Chapter 5

The moon was rising overhead, filling the concrete chamber with its pale unearthly light. For hours now I had sat in utter silence, my mind spinning through a whirlpool of emptiness. I felt so…weak, as if there was nothing that I could do to change anything. Helpless, that was how I felt…totally and completely helpless to control myself or anything else. My life seemed pointless, no matter how many times I continued to tell myself that I had a purpose, that I needed to help Aeris, something inside me said otherwise. Always was I a failure…inadequate, ineffectual, a nobody drifting in a nightmare that I could do nothing to stop. I could not wake up from the dream, it only seemed to grip all the tighter.
I knew that the voices were wrong, that they were lying to me, yet there was nothing that I could do to make them stop. They brought the void with them like a sickness, and taunted me with the half-recalled memories from a past that I hated and yet needed to remember.
I gazed up at the stars, focusing my thoughts away from the loneliness inside. I looked at those magnificent heavenly bodies performing their time worn dance. I could remember the days back home before the machines had come to drill the earth and burn the forests. I could remember the nights spent laid out on the roof of the house, watching the stars and moon slip silently across the sky. They had always fascinated me, the cosmos had always held a certain lure for me, and it was more than once that I had caught myself as a lad wondering what lay beyond in the blackness of space. The idea had both thrilled and frightened me, to be all alone in the infinite gulf of darkness…to be as completely alone as it was possible to be…this had always disconcerted me greatly.
Now, I thought that perhaps I understood what it might feel like to travel through space. To be so tiny, to feel so derisory that the idea that you could make a difference was laughable in its pitiful absurdity.
The thoughts came back and forth, repeating themselves again and again and again in a never ending cycle that I just didn't seem able to break out of. This was certainly the worst attack that I'd had since the time outside my tunnel when I'd found my Materia, and who knows how it all might have ended that night had not Laura stirred at that moment.
I heard a sigh from off to my side. I turned my head and saw that Laura was yawning and stretching. Carefully rising so as to not to wake up Christian, she looked around the room, and then at me.
"I thought I told you to wake me up at around twelve?" she said. She must have misinterpreted the black rings under my eyes and overall haggard appearance as exhaustion, but it was much more than that. "Please Zack," she said, "get some sleep…I beg you. You look like a zombie."
I nodded slowly, the spell of depression slowly wearing off, leaving me tired and confused…leaving me to ponder just how I'd let it get to me so easily. I'd promised myself that I would guard myself from the void, but it had penetrated my soul so easily, like it was meant to be there…I truly did not know what I was going to do, not if I couldn't even trust my own thoughts.
"You stay there to take watch," I said, "I'll be fine right here."
"But…" she began, but I wasn't going to argue.
"No," I repeated, "you stay there and keep Christian warm…I'll be fine."
Thankfully she didn't argue, and so I placed the backpack behind my head up against the pile of wood and lay down to get some sleep, but not before adding enough fuel to the fire to keep it going for the rest of the night.
I fell asleep almost immediately, but my dreams were filled with strange shapes and sounds. It was as if some foreign or alien music were playing in the back of my mind. I felt as though something were watching me, and the dark figures flitting about in the recesses of my thoughts were a part of this greater 'whole'…whatever it was. I know that it sounds strange, but I knew that something was assessing me, testing me for flaws…and what made it even weirder was that the presence I felt was my own…

I woke with a start, flying up to my feet so quickly that I woke up Christian, causing the baby to cry. I'd scared Laura as well, and she gave me that disapproving look as she cradled the infant and tried to quiet him down.
"Good morning," she finally conceded after Christian settled down again.
"Good morning," I replied. "Want some breakfast?" I asked.
"Sure," she answered.
With that I dug up some food from out of the pack and we enjoyed a small breakfast together as the sun began to shine into the warehouse.
"So…" I began as I packed up the last few things into the backpack and strapped on Reaper, "everything go ok last night?"
"Sure," Laura replied as she swung baby Christian around her shoulders in his carrier. "I heard some squeaks outside for a minute or so…but other than that there was nothing."
"Hmmm…" I said, "probably rats."
"Yeah," she replied, "probably."
Laura looked convinced, but I wasn't. Who knew what kind of monsters might be wandering around scavenging on the remains of Sector 7 and its populace?
In any case I decided not to tell Laura about what I'd been thinking since she probably already knew what I was worried about, and if she didn't, then there was no reason to burden her further.
We left the camp as it was, and allowed the fire to burn itself out; one more burn would not add much to the plethora of scars already criss-crossing Sector 7.
Sector 7 lay before us once more, a field of death and destruction…an obstacle in our path whose very presence seemed to daunt us with its overwhelming chaos.
"You ready?" I asked, taking a look at the baby to make sure he was asleep.
Laura nodded, and so we started to hike. I had seen a long line of cables hanging down from the far upper plate. Laura said that they were probably electrical cables running from Sector 8's industrial district into Sector 7. When the plate had fallen the cables had been dragged down with it, but had remained connected to the top plate. We were in sore need of a plan to get out of Sector 7, and the cables were our best bet, the only problem, they were on the other side of Sector 7.
The walk was different than it had been yesterday. When we first laid eyes on Sector 7 it had looked like Hades rising out of the earth to greet us. In the light however, it was like walking through a battlefield. I don't know if Laura would have understood, but I could remember the carnage that came after a long fight. Junon had been very nearly wiped out when the Wutaians first attacked. It had only been through the dedicated defense of a few that the city had not fallen. Then there were all the funds channeled into rebuilding, and there had been the cannon…but things were once again getting fuzzy. It was starting to annoy me how my mind tantalized me with my own memories, how it held out the key to my past just long enough for me to reach for it, just before it recoiled and left me in shadow once again.
We were silent, as we most always were, but I did not feel lonely with Laura walking beside me. In fact, I was experiencing some pretty strong paternal instincts toward her and the child…especially the child. Something about his pure unfettered innocence interested me, like the darkness is interested in what it might be like to exist in the light.
In any case we were making good time, despite huge cracks running through the streets and buildings, and the craters where the mako pipelines exploded. However, I just couldn't seem to shake the feeling that we were being watched.
It was about noon when I heard the sound. We had decided not to stop for lunch because we wanted to get out of that place soon, preferably before dark, and lunch would only slow us down.
It was a squeak, little more than that, but I saw the hairs rise on the back of Laura's head.
"That the sound from last night?" I asked.
She only nodded.
There were more squeaks, but I didn't move my head and I motioned to Laura to do the same. We kept on walking, faster at first, until finally we were at a dead run, with the squeaking still keeping pace. Finally I had to look. I turned around to not one, not two, not even three or four but hundreds of the disgusting creatures from the Sector 6 construction site following us. Laura looked too and gasped.
"Whole Eaters," she said, "I've never seen so many before."
"And I bet they think we're dinner," I said as I launched a Tornado into the center of their beastly horde. I grabbed Laura by the arm and started running.
"We need to get out of here!" I shouted as I could hear the squeaking turn to screeching behind us…it would appear that I'd gotten the little monsters mad.
She did not acknowledge the statement…it was kind of obvious, but I figured that someone had to say it.
We raced down deserted avenues and forgotten roads with the enemy never far behind. In between the puffs for breath I could sometimes catch a peek at the Whole Eaters as they moved. They did not run or walk, but rather 'jumped' from place to place. They could use the sharp claws on the ends of their insect-like legs to anchor themselves into a floor, wall, or even, I guessed, a ceiling. Then they'd use that spot as a launching platform. It sounds like a complicated process, and it was, but they were able to perform it with the utmost skill. We ran through a courtyard, and turned to the side, and we were suddenly very trapped in a very dead end alleyway (pun not intended).
Tall brick buildings rose up on either side, trapping the three of us like rats in a ravine, and then the Whole Eaters came.
Luckily, they were a bit more subdued…or at least more cautious. They lurked around the entrance to the alley. At first I thought that they were simply scared to enter, but I could hear distant screeching and I realized that they were calling reinforcements!
Laura had unsheathed Jimmy's dagger, and was griping the handle so tight her knuckles were turning white.
Meanwhile I was looking around desperately for some way out when I saw a fire escape on the side of the building to our right. I almost expected a pillar of light to shine down on it while the heavenly hosts sang for joy, but the only sound that I could hear-and it was getting closer- was the screaming calls of the Whole Eaters.
"Come on!" I practically shouted at Laura, "I think I have a way out!"
I pulled her over to the fire escape and dragged over a dumpster that we could use as a platform to reach the rusting iron ladder above.
The Whole Eaters continued to mass outside the alley, but I sent off a Freeze spell that I hoped would make them think twice about coming in after us.
"You go first," I said.
"But…" started Laura before I stopped her.
"Think of the baby," I said, that made her close her mouth.
"If I don't get a chance to follow, you need to keep running for the cables, just get yourself out of this place ok?"
She looked at my serious expression and decided not to argue, but was still only able to nod.
"Now hurry up and get going," I said as I helped her up on to the dumpster.
By now my heart was racing, the Whole Eaters were creeping down the alleyway, their bodies tensing for the strike, but I was ready for them.
Finally one of them lashed out, but not at me, it went straight for Laura who was still climbing up the fire escape as fast as she could. I summoned a Gravity 2 spell, just enough to hurt it bad and send it flying without wasting my energy, but I was barely able to avoid being taken down by no less than seven leaping screeching Whole Eaters.
They sailed past me, and as they turned around to strike again I jumped up onto the dumpster and grappled my way up the fire escape ladder. Two of the little monsters followed, but I unslung Reaper and made mincemeat out of the one who came to close. The other one jumped up onto the wall next to me while the army behind me began to surge around the base of the building, finally realizing that its prey was escaping. I continued climbing as fast as I could, but with Laura already over the top the Whole Eaters could concentrate more energy on me. The one up on the wall jumped straight at me. The angle was awkward and I couldn't properly swing my sword, so I lifted up my arm in front of me, but when the Whole Eater hit it tried to grab hold of the appendage, the strong leather jacket probably the only thing that kept it from tearing the flesh of the bones of my arm. I immediately swung my arm and sent the little monster flying back down to a squishy meeting with the concrete ground below.
By now there were more than a dozen of the monsters all over the wall and fire escape; they'd been using the last Whole Eater as a decoy so that they could surround me! They were certainly intelligent little buggers I had to admit, even if they do look like deformed worms on steroids.
I sent off a Freeze spell, permanently anchoring several Whole Eaters to the brick wall. Two jumped at me, but one was faster than the other so I was able to skewer it on Reaper before twisting around with the Whole Eater still impaled by my blade to cut the head of the second attacker in two, sending both bodies toppling back down to the ground.
Vile green blood was splattered all over the wall and rusted fire escape by now, but instead of making the other monsters wary, it only seemed to drive them into more of a frenzy. Despite this I was still able to continue climbing as I fought off individual attackers, but most of the Whole Eaters had by now taken an interest in me, and the top of the building seemed such a long way off.
I was almost at the top when one of the Whole Eaters caught me by surprise and landed right on my shoulder, sinking its many foul teeth deep into my flesh. I called out in pain, and slammed my shoulder up against the wall, effectively cracking the monster's skull with a sickening, yet satisfying, crunch.
I grabbed at my shoulder, the sudden pain nearly blinding me, but the dizziness quickly passed and I remembered what was after me.
With a much clearer head I tried to continue, but the Whole Eaters could see that I was injured, and they weren't about to let me escape. Two more jumped at me, and although I was able to avoid the first one, the second monster hit me straight on in the chest, knocking me down onto the iron grated floor of the fire escape. It let out a screech of victory before I let loose a Flare directly into its underbelly, launching the pieces of the Whole Eater into the stratosphere, and frying several of its friends in the process.
I then activated my Barrier Materia and cast a Barrier around me before using my Restore Materia to heal my shoulder.
However, it was one move too late because now the Whole Eaters were mad, and they had their little green hearts set on tearing me limb from limb. They charged as one force at me, slamming into my Barrier and slashing at me with those razor sharp claws.
I could no longer continue up the fire escape, the beasts were everywhere and it was all I could do to keep them at bay. Already the disgusting bodies were piling up around me like garbage at a dump, but the monsters kept on coming.
I realized that if I ever wanted to get out of there alive I would have to try and keep going, that reaching the top of the building was my only hope for survival. It was there that the Whole Eaters would loose the advantage of being able to attack from all directions at once, it was there where I could hope to make a stand while Laura escaped.
It was funny how my mind seemed to work now. I could remember the part of my past where I had been a man I hated, and I knew that I would never have given my life for anyone…I was far too selfish. Yet, now the idea of sacrifice came to me so easily…like it was supposed to be there as much as the selfishness and greed.
I ran up the steps to the next level of the fire escape, only one more left to go…
It was not to be it would seem because even as my foot touched the balcony right below the top I felt something hit me in the back. I knew it was a Whole Eater, but there wasn't anything I could do to shake it. I slammed my back into the wall, killing it, but another jumped onto my shoulder, and another was wrapping itself around my legs, hissing between its razor sharp fangs. Then my world went black as a snake-like body obstructed my vision. I could feel them biting me, trying to work their way through the leather, but when I could see again I was lying on the grate iron fire escape, unable to move for the bodies piled on top of me, holding me down.
I knew I was bleeding, I knew that it wouldn't be long before I blacked out, but I no longer had the strength to use yet another powerful spell. I could feel myself dying slowly, but then I saw Laura stick her head out over the side of the building. 'No!' I screamed to myself, 'get out of here!' I wanted to yell at her, but my throat was dry, and I couldn't get it to make a sound beyond that of a rasping gasp. I could see that she still had Jimmy's dagger clutched in her fist, but there was something else too…a small yellow orb which she set in a bronze band around her arm. She closed her eyes and concentrated, and it was then that the Whole Eaters took notice of her. Screeching and howling they left my mangled body and rushed up at her…just as she swept her dagger from left to right, the yellow orb glowing slightly as its attack was unleashed.
I felt the air about me sing as the Whole Eaters started screaming in pain. The air about me was rent with sparks and the Whole Eaters who survived jumped down the wall back into the alley and courtyard to regroup.
Laura ran down the flight of stairs and gasped as she saw my body…although I did not know how bad it was, I could see from the look on her face that it was pretty bad.
Somehow I was able to point to the Restore Materia on my sword, and she understood immediately. She healed me as best she could, and I helped some as well, but once I was able to walk we decided we should run and ask questions later because it sounded like more Whole Eaters had just arrived.
Luckily we were in what had once been the industrial district of Sector 7 which meant that all the buildings were fairly close together, making movement between them all the easier. Laura led the way, jumping from rooftop to rooftop while I guarded the rear.
The Whole Eaters were finally scared, and did not dare show themselves in the open, but I could still hear skittering and screeching following us from the darkened labyrinth of streets and alleyways below.
Baby Christian had woken up when we'd been forced to climb up the fire escape, but he had not cried once during our entire retreat. I was beginning to develop respect for that small child.
"What was that attack?" I shouted up to Laura between breaths.
"It was a Slash-All Materia," she replied, "it's a family heirloom, but my mom told me to take it and keep it secret."
"Well," I called back, "thanks for saving me anyway."
She didn't answer, but I thought that she nodded her head. 'She's a strange one alright,' I decided. Sometimes it seemed like she was more than willing to volunteer information, and other times I couldn't get her to say so much as 'yes' or 'no'…or 'you're welcome'. It was as if Laura wanted to trust me, but couldn't…or wouldn't…let herself.
But that didn't matter because I had bigger problems on my hands at the time.
The cables were looming overhead. I had not expected to reach them until after dark, but I suppose a person can make good time when being chased by a horde of giant-mouthed monsters.
While I felt for the first time that we might actually make it out, I could still hear our pursuers chasing us, and I knew that sooner or later we'd have to come down to reach the cables. The time came sooner than I expected.
We reached the outer edge of Sector 7, where the destruction was worse than it had been near the center. The buildings were no longer safe to run on, and besides, the industrial district was giving way to endless rows of machinery designed to regulate the entire upper plate. These systems were in ruins now, but at one time they would have controlled the input and output of everything from power and water to food supplies and consumer goods.
We came to the very last building, and were forced to crawl down through a hole in the roof. The building had once been an apartment of some kind…a very poor apartment. It had probably served as home to the engineers who kept tabs on the Sector 7 life support systems.
"Do you have anymore energy to use that Slash-All?" I asked Laura as we raced down the rickety stairs.
She shook her head to imply the negative, but this time it had nothing to do with her willingness to talk…I could see that she was completely exhausted from our escape. This posed a problem because I did not have enough energy to cast anymore spells except maybe a couple low level Cures…and I thought that those might come in handy later. I knew that the Whole Eaters would be waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs, but without any magic this confrontation was gonna be tricky.
We stopped in front of the front door. It was made of wood and, luckily, was still shut. I could hear the sounds of the monsters outside, they'd all gathered in front of the door to try and ambush us. This gave me an idea.
Taking Reaper in one hand, I pulled out one of my grenades with the other.
I looked at Laura, who had a worried look on her face, "On the count of three hunker down and then follow me."
"Ok," she said.
'Wow,' I thought, 'I guess there's always a first.'
"One," I pulled the pin out of the grenade, "Two," I kicked the door open with my foot, "Three!" I sent the little green egg of death flying into the middle of the enemy formation…if you could call an incoherent mess of screaming monsters a formation.
After that things turned into one big blur smeared by the vomit-like blood of the Whole Eaters, and broken by the sounds of howling and explosions. I somehow managed to cut my way through the monsters with Laura right behind. Christian had finally had enough and was bawling his eyes out. I could tell that Laura wanted to take him out of his carrier and comfort him, but we weren't out of danger's way yet. The disorganized mass of green flesh was regrouping for the final strike and would have probably taken us down right there had not my grenade touched off a mako battery.
Power might not have flowed into Sector 7 for some time, but there batteries in every Sector, in both the top plate and the lower slums so that incase there was a major breakdown a Sector could continue to power itself. These batteries were constantly kept at full power, and with no one drawing on mako energy in Sector 7, they'd remained that way. The explosion my grenade caused damaged one of these massive batteries which were built to withstand just about anything, but had been weakened by the collapse. A breach had occurred, and the tremendous force of all that mako power washed out all at once, setting off a massive explosion that only barely missed both me and Laura. It did, however, fling us several yards through the air. I hit the ground hard and Laura landed right on top of me, luckily face down so that Christian wasn't hurt.
"Oh, I'm so sorry…" she lamented as she scrambled to her feet.
"Forget it," I said, a little envious that she'd gotten a padded landing. "We need to get out of here," I said as I continued to run towards the cables that were oh so close.
If the Whole Eaters had been angry before, they were in a berzerker rage now. They no longer screeched or howled, but sent out one single ear drum popping scream that seemed to literally travel through the air like a physical force.
Laura was barely able to keep going anymore, and she was falling behind.
"Come on!" I yelled as I grabbed her by the arm to keep her from falling down. I pushed her on out in front of me so that I could once again guard our flank. One of the Whole Eaters went sailing past my head, but as we ran past it I swung Reaper and I made sure it wouldn't attack again. By that time my sword was dripping in the green blood of Whole Eaters. We turned another corner, around the hulk of an abandoned tower of machinery, and then we were there.
The size of the cables was deceiving at a distance. Although they had seemed to be of decent size, up close I realized that they were truly enormous. The main line was a huge aluminum pipe as thick as a train car was wide, with indentations embossed around it like rings all the way up it length, turning it into a gigantic ladder. However, this main line stopped several hundred feet before it hit the ground, and had many smaller wires and cables running out of into the cracked and broken ground of Sector 7's upper plate.
"Go," I said, "start climbing, I'll follow."
Laura grabbed hold of one of the wires that was very much like a rope in circumference, and she started to climb. This time I didn't wait around but started climbing up right after her as fast as I could.
I had hoped that the Whole Eaters would give up once we were out of jumping reach, but I was far from correct. They used the same technique that they used to walk/run to 'climb' up the cables after us. I thought that we might be able to outrun them, but both Laura and I were exhausted, and the Whole Eaters seemed to be tireless in their chase.
One of them managed to jump up ahead of me, but lost its grip and fell. It was the last straw…something had to be done before the little monsters caught up with us.
It was then that I felt like I'd been struck with genius…or perhaps it was a delusion caused by extreme fatigue, but either way I was going to try my plan whether I thought it'd work or not.
I pulled out another grenade, pulled the pin, and threw it as hard as I could straight at the nearest Whole Eater just as it jumped at me. The grenade hit it right in the mouth and sent it reeling back down towards the ground, screeching all the way. The explosion vaporized the Whole Eater and severed all the cables beneath me, sending the whole monstrous mass of flesh and steel to smash into the plate beneath us with a deafening crash and a billow of smoke.
I remained where I was, watching curiously to see the products of my handiwork. The few Whole Eaters that had survived were no longer screaming…but whimpering, a sound that made me smile with satisfaction. I stared intently as the little monsters hopped, or in many cases crawled, away.
I was so happy I actually laughed for a second. It was a strange thing this laughing…it was something I had not done in a long time. I looked up and could see that Laura was not only safe, but she was still climbing. So, with a new hope lifting my spirits, I put my back into the work at hand and started to follow her up towards the world of the living above.