Chapter Seven: Faithful To The Core
Slowly, Tessa got to her feet, tightening her grip on her rifle. The rumbling from behind
her sent shivers down her spine it was so close behind her. She turned and tried to lift her
rifle but the creature had her face grasped in it's oily hands before she could level it. She
was lifted off her feet and pulled into the shadows before John or Jakes could do
anything.
"No!"
John half ran half sprung into the shadows after them. The creature turned its head
sharply before throwing her against the opposite wall like a child with a rag doll, no
longer interested. Tessa slammed off the wall and to the ground with an agonizing crunch
of bones breaking within her. There were gashes down her face from where the creature
had grabbed and thrown her. Her vision was blurred slightly as she lay cheek to the
ground, unable to move for lack of energy and hope.
The creature turned to completely face John, looking at him blankly before the skin
pulled back from its teeth and it growled from its throat. It swung its arm round at John
with blind fury and knocking him back into the Ark centre. It walked out from under the
balcony with a cocky swagger that seemed familiar to John but he just couldn't place
where from. The creature slammed its fist into Jakes face, caving his skull in entirely, an
instant death. John's eyes widened at the sight of Jakes' brains and chunks of bone
dripped to the floor from the now headless corpse propped up against the pillar. The
creature walked out into better light to reveal a metal bar wrapped round its right arm.
Tessa opened her eyes just in enough time to see the remains of Jakes' head splattered
across the floor in front of her. She shifted her vision up to the murderer in question and
then to John getting to his feet behind it. The metal bar reflecting some of the light caught
her eye. I have to do something! She tried to speak but all that came out was blood.
"Sarge?"
John stood up, staring at the creature's left arm and the accessory of a metal bar attached.
"I thought I blew you away."
The only response he got from the creature was its fists clenching and another glare of its
rotten teeth. John knew this was going to be twice as hard as last time. His eyes suddenly
caught glimpse of movement in the shadows behind the monster that was once Sarge.
Just at the moment that Sarge was about to strike out at John a pair of boots slammed him
in the back of the head. Tessa came rolling down next to him, staggering slightly as she
lands. They met glances before she lifted her shotgun and blew the Sarge's right arm, bar
included.
"Just evening the odds out."
She managed a whisper of her words followed by a wary smile before collapsing to the
floor. She saw John's expression turn from distress to sheer fury before her head hit the
ground. She went numb all over. The last thing she could make out before everything
went black was John running towards the creature.
John knelt down beside her and picked her head up off the floor. Tessa was paling to a
dead grey skin and icy cold to the touch. John knew she didn't have long left. He looked
down to see her left ribcage had been ripped wide open so that her lung could be seen
working underneath. He picked her up into his arms before looking over to the twitching
corpse of the creature that Sarge had become. He turned in a circle, trying to remember
the quickest way to the infirmary and was jump-started into action when a small wheeze
came from the limp body in his arms. As John ran threw corridors Tessa's eyes flickered
in recognition as she tried to regain consciousness. He tried to hold her close while he ran
but not too close so that he squeezed the air out of her lungs. He slowed once he came to
the infirmary and lay her on a operating table. Shoulda been a doctor. Woulda seen less
blood. John looked over at the nano wall that had once contained Carmack, the scientist
that started it all. It was empty now, no rotting remains, the others must have seen to it as
an easy lunch. The nano wall however was functioning as normal, as if there had never
been a horrific cock-up of nature. Tessa's eyes rolled open and her mouth twitched as all
the pain came rushing back like an eight wheeler truck hitting a baby deer on the
freeway. John searched round for something, anything to help ease the pain. After
pushing a huge pile of paperwork off a work top he found a vile of C24 and some
morphine. Hate to mix those up. He emptied the small vile of morphine into a clean
needle and went about to find a suitable vein in her arm. After pumping the morphine
into her arm he sat up on the table and gently fingered some loose strands of hair off her
face. Her eyes were glazing over slowly and he knew he was losing her. The infirmary
completely still, silent and eerily illuminated. John kept his eyes on her face, watching
the life and colour drain from her features, becoming a gravestone grey. Her once plum
red lips had faded down to a pinkish white. I can't let this happen, I just can't. He looked
up to see the vile of C24 on the desk across the room from them. He got off the table, still
staring at the vile. Suddenly a thunderous pounding started coming from just behind the
nano wall. No second chances. He walked over to the desk, picking the vile up and took
up another clean needle. The pounding grew harder and louder like a child stomping up
the stairs. John looked up and over to the nano wall to see it starting to flicker, it was
going to fail soon under the relentless hammering. Tessa's breathing had fizzled down to
almost nothing. He picked her arm up and put the needle into her vein gently, trying not
to be panicked by the beating. Every hit on the wall made it fizzle, making the creatures
visible for a split second. John pushed the last millilitre of the liquid into her blood
system before the nano wall sizzled out completely and the pounding stopped.
Tessa's head flopped down to the side and her eyes rolled open in enough time to see
John firing at a pair of those monsters coming threw the remains of a fractured nano wall
frame. His mouth was set in an open roar of rebellion as he fired at them, but there
was only silence reaching her ears. Then her vision blurred into blackness.
Thank you all for reading, sorry it's taken so long for this chapter to be posted up but Christmas and all. Hope you all had a great Christmas and don't forget to get really drunk on New Year's Eve! Well enjoy reading while eating your turkey sandwiches and don't forget to R&R!