Sanctuary

V was mostly in a little world of her own, taking pride in pulling each stitch in neatly. She rarely paid much attention to a patient's pain at this point. It was the patient's job to bleed, she'd been taught, not the medic's.

Another part of her brain followed the conversation.

"I'd like to know that, too," her voice sounded like it was coming from far away, "he's a bit of a puzzle."

 

Jack couldn't help but smile at her again. She seemed totally absorbed in stitching him; working quickly and precisely, seemingly with little heed to anything else. It was like she was in hack mode*; and yet she was still somehow carrying on conversation. It was a skill associated with heavy wizardry*...perhaps even black magic*. He chuckled inside.

He kept silent, closing his eyes and trying to move his mind beyond the pain, dropping the physical reality around him. He had learned several meditation techniques, both through martial arts, and on his own. They helped.

 

Zefie held the light up for V, keeping her eyes averted from Jack’s wound; the blood reminded her of the sight of Cooper and the other kids being gunned down, and that boy having his head severed in the CC.

She glared at the Dragoon when it spoke again, and listened curiously to V and Jack’s reactions. She wondered sullenly why they should care if It was running out of air; It was one of Them after all, and even if it wasn’t killing them now it didn’t mean It wasn’t just waiting for an opportunity.

Though, Zefie did have to grudgingly admit that she was also curious as to why It hadn’t attacked them, and why Dre was determined to defend It.

 

As V finished stitching Jack front and back and made sure the wounds were covered she realized she was touching him more than what was really necessary, fussing with the bandage, allowing her fingers to brush the curly hair at the nape of his neck...

She pulled her hands away and schooled her face into a purely professional smile, though she couldn't keep the twinkle from her eyes.

"You can get dressed now," she said, "I suppose it won't do any good to tell you to rest it and drink lots of fluids?"

 

"Probably not." He said, still maintaining his smile. "Thank you." For a second, silence passed between them as they stared into one another's eyes. Jack was surprised at the attraction he felt to her. Yes, she was beautiful, but it was more than that. There was something within her that drew him. He was most interested in learning more about what exactly it was.

"We'll have to do this again sometime." He said with a wink. He stood and began to pull his shirt back on, again being careful with the now-stitched shoulder. He then slipped into his jacket and realized that most everyone had been watching their exchange. He smiled. He hadn't exactly done a great job of suppressing his thoughts, now had he?

"Okay! Gather up anything you want that you see and lets get moving!"

 

Dre wasn't quite sure what it was, but something caught his attention and he looked towards the woman who had called herself Lena. She had remained largely silent throughout the encounter with the group, but Dre couldn't blame her. She was probably in shock. Yet every time he looked away, something drew his gaze back to her. Dre noticed the same thing happening to Vishka. Something was about to happen.

Then it did. A dark shape fell from the ceiling of the place and stood behind her, like darkness given shape. The shadow drew back and then rushed forward, and before Dre could utter a word, the shadow's hand had torn completely through Lena. She stared down at it in disbelief. Then it tore out sideways, blood flying everywhere. Lena fell to the ground dead.

The next thing Dre knew, he was firing at that...that...whatever the hell it was. Yet, it just stood there. The bullets seemed to do nothing to it, simply bouncing off on contact. The thing surveyed the area calmly until its unseen eyes came to rest at last on Lieutenant Jack Cyrus.

 

Hunter slowly moved following the group keeping from sight. He would watch for danger but said nothing. This group had the potential to survive and fought for the better of Sanctuary.

Hunter kept a tight grip over the hilt of his blade his ears would listen for foreign sounds or anything that approaches.

The darkness was Hunter’s best ally and though he sensed good in this group he still remained cautious and followed from the distance.

He would emerge whn the moment was needed and he needed them.

 

Mission IV: Shadows
Word Limits are henceforth abolished.

Players must:
*Protect the good Lieutenant
*Escape the dry storage building
*End up in an old apartment complex with the rest of the group

V must:
*Be injured by the Hunter-Stalker

Vishka must:
*Fight the Hunter-Stalker until it retreats

 

V cowered back, clutching the needle and suture thread that she had been about to put back into her bag and nearly impaling her own hand.

"What is that thing?" She whispered.

The carbine was close but not close enough. Her attention had been completely wrapped up in her safe little world of attending to Jack. The storage room had felt like a fortress but now it felt like a falling house of cards.

 

The spray of blood brought with it the death of someone Jack had hardly noticed before. She had said little, and had remained calm through the events, and now her life was snuffed out. As casually as blowing out a candle.

In a rage, Jack's pistols came up and he leveled them at the creature. Dre immediately made it apparent that bullets wouldn't be much good. Whatever it was, the huge creature seemed to have eyes only for Jack...and he knew why.

"Back off, Ugly..."

 

V, spattered with the same fine spray of Lena's blood as nearly everyone else in the room, saw the dark shape's head move. Its gaze appeared to fix on Jack.

Jack. Who had the Magnus disk.

To her horror, he seemed ready to engage the shadowy thing and he was the last person who should do so.

The suture materials fell back into the doctor's bag and she picked up a heavy metal box about seven inches square that had been sitting to hand on one of the metal shelves. She had no idea what was in it and didn't care.

V hefted the box quickly in one hand, stepped to one side of Jack, and threw the box with all her strength at the shadowy thing.

Without waiting to see how that went she grabbed the carbine, though bullets didn't seem help. How on earth could they defend the disk?

V's wildly beating heart told her they were all going to die. She ignored it and edged in front of Jack, nudging one of his pistols to the side.

 

Zefie snapped her rifle up the moment this … this Thing killed Lena, but seeing Dre’s shots ricocheting off it without causing any damage she hesitated. What was this thing? She glanced suspiciously at Dre’s friend, wondering if It had called Its fellows to It’s aid.

“What is that thing?” V whispered in a horrified voice.

Zefie glanced over at her, then back at this new enemy. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing up, with the same unnerving sensation she used get in the Junkyard when facing a rival gang. She followed the direction it seemed to be gazing it ... to Jack.

He seemed to know it too, snarling, "Back off, Ugly."

V grabbed a large metal box and hurled at the Thing.

Zefie looked round the storage room for anything that could help, and her eyes fixed on the door. She didn't know where it lead to, but it had to be better than here.

“I think,” she said in a low voice, “We’d better get out of here.”

 

“I think,”Zefie said in a low voice, “We’d better get out of here.”

"I don't think it'll just let us leave," V said quietly.

Bullets wouldn't work, the analytical part of her brain told her, so what would? It was a shadow...

V flipped on the rifle light and trained it on the killing shadow at the same time she trained her small flashlight on it. It seemed to shy back for just a second.

She emptied five shots into it as it leapt for her.

 

V had amazed him again with her courage in throwing something at the thing and then standing solidly at his side. The creature did nothing until V shone a light on it. At this, it fell back, tensed and then began to move.

Jack worked the trigger and V's carbine barked in time with it. He felt himself being knocked backwards and slammed hard into a shelving rack that fell with him to the floor. Pain echoed again through his shoulder, but miraculously the stitching had held. He brought the guns back up.

Light...

The bullets had done nothing. They needed a bigger light source...

 

It went right by her with barely a swish of air to tell of its passage though when it tackled Jack the impact was hard and carried him backward, slamming against the shelving then the floor.

"You are NOT ripping my stitches!" V howled and without thinking about it she fell onto the shadow that was attacking Jack now, clutching at it and trying to drag it off.

When it turned its attention to her she felt the cold first. And then the pain that sliced from ribs to hip.

 

Ohdran stepped back from the human that had yelled at him, words he couldn't understand. He had cut her deep for her insolence, and satisfaction coursed through him as he watched her fall to the ground, stained in the peculiar red blood of a human.

He turned back to the human whose mind he had searched...and found exactly what he was looking for. Ohdran reached out his unnaturally long and spidery fingers towards the one he knew to be called Jack. The man tried to back away, but the wall of the building prevented him from doing so.

Just as the hand was nearing Jack's neck, Dre jumped onto the Hunter-Stalker's back and wrapped his arms around its neck. Ohdran couldn't believe the creature's tenacity. To even touch him was sickening. In a fit of rage, Ohdran reached back and lifted the fire haired youth high into the air and threw him forcefully into a shelving unit. The shelves collapsed in a noisy crescendo on top of Dre.

 

He heard V's voice as the huge thing loomed over him. And then he heard her footsteps.

No! God...no!

With an almost casual movement, the creature turned and slashed, hitting V solidly. Rage and fear came flaring to the surface of Jack's consciousness. He yelled out loudly in defiance.

"DAMN YOU!" He leveled his guns and proceeded to empty the clips, not caring if they did nothing. The creature stood there and took it, unmoving until both the pistols clicked.

When the barrage was finished, Jack felt himself being searched. The creatures long fingers working their way up his body. It made him shiver. And then someone distracted the thing, leaping onto its back. When it turned, he saw that it was Dre. The creature wasted no time in removing him and casting him aside before it turned its attention back to Jack.

 

“V!” Zefie screamed as her friend jumped on the shadow-like creature, clawing at it, and trying to get it off Jack. V was like a woman possessed, until a line of dark red blood appeared from her ribs to her hip.

Zefie dived at her friend, screaming her name again, trying to pull her from the creature, but it wouldn’t let go.

She looked around frantically, and caught sight of a bulb hanging down from the ceiling. Without stopping to think she swung her rifle off with one hand and shot at it. It exploded in a burst of light, and the shadow creature cringed away long enough for Zefie to drag both V and Jack out from under it.

She pulled her rifle up again and shot, this time at the door across the room. It took a couple of bullets but the door finally burst open, flapping on its hinges.

“Get out!” Zefie shouted at the others, who seemed to be hesitating. “Get OUT! GET OUT NOW!”

 

“Get OUT! GET OUT NOW!”

He couldn't. He just watched that woman drag two people out from under the ugly beast. Darmetrius was stuck in amazement of her moves. Eventually, he snapped out of his daydream long enough to listen.

"Yes, ma'am," he said with a soldier-mocking tone.

 

Jess shoved Joshua towards the door and looked at their attacker. She identified it as a Hunter-Stalker. What do I do? Bullets don’t work. All I can do is shoot. Never waste your bullets.
Do something.

Zefie stood with the injured Jack and V at her feet, shouting at the rest of them to run. She wouldn’t be able to get them both to safety, especially with the Hunter-Stalker focused on Jack as he emptied his guns into the thing.

Jess looked at the speaker and pointed at the crumpled figure of Dre. "Take him."

Without waiting for an answer, she kicked the deck chair at the creature and darted to Zefie’s side.

 

Vishka smiled beneath his helmet. It was almost like fate had offered him a gift.

Ohdran. I never liked you. I remember that much. And now I will rip the air from your back and watch you die slowly.

The hunter-stalker rounded on him. Vishka sensed loathing and betrayal. He almost heard his name, but it was garbled and censored by something in his mind. A shame. He often wondered what his real name is. Or was. Before he became 'Vishka na Fyr'.

Ohdran lashed out at him. Vishka shoved him into the wall with a strength that seemed wholly lacking against the might of a hunter-stalker.

"Leave here, humans," Vishka said. "Perhaps this will settle your ill perceptions of me."

Ohdran lunged at him, bringing him to the ground with immense force. The release of his dorsal storage unit was smashed, and an arsenal of weapons spilled over the floor. They struggled on the ground, both wrestling to tear off each other's air tanks. Most of Vishka's attempts were fruitless, as Ohdran pinned him down almost effortlessly.

 

Just as things seemingly couldn't be going any worse, it seemed that Creepy had decided to take the situation into his own hands. Immediately he launched himself at the larger being, attracting his attention away from them.

"Leave here, humans," Vishka said. "Perhaps this will settle your ill perceptions of me."

Good enough, then. Jack shook himself free from Zefie's grasp as she tried to drag the two of them from the room. Jessica rushed up to help.

"It's alright! I'm okay." He struggled to his feet and reached down, picking V up in his arms.

"Out. Everybody out."

 

Zefie frowned as the Dragoon launched itself at the other Thing, but shrugged and kept heading towards the door. She didn’t understand why the Dragoon would attack one of Its comrades, but if the two of them killed each other it would solve one problem, at least.

She was distracted by Jack lifting V from her, and reiterating the instruction to get out. So much for him resting his shoulder, but Zefie supposed he’d be able to carry V far more easily.

She looked down at her friend; V looked ashen, blood soaking her side. Zefie clutched her rifle and hurried with Jack out the room, hoping she wasn’t going to lose someone else she cared about today.

 

I followed Zeffie continuously checking the Rail Gun so it doesn't jam on me. I blocked out everything that had been happening because the Rail Gun showed me an error message. I accidentally bumped into Zeffie as she stopped to check V. Jack had helped her up as I realized that Dragoon was fighting with something else. I followed trying to figure out what the error message was for.

 

Jess stepped back as the Dragoon launched itself at the Hunter-Stalker. The creature told them to leave. Jack bent down and picked up V.

Jess turned and followed them out of the room, automatically pulling the door shut behind her.