[Chapter Four]

She was now falling yet her mind had wandered somewhere else. The sky looked farther away while the rushing water seemed to grow closer. Pretty much everything at the corner of her vision blurred tremendously. She saw the same glowing yellow eyes peered down at her, accusing her of their loss. Her hair whipped against her body as she fell, her back facing the current. It seemed that time had slowed down for her to think. It was still raining; the clouds are dark grey despite the downpour that night. She felt the water hitting her back, slowly swallowing her whole until the tips of her nose went under the water currents. She kept her eyes open, still facing towards the sky despite pathetically sinking further down. Bubbles of oxygen arouse from her impact, she couldn't help but think that it was pretty. She couldn't hear anything else after the loud splash, it was silent and comforting. The water had long blurred her vision and she began breathing in water as she dazedly opened her mouth a little.

Kssssk….

“HQ---”, gunshots rang loudly throughout the building. Screams of horror and pain resounded as doors were being ripped open mercilessly.

Kssssk….

“Send back-up…”, the callers’ voice quieted down a little with fear and anxiousness.

Kssssk….

“HQ! Do you copy?” His voice cracked, sounding as if he was pleading with his dear life.

Kssssk….

“Mother bird is down. I repeat, send back-up”, he choked up a bit. Something was hovering over the door of the control room, seeing a shadow from the mirror in front of him.

Kssssk….

“Mother bird is----“, the speaker couldn’t’t finish what he was speaking. Still holding the communication device, his eyes wide in shock and fear. He turned his gaze below, a bloody hand pierced his chest. He felt warm liquid rising from his throat as red blood stained his shirt. His sweat trickled down from his brows and blood seeped from between his lips, he let out an inaudible gasp and choking noises before slowly slipping away into an endless slumber. The owner of the bloody limb slowly pulled his arm away from the still-warm corpse.

There was no mercy as each person screamed for fear and struggled to keep their lives. By 09:00, the once highly secured building had become a graveyard for those people who worked there. What remains of the dead were little and cannot be distinguished as the killers had taken it to their fancy to rip and eat whatever they could from the bodies. They had left the building after the massacre, moving in groups as they heard loud sounds from outside. When there was nothing in their sight, they stood in their place silently as blood and other fluids dried up from their rotten bodies.

Kssssk….

“Help is on the way…”

It took two days before anyone arrived, the help sent was too late. When they arrived, they were greeted by dozens of standing rotten bodies outside the building. They were not able to reach anyone from inside. When they tried to see whether there were survivors by using the devices, they were met with static. Those who had friends or any close relations to the people that worked in that building pleaded to wait for a week before leaving. They could not risk the lives of every single person on the team to retrieve their dead, but there could be the hope of deliverance to those who are still alive if they returned the call. Days passed, the weather was as harsh as ever. The hopes of the team to save were drenched and beaten down by the lack of response from the other side. When a week came, the tents that they have pitched and all their belongings were packed hurriedly. No one returned their call, it was safe to assume that everyone in that building has already died. They left with heavy hearts and thoughts of how those people died as they desperately tried to live.

“We’ll use the path we used to come here, it would not be beneficial for us to take another.”

“Yes, commander!”

“We leave at the soonest, the animals in this place are all agitated. Those wolves also seemed to be more active than before.”

“Sir, yes sir”

The team sent in response to the mayday were not well equipped nor did they have any vehicles they can use, they arrived at their destination on foot and they came back to their base on foot.

The little girl drifted unconsciously as the currents moved her along from place to place. Her old dress had become so tattered that it was unrecognizable anymore. Her skin was like a prune from being in the water for far too long. Pieces of her rotten skin had peeled off revealing the tissues underneath. Her body had traveled away from where she had fallen, the wolves also gave up on chasing her after one of them fell into the waters and was washed away by the current. The sun had shone brightly in the sky in contrast to what she had experienced. After drifting for a few days, she was luckily washed up on the river bank. There, she remained, her body still somewhat submerged in water and is decaying at an even faster rate. Marine animals nip at her flesh, feeding off with her body.

The warm heat of the sun urged her to stir from her sleep. She let out a soft moan before her eyelids fluttered away, revealing brownish pupils. It took her a few minutes of starring dazedly at one spot before she realized that she had survived the fall. She took hold of a few wild plants that were near her and pulled her body towards land and sat up carefully. She surveyed her body, she was not missing any limb, nor fingers or toes. A huge chunk of tissue from her calf was missing though, she knew that it must have been the reason that she could not move her feet as usual. Her skin color however changed from the pale death-like color into something pale and greenish. She was able to pull herself up but she could not walk without limping as she couldn’t move her left foot. She patted the pocket of her dress, sure enough, she felt the familiar shape of the necklace she had taken from the house.

She walked listlessly, still dripping wet with water, into a cleared path. The weeds were trimmed down and there were not many tree branches or twigs present to bump herself into. The birds flew above her but underneath the safety of the trees, aside from them, there were fewer animals that she encountered as she limped. There were no more gray clouds in the sky and the breeze had the warmth of the sun as it passed her by.

Rustle

Rustle

Without her knowledge, she had wandered near the camp of men wearing camouflage. Smoke rose to the air as they cooked the rabbit they had hunted for lunch and was the first thing she was greeted with when she stumbled upon the temporary camp. She saw that no one had noticed her movements just now and wanted to turn away. She didn’t want to be involved in anything just yet, she needed her memories the most. While she was lost in her train of thought, a hand swiftly stabbed a syringe on her neck and emptied the contents. She jolted when she felt something scorching hot began dispersing throughout her body.

“We'll take her as a sample”, was the last word she heard before losing consciousness again.