Chapter 35: The mound

(Ray)

Ray stood a few steps above Meghan with his mouth slightly ajar. He had no idea what had gotten into her all of a sudden. He never expected her to take the initiative to fight a Deathless. He was well aware of how much she hated the sight of blood. But there she stood, having skewered the faceless boy in one clean strike; posing with her spear like some action hero.

His emotions were all over the place. If they hadn't been in the middle of doing something important, he would have liked to just stand there and watch her for a while longer.

But instead, Ray stepped down next to her and surveyed the Deathless.

"Hmmm…" he said, "I was sure this one was an Erratic but he definitely seemed much less aggressive now. Could it be because it's night out? Nah… I shouldn't use this Deathless as the benchmark for all the others. He was blind, after all. I think he came because he heard us talking and crawling on all fours was the only way he could get up the stairs."

"Yeah, I don't think I could have killed him that easily if he could actually see me." Said Meghan, "He was a far bigger challenge for my mental state, though. I think I'm going to have some horrible nightmares tonight."

Ray shuddered, remembering the fear he felt when he first laid eyes on the faceless monstrosity creeping up towards them.

"Let's keep going," he told her, "We're almost at the ground floor. We'll have some actual specimens to observe soon enough."

Meghan groaned as she descended the stairs after him, "Can you not talk about them like they're some new animal species that you're curious to study?"

Ray didn't answer. Somewhere in his mind, he had a similar notion about the Deathless. Not that they were a new type of animal, but rather a new type of human. An Evolution of the species. And judging by how things had gone down at Prime, they appeared to be the dominant ones.

Soon, the two of them reached the ground floor. Ray shined his light through the transom window and peered out. The elevator area looked empty. Ray frowned in mild confusion. He was sure that the horde had entered the F block building in pursuit of him and his friends. One of them had almost managed to stop the elevator. But now they were gone.

Ray breathed deeply and said, "We'll need to go outside the building."

"Okay," Meghan said, "Lead the way."

Ray dropped to a crouch and opened up the fire exit door. He stepped into the elevator area and beckoned Meghan to follow.

"Is that the emergency box you were talking about?" Meghan asked.

Ray turned around and saw a big, red box with a glass centre. Inside the box was a fire axe and a hose that had been coiled several times. The axe had a long wooden handle with a mild yellow tinge to it. The head was bright red with a sharpened, silver edge. It reminded Ray of the unlockable weapon he received after completing Mission seven of Roadside Rowdies.

"Yeah," he said, peeling his eyes away from the impressive looking weapon. "C'mon, let's go. We'll use the back exit this time. Much less chances of being spotted."

Ray stepped out through the doorway and into the narrow passage between the exit and the adjacent wall. He quickly scanned both sides with his flashlight, making sure it was safe. Meghan stepped out as well and accidentally bumped into him.

"Oof, sorry" she said, "Do you see anything?"

"No, it's clear for now. C'mon, this way…"

Ray cut left and walked cautiously till the end of the narrow passage. The ground floor's parking lot was in front of him. He shined the flashlight in a wide arc, trying to spot any sort of movement. But apart from the cars all lined along rows of five each, he saw nothing else.

'Strange…' he thought to himself.

"It's so eerie." Meghan said softly.

"Yeah, I know. I can't find any of them." Ray answered.

"Huh? Oh yeah, that too. But I was talking about how quiet it is. It's been so chaotic all day. I've heard so many screams and yells and shrieks. It never seemed to stop. But now, silence. I don't think I've ever seen Prime like this. Not even before all this madness started."

Ray narrowed his eyes in deep thought. 'She's right. Why is it so quiet? Where are the Deathless? Did they all just leave Prime? None of this makes any sense.'

Ray stood up straight and walked out onto the parking lot. He moved forward, checking in between the rows of cars for anything unusual. The full moon shone brightly overhead, casting its light over the desolate landscape below. With every row he passed by, Ray got more and more confused.

"Where are they?" he asked in mild frustration.

He turned around and accidentally shined his flashlight directly into Meghan's face. She recoiled with squinted eyes and covered her face behind her arm.

"Yikes! My bad," Ray said and turned it off. "I don't think we'll need it while we're outside anyways. My eyes have pretty much adjusted to the dark. Have yours?"

"They had until you blasted me with your flashlight." She complained.

"Sorry about that. But what are you making of all this? It seems a little too convenient, don't you think?"

"Yeah, it does. I don't believe the Deathless are gone. They must be hiding somewhere."

"I think so too. C'mon, let's keep moving. We might find something further ahead."

They continued to walk with caution, carefully examining their surroundings before every step. Several cars were parked on Ray's right, along the edge of the apartment's border. A sloped, metal sheet, that provided shelter for the cars, ran along the entire perimeter of Prime Gardens. Ray reminisced back to his younger years when he and his friends would take cover underneath the sheet during heavy downpours.

His lips thinned into a slight, melancholy smile. He pushed those memories out of his mind and focused on what he had to do.

Ray's attention was suddenly caught by something on their path. A good couple of feet in front of them was a humped structure, similar to a mound. Ray caught Meghan's wrist and stopped her from walking any further.

"What?" she asked.

Ray pointed at the mound, "Don't you see that? Look, it's straight ahead."

"Ohh, yeah. I see it now. What is it?"

"I don't know. It's too dark to see from this distance."

"Should we move closer?"

Ray pursed his lips and peered at the mound. It didn't seem to be moving. Whatever it was, it was as still as a rock.

"Fine," he said after a pause, "Just close enough to figure out what that thing is."

Meghan nodded and waited for him to start moving. Still feeling uncertain about this decision, Ray took a few cautious steps towards the heap. As he got closer, the mound's shape became slightly more perceptible. It wasn't as tall as he first thought but it was certainly much wider. He could now properly see its silhouette, which was bumpy and uneven.

Ray's eyes widened as he understood what he was seeing. "Stop," he whispered.

Before she could ask what was wrong, Ray lifted up his hand and turned on the flashlight. The light fell on the floor and he directed it towards the mound in front of them, finally revealing its true nature.

Meghan gasped audibly while Ray clenched his jaw, wide-eyed and confounded.

It was a huge pile of Deathless. Ray didn't know how many of them were there in the massive cluster but he genuinely believed it was the largest number of Deathless he had seen in one spot so far. It was several times larger than the horde he saw in the basement.

He gulped heavily and took a step back.

"What's going on?" Meghan asked, "Did they all just die out?"

"I—I don't know," Ray answered. "But even if they did, why would they pile up like this just before it happened? I don't think they were killed off either. There's too many of them. We would have heard something. Also I don't see any injuries on their heads. If I'm not wrong, that's one of the only ways to put them down for good."

"What else could it be then?" Meghan asked.

"I have a theory. I'm not a hundred percent certain but it seems like they might be—"

"Ray!" Meghan whispered suddenly.

He turned towards her quickly. She was pointing at something on her left. Ray couldn't discern what it was by just the silhouette so he instead directed his flashlight at it. At first, Ray thought it was a man. But the chunk of flesh missing from his neck and the lifeless eyes staring hungrily in their direction told him otherwise.

Ray grabbed onto Meghan's arm and started walking backwards, pulling her along slowly. But the Deathless man seemed to have noticed his feeble escape attempt. He stretched open his mouth wide and let out a terrifying screech into the night sky. In the distance, Ray heard several other screeches emanating from all over Prime Gardens, as if in response to his call.

"Fuck!" Ray cursed, "Momo, run! The Erratics are coming!"

At that very moment, the Erratic on the left lowered his head and barrelled towards them with drool leaking out of his open mouth. Ray rushed at him with his cricket bat and swung wide. The Erratic instantly sidestepped and ducked down, dodging his attack with near perfect timing.

"What!?" Ray said in shock as his missed swing threw him off balance.

But instead of attacking the target in front of him, the Erratic instead turned his attention towards Meghan standing a few feet away and lunged fiercely at her.

"MOMO!" Ray cried out.

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