Chapter 1: Departure
Two separate ships, one almost all black, the other a light brown with bright blue sails sailed side by side with each other. Sestiva, the witchdoctor, steered the ship with bright blue sails, and Helen steered the ship that was almost all black. A few moments back, they decided it was time to finally separate from each other, as the last time they worked together they kept getting in the other's way and was reduced by simply trying to tolerate one another for as long as possible.
However, they had brought down Cadiz together, and that was just about the only good thing that happened between them. The ship with black sails turned around, in the direction of Skull Island. The sisters said their goodbye's and headed their own ways. Helen, heading back to Skull Island to return to her classes and studies, and Sestiva to Beachhead, where she would bring it down along with Cadiz.
She knew that once Cadiz was gone, according to the Armada's chain of command, which Sestiva had read in a book, the authority and power fell to Beachhead, the spiral's second largest, and most powerful Armada fortress.
Sestiva knew exactly what Pathogen could do. All it took was one bottle, yet she had still brought over five of them with her. The closer she got to the massive fortress, the more she was determined to get it done and over with, her next objective being to go around the spiral demolishing each and every Armada base in existence.
She pulled into Beachhead's docks. To her surprise, as she got closer little by little, she wasn't attacked by the massive guns mounted onto the fortress itself. She should've been shot down if she got any closer, but she didn't. Her suspicions rose.
Do they already know I'm here? Are they trying to ambush me? Sneak up on me? All those circumstances are possible. In that case, I'll be prepared.
Surprisingly, after peeking around the front entrance, or the only entrance in the massive Armada fortress, there were no guards. Not a single soldier remained, deserted their so called "beloved" fortress, just like Cadiz was. As surprising as it was to her, she continued on through Beachhead, making progress ever so slowly.
Wondering how a single soldier wasn't left behind, the moment she made a right turn to go up the stairs to the massive core in the center, with equally massive gears lining every inch of the walls, she found a single frame, half sticking out the door.
Sestiva was wrong.
The Armada left without one, yet she thought that they wouldn't leave the soldier behind.
Officers first probably. This one is merely a single musketeer, they can easily make more of them. However, then can just as easily make more officers, though for some reason they chose not to.
From what it looks like here, the musketeer tried to go along, but they had no time left to evacuate, which is my best guess, and he only managed to get half way out before the gates to their docks were completely closed.
Though I shouldn't really be touching it, in case of contaminants, I really want to remove this frame from the door and examine it. I'll just pull it out and turn it over and…
Sestiva heaved the frame, hooking his arms under his, and pulling as hard as she possibly could, thinking that she'll accidentally shatter the delicate thing instead.
The frame came free from the door, the giant double doors slamming shut quickly with a loud bang. Sestiva fell backwards, landing hard on her back, the impact making her flinch. The frame fell from her grasp, flying to the side and rolling a few feet away from where Sestiva lay on the hard, brass flooring.
Groaning, Sestiva rolled over onto her stomach, straightening her arms to push herself back onto her feet from a kneeling position. She glanced back at the frame, hanging half on the stairs, the other dangling into the core. It was sliding into the core, and would fall down into massive, slow turning, propellers below.
She had yet to examine it.
Forcing herself to move forwards, she flung herself at the musketeer's frame, getting hold of the fabric on his shoulder, gripping the uniform tight, she hauled the fifty-pound frame back onto the platform she was on, then dropped it at her feet, using her staff to lightly remove the jacket covering the metal chest plate.
She set her staff down next to her, just in case there were, in fact enemies nearby. She reached around his head, prying away the mask in the front. She held the mask in her hands, turning it over.
She quickly dropped it, letting the plaster mask fall and shatter, in shock of what she saw.
Purple crystals, protruding not only from the back, but it completely covered the soldier's head in the front. When she looked at it, she mistakenly thought that it was ice, as it was the middle of winter, but purple ice was a new one. The thing was, it wasn't ice.
Pathogen had somehow spread to Beachhead from Cadiz.
It couldn't have possibly spread. She had made sure that no ship went to Beachhead. At least, not on her side anyway.
How can I be so stupid! I should've gone around to the other side to check if they were still there! They fled here and they fled from here because of…Pathogen.
That means that they carried Pathogen here with them!
I have to tell Helen! This could cause the end of the spiral from where this is going. There's no way Pathogen can stay contained in one place! Who knows if how it could spread. Even I, the creator of Pathogen itself, don't know. Pathetic.
Sestiva pushed the giant double doors open, not caring what happened to beachhead at that point, sprinting over to her ship.
She had to return to Skull Island. She had to tell Helen what was going on. They needed to evacuate everyone from Marleybone, and she couldn't do it alone.
Welcome to Pandemic, the sequel to Pathogen! I promise that chapters will get longer as the story goes on as my chapter outlines don't quite fit the length I had in mind. I hope you enjoy this story, as I also hope you enjoyed this chapter and please leave a review!
-SamanthaHawkins