Sovereign of the Karmic System

After the girl with the ponytail finished tying the end of the rope to the fire nozzle of the hose reel, she walked past him while saying "You know what else is sure to make you sick if they get to you?" She then threw the end of the rope out of the broken window, and looked down to see if the length was enough to allow them to leave the building.

"Damn it! It’s two stories short. Didn’t you say that it was thirty-five meters?" Asked the young man in glasses to the man in military attire. They had been trapped in this building for hours, and now that they had finally found a way to leave, every new problem hit their psyche harder than it usually would.

"Do I look like a fucking fire fighter to you?!" Responded the man in military attire angrily.

While the three were busy looking for a way out of this mess, the two twins and the taller young man were busy barricading the door. The second girl, on the other hand, was quietly tying something around her arm, and coughing.

"Stop fighting you two ... I have an idea." Said the girl with the ponytail while pulling the fire hose up by a couple meters. She then tied it around her arm, and after breaking the remaining pieces of glass left of the lower part of the window, she grabbed her gun with her free arm, and leaned out of the opened window with her entire body.

With a view of the lower windows, she pointed her gun at the one that was about three stories under the floor where they were stuck in, and shot. *SPA* *Katchaaa!* The distant sound of glass shattering and dropping down the many stories of the building resounded loudly in the street.

"We have to move!" Shouted one of the two twins after hearing the sound of cracking which came from the door’s hinges. He, his brother, and the tall young men were pushing the stacked office desks which were keeping the door from breaking open due to the constant pounding.

The girl with the ponytail put her gun’s strap around her neck, then unwrapped the hose from her wrist and held her weight with the grip she had on it. "Lower yourself one at a time!" She said as she began to lower herself, disappearing from the other’s sight.

After the girl with the ponytail, the man in glasses went down.

"Come on! Vanessa, you go now!" Said the young man in military attire after turning to look at the oddly quiet girl, which slowly approached him with an unsteady pace. "Are you okay?" He then asked. However, instead of answering to him, the girl lifted her head up just to showed her paler skin, two red eyes, and veins protruding from underneath her skin.

Her expression was a crazed one, and before the man in military attire could react, she had already jumped on him in an attempt to bite him.

The man in military attire was standing dangerously close to the shattered window already, so when the girl jumped on him, they both fell out.

"ALEX! VANESSA!" Shouted one of the twins which had witnessed to everything that had just happened. He immediately dashed towards the window and looked down. What he saw, was Alex, the young man in military attire, hanging from the edge of the window by holding his weight thanks to the strength of his fingers. The crazed girl, on the other hand, was lying dead on the ground at the bottom of the building.

"JOSH! PULL ME UP!" shouted Alex after stupidly looking over his shoulders, and down the tall building, only entering into a deeper panic.

"I’m James." Said the twin while immediately kneeling down, and grabbing the straps of the man’s backpack.

"I don’t give a crap! Just pull me up, please!"

While helping him holding his weight, James moved the fire hose closer to him, and said "Grab the hose and go down!"

Alex took a deep breath, and after closing his eyes, he let go over the grip on his right hand, and attempted to blindly grab the fire hose. Luckily, the hose was quite close, and he was able to get a hold of it right away and lower himself while praying not to fall to his death.

He kept his eyes closed while slowly climbing down the hose, until finally, he opened them to see how further down he needed to climb.. but the moment he opened his eyes, he gasped in shock. "AAAAH!" He was hanging on the floor right above the one where the girl with the ponytail and the man with glasses were, and pressed against the layer of glass that kept him out of the building, in an attempt to reach him, were dozens of crazed people.

These people were in a much worse state than Vanessa was. They had been in that state for much longer than her, and their aspect hardly resembled that of humans anymore. Their clothes were in tatters, and their skin was rotting. Most of them had visible injuries on their bodies, and their eyes were white and dead. The only instinct that compelled them to move, was the most basic instinct to feed, and it did not appear that living humans were outside of their diet.

Luckily, the glass was holding the constant banging of these crazed people, so after the shock, Alex kept climbing down until finally, a pair of slender arms grabbed his waist, and pulled him into the building.

After Alex went down, the taller dark-skinned young man grabbed Josh’s arm, the twin that was helping him with preventing the door from bursting open, and pushed him towards the window. He then said "You and your brother.. go down." He then placed his machine gun above the desks which they had used to barricade the door, and sat on the ground with his back pressed against the desk.

Before reaching the window, Josh turned to look at the tall young man, and said "You better not play hero."

"Josh! Get your ass here!!" Shouted James to his twin brother, which after catching his attention, went down the hose followed by his brother.

Left alone, the tall dark-skinned young man grabbed a packet of cigarettes from his black sports bag, and after hitting the back of his hand with it, he grabbed the butt of the one that jumped out of the opening with his lips, and lit it up with a lighter that he had fished out of one of the pockets in his pants.

After breathing in the smoke of the cigarette twice, he took it out of his mouth, and muttered "They always forget the exit plan.." He then fished into his black bag, and from it, he pulled out a grenade.

The banging behind him was getting muffled by the noise of breaking wood, and it became clear that it wouldn’t take long before those who wanted to enter, managed to. So he stood back up, grabbed his machine gun, and after pointing it at one of the holes in the door, he pressed the trigger.

*SPA-PA-PA-PA-PA-PA-PA-PA* *SPA-PA-PA-PA* *SPA-PA-PA-PA-PA-PA-PA*

As the pressure against the door lessened, the tall young man grabbed his bag and ran towards the window, and grabbing the the tense fire hose on the way. Just before jumping, he took the granate up to his mouth, pulled the safety pin with his teeth, and threw it at the door that, just as it was touched by the grenade, burst wide open.

From behind it, hundreds of people desperately dashed towards the window, but has as they were about to jump down and onto the tall young man, the grenade exploded, sending a shockwave, and shrapnels to push and rip the bodies of these crazed people.

One of these shrapnels was sent towards the tense fire hose, and ripped it by half of its thickness.

A constant noise of ripping could be heard as the young man’s weight was too much for the damaged hose to withstand.

Ultimately, just a meter away from the floor where the other members of the group were waiting, the hose finally snapped. The tall young man, completely calm and prepared for this to happen, fell for a couple of meters.. But then, a pair of slender arms wrapped around his chest, and two arms which came from the sides of the window grabbed his own arms.

When the tall young man opened his eye, the girl with the ponytail was hugging his chest. She was being held by the two twins, which grabbed the straps of her backpack and prevented them from falling. At the same time, both of his arms were being held by Alex, the young man in military attire, and the man in glasses.

The four did not wait long before pulling the girl and the tall young man back into the building.

"They definitely heard that.. We better leave now." Said Alex while walking towards the stairs with his machete in hand. The other five quickly embraced their guns, and after standing up, they followed him.

For the following couple of minutes the five rushed down the stairs, and once in the lobby, they made their way towards the exits while killing whoever tried to approach them.

Alex’s words were right. The crazed people all around the area had heard the explosion, and now were moving in their direction. However, there was no other choice. The tall young man knew that if he allowed those feral people into the room without being stopped, they would have jumped down in an attempt to grab him, and taken him to his death, so the others did not hold it against him.

Instead, they tried to use their knowledge about the city’s layout in order to escape.

One street after the other, the six of them run and killed the lonely mindless people who approached them, while at the same time, behind them, a group was starting to form.

The whole purpose of this group seemed to be their death, and they moved at their fastest speed in order to fulfill that objective.

Differently from the crazed people that were in the building, the ones in the streets were in an even worse state. Some of them were missing pieces of their bodies, and signs of injuries could be seen clearly. It almost appeared as if they didn’t feel any pain, no matter if their guts were hanging from their opened stomachs, or if chunks of flesh large enough to show the bones were missing from their limbs. They kept walking, or if they could, run towards their target.

The more the group ran, the more they needed to use their weapons to keep the lone runners away, the more were attracted from far away.

They kept running and running, until they arrived at a crossroad.

James, who was the one who knew this roads better than anybody else, and was at the back of the group, shouted "GO RIGHT! LEFT IS A DEAD END!"

The members of the group trusted each other blindly, so when they were about to reach the corner, Alex moved his hand behind his back, and took the gun that the girl with the ponytail was handing over to him. He then moved it in front of his chest, and ran past the corner.

He was prepared for whatever could be behind this corner, but what he didn’t expect, was for a large man to be standing on the other side.

Unable to react in time, Alex bumped against this large man and fell on the ground.. But without losing his cool, he pointed his gun, and believing this man to be one of the crazed individuals that was following his group, shot.

*SPA* The bullet traveled towards the head of the large man at a crazy speed, but before the bullet could hit the man’s forehead, his hand flashed in front of his face, and grabbed the bullet.

This large man turned to look at the two individuals that were walking behind him, a man with a mask that covered his face completely and a twenty-something young man in leather armor, and in a language that the group of six were not able to understand, said "I think this kid just tried to kill me."