So this is the first chapter of the story "Dead Space: Behind the Bodies" by Hartman227 and me, DaMan30026. We are writing this story together to get the best of both of our writing abilities. I'm writing the first chapter, and Hartman will carry the next. We're sitting in the library right now after just going over the plot and deciding the name. Hartman227 is the basis behind Andrew and will be writing the chapters for him. I'm the basis behind John and will be covering all of the events that John encounters (Hartman227 claimed my sentence is better… can you guys post a bunch of comments on his page… Really, just a bunch of fucking comments. For the first few chapters, we'll be writing in third person, but as we split the plot, we're going to write in first person. We hope that you will enjoy the story…
Chapter 1 - Unemployment
John walked into the Coffee house and saw Andrew sitting in the chair on his laptop. He was typing something that seemed important. John took the time to go grab an iced mocha, and as he waited for the latte, he saw Andrew had noticed him. He pointed to the counter and gestured towards the coffee bar. He mouthed the question: "Latte?". Andrew shook his head, and John shrugged. As soon as he got his coffee, John walked over to sit down with Andrew.
"Any jobs for us today?" he asked Andrew.
"No one wants two guys fresh out of college," he replied. "Especially one that only went through two years."
"I still can't believe you did that," John laughed. "100 pranks over two years."
"Don't bash those," he laughed.
"100 pranks," John said. "That's an accomplishment. I'm not even upset. I agreed to pair up with you for a job."
"The last two were great," Andrew said. "Although the cow manure didn't go as planned."
John sat down in the chair as they remembered the memory of his friends tomfoolery. Back in college, Andrew wanted to be known as the only prankster that got 100 pranks in two years. His last two pranks resulted in the most laughs. For his 99th prank, he placed a water balloon full of cow manure on a 2x4 on the top of the door to the dean's office. When the dean came into his office, he walked a little too fast, and the 2x4 slid off the door with the manure at unpredicted speeds. The manure missed him by about two inches, and the plank hit him in the head resulting in a concussion. Andrew got away with a warning. However, he didn't get the message.
His final prank was truly an act of brilliance. He somehow managed to get food coloring and corn starch into the fire sprinkler water. When he had his plan set up during an all school assembly, he warned John to sit in the back of the auditorium with an umbrella. John had watched anxiously at how his friend was going to get himself expelled. The dean walked up and began his speech.
Directly at the height of the dean's speech, Andrew waltzed out to the middle of the stage and tapped on the dean's shoulder. The procession of curse words and slurs echoed over the microphone. Andrew, realizing that he couldn't get use of the microphone, proceeded over to the fire alarm. He clicked his heels and turned to face the group.
His eyebrows raised as he shouted to the crowd, "THE BLOOD GODS DEMAND SACRIFICE!" He pulled the fire alarm. It rained red water with the consistency of blood. John laughed as he raised the umbrella over his head. Andrew continued to laugh, but raised his arms and let out a victorious mwahahaha.
"The blood gods demanded sacrifice," Andrew laughed from behind his laptop.
"Mwahahaha," John joked.
"Oh," Andrew said. "I did get an email from some guy at Momento Advertising for a job interview."
"Well let's check that out," John said.
Andrew looked over to his right to find the news. It began talking about the lack of resources on the Earth, then about a new ship called the USG Ishimura, and then a need for a crew.
"John," Andrew said. "Are you hearing this?"
"Yeah," John responded. "The name of that ship is maniacally familiar."
"I got that feeling, too."
"That might not be a bad idea," John said.
"What?" asked Andrew. "Signing onto the ship?"
"Yeah," John said. "I majored in engineering and mathematics, so I could be an engineer."
"I could sign on as a security guard," Andrew replied. "Let's call them tomorrow and see the qualifications."
"Yeah," John said. "I don't really want to work in advertising anyways."
"You want to go get dinner?" Andrew asked.
"Yeah, sure."
They got up and left for Qdoba, but both were secretly wondering the meaning behind the confusion over the name USG Ishimura.
Later at John's apartment, he arrived home at eight and set his keys on the desk. He sat down to play the XBOX 720 when the phone rang. He picked it up to find the voice of his girlfriend, Emma.
"Hey, John," she said calmly over the phone.
"Hey, Emma," John said. "I was just about to call you."
"I don't think it's working out," she said.
"What?" John croaked, he cleared his throat to try again. "What?"
"I think we need to break up."
"Why?" John said. "I thought…"
"Well you thought wrong," Emma said harshly.
"Why over the phone?" he asked, sincerely.
"Because I couldn't say no if we were talking face to face."
"Well," John said. "I guess goodbye."
"Yeah," Emma said as John clicked the phone off.
"Time for pizza and video games…" John joked to himself.
An hour later, there was a stack of pizza boxes and soda that created a tunnel from the couch to the television and XBOX as well as to the bathroom. John was kneeling over his games looking at which to play. The covers of Mass Effect 3, Halo: Reach, Dead Space 2, and many other titles stared in his face as he looked over the games. He pulled out Dead Space 2 and put the disc in and was greeted with the mysterious screen he hadn't seen since they ended XBOX Live.
He scrolled down to the "Previously on Dead Space" option and hit it. It began talking about the lack of resources on the Earth and how humanity banned together to cast out into space. "The USG Ishimura was born," the voice said. The blaze of images and story along the ideas of what was on Aegis 7 shocked me. Was this what would happen to the USG Ishimura.
John got up and walked over to the phone to call Andrew. After dialing the number, he was frightened to hear the sound of the voicemail.
"Andrew," he said after the beep. "We need to talk. I know why the name 'Ishimura' sounds familiar to us. Call me back right away, I'm headed to your house."
Andrew walked over to the fridge and opened it to grab a glass of Mountain Dew. He began to pour the glass when he remembered Dead Space. Sweat beads began forming on his face and the cup began to over flow with Mountain Dew. A massive glob formed on the sink which looked like radioactive piss. He looked at it and began to see images of when Isaac was fighting slashers, lurkers, and a whole manner of necromorphs.
He set down the drink and cleaned up the mess before reaching for the phone. Andrew quickly dialed John's number and more sweat formed as the phone emitted the busy signal. He clicked the phone off and frantically grabbed his car keys. He threw his jacket on and rushed down the stairs and out the garage door. He climbed into his car and headed for John's house.
John's apartment was only 5 minutes from Andrew's place. As John flicked on his blinker to turn, he turned to see Andrew's Mitsubishi turning into his neighborhood. John pulled a U-turn and followed Andrew back to his house. As Andrew got out of his car, John pulled his back into his garage.
Upon getting out of his car, he was greeted by Andrew with, "John, I know why the name Ishimura sounds familiar."
"Dead Space," John replied calmly.
"What do we do?" Andrew asked.
"Let's go inside and think about this."