As the three took a quick breath as their eyes opened onto the new sights around them they were quick to notice something rather obvious... They were all alone. Logan's gaze met a tiled wall as he seemed to find himself inside a bathroom with his cock in hands in front of a urinal. He raised a brow at this placement as he heard a growl behind him, making his neck goosebump at the threat. Shifting right of the urinal as the growl turned into a shout of rage as the dead behind him rushed forward, Logan dodged the dead's maw and quickly gripped the back of the dead's head. With a burst of force to help the dead lunge further than intended, Logan sent it slamming against the steel piping of the urinal one, twice, five times before feeling the thing go limp in his grasp.
As the dead fell directly into the bottom of the urinal, Logan gave a courtesy flush before making himself decent. That done he walked over to the sinks, washed up, and then pulled out his phone to text the girls. It went through, thanks to the device's origin, even though Logan could see that his phone had no service. Seeing no bars, Logan either assumed that the three were dropped fully into the apocalypse of this story, or he was in the middle of bum fuck nowhere, USA.
[Logan: Alone in a random public bathroom, know where you two are?] he texted. As soon as he did though, movement outside the bathroom door caught his ear. Sighing he pulled out his sidearm and walked to the wall directly next to the side of the door where the hinges were. He aimed to where the door would open while keeping an open ear for key sounds on the other side of it. Not hearing a growl, wheeze, or really any tell tale signs of the dead he wondered if he was dealing with a survivor just as the door started to open.
Seeing the gleaming metal of a double barrel shotgun start to swing down from pointing at the sky, and directly at him, Logan quickly pushed forward. Grabbing the barrel mid swing down to stop the gun owner from shooting him, caused said owner to fire a round into the ceiling of the bathroom.
"Oh shit!" sounded out as Logan fully pushed out of the bathroom to see a twenty something lanky, nerdy college kid looking at him with shock and fear. Said nerd stared at Logan like he was the last thing his eyes would ever see as the much taller and intimidating man was aiming his handgun directly at his head. Logan, thankfully, didn't even need a second to recognize Columbus and thus dropped his aim. He knew full well that he wasn't any danger to the human condition from this survivor.
"Sorry, didn't want to get shot," Logan said as he handed the shotgun back stock first. The nerd gazed at him wide eyed for a few seconds before coming to his senses.
"Yeah, no, no, your good sir, dude, bro..." Columbus muttered out as he stumbled to his feet. He took the gun from Logan. "Thanks for grabbing my gun from me actually. You saved me from killing an actual person, yourself I mean. So, really, thanks should go to you sir." Logan blinked as Columbus stumbled over his words to the point he was thanked for disarming him. Shaking his head he shifted his head to the bathroom door behind him.
"You wanted to go into the bathroom right? well don't let me stop you" Logan said and started to walk away.
"No, I'm actually good on that front...now" Columbus said while following the larger man away from the bathroom. Logan frowned and looked back to see him taking rather wide steps, and a second later the tell tale smell of shit hit his nose.
"Oh, Sorry man, I can help you find a clothing store if you need" Logan offered.
"Oh no, that's cool, I've got some spares in my lug-" was all the skinny nerd got out before shouting and flicking his gun up to aim at a Pink Jacketed dead that was running towards them from Columbus's parked car. With a booming echo, Columbus shot a half-assed round into her chest, not at all stopping the dead woman's charge. The next shot, Logan's shot, to the head did the job nicely and sent the dead falling backwards and spewing brain matter and black blood on the back of Columbus's ride. Logan dropped his aim and kept walking while Columbus took a breath for a second.
"Oh wow, she just came out of nowhere! could have really done a number on us if we weren't so ready yeah?" The nerd streamed out as he caught back up to the still moving Logan.
"Mmm, hmm" Logan hummed while walking up to the ride, "This yours?" he asked.
"Yep, this is my baby, good old, uh, ~Sally~" Columbus poorly sang out while tapping the car softly with a hand. "Yeah, I got lucky and found her just outside of town with the key's still in the ignition, what a win right, Oh hey you want a ride? I'm heading east to Columbus so if your heading the same way we could keep each other save and stuff"
"Uhh," Logan stalled as he felt his phone finally buzz, making him reach in and check his text he saw three in the group chain.
[Leah: Yeah, I woke up in the backroom of a retail store. With the two grifters right now to sleep out the night here. Gonna guess I'm in Texas] the first text read.
[Akane: Middle of the fucking street! had to kill so many fucking dead and seriously low on ammo...But did impress a certain Florida born Texan who's giving me a ride right now] was the second text. The last was from Akane as well and came with a picture. Long blond hair, amber eyes, and a gentle smile graced the lips of a twenty something woman that appeared to be sitting in the backseat of a car. next to her, smiling with a fruit snack in a booster seat, was a small blonde boy no older than seven.
[Akane: and guess what's so fucking and fantastically different in this movie start!] Logan blinked with a raised brow at this and realized he needed to meet up with his two lovers faster than he thought. With a deep breath he started to turn to Columbus to agree to his proposal when he heard the sound of the shotgun going off again, and the boom of something filled with pressure popping. Finishing his head turn showed that Columbus had opened the back door of the car to grab some spare clothes, and thus woke up the dead that was waiting in ambush. The skinny protagonist was fine as he jumped back and aimed his shotgun, reloaded during the walk over to the car, but the dead had landed low. As such the back tire to the car was right in the line of fire and thus now completely destroyed as a result.
Logan looked at the college kid with a frown as he saw him breathing hard again while recovering from the sudden attack. When Columbus saw that his new ride was destroyed he blinked and looked at Logan.
"So, um, care to take a stroll instead?" Columbus said with an apologetic, yet awkward smile.
#####
[Earlier]
As the world faded to black and the three once again drifted off into a sort of non dreaming slumber the world around them shifted into a black void. This happened to every moviegoer after a showing, as their physical and spiritual forms were transported to either the next viewing or back to the Cineplex for rest and relaxation. A usually easy affair for the non thinking entity as its hold on their being was practically ironclad. Yet, as the Cineplex shifted to drop off the three into one of the infinite instances of a world that found itself down the exact path of Zombieland, everything all at once started to...Gitch. It lasted for a single moment and the Cineplex was unaware of the sudden disturbance as it found an instance that aligned with the movie and simply dropped them off.
It only took notice when its ironclad grip turned into a thin breakable string that held on just barely as the three and the world drifted away from its connection. Instinctually the being reached out like it did most times when feeling the presence of mortal souls that found themselves misplaced by others of power. It was easier given the connection's still presence and locked onto the world once again. Quickly it scoured the planet, and touched upon all that were out of place to regrip. As it did though it found a few other forces interfering and making it nearly impossible to latch correctly. Some were like it, non thinking entities that were sweeping up lost souls as was intended, while others were thinking creatures who were watching thousands of planets for entertainment purposes.
With added force it forced the other powers at hand to back off for just a moment as it located the four, scattered, but whole and once again tried to reinforce its hold on them. Unfortunately it found it impossible as the world had drifted too far off course from its stationary presence in the folds of the infinite web that was the multiverse, thus causing too much static to allow a firm hold. As a last ditch effort the Cineplex reinforced its string like connection and solidified it enough to be unbreakable. With that done it then pulled tight on the strings to ensure that the four will be forced back after the story was complete to a satisfactory instance.
Unfortunately due to the world drifting so far off there would be instances of the four colliding with other world's and possible stories. It couldn't control this and thus simply gave each a boon to the devices that they purchased from its being. They would not know of this until this world's story was over but would keep them connected to each other. With that done it shifted its focus back to its physical place and continued its duty as a keeper of lost souls. Not once recognizing that it had sent out three souls, not four...