Crashing could be heard echoing through the mall as it shows Caspian sprinting fast. Behind him was a horde of spring onions climbing and thrashing over one another to get to the duo.
"Shit" thought Caspian to himself as he frantically shone his light around looking for the exit only to almost lose hope as it was only an abyss of darkness around him.
Movement appeared in the side of his eyes and he was about to slash with his knife before his eyes widened. Hope was carrying a severely injured Toru like a princess as she also had bad wounds on her body.
"Caspian!" shouted Hope relief flowing through her body before it was quickly replaced seeing the massive horde behind the teen.
"RUN!" mumble shouted Caspian back as the two of them sprinted from the horde.
"Do you know where the exit is?" mumbled Caspian, the torch in his mouth blocking his ability to talk properly, as he was looking to Hope.
"No, we got turned around right as we entered the mall and got lost" answered Hope.
"Dammit" cussed Caspian as he quickly dodged to the left only narrowly missing a lunging Spring onion.
"Knife Skill 3: Chiffonade!" roared Hope.
The girl quickly threw Toru in the air as in slow motion she drew her knife out and her arms turned into a mass of blurs. Time resumed as she sheathed her knife and caught the falling Toru in her arms. The spring onion exploded in a mass of thinly shredded pieces as a pool of blood formed underneath the mushy pile.
"Thanks for the cover" mumbled Caspian.
"No problem what are we gonna do about the exit issue?" thanked Hope only to Frantically shout out.
"I'll make one" thought Caspian as time suddenly went in slow motion.
Caspian spun on the heel of his foot as he threw Valentine towards Hope who barely caught the girl with one hand and rested her on her shoulder. The male soon gripped both hands on his knife handle as he spat the torch out. His eyes glowed a soft gold before his blade was engulfed in purple flames illuminating the area.
"Coupe-soleil! " Roared Caspian as he slashed downwards.
The outside of the mall could be seen before a massive explosion erupted from the one side making a massive smoke cloud form outside. As the smoke settled down two figures could be seen jumping through the smoke landing on the tar road. Caspian and Hope could be seen panting roughly as they were covered in wounds and scratch marks. Hope was holding both injured girls on her shoulders as Caspian was holding his chef knife in front of him.
"It's over" breathed Hope out shakenly making Caspian look to her.
"But those things are still following us it's not over!" said the teen quickly looking back to the hole which turned into a mass of wrigglingly bodies as the spring onions arrived seconds later.
One spring onion tried to leave the mall before its body was caught ablaze causing its pained screams to echo through the city. It quickly leapt back in the mall cowering like a hurt animal.
"What the hell?" breathed Caspian out confused.
"Spring Onions can only hunt in the darkness otherwise the light from the sun burns them alive" explained Hope.
"That's why the mall was perfect for them" realized Caspian as they walked in their own death trap.
"Yup makes you wonder why we got this mission huh?" said Hope looking at Caspian whose eyes widened.
"They were trying to kill us?" said Caspian.
"It would seem so" grimaced Hope.
Toru and Valentine suddenly started to groan in pain alarming the duo.
"Let's find a place to settle for the night and patch these two up" spoke the lanky teen out looking around.
"Lead the way boss" answered Hope a cheeky smirk on her face.
The duo walked around the city for a bit longer before they found an old apartment building. Since the sun was setting in the distance the duo quickly entered the building and climbed all the way to the roof. Once they arrived at the roof, they quickly bored up the stairway entrance as they released a sigh of relief. They looked around the roof and saw that someone else had the same idea as them as there was a small camp site set up with a pit fire resting in the middle of some chairs. The only problem was that the person didn't make it as their mangled corpse layed on the edge of the building, blood splatters were over the campsite.
"Cozy" muttered Hope out grimly.
Caspian released a soft sigh before he placed his chef knife back in his knife roll.
"Let's clean this place up and light the fire" said Caspian as in the background the sun fully set bathing the city in a sea of darkness.
*********************************
Toru's eyes slowly fluttered open as she saw the night sky above her. She slowly raised a hand to rub her face only to see that it was wrapped in bandages.
"The hell?" she muttered to herself confused before memories came crushing through her confused mind.
Toru and Hope had just entered the mall before being ambushed by a massive group of Spring Onion's. She tried to fight them all but they soon overpowered her and then she blacked out. The girl quickly sat up from her laying position only to flinch in pain but she didn't care.
"Am I dead?" she shouted to herself only to look down and see her body was wrapped in bandages.
The sound of cracking could be heard as she looked to the left. A fire had been lit and it was burning slowly in the night illuminating a ring of light around it. She looked at the other end of the fire and saw Caspian was sitting in a camping chair reading his black book. In the other hand was a loaf of bread which was being eaten by the teen, a plaster was on his cheek as Toru looked closer, she could see a small number of bandages on his hands and arms.
"Nope you're not dead" said Caspian his eyes not leaving his book.
"What happened I can only remember the spring onions" muttered Toru as she turned her body towards the fire.
"Hope carried you all the way from the mall which we escaped." explained Caspian.
"We would have never had to go through what we did if only you didn't split us up excellent decision by the way Captain" said Caspian sarcastically finally looking the girl in the eyes for the first time in the night.
Caspian was expected the usual overconfident and arrogant look in her eyes like usual only to see that fear and confusion was displayed in full volume. Tears were brimming in the corners of her eyes as she looked like a scared child.
"I was so close to death" spoke the girl out to herself her tone shaking between each word.
The tall teen looked at the girl and released a soft sigh his eyes softening abit.
"Yet you didn't die Toru" said Caspian causing the girl to look up at him with wide eyes.
"Hope was with you which had your back don't you..." said Caspian only to be interrupted by Toru scoffing.
"She doesn't have my back she was in my way! I couldn't release my full power with her in the cross fire" shouted Toru a vein twitching in her head.
Her mood did a complete 180 as her usual arrogant self was back.
"Shut the fuck up you brat" said Caspian coldly making Toru flinch.
"That's the thanks Hope gets for saving your ass? You're not some omnipotent being that can fight alone" spoke Caspian out.
"Who the fuck do you think you are you can't tell me what to do!" roared Toru as she stood up and glared at Caspian.
"I've trained hours and hours, I've sweat blood and tears to fight, I've killed so much more than you ever will!" ranted Toru as she stormed over to the teen and ripped his book out his grip.
"You need to know your place trash!" shouted Toru a crazed look in her eyes before she threw Caspian's book in the fire making it catch a blaze.
"No!" Shouted Caspian as he quickly jumped out his chair only to be seconds late in saving his book.
The teen landed on his knees looking at the fire with wide eyes.
"Hehe don't ever forget that's where you belong on the floor underneath me" said Toru a massive smirk on her face looking at the hunched over figure of Caspian.
Caspian didn't say anything as a shadow was cast over his face not showing his expression at all.
Back at Hope the girl had been rummaging around Valentine's bag.
"Man, she really packed everything in here huh?" asked the girl to herself as she pulled out a pack of bottled water.
A sudden burst of Stock energy caused her body to go rigid as this energy felt sinister.
"Shit its coming from the fire!" shouted Hope to herself as she quickly ran out from behind the corner and saw a scene that was shocking.
Caspian was fully stood up and he held Toru by the neck in the air. His hand was clamped around the girl's throat as she tried to get him to let her go only to find his hand was tightening. His Stock energy was surging around him in waves and it blew his hair up showing his eyes were cold and emotionless yet he had the biggest grin on his face.
"You thought you'd died earlier? You were off with only a few hours don't worry bitch" spoke Caspian out his tone maniacal. Toru's face was turning blue as no air was being taken in, her eyes were bloodshot as she looked at Caspian in fear.
"CASPIAN!" shouted Hope as she quickly arrived next to Caspian and gripped his arm.
"Stop you're going to kill her" carried Hope on looking the teen in the eyes only to feel the same fear Toru was feeling as those emotionless eyes dug burrows in her soul.
"Why should I? asked Caspian.
"We need all the help we have to get back to the base please!" pleaded Hope tears starting to form in her eyes.
Caspian looked at the girl before he let his grip loos causing Toru to fall to her knees coughing loudly and trying to get as much air in her body as she could. Through the tears in Toru's eyes, she looked up at Caspian and the image would not leave her memory any time soon. Being completely engulfed in purple flames and looking at her like she was an ant was Caspian. His emotionless eyes and giant grin was burned in her mind.
"Watch yourself Toru" warned Caspian as he walked away from the camp fire sitting on the roof edge.
"He...His a monster" chocked Toru out holding her neck.
"What did you do?" mumbled Hope taking a seat on a nearby chair.
"He was talking smack to me so I threw his black book in the fire" answered Toru.
Everything was quiet for a second before Hope released a sigh resting her hands on her face.
"Your such an idiot" said Hope causing Toru to glare at the woman.
"What do you mean?" said Toru.
"That book was the last thing Caspian had from his farther which had passed on" explained Hope sorrowfully.
Toru's eyes widened to the size of saucers as she looked at Caspian's form.
At said teen he had long ago retracted his raging Stock energy as he sat there looking at the sky. Drops of water could be seen falling on the floor as the teen roughly grabbed a handful of his own hair. Tears started to pour out his eyes as this was the final limit. All the pent-up emotions crawled out his heart as he freely cried. This grief of his father's death, the fear of fighting these disgusting mutants and finally the pressure of keeping everyone safe even if that means killing.
"S... Shit why am I crying?" mumbled Caspian to himself as he quietly sobbed to himself.