Dark on the Waters [Dark Data]

[Belle]

It was mid-day, and Hell had come to Sabaody.

Crouching in the brush, Belle motioned for quiet from the child behind her. One second, maybe two, and then the snarling of the dark creatures reached a fever pitch. They stumped, raced, and trampled past her hiding spot in a mad rush, their eyes fixated straight ahead and boiling with anger. All shapes and sizes, all with one singular purpose – to attack.

The ground shook underneath Belle's sandal clad feet as the remains of Sabaody's zoo stampeded past her, only now inky black and riddled with glowing veins. Stampy, the zoo's prized elephant, lumbered with frightening speed through the center of it, his trumpeting cry garbled - deep and thick and undulating.

Muffled noise behind her. Belle put out an arm to wrap it around the small girl that shared her hiding spot, using her other hand to stroke the child's hair. The girl trembled, hands clasped over her mouth to try and stifle her noises.

Belle had found her soon after the onset of the madness, crying in the middle of a field of carnage as black shapes began to pour through. Belle herself had been taking a break from swimming, enjoying the fruits of a popsicle stand when the screams had started to rise. No one had been expecting it.

Belle shifted her weight, leaning a little further forward, sweeping the area through a small crack in the foliage. The sounds of the corrupted animals were fading into the distance. If she didn't take her chance now, she might not get another one.

Grasping the child, Belle swept her up into her arms, and ran, cutting across the debris-laden path the dark ones had cut through the forest undergrowth. Sounds of battle rose to join the howling – the military was fighting back, what small pieces of it were left stationed on the island. Belle quickened her pace, telling the little girl to hold tighter to her as she reached inside of herself.

She willed her soul to move, and the flesh obliged in turn. The forest became a blur as Belle accelerated. She felt the girl's nails biting against her, clutching for dear life. Belle felt a twinge of guilt that momentarily overshadowed everything else – but the military would only hold out for so long, and the evacuation that had been announced over the island-wide PA had a deadline.

With a burst of speed, Belle launched herself free of the forest, undappled sunlight momentarily blinding her. She tucked the girl close to her chest as she skidded, sandals trailing twin tails of spraying grass.

The small clearing at the edge of the island may have been a quiet retreat at one point in time. Now it was home to thousands of beleaguered residents. More than she thought, but less than she hoped. They were all packed to the shoreline, fighting among themselves to be the first aboard the limited number of pleasure boats.

Belle's heart sank. Sabaody was a small island, with little need for mass transport of tourists from place to place. There simply wasn't enough deck space to house the entirety of the island's population. She was about to ask one of the nearby soldiers why the navy ships weren't being used, but then a double boom of cannon-fire from off-shore answered her question. The ships were being sacrificed to clear the path.

Someone screeched. Belle turned, only to nearly be bowled over as a woman ran up to her, arms outstretched, tears streaming from already puffy, red eyes. “Sammy...!”

Belle let go, releasing the child to her mother. No sign of the father. Belle reminded herself that she couldn't be sure if there even was one. Or maybe he was simply out searching, and would be back soon.

It was those kinds of thoughts that she had to cling to in the madness.

Another cry, but this one not human. A low, deep, undulating cry. Belle turned just in time to see the line of the forest before her explode into splinters. Stampy half sloughed, half charged through, his tusks dripping with the black fluid that covered his body. The elephant was drowning in his own discharge, spitting and heaving.

Screams from behind, screams from ahead. Mad pressing of bodies towards the boats as the mad animal approached, shrugging off machine gun fire, the omnilium infused rounds pockmarking the bubbling surface.

Bikini and sandals wasn't exactly warrior attire, but Belle's fists clenched all the same, her pale blue eyes flashing as she surged in the opposite direction of the crowd, towards the oncoming behemoth.

The machine gun fire silenced as she broke through the crowd. Someone was yelling at her to get down, but she didn't listen. The damn beast must have followed her there. Had she not been quiet enough? Had it heard the little girl? Either way... It was her fault. Just like it always seemed to be.

Only this time, she could do something about it.

Racing at the mutated titan, Belle felt the power inside her surge through her body, infusing her muscles. The feeling was delirious, freeing.

Stampy lowered its head, tusks pointed towards her, trunk coiled into a battering ram. At the last instant, Belle slipped her left leg out, sliding low, juking her head to the side. She felt the tusk against her cheek – if it hadn't been coated in the ooze, she was sure she would have been burned. She reached up, grabbing hold, and yanked.

Her momentum carried her forward, through the elephant's legs, as the elephant's head came down, tusks slamming tip first into the earth, its body lifting, almost flipping over, before its own momentum faded, and it rediscovered terra firma with a slam. A groan, more frustrated than hurt, as it struggled to find its footing.

“Hey, big guy,” Belle crooned, hoping she didn't sound as scared as she felt. “I'm over here!”