We got up from our location and ran towards the staircase upstairs. I couldn't tell if we were spotted or not but we just had to keep moving.
Isabella was faster than me and overtook. The staircase was slowly collapsing from old age, sinking us a little down. I guess we had no other choice but to use the elevator.
"I HEARD FOOTSTEPS TOWARDS THE STAIRS." a ranger shouted from the lower floors. I pressed the buzzer over and over hoping that it would open the doors a little bit faster but it clearly wasn't. The doors cranked creating a loud clashing sound as it fully widened up.
Me and Isabella slipped in and the doors closed. It was then that the elevator turned off and we were in complete darkness
"I think they turned off the power." I said.
"Fuck, I guess we gotta look for another way."
We got out and hid in one of the rooms we were in earlier. I looked at Isabella and noticed thay her veins were popping out of her neck.
"Are you okay?" I asked
"No. no not really, some maniac is trying to imprison me for his own gratification!"
'Obviously not Marie, duh' I thought in my head. This was the first encounter i've had with a ranger for a while now and they seemed bloodthirsty for anything they could get their hands on. Stories from the past had been told about how ruthless the rangers all were and how they had done disgusting things to women over the past two decades. Hidden secrets had to be revealed some day right?
"Follow me." I said, but Isabella didn't move. She fell to the ground and crumpled into a little ball against the wall. "W-what's happening? Are you-" I stopped myself realising i had already asked the question but i was now saying it out of nervousness and unease.
"Y-yeahh…y-eah… Im okay. I think." Isabella threw up all over the floor infront of me. The colour of beige yellow, and some hints of orange fell out of the girls mouth. It seemed like it would never end until it did.
She collapsed to the floor with both eyes closed. I ran to her body to feel if there was a pulse. Isabella was still alive, but I was unsure what had happened within her body to create such a reaction like this.
Footsteps started to grow louder and louder as drones started to buzz ever louder than ever around the building. I closed the door slowly hoping that none of the rangers would hear us in here.
"Mu…mu…muh…" Isabella was trying to speak. It was faint and dry. I shone the torch on her face to see the details and it looked quite bad. Her face was a lot more paler than when i had met her just around twenty minutes ago with her veins started to show through her arms and neck. It was almost as if she was a ghost.
"I…want…want…to". I pressed a finger on her lips to keep her quiet and tried to prop her up against the wall. It already felt like a corpse was in front of me. She grabbed my hand softly, barely any strength left. "Medicine…back pack." She whispered closely.
I dug into her backpack and low and behold there was medicine to temporarily stop a virus. I looked at it for a moment thinking whether or not I should steal it and use it for myself. It was 200 mg of Ivecturcide, the best medicine for viral infections.
I looked back and forth from Isabella and wondered what I should do. The noise of the doors of each room was coming from the hallway, noises of aggressive movent punching through places in desperate attempts to find Isabella.
The virus within me would get worse and worse over time and im sure that by the time i get to the border i would have probably died to barely even walk properly. I could use it on myself and leave her here giving me an easy exit. But something deep down within me didn't allow it.
I put my pride aside and injected the medicine into Isabella's left arm. I gave her the full dosage, enough to make a recovery soon. But it needed time for a decent recovery.
"I need your other gun, I'll take out anyone who tries to find you." I spoke to her. "Lay here while I cover you. Hang tight." She gave me a nod and went back to relaxing her head on the wall.
I stood by the door waiting for it to be blown off giving me the opportunity to shoot whoever would come through. The stress made my forehead sweat more and more.
"Marr..marri.." Isabella was trying to speak again, I turned around and noticed that there was a drone that snuck into the room. I was shook up to see it came out of nowhere. It scanned me with it's laser quickly, up and down twice. It then changed from the colour orange to red.
Without hesitation I pointed the Y Bracket at the drone and blasted it twice. It crashed onto the ground. My chest heaved thinking what just happened. The drone spat out sparks from the edges of its metallic shell.
A slow whirring noise started and the red lights started to flash slowly on and off as if it was a traffic signal. I was unsure of what would happen.
I grabbed the broken drone and threw it out of the window hitting the outside floor with a heavy thud. A moment after a large explosion broke out from where it had landed. Fragments of glass flew everywhere. Dust and debris was in this mix as well.
I was thrown back a bit by the wind but I was okay.
"Sorry about that." I told Isabella. She looked to have a little more colour on her than before.
"What the fuck was that?" A ranger shouted from below. I looked out the window and three of them were trying to put out the fire. The rain was still pouring and I'm sure once the fire was out they would search in and out of this place until they found Isabella.
A ranger entered our room holding a Reacher that was usually used on Blips or Alternates. Never humans. "Woah, no harm here." I said while I had my hand up. My other hand held the Y bracket. Isabella looked at me with solemn eyes.
The rain broke into the room, mixing with her tears. The ranger slowly approached bringing his hand towards his communication unit, it gave me an opening.
I ran up to the ranger and kicked the gun out of their hands dropping to the floor. They retaliated with a punch into my face leaving a bloody stain down my nose. With a little disorientation I stumbled backwards trying to balance myself from that enormous hit.
He then grabbed his Reacher while I had my Y Bracket aimed at his head. I blasted twice breaking into his helmet. Blood sprayed through the broken glass visor. His body dropped to the floor.
I ran and grabbed the weapon and then heard more shouting from other rangers walking up the stairs. I grabbed the legs of the ranger and dragged him into the room with us. I couldn't allow them to find out where we were just yet.
The loud footsteps circling the base of the floor. I shut the door in time hoping no one would have noticed.
I looked back at Isabella and noticed that she was looking a little bit better than last time. But now that the body was in the room the colour on her face started to disappear.
She covered her mouth ready to throw up again. Luckily, she didn't. Then the ranger's corpse started to twitch.