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Gunshots for the living is a tune for the dead
Chap 8.
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As gunshots filled the air the office doors flew open and nurses erupted from the room hockey sticks held high mimicking their leader as they raced down the corridors towards the side exit.
Griping his hockey sticks firmly Reito's eyes searched every corner as he led the girls to freedom.
Shizuru on the other had stood at the back of the line holding the door open as she scanned the halls for movement.
She had agreed that they should, in the words of a young orderly nicknamed Daph, to "Get the fuck out of here man!"
-- 5 minutes ago ---
"All of you get to the door and get ready to run. Reito!" she called spinning to face him. "Stop calling her I'll get Tomoe in a minute. Look I want you to lead the girls out of here."
Her crimson eyes flashed as she watched his puzzled expression.
"But what about you?"
"Well I intend to follow behind and protect us from any attacks from behind." Shizuru said with a cheery smile "And you Reito as our big strong man about the office, you will lead the escape as you are the strongest here."
The glint in her eyes dared him to argue with her.
With a gulp he straightened himself and nodded.
"Alright everyone ready!"
-- Present --
Looking back at Shizuru for confirmation he saw her nod, and he grimaced.
Urging the girls' forwards he began jogging for the hall.
A clatter behind him froze the group in their footsteps.
Turning he frowned at the surprised look of Shizuru's face as the woman looked into the office.
She looked back at him as silence filled the air once more, and flicked her wrist indicating for him to continue on.
As he turned to continue a creature lashed out of the darkness pushing past him and fleeing down the corridor past Shizuru.
The creature was fleeing from something.
Something it seemed to fear.
Then it stoped as if sensing it has passed something it shouldn't have.
Shizuru.
"RUN!" she screamed spinning from the door to smash the creature across the jaw with one of her sticks whilst spinning her left arm out and throwing the end of her other stick into the beasts abdomen in an attempt to wind or knock the creature back and away from the others.
As the nurses surged forward, half by order and the rest by fear, Reito tried to push past them, to go back and help his friend.
"Shizuru!" He yelled as he tried unsuccessfully to get to the back of the group.
"Stop it Reito!" she yelled jumping back to avoid a jarring and broken swipe the creature tried to set upon her. "Get them out of here! Protect the girls! I'll be fine!"
To add emphasis, she spun to the side and cracked both sticks down to club the creature over the head and neck bringing it to its knees.
"We have to trust her, right now we all need to get out of here." Erstin said softly pulling Reito back away from the fight. "Once we get everyone out we'll come back."
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Siting calmly on the floor of the truck with her feet swinging idly off the edge Alyssa stared calmly into the scrub.
Beside her legs Nina sat content to fiddle with an old tear on the arm rest of her wheelchair.
The wheel chair that was still on the ground with its back to the truck.
"She'll be here soon. She's probably helping get the others get out." she pauses as an idea crossed her mind, and she released an irritated sigh "Or she got sidetracked and's shooting up a storm in there."
A quiet 'Oh' was heard followed by a rip and a sheepish smile from Nina as Alyssa looked down at a large strip of missing vinyl on Nina's wheel chair.
'Why me?' Alyssa sighed as she looked down at Nina's chair 'If only I was stronger, like ne-chan.'
After numerous failed attempts of trying to lift Nina and her wheelchair the odd three feet off the ground and into the back of the truck they had given up and chosen to wait for assistance.
In the form of a woman with muscles and a tight bike suit.
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Squeezing the trigger over and over again Natsuki realised that no sound was issued as she tried to fire the gun again.
Her hands stayed raised as the silence was filled with her heavy panting and the soft ping of a bullet shell bouncing along the ground.
She refused to open her eyes.
She refused to see what she had done, whom she had shot, whom she had killed.
Her arms slowly lowered and her breathes slowed as she began to regain her composure.
Spinning on her heel she began to walk away from the slain-, no murdered creature.
Touching the sides of her holsters she released a fresh clip to replace her empty ones as they slid back into their holsters.
Slowly opening her eyes she took in her new surroundings as she began to walk faster down the hall.
Then she heard it.
A sound that made her every motion and function shut down and freeze.
A whimper.
A very animal whimper.
Not unlike that of an injured puppy.
Running a shaky hand over her hair, brushing stray strands from her face Natsuki's breath shuddered through her body.
She bit down on her bottom lip, her hands gripping on her holsters tightly to keep from shaking.
The whine came again, more urgent and pained than before.
Against the messages her brain was battling over Natsuki's heart thumped louder in her discission.
"Just wait a little bit, I'll be right back." she whispered as she took off down the hall.
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The sounds of footsteps echoed down the empty halls.
Strong powerful strides carried them forward, tailcoats swishing as they trailed behind their impatient wearers.
Doors were thrown open as they searched through the rooms of startled workers.
Looking for one person.
"Can I help you?" a dark teasing tone nipped at the edge of the voice.
A group of straight backed 'desk jockeys' as the night staff called them, turned stiffly to stare coldly at the speaker.
They all seemed very....emotionless and ridged, like a fleshly starched shirt, and probably half its personality.
"Mr Homura I presume?"
One of the men, the leaderish looking one.
Well the one with the most pens in his front pocket.
"Well you obviously need to update your movie collection, I didn't see you hack through a jungle to find me." Mr Homura said smirking casually.
The pen man's cheeks flushed as his eyes sharpened on the man before him.
"We were sent here to gather the data and reports on the incident that occurred with Mr Greer." he said stiffly as he reached up to adjust his tiny spectacles.
'This is like revenge of the nerds all over again.' Nagi sighed as he looked at the men with a bored expression.
"Follow me." he said, turning to walk quickly through a series of doors with sharp turns and twists.
As the men scampered to catch up to him Nagi's mind began to run through everything he'd had to conceal and cover up so that his 'projects' remained undisturbed.
But unfortunatly nothing ever goes as planned.
"We also have papers containing orders for the submission of some of your laboratory experiments."
Nagi froze in his step, and the others quickly caught up to him.
"They have strong demands for an experiment labelled, um.." the pen man fumbled with some papers quickly looking for the projects code.
"999" a voice whispered.
Stuffing his papers back in his brief case the man looked back to Nagi smiling slightly.
"Yes that's the one, how did you know that was the one we were after?"
Nagi remained unmoving as his eyes widened taking a rabbit in the headlights expression.
"I didn't." he whispered "I didn't say anything."
Slowly the men looked at each other uneasily.
They were shore it was he whom had spoken. But then again they had heard that Mr Homura was a tad on the strange side.
"Well then moving on. Can we see the subject now?"
Nagi nodded dumbly, not moving from his place as he seemed to be staring off at the distant ceiling behind them.
"Why is it labelled 999 anyway?" one of the younger men asked looking at 'the pen man', as it seemed that Mr Homura was not interested in answering. "Is it some kind of filling system?"
Then they heard it, a voice that sent chills through their veins as a soft TINK of metal echoed behind them.
"No, its a 'cause I'm evil. Evil in a fucked up way."
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TBC..
So any guesses who 999 is?
Please read and review peoples!!!
