Clarissa and Mike wait by the door into the diner, listening to the monster rampage on the other side, while everyone else leaves by the side door.
Derek hides himself in the bushes as best he can, while Larry, Ray, and Jacob head for the gas station.
John heads for the front of the diner, intending to get the monster's attention.
John peers around the corner to see the monster on the rampage his heart racing and trying his best to keep calm.
He then swings around in plain view and yells "Hey A** H***!, come and get me! He fires 3 more rounds at the monster and starts to run down the road a little to buy Clarissa time.
The three shots hit home in the body of the monster, getting its attention nicely. It bursts out of the wreckage of the diner's window and runs after John, who discovers that he'll be hard pressed to stay ahead of the creature.
Mike and Clarissa burst into the diner from the kitchen as they hear the monster leave. Clarissa starts looking frantically through the papers strewn all over the diner, while Mike gathers anything he thinks might be useful in barricading the door once John comes through it.
John runs as fast as he can down the road looking back making sure the monster is still following him. John thinks to himself "This has to be the dumbest idea evef John..."
All the while counting in his head for one more minute before he starts running back to the diner.
The monster lopes along behind John, seeming to be in no hurry to catch him. Derek can see them moving along the road from his spot in the bushes.
At the count of sixty, John heads for the diner. The monster puts on a burst of speed to cut him off from the diner, clearly trying to herd him farther away from the building.
John tries to aim for the monster's leg while running to slow it down a little and fires two more shots at what looks to be it's leg. [He tries to aim around what would be the kneecap]
The shots go wide, being fired from on the run. John stops to aim, snapping off two more shots. The first hits the monster's knee, causing it to go down on the knee. The second shot only clicks.
[I haven't been counting shots, but it seemed an appropriately dramatic time for John to run out of ammunition and need to reload. The monster is on one knee, and is between John and the door he wants to go in. Derek is hidden in the bushes somewhere behind the monster, in the direction of the door.]
"Damn..." John quickly holsters his empty Magnum and pulls out his Glock but rather firing he runs around the monster a decent distance since he needs to have the monster to still chase him and he makes a final dash to the diner.
[If you're waiting for Derek to do something to help John, you've got a loooong wait.]
[*laugh* No, just delayed due to some Christmas traveling. Although, I would have waited to give him a chance to react one way or the other anyway.]
John tries to make a dash around the monster, staying at what he feels is outside the range of its tentacles.
Unfortunately, he's wrong.
The monster flings one of its tentacles sideways, unrolling it to an amazing length, neatly snatching John off the ground as he tries to run by. He can feel the strength of the tentacle around his chest like an iron band as it tenses, then throws him against the side of the diner.
Derek can hear ribs crack from his hiding place, and John feels the sharp pain as he breathes.
John gets unsteadily to his feet and half stumbles and half falls into the side door to the kitchen. The monster rushes in after him.
John yells "Now! Derek!" while he stumbles back up and makes his way to the other door
Derek slams the door as soon as the monster is inside. [If it has any sort of bolt or lock he'll use it.]
[The bolt is only accessible from the inside, but he can put some branches through the door handle. It's one of the long U shaped ones.]
The door slams shut behind John as he limps through the kitchen, the monster right behind him. He slips and falls behind the central counter just as a tentacle swishes above his head. He scrambles through the door into the main diner, feeling another tentacle brush his heel.
Mike slams the door shut at John's shout, slipping a broom handle through the door handle. The door shudders as the monster hits it, but the improvised brace holds for now.
Clarissa looks up from the papers, holding one of them.
"Here's the map!" she cries.
John stumbles to his feet with what energy he has and looks at Clarissa "Good now get to gas station. Go help the others and grab what I said earlier and what ever else that can be considered as food and water."
John then looks at Mike "You and I will get the cars started up every second counts here that won't hold for long..."
John having one arm around his chest feeling the pain that is cracked ribs if not broken ribs brought.
Derek shoves whatever he can find through the door handle and rushes around to the station.
Clarissa rushes over to the gas station, but then starts showing the map to Jacob rather than collecting supplies. Larry is helping to collect supplies, giving things to Ray to pack into some bags they'd found.
Derek gets there about the same time as Clarissa, while they can hear the sounds of car engines starting at the diner.
Ray feverishly packs the items into the bags, as best she can. "Larry, are you sure all this is going to fit? How much more is there?" She hears Clarissa come in and start expounding on the map, "Sweetie? We're in a bit of a rush, could you help us with the supplies? Jacob needs to rest a bit more, love." She smiles sweetly and keeps trying to put stuff in the bags.
While catching his breath and recovers a little from the ordeal, John pull out his magnum and exchanges magazines. He then reholsters his gun. And closes his eyes which then feels like an eternity for him.
"That looks like everything that might be useful, Ray," Larry says, returning to her side. He glances over at Clarissa and Jacob.
"I don't think she's all there," he says, quietly enough that Ray's the only one who can hear him. "We've all got cause, but I think she's over the edge."
Clarissa, meanwhile, has gone on from talking about the map to talking about the families that used to live at the houses marked on it. It's an incredibly boring catalog of small town minutiae.
Derek looks at Clarissa, frowns, then helps pack up the bags.
John has basically passed out at the time being.
Mike finishes a last check of the station for supplies they might have missed, then looks at John.
"Can't say he hasn't earned a rest," he says to everyone else, "but what do we do now?"
"Clarissa, sweetie?" Ray calls with a smile. "Does your map show where a hospital is? Or maybe a place where we could reverse this parallel universe or something? I think John needs some medical attention," very quietly, she mumbles something about Clarissa perhaps needing some medical attention. Larry's probably the only one who can hear that. Ray continues to smile and try to be upbeat. "Barring that, we could always sing some of the old hymns! Jacob can lead us!"
Clarissa looks up at Ray's question.
"A hospital? No," she shakes her head. "This is just of Abramton, and there's nothing left of it but the diner and the gas station."
"But getting us out of here, I have the ritual and the map of where to perform it." She stops, seeming uncertain. "But that's crazy, isn't it?"
Ray smiles, "Sweetie, from what I've been hearing, crazy's becoming the norm." She looks to Larry, "What do you think?"
Derek mutters something decidedly unpleasant and looks out the window for the vehicle.
Larry glances at Clarissa. "Ray," he says, "if crazy is what it takes, I'm for it."
He walks over to Clarissa. "Where do we need to go?" he asks. She unfolds the map, and points to five spots marked on the map.
"I think," she says, "based on the ritual notes, that we just do it at each of these spots, and then we get back to where we're supposed to be."
She frowns. "There's something in there about life energy being needed. I think it means we need to donate some blood or something during the ritual."
[John is still unconcious, unless you feel it's time for him to wake up.]
[I think he'll probably be out until someone wakes him up, unless they stick around the station long enough for him to wake naturally.]
[Well if it's naturally it will be a very long time he hasn't had sleep and went against the monster so like I said I'll leave it up to anyone else who think they should wake him up or not.]
Larry glances at Derek, and at John, who is slumped unconscious against the wall. He finally looks at Mike.
"What do you think, Mike', he says. "Do we try this ritual, or what?"
Mike thinks it over only for a moment. "I don't see how we have much choice. We can't drive away, and if there are more where that came from", he gestures in the direction of the diner, "we won't last long here."
Larry nods.
"Okay, wake up the hero there, and let's get moving." Mike moves over to John and shakes him awake, while Larry starts loading the cars with the supplies they'd bagged.
Derek lends a hand with the supplies while casting glances at the others.
Ray hands Larry what she can, then feels her way over to Mike, John, and Jacob (I think they're near each other?). She tries to help Mike help John as best as she is able. As she does so, she sings softly, "Nearer still nearer, close to my heart. Draw me, my Savior, so precious thou art..." Maybe a hymn will help.
The hymn seems to shake Jacob out of his funk, and he starts singing along with Ray. He isn't one to praise the Lord quietly, though, and his voice is surprisingly strong and deep. The others are treated to a rousing set of hymns as they continue packing.
Derek grits his teeth at the sound and mutters something dark.
John still a bit drained from the ordeal asks "How long was I out?" He then looks at the others loading up the supplies figuring he wasn't out more than just a couple of minutes. He slowly gets up and his body quickly reminds him of how hard that creature hit him wrapping his arm around his ribs.
[What a week! Any last actions before the cars head out, presumably to follow Clarissa's map to ritual locations?]
Ray will try to help John as best she can to a car. That's about all she can do.
Derek looks around after loading everything up, wondering what the blood requirement will be.
John slwoly walks to his car with Ray helping and he gets in the passenger side. He tosses his keys to Mike letting him know to drive his car.