So I should really have been studying for possibly the most important exams of my life, but instead I decided to write this chapter! Thank you so much to everyone who's reviewed, favourited and followed – I really appreciate it :D Also, thanks to XxShyxX for being so supportive of this story – I love hearing all the ideas I'm given On that note, anyone who wants to send me ideas or anything can feel free to PM me or drop a review :D
And now, on with the chapter!
-x-
Lucy and Laxus stared each other down in the corridor after their tense introductions, neither wanting to be the first to look away. Laxus narrowed his eyes at Lucy, sending a mild glare crackling her way. Lucy folded her arms and stood her ground, glaring right back at Laxus. A tiny twitch in Laxus' nose diverted Lucy's attention, and she giggled at how much he looked like a rabbit when his nose twitched. Laxus glared even harder at Lucy, but she collapsed to the floor in a fit of laughter, holding her aching sides. "Tch. Whatever." Laxus muttered, and stormed off in the opposite direction. Lucy hurriedly stood up and chased after him, wiping sparkling tears from her eyes. She grabbed his shirt and giggled, "I'm sorry. It's just, I've been cooped up by myself for ages, and I've missed talking to people, and you looked like a bunny when your nose twitched, and – " Laxus stared wide-eyed down his nose at Lucy and grumbled, "A bunny? That's the best animal you could come up with?" Lucy nodded, stifling a gleeful grin. Laxus rolled his eyes and beckoned for Lucy to follow him as he headed towards the staircase. She followed a few paces behind him, watching as his muscles rippled under his white t-shirt. A surprisingly well-built, bad-tempered man, but Lucy couldn't help but think that there was more to him than what appeared. Laxus led Lucy to the well-stocked kitchen and perched himself in the only chair available, a gleaming steel monstrosity. Lucy perched herself delicately on one of the marble counters and asked, "So, do you know what happened here? All I know is, two weeks ago, the power went out and I was left in my room to die of starvation." Laxus folded his arms and leaned back in his chair, thinking a moment before replying.
"The same thing happened to me. About two weeks ago, I made a plan to escape one night. I took a doctor's keychain when he wasn't looking and I was planning to get out during the exercise hours. Woke up the next morning, waited for the hours to start and… Nothing. The outside door didn't open and the lights were out. I used the keys to get out of my room and I've been exploring since then. I found your room and heard you making a noise. I figured you must be hungry after two weeks without food, so I fed you. And there you have it. That's all I know." Lucy glanced sceptically at him and retorted, "There's no way it took you a week to explore this top floor. It only took me half a day." Laxus smirked and nodded. He replied, "You're right, Blondie. I explored every room in this floor and found a way out into the gardens. What took me a while was finding the keys attached to every corpse in this building. Lucy paled, cocking her head inquisitively. She stammered, "Corpse? You mean, they're all dead? Doctor Shiki, Nurse Ruka? Everyone?" Her eyes filled with tears and she wiped them away, annoyed – she didn't want this stranger to see her in a moment of weakness. Laxus thoughtfully averted his eyes, continuing his story. "They all look dead. There's blood everywhere. But there must be another person in this place with us, because every morning I find the bodies in different places. I don't know what kind of sick game they're playing, but I am getting out of this shithole." Lucy wiped her eyes one final time and glanced at Laxus. She hopped off of the counter and stood before him, her hands on her hips. "Right, well, I suppose we had better get to work then."
-x-
Laxus followed Lucy to the untidy office, dragging his feet sullenly. "Why do I have to come with you? It's time for my afternoon nap." He grumbled, and Lucy turned to stare at him. "I thought you wanted to get out of here?" She retorted. Laxus rolled his eyes and bent to inspect a scattered mess of papers on the floor. He picked them up and started organizing them into neat little stacks on the wooden desk. Lucy bent to help him, skim reading the papers as she went. Most appeared to be complex plans for machines, which Lucy understood nothing of. Here and there were several sheets of what seemed to be letters – Lucy set these and any other interesting papers to one side, intending to read them later. Laxus and Lucy worked in silence, speaking only to mutter apologies when their arms bumped. Laxus' hulking figure dwarfed Lucy's, and filled most of the room, so they inevitably bumped into each other when they worked at gathering the papers. After a short while, Lucy stood and wandered back to the kitchen. She grabbed two large gleaming plates from the cupboard and stacked onto them a variety of snacks she found in the refrigerators and cupboards. Lucy also poured two large glasses of orange juice and piled them onto a tray, along with the plates. Lucy walked carefully back to the office, wincing at every vile odour that hit her. As she entered the office, Lucy was astonished as how clean it looked without all the papers on the floor. Laxus was sitting in a corner, his back to the wall, frowning at a thick sheaf of papers in his hands.
Lucy shuffled over to Laxus and set the tray down beside him, before sitting down as well. She watched him reading for a bit, and then decided that perhaps she should announce her return. She cleared her throat and tapped him on the shoulder. Laxus' face drew back in a grimace and he pinched his nose, leaning his head back against the wall. "What do you want, Blondie? Can't you see I'm trying to read?" Lucy pouted at him and replied, "I brought food, and I just thought I should tell you." Laxus smirked and leaned closer to Lucy, whispering in her ear, "I know, Blondie. I smelled it as you walked in the room. I heard you swishing your way over here. I felt it when you bumped me as you sat down." Lucy stared wide-eyed at Laxus, her heart racing. He was too close – way too close. Lucy scowled and shoved Laxus away. She snapped, "Well, forgive me for not wanting you to die of hunger and leave me with a sicko in this hospital alone. And don't come so close again." Laxus grinned, his pointed incisors shining under the bright fluorescent lights. He leaned closer to Lucy's face, sniffing in her vanilla-strawberries scent. "But don't you like having me so close? I can hear your heart racing in your chest." Lucy stood up in a huff and stomped furiously over to the desk. She snatched up a thick wad of papers and turned in the doorway to face Laxus. "I don't have any choice but to be civil with you, but I will not tolerate such rude behaviour. I'm going to read these in my room. I'll see you tomorrow, Laxus." As Lucy turned once more to exit the door, Laxus' taunting voice flew across the room.
"Hey, Blondie? You might want to lock your door tonight."
-x-
Lucy read through the papers until late that night. Against her own desires, she locked herself into her room – for some reason, she had the feeling that it would be a good idea to listen to Laxus this once. It was shortly after midnight when Lucy finished the last piece of paper. Most of the pages were ramblings about some super-machine, all referring to page 17 – 84 of the booklet. These pages were not included in the pile Lucy had grabbed, so until tomorrow she would have no idea what the super-machine was. A clang echoed from outside, in the corridor, and Lucy drew herself into a ball. She glanced fearfully around, suddenly frightened that something might jump out at her from the shadows. Lucy quietly slipped off her bed and padded over to the door. She bent down as silently as she could and slid open the loose food hatch – and the sight beyond nearly gave her a heart attack.
Shuffling feet passed in every direction just outside her door. Legs clad in the pristine white of the hospital's uniforms, splattered with blood and shredded. Stumbling, shuffling feet drew bodies closer to, and then further away from, Lucy's bedroom door. Before she could stop herself, a loud gasp burst from her mouth. She slapped her hand over her mouth and prayed that it had gone unheard, but to no avail. Several pair of legs stopped walking, and turned to face Lucy's door. She drew the food hatch closed as quickly and quietly as she was able, and ran back to her bed. Lucy grabbed the blankets and pillows from her bed and carried them to the bath. Setting up a bed in the bath, Lucy listened for any sounds of her door breaking. She closed her bathroom door and locked it, sliding her heavy laundry basket in front of it for good measure. Lucy curled up in the bath, cocooning herself in her blankets, and wished that morning would come sooner. Lucy drifted off to sleep to the gentle banging on her door, and the eerie spine-tingling sounds of nails scraped on metal.
The next morning, Lucy awoke, her heart pounding in fear. She'd dreamed that the 'things' had broken into her room, and had her cornered. But then a large figure burst into the room and made the 'things' disappear in a blinding flash of golden light. Before Lucy could see who the man was, she was jerked back into reality as she woke up. The banging on the door had stopped, but it took Lucy almost an hour to gather the courage the open the food hatch. She slid it slowly, inch by inch. Once she had opened it fully, she leaned down to gaze out of the small opening – and screamed. A decomposing face stared back at her – rotting flesh sending swirls of vile odour into her room, jaundiced eyes open wide and a mouth of rotting teeth. Lucy scrambled back from the door, screaming at the top of her lungs. After a moment, Lucy stopped and stared fearfully at the 'thing'. It had not moved since had seen it, not even a twitch. Last night, the 'things' had reacted almost immediately to her quiet gasp, but this 'thing' had not reacted even when she was screaming shrilly. Lucy sat for a while, staring at the 'thing'. She even threw a spoon at its head, but it made no movements. Lucy steeled herself and moved closer to the food hatch. She stared around outside her door as far as she was able, but all she could see was decomposing flesh. She slid the food hatch shut and opened her door a crack, peering out. A sea of corpses surrounded her door, all pointing towards her door as if in their final moments they had tried to get to her. She slammed the door shut, her heart beating wildly, erratically. She tiptoed back to her bed to get the papers she'd left there last night, and hugged them tightly to her body. Lucy flung her door open, and quickly scanned the area for any sign of movement. While nothing moved, Lucy felt secure enough to dance her way across the corpse-strewn area. Every now and then, Lucy felt the bile rising in her throat as she stepped on a stray piece of flesh, the slimy feel soaking its way through her thin shoes to her foot.
Lucy made her way to the messy office without any trouble, although she did have to stop twice to expel the contents of her stomach. The stairs without lights gave her goosebumps, but Lucy ignored them and rushed up to the now-clean office. When she arrived, Laxus was nowhere to be found. She dumped the papers on the floor beside the stacked desk and headed to the kitchen to make breakfast for herself and Laxus. It took a while for Lucy to figure out how to use the state-of-the-art cooking machines, but she eventually figured it out through trial and error. Presently, the pleasant odour of bacon and eggs flooded the room. Lucy had just turned the kettle on to make coffee for herself when she spotted a decayed arm across the room, close to the bread-making machines. Lucy stumbled back and slipped on the floor. She shrieked as she hit her head hard on the cupboard. A loud clanging from across the room and she opened her mouth to scream again, but her cries were halted by the sight of Laxus. He emerged from behind the bread machines rubbing his head and wincing in pain. Lucy stood up shakily and stared at Laxus in confusion. "What on earth are you doing hiding by the machines?" Laxus scowled at her and grumbled, "I was sleeping by the machines, and then some extremely irritating pest screamed and woke me up. I hit my head on the damn generator." Lucy cocked her head and stared at him. "Why… do you sleep there? There are tons of beds downstairs."
Laxus grinned sadistically and said, "There may be beds downstairs, but there are also those undead corpses. I ain't sleeping anywhere near those things." Lucy strode up to him and slapped him hard across the face. "Why would you leave me down there with them? How could you do that to me? What the hell is wrong with you?" Lucy shrieked at Laxus, glaring at him. Laxus' face darkened and he took a step closer to Lucy. "Listen, Blondie, if I had just told you that there were goddamn corpses that come alive every night, would you have believed me? You had to see for yourself." Lucy glared at him a moment longer before turning on her heel and walking to their breakfast. She snatched up her plate and hurried out of the room, heading back to the office. Laxus followed her soon after. As he entered the room, Lucy set her plate down on the floor beside her.
"I think you need to be honest with me, Laxus. Now."
-x-
I… didn't really like this chapter, actually. I'm glad I finally got to the main plot bunny but I wish I had been able to write it all more convincingly. Ah well, can't be perfect. ^~^
Anyway, please review or PM, 'cos I really like hearing from everyone ^~^