It took a while for the girl to realize what was happening. After all, her ears were absolutely ringing from the repeated breaking of the sound barrier that occurred when the machine guns had been fired off at the fifty or so undead that were chasing her and her friends.
But when she could finally hear again, she looked up to find that her boyfriend had a gun pointed in his face. Before she even realized it, she was shrieking at the large, tattooed man who was threatening her boyfriend, not realizing that she was about to make things a thousand times worse for herself and the others.
"What the hell are you doing!?!"
Not even a second after the girl said this, another loud bang occurred, followed by the horrific sight of her boyfriend having his brains blown out all over the pavement. The tattooed man who had killed her boyfriend smirked before giving commands to his group of wandering marauders.
"Look what we have here… Boys, it looks like we are going to have fun tonight!"
The other boys in the group who had watched their leader get killed by a group of heavily armed and older men immediately collapsed to their knees in a pathetic sight, which was the last thing they had ever done with their miserable lives. Because, in the very next moment, these thugs turned their weapons on the boys in the group and riddled their torsos full of bullet holes.
The girl did not know when she began running. In fact, her mind was still trying to process the grief of suddenly losing all her friends to a bunch of murderers. But her body had sensed the danger that had revealed itself, and acted on its own, rushing towards the thick walls of the high school campus she and the others had only just escaped.
Hoping that she could find refuge there… Unfortunately for her, the armed men drove off after her. But there were advantages other than speed that one had when on foot, and that was maneuverability.
The adolescent girl could run through allies and corridors that the pickup trucks could not traverse, allowing her to effectively escape from the marauders who sought to take her captive, and no doubt do horrific things to her.
But knowing that there was a young and pretty girl nearby, these men did not give up so easily, and began to patrol the area, looking for her. Thus creating a threat to the high school campus which she had successfully fled to, and everyone in it.
---
After watching her friends get massacred before her very eyes, the teenage girl had lost her mind, and did not fully regain clarity until she was safely in the gymnasium, with its doors barred behind her. Seeing the blood upon her clothing, the other survivors shrieked in horror, while Ryan and his group surrounded the girl, looking for answers.
"What happened? Why are you back so soon? Where are the others?"
Now that she had regained some sanity, the girl broke down and fell onto her ass with her back against the door, while crying profusely. In between her sobs were small glimpses of what had happened to her friends.
"Dead! They're all dead! Murderers! Machine guns! Pickup trucks!"
Strung together in such a way, it sounded like the girl was speaking nonsense, but to Ryan it painted a very clear picture about what the girl had encountered, and how her friends had died. It also showed the level of danger that existed outside the walls of their high school.
Out there, society had already begun to collapse. Clearly, there were already nomadic groups of thieves and highwaymen who were more than willing to kill to get what they wanted. The very idea was terrifying. But what was perhaps the most chilling was the fact that the girl had made it back to the school instead of dying with the others.
Knowing this, Ryan's expression sank, and his tone turned cold as he spoke to the girl as if she were an outsider.
"Did they follow you?"
The girl did not realize Ryan was now a threat to her survival as well, and instead cried and shook her head, unsure of how she had even made it back to the gymnasium safely.
"I don't know! I don't even know how I made it back safely!"
Lying on the ground next to the girl was a small blood red crystal that Ryan took notice of. Evidently it had fallen out of her hand the moment she sat down and began to cover her eyes with her hands. Apparently, nobody else saw this. And thus, Ryan came up with a scheme to keep it for himself.
"Alright, you guys get this girl cleaned up and give her some spare rations. We need to know more about what happened, and until she has calmed down, that clearly isn't an option…"
With this said, Ryan's lieutenants nodded their heads, and escorted the girl off to the showers so that she could get cleaned up, and perhaps given a change of clothes that existed in the locker rooms. As for Ryan, he snatched the crystal once everyone was gone.
Making sure that nobody had seen him doing so, Ryan then stared deep into its red hue, before wearing a smirk on his face, while speaking to nobody but himself.
"Well, well, well… What do we have here?"
It would take some time for Ryan to discover the secrets of the Blood Crystal. Instead, he would continue to observe it, and treat it like a precious stone.
---
Zane was standing on the rooftop of the second building where he and the others made camp. Currently, the rest of his group were suffering from the effects of the blood crystals that they had consumed. He figured he had some time before those who were unsuited towards its powers would reveal themselves.
When that happened, he would indeed need to terminate their existence, as there was currently no known cure for the undead virus. And there was a 4/5 chance that his followers who had consumed a blood crystal for the first time would become infected.
But while Zane was staring at the large blue blood crystal in his hands, debating whether or not he should consume it, not knowing if it would have any special effects that the normal, and much smaller, red blood crystals would have. He spotted something in the distance.
Pulling up into the parking lot of the high school were four pickup trucks, two of which had mounted heavy machine guns on the back. This sudden threat forced Zane to pocket the large blue blood crystal, as he shouldered his m4 carbine and gazed through the fixed 4x optic.
Indeed, as he feared, marauders had already come into existence. Such was a natural consequence of the breakdown of society. And as Zane lined up the crosshair, which was appropriate for the distance between him and his first target, he made one comment before taking a deep breath while squeezing the trigger.
"Get fucked…"
*BANG*