when everything falls to hell

Chapter 7 The Smell of Burning Flesh

As the door swings open the three of us come face to face with an unexpected sight, there is at least ten Lifeless in the room, all crowding around the source of the voices we heard. My eyes take in the sight of a bronze skinned woman in her twenties and a girl who looks to be Loki's age, crouching on top of a raised vehicle lift trying to fight off the Lifeless below them. When I saw the vehicle lift I became aware that we'd stumbled into a large mechanics shop, the kind of place you take your car to be fixed.

I stand dumbly in the flickering light for a couple seconds, exhausted and unsure what to do. I snap out of my daze when I become aware of a sickening smell hanging in the air. I quickly realize that it was the smell of burning flesh, despite never having smelled such a thing before. I knew because the cause of the smell is what made me freeze in the first place, in the woman's hands is the head of a gas powered blowtorch which she is using to slice off any limbs that the Lifeless dare to bring towards her and the girl. The girl has one hand clutching the woman's dirty tanktop for stability, the other is holding onto the blowtorch's gas tank to prevent it from being knocked down. The girl is obviously terrified as she keeps shrieking whenever a Lifeless gets too close. She's liable to knock the tank over herself, or jerk her mother and cause her to cut her own hand off. Upon realization that their situation is risky at best and about to end badly I turn to Ryan and Loki before whispering urgently "we need to help them!" Seeing their determined nods despite the fear and exhaustion we're all feeling, strengthens my resolve. I raise my crossbow while addressing my companions "Ryan and I are going to shoot them, Loki you guard the door, tell us if any more Lifeless try to get in but for god's sake stay away from the fight!" Seeing Loki nod I continue "if a Lifeless gets too close to you, shoot them. I don't want you hurt and Ryan and myself will be busy, but don't shoot at them if they're out of arms reach, you'll miss and you won't have time to reload. If you do kill a Lifeless, reload right away you might not have time if you hesitate, understood?" My chest constricts painfully at the danger Loki could be in, but I can't stay by his side and fulfill my role without attracting even more attention to the slight youth.

Loki nods understanding, his lips pressed firmly together in nervousness and determination. Ryan touches my shoulder lightly and I turn to face him "you probably won't be able to get very many shots off with your crossbow Kairi, so make sure you have one of your knives ready for when this becomes a close quarters battle." I gulp rather loudly at Ryan's advice and nod as I pull out a hunting knife and set the handle between my teeth, then we slide our backpacks onto the ground for extra manouverabilty, and I adjust my grip on my crossbow. "Alright let's go" Ryan whispers as he rises from where we'd been crouched behind the door.

Even though we knew the Lifeless couldn't see us, we still crouched down in an unconcious effort to remain unseen. I raise my crossbow as I walk a few steps closer to the cluster of Lifeless, but not so close that I won't have time to reload. I draw a shaky breath in, as I sight down my crossbow at a Lifeless at the back of the group, my eyes narrow in on its twisted brown hair, and my finger begins to squeeze the trigger when a loud and sudden sound causes me to start with surprise. TWANG! The bolt arcs off my bow and slams into the shoulder of the Lifeless in front of my target, causing it to lurch forward but otherwise unharmed. At the same time the pack of Lifeless turns to look at us, I wip around to look at the direction the sound came from. My eyes land on a very fat Lifeless that had kicked some sort of metal car piece, as it made its otherwise unnoticed advance towards us, from around the other side of a large yellow school bus... that we somehow hadn't noticed beside the door.

I frantically fumble a new bolt onto my crossbow as the monster comes within grabbing distance of me, I just managed to yank the string back when I realize I should use my knife instead, because the Lifeless' great bulk is now pinning my hands down. If my attacker was a person I would shoot them in the foot, but due to the fact that it wouldn't feel it anyway I suddenly find myself trapped, and too tired to think of anything. I'm sorry Loki... Ryan... I messed up... I can do nothing but stare at the monster's grotesquely gray tongue, as its mouth yawns wide in preperation of tearing a large chunk of flesh off my face. BANG! I jerk back as the Lifeless' head explodes like a grapefruit. After a minute of shock, I feel a hand land on my shoulder, I would have attacked them if I didn't hear Ryan's desperate voice by my ear "Kairi!, are you alright?! Come on the rest are coming!!"

I blink slowly before my mind snaps back to reality and I pivot on my heel to face the pack of ravenous monsters, that are now charging in our direction. I raise my crossbow and see Ryan raise his rifle, he obviously thought the situation called for speed and familiarity over stealth, much to my relief. If he'd chosen the crossbow I might be dead. We both fire at the approaching hoard, and I have just enough time to see two Lifeless fall before I reload. Three down, eight more to go. I think as I raise my newly reloaded crossbow. Or maybe not... I notice that the crowd has thinned a little while I reloaded, not a good shot my ass! He just killed three in the time it took me to kill one! I think, as I watch Ryan shoot down another Lifeless with a well placed shot. I aim and fire one last time before tossing my crossbow behind me. Damn! I missed!

I take the knife out of my mouth and drive it into a Lifeless' skull with my left hand, as I unsheathe my second knife with my right. I deliver a swift kick to the dead Lifeless to assist me in reclaiming my knife. Four more. I turn to look at Ryan and see that he's in a desperate situation, he has his rifle pressed lengthwise against a Lifeless' throat to help push it away, but he's rapidly being surrounded by the other three. I run at the one closest to me, and bodycheck it to the side to gain time, I grab the second by its collar and throw it behind me, for the third I drive one of my knives hilt deep into its skull, which promptly refuses to come back out. Abandoning the knife I turn and find that Ryan has dealt with his original aggressor, and is dealing with the Lifeless I bodychecked, a quick assessment tells me he doesn't need help. I begin to relax when I suddenly remember that there's still one unaccounted for. I search frantically for it, but see no sign of it, until a desperate and frightened "HELP!" Reaches my ears. I run towards the cry, faintly realizing that it didn't come from anyone in my group and it was too masculine to come from the two on the lift. I pass around a black car and find the missing Lifeless, and its currently attacking... a closet? I run towards the Lifeless and knock it to the ground, much to my horror. Our spill resulted from me slipping in a dark liquid, and thus being unable to stop. We wrestle on the ground for several frightening moments, as I try to get into a better position, I mange to stay on top of it and prepare to finish it, when I realize that I can't find my knife.

"Kairi? Where are you?" Ryan shouts from the other side of the car.

Struggling against the Lifeless underneath me, I shout back "I'm over here! And I need help! UGH!" I grunt in pain as the Lifeless makes use of my distraction to throw me off. The Lifeless promptly throws itself on top of me and I struggle to push its head away from the tender flesh of my stomach by bracing my knees against its chest.

Unforetunately it seems to decide that if it can't get my stomach, my legs might be the next best thing, I desperately struggle to keep its teeth away from my thighs by digging my fingers into its knotted hair, but it doesn't seem to care about the clumps of bloody hair I keep ripping out of its head, and I know that either I'm going to run out of hair to rip out, or my strength is going to run out and I will be unable to hold it back any longer. Tears start to stream down my face at the hopelessness of my situation, and they sting like acid when they run across the stitched up cut on my face, and fall off my chin and into the furrows another Lifeless' nails had left on my neck several hours before. I beg almost inaudibly "please... help me..."

"Kairi!" Ryan yells as his frantic footsteps echo through the shop. I almost passed out from the relief of hearing his boots slap the ground by my head, but his next words stop me "Kairi... hold it still, and whatever you do, don't move!" I try to keep as steady a grip on the Lifeless as I can, when I see Ryan level his rifle at the Lifeless' head. My heart freezes in panic when I realize that he's going to try to shoot the thing, with it on top of me. The bullet could pass through it and into me. Ryan's serious voice reaches my ears "I'd use my crossbow or a knife, but they're back with the others and we don't have time for me to get them... sorry if the bullet hits you, but I can't let you die." I barely manage a pathetic whimper as confirmation that I'm ready, before the rifle's loud retort reaches my ears, half a second before the Lifeless goes limp, and a searing pain bursts across my leg. I scream before everything turns black.