//------------------------------//
// 08 - Bloodsucker 
// Story: Without You 
// by Dustchu 
//------------------------------//




ooo000---000ooo




I swear this whole thing was just painful for me, one wrong move and I was done for — both Rainbow and I were done. Her wounds had stopped bleeding for now, but it was only a matter of time before it acted up again and the blood attracted the Leech Man. That was one of the biggest cons of being in the hospital around this time, the Leech Man was hard to avoid as it is, but if you were bleeding you'd attract him no problem.

That's what happened when you dealt with a bloodsucker like him.

Rainbow trailed behind me as we ventured down the hall of the hospital — I had my broom in hand and my nerves calmed down slightly enough that I could actually move around and not jump at every noise there was. Every flicker of the lights, the skittering of rats and bugs on the floor, or even the distant moan of undead through the vents and the shaking of metal.

Leech Man had to be hunting us...

We were just walking bags of blood for him to suck on until we were just dried out husks.

Not a fate I planned on suffering, not for me, not for Rainbow.

I refused to let my fear take control, I couldn't let it!

I gripped my broom turned makeshift spear, having broken the end of it off until the end was decently sharpened and able to be used for thrusting. The wood was weak, it was cracked down the middle, and was old as hell itself, but it would do for a quick one off weapon against anything that came our way. It would help, because I needed to save my bullets for when we really needed them most.

"D-do you know what we have to do?" Rainbow's voice sounded from behind me as we made it to the stairs.

I took note of the shutters above and a small light next to the stairwell itself, which was turned off for the time being. "I know some of what we need to do, but it requires a lot of moving and shit, so we need to be careful." Venturing up the stairs and keeping my broom-spear handy, I thought back to the Hive Scenario from the game, what was needed to help us escape. "I don't want to have to escape through the sewers down below, hopefully we can escape through the east wing where Hersh and the others are."

The subtle differences in this world compared to what I knew from gameplay experience had me wondering if we were going to make it out — because I only knew about the keycards to the deepest floors, the codes for the computer room to unlock some other floors, the security room, and the rooftop. Hersh was supposed to be dead, we should have been the only ones in here, yet Hersh was alive and holed up with other survivors nearby.

Everything was different.

Rainbow didn't say anything, but I could imagine her nodding along with what I was saying.

The path upstairs to the second and third floors was clear of any zombies, thankfully, giving us a break from having to fight anything. The only thing we did find was debris and a few bodies, but nothing that would harm us.

Leech Man was still off somewhere else, either he found another meal or he was still hunting us, maybe he was smarter than I gave him credit for?

That wouldn't be good, I don't like smart enemies, especially when they're supposed to be zombies. The living were smarter then the dead, that's why they were still alive — because they outsmarted the undead, and thus were far more dangerous then anything else. Yet, right now we were faced with pretty bad odds, Rainbow and I. We were trapped in the west wing of the hospital with dozens upon dozens of undead, Leech Man himself, and passageways that were either locked down or blocked off by threats.

I had thirty-seven bullets left on me, but even so that wasn't enough to kill Leech Man, we needed fire and that was down in the basement where the morgue was.

Regular zombies were no big deal to me, just a nasty hit to the skull and they were done.

"Dee?" I turned to look at Rainbow, the mare's tired gaze locking onto my equally tired one.

How long had we been awake actually? I can't even remember if I had slept or not since arriving here.

I cleared my throat. "Yeah?"

Rainbow pawed at the floor with her hoof, scraping it with the underside and furrowing her brow a bit. "Do... do you guys always... kill?"

Honestly, I didn't expect that kind of question — seeing how I told her we had to kill Leech Man to move on, I guess I should have expected that. But hearing her ask that sent a shiver down my spine. A ball of lead formed in my gut once I realized I had to explain to her the reality of this world — and by extension, my own world.

I looked around again and gestured for her to follow me, which from the sound of her hooves — she was. "Not all the time, no," I started off and stopped at an intersection, looking down either path and making sure it was clear before moving on. "We're perfectly capable of refraining from killing, but in really bad situations... like this one, we usually have no choice." It was a harsh reality to live in, one where blood was spilled on a daily basis. "We have to kill, because if we don't, we'll die. It's kill or be killed out here, Rainbow."

Another look back at her and I saw that she was looking down at the floor, ears firmly pressed back against her skull.

What else could I say to her about that?

"Sorry..." I looked back out ahead.

We needed to keep moving and find a way into the basement, to the temperature control room.

The way down the hall to the elevator — from what I can remember, there were two codes that existed in the hospital, those being the code for the rooftop and the bottom most basement where the escape route was. But that implied we were escaping out through that way, which I hope we didn't have to. The Leech Queen was down there, lurking in the darkness and waiting for someone to venture down there into her trap.

I would not fall victim to that, nor would Rainbow.

We continued up the stairs to the third floor and down the hall, passing rooms and more of the destruction wrought upon the city by Umbrella.

"I never liked hospitals." I whispered to Rainbow, eyeing the open patient rooms with a look of disdain. I hated them. "They always got on my nerves... too clean, too orderly, plus they smell." A snort left me and I kept moving, taking long steady breathes to keep my nerves down. "Been to them one too many times in my life."

I didn't hear anything from Rainbow for a moment, but once we passed by several of the rooms she ended up asking,  "Did you get hurt often?"

"Sometimes... but I never go to the hospital to get fixed up, I just tough it out." I looked up at the room numbers and saw we were approaching the three-hundred onward. "I never went in to get fixed up."

"But why?" Rainbow decided to question me.

Room three-oh-two appeared to my right and I stopped, gripping my broom. "Well... I don't really know why." I went over to the door cautiously, broom raised and listening for any noises. I remembered this room. "I guess I just didn't care enough to get myself fixed up right away."

Rainbow was quiet as the door opened slowly, hinges squeaking until it hit the wall with a dull thump. Inside of the room we saw a few beds, an old looking sink next to the wall, some lockers, and a locked up window. The floor was a mess of paper and other junk dropped by whoever was in here last. The bed sheets were messed up and the mattresses stained with brackish colors.

The window drew my attention and I walked over to it and saw it was barred up. It didn't stop me from looking outside and into the streets in front of the hospital, where Rainbow and I had been not too long ago. The sight of a thick crowd of undead piling in and around the entrance and filing in from the streets made me wince.

I tried not to think about it, but my mind was stupid.

These were all people at some point... just living their lives, going to work, spending time with family. It's all because of Umbrella Corporation that they suffer like this.

Just one nuke and boom, the city would be wiped from the face of the earth.

But how much longer did we have until then?

"Holy..." Rainbow was next to me and propped up on the window sill, looking down into the street. "A-are... are they all-"

I didn't feel like I needed to answer that, considering the sound we could hear.

That fucking moaning.

It was persistent in places like this, a never ending cacophony of deafening noise that was sure to drive anyone mad.

Ghastly as it was it didn't affect me that much. I had been dealing with annoying and overwhelming things all my life, so this wasn't that big of a deal.

Or that's what I wanted to tell myself, I wasn't sure.

Everything was a confusing mess, everything felt strange and I didn't feel like my thoughts were in the right place.

A thunk to my left and I saw Rainbow poking her nose into the locker next to us. The door opened up and she rummaged around, then backed up, staring at something on one of the shelves. When the door swung open completely, I saw what she was looking at.

"I uh... that's one of th-those... guns?" Rainbow looked up from the Beretta laying on the shelf and back up to me.

I nodded and walked over to her, leaning into the locker and picking up the handgun to look it over. This was the first weapon I've encountered since arriving in this world and it looked similar to my own - save for the lack of scratches. The magazine had a full fifteen rounds in it, unused by any of the previous owners.

Memories flooded my mind all of a sudden, a dark realization flooding my mind.

Getting this gun in the game trigger-

The vent cover slamming into the floor behind us gave me all I needed to know.

"Rainbow, move it!" I yelled at the mare, shoving her to the right out of the Leech Man's sight and I aimed the handgun towards the writhing mass of leeches once he landed.

Rainbow yelped next to me, crash landing near the door as instinct took over my body and I pulled out my other handgun, firing several rounds from both into the creature's body, blasting off a few of the disgusting bastards onto the floor and splattering blood everywhere.

it didn't do shit against him, just like I expected.

It screeched, rushing towards me and forcing me to the other side, opposite of Rainbow.

"Dee!" She screamed from the door, but what could I do?!

I was cut off and forced near the window, guns raised and ready to fire again, if only to stagger it!

It charged at me head on, I had nowhere to go.

Fear stalled my legs and gripped at my heart, I couldn't move.

My worst fears came to light when Leech Man slammed into me, knocking the wind out of me.

I heard Rainbow scream my name again once I hit the glass window, smashing it to pieces.

I felt weightless after slipping through the window, Leech Man grabbing onto me and pulling me down.

This was i-

CRASH