ꜰᴇᴀʀꜱ (ᴸᵉᵒⁿ ᴷᵉⁿⁿᵉᵈʸ ˣ ᴿᵉᵃᵈᵉʳ)

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ 16

When he couldn't go any further down, Leon simply jumped down and landed roughly. He collapsed to the side and grunted painfully. He struggled to his feet and stumbled over to Nikola, who was lying there with a pained expression on her face. He fell to his knees in front of her seemingly lifeless body and grabbed her arm. He placed his index and middle finger on her aorta and tried to silence the screams in his head in order to hear a pulse. He didn't feel anything. Oh God. No! Wait...

There was something there, right? Yes, he could only feel something very slightly. He waited. Yes, she really had a pulse, she was alive. He crawled awkwardly behind her and held her head back, watching her breathing. Her chest heaved weakly and convulsively, as if she was fighting with something in her unconcious dreams.

"Nikola, wake up," he pleaded, his voice wavering with emotion. But there was no response, only the stillness of the facility and the distant echoes of their struggle. "Nikola, I know you're in there, dont mess with me! Wake up!", he almost shouted, shaking her urgently. His eyes darted up and down her fragile body in fear.

With wild, trembling movements, Leon scooped Nikola into his arms, her limp body a weight against his chest. She was not as light as she looked, but also not a impossible weight for him. He lifted her up with a grunt and looked at her face. His eyes searched the place frantically for a place to put Nikola down. He started moving with her in his arms but every step felt like an eternity as he stumbled through to a open place, his mind racing with worry.

Time seemed to blur as he carried her away, his thoughts consumed by fear for her safety. He couldn't lose her, not now, not like this. The thought of her lying broken and lifeless was almost too much to bear. "Hey Nikola...", he started. It was hard for him to talk under all the pain he was in, the weight in his arms and the weight on his heart. "Imagine if you'd die now? You could never see me do embarrasing things again?", He said, narrowing his eyes as he tried to walk forward. "I could never tell you the truht about me. You'd die thinking I'm a boring rookie! Wake up and let me tell you the truh!", he almost pleaded her.

Nikolas face didnt move a thing. Her breathing still shallow and weak. He slowly laid her down in a corner of the platform. There were a few bags of concrete there and he put Nikola down completely, walked over to the stack of concrete bags and pulled one out of the stack. It made dust upon impact and, panting, he pulled it over to Nikola. He gently laid her head on the bag and brushed her hair out of her face. She looked incredibly white, almost as if she was about to burst into white flames and turn into an angel and climb the steps to heaven on her own.

Although he didn't believe in heaven, for people like her it simply had to exist.

He didn't even know why he thought that, actually sometimes; even very often; he considered her quite the asshole. But nevertheless...?

Suddenly it became warm all around his knee. He looked down, frightened, and the blood froze in his veins. A thin strip of blood snaked its way from Nikola's leg to his knee, now forming a small pool there. "Holy fuck," he swore and leaned over her leg. He tore off her pants at the level of the wound and tied it around her leg just above the wound to stop the bloodflow. Finally, his thoughts reached a clearing, and his hands trembled as he tried to staunch the bleeding from her leg. Panic clawed at his chest as he frantically searched for a way to help her, his mind racing with thoughts of what he could've done if he was faster, just a second. Just faster.

It didn't matter what he did, Nikola remained unconscious, her breathing shallow and ragged. Leon's heart ached as he watched over her, his fingers trembling as he tried to clean the blood of the wound with a tissue.

He remembered his training again, in this extreme situation, it wouldn't have mattered to him if he died just because he wasn't paying attention in this medical course. But anyone else? Oh God.

He jumped up and rushed across the concrete floor, his eyes kept darting back to Nikola as if she would suddenly disappear, but she didn't. Then he finally saw it. A green box with a white plus on it. He thanked the gods and ran towards it, snatched the box, grabbed the package and ran back to Nikola. "Don't worry, we'll get you back," he whispered and put a pressure bandage on her leg. After he had finished treating her, he leaned over her face and watched her. It felt strange to do nothing because his thoughts were racing inside. "Nikola," he tries again. "Please wake up! I promise you, I'll never mess around with you ever again!"

It became quiet again.

Where was her annoying snapping when you needed it? Why was it quiet? If she were alive, no, conscious, she would have added her two cents again now, would have made fun of him for being so emotional, but he didn't care because all he wished was she could do it just once again in her life. He wanted nothing more than for this annoying piece of shit to say something insulting for one last time in her life.

"You can risk your stupid life for your notebook if you want and I won't complain, please just wake up now," he pleaded.

Rattling breath came from below. "Nikola!!!" he shouted and grabbed her shoulders. "Promise?" she croaked and tried to open her eyes. "Promise what nikola?", he asked alertetd.
"Notebook", she just briefly said in pain and opened her eyes.

"Yes! Yes, I promise! I'll never make fun of your shitty notebook again," he said, licking his lips, which had dried out from the stress. "Leon, be care.....-" she began to wheeze.

"Shh...save your breath," he said, putting his finger on her lips. "Leon...that's a...," she breathed again, raising her hand to push his finger away from her face. "It's a tr....a..p," she wheezed again; trying to form sentences; in pain.

Leon looked at her in disbelief. "Rest now, you've fallen a long way," he said. Nikola's eyes grew larger and filled with inexplicable fear. She croaked incomprehensible things and scooted back and forth on the spot. "Nikola... I can't understand you," Leon said, leaning over her face. "Behind you," Nikola croaked and he looked over his shoulder.

Leon's blood ran cold as he turned, his heart hammering in his chest. And there was the twisted figure of... something... Something huge and deformed. This was no zombie... This was something else...

Fear gripped Leon's heart as he faced the monstrous creature before him, his mind reeling with the enormity of the threat they now faced.

But Nikola's warning spurred him into action.
With a newfound resolve, Leon reached for his weapon, his hands steady as he prepared to face whatever horrors lay ahead. For Nikola's sake, and for his own, he would fight until his last breath.