Chapter Sixteen: So Close

Leon stare at Ada for a moment before he spoke.

"Don't do that...Don't go back to being the cold bitch who only cares for herself."

"Like it or not, Leon, I AM a cold bitch," she snapped at him, "You're just blind to that fact. You always were, and always will be."

She started to go past him againg, but once again he stopped her. This time he had hold of both of her arms. "Let go," she hissed, trying to wriggle from his grip, but with no success. He had a firm grip.

"Am I?" He asked, noting Billy and Becky watching them out of the corner of his eye, "Or do you just convince yourself that I am, so that you can believe it as well?"

She smirked at him, "Don't try to evaluate my personality problems, Leon. Now if you don't mind, I'd appreciate it if you would let go."

He tightened his grip on her for a moment, then released her, sighing. He turned away from her and she placed a hand on his shoulder, "Now's not the time for this anyway...Once we're out of here, yell at me all you like."

He smiled slightly at this, and waved at the others to follow him. Time to be on the move again. But Ada wasn't going with them. She was out of danger now, and Spencer's office had to be here somewhere. And close as well, unless the puzzle at the beginning of the tunnel was simply worded the way it was for appearences, which she doubted.
Once they were out of the room, she drifted to the back of the group, and quietly slipped inot the shadows, her bloodstained clothing dark enough by now to help her blend in with the shadows.

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Chris jerked himself out of Tyler's grip and began to walk towards the man, how by now had stood up. He didn't bother with his gun. He wasn't going to need it. He'd take care of this one with his bare hands. He easily ducked when his enemy dropped the bow gun and went back to using his blade arm. The man's movements were slow and sloppy. Easy to dodge.

Chris slammed his fist into the side of his opponent's face sending him tumbling into the wall. Chris let him stand up before he struck again, this time with the other hand, to Krauser's ribs. He felt bonce cracking beneath his knuckles. Much to easily. But it made no difference. His sister's murderer was going to die, one way or another. As Krauser fell forward, Chris slammed his knee into his face. But he gave a yell of pain when he felt teeth dig into his flesh. So the man had finally started fight back. Good.

One moment he was standing, the next he felt his back slam into the floor. Above him, Krauser prepared to strike, raising his blade-arm up. As he brought it down, Chris rolled out of the way. He got up as Krauser pulled the blade from the floor, and staggered backwards.

"Jill, we've got to help!" Tyler said, for the tenth time, and Jill still wouldn't budge.

"He has to do this on his own," she replied, watching the fight ensue, "He doesn't want, or need our help"

This had been her answer each time he had said they needed to help. And it was the truth. Tyler didn't know Chris like she did. He couldn't understand that this was soemthing Chris needed to do on his own. Not just to get revene for Claire's death, but for himself as well. Or at least, that's what Jill thought. She had been wrong before. But the only person who had known Chris better then her, was dead now. She watched the men fight, wincing when Chris took a blow. She almost gave in to her urge to help him when he wasn't able to fully dodge a blow from the man's blade-arm. But form the looks of things it was only a small gash. Both men were wearing down, neither would last much longer. Jill only prayed that it was the other man who gave in first.

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"I'm going to kill her!" Leon said to Billy, when they disovered Ada was gone again, "I'm going to kill her very dead, and leave her for the zombies. "

"Can you do so AFTER we get out of here?" said Rebecca, who was starting to look much better, "Cuz we have company."

Indeed they did. There were 5 zombies after them, and all 5 were trying to fit through the door at the same time. Hence them not yet being in the room. But they'd figure out how eventually, and Leon didn't want to be there when they did. He nodded in agreement, and headed for the door opposit the zombies. But the door opened into a closet.

"Shit!" Rebecca almost shouted, making Billy and Leon both stare at her in shock. Seeing them looking at her, she shrugged, "It's what comes of being locked up for 4 months with Billy..."

If they hadn't been in such a dangerous area, Billy might have laughed at her, but instead he was only able to manage a small smile. Something in the closet caught his eye. A ladder.

"Hey, look!" he said, stepping into the small dark space, " We have a way out."

"Are you sure?" Rebecca asked, she was slightly claustrophobic, and since they were on the 5th floor, there was only place the ladder could lead...the attic, "I mean...what if there's som-"

A thud from the other side of the room interupted her. One of the zombies toppled to the floor. It might have been comical if it hadn't now been in the room with them.

"Nevermind," said Rebeca, "Let's go..."

"Right," Billy and Leon chorused.

Billy climbed up in a matter of seconds, as the ladder wasn't that tall. Becky and Leon argued for a moment about who was going first, but Billy ended it when he shouted down at them to hurry up. Leon grabbed Rebecca and gave her a shove up the ladder. She wasn't even able to grab it before Billy had hold of her, and had pulled her up. Leon was next.
however more intelligent these zombies may have been then the normal ones, it did them no good when their quarry was up a ladder, as appearently they still couldn't climb. Billy swore at them under his breath, as Rebecca turned to Leon.

"As much as I appreciate your concern for me,"she said, though she smiled, "I am capable of climbing on my own."

"Well we knew that," Billy remarked, moving away from the ladder, "But you were too occupied running your mouth to get up here."

She smirked at him, but didn't bother to reply to the remark. At least the space was bigger then she'd thought it would be, so it wasn't bothering her yet. "While the zombies can't get up here, I say we rest a bit..."

"Way ahead of you," Leon replied, leaning against the wall, "My feet need the rest, and you, Doc, are starting to look a little green again. What about you Billy?"

Billy shrugged, "I could use the rest. We all could."

That settled, Rebecca sat next to Billy, staring into the darkness that was the rest of the attic.

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Ada wound her way through the maze of hallways, always searching for the right room. twice she had come to a dead end. She hated this floor. Always had. She heard thudding, and voices above her. Someone was in the attic. That didn't concern her, however. What concerned her was getting to Spencer. Which she was going to do. No matter what.

Not paying attention, she nearly ran into an open door. For some reason the fact that the door was open puzzled her...Spencer always insisted that every door was kept closed...So someone had come through here, either angry, or frightened. Seeing no where else to go, she entered the room. For a moment she thought she had stepped into the twilight zone. The room was a pale yellow, very much in contrast with the dark red of the rest of that floor. The only thing that seemed to be in place was the far corner of the room. Blood was splattered nearly up to the ceiling, and about a 6 foot area of the pale pink carpet was covered in dried blood as well. Looking up above the door frame, she realized what room this was. Kylie's room. The bars that dropped down behind the door, and the rest of the room told her all she needed to know.

Spencer and his sick sense of humor. The room looked like that of any normal little girl. there was a twin-size bed in one corner, a book shelf, -(though Ada knew the books weren't real. There were probly survelliance cameras behind them)- and stuffed animals. Though most of the latter were missing various body parts. And there were bits of stuffing on the floor. The blankets on the bed were wrinkled, torn, and stained. the one corner that was covered in blood was obviously where Kylie had eaten. Getting creeped out, Ada started forward. Like the door she'd come through, this one had bards that dropped down in front of it, but at least they, like the other side, were up. As she opened the door, she half expected to hear the little girl's shriek, but no shriek came, so she continued forward, keeping any eye out.

She had always wondered why Spencer had insisted on having Kylie in the way of getting around, but after finding the tunnel she and Phyllis had been in, she knew. Kylie kept any unwanted vistors away, and Spencer could use any passages he had to get around her. Clever.
At least she didn't have to worry about finding any of the passages for now, since her way was clear. But what about later on? If she HAD to find any of the passages, she hoped they weren't opened with anymore lamp puzzles. She didn't know how much more damage she could take. Much less any more blood loss. Her jeans were dark with dried blood from where Kylie had bitten her, the collar of her shirt was a darker red then it had been to begin with, from the gash across her face, and the hole in her ear, plus the various cuts and gashes, that she wasn't quite sure where she'd gotten. Some were probably from the plane crash.

After half an hour of wandering through hall ways, and finding very few doors, she came to a dark area of the hall. There were no lights in this stretch, nor windows, so it was obvious it was meant to be dark. That meant she was on the right track. Trust Spencer to leave the ways leading to his office dark. But the dark posed a problem: It was pitch black further down, so she wouldn't be able to see any zombies, if any were there, that was. There may not have been any on this floor.Most of the people would have been down stairs. Though a few would have been up here.
Not much longer, Spencer...And you'll be mine...

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Krauser was fighting back now. He had momentarily gotten his strength back, but not enough to be able to kill Chris off quickly. Chris was still able to dodge any attempts Krauser mad to cut him in half. The hallway was in shambles now. Boards all of the place, bits of sheet-rock. There was a cloud of the dust from the latter, that made everyone present cough. Most of the damage was done by Krauser, when Chris dodged a swing.

Chris grabbed a fallen board. His fists were starting to hurt, and he wasn't quite ready to finish his opponent off with the gun. He swung hard at Krauser's face with the board, and hitting him. A nail in the board ripped the other man's cheek open, and blood flowed from the wound, and fell onto the floor. The cut went all the way to the bone, as Chris could tell from the flash of bone he saw when the man turned his head, and the flap of skin fell open. He was glad that Jill was keeping Tyler out of the fight. He had heard them arguing before. He'd have to remember to thanks Jill later. If he survived. He was getting tired and all it would take would be one missed dodge, and he'd be toast.

He ducked under another swing form Krauser's arm, and swung his foot around, hooking it around Krauser's leg. With one swift jerk, he had the man on the ground.He tossed the board aside, glanced at his gun lying on the floor, then looked back at his opponent, who was trying to get up. Glaring, Chris put his foot on the man's chest, holding him down. The man didn't bother to try to escape. He coughed, sending a spray of blood onto Chris' legs, and spoke

"Who was that girl, anyway?" He said almost cackling, "Must have been pretty important."

"She was my sister, you sorry fuck," Chris spat back.

Krauser grinned maliciously at him, "That makes the kill all the better," he replied, laughing.

Chris said nothing as he unsheathed his knife from his belt. He fingered the blade for a moment, watching the man's reaction. He didn't seem surprised, and showed no fear. But his eyes widened in shock when Chris raised the kinfe...

"I'll see you in hell."

...And brought the blade down and buried it deep in Krauser's throat, warm blood flowing over his hands, making the hilt of the knife slippery in his grasp. Krauser's hand twitched as he died, and Chris continued to drive the blade in as deep as he could, until it had come into contact with the floor. He stood up straight, shaking his hands, sending drops of blood all around. He glanced back down at the corpse, then went to grab his gun, further cleaning the blood from his hands. After he had his gun back in it's holster, he strode over to the other two. Both looked at him as if they were afraid of him, but the look was gone from Jill's face after a moment. Ignoring the pain in her shoulder, she embraced him.

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Ada tried the door, locked of course. Knowing Spencer, it was opened with a puzzle. She despised Spencer's little games, but she was so close. So close to her goal that she had been working to acheive for 18 years. She heard a cough from the other side of the door, and smiled to herself. Spencer was on the other side of that door. I'm coming Spence...Just wait.
She looked around for anything that might trigger the puzzle, when the door opened, and she heard Spencer's dry voice.

"Ada, my dear, please come in."

If she had been thinking clearly she might have noted the strange tone of his voice. But the only thing that went through her mind as she head for the door was So Close...