9 Days Before

Chandra, Dealix, and Crew 8 are losing their supply of oxygen from the devastating blow Korith had made from her escape.

The group talked to their two 'guests' about a potential outcome that'll happen if they don't find a way out and fast, "if we all continue on the collapse we could make it out of here" one member had said.

"Wouldn't that waste more of our supply?" Dealix inquires, pointing at the valves. Chandra looks at the valves, watching it tick down within a rough pace, she takes her glance and looks at the collapse seeing a pattern.

"If we take it down just right, we could minimize the effort."

Chandra looks at Ael, then at Clysita and the rest, she gestures for them to follow her. Aelive raises a confirmation, though there's another thought brewing inside his head.

Clysita wants to huff, but she's watching herself, she needs to be calmer than these high-school students are.

Right now they're showing them how much support they can give out, in this situation most people would panic, however these two probably know that panic isn't going to set the circumstances right.

She follows Chandra's lead after Dealix steps in first, she looks behind seeing the other two members slumped over watching the meter slowly go down, seeing them look up at her in worried expressions.

"Keep the breathing slow, maybe we can save on oxygen." She looks at Ael's approval, yet he's deep in thought—more likely thinking of a smoother scenario to get them out of here.

They reach the collapse, Chandra begins her estimate of where to begin and what rubble they should pick up and to move aside. Clysita watches Chandra's plan unfold, seeing a gap being created with less effort. Whenever Chandra points, Dealix moves a piece over towards the side. "Maybe this way, we can make a tunnel" she thinks on what debris to move next.

Ael is still sitting by the rest, believing that Chandra's plan might not work as he takes a glance at the valve, they should've thought of other ways of escape before they started with the project.

He wants to show support too her idea, but he still thinks that there's another way to get out of here with even less effort than before: remembering that there's the extra room in the back, how slow the valve is moving, and potentially breaking the other room's wall down to get to the other section.

Erasing the idea of taking the time to figure out what pieces to move so it doesn't all crumble down upon them.

He delves deeper into his idea, getting up from his spot and finagling his way towards the extra space.

He'll attempt to locate a hollow pocket in the wall to bust through, however Ael has to be careful with their supply.

{●}

Mier had walked through the neighborhood, panning his head from side-to-side, taking in the deserted element that grasped the area around him: House's doors had been busted through, and some buildings' windows had been shattered.

He takes a step into a building that's familiar to the one he saw, seeing pieces of the door still clutching onto its hinges.

Mier steps over the corner of it, making a crunch under his feet with other broken off pieces, "could the guards have done this..? " he tries to seek answers from the quiet air around him.

His inhale was rough, spiked with the scent of iron mixed together with an after-tone of stench that squishes his nose and eyes.

It's strong, a bit too strong for his liking. Taking a piece of his jacket and pulling it over his nose for defense.

Continuing onward with a hunched over posture, he reaches the living space of the house, Mier scans the room seeing the place an utter mess.

The couch is ripped apart with its stuffing spewed out, their television on the ground suffering major damages, chairs have been broken with their pads torn like paper, and pieces of what used to be end tables are caved in and smeared at the front of the couch.

Mier tears his vision from the mess, taking it to the staircase in front of him.

Adventuring towards the brim of the stairs he takes in the details of its decals, he stares in silence as his eyes follow the steps up to the second floor.

He found where the lingering iron was coming from, a trail of red flows on the side, "Guards couldn't have done this."His voice tinged with a brewing fear.

Even with the emotion taking a rise from his gut to his chest—he braves the first step up. Creaking of the stair-piece echoes throughout the vacant house causing him to halt slightly before taking the second step, its sounding groans making a sense of eyes being planted onto his back.

The sense of being watched.

{●}

Sameria, arcs over her desk, her face bathes in ethereal light watching a computer screen, seeing the plan that she laid out coming into work.

Having cameras to keep a close visual on the main section of the city where the phenomenon had happened, displaying the inhabited zone.

Her eyes dart to another square screen, seeing a mouse of a movement, the camera's ray shows ghastly streets and a bag being carried by a gust.

She sits back in her chair, folding her hands in her lap looking up at the ceiling taking her thoughts to other manners, such as Eve and the works that she'll be doing for a patient that impresses symptoms to a case connected to the series of phenomena.

Sam reels her thoughts back, regaining the focus on her surroundings, she taps on a keyboard switching to another set of camera angles seeing civilians outside the barrier and other head figures explaining the reasoning on the rehabilitation to another section.

Padding on her keyboard again, the vision shifts inside the area leading to another large portion where the workers are beginning their instructions, buzzing up and down the eye of the camera carrying heavy loads.

Having the construction set out to be another tower, covering up any damages that were done, those who had experienced the harsh events and those who witnessed the structure were sent to be 'Blanked'.

Placing the blanked civilians in similar looking towns and homes to take an extra precaution to bury the hatchet.

Sam looks down from the screen, skimming a list of individuals who have a special treatment of 'blank', she lifts up the piece of paper giving another sheet a quick glance before dropping the first page.

With her free hand she grabs the cold plastic of a nearby radio, bringing it up to her lips to state an order for the recipient as her empty stare sees an individual swiping across.

{●}

Aelive pounds on the walls, breaking through to the first layer with a sizable hole for them to get out of, the other group still working on making a tunnel through the rubble unaware of his puncturing.

The two other members hear the faint thudding of Aelives' work, perking their heads up like prairie dogs having one getting up on their feet to check on the noise.

The other member stares at them as they leave, he looks down seeing the valve twitch to a higher number — raising a brow from the sudden flicker.

Chandra crouches down, leaning on the indentation they had created poking her head slightly inwards scanning a piece to jenga out.

Dealix folds his hands as he waits for her to pick a piece for him with Clysita doing the same, although she's looking behind them seeing her team members missing, she looks at the two, placing her hand on Dealix's shoulder blade, "I'll be right back, keep up the hard work." She praises the dedication of getting them out of here. With a slide of her hand off his shoulder she paces towards the canisters before she heads to the extra room.

"You think they're up to something?" Dealix suspicioned.

"Maybe, it doesn't seem like they're hiding anything besides obvious factors." Chandra answers Dealix's suspicion, eyeing a piece that'll slide out without troubles.

"You're right, just that everyone is gone and we're the only two out here."

She looks behind Dealix's folded poster seeing Clysita and the rest of her crew had vanished out of sight.

"I see where you're getting at." She brings back the question.

"Let's see what's going on, shall we?" Giving Dealix a look filled with foundry. He nods to confirm, unfolding his hands as the two check.

{●}

Mier's feeling of being watched doesn't falter as he creeks up the stairs at a snail's pace, his legs unwilling to move faster as the feeling grows, giving his leg muscles a tight grip.

The senses of eyes at the back of his head pairing with a staggering tremor causes a tone that he's doing something ungodly wrong, seeing the red trail thickening as he reaches the top.

"This has to be…" he can barely finish the sentence seeing splotches of clumps tied in with the staining red, having the dark maroon sheeting across from where the trail connects to the other end of the upstairs hallway.

Stretching his upper body to scan, he tries to keep a level headed, but his eyes became full moons.

"It's like…" he gulps. "If someone had painted…the space.." he takes his wrist to cover his mouth and half of his nose, shaking the horrific thought out, but being replaced by what in the world could have done this, and if Vem was okay.

Thinking back if the images had the location right, although it was never wrong before, seeing this gore hopes that it was.

The rotting stench strengthens through his cover, his jacket nor his wrist can repel the scent that's being flooded through, it was like if a meat factory had decided to abandon their stock—strong enough where he almost couldn't bear it any longer.

However Mier has to push onward to uncover the whereabouts of Vem and sadly, this was the house.

{●}

"They didn't tell us…" Dealix says while placing his hand on the opening, looking through the hole that Ael had made, they didn't hear his blows to the structure while they were working on helping them find a way out.

"Seems like they found their own way" she adds.

"And it seems like they didn't want us to join either." Chandra places a hand on Dealix's shoulder, looking through the hole with him.

"Explains why it was a bit easier to breathe.." he looks back at her, then to the opening again.

"Even left some equipment, I guess they didn't care much about it since they just bailed with whatever they had on them." Chandra gives Dealix a look, a look that gives him a feeling that she wants to make the leftover equipment their own.

"By your expression, I'm assuming you wanna see what we could take?" His brow lifts up, seeing a quiver of a change to her demeanor.

"It's not a bad idea." She says with a mischievous smirk.

Moving away from the hole, they step out of the room, Dealix takes a refreshing inhale before the two scurry through Crews 8's abandoned equipment.

He grabs a blade sitting next to the canisters, feeling its sleek touch with a gentle polish of his fingers, Dealix takes the knife and sheaths it at his pant hoops.

Chandra sees the weapon that she was about to impale Korith with until Ael stepped in, she's surprised that they didn't bring this with them, she grabs hold of it, having the metal scraping the ground as she picks it up and places it out of view.

The both of them look at the collapse as they finish ransacking their gear, thoughts still linger on how the explosion had happened, remembering a slight off balance in her senses when the girl was standing ahead of them, giving orders about a boy who she thought was Dealix, Chandra still tries to describe that feeling.

With another aching thought she wants is that why did Dealix say her name like that, she wants to pass it off as one of Dealix's occurrences similar to his writings from class.

Having these thoughts in mind, the two settle on their equipment they took having most of it being placed within their bags, being thankful that they still have their belongings, she was smart enough to hang onto both of them, Dealix would have lost his from the tumble he had faced if she didn't.

With everything ready they head towards the gap.

"Let's get out of here. "

"Agreed" they say as they duck their heads and arch their body forward, placing one foot in-front of the other as they squeeze through the opening.

Meeting them outside is another hallway where Chandra tailed Ael at, they look both ways, and Dealix looks down at the flooring seeing residue of the crew's footprints. "I'm sure these will lead us out of here." He points to the patterns, they nod and follow the trail out, going around some debris.

Faint light seeps into cracks nearby telling them that they're close to leaving this vacant ruined building, the light rays capture tiny freckles of dust making the beams more visible from their position.

The two of them entered the light bathed room, seeing a window that the crew had taken. They carefully vault out of the window, having Chandra aiding Dealix out the window and before she helps herself she takes a scan around the room, grabbing a distinct feeling that she has seen this room before.

"Come on, I'll take your hand" he says leading one to her, she snaps out of the pondering stare and takes it while placing the other hand on the frame, leaping out the window.

They take a giant inhale, letting it go with relief that they've finally made it out, having the two of them being thankful for breathing fresher air and having contact with nature.

"Where to next." Dealix raises the question, turning his head to Chandra for the answer.

{●}

Mier's leg muscles keep spazzing with the feeling of his stomach clenching from seeing a full picture of the upstairs hallway.

Embracing the downpour of fear, he manages to push forward.

The splatter and squish of blood reverberates through the hall, with every step causing the heart wrenching sound, his mind can't help to imagine what has caused this and if somewhere in this pool was Vem, yet he pushes the thought back.

It's hard for him to breathe with the thickening of iron and rot, his face wrinkles as he stops in his tracks right under the attic door, a tap can be felt on his shoulder and his body quivers, he looks at his shoulder, seeing a splatter of blood.

Mier looks up, his gaze meets the attic hatch, seeing the cracks painted in maroon, another droplet is freed from the cracks and plops on his face, wiping it away with disgust.

His face is turning cold, having a sense of nausea. His poster changes bringing him to put his hands on his thighs to carry his weight. Another invading imagery paints behind his closed eyes.

"Vem…?" Mier manages to say, fighting off the sickening feeling. Bringing him to pull the hatch string.

A bucket of red pours, he manages to dodge the mass as it splashes onto the floor with an overwhelming scent that follows.

Mier grunts and huffs, having thousands of thoughts mangling inside his mind, twisting his head away to escape.

"Damn it…" he whiffs, looking at the opening to the attic that's darker in complexion.

He groans just thinking that he has to go up into the dark abyss of the attic, with a raised foot he takes the ladder, a creek and squish erupts, his palms being covered by the cold slope of maroon.

"Can't believe I'm doing this…" he groans again, with a cringe to his face as he makes his way up the ladder, taking his arms to pull the rest of himself up into the attic, he can't vision anything around him—its pitched, the only light visible being the opened hatch.

His eyes settle to the dark seeing another source of light coming from the far end of the attic, it's a tinted red light, with a squint he spots a golden hue, realizing that the source is a window and that the sun is trying to peer in.

The sun droops down, making rays through the stained window having its beam colored in red with a few strains of warm gold that makes out lettering, importing them onto the red floor.

'Look up' it makes out.

Mier instinctively does, seeing an outline, straining his eyes to further detail the silhouettes and he regrets it.

The drench feeling comes back, his stomach hardens causing him to puke onto the attic floor, light from the hatch pans to the top making the silhouettes more vivid.

Piles of corpses have been stitched onto the ceiling, the bodies jaws are absent along with their eyes, leaving empty sockets and their flesh resembling burns, he can't reason with what his gaze had captured, unable to make out the cause of the horror.

With his body moving on its own, he falls down to the hallway landing on his hands and knees, blood seeping onto his clothing.

Mier races downstairs, puking onto the destroyed chair, then leaning against it as he drifts down towards the floor with heavy breathing.

{●}

Crowley stands motionless in an opening of the forest, surrounding him like a perfect circle, his eyes are closed but the convexity of the cornea rapidly moves behind the eyelids.

The sunlight turns into sunset, casting warm beams between the trees, birds caw around him as light fades from a coverage of clouds, blanketing the opening in shade.