Noir York's Dark Problem
Chapter One: Shaky Alliances
(Yes, a re-make of a crappy story, now with some clear potential and my improved abilities, I intend to make this story every bit as good as I intended it to be. I hope you enjoy it better this time. Also, the events take place as if Max Payne 2 never occurred.
Orriginaly, this story had italics. Because FF.Net has decided to, once again, ignore the fact that I put them in, they don't show up. I am seriously thinking of complaining to them about it.)
I sat on a bed too stiff for my already stiff body. Rigor Mortis when you're already alive. I felt that nothing had changed anything whatsoever. My wife and daughter, still dead. They had been avenged, as far as I knew. Yet I knew there had to be something bigger, something larger, the crack in the armor of Noir York, where all the darkest of secrets lie, too harsh for even their creators. My eyes trembled, keeping to my eyelids like a toddler who thought that the boogey man was in his closet, and his nightlight was busted.
I felt like crap, and probably looked the part. My head swam in the never ending darkness, my body ached in pain. I had more metal in me than the Bionic Man.
But I had no idea, none at all, of the darkest secret that the armor held.
A true vision of hell. ________________________________________________________________________
Max slowly, with a bit of a daze, woke up in a hospital bed. He groaned as he held his head. The room was dark, and nothing could be seen aside from a few small blinking lights. He looked over to where he thought the side of the bed was, and slid off it, landing with a thud on the floor. He made a small groan and got on his hands and knees, careful not to make the stitches he obviously received pop. He swallowed and with a loud groan, got to his feet. He looked around and saw the previously blood-stained clothing he wore.
Leather jacket, white shirt, white undershirt, the tie he received for his first and only anniversary, his white boxers, and his gray pants. His belt made a faint shine in the low light, and he realized what they were when he saw them. He grabbed them and slowly, carefully, slid them on; knowing that one wrong move could end up staining the clothes again with blood. He tossed away the hospital gown he had worn, and looked to the nightstand.
There was a bottle of prescription painkillers. He slowly put a few on his palm and swallowed them down. He could hear the sounds of his muscles pushing the small round objects down, and he felt the fast action already beginning to kill his pain receptors. He casually walked to the door.
As he pushed it open, he heard a scream. Max's eyes widened as he shot the door open and looked around quickly. The hallway was as barren as a stereotypical western's street, random spilt papers replacing the tumble weeds. The window on the far side of the corridor had been opened for some reason. He heard the scream again, a woman's scream. He pushed on, despite the sudden return of pain, and opened the only unlocked door in the corridor.
A barricade was the first thing he encountered. Stacks upon stacks of boxes once filled with beakers and medical equipment were scattered all over the floor. They had already been knocked over. The second sight he saw was that of a bleeding security guard, dead or dying, slumped against a wall. Max rushed over to the guard and quickly yanked the pistol and ammunition from the man.
Only a clip remained.
Max then moved to a blocked entrance, this time with an overturned table. The table was split in two.
Max pushed the lower part out of the way and entered a morgue.
A naked man was beating on a locker door. He would slam his hand down in a weak fashion, sending a palm on the door and then slowly sliding it down, only to slam the palm into it again. The woman, a nurse, suddenly bolted out of the locker and was subsequently grabbed. The nurse then pulled out a scalpel from her pocket, sending it with force into the side of the man's head.
Normally, this is the part where the man slumps down onto the floor a convulsing, twitching mess because of the powerful shock to the system and massive damage to the brain, but in this instance, the man just staggered backwards. The nurse ran behind Max and cowered behind a trash-can, sobbing.
Max raised the pistol, a Glock 17, and aimed at the thing. This was surely not a man. Max still yelled a warning.
"Freeze! NYPD!" Max screamed, as the man, arms outstretched, rushed at him.
Max didn't hesitate in pulling the trigger twice, sending the thing down onto the floor with a loud thud. It convulsed once, and then stopped moving altogether.
Max turned around and went to the garbage can, holding out his hand to the nurse. The nurse leapt up and wrapped her arms around Max, sobbing into his shoulder.
"Oh Jesus, thank god you came when you did!" The nurse screamed as she chocked on tears. Max was caught off guard, and slowly wrapped his pain- wracked arms around her, gently pushing her away, just enough so they could look at each other.
"Im-"Max started.
"I know, your Max Payne, the hero cop. You were on the news...oh, of all the people to rescue me-"
"Look, lady, tell me what happened here...and what your name is..."
The nurse nodded, and sniffled one more time before telling. "My name is Rosie, Rosie Maguire. I was working a floor below when all of the sudden, I heard screams and gunfire. When I got to where I heard them, these...things, they were attacking everyone! Not just the security, but the staff and patients...oh god, it was horrible! We, Jones and me, we ran."
"Jones?"
"Yeah...Jones was defending the doorway when that bastard," Rosie pointed to the dead man. "He came off the table and killed him! That guy was dead! He chased me into a locker and I was stuck in there, until you came..."
Rosie's story sounded a bit like hysteria, but with what Max just saw, he couldn't discount it. New York had a history for strange events.
"Rosie, how many of these....people, attacked you?"
"About twenty, but they were patients here treated with the flu! God knows how many of them there are now..." She said.
"Right...listen, try to stay hidden and arm yourself. I'll be back once I find a way out." Max said calmly. Rosie nodded and then ran off, grabbing a pole along the way.
Max ran back outside, to see two nurses shuffle at him from far down the hall. He ran down the hall and quickly fired his weapon as he ran, knocking down one and stunning the other temporarily. Max then went to a door with 'WARD' above it in white print behind a plastic black board. Max bolted in.
That wasn't the smartest move.
He ran about five feet before realizing that shufflers were in the room, a lot of them. They turned to Max and started their mad shamble, moaning loudly in pain. Max quickly drew his pistol and fired into the amassing crowd, sending bullet casings to the tile floor with a metallic ping, and bodies down onto the floor with a thud.
Max pocketed the pistol for now and ran from the creatures, pushing one aside as he did. He flew into a door to knock it down.
More of the freaks were in that hall as well. A doctor and two guards. Max, still on the ground, bolted up and made a mad dash down the opposite end of the hall. It was pure pandemonium. Every single door Max entered, there were the creatures. It was like they had known about him in advance and came after him, but the reality was that it was just dumb luck, and Max knew it.
He had rushed past a bunch, until he could stand it no more. He ran to one final door, avoiding a female patient creature. Whatever was on the other end would be shot full of lead.
He rushed inside and took aim at the first humanoid he saw. He fired, and it ducked.
"Jesus Christ! Don't shoot, im not one of them!!" A man said, as he stood up. He was holding a rather large mop in defense. Max calmed down, then turned around and pushed a rather large desk out in front of the door. There were banging sounds from the door.
"Oh, thank god you came. One more minute and I probably wouldn't be talking! The name's Mike Hamilton." Mike wore a green shirt and blue pants. He was gasping for air.
"You know where those creatures came from?" Max said, as Mike walked to a file cabinet and started rummaging through. He was still gasping as he worked through them.
"Not at all, and im glad I don't! I wouldn't want to know any of those lunatics personally." He said. "Hey, here's a gun..." He said, as he tossed the firearm over to Max. He caught it and then looked at Mike.
"What about you?" Said Max, referring to the M92F he now held in his hand.
"Two things. One, cant shoot worth shit. Two, I would panic when a gun goes off, and three, im asmatic, so number two is especaly bad for me. Your Max Payne, aren't you? I got something else for you then." Mike rummaged through a stack of papers.
"Here, you could probably make a lot more sense of it than me..." Max took the paper, and then flipped through it, looking for any indication of what happened...
________________________________________________________________________
To: Dr. Charles Kroder From: Hospital Management RE: Sudden Flu Epidemic
Dr. Kroger
While we understand that you have some concerns about the sudden rise in this new form of Influenza, we see it as no cause for alarm. It is to be expected following the storm.
-James Cordell, Head Physician and Hospital Manager.
________________________________________________________________________
Max sighed and then looked over at Mike.
"You going to be alright here?" Max said.
"Yeah, in just going to wait for rescue..."
As if on cue, the loud 'BLAM' of a heavy caliber pistol rang out. Max watched as Mike ran to the desk and started pushing it back.
"You hear that?! Were saved!" He said, as he suddenly rushed out the door. Max followed for about a half a second before he saw Mike fall back with a scream as a bullet tore through his chest. Max rushed out the door to see someone holding a Desert Eagle wearing full body armor, helmet with glowing red eyes included, aim the weapon at him.
The figure hesitated, keeping the gun on Max, but not firing.
"NYPD, drop the gun now!" Max shouted. The killer pulled the gun up, then spun around and bolted to the window.
Without warning, a shot zipped by Max's head. This one came from behind. Max turned around as the person in body armor hopped out the window onto a fire escape.
"Oh no, no freaking way!"
There stood Vinnie 'Freaking' Gognitti, who was still feeling the effects of the bullet put in his side. He made a frightened scream and turned around. He rushed down the hall.
Max was about to give chase, when all of the sudden, Vinnie came back, still screaming.
"Jesus Christ, it's gonna fucking kill us!" He screamed, as a truly bizarre sight came barreling 'round the corner.
A man sized creature shambled over at them. The beast was certainly human at one point, but now looked like the main bad-guy for a cheap B-Flick. It was covered completely in writhing, slimy leeches. With each step it took, it dropped a leech. However, it was soon back on the walking black and wiggling, pulsing mass again. Vinnie started firing a pistol at the beast, but to no avail, it just kept coming.
"Oh shit, oh shit! Im outa here, you kill this freak Payne!" he screamed at him. Max soon took off after him.
Vinnie was panting loudly, wearing a stolen doctor's outfit. He ran to a door and started beating on it.
"Oh god damnit! Not now, not now! Why do you hate me so much!! Why, why, why, why!" Vinnie cursed at the door. Max grabbed him by the shoulder and put the barrel of his pistol to his temple.
"Oh Jesus! Max Payne?! What the hell are you doing here, I heard you died!" Max smirked a bit.
"Got pretty close a few times, but no cigar yet." Max turned around to see the Leech Man closing in on them.
"WERE SCREWED!! FOR FUCK'S SAKE PAYNE, DO SOMETHING!!!"
Max sighed and pulled the door open. Vinnie looked like he was about to faint.
Max pulled him inside a vacant hallway, and then tossed him over to a storage room, making sure that the room was not infested. He then walked in after him and locked the door.
"What the hell happened here Vinnie?" Said Max as he pointed the gun at him.
"God-damnit, I don't know, I don't know!" He said in a panic, cowering in a corner. Max walked over to him and lifted him up, pushing him up against a shelf. Glasses and jars filled with god-knows-what fell and smashed to the floor. Max put the gun to his forehead and then clicked the barrel back.
"Three seconds Gognitti."
"I don't know anything, I swear!"
"1"
"Payne, c-c'mon, what makes you think I know something??"
"2"
"Payne, I don't know anything!
"3..."
"JESUS CHRIST, ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID OR SOMETHING?! DO YOU THINK AFTER YOU SHOT ME ONCE BEFORE I DON'T THINK YOUR GONNA DO IT AGAIN?! I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" Screamed Gognitti at the top of his lungs as he started to sob.
Max dropped him to the ground. He put the pistol in his pocket.
"Alright then, tell me, what happened with you?"
Vinnie sniffed and rubbed his nose.
"O-ok...I woke up and saw this dead doctor. After that, I was thinking that it mighta been the cleaners and the shit they do."
"Cleaners?"
"Yeah, cleaners! They are Vlad's guys; dress up in cleaning outfits, real sadistic fucks. Anyway, before you so rudely interrupted me. I was about to explain that while I was getting my clothes on, the bastard doctor I thought was dead shot up and tried to kill me....i beat him away with a coat hanger, and then ran. I was doing fine too, till I met up with....t-t-that freak! The leech thing tried to kill me, and then you are right now!" Vinnie said, as he pulled himself off the ground.
"C'mon Gognitti, time to go." Max said, as he took the pistol out, walking to the door.
"Oooooohhhhh no! Nooooo way. Im staying put, right here. Vinnie closed his eyes, stamped his feet and huffed like a little kid.
"Alright then, see you in the obituaries." Said Max, as he started to open the door.
"Wait a minute, what the fuck is that supposed to mean, huh?! Max, wait!"
"Changed your mind?" Said Max as he left his hand on the door handle.
"You son of a bitch. I swear, when this is over, im going to kick your ass!" Said Vinnie. Max stared at him, and Vinnie's look changed.
"....im sorry, I didn't mean that....just the situation is all...."
"...."
Max opened the door, and looked out to the hall.
"Nothing, lets move..."
"Wait! Are you sure?"
"Yeah, and lets move before something finds us."
As if on cue, a leech covered arm and hand slammed into Max. and sent him barreling into Gognitti, who fired off his gun in surprise at a ceiling light
"Holy shit! Max, wake up! For crissakes, wake up!"
The Leech Man walked for them, swinging its arms. Max woke up just in time to see it. He looked to his right.
A fire extinguisher.
He rolled off Gognitti, who screamed aloud in fear, and grabbed the fire extinguisher. He pointed it at the monster, and then sent a blast of cold Co2 at it. It squealed loudly, flailing its arms.
Not twice in one day, Max thought, as he sprayed the monster with the freezing extinguisher. It walked backwards, its back to a window. Max smirked, one more blast, and it would be out the window.
Then he found out, there was no more coolant...
The leech man stopped flailing its arms around, and then looked at Max. Max looked at the extinguisher, and tossed it down.
There was a sudden 'blam' as the monster flew backwards and crashed through the window, landing onto the ground with a loud thud and a splat as the leeches flew around in every direction, slithering off into the night.
Max spun around and aimed his pistol at a familiar face. One that caused him to lower the pistol.
"Mona...?" Max said, looking surprised. There stood Mona Sax, wearing a red leather jacket and black pants, black shoes.
"Oh, thank god you came along, I was so freaking scared!" Said Vinnie, as he launched up and wrapped his arms around her, crying hard into her shoulder. Mona pushed him away.
"...Don't touch me..." She said, as she looked at Max.
"We really have to stop meeting like this....." Said Mona, as she put her gun- less hand on her hip, the other pointing the pistol into the air. She looked like a real femme fatale.
"C'mon Max, we don't have time to catch up. My car is in the garage-"
"I'll be right there. Vinnie is going with us. I gota pick up one final person."
Before they could do anything, Max rushed off.
________________________________________________________________________
I thought I had seen it all. S&M freaks killing each other with whips, nuts attempting to release all the animals from the zoo. Everything like that.
Apparently, you haven't seen anything until you have gone to hell. And I was knee deep in it. The tide was steadily rising. I felt that this was going to go wrong. I felt like this was going to end in the death of me. But I kept on going. I had to, I needed to survive.
But invariably, others wouldn't.
And that wouldn't exclude one Rosie Maguire. She lay dead, in a pool of her own blood and gore. I remembered what Vinnie said, about these being the living dead.
It was Armageddon, the end of the world where the dead rose from the graves to punish the sinners and corrupt. I sinned, we all sinned. This was New York, and it was built on sin.
As I stood there, I didn't know of the meeting taking place...over the hills and far away. In the manor the Circle built. ________________________________________________________________________
Alfred Wooden looked out at the burning city, his eye flared in the same manner as the growing flames. He turned his chair around, and looked to the door.
In stepped Vladimir Len, holding a Desert Eagle. He had a bloodstain on his chest, clearly not his own.
Alfred growled from anger.
"You.....it's gone too far, Vladimir....it has gone too far....Is this the acceptable damage you wanted?! Is this what you had to do for the Circle?!"
Vlad smirked, and looked at Alfred with a cocky grin.
"So, it didn't go quite as planned."
"How dare you! Innocent people! You have stepped over the line, this is madness!" Alfred said, as Vlad kept his cocky smirk.
"When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth...." Vlad said. "One of my favorite movie quotes...."
Alfred sighed a bit, and was about to turn around, when Vlad pointed at him.
"Don't even try it....We both know what will happen if you try...." Vlad said, aiming his piece at one of the phones. "Doesn't matter anyway, the lines are down...."
"What of your own, Vladimir. What of the men in your care."
"They can handle themselves.....if only you could do the same.....keep quiet old man, and don't leave this room. You might just live through this..."
Vlad exited the room and Alfred sat in his chair, behind the desk.
It was going to be a long night....
(End of Chapter One. Hope you Enjoyed it, and R&R if you did.)
Chapter One: Shaky Alliances
(Yes, a re-make of a crappy story, now with some clear potential and my improved abilities, I intend to make this story every bit as good as I intended it to be. I hope you enjoy it better this time. Also, the events take place as if Max Payne 2 never occurred.
Orriginaly, this story had italics. Because FF.Net has decided to, once again, ignore the fact that I put them in, they don't show up. I am seriously thinking of complaining to them about it.)
I sat on a bed too stiff for my already stiff body. Rigor Mortis when you're already alive. I felt that nothing had changed anything whatsoever. My wife and daughter, still dead. They had been avenged, as far as I knew. Yet I knew there had to be something bigger, something larger, the crack in the armor of Noir York, where all the darkest of secrets lie, too harsh for even their creators. My eyes trembled, keeping to my eyelids like a toddler who thought that the boogey man was in his closet, and his nightlight was busted.
I felt like crap, and probably looked the part. My head swam in the never ending darkness, my body ached in pain. I had more metal in me than the Bionic Man.
But I had no idea, none at all, of the darkest secret that the armor held.
A true vision of hell. ________________________________________________________________________
Max slowly, with a bit of a daze, woke up in a hospital bed. He groaned as he held his head. The room was dark, and nothing could be seen aside from a few small blinking lights. He looked over to where he thought the side of the bed was, and slid off it, landing with a thud on the floor. He made a small groan and got on his hands and knees, careful not to make the stitches he obviously received pop. He swallowed and with a loud groan, got to his feet. He looked around and saw the previously blood-stained clothing he wore.
Leather jacket, white shirt, white undershirt, the tie he received for his first and only anniversary, his white boxers, and his gray pants. His belt made a faint shine in the low light, and he realized what they were when he saw them. He grabbed them and slowly, carefully, slid them on; knowing that one wrong move could end up staining the clothes again with blood. He tossed away the hospital gown he had worn, and looked to the nightstand.
There was a bottle of prescription painkillers. He slowly put a few on his palm and swallowed them down. He could hear the sounds of his muscles pushing the small round objects down, and he felt the fast action already beginning to kill his pain receptors. He casually walked to the door.
As he pushed it open, he heard a scream. Max's eyes widened as he shot the door open and looked around quickly. The hallway was as barren as a stereotypical western's street, random spilt papers replacing the tumble weeds. The window on the far side of the corridor had been opened for some reason. He heard the scream again, a woman's scream. He pushed on, despite the sudden return of pain, and opened the only unlocked door in the corridor.
A barricade was the first thing he encountered. Stacks upon stacks of boxes once filled with beakers and medical equipment were scattered all over the floor. They had already been knocked over. The second sight he saw was that of a bleeding security guard, dead or dying, slumped against a wall. Max rushed over to the guard and quickly yanked the pistol and ammunition from the man.
Only a clip remained.
Max then moved to a blocked entrance, this time with an overturned table. The table was split in two.
Max pushed the lower part out of the way and entered a morgue.
A naked man was beating on a locker door. He would slam his hand down in a weak fashion, sending a palm on the door and then slowly sliding it down, only to slam the palm into it again. The woman, a nurse, suddenly bolted out of the locker and was subsequently grabbed. The nurse then pulled out a scalpel from her pocket, sending it with force into the side of the man's head.
Normally, this is the part where the man slumps down onto the floor a convulsing, twitching mess because of the powerful shock to the system and massive damage to the brain, but in this instance, the man just staggered backwards. The nurse ran behind Max and cowered behind a trash-can, sobbing.
Max raised the pistol, a Glock 17, and aimed at the thing. This was surely not a man. Max still yelled a warning.
"Freeze! NYPD!" Max screamed, as the man, arms outstretched, rushed at him.
Max didn't hesitate in pulling the trigger twice, sending the thing down onto the floor with a loud thud. It convulsed once, and then stopped moving altogether.
Max turned around and went to the garbage can, holding out his hand to the nurse. The nurse leapt up and wrapped her arms around Max, sobbing into his shoulder.
"Oh Jesus, thank god you came when you did!" The nurse screamed as she chocked on tears. Max was caught off guard, and slowly wrapped his pain- wracked arms around her, gently pushing her away, just enough so they could look at each other.
"Im-"Max started.
"I know, your Max Payne, the hero cop. You were on the news...oh, of all the people to rescue me-"
"Look, lady, tell me what happened here...and what your name is..."
The nurse nodded, and sniffled one more time before telling. "My name is Rosie, Rosie Maguire. I was working a floor below when all of the sudden, I heard screams and gunfire. When I got to where I heard them, these...things, they were attacking everyone! Not just the security, but the staff and patients...oh god, it was horrible! We, Jones and me, we ran."
"Jones?"
"Yeah...Jones was defending the doorway when that bastard," Rosie pointed to the dead man. "He came off the table and killed him! That guy was dead! He chased me into a locker and I was stuck in there, until you came..."
Rosie's story sounded a bit like hysteria, but with what Max just saw, he couldn't discount it. New York had a history for strange events.
"Rosie, how many of these....people, attacked you?"
"About twenty, but they were patients here treated with the flu! God knows how many of them there are now..." She said.
"Right...listen, try to stay hidden and arm yourself. I'll be back once I find a way out." Max said calmly. Rosie nodded and then ran off, grabbing a pole along the way.
Max ran back outside, to see two nurses shuffle at him from far down the hall. He ran down the hall and quickly fired his weapon as he ran, knocking down one and stunning the other temporarily. Max then went to a door with 'WARD' above it in white print behind a plastic black board. Max bolted in.
That wasn't the smartest move.
He ran about five feet before realizing that shufflers were in the room, a lot of them. They turned to Max and started their mad shamble, moaning loudly in pain. Max quickly drew his pistol and fired into the amassing crowd, sending bullet casings to the tile floor with a metallic ping, and bodies down onto the floor with a thud.
Max pocketed the pistol for now and ran from the creatures, pushing one aside as he did. He flew into a door to knock it down.
More of the freaks were in that hall as well. A doctor and two guards. Max, still on the ground, bolted up and made a mad dash down the opposite end of the hall. It was pure pandemonium. Every single door Max entered, there were the creatures. It was like they had known about him in advance and came after him, but the reality was that it was just dumb luck, and Max knew it.
He had rushed past a bunch, until he could stand it no more. He ran to one final door, avoiding a female patient creature. Whatever was on the other end would be shot full of lead.
He rushed inside and took aim at the first humanoid he saw. He fired, and it ducked.
"Jesus Christ! Don't shoot, im not one of them!!" A man said, as he stood up. He was holding a rather large mop in defense. Max calmed down, then turned around and pushed a rather large desk out in front of the door. There were banging sounds from the door.
"Oh, thank god you came. One more minute and I probably wouldn't be talking! The name's Mike Hamilton." Mike wore a green shirt and blue pants. He was gasping for air.
"You know where those creatures came from?" Max said, as Mike walked to a file cabinet and started rummaging through. He was still gasping as he worked through them.
"Not at all, and im glad I don't! I wouldn't want to know any of those lunatics personally." He said. "Hey, here's a gun..." He said, as he tossed the firearm over to Max. He caught it and then looked at Mike.
"What about you?" Said Max, referring to the M92F he now held in his hand.
"Two things. One, cant shoot worth shit. Two, I would panic when a gun goes off, and three, im asmatic, so number two is especaly bad for me. Your Max Payne, aren't you? I got something else for you then." Mike rummaged through a stack of papers.
"Here, you could probably make a lot more sense of it than me..." Max took the paper, and then flipped through it, looking for any indication of what happened...
________________________________________________________________________
To: Dr. Charles Kroder From: Hospital Management RE: Sudden Flu Epidemic
Dr. Kroger
While we understand that you have some concerns about the sudden rise in this new form of Influenza, we see it as no cause for alarm. It is to be expected following the storm.
-James Cordell, Head Physician and Hospital Manager.
________________________________________________________________________
Max sighed and then looked over at Mike.
"You going to be alright here?" Max said.
"Yeah, in just going to wait for rescue..."
As if on cue, the loud 'BLAM' of a heavy caliber pistol rang out. Max watched as Mike ran to the desk and started pushing it back.
"You hear that?! Were saved!" He said, as he suddenly rushed out the door. Max followed for about a half a second before he saw Mike fall back with a scream as a bullet tore through his chest. Max rushed out the door to see someone holding a Desert Eagle wearing full body armor, helmet with glowing red eyes included, aim the weapon at him.
The figure hesitated, keeping the gun on Max, but not firing.
"NYPD, drop the gun now!" Max shouted. The killer pulled the gun up, then spun around and bolted to the window.
Without warning, a shot zipped by Max's head. This one came from behind. Max turned around as the person in body armor hopped out the window onto a fire escape.
"Oh no, no freaking way!"
There stood Vinnie 'Freaking' Gognitti, who was still feeling the effects of the bullet put in his side. He made a frightened scream and turned around. He rushed down the hall.
Max was about to give chase, when all of the sudden, Vinnie came back, still screaming.
"Jesus Christ, it's gonna fucking kill us!" He screamed, as a truly bizarre sight came barreling 'round the corner.
A man sized creature shambled over at them. The beast was certainly human at one point, but now looked like the main bad-guy for a cheap B-Flick. It was covered completely in writhing, slimy leeches. With each step it took, it dropped a leech. However, it was soon back on the walking black and wiggling, pulsing mass again. Vinnie started firing a pistol at the beast, but to no avail, it just kept coming.
"Oh shit, oh shit! Im outa here, you kill this freak Payne!" he screamed at him. Max soon took off after him.
Vinnie was panting loudly, wearing a stolen doctor's outfit. He ran to a door and started beating on it.
"Oh god damnit! Not now, not now! Why do you hate me so much!! Why, why, why, why!" Vinnie cursed at the door. Max grabbed him by the shoulder and put the barrel of his pistol to his temple.
"Oh Jesus! Max Payne?! What the hell are you doing here, I heard you died!" Max smirked a bit.
"Got pretty close a few times, but no cigar yet." Max turned around to see the Leech Man closing in on them.
"WERE SCREWED!! FOR FUCK'S SAKE PAYNE, DO SOMETHING!!!"
Max sighed and pulled the door open. Vinnie looked like he was about to faint.
Max pulled him inside a vacant hallway, and then tossed him over to a storage room, making sure that the room was not infested. He then walked in after him and locked the door.
"What the hell happened here Vinnie?" Said Max as he pointed the gun at him.
"God-damnit, I don't know, I don't know!" He said in a panic, cowering in a corner. Max walked over to him and lifted him up, pushing him up against a shelf. Glasses and jars filled with god-knows-what fell and smashed to the floor. Max put the gun to his forehead and then clicked the barrel back.
"Three seconds Gognitti."
"I don't know anything, I swear!"
"1"
"Payne, c-c'mon, what makes you think I know something??"
"2"
"Payne, I don't know anything!
"3..."
"JESUS CHRIST, ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID OR SOMETHING?! DO YOU THINK AFTER YOU SHOT ME ONCE BEFORE I DON'T THINK YOUR GONNA DO IT AGAIN?! I DON'T KNOW ANYTHING FOR FUCK'S SAKE!" Screamed Gognitti at the top of his lungs as he started to sob.
Max dropped him to the ground. He put the pistol in his pocket.
"Alright then, tell me, what happened with you?"
Vinnie sniffed and rubbed his nose.
"O-ok...I woke up and saw this dead doctor. After that, I was thinking that it mighta been the cleaners and the shit they do."
"Cleaners?"
"Yeah, cleaners! They are Vlad's guys; dress up in cleaning outfits, real sadistic fucks. Anyway, before you so rudely interrupted me. I was about to explain that while I was getting my clothes on, the bastard doctor I thought was dead shot up and tried to kill me....i beat him away with a coat hanger, and then ran. I was doing fine too, till I met up with....t-t-that freak! The leech thing tried to kill me, and then you are right now!" Vinnie said, as he pulled himself off the ground.
"C'mon Gognitti, time to go." Max said, as he took the pistol out, walking to the door.
"Oooooohhhhh no! Nooooo way. Im staying put, right here. Vinnie closed his eyes, stamped his feet and huffed like a little kid.
"Alright then, see you in the obituaries." Said Max, as he started to open the door.
"Wait a minute, what the fuck is that supposed to mean, huh?! Max, wait!"
"Changed your mind?" Said Max as he left his hand on the door handle.
"You son of a bitch. I swear, when this is over, im going to kick your ass!" Said Vinnie. Max stared at him, and Vinnie's look changed.
"....im sorry, I didn't mean that....just the situation is all...."
"...."
Max opened the door, and looked out to the hall.
"Nothing, lets move..."
"Wait! Are you sure?"
"Yeah, and lets move before something finds us."
As if on cue, a leech covered arm and hand slammed into Max. and sent him barreling into Gognitti, who fired off his gun in surprise at a ceiling light
"Holy shit! Max, wake up! For crissakes, wake up!"
The Leech Man walked for them, swinging its arms. Max woke up just in time to see it. He looked to his right.
A fire extinguisher.
He rolled off Gognitti, who screamed aloud in fear, and grabbed the fire extinguisher. He pointed it at the monster, and then sent a blast of cold Co2 at it. It squealed loudly, flailing its arms.
Not twice in one day, Max thought, as he sprayed the monster with the freezing extinguisher. It walked backwards, its back to a window. Max smirked, one more blast, and it would be out the window.
Then he found out, there was no more coolant...
The leech man stopped flailing its arms around, and then looked at Max. Max looked at the extinguisher, and tossed it down.
There was a sudden 'blam' as the monster flew backwards and crashed through the window, landing onto the ground with a loud thud and a splat as the leeches flew around in every direction, slithering off into the night.
Max spun around and aimed his pistol at a familiar face. One that caused him to lower the pistol.
"Mona...?" Max said, looking surprised. There stood Mona Sax, wearing a red leather jacket and black pants, black shoes.
"Oh, thank god you came along, I was so freaking scared!" Said Vinnie, as he launched up and wrapped his arms around her, crying hard into her shoulder. Mona pushed him away.
"...Don't touch me..." She said, as she looked at Max.
"We really have to stop meeting like this....." Said Mona, as she put her gun- less hand on her hip, the other pointing the pistol into the air. She looked like a real femme fatale.
"C'mon Max, we don't have time to catch up. My car is in the garage-"
"I'll be right there. Vinnie is going with us. I gota pick up one final person."
Before they could do anything, Max rushed off.
________________________________________________________________________
I thought I had seen it all. S&M freaks killing each other with whips, nuts attempting to release all the animals from the zoo. Everything like that.
Apparently, you haven't seen anything until you have gone to hell. And I was knee deep in it. The tide was steadily rising. I felt that this was going to go wrong. I felt like this was going to end in the death of me. But I kept on going. I had to, I needed to survive.
But invariably, others wouldn't.
And that wouldn't exclude one Rosie Maguire. She lay dead, in a pool of her own blood and gore. I remembered what Vinnie said, about these being the living dead.
It was Armageddon, the end of the world where the dead rose from the graves to punish the sinners and corrupt. I sinned, we all sinned. This was New York, and it was built on sin.
As I stood there, I didn't know of the meeting taking place...over the hills and far away. In the manor the Circle built. ________________________________________________________________________
Alfred Wooden looked out at the burning city, his eye flared in the same manner as the growing flames. He turned his chair around, and looked to the door.
In stepped Vladimir Len, holding a Desert Eagle. He had a bloodstain on his chest, clearly not his own.
Alfred growled from anger.
"You.....it's gone too far, Vladimir....it has gone too far....Is this the acceptable damage you wanted?! Is this what you had to do for the Circle?!"
Vlad smirked, and looked at Alfred with a cocky grin.
"So, it didn't go quite as planned."
"How dare you! Innocent people! You have stepped over the line, this is madness!" Alfred said, as Vlad kept his cocky smirk.
"When there is no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth...." Vlad said. "One of my favorite movie quotes...."
Alfred sighed a bit, and was about to turn around, when Vlad pointed at him.
"Don't even try it....We both know what will happen if you try...." Vlad said, aiming his piece at one of the phones. "Doesn't matter anyway, the lines are down...."
"What of your own, Vladimir. What of the men in your care."
"They can handle themselves.....if only you could do the same.....keep quiet old man, and don't leave this room. You might just live through this..."
Vlad exited the room and Alfred sat in his chair, behind the desk.
It was going to be a long night....
(End of Chapter One. Hope you Enjoyed it, and R&R if you did.)