Disclaimer: I do not own anything that is related to House of the Dead. (Those that aren't related, they're mine...)

Warning: This is a WAY TOO LONG chapter...

Chapter 5

"Life...you're so fragile.

I gave you a smile.

I grasp your weak heart

...and tear it apart..."

Year:1989

Dr. Curien was getting anxious. His son was sick for months. MONTHS. This wasn't normal. The doctors that he called weren't helping either. 'They don't deserved to be called 'doctors' if they can't help their patient...' he sighed. He highly doubted that it was just fever that made his son sick...This was making him stress. 'He'll be fine...' he mumbled to himself. He went back to his room to his wife but...she wasn't there. "What the...?" he glanced at his watch. It was almost noon. His wife went out early in the morning to the pharmacy down town and told him that she would be back two hours before noon. She was always on time. Something was wrong... He headed outside and drove to town...

"Whispers are calling...

Danger is coming...

The truth hurts like hell

Nothing will end well..."

Year: ?

"Terrance! Did you just hit that kid?" Sarah shrieked. Stephen went to the Terrance and pulled the pipe away from his hand. "Give me that thing before you kill somebody." Terrance was stiff in his place, possibly from shock. "I-I just...I-I thought...I thought he was one of those things." he pointed to Daniel. Both Stephen and Sarah sighed. "Next time, look before you hit something. Alright, Terrance?" Stephen nudged Terrance at his side. "Hey, guys. We have to bring this kid in." Sarah called the guys and carried Daniel inside the room. "The guys inside will go wild if they see him." Terrance muttered. "I mean...look at him. He has wounds all over him and his clothes have bloodstains. They'll think that we brought a dead creature in." "I doubt that." Stephen cut him off. "Those things are pale. He's not that pale."

Terrance closed the door behind him and followed the blonds in to the room. There were several people in the room sitting at different corner and they all looked tired. When they saw the trio entered the room with somebody, they stopped at what they were doing. At the sight of blood in their vision, one by one, they started to panic. "Hey! You can't bring that thing in here!" "Oh no!" "What are you guys doing?!" " OMG!" "Get it out of here!" "What the heck is that?!" "Holy -"

"QUIET!"

A huge security guard in blue uniform bellowed and banged the wall with his black baton. Everybody went silent. It became too quiet that everyone could hear the sound of engines humming behind the walls. "Will you chickens stopped screaming at the sight of everything that is red?!" he scowled at them. Everybody fervently nodded. "Good." he huffed. "Now...can any of you 'geniuses' tell me who or what is that you are carrying?" he point at the trio with his baton. "Well, this is the kid that I told you about. He was 'looking' inside this area and Terrance hit him hard in the head." Stephen gestured to Terrance who was shaking behind Sarah. "It was an accident..." Terrance muttered.

The guard glared at Terrance. Stephen removed his lab coat and put it down at the corner of the room. "Sarah, put him down here." Sarah nodded and put Daniel down. "Must be crazy down there...poor kid." said Sarah while taking out her handkerchief and wiped the blood off Daniel's face. "He must have gone through hell. Look at these scratches and...bite marks?" Stephen peered closer at the boy's shoulder and arm. "What the he-"

"By the way, has anyone see Allan? I told him to bring the fist aid kit to the 'detention' room half an hour ago. Bob banged his head on the table again." the guard asked. Everybody shook their heads. "Oh, damn! Where the heck is he?" the guard sighed. "Oh...and I need some one in there to help Carl move the table away from Bob." the guard pointed to the other door. Two people stood up and went inside the room.

...(A few hours later)...

Daniel moaned softly as he sat up. The whole world was spinning around slowly and his head hurts. "Oh, you're up." A man in grayish blue jacket and dark brown jeans came and sat down beside him. "I was about to go and kick Terrance right in his nuts for knocking you hard." he sat down beside Daniel. "On second thought, I shouldn't blame him though...it was his first time to guard the door...and he's a 'jumpy' type. There's only one rule about this guy...don't touch him."

Daniel stared at the man blankly and then glanced around the room. There were a few people in white lab coat and white uniform around the corner, talking quietly to each other. Everybody looked so tense, especially to guard who was watching the entrance. People. PEOPLE! I'm not alone here! ...but he was still in this same building filled with those flesh-eating creatures. At least...he wasn't alone anymore.

"Who...who are you?" Daniel decided talk after a brief silence. "Geez, where were my manners?" the man looked embarrassed. "Allan J. Miller. You can just call me Allan." he extended his hand at Daniel. Daniel couldn't remember when was the last time he shake hands with someone. He shook Allan's hand...and noticed that the wound on his own arm was completely gone. "N-nice to meet you." Daniel stuttered, still feeling a bit dizzy. "Same here. So what's your name, kiddo?" Allan asked. Daniel was about to reply when-

"He's Dr. Curien's little brat!" a male researcher hissed when he heard Allan's question. Allan stared at him. "Anthony! What on earth was that for?! He's just a kid." "He's nothing but a heap of trouble! A freaking trouble!" another researcher cut him off. "Lance!...What-what on earth is wrong with you people?!" Allan turned around and faced those researchers. Sarah, Stephen and Terrance were looking at Allan but they kept quiet. "It's obvious here! When that four-eyed monster brought that brat of his here, lots of stuff happened and he kept beating the crap out of everyone. Heh! Then he started to go crazy and brought these dead freaks here, yammering about stuff that will change the future. That freak did all of this because of that brat!"

Monster? Freak?! Anger flared up in Daniel's eyes...but at the same time, he was confused. Why were they mad about his father? All he knew was that his father is a good person. How DARE they called his father a monster?! "Stop it! All of you!" from the tone of her voice, everyone could tell that Sarah had heard enough. Stephen also looked like he was about to explode. "Can't you people just give him a break? He went through hell down there and you kept hammering his head with all of that $&|^!" Terrance looked at Sarah with his mouth opened. 'Oh God...did she just swear?' he thought. "You're also hit by this and you sided with him?!" Anthony spat.

"Enough! Why can't you just look at this from his perspective?! He was in coma when he was brought here! He didn't know what happened!" Stephen blurted out. Coma? Why did his father brought him here if he was in coma? Shouldn't he send his son to the hospital? Daniel was completely confused. "Well sooner or later...wait. You 'over-protective' jerks can tell him what happened to his insane father now!" Lance scoffed. Daniel had it. "My father is not insane!" "Well, he was, you son of a-OW!" the guard hit Anthony with his baton, shutting him up. Everybody stopped talking when they saw the guard. "I went inside the 'detention' room to gagged Bob's mouth and I came out to see you morons bickering loudly to each other. Do I have to remind you chickens that we're still here in this Hell Hole?! We need to work together to find the way out of here alive, not whining like a bunch of grandmas!". Nobody spoke anything afterwards.

A few hours later, Daniel was still sitting in his corner, trying to stay calm after watching Allan and Sarah argued with Anthony. Those guys called his father a monster... Daniel was furious. How could they say such things about his father? While he was pondering, Allan sat beside Daniel again. ...Daniel needed answers..."Allan?" "Hmm?" "...What happened here? How did you guys end up here?" Daniel kept his voice low so those people couldn't hear him. Allan winced a bit. "I really don't know what exactly happened. I came here to visit my wife. Everything was alright until...the alarm rang and the security guards told us to leave. Everybody panicked. Those 'things' came out of nowhere and kill everyone on sight. They blocked the way out... Thanks to Robert, he led the rest of us up here...the only place in this facility that is safe." "Robert?" Allan pointed to the guard. "That's him. The big tough security guard…he was the only one left. His friends were either got eaten or got shredded to pieces…"

"What were they doing here?" Daniel asked. Allan simply shrugged. "My wife didn't say much about it. She only said that they were here to research about something that Dr. Curien was working on…" Daniel sank his head on his hands and sighed. Allan seemed to notice that. "...but mostly... they're here to help you recover." Daniel looked surprised. "...help me?" Allan nodded. "You heard Stephen, right? Dr. Curien brought you here and asked them to help you. My wife said that they almost lost you many times and Dr. Curien was furious." 'So, that's how I came here.' Daniel thought. '...but why here?'.

"Allan?...Is my father here?" Daniel wanted to ask that question before the arguing happened. Allan furrowed and looked away from him. "He's...not here." that was his answer. "Where is he? What happened to him? I want to know why everyone...hate him so much?" he almost cried when he ask. Allan didn't answer. He looked at Stephen and Sarah with pleading expression as if he was asking for their help. "Allan, what happened to him?" Daniel was getting agitated. When Stephen and Sarah saw the situation, they came in and sat beside them. "What happened to my father?" he was demanding for an answer. Allan was getting nervous...

"Just tell him, Allan. He has to know." Sarah spoke up. "But...he's still a kid..." "He has to know what really happened, Allan..." ...Allan shook his head. "I can't..." he turned away, not facing the disappointed boy. "Fine...I'll tell him myself." Stephen faced Daniel. There was a hint of sadness in his eyes when he spoke to Daniel...

"Kid...your father died two years ago..."

The whole room was deadly silent as if there was no one there. Daniel was very stiff as if he stopped breathing...for a moment. "...what?" he croaked. Allan stood up and left, didn't want to hear the rest. Sarah sighed quietly as Stephen continued...

"You were sick, kid. So bad that the doctors said you won't recover. Your father didn't want that so he brought you here. You were placed in the 'Priority Alpha' Section...that was where your father brought most of us in. He worked on something else too, claiming that it'll 'change the future'...I don't really know. But after that, he began to visit you less often...and every time he visited you...he was different. A few years later, we heard the incident in Curien mansion that most of the researchers were killed...including your father."

"At first we decided to get you out of the Priority Alpha...but our CEO insisted that we should continue helping you. It was your father's wish after all... and we did it. But now, we're stuck here with these monsters and the remaining researchers blamed your father for them...these corpses were apart of that he was secretly working on...the one that he claimed to change the future...that's why they called him insane..." ...No...No...NO! Daniel shook his head. This can't be true... "What...what is this year?" he asked softly...through the sound of sniveling. "It's 2000 now, kid. You were brought here on 1994." Sarah answered, her eyes filled with sympathy when Daniel buried his face in his hands and let out a soft cry.

The last thing he remembered was talking to his father...and he was so scared. Then, everything went black...quiet...and hard to breathe... The next thing he knew, he woke up to this forsaken place and learnt that his father was dead...He'll never see him again..."Sorry, kid...but that really happened..." That was all Stephen could say. He wasn't a good at comforting other people, Daniel could tell. Sarah tugged Stephen's shirt. "Let's go, Stephen...just...give him some time..." Before they stood up, Sarah left an old brown notebook beside Daniel and left with Stephen.

'If this is a nightmare...' Daniel thought '...I want to wake up...'. The cruel woman's voice was faintly heard...laughing at him like she always did...

"I told you, my dear child...He's not here..."

Year: 1989

...There were lots of people around the pharmacy, looking at something. There were police officers as well. Authorities weren't always a pleasant sight for him. "What happened?" he heard someone asked the police. "There was a madman who barged in to the pharmacy and started shooting everything." the police explained to the civilian. "Most of the civilians inside weren't injured...but the madman didn't stop there. He tried to get the locket from a woman but she fought back..." Locket? Dr. Curien froze. The policeman shrugged. "We got a call and tried to get here as fast as we could but by the time we got here..." he pointed at the body on the ground... "...She was...shot."

That was when he saw her...lying on the ground in the pool of blood... Dr. Curien dropped on his knees with tears ran down his face.

"...No..."

"Dearest, you're now dead

...and I am afraid...

To be all alone...

...in this empty zone..."

Author's notes: ...Ok, my other attempt to make a sad atmosphere...and I lack (a lot of) vocabularies... It's way long...and I'll spoil to you that the next chapter is going to be about this long...or longer...well, I have to stick with the plan...[Dang it, Grammar! I loathe you...so much it hurts. Oh, well, more practice for me...]

Thanks for the views and the reviews again.