Grayed

Grayed,Chapter 4

The yellow glow of the street lamps distort the dusk sky, turing it a weird brownish purple. My sneakers trudge through the grit of the broken down asfalt as I stumble through the run down streets. Limping on my sprained ankle, I look around for street signs, some sort of indicator of where I am.

The only street sign I've seen for the past hour and a half had been completely sprayed out with silver and red graffiti.

I think I've hit it.

It's empty and nearly silent. Even the more shifty people avoid the slums on the outskirts of the city. And with good reason. I'm usually not the sort of person to gamble, but I have no choice.

One one hand, I could find what I'm looking for, but on the other I could wind up dead.

I may wind up dead anyways.

Shivering, I zip up my jacket and gently rub my bruised arms to try to warm up. Harsh wind whips around me, blowing garbage along with it.

I turn down the end of the street and turn again, winding about and searching.

"It's getting dark outside... M-maybe we should go back." a meek voice mummers in my jacket pocket.

"Not now Mimi." I grit my teeth as my ankle rolls on a rock.

"But, my GPS system suggests that we could get in trouble in this part of town. W-we should really go back."

"I know Mimi." I turn again.

"Fuchsia's going to be mad." I swear I can feel Mimi shudder.

"...I know." I give him a delicate pat from the outside of my pocket. I'm not sure if his sensors work that way, but it made me feel better. 

Fuchsia's called me at least six times before I had to silence his number.

Maybe he's worried that I was crushed in the pile of rubble where my hospital room once was.

I don't even know what I'm doing out here anymore. Maybe I should have taken that grey's advice and gone to a different hospital. This is stupid.

"Vapid." I mumble to myself.

I take another turn, mindlessly losing myself in the maze of boarded buildings and angry symbols telling me that I don't belong here. It begins to drizzle.

There is a  faint clattering sound hiding at the turn of building, maybe two or three buildings down. I back up with a start, expecting someone to pop out. Out from behind the wall a small twitching nose pops out close to the ground. Then the glint of a beady eye.

It was just a rat. Gross.

The rat bolts from his hiding spot. A dark silhouette lunges at the rodent. It lets out a high pitched shriek as the figure grapples at its tail. The figure bends forward with the limp rat in its hands. I back away slowly.

Is that person EATING the rat?

I gag at the thought.

The silhouette turns it's head up, eyes shining like flat disks through the alley. Oh god it's seen me. The gray saw me.

I take off the direction I came.

No. No, no, no! Shit!

I fumble over my twisted ankle, stumbling blindly and pushing trash bins behind me in a weak barricade. The grey gaits after me, busting past the bins without slowing, it's head lolls behind it limply.

What have I done? What was I thinking?

I curse myself as I try my hardest to find a person, a place to hide, anything. Mimi automatically phones the authorities as my sneakers pound against the pavement in a white blind whir of pain.

The gray slides sideways as I turn a corner and hop a fence. I keep going. Left. Right. Left again. Duck. The grey shows now sign of stopping. No sign of tiring as it clumsily snaps at my heels.

A taller fence. I practically spring onto it and begin to scale. Too late, the gray grips onto my swollen ankle, forcing me to howl with seething pain. The gray rips me off the wire fence with surprising force, trowing me to the floor like a ragdoll.

The gray looks like a young man, maybe five foot six with sunken in cheeks and his entire bottom lip carved clean from his chin. Drool froths with a ghostly snarl as he glares at me with lifeless yellow eyes. I kick at his hands and his face as hard as I can and try to squirm away.

He grips my leg so hard I hear it snap and he chomps down. I can do no more than wail and try to drag myself away as he swallows a chunk of my leg.

I am going to die.

The gray leans down to bite again, but instead looks up and hisses. A heavy black boot plants itself firmly upside his skull, sending him flying. I drag my knee to my chest in best attempt to distance myself from the writing creature on the floor next to me. My heart pounds in my chest as I'm consumed with fear.

I turn my head, cheek grating in the gravel and look up to see someone standings over me: a man with a hood covering his head, and a black scarf covering his face.

The figure kicks at the grey and misses. The gray sits up and hisses again, this time charging at him and swinging heavy arms.

As blood pools from my leg I stare thoughtless as the man elbows the gray in the chest, backing up, punching it in the jaw and backing up again.

He grabs the gray by the jaw and twists its head. With a sickening snap, the gray stills.

He lies the dead gray down and squats next to me. He pulls down his his scarf.

It's the gray from the subway.

He pulls his scarf off and lifts my leg. He ties the scarf above the bite as tightly as he can. He places a hand on my forehead.

"Gotta fever." He sighs.

"Am...am I d-dying?" I quake as all thought has left me.

"Maybe." He looks over the rest of my body for any other wounds then presses his hands down on my leg.

Tears well up in my wide eyes as my breathing begins to slow down finally.

"The hell are you doing out here?" he rasps.

I can't think of a good response. My leg is throbbing and my thoughts are blurred.

Without quarrel, he places a leather jacket over my arms and lifts me over his shoulder like he did earlier.

My head begins to throb along with my leg as his heavy steps echo off into the night.

I really am vapid aren't I?

At some point I can no longer stay awake, my body thoroughly rattled from pain and terror, I drift off.

...

I really am vapid aren't I?