SpoilerThe raft tossed and turned over the chaotic river waters with the party desperately gripping on for their lives. Without warning, a massive hideous beast rose up from the depths of Lethe river; A purple, tentacled abomination with a vicious looking maw of razor-sharp teeth, it began wrapping is strong thick tentacles around the raft and stopping it dead in its tracks.

The brave adventurers fought with all their might against the foe, using every technique they had available to prevail; But things did not go well for them, the first to fall was Banon, and without his support the party were quickly overwhelmed, an unending barrage of tentacles beat the royal brothers within an inch of their lives. The last one standing, Terra, realised how helpless a situation she was in. The beast simply grinned.

A long, muscular tentacle slid along the deck of the raft, shoving the unconscious bodies of her fallen allies aside; She backed up, but the raft was small and there was no way she could risk jumping into the racing river currents. The tentacle curled its way around her ankle, she was paralyzed, too afraid to even scream, but the Beast wasn’t harming her. “What’s it doing?” her mind begged the question, but she remained frozen, balanced on the edge of the raft.
The beast slid with an otherworldly grace, onto the raft, bringing more of its tentacles to entwine the young girl. It held her limbs in place, rendering her immobile and completely helpless and began to caress her body using its incredibly strong limbs. It whispered to her in a sickening tone, one filled with delight, revelling in its twisted sadistic pleasure as she was unable to fight back,
“Uwee hee hee! Such a delicious morsel!”
The suction cups pulled and teased her body, she could feel her mind heating up from the sensation. She couldn’t take it, she gasped for breath, and in a desperate plea called out; “E- Edgar, Sabin! ... HELP!”

Spoiler

... but I still loved it.

SpoilerThe air was thick with the smell of expired gunpowder and blood. Larry was stuck, lying down on his stomach behind a desk in the front lobby of a half demolished, bombed hotel. All around him, he could hear the agonizing sounds of soldiers dying, and the occasional gunshot. Many of the less pained shouts were in German.

Larry was trapped, and he knew sooner or later, he was going to be found. With how brutal this band of Germans was, he knew it would be the end. Larry’s squad didn’t even know where they had come from. They had just finished clearing the area when they were attacked. These German’s were anything but normal. Their faces were smeared in dark, brown paint. He was sure it was blood. They screamed sadistically as they attacked, not with their guns, but with knives. They took far too many shots before they went down. It was as if they were pumped with adrenaline and speed, and sent at the Americans like crazed, rabid dogs.

The front wall of the hotel had fallen in, leaving only the structural beams holding some of the place up. From his hiding spot, Larry could see from a very small crack between the beat up desk, and a large chunk of rebar and concrete. He could make out one of his comrades a few dozen yards ahead of him, but couldn’t well make out which of his partners it was. A haunting, thick fog had set in over the general vicinity, making it impossible to make out friend or foe within twenty feet of oneself. He could hear him groaning pathetically. It almost made Larry want to shoot the man himself, but he knew that would give away his position.

A few moments passed, and Larry could hear the German voices picking up in volume. They sounded excited and gruff. Soon two misty forms came into vision, coming closer to Larry’s fallen buddy. He watched as one of them squatted beside him, muttering quietly. The other went about rolling him over onto his back. Once they had him rolled over, the first one lifted his arms into the air, calling out in German.

“Zu unserem Gott, bieten wir Ihnen das Leben unseres Feindes an! Wir wachsen stark mit seinem Tod. Dein Kommen wird bald!”

With that, the second plunged his massive knife into Larry’s comrade’s chest. There was a short jerk from the man, and a shrill scream. Both of the German’s laughed and hollered terribly and psychotically as they cut the American’s heart from his chest, holding it high above their heads as a prize.

And then…Larry could only guess they were eating it. Eating his partner’s heart. They tore at it viciously, laughing the whole while...

Larry couldn’t take it. He flipped. Terrified, disgusted, and mentally disturbed, he jumped from his hiding place, taking his Garand to the backs of the two german’s heads. He couldn’t well make it out, but the first man’s head seemed to jolt oddly as he was shot through the back of the neck. No way he would be getting back up from a shot like that. As the first crumpled over on top of the american’s body, the second man let out a shrill scream, holding his knife high. Larry screamed back in response, his rifle helping him project his voice with the blasting sound of gunfire.

As the second German fell to his knees, he cried out in German, and then crumpled onto his stomach, still.
Larry had no time to contemplate what had just happened. The sound of more voices came to his ears. He sprang over the desk, his body pumped with adrenaline. He was terrified. He ran. He had to get out of the zone. He had to get away from these psycho’s.

As Larry ran, the fog felt thicker and thicker, as if it were clouding his way of escape from him. The howling voices of the german psychopaths did not falter. They stayed the same distance, but Larry could never see exactly where they were. The fog was so thick now, that Larry could almost feel it grabbing at his hands and face as he ran, trying to slow him down.

And then, things got worse. The air raid sirens started blaring. Larry’s mind could not even register everything going on around him. He knew he had to find a place to hide. He prayed that the Germans could not see him through this fog. Barely ahead of him, Larry could make out the shape of a building. It was mid day, and everything seemed to be getting darker suddenly. How had so much time passed already? What was going on? With the siren’s howling, the germans screaming, and seemingly nightfall approaching, Larry made for the building, too scared to think of anything else. If it was only a few of the crazy germans, Larry could pick them off inside of the building…

As Larry rushed into the building, he felt his feet lose traction on a slick, wet floor. He felt his body give way underneath him, and his head jolted against the floor. For a moment, his world was blurred. The sirens continued to sound, but the german’s voices had faded away. Perhaps they feared for what was coming?
As Larry regained himself, he tried to pull himself to his feet. His gloves slid on the tacky floor. Pulling his hand up, he looked down. The entire floor was made of steel plate, rusted with wear and age. Larry’s hair raised on end as he saw what was on the floor that had made him slip. Fresh, tacky blood. Larry panicked, sliding back away from the bloody pool in front of where the door had been. Oh god, the door. The door was gone. Had he run further than he thought? Larry realized he was now in the middle of a hallway. But he had just barely made it into the buildings front entrance.

Finally, Larry managed to get to his feet. He could still hear the sirens, loud as ever. Oddly enough, he had yet to hear any planes flying overhead. He wanted to find a room to hide himself in. Larry wasn’t a coward, but he had definitely seen enough today to leave the poor man in a sorry, dreaded state. He was only twenty, and no amount of experience, or boot camp could have prepared him for the terror he’d seen today.
Nor would any of it prepare him for what he would see…

Nervously, Larry got out his mag-light, holding it under his garand as he stepped down the hall. The light showed walls that were made of a hodge-podge of material, mostly disgusting, dirty sheets nailed to plywood, and metal mesh grating. Heavy looking metal doors went down the hall every twenty yards or so. The closest door had a small plate next to the door, with the room number ‘205’ etched into it. The door was coated in a heavy coat of rust, and what looked like splotches of blood… What was this horrible place?

Larry tried the door closest to him. The door handle was so rusted over, that he could never have hoped to budge it. Continuing down the hall, he was met to much the same situation; doors rusted shut, or simply unable to be opened. The entire hall smelled musty and stagnant, mixed with a smell of rust, and a little bit of rot.

There was a sudden, loud scraping sound coming from down the hall, from around the corner. Larry listened for a moment, until he heard a voice. A muttered, guttural, yet feminine voice that spoke English, with a mild russian accent.

“Ring around…the rosey…Pocket full of posies… Asssshes…Asssshes… They all…fall…DOWN.” With the last word, the scraping turned into a deafening crash, and a piercing, squealing shriek filled the hallway. Above the shrieking, the voice boomed, echoing down the hall. “Husssh, my baby. Husssh. Everything will be over. Be ssstill now. Ssstill…” The shrieking was muffled then into covered whimpers and moans. There was a sharp, sickening cracking sound, and the whimpering stopped. “Give to me your life…and to you, I give forever peace~”

Larry was terrified, and frozen in that terror. He could only imagine what terrible happenings were taking place around the corner. After a moment of silence, he could hear gross, squishing sounds, and a grinding, crunching sound…They made his stomach wrench.

And then, her voice came again. “Jussst…stay right there…I promissse…you won’t wait long…We will be together sssoon…” And then, she was giggling. A crazed, hysterical giggle. And Larry realized that his flashlight was still shined in the general direction of the turn in the hall...

He knew she was speaking to him. He just knew it. He reeled around, stumbling in sheer panic as he ran in the opposite direction. He tried every door he came to in the hall. Behind him, he could hear the woman’s bizarre giggling, mixed with the sound of tearing, scraping metal.

Larry’s body sagged against the steel door as it slammed shut behind him. He only waited a moment before trying to bar the door with whatever he could find in the room. As luck would have it, he had found what had one likely been a lounge room. He shoved a couch and table against the door, hoping that it would keep it closed.
Then he just sank to the floor and sat there. He just sat there, covering his face with his hands, crying. What was he going to do? How had he gotten here? What in God’s name was going on? This wasn’t supposed to happen. None of it made any sense.

Larry slowly regained his composure as best as he could. He got to his feet, looking around the room for anything that might help him. There were some supplies on a long counter in the back of the room. There was a first aid kit, a few dry rations, an ammo box, and a tool box with a crowbar on top of it. As well, there was a large radio pack lying on the counter, that had obviously belonged to another American, what with the tags and sewn on patches. Larry decided to check it. He started trying to find a frequency that might have someone to help him on it.

“This is PFC Larry Harkins with the 5th. Can anybody hear me? Repeat, this is PFC Larry Harkin’s. Anyone?”
Just as he had asked, the radio responded with a bizarre, shrill static. For a moment, he could hear the recent, familiar voice of that mildly Russian accented woman. Her voice was much more delicate and childish over the radio, though it was hard to tell either way through the mild static.

“Ring around…the rosey. Pocket full of…posies~” She didn’t finish the rhymn. Instead, she stopped, giggling in the radio. “Mister? Come out come out~ We need…to play more. Pleassse…” It was as if her voice began to distort over the radio, back into that guttural, hissing voice. “Pleassse…play with me~”

Outside, Larry could hear what sounded like bare feet stepping along the metal floor outside. The problem was that it was much too loud from inside the room. Larry practically held his breath as the footfalls stopped for a moment, and the radio buzzed menacingly with a strange, groaning static.

“You want to play hide and ssseek…?” She giggled through the radio. “Okay~ we’ll be together sssoon…So soon mister…Jussst…wait…They’re waiting for us.” The footfalls continued to pad down the hall, more quickly now. As they disappeared, so did the static in the radio set.

Larry kick started his breath, as though he had been forgetting to inhale. His stomach churned nauseatingly as he doubled over, nearly vomiting all over the already filthy floor. He had to calm down. He had to get out of this. He had to get out of this building.

Larry returned to the counter top after his nerve wracking panic attack, looking through the supplies he’d found. The toolbox had a few general tools: a roll of duct-tape, a hammer, wire-cutters, a few nails, a monkey wrench, a file, and two screw drivers. Phillips and flat-bladed. The first aid kit had pain killers, tourniquet, bandages, and antibiotic ointment. Somehow, they were all in almost immaculate condition, despite everything else in the room being covered in grime and rust.

Hastily, Larry loaded the first aid kit and rations into his nearly empty pack. His squad hadn’t been meant to stay out here long, so he had plenty of room. He pulled the tape out of tool box, taping his flashlight to the front of his M1. Once finished, the toolbox went into his pack as well. He dug through the case of ammo; all .30-06 rounds. He loaded as many as he could into blank en bloc clips. The rest of the box went into his pack with everything else.

But what about the radio pack? He wondered if it would be of any use to him. All it seemed to do was play that creepy static. Now though, there was only a very mild static coming from it… But what if he found his way out? He would want to be able to call for help if he could get outside. Maybe it was just this crazy building, killing the radio waves.

It was time to find a way out of this hell-hole, and Larry wasn’t going to take any chances. He felt like there was going to be little luck out of this building, but he desperate. He wanted to live.

Spoiler“Dude, if you’re a dog demon, then why don’t you have a tail?” Shin muttered, following the half-bred demon dog along through the forest. How he had gotten here, was anyone’s guess.

“Grrr, shut up kid, I’m busy!” Inuyasha snapped at the young boy, sniffing at the air. “I can sense a demonic aura nearby.”

“Dude, is that all you can think about? Demonic aura’s?” Shin gave the white haired devil a sly, witty grin. “Is that some kind of fetish of yours?”

“Kid, I said be qui—“ Inuyasha was cut off as a giant snake demon came out from the trees nearby, hissing loudly at the two before diving down at them. “Move it kid!”

Shin scurried to the side as Inuyasha made quick work of the demon. Shin wiped his nose on his shirt sleeve, then wiped that on his pants. “That was kind of cool.”

“No, I can still feel the demonic aura somewhere nearby…That wasn’t all of it.”

“Oh. So like, there’s more of them?”

Just then, Two small, spiritual shikigami sped toward Inuyasha, wrapping themselves around his arms and legs. Inuyasha let out a disgruntled roar of anger, suddenly crippled to the ground by the little spirits.

“You fell for that so easily, half-demon.” Came the familiar voice of Kikyo. I’ve been looking for you for days now. You’re not an easy cur to track.

“Gah, Kikyo!” Inuyasha growled in feigned contempt. “I should have known. That demonic aura…”

“A trick. And one that pulled you here quite easily.”

As the two talked back and forth about demonic auras and faked hating one another, Shin just watched. He couldn’t help it. It looked like this woman was going to kill the pretty dog-man. It’d probably be awesome.

“But what to do with you, I wonder?” Kikyo asked, motioning with one hand. Her shikigami slithered across Inuyasha’s body, eventually putting him into a bound position. He was stuck laid on his side, arms behind his back with his feet, like a hog.

“You’re lucky I don’t kill you right here. But no, I want to make this last, half-demon.” Kikyo stated.

Shin’s already huge eyes turned into plates as he watched the two.
“Wait…are you two gonna…Are you gonna do it?”

“…What?”

Both Inuyasha and Kikyo watched the child with disbelieving, annoyed looks on their faces.

“…Well, come on. Get to it man. You already got him all bound up.” He glanced over at Inuyasha. "Dude, I wouldn't have taken you as a sub."

SpoilerShaun ducked into the mall's handily placed hardware supply store, braining the shuffling creature dressed in the store's uniform with his baseball bat. Its head caved, sending it falling to the floor. Checking behind him to ensure none of them had followed, he started searching the shelved for supplies while cursing his bad luck. He would have been perfectly happy to spend their anniversary at home – out for dinner, then off to The Winchester for a few pints before heading home. But no, Liz had wanted to do something special...”Let's go visit America!” she'd said. “It'll be fun!” she'd said. It was just his luck that another zombie outbreak had hit while they were there. There wasn't even any good beer around.

He vaulted over the counter of a department that the tacky sign covered in target markers listed as “Guns n' Ammo”. Grudgingly, Shaun had to admit that at least the ready availability of firearms helped fight off the hordes. He attempted to kick through the display case, only to receive a bruised foot for his efforts. Yelling a curse he took up his baseball bat and drove it through the reinforced glass, retrieving from inside a 12-gauge shotgun and several boxes of ammunition. A noise from behind him made him spin around. The sight that greeted him made him swallow and utter a meek “...oh”.

The noise of shattering the display case had attracted not only a group of zombified retail workers from a side room (Shaun noted that if it weren't for the changes in their skin tones, he wouldn't have been able to tell the difference between them and most other American mall-goers) in addition to a group of around ten that had been passing outside. There was only one exit and at least fifteen zombies between it and Shaun. He was, in a word, fucked.

As he gripped the shotgun and prepared to try and fight his way out, the sound of rapid-fire gunshots rang out. Shaun dropped down and hid behind the countertop, whimpering as holes were ripped into the walls behind where he had been standing just a few moments ago. Eventually the noise subsided and he heard a human voice call out. Standing up, Shaun surveyed the bullet holes in the wall – one was right where his head would have been. Spinning around angrily, he started to verbally assault the newcomer. Not the smartest move given that he was heavily armed, but he was furious at how close he'd come to being killed by another survivor.

“What the hell do you think you're doing? You almost took my bloody head off, you...wait, who the hell are you?”

The sight that met Shaun's gaze was one of the strangest things he'd seen yet – and in the middle of a zombie apocalypse in an American mall, that was quite the achievement. The newcomer was short and awkward looking, no more than a teenager. He had dressed himself in a long, black leather coat with a bandana tied around short cropped black hair. The look was totally at odds with his thick glasses, brown slacks and button-down shirt. The kid gave the obvious impression that he'd taken the coat and bandana because he'd seen far too many action movies and thought that's how he should be dressed. He was loosely holding an Uzi in his hands and given the way he was handling the weapon it was immediately obvious that he'd not so much aimed at Shaun as he'd been unable to control the recoil from it. Hell, the kid looked like he'd lose a fight with a wet noodle, let alone a zombie. He met Shaun's gaze and grinned, giving an awkward laugh.

“I'm the one who saved you! I'm the best zombie hunter around! I'm McLovin, bitch!”

Shaun decided he'd been better off with the zombies.