Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY
Beacon of The Dead – Chapter 4 – Meltdown
"Blake! Yang! RUBY! This isn't funny you idiots!"
Weiss screamed as she pushed through the Emerald Forest. There was an eerie lack of a response. She didn't want to admit it, hell, she would rather be torn limb from limb by the shambling corpses that still roamed the god forsaken jungle she was in then even show a sign of it but that feeling was painfully persistent. She was afraid, she was afraid about far the infection had spread, she was afraid about how her family is fairing, she was afraid of what has or will happen to the rest of her team, she was afraid of being attacked from behind, she was afraid of turning into one of 'them'. It pressed down her like a dead weight and it only got heavier the more she resisted. Saying that it was difficult would have been a gross understatement but she really couldn't afford to show or even address the issue, especially now.
"Shouldn't…..be…far…..now."
Weiss panted as she shuffled through the vegetation. Her thighs ached and her lungs burned. Sweat flowed freely down her face and trickled down her chin. The sun sank closer and closer to the horizon, every step she took it seemed to bring her back to the same patch of forest. As time ticked by the sky soon tuned a bright orange hue and the forest was engulfed in darkness. Weiss, entirely exhausted fell to her knees her face flushed as she heaved with her mouth entirely open. Leaning up against a tree she ran her fingers through her sweat slick white hair. Rolling up the sleeves of her jacket she began prying out splinters that had been lodged into her bruised and mud covered harms and legs.
Moving felt impossible, every inch of her body ached as she leaned against the tree. As the Sun vanished from view. The forest became chillingly cold, bringing her hand up to her mouth she nervously scanned around the darkness for any threats, a hand firmly wrapped around the handle of Myrtenaster. A startlingly loud rustle in front of her was replied quickly by a burst of ice from her blade, flash freezing the entire wall of vegetation before her. Dropping her blade to the ground beside her she let out a sigh of relief.
'Uuuuuhhhh….'
A corpse stumbled out from behind her, clumsily walking past an alarmed Weiss. She quickly turned to reach for her blade only to realize it sat beneath the foot of another undead. It wasn't long before the entire area of lit with the red glowing eyes of the undead as what seemed like a horde of them trudged straight through her. Their deadpan moans and heavy footsteps echoed through the forest.
Weiss threw her hands up to her mouth and curled her legs up to her chest as one by one they stumbled past her, some occasionally pausing in front of her before continuing along their way. It was startling how many there was as what seemed like a small army of the undead paraded past her. By now Myrtenaster had been kicked far out of the heiress's reach, kicked around the ground by the shuffling feet of the zombies. She was concerned that it would be kicked out of her view and she would lose it but moving to reach it would have been a far more immediate death sentence.
After what seemed like an eternity the undead have all seemed to pass, Myrtenaster laying some distance away from her on an entirely flat patch of ground, trampled flat by the horde. After a few brief moments to check if the coast was clear she inched forward and grabbed her blade. She figured that moving forward in pitch darkness wasn't a very smart idea so she decided to try and get some sleep before the Sun rises. Suffice it to say it wasn't a very comfortable night.
She shook herself awake, instinctively scanning around for any danger before sleepily standing up, her hair in complete disarray. She stumbled around for a bit, stretching out her sore legs and back. She could tell exactly what time it was but the sky was a bright violet signalling the impending sunrise, much to the relief of the heiress.
As she pushed forwards for a while she could faintly make out the rushing of water and it got louder as she walked. After walking a few more minute she eventually came across a stream, flowing with clear fresh water which glimmered in the first rays of sunlight. Falling to her knees before the creak, she reached her palms down to the water and shovelled the cool water into her mouth, the liquid running down her dry throat. With a satisfied groan she took a few more mouthfuls of water before a quick splash onto her face, washing off the layer of dirt and dry blood that had hardened on her face. She rested there for a while, taking some time to sort out her hair and wash off the blood off her blade, staining downstream with a long streak of red that was swiftly washed up by the white water.
"I need to keep moving."
She said quietly to herself as she stood back up, looking up and down stream for anyway across, the waters were rather treacherous and would be impossible to swim against. She looked into the cylinder of Myrtenaster.
"Empty."
She grumbled with a frown. She figured that following the river was a fairly safe bet. However she also knew that being close the noise producing river was bound to attract unwanted attention from the undead. As entertaining the thought of the brainless corpses falling and being carried away by the river was she didn't want to take any chances so she took off downstream, hoping to find a way across along the way.
The terrain began to change as she continued, the side of the creak slowly elevated above the actual flow of water and it took the form of a ravine rather than a river. As she continued further something startling caught her eye. It was obvious it was a ship, an extremely large one. It appeared to be jammed between the sides of the ravine and had since been marooned there. It was odd to find a ship, especially one of that size in a narrow gully like the one it was in. Weiss was mystified by its sheer presence here, as far as she knew, most people don't use ships anymore with the exception of large scale shipping such as the ones her family business partakes in and military use. It suddenly came to her that there might be survivors on board, with the zombies lacking the coordination to even climb stairs effectively, swimming would be out of the brain-dead baboons' league. Escaping them by sea was actually very much a stroke of genius, so much so to point of which it slightly annoyed Weiss about not thinking of that herself sooner.
Pacing onto the grey, metal deck of the ship which was conveniently levelled with the side of the cliff, her boots clanking loudly against the floor as she looked around for any sign of the living, or the dead. Myrtenaster clutched tightly in her hand.
"Hello?"
She called out. There was only silence that followed. Until.
'CLANG'
Startled, Weiss pointed her blade at the approximate direction the sound came from. A door on the side of the superstructure creaked open.
"He-Hello?"
She called out hesitantly, she knew it had as much a chance of being a survivor as an undead. Suddenly a small hand appeared out of the bottom of the door. To the heiress's horror what crawled out from behind the door was an undead, an undead child. The small girl stared at the horrified huntress, its crimson eyes locked on menacingly at her. The small undead child stumbled towards her, dark blood dripping out of the place the girls right arm would have been, its small white dress torn and smeared with blood and vomit, a small blade still lodged in her back.
"No…"
She brought her mouth to her hand, her other hand still holding onto Myrtenaster. The zombified girl let out a growl, softer and higher pitched then the usual middle-sized corpse. Weiss knew she wasn't taking a life, that life had already been taken. But the sight of the small child, covered in claw marks and blood jerked tears of anger and despair from the heiress. She backed away from the undead until her back hit the bow of the ship. The undead girl continued to advance. Weiss didn't want to do it, how could she? Her mind argued with itself as the blade shook in her shivery hands.
The child was now in striking range, the child stumbled beside Myrtenaster's blade. She had to do it, she was going to die if she didn't and Weiss knew that, tears still streaming down her shut eyes she raised the blade to her shoulder.
"I'm sorry."
She whispered solemnly as she brought the blade down, in one swift movement, the child undead fell to the ground, its decapitated head rolling a few feet away, spluttering blood onto the deck.
Falling to the ground, her back against the wall of the ship she buried herself in her knees and cried.
A.N: Yes, I know this chapter is really short and I apologize for that, been awfully busy with real life stuff but I'll probably be able to get another chapter out by the next fortnight, probably earlier. And yes, the next few chapters will be about the individual girls after they were separated.