Wow! A big thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, favorited, and alerted! I can't thank you guys enough! :D With that in mind, here's the next chapter! I've posted a poll on my profile asking whether or not you'd want to see a "Playing the Game" for Dead Space Extraction, so if you want to vote, just click on my profile! Thanks again! :)
DISCLAIMER: Everything belongs to Visceral Games and EA.
"So I'm insane now, huh?" Isaac asked as he guided himself through more of the hospital. His RIG was flashing red after taking some damage from the Necromorphs around him, and everyone had to wonder if they game had done that on purpose.
"Seems that way," Nicole whispered, "I wonder what's going to happen to you, though."
"I'm not sure I want to know," the engineer replied.
"What are you doing, Challus?" Daina suddenly asked as Mercer grabbed a pen and a notepad this time.
"Preparing the complaint list, just in case," he replied.
"Complaint list?" Stross echoed.
"Oh, yeah," Mercer said, remembering the newcomers that were in the room, "It's a list we get together of everything the game gets wrong about us."
"And once we're finished," Kyne continued, "We mail it to Visceral Studios."
"That sounds a lot like nitpicking," Ellie piped up, glancing over her shoulder, "I don't think we'll need it."
"You never know," Mercer muttered as game-Isaac turned down the hallway in time to see two security officers whirl around and point their weapons at him.
"Clarke!" they shouted, "Take him down!" And without warning, they began to shoot at game-Isaac as he ducked.
"Ahh, what the hell?" the real Isaac gasped, "Why are they shooting at me?"
"Lawbreaker!" Tiedemann joked as Isaac scowled at him.
"Very funny," he said with a smirk on his face as he watched the two security officers get snatched up by something out of sight.
"Uh oh," Kendra whispered, "Where'd they go?"
"I don't want to know," Hammond replied as he, she, and Tiedemann scooted closer together.
Suddenly, a minute later, something fell next to game-Isaac as he entered the next room: the body of one of the security officers. "Eww!" Daina squealed as she looked away, "That's disgusting!"
"There'll be more sights like that in the game," Nicole said to her, "Be prepared." Daina took a deep breath and nodded. She hated the sight of blood.
As Isaac continued to move forward, a voice suddenly spoke from the loudspeakers. "This is Director Tiedemann to all project personnel," game-Tiedemann announced, "I want the key subjects terminated and the facility scrubbed. This is not a drill. Tiedemann out."
"What?" Tiedemann spat as everyone faced him in shock, "What is this? How did they capture my voice so well? What project am I talking about?"
"Creepy, isn't it?" Daina asked him, nodding.
"Am I the main antagonist of the game, then?" Tiedemann realized.
"Sounds like it," Ellie answered, "You want to kill Isaac!"
"But…but…" Tiedemann stammered, "I just met you half an hour ago!"
"I'm sure we'll find out soon," Isaac assured him as he continued into the next large room, where yet another voice spoke up.
"Subject is Nolan Stross. Session one-five-eight."
"Nolan Stross?" Stross echoed, "Wait, that's me! What's going on?"
"Are you in the game, too?" Hammond asked. Sure enough, as Isaac rounded the corner, he stopped in front of a video screen as Edgar Foster started a recording about Nolan Stross.
"Ahh, it's me!" Stross cried as he pointed at game-Stross, who was looking around anxiously.
"Stross?" everyone spluttered as game-Isaac stopped to watch the video. In it, Foster was forcing game-Stross to lean back in order to examine him.
"Now," he began, "The eye is looking much better today. Yes, don't you think?"
"I-it hurts," game-Stross stammered, "Still hurts."
"Yes, I'll schedule you for another session tomorrow."
Game-Stross paled and started shaking his head. "No, no, no. I don't think I'm ready. I don't think I can take another session, I don't-"
"There!" Foster declared, "First thing tomorrow. Now, let's talk about what you saw today."
"This is so weird," Stross mumbled to himself as he rested his chin in his hands.
"Come on, Stross! I'm here to help you."
Everyone watched as game-Stross took a deep breath. "It was black," he said, "Deep black, and glowing red with symbols. Symbols that whispered to me…"
"What the hell are you talking about, Nolan?" Kendra asked. Stross shrugged as the scene continued.
"And what did the symbols whisper to you?" Foster whispered into game-Stross's ear, making him uncomfortable, "Come on, Stross. What?"
"It was just a shard! It was just a shard, but it put so much stuff in my head. So much…shit in my head. There's no more room for anything! I can't remember what she looks like. Why can't I remember what she looks like?"
"The symbols, Stross! What did the symbols tell you?"
"What?" Stross groaned, folding his hands as he continued to watch himself on screen.
"They told me that it wasn't my fault! I didn't kill them! They didn't deserve this and I didn't deserve this! Fucker."
"Didn't kill who?" Ellie asked.
"Put Mr. Stross back in stasis," Foster ordered, "Adjust his medication up 30 milligrams, and we'll try another session first thing in the morning." And with that, the video ended.
"What…was…that?" Stross asked, "Damn. I sound like a lunatic in this game!"
"They've gotten our characters wrong in the past," Kyne told him, "Don't feel bad."
"All we need is for Ellie to show up now," Isaac commented, "And that's everybody."
"It'll probably happen," Mercer commented as game-Isaac continued forward.
"This is Director Tiedemann to all project personnel. I want the key subjects terminated and the facility scrubbed. This is not a drill. Tiedemann out."
"And there I am again," Tiedemann mused, "I'm definitely the resident bad guy."
In the next room, game-Isaac spotted a man staring vacantly out the window as he scraped the window with a piece of glass. He sounded like he was in between laughing and crying about something. "O…kay?" Isaac said.
"Just tiptoe around him," Ellie suggested, "It can't hurt."
Everyone thought this was a good idea, so Isaac did just that, moving as quietly as possible. However, this proved to be futile; suddenly, the man, who everyone recognized as Foster, whirled around and grabbed game-Isaac by the neck, holding the piece of glass up to his cheek.
"AHH!" everyone in the room screamed except for Ellie, who just frowned.
"Guess that didn't work," she said.
"Come on, man!" game-Isaac groaned as Foster began to laugh.
"Patient Four," Foster began, "I remember you. Tiedemann said we…all the key subjects…need to be eliminated. What's one more?"
"Now he's crazy," Stross commented.
"Listen to me," Isaac pleaded, "Listen to me, man!"
"Will it matter?"
"Listen to me!"
"Will it matter?"
"I think it will matter," Nicole said, and the others nodded in agreement.
"We can both get out of here!" game-Isaac explained, "Just…just cut me out of this straitjacket."
Foster chuckled. "No one's getting out of here alive," he replied, "No one." He raised his piece of glass, which made everyone gasp.
"Don't do it," game-Isaac warned.
"No, don't kill me!" Isaac shouted at the screen, "The game hasn't even begun yet!"
"He better not do it," Kendra hissed, and they all looked away as they suddenly heard a ripping noise. To their surprise, Foster lowered the glass and cut game-Isaac's straitjacket at the arms, freeing him.
"Thank God," Stross said in a relieved tone of voice. Foster and game-Isaac just stared at each other until the former started laughing.
"There's no escaping from what I've done," he said as game-Isaac shook his head and raised his hands.
"Take it easy, buddy," he coaxed, "Just take it easy."
"Yeah, do something," Daina muttered.
"Your RIG is red," Foster noted, "It's red. There's a health pack and a flashlight in that wall locker. You should grab them. Go ahead, take it. I won't be needing it anymore."
The locker next to him opened, and Isaac directed himself over to it, where he picked up the flashlight and med pack. "I guess he's not so bad after all," Kendra decided, and the others nodded in agreement.
Once Isaac healed his game character, he rotated the camera until he faced Foster, who was raising the piece of glass to his neck.
"Isaac," he croaked, "We're all gonna burn for what we did to you." And with that, he slit his own neck.
"AHH!" Daina and Stross cried as they averted their eyes.
"Oooo!" everyone else cried.
"You'd think they'd warn us before putting something like that," Daina commented.
"This game doesn't believe in that," Mercer told her as she shuddered.
Game-Isaac turned away from the scene and began heading to the elevator in the corner. Just as he called the elevator, a video log of a blonde woman popped up in front of him.
"Hey, look, it's Daina!" Hammond cried as everyone else gasped.
"No way!" Daina cried, "They even got my likeness! This is scary!"
"Clarke!" game-Daina began, "Isaac Clarke, is that you?"
"Who are you?" game-Isaac demanded as he climbed into the elevator.
"My name is Daina," game-Daina explained, "I'm the one trying to rescue you."
"Why? What's going on?"
"You're suffering from a unique form of dementia, Isaac. Something you contracted on Aegis 7."
"How'd you know all that?" Stross asked her, "Maybe you didn't have to watch the recap video after all."
"Yeah, you're pretty well-informed," Kendra joked as Daina grinned, the shock of seeing herself in the game slowly wearing off.
"How do you know that?" game-Isaac asked, "How do you know all this about me?"
Game-Daina shook her head. "Your dementia will kill you," she insisted, "But if you can get here, I can treat you and get you to safety."
"Why should I trust you?"
"Because I'm not the one shooting at you!"
"Fuck."
"Just follow the route I'm sending you." And with that, game-Daina was gone.
"Damn," Isaac muttered under his breath, "I don't seem to trust anyone anymore! I'm a real hardass now."
"Can three years really do that to someone?" Kyne asked with concern.
"Seems like it," Tiedemann answered, "I wonder what I have to do with all this." The others shrugged just as the elevator opened and put game-Isaac in a dark room. In the corner of the screen, a quick tutorial on how to use the navigator popped up, and it was the same as before.
"Bread Crumbs!" Isaac and Nicole shouted at the same time as Isaac pressed the necessary button in order to use the waypoint. This time, however, they all noticed that Bread Crumbs looked much different. Much newer.
"Bread Crumbs?" Ellie asked.
"Yeah, that's what the navigator was called in the first game," Nicole quickly explained to her.
"Ahh," Ellie sighed, nodding in understanding.
Isaac made himself hold out the flashlight in front of him as he crept through this next part, and all ten people in the room subconsciously huddled closer together in anticipation. "I hate dark hallways," Isaac whispered, "They always give me the creeps." Nicole shivered as he said this.
"This game is giving me the creeps so far," Daina piped up from next to Mercer, Kyne, and Stross. A few stray noises made them all jump, but Isaac took a deep breath and continued to play as he ended up in another dimly lit hallway. Suddenly, his game character stopped, and after a flash of light, everything turned orange around him.
"Wait," Hammond said, "What's happening?"
An image of a woman suddenly appeared in a wheelchair right next to game-Isaac just as a voice began to whisper. "Is that me?" Nicole gasped.
"Looks like it," Stross answered, "Why is everything orange?"
"What the hell?" game-Isaac mumbled to himself as another flash occurred and the orange light disappeared.
"That's what I'd like to know," Isaac muttered, "Is that the dementia I apparently have?"
"How many more of those visions are going to appear?" Tiedemann wondered.
"With this game," Mercer said, "You never know."
Isaac quickly saved at the next Save Station before spotting a vent right next to him. With a touch of a button, he opened it and began to crawl through it to get somewhere else.
"Welcome…CEC Engineer Isaac Clarke," a voice announced, "Access Granted."
"Thank you!" Isaac thanked the voice, but as he continued to crawl, a vent suddenly dropped out from underneath him, and he crashed to the ground.
"Careful, Mr. Clarke," Kyne warned him.
"Isaac!" game-Daina gasped, "What happened? Are you all right?"
"Why are you helping me?" game-Isaac asked.
"If Tiedemann finds you, more people will die."
"Including me."
"Not if you follow my route!"
Isaac put the controller down, turned around, and smiled at Tiedemann. "Why are you so hell bent on killing me, Tiedemann?" he joked.
"Believe me," Tiedemann assured him, "I'm trying to figure out the same thing."
"I don't like this," game-Isaac decided.
"You don't have to like it!" game-Daina snapped, "Just hurry before you get locked in!"
"Geez," Isaac commented, "What'll happen if I get locked in?"
"I don't want to know," Stross said.
"Let's keep going," Hammond suggested, and with that, game-Isaac picked himself up and decided to keep moving.