We're so close to the end! Come on people we can do it!
Picture: Bootprint in snow
Song: Airplanes by B.O.B Featuring Hayley Williams
Chapter 19: Begging for mercy
Night Walker Code 013 - We only challenge Day Walkers if we feel threatened
Aria
She decided that while she was still mad at her sister that it might finally be time to go hunting. Maybe now that she was angry, it would her skills would improve. It felt good to be alone in the cold darkness of the woods. It was probably getting close to seven thirty pm; the sky was all cloudy and dark and rain was probably coming soon. She was supposed to be starting third period, but right now, school didn’t seem very important and oddly enough she was doing pretty well at hunting. So far, she’d caught five pigeons all on her own. A new personal record; she felt proud.
Aria was attempting to track a female dear, when she suddenly heard voices in the distance. She knew that it couldn’t be Night Walker; because the main rule when hunting was to talk as silently as possible or not talk at all, to not scare the animals away, these voices however were far from whispering. Probably Day Walkers, she thought, resuming her tracking. She then remembered that Day Walkers didn’t hunt; Maria had probably been the biggest exception of all vampire kind.
With a sigh, Aria left the dear followed the sound of the loud voices. She took her time walking through the woods, but still was careful to not break a branch of trip over hidden rocks.
Eventually, she saw flashing lights in the distance; red and blue lights. She hurried behind a tree, and looked into the distance. At first she couldn’t really believe her eyes, because right in front of her were policemen and army vehicles all gathered up in the woods. Immediately, she started asking herself questions. How is that possible? What are they doing here? What happened? What did we do!?
At the Halloween party, the Humana presence had been understandable; the music had been way too loud and had caused attention before of that. People from the other side of the country had probably heard it. But now? What had they done now? They hadn’t done anything to draw attention to the school…hadn’t they?
Aria tried to use her vampire hearing to focus on what the commander was saying into his walky-talky. “…alright throw the other four in, round up the suckers and we’ll call it a day.” He said to the person on the other end.
Throw in what? Round up who?
She asked herself. Her questions were quickly answered when exactly four loud explosions echoed in the distance where the school was. Aria caught her breath, they were blowing up the school, and they were rounding them up, the suckers. She knew that she should probably run back to the school and warn everyone, but she stayed with the officers to see if she could find out anything more. But, who would listen to her if she did go back? No one, she thought with a frown.
The officers seemed to be gearing up to go into action, they seemed confidant. They couldn’t be more wrong. They were at least close to one hundred, but three good fighting Walkers could easily kill them all. Still, they had bombs and fire killed vampires, maybe they were in more danger Aria thought.
As Aria looked around, her eyes paused on a slight glow in the far distance. There was something terrifyingly familiar about the yellowish color. Aria moved slightly closer towards the glow so she could see it better, but was careful not to be noticed. When she was at a safe distance from it, she finally recognized what it was: the eyes of a Dimidium-Lamia. She froze, terrified. As she stared deeper into the woods she was able to see other big yellow eyes in the distance. The Half-Breeds were watching the officers, but for some reason not attacking. Aria focused as much as possible on one of the half-vampire so she could identify its emotions. It was hard because she was not used to it, and the creature was far away; but lucky for her, their emotions were incredibly overwhelming and intense, so she was able le to detect them. It was a mix of hunger, adrenaline, excitement and longing; a combination that could mean absolutely no good. They were waiting, waiting to attack, but not the officers. The officers were the distraction, she realized, so that the Dimidiums could take over the school when the time came. Aria didn’t stay put any longer otherwise she might start screaming. She quickly got up, and ran back towards the school. At this point she didn’t care if she was seen or if she made noise, all she wanted to do was get away as far as she could and as quickly as possible.
As she ran, she tried to formulate a plan in her mind. So far, all she could think of was to find her sister and leave the schools grounds immediately. But sadly as she approached the campus, those thought were quickly destroyed.
She smelled it before she saw it: smoke. The bombs must have been extremely powerful, because when Aria got to the school, everything was on fire.
Maria
She blamed Tanner; she blamed him so much that it hurt. She felt like crying, but held it in because she didn’t want to show her brother how utterly terrified she was.
“I bet that if you leaned in right now, you’d be able to kiss me.” She pointed out, trying to calm her nerves.
“Maria” Tanner snapped as he looked around and tried to determine a way to move without cracking the ice even more. “Now is not the time for you to admit your undying love for me.”
“Trust me” Maria carelessly responded. “If I felt that way about you, we’d already be making out by now.”
“Maria that’s gross!” Her brother replied disgusted. Maria smiled, even in a life or death situation, she was still able to get on her brother’s nerves. That took talent. “Okay.” Tanner said as if suddenly making up his mind. “I think I got an idea.”
“Please, do share.” Maria answered as she tried to make herself comfortable; no luck there.
“Alright, this is a long shot but it’s worth a try.” He looked into her eyes. “When I straitening up, you need to put all of your weight on your side, got it?”
“Are you calling me fat?” She asked her twin, offended.
Her brother rolled his eyes, refraining to comment. “Are you ready?” He then asked her; completely ignoring what she had just said.
“Whatever.” Maria replied. “We’re going to die anyway.” He didn’t answer, but she knew that the thought had already crossed his mind as well.
Tanner slowly started straightening up, and Maria but all of her body weight on her side of the ice. The position was less awkward, but still weird. They were still stuck in the same spot, but it was still a small improvement. They may be able to live on and see another day after all, she thought.
“You okay?” He asked her.
No. She was cold, tired, scared and irritated; she was far from being okay. She wanted to go back to Tanner’s dorm, and take a nice hot shower then go to bed. But no, instead she was on an iced lake that was ready to break at any second, and she possibly might drown in the icy cold water and die of hypothermia within the next minute.
But still, Maria nodded in response to her brother’s question; he was doing his best to get them out of this and she didn’t want to get on his bad side.
“So, what now?” She asked him when it was obvious the ice wasn’t going to break just yet.
He looked around, his mind obviously racing at a hundred miles an hour. He then looked back at her and smiled, and she for a moment, she felt reassured. “Okay, so I think that if we—” He didn’t get the chance to finish that sentence, because just then, out of nowhere, a gun shot sounded.
Her twin was instantly projected far from Maria and fell to side of the ice a good five meters away from her; he hadn’t landed hard enough to break the ice beneath him though, but the crack under Maria on the other hand, opened wider. Before she even had time to scream for help, she fell into the icy cold water.
Hayden
After trying to break down the doors close to seven times, a Walker in the dorm finally got the brilliant idea of breaking the windows and climbing out. Suddenly, all the students were throwing things at the glass to leave the building. Evander happily threw a chair at the closest window, and pushed Hayden so she could get out first. She was quickly followed out by the Chriss boys and Ezra; the four of them were all covered in soot, and they each had problems breathing. The only one that seemed alright was Chayton, because he was fire. No matter the outcome of the situation, he would have been the only one to make it out alive. Right now, Hayden really whished that she had his ability. Where was the Transferrias plant when she needed it?
She suddenly felt Evander grab her arm and she instantly felt better. He used his healing powers to take her physical pain away. She was now able to see clearly, walk correctly and breath normally again.
“Let’s go find Aria and get the fuck out of here.” Her friend then said, still holding on to her.
As they walked, Hayden couldn’t help but watch in horror as other buildings burnt down to the ground. Day Walkers may like heat, but toxic smoke had an effect on them too. Everywhere, everyone was running either trying to find friends or trying to find water to put out the fires. The snow around the school was melting because of the heat of the flames and the very deep mud puddles all over the ground was making it hard to walk. But the most horrible thing of all was that in the distance over all the screaming, Hayden could hear a faint sound of gun shots being fired.
“Humanas” She whispered, even though the thought was almost impossible to believe.
Her group of friends stopped walking and listened as well. “Damn” Evander cussed. “Alright, screw Aria, I say we leave now.”
“I agree with Evander.” Ezra approved looking at Hayden.
“So do I.” Chayton joined in.
How could they even say that!? Yes, Aria was annoying and an outcaste in her circle of friends, but she was still her sister, no matter how badly they fought. She wasn’t going to leave her, no matter what her friends wanted.
“So leave.” Hayden said to the remaining members of her circle. “I’ll go find her by myself, I don’t need you.” She started walking away. It didn’t take too long until she felt the steady steps of her friends following her closely behind.
They might be ready to leave Aria, but she knew that her circle would never leave Hayden; she knew that from the start.
“You’re going get us killed you know.” She heard Ezra mumble.
She was going to reply to his comment, when she heard the most unlikely sound possible. It was in that moment that Hayden truly began to fear for her life. It was a cry in the distance; the cry of the Dimidium-Lamias to signal that they were about to attack.
Alright so quick recap!
Tanner just got shot, Maria is currently drowning in ice cold water and Hayden and Aria must find each other through the chaos of the school campus.
Stay tuned for part two! Only two chapters left to go and then the book is done!
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