Hostage

____________________GRIMM's POV___________________

"Are you ready Cher? We should head out soon. Otherwise, we won't make it. The Apocalypse is in two days and I bet our brother has a lot of changed plans." I told Cherubim

"Yeah yeah… I'm almost done putting on my battle suit. Did you already wear yours?" She asked

"Oh shoot! I forgot! Hurry up so I can change." I urged

"You and Dwayne are really alike in more ways than one, you know?" She teased

"Shut up! You're saying it as if you're not the same as well." I rebutted

"No way! I'm nowhere like you two!" She tried yelled from the comfort room of our hotel

"Just hurry up will ya?!" I cried out to her while leaning against the door

She then opened the door making me fall on the restroom floor butt first. What was that for?

"I'm all done brother your turn!" She exclaimed in a mocking tone

"What is wrong with you?!" I asked while rubbing my butt in pain.

"You're so clumsy brother… it makes me doubt that you were the second most powerful survivor in the apocalypse back then. *sigh*" She teased again

This little brat… I'm gonna… Nevermind… I better start preparing.

I then started putting on my battle suit and checked my ring one more time to make sure that everything was there. I then changed the appearance of my suit. Our battle suits can camouflage its armor appearance into something we like so we didn't need to change in the apocalypse. Not having this armor was going to give us a guaranteed death when we get mulled by many decays. In short, we look like we were wearing regular clothes but we are actually wearing armor.

I was now wearing gray skinny jeans with white sneakers. And on as for my top, I was now putting on a red V-neck shirt with a black leather jacket to top it off. As for Cherubim, she was now wearing white sneakers with short gray shorts with a mint green tank top. And to top it off, she was wearing a denim jacket.

The atmosphere was now getting tenser as we both realized that this was no time to joke around but a time to really prepare.

I then looked at her and gave her a smile as I asked if she was ready to go. She gave me a smirk. And before she could respond, a loud scream was heard a couple of rooms away.

I then gave her a look signaling that we should check it out. She understood and gave me a nod.

The door to our hotel room was slowly opening as I was taking a peek as to what was going on. A middle-aged man was standing outside the hotel door three doors down. On his right hand was a gun and his other hand was around the neck of a girl. She was being dragged her outside the room. The girl was about our age and was wearing a yellow dress with white sparkling heels. The gun was being pointed back and forth between the girl and the room. Judging by that, there must be people inside the room.

The man begins to ask for demands as he yells, "Give me the owner of the hotel right now! And prepare a vehicle for us! Or else!!!"

He points the gun to the head of the girl and pressed it hard against her right temple.

"I'll blow her brains off!" He continued.

THIS WAS A HOSTAGE SITUATION!

The woman was now crying and weeping as she begged for her life. The man then puts the muzzle of the gun on her mouth as he says, "Shut up woman! Or do you want a hole on the head to go with that pretty dress of yours?!"

The woman was practically weeping hard. Not good. The man was practically losing his sense of humanity. I looked over the room across ours and saw a woman peeking while talking with someone on the phone. She must be talking to the police, not that it'll change anything.

I then slowly closed the room and told Cherubim as to what was going on. We both assessed the situation and we realized that we're both stuck here until the commotion would calm down. We didn't have time anymore! We were definitely running out of time.

We waited patiently for a few hours and then suddenly…

*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!*

A large explosion happened and it shook the building hard.

"What the hell was that?!" Cherubim asked

"I don't know… wait here, I'll go check it out."

I slowly peeked behind the door to see what was happening. The man collapsed on the ground together with the rest of the hostages. And in the far end of the hall way were rubble and building debris. It must've come from the stairway. This guy must've blown the stairs knowing that the police were coming.

Great! We're stuck here now!

Our only way out is blocked by the debris. Now what do we do? This guy tried to create an explosion, and couldn't even control the blast. Is he an Idiot or something?! Or is he just an amateur?!

*Sigh*

I then told Cherubim what happened and she face palmed herself. Yeah, she had the right to. I took a look again just to see if he was awake. But to my horror, a group of men dressed in black, walked towards the collapsed people. They then helped the guy up and dragged him to the side. As for the hostages, they were now being tied up. Then a phone started ringing.

One of the guys' phone rings and he answered it.

"Yes, we have them right here." He said

"If you want them safe, prepare 3 vehicles behind the building in the alley. And put the owner of the hotel in one of the cars. And as we escape, don't follow us. Otherwise, we'll make the building go boom. My men are guarding the entrance to the building so don't try anything fishy." He demanded and then he hung his phone up.

This is getting serious…

"Cherubim… we'll never get away at this point." I told Cherubim.

"Let's just wait and see…" Cherubim replied

We then waited…

A day went by and the police and the hostage takers were just going back and forth. What is taking them so long? Ugh! If this goes on, we won't make it. We'll have to stay here and the apocalypse would start. And that's tonight!

"I can't take it anymore!" Cherubim yelled

"SHHHH! They'll hear you!" I whispered to her

"What are you afraid of?! We have the battle suit you dummy! And weren't we trained for this?!" She exclaimed

I then remembered that we were indeed trained for this. We were also kidnapped a dozen times in order to know what to do in certain situations and this scenario in front of us was just a basic test for us.

As I was lost in my thoughts, Cherubim already went out stomping her feet. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry as I smiled wryly at her. I then went out and stood beside her as guns were now pointed at us. There were 12 men all in all in that cramped hallway, and all of them were now aiming at us except for one guy who was on the phone. It's probably the police again…

"Give me the damn phone now… I'll handle the negotiations…" Cherubim said.

"And who might you be?" The guy on the phone asked

"Someone who's going to kick your butt if you won't give it to me…" Cher answered ignoring the question and the situation

"I see…" the man said

*BAAAANG!*

A gun shot rang in the hallway as the body beside me fell…

I then turn to look at Cherubim as she was now lying on the floor.

The man then chuckled and said, "Now then, be good boy and co– "

"How long are you going to play dead?" I asked

"Eh?" The men were now confused

"ta-ta-tat-ta aaaahhhhh…. That actually hurt…" Cherubim said as she slowly stood up and dusted herself.

"It's your fault for rushing in…" I lightly scolded her.

"Hee-Hee" She gave me an innocent smile

"What's going on?! How come you're still alive?!" The man asked in confusion

"Listen punk, I asked for a phone. You better give it to me right now." As she said that her phone rang and she took a look at it

"Nevermind…" She said

She then started talking on the phone with the caller while pacing back and forth.

"Hello inspector… Yes, I'm inside the building… Yes I'm fine… uh-huh they're in front of me… the hostages? Don't worry… They're safe. I understand. Listen, is it okay if I kill these people? It would be self-defense right? No? Hmmm… Okay then… can you get here in 5 minutes? My brother and I have been waiting for a day now and we're way behind schedule. Yes… Thank you inspector! See you in 5 minutes! Yes, we'll keep them safe… Yes… No killing… understood." She said this casually in a mocking voice and hang-up.

"Inspector McGarthy?" I asked

"Yep" She said with the sound of the letter P popping.

She then held out her fist in front of her as if she was asking for a fist bump. Afterwards, she slowly opened her hand and a bullet fell.

The men were now dumbfounded as they watched us.

"Orders?" I asked

"Disable not kill. Keep hostages safe." She replied in a cold tone as if an android was set on "kill-mode"

"Roger that." I confirmed

I placed my gaze on the men in front of us. We were now beginning to emit a dark killing intent. The boss noticed what was going on and commanded his team.

"DON'T MOCK ME!" The man said and they began firing.

We rushed towards them while doing a zigzag to avoid most bullets. The bullets that hit us didn't affect us that much because of our battle suits.

"Man… having a normal body sucks…" Cherubim complained pouting her lips while beating the men into a mushy pulp.

"Quit complaining! Just do your job!" I said as I was beating the guys up as well.

"Aye!" She said.

The boss was now running away as his men were being beaten almost to the point of death. Cherubim then ran after her him and drop kicked the man from behind. The man was now crawling away from her.

"MONSTER! They are monsters! MONSTERS! AAAAAAH!" The man began to go crazy as he frantically crawled away from Cherubim

"Heeeeeey… that's not very nice…" she said while pouting at the guy

She's toying with her…

"Wh-who are you?! Why are you doing this?!" The man asked while trembling in fear

"Who me? I'm Cherubim Ricks… Owner of this hotel… and you're just paying the price for destroying part of this hotel and interrupting the peace of the costumers." Cherubim replied.

The man was speechless… she must've been shocked that we were the owners of this hotel. Cher was now slowly walking towards him.

"Dad said not to toy with our prey…" I yelled at her

"I'm not!" She turned to look at me and then walked towards the man

"Don't worry… This'll only hurt a bit." She said with an evil smile

"Stay away you ugly monster!" He said

Uh-oh… Not good. I'd better stop her now

"ug…ly…" She stuttered in a cold dark voice.

"Ummm… Cher? I think he didn't mean that—" I tried to console

"AAAAAH! STAY AWAY UGLY MONSTER! DON'T COME NEAR ME! AAAH! The man yelled

Not helping dude! Well… goodbye poor soul… I just smiled wryly as Cherubim almost murdered the man.

*THE NEXT SCENE IS TOO GORE SO I SENSORED IT… SORRY… Hehehe*

"Uhhhh Cher… I think he got the point…" I tried to stop her

"SHUT UP!" She commanded in a cold dark voice

"Yes ma'am…" I piped up as I watched her beat the man up.

I feel sorry for him. The police soon arrived and they stopped Cherubim from beating the man to death. He was almost dead when they brought him to the hospital. The man got away with all limbs broken and both of his shoulders being dislocated. All of his fingers were broken as well. I still get chills as I remember Cherubim break each of his fingers slowly. The man's face was barely recognizable as well. He long passed out from the pain. So if ever he did wake up, he would probably wish he was dead.

We soon helped in freeing the hostages in the hallway. The rest of the crew didn't want to run away and they soon revealed their motives in the planned kidnapping. Everything has settled down but we had 4 more hours left before the apocalypse begins. Since this was now an emergency situation, we both decided to rent a house at the edge of town and wait for the apocalypse to happen there. If you think that we're huge money spenders, well, we aren't. It's just that, money is useless in the apocalypse so better spend it on the preparations.

We got on the G55 and drove at the edge of town and parked it behind the rented house. Along the way, I made a device that retains all our memories from the past except the happy memories and our names. Good thing I remember the time jump device's blueprint from the previous jump. I based the design there. But instead of having to use a helmet, I miniaturized everything and made it into somewhat like a headset.

The house only had one floor and had two entrances: One at the front and back leading to the highway. Inside was a small living room connecting to the kitchen. The place had two rooms which was good for both of us. After we got inside, we boarded up the windows and installed locks on the doors. When everything was in good condition, we made one final check with our memory retainers and our equipment. We then headed to our rooms and waited for everything to start.

We played rock-paper-scissors and I lost… on purpose. This was to decide who was going to take the bigger room. It didn't matter since it was going to be destroyed anyway. I entered the room, put my comms and memory retainer on. I just hope it works though…

As time passed by the destruction finally came and I passed out…

___________________________

[System Reset Error. 80% of memories erased. Waking up host]

Suddenly… A sting came rushing in my body and I awoke from it.

"Owww…What was that sound? And what happened?" I said in a cracking voice.

Suddenly a beep entered my ears and streams of light flashed before my eyes sending me into a trance. While this was happening, I began to remember most of my memories, the important ones at least. And by the time I woke up completely from the trance, I finally regained my memories.

"HAHA! It worked! Man, I'm a genius!" I exclaimed

I then stood up and rushed towards the door to open it.

"Ash! You there Ash?!" I called out to her

There was no response…

I then checked the hallway and saw that her door was slightly open. My heart was now racing. Something was wrong. I then opened her door slightly.

"Yow Ash? Are you in here?" I said in a whisper

As I opened the door, I saw that no one inside. This was odd. Don't tell me she left. I then ran to the one of the windows facing the backyard and took a peek at the lawn. The G55 was still here which means she's still here. Where is she then?

*GRRRRRRR…*

Suddenly, I heard a low growl coming from the bathroom door near the living room. That can't be good…

I slowly crawled towards the living room and slowly took a look as to what it was. I then noticed that a big creature was now chewing on something on the bathroom door. There was blood all over the place.

No way… A Renegade?!! What's a renegade doing here?!

When I looked a little closer, I was horrified on what I saw.

There was an arm behind the renegade and it was a woman's arm!

No no no no… It can't be… Ash… It can't be…

Different horrible thoughts were now going through my mind as the sight of the arm was clearly visible to me. My Sister can't die just like that. And how in the world did this renegade get inside.

As I thought about it, rage began to surface in my heart. The idea of wanting to tear the zombie in front of me was now slowly manifesting. I must take revenge for my sister! I must!

I then took out an M14A out of my spatial ring and pointed it towards the monster which was now happily chowing down on my sister's remains. I knew it would probably be pointless to fight this thing since bullets were useless against it. But what did it matter? My sister was now gone.

As I was about to pull the trigger, a hand grabbed me by the neck and covered my mouth. I was then dragged to Ash's room, and as I was about to turn around to fight back, I saw a familiar face covering my mouth and putting one finger on her mouth giving me a shushing sign.

It was Ash! But how?!

"How are you alive?" I asked in a whisper

"Shhh… I'll explain later…" Ash replied in a whisper too

She then led me to her walk-in closet.

"Hiding here won't save us from that huge freak!" I whispered yelled.

"Give me a minute…" She said calmly

She then opened something from behind the door from one of the lockers revealing a stairway. He then dragged me towards it as descended towards the darkness. She then flipped a switch revealing a room with different equipment, guns, blueprint and a bed at the side.

"What is all this? When did you have the time to build this?" I asked her.

"This was dad's old rest house near the city. I purposely asked you to rent this place because I knew it. Dad was a mysterious man Grimm… You should know." She replied

"Then who was that girl who was being eaten a while ago?" I asked in a panic tone.

"Oh that's just a girl who I caught barging in days ago. She tried to steal food. I found out that she was harmless so I didn't mind her back then. She never noticed that both of us were in the house. But that girl was an idiot. She forgot to lock the door and hence, her dying in the hands of the renegade. You're lucky you woke up just before the renegade started rampaging inside the house." She explained

"Why is there a renegade this early in the apocalypse? And what do you mean 'days ago'? How long was days ago?" I asked in an angry tone.

What was happening? A renegade this early in the apocalypse? They're supposed to appear on the second year. It's only been days…

"I don't know brother… And as for how long 'days ago' is… that was 3 days ago." She answered

"3 days?! I was asleep for 3 days?!" I exclaimed in shock

She then held my hand gently

"Grimm, don't be surprised about this." She said trying to console m

e

"About what?" I asked

And her next words put me in a position of shock.

"You've been asleep for 2 weeks now…"

_________________END OF CHAPTER__________________