[b]November 3rd, 8:49pm, Abandoned Apartment Complex, Southwest Missouri[/b]

Valentina kept running without stopping, her path a zig zag as she had trouble running straight. She could not see right, and everything was a blur, as if the darkness itself was not enough. The biters were not the only things plaguing her. The witch was on her mind ever since she left her. Her face was plastered inside her head, in a different light: that of a guardian angel, something close to a mother. She saw her face in her mind again, surrounded by bright, white light, her lips moving, but silent. She was fair, clean, beautiful. Then she was gone, as if an angel returning to heaven. It kept Valentina confused - everything was a conflux of uncertainties, chaos.

Running down flights of stairs down the apartment building, Valentina descended quickly, her ears peeled for any sound of the dead at all, since her eyes and mind were giving out, but she had trouble even hearing right. She couldn't see... Couldn't see... And slipped on a step, tumbling down a flight of stairs, crying in pain, the pain coming in bursts every time her small frame hits the jagged edge of the steps. Her head had felt tender, so she shielded it first and foremost.

Valentina came to a rest at the foot of the stairs, groaning in pain, clutching her knees as she felt sharp pain in the both of them. Remembering that she wasn't in a safe sleep spot, she soon got up and took a second to check herself, realising that by some miracle, perhaps the protection of the witch, that she wasn't hurt... badly. She could feel bruises forming and skin cut, but that was all she felt.

Moaning was coming from a short distance away, from the floor she had fallen from. She had made too much noise, Valentina knew that. A figure appeared at the head of the stairs she had descended painfully, and as if following her example, took a step down, missed and came tumbling down, a heap of broken and rotten flesh. The young girl ran before it came crashing into her, coming to rely more on the railings of the stairs, having learnt the hard way to do so.

Floor by floor, the scared, confused little girl managed to make it down to the ground floor safe, but that was where her luck ended, or perhaps when her guardian angel left for heaven. There were more of them than there were above, and as soon as she stepped out of the stairwell door, she was greeted by several of them, which shambled towards her, forming a wall of death. Looking around desperately for an exit, she saw the green exit sign, just barely - but the exit was blocked by the biters. One of them began to walk faster, breaking into a jog, and Valentina ran in the same direction, hoping to find more exits.

She found one at the end of the corridor, but it was locked or blocked, Valentina could not think with her head throbbing so horribly, and she did not have time to. The fast biter had broken into a run. Desperate, Valentina tried every door near her - apartment room doors. Most of them locked, just like in every other apartment buildings, until her guardian angel smiled down on her again, and she found a door that was hanging open.

Rushing in, Valentina tried to lock the door, but before she could slam it shut entirely, a pair of hands shot out from the rapidly closing gap, blocking the door. Behind the scuffle to get the door closed, she could hear more feet shuffling towards her. Soon, Valentina knew, she would be surrounded by the biters. But it wasn't the first time, and she knew what to do. Letting go of the door, the blocking biter suddenly found itself free to fall forward, and when it had cleared the door frame, Valentina shut and locked the door quickly, trapping herself with the running biter - though it was better than it sounds. Valentina had to choose between getting trapped with one rather than many, and she chose the former.

Before she could turn back to check on the running biter, she could already hear it getting up... And lunging at her, but Valentina managed to get out of the way, running into a wall in panic. What little she could glimpse of her enemy, she saw that he was huge, and all covered up. He had a helmet, and pads like those used for rollerblading. Pulling out her flashlight in a hurry, she began looking for a way out, or something that could help her overcome the armoured biter, and the only thing she could find was another dead body... But alongside it was a pipe, which Valentina grabbed as the biter was recovering from crashing into the door.

As it came closer, Valentina swung the pipe at its knee, as hard as she possibly could. There was a crunch, and the biter fell. Wasting no time, the girl began pummelling its head over and over, without stopping. Sometimes her pipe would bounce harmlessly off its helmet, but the blows directed to its face eventually killed it.

When it finally stopped moving, Valentina stopped, and took a few steps back as she eyed the creature, worried that it might get up again. But as the blobs that she could see did not even stir once more, she dropped her pipe and sat down, leaning against a wall, her knees to her chest. Clutching the back of her head, she realised that her hair was very wet, and when she withdrew her hand to see what it was, she saw that her hand was covered entirely with blood. The lower half of her blonde hair was dyed red with blood. Similarly, she could feel blood trickling down her forehead. Her memories of recent events were hazy, but she knew that they were the result of her falls in the store back with the woman. She remembered hitting her head on something sharp around the first time, and cutting herself on a loose tile the second time.

Valentina could not tell how long she'd been there. As she was deciding what to do, she could feel moments of time being lost of darkness in between, slowing her down. She considered finishing what she set out to do, but by now, without the woman to guide her and help her, it seemed impossible. After another black out or two (Valentina could not tell), she decided that she would rather go back to Dominic's Gas An' Go'. By now, she could not longer care about earning anything but her life, and any consequence for abandoning the mission seemed much more desirable than what was in store for her if she tried to do as the woman had asked of her.

Feeling a little better from resting, Valentina tried to stand up, but could only barely do so. But she could hear and see better. Pointing her flashlight at the biter she had just killed, she realised from its label, badge and colour that it was once a police officer, but dressed like a soldier. Spotting some things on the former-policeman she covets, Valentina walked over to it, her knees nearly giving way, but did anyway when she tried to bend down. Undeterred, she grabbed the handle of a gun that looked like a cross between a rifle and a pistol and pulled, but it was stuck to the biter because of a sling. It took her a while, but eventually she managed to get it off. An MP5K, Valentina found the weight to be manageable, unlike the rifles that she tried to use before.

'Guns are like people, darling.' Lieutenant Hugh had said, 'We all have arms and legs, a head, two eyes, a mouth. Guns all had the same things too. You see this? Every gun has a place to put a bullet in.' Valentina remembered him kissing her like a loving father, except he was not her father. 'Just like how we all have cheeks for people to kiss.' Valentina pressed a button on the submachinegun and pulled the magazine out. It was nearly full. Checking the chamber, she found that the gun was already charged and ready to shoot.

Checking the pockets on the biter, Valentina had found three more magazines for it, one of them empty, the other two full. Before she could continue, Valentina could not resist being reminded of her late soldier friend because of how much the former-policeman reminded her of him. As she became trapped once again in her memories, watching over and over again how Lieutenant Hugh had died in just an instant, blood pouring down the back of his head, Valentina ceased searching the body, and even when she recovered from the mental whirlpool, didn't want to search it any further. Instead, she took a blanket from a nearby couch and laid it over the corpse of the policeman, feeling sad for both men.