Snow fell from the sky that night, coating the ground and anything else that it could possibly gather on.
A shadowy figure wandered through the darkness, staying low behind the trees so not to be seen.
Daring to stand up and look around, the figure's ice blue eyes were revealed to those who might have been watching.
The person looked around, warily, as if they were expecting something to come careening out of the darkness at any second.
They seemed to jump a bit at every little movement.
I'm abnormally nervous, They thought, glancing around to see if there was anything following them. Nothing seemed to be there.
I guess that's what happens when you have to stand and watch while your brother is murdered by a creature that was supposed to be dead a year ago.
Sitting down against a tree, the person took off the hood that concealed their identity.
It was a young woman, in her teens or early twenties.
She tucked one side of her hair behind her ear, eyes closing briefly.
Her fear showed in her eyes, as she once again glanced around to see if anything was watching her.
I can't stay here long.. He'll find me for sure.
Something moved in the darkness, and her head quickly turned towards the movement.
A brown, furry, rabbit came hopping out of the weeds, and then vanished down it's hole.
She sighed in relief, brushing a strand of her blonde hair out of her face.
Then, a louder noise.
Something like footsteps in the snow.
The girl stood up, her eyes darting around the area. The noise got louder, and louder.
She froze, staring into the darkness. A creature emerged, a horrible looking creature.
It's long, pointed tail brushed the ground.
It had a smirk on it's face, as it crept closer to the girl.
She backed up, tripping over a root and tumbling onto the ground behind her.
"Why run, 18? You'll be with your brother..." The creature's smirk got bigger.
"Don't you want that?"
"I want to see him again, yes. But I'd rather not have to be violently murdered first!" 18 snapped back. She shuttered, as Cell's claws got longer.
And they appeared to be made of metal.
She turned, and took off running. I've just gotta lose him, then get somewhere where I might be able to hide… She thought.
Then maybe I'll be able to figure out how Cell came back to life, and how he got into this form..
Cell was right behind her, she could feel it. She picked up her speed, telling herself over and over again that she could lose him.
Cell was catching up, and quickly. She picked up her speed a little more, silently hoping she'd come across a city at the end of the forest.
And sure enough, she did. The trees thinned out, revealing a large city where she could hopefully blend in to her surroundings.
She darted into the city, vanishing into the crowd.
She stopped, and looked behind her- No sign of Cell.
She'd lost him.
Sighing in relief, she wandered further into the city.
She noticed people giving her odd looks- She had no idea why. Nobody really knew who
she was...
Surprisingly enough the fact that there were androids running amok hadn't become known to the normal people.
She wandered into a store, sitting down on one of the benches just inside of it.
She took off the jacket she was wearing, putting it next to her.
She glanced outside, noticing snow was starting to pile up just outside the door.
Well, that's just great. I could leave now before I get snowed in… But Cell could be out there anywhere, and I don't want to risk running into him.
"Yikes, I wonder if we're gonna get snowed in?"
She nearly jumped out of her skin as a voice sounded from next to her.
She turned her head to see a girl, somewhere around her age.
"...Oh. Yeah, it sure looks like it." Well that was embarrassing. Usually she knew when someone else was there. She quickly diverted her attention back to the door.
The snow kept piling up.. Up... Up...
"My name's Kate by the way." The girl next to her said.
"I'm-" 18 was abruptly cut off as the lights went out.
"Oh darn!" The girl next to her exclaimed. "The snow must have knocked the power out."
"..Yep." 18 stood up, looking around. She could see in the dark fairly well, something most people didn't know.
Dr. Gero had been testing out that feature when he made 17 and 18, and they had ended up being the only two that could.
Somewhere in the back of the store, glass shattering could be heard. Then a scream, and another... And another.
Clattering was heard from nearby. She took a step forward, eyes darting around.
A whole aisle of shelves was knocked over.
Human bodies could be seen under the shelves, blood pooling from them and out into the main part of the store.
Cell was in there somewhere, but she couldn't quite figure out where.
A man came rushing by her, screaming.
There was a huge gash down his arm that was pouring blood onto the floor.
He ran to the door and started beating on it.
"WHY! Why snow why! Why did there have to be sn-" He was cut off.
A blade darted through the air, grazing 18 on the forehead. It went on past her, and nailed the man straight in the heart.
The man collapsed onto the floor of the store.
In an instant, Cell was in front of her. He raked his claws over her chest, sinking them in deep.
She stumbled backwards, startled. There goes that shirt.
Cell had become extraordinarily fast.
He lunged at her, and she just barely managed to dodge an attack that would have most likely killed her if it had hit.
Cell grew blades on his elbows, and started trying to stab her with them. She kept jumping to the side and dodging.
Suddenly, blades went flying everywhere from different parts of Cell's body.
One nailed her in the arm, and another in the leg.
The others hit Kate, the girl she'd been speaking to earlier.
Kate was pinned to the wall by the blades. And the blades had killed her.
18 wanted to fight back, but Cell had been stronger than her before.
Now he was even stronger than he'd ever been, and trying to fight him would most likely get her killed, like most of the other poor unfortunate souls (Yes, the little mermaid reference was intentional) that had been in the store at the time.
Her eyes scanned around the store, which looked like a scene from a horror movie.
Bodies littered the floor, most of them horribly mutilated.
While she was slightly distracted, Cell managed to creep up behind her and elbow her in the back- with his blades of course.
Instantly she fell, pain shooting throughout her body like lightning.
She struggled back to her feet, turning and glaring at Cell.
Cell whopped her with the side of his tail, which had turned into a blade like his claws, and she slammed into the wall.
She instantly blacked out, falling onto her side on the floor.
When she woke up, Cell had vanished.
She sat up, leaning against the wall behind her. She was extremely sore, and every once and awhile she'd feel a sharp pain from her back and chest.
The door was still blocked by snow, and from what she could see nobody had tried to enter or leave the store.
Nobody knew what had taken place inside.
The brief thought that maybe the same thing had happened to the rest of the town passed through her mind, but she quickly dismissed it.
She attempted to stand up, but that just resulted in another sharp pain shooting through her entire body. She fell back against the wall, wincing.
She took a deep breath, then opened her eyes, glancing around. There was no sign of any movement anywhere within the store.
Am I the only person that survived? She thought, eyes flickering between the bodies that littered the floor. Some of them were employees, others were customers.
She tried again to get to her feet, doing her best to ignore the searing pain coming from her many deep wounds.
Bumping around could be heard from outside. She turned towards the door, watching. Slowly the snow started coming down.
The door opened, and a man walked in. "What on Earth!?" He exclaimed.
"What happened in here!?"
"Lets just say there's a serial killer on the loose," 18 replied. "And I'd advise not going outside at night."
The man whirled around, staring at her- He apparently hadn't noticed her at first.
He started to speak, but was quickly cut of. Seemingly out of nowhere, a blade shot through the air behind him.
It went all the way through him, and lodged itself into the wall.
The man fell to the floor, adding to the number of bodies scattered about the store.
18's eyes quickly flickered in the direction the blade had come from.
Cell stepped out of the darkness, looking creepier than ever. His eyes were glowing red, there were blades on his elbows as well as his claws and tail.
Knowing she didn't stand a chance against Cell in her current state, she took off for the door. She got out and slammed the door behind her.
She leaned against the wall of the building, slowly sliding down until she was sitting.
Her severe wounds were really starting to bother her.
They were still gushing blood, and every time she tried to move, pain shot through her body all over again.
It was slowly dawning on her how badly hurt she actually was. She was starting to get extremely weak, and her vision was cutting in and out.
She was about to pass out again, but a noise from the door of the building startled her awake. She turned her head, letting out a low gasp as Cell came out.
She shot to her feet, the sudden movement causing an almost unbearable pain to shoot through her body. "Gah!" She stumbled back, slamming into the wall behind her.
Cell floated up, then landed in front of her. She backed up against the wall, eyes widening slightly. She was trapped. There was no way she could run in her condition.
Cell lifted his hand, sending blades shooting at her. They stabbed her body in different places, and she slid to the ground.
She was in terrible pain, and could hardly move at all by that point. She fell onto her side, the blood from her wounds pooling around her.
Cell walked over to her, grabbing her with his metal claws and sinking them into her skin. He tossed her across the road, where she slammed into the wall of another building.
She blacked out, landing rather roughly on the sidewalk. Her breathing instantly became extremely shallow.
Cell, figuring that she was done for, smirked and then went off to find more victims.
-
POV switch
-
"Are you sure this is where the report came from?" Krillin asked, turning to look at Gohan.
"Yep, I'm sure." He replied. "According to what I saw on the news, someone reported a 'scary lizard creature with knife claws' rampaging in the city."
"That sounds rather silly... " Krillin muttered.
"But that's not it, there was also a report that there were several missing persons from the city, and they'd all last been seen in the same general area the report came in about this creature." Gohan replied.
"Huh, alright. That's a little weird." Krillin admitted, glancing around the area.
"This is where the report came from…." Gohan said.
"I don't see anyone." Krillin commented.
"Lets go down the street a little, some of the people that were reported missing were at that Wal-Mart down there." Gohan replied.
They walked down the street until they came across said Wal-Mart. Gohan opened the door and walked in, while Krillin stayed outside.
Gohan glanced back. "You coming?"
"Uh.. Yeah.. Just a second." Krillin seemed to be eying something else.
"Alright." Gohan turned, stepping in… "Whoa! It looks like there's been a massacre in here!"
He looked around at the bodies all over the floor. "Some of these people are the ones reported missing…" Gohan muttered.
He remembered the names he'd heard on the news, and the pictures that went along with them.
"Kate Jones… Danny Johnson... Uh? Isn't that the manager of this place!?" His eyes scanned over the bodies. There was a blade lodged into the wall.
Gohan walked over to the blade, taking it out and examining it. "This will be good evidence." He put it in his pocket.
He started to wander further into the store, until he heard Krillin call his name from outside.
"Hey, Gohan! Come here!"
Gohan turned and walked back out of the building. At first he couldn't figure out where Krillin was.
"Uh? Where are you!?" He called, glancing around.
"Right here."
Gohan looked up. Krillin was across the street from him, kneeling over someone. Gohan walked across the street, and discovered that the person was Android 18.
"Is she alive?" He asked, kneeling down next to Krillin. "Yeah, but just barely. What do you think could have hurt her like this?" Krillin asked.
"Well, I have a pretty good idea. That report on the news is starting to make more and more sense. I found this inside that Wal-Mart." Gohan took the blade out of his pocket.
Krillin took it from Gohan, looking at it. "That's weird.." He then handed it back to Gohan, his attention going back to Android 18.
"Stay with her," Gohan told him. "I'm gonna go look around for this.. Lizard creature with blades for claws." Gohan took off.
-
Pov Switch
-
18's eyes shot open, and she sat up.
Pain skyrocketed through her body, but she forced herself to ignore it. She glanced to the side, spotting Krillin looking at her with worry in his eyes.
"Are you okay?" He asked
"Do I look like I'm okay to you!?" She snapped back.
It'd been quite a long time since she'd seen Krillin- The last time had been when he'd finally admitted he had a crush on her (Partially thanks to Gohan pointing it out).
That had been a year ago, right after Cell's defeat.
"..Er… Sorry." Krillin muttered.
She closed her eyes briefly, then opened them and glanced back at him.
"It's fine, I g- Gah!" Pain suddenly shot through her body again, and she slid back down to the ground, struggling to catch her breath.
Krillin walked over closer to her, sitting at her side.
She closed her eyes, breathing slowing down dramatically. She was still awake, but was too weak to keep her eyes open at that point.
She could hear Krillin's voice, but couldn't quite make out what he was saying. She forced herself to stay awake, afraid if she passed out again she'd stay like that for a long time.
It eventually came to the point where she couldn't breathe at all. Her consciousness was slowly fading again, and she couldn't fight it any longer.
That moment was when it really hit her: She was dying.
She suddenly felt extremely dizzy, and then completely lost awareness of what was going on around her.