Kou Karuson (Finished)

Shinigami

We are who we are

Name: Kou Karuson

Visual age: 70s

Actual age: 418

Division: 7

Rank: Captain

Level: Advanced [L]

Hair color: White

Eye color: Light Green

Body Type: Very slim and feeble looking. In Bankai, Kou's body is still very skinny but much healthier and fit.

Likes Flowers, dim areas, masks, puppies, kittens, foxes, fighting, and daydreaming

Dislikes Losing, bright places, having nothing to do.

Appearance: Kou generally wears his standard Captain's uniform when in Soul Society and a standard Shinigami uniform when off duty. His Captain's Coat has been modified to have brown lining at the bottom of the coat and on the sleeves. In a gigai, he generally wears a black suit and tie and a very new looking black walking cane. In Bankai only, a fox symbol is revealed on the back of his Captain's Coat. He likes to wear a fox mask on the side of his head, covering his face when he enters a battle.

Personality: Kou is generally very calm and relaxed when he deals with regular situations and rarely seems interested in what is happening around him. He approaches situations with an open mind and is slow to provoke into a fight but quick to defend himself. He lives with the assumption that everyone around him is more powerful than he is and tends to overcompensate when dealing with others, especially in fights. He tries to maintain a humble attitude but enjoys boasting when he knows for certain he is better at something than others.

In most fights he tries to maintain a friendly attitude towards his opponents and keep things feeling light. Only on very rare occasions when his opponents do something he finds morally wrong does he ever fight in anger and very aggressively. When he has been angered into a fight, he is very offensive and will often take hits he could easily dodge in order to try to hurt the opponent as much as he can.

Grant me your streangth, Zanpakuto

Zanpakuto Name: Genbu

Zanpakuto Appearance:

Spoiler:

Inner world: On top of the dragon! :O

Zanpakuto Affinity: Earth

Zanpakuto Sealed Appearance:

Spoiler:

Shikai release phrase: Shatter their bones, Genbu!

Shikai Appearance::

Spoiler:

Shikai Abilities - When Kou goes into Shikai, his Zanpakuto goes into the ground and disperses his Spirit Energy throughout the ground and quickly covers over a mile. This gives him the power to control the earth to his will. The sword in Shikai Appearance is the usual form he uses if he creates a sword from the earth.

Shikai Weakness: The size of the earth he is controlling cannot exceed a 2x2ft length and width area and cannot go out of the ground for more than 40ft.


Bankai name: Itonami Genbu

Bankai Appearance:

Kou True Appearance:

Bankai Ability: Kou's Bankai is basically an enhanced version of his Shikai. He can control the earth much more and make it move considerably faster than in Shikai.

Bankai Weakness: Size Limit of the useable earth is 8x8 and cannot exceed 80ft.

Step Into My Life

History: Kou was born into Soul Society, a member of the relatively unknown Karuson Clan who, while having some successes in the Shinigami world, is still mostly in the backgrounds of Soul Society politics. He was born in the 54th District of the Rukon District and learned the very basics of Spirit Energy and Zanpakuto from a member of the Gotei 13 who later passed away. Determined to be a Shinigami and bring renown to his family, Kou enlisted in the Shinigami Academy. During his times there he proved rather unremarkable, barely passing his Kido tests and only proving average in his skills with his Zanpakuto, he was placed in squad 11 simply because he had no amazing talents anywhere else.

Kou did fine in the 11th Division but his performances during missions were very substandard so he remained an unknown and unseated member. One day during a routine mission to eliminate some Hollow in the Human World, he was overwhelmed by a surprisingly large number of Hollow when the earth started the shake and his sword started to take on a new shape. "You're too weak. I'm going to show you what we're capable of." A voice said and his new sword went into the ground. His hands started to move as if guided by some force and earth rose up around him. In his burst of power, the earth formed into spikes and stabbed through the masks of all nearby hollows. Immediately afterwards he felt dizzy and collapsed on the ground and when he awoke he was in a Temple looking area on top of a giant turtle dragon thing. "My name is Genbu, I am your inner form. When you call my name I will show our enemies true power. Now go."

After his awakening to his Zanpakuto he became a much more effective member of the 11th Division and eventually transferred to the 7th Squad as a 3rd Seat. He did well but rarely contacted his Zanpakuto since neither of them had much to say when he did enter his Zan's world. He had expressed interest to his Zan that he wanted to learn Bankai but his Zan was very uninterested in teaching him Bankai, claiming he was strong enough and sometimes saying things like he could never turn back once he did. Despite Genbu's efforts to deter Kou, he was still persistent about learning Bankai so that he could finally have the strength to bring honor to his Clan by being recognized as a Captain. Eventually Genbu finally gave in and dragged Kou back into the inner world.

"If you want this power so badly I will give it to you. You must live with the consequences though." Kou returned to the real world and went off somewhere alone to test this power to see if Genbu had been telling the truth. He activated Bankai, learning Itonami Genbu's name in the process. He felt overwhelmed with power but eventually left the Bankai form only his body changed with his power. His body quickly aged and he felt exhausted immediately. "Live with the consequences and bring your clan their precious honor." Kou later discovered his body returns to normal when he enters bankai but then changes back to its elderly form once he ends bankai. Despite his change, he still progressed through the ranks and became Captain of the 7th Division.

RP Sample: I never liked to try new foods. Turns out that I picked the worst day to try broadening my tastes in the history of well, ever.

As I sat on my friend's bed, Super Troopers playing on the small TV attached to a mount on the odd deep shade of blue that was that wall's paint job, I found that the room was so boring when we weren't blazed off our asses. My name is Eric Lee, a seventeen year old high school student, dabbler in the art of bass guitar, friend to as many people that will have me, and occasionally a stoner that goes on magical journeys across the cosmos. I was at my best friend's, Will, house after an afternoon of wandering around town and trying out new foods at some obscure restaurants.

A high pitched giggle, my eyes darted over to my red headed friend. He smiled at me, I returned the smile but mine was not quite as genuine. "Dude... These schnauzberries taste like schnauzberries!" He declared, quoting a scene from Super Troopers that had just gone by. He had positioned himself on the other side of the room, which was only about four feet away since his room was very small, sitting on the couch, texting his girlfriend. He had a wide smile on his face, pushed back hair, and a "o.O" look on his face. If I didn't know better, I would have assumed he was high.

We hadn't gotten high today though but I almost wished we had. My stomach was in pain and some weed could have deadened me to the pain, or at least be blamed as the culprit for this stomach ache. I hadn't mentioned how bad I was feeling to my friend yet since he was far too interested in the movie and his girlfriend's texts. I decided to blame my poor health on the black lights Will had set up to show off his cool looking stoner posters. I scooted myself to the edge of the bed and slowly lowered my feet to the ground. The floor was concrete and I was barefoot with already sensitive feet, I took my time before walking out of the room. I ascended the two steps up from Will's room to the kitchen and crossed it to the restroom.

I calmly shut the door, locked it, and let the sick feelings I had contained in me to that point rush to the surface like a tidal wave. My right hand firmly planted on the back of the toilet, my left holding the three necklaces around my neck to my chest and away from my mouth, I felt my stomach empty itself faster than a broken Super Soaker. The food tasted no better coming back up than when it had gone down but there wasn't much I could do about it. Once the waves of vomiting had passed, for the moment anyway, I noticed I had neglected to raise the toilet seat and went to cleaning it up with some toilet paper I wet in the sink.

I hoped that once I had cleaned up the toilet I could just go back to hanging out with my buddy and pretend the emptying of my stomach hadn't happened. "At least this puts me on the losing weight track." I said with an even tone, trying to give myself a bright side to the situation. On the second set of wet toilet paper, I caught my pale face in the mirror. While I was already pretty white since I didn't spend too much time outside I looked REALLY white now. Even through the yellow tint of my glasses I could see my face was considerably whiter and sickly looking. Then a thought struck me that made me worried for my friend.

Although I was getting better at eating new foods, I was still quite picky. I hadn't eaten all my food at the obscure restaurant, shit I barely ate half of it before passing it off to Will who finished his and my food happily. "Aw what am I worryin for? He seemed fine and he's a tank anyway." Wait... No he's not. He gets sick all the time. I better go see if he's ok. Both things I had said and thought were true. He played football and worked out all the time so he had muscles like a beast yet he got sick all the time, usually from the most random illnesses. My stomach clenched and my thoughts were interrupted as my body was hovering over the toilet again, my mouth wide open while my stomach tried to empty what was no longer there. I went through all the motions of vomiting but there was nothing left in me to expel. Even so the vomit motions continued until finally my body yielded its relentless assault on my stomach contents and left me feeling exhausted.

Once the convulsions stopped I left the bathroom and headed to Will's room to see if he was ok. *Step* *step* *step*. I was just outside his room and found myself hesitating. What if he got sick? What if it's contagious? What if he ate some bad meat and turned into a zombie like in Zombieland? That last thought made me smirk and brought me out of my stupid and paranoid thoughts. I stepped inside, Will wasn't where he had been when I'd left. A quick look revealed he was crouching on his bed, sniffing the area I had been sitting. "Hey Will... You ok?" His face turned to look at me so fast it startled me. "Errrrrriiiiic." He moaned in a very odd tone. He'd never spoken like that before. He was either full of happy energy or just pissed off. This was something different. Trying to tell myself it was just my paranoia trying to get the better of me, I managed to keep myself from bolting out of the room at that moment. Will stood up and let his head hit the ceiling but didn't seem to notice. Until he opened his eyes and revealed the blood red glow coming from them I didn't even know they had been closed. His room was dark, his eyes red, and he was acting weird. That was enough for me to flip shit. I bolted from his room, a thud just behind where I had been standing and then a roar. My mind imagined my best friend on all fours, teeth like a wolf's, eyes taken from an anime demon, and I was only encouraged to run faster. My bare feet catching excellent grip on the kitchen, I turned quickly to run towards the door. I didn't have time to waste opening the screen door and just let my body crash through it. Fortunately the wooden door had been open.

I heard, or thought I did, the growls of my now beast of a friend and then the screams of a woman. The only woman there would have been his mom. I felt bad but I didn't dare turn back to see why she was screaming. I would just have to hope she was pissed off at her broken screen door. I ran to the gate quickly raised the latch, swung the gate open, and continued sprinting towards my car. My hand reached into my pocket for the keys and then I froze. "W-why...?" I asked helplessly as my handed shakily moved through the empty pocket of my cargo shorts. I roughly patted down all of my pockets. "Nonononononono you can't be serious. Not me. I'm not a horror movie victim. This bullshit doesn't happen to me. Where the fuck are they?!" Tears started to stream down my face and I turned back to look at the house. If my now savage best friend was truly what I thought he was, he would be out to kill me in only a matter of time. I was almost willing to resign myself to death when my mind snapped into survival mode. The fuck do you think you're doing?! El lives right god damn next to Will you little bitch. Go talk to him, odds are Will is going to finish up with the father and brother soon so... Get. Your. Ass. In. Gear. I wiped the tears from my face and ran to El's house. His full name was Elliot Wade but I had never known him as that. He and Will had lived next to each other for as long as they've known, at least so I had been told.

My fists pounded on the door and I shouted at the top of my lungs. "El! El! Seriously dude! Some serious shit just went down!" What felt like way too god damn long went by until a tired looking Penny, actual name Geoff, opened the door and I pushed my way inside. "Hey Poptart (a nickname of mine). What's the deal dude? It's like 2 in the morning." I paced around nervously and tried to figure out exactly how to start. "Alright... I was at Will's... I went to bathroom cuzz I was feeling sick. When I got back in his room he was standing up like a fuckin zombie and attacked me. His eyes were fuckin red dude. Not like 'hey I just got blazed and now I got bloodshot eyes red' but like 'hey I'm a fuckin demon and I'm about to eat your goddamn soul red'. I ran like hell. I think Will kill his mom, I heard her scream." I looked at Penny and received a look that made me feel retarded just from what I was saying. "Poptart. I'm gonna level with you. You're a cool guy, but you can NEVER smoke whatever you and Will did again. I'm serious." Penny was dressed in a gray shirt that read "ARMY" and wearing a pair of blue gym shorts that were waaaay too short to be considered straight. Standard army haircut, clear prescription glasses. he looked like a very generic military soldier.

I felt a flare of anger and pointed at Penny. "I'm not fuckin high! Let's grab some weapons and I'll fuckin prove it to you!" This seemed to make Penny take me a bit more seriously, but not much. After my outburst, I heard footsteps and for a moment thought it was Will about to kill us. A taller figure emerged though and I let out a sigh of relief. "Ok what the hell is going on? If y'all don't shut the hell up my dad is gonna wake up and we're gonna have a problem." El said. Unlike most of the members of our group of friends, El was a pretty attractive dude. Straight brown hair, skinny, and dressed up in a very casual getup, El could fit in just about any crowd seamlessly. I pushed past the two and went into El's room. I remembered going there once and seeing a katana mounted on the wall, it was still there. I grabbed the hilt and unsheathed the weapon. "Just follow me. I'll show you what's so goddamn important."

If I hadn't been holding a sharp weapon and raving like a madman, I imagine they would have restrained me right there and knocked my ass out but they could tell I was being very serious right now. They simply nodded and followed me as we went back to Will's house. There seemed to be no difference from the outside of the house but once we got inside there was a very different story. I saw a severed arm just next to the door once we stepped in. Judging on its thickness, the arm belonged to Will's mom, the largest member of the household. On the couch in the living room sat Will's father. His stomach was split open and the lower half of his face was resting on top of the tv on the other side room. Penny and El were speechless right now. I had been slightly more prepared for something like this, but to say I was expecting what was next would be a straight up lie. El had taken back his katana now and Penny and I were equipped with the biggest kitchen knives we could find. We made our way to Will's room and took a brief moment to plan out how we would enter. The room wasn't big enough for all of us to fit in there, we'd all hung out at Will's enough times to know his room was super tiny and full of random crap. It was decided I would swipe my hand across the wall, Penny would charge in with the two knives (since he had the most combat experience), and El would provide over the shoulder stab support with the katana. "One... Two... THREE!" All at once the plan fell to pieces. I slid my hand over the wall, no switch. Aw FUCK. That's right it's on the other side! After some fumbling and insults from Penny and El, I turned the light on and Penny stumbled forward. He tripped over my shoes that I had left there and face-planted into the side of Will's bed which caused El to trip over Penny. Fortunately we didn't kill each other in our failure of a plan.

"Ow"

"Fuck!"

Get your knee out of my ass!"

"...That's not my knee"

"Get the fuck offa me!"

El managed to get off Penny with only minor hurt feelings from a barrage of Penny insults and Penny clambered up shortly afterwards. Then we saw that state of Will's room. Will's room wasn't blue anymore. Instead blood had been smeared all over the walls and his brother's head had been strung on the ceiling fan (We never did find the body). "Dude... Spencer no way.." One of his eyes was missing and that entire side of his face was red with blood. Bits of skin hung down sickly and we were more than eager to get out of that mess. "Shit... Dude... What the hell happened?" El finally said after an eternity of silence and dark stares.

I let out a sigh and slumped to the ground. "I... Don't even know. We just hung out like normal and then suddenly he went all apeshit crazy on me." My paranoid mind had been whizzing since the moment shit had hit the fan and I was more than ready to give my theory on why this happened. "Any idea what the fuck caused this?" Penny asked. I nodded hesitantly. "We did things normally, like we always have... There's only one thing we did differently though. We went to this restaurant, Shaman Delicacy, and ate there for the first time. The food there made me sick. As weird as it sounds, that's the only thing different we've done. Plus it sorta does make sense, I didn't eat anything since the food looked disgusting and so Will ate both our meals." Ok, so I lied a bit. What was I supposed to say? 'Oh by the way, I ate some of the food that made Will slaughter his entire family.' Fuck that. There was no proof that's what it was anyway. Since I vomited up the food I figured that I was safe.

El and Penny looked skeptical but it was all we had to go on. "Alright... Well there's nothing more we can do for now. Let's get back to my house." El finally said. "What about the cops?" I asked with a concerned tone. Both El and Penny looked at me darkly. None of us had any love for the cops. They were generally useless unless it involved a speeding ticket and I already knew they felt that we could handle shit like this better than they could. "Will is our friend. It's our responsibility." El said simply and we headed back to his house. I don't know when I fell asleep, but I was woken up by a rushed voice and the sound of gunfire. "Shit!" I heard a voice exclaim. "Poptart wake the fuck up!" Penny yelled at me and pushed my chest roughly. "Ah... Shit Penny. Wuz goin on?" I blinked a few times and saw El pointing a pistol out his door and firing shots down the hallway. Once my blurring vision from being half asleep faded I saw that El was shooting at people. Their eyes were red like Will's had been and El's bullets seemed to have very little effect on them. "About goddamn time Poptart! Killing these N****ers is only fun for so long!" I frowned. "El, we've talked about this racism thing. You know I'm not comfortable with that word." I felt a slap from Penny and then heard El thank Penny. "We can deal with that later. Grab a gun, we're rolling out. Turns out Will has been spreading zombie aids to the neighborhood." Oh fan-fucking-tastic. I never had planned a serious zombie plan.

Penny dragged me to my feet and handed me a revolver, looked like a Colt Single Action Army. "Seriously? A revolver? The hell am I supposed to do if there's more than 6 zombies?" Penny handed me the katana and I figured continuing to complain was meaningless. Zombies don't wait for you to finish prepping in real life. Penny ran over to the window and quickly raised it. "Poptart, we're taking your car! You grabbed the keys yesterday right?!" I nodded and went out the window first. El followed after me and then Penny went through last. I remembered I had the back seats down and the car was two door so I started by using the remote to unlock the truck. "Penny, take the back!" After unlocking the doors I tossed El the car keys. "You're better. You drive." We all got in the yellow Ford Focus quickly and Penny took no time to shoot out the rear window. "Aw dude... Was the needed? This isn't mine you know? What am I gonna tell my dad?" Penny looked at me and I felt like I could hear his mind debate between wasting a bullet on me or saving them for the zombies. "How about this? We'll tell your dad all about it when he becomes a zombie." I frowned and turned my head back to the road.

I was amazed how much the area had changed in one night. Glass was broken, I always wondered why glass was the first thing to go in a zombie apocalypse... Seemed like they would've just used an open door as opposed to bashing through the window. El got onto an on ramp to the highway and we headed off. I wasn't sure where we were headed, but given what had happened I didn't really care. The car stopped outside a gun store. "Makes sense right? Alright here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna assume that they know about the zombie situation and we're gonna get some guns. IF they don't know... Then I'm gonna max the hell outta my credit card buying shit." Nice thing was El definitely could buy the guns if he needed to. He had a gun license plus he and Penny were 21 years old. I have no idea if that helps at all but at least we look more legit. El handed me his pistol, told me to wait in the car, and went into the store.

After some very, very boring minutes went by, El came out of the store with an armory strapped to him. "Well hey there sexy." I commented. El simply smirked and placed the guns in the back seat / trunk where the three of us sorted them out like children at Christmas.

Me: "Dibs on the 552."

Penny: "Bullshit scrub. You get what we say you can have. I'll take the 552."

Me: "Jackass..."

El: "Poptart, use the MP5K. We've got a lot of ammo for it and you haven't carried guns around as often as we have. It's got full auto though so be careful you don't waste ammo."

Me: "Aren't automatic weapons illegal to the public?"

El: "Don't worry about it. Penny hand me that sight."

Penny: "Why did you get an L96? When are we going to need a sniper rifle?"

El: "When is eating at a restaurant going to cause a zombie apocalypse to break out? Yeah shut the hell up and give me the sight."

Me: "Is anyone going to use that M4?"

El: "Yeah, we're gonna go hook up with Forrest and Lonestar in a bit. Forrest gets the M16 and Lonestar is gonna be running with the M4."

Penny: "Oh shit! Lonestar's back in town? When did that happen."

El: "He got back from coll-"

Me: "Is now really the time? Let's go already."

El and I moved back to the front seats while Penny took up position in the back. "Penny move your goddamn head outta the way. You're blocking the mirror." We drove over to Forrest's house first and found him hanging out on the roof. Apparently the zombies were spreading faster than we had figured they would and Forrest's neighborhood had been hit already. "Whaley! Get your ass down here!" Forrest flipped me off and shook his head. "No way man. Some freaky ass zombie thing is down there makin lunch outta my bitch of a step-mom." We all got out of the car and loaded up our guns. I had Forrest's M16 strapped to me and my MP5K loosely held in my hand. "Alright. Poptart and Penny. You two go in there and clean the place out. I'll stay here and keep out shit secure." We nodded and sprinted into Forrest's house quickly. I made it a point to shoot Forrest's parrot first, the thing had been pissing me off for the longest time. The noise seemed to attract the attention of some nearby zombies as we heard gunfire outside and El making his usual battle screams. They weren't very manly but they did lighten the mood. A dog barreled into the room with a contorted face although its teeth looked as sharp as ever, maybe even more so. By the red glow of its eyes, I could safely conclude this zombie weirdness could spread to just about any creature. I opened fire on the dog, as did Penny, and soon the dog's head was completely blown off.

A group of zombies crashed through a glass door and started coming after us as well once Penny had started laying down the loud fire. Again with the breaking of glass... What's up with that? We ran forward and shot at the zombies. Penny shot a bit more strategically and aimed for the legs to slow them down. We rounded a corner and started up the stairs. Penny stopped at the top and yelled to me to go get Forrest. With slight hesitation, I ran to Forrest's room and found myself face to face with a red eyed monstrosity. A ducked just in time to avoid a swipe from the claw like arm of the person. When I got a good look at who the attacker was, I saw a rather heavy set woman missing an arm. "Aw dude... What are the odds?" The zombie was Will's mom. Talk about unlucky. It's not really Will's mom, not really. Just point and shoot, you got this. I shakily held the gun forward, she charged again. I felt a pain as she swiped at my arm and unloaded the full clip into her head in rage. Although it is mean to say, I'm glad she didn't fall on me. I looked at my arm and saw a scratch on it. "Shiiiiit... I'ma turn into a zombie..." I went into Forrest's bathroom quickly and washed the wound off in the sink. "As long as they don't know about it I'll be fine." Fortunately the wound was small and my friends wouldn't notice unless they looked closely. I went back into Forrest's room and poked my head out the window. "Hey there babe." I joked. "The coast is clear. You can come in now, oh fearless warrior."

Another middle finger from Forrest and then he climbed back into his room. I handed him the M16 but by the expression on his face I might as well have been giving a priest the Holy Grail. "Come on brah, Penny's still fending off our exit by the sound of things." Forrest nodded and we regrouped with the cursing 552 wielding soldier on the staircase. "Bout goddamn time you two showed up. Did y'all get lost or something?" I smirked and started to open fire on the closest zombie. "Oh y'know. Stopped for some McDonalds. We even had enough time to go to the mall. You shoulda come man. There was this fine ass girl workin at one of the stores. She said she had a thing for Army guys." 5 zombies down, looked like 4 more left before we could head down the stairs. "No kiddin? She dug Army guys? Well when we finish up here you better introduce me." Forrest managed to get the final kill, a clean headshot on some zombie I'd never seen before when they were alive. We ran down the stairs and regrouped with a screaming El as he stood on top of my car and shot at a sea of zombies. "Forrest, what the fuck dude? I know for a fact there aren't that many people living in your neighborhood." Forrest simply shrugged and the three of us rushed to help our comrade screaming like a little girl.

Our fire drew plenty of attention and we managed to draw enough attention for El to get away from the car and after some roundabout dodging and shooting, the four of us were running, screaming like idiots and running back to Forrest's house. We ran up the stairs, Penny and I tripped over the bodies of the recently killed zombies, and eventually all four of us were on top of Forrest's house and picking off zombies. I heard a loud as hell shot go off and then El shout "boom headshot!" somehow he'd managed to lug the L96 all the way up here on top of ammo and the other MP5K he had. "Hey El, when are you gonna need a sniper rifle?" He mocked at Penny, to which he was speechless. We spent all day up there, occasionally we made food runs downstairs but for the most part we chilled on the roof and shot as many zombies as we could. "So... Do you think Lonestar's still hangin on out there?" Forrest eventually brought up. There was a long silence, none of us even bothered to shoot at the zombies. "I... I don't know man. I would like to think so but after what we've seen here... I just don't know." I finally said to break the silence. Judging from the looks on El and Penny's faces, they weren't feeling optimistic about our short friend's fate either.

"Then... Where do we go from here?"

"I just... *sigh* don't know man."

"We gonna die up here?"

"Dude... Don't say shit like that. Let's just try to enjoy the zombie apocalypse."

"Wait! I know. Let's go back to that restaurant Will and I went to. That's the only lead we got right now and it's not like we've got anywhere better to be." I suggested to the others. They all agreed with the idea very quickly. I guess even they noticed the fun wasn't there anymore every time we blew a zombie's head off. Now every zombie killed was just a reminder that there is one less person in the world and that the chance we would be next was increasing. In my case, it was just a matter of time. Judging by how it had only been two days and there were already so many zombies, I had to figure the infection spread quickly. Why was I feeling fine though? Not only did I not feel sick anymore, I felt great. Even better than usual. That worried me more than anything. "Alright. Then we're gonna head to that food joint and get some answers!" Penny declared. As if his voice were a rallying cry, Forrest, El, and I raised our guns into the air and we dashed through the window. El went first, then me, Forrest, and lastly Penny. El jumped up onto the stair railing and slid down, unloading his MP5K as he did like a badass while I jumped off the balcony and simply landed on top of a zombie. I jammed my gun into the back of its head and shot a few bullets before quickly moving out of the way. There weren't many around but a few zombies were still hanging out in Forrest's home. Bullets resounded throughout the house as we tore through the living room and made our way out onto the front yard.

I felt a rush, I felt powerful. I jumped forward and dropkicked a zombie in front of me. While on the ground two other ghouls made their way to me and I happily went through my ammo in great amounts to kill them. Instead of reloading once I had used up the current mag, I pulled out a knife and started slicing at anything that came near me. It felt like I was two people. There was the part of me that was still the coward I am but he didn't seem to be as influential anymore. Then there was this new presence. It was mindless, powerful, and full of wrath. It reminded me a bit of a territorial wolf and for a moment I could have sworn that attacking the zombies was friendly fire and that the three armed friends of mine were my targets. I shook my head and I was thinking clearly again. Shit... Maybe I really am turning. We gotta settle this quick. El tossed me the keys, we climbed into my car, and sped off down the street.

Back onto the highway again, we were heading into downtown where the food joint was. It was a little annoying navigating through zombie that wandered the street but it was nice to run over them and remember all the annoying pedestrians that would jaywalk and act like they owned the goddamn street. Then I ran into a rather heavy set zombie and the car decided that was quite enough for it. Whatever the fat zombie had done, the car didn't want to start anymore. We sprinted down the street, screaming our heads off as we shot wildly around us.

"Shitshitshitshitshitshit!"

"Way to fucking drive Poptart!"

"Go fuck yourself dude!"

"Our father, who art in heaven"

"You told me you didn't believe in that crap!"

"Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done."

"You wanna open your eyes long enough to shoot?! I'm sure god can wait a little while for that speech. He's heard it before. You can make him wait a little while!"

"Hey I'm trying to have some goddamn peace with the goddamn lord and savior! Forgive me father."

"You keep that up and I'm gonna send you to your lord and savior IN pieces!"

The yelling continued as they ran and shot their way downtown, it was our way of distracting ourselves from how serious the situation really was. As long as we were yelling and joking around, we were able to stay strong and keep going. By the time we made it to the restaurant we were leaning on each other, sitting on a curb, shooting at anything that got near, and bitching at each other for stealing kills. "Fuck... Let's just hurry... and get inside..." Forrest panted out and we tiredly trudged our way inside. We barricaded the door (there were no glass windows. That's what I'm fuckin talkin about!) and turned on the lights, a pleasant surprise to find they still worked. We took a look around the place although I kind of wish we hadn't. It wasn't just the lobby of the place that had a voodoo theme, the kitchen, the management room, even the toilet felt like they were the product of a witch doctor's building catalog.

"Dude this place is seriously creepy. If this isn't the start of a zombie apocalypse then I dunno what is." Forrest commented as he looked through several ...odd ingredients in the kitchen. Lots of voodoo dolls, bugs, and bones. "Here's hoping the freak can help us undo this mess. Once we find him anyway." El said, referring to the shop owner. Then a quivering elderly man who looked like he hadn't slept in years stepped out of a dark corner. "Perhaps you are looking for me then?" All of our guns turned on the man but he seemed unafraid. "Would you shoot me? You seem to believe I'm the only way to cure this plague. Put your guns down, it's time you stopped playing soldier detective and let the real thinkers get to work." The old man hobbled across the room and pulled out a stack of papers. "This is a shipping manifest. No doubt you blame me for this. I recall one of you was here a day or two ago. Since you didn't even finish my first meal, I doubt you'd come back here with friends for a final meal. Your other friend is gone. He is one of these creatures now, yes? Unfortunate. He looked much more capable than you. But I am getting off topic. My shop is not responsible for this. No.Your friend was hardly the first one to change into one of those mindless cannibals. Most people call the police though and the situation is dealt with before it becomes a big deal. Guess the current generation is more irresponsible than I thought."

Needless to say we were stunned. In so many words, he'd suggested that we allowed a zombie apocalypse to break out. Although the situation was quite dire and serious, I couldn't help but come to a realization that the old man looked a little like Jimi Hendrix. The old man spoke up again and motioned to a floor shaft thingy. “Go through there if you need a place to stay during this outbreak. I’ll come down and let you little morons know when the slaughter you all have caused is over with.” We looked at each other reluctantly. Take our chances with some random ass underground room or go back outside and deal with zombies that want to om nom our faces off. “Let’s chill down there for now.” El spoke up, taking his usual position as the leader. “We can figure out a new plan from there and get going again.” We all nodded in agreement, Penny looked like he would have rather fought the zombies though.

The old man pulled open the door, I couldn’t tell if the groan was from the door or the man, and we slowly filed our way down the narrow and staircase. The door dropped behind us and we were in complete darkness. “Fuuuuuuck” I said loudly. I hated the dark and I felt no shame in starting to get afraid. 3 separate lights soon emerged as I recalled I was friends to a bunch of stoners who always carried lighters. “We got you, Forrest might even hold you hand if you’re feeling scared.” Penny said, I imagined a smirk on his face but I couldn’t see his face in the darkness. “Go fuck yourself.” I said quietly and we continued down the stairs. Some lights flickered on as we reached the base of the stairs and revealed a very comfortable looking room. The walls were white but there was plenty of leather furniture around and the place looked rather expensive. “Who woulda thought an old dude like that had a nice ass place like this?” Forrest mentioned and took it upon himself to occupy the couch in a corner of the room. El and Penny sat in some recliners while I hopped on the only bed in the room. “Dibs… Sayin it now before it becomes a big deal.” I mentioned. El’s head popped up and he immediately objected.
“No fuck that, we take turns. First me, then Penny, then Whaley, and then Poptart.”
I was annoyed that I was the last one to get the bed but I figured it wouldn’t matter anyway. “How long were we actually going to be down here? Turns out we were going to be spending a hell of a lot more time than I thought we would. We passed the time telling jokes or watching some tv on the large monitor mounted on one of the walls, truly this place was better than my room could ever be. Eventually we all dozed off and I even managed to fend off the other three so I got the bed that night.