2019-05-24 - Dream A Little Dream Of Zombunnies

A glorious morning run to clear his feels like balm to Easton's soul. His leg is strong enough to run on, his gate is feeling smooth and even again, and he's not planning on pushing it, just an easy 3 mile jog and then back to his place. He's dressed for a cool spring morning in long running black running pants and a gray tee-shirt left flapping loosely over it. They're not quite as tight as other workout clothes, one because of his artificial leg that he hates to draw attention to and two because it's way harder to carry concealed weapons in tight clothes, unless you get far more creative than he's willing to get for a mornig jog. Rounding the bend at just about the halfway point in his jog Easton comes out into a brilliant patch of bright sun that obscures his vision just for a moment as he enters Addington Park.

And what's this? It looks like the park is all set up for an Easter Egg hunt. Huh, isn't Easter later in the year this year? Easton thinks to himself as Fitz and the Tantrums blares in his ears while he jogs along. The sight of small children eagerly awaiting the signal to go get all those brilliantly colored eggs that are not so well-hidden across the lawn. The parents to seem all excited with cameras out to capture their little Tincture or Zepplin running to fill their basket first at the expense of any and all around them. Truly one of the more greedy traditions in Holidays it seems to Easton as he makes his way along the path closer to the assembled hunters.

And there's the Easter Bunny, the cheap mall quality suit hanging off his frame a little. It looks like he's about to signal the start of the race as he reaches into this basket ... and pulls out a pistol. Huh, a starting pistol, that's a kind of intense for-

Easton's thought is cut off as the bunny raises the gun and flat out executes one of parents, point blank. Bye Sheila.

Children and parents alike scream and run for cover, the Bunny-suited man skips along taking aim much more leisurely now at the fleeing crowd.

Easton pulls the compact Glock 19M out of his ankle harness and drops to one knee to fire on the bunny.

Kevin is at the Easter Egg hunt, covering it grudgingly for the Gazette. Shouldn't Easter be next weekend? Clearly, the 'why' is the important part of the story. Probably something about corporate greed wanting two weekends of sales. He readies his camera to catch a shot of the start of the hunt and the crappy Easter Bunny starting it. And... is that a pistol? Like, not a starting pistol? Woah, that looks like a Desert Eagle like in those video games. Kevin's eyes widen behind his wire-rimmed glasses as the gun goes off with a booming echo, and he starts back, nearly dropping his camera. "Oh shit!" Stumbling, he falls onto his ass, then scrambles onto his hands and knees, "Gun! Gun!"

One shot. One bunny dead.

The pistol that Easton is packing is far smaller than the massive 45 like one that the bunny just executed Shiela with but it's plenty to take down a bad bunny. The bunny-suited man goes down, amazingly enough with the large fake rabbit head still very much attached. Easton lets out a short quick breath and starts to stand up.

Situation contained.

BOOM

The explosion actually takes Easton up off his feet and knocks him back into some shrubs on the side of the path. The crater to his former immediate left smoking, with little bits of plastic egg embedded in the ground, the nearby trees and Easton himself.

Between Shiela, the dead bunny and now more explosions it's safe to say that the day has devolved into full on pandemonium. There is screaming. There is crying. There are stupid children still trying to collect pastel eggs despite the fact that others are literally exploding and killing people.

There's more gunfire, and Kevin covers his head with his arms, "Woah!" And then there's an explosion, and Kevin writhes on the ground a little more, his feet bicycling a little wildly. There's a second explosion, and Kevin forces himself up to his feet, "No! Stay away from the eggs!" He looks around wildly, "Hey, gun-dude! I don't know what the holy hell is going on, but if you're trying to help, help me get these kids the hell away from the eggs!" He probably shouldn't be cursing like that, but there's Easter Explosions! Speaking of which, he flinches as another one goes off, trying to cover his head with his hands again.

Rolling painfully out of the bush, with little bits of plastic egg embedded in him Easton coughs and makes it back to his feet. He looks over at Kevin, and nods, maybe in understanding, maybe in appreciation at being called gun-dude. His bartender senses kick in and he remembers the face and a boilermaker, but not a name.

"Agreed. Clear the area, if you have a phone call the police, we're going to need a-"

The words bomb squad die on his lips as Easton watches the Easter Bunny rise again. He stares for nearly a full second, with his mouth open just a little. That was a clean head shot, right though the buck teeth in the mask's gaping maw, which should have been dead between his eyes. And yet, there the resilient resurrected rabbit stands, blood seeping out from under the fake bunny head but very much back on it's feet.

"Get down!"

Easton calls to Kevin, before dropping to a low run for a tree for cover as the EEB (Evil Easter Bunny) opens fire once more. The hand cannon that is a 45 caliber handgun blows limbs clear off the tree that Easton is ducked behind. The shot is enough to shake loose a single purple egg that was once hidden in the branches. It drops plink at Easton's feet and he just looks down at it with a hint of sadness. Like, why Easter? Why you gotta be like that? He doesn't wait to see if all eggs explode, he throws up a telekinetic shield on pure instinct, which is hopefully enough as sure enough the egg explodes not even a second later.

Meanwhile in a crater from one of the earlier egg bombs, something moves and starts to dig it's way out of the earth. With jerky movements, a very soiled mostly decayed looking zombie Easter Bunny of years past rises to the surface with wicked looking carrot knife in hand. It doesn't move as fast as the first, and it doesn't have a ranged weapon but it does seem intent on stabbing anything in it's range as it lumbers around, coming specifically for Kevin.

Police. Right. That would be a good idea. Kevin is already turning to start waving kids off when Easton suggests it, and he lowers his camera on its strap, digging out his flip-phone and starting to dial. He is distracted by the booming of the EEB's hand-cannon, looking up sharply, "What the -- " oh. There's an evil bunny revenant shooting. Huh. OH! THERE'S AN EVIL BUNNY REVENANT SHOOTING! Kevin dives for the ground again, curling up around his camera and his phone. He entirely misses Easton's smooth move with the TK-dome, and almost misses the rising of the Zombie Easter Bunny, except holy shit how do you miss that? His eyes widen, and he scrambles onto his back, one hand still clinging to his phone, the other thrusting out in... a finger-gun? His thumb closes forward, and the ZEB actually staggers back a moment, but then keeps coming. "Oh shit." It's not a scream, or a yelp, or even particularly loud. Just a flat statement of 'that's not good.'

The TK shield is thrown up in time to soften the blow but it still sends Easton flying through the air. He manages to get up just in time for the Killer Easter Bunny to aim and fire on him. Thankfully the shield holds, and is able to deflect the shot but it's still enough to knock him back to the ground and into the dirt. He lays there for a moment spitting grass out of his mouth while looking for the best place to get cover. He forces himself up and into a run, realizing now that he's lost his gun somewhere in one of the explosions.

In his running for cover, he notices the second, mangier looking bunny attacking Kevin and he just gives it his best confused face until he watches Kev try and shoot it with finger guns? Oh right! He can do that. He can push things! Or pull them.

He stops short and looks at the Killer Easter Bunny and reaches out with his hand. The hand cannon comes flying at him, still very much held in a fuzzy paw. No he didn't rip the man's hand off the gloves are just separate. He grabs the gun and considers trying to shoot at the Zombunny but with this size gun and the scuffle decides it's not safe. Sorry Kev!

Being disarmed doesn't seem to deter the KEB either though, as it starts charging towards Easton. He fires and misses, not having adjusted his grip or stance properly for the much larger gun. Stupid rookie mistake in the middle of combat, that's how you die, he reminds himself.

Evil Jesus Bunny and Evil Zombie Bunny trying to kill innocent-ish telekinetics in the park. Just more proof that Jesus was not a zombie (he was a revenant). Kevin rolls away from Zombunny's first lunging slash, getting to his knees and then scrambling up to his feet as the knife comes back in a wide back-handed slash. "ShitshitshitSHIT!" The litany takes a turn for the yelping when the knife connects, scoring a slashing line across his ribs. Carrot-knife hurts! "Owfuck!" Kevin drops his phone as the Zombunny comes back at him, and he levels the first two fingers of his left hand at the crusty bunny's forehead, "Dodge this." His thumb snaps forward, and the Zombunny goes flying backward, propelled by the telekinetic force. Adjusting his glasses, Kevin holds the pose for a second, feeling very, very cool -- until another egg-bomb goes off across the park and he flinches wide, throwing his right hand up over his head and hopping one one foot for a second, "WOAH! Oh, right... hey gun-dude, don't die!"

Taking the briefest moment to shift his grip, cup the bottom of the handle with the other hand and loosen his arms Easton takes a second shot. There's no need to aim for a head shot considering the size of a round he's firing. He aims dead center mass and hits the bounding bleeding bunny square in the chest. The force of the blow lifts him right up off his feet and blows a hole out his back the size of a small plate. This gun is far, far more destructive than what Easton was firing earlier. He keeps the gun trained on the downed body for a moment before calling back, "It's Easton. And I'd appreciate it if you stayed alive as well."

He turns to Kevin and smiles in a not at all reassuring manner and says, "Increases my chances of survival if there's more targets."

He's joking right? It's probably not terribly funny to Kevin but Easton finds humor in it. He looks around and says, "I dropped my gun earlier. I'd give you this but it's a beast and unless you have training, I'd recommend the smaller gun." Yes there are still explosions going off, and farther away in the field it's clear that there are more Easter Bunnies rising from the ground to attack people. But there's no point in trying to stop it all at once without first grouping and figuring out next steps.

Easton suddenly stops and realizes very weirdly that he knows exactly where his gun is. Like he can feel where his gun. He just reaches out a hand and bam it's in his free left hand. He smiles at it and says, much like it were a puppy, "Aw, g'd girl." He then extends it towards Kev, barrel down and finger no where near the trigger.

"You shoot me, I will shoot you back." It's not a threat, just laying out some general ground rules that are probably good to establish when handing guns to strangers.

He follows that up with an all too perky, "Okay? Good talk."

The way Kevin is wielding those two-finger guns, twisting them 'gangster-style' and back as he looks out at the chaos around him, he clearly doesn't have real firearms training. When he looks to Easton, his eyes are wide behind his glasses, "Kevin. And yeah. Action inequality is a bitch. More targets is better." At least he's got the same sort of sense of humor as Easton, or at least when he's talking out of straight-up nerves. He shakes his head at the not-quite-an-offer of the hand-cannon, "Uh, yeah, definitely better if you -- " he stops when the gun appears in the other man's hand, "Wow. Okay, so you can do that too." Hard to miss something like that.

Kevin takes the pistol a little warily, hefting it in his hand, "Damn, that's heavy." Real reassuring. At least he sort of knows how to hold the pistol, "No team-killing. Got it. Shoot the Zombie Bunnies and don't get blown up by Easter Egg Bombs." Beat pause, "Damn, this is the worst homebrew level ever." He looks around for a moment, but doesn't spot his phone right away, "I dropped my phone before I could call the cops."

The dual finger gun wield gives Easton a lot of pause in handing over an actual weapon to this guy, as it should. He laughs as Kevin doesn't seem phased by being called a decoy, that's a good sign. At being asked if he 'too' can do the trick with the gun he just nods. There's no time to actually get into it, or worry about being stealthy. There are killer resurrecting Easter Bunnies and exploding pastel eggs.

At the 'heavy' comment on his compact Glock, Easton can only nod with slightly raised eyebrows and look down at the massive (by comparison) 45 in his hand. He shakes his head and says "Honestly I don't know that cops are going to be much help. We need to figure out how to keep the rabbits down for good and then maybe we can worry abou-"

It's then that Easton spots her. Little Tanya Tupper, skipping through the park still picking up the damn eggs. He looks at her with a mixture of horror and awe that this little girl is so woefully unaware of the carnage happening around her. And she starts to approach the two of them, her pink frilly Easter basket swinging.

"Hey misters! Want to see all the eggs I've got!" The child like, almost vacant happiness covers her face.

Calmly Easton tries to gently tell her. "Put the fucking eggs on the ground! And move your ass kid! Or I will blow your damn head off!" Okay, so he's yelling at her and yes, he has his gun raised. Surprise! He's not great with kids.

Tanya doesn't seem to hear him, just keeps walking towards them, swinging her basket.

"Well yeah. I mean, clearly it's got to be headshots. Or maybe decapitations." Kevin keeps prattling on even as Easton stops talking, even as he spots little Tanya, even as he sees the vacant expression on her face, even as he sees that she's picking up the eggs and headed their way, "Because it's always headshots or decapitations." Evidently, his mouth does not require the input of his brain to continue working. He doesn't lift his newfound pistol up toward the kid, because it's a kid, man. In fact, he looks a little oddly at Easton, and reaches over with his left hand to try to push the other guy's pistol slowly down. "Hey, miss? Could you put that basket down and find your parents?" He's not great with parents, but he's not point-your-gun-at-them not-great. Out of the corner of his mouth, he says sotto voce, "So if I knock the basket out of her hand, you think you can fly them up super high?"

"I vote decapitation then, pretty damn sure I plugged bunny prime between the eyes once."

And there are now at least five bunnies in the field, either chasing people or ambling about with their giant fake rabbit heads on backwards and limbs moving in strange ways. It's obvious that some of the zombies of Easters Past are a little longer in the tooth than others. Yes that's a rabbit teeth joke. The fresher set is still managing to cause havoc, but the two men have a more immediate threat to deal with in the form of tiny Tanya Tupper.

She seems not at all perturbed by the gun, or aware of any of the violence around her. A bit of grass and blood on her dress is brushed at with one of her small hands, but she keeps approaching.

"Stop moving dammit!" He keeps his gun raised and pointed until Kevin slowly lowers it. The fierce look he shoots him might be enough for Kevin to wonder how unhinged this guy is, well that and the pointing guns at small children.

"This isn't real Kevin." Right? This is the whacky town things where he's going to wake up and find he tripped on something else, or Tanya's knocking on his door selling girl scout cookies or something. But even in proclaiming that it feels familiar, a little too close to other Marines or military personnel dehumanizing targets to make it easier to terminate them. It's a thought that lurks in the back of his head, wondering if he's sliding down that road.

Thankfully Kevin actually has the better plan here. He nods and says, "Do it."

And Tanya is now only feet away lifting her basket to show it's full not of Easter Eggs, but grenades and dead rabbits.

Family holidays mean little when one no longer has the family to celebrate them with, so it's not as if Bennie intentionally was dressing for Easter when she showed up in the park wearing a flowery sun dress and a big floppy straw hat. Easter must've snuck up on her this year. Oh well, it's not as she can't still enjoy her reading in the sunshine and be lulled by the dulcet tones of children's laughter and ...EXPLOSIONS?!

She barely has time to grab her hobo bag and start running by the time one of those mangle furred ROUS (Rodents of Unusual Sadism) tries to turn her ass into Easter grass.

Streaming by Easton and Kevin - and IT level creepy kid - it's as if her brain catches up to the recognition of at least one of them five feet past and she skids to a stop in a blood soaked patch of earth and doubles back. "Some Donnie Darko Mother-," Oh, hello child. Her brain reels as she tries to dial back the swearing, complete with hand flailing. "-Biscuit is trying to kill me! And us. And everyone." She doesn't so much scream as she just makes an EEEEEEeeEee noise of overstimulated terror.

"Then I hope you've got a way to decapitate them..." Because Kevin is distinctly lacking in large swords or axes or... much of anything in the way of weapons except the Glock that he's holding like a magic wand. "This is crazy," Kevin responds to the suggestion that this isn't real. "I'm thinking LSD in the water supply. Things have always been weird here, the government must be looking to profit from the weird and doesn't want os interfering." There's a thoughtful pause, "Or maybe it's Walmart." And because he's talking, Tanya is now close enough that Kevin can get a look into the basket to see...

"AUGH! Eww! That's nasty!" The dead rabbits, not the grenades. I mean, those are just as bad as the Easter Eggs. But the dead rabbits is just eeeew. Kevin takes a hand off the grip of the gun to make a lifting motion, palm-up at his side, trying to tear the basket out of little Tanya's hand and WOAH there's Bennie 'eeeeee'ing, and Kevin blinks sharply, "Mother-Biscuit? There's like five of them."

All the talk of what the government may or may not be doing is hard for Easton to follow not just because of the quickly approaching child carrying bombs and dead bunnies in a basket, no, mostly it's the way Kevin is holding his gun. His eyes flick back and forth between Kevin's hand and the little girl. When she does get close enough for him to see the basket, Easton just tilts his head like Really? Tanya? Really? He glances at Kevin afraid that he's going to get distracted, or accidentally shoot him because of poor trigger discipline, but then he sees the basket lift and he reaches out with his left hand to mentally push it far away, towards one of the Evil Everlast Easter Bunnies.

Once the basket is safely out of the way, he finally feels like he can respond to Bennie, "Yes, thanks for notici-.." He stops when notices who is actually speaking and smiles. "Oh. Hi! Are you okay?"

Easton's sudden chipper demeanor is brought low by Tanya's darkening face. Gone is the vacant smile. Gone also are the cornea and whites of her eyes, replaced now by eery inky blackness.

"You stole my Easter Basket. That's against the rules."

Well that's not good.

Really, Kevin? Stealing candy from a child?

Wait. That's Kevin. Dayum, he filled out nicely. But no time to reflect on the childhood acquaintance Bennie knew as the D&D nerd growing up.

"Oh my god, are those dead bunnies?" Bennie squeaks as she darts behind Easton, putting the ex-marine between her and Hellspawn Tanya. Hands grip on his shoulders as she attempts to peer over one, "Oh yeah, I'm great. Thanks for asking. I mean, I could do without the murder and ...there are FIVE of them?" Trailer Trash Barbie is looking a little pale against the cheery colors of her sundress and a slight tremble telegraphs down her arms to Easton as her fingers dig in a little on his collarbone.

"Are you a Child of the Corn? I feel like you're a Child of the Corn."

Please, Kevin doesn't get distracted that easi -- oh hi Bennie! He gives her a double-take, then offers a little wave with the hand not currently holding a gun. "Hey! Hi. I know you. I'm -- " he stops as Tanya goes all creepy-looking, his eyes widening as he looks back to the spooky little girl, "totallyfreakedoutrightnow." Kevin may have filled out well -- and he did -- but he still has no chill. "I think she may be a child of the whole dang cornfield. Looking back to Tanya, he suggests without much hope, "Why don't you go get it back?" The basket, of course.

Tanya starts to levitate up off the ground, because of course she does. And with a small flick of her hand she lashes out at Easton and Bennie. The invisible force slashes across Easton's gun hand and causes him to drop it. He is momentarily distracted by the fact that he didn't even see it coming and he tries to assess how messed up his hand is.

Of course now is a perfect time for one of the mangier bunnies to pop up and amble towards Kevin. It's not even a run, as all the joints in the legs and arms seem to move both too much and in the wrong direction for that. But it's coming for Kevin none-the-less.

Easton doesn't see the rabbit though, he's much too concerned about Tanya, "Shoot her! Fucking shoot her!" He yells at Kevin as he drops down, trying to pull Bennie with him, and hopefully either get the gun that was knocked from his hand, that he can't see or locate like he did with his gun earlier. So he pulls a knife and comes back up to an akward crouch.

"Back off you creepy little toddlers and tiara the nightmare version."

He brandishes the KA-Bar knife with his left hand but is distracted at the last second by the creepy rabbit suited thing and he has enough time to point and say, "Rabbit." Just as it collides with Kevin.

Meanwhile darkness begins to crackle in the air around Tanya. She's getting angrier.

Bennie is pulled to the ground with Easton, and an actual, "Meep." Unlike either of the boys, she's not exactly armed for the situation so she stays behind the meat shield, er Easton, as much as possible. Cowering behind his crouch, she starts fumbling in her bag for something of use and manages to come up with a tiny little can of mace that's meant to be clipped to a keychain. "Suck on pepper spray!" Really, she'd call Tanya something else by Toddlers in Tiaras can't be beat for the moment.

Bennie, in all her fierce glory, pops up from her crouch and depresses the little button on the top of the canister, but the thing must be horrible out of date because the contents just kind of foam at the nozzle and dribble down her arm. With a little huff of frustration, she just hurls the palm sized can at the levitating girl and unknowingly initiates her glimmer at the same time with what has the potential to crack bones. You know. If that little so-and-so Tanya weren't so much stronger.

Holy shit, Tanya is levitating! She can levitate? Before Kevin can notice the approaching bunny, he lifts up the pistol in a jerky rush, pulling the trigger once early, one at the right height but nearly the wrong angle (the recoil from the first shot, of course), and once late so that the bullet flies over her head. At least one of them had a chance to crease the creepy little thing's side, "Woah shit!" When Bennie raises up her canister of pepper spray, he cheers wordlessly, "Wooo! Get some! Get some!" Wait, Easton is saying something. What was that. Oh yes, RABBIT. The Zombunny shambles into Kevin, knocking him down, and he loses Easton's pistol, the Glock falling onto the ground maybe somewhere near Easton's feet. The Zombunnie tumbles down on top of him, swinging wild blows that slam into Kevin's head, shoulders, and upraised arms, "Fuuuuuuuuuuuck!"

Watching Bennie try to attack the little girl with a can of mace causes Easton to actually start to laugh a little bit, except for the part where it really looks like this demon girl is going to eat their souls, provided they are murdered by something else first. He raises the knife, ready to strike when he hears the gunshot and watches Tiny Tanya tumble. He stops. Looks at Kevin.

"Nice shot."

But fails utterly to see the undead Easter Bunny, one of the newer less decomposed models, leaping at him. A carrot shiv is plunged into his shoulder and he goes tumbling back to the edge of the park, and just like that they both blip out of sight.

Waking up on his back on the edge of the park, Easton still has a shoulder wound, though no carrot knife is in sight. He also can't see any exploded craters, creepy demon girls or Kevin or Bennie. He sits up and holds his shoulder and tries to get his bearings.

"What in the actual fuck?"

"Kevin!" See, Bennie knows who he is. Though typically reunions should take place with less carnage and synthetic bunny fur flying.

Then another one is attacking , "Easton!" Wait, where did he go? This is too much, and Bennie is trying to get to her feet to either flee or assist. It's really hard to say. Maybe all those EMT instincts go out the window when it comes to Peter Killertails. She barely makes it to her feet before suddenly something is yanking her back by a fist full of her blonde hair - or rather a paw full - that sends her pretty straw hat tumbling off her head. Her arms pinwheel as she tries to reach back and grab the arm that's pulling her, clinging to the crook of a the Bunnymonster's arm as he drags her backwards with her feet kicking helplessly at the ground as she tries to keep them underneath her.

Fur-covered fists strike home around Kevin's head and shoulders, and he brings one hand in close between them, pointing two fingers up at the gut of the Zombunny, the thumb of his finger-gun closing and sending the ex-Easter-Bunny tumbling off him with an invisible impact. "Suck it, Zombunny!" Yup, he's named it now. He rolls to his feet, but the creepy dead thing is getting to its feet too, and so Kevin starts to back away from it, looking to the creepy girl just starting to get up, then to -- oh shit, Bennie's being dragged backwards, and he levels dual finger-guns at the creature, "Hey, moldy-ears! Suck on this." His thumbs flash forward and... nothing happens. Luckily the Zombunny dragging Bennie pauses, looking as confused as a rotting, stuffed, man-sized rabbit can. "Shit. This never happens to me."

THAT'S WHAT ALL MEN SAY.

It's what Bennie wants to say, unfortunately it just comes out as a sort of scream of pain mixed with fear, her scalp sore from the yank on her hair. Thankfully Kevin's finger guns are enough to at least pause the Wascally Wabbit but not send him back from whence he came. The opening is enough for Bennie get her feet back underneath her and deploy an elbow back in true self defense formation towards his solar plexus. It shouldn't have the force that it does, because there is a sickening crack behind her as the blow causes ribs to fracture in its wake. The noise from the thing is unnatural, the mingled squeal of a dying rabbit mixed with a human like howl.

It's not enough for him/it to stop on it's course though, only renew it with new anger. Another sharp yank takes Bennie back off her feet and the Demon Rabbit takes a step into one of the craters it appeared from. As soon as his synthetic fur covered foot touches the disturbed soil, he starts to sink and pull the woman with him. Down, down into the ground.

Of course that's what all men say. Bruises already swelling on one cheek and his jaw, blood trickling from his nose, Kevin starts after the screaming rabbit and its human burden. "BENNIE!" Hey! He remembered her name! In the midst of total and utter panic, he's a little proud that he did. Stumbling a little, he gets almost close enough to grab for her hand, and stops abruptly, the back of his shirt in the dirty paws of the Zombunny that he failed to put down behind him. "Oh. Well shit." The words are way too calm for the pulse pounding in his ears, the utter panic in his eyes behind their round-rimmed glasses.

The last thing Kevin sees of Bennie is her outstretched fingers, reaching for his hand but only grasping at air before her hand, too, disappears into the pit of disturbed dirt.

Back through the veil, Bennie sits up from the faded brown and orange faux velvet sofa in her living room, gasping for air and coughing violently. She doesn't remember coming back from the park, or did she even go in the first place? She must've fallen asleep before she had a chance to go, as her bag and straw hat are sitting over there by the door.

She continues to wheeze for a moment longer before, with one strong cough, she's expelling a fist full of dirt.

"Noooooooo!" Kevin's no better at his 'noooooo' than Anakin Skywalker, but he gives it his all, turning around and flailing at the Zombunny grasping him. One wild blow knocks the fiend's hand off his shirt, and he just starts running, stumbling and staggering and just... fleeing. It's not heroic, it's not planned, it's just panicked flight. His breath rasps in his ears, his vision starts to dim...

And he starts awake, scrabbling for weapons, to fend off grasping hands, to do anything, but there's just his big fluff-ball of a cat looking up from his lap, perturbed at the disturbance of its seat. "WAAAGH!" It's not a dignified sound, it's a terrified sound, and Kevin puts his hands up to his face and, "OW!" Even in his blurred vision, he can see blood on his fingertips. He reaches first for his glasses, fumbling them on, then takes another look. And this is how he finds himself sitting in front of his computer way too late at night, Kleenex twists stuck up his nose to stop the bleeding, researching 'vivid dreams' on his favorite conspiracy theory boards. Also trying to find out what the heck Bennie Oaks is up to. Thank you Google.