The Mount, Ex-Los Angeles

[spin_kick_snap]

The last time anyone from Fandom had been in Kathy's LA, the heroes had been living inside the walls that surrounded Paramount Studios, with the exes and the South Seventeens laying claim to everything else. Since then, they'd expanded; the Big Wall pushing the borders out almost a mile in all four directions. In some spots, it was hard to tell that there had ever been a zombocalypse; the streets were clean, the buildings repaired, the blood all scrubbed away. There was a proper school, lots of farms and gardens, several churches, and even a small library. The studio was still the heart of the community, but people had started to spread out and settle. It was still a tight fit, several thousand people into one square mile, but honestly not much worse than Los Angeles used to be, back before the world died and reanimated again.

Life had fallen back into a rhythm again. People got up, got ready for the day. Kids were sent off to school, adults took themselves to various jobs, though there were fewer sales people, baristas, and aspiring actors and a lot more guards, scavengers, and farmers these days. There was a brewery down on Larchmont and a still over on Monroe. Burns Park let people enjoy a bit of nature where the kids could run around and burn off steam and a Gold's Gym practically against the Big Wall. That was where the Unbreakables spent most of their free time, with curious gawkers watching them put more and more weight onto the machines.

It was a bustling little community of survivors, as safe as a place could be, surrounded on all sides by millions of undead waiting to find a way inside to devour them all.

[For them that are there! NFB, and please wait for the OCD is up! Previous entry Next Entry]

Comments

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Okay, so have you ever seen a Jessica Alba movie...?"

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

... This wasn't going where Dante thought it was going.

"Sure," he said, frowning. "She was one of like, two good things about that Fantastic Whatever movie."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"So I want to make it clear it was just a kiss and that was only because I was Cairax at the time..."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Oh jesus fucking christ," Dante muttered. Charitably, you could say that was because he saw the small crowd of exes down the street.

"Trust you to get zombified trying to stick it into an actress."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Just the tongue!" Max snapped. "It was like a goodbye thing."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"You were saying goodbye to Jessica Alba?" Dante asked, frowning at him.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Well, she wasn't going to be making another Fantastic Whatever movie as an ex, was she?" Max pointed out.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Well, at least you died like you lived," Dante said, slowing as they got closer to the exes up ahead.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Surrounded by sexy people?"

Somehow he doubted that was what Dante was going to take from that.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Desperate and hard up for it?"

Cerberus manifested back in Dante's hand.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"And you call me the asshole," Max sighed. "So, how does that work?" he asked, nodding to Cerberus. "I mean, how do they swap? I understand the general point of nunchucks."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shrugged. "I beat the shit out of them and now they're a part of me?" he offered.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"So you're some kind of Pokemon trainer?" Max asked. "Cute."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante rolled his eyes.

"Quiet," he said, "I'll take care of these guys."

And for a weird second there, he found himself thinking of Max as fragile.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

Well, he sure as hell wasn't a big rampagey monster anymore.

"Go on," Max said, gesturing Dante forward. "I'd love to watch you work."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante rolled his eyes. He slid out from in between the debris, enough pebbles scattering down to catch at least one ex's attention.

"C'mon..."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

One ex looked up and started chattering its teeth excitedly. That caught the attention of the others, all of them turning to face Dante and starting to drag themselves forward towards their next meal.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Suckers," Dante muttered under his breath.

Then he moved, faster than any human and in a direction no human would just go for: straight into the herd of exes.

He whirled Cerberus through the air, the weapon freezing what it couldn't immediately rend. It moved fast, deadly, and unstoppable.

They didn't stand a chance.

(And Dante wasn't even showing off.)

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

(Dante moving was Dante showing off, let's be real.)

"Huh," said Max, watching the whole ordeal - such as it was - with an expression that was both appreciative and also calculating. It never hurt to know exactly what the people around you were capable of.

What neither of them noticed originally was a much larger group of exes just around the side of a dilapidated building farther down the street. Hearing the commotion, they came staggering out, easily twice as many of the first group and quite likely more.

"Dante!" Max shouted. "Look out!"

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante jerked aside at the sound of his voice, and just in time - an ex went tumbling right past him. In the process, he noticed the mass moving on the other side.

"Fuck," he growled.

He pushed off immediately, changing directions as he made a mad dash for Max. (It wasn't his health he was worried about, here.)

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Whoa, hey, not the enemy here, I tried to warn you--" Max babbled, holding his hands up at Dante charged at him.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante would have rolled his eyes, but he was busy.

Specifically, with grabbing Max's arm, yanking him out of the way of a stray ex, and leaping up to the roof of the building next to them.

One of them here was a potential zombie chew toy. It wasn't Dante.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

Look, a half-demon comes running at you with a weapon in hand, you made sure they knew you were a friend. Or at least an ally. Or had generally good intentions.

Something like that.

"Should I be swooning in your arms and calling you my hero?" Max asked, batting his lashes at Dante.

...Especially when, the rest of the time, you were kind of an asshole.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Try it and I'm gonna knock you out and drag you back to the Mount like a sack of potatoes," Dante said, letting go of his arm. "Do these things get bored, or do I need to go pick 'em off?"

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"See if you get a kiss now," Max grumbled. "And--they're exes. They don't have a concept of boredom. Their whole existence revolves around eating and you and I are the only buffet for miles."

He turned slightly and pointed beyond Dante's shoulder. "There, by the way, is Koreatown," he said, pointing at a smear of ash and rubble a little over a quarter mile away. "If the buildings were closer, I'd say we just jump from roof to roof, but they're spread a little far for my ability to parkour."