15 Surprises

He'd lost track of time. He didn't know how long it had been since the sun rose over the horizon. He didn't know how long or how far he'd walked. How many people he might've terrified while walking past, or how many infected he'd pushed to the ground to allow him free passing. He'd lost count of how many steps he'd taken and how many times he'd turned around the corner of the block. Neither did he care about any of these things. The burning rage he'd previously felt was extinguished, and the steam that followed had burned out. With no anger left to use and no bloodlust left to still, he'd resorted to walking. It didn't matter where, he just did. He did because there was nothing entertaining left to do.

He didn't anymore look where he was going. He didn't see the terrified faces of men and women that dragged their children by their wrists to make sure they didn't fall behind. He didn't hear their panicked cries or the constant moaning and growling from the infected around him. He'd stopped caring about them, just as they'd stopped caring about him. Neither did he sense the heaviness of the air around him, or how it cleared as he walked on through the streets.

Sand in a desert. An exhaustion he couldn't find a reason for had filled his being, numbing his senses. What remained, though faint, was the knowledge of a smell seemingly coming from all around him. The reason for his outburst had faded from his memory, just like the need to get revenge for whatever he'd previously needed to get revenge for. He knew that there was. Why, how, when and where wasn't anymore important. Thoughts and emotions had faded into a blur, melting together with all that was his current reality. Not important.

The smell. Stronger there. Fading. Turn.

Voices whispering. Screams echoing. People dying. Voices. Faces. Pain. Death. Corruption.

Not important.

The smell... Peace. Quiet. Friendly.

Follow.

Voices.

"Alex"

Voices...

Alex . . . .

Alex...

Alex.

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He blinked. Sounds and smells whipped his senses. Awareness flowed into his mind, reigniting the light as memories of a recent past was awakened. A single name; Rebecca. More memories and a flurry of images. He remembered.

For hours upon hours, he'd killed, killed and killed again for no other reason than to kill. All the death, fear and pain was contained within his mind, screaming to be heard, begging to be freed. The chaos was worse than anything he'd felt. Pain whipped his temples as the voices increased in both strength and energy. Just as he thought his head would explode, everything suddenly vanished. All gone, as if they'd never been there at all.

Without the visions flashing past his retinas, he could now see the world clearly again. Alex stopped dead in his tracks as his ice blue eyes met a pair of steely gray. She was standing just a few meters away, her gray eyes wide. The black-haired girl was looking at him like he'd grown a spiked tail, and he looked back as if she were a creature from his nightmares. A single word then passed through his mind.

Monster.

Before he could speak or turn on his heel, she called his name yet again and was jogging toward him. He reached his hands up to sign for her to stop, the thoughts of what he might do to her running amok in his head.

"Rebecca" he stammered, but something caught his attention and halted all his attempts to stop her from coming any closer. The smell. It was yet fresh in his mind, and he now knew he would recognize it anywhere. It was her smell he'd been following? Did that mean she was his-... Had she been the one to also wake him up from the slumbering state he'd been in?

He was too conflicted to resist when her arms was wrapped around his waist. He felt her shiver slightly, a thought passing through his head if she was cold. That couldn't be right though - it was broad daylight outside and the sun stood high. When did that happen anyway? It had been in the middle of the night just a minute ago. Unless he'd been sleepwalking enough hours to miss when night turned to day. The thought would've made him gulp, if not for the warmth still wrapped around him.

"We thought you were dead" she sniffed, her voice muffled by her face being pressed against his chest. In an intake of breath, he could feel the smell she was still emitting. It was riveting and confusing at the same time. Hell, this whole scenario was confusing. Who in their right mind would embrace him out of all people?

He grabbed her by the shoulders to push her away from him enough to look her in the eyes, a scowl on his face. "Dead?" he questioned, voice a bit hoarse from his vocal chords still waking up from their slumber. She took a few steps back and cleared her throat as the color in her face slightly reddened.

"There was this old couple at a restaurant we went to and they kinda, uhhh ... claimed that they'd seen you...", she was waving her hands in front of her, as if looking for the right word to use. "Zombiefied" she went for, clasping her hands together. The tension he sensed was quickly shrugged off by her as she flicked her wrist, as if to wave it all off as nonsense. "They were obviously mistaken though. I mean, you're here and very much alive if I'm to judge. Heh, old people and their eyes, you know?"

He didn't, but he didn't question her further. This whole scenario was strange enough as it was already, and he didn't need to have her break his private bubble again. Involuntary, proximate bodily contact was uncomfortable, to say the least. He'd gotten enough of that for at least three weeks now, that's for sure.

Just then, the details of what Rebecca had just said dawned upon him. People had seen him during his episode, and they had told her, and in turn, she undoubtedly would've told-... "Dana-!" he blurted and went for darting back toward their hideout. The ravenhead stopped him before he could though by placing herself in his way.

"Woah, big guy" she called while holding her palms out in front of him, as if she was calming a wild animal. It made an anger well up inside him, but he held back on taking any actions. He would listen to what she had to say - if she said it within about two and a half seconds. And she did; "Dana was exhausted after we got back to the cellar. To hear that you were supposedly dead took a major toll on her"

A pang of what he knew to be guilt settled in his stomach. He'd worried her. And to the point of tears. He'd been 'self-obsessive' without thought about what that might do to others. He reached a hand up to rub his face, exhaling deeply. "Let her sleep for at least a few minutes, alright?" Rebecca suggested, and though it was the last thing he wanted right now, he realized it was for the best. At the very least she was safe, and as long as that was true, he shouldn't have to worry. 

"I was just on my way to the store. If you don't have anything better to do, you could always come with me" the ravenhead said after a second, her thumb pointing over her shoulder in the general direction she was headed. Alex, already confused and still a bit dazed from his previous episode, couldn't do else but look at her for a moment, then gave a grunt in agreement. With Dana currently unavailable, he had neither better nor worse things to do. He might as well follow her just to have something to do.

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It wasn't a long walk, but bothersome enough to make Alex want to bail from the area as soon as he could. When Rebecca asked if he wouldn't accompany her inside, he insisted with his arms crossed over his chest that he stay outside. He wasn't in the mood to surround himself with people right now. Thankfully, she didn't comment about it. "Suit yourself" she said before vanishing through the door. He exhaled deeply. Now alone, he could start wondering about the most recent things that had happened.

The restlessness. He remembered it now as clear as day. Apart from the constant gray flickering, it was the only thing he remembered from his slumber. The voices and images... It was so much alike taking a memory, and yet very different. It had been more powerful, and there had been so much more. Not of anything specific, just more. He knew that it had barely lasted for a few seconds, but it felt to him like hours. Was he perhaps ... having a flashback ... of flashbacks..? As strange as it seemed, it was the only thing that made sense to him.

Any further line of thought was interrupted when his enhanced hearing picked up a sound all to familiar to him. The static of a radio. Quick as a snake, Alex scanned the surroundings, and like he'd suspected, a group of blackwatch troopers were closing in on his position. A familiar anger filled his mind anew, reawakening what had previously gone dormant. Blackwatch was a plague worse than the infection that was spreading through the city. To him at least. He couldn't care less what other people thought about them.

With a quick evaluation of the situation, he weighed his options. He wouldn't be able to sneak around the corner without any of them suspecting something, so that was out of the question. It was too late to find and take on any disguise now, they would undoubtedly see him if he were to consume someone. Attacking them directly would cause too much of a commotion, and did also bring the risk of having reinforcements called in. Last resort was stealth - keep hidden and wait for them to pass by.

With his mind made up, Alex swiftly slipped in through the door. He found Rebecca after only a few seconds and took note of her position. They were after her as well, and if he wanted to avoid another troublesome rescue mission, he'd better make sure she too stayed out of their sights.

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[Rebecca's P.O.V.]

The store wasn't very big, so it went quick to find the stuff she needed. Bread, ham, some fruit, canned food of different kinds, painkillers, two bottles of carbonated water and a few other things. On her way to the medical section her attention was caught as she passed through a small section of electronics. She'd heard things about the stores of Manhattan, but this was beyond her expectations.

In just a small area, the store owners had managed to pack in a whole bunch of stuff. To any other person it would just look like regular computer stuff, but to Rebecca it was so much more. Thousands upon thousands of tiny little gadgets that could be separated only to be rebuilt into something better and more efficient. Upon looking at every article, new ideas spawned in her head. She found the urge to build - to create.

Just as she reached for one of the articles stashed on the shelves, the basket she'd been holding was ripped from her hand. As she'd promised Lucy, this time she was ready for anything that might be wanting to hurt or use her. She reached for the gun tucked in the hem of her pants, but her attacker was about ten times faster. Before she was even able to react, a hand was propped over her mouth and she was promptly pulled backwards. Someone had captured her from behind without as much as a sound for a warning.

A muffled yelp left her before her back was pressed against something warm and soft. Now sitting on her ass on the floor, hidden behind the side of a shelf, she held her breath while her heart rate picked up. She didn't have a chance against this one. Once again she was captured without any means to fight back. She could already see the look Lucy would give her if they ever met each other again after today.

Rebecca was about to start struggling when the scent reached her nose. Leather, sweat, blood, and gunpowder. Alex's scent. Every muscle in her body was suddenly relaxed, and she couldn't do else but obey when he hissed at her to be quiet. She wasn't under attack, they were hiding. From who? The templars? Blackwatch?

Her mind didn't get much further than that. She was suddenly aware of how warm Alex was. How his hands felt against her skin and wrapped around her waist. The steady rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. Their imminent proximity and how fast her heart was beating. That happy, skittering feeling was back in her stomach. All together, it made her face heat up. It felt like forever, and yet somehow, too short until the hand covering her mouth moved.

"You could have just, you know, told me to hide" she chuckled awkwardly, voice breaking into falsetto through half the sentence, much to her frustration.

"They would've seen you" he stated bluntly. He released his grip around her, evidently expecting her to get up. She did scoot forward and away from him, but didn't trust her legs enough to carry her just yet. They felt strangely shaky.

She cleared her throat. "Right" was all she could come up with. Brilliant Rebecca. Just brilliant.

"Get up" she heard him speak from above her. Just like the last time he'd said it - the first time they'd met - she was up on her feet in an eyewink. This time though, she hadn't just woken up from a strange sort of narcosis, and was steady on her feet. "We better be out of here before they come back".

Good old Alex was back, that's for sure. Rebecca pressed her lips into a line while nodding, but irked a thumb toward the cashier. "Pay first" she stated, quickly turning on her heel before any more surprises would scare her out of her wits.