Chapter 443: End of the Boardwalk’s Screamer

I grabbed both sides of my skull and curled onto my side as blood ran from my nose and ears. My brain felt as though it was being crushed from inside. The street spun beneath me, and I could not tell whether I was screaming or only hearing the awful noise still tearing through my mind.

The sound wave had not stopped inside my head. Even after Ravager and Gaspar were thrown away from the blast, the noise kept ringing through me. It felt hot, unbearable, like somebody had poured lava directly into my skull and left it there.

I could not think.

I could barely breathe.

I needed to get away from the center of the blast, but my body would not listen. My arms shook whenever I tried to push myself up. My legs felt numb. The ruined street shifted beneath me, tilting in ways that made no sense.

Then a blue flash cut through my blurred vision.

Sydney.

She appeared beside me.

Even through the haze, I could see that she was suffering too. Blood trickled from her nose and ears, and her face had gone pale, but she still grabbed hold of me.

"Come on," she said, though I could barely hear the words. "We’re getting out of here."

Before I could answer, blue light surrounded us again.

The world snapped.

"Ugh!"

A few seconds later, I crashed onto the ground dozens of meters away from the blast.

I rolled across the pavement and stopped on my side, coughing as pain shot through my body. The ringing had not vanished, but it had become less unbearable with the distance.

I raised my head.

Sydney landed nearby and immediately dropped to one knee.

She bent forward and spat blood onto the road.

"S...Sydney..." I called weakly.

"Ryan!"

Rachel came running toward us with Christopher, Lucy, and Cindy close behind them.

"C...Careful," I said, lifting one shaking arm toward the damaged street where Gaspar had disappeared. "Gaspar..."

"Stay here," Lucy said to Christopher.

Then she looked toward Rachel.

Rachel nodded.

Lucy lifted her rifle and moved toward the wreckage, watching every dark gap between the buildings. Rachel followed behind her with both hands ready, prepared to form a barrier if anything came at them.

"Ryan!"

Cindy dropped to her knees beside me.

Her eyes were already wet.

"Fucking hell, man," Christopher said as he crouched near my feet. "You look like hell."

"Really inspiring, Chris," Sydney groaned from where she sat on the ground.

Christopher looked over at her.

"You okay?"

"Not really."

Sydney pressed both hands against her ears and winced.

"Damn, that thing hurts. Maybe you should have thrown it a little later."

Christopher stared at her.

"You’re joking, right? That monster was about to tear Ryan’s head off."

"Yeah, no, I know," Sydney muttered. "Whatever."

She shook her head and looked away.

Cindy cupped my face in both hands.

"Ryan, look at me," she said. "Please."

I tried to focus on her.

Her face kept shifting in and out of clarity. I could feel tears falling onto my cheek as she patted it gently, trying to keep me awake.

"I’m fine," I said.

The lie sounded weak even to me.

"You don’t look fine, buddy," Christopher said.

"Really..."

"Yeah, I don’t have a mirror either, but damn." He looked over me from head to toe. "You sure you’re okay inside there?"

"Somehow," I muttered.

The truth was, I felt like I had been hit by a truck.

No.

More like several trucks.

My entire body ached from the fight with Gaspar. My ribs hurt whenever I breathed. My head still throbbed from the anti-Symbiote device, and the ringing in my ears had not completely gone away.

Cindy stayed beside me, her hands still holding my face.

She looked terrified.

I hated seeing that expression on her.

"He isn’t there," Lucy said.

She and Rachel returned from the wreckage.

"It looks like he left," Rachel added.

Cindy closed her eyes.

A thin trail of blood ran from her nose as she used her Radar ability. I could tell she was forcing it farther than usual, trying to search a larger area through the chaos.

Her face tightened.

I reached for her hand.

"Cindy..."

I wanted her to stop.

She was already bleeding. She had come into the middle of this mess, and now she was pushing herself again because she was worried about me.

But she did not stop.

Her face turned red from the strain. She took a shaky breath, holding her focus for another few seconds before finally opening her eyes.

"I think he left," she said. "I don’t see anyone like him nearby. Just Infected."

Christopher let out a breath.

"That’s a relief. I wasn’t sure any of us could fight that monster."

Neither was I.

Gaspar had been dangerous.

Ravager had been something worse.

"Ryan," Rachel said, crouching near me. Her voice had become serious. "What happened?"

"I went to destroy one of the devices," I said. "Gaspar was there."

Sydney looked at me sharply.

"And you expect us to believe it was a coincidence that you drew the short stick?"

Her tone was cold.

"You chose to go there first. You knew there was a chance that freak would be waiting."

"Sydney," Christopher said, cutting her off. "Drop it for a second."

Sydney clenched her fists. 𝒻𝑟ℯℯ

She looked away, jaw tight.

She was angry.

And it was understandable.

I didn’t want to lie either saying that it was a coincidence.

"She’s right," Lucy said, scanning the street around us. "We need to get away from here."

Infected were beginning to close in.

During the fight with Gaspar, they had barely registered in my mind. Some must have been caught in the wind attacks, the Plasma strikes, and the blast. Others had likely stayed away because of Ravager’s presence.

But now they were coming closer.

Several figures moved through the darkness at the end of the road, drawn by the gunfire, the destruction, and the scent of blood.

We could not stay here.

"What about the Matrix?" Sydney asked.

She pointed toward the Three Stones Matrix lying on its side near the ruined building.

The device had been damaged by the shockwave, but it was still there.

So were the Stones.

"We aren’t leaving that thing behind, right?"

I looked at it.

The red Stone.

The blue Stone.

The silver Stone that had nearly destroyed the Boardwalk.

If Gaspar came back and recovered the Matrix, everything we had done tonight would be meaningless. Callighan would still have the power to rebuild the Screamer or create something worse.

"We need to take it," I said.

I pushed one hand against the ground and tried to stand.

Pain shot through my ribs.

My vision tilted.

But I forced myself upward anyway.

The Matrix was too dangerous to leave for Gaspar and Callighan to find again.

I stared at the Three Stones Matrix through blurred vision.

The cube lay on its side in the wrecked street, half-covered in dust and broken concrete. Its surface had cracked from the shockwave, and most of the symbols running along its sides had faded. The wires connected to it had been torn apart when Gaspar was thrown through the building.

Still, I could see the faint glow from inside.

The Stones.

I took a step toward it.

My balance disappeared almost immediately.

The road tilted beneath my feet. I lurched forward, and for a second, I thought I was going to hit the ground face-first.

Cindy caught me before I could.

Her arm wrapped around my side, and she pulled me back against her carefully, avoiding where my ribs hurt.

"Don’t move uselessly, Ryan," she said.

She gave me a sharp look, but her voice shook slightly underneath it.

"I’m fine," I muttered.

"You’re bleeding from your ears."

"That doesn’t mean I’m not fine."

Cindy’s eyes narrowed.

"Ryan."

I gave up arguing.

Christopher looked from the Matrix to the shapes moving farther down the street. Infected were closing in slowly, drawn by the destruction, blood, and noise left behind from the fight. Without the Screamer pushing them into a frenzy, they no longer moved with that same terrifying speed, but there were still too many of them.

"That thing is heavy," Christopher said. "And we don’t have time to drag it around while Infected are coming. We can take it later."

He was right.

Leaving the whole Matrix behind bothered me, especially after Gaspar had used it to turn the Boardwalk into a war zone, but carrying it now would slow everyone down. I could barely stand without Cindy holding me upright.

At least we could take the important part.

"Sydney," I said. "Get the Stones out."

Sydney looked at me.

Then she nodded.

"Got it."

Blue light flashed around her.

She disappeared from beside us and reappeared near the toppled Matrix. Her movements were faster than my eyes could follow properly. One moment she stood over the cracked device, and the next, she had pulled the red Stone free.

Then the blue one.

Finally, she reached for the silver Stone.

The Screamer’s Stone.

For a second, the silver glow reflected in her face. Sydney’s expression tightened as she held it in her hand, probably remembering Jackson Township too.

Then another blue flash lit the road.

She was back beside us.

"I got all three," she said.

She held them out briefly.

The red Stone glowed like hot coals. The blue one gave off a cold, pale light. The silver Stone remained quieter now that the Screamer had stopped, but I could still feel something wrong coming from it.

Christopher glanced at the Matrix.

"We’re leaving it?"

"For now," I said.

The empty Matrix lay broken in the street, its wires snapped and its symbols fading. Without the Stones, it was just Starakian metal. Dangerous, maybe, but useless compared to what Callighan could do if he got those three Stones back.

"Move," Lucy said.

The Infected were close enough now that I could hear their growls clearly.

Cindy kept one arm around me as we left the ruined street. Sydney ran ahead and checked the route while Rachel, Christopher, and Lucy stayed close behind us. I hated needing help to walk, but every attempt to move on my own made the world spin again.

We did not go back to the Emerald Hotel.

Marlon and the others were probably still holding the hotel perimeter, dealing with the Infected left behind after the Screamer stopped. I had told Marlon I would return, and part of me wanted to force myself through the pain and get back there immediately.

But I knew I would be useless in a fight like this.

The Screamer was gone.

The worst part of the night had ended. The Infected would still be a problem, but the guards at the Whitesun had barricades, weapons, and people to hold the entrances. If they had survived the first wave, they could likely keep the hotel secure until sunrise and organize a real cleanup afterward.

Right now, we needed somewhere to hide.

We found it a few streets away.

The building had three floors and a faded sign above its entrance, though the name had been scratched away long ago. The first floor looked like it had once been offices or a small business. Most of the windows were boarded up, and the front door had already been reinforced with a heavy wooden beam from the inside.

Christopher forced it open just enough for us to slip through.

"Inside," Lucy said.

We entered quickly.

Christopher shoved the door closed behind us while Lucy dragged an old desk in front of it. Rachel helped push a filing cabinet against the desk, then checked the nearby windows for gaps.

"Nothing can get in through there," Rachel said.

"Let’s hope so," Christopher replied.

They moved through the first floor until they found a room near the back that looked like it had once been used for meetings. A large table stood in the center, surrounded by old chairs. Papers had been scattered across the floor long ago, and a dusty whiteboard remained attached to one wall.

There was a sofa along the far side of the room.

The moment I saw it, my body gave up.

Cindy helped guide me over, but I barely made it to the cushions before I dropped onto them. The old sofa groaned under my weight.

Pain flared through my back and ribs.

I leaned against the side of it and let out a breath that shook more than I wanted it to.

My whole body felt ruined.

The fight with Gaspar had already pushed me past my limit. Then Ravager had appeared, and the anti-Symbiote bomb had hit me hard enough to make my head feel like it was splitting open. Even now, the ringing in my ears had not completely stopped.

I closed my eyes for a moment.

Marlon.

The hotel.

Carmen, Shannon, and Maribel.

They were all still out there somewhere.

"I told Marlon I’d come back," I said quietly.

"You will," Rachel replied. "Just not like this."

"The Screamer is gone," Christopher added. "That changes everything. They can barricade the Hotel and deal with the remaining Infected when it’s light out."

"Yeah," Lucy said. "You did enough tonight."

I did not know if that was true.

The Boardwalk was still a mess. People had probably been hurt. Maybe killed. Gaspar had escaped. The Matrix had been left behind, even if we had taken the Stones.

But the Screamer had stopped.

For now, that had to count for something.

I leaned my head back against the sofa.

Then Cindy moved closer and gently pulled my head into her lap.

"Just lie down," she said. "Rest."

I looked up at her.

Her face was still pale. Dried blood marked beneath her nose, and she looked exhausted from using her Radar ability and running through the chaos with everyone else. Yet she kept one hand against my hair, carefully brushing it away from my forehead.

There was no anger in her expression now.

Only worry.

I thought about Carmen and Shannon still inside hat cabin.

"Carmen and Shannon, they—"

"Maribel said she will pick them up," Rachel cut me off.

"Oh..."

"Just rest," Cindy said to me.

I nodded.

"Okay."

I let my body sink into the sofa and closed my eyes.

Cindy’s hand stayed in my hair as the sounds of the night faded behind the walls of the abandoned building.