Author's note: There's going to be a lot of blood, gore and character death in this story. If you can't deal with that, don't read it.
The incessant ringing of his cellphone roused Niko from sleep. Blinking several times, he glared at his alarm clock, and saw it was only 7:29am.
Too early.
As soon as his phone emitted its last ring, it was only two seconds before it went off again.
Niko debated with himself on weather or not to answer. He couldn't think of why anyone would be calling so early unless it was an emergency. Cursing to himself, he got up and strode over to his desk where his phone sat. He picked it up just as it began ringing for the third time. When he saw Roman's name on the caller ID, he sighed and wondered what sort of trouble his cousin had gotten into this time.
"Hello?" he asked drowsily.
"Cousin! Are you okay?!" Roman was practically shouting into the other end.
Niko was taken aback by the urgency of this question. "Besides the fact that you woke me up, yes I'm okay. Why? Did Dimitri sent someone after me? You know I can take care of that."
"Oh, thank goodness! I was really worried. Haven't you seen them? Those...those things?"
"Them? What are you talking about?"
"I take it you haven't..."
"What do you mean by them?"
There was a significant pause before Roman spoke again, sounding very strung out. "Well cousin, this is going to sound completely crazy, but it's true. I swear! Me and Mallory went out last night, and as we were walking back to our apartment, we saw a guy attacking another guy in an alley. But then...I really don't know how to explain this, but the attacker turned into some kind of hideous monster! I only got a brief look at it, but it had tentacles and way too many eyes in places where it shouldn't have had eyes! Mallory and I were so scared that we ran all the way back to my place and locked ourselves in! We're freaking out over here!"
Niko resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He had heard some truly absurd things in his life, but this really took the cake. It made him think about kinds of drugs one would need to take to hallucinate such a thing.
"Roman, I think you and Mallory had too much to drink last night, and you had a vivid nightmare. Go back to sleep."
"I haven't slept! And I'm telling the truth! I know it sounds crazy, but you have to believe me!"
"Sorry, but I can't. I'll talk to you later when you've calmed down, alright?"
With that, Niko hung up. Since he was now fully awake, he decided there wouldn't be much point in going back to bed.
He was tempted to do nothing but laze around in front of the tv all day, as he'd had more than his share of action last night and was still a little tired.
Yesterday, bent cop Francis McReary had contacted him to do a 'small favor' in exchange for a nice sum of cash. The job sounded simple enough- murder a prominent lawyer and snag the files he had, but it had escalated dramatically, all because the secretary just happened to walk in on him.
Needless to say, Niko had no choice but to put down at least twenty cops in order to make his escape.
He was still wearing the top half of the suit he had on during the shootout, and it was incredibly wrinkled. Normally he wouldn't sleep in such nice clothes, but he had been so tired upon getting back home that he had forgotten to change.
He ambled over to his closet to pick out a different outfit, settling on a grey T shirt, a pair of jeans and the brown jacket he had worn on the trip over here. As he switched shirts, he heard someone frantically pounding on his door.
"For fuck's sake..."
The pounding got louder and faster, as whoever was out there desperately wanted to get in.
"Just a second! I'm coming." Niko put his pants on and quickly walked over to the door right as the banging ceased.
Upon opening the door, he was baffled to be greeted with an empty hallway. He looked to the left and saw Brucie, his amped up acquaintance, standing at the far end of the hall.
"What are you doing here, Brucie? It's really early." Niko asked.
The adrenaline junkie, clad in a white wife beater and baggy pants, quickly spun around to face him, taking several steps forward.
"Niko! Just the man I wanted to see! I got a new Infurnus last night. She's fast, real fast, and I thought you might want to take her for a test drive with me." he said excitedly.
"Maybe later, alright? I'm really tired, I had a long day yesterday." Niko explained.
Brucie put his hands up. "Alright, we don't have to race. How about a scenic drive down the beach instead? I mean, I'm up, you're up, we should hang out!"
"I don't know. I kind of wanted to spend the day in." Niko said, hoping the other man would take the hint and leave him alone. He could only tolerate him in small doses, and taking a test drive with him was more than a small dose.
Not only that, but something about his behavior seemed a bit off. Brucie was the party all night, sleep all day type, so it was almost creepy that he was up and ready to go so early.
"Come on, don't puss out on me!" Brucie demanded as Niko turned away.
"Look, I'm just not up to it today. I'll call you soon, okay?" he rejected the offer and began walking back towards his apartment.
He found it a bit odd that the fitness fanatic didn't continue to pester him or try to follow him, but he didn't think too much about it. Just as he was about to forget about it entirely, a strange sound met his ears. It sounded almost like something soft was being stretched out.
Overcome with curiosity, he turned around and was surprised to see that Brucie was violently twitching and seemed to be in immense pain. Fearing that he was suffering from a steroid induced heart attack, Niko ran towards him, but stopped dead in his tracks as the stretching noise got louder and more vile sounding.
Something about this wasn't right, and he instinctively took a step back. Though he wasn't sure why, uneasiness swept over him. Before he had a chance to question why he felt this way, it was answered for him in one grotesque action.
Brucie's mouth opened unnaturally wide, and a set of short, fleshy jaws filled with jagged fangs and dripping with clear slime extended from it.
Niko's heart leapt up into his throat and his eyes went wide, refusing to believe what he was seeing. It couldn't be real. Things like this don't exist. For a split second he thought he was having a nightmare, but the intense pangs of fear he felt were very real. He could see, hear and almost feel this thing- whatever it was- transforming right in front of him. No words came when he opened his mouth, and his legs didn't cooperate with him when he tried to run, causing him to fall down. All he could do was stare, unmoving, frozen to the spot with shock.
The unpleasant sound of tearing flesh filled the hall, and several long, thin insect like limbs sprouted from the creature's back, blood spurting out as they emerged. It emitted an otherworldly howl and charged at him, causing him to go into panic overload mode.
The distance between the monster and its victim rapidly began to close, and Niko barely noticed as the door to his right swung open.
"What in God's name is going on out here?" an irritated voice asked.
It was Niko's elderly bathrobe clad neighbor, Mr. Loesch.
"Holy mother of-" he didn't get to utter another word before the monster swung one of its clawed appendages, brutally impaling the old man and slamming him against the wall.
His dying screams echoed through the hall, finally snapping Niko out of his shock.
Quickly picking himself up, Niko bolted down the hall towards his apartment in a panic. He was in such a frenzy that he forgot to shut and lock his front door. Instead of locking it, he sprinted into his bedroom and retrieved his shotgun from under the bed, reloading it with trembling hands.
Taking several deep breaths, Niko slowly inched out of the room and hid in his door frame. Sickening crunching and squishing sounds drifted from the left, indicating that the monster was eating. Maybe it would go away once it was done. Then again, it might not be satisfied unless it ate him as well.
Almost hyperventilating and sweating profusely, he counted backwards from ten before cautiously stepping into the hall.
The creature had mutated even further, as its jaws had elongated to the point of being almost crocodilian, causing its human mouth to be torn open on both sides, and a deep, toothy rift had opened up in its left shoulder. It was hunched over Mr. Loesch's bloodied, ripped open corpse, which was sitting in a growing pool of blood. Once the monster noticed Niko's presence, it growled and looked up at him as blood and chunks of gore dripped freely from its jaws.
Niko wasted no time in firing a shell directly into its head, sending it reeling back. He immediately fired another into its chest, blowing away some of the flesh. Surprisingly, this wasn't enough. Instead of going down, it leapt back up and charged at him again, barely even slowing when another bullet pierced its body.
Niko was aghast. The thing had taken three shotgun blasts to the head and chest, yet it didn't seem even slightly injured. If anything, it was absolutely enraged. Just as large scythe like pinchers erupted from the ends of its multiple insect like arms, he pumped his last three shells into it, praying it would be enough to down the beast. No such luck.
The creature howled angrily and drew back one of its bladed arms, preparing to strike. Thinking fast, Niko leapt to the left, barely dodging the attack. As he landed in his doorway, he saw the monster sail past him and crash out of the window, sending razor sharp shards of glass flying everywhere. A second later, he heard the sound if it smashing down onto the ground below, then everything went quiet.
For the longest time, Niko laid on the floor in disbelief about what just happened, waiting for his accelerated heart rate to return to normal.
As insane as it sounded, he had legitimately been attacked by a seemingly invincible monstrosity that had been disguised as a human and killed his neighbor. He had a tough time believing it, but it couldn't be denied.
Suddenly realizing his front door was still hanging wide open, he got up and locked it. It only had two flimsy locks keeping it shut, one sliding bolt type and one chain type, neither one of which was very strong. Still, they were better than nothing.
Once the door was locked, Niko repeatedly ran his hand through his short hair and paced around the room manically, trying to make sense of the whole scenario. It wasn't the invincibility thing that scared him the most, it was the fact that before revealing itself, the creature had looked like, sounded like and even acted exactly like Brucie. Everything about it was wrong on so many levels, and it filled him with dread to think about who else might be one of them. If there was one, there was sure to be another.
The conversation he'd had with Roman only fifteen minutes ago came back to him, and he raced back to his room, quickly dialing his cousin's number. He answered on the first ring.
"Niko, are you alright?" he asked with concern.
"I believe you! I was just attacked by a monster!" Niko shouted into the phone.
"WHAT?! Did it touch you?!"
"It was Brucie, he turned into a monster, killed my neighbor and attacked me!"
"Cousin, DID IT TOUCH YOU?"
"No, I jumped out of the way, and it fell out the window."
"Thank god you're okay. You really had me worried."
"I shot it six times, but it didn't die! Six times, Roman!"
"Cousin, just calm down. It's gone, right?"
"Yeah, its gone. This...this is just not how I pictured my day going."
Niko took a moment to think of a plan before speaking again. "Roman, I'm coming to pick up you and Mallory along with a couple friends, then we can all get out of here. I don't know where we'll go, but we need to get as far away from the city as possible."
"Uh, how exactly do you plan on doing that? The government shut down the airport this morning and is forbidding any planes from taking off or leaving. Plus, all the bridges are being heavily guarded by the police. They don't want anybody leaving or entering any of the islands."
"...Are you serious?" Niko asked, completely dumbstruck.
"I'm afraid so. There are tons of cops on each bridge, and there are police helicopters patrolling them, shooting anybody who tries to get across. There are even fucking tanks on the bridge to Algonquin! A bunch of people have already died trying to get across, I've been watching it on the news."
"I don't care how, but somehow I'll find a way. We WILL get out of here. I'll come pick you up."
"And where will we go? The entire city is on lockdown!"
"I don't know, I haven't thought about that yet. But we'll find a way. I promise."
"Take some time to think about it. Call me soon, okay?"
"I will, don't worry. I'll talk to you later." Niko hung up and moseyed over to the living room window to observe the atmosphere.
It was disturbingly quiet, and the streets seemed devoid of life. Even the ever present pigeons were absent.
There was an abandoned red Sedan parked diagonally in the middle of the street, with the owner nowhere in sight. The driver's side door was hanging open, like it was begging Niko to come outside and steal it.
He could see some lights on in the apartment building across the street, with silhouettes moving behind the curtains, confirming that some people had locked themselves in their homes.
The silence was broken as the blaring of police car sirens approached from the distance. A squadron of cop cars slowly drove down the street, and one of the officers was shouting commands through a megaphone.
"Attention all civilians! Stay in your homes and do not open your front door for anyone except the LCPD, not even a loved one. They may not be who they say they are. I repeat, stay in your homes, and do not let ANYONE in unless it is a member of the LCPD police force! For your own safety, stay inside. Any civilian caught wandering the streets will be arrested."
The squad cars maneuvered around the red Sedan and continued cruising down the street, eventually disappearing behind the bend.
Niko retreated back to his bedroom and mentally reviewed what he had to do. Not only did he have to find a way to get across the heavily guarded bridge into Broker to pick up Roman and Mallory, he also needed to contact and pick up Jacob, Packie and Kate. If they were still alive.
A look over of his current firearm cache revealed that he only had a pistol and a shotgun. He only had a few shotgun shells left, so he'd have to make do with the pistol until he could get something that packed a stronger punch.
Taking out his phone again, he dialed Jacob's number. It took a few rings, but he eventually picked up.
"Niko, man! Have you seen dem tings? Is crazy!"
"I just had a close encounter with one, and I don't want to repeat that scenario. I'm coming to get you and a few others, then we're going to my cousin's place in Bohan. Do you have weapons?"
"Of course. I and Badman be armed to the teeth, man. Even got flamethrowers! You need dem for those tings!"
"I'll be right over."
Niko stuffed his pistol, phone and several boxes of handgun ammo into the pockets in his jacket before heading out the door.
As he stepped into the hall, we went on high alert. The monster was gone, but it had left a chaotic scene behind. The hall window was shattered, allowing a light breeze to blow through, and the floor was littered with glass shards. Blood streaked down the walls near Mr. Loesch's apartment door, and the corpse of Mr. Loesch himself was in rough shape, as some of his entrails had been strewn about.
Niko ignored the ghastly sight and quietly tiptoed down the stairs, checking for movement on each level. He heard a mother comforting a crying child from behind one of the doors, but nothing to suggest the presence of a monster.
When he got outside, he bolted right for the Sedan, checking both the backseats and the trunk for unwanted companions. It was clear, so he slid into the driver's side, smashed off the ignition, and hot wired it. The car started without too much trouble, but he'd need to get something bigger and more resilient if he wanted to get across the bridge.
The streets were mostly empty, but there were some abandoned cars parked right in the middle of the street. They were mostly civilian cars, but there was also a burned out, smoldering police cruiser among them. A few distraught looking people were wandering around, but there was no way Niko was even going to consider picking them up.
Before long, he reached Jacob's apartment building. He parked the car and scanned the area before getting out. He detected movement to the left, and saw three figures standing on the roof of the building when he looked out the window. One was Jacob, and Niko recognized the other two as Badman, Jacob's best friend, and Elizabeta, a drug dealer he had done some work for a few weeks back.
He got out of the car and was just about to call out to them when he heard a snarl behind him.
"Niko! Behind you! Is one of dem!" he heard Jacob shout.
Niko glanced behind him and saw a snarling black and white infected dog, most likely a husky, emerge from a nearby alley. It had about ten gore slicked tentacles protruding from it's back, and it began to vibrate as its head split in half right down the middle.
"Fuck!" Niko put a bullet right into the beast's new orfice, which temporarily knocked it over, giving him time to escape.
"Over here, Niko! Quick!" Badman beckoned him from the rooftop, pointing to the fire escape.
A flash of orange exploded beside him, but he didn't look back to see what it was. Instead, he sprinted up the fire escape, taking time to retract the stairs so the monster couldn't follow. When he reached the top, he clambered over the ledge and onto the rooftop.
"Niko, man! You made it! I is glad to see you!" Jacob announced, then tossed another object-a flaming moltov cocktail, down at the monster. It's agonized howls drifted up a second later, signifying a hit.
"Thanks for killing that thing. This is all so unreal, I actually thought I was going to die when one of those things attacked me in the apartments. I shot it six times, but it didn't die." Niko explained.
"Don't waste your bullets. You got to burn them, sweetie. It's the only way to kill them." Liz informed. She had a makeshift flamethrower strapped to her back, and all three of them had a massive supply of moltov cocktails and grenades.
"Is true. You need fire, nothin' else kills dem, take my word for it." Badman said.
"Mind telling me how you know that?" Niko asked a bit suspiciously.
"Basically, we were attacked by one of those things, and we tried shooting the shit out of it first. When that didn't work, we set that thing on fire, and luckily found the one thing that kills them." Liz said.
"I wish I had known that earlier, I would have brought some flammables." Niko stated.
"Don't worry about it, we gots plenty." Jacob said as he lit up a joint. "But we gwan need a bigger car." he motioned to the jacked Sedan parked below.
The previous vehicle dilemma became bigger once Niko realized he'd need to fit himself, Roman, Mallory, Jacob, Badman, Elizabeta, Packie, Kate and a bunch of molotov cocktails and other explosives into one car. The Sedan wouldn't do, which left him at a loss. There was always the option of highjacking a semi truck and stashing everyone in the trailer, but he had no idea how to drive one. What he really needed was a large, armored vehicle, but those weren't exactly easy to come by.
Just as he was about to ask his comrades about it, his phone rang. Since he assumed it was Roman again, he immediately reached for it, only to scowl with disgust upon seeing that Dimitri was calling him.
"What do you want, you fucking traitor?" Niko snarled.
"So hostile, Niko. I'd like you to work with us, and that's the first thing you say?"
"Work with you? Why would I want to do that? So you can betray me again?"
"Don't you see what's happening to Liberty City? Look around you, Niko. These things are everywhere. I know we had a falling out, but I want to put that behind us. You really impressed me when you took out Faustin for me, so if we're going to survive this, we want a man like you working with us. Let's team up together."
"You've got to be kidding. After everything you've done to me and Roman, you seriously think I'm going to help you?"
"I figured you'd say that, but if you accept our offer, Mr. Bulgarin will give you a gift."
"Oh, and what would that be? A sack full of dead puppies and vials of children's tears?"
"How does a bulletproof FIB van sound?"
This made Niko pause. There were three possible outcomes for this. It was either too good to be true, a trap, or on the off chance that the offer was genuine, there had to be a massive catch.
"What's the catch? Don't even try to tell me you're being nice, because you and Bulgarin are two of the most psychotic, deranged motherfuckers I've ever met in my whole life."
"Get us to Alderney State Penitentiary." Dimitri said cooly. "We've got connections, we could get a helicopter to pick us up from there. Help us out, and the van is yours. If you accept our offer, meet us in the old warehouse in the port district, same one as last time."
Niko scowled. Even though he couldn't see his adversary, he knew Dimitri was smirking with delight as he spoke. Working with those two again was the last thing he wanted, but they had something he needed, which left him with no real say in the matter.
After about fifteen seconds, he begrudgingly said, "...Fine." and hung up.
When he did so, he saw that Jacob, Badman and Liz were all staring at him curiously.
"Who was dat?" Jacob inquired.
"Two people who I'd hoped I'd never have to see again. They offered me a deal, and I didn't have much of a choice but to accept. These guys have a bulletproof FIB van, but they won't let us have it unless we help them out. We've got to meet them down in the port district. You guys need to come with me for cover in case its an ambush."
"Nobody succeeds by being nice. We should just kill them and take the damn thing." Liz stated.
"It wouldn't be that easy, trust me. I've worked with both of these guys, I know what they're like. I don't want to do this, but it's the only way we're getting into Bohan. My cousin and his fiancé are depending on me." Niko said.
The group packed up all the moltovs and grenades in addition to stocking up on firearms before heading down to the ground, checking for infected before doing so. None were in sight, so the four of them piled into the Sedan and Niko re hot wired it.
He didn't speak to his passengers as he drove, as he was in a very foul mood. Right after he had been attacked by the Brucie-Thing, he'd thought that this unbelievably fucked up day couldn't get any worse. How wrong he'd been. In the span of two hours, he'd been attacked by a monster and forced into working with his enemies.
The timing of their phone call unnerved him. It was one of those things that couldn't be a coincidence, but he didn't want to know how they knew he needed an armored vehicle.
The shrill wailing of a police siren interrupted his morose thoughts. A cop car zoomed up from around the corner, occupied by only one panicked looking officer.
"Pull over now! You are all under arrest!" he shouted through the megaphone.
When Niko refused to comply, the officer retaliated and ground up against the Sedan, trying to run it off the road.
"I said pull over! This is your last warning!" The car rammed into the Sedan again, causing sparks to fly in every direction.
Badman, who was in the backseat, rolled down his window, aimed his shotgun at the squad car, and fired. The cop's head was instantly obliterated, drenching the inside of the windshield with blood and brain fragments, and the car swerved off the road, smashing head on into a brick wall.
"Ay, you didn't need ta kill dat guy!" Jacob commented, but didn't look too surprised at his mentor's actions.
"He was gwan arrest us! I not take chances, seen?" Badman countered, and the two of them delved in incomprehensible squabbling.
"Knock it off!" Niko scolded. "We're here. Be on high alert."
He slowed down as entered the port district, slowly cruising past vacant looking buildings. The area was completely deserted and almost deathly quiet, which made the atmosphere more ominous.
Liz poked Niko with a long red nail, drawing his attention. "Look over there. There's an armored truck parked by that warehouse."
She wasn't lying, as he could see the FIB van parked off to the side of one of the larger warehouses. Niko parked the car a safe distance from the building and rolled down his window, surveying the area intently while thinking of a plan. Apparently the offer was genuine, but he still needed to exercise caution.
"Liz, Badman, you guys stay here and look out for anything that seems suspicious. Jacob, you come with me and watch my back. I'll go in, and I want you to stay right outside the entrance but don't let them see you. If they know I've got company, they might not come out." he instructed.
Jacob nodded, grabbed a shotgun and a grenade, and wordlessly followed him.
They silently crept up to the warehouse and took cover just outside the entrance.
Niko took a brief glance inside, seeing only tall stacks of wood. While he couldn't see either of his oppressors, he heard two voices conversing in Russian and knew it was them.
"Keep an eye on me. If it's an ambush, signal to Liz and Badman, then all three of you come in, okay? And don't shoot unless you can start a fire, they might be monsters."
"Don't worry Niko, I got you covered." Jacob said.
"Then here goes nothing," Niko said to himself and slunk inside the building.