Apocalyptic Returning

Chapter 18: The Day the Streets Ran Red

Ian took a second to breathe before struggling to his feet, leaning mostly on his good left foot. "Come on, we need to get the fuck out of here." Reaching down he helped Lina up to her feet and started down the stairway.

"It hurts?" Lina cried while barely getting down the stairs with a noticeable limp. A whimper of pain escaped her mouth as Ian helped her down the steps.

"I know but we need to get somewhere safe so I can get a look at your leg." Right when Ian finished the stairwell began to shake sending the two of them crashing to the ground and down the stairs. "Damnit" He let out, using the railing to help himself back to his feet, then helping Lina back up.

The moment Lina stood back up an explosion swept through the stairwell, sending her and Ian through the wall outside the building. They fell for a moment until hitting the ground hard, ending up in the middle of an alley way. Hearing Ian's heavy breathing, she turned, watching with blurry eyes as he limped over to her.

Grabbing under Lina's shoulders, Ian dragged her over to a wall and let her lean on it. "Your wounds aren't too bad." He chuckled with blood poured from his back onto the floor. "Here" He moved her leg to get a better view of her wound and placed his hand over her thigh, silver energy emanating from his palm.

Ian's hand healed at the same time Lina's wound began to close and heal. Hearing a scream, she turned his head only to see blood splatter across the ground where the alleyway opened to the main street. Even though her vision was blurry, the sire of the blood and hearing that scream caused her to begin panicking.

"Oh god!" Lina whimpered, another splatter of blood hitting the wall beside the first.

Grabbing Lina by the face, Ian forced her to look away. "Stop! I need you to focus on healing your body so we can get out of here!"

"I-I can't...somebody just." With quickening breathes Lina began to panic. "Blood, there's somebody, exploded blood."

"Lina stop! Please." Ian begged. "There's nothing we can do for them in our current state. Before he could say more, a maniacal laugh that echoed from all around interrupted him. Recognizing that laughter, a chill ran down his spine and he looked to his left down the alley towards the opening onto the street.

The same familiar yellow energy that plagued the rain meandered through the street. With his ankle now mostly healed, Ian stood up before helping Lina to her feet. The two began to slowly walk towards the street as the screams continued and blood and rainwater flowed through the streets.

Glancing at the blood-splattered wall, Lina gasped upon finding an eye looking up at her from the floor. Still moving forward, Lina bumped into Ian who was standing still and staring down at the street. Turning her head to see what Ian was looking at, she could not help but cry as she saw what was lying before her.

On the ground before them lay the corpse of a mother embracing her child in a hug. The head of the daughter had been blown off leaving blood and brain to seep onto the ground around her. As for the mother, her entire back had been littered with spikes that pierced through her stomach into her child.

For a long moment, Lina and Ian simply stood there in shock from what they were forced to bear witness to. Yet that was not the worst of what was to come. Carnage is the only word to describe the scene that played out throughout the streets of Los Angeles in that moment. Corpses surrounded by blood and gore littered the streets all while that maniac laugh continued.

Finally moving their head to peer up in the sky, Ian and Lina were able to witness the cause of all the carnage. Floating in the sky above the street between all the skyscrapers was none other than Rez. With her hands behind her back, she watched the carnage below unfold while slowly floating down towards the stadium.