Dead By Roselight
Chapter 15: The Coward
Yang stared in silence at the man that was curled up inside the locker. There was a distinct smell in the air that told her that Brad had most likely wet his pants from fear, after hiding himself. The blonde did know that the brown-haired man wasn't exactly the bravest person out there, but she hadn't expected him to be this bad.
What especially disturbed her was the fact that Brad was alone. He was supposed to be going around with Eloy, yet the donkey faunus was nowhere to be seen.
"Brad, what are you doing here?" Yang asked while trying to keep herself calm. "Where's Eloy?"
"What do you think I'm doing here, you dumb bimbo!? I'm doing my best not to get killed by that chainsaw-wielding lunatic!" the cowardly man answered angrily. "And right now, you're making it very hard for me to not survive by opening the door to my hiding place and making noise! So would you mind and fuck off!?"
"Simply hiding is not going to help you in any way at all, you idiot! You have to face the dangers of this place!" the brawler said angrily, not liking her "comrade's" attitude. "And you haven't told me where Eloy is! You two were supposed to be walking around together! Did something happen to him!?"
"Hell if I know or care! That moronic ass could be getting skinned alive by that bloodthirsty mutant for all I care!" Brad said. "We went around this place for some time, looking for items we could use, but then we heard the sound of a chainsaw. We hid ourselves and went to investigate it, only to find that killer cutting some poor girl in half! Upon seeing that, I decided that the best thing to do was to run as far as I could and hide. The stupid donkey that was with me tried to stop me, but I wasn't listening to him. I don't know what happened to him after that."
"You mean to tell me that you abandoned him!?" Yang yelled angrily with her eyes turning red. "He was there to help you, like the rest of our group! How could you just abandon him like that!?"
"That's easy! I want to live! The world is cruel and unforgiving, so you need to be like that in order to survive! If it's necessary that I sacrifice some stupid faunus that I've never met before in order to live, I'll gladly do it!" the brown-haired man explained angrily. "Now can you leave already!? I don't want you to attract that damn monster and bring him here!"
"Never mind the fact that I doubt you'll be able to survive for long here, given how anybody can smell the stench you've left in your pants, you won't survive for long like this," the blonde said with her anger slowly rising. "Not only have you been acting like a complete coward, but the fact that you would use one of your comrades as a sacrificial lamb is unforgivable!"
"So what? What are you going to-?" Brad began to ask arrogantly, only to be cut off by Yang suddenly grabbing him by his vest and dragging him out of the locker. "What the hell do you think you're doing!?"
"You're coming with me to look for Eloy. When we find him, you're going to beg him to forgive you for what you did. And you better pray we do find him, because if we don't, you'll be asking me and the others for forgiveness, which I doubt you'll get."
It didn't take long for both Yang and Brad to get out of the house they had been hiding in. Once they were outside, the blonde immediately demanded the cowardly man to start guiding her to the place where he had last seen Eloy. Despite his protests, Brad decided to do as he was told, not wanting to anger Yang any further. He was already dealing with one lunatic killer, he didn't need to have another person after his life.
The two survivors eventually made their way to what seemed to be a slaughterhouse. Yang had to actually cover her mouth and nose for a moment upon reaching the place, as the stench that came from it was horrendous. Much like the field of corn, the meat was rotten and inedible, which one could tell with their nose easily. It seemed like whatever possible food was in this world was always going to be spoiled, whether it was meat, vegetables or simple carnival treats.
"That's the place we were hiding in when we heard that killer chasing someone," Brad explained. "We watched from one of the windows, as some girl was killed. After that I decided to make a run for it and left Eloy behind. I don't know if he's still there, though."
"Well, we are going to find that out for ourselves, aren't we?" Yang said. "Come one. Let's go inside and see if he's in there."
"Are you crazy!? I'm not going back to that disgusting shithole!" the brown-haired man responded angrily. "That place is so disgusting it turned me into a vegan! What makes you think I would ever set foot inside that place ever again!?"
"That's simple. Either you walk there with me without any issues or you're going there with a broken nose," the brawler answered with a murderous glare. "Now, which one will it be?"
Brad wisely decided to keep his mouth shut and simply followed Yang into the slaughterhouse. It was better to simply try and stand the stench than to get into a pointless fight with someone who would most likely kick his ass anyways.
As the two survivors made their way in, the smell only got worse. It was honestly difficult to breathe inside, as the stench of rotten meat was so bad it actually burned your eyes, causing tears to fall. The two survivors did their best to block off the smell by either using their hands to cover their mouth and nose, which Brad tried, or by putting a piece of cloth over the lower half of their face, which Yang attempted with her scarf. However, even if it made things slightly better, the smell was still unbearable. If it wasn't for the fact that she needed to find a missing comrade, Yang would have turned around already. And if it wasn't for the blonde's threats, Brad wouldn't have even stepped in.
The slaughterhouse was a very large place, but much like everything else, it was very rundown with very little of use. There were numerous cow carcasses hanging from the ceiling that had been cut apart, having been left there instead of being taken to whoever bought them. Flies and maggots covered the meat, and the floor was slippery from all the blood that had dripped down. The two survivors actually had to be careful not to slip and fall down.
The two looked around to the best of their abilities for Eloy, hoping to find the donkey faunus somewhere. Unfortunately, no matter how much they looked, they couldn't find any signs of the missing faunus at all. Yang could only hope that the blood that was covering the floor didn't have Eloy's blood mixed in it.
"Okay, we have looked around as much as we could. Can we leave now?" Brad practically begged. "Not only is this place disgusting as all hell, I don't want to be here when the killer comes around!"
Despite being irritated by the cowardly man's whining, Yang was going to say yes. They had looked all around the slaughterhouse and hadn't found any signs of their missing comrade. Staying there any longer would only be a waste of time at this point.
However, just as she was about to comply with Brad's request, the brawler noticed something underneath one of the hanging carcasses, a wooden trunk. Despite everything else in this whole area being rundown and in a bad shape, this trunk looked like it was completely new. There were no signs of it being damaged or even stained, which just seemed odd. Seeing the good shape of the trunk caused curiosity to get the best of Yang, who went to open it.
The wooden container opened without any trouble, allowing the blonde to take a look inside and see what it held. For the most part, the trunk was completely empty, except for one single thing. There was a flashlight right in the middle of the whole thing.
"Okay, so now we have a flashlight. What a great discovery indeed," Brad said sarcastically, not excited by the tool at all. "This is such a wonderful finding that I'm sure it will save our lives in this living nightmare. After all, everybody knows that all you really need in order to fight somebody, is to blind them for a second."
"At least it's better than nothing!" Yang snapped at her current partner, having grown tired of his whining. "Besides, I haven't seen you do a single useful thing at all! Everybody else in our group is doing their best to make sure we all survive! All you can think about is your own pathetic and cowardly ass!"
"Well, excuse me, lady! It's just that thinking only about my ass is something that has kept me alive all this time!" the cowardly man argued. "One of these days you'll see that my way is the true way to survive! Not your "one for all and all for one" bullshit!"
The brawler was about to yell at Brad again, hoping to out him in his place, but a sudden sound stopped her from doing so. Both Yang and Brad turned to look towards where the loud thumping sound had come from, but didn't see anything. All they saw were the cow carcasses hanging from the ceiling, blocking their view.
"Okay, I don't know if that was something we should be worried about. But just to make sure, let's start going towards the exit as slowly and silently as-" Yang began to whisper to Brad, hoping that they could avoid an encounter with The Hillbilly. However, she was quickly cut off by the familiar sound of a chainsaw's engine being turned on. "Oh shit! RUN!"
The two survivors turned around and began to run as fast as they could, while the monstrous Hillbilly soon appeared from behind the animal carcasses, cutting them apart with his chainsaw. Thankfully for Yang and Brad, the carcasses seemed to somewhat slow down the chainsaw-wielding killer, as the duo was able to make their way out of the slaughterhouse without The Hillbilly really catching up to them.
Despite having put a good amount of distance between themselves and the killer, the two survivors knew that they were far from safe. It wouldn't take long for The Hillbilly to make his way out of the slaughterhouse and start chasing them again. They needed to find a way to shake the monster off and fast.
"Okay. If you have ANY good ideas on how to lose a gigantic maniac with a chainsaw, now would be a very good time to share those ideas!" Yang said as the two survivors kept running. "If we don't do something soon, it will only be a matter of time before he catches us!"
"Well, there has always been one thing that has helped me in situations like this," Brad responded. "Whenever you're being chased by something, there is one simple rule out there that helps you survive."
"Really!? Mind telling it to me!?" the blonde asked, hoping that the cowardly man could finally prove useful.
"You never really need to be faster than what's chasing you. You only need to be faster than whoever is being chased with you."
Before Yang could ask what the brown-haired man meant, he suddenly pushed her, causing her to fall to the ground. After managing to shake off the shock that came from her fall, the brawler looked up to see Brad continue running, leaving her behind.
"BRAD! YOU COWARDLY PIECE OF-!" Yang yelled after the coward, but quickly stopped upon hearing heavy footsteps getting closer to her from the behind. She looked behind her and saw The Hillbilly catching up to her, sledgehammer in one hand and chainsaw in the other, ready to use them.
The blonde girl barely managed to roll out of the way, as the massive sledgehammer came down towards her and smashed the spot she had been laying at. Yang quickly scrambled up to her feet and began to run, praying in her head to whatever god was watching that she would be able to escape.
As Yang began to run, she heard a sound that sent chills down her spine. It was the sound of The Hillbilly starting up his chainsaw once again. The brawler remembered how she had almost been cut down by the chainsaw-wielder's weapon before and had just barely managed to avoid it. However, back then she had luckily been able to use a palette to save her life. Now she didn't have anything to block the oncoming attack.
It didn't take long for The Hillbilly to catch up to Yang, as he began to sprint with his weapon held high. By the tiniest of distances, the blonde somehow managed to duck underneath the swing of the roaring chainsaw. Unfortunately for the survivor, she also fell to the ground, leaving her at the killer's mercy.
Yang managed to roll onto her back and look up, as The Hillbilly raised his chainsaw, ready to bring it down upon her. Then by what must have been pure instinct, the brawler took out the flashlight she had just found and shined it's light at the killer's face. This miraculously blinded the chainsaw-wielding maniac, who had to cover his eyes from the light.
Yang couldn't almost couldn't believe that what she had done had actually worked. There was a large smile on her face from relief and joy, as she once again got up from the ground and began to run. Despite managing to avoid death in an unbelievable manner, the blonde knew that she still needed to find a way to escape. The Hillbilly wouldn't be held back for long and would come after her soon, most likely way angrier than before even.
Luckily for Yang, she managed to quickly spot a good hiding place for herself. There was an old tractor that was covered in rust and was obviously not in a working condition. However, the brawler could hide behind the machine's large wheels, which would hide her completely.
Laying low behind the tractor, Yang hoped that she would be able to lose The Hillbilly. She peeked around the corner of her hiding place and saw the killer stomp his way towards her. Upon seeing the chainsaw-wielding maniac, the blonde went back behind the tractor, hoping that she had not been seen. She listened carefully, as The Hillbilly's footsteps came closer and closer, before stopping right at the other side of the tractor.
Yang covered her mouth with her hand, hoping that the killer wouldn't be able to hear her breathing. She could hear the ragged and heavy breaths of The Hillbilly, as he slowly walked around on the other side of her hiding place. The brawler listened to the chainsaw-wielder's footsteps and realized that he was going to walk around the tractor. When she realized this, Yang crawled under the tractor quickly but quietly, and made her way to the other side. Once she was on the other side, the blonde listened as The Hillbilly walked around the side she used to be at. The killer remained there for a moment, before seemingly giving up and walking away in the search of other victims.
Having successfully evaded The Hillbilly, Yang started to make her way to the opposite direction of where the killer had gone to. However, her troubles were far from over, even if she had managed to avoid the chainsaw-wielder. She still needed to find the rest of her group or she would face the possibility of trying to survive in this world on her own, which was something she wasn't sure she could do. There was definitely strength in numbers, so the brawler didn't exactly want to go solo. Unfortunately, she might have to face such a situation, as Brad could have already reached the others and told them that she had been killed by The Hillbilly already, causing them to leave.
Luckily for Yang, she remembered what their meeting place was. Graham had told them to meet up at the "meat storage", which was most likely part of the slaughterhouse. If she could just trace her steps back to that place, she could possibly find the others. The blonde just hoped that Brad hadn't managed to convince them to leave yet.
It took her some time, but Yang eventually managed to make her way back to the slaughterhouse. Despite the horrible stench of rotten meat, the brawler couldn't help but smile upon seeing the place. There just might be hope for her to reunite with her comrades.
Yang walked around the place a bit, hoping to either see or hear one of her comrades nearby. Her smile grew wider upon hearing some people apparently argue inside the place, and the voices sounded familiar.
"Phillips, we know how you feel, but we can't stay here any longer," came the calm voice of Graham. "I know that you want to go look for Yang, but you need to give up on that. You heard what Brad told you, right? The killer got her. There's nothing we can do."
"B-But you can't be sure about that!" Phillips said in a voice that sounded like he was about to cry. "Even if a killer catches someone, there's still a chance that they can be saved! They might wound a person badly, but they do their best not to kill them, so they can be-"
"Yeah, we all know what they try to do, but I'm telling you that it's pointless!" Brad yelled angrily. "I saw it with my own eyes how that chainsaw-wielding mutant cut her down! Even if she was somehow still alive, I doubt we could do anything! Or do you perhaps have huge amounts of spare blood with you?"
"As Brad is saying, even if in a manner that is highly uncalled for, there is no possibility that we can help Yang anymore," Graham said calmly, despite being obviously upset with the brown-haired man. "If we were to go looking for her, all we would accomplish would be putting ourselves in danger and possibly even getting killed. Do you think she would want that?"
"But I can't just abandon her! She saved my life!" Phillips tried to argue. "If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be here now! We owe it to her to at least try and rescue her!"
Before anyone could say anything more, Yang decided to make her presence finally known.
"No need to come looking for me, Phil. I'm right here and still alive," the brawler said with a smile, as the group turned to look at her with shocked expressions. "Although, I do appreciate the fact that you're willing to come looking for me."
"YANG! You're okay!" Phillips yelled happily, as he ran up to the blonde girl and hugged her, who happily returned the gesture. "I was so worried over you! I though that we had lost you!"
"Hey, no need to worry about me. I'm way tougher than I look," Yang said with a smile, before her happiness disappeared upon seeing Brad. She glared at the coward, who could only stare at her with wide eyes. "Although, thanks to a certain somebody, I almost didn't make it."
"Yang, what are you talking about?" Graham asked, before he turned to look at Brad as well, suspicion clearly in his eyes. "Also, what's the meaning of this, Brad? You told us that The Hillbilly had cut her down, yet she seems to be fine."
Before the brown-haired man could say anything in his defense, the brawler decided to speak up first.
"Oh, did he tell you something like that? Well, his story almost came true, considering he himself aided that damn monster!" Yang said with her anger rising. "That cowardly piece of shit actually pushed me to the ground while we were running away from the killer! He was trying to save his own ass by using me as a sacrifice!"
Everyone in the group turned to look at the coward with angry glares, not happy with what he had done. Brad himself was sweating and trying to think of some possible way of saving himself from this situation.
"L-Look, things got crazy there, okay?" Brad tried his best to explain. "I had to do it in order to survive! I'm sure most people would do the same in that situation! Can you honestly blame me for what I did!?"
"Yes, we can," Bill growled as he stepped closer to the brown-haired man. "If there's one thing I learned from my military service, you don't leave others behind, especially your own allies. The only people that do such a thing are nothing but irredeemable pieces of shit that don't deserve to be saved themselves."
"Yeah! Yang actually risked her life to save mine! How could you betray her like that!?" Phillips asked angrily. "Any of us would have tried to save you, if you were in trouble!"
"Oh, cry me a river, you two!" Brad yelled at the other two survivors. "Unlike any of you, I'm apparently the only realistic person in this group! I know what it takes to survive in this world, while all you people can do is-!"
The cowardly man's rant was stopped by a punch to his face that sent him to the ground. The others in the group were shocked by the fact that it had been Eloy, who had punched Brad. The donkey faunus had always been so kind and friendly that no one could have expected him to be capable of doing anything violent.
"Brad, I would have forgiven you for leaving me behind, since it didn't put me in any immediate danger. But trying to sacrifice Yang?" Eloy said while barely containing his anger. "Fuck you and your whole family, Brad."
Said traitor tried to get up from the ground and attack the donkey faunus, but was kicked back to the ground by Graham. The blonde man glared at him with absolute hatred, while holding him down with one foot.
"It is clear that we cannot trust you to travel with us anymore. Because of that, I am going to have to ask you to leave our group," Graham said calmly, but you could detect a hint of anger in his voice. "Any group that has a backstabber like you in it is doomed to fall, so leave before we have to make you leave."
"Fine. Do things your own way without me. See if I care," Brad said as he got up and began to walk away. "But you will see that my way is the only way you can survive in this world! You'll see!"
The group watched as the coward walked away from them, before disappearing completely.
"Hey, are you okay?" Victoria asked Yang, concerned over what her friend had gone through. "I know that you probably wanted to give him a punch or two for what happened. Hope you're not too upset over him leaving like this."
"I'm fine. While I would have wanted to get a piece of him myself, I know this is the best thing to do," Yang answered. "However, do you think he will survive for long on his own?"
"Trust me, Yang. I've seen guys like him a lot and they're all the same. Unless he finds a new group to leech from, he won't last long."
Back with Brad, the cowardly man was walking around the farm while mumbling to himself in anger. He was still angry over what had just happened to him with the group.
"Freaking idiots... all of them... don't know what really matters..." Brad mumbled to himself. "They'll see that I was right in the end. They will see that."
The brown-haired man was suddenly broken out of his thought by the sound of a chainsaw getting started up. He looked behind him to see The Hillbilly charging at him with his weapon roaring and held high. Brad barely managed to dodge the attack and avoid a lethal hit, but the chainsaw managed to cut his side and leave a bad wound there. He was also knocked to the ground leaving him at the killer's mercy.
Brad immediately began to scream from the pain and started to call for help, hoping that someone would come to his rescue. However, all hope for him seemed to be lost, as The Hillbilly simply picked him up and began to carry him.
The cowardly man struggled as much as he could in the hopes of getting free, but it didn't help. He kicked, punched and flailed around, but it didn't effect the killer at all. Luckily, Brad still had something that could help him. He had a switchblade in his pocket, which he pulled out and stabbed The Hillbilly with, causing the killer to drop him and scream in pain.
"HA! That's what you get! I told you that I'm the only realistic person here!" Brad yelled deliriously while crawling away from the killer. "You'll see that I'm right! They'll see that! They will all see that!"
However, the brown-haired man's attempt at escaping was suddenly stopped by his foot getting grabbed. He looked behind him and saw The Hillbilly looking at him, and he wasn't very happy. The chainsaw-wielder had not liked getting stabbed in the back, so it seemed like he was going to make the person who stabbed him pay.
With one pull of his arm, The Hillbilly dragged Brad closer, before stepping on him and holding him down with his foot. Now that his prey was at his mercy, the killer turned on his chainsaw and readied to finish off his newest victim.
"WAIT! Please, don't!" Brad tried to beg for his life, but it was useless. The Hillbilly was not going to grant him any mercy.
The last thing Brad saw was a chainsaw heading straight towards his face.
Meanwhile, Yang and her group had just managed to open the exit and were getting out of the realm. As they were leaving, the blonde couldn't help but think about what Brad had said about surviving. While being in a team could provide much needed protection, it could also become a big problem as well. However, she could never imagine herself sacrificing anyone for her own sake, no matter what.
Yang just hoped that everyone else held the same ideals she did. After all, what kind of a monster could just let others die for their own sake?
Author's notes: I decided to get back to this story, so I could finish the part with The Hillbilly. I felt like I left the story at a bit of a bad cliffhanger, so I wanted to finish that up quickly.
Brad's death is a reference to the way he dies in Resident Evil 3, where a monster called Nemesis shoots a tendril through his mouth. I tried to do something similar in this story. Hope you guys liked it.
Anyways, next time we will be seeing Weiss again and how she's doing. I'll just say one thing about her. She will be surviving in this world in a different way than Yang.
Until next time.
RWBY is owned by Rooster Teeth and Dead by Daylight belongs to Behaviour Interactive.