Between Heaven and Hell
Chapter 5: Gloom
Rinoa ran toward Fujin and sat on her knees. She raised Fujin from the ground a little and placed the woman's upper body into her lap. "Fujin, are you okay?"
"Rinoa…" I heard Fujin speak as I approached the two of them. When I looked down at Fujin, her face was a bloody mess. I wasn't sure, but it seemed as though Fujin's left eye was punctured, and blood gushed down her face. The rain had washed most of it down, but its thickness caused Rinoa and me to seek out a way to stop the bleeding.
Without any hesitation, I pulled on the torn sleeve of my shirt and ripped off enough to wipe the blood that was flowing from her wounded eye. Rinoa looked at me with sadden eyes and sighed, "We have to get her out of here." I nodded and pulled Fujin from the ground.
We ran through the forest, Rinoa before me, and Fujin in my arms. She was only unconscious now, but we both were unsure if she might have been dying during the midst of our run. Rinoa had expertly navigated through the forest, until we were out of the Dead Zone.
The three of us were now safely hiding away in some thorn bushes that seemed to protect us all around. Rinoa and I had both caught our breaths after the long hard run.
Because of the blaring rainstorm, I'm sure the T-Rexuars will have a difficult time detecting us.
After a few moments, Fujin had opened her healthy right eye and gave a loud moan. Rinoa took her hand and allowed the woman to squeeze onto it tightly. "Fujin…what…what happened?"
Fujin looked at Rinoa and sighed, "It was…" The pain Fujin felt, I don't imagine ever seeing anyone struggling like she is now. "It was…hell."
What Fujin later told Rinoa and me…?: Fujin's Perspective:
"Okay, so is everyone done? Too many bodies in one area tends to-"
"Incoming T-Rex! Run!" Raijin yelling as he ran toward us, and the screeching roar from afar, had cut off Seifer's words. What he wanted to say was: Too many bodies in one area tend to lure T-Rexuars in.
"Wha-?" All of us said together.
"No!" Zell yelled and ran off, he practically left us all behind, but I couldn't blame him. We separated and headed our own ways. I ran to my far right and managed to escape the T-Rexuar, but I saw that the others were still running forward in a poor attempt to escape. Amateurs…T-Rexuars only go after the slowest prey, and those whose moves are easiest to predict, are the first to go.
Seeing that the beast completely turned off from my trail, I went out to locate the others who had also gotten out of harm's way.
"Fujin!" Raijin yelled as he smashed the grassy stones and rocks underneath his shoes. "Good, you're okay."
"Yeah, but have you seen Zell?"
"What are you worried about that idiot for? He's a coward, and you know cowards scramble fast."
"That's not cool at all, Raijin. Not everyone's as crazy as you." Zell said from behind Raijin and me, and I turned around to assure him that we got the message. "Besides, you're the one who came running out of nowhere like a frickin idiot!"
"Why you-"
"Hey, easy you two!" I said to calm to the two runts down; at least… that's how they were behaving… "I wonder what happened to Rinoa and the other two?"
"Most likely…lunch." Raijin said with a smirk.
"Don't say that! Although, I know it's pointless to get my hopes up about their survival."
"Why do you guys even bother thinking about them if you aren't really concerned for their safety?" Zell argued, but Raijin sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
I looked at Zell and smiled, "You don't get it just yet…but you will soon enough."
He folded his arms and curled up his lips while mumbling, "I'm tired of everyone treating me like a kid…"
- - -
Before nightfall, we saw Seifer walking around as if searching for something or someone. It seemed that neither Rinoa nor Squall were in his sight, perhaps they were whom he might have been searching for?
"Seifer, where is everyone?" I said as I approached him in the dark.
"It's Rinoa. I can't find her anywhere…"
"When did you last see her?"
"She went looking for that other guy about an hour ago…and hasn't been back since."
"…What do you think?" I asked, but he sighed and rubbed the back of his head.
"She's insane. Who in their right mind would go out looking for someone else at this time of night?"
"…Aren't you searching for her right now?" I teased him a bit, but he looked at me angrily, but he completely ignored my tease.
"If you see her, tell her to stay sharp, and that I'm-"
"That you're looking for her, right?" Zell and I both said to Seifer. He glared at Zell, causing Zell to gulp and stare down at the ground.
"Listen, you guys just get out of here! Alright?" Seifer yelled at us, and I turned away with a smile. If there is anything that's satisfying about this place, its irking Seifer's nerves for fun.
"Okay, okay. Relax!" I spoke up so he'd hear me, and the three of us found a spot to rest for a little while in the night.
I sat down on the soft ground and rested against the likes of a crumbly old tree. Raijin had done the same, but Zell sat against a large boulder and folded his legs while rocking back and forth.
"Zell?" I called out to him, but it took him a few moments to look up.
"Huh!" He responded quickly. I was tempted to just leave him alone.
"Sorry."
"Hey, Zell." Raijin said to him instead. "How in the heck did you wind up here? You're too chicken for this place, ya know?"
"…I am not a chicken. I just don't think I need to be here." Zell said while shivering, and never giving either of us eye contact. The chill was actually a bit cooler at night than it had been during the day. Watching Zell shiver made me feel cold too.
"I agree, I don't think you should be here, Zell." I said sweetly, but laughed aloud with Raijin.
"Laugh if you want, I know my rights!" Zell sighed, "…All I wanted was some food! That was it! I never set out to kill anyone!"
Raijin smirked, "Accidents happen, eh?"
"Frickin' hell they do! I was hungry and hadn't eaten in days. Anything can happen when you're not feeling like your normal self!"
"…Zell, what happened exactly? I mean, how'd a teenager like you get a sentence like this?"I asked sincerely.
"…I'm not any ordinary teen you see just walking around purposely looking for something to destroy." He coughed a little and cleared his throat. "I was an orphan, and had gotten adopted at the age of six, but then two years later my new mom died in a train accident. After that, it was back to the orphanage in Balamb for me, and I had to stay there until I was seventeen or adopted. Just a few weeks after my seventeenth birthday, they released me. I met this guy who told me about all the opportunities he and others around my age had, and so I took on his offer. I was like an errand boy or something. All I had to do was deliver little cases of stuff filled with something… I never looked inside to see what it was for myself."
He sighed and continued on and saw Raijin getting bored, "I did what I was told to do. I made a living doing this stuff too…but…I guess because I made so much gil from them, that it was time to cut me loose. Now they were trying to kill me, and it was time for me to keep a little companion for serious times: a gun.
Raijin immediately chuckled, "Uh oh, it's the damned Gun of Destruction!" I laughed with him, but Zell saw no humor from his joke.
"Shut up, what do you know!" Zell snapped angrily. "It's because of that stupid thing that I'm here now!" He looked at the ground, "I had hidden myself in the streets of Deling City from all those who plagued me. I was starving and out of gil, too. The only thing that looked promising was the hotdog vender, but the guy who ran it was a stupid jerk! He always made it hard for everyone who wanted a bite to eat. He once snatched a hotdog back from a woman who was short by just one gil!" Zell sighed and looked at me, finally. "…I didn't realize how angry I was until…until…"
"Until what, Zell?" I asked.
"…Until I walked over to him. I didn't know how sensitive the trigger to that gun would be. I didn't think it would actually fire." He cringed himself into a ball on the ground and trembled in the darkness while mumbling, "…I killed him." He had begun whimpering and I rose from my bottom comfortable seat in the dirt to walk over and comfort him. Zell is too young for a sentencing so grand. I wondered why the jury hadn't gone lightly on him since he's basically a juvenile.
He continued to sniffle as I held onto him, and soon, he had cried himself to sleep.
- - - -
After Zell fell asleep, Raijin and me were up wide-awake. Even before we came here, he and I were insomniacs, so staying awake isn't a problem to us.
We agreed to keep lookout for one another in case either of us just happened to fall asleep, something we both knew was incredibly impossible.
It was a good thing we hadn't gone to sleep because deep within the night, I heard leaves moving about, and I felt the ground trembling ever so lightly.
Because I don't like to take my chances, I decided that Zell had to get up if he wanted to continue to live.
I stood from my spot and walked over to Zell and whispered, "Hey…get up." But it failed, and the he didn't move. I kicked his leg just so he'd wake up seeing that the whispering failed terribly.
He rubbed his eyes and then forced himself to look up at me, "A T-Rex is on its way and its hungry. You've been warned, now move."
Zell finally stood up and looked around. It was pitch black, and I couldn't see passed a few feet of myself; so I knew Zell wouldn't be able to see anything because his eyes were still asleep.
"Let's move." I said and we all ran in the opposite direction of the T-Rex's movements. I heard the footsteps of Raijin and Zell running before me, scuffling through the forest to seek safety. "Guys, be careful and hurry up!" I said as I realized there was total silence in the forest: definitely not a good sign.
I stopped running and looked around to scan my area. The smell of dampened trees was enough to make my nose ache from its terrible stench. It was muddier and sloppier than ever before, which made everything smell like rotting wood. Still I made sure to keep myself real quiet while standing in one spot; just to be sure I was not detected by any of the T-Rexuars.
Because of the silence in the air, I had a deepening feeling that I was being watched, by who or what, I had no clue. But the feeling was beginning to sicken me, and I just had to look around myself once again. I found nothing at all, and had continued on my way by walking instead. The silence, the smell, everything was slowly eating away at me, and I felt the urge to sneeze. I couldn't sneeze in the middle of a run; doing so would blow what little cover I already obtained.
I took another step and held my nose with my hand to ensure that nothing would release, but, "…A…A-choo!"
Suddenly, I heard a loud shriek just as soon as I sneezed, and a T-Rexaur came charging out from the bushes and after me.
"Whoa!" I yelled and took off running. The muddiness was causing me difficulty in my run, and I felt myself losing balance with every swift turn I made. It screamed from behind me. I looked back and saw it jump to close our distance, but when I faced forward again, another T-Rex had purposely whacked me with its tail, to the ground; another of their tricky attacks. "Aaaah!" I screamed as I was flung into the hardness of a tree. I felt my back crackle when my body fell motionlessly to the ground.
"No!" A voice of what sounded like Zell yelled out, and the T-Rexaur immediately looked up at him. Without resisting for one second, the T-Rex lunged toward Zell, and I heard him quickly running away to escape. He screamed, but the ranting heaves of the beast's breath and screams had tuned him out entirely.
Against the tree, I had closed my eyes as I heard Zell running for his life, but there were another set of feet I could hear, approaching from behind. "…No." I whispered, and used all my might to slide away from the tree. The beast was taking soft steps as it crept through the forest in search of me. I realize now how incredibly intelligent they actually are.
I was able to crawl backward on the ground to get away from him, it wasn't a quick escape, but it was better than doing nothing. I used my hands and gripped the ground behind me to pull my body farther. I could feel the cool grass and mud underneath my fingertips. The more I moved my body, the more I grew tired.
I pushed back as far as I could, and let myself fall back into the muddy grass. "...I can't quit…no…." I said, and was able to turn over in the mud to attempt crawling on my knees. But as I turned over, that too had become a problem. I didn't have enough strength to boost my body from my knees and resulted in me struggling to do anything on the ground.
"Aaaaaagh!" I heard Zell release what may have been his death cry from some place in the forest. Zell…
I sighed and let my head drop into the mud. Zell was so young…and judging from his story, he wasn't in his right mind when he committed murder. The kid deserved better…
"Zell." I whispered and turned my head to rest on the right side of my face. Suddenly, I heard the T-Rex approaching from behind me and stepping closer. Somehow, it stepped to the left of my feet, then to the right of my thigh, to the left of my torso, and finally…it stepped beside my face and I suddenly felt a sharp pain to my eye when its toenail pierced my pupil. I flinched slightly, as much as it hurt like hell; I had to hold it in.
Within a matter of minutes, the beast abandoned me on the ground. When I was sure it was a far away distance, I moved my hand to my face. I screamed as I covered my throbbing eye. I screamed for about an hour or so.
That stupid beast has blinded me! And it hurts like hell to just sit around and talk about it!
I screamed so loud that I passed out in a matter of seconds….
The trickling of the rain is what forced me to get up. I had been walking, well limping around ever since...
"That's when I looked up and saw you two." Fujin said to us as Rinoa wiped the piece of cloth across her cheek. "…I don't know what's happened to the others…I don't even know where to begin to look for them."
"Fujin, you have to rest." Rinoa said and placed the clothe over her wounded eye.
"No way. I can't stand being a sore thumb to anyone. What makes you think I'm gonna sit and attract T-Rexaurs here to you two? You know those things love the smell of blood!."
"I'm well aware of that."
"What Seifer said before is absolutely true. More bodies together creates a delicious aroma to the T-Rex. They can easily sense us, especially because I'm wounded."
"It's raining now, so you don't have to worry. The rain damages their sense of smell."
"But Rain is only temporary."
Rinoa sighed and nodded her slowly, "That's true also. So you'll stay until the rain stops?"
"Yes. Besides, you two were doing fine together, right?"
Not exactly…we were just about to kill ourselves with all the walking.
"We're okay, but I can't exactly say that everything is just fine." Rinoa answered while looking from Fujin to me with a hint of anger in her tone. Had my comment about Odine really upset her so?
"Rinoa, you stay with her. I'm going to gather more fruit for us." I said and prepared to exit the bush.
"Wait Squall, what are you talking about?" She asked me quickly.
"You said those things lack their divine sense of smell because of the rainwater, right?"
"Yes, but still…"
"Don't worry." I looked down at Fujin and saw the blood soaked clothe over her eye and I sighed. "…Hang in there."
"I'll be okay… Be sure you're careful out there, yourself."
"I will." I said as I emerged from the bush.
"Squall…" I heard Rinoa say, but Fujin giggled.
"Relax, he's a man for crying out loud Rinoa. Let him learn the ropes for himself." Rinoa sighed with nothing more. I took one more look at the bush where Rinoa and Fujin hid in between, and I smirked.
She's been worrying about me enough…I said before that I didn't want to slow her down. But now that I'm walking by myself…I'm starting to feel a bit insecure.
From Moi:
Woo! (In case you guys haven't noticed, this author is seriously goofy...so...expect to see lots of "lols" in these tag-a-long-at-the-bottom-of-the-screen-thingies...you've been warned!) haha.
Ittan Momen – Sorry about the typo last time, I just wanted to be sure your SN was spelled right this time. It was at about 3am when I uploaded the document in…and I just wrote… -lowers head in shame-
Well everything's moving right along. Everyone please let me know what you think about this story! Am I lacking anything?
Oh yeah, I've given it a bit more detail. (kinda) …I don't want anyone to feel lost. And because I tend to forget words sometimes (I usually talk as I type, so sometimes I might say a word aloud and not actually type it in, isn't that bad? lol ) it might confuse people even more…
Thank you…Jen- Quistis…hmm…I can't abandon other characters…but…we'll see about her in the future! And yeah, this is a hellhole! lol –rubs hands together and snickers—
Sylin- I'll keep it up, don't worry!
Skyedream- Thank you so much!
Lady-Rinoa- Yeah, and I'm trying to avoid making it become an incredibly hopeless situation lol. I don't want it to be too angsty… Don't worry, I trust myself a little more now…I can't disappoint anyone!
Yuleen- I'm writing, I'm writing! lol.
Ittan Momen- Of course, Rinoa is opening up more and more! Don't worry because she's not going to change. I always saw (even when playing through ff8 as an amateur) that Rinoa could be a real bad A—she smiles innocently, but secretly packs a punch. So I thought I'd take and keep that side of her! I love how sneaky she can be, lol.
Well anyway, I'm having fun with my summer thriller! I just can't wait till I can sit back and read through it for myself. (Nope, I don't actually read what I write until its done…sure I might read over it, but…I don't pay attention to it, lol)
See, haven't I warned you already? hehe
StardustRay