Chapter 4-Fire
The following morning you never would've guessed how disturbed Thrax had been earlier. He had regained all of his composure and even seemed more sure of himself if anything. Thrax had insisted on coming with Drix and Jones. It really had been a very bad idea. Thrax only realized how idiotic he'd been when he felt panic rush through him at the sight of the building. 'FPD' was written on the doorframe, it looked more imposing then the enormous library had been.
Thrax worked his courage up and entered, following after Drix and Jones. Activity stopped completely as soon as the other officers inside the FPD saw Thrax. Even the chief in his office saw Thrax enter and was absolutely still. Thrax felt a peculiar enjoyment at this reaction, but ignored it. He stared at the ground and Drix hovered next to him protectively. He felt the usual irritation begin to build in him at Drix's presence, but knew that the pill just didn't want his coworkers to get the...wrong idea.
Jones entered the chief's office uncertainly. The chief was still staring at Thrax. The red virus could feel everyone's gazes boring into him and he stepped behind Drix to act as a shield. Jones noticed this and felt a bit angry that his coworkers didn't leave him alone. He approached the chief,
"I'm going up to the mayor's office, some..uh..paperwork to file up there." Jones thought off the top of his head. His chief finally seemed to break his trance and looked at Jones,
"Sure thing..." the chief said, furrowing his brow. Jones nodded and walked out of the office. As soon as he took one step in the direction of the door Thrax took it as a signal. The red virus literally ran out of the building, black trench coat flying behind him. Drix and Jones ran after him and found him already in the car, ready to go, by the time they caught up with him.
Thrax looked panicked. As Drix and Jones entered the car he seemed to retreat from them further. Jones didn't even buckle up. He turned in his seat and locked his gaze with Thrax's.
"What's wrong? I've seen you upset when people are staring at you, but that was panic." Jones spoke with a quizzical tone.
"They're..." he started, but Drix interrupted,
"Who's 'they'?" the cold pill asked.
"Everyone in that building. They're all...threatening." It looked like Thrax was about to add more, but he turned his head sharply and refused to speak. Jones had been very patient up till now, but he wanted his question answered.
"We're not leaving until we get a straight answer from you." Jones said confidently. The next moment Thrax was slipping out the window. Drix and Jones were already getting out of the car, but Thrax stopped them with his next words,
"I'll walk then. I can take care of myself on the streets, and it's better to walk alone then in the company of people who only wish to interrogate you." he said, then turned and started to walk away. Drix acted quickly and moved infront of him.
"Wait-we didn't mean to pry. Please, try to understand. It was just natural curiosity on our part, we'll let the matter drop." Drix looked pointedly towards Jones and his partner shrugged. Thrax clenched his hands into fists and felt anger building up inside of himself.
"It started when I entered that building...they're not just threatening. I hate them. I hate them all, they make me so angry. They deserve to burn!" Thrax suddenly said in a rush, bringing up his left claw swiftly to see it glowing again. Drix and Jones stared at him after his outburst.
"We have got to leave this place." Thrax said a moment later, strangely calm sounding. Jones cocked his head,
"Why?" he asked. Thrax simply motioned towards the FPD building.
"Look at the windows." the red virus said. Both Drix and Jones turned to see that the entire force was watching them through the windows.
"Please, let's just go." Thrax said and he returned to the back seat of the car. Jones and Drix were upset with their coworkers and sent a glare towards them before going back to the car. Jones didn't hesitate a moment, he started his car and immediately pealed off towards the mayor's office.
Thrax did not speak to them after that. It was an awful silence, and Drix and Jones could tell Thrax wasn't happy they'd questioned him like they had. Convincing the guards to let Thrax in the building wasn't easy either, but the matter was settled when the mayor himself came down to see what the fuss was about. It was mayor Colonic, Thrax remembered seeing something on the news about him. Leah was behind the mayor and glanced questioningly in Jones' direction.
Mayor Colonic motioned for the guards to stand down and invited the three visitors to come to his office. Thrax was like a dark shadow in the mainly blue shaded building, and everyone noticed him. But they also noticed the mayor and two immunity officers, so they figured the red virus was under control. When they reached Colonic's office Thrax was relieved to hear the door shut behind him. Only Colonic, Drix, Leah, Jones, and Thrax were in the room. No more cells staring at him, boring holes into his back.
"So, you must be Thrax." Colonic said levelly. Thrax felt an odd rush of adrenaline go through him: he shouldn't be here. He felt like he'd been caught. He was in trouble, cells of authority surrounded him. They were going to kill him! 'Get out of there, now!' his instincts screamed at him. Thrax looked down at the floor, his purple dreadlocks blocking his face from view. The red virus took a deep and shuddering breath before looking back up.
"The one and only." Thrax said with a confidence he didn't feel. Colonic didn't seem to notice anything wrong with Thrax as he continued to speak,
"Is there anything that I can help you with today?" the mayor was speaking directly to Thrax. Jones wanted to step in and handle it, but Leah shook her head the tiniest bit to say 'don't interfere'. Thrax was on his own with this one, and he didn't look too happy about it. It was just a simple question, but it meant more to Thrax. The red virus could feel the mayor's gaze boring a hole in him. He was fed up with it so he glared down at the mayor, venting the frustration he'd gathered with so many people staring at him on Colonic,
"What is this bodies problem?! Don't you know it's rude to stare?!" he suddenly shouted. He whirled towards Leah, completely ignoring the mayor now.
"Do you know happened to my chain? The black one? Jones said you had it last." Thrax asked, sounding far more polite to her then he had towards the mayor.
"Uh, I think it was taken back down to the FPD as evidence." she stumbled over her words momentarily. Thrax nodded curtly, then turned towards Jones and Drix,
"We're leaving. Come on." Thrax walked quickly out of the room without a glance behind him, somehow confident that Jones and Drix were following. As soon as the door to the mayor's office closed behind him he felt free. Relieved. It felt as though a burden had left him and his shoulders sagged.
"Thank goodness that's over." he said aloud. Jones and Drix watched him briefly before remembering how much he hated it when cells stared at him. Jones spoke,
"You could've handled that better." he said, sounding a bit disappointed. Thrax stopped and looked at them,
"Yeah, I could've. But you know what? I wouldn't have handled it any other way." the red virus said, a proud smirk decorating his features.
"Anyways, now we have to go back to FPD building." Jones said. Thrax looked panicked again, but quickly covered it.
"I think that chain is important. Nothing is going to stop me from getting it back." he said with certainty.
"Maybe it would be better if just Jones and I went in?" Drix suggested. Thrax quickly dismissed it with a wave of his claw.
"Forget it. I'm comin' with." he said. They were out of the building and in the car now.
"So where'd this newfound confidence come from?" Jones asked as they took off and headed in the direction they'd started.
"I don't know, but I'm gonna ride it for all it's worth." Thrax replied. His mind was centered on a specific goal: get the chain back. With his thoughts focused he found confidence that he could accomplish his task. They pulled back into the FPD parking lot.
"Even if you're coming in, you follow my lead, ok?" Jones asserted. Thrax shrugged. So what if the job got done by someone else? So long as he got his chain back. As they entered the building the cells inside only paused briefly to stare at Thrax, then returned to work. Jones went down a hallway that was dimly lit and entered a room labeled 'vault'. Drix and Thrax entered behind him.
The vault was large and had many shelves. On each shelf there was a silver box that varied in size. Some of the largest pieces of evidence were lying openly on the floor in a corner. To look through all of it though seemed an impossible task. There was so much stuff here.
Thrax felt an odd buzzing sensation in his head, and he turned to listen to it. It wasn't annoying, like the buzzing of a mosquito, but it was more like a call. He followed the sound till he opened up one of the small silver boxes, inside was his chain. The buzzing immediately stopped, replaced by another sound.
"This here little DNA bead comes from a little girl in Riverside, California, didn't like to wash her hands. Took me three whole weeks. And this one, nice lady in Detroit, Mowtown - six days flat. And there's this old guy in Philly - I killed him in 72 hours. Yeah, I'm getting better as I go along, baby, but the problem is I never set a record - until my man Frank that is. I'm gonna take him down in 48 hours! Get my own chapter in the medical books!"
Thrax wrapped the chain loosely around his right wrist and said nothing of the voice he heard. He stared hard at the DNA beads as if they held all the secrets of the universe. Then, with a familiar swagger, he returned to Drix and Jones' side. Judging by his silence they guessed he had remembered something, but they weren't going to disturb him.
Drix was going to stay at the FPD building, deciding that after all their running about today one of them needed to get some work done. Jones' decided to take Thrax back to the apartment, but the red virus countered him,
"Actually, I'd like to return to the hospital. Have this cast replaced, it's getting loose." Thrax said. Jones glanced at the cast on his left wrist, and was surprised to see it practically hanging off of Thrax's hand.
"Why didn't you say something earlier?" Jones mumbled as they walked out of the office and towards the car. Once they were out of the building Thrax looked relieved again beyond words.
"It wasn't exactly a priority." Thrax replied, sitting down in the front of the car. Jones sat next to him and started it up. At that moment Thrax could see his past self smashing his left fist into the dashboard, and having the car turn into a shiney red and orange speedster. He blinked away the image in momentary confusion, he didn't understand that memory at all.
So they went to the hospital, Dr. Golg was very surprised to see them. He was a friendly character and gladly helped out Thrax quickly. When they reached a room and the old cast was removed Dr. Golg was surprised. Thax's wrist looked healed-from a surface view anyways. He looked at it again with an x-ray image and found it completely healed. Except for one minor detail...
"Doctor, when will my claw grow back?" Thrax suddenly asked, sounding a bit impatient...or nervous? Dr. Golg looked a bit surprised by the question,
"I assumed it was like a fingernail and would grow back within a month to two months. But look at this new image," he gestured towards the x-ray picture that was up on a partially glowing piece of wall. It allowed light to shine through the partly transparent image so that it set off the contrast well. Dr. Golg didn't quite know how to describe it, but the left finger looked kind of screwed up. Not that those are medical terms, so the Dr. tried to find a way to say it.
"It would appear that your claw isn't just a fingernail. It is a part of you, and to us it is like one of our own fingers. Now, we can replace body parts that have been kept refrigerated within a certain period of time. But since what we're dealing with here is a bit different, I think we could fuse the broken part of the claw to the remnance of the claw." Dr. Golg explained.
"One problem: I don't know where the 'remnance of the claw' is." Thrax spoke with an edge of disappointment in his voice. Jones recalled pulling it from the eyelash when he had rescued Thrax.
"It's back at my apartment! I'll go get it!" Jones said, rushing off towards his car. Thrax hesitated, then decided just to stay at the hospital. Dr. Golg busied himself with something or other, but Thrax was quickly becoming bored. He spun his chain idly around in circles and started to hum the Fever song without realizing it. About twenty minutes passed before Jones came back, panting.
"Here it is!" the immunity officer said in a rush, pulling the long broken off part of the claw from his jacket. Jones passed it over to Thrax who fitted the remnance of his claw with the broken part that was still on his hand. They fit like puzzle pieces. Suddenly his entire claw glowed brightly and turned orange. The claw fused back together. In a moment it was over and Thrax felt oddly whole again.
Dr. Golg suddenly pulled out a pair of sun glasses and handed them over to Thrax saying,
"Here, you accidentally left these behind." Thrax put the dark glasses in his pocket and continued to watch his still glowing claw. He walked up to one of the counters and experimentally dragged his claw across it. It left a hot orange line that cracked the counter, then orange clouds puffed out of it. The entire counter turned red and remained very hot to the touch. Thrax smirked, then let the glow in his claw subside.
Jones was very worried. Thrax hadn't been much of a threat without his claw, but now he was. And he was starting to regain his memories. This was certainly dangerous for Frank, but he wanted to go through with it. To finish what he started that day when he saved Thrax's life.
"I suppose the only thing left for me to do now is get the rest of those memories back." Thrax mused as he examined his claw. With his claw intact Thrax had seemed to regain part of himself he'd been missing. Thrax resisted the urge to drag his claw down the hallway's wall as they left the hospital.
Jones drove Thrax back to the apartment, then left to return to work. Thrax knew he was being tempted to sleep, to try to get more information on this chain that he felt connected to, but he didn't want to rush into things. Like the young girl said: One step at a time. He could remember the drills his father had taught him with his claws, and he decided to try one. He pushed the couch away from the center of the living room to get more space.
He began with simple and quick slashes with his claw. They were followed by deft movements, like he was dodging an invisible enemy. Thrax began to practice kicks, slashes, and punches silently in the room. Time flew by when he wasn't paying attention. His actions became more complicated and faster. He slashed forward with his claw, spun and kicked swiftly, then pulled back as if to avoid a blow to his face, and finally he slashed with both his hands-raking his claws down his opponents face.
Thrax was tired since he'd been doing this for two hours now, so he moved the couch back to its origonal position. He pulled out the book 'The History of Viruses and Frank' and flipped delicately to the page where he'd stopped. He continued to read and spent the rest of the day learning about Frank. Jones and Drix walked into the aparment a while later and greeted him. Thrax could tell something was up quickly.
"Ok, we're switching apartments!" Jones anounced, "You're going to go stay with Drix a floor above for a few days. Then we'll switch again." he finished. Thrax twitched and looked a bit unhappy, but he stood up with his book and silently walked out the door. Drix followed him with one last nervous glance towards Jones. The white blood cell relaxed when the door was closed. Finally, Thrax was out of his hair for a little while.
Drix was getting increasingly anxious over Thrax staying with him. He could feel the tension building between them. A floor up they entered Drix's apartment. It was rather tidy, but not overly so. Jones' and Drix's apartments were a bit similar, and it was decided that Thrax would sleep on the couch-again. Silence existed in the room, neither of them were willing to break it.
Thrax noticed that the awful stench of wild cherry was greater here, and-though Drix didn't notice-he kept glancing towards Drix's canon arm. Thrax decided that sleep was definitely better then being awake with Drix, so he lay down on the couch without a word. Drix watched as the red virus dozed off and he felt his worries increase.
Thrax's Dream
Thrax looked about him and spotted the young girl quickly. She was walking towards him, a peculiar expression on her youthful face,
"You've found your chain, and regained your claw. You seem to be progressing faster then I expected." she said levelly. Thrax looked down at his chain and felt pride surge in him at the sight of it.
"What is so special about this chain. I feel so...connected to it." Thrax responded, sounding confused. She nodded as if this was to be expected,
"You've had that for a long time. You're sentimentally attatched to it, it houses your life's work." she explained. Thrax stood and looked down at the girl,
"My life's work?" he questioned. She smiled at him,
"Yes. Your collection. Each bead on this chain is a body that you killed. You were very proud of your record." she said. Thrax looked over the chain again, it seemed to be a bit more menacing now. Then he recalled the words he had heard earlier,
"Get my own chapter in the medical books!"
"Did I want to...get a chapter in the medical books?" Thrax asked hesitantly. She nodded and gazed up at him with shining yellow eyes,
"Yes, you frequently called it your record." she answered. Thrax could remember what else he had heard,
"I wanted to beat my 72 hour record. I wanted to take down Frank in 48 hours." he said. The young girl nodded again. She suddenly changed the subject,
"I understand you're staying with Drix." she put it out in the open.
"Yeah." Thrax mumbled. The young girl smiled up at him,
"And he makes you upset because...?" she wanted him to fill in the blank, but Thrax just shrugged. This didn't deter her cheerfulness so she answered her own question,
"Because he froze your claw and that made you very angry." she supplied. Thrax didn't seem to know that this was the anser himself, but his face lit up with sudden understanding.
"That's it. That's why." he said, but he couldn't remember Drix ever freezing his hand. He just knew it had happened.
"Ready for some more memories?" she asked, keeping the conversation going. Thrax glanced nervously towards her. Whatever confidence he'd had today, it was completely gone now.
"Yeah, I suppose..." he said, sounding uncertain. She shook her head slightly,
"You'd better sit down. This time it's going to be very harsh on you. I have to kind of hurry up and get you these memories, I don't have as much time as I'd like." she said gently. Thrax sat down and she placed her hand on his forehead. A full ten minutes passed before she removed her hand, concern written all over her youthful face.
"Are you ok?" she asked. Thrax just stared into space for a very long time. He didn't move, his eyes didn't blink, if not for the subtle movements of his chest she could've sworn he wasn't breathing. She was content to sit and wait for him to break his stupor though. With an idle thought she tweaked Thrax's perception of time in this dreamworld. It seemed as if hours could pass here, but in reality only a few minutes would have gone by. She knew that this knew set of memories included memories of herself, but she knew Thrax could take remembering. He was strong. Unlike herself.
She'd been a weak-and she thought herself to be worthless too-child since birth. Her mother had died in childbirth, but she had convinced herself she knew the real reason. Her mother had died of a broken heart, for only a week befor her birth her father had died. That had made her mother sad, and almost unwilling to live. Being a memory was certainly odd though, but she felt more at peace here then she had even when cradled in her mother's arms-shortly before she died. Practically no one knew she existed, and she'd liked it that way. Only the highest members of the Virus Protection Program realized that there had been a second forbidden child. No one really had time to learn about her at all though, because she kept moving along.
Thrax let out a long sigh. She watched him carefully but discreetly. The young girl knew all the things he must be seeing were frightening, infuriating, and even sad.
"What have you learned?" she asked softly. Thrax vaguely shook his head,
"I can't make sense of any of it. It's like all the pictures are blurred." he said. She nodded,
"They'll make sense when you wake up." she became more serious sounding, "Thrax. You have only one more visit to this place. The memories I give you next time will lead all the way up to coming Frank. When you learn of this..." she paused for a while, "I won't be able to help you. I won't see you again after that. I want you to promise me that you won't make a horrible decision though, alright?" she asked.
Thrax glanced towards her. She'd helped him a lot, maybe he could do this one thing for her?
"One more thing. When you wake up, you'll remember me. So I look forward to meeting you Thrax for the first and last time." she smiled a bit mishiviously, but Thrax appeared to be confused. She dismissed it though.
"I promise I won't make a horrible decision." Thrax suddenly said. She looked up at him curiously, then smiled,
"So, are you ready to wake up?" she asked. Thrax nodded absently,
"Wait a sec. How should I deal with Drix? I can't stand that pill and now I'm staying with him." Thrax asked. She smiled cheerfully,
"Drix is just as uncomfortable around you as you are around him. I'd try to stay friendly with them I suppose. Don't overreact around Drix just because he froze your hand. You were a very real threat and he was only doing as he saw fit." she said, sounding unnaturally wise again for her age. Thrx nodded,
"Ok. I'm ready to go back." he said slowly. She smiled and then nodded,
"Wake up!" she suddenly shouted, surprising Thrax just-but she seemed to be very amused-before he disappeared.
End Thrax's Dream
Thrax jolted awake. And the memories fell into place. Life just kept going downhill. Where was that silver lining when he really needed one? Thrax felt the urge to kill Frank rise up in him. It was what he always did. This body should burn. Thrax shook the thoughts away. He considered killing Frank to be a 'horrible decision'. Or at least a bad one. The thought did appeal to him though.
He looked up at the clock. It was seven in the morning. He felt like he needed sleep. Not so that he could speak to the girl, but just so that he could rest. He felt exhausted. Drix wasn't awake yet either it seemed. Thrax idly wondered just what to do now. Wait for the rest of the memories seemed like a good enough plan, if not a boring one. He reached down and pulled out the 'The History of Viruses and Frank'. He was halfway in the book now, it seemed like Frank had had more meetings with viruses then a normal body. Maybe he was just careless?
Thrax read for a while, and when he looked up he saw Drix moving about the apartment. The cold pill tried to offer a friendly smile, but Thrax didn't really react to it. Neither of them said a word. Moments passed of just staring at eachother, the unspoken words hovered in the air between them. Thrax finally broke the unnerving silence,
"Do I just stay here all day?" he put forth the question expressionlessly. Drix seemed relieved to have a conversation started,
"I think Jones had plans today, let's go ask him." Drix left the apartment. Thrax followed with his typical swagger. The red virus probably didn't even realize it though. They reached Jones' apartment quickly. The white blood cell glanced up at them from a paper he'd been reading, then set it down. Drix and Jones immediately started the conversation over again.
Thrax noticed little things that had changed overnight in the apartment. Jones had left his shoes in the living room, and there was a stack of papers on the couch-probably more reports. Thrax ventured into Jones' room to find he'd already start to clutter it up again. Papers were strewn on the desk, bed unmaid, jacket laying on the floor, and a few other minor things. Thrax started to clean without thinking about it.
It was a few minutes later when Jones entered, to find Thrax sitting on his bed and staring hard at the report on Ion. As soon as Thrax noticed the immunity officer's presence though he tucked the report back into the stack.
"We have a problem." Jones announced. Thrax didn't even look up. Jones continued anyways,
"After the entire scene at the mayor's office-" he started. The red virus stood swiftly and spoke over Jones,
"They're upset with me. So, what's it to be? Execution, inprisonment, 'banishment'? As if you could keep me in this forsaken place." Thrax said venomously, sounding surprisingly cynical. Jones ignored Thrax's comment and kept speaking,
"The mayor believes that it would be in Frank's best interest that when you regain your memories you must leave." he finished. Thrax shrugged,
"It's what I expected." he said casually. Jones just stared at him,
"How can you take it so calmly? I mean, you don't feel attatchment for this place at all?" Jones asked skeptically. Thrax could remember the young girl's words: Don't get too close to anyone. While he did feel grateful to Jones for helping him his anger towards immunity blinded him to any kind of friendship they might have had. Thrax reached into the deep pocket and pulled out his sun glasses. With delicate movements of his claws he slid them over his face.
"None, baby." Thrax said. Jones was worried, Thrax sounded like his old self. Thrax didn't seem to notice at all though,
"So what are my plans for the day?" the red virus asked. Jones blinked and shook himself a bit,
"Uh. Today. Well...I really don't know. What would you like to do?" Jones asked, obviously his talk with Drix had not gotten results. Thrax shook his head though and he grew somber,
"Can you tell me that your mayor would trust me enough to do whatever I'd like in this body?"
"What would you like to do in this body?" Jones countered. Thrax suddenly looked down and-even though his sun glasses covered his eyes-he felt the need to cover his facial expression.
"Honestly...it's like I just want to...forget it." Thrax turned completely away from Jones, shutting him out, "It doesn't matter what I want." he finally stated. Jones had had enough of Thrax keeping all these secrets to himself. He shot forward a hand, rested it tightly upon Thrax's shoulder, and spun the virus to face him.
"It matters. Cells here have something called compassion, and empathy. We can help you if you didn't brush us off like you were immortal and didn't need our help. Heck, I even started to get used to you! And that's saying a lot!" Jones said, sounding angry. Thrax stared down at him,
"Even if I told you my thoughts you would not understand them." the red virus observed mildy.
"No, I wouldn't. But I could try." Jones replied. Thrax shrugged Jones off again and made an effort to leave the room. Jones stepped in the way and stopped him. Thrax felt his blood boil angrily. He was naturally agressive, and coupled with his hatred of immunity, he was a foe to reckon with. Jones didn't realize how close to the edge his words had pushed Thrax.
With a swift but greatly softened blow Thrax punched Jones in the jaw. Like a shadow he slipped out the door and into the hallway. Drix was standing in the hallway...another roadblock. Jones knew how hard Thrax could kick and punch, and he also knew that Thrax hadn't intended on actually hurting him. But the game was afoot now, so to speak, and they needed to finish it. Jones emerged from the room. Thrax was trapped between them in the unlit hallway.
Panick, fear, and anger built up inside Thrax. Responding instantly his left claw glowed and heated up. Thrax got the eeire feeling that he was being hunted, and the hunters were closing in. He was going to get caught! They were going to kill him! Thrax leapt up into the air and soared over Drix, he came down ungracefully behind Drix and rolled into the living room. He immediately stood up though and tore off through the doorway.
"Thrax! Wait! Come back! Thrax!" he heard them both shouting. The red virus kept going, this was a panick induced run: Where you run faster then you ever thought possible, you practically fly. Thrax didn't really know why he was running away, only that it was somewhat natural to do so. It felt like he was on a time limit, and he had no time to spare to deal with Drix or Jones.
Thrax observed the buildings change about him as he ran through alleys, always trying to stay out of the public's sight. The buildings changed from housing to the working class, to a few run down looking factories, and then he finally reached the area he'd set out to find: the warehouse district. Each warehouse was old and falling apart. Whatever they were built out of-sometimes it was hard to tell-was graying and had brown moss growing over it. He darted into the tallest looking of all of them.
He finally stopped and listened for footsteps behind him, there were none. For the next five minutes or so all he heard were his own gasping breaths. Finally he'd calmed down enough to look around his surroundings. His shoulders sagged, he was exhausted. But he was not willing to sleep. He noticed a stair case in the corner of the room and he climbed up it. To his suprise it led to another floor, with another staircase. He kept climbing and climbing and climbing, until he reached the top of the building.
He walked out to the edge and stared around himself. The lighting was a rich red and orange color, it cast dark scarlet shadows on all the buildings, and lit up some of the smoke that the factories produced with a bright orange glow. The entire scene was rather beautiful actually. Thrax felt himself relaxing as he calmly observed what he could see.
Thrax paused and thought about what his running away might have started. He wondered if Jones and Drix were looking for him, or if they figured he'd come back. He wasn't sure what he'd do either to be honest. Even with most of his memories back he still felt uncerain and unstable. It was that simple absence that bent him off kilter. He sighed deeply and idly spun his chain around in circles.
"So the question is where do I go now?" he asked aloud. He found that talking to himself was quite normal and helped to order his thoughts.
"If I go back to Drix and Jones they'll probably apologize...even though I hit Jones. It wasn't hard, I mean, I barely even touched him. If I stay here and sleep...then I'll remember everything..." Thrax paused for a long time. Slowly, a smile spread across his face, "With my memories back I'm sure I'll know what to do." he assured himself. So he decided to stay where he was.
Thrax stood there for hours and watched as the red and orange lighting turned darker. First it turned to a gorgeous scarlet color, then it changed to a dark purple. Slowly the purple lighting became darker and darker, till it was dark and black. Thrax still stood there, watching lights turning on in building far, far off in the distance.
Finally he removed his coat and rolled it up to form a pillow. He disreguarded any consequences of the action and laid down, choosing to sleep on the roof.
Thrax's Last Dream:
He looked about himself in surprise. Where once had been beautiful colors in numerous patterns was something entirely different. It was dark here. Dark and frightening. He was standing near the edge of a cliff. The ground beneath his feet and all around him was hard and rocky, even the rocks were dark brown and black. Over the cliff and below was an ocean. It's deadly black waves crashed into the base of the cliff with no mercy. Seagulls were on the ocean, bobbing up and down with each wave. He was surprised to see the young girl standing right on the edge of the cliff.
"Thrax. We have no time to talk, sit down." she said, turning to face him. The look of seriousness and anxiety on her face made Thrax hesitate and wonder what was wrong.
"Now!" she yelled. Thrax literally fell to the ground. She smiled sorrowfully and apologized. She walked up to him and pressed her cool little hand against his forehead. Barely a minute passed before she removed her hand. Images and pictures flashed through Thrax's mind.
Suddenly the ground split infront of him. Thrax scrambled backwards, to see that the young gril had stayed on the other side of the fissure. He was about to simply leap over the crack in the ground when it split even wider. He considered opening up his trench coat and flying over to her, but she suddenly yelled to him,
"Don't bother. It really doesn't matter. I was a memory to begin with...I'm not real." she said, sounding very self demeaning. Thrax looked angry as he spoke,
"You're real enough to me!" he shouted back to her. She smiled at him sheepishly,
"You're a smooth talker though." she said sweetly. The two locked yellow gazes, and a slow smile spread across Thrax's features. Not a smirk, but a genuine smile. The ground ripped further apart and the sudden jolt made them both stumble a bit.
"This world of dreams...it's falling apart. You no longer need my help." she said, sounding serious again. Thrax shook his head,
"I wish...I mean...I wouldn't mind if all my dreams were this way. Do you have to leave?" he asked, sounding unhappy. She waved her hand slowly. The ground split beneath her and she was suddenly in open air; falling. Thrax shouted for her and considered flying to her anyways, but something held him back. With an odd smile on her face she shouted up to him-even as she fell towards the black ocean's wrath,
"Goodnight, Big Daddy Thrax."
End Thrax's Last Dream
Thrax leapt upwards and found himself standing on the edge of the roof. He bent down and picked up his trench coat he'd used as a pillow. It was still night, but what better time for a creature like him to roam? He knew exactly where to go aswell.
He spread his trench coat out and leapt off the roof, gliding as far as he could go before finally landing. He ran the rest of the way, concealed easily in the shadows. When he reached Jones' apartment he was surprised to find the door unlocked. It must've been unlocked in case he came back in the night. Thrax smirked and walked in. Jones was asleep in a chair at the kitchen table. The red virus glanced at the clock, it was four in the morning.
Thrax walked into Jones' room and grabbed a piece of paper and a pen. It was hard to write with his claws, but he made do. He left the sheet of paper infront of Jones. Then he silently slipped out the door and out of the apartment building. Thrax wasn't sure if he was doing the right thing...maybe he should've just killed Jones while he had the chance. He dismissed the thought absently.
Thrax walked down a dark street. Only a few dim street lights were on, their blue lights casting odd and eerie shadows everywhere. Water had collected in the lower parts of the uneven street and reflected the light. There was the smell of dampness, night, and the feel of stillness. And the presence of silence. Silence that always takes over when all other things are asleep. The black blotch that was Thrax walked down the street, and out of sight. His steps echoed and as he splashed through a murky puddle drops flew up into the air. Each drop caught the blue light and distorted it. Thrax's foot steps faded away into the distance. Leaving silence to reclaim the street.