's performance bolsters everyone's nerves though does little else to make the air any less tense or strange feeling.

Jeff apparently hadn't noticed Douglas reach for his gun, too intent on the light he had just seen. He quickly disappeared into the sideroom where he kept his ancient books. He could be heard dropping one on a table and flipping through pages.

Alex's eyes did not open as the boy seemed to half-writhe on the table from the pain. Eric had said "cheat death" but he still had a, now bleeding again, bullet wound almost directly over his heart.

Daniel had stood near the front of the group staring at the body, it was disbelief that Alex had been killed in such a way. Even though the two didn't always see eye to eye, the Navy SEAL held a high amount of respect for Alex. He was a good leader to the civilians, and his loss would be a huge blow to morale. As Dani stepped forward, he watched as she planted the kiss on his head.

Although he himself had seen a lot over the last few days, including corpses return to life, he wasn't prepared for Alex's sudden recuperation from death. His grip tightened over his weapon as he braced himself against another one of those... things. But as he heard Alexs voice he began to breath a little easier, and relaxed his guard.

As the body began to write he rushed forward, almost completely ignoring the punker. "Medic! Someone get Matt!" He had been in situations like this before, someone bleeding out. He took his base skill for combat medicine and attempted to stop or at least slow the bleeding.

Douglas shot into action as Daniel rushed over to try and aid Alex, turning and bolting out of the room into the hallway. "Matt!" he shouted as he slowed his pace, looking around him, unsure of where the paramedic was.

Douglas ran out into the hallways, his head frantically darting back and forth to judge where Matt may be. He took a step to the left, then paused and looked down the hall behind him...

Danny was quick with his hands and skillfully put pressure on Alex's fresh wound. Strangely, blood pooled up between each of his fingers and ran across his skin a bit before collecting on the table and finally spattering onto the ground. Danny knew instinctively that this was too much blood; it shouldn't be acting like this! Alex looked pained, and the arm that was gripping the table's edge now found its way to Danny's shirt, bunching it up around his fist. His eyes remained closed.

Jeff was still flipping through pages in the small adjoining room, more concerned about his books than Alex at the moment.

Dani had remained in a state of shock and awe, unsure whether to rejoice, breakdown, or outright kill Alex's fouled up corpse where it twitched.

After a long moment, Matt hobbled into the main hallway, his makeshift leg brace holding him back quite a bit. His frustration with the prosthetic was visible as he drug the leg around. Seeing Douglas looking panicked in the hall, Matt called out, "What's wrong now?"

"Its Alex" he told the paramedic, aware of how crazy he was about to sound. "He's not dead, but he will be if you don't come now, he needs your help." Douglas began to hurry back to the teacher's lounge, turning back to ensure Matt was following him.