"We need to surrender, Troy!"
"We are not going to do that, Savvy!" Troy shouted frustratingly. "You know what they'll do to us if we decide to cave in and go with them."
"What if they'll give us a chance, Troy?! What if they spare us if we just decide to come out? We need this! We're dying in here! We're just about emptied of our food rations. We only have a couple more days of water left too!"
"I know, Savvy!" The woman put her fingers to her forehead and cheek angrily, scowling to herself. "I know! But I can't let any of you get killed! I know he'll do just that! Do you not remember how depressing and horrible it was when Lena told us what her and Crane had to go through?!"
Savvy's face scrunched up painfully, plopping back down into his chair tiredly. Michael sat on the open window pane, his face lowered from sadness.
They all knew what had happened that night almost 3 weeks back. They had gotten as many details as Lena was able to provide before she would break down into a sobbing mess again. As much as they wanted to mourn Brecken's death primarily, Hunter hadn't let them.
His taking over of Old Town was so swift. It caught everyone off guard and, frankly, had scared Troy at first. She hadn't seen it coming, as did nobody else. The other survivor camps in the city had been taken over and were now under Hunter's control. The Loft was the only safe zone left that wasn't under the man's influence.
They knew that the only reason he kept them alive was so Crane would be tempted to go to Old Town. So he still had another reason to head into this part of the city. Had it not been for that, the Loft surely would've been blown up into rubble already.
"When is Crane going to wake back up?" Savvy asked nobody in particular. "He's been out for 2 weeks now. We can't afford another week. Hunter will start to lose his patience and just kill everyone he's close with."
"You don't know that." Troy said. "It seems like this fucker won't back out of killing Crane upfront so easily. Something happened to that sadistic fuck that he has a grudge towards Kyle."
"What makes you think Crane did something to him?"
"Nobody in this hellhole has held a grudge as strong as Hunter. Not Rais. Not any of the GRE. Not even those religious freaks out in the countryside. Crane did something seriously fucked up for this psycho to want to get his hands on him, even if he has to wait weeks."
Savvy gave a concerned look at Troy, before sighing tiredly.
"What the fuck did Crane get us all into?"
She could hear their shouting and arguing below her, causing her to wrap her arms around her head anxiously. She felt a hand touch her back softy, in a caring way.
"Are you doing okay, Aiyla?" Ezgi asked softly, her black hair draping over her right eye. "I know this is all very scary for you. I wish we could've left before that man came here."
Aiyla lifted her head up briefly, her eyes watering up as she spoke.
"Why is this all happening, Ezgi?" The girl asked painfully. "I just want everything to go back to the way things were before. I want my family back. I wish that monster had never killed them."
"I wish I could've been stronger for them..."
Ezgi looked at the broken girl, before embracing her tightly.
"You did the best you could've done, sweetie." She said in a calm tone, attempting to comfort the girl. "They would've wanted you to stay alive for them. They sacrificed themselves so you could keep fighting."
The girl sniffled, wiping away tears from her cheeks. She gave a small whimper, hugging Ezgi back tightly.
"Who's going to help us?"
"Crane is going to help." Ezgi answered. "We're waiting for him to recover from his last encounter with this man. Once he's feeling better, he'll come and drive all the evil people out."
"Please don't bring him back here!" Aiyla yelped frightfully. "He's a monster! Please don't bring him here! He'll kill you all just like he killed my family!"
"Aiyla, please listen." Ezgi said with a stern, but careful tone. "I know that what Crane did was horrible, and even unforgivable for you... But we have no choice anymore. He's our only hope to survive this whole mess. He's battling against so much right now. Against Hunter. Against negative outlooks on him, and even against the monster within him."
"But-"
"You don't understand right now, Aiyla, but he's feeling guilty as hell for what he did to your family. He had no control of himself, but hopefully that changed."
"But, I just don't want you and the others to get hurt."
"We won't." Ezgi assured the girl. "Troy and the others will make sure of that."
Aiyla just nodded lightly, biting her lip nervously as she just felt the strong breeze of the oncoming storm.
Crane sat on the edge of the roof to the Tower, looking out into the horizon. From here, he could barely see parts of the countryside. Most of it was hidden amongst the mountains.
A wall of dark, gloomy clouds was beginning to approach from said mountains. An approaching storm was likely going to arrive by nighttime. It didn't matter. He wasn't allowed to step out of the Tower for anything yet, as he both needed to recover first and also to evade any and all contact with Hunter and his men.
He hoped the storm wasn't too intense tonight. He wanted a good rest, but the loud cracking of the thunder was bound to shoot him back to some bad memories. Whether it was memories of his problems relating to his infection, or memories of the many dark and rainy nights where he had to go on night runs, dreading the idea of being caught by the Volatiles.
"How fucking ironic..." Crane thought, a few tiny drops of a light drizzle beginning to land on his face. "I became what I had always evaded and dreaded facing."
He looked down at the Slums, seeing infected shambling about on the streets. Way off in the distance where the Garrison was, he could see the lights beginning to power on, signifying that darkness was starting to inch closer and closer.
He looked out even farther, towards Old Town, where he knew that Troy and the others were being kept hostage by that fucker. He wanted so badly to just rush over there and rip him to pieces, but that would be the stupidest idea. He was vulnerable. He was weakened by their last encounter.
He needed time to heal, to muster back up that power he had. He had control over his Volatile powers now, but it was still no match against what was essentially a small army.
For now, all he could do was try to recover as fast as he could, and just think out any sort of plan that would help him get to those on the other side.
Camden flinched at the sound of another boom going off above his head. He could see tiny bits of the ceiling fall to the floor from the shockwave.
He gave a very tired sigh, rubbing his baggy and reddened eyes as he looked at each paper he had written on, each sheet containing different info, hypothesis's, theories, and concepts that linked to the elixirs Crane had brought him.
He had spent days and nights researching as much as he could get from his analysis and examination of the peculiar and dangerous liquid. And even with tons of hours put into researching the elixir, he was still stuck at a dead end. He still had zero clues as to how to possibly create any sort of cure from the substance.
What he had found at least, was an engineered strain of the Harran virus. It had seemed to convert the cells of a human into that of a Volatile's much more often than the typical strain had been able to do so.
He had also found that the virus sparked cells to mutate into other cells, newer ones that he had not found within Harran. These different and completely new cells differed greatly from those of the Toads, Goons, Bolters, or any other known infected.
That revelation had sent a chill down his spine the first time he had discovered it. He had a feeling he knew what that meant.
This strain had the potential to create more infected variants. More grotesque and utterly horrifying creatures. He knew now that what they had was the most dangerous thing within the walls of Harran. It had the potential to not only wipe out a city, but also create even stronger infected that they'd never seen before.
It scared Camden to know that all this info, and all this dangerous material was residing in his hands.
It scared him to know that he was being looked for by Hunter, the deadly tyrant that had taken over Old Town, or so he had heard from Troy.
And it scared him to know that this tyrant was actively searching for all the dangerous material that he was holding onto. Dangerous material that could completely bring Harran down once and for all.
He could only hope that he was able to hold on it all long enough for Crane to finally come by and retrieve everything. And he just hoped that the man was doing alright.
He despised thunderstorms with such a passion. They brought back horrible memories to him.
Memories of that night.
He hated everything about that night. Whenever he reminisced back to it, he felt himself shiver from the trauma.
He gently touched the scar on the left side of his head, remembering images of that rainy, dark, terrifying night. Remembering how he had to survive the days and nights, going through immense struggles to keep alive.
He gritted his teeth tightly as his head began to ache, veins popping up on his head.
He could feel his nails dig into the worn out foam of his dirty mattress, tearing out pieces as he continued to rage.
"Fuck you, you bastard!" He spat out at nothing, beginning to send punches straight into the wall. "This is all your goddamn fault! I lost it all because of you!"
He punched, over and over, slowly creating a deep depression into the wall, while leaving traces of blood on the bits of drywall. His knuckles were bleeding profusely, but he ignored it as he gripped his head tightly and screamed in agony and sorrow.
"I hate you, you fucking monster!" He bellowed at the top of his lungs, slamming his head into the wall once, before immediately blacking out.
The cracking of thunder vibrated his body as the intense pitter-patter of rain against his jacket filled his ears. His eyes darted around feverishly, looking around in a daze for Him.
He couldn't find him. Couldn't see him anywhere. He quickly began to feel panic ball up in the pit of his stomach as the tiny amount of daylight that was able to pierce through the dark clouds in the sky was already fading.
He gripped his head in agony at the next clap of thunder that deafened him for a second. His senses began to feel overloaded, but he knew he had to push through it. He needed to find Him.
He was stupid. He was a complete idiot for not making sure that he was completely alone on this trip. He knew that he'd be followed by Him. Of course he would. Why did he expect anything else?
This was his fault. He had lost everything as a result of his own incompetence. Everything that he loved had been taken from him.
He wanted to cry. He wanted to breakdown and collapse to his knees like before, screaming his lungs out to the heavens above, losing himself to his utter despair and becoming a shell of himself. He felt so empty, just as he had before.
He just wanted to find Him. That's all he wanted at this point. Nothing else felt worthy enough to continue pushing forward for.
He could feel the darkness and the sorrow swarm around him, pelting his head with dark thoughts. Those dark thoughts he had that night and many nights after.
He screamed painfully loud again, gripping his head while scrunching his face. He needed Him. Needed Him again.
He wanted his brother back.
He needed Bala again.