Inconvenience Store

[Bobby Drake]

One thing was certain, Bobby Drake was not feeling at all like himself right now. Walking along a sunbaked and dusty road, he heard the shuffling canter of his sneakers on the broken asphalt and thought about what he knew about the two girls who were following him right now. It was nothing. It was a lot.

It felt like a lot of nothing.

His mind was too clouded right now, but the one thing that stuck out in his memories was that he used to laugh easily with both of them. Was that before he got so tired?

At the door, Bobby stopped and peered in with fading hopes. The metal of the doorframe was pushed outward on both sides and the glass lay in tiny sparkling fragments all over the dull vinyl tile that stretched into the dismal interior. He glanced over his shoulder skeptically at Jubilee and Kitty and put a hand up to stall them a second.

“Let me check it out,” he said.

His foot crunched on the broken glass as he stepped inside.

[Kitty Pryde]

After the confusion of the past half hour or hour or however long it had been since... well, since whatever had come before, Kitty was grateful for a moment of silence as the trio made their way toward the abandoned convenience store. Bobby had leaned on her for a while, but eventually had meandered on ahead, no doubt wanting to play the macho man despite the shape he was in and lead the party.

Typical Bobby.

But was it? What was typical anymore? ‘Hank’ was a prime example. The Henry McCoy she knew talked like he’d swallowed a dictionary with a side of thesaurus, washed down with a fine medical journal, not to mention the blue fur. But then there had been the other one who possessed these attribute, but who had... no, she didn’t even want to think about it. She couldn’t, not if she wanted to keep moving, not if she wanted to keep herself together. But if those two Hanks could appear so similar but be so different, then was it really possible that this furless guy really was Hank? And if so... which one was he more like?

Wrapping her arms around herself as she trudged along behind Bobby, Kitty only paused a minute as he tried to go in first. The shape he was in, if there was someone lurking inside, a not-so-good someone, then he was not in any shape to fend them off. So while Bobby went for the front door, Kitty gave him a few feet, avoided the broken glass completely and just passed silently through the wall instead.

[Jubilee]

Ok, so apparently she'd wanted company, yeah...only maybe not that much company. Not that she was sure she wanted Princess' company, but she had it anyway. Jubilee snuck a sideglance at the other girl, before continuing on with her and Bobby to the conveinience store. Hopefully, there would be stuff in there they could use. Actually, she was hungry. And her throat was dry as dry, especially with all the talking that had been going on.

Although...she had this feeling like she usually talked more. That she wasn't quite herself. Ughhh. She wished those thoughts would go away; who was she acting like, if she wasn't acting like herself?

"Bobby!" Jubilee scolded, stepping up behind him fast as he entered the store. He was injured, neither of them were and...whoa, Princess went right through the wall like a ghost. But she had this feeling like she was used to doing stuff like this, taking risks. Getting ready to kick some ass if that was required. "Seriously, dude...this running into situations and getting injured for girls has to stop. It's not impressing anyone, right, Kitty? Besides, you know I..." She paused, since the words had come out without really thinking. "Have the better firepower...huh."

[Bobby Drake]

For some reason both of the girls seemed to protectively object to Bobby hobbling in ahead of them. It made him feel a little better, but he still couldn’t deny the urge to keep them safe. It seemed funny to him in a way, he knew those two could take care of themselves-but he also knew that if something happened to them he would never forgive himself-ever.

He glanced back at Jubilee just in time to see Kitty phase through the wall and into the building. There was no time for arguing over it now, he grabbed Jubilee’s hand with a wince, the sudden movement sending sharp pain shooting through his battered body. “Come on,” he said. “You keep me safe then.” He tried to smile, but even that hurt, and then pulled her into the building with him and let go of her hand.

It reeked.

The place smelled like what he imagined the inside of a crypt would smell like if someone had poured milk all over the walls, and left Oscar Meyer meat products everywhere to add to the flavor. Bobby covered his mouth and coughed as he looked around with squinted eyes. The glass display cases were all smashed, much of the food already removed and what was left had flies buzzing hungrily around it. The place had been without electricity for a while, and it looked like there had been a lot of scavenging visitors over that time. Plastic and paper wrappers lay on the floor, shredded savagely.

Across the room something caught his eye. One glass refrigeration unit was left, it had rows and rows of bottled water still in it. “Jackpot,” he said pointing feebly over there. “Now if you don’t mind, I think I might hurl again.”

He tried, but nothing came out.

[Kitty Pryde]

Once tangible again on the other side, Kitty made the mistake of taking a deep breath and almost retched. Bringing her arm up to cover her nose, she tried taking a few short breathes through her sleeve, willing her stomach to settle as her eyes roamed around the shop. What she saw would have made her stomach sink if it wasn’t already firmly lodged in her throat.

The place had already been looted, most of the food either taken or expired, and if this store was like this then chances are any others they found would be in the same shape. Any shred of hope she might have had faded.

Resisting the strong urge to just sit on the floor and start talking to herself again, Kitty forced herself to focus on Bobby. He was in no shape to be wandering around in this mess, and while she didn’t really feel that well she didn’t have any injuries either, so that put her at least three steps above him or something.

“I’ll get it. You guys hang tight,” she replied, her voice muffled by her arm. It was a little strange that one whole unit remained intact when so much of the rest of the store was trashed, but Kitty was too tired and thirsty to question it. Swatting at a few flies that were no buzzing around her head, she picked her way across the garbage littered floor.

[Bobby Drake]

He wasn't sure since when he ever listened to Kitty Pryde, but as weak as he was Bobby didn't have it in him to resist her when she told him to stay put. He just leaned up against a torn out magazine rack and glanced out the window. Nothing. There was nothing left. No cars...no people.

What happened?

And when? When did everyone disappear? Was it a few months ago?

It sure felt a lot longer than that. When Kitty returned he eagerly snatched up one of the bottles from her and was disappointed to see that he needed help twisting the cap off. His energy was completely sapped. Still, he was somewhat pleased when he managed to chill the drink just before it touched his lips. Large beads of condensation ran lazily down the side of the bottle and dripped onto the remains of the store's floor.

"What's that smell anyway?"

Clutching the bottle in his hand he headed past the demolished register and toward a small door that led to the back. He pushed it open on squeaky hinges and dropped the bottle of water at what he saw. Hidden in the back was the remains of several people. Their skin was stretched tight like a mummy and their eyes were missing from the sockets.

"Wicked," he said under his breath. "You might not wanna see this Kitty."

[Logan]

continued from Searching for a Place to Call Home



It didn’t take too long to track down where Bobby and Kitty had run off to. The ruins of the convenience store stood like a sad beacon to a fallen world, promising hope and if Logan wasn’t mistaken…delivering nothin but trouble. The buildings here were like hives, abandoned by the previous residents and taken over by ones that were far less accommodating.

As they drew near, Logan tried to strain his hearing to pick up what was going on inside, but the incessant moaning and groaning coming from Desperado was making that more of a challenge than it should have been. He tossed an aggravated look over his shoulder, but bit off the remark on the tip of his tongue.

Wouldn’t have done any good.

With a slight roll of his eyes and a little bit of a sigh, he looked back at the open door they were approaching. “You might wanna leave Jacob outside over by that streetlamp,” he said. “Could be trouble inside.”

He held up a hand and sniffed the air. Bobby, Jubilee and Kitty. But there was something else.

“Come on,” he said as he moved toward the door a little quicker. “Somethin’ ain’t right.”

[Desperado]

Jacob was set down next to a lamppost. He still wasn't quite conscious yet, so he didn't complain. Unfortunately, this left him alone with his thoughts. Fortunately, his thoughts weren't all that bad. At least, not ultimately.

So far, he had been ignored, swarmed over and attempted to be turned into lunch, and knocked unconscious. And it had only been two hours since he had come back to life. This was seriously screwed up. His first thought was that he was going to die, again, here in this wasteland. It was a gruesome, bleak thought. And then, he thought that he was going to die again, here in this wasteland. The second time around, it seemed less like an omen and more like a fact.

The third thought that came around was that he was going to die again here in this wasteland. What amazing things a lack of punctuation can do to a simple sentence. The first thought was full of despair, the second full of desperation, and the third full of defiance. So long as the current facts of the matter remained the same, his death here was guaranteed.

And so he resolved that, this time, when he went into that night, he would do so with no regrets. And in perfect command over his psyche. That last bit was very important. He had been robbed of a good death the first time around; he refused to have it done to him again.

And, as he started to come back around to full consciousness again, he remembered that his powers worked. He would have smiled.

“Somethin’ ain’t right.”

That statement was said with such severity that it prevented him from doing so.

Unfortunately for Logan, it hadn't taken away Jacob's new humor. "Duh."

EDIT: Jesus Christ, I can't believe the internet let me post that trash. I couldn't even follow my train of thought with that post. Not that this one's much better, but still...

[Hank McCoy]

Hank did as he was told. He set Jacob down and did his best to stay close and quiet.

He wasn't ever going to be as quiet as Logan could be - especially with shoes on - but he didn't do too badly.

Instead of voicing his compliance and agreement, Hank nodded instead and peered anxiously ahead as he shadowed Logan's movement.

[Kitty Pryde]

After distributing the water and helping Bobby open his bottle, Kitty gratefully took a drink, but while the cool liquid felt good to her parched throat, it didn’t settle well on her empty, roiling stomach.

“There’s, like, meat and stuff in one of the fridges that’s probably rotten by now,” she offered to Bobby’s question about the smell, but he wasn’t satisfied with her answer, he had to go be a boy and investigate and then tell her not to follow him. Yeah, right.

“Like I’m not gonna look now that you’ve told me not to,” she grumbled, following him over to the small room behind the counter.

For once in her life she wished she had listened to Bobby Drake. Bodies, so many bodies, it seemed like all she ever saw anymore were bodies. Her vision, her memories, all filled with dead people; mutilated corpses, mummified people, the stench of death, death, always death. Death everywhere. She couldn’t deal with this, not now, not after everything.

Turning away she bolted for the door only to run smack dab into someone who was rushing in.