The four people that were still conscious were driven further and further towards the edge of insanity that was lurking not far away from them when they heard the creature sniff in the air. It halted and turned around completely at the sound of Genesis' body hitting the floor.
It didn't cast a second glance at anything as it decided that a good meal never ever had harmed it. If it found something else later that also counted as eatable there was no shame on that.
It approached the bookshelf behind which Genesis lay unconscious. The long claws were making marks in the floor and the loud cruel sound of long, razor sharp claws against the flat hard surface where making their skin crawl and driving them all mad with horror and tension.
Then something snapped in the mind of one of the persons. He knew very well that it was complete and absolutely an action of suicide and he didn't care a bit about it. Genesis and Angeal was the first people who had shown him any mercy at all. And more than that, they had shown friendship when he had thought that he was far below such things and that he didn't deserve such kindness.
Sephiroth threw the desk over and grabbed it on one end and hit the monstrous being hard with the other end. It didn't hurt it much at all, but it resulted in a reaction. The large, three headed thing turned around fast as a reptile and shredded a big part of the heavy desk in pieces with its claws, its jaws ajar, fangs bared and ready to bite.
"Hey, you idiot! You little scum of a thing, come here, come here, come here!" a voice yelled. It was Zack. He had jumped out in front of the pile of debris and were now throwing bricks and parts from the ceiling at the creature.
He was only half aware about how he had got there, but some basic part of his brain had been taught that you stuck together with your friends, no matter what happened and if they were going to die then was covering not the way he would prefer.
It turned around half by half, not sure about what to do, so it accidently swiped Cloud and the box he was hiding inside a bit to the side so that he was now laying, and still covered by the box, right in front of the door. Angeal realized the danger Cloud was in if they really would manage to make the creature go away, or if they were going to try to flee from it, and the very great and immediate danger that Zack was in.
He grabbed a few half crushed ornaments that where spread all over the floor and threw them at the monster.
"You are a rat of a monster come and get me. I am here for you to take!" Angeal shouted as he had realized that they had to confuse the beast as much as possible to achieve getting any reaction at all from it, any other action then eating them, that was.
It turned around once again, more at Angeal's shouting than anything else. All the shouting and yelling and throwing of bricks and stuff at it made it lose its already remarkably short temper. It went to the bookshelf, dragged Genesis out from the bookshelf by grabbing his legs and pulling him out, very much like a cat pulling a rat out of its hole and then it turned itself towards Sephiroth who were the one shouting the loudest, all of its heads focused at him.
Suddenly the creature turned around, with a growl of pain and with its tail it sent down a couple of already not so stable bookshelves over Angeal and Sephiroth who tried and failed to get away from them.
At that moment Cloud had gathered enough sense to get out of the box. He had got up to his feet somehow and with a piece of metal found on the floor he had attacked the long tail of the monstrous thing that was threatening to have them all for dinner. Clouds knees seemed to be very near to giving in and he was shaking from fear. Tears where trickling down his face and joined the small stream of blood dripping from his lip. But he stood up as straight as he could, trying to be brave and do something even now when he was unarmed. The metal piece was no longer in his hand but nailed a good bit into the creature's tail. He gave it a grin and as it snapped after him he backed off a few steps trying to lure it to follow him out of the room and into the corridor.
It was hesitant on leaving the room, food was not anything that it was used to have plenty of and it knew that there are other beings around that are just as hungry as it was itself.
Zack, now the one closest to the door threw a part of a broken chair as hard as he could at the monster, grabbed a few stones and bricks that happened to be within arm's reach and tried to make it for the door. He did somehow make it all the way without getting thorn into pieces by the ever hungry beast.
The mad dash for the door was only made possible by Angeal throwing a brick at the back of one of the creature's heads. Shaking off a bit of debris from himself he threw another stone at one of the other heads. It didn't really mind but it hesitated for a moment giving Zack the possibility to make it out of the door.
It was just about to turn around to get the two others who were trapped inside the room when Cloud shouted at it and banged a metal piece at the wall creating an annoying noise that made it turn its heads again. It seemed like the heads eyed the two men half buried in debris that already where looking for new things to grab to injure it with and then the two smaller ones outside in the corridor.
Zack threw another stone aiming for its head which together with the noise was enough to trigger its natural anger. It grabbed Genesis again and focused all three of its heads on the two figures in front of it that had started to run. It followed the easy prey.
And it knew it just as well as they did.
It was soon out of sight and the sound of it disappearing into the darkness made the remaining two members of their group sigh deeply.
Angeal and Sephiroth got out from the remains of the bookshelves in deep silence. When the two of them stood at the floor again without any rumble covering them or stopping them from moving as they wished, they looked at each other, both of them just as unsure about what to do.
Sephiroth carefully picked up the still closed folder and the military flashlight that had somehow survived the crashing and trashing. Angeal went for the fire materia that Genesis had dropped.
"I once had a chance to kill Hojo" Sephiroth said, his voice cold and stiff with just a slight hint of a tremble betraying that the cold gleam in his eyes were well contained white hot fury.
"And I didn't take it. There is nothing I have ever regretted that much. Right now I would really preferably kill myself, but that would be contra productive in any efforts to try to save at least one of them." He pocketed the folder and the sturdy flashlight and picked up a long metal bar and a piece of glass for weapons. The metal bar originally came from one of the better bookshelves.
"It would indeed" Angeal said. "Let's hope they split up and we might be able to save one of them" he said in a voice that where far from his usual steady and calm one, there were tears in the corner of his eyes at the thoughts of the younger ones chased to death by that thing and his childhood friend being dragged along unconscious.
He refused to think too closely of Genesis. His friend was guaranteed to be lost. He shivered a little. If he thought of it too much, he knew he wouldn't be able to continue a single step forwards.
It was a feeling deeper than grief. It was a big hole of despair that was eating at his heart, threatening to swallow his soul whole leaving his body an empty dead shell. He desperately tried to push it away from him so that he could focus.
Genesis was his oldest friend and like a brother to him, his logic told him that Genesis would be beyond saving and his heart picked the moment to allow it to be sealed away. Grief, sadness and sorrow had to be dealt with later, otherwise would he not manage.
He picked up a slightly shorter metal bar from the mess and a sharp piece of metal and gave Sephiroth a short nod. They had to keep going.
They ran, following the tracks once again. All of a sudden they heard a loud growling in the distance. They were not eager to know who of their friends that had met their fate. They were running faster than they ever had before, no thought of what would actually happen if they did reach the monster.
They stopped suddenly in a dead end. There was blood everywhere. Especially bloody was a place near the back of the corridor.
It was bloody, very, even to the point of the walls being soaked with the red liquid, the smell of the fresh blood sticking to their nostrils, even the walls where having deep cuts from claws.
The small pieces of flesh spread over the place were all that was left, that and a small tuft of black hair. They said nothing to each other but grieved their friend in silence as they turned their backs on the spot. Angeal was not only sad but also ashamed that he had caused the death of his trainee. Sephiroth grieved the "puppy" too; Zack had been a very good friend and a bringer of joy and happiness. They were silent. They pulled themselves together to face more mayhem and destruction. They continued.
They ran. Once again they followed the trail of marks leading them forwards. The marks disappeared, but they continued to run, none of them willing to let go of their last gleam of hope.
Suddenly they skidded to a halt when the corridor made a sharp turn. Here there were no marks. But there was an open door to a small office. They looked into the room. It was painstakingly empty. The chair by the desk was overthrown and the couch was destroyed. But they both froze at the sound that reached their ears, the sound of breathing. It was something in there. They went in.
The couch that was overthrown and wrecked stood leaning against the wall. The sturdy desk and a big plant pot with the remains of some flower arrangement in it were stopping it from moving anywhere. It formed a tilted v against the wall. They jumped back as they both saw something in the narrow space down there.
They silently dragged away the couch and there Genesis lay, sleeping on his back as if he were in his own bed. His head covered with his arms and remarkably enough were he lying at the old and thorn pillows of the bottom of the couch. His clothes were torn in pieces, wounds all over him; the blood was very clearly visible against the light grey coat he was lying on. They tried to wake him. And to their own surprise they succeeded. A very groggy Genesis opened his eyes and tried to make them focus.
"Happy to see you two" he muttered and tried desperately to force the world to stop spinning.
"How did you make it?" Angeal wondered.
Sephiroth didn't even dare to speak yet.
"Let's just say I wasn't here last time I dosed of" Genesis said and looked around a bit, surprised and a bit confused. "I was somewhere else, the thing put me down in a room much bigger than this, and then it gave me a knock in the head. It wanted a dinner, the foul thing, but didn't want me awake"
"How's your legs?" Sephiroth asked a bit concerned.
"I don't know. It hurts a bit but well. I haven't examined them so I don't know. My arm hurt more. Why?" Genesis sat up and looked at his feet. They were a bit bruised and had a few scratches on them but were otherwise ok.
"It dragged you out by your feet Genesis" Angeal said.
"It did?"
"Yes it did and in the overall commotion that it caused it managed to get Zack and Cloud running." Sephiroth said in a low voice. "We haven't found them yet." He didn't need to exchange a look with Angeal to know what to say.
"They are gone..?" Genesis said and shook his head. The most probable loss of the two younger ones brought grief to his heart. But there was no time for revenge or for grief. Now was time for getting back on his feet and getting out there again.
"My feet don't hurt at all though" he said for a positive note and looked at them.
"Now, how did, that happen?" Angeal muttered in wonder.
"Never underestimate a good pair of shoes" Genesis said and looked at his feet in disbelief.
"You said that you hadn't taken a look at your feet" Sephiroth added slowly.
"No I hadn't" he answered simply.
"Then why are your feet naked and your shoes and even your socks neatly placed by your head?"
"I don't know" he said and reached for them, the movement made his body first chook at the pain then disappearing and the full pain in his left arm hit him. He checked the arm and muttered many things that were less than beautiful through gritted teeth.
"Someone has bandaged your arm" Sephiroth said surprised.
"It looks like we have an anonymous helper somewhere around" Angeal said.
"Yes it does, but let's move on" Genesis said, worry in his voice and got his shoes on in a hurry.
They helped him up and he could walk rather well. They got out of the room and started walking down the corridor. Genesis was rather dizzy and had several small wounds and an endless amount of bruises and stumbled forwards. The two others helped him forwards.
They heard a sound form somewhere in a corridor parallel to the one in which they were in. In the quiet building it echoed through everything. It was what they assumed to be footsteps and after the running feet came the thing that drenched all other sound, the trashing of the beast.
"One of them is still running" Angeal whispered.
They both felt really sorry for the poor Cloud, he could never outrun the thing.
They hurried down the corridor and headed into the open room in the middle, they saw the figure running out from the other corridor and across the room. He ran straight to the door opposite of where he came from, the one leading into the new corridor and they were forced to watch as he tried to open the door, which failed, it had been blocked.
The creature smashed away the doors of the corridor, still locked on target. They knew that they weren't fast enough; dragging Genesis along or not but they couldn't abandon their poor friend.
Then, as the creature was about to slash its murderous claws through the body of its much smaller victim, something happened. A light appeared between the young man and the beast.
In the blue light they saw that the hair of the person was black, not blonde. It was Zack. They didn't think of it. In the blue light a figure appeared. A young teenage girl dressed in a blue and white dress; her whole appearance shining. She raised her arms into the air and a barrier of blue light appeared to protect Zack from the creature. It attacked the barrier with burning fury. The girl looked at the creature. It stopped trying to break through the barrier of blue light that she had made and all three of its heads concentrated on her. She screamed. It was a loud shriek, high-pitched enough to even break the small round windows in the doors to the other corridors. The thing fell down to the floor, trying to cover its heads with its paws, its long claws tearing against each other. She stopped screaming and the monster fled through the same door as it had come from and the girl disappeared as quickly as she had got there. The blue light was, however, for some reason dwelling in the room, slowly fading away.
They looked at their exhausted friend, hurrying over to him.
"I have never been so happy to see you" Sephiroth said and gave him a concerned look.
"I never thought I would see you again" Zack said, his knees shaking, he took a steady grip of the wall and breathed heavily.
"Nice to see you Zack" Genesis said and patted him slightly on the back. "Never thought I would say it, but having to face the fact, I have discovered that I actually like you pretty much, pup."
"Yeah" Zack answered, "Really glad to see you, I am," He drew a deep breath before continuing, "But, well, so to speak, it's no use to look for Cloud. The stupid chocobo sacrificed himself for me." The last sentence slipped out of Zack as nothing more than a whisper
"We found a dead end that looked pretty bad" Angeal said and gave Zack a look. He handed over the piece of metal as improvised weapon and they started to walk towards the door that weren't blocked, all of them deciding silently not to talk about what they had just faced and nearly got killed by but instead focusing on getting away and trying to save their own lives.
A long silence followed Angeals words.
"It chased me to that place and then it was about to attack me" Zack finally said, breaking the silence "I dodged the claws a few times and I just had the feeling that the little game of cat and rat was about to end when Cloud suddenly appeared. He jumped out in front of it, holding a thin metal bar and hitting the wall with it. He told me to run, since I had a chance to get away from it. I couldn't let him down but he just wouldn't listen at me. I ran. I suppose it finished him of pretty fast. It looked like it had lured many people there. I got away and though that I lost a piece of my hair and a very good friend, but not my life. Then it came after me again."
It had gone some time now, Zack didn't talk really fast and everyone could see how much it hurt him.
There was a sudden noise from above them. Something was once again coming after them.
"Not more now!" Sephiroth muttered in a low, less hopeful voice.
Something all of a sudden fell down, on them, landing without any grace at all tumbling down on top of Angeal and Sephiroth and knocked them down. It didn't attack. They took a look at the dirty, brown-grey figure. Zack ruffled the hair of the person. For it was a person. The hair, previously completely brown and grey was now brighter and blond in places.
"Air" he muttered and letting himself sink down lying on the floor obeying to his spinning head.
The world was defiantly there but he feared that his eyesight was fading away.
"You are alive" said Genesis simply. The others were too shocked to say anything.
Cloud coughed a couple of times and breathed heavily. "Finally, air" he breathed. Tears were streaming down his face together with the sweat. They looked at him in disbelief.
"Turns out.., that at least.., sometimes.., you have.., a something.., for being.., smaller than.., everyone else" he said and breathed heavily. They sat down all of them. It was obvious that the poor Cloud couldn't continue right now and they could drag him along. But with Genesis injured and Zack barley able to walk they wouldn't get anywhere fast.
"I've.., never.., ever.., been so afraid.., in my.., life..." he panted trying to get his body to work enough for his eyes to see anything.
Zack sat down closest to Cloud's head and tried to get hold of the situation all in all. He was very pale.
"What happened, Cloud?"
"I, I made that creature not follow Zack. Then as it trashed the walls I saw a vent shaft and a chance for escape. I climbed into it. It bit me in the leg but I didn't feel it" he said and they noticed the dark mark on his legs and the marks and wounds from big teeth in his skin.
"How did you find us then?"
"I saw everything from up there" he said, "then you just disappeared. I couldn't find you. The vent shafts don't go in the same directions as the corridors. I ended up crawling around forwards and forwards with less and less hope until I saw a light. It where leading me on forwards and then I heard you guys. Now I am here. But what now?"
He had got back his breath, but was not ready to move on just yet, that was for sure. It went quiet; they sat in the semi darkness.
"I think it might be time to read that folder" Genesis said quietly, as if not really daring to bring his voice to disturb the silence and maybe bring out something else from the dark depths of the buildings shadows.