Sleep had not come easily after finding out that this city was apparently swarming with goddamn Hunters. With the sight of those footprints, every sound brought up suspicion. Gusts of wind turned into potential shrieks of alert, and every creeping shadow had the potential to be armed with teeth and claws. Talk about paranoia fuel. Go figure that Skyler should consider herself lucky the one that jumped her wasn't running with a little leaper gang.
But rest was a necessity, especially if she (they?) was about to set off on a serious trek. Adrian had drifted off before Skyler managed to, though he'd seemed reluctant to do so, and had tucked himself into the least visible corner he could find. The feeling was mutual. She sure wasn't too keen on trying to get some shut-eye where he could see her. She'd had to settle for nesting herself up in the little "nook", and even then she could just imagine waking up to goddamn teeth in her face again.
She woke with daybreak rudely creeping in and grumbled and groaned about it, but that was about as good a time to get a move on as any. At the very least, it evened the playing field a little, since the infected seemed quite a bit more inclined towards night vision than the average person. After some good, bone-popping stretching that made her sound a lot older than twenty-three, she exited the room and began gathering up her various knives and armaments, putting them back where they belonged.
Adrian, despite having been by all appearances asleep up until then, grumbled cautiously, like he was wondering just what she was going to do with them. Skyler shrugged her shoulders.
"Yeah, well, I'm headed out, and I'm not planning on going with just my rugged good looks to stun your buddies. Not sure what your plan is, but you can do whatever, as long as it doesn't involve fucking eating me."
He grumbled. Hearing a quiet clinking noise, she saw he was messing with her tags again. Whatever floated his boat, she guessed. She headed up the little set of stairs and out into the main shop.
Considering what she'd seen last night, it was practically peaceful. Past the windows, the sun shining off the freshly-fallen carpet outside created a prismatic effect, the breeze wafting a few loose flakes through the air. There was nobody in sight to disturb it. A creaking sound startled her, but it turned out to be Adrian slinking up and out behind her.
So far, so good. Everything looked still and nothing jumped out. Skyler opened the door, stepped out…
And within the instant, she was hit by an explosion of snow as a shrieking, furious blur hit the ground hardly inches away from her. They'd known she was here, and they'd been fucking waiting.
"HOLY SHITSUCKING CHRIST! MOTHERFUCK!" A stream of every curse she could think of left her mouth as she scrambled back. Her hand reached for her assault rifle, before her brain caught up and remembered she was out of ammo. She swore louder and tore the Bowie from her belt. Holding a weapon was better than nothing, at least.
The Hunter was already recovering from the near-miss and rolling to face her. This one was clad in black, taller than either her or Adrian by a couple of heads (which wasn't saying much, but still) and thicker, like someone who had actually been eating.
Skyler backed up enough to give herself some breathing room, tensed to duck or to slash at anything exposed long enough. Fuck, what was Adrian doing? He wasn't in on this, was he? A snarl behind her caused her to jerk that way. She saw two more of them slinking about the edge of a rooftop, backs to the sun, including what she thought was the kid leaper from the night before.
One. Two. Three. This was an ambush, and she'd fallen right into it.
In the same moment that the big Hunter readied to lunge for her, a sharp shriek sounded from just off to the side. Adrian slammed into him with surprising force, lashing at his face with his nasty set of claws. The other Hunter yelped, briefly staggered, and swiped back, but Adrian danced away from the strike. Skyler took the opportunity to slash at the back of that black hoodie, eliciting a roar of pain and anger. Nothing vital, but she wasn't sticking around long enough to see how much she'd pissed him off. Another howl rang out from atop the building, as if in response.
With the larger Hunter momentarily stunned, Adrian gathered himself into a crouch, head twitching quickly from her to the other infected, and from the sounds that were leaving him she imagined he was probably deciding whether to turn on her, or him.
"YOU LITTLE SHIT! THEY'RE TRYING TO KILL YOU, TOO! I SWEAR TO GOD!"
When that didn't shake him she gnashed her teeth and darted forward, actually grabbing onto one of his scrawny arms and giving a solid pull, which might not have been the greatest snap decision because he did in fact attempt to bite her, likely only missing due to surprise.
"Adrian! Come on."
She heard a low thud as at least one of the Hunters from atop the building hit the ground, closing in. Even the injured one was quickly shaking it off. Amazingly he seemed to get it, and despite catching bared teeth and an overly-bright look in his eyes he followed in step as her boots pounded over the pavement, dropping to a running crouch.
The only way she was going to make it out of this in one piece was by outwitting them. This was some serious trouble.
Adrian wanted to fight. After terrible amounts of inaction and now the sweet song of adrenaline pounding through him with his heartbeat, the urge ran strong and deep, but he struggled to keep some sort of thinking. He couldn't afford to let the haze overwhelm him, not with danger on every side. The smell of clean prey and the call of her sweat and stress didn't make things any easier.
Oh, the other Jumping Ones sounded angry. He didn't dare take the time to look behind, but he heard the snarls, even the faint click of teeth snapping together. They were both dead for sure if they caught up.
But still... for the first time in however many days, the pain wasn't too much to handle, and the motions were all very natural. Run. Dodge, turn. Pavement under his limbs. Do not get caught. Just keep running. Even the threat of enemies at his back was an enticing kind of thrill. All of it had him buzzing.
The monster was having a hard time keeping pace. For all of her aggression, she just wasn't as fast at a full run as another Jumping One. Part of him managed to wonder if she was going to make it. Pursuits like this usually turned into a contest of endurance, and she seemed to be lacking in comparison. Then again, at this point so was he, but somehow? He was having a difficult time bringing himself to fully care.
Her voice focused him on the entrance to a building nearby. She was trying to confuse their pursuers, to lose them with twists and turns. Excellent. Maybe she was better at this than he'd thought. He took the lead, bounding across the room.
At the sight of stairs leading up, he debated for a split second. Was he able to take the rooftops again in this state? The thought made his blood race, but a growl went through him when he realized that the answer, for now, was likely no. Soon. Instead, he made a break for another exit he spotted at the back. There wasn't time to keep an eye on what the monster was doing, but in the glimpse he got of her, she momentarily paused to pick up some sort of object.
The exit was closed, but it was one of the ones he could see through, which meant it could easily be broken if he was willing to take a little injury. He brought up an arm over his face and was prepared to rush it when he was thrown off by a yell from the monster. He growled in anger, but before he had time to do much else, she swung her object at the clear barrier with an impressive amount of force. It shattered into pieces on impact, but neither of them were cut. He rumbled in surprise. This had never really been something that had clicked as a possibility for him. The Clean Ones seemed to have an odd talent for things like that.
Claws skidding over the ground and the accompanying grumbles told him that it was time to keep moving, though. He dived out the exit after the monster, quickly taking the head again, and she seemed strangely ready to follow. A shot of pride went through him at this.
He was the one in charge now. Yes, he thought he liked that feeling.
Their best chance at survival was to make their path as difficult to follow as possible, and then find someplace safe to wait it out in. As eager as he was for violence, a pack versus two wasn't a winnable fight. Of course, there was also the monster… In fact, he was pretty sure the only thing keeping him from turning on her was the pressing need to stay on the run.
Luckily for him, he got what he wanted, in a sense. A weak Other came screaming and flailing around the bend he was headed towards, likely alerted by the commotion and the smell of prey. Most of the time, even these ones wouldn't get in the way of so many smart Others in one place. With a sharp snarl he reared up to collide with it, and then swiped his claws over its throat deep as he could. The flesh opened up beautifully, and the spray of blood onto his face practically sang. He mourned that he couldn't spend more time here. Behind him came a sick crunch, which he assumed was from the monster finishing the job.
This- this was incredible. Sure, he was starting to hurt in a very real way, but they had an actual chance at surviving this. At evading an entire pack of ones like him. His teeth bared as, exhausted, he started to grin.
They could do this. They could do this.
Well son of a bitch. The kid seemed to really know what he was doing here. Maybe Skyler should have expected as much, in the sense that who would know how to deal with a Hunter better than another Hunter, but it was still a sight to see. For real she was glad she was behind him rather than in front, because judging by the work he'd done to that common he was just dying to get his claws into something.
He was leading her in a meandering path through back alleys and side streets. She doggedly hung onto her handy Plank-O'-Whacking and oh god, were her legs burning. Holy shit. How could this kid have nearly died a few days ago and been so fucking fast? This was unfair. She didn't get any weird mutant abilities.
"Hold the fuck up," she gasped, not that he seemed to pay it any mind. As a matter of fact, the only break in his stride was to kick off a brick facade and catch hold of a low-hanging drainage pipe, using the momentum of it to swing himself up and in through the open window above it. Skyler came to a halt and practically smacked into the wall. She gaped upwards at where he'd vanished, wondering how the hell she was supposed to get up there. Then she made the mistake of looking behind her and winced, hearing too-familiar animalistic growls gaining whatever ground they may have lost. She pounded a fist on the wall, eye widening. "YO! ADRIAN!"
Only about five seconds had passed, but it was enough time to give her a heart attack before he came back out and onto the pipe, reaching down one hand and if she didn't know any better, she'd think he was exasperated with her inability to just scale buildings the same way. It was a definite struggle, and along the way the plank fell from her hands, but after a couple of tries she caught it and felt herself being roughly helped up in the same way.
"Oh ha ha, you little asshole," she gasped out as she hauled herself in. "Real funny. Just leave me down there to-" She trailed off when she got a fleeting glimpse of his face from that angle. "MOTHERFUCKER! Are you fucking grinning at me?!"
His face was messed-up enough that she couldn't say for certain, but she was almost entirely sure. If that didn't sell it, the decidedly pleasedhuff he gave did. Her mind was blown. He was having fun with this. Skyler gave him a shove once she was up to her feet.
"I can't believe this. Ham it the hell up when we're not about to die." Wow. Amazing that she was the one saying this for once, but then again, she was also the one in danger of not keeping up. Nothing verbal was needed for him to start moving again and for her to follow in his apparently experienced footsteps.
Fascinatingly, he did seem to be at something of an advantage here, and she thought she was starting to see what was going on. The way he traversed this path told her that this area had been his stomping ground for a considerable amount of time, every turn he took certain. Whereas these other Hunters, they didn't have that. Newbies in town, maybe? Or at least to this little corner of the city. Whatever the case may be, they seemed to be having a hard time keeping a bead on them.
She clambered through the living room and kitchen of the apartment they'd landed in, tripping over a coffee table in her hurry. She could see the back door out of the kitchen left open, onto a snow-blown balcony overlooking the next complex. Okay. Looked like a fire escape. She could get out there, and-
And the metal ladder was crumpled uselessly on the ground. So much for that plan. Adrian was perched precariously on the edge of the balcony and, as she watched, he launched himself smoothly off the edge and rolled into the waiting window of another apartment just across the way. She fully expected him to vanish from sight again, but instead, this time he lingered within view and simply stared back.
"You've got to be kidding me," she wheezed. Of course, this was no joke, and standing around gawking would probably allow time for her to get eaten.
Shit, uh. Okay. Hit it rolling, she guessed. Just like Adrian had done. Preferably without putting too much thought into how if she missed, she was going to plummet and probably snap something important. Skyler stepped back a few feet, keeping her eyes fixed on the open window the entire time. Paused for a second and then, with the best running start she could get, she gunned it. Right at the end as she jumped her feet slid on the icy balcony, and the plunge her gut did couldn't quite be described. FUCK! She was totally going to wipe out, this was the stupidest thing she possibly could have-!
She made it. Just barely, and her roll was sloppy enough to leave her with what she knew was going to be a nasty bruise. Adrian surveyed her and oh god she could just sense the amusement. But hey, she wasn't dead! So that was already better than expected. Her heart was still beating a mile a minute.
That was as much pause as she got before returning to a punishing run. The rooms were strewn with personal effects; even a dress mannequin clad in a flowery skirt and pink blouse lay upturned, as if the residents had to decide at a moment's notice just what they were going to carry with them, but right now the stuff posed more of a hazard than anything.
Another door knocked off of its hinges led them onto a central stairwell and, to her slight dismay, of course the kid was headed up rather than down. She couldn't help but wonder if maybe they'd already lost the other Hunters at this point, though. She could hear nothing behind them, and no teeth suddenly came out of nowhere to snap at her. Maybe they were all clear?
She… she had to stop, though. At least for a second. She was starting to stagger, and her lungs felt ready to explode. Panting, she held up a hand, doing her best to convey this. Involuntary as it may have been, she slowed as she shoved open one of the fifth-floor doors.
"Oh Christ," she got out raggedly, shaking her head. "Just give me- a minute here. Fucking… leaper shit. Not cut out for this."
It was pretty obvious that he didn't understand her and grumbled in protest at the stop, jerking his head and twitching very pointedly back towards their path upward, but to his credit he surprisingly didn't just leave her in the dust there, for whatever reason. Skyler lurched into the relatively secluded spot, hoping this would at least give her some sort of cover. She wasn't yet to her mid-twenties and she was already too old for this. Goddamn. She leaned against the wall by one of the windows, still too on alert to actually sit down.
It was then that she saw it. Somewhere out on the rooftops beyond, the movement of a solitary figure caught her eye. Oh no. Oh hell no. Another Hunter?
Four, her brain ticked off, the cherry on top of the whole mess. Not three. Four.
Something about this one in particular though, was… Skyler narrowed her eye in closer examination. She could make out some detail, if she squinted. This one didn't seem to have spotted her yet, and remained some distance from the others. Female, possibly? Only slightly larger than Adrian's size, and wearing a bloodied, wind-beaten pink jacket and practical sweatpants. She stood alone on the rooftop, alert and observant over the surroundings. And then she motioned down towards the street below her, no doubt at her comrades, and then jerked her head in the correct direction all while Skyler's gut did a flip. Even Adrian seemed to notice what she was gawking at, and gave a low hiss.
She was coordinating the rest of them. Like a thinking fucking thing.
By the time that Skyler looked directly at her again, her gaze was met almost directly by a tilt of her hooded head. Then, the teeth bared.
NOPE! Nope nope nope, she was definitely getting the fuck out of here, pronto! Relying on a burst of energy she hadn't realized she still had, surely brought on by sheer "what the fuck", she floored it back out to the stairwell, ahead of Adrian. She hoped he had a plan, because she wasn't looking forward to dealing with whoever that was and her team of leapers. Worse yet, as they approached the top, she could definitely hear something breaking into one of the rooms far below.
Predictably, the roof access door had also been busted. A gust of frigid air hit her in the face as she staggered out. The rooftop was mostly fenced in, aside from one side of it that had a gaping hole in the chain link, the only apparent way out of here that wasn't back the way they'd come. And beyond it was… an expanse. At least a twenty foot gap between this and the landscaped rooftop next, and a drop. She didn't even have to ask. Just shook her head.
"No. No."
There was no way this was happening. Maybe that last jump had been doable, but this was something entirely else. There was just no way possible for a normal human to manage this, and while one of them wasn't precisely a normal human, she was doubtful of the shape he was in. Ah, hell. She was going to die here entirely because she'd trusted a fucking infected to have some brilliant plan.
If Adrian was aware of the impossibility of this, there was no indication, and he seemed to be gearing up and carefully gauging the distance. The muscles in his back and legs visibly rolled, and his claws curled as she could feel his eyes flickering back to her. He paused expectantly, but what he wanted her to do was past her. She threw out her arms, and after waiting for too long, she finally got it when he slowly patted a hand over his own back. 'Hang on'.
"You expect me to-? Uh… no. I don't trust like that," she yelled over the whistle of wind. It wasn't changing anything, though, and the excited shriek that sounded from inside the complex had her quickly reevaluating her options. "OKAY, OKAY! FUCK! LET'S GO FOR IT!"
Oh god, this was weird as shit. Wrapping her arms around his neck had her dangerously close to a faceful of his filthy-ass clothes and this close she could actually hear the manic thrum of his heart and the rumble that went through his whole body. She was the world's worst koala and she wasn't sure what he thought was going to happen considering she was nearly as big as him. His muscles bunched and flexed under her. Then he was running. And seconds later, to her amazement and horror, airborne.
Now Skyler wasn't a weak-stomached woman. She'd like to think of herself as the opposite. But with the wind whipping past her, beating at her hair and her clothes, getting a glimpse of the blurred street below for that one nauseating second, only kept from splattering by the death-grip of her arms and legs around Adrian… Well. She screamed. He screamed, sounding quite a bit more excited about it. She was pretty sure something else was screaming, too. Everything was screaming and she was about to hit the ground at like a million miles an hour.
"AAAHHH SON OF A BITCH-"
Landing on something solid jarred her like hell, but after a moment, she realized she definitely wasn't dead, and not in a mangled heap on the street below. She blinked hard now that she could open her eye, taking in labored panting, her own shock, and the simple fact that they'd actually made it. Slowly, as it sank in, throat still raw, she dissolved into an incredulous laugh.
"Holy shit," she got out, low and unabashedly awed. In all of her time kicking around, she'd never done anything quite like that. "Badass."
It took her a moment to both pry herself off and notice that Adrian was giving an odd sort of tremble now, and then he started into some sound that at first she didn't even recognize. After a tick, it clicked in her fatigued brain that he… he was laughing too. Hesitant and rough, but sounding just as stunned and relieved as she was. Jesus fuck. He could goddamn laugh. She didn't know how to react to this, and so, unable to help it, she continued to laugh with him.
And then without notice, he gradually trailed off and slumped, his head rolling before he went facedown. Uh-oh.
Sharp alarm setting in once again, she gave him a rough nudge, attempting to stir him. "Kid! Adrian!"
He gave a weak mumble at the jarring, so he was alive, at least. The shifting revealed fresh splotches of red on the snow beneath his stomach, which gave a pretty good indication of what was happening. In any case, he was more or less unconscious, at the worst possible time for it.
A soft scraping sound came from above, and Skyler made the mistake of looking up, because there she was. Miss Pink, crouched right on top of the rooftop they'd come from and framed by the hole in the fence where Skyler could get a nice, long look at her. Close enough to see the thick curls surrounding her face and the stylized dancer on her gory shirt. She didn't attack immediately, turning her head in eerily intelligent investigation. Her posture was akin to a curious cat, but she held herself more seriously, somehow.
Looking for an all-clear.
After a bit of this observation, the lady Hunter gave a soft growl, and then turned back towards the roof access and repeated the same gesture from earlier. The other three filed out after her, little one included, and at that moment, Skyler could imagine Pink in particular looked pretty satisfied as she took the lead headed for the roof's edge.
Crack!
The entirely unexpected and yet familiar sound of a sniper rifle echoed over the buildings. Concrete chips flew as a slug embedded into the rooftop close enough to Pink that she threw herself to the side with an alarmed yelp. Adrian gave a groan of distress, but didn't seem aware of what was actually happening. What in the fuck?! Who else was out here?!
Finally Skyler spotted the shooter, only several buildings away, perched out on a balcony with the barrel of a scoped rifle leaned up on what had formerly been a flower basket. Had they been there the whole time? The other survivor rose to their feet. This was… a teenaged girl. Maybe old enough to have been a student here, but no older. Heavily outfitted in a bulletproof vest and weapon holsters, and so streaked with blood, even through her blonde hair, that if she hadn't just shot a high-caliber weapon then she might have been mistaken for one of the infected. Fixated, Skyler watched her stare Pink directly down, a sharp grin spreading over her face.
"Alpha," Skyler read off of the shooter's lips. Pink snarled. Somehow Skyler got the impression this tango had happened already. The sniper beckoned, goading.
Pink wavered, gaze moving from Skyler and then to the new arrival. The rest of her pack seemed rearing to go, and to an extent so did she, but before the shooter had time to reload, she turned one final, baleful growl back at the balcony and nodded back towards the doorway. The smallest one gave a high-pitched keen down at Skyler, but was ushered back in with them. Gone.
What a hell of a way to find out that she wasn't the only survivor out here.
The sniper sighed, shaking her head. "Again," she groaned melodramatically, audible from where she was. "Eventually. One of these days." It was only at this point that she turned her focus on Skyler. "Ugh. Been at this for at least a week and a half, I've-" The girl trailed off in mid-sentence, surprise painted all over her face just like the blood splattered there and her lips parting a little bit. "Oh hello there," she started over, her posture immediately shifting into an inviting lean and her eyes wide.
"Uh? Hi."
Clocked out as he was, Adrian still responded to the sound of an uninfected voice, giving a weak attempt at a growl so slurred she wasn't sure that it counted and tried to lift his head. She shushed harshly, hoping from this distance it was possible he could be mistaken as an injured survivor. How much had this girl seen? She didn't look too concerned, which was probably a good sign. Maybe.
The stranger rubbed at the back of her neck. "Aha. Wow. Excuse me, I just didn't… expect to see a girl out here, did I give you my name? I should give you my name." She gestured politely outwards. "Hello. I'm Cat. I am very pleased to meet you, and I love the whole 'Army tough' thing you have going on."
Cat. Right. "Skyler," she called back, a little hesitant just from the strangeness of it all. "And, uh. Adrian."
Likely not meant to be overheard, Skyler managed to catch something along the lines of, "Oh I am too gay for this," before the girl cleared her throat and nodded eagerly. "Cool, cool. Hey, is that a leaper you've got there?"
The question was thrown out as casually as asking someone what they'd brought for lunch, and yet Skyler's heart did a little tapdance anyways. Deciding to go for broke and see what the reaction would be to the truth, she nodded. "Guess so," she explained simply.
Cat gave a slow nod, and then held up a classic thumbs-up of approval. "Neat. Got no idea what you've got going on there, but you do you." That was it. No other questions asked. "Hey, listen. I'm gonna get a move on. Hope to see you around?"
Whoa. Wait. How long had it been since this girl had seen another person that wasn't trying to kill her? And she just says "see ya"? "You don't want to group up, or, uh, I don't know. Ask me about the Hunter, maybe?" she asked, dumbfounded.
She paused in gathering up her weaponry for a moment to wrinkle her face in thought. "Mmh. Eh. Don't worry though, I'll be around. Good luck!"
With a wave of goodbye, Cat sauntered into her office building and disappeared from sight. A minute went by where Skyler stared blankly at the spot where this girl had been, before raising an eyebrow of her own and looking down at the unconscious Adrian to give voice to the biggest question that was on her mind.
"What the fuck was that all about?"
