Alone Infection

[Skraal]

((continued from Parasocial Paranoia))

The bat wandered aimlessly throughout the halls, its way lit by the soft amber light emanating from the blood dripping steadily off of its body. It had been growing increasingly anxious as its search for an exit continued unsuccessfully, each turn only met with more narrow corridors. Without a sky to fly away into, it felt trapped and vulnerable, unable to escape any potential dangers it could encounter.

This journey continued until the hallway it was in came to an abrupt end. Snarling in frustration, the bat slammed its paw into the wall before it, leaving a glowing stain along its surface. With nowhere else to go, it turned around, considerably more irritated as it headed back in the direction from which it came.

[Carrion Queen]

(( Ximena continued from The Moral Law Within Me))

Ximena raced to the stairs, landing on the first step harshly. She moved her feet as fast as she could, hoping she didn't misstep at any point, since she'd surely careen to her death if she did. Her shoes slapped loudly against the stairs and her blood pumped. The adrenaline rushed through her as she feet flew her downward.

Emily? Dave? Go, go, go, go. Run before you're too late.

The farther down she descended, the more she became aware of the soft, eerie glow at the bottom. At the last flight of stairs, she launched herself from the top of ten steps. Her hands glowed, slowing her feet just before they hit the ground. She let the slack go, and then floated the last few inches down. She and her power were working in concert, almost without thought, trying to get to her classmates faster.

Ximena's blood froze in her veins when she looked around and saw bright splotches of luminescent blood on the ground. The trail snaked around and without thinking, she followed. She heard a noise behind her. Alan had followed, perhaps. No time to think about that more.

On the ground, a glowing heap of limbs and what remained of Dave. She began to shake. A bang rang out.

"E- Emily?" she called out, her voice breaking.

I can handle whatever it is. I know that I can. I know it.

There were no such things as monsters, she told herself.

[Catche Jagger]

((Alan Melnyk continued from The Moral Law Within Me))

Ximena’s incredible speed in trying to rush to the aid of her apparent allies was doing Alan no favors as he tried to keep up with her, being forced into his best impression of a sprint to keep the girl in his line of sight.

Alan was not particularly athletic, and he’d never fancied himself as such. Crispin and Moose had been the ones that were best at doing the legwork. Alan was supposed to be the brains of that operation.

Partway down the stairs, he felt his feet almost fly out from under him as his shoes lost their grip on a particularly tricky step. Quickly, Alan gripped the railing and found himself doubled over, taking in heavy gulps of air as he steadied himself once again. He couldn’t help but wonder if he would’ve been better off calling the situation with Ximena a wash and trying his luck at hitching his wagon somewhere else.

With a low groan, he continued on at a hurried but slightly more careful pace. Coming to a stop at the more even footing of the basement proper, Alan briefly thought his little delay might have caused him to lose Ximena in the darkness, but she called out for Emily, and Alan had his bearings straight again, following the sound forward.

But Emily? Emily Chou? Was she supposed to be down here too?

Finally catching up with Ximena, Alan came to a stop behind her, also seeing the glowing blood spattered about and the mess that resembled human remains. Alan could feel his stomach turn, but it wasn’t the first gruesome end he’d been witness to in this game. Probably wouldn’t be the last either, he reminded himself.

It did indicate that Astrid was telling the truth about Penders, which had other, more dangerous implications.

“Hey,” Alan spoke in a harsh whisper, trying to get Ximena’s attention, “I know you didn’t ask for it but, word of advice? Maybe don’t go running off alone into a basement where there’s a dead body and, apparently, a fucking monster that made it be dead, yeah?”

[Skraal]

Just when the bat had almost finally retraced its steps, it came to a sudden stop, its head turning nervously as it looked for the source of the noises traveling through a nearby hallway. It wasn't long before a faint sense of panic began to set in as the two voices got closer and closer, the memory of the pain from the previous one's light still fresh in its mind. What if these ones could do the same? It didn't know much about what was going on, but there was one thing it understood - humans were dangerous, and having two around was really bad news.

Breathing heavily, it turned to look behind at the dark path, a faint glow serving as a reminder of there being nowhere to run to. The only possible direction to go in was forward. Maybe it could defeat these ones, maybe it couldn't, but at the very least it wouldn't be taken by surprise.

Slowly, the bat moved towards the corner, taking a furtive glance around at the pair of humans standing next to what remained of its previous meal. Several tense seconds went by as it stared at them, its eyes reflecting red in the darkness as spatters of glowing blood dripped off of its jaw and onto the floor below.

[Carrion Queen]

Ximena did a silent gasp and clenched her fists up near her chest.

She turned around and almost ran right into Alan.

"Fuck!" she whispered back. "You're a lot stealthier than you look," she said in urgent, hushed tones.

The area they were in was only illuminated dimly by the remains of Dave that painted the floor and walls. Beyond his mangled corpse was the dark, with the exception of one golden path ahead, a yellow cement road.

Ximena wanted to say a lot of things. She wanted to refute his point that it was a monster down here, because she was pretty sure it was Emily. She wanted to tell him that Emily had lied to them, but that she always knew that because she'd done it in the way bad liars do, and he probably knew exactly what she meant. But more than anything there was a sense of not wanting to carry a debt. If Alan got hurt here, it would be like that same feeling she got when she borrowed $10 -- that anxious feeling that builds until you pay it back.

"I know, I know. Listen, I'll protect you," she said, despite feeling very weird about saying it. "Y'know, 'cause you're only down here because I --"

In the one second it took for her to try and gather her thoughts, it was silent except for the natural tone of the backrooms. The ambient hum was interrupted suddenly.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

Ximena turned slowly. She saw two, red, shining saucers pointed at them. Still powered up by Alan's doubling zap or whatever he called it, she pushed her palms out away from her and blasted as big an area she could of time, as slow as she could make it.

[Catche Jagger]

“Look, you don’t gotta protect nothing. It’s not like I’m some-“ Alan began with a sigh, only to cut himself off when he saw Ximena’s focus was no longer on him, that she was beginning to turn around.

Then, he heard it. Saw it, too.

The dripping, those red glowing dots floating just past Ximena’s head.

Alan stumbled backward as he was caught between trying to stick this out and immediate, primal urge to simply cut his losses and run. Even a Gift like Ximena’s wasn’t worth this sort of risk.

However, he then noticed Ximena’s hands gesturing forward, and a crooked grin of recognition came to his face and the morbid gamble he’d now be making.

Alan lowered his posture and bent his knees, ready to bolt, but his feet remained steady, rooted to the ground. For now.

[Skraal]

Upon realizing that it had been noticed, the bat sprang into action - or rather, that was what it intended to do. Instead, after only a couple of steps, it found itself barely able to move, trapped in place before the intruders. Every inch that it attempted to move seemed to have turned into a mile as the world just a little bit down the corridor seemed to be moving at a ridiculously fast pace in comparison.

While unable to fully grasp what was going on, the bat understood one thing. Something was very, very wrong here. Its every movement was negated, trapping it in place, and its echolocation had been similarly cut off, severely limiting its view of the environment. Trapped and partially blinded, the creature let out a squeal of distress, which took an agonizingly long time to make its journey out of the bat's throat and into the air.

Panic began to set in as the bat continued to struggle. There was no way it could fight against this - it had to get out of here somehow. If only it could free its limbs, it could try to push its way past the pair of humans and towards freedom, but with no way to know how long it would be stuck like this, its prospects began to look extremely grim.

[Carrion Queen]

Ximena looked in front of them at what she'd trapped in her time cube. Just a few feet from them, there was a huge animal. The ripples of time gently illuminated its fur. The creature's big eyes shined and stared forward. One foot was suspended, slowly trying to meet the floor again.

A warped, maddening sound escaped from the invisible confinement that sounded like screeching emanating from underwater. The creature's warbling, echoing howl escaped from her domain and eventually reached them.

Ximena's hands shook slightly, but didn't waver. She swallowed and let out a deep breath she didn't realize she'd been holding in.

"Em...il-"

Suddenly a massive, thundering boom sounded from overhead. The building rattled around them and dust puffed up. A blast of heat seemed to come from above, as if someone had opened a giant oven above them. Ximena lost her footing and fell backward, landing next to Alan's runner's pose.

Her spell broke and she coughed, curled up on the ground. Ximena held her head, dizzy from impact, and tried to figure out what was happening.

What now?!

[Catche Jagger]

It had worked. It had really fucking worked.

Alan had been right to stick with this chick, even if it meant rushing into a little bit of danger. Just a little boost and Ximena was unstoppable, seeming to easily have the creature that might have otherwise come for them trapped under her power.

His eyes were no longer looking for exit routes, for the quickest way back out, but rather for something sharp or heavy that he could use as a weapon.

The creature was obviously somebody from class, possibly Emily since Ximena had specifically called out for her. Alan knew the Gifts of most of his classmates, his own Gift kind of required that he do as much in order to avoid slipping into some hot water, but there were some that kept that shit under wraps. Emily was one of those who he’d never been able to figure out.

Regardless of who the monster was, Alan had seen what it had left of Penders, and he while he was someone that preferred avoiding a straight-up fight, he wasn’t convinced that they could talk down somebody that’d gone full feral from their Gift.

Any thoughts of how to handle this thing were cut short, though, as a massive roar from above which seemed to shake the whole world and reverberate through Alan’s whole body. It was followed by the scream of metal and several crashing noises that seemed to come from somewhere closer.

Ximena fell to the ground beside him, but Alan wasn’t too far behind her. Leaping to the floor, he quickly covered his head with his hands.

“JESUS FUCKING SHIT!” He howled, closing his eyes, gritting his teeth, and waiting for the whole building to come down around him.

[Skraal]

And just like that, the bonds were broken, only to be replaced with another painful attack. The bat stumbled forward and clasped its paws over its ears, screeching in agony as the loud noise assaulted its sensitive hearing. Upon taking another step, it soon lost its balance, slamming into the nearby wall with a thud. The deafening sound had temporarily disabled its ability to navigate in the darkness, forcing it to rely upon its eyes, a far inferior substitute.

Just as before, the bat had little idea what had just happened, the pain and confusion only heightening its desire to escape. It took a few seconds to re-orient itself before rushing ahead, tearing down the hallway towards the prone humans opposite. The slamming of its footsteps into the floor came to an abrupt stop as it arrived before the figures and leapt over the pair, easily clearing the obstacle and hitting the ground running.

The stagnant basement air rushed past the creature's face as it increased its speed, rushing off into the dark abyss that lay in its path. It wasn't sure where it was going to go, but anywhere had to be better than this. Its final scream quickly faded off into the distance as it ran, leaving its would-be captors far behind.

((Emily Chou continued in Necessary Discrepancy))

[Carrion Queen]

Ximena blinked, groaned, and rolled over onto her side. She heard some pattering footsteps, a break, then more footsteps that faded away. Finally, an inhuman scream that echoed from some place far away.

She pulled herself up into a sitting position on the ground with her legs folded underneath her. Her face was covered in a fine layer of dust.

"Alan..." she croaked. It was quiet, but it was as loud as she could make her voice.

It was silent until there was the sound of shifting above. Ximena looked up and put one of her hands above her head with her palm flat and fingers splayed. Her arm shook violently. The power spread from her palms and fingers and covered the area above them, starting where her hand was. A chunk of the building the size of a baseball fell before being halted in her net. With her other hand, she clumsily shoved the debris away. It floated off to the side until she turned off her power; then it clattered to the ground next to them.

"We have --"

She struggled to stand. Her shaking legs gave way and she plopped back down onto her butt.

"We have to --"

Would they have died in that explosion if they'd stayed up on the surface?

She didn't feel anything. She felt nothing.

With one hand she grabbed her bag and dragged it. She got on her hands and knees and crawled to Dave's bag. Her legs dipped into a puddle of glowing blood on the ground. Her trembling fingers were too dumb and graceless to be able to grab the tab of the zipper as it kept slipping through her digits.

Ximena looked up from her pathetic work. She wore a question on her face.

[Catche Jagger]

Alan kept waiting for some slab of the ceiling to come crashing down to kill them all. It’d be just his fucking luck, getting away from Mercy and whoever the monster in the basement was only to get taken out by some random explosion he knew nothing about.

And yet the structure seemed to remain stable, and instead all Alan heard was a hasty retreat and a horrific scream. The creature had been freed from Ximena’s hold, but even it seemed to know better than to stick around.

Still, Alan dared not move yet. In that moment, it felt like the slightest rush of air might bring the world toppling down on them.

It was only when he heard Ximena speak his name that Alan opened his eyes. A chunk of debris landed with a thud beside them and Alan flinched, but they had gotten out of the event unscathed. However, in the darkness, made worse by the recent near-disaster, he could see that Ximena had drawn herself thin. Every move she made seemed awkward, sluggish, certainly not how she’d been when Alan had freshly boosted her.

Pushing up onto his knees, Alan groaned, a bit sore from having thrown himself to the ground so forcefully. He wasn’t entirely sure what had fallen over Ximena, whether it was some sort of physical side effect of her Gift or some mental drain from whatever had gone down with Emily and Penders followed by nearly dying in a building collapse. Maybe it was both.

Regardless, as he watched Ximena weakly fiddle with a bag, it became abundantly clear that she wasn’t going to be in a spot to do much of anything.

Alan let out a sigh as he slowly returned to his feet. The stillness of the basement area seemed to have returned, at least. Made it feel a little less like it was on the verge of caving in.

“What you gotta do is rest, alright? I’ve got this.” He spoke in a calm, low voice as he approached Ximena, squatting beside the bag in front of her.

“Maybe you should lay down. I don’t think the roof’s gonna collapse on us yet.” He explained, reaching for the zipper. “Anything you need outta this besides food and water?”

Alan expected he’d get little more than a shake of the head or a weak nod, but he wouldn’t be opposed to a surprise in this case.

[Carrion Queen]

Ximena looked at Alan in the dim light of Dave's blood and her hand dropped from the bag as he reached for the zipper. All she could hear was her own breathing in between his words. It seemed pronounced and made her keenly aware that she was alive -- they both were -- in a place otherwise stained with death.

In that moment, it seemed that she had made up her mind about something. She sat up on her knees.

"His shoes, too," she managed in a whisper.

Whatever it was was a breaking point, a crossing of the Rubicon.

Ximena moved forward at a deliberate pace and put her hands out. They went down and slipped between Alan's jacket so that she felt the fabric of his tank top. Her wobbly hands pushed against him, feeling the flanks of his sides, wrapping around until they reached his back. She drew herself in so that their bodies were pressed tightly together. Her fingers dug into his back and she rested with her cheek on his shoulder. The synthetic fur on the collar of his jacket reminded her of a stuffed animal. Ximena breathed.

It was such a comfort just to feel someone, to feel the warmth of another person and to smell the scent of life, the sweat and dirt on him. She felt his heart on her the same way she felt Emily's heart when they met in almost the same place. The girl had allowed her to hold her heart in her hands. The beat of his heart was steadier than Emily's, and it was stronger.

She had needed a hug. Yes. But there was something else.

Ximena moved her head a little. Their collars clacked together. She parted her lips by his ear.

"I'm getting out of here. One way... or another," she growled.

((Ximena continued in A Protest Against Despair ))

[Catche Jagger]

Alan nodded in response to her explanation and was in the middle of opening up the bag in order to sift through its contents when he suddenly felt Ximena’s arms slip under his and pull him into a hug.

He froze up, body growing tense with a mix of confusion and frustration. At first, he’d had no clue what the girl could be doing, but he was shortly reminded of her behavior outside the compound, of the difficulty she seemed to have in coping with their situation.

Gritting his teeth, however, he reminded himself that one of her friends had just died brutally and another had gone batshit crazy. Alan could kind of understand what that could do to somebody.

And so, with a beleaguered sigh, Alan half returned the gesture and put an arm around Ximena’s back, lightly patting it’s center.

“Yeah, it’s alright chief.” He muttered.

Then he felt her head move closer to his own, heard her whisper in his ear. Alan raised an eyebrow.

“Well… I’m listening.”

((Alan Melnyk continued elsewhere…))