She is Fatal to Death (Standalone Story)

Chapter 36 (The Crude Cut)

Diamond

Her heart pushed up against her sternum, pounding against the bone mercilessly. "Ren!" She screamed as she searched every inch of the compound. She awakened just as the shadows receded, snapping out of reality within the next moment.

She remembered touching the bleeding spot on her head, having taken some kind of impact to it. The silence which followed told her that something was very wrong. She tore through the confused crowd of guards in the entrance, dead or alive. She coughed from the onslaught of dust and smoke, which caked most of her aching body as she ran around without any kind of useful strategy..

"Ren!" She called out again to no avail. "Rocio?"

"Diamond?"

The faint sound of Rocio's response made Diamond come screeching to a halt. At this point, she had just passed the midway point of the bunker, which was around the kitchen. "Rocio! I hear you! Call out. I'm coming."

"I'm here. I'm here. I'm here."

Diamond strained against the door as it didn't give beneath her urgent movement. There was something pressed up against it. "The door is stuck."

Her voice was too weak, alluding to something being very wrong with Rocio. "Please, help me, Diamond."

Diamond's heart broke as she imagined the worst injuries Rocio could have sustained. "I'm coming, I'm coming. Can you help me?" She grunted as she pushed all of her weight against the door.

"I'll try," she hissed through her teeth and cut off her own pained cry. "It's hard for me to move."

"Is Ren in there with you?" She needed to be sure first before she got lost in this new mission to save the woman she...loved? "What happened? Are you okay?"

Her tone of anguish turned panicked. Her sounds of struggle raised in volume, as though she was pushing her harder to get up, which only spoke of how hurt she really was. "You haven't found her yet?"

Diamond empasized with her urgency, but Renata would have to wait until Diamond helped Rocio, who was clearly in dire need of assistance now. "Not yet. Now, answer my other questions."

Of course, this was the time Rocio chose to show off her stubborn side. "No, leave me." She couldn't have been more hardened in resolve than in that moment. "Go find her. I'm fine."

Luckily, Diamond didn't give a damn about Rocio's steadfast heart. "We'll find her together." She braced her feet and pushed as hard as she could. "I can't just leave you trapped here."

"You can, because I won't be all that helpful to you right now anyway. You have to find her and make sure she's okay."

"Stop arguing with me and help me," Diamond snapped and paused for the smallest chance to catch her breath. "Is there something pushed against the door?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

"A body."

Diamond's heart skipped a beat. "Whose body?!"

"One of the guards, they were killed by those fucking demon things. Oh god, what are those things?" The sentiment for those shadowed creatures was shared. Diamond still couldn't quite grasp what she had witnessed and ran from. The monsters which she feared would return any second.