A/N: Uh, yeah, sorry 'bout that if it said "black" rather than "blonde". She's supposed to be a blonde. And I still remember about what Seifer said to Squall, haven't forgotten about it. Updates may come slowly because I'm stuck on how to write this one scene in chapter twenty-three, I think, and also because life is seriously changing for me (for the better, I hope). But I have NOT forgotten about this fic.
Disclaimer: Same thing as last time. The plot and things I created belong to me and me only.
Chapter XXI
It Hates Flying Things
Let the fear of danger be a spur to prevent it, he that fears not, gives advantage to danger. -Francis Quarles
XxXxX
After the strange laugh, the trio stayed in the room, knowing it was, more than likely, dangerous to leave. It had been quiet since the laugh, nearly fifteen minutes or so ago. The only noise they heard often was Nooj straightening his metal leg out on the bed in which he lay, but even that had calmed down as the minutes slowly passed by.
The silence… I can't take it, anymore. Something is wrong, and we can't stay here like sitting ducks, Squall stood, feeling an ache in his legs from sitting too long. "The exit is seven floors below us. The elevator is probably dead, but since it isn't too far away, we can see if it works." You know it's not going to work.
Yuna simply nodded, glancing over at the girl who lay motionless on the bed next to Nooj's. "What about her?"
"I'll carry her," The girl couldn't weight that much, right? "Nooj, there should be a wheelchair somewhere outside; it'll help you move faster, if Yuna doesn't mind pushing it?" He looked from Nooj to Yuna.
"No, I don't mind at all," she said, smiling slightly.
He nodded. "Good, I'll grab our mystery girl and then we'll leave."
The girl was on his back, arms hanging over his shoulders as he held onto her legs to keep her from sliding off. "We'll be defenseless, so stay alert." He walked to the door, thankful she wasn't at all heavy.
Yuna opened the door and Nooj walked out, glancing left and right. They continued out, Squall pointing to a wheelchair a few feet away, and Yuna getting it for Nooj. After he was seated, they started walking toward the elevators.
The hall was empty of life other than them as they walked, their footsteps and the wheelchair on tile, and their breathing was all they heard.
"Where do you think everyone is?" He barely heard Yuna ask, her voice slightly above a whisper.
"I don't know," Squall replied, focusing on the right turn up ahead, trying to remember if that was where the stairs were located.
When they reached the elevators, he let Yuna try and press the down buttons on both, getting no response from either.
"The stairs may be around that corner," he said, nodding his head at the turn ahead. "If not, we can always-"
Hiiiisssssssssssss…
All three turned to face the long, T-shaped hall behind them, Nooj barely turning around in his wheelchair.
"What was that?" Yuna asked, keeping her voice low.
"I don't think we want to find out." He motioned for her to get the wheelchair and start pushing, his eyes locked on the long hall, unsure which corner the monster would come around. He himself turned and ran along-side Yuna and Nooj, the girl's head laying against the side of his neck. They turned the corner--
HIIIISSSSSSSSSSS!
--and he was grateful to see the "stairs" sign ahead.
They continued toward it even as the sound of something slithering after them reached their ears. It was when they stopped for Yuna to open the door leading directly to the stairs that Squall saw their stalker: an Anacondaur.
Nooj was pushed in, and soon they were all behind the now locked, metal door. They jumped slightly as something heavy slammed against the door, but then it was gone.
"What was that fiend?"
Squall turned his head to look at Yuna. "That was an Anacondaur; its poison is deadly without an antidote --which we don't have."
"We should probably get going before it decided to come back," said Nooj, standing. "And I can't go down stairs in that thing." he looked down the stairs that went around and around until they stopped at the bottom.
"So we'll just have to leave it behind, then," Squall began down the steps first, looking over the railing, already knowing how far they had to go.
As they slowly made their way down the stairs, Squall could hear the girl on his back breathing. She's just a kid… He looked out of the corner of his eye to see her blond hair.
"Six floors to go," he heard Nooj say from behind him. Looking slightly behind him and to his right, he saw the metal door with the number seven on it.
We're slowly getting there, his eyes focused back on the stairs in front of him so he wouldn't trip or miss a step. The weight on his back seemed to be getting heavier the longer he carried her, but he ignored it, for now.
The silence now took over as they continued downward, him stopping on the flat area below the first set of stairs. He found himself looking at the set of stairs that went down, ending in a flat area, turned and ended at the sixth floor door, and so on. They had a long way to--
"Squall!"
The sudden scream of his name from Yuna snapped him out of his thoughts. His eyes turned to where she was pointing, the area where the seventh floor door used to be, and where a Grendel now stood.
He didn't have time to move, the Grendel too fast. It left from the doorway and toward him--
--but the miniature dragon bounced off an invisible wall of some kind, flying over the railing and down toward the bottom.
Squall just stood there, mouth slightly opened, but eyes wide. "What the hell just happened?"
"I-I don't know…" Yuna was as shocked as he was.
Nooj seemed too quiet… Even as he spoke, he sounded like he was hiding something. "Let's continue before more show up," he had said, making his way past Squall and down the steps.
Yuna seemed to notice something was different about him, also. But they followed him in silence, anyway. He'd tell them what was wrong sooner or later, Squall hoped.
They passed the sixth floor door with much caution, even after they had passed it.
Creak.
Squall froze, listening closely. "Did anyone else hear that?" he whispered, looking around.
"Hear what?" Yuna asked from behind him.
Creeeeaakk.
"That," he continued looking around, but something caught his eye. "Nooj,"
The man looked at him, then down--and the stairs crumbled beneath him and sent him down to the lower level of stairs, pieces of the stairs on top of him.
"Nooj!" Yuna was looking down, calling to him, but he didn't respond.
"The fall knocked him unconscious. We should be able to-"
Rooooaaaarrr!
A Grendel jumped down through the upper stairs and landed on the pile of rocks now on the other side of the broken stairs. Squall knew that the Grendel could jump over the gap and to them, but they had to reach Nooj…
"Get to the door!"
Yuna didn't hesitate, she knew they couldn't get to Nooj from here, and that if they didn't hurry, the monster would get to them. She reached the door just in time as the Grendel jumped over and started toward them, even as they burst through the door and ran down a long, empty hall. All they could do now was pray that they and Nooj would be safe --that, and run as fast as they could.
They turned a sharp right corner, Squall's feet slipping and sliding beneath him, but he managed to regain his balance and continue forward. Behind him he heard something crash into the wall, and he knew what it was, but he still had to force himself not to look back.
He saw Yuna grab at her waist, making him wonder what she was doing. And then he felt it --the ground beneath them shook so violently he had trouble staying on his own two feet.
A massive creature --purple in color-- turned the left corner ahead of them and charged, running at full speed.
A Behemoth! his mind calculated as he was almost tempted to stop in his tracks; and he did, but Yuna didn't.
BANGBANGBANGBANG-- The shots came one right after the other, most hitting the beast's massive chest, a couple blowing chunks of skin off its cheek, sending blood all over its face.
The beast was temporarily blinding, but still coming toward them. Yuna didn't fire any more shot, which worried Squall because the Behemoth was feet away from her and he was about to try and use Shiva on it --and then Yuna jumped, landing on its head, running down its back, then flipping off; while, at the same time, she twists her body around, aiming her pistols, and…
…firing like crazy, one shot after the other, each landing in the back of its head. Blood shot out as the monster fell to the ground, sliding a few feet before stopping completely, never to move again.
Squall never moved, just stood there staring at the dead body of the beast, but he was quickly snapped back to reality--
Creeaaakk…
He didn't waste a second; he ran and jumped onto the Behemoth, jumping off just as the beast fell down to the lower left of the hospital, the fifth floor. He hit the floor hard, but only because something strong hit him and thrust him to the ground.
It had been a breath attack from their good friend, the Grendel. At this rate, he knew the girl was never going to get out of her coma if he kept getting hit in the back like that.
Quickly, he rose to his feet, legs shaky, but still he ran toward Yuna. Together, they ran and turned right instead of left --which was where the Behemoth had come from. He personally didn't want to run into another one of those monsters.
But the problem was, he had no idea where they were going. This had been the first time he visited Esthar's hospital, and what a fun first time it had been. Joking aside, he had to figure out what to do from here --and there was one risky way to do that.
"Go into the next, unlocked room, Yuna," he said to her. She slowed down and checked the first door she saw. Locked. The next door just happened to be unlocked, but a storage closet. Right now he didn't care, the Grendel was close, he could hear it.
They hurried inside, it not being as tight of fit as he expected it to be. Outside in the hall, they could hear something running by, passing them. They held their breath, praying that the beast wouldn't come knocking on the door.
Silence… Soon they began breathing again, and Squall crouched, carefully putting the girl down on the floor, leaning against the wall.
"When can we go back for Nooj?"
He looked up at Yuna. "Probably after things calm down some, and there isn't a Grendel hunting us down?" Shaking his head, he sat down, eyes locked on their mystery girl. "Besides, I don't think it's safe to take her back out there, and we can't leave her alone in here… Look, I'm not suggesting we ditch Nooj, it's just not safe at the moment."
"I understand," she said with a nod.
Silence took over once more, sending both into deep thoughts. They had to figure out a way out of here --with Nooj.
XxXxX
He limped down the hall, listening for any suspicious sounds meaning danger was coming. But, as if for his convenience, there had been no sounds such as that. Yet. So he continued, the only sound in the hall him.
Hiiiiisssssss……
Though it was low, he could still hear it, and quickly opened a door to his right --a very small closet with mops and such in it-- and shut it tightly, listening closely.
The giant snake came closer…was right outside the door… His heart picked up speed. And then -- and then it was passed, moving down the hall, away from him.
He waited a couple minutes before opening the door a bit, looking out before he--
Something hit the door hard; so hard, Nooj was almost knocked off his feet. Almost. He pushed against the door, he was really working his machina arm and leg, but the fiend just wouldn't give up.
XxXxX
Celcius rose off the ground, its nose pointing at the dark clouds ahead where Esthar was. The pilot --Brother-- steered the airship toward the set of dark clouds; he sped Celcius up, wanting to get there in under five minutes, and was determined to do so.
Zell was walking down the steps to the lower floor of the Bridge, and the great big sphere in the middle of the room caught his attention. He walked up to it, hand outstretched--
"Don't touch! You'll break!" shouted Brother from the pilot's seat.
Zell opened his mouth to argue, but Quistis stopped him. "Listen to Brother, Zell, this isn't our airship."
"Oui tynh nekrd ed ech'd," Brother mumbled.
"Paryja ouincamv, Brother," Buddy glanced sideways at him from his seat.
"E ys paryjehk!"
"Here we go again," Shinra said, not moving his gaze off his computer screen.
XxXxX
"Wow, look at all this stuff!" Selphie shouted, hands together.
"And this must be the engine room," Irvine joined Selphie near all the working machines.
"I wonder if Brother will let me fly this thing," Selphie tilted her head, wondering rather or not she should ask.
Red lights started flashing, and they could hear a siren of some sort. "Everyone, report to the Bridge; we have an emergency!"
It sounds like Buddy, she thought.
"And get out of that engine room!"
And Brother. How does he do that? Shaking her head, she ran to the elevator with Irvine. Once the elevator stopped and they got off, they ran down the left set of stairs to meet up with the others.
"What's wrong?" Irvine asked.
"That," Buddy simply said, pointing at the front window.
Ahead of them were dark clouds, almost black. Lightning flashed once, making Rikku jump in her seat. "We've seen this storm before," she said, looking like she was about to jump out of her seat.
"It's surprisingly the same one we ran into in Spira; the wind speed is the same, everything," Shinra explained.
"If that's so, then how did it follow you to this world?" asked Quistis, looking over at the Al Bhed boy.
"I'm just a kid."
"Translation: he doesn't know!" Rikku shouted form where she sat.
"Hold onto your chocobos," warned Buddy.
Something pushed Celcius, knocking the people inside off their feet if they weren't holding onto something. Another push, then nothing for two seconds--Celcius stopped in her tracks.
XxXxX
HIIIIISSSSSSSS!
"Leave…ME…ALONE!" He put every last bit of strength he had into one last push, if this didn't work, he was dead--
The door was pushed the other way, the fiend being thrown to the ground. No way he was going to die now, not before he saved Paine.
Don't have much time--use spell, he cast a Stop spell on the snake, stopping it from moving for a while. As quickly as he could, he ran away from the fiend, toward the long hall of doors. He entered a room, locking the door and pushing a couch in front of it. Backing away from the door and looking at his surroundings, he noticed he was in one of the nicer patient rooms. Like it made any difference to him. He just wanted to hide from that fiend. Fighting was not an option; no need to waste energy or spells on such a fiend when there are obviously more dangerous fiends.
CRAAASSSHHH!
He turned quickly toward the door, waiting before removing the couch and peering outside.
There, yards to his right, he saw a massive creature lying on the floor, so very dead, and a huge hole in the ceiling above it.
"What the hell?"
Something jumped across the hole above--a Grendel, he noticed--, and heard footsteps running away.
Squall? Yuna? He slowly walked out of the room, looking around but not finding the snake anywhere near. His eyes then locked with the hole, so they're only one floor above me.
XxXxX
She still slept, breathing evenly, which was a good sign. How peaceful she looked, eyes closed, body not moving. One wouldn't know by looking at her that she was to never wake again.
A hand was placed on his right coat sleeve. He looked over at Yuna, a look of sympathy on her face. Dammit, they didn't even know the girl, and already he felt like he lost someone close to him. She's just a kid, maybe that's why? He lowered his eyes, thinking of a plan out of here.
Click…click…click…click- the sound continued, getting closer each second. Claws on tile, that's what it was. It picked up speed, whatever creature was the owner of the claws, the Grendel, it's the Grendel. Why is it back?
Passed their closet, it moved away from them Squall let out a sigh of relief. It was gone, again. He saw Yuna jump when the Grendel let out a loud shriek, the sound of the creature jumping down the hole and landing on tile calmed them both down some, for the beast wasn't going to bother them.
BANGBANGBANG!
"NOOJ!"
XxXxX
Still looking up at the hole, he tried to figure out how he would get up there. From what he saw earlier, the elevator didn't work, and the stairs were blocked.
Click…click…click…click- came a sound, echoing in the halls above. He took one step back, recognizing the sound as claws. The sound sped up--and a Grendel shrieked as it jumped down and landed next to the body of the dead fiend.
BANGBANGBANG! He pulled the trigger on his gun quickly. All three bullets hit the fiend in its chest but it still came at him--
BANG, BANG, BANG, BANG, four shots from one weapon, all in the head, the Grendel flat on the floor, dead.
Nooj gasped, his eyes wide.
"Oui tynh nekrd ed ech'd," --You damn right it isn't
"Paryja ouincamv, Brother," -- Behave yourself, Brother
"E ys paryjehk!" --I am behaving!
