All right! Here's the next chapter of "Dead Space: Playing the Game"! Once again, a big thank you to everyone who has supported this story so far! I've decided to try a new thing where I answer people's reviews right before the beginning of each chapter, so here we go! These are the people who had questions about the story, and if you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to let me know! I don't bite! ;)
Stormforce: Once the gang gets through more chapters, they'll begin to notice what the chapters spell out. :)
bigbro56: I'll try and make the chapters longer when I get to some of the later chapters. And I'm already thinking of ideas for a Dead Space 2 story. :D
DISCLAIMER: Everyone belongs to Visceral Games and EA.
As Chapter Two began, the group watched as the tram slowed down and came to a stop in the Medical Deck. "I'm thinking I'll stop for the night at the end of this chapter," Isaac decided, "And pick it up tomorrow after work."
"Sounds like a plan," Nicole agreed, checking her watch, "It's getting late, anyway." To her left, Kendra rubbed her eyes, but kept them glued to the screen anyway.
As Isaac made himself disembark from the tram, a body suddenly stirred in front of him, and he watched as a blind woman repeated stroked a corpse right next to her. "Holy shit," he whispered as game-Isaac slowly approached her.
"Shh, shh," she whispered, "It's all right, McCoy. He's here. Nothing to be afraid of."
"Who's here?" Hammond asked, but Kendra shushed him.
"I knew you would come," the blind woman said to game-Isaac as she pushed something towards him, "Just like you said. I saved this for you. Can I go now? McCoy wants to take me to the shuttle." And with that, she collapsed to the ground for good.
"Aww," everyone sighed as she died right in front of the group.
"God rest her soul," Kyne piped up as Isaac got used to using Kinesis in order to move a few body bags out of the way of another Store.
"I forgot to get the Level Two suit back on the Flight Deck," he announced to the others, "I think I'll upgrade here before moving on."
"Do you still have enough money?" Nicole asked worriedly.
"Don't worry," Isaac assured her, "I've got enough."
"Isaac Clarke," Nicole replied, "You always were very frugal when it came to money."
"If only my mother was the same way…" Isaac muttered, but then stopped himself; Kyne and Mercer were still there. He didn't want this to turn ugly fast.
Once he was finished, Isaac guided himself into the main wing of the Medical Deck, where his character received a transmission from game-Hammond.
"Isaac? Are you there? We were attacked! Kendra's gone! One minute, she was there, then…I can't believe I lost her! We can still do this. Get me the Captain's RIG codes, and we'll find Nicole. Looks like the crew barricaded the door to the emergency wing. You'll have to blow through it to get to the Morgue. Get some thermite from Medical Storage, and a shock pad from Zero-G Therapy. Should be down the corridor. God, communication is useless in all this static…"
"Uh oh," Kendra whispered, "What happened to me? Am I dead yet?"
"And where the hell am I?" Nicole added, "You keep mentioning me, but I'm nowhere to be seen."
"We'll find you," Isaac assured her, "Don't worry."
"I hope so."
Isaac continued through the room, ignoring the other Store that was here and saving instead. Once he was finished with that, he followed Bread Crumbs to another malfunctioning door, where a Stasis Recharge was conveniently placed. Suddenly, a message reminding Isaac on how to use Stasis appeared in front of him.
"God fucking damn it!" he roared, "How many more times is this game going to tell me how to use Stasis?"
"All right, calm down, Mr. Clarke," Kyne quipped, "It's just a game."
"I know, I know," Isaac amended, "But I know how to use Stasis already." He proceeded to use it on the door as he passed through to the other side, where the room was brightly lit. As he moved forward, however, the lights clicked and then shut off, only leaving a spinning yellow light as an alarm rang.
"Oh, shit," Hammond whispered.
"Hazardous anomaly detected. Quarantine activated."
"This is just great!" Isaac replied as he switched to his Plasma Cutter and began shooting at all the Necromorphs that were barreling towards his game counterpart.
"Don't get grabbed this time!" Kendra warned.
"I'll try not to," Isaac said, "I can't make any promises, though."
But he had to admit that he was getting much better at the combat portion of this game. He managed to avoid triggering quick time events, despite the fact that the quarantine still hadn't been lifted yet. He guided himself to the cargo lift in the corner, and after making his way downstairs, he finished off the rest of the Necromorphs, taking more damage as the same voice announced the end of the quarantine.
"Thank God that's over," Nicole whispered, "You're so badass, Isaac. Both versions of you."
"Thanks," Isaac thanked her, "And I haven't said a single word the whole time."
"Yes, you have," Kendra replied.
Isaac raised an eyebrow. "What have I said?" he challenged.
"AHHHH!" Kendra screamed, and Isaac rolled his eyes and scoffed.
"Very funny," he mumbled as he entered a side room with a bookshelf and a video log on the floor. As soon as he picked it up, everyone gasped.
"Hey look, it's Terrence!" Hammond gasped, and Kyne shot up from his place on the couch and crouched down next to Isaac so that he could see himself.
"That is me," he echoed, "And Ben's there, too!"
"What in God's name is going on down there?" game-Kyne demanded to Benjamin Matthius.
"I think that's precisely the point, Doctor. God's work."
"I'm not so sure of that. We have to assume that the colony's problems are somehow connected to the Marker."
"You can assume all you want to. I do not. The Marker is glorious and divine. You…you know that."
"Why are we disagreeing so much?" Kyne wondered, "We get along just fine around the office."
"There are a lot of things wrong with our characters in this game so far," Kendra responded, "Don't feel bad." They all continued to listen to the video log.
"God moves in mysterious ways…" game-Kyne muttered to himself.
"Anyway, we'll have it on board tomorrow. You can analyze it all you want to. What are you so worried about?"
"Worried? Captain, people are dying down there. Killing each other. Is this madness the 'transformation' Unitology teaches us?"
"Doctor…Terrence…there will always be risks when the stakes are high. And here, they're enormous. It could change everything."
"And that's what worries me." With that, the transmission ended.
"I hope I don't turn out to be some paranoid scientist," Kyne piped up, "Whatever it is must really be bothering me."
Everyone else shrugged as Isaac continued to look around the room, finding another Audio Log in a separate hallway. On this one was another familiar voice.
"I called it!" Hammond declared, "There's Mercer! I knew the two of you were going to be here somehow!"
"No," Mercer whispered in disbelief, "It can't be!" But as he listened to the audio log, he realized it wasn't a joke.
"I finally convinced Jurgens to show me the video feed from the colony," game-Mercer's voice crooned through the speakers, "And what I saw was glorious. Breathtaking. Miners undergoing a transformation into something extraordinary! I must know more. Even as the believer within me wants to become one of them, the scientist needs to uncover their secrets. I need to study one of these…Necromorphs, as Kyne so clinically puts it. I need to witness this infection first hand. Perhaps that patient from the colony…"
"Forget you, Terrence!" Mercer said, "I sound like a nutcase!"
"Damn straight," Kendra agreed, "Holy shit, the game made you insane!"
"No, Mercer!" Hammond cried out, "Don't do it! You know you don't want to!"
Mercer rolled his eyes. "Apparently, I do," he replied, "I shall have to write a complaint letter to the game's producers."
Nicole picked up the jewel case for the game and retrieved the instruction manual from inside it. Flipping to the back, she read the off all the names, stopping on two in particular. "Steve Papoutsis and Glen Schofield," she read, "Those are the guys you want." Mercer quickly wrote the names down.
"I shudder to think what else they've done to my character," he mumbled as Isaac continued onwards, "And without my permission, too."
"Make that five of us," Terrence said in response as Isaac made his way through another door that led into an eerie green hallway.
"Come on! Come on! Let me out!" a voice suddenly cried, and everyone watched as a man entered the picture and started banging on the window. Suddenly, something crawled behind him and shot something sharp into his hand, pinning it to the window.
"Noooo!"
"Oooo!" everyone exclaimed, wincing.
"That's gotta hurt," Kendra commented.
But the torture didn't end there. They closed their eyes as the tiny Necromorph shot something into the man's head, decapitating him.
"OOOOO!" they cried even louder.
"That's sick!" Nicole gasped, slowly lowering her hand as game-Isaac came face to face with the Lurker in the Baby Lab, and a few others that were with it.
"I get the feeling this isn't going to be the end of the sickness," Isaac replied matter-of-factly.
A few minutes later…
"All right," game-Hammond announced after game-Isaac picked up the thermite in a room above the Baby Lab, "That thermite you picked up should be able to melt through the barricade, use the shockpad to ignite it. Hope I can hold this position, I can hear something big moving out there."
"Well, that's not good," Hammond muttered.
"I seriously hope I'm not dead," Kendra whispered, biting her nails. She was starting to get a little freaked out from this game, especially since her game counterpart seemed to be missing.
On the screen, game-Isaac was retracing his footsteps, killing Slashers along the way until he saved again and passed through a door to Imaging Diagnostics.
Boom! Boom! Boom! "What the hell?" he whispered.
"I hope that's not a Necromorph," Nicole also whispered, and Isaac slowed himself down until he forced himself to raise the Plasma Cutter out in front of him. What they all saw when game-Isaac rounded the corner shocked them, for standing in the hallway up ahead was a man with his flesh torn off. He was busy banging his head against the wall, and the thudding noises seemed to only increase in volume. As soon as Isaac got his character close enough, the man banged his head once more before collapsing to the ground for good.
"Shit," Kyne cursed, "This is more serious than I thought. No wonder I'm so worried!" Everyone else nodded in agreement.
Isaac maneuvered through the door up ahead, and since he had enough Power Nodes, he decided to use one to unlock the room to his left, and when he went inside, he spotted a bunch of useful items scattered all over the floor, as well as another Audio Log.
"You found something down there, didn't you?" game-Mercer asked.
"Oh, great," Mercer groaned, burying his face into his hands.
"Yes, we did," game-Kyne replied, to which Kyne widened his eyes.
"So, the texts were right all this time!"
"I wouldn't be so sure of that. There was nothing divine in what I saw."
"We must embrace this! We are the first witnesses!"
"Matthius isn't letting anyone down on the colony! It's under quarantine until we learn more."
"To hell with Matthius! He of all people should know that this is greater than him, or the operation, or even the company. This is our deliverance!"
"Keep your damn voice down! People are dying down there!"
"Only the worthless and the unbelievers. But I believe. Do you believe, Terrence? Do you?"
Kyne and Mercer glanced at each other. "How dare your game counterpart question my counterpart's beliefs?" Kyne asked incredulously, to which Mercer shrugged.
"Blame the game," was all he said, "I'm not that crazy in real life."
"And we all know you'd get your ass fired from the CEC if you just defied Matthius like that," Kendra pointed out.
"Thank you, Daniels," Mercer replied sarcastically, smirking at the computer specialist, who just smiled sweetly in return.
"Well, it's true," she said.
"It doesn't matter here. He's dead, apparently."
"We'll find out soon enough," Isaac piped up as he just finished learning that anything with a Kinesis symbol on it indicated to use the Kinesis Module to move the object. After killing the few Necromorphs on the top level, he continued on his way to Zero-G Therapy, wondering the whole time what he would find there.