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- Chapter 17: Wandering the City
Tessa turned all of the knobs in the kitchen stoves to max along with the ovens and left their doors open. Then she walked out of the kitchen, tore a strip from her shirt, lit it with the candle lighter and threw it at the flesh wall before sprinting out. The pulsating flesh was surprisingly flammable and burned ferociously. It gave Tessa bit of a fright as she wasn’t sure if the stoves and oven used gas and would explode; it was only her guess from movies. She rushed out of the cafeteria exit and ran without looking back as the fire was spreading far faster than she estimated and the worms would definitely notice it. She managed to hide in an open university branded bus before stopping for a break. Finally turning back, she saw more than a few dozen students and teachers standing around the burning cafeteria with black worms waving in the air from their mouths.
***
Trembling from fear, Tessa watched in absolute horror as hundreds of students and staff gathered at the burning building from her hiding spot on the bus. Their black worm-like parasites crawling out of their bodies and waving in the air as if to mourn the losses of their brethren while a familiar figure stood at a higher ground level in front of them. An even larger worm waving from the figure’s mouth and making screeching calls.
Her eyes grew wide as the recognition set in. The figure was so familiar because she grew up with her and came from her. Tessa’s mother stood among the infested and screamed out commands to the surroundings, sending them off in all directions to find the culprit of the arson. The sight of the numerous infested humans scattering made Tessa’s blood run cold as she shrank back in the bus and half-stood, half-crawled to the other side of the bus and exited out of the back end, farthest from the scattered students and staff.
As soon as her feet hit the pavement, she sprinted towards the parking lot entrance leading to the street. The majority of her running path was blocked by the university bus, only becoming visible within the last few meters to the open wall that surrounded the university as a whole. It was during that short fraction that one of the students saw her running away and began screaming out before chasing her down with a speed exceeding his physique. Tessa felt all of the hair on the back of her neck stand up as she increased her own speed. Her legs pumped faster and faster as she dodged into an alley after crossing the street, the chasing student only having just arrived at the parking lot entrance. He stared fiercely at the fleeing figure but made no move to continue the pursuit as if he was waiting for further orders.
Tessa continued to sprint and dodge into different alleys until her heart felt as if it were going to explode before she finally stopped. Her back bent forward as she clutched onto the alley wall with her right hand and tried to catch her breath. She hadn’t kept track of her surroundings as she ran, only paying enough attention to ensure that her direction wasn’t leading back to the university. As she caught her breath and looked up, she saw a large hospital complex in front of her and felt more relieved. She recognized the building as the same one that she noticed from the university. It was also in a similar position from her own memories of the hospital complex and university in real life.
Taking in a deep breath, she began moving once more and walked towards the hospital building closest to her. She wasn’t sure what she was hoping to find inside, maybe a normal person, maybe nothing more than a safe place to stay or lose the university’s infested. Somewhere deep in her subconscious, maybe she even wanted to find a way to remove the worms and save her mother, even though she knew that it was only a fake. Tessa bent her knees slightly as she made it to the door and rubbed her thighs, relaxing her muscles slightly before opening the hospital entrance door at the Emergency Room side.
Cold air hit her face immediately as the automated doors opened before her. The silence of the emergency room lobby sent a chill along her spine. After the oddity with the university, she felt extremely suspicious about any oddities in her immediate environment. Her eyes scanned the lobby for any movement and after finding nothing, she walked farther in and began checking the reception desk. Tessa wasn’t sure what she was looking for within the desk, only that she needed information, especially a map of the departments or the pharmacy. She had worked as an EMT in the past so she knew some medications that would be useful, such as painkillers, anticoagulants, antihistamines, and others. She wanted to create a first aid kit that would be useful in most situations. She also wanted to get something to help her calm down in case she stopped long enough to have a panic attack.
Tessa spent nearly ten minutes searching before she found what she was looking for within the desk. There was a laminated map of the complex inside a binder beneath several other documents. It also included the list of phone numbers of each department and several on-call doctors for the ER and ICU. The pharmacy was located in another building and floor, so she began to move again with the same level of caution as before. The chilly air of the hospital made her skin itch a bit as she followed the map to the fifth floor and then began crossing the buildings using the walkways.
The eerie silence accompanied her throughout her journey through the hospital all the way to the pharmacy where it was finally broken by a slow drip. Slowing her steps even further, Tessa approached the room and peeked in, only to see no one inside. Scanning the room twice with her eyes, she approached the door and entered, still wary of the noise. The room was small, no bigger than a regular hospital room and the door lock had not been reset after the last person left. Open bottles of various pills lay scattered across the floor in a mess with the strange dripping noise finally in sight, it was coming from an empty cage beneath the pickup window where a pool of gray liquid slowly drained out.
Feeling uncomfortable staying any longer than necessary, Tessa searched for the medications that she felt were required for an advanced first aid kit. After some struggle and frustration at the indecipherable sorting system of the pharmacy, she managed to pull together everything she wanted with few exceptions. Packing it together inside her cloth grocery bag, she got up to leave when she heard a scream from somewhere upstairs and froze in place. Wasn’t the hospital empty?
Swallowing back her fear, she made her way towards the stairs and headed up to the next floor, pausing only slightly at the elevators before shaking off the notion of using them. Anything that could make someone scream would not be something she wanted to meet in an enclosed space like an elevator, she felt confident in escaping through the stairs at least. She had already run away from a whole campus full of monsters after all, how many more could exist in this world?
Tessa stepped onto the sixth floor and crossed a short hallway and corner only to see a young woman in bloody sheets, a man with a broken mask and another man with his back towards her. The masked man lunged forward as soon as she came into his view, catching the young man off guard since his target was not either of the original two. Tessa froze in place as the masked man charged towards her, only to be intercepted by the young man who jumped in front of her after noticing the new presence. Both men struck out at the same time as they collided into one another and a loud grunt was heard from the younger man.
The woman covered in blood wearing the sheets turned and charged at Tessa in rage after seeing the young man being hurt. Her fingers clawed Tessa’s face in her anger as she screamed at her for aiding the raven masked man. Tessa fell backwards, swinging her cloth bag full of pills and canned goods into the woman’s head in an attempt to force her away. The bag made a loud cracking noise when it hit her head and the woman sagged to the ground in shock, even as her nails carved lines in Tessa’s face.
On the other side, the raven masked man fell on top of the young man with blood spraying from his neck. The young man held his left eye with his empty hand, the other still waving a bone saw at the falling man. A scalpel protruded out from the young man’s left eye as he backed away, allowing gravity to take effect undisturbed.
- Chapter 16: Caught And Beaten
Nick groaned on the floor as his world spun. His ankles, bound by chains, shot pain signals to his brain as he felt the skin tearing and blood pouring out as the two biker men dragged him out of the office. Loud taunts and the occasional kick to his body refreshed his painful feelings and kept him from resisting effectively. His two arms had been stomped on by the one called Brent and he felt as if the bones were broken. The incredible pain all over his body made him want to scream, but his throat was too dry from screaming his lungs out earlier.
It had already been nearly fifteen minutes since he was caught and the two men had brought him downstairs to the ground floor lobby. Other bikers were surrounding him and taking bets about how long he would last behind the cycles. Some felt the desire to take him into a private office for some fun, but none dared to move him without their boss’s orders. Tattoos carved with prison ink covered their exposed skin, worn as though it were a trophy of their past hardships and justification for their cruel fantasies.
Nick felt the chains on his ankles loosen as hands held him down and explored his youthful body. His compact muscles from tennis and upper-class sports betrayed him as it made his soft muscles even more attractive to the men around him. He closed his eyes and resigned himself to his dark fate as the pain in his shoulders and ankles slowly receded. His fatalistic thoughts only interrupted by the sudden fleshy splattering coming from the open stairwell door. A leather covered body smashed into pulp from gravity laid on the floor following the loud sound. The group surrounding him halted and all turned their heads stiffly in the same direction.
Echoing curses and painful screams carried down the stairwell and into the ears of the dozen members on the ground floor. A man standing closer to the door and waiting for the boss’s orders had blood splashed across his face from the long open wound on the corpse; the chest had been slashed open to the bone by something sharp before the fall. His face turned ugly at the sight and his voice rang out orders, waking up the dozen men surrounding Nick. Ten of them rushed to the stairwell, including Brent and his companion, as they moved to reinforce the boss on the upper floors. The sound of clashing metal rang out even louder as the men crossed the doorway. Somewhere on an upper floor, trouble had found the gang’s members.
Nick opened his eyes slowly while listening to the rough boots pound the tile floor, slowly moving farther away from him. Two pairs of hands dragged him towards another side of the floor and into a padded chair with armrests where he was quickly tied down using the same chains that bound his ankles previously. Then the men guarding him walked to the entrance and began patrolling the area. The unexpected attack from above had made them nervous about similar ambushes from other buildings. The smell of his own blood filled his nose as he groggily looked around him and listened to the worried whispers of the bikers. He nearly laughed at the behavior of these strong men, who showed no hesitation in beating him, becoming restless after one of their fellows was killed so easily.
Screams and the sound of fighting upstairs continued for a few minutes more before slowly quieting down. Then there was only the pounding of heavy footsteps and clanking of feet being dragged down a set of stairs. Nick and the other men turned their heads to the stairwell and elevators in anticipation. They didn’t have to wait long before a few corpses were thrown down from the stairwell and the elevator doors opened at the same time. A man whose arms were chained to the elevator rails sat on the floor with long cuts across his chest and a healed scar on his face. One of the men exclaimed in fear after recognizing their boss.
Distracted by the elevator corpse, the duo on the ground floor missed the two corpses that rose from the group in the stairwell. Paper cutter arm blades in hand, the duo rushed over and cut down the two men before they could put up a proper defense. Then the footsteps from earlier were heard again as a mixed group of six men and women with mild injuries came into Nick’s view. The group held an assortment of weapons from a fire axe to paper cutter blades to golf clubs. Their faces held traces of sorrow, determination and relief. The combat drained their stamina, physically and mentally, but there was the glow of victory over death around them. Nick was positive that it was there as he stared at the group of eight while they checked the bodies.
His heart skipped a beat when one of the women noticed him tied to the chair and motioned towards him while saying something that he couldn’t understand. The group soon wandered over to him and the lead man questioned him in a language he didn’t understand. It wasn’t English, French or Spanish and he could only stare dumbly at the man. His lips parted to say something, then closed as he didn’t know what to say or how to express himself. The leading man frowned at his lack of response and the other men in the group pointed at Nick and gestured at him with killing intent in his eyes. It was obvious that the other man thought it would be a waste to bring along someone who couldn’t talk or refused to talk to them.
Before the leading man could make a decision, a crunching sound of glass being stepped on drew their attention to the entrance of the office building. A young man covered in blood stood there with fierce eyes and deep hatred on his face, staring at Nick. The others were startled at the new sight and backed off, forming a triangle between the newcomer, Nick and the man. However, the young man acted as if he didn’t notice them as he walked towards Nick while grasping a short blade in his left hand. Nick noticed the man as well and blinked in confusion at first, then realization as he looked over; he knew this man.
“Vincent! How come you’re here?”
Nick called out to the young man in surprise and a mixture of wariness and joy. The young man was Vincent, whom he had met in the Morpheus Labs building before this wild experiment started. He knew the other man spoke English at least since they talked before the experiment started. Though it was only small talk, it was enough for him to be happy as the others didn’t speak any language he knew.
“Shut your mouth, you devil! How dare you speak to me after killing my sister!”
Vincent screamed at Nick as he picked up his pace and rushed towards him with the blade pointed forward. His facial expression warped in anger and body posture perfectly playing the role of a truly emotional man on the breaking point. A cunning light flashed in his eyes as he saw the confusion in Nick’s eyes that quickly turned into fear, then anger.
“What are you saying?! I have never met your sister! Have you gone mad? Stop joking around!”
Nick yelled back at Vincent and began to struggle on the chair while the others watched the scene in confusion. It appeared that the two men were mortal enemies and recognized one another, though one acted friendly at first. Was the new guy acting a part to fool them or was the chain bound man trying to lure them over and into a trap? It was obvious now that the bound man could speak and simply chose to act ignorant in front of them, which angered a few in the group.
“Fool! Since you were dumb enough to get caught, then you should sacrifice yourself so I can have more prey to enjoy.”
Vincent sneered as he stopped in front of Nick and slashed out with the short blade in his hand. The sharp metal cut a straight line across and through Nick’s arteries and blood sprayed out, covering Vincent’s chest. With his back to the group, a wide grin formed on his face as he continued to curse Nick in several languages, including the Morpheus language created solely for the artificial humans that he had to memorize before coming in. It was very primitive with only a few words to express simple commands as it was implemented at the last minute.
Nick tried to call for help from the others but nothing came out of his throat except blood. He could feel his life draining away and felt a mixture of indignation, fear and despair. This should only be a virtual reality experience so why did everything feel so real? Why did it feel like if he died here, he would die in reality as well? That couldn’t be right though, that only happened in the Japanese novels and animes, not in real life. Real life virtual reality couldn’t hurt people, could it?
- Chapter 15: The Raven
Tony slid down the wall of the elevator and felt exhausted already even though he had only moved a couple meters. He began to review what had happened so far within his mind. He woke up within the psych ward, got captured by a mentally ill woman, saw another man killed and then her face of disappointment and abandonment. He found himself very confused about what to do next, as he rolled his arms and legs to return them too normal faster. His thoughts were interrupted though when the elevator shuddered to a stop after crossing three floors.
The doors slid away to reveal a messy hallway, with carts knocked over everywhere. Tony pushed the floor buttons again, but the elevator stopped moving and the lighting went out soon afterward, even the hallway lights. Resigned, he stumbled out into the darkness carefully while listening for any movement. He had already been ambushed once by Olivia and now someone else may be in the hospital with them, since the power cut off should be in the basement. He shuffled to the nearest wall and waited there with his back against it for his eyes to get used to the darkness before moving again. There were no visible sharp objects on the messy hallway floor when he glimpsed it earlier, but he wasn’t willing to risk it.
After a few seconds, Tony began to explore the first knocked over cart with caution. It only contained metal food trays and some unused bandages, the same went for the following two carts. He shifted them upright and out of the way as he finished his searches to ensure his retreat path to the stairs. Since Olivia was above and someone else was below, he wanted to find something to help him fight back aside from his bare fists.
By the third cart, he managed to find non-skid socks underneath a blood pressure monitor and quickly put them on. The feeling of bare feet on hospital flooring and the sting of his toes had begun to worry him, even if it was only a small distraction, he had seen horror movie characters die from distractions. Slightly more confident now, he moved aside the other carts after realizing they were mostly knocked over monitors or empty food carts with only metal trays.
Crossing the hallway, he found a small visitors’ lounge with couches and a couple backpacks. Tony entered with some anticipation as he headed straight for the backpacks on the couch. The light from the windows shone on a shirt peeking out from one of the bags. Reaching the couch, he opened the first backpack to discover a set of clothes mostly reserved for teenage girls or even college ladies as there was a lot of pink involved with appropriate undergarments. The other backpack contained a black sleeveless shirt with a cobra on the front and saggy blue jeans that were a size too large for Tony. There was also a pair of sneakers that he took out with the accompanying ankle socks and tried on, only to be surprised at how well they fit. He quickly changed his attire and felt a bit more comfortable, even though the pants were saggy and might fall down without a belt.
Done with the room, he went back to the doorway and checked the dark corridor once more. Seeing and hearing nothing, he continued exploring the rest of the rooms while keeping one hand on his pants to hold them up. The next rooms were primarily generic single bed patient rooms. However, the end of the hallway held a sterile environment dual door room. A man whose chest had been cracked open and internal organs were removed laid on the only bed while still in a security guard uniform.
Tony paused at the sight and bit his lower lip in contemplation. Taking a deep breath, he entered the room and his fingers stretched out to the man’s waist, slipping off and pulling out his belt before sliding it on his own waist. Then he went over the remainder of the corpse and found a handheld taser whose prongs were broken off and a 9mm pistol with the bullet jammed. Sighing after realizing that he couldn’t use the taser and didn’t know enough about firearms to safely unjam the pistol, he put them back. Then he went to the cart next to the man and found a scalpel and a bone saw with a full grip handle. He smiled briefly when he picked up the saw, remembering a particular movie where his hero made a mid-ranged weapon using saws and gauze wrap. Wrapping the scalpel in a piece of the corpse’s shirt, he stuck it in his right pocket and wielded the bone saw in his left hand, even though he was right handed.
He exited the sterile room and nearly ran into a terrified Olivia whose butterfly wing sheets were torn and bloody. Reflexively, he raised the bone saw in his left hand to attack her, but stopped when he saw her messy figure and heard a man’s laughter coming from behind her. If evil could be heard and felt on the skin, then the man following Olivia was the epitome of evil desires. His very presence disturbed Tony before he even saw the man clearly.
The other man wore a beak-style gas mask that was more commonly found in the 17th century than modern day. His clothes were a mix of raven black and silver with a cross hanging on his chest and white gloves with scarlet markings flaking off. Three scalpels stuck out between his fingers on both hands that were held open at his sides as if he was waiting for a hug or ready to accept his flock. It was a truly strange sight and sent cold sweat down Tony’s back; this was a man that even scared Olivia after all, the same woman that brutally attacked the mad doctor fearlessly.
“Please… please help me…. don’t let the raven eat me. I’m just a little butterfly.”
Olivia begged from behind Tony as tears rolled down her cheeks and she held onto the back of his shirt trembling. Her back hunched over slightly to make herself smaller by comparison and hide better behind the only person she trusted, the only one who didn’t outright reject her. She recognized that he ran away from both her and the mad doctor and maybe he wouldn’t accept her completely, but he never spoke out or tried to harm her when they were in the ward together. Tony could feel her dependence, even though he didn’t understand why she felt that way towards him; to him, she was still a stranger.
“Kukuku, come here little butterfly. I promise to enjoy you very slowly.”
The raven masked man stated with an eerie laugh and greedy tone as he slowly stepped towards the couple. His fingers flexed around the scalpels as if to show them off as claws and the smile beneath the mask could not be hidden. His steps and movements were methodical, deliberate, provoking the most primal sense of fight or flight in both Tony and Olivia.
Tony held the bone saw in front of his chest in a defensive stance as he drew the scalpel in his pocket out slightly. He wanted to be ready to use it in a surprise attack, maybe as a throwing weapon or distraction if the man continued to come closer or make any rash actions. He was not particularly confident in close combat when weapons were involved as there were too many variables, but he held some confidence that he could distract the man enough to escape with Olivia. Though he questioned why he felt the need to protect her in the first place when she was the one who ambushed him initially. Damping down those thoughts, he focused completely on the man who had stepped within two meters distance, enough to lunge and attack before stopping in a stalemate.
Both men’s eyes sharpened and eyed each other up with some level of wariness. The clawed raven’s eyes wandered between the bone saw and the trembling butterfly while Tony tried to judge the raven’s combat experience based on his posture. The first to move would take the initiative in combat, but also reveal their openings for exploitation. The stalemate lasted for only seconds, though it felt like minutes for both combatants.
The raven struck out first with a lunging right claw aiming to force Tony to dodge and expose the butterfly Olivia behind him. Tony countered by crouching slightly and striking out with his front leg to the raven man’s charging knee after leaning backwards, forcing Olivia to step back. The ball of his foot connected with the man’s upper thigh as the raven dodged at the last second and swung his other claw down at Tony’s head. Tony fell backward completely in response, pushing off his back foot to drag Olivia with him to the ground as his right hand shot forward with the scalpel between two fingers in a throw. It flew straight from beneath the cloth wrap and gouged itself in the raven’s left exposed armpit, drawing a scream from the other man and a stumble.
Tony released the bone saw and rolled to his right while grabbing Olivia, pulling her into his embrace and out of the way of the stumbling raven who crashed into the wall behind them. He pushed quickly off the floor to regain a standing posture before yanking Olivia onto her feet and placing her behind him. His knight in shining armor fantasy mindset had subconsciously taken over as he focused on the raven who was struggling to get back on his feet. Tony used his back to push the butterfly farther away from the duo’s combat and motioned for her to head back to the stairs as he backed away slowly, never exposing his back to the raven.
The raven man had a slight trace of blood on his lips as he picked himself back up, the mask shattered from his own weight and its poor materials. It appeared to be a replica of the historical masks used only as a costume accessory and not a proper medical device. The man let out a sharp grunt as he pulled and threw away the scalpel lodged in his left armpit, the blood dying his black and silver outfit and adding a copper taste to the air. Then he crowed in anger and charged at Tony with wild abandon.
- Chapter 14: Embracing Horror
Vincent stepped off the elevator, onto the ground floor after a couple hours of investigation. The apple long finished and a smattering of blood staining his clothes. He cleaned his hands with a white towel that he had picked up in the last apartment. Twenty-two people in all, ranging from late teens to early fifties had been cleaned up by him and returned as ghouls. The foul being still wandering the upper floors of the apartment building with hatred burning in their eyes and the jealousy towards living beings that all undead carry with them. Vincent had concluded that the ghouls were part of this apartment building’s feature after throwing one older man out the window and he didn’t come back to life.
He rolled his neck to stretch it as it had gotten a bit stiff from looking down at his handiwork. His shoulders soon rolled in small circles to loosen up as well as he looked over the lobby of the ground floor. There was a set of mailboxes built into the wall, a pair of payphones and a guest couch that smelled a bit mossy. The floor was a discolored white tile with crayon drawings in some areas denoting the kids that must have stayed here at some point. The virtual apartments and the lab were still human enough to not allow children, even if they were only computer-generated ones, to survive in this dark city.
Vincent took measured steps to the front door of the apartment building, noting that it had a broken lock and the hinges creaked a bit when pushed. It was truly a wonder that anyone, even the computerized characters would live in such a place. As he took his first steps out the door, the smell of iron wafted over and he looked to his left where the man he had thrown out the window still lay. Blood pooled around the mangled corpse, his bones broken and limbs bent at odd angles. A mix of horror, anger and unwillingness painted on the man’s face.
Vincent stared at the man for some time, an odd thought crossing his mind wondering if the pixels had lingering thoughts. After all, this man was just like the others in the apartment, merely computer-generated people. He had not yet met a real human being; the proof was in the numbers printed on their bottom inner lip. It was a small tattoo ranging from 001 to 999, randomly generated and given to each artificial human within the world. On the other hand, real humans would have a number ranging from 01 to 50 on the back of their neck, with the first ten numbers reserved for research assistants. Vincent was one of those assistants, though he was still given only very limited information. He knew the city was virtual, the number of participant’s, number of artificial humans or arties, and that supernatural beings lived within the city. Beyond that, he was given freedom to do as he pleased within the city, just like any other participant.
His lips curved up into a sinister smile as he stared down the street at the large offices downtown. One of the spawning points for the participants was an office building, and while he couldn’t be sure that it was that one, it was worth checking out. He wondered to himself if a real human would be more fun to play with than these arties as he walked along the street. A low tune slipped from his lips to break the silence of the walk as he passed by another apartment complex.
A dark-skinned figure lunged out from an alley as his body was halfway past the entrance. The acrid smell of blood and rust filled his nostrils as he was yanked deep into the alley and slammed against the wall. Two other figures stood nearby with wary looks as the first man closed his fingers around Vincent’s throat and held a rusty switchblade a couple centimeters from his left eye. The trio reeked of blood and a small trail slid from the corner of their lips.
“Give me one reason not to kill you here and now.”
The man gripping Vincent’s throat whispered in an almost inaudible voice next to his ear. A mixture of madness and fear clear in the man’s eyes. Vincent was startled by the power and agility of the man, being unable to draw his own knife, hidden beneath his shirt, before being attacked.
“I bear no ill will, friend. Perhaps you have the wrong man or the wrong idea about me? I don’t believe that we have ever met.”
Vincent answered in a soft voice, while holding up both hands in surrender. Clear fascination stained his eyes as he felt pain from the man’s grip on his throat. The sensation was still so very new to him and he had enjoyed every single experience of it so far. However, he wasn’t keen on losing an eye simply for his personal exploration and enjoyment of more pain. His mind wandered momentarily as he contemplated if he could be called a masochist if he only experienced pain in a virtual world yet could not feel physical arousal from it.
“I don’t think so. Aren’t you the one who threw my friend, Nathan, out the window?”
The dark-skinned man growled viciously as his grip tightened slightly on Vincent’s neck. The other two figures moved to the entry of the alleyway to look for any companions. The two teenagers, going by their facial features, were siblings of a male and female duo. The smaller one had a maturing feminine body hidden under tattered clothes similar to her older brother. Both were bleeding from several small cuts and dried blood coated their clothes. Contrary to their light skin, the dark-skinned man was bulkier with deeper wounds and the aura of a protector. It was obvious from their clothing and breath that they were fresh out of combat and still wary of any strangers.
“Ah, well then you do have the right man. What will you do now?”
Vincent stated calmly with a smile after noticing their wariness and body state. His hands lowered down to his waist as the man holding him by the throat looked stunned at his direct admission. He wondered what the trio would do next and the trembling of the man’s fingers holding the switchblade told him that his threat was a bluff. He may have fought others, even killed others before, but never a man who hadn’t fought back. It was all too obvious by the lack of determination and clarity in the other man’s eyes. Vincent was quite confident in his judgement of people, besides that, none of them had a number on their necks. These were simple arties meant to test the participants or drag them into showing some form of intense emotion. He was quite sure about his theory and beginning to understand the point of the experiment.
- Chapter 13: Hunter or Hunted
Natasha gritted her teeth, hid behind the couch in the living room and checked the glass slivers in her arms. The cuts were fairly minor and weren’t deep enough to cause her death but it would affect her combat capability. She breathed out a small sigh for the little things as her father’s teachings filled her mind almost instinctually. Her ears strained to listen for the hunters as she moved low, deeper into the house, looking for the bathrooms for a water source and antiseptics to clean her arms. The blood drops would be a problem, but she would figure out a way to use her trail against the two men.
“Predators will track you by your smell, whether it is body odor or blood. You can use that to create diversions, to lead them away from you, to give yourself time to set ambushes and traps. When you are alone and being hunted, you can’t expect someone to save you. You must rely on yourself, survive by yourself, and learn to turn yourself from prey to predator.”
Her father’s words of wisdom echoed in her head as she pushed open the bathroom door on the first floor and dug through a medicine cabinet above the sink. Switching on the faucet gently, she scanned the cabinet and quickly pulled a box of gauze strips down along with antiseptic cream. She ran her glass shard embedded arms under the water and pulled out the larger shards. The smaller bits would have to wait until she could find proper medical supplies. With experienced movements, she cleaned her arms, rubbed on the cream and tied on the gauze strips with ripped off strips of her shirt’s abdomen area. She knew that doing so would only make her more vulnerable, but she would find more clothes within the house before it became an issue.
Meanwhile the two hunters had cleared the yard and the shorter man was staring through the broken window. Seeing nothing, he motioned for his partner to go ahead and the other man kicked out the larger shards of the window that were still standing so they could climb through easier. The noise pierced the silent house and alerted Natasha, who began to move once more as she wiped bloody handprints on a few doorknobs as she half crawled, half knelt past them on her way to the staircase leading to the second floor. She needed to find new clothes, a hair tie and perhaps a better weapon. She wanted to tie back her hair so it wouldn’t get in the way during a fight, though it would make grabbing her hair easier.
The two hunters left their bows near the window and pulled out their knives instead. The compound bows would be far less useful within a few feet where the power would be greatly mitigated by the distance. The first shot would be powerful, surely, but any further shots would be meaningless as any prey within a few feet would be on them before the second arrow was nocked. Thus, the two men abandoned their ranged advantage and took to close quarters combat, it also made their blood boil in excitement. There was something primal about cutting open and tearing at a prey with a blade while holding it down with the other hand. The beauty of their human prey never entered their eyes, to them, she was merely a deer or a grounded duck.
Natasha snuck up the stairs as she heard the two men’s loud boots pounding the wooden floorboards of the hallway. There were only a few rooms on the ground floor, including the kitchen, bathroom and living room. There was an attached garage and perhaps a laundry room or small office, Natasha wasn’t positive since she only entered two of the rooms and past the kitchen on the way to the stairs. Upstairs, she found three more bedrooms, a bathroom and the hanging cord leading to the attic ladder. The first door on the left was the master bedroom with a queen-sized bed, two dressers, another door to the master bathroom and an ottoman. Natasha carefully closed the door behind her as she stepped into the room and checked the dressers first. After finding a new shirt, she quickly changed into the long-sleeved blouse and tucked her hair under the collar.
Feeling more comfortable, she pulled out more clothes and stuffed them into the crack of the door to muffle her sound. It would also act to slow down anyone pushing into the bedroom, if only by a few seconds. Next, she moved to the ottoman and pulled out the spare blanket, a thick comforter and placed it by the bedroom window. It would be her emergency escape if something went wrong during the upcoming fight. She would escape through the window with the comforter to shield her from the glass and soften the blow of her fall. If she was lucky in the jump, she would only sprain an ankle or dislocate her shoulder; otherwise, she would be looking at broken bones or death.
Downstairs, the two men had found the bathroom and the mess of blood in the sink. Both grinned savagely and turned back to the other doors. Frustrated that all of the bloody door handles could be ruses, they still grit their teeth and checked each room. The first door on the right past the living area was the laundry room with one of those stackable washer and dryer combos. The door on the left, past the bathroom, led into the garage with a small blue coupe. After a quick check inside and under the car, the two men made it to the kitchen where the back door and stairs were located. A bloody handprint was on the stairway rail, making the duo even happier as they clambered upstairs.
Natasha kept searching the master bedroom and found nothing else other than clothes and the blanket so she moved on to the bathroom. Inside, she found a shower stall, toilet and a second door leading to a walk-in closet. She opened up the closet and began searching it for anything, finding more clothes a safe and a brown shoebox with a snub revolver and six bullets. Her eyes glistened when she laid her fingers upon it and checked it visually as best as she could in the shortest time possible. She loaded the revolver after ensuring no problems after a visual inspection and waited in the bathroom doorway for the two men with the revolver trained on the bedroom entrance.
The shorter man found the blocked master bedroom door first and signaled to his buddy before shoulder tackling the door. His partner rushed in behind him and dived forward towards the bed as soon as he heard the gunshots. The shorter man, who didn’t even have time to yell out, had a red hole in his forehead and two more in his chest. Down to a one-on-one fight, the remaining man cursed under his breath as he stared at his friend. They had been hunting buddies for as long as he could remember. They were practically brothers and even though he felt his blood run cold from the gunshots, he still bared his teeth in anger. Taking off his boots in frustration, he threw them both at the doorway where Natasha hid, trying to distract her with the moving objects.
Two more gunshots rang out as Natasha instinctively blasted the pair of boots, before a slew of curses poured from her mouth. She kicked the ground and moved backwards as the last man leapt over the bed and charged in her direction. She fired her last shot after taking aim as best she could before she flung the revolver at her incoming attacker. The man flinched as the bullet caught his blade wielding shoulder and the gun slapped his face. However, he forced his way past both obstacles and managed to catch up with Natasha, slashing out with the knife his bad arm.
Natasha pulled her own knife and blocked in a hurry as she hit the shower stall glass with a thud. She kicked out with her front leg at the man’s frontmost knee and narrowly missed as he stumbled in his attack from the pain. She pushed off the wall and stabbed outward at the man who clumsily blocked her attack, deflecting it by pure luck while sacrificing his balance. He stepped backwards with a slight fluster and punched out instinctively. Natasha ducked low, dodging his incoming fist and sliced upwards in her second attack. Her hunting blade caught in the man’s ribs and she pivoted on her foot, slapping her heel on the back of the man’s head as they crossed paths while releasing her blade. He flew forward in a stagger and through the shower stall glass. He went down and didn’t get back up as Natasha waited with baited breath. A pool of blood began to form around his body, as she stared at him in deep concern. The waves of deep emotions swirled in her eyes as the realization that she took two lives settled in. Her father had trained her to be independent and capable of protecting herself, but not for the aftermath of taking a human life.