Chapter seven:
"It looks like I'm alone." Linda's voice speaks with a small sigh.
The three's eyes slightly widen then they become defensive in case this is just a trick.
Linda sighs again and her footsteps take a few more steps away when suddenly she stops.
Things go silent once more.
"I-is anyone there?" Linda's scared voice calls out shakily. "Wh-who's watching me!?" She takes a few more steps back scared.
Silence falls once more.
Then Matt who had shifted to see if it really is Linda falls backwards out of his hiding spot giving a small surprised sound as he drops to the ground out in the open.
Linda gives a yell of surprise and terror as she jumps ten feet in the air before calming down as Matt groans. "Matt!?" Her voice sounds surprised but she also sounds happy to see him.
Matt gives an 'oops' smile. "Hey Linda." He greets and shifts to sit up grabbing the knife he had dropped when he accidently fell.
"It really is you!" Linda annoyingly squeals happily then jump hugs Matt almost knocking him over.
Mello sighs and comes out of hiding with Near following. The two go over to Linda and Matt.
"You idiot." Mello snorts at Matt. "What if it had been a trap or an enemy?"
Near doesn't say anything but watches.
Linda's eyes light up happily but also in surprise. "Mello! Near! You're alive too!" She squeals annoyingly again making Matt and Mello flinch harshly at the sound and Near raises a hand towards his head also flinching a little. "So how did you escape?" She asks not letting go of Matt until he slightly pushes her off only to stand with her doing the same.
"We ran while being chased then climbed the gate and kept running." Matt explains. "What about you?"
Near starts twirling his hair.
Linda looks a little confused when asked. "Well I'm not really sure but I got out because when they came for me they suddenly seemed to have changed their minds or something and I ran off into the woods behind Whammy's."
Mello can't help but laugh out loud at this. "Oh man that shit is hilarious! You're so annoying not even the beasts wanted you!" He hunches over as he keeps laughing.
"You meanie!" Linda pouts angrily. "At least Matt and Near are much kinder than you are." She turns pouting.
"Sorry Linda but Mello's right. You must have annoyed them to the point they didn't want you anymore." Matt says.
Linda glares at Matt then looks pleadingly to Near. "You don't believe that too do you?"
"It's the only explanation." Near responds and Linda pouts again.
"I'm not annoying!" Linda almost shouts.
"Believe whatever fairy tale you want." Mello says as he recovers from his fits of laughter. "But no one said you had to stay with us."
Linda's eyes widen as her pout falls. "B-But I don't want to be alone!" Her eyes sparkle with possible tears.
"Damn it Mels." Matt says. "You didn't have to go that far."
"I was only stating the truth! It wasn't my fault!" Mello slightly snaps turning away slightly.
"Either way we can't stay here much longer." Near speaks. "We should get out of here. The longer we stay the more likely we will be found and attacked."
"Yeah. Let's go." Mello says taking the lead towards the front doors with Near following behind him then Matt with Linda staying close to him.
They stop at the front doors and Mello peers outside glancing around outside.
Suddenly Mello swiftly moves back, making the others back, only to pressing himself against a wall beside the doors.
The rest stay in the same order as they too press against the wall.
There is the sounds of what sounds like monster gurgling as well as it's footsteps as it walks pretty much right in front of the doors but on the outside.
The three males stay silent and as still as possible with Linda shaking.
There is a pause in the beasts footsteps.
The three males make sure they have the knife they brought as Matt starts to shake a little.
The monster gurgling sounds stays in one place for a little longer as the three males are ready to defend themselves if needed.
The suspense weighing heavily in the air.
After a few suspenseful minutes there is the sounds of the monster walking closer to the doors making all four people hiding tense.
The beast pauses again then the doors are smashed open and the three males raise their knife each ready to fight. The beast walks in but doesn't seem to notice them at first as it walks a little deeper into the store. The beast then pauses almost as if realizing something.
The four slip outside taking this chance to get away as Matt has to slightly drag a terrified Linda who stumbles after him trying to not make a sound. The three males made sure to get rid of anything that'll trigger the alarm system before Linda entered as they are smart enough to know to do that.
The beast turns to look behind it's self….. but it doesn't see anything or anyone so it turns away and continues its search of the store for any life.
The four jog through the town getting away from the store.
"Do you guys even have a place to stay?" Linda asks.
"Yeah we do have a temporary place." Matt answers. "It's actually the place Near lived before Whammy's when he lived with A and BB."
"Oh wow really?" Linda's eyes slightly light up.
Mello sighs to himself. "Annoying."
Then suddenly on their right a monster turns a corner and spots them.
It roars a monster roar and begins charging towards them.
Linda and Matt jump back, Near tenses ready to run or fight while Mello takes a step forward raising the knife.
The monster snarls in a very monster way as it raises its legs opening its mouth getting ready to strike.
"Let's do this." Mello says with a smirk. He lunges and brings the knife down upon the beast in the neck area….. only… the attack doesn't work….
The knife breaks in half not even making a dent on the beast.
Mello's eyes widen as his world seems to go in slow motion as he watches the broken off half of the knife go flying while the rest of the knife in his hand, the handle and bottom half, moves with his hand as he seems to finish the slash. He then starts quickly moving backwards as his world begins to go back to regular time. He turns and begins running along with the others and his world goes back to regular time.
The beast roars as it misses it's attempted attack on Mello then it screeches only to chase after them.
The four run trying to get away.
"Near. You know these streets better than any of us. Take the lead." Matt says almost shouting.
Near nods and dashes up to the front now leading the group as they run through the streets. He already has mapped out in his mind quite a few options of escape. He keeps his eye on the second turn left when suddenly him and the others have to screech to a halt.
Another monster has jumped down in front of them.
"This way." Near says going harshly to the right with the others following as they quickly go into an alley way one by one with Near in the lead then Mello then Matt and finally Linda as they run through the alley.
The monsters just barely fit as they give chase almost crashing into each other.
Near ignores some of the earlier turns then he takes a left when there is no more straight unless you want to hit the wall.
The others follow doing their best to keep up.
Near keeps running straight then he takes the only turn right that has come up since their last turn.
Matt and Linda almost skid past the turn but manage to stop in time and continue to follow Near while Mello didn't have much trouble.
The other three are feeling a little lost as Near continues to lead them through the alley ways.
"Where exactly are we going?" Linda questions slightly panting.
"Just trust Near. He knows these streets like its nothing." Matt explains. "Just continue following."
Near takes a right as the other three follow then after a quick glance back that isn't noticed by the other three it's so sneaky then he takes the second left. He ducks down on the other side of a big trash bin that has boxes on the other side along with the end of the alley way being a fence dead end with no gate.
The other three quickly follow and the four huddle there as they hear the monsters footsteps only for it slow to a stop. They all stay quiet as the monsters footsteps sounds like it takes a few then probably looks around.
Linda is practically hugging Matt like a teddy bear at this point.
The monster makes a loud roar then it dashes off down the alley the way the four would have gone had Near not had them take a turn then duck down into hiding.
Linda wonders if they should get out and turns to them. "Should we get going now?" She whispers.
"Wait quietly for a little longer." Mello hisses quietly back.
Near shushes them then silence falls over them.
After another minute or two Near shifts and peers out past the trash bin.
He signals for them to follow as the sneakily get out of the hiding spot only to stop pressing themselves against the wall on the opposite side they were hiding on earlier. He peers around it even glancing up. "It's gone." He steps out from the turn.
The others drop their stealth mode and join him.
"We should get back before more of these things will find us." Matt says.
"Yeah! They're icky and scary!" Linda whines in agreement.
"We still need to find a way to defeat them and staying cooped up will not help us there. Where the Hell did they come from and why?" Mello responds.
"But we have nothing to even try to fight with against them since the knives don't work." Near says. "Let's return to our temporary camp for now."
Mello grumbles and they head to their temporary home.
They climb down with Near going first to turn on the light and the others following, Linda rushing down after Near instead of waiting her turn.
Mello closes the door behind himself.
"Oh wow!" Linda immediately begins looking crazily around jumping from one place to another then another.
The three boys end up just sitting on one of the beds watching her be crazy.
The order being Mello on Matt's left and Near on Matt's right.
"So what use do we have for her?" Matt says only loud enough for them to hear as Linda is way too busy being hyper and a little annoying especially with that she won't shut up.
"We could keep her to out run her when being chased by beasts. She could be bait to let us escape." Mello says.
"We could have her to take care of the place." Matt offers.
Near and Mello frown at that.
"This place doesn't need much caring for and having a woman do it I'm sure she'd try to change things." Near says with understandably wanting to not change things here since this is an important place to him.
"And I think I'd rather become a house wife then have her even try to just take care of the place. Linda just can't do it and would only annoy us to death even with the caring for a place." Mello adds.
"Point taken." Matt says remembering when he get a sneak peek at her room once and really if she had taken care of the place….. disaster would strike.
"She could annoy the beasts away." Mello says.
"Well at least we have a female." Matt says.
The other two look to him as Linda continues her hyper crazy look around.
"Matt." Mello says in slight warning.
"Well think about it. If we are the last humans we'll need to repopulate." Matt says.
Mello and Near obviously do not like that idea one bit and Mello even punches the back of the red heads head.
Matt hunches over holding the back of his head. "Ow." He whines.
"You bring that up again and I'll kill you." Mello snorts.
Near doesn't say anything but his expression seems to be agreeing with Mello.
"Ok. Ok! Sorry." Matt whimpers and slightly straightens lowering the arm on Nears side down to the bed as he rubs the back of his head with the other.
"This place is cool!" Linda does a twirl in the middle of the main area.
"I still say we only keep her to outrun her when being chased by those beasts." Mello says.