Here it is! Part 7 of the 'Hell on Earth - Extended Edition'! Enjoy and review!
7: Ambush
By mid morning everyone was awake and eagerly scrambling towards the kitchen. The majority of the group were acting strange; yesterday's events had a strong impact.
Tatsuki was still trying to comprehend the new world she had discovered. Shinigami, hollows, it all made little sense to her, but she was happy that she no longer in the dark about Ichigo's second life and the unusual creatures that wandered around town.
Renji was lost in his own thoughts, concern and doubt racking at his conscience. He was starting to think he may have arrived too late to save his friends. All he could do was wait.
Orihime was oddly quiet. Usually she was bouncing up and down and chattering away without a care in the world, but today she was frozen like a statue, her gaze centred on Ichigo who was lying on the floor in the living room.
Nobody really felt like eating, but they knew they had to shovel something into their stomachs to make it through the day so they did so reluctantly. After the meagre breakfast they moved into the living room, ready to tend to Ichigo and Rukia's wounds.
Within 30 seconds they began to panic.
"Where the hell is she?" Renji demanded, slamming his fist on the floor.
"I don't know either, but please calm down." Tatsuki replied feebly.
Renji ignored her and stormed out of the room, heading outside. As he cleared the front door he noticed a dark patch on the road. He took a closer inspection and realised it was a small puddle of dried blood.
What the...?
He looked up at the second storey window that was part of Inoue's apartment. The window was wide open.
The window...It wasn't open when we went to sleep, was it?
A soft footstep behind him made him spin on his heels, only to face Unohana. She looked worried, but so was everyone else at the moment.
"I can sense her." Unohana murmured. The old captain flash stepped further down the road and Renji followed.
Orihime cradled Ichigo in her arms, a venomous smile on her face.
He's mine...All mine!
"Hey Hime?" Orihime looked up at Tatsuki who was leaning against the doorway. They gazed at each other silently for a moment before Tatsuki looked out the window. She let out a sigh and folded her arms. "I wonder what happened...?"
Rukia sat straight up, gasping for air. She grasped her forehead and groaned. She felt dizzy. She noticed strange machines placed on either side of her. She looked around dazedly and suddenly got a headache.
She closed her eyes and searched back in her memory. Her last memory was of Shrieker attacking and then everything went black.
Now she was in a hospital room. Glancing down at herself, she was dressed in a hospital gown. She peered over her shoulder and saw it had now back.
The door creaked open and Rukia yelped, lying back in the bed to cover her bare back. An elderly man walked in, his steps laboured and painful.
His wrinkled face creased up into a smile, pushing his excess skin over his eyes forcing them to close. "Thank god, you're alive. I was just driving past when I saw you lying in the street covered in blood. I couldn't leave you there so I drove you all the way here myself."
"Um...thanks." Rukia murmured her throat dry.
The old man pointed a bent, skeletal finger at the corner of the room beside the bed. "There's your clothes. I don't think you'll want them though, they're torn to shred. Honestly, I have no idea what you young ones get up to after dark." The man shook his head.
Rukia faked a small giggle and asked him about where she was found.
The man scratched his head and sighed. "Oh, um...It was a small apartment block I think."
Rukia's thoughts were disrupted by the appearance of her assailant standing right behind the old man. He had materialized out of nowhere! Rukia closed her eyes and opened them again hoping it was just a hallucination, but Shrieker was still standing there on second glance.
Rukia stared into the man's eyes. "Run, if you want to live then RUN!"
The old man simply eyed her suspiciously. "You haven't been taking those pills I saw on the news have miss? Dear oh dear, the things kids get up to these days."
"Please!" Rukia cried. "Just get out of here as fast as you can! Hurry!"
The old man looked around the room and frowned. "Hmm. I could have sworn someone poked me then."
"Get out of here!" Rukia urged. "Quickly, before-"
Without warning, the man's throat erupted in a fountain of blood, a long katana protruding from his ruptured throat. Shrieker lifted the sword, incidentally picking the man off of his feet,
What a fool! Didn't even move and he thought you were on drugs. What a laugh!" the vile beast walked to the door, carrying the corpse with him.
Rukia couldn't see out the corridor but the terrified screams and laughter gave her a good idea of the slaughter taking place. She sobbed quietly, staring at the blood that soaked into the walls.
Renji barrelled into the front entrance door of the hospital and he fell through into the waiting room. He spotted a sign indicating the emergency ward and he ran off, following the bright red arrow. He eventually came across a thick door which he barged through without a second thought. When he stumbled into the next room he stopped dead in his tracks.
What he saw was like something from a nightmare. The room was like a butchers stockroom with mutilated corpses lying everywhere. Blood coated everything in the room, even the windows were tinted in crimson. It soaked into the roof, dripping down into the thick puddles on the floor. Bloodied handprints covered the walls and floor, a sign of the ill fated attempts of escape from the unfortunate victims.
A man lay dying, groaning pitifully as he drowned in a pool of his own blood. He turned to Renji who couldn't resist the urge to vomit at the sight of him. Renji stared in disgust at the abominable remains of the poor man. Hypodermic needle impaled both his eyes and his fingers were all amputated. Man cried red tears for a while before collapsing. He did not move again.
Renji walked cautiously through to the main room. On his way he peeked through the doorways at the patient's rooms.
A pregnant woman lay with her stomach ripped open, her entrails placed on a tray and her dead child in her arms.
Renji threw up again. This was something so inconceivably horrible that even the most battle hardened of shinigami felt nauseous at the sight of it. Renji grasped his stomach and pushed on, encountering two doctors and a nurse pinned to the walls by scalpels, scissors and other medical tools.
Renji turned away and moved past them, entering another room. A ceiling fan spun slowly, internal organs and shards of bone clogging it. Various bits and pieces dropped down to the floor near Renji's feet.
He ran past it and entered a patient's room. This one was relatively cleaner than the others, though there was still an ominous red puddle on the floor. Renji stepped over it and found a small chair. A torn white shirt was draped over the backrest and a tattered grey skirt lay folded on the seat.
Before anything could sink in Renji was alerted by the approach of captain Unohana, her face wet, stinging from the endless cascade of tears.
"Let us go, I cannot bear to see any more! Such a horrible thing...this wasn't even battle, it was pure murder!"
A teenage couple sat on a park bench kissing. They were blissfully ignorant of the passers by who watched, them, too engrossed in their loving embrace. That was until the girl noticed a change in the soft grass behind them. She shied away and pointed.
"Look, the grass is turning...red?"
The boy stared at it uncertainly. "That's weird..."
An unseen giant clamped its jaws down on the two lovers, two of its heads enjoying a tasty meal.
A young child chasing his runaway kite slammed into an invisible wall. He fell flat on his back and grasped his bruised forehead. Hot breath blew on his face and the boy crawled backwards fearfully. The fetid stench of death assaulted his nostrils and he choked on the thick air that surrounded him.
A patch of grass to his left was trampled by an unseen force. The boy stared with wide eyes, too scared to move. A sinister growl made his squeal but his world disappeared so fast he couldn't even comprehend it.
His mother and a group of other parents rushed over to him...And to their deaths.
Pleased with his meal, the invisible beast howled triumphantly and stomped off in search of more prey.
Well, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. Please review, your feedback is vital so give me your comments. I cannot improve until I know what my problem is. And if I'm doing a great job then say so, encouragment is a great help.