A/N
Finally! After over 10 rereads and a week... the prologue to Reactive is finally here! The story will mostly be in Oliver's view, but it'll sometimes switch to other POVs. Enjoy!
What… Where am I…?
I slowly lifted my heavy eyelids, unable to see well through the mass of carnage and smoke. My limited eyesight was already blurred so even if I did see something, I wouldn't be able to make it out. I squirmed a little, my limbs felt numb and there was massive weight on my leg and stomach. With one free hand, I rubbed my eyelid to see better- it had worked. Although I was basically swallowed in darkness and smoke, I could see faint silhouettes of...limp bodies? I slowly feel panic rise in my heart, I could smell the stench of death and blood all over this place. I immediately tried to lift myself from the crushing weight, feeling the panicky grip of cleithrophobia. As I managed to slide myself out enough to prop up on my elbows, my eyes widened at the sight of my brothers.
"L….Lui?" I choked out, my throat was sore and dry. His arms were wrapped around me and there was two deep slices in his back; clots of crusting blood were surrounding the open wound. My throat began to sting and my vision blurred again. He died protecting me from whatever slaughtered him like that. In my peripheral view, I could see a flash of white hair. Looking to the side, I finally saw what caught my eye. It was my younger brother Piko….smothered in blood. I finally gave in to the temptation to vomit, this was too much, this had to be a dream. This is not real.
Suddenly, the events from earlier flew to my mind. I was out shopping with Piko, Lui and his friend, Ring. My throat clenched up at the thought of the memory, tears ran down my bloodied face. I continued to squirm out from underneath my brother, with the dead weight making it difficult to move, it took a while. I then started to shake my older brother in some hope of him still being alive. Although I knew it already, most of the stench came from them and they were stone cold. "Lui...Piko...we need to leave this place..." I pitifully choked between low sobs. They were dead, and I would never see them nor their goofy smiles ever again.
I don't know how long I sat there, hugging their battered, bloody bodies when I heard a loud thump echo through this death ridden place. I instantly froze, panic began to grip at my heart again. My limbs hurt excessively and I couldn't move without sharp pain shooting up my leg. I tried to get up, but to no avail, the pain was too much and I sank back to the filthy ground. I jumped in fear as I heard a loud thump right next to me. Instinctively, I fell limp and closed my eyes in some sort of attempt to play dead- this is my last resort. My eyes were already adjusted to the dark place, so I could at least see better than I did before. And then I saw it. Whatever was sniffing around had long, brown legs and short- yet sharp claws. It was probably the size of three or four people, I couldn't exactly tell how big it was due to the thick smoke all over the place.
It was incredibly difficult not to cry in terror when the faint silhouette of the beast started to chew noisily at a dead body. That's it, I couldn't stay here any longer if I wanted to live. As I tried to my best to make use of my panicky mind and brainstorm an escape plan, a thought unexpectedly came to my mind. Where is Ring? I could feel guilt build in my chest once I realized I had just forgot about her. She was not only Lui's friend, she was also a close friend to me and Piko. All I saw was my brothers, but she also tagged along on our little shopping trip, so where was she? If Ring wasn't here, there might be a chance she was still alive, and they could leave this place and figure out this madness. I decided to slowly inch away from the creature, this place wasn't too big, so I could hopefully find Ring before anything bad could happen.
It was almost eternity just climb to over the dead bodies to the other side, all because of my leg. The smell of bile mixed with blood would've made me vomit again, but there was no more contents left in my stomach. Even if I did, that would give way to my location and whatever that thing was would know I'm alive and kill me right on the spot. There was only a small amount of light coming from the opening in this den-like bloodbath, but I could manage to at least see the features of these bloody faces. I was for certain that Ring was nowhere in this side of the den. When the large creature suddenly stood up, I turned my head slowly, trying my best not to tremble in fear. I then could see it, whatever it was was long and thin, it had short brown fur that shone blue in the crack of light. I could tell by it's blazing green eyes and it's rectangular, horizontal pupils focused on me.
It saw me.
Crap!
Fear must've obscured all the rest of the common sense I had when I leapt to my feet, only to collapse on the blood covered bodies beneath me. I shrieked as pain split up my blurred my vision again as I clutched my injured leg. I started to shake in pure terror of what's to happen as the large creature approached through the smoke. This was it, I was going to die in this death ridden place. There was nothing I could do about it. I closed my eyes and fearfully accepted my fate as the beast's steps became closer and louder- everything seemed to have slowed down at that point.
Out of the blue, a series of gunfire sliced into earshot. I immediately took my chance and screamed at the top of my lungs for help. Although this would just make the creature more intent to kill me, I knew I might die if I didn't. This was my slim chance, and if I failed to call for help, I'll die. It brutally slammed it's paw on my back, cutting my scream off. I yelped in pain, it's pressure on my spine was immense, I'm surprised my back isn't broken already. Outside, I could hear loud, sharp orders and echoing gunshots all over the place. I silently prayed that they heard me for as I could speak no longer. With all this pressure against my lungs, I could barely get any air and I was slowly slipping into unconsciousness. My eyelids started to weigh down yet again, nearly forcing me to close my eyes in which, I obeyed.
However, the weight seemed to become imbalanced as my eyes snapped open when I heard a series of ear splitting bangs. The pressure on my back wobbled for a while, then vanished. I inhaled as much air as humanly possible, and turned my head to see my savior. It was too dark and clouded by the smoke, and I couldn't see from across the den. Eventually, the gunshots ceased, and I couldn't hear anything else except the unintelligible sounds outside. "Are you okay? Say something so I can find you." I heard a masculine tone echo. I tried my best to make the simplest of sounds to come out, but what I heard myself was small and incoherent. But nonetheless, the nonsense of a sound actually could be heard from the man, and he had made his way over to me. My mind immediately flew back to Ring again as the man told me he was going to lift me. "R-Ring... please.. find her..." Was all the words I could muster. But the man stopped speaking and slowly nodded in understandment. Despite barely being able to see in this place, I could catch glimpses of his unusually long purple hair and shining purple eyes. He looked intimidatingly tall. After handing me a medical face mask, he gently scooped me up into his arms and proceeded to leave this place. Before exiting, I made sure to take a look at the deceased creature that had almost taken my life a moment ago. It had long and thin legs and a long muzzle. Its feet were like a furry lizards', and it had a set of four long teeth. I stared at it in shock, what was this thing? It seemed like a mix between a goat and a dog. With all the questions swirling around in my head, I couldn't bring myself to ask them due to the pain in my lungs and chest.
Just then I knew, the memory from minutes ago would haunt me forever.
It took me a while for my eyes to get adjusted to the nearly blinding light of noon. There was a lot more smoke outside than in the den, the stomach churning scent of blood was replaced with a smell of fire. Ashes lie scattered all over the place, and what used to be a stray mattress, lie covered in black. It was only a matter of minutes of walking before we finally arrive to small group of people gathered around a tame fire. As soon as we arrived, all eyes turned to us. One of them- a tall blue haired man - stood up to help my carrier lie me down on a vacant sofa. I look around at my surroundings, I see other vacant mattresses and sofas around me, one of them occupied with a small blue haired girl. At first I thought she was Ring but alas, Ring had long hair whereas this girl's hair had a slight tinge of purple. I swivel my head to my left, where the bunch were conversing over the fire. A blonde haired girl seemed to be deep in a debate with another white haired girl meanwhile the others appeared to be idly chatting. I turned my head slightly towards the two tall men conversing right next to me and decided to listen in on what seemed to be their plan.
"...friend Ring, but not a single soul in there was alive except him, I need to look around." The taller of the two, the purple haired one said. I could feel myself tense up at that sentence. What if Ring is dead? I never finished searching for her... "Gakupo, we can't afford to send you back out there, look at your shoulder! You'll die of blood loss before you even get back there. Gumi is still gone and here you are, injured and wanting to find somebody who could be anywhere." The blue haired man sighed. "I'm going to send IA and Len to look for her. You should get that treated and then rest." According what that blue guy had said, Gakupo must have a severe shoulder wound. "...Make sure you tell them to ask him how she looks. Knowing IA, she would be too unfocused and Len would be too busy brainstorming an ambush." Seems the purple guy had given up on their small argument, and left the scene. I heard the other man's footsteps head over to the right and call two names unknown to me. "IA and Len, come over."
"Yeah, Kaito? What do you need?" He heard a boyish voice casually reply. " I'm sending you two to go find a friend of that new rescue's. Gakupo found him in a den under the mall. Be sure to..." Somehow, although I was listening intently, his voice seemed to tune out by itself and everything faded to black again.
"Oi, Blondie. Wake up." I slowly opened my eyes to see a blonde boy with a ponytail and spiky hair, prodding me with an old telephone handle. Instinctively, I lazily swatted his hand away, making an irritable grumble before attempting to prop myself on an arm. Bad idea. Splitting pain seared through my spine and I fell down in the cushy sofa and groaned. My spine hurt like crazy and I couldn't even feel my leg anymore, so it wasn't that much of a pain, now. "You seriously need to fix that arm and leg of yours." The boy commented nonchalantly, pointing to his leg. Yes, his clothes were bloody and torn because of all the crawling he had done and the damage that monster had done to him, but beneath that was two large holes. That beast must've bit him before he had awoke. "Here, I'll send Luka to come and treat those wounds, but for now I'll just ask you some questions." Len said, shrugging. "All I need is you to tell me how your friend looks." Without hesitance, I then proceeded to tell him every feature I had at the top of my the blonde introduced himself as "Len" before he ran off with the girl whom they call "IA", I prayed that they would come back with Ring, currently the only person I know that might be still alive.
I continued my observance to these mysterious people after a kind woman named Luka had treated my wounds. They all seemed tense, and I wanted to interrogate them so much. But my chest hurt too much to make a squeak, so as I had decided before I even arrived here- I would save my questions for later. I remained awake for hours, listening for anyone's announcement of the two's arrival. Time silently flew by as the sofas began to fill with numerous rescued people, and before I knew it, Len and IA arrived. They had said they didn't see Ring in a three mile perimeter. I didn't know wether to be relieved that she probably alive, or to be mourning that she could be one of the many skeletons that IA mentioned. Either way, I needed to find Ring before she gets killed by one of those things. Slowly but surely, the evening darkened to night, and along with the other people in this group, I fell asleep thinking only one single thought.
She has to be alive.
A/N
Chapter one will probably be posted soon, considering that I'm already starting on it. Please don't hate me for killing off Piko and Lui before the story even started! OAO I didn't know who else to choose for that role, so I just picked Lui and Piko. I tried my best for this to not be rushed, but I still think it is. Also please let me know if any of you see any errors or typos, I will greatly appreciate it!