**Rebooted**

[Serenla the Cat]

Kat shrieked as the first two bullets grazed her arm and side before she began scrambling backwards. She stood, wincing at the pain, and knocked an arrow. She heard footsteps and screaming, and as they came closer to her, she decided to book it, racing towards Ella and the boy. She looked behind her, seeing the flaming cultist. Hopefully she'd be able to outrun him until he fell.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Rain clambered out of her ruined van, the duffel bag out of her shoulders. She tried to run towards... Martini and Gareth? What? She was more stumbling than running, and was grazed twice more in her arm and thank god for her vest or it would've been a lot worse before she made it. She launched herself in, almost crashing into the panicking Haven.

"Hey, what's wrong with her? Honey, you need to calm down, okay? Panicking won't help. Listen, everything's going to be okay," she said, blood still streaming from her head. She began feeling very faint, and tore off half a leg of her pants, wadding it up and pressing it against her head.  

[Uncle Sciz]

"You need some help with that wound, Rain?" Sciz asked, worrying about the car's interior amidst half of the people in the car bleeding profusely.  

[X_HeartofRoses_X]

Haven looked up as she heard an unfamiliar female's voice, and her pupils shrank as she saw more blood.
No!
She bowed her head, coughing up blood as the stitches on her left ear and the stitches on her tail began to bleed and pulsate with pain as well. When she looked back up, her eyes had lost their light and more crimson tears spilled down her muzzle.  

[Fadedepic]

Gareth punched the gas, sending a cultist's neck straight under the front tire as they sped away from the cult. He began driving up the road to the highschool. "We need to get to the highschool. Rain, stop the cultists from shooting my tires. Martini, try to patch everyone up. There's some medical supplies in the center console." He said, opening up the center console for Martini to reach into, pulling out a few gauze pads and medical wrap and tape. Gareth pointed at Sciz. "Sciz, get into my glove box and duct-tape your hand... oh, and get out my thrash metal CD." He said with an insane grin. "There are some shotguns and hunting rifles in the back. Feel free to stock up for the time being."

Martini put down the medical tape as he tore off the sleeve of his bloodstained shirt, revealing the bullethole in his bicep. He pressed the gauze against it with the wrap on top of the gauze and began to wrap it around his arm, pulling it with his teeth to ensure that his arm didn't fall asleep, but he wasn't bleeding profusely either. He then did a ring around his bicep with the medical tape so it didn't fall apart.  

[Uncle Sciz]

Sciz opened up the glovebox and took out the CD, sticking it in the player. He stopped before he went to get the duct tape, though. He noticed something off with Haven, such as the incredibly obvious bleeding from all over her head. He had a puzzled expression, trying to decide if he should say something.

CRACK!

The bullet hit the back of his head and went clean through, splattering blood all over the passengers in the back.

[X_HeartofRoses_X]

Blood splattered on her fur, and Haven screamed at the top of her lungs. Coughing up more liquid crimson and breaking down into hysterics, Haven heard the sound of something breaking in her head, before she blacked out, slumping down to the floor, her body lifeless. Her stitches seemed to disappear on their own, causing her ear and tail tip to fall off and her neck to open up like a hungry monster and start bleeding.

It hurts... It hurts...  

[The Jolly Victini]

The boy didn't respond. He was too focused on getting away from the dangerous cultists. Hand still gripped tightly to Ella's, the boy ran fast to the second floor, making his escape plan. He saw an empty window across the hallway. He looked down from it and saw that there was a fountain in the courtyard. Hoping that Ella would trust him, he picked her up and made a run for the window, closing his ears in preparation for the inevitable squeal of fear.

The boy flashed with a subtle white aura and the two of them felt lighter for a moment, though quickly fleeting. The cool feeling of water never came as the two gently landed in the grass, Ella now sitting on the boy's lap and the boy looking around, confused.

****

Dex, not noticing what Myelin had, agreed and turned the corner to head to her house.

****

Swift's ear pricked as he heard the gunfire as well. He grabbed Timothy and Sliverlight's hands and hurried them over to a door in the hallway. He rushed over and grabbed Scarlet, bringing her to the same place. "Get into the basement and don't come out until I say so, got it?" he said protectively. Silverlight nodded, grabbing the children and taking them down to the basement, locking the door behind her.

"Fennekusu!" Swift called, rushing out the door. "Right behind you!" The phoenix, now revealed to be named Fenekkusu flapped off of his perch and followed behind Swift and out the door.  

[Fadedepic]

Gareth only got a bit of the arterial spray, but it was enough for him to temporarily lose control of the SUV and the SUV fishtailed like mad for a solid ten seconds as Gareth tried to get what blood he got out of his eyes. When he finally opened his eyes, he swerved the car JUST out of the way of another car, his SUV grinding against the other. "What the ******** happened, man?!" He screamed over the screeching and growling of the engine and tires.

Martini was flung onto his hurt arm during the commotion, causing a massive explosion of pain throughout his arm and shoulder. He clutched it in pain, yelling out.

Seth had finally made it to the theater. He was somewhat familiar with the backstage, so he nimbly climbed the stage scaffolding the techies were setting up some time ago for an upcoming play, the set making an unprecedented amount of noise... and apparently there were cultists around here too. The cultists were on the other side of the big black curtain, but they still tried to shoot Seth on the other side, blindfiring. Seth ducked low and kept going, feeling bits of wood shrapnel hit against his coat and legs as bullets whizzed around his head. He finally got to the ladder on the far side. Sure enough, it had one of those gates on it. He took a running start, kicked off the wall and grabbed onto the top. From there, he had to muscle his way to the next rung up, and from there he began his ascension.  

[Serenla the Cat]

"Don't worry about me, just worry about-" Rain was cut off as blood spattered everywhere. There were even a few small hunks of brain. She waited for the thud of the body, but he only started yelling, as though he had only stepped on a tack. Her mouth had been open, but the words that had filled it were now replaced with blood. She spit it out in disgust, her stomach churning. She hated the taste of blood.

"Are you ******** kidding me? Did that seriously just happen?" she said in disbelief, not ready to deal with this s**t just then. She stared, not even noticing what was happening to Haven until she felt something furry and sticky land with a wet splat on her hand. She looked down, and saw an ear lying on her hand, and yelled out.

"OH WHAT THE ********!" She said, looking at the girl who had literally fallen apart at the seams right in front of her. She backed away, wondering if it were some sort of strange contagious disease.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Kat began to run, Mat lost sight of her. He gave a low growl, not loud enough to be heard over the chaos, and scanned the room. The cultist who had been shot stayed there for some reason, and Mat summoned a ball of noxious green gas at a safe distance. Tendrils of it reached out, enveloping the cultist. It was a poison that killed about half the time, but it was the best he could do right then. Mat removed the cork ceiling board, and slid out from the ceiling. He was so light, that it had become a frequent hiding place for him. He landed softly on the floor, but he felt the shock run painfully up his legs. He always hated that, but he didn't have Kat's agility. He cautiously followed the flaming cultist.  

[Uncle Sciz]

"I don't ******** know!" Sciz said, losing patience. "One minute I'm staring at someone who's falling apart at the seams, the next I see chunks of brain and blood covering my suit." He reclined back in his seat and let his wound heal. "Let's just get to where we need to go. We don't need any more distractions."  

[WritingWithLove]

Ella was too afraid to scream. She remembered seeing the girl following behind them. There was no way she'd make that jump.
How did they make that jump?
She remembered also seeing a white light, and a feeling of comfort as they hit the ground.
Nothing about that mattered now. She strugged out of the boy's grip and took his hand once more. "My home's that way!" she said, tugging him along. "Come on!"
***
The two arrived at Myelin's home shortly. Myelin rushed out of the car and opened the door for Dex, letting him get out.
"Freeze!"

Myelin saw a flash, and her eye led her to her father pointing a gun out of a window. Her ears perked, and her eyes widened. She stood in front of Dex and shook her head, signaling that he wasn't going to harm anyone.
Myelin's father let out a huge sigh of relief. "Oh, thank gods!" he said, reaching out a hand and pulling Myelin and Dex inside before locking and bolting the window shut.
Myelin's father held her tightly, whispering calming words and rubbing her back. He looked at Dex and pulled away. His fatherly tone was being corrupted by his fear, but his tone remained somewhat professional as he asked, "Who are you?"
***
Scarlet hated being closed in. She hated imprisonment of any kind, so sitting around wasn't going to do it for her; especially with all this action going on outside.
Timothy was close to snapping. He sensed the danger in the air, and it made his head hurt. He sat down and pulled his legs up to his feet, whispering, "No, please, no..."
Scarlet growled at Timothy, and he instantly fell silent; she knew his fear of her would keep him quiet. She wanted to hear the gunfire.  

[Fadedepic]

Once onto the roof, Seth looked over the edge of the theater building. What he was made his eyes widen, his heart sink, and gave him a burst of adrenaline: The school was SURROUNDED. Literally. There were cultists coming in from every angle: Through the Woodshop class, through the arts department, the math wing, administrative, etc. It was only a matter of time before the entire highschool became a battleground between the SWAT enforcers and the cultists. It was also a matter of time before one cultist saw Seth and pointed up to him, rallying three other cultists to rush into the theater.
"Yeah, no ******** s**t you abnormal blood-sack." Gareth spat out in anger as he sped up and rammed into a cultist who screamed as his legs were pulled under the tires. "How's everyone else holding up?" He called over the thrash metal, roaring of the engine, crunching of cultists under the tires, etc.
Martini wasn't the least bit concerned about Haven or Rain, but instead held his arms out at his sides to try and stop all the blood and brain chunks from touching him unnecessarily. "GOD, I HAVE ******** BLOOD ALL OVER ME!!" He yelled in frustration, flicking off blood and grey matter off his hands as if drying them off if they were wet with water at a restaurant.  

[Serenla the Cat]

Not caring about Martini so much, Rain stared at the body. No one could still be alive after that, so she figured they may as well not leave it. She didn't want to get near it, either. She wasn't quite so prissy as Martini, but that thing was grotesque, she would avoid touching it if she could. She'd dealt with worse before; sometimes she was paid extra for a special or specific scene to get a point across. But something about the body unnerved her. Like, it was going to start moving or something. Maybe it was just the way it had happened, so surreal.

"So what are we doing about the body?" she asked, looking more at Martini almost mockingly.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kat kept running, and turned at one point to see Mat following behind. She groaned, seeing as he couldn't really do anything. Oh, sure, you can summon fire like a master, but you can't manage so much as a drop of water. She pulled the knife from her side pocket, and spun around suddenly, throwing the knife. It wasn't a throwing knife, but her aim was good, so she hoped it would take care of the flaming maniac.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Mat watched his sister, and felt the stitch rip through his side without warning. She could take care of herself; she'd been in some pretty bad situations. He stopped, leaning against the wall. He happened to look out a nearby, and gave out a girlish squeal. He ran back towards Kat and the crazy flaming cultist, yelling frantic gibberish.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So far, a few stray bullets had already made it into the classroom. Serenla was now comforting three sobbing girls, one of which being a good friend of the fourth girl who know lay in a bloody pool, her eyes glazed and staring into nothing. Serenla felt herself grow a bit closer to the girls, and their pain dug into her like a knife, squeezing out a stream of tears. She would have closed the girls eyes, but she was occupied by the girls, and no one else seemed to want to move, let alone touch the body. Serenla watched three people run by, one of them on fire. She hadn't heard gunfire for a while. She gave the girls one last squeeze before moving forward. She stopped to close the eyes, and looked out the window into the hall. Someone else moved behind her, stirred into curiosity by her own, and there was a scream. Serenla whipped around, and found that her own scream had caught in her throat. The window in the classroom was very large, giving a clear view of the army outside. She shook her head in disbelief, not sure what to do. She only knew that no matter what, they couldn't stay here. They had no chance if they did.  

[X_HeartofRoses_X]

Suddenly, the "dead" body began to move, coughing a bit as she sat up, gripping her neck. "Haaah... Heheh... You put up quite a fight this time, Haven..."  

[Fadedepic]

Martini stared oddly at Haven, whose entire posture seemed to have changed, but had also appeared to be improving from "limp dead body" condition. He wiped some blood off of his face, picked a bit of grey matter out of his hair, and smiled mockingly back at Rain. Well, toots, apparently we do nothing with the body because she's still alive." He said with a laugh. "A hitman who can't tell if someone's dead or not, hah! I wonder how many assassinations you've ******** up because you thought they were dead.." He said, pretending to donder to himself, staring off into space and stroking his beard.