At Night They Feed

As the veil of night descended over Karakura the baying hounds of death grew closer. Their pained cries grew louder, closer, more urgent. They were starving and they knew there was food nearby. Rukia darted across the abandoned streets, dodging the silent, unmoving shells of a once busy traffic area. The cars long since abandoned still sat there in the road, rusted, crumpled and ruined.

Alice led Karin close behind. They could not afford to get lost or separated, not now. Not when the dead were at their strongest. But there was no choice. There was no-where to rest, not until they found the Urahara Shoten, not until they had eaten.

Alice glanced over to her companion. Her once round youthful face was sunken in, emaciated from days of no food. Their only supplies of water had come from the off-run from rain a few days ago. The poor girl looked like one of the dead, her eyes vacant, skin as colourless as milk gone stale. Dark rings had settled around her eyes, the skin growing taut over her cheekbones so that she almost resembled a living skeleton.

Alice had to turn away, too distressed at the haunting omen she saw in her companion's appearance. She fought back a choking sob and returned her attention to their leader who picked her way through the back alleys of the town rather than manoeuvring the streets. Out in the open there was more chance of being discovered. In the alleys they could hide.

The undead operated almost like a herd. They stuck to large open spaces so as to efficiently hunt down their prey. As soon as one would wander off the others would follow, drawn by the familiar stench of blood and flesh that drove the mad. This made them easier to avoid in some cases, but once caught there is little hope of escape. Rukia knew that from experience.

Ichigo...

Bitter memories resurfaced and Rukia stopped dead in her tracks. Alice practically ran into her, immediately taking up an offensive stance afterwards. Rukia waved a hand at her and sighed, "Don't worry. It was nothing. I was just..."

"Thinking of Ichigo?" Karin asked.

Rukia turned to her and saw her beloved reflected in his sister's face. She bowed her head and closed her eyes, unable to answer.

It was then that they heard a loud clattering from around the corner. The commotion was soon accompanied by the howling cries of the ghouls.

Mayuri had returned to his lab with his ever present smile. He returned to his secret study and sealed the door behind him. His once faithful, observant assistant Hiyosu was now chained to the wall, his green flesh festering with boils and peeling away to reveal raw grey blubber beneath which eroded rapidly. One eye observed him and the other rolled about in his skull. His teeth were turning yellow, some falling out if not chipped and rotting. He still rubbed his flabby fingers together, grinding them down to bone now.

The madman hobbled over to an operating table and procured a syringe, filled with his latest serum. There were still several hours till nightfall so he had time to spare to play around with his toys. He drove the needle through Hiyosu's buttery flesh and drove down the plunger. He grinned as Hiyosu began to convulse, writhing about in inhuman agony. The twisted dance of pain ensued for a few minutes until the bloated creature went limp.

Mayuri took a seat and observed.

Hiyosu's horrendous wounds slowly pieced themselves back together, a lighter shade of green returning to his skin. Open wounds unravelled and like a tape on rewind returned to their original state before the necrosis.

Mayuri chuckled to himself, delighted that his drug was working as he pleased. Despite the healing process, Hiyosu's eyes were still off-centre. They still lacked any sense of direction, as empty as they were before. This was promising, thought Mayuri.

"Hiyosu, speak to me."

The creature stared at him and licked his lips, the large eyes bulging. He made a low groaning sound but spoke no words.

"Hiyosu, speak!" Mayuri commanded again.

The beast laughed, a distorted and broken sound.

"Speak!" Mayuri roared.

Hiyosu trembled and made sputtering noises. He tried to speak but only made nonsensical babbling noises like a mewling infant. His mind was undeveloped, lost forever to the virus. His body may have returned from death but his mind would be gone forever now.

A shame, he thought he had made a breakthrough...

Mayuri snarled, his face contorting in rage. His fingers cracked together as they writhed about like maggots on a carcass.

"Damn! I was so close. This is a failure! A complete failure! Man cannot evolve with the mind of a damned ape! Damn you Hiyosu! You worthless pile of lard! Die! Die and never return you blubbering fool!"

Mayuri released Ichigo, his prized possession upon the failed test subject and watched on with a fierce glare as his former researcher was torn to pieces. This time Mayuri did not stop his charge, he let him devour the wasteful creature. He let Ichigo strip him to bone, let him bury his face into Hiyosu's bloated entrails and bathe in the thick, viscous blood that spewed forth from his dismembered corpse.

There was no time left to mull over his failure now. It was almost nightfall. His cure would have to wait until later, but thankfully he had a chance now to procure enough test subjects to last him a long while indeed.

He chained Ichigo back to the wall but kicked the tattered remains of the feast over to him so that Ichigo could finish gorging himself while his master was away.

With that Mayuri left for the courtyard, unable to control his excitement. Despite his failure here, his next phase of the plan would go perfectly. In the end there was no way for him to fail, not after coming this far. He would not let ant further setbacks occur.

Soon it would be time!

The whistling winds in Karakura town became drowned out by the bestial roars of the undead. They were close enough that their shuffling feet could be heard as they scraped across the wet ground. The survivors all froze and searched for an escape route back the way they had come but the collective shrieks came from behind as well. They had swarmed the entire block while they were flitting between the back alleys. Now they were trapped in a long thin corridor, surrounded on all sides.

This was bad.

None of them were armed. With their bare hands they would only make it so far, but not far enough in this case. The streets outside were choked with rumbling corpses, a parade of the dead.

"What do we do now?" Karin whimpered.

"There's got to be a door or a window or something! Look around for something, anything we can escape through." Alice fumbled around in the dark. Karin did the same.

Rukia stood still.

"Rukia, help us! Don't just stand there!"

"No." she replied simply, her voice so soft it was barely audible over the growling horde. Slowly she began to advance upon the oncoming army. She strode purposefully, not a single tremor in her form as she moved.

"R-Rukia what are you doing?" Karin cried extending a hand out to her, yet far from reaching, "Its suicide to try and fight them here!"

Without looking back Rukia answered her. "Suicide huh? I've been there, done that. I'm sick of running. I'm sick of hiding. There is no escape from them. The only way is to fight!"

"But you'll just get yourself killed!"

"I have a second chance at life!" Rukia shouted over the rising chorus of the ghouls, "I'm not going to waste it by running around like a rat in a maze! I will protect you no matter what! I won't let anyone else die!"

"But-" Alice's comment never came out. Rukia was already rushing forward to meet the solid wall of decaying flesh before her. With a roar unlike any other she collided and a cloud of dark blood exploded out from the site of impact.

"Rukia!" her companion cried.

From beneath the ocean of blood and broken bodies a furious scream billowed out, slicing through the din of growling monsters to reach her friends, "RUN!"

They stared wordlessly as the mountain of corpses collapsed and a lone young woman climbed out shrieking like a wild animal. With her bare hands she utterly destroyed the undead horde, her fists like hammers, her nails like blades. She punched and kicked relentlessly, fighting her way through them and carving a slow and steady path through their ranks.

Karin and Alice watched on in disbelief until they could sense the presence of the rear guard closing in too tight. They knew there was no other way out and so they rushed to catch up with their friend.

"Grrrrrraaaaaaaaaagh!" The bestial roar escape Rukia's blood-flecked lips as she tore a middle aged man in half like a phone book and pounced on an old woman behind him. She clenched her fingers around the woman's throat and squeezed until the brittle bones in her neck snapped and her head rolled off from her shoulders. She then tore the head free from the body and used it to bludgeon the enclosing ghouls around her.

Alice and Karin climbed over the mountain of the dead, carefully checking to make sure the rotting stepping stones were dead for certain. When they finally caught up with her they provided supports, fighting on as best they could with only their bare hands.

Alice managed well enough on her own, her vicious high kicks shattering skulls. Karin however struggled and instead moved behind her two older guardians for protection. As Rukia and Alice felled the ghouls she stomped on their heads and ensured they would never rise again.

As the battle raged the reinforcements from the rear flank moved ever closer. They had reached the outer edges of the pools of blood and would meet their prey within only a few minutes. The difficulty of climbing over the corpses would slow them down for the time being but it would not hold them forever.

They had to move faster! They had to get out before they were overwhelmed.

"Rukia! We've done enough! We have to find shelter! If we continue to fight here much longer we will be over-run!"

"I know already!" Rukia snapped, "Get Karin to look for the shortest way out, I'll hold them off!"

"Right!" Alice snatched up the unsuspecting young girl and lifted her onto her shoulders. "Where are their ranks thinner?"

Karin scanned the sea of ghouls and felt chills run down her spine. "Uh...Uh...The...3 Three o'clock!"

Alice let her down and took a deep breath. "Right, let's get out of here!" She grabbed Karin's hand and charged, barrelling through their ranks and knocking them flat. Rukia moved along beside her cutting down the stragglers with her nails and bludgeoning those that tried to close in behind them.

They pushed through as far as they could until Karin tripped and disappeared beneath an ocean of blood and dismembered bodies.

"Karin!" Alice called out and kneeled down to search for her, mistakenly leaving Rukia alone to guard all side now. In seconds they were over-run, so close to the edge of the pack, a measly three or four rows from the end of the gauntlet only to fall short.

"It's no use! They're everywhere!"

"KEEP FIGHTING!" Rukia roared defiantly, struggling to the last, even as she was groped and cut and strangled by icy cold hands. She let out an anguished cry and flailed about with all her might desperate to get free of their hands but more and more continued to surround her, drowning her in the fetid stench of their stale breath and rotting forms.

"NO! NO, NO, NO, NO! I can't die just yet! I can't die here! I can't...Can't..."

Their faces closed in, teeth gnashing, foam and drool oozing from their flayed lips. She could feel them breathing on the nape of her neck, on her arms and legs and torso. She felt their teeth poking her skin.

It was over.

Karin's cries had gone soft as well and Alice was screaming fitfully as she tried to fight off her pursuers, but there were just too many. Fighting was all they could do and it still wasn't enough. Escaping only ever brought them pain. Retreat meant leaving others behind.

Her second chance at life was to be over before it even began...

Rukia closed her eyes. At first there was darkness, but then burning flashes of light exploded through her vision. Even with her eyes closed she could see vibrant flashed of orange and white and red. Intense heat scorched her body and Rukia winced. It was excruciating. She could not stand it. What on earth was happening? Was this Hell?

"Rukia!"

Small hands closed around her, then another pair, as large as dinner plates. She felt herself become weightless as she was lifted up high onto someone's shoulders. She overheard the mechanical roar of gunfire, like a thunderstorm on fast forward.

The growls grew distant, then vanished. The only sounds were sobbing and panting breaths.

Rukia could not open her eyes. The flash of the explosions had momentarily blinded her. Soon enough she was laid down upon something soft. She heard hushed voices whispering, then an unmistakeable clattering of clogs on a wooden floor. She recognised that sound, a noise familiar to her from her past life.

She opened her eyes but everything was blurred. She could not make out much. All she could see was the colour green...

When all seems lost, a saviour arrives. Meanwhile, Mayuri's nefarious machinations are approaching completion. Just what is he planning? Find out in the next thrilling chapter!

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