by David Tyne
"...Doesn't look like a concussion. You'll be fine." I shot upwards dramatically, forgetting for a second where I was. How long have I been lying on the stairs for?
I recognised the shadow’s voice, reeling it in for a closer hug. "S-Serah, you're okay… Where's Harry? Is everyone safe?" I turned my head to the tank and almost recoiled over the edge of the steps, which lacked a much-needed guardrail.
The shark was gleefully tearing something apart with its disturbingly sharp teeth, and judging from the deep-red cloud being filtered around the water, it wasn't another fish.
"That idiot fell in... He’s gone." It wasn't Serah's voice.
As I whipped my aching head around, I was startled to see the face of the boy we had left for dead in the parking lot. Pressing a towel to his bleeding arm, he appeared to have sustained some mild damage from the Pastor's shotgun.
This wasn’t Jermaine. He was carrying a familiar guitar case which he clicked open, revealing a large stockpile of stolen cash. It was the real Tomás, and from the pained look in his eyes, he must have already seen what became of his twin brother.
Before I could jump to any accusations, Tomás recounted what had happened for me as Millie and Harry took custody of Mitchell's shotgun, trying to figure out how it worked. Tomás apologised for swindling the money, knowing that Serah would be in trouble without it — he stressed that he had no choice.
Feeling guilty about leaving us hanging, he’d decided to come back and bail us out. Upon finding a Lost Jermaine in the parking lot, he quickly realised that something had went horribly wrong. After struggling to come to terms with his loss, he ended up killing his own brother.
I wanted to give him my condolences, along with my apology for not being able to save him, but Tomás kept talking past it, almost coldly. Having seen that the Harpy had followed us all the way into the ballroom, he searched for a way around until he found the entrance to the balcony above us. He motioned over our heads, up to the area which ran parallel to the tank’s rim.
"I saw that lunatic pointing the gun at her, and I knew that there was still a chance... I could make things right."
He winced as he removed the towel, allowing the grateful Serah to tend to his wound. The blast must’ve slightly grazed him, a narrow miss from such a widespread weapon.
"I didn't even think about it, really. Just chucked my guitar case straight at him. He saw me coming though, tagged me right in the arm. Still fell over the edge of the tank, and the girl — Serah, I guess — she got out of the way, just in time."
Tomás smiled gingerly, obviously worried about what I thought of him for some reason. I never actually cared about the money, but he was still trying to convince me that it was an honest mistake.
"...I'm not a bad guy. I'm definitely not the type to double back when I know I've made a mistake, either. I just couldn't go through with it, came back too late… Now I've lost my big bro. That’s my own fault, not yours."
I couldn't fathom how he was smiling, after putting an end to his own twin. While I held no grudge against the light-hearted musician, I thought it was best to let him deal with his emotions on his own.
"It's nothing,” I grumbled, waving him off. “If Serah can forgive you, then I don’t see why the rest of us shouldn’t. It's people like Banks, who created this situation in the first place — they’re the ones that don't deserve our sympathy."
Returning my thoughts to Banks and the crazy bat lady flying around the ballroom, I’d almost forgotten entirely. My stiff neck snapped towards Millie and Harry, eyes widening with alarm.
"Beth and Jamie! They're still back there, we need to go!"
I took one last look at the blood-filled tank, which contained unsightly floating organs and hunks of flesh. The ironic part was, had the Pastor not been leaking blood and pus from his ‘faithful’ bite wounds, the shark would have probably left him alone.
Sheathing my metal poker, we all ran back through the same corridor we'd came from, Tomás included — although I suspected that he just felt like going with the flow, rather than harbouring any attachment towards us. I crashed head-first into a young boy with a sharp object raised, thankfully just missing my throat.
"I-Idiot!” I yelled, wafting the weapon away. “Don't run with that... Wait, what the hell?! Didn't we tell you two to stay in the dressing room?"
It was Jamie and Beth, looking somewhat unnerved. The little girl swivelled behind the protective teenager, trying to deflect the blame.
"Mister, we had to leave! The fat chair man kept yelling at us, he was being super annoying!”
Having gained no understanding of why that meant they had to leave, I could only sigh. "Great. Well anyway, Serah’s okay now. We've got to find a way out of here, without that thing following us again. If we can somehow make it around the ballroom, it shouldn't even notice—"
Serah grabbed my arm forcefully, spinning me around. "No."
Her eyes glared into my soul, as though she’d experienced some philosophical revelation during her back-to-back hostage crises. After what we’d just saved her from, I couldn't even guess at what was going through her mind.
"What do you mean, 'no'?!" I barked angrily, shrugging her away.
Millie took a step beside Serah, for once agreeing with her. "Yeah. I won't run and hide anymore, either."
I searched their eyes for any trace of rationality; it took a few hazy seconds before their intentions were crystal clear. Out of cowardice, I hadn’t even considered such a path until now.
"You... You really think we can do it?" I blurted out.
Jamie stole glances between the three of us, wondering what we were talking about. "I don't get it. Are we staying here?"
Harry put his hand on the little man's shoulder, and Beth shook her head with a mischievous smile. Apparently she had gotten the message as well.
Our group's resident thug chuckled to himself, never tiring of our unconventional approach to survival. "Not even close, kid... We're going to slay a monster."
----
Pretty soon, we were all on the same wavelength — well, except for Tomás, who interjected at every point in our plan that we were 'suicidal nutjobs’'.
He was probably right, but after what we saw on that bridge... There would be no point in living anymore, if we simply fled our way out of this Aquarium.
Those monsters could be distributed anywhere, everywhere that Telos could extend its global reach. If all we could do was run and hide, we'd be backed into a corner. We needed to learn more about them — more specifically, how to kill them. We had to take back control.
"Are we all clear, then? Tomás, can you watch the kids for a bit?" Millie suggested, seeing his look of anxiety. He nodded hesitantly, still looking rather pale in the face of danger.
Harry flipped his knife out, almost excitedly. "If we pull this off, then we've got nothing to worry about! Ain't nobody that can mess with us!" As he discussed his own plan of action with Millie, I joined Serah in the blue-lit corridor as she peered inside one of the fish tanks.
"...I'm glad you're okay,” I breathed quietly. “That maniac Mitchell got what he had coming."
Serah looked down at the colourful clownfish, still reeling from the intense experience. "...I'm not so sure. I made him what he was, Daniel. If only I hadn't been so stupid when all of this started, telling Mitchell about the blood types—" I took her hand, stopping her in her tracks.
"—Then he would have found out some other way, probably through Burkley at the community centre. You didn't do anything wrong, Serah. We aren't the ones to blame, when good people make bad decisions. Now, do you know what you're going to do out there?"
She nodded, and re-asserted herself once more. "Alright, I’m ready. Let's move out!" With that, Harry, Millie, Serah and I walked out into the chaos which was occurring in the ballroom.
The Harpy had already claimed several victims, one or two of which had devolved into Lost while we'd been away. Harry quickly dispatched of them both wi
th his switch-blade, whereas Serah grabbed one of the dining chairs and smacked it down to create noise.
"Over here! Hey, look at me!!"
We were almost fearless... almost. While I was worried for everyone's safety, I remembered about my role in the plan as well. Serah had to lure the beast into the centre of the room, and that would be my signal to take charge.
The pasty naked woman flew above us in circles, stopping in mid-air to gurgle a horrific squawking sound before swooping directly towards Serah and her chair. She poised herself behind it, ready to ram the chair legs right into its wing. I ran to her defence with my metal poker raised, pretending for a moment that it was like a sword.
"That’s enough, get back!" Millie screamed, pumping the shotgun she'd swiped from Pastor Mitchell. If anyone knew a thing or two about guns, it would be the airsoft-nut Millie. I threw my poker at the Harpy as it approached, talons at-the-ready. Ducking down, I yanked on Serah and we slid across the dance floor, out of harm's way.
Regrettably, that was the precise moment Beth came scrambling into my field of view, loudly crying my name out.
I whipped my head around just in time to see Tomás and Jamie exiting the tank-filled corridor, along with a crowd of rather elegantly-dressed dead people. The Harpy saw the opportunity it had been given, using the distraction to flap away from Millie’s deafening shotgun blast.
"Beth, get out of here! Head back to the entrance!!" I bawled at the intrusion, horrified at the danger they were now exposed to — however, it was too late for them to make it past.
The Harpy had already chosen its target, gliding towards the vulnerable child with hungrily-drawn fangs.
22 | Last Dance
Beth’s sharp wailing only made the Harpy’s dive that much more accurate, almost licking its discoloured lips in anticipation. Without warning, Tomás threw himself in front of the small girl, raising his rectangular guitar case as though it was a warrior's shield.
"Niñita! Get behind me!" His voice wavered, unsure of his own abilities. She nodded, rushing behind the musician to use his body for protection.
I could tell Tomás was bricking it, but as the winged monster tackled him head-on, he held his ground. Roaring with all of the strength he could summon, he cast the beast grinding back into the centre of the room.
"Now!! It was in your plan, right?" Tomás barked at Millie, who snapped herself out of her trance and raised her shotgun.
"R-Right!! Get ready to move!"
The creature fought back ferociously, not even paying attention to Tomás as he tried to hold it in place. It took no notice of him, instead snapping its mouth ambitiously towards a disturbed Beth, protected by Jamie. Primed with his letter-opener, that cold stare in his brow told me that he was never going to freeze up like before.
Harry rushed behind them both, closely followed by the growing train of dapper Lost. Dragging the nearby beverage table into the undead crowd's way, he grabbed each of their heads and smashed their brains into the drinking glasses, shutting them down instantly.
I sprinted over with Serah to help alleviate the pressure; raising my metal poker, I impaled each of the Aquarium's elderly guests through their soft skulls, making it frighteningly easy to execute them. As the massive group of attackers began to dwindle, my attention returned to the struggle occurring in the centre of the ballroom.
With one very critical motion, Tomás raised his metal ‘shield’ over his head, narrowly leaving himself open for an attack. Forcefully, he brought the entire thing down on top of the Harpy's head, making it shriek as though it could still feel pain.
An almighty boom filled the chamber as Millie shot into the ceiling, and pumped her shotgun again. Another bang shook the entire room, and the sparkling chandelier that hung high above us was ripped away from its bolted supports.
The massive lighting fixture came crashing down with Tomás diving out of the trap's range, barely nabbing his bloodied guitar case in the process.
As the chandelier exploded all over the dance floor, shards of glass and metal threw themselves in almost every direction, thankfully not striking any of us. We waited for the dust to clear, praying that the monster was not as invincible as it appeared.
The Harpy tried to throw itself upwards and forwards with extreme urgency, not realising how impossible it was to escape from the incredible weight pinning it down. Its eyes were still persistently focused on Beth, who was no longer afraid of the monster. Instead, she showed a face of pity towards the woman-shaped creature.
"Mister Daniel… Please don't hurt her anymore. She needs to go."
I nodded, edging closer to observe the test subject; not as a terrifying monster, but for once as a human being, a tool used by Telos. Her colourless eyes appeared to be screaming the question 'Why?', but the only logical answer in my mind was ‘Because they could’.
Serah joined my side, removing the Harpy's dog-tags as she held them up against the ones she'd found relating to the Fenrir. Now able to see the full details, the two were almost identical.
Shez-Ident-0421
Ellen Warbler
Flesh Quotient: 0.32
Class: Harpy
"There it is again... It's higher this time. What do you think 'Flesh Quotient' means?" Serah asked, despite knowing that we were all stumped.The only new information I had gained from seeing those tags, was that each creature had a codename based on a particular mythological being.
I wasn't entirely certain, but the Fenrir might have had something to do with Norse lore, and the Harpy with Greek. Is that how Telos sees their own creations? As inhuman jokes?
"...Wait a second." Serah cautiously put her hand above the thrashing Harpy's left breast, sending all of us into alarm.
"M-Miss Serah, be careful!" Beth insisted, but the medical student's mind was already ticking. After around ten seconds or so, she unexpectedly turned with a startled look.
"S-She has a heartbeat!!"
I stared confusingly between the Harpy and Serah, not entirely sure what the implications were. Harry scratched his head, also not getting it.
"What does that mean? Don't the Lost have heartbeats?"
Serah shook her head, deeply concerned about the nature of these test subjects. "These creations — or rather, these people — they're clearly infected with an immensely-concentrated dose of the virus, but they aren't dead. They have the ability to infect normal people, just like the Lost can. What do you think that means?"
I took a step towards her, hoping that I was wrong. "The only kind of people who can’t die, when exposed to the virus..."
The med student nodded, and surprisingly enough, it was Millie who was the next to understand. She moved closer to the Harpy, observing its struggled breaths in disbelief. "It can’t be... All of those monsters outside, you’re telling me that those are the missing O-Negatives?! Oh God..."
Serah got to her feet, fixing her glasses after the long battle. "I think we know now, why Telos wanted to capture the O-Saints so much. SP. Burkley had gathered them all — gathered us — for the purpose of modifying resistant test subjects."
Harry clutched his switch-blade tightly, pushing Serah and I aside. "I figured it was something like that. Telos all but nuked the world, and they're still toying around with human lives?! Look at her... She's still alive in there, but there's nothing we can do, except..."
He patted the Harpy on the head as she snarled towards him, not appreciating the sympathy we all had for her existence.
The thug swiftly jammed his knife through her skull, dropping her to the ground. We mourned silently, her last breath fading with a hiss.
Ellen Warbler, the dog-tag read. Did she have a family? How long did she spend, in this inhumane state of mind?
She could rest peacefully now, for all it was worth.
----
When it was all done, we blocked the Aquarium’s door with scraps of plywood and empty fish tanks. Upon our departure, we wanted to make sure that no one would ever wander in there
again.
Having blown through the shells already in the shotgun, Millie stuffed the empty firearm into some dead woman’s handbag, deciding to take it with her anyway. I supposed if her old airsoft gun worked for scaring off attackers, a real shotgun would be ten times more effective.
We did stop by the dressing room to free Mr Banks, but unfortunately, he was already half-eaten and vaguely Lost. I felt no responsibility or guilt for what had happened, although I knew deep in my gut that the man didn't deserve to die, least of all like that.
Even so, I insisted that we didn’t put him out of his misery. We left the mobster tied to that chair, and Serah didn’t object, so that was how we decided to move on with our lives.
Outside, we came across the lifeless body of Jermaine, his cold-grey eyes staring into the concrete of the parking lot. The same position Tomás must’ve left him in.
After staring at the corpse for a couple of minutes, Tomás wiped his face with a weak laugh, apparently hating the fact that he was getting emotional. "...I'll take care of him. There's a garden over there I can bury him in, then I'll be back on the road."
He ran his bloodied hands through Jermaine’s short-black hair, not sure where to go from here. I didn’t realise he was addressing me, until I heard my name. "Thanks for being so cool, after everything I did to you guys. Daniel and Jamie, right? It really means a lot."
With that, he attempted to drag his brother's body all alone across the car park, to which I told him that he didn't have to do it alone. I took the legs, and brought him over to the grassy area that Tomás wanted.
Using my poker to rake back the soil, I began digging a hole which eerily reminded me of the one I had dug for Ian, with my bare hands. Tomás objected at every turn.
"...You don't have to do that. It's fine, I can take care of him myself. You guys should get back to where you were heading, before more of those freaks show up."
I shook my head, and was suddenly curious about the mysterious musician's motives. "Maybe I shouldn’t bring this up, but... you really needed that money for something, right? You gonna be okay from now on?"
