Ask to Join On Top of the World

[Void_Nugget]

Here is the link to the discussion - https://forums.pokecharms.com/threads/on-top-of-the-world-discussion.29895/#post-926680 (Ask to Join - On Top of the World (Discussion))

The Desolate Streets of New York
Sometime around midday

The eerie quiet made all sounds louder and more intriguing, as made evident by the crashing sound of glass being broken as a small lad came bursting out from the window of a cafe before starting to sprint down the street, "I knew that place was to good to be true. God damn it" he muttered to himself hastily as he glanced over his shoulder at the small horde that has been hiding within the back room of the cafe. As he ran he spotted a balcony high up on the 3rd floor of a nearby hotel and grinned, turning for a second to flip off the oncoming horde he vanished in the blink of an eye with a quiet popping sound before reappearing on the balcony he had spotted a few seconds prior. He sat down breathing heavily before slowly standing up to lean over the balcony and watch the horde, without a target they had begun to spread out as the ambled idly along looking for their next meal. Watching them mill about below him, Mieczyslaw Murphy or just Murphy glanced around looking for a good place to head to next, he eventually decided on a direction and then teleported onto the street a good distance away from the now spread out horde and he began to carefully make his way through the street checking every building for dangers and supplies as he went.

 

[=Nightshade=]

A New York cathedral
12:03 PM

No one got much sleep nowadays. For the humans who were still… well, human, you had to get your digs in while you could. Because just a single mistake could mean death. A crunching sound scratched at the door of the cathedral, and a blond girl’s eyes snapped open from within. She picked herself off the floor, hand already closing on her crowbar. The crunching sound didn’t stop, still scratching. She could hear it now, the mindless groaning of the undead, and her free hand reached up to absentmindedly stroke the mostly-healed scar at her neck. Her father’s bite mark had been deep; just a few millimeters more and she would have bled out. But that month the girl had managed to break into a hospital, and her glass hands had been able to keep her alive.

The door splintered, bringing Erika back to her senses. Her grip tightened on the crowbar, still stained with blood from the last time she’d had to fight. When the first zombie came through, she was ready. Erika brandished the crowbar in preparation as two translucent hands caused the air to shimmer, bursting from her body. The zombie leaped at one of them, gnawing at the glasslike material, but the other grabbed the back of its head. Immediately, the zombie grew still. “There is no one in here,” Erika soothed. “Go back and relay that to your— ack!”

Cold, dead hands at her neck! I didn’t consider the windows. Shit. She jerked away, the glasslike hands shattering in the air without her mind’s guidance. Her eyes narrowed as she reformed them, but with her momentary lapse in composure, zombies crawling over the outside of the building began to pour in through the shattered windows, reaching, reaching for the only living flesh—

“Fuck you all. I’m not dying today,” Erika growled. Three chair-sized semitransparent hands materialized, two of them latching onto the girl’s waist, and the other forming a fist and punching through the cathedral roof. As Erika rose through the hole she’d created, a zombie began crawling up her leg. Its teeth scraped a line of fire down her calf as she kicked it away, prying it off her with the crowbar when her foot didn’t do the job. It fell to the ground fifty feet below and its body shattered like her glass hands, a sight reminiscent of a dropped watermelon.

Erika’s hands held her in the air as she floated above the streets. Guess I need to find somewhere else to crash. That was a good sanctuary for the last three days, but I guess it was too good to be true. Still haven’t found any more survivors recently— the last group should be heading west with Cal. They’re probably in Pennsylvania by now, not that anyone would remember where the state boundaries were. Hate to think it, but Cal’s group is probably the last; any other kids would’ve probably been eaten. Gotta find a cure soon, but I have no idea where to start.

Suddenly, movement away from the zombies caught her eye. Erika floated closer. The person’s body showed none of the decay characteristic of the undead, and he seemed young, maybe around her age. Another survivor?