This time the Splicers were done being stealthy, they screamed and yelled as they ran at full pelt. Alex struggled to get Richard to run fast enough to keep their considerable head start.

“Come on Richard! Just a little further!” Alex shouted, Richard couldn’t hear anything in his current state. The cut on Richards arm was bleeding quite badly, but the real reason he wasn’t responding was because he was severely shocked. Alex was having to pull him along by his good arm.

A bullet whizzed past the side of Alex’s head, one of the splicers had ran ahead of the others. Alex pushed Richard aside, saving him from a second bullet which would have taken his life, the splicer kept running at Alex, screaming. Alex shouted a little himself and ran toward the lunatic, this had taken the Splicer by surprise and he was unable to react as an elbow came up into his face, knocking him over. This was quickly followed by a fatal shotgun blast.

Alex could hear the others shouting, they were getting closer. He grabbed Richard and sprinted to the door, Richard barely managed to keep up.

They were close to the office, but still too far away. Alex could never make it back dragging Richard with him, but he wasn’t going to leave him behind either. It sounded like a cloud of pure noise was entering the room, the splicers yelling, screaming and laughing. They must be close.

Alex had no idea how many of them there were, if they were armed or not, or any other information that would seriously have helped at this time, but he instinctively threw over a table and told Richard to get down, then proceeded to the door himself. It was probably better to die anyway, but he was going to take as many of them as he could with him.

Richard sat shivering in the corner behind the desk Alex had told him to hide behind, he could barely think or move.

Heads up, here they come!

The first of the splicers entered the room, Alex had been waiting and was able to fire at them the moment they arrived, the shot was aimed at the middle of the target and the spread of the shell managed to decimate almost every square inch of it.

“Richard, get the door” Alex shouted, ducking back behind the table, just letting the second splicer see him, this one was armed with a revolver. Richard was almost overwhelmed by the simple request, but Alex had anticipated that his request may not be met right away, A large hole appeared in the wood near Alex’s head, he quickly jumped up and fired a shot back.

You’re just going to sit there and die, aren’t you?

What else can I do?

How about you get the door?

“Richard, NOW!”

Alex fired another shell at the second splicer, forcing it to dive for cover just as a third splicer entered the room, a bullet whizzed by Alex’s head and took a chunk of his ear with it, Alex ducked back behind the table and pressed a finger to the remaining part of his ear, it was obviously bleeding.

Richard struggled to his knees and crawled to the farthest reaches of the overturned table, the table was rapidly dissolving as more and more bullets passed through it, but Richard didn’t realised, he was entirely focused on the door.

Seeing what his friend was doing Alex leaped out of cover and fired, one of the splicers had made a similar move to stop Richard and in the explosion of fire the splicer lost both legs and Alex remained miraculously unharmed.

Richard shoved the door open, Alex grabbed him and ran through the door, the last splicer with all its limbs attached fired randomly into the door. The other less fortunate one lay still, quietly bleeding to death.

The confusion had only helped Alex and Richard escape into a narrow corridor where resisting their attackers would be impossible, Alex checked his shotgun, empty. He loaded two more shells and then found there were no more.

“Fuck!”

“What now!?”

“Just keep running!”

At least Richards condition had improved.

The door opened, Alex fired before the splicer could, the splicer dropped dead pathetically in the doorway, unfortunately it seemed two more splicers had entered the room since Alex and Richard had left, one was carrying a revolver, a resource this particular gang of splicers seemed to have a lot of, the other was a spider splicer, Alex wasn’t sure he had enough shells left to deal with that one.

Richard swung the door at the other end of the corridor open just as Alex arrived at it, allowing him to continue inside, Richard quickly came under fire, but Alex fired his shotgun into the corridor, forcing the splicers to dodge to each side, and giving Richard time to escape. They were on the same corridor as the office now, it was about half way down, which was only a couple of steps, the two of them sprinted for the door.

The door behind them they had been in too much of a hurry to close, and the pair of splicers quickly arrived, the spider splicer took to the ceiling, while the gun-armed splicer remained on the floor, this one chased after the pair while firing randomly between them.

Richard was about ten steps from the door when he heard Alex scream with pain.

Alex suddenly felt an intense pain in his leg, then quickly found his leg would not work in the way he had intended it to anymore, he fell forward, leaving a trail of blood behind him. A bullet had gone right through his leg.

The splicer that had shot him seemed shocked at their own accuracy, they stopped in front of Alex for a moment and looked down, admiring their work.

It was a woman wearing an elaborate mask, did she smile as she saw Alex’s horrified face?

“BASTARD!”

Alex rolled over and fired the last shell at the splicer, she seemed shocked as the spread entered her body and began to cut apart her insides, but she never made any attempt to cry out as she fell. It would take her at least ten minutes to die.

Alex felt a cloud of dust and rubble hit his neck, he looked up to see the spider splicer above him, grinning.

“RICHARD!!”

Richard wasn’t sure what to do, once Alex had been shot he had been unable to decide between opening the office door or going back to help, and thus had remained motionless.

He saw Alex lying on the ground, hen looked up to see the splicer, Alex was shouting distantly, and the splicer seemed quite content to stay where it was, embracing his fear.

Richard, remember how this happened? It was because of Alex, he led you into a trap... Hell, maybe this is still a trap.

“Alex didn’t do any of that! He saved me” Richard whispered harshly, the crossbow shaking in his hands

Then when did you last see a splicer around here? There were none! Not until Alex...

“He is my friend...”

He is NOT your friend, he probably just wanted cheap ADAM

“No, he always helped me when I was in trouble, its time for me to return the favour”

You’re going to regret this...

All that happened in the space of a second, Richard hadn’t even audibly whispered, it was all in his mind.

And now he knew what he had to do, and he couldn’t afford to miss this time.

Richard fired quickly, without much time to aim, almost believing he could guide the shot to its target with only his will. The bolt hit one of the splicers hooks, which it dropped, narrowly missing Alex’s head, unfortunately the hook had been imperative to the splicers efforts to remain on the ceiling and it shook, then fell, Alex rolled to the side, but the splicer somehow managed to land on its feet and swung its remaining hook at Alex. Alex grabbed the splicers arm, but his enemy was stronger than him and the hook was able to slowly continue its path to Alex’s neck.

Richard found another bolt instantly, but struggled to load it into the crossbow.

The hook pierced the skin on Alex’s neck, he felt blood start to ooze out of the fresh wound and join that of his old ones.

As Richard struggled with the crossbow, the splicer burst into flames before his very eyes. The head caught fire first, then it spread downward. Alex managed to shuffle out of the way of the burning corpse before it fell on him.

They both looked around, then realised they had been joined by two other men.

“Ah... Richard” One of them said, he was wearing a dark hood and it was impossible to see his face, the other man stood behind him, wearing a similar hood, and laughed.

Richard didn’t react as the man approached him.

“You know... I have been looking all over for you...”

The other man started to laugh harder, it was the kind of deeply irritating laugh that screamed inside your head for hours after it had passed.

The man pulled down his hood, and Richard was shocked, he stood, wide eyed and motionless...

“Who the fuck is that?” Alex managed, before collapsing from the stress of the days events and the injuries he had sustained.