Dust in the Wind (Marcus/ open)

[Morana Falk]

It was sunset when Morana left her hole of a home, in search of something--or someone--exciting to do. She walked south of her temporary home for a few blocks before rounding the corner, and finding a small group of teenagers standing next to a dumpster. They looked to be about 17 or 18 in age, but even if she was wrong, there was no government to get on her back. There were four. One was a girl: tempting, but too easy. She wore a mini skirt and a tank top covering only half her body. As if the new order in the world meant she was exempt from the judgement of her peers. She had no shame, and neither did the boys who gawked at her. Another was a scrawny little guy with unkempt hair. He smoked a cigarette, trying to look tougher. Again, too easy. The 2nd of the boys wore glasses, and greased his unbrushed hair down, trying to look cleaner, but failing. The light of the nearby street lamp reflected off of his face like her were a mirror. But the 3rd boy in the group was a little more impressive. He kept his hair buzzed short to avoid uncleanliness, and wore a wife beater tank top, showing off his defined muscles. His jawline was strong, and his gaze at the girl wasn't a gawk, but instead an invitation. She gladly took it, as she was only looking at him. He sat on top of the dumpster, while the others surrounded him. He would occasionally take a drag of his cigarette, blow it in her face, then pretend like he didn't care about a thing in the world.

All his friends looked up to him. That much was evident. Was it in his confidence? Whatever the reason, Morana saw him as egotistical.

She could have been completely wrong about this whole group. Call her judgmental. They could had just been a group of kids trying to get on in the post apocalyptic world they so suddenly plunged into. Maybe a cigarette and a girl were the only light they had.

Her intentions were simple: get the boy who thought he was hot shit alone, and take advantage of him.

She stared at the group from about 20 yards away, leaning against the corner of the abandoned building. Tonight she decided to skip the costume routine, and go with a more casual look of black jeans and a burgundy, form fitting t-shirt. One might find small spats of blood scattered on her shirt if it weren't so close to red/ brown already.

She walked over to the group, not bothering to hide the sound of her walking across the pavement, or the occasional clip of a bottle against her shoe. Today, her scalpel was tucked in her bra. She would use it when ready.

The group harshly stared her down as she approached, but she took no heed. She stared at the girl and licked her lips as she approached.

"This girl is kinda creepy, guys." she said to her friends.

"Agreed. Let's get out of here before she tries to talk to us." replied Greasy Boy eagerly.

"You guys worry too much... You know I can handle anyone. We've been through this before." scoffed Mr. Hotshot.

Morana grinned excitedly. She loved boys who put up a fight.

"Whatever, I'm out of here." the girl said at last. Greasy Boy followed without a question. Tiny Man was a little more hesitant, wanting to stick by his buddy's side, but eventually gave up, and ran for Miss Pretty.

Mr. Hotshot sighed, and started off the dumpster, but too bad for him, Morana was already behind him, holding her scalpel to his throat.

"I suggest you don't call for help."

He panicked at first, like a deer in headlights. All he could do was breath unsteadily and watch as his fate drew nearer. She pulled him by the throat with her knife into a subsection of the ally way, and waited for the footsteps to fade away before getting on with her plans......

-time skip-

Before allowing him to stand, Morana gave him a once over. His throat was red, and finger impressions were evident. There was a huge slice in his chest, running over his collar bone towards the top. He had been brought to tears at one point.

Pathetic... she thought. He didn't even put up a fight.

In the end, he conceded, thinking it would be fun. He had prided himself on his ability to get girls. But her intentions were not the same as his. Her intentions were to hurt. And she got what she wanted.

She leaned in and cut a small "x" on his cheek, licked it, then walked away.

Nothing had happened. This was routine for Morana. It was dust in the wind, and long forgotten in the few seconds it took her to walk away.

[Marcus Prasad]

{OOC} Had a hard time with this one. >_< Sorry if it's on the short side. {OOC}
Now generaly Marcus is a fairly intelligent and clever person who normally can keep himself out of trouble and out of sticky situations and embaressing adventures.
Unfortunatly for him, Life seemed to take great enjoyment in plucking him up from his day to day and quite literaly drop him on his head.

Today was one such day.

The sky was darkening and Marcus had a Bike with Saddlebags stocked with groceries to get back home with. And what should he spy with his little eye this night?

Why none other than a lone maiden stepping out of a dark and forboding alleyway.
Now this is where the bad luck comes from because unfortunatly for Marcus he A) Didn't see the bloody knife in her hand and B) Wanting to be a good samaritan and bring hope to the hearts of the people, had immediatly decided to stop and talk to the wierd young woman. Stopping his bike close by, but not close enough to spook her, the man slipped his goggles onto his forehead and pulled off his skullcap.

"Hey Lady! Know what time it is? Not exactly the kind of time you wanna be cutting through dark alleys in. Easy place to get jumped ya know."

[Morana Falk]

Oh what to do, what toAAAHHH WHAT?

"Hey Lady! Know what time it is? Not exactly the kind of time you wanna be cutting through dark alleys in. Easy place to get jumped ya know."

Morana responded with a shiver, and a recoil in the opposite direction at first, but soon recovered, regaining her composure to face the man.

Oh. I wasn't expecting someone to... Oh, whatever.

Morana stood and looked at the man in subtle shock, not quite knowing what to make of him. He clearly didn't notice the scalpel in her hand, considering he didn't look very cautious. Or sound very cautious. She scrutinized him, mulling over her options.

He was big.

Granted, she had taken down men like this before when working in the hospital, but that was with the help of another man. Also, this wasn't a hospital. It wasn't nearly as controlled. Lucky he wasn't the first man she saw--or she would be sizing him up, seriously contemplating her options on ways to take him down. She would be looking for weaknesses.

Instead, she had already had her fill of boy, and began to walk away down the same street he was on. She held her knife on her left side, facing away from him, but also pressing it against her skin. Even though she felt no need to "pounce" so to speak, she didn't want to raise concern, prompting him to attack her.

That would be too messy.

After walking a few feet ahead of him, she turned her head to glance behind at him.

"Thanks, buddy. I'll keep that in mind." There was evident sarcasm in her tone. She laughed at the irony. She wasn't going to be the one getting jumped.

[Marcus Prasad]

{OOC} My Muse just beaned me over the head with a mallet of INSPIRATION! Hope you don't mind if I switch gears alittle{OOC}

Just as the girl was analyzing Marcus, he was doing the same to her. What he saw concerned him. His animal brain immediatly recognized the scrutiny of a predator just like him. She was sizing him up. He almost wanted to chuckle.
'Definatly not subtle, this one.'
The attitude she gave him certainly poked his pride, making him narrow his eyes and release a quiet warning growl from his throat.

"Well, Careful out there all the same chiquita. Hunter's moon is up tonight."
He was refering to the fact that overhead, the moon hung blood red and swollen in the nights sky. This phenomona had a massivle laundry list of superstitions assosiated with it.
"And god only knows what kind of hungry creatures are out and about."
He added with a subtle tone of warning.

With that, Marcus would rev his machine up, peel out into a spin and continue on his way in the opposite direction. After traveling out of earshot, he would duck into an alleyway and park in a dark corner. Jumping off, Marcus moved to the back of his bike, pulling off his cap, goggles and jacket and stuffing them in the saddlebags before searching through them for a few moments. With a nod, the man pulled out a large tarp colored with an Urban cammo pattern. He then drapped the tarp over the bike, hiding it from view.

"Alright sweetmeat. Lets see if my hunch is correct. Something tells me you need alittle more appreciation for the things that go bump in the night."
It had been awhile since the last time Marcus had tracked anything through the city. It used to be a game of his back in New York when he was a kid. He would pick a target and spend half the night on it's trail just for kicks.
This time though, he felt that the stakes in this game were just alittle higher. He didn't like the look in the girls eyes.

They were the eyes of a predator.

[Morana Falk]

Morana walked away from the buzzing motorcycle, thinking about how she could possibly spend the rest of her night. She groaned with disdain, thinking about the errands she needed to run. Raiding hospitals was never fun, especially if she chose the wrong one. Many of the hospitals in the area were in Barker territory, and slightly more difficult to get in to. But, doctor's offices rarely carried sedatives, seeing as surgical procedures usually only happened in hospitals.

Fighting would normally be an exciting part of the night for her, but trying to get past people to get something she wanted just seemed like a chore. Luckily for her, she wasn't in Barker territory. There was a near-empty hospital several blocks down the very street she was on.

She wiped the scalpel clean on her jeans, then polished it with her shirt before tucking it away in her bra strap along her rib cage.

While walking away, urgent footsteps could be heard behind her. They ran in the opposite direction, desperate to get away. Morana smiled to herself.

Run away, darling. We had a good time while it lasted.

If Marcus would be following her now, perhaps he would see the bloodied, tear-striken boy running away. Perhaps he would see the small "X" she placed on his cheek. Perhaps he would see the fear.

It would be about a half hour of walking down the street before she would finally reach the hospital. It was completely dark, save for a few rooms. The walls were graffiti ridden, and the windows along the floor level were all shattered, along with a few from higher stories. None of these were her doing. Morana saw it all as a pointless waste. But it didn't waver her from her decision to invade the decrepit building through one of the broken, lower level windows.

Once inside, she could see the room was completely vandalized. The walls were spray painted, the light fixtures were shattered, various objects were broken and thrown about, and all the items were taken from the shelves, save for a few flowers and "get well soon" cards. This was the gift shop. The only light escaping into the room was from the broken window from which she entered, and the dim light entering through the tinted windows of the gift shop door.

She walked through the rubble, pushed open the door, and peeked into the empty lobby before her. The lights that were left on could have either been security lights, or people taking refuge. Morana didn't want to run into any unnecessary trouble. Errands were for business, not fun.

When the coast seemed clear, she picked up her stride through the large room to the stair case in the corner of the room. Near it was a map of the hospital, with a directory with different room numbers, doctor's names, and the like. She pin pointed the ICU, and began to make her way up the stairs. Three flights up, she would find a door that was barely cracked open. The other side would be the lobby outside the Intensive Care Unit. A light was on. She carefully creaked open the door, and looked through. She could hear voices toward one end of the hall, but nowhere near the door. She could sneak through without getting noticed. Once through the doorway, she would quickly walk across the hall, behind the desk of a previous nurse. Not wanting to risk making noise by sitting down in the office chair, she instead squatted on the floor. After carefully and noiselessly opening the drawers, she would look through them for any keys. They would either be in an unlocked drawer, or not here at all. Luckily for her, she found a small ring with five keys hooked on. She would tuck her findings in her bra, then look over the edge of the desk. Once she saw no one was there, she would get up, and walk opposite the voices.

She was looking for a storage room. Not for janitorial purposes, but one that held extra needles, IVs, scrubs, and most importantly, sedatives.

[Marcus Prasad]

It wasen't too terribly hard to catch the girls trail once Marcus got on the move. After spotting the poor boy who no doubt had been the source of fresh blood spilled that he had smelled in the alleyway, he began to prowl in the direction the terrified victim was running from. Prey instincts were always to run in the most direct opposite direction from danger after all.

No obsticle slowed him as he cut a path back where he had found the girl. She didn't seem to be in much of a hurry, so he might still have enough time to find her. First, he needed a vantage point. Easy enough Shimmying up a streetlight, Marcus leapt onto the side of a nearby building and began to climb up to the roof. From there he would rooftop hop until he found himself overlooking a street and finaly catching sight of his quarry.

"Ah. There you are chiquita. Now lets see what naughtyness your up to tonight."
To the abandoned hospital it would seem. A Shithole if he ever saw one. He perked an eyebrow up. What could she possibly want here? Most of the good stuff would have been looted by now. Unless it was more victims she was seeking?
Nevermind, A MYSTERY WAS AFOOT!

As Nimble as a cat, Marcus crept along a half hanging rooftop billboard towards a broken window near the top of the hospital. Hundreds of feet off the ground, one false step would spell his death. For one heart stopping moment, the billboard sagged with a sickening crunch, threatening to tip over and cause a fatal fall. Bunching his legs, the man leapt with all his might, only just managing to grip his fingers into the brick and morter of the building and safely stop his fall.

Without a second thought, Marcus began to hand over hand haul himself up to the open window he saw and pulled himself in.
With her starting at the bottom, and himself starting near the top, this promised to be a VERY interesting game of cat and mouse.

Speaking of mice......

"Hey! Watchu doi- URK!"
A Shadow spoke, and Marcus lashed out, Cutting the query short with a sharp kick to the homeless mans instep before leaping forward into a Guilotine chokehold. He didn't want to risk discovery after all. Besides, the man would survive, and mabey be alittle wiser for it.

Going into a crouch, the man surveyed his surroundings. He was in an office of sorts. Messy, verry messy and dark. It looked like the man he rendered unconcious was the only occupant in the room, but he knew there would be more. Well this definatly made the game even more fun. Sticking to the shadows, Marcus slithered out and began his hunt.

[Morana Falk]

The first door she would try, labeled with a simple metal name plate stating "storage" provided no luck. It was a janitorial closet, holding nothing of interest: cleaning products and nothing more. She shut the door with evident disappointment on her face. The realization hit her that what she was looking for would not be in the lobby. It would be in the section of ICU that was sectioned off from the general public.

Toward the voices.

Sighing with discontent, she knew conflict was eminent. The walk toward the voices was cautious, but not in any way frightened. She was shocked at how loud the people occupying the hospital had been talking. Surely they can't believe they are alone. This is quite the fortress. They might have been armed. But weaponry was nothing if you didn't possess the skills to use them.

They were behind the locked doors to the unit, talking and laughing like they were in no danger at all. Like their lives weren't currently at stake. As though they didn't care about the impending danger lurking just outside their sanctuary.

The sanctuary that can easily be invaded and picked apart.

She inserted one of the keys into a small box on the wall, and turned slowly until a small click sounded. Peeking through the windows, she could see that the people were not in sight, but were nearby; they were likely taking refuge in one of the rooms.

She pressed the metallic button next to the lock, and the doors clicked. She pushed lightly, and the hinges moaned. This door wasn't likely used often. The voices stopped, clearly aware of her presence. She walked along the wall, peeking into each room as she passed. She would have to take these people out before finding what she needed. They would only get in the way.

People always get in the way.

Five rooms away from the door, she stopped. Something didn't sit right with this one. Perhaps it was the smell of sweat that inhabited the place. Perhaps it was the sheet on the bed, disheveled and strewn about, half way on the bed, half way on the floor.

Perhaps it was the faint breathing and whimpering coming from the closet in the room.

She took hold of her scalpel, and approached the door tentatively. Her shoes made light tapping noises as she walked. She stopped in front of the narrow doorway, and rested her hand on the door, making it clear to whoever cowered inside that there was no hiding from her. She stood there for a few minutes, listening to the faint breathing.

"We can do this all day. Eventually, you will need to eat. You will need to come out, and face me. Make this easier on all of us. Help me out, and I'll leave you be."

"Liar! Just go away..."

Morana narrowed her eyes at the door, letting a small flame of rage light up in her.

"Last warning."

The only response she would get is the quiet breathing, accompanied by a small whimper occasionally.

"Fine."

She threw open the door and grabbed one of the smallish people by the collar. She looked at the small boy, and back at the mother sitting on the floor of the closet. Morana remembered two adult voices. A man and a woman.

"Where is he?" she asked the woman.

"...Who?" the woman looked at her with a look of apparent astonishment.

Morana shoved her scalpel to the small boy's throat, threatening to kill him on the spot. The boy began to cry.

"One more time. Where is he?"

The woman looked at Morana close to tears just as a man appeared in the doorway.

"Leave them be."

"John."

"John." Morana smiled cruelly as she flung her scalpel at his throat with deadly accuracy. She hit his jugular, and he fell to the floor. Out of panic, he dislodged the knife from his neck, allowing more blood to escape from the wound in his neck.

The kid in Morana's grasp panicked and passed out from sheer shock, while the mother screamed in horror. She walked to the nearest window and threw the boy outside, shattering the glass of one of the few remaining in tact windows. He might not die from the fall, considering it's a mere 3 story drop. But the injuries would be serious.

The woman bolted from her perch in the closet, out of the room, and to the left, toward the door leading to the lobby.

Morana had no reason to chase her down. Instead, she stepped over the bleeding out man and out of the room.

She spotted a closet opposite her, and walked toward it. She chose a different key, and turned it with ease. What lay inside the room was exactly what she was looking for. Surplus needles, masks, scrubs, and sedatives.

She snagged a few vials of sedatives and needles, and stuffed them in her shirt. Bras were always the perfect pockets.

Taking one of the vials, she flipped it upside-down, flipped off a cap from a needle, and slid the point through the wax stopper. She pulled back the plunger slowly, watching the translucent fluid fills the tube.

She would keep this handy, should anyone interrupt her escape into the street.

[Marcus Prasad]

"Why hello there Chiquita."
Said a voice seemingly from out of nowhere, when in fact it was comming from Marcus who was standing outside the door and out of sight. Now your probably wondering how the man had found the girl so easily. Cause and effect my friends. From a window, Marcus had caught sight of the poor boy's tumbling body, Had deduced that it came from somewhere along this section of the hospital which allowed him to run into the sobbing mother of said child.

Shrugging off of the wall, Marcus turned into the doorway and stood, Blocking Morana's easiest exit point. His arms were crossed, and though his lips wore an easy smile, his eyes were NOT at all amused.
He recalled the dead body he found in the adjacent room. the slumped form of a man face down in a pool of his own blood.
"Seem's you've been busy."
He spoke almost casualy. As one would comment on the weather as he allowed his gaze to scan the entire room. Yes, things were looking more than alittle Silent hill in here.

There was something different about the mans demeanor this time. Malice. Malice radiated from him in waves. Like a cat who finaly cornered the mouse and Marcus fully intended to play with this particular catch. He didn't like murderers. Especialy child killers, no matter how pretty a face they wore.
"Survival of the fittest eh? So tell me, how do you intend on surviving this?"

[Morana Falk]

"Why hello there Chiquita."

Morana looked around, shocked. The familiar voice had come from the empty doorway. She glared into the beam of light, searching for movement. She stared so hard, the large figure moving into view nearly caught her off guard. Her eyes met with his, and she gave him a piercing, unwelcome stare.

"What are you doing here boy?"

This was the man she had deliberately avoided earlier. Not only was he big, but a tracker as well. She might be attracted to him and his cunning behavior if not for the overwhelming stench of benevolence.

That bastard followed me...

"Seem's you've been busy."

She narrowed her eyes further in response.

"Survival of the fittest eh? So tell me, how do you intend on surviving this?"

"Perhaps we can move past our differences, and go our separate ways," she started. "Perhaps we could even become friends. Allies in the least." She accompanied her offer with a small, inviting smile and a wink. Fighting this man wouldn't be worth it for her. She had valuable items she needs to return home before the night was up. Nevertheless, she prepared for a fight, and gripped her syringe in one hand, and the bloodied scalpel in the other.

[Marcus Prasad]

Listening to her plead her case, Marcus couldn't help but laugh. She was staring daggers at him not but two seconds ago.
"So you're going to bullshit then."
He sneered.
"Well if that's the best you got, then why don't you do yourself a favor and drop what you have in your hands NOW before I BREAK them. If you're lucky you'll get off with just a beating before I haul your ass to the Military sector and make you THIER problem."

He then took a menacing step forward, looking at her as a wolf would see a small rabbit. Every corded muscle in his body screamed at him to strike. Unfortuantly he didn't know what was in that syringe. It wasen't blood, but that didn't rule out it being a sample of HIV or some chemical that could put his body into shock.

"Or we can do this the hard way where I snap you in half like a chicken bone before hogtieing you to my bike. Either way there will be rope involved. Just be glad i'm not the type to string you up by your fucking guts out a window somewhere."
He snarled at her before taking another step forward.

[Morana Falk]

Morana snickered at his petty attempt of undermining her.

"Pity. We could have been friends."

She watched him take a step forward and crouched, readying herself for an attack. She narrowed her eyes at him, marking every one of his movements.

"And anybody who isn't a friend... is an enemy..."

She tucked the half-empty vile into her bra along with the other supplies, and gripped the needle in her fist. He was big. It might not knock him out, but it could also give her the small advantage she needed to escape and go about with her business. This man was a nuissance. A big nuissance that could only be avoided; not terminated.

Besides all that, part of her liked having him around. He made things exciting.

"Or we can do this the hard way where I snap you in half like a chicken bone before hogtieing you to my bike. Either way there will be rope involved. Just be glad i'm not the type to string you up by your fucking guts out a window somewhere."

She smiled sinisterly at him. He has quite the imagination.

He clearly didn't seem to expect her to give up easily. She certainly didn't expect him to.

"Let's play, then."

[Marcus Prasad]

Marcus had had about enough of her attitude. Normally he would be suspicious of her confidence, by now she should have been shitting herself with fear, plus the fact that she not only had a syringe, but a knife as well. Unfortunatly in this case the man was beside himself with fury, which meant he wasn't thinking straight.

"You.....Callous BITCH!"
He snarled as he lunged, hands outstretched. He wanted to grab her and break her like a kit kat bar. His first instinct would be to catch hold of her and slam her into the shelves on either side of them for awhile before delivering a Sparta kick that would run the risk of catapulting her through the window behind her.

The game was on and this time Marcus was not fighting for fun.

[Morana Falk]

In the instant that he shouted at her, she knew the time was now. He lunged like an animal would at it's prey. Her eyes widened as adrenaline kicked in. That sweet, exhilarating feeling of knowing the pain is coming. Two dominant forces clashing was beautiful to her. One had to submit. And she wouldn't easily.

She dodged his lunge and ducked behind him in a crouch, swiftly turning around to face him. Granted he hasn't already reacted to her dodge, she would stab her needle full of sedatives into his calf, and push on the plunger, injecting the entirety of it into his blood stream. She would follow it up with aiming to slice his achilles tendon with her scalpel that was in her right hand.

[Marcus Prasad]

Unfortunatly for Moranna, though wild and reckless as Marcus was currently, he was still as fast as he always was. As the girl ducked around Marcus, the man would turn to backhand her right in the mouth before grabbing the back of her neck with his other hand and slamming her into the shelves

Tightening his hand into a clawshape, Marcus would grasp Moranna's ribcage right underneath her left breast and squeeze slowly, agonizingly, drilling his fingertips into the bone with slow implacable force. The pain would be immense as the pressure from his fingertips would set her nerves on fire long before her ribs would begin to bruise until they would eventualy crack.

His face was a mask of hate. Marcus would eventualy calm down and turn her in, aye. But until then he wanted to make her pay for destroying life so thoughtlessly. She would be made to learn that there was consiquences now that Marcus was around.

[Morana Falk]

The impact of his hand to her face stunned her; she hardly noticing the hand on the back of her neck. That is, until it threw her into the shelves. A second hand grasped her rib cage and began squeezing. Hard. Her eyes went wide and she gasped and coughed. She could only focus on the pain. She was lost in herself, and his hand. His strength.

It's almost... admirable... she thought to herself.

Reality shot back to her all at once, and she responded with a shriek. Through reflex, she weakly lifted her arms to the man's shoulders, trying to get him off. At this rate, he was going to crack some ribs. Placing her hands by his neck, she suddenly remembered the sedatives in her hand. Squinting her eyes and gritting her teeth, she would attempt at a stab in his neck with the full syringe. There wasn't much else she could do at this point.