Rise Of The Others

Chapter Eight

"'Cause I'm still breathing
'Cause I'm still breathing on my own
My head's above the rain and roses
Making my way away"

James fell to his knees in defeat, the wound bleeding from his shoulder. All of us ran over to him, applying pressure to the wound. "Liam...?" He mumbled, coughing violently.

"Yeah?" I replied.

He looked up at my face and sighed. "I'm sorry I let you down, son." James closed his eyes and took his last breath, his entire body slumping over.

This is it. I thought to myself. You did this. It's your fault that what the closest thing you had to a father is dead. He's now gone, and because of you. I fell to my knees, tears falling from my face. He was the closest thing I had to a father, now I'm here, looking at his corpse. I slowly rose from the ground, letting go of James' body. Taking the USP Match from my pocket, I aimed it at Alexis' head. "Your time's almost up," I spat. "You're going to die for that, motherfucker!"

*Bloodrayne's POV*

"Liam, no!" I screamed, running towards Alexis. He was losing grip on the capsule, and it fell out of his hands. It felt like everything was in slow motion as I tried to grasp the bottle that contained the airborne virus.

The glass shattered. Oh shit, I'm in so much fucking trouble.

I took a deep inhale, attempting to hold my breath. As I tried to stand up, Alexis looked down at me, kicking me over. "Pathetic." Alexis spat.

I kept trying to hold my breath, but then I couldn't take it. I took the slightest breath. I'm going to regret this. I just know it.

I held out my hand to rewind time, but a sharp pain went through my head. I quickly let down my hand, falling to the ground in defeat.

Alexis fell to one knee, coughing violently. "You made a mistake, Liam." He collapsed on the ground, shaking.

I got back up, finally able to rewind...

***

As I lowered my hand, I collapsed to the ground, coughing. I rose back up from the ground, taking out my pocket knife. "Hey Alexis," I said, smiling softly. "Time's up." I dug the knife inside Alexis' neck, watching as the blood flow like a waterfall.

Alexis fell down to the ground, trying to take the capsule out. I snatched it from his hands, safely putting it in my bag. "You've made a grave mistake, Bloodrayne," he said, as I backed away. When he had finally died, I fell to my knees in defeat. I'm infected.

"Bloodrayne!" Shaun yelled, running over to me. "Come on, get up." He kept trying to move me, but I kept resisting. "What's up with you?"

"Shaun!" I screamed, curling up in a ball. "Don't you see? I'm infected. This is my last stop." I felt the tears softly rolling down my cheeks. "Go ahead, kill me."

I watched in horror as Shaun pointed the gun at me, his hand shaking. He began to look away, placing his hand on the trigger. "I -- I can't." He dropped the gun on the ground, looking back at me. "I can't. I love you."

"I love you too, but..." I was cut off by Liam's shouting.

"Skulls!" He yelled, taking out his rifle. "Get ready, Y'all!"

I looked over to the building, watching as the group of skulls slowly walked out of the building, with their guns drawn. One of them took off their masks and aimed the gun at me. "You," he said, looking down the sights of his pistol. "I know you did it, Bloodrayne."

"How do you know my name?" I screamed. "How?"

"Kill her, she's a threat to the skulls." Before I could even do anything, I felt a bullet in between my eyes.

*Liam's POV*

"No!" Shaun screamed, picking her up. "Please don't go, Blood."

"It's too late, Shaun. She's dead," I said, patting his shoulder.

"You motherfucker." He picked up his gun and began firing at the skulls.

"You don't know what's real." She said, rising from the ground. "Death is an illusion. " The fire went around her body, her eyes glowing bright red. "I will avenge all of those that I've lost." She suddenly went up in the air, the fire becoming bigger. "Liam?" Her voice became amplified. "Let's do this. I think you'd need to get on the higher ground, just in case."

"Why?" Caden asked.

"Oh, you'll see." She screamed like a demon, the low and high pitches connecting to sound like a demonic screech. She held out her arms as an entire horde of infected passed by us, going directly at the skulls. In the distance, I heard what sounded like nails on a chalkboard, with intense growling in between.

"She's in control of the infected." Max sighed in awe.

"Yeah, no shit." Nate threw a grenade off of his vest. "I think it's safe to go because I am not staying on this fucking jeep."

"Okay, let's go!" I shouted.

As the skulls were being mowed down by the infected, we all jumped off the jeep, blending in with the horde. "They're not noticing us," Caden whispered.

"We know," everyone said at the same time.

Bloodrayne had started throwing explosive fireballs at the building, the windows around shattering and falling onto the skulls.

"Fuck yeah!" We all cheered, sprinting towards the building.

As we had all ran inside the old UBCO, all of us were panting. "Either the infected are as fast as Usain Bolt, or we are fucking slow." Nate sighed.

"I think it's both," Max said.

"At least we got in without being eaten by zombies." Nate holstered his rifle, it resting on his shoulder. 

"Okay," Bloodrayne flew in with her arms out, floating down back on the ground. "Everybody, search the place. We gotta find the group."