Viktor Harris
Paint still drips from an old building where a message has clearly been written. A message that sends dread coursing through the body of Viktor Harris.We have won! it says, almost in a cheery way but Viktor knows that it is anything but cheery. He can hear screaming down the street, and gunfire echoes all around. We have won the battle against the soldiers but not the one we wage with ourselves. It's hard to keep low to the ground with a leg that's throbbing with pain every step he takes. But he knows if anybody spots him he will be done for, just like everyone else the group deems to be a burden.
"Shit." He edges around the side of an old concrete slab that is leaning against the wall of a building. He can hear people not too far away, though their words are muffles he knows they are part of the main group. He catches sight of their guns first. Then their faces come into view. He recognizes them as former soldiers turned hunter by the fear of dying in the big fight. Cowards. But dangerous cowards. He keeps to the ground, moving away from the concrete slab and around the side of the building. Heading down the alleyway he pauses at the sound of more voices, ducking behind a dumpster to keep out of sight.
Shock courses through him when the soldiers turned hunters from before pass by him, completely oblivious to his hiding spot and head down the alleyway. Viktor briefly considers sneaking up on them, but a quick head count of four has him staying where he is until they pass on by.
Next thing he knows a woman is running by him screaming, holding a tiny bundle in her arms. Viktor strikes out to grab her arm, pulling her down beside him. A stupid move done by instinct to possibly save the woman. He peers around the corner, where the sound of screaming and fighting can be heard. Nobody seems to have noticed the woman running this way.
"My daughter...My daughter is back there!" The woman sobs.
"There isn't anything we can do," Viktor tells her.
His words seem to set her off more. Viktor felt bad before, but now the threat of this woman's cries raising the alarm has him gritting his teeth. He looks at the child in her hands, its own cries raising up to join hers. "Screw it!" He says to himself, using a nearby brick to silence her and the child. Its a messy, horrible thing he has done but for his own survival he would do anything. I'm just like them... he thinks to himself as he searches the woman's corpse. All she has on her is a roll of bandages and an old make-shift pocket knife that looks like it would break on impact. He leaves the knife and quickly gets away from the woman, feeling only a small pang of remorse for his actions. "It was her or me," He reminds himself as he heads further down the alleyway.
Once the street opens up he takes stock of the carnage. One of the four hunters from before lays in a pool of his own blood beside an old jeep wrangler. Another sitting not more than six feet away looks to have been pierced through the stomach with an arrow. There are no civilians in the street though, and he knows that they have all been taken to the chopping block. Some could have escaped, but he knows it's unlikely.
Viktor starts towards a book store across the street, dodging around broken down cars and corpses of the long dead. Debris makes it particularly difficult for him to keep himself from falling. He jabs his cane at the ground with every other step until he's inside then sets to work blocking the door from the inside. He barely gets his breath in before more hunters have caught up to him. They've spotted him already. He barely has time to dive for cover as a bullet whizzes past him. Without a weapon he's vulnerable, and he knows that there is no way he can outrun them.
"We know you're in here Vik!" One hunters calls out.
"Don't make this any harder on us!" Another says.
Viktor curses, edging along the bookcases until he can see them directly. He knows these guys, hell, at one point he would have called them friends. It's funny how he ended up on this side, when he knows if the circumstances were different he would be doing the same thing they are.
"You won't survive with that leg of yours busted up, and you know it." Yes, he does know it. But there will always be a will inside of him to survive, and until that will is gone he won't just let himself give up. Viktor weighs his options now, there are limited places to hide in here and only one exit that isn't blocked. Unfortunately that exit happens to be out in the open without anything to hide behind. Otherwise, he will have to try and fight his way out.
"Come on Vik!" The voice so close to him spurs him into action. He jumps up from his hiding place, leg throbbing as he makes a mad dash for the exit. He doesn't worry about the cane, even though his leg feels as if its been engulfed by a flame. His breath catches in his throat. More bullets fly his way and one grazes his shoulder, knocking him down to the ground. They converge on him, like a mass of rats. Viktor waits for that one bullet that will end it all. But of course it never comes - they need him alive. Fresh meat is always better.
The last thing he see's is the butt of a rifle rushing to meet his head.
His head throbs and he vaguely realizes that he's laying on the cold concrete ground. His eyes don't focus immediately, but when they do he realizes he is not alone in this room. There are others, people he doesn't particularly know but who all share the same fate as he. His cane is gone, so when he goes to stand he falls back as the pain of over exertion hits him. The room they are in is on the smaller side. It's been picked clean but before it could have serves as someones office. He looks around at the others that are here. He contemplates escape, but realizes that with this group it wouldn't be very easy to stage a break out. He sighs and pulls himself to the far wall, giving himself a well needed rest while thinking over ways to get out of this.
"I don't -" He breaks off to catch his breath, wheezing slightly, "know about anyone else but I don't plan on dying today."