The Girl With Metal Claws

War : Darker Than Black

ELLIOTT

Everyone stood frozen in their places watching Phoenix had fallen to the ground. She wasn't moving, neither anyone was brave enough to go near her.

But Elliott was shaken. His hands were trembling and the gun had slipped from his hand. He didn't think the gun would've had any effect on her. He was just trying to help her team while taking advantage of the privilege Asami had given her.

He made his way down the stairs, his chest heaving painfully. He was unaware of what he had done but he was scared for her. Even if he shouldn't be.

He realised what he had done had marked the end of Asami's reign of terror. She was just a human, after all, Elliott thought to himself. She was just a mortal and a bullet was enough for her.

As Elliott walked out of the building, everyone looked at him with shock, awe or just gratefulness. He had put an end to the madness.

"Elliott, you-", George started but he walked past him and headed straight to the one fallen body among all the others. The black hood covered up her whole body as she lied motionless. Taking a deep breath and ignoring everyone else's cautions, he reached out for her.

Slowly, he touched the robe covering her face and removed it off of her face.

Elliott withdrew his hand, standing back up. He took a step back, then another. His face carved in horror and his eyes snapped up. Bewildered, he spun around and looked everywhere but he could only see darkness and people's confused faces.

"What happened, Elliott?" Jack asked, trying to reach out for him but Elliott held his hand out to stop him.

"She's.. she's not Asami," Elliott said, panting.

"Who's Asami now?" Turner asked, frustrated.

"Phoenix. This woman is not Phoenix. Phoenix is still alive, nothing has been solved yet," Elliott cried out. All his inhibitions were coming true being his worst nightmare. That's when the feeling of being watched crept up against him for the first time. He realised Asami hadn't been there all along.

She had just arrived and she was watching him. The real threat was around.

Elliott ran up to the woman he had shot thinking it was Asami and checked her pulses. Her heart was still beating.

"She's alive. Take her to the hospital somebody, quick," Elliott yelled.

"But-"

"No Fred, she's not Phoenix. She might've done all this after being compelled by Phoenix. Please, save her life," Elliott yelled out. He was holding himself accountable for the woman's condition. He had shot her and the memory was eating him up.

Garry ran up to the woman and picked her up. She was passed out but her breaths were shallow. He quickly ran to the nearest jeep and with the help of one of Turner's men, they drove away.

"Others, safe house, immediately," Elliott announced and they followed without questions. George didn't object because he trusted Elliott in his crazy and impulsiveness.

~

GARRY

Once the jeep started running with the wounded woman, Garry and two other, the noises started fading away. Garry felt a sense of relief as he left Bernsville behind. Even if Fred had repeatedly told Garry that he'd protect him, Garry felt selfish for relying upon him.

The woman's breathing rate had decreased by the time they were a few miles away from Bernsville and the hospital was still away.

"Can you drive faster? She's losing a lot of blood," Garry said, nervously tapping on his knees.

"I'm trying but I don't think she'll make it," one of the men said.

"We don't know that yet, so, let's try at least," Garry replied. He didn't know what kind of people those two men were but he didn't want to get into any more trouble.

A few minutes passed. The state of the woman couldn't be determined because she was barely breathing. She had black hair and looked young. Suddenly, the jeep drove above a bump on the road carelessly and something struck in Garry's eyes.

He could see the woman suddenly hyperventilating. He was gasping and panting with all she had, her chest rising and falling. Garry reached over to her and held her hand, panicking. The other two men watched anxiously.

"Hold on, please. Just a few more minutes," Garry murmured, praying. He didn't want to see another death right in front of him which was also caused by Phoenix. He was reluctant to let her end up like the others.

Steadily, the woman's heavy breathing slowed down. Before Garry could sigh with relief, he noticed her breath was dying. Like a burning candle, Garry watches her turn completely still. He touched her neck and found no pulses. She had stopped breathing, she had given up.

Garry closed his eyes, still holding onto her hand. He hated it more than he could explain.

"Should we go back?" One of them asked. Garry nodded. The car took a reverse and they headed back to Bernsville as per the orders of Turner and George.

~

Garry kept staring at her dead body as the car drove back to Bernsville. He was feeling remorseful for a reason even he couldn't explain to himself.

Just then, Garry leaned a little forward and stared into the woman's face. He frowned as he noticed a black fluid dripping out of the corners of her eyes. Slowly, the same fluid protruded out of her nose and the corner of her lips.

Garry watched in shock as slowly her arm started moving and twisting over along with her leg. He moved away from her body when he heard the sound of her bones cracking from her twisting arms and legs.

"STOP THE CAR!" Garry called out.

Her body started rising and her fingers clutched the seats of the jeep. She was starting to get disfigured.

When the others noticed, they stopped the car immediately and leapt out of the car door and into the dark highway roads. They stood and watched from afar as the woman started awakening.

~

ELLIOTT

Once Garry left, they gathered themselves together and were ready to head to the safe houses on the right-wing. There were about twelve more men left alive plus Elliott's team, Turner and Meredith. They were all unscathed till then, all the others were dead.

They slowly turned around and proceeded to leave. As Elliott was the last one to leave after checking around him for her presence, he heard a noise. It wasn't the sound of the scratching he was familiar with but it rather sounded like something breaking and low growls.

Steady on his feet, Elliott slightly turned his face to look behind him. He noticed movements and immediately turned behind to see the dead men rising.

Their bodies were ashen and rotting and their body was twisting with cracks sounding of their bones crushing. They were getting up. Elliott laughed in his mind at how horrible he sounded. The dead people were coming back to life like wounded animals. Clawing at each other, all of those several dead men got back up their feet. Speechless but fast on their feet, they advanced towards Elliott.

He didn't move an inch at the terrorising sight. He stood in his place watching the dead people walking towards him jostling at each other. His eyes were wide, inviting his end. He was waiting for him to get ripped apart, to finally get rid of all those troubles...

"You'll be safe," Asami's words repeated in his mind as he slowly started unbelieving them.

Just as the dead people were going to walk right into him, they parted ways and completely ignored him as they walked past Elliott. He turned around to look at where those people were headed. That's when he realised that his team and everyone else had also left in that direction.

As some sense knocked into him, he kicked off his feet and bolted towards them, tackling them and running far away to meet up with his group and warn them.

In a few metres, he could see Turner, George, Fred and the others. He ran with all he had till he caught up.

"RUN! RUN!" He wailed, gasping and sweating for his life.

"Why? What's wrong?" George asked, rubbing Elliott back to get him to calm down.

"T-there...", Gabrielle said, her shocked eyes focused beyond Elliott at the ground of bloody and rotten dead people charging at them. Once everyone saw it in their own eyes, all of them started running for their dear lives. It didn't need explaining as the low growls and grunts echo through the streets.

Everyone ran but two of the twelve men were gravely injured on their legs and one was shot in their arm. They lagged behind but no one noticed it. They decided that it was better to hide than to keep struggling. So, they entered an alley.

Elliott turned back just in time to see them entering the alley to hide. But just as he tried figuring out what they were doing, suddenly, the two men exit the alley once again with fear-stricken faces and tears in their eyes. Just as they tried running away from the alley, more walking corpses protruded out of the alley and pulled the two men back inside, blood splattering over.

The only thing Elliott's head was their shivering last screams. He shook his head, scared. There were way more corpses that were hiding around. They weren't safe.

No one was.

~

George locked the door tightly of one of the safe houses as soon as they entered. Except for the two injured men who were caught by the corpses, everyone else was inside. But they were so terrified that they couldn't even move their muscles.

Isis, Meraki and Nish weren't given any orders to do anything but it seemed like now was the time they were needed. Without discussing much about the events that they had faced earlier, they jumped right into what they should do next.

"We have very limited men to fight physically so I'd suggest we keep them safe," George advised, blowing some hope onto the poor men minds.

"Let's try to burn them with my fire," Meraki said, eager to utilise her strength. Everyone looked at each other thoughtfully.

"We can try that," Gabrielle said. "Meanwhile me and Meredith, we can create a chanting spell to try and bound Phoenix wherever she is."

Gabrielle glanced over to Meredith for her agreement and she nodded even if she looked a little conflicted. So did Turner and his men. But that was to be expected. The plans did sound baseless.

Fred got up and placed his hands on the table.

"Listen to me very carefully. Each and every one of you would follow through the plan, you understand?" Fred crooked his eyebrow and everyone nodded.

The orders were,

Turner's men would be their backups. Elliott, Nish, Isis and Jack would start barricading the exits of the locality completely. Meraki would go with Fred to try and burn the corpses. Gabrielle and Meredith would create the spell while George and Turner would coordinate.

The plan was laid out but the only way for it to succeed was having the courage to execute it and walk home safely when the sun rises..