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]

"Should we turn around then?" Max asked, pretending to do just that. "Because I guarantee you, he's either checking out her ass or calling her 'Baby' while giving her sad, why-won't-you-fuck-me eyes."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Don't think I don't wanna punch him every time he fucking says 'Baby' like some kinda pathetic 60s has-been," Dante spat.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Count the number of times he touches her," Max suggested brightly, because any day he could fuck with Gorgon was a good day. And, benefit, he didn't even have to make shit up to do it! "Especially her back. I'd say make a drinking game out of it, but I just got this liver."

They arrived in front of a tall apartment building. It was still standing, though there were smears of smoke and ash all over the exterior, especially around the windows and doors. The windows were shattered and many of them had smears of blood cooked on. Fleeing victims, maybe? Or something worse.

The building was ugly but seemed sturdy enough, one of those post-war monstrosities made of concrete, strong enough to withstand a bomb, though god only knew what they'd find inside.

Max headed for the left side of the building, past a playground that had been pathetic before the fire hit, over to a blackened fire escape that hung off the walls.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante followed right behind, trying to keep himself from seething quietly about Nick. Though at least that distracted him away from Max, and all Max's bullshit.

"How did the fire happen out here, anyway?"

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Well, as not-a-fireman, I'm gonna guess there was a fire somewhere in one of these apartments," Max said, giving Dante a look that said Gimme a break. "Maybe an ex knocked over a candle or something shorted out or a Seventeen dropped a joint...whatever."

Or someone had made the apartment into a pyre for the family she couldn't save. Who knew?

"Emergency services were a little busy at the time. That's why it spread so far. Half of Koreatown was burning before anyone fuckin' noticed."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante rolled his eyes at him. "You drag me out here on the grand tour of fucked-up LA, you get to tell me about it," he said. "But shit."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"We were a little distracted. George hadn't even made it back from bringing Banzai to the Observatory yet and Gorgon kept trying to jump Regenerator whenever no one was paying attention," Max said softly, his eyes distant.

There was a part of him that insisted this had all happened just a few months ago, the same way Kathy had kept tripping over her age that first year back.

"Zzzap was still out in Boston. It was Stealth that finally got us out here. Best we know is that it started in this building. One of the survivors, some ancient old lady, said it started a few floors below hers."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Think she's still alive?"

Dante had caught up with Max by now, walking those last few feet towards the fire escape.

He wasn't gonna say anything about the tone, or the look he caught on Max's face. He'd learned his lesson.

For now.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"I dunno," Max said. "I didn't see her at the Mount. And the medical tent we brought her to was overrun a day or so later. No idea if she was still there."

He sighed and shrugged. "That happened a lot. You save someone and then turn around and something else got 'em. Surely Kathy's told you about that. Fuck, the little rallying speech she gave us a few days before she--" He stopped and shook his head, taking a new track. "All decked out in her fucking rainbows and earnest as shit."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Yeah," Dante said, a sigh in his voice. "That was Kathy."

She hadn't been prepared. But she'd been right.

"How'd you roll into the whole hero thing anyway?" he said, changing tack. "You don't seem like the type."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"I'm not," Mac said carelessly, trying the fire escape. It made a horrible noise, the bottom level coming loose from the wall. "It was primarily for spite."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Spite," Dante echoed, his eyes darting from the lower level to up the wall.

Maybe he should just jump the distance.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"One of the things Cairax took especially ill was how I 'sullied his unholy titles with acts of selflessness and charity.'" Yeah, that little speech was seared into his brain. "Making mortals cheer his name when they should have been cowering and wetting themselves at his approach was a complete dick move."

Max tugged on the ladder and the metal shrieked again, but didn't move.

"C'mon. You really think a creepy fuck like me becomes a hero for the do-gooding of it? Don't be stupid, Dante, it's not a good look on you."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Which is why I was fucking asking," Dante said mildly. "Seems like a lot of effort just to get an extra-special pass into hell, but hey."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"What else was I going to use insane amounts of demon power for?" Max asked carelessly. "I trapped Murrain mostly to prove I could and then it wasn't like I could let him go. So I joined up with the local kind-hearted idiots brigade and proceeded to fuck with Cairax by rescuing kittens outta trees and helping old ladies across the street. Maybe balanced some of my karma with it."

Max frowned up at the fire escape, taking a step back. "Looks like it's jammed to hell and I already made enough noise to summon some exes."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante blew out a breath.

"Okay," he said. "Which floor are we gunning for?"

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

Max pointed up. "Seventh," he said, pointing to a blank window where the blackened and melted remains of blinds dangled.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Then I guess I'm carrying you again, princess."

Dante, you didn't need to sound that cheerful about it.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"If you're that eager to get me into your arms again, you really only had to ask."

Max, you didn't to be that dickish about it.

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante rolled his eyes. "Get a life," he said.

But he did scoop Max right up like a roll of tissue paper. He jumped into the air, forming a platform of energy under his feet when he couldn't quite get high enough - all instinct - and pushed off of that, too.

He landed neatly on a seventh floor balcony.

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"You know that's bullshit, right?" Max checked. "I just wanna make sure you know your whole 'jumping higher by jumping in the middle of your jump' thing is actual bullshit. Physics thinks you're an asshole."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

"Physics can kiss my ass," Dante retorted, setting him down. "Physics and me decided to see other people."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

"Well glad to see the breakup didn't make you bitter," Max retorted, knocking out the rest of the glass from the window frame. "After you," he said. "It's your girlfriend's burned out old bedroom."

Re: Thursday

[rebelseekspizza]

Dante shoved past him into the room. So... fuck. This was where Kathy had lived. Before.

He put the thought out of his mind. "There's got to be something not burnt to shit in here."

Re: Thursday

[hollywoodex_tras]

The worst part was, you could still see little bit's of Kathy's personality in the wreckage. The impromptu bed hangings made out of colorful fabric and strung with what had probably been fairy lights. Tattered remains of books, shelved nearly away in the charred book case next to her bed. Melted picture frames on the wall, filled with pictures that had cracked and bubbled from the heat or just smears of ash. On her desk was a laptop that Dante probably recognized from school, the edge of a bright sticker still visible under the grime.

"...Yeah, I'd say good luck with that," Max drawled. "Best bet is to look for something metal or flame-retardent, I guess. Anything particular she'd like?"

He was rooting through a charcoal chest of drawers.