"Run... Turn around slowly and then run." Edilio whispered to them.
Little Pete moved towards them, it walked slowly with incredible grace and the small orbs following around of it. For some reason Roger were surprised he was walking on the ground and not floating like some horrific demon ghost you saw in old horror movies. Anna and Roger began to do as they were told, turning but still trying to look over their shoulder at Little Pete. None of them were willing to take their eyes off of him. Little Pete seemed to be thinking along the same way and watched them closely as he continued to move forwards.
"Go." Edilio whispered.
"What about you?" Roger growled.
"Just go." Edilio hissed.
Roger didn't seem happy about it but he trusted Edilio and slowly began to turn around completely. Anna was already ready to run as fast as she could, crouched slightly with her fists clenched at her side. They held it for a moment, Edilio refusing to turn around until he was sure Roger and Anna would be safe.
"Run!" Edilio hissed.
Anna shot ahead, her feet pounding on the pavement that echoed along the empty streets, as she ran with Roger trailing just a few steps behind. They ran back down the way they came, heading for the open area where they could escape to the busy town while Edilio blocked Little Pete's way and began to back away quickly watching him. But Little Pete did not chase after them, instead he just watched them.
And then Anna screamed. Edilio looked around and saw the shaded avatar orbs surrounding her, keeping her from running or moving anywhere. It did similar to Roger, trapping them.
Edilio gasped and looked at Little Pete who was glaring at them. He hesitated then charged at Little Pete, no hope of actually hurting him but hoping to distract him so that the others could get away. He slashed with his knife but Little Pete turned to him and Edilio vanished and suddenly appeared in the air. He screamed as he dropped and hit the roof of a nearby house hard, knocking the air from his lungs and bruising his torso as he tried to choke down some oxygen. He somehow managed to grab on to the tilt of the top before he slipped and fell to the ground bellow. When he looked over, Little Pete, Roger and Anna were on the other end of the street. Little Pete had gotten rid of him to deal with the others.
Anna was trying to break free but the orbs hovered around her, they were hard and cold as ice blocks and whenever she touched one, another threw itself at her with hard force. One hit her hard in the eye and she clutched it, shaking as the pain hit. Roger had a bleeding nose but kept trying, throwing himself at the orbs and having several beat into his back and his shoulder blades at once. There were so many of them surrounding them they could barely see anything other than the orbs.
Little Pete moved towards of Anna first, it glared at her and lifted a feathered wing ready to kill her. Anna shrieked at the orbs and tried to move but instead one of the orbs hit the back of her neck and she was thrown forward against more of the orbs which then began to attack her legs, tripping her onto more than the hit her again and again. Little Pete lifted his wing and a storm began to pull together, dark clouds gathering together over heads that blocked out the light with thunder blaring down over them.
Scrambling to crawl towards the edge, Edilio looked for a way down off the roof of the house. He glanced around but there didn't seem to be anything to help him. He patted himself but his knife was missing, he must have dropped it. He shivered and fought back goose bumps as he began to crawl, hovering over the edge of the roof by his fingertips and trying to catch his feet onto the windowsill. He struggled, and moved down slowly, making sure to cling to the thin gaps of each of the bricks and crawled until he could grab a hold of the window sill and drop his legs further again. He moved as fast as he dared but it didn't feel fast enough.
Meanwhile the clouds continued to gather above of Anna where she was still trapped. The thunder was growling louder and Edilio realised it was the same power that Little Pete had used against Gaia when he was in Caine's body. To kill her. He was going to kill Anna.
"No," Edilio gasped, struggling to hold on. He looked down and was still quite high up but...
He let go. The drop was quick and Edilio fell hard on his leg, rolling and lying on his back. He gasped, trying to get his breath back when he saw the first crack of lightning. It shot down and cracked on the ground just feet away from Anna. She didn't seem to have noticed, still trying to push the orbs away.
Edilio forced himself up and began to run down the street, screaming in both pain and fear as adrenaline somehow kept him up and trying to get the Phoenix's attention. But it was fixed on Anna, lightning now coming barely feet away from her. She had noticed now and was frozen in fear unable to move or fight anymore, Roger was still shouting but it wasn't doing any good.
"Stop!" Edilio screamed, pushing himself. He ran fast and pushed himself more than ever before.
He had no plan, no idea on what else to do and so when he finally reached them he ran straight at Phoenix, pushing him and throwing him to the ground. He rolled and scrambled to his feet, running for Anna and Roger. The orbs were still in place but when Edilio slammed into them from the outside the broke apart and gave Anna and Roger a chance to run as they went back to where Little Pete was picking himself up off the floor and seemed to be helping him.
"Move! Move!" Edilio snapped even though they were already running on their own.
They all ran towards the closest building and around it to the open back garden. There was an expensive multicolored climbing set that they crawled underneath to hide and crouched, none of them allowing the horrible thought of where all the people who lived in this street were. They would be dead. Including the children who once played in this very garden.
"What do we do?" Anna gasped, tears filling her eyes. Part of her wished she had never come back to help.
"Stay here. I'm calling Sam." Edilio gasped, pulling out his cellphone from his pocket, thankful for the zipper that kept it in place during the fall and run.
"Sam!" Edilio gasped. "Sam we have a problem! We're trapped and we facing off against the animal version of Little Pete!"
G*O*N*E
"We're kind of busy at the moment." Sam shouted down the phone and ran towards the nearest store.
Astrid ducked and waved the pipe in front of her but Gaia deflected it and sent another beam of light at her face which she barely managed to duck out the way from a third time. Gaia had immediately gone for Astrid for hitting her but Astrid was able to avoid her so far however Sam could see it in her face that she was growing tired now and couldn't keep it up for much longer.
Sam promised Edilio he would get to him as soon as they were done dealing with Gaia but they both knew it was a hollow promise. If they did somehow get away from Gaia not badly injured enough to actually help there was nothing they could do against Little Pete. It was like the top most powerful monsters had come back at the same time just to mess with them and cause them more trouble.
He hung up and came back from the shop, now with a thick world record book that he threw at Gaia, missing but getting her attention. He lifted his knife up and reached behind. He had also gotten a smaller pen knife from the desk of the shop hidden in his waist band but he wasn't sure how that was supposed to help him if the kitchen knife didn't. Sam swallowed his fear and ran straight at Gaia. He only got a few feet when he was lifted up into the air along with Astrid. They were thrown against one another, skulls colliding painfully hard before dropped to the ground in a heap. Sam gasped and began to drag away, pulling Astrid along with him.
"Sam!" Astrid snapped, getting on her hands and knees and slapping him across the face hard.
"What was that for?" Sam yelped, trying to lift the knife in defense as Gaia approached them.
"What are you using that knife for?" Astrid demanded.
Sam blinked at her, struggling to his feet and confused. Astrid slapped the knife from his hands and pulled his fingers up so his palm was facing Gaia.
"OH!" Sam said.
He had lived normal for so long he forgot about his powers. Sam kicked the knife to Astrid's feet so she could use it and aimed both hands at Gaia, firing the light so it hit her directly in the chest. It drove her back right into the shop window, smashing the glass and leaving her lying on the floor but there was no visible injury and seconds later she was back on her feet with broken glass clattering at her feet.
"Fire again! Keep firing!" Astrid insisted.
Sam had barely lifted his hands when Astrid was being thrown through the air and held in front of Gaia like a human shield by an invisible hand. Sam gasped and was forced to drop his hands down because if he fired he would hit Astrid straight on.
Astrid struggled in the air, kicking her legs at nothing and fighting the air around her but Gaia's hold was tight and impossible to break free from. Gaia actually smiled and stepped out of the shop, holding Astrid firmly in front of her as she made her way towards of Sam. She was going to kill him. He needed to find a way around Astrid but Astrid was bigger than Gaia and so worked perfectly to cover her body completely. Sam growled and tried to walk around but Gaia moved Astrid in front of her the whole time.
"Let her go!" Sam snapped. "Let her go and fight you..." Sam ran out of words and roared.
Gaia just smiled and began to move towards him again. She was only a few feet away when Astrid began to scream and struggle even more. Sam couldn't see but obviously Gaia was hurting her in some way. She clutched her temples. Gaia was tearing at her brain and pounding on the inside of her skull. Astrid felt like a fire burning and she couldn't do anything to stop the scorched area because she couldn't reach it. Her arms were dragged from her skull and forced back to her side, leaving her to scream and weep while dangling in the air. And then Gaia lifted a burning hand and reached for Astrid, meaning to burn a hole through the back of her skull.
Sam didn't know what to do. Then thought quickly. He lifted his hands up to the ceiling while Gaia was distracted and sent a burning light through the cement ceiling. He moved it around, cutting across the area and broke it to pieces. It didn't take long, he could make his light as scorching hot as the sun with just a thought now and soon the ceiling cracked and broke away, falling down. The cement fell down over Gaia where she was still a few feet away from Astrid, leaving her unharmed. It landed on her with a crash and crushed her body, cement along with large bookcases and books crashed with a sound that almost deafened them in the room.
As soon as Gaia was crushed under the rubble, Astrid was released and dropped to the floor in a huddle, crying as Sam ran to her side and pulled her up into a hug. She sobbed into her shoulder, hugging him and shivering.
"It's okay." Sam whispered, kissing her cheek and forehead, the only parts he could touch since the rest of her refused to pull away from him.
Sam held her for a few minutes. He hadn't realised he was shaking so much and pushed her away long enough to kiss her on the lips, then hugged her again. He had been so scared for her. But it was alright now. It was okay...
The sound of rubble scrabbling against the ground pulled Sam back to the great pile on the floor as it began to move. The two bookcases that had come down were broken in half and slid down the mound onto the floor along with the broken chunks of cement. It left a horrible scraping banging sound as everything moved together. Astrid finally pulled away on her own and turned, sobbing as books and blocks scraped against one another off of the monster onto the ground as Gaia slowly stood up, barely a scratch on her but an angry look in her eyes. She opened her mouth and a sound like a child pretending to be a dog and growling came as she stepped up onto the rubble and walked towards of them, her wings twitching and her hands both glowing as light built.
"What do we do?" Astrid whispered, backing away and limping from an unknown injury.
"Run."
"What?" Astrid sobbed.
"RUN!"
Sam pushed her ahead of him towards the escalators. They began to run up the moving stairs with Gaia following behind of them. She could have stopped them any time she wanted, lifting them and pulling them back to her but she seemed to be happy with letting them run in fear and lifted into the air, her wings carrying her up the escalators slowly with her feet just an inch above the ground. Astrid struggled to stay on her own feet, already the bruises seemed to be showing and Sam made sure to stay behind her. He waved his hand behind of him roughly without aiming, just guessing where Gaia was following and shot random lights her way.
If she was hit it didn't slow her down. She followed along as the two ran down along the many shops where many people were still hiding including plenty of children. They were not hiding very well but thankfully Gaia was only interested in following Sam and Astrid and not attacking random bystanders. She wasn't that smart then, if she was then she could have used the people to draw Sam to a stop.
"Get them out." Sam gasped as they ran down, terrified of running out of room. "You run around and start getting everyone out of here. I'll hold Gaia back. The best we can hope is if we can bring this whole building down on her it might at least slow her down for a few minutes."
"Okay..." Astrid gasped and ran towards the nearest toy shop to their right where quite a few families crouched, crying together.
Gaia immediately turned as if to follow her but Sam spun around continuing to walk as fast as he could backwards and pointed his hands directly at her.
"This is for Kevin!" Sam shouted.
He set two twin lights straight towards of her face, burning the whole face including her eyes even though he knew it wouldn't work and knew he couldn't really blind her like she had Kevin. He wished he could. He wished he could blind her and cut off her arm just like she had done to his friend and he would have liked nothing more than to kill her.
But when he lowered his hands and took a breath, shivering and struggling to stay on his feet, Gaia just glared at him and wiped her face like she had a bit of dust and continued to move towards him.
G*O*NE
Taylor appeared behind of the Sekhmet just before she could strangle Lana to death. She stuck another smaller firework down the back of the Sekhmet's waist band, lighting it and vanished again. Lana ducked and tried to crawl away but the Sekhmet hadn't let go of her throat. In fact she had barely loosened her grip. Luckily when the firework went off it threw an unsuspecting Sekhmet forward so she let go of her and her body also acted like a shield and protected Lana from the blast.
When she was finally thrown off her into the wall with a painful cracking sound, Lana was able to roll and crawl away to where Taylor waited at the end of the corridor. She stumbled onto her feet and turned as the Sekhmet righted itself and then made its way towards of them again. It was impossible to kill! It was invisible!
Lana began to run down the stairs, struggling not to trip and break her neck on her weak injured legs. As it was she collapsed twice and it was only luck she hadn't broken her neck on the way down. Taylor kept disappearing and reappearing on every floor she passed as if guiding but otherwise didn't really help her.
Finally Lana reached the bottom and ran for the main doors. She stretched her hand out but before she could she tripped over something and sprawled along the floor. Her mind was blacked out as she landed on her broken arm but it was only for a second. Somehow she struggled back up and frowned at the something that had tripped her up. It was Ben's body. Lana gasped and struggled to back away, she glanced around and realised there was more than just one body lying on the floor in the entrance room, a few rotting, a few fresh.
Taylor appeared by her side, tugging her towards the doors but Lana quickly jerked her arm free. She stared down at Ben and stepped forward, kneeling down beside of him. He hadn't been there longer than some but he certainly wasn't new. Had he come looking for her? Had he come across here by accident? His neck was broken so had the Sekhmet killed him rather than brought back old wounds?
"I am not leaving." Lana hissed when Taylor once again tried to drag her from the building. "I am going to kill that thing whether I have to take this whole building down on both of us!"
G*O*N*E
"Run! Run, Jill!" Derek snapped, trying to drag her onto her feet but his back was slowing him down. He didn't know what it was but it was definitely injured and Jill was frozen with fear. "Jill! Listen to me!"
The fox opened its mouth and a sonic wave came directly at them. It rippled in the air, tearing the ground up and blurring everything around it. They screamed as one and were hit full force by the blast. The pain was incredible but somehow they were still alive. Instead they were knocked back, their clothes torn and heads cracked against broken road but they were alive! Jill was unconscious lying on her stomach with her head to the side, she was bleeding from a scrap along her forehead and a small trail of blood seeped out from her mouth but she was breathing at least. Derek had somehow managed to stay conscious but it was a struggle. He moaned from the pain of breathing and crawled towards of his sister. He was bleeding too and his body ached like... Well like he had been thrown across the road by a painful sonic wave sent by a killer mutated fox.
"No... Jill... Jilly... Wake up, Jilly." Derek moaned as the fox made it's way towards of him. He crawled, dragging his stomach and reached for her but she was still out of reach.
And then suddenly he wasn't crawling on the hard concrete ground that was sticking up and digging into his stomach anymore. He and Jill were both suddenly lying on a warm carpet of someones bedroom, a strange looking girl with her torso bandaged looking pale and shivering stood in front of them with a grown woman standing behind then, medical kit open and ready.
"What..." Derek whimpered, not understanding what happened.
"I saved your life." The girl gasped, clutching her stomach. She looked like she was in just as much pain as Derek and Jill. "You're welcome."
"Who... Who are you?" Derek mumbled, struggling to stay conscious now as the darkness began to cloud his mind. He pushed it back and concentrated.
"My name is Emily." She mumbled, having to sit down on the bed and clutch her stomach. "I was a freak in the FAYZ."
"So... So was my sister." Derek mumbled. He gasped and looked over where the woman was lying Jill on her back and checking her pulse. "My sister! Is she okay? She has to be okay!"
"She'll be fine." The woman said. "My name is Connie Temple. I'm a nurse, just hold on. You'll both be okay now."
"How did you..." Derek whimpered.
"We heard you. Hard not to. That fox was making too much noise to be naturally so I went over, saw you two and brought you back here out of harms way." Emily explained, leaning against the wall and sweating. "Hurt too since I'm injured as well in case you couldn't tell."
"Everyone will stay here now." Connie demanded, glaring at Emily.
"We were attacked..." Derek mumbled even though it seemed they knew all about it. He still had to say it aloud to understand. "By a fucking fox!"
Emily opened her mouth to say something but then there was a loud crashing sound as if a hurricane had just knocked down a house right across the street. Everyone jumped and Jill mumbled miserably in her sleep but didn't wake up. Derek gasped and slowly struggled up onto his knees. He and Emily crawled towards the window and peeked out through the window in between of the curtains into the street.
The fox was there and it looked furious. It was strange seeing serious anger on an animals face. It threw its body around, shaking its head and screaming at random houses that were immediately broken down just a few houses down from them. A few screams could be heard but thankfully a lot of houses were empty now, still it wasn't enough to silence cries and shrieks of fear and pain. The worst part was when there was a scream and then horrifying silence.
"It's going to knock down every house..." Derek whimpered.
"And it's heading right for us!" Emily snarled. "I'm going out there!"
"You're injured!" Connie snapped.
"What other choice do we have! I need to get out there! There's no one else here who can help and-" Emily began.
"Shh!" Derek hissed.
Emily turned to frown at him and then crouched, peeking out the window again. The fox had stopped on the other end of the street and now had its head turned towards of them, listening closely. Could it hear them arguing? Could it understand who was in the room? It did have animal hearing. Wasn't that a lot better than a humans?
Her questions were answered seconds later when the fox turned its body, opened its mouth and sent sonic waves straight for the house in more rippling breaking waves.
The building caved in on them. It collapsed and crushed everything inside with one big crashed falling flat with a echo of smashing that could easily be mistaken for thunder. All furniture was broken and crumbled, the walls, ceiling and anything inside collapsed down. It rocked through the town and the other families crowded together in shock of the noise with no real idea what was happening outside. The fox stared at the crushed house and smirked, there was nothing else left alive inside there now.
G*O*N*E
Ripley finally stopped the car to stare up at the hydra properly, climbing out and leaving the rest of them trapped in the car while he checked it out. He walked around to stare up at it in complete shock. Of course he had no idea about the weird things happening, he though Caine had somehow faked his death and that nothing but Caine coming back was different. Diana hesitated then called Sam quickly on her phone while Ripley was distracted. He answered but didn't listen.
"Diana! We have a problem! Gaia is after me and Astrid, Little Pete is going for Edilio and the others, we need your help!" Sam shouted down the phone.
Diana couldn't speak. She looked at Caine with frightened eyes. This couldn't be happening. Not now. Not like this. It just couldn't. Diana shook and Dekka eventually snatched the phone off her.
"Sam we have our own problems!" Dekka snapped down the phone. "We're facing against a hydra version of Drake and Brittney! We need your help!"
Sam cursed and then shouted as if he was hit, the line went dead and when Dekka tried to call back she got no answer. Dekka looked at Diana and Caine, both looking sick. Even Caine had gone pale and didn't offer any cocky answers from their fear. He looked forward where Ripley was calling in on his own phone that there was something here and they needed back up. Like that would do any good. He didn't look like the smart ass Ripley that had just been bragging about catching them now, he looked as small and scared as they all felt, eyes stuck on the hydra.
"What do we do?" Diana whispered.
Caine looked at Diana again. He swallowed, wondering if now would be a bad time to tell her that he knew why all this was happening... No. Not now. But he had to do something.
He growled. Why did it always come down to him?
Caine reached over, pushed against the door with his power and forcing it to snap the lock open before he climbed out of the car, ignoring Diana when she called after him. Ripley finished on his phone and turned to find Caine heading towards him. Instantly he growled back to his old self and stepped in his way.
"Where do you think you're going?!" He growled, hands on him and leaning over him.
"In case you didn't notice, we have a little problem." Caine snorted and pointed up towards of the hydra. "Now excuse me." He tried to step around him.
Once again Ripley stepped in his way as Diana and Dekka climbed out quickly. Diana opened her mouth and screamed for Caine but he ignored her. Dekka grabbed her and pushed her back, both backing away as the hydra came closer, both Caine and Ripley were oblivious to the monster just feet away.
"You ain't going anywhere. I'd rather die than let you get away you little freaky bastard." Ripley snarled.
Caine growled and showed his teeth. "That can be arranged."
Ripley sneered and leaned right down. "You are going down. You and your fucking whore over there. I'm going to make sure of it. But maybe before she goes down..." Ripley back handed Caine hard onto the ground, hard enough to draw blood from the corner of his lip. "... We can have a little fun while you watch. How does that sound, brat?"
"Oh..." Dekka said, still pulling Diana away from them.
"You really shouldn't have done that!" Diana shouted at him.
"Oh yeah? And what's the little freak going to do? What you gonna do?" Ripley smirked. "Nothing, that's what I thought."
Caine stood up. He was glaring at Ripley in a way that frightened even Diana. She gripped Dekka's hand, wondering if she should at least pretend to try and stop it. Then remember Ripley's comment just now changed her mind and the two girls watched as Caine lifted a hand to face Ripley.
"You ever own a dog, Ripley?" Caine snarled.
"What the fu-" Ripley frowned.
"Because I did when I was younger. My favourite thing to do was hang bacon in front of him and watched him snap at it, tearing pieces off at a time." Ripley shrieked and he was suddenly lifted into the air.
He stared down at Caine and tried to fight but he couldn't get back down. Caine pushed Ripley up into the air, higher and higher until he was just a few inches above the hydra, pushing him and dangling him by his shoulders in front of the creature. For a moment the hydra just stared at Ripley like it didn't understand what it was. Ripley shrieked and screamed, fighting to break free of Caine's grip but it was no use. Diana looked away but Dekka glared right up. The hydra had gotten close and was now in the middle of the street, looking at Ripley.
Finally, it leaned forward and took a bite.
His screams were louder and even Dekka winced and had to look down but Caine never did. He watched Ripley screaming like a girl, holding him in place before one of the heads had a good grip and he let him go, allowing the heads to fight over each of his limbs and pull him apart. Blood fell like rain and Caine watched, feeling an intense satisfaction when Ripley's screams finally went quiet.
Diana swallowed and walked over, grabbing Caine's hand. He didn't react for a moment then turned and grinned at her.
"Won't have to worry about him anymore." Caine grinned.
"Hello!" Dekka snapped. "There is still a monster behind you two!"
"Shit!" Caine swore, turning and hurrying backwards with Diana as the creature finished off the remains of Ripley.
"How do we beat it?" Diana asked.
"How should I know! Is it Drake? Is it Brittney? Who's fear do we need? Do we even know either of their fears?" Dekka snapped.
Caine stared at Dekka. His moment of triumph from killing Ripley was gone in an instant. This was because he was here. He had to kill this thing off if only for Diana. Caine looked at her. She was pale and shaking, obviously terrified but refusing to leave, not while they were ready to fight.
"Let's do it my way. Dekka, cancel gravity. Make it as strong as you can but just around their heads." Caine explained.
"Do you know what you're doing?" Dekka asked, taking a cautious step forward with him.
"Nope."
Dekka shrugged and lifted her hands out. Gravity around the creatures head was gone and instantly it looked like someone was tugging on their heads as they hovered in the air, blinking in confusion at their own heads. Caine lifted his own hands out, one directed to the heads, the other down at their body. He focused and began to pull the two apart. It was a lot of work, even with all this power he had to concentrate hard but still he would have never been able to do something like this back in the FAYZ.
Diana stood back, watching them and hoping their plan worked. There had to be some other way to kill them rather than scaring them to death. If there wasn't then all three of them knew and understood they were dead. The whole world was dead if they couldn't stop this monster.
Caine grunted and gave a final tug. Everyone of the many heads, there looked like five or six in total, ripped free from the body and were thrown up into the air.
Dekka gasped and turned on Caine. "THAT WAS YOUR PLAN?!" She shrieked. "Haven't you ever heard of a hydra?! Their heads grow back and double!"
Caine ignored her and focused on the body. It was easier the second time and he began to tear the hydra apart like ripping a piece of paper, tearing it to pieces and spraying the ground with blood. It's body parts fell to the ground in heaps and the first few screams finally began to sound when people finally saw the monster. Or maybe they had already seen it but were frozen until it was killed.
Now Dekka hesitated. Would this work? Had anyone ever tried cutting the hydra's body up before as well as the heads.
When Caine finished he let the pieces of the hydra drop down to the ground and they all stood silent for a minute. Diana stepped up and took Caine's hand again, needing to give it a squeeze and feel reassured that this might actually work. It could work. It could!
"I think..." Dekka began but then fell silent.
The hydra stood. Not only was its body melting back together but now it had ten to twelve heads twisting and turning around as it locked its eyes on the three of them. Diana let out a sob and more screaming could be heard, all from closer to the hydra. The street they were on was empty and they began to back away towards the car.
"We have to go!" Diana snapped, running for the car.
"Not yet!" Caine snarled.
"Caine!" Diana snapped but her ignored her. Instead he turned around and pointed his hands to one of the extra cars. With a flick he threw the car and put as much pressure as he could to stab the monster in its chest but instead the car crashed and fell to the floor like it had hit a brick wall. It began to storm towards them and Diana again tried to pull Caine away.
"What do we do?" Dekka growled.
"Hey, have you ever tried adding gravity instead of cancelling it? Like making it heavier for things?" Caine asked. He had to think. There had to be another way to beat it.
"No." Dekka frowned. "I never could before."
"Our powers are a lot stronger now. Try. Concentrate." Caine lifted both hands and pushed the hydra away. It skidded but quickly brushed it off and moved forward again.
Dekka nodded and pointed her hands forward. She tried to concentrate. Caine turned and lifted more hands towards cars, then towards the new unoccupied houses. He was surprised how easy all of it was to rip the house up and slam them down hard on the creatures heads, as if trying to help Dekka crush it. After a moment the hydra slowed down and did squat by an unknown weight.
"Oh my god," Diana whispered. "It's working!"
"Yes!" Caine grinned. This was good. This was good!
But then the hydra roared and used one of its claws to throw one of the cars that Caine had tried to use their way. Diana shrieked and Caine grabbed her and jumped to the side with Dekka, falling out of the way and hitting the ground hard. They shouted and looked up as Connie's car was crushed and destroyed under the second one. There goes driving away.
"Move! We have to run!" Diana snapped. "We can't beat it!"
"Then what are we supposed to do?!" Dekka snapped.
"Run!"
"But it will chase up, Diana!" Dekka snapped. "We'll never be safe! Any of us! Even if they catch this thing they will know something is up and we'll all get locked up again, me, Caine, Sam even you! We have to kill it now! If we don't kill it now then you die or your get locked up in a lab and die in there!"
Caine shut his eyes. No. This wasn't fair. This wasn't fair. He just got back, he just had Diana again. They shouldn't have to be responsible for this. They should have to worry about this. It wasn't fair!
"Caine..." Diana whispered.
He was crying, he could feel it but he didn't look up or try to stop. This wasn't fucking fair!
"CAINE!"
Diana and Dekka grabbed him and they jumped out of the way as the hydra slammed down on the spot where they had once been. The hydra was close now. They had to make up their mind. Fight to the death, or run and live even for only one more day.
Caine slumped in their arms and gave up. It wasn't fair but he had to protect Diana.
"Dekka... Keep that thing busy. I have a plan." Caine growled.
He grabbed Diana's hands and they ran towards one of the nearest houses, going inside as Dekka shouted protest behind of them.
"Caine? What's your plan?" Diana gasped.
Caine wanted to say something, do something to show her he cared and he was sorry. But instead he just sighed and looked her way.
"... I need you to kill me." Caine stated.
44) Was Ripley's death satisfying enough?
SOOOOO close to the end now! Like two chapters!
