Chapter 2: Soldiers of Misfortune

Falling. Forever falling. The sound of air blowing past as the descent towards the final destination draws near. Freedom and excitement. Fear and sadness. These emotions fight with one another until the end finally comes. Isaac accepted what was to happen as he watched the moon explode far above him. He closed his eyes; letting his mind be free. Suddenly, the air stopped. No pain. No sound. Everything went to silence. "Is this...what it's like to be dead?", thought Isaac. He decided to open his eyes. As if it was too good of a dream, he awoke to find himself lying in a bed. In the distance, he could hear the surf and smell the salty sea from what he figured was an opened window. A cool breeze brushed against his face as he let out a deep, relaxed breath.

"Isaac...", a soft voice called out his name from right next to him.

"Ellie? I'm glad you're alright.", he replied calmly. "Isn't this place wonderful? How did we get here?"

As Isaac turned, the lighting changed into a dark red. Isaac froze as he saw the skinned body of a human being. Its eyes wide open as if piercing his soul with its gaze. The lack of skin sent chills down Isaac's spine. Muscles, tendons, the wide smile, and the exposed eyes was like a sight from a nightmare. It's mouth opened with a heave of air.

"Isaac...", it called out.

"No...no this can't be. You're not Ellie! What the hell are you?!", screamed Isaac in a panic as he jumped out of the bed.

The humanoid slowly extended a hand towards him. "Help...me..."

From the open window, blood came pouring in and started to fill the room. The body on the bed began to drag itself slowly towards Isaac. "Help...me..."

As the blood began to reach Isaac's ankles, he noticed other skinless bodies were starting to rise from out of the pool. He became terrified as he tried to wake himself up thinking it had to have been a dream. Like zombies, the bodies began to walk towards Isaac slowly. Backing up as far as he could, he ran into something. A slow, raspy breath hit the back of his neck. Isaac's heart stopped as the other bodies also stopped dead in their tracks; all standing in a group just in front of him. He began to slowly turn around thinking this was his end; this was how he was to die in this impossible situation. His eyes met with the one he knew most.

"Ellie?", he asked in disbelief.

She stood there face to face with Isaac, looking delirious and weak. Her breathing was hoarse and shallow. Her gaze was empty.

Isaac reached out his arms to grab her shoulders, "Ellie?"

"Isaac...", she said, almost in a whisper. Raising her head, Isaac saw her eyes were milky and almost soulless. As he continued to look at her, a low growl began to resonate inside her throat. "DIE!" She screamed as her eyes became black as night.

Ellie's face began to shift and form. Her skin began to rip as tendrils tore through. Still growling, her mouth split down the chin forming a grotesque, fang riddled opening. The skinless corpses rushed forward and grabbed Isaac; holding him in place. Ellie let out a shriek as blood and spit covered Isaac's face. As Isaac yelled out in terror, the monster jumped forward and bit into Isaac's neck; tearing his head clean off.

Isaac woke up in a jolt. Sweat covered his face and his breathing was fast. He began to look at his surroundings and found he was nowhere in that room. No bodies and no blood. This place was different. Wherever he was, it was clean. Like it was an emergency room. Yet like no human hospital he had ever been to. He looked to his left and saw Carver, strapped down onto a table with a mask on his face.

"Carver!", yelled Isaac.

Isaac tried sitting up but was stopped by restraints holding him down. This made Isaac begin to panic more.

"Carver! Wake the hell up!", yelled Isaac again.

His partner began to shift on the table groaning. "What the hell do you want asshole...", he asked with annoyance.

Wishing he could throw something, Isaac tried calming down to figure out what he needed to do. There were three restraints going across his body. Isaac began to try and free his hand from where it was held in place.

"C'mon, you son of a...", he said, straining with all the energy he had. With a final pull, his hand came free. He began to unbuckle his bindings and take the mask off his face. Jumping off his table, he lowered himself a little and surveyed his surroundings again. Making sure no alarm was sounded, he carefully went over to Carver and slapped him.

"What the fuck?!' Carver yelled as he struggled to get out his restraints. "Why can't I move? Did you do this? Let me out!"

Isaac covered his mouth, "Shut up! We don't know where we are and you're going to just scream like an idiot?"

As Carver finally calmed down, his stare was that of extreme hate towards Isaac.

Undoing Carver's bindings, Isaac stepped back to let his angered partner get his bearings.

"So where the hell are we? Last thing I remember is falling from that undead moon to our death.", said Carver.

Isaac shrugged his shoulders as he leaned against his table, crossing his arms. "I don't know. I remember the falling, but then I felt nothing. Then I have this crazy ass nightmare where Ellie turned into a necromorph and killed me. Something just isn't right."

Carver looked at Isaac with a stern gaze, "Have you had any...you know...hallucinations?"

Isaac looked at the floor in with concern. He had forgotten about the constant sightings of the unexplainable. Blood written on walls only to disappear, his dead girlfriend from the Ishimura stalking him at every corner, every possible nightmarish vision torturing his sanity. Not seeing any now didn't mean he wasn't going to later, but because of the events on Tau Volantis, he had a slight glimmer of hope that he was free from the madness. "No...no I haven't. You?"

Remembering his episodes of seeing his dead wife and remnants of his son, Carver looked at him with uncertainty, "No. Not yet."

A door opened behind Carver startling both men, making them run to the far edge of the room. Both looked in horror and bewilderment at what came through the door. A huge purplish pink creature with giant tentacles floated into the room. "This one sees the two soldiers have awoken.", said the creature in a very airy voice as its main body lit up at every word.

"That thing is hovering, has tentacles, and can speak...", said Carver with confusion.

The creature began to move around Carver's table towards the men. This triggered their survival instincts and they dashed for the door. As the door flew open, Isaac looked to his left, grabbed his partner by the arm, and lead him down the corridor. Never looking back, Isaac followed it down passing rooms upon rooms of what seemed to be patient quarters. Isaac saw an open door and took a right which led into a massive sunroom. Both men slowed down and looked up in amazement. Above them was a massive glass dome that showed off a cloudy, yellow sky. It seemed to swirl and move like the current in a stream. The sound of waves crashing could be heard from outside.

"You gentlemen don't need to run from my master.", said a gravelly voice.

Looking back down, another creature stood before them. This one had a red amphibious-like face, eyes black as night, two legs, two arms, and wore a uniform much like a doctor's. "He only wishes to assess your wounds.", said the humanoid creature.

Isaac was the first to respond, "Who are you? And where the hell are we?"

Carver kept his focus on the creature, "Does it matter? They took our weapons and had us strapped to tables. Probably experimenting on us just like EarthGov did to you."

The alien raised a hand, as if saying stop, "We would do no such thing here on Kahje. It is forbidden and we have no use to experiment on our allies."

His statement confused the both of them. "Allies?", Carver asked. "How are we allies? We don't even know what you are."

"This one apologizes for his subject's rudeness. He does not know the situation.", said a voice from behind.

Turning around, the alien from where they were bound was directly behind them. Both jumped away and went into a back to back defensive position so they could keep an eye on both of their captors. "And what situation are we in?", questioned Carver as he leered at the hovering alien.

"This one was unaware of how unpredictable the universe truly was. It seems there is more to it than we truly know.", said the alien as it hovered around the two men to meet alongside his cohort. "Please excuse this one's rudeness as well for it has not introduced itself. It's name is Teles and it's subject is Singat."

Singat crossed his arm across his chest and bowed before Isaac and Carver, "It is a pleasure to meet you both. It has been quite some time since we've seen any humans since the war."

Carver slapped his hand against his forehead, "What war? What was so unpredictable? What the hell is going on?!", he yelled in frustration.

"Singat, go back to your duties. This one will explain everything to them." , said Teles in a calm, yet annoyed tone as Singat bowed again and left the three to converse.

"This one must explain that what his subject said was true. It has been quite some time since its people, the hanar, has seen any of their allies. The war he spoke of was one that left our universe in disarray.", said Teles as he passed by the two men, heading to the hallway they had originally come from.

Isaac furrowed his eyebrows, "Why did you say 'our universe' rather than 'the universe'?"

The hanar stopped at the entrance to the hallway, "This universe, as well as yours, are the same, yet different."

Carver walked past Isaac toward the hanar, stopping mid way, "This universe? Our universe? Your still not making any sense! Stop speaking in riddles and tell us what's going on!", yelled Carver in frustration.

"Unless...", said Isaac quietly, slowly coming to the realization of the situation. Both the hanar and Carver turned toward him, waiting for the answer. "But...it's not possible."

Teles moved its torso up and down as if nodding, "It is. You both are from a parallel universe."

Silence filled the room. The sounds from outside the dome seemed to stop as the two men stood in disbelief. Carver dropped to his knees as Isaac put his hand on his partner's shoulder. The feelings tearing Isaac apart was that of happiness and depression. Happiness to be away from the horrors of the necromorphs, but immense sadness knowing he would never see the love of his life ever again. Tears began to well up in his eyes as he heard Carver try to do everything he could not to cry himself.

"This one is sorry for the loss of your universe.", said Teles with a tone of sadness himself. He turned back around to the entrance of the room and began to move into the hallway. "If you would like to join this one, it has something to show you."

Isaac wiped away his tears and regained his composure,"Yeah, sure. C'mon Carver."

His partner stayed on his knees and drew in a deep breath. Knocking Isaac's hand of his shoulder, Carver stood up; brushing off his suit as if there was something on it. Looking at Isaac, he continued to do everything he could to not lose himself. "You don't need to be lovey dovey on me. I'm a soldier and I can take care of myself. Let's go see what this flying squid needs to show us."

As they followed Teles, he told them of the universe in this dimension, the races of aliens within it, and the Reaper war that had recently took place.

"So your race is called the Hanar, you have indentured servants called the Drell, there's an all blue female race called the Asari, and one human who was brought back to life with cybernetics, destroyed the giant robotic race called the Reapers.", asked Carver.

The hanar was silent for a moment, "That is precise appart from the Drell being indentured servants. They merely help the hanar with things that this ones people are unable to do. Especially since this ones race saved them from near extinction."

Carver looked at Isaac and shook his head as if not believing a single word.

"If you don't mind me asking, why is it that you refer to yourself in the third person?", asked Isaac.

"That is a valid question to your curiosity and this one would not mind answering in the least.", said Teles graciously.

The hanar continued to explain the culture of his race and why they refered to themselves to 'it' or 'this one'. He continued to explain how they also had two names; a name given to strangers and a soul name given to those they cared most or trusted. As he continued talking they passed through a door which led to an extended hallway with what looked to be a heavely locked door at the end.

"When this ones people found you two floating in space, the hanar on board gave you your own face names since they had no idea what your real names were.", explained Teles.

Both men looked at each other in confusion and amusement. Isaac was the first to speak up.

"Out of curiosity, what is my face name?", asked Isaac.

The hanar stopped in the hallway just before the door, turned completely around, and faced the two men. "You", he said facing Isaac, "Your name is 'One with Cursed Dreams'."

This sent chills down Isaac's spine. How did they know of my hallucinations?

"Sucks for you. And what is mine? 'Handsom Soldier?", asked Carver as he laughed to himself at Isaac's dismay.

With almost a tone of annoyance, "Your name is 'Widowed Warrior'."

The air became heavy with tension. Isaac looked at Carver knowing full well that he was about to snap. Surprisingly, Carver did nothing except stare at the hanar. Isaac could see veins surfacing on his partner's head and decided to move the group along.

"So...where exactly is this thing that you wanted to show us.", asked Isaac.

The hanar turned in Isaac's direction, "It is right behind this one. The ship that found you also found this specimen floating in the same vicinity as you."

As if someone plunged a knife into Isaac's gut and turned it, his face became pale as snow. "What specimen? Is it human?", Isaac asked as he felt his feet begin to move backwards.

The giant door opened behind Teles revealing a labratory. In the center of the room was a giant cyclinder that was connected to tons a tubes and wires at the base of it. As what seemed to be steam cascaded down from the top, the cyclinder as well as the specimen itself looked frozen. What truly made both Carver and Isaac's skin crawl was the fact that the specimen was none other than a winged necromorph.

"Oh shit...", said the two men.

I want to apologize to those who are following this story for having to wait such a long time for a new chapter. During the making of it, I got married, started the process into moving into a new department at work, and have just been flat out procrastinating. To me, the ending seemed a little weak, but I'm going to be making two chapters out of Isaac and Carver 's situation. It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to take it. The future chapters are still up in the air, but I'm making a rough draft of the outline for the entire story. Hopefully it continues to keep your interest. If you have any feedback you'd like to give, it would be much appreciated to help me become better at what I love to do.