***NEED WORK

Zeik’s POV

A weird calm had settled over me in an instant at Ava’s words.

Zavius had made it…

They had to be alright now; it was Zavius we’re talking about! He’s strong and able; if anyone could help Darvien and Sarvwen now, it’s him!...

Then my mind went back to the image of Sarvwen falling, his body already limp…

I felt sick to my stomach.
Zavius had made it…but was that enough?
Maybe…maybe…

Maybe he was a minute too late.

“Zeik.”

I jolted with a start, my mind snapping out of the haze.

Ava was scanning out surroundings with her sharp gaze. She looked back at me, her expression unreadable.
“Don’t let your guard down.” she warned. “This is neither the time nor place to think negatively, Zeik.”

I stared at her, still managing to be shocked at her smooth composure and her accurate reading of my inner turmoil. I was rendered completely speechless.

Then I saw Ava’s expression soften a bit.
“They are here and they are alive. We will find them.”

My heart gave another jolt at her sure words.
This feeling… I know this feeling…

I believe her.

I took a deep breath, forcefully shoving the dark memories to the darkest corner of my mind.
“So…where could they have gone?”

Ava sank down into a kneel and pressed her hand into the ground.
“With Sarvwen and Darvien both physically critical in condition, they couldn’t have gone too far.” she said. “The smartest route to take in their situation is to hide their traces and mute their presence.”
“Mute their presence.” I echoed. “So they're hiding.”
“Yes, in a sense.” Ava replied. “This is rather a disadvantage for the two of us trying to find them.”
I felt myself scowl, anxiety building.
“What disadvantage?” I nearly snarled.
Ava was still crouching down to the ground, reading and deciphering the embedded tracks.
“All maneuvers and steps the three make is to make sure they cannot be tracked down by the enemy. This means that they would not have left anything that could be trailed back to them.” she said. “Naturally, that means we will not find much traces to work with.”
“Then how the hell are we supposed to find them?” I demanded.

I heard Ava breathe out quietly, her posture reflecting her intense focus.
“I will find them.” she promised.

I felt my skin buzz as the Energy flow around Ava shifted and became faster.
I didn’t know what she was planning, or what kind of trick she had up her sleeves to find them. All I could do was just stand by and wait, trying not to twitch so much.

Then suddenly, she snapped back to her feet, her body blurring as she shifted in a new direction.
“I found a trace.” she said. She pointed to the right. “It’s about thirty-three miles south from the Plaza, just twenty eight miles that way from here.”

With that, she started off, charging ahead full-speed. I dove after her, just half a second after her lead.

We slipped through the silent empty streets, leaping over the buildings that stood directly in our path. As we jumped from roof to roof, I started to notice a change in the scenes.

The buildings in the area were starting to be more organized in rigid straight rows on either side of the unpaved road, making our path much easier to maneuver in.
But they were all much older and run down than the other parts of town, and building were all identical. The same, uniformed rows of old red-brown crumbling brick buildings stood one after another as we swept through the ghost town. And as we went, the more broken and crumbled the building became.

Ava leaped onto yet another flat roof, before coming to a halt. She lifted one hand up, signaling me to do the same.

“Careful,” she warned, barely over a whisper. “They are close.”
The way she spoke, and the way she stood guarded told me she wasn’t talking about our friends.
“Who?” I hissed back, even though I knew the answer.

Ava didn’t answer. Her full attention was on the scene before her as she slowly crept to the edge of the rooftop we were standing on.
“Zeik, keep your eyes open for any and all movement.” was all she said.
“What?”
Ava didn’t glance back as she set herself to spring.
“Stay here.” she ordered, and then she jumped.

Stay? I’m not a fan of that idea!

Instinctively, I rushed forward, stopping obediently at the edge of the roof.

Ava was down close to the ground in a crouch on the next building over---or rather, what was left of it.
The roof was completely caved in, the walls of the corner completely gone, revealing the old interior of the structure through the gaping hole. Crumbling bricks, dust and scrap debris were scattered around Ava, reflecting the degree of deterioration.

What was she doing?

“Ah---” I started.

Ava threw a warning glance my way, just as I was about to call out to her. She lifted a finger to her lips, signaling me to stay quiet.
I stopped, obeying her silent order.

Ava slowly straightened to a stand, completely soundless in her movement. She stood completely still, alert.

The space immediately grew heavy with tension, the weight of nerves and unease settling down on my shoulders. The wind howled in a low hollow sound in my ears, like restless spirits of the massacre.
I shuddered at that last thought, my mind involuntarily going into a flashback of gory images.

The creature that were after us.
…its hollow, black eyes.
…its fleshy vines.
…and the bloody claws that took a death grip on Alicia…

Something small and hard tapped and bounced off of my chest, before falling to the cement surface below my feet. A small pebble...a flying pebble?
I looked up, startled.

Ava’s weary, somewhat scolding gaze caught my stare. She brought one index finger up to her temple and tapped it once.
Focus, she seemed to signal.

How the hell does she know where my mind is? Am I that expressive?

I grimaced, shaking my head roughly.
“Sorry,” I mouthed.

Ava was still gazing at me when a weird chill crept up on me. I bristled, when I recognized the sensation.
Ava’s gaze immediately hardened, flickering oddly as she turned her attention sharply back to her surroundings. I saw her stance become very stiff, the tension going wild like needles against my skin.

I didn’t like this, not one bit.
….Something was going to happen. Something bad.

Anxiety bubbled in my gut, suddenly feeling very unsafe where I stood. Paranoid, I looked around myself, automatically searching for the threat.

It was too quiet, too still….like it was seconds before a destructive storm.
Like seconds before something…just something---

“Zeik!”

I jumped a mile at Ava’s sudden shout and turned back to her.

Ava’s body was already moving, her frame twisting. I turned just in time to see her kick up a long, broken steel pipe from among the debris. Another blurring movement and her shoulders were turned towards me, her right arm whipping to the side.

I opened my mouth to shout something, when something whistled sharply and painfully past my ear. And then:

Thud.

The dull sound of something piercing into flesh broke through the tension, just inches from my back.

I wheeled around---

I felt my chest fill with an icy feeling like I was drowning in ice water…a feeling I haven’t felt in so long.

Icy cold fear flooded through me as I stared into the blank, empty and lifeless eyes of the vine creature, her black eyes sucking me into the abyss.
“Oh…aaahhh.” she moaned, the sound echoing through her blue quivering lips.

I couldn’t move, trapped as minutes of the dark, empty senselessness continued on.
I couldn’t get away---

“Move, Zeik!”

I numbly felt myself turn back at Ava’s command. I suddenly realized then that my timeless torture lasted none but a few seconds.

Ava shoved her footing firmly into the ground, stopping her body’s momentum from the throw. She sank down into the ground, her black trench coat whipping as she got ready to jump.
There was a low rumbling sound and then a loud crash as the floor below Ava cracked. I saw her eyes go wide with shock as six thin blurred shadows shot up around her. Before I could blink, she was bound, rendered immobile by fleshy vines.

“Ava!” I bellowed

I saw her grimace, struggling to free herself. She had managed to get one of her tangled hand to take hold of the vine that had snaked around her neck in a choke hold---
The vines tensed and yanked Ava through the breaking floor, and whatever remained of the building followed after her. Great clouds of dust shot up in a roar as it threw crumbs of metal and cement into the air.

“Ava!” I bellowed again.

Shock left very little space for any other emotion as I stood there staring at the flow of thick dust before me.
Ava… Ava was taken… that Ava---

A sick, wet sucking noise came from behind me, the sound completely out of place.
I braced myself and twisted around and my chest still clenched tightly at the sight of the feminine pale blue face that blankly stared at me with its black empty eyes.
The noise was still going, making my skin crawl in disgust.

That was when I noticed Ava’s steel pipe----protruding from the creature’s side.

The pipe was slowly turning on its own, inching out from the flesh as it twisted smoothly without trouble. Black, ink-like substance clung to the pipe, the viscous material sucking at the gaping wound.
From the corner of my eye, I saw the creature’s hand twitch by her side. I flinched, instincts shooting me into the air and back away from her arms’ reach.

I was only drawing my short sword from its holster when I saw the creature dive.

Something sharp and fast swiped through the fabric of my uniform and ripped into the skin of my abdomen.
I heard myself yell as pain shredded through my muscles. I twisted back to my right, stumbling away to create the distance. Automatically, I pressed my hand down on my stomach and I felt something warm and wet seeping through my shredded jacket and between my fingers.
A quick glance down at my hand and I saw red.

“Damn,” I rasped out, my voice coming out strained.

This thing is fast…and strong.

A weird cracking sound took my attention to my right.
The she-creature was hunched in an abnormal position, her shoulders curling forward in a posture that would have been agonizing for a human being.
Her expression was blank and empty as she seemingly struggled to straighten, her whole body shaking. I could hear her spine cracking in protest from where I was standing.

One last crack and she was standing upright again.
I took a step back, tension and adrenaline pumping through me. I didn’t dare look away from her.

She lifted her hand up to her face, the hand still tensed into a claw. I saw dark red on her fingertips.
Slowly, she brought them to her lips and licked at my blood.

I bristled, disturbed and disgusted. A cold creeping sensation washed over me.
My hand drifted down to my short sword…only to find that it wasn’t there.

A shot of disbelief and panic pierced me, and I looked down at my waist to confirm.
It wasn’t there.

Another loud crunching sound ripped through the air with an unnatural ring. I looked up and saw that the she-creature had turned her attention back to me.
I took a step back to create more distance between us. The she-creature didn’t move, she just stared at me in that blank stare.

No sudden movements, keep slow…does this help?

Cautiously, I went to draw my right foot back when the side of my foot met with a solid surface.
I stiffened as I caught myself from falling back.
I glanced back quickly, and another horrifying realization struck me.

I was at the very edge of the building rooftop. I was completely cornered.

I swallowed the tight knot that had suddenly formed in my throat as I continued to glance from the ground far below and at my enemy.

Option, Zeik! What are the options?

I could just turn around and jumped off the roof here and now, the jump itself wouldn’t even hurt.
But my opponent was fast, and I can’t turn my back to her even for a second.
So what can I do?

The next thought that came to mind made me stop.

…kill her. Finish her off.

Easier said than done! How do I kill her? I don’t even know where my weapon had gone.
I have to kill her, but all odds were against me. I didn’t know my enemy’s weakness, but I knew mine.
I am not a long distance fighter, and so far, all of her attacks had not let me come anywhere close to her body. She was the one that cornered me.

Flip the table; corner her.

Again, how? I don’t even know where to target!
I clicked my tongue behind my teeth, hating this situation.

I guess first thing’s first---I have to draw out her weakness.

I glanced back over the edge of the rooftop again, trying to think of a plan. Something shiny glinted from the corner of my eye, the object caught on the wall just few yards down from where I stood. I craned my neck over the edge to get a better look at what it was.

There, stuck wedged between the brick wall and the rusty drain pipe, was my short sword.

“What the---” I spat, my focus completely thrown off. “How the hell did it get there?”

A sharp whistling shot through the air at my back, and I turned around---
---I twisted my right side back just in time to avoid being impaled by a group of pointed flesh vines that shot directly my way. I saw two that was trained at my torso shoot harmlessly to my right, missing.
But I felt the third one before I saw it.

Just as I leaned left, I felt something sharp graze my right cheek.

I felt myself hit the ground roughly, and I quickly rolled onto my feet. A sharp, pulsating pain that rippled through my abdomen told me I wasn’t healing.
“Vardavit!” I swore, taking on a defensive stance.
A brief glance at the vines told me they stretched from the long sleeve of her left arm. The next line of attack should be following not to far behind...
I braced myself to jump for it…and froze.

The creature was in the hunched, painful looking posture again, shaking. Now it was clear that she was struggling to recover.
Recover? From what? I haven’t touched her.

I thought back to the last time she had done that. It was right after she managed to get a swipe on me. She was hunched over and shaking afterwards then too.
Could it possibly be that she’s recovering from her own attack?

I watched cautiously as the she-creature struggled to straighten up again.

But why? The first one that attacked us in the plaza had no trouble coming at both Ava and I at once without a break. What was different here? And why was she struggling with just me?

A gust of howling wind swept across the rooftop, shoving a musty smell of dirt and dust in my face. I saw the dark fabric of the hooded cloak of the she-creature whip back against her thin frame.

What I saw nearly made me weak with horror.

The front of the cloak was shredded and torn, revealing a glimpse of her pale blue skin. In the middle of her exposed front was a huge flaw I wasn’t expecting to see---a big, vicious crack ran deep and wide diagonally from her mid sternum to her lower left rib, nearly splitting her in half. Ava’s steel pipe was still embedded in her right side.

How…how was she even able to move with a wound like that? What was keeping her alive and moving?

I felt something drip down my jaw, the substance feeling very sticky. I swiped it off with the back of my wrist without thinking.
It was blood, most likely from the cut I got when her vine grazed me.

Blood…

“No way,” I breathed, my eye snapping back to the she-creature.

The she-creature’s three flesh vines were retreating back to its body; its sharp points now limp. One had my blood on it.
It couldn’t be, it couldn’t possibly be---

I felt myself diving forward at her, charging.

The she-creature reached forward towards the bloody vine tip, stroking her delicate finger tips on the blood.
I was still yards away when she put her finger to her lips.
I skidded to a stop, horrified.

My blood…she was taking my blood…as her life source.

“A leech,” I hissed, realization sinking in.

The she-creature snapped back into life, her smooth quick movement regained.
She twisted her frame towards me, staring blankly at me.

Then I saw her dive, her body blurring into a black shadow.
I heard whistling, that sharp painful whistling, coming right at me.