Lazarus Peak

The corridor was long— Well it felt overly long to him since he was moving at a snail's pace, his body was seriously wrecked and in need of a three months coma to get back on track.

He had finally reached a key card reader on the right wall, he didn't know what was in there but couldn't hear anyone at least, he was happy he didn't have to go in guns blazing. He used one of the access cards he had gotten from the two men earlier and opened up a passage, when it closed and the room brightened up he swore he could here his stomach having an epiphany.

It turns out to be some kind of break room you would normally find in an office environment for the workers to relax and have lunch before resuming work. The room had a lounge area in the corner, some bench tables for eating, a bathroom and something that resembled a machine that could instantly make any edible thing as long as you told it what you wanted.

The machine made him think of a certain superhero tv show where they joked more than they actually fought crime.

He shook his head trying to stay focused, he walked over to the lounge area and set Eleanor down as gently as he could before flopping down beside her with ragged breaths, "Shit... Sorry Ellie, I can't carry you anymore"

He didn't get a response and turned to her only to find her still dazed, "Fuck Eleanor, can't you snap out of it?", he snapped at her, making her flinch a bit.

He sat up and turned to her properly, "You need to get a grip or we're both going to die here dammit, are you listening?", he could see she was still somewhat out of it. 

She was quiet before the first streak of tears went down her cheeks and she was soon in tears, "But everyone is dead Alrick! What's the point of even trying? We'll surely be killed for anyways, and even if we do escape how are we going to get home and go on with life?!"

"So you're saying all my effort in keeping us alive is a waste? I was busting my ass out there while you stayed frozen like a fucking statue, do you want to know why? Because I believe we can get out if here if we tried hard enough, you think I don't feel grief? I watched my younger brothers and my pregnant mother die before my eyes, the people I was supposed to be protecting!", her words had really pissed him off to the point of yelling, something he had never done to her. He felt bad but he felt like he needed to do this.

"I want the nightmare to end too Ellie but I'm not going to give these crap heads the pleasure of killing me, I'll screw them over before they even have the chance to. Ellie... I know you're grieving, we both are but I know Nana Mae wouldn't want to see you like this, she wouldn't want to see you give up so easily", his tone was softer know as he put his hand on her shoulder and gave it a weak squeeze.

"... But Alrick I can't do-"

"That's bullshit and you know it", he cut her off, "You saved me from that guy that tried to blast my skull open remember? You did that"

"But I killed a man Alrick!"

"And you saved my life, wasn't that worth it?", his words finally got through her as her eyes gleamed with something she couldn't understand, "Don't see it as a sin but as you saving a friend, even if it meant taking a life. I'd do the same for you any day Ellie"

His words had touched her deeply, make her shed tears for something entirely different as he hugged him tightly despite his body groaning in protest. "I'm sorry Alrick! I was being really stupid while you were trying so hard", she said while wailing like a child. 

He let a hoarse chuckle despite the pain and hugged her back, patting her head affectionately, "It's fine Ellie"

"It's not!", she had continued crying for a while before finally being too exhausted to continue doing so, Alrick was surprised no one had come in shouting, 'NYPD! Hands where I can see them!!'. He laughed to himself for thinking about such a thing.

Gosh I'm an idiot.

He got up and walked over to the auto snac-... Food dispenser thingy and had it make a buttload of food, New Yorker style. As they ate quietly, they couldn't help but feel they were having their last supper, not that it was though.

They even cleaned up a bit and took a well deserved nap despite the fact that someone might come in at any second, it was solid proof of how tired the two were, most especially Alrick.

They woke up a while after and decided to leave since staying there longer might not be safe, he gave her a tech gun and taught her how to use it— the extent he knew how to use them and even gave her some tubes of the numerous seemingly useless glowing yellow pills that seem like a waste of space at the moment but he had a feeling they'd be useful at some point and didn't want to take risks.

Once he made sure that there was no noise outside, they walked out of the room and back into the bright hallway. They held their guns out and didn't stop looking around to avoid being jumped at the worst possible moment.

They continued walking down the eerily quiet hallway, they couldn't enter the other rooms since all the access cards they had were blocked, they could only keep going forward. Alrick understood that their situation was dire, the guns they had were each at half life and almost out of ammo. They couldn't even run anywhere other than back down the hallway which was a dead end.

He didn't know how to salvage the situation they were in and could only pray for a beneficial situation to present itself.

"Hey guys~", The chillingly sweet voice came from behind them causing the hairs on their neck to stand. They immediately turned around and fired to guns in their hands without a second thought until the ammo was completely run out, even then they kept on pulling the trigger.

They realized their blunder were about to reach for the next guns in the pockets of their lab coats when they noticed something weird, the person standing behind them had their head down and their arms spread wide open with their upper body riddled with holes from the shots.

What was weird about it was that the persons body vibrated not out of pain or fear but as if they were... Laughing? They were soon proved right when the person let out a laugh, wrapping her arms around herself and laughing harder.

She raised her head, her grey eyes reflecting their figures as her platinum blonde hair peeked out from under the military cap on her head. She let out a dazzling smile that chilled their bones, making them forget to even use the guns again.

She stood up straight and rolled her shoulders back to stretch, the holes in her body closing up like she wasn't just shot twenty two times. Once she felt like she was good as new she dusted her clothes down ignoring their mortified faces, "Oh goodness, my outfit is ruined. What a pain", Tracy pouted as she stuck her finger through some of the holes.

"What the fuck are you?!", he asked visibly shaken by what he just saw, even Eleanor was quivering at the sight.

Tracy laughed at the questions, "Jesus, kids these days are so rude. No hello? No how was your day?", she shook her head while clicking her tongue at their supposedly rude behavior.

"Is this bitch fucking serious right now? Alrick is she trying to be funny right now?", Eleanor felt her rage rising, her frustration seeping out as she reached for her pockets. Alrick put his hands on her shoulder trying to calm her down and also not to provoke Tracy.

"Why the hell are you doing this? Why are taking the lives of innocent people like they're nothing, even children! How sick are you?!", Alrick couldn't help letting his agitation show. He still felt the pain of losing his family and the person to blame for it all was standing right in front of him.

Tracy put her index finger on her cheek and looked up like she was pondering the question, after a while she snapped her fingers like she figured something out, "I do these things... because I can and honestly, those lives mean nothing to me unless I meet my end goal"

Her sparked rage in his head as he raised up his gun to fire, she smiled at this and at a speed the human eyes couldn't quite follow she was already right in front of him before the gun was up, her hand aiming for his neck.

Before she could achieve what she wanted, Alrick raised his second hand and threw something in her face causing her to retract her hands and cover her eyes in pain.

It was salt. He had gotten it from the food dispenser earlier hoping to pull of the same trick with another enemy and judging from her reaction it seemed to have worked, whatever she was could still be affected by mundane things.

And for how he was able to catch up to her movements? Our boy focused every amount of strength still left in his body into the hand that shoot out the salt, he fired the gun in his hand at her face in quick succession to further disorient her while grabbing Eleanor with his busted left arm.

"Run dammit!", he pulled her along and ran before that thing recovered, the screams of frustration that came from behind fueled the urge to run faster down the hallway.