But The Wellerman Never Came

[DerArknight]

((Chris Tyrell continued from Nut Up Or Shut Up))

Chris regretted his decision almost immediately.

In the moment he ran into the banquet hall, the smoke and hot air grabbed his limbs and dug into the many cuts he had suffered. The pain Chris had managed to ignore for the moment flared back to live. For a moment, he almost stumbled and fell to the ground. His hands, still wet from the pool, almost dropped the gun. His vision was blurry and almost failed him for the moment.

'Almost' often sounded like a cruel word, but right now Chris was thankful it existed.

Despite that, he still had to lean on the nearest wall for a moment. He took a breath of air, pulled his shirt up into a makeshift-mask and took another one. That was all rest he allowed himself for the moment.

The banquet hall was littered with destroyed tables and seats, many of them burning. Any sprinklers had either been deactivated by the showrunners or destroyed by the blast. Said blast was probably also responsible for the big hole in the ceiling. And the floor.

Where the hell was Mary?

Chris looked around, but the only corpses he saw were the ones he had already seen before. The last time Chris saw her, Mary had been standing close to the kitchen. Which was at the other end of the hall. But thankfully a little bit farther from the explosion than he had been.

With slow steps, Chris made his way through the room, always keeping an eye at pretty much anything around him. A few times he believed to hear gunshoots and screams from across the hall, but none of them sounded like Mary, so he ignored them. Just as he ignored the bits of Ashanti and Mandy he stepped into now and then.

At the kitchen entry, a dark sign awaited him.

A table had been blasted right in front of the door. There was no way anyone had entered the kitchen since the explosion. That was one way Mary couldn't have taken.

With that, the only other exit of the hall was where the shots and screams came from. Not a good sign.

Chris' thoughts were racing. Should he go there and face whatever awaited him? Or keep looking for Mary in the hall? Maybe she was unconscious and laying somewhere under a few bits of rubble. If she was awake, she surely wouldn't have stayed in this burning place that could collapse any-

While looking absentmindedly, he spotted a piece of wood that was awfully familiar to him. It was a part of Mary's oar. And it was right next to the big hole in the floor.

Being cautious about the flames, Chris stepped closer and peeked down. What greeted him was a sight from hell. Fire and a little bit of destruction lay below. But there was enough space for a goth to climb down and escape. At least it looked like that to Chris.

He had to get down there. Or at least, he would have done it, if it wasn't for the fact that his arms and legs were in no condition to climb down anything.

So in order to leave this hall, there was only one possible option.

Chris turned back in the direction of the kitchen. He closed in on the blocked door and went right past it, going further to the left until he reached his destionation: the open window meant to pass food from the kitchen into the hall.

Now, this was something he was still able to climb through.

Thanks to the walls, the kitchen had remained mostly intact. Well, everything that wasn't nailed down was on the ground, but in comparison to the banquet hall, that was neglectable.

More importantly, the door Kaya had entered through not too long ago was fine. He could leave this damn place behind.

Back in the hallway, Chris wasted no time. Thanks to his explorations from yesterday, he knew where the nearest stairs were. While descending onto the floor where Mary was hopefully hiding, he remembered to check if his gun was loaded. Turned out it still had half of a magazine. Chris hoped he wouldn't have to use it, although this desire was unrealistic.

Entering the hallway, it was easy to follow the sounds of destruction and fire back to the hall.

He quickly found the trail of blood.

Now once more with a very dark feeling in his stomach, Chris followed the trail until it ended in front of a random guest room.

He entered.

---

In the end, 'almost' was a cruel word after all.

((Chris Tyrell continued in... does it even matter?))