Link of the Dead II

Chapter 3:

Link eventually arrived at Zunari's stall. Zunari stood behind the stall welcoming people to buy his collection of statues and flags. There were many people around and Link knew he would never be able to get to the safe if anyone was around.

"How are we gonna get to it?" asked Link.

"I have an idea," said Aryll, "But boy will you owe me big for this, big brother!"

"Okay," said Link, "What's the plan?"

Aryll suddenly ran towards the shop and pulled a postman statue off the stall. She ran like Hell down the street.

"HEY!" shouted Zunari, "STOP THIEF!"

Zunari ran out of his stall and tried to chase Aryll down. Many bystanders stared at the chaos.

"Get back here, little urchan!" he shouted.

Link smiled. He used this oppurtunity to get behind the stall. He bent down next to the safe at the back and began to fiddle with the lock.

"Damn lock!" muttered Link.

Suddenly, Link felt a hand on his shoulder and immediately jumped up.

"Huh?" he said.

Behind him stood Mila. In the five years he had not seen her, she looked very much the same, but had grown up quite a lot. She was now a beautiful young woman and she no longer wore the tattered rags Link remembered her wearing.

"Interesting," said Mila, "Once, five years ago, you caught me breaking into Zunari's safe, and now, today, I do the same to you."

"No," said Link nervously, "It's not what you think...I mean, I need..."

"It's okay," said Mila, "You can trust me, I'm here to help."

"What?"

"I owe you," she said, "Besides, I know that you're in trouble. I don't know what you need in Zunari's safe, but I'm gonna help you."

"How do you know?" asked Link, "That I'm in trouble, I mean."

"Before Ms. Marie died," began Mila, "She came to see me. She must have known we were friends. She gave me a message. She seemed nervous. She told me you were in danger. She also gave me this:"

Mila pulled out a key from her pocket.

"That sounds very suspicious to me," said Link, "Do you really even think she died of a stroke?"

"I don't know," said Mila, "But I do know there's something very fishy going on here."

Mila then bent down and began to open the safe. She successfully undid the lock.

"Great!" said Link.

He pulled the diamond out of safe. Just then, Aryll showed up again. She placed the postman statue down on the stall.

"We better get going!" said Aryll.

"Aryll," said Link, "Where did you learn to run like that?"

I've stolen other things in the past," said Aryll.

"Oh," said Link, frowning.

The three left the stall just as Zunari arrived, out of breath. They ran towards the potion shop.

"By the way," said Link, "That's my sister, Aryll. Aryll, this is Mila."

"Nice to see you again," said Aryll.

"It's been a long time," replied Mila.

When they returned to the potion shop, they quickly opened the door and went inside.

"Is it okay for her to be here?" asked Aryll.

"Yeah," said Link, "She's here to help."

"What's the story, here?" asked Mila.

"Long story," replied Link, "My fianceé, Tetra, is very sick, and I need the cure. Only Doc Bandam has it."

"Okay then," said Mila.

The three approached Bandam, who sat behind his counter.

"Ah, Link," he said, "Welcome back. Um, who is..."

"My name's Mila," said Mila, "I'm a friend of Link's."

They all headed for the backroom. Mila admired the various items Bandam kept there.

"Why did you bring her here?" demanded Bandam, "I told you it's a secret."

"Listen," said Link, "She seems to know about this conspiracy. She gave me this key, but I don't know what it's for."

Bandam shrugged.

"Is this real?" asked Mila, as she stared at the corpse that lay on the table.

"Yes," said Bandam, "Now don't touch! I must complete the potion."

"How long?" asked Link.

"A few minutes," replied the doctor, "I just need to scrape a few pieces of the diamond off."

The trio then sat around the room, waiting for Bandam to complete the potion.

"So," began Link, "What have you been up to all these years?"

"Well, my father got a job at the Café," she began, "We're not rich, but we're much better off now."

"That's wonderful," said Link, "So evrything is great here on Windfall?"

"Yeah," replied Mila, "But for a while now, I've been wanting to travel around, you know, see the world. I love Windfall, but sometimes, I feel like I need to see what else is out there."

"The Great Sea is such a wonderful place," said Link, though after his experiences with the Redeads, he no longer thought so.

After a few minutes, Doc Bandam finally completed the potion.

"Here it is," he said, "Fresh out of the oven!"

"Will it work?" asked Aryll.

"I can never be too sure," said Bandam, "There is only a slim chance that it may completely destroy all the bacteria, and there is an even slimmer chance that Tetra's organs will completely repair themselves after the damage recived by the bacteria."

"Well," said Link, "Thank you so much!"

"Remember," said Bandam, "Don't tell anyone about what you saw in here. This can get me in serious trouble, Link."

"Right," said Link.

"And please be careful," said Bandam.

"We will," promised Link, "See ya!"

"Bye..."

The trio headed for the hospital. As they approached, Link suddenly stopped.

"Listen," he said, "For all we know, Tetra might have already transformed, so I want you two to stay outside and wait for me."

"But..." began Aryll.

"If anything happens, call for help."

With that, Link ran ahead to the hospital.

"Tetra," he whispered, "I'm coming."

Link opened the front door of the hospital and slowly entered. The entire waiting room was empty.

"Hello?" asked Link.

He immediately ran to the front desk, but there was no one in sight.

"Hello? Nurse? Anyone?"

No answer.

"Shit," muttered Link.

He began to fear the worst. Link ran down a nearby corridor and searched for someone. The entire building seemed to be empty.

"Is anyone here?" called Link.

Just then, Link looked down and noticed something he hadn't seen before: Blood. Both the floors and walls had blood splattered all over them. Link began to panic. All of a sudden, he heard a strange breathing noise that sounded all too familiar to him. He slowly pulled out his sword, and carefully examined the room.

Suddenly, a Redead appeared at the end of the hallway. It was an older man wearing a white hospital gown. It glared at Link with its big, red eyes, and then let out a growl. Link stood in horror as the monster approached him. Gripping his sword tightly, Link charged at the beast and slashed it down before impaling it in the face many times.

"Oh no," said Link.

More Redeads appeared behind him. Link pulled his bloody sword out of the Redead's face and charged at the others. Blood filled the hospital floor as the corpses fell. Breathing heavily, Link looked around. He did not know why, but his only instsinct was to see Tetra, wherever she was. Link began to run down the corridors, looking for Tetra's room. Suddenly, a Redead doctor wearing a white coat jumped out of a nearby room and pounced on Link. Link use his sword to block the monster's teeth from hitting him. After slashing him down, Link looked up and saw many Redeads- Doctors, patients and nurses- coming after him. Link tried to fight them off, but became quickly overwhelmed. Link bolted in the opposite direction.

After running for a while, he eventually found Tetra's room. Link tried to keep his shaky hand steady as he opened the door. When he entered, he saw that the room was empty. There was, however, a mutilated doctor lying on the floor next to the ground. It appeared a great deal of his face had been eaten off. After looking for a bit, Link began to slowly back out of the room. Suddenly, he heard a scream. When he turned his head, he saw a Redead approaching him.

"Tetra?" he whispered.

It was in fact Tetra, but she was now a Redead. She flashed her big, pointy teeth before moving in towards Link. Link pointed his sword at her, but he could not bring himself to kill her.

"Tetra," Link repeated, "Please..."

Tetra suddenly lunged at Link, knocking him to the floor and causing him to drop his sword. Due to her transformation, Tetra had become exceptionally stronger. As Link lay on the floor, Tetra pounced on him and attempted to bite him. With just his bare hands, Link used every ounce of his strength to push her head away from his face. Link could feel her warm drool hitting him as her teeth got dangerously close to his face. Just as Link thought it was the end for him, he jammed his fingers into Tetra's eyes and she began to scream. Link used this oppurtunity to push Tetra off of him and stand up to get his sword. This time, as Link once again held his sword, he finally summoned up the courage to kill Tetra.

As soon as Tetra stood up, she quickly went for Link again. Link swung his sword as hard as he could and managed to chop off the top half of Tetra's head. Link watched as Tetra fell to the floor and blood and chunks of her brain poured out of the opening in her head. Link, still shaking, sat down on the bed Tetra once lay on. Not only did he fail to save his future wife, but he was forced to kill her as well. Devastated by this fact, Link began to cry.

"I'm so sorry," said Link, wiping his eyes.

Only after a while did he realize that there were other Redeads in the building that may have gotten out. He now knew how serious a situation it was. Windfall was in grave danger...