[6] Chasing Trisha

[Kaden]

"So," Kaden turned to Piper. "What do you think Sophia's odd would be if this were a horror movie?"

"Hmmm," Piper shifted the weight of her shotgun on her shoulder as she considered the question. "Well, she's not a minority and she hasn't shown up topless for no real reason..."

"Good point."

Both Kaden and Piper were slow to turn from the suddenly ominous maw of the gun store. Before actually stepping away, though, Kaden flicked a bolt of bright blue ki at the gate that had seperated their party. When it fizzled harmlessly against the shutter, the courier turned his head towards the mall's ceiling, almost glaring.

"Not gonna lie, Trisha, that was a pretty dick move."

While Piper would have taken the time to voice a similar sentiment, she was more aware of their situation then her partner was. The roaring report of her shotgun was more than enough to force Kaden back into the present. The shrill ring of the gun store's alarm had done a more-than-adequate job of attracting the zombie horde's attention.

Whirling about, Kaden was able to witness a graceful feat of acrobatic prowess that he didn't think Piper was capable of. The medic leapt spinning into the air and caught the nearest zombie with the toe of her boot. The force of the kick sent the undead shambler tumbling over the railing of the second-floor walkway. As she touched back upon the ground, Piper continued her spin, catching a second zombie with a grounded version of the same kick. To finish the hat-trick, the woman flipped the shotgun in her hand and as she spun through her second kick, caught a zombie in the jaw with the butt of her weapon. The shotgun cleaved through the zombie flesh, taking off half of its face as it passed.

Kaden let out a low whistle as Piper brushed off the bits of zombie clinging to her weapon and tossed it back over her shoulder. The medic allowed herself a quick smile at Kaden's non-verbal compliment. Unfortunately, the distracted courier proved an easy target for their undead opponents; as Kaden turned to better assess their situation, a zombie's hand shot forward and grasped the courier tightly around the neck.

Piper stepped forward to aid her ally, but hesitated as Kaden's body reacted. Darting into his jacket, Kaden's hand wrapped around the hilt of the dagger he had taken from Trisha. Before he was even aware of it, the courier had draw the weapon. The blade, glowing ever so lightly as Kaden's ki coursed through it, flashed upward, cutting a swath through his attacker's arm.

As the zombie recoiled backwards, a shrilling cry of pain escaping it's malformed mouth, Piper didn't miss a beat. She ducked past Kaden, who was struggling to remove the severed limb from his throat, and thrust her palm up under the zombie's screeching mouth. She struck with such force that the undead attacker was thrown off of its feet, back into the sea of oncoming abominations.

"Can you... see which way Sophia is going?" Piper asked.

"I... ugh..." finally wrenching the zombie's hand from his neck, Kaden dropped it to the floor. "Yeah, I should be able to."

Despite the glare of the ki-infused security shutter, Kaden was able to track down Sophia with his Sight in fairly short order. A pang of guilt flashed through the courier's mind at having to leave the priestess behind. If he just had a little more time, he probably could have figured out a way to get to her. Beating himself up about it wasn't going to do anyone any good, though. If he wanted to help Sophia, he needed to figure out where she was going and how to get their.

"She's headed that way," Kaden pointed as he spoke. Given that the second-floor balcony only extended in two directions, there wasn't a whole lot of choice.

"Of course..." Piper sighed as she followed Kaden's finger.

In the direction that Kaden indicated, the medic and the courier could look forward to a throng of drooling undead. The opposite direction, the direction that was of absolutely no use at all, was relatively clear of any enemies. Kaden had the sinking feeling that that wasn't the last time they would be presented with such a situation.

"This might get kind of messy," Piper warned Kaden as she dispatched another zombie.

"I have an idea. Keep them off of me for a second."

Taking a couple of steps backwards, Kaden positioned himself in the middle of the walkway, facing the horde of undead. With a simple nod, Piper took up a position in front of the courier, meeting the zombies with the business end of her shotgun.

The sounds of the zombies, the report of Piper's shotgun, the sickening crack of enemies hitting the floor below... it all fell on deaf ears. Kaden turned his mind inward, focusing on his own energy with a level of concentration that he had yet to achieve during the course of this game. Slowly, the blonde-haired human brought his hands up to his chest, his open palms turned towards one-another.

Energy began to crackle between the courier's hands as a small ball of cerulean ki sparked to life in front of him. To any on-looker, the small size of the orb would belie the power being funneled into it. It had been less than a full day since Orion had passed on such advice to Kaden. By compacting the energy, it would pack a more significant punch. Or, for what Kaden had planned, allow more precise control of his ki.

Despite the compression of his ki, the orb between Kaden's hands quickly grew in size. Though not quite comparable to a basketball, Kaden seemed satisfied. His eyes, alight with the glow of his second Sight, opened to see the horde of zombies closing in. Valiantly, Piper continued to push them back. Most likely in an effort to conserve ammunition, the medic's shotgun had fallen silent.

"Piper!"

Piper whipped around at the sound of Kaden's voice. As her eyes fell upon the crackling ball of energy in her ally's hands, understanding dawned upon her almost instantly. In a single vaulting leap, the medic placed herself several steps behind Kaden, exposing him to the zombies. And exposing the zombies to him.

There was a moment of hesitation as Kaden's eyes darted about the horde before him. It was not fear, or anxiety that stayed his hand, though, it was simply caution. Against Trisha and against the guards in Olde Town, Kaden had felt restrained. It was his own beliefs and his own fear of moral guilt that kept one hand tied behind his back, and he knew that, but right there, in that mall, he was free from any of that. As the flickering lights of the mall gave way to the cerluean glow of his attack, a smile spread across Kaden's face.

With his right hand, Kaden thrust the ball of energy forward. Instead of exploding outwards, the orb seemed to open up, allowing a thin stream of energy to surge outward, cutting a hole through the zombies unfortunate enough to be in its limited path. Most of the zombies were left unharmed, though several shrieks of pain echoed through the mall. The rest, however, continued their march forward. Unfortunately for them, Kaden hadn't even started.

Thrusting his left hand forward, Kaden's beam began to expand in size. Within seconds, the wave of energy expnaded to nearly the width of the second-floor balcony. Light filled the mall, a cerulean hue bathing the storefronts and displays that the beam of energy shot past. With a grunt of effort, the courier expelled one final pulse of energy before letting his left hand drop to his side. The beam slowly shrank back down before fizzling out completely.

"Wow..." came Piper's voice. "Nice shot."

Looking over his shoulder at the medic, Kaden couldn't help but smile. As his right arm dropped to his side, however, the smile faded. The courier held back a grimace as he massaged his right arm with his left. A familiar sensation coursed through his muscles as he started walking forward.

"Luckily, these guys were pretty weak," Kaden responded to Piper's compliment.

There were several seconds of silence before an increasingly familiar voice filled the mall. "Well well well... not bad, kiddo." came Trisha's voice.

"What's the matter, Trisha? You sound worried," Kaden shot back. In truth, he didn't think she sounded worried at all. Such machoismo seemed appropriate, though, even if there wasn't an ounce of confidence to back it up.

"The only thing I'm worried about is finding someone else to keep you company."

"Yeah... heaven forbid..." Piper said, verbally rolling her eyes.

This time, however, there was no response from their hostess. An eerie quiet settled upon the mall once more. Still the lights flickered throughout the halls of the large building. To Kaden's surprise, he found it creepier without the zombies shambling after them. As he tried to piece together the workings of that mental peculiarity, Piper's voice drew his attention.

"Kaden," the medic began. "Is your arm alright?"

"My arm?" The courier looked down at his right arm. He continued to massage it with his left, though it had become an entirely unconscious action. "Oh... yeah. It'll be fine."

"No, I mean... the blood." Piper pointed to the tiled floor behind them.

"Blood?" Kaden turned to follow Piper's finger. His eyes fell upon a small trail of blood behind him.

The courier started to run his left hand through his hair, thoroughly confused, but quickly stopped. The zombie vomit, though he had done an admirable job of wiping it off his clothing, was still stuck in his hair. Surppressing a gag simply at the thought, the courier turned over his right hand to examine it. To his surprise, a rather large gash was cut along his palm. The blood had been trickling out only because his hand had been clenched in a fist.

"How did that happen?" Piper moved to examine Kaden's hand.

"Ahh. Yeah. It's just been overused. It's happened before when I'm not being careful about doing... well... what I just did." The courier smiled meekly as he relinquished control of his hand to Piper's scruitinizing grip. "I don't usually notice because my arm just... kind of goes numb."

"You're probably just overworking it. It would probably help if you used your left arm more." Piper released Kaden's hand as she spoke.

"What do you mean?" the courier asked, tilting his head.

"You didn't notice? You pretty much only use your right arm." Piper's face dawned a thoughtful visage. "Trisha... the scorpions... Olde Town..."

"Huh..." Kaden couldn't help but nod along. He had never thought about it, but it certainly made sense. Working one muscle too much ended up doing more damage than anything else. "Yeah... I guess you're right. I should probably have Sophia take a look at it when we find her."

"I..." Piper's eyes darted to Kaden's hand, then the floor, though only for the briefest of moments. "Yeah," she finally said. "That's probably a good idea." Clearing her throat, Piper pulled something from one of her pockets. "In the mean time, you should wrap that up."

"Oh. Yeah, thanks." Kaden took what ended up being a scrap of fabric from Piper. When trying to tie a bandage with one hand failed, Piper took the cloth back and instructed the courier to keep his hand still. "Heh... thanks. You pull that off a shirt in the department store?" Kaden inquired.

"Was it the pink that gave it away?" Piper tied off the cloth and pulled the knot tight.

"The glitter, actually." Kaden smiled at Piper as he clenched and unclenched his newly-wrapped hand. "It's a good thing you're here," the courier commented. "I probably would have just kept bleeding."

"That's what I do," came the woman's reply.

The two continued down the path of destruction that Kaden had wrought, though it wasn't long before they ran into a proverbial dead end. Their path took them to what appeared to be a food court. The mall opened into a huge, circular space lined with venders of all kinds. Like the department store, this area extended upward to a third story, though the highest floor seemed to be mostly for seating

While that would have proven to be the perfect place to take a rest, maybe find something to eat, or even just figure out how to reach Sophia, Piper and Kaden weren't so fortunate. On the bottom floor of the food court, one floor below the twosome, a mass of zombies had gathered. Surprisingly, though, they seemed oblivious to the duo's presence.

Before either Kaden or Piper could ask the other what was going on, the zombies appeared to... melt. A very bad feeling began to form in the back of Kaden's mind as the zombies continued to pile atop one another, and continued to melt. Before long there was nothing below Kaden and Piper other than a pulsating mass of goo who's color resembled that of rotting flesh.

Kaden's bad feeling was quickly realized. The pulsing mass of... zombie began to grow. Ripples flowed along the rising bulk of the goo, slowly giving way to a disturbingly humanoid shape. In wasn't long before a hulking beast of zombie stoo in the center of the food court. So massive was the monstrous amalgam that it was able to look Piper and Kaden in the eye as they stood on the second floor. To make matter worse, a massive shutter slammed shut just inches behind Piper and Kaden, trapping them inside the food court.

"What the hell is that thing?" Piper asked as she edged away from the katchin grate.

"If I had to guess..." Kaden tried to swallow the lump that had formed in his throat. "I'd have to go with 'evil zombie overlord.'"