I'm sorry that I haven't updated in forever. I have no excuses so I'm just going to resume the story.

Weiß and the Eastern Kingdoms

I slowly awoke to someone nudging me, saying something or another. Dizzy, I saw people exiting the hallway, and stood to leave too. The rescuers were here, someone helping us to escape the undead.

The people crowded into an elevator, protected by guards. I sighed in relief as the elevator doors closed behind me. I turned to look at how the guards were doing, satisfied that they looked a bit rotten.

Wait.

I turned back to the guard to see that they weren't the army or military I was thinking I was with. The guards were even stronger looking undead than what had captured us. Before I could react, the elevator doors opened to reveal a very different setting.

The lobby we had passed through had been converted into a mock mad scientist lab. Random chemistry tubes were set up every where, mass producing the same greenish gray substance. Four or five abominations roaming around the room, either twisting this and tweaking that, or trying to find something to pound. In the middle of the room, two of the zombies were dressed up as scientists, issuing orders to the abominations and each other.

The guards had to force everyone out roughly. However, once the last person was clear of the elevator, the guards closed the doors casually. Two abominations hurried to the group and had little problems moving us toward the scientists, who had turned to greet us.

Despite neither looking fresh, they moved and looked as if it were Saturday, wearing slight green lab coats and tan shirts and slacks, only the coats looked recently made. Unlike the other undead though, they had dyed their hair; the male appearing one had whitish blue hair and the female had dyed it cotton candy pink.

Turning back to her desk, the pink haired zombie grabbed a vial of the substance and turned back to her partner. "I need more of the potion, Cyon," she said.

Cyon turned and took the vial, which was half full. "How much are you using?" Cyon asked. He turned toward the crowd and looked it over. He then pointed at a young girl, who looked barely ten and had blonde hair. "You, come here."

The young girl moved to his side, shaking noticeably. The pink haired zombie took out a clipboard, ready to take notes. "Just a sip," Cyon instructed, handing the girl the beaker. Nervously, the girl raised the beaker and took a sip, as instructed, and handed it back to him.

Once the beaker left her fingertips, she dropped to the ground and writhed in pain for over a minute. I took a few steps to go to her, but one of the abominations caught my arm to stop me. I tried to reach for her and break the abomination's grasp, finding she was just beyond reach, when she stopped moving. I turned around and punched the abomination in its ugly mug, loosening its grip and faced towards the girl who had been lying on the ground a moment ago.

Now she was looking up at me with adorable eyes that didn't seem real. Her appearance didn't changed, only that she looked more like a wax doll with teddy bear eyes.. "Don't be a bad girl," she said as if I were a puppy she loved. She giggled and smiled, then twisted me around like rope until she decided to put me on my knees with my chest up in the air. Needless to say I couldn't break free.

"Scrap metal, please," the girl said to one of the abominations, who gave her quite a large piece. Despite the fact it was metal, she bent and molded it deftly around my wrists and ankles, forming crude hand braces.

During this time, the undead scientists turned the prisoners into undead, each looking more sickenly unreal than the last. When it came my turn, the pink haired zombie took a vial and filled it with the potion and walked leisurely to me, and instead of forcing it down my throat just yet, she turned toward my capturer and handed the vial to her.

"Whenever you want," she said, winking to the young girl, and turned away. The young girl however, turned toward me with a smile that hinted of insanity.

"Before you do anything," I hastily said, the young girl approaching eerily slowly. "What are you called?"

"Mistress," she said. She lunged at me and picked me up and carried me shortly down a hallway, entering one of the rooms and dropping me on the bed. Quickly departing the room and reentering it, she brought in a few boxes of nails but no hammer. Placing the boxes on the table beside me, she opened one of the boxes and removed a nail. She then unbound one of my hands and secured it against the wall. Placing the nail over one of my fingers, she grabbed my head and slammed it repeatedly against the nail, hammering it through my finger and into the wall.

After that, she let go of my aching head, which I rested on the pillow. But only for a few seconds. She grabbed a second nail from the open box and repeated the process for the next finger segment. After that was done, she repeated the process for what seemed like the rest of the day.

Winston

In the lull of time, Sydonia had removed her mask and lowered her hood, revealing that she is a beauty even in death, and was currently cleaning up Cress' hair brushing it into a ponytail. Jaeques had taken to reading a book called The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, which he had taken from a girl in the crowd, who was sketching someone in a business suit wearing a robber mask.

The guard had grown lax, except when new guards arrived, looking like porcelain dolls. They let us openly converse and pretty much do anything except leave when it wasn't time for people to go. I stayed at Cress' side and held her cooling hands, waiting for a miracle to happen.

Sydonia finally grabbed for the bag of hair bands, and wrestled three hair bands to contain just the back of the head. She left some out of the bands to frame her face, but the hair was long and full enough in front to reach down to her chest and still look like she had more coming. However, Sydonia had made Cress' wild beach-sand colored hair look tamed, and Cress was beautiful. At least until…

"Stiletto," Sydonia commanded, and a guard handed her his dagger. It wasn't a stiletto, though I don't think Sydonia cared. "Winston, right? Hold this left band up," she told me, and I obeyed, letting go of Cress' hands and lifting the ponytail up. Holding Cress' head still, Sydonia sawed off the pony tail with the dagger.

She sawed off the ponytail. I lifted the other ponytails, stunned from the twist of actions. I could see goosebumps rising on Cress' arm, and I felt bad about what I was doing. Sydonia picked up the three chunks of hair and walked away, finding a trash can to throw them away.

I leaned in and took Cress' hands again. "I'm sorry. Tell me how to make this up to you and I will do it," I assured her.

"I know you will, Winston. Please stay by my side for now, and do your best not to leave it," she said sadly. All that was left of the hair on the back of her head was like a thin layer of wool; it will keep the owner comfortable but not warm.

Weiß

I couldn't feel my hand anymore. It was cover in nickel residue from the nails, as well as blood. I'm surprised that my head hasn't caved in from the smashing.

The girl had left to get more nails to pound into my body, as the other boxes had run out. The nails trailed from my fingertips to my wrist and a fourth of the way down my arm. If I could feel anything of my old limb, it would fall off had it not been nails.

Please, god or deity watching over me, lend me your help. I tried to see if I could reach the phone, only to come up short again. I tried again, when I felt something distant. I stopped reaching for the phone and concentrated on that something, what ever it is. My last life line, probably.

"What are you doing?" I turned in horror as the young girl appeared in the door way with a crowbar, screws instead of nails, and a container of salt. No pun intended, but I felt like I was screwed. The girl hurried to my side while I focused and focused on my last life line so far away.

Come on damn it! I willed the object closer and closer more and more, until I couldn't handle it any more. I turned to see the crowbar descend in a high arc. Breaking the binds panicking, I raised my good arm to defend myself from the crowbar when a giant metal object materialized on it, effortlessly causing the crowbar to weakly bounce off it. I lowered and looked at the metal object.

It appeared to be a sword of some sort built on a bulky metal boxing glove, and instead of being heavier than what I expected it to be, it was lighter than a pillow.

"Bitch! Why don't you fukking die!" the once innocent girl yelled at me, readying another swing. However, the advantage had changed dramatically.

I waited until the girl was in arms length before I struck so I could retrieve the crowbar. The sword went through her like she wasn't even there. However, her undead state became apparent as the half of her that was connected to her head still came after me, the smile didn't even look friendly anymore. Fortunately, the buster weapon was light enough to strike again and accurately, and this time the corpse didn't resume its approach.

The buster dematerialized, its purpose fulfilled, allowing me to take the crowbar and remove the bindings still on my legs. However, I had two more obstacles before I could escape and rescue Cress and the boy.

One, obviously was the nails that attached me to the walls. The second one was the pink haired zombie scientist that heard our bout and had come running. She placed the vial on the table with the empty nail boxes and extracted the crowbar from my sore self and traded the vial for it.

Lifting my head up, the scientist poured the potion down my throat. It caused me to throw up, depositing the remains of the strawberry ice-cream that Cress had treated me to. Disgusted, she forced the rest into me. For a moment, I felt nothing but the sheer terror as I recalled what had happened to the girl that was in pieces, scattered around the room. The scientist stepped back and took out the clipboard that she hid in her coat.

Slowly, the potion came into effect, at first a slight stinging in my stomach, then a burn in my throat, and progressively my body felt more pain than it had places to hurt. I looked at my hand that was nailed to the wall one last time. The trickle of blood grew until it was a small red river trailing down the wall.

My sight started to spasm, then my hands couldn't hold me up, and following that I smelled something foul burning. My heart accelerated, my skin began to crawl and warp, tearing the lean fat and muscle from its place on bone. I started to breathe heavily and quickly. Tears welled up and flowed like my blood was.

I looked back at the scientist, my sight blurring and failing. "Help…" I said, wishing desperately.

She chuckled, stood and ran out of the room, calling for Cyon. When they returned, I hacked them to bits with the buster before succumbing to the potion.