Chrys pushed open the dirtied glass entrance of the library doors thickly covered in dark rubbery ivy. Brushing aside the glass standing in the doorway, she took her stiletto from within her back pocket, cutting off the bindings holding the door closed. Looking back, she blew a chestnut lock from her eyesight. “Hey, do you two plan on just watching me struggle with this or are you gonna help me open it?”
Raine and Paul who had been busily scanning the streets for any signs of trouble glanced to each other quickly before heading up the blood stained cement stairs and to Chrys’s side. The three pulled at the doors and with a heavy creaking noise, the golden frame of the doors scratched along the ground, fully revealing the torn down library.
Several shelves and countless books had been knocked down onto the white and red tiled floor, fragments of dust could be seen glimmering in the air by sunlight shining through shattered windows, lights hung halfheartedly from the ceiling or had crashed to the ground, and shuffling footsteps could be heard from behind dark corners, moans steady, bringing an ominous feeling into the already startling library.
Raine looked around at the disarray, then to Chrys who had already stepped into the lobby. “And we are here why?”
Resting a hand on the cool metal of her beretta, Chrys looked at a blood splotched sign, narrowing her eyes to make out the words. “A little research on my part. Blame it on my curiosity,” Finishing her sentence venomously, she took out her beretta, getting out a headshot on a sluggish decayed librarian across the check out counter. Holstering her gun, she tilted her head towards the velvet covered stairs. “Lets’ get a move on, shall we? Computers are upstairs and I’m figuring this is the safest place to get net access…”
“Net access?” exclaimed Raine, a look of disbelief crossing her slime covered features. “We walked to the library so you could check your damn email?!”
“Listen,” Chrys suddenly grabbed Raine by the front of her shirt, an icy glaze to her blue eyes, her trademark. “Everything I’ve done tonight I’ve done for a reason. I don’t mind the occasional sarcasm but not now, ok-” She stopped, Paul resting a hand on the fingers clenching onto the front of Raine’s shirt. Chrys glanced to him, relaxing herself as she let go. “Sorry, I’m just on edge, everything,” Rubbing her hand down her face, the rest came out a mumble before she let out a load frustrated groan. Sighing, she turned to the stairwell. “Alright, I’ll head on upstairs, you two take care of any people who might’ve been in the library.”
Not waiting for a response, quickly skipping every other step, she stopped three steps below the second floor, an altered poem coming to mind. “As I was going up the stairs, I met a man who wasn't there. He wasn't there again today, I know he’ll never go away…” She shivered finishing the last lines, her blue eyes sealing shut to cover the temporary fear that came at the recitation of the verse.
Landing on the second floor, Chrys forced herself to keep on the alert, opening her eyes to the hell that was her reality, gunshots from below calming her down. Creeping along the midnight blue velvet, she made her way to the computers, surprised to see they were still functioning and appeared to be in order. Jumping onto the table holding the machines, she knocked a screen to the ground, examining the scene carefully.
Figuring only downstairs served any hint of a threat, she jumped down, turning on the closest computer screen. After setting it up and bypassing the ridiculous password screen set up by some precautious librarian, she made her way onto the net, considering her first course of action. ‘Umbrella’s database…just because,’ Shrugging, she logged onto Umbrella’s site or to be more specific, her profile, the status shown below her name none too surprising. “Chrysantheum Beatrice Stonewell…deceased as of two days ago. Guess again you f*cking bastards.”
Taking out her beretta, Chrys started to shoot the screen out of a flash of anger, only stopping at seeing a grime covered hand on her arm. Jumping back, she placed her gun to a forehead, only missing as the figure, Raine, instinctively whipped Chrys’s arm downwards. Shooting into the floor, Chrys jumped up, massaging her chest as her heart beat insanely.
Making the sign of the cross, Chrys shook her head. Pointing her gun to Raine once more, she readied it. “What the hell did I tell you about sneaking up on me?” Lowering her gun, she fell into a cheap swivel chair. “Christ, that’s the second time now you’ve caught me off guard. What are you doing up here anyway? Aren’t you supposed to be helping Paul?”
Raine waved it off, leaning towards the screen. “There were only a few zombies left, he said he’d be able to take care of the rest,” Pointing an index finger, she made a curious face. “Looks a lot like you…actually,” Raine cocked her head. “Looks like a prison shot.”
Chrys stared down to her nails coolly. “That’s because it IS a prison shot. How do you think the UBCS recruited me…?” She had been meaning to upgrade the picture to a more recent one for the longest time, but considering her current ‘dead’ status, she no longer saw the point.
“Chrys, I have no idea what the UBCS really is…but…er, what exactly were you in prison for?” asked Raine weakly, backing away cautiously.
Cracking her knuckles, Chrys changed the screen, searching on what she initially came to the library for. “You tell me how you’re able to use a gun with a precision even I lacked at your age and you explain to me in detail just what weapon you got those cross scars on your palms from…” She stroked the enter key, turning to look to Raine’s surprised expression. “Then we’ll talk.”
“I see…” nodded Raine, leaning against the desk. She stood silently by as Chrys worked tirelessly, almost drifting off to Chrys’s rhythmic tapping of the keyboard and the endless shots of Paul’s beretta. However, the sharp ringing of an ivory phone standing by the edge of the table soon interrupted her from napping. Glancing to Chrys, she questioned in confusion. “Should I answer it?”
“Yeah…” responded Chrys. “Ask them who are they and what the hell they want?”
Raine looked appalled. “But it could be survivors!”
“Oh yes, because its common sense nowadays to call a library during the middle of a biological outbreak,” Rolling her eyes, Chrys looked up to Raine coldly. “Answer it and tell them what I said. It’s not that hard.”
Making a face, Raine walked over to the phone and picked it up. “Hello?” She listened onto the other end, finally lowering the phone from her ear, whispering in Chrys’s direction perplexed. “It’s a guy…for you?”
Her blue eyes flickered in agitation, partially due to Raine not doing what she had said and with her sudden popularity. “Tell him to blow me.” Muttered Chrys cynically.
“She said she’s busy,” spoke Raine in an unusually quiet voice. Ignoring Chrys’s dagger like stares, she covered up the phone, whispering once more. “He said he was expecting you to say something more b*tchy in character, like bite me. Oh, and also, he said he doesn’t give a…” Raine trailed off, Chrys abruptly jumping from her seat.
Snatching the phone from her grasp, Chrys placed it to her ear, annoyance in her eyes. “Liam, you didn’t waste your precious cell phone minutes and call me from the station, now, did you?”
“Wrong bad guy, Stone,” retorted the man on the other end. Chuckling derisively, he continued. “It took me awhile before I actually found you. And here I thought you would’ve died by now. How’s life been? Receive any bites? Know you love those.”
Eyebrow twitching, she adjusted the phone on her ear. “Actually, what I’d really love is to meet you face to face. Got six bullets just waiting for you. Know you’d love that. Why the hell else would you be calling me?”
“Cause I know how to get under your skin…?” mused the voice as a possible answer. “A stranger who calls a dead to the world girl, knowing more about her than she thinks, stalking her from the sha-”
“Bullsh*t!” interrupted Chrys angrily. “I may not be enhanced but I know when I’m being followed and you, whoever you are, are not following m-”
“…I know he’ll never go away,” Cut in the stranger, Chrys nearly dropping the phone from her shock. Chuckling lightly, he purred into the phone. “You always loved that poem, sang it like a melody. Don’t know why, especially considering it scares you so.”
Chrys closed her eyes, holding back an apprehensive shiver. Gaining a startling clarity to her azure eyes, she spoke into the phone as calm as possible. “Listen, why don’t you go blow me?”
“Can’t come up with anything creative?” He sighed, his voice turning sly. “Besides, you and I both know I already had and used the opportunity, Chrys.”
“Oh, well in that case, f*ck you.” Chrys slammed the phone onto its hook, closing her eyes as she did so. At hearing it ring again, she whipped out her beretta, blowing it into as many pieces as virtually imaginable. Shaking off Raine’s stare, she sat back down into her cheap swivel chair, cracked her knuckles ceremoniously, and without a second word, got back to work.
((The case of the mysterious caller....oooohhhhhhh...lol, srys, dramatic when i'm tired))