Beyond the Walls

Lamenting

With cracked lips and beaten forehead, sweating like crazy, Gabrielle continued to rain bullets on the winged monster.  Wanting to scream, she swallowed her feelings as she emptied her cartridge.

*Click click click

There were no more bullets to waste on the dead mutant. It’s wings looked like cheese with holes in it. 

She looked down on it and bit her lips again. Her cracked lips shed blood on the wing but she didn't care. Her body felt numb as she stared long at the familiar bloody jacket half buried in the mutant’s body.  It was torn to shreds… just like the wearer. It’s face is mutilated and cracked open to the point that it can no longer be identified. Worst of it is… there are only the fourths of the body there.

She squatted down and acted like she wanted to reach out but she hesitated.

‘Fuck.’ She cursed once and stood up.

There is no use in lamenting on the dead. She walked out on it and went back to her hiding place earlier. She had her bag with her, opening it, she clicked open the empty magazine and replaced it with a full one. She went on and carried a few more loaded magazines and put it on her waist belt. She also pulled out two curved sickles and added another belt and carried it behind her. Putting more items all around her body, before kicking the bag somewhere out of the open.

She is full and loaded. Ready to see this hell through.

There is a glint of glare and viciousness at the end of her stare. Just a few minutes ago, they were laughing inside the car, everything went well, until… it wasn’t anymore.

In mere minutes, she was left all alone. 

Rewinding five minutes before…

“Are they gone?” Xian nervously asked and did not dare to look behind the rear mirror.

“Do you want me to lie?” Adam teasingly said.

“!! H,how c,come you can joke around our situation?! W,we are going to die!”

“Hahahaha. You know we are going outside the wall, why did you come along then?”

“I wanted to uncover the t,truth. I… You didn’t say, mutants are involved!!”  

“We didn’t know that either. How did you find us anyway?” Gabrielle asked. It was bugging her from earlier. 

“I saw a drone following you,”

“A drone? How come I never saw one?” Alexa said

“They are partially camouflaged, by using nano changing skin, that changes color according to color… I’ve seen it around before, that’s why when it changes color, I spot it. it took a while before I took over control, the government had really good technology… Though, I was still in the process of getting the image,... Um.. can you get the tablet…  I got the GPS fir—---! ”  In the act of pulling out a charging tablet, Xian was distracted from driving.

“YA! YA! YA!!!” Alexa was the first to react after seeing a winged mutant fly straight to them.

“!!!!”

Xian pulled right the wheels and side of the car in friction against its body. The glass window shattered and the welded with checkered wires bent as the bones of the winged mutant came in contact.

*Thud thud thud

Parts of it’s uneven structured bone wing went under the wheels and due to the mutant resistance to force, jeep’s direction was redirected and uncontrollable.

*THUD THUD THUD

The jeep went inside a big ride with individual chairs connected to chains and turning round and round.

“BRACE IT! EVERYONE!!” Adam said, seeing in the front row where they are about to hit.

*CRASSSSSSSSSSSSSSH

It went straight to a big spiral pole. Smoke went out and the jeep went concave on the dent.

Thanks to the heavy duties feature of the reinforced jeep, the jeep was not salvageable but it didn’t split into two at such impact. The airbag function cushioned the people inside but since the driver tried swirling to right the car, the heaviest impact was felt on Adam and Gabrielle's side.

“Ughhhh.” Aside from minor cuts, and bleeding forehead, Gabrielle is only experiencing migraine and slow return of vision and hearing.

On her scattered view, she sees sharp claws digging the roof of the car. She could get a glimpse of Adam, checking on her. He is saying something…

*bang

Then he will pull the trigger up, it was a faraway noise to Gabrielle.

“Huh?” Gabrielle, can’t understand but, even Alexa is saying something to her. Her face is all bloody.

‘Why are you pushing me?’ She wanted to question why Alexa is putting her down the seat and Adam is covering her with sheets and remains of the airbag.

The sunlight hurt her eyes. Slowly blinking away and processing the image, the look registered to her is a monster shrieking and clawing down to them. She could hear some gunshots and groans. 

More sunlight passes through and the ripping sound becomes more apparent.

“I…I need..” She muttered. It took her more than a minute before she finally snapped out of it. Her head is pounding, vision is still not as clear, but her complete hearing has returned.

‘It stinks.’ That’s her initial thought.

It reeks of death and blood… strong blood. She crawled out of the things she was buried in.

Her body ached.

“Ughhh.” She groaned as she positioned herself up. 

“…” She was speechless.

The jeep the four of them were in was like a piece of metal scrap. The doors on Alexa and Xian’s side were torn away. Because hers and Adam's side was blocked, the doors are still there but it’s wrecked. 

The roof was also crumpled open. 

Her visions from earlier were not hallucinations then. The seats are covered in blood, especially on Xian’s side but… not one body is there with her.

‘Are they usually this strong?’ She wondered. Remembering that there were gunshots but no mutant body, then the mutant survived. 

She crawled out on Alexa's side but her legs had a piece of metal stuck inside, she fell down in loss of balance.

Putting in front of her is her pierced leg, she pulled a piece of cloth and without hesitation pulled the metal out. She only groaned a little and pulled the cloth to cover it.

“Huuuu. Huuuu” She took a few second rest before getting her bag out and began to look for tracks. She sees some blood tracks. Sometimes it’s dripping, sometimes it looks like a glass of red wine has been spilled. 

*munch munch munch

Turning to one corner, she spotted a winged mutant eating in the middle of the street. She hid on the pillar and slid down with ragged breathing and sweat dripping. She pulls a mirror out and sees a black leather jacket.

A memory hit her like lightning. That jacket looked like… no, it is what Alexa and Adam were wearing.

“Dammit.” She closed her eyes very hard.

On the other part of the theme park…

Kiko pulled Elijah’s clothes. 

“What? What?” Elijah whispered in hurry

“Eiiik! Yuck. You stink. ” Kiko realized he was holding on to the gut filled cloth of his teammate.

“Dude, it’s not me! What the hell…It’s this… Yuck. Don’t talk to me if it’s not important…”

Covered in ghoul’s inside, Lucas' team was outside their hideout and navigating carefully on alleyways of the theme park.  

“Wait. Didn’t you hear it? It sounded like a gun and a crash…” Kiko pulled Elijah’s collar.

“Ukkk– Dude! You are choking me. Stop it really…” 

“In what direction?” Lucas asked.

“It was hard to tell the exact but, it sounded a bit far from that direction.” Kiko pointed at 6o’clock from where he was standing.

“Ahhh. s**t. I can feel something slide off my skin.” Elijah is complaining and trying to remove something from his back.

“Do you think some ride might’ve crashed down.”

“Can be… but what about the gunshots?”

“I don’t know about that… It’s best to stay away from there.” Lucas finally said when he turned away.

“You believe what I’ve said? Really? Shouldn’t you be doubting me?”

“...Yeah, something like that.” Hesitated at first. 

Aaron who was standing in front of Lucas had frowned a little before saying. “It’s clear, Let’s go.”

“Okay.” 

They went out from the alleyway and stealthily ran to the next shade. Lucas checked his watch and the display of map and countdown was there. 

There is still a lot of area to cover to reach the nearest exit and they only have [00:43:01]

42 minutes left. 

They could’ve reached it in fifteen minutes but there is alot to consider. The ride noise attracts mutants and can’t know where and when they are hiding therefore they are avoiding those places.

*Flap flap flap

The four of them hid under the dark shade of the alleyways, as a winged mutant flew over their head. 

That too, is another factor. Those monsters have free reign above so in navigating in free space land, they had to check nearby if some of those are above and waiting like a bird to fish.

They are waiting for the fish to swim up and grab them.

“Man… There are so many scary things in life… I don’t want to go out the walls again…” Elijah said, scratching his chest to calm his pounding heart.

“...”

“How come you are calm all of sudden? Huh?” Elijah questioned Lucas who is watching the winged mutant flying away.

“Am I?…” Lucas wondered about it too, despite facing many ferocious mutants he suddenly finds himself calm all of sudden. As if his desperation had been washed away.  

“Do those flying monsters have a name?” Kiko randomly asked.

“If my memory is correct, they are called Half Harpy.”

“Hahaha. Half Harpy! Does that mean there is a Whole Harpy?” Elijah jokingly mocked it.

“...” When Lucas didn’t respond he stopped joking.

“Wait— dude… there is?”

“...”