"… Zarek, what's…?"
She had barely started when she touched her cheek. The feeling of a rain droplet caused the subconscious action, but when she looked into the skies in confusion, the horror on her expression only grew deeper.
Her head snapped back to her hand, only to realize that the droplet she had wiped from her face was a deep crimson.
There were no clouds above them at all, so she had been wondering how it could be raining in the first place. But when she looked, she realized that nothing had changed. The sky was still clear, so where had this rain come from?
"They call it Godsfall," Zarek said softly. "Well, they won't for many more years. Soon they'll be calling it the Red Rain until they learn what it actually is."
Then came the screams.
Horrible, tragic screams, the kinds filled with helplessness and despair. Only the first few droplets had fallen, and yet it had begun so quickly.
'Every time, it's just a little bit faster, now isn't it?'
"Godsfall? Red Rain? What are you talking about, Zarek?"
Zarek didn't reply directly, pulling his blazer off and using it as an umbrella for Priya.
"You can take about three droplets now, you've always been better than me in that regard anyway. But any more than that and it'll get dangerous. Come."
He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her to the rooftop doors.
After they were inside, he tossed his blazer to the side, not caring even if it ended up scorched. He rolled up the sleeves of his dress shirt, revealing forearms pulsing with dense veins.
There was already a slight sheen of sweat on his forehead. Before Priya had arrived, he had properly warmed up his body, knowing exactly what would happen.
"I'll explain everything, I promise," Zarek said before Priya's impatience wore thin. "But right now, a lot of bullshit is about to happen, so let your man be a little badass for a second."
Zarek turned and gave Priya a grin. He could see his reflection clearly in her bright eyes… his dark, mahogany skin, his amber eyes, his chiseled jaw, and that award-winning smile his teachers hated that they loved.
Seeing him smile like that, Priya found herself relaxing somewhat. The screams were still reverberating in her head, but it had become a mere backdrop.
Well, that lasted until she saw him pick up a sheathed weapon that was hidden in the shadows.
With a pull, Zarek unsheathed the machete, its glistening silver still obvious even in the dim lights.
"Uh…"
Priya opened her mouth to say something, but Zarek had already taken her hand again. It was only after feeling the warmth that she calmed, but the questions swirling around in her head only multiplied.
If not for the fact Zarek said he would explain everything later, she wouldn't have been able to hold her tongue for so long.
They descended the stairs and soon the noise from down below became louder and louder.
Zarek didn't pause, kicking out at a door's crash bar.
A second collision sounded soon afterward. Clearly, it had collided with something, but Zarek didn't seem to care.
He stepped over the body of a student holding his nose and crying out in fear. It only took a glance to realize he was trying to escape up to the roof--an obviously stupid decision.
The hallway opened up to them and the scene was about as chaotic as Zarek believed.
Some people could withstand direct droplets from the Godsfall, and then there were some that couldn't even withstand its reflected red light. Due to that, even without coming into contact with the Godsfall, several had begun to "turn."
As for what they were turning into, well…
The short of it was zombies.
The long of it… even Zarek couldn't explain it all, otherwise he wouldn't have failed even with two other redos.
Though, it was more complicated than that.
Zarek's machete flashed and a head flew into the skies.
Priya bit down on her lip hard when she saw such a thing. Every fiber of her being wanted to scream or ask Zarek what he was doing, but… she couldn't help but recall his sentence earlier.
Do you trust me?
Zarek moved with the swiftness of a veteran. Every time he struck, a head flew into the skies. However, by the fifth, he clicked his tongue.
'Just five swings. What a shit blade. If only I could have found a way to sneak a gun into this damned school.'
He had had four lives and 16 years total to figure it out, but if there was one thing this school had going for it, it was security. It had taken him a year and several annoying blacksmithing classes just to get that machete and it was already useless.
And yet…
He tossed the machete to the side without a second glance, pulling Priya outside the doors. Regardless, he had been focused on other things in these past several years.
The screams were no longer suppressed and the sound hit them in waves.
Students? Teachers? Janitors? Security guards?
There didn't seem to be a difference between any one of them.
If they had been paying any sort of attention outside of scurrying around like rats, they would have noticed that Zarek was a particular standout.
Zarek pulled Priya through the archway connecting the school to the central statue. There was cover overhead, so he wasn't worried about the Godsfall.
As for his goal, that was obvious.
That tear in reality that appeared and swallowed half of the statue.
Zarek kicked out, sending a little-girl-turned-zombie flying.
Priya couldn't help but flinch, but she did the only thing she could do: bite her lip and don't scream.
She repeated those words in her mind again and again. However, the anxiety was killing her.
The number of zombies around them was only growing.
A second Godsfall droplet, seemingly carried by the wind, made it through the archway and fell on her arm.
Suddenly, she remembered that Zarek said she had a limit of three and her heart practically exploded.
Zarek looked back toward his girlfriend for the first time, and even with zombies swinging at him from all directions, he smiled.
"With me here, nothing will happen to you."
He swept her waist into his arms and leapt out of the way of a hoard.
Jumping to the side, he pressed a foot onto a pillar and leapt onto the broken statue.
He paused for only a moment, looking around at the school that was in chaos as a third droplet fell onto Priya's arm.
Then, he vanished into the tear.