[EternalPen]

Synopsis: Trey is diagnosed with a deadly virus that is believed to have wiped out the Roanoak colony back in the 1500's. The virus was dubbed "The Croatoan" and there is but one cure. The cure only has a small chance of success but, as Trey is about to find out, the Indian roots of the cure go farther back than even the doctors knew. He must face his fears in his own mind to survive, and ultimately cure, the virus.



NOTE: Like the chapter before, this one is a bit long. I have split this one in two, also.

Trey had realized, without much effort, that the girl had not removed any of her clothing but added more because she was afraid of the very thing he had assumed in the first place.

When she was done crying almost twenty minutes later, as Trey made no effort to stop her, he brought her into the storage room. There wasn’t much there but it did have privacy. Trey feared she would suffer a heat stroke if he did nothing to help her, so he told her to go into the storage room and remove some of her clothing to cool off. He would stand guard outside the closed, windowless door until she knocked, signifying her readiness to come back out.

She entered the room, Trey shut the door and he stood there, guarding her dignity. For a reason she didn’t know, she trusted him.

The girl stripped off her jacket as fast as she could and dropped it to the floor. She removed her shoes and socks and began to pull her sweater off. She worked as fast as if someone had set fire to her clothes, and she felt that way, too.

When she was finished, she laid herself down on the cold, hard floor. The ground was the same temperature as everything else on board, but this room had no pipes running to it and had been shut off from the rest of the ship. The metal beneath her bare skin was frigid and she embraced it, wishing she could pull in off the floor and wrap it around herself like a large blanket.

The excessive sweat from her skin very nearly collected into a puddle as it ran off of her slender form and onto the ground. It, also, got cold and soon her teeth were chattering together. She decided it would be best to get out and come back later, after her temperature rose again.

She worked much slower this time as she inversed the operation of removing her clothing. She quit after donning her blue jeans and sweater. She felt she no longer needed the shoes, socks or jacket.

She knocked twice on the large, heavy door and Trey opened it. It was usually opened by the push of a button but as Kyle had done for him, he lifted it with his hands. It was very thin but still weighed a good hundred pounds. He struggled to lift the door but there were notches inside the walls that kept it from going any lower. It only went up until you hit the manual release lever.

When the girl exited the room, Trey finally got a good look at her. She was barefoot and missing her jacket, but this easily added to her beauty. She was wearing a tight pair of faded blue jeans, and the green turtle-neck sweater she wore stretched from her shoulders to her hands, where only the tips of her slightly tanned but still pale and delicate fingers were visible. She was slender and a little over five and a half feet tall. She was by no means fat, but not thin either. She seemed to have the two completely under her command and control, and had chosen the one in between that suited her body the best. She had absolutely gorgeous, thoughtful blue eyes but her hair was a bright and fiery, wild shade of red. The two were almost complete opposites but she somehow made them mix perfectly, almost harmonically, so that the ocean blue of her eyes made her flaming red hair shimmer as if it were casting back the radiant glow of her beauty and knowledge.

Trey forgot to breathe.

He inhaled a large amount of oxygen, remembering he would pass out if he did not listen to his brain.

“What’s wrong?” The girl asked, her voice now missing all traces of fear and sadness but instead filled with concern and kindness.

Trey then realized his chin had fallen from his head and quickly righted himself.

“N-nothing!” He stammered, “I just… WOW.”

The girl blushed and smiled shyly as she moved a few strands of hair covering her eyes behind her ear and looked away, as if she needed to focus on something else to concentrate on this task. Her movement was fluid and smooth.

This was odd to her. She normally felt like she had to hide from all men, as they were nothing but scum, but she felt that Trey was different. She didn’t know why, but it felt completely and utterly WRONG not to trust him. So she did. She knew that, no matter what happened, he would never hurt her.

Trey shook his head a little, and stuck out his elbow, expecting her to link arms with him.

“Shall we go, milady?” He asked her.

She giggled a little and said, “Thanks, but I’d rather stay. I don’t think I’m quite ready to be around the crew yet.” She took a step back towards the storage room and Trey barely noticed her legs move. She seemed like she more elegantly glided that walked.

“Would you like me to stay, also?” He asked her.

She screamed at herself to say yes, for she felt alone and insecure just thinking about him being gone, but she put on her best smile and said, “Thank you, Trey, but I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?” He asked.

She hesitated a bit and lied.

“Yeah.”

Trey smiled back and said, “Holler if you need me, okay?”

“Will do!” she said with a smile as Trey walked off to greet the other members of the crew, properly.

It took him a few tries to find the place he was looking for but after taking three wrong turns, he finally found a room with at least ten consoles strewn about and the crew members.

He wanted to walk straight to the Captain and demand passage back into the other room, as he guessed this wasn’t the place he needed to be, but began to wonder. Three doors, less than three feet apart each, led to completely different worlds, would the girl be able to follow him through the doors?

He decided that, if she couldn’t, he would stay here until he died to protect her.

***

Kyle could not open the door. He, his crew members, Trey, and even the girl had tried so hard to open the door, but none of them could do anything. It was hopeless. Trey knew this when he asked Kyle where the real captain was.

Kyle had shown what was left of the Captain to Trey.

His head was no longer a recognizable shape. It had been beaten into an odd shape that bent inwards to his brain from being hit over and over with a large metal pipe. One of his legs was missing, and it looked almost as if it had been chewed off. He had been stabbed by some long, slender, sharp object in the chest multiple times, and-

Trey turned and heaved. He would have thrown up if he had anything left. He hadn’t eaten in quite a while, and was now a bit thankful for it. The rest of the crew members were not in the exact same shape as the captain, but similar. They, too, had been violently ripped apart, beaten, or stabbed. The lucky ones looked as if they had simply been choked to death.

When asked what happened, Kyle just shook his head. He didn’t know, and he had actually come on board with two more people than were here. They were searching for food after their ship had been manually detached and floated away, leaving all the members stranded. Two of them ended up like the previous crew and all that was left was the captain, his mechanic, the navigator, and this girl. She had kept away from them and was found on board; hiding in a different storage room than the one Trey had come from, which lay half-way across the ship.

The massacre had stopped for an unknown reason when they found a food supply. And now… they were running low again. They had actually divided the last bit of the food up approximately an hour before Trey arrived.

Kyle had asked Trey why it was so important that the Captain of the ship try to open the door and Trey shared the Legend of Wallace.

With no entertainment whatsoever, the crew listened intently as he shared his experiences and the girl began to think. Something in the back of her head made her believe…

Trey was talking from Experience, not wishful thinking. This was a fact.

***

Trey took about an hour-and-a-half to tell the story but at the end, before he could completely finish, the girl screamed.

Everyone jumped and turned around to see her curled up in the corner of the bridge; eyes shut tight, hands over her ears. She was rolling back and forth, still screaming.

Trey ran to her quickly and fell to the ground before he made it to her. He slid the few feet between them on the smooth floor, thinning the fabric of his jeans on his knees. He stopped right next to her and leaned over her head, as if protecting it from the flickering lights that came from the roof.

“I’m here, I’m not gonna let go.” He said. “Just calm down.”

She stopped screaming and began to sob uncontrollably.

“Shh,” Trey said, knowing she wouldn’t quiet down until she was ready, “It’s OK, it’s OK. I’m right here. I’m here, I am. I won’t let go, I won’t move. We can stay here and you just lie down, I’m not moving. I’m here.”

He continued repeating himself, whispering this into her ear she had left un-covered. She believed him and began to calm down.

“What is it?” Trey finally asked, “What’s wrong?”

“Tracy.” She said.

“Who is Tracy?” Trey asked her.

“The girl.” She said, staring into his eyes, searching them for his understanding. She found none and continued. “Me. I’m Tracy, it’s my name.”

“Why are you telling me this?” He asked her, as he was sure this had nothing to do with her being frightened.

“Because,” She answered him slowly, whispering, “I’m going to die and I wanted you to know my name.”

Trey froze for a moment before snapping out of it and responding.

“No.” He said, “You won’t die. Not here, not ever.”

“I will.” Tracy protested, “Because I’m afraid and it eats the ones that fear it.”

“Oh, SHIT!” Kyle said as he ran to the front of the bridge and rummaged carelessly through the items on board.

“What?” Trey asked, furiously, “What’s going on?!”

“The last time that chick said that,” Miles answered him, looking for a blunt object on the ground, “Something came out of nowhere and killed the other two crew members.”

Trey stood and went to retrieve his metal pipe but before he could take even one step Tracy screamed. Trey dropped back down and hushed her, gently.

“I’m sorry, I won’t leave. I won’t.” He assured her.

They both stood and walked back to the storage room. When they reached it, Trey brandished his metal pipe and went to the far wall in the storage room. He put Tracy against the wall and handed her the pipe.

“Tracy,” He said, “I’ll be right back, DON’T MOVE.”

“No, no, no.” she started to whimper until Trey stepped in.

He wasn’t in love with this girl, he wasn’t sexually attracted to her, he just felt the need to protect something of such beauty but for some reason he felt that this was the only way to calm her down. So he kissed her.

Her eyes went wide and then fell limp and closed. Trey backed away from her and told her once more not to move before running off to find the rest of the crew and bring them to a safe place.

He pleaded with Kyle and his crew to follow but they refused to be in a place where they were backed against the wall, door or no door. He decided it would be best to return to Tracy since they wouldn’t listen but something caught his eye. Kyle had a gun.

Trey shivered once and turned just to see a blunt object connect with his face. He fell back, his nose broken and scrambled backwards a few feet. Two gunshots rang out, both of them ending with a connection to metal.

“What the-?!” Trey screamed.

“Move!” Kyle screamed at him, “It’s here somewhere!”

“What is?!” Trey screamed back.

“The damn thing that killed our crew!”

Trey stood at that, and dashed to the storage room where he had left Tracy. She was gone and her metal pipe was lying on the floor, bent completely in half. A few puddles of blood were around the pipe and only a few feet from that were her clothes; ripped, shredded, and stained.

***

“Tracy!” He screamed.

Something behind him created a noise not far from decapitating an egg-less hen and something sprayed on the wall behind him. He turned to see a stand of blood staining the wall and he gasped.

A muffled cry rang out and a horrible snapping sound, familiar to that of breaking a hollow flute, reached Trey’s ears before Miles’ head rolled in front of the door, with no body in sight.

Trey dashed to the door and hit the manual release lever. Metal slid against metal and the door shut with a heavy THUD. He pulled the lever back up, but knew that, if it was intent on doing so, whatever or whoever was beyond the door could lift it open.

Trey wanted nothing more than to look for Tracy, but knew he could not do so if he was dead. He decided he would wait only five minuets before leaving, if nothing killed him first.

Five minuets came and went, though Trey thought that he had been in the storage room for well over an hour. He strained to lift the door, and it stopped only two feet above the ground. That was good enough for him, and he dropped to his stomach. He crawled under the door, and stood again.

Miles’ head was missing, as was his body, but his clothes and a sharp piece of metal were lying against the wall, shredded and stained like Tracy’s had been.

Despair flared up in his stomach and he proved to himself, once again, his stomach contained nothing which he could release onto the floor below.

He returned to the bridge, now wielding the sharp piece of metal he collected from Miles’ remains. He looked around but saw nothing. A box fell from the other side of the bridge and clattered onto the ground.

A sharp, “Shit!” hissed from beyond it.

“Kyle?” Trey called out, still trying to whisper at the same time.

“No! It’s Jamie!” The voice hissed again, “MY leg is broken! Can you help me?”

Trey was about to head over to Jamie when something else fell. He couldn’t see what this time but heard that, whatever it was, it was behind the crew member who had broken his leg.

A sharp explosion dashed about the bridge and Trey thought that someone had cracked a whip in the air. He called out again to Jamie and something ran away from his voice. Either that or it had scurried, for Trey heard at least four feet moving on the ground.

He dashed over to Jamie, who was lying in a small pool of blood that continued to generate from his mouth, which was on the floor. The rest of his body was pointed towards the ceiling, on its back.

Trey took a few steps back. This had been done while he was talking… while he was only a few feet away from the man that lay dead here.

He held up his piece of metal and, as Trey thought, if it were just a bit cleaner it would have sparkled. It was sharp enough to kill and that was good enough for him, though he wouldn’t mind being with Kyle right now, who had a gun.

Remembering the state Tracy could be in; he dashed past the body and re-started his search. He couldn’t waste a single second. Tracy could be horribly injured, or even-

Trey shook his head and didn’t finish the thought.

He rounded the next corner and a bright light flashed through the hallway several times. Trey fell to the ground instantly and the darkened hallway lit up repeatedly, like someone had set up a strobe light. The bulbs on this strobe light exploded every time it lit and after about four flashes, it stopped. It was probably out of bulbs.

Trey looked up from his spot on the ground to see Kyle, gun in hand and shaking in fear, pointing his weapon down the hallway. He was still in his boxer shorts and he looked like a crazed cave-man. There were several dents in the walls and he realized then that, if he had not fallen down, he would be dead right now.

He raised a wavering hand and spoke in a shaky voice, “D-don’t s-shoot!”

Kyle’s wild eyes darted all over Trey’s body, probably looking for any accidental damage he might have caused.

“Get up!” Kyle screamed, “I almost killed you! OK?! Almost isn’t QUITE! FUCKING! THERE! That may be good! I’m still-”

He continued to ramble on but wasn’t heard. He had obviously snapped but that wasn’t what was on Trey’s mind. He was staring at the shadows behind Kyle. The shadows that were swimming.

The liquid blackness rose into a wave and crashed down onto Kyle’s face, engulfing only that. Something was behind him and had thrown a black bag over his expletive producing head.

He fell and it was too dark too see exactly what was pulling Kyle away, but it was standing on four limbs as if it were a dog. The shape was hunched over, the bones on its back barely visible through skin that seemed just a bit too tight. It stood into a half-crouched position on its hind legs, and used its two front-most appendages to carry away a screaming kicking self-proclaimed Captain.

Kyle dropped his gun.

Trey ran to the gun, swooped it up of the floor, aimed into the blackness and hesitated. It was possible that he might hit Kyle and he was no William tell with ranged weapons. After deciding to try anyway, he hesitated again. This time, it was fear.

What if the thing didn’t die? What if it was only irritated by his feeble attempt to refrain it from slaying the remaining member of the abandoned crew? What if it knew where Tracy was and shooting it would drive it to kill her?

What if it already had?

This last thought combined with the images he recollected from his mind of Tracy’s clothes, the blood and his promise to protect her and stay with her convinced him not to waste another second. He pulled the trigger on the gun several times but it spoke its intentions only once.

A single bullet flew forth from the activation of the device and the gun clicked the remaining four. The gun gave a heavier kick than Trey was expecting but his first shot was straight on. The zipping of the bullet tearing through wind ended with the sound of it stopping on a metal wall. Trey knew, though, that he had not missed for the creature dropped Kyle and scurried away, screaming. It sounded almost human.

Kyle stood and removed the bag from his head, gasping for air. He dashed back and forth frantically, ignoring the fleeing beast. Trey tossed his gun towards the “Captain”, who recognized the familiar object before it even left his hands.

Kyle caught it with no effort.

“It’s out.” Trey told him.

Kyle then returned to his position he was at when Trey had rounded the corner and picked up a clip of ammo that had been lying on the ground. Trey wished he had realized it was there.

“Let’s hunt it!” Kyle yelled, “Let’s hunt that damn bitch and give her what she’s got com-om-om-ing! She’ll regret messing with CAPTAINY KLYDE!”

He had a deranged look on his face and Trey realized then that he had been close to losing it ever since he was abandoned, and the deaths of his friends had caused him to fall over the edge. He no longer felt safe with Kyle holding the gun.

“I have to find Tracy!” Trey yelled as he turned the other way.

“Go find your whore, you bastard child!” Kyle yelled, “I’ll hunt the one that will eat her children!”

Trey had been hurt many times in his life but the sting he felt now was worse than anything he had ever experienced. His pain dulled in comparison to the pain that Tracy had suffered and the stab of hearing Kyle call her a “whore”.

For the first time in his life, Trey wanted to kill someone.

He wanted to kill Kyle.

***

Trey flew around every corner the beast took, following the thin trail of red blood it left behind. He followed it back to the storage room where he had first come from.

“Tracy?!” He called out, frantically.

He knew this would only attract the beast but he couldn’t care less of any way he could end up so long as he knew that Tracy was safe.

Seeing all her clothes ripped and stained, he knew deep in his mind that she was dead, but he refused to face the reality of it. He refused to let himself believe that he had broken his promise to the one person on this planet that he knew, without a doubt, he would die for.

Trey fell onto his knees and began to cry.

“Don’t cry, boy.” A soft, devious voice called from behind him.

Trey spun around to see the shadows behind him were rippling and collecting into a form that had been hiding there the entire time. He should have known to check the shadows.

“Don’t cry, don’t sssob.” The voice hissed, “It’sss alright. Tracccy is not in pain. Shhhe is dead.”

“DAMN YOU!!” Trey screamed as he lunged towards the shadow.

He stopped in his tracks and froze solid. He could not move. It was not out of fear that he stopped, nor was it a realization of any kind, or even something the creature had done to him but he still stopped his attack.

He could see the creature now, and it crawled out from the shadows and made itself known.

It was Tracy.

She was entirely naked, and she walked towards Trey like a gorilla or a dog, using her legs and hands as if all four were feet. Her back was arched like a cat, and her hair was stuck to her face and sticking out in different directions, matted with coagulated blood. The blood was all over her, splattered over her back, legs, arms, chest and face. It ran down her forearms to her hands and from her thighs to her feet, showing Trey that it was all fresh blood. Her eyes held the crazed look of someone who had experienced a pain so great the mind they were born with simply ceased to exist and was replaced with something to a near complete opposite. She bore her teeth at him through a smile that was twisted and contorted into an emotion that had never been seen before.

“Come on now, Trey.” She whispered, “Sssee how shhhe isss gone now? Lie ssstil and let me finishhh thisss.”

Trey’s eyes widened and he didn’t know what to do. He wanted to keep his promise to this woman, whom he knew he would protect to the end. But looking at it now, he knew the only way to keep this promise would be to stay still and let her kill him.

Trey’s features relaxed, he drew a wavering breath and gently closed his eyes.

“That’sss it.” Tracy hissed in a seducing voice, “Good boy, niccce boy, that’sss it.”

An explosion awakened Trey’s mind and caused him to fall to the ground. He opened his eyes to see Kyle with his gun extended. Smoke trailed out of the barrel like the web of a spider ballooning his way towards a new life, only to be swept off course and to its immanent doom by a careless child trying to blow bubbles for entertainment on an eventless and hot summer afternoon.

Blood dotted the ground below the right half of Tracy’s ribcage, like rain from a human cloud. Tracy’s limbs fell out from under her and she landed with an “OOMPH!” on her chest. Both of her hands reached for her wound and her eyes returned to their normal state. They still had traces of a wild fury and deranged objectives but they also held that same regretful and longing look that Trey had decided to protect when he first arrived.

Kyle aimed lower to finish her off and Trey pulled himself in front of her. Kyle fired, and Trey wasn’t fast enough to take the bullet, full-force. It slammed into his left right shoulder like a minuscule hammer, dislocating and forever damaging the bone. Trey screamed out in pain but bit his tongue to hold in the whimpering he longed to let out. He had to seem like it had no effect, though that plan had already failed.

“Move!” Kyle shouted. “Move away from the whore before I kill you, too!”

Hearing him call her that name once more, Trey found courage in him he didn’t know existed. He stood and Kyle nodded his head.

“Good boy!” He said and, in Treys ears, it had sounded more menacing than when Tracy had told him “Good boy”. He knew that Kyle was far more dangerous than Tracy could ever be.

Trey was no good boy, though. He had stood not to move out of Kyle’s way, but to give himself a bit more time to stand closer to Kyle. Trey, with no regard for his own life, lunged towards Kyle. Kyle fired two shots before Trey knocked the gun from his hand. Both shots, thanks to Trey, had been angled down. The first bullet entered Trey’s left calf, and the second hit the floor. The one that hit the floor, out of luck or a curse- Trey didn’t care witch, had ricocheted off the floor, onto the wall behind them both, off the roof and directly into Kyle’s skull. The metal reaper penetrated the thick bone and lodged itself somewhere in his trachea after tunneling through his brain. Kyle fell onto the floor, killed instantly from the bullet. A small puddle of blood pooled around his head, a grim halo for a fallen innocent.

Trey fell to the floor and held his calf, refusing to scream this time around. He gritted his teeth and breathed heavily to calm himself. His hands were applying pressure to his leg, but the blood bubbled up from beneath his fingers, oozing between them as them remained useless to stop the bleeding.

His shoulder bled freely, still stinging from the pain.

He turned to see Tracy lying on the ground, panting as a domesticated animal would after being refused water. She no longer resembled a wild animal.

Trey crawled over to her and pet her head again as he had only a few hours ago when she first began to lose her sanity. Her eyes looked empty now and they slowly rose to meet his.

She began to shift her weight and Trey hushed her movements.

“Shh,” He whispered to her, “Lie still. I will protect you, Tracy.”

After a long pause, Tracy answered him back.

“No.” She whispered, “Tracccy isss dead.”

Trey realized then that, no matter what happened, she would never be the same. He had to keep his promise, he had to protect her.

With tears welling in his eyes, he knew this was the only way.

“I…” He started, “I didn’t think it would end up this way. I… I…” Trey began to sob, and after a moment he finished his statement.

“I didn’t want to hurt you, so I am going to protect you.”

Tracy did not understand what was going on but she needed to regain her strength to finish the strange man off. She needed his flesh for food. Something cold and hard slid across her head and laid to rest in the center of it. She tried, futilely, to move her arms so she could knock it away and eat.

“Stay safe.” Trey whispered through quiet sobs as he pulled the trigger of Kyle’s gun.
__________________

[Peppy]

Oh yeah, there's blood. A lot of grusome murder. I think I'm in heaven. Man, that was an awesome chapter--action-packed and emtional. Tracy. The shadow-thingy was spooky. Sssss <----how spooky is that?

Ahhh, but alas, I think the chapter needed fixing up and a little polish. Nonetheless, I'm going to give this chapter 4 stars; frankly I think it deserves that.

...her hands, where only the tips of her slightly tanned but still pale and delicate fingers were visible.

How can they be tanned and pale at the same time? Be careful with your wording, they might contradict with themselves.

She seemed like she more elegantly glided that walked.

than

five minuets

Her eyes held the crazed look of someone who had experienced a pain so great the mind they were born with simply ceased to exist and was replaced with something to a near complete opposite.

Read. Does it flow well?

Smoke trailed out of the barrel like the web of a spider ballooning his way towards a new life, only to be swept off course and to its immanent doom by a careless child trying to blow bubbles for entertainment on an eventless and hot summer afternoon.

I like the details, but I think you can chop down the excess. Keep the action going instead of seeing the smoke in our minds. There's a time for "excess baggage".

He continued repeating himself, whispering this into...

He continued to repeat himself, whispering this into...

Now this. This is the best description you every gave in the whole story. The very best. It's as if you truly care about her which helps build the relationship in the story. Awesome-ness.

When the girl exited the room, Trey finally got a good look at her. She was barefoot and missing her jacket, but this easily added to her beauty. She was wearing a tight pair of faded blue jeans, and the green turtle-neck sweater she wore stretched from her shoulders to her hands, where only the tips of her slightly tanned but still pale and delicate fingers were visible. She was slender and a little over five and a half feet tall. She was by no means fat, but not thin either. She seemed to have the two completely under her command and control, and had chosen the one in between that suited her body the best. She had absolutely gorgeous, thoughtful blue eyes but her hair was a bright and fiery, wild shade of red. The two were almost complete opposites but she somehow made them mix perfectly, almost harmonically, so that the ocean blue of her eyes made her flaming red hair shimmer as if it were casting back the radiant glow of her beauty and knowledge.

....his fingers, oozing between them as them remained useless to stop the bleeding.

[EternalPen]

Three things.

One, THANK YOU! ^_^

Two, I know I haven't been editing, but I'm waiting until I can edit it all at one point.

Three, My birthday is coming up soon so I've been busy. o_0;;

Thanks for reading, and that one description of Tracy? Well, I worked hard on it because I think it matches the description of one of my best friends. I tried to make it as good as I could, kind of like a small thank you. ^_^