You had to force yourself to leave Zack to fight of the soldiers, as per his request.

Go.

His words still shouted in the back of your mind like a loud church bell, as you crawled your way through the ventilation systems. You were lucky you had found the hatch when you did, you didn't know how long Zack could hold them off for. 

You could still feel the warmth of Zack's lips from where he had kissed you on your forehead, and you weren't sure what that feeling was that made your stomach feel fluttery and queasy from just the thought. For now, you had to focus only on escaping.

You weren't too bothered by the undead who had been let loose. There were enough soldiers in the ShinRa facility to restrain or kill them. You couldn't remember how many they had brought in to test, but you were guessing 10 or less. 

The vents were stuffy and hot, but it didn't stop your hurry to escape. At this point you had no idea where you were going, you only hoped it was bringing you closer to the outside world. Just getting yourself out was all you needed to think about. Although, what were you to do when night fell? 

Fear struck you suddenly from the mere thought. It hadn't even crossed your mind.  

Before you could panic, you saw and end to the ventilation system and without hesitation, crawled towards it. Reaching the end you peered through the narrow slits to assess the room it dropped into.

You spotted a desk a few sleek chairs and a wall that was a full length glass window, that looked out over the safe side of Midgar. 

This was perfect. Your way out. 

Twisting yourself around in the enclosed space you managed to kick the metal vent cover off from its screws causing it to clatter to the floor. You slipped out and landed onto the floor of the office, your gazed trained hopefully on the window. You hoped to Etro is wasn't bullet proof, otherwise you would be out of options. 

Just as you went to pick up the office chair to break the glass, your breath caught in your throat as a loud growl emitted from the background behind you. You swivelled round to see a large black beast with sharp pale yellow claws and knife like canines that pointed out slightly from its upper lip. 

Why on Gaia was there a black panther in an office? Was it a pet? 

This could be trouble...

Your muscles tensed as the beast set a large black paw forward before the sound of a door opening reached your ears. 

No, not now! You were so close!

It was a man that stepped through the door, and to your relief without any guards or SOLIDERS. You didn't miss the way his eyes narrowed the moment he noticed you as his stepped in, letting the door close behind him. You knew in an instant who this man was, how could you not, when his face used to be all over the news.

The Rufus ShinRa. 

And this was his office that you had ran into. 

The both of you stood opposite each other, sizing each other up, him with a calculating glare you you with a cautious gaze. His eyes ran down your body, your clothes, that were rugged and bloody. 

His eyes widened the slightest bit in recognition and your eyes followed as his hand reached into his clothes, slowly pulling out a gun.

Rufus was confused however, your unclean skin, wild eyes and blood caked clothing were all clear telltale signs of what you were, yet you hadn't attacked him. You stood there like a deer caught in headlights, watching his every move, as if you feared he would point his weapon at you. He knew it was silly, but he had to find out that what he was seeing wasn't an hallucination. 

    "Who are you?" His voice was guarded, cold and to the point, it was like ice and it almost made you flinch. 

You weren't sure how to answer, or even if you should. Instead you took a step back, triggering the panther to let out another growl and advance forward. 

Rufus' brows furrowed in confusion at your actions. He had found one of the escaped infected in his own office, to how you managed to reach this far he wasn't sure, but what really baffled him was the way you were reacting. The undead would go straight for any living being, their blood-lust and desire for flesh uncontrollable, yet you hadn't moved an inch, in fact you seemed wary of the panther. 

Rufus grew bored of waiting for a reply, and lifted his weapon pointing it straight for you. Your eyes flickered between the panther and the gun. "I asked you a rather simple question." He drawled out, his expression turning stoic. "Or would you rather I call my soldiers to drag you back to your cage, or is that too difficult of a question for you to understand, you vile creature?" 

You glared at him, rage dancing in your eyes. "I'm no one you should concern yourself with, snake!" You sneered, giving him his own nickname.

"So it speaks...?" He said more to himself than anything, lowering his weapon as he became unguarded. Your keen ears suddenly picked up the thundering sound of footsteps, nearing the office door, so with little hesitation, you turned on your heel, moving quickly past the chair and instead using your own body to break the glass. Your legs powered you through, giving you enough force as you dashed towards the glass.

The panther leapt after you, jaws snapped as your body finally collided with the glass, causing the solid to smash into pieces as you broke through. And you fell, out of the CEO's sight and into the city, into the arms of your freedom.

"Sir!" Soldiers and turks flooded into the room, looking for any danger that might cause their leader harm. 

Rufus could only stand there in awe, eyes focused on the broken glass and at Dark Nation who pawed and sniffed at it. 

You spoke. Had a mind  that wasn't controlled by hunger. 

A smirk twitched Rufus' lips upwards as he bent down to Dark Nation's level and petted the black panther. 

Reno ran in last spotting his boss beside his faithful pet, relief washing over him. 

"Sir, thank Etro you're alright. The infected have escaped, so please stay here until we have dealt with the situation." Reno gasped, out of breath from fighting and running.

"I think I gathered that Reno. One of them has just leapt from this very window." Rufus said dryly, eyes rolling at his most trusted Turk. 

"What!?" 

Rufus smirked at the redhead. "One that spoke to me. She seemed like a, 'special case'. So you better not lose her, or your job will be at stake"

Running across rooftops and building walls was never what you imagined yourself doing. But that's where you were now, just like your favourite assassins from a certain game universe(wink wink). 

You probably looked like a crazed psychiatric patient who had just escaped the mental institution from the way you were dressed and the blood that stained your skin and clothes.  They weren't completely wrong...

The cold wind sliced at your skin as you ran and leapt, escaping the only thing on your mind.

The sound of a thundering thud struck your ears from above you making your cold blood run colder. They had sent out a helicopter, as well as a couple hundred troops on the ground. They couldn't risk anything after all. This was the safe zone. There was no infection here and they couldn't risk even one person getting infected. That thought almost made you stop in your tracks. 

You were infected. Of course at the very moment you weren't a danger to civilians, but at night that was a different story. What were you thinking? You had nowhere to go and in a mere few hours night would fall. 

You had to find somewhere soon, to hide and lock yourself up so you wouldn't hurt anyone, or cause a calamity.

Your energy was depleting and so was your focus. With you guard dropping you failed to dodge the sudden array of bullets that were fired from the helicopter, that rained down upon you like hailed. 

You let out a strangled gasp as you were hit more than once, causing you to trip and crash down onto tiles.

Before you knew it you were falling, your body feeling weightless as gravity pulled you downwards quickly. Your hair whipped your face as you flew downwards and all too soon, your body smashed into something solid, a sickening crack being the last thing you heard before you fell unconscious. 

Like a rag doll your body smacked into wood and stone, again and again, skin turning black and blue until you finally hit the bottom, into a pit of soil and flowers.

You were unsure for how long you lay there, still and unmoving, until you weren't sure when, but you somewhere in the back of your subconsciousness that flew in and out of reality you heard the soft sound of footsteps advancing towards you in the distance. 

Not sure whose still reading this but Hi again -Rikki

UNEDITED