Cesspool of Darkness

Two

Maria found herself running down a stone-cold corridor once more, her breath painful and drawn out, her footsteps drowned out by the sloshing of blood being displaced under her. Skin; human skin, had been ground up and smeared on the walls, depicting cryptic messages and insane ramblings. Entrails of both humans and Drakel hung from the ceiling, and dangled from the air vents. She couldn't stop running, she just had to keep going... dead... all of them dead...

Her footsteps stopped, as she looked around the corridor. Like last night, whatever was chasing her earlier had either given up, or she'd lost it. Whatever the mitigating circumstances were, the important thing was, that she was safe; for the moment at least. The faces of her friends... the faces of people she never really knew... the face of Wolfblitzer crying out in pain, just before...

She pushed that thought to the back of her mind and ran again, her feet once more bathing in the blood of countless others. How she had escaped the carnage was beyond her knowledge, and quite frankly, she couldn't care less how she had survived, it was just that she did. Something was guiding her movements, carrying her somewhere... weather it was to escape, or death, she couldn't tell, but anywhere was better compared to here.

Again, she stopped to catch her breath. She pressed her hand to a unstained portion of the wall, her other hand on her knee, and began to breathe heavily. She heard something... something breathing behind her. Forgetting that she was tired, she spun around and drew the shattered remains of her sword. But, the thing, whatever it may be, hand turned around with her, and the breathing continued. She could have sworn whatever it was was speaking to her, but it was in a language she didn't know. She just took her chances and ran away, the broken Blade of Awe still in her hand. For the first time in her life... she was scared. She would have liked nothing better then to find a little corner somewhere, curl up and just die. She didn't ask for this... she didn't want this...

Another corner was overcome by the bolting X-Guardian. The moment she rounded the corner, she slipped and fell to the ground. It was gone. Whatever was... speaking to her earlier, had gone. She simply lay on the ground to rest some. Her back was soaked with the blood on the floor, and it was soaking into her skin. She heard a small, almost inaudible noise to her right. Looking over, she saw a small, skeletal hand reach out from the floor, blood unendingly flowing from it's palm. It made a motion to grab her, but she reacted faster, and shot to her feet. Undaunted, the hand disconnected itself from the floor, and began scuttling towards her on the floor. She drew her foot up and brought it hard down on the hand, crunching it under her heavy boot. The hand let out a piercing shrill, which struck Maria to the bone. She took the next door to the left.

After throwing the door open, she slid in and slammed it shut, pulling one of the Drakel computer consoles up to block the door. Across on the other side of the room was a Drakel Guard sitting in a chair watching some of the moniters. She silently approached the Drakel, with a hand out. Just before reaching him, the chair spun around to face her. The Drakel had it's chest ripped open, his entire digestive track had been pulled from his stomach, and spilt over his lap. Maria looked down to see him clutching his own still-beating heart in his hand.

"H-Help me..." It moaned, in the same tone as last time. This dream was just like it was before, just as scary. The creature reached out to her. It stood from the chair, it's entrails slipping off of it's lap and landing on the floor in a bloody heap. It took two steps towards her, one hand reaching to Maria, the other holding it's heart. The moment it's foot hit the ground the second time, it stood still, began convulsing violently, and then dropped to one knee, as the skin began melting from its body. Before whatever had done that to him, gave the Drakel a humane death, it reached up, grabbed Maria's neck, pulled itself up, and spoke to her.

"E-Escape... you must... escape... The... The... The Devourer... C-C-Co..." It released it's grip and fell to the floor. Liquefying on impact, globs of what was once bone and flesh splattering Maria's face and front. She stood stunned before bolting from the room. Before she even got out, she ran into something. It was a barricade of some kind. She didn't see exactly. But, as she rose from the ground to see what it was, the blood all went to her feet.

It was the torso of a human... The face was too mauled to recognize who it was, but all she cared about was the intestines of it. They were pulled from the bottom of the torso and attached, one by one, to the ceiling. She saw it flinch. It reached one hand, which had previously been attached to the ceiling in a smiliar method that it's intestines were, and moaned loudly. Maria's hands cupped over her ears. The torso grabbed the stunned Guardian by the shoulders, opened it's mouth and motioned to eat her skull. She felt it's teeth touch her head before...

-

The creatures head exploded before it could get a chop down on Maria's head. Almost as if it never moved, it's arms reset back to their original positions, dropping Maria to the ground. Not a scream, not even a grunt. She didn't take the time to look at the creature before turning and running. She ran right into another body. Reacting before thinking, the shattered Guardian let out a scream and brought her arm up in defense. After nothing happened, she opened her eyes. They fell upon a very smug looking Rayne who was holding a huge tube on her shoulder.

"Come with me if you want to live." Rayne droned, offering Maria her hand. The Guardian smiled, happy to see a friendly face, and took the hand. Rayne pulled Maria up and motioned her to follow. With Rayne in the lead, she felt safe. At least someone was still alive. Rayne was very cautious around corners. With each, she jumped into it and pointed the tube down the hall. With one, Rayne pulled the trigger. A large rocket, similar to the ones the Drakel Tube Launchers used, exited the weapon and exploded on something. She grinned and motioned Maria to follow her, which she did gladly.

"Where are we?" Maria heard herself ask, but it wasn't her voice. It was different... it sounded more like...

He concentration was broken by another rocket fired by the weapon.

"Less talk, C. More running." Rayne muttered. Confused, but satisfied, she continued to follow the black-haired girl. Rayne was faster then she remembered. As she ran, Rayne began to pull ahead. Before she could call out to her, Rayne had already rounded another corner. Before she could fire, a long, thin black something grabbed the weapon and threw it away. Before she could dodge out of the way, the thing had stabbed Rayne right through her heart. Still alive, she tried to pull the object out. Maria never saw it. From around the corner, four more similar objects pierced Rayne in around the same spot. Dying, but still alive, she drew her sword and began hacking away at them. To no avail. Silently, all five of the spikes drew apart in separate directions with such force, it tore Rayne into six pieces. The last thing Maria remembered was the spikes seeing her and trying to kill her.