Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue.
AN: Wulf here. Long time, no type, ne? Sorry for the long-ass wait, but this fic just did NOT want to be written. But anyways, hopefully I'll get Chapter Seven out a little quicker, I've got a few new ideas for this fic. And also, I apologize if Quatre comes off as a bit of a wuss, but don't worry, he'll get his chance.
"Disease is an experience of mortal mind. It is fear made manifest on the body."
-Mary Baker Eddy, /Science and Health/, Ch. 14
With a satisfying /click/ the lock released and Duo reached up for the knob and swung the door open, revealing a small, semi-clean waiting room of sorts. There was a small information desk off to the right of the door, a faux leather couch, and a large box off the to the left. The back wall held the Darkfall Police Department insignia and had pictures of wanted suspects pinned up. Other than a few misplaced papers, this room seemed as empty as the lobby. And still, there were no signs of a struggle.
"Viola," Duo quipped, stepping inside and ushering the in the rest to follow. Heero followed in next, and with a bit of a struggle, Hilde was supported between Sally and Relena, with Wufei taking up the rear. Cautiously, Duo swung his nine millimeter in front of himself, walking to the back of the room and swinging the door open. He stuck his head in, sweeping his gun around a few times before he deemed it safe and continued on.
The hallway was about thirty feet long with a sharp veer to the right. Papers scattered the hallway and blood splattered the far wall, and -
-and there was a pair of human legs sticking out from around the corner. They were dressed in tattered sweat pants, unmoving.
"Stay here," Duo whispered, stealthily creeping down the hallway, his eyes fixed on the pair of legs before him. Sweat beaded up on his forehead and ran in rivulets down his face, but he made no move to wipe it away. Finally, he reached the end of the corridor, throwing himself into a forward roll and springing up, giving the hallway the once over.
And finding nothing.
The corse below him did not move, it simply laid there, blood still pooling out of it along with other sticky body fluids, the stench of decay coiling up and hanging above it in the air like a black cloud. Nothing else was out of place. With a sigh of relief, Duo continued forward, careful to step around the body.
Then, /something/ moved.
Something above him, dripping hot liquid onto his face as he looked up, something moving so stealthily that he hadn't noticed it before. It scurried along the ceiling in silence save for the light click of its long, curving talons on the wood. It moved like a lizard, but had the proportions of a man, two sinewy legs and arms, and a head- but the resemblance stopped there.
Its large cerebrum protruded out of its skull, above two gaping holes where the eyes should have been. It opened its round mouth exposing two rows of razor-sharp fangs, saliva pouring out and splattering onto the corpse. Its tongue uncoiled, slithering out and out. And out. The snake-like appendage trailed down to the floor where it ripped through the body, like a knife through warm butter. The creature hissed, releasing its grip on the ceiling and falling towards the floor, flipping around in mid-air and landing like a cat on its feet. Its coiled its tongue inside its mouth again, rolling its head back and howling, before it lunged forward to attack.
Duo reacted instinctively, his skills from the two previous wars coming in handy as he raised the Browning HP and began pumping round after round into the creature's body. It screeched, flailing its limbs around in a macabre dance, its thrashing appendages shredding the corpse below it, sending blood and bits of bone and other pieces of miscellaneous gore sailing everywhere, hitting the dirty off-white walls with a thick wet /slap/.
The thing continued towards him, scuttling over the mutilated body-
//Shoot! Shoot it! Shootshootshoot-//
And then, just as quickly as the attack had come, it ended. The creature flipped backwards, kicking its sinewy limbs, splattering more blood over the hallway, a thick chuck of decaying flesh from the body's thigh hitting the far wall. It took Duo a moment to realize that he had been screaming the entire time, as he stumbled back and began sucking in mouthfuls of air. He stared back at the dead animal-thing, his mind trying to come to grips with what he had just killed.
The rest of the hellish journey to the police station was tame compared the events before, the trek taking Trowa and Quatre through an infested basketball court, down a few back alleys, and through a crashed bus before they ended up in front of the police station, where about twenty or so cops could be seen, either stumbling over each other in blind hunger or cluttering the road in heaps of half-eaten flesh.
Quatre felt his heart ache all over again. If any survivors /had/ made it this far, they were dead now, for sure. There were only fifty or sixty cops on the force, and about one third of them were shambling about in front of him.
The zombies were slow; but there were a hell of a lot of them. Trowa picked off the ones closest to them before grabbing Quatre's arm and making a run for the rusty gate that lead to the front of the police station. He pushed Quatre in front of himself and then threw the door closed, the walking corpses already scrabbling at it, stumbling against it uselessly.
"/Uuhya!/"
Trowa whipped around at Quatre startled cry-
--and stopped dead in his tracks.
Lumbering towards them was a giant, a mammoth creature covered in what looked like a long dark green army jacket. It had to have been at least seven or eight feet tall, easily dwarfing Trowa's 6' 2". The thing moved almost silently, its massive size betraying it as its huge boot covered feet thudded on the pavement, walking with bulky grace the sluggish zombies didn't possess. Its face was deathly white, two small soulless black eyes glinting out from a misshapen skull. Thick cords of pulsating tentacles lashed about its head, coming up from under its collar.
"/Gundamsssss...../" it hissed, still taking massive strides towards them, cutting them off from the station.
Trowa realized at once he had been backing away from the hellish vision as his back his the gate, cold fingertips slipping through to grasp at the back of his neck. He jumped, spinning around and firing, three zombies hitting the pavement.
Suddenly, Quatre was beside him, feverishly pulling at the gate and throwing it open, following Trowa as they dodged zombies, the giant still plodding after them, closing the distance in massive thundering steps.
//What did I just kill? What the fu-//
"Duo!!"
His name was followed by a sharp /crack/ as a hand was brought abruptly and painfully across his face, startling him out of his dazed stupor. Duo looked up into Heero's cold blue eyes, a touch of worry tinged the steely depths.
The rest of the world had faded away at some point, now the only thing that existed for the shell-shocked American was the boy in front of him and his strong hands roughly shaking him back and forth, the background noises distorted and so far away. Slowly, he came to, his mind supplying him with his surroundings, piece by piece, until he remembered how to breath again.
"H-Heero?" Duo whispered, tripping over the name. He kept a tenacious grip of his sanity, as well as Heero as he struggled to stand up. His eyes surveyed the hallway once more, coming to rest of the dead animal-thing, which lay in a crumpled heap exactly where he had left it.
//Okay, Duo, buddy. Calm down. Darkfall's got zombies, so why not monsters? Hell, while we're at it, why not giant lizards and werewolves and killer bees? It's time to stop freaking out every time something unexpected jumps out of a dark corner.// The voice inside his head was cool, firm, and authoritative, but somehow, he couldn't make himself believe it. Hometown USA had just been turned into the Little Shop of Horrors, and he had just killed /something/ and suddenly he and his friends had fallen to the bottom of the food chain.
Duo slumped against the wall, breathing in ragged gasps, stilling clinging to Heero.
"H-Heero..... we're not going to make it out of this place alive, are we?"
Heero stared directly into Duo's eyes, and gave him the only answer he could.
"I don't know."
If the trek to the police station had been a nightmare, the run from it was Hell. The zombies had come at them from all sides, and even though he was a good shot, Trowa was down to seventeen bullets, having already used the last clip in their escape from the huge, lumbering /thing/.
He and Quatre were now lost somewhere in a back alley, trash piled up against the brick walls of an apartment complex and a diner. They had evaded the giant that had been on their tail, and finally Trowa had deemed it safe to stop. He had had to drag Quatre for the last forty yards, he having had to keep up with Trowa's longer legs. The blonde was now slumped against Trowa's side, sucking in great mouthfuls of air. Sometimes, having a tall boyfriend wasn't all that great.
Suddenly, a flash of movement just outside his line a vision.
Quatre took a step forward, away from Trowa, struggling to make out what was hidden in the darkness-
He didn't see it coming, but he heard it.
Instinctively, Quatre threw himself back, against Trowa who let out a surprised cry, when a rush of fetid air blasted him in the face and /something/ tore through the space in front of him, something that would have torn through /him/ if he hadn't stumbled backwards.
Awestruck, Quatre watched as a malodorous shadow jumped over his head and attached itself to the wall, skittering over the bricks as it continued upwards. Trowa grabbed a hold of him and pulled him close, his sweaty gaze darting from side to side as he struggled to pinpoint where the creature was coming in from this time, the skittering noises coming from everywhere and no where as the sound reverberated in the small alley.
Suddenly, it was in front of them, dropping down from the side of the diner and scurrying towards them on six giant spindly legs. Trowa could've just stood there and watched it come, unable to believe his eyes, as it ripped open his throat in one fatal swoop of its bladed legs, but then-
-it screamed, a high pitched trumpeting that seemed loud enough in the silent alleyway to shatter glass. In a flash, Trowa too was moving, pushing Quatre out of the away and pulling the trigger, pumping nearly the entire clip into the creature's body.
And he would have, if not for Quatre. The blonde had recovered from the attack faster, and grabbed his lover's screaming face into his hands, holding him and soothing him. Trowa hadn't even realized he had been screaming, not until he was finally forced to take a breath. He clung to Quatre, staring over his shoulder at the unmoving shadow in wonder.