The Scourge System

CHAPTER VII

Chapter VII

"D*mn it!" Gavin cursed when he bumped to Clarissa's back and fell on their knees. "Sh*t, I'm sorry." He instantly helped her up and continued to run upstairs.

"Run! Faster! Guys! Come on, this way! Follow my sexy ass!" Jonixa called for them on the right hallways and towards a door.

Five of them immediately followed him in quick pace, as Gavin and Clarissa followed too but before they could even enter the door, one by one, the six of them came back running and slipping on the floor.

"Back! Back! Back!" Rohana shouted and pointed on the other way.

"Not that way! Not that way!" Brenda shrieked in fear, helping Jessa with her heavy pack to keep her running.

"Oh my gosh!" Clarissa yelped when she saw how those things piled up before the door, trying to catch them up with their claws and those teeth they're showing off to bite their skin.

"Clarissa! What are you standing there?! Come on!" Jessa pulled her by her elbow as Gavin took her by the hand and runs to the exit of he mall, towards the park.

Yet as they passes through the shops, a things flew towards Jeiger, broke through the glass and fell with him on the floor.

Brenda let out a loud scream, watching Jeiger fighting with that thing. His right lower arm is on it's neck, full force against the weight and the other's on it's hair.

"Jeiger!" Amando called for him, seeing how Jeiger is so close to falling on the first floor through the glass fences of the railings. He ran towards Jeiger's direction with his bat, shouting the others to run outside.

"Amando!" Gavin called for him.

"Get the others to the parking lot, find a car you can start. Remember when we tried to stole Uncle Kevin's truck?" Gavin nods his head. "Do that, and if we didn't show up immediately, don't wait for us." He added before running back inside.

"Sh*t!" Gavin cursed loudly before telling everyone to follow him.

"Gavin! What about them?!" Clarissa asked him as she follows him running outside the doors of the parking lot. Have Jessa holding her hand. Jonixa's keeping himself close to Rohana who's eyeing on every each of the cars.

Gavin didn't bother answering instead, he runs towards the cars, checking of the locks and when he found one who has a flat head, he knelt and took his shoe lace, giving it a small knot with a circle to pull the lock and open the car. Having a bit genius trick to open a car.

"Wow, well I guess you were once a criminal." Jonixa commented when he saw how he opened the car door without any fuss.

Gavin opened the doors all. "In! Come on, hurry!" He took the driver's seat and hot wire it

"What about them? Where's Brenda? Why the hell is that woman is always missing?!" Rohana exclaimed when she noticed that Brenda is not with them, for the second time.

"Oh Christ!" Clarissa silently prayed with her eyes closed, sitting at the back seat, Rohana is on the shotgun seat while Jonixa is sandwiched between Jessa and Clarissa.

"Come on, work, please work." Gavin muttered, staring at the spark happening on the wires.

Meanwhile, inside the mall.

Jeiger is endlessly cursing as he's still struggling getting the thing above him trying to infect him. Amando is also facing the same problem, but only that he can move freely with the help of the bat he has. While Brenda, she's just watching.

She's awaken from the shock when Amando shouted in pain. She saw how those things piled up on him but he's still fighting.

"Oh no." She shuddered and turn her head behind her, seeing too many of them marching fast towards their direction. "Sh*t!" She cursed and finally got the courage to do something. She kicked that thing above Jeiger and it fell at the ground floor.

"What were you, napping?" Jeiger shouted at her.

"Stop nagging me and let's help your friend!" She pointed at Amando who's batting three of those things at the same time.

"Amando!" Jeiger took the steel handle of a heavy glass door that was on the floor and used it to knock one of those things with one swing. Splattering the cotted blood on the floor and some stained his summer shirt. Brenda also helped by kicking on that nasty thing, only that... she missed. "Ouch! That's my face! That's my face!" Jeiger yelled at her when he received her blow.

"Oh sh*t! Sorry." Brenda winced, realizing what she just did. "Come on! Hurry!" She called for them when they finally brought down the things stopping them to get out.

"Jeiger! Take the bag!" Amando handed him the heavy pack and he took it immediately, strapping it on him. "Run fast! Gavin's probably got a car by now. Go!" He started to pant like he's straining to breathe until he just shouted in agony.

"What? Amando, what is it?!" Jeiger helped him to stand up when his friend fell on his knees.

"He's been bitten." Brenda saw his bleeding arm. Something black, starts to spread visibly on his skin. "Oh my gosh, he's turning." She covered her mouth with her hand.

"Run now, Jeiger. Get the kids h--ome." He starts to grumble through his breath, slowly wheezing like how those things do. "Get out now, get out now!" He yelled at them and pushed them out the door, jamming it with the bat before he starts to wriggle on the floor and choke on his own blood.

"What the f*ck?!" Jeiger cried, seeing his friend turning into those things.

Brenda has her eyes wide looking at the stranger who helped them is one of those things now.

"Amando! Amando!" Jeiger tried to open the door, so he could help him but Brenda pulled him away.

Amando shuts down, and seconds after, he stood up like a lazy person. There's blood dripping down from his mouth, and his eyes are not color gray with red veins showing off.

"We have to go now, Jeiger." Brenda took his hand and slowly walk backwards. Aside from Amando who's now breaking through the glass using his head, there's an armada of those things coming from inside and towards them.

"F*ck." Jeiger cursed. His unshed tears didn't have the chance to fall anymore from the shock.

"Come on!" Brenda shouted at him and they started to run away from the door. "Where are they?!" She looked around and that's when they found a car approaching, then a head came out of the window.

"B*tch! Come on in at the back!" Jonixa told them in a loud manner.

"Come on, Jeiger, come on!" She pulled him by the collar of his shirt, dragging him to get inside the car.

"Oh my gosh! You really like making us worry you, b*tch!" Jonixa nagged at her as the car revved it's way fast to get out of the parking.

"What the hell?!" Gavin burted out when he saw a lot of those things following the car through the rearview mirror, until it finally faded from his sight.

"F*ck!" Jeiger shouted and kicked the chair in front of him. Shocking everyone.

"Where is Amando?" Jessa asked when she noticed that he's not with them. She found Brenda's eyes and all she did was shook her head negatively and they already understood it.

"What? Where is he?" Gavin glance at the back and confirmed that they're one person short.

"He's f*cking made us leave him there, man. He's f*cking bitten by those f*cking freaks!" Jeiger cried and finally, those tears he didn't shed earlier... fell.

All of them felt so down, Amando is the very hope of everyone. He's like their leader. A very responsible man to keep the group together, the matured one to command. Now he's gone.

Gavin gulped hard, Amando is his best man in every way, this is hard for him to accept. Even to the girls who have known Amando just for hours, they felt it hard. Losing a friend is worse than losing yourself.

"I could've helped him, I was just there." Jeiger muttered while massaging his head aggressively.

"It's not your fault, Jeiger." Brenda tried to cheer him up, seeing how miserable he's feeling right now. But how he reacts to her words is not what she expected, although it is possible because of his rough manner of dealing with people.

Jeiger scoffed and lifted his head from his hands and looks at Brenda. "Oh yeah, you're d*mn right it's not my fault. Because this is all your fault." He blamed her with those stinging words he chose to speak.

"Jeiger." Gavin called for him, warning him to not do it.

"What?! I could've saved Amando. Well if it weren't for her, she was just f*cking standing there watching us. F*cking standing there like some kind of a statue!" He shouted and glares at her.

Instead of arguing with him, she sewed her lips shut and just didn't utter any word.

"Jeiger, stop it." Gavin chided him, as he drives, passing by too many stranded vehicles, some are on fire, some are on the edge of the road. Some were left on collision. All abandoned. Some even has those things... strapped and stuck because of the seatbelt it wore.

"Stop? Amando is dead, Gavin! I mean-- we should've been safe and sound in the yacht if we weren't get all this kids at the first place!" He's being harsh and Rohana is not liking it.

"Make your friend shut up, Gavin." Rohana told Gavin. Her patience is not that long and the tone Jeiger is using is not in her liking.

Clarissa holds Jessa's hand above Jonixa's lap while he's wearing a constipated face. Suffering from losing Amando, stuck in the middle of a fight and literally in the middle of two best friends. Regretting that he took the middle seat.

"This is just plainly all your fault!" Jeiger shouted to everyone, Brenda's friends.

"Okay fine, stop accusing everyone a d just point your finger on me. It's my fault then, but do you think blame me or us would get Amando back?" Brenda barked at him, but calmer than how he hysterically blew up. "Yes it's partly our fault that we rode on that yacht of yours at the very first place, but only that we were with you because Amando had the heart to help us and get us in that yacht than fight with his conscience not helping the needed. I know that he's your friend and the people you are with now, you don't even know that we exist until we met in that yacht." She took a deep breathe, fighting with his stare.

"Don't talk about him like you know him, woman." He uttered to her through his gritted teeth.

"You're right, I've only know him from hours ago. But I know how he would want us to not act like immature people fighting over what has been done. He might understand how you could be so bad but don't give us that sh*t because I can f*cking show you that my good side doesn't last long." She fought, still glaring back at him. Unblinking.

Jeiger snickered, hearing how Gavin is almost begging for him to just stop talking. "What are you gonna do about it? If it weren't for me, you won't be back with your friends again." He boasted, talking about bringing her ass up with him when they were left behind.

"Can everyone just be quiet?! We're in the middle of a crisis that we can't understand, one of us is gone, the two of us is creating world war 3. Can we just be a team and let's do everything together?" Clarissa bursted out. And from then on, no one dared to speak again the entire drive.

The whole ride was too hushed, no sound from the radio. The car antenna was broken so they can't hear any station. Although Amando's pack which was given to Jeiger has a radio but no one has the guts to talk to him. Neither no one has the guts to utter any word.

The sky is getting dark, and the gas of the car they have with them is almost out of gas. Jessa and Jonixa fell asleep.

Jeiger's looking outside the window, being hunted by the scene he saw of how did his friend turn into those things, how he banged his head through the glass door, how he asked him to run and get out, saving them and locking himself away just so he wouldn't hurt them. It sucks for him, Amando is like a family to him, a brother, and now he's gone.

Rohana's heaving a sigh from time to time, keeping the phone in her pocket, thinking about her family that doesn't seem to care about her. Her grandmother who lives in a tall apartment building in Makati.

Gavin is physically driving in the middle of Commonwealth, yet his mind is worried of how would be this group of survivor he's with could survive till the end without Amando who has the power to lead them all?

And Clarissa, her mind is clouded by too many thoughts and questions. As her eyes watch the street filled with abandoned cars and many establishments.

It was already dark when they stopped on a apartment complex that looks like no one has been there for years.

"Let's find a room to spend the night here. Let's eat and then tomorrow, let's see if someone will rescue us." Gavin announced as he turned the engine off. Looking through the rearview mirror. "I'll check the rooms." He added before stepping out of the car.

All of them were watching him heading towards the room, twisting the knobs one by one before walking close to the main entrance where the keys are all in.

Rohana turned to see them at the back and they are all looking at her except of course Jeiger.

"Stay here until I call you all." She told them and smiled a bit before leaving the car, followed where Gavin is. Found him staring at something on the floor, behind the reception desk. "Hey, need any help?" She asked him.

"Uh-- no, we just uhm-- get a key and then let's go." He took a random key and shows it to her.

She followed where his eyes are looking at, and there she saw a body of a woman wearing a uniform of the apartment's clothing. Dead and pale, her head was bashed real hard on the wall, said by the amount of blood on the wall.

"Let's go." Gavin guided her by placing his hand on her back. He got the key for the room number 9 and it's a bit bigger, enough for the seven of them to stay. From the door, there's a couple of large bed with clean white sheets, pillows and blankets. A small kitchen and a flat screen TV. He turned the light on, just to see how clean it is, no signs of anything that could attack them.

"I'll call the others." Rohana told him when they both assured that the place is safe for they to stay.

It is quite a day for all of them. Losing Amando, Jeiger's blaming everyone, Jessa lost her mother, Clarissa and Brenda can't even contact their parents.

Rohana, she's acting tough yet her bravery is not what she feels inside. But she just want to be strong for her friends. Keep them safe and save them from this unbelievable and unbearable situation.

She holes that tomorrow is another start, that tomorrow will light their candle, for hope. To reunite with people again, to safety, but worse is yet to come. It always does.