Necropolis
Summary: Jean is held captive by rogue United Systems Military scientists intent on exploiting mutant abilities for the production of powerful super weapons. While attempting a rescue something goes horribly wrong, an entire city becomes a necropolis, a city of the dead. A crossover of sorts between Resident Evil, X-Men Evolution, Alien Resurrection and a few ideas of my own mixed inside.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the RE, Evolution, or Resurrection characters blah blah.
Author's Note: This story runs in parallel with my other story: Biohazard. A line of * equals a change in perspective. I also took the liberty of aging the Evolution characters a few years and changing the setting to a more futuristic timeline.
The scientist watched the subject through the shatterproof transparent aluminum panel. "Amazing," one of her colleagues remarked, "telekinetic abilities alongside budding telepathy."
The subject, an auburn haired young woman was attempting at this moment to use her telekinetic abilities to throw her bunk against the panel. It failed to work, as the panel was shatterproof.
The heavyset, dark skinned scientist watched and recorded, barely acknowledging her colleagues reaction or the subject's escape attempt stood impassively making observations.
Her assistant said, "We'll start combat abilities testing momentarily Doctor Johansen."
"No, I believe Ms. Grey could use a little rest from her capture before we do anything." Said Dr. Johansen.
From inside the seemingly inescapable prison cell, Jean Grey had indeed recently awakened. Her idea of shattering the transparent panel and escaping through it failed to work. She could see several scientists as well as some military personnel milling about a mill of activity.
The lab complex, located a few miles south of the city of Orlando, was a big research facility in the USM's extensive array of such sites for the express purpose of producing and procuring new technology to aid the United Systems Military and provide benefits of sorts to keep the civilians from questioning what really went on inside such facilities, especially those civilians in Congress.
It was protected by everything from razor wire, pillboxes, and watchtowers, to a sophisticated security grid and a large security force augmented by infantry from a nearby Army base. It theoretically was intended to prevent curious outsiders from getting in, however it was not intended to contain another sort of outsider, a mutagenic virus of mysterious origins. Symptoms included loss of consciousness; lack of coordination, moldering of soft tissue, and most hideously an insatiable appetite for human flesh.
Pvt. Henry Witt heard a slight rustling through the woods near the fence. Shining his flashlight, connected to his rifle, on the spot calling, "Halt."
"We've been spotted." Kitty Pryde said, as she crouched lower, hearing the Southern accented voice calling the halt command.
"Ditch that plan." Scott said, "Nightcrawler, how far can you teleport in."
The twenty year old said, "I'm not sure, hopefully behind that guard."
"Yeah, far behind that guard." Kitty said.
"You're not going by yourself kid." Wolverine replied and grabbed a hold of Nightcrawler as both teleported into the compound.
The soldier turned and aimed his rifle; his finger squeezing the trigger but one of the intruders swung a triad of sharp metal claws from out of nowhere flew outward, cleaving the rifle in half. Wolverine held his claws to the soldier's throat, "Take it real easy soldier boy."
Witt raised his hands, placing them behind his head. Wolverine searched him until he found Witt's key card. Swiping it through a maintenance gate, he opened it, allowing the others inside.
"Witt, Private, 404-45-5727." Witt said, remembering the information he was required to provide, name, rank and serial number.
"What do we do about our friend here?" Wolverine said.
"Take him along." Scott said, "Maybe we can stow him in a closet somewhere."
Little did any of them know that a threat far worse than the United Systems Military was lurking about. As they skirted across the courtyard into the main lab complex, the location of which Witt revealed when interrogated. When they walked into the lobby no one liked the sight of what they saw. In the midst of the floor lay the bodies of six security personnel.
"I don't like the sound of this." Kurt Wagner said.
"Security breach of some sort." Witt said.
From behind the desk came a large, hideously over muscled man wielding a chainsaw. He charged towards their group coming inches from Kitty before Witt tackled her out of the way and Scott blasted a hole through it's chest. "What's in this place!?" Evan asked.
"I don't know!" Witt replied.
"You work here and you don't know!" said Evan.
Scott picked among the security personnel, grabbing a rifle and a flashlight attachment out of the hands of a corpse. "You with us?" Scott said, handing Witt the rifle and flash.
Witt replied by chambering a round and nodding his head. He took a bandolier off the ground that mercifully had all six of the magazines it was intended to carry in it. He slung the bandolier across his chest and took point.
Witt moved deeper into the corridors, illuminated only by red emergency lights or flickering normal lighting alternating with stygian blackness. Suddenly, the clawed fellow, Wolverine began to collapse. "Logan!" Scott shouted.
"What's happening?" said the gothic lady with a touch of Southern in her them, Rogue.
"I don't know." Kitty said, "but I can't phase anymore."
Wolverine's claws had retracted and it wasn't by his design either. All of their mysterious abilities had been somehow disabled. Witt, the soldier, crept ahead, halting their small group. Peering into a room, he waved them forward just as a horde of zombies came towards them. Firing his rifle, Witt killed three of them before running down the corridor, firing as he went. The flight had split their group up, he saw one of the two women, the non gothic girl out of the two, being cornered by a zombie.
Kitty Pryde backed into the small space of the cleaning locker, as the zombified lab technician loomed over her, the stench of death nauseating and overwhelming, inhuman moans issuing from its mouth. And then the soldier, Witt, was behind it. Firing four rounds into the zombie's back, he got it to turn around and started firing more shots. His next two resulted in the zombie falling dead into the ground. He started to pull something from his shirt, a grenade. Pulling out the pin, he threw it down the passageway, jumping inside the locker along with Kitty.
"You alright?" Witt asked, looking at her with piercing brown eyes.
"I'm fine." Kitty said. The wiry soldier's head poked out of the doorway arch, seeing the results of his grenade.
"C'mon let's go." Witt said.
"What about the others?" Kitty said.
Witt was caught at a crossroad; he was helping intruders yet these people were citizens clearly in danger. His oath said he was supposed to kill them on sight; his heart seemed to indicate otherwise. If they were terrorists why not just kill him and take his ID, his value as a hostage would be negligible and the fact that they had re-armed him made their motives even more circumspect. "We'll try and find them later, where were you headed?"
"The cell block." Kitty said, a pained look on her face, "The military kidnapped one of us and they're holding her here for experimentation."
This alone was devastating to Witt; he was a soldier, a damn good soldier regardless of what some of those over him might think. He had served for four years and the idea that what seemed to be a noble and fulfilling profession had such underhanded individuals running it, people who wanted so badly to kidnap a person just so they could experiment on her.
"Look, I don't agree with this idea of human experimentation." Witt said, "I'll help you find her."
"Won't they punish you?" Kitty asked.
"I've been a corporal twice and a sergeant once, they've punished me enough." Witt said firmly.
"Where's Kitty?" said Spyke, looking around and not seeing her among them.
"I don't know." Kurt said, out of breath.
"I don't see soldier boy anywhere either." Wolverine growled, "Remind me to wring his scrawny neck next time I see him. That grenade blast took us off our feet."
"He saved our lives," Scott said, "Why are you complaining."
"At the cost of Kitty's?" Kurt said, angrily, "Ditto, let me at him first."
"Look, if she's still alive and that soldier is too, she might have a chance." Scott replied.
They stopped moving down the stairs when a flooded area blocked their paths. "What is that, water?" said Kurt.
"Looks like it." Scott said, "That or cooling fluid of some kind."
"For what?" Spyke asked.
"For the generators, Evan, this is an Army lab, they must need a lot of power for their experiments. Think of it, those big generators must require a lot of coolant." Scott replied.
"Well this looks like the only way to the lab." Logan said and jumped in. The others hesitantly followed.
Witt skidded to a halt when moving down a corridor; a hugely muscled man swung a chainsaw at him, just missing him by centimeters. Witt backed up, firing two rounds into the creature's face from such a close range he couldn't possibly miss. Blood exploded outward, striking him in the face with a stream of the warm red fluid. The fact that the narrow corridor might conceal more than a few of those slashers made him think twice about walking down it.
He led Kitty downstairs, a safer approach, where their path was impeded by a flooded stairwell. "Looks like we have to go back." Kitty said.
"This is the most direct route to the lab aside from the main corridor. It is approximately 150 feet long to the next stairwell and we can get around the main corridor from there." Witt said. Without hesitation he removed his helmet and dived into the water, Kitty hesitantly following. With hand signals he communicated, signaling her to follow him closely. Kitty laboriously swam, as Witt who was in better shape, slowed to make it easier to keep pace. The coolant they swam through was filled with floating debris, and bodies. Witt saw what appeared to be a drowning man and began to swim towards him. Something was wrong, the body was twitching and from around the other side swam a large creature, it's eyes white as cue balls, and it's skin little more than hairless ivory flesh. It was more or less human but with steel claws and teeth and it swam towards Witt like a rocket. Firing his rifle, glad that the Lacrima-99 pulse rifle was designed to function underwater, Witt struck the creature five times and it kept coming until he managed to blast a hole through it's head at point blank range. Motioning towards Kitty to keep swimming, Witt swam along towards the stairwell, Kitty beside him and they surfaced, at the feet of Scott and the others who helped them to their feet.
"Are you alright?" Scott asked.
"I'm fine. Thanks to our friend here." Kitty said, indicating Witt.
"Alright Herr Rommel," said Kurt, "Where do we proceed from here."
"Towards the cell block, I think." Witt said, moving into the lead, donning his blue gray field cap. USM soldiers stationed either space side or on scientific facilities typically wore blue gray uniforms.
They moved towards the cellblock, with Witt in the lead. A shot rang out and made Witt duck behind a desk.
A voice Witt recognized sounded, "Halt."
"Hal, stop." Witt shouted, "It's me, Witt."
Halberd Lightstep, a medium built, black man with a shaved head and a corporal's stripes walked forward. "Witt, damn, I thought your cracker ass had been fried a long time ago."
"Who's your friend?" asked Kitty, coming out from hiding.
"Guys, this is Hal Lightstep, one of the best friends a man could have, he's been my buddy since Basic." Witt replied.
"Witt, this is damn restricted area, don't make me pop a cap into you for violating that." Hal said.
"Hal, these people are here to..." Witt hesitated a moment, to explain to a fellow soldier what these people were up to was going to take a while provided Hal didn't follow orders. Witt knew that just the presence of unauthorized entrants here was in itself worth being fired on by sentries. However, Hal had enough good sense to hear them out, much to Witt's relief.
"Man, that's rough." Hal replied, "Pickin' on innocent folks like that. Shit, experimentin' on 'em too just 'cause they want more powerful weapons. We grunts can do stuff that the fanciest toys the Army's been playin' around with can't."
"Damn right." Witt agreed, "The day the Army builds and perfects a weapon that can go down a hole, kill or capture the opposing forces, without killing that gang of our people they have imprisoned down there, is the day I start looking through the want ads."
Hal put his keycard through the lock and opened up the main cellblock. Jean was lying on the floor of her cell, utterly exhausted. Scott shook her gently, "Jean, are you alright."
She groaned and opened her eyes weakly. "C-cold." she mouthed, "Weak."
Hal grabbed a blanket off of the floor and draped it around her shoulders. Scott helped her to her feet, "Can you walk?"
She nodded weakly. As they attempted to leave the cell block, Hal discovered that both he and Witt's keycards failed to function, their codes were now invalidated.
"Who the hell did that?" Witt asked.
"I don't know, but whoever it was doesn't want us to leave." Hal said. And looking up he smiled.
"What are you grinning about?" Scott asked. Hal indicated a small grate.
"Ten to one odds your skinny ass is gonna fit in that grate, Witt." Hal said. Hal and Logan hauled Witt upward and he climbed through the grate and after a couple shots at the door lock managed to disable it and opened the door.
With Witt on point, and Hal bringing up the rear, the X-men, as Witt's new friends called themselves, helped their weakened team mate along. A zombie popped up and Witt popped two rounds into it before it got anywhere near them. Still jumpy as anything, he was about to lob a grenade into a side corridor when Hal stopped him.
"Witt, there's an emergency escape tunnel down that way. If we use it, and the underground vehicles still work, we can save some time, but if you go throwing that grenade down there, you'll lose us some time. I'm not sure that broad they broke out of the brig is up for a walk." Hal replied.
"I'll go first." Witt said, stalking forward, expecting his head to be forcibly separated from his body all the way until he reached the vehicle, which was a car that ran on an electric motor. After starting it, Witt signaled them all to come on as he suddenly started firing over their heads. Several eyeless creatures, resembling humanoids turned inside out, fell wounded from the ceiling as Witt finished them off with his last grenade.
"That was close." Kitty said.
"We're not out of here yet! Hang on!" Hal yelled and threw the vehicle into a tight turn around a corner to avoid a monstrous scorpion headed their way.
The tunnel abruptly ended and Hal managed to brake quickly enough to avoid any injury. "Where are we now?" Scott asked.
"Could be anywhere, these tunnels go into the City of Orlando's underground fiber optic cable network." Hal replied, "I'll see what's up there, Witt, you stay down here until I tell you to bring them up."
Hal's head poked up through the manhole cover into a parking lot of a large Orlando attraction, EPCOT Center. "Witt, it's safe, bring 'em up and follow me."
Witt hustled the others up the ladder, staying behind, rifle aimed at the mouth of the tunnel that they had entered through. Witt slung the rifle and climbed the ladder as quickly as he could, climbing into the parking lot. A large contingent of zombies, perhaps alerted to the distinct scent of the living, appeared suddenly, far too many to attack.
Hal shouted, "Witt, cover me."
As soon as he heard the shout, Witt raised his rifle and started firing a murderous barrage into the crowd of zombies, killing several, but like a horrific Pickett's Charge, the living dead swarmed over the bodies of the simply dead, courtesy of Witt's rifle. More rifle fire, this from Hal. Witt charged through the gap of zombies, unloading the mostly empty clip from his rifle as he ran. As soon as he reached the park's front gate, he stuffed the loose rounds into his pocket. He had no sooner replaced a fresh clip than more of the undead came trundling out of the nearby entranceway.
There was little time to fire, when Witt and Hal raised their rifles the zombies were among them. Witt impaled a zombie about to grab Kurt with his bayonet and as he was trying to yank it free of the zombie torso, another zombie grabbed hold of him. Hal swung his rifle like a club, decapitating the zombie and pulling Witt clear.
The mass of the undead continued to swarm them and separated the group. Witt, Kitty, Kurt and Jean were isolated on the other side of Spaceship Earth's looming sphere with Hal and the others on the side nearest the Universe of Energy pavilion.
With Witt covering them, Kurt and Kitty struggled to drag Jean to safety. Witt stayed, firing until his rifle's clip emptied. Dropping the empty magazine, Witt ran alongside the others, reloading his rifle. They ducked inside what looked like safety in the Living Seas pavilion.
They entered through the line area, again with Witt on point. The soldier kicked a door open, panning about the room with his weapon. Hurrying them along, Witt saw zombies come lumbering towards them as he kicked down another door from the theater into the hydrolators. "Quick, get to those hydrolators, I'll open the doors and go in after you."
Witt had to shoot or fight his way through a mob of the living dead; zombified park workers and tourists alike attacked him. One man with tattered overalls and work boots came within inches of him and Witt had to put six rounds into the zombie before it went down. Finally, as an elevator opened, he pelted his way towards it as Kurt and Kitty managed to get in, Jean in tow.
Kitty was amazed that such a small, wiry fellow, barely taller than Kurt, could be that brave, or that loyal for that matter. He knocked over a zombie with his rifle butt as he came crashing through the door, rifle aimed out at the zombies, shooting as the door closed.
As the elevator settled down, Witt began to check his equipment. He had used up two clips fighting his way through here, and that wasn't good. His bandolier was starting to look a little empty. The two magazine pouches on his belt were full but two additional magazines weren't going to last long against those creatures, especially the ones that took multiple shots to kill.
This meant that he'd have to really rely on strategy at this point. "What do we do now?" Kitty asked.
"We can't go back the way we came, we'll have to keep pressing on to the exits." Witt replied.
Kurt gulped and Kitty looked visibly afraid. "I.can't read them." Jean said, weakly, "The zombies."
"None of us can use our abilities." Kurt replied.
"No, when the zombies started appearing. I couldn't read their presences. I would feel a human mind shutting down and then nothing." Jean said.
"What's to read?" Witt said, "They're just hungry and want to eat you."
"No, Witt," Kitty said, "She means we can tell where they are, so we can avoid them."
It started to sink in. "I see. I'll go in first, if you don't hear anything, follow after me."
"No, we stay together." Kurt said.
Witt activated the flashlight attached to his rifle, as the tunnel where the many large fish tanks were stored was dark. He held up a fist as he noticed the fish in the tank were swimming erratically, fearfully, as if knowing something was hunting them.
As if to prove his point, a large white humanoid shape, not unlike the one that had attacked him underwater in the generator room, smashed against the thick glass. Witt was about to squeeze the trigger, but then he remembered if he punched a hole in that glass he would do more harm than good. "C'mon, let's keep going." Witt said, visibly rattled.
Eventually they made it into a larger, more open space at the promenade called Seabase Alpha where tourists normally would finish their tour and hang about, they ran towards the elevator, Witt bringing up the rear, rifle ready.
As they waited for the elevator, which was taking too long, Witt dropped to one knee, rifle ready. He hadn't made High Expert on the rifle range for nothing. A zombie's face exploded with two rounds at fifty meters as the door opened and Kitty tapped him on the shoulder. Running backwards into the elevator, Witt jumped inside as the doors closed and the elevator rose.
As they raced to find more shelter, at an adjacent pavilion, the Land, they immediately discovered it was a bad idea as they ran down the stairs. A park worker, raising his hands in front of them was screaming, "No! Please! AAAGGGHH!!!"
Two zombies immediately fell upon the man and Witt fired three rounds, hitting the nearest zombie in the kneecaps and lower torso. Signaling to the man, Witt helped the stunned survivor towards them. As he did, more zombies began to appear, shambling out of alcoves, the upstairs movie theaters, through the emergency exits Witt thought about using.
"The boats, the attraction, it's our only chance!" shouted the worker.
Witt started shooting at the nearest zombies, while running, wounding or killing several, but the rest kept coming. As they jumped onto the moving boats, Witt kept up his fusillade of shots to keep the zombies busy until they were out of sight.
The park worker was saying something as they moved through the artificial jungle environment when suddenly a pale white arm with steel claws grabbed him through the chest, dragging him underwater.
The water began to run red with blood as they jumped clear of the boats, straggling ashore as many more of the strange humanoid creatures began to emerge. They were pale white, with gill slits in their necks, webbing between their fingers and toes, and built rather large.
Running through the aquaculture room was nearly their last action. From the waters containing farm raised fish, came several more of the water dwelling beasts. Things looked grim as they ran, pursued by the strange creatures. As they ran, Witt saw that Kitty had been separated somewhere back. Only his concern for the others in their group kept him from going back into the greenhouse and killing the creatures within.
As they made it outside, they ran into Hal Lightstep and the others. "Where's Kitty?"
"Gone." Witt replied.
Angrily Kurt shouted, "You bastard!"
Launching himself at Witt, Kurt felt a restraining arm pull him back, "It wasn't his fault Kurt."
"Let's get out of here." Scott said, sadly, the others agreed.
As they covered the grounds to a back exit that Hal had discovered, a bullet smacked across their path. Holding Kitty in a fleshy arm was one of the scientists from the facility, the head scientist who had been experimenting on Jean, Dr. Johansen.
"Witt, Lightstep, arrest these people." Johansen said.
"Begging your pardon, ma'am but fuck you." Lightstep replied, leveling his rifle, Witt doing the same.
"Fine, then you kill me, and I kill her, and nobody goes home alive." Johansen said,
"C'mon Witt, you're in enough trouble as is. Follow that order and get your sergeantcy back. What's she to you?"
"I'll tell you what, Doctor." Witt replied, "You take that sergeant warrant you say you're going to put in for me and shove it down your fat mouth. What you're doing is unethical, unapproved by Congress last I heard, and also kidnapping a United Systems citizen. Last time I heard, all of those were illegal. So by my oath, you are the enemy."
"There is far more benefit to be gained by these experiments. Far more than you can know?" said Johansen.
"I understand perfectly, it's another attempt to grab power, using the lives of the people to advance what you call understanding but what I call wrong." Witt replied.
"The ends justify the means Witt." Johansen said.
"You used us, not even telling us what the hell we were protecting." Lightstep put in, "Four of my guys are dead because of your little experiments."
A shot rang out suddenly and Kitty's eyes shut swiftly, expecting to feel a bullet going through her head. Instead it was a reflex action by Doctor Johansen, as she was being ripped apart by one of the white hued beasts dwelling in a nearby lake. Both Witt and Lightstep fired their rifles into the thing until it was dead.
"What do we do now?" Kitty said.
"You guys, get out of here. We'll take care of the rest." Lightstep said, and proceeded to start doctoring with the scene as Witt fired shots into the security cameras for good measure.
The group escaped with their lives, with a final thanks to their two rescuers who were set at their work in doctoring the scene of the crime. Although who was the criminal in this case, the now dead scientist or the two soldiers who had disobeyed orders?
To be continued.
Summary: Jean is held captive by rogue United Systems Military scientists intent on exploiting mutant abilities for the production of powerful super weapons. While attempting a rescue something goes horribly wrong, an entire city becomes a necropolis, a city of the dead. A crossover of sorts between Resident Evil, X-Men Evolution, Alien Resurrection and a few ideas of my own mixed inside.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the RE, Evolution, or Resurrection characters blah blah.
Author's Note: This story runs in parallel with my other story: Biohazard. A line of * equals a change in perspective. I also took the liberty of aging the Evolution characters a few years and changing the setting to a more futuristic timeline.
The scientist watched the subject through the shatterproof transparent aluminum panel. "Amazing," one of her colleagues remarked, "telekinetic abilities alongside budding telepathy."
The subject, an auburn haired young woman was attempting at this moment to use her telekinetic abilities to throw her bunk against the panel. It failed to work, as the panel was shatterproof.
The heavyset, dark skinned scientist watched and recorded, barely acknowledging her colleagues reaction or the subject's escape attempt stood impassively making observations.
Her assistant said, "We'll start combat abilities testing momentarily Doctor Johansen."
"No, I believe Ms. Grey could use a little rest from her capture before we do anything." Said Dr. Johansen.
From inside the seemingly inescapable prison cell, Jean Grey had indeed recently awakened. Her idea of shattering the transparent panel and escaping through it failed to work. She could see several scientists as well as some military personnel milling about a mill of activity.
The lab complex, located a few miles south of the city of Orlando, was a big research facility in the USM's extensive array of such sites for the express purpose of producing and procuring new technology to aid the United Systems Military and provide benefits of sorts to keep the civilians from questioning what really went on inside such facilities, especially those civilians in Congress.
It was protected by everything from razor wire, pillboxes, and watchtowers, to a sophisticated security grid and a large security force augmented by infantry from a nearby Army base. It theoretically was intended to prevent curious outsiders from getting in, however it was not intended to contain another sort of outsider, a mutagenic virus of mysterious origins. Symptoms included loss of consciousness; lack of coordination, moldering of soft tissue, and most hideously an insatiable appetite for human flesh.
Pvt. Henry Witt heard a slight rustling through the woods near the fence. Shining his flashlight, connected to his rifle, on the spot calling, "Halt."
"We've been spotted." Kitty Pryde said, as she crouched lower, hearing the Southern accented voice calling the halt command.
"Ditch that plan." Scott said, "Nightcrawler, how far can you teleport in."
The twenty year old said, "I'm not sure, hopefully behind that guard."
"Yeah, far behind that guard." Kitty said.
"You're not going by yourself kid." Wolverine replied and grabbed a hold of Nightcrawler as both teleported into the compound.
The soldier turned and aimed his rifle; his finger squeezing the trigger but one of the intruders swung a triad of sharp metal claws from out of nowhere flew outward, cleaving the rifle in half. Wolverine held his claws to the soldier's throat, "Take it real easy soldier boy."
Witt raised his hands, placing them behind his head. Wolverine searched him until he found Witt's key card. Swiping it through a maintenance gate, he opened it, allowing the others inside.
"Witt, Private, 404-45-5727." Witt said, remembering the information he was required to provide, name, rank and serial number.
"What do we do about our friend here?" Wolverine said.
"Take him along." Scott said, "Maybe we can stow him in a closet somewhere."
Little did any of them know that a threat far worse than the United Systems Military was lurking about. As they skirted across the courtyard into the main lab complex, the location of which Witt revealed when interrogated. When they walked into the lobby no one liked the sight of what they saw. In the midst of the floor lay the bodies of six security personnel.
"I don't like the sound of this." Kurt Wagner said.
"Security breach of some sort." Witt said.
From behind the desk came a large, hideously over muscled man wielding a chainsaw. He charged towards their group coming inches from Kitty before Witt tackled her out of the way and Scott blasted a hole through it's chest. "What's in this place!?" Evan asked.
"I don't know!" Witt replied.
"You work here and you don't know!" said Evan.
Scott picked among the security personnel, grabbing a rifle and a flashlight attachment out of the hands of a corpse. "You with us?" Scott said, handing Witt the rifle and flash.
Witt replied by chambering a round and nodding his head. He took a bandolier off the ground that mercifully had all six of the magazines it was intended to carry in it. He slung the bandolier across his chest and took point.
Witt moved deeper into the corridors, illuminated only by red emergency lights or flickering normal lighting alternating with stygian blackness. Suddenly, the clawed fellow, Wolverine began to collapse. "Logan!" Scott shouted.
"What's happening?" said the gothic lady with a touch of Southern in her them, Rogue.
"I don't know." Kitty said, "but I can't phase anymore."
Wolverine's claws had retracted and it wasn't by his design either. All of their mysterious abilities had been somehow disabled. Witt, the soldier, crept ahead, halting their small group. Peering into a room, he waved them forward just as a horde of zombies came towards them. Firing his rifle, Witt killed three of them before running down the corridor, firing as he went. The flight had split their group up, he saw one of the two women, the non gothic girl out of the two, being cornered by a zombie.
Kitty Pryde backed into the small space of the cleaning locker, as the zombified lab technician loomed over her, the stench of death nauseating and overwhelming, inhuman moans issuing from its mouth. And then the soldier, Witt, was behind it. Firing four rounds into the zombie's back, he got it to turn around and started firing more shots. His next two resulted in the zombie falling dead into the ground. He started to pull something from his shirt, a grenade. Pulling out the pin, he threw it down the passageway, jumping inside the locker along with Kitty.
"You alright?" Witt asked, looking at her with piercing brown eyes.
"I'm fine." Kitty said. The wiry soldier's head poked out of the doorway arch, seeing the results of his grenade.
"C'mon let's go." Witt said.
"What about the others?" Kitty said.
Witt was caught at a crossroad; he was helping intruders yet these people were citizens clearly in danger. His oath said he was supposed to kill them on sight; his heart seemed to indicate otherwise. If they were terrorists why not just kill him and take his ID, his value as a hostage would be negligible and the fact that they had re-armed him made their motives even more circumspect. "We'll try and find them later, where were you headed?"
"The cell block." Kitty said, a pained look on her face, "The military kidnapped one of us and they're holding her here for experimentation."
This alone was devastating to Witt; he was a soldier, a damn good soldier regardless of what some of those over him might think. He had served for four years and the idea that what seemed to be a noble and fulfilling profession had such underhanded individuals running it, people who wanted so badly to kidnap a person just so they could experiment on her.
"Look, I don't agree with this idea of human experimentation." Witt said, "I'll help you find her."
"Won't they punish you?" Kitty asked.
"I've been a corporal twice and a sergeant once, they've punished me enough." Witt said firmly.
"Where's Kitty?" said Spyke, looking around and not seeing her among them.
"I don't know." Kurt said, out of breath.
"I don't see soldier boy anywhere either." Wolverine growled, "Remind me to wring his scrawny neck next time I see him. That grenade blast took us off our feet."
"He saved our lives," Scott said, "Why are you complaining."
"At the cost of Kitty's?" Kurt said, angrily, "Ditto, let me at him first."
"Look, if she's still alive and that soldier is too, she might have a chance." Scott replied.
They stopped moving down the stairs when a flooded area blocked their paths. "What is that, water?" said Kurt.
"Looks like it." Scott said, "That or cooling fluid of some kind."
"For what?" Spyke asked.
"For the generators, Evan, this is an Army lab, they must need a lot of power for their experiments. Think of it, those big generators must require a lot of coolant." Scott replied.
"Well this looks like the only way to the lab." Logan said and jumped in. The others hesitantly followed.
Witt skidded to a halt when moving down a corridor; a hugely muscled man swung a chainsaw at him, just missing him by centimeters. Witt backed up, firing two rounds into the creature's face from such a close range he couldn't possibly miss. Blood exploded outward, striking him in the face with a stream of the warm red fluid. The fact that the narrow corridor might conceal more than a few of those slashers made him think twice about walking down it.
He led Kitty downstairs, a safer approach, where their path was impeded by a flooded stairwell. "Looks like we have to go back." Kitty said.
"This is the most direct route to the lab aside from the main corridor. It is approximately 150 feet long to the next stairwell and we can get around the main corridor from there." Witt said. Without hesitation he removed his helmet and dived into the water, Kitty hesitantly following. With hand signals he communicated, signaling her to follow him closely. Kitty laboriously swam, as Witt who was in better shape, slowed to make it easier to keep pace. The coolant they swam through was filled with floating debris, and bodies. Witt saw what appeared to be a drowning man and began to swim towards him. Something was wrong, the body was twitching and from around the other side swam a large creature, it's eyes white as cue balls, and it's skin little more than hairless ivory flesh. It was more or less human but with steel claws and teeth and it swam towards Witt like a rocket. Firing his rifle, glad that the Lacrima-99 pulse rifle was designed to function underwater, Witt struck the creature five times and it kept coming until he managed to blast a hole through it's head at point blank range. Motioning towards Kitty to keep swimming, Witt swam along towards the stairwell, Kitty beside him and they surfaced, at the feet of Scott and the others who helped them to their feet.
"Are you alright?" Scott asked.
"I'm fine. Thanks to our friend here." Kitty said, indicating Witt.
"Alright Herr Rommel," said Kurt, "Where do we proceed from here."
"Towards the cell block, I think." Witt said, moving into the lead, donning his blue gray field cap. USM soldiers stationed either space side or on scientific facilities typically wore blue gray uniforms.
They moved towards the cellblock, with Witt in the lead. A shot rang out and made Witt duck behind a desk.
A voice Witt recognized sounded, "Halt."
"Hal, stop." Witt shouted, "It's me, Witt."
Halberd Lightstep, a medium built, black man with a shaved head and a corporal's stripes walked forward. "Witt, damn, I thought your cracker ass had been fried a long time ago."
"Who's your friend?" asked Kitty, coming out from hiding.
"Guys, this is Hal Lightstep, one of the best friends a man could have, he's been my buddy since Basic." Witt replied.
"Witt, this is damn restricted area, don't make me pop a cap into you for violating that." Hal said.
"Hal, these people are here to..." Witt hesitated a moment, to explain to a fellow soldier what these people were up to was going to take a while provided Hal didn't follow orders. Witt knew that just the presence of unauthorized entrants here was in itself worth being fired on by sentries. However, Hal had enough good sense to hear them out, much to Witt's relief.
"Man, that's rough." Hal replied, "Pickin' on innocent folks like that. Shit, experimentin' on 'em too just 'cause they want more powerful weapons. We grunts can do stuff that the fanciest toys the Army's been playin' around with can't."
"Damn right." Witt agreed, "The day the Army builds and perfects a weapon that can go down a hole, kill or capture the opposing forces, without killing that gang of our people they have imprisoned down there, is the day I start looking through the want ads."
Hal put his keycard through the lock and opened up the main cellblock. Jean was lying on the floor of her cell, utterly exhausted. Scott shook her gently, "Jean, are you alright."
She groaned and opened her eyes weakly. "C-cold." she mouthed, "Weak."
Hal grabbed a blanket off of the floor and draped it around her shoulders. Scott helped her to her feet, "Can you walk?"
She nodded weakly. As they attempted to leave the cell block, Hal discovered that both he and Witt's keycards failed to function, their codes were now invalidated.
"Who the hell did that?" Witt asked.
"I don't know, but whoever it was doesn't want us to leave." Hal said. And looking up he smiled.
"What are you grinning about?" Scott asked. Hal indicated a small grate.
"Ten to one odds your skinny ass is gonna fit in that grate, Witt." Hal said. Hal and Logan hauled Witt upward and he climbed through the grate and after a couple shots at the door lock managed to disable it and opened the door.
With Witt on point, and Hal bringing up the rear, the X-men, as Witt's new friends called themselves, helped their weakened team mate along. A zombie popped up and Witt popped two rounds into it before it got anywhere near them. Still jumpy as anything, he was about to lob a grenade into a side corridor when Hal stopped him.
"Witt, there's an emergency escape tunnel down that way. If we use it, and the underground vehicles still work, we can save some time, but if you go throwing that grenade down there, you'll lose us some time. I'm not sure that broad they broke out of the brig is up for a walk." Hal replied.
"I'll go first." Witt said, stalking forward, expecting his head to be forcibly separated from his body all the way until he reached the vehicle, which was a car that ran on an electric motor. After starting it, Witt signaled them all to come on as he suddenly started firing over their heads. Several eyeless creatures, resembling humanoids turned inside out, fell wounded from the ceiling as Witt finished them off with his last grenade.
"That was close." Kitty said.
"We're not out of here yet! Hang on!" Hal yelled and threw the vehicle into a tight turn around a corner to avoid a monstrous scorpion headed their way.
The tunnel abruptly ended and Hal managed to brake quickly enough to avoid any injury. "Where are we now?" Scott asked.
"Could be anywhere, these tunnels go into the City of Orlando's underground fiber optic cable network." Hal replied, "I'll see what's up there, Witt, you stay down here until I tell you to bring them up."
Hal's head poked up through the manhole cover into a parking lot of a large Orlando attraction, EPCOT Center. "Witt, it's safe, bring 'em up and follow me."
Witt hustled the others up the ladder, staying behind, rifle aimed at the mouth of the tunnel that they had entered through. Witt slung the rifle and climbed the ladder as quickly as he could, climbing into the parking lot. A large contingent of zombies, perhaps alerted to the distinct scent of the living, appeared suddenly, far too many to attack.
Hal shouted, "Witt, cover me."
As soon as he heard the shout, Witt raised his rifle and started firing a murderous barrage into the crowd of zombies, killing several, but like a horrific Pickett's Charge, the living dead swarmed over the bodies of the simply dead, courtesy of Witt's rifle. More rifle fire, this from Hal. Witt charged through the gap of zombies, unloading the mostly empty clip from his rifle as he ran. As soon as he reached the park's front gate, he stuffed the loose rounds into his pocket. He had no sooner replaced a fresh clip than more of the undead came trundling out of the nearby entranceway.
There was little time to fire, when Witt and Hal raised their rifles the zombies were among them. Witt impaled a zombie about to grab Kurt with his bayonet and as he was trying to yank it free of the zombie torso, another zombie grabbed hold of him. Hal swung his rifle like a club, decapitating the zombie and pulling Witt clear.
The mass of the undead continued to swarm them and separated the group. Witt, Kitty, Kurt and Jean were isolated on the other side of Spaceship Earth's looming sphere with Hal and the others on the side nearest the Universe of Energy pavilion.
With Witt covering them, Kurt and Kitty struggled to drag Jean to safety. Witt stayed, firing until his rifle's clip emptied. Dropping the empty magazine, Witt ran alongside the others, reloading his rifle. They ducked inside what looked like safety in the Living Seas pavilion.
They entered through the line area, again with Witt on point. The soldier kicked a door open, panning about the room with his weapon. Hurrying them along, Witt saw zombies come lumbering towards them as he kicked down another door from the theater into the hydrolators. "Quick, get to those hydrolators, I'll open the doors and go in after you."
Witt had to shoot or fight his way through a mob of the living dead; zombified park workers and tourists alike attacked him. One man with tattered overalls and work boots came within inches of him and Witt had to put six rounds into the zombie before it went down. Finally, as an elevator opened, he pelted his way towards it as Kurt and Kitty managed to get in, Jean in tow.
Kitty was amazed that such a small, wiry fellow, barely taller than Kurt, could be that brave, or that loyal for that matter. He knocked over a zombie with his rifle butt as he came crashing through the door, rifle aimed out at the zombies, shooting as the door closed.
As the elevator settled down, Witt began to check his equipment. He had used up two clips fighting his way through here, and that wasn't good. His bandolier was starting to look a little empty. The two magazine pouches on his belt were full but two additional magazines weren't going to last long against those creatures, especially the ones that took multiple shots to kill.
This meant that he'd have to really rely on strategy at this point. "What do we do now?" Kitty asked.
"We can't go back the way we came, we'll have to keep pressing on to the exits." Witt replied.
Kurt gulped and Kitty looked visibly afraid. "I.can't read them." Jean said, weakly, "The zombies."
"None of us can use our abilities." Kurt replied.
"No, when the zombies started appearing. I couldn't read their presences. I would feel a human mind shutting down and then nothing." Jean said.
"What's to read?" Witt said, "They're just hungry and want to eat you."
"No, Witt," Kitty said, "She means we can tell where they are, so we can avoid them."
It started to sink in. "I see. I'll go in first, if you don't hear anything, follow after me."
"No, we stay together." Kurt said.
Witt activated the flashlight attached to his rifle, as the tunnel where the many large fish tanks were stored was dark. He held up a fist as he noticed the fish in the tank were swimming erratically, fearfully, as if knowing something was hunting them.
As if to prove his point, a large white humanoid shape, not unlike the one that had attacked him underwater in the generator room, smashed against the thick glass. Witt was about to squeeze the trigger, but then he remembered if he punched a hole in that glass he would do more harm than good. "C'mon, let's keep going." Witt said, visibly rattled.
Eventually they made it into a larger, more open space at the promenade called Seabase Alpha where tourists normally would finish their tour and hang about, they ran towards the elevator, Witt bringing up the rear, rifle ready.
As they waited for the elevator, which was taking too long, Witt dropped to one knee, rifle ready. He hadn't made High Expert on the rifle range for nothing. A zombie's face exploded with two rounds at fifty meters as the door opened and Kitty tapped him on the shoulder. Running backwards into the elevator, Witt jumped inside as the doors closed and the elevator rose.
As they raced to find more shelter, at an adjacent pavilion, the Land, they immediately discovered it was a bad idea as they ran down the stairs. A park worker, raising his hands in front of them was screaming, "No! Please! AAAGGGHH!!!"
Two zombies immediately fell upon the man and Witt fired three rounds, hitting the nearest zombie in the kneecaps and lower torso. Signaling to the man, Witt helped the stunned survivor towards them. As he did, more zombies began to appear, shambling out of alcoves, the upstairs movie theaters, through the emergency exits Witt thought about using.
"The boats, the attraction, it's our only chance!" shouted the worker.
Witt started shooting at the nearest zombies, while running, wounding or killing several, but the rest kept coming. As they jumped onto the moving boats, Witt kept up his fusillade of shots to keep the zombies busy until they were out of sight.
The park worker was saying something as they moved through the artificial jungle environment when suddenly a pale white arm with steel claws grabbed him through the chest, dragging him underwater.
The water began to run red with blood as they jumped clear of the boats, straggling ashore as many more of the strange humanoid creatures began to emerge. They were pale white, with gill slits in their necks, webbing between their fingers and toes, and built rather large.
Running through the aquaculture room was nearly their last action. From the waters containing farm raised fish, came several more of the water dwelling beasts. Things looked grim as they ran, pursued by the strange creatures. As they ran, Witt saw that Kitty had been separated somewhere back. Only his concern for the others in their group kept him from going back into the greenhouse and killing the creatures within.
As they made it outside, they ran into Hal Lightstep and the others. "Where's Kitty?"
"Gone." Witt replied.
Angrily Kurt shouted, "You bastard!"
Launching himself at Witt, Kurt felt a restraining arm pull him back, "It wasn't his fault Kurt."
"Let's get out of here." Scott said, sadly, the others agreed.
As they covered the grounds to a back exit that Hal had discovered, a bullet smacked across their path. Holding Kitty in a fleshy arm was one of the scientists from the facility, the head scientist who had been experimenting on Jean, Dr. Johansen.
"Witt, Lightstep, arrest these people." Johansen said.
"Begging your pardon, ma'am but fuck you." Lightstep replied, leveling his rifle, Witt doing the same.
"Fine, then you kill me, and I kill her, and nobody goes home alive." Johansen said,
"C'mon Witt, you're in enough trouble as is. Follow that order and get your sergeantcy back. What's she to you?"
"I'll tell you what, Doctor." Witt replied, "You take that sergeant warrant you say you're going to put in for me and shove it down your fat mouth. What you're doing is unethical, unapproved by Congress last I heard, and also kidnapping a United Systems citizen. Last time I heard, all of those were illegal. So by my oath, you are the enemy."
"There is far more benefit to be gained by these experiments. Far more than you can know?" said Johansen.
"I understand perfectly, it's another attempt to grab power, using the lives of the people to advance what you call understanding but what I call wrong." Witt replied.
"The ends justify the means Witt." Johansen said.
"You used us, not even telling us what the hell we were protecting." Lightstep put in, "Four of my guys are dead because of your little experiments."
A shot rang out suddenly and Kitty's eyes shut swiftly, expecting to feel a bullet going through her head. Instead it was a reflex action by Doctor Johansen, as she was being ripped apart by one of the white hued beasts dwelling in a nearby lake. Both Witt and Lightstep fired their rifles into the thing until it was dead.
"What do we do now?" Kitty said.
"You guys, get out of here. We'll take care of the rest." Lightstep said, and proceeded to start doctoring with the scene as Witt fired shots into the security cameras for good measure.
The group escaped with their lives, with a final thanks to their two rescuers who were set at their work in doctoring the scene of the crime. Although who was the criminal in this case, the now dead scientist or the two soldiers who had disobeyed orders?
To be continued.