V1-CH4: Taking a Life

John quickly threw the chair towards the man by the door, however, it was useless. The man simply crossed his arms to guard against the chair. It bounced off and fell to the side, he then dropped his arms and glanced at John. There were veins popping out on his face and neck, he slowly crouched down.

Attacker: Die!!!!!

The man charges at John, his face full rage and murderous intent. John tries to jump out of the way but it was too late, the attacker was too fast and tackled John to the ground. I quickly run and pick up the chair that was recently thrown to the ground. Turning my head I see attacker had John pinned to the ground, he was using one of his arms to hold down John's shoulder while the other was on his neck. If I don't do something quickly John's going to die.

I quickly sneak up behind the attacker and slam the chair down with as much strength I could muster. The chair breaks apart completely and causes the attacker to stagger. John starts coughing and gasping for breath, he then tries to get away but he's not quick enough, the attacker once again pins him to the ground, but this time he uses both arms to choke John. Seeing this I quickly pick up another chair and slam it down on his back. However, this time there was no effect, he did not even budge or stagger. I rushed towards him and grabbed his hand trying to free John from the attacker's grasp.

"Please stop, he's going to die, he's going to die!!!!!"

Sulien shouts hoping for the situation change. He notices that John is struggling less and less if he wastes any more time it might be too late for him.

I feel desperate and the despair starts overwhelming me, what should I do. If John dies then I will be next. I don't want to die not like this, I want to live. I want to live and see my family, my friends, and be with them. I slowly get up and spot the kitchen knife on the floor. I see I must have dropped it when I picked up the chair. I go and pick it up and walk back behind the attacker who is still trying to choke John.

For some reason, I feel strangely calm, almost as if I have been in this situation before and what I am about to do is firmly engraved in my memories. I close my eyes and take a deep breath, in the darkness of my eyes I can see a ball of fire, the same one that entered my body earlier. The only difference is that it seems a little bigger and brighter. I open my eyes and harden my resolve and swing the knife down on the attackers back. For some reason, my body knew where to aim, the knife was big enough to go through the heart from the attackers back.

I stand there and watch as the man falls to the side, John who is finally free starts gasping and looks surprised at what I did. I look over and see that the attacker is slowly dying, his breathing is rough and he is coughing up blood. But his eyes are still glossed over, he clutches his throat and says something.

Attacker: "The Darkness is everywhere, it is trying to eat me!!!"

John: "It's that darkness again, Ratsel mentioned it too. She said that it was trying to consume her until something helped her. I don't think this is a coincidence."

"You are not going to say anything about the fact that I killed someone."

John looks and me and sighs, he looks troubled by what he heard.

John: "Look I know killing is wrong and it's not something that we are supposed to do, but look if you did not do anything I would be dead. You saved my life, so I have no right to judge you. I have a feeling that we are going to encounter cases similar to this man, so lets quickly arm ourselves."

I walk over to the corpse and pull out the knife and exit the apartment room with John. As we walk carefully down the hallway we peek into many of the apartment rooms. Most of the rooms were empty, but in a few of them, we found corpses.

"Whatever that thing was killed everyone on this floor I think."

John: "Yeah, things just keep getting stranger and stranger, and it is still dark outside even though its only 11:30 AM."

"I just hope my family is safe."

At the end of the hallway, we manage to find the place we were looking for. The door was broken and inside there was a corpse of a student a little older than me.

John: "His name is Franco, he is a grad student in the finance department. His hobby is hunting, I met him at a party a few months ago. He was bragging about all the cool gear he has and even gave me a tour of his place when he learned I lived in the same apartment."

John and I enter the room and start going through all items looking for what we need. I manage to find a pretty big backpack to store all the things in. We manage to find two rifles, one pistol, and one bow; there were also a few hunting knives and a large machete. We took as much as we could from provisions to first aid kits.

"Here John take the pistol and the rifle."

I hand him the weapons along with as much ammo he could carry. We quickly leave the room and head back upstairs. We enter our Apartment room and notice that Ratsel is done packing.

Ratsel: "I was starting to worry, you guys were taking a long time."

"We came across some trouble but we managed to take care of it."

John then proceeds to explain what happened, she looks surprised but also gives me a grateful look for saving John. We then proceed to divide up the weapons and ammo. We begin to start eating, filling our bellies before we leave.

Bang!!!

Startled, the three of us quickly jump up and run to the window. We look down and see that the mutant deer has broken through the barricade at the entrance.