Emily sat quietly in a booth in the corner. The bar was fairly busy. People were waiting on the pool tables. Men flirted with woman and vice versa. Emily liked going to hole-in-the-wall establishments. They were the best places to watch people. There was not much for the eye to concentrate on except the people within. The lighting was poor and the music on the juke box was a mix of country and soft rock. For those who could smell the place, it reeked of stale chips and peanuts.

The Southern woman put her beer bottle to her lips, but did not take a sip. Her clothes reflected the drabness of the bar, which was not Emily’s style, but she was tired of people staring at her when she just wanted to be left alone. She wore a pair of jeans and a grey, hooded jacket. A black scarf covered her delicate neck.

A woman walked into the bar, dressed too suggestively for her own good. This caused the local boys to get a little too excited. It was about one in the morning and everyone had had a little too much to drink tonight. A group of five friends went up to the woman, slurring suggestions into her ears. Two of them bought her some drinks. Emily could tell she wasn’t interested in the men, so she decided to go over and intervene. “Katelyn! Hi! I knew you would find the place. Hope it wasn’t too much trouble.” She turned to men surrounding them. “Sorry boys, it’s a girl’s night out. Maybe next time.” She held the woman’s arm and started leading her to the door. One of the guys grabbed Emily while the others moved in front of them, blocking their path. “Well hold on there. Sweet-cheeks, we bought this purty young thing a drink, so now she owes us…”

Emily reached for her wallet. “We’re in a hurry, so I’ll gladly pay you back-” The man holding on to Emily shoved her against a wall. “We don’t want your money! We want something else.”

They bartender and the bouncer came over to the group, who was now the focus of the whole bar. The bartender spoke, “Now Jeff, there’s no need for this. Let you and your boys sit down and I’ll buy all of you another round, on the house.”

Shots rang out. The bartender and the bouncer lay on the floor. They were still both alive, but breathing heavily. Two of the five men had guns drawn and ready to shoot. The others were ready to take on anyone who defied them. The one who had shoved Emily walked over to the bartender and kicked him hard. “Karl, I’m tired of you and everybody else telling me what I can and cannot do. Now we’re gonna take these lovely ladies with us and no ones gonna stop us.”

Joe was out, as usual, celebrating his successful acquisition of a job at Faust Pharmaceuticals. Granted it was only a job as a security guard but hey any reason to celebrate was good enough for Joe. So Joe sat down at the bar wearing a black t-shirt letting his Semper Fi tattoo on his right forearm show proudly, he wore a pair of dark blue pants and black boots as well. Sitting down at the bar Joe had the bartender fill up his glass again and Joe sat watching the people roaming the bar through the mirror that covered the wall behind the bar. Joe wasn’t one for flirting with woman all that much anymore, they tended not to like being woken up in the middle of the night because of his nightmares, so Joe just enjoyed to sounds of the bar. At least until some knockout walked through the front door and drew the attention of every guy in the bar who had been looking for a little company that night, not to mention a few who already had some company. The pack quickly descended on the woman and began to try and chat her up one of the men came next to Joe and order a few drinks from the bartender while his friends tried to solicit the attractive woman.

Of course things weren’t going to stay innocent enough and as what appeared to be the girls friend came up in an attempt to rescue her from the dogs that had circled her things began to take a turn for the worse. Joe did his best to not pay attention but as one of the men grabbed onto the new woman Joe felt his jaw tighten as the situation unfolded. As the man pushed to woman against the wall Joe pressed his eyes closed and exhaled sharply out of his nose reminding himself to not get involved, convincing the cops it was self defense had been hard enough when he fought that monster thing beating up five humans in a bar would certainly end with Joe behind bars this time, cops are only so forgiving. As Joe heard the bouncer and bartender begin to try and reason with the five men Joe began to thank whoever was listening upstairs a night in jail was really looking unattractive.

Shots rang out, screams echoed throughout the bar and Joe finished off what remained of his drink before turning around in his chair to look at the five men, the two who had guns were still facing away from him as Joe stood up from his chair and was quickly met by one of the closer of the five. “Hey guy, just sit…” the man reached to push Joe back down into his chair only to have his hand yanked forward pulling him off balance and a hand driven hard into the left side of his face. As the man crumpled to the ground Joes hand stretched out and grabbed the barrel of the man with the gun tweaking his hand he brought it out of battery making it impossible to fire and with a twist he felt the man’s finger snap as it got caught inside the trigger guard. Pulling the gun towards himself Joe whipped his elbow around and smashed it into the now open screaming mouth of the foolish young man. Moving quickly now Joe ejected the magazine and racked the slide back of the gun emptying it of ammunition and dropped it to the ground. The last two without guns moved on Joe now with Jeff aiming his gun towards him now, a punch flew towards Joe and moving slightly to his right the punch flew past his face. Reaching out Joe grabbed onto the man’s arm and bringing a fist up connected with his elbow pushing it upwards with a resounding snap. Turning to press his hips into the man Joe yanked on the now broken arm and flipped him over Joe’s shoulder flinging him onto a bar stool causing it to crush under the weight. Joe felt a fist connect with the right side of his face causing a slight bit of blood to appear on his lip. Standing up to look at the man who had just punched Joe’s face spoke of annoyance and with a quick chop to the side of the man’s neck he crumpled to the floor unconscious.

Joe turned to look at the one called Jeff, gun still trained on Joe’s chest panic and anger written on Jeff’s face. Joe advanced on Jeff rage making its way on to his face, Joe hated nothing more than when a man hit a woman and Jeff was now going to feel the consequences of his actions. A shot rang out and Joe felt the thump of the round hit him in the chest. Joe continued to advance on Jeff and he felt another two rounds go off and embed themselves in the crystal armor he had raised up on his chest. Joe wanted to laugh at the fear that was now covering Jeff’s face as he snatched the gun from his hand. Tossing it to the ground Joe gripped Jeff by the shirt and began to unload on his face until he went limp in his hands. Letting him drop to the ground Joe knew it was only a matter of time now before the cops came bursting in through the front door and turning back around to the bar he snatched his black hooded leather jacket off the chair and threw it on flipping the hood up onto his head. Reaching out he grabbed the half drunken bottle of whiskey he had been ordering from and left some money on the bar and turned walking out of the bar into the cold winter streets eyeing the two woman who had been the center of this problem before walking out.

Everything happened so fast. She had no idea someone could move like that. Emily saw the tattoo on his arm, he was a Marine. He was a good marine. No normal man could take down four men in the blink of an eye.

She watched as the man set his eyes on Jeff. This wasn’t going to be pretty. Her mouth went agape when the marine took three shots in the chest. They didn’t even faze him. Soon, Jeff was dead. He would not be missed, Emily guessed, by anyone in the bar or outside of it. Everyone knew Jeff would have ended up dead or in jail sometime soon. I guess his life just caught up to him.

Emily and the other bar patrons watched in a dumb stupor as the marine paid his tab and left. The man stole a glance at the two women as he left. Emily couldn’t read the look. Was it hatred for starting the whole thing? Was it an apology for his actions?

The living dead girl began to follow the marine. She needed to know how he had done all of that. She needed to know how to defend herself and those she cared about. Sticks and stones didn’t hurt her, but they left nasty holes in her flesh. If she was able to do even half of what she had just seen, she would be more than just a pretty face. She would be able to dodge and disarm before anything major happened to her. She would have been able to save herself and that woman. What would have happened to them if that man hadn’t have been there?

Emily caught up to the man and started to grab for his shoulder. “Hold on. Wait just a second. How did you DO that?”

As Joe walked out of the bar and down the street he felt the pain radiating in his chest, defiantly deep bruising and probably some fractured ribs, fantastic Joe thought to himself as he walked down the quiet street the sounds of his boots against pavement echoing down the alleyways that lines the street slightly. Lifting the bottle up to his lips he drank deeply ignoring the pain that radiated though his chest as he lifted his arm up. He hadn’t meant to kill the man but as he had gripped the man all the anger from the last few weeks manifested on his face and Joe hadn’t even realized the man was dead until it was too late.

That’s when Joe heard the sound of light footsteps approaching quickly behind him, it was too soon for it to be the police so Joe assumed it had to be either one of the men he had just been embarrassed in front of the entire bar or perhaps a friend coming to take retribution against him. Either way Joe raised a hand up in front of his chest and quickly covered it with crystals forming a sharp tip at the end of each finger. Whipping around he raised his clawed hand up and faced his would be attacker his teeth bared in pure rage, the sound of his bestial growl accompanied by the sound of the whiskey sloshing around in the bottle he clutched in his left hand. He stopped as he heard the sound of a woman’s voice “Hold on. Wait just a second. How did you DO that?” her hand outstretched towards him.

He let the rage slowly drain from his face as he looked at the woman and let it shift to annoyance, what the hell did she want now as if killing a man for her and her friends lack of situational awareness wasn’t enough now she wanted to know how he did it as if it wasn’t obvious enough to begin with. “Go away lady I’m not in the mood tonight.” Joe said as he let his clawed hand lower to his side and the crystal b reabsorbed into his arm. Joe began to turn to walk away from the woman when the sound of sirens began to fill the quiet street. Joe really didn’t want to spend the next twenty-five years in another cell, one was enough for his lifetime so quickly Joe spun and stanched up the girl slipping into the mouth of the nearest alleyway he lowered his hooded head down to hers and wrapped a hand around the side of her neck giving the appearance of two young lovers in each other’s embrace.

“Wrap your arms around my neck.” Joe growled through clenched teeth as his eyes burned into the woman’s. Joe’s breathing was obviously shortened as he tried to fight through the pain in his chest the bullets still embedded in the crystal body armor covering his chest beneath his shirt. Joe’s eyes looked from the corner of his eye towards the street waiting to see if the lights slowed or stopped in front of their little alleyway his breathing sharp and rapid. A dark memory began to surface in his mind as he breathed close to the woman who he now was pressed against. Joe had smelt death before, the smell of bodies sitting out in the sun for too long, the smell of bodies rotting on the side of the road and inside of buildings, the smell of bodies burning. Joe’s eyes began to slowly shift back towards to woman as the police sped past their location. His eyes scanned her face and he pushed off the wall and away from her the look of confusion and disgust mixed on his face. Lifting the bottle up to his lips he drank deeply of the brown liquid, he was going to need as much as he could get tonight.

Emily was shocked at the rage on the man’s face as he whirled around to confront her. She was sure the man was going to rip her to shreds. The fury shifted to annoyance when he realized who she was. Emily sympathized for the marine. He just killed someone for a woman he didn’t even know. It must have been hard. Now he would have to live with the consequences, mental and judicial. Emily would do her best to keep the man out of trouble. It was the least she could do, after all.

The sirens startled the woman. She was even less prepared for what happened next. Next thing she knew, she was in an embrace. Emily didn’t embrace. He was too close. People didn’t touch her like this. She was a dead thing, and it was here, in this alleyway, that she felt most vulnerable and different. People avoided the dead. People feared the dead, most probably more than they did mutants.

He was touching her neck. Where had her scarf gone? Emily remembered it falling off as she was thrown against the wall in the bar. No one goes near her neck. The marine would probably notice the scar that encircled it. He would feel the stitches hiding below the skin. He would feel her cold skin and stiff flesh. She would rather be back in that bar facing those men alone than being in this man’s arms.

But Emily didn’t want to reveal the man to the police, so she just stood there, praying the man was too drunk to notice her differences. “Wrap your arms around my neck.” She really didn’t want to. But she quickly put her arms around him. Being this close to the marine, her face buried in his chest, Emily noticed the bullet holes in his shirt. Stupid Emily, here she was worrying about her own problems when this man was hurt. Should they go to the hospital? The funeral home she lived and worked at had tools that could remove bullets. Maybe this man knew a safe place he could go get help. Wherever the man went, the undead girl would follow. Even if he wouldn’t teach her how to fight, Emily had to make sure the man who saved her was going to be ok.

The man pulled away with a look of disgust on his face. He knew. This hurt Emily. She felt like a monster and turned away from the man. “I’m sorry.” That’s all she could say. She didn’t know why she was apologizing. The bar, the chaos that occurred, his wounds, her…condition. It was all too much.

“Look, you’re hurt. I know somewhere where I can look at it. But if you have a place…" If Emily could cry, she would. Her body might not know the meaning of fatigue, but her mind did. She was losing her composure. Emily stood there frozen until she found a sliver of strength. “I’m dead. I have been for a long time. It’s my mutation…I guess.”

“I’m sorry. Look, you’re hurt. I know somewhere where I can look at it. But if you have a place… I’m dead. I have been for a long time. It’s my mutation…I guess.” Joe listened as the woman spoke Joe tried to understand what she was saying, between the freaks this town had thrown at Joe in the last month this seemed right up to par with what he had seen so far. He really didn’t care about her being a mutant he had heard strange and seen some strange mutations before but hers frightened him on a much deeper level. The smell of a dead body haunts a man. Letting the bottle drop from his lips the sound of the sloshing liquid was the only thing heard in the dark alley. While Joe couldn’t see any tears coming from the woman’s face Joe had made enough women cry to know what it looked like even without the tears running down their face. Joe cursed himself silently, he hated seeing women cry, why did he have to be a mutant if he had just been a human he could have died with his men back in Afghanistan and all of this madness wouldn’t be any of his concern.

“It’s fine you weren’t the one with the gun.” Joe said his voice gruff and slurred as the alcohol worked into his system. Joe’s breath was shallow and pain flashed onto his face momentarily as he reabsorbed the crystal armor. Holding his hand at the bottom of his shirt three crushed bullet’s landed in his open palm. Joe placed his empty hand against his chest lightly and exhaled breath sharply as pain shot through him. That wasn’t good he would be out of the ring for at least a few months like this and with the way things had been going in this town maybe longer if he had to fight giant monsters or get shot again.

“I’m fine my apartments around the corner. I don’t need any help.” Joe’s voice was slurred now and his eyes had a heavy glaze on them as he was quickly approaching that magical point of intoxication where he could black out and wake up the next morning and not remember any of the nightmares he was bound to have. Joe turned and began to make his way towards his apartment through the alleyways. As he went to take his first step he swayed and pressed his free hand against the wall to help steady himself from falling over causing him to wince in pain as it radiated throughout his body. Trying to dull the pain he raised his bottle to his lips and drank from it again before starting to walk again leaving his hand on the wall he let it slide against the wall as a brace.

Emily was not happy how she responded to Joseph. She didn’t allow people to see her upset. It was extremely unlady like. At least she couldn’t cry; otherwise her eyeliner would have ran. How embarrassing.

She followed the man as he made his way back to his apartment. If he passed out in the street, she would have to drag him back to her place. But he said his place was just around the corner. Emily hoped he wasn’t exaggerating. She had seen inebriated people before. The Southern Belle was from one of the most infamous cities in the South, of course she knew when someone was about to collapse into a stupor.

(Thread moving to Joseph's apartment)