章 18: Co-Worker
"The creature pursued me heavily," Derek says into his earpiece as he heads for a building on the other side of the street, "I had no choice but to fight,"
"How'd it do?"
"It was resilient, but broke apart everything around, we finished it off by crushing it with a building it tried to climb,"
"We?"
"...Uh, I said...me…I didn't see Jacob or Page the whole time I was fighting it"
"...Remind me to give you grammar books after the mission is done," Luther says to Derek's relief. He heads up the stairs to the roof.
March 21, 2015, 8:22pm- Mazraea, Flea Market
Derek sits on the roof of a now burnt building, leaning against a busted ac unit, eating some slightly burned trail mix he had managed to find under some rubble. It's been a couple hours of absolutely nothing since Jacob had gone back to the building to tend to Page. He had watched the fires die off along with all the zombies as time went on, all the streets are blanketed in a layer of ash that shines like silver in the moonlight. Not too long after the fires died down, he started to hear things moving about in the street below.
As he's eating, keeping one eye on the doorway leading to the building Jacob and Page are in, he hears the soft pitter-patter of something moving in the streets below. A little black dot in the ashes catches his attention, as it leaves a thin trail behind it. The burnt corpse of a zombie lays against a building. Soon, several more black dots appear, closing in on the body. Derek pulls up his rifle and looks through the scope. Getting a closer look, he sees they're rats, all covered in scratches and eyes fully red. He's surprised to see them furiously tearing at the corpse. Soon even more rats show up, and as their food becomes scarce, they start fighting each other.
Guess it affects animals too. Thank god I'm up here.
The sound of something heavy being moved along the ground suddenly echos into the streets, the rats all scattering and disappearing into nearby buildings. Shortly after that the door to the building opens slightly, Jacob poking his head out a bit before fully opening the door, knife in hand. As him and Page exit the building Derek sees the wound on his left arm is mostly healed up already, nothing but a scab left that's already starting to disappear.
That's where his arm got stabbed by the spike...how the hell did it heal so fast? … He sai he worked with Luther...was we also a victim of some viral outbreak that he brought back from the dead.
"At least there's no more zombies...Do you know if the plane got damaged at all?" Page asks Jacob, her voice echoing through the ghost town that was full of life mere hours before.
"No idea," Jacob replies.
"We need to go double check than. After that we'll head to your office,"
The two of them start walking down the empty street to the airstrip, leaving footprints in the ashes with every step.
As Derek watches them through the scope, he notices a bunch of small shadows moving in the buildings.
Must be the rats.
"Was this the only airport on the whole island?" Page asks as he and Jacob reach the airport, Derek looking away from the buildings and back at them.
"...Yeah…"
Derek looks at the plane, seeing that it's torn to shreds. When he looks back at Page and Jacob he notices they've turned around and are staring at something down the street. Derek puts his rifle down as he turns his head in the direction they're facing. He catches a glimpse of someone in red who quickly disappears out of sight. He's left baffled as he stares at the street.
That...that couldn't have been...I must be seeing things...But, if it really was her…
Derek's thoughts get interrupted when he sees the buildings start to come alive as hundreds of shadows squirm around inside them.
"Of course we're not alone here," Jacob states irritably, "Let's just get the hell out of here, hopefully that person doesn't steal my moped. You wanna walk down the street or go through the buildings?"
Page glances at the street and at the buildings before looking at Jacob with an unsure expression.
"Is either one really better?"
"Streets it is, it'll at least be faster,"
As the two of them make their way back down the street, Derek can see the shadows in the buildings following them. They pass by the remains of the creature him and Jacob finished off and soon come to the part of the main street where it splits two ways, one going straight and leading out of the market, and another going to the right further into the place. As they start to make their way down the path leading out, a horde of rats spill out of the buildings in front of them, quickly blocking the path. At the same time another horde comes from behind, blocking that way as well.
"This way!" Jacob exclaims as he grabs Page's arm and the two run down the pat to the right, another horde starting to form there but they manage to get past it before they're completely trapped. As the two run into a nearby building, Derek's phone vibrates.
"This is your Co-Worker, I was told to introduce myself to you and that you were an old friend of mine, though I don't have any of those. Don't worry about the samples, I have them with me safe and sound. Though I'm sure we won't ever see each other, I'll warn you now that I don't work too well with others,"
What the fuck? Luther never said anything about working with someone. Must have been that person in red...There's no way she would work for someone like Luther if she didn't want to be with me.
Derek's once more distracted as he sees Page and Jacob running along the rooftops, the horde of rats swarming the building to get to them.
They're heading for the exit, I best make my way before the rats notice me.
Derek puts his rifle away as he starts moving from rooftop to rooftop. As he nears where they are, he makes a left, heading for where he parked his bike. As Jacob and Page exit a building and run for their ride, Derek runs down some stairs at the side of the building, jumping down onto the ground below. The briefcase with the virus samples are gone. As he hears Jacob's moped starting up he gets onto his bike. He waits a bit for them to distance themselves before he starts up his bike.
The engine roars to life and he takes off, rounding the corner to see hordes of rats coming in his direction. He swerves to the left, barely avoiding the onslaught and drives past them, running over a few in the process, and continues down the dirt road as he follows his targets.
I'll have to ask Luther about whoever this, co-worker, is.
クリエイターの想い 
TIWHimitsu
TIWHimitsu Seems like Derek got out of the market much easier than Page and Jacob. This is the last chapter of Derek's Segment, next chapter is going back to Page. Who is Derek's new Co-Worker? Will they try to kill Page? Hope you guys are enjoying the story as always and let me know what you think so far in the comments. :)
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