Young Writers Society

(Only YOU Can Come Up with a Better Title, Soldier)


The sunset began to splay pallid reds, organs, and yellows across the sky. Unfortunately, they were drowned out by the endless sea of mist that was beginning to curl around the silent hill with the dirt road meandering wildly across its top. Too, dark blue and black, seeing their chance swarmed these light and potentially cheery colors and pushed them away, far into the distance. There, in the eyes of nobody save the eternally pale mist, they were consumed in a bloody spectacle that nobody in the procession of buses traveling towards the eerie, abandoned town in the distance paid attention to. Mostly because they couldn’t move anywhere. Which the narrator describing himself in third-person would like to ascertain was most certainly not his fault.

The individual in question was anxious sitting on top of the hood of the first bus, dangling his legs back and forth as he stared into the tree that the bus had collided with just a minute ago. All around him, a semi-circle of glaring moderators remained silent, although one was menacingly holding a piece of PVC pipe. Another was holding an actual pipe and trying to act like a detective, but their twitching and anger meant that they came across more like a raging smoker.

“We were supposed to be in the Comedy section by now,” @Craz began, matter-of-factly.

“Hey,” shot back Silver with a sheepish grin. He jumped off of the hood and opened it up, starting to poke around in the insides of the bus. “It acted completely on its own will.” He didn’t have a damn clue what he was doing, and his hand shot back in pain when he touched the engine, but hopefully nobody else noticed that. As long as he acted professional and calm, maybe he would come across as the young engineer who could fashion a marvelous solution that would get them as far away from this stupid place as possible. Or stupid enough that somebody with any sense of intelligence would take his place and find a fix for the bus for him. Sadly, he had no skill coming across as either professional and calm, and the fluids dripping from the front of the bus gave a good indication that he’d probably damaged it beyond repair.

“Because you couldn’t give it any?” somebody sarcastically remarked behind him. Maybe Hunter? Not wanting to turn around and find everyone much closer to him, Silver growled and continued to probe the bus.

“Dude, after the last event, we still decided to trust you,” said @Steggy, who was fading into the mist as it encroached upon the gathering.

“You hung me off of a building,” grumbled Silver. “What else was I supposed to do and say? I learned my lesson, didn’t I? And didn’t you say you retired from your modship temporarily, after what happened to Carl? Come to think of it, I haven’t heard you in a while.”

“Oh,” whispered Steggy sadly, before immediately vanishing the second afterwards.

“That wasn’t nice,” replied somebody else after a few seconds of awkward silence, during which Silver didn’t even hear the sound of one of the pipes being banged against the tree. The speaker was definitely @AstralHunter.

“I was just being honest! Besides, I was the only one to volunteer for this. And don’t you have plenty of space powers to bring her back if so you wish?” Silver was now getting incredibly annoyed, partly because he’d just been hit in the face with some kind of fluid from the car and was now struggling to get it away from his eyes while trying to figure out why it felt so hot.

“We’d thought you learned your lesson the first time, and we also didn’t expect that you would be that horrible at driving something. Alright, who has a length of rope so we can tie him to this tree upside-down?” said @Lumi. A few volunteers offered some of their own rope, which Silver had the suspicion had been brought for this exact purpose. Hunter, in the meantime, went into a long ramble about how his powers “didn’t work like that” and other pieces of information Silver wasn’t listening too, mostly because he was trying to get whatever it was on his face away from his ears.

“Well, it’s not like it matters anyway, because this stupid thing isn’t going anywhere.” Silver kicked the car, which at once started the alarm and doubled his heartbeat. He stood on the hood of the car and rubbed his eyes fervently. “And you!” he continued, pointing randomly, “I thought I could trust you with the brakes! Everyone here knows my legs aren’t that long!”

“Um,” said whoever Silver was pointing to, “you trusted Steggy with that position. And then somebody decided to spin off your latest adventure as a horror story where Carl was the main antagonist and then she got emotional and started an argument and…”

“DON’T MENTION ITS FOUL NAME!” shouted Lumi, who was clearly still distressed by any mentioning of the spider.

“Could we please just not talk about it?” said Silver, as half of the moderators started arguing. If he could see, he guessed that they were probably giving him angry glances and rude comments. “I will admit that that wasn’t in the best taste, and that I’d probably overreacted rashly. It’s not my fault most of you were stuck inside that building for two days? Well, maybe it was, but how was I supposed to know? Okay, maybe I was supposed to, but…you suspended me off of a tall building for two hours while blindfolded and convinced me I was falling! I bruised a couple of ribs when a wind gust threw me at the building! And none of you bothered to show up at the hospital, I remember. I’ve learned my lesson about crowded and angry theaters, okay? All I need is a bandage or something to put over my eyes, because they’re stinging and I can’t see. Is that too much to ask for?”

Silence, complete and total silence. “Hello?” called out Silver after a few seconds, his ears not picking up anything. And then he felt something being slowly lifted over his eyes and the back of his head. “Thank you…” he began, before realizing that it was a piece of rough rope. “…yes, a lot. How mature.”

Fortunately, before anyone had that sense to turn the blindfold into a noose, the swish of a sword and a lively step announced the arrival of @Rydia, who had left earlier to check on everyone in the other buses and see if they were alright. Silver was secretly hoping that she had good news to provide, like there was enough room for them to spread out among the other buses and drive away, or that somebody else was responsible for this debacle. He simply didn’t feel responsible for having panicked while driving up a misty hill and driving about wildly. There was particularly no thanks to the half-dozen people who tried to help him by pulling the wheel in all directions until they ran out of a wheel to pull. However, why was it that he had panicked, again? He’d been doing perfectly fine up until that point, but some fear seized his heart and ran away with it. Silver was beginning to wonder if that was his normal state of perpetual anxiety, or something else that he’d heard or seen. Frankly, he wouldn’t be surprised if it was the latter, but the initial wave of fear and panic had all but distorted or wiped out a good part of his short-term memory. And had gotten on everyone else’s nerves, as they had forced him to stand as far away from them as possible while he ran around the hill, but he had been eventually forced to return when the mist began getting closer. At least he had returned to his regular calm state by then.

“The batteries in all the other buses died at the same time,” began Rydia, crushing all of Silver’s hopes. “This bus’s battery is probably the only one that works, if only because it’s totally useless now.”

The audience mumbled in frustration.

“Isn’t that to be expected here?” called out Silver. “See, I wasn’t the one who wanted to go here on a detour. But you all wanted an adventure, and threatened to tie me up to the hood otherwise. And now it’s night, which isn’t surprising, and the town is abandoned and eerie, which isn’t surprising because, hey, everyone in that town came with us. But I’m going to guess that we didn’t bring everything with us, and now we’re forced to come down there and see exactly what’s going on. Now we’re going to have to worry about people with chainsaws or glittery vampires or some other of the usual nonsense. So yeah, I couldn’t have done this without any of you.”

“Hey, why is the mist turning red all of a sudden?” said @TheIllusiveIntellect.

“And why does it smell so strange?” continued Hunter.

“Why do you talk so much?” finished a third voice from behind the first bus.

Silver’s blood ran cold as he realized that everyone else was departing their own buses and heading over to see what was going on. This was the absolute last thing he wanted, particularly as he was still blindfolded, sitting on the hood of a bus in front of a tree, and he was starting to remember what exactly it was that had started this whole incident to begin with.

“Umm…I’m guessing we can’t call anybody right about now?” began Silver timidly, looking around him without actually looking because, again, blindfold.

“Oh, my cell phone works perfectly…fine,” replied Rydia, staring down at a screen that was most likely blank. “I could’ve sworn it was working a minute ago.”

“Why couldn’t we have ended up in the same situation as last year?” complained Hunter. “That, at least, wasn’t terrifying.”

“Werewolves and vampires are old fashioned, and I thought it would be nice to have something completely different, like…werefoxes. Yeah?” retorted Silver with a voice of anger. It had been a perfect plan – at least, for him. He had planned a fun show and Halloween festival at the Comedy section of the site. It was supposed to be exciting, well planned, and full of decorations. What could possibly be wrong about werefoxes? But now, everyone had ruined his operation, and he was absolutely fuming. All those fanciful and silly imagine spots were destroyed, and now he was worried about losing his eyes permanently, whether by the stupid bus or some evil monster. Even if he was covering in every other topic of conversation, this was the one topic that he felt the proudest about, and he was never going to let anyone tear it down.

Nevertheless, there was the present matter at hand. “So, who’s going to explain to all the people coming here where we are and figure out a plan for what we’re going to do? I’d do it myself, but I’d like to say thanks to the person who just tied my hands to the windshield wipers.”

Silver sighed. He was so used to this by now, but that didn’t mean he had to like it.

[admin]Suddenly finding himself in a lack of Husbando, Lumi had reverted to a previous character: that of the brooding chaperone who had yet to sign his No Paella agreement with Rydia. But on the same coin, there were origami bunnies at stake, and that just couldn't be risked.

He needed to find the contract--but first, the kids seemed a bit...

...dead. They needed some tunes! Lumi pulled an 80s boombox out of Fox's bus and climbed atop the bus and, without checking what was on queue, pressed PLAY.

The very small amount of chatter among the YWSers immediately died and all eyes turned to Lumi, holding the boombox over his head, face flushed red as a Charmeleon. "Fox..."

"IT HELPS ME CONCENTRATE WHEN I DRIVE."

"CLEARLY NOT ENOUGH"

Lumi tossed the boombox over his shoulder and hit something that cracked in the background. Idk, probably @Caesar or something.

He backflipped off the bus and put gum in his mouth, and THEN checked which flavor he'd picked. It was cinnamon! That meant his fruit-flavored gum was left. And so was his too-expensive spearmint flavor. He turned around to head towards the back of the bus to see if anyone was up to no good (because he had to get in on that) and met face-to-face a crowd of empty begging hands in need of gum.

"I hate rule 99 of the YWS bylaws," he grumbled. "Here. One for @Sheyren. One for @reikann. One for @Audy and @fortis and @Birkhoff."

As his new best friends began to scatter, he grabbed fortis and dragged her to @AstralHunter, where he pulled out his backpack...full of vampire teeth. "Everyone loves a callback."

She - she being Mage referring to herself in the third person - hadn't actually meant to come along this time. As she had been telling everyone she had come across the past week or so, she had desperately been trying to catch up on everything she had fallen behind on. Which meant many late nights. And because she had never been one for coffee, that meant she was bound to fall asleep somewhere. That somewhere just happened to be on one of the buses bringing mods and others to some strange place.

She had woken up near the end of the ride. With all of the chatter, it was impossible for her questions as to where exactly they were going to be heard.

But now that any chatter had been silenced by @TheSilverFox's choice of music and @Lumi reluctant handing out of gum, she was finally able to speak what was on her mind. She exited the bus, @JennyImStory and @JuliasSneezer in tow. "Where exactly were we headed?" she asked the two of them.

Lias shrugged and proceeded to wipe the dirt off of her Roman toga. "I dunno."

"I just came for the gum," Jenny replied, blowing a bubble. She managed to make it surprisingly big before it popped and her face became covered by spearmint-flavored gum.

"Makes sense," Mage said with a knowing nod. After all, it was common knowledge that all mods carried at least five packs of different flavored gum at various times because of how stressing their job was.

She located the driver of their bus - who happened to be sitting on top of the hood, blindfolded and with his hands strangely tied to the windshield wipers - and asked the question that had really been bugging her. "Fox, you're only fifteen. Why on Earth were you put in charge of driving a bus?"

'Lias gave @JennyImStory a pat on the shoulder, and suddenly wondered why she was narrating what she was doing in third person. She shrugged it off. She looked around the spooky woods, hoping sincerely that Silver would be able to fix it, and quick. Lias was very frightened of the dark, and the thick mist didn't help matters either.

She turned toward @Sheadun, who was chewing on a piece of fruit gum experimentally. "Hey, Shea, do you have any clue where we're going?"

Sheadun shrugged. "I have no idea."

"Good, because I came prepared!" Lias exclaimed, shrugging off her leather backpack. "My first aid kit... books... pens, pencils..." she let out a gasp. "There are no ceilings here. HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO MAKE MY SIGNATURE ENTRANCE?!" She crumpled to the ground in shock.

Shea gasped and ran to @JuliasSneezer who had crumpled in shock of the lack-of-ceiling.

"Lias? It's okay, I swear. There will be other ceilings in the future. For now you can just walk like the rest of us," She gestured around the odd-ball group.

@Mage put a hand against her head in mock agreement. For now, Lias would just have to pretend that there was a ceiling present.

"Did anyone else try this gum?" Shea chewed thoughtfully.

"Nope," said Mage.

"Yeah, girl, that's why it's all in my hair!" said @JennyImStory.

Lias only frowned.

"Lias? Are you okay?" Mage asked suddenly, noticing how pale and grey Lias looked. Not only was she afraid of the dark, but not having any ceilings was really doing the poor girl some harm.

"I feel..." Lias threw up on the ground, and then passed out.

Lias came back to, her face red from embarrassment. "I'm fine, thanks, @Sheadun." She stood, and began to repack her bag, more to have a reason to look away from the others. She gave a small gasp when she saw a strip of gum was sitting on the straps. She then looked up to @Lumi, who was currently occupied with fiddling with something in his bag.

Craz was crouched by the bus, her elbow propped upon her knee and her cheek resting in her palm, watching as the inky liquid from the bus splat-atatted into the dirt upturned by Fox's terrible driving. She absently stirred the liquid with a stick she had found on the ground. She smacked her lips with her strawberry-flavored bubblegum.

"Can't we just... plug it up or something?" @Persistence said, who was crouched next to her fiddling with a pebble he had also found on the ground.

They both stared at the dribbling liquid for a moment more. Finally, Craz gripped her stick tighter, rotated her wrist upwards, and stabbed it into the mechanisms of the bus, into the heart of the stream. The steady pour stuttered and paused, and for a moment it seemed like it had actually worked. Then, with a ferocious gurgle, the bus spat the stick back out and the liquid began to pour much, much more quickly.

"Nope," Craz said, watching her now splintered stick being nudged away in the waves of the pouring fluid. She smacked her lips again, blowing and popping the gum. Then, an idea occurred to her.

"What if we take all of the gum and use it to plug up the hole?" She turned to look at him, eyebrows raised.

"First of all, that's gross," he said, "and second of all-"

Persistence sputtered and spat as the fluid suddenly splashed onto them. Craz leaned back onto her heels, swiping at the foul-tasting liquid on her face. When she turned back to Candy, he was in no better state. They both looked like some sort of crude monster. Both of them attempted to wipe the fluid off of their face, but to no avail. All of their attempts to rub it off only seemed to make them appear more monstrous.

"Well," he said, "I guess we should probably go see if there's any good news."

Craz nodded in agreement.

Wherein a Participant Becomes Familiar with a New Vocabulary Word

Good news there was not.

At base, the mods and masses alike remained in a state of confused anger.
Rei, fresh off her first ever Halloween bus, at first had accepted the crash as part of the tour, but as the lynch mob aimed at @TheSilverFox swelled and ebbed in virulence, it occurred to her that it might have been an accident.

They wouldn’t even get to do the lynching!

The sinking feeling of the rising, tonally appropriate fog being symbolic for the utter mess they’d crashed into deepened.

Rei kicked a pebble with a pout. She felt an overwhelming urge to cling to her adult chaperone @Lumi’s leg like a petulant child. Instead, she opted to lurk behind a bus, chewing bubblegum and sulking like a petulant child.

@Moonwatcher lurked along with her.

”Some night we‘ve crashed into,” Moon grumbled, hands shoved deep in pockets.

“Atramentous." Rei agreed with a sage nod.

“Atra-what?"

“A word I learned yesterday. ‘Black as ink; inky,’ according to Merriam-Webster." Rei nodded again, equally as sage.

“Inky’s good, too." Closer inspection would reveal a bump on Moon‘s head and no bubblegum, and so grumpy he remained.

“But this new word is inked on my mind.”

“Haven’t an inkling why."

Rei opened her mouth to snap a comeback, but couldn’t come up with any.

She regretted wearing her good necromancer‘s robes. She regretting not prepping any talismans. She regretted this whole gosh-darned party.

Therefore, she kicked a rock.

Therefore, the rock went sailing through the air, like a paper airplane whose creator had given up on it and crumbled the paper into a ball instead.

Therefore, the rock made contact with the creeping fog.

Therefore, for some reason, the fog... rippled?

“Eeh?" A cartoon question mark might as well have just appeared beside Rei’s head. Was fog supposed to ripple? She wasn't entirely sure. So, as any horror movie side character might, naturally, she reached in.

It engulfed her hand at once. Rei pulled back.

The clinging fog moved with the viscosity of ink. Rei shook her hand to fling the ink-drops off. Most of dripped to the group or spattered against the side of the bus, but some clung on to the creases in her skin and seemed to sink into her veins.

“See? Atramentous.” Rei held out her stained hand for Moon to observe.

“Mm, nah, that’s more amaranthine, I’d say.”

“Hi!" @Kelpies poked his/her head around the bus. Rei shoved her marked hand into the depths of her robes. As a result, no one saw the cursive letters the foreign ink had formed.
“We’re devolving into Lord of the Flies-style anarchy. Coming?”

“Ooh, anarchy. I’m down.” Rei and Moon high-fived, cheered by the prospect, and gave up lurking for the time behind.

Little did the crowd know that the fog rolled closer.

When The Cheshire Cat Lost HER Hat

I began rigorously poking the fog- then I swatted at it. It was like the fog was alive.

Awesome.

"Wheee!!!" I ran at the fog-trying to catch a piece. I wasn't really looking where I was going and I didn't particularly care where I was headed until I ran into @PickledChrissy , falling on the ground.

"I found the ground! In case anyone wants to know." I declared. I then began searching for my baseball cap- which had come off in my fall. Finding it floating in the fog I snatched it and mounted it firmly on my head. It was white with swirling black and purple writing reading: Fade: Chessy, and a pair of white cat ears poking out the top.

"Today I'm the Cheshire Cat."

"But you are Kelpies, Kelps." I don't know... @ChieRynn muttered.

"True enough- but today I'm also the Cheshire cat. Tomorrow... Who knows who I'll be?" I smiled my widest smile. "Why is the fox blindfolded on the hood of the car?" I questioned, walking over. "Do you appreciate being blindfolded?" I asked @TheSilverFox , "I myself find it good to practice using my senses besides sight in order to evaluate the area," I mused aloud. "But that rope must be uncomfortable! I'm sure I could find you a more comfortable blindfold."

Fog-et You

Rising chaos, rising chaos, nice subtle, rising chaos.

But not the chaos the makeshift vampire wanted. Lumi swung his head around from applying dental dams to his teeth and fake teeth and bonus fake teeth over THOSE and his jaw dropped, letting all non-adult teeth drop to the ground. "Oh for the love of <CHEERIO!> can't we have one <CHEERIO!>ing adventure without everything going <CHEERIO!>-up?" He turned his angry gaze to @Auxiira, who was fiddling with notification sounds on her phone.

"Sorry T-Fluff. I just can't get this <CHEERIO!>ing thing to cooperate!"

Joke getting stale, he grabbed his chaperone-grade flashlight and stepped towards the fog. "YWSers retreat to higher ground! I repeat, find your Adult Chaperone @Rydia and retreat to the hills."

"We're about the same age last I checked!" a distinctly British voice called back angrily.

"YeAH BUT," he fumbled for a comeback, "MY FLASHLIGHT IS DOCTOR WHO THEMED."

"...<CHEERIO!>"

Lumi shined the face of the light into the inky fog because the other word was too long for him to remember for a funsies post aaaaand with a FWOOP and a second without air, he emerged in what could only be described as The Shadow Realm--wait, we're getting a call about copyrights.



Yeah?

Well, is it popular?

...how popular?

ABOUT TRADING CARDS?

Fine, fine. I'm creative. We'll figure something out.



--without air, he emerged in what could only be described as The Shadowy Realm.

Standing in the center was none other than @Crysi with a hand of cards. Across from her was @Deskro, who was sweating nervously. "P-please! No! I know you have C'Thun in your hand somewhere, but...he's so powerful now! He's...he's too much for me to handle." Deskro stared at his remaining health on his Muradin hero and sighed, playing a Murloc Raider card.

Crysi cackled. "Yóu̧ ͝f͠o̕ol͝! Y̧ou ac̡tualļy t̶hou̧g͘ht ̵u͜s ͏def҉eat͟e̴d?
T̡h͜e͠ ̸gr̢eat ̧o͏l̵d ̡one ̴w͘i͢ll͢ live̶ ̢a̕ga̸in̸ a͝n̢d ͟yours ẃill̀ be ͞t͠h͟e f҉irs̴t ̷śoúl̴ to͞--
mm...w҉ha͝t̶'s ̀t̶hi̕s̛? ̷A͢ ͡ne̴w͡ ̢challe̕nge̴r̢ ͞h͡a̴s̀ e̷n̶te̶re͏d ͞the ҉ring...De̛s͢k͘r̢o,͏ ̧be ́a͢ ͏de̛ar, w҉oùl̶d yo̵u̧?
Go ͟W͟ÁR̕Ņ ͏ŢHE͡ ̀ǪT́H̀ER͞S ͠O̷F ̡TH͟E C̡OM͜ING͞ OF̧ THE F̴O͟G.҉ ͜"

Deskro dropped his hand of cards, which evaporated into the fog, and ran for his life. Crysi sat on a throne of shadows and beckoned Lumi closer. "So my trap was ripe for the bear's paw."

"You could at least buy me a drink before calling me nice names," he teased.

"This means the others are headed for the hills." A goblet of fogwine appeared in her hand. "Excellent. My werefoxes will be waiting."

"SilverFox wanted that, anyway." He shrugged. "What kind of evil plan lets the hero get his wish?"

"They're also," action drums action drums, "FASHION ZOMBIES."

It was amazing how short of a time it took for everything to turn into a disaster. Or, it would’ve been, if he wasn’t already familiar with this situation.

“Because everyone had confidence in me and I thought I could do it,” grumbled Silver in response to @Mage’s question while @Craz and @Persistence spectacularly failed at fixing the bus’s engine. Silver, of course, had to move to one side of the bus as best as he could to not get sprayed with whatever was in that car, because he’d rather not have burns and rashes anywhere else. “And everyone else was too busy working on the ---”

There was an audible shhh that drowned out his next statement. He wasn’t sure where it was coming from, but he was sure it was from another one of the moderators. But at least Craz and Persistence had managed to not be persistent in their attempts and left the front of the bus before they attempted something else. Fluid was still definitely gushing from the car, however, and Silver was not happy about that.

Frankly, he wasn’t happy about much, and still incredibly embarrassed about the whole music thing. Everyone had certainly heard that, and so the most he heard around him now was a lot of awkward shuffling, and also some snickering. Not that his present situation helped improve his image in any particular war. Nevertheless, he was avidly trying to find a way to cut the binds leaving him stuck to the bus. He was at least thankful that somebody had provided him a small pocketknife that was in his back pants pocket. If he could only push himself against the bus enough and get his hands close enough, he could grab it, free himself, and run for the hills. After all, the sudden rising in new comments about the arrival of the fog and its apparent ink-like properties did not make him feel any more confident about his present situation.

Like he was going to make it anywhere away from this stupid bus. It seemed like he was having the worst of luck today, and he had a sneaky suspicion that someone was behind the string of incidents that left him in his present state. From crashing the car to tying him up to silencing him, it felt like there was another hand involved in this. But why did he want to know? Wasn’t he nervous enough? Still, given morbid curiosity, he wondered about what exactly it was that was trying to afflict him, and to what ends. An overactive imagination and long list of nightmares weren’t helping his impressions.

And then he heard footsteps, and @Kelpies asking him a question. Just what he needed – completely innocent, neglectful questions. “Yes, this is perfectly appropriate attire in the middle of the night on a hill covered in creepy fog,” said Silver, employing the best of his sarcasm possible. “I have absolutely no problem with this whatsoever – feel free to move along now. Or feel free to free me, it’s all up to you. And I’d take this horrible blindfold off if I knew what the scalding liquid trying to blind me is. Then maybe I could figure out what’s happening.”

To be honest, Silver was not expecting, nor hoping, a quiet “Oh,” and the shuffling of feet as a response. He sighed in exasperation, and raised a leg up to kick the hood of the car.

“What are you doing?” said Mage, half in surprise and half in curiosity.

“Trying to get everyone’s attention,” Silver noted with a voice that was becoming more high-pitched and less calm. “And also to see if the lights are working.” He was just about to perform this very task, of course, when @Lumi stepped some distance away from him and dropped yet another one of his bombshells, this time with a megaphone, of all things. Clearly, the fog had managed to spook even him. Given his regular level of resolve and the fact he’d been around a lot longer, that wasn’t relieving. Unrestrained panic mode seemed to be in order now, particularly because his leg was coming down and it wasn’t going to be listening to reason.

“Here comes some anarchy!” shouted @reikann in what was half-enjoyment, half-fear as the bus began to blare loudly and flash its lights. Already blinded, Silver didn’t notice that the light wasn’t penetrating the fog at all, and that the fog seemed to be growing darker. He could hear quite clearly the general commotion as people began shouting orders, and cries for help, and began to form a crowd around, of course, @Rydia. He felt goosebumps explode all over his skin as the said captain began to lead everyone away from the bus, and also because he never got along well with alarms. The people screaming incoherently, swearing about cheerios, or otherwise acting frantic seemed to have the same opinion as him, and all congregated towards the gathering that was heading for high ground. Of course, he couldn’t move anywhere, and so he had to listen to reikann’s gradually diminishing commentary, which was starting to some something along the lines of, “Whatever you do, don’t put your hands in the fog. We’re obviously going to have to create a new society now, if we’ll still be alive to live in it, that is, so who here would like to be team leader? And we’ll need a kid with glasses, but I don’t think they’ll be around long…”

“Guys? Guys? Anyone at all? Um…I have free food?” called out Silver, now trying more frantically to pull free from his bonds. He was about two seconds away from tears and unrestrained screaming, and neither of those were going to help him in any way. Where had everyone gone? Was anyone still here? Had they abandoned him? The answers to all of the questions were probably yes, even if it didn’t make sense for one of them, because he simply didn’t know. He was halfway to promising free burritos for everyone when he felt the bonds on his hands being loosened, and breathed a very loud sigh of relief that cut into his panic.

“There,” said Craz, pulling Silver off of the hood of the car. “I knew I was forgetting something. Anyways, we need to get out of here as soon as possible before---”

Short-lived comfort. She either took off running or completely vanished, but Silver couldn’t hear her anymore. And now he was all alone again. His arms hurt, his hands stung ferociously, as did his eyes, and he tried to grab blindly his, well, blindfold. Breathing heavily, he wandered about, the distant impression of the light from the bus gradually diminishing in the background as he headed to who-knows-where. It was great that the blindfold proved to be incredibly hard to remove, and whoever had tied the knot on it was spectacular at such. The combination of his tripping on the ground, not having a clue if he was going upwards or downwards, and his general frustration nagged at him incessantly, until all were swiftly silenced when Silver’s arm brushed into something. Fur, it felt like.

“Okay…” mumbled Silver, running his hand along whatever it was he’d run into. His feet felt like they were precariously dangling over it. It was still more fur, and the impressions that Silver felt reminded him like the back of something. It seemed to be sitting down, waiting patiently while remaining perfectly and completely silent. What was it trying to do? What was it? Was it here to attack him? Was it waiting for something? Was it…

He sighed. This was going to be completely stupid, if not downright lethal. But, since he didn’t have a clue where he was, nor what he was possibly going to do about his situation, the least he could do was find some kind of a refuge in audacity. So, he sat on it.

To his surprise, that worked. After a few tense seconds, whatever it was under his feet rose and began to move forward. At first, slowly, but gradually growing faster. Silver started to cling on and hope that it was taking him as far away from whatever crisis was happening. Or closer, because it really didn’t matter that much anymore. But, on the other hand, everyone had ignored him, his plans had come to naught, and he still couldn’t see. If this was some kind of way to get cosmic revenge on everyone, he was all for it. Wasn’t that all he wanted. Oh, and werefoxes, but what were the odds of those showing up and causing chaos?

Wait, was he playing the villain to his own story? Again? Damn it.

Sneezy let out a shriek as the fashion zombies quickly approached. "JENNY, HELP!" She regretted leading Jenny away from the group, claiming that she knew a shortcut. It was then that Sneezy decided never to lead again.

@JennyImStory gulped. "I can't! They're too fabulous!"

Sneezy jumped into Jenny's arms, who quickly backed away to avoid the bite from a fashion zombie. "What could possibly defeat those dazzling blue jumpsuits!"

Jenny dropped Sneezy to the ground, reaching into her sweatshirt pocket. Lo and behold, she drew out a bedazzler! "Pure dazzle." She dumped a bag of rhinestones into the bedazzler, and cocked it. (Can you cock a bedazzler? Not unless you're Jenny, the fabulous story-er.) "Eat fashion, zombies!"

The zombies slowed, obviously intimidated by the sheer beauty of the weapon.

Jenny shot out the high-velocity rhinestones. They struck the fashion zombies, sending them running away from her and Sneezy. She blew the top of the barrel, puffing off the glitter.

Sneezy rose from the ground, and dusted some rhinestones off her toga. "That... was amazing."

Head in The Clouds

I'd often been told that I had my head in the clouds, but when the fog swept me away to a Shadow realm it seemed a little too literal for my liking. As soon as someone mentioned fashion zombies I imagined a zombie swimsuit model- which wasn't too hard since I considered most models to have some sort of eating disorder and already be skeletal creatures. Then I envisioned many brainwashed people trying to get into a fashion store.

"Fashion zombies? That's called Black Friday hun- it already exists." I stated evenly. "Well- aren't most people fashion zombies? Following mindless trends- I really wish that body armor would make a comeback." I mimed the trail of a tear down my face. "Anyhow- would you happen to be a villain? I get terribly confused as to what the meaning of good and evil is. I do hope you understand."

Either someone had slipped something into my drink or the fog seemed awfully confused. Or I was simply crazy- which was no news to anyone really.

"I dare you to show me something better. Challenge me!" I said defiantly.

"Ye gods," she managed to get out as one of the fashion zombies made its way towards where she was standing with a mixture of horror and confusion, "I never realized I was signing up for this when I registered for Young Writers Society."

A voice called out, "It was in the fine print!" @cleverclogs, possibly? She was too terror-stricken to think clearly about it. All that mattered was that she was going to be killed by fashion zombies simply because she had joined a website for young writers and decided to go on a field trip with them. That sure is going to make an interesting obituary. Even if she couldn't make a joke while living, at least in death she might get someone to at least crack a smile.

With warning, @Sheyren came running into view. In a rare feat of clumsiness, he tripped over his own two feet and knocked the zombie about to attack Mage to the ground. Jumping to feet and brandishing a small stick, he yelled, "The only way we can defeat these zombies is with DETERMINATION!"

"No, I'm pretty sure @JennyImStory is closer with the bedazzler strategy." She watched as more zombies approached them; they were shortly joined by @RavenLord using a special edition Welcome to Night Vale t-shirt as a weapon, and @Mea - who was wielding a replica Minecraft diamond sword made of foam. "These zombies aren't even walking right! All of the undead are supposed to look like absolutely ridiculous when they walk!" She took a deep breath. "At least they all look like they're going to sit down at a piano and bash out a honky-tonk rag."

Even the fashion zombies and the werefoxes that had emerged from the mist seconds before fell silent. In a moment that reeked of cliche, all that could be heard was the chirping of crickets.

"Ring of Solomon reference, anyone?"

...

She turned hopefully to Mea and RavenLord. "Come on, you've got to recognize that line! You're in the fandom too-"

They stared at her.

She sighed. "And this is why I'm not meant to make jokes. Well, let's continue this battle, fashion zombies and werefoxes - seriously, who thought those were a good idea? I thought I heard that the mods weren't allowed to create potentially dangerous creatures."

"Obviously you haven't been on YWS that long!" @JuliasSneezer replied. "Everyone knows that! Even I know that and I joined the site after you!"

Mage started to rummage through her backpack. "Alright, It was stupid of me to believe that rumor. Anyways, I've got the thing that might save us all!" She whipped a cloak from her bag. Almost immediately the zombies started to come closer. She rolled it to a ball and threw it as far as she could. Which, shockingly enough, was out of sight. The fashion zombies went chasing after it and disappeared back into the mist.

When met with looks of amazement, she simply explained, "Anyone who has looked on Tumblr knows that cloaks are unanimously the coolest piece of clothing out there that we would all willing wear." She paused. "Now, does anyone know how to get rid of all of these werefoxes?"

RavenLord groaned. "I hoped you wouldn't ask...." They looked around, sighing. "How does one get rid of a werewolf? Maybe it's the same?" They glanced at their Welcome to Nightvale T-Shirt and sighed. "I have a feeling this won't hold them off for long."
"Doesn't silver affect werewolves?" @JuliasSneezer asked. @Mage tapped her chin with a finger.
"You're right, JuliasSneezer......." RavenLord clapped their hands together.
"So it's settled! We try silver. Er.....does anyone happen to have silver on them....?" They all looked at each other, and Mage pointed to RavenLord's necklaces before turning and trying to fend off a werefox. RavenLord whipped it in the face with their shirt and backed away, fingering the Thor's hammer and Valkyrie necklaces.
"These are cheap pewter, Mage," they said. Mage sighed and shook her head.
"Great....JuliasSneezer, what about you?"