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Raine dashed after Fern fell behind and as Talia cursed at her blasted ankle for always tormenting her. Raine yelled as she faltered over the shrubbery, "Fern! Fern, get back here! Where are you going? I know that you don't want to hurt us, but if you get injured, we'll feel hurt just as much. Fer- aahh!"
Raine staggered and as she attempted to tug her leg to go further, her foot wouldn't budge. Raine held her breath and looked down. Something was grabbing at her and preventing her from going farther.
"Oh, phew," she sighed. It wasn't a hand or anything, just a thorny plant that caught the hem of her sock. She looked behind her. They had just left the sunny fields and arrived at this gloomier place.
Tall, misshapen trees surrounded her, casting their dreadful shadows on every patch of the ground. There was few undergrowth, only consisting of sparse patches of grass and thorny, clusters of shrubs. Raine tugged at the hem of her white sock as she heard Fern's footsteps' pattering become softer and softer, but suddenly, she heard a rustle in the bushes, and then the pattering got louder and louder!
Raine tugged at her sock and to her satisfaction, it finally came off, before she collapsed onto the ground. Then, she looked up and to her terror, her eyes immediately met pure black eyes with only a glint of white in the center and she screamed. Raine almost had to shove her fist in her mouth to stop her from screaming for she realized that it was Cyndi!
"Oh my goodness," exclamored Raine, "I'm so glad to see you, Cyndi! We can't get out of here right now though."
Cyndi replied, her voice monotonous, "Of course we're not going anywhere."
"So you saw Fern then? We need to find her and later, Eve too, but I don't know where she..."
To Raine's surprise, Cyndi suddenly threw a punch and caught Raine's face. Then, Cyndi threw a kick, and Cyndi's foot caught Raine in the stomach, causing Raine to go short of breath.
"Ouch! Huff, huff. What did you do that for?" deplored Raine. Her injuries throbbed with pain as she staggered back and… did she just see Cyndi's eyes glint red? She confirmed it as soon as Cyndi screeched like a madman and threw back her hair wildly, her eyes remaining red now. Cyndi clutched at her head as her breath went raspy.
Raine stayed paralyzed. Should she run, or stay and try to help Cyndi?
Swiftly, Cyndi's breath stabilized, but not to Raine's relief, Cyndi immediately pounced like a cat and pinned her to the ground. Through the haze of cinder-black hair, Cyndi's mind was going mad inside, thoughts zooming here and there. She was trapped from her true nature. It felt as if a parasite had taken over Cyndi's body. It was a game of predator versus prey, and Cyndi had just lost control.
Meanwhile, Raine was shrieking with pure terror as Cyndi's eyes were staring into her soul. She was holding Cyndi back, and neither girls would give up their fight with one another. Cyndi finally was able to release one hand and she threw a punch, but Raine's free hand caught her fist and threw Cyndi's arm back aside.
What made the terror even stronger was the fact that Cyndi's jaws were mindlessly snapping like a mad dog's. It was obvious that Cyndi had gotten zombified and wanted to turn Raine into another one of these evil beings. Spit went flying from Cyndi's mouth as her greasy hair drooped, covering half of her eyes that were frozen with an evil, hungry stare. Cyndi would've made a perfect werewolf at a cosplay, but this wasn't a joke.
Raine's footing was slipping as Cyndi pushed her further and further back across the sparsely-covered ground. "I'm sorry to do this," gasped Raine, "But…" and with that, she hurled Cyndi to face the rocky wall with a tremendous amount of force. Raine raised her foot to give a swift kick to knock Cyndi's abnormal figure against the stone, but to her disbelief, her efforts were in vain. Cyndi caught Raine's foot and rammed Raine against the wall! Raine thought it was definitely a fatality for her when she felt Cyndi clamp her teeth onto her leg… but it didn't pierce through. She felt the gnawing grow stronger like a dog tearing at a chew toy, but havoc still hadn't struck yet. Raine didn't know whether she should appreciate her extra time at life, or to depreciate the extra pain this time was buying.
"Might as well watch myself die," thought Raine docilely and glumly, and she opened her eyes reluctantly. To her amazement, even though Cyndi was trying really hard to infect her with a bite, she couldn't pierce through her foot if she hadn't pierced through her shoe yet! Looking at that twisted, hideous face, Raine realized that— the fight could go on! Not waiting for her shoe to relent at any moment, Raine tossed her other shoe up into her hand and slapped Cyndi with it. "Snap out of it!" she reprimanded, "You're not infesting me today."
To her abhor, Cyndi suddenly paused in her haste— and tossed her head up with hysterical, nerve-wracking laughter. "Oh, perhaps I won't," she cackled in an irregular, powerful-sounding, feminine voice. "But they will," she sneered, arms crossed in a haughty position.
With a yelp, Raine felt clammy hands grab her throat from behind her, but it wasn't Cyndi's. Cyndi just stood there, blood-red eyes gleaming with glee as Raine swung her head frantically to find that Eve and Fern were behind her and wore the same, mad smiles on their cheeks. Eve grabbed at Raine's garments as Raine tugged at it desperately, her shoe in her hand, slipping onto the ground.
Suddenly, a shot crackled through the air. Bang! Then another shot rang and her captors let go of her in a frenzy, causing Raine to fly back, and luckily, her head had landed on a patch of fauna, so no damage was caused. Raine felt so light-headed though, that when she saw two more figures emerge from the clearing and a few creatures rise from the soil, she felt like she was going to faint.
Slowly, Raine let her eyelids close, but before she could finish doing so, she heard someone hectically calling for her and then she felt strong arms kindle her.
"Raine? Raine! Please, don't go!" she heard Devin shout as he brushed a strand of hair off of Raine's darling cheeks, "We need you. I- I…" but before Devin could finish his plea, a smug, feminine, and mature voice rang through the sounds of battle.
"ENOUGH!" rang the voice through the moor.
"That couldn't be Talia," percepted Raine, for the voice was more of a woman's rather than some teen's. This voice didn't ask for attention, it meant dominance.
Raine awoke with fright and clung to Devin out of fear for she had just come so close to death. She found everyone else in their group, frozen in a defensive position, while the contaminated creatures stood still, oppressing their will to destroy. Raine seethed when Cyndi came into her perspective, standing in the center of an open field of green grass that was covered with the shadows of morbid trees now.
No one had to ponder for long about what "Cyndi" was planning to do when she put on a ravenous, freaky smile and shouted, "If you want a fight, I'll give you a fight!" With that, she stamped her foot and Raine was shocked to see sound waves appear. Too late to dodge the waves, all of her friends fell to the ground the moment the supersonic waves passed through their avatar's bodies. It was intolerable, hearing her friends scream in pain on the ground, acting as if they'd just been tasered. Raine felt the same, ultimate pain run through her corpse as those waves whooshed through Devin and her too. They tumbled to the ground, bodies writhing with pain. "I refuse to go down like this!" screamed Raine in her mind, "I refuse to see everyone around me suffer again!"
Instead of cold pain convulsing through her blood now, Raine felt it sooth and heat suddenly return to her blood. Another sound wave had erupted, and it was now extremely difficult to keep her eyes open, to watch for any other attacks, but what Raine saw instead shocked her. Her left hand gave a violent jolt before springing into five fingers again— a semi-realistic, human hand! Raine gasped in pain once the transformation was complete. Unlike the others, she didn't enjoy looking human-like that much again. She tossed her hair, and then saw the shock that Devin's face held. He was recognizable like everyone else. They all looked the almost the exact same as their avatars. Marie still had her auburn hair, leather jacket, and jeans, Candi with her same, sweet accessories and light-pink hair, Tai in his professional, scholar suit, Talia still in her dark outfit, Ani still rolling down the hill in her crayon costume, and Melody in her rock-star jacket, jeans and white shirt, while Devin was in his athletic jacket, headphones, and sleek, black pants with sneakers.
Raine realized the differences that she had gone through, from looking at the reflection of herself within Devin's eyes. Her outfit was the same, but her hair, that rippled in the breeze, had reversed back into a mud-brown color, rather than her avatar's normal, black hair. Simultaneously, her eyes went from a dark brown to a glimmering, aquamarine-blue color. She turned away and blushed, she didn't feel comfortable like this, it- it gave her too much to remember. There was one question that lingered in her mind though, "Why did Cyndi reverse their forms from game avatars to their semi-realistic forms? Perhaps it was just a (really painful) side effect.
She looked at Cyndi's figure. Cyndi, too, had gone through the transformation along with Fern and Eve, whom she'd infected. Cyndi was now wobbling side to side like a punching bag. Abruptly, the sky dimmed and the winds' speeds picked up, almost carrying Candi away if Tai hadn't snatched her out of the air last second. Cyndi's head began to release soot as if she was a boiling pot of water, and suddenly, her body collapsed into a crumpled heap, and to Raine's horror, a foggy spirit drifted out of her body and landed next to Cyndi's crumpled heap, and the spirit began to reform.
The moment the spirit's feet touched the ground, it seemed to suck up all life. The grass sizzled instantly and turned into ashes, before being carried away by the strong wind. The formation began to fully take place, and from the spirit appeared a sinister lady, carrying a vile smile and bloody, red eyes jutting out against her sickly, green skin. Her red hair meant bloodshed as her yellow teeth screamed 'Pain!'
The lady cackled, sending shivers through Raine's spine. The air might've dropped ten degrees in an instant. Finally, the being pulled her face into a sneer. "I am Malice," she said, "Queen of the Undead. And you preposterous children dare to step into this happy, little game, thinking that it's just a joke. You think that all that I've ever wanted is for your pathetic forms to join my army. This girl here," she pointed at Cyndi's body, "Has paid for wasting my time. She looked to similar to who I wanted." A moment of silence erupted until… "
We're not pathetic, you're pathetic," snapped Talia. Half-heartedly, everyone else couldn't help it, but agree. This vile being just trampled innocent bystanders. Raine had to admit it, "Wow, Talia was really daring to even defend all of them like that, to speak up to a being that might as well have been Death, himself. It was abhorring how this monster just put people under her control, just because they were there or just looked like the wanted someone. Who was that someone?" Raine asked. She gasped when she looked at Talia. Both Cyndi and Talia did have dark hair, dark clothing, and dark eyes. What if…?
"Hmph," barked Malice, "But now that I can differentiate who I want, I can get to them now, thanks to Fern leading all of you to me." With a malevolent sneer, Malice pulled a staff out from nowhere and slammed its tip to the ground,
Raine's stomach plummeted, thinking that it was another supersonic wave, but even worse, dirt began to stir and instantly, more undead creatures rose from the ground. They would've had easy shots at the hungry creatures, but the windy weather became so intense that it almost swept them off of their feet. Their hair whipped their faces, blinding their view as the undead approached with ease. Malice, their queen was just a blur, zooming here and there. "Talia, watch out!" Raine wanted to shout, but her voice was carried away by the loud shrieking of the wind. That's when Malice wasn't getting closer and closer to Talia, but right up to Raine's face. Suddenly, the wind died, and Raine found herself staring into those merciless eyes.
"Now, I know who you are," laughed Malice triumphantly, seeing Raine's helpless expression. Seeing the fear in Raine's eyes, she laughed and said, "You hardly even know yourself well, don't you?"
All at once, Raine knew it. It wasn't Talia that was singled out. Malice had singled Raine out.