**Collaboration with KnightAnnabeth***

      Luxor smiles, hazel eyes watching the team wrap up their training for the day, looking down at the stats for the day. The thunder and lightning outside hadn't phased anyone either. 

      "Saint. You're in top form lately. I think we'll win the next match." He praises their ace player as Saint avoids contact with the other boisterous players during clean up.

       Saint slips away from the group, throwing the ball over to where it belonged. "I'm sure we will." He says, glancing at the papers Luxor was holding, his grey eyes glinting with some pride. "I've got us covered."

        "So confident. But you sure can back it up...'" Luxor pauses as everything goes dark. "Looks like the storm is too much even for the city... Let's get one of the doors open for some air. You guys need it ."

        "So much for a sunny day." Saint mutters, watching one of the guys run over and open the door. It didn't do much to let any light in. "That's worse than I expected." 

         "These ones that they don't predict do seem to be getting worse..." Luxor frowns. "Can't even make out the lab through this..."

         Saint nods, watching the rain. "Guess I'll be here for a while. Don't think I'd enjoy the trip home in this."

         "Probably for the best." Luxor agrees watching the rain. There's a few flashes of light from the direction of the lab, before an explosion rips through the rain, a shockwave knocking everyone down. "Fuckin hell?!"

         "The hell was that?" Saint sits up, looking out the door that had been opened. He could see a fire now burning through the right wing of the lab. "That can't be good."

         Luxor sits up, looking at the flames, "The lab.... We need to get away from there in case it blows some more." He calls out to the other players, getting up quickly.

         Saint gathers his stuff, following everyone out of the gym. No sooner they step outside, a third explosion sounds, blowing out the windows inside. "Jesus. Where do we go? Not like we can get terribly far in this weather."

         "Let's get on the bus and get out of the area." Luxor tells them swiftly, leading for the parking lot.

         Saint follows behind the group, keeping an eye on everyone to make sure no one gets separated. Once they find a bus, everyone gets on, filling in the seats. Once he is finally able to sit down, Saint looks in the direction of the lab, seeing a dark column of smoke rising into the sky. By now the whole building was destroyed.

         Luxor closes the door as the wind seems to screech inhumanly. A chill goes down his spine and he swiftly starts the bus, leaving the parking lot and moving away from the lab steadily, trying to see through the heavy rain. Some of the players were starting to cough, gag even. Was there something in the air affecting them?

          Seeing that some of the others were starting to cough and gasp, Saint pulls his shirt over his mouth and nose. He stands, holding onto the seats to keep balance so he could go check on some of the others. They were coughing so badly though that they couldn't really tell him why or what was wrong.

          Luxor frowns, slowing further as cars soon block the way, some people running by, others shuffling oddly. "Where can I go..." He mutters looking around. Something hits the side of the bus making him stiffen and look back to see something black piercing the glass into a player's head. "Malcolm!" He shouts in horror as the black claw-like object jerks back out and a long slender tongue comes through the hole, lapping at the blood. The others begin to shout and panic at that, getting up and moving from that side of the bus in alarm. Luxor looks around, pulling out the safety box beneath the seat and opening it to load the flare gun.

           "What the fuck?!" Saint shouts, grabbing one of the other players and pulling him away from their deceased teammate. A second later there is a thump on the window behind him. Thinking quickly he slides down to the floor, watching something break one of the windows, pulling another of his teammates through it.

           Luxor lowers himself, watching in an uneasy panic. What could he do right now? 

          The window where the dead teammate sat is suddenly ripped open by the creature with black claws. The head leans in, eyeless with a protective shell over it. It's tongue circles the deceased's head, large mouth opening, rows of crooked needle like teeth glinting before it bites off the player's head with a juicy crunch.

          Luxor shudders in horror swiftly putting the two other bullets for the flare gun inside his pocket before firing at the creature's mouth as it opens for another bite. The creature gives a piercing shriek jerking back out. 

           "RUN!" Luxor orders the other players.

           Saint and few other players that were able to manage to scramble off the bus through the emergency door. As soon as they're out, everyone runs in different directions. Saint looks around, deciding to head further out of town instead of back in. He wanted to get as far away from those creatures as he could.

           Luxor runs after them, soon losing sight of most of them but running on, spotting a familiar back he swallows in relief before gathering breath to shout. "Saint!" He calls to him over the pouring rain.

           Saint slows enough to let Luxor catch up to him but doesn't stop completely. "What was that thing? I've never seen anything like that." He says to the blond man, turning down a side street that led out of town.

          "No idea. But I'm glad the flare gun worked on it... The fuck is going on? Did those come out of the lab?" Luxor checks behind them warily.

           "That's what I'm figuring. Probably got out during the power outage or one of those explosions." Saint says. "I feel like I'm in some sort of nightmare."

           "I wish this was." Luxor huffs as the rain lightens up a bit and they can see a bit more. "Cop lights ahead... But we should probably avoid them in case those things are attracted to the sounds of engines. I didn't see eyes on it. And the bus was stopped." Luxor says mind playing back through it. "Maybe it could smell?"

            "Maybe." Saint slows for a moment, looking around. Going right led away from the city, left went towards it. "I think that way." He says, pointing to the right. "Might be best to get out of town completely."

            "Agreed." Luxor breathes and they jog on for the next area.

            After a while they come to another road that was blocked off by police cars. "Why are they blocking us in?" Luxor mutters, pulling back to hide behind a corner. "That's the last road out..." He frowns. "Those don't look like normal officers either..."

            "I don't trust it." Saint frowns, watching the officers carefully. "Maybe we should try to go around them."

            "Hmm... I don't know... Look at those folks there." Luxor points as some panicked citizens try to get near the blockade, only to be shot down. "... Shit..." He whispers jerking back behind the corner warily, the wind giving off a chilling howl sound in response.

           "Why....why are they killing unarmed civilians?" Saint moves back behind the corner of a building, trying to keep out of sight. "If we can't go around them where do we go from here?"

           "I... I don't-" Something large leaps off a building near the blockade, ripping through a few officers and flipping one of the cars out of the way, roaring as the officers nearby fire at it. "... Lets go now. Through the buildings and out a window." Luxor hisses, jolts of adrenaline and fear rushing through him.

         Saint's eyes widen for a moment then he nods, quickly following Luxor through the back door of the building they were next to. He could hear more crashing from outside, the sound of metal against metal and screaming. Then he hears a few gunshots, then silence.

          Luxor pauses to peer out the windows, moving more carefully now. "It looked like a dog or something. We should be careful." He whispers to Saint.

          Saint nods, moving forward as silently as possible, watching his surroundings to make sure he didn't run into or step on anything. He peeks out the window, but doesn't see anything. Hopefully whatever it had left once it was done with the cops.

          Luxor follows him just as quickly, keeping the flare gun ready. They go through the last building, peering out carefully. "There it is!" He hisses, ducking down as the beast takes on a military Hummer, soldiers shooting it's body but it leaps at them, ripping them apart before a helicopter catches it's attention and it leaps onto the building. "... Holy shit..."

         "That thing is massive." Saint whispers, watching it in horror. "We should make a run for it while it's distracted by the helicopter. It's making enough noise that it shouldn't hear us."

          "Right... Over there in that housing development. We'll find a house to duck in if it follows." Luxor points, carefully opening the window. "Let's do it Saint." He says in determination, jumping out and taking off with him.

          Saint follows closely behind, running as quickly as he could. He hears the sound of the helicopter crashing into one of the buildings, the explosion that followed almost knocking him off his feet. There's no way that thing would stay distracted now. He takes a second to glance back, regretting it when he sees the monster looking around. After a quick look around, he grabs Luxor's arm, yanking him behind the side of one of the houses. After another quick check of the area around him, he points to a door a little ways away, hoping that maybe it would be unlocked.

           Luxor nods swiftly rushing to the door and opening it before hurrying inside, freezing as a knife flies out of the adjacent room and sticks into the wall in front of his face making him jerk back and fall on his ass. "Shit!"

          A lavender haired woman peers around the corner with a wild glare, checking him over. "Oh... Sorry, I thought you were a cop..." She manages, blinking and relaxing a bit.

           "And your first reaction was that?" Saint mutters, looking at the small woman that had spoken, then the woman that was curled up with her knees pulled to her chest. Her eyes were barely visible behind her hair, but he could tell she was glaring.

            "Well yeah. We thought they would come for us too." The lavender haired woman frowns as Luxor gets up. 

        "I'm glad you missed... Lost someone huh?" Luxor frowns, glancing at the other woman, it was clear to him that something of the sort had happened. "We saw what they were doing at the blockades." 

        "It's all fucked..." Lavender hair shakes her head going to kneel in front of her friend. "We gotta keep going Lilah, he'd want that." She whispers.

        "I know Luna..." Lilah sniffles, looking up to wipe the tears away from her eyes. She brushes her hair back with a shaky hand, finally looking at the two men a little more closely. Neither of them were cops, that much she could tell. She vaguely recognized the blonde, but she couldn't place him at the moment and didn't really try too hard. Looking back at Luna, she sighs. "Where do we even go from here?"

        "Preferably not outside at the moment." Saint speaks up, cutting into the girl's conversation. "There's some crazy big monster out there. Took down a helicopter." 

       "You're fucking with me right?" Lilah shifts her gaze over to him, looking him over and finding that he was covered in dust and specs of blood.

        "I wish we were... We were near the lab when it exploded... Some crazy shit that came out of there." Luxor shakes his head. 

         "The fucking lab..." Luna rubs her eyes and stands up. "Okay... So.. Let's see if there's something in this house that can help for now. We'll wait... Not too long... If there's something taking out helicopters... Whatever's in the city is going to come through here soon."

          Lilah pushes herself up from the floor, wiping her eyes again. "I'll start on the bedrooms." She murmurs, turning and heading down a hallway. 

         Saint watches her walk off, then nods to the kitchen. "It would be a good idea to grab some food and water if they have it." He says, finally looking down at himself and seeing what he looked like. "Maybe clothes." He adds, brushing some of the dust of himself with a disgusted frown.

          "I will check for guns then. This flare gun only has two more shots." Luxor decides going through the main room. Luna goes to the closets, grabbing empty duffle bags and grabbing a few sheets. 

          "I got duffle bags here." She says loud enough to be heard. "Lilah, I left one of our bags back in the car. We'll need to replace it."

          Lilah pulls open the drawers of the bedside tables finding some cash hidden beneath a book. She grabs it, tucking it in her pocket, not that she knew if they'd need it. It could be useful. "Mkay!" She calls back, going over to a closet to dig through the clothes to replace what was left in the car. After moving stuff aside she finds a small safe. "Anyone know how to open a safe?"

          "Not me." Saint calls back as he grabs stuff from the pantry that he could find, dumping or what looked to be a kids backpack so he could fill it up. He grabbed anything he could find that didn't need to be kept cold. They were in luck too, there was a full case of water in the pantry. He shoves as much as he can into the backpack, managing to fit all but a few bottles. It would at least last them a little while.

           "I do." Luxor says briskly coming in and pausing. "Awe... It's just a baby." He breathes, kneels at it and gets to work. 

           Lilah watches him for a moment, tilting her head to see what he was doing. When the safe pops open, she flinches a bit. "Anything interesting or was it a waste of time?"

          "We got ourselves a little gun and twelve bullets... A gold watch, a few envelopes and a stack of money..." He says pulling everything out. "I think the gun is probably gonna be the only useful thing..." He says and peers at her face before pausing and rocking back. "Tattoo artist..."

         "Huh?" Lilah pauses, then looks him over again. "That's where I recognized you from. I was pretty sure I knew you. I think Adam was your regular artist right?" She asks, looking over the gun he was holding. It would definitely be useful. Small enough to keep on you, but it would pack a good punch.

          ”Yeah. You always did a good job." Luxor nods, looking down quickly, a bit happy with another familiar face here. "Um... Here, you carrying? I got this flare gun on me so I can wait to find something else." He offers her the gun.

          Lilah reaches behind her, pulling the pistol she had from the waistband of her pants to show him. "I've got one. Thanks though. You can hold onto it. You said the flare gun only had two shots left right?"

      "Yeah. Thanks... I kinda like the flare gun though... Think I'll look for more bullets for it later..." He looks at it thoughtfully. "Will definitely come in handy."

         Lilah nods, tucking her gun back where it belonged. She looks around the closet one last time, then steps back into the bedroom. "Think that's everything of use." She says as she goes to find Luna.

           Luna hums, grabbing some rubbing alcohol and medicines from the bathroom, stocking up on every useful thing in there, looking at a hairspray bottle for a bit. "That homemade flamethrower video I watched suddenly has purpose..."

          Saint zips up the bag, pulling it onto his shoulder and going to find one of the others. The first person he runs into was the woman that had thrown the knife. "Find anything useful?"

          Luna jumps in surprise at his sudden appearance. "Ah. I got medicine, and stuff to clean wounds." She looks him over before passing him some baby wipes. "You uh... Can use these to clean up a bit." 

          Saint looks at himself in a mirror, grimacing and taking the baby wipes from her. "Thanks." He says, using a few of them to clean as much of the dirt and other things away from his skin as he could.

          Luna tilts her head, looking him over quietly. He was an athlete, by the looks of him, but she only read sports in manga so she wasn't sure what he played. "Um... Maybe the next place we find will have running water for you."              

         Saint throws the baby wipes in a trash can, looking himself over. That was probably the best he was going to get for now. "Hopefully. I did find a bunch of food and water. We can refill the bottles after we use them if we find a good place to."

         "Hopefully we do soon. Looks like this place is cleared now. How much longer should we wait for that... Monster you mentioned to pass?" She asks.

           "Probably got bored by now and found something else to chase down." Saint heads back into the hallway, almost bumping into Lilah. "We can probably go now. Just need to keep quiet." 

         "Might be a good idea." She agrees, looking past him to Luna. "We found another gun. And I grabbed a little bit of cash. No telling if we might need it."

          "... I hope we do... I was so proud for not forgetting my wallet today..." Luna sighs. 

         "Heh..." Luxor can't help but pat her on the head. "Alright... Before we go out, let's decide where we're heading or it'll be a mess." He says.

         "I still think out of town. Them blocking us in like they are can't be a good sign." Lilah says, grabbing a hair tie from inside the bathroom to tie up her hair. 

         "How do we get past them though? I get the feeling they're keeping an eye on things pretty closely if they don't want anyone leaving." Saint asks, leaning against a doorframe.

          "As much as they can at least. They may be just as in danger as we are." Luna points out.

          "... Well... We could... Put them in danger... Make them scatter enough for us to get through in a vehicle or something." Luxor holds up the flare gun.

          "I mean... I'm not really opposed to that with how they're handling things...." Luna admits, though her heart sinks at the suggestion.

          "Sounds like a plan to me." Lilah agrees, not even really thinking about it.

          "So we get a car..." Saint starts.

          "Maybe one of the military Hummers. I bet they are reinforced." Lilah adds, looking over at Saint, realizing she had cut him off. "Sorry."

           "So we get a Hummer, get through the barricade...and go where from there?"

           "What about the mountains south of here? There's plenty of places to hide there. I'm sure we could find a cabin." Luna says. "High ground is the best right?"

           "Yeah... It'll be difficult if we stay long enough for snow... But that's a few months away still." Luxor breathes in thought.

          "Maybe by then things will have calmed down some..." Lilah offers, though her voice conveyed her own doubt. 

          Saint nods in agreement with the plan. "So, once we get out the door, which way are we going?"

          "Well... That beast cleared out a few Hummers I'm betting... Let's backtrack a bit and snag one. I'll fire a flare toward whatever barricade is closest to us... I'm just going to guess that'll attract some of those things to them. We'll wait and hide in the Hummer until it's all clear to escape." Luxor breathes.

          'This guy is a bit scary.' Luna blinks at him.

          Lilah nods slowly, thinking over what he had said. "Sounds good. Probably the best plan we have at the time."

         "Right." Saint shifts the backpack around, making it easier to carry. "You two think you can run that far?"

          Lilah shrugs. "I can try."

         "Yeah. My adrenaline is starting to kick up again." Luna nods, shifting in anticipation. 

         "Alright. Let's get us a Hummer." Luxor nods quickly going to the door and peering out. "Looks clear besides some people staggering about."

         "They bite, we should stay away." Luna hums.

         Lilah nods again in agreement. "And they don't like to stay down." She says quietly, stepping outside. The people wandering around didn't seem to be interested in them at the moment at least.

         Saint steps outside, waving Luna ahead of him. He wanted to be able to keep an eye on everyone and make sure no one fell behind. Luna blinks at Saint, keeping to Lilah's side as they start jogging, looking out for a military Hummer. Luxor pauses at the corner of a house, looking toward the city.

         "There's one there." He points out.

         Lilah follows his gaze, seeing that there didn't appear to be anyone around the vehicle. "Looks good to me."

         Saint looks at their surroundings. It was quiet for the most part. "Only issue I see is getting it started."

        "Don't you worry about that part Saint. Your coach is a bit familiar with starting vehicles that don't belong to him." Luxor breathes. "May I borrow one of your blades?" He reaches a hand back to Luna.

        "Okay coach." She hands it to him. 

        "Alright. Let's go." Luxor breathes checking around before rushing for it. The others follow closely behind, getting to the Hummer without being seen by anything. Lilah tries the handle on the back door, surprised to have it open easily. She quickly climbs inside, sliding all the way over. Saint follows her, throwing the backpack into the floorboard. Luxor gets in the driver's seat, closing the door and working to get it started. 

         Luna gets in, falling over, face hitting the floor. "Fuckin hell..." She grumbles.

         "You okay?" Lilah asks, looking over at her friend with a frown. Saint watches Luxor mess with the car, a little impressed once he gets it started.

         "I'm alright." Luna sits up, rubbing her cheek, pausing as the hummer rumbles. "... I don't know who that guy is but I'm really glad I missed." 

         "I am too." Lilah agrees, looking at the two men then pausing.

         "Alright. Still got it..." Luxor breathes sitting up and quickly peering around, eyes ignited with an excited gleam. "To the blockade we go..." 

         "Ah, excuseme. We never got your names. Not that we have really had the time. I'm Lilah." Lilah says, leaning over to peer at their driver then the black haired guy across from her.

         "Saint." He says, lifting a hand in greeting.

         "I'm Luna!" She salutes, glancing out the back of the hummer briefly.

         "Luxor Spade. You can call me either." The coach rumbles, slowing the hummer as the blockade comes into view. "Alright, everyone get down. We're about to start."

         Lilah slides down in the seat, making sure she can still see out the darkly tinted window. Saint copies her, making it to where he was almost on the floorboard. "Think we are good to go."

         Luna swallows, lifting a knife as she slides onto the floorboard watching the back window. Luxor lowers his window aiming at the blockade and firing a flare into the center of it before putting up his window and getting down as the surprised officers fire their way.

         Lilah flinches at the sound of the bullets hitting the Hummer. Within a few seconds she hears a screeching noise. She peers out the window, eye going wide. "What the hell is that thing?"

         "It's what we were talking about." Saint tells her, watching as the monster takes out the police officers.

         "I don't want to know." Luna whispers, closing her eyes as the cops scream and cry out. Luxor waits quietly, patiently, even after everything goes silent. 

         After a couple minutes of waiting, Lilah peers out the window again, looking around. "I think it's gone." 

         Saint looks around as well, frowning. "We have to hope so."

         "Alright... Glad that worked out for us." Luxor sits up, driving through the barricade and heading for the mountains. 

         "So let's assume no one else has been affected by this yet. We'll look crazy if we try to warn anyone... Are we going to wait to get supplies or are we going to try and buy everything now?" Luna asks lightly.

         "We should probably get things on the way out. If we don't want to look crazy, we say we are going camping." Lilah suggests, sliding back into her seat and putting on her seat belt. 

         "It would probably be better to get as much as we can now. No telling how far this will spread or how many people it will affect. Especially seeing how their blockades are being taken down." Saint says, leaning back in his seat and sighing.

         Luna sits up but stays on the floor board, nodding in understanding. "Well either way we'll get some odd looks from the vehicle we're in... And you guys should clean up first... Looks scary..." 

         "Ah... Yeah good idea." Luxor breathes, checking himself over. "I got a credit card we can use for now too."

         "Sounds good to me." Lilah sighs, sinking into the seat. She leans her head against the window, shutting her eyes. "As for getting you guys cleaned up, the best thing I can think of is a hotel."

        "That's probably a good idea. Give us a place to regroup and clean up." Saint nods. "Maybe get two towns out or so to give us time since we don't know how this will go."

         "Well they reached the outskirts of town fast. If this stuff happened when the lab exploded... It's like a ten minute drive from our diner. That guy showed up maybe a little after the ten minute mark." Luna says lightly.

         "It's possible that part is air borne. Some of our teammates started gagging while we were trying to escape. But it was only affecting some of them, whatever they were choking on." Luxor remembers. "I don't know for sure though. The monster attacked and we all got separated... Hope they made it out..."

          "The explosions probably helped it spread quickly too." Lilah murmurs, not opening her eyes. "If it is something in the air, the storm probably didn't help either."

          "Maybe it's more effective to some than others?" Saint offers, frowning as he thought about the rest of the team. "Maybe we just get as far as possible."

          "Sounds good... But we should be ready in case one of the infected reach us while we're preparing." Luxor states. 

         "Does that mean you guys are immune then? Since you were right there." Luna relaxes at the thought.

         "It would be nice if that's the case." Saint says, running a hand through his hair and frowning unhappily at the amount of dirt that fell from it. "But we shouldn't bank on it. I get the feeling we may have just been lucky."

         Lilah finally opens her eyes again, looking out the window. "Luck would be a nice thing to have right now."

        "I feel like we've all been lucky today just escaping that insanity." Luna hums, watching the back window. 

        "Agreed... I'll stop at the next town for the hotel, we'll get clean, change clothes and move to a different town to stock up... So rest for now." Luxor breathes. 

        Lilah hums in agreement, trying to get comfortable. The next town was half an hour away, so at least she could try to get a little sleep.

        Saint leans his head back against the seat, sighing and shutting his eyes. After everything he had seen today, he didn't know if he would be able to sleep, but at least he could relax for a second.

        Luna frowns, glancing between the two in the back with her, pulling out the sheets she had grabbed from the house, draping them over Lilah and Saint, yawning slightly. Luxor peers back at them before focusing ahead, speeding up slightly, peering around.

        If they could survive the rest of the day it would be a miracle.