Author's Note : Once again I am SO sorry that I took so long to update this chapter. Also, this chapter seems kinda short, so i hope you readers would still carry on reading! By the way, I would also appreciate it if you readers could read and REVIEW. I desperately need opinions on my style of writing!
Oh, and I do not have any disclaimers(?) hope i got it right...
Chapter 6 : Reunion or Desperation?
Julian half-turned as he ran and sent 3 rounds into the monster's chest, making it more furious than ever judging from its insanely loud roar. Whether the gods above weren't happy with him, or he was always at the wrong place in the wrong time, it didn't matter. What mattered now was avoiding being ripped to shreds by a mindless killer.
The hallways wasn't helping much either. After he turned the corner, there was only a fraction of a second for him to take note that the he was approaching the end of the hallway before the heavy footsteps behind him forced him to carry on. His only chance was the door at the end, against the right wall.
Feeling that maybe it wasn't going to be such a good idea, Julian couldn't give a damn about what he felt was good or bad. He simply bashed into the room and attempted to close the door behind him, locking it and keeping himself safe.
But he had just started to swing the door back before he saw a blurred image of something dashing towards him, followed by a loud crash, and himself being flung all the way back as the door splintered, hanging off only one of its hinges. The Crimson Head stood there, its chest heaving heavily with its fury. It was clad in a cop uniform, initially blue, now stained and soaked with blood. No doubt it was the one responsible for the puddle of blood Julian had seen back in the break room. It had all the features he had seen on Ashton when he had mutated into something similar -- bloodshot eyes, red-coloured skin, thick, bulging veins stretching around its face, arms and legs. Furthermore, the person who had mutated into this must have been well-built, for it was enormous, arms fat with muscles and it was easily a foot taller than Ashton.
Julian scrambled to get up, immediately surveying the room for anything useful. He was in a spacious room -- and he was thankful for that -- with several class-sized tables and chairs set in straight rows near the end of the room, in front of a rectangular board. Surely this must be a briefing room. As such, it kinda hinted that there was nothing that was going to help him, which kinda sucked, given the current circumstances.
The Crimson Head charged at him, raising its fist. Julian leaped to the side, unable to prevent himself from having the horrid flashbacks of them fighting a mutated Ashton. How was he going to stop prevent it? The monster had the exact same fighting style, the same relentless urge to kill, just about everything was similar.
Which means it must have the same weakness...!
Not sure of whether it was going to work again, Julian stood back up and aimed. The Crimson Head, which had flew past him quite a good distance, turned back and snarled. That was when Julian went trigger-happy. Several bullets peppered into its kneecap, Julian hoping that the slightly increased firepower of the Browning HP handgun would work to his advantage.
It didn't. The monster just stood there, looking like it was enjoying the pain it needed to fuel its rage. It reared back and sprung towards Julian at an amazing speed. He tried to dodge to the side, but it swung its fist in a semi-circle, catching Julian neatly on his left shoulder. He literally spun 360 degrees in the air before crashing hard to the floor. Shoulder throbbing, Julian struggled to regain his balance. After the spinning he made just now, the world seemed to be spinning around non-stop as well. But he wasn't even halfway up when a leg shot in and up, straight into his stomach. The air was wheezed from his lungs and Julian keeled over, coughing and gasping for air.
Again, he couldn't recover fully before he was picked up easily and hurled across the room, crashing into the tables. It was quite apparent now that the Crimson Head wasn't going to stop until Julian was mashed into a pulp, but he was now almost on the verge of blacking out. How the hell was he going to fight back?
He felt strong hands grip his shirt and instantly, he was slammed against the wall. Then, his air supply was suddenly cut off as the Crimson Head gripped his neck. Its hand was extremely hot, as if burning with fire, and it was strong as hell. Its grip was worse than a vice, almost like it wanted to crush his neck, make him cough out blood.
Julian's eyes grew blurry, his thrashing arms and legs losing energy and slowing down as he continued to choke on the monster's grip.
No...It can't end like this...Please...
An explosion of gunshots was heard from the door. The Crimson Head roared and dropped him, turning to meet its new enemies. Julian collapsed to the floor and grasped at his chest, hacking and breathing in the heavenly air. He continued to lie down, not wanting to be caught in the cross-fire. Shots from guns as well as a shotgun continued to ring in his ears, already giving him a hint about his helpers.
Stupid...stupid...idiots...
And he momentarily blacked out.
X-------X-------X
The woman dashed straight into the room when they heard crashing sounds coming from inside. Andrew was right behind her, shotgun held ready, gearing himself up to blow the brains out from whatever it was that was terrorising his close friend.
What he did not expect, however, was seeing his close friend being choked upon by a zombie which resembled Ashton's mutation in terms of skin colour and ferociousness.
Desmond didn't hesitate. He immediately opened fire on the monster as soon as he stepped into the room. At once, they all followed cue and started firing at it as well. The monster dropped Julian, who began hacking and coughing, and roared at them, making heavy footsteps towards the trio. However, the combined firepower of 2 handguns and a shotgun gave it no chance to approach them, and finally it began stumbling backwards, attempting to recover after each successive shotgun blast. It was to no avail, and within a few seconds, the once monstrous Crimson Head was now nothing but a pile of seriously mashed up shit.
Andrew ran up to Julian's limp body as Celine examined the carcass. She then proceeded to kick it a few times, muttering several curses under her breath. A spit of saliva wrapped up her performance and she turned back to face them, a clear look of disgust and hate written all over her face.
The state of Julian's body didn't look very pleasing. Multiple bruises covered his arms and face, and slight tears were seen on his shirt. His hair was all rumpled and messy. All in all, in Andrew's opinion, Julian did look like shit now.
Well, it is Julian Lias he was talking about, a boy who did have a slight tendency to dash into trouble. But it was that trait which made Julian so energetic, so daring, something which Andrew envied slightly, to have that inner strength.
It reminded him of his father. Diving into the world of science and viral research, his father's interest in his work matched Julian's personality. Perhaps that was why Philip was always deeply sunken into his papers to have time for him.
But what was he thinking? His father's work was the pride of the both of them. It made him feel like he had something to be thankful of, an image to look up to. How could he even dare to imagine that his father would care less about him when it came down to a choice between the two. Then again, the mind of a scientist was an unpredictable one.
Andrew felt Julian's body stir in his arms, and looked down to see that he had already opened his eyes. For a second, Andrew felt extremely relief.
"Andrew? What...what are you guys doi-" Julian muttered.
And as quickly as the relief came, he literally dropped Julian back down, his head hitting the floor with a loud 'thud' as Andrew's voice became a shout.
"What the fuck were you thinking, bailing out on us with Desmond in this condition!" Ignoring the soft "Oww..." that came from Julian, he continued with his lecture. "Geez man, don't you give a shit about your friends?"
"I...I'm sorry, but I didn't really..." Julian stammered, obviously at a lost of words. Shouldn't he? After all, convinced that leaving his friends behind would cause them to escape the city by themselves, only to see them right in front of his eyes again, no explaination would be able to justify his action. The only thing now is to endure Andrew's wrath.
"Ack, whatever. As long as you know, this is really going to hurt your record!"
Throughout Andrew's performance, Celine stood at the side, smiling to herself. She didn't know why, this scene particularly seemed so familiar somehow, back when she was surrounded by her loved ones. However, as soon as Julian turned his head towards her, the smile disappeared almost instantly. Not wanting to maintain eye-contact, she turned to the other boy. What was his name again? Desmond? She could see that he was hunched over, examining something on his arm. Like there was some automatic mechanism inside her, she stepped forward to get a better look. Turned out Desmond was simply checking on the bandage around his arm. The thin line of blood trickling down the bandage stood out against the white colour of the dressing.
Trying not to sound too sympathetic, Celine kept her voice firm. "Hey, you alright?"
Desmond looked up and hastily tried to turn his arm away and hide his injury, not doing a very good job at all. "Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. Really."
"Ok, suit yourself." Celine walked back towards the other 2, of which Andrew was still trying to make his point via venting out his anger. "Um, when you both are done admitting your love for each other, could we get a move on? I have to look for something."
A sigh and a grunt was all she got before she stomped past them and back out into the brown hallway. Babysitting one was bad enough, now she had two more teenagers following her. Things couldn't be any worse.
Then again, things were never good in the first place. That sentence remained in her head as she walked down the narrow passageway, a series of footsteps echoeing behind her.
X-------X-------X
Who knew the short trip back to the main lobby could be filled with pain?
When you've been thrown around by a crazed monster, that's when...
Julian half walked, half limped between Andrew and Desmond as Celine lead the way to wherever she wanted to go. When they passed the reception desk in the lobby, Julian was just about to open his mouth to say something, remembering what he read on the computer. But judging by Celine's impatient footsteps and muttered curses, he felt it would be better to bring it up later. He didn't particularly want Celine blowing up in his face at this moment.
Through the oak door to the left of the entrance (which was still constantly shaking on its hinges, thanks to the eager zombies waiting outside.) and they carried on into the east office. As they walked past the long row of tables and pushed through a door to the left, Julian saw coffee cups resting on a corner of the table, presumably ice-cold, along with several folders, papers and stationary, all covered in a thin layer of dust.
What the... Has it been left untouched for that long?
Well, obviously. Even though it all started only two days ago, it already seemed like ages. In the midst of a dead city, Julian highly doubted anyone would want to grab on to folders and pencils. Hell, even the cops are gone too. If trained men and women couldn't even survive this kind of situation, what chances did they themselves have? How was it that Julian and his friends managed to get this far, without succumbing to whatever responsible for all this? Was it his determination to find his father? Was it their unity and understanding that made them unique? Was it-
"Holy..." Desmond took a step back, almost knocking both Julian and Andrew over. He pointed ahead, and Julian trailed his finger to the dead thing sprawled out on the floor. "Th-That's...That's..."
"It's dead, now hurry up...!" Celine gestured impatiently, gracefully stepping over the Licker.
"That's the thing that killed...that killed Ashton..." Desmond's eyes were wide with fear, his body starting to tremble.
Andrew hurriedly put his hand on Desmond's shoulder, squeezing it, spurting words into Desmond's face. "Come on Desmond, don't break down now. There was nothing you could have done back then!"
"But...but it..." Desmond started.
"KEEP FOCUSED!" Andrew snapped back, making Julian jump. "Unless you want to end up like Ashton, you have to stay alert."
For five seconds, Desmond merely stared back at Andrew, shocked at his words. Then, he replied with a shaky nod of his head and walked forward, manuvering himself carefully over the dead Licker. It certainly seemed that the bond between those two have gotten stronger in the short time he had left them.
"Nicely done...!" Julian said to Andrew, in a low voice.
Andrew barked out a soft laugh at Julian's remark. "All for the sake of preserving one's sanity."
They carried on after Celine, walking down the stairs at the end of the hallway and arriving at yet another narrow hallway. No immediate danger, no rotting zombies nearby, it was as if someone deliberately came here to clear all the zombies out, and left after doing so. Either that, or, other people already came by here. Cops, definitely, and maybe some civilians. Julian only hoped that the dead bodies they saw weren't the people that came here looking for a safe place.
Through the massive parking garage and they found themselves in a zig-zag hallway which, according to Celine, lead to the prison cells. Nothing exciting to take note of, not even the trail of blood which snaked out from the door around the corner. After spending almost two days in a zombie-infested city, and seeing blood splattered everywhere, spots of blood were no longer considered interesting. However, this trail of blood still had an eerie sense about it.
"Hope it doesn't belong to the guy I'm looking for..." Celine said softly, her eyes still fixed on the deep red colour before she tore her gaze off and marched towards the prison cells.
The source of the blood lay before Julian's eyes. A man's body, sitting against the wall, his mouth froze in a screaming posture with blood bubbles clearly visible on the corners. In his chest was a gaping hole, an empty space where his heart should be. His eyes were completely blank, staring upwards into nothingness, blending into the paleness of his skin. The gruesome sight already caused Andrew to gag, but somehow Celine didn't care. She rummaged his pockets and eventually turned up a small folder.
"How the hell could you even touch a dead body...?" Desmond questioned.
"Alright, got what I came for. Now we can get the hell outta here!" Stuffing the folder into her side pocket, she headed back towards the parking garage. Julian didn't really want to stop by that door to see what could have smeared the blood along the floor in a trail, since it would obviously bad.
Well, I'll be damned if it was actually something helpful... Julian thought.
It wasn't long before they managed to hard-wire a police car and crashed out of the blockade. Andrew suggested that they head on over to a hospital to do something about Desmond's wound, as it had already started to bleed again and the dressing had to be changed.
Rows and rows of destroyed buildings flew pass, all a blurry image in Celine's insanely fast driving. Julian wanted to take in a deep breath of the night air, yet he was afraid to do so. He didn't want to risk catching the illness as all others did, to turn into a flesh-eating cannibal and try to kill his friends. No, not yet, not while he still had things to do. All this time, his father's image still burned brightly in his mind. It was mostly the reason why Julian had been so determined to survive the chaos. Yes, Steven can be considered neglective, but he was still Julian's father.
He thought about what he might encounter when he reached the labs, but whatever jumped out from the darkness, Julian would be ready to deal with it.
A/N : Alright, here's where I need you guys' help. Right now I'm torn as to whether I should make Celine one of the main characters or not. If you could just say yes or no, and state the reasons for your answer, it would be extremely helpful! It also wouldn't hurt if you all could give me your opinions on Celine's character to see whether I portrayed her correctly. Thanks!