Sorry about the colossal wait! It's hard for me to continue writing when it's the holidays! I've been suffering from the dreadful procrastination and writers block disease. Anyways, here's chapter 26, finally
Zarbok- heh, it is about time ay? Still, over the next chapter or two I'll be finally able to play that out a bit more.
Shady- well I wouldn't exactly call this soon but at least it's here now! And sorry for being so slack about writing emails to you, I haven't been on the net very often and so I haven't been writing many emails lately! Sorry!! XP
Chapter 26
The young vampire, now bored, appeared to become completely inanimate. He was about eight, when he was alive, and gentle decomposition over the years had done nothing to lose that look of scrawniness. He had, however, obtained a look of craftiness.
A JK Rowling fan that had happened upon him would be forgiven for likening him to a goblin. They shared a swarthy and cunning, and also repulsive, appearance. A scab met at the corner of his mouth. He picked at it with a jagged fingernail disinterestedly.
A Wesker-coloured blur darted through a half opened door down the corridor and disappeared almost instantly. 'Goblin' cocked his head. He could hear the sounds of a pursuit; obviously this was a getaway attempt. He began following the intruder, fancying he was drawing nearer to his prey. If this kept up, he'd be the one to get the glory for apprehension.
A hand clasped on his shoulder and drove him into the wall. The sound of cracking cartilage filled his ears and his vision swam wildly as his nose was systematically broken. The creature he was tracking was off like a shot.
Goblin turned himself around, rubbing at his nose tenderly even as it healed. He found himself in the presence of a highly ticked-off Victoria. She spat at him.
"What are you doing?!"
He tried to think of something that would get him out of trouble. "I was tracking the intruder. I was almost upon him until you broke my nose."
"Imbecile!" she hissed. "I was following the recruit to make sure he didn't double-cross me! You've ruined everything. Now," she began talking to herself out-loud, "he'll think we've double-crossed him and he won't help us. Do you see what you've done?" She launched into a tirade of insults too severe for her almost demure appearance.
Goblin stared back stonily, almost being insubordinate. "Well if you had the tracking skills of a hog he might not have noticed you were after him."
She broke his nose again and sent him to alert the others that there was the possibility of a very intense fight.
***
His fingers were numb. He pressed those on his right hand to his cheek and couldn't feel either. It was like he was made of plastic. The temperature of the sewers finally began to hit home, and it was definitely cold. He stared at his hands in fascination. They were covered in dirt but obviously still the hands of man who didn't do much extreme exercise.
James rubbed them on the material of his shirt and then ignored them. He also ignored the stench of sewerage and sweat and the ticking of his pulse in his forehead. Years of working in a sedate life-style were working against him. His feet were raw and blistered inside his black loafers. It was a blessing they were numb. Step after step opened the blisters again and his socks were accumulating rust-coloured splotches.
If it wasn't his daughter who was in this position, he may have given up and just lain on the floor, waiting to be found or to pass out from exhaustion. Be that as it may, he wasn't the type to abandon his child so and continued going despite the factors working against him.
All he could think of was the strange woman from the hospital.
What could happen to make her so insane? Why did everyone refer to Albert with fear and hate? And why did it have to be his town and his family involved? Something out of the blue, something unpredictable and it had to happen to him?
***
Wesker dashed through open doors and over derelict furniture, only half-trying to be stealthy. Just because Victoria had appeared so far to be inept didn't mean that she couldn't rip him in two if she had a desire to.
As he skidded around a corner a hint of pine reached him. He tracked it hurriedly to another set of heavily rusted security doors, though these ones were wide open. The scent of pine was obscenely strong and again made his eyes water.
Piles of bulky and time-stained blankets lined the corridor. Huddled into the foetus position on top of these rotting sheets were vampires of different sizes and states of decomposition. They were all asleep. Some were even snoring gently.
Wesker looked down the corridor with disgust. It reminded him strongly of maggots on a festering wound. After a brief hesitation he convinced himself that he had no choice but to creep past the sleeping fiends and hope they didn't wake.
As he skirted the bodies, Wesker was very glad of the pine that masked what would have been an unbearably potent stench of decay. Huddled in sad, rust-coloured bunches were the broken forms of rodents, birds and some domestic animals that had the misfortune to stumble across the vampires. After tense moments and combating a desire to retch, Wesker tiptoed past the last vampire and shuddered, wondering all the while how he used to be at ease with such sights. He figured the intense pine was messing up his mind.
He turned to see the room he had first come across Victoria in. It was completely empty. Well, this was the place. If his impressions were accurate, and they usually were, he was in the epicentre of the happenings in the vampire community. Now he needed to find a way to start a fire that would let of a really loud bang...
***
Jill listened to the sound of conversation. The sentry vampires were complaining about their mistress's short temper and about the "recruit". She couldn't make any sense of it and thus ignored them completely, leading the near-blind Sena around the area and continuing as normal.
"Err, Jill?" She gave no indication of having heard. "I was thinking... maybe we should've stayed to wait with the others. What if they come across Ben's body and then don't come after us or think we're dead? So many things can go wrong."
Jill massaged her temples and tried to block out Sena's voice. She may be naïve when it comes to double-dealing but she wasn't stupid either. Hell, she had the Wesker-gene for cunning, Jill was ready to bet, and merely needed some training to discover it completely.
"Uh..." Jill said.
Sena gave a silent, expectant reply.
"Don't worry, everything will work out okay."
"How do you know? That's just a cheesy line from children's action movies that doesn't work in real life."
Jill briefly entertained the idea of leaving Sena in the sewers and outrunning her but thought she might miss the distraction of leading her astray. This was like a fun game of cat-and-mouse. How long would it take for little Sena to discover that she was completely lost in the presence of a creature that really only wanted to eat her?
"Um... it'll all work out because Barry and Chris will make it work out."
Chris... now there was another bundle of confusion. Although the initial bewilderment of her transformation had faded this still remained an intensely grey area. The look of betrayal and displeasure, and her reaction... pfft, it was probably only a left over emotion from being human. Human emotions had no place in the sewers.
A twinkle of light caught her eye. Bored, and thinking that she might as well check it out, Jill hoisted Sena on her shoulders so they could check it out. Sena's arms strained against the heavy metal. Dirt and water dripped on to her face and she spluttered in distaste. That was gross.
Inch by inch she managed to move the heavy man-hole cover. Jill barely managed to hide her surprise that such a little glimmer of light could such a little girl's salvation. Finally the cover was off, and all Sena do was scramble up to safety.
Like Jill was going to let that happen.
Sena was half-way out when Jill's strong fingers grasped her ankle and began to pull her in. Her own fingers scrabbled at the dampening concrete but could find no leverage. The very solid rim of the hole hit her chin and for a brief second she thought she might pass out.
It was then that things began to heat up.
****
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