DISCLAIMER: Only Timmy is mine. Everyone else belongs to Visceral Games and EA.
Bold and Italics- Third-person POV
Italics- Isaac's POV
"Run, Timmy!" I shouted as the Brute continued to charge, but Timmy must have been too scared to move. The Necromorph continued to accelerate towards us as it let out an ear-splitting roar. All around us, the doors closed and locked, signifying another quarantine.
"Shit!" I cursed, racing forward and using Stasis on the Brute. In a flash of blue light, it slowed down, though it still charged towards Timmy. As soon as the Stasis kicked in, Timmy opened his eyes and ran behind the Brute in order to get out of harm's way. Throughout the whole ordeal, I noticed the pulsing yellow bulbs on its arms, and I began to shoot at those with the Plasma Cutter while Timmy burned it from behind.
"Hey, Isaac!" Timmy shouted, "There's no armor on its back!"
"That's what Hammond just told me now!" I cried, "Keep torching him! I'll get him from the front!"
However, the Stasis eventually wore off, and I felt the Brute slam into me, knocking me back quite a few feet. "Isaac!" I heard Timmy shout from behind the hulking Necromorph, "Are you okay?"
"Ow," I mumbled to myself, rubbing my back as I stood up. My body ached all over, and I was surprised the Brute didn't break any of my bones after charging like that. It was a good thing I had upgraded my health before!
While the Brute stepped back for a minute, I spotted Timmy running towards me from behind the beast, and he held a hand out to help me up. "Are you all right, man?" he asked, his voice full of concern.
I nodded, wincing at the pain in my chest. "I'm fine," I assured him, "I'll be all right."
The Brute roared again as it charged, and I used Stasis again to buy us some time. I ran around to the back this time and shot at the yellow bulbs on its legs while Timmy worked on the arms this time. After a while, it curled up into a defensive ball, giving us an even bigger advantage. While we were in the middle of shooting and flaming it, it roared, leaped up again, and rammed into Timmy this time, sending him flying back into some of the control panels. "Shit," the teenager cursed, "You weren't kidding, Isaac. This beast is brutal!" He staggered to his feet again, and we both replenished our health quickly.
I shot the Brute in the arms a few more times before it finally went down, leaving five thousand credits in its place. "Quarantine lifted," a voice announced, unlocking all the doors again. Before we moved on, Timmy and I both reloaded our weapons.
Timmy took some deep breaths. "Holy shit," he gasped, "I hope we don't run into one of those things again!"
"I hope we don't, either," I agreed, "Wait here. I'm going to activate the Atrium Elevators." He looked shaken, but he nodded all the same, holding out his flamethrower in front of him.
I headed inside the Security Station, but as I did, the monitors up ahead flashed, and suddenly, Nicole's face appeared before my eyes.
"Isaac," she pleaded, "Make us whole again."
"Nicole!" I cried, running towards the monitors, but she disappeared without saying much else. Nicole, I thought, Hang in there. I'm coming.
This was the second time she had contacted me. This video log reminded me of the other message I had received from her on the Engineering Deck.
"Isaac…Isaac, where are you?" she had said that time, "It's me. Nicole."
She sounded well, which made me feel relieved. But why wasn't she telling me where she was? If I knew her exact location, I would be able to find her much faster.
I remembered the look Timmy had given me in the Control Room after Nicky's first message, when he had taken his helmet off for a second. He had stared at me as if I was a new Necromorph he had never seen before. Why had he looked at me like that? I was only trying to reunite with my girlfriend. What was so wrong about that?
Shaking my head, I moved forward and activated the elevators, and then to my relief, I spotted a bench. I quickly upgraded my Stasis Module and Pulse Rifle before collecting more items and deciding to move on.
"Hey, Timmy," I said, approaching him, "Did you want to upgrade your flamethrower before we moved on?"
"Oh!" he gasped, "Sure, Isaac. I won't be too long." He saluted me and ran into the Security Station where the Bench was, and I sighed. That boy always seemed to bounce back and forth between being the most arrogant person I'd ever met to being really caring and nice. Why was he fluctuating like that?
Whatever. I had to find Nicole. That was all that mattered. She was clearly around here somewhere, and once I found her, I would try and fix things with her once and for all.
While I was at the bench, I had decided to upgrade not only my flamethrower, but my health as well. I would need to be able to take more damage from enemies like the Brute.
Once I was finished, I met up with Isaac again, and we made our way into the now functioning elevator. On the floor was a video log, which Isaac immediately picked up and began to play as we rode the elevator down to the next area. The scene that unfolded in front of us was not what we were expecting at all.
In the video, two men were holding another man back, while someone was standing in front of the restrained man. "This is mutiny!" he snapped, "You'll all be tried for mutiny! Kyne, make them listen to reason!"
"Dr. Kyne!" I cried out loud, recognizing Terrence Kyne as the man facing the other three. Resentment boiled under my skin.
"You know him?" Isaac asked.
"Y-yeah," I answered in a short tone, "I know him."
"Shh," the engineer whispered as the video log continued.
"Settle down, then," Kyne ordered, "Hold him." He marched forward, and it looked like he was carrying something in his hand.
"By Maritime Law Article 54-69, I hereby declare Captain Benjamin Matthius unfit for duty." So that must have been what he was doing after he left me to Mercer!
"The Marker…must be delivered to the church!" Matthius pleaded, "Terrence, please!"
Kyne turned away from him and caressed the syringe in his hands. "I'm sorry, Ben," he apologized in a low voice, "But I can't let you do this."
"Uh oh," Isaac muttered while I just watched with dread.
Matthius looked pissed off from his end. "Traitor!" he snapped, "Heretic!"
"Hold his head," Kyne said to the two men holding the captain back.
"MURDERER!"
"Hold him!" Isaac and I watched as Kyne moved forward to stick the needle into Matthius's neck. However, a fight ensued after that, with the captain trying to get away from Kyne and the other two men that were holding him. The screen went to static for a second before going back online, and by the time it did, we noticed that Kyne had stabbed Matthius in the eye.
"Oh, shit!" I cursed in shock. Kyne is crazier than I thought he was! I thought as we watched Matthius slump to the ground. The other two men let go of him, and Kyne seemed horrified at what had just happened.
"He's…he's dead!" one of them gasped.
Kyne shook his head insistently. "N-no," he stammered, "It was an accident! I-I had to stop him!"
"Arrest the doctor!" the other man ordered as the video log ended.
As it finished, the elevator doors opened in front of us. "All right, that was just crazy!" I commented.
"Tell me about it," Isaac agreed, "This is getting weirder every minute. How do you know Dr. Kyne, though?"
I paused for a minute. "He was helping me to escape," I explained, "And he suddenly abandoned me to go find someone named Amelia." I shrugged. It was the best answer I could give without revealing too much personal information.
"Amelia," Isaac echoed, "We should try and find her, too, while we're here." I nodded and went ahead to the Save Station, and then watched as Isaac continued onward to the Storage Room, killing another Necromorph before gesturing to me.
"It looks like some of the gravity plating is malfunctioning," Kendra suddenly reported to us through an audio log, "Keep an eye out for any kind of distortion effect coming from the floor. It could be dangerous."
"Aww," I cooed sarcastically, "You've actually taken time out of arguing with Hammond to care about us!" I knew Isaac hated it when I did that, but I just couldn't resist; there was something about Kendra that just didn't sit right with me. And not just because she rejected my advances on the Engineering Deck.
Although we couldn't see Kendra, I was sure she was rolling her eyes. "Timmy," she growled, "You are a piece of work."
"Why, thank you," I replied sweetly, causing her to growl and sign offline.
"Why do you do that?" Isaac asked as we tiptoed through this next area.
"Do what?" I asked, facing him.
"Do that! Go from being really arrogant and crass to being really nice?"
Before I could answer, we suddenly heard something roar, and through the grating, we could see a monster on the other side trying to make its way towards us. A low humming noise greeted us, and when we rounded the next corner, we saw some of the plates in the floor emit a strange light.
"Those must be the distortions in the floor," Isaac whispered to me, "Be careful where you walk." I nodded, keeping my back flat against the wall as I tiptoed past the first distortion. Suddenly, the Slasher we had seen before appeared, but before it could attack, it stepped into one of the distortions and shot up to the ceiling with a sickening thud.
"Yikes," I gasped, looking away and closing my eyes, "That is brutal."
"Careful." We moved on, watching as more of the enemies accidentally stepped into more of the distortions. At least we wouldn't have to waste our ammo on them.
"Come on," the engineer whispered after using Kinesis to move some crates and refilling his Stasis Module.
As we arrived in the next area, however, a familiar banging noise echoed around us. "Damn," I hissed, "Why does that sound familiar?"
Boom! The walls up ahead broke, and another Brute emerged, roaring at the top of its lungs. "Another one?" Isaac shouted, using Stasis to slow down the hulking Necromorph as it charged towards us.
Isaac ran around to the back, shooting the Brute in its back while I torched the arms. After a few rounds of hitting it while it was curled into a defensive ball, it went down, leaving behind a Power Node in its place. That Brute seemed much easier than the other one we had encountered. Once it was dead, we heard repeated popping sounds, and when we went to investigate, we encountered some wires that were whipping back and forth out of control. I gulped.
"Wait here," Isaac commanded, and I stayed put as he sprinted towards the out of control wires. Using Stasis on them, he slowed them down, ran towards the Control Panel up ahead, and activated it.
"Power transferred to the ADS," a voice announced.
A vacuum and three ADS control boxes later…
"Asteroid Defense System Now Online," we heard the computer echo once Isaac finished activating the last one.
"All right," Hammond announced, radioing in to us, "We've got enough power, but the ADS cannon's auto-targeting is down. I think it's a faulty data cable. I need you two to aim the cannon manually until I can replace it. Take the elevator to the top of the ship, and head for the cannon pit."
"Got it," Isaac replied, "Thanks, Hammond."
"Lead the way," I said, gesturing with my gloved hand, and Isaac directed us to the elevator in the corner. As we got on and made our way up a few floors, I thought about what Isaac asked me before and took a deep breath.
"You know how they say 'nice guys finish last'?" I began, "That's why I do what I do."
Isaac shook his head. "Don't tell me you believe that," he said.
I nodded. "It's pretty much been hammered home to me for my whole life," I explained, "By my friends. At least…the few that I…I have." I trailed off, refusing to go into more detail as Hammond sent us another message.
"Isaac, Timmy," he announced, "You're going to have to cross the ship's exterior to reach the ADS cannon. Problem is, we're still getting bombarded by asteroids. Look for cover or else you'll both get torn to pieces."
"You know how to say things bluntly," I commented.
"Would you rather find out about this the hard way?" Hammond fired back.
"No," Isaac jumped in, "We appreciate the advice. Even if Timmy doesn't think so."
"Be careful, boys. Let me know when you reach the cannon." He hung up.
"You've got a lot to learn about working with people, Timmy," Isaac commented as we sprinted over to a circular door leading to the ship's exterior.
I laughed harshly. "I was never much of a team player," I replied.
Before the engineer could comment, a voice announced, "Entering vacuum. Entering zero gravity." And with that, the sound disappeared, which forced us to communicate nonverbally once again.
"Warning! Multiple impacts detected across the starboard hull!"
Oh, God, I thought, following Isaac as he took cover behind a metal stand. Above us, the asteroids sailed, slamming into the ground in quiet explosions. I still wasn't used to the zero-g and vacuum environments. When would I ever be?
Once the asteroids were finished with their impacts, Isaac tapped me on the shoulder, and I nodded and followed him to the next metal stand, where we crouched down and waited for the next batch of asteroids to pass by. This took place for at least another thirty seconds or so, and the two of us were beginning to gasp by the time we arrived at the ADS cannon.
Almost instinctively, Isaac sat down in front of the controls of the cannon, and the large window opened up ahead. "Manual override initiated," the voice rang out as Isaac began shooting at the incoming asteroids. On the right, the hull integrity showed up, starting at 85, and every time an asteroid collided into the ship, this number went down.
For now, though, Isaac seemed to be holding his own, with Hammond assuring him that he was almost finished repairing that faulty cable.
"You've almost got it, Isaac!" I cheered him on enthusiastically, even though his Hull Integrity had decreased to about 46 at this point. No matter, though; he was more than all right. After shooting a few more times, the cannon started taking out the asteroids on its own.
"Automated tracking system initiated."
"You did it!" I exclaimed, high-fiving Isaac in victory, "You're the man!"
"Nice shooting, Isaac," Hammond complimented in agreement, "Auto-targeting is now online and clearing a path to safe orbit. As soon as we're clear, I'll engage the autopilot again. Head to the tram station, and I'll meet you there when I'm done." Isaac nodded and gestured to me. We were going back to the tram station! Where would we go from here?
God's plan is slowly in motion now, Mercer thought as he stared through some security cameras from his office at the Hydroponics Deck. Hours ago, not only had he dubbed Phase Three as his next experiment, but he had decided to try something else as well. Phase Four, he had called it.
In his eagerness to find as many test subjects as possible, he had kidnapped and murdered eight more crew members and performed experiments on their lungs. He had searched all through Hydroponics; he realized there was something growing inside the Food Storage Chamber. In his eyes, the rest of the people on this ship would die if there was no edible food. Why not speed up the process a little bit? They were all destined to move on to the next life, anyway. And if they didn't see it, he would make them see it.
As the hours passed, Mercer had eventually created a new type of Necromorph: one that wouldn't attack, but would instead poison the air in the area by breathing out of large bulbs on its back. This is brilliant, he thought, sending the eight new Wheezers on their way through capsules he had designed himself in order to override the ship's tram system. He wanted to slowly deteriorate the USG Ishimura and the few people still inside it.
Of course, that had all been hours ago, once he had finished with Phase Three. Now, he was picking up a couple of transmissions from various survivors on the ship. And the best part was, they didn't even realize he was listening in. "Wait!" a woman cried, "Isaac, Timmy, Hammond! You're not going to believe this!"
"What's going on, Kendra?" Isaac asked.
"Oxygen levels are falling!" Kendra reported, "Something's poisoning Hydroponics air production, and whatever it is, it's filling up the deck with that organic stuff! We're not going to have any air to breathe soon!" Mercer smirked to himself.
"Damn!" Timmy cursed, "What do we do now?"
"Let me finish," Kendra commanded, "I was just getting to that. But if I understand these lab reports, I think I can make a poison to destroy it. Head to Medical. It should have everything you need." No! Mercer thought. These pathetic humans would not go on with this. Not if the scientist could help it, anyway.
"Will this never end?" one last voice growled, which Mercer assumed was Hammond, "Isaac, Timmy, get to Medical and mix together whatever Kendra's come up with. I'm heading to Hydroponics. If I can slow it down, that might keep us breathing long enough to fight it." The transmissions ended there.
Mercer had to admit that these people had strong wills. They were willing to fight. Unfortunately for them, their wills to live would not help them soon enough. He would see to that.
So, he thought, heading towards the control panel that controlled all the door locks on the Medical Deck, The engineer and Phase Two are returning here? I will make sure they don't live past my creation. He pressed a few buttons, closing off some of the doors Isaac had passed through the last time he had visited this deck. He then turned his attention back to the cameras, where Isaac and Timmy were running across the Bridge and back to the tram. Timmy had removed his helmet for a minute, and it was clear from the look on his face that he was reluctant to return to the Medical Deck. Phase Two, he thought, I knew you would return.
The tram slowed down and came to a stop back in the Medical Deck once more, and Isaac and I decided to disembark. Something didn't seem right about this after what we had just gone through in the last section. As soon as I realized we were returning here, I just wanted to climb back into the tram and just go straight to Hydroponics. But I knew it would be wrong to leave Isaac here after everything we've been through.
Suddenly, Kendra appeared on the live feed. "Shit," she cursed, "Isaac, Timmy! I can smell the contaminated air from here! It's spreading faster than I expected! I'm trying to isolate it, but it's not going to buy us much time! We have to get that thing off this ship!"
"No, shit," I muttered under my breath, earning what I guessed was a glare from both Isaac and Kendra.
"Anyway," Kendra continued, "The chemicals you need are in the Chemistry Lab. I'll hack the door when you get there."
"Thanks, Kendra," Isaac thanked her.
"Bye, Kendra!" I called out, waving. After giving me a disapproving look, Kendra went offline. I shrugged when Isaac just stared at me.
"What?" I asked.
"Let's just move," Isaac suggested, leading me through the dark hallways as he stopped at a store and broke open some crates. There were open body bags on the floor, which made me feel sick for a minute.
"Oh, God, Isaac," I groaned, "I think I'm going to be sick."
"Just close your eyes and take some deep breaths," Isaac whispered, "You're doing good so far."
"Surprisingly," I added as we opened the next door ahead of us and caught sight of a silhouette.
"Is that a person?" I asked.
"I don't think so," Isaac replied. But as the two of us moved through the room, a voice suddenly echoed from the loudspeakers above us.
"You can't stand in the way of God's plan!" it whispered, "The natural order! Are you…are you blind, like the rest?" I froze where I was as Isaac ran and explored the room some more.
"What the fuck?" I muttered under my breath as Isaac made his way over to me again.
"What's wrong?" he asked, giving me some ammunition to carry.
I couldn't answer at first. I began to shake where I was standing, and my heart rate picked up again, worse than it had in a while. "Timmy?" Isaac asked a little more insistently, "What's the matter?"
"N-nothing," I stammered, "Let's keep going." Oh my God, I thought with dread, That voice sounded like…like Mercer! Shit! Did he find me again, like he promised he would?
"Looks like someone has reprogrammed the door locks on this deck," Kendra's voice announced through our communicators, making me jump a little bit, "And recently, too. I guess we're not alone here, after all. Someone doesn't want you two in this part of the ship." Oh, God, I thought again, swallowing and feeling a lump in my throat.
"Are you sure you're all right, Timmy?" Isaac asked again after typing something into the Save Station and ushering me forward to a newly unlocked door, "You seem shaken."
"I-I'm fine," I insisted, "The Stamford man's always fine, remember?"
"I don't think so. You look rattled this time."
"Don't worry about me, Isaac. I'm okay." Somewhat. Actually, that was a lie. I was not all right. Not by a long shot.
"If you say so," Isaac said, "Let's go. I just killed more Necromorphs up ahead."
"Good," I sighed with relief as I felt more like myself again. I was still rattled, though; what was going to happen to us next?
We passed through another door, where we found a floating explosive in the air. Using his Kinesis Module, Isaac picked up the canister and carried it around the corner.
"AHHHHH!" a familiar voice shrieked, and to my horror, I watched as the all-too-familiar Guardian popped out of the wall in its signature shriek. All I could see in front of me was that doomed crew member, as well as me ducking and avoiding its instant-kill attack.
"Isaac!" I cried in a panic, "Be careful with those Guardians."
The engineer turned to face me incredulously. "You know what these are already?" he asked skeptically, "How?"
I gulped. "I…I heard the name somewhere on the ship," I lied, "Just don't…get too close to them."
"I wasn't going to, anyway."
I gaped at him. "You weren't?" I asked in surprise.
"No. Something's telling me to get this one from a distance."
"Good idea." I stepped behind Isaac and watched as he hurled the canister at the Guardian and killed it instantly.
"Whew," I sighed, wiping my forehead, "Thank God that's dead."
"Come on!" Isaac said to me, hurrying me along to the cargo lift to the upstairs floor. In front of us, the platform to get across to the other side was going haywire, and after Isaac killed some more monsters, I grinned, suppressing my anxiety and glancing at the engineer.
"So," I began, "Do you know how to get around this, too?"
"Yep," Isaac replied as he used Stasis on the platform. Once we were on the other side, I began to laugh again.
"You know something? I like you, Isaac," I commented, "And you've got the coolest weapons ever." Damn straight, I added as a silent afterthought.
Isaac waved a hand in the air, but thanked me all the same. As much as I was jealous of the engineer, I still admired him and thought he was a badass. He seemed modest about the whole thing, though. A lot more modest than I would ever be, and I found that to be strangely refreshing.
After using Stasis for a second time, Isaac received another transmission from Kendra. "You're close to the chemistry station," she announced, "Once you get the chemicals, you're also going to need a DNA sample of the alien tissue. I'll search the records for one."
"Sure thing," Isaac replied, "Let us know what you find."
We made our way down into the Chemistry Lab itself. "Another audio log," Isaac told me.
"Let's see what this one says," I suggested, taking my helmet off for a minute. Isaac picked it up, and the recording began, making me freeze and widen my eyes once more.
"You can't hold me here!" a voice in the background snapped as another voice eclipsed it.
"Personal log, Dr. Challus Mercer," Mercer began, making my heart beat faster, "I now have a live subject in my study. I'm eager to validate my tissue regeneration theory."
"Oh, shit!" Isaac and I cursed at the same time, but for two entirely different reasons. Oh, crap! I thought, Mercer actually found someone else! We fell silent again as the recording continued.
"Initial restraint was problematic, but now the patient is resting comfortably. He trusts me, Dr. Kyne. He puts his life in my hands! He knows his part in all of this. He understands what I'm doing!"
"No! Let me out of here, please!" I winced and closed my eyes at the desperation in this man's voice, and thought about how I was that person a while ago.
"The forehead has been swabbed clean and marked."
"What…what are you doing with that?" Suddenly, we both heard a whirring sound in the background.
"Oh my God!" Isaac petitioned in horror, and I was too rattled to respond. A lump was beginning to form in my throat.
"And now, I am attempting to create a passage to insert the sample tissue into…"
"No! NO! AHHHHHHHHH!" The whirring got louder and louder as the screams became more desperate to the point where I couldn't control myself anymore.
"Fuck!" I cursed, "FUCK!" I grabbed the audio log out of Isaac's hand and threw it across the hallway, effectively smashing it.
"Timmy!" Isaac cried, floored.
"NO, NO, NO!" I shouted. The guilt was too much, and the throbbing pain in my arm suddenly returned after hearing that. For the first time in a while, I began to cry, something that I didn't want Isaac to see. I couldn't help it, though; that voice earlier, and this audio log brought back horrible memories of hours ago. Isaac continued to stare at me as I cried. I didn't mean to come across as weak, but I had to admit this was a sore point for me. The fact that Mercer actually murdered someone else in cold blood for his purposes made me furious. Now I was glad I had the flamethrower.
"Shh," the engineer next to me whispered, "Everything will be okay. We'll get through this." Granted, he was shaken up, too, but he was better at handling it than I was.
"No," I choked, "No, it won't. I could have saved that man. He could have been living right now if it hadn't been for me!" If I hadn't run away before going back to find some of the others, I thought sadly. I wiped my tears as Isaac rested a hand on my shoulder. He must have been shocked to see me like this.
"What are you talking about?" he asked.
I shook my head. "The Stamford man doesn't want to talk about it right now," I told him, "It's too horrible." Isaac didn't say another word about it, but he silently led me into the Chemistry lab, where another interesting sight greeted us: two Necromorphs were situated side by side in large capsules, and they looked like they were sleeping.
"I don't believe this," I commented out loud as Isaac collected a few items around the room and I put my helmet back on.
"Do you think those are going to wake up when they realize we're in here?" I asked in a shaky voice.
"I doubt it," Isaac replied, tapping the glass on the left, "They seemed pretty knocked out to me." Walking over to the desk in the corner, the engineer pressed a few buttons as a voice echoed through the room.
"Processing request," it said, "Please stand by." As we stood by, we backed up and readied our weapons, just in case there were any unexpected surprises.
"Antigen compound completed. Please remove the capsule."
"Here," Isaac whispered, handing it to me, "Be careful with it." I nodded. However, from behind us, the window suddenly opened, and a voice greeted us.
"What are you doing?" it asked, and we both whirled around to see Dr. Mercer standing on the other side.
"Mercer!" I cried, barging towards the window with Isaac holding me back, but clearly feeling incensed as well. The nutcase didn't seemed fazed.
"Your fight for survival is admirable, but pointless," he said, grinning at us as if he had discovered God himself, "And yet, you keep on going! It almost makes me think that we had hope as a species."
"Shut up!" Isaac snapped, releasing me.
"Am I the only one who sees that we have died out a long time ago? We just haven't accepted it yet." Neither one of us said anything, but I was furious. Thank God Mercer couldn't see the look of rage on my face.
"Stop running. Stop your struggle. Our future, your future, the future of our race ends here! Allow me to introduce you two to humanity's child. The children that will replace us. Our greatest creation."
"Fuck you, Mercer!" I cursed, flipping him the bird, "Fuck you!" Mercer smirked.
"You shouldn't have run, Timothy," he taunted, wagging a finger at me, "You could have been like Phase One and Three. Phase Three is all your fault. And now you will pay the price for your rebellion." Smiling, he walked away. Isaac faced me next.
"How do you know that maniac?" he asked. Before I could answer, we heard something roar as the Necromorph in the right capsule suddenly woke up and broke through the glass with a roar and a bang.
"Phase Three," I whispered, backing away as Isaac switched to his Line Gun and began attempting to dismember the creature. But the more we tried to kill it, the more it continued to regenerate more limbs. I couldn't hear my own cries of shock and guilt over the din. I realized in that moment that this Regenerator was going to be me if I hadn't run away.
"You can't kill it, boys!" Kendra cried frantically, "It's just going to keep regenerating! Get out of there! Run!"
"You heard Kendra!" Isaac shouted at me, "Run!" As soon as the door opened up ahead, the two of us began to run as far away from the Regenerator as possible. It roared from behind us as it gave chase.
"Go, go, go!" Isaac cried as we made our way back the way we came earlier. As we continued to run down the hallway, we received a broken transmission from Hammond, who had reached Hydroponics by now and could barely breathe, and then eventually another one from Kendra.
"Now, you need to find a DNA sample of the growth," she said, "According to lab records, there's an inert sample stored in the ICU. A Dr. Mercer was apparently doing intensive research on it. I've been trying to contact Hammond, but all I'm getting is static! Isaac, Timmy, you've got to hurry!"
"We're trying!" I replied.
"Wait," Kendra piped up suddenly, "What's this? I've got something else here about you, Timmy. I'll be right back." She signed offline, leaving me to wonder what she was looking up.
Along the way, Isaac stopped at a store briefly and began to organize himself while I kept a lookout for the Regenerator.
"I was one of Dr. Mercer's lab rats," I explained to Isaac after taking a deep breath and fiddling with the flamethrower, "That's how I knew him back there." I suddenly had a flashback to the painful slicing he inflicted on my arm.
"You were?" Isaac asked, surprised.
I nodded. "I managed to escape somehow, with Dr. Terrence Kyne's help," I quipped, bitterness creeping into my voice, "Mercer said it would be my fault if anyone else was killed tonight. He also nearly got me killed by one of those Guardians from before. That's how I knew about those, too."
"Timmy," Isaac began, but I cut him off.
"Look," I snapped, "I don't need your support. I just figured you would want the truth. And you want to know why I was following you before, in that room with the quarantine where we first met? I was trying to find Dr. Kyne so I could ask him why he left me with that maniac! What I had to go through with Mercer was the most horrific thing to ever happen to me! And nobody in this God damn shithole can seem to be able to do anything about it!"
"Well, I'm helping you." I just glared at him and moved on, no doubt leaving him annoyed. I was wrong to snap at him the way I did. It was just that I was so furious about my situation.
"Your persistence surprises me," we heard Mercer comment again as we entered the next room, "Holding onto your final breath, you claw your way along. You hold onto what was once your world. But now, it belongs to the children."
"Bullshit!" I cursed, lunging for Mercer from our end, "You can go fucking kill yourself, for all I care!" I felt Isaac rest a hand on my shoulder in an attempt to calm me down. I needed to calm down, or else the Regenerator would find us. Mercer smirked.
"Be glad of the knowledge that your death…will bring their rebirth."
"I don't see you exactly going to get yourself killed, you creep!" I snapped.
"It's not my time yet," Mercer said softly, "But I know it is soon."
"Listen to us," Isaac spoke up in a firm voice, "We've all got to get off this ship! If we don't find a way to escape, we're going to die!" Mercer shook his head, which made us realize he was so psychotic that he wouldn't see human reason anymore.
Boom! "Listen," Mercer whispered, fixing his gaze on Isaac and giving him all the attention now, "Can you hear it? It's coming. Say your prayers." Glaring at us, and giving me the ultimate death stare, he left again as the door in front of us unlocked and we heard the Regenerator roar again.
"Come on!" Isaac shouted, pulling me along as we continued to run. This next room was oddly quiet, for some reason, so we stayed on our feet the whole time.
Grrr! "Isaac?" I asked nervously.
"It'll be fine," he whispered back, moving into a side room with a bunch of lockers. As he did so, something burst through a vent up ahead, and the Regenerator/Hunter appeared, growling and searching for us.
"Isaac!" I repeated, "It's found us!"
"Move!" the engineer cried, pushing past me and using Stasis on the Hunter. While it was slowed down, we took care of the rest of the enemies, one by one until only the Hunter was left. His yellow eyes glowed as he roared and chased us around the room.
"Come on, come on!" Isaac shouted, presumably to Kendra, "Hurry up!"
I glanced at him, and then at the Hunter again as we locked eyes. While Isaac ran around and collected more supplies for us, I kept the Hunter distracted as it ambled towards me. I still couldn't believe Mercer actually went through with his promise that he would kill someone else.
"Timmy!" Isaac cried, attracting both my attention and the Regenerator's attention. I knocked a lab table over in the Necromorph's path and sprinted towards Isaac as we continued to run down the deserted hallways. Up ahead was another Guardian, which Isaac took out with an explosive not unlike the one in the Imaging Diagnostics Room. This whole path was familiar to me, which made me realize where we were about to end up.
"I wish I had a brown paper bag right now," I croaked as we made our way through the doors up ahead and back into Challus Mercer's office.
"God, I never thought I would be back here," I said as Isaac picked up some more supplies for us.
"Did he…?" Isaac started, but didn't finish.
"Hurt me badly?" I finished for him, "I'm still here, aren't I? He did this, though." I removed some of my suit to show him the severe incisions in my arm, where my skin was starting to turn brown, just like Phase One. That was not a good sign.
"Timmy," Isaac gasped. I shook my head.
"He's going to pay for everything he's been doing on the ship," the engineer assured me, "But it looks like he left another audio log." He pressed play, and I closed my eyes, not wanting to hear any of it, but forcing myself to all the same.
"Personal log, Dr. Challus Mercer," the psycho began, "The specimen continues to respond well to my experiments. Its cellular fortitude, not to mention elasticity, is remarkable. Dr. Kyne, I'm sure, would disapprove. But I do not anticipate that issue, as the good doctor is busying himself with the Marker. As if that matters now! He has also succumbed to the same dementia that afflicted the colony. Only yesterday, he told me he'd spoken to his wife…but Amelia Kyne has been dead for some years."
"Amelia!" I gasped, "That was the name Dr. Kyne yelled before leaving me!"
"Shh," Isaac whispered as we heard a low growling in the background, which I assumed was the sign of Phase Three being a success.
"My subject grows restless. Patience. Your time is soon. Very soon." The audio log ended.
"Dementia," Isaac muttered under his breath, "I guess some of the survivors I've met are suffering from the same thing, since the Marker's on the ship."
"Are we suffering from it, too?" I asked worriedly.
"No, we're fine," he assured me, "As long as we remain focused on our task, we'll be fine."
I waited by the door, trying my best not to look around Mercer's sick office, as Isaac mixed the DNA sample with the poison. Once that was finished, Kendra appeared on the live feed.
"That's it, you two," she said, "Now you just need to finish-"
However, a burst of static interrupted her, and Mercer replaced her. "This has gone far enough!" he snapped, "Accept your part in God's plan! Embrace your own extinction!"
"Mercer!" Isaac snapped, but before we knew it, we heard a whooshing sound and suddenly felt lightheaded.
"Warning! Life Support System failure on the Medical Deck! Please evacuate immediately!"
Damn you, Mercer, I thought angrily as Isaac and I found that everything went silent around us.