MY LIONHEART – CHAPTER 6

Tears of Chaos

The lift doors creaked opened slowly after what seemed like ages of going up. As the doors opened up, a foul stench filled their nostrils. With an unnerving attitude, Irvine took a peek around and signaled the two of them to come out. Irvine laid down his guard, a little taken aback to see that the explosions have stopped. There were no-one in the hallway either, except for a few bodies littered here and there. The stench of death hung eerily in the corridor.

"Ugh." Quistis whimpered, pinching her nose. She felt like she could throw up any minute.

"Where are you going?" Irvine asked as Squall shot past them. He approached three bodies, obviously not students of this school. The three men were no younger than him and they had bullet wounds in their chest and forehead. They held their guns loosely in their bloody hands. Squall winced at the sight of them.

Irvine and Quistis trailed behind him, frequently looking left and right to see if the coast was clear. Upon reaching where he kneeled, they scanned the bodies in front of them.

"Oh." Quistis said, shocked. Squall was looking at one of the young man's dog tag.

"No good. No wallet, no ID. Just numbers on their dog tags." Squall said simply.Quistis's eyes started to water. She wiped the tears with the back of her hand, trying to make her movement minimal so that neither Irvine nor Squall's attention will be drawn to it. It worked. The two continued scanning the bodies, hopeful trying to find a source of information about where they were from.

Or what their dirty business was.

Irvine cursed, pulling his head back. "What do we do now?"

After a silent moment, Squall piped up, "I need to go back to the dorm. Get my Gunblade."

"What? We don't have much time!" Irvine said, protesting. Squall coolly looked around him and then back at Irvine.

"Not much time for what?" Squall said, a bit of sarcasm in his voice.

Irvine dropped his head. "Eish. Fine. We need to see if the premises are cleared of those scumbags, eh?"

Squall nodded lazily and started to head off to the dormitories when he looked over his shoulder.

"Quistis?"

"Hmm?"

"Are you coming?" Squall said.

"Ah… No, sorry. I'll… Uhh… I'll go back to see if the rest of the kids back at the infirmary are fine okay?" Quistis said with a forced smile, trying to hide the fact that she had been crying. Squall took no notice of it, nodded his head and headed off towards the dorms with Irvine. Quistis took another look at the bodies, let a sob escape her lips and collapsed onto her knees.

"What's wrong with her?" Irvine said, looking over his shoulder as they ran. Quistis was already out of their sight.

"Huh?" Squall said, almost out of breath.

"Geez, you really are clueless with women, aren't you?" Irvine shouted, trying to keep up with him.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Squall snapped as he slowed his pace.

"Man, Quistis was crying for god's sake and you didn't even notice?"

"…What? She did? Why?"

"That's why I'm asking you."

"…" Squall stopped his pace but kept quiet.

"Squall?" Irvine stepped in front of him, looking at him.

Squall pushed him away and continued walking.

"I don't know. Leave me alone." Squall grumpily. Irvine sighed and darted towards the other way.

"Hey! Where are you going?" Squall yelled.

"I need to see if she's alright! Meet back in the infirmary!"

I don't believe this.

Squall went back to his room, hastily looked for his Gunblade, replaced the gun with a prototype (I've been waiting to try this on, Squall thought as he snickered) and hastily ran back towards the infirmary. Before he got there, he saw Quistis still next to the bodies, on her knees. Irvine, who was kneeling beside her, looked at her with big eyes. She was explaining something to him but their conversation came to an abrupt end when Irvine saw Squall approach them.

Quistis and Irvine exchanged long, hard looks and then Quistis turned to Squall.

"Squall, there's something you need to know about these… Soldiers." Quistis began to say.

Back at the infirmary, Zell was oddly standing on one foot, trying hard to think of that they should be doing at the moment.

"Rinoa! Where are you going?" Selphie yelled as Rinoa shot out of the infirmary main doors.

"I see Irvine and Quistis near the elevator! Come on!" Rinoa said, taking two steps back and then disappeared. Selphie exchanged glances with Zell and ran to keep up with her. Upon reaching the two, they saw Squall, his back facing them.

"Squall!" Rinoa said, skipping towards him. She immediately sensed that something was wrong, and she dropped her cheery tone. "Squall? What's wrong?"

With his back still facing her, he replied, "Nothing."

After a long silence, Quistis broke the tenseness in the air. "Alright. You three, you need to take shelter. Here, take my spare key…"

"Hey Quisty, if you guys fight, I'll fight as well." Zell said stubbornly.

Quistis sighed. "Well, I assume you two ladies want to join in?"

Selphie looked at Rinoa, stared back at Quistis and took out her nunchaku. She winked.

Rinoa sighed and nodded as she didn't want to feel left out.

"Right. Rinoa, here, you can have this." Quistis said, handing her a weapon. "It's called Shooting Star. One of my favorites. It's still a prototype so be careful."

Rinoa took it in her hands. "Thanks." She said. It was small but slightly longer than the ones she'd seen before. Despite its small size, it was so much heavier. Any heavier and she could have sworn that it was a shotgun. She had never held a weapon before, and doubted if this was going to be the last time.

"Alright. Everyone ready?" Zell said as he straightened his gloves. Suddenly Irvine clumsily threw him a gun which Zell clumsily caught it and it slipped his hands and fell to the ground with a deafening 'clank'. He picked it up, looked at it amusingly and before he could say anything, Irvine broke in. "You won't get the chance to get close to them to sucker punch them."

"Irv, my man, you know that I'm not a gun person." Zell said, tilting his head to one side.

"Alright, enough with this chit chat. We need to get to work." Quistis said, loading bullets into her gun. With a click, she set off on her own, expecting everyone to keep up.

"So now, where are we going?" Selphie asked, walking beside her.

"We need to see if anyone survived."

"Umm…" Selphie said, not sure how to ask her.

"Remember our fire drill? If a fire breaks out, we are required to go to the back of the Garden. There's a big, vacant lot back there."

"But there's no fire." Zell said.

"But most of us know that it's a safe and open place, right?" Quistis said as she darted down the corridor. "Alright. I'm going to split us up. Squall, Irvine, you follow me. The rest, you see if there are people in the lots. If there are, protect them at all costs. I will automatically make all of you SeeDs if you survive."

Zell and Selphie looked smug, but Rinoa's mouth was agape. I just got here! Rinoa thought angrily.

"I'll go with them. Selphie, you take my place and follow Quistis and Irvine.

"Excuse me?" Quistis shot back.

"Rinoa is inexperienced. Selphie can be with you. Irvine is the best sharpshooter so I know your group will be covered." Squall said.

"And how about you?" Quistis asked.

"I'm your best student, aren't I?" Squall snickered. "Zell has been in war training twice. We're enough to keep a watch over her."

"…Fine. Alright then. Let's move. Selphie, come." Quistis said.

The party parted ways and Squall's group descended the steps while Quistis's group took the elevator.

"So what's the situation?" Zell asked as they took the back way towards the vacant lot.

"We're in deep shit." Squall swore simply.

"Can't get any worse eh?" Zell asked. Rinoa was close behind them, listening to their conversation.

"It will." Squall said in a small voice. He could hear distant gunshots in the distance. Piercing screams got louder and louder as they approached the lot. They had a sinking feeling, and they know that it's going to get very messy.

"Well then," Zell said as he pulled up the gun and examined it in the air. "Let the damned chaos begin!"