As Reiko left the body, Ilario fell into step behind her without giving the crumpled shape a second glance. She didn't appear to be going anywhere special. Away from Ivan and Kimberly being the main priority at the moment. A whistle behind them was Kimberly, Ilario thought, but he could deal with Ki...

And hadn't he said? Hadn't he said, though, hadn't he known that they would start the slaughter themselves? Ilario permitted himself a brief glow of pride before burying it somewhere far away; pride goeth before a fall and he couldn't fall. Not now. There was just a little longer to wait and he woul...

Ilario remained steady where he was. There were four others after all, and he thought they would be more impatient. They would charge into the fray with weapons raised and they would take care of themselves, he decided, they would not need the help of his bullets. Perhaps eventually, but he didn't w...

((Ilario Fiametta III continued from Some Kind Of Righteous )) Pressed to the wall of a building overlooking the town center, Ilario breathed soft and deep. The AK-47 nestled in his arms like a baby, spattered in blood and dirt and still shining dully under all of it. He had counted bullets over and...

((Ilario Fiametta III continued from the chasm to the core )) Ilario could see the infirmary from his spot in the trees. It squatted on the ground, a low, ugly pale brick building whose walls, he had no doubt, hid many bodies within. Students who would never graduate or go to university or change th...

And that was that. She fell. She landed sprawled awkwardly with eyes still open. They blinked once, twice, three times. Her body twitched. Blood ran from her body and from her mouth and mingled in great crimson splashes with the opaque swampwater. Her breathing came hoarse and ragged and sucking onc...

She got up. Her fingers left his, not that it mattered because he couldn't feel them anymore could just see them lying askew on the ground -- but she got up, and she smiled a little, shaky and not real but it was still a smile and she said catch you later and her feet carried her away, slow footstep...

He almost didn't recognize the gunshots. Fireworks , he wanted to say, who's setting off fireworks? Who would -- but they were gunshots cracking through the air so fast he couldn't tell how many, just a cacophony of noise that sent birds screaming up into the air so that for one perfect moment the c...

His face fell almost immediately after the question. "Aw, shit--." he said, and "No. I dropped my pack somewhere. Crap." His fingers clenched convulsively, short nails digging into his palms. He'd berated himself a couple of times already for losing it, mainly when hunger and thi...

Bullets whined through the air. He wasn't sure how many, only knew that one of them whipped past his arm close enough to open a shallow gash. Not bad. Not his dominant arm. Still okay. And she was diving, diving, moving quickly, trying to evade. Shooting and running. Escaping? He didn't think so. Ju...

"That'd be a good class." His eyes were squeezed shut, a combination of pain and not wanting to see what she was doing. He'd never really been squeamish but somehow it seemed different when it was his own body, his own nerve endings laid bare. "Survival Triage 101. We could practice o...

And now there was a gun in his face. Pointing straight him. Was her finger on the trigger? He wasn't sure, his eyes were locked onto her face and trying frantically to remember. Names, faces, the two didn't seem to want to match in his mind. But they had to. Because she was pointing the gun at him a...

For a strange and liberating moment, he wanted to say no. Did it matter? He knew he'd be dead soon anyway and maybe without even hearing the bullet this time, just a quick burst of black and that would be it. Or worse still, he'd be alive and everyone else dead, with nothing to look forwards to but ...

No trouble. Hah. That was almost funny. Except she meant it, he thought, and his stomach did one slow lazy flip over which made him swallow hard. The gun wavered in his hands, slid away from her. Came to rest muzzle-down in the dirt. No trouble, she said, and sure she had a gun but it was just resti...

((Erik Laurin continued from Burn On )) "Given the large quantity of horror movie my life seems to be exhibiting at the moment, I think I can take it." Erik's wry smile eased the harshness of the words even as he leaned back against the non-bloody wall and allowed his long legs to fold, ca...