-Chapter 13-




When confronting Kat on the sidewalk in front of the front office of the school, Mike's initial reaction surprised him. Seeing her face, her dark brown hair, and her lovely body which he had seen for everyday since he met her, he was suddenly overcame by remorse for the outrage that he had acted upon her on the day he was killed and was filled with an unbearable sense of loss. Tears stung his sunken crimson eyes. He found it difficult to utter a word, not only because changes within his body had severely altered his ability to speak had made it difficult to speak, but because he is hit by a heavy wave of regret and grief for things that he couldn't figure out at all, along with a sudden crippling loneliness.

He stepped toward her, wanting to touch her.... embrace her without the intention to kill or maim, just to hold her in his arms. But he saw her aim and fire five shots from her pistol into his chest, he just shrugged off the shots like he had when Sam had shot him fifteen times.

He was quickly overcome with an anger that pulled him out of his anguish and self-pity. Like a dark ice filled tsunami, a cold rage surged into him again. The desire to stroke her hair, to gently touch her skin, to take her in his arms in warm embrace vanished instantly and was replaced by something darker and stronger than desire, the deep need to kill her. He lunged at her.

¤ ¤ ¤

Kat dodged the massive creature that used to be her friend's attack, only having a claw rip her jacket. She felt a deep stinging on her forearm; she ignored it and took off running back into the campus through the office. She ran into Razor and fell back, as did he.

"Razor!" she said frantically, "Sam's dead! M..." she held back the urge to tell her friend who it was, "...Monster killed him!" She lifted herself off of the ground.

Razor stood up, letting out a hand to help her up. "I found a way to get outta here, c'mon!" He gestured towards the student parking lot.

She saw a figure of a chubby student limp towards him from behind, "Razor, behind you!"

He casually turned towards the figure, "Damnit, another one!" He took out a handgun from his pocket, and aimed it at the zombie student, "Die you son-of-a-bitch!" He pulled the trigger, sending a single bullet rocketing through the air into the zombie's forehead. The zombie fell to the ground face down, a puddle of blood formed underneath it. "Heh, gotcha back, Ali."

She ran towards the student parking lot, following his lead. Bodies of numerous students, all appearing to have been mauled, littered the area. Some with slash marks, bite marks, decapitation, and even internal organs ripped out; their blood soaked into the burning asphalt. She noticed a few dogs in the back of the parking lot scavenging on the remains of the fallen young adults.

"Kat, this way!" Razor ran to the left, stopping at a car, "C'mon, hurry up!"

She ran towards him, stopped at the car, and entered the passenger's side, "Are you sure you can drive?"

"If you're so worried, then buckle up!" he said dryly as he locked his seat belt firmly

"Okay." she locked her seat belt as well

He started the car and sped off, steering the car towards the fence, "Brace yourself." he said as the vehicle smashed through the chain link fence.

She glanced at the front gate, seeing what used to be her friend on its hands and knees, quivering. Poor Mike, she thought to herself, he has came back... only wanting to be with me.

"Is something bothering you?"

"N-no..." she said as she turned her head away from the window

"Don't lie, Kat." she heard Vash's voice come from the back seat

"Vash?"

"You are hiding something. I know it."

"What? How do you...?"

"I just feel it."

When can I tell Razor what I wanted to say without other people interfering? She thought to herself again, taking her jacket off, revealing a black shirt underneath

Razor glanced at her, spotting a logo on her left sleeve. An Umbrella logo? Why does she have one? I'll ask her later. "So," he said, "Where to?"

"Somewhere we can hide."

"Hm..." he thought for a minute, "How about.... the uh.... Tnediug building?"

"The Tnediug building? Why?"

"It might be safe there."

"Don't you remember anything about the Raccoon City incident that was exposed by an anti-Umbrella faction?"

"Partially." he sighed, "Besides, that was Raccoon City... not Alucemet. Anyway, there are no other safe places around, anyway. I'm sure that Ateirrum is being affected, too." Ateirrum is the neighboring city to Alucemet that rested a mile away from Alucemet with many back roads leading to different areas. "We've got to live through this!"