The Causeway, Late late late laaaaaaaate Thursday Night/Early Friday Morning.

[dojima_hime]

Reno had promised Dōjima dancing and drinking ages ago, and after the events of Monday, she had felt the need to call in her marker. Freaking zombies. They'd taken off right after her first period class, intent on a day (and night) full of reckless insanity. Neither of them had heard the radio report, or the rumors that were swirling about campus, and so had set off for a grand adventure.

Which is why they were both stumbling down the Causeway at some unholy hour of the morning, still high from their night out... somewhere. If pressed, it was doubtful if either of them would remember exactly where they'd been over the course of the day.

America was too confusing, dammit.

"C'est le malaise du moment, L'épidémie qui s'étend! La fête est finie on descend, les pensées qui glacent la raison!" Dōjima sang merrily, pulling on Reno's arm. "C'mon, Red, dance with me."

Reno	Reno laughed and was all too happy to oblige, offering a sloppy, wobbly sort of bow before holding out his hands for the dance. "I got noooo idea what it is them words mean, Doji, but who'm I to turn down a dance with a pretty girl?" A pause, and then a laugh. "Happy... real, real belated... you know!" Birthday? "Birthday, an' shit."
Dōjima Yurika	"I don't even speak French," she confessed, laughing as she tried not to trip over her own feet. Wasted. Totally wasted. "Not beyond asking for my lawyer. I just like the music. I should get my aijin to translate it for us, ne?" Clearly, staying in one language was going to be impossible tonight. Dōjima hummed a few bars under her breath as they danced around the Causeway. "Happy lates birthday to meeeeee!"
Reno	"Happy late birthday tooooo Doji!" Reno wasn't really capable of carrying a tune tonight. That wasn't going to stop him from trying as he weaved along beside her. "I got her a pretty... Pony!" It had sparkle power. Trufax.
Dōjima	"Still gonna get you for that," she giggled, punching his arm. "You gave me a unicorn, brat." Six-year-old Dōjima had loved it. Nineteen-year-old Dōjima still loved it, but there was no way in hell she was going to admit to it.
Reno	"Ain't it exactly what you asked for?" Reno laughed and rubbed at his shoulder, swaying a little in place. "Pretty unicorn with sparkle power, yo. Little me had to bust open his piggy bank for that, you know." Little him being Reno at six, of course. Not dirty.
Dōjima	"Diiiiiiiiiiiirty," Dōjima retorted, twirling with her arms out. "I'm gonna tell Rikku on you!" No she wouldn't. Then who would she go be a horrible enabler with? "The cat likes it, at least. She drags it around like it's a kitten or something, right by the back of its neck."
Something Wicked	Necks were very good. They connected to heads, which contained brains. Which the three creatures that were hiding in the shadows were very, very fond of. They really wanted to share how much they loved brains with the world. And that was why they emerged from the darkness, one at a time, reaching for the two drunken students.
Dōjima	Yurika hummed a few more bars to her song as she twirled, before stumbling to a stop with a giggle. "Maybe if you take me out for another dancing spree, I'll forgive you the sparkles," she teased over her shoulder, already turning back around when she spotted the shapes. "Wait, what?"
Reno	Reno blinked and then leaned over, squinting into the darkness. "The streets don't usually smell so bad, do they?" It was a very familiar smell, actually. "Kinda smells like somethin' died. Buddy, get a shower, yo."
Zombies	Being dead for awhile usually had a negative impact on hygiene, but the upside of being undead meant you didn't really smell it. The creatures continued their relentless march forward, intent on their prizes. The children were beautiful in the dim light. They looked almost good enough to eat, point of fact.
Reno	Reno leaned forward a little more, and then straightened up quickly. "Doji? Is it just me, or do them guys seem a little... Off, to you?" Give him a minute. He was more than just a tiny bit inebriated tonight. "They give the band the night off at the bar?"
Dōjima	Yurika went white, nails digging into the palms of her hands. "I don't think I recogonize them from the bar," she said, "but I don't really pay attention to the help very often." "Either way, I don't think they're asking us to come play drums for the next set."
Zombie	"Brrrrrnngh..." The zombie who was currently taking up the lead was feeling a bit more vocal than his counterparts tonight. That was, perhaps, because he was feeling a bit more hungry than them as well. And there wasn't just one fresh young brain before him. There were two. And they'd been marinated in alcohol for extra flavor. Any brain-connoisseur's dream come true. He stepped out in front of the rest, his bony arms reaching for the nearest child, the girl.
Dōjima	Yurika scrambled backwards, eyes wide with alarm. "They followed us," she yelled. "They're like the zombies from the mall! Reno, I really fucking hope you're armed, 'cause I'm not!" Fucking stupid American gun laws. Even her paintball gun had been better than nothing.
Reno	"Armed? Why the shit would I bring my EMR out dancin'?!" Reno hadn't heard of the zombies from the mall. Reno hadn't had any reason to think that anything should be amiss. It was possible that Reno had been under a rock since Fight Club. "Okay, look, I'll just, like, kick 'em in the faces, an' they'll die, an' we can go home. S'good. I do this." Maybe they'd drop some keen loot, too?
Omnomnomzombie	One of the other zombies pressed closer to Reno, reaching for him as it gurgled low in its throat. Leg meat was fine with him.
Reno	See, they were slow and stupid. And just because Reno was more than a little drunk didn't mean he was helpless, here. Which he was quite happy to demonstrate by introducing his fist to the zombie's nose with a noise that sat somewhere between 'crunch' and 'squelch.' "Aw, man, that's gonna take forever to wash off, yo."
Dōjima	Yurika backed up to let Reno handle it, perfectly willing to get out of the way and let him work. She was a spy, not a fighter. She'd taken basic self-defense, but she wasn't drunk enough to try and take these things on with her level of training. "Gross, Red," she called out, looking around for a branch or something. "It crunched! You don't know where that's been!"
Zombie	The zombie who had been punched took a step backward, seemingly chagrined that his nose was now completely inverted on his face. He was going to take a moment to complain about it with a "Raaah!" of rage. And then he was going to let his pals join in on the action, moving forward from the darkness to flank Reno.
Dōjima	None of the sticks in the immediate vicinity looked sturdy enough to take on zombies, so Yurika grabbed a rock and threw it at the face of one of the flanking creatures. Throwing things she could do, and there were plenty of rocks scattered about this close to the beach. "You got company," she informed Reno cheerily. "I think they like you!"
Reno	"Yeah, they would," Reno laughed, spinning on his heel to kick the nearest zombie in the gut. It wasn't a terribly coordinated sort of move, but he managed to do it without falling over, and that was good enough for Reno. He followed that with another fist to the face. His hand was already covered in rotting goo, what difference did a little more make?
Zombies	It made a difference to the zombies, actually. The one he'd kicked stumbled back before lunging at him, the other two close behind. Howling as they grabbed at Reno, trying to overwhelm him with sheer force of numbers as the noise attracted more creatures. Including the two coming up behind Dōjima.
Reno	Okay, numbers was cheating or something, and Reno was going to let them know this fact in no uncertain terms, swearing under his breath as he tried to will himself back into some state of sobriety. Another fist to the face. A kick to the knee. A knee to the groin. Too damn many. And over there... "Doji, heads-up!"
Dōjima	"I can only throw so fast!" she yelled back, arms full of rocks as she tried beating back some of the newcomers that were closing on Reno. "Where the hell did they all come from?"
Zombies	The zombies would never tell. The ones that had slunk up behind Dojima were now reaching forward, one to run its fingers through her hair, the other moving to grab at her arms. Reno wasn't doing much better than she was, really, drunk and unarmed and outnumbered as he was. One of the zombies managed to get a solid grasp on his arm, and wasted no time taking a deep, messy bite out of it, savoring the flavor of meat on his rotten tongue before swallowing and trying to move in for more.
Dōjima	She felt... Yurika whirled around and screamed, rocks dropping as she found herself face-to-face with some overly-friendly members of the undead. "The portal back to the mainland!" she yelled, trying to pull away from the creatures. "Let's go!" The one that had been petting her cooed sweetly before twisting its fingers in her hair and pulling, hard, and Yurika bite back another scream.
Reno	Reno wasn't going to scream. In light of the large piece of his arm that was gone, Reno wasn't going to scream. He still had another arm, he had his legs, and the pain was enough to drag him in a jolt right back to his senses. Sense enough that his next blow was a skull-shattering elbow to the head of one of the zombies, and a kick to another that was hard enough to send it staggering backward so that he could make his way toward Doji, ignoring the blood that was soaking into his shirt and dripping from his fingertips.
Zombie Hordes	The pretty little girl was wriggling and yelling and kicking at its shins, hard, and the zombie holding her arm shook her. Stupid meat. If it didn't smell so good, it would go find something a bit less troublesome. The zombies that had been attacking Reno dropped back, wary of getting their own rotting heads bashed in. It hurt. It bled. It would be easy meat soon enough.
Reno	"Let'er go," Reno snarled, bearing down on top of the zombie that was holding Dojima in place with a fist to the face and a kick to the shoulder that was hard enough to snap its back and send it crumpling to the ground. And then he kicked it in the face. Hard. And again. And again. And once more for good measure. Fucking monsters. "You were sayin' somethin' about gettin' outta here," Reno noted, keeping a wary eye on the creatures around them. He was losing too much blood too quickly. His head was starting to spin. Getting out of here would be a very good plan, yes.
Dōjima	Not going to cry, not going to cry, not going to scream herself silly. Professional, dammit. "The portal to the mainland," she said, proud of the way she kept her voice even. "Get back, call an ambulance. Maybe we can shut it down from the other side somehow, and keep these things from getting into the city." She bent slowly, picking up another rock to hold on to before stepping closer. "You need a hand?" she asked quietly. "You don't look so hot." Understatement.
Reno	"Nnuh. 'M good," Reno lied, taking a few more steps before wincing and trying his best to shake it off. "Just need to get a potion into me, yo. I've had worse. Ever been buried under an overpass... before..." Oh gods, he was going to be sick. It felt like his arm was crawling, and the spinning in his head struck him like a wave all over, his legs giving out underneath him. Bad. Bad bad bad.
Dōjima	"I was there for the underpass, remember?" she replied, moving to try and catch him as his legs buckled. "Don't pass out on me now, I make a shitty nurse."
Reno	"Jus' gotta sit down for a minute. S'good. Shouldn't be hittin' me this hard. S'worse than poison or curse, an' I don't got no Remedies on me." One of his hands was fumbling for his pocket, where he kept his spare potions. Maybe if he could just keep downing them, he wouldn't pass out. "Jus' lemmie sit. Jus' f'r a little while, yo." There were spots swimming in his vision, and his head felt like it was floating away, dammit.
Dōjima	"Nooooooooooooo, Reno, this is a very bad time to be taking a nap," Yurika said, casting a wary eye at the creature trailing them. Kuso. "We need to keep moving, okay? One potion, then you gotta get up, ne?"
Reno	"One potion," Reno agreed, his fingers finally closing around one of the vials in his pocket as he held it up toward her. "Need a hand openin' it, though. Other arm... ain't workin' so great." The spots were gone, now. His vision was swimming in a sheet of white, and the words he was speaking seemed to be coming from somewhere else entirely. The vial slipped from his hand. Reno went completely limp.
Dōjima	Yurika dropped her rock, barely managing to catch the vial before it hit the ground. "Shit!" she yelled, fumbling for a moment before getting it open and trying to maneuver him so she could pour it down his throat by force if necessary. "Reno no baka get up. I am not giving you CPR!"
Reno	There was no response from Reno. Just a flicker from somewhere behind his eyelids, and then utter stillness. Until he reached upward and grabbed roughly at her hand.
Dōjima	Yurika shrieked in surprise, barely keeping from slapping him. "Fucking hell, Red, don't scare me like that," she panted, looking over her shoulder at the hordes encircling them. "Come on, drink up, and let's go. I don't like the way they're looking at us."
Reno	Reno wasn't going to let go. Her hand was pleasantly warm under his own suddenly sickly cold fingers, and a grin parted his lips slightly. It wasn't a pretty grin. And it went quite well with his dark crimson, very dead eyes.
Dōjima	No. Oh no. Yurika wanted to scream or throw up or something, but that wasn't an option. Cry later, kill the Witch now. She threw the potion at his face with all the force she could muster, already reaching for her rock and bringing it up to bash it across the side of his face so she could pull free. That wasn't her Reno. Wasn't. And she had to get out of here.
Reno	Don't let go. Don't let go. She was fresh meat. He remembered her enough to know that much. The stone left a deep gouge across the flesh of his face, but he hardly seemed to notice, his gaze drifting back toward her almost lazily. Hungrily. Her hand was in his grasp, and he was going to take advantage of that fact to the best of his ability, pulling her toward him roughly. Sitting up just enough to get his face close to her, just close enough to allow him to sink his teeth in as deeply as he could. Don't let go.
Dōjima	Hit him again. And again. Keep hitting. "Choke on it, gesu," she hissed, still trying to get away even as he sunk his teeth in. Still hitting even as he fed and the others closed in, pain and red overwhelming her. "Fuck you, I hope Seeds taste bad." Still trying, right up until the blackness claimed her.
Reno	Reno ate his fill, and then pulled himself to his feet, watching. Actually, Seeds tasted very, very good. Maybe she'd learn for herself, someday.
Dōjima	It was another moment or two before something pushed its way off the ground to regard him with a blank-eyed stare. "Hungry," she said plaintively, looking around. "Need."
Reno	"Need," Reno agreed, blood and bile dribbling from his grinning lips. And then he turned and started to make his way toward town. They were both hungry. There was meat there.

[OOC: NFI, preplayed with the awesome raspberryturk, zoto. Up early, 'cause zombies are gonna eat my brain, and I work late tonight.]