|
Post by George Hamilton on Feb 14, 2008 22:50:23 GMT -5
controllable AI? I think they should. I liked controlling Rebecca while playing. It added a whole new demnsion to the game that would have otherwise been COMPLETELY boring. Also, who would you want to bring with you of all the RE characters?
|
|
|
Post by George Hamilton on Feb 12, 2008 18:53:29 GMT -5
True, but Zombie Panic: Source is just as good with the zombie online genre. It's also got an added bonus: it's free. So, that's one of the reasons why I won't be buying this if no one I know gets it.
|
|
|
Post by George Hamilton on Feb 11, 2008 17:19:15 GMT -5
The problem is that it is a glorified HL2 mod and they're most likely going to sell it for $50-$60. It's just not worth it enough for me to get it.
|
|
|
Post by George Hamilton on Feb 11, 2008 9:55:19 GMT -5
I don't know, I'll probably rent it or at least check out some things about it before I even consider buying it. Also, if no one I know gets it, you'll have a hell of a time getting me to buy it.
|
|
|
Post by George Hamilton on Jan 27, 2008 20:41:41 GMT -5
I'm really looking forward to this movie.
|
|
|
Post by George Hamilton on Jan 28, 2008 21:22:43 GMT -5
Chapter 4- Where’s the lights?
The world had gone black for a second, then pain shot through his face, making his vision white. He found himself leaning against a nearby wall for support. Getting back to his feet, he tried to grasp what was going on.
Just then a loud roar erupted behind him. Looking behind him, he saw a group of Doberman’s all slowly walking towards him. Low growls began in the back of their throats as they eyed their next meal. The leader of the pack stood on its hind legs and sniffed in the air for a few seconds before falling back down on all fours.
Bradley stood shakily, warily watching the pack of dogs. His rifle was on the ground next to him, but would he be able to grab the gun before the dogs could pounce on him? Behind him, he saw and open door that led to the power room. He glanced back at the dogs, judging the distance he would have to run and thinking about how quickly the dogs would catch up to him.
Before they got any closer he decided to go for it. Bradley spun on his heel and coiled up to spring for the door, but there was already a dog there waiting for him.
Shit how’d they know I was going to run for it? Bradley spun back around and realized that in the short time he had turned around the dogs had closed the gap between them. They backed him against the wall and surrounded him quickly. Bradley felt for the knife that was sheathed at his chest and pulled it free. If he was going to be killed, he was going to be killed fighting. The first dog leapt at him. He shifted to the left and stabbed it in the throat. The second jumped right after the first and caught him off-guard. He jumped to the right, the dog hit the wall with a sickening -thud-.
Three more dogs jumped at him. Bradley, stabbed the first one to reach him in the eye and dove onto the ground, grabbing his gun when he landed. When he turned over, he saw that he was within striking distance of a majority of the pack.
As he was getting back up, Bradley fired off three round bursts at any dog that was coming dangerously close. Once again his back was to the power room door, but he was closing the distance. The dog that was previously blocking the door, jumped from behind and tried to bite his hand, but instead it knocked the gun from his hand.
Bradley was now completely unarmed and helpless. Without a second though, Bradley wheeled around and sprinted for the door. The barks and growls told him that the dogs were already running after him.
He was only a few feet away from the door when the first dog caught up with him and sunk its teeth into his calf. Bradley screamed in pain as he jumped through the threshold of the power room. The dog would not let go of his leg. Futilely, Bradley kicked the dog but it didn’t let go. He then slammed the heavy metal door on its head. The dog yelped and released his leg but snarled and pounced again. With his uninjured leg, Bradley kicked the dog in the chest and slammed the door shut. Moments after he shut the door, the dogs could be heard snarling and barking in anger of a lost meal.
Bradley limped over to a nearby chair and plopped into it. He tore off one of the sleeves of his shirt and wrapped it around his injury.
“I guess that’ll have to hold.” Bradley said to himself as he looked around the power room he had come to before. “I hate this place now.”
It took him a little while, but Bradley calmed down and collected his thoughts. Then he realized that the dogs stopped making a fuss. Oh shit, where’d they go? Bradley stood up as best he could and limped closer to the door. He put his ear to the cold metal door and listened as best he could.
Nothing.
Quickly, he turned around and looked for anyway the dogs might be able to get in. In the far corner he spotted it. There was a small connecting shaft that connected the power room with the maintenance room. He bolted for the shaft, but was too late. As he reached the grate it burst open; a dog shooting through. Bradley dropped to his knees, the dog flying over his head. It landed on its paws and turned slowly to Bradley.
Once again pinned against the wall, he didn’t know what to do. The dog snarled and stood poised to strike. In a flash, the Doberman was running towards Bradley; who tucked his good knee up to his chest and waited. As the Doberman jumped up into the air, Bradley’s foot met its underbelly. He kicked the dog back.
Bright light shot out from the breaker and bolts of electricity came flying out. For what seemed an eternity, the dog was stuck against the metal casing to the power lines. With the lines severed, the electricity was sent through the casing and into the dog. With one last yelp, the dog stopped moving. Instantaneously, the lights exploded with the sudden increase in power. Shards of broken glass rained down on Bradley.
He listened to his heavy panting alone in the dark, wondering if anymore were going to come. Bradley stood shakily to his feet. Rocking back and forth for a few seconds, he balanced himself with the wall before taking out hid radio.
“Sorry about that Captain, got attacked by some dogs.” He waited for a response but got none.
Logan tried to focus his eyes and was mildly successful. He could just barely make out the two men’s figures in the dark. The overwhelming foreboding feeling he got from the helplessness of the situation they were in was threatening to suffocate him. He needed to think of something quick.
“Alright, Greg?”
“Yeah, right here.” Logan felt a hand grab onto his forearm.
“Good, we need to get back downstairs, this floor seems a little too much like a death trap, if any of those corpses were somehow to reanimate, we could very well be dead in minutes.” Logan grabbed Greg’s hand and put it against the wall. “Feel your way to the door and get inside…I’m not sure how many of the lights went out, but expect to be in the dark for a while.”
Greg grunted in response and went on his way. “What about me?”
“Well there’s no way you’re staying here, so the only option is coming with us.” With Robert in tow, Logan felt his way along the wall too and found the door. Greg was already inside, at the top of the steps.
“Is it okay to put on the flashlights?”
“I really don’t like putting the flashlights on, but I guess we have no choice.” Logan flicked on the flashlight on his pistol. The steps were bathed in light, displaying the scars of a battle long lost. Blood streaked the walls, bullet holes were scattered on both the walls and floor. The occasional corpse lay sprawled awkwardly.
When they finally reached the first floor, they stopped in front of the door. “Be ready for anything.” Logan reminded. Greg nodded and looked to Robert who shakily nodded in return. Logan pushed open the door slowly and stepped into the hallway.
|
|
|
Post by George Hamilton on Jan 28, 2008 21:22:07 GMT -5
Chapter 3- An Unwelcome Party Logan went over all of the possible outcomes of this battle in his mind, and none of them fared well for either of them. He sighed as he peeked around the corner once more. The zombies hadn’t noticed them yet, which in itself is a good sign. He looked at Martino and shrugged. Martino leaned out past the corner and thought about their situation too. Taking a quick count of the number of zombies he figured that with the two of them, it’d be a miracle if they could make it out of there alive.
“I’m not liking this one bit Captain. We should find another way around instead of trying to fight these guys, who knows how many more are hiding around here and if we start shooting up the whole d**n place we may just find ourselves a little over our heads.”
“I think you’re right.” Logan pointed towards the door they had come in; they turned to walk out when a speaker over head turned on.
“Is…yone ali…this is Robert Fink…is any…ive? If…ou..can hear me…ome to the guard station.” The loud speaker crackled and died down.
“Well, I guess we have someone to look for now.” Logan said as they continued towards the door. Before they could reach the door, the group of zombies came out from behind the corner. “Aww shit.”
Logan pushed Martino towards the door as he shot a few of the closest zombies, buying them enough time to get through the door. “Quick, get me something to barricade this with!” Logan screamed as Martino hurried to collect benches and other supplies suitable for a barricade.
They barricaded the door quickly, but didn’t lower their weapons until the banging stopped. Logan sighed as he swung his rifle back over his shoulder.
“He said the guard station right?” Martino said as he scouted out a route to where the man said he was. “There’s no guard station on this map.”
“They wouldn’t call it that, he’s probably just assuming a name for it, look for monitoring room or something like that.” Logan said with a wave of his hand. His mind was elsewhere, thinking of how they were going to get out of the city and even if they did, would it do them any good? Is the outbreak contained to only this city or was there a massive epidemic? It was a few seconds before he realized Martino was calling his name.
“Captain…captain?” Martino was pointing at the map. “I think this is what he means,” He was pointing toward a room on the map. “ The security room.”
“Okay good…uh can you please stop calling me captain for the time being I don’t really feel like one right now.”
“Uh sure, Logan.” Martino said hesitantly.
“Thanks Greg.” Logan leaned over the map. There wasn’t a clear route to the security room, but unless there was another large group of zombies blocking their way then everything should be fine. “Okay, so all we have to do is go through the break room, into the ladies room, then through the vent in there and into the “work station”, from there we go up the stairs here,” Logan pointed to the stairs on the map, “Up there we can go to the chief’s office and into the security room. All the while hoping that there is nothing blocking our way?”
“Yeah that sounds like the gist of it.” Greg smiled. Logan hung his head and shook it back and forth.
“Well I guess there’s no other way.” Logan sighed and brought up his radio and informed Bradley what they were doing. “Lead the way then.”
Greg took the hint and turned towards the door leading to the break room. The door creaked open slowly and Greg walked in with his pistol held high. Luckily the room was lit and spacious with only a few places where zombies could hide. There were several couches backed up against the far wall, each with coffee tables in front of them. Vending machines that sold coffee and snacks lined the walls opposite the couches. Logan could see the bathrooms right across the room from where they stood in the door way.
Slowly, they crept into the room and made their way across to the bathrooms. Inside the small bathroom, the smell of death lingered. Logan and Greg stood outside of the two stalls that were closed. Simultaneously, they opened the stalls and aimed their guns inside.
“Clear.” Greg said as he holstered his pistol.
“Clear.” Logan repeated as he took out his knife and climbed up onto the toilet. He began to unscrew the ventilation shaft’s grate. Once he got out all of the screws, he handed the grate to Greg and shown his flashlight into the dark shaft. “Eh…it looks sturdy enough, I mean it’s not like we’re going far anyway. I’ll go first I guess.”
Still holding his knife, Logan hoisted himself into the shaft. Flashlight between his teeth, Logan crawled slowly, testing the shaft’s strength. He maneuvered his way through the twists and turns, until he saw a sliver of light shining brilliantly in the darkness. Once again as he came to the grate, he quickly unscrewed the grate and moved it to the side.
Logan lowered his head into the room and looked around. Ordinary was the only word that Logan could think of. The entire room was still neat and tidy. Eight desks lined the far wall and eight desks lined the closest wall with two rows of eight in between. Each desk had a stapler, a cup full of pens, a computer on it and pictures of family on some desks.
“Wow, that’s creepy.” Logan said to himself as he pulled his head back into the shaft and lowered his body down into the room. He landed softly and pulled out is pistol as soon as he moved away from where Greg was going to land.
“What the hell is this, the Twilight Zone or something?” Greg asked partly rhetorically. He walked up to one of the pictures, looked at it and dropped it back onto the desk. Logan unlocked the door that led to the break room and looked around the room. The door they needed to go through was in the back of the room, but what caught Logan’s eye was the small office next to that door. He walked up to the window, but couldn’t look in because the shades were pulled down. He tried to open the door, but it was locked. Just above the knob there was a picture of a sword etched into the wood.
“Hmm,” Logan wondered why there was a sword on the door, but let it go as soon as Greg hit his back and opened the door leading to the stairs. They walked up the stairs cautiously, and stopped at the door leading to the second floor. Logan held the door handle and Greg stood next to him, ready to rush in. Logan opened the door and Greg hurried in, flanking to the right. Finding nothing, Greg turned to Logan and shrugged.
The dimly lit corridor looked very short either way Logan looked, fearing an ambush Logan pushed Greg to the right, towards the chief’s office. They rounded the corner and found themselves faced with a large pile of bodies.
“What the hell happened here?” Logan found himself saying without wanting to.
“There was a giant standoff.” The voice came from behind them. They turned around and saw a large man. He was about six feet tall, a medium build with brown eyes and hair to match. His face was covered with a neatly trimmed beard and mustache. He adjusted his glasses and stepped closer to Logan and Greg. “At least someone got my message. I must say I was worried I was the only one left in this accursed building.”
“Mr. Fink?”
“Doctor, but yes I am he.”
“Ah okay Doctor Fink, what exactly happened here?”
“Well you see there were many of us who took refuge in the police station, we thought it would be the safest place. However, the fates seemed to have had a different idea. Around one this morning, when all hell broke loose around fifty of us barricaded ourselves into the main hall. We were lucky because those monstrosities were right behind us.” He paused to clean off his glasses. “Anyway, we were safe for a couple of hours until someone had the idea of looking for weapons to defend ourselves with. I have to admit I was all for the idea.
“So the men set off to search the station for any weapons they could find, leaving the women to tend to the children and the wounded. It wasn’t long until we found the armory and got the weapons we needed. So, with all of our new armaments we went back to the main hall. I expressed the idea to retreat to a higher ground and many agreed with me, but some didn’t. They believed if the barricade failed they didn’t want to be stuck some place without an escape route. Sadly, we agreed to disagree and left them there.”
Logan cut in, “So how did you get up here, the main office was locked?”
“There’s a stair well at the end of the corridor near the main entrance. Didn’t you come up that way?”
“Eh…No that way’s a bit blocked off now.” Greg said as he rubbed his neck.
“Oh…” He seemed to trail off.
“Uh…So, you left them downstairs…” Logan tried to bring him back to the story.
“Ah yes, we left them down stairs and prayed they’d be alright. A couple of the guys piled some benches and things by the doors and we all hid in here. It wasn’t until later that we found out that our barricades weren’t strong enough. The zombies burst right through and stormed the floor. We tried to quell the horde, but they got the better of us and after the fight I was the only one left.”
Logan dropped his hand to his side and put his other hand on Robert’s shoulder. “You can come with us if you like, we haven’t seen anyone else in here yet so it’s pretty pointless to wait Dr. Fink.”
“I guess I really don’t have any other option now do I?” He took out a pistol from the holster on his thigh. “Say you wouldn’t happen to have any extra ammo would you? I kind of ran out during the fight.”
“Nine millimeter?” Robert nodded and Logan handed him some clips. “ That should hold you out for now, did you guys completely raid the armory?”
“No there’s still some ammo and guns in there.”
“Alright, I say that once we get that name tag we head there.”
“What do you need a name tag for?” Robert asked as he slid a fresh clip into his pistol.
“The entire place is on lock down and the only thing that will unlock it is an i.d. from someone.” Greg answered.
“Oh, I can’t really help you with that one” Robert said. He gestured towards the chief’s office with his hand indicating he wanted Logan to lead the way. Logan nodded and opened the door to the chief’s office. The room was surprisingly cluttered with useless junk. Papers lay on the floor in disheveled heaps. “These look like…order forms.” Robert picked up one of the papers off of the desk.
He was right, it looked like the police station was ordering a lot of things that they didn’t need and that they couldn’t account for. The chief must have taken the outbreak as his chance to vacate the premises before anyone could question him. “Let’s hope we can find something useful here.”
After about twenty minutes of a fruitless search they deemed there nothing to be found. Logan was out of ideas and was quickly assuming they should just leave, when the lights shut off again. Logan instantly tensed up and had his pistol in his hand with the flashlight held in his other.
“Now what?” Robert asked nonchalantly.
The man’s meaty hand clutched her gown and lifted her from the cold wet floor. A smaller man walked into the dark cell and brought out a small cylindrical object. Another meaty hand pried her eyelids open and held them open. He laughed at how much she struggled to free herself. The thin gown she was wearing started to stretch, and she feared it would soon give way and rip all together.
As she lifted herself up with her arms, the smaller man lifted the cylindrical object to her eye-level. With a –click- there was a blinding, searing, utterly painful light that flooded into her eye. She let out a small cry in shock.
“Hrm….this one’s promising….promising indeed.” From what she could see in her temporarily blinded state, he scribbled a few things on a clipboard and gestured to the man holding her. He pried open her other eye lid and they repeated the process again. It didn’t hurt as much the second time when they used the light.
“That’s enough Edgar, let her down.” The smaller man said as he clicked his pen and placed it on the clipboard.
“Yessir.” Edgar dropped her back onto the floor. When she hit the ground, she scampered away as quick as she could into the farthest corner from them.
“I wonder how the other subjects are doing.”
|
|
|
Post by George Hamilton on Jan 28, 2008 21:18:16 GMT -5
Logan sighed and sat back in the chair, he pinched the bridge of his nose as he thought about their situation.
After a brief period of silence, Logan brought his head up and looked at his team. “Okay, as I see it, whatever those things are, are probably scattered around the city by now. So our best bet for survival is to go to the police station and see if there are any survivors there that either we can help or can help us.”
Bradley turned towards him obviously about to protest. “But Captain, the “police” had already arrested us once, who knows if there are any more people like that out there.”
“I know, but that’s a risk we will have to take.”
Martino now turned around and looked at Logan. “Okay, but we’re probably on someone’s most wanted list in this d**n place.”
Logan nodded, but paid little attention to Martino’s ramblings.
The ride continued for a while in complete silence, no one venturing to break it, until the car suddenly sputtered to a stop.
“d**n it!” Gersh cursed as he smacked the wheel. Quickly, he reached below the wheel and turned the keys in the ignition. The car sputtered pathetically and died down again. Gersh growled loudly and opened the door to the car.
Blood shot on the ground as a slender but elongated spike drove through his spine. Another followed closely behind driving into his skull, killing him instantly. The spikes pulled away from each other, separating his head from his body. The body and the head cascaded slowly to the ground, covered in a sticky, viscous, blood that clotted immediately forming a stone like structure all over the corpse.
Still in shock about what just happened, everyone in the van sat still, not sure what to do. Suddenly, a large claw pierced the roof of the van, narrowly missing Logan.
“d**nit!” Logan screamed as he scampered out of the rear of the van, falling on the ground. “Shit! What the hell is it?”
Quickly standing up, Logan realized that the rest of his team was already out of the van and circling the monster. They had their guns trained on the beast ready to fire. Martino shot a glance towards Logan.
“Are you okay sir?”
“Yeah I’m fine just shoot the hell outta that thing!” Simultaneously, the entire team began firing at the monster. The bullets seemed to glance off of its slippery gray skin. The monster pulled back its lips as if it were smiling at their futile attempts at killing it. Confidently, the beast hunched down and spread its arms. The thing leapt onto the side of a nearby building. With rapid, broken movements, the creature made its way up the building by slamming its claws into the building and jumping. Just as quickly as it had come, it was gone.
“What the HELL was that?!?” Bradley screamed as he emphasized the word hell. “Yeah Hell, Hell, that’s gotta be where these friggin’ monstrosities are coming from. Heh” Bradley chuckled to himself, obviously in a state of shock.
Logan stood still for a minute not sure what to do. “Alright, Martino you get the van started, Bradley, just sit down and shut the hell up so you don’t attract anymore of those things, and Mathews check our supplies and the map to see where we’re going also, see that Gersh is properly taken care of.” Everyone nodded and Logan looked around the area for supplies or anyone trying to kill them.
As he routed around in a trash can he found a box of 9mm ammo that would fit his Beretta. “d**n these hick towns and their guns. I’ll bet that I could probably find guns and ammo in the elementary school.”
“Oh my God!” Mathews yelled as he backed away from Gersh’s remains.
“What happened?” Logan said as he came running. The stick that Mathews was using to test if it was safe to touch, developed the same stone-like structure that Gersh had as soon as the stick touched Gersh’s corpse.
“What is that stuff?” Martino said as he looked at the stick.
“My assumption is that the monster had something on it that caused Gersh to become petrified like that and as soon as anyone or anything touches it, they become like that.”
“So what you’re saying is that the monster kills one, so that the others will touch it and become easy prey for it to come back to.”
“Yes sir.”
“So basically what you’re saying is that we need to haul ass out of here before it comes back looking to eat us?”
“That is correct sir.”
“Right, Mathews forget about Gersh’s burial now and set a course to the police station. Bradley get up off yer ass and help Martino start the van. I want that d**n van started in less than two minutes.” Logan walked into a nearby alley way, continuing his search for supplies. He turned on the flashlight attached to his Beretta, and looked around. A lone zombie stood erect in the middle of the alley. With one shot, Logan dropped the zombie and continued into the alley. He found some pieces of wood, that seemed sturdy and were just the right size to be held on one hand and swung like a bat, he grabbed a few and threw them in the back of the van.
Back in the alley, Logan checked the corpse of the zombie and found a knife in a sheath around its belt. He tied the sheath around his waist and went back to his team with a few more pieces of wood. Just as Logan got back, the van sputtered to a start and everyone piled in, with Martino driving and Mathews in the passenger’s seat giving directions to the police station.
Twenty minutes later, they arrived in front of the police station. One-by-one they all exited the van and grabbed the pieces of wood from the back of the van. The police station door looked more like an obelisk in the dark night sky as they approached cautiously.
“Okay, let’s take this carefully; we can’t be sure that that thing didn’t follow us. Bradley, you and Mathews check around back, while Martino and I secure the lobby and surrounding rooms, if you get into any trouble radio and we’ll come running.” Bradley and Mathews nodded as they disappeared into the darkness. Logan sighed and looked at Martino. “You ready?”
“Hell no.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear. Okay let’s go.” They slowly opened the door, ready for anything. As they entered the station they flicked on their flashlights and looked around the room. The lobby seemed surprisingly bare, but Logan figured that looters had come and taken any useful supplies. “Shit, it’s probably all out of supplies by now.”
Martino nodded in agreement and started towards the reception desk. He turned towards the computer and started searching through the files. He quickly hit a snag when the computer asked for identification. “Ah what the hell?!”
“What?” Logan asked turning to look at Martino.
“Says I need an I.D. to access the files.”
“Well then forget it.”
“But aren’t you curious about what files are on here?”
“No.”
“Then how about unlocking the rest of the doors in the station?”
“d**n you.”
“Heh, I guess we need to find a cop with clearance then eh?” Martino said in victory.
“I guess.” Logan shook his head and turned back to what he was doing. Not long after the radio blared up. It was Bradley’s voice.
“Captain? We uh…found some sort of basement in the rear of the building. Permission to investigate?” Logan let his gun drop to his waist and took the radio off of his belt.
“Use your judgment Bradley I’m putting you in charge of that team.”
“Will do sir.” Logan put the radio back on his belt and shown the flashlight around the room.
“Well I guess the first thing we should do is find a map of this place.” Logan said. Martino nodded and looked around the desk for anything.
“Ah! Here we go. It’s got a little blood on it, but it’ll do the trick.” Martino brought the map over to Logan and they both looked at it. Logan looked for a few seconds then pointed at the map.
“There’s the chief’s room, he’d have clearance. Which doors on here are locked?”
“Uh…hold on they were on the computer but I forgot.” Martino ran back to the computer.
“Oh and see what you can do about these lights.” Logan called after Martino.
Martino looked at the computer, made some markings on the map and ran back to Logan. “Okay, so most of these doors are shut off and can’t be opened until we turn the power on.”
Logan looked at all of the doors that were locked and thought for a second. He reached for his radio once more. “Bradley, come in.”
“Here sir.”
“Bradley, see if you can find some generator in the basement or a circuit breaker or something to turn the power on with.”
“Will do.”
Logan put the radio back and pointed to a room in the basement on the map. “I figure they’re somewhere around there and the power supply room is here.” Logan pointed to the power supply room on the map. “So the best thing we can do right now is check out these rooms that are unlocked and see what we can find.”
The doors that were unlocked were, of course, the ones that led to the public places and nowhere that they needed to go to, but it was a start. They chose the door to the left of the reception desk, hoping it might lead to somewhere where they could get access to the chief’s room; however it turned out to be a hallway that led to the waiting room for any visitors here to either visit friends or family members that were being held for something. Logan saw a vending machine and broke open the glass covering. He hadn’t had anything to eat for about half of a day and was quickly getting hungry.
“Heh, I was about to do the same thing,” Martino said as he took out a granola bar and handed one to Logan. He then smashed another vending machine and took out two water bottles and handed one to Logan. They ate as they walked.
Looking at the map, they found some areas that they wanted to explore later on, after they became situated. As they continued in the L shaped hallway, around the corner a scratching noise sounded and grew louder. It almost sounded like feet dragging along the floor.
“Aw, don’t tell me,” Logan sighed as he brought his rifle up to his chest. Martino and he peeked around the corner and saw a group of zombies, large enough to pose a threat, littering the hallway.
|
|
|
Post by George Hamilton on Jan 28, 2008 21:16:38 GMT -5
Chapter 2: Out of the fire and into hell
After a while they saw two sets of headlights coming over the hill behind them. Joy over flowed from their hearts as they screamed and waved down the vans. The vans pulled up right in front of them and two sets of teams rushed out from in the vans. The two teams circled around them and aimed their weapons at them.
“Freeze!” The last one to get out of the vans said. “You are under arrest for acts of terrorism against the United States government. Furthermore, you are stripped of your ranks and are being put to trial for acts of treason against the United States Government.”
“What the hell is this!?” Logan found himself screaming at the man before him.
“You infiltrated that facility, no?” The man sounded smug and content with himself.
“Yes, under orders from our superiors.”
“Ah, yes you’re ‘Superiors’,” The man put up his hands and flicked his index fingers and his middle fingers in a fashion that mimicked quotation marks. “Yes they have been dealt with too.”
“What? We didn’t DO anything!” Gersh yelled.
“Oh, but there’s where you’re wrong, you see we have been funding this facility to produce weapons for protecting the country. Now you have stopped that production. When you stopped that production you allowed our enemies access to our country uninhibited.” His condescending tone started to take a toll on Logan’s patience. “Now since they are now uninhibited because of you, we have to deal with any attacks that can occur, and since you helped them to do that, you have committed treason. Which is punishable by death, as you probably already know?”
“But we didn’t stop any productions; there was some sort of an outbreak that had happened.” Bradley pleaded.
“Ah, but our Intel tells us that you caused that outbreak.”
“That’s bull and you know it!” Logan’s frustration was beginning to get the better of him. “How can a bunch of F.B.I. agents completely disrupt a production of weapons for the government, without previous training in said weapons?”
“Well there isn’t much to it.”
“And what motive do we have?”
“Simple, the world is full of terrorists that would love to destroy this government, any one of them would be willing to pay a hefty price for someone to go in and destroy our facilities.” His attitude changed and he became more businesslike. “Enough arrest them.”
The men all converged on the small group and placed handcuffs on their wrists and took all of their equipment. They were packaged in the vans, separating them. Logan was split from the other two and placed in the same van as the man that arrested them.
His features were visible now and they weren’t very pleasant. His gray hair was combed neatly back and flattened so that it would be out of his eyes. Scars littered his face and neck making him seem withered from battle. His dull brown eyes conveyed no emotion except what seemed to be a slight annoyance as if he was angry that he had to come and get these men personally. He looked like the type of man who would rather send someone else to do his dirty work, but by no means unable to do so himself. On each hand he wore gloves. Just above the glove on his right hand was a small rubber banded wrist watch. The man covered the watch with the sleeve of a khaki trench coat after each time he looked at it.
Logan stared at the man, studying the man in order to get to know him better. He was always taught that if he was ever captured that the first thing he needed to do was to get to know his captor first in order to understand what will allow you to escape. The man turned his head and grinned at Logan in a sign of victory. Logan’s blood began to boil and images of him killing the man flooded his mind.
“Stop looking at me.” The man said with a growl.
“No.” Logan said defiantly. The man looked at Logan for a second, and then turned to the guard that was chained to Logan and motioned towards Logan with his hand. The guard nodded and slammed the butt of his rifle into Logan’s stomach. Pain shot through Logan’s abdomen, and all the way up to his head. He cringed in pain and let out a cry.
“Stop looking at me.” The man repeated. Logan nodded and put his head between his knees, comforting his stomach. “You’ll soon realize Logan that you won’t like me at all.”
The vans stopped suddenly and the back doors opened up. He was lifted up by two men that were almost twice his size and dropped on the ground. His legs collapsed underneath him. The man that he was chained to didn’t wait for him to get up. Logan tried to get up while he was being dragged. After a few feet Logan got to his feet and quickly matched the man’s pace so he wouldn’t fall again.
Logan craned his neck trying to find Gersh and Bradley, but in the dark he could barely see two feet in front of him. Giving up after a few minutes, Logan just followed the man into a building.
Two large doors opened and light poured out into the environment like a waterfall rushing past a broken dam. His eyes stung with the new light that flooded out. The guards began to move again once the doors were opened. Logan was led into the building and up a set of nearby steps.
The stairs led to a row of cells. He was stopped just outside one of the cells. The guard that was chained to him, opened one of the cells, unlocked the chains around both of them and threw Logan inside. Logan comforted his wrists and walked up to the now closed door. He stood on his toes and looked through the small glass pane in the door. The small glass pane didn’t allow him to see very far into the hallway.
Feeling defeated, Logan turned around and sunk down on his fold out bed. He threw his legs over onto the bed and folded his arms behind his head as he laid there. Thoughts of the other two ravaged his mind as he thought of what they must be going through. Soon, he couldn’t stop thinking about what he was going to tell their families about how they died. Frustrated, he jumped out of the bed and began to pace around the room.
He couldn’t get his mind to stop thinking about the worst possible situations. Over and over he told himself that if he didn’t stop thinking about those things then he was going to go insane.
Finally after a few hours of constant pacing, he started to get drowsy and soon he passed out on the bed.
It didn’t take long before the cell door creaked open and he was awoken by two large hands grabbing his collar and hoisting him out of bed. He was tossed into the hallway and pushed down the hall. Logan, still groggy and now fully annoyed from being woken up so abruptly, walked into a small room with a chair. Whoever the person was that led him to the room, forced him down into the chair. The guard then handcuffed Logan’s hands behind his back and to the chair.
“What the hell is going on? I know that this isn’t by the book. Where are my other two teammates?” Logan screamed at no one in particular.
“Well aren’t we curious? Well now, now, now all will be answered shortly. But first you have to answer some questions of ours.” The man whom had arrested him walked out in front of him. He still wore the same trench coat. “For example, what were you doing in that facility?”
Logan considered the question and debated as to whether or not he should answer. “We were following orders.”
“Yes, yes I know that you have so graciously said that already, what were your orders?”
“We were just checking on the facility because it went missing in all of our paper work and files.”
“So just a routine checkup then?”
“Yes”
The man crossed the room quickly and kicked Logan in the chest, toppling him over. The wind rushed out of Logan’s lungs as he hit the ground. He couldn’t catch his breath and was gasping for air. The man laughed and kicked him in the side, because of the new pain his system was shocked and Logan was able to draw in a breath again.
“For some reason I don’t believe you.” The man pulled Logan back up and brushed the dust off of his shirt. “Hrm…you shouldn’t get all dirty like that you know, doesn’t leave a good impression on the ladies.”
Logan glared at the man. “Who are you?”
“Oh me? I never introduced myself? Well how rude of me. My name is Captain Sean Hubbard. But you will refer to me as Captain Hubbard. Am I clear?”
“Screw you.”
“Ah now that is not what I was hoping to hear.” Sean reached into the pocket of his trench coat and retrieved an object that Logan couldn’t see. He walked behind Logan and stood there for a second. “I’ll give you one more chance, and then I’m going to have to do something bad to you. What are you going to call me?”
“Dumbass.”
“Hrm…ok.” Logan could hear the sound of an electric current turning on. Then suddenly, Logan felt a burning shocking feeling running up and down his spine. Uncontrollably, Logan’s body started to shake and spasm. After about a half-a-minute the pain stopped, but Logan’s body continued to spasm. “Now what is my name?”
“Captain Hubbard.”
“Good boy.” Sean walked out in front of Logan and waved the tazer in his face. “Anymore lies or mishaps and I’ll use this again. Or I can just burn you alive. Eh…which ever happens first doesn’t really matter to me anyway.
“So I’ll ask you once more, what were you doing in that facility?”
“We were sent to the facility to gather Intel on why the facility disappeared suddenly and what the facility was producing.”
“And you were sent to stop or at least slow the production.”
Logan shook his head and panted from the energy required of him to talk now. “No, no only to gather Intel.”
“So then, how did the production stop?”
“I don’t know, when we got there the whole place was in a hellish state.”
“Are you lying to me?”
“No, no I’m not.”
Sean walked over to Logan and slapped him on the cheek a few time lightly. “I believe you my boy, I believe you.” Sean looked up and nodded. Logan could feel a couple of hands messing with the handcuffs until they came loose and slipped off of his wrists. “Sadly though, you’re of no use to me anymore.”
“What!?” Logan screamed as he tried to get away from the hands that were now restraining him.
“You’re of no use to me now. I think I’ll just let them kill you.” Sean stopped for a moment. “Better yet, this is an opportunity to test the latest project. Send him in to the camber with the T-052.”
“The T-052? What the hell are you getting me into?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.” Sean began to walk out. “Oh and give him some weapons, I want to see what the T-052 can do.”
The guards nodded and took Logan out of the room. They led him down the stairs he had come up the night before and through a set of frosted glass doors. The hallway he came into looked more like a boiler room. Everything was grated and there were some rooms placed hap hazardously around the corridor. They stopped him before he reached the last one and turned to look at him. One of the guards walked up to him.
“There are weapons placed in the room. You’ll have thirty seconds before the T-052 comes into the room.” He turned to look at the other guard with him. “Put him in.”
The guard holding his arm pulled him into the room, threw him in, and shut the door quickly. Logan fixed his ruffled shirt and looked around the room. It reminded him of a coliseum. There was a plethora of weapons placed neatly in a row along the wall to his left. He walked up to them and surveyed what types he had. Before him was truly an arsenal, filled with assault rifles, handguns, shotguns, and even heavy machine guns. Why would they allow him such a massive amount of weapons? What was this T-052?
A loud buzzer sounded behind him, causing him to jump and turn around. A large metal door started to rise and Logan could hear the loud of a large beast roaring from behind it. He immediately ran and grabbed the assault rifle. Logan retreated to the farthest wall from the metal door and waited for whatever it was to come out.
When the door opened to the half-way point, a large, gray, claw studded hand reached underneath of it and threw the door open. The creature walked out and stood before Logan. The T-052 stood all of about eight feet by Logan’s measurements, it had four arms each with a different pattern of razor sharp claws and two human like legs that had talons on each of them. The whole thing was colored in an odd shade of gray that made it look almost lifeless, except for the area around its heart; there was a bluish color around that area. Fangs hung from the oversized mouth in its face that could probably hold half of Logan’s body in each bite. The weirdest part about it was its eyes one eye had a slit iris, much like a cat, but the other eye had a circular iris, more human-like.
“Ah the creature is here now Mr. Miller.” It was Sean; he clapped in excitement from above as he looked down at Logan and the T-052. “I call him Odyssey because, well I’m not much of a scientist, but I have read a thing or two and the scientists in this building have gone through a real journey to get to this level of perfection. Hmm, well it suits him anyway. Odysseus was up against all types of odd creatures and this one is the strangest by far. Well I do hope that you live long enough to see what it can truly do.”
As if on cue, the creature lashed out at Logan with blinding speed. It took all Logan had to dodge the claw. Logan rolled back to his feet and shot at the beast. Odysseus raised his arm ready to strike, but put it down. Instead he lowered his shoulder and ran towards Logan. Narrowly dodging the beast, Logan slammed into the wall next to him. Pain shot through his arm and shoulder as he re-stabilized himself. Once again in a fighting position, Logan took aim and squeezed the trigger to the gun. The bullets hit their mark and Odysseus roared in agony. It back handed Logan into another wall. The monster was bleeding out of its eyes while Logan tried to stand up again, but he found it every hard and it took him a few tries in order to finally stand erect.
By the time Logan could stand up again, the monster had nursed its wound back to normal with amazing recovery time. It roared with new resolve and a new anger towards Logan. Sean clapped in excitement at how quickly his new product healed itself. He chattered among the top scientists with him.
Logan ran towards the guns that they had laid out for him and grabbed a shotgun. Now dual wielding weapons, Logan fired repeatedly at the beast. Apparently he caused no damage to the parts that they hit. Then Sean came on the speaker.
“Here I’ll help you out a little; I’ll give you a hint. Its skin can’t be penetrated by your ammo.”
“Go figure.” Logan muttered to himself as he tried to retarget the monster’s eyes all the while dodging the relentless attacks by Odysseus. Shot after shot hit the monster, but unless Logan could hit its eyes he wouldn’t be able to survive much longer. He started to shoot randomly because the monster’s attacks became more frequent and quicker. It wasn’t long before he heard the heart stopping sound of an empty clip ringing through his ears. Logan cursed himself for being careless. Looking for an opening, Logan got ready to try and pick up another rifle. Odysseus charged at him once more. Logan dodged out of the way and ran towards the weapons.
Before he knew it, Logan was sprawled on the ground. Odysseus had back handed him away from the weapons. Getting up again, Logan charged at the weapons, diving under Odysseus’ feet. Odysseus grabbed him by the ankle and picked him up. Logan looked at the monster and smiled.
“Sorry big guy,” Logan pulled up the assault rifle that he had just procured from his little escapade and squeezed down the trigger, letting fly a hail of bullets into the monster’s eyes. Odysseus screamed and dropped Logan as it grabbed at its eyes.
“What the hell have you done!?” Sean could be heard screaming from above. Odysseus removed his hands and revealed two bloodied holes where its eyes used to be. Logan inwardly congratulated himself for blinding the monster.
Just as he went to raise his rifle to continue the fight, now semi-equal, the lights shut off.
“Shit….” Logan muttered to himself.
“Get those lights back up right away!” Sean yelled at some of his lackeys to do his bidding.
Now that Logan was just as blind as Odysseus, he worked his way around the room trying to feel for the wall and at the same time trying to listen for Odysseus, who by this time had gone completely silent. Logan steadied his breathing, as he was tired from all of the exerted energy it took to dodge Odysseus’ attacks, so that he wouldn’t make noise. Slowly, he continued around the room until he found the wall. Relieved but still unsure where Odysseus was, Logan started to walk around the room following the wall. When he accidentally kicked one of the weapons lying on the ground, he heard the swift movement of Odysseus and jumped out of the way. A large claw smashed into the wall next to him. Logan opened fire on the beast, but quickly stopped when he realized he wasn’t aiming at anything. Odysseus had already moved out of the way.
This game of cat and mouse continued for a little while longer with Logan just narrowly dodging Odysseus’ attacks until four bright flashes erupted from above him in the balcony where Sean was. Logan growled and shielded his eyes as the bright lights and jumped out of the way of Odysseus, just in case he was attacking. The loud explosions had caused him disorientation and to go momentarily deaf. However, as his hearing came back to him, Logan was pleasantly surprised to see his comrades picking him up. He was also happy to see that Odysseus was lying on the ground moaning. Logan walked over to the weapon stash and took a few rifles, shotguns and a few pistols from the pile and passed them out to his group. They took them gladly, filling up on ammo while they were standing there.
As they left they made sure they had everything they needed. Logan had an assault rifle, with four clips, a shotgun with forty shells and two pistols with ten clips each. He placed the weapons in their respective holsters and shouldered the others. Logan looked around at the three people standing in front of him and nodded to each of them.
Bradley looked at Logan, “You okay Cap?”
Logan chuckled and nodded. “Had you been a second later I’d a probably died. But then again, you WERE always the slow one in training.”
They all laughed and walked through the hallway they were in back to the main lobby. As they entered the doors they were met with at least twenty guns aimed directly at them.
“Freeze!” The men shouted in unison. Logan took stock of the situation, and then shoved Bradley to one side as he jumped to the other. Each of the five men dove behind a pillar as gunshots rang out in the small lobby.
“Why can’t we get a d**n break?” Gersh screamed at no one in particular. Martino shrugged and leaned out over the pillar and shot a man in the chest three times, killing him instantly. The rest followed suit and each killed a man. Bradley switched to his shotgun, cocked it, and shot out blindly. Every few seconds someone would lean out and take a shot at the people shooting at them.
The battle raged on for about another twenty minutes. Logan looked out and saw that there were only five men left by this time. He looked at the others on his team and nodded. They popped out and covered the room in a blaze of gun fire. The five men dropped to the ground without a word, blood spurting out of their wounds.
Logan released the clip from his rifle and checked to see how many shots he wasted. He laughed because he only had three shots remaining in the clip. Taking the bullets out of the clip, he put them into one of his pockets and put a fresh magazine into the rifle.
“We ready?” Bradley asked. Logan nodded as did the rest and they walked out of the lobby, refilling their ammo with the ammo of the dead men. Now, full with ammo again they walked outside. They got inside the vans that they were taken in and tried to turn on each of them. Sadly, before they went inside to take care of the intruders, the men damaged all of the car batteries except one. So they all piled into that one van, with Gersh as the driver.
“So before you guys rescued me, what the hell happened?”
Martino started to tell the story. “Well here’s what happened: We were all taken to individual cells where we were each held for the night. However, security was lax since they were concentrating solely on you. When that Sean guy was finished with you, he went to his quarters and didn’t even bother with us. So when the guard came and gave me breakfast, I knocked him out and stole the keys and his gun. I got these two out and tried to get you out, but by that time you were already fighting that thing—”
“Odysseus”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever, but you were already fighting Odysseus, and so we had to get some flash bangs from the armory before we could get you out. So, we shut off the lights and went up to the balcony, flash banged the place and poof there you were in one piece.”
|
|
|
Post by George Hamilton on Jan 28, 2008 21:15:02 GMT -5
“Bradley….Bradley, come in.” Logan waited for a while and called again. “Bradley, Bradley. Where the hell are you?” After waiting a few minutes he decided that he wasn’t going to get through to Bradley. He also decided that he wasn’t going to consider them dead until he found them. So he continued down the hall that led to the surveillance room. He came across some more of those human-like monsters, and quickly dispatched them with a few bursts. He ran to the next corner and pressed his back against the wall. With the assault rifle parallel to his body, he peeked around the corner. There seemed to be nothing there. He popped out from around the corner and aimed his gun in front of him.
His boots clicked with each step he took; it only added to the ambiance of the desolate facility. When he reached the door to the surveillance room, he braced himself for whatever was in there. Darting in, Logan looked around and didn’t find any of his team. Logan lowered his rifle and strung it over his shoulder so that he can still maneuver it quickly incase any enemies were to appear. Quickly, he strode around the room looking for any corpses of fallen teammates. He sighed in relief when he found none, but he was curious as to what happened to them.
Reaching to his belt, he retrieved his radio and held down the communication button. “Bradley….Bradley, where the hell are you?” He waited a few minutes for a response. After a while he felt deflated and sat down, fearing the worst.
“Great you’re first mission as the captain and you some how got your entire team killed.” He realized that he left the door open and got up to turn it off. When he reached the door, an intercom went off.
“Oh God someone help me…..PLEASE someone help me. Dear Lord, they’re coming from everywhere!” It sounded like a male voice, and in the background there was a loud screech and numerous people moaning. Logan turned towards the noise and shut the door quickly. He rushed over to the control panel and searched for the button that would allow him to respond to the person. Randomly he started pushing buttons; after a few seconds he finally found a little red button that allowed him to respond.
“Hey, can you hear me?”
“YES oh thank God! You need to help me, I’m surrounded everywhere by them. They want to eat me!”
“Okay where are you?”
“I’m at the guard’s station near the entrance of the compound.”
Logan looked at the monitors and tried to guess what Hall did to change them. Once again he found himself pushing buttons at random. It didn’t take him long to find the right button and begin to change the cameras. He flipped through the feeds until he found the man. The man was in a small dinky little kiosk that could only fit about three people. Surrounding the station, there must have been about twenty to thirty people pushing against the glass. Logan pulled up his GPS and looked for the quickest route to the station. Sadly, even the quickest route was pretty far away and the man’s fate seemed grim. He was about to give up hope when he saw some of the people in the mob start to twitch and fall down. It took him a few seconds, but he finally saw why they were falling. Someone was shooting at them. Moments later he saw Bradley and the rest of the team running in spraying bullets all over the crowd. In minutes the whole mob was leveled to nothing. Bradley opened the door and walked into the station. Logan could see them exchange a few words; Bradley was probably asking if he was alright.
Realizing that he could now get in touch with them, Logan pushed the button he used before and began to talk.
“Bradley? Where the hell have you been?”
“Captain Miller?”
“Yes d**n it! I’ve been trying to contact you on your radio! Where have you been?”
“I’m sorry Cap, my radio got busted and we lost Hall somewhere in the compound.” It wasn’t until Bradley said that, that Logan noticed that it was true Hall wasn’t with them.
“Well is anyone hurt?”
“Um…no, no one’s hurt.”
“Then where did you lose Hall at?”
“We got into a fire fight with some sort of monster near the Lobby after we got Hall and Martino, and he ran down another corridor while we went the other way.” Logan was actually mad that Bradley let Hall get lost just because he ran another way.
“How could he just run another way and you not know where he went?”
“I don’t know sir I’m sorry I take full responsibility.”
“Ahh! No it’s my responsibility, I’ll go look for him. Which hallway did he go down?”
“Um…the southern corridor, sir”
“Okay meet up at the Lobby and bring the guy there with you.”
“Yes sir” Logan released the button and walked out of the surveillance room. He made a left and walked to the end of the hall. Slowly he turned the corner and walked into the Lobby, ready for any sort of attack. There was a lone monstrosity in the Lobby, just milling around, rather anticlimactic Logan thought. Regardless, Logan placed a well aimed bullet between his eyes and continued on. He took the southern corridor and looked in each of the rooms. Since time was of the essence, Logan just cursorily checked the rooms and moved on.
He walked into the stairwell and made his way upstairs. The door creaked open, and revealed the familiar bloodied hallway. Logan stepped out of the stair well and walked into the hallway. Flicking on his night vision goggles, Logan walked through the hallway, with his rifle held high.
Logan walked to the room at the end of the hall and pushed open the door. Inside he could see a wounded Hall lying in the corner. He turned and looked at Logan.
“Heh, I just couldn’t out run it, but-” He began to cough, he immediately covered his mouth. As he pulled his hand away, blood could be clearly seen covering his hand. “Well I guess I’m dieing Cap. Never did get to see how you did. Regardless, none of this is your fault, it couldn’t have been foreseen. I just wasn’t fast enough, that’s all.”
Hall tried to prop himself against the wall, but the attempt was in vain. Logan hurried over to Hall’s side, and helped him up. Hall looked at Logan. “You got a smoke? One last one before I die?”
“You know those things are contraband in the agency.” Logan said choking back his emotions.
“Yeah, what’re they gonna kill me? Well, I had to try.” Hall took his hand away from is stomach and revealed what ailed him. His stomach had a complete hole through it. His intestines hung out in a knotted mess, blood and other secretions leaked unimpeded onto the floor. Chime and bile gurgled out from the small cut in the lower section of his stomach. His heart was visible and it beat with an abnormality because there was a large gash in it. Blood spurt out from the severed arteries that flailed about, causing the blood to fall in odd designs, like some sort of sprinkler.
Logan covered his mouth and looked away. Hall looked at the gaping hole in him and looked back at Logan. “Yeah he nicked me pretty good.” He said with a slight chuckle and a whine. “Just tell my mom I loved ‘er ok?”
“Will do kid.” Logan put his hand on his shoulder as the life left Hall. He closed Hall’s vapid eyes and took his radio and munitions before he left. Logan walked out of the room and continued all the way down the stairs. When he reached the first floor again, it was filled with those monsters. Quickly readjusting, Logan brought up his rifle and fired at the closest one, hitting in once in the head and once in the heart. He turned to fire at another one and hit it a few times in the chest before it went down. Before he knew it, one was right behind him. He wheeled around and shot at the monster, but the gun clicked. The monster leapt on top of him. Its teeth gnashed each time it snapped at his face. Logan propped the monster up with his arm. He locked his elbow so he could free his other arm. Logan had to work quickly, because the other ones were approaching fast. He reached for his knife and unfastened the sheath, slid it out and planted the blade firmly into the head of the corpse on top of him. The thing stopped moving and Logan was able to push it off of him. By this time the things had conjugated around him, forming up on him in a circle. His rifle was just beyond the monsters and he was unable to get to it.
In one swift movement, Logan freed his pistol from the holster and had it trained on the monster’s head that blocked his path to his rifle. His finger squeezed the trigger and sent a bullet through its brain. Not wasting time, Logan ran full-force through the crowd and fell to his knees, sliding in beside his rifle. He picked it up as he slid and pushed the button to drop the clip. Digging into is pouch, he retrieved a fresh clip and slammed it into the empty slot. The clip clicked into place and Logan pulled back on the lever just in front of the butt of the gun and shot the rifle in a wave, flailing the gun from left to right hitting all of the monsters in front of him.
Once all of the things were dead, again, he stood up and continued into the Lobby. When he got there, his team had just arrived. They saw him alone and were a little worried.
Martino spoke up. “Where’s Hall?”
“He didn’t make it…” Logan trailed off.
A wave of grief hung over the team, but they were trained to handle such situations and refocused on the mission at hand. “So what now sir?” Bradley asked.
“Well, we didn’t get any tangible evidence, but we have him.” Logan pointed to the scientist they had rescued. The scientist sunk back into a corner, frightened. “Relax we’re not going to hurt you.”
“No, but you want information and I can’t tell you anything, if I do then there’ll be hell to pay.”
“What? Why?”
“There was an accident and some of our experiments got out.”
“What experiments?” This time it was Gersh who had spoken up.
“Well that I don’t know.”
“You mean to tell me that you’re a scientist in this facility and you don’t even know what you’re studying?” Hues asked.
“We’re not allowed to know anything.” The scientist started to get defensive.
“Then why the hell do you work for them if you don’t even know what you’re doing!?” Mathews growled.
“The money is good.”
“Who gives a d**n about the money, if what you’re guarding is going to friggin’ kill people!?” Hues screamed.
“Hues, watch it.” Logan warned.
“But sir!”
“Shush, we don’t know if there are more of those things here.”
“Fine!” Martino walked over to the scientist and pulled out his knife. “We need him alive right? Well what about our men? Huh? What’ll we tell their families? We’ll need some information to tell them. So tell us at least what killed them, so their families can know what to despise.” He pushed the tip of the knife between the man’s legs.
“Ah! d**n it! Fine…fine. The only thing I know is that some of the scientists were experimenting with some sort of regenerator virus that is supposed to take dead cells and revive them.”
“So like some sort of cosmetic thing?” Hues asked rather impatiently.
“No like getting new heart cells if one died.” The scientist said with a matter-of-fact tone.
“Then what the hell are we dealing with?” Martino asked as he pushed the knife deeper.
“Ow! Stop that d**n it, let me finish. They were experimenting on animals at first, but some of the animals got loose in the residential area and some of the scientists got bit. They started exhibiting strange side effects and eventually turned into the things you now see. However, first they died.”
“What?!?” The entire team said in unison.
“So we’re dealing with….zombies?” Gersh asked.
“In a sense, yes.”
“You’re nuts.” Martino said as he let go of the scientist and placed his knife back in its sheath. The scientist grabbed at his crotch and backed away from Martino.
“I’m serious these things aren’t even human anymore. Apparently, before there was an outbreak in the labs, one of the scientists had the audacity to study one of these things up close and study its cellular makeup. The cells in they’re bodies are completely changed, and the virus attacked the brain first, causing the victim to lose sanity and eventually all of its personality. After that, all of the mental traits that we as humans equate with a “normal” human or even an “abnormal” human failed and what was left, was the bestial need to feed.”
“So basically all that was left were its natural instincts?” Logan asked intrigued.
“No not even them, if they were left, the creature would have a need to reproduce, but all that they seem to need to do is feed. We believe that the virus destroys the cells and is “programmed” to have a need to continue the infestation of multiple hosts through the saliva of an infected host.”
“So as long as we don’t get bit we won’t get infected?” Hues said half to himself and half as a question.
“Theoretically, yes.”
“Theoretically? Wait I thought you just said-” Martino was cut off.
“I said we think, nothing is concrete, and that isn’t to say that even is you are merely scratched you can’t contract the virus, our best bet is to just avoid them as best we can.”
Gersh laughed, “Easier said than done ‘doc.”
Logan pinched the bridge of his nose and looked at their situation. He began to talk. “Ok so our best bet is to head back outside to where we were dropped off and shoot a flare into the air,” He paused to think, he pinned his right hand under his elbow and pushed his left hand out in a thinking position. “From there we’ll wait for the van and-”
Logan stopped mid-sentence and looked at his hand that was pushed out. Blood drops started to drip onto his hand. He looked at it for a second, and then slowly looked above him. On the ceiling, there was some sort of beast that looked like a feral human that had all of the skin peeled from its body. A huge tongue snaked its way out of its mouth and started to slowly make its way down towards Logan.
The scientist fell down and scrambled backwards until he hit the receptionist’s desk and knocked over the phone. The phone fell and made a loud sudden clang. The beast quickly recalled its tongue and turned towards the noise. It leaped across the ceiling to just above the scientist. He let out a small cry in fear.
The thing’s tongue shot out and pierced the scientist’s chest. As quickly as it was shot in, the tongue pulled out and ripped with it the man’s lung. He choked and the beast went back for more. It pounced on top of him and began to tear into his throat. With razor sharp teeth it ripped out his trachea and the connecting bronchial tubes. Blood cascaded down his shirt from the gaping hole in his throat. The creature took one of its hands, which had three claws on it, two small and one large one in the middle, and slashed him in half from his collar bone to his waist. His organs and other innards spilt on the floor. The beast’s tongue lapped up the vital organs and brought them back to its mouth so the monster could eat them.
By this time, Logan came out of his initial shock and brought his rifle up to his shoulder and aimed it at the monster. When he did this, the rest of the team followed suit. They trained their guns on the thing and fired away. Only a few bullets his the monster, because it had jumped out of the way after the first few bullets had hit it. It clung to the ceiling and jumped around every time the team tried to shoot it. A few more hits landed on the beast, but it was too wounded to fight and it escaped before they could kill it.
“That’s it, I’m out of here!” Hues screamed as he turned towards the door. He ran to the door and tried to open it. The door wouldn’t budge even after he shot it a few times. Hues ran to the receptionist’s desk and pushed random buttons until the door clicked unlocked.
“Wait Hues!” Logan screamed. “We’ll leave as a team, and we don’t leave as a team until we’re done the mission.”
“Screw the mission! We’re dieing one by one and I don’t feel like being next!” Hues ran out the door into the woods.
“d**n it!” Logan screamed as he ran to the door. “Hues get back here, you’ll die out there alone!”
Hues continued running until Logan could no longer see him. Logan slammed the door in frustration.
“We’re not going to chase after him?” Gersh questioned Logan.
“We can’t risk us all for him if he wants to be this pigheaded.” Logan paused, “But, he’s got a point. We can’t stay here, it is becoming too hazardous and I’m not willing to risk anymore of my men dieing. We need to go back the way we came in and find our way back to the van.”
They all nodded and followed the corridor back to the way they came, past the surveillance room. When they reached the air duct, they tried to figure a way back into it and out of the facility.
“I’m sorry sir, but I don’t see any reason why we can’t just use the front door like Hues did.” Gersh asked.
“If those monsters got out, they are going to be waiting out in the open for us, if we leave in either of the ways we came in, we might be able to go around the forest and meet on the road.” With that said Logan deduced that it wasn’t possible for them to get back into the duct. “Bradley, which way did you come in?”
“Um…there was a window that we were able to access in the eastern wing.”
“Good we’ll use that.” Logan motioned for Bradley to lead them. Turning, Bradley led them back into the Lobby and through the hallway that Bradley’s team came in from. They walked into the cafeteria and out through a door in the back. Coming in contact with a few zombies, they dispatched them quickly and kept moving, all the while keeping an eye out for that beast that killed the scientist.
It wasn’t long until they reached the eastern wing, which was where all of the laboratory equipment resided. Bradley led them through a maze of corridors until they reached the room in which the window he spoke of was located. He opened the door and walked in, closely followed by Logan. Bradley sidestepped let and Logan went to the right, scanning the room for any monsters. Once the room was secure, Logan requested a rope from Martino who gladly gave it to him. Logan walked up to a metal pipe near the window and tied off the rope. Throwing the rope out of the window, Logan motioned for Bradley to go first. Bradley walked to the window, looked out to make sure it was safe, and repelled down the wall. After Bradley hit the ground, Logan looked at Gersh and motioned for him to go. Gersh nodded and clipped his belt to the rope and repelled down. One by one they all went down, until Logan’s boots hit the fresh dirt.
“Okay we’ll take an eastern route through the forest, and keep going until we find the road. Remember, these things aren’t human and they can and will sneak up on you, so watch your six.” Everyone nodded simultaneously. They began their trek through the woods.
This time when they walked through the woods, it took longer because they had to be as silent as possible. After about an hour, they found the road and changed direction to the west to find the point at which they were dropped off.
Once they reached that spot, Logan dug into his backpack and shot the flare that was given to him into the air.
“Now what?” Bradley asked.
“We wait.”
|
|