CH36 - Another dream?

[Lyon's POV]

"... Again?" I asked myself while staring at a pristine white roof as a long-tubed lightbulb shone its light right above me, causing me to narrow my eyes in an attempt to shield it from the otherwise annoying brightness. I stayed there unmoving for a few seconds before raising myself by positioning my two arms behind me as I raised half my body to look around the area where I lay.

I was laying on the floor of a long narrow hallway with white walls that had streaks of dried blood sticking to its previously clean surface, the floors weren't faring any better as puddles of the same dark red fluid spread and dried on the small and thin spaces in between each tile of the white flooring. The dream about the academy had been a wake-up call that these "dreams" weren't mere creations of a vibrant imagination but how exactly would one differ an imaginative dream from a glance into the future?

I doubt such questions would be answered by merely staring at the hallway that lay quietly in front of me and so I slowly rose from where I had lain, stretching my arms and legs in the process as I closed my eyes deeply before letting out a sigh of satisfaction as I pulled my hands down. I looked around once more while disregarding the few pale and motionless bodies that were laying around me, bullet holes riddling their bodies which ranged from shots in the torso to even their heads.

'Hm, should I go down the hallway behind me or the one in front of me?' I thought to myself while turning my gaze to the hallway that seemed to impossibly expand infinitely. That managed to somewhat convince me that this was just another dream made up by my imagination but casually dismissing this phenomenon might just end up being a huge mistake.

I moved my gaze back in front of me and observed the hallway that had its white doors that separated each portion and turn of the hallway seemed to open all by itself but one key difference was the fact that I could see where this straight hallway ended and turned to the side. I began walking toward the turn while casually stepping over the bodies on the floor, every single one of their faces was blurred to a degree similar to how a news channel would broadcast a dead victim's body on air.

I began checking my waist and pockets for the utility belt and whatever weapon I could find but all I felt was the fabric of my pants itself rather than any form of the familiar cold metal of my handgun. The lack of weapons and armor was another trait similar to my dream that occurred in the academy but this alone wasn't enough for me to classify what kind of dream this was just yet.

I reached the edge of the hallway I was walking on and turned to my left once more while passing a few more doors which I couldn't open for some reason, I've tried turning them and even ramming myself onto them but it didn't budge. Rather, it didn't even make a sound even though I could feel my shoulder slamming onto their surface, what truly caught my eye though was a door that had been left abandoned on the floor with bumps that ranged from medium to large gave it a distinct look.

I knelt and examined the door more closely, marks of blood appearing on the areas wherein the bumps were to be found as if someone had rammed their head or maybe their shoulder to it just to open the door. I then turned my gaze to the doorless room before going inside as I was welcomed by various things like a table and two chairs on one of the corners of the room, two medical carts, a bunch of other tools, and a cage that seemed to contain four rotting corpses of mice placed atop the room's wall-mounted tables.

"What the fuck?" I cursed out while looking through the glass that separated the two or rather, the glass that once separated them as a large hole near its very center was formed. On the other side of the room lay a pale body of a zombie with its head torn off, the top of the head itself was open as well as the bone seemed to manage to keep its shape while the contents themselves were missing already.

Another thing I took notice of was the uneven tear of the head from the neck as thin strips of skin and even a few pieces of muscle were hanging down the head's surface as though it had been forcefully pulled off. This is just a "dream" so I wasn't shy about breaking the glass with my elbow while feeling no pain at all just so I could examine the corpse closer. There were two gurneys here and near one of the gurney's sides were zip ties and even the fabric of the default restrictive material of hospitals which meant two beings were trapped here once rather than one.

'A zombie that eats another zombie's brain while also being capable of forcefully removing a door from its hinges... a brawler mutated here then?' I asked myself before standing back up as I made my way out of the room and contemplated the information presented to me. The first mutation I spotted in my past life only showed itself to Nexus three months after Z-day and it was just a mere stalker so does this mean we were just that lucky?

I never bothered asking what caused these mutations to appear in the first place but brawlers were known as a simpler kind of mutation which causes the zombie in question to quickly develop their muscle tissues. The rapid development caused brawlers to form a disproportional structure for the zombie which affected their ability to chase after us but that didn't mean they were easy to kill, mostly since their overly developed muscle protected their heads which strengthened further when the concentration of the virus in their bloodstream was increased in potency.

"Damn. this just got a lot more complicated than I thought it should've been..." I sighed with annoyance laced in each word that came out of my mouth, most zombie mutations required the zombie in question to increase the virus' concentration, and to do that it needed to either hunt for more humans or kill its zombie brethren and consume their brains which is where the highest amount of the virus could be found.

The virus was a volatile mess and it forms an inherent difference from its original counterparts which causes mutated zombies and regular zombies to form hostility against each other as the mutated virus tries its best to keep the host above the curve so to speak. I look around this side of the room before making my way to the exit, going down the hallway before stopping in my footsteps as I noticed how an emergency fire hose had been taken out of its compartment and slipped through a door directly in front of it.

I stepped over the hose before opening the door that led to whatever room this was, casually dismissing the furniture generally found in a room meant for patients to stay in during their time in the hospital. I moved closer to the window while gliding my hand mere inches above the hose's body while I placed my free hand slightly above my eyes as the diminishing light of the setting sun brightened up the room and the parking lot.

The open window presented me with a sight of carnage as tents of various kinds barely moved alongside the afternoon breeze as the spreading fire continued to burn through its contents, mutilated bodies of mostly unfamiliar people lay motionless against the parking lot's pavement. I specifically thought mostly as my eyes zeroed in on Chisato, or at least what was left of her as her lower half was missing while the upper half was propped against one of the many buses that were used to form a barrier around the hospital.

I jumped down from the window with my hands weakly gripping onto the hose's outer layer of woven fabric as I felt my hands burn with pain due to my rough descent caused by my attempt to weaken my fall. I ran to Chisato's body while ignoring every other body that lie motionless on the parking lot, the angle I was viewing this from had hidden behind many more details behind the tent which is why I only noticed Ren, Misako, and Amaya's corpses when I was only a few meters away from Chisato.

I grit my teeth as my fist tightened at the sight that lay before me, even if this was just a dream, it had already sufficiently assaulted my mind with mind-numbing details that forced me to think of this as a "clairvoyant" dream. I pick up the broken blade that had lain motionless on the parking lot's cold surface as I felt light vibrations come from somewhere behind me to my left, I tightened my grip around the Chisato's wakizashi and began moving towards the central pathway left open by the many tents placed here.

What greeted me was the sight of a eight feet tall pale hulking mass of muscle with visible veins running through every surface of its overgrown body, the muscle that encompassed its head had already developed to the point that no noticeable gaps could be used to kill it anymore other than the small holes left for their eyes to peer through, the top of their head and where their mouth was. A trail of dark red fluid flowed out of its mouth as it chewed and broke through an unfamiliar person's face, causing its contents to spill out as blood and brain matter dripped through his mouth and down his body.

"I'll make you pay for this... even if you're not real and this is all just an elaborate dream, I'll make sure that the screeches you make are your drying ones." I quietly whispered before thoughtlessly charging at the zombie that appeared before me, it was already on the cusp of mutating further but it is important to take note of the fact that his hardened exterior and size were brought upon by the death of most, if not everyone in the hospital which meant we still had a chance.

I shrug away my thoughts as I slid against the ground as its somewhat slow movements gave me enough time to dodge its beefy forearm which went past right above, the feeling of my knee roughly sliding against the parking lot's surface wasn't there though since this was but a mere "dream". I then gripped onto what remained of the zombie's pants and used them to pull myself up before jumping and clinging onto its body as I used Chisato's half-broken wakizashi like how one would use an ice axe while climbing.

In response to my new set of actions, it began randomly rotating its body in every way possible as it tried to reach for me, I somehow managed to get to its neck before clenching my legs around its back as I dislodged the wakizashi and slammed it on top of its head. It managed to finally grab onto one of my arms before I could fully kill it though as it threw me in the direction of the fire that was burning through the camp which only helped me in killing it as I placed all my weight into the blade which meant the sudden momentum had helped me roughly slash through its head.

Time seemed to slow down as I watched the brawler slowly fall to the ground, kicking up small ash clouds that hid its large frame as my back went through one of the burning tent's fabrics before slamming onto its thin aluminum skeleton which was used to hold the tent's shape together. My eyes had once again, coincidentally, landed their gaze on a small hole that had been burnt through, causing what remained of it in the form of ash to fall onto my face.

I tried to stand back up but failed to even feel any sort of weight or pressure on it, causing me to raise my head which allowed me to finally notice the fact that my legs were bent in ways that would make any person faint. I then looked to my left and checked the status of my left arm which was the same one that the brawler had grabbed onto but all that I saw was its mushy remains that were barely held together by skin and bone.

"...Alyssa..." I whispered while using my only working arm to drag my broken body through the camp, the fact that I couldn't feel any pain was something I felt grateful for since the heat and the few pieces of falling debris that landed atop me would probably have been more than enough to knock me unconscious. I continued to look around my burning surrounding before my gaze stopped as I looked at Alyssa's motionless and pale figure that was propped against a field bed which served to fuel the last bits of energy I had to drag my body closer to her.

I kept whispering her name, and each time the volume would decrease to the point that it felt as if I wasn't even saying her name anymore but just repeating it in my mind as relief and mental fatigue caught up to me. No sort of bodily harm was present on her still pristine face other than the trail of blood that flowed from her mouth, a sort of peaceful expression appearing on her face as if she had died fulfilling something she was proud of or happy about.

"I'm... sorry..." I apologized with a raspy tone as tears began to flow out of my eyes as I wrapped my only working hand around her pale and cold hands, the usual warmth from her hand was missing as I began to feel my beating heart slow down. I then pulled her closer and let her body awkwardly fall atop my own before closing my eyes as I finally began to feel my waning consciousness fall asleep only to find myself back inside of the same room I and Alyssa had been sleeping inside.

Oddly enough, my heart wasn't experiencing the sort of adrenaline you'd feel after having the kind of dream I'd have, it was as if nothing ever happened as I slowly opened my eyes and found Alyssa still sleeping on top of me. I turned my gaze at her pristine face, it was neither pale nor cold as her beautiful skin and warmth continued to bombard me with feelings of relief and joy before turning my gaze at the window to my left.

It was still dark outside with not a ray of sunlight managing to enlighten the dark sky which meant it was still quite early in the morning at around maybe 1-3 AM which meant I had more than enough time to clean myself up and the room of our disheveled clothes that continued to lay motionless on the floor. My manhood had calmed down and removed itself from inside her during the time we were sleeping and the small but unnoticeable changes in the way we slept had made it so that it'd be possible for me to lightly move her away from my body so that I could stand without waking her.

I do exactly that and began stretching my legs and arms as I sighed in relief at the feeling of doing it while feeling a sort of prickle in the portion of my calf that had been grazed by a bullet, it wasn't enough for me to cry out in pain though it still managed to make its presence known to me. It served as a reminder of yesterday's events, my close call with death, and the fact that we had lost another "friend" in this journey of just getting out of the urban city.

'How many more will die just so we can leave this God-forsaken city...?' I thought to myself while staring at the darkness that lay outside of the window, the usual calmness I'd feel while bathing in the tranquil silence was gone as it was instead replaced by eeriness due to the thoughts circulating inside of my mind. I began to pick up the various clothes that turned our room into a mess like the scattered lingerie, pants, and shirts before just leaving them inside of a closet embedded into the wall.

Inside it was a few sets of clothing that were a tad bit oversized for me but it isn't like I can be choosy with what kind of clothes I get to wear in this situation so I just picked out two shirts, black cargo pants, white joggers, and a beige hoodie that was closest to my size. I then turned my gaze to the lower portion of the closet and found more articles of clothing like briefs, socks, boxers, and more which I took one of each but what managed to catch my interest was a box hidden underneath it all.

"That's weird..." I whispered before digging through the clothes, pulling out a violet-colored shoebox sealed shut with a small strip of duct tape which I scratched off before balling it up and throwing it to the side. What I found wasn't anything special like a handgun or a button that just kills off every zombie in existence but toys that were suited for small girls instead, it was so out of place for the kind of clothing inside of the closet which was designed for men to wear that it managed to blank my head of thoughts before picking up a small doll with small black balls as eyes.

My thoughts then went back to the child in our group, the lack of blame and anger she held towards me for not bringing her brother back with me from the other side of the river had only served to "guilt" me as if I'd feel better if she were to at least throw some sort of anger to me. It was quite weird really, I felt no reason to blame myself for his death but the moment I was faced with the lack of blame coming from his own family was the moment that it did begin to feel as if I had a hand in his death.

I placed the doll back inside the box alongside its other contents and closed it before standing back up and moving toward where my own bag lay against the cold floor, opening the bag's zipper as slowly and quietly as possible before tucking the box inside and taking out the sandwich zip lock bag that still contained my phone, revolver, and the bullets. I ignore my revolver for later and opt to instead take my phone out before closing and shoving the container back into my bag and zipping it close.

I then go back to the closet in an attempt to look for a towel I could use since I wanted to bathe and found one inside of another small drawer beside the one that contained underwear and socks. I wrap it around my still naked body and close the closet again before making my way to the door outside with light steps that released barely audible thuds that accompanied each step alongside a shirt, white joggers, hoodie, and a boxer which I had taken from the closer earlier. I wrapped my hands around the cold doorknob and opened the door as it slowly slid open which presented me with a dark hallway, I look at Alyssa's sleeping figure and mouth "Good night" even though I knew she wouldn't see it before going outside and closing the door behind me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AN: Sup, I think this is the first time I've made a dream so detailed and extensive that asking you guys whether or not it's an imaginative dream or a clairvoyant one is stupid lol so I'll instead tell all of you the status of the Arknights fic I'm writing. I initially wanted to stay as accurate to the lore as possible but Arknights' lore is just so complex that it's very hard to truly write something without a mistake or change causing ripples that would destroy the accuracy of my fic's relationship with cannon lore which is why I'm making it an AU. Hold on, don't leave just yet, I understand that an AU tag is basically an entry ticket for a trash author to bullshit their characters into harem masters with large amounts of power but I still plan to make it as lore accurate as possible (I'd have to fill in the gaps of Terra's history though which is why I'll need to add the AU tag). I've decided to postpone uploading the new fic until next week so I'm sorry about that.

I'm outside studying for my exams while I'm writing this message so I am unable to proofread and check for any mistakes. God, I feel nervous about the four exams I have today, wish me luck and goodbye :>.