The guard beside the metal detector beckoned Nate forward as he told him nicely. "Take off any metal you have on and hand it to me. Then step through." Mark watched Nate nervously remove his watch to give to the man. The man accepted the watch, then reached out to brush Nate's hair back behind his ear. Nate flinched from his touch, averting his eyes as he clenched his jaw and looked away. The guard's fingers brushed Nate's earlobe, asking him curiously. "Are your gauges metal? Or your necklace?" Nate relaxed a little, shaking his head. From the other side, Mari stated out. "They're plastic." Nate shot Mari a shocked look as he shot back. "Bitch!" Mari stuck her tongue out at him with a smirk, causing the guard to chuckle. Mark watched the guard's hand follow Nate's fake hair down to his shoulder. The gesture was innocent and when Nate looked back at him with a blush, the guard dropped his hand. The guard gestured for Nate to walk through, mumbling out. "You really can't tell."
Mark raised an eyebrow, then licked his lips as he stepped closer to the guard. Nate inched up to the detector, taking a deep breath as he stepped through stiffly. The second he stepped through; the alarm went off. Nate staggered a bit on the other side, hugging himself as the guard told him. "Don't be afraid. Happens all the time. Let me just check." Mari glanced at Mark with a worried look, telling the guard in a half-chuckle. "It's probably the wire in his bra. It's a bitch being a woman..." The guard grabbed a flat rod, telling her with a small smile. "Usually, yes. I have noticed that a lot. Doesn't make my job any easier..." The guard gestured Nate to lift his arms out and spread his legs. Mark started to move forward, when the two guards by the door grabbed his arms. Their grips were light and their voices calm when they told him. "Easy. Wait a minute." Mark discreetly looked at the gun holster on the guard's belt. He could try getting it if he had to. The guard by Nate raised the rod to wave it around Nate's head and neck.
He went down to Nate's torso and the buttons on Nate's denim jacket peeked the detector a little. The guard opened Nate's jacket, scanning inside to see that he was clear there. The guard took a knee, telling Mari casually. "Nope. Wasn't her bra." The guard brought the rod down the outside of Nate's thigh and the detector squealed. Nate started to lower his hands as the guard apologized and grabbed the slit of his dress to pull it aside. Nate shifted his weight to his other leg as the guard moved his hands up the sides of one of Nate's legs. The guard's fingers slide up Nate's leg from the ankle of his boot to a high portion of his thigh. After checking around the leg, the guard blushed a deep red and said softly. "Seems like the buckles on your garter set it off." Everyone let out a soft relaxing breath. The guard removed his hands from Nate's leg, staggering up to his feet as he apologized again. Nate patted the man's shoulder in a comforting way, before walking over to Mari. Just before he reached her, the guard turned and asked curiously. "What's your name?" Mark nearly swallowed his tongue. They hadn't discussed that.
Mari put her hands on Nate's shoulders, her mind clearly rushing to think of something. Nate turned around to face the guard, coolly answering in a soft and almost timid voice. "Natalie..." The guard grinned, telling him sweetly. "Nice name." Mari pulled Nate behind her, chuckling softly. The guard then cleared his throat and gestured to Mark. Mark bit his tongue. This was going to be hard. He wasn't wearing a garter belt like Nate was. Stepping up to the detector, Mark removed his watch to give to the man. The guard took it, looking him over very briefly. The guard was so distracted with Nate. Pretending to check himself over for more metal, he looked around for anything that he could fool the detector with. He was about to give up when he saw a coin on the ground. Crouching down, his hefted his skirt a bit to pretend to fix his boot. The guards glanced at him, but when he winked at them, they looked away embarrassed. Mark seized the moment to snatch up the coin and slipped it into the bra of his shirt as he covered his chest and stood back up.
Adjusting his top, he chuckled out to the distracted guard. "Ok. I checked. I'm clean." The guard smirked, waving him in. Mark locked his jaw and stepped through. This time when the alarm went off, Mark stomped his foot and snapped out. "Rats!" The guard chuckled, moving up to him to scan him with the rod. Mari stepped closer but as the rod went off over Mark's chest, the guard rolled his eyes and said with a smile. "It's fine. Looks like your bra set it off." The guard started to reach out to touch the bra with an awkward expression, but Mark wrapped his arms around his chest and began to burst into embarrassed giggles. Mari rushed over to him, wrapping his arms around him as she asked the guard hopefully. "Do you have to touch her? Can she just take the bra off for you?" Mark jerked his head up to stare at her in disbelief as Nate giggled. The guard's eyes drifted to Nate, before blushing out. "You don't have to go that far... Don't worry about it." Mari grinned, thanking the man as she started pulling Mark toward the other door.
Nate started to follow but rushed back to kiss the man's cheek. He made the kiss very brief, giving the guard a wink before running back to them. The guards by the door laughed at the man and whistled to tease him. As Nate rejoined them, Mari asked him sternly. "Why did you do that?" Nate closed the door behind them, saying just as seriously. "Escape plan. He couldn't keep his eyes off me... Maybe we can use him to make a speedy retreat? I'm trying to think ahead." Mari huffed, saying slightly impressed. "Oh... Well, I guess that might work. I was thinking about crawling out of the air vents. More... stealthy." Nate raised an eyebrow, stating out in shock. "What? In this dress? How would I crawl with these things weighing me down?" Mari bit her lip, blushing as a scientist awkwardly passed by them. Nate dropped his hands from his chest, stammering out. "I... It was... Not what you think." Mari chuckled to herself, telling them both more discreetly. "Focus, Natalie... And you better remember it. As for you...You better have one in mind because they will probably ask-" Mark tried to cross his arms, before looking at his chest and cutting her off to ask curiously. "How do women cross their arms?"
As if to spite him, Mari crossed her arms under her chest and sarcastically muttered out. "Hey. Are you listening to me?" Mark puffed his chest up and mimicked her to cross his arms under his chest. Mari raised an eyebrow, mumbling out to herself. "I'm going to die..." Mari turned on her heel to head down the hallway, while Nate followed chuckling out. "Don't say that. Everything is going great so far." Mari pulled her braid down over her shoulder, creeping up to a door to peek into the window. Giving them a thumbs up, she told them in a whisper. "I see Zero." Mark stayed back with Nate, asking hopefully. "Any blue or red stripe IDs?" Mari peeked a bit more, then pressed her back to the wall, answering by holding up two fingers. Mark cracked his neck to loosen up, telling Nate. "You ready?" Nate nodded, straightening himself up. Mari raised her hands, starting to tell them. "I can bring them out and you guys can... Guys?" Mark opened the door and Nate strutted into the room. Mari dropped her arms, mumbling out. "Or... we rush in... That works too, I guess."
Mark strutted into the room after Nate and immediately took in how many people were in the room. Four. A gruff scientist approached them, rushing out. "Whoa, what are you doing here? Visiting hours are over." Mari jogged in, starting to say calmly. "Don't worry. I'm Lexi's-" Without a word more, Mark grabbed the man's wrist and twisted around to flip the man over his shoulder to the floor. Nate rushed to a tray cart and kicked it to make it crash into a woman that tried to go for the alarm on the wall. Mark broke the arm of the scientist he'd downed, then caught a woman dropping behind a desk. Another woman tried to go for the other door to escape, but Mari ran after her. Snatching a metal food tray off a table, Mari hit the woman across the back of the head with it, taking her down. As the woman fell, Mari stomped her foot and yelled at the two of them. "Does the word 'stealth' mean anything to you?!" Mark shrugged, innocently saying. "I'm impatient." Mari groaned, then yelled out with a sudden start. "MARK!"
Mark looked as the woman behind the desk rose up with a gun. She fired a shot at Mark, but Mark ran to the side. The bullet hit the bullet proof glass behind Mark, simply impaling itself there. The woman then turned to fire a quick shot at Mari and then Nate. Mari lifted the tray in her hands before ducking, causing the bullet to hit the tray and ricochet off. Nate yanked the lab woman in his arms into the path of the bullet, before releasing her to go after the man with a broken arm as he went for Mari. The woman turned her gun back to Mark firing more shots as Mark vaulted over a desk near her. Mark dashed from side to side to rattle her, then slammed into her. Tackling her to the ground, she huffed before putting the gun to Mark's neck and pulling the trigger. The gun clicked but was empty. Mark swatted her arm off him and punched her hard enough to knock her out. Hopping to his feet, he yanked her blue stripe ID and vaulted back over the desk. The lab man kicked Nate in the stomach to knock him back, grabbing Mari by her hair and yanking her to the ground. Mari screamed, thrashing and clawing at the man's face with her nails.
Behind the glass, Zero banged his fists against the glass and yelled something inaudible at the man holding Mari. Chica ran along the glass, barking just as inaudibly. He couldn't believe Chica was still alive! Rushing over to the man, Mark kicked him in the ribs. The man released Mari and she scrambled away as Mark grabbed the man's coat and started punching him. The man took the hits, then grabbed Mark by the throat and headbutted him. Dazed, Mark fell back across the ground. The man shot to his feet and Mark kicked out at the man with both his feet to hit him square in the pelvis. At the same time, Nate round house kicked the man across the chest and Mari leapt off a table to stab a pencil into the man's eye. The man was knocked back so hard from all angles that he shattered the bullet proof glass behind him. Mari fell into the room on top of the man as glass rained down across the floor and an alarm began to blare throughout the building. The lights of the building turned red and the doors made powerful locking sounds. Chica rushed from the room to jump on Mark, licking his face in an excited frenzy.
Hugging her close, he couldn't help laughing a little. He may look like a woman, but Chica saw right through it. He guessed he just smelled the same... or she was just used to his weird antics. Mari rushed off the man and leapt into Zero's arms. Zero hugged her tightly, rushing out over the blaring alarm. "I was so worried about you!" Mark tossed the ID to Nate, struggling to calm Chica as he yelled out. "Use that on the door! We've got to get out of here!" Nate rushed to a door to scan the ID, the locks on the door opened. Zero rushed to the far end of the room though to bust apart the glass in order to get inside. While he slipped inside, they waited with uncertain curiosity. Until, Zero came out with his weapons and stuff. Together they rushed back down the hall where they had come from. Opening the next door, Mari rushed to snatch her katana from a holding rack. Nate waved to the confused guard, who asked them perplexed. "What just happened?!" Nate couldn't answer, before Zero flipped his machete around and hit the guard across the face while he was distracted.
The door to the outside opened on its own and the two guards rushed in with stunned looks on their faces when they saw them. Zero flipped his machete around to brace for a fight. While Mark and Nate moved back a bit to let him take the lead since he had a weapon. The guards raised their guns to shot them, when Mari ran to the wall and pushed off it to cut off an arm from the nearest man to her. The guard screamed as his arm hit the floor and his severed elbow started spewing blood. The second guard whirled his gun on her, firing a few rounds wildly. Mari screamed, falling back across the floor as Zero rushed in to slice his blade across the man's neck. Zero then spun to stab the blade into the chest of the screaming guard, yelling out with worry. "MARI!" Mark rushed to Mari's side to check on her. Mari was clutching her shoulder, whimpering as blood leaked out between her fingers and from her leg. Mark took her sword and tossed it to Nate, telling him seriously. "Here! Cover me!" Mark scooped up Mari in his arms, grumbling out to her to cheer her up. "Your brother is going to kill me..." Mari chuckled only a little.
Upon rushing outside into the cold night air, they all slowed to a stop. The alarm in the building wasn't the only alarm going off. Alarms were blaring all around the compound as an automated voice stated out from a record message. "Security Breech. Security Breech. Everyone to the bunkers." Gunfire was peppering the air from different areas around the place. People were running and screaming as spotlights scanned over the compound to help people see the intruders. Mark gasped as he saw Zombie Scouts crawling over the rooftops of buildings. While Hunters chased after people on all fours to tackle anything that moved. There was even one he'd never seen before. It looked like a large green cat with thick leaves on its neck that hissed when they shook. All down the cats back were sickly looking boils that could almost pass for white spots. The cat moved slowly through the busted front gate. When someone ran by it, the cat hissed and the boils on its back exploded to send a thick cloud of what looked like pollen into the air. As people ran through it, they stopped and began gasping loudly for air as their bodies started to turn rapidly.
Beside him, Zero stated out in utter shock. "Oh god... not more plants!" Mark turned to ask more about these things, only to have his foot yanked out from under him! Dropping Mari across the ground, he screamed as he was dragged around the side of the building. Snatching the corner of the wall, he desperately held on and looked at what had ahold of him. Just beside the building was the gaping jaws of what could only be described as a massive Venus fly trap that was drooling a thick green slime. From the center of the mouth, a tan root tongue tried to pull him into its mouth! To Be Continued...