One woman.
Six billion people.
He literally held the salvation for either. He wished for both, yet that wasn't to be. Eying the large digital gauge as it slowly, and deliberately continued on its path to naught. It's red glare never wavering.
If he chose her, would God allow him absolution? And if he chose them, would his conscious allow it either? He didn't know. He didn't want to know. Contemplating either of these outcomes could drive even the most mentally stout man insane. Even if they had all of eternity to do so. But he didn't have that luxury. He had to answer one of those two now or suffer the cessation of all life, or hers.
Two Weeks Earlier
Safety off, right index finger resting on the trigger. Taunt, but not too much so. Crouched, slowly moving his way up the stairway. Step by step. Sweeping his weapon mounted light side to side to determine what lies in front of him. Bright eyes never blinking. Only watching what the light revealed. Continuing in this fashion for fourteen more stairs. He reached the top. Doing a quick sweep with the light to ascertain nothing was around him. Satisfied that nothing was there aside from darkness, he turned his attention back to the door. Above it in softly glowing letters read: 49th Floor. Nine floors from the top. But this is where he needed to be. One of his other squad-mates had already gone up to secure those floors. And due to the order of radio silence, he had not heard of his progress yet. All he had to do was trust the other man to get the job done, and focus on getting his done as well. He clicked off his light, and pulled the set of goggles adorning his helmet down in front of his eyes. He preferred the light, as the goggles were uncomfortable on him. He could already see well enough in the dark. But these helped enough to warrant their use. Clicking a switch, all that was previously lit by his light, was now bathed in a green glow from light too dim to be noticed by human eyes. Moving silent as before he reached the door. Slowly pushing down on the handle he eased the door open with no sound accompanying it. He slid into the opening before shutting the door behind him. Taking a swift look and seeing no movement he slowly crouched back down and moved alongside the near wall down the hallway. He reached another door way. Nudging the handle down he pushed this one open as well. Sticking his head in he visually searched the room. Nothing. He closed the door again. And just lifted his boot to take a step.
"WHAT THE FUCK?!" he heard screech from his earpiece. He instantly went into a lower crouch and took a quick look around. Nothing. The order of radio silence was absolute. Not to be broken unless completely necessary. "Jesus Christ! Get the fuck away from me! Someone get down here no…." Static… " I don't know what the hell these things…." More static. "…n the 32nd floor need help now! Now Goddamit!"
A new voice broke over his earpiece. "Siesas get down to the 32nd floor and see what the hell is going on with Goldsmith." That was him, he forgot about being silent. He stood while turning and took off towards the door that led to the staircase he was previously on. He pounded down the stairs pushing the nightvision goggles back above his eyes to he could use his natural vision. Reaching the door with the soft glow of 32nd floor above it. He pushed the door open weapon tight against his shoulder. He wasn't prepared for what he saw. Bodies. Everywhere, illuminated from the fluorescent bulbs of the hallway. Blood on the ceilings, walls, even on computer monitors in the cubicles. Most of the corpses were strewn across the room, separated from each other. Connected only by some pools of blood that happened to leak into each other. He quickly brought a hand to his mouth. In an effort to block the intense smell. He looked around the room for Goldsmith. Seeing nothing he called out softly on his radio. "Goldsmith, I'm on your floor. Where the fuck are you?" Silence. "Goldsmith, answer me now!"
He called again, but to the CO listening over all the radio channels his squad is using. "Vickers! Which room is his FoF tag located in?" Two seconds went by. "Three doors ahead of you on your left."
He stepped towards said door, moving quicker than before but still slow enough to watch his surroundings. He walked around the corpses, careful not to step in the now larger pools of blood. He reached the door and after turning the handle pushed it open quickly. His weapon aiming in the room. It was dark in the room, a sharp contrast to the lit hallway he stood in. He took a step in and reached on the wall for a switch. He found it, flipped it up. No light. Having the strong lights behind him made it too difficult to see. He pushed his goggles back down, and flipped them on. Green lit up all in the room showing what was unseen. He had to back out quick or risk losing what little food he had left in his stomach. He raced back to the door he had entered the hallway in. Leaning against the wall with his left hand. He quietly called out on the radio. " I found Goldsmith…."
Vickers answered. "Well? What's his status?" He couldn't answer right away. "Siesas! Dammit answer me!"
He responded. "He's dead." He heard swearing on the other end.
"Grab his body and evac out of that building now. Smith take…." Siesas interrupted him. " I can't…"
Vickers yelled. "And why the fuck not?"
He swallowed hard in an attempt to alleviate his dry throat. No avail. He spoke. " There isn't enough of his body to bring with me…."
Silence. Several moments of it. " Wha…? What? Siesas explain!" Vickers spoke.
"I can't tell where what's left of his body ends, and the goddamn wall begins." Dead silence. He knew the other five men in the building had heard that. None spoke. Vickers voice cracked over the headphone. "All of you out of the building now! Evac your floor and meet out front of the main entrance." Siesas started to walk towards the door. But he heard something. His ears immediately flicked in the direction of the sound. What was it? He heard it again. Sliding? Tense, he waited for the sound again. None came. He listened for a few more seconds. Before turning to go out the door. He pushed the door open about half way he heard another sound, he whipped around staring at the end of the hallway, where the sound came from. Standing there was a person? It looked humanoid, but there was too much blood covering it to be certain. He called out to it, neglecting to turn his mic off.. "Hey! Are you hurt? Come here we need to get out of this building now…" He started walking towards it. It turned, and for the first time he saw its face. The jaw was gone, as was the left eye. Blood was falling from its throat mixed with saliva, no mouth to stop it. It roared. The only sound it could make with not jaw. It was loud, causing his ears to fold back on themselves. "What in the name of Christ…?" His mic was still on, everyone heard the previous statement as well as that one. The creature rushed at him, running far faster than anything he'd ever seen. He raised his weapon pulling the trigger. A crack sounded and he say a flash of blood fleck off of the things shoulder. He fired again. Catching it directly in the chest. It stumbled, but still kept running at him, screaming at him in its own sound. He waited until it was within fifteen feet of him. As it jumped to tackled him to the ground, he pulled the trigger again. But didn't let go of it this time. Bullets freed themselves from the confines of the carbines barrel with repeating cracks and a small amount of smoke. Most of the bullets tore into the creatures flesh, bit of it flying off as it ran. One of them caught is directly in the forehead. With this it lost all power to its legs and fell to the ground with momentum keeping it skidding on the ground with a trail of blood following it. Before it came to rest at his feet. He didn't wait to see if it was dead. He instantly turned and sprinted out the door going down the stairs as quick as he could. Yelling into the mic: " Everyone out NOW!" They had heard the exchance of fire from his carbine through the mic. So they knew not to disobey him.
A/N You may be thinking this is a zombie related thing. Well, kinda right, but mostly wrong. This is to illustate a point to be made later in the story. So while they may indeed be zombie-esque they are not a drving point in the storyline. So don't expect this story to revolve over them. They'll make a few showings though... :)
And I have recently thought of something that may throw some people off. This is indeed an Inuyasha story. (Hence where its located.) But I'm using a different name for Inuyasha (for the first two chapters only.) You can probably guess as to who he is. But don't let the American name fool you. It's him, and I'll explain why he has a different name in the third chapter.