Chapter 32: Unexpected Encounter
Layla and Zane stood with a feeling of benumb. The crushing weight of the sheer panic that zoomed through their bodies like an electric shock. The Apocrypha had made a totally unforeseen move; tricking humanity into seeking their own destruction. The Apocrypha obviously meant business. It seems their escape from Ellijay had really sent them over the edge.
It was however to be expected. The Apocrypha placed a lot of pride within their intelligence. Being totally humiliated by a group of humans must have hurt their pride beyond imagination.
"Layla, Zane... We need to hurry and get out of here." prompted Elio.
The two took a short while before they answered. Fear and shock working as a team holding their back their words.
"W-Where are we gonna go..? We're being hunted by both Apocrypha and humans alike now... We're not safe!" cried Zane.
"That's lame... are you just gonna give up then?"
Zane knees buckled as he staggered trying to regain his balance; "No... but this is too much... This is like twice the difficulty now!"
"Lame, I expected your determination to be stronger than that."
Layla took a deep breath trying to calm herself. She had now come to the realization that provoking the Apocrypha was not a wise choice. They did have the technology to wipe out the entire human race in a single swoop if they really wanted to. They had only been taking it easy on humanity because they wanted to have fun while slaughtering them. Layla had to make sure to be careful whenever she had an encounter.
"Zane, calm down... We haven't had that many human encounters anyway. Once we see humans we just have to learn to avoid them. It's a scary thought but when you really look at it, the playing field hasn't changed that much. We get to the Caribbean and find a small island to hide on. Nothing major has changed." Comforted Layla.
Zane took constant deep breaths. He settled his breathing and his pounding heart. Layla standing before him with a reassuring look across her face.
"Right... Thanks Layla..."
"Okay, we need to hurry and leave before a chimera dog picks up our scent." hurried Elio.
They didn't dare to waste another second. They scuffled through the fallen items picking up what they could carry. It was difficult since they didn't have as much as a bag to pack the items in.
They then rushed through the door as swiftly and quietly as they could. The crunching of the snack bags in their arms and pockets singing along with their movement. It was completely irritating as it could easily give their position away.
The three hurried and made themselves back toward the ambulance which was parked quietly in the darkness a few feet in front of them. They never thought they would be so grateful for a lack of light. Even the moon was covered by an endless sea of clouds. Their eyes had to be desperately trying to adapt to their environment.
"Wait..." prompted Layla as she got herself in a crouching position.
Zane and Elio quickly did the same.
"What is it?" asked Zane in a whisper.
Layla looked closely at the ambulance. She neither saw Nick or Serenity which had made her suspicious.
"Zane, what's your intuition telling you right now?"
Zane pondered for a bit as if trying to discern what his intuition was telling him. He looked up into Layla's eyes and shook his head; "I'm not completely sure but there's a slight feeling that we're being watched."
"Okay shit... That's bad..."
"We're still basically in the open, we should probably try to get into the ambulance before we're attacked." added Elio.
Layla's uncertainty plagued her like a swarm. Where was Nick and Serenity? She bit her lip in frustration as Elio nudged her to hurry. She reluctantly crept up towards the ambulance alongside Zane and Elio. The snacks constantly crunching within their arms.
Layla made her way over to the drivers door. She glanced over at Zane as if saying 'here we go'. She took one final breath and began pulling on the door handle. Suddenly, she heard a sudden crunch. She shivered as she looked down to realize it was just a snack that had fallen from her arms. She slowly outstretched her arm to pick up the fallen snack.
Zane immediately felt his intuition spike alerting him of instant danger. Before Zane could even release the slightest sound, he heard Elio shout on top of his voice;
"Layla! Zane! Get back!"
Layla had super fast reflexes. She dropped all the snacks in her arms and made a giant leap as a rotten arm reached out from underneath the ambulance almost latching onto her leg. Zane was however not as fortunate. Due to his leg injuries, he was unable to move fast enough as one of the hands latched onto his leg pulling him under the ambulance.
"Shit! Zane!" cried Layla as she ran over to help him.
"Layla! No, don't go near them!" screamed Elio. For once he actually seemed genuinely concerned.
Layla however couldn't just leave Zane to be taken. He was far too important to be left as food for the Apocrypha. She latched onto his arms pulling back with all her might. Zane groaned and kicked trying desperately to get away.
"Damn it! Elio give-" before Zane could finish his statement, his voice came to a dead stop. His eyes became blank and his resistance became null. It was as if he was caught in a trance. Layla quickly noticed this as her heart came crashing against her chest.
"Layla! Don't look into their eyes! They're Rank 4!" warned Elio with a hint of worry in his voice.
Layla's body began to tremble; anxiety and fear taking control. This was beyond bad. She patted her pocket for the surgical scissor that Elio had given her earlier. She felt a metallic bulge in her back pocket and quickly got the scissor out. By this time, the sheer strength of the Apocrypha was dragging her along with Zane mere inches away from underneath the ambulance.
"ELIO!" she shrieked. She needed his help but he was just standing by giving warnings like that would help the situation.
Finally, Elio ran over with his surgical knife and plunged it into the arm of the Apocrypha. It cried with an extremely irritating shriek as it released it's grasp around Zane's leg. Layla pulled Zane back until his body fell over on her. She scurried to get to her feet as she watched two figures climb from underneath the ambulance. Their bodies were like the corpse of rotten humans with white bandages stained with blood wrapping around them from head to toe.
They basically represented mummies from Ancient Egypt.
"Come on! We need to run!" panicked Elio.
"We can't! Zane's caught in their hypnosis!"
"Leave him behind!"
Elio grabbed onto Layla's arm trying to pull her alongside with him. Layla refused to move without Zane. She slapped the hand of Elio from off her and started pulling Zane along the ground.
"You're both going to die if you take him with you! I thought you were the type to put your brain before your heart!"
"Shut up! If you wanna run then go by yourself! I'm not leaving Zane by himself!"
Elio looked up feeling extremely agitated for once. Layla noticed this and silently questioned it in the back of her mind. He was never usually scared of the Apocrypha, even the Rank 3 never seemed to scare him. So why was he so afraid of the Rank 4? Was it because of the abilities they had?
Layla had to quickly snap herself out of her chain of thought. To her surprise, the Rank 4 were extremely swift. They looked old and rotten but that didn't seem to affect their physical capabilities whatsoever. They lunged at Layla, forcing her to drop the body of Zane to defend herself.
The Apocrypha's nails were extended like long needles. One slashed at her face as she jumped back dodging. Her foot got caught onto Zane's unconscious body as they were swept from beneath her. Her hair fluttered in front of her as she fell flat on her back almost hitting her head.
Elio stood frozen clenching his teeth as if not knowing what to do. It was obvious she couldn't depend on Elio to aid her. One of the Apocrypha came down slashing at her head. It's nail grazing her cheek as she rolled herself out of the way.
"How dare you humiliate the Apocrypha! Your deaths won't be pleasant!" declared one of the Apocrypha in a hollow voice.
Just then, they heard a loud scream as if someone was charging at them. Layla looked up to see Nick slamming a baseball bat into the head of one of the Apocrypha with a huge 'Bang'. It fell to the ground with a huge dent in it's cranium. Purple blood spewing from it's body as it reformed into a white colored Apocrypha with dark eyes.
The other Apocrypha lunged at Nick slashing it's sharp nails at him. Nick placed the baseball bat in front of him to defend himself from the lethal attack. He was astonished as the bat was cut in two. The Apocrypha shrieked in rage as it went in for the kill. Elio had finally decided to do something as he plunged his surgical knife into its head. He stabbed it repeatedly until every drop of life was drained from its body.
Nick took a huge breath of relief as he looked up at Elio, "Bro thanks for that..."
"Anytime friend!"
"Nick! Where's Serenity??" inquired Layla with worry in her voice.
"I'm right here"
Layla looked over to see Serenity walking over to them perfectly fine. Zane was also regaining consciousness as he rubbed his head groaning in pain.
"Thank heavens you're okay!" cried Layla as she hugged him in her arms.
Zane felt like he was about to be sucked up into another trance as Layla's sweet perfume penetrated his nostrils.
"Thanks... you saved me..." he mumbled with appreciation.
"Careful next time you idiot!"
"Okay you two! We need to get going. A lot of noise was made which means other Apocrypha are bound to appear. Let's get going like right now!" demanded Nick.
No one argued as they hurried and climbed into the ambulance. They also made sure to secure the snacks so they wouldn't end up starving. Layla fired up the engine and turned the ambulance back onto the road. She made sure to keep a steady speed so she wouldn't be caught off-guard by anything unexpected. Zane sat beside her as he calmed his heartrate glad to still be alive.
"You okay?" inquired Layla in a caring tone.
"Yeah... Just allowing myself to recover from all of that you know..?"
Layla smiled at him warmly. Zane felt his heartrate speed up once again as he looked into her beautiful smoky-grey eyes. All his effort to keep himself calm instantly washed down the drain.
Elio interrupted their intimate moment with a question to Nick; "Where were you two?"
"We went to hide in the mall. After you guys left, we saw strange movements as if we were all being watched. That's when I decided to take Serenity with me and go hide. It was a good call because after that those two Rank 4 came out of nowhere and hid themselves underneath the ambulance."
"And you didn't even try to warn us??" scolded Layla.
"To be fair, we didn't even know where you guys went until we heard all the noise you were making." added Serenity.
"So did you see what the Apocrypha broadcasted about us?" inquired Zane dimly.
Nick and Serenity went silent for a short moment. They knew that was in no way a good thing. Humans had to be hunting them down at this point.
"Yeah... Lets try not to dwell on that though... On the bright side I found a good ole baseball bat! Well it's half a bat now since that Apocrypha skewered it..."
Everyone laughed trying to raise their dim spirits. It was a bunch of forced laughter but it was better than sulking. Layla looked at Elio through the rearview mirror before asking him a question;
"Elio, why were you so scared back then? I never thought you'd be so scared of the Apocrypha given everything that's happened so far..."
"It's not important... We all freeze up sometimes don't we?" He smiled but it was obviously partially forced. Layla decided not to press the topic since he obviously did not want to discuss it.
As Layal directed her eyes back onto the road, she heard Zane shout on top of his voice.
"Layla! watch out!"
Layla's eyes glimpsed two girls running across the road desperately trying to get away from something. Layla allowed her reflexes to do the work as she swung the ambulance wildly trying to dodge the two girls. The sound of cracking bones and the splattering of blood came into play. They had ran over something but the question was what?