In the eye of the storm

Leaving the store, Cei heard the lock of the door behind him as he took in the scene of the city before him.

He had barely been in the hunting store for twenty minutes and yet if the skyline was painted now it could probably be used as a backdrop to an apocalypse film. The previous clear sunny skies were painted grey as smoke plumed into the skyline painting the sky a gloomy grey colouration as the sky was saturated in deep grey plumes of smoke. With a cacophony of sounds bombarding his ears like an explosion with the screams of people and the roaring of the terrifying zombies echoed into his ears.

However, Cei wasn't unnerved; he knew what he needed to do, and that was to leave the city. He knew that his chances of survival severely diminished the longer he was in the city, so he quickly made his way away from the downtown area. He knew that with its high saturation of people the downtown area would become a nightmare on earth in the hours to come. And so he made his way from the hunting store with Aeni following in tow as he weaved his way through the crowd of terrified pedestrians who were running around like headless chickens.

But, Cei wasn't polite enough to help them as he continued to make his way towards an intersection ahead. Yet the closer he got to the intersection, a frown appeared on his face as the streets in front of him had descended into absolute chaos with a huge riot engulfing the streets nearby. But even so, with the only alternative being a ten-minute journey back in the direction of the downtown area. He would much rather take his chances traversing the riot before him, blending in with the crowd of rioters, despite the risks that it entailed.

So, with the decision made, he began to approach the riot. But, when he had inched ever closer to the overwhelming riot he began to feel the overwhelming atmosphere in the air, as he felt goosebumps form all over his body. It was one thing to talk about entering the riot, but once he was closer he almost felt as if the riot was a bloodthirsty monster. And felt that if he took one step closer to the crowd he would be consumed whole. And it was only until he felt a gentle hand touch his shoulder before he broke out of his almost trance-like state.

But, even after he broke out of the state, he still couldn't believe he was so overwhelmed by the pressure of the riot. But still, he looked behind himself at the nervous Aeni who looked a little scared by the sheer scale of the riot and sighed as he shook her shoulders and looked her in the eyes and nodded, signalling that they were going to move into the belly of the beast. He had to say that despite her ability to find trouble, he was still thankful to her for waking him up regardless of whether it was intentional or not. As despite what he thought he was capable of, he only now realised how easy it was to be swept up into these kinds of things.

However, he knew now was not the time to be focussing on such things and instead began to try and blend into the atmosphere and not stand out. And to be honest, it wasn't that difficult as just a moment before he had almost been overwhelmed by the riot, however, he noticed that Aeni was struggling to blend in, and it showed. Her face was riddled with nerves. He almost felt bad for her but he had no time to be giving her any sympathy so he grabbed her hand and began to drag her through the crowd, and the nerves instantly disappeared from her face. Her transformation was pretty shocking, to say the least, she had suddenly gone from almost crippled in fear to a blissful expression, with her face painted with a slight blush. If Cei had seen the sudden change he might have just thrown her towards a zombie himself.

The atmosphere inside the riot was intense and if Cei wasn't careful there was a chance he could be overwhelmed by the crowds who were wreaking havoc, so despite it not seem as if he was doing much Cei was, in fact, concentrating extremely hard focusing on any potential dangers as well as any changes to the crowd.

And seemingly as if God was mocking his poor decision making, out of the corner of his eye he saw someone moving towards him while staring at Aeni behind him with a glint in his eyes. However, just as the man was a few meters from him, Cei abruptly moved backwards successfully avoiding the sneak attack that the man had made. Seeing that Cei had successfully avoided his sneak attack the man was a little surprised as he stared at Cei nervously for a few moments. But after taking another look at Aeni he seemed to come to a decision as he abruptly lunged towards Cei.

Cei was aware of all the movements of the attacker before him and he did not miss when his attention was on Aeni. And noticing his slight movements and the changes in his expression he suddenly came to a realisation as to why he was being targeted. And he couldn't help but curse Aeni under his breath, she seriously seemed to be an omen of bad luck, this was now the third time his life has been at risk due to the mere presence of this girl.

But noticing the sudden change in the eyes of the previously hesitant attacker Cei suddenly pulled out his newly purchased Smith and Wesson and took aim at the man who was already mid lunge and was less than five meters away with a knife primed towards Cei's heart. And with the looming threat of the knife moving ever closer to sever his life his heart suddenly turned cold as everything seemed to become silent as the only thing in his vision was the knife before he felt his finger that was previously resting on the trigger release almost subconsciously. And with the almost deafening bang of the powerful gun that lay in his hand, everything seemed to return to normal as he felt the recoil of the pistol whip back in his hand.

But despite the sudden resurgence of his senses his eyes never moved from the form of his attacker. As he saw a small hole form on the forehead of the attacker and a small trickle of blood flow down his head and run down the ridges of his eyebrows but as the blood reached his eyebrows Cei stopped noticing the journey of the blood down his face and noticed the light in the man's eyes flicker in shock. And it continued flickering on and off like a faulty light bulb but Cei knew that this was the final vestiges of a man's life and he burned this image into his eyes as he slowly watched the life in the man's eyes slowly extinguish as the man seem to lose balance and fall to the floor like a puppet that lost it strings.

And as the smoke drifted up from the end of the guns barrel and its harsh smell hit his nose, Cei finally noticed that the atmosphere was deadly still and everyone's attention was on him. As a sigh couldn't help but escape his mouth, knowing that the situation was not looking good, as he raised his gun and fired three shots into the air as his face turned ferocious as his gaze roamed the crowd as he asked in a commanding tone.

"What do you think you're looking at, huh?