Chapter 20- This Pain Has Just Begun

The corpses had noticed her and were now trying to get to her. Sookie was extremely thankful for her cell as it was the only thing protecting her from the dead. She sat down in the corner and waited. She wasn't sure what exactly she was waiting for but she could feel waves of calmness washing over her at times. She wondered if that was the bond that made her feel that way but at the moment, it did not matter.

She could hear the screams coming from the lab and the only thing separating her from it was a long hallway. She shivered at the sounds of death coming from the room and when a woman's voice started to instruct everyone to remain calm, Sookie knew the compound was going to shit. The door between the hallway and the cellblock closed in a loud bang and Sookie felt trapped. Even if she could manage exiting the cell, she would never be able to open the door.

She watched the corpses as they were extending their arms through the bars as if they didn't understand that no amount of reaching would make her go to them.

She heard a roar at the distance and froze in place. She had no idea who or what was making the noise but one thing was for sure, she didn't want to know. The alarm was loud enough to muffle the sounds the corpses were making but not loud enough to cover the large bang on the door. Something had pounced on it from the other side and was now trying to enter the cellblock. However, as fast as the loud noise had happened, it was gone and Sookie heard nothing else but the alarm still raging.

Her heartbeat had accelerated at the new threat but she managed to calm it again. There was no need to panic; she had decided she would wait until things had calmed down before attempting anything. What else was she supposed to do, she wasn't able to open the cell door, and even if she did, she had nothing to defend herself against the corpses waiting for their feast.

She closed her eyes and silently prayed. It was helping her keep calm. Noises coming from the corpses made her reopen her eyes. All she could see were flashes of blond, red, and black. Within seconds, the corpses were all dead and there he was, standing in the middle of it.

She did not take her eyes off of him as she ran to the bars. He was there, he had come to rescue her, and as much as she hated the damsel in distress bullshit, he was the saviour she was secretly hoping for.

"Eric! You came!" she exclaimed in disbelief.

He grabbed her hand and while crouching, he had placed his head between two bars allowing them to be forehead to forehead.

"Sookie, I would never let anything happen to you." She stared at him as he closed his eyes. She could feel his relief through the bond although it was faded. She wasn't sure if she could trust him but at that very moment, it did not matter. She wanted to escape.

She reached through the bars to take his face between her hands and looked at him in the eyes.

"I thought you had abandoned me, Eric."

She closed her own eyes when he kissed her forehead and proceeded to the back of the cell when he asked. She watched him take off the door and throw it on the floor. Although she still had many questions to ask, she was just happy to see him and saw no harm in giving into her happiness.

She jumped to his neck and hugged him tightly as if she never wanted to let him go. Eric broke from their embrace to put his hand on her cheek.

"Sookie, all I did was to protect you."

His words made her frown. She was mad that he would hide things from her and let her be lost, locked in a cell. She was furious that he would let her believed he had betrayed her and was not sure how she was supposed to ever trust him again but all of that did not matter as she felt an overwhelming need for him. She wanted him, she wanted to forgive him despite knowing it wouldn't be that easy.

She brought her finger to his lip indicating him to be silent and then slowly brought her lips to his. She slowly kissed him, their tongues dancing at the rhythm of her own beating heart. She felt his own need through his hand caressing her back and moaned to his touch.

She wasn't sure how long they stood there kissing each other but they were taken away from their happy state by the woman's voice.

"Initiating annihilation program."

They had no idea what it meant, but they were sure it meant nothing good. As soon as the words were spoken, everything went dark and only the red from the alarm was illuminating the cell. Sookie was terrified and she clenched onto Eric as she looked around.

"We need to get out of here," she said stating the obvious.

"We cannot go through the lab," Eric whispered as she realized how bad their situation was.

He directed her to the other side of the cellblock. He knew they had more of a chance of crossing the creature's paths if they went through the lab so he had decided to take his chance with the other side of the mansion. The cellblock was rather peaceful and walking without a noise, they reached the south entrance. Of course, it was closed by a giant door and when Eric tried to open it, they heard the woman's voice.

"Do not open this door."

Sookie looked around and saw one black bulb on the ceiling. She assumed the woman was watching them through the camera.

"Let us go!" she screamed at it.

"I am afraid that is impossible. The mansion has been sealed. There is no escape."

Sookie shivered at the words and looked at Eric who was trying to find a way to open the door.

"Why are you doing this?"

"I am programmed to contain and destroy this building."

Sookie was shocked by the words, did this mean the woman wasn't a real person?

"What are you?"

"I am a program designed to ensure the safety of the buildings occupants."

"Well we are its occupants so let us go!"

"It would be wise for you to stay where you are," instructed the voice.

"Fuck you," is all Sookie could manage as she grabbed a small wooded table on the ground and threw it to the camera, which broke in two.

"Such a temper," Eric growled smirking. Sookie used a leg from the wooden table and proceeded to beat on the small box beside the door. The plastic gave in and she ripped it off before disconnecting the wires inside it. As soon as the wires were off, the door opened.

"Don't ask," Sookie stated in response of Eric's shocked look.

Eric took point and entered the next room, which was pitch black. Sookie grabbed his shirt and followed him in silence. He stopped about half way in and kicked a corpse on the ground. For some reason, it had not risen yet. As the corpse was a guard, he crouched to examine it. Sure, it was dark but unlike Sookie, Eric could still see. He grabbed the Uzi off the guard's belt and gave it to Sookie who touched it a couple times before realizing it was a gun.

"Thank you," she whispered.

As she spoke the words, something grabbed her ankle, which made her scream in surprise. Whatever had grabbed her bit her Achilles tendon off as Sookie fell on the floor screaming in pain. At the same moment, more corpses had risen, which Eric was fighting off for Sookie too busy dealing with her own. Her assailant proceeded to lacerate the flesh on her legs and arms at a speed that was not typical for a corpse's speed. Sookie was not about to die shredded to pieces and started shooting it with her new found gun, the muzzle flash illuminating the room. All the corpses on the ground had suddenly taken to life and were now headed towards them. As Sookie was emptying her mag into them, she was being careful not to hit Eric who was killing some of the corpses who were running in their direction.

Running? She didn't had much time to think about it since she was busy shooting but something inside her had clued in that not only these corpses were running but they were stronger than the ones she knew before.

After a couple of minutes, Eric grabbed her off the floor bridal style and brought her to the opposite door.

"What's going on?" she whispered.

"The queen, she was doing experiments."

He didn't had time to finish; the roaring sound Sookie had heard earlier was coming from the cellblock. Eric broke the box beside the door, as the roars were getting closer. After disconnecting it, he was able to open it as the creature entered their room from the other side. Sookie didn't hesitate and started shooting at it over Eric's shoulder, letting him bring her into the hallway. She stopped shooting as soon as the door closed. Eric grabbed the closest metal box he could find and placed it so the door wouldn't open so easily.

"What the fuck was that?" Sookie asked but Eric had no time to respond as the creature was already pouncing on the metal door.

Since Sookie couldn't run anymore, Eric ran upstairs at vampire speed while still holding her. At the top of the stairs, he took a couple seconds to assess the main floor, which was creeping with corpses that turned to them as soon as they entered. One of them mumbled loudly which caused all of them from both sides of the hallway to turn and start running in their direction. The woman's voice was telling them to they would not escape alive while Eric turned Sookie so she was now facing him with her legs wrapped around his waist. He started running in one direction allowing Sookie to shoot whatever was behind them as she clenched to his neck, holding on for dear life. He reached the stairs going to the second floor and without hesitation climbed them at record speed followed by the dozen of corpses running at human speed. As soon as they reached the bedroom hall, the roar of the creature was heard and they both knew it was on the main floor getting closer to them. Eric entered the bedroom and closed the door behind them. He put Sookie on the bed and placed some furniture in front of the door to buy them some time while a metal plate descended the windows to block them off. Eric looked at it and growled in frustration. He then sat beside Sookie and looked at her alarmed.

"Sookie, you are really pale, you need to drink my blood," he said rapidly.

She looked at her hands, which were extremely pale and guessed her face was similar. She was so busy shooting up the place she hadn't notice how much blood she was losing. She knew that if she drank his blood again, the bond would be a lot stronger. He then proceeded to explain to her that he was unable to fly as he had taken to many hits and wasn't sure how they would escape. She suggested that he too could have some of her blood, which he refused.

''It would make our blood bond permanent" he declared.

She wasn't entirely sure what it meant but she knew at that very moment, they had no choice. She sat up and reached for his face. Her smile was fading as she could feel her life slipping away.

"I know you would rather not be permanently bonded to a human but I don't think we have a choice Eric."

"It is not that I do not wish to be bonded to you Sookie but you don't know what it means and I don't want you to resent me later"

Sookie took a minute to think about it while they heard pounding on the door. It wouldn't be long before the corpses would enter their room. She noticed that he had cuts on his cheeks, which were not healing.

"Please Eric, I will only take your blood if you take mine."

He nodded in silence. Deep down she knew she was safe with him and despite the lies and the deception, she chose life over death.

She took his wrist to her mouth and bit into it without much thought. There was something animalistic about it, which made her growl in pleasure as the cold substance flowed into her mouth. Eric watched her drink from his wrist as he focused on calming his overwhelming need of her. She looked up at him still drinking and was surprised at the amount of lust that was choking her. She indicating to him that it was okay for him to drink from her by bringing her wrist to his mouth, which he bit into quickly. She wanted to pounce on him, take off his clothes, kiss him deeply, take him repeatedly but was quickly brought back to earth when the top of the door broke and a corpse's head grunt at them.

Eric broke their embrace as he watched her lacerations closing off, her Achilles' tendon was healing slowly, and her cheeks turned rosy once again. He too felt better as he felt her blood running through his veins. As soon as the door flung open and the giant blob of human flesh headed in their direction breaking the neck of the corpses around him, Eric took Sookie in his arms and ran to the window. He closed his eyes hoping that his weight would be enough to break it as long as the metal plate caved at the impact. The metal plate flew open as the glass exploded everywhere.

Sookie looked up at him seeing his face cut up by the broken window. Millions of pieces were floating around them for a brief moment as they were falling to the ground. She smiled at him holding onto his torso. Before they could hit the ground, he started flying towards the sky.

She closed her eyes as he whispered he couldn't imagine a life without her. A single tear broke from her lid as she too couldn't imagine a life without him anymore and as much as they still needed to talk about what had happened with the queen, at that moment she trusted him.

He looked down at the mansion and what he saw gave him shivers. There were running corpses coming out of every exit as the creature jumped out of the window they just had broken and were running into the wild.

Reviews please! :o)

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