Disclaimer: I do not own anything that is related to House of the Dead. (Katherine...you're still mine. Andrew, I own you too.)
Chapter 3
"My beautiful green.
Nowhere to be seen.
Next time when we meet
I'll fall on your feet..."
Year: 1987
It was a nice summer morning where Katherine and her son were sitting in the garden beside the fountain in front of the mansion. Her son seemed to be happy around plants. Katherine glanced back at the mansion and stood up. She pointed at the mansion and waved at her son. 'Go check your father whether he's alright.' Her son nodded and ran back inside. He almost hit the young butler while running through the hall. "Be careful, Master Daniel." the butler called out. "You're not supposed to run." the boy stopped and turned around. "Andrew...where's dad?" he asked the butler.
"Still in his room doing his research. Master Daniel, I suggest that you should not bother him." "Don't worry. I won't." the boy answered. He turned back and started running again. The butler sighed when he heard a loud bump a few seconds later. 'Told him not to run...' he rubbed his temple. Katherine entered the main hall with a bundle of flowers in her hand.
Daniel opened the door and saw his father dosing off on his desk full of papers. He walked to the sofa, grabbed a blanket and covered his father. He was about to leave the room when something on the desk caught his attention. He took the paper and had a quick glance at it. 'Plant's Regeneration'. He sat down on the sofa and read the paper quietly.
"You are bleeding red
Something wants you dead.
Stay alert and strong...
Something will go wrong..."
Year:?
Daniel was leaning against the door. His bleeding slowed down a bit but it was still painful. It was getting cold. When the temperature was cold, human tissues tend to be more sensitive to pain. He turned around and open the door...and his eyes went wide. This section of the facility was covered with tangled vines and sharp looking roots. The whole place looked like a crazy jungle. The walls had cracks with spikes protruding from those openings. The lights in the ceiling were surround by thick vines and branches, dimming the luminance. What made this worse was that it was nighttime. Plants would suck all the oxygen and release carbon dioxide. He won't last long here...
"Well...THIS...I must see." the voice chuckled in amusement. Daniel was pretty mad at the voice but there was nothing he could do to stop it. He went through the room cautiously and as quiet as possible. Last time he screamed, a bunch of undead found him. In his current condition, he might not survive another huge mob of zombies. The room gave him the creeps. Even though he likes plants but these vines around this place looked intimidating.
He walked in to another room. As soon as he entered the next room, his hands flew up to his face and covered his nose. The whole room smelt like sewers and something dead. It was horrible. There were about five or six big water tanks around the room. The vents were all block with vines and dead leaves. The moist in this room made his skin itch. 'Oh, please...what did people do in this place?...' Daniel shook his head. He headed to the other door...but he heard something in the tanks. He made another mistake...he turned back to look. The tanks shook and something jumped out from the water. He didn't scream this time.
A lot of slimy humanoid figures covered in moss hissed and waddled after him. 'Why does this always happen to me?!' Daniel ran out from the room without looking back. "That proves the 'curiosity kills the cat' phrase..." the voice cackled so loud that Daniel thought that he saw the glass doors shook. "I'm not a cat...and I'm not dead" Daniel muttered. "...yet." the voice hissed back. The hall was too quiet. He stopped and looked back...and saw nothing... Those creatures probably stopped chasing him. "Good riddance..." Another mistake. He said that too soon...
A loud mechanic noise that could be identified as chainsaw, accompanied by heavy footsteps was heard near by. "...That can't be good..." Daniel groaned. The wall behind him collapsed and a heavy build zombie with a huge chainsaw and a crowbar in its hands barged in to the room and did the same thing like other zombies before it...assaulted him. 'Wha-?! How am I going to stop it?' Daniel turned back and ran.
Unfortunately for him, this zombie was faster than Daniel. It waved both the chainsaw and the crowbar wildly while chasing its target. The chainsaw didn't hit Daniel but the crowbar hit him hard at the side. Daniel hit the floor on his side...right on his wounded arm. At the sight of blood on the floor, Daniel thought he was going to faint. The zombie, on the other hand, probably went crazy when it saw blood. It dropped its crowbar and use both hands to hold the chainsaw high and stroke down.
Even though the pain was screaming, Daniel moved aside just in the nick of time before the chainsaw hit the floor. The guide bar of the chainsaw shattered and the zombie went berserk. It let go of the handle and tried to kill Daniel with its bare hands. Daniel got the crowbar and plunged the crowbar right in its forehead. Green blood gushed out its forehead and it dropped on the floor hard. Daniel stood there, shocked. "Congratulations, boy. There's your first kill..." the voice spoke in a cool tone.
He should be glad that he was still alive. He should be happy that he wasn't brutally killed by this zombie...but he didn't. He felt guilty instead. I killed a living being. There it was...lying still on the pool of blood. Something inside told him that he shouldn't have killed it. It confused him... He heard a familiar voice said to him.
"Daniel...what have you done?" that voice was so familiar. Full of disappointment. Full of sadness...then he realized that voice belonged to-
"...Dad?" Daniel glanced around the room. Nobody was there. No one but him. The cruel voice laughed. "Awww, the little pup missed his dad." Its laughter filled the room. That was his last straw... "SHUT UP!" he yelled. He didn't seem to care that he was loud. The pain in his arm didn't bother him. Anger was taking over. He had it with this crazy voice that followed him everywhere he went and kept mocking him when he was in danger.
The voice faded away. Daniel sighed, trying to calm himself down. He moved on to the next room. There was a zombie standing in the middle of the room. When it saw Daniel, it charged forward. In self-defense, Daniel hit it back with the crowbar. The zombie lost its balance and fell in the water tank in the corner of the room. 'Well, at least I have something to defend myself...' he thought to himself. He was about to leave the room when the zombie jumped out from the tank and groaned loudly.
Both of its arms became longer and slimmer. Fingers melded together, making both arms looked like vines with human muscles. It roared. Daniel became very stiff. The zombie was about to slash him but suddenly he was pulled away in to the other room by a spiky vine. "Hmph! You lucky bastard..." the voice didn't sound so pleased. Daniel remained quiet. "...Hmmm...I wonder how you taste like?" Daniel turned slightly pale. 'What did she mean by that?'. Another vine grasped his ankle and dragged Daniel down the hallway.
Daniel was dragged all the way in to a circular room filled with poisonous flowers and spiky vines. When the vine finally let his ankle go, Daniel stood up...and saw a giant tree in front of him. There were human skulls around the middle part of the trunk with lovely pink flower pods on top of the tree. The vines and the roots were moving around the tree. One of the vines suddenly snatched Daniel and brought him close to the flower. When the pod opened itself, an ugly worm stretched its head out and opened its jaw wide.
With out a second thought, Daniel stabbed the worm right in its face...with no remorse this time. The skulls and the worm roared in pain as the whole tree shook violently and dropped Daniel. As soon as he hit the floor, he ran out through another door. The vines were too slow to stop him. They just blocked the doorway so the next victim wouldn't escape.
Daniel went inside another elevator and closed the door. The elevator went up slowly. Daniel sat at the corner, holding his wounded arm. To his surprised, he noticed that it already stopped bleeding. Strange... The bite mark was still there but it wasn't that painful anymore. It was as if...his wounds healed... 'Weird...it can't heal this fast..' he rubbed his eyes and glanced at his arm again. He wasn't hallucinating. His wounds healed.
The elevator stopped and the door slid open to a well-lighted hallway. There was nobody there in the hallway but he doubted that the whole floor was empty. "Come on then, my sweet... Come and we will meet..." the voice echoed from the hallway. Fear crept its way back to Daniel as he left the elevator. What kind of horrors awaited for him here?
"Just you and me, dear...You and your worst fear..."
Author's notes: This chapter is pretty hard so far...Right now, University is being such a pain in the rear...sick, but I have to study anyway. Again, thanks for all the views...and some 'invisible' reviews...
