BEFORE:
Syren shut his eyes and squeezed the armrests of his seat with pure fear. This was his first time flying, and probably his last. He had saved enough money from before to afford the ticket to a safe haven, but no amount of security can save you from the fear of flying.
"Angels can fly." he murmured under his breath.
"So can demons for that matter."
He turned to his left at the sound of the voice, seeing a girl similar to his age. She was wearing what looked like jeans and a Grateful Dead t-shirt, dark hair to match. He smirked at the irony of the shirt; he wasn't grateful for dead at all.
"Yeah, i know, you like the shirt." she gestured to her chest, then waved his gaze away from it. "I wore it because of the irony. If I am to die, i want to be the zombie someone laughs at before they re-kill me. That's my mentality." She smiled quickly and turned to look out the window of the plane. They had been flying for roughly an hour (time flies when you are scare stiff), and though the turbulence had been minimal, he could still feel an uneasiness.
"So, are you some kind of hardcore Magic player?" She asks, pointing at the deck box he was holding.
"No, i can't use magic. These are Tarots, used to predict the future." He pulls them out tentatively, feeling the reassuring weight in his hands. He looks at the girl and begins to deftly shuffle the smooth metal in his hands. "How 'bout it? Want to know if that shirt is going to be a pun or not?"
She smiles and nods, eager to end her boredom. Syren shuffles the cards and deals them across his lap, eyes closed, humming the familiar tune his mother used to. He looks down, sucks in a ragged breath, and hurriedly puts the deck back in its box. He grips the arm rests and closes his eyes.
"What is it? Will i have to wear this shirt to prom or something?" She laughs and looks out the window. He says nothing and braces himself for the inevitable; he was going too get to see her outcome.
PRESENT:
The scent of day old Halloween pumpkins woke Syren from his pained slumber, along with an unbearable pain in his shoulder. He opened his eyes and winced, finally feeling the pain of his shoulder in full. He slowly reaches for the clasp of the seat belt and gives it wrenching pull, releasing him from his seat to the ground, a four foot drop straight to his knees. He howls and grips his shoulder in pain, looking at the sky and seeing only smoke from the wreckage. He looks to his left, with nothing but fire and burning bodies filling his gaze.
"You killed him! My Uncle!" A girl shouts in the distance to his left. Survivors, Syren thought. Maybe they can assist me.
Slowly, he drags himself to his feet and hobbles in the direction of the voice, his left arm dangling uselessly at his side. Suddenly, he instinctively flinches out of the way of a hulking man, bloody and burnt, as he lunges at Syren. Syren yelps and shoves the man into the wreckage of the plane, impaling him with the shredded interior of the wing. The man, with serrated metal holding him in place, continued to reach out towards Syren, desperately and... Hungrily. He was one of the risen, filled with an insatiable hunger for the flesh of the living.
"Oh... God. They let one.. On board?" Syren quickly shambles away, wide eyed and horrified. He continued to stumble away, towards the shouting from before, when he begins to hear a car horn and another's voice asking for survivors.
Syren looks forward and is shocked at the sight before him: a horde. He had heard of them before, how the dead liked to group together, but he knew he couldn't get through, not in the state that he was. But maybe, if he was one of them? He looked around, for anything he could use as aid. His eyes stop on a torn shirt, and he fills with sadness when he realises what it says: The Grateful Dead. He shambles forward and picks it up, noticing the blood covering it. He cringes, but drapes it over himself anyways. He turns and finds what looks like the shredded corpse of a flight attendant. He vomits, wipes his mouth, and grimaces at what he was going to have to do.
Quickly and reluctantly, he spreads the gore upon the borrowed shirt he had, the scent filling his nostrils and the sight searing his mind. With his torso sufficiently covered in stewardess, he shuffles towards the vehicle. He tentatively limps past the dead, watching one become skewered by a man with a stick, and a few being annihilated by a young girl. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he makes it to the vehicle and strips off the shirt quickly, holding his good arm up. "Don't shoot! Or stab me! And by the Gods, don't run me over!" He hobbles to the back of the vehicle and climbs into the bed, holding his injured shoulder.
"I guess, maybe i am grateful" he says as he leans against the cab, nursing his injured shoulder.
Status: Dislocated Shoulder; Injured.