So, what's your zombie escape plan?

[Stern]

It was a day just like any other. Michael Stern reached over towards his alarm clock to shut it off. The morning sun peeked through his window blinds, forcing him to keep his eyes shut until he could find his goggles and put them on.

Nothing to do today. It was nice out though. Maybe he could convince Anita to have a picnic lunch with him somewhere nearby Cullen's.

He showered and dressed. Then he stepped out of his house and glanced in the direction of the Institute for the Gifted.

It was a few miles away. Well, more like forty. It was a good half an hour to drive. Or a good half a second if you had his particular gift.

Stern made the light jump without incident, stopping a block short of the school.

He looked around at the empty intersection. Where were the cars? The people? No one was around at all.

"Strange."

[Flux]

Felix staggered into the street from an alleyway. He was dressed in his Flux costume, having needed his powers to make magnetic leaps from one point to another, trying desperately to reach Cullen's Institute for the Gifted. He hadn't been able to find his Brothers, and feeling at a loss for a solution to his horrible stomachaches, had decided Banner and the Institute would be his best bet.

He'd been eating ravenously for a day or so now, but nothing helped his hunger. It was making him crazy; he couldn't sleep, could barely focus in school, and had been more than useless on his patrols. He stared blankly at Stern, feeling a swell of hunger pain. He shut his eyes tightly and shook his head to clear it. He hadn't just had that thought. Instead, he tried in vain to remember the man's name from the time he'd met him on ESU campus.

"Uh...hey. Light-guy. You..." he swallowed hard, grunting with pain, and licked his lips as his mouth and throat went dry. "You okay?"

[Banner Laverick]

It was really weird. Way way too weird, even for a girl who was flying over the city...

Banner Laverick had taken to patrolling once in the morning, once in the evening. This mornings patrol was too quiet - people were normally going about their usual business, the little town below was normally bustling with activity (well, as much as a little town could). Today? Nothing. No cars, no people, nothing. It reminded her of the opening scene of "Day of Dead", she was tempted to land and yell "Hellooooo? Is anybody there?"

A flash of light to the left caught her eye. Finally, people! One person who looked very, very familiar. Banner landed softly a few feet from the boys, a concerned look on her face.

"Fel--er, Flux, what are you doing here?"

[Boulder]

A few blocks away, Boulder staggered out of an allyway, nursing several nasty wounds. What the hell possesed those people to do that? I was just gonna rough 'em up a bit, and they went nuts! Stupid guy bit my arm.. Boulder ran a hand over his bald head, fingering the fresh scratches from crazy people's fingernails. Similar scratches lined his back and shoulders. Serves 'em right what I did to 'em. After going nuts like that, they deserve it. They were obviously not right in the head.

Why are the streets so empty...? Wandering down the streets, Boulder took a turn down a street, and as he walked, he realized that Cullens would be ahead of him. "...I wonder if other mutants like me are still around, or if maybe EVERYONE is crazy...."

Making up his mind to do a bit of exploring, Boulder headed off towards Cullens, eyes darting this way and that, reaching out with his tremor sense, searching for anyone else crazy enough to attack him in the middle of a deserted street....anyone else he might have to kill...

[Gary Cannon]

"Where is it?!? How could this have happened...?" Cannon ran around his lab frantically, searching for a lost vial. Had someone stolen it? Someone had to have. No chance that it was simply misplaced. But...WHO could get into my lab and take it...? It wasn't ready yet...still needed more work.

An alarm in Cannon's lab went off, signaling trouble from outside. Pulling up a screen, Cannon saw the camera's view outside. People. Hundreds of them. All of them fighting amongst themselves, tearing, biting, maiming frantically anything that got close to them. He noticed one person shuffeling around with a bloody stump where an arm used to be. Zooming in, Cannon noticed the eyes of one deranged person. The whites of the eyes were expanding, slowly dominating the eyes, as the iris and pupils shrank. The skin was pale, looking as if blood was not flowing properly.
"No....it can't be... I know it wasn't ready yet, but it was only supposed to affect mutants...."

Gary knew what he had to do. With the press of a button, his suit materialised around him. "What I do today, I do for England...and the world, with a heavy heart."

Cannon walked to the front door, weapons at the ready. Weapons meant for mutants...not humans... The door slowly creaked open at Cannon's touch.

At the sight of the movement, a few of the crowd turned to see a dark sillouette in the doorframe. With a gutteral roar, they charged at Cannon, calling the attention of the rest of the crowd.

With a firm set stare, Cannon met the three charging people head on with a hail of bullets, stopping them cold. Seeing everyone else glare at him, Cannon grimaced. "This is going to get messy..."

[Thomas Seagraves]

(The Night Before)He came across some weird looking people attacking an old lady and decided to help. As he was kicking the crap of these loonies one grabbed him around the neck and pulled him back while the other bit him on his side. His side was set ablaze like someone had just poured liquid fire on his side. He vanished.
(The Next Morning) Thomas woke up in a cold sweat. His side was still hurting. He knew he had to talk to one of the teachers, NOW. He got out of bed, not bothering to throw a shirt on, and took off down the hallway looking for someone.

[I'nu]

The flag pole was strained with weight.

The building the little American flag was extending from was empty. Not a soul inside, and none outside either. New York was a city of sound, and no one knew that better than I'nu. He always had his fun people-watching from high-post, or closing his eyes to find a familiar voice from afar. All the muse he loved though, was gone, lost to the wild thought of silence that had come true.

He hung upside down, staring off into space, waiting for a car to vroom pass, or shoes to thud on the pavement. Someone had to be out there.

"Where is...everybody?"

[Stern]

Stern looked over at Banner. "Hi. I forget your name?"

Obviously she knew the stranger. Stern wasn't sure he knew the guy, but the guy certainly knew him.

"Yeah, I'm good."

There was an odd strain in the masked guy's voice. Something that suggested he wasn't well.

"What about you? You don't sound too good."

Elsewhere in the city, people began skulking out of buildings at slow shuffles. They were emaciated, skin pale, eyes lifeless and glazed over.

Slowly they began to fill the streets in search of someone, anyone to sate their mad craving for human flesh!

[Flux]

Felix groaned, staggering towards Banner.

"I need...need Cullens. Gotta help..." He fell against her, face tilting up to look at hers. "My God," he whispered. "You look delicious." She couldn't know that he was looking at her forehead, not her eyes, or what his compliment was truly alluding to. "Hurry..." His stomach groaned loudly, and Felix screamed through clenched teeth at the pain of his hunger.

[Banner Laverick]

She frowned even harder as he fell against her, not really hearing what he was saying. His whole body was on fire, his breathing was labored and his stomach was almost roaring...

"Oh god, Felix, what happened to you?" She pulled him closer, resting her cheek on his masked one. Banner looked over to Light Guy. "It's Banner, and we need to get him to Cullens. Now. I'm not flying him there when he's this sick, it might make it worse."

[Boulder]

Boulder's weariness payed off as people started coming out of the woodwork, so to speak. His tremor sense lit up as all of a sudden, hundreds of people started moving all at once. It was like a stampede of humans. A slow...shuffling, disorganized stampede, but a stampede none the less....if you stretch the meaning of the word a little.

Seeing Boulder, several people charged at him. One less sickly looking than the rest made better time, getting ahead of the others of his group. Hrm....they look like the people in the alleyway. Same crazed look... Not waiting to say hello or make any other judgment, Boulder ripped up a slab of the asphalt and launched it straight through the attacker's head, causing him to tumble over.

Picking up his pace to a jogging run, Boulder headed towards Cullen's, dispatching anyone that got too close for comfort as he went.

Is that...? It looks like a small crowd of people outside Cullen's...and is one....GLOWING?!? None of the crazy people are glowing...maybe a mutant?

"HEY!!! ARE YOU GUYS STILL SANE!?!? OR ARE YOU LIKE THE REST OF THE CITY?!??!"

Boulder was hoping very much to get a response proving sanity. He was starting to get a little tired, and a brawl with more people plus the neighborhood behind him was none too appealing.

[Gary Cannon]

After a long, but mercifully quick battle, the crowd outside Cannon's door had finally been thinned, and some of the people left were catching on that this was not a fight they could win. Some stood around, dumbfounded. Some took off and ran into the city away from Cannon. Still others, looking around at the freshly fallen, dove in and started feasting. The sound of bones cracking was like the sound of firecrackers breaking the still silence.

Odd....Why are they eating the bodies? And...they seem to be going after the head...no, the brains! This is like some kind of bad American zombie movie.... Well, no matter. I've got to see what's what.

"You," Cannon pointed at a man munching on a dead woman's arm, "you will help me figure out what's going on." A gun popped up on Cannon's shoulder and launched a large net, ensnaring the person. They blinked at Cannon, and just continued to chow down on the arm.

They did not struggle until Cannon gathered up the net and started dragging them away from their meal. 'Struggle' was a mild word for what happened. The man went berserk. Lashing out at Cannon, fingernails ripping at his armor, teeth gnashing at the steel rope, limbs flailing madly as he tried to escape to no avail.

Cannon dragged the screaming man inside, locked the door, initialized his high level home security which brought thick metal plates out of the ground to cover all the walls, windows, roof, and any other possible opening. Hoisting the man over his shoulder, Cannon carried him down to his lab and strapped him to a table. Being in a hurry, Cannon did not take off his armor.

"Let's see what's inside you shall we? Eating human flesh wasn't supposed to be a side effect of my original serum." Cannon drew blood from the man, and placed a spot under his microscope, while mixing other samples with various chemicals, and still more samples to be analyzed by his computers.

"Make yourself comfortable friend. I need you alive for a little while longer. At least, as long as you can make it. Depending, if it is indeed my serum, you should be dead by morning. On the up side, it won't take nearly that long for my tests to finish."

Cannon settled down in a chair over his microscope and kept an eye on his still struggling guest as he began to see the biology behind what was going on today.

[I'nu]

The bustle that was the city came from silence to an earthquake. A roar of feet trampled the quiet I'nu found from his flag pole, and lifeless building. In all the chaos of motion, I'nu sought something organized, something of thought. There was not a single thought amongst the crowd. They moved more like robots than any day he had people-watched before, and he couldn't catch a distraction to pull his mind from the unnatural composure they fell into.

All the people swarmed the streets in a flood of flesh, blank, soulless eyes and thirst. Every step was ragged, rough, making I'nu almost feel normal hanging upside down. The whole world, in a manner of seconds, had gone topsy-turvy. So, he dropped, bouncing off the alley-way walls until a secure kneel left him on the concrete, eyes up, keeping sight of the danger.

A pivot sent him away, running at top-speeds from the oncoming wave of mindless goons. He could hear the sounds of some beating againsts more than the earth. Some sort of riot was stirring, but not a trouble could be seen in the newspaper that could rationalize such a response.

Something was horribly...horribly wrong.

[Thomas Seagraves]

Thomas struggled to get down the stairs to the main hall of Cullen's. His body was on fire, and a hunger gripped at him that was unlike any other. As he reached the last step he fell over unconscious. On his left side a weird mark began to grow. His body was covered in sweat.

[Stern]

Stern raised an eyebrow. "Ok. Let's see if we can't find someone with some medical know-how."

Stern looked around the empty streets. Well, almost empty. A big bald man emerged from an alleyway beat up and...bitten?

"Yeah, we all seem to be in our right minds."

A group of pale, emaciated people emerged from the alley behind Boulder.

"Dude, are you ok? What's with those people?"

Stern didn't like it at all. "Go inside," he said to Banner and Felix. "I mean, now. No arguments."

Stern flared. "Come on, man! Book it!" Stern flared and fired his best Archimedes blast at the mob behind him. "Come on!"

A portion of the crowd began to catch fire as clothes and hair ignited. Suddenly from every avenue and alleyway more of them came until they crowded from everywhere. "MOVE!"

[Banner Laverick]

Banner nodded, feeling slightly embaressed at having to heft Felix into her arms. She started to lift off the ground as the crowd grew larger and larger, starting to surround Light Guy and Baldy. She shifted Felix in her arms, holding him on one side, leaving one hand free.

"Cmon, Glo-worm! Grab Baldy and let's get out of here!"

[Flux]

Felix's hands ran up into her hair, holding her head and neck in a fierce grip. He hid his face against her shoulder and chest, breathing hard, trying to keep control that was slipping rapidly.

"Knock me out if you have to," he whispered.

[Boulder]

Boulder kept ran as fast as he could, bashing in heads as he ran in order to keep the crazy people off of him. Lunging forward, he grabbed hold of the glowing man's hand. Said glowing man was holding on to a flying woman, and once Boulder had a good grip, he found himself airborne.

Boulder's head spun, and for the first time in a long time, his mind was quiet as his feet lifted off the ground, severing his connection with the earth and his inherent tremor sense. It was dizzying, and almost overwhelming. He'd gotten so used to his sense, that with it gone now, he felt strangely naked.

"Thanks..." He panted as he tried to catch his breath. Looking down, and feeling a little dizzy, Boulder saw the masses crash in on where they were, jump up, reaching for the flying quartet, and once realizing they were out of reach, calm down and just mill around.

[Gary Cannon]

Cannon stared in disbelief at his microscope. The results of his tests came flooding into his HUD. All the results were negative in regards to his serum. "This is not mine....it's....someone, or something else that has done this."

Cannon looked over at his captured specimen. He had settled down when he realized that he could not break the bonds that held him. His body...it looks like it's...deteriorating...? My serum was supposed to kill from the inside, but this looks like it's decaying from the outside....what on earth is going on here?

Bringing up his satellite linkup, Cannon focused in on his hometown of London. Scanning the streets and buildings, Cannon saw people, lots of people, milling about in the streets. Upon closer inspection and digital enhancement, it appeared that they too were in a state of deterioration. "What in the....why are they all moving in the same direction like that..?"

Moving his satellite feed ahead of the flow of people, Cannon led his view out of the city, into the more "country" areas around the outskirts. A few people were trying to break into a house by throwing themselves at the door. Suddenly, one of the attacker's head exploded as a muzzle flashed in a window. "....people not affected...?"

I've got to at least check it out and make sure. If there are people not deteriorating, I need to know who and why. And maybe, MAYBE fix this problem.

With a crack and a pop, Cannon teleported himself to the coordinates he had from where the gunshot went off. He appeared on the doorstep of a small home and was greeted with a loud clang as a bullet rang off of his helmet.

"No need for that.... Are you ok in there?"

The window opened a tiny bit and Cannon heard a shaky voice float out. "Yea...I'm alright...but it seems like the rest of the world has gone crazy. like they are zombies or something... I don't know how much longer I can last here though. My ammo is starting to run low."

"I'll get you out of here then. Come with me, and we'll make our way back to my place. It's at least safer there, and I'll need to take a blood sample from you to see why you didn't go crazy like everyone else. Come on."

[Morpheus]

On the top of one of the pillars outside the Cullen's large yard Morpheus materialized. His skin was pale, almost blue in color. He looked out over the people now just milling around, they saw him but made no advance against him. He looked up saw the quartet flying off, an evil sneer came to his face as he growled at them. Catching sight of Felix he sent an order that he was unable to refuse.

"Bite her!!!!"

He held out his hands as if expecting something large to fall into them. The light from Stern seemed to be draining from him and filtering to Morpheus.