<strong>--  Matthew Fitzpatrick (http://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=102993.msg4532756#msg4532756) - Ornery and full of himself. --</strong><br/><hr/><br/>Luis would, unfortunately, not get much of a reprieve.  In his haste it was doubtful that he'd even noticed the odd sort of way that the ceiling tiles above the entrance seemed to bulge outwards like some great Styrofoam zit.  Most folks would have just taken it for water damage, or perhaps just the work of gravity over long months of poor maintenance.  Of course, that wouldn't exactly explain the worrisome<em>creaking</em>issuing out from it, like something was about to--<br/><br/>With a sudden and resounding<strong>crack</strong>a massive section of the ceiling completely caved in, knocking over one of the stands and sending up a wave of irritating dust as thick as flour.  As if that wasn't enough, some great hulking thing struggling to stand up in the middle of all the chaos was uttering every god-forsaken oath, curse, and outright profanity ever devised by the human tongue, and several that had likely been made up right on the spot.<br/><br/>Matthew got to his feet, his aching back snapping unpleasantly as he stretched his limbs.  "Just my god damn luck," he growled, brushing the chalky detritus out of his beard and looking for all the world like some crazed redneck interpretation of Santa Claus, all done up in camping gear and sporting a pretty heavy-looking shotgun on his back and a revolver at his hip.  "Was hopin' I could hole up in here until all you fuckin' noisy gits had hightailed it out of town.  Sounds like you brought a whole damn horde along for the ride to boot!"<br/><br/>He looked around for a moment, not ever bothering to introduce himself, and found his worn out old mountain bike laying beside him.  He hoisted it upright and gave it a good inspection to make sure it hadn't been damaged before giving Luis the same scrutinizing eye.<br/><br/>"Well?  You gonna git movin', or are we gonna jis' stand around like a couple o' daft idjits and wait fer the Freaks ta come 'n crack us open like a couple o' fresh crabs at a surf 'n turf buffet?"