Disclaimer: I do not own anything that is related to House of the Dead. (With all due respect, I don't own it...)
Chapter 11
"Farewell, blissful past
I know it won't last
Hello, cursed future
Full of dead creatures..."
Year: 1998 [Curien Mansion]
Both agents stood on top of the balcony looking at the sky. The so-called masterpiece of Dr. Curien was finally destroyed. Too bad that the crazed scientist...Roy...was killed before Rogan could arrest him. Sophie...Rogan didn't want to think about that... G and Rogan left the mansion. G was about to enter the car when he saw his partner suddenly ran back to the mansion. "What the-?! Rogan!" G ran after him.
'I could swear that I heard her voice calling...' Rogan pushed the door open...he froze. G ran in with his gun ready in his hand. He suddenly stopped and was shocked at what he saw.
Sophie Richards...was still alive. She looked alright...except that terrible looking wound at her right side.
"Sophie..." Rogan hugged her...and sighed in relief. Sophie sobbed. "...Thank you for coming back for me..." she buried her face in his coat. G lowered his gun and smiled. At least Rogan's fiancé survived...Rogan won't have to feel bad like G when he couldn't rescue Varla in time...
The remaining undead from the sewers climbed up the bridge and came after them. Rogan and Sophie saw them. G was already shooting them down. "Do you have an extra gun?" Sophie smirked and extended her hand out to Rogan. He grinned and gave her an extra handgun. The three of them shot the undead down and ran to the car.
"Let's go!"
"I watch you, dead world
All terror unfurled
I looked upon you
There's nothing I can do..."
Year: 2003
The silver being frowned at something. It looked very upset.
HOSTILES DETECTED. IDENTIFYING... AMS Agents. AGENT KATE GREEN. THREAT LEVEL: Medium. AGENT "G". THREAT LEVEL: EXTREMELY DANGEROUS.
MAGICIAN type 0 CLONNING COMPLETION 87%...
"Interlopers...are unacceptable." said the silver being. INITIATING MAGICIAN type 0 IN 20 MINUTES...
The screen showed the location of the subject and thousands of those dead corpses walking around another place. Another place...another place infested with these monsters... '...Is that Venice?!' Daniel peered at the screen. All the destruction and dead bodies on the ground spooked him out. The screen suddenly shutted down when there was a man in blue suit and a woman in red jacket appeared in the screen. The silver being was staring blankly at Daniel.
"Everything is going according to the plan. You are now safe. Eliminating the 'threat' is now the main objective." "Threat?" Daniel didn't like what he heard. His eyes locked on the being and it gave him a stern look. "What threat?" Daniel asked even though he knew what would be the answer. The screen in front of him opened again and showed the video of the civilizations around the world under attack. There were people running away from the similar monsters in the facility. The screen zoomed to all the civillians. "Humans." The being answered, pointing at the screen.
"What?!" Daniel gasped. The being ignored Daniel's reactions and averted its gaze on something else. "This is not unexpected that you will not understand my objective." "Aren't I a human being?" Daniel winced. Then there was a scary thought. If he isn't a human being...then what is he?! "You are far superior than them." the silver being didn't give him a direct answer. "These imperfect beings called 'humans' are not aware that they are causing problems to the world... This world is overpopulated by them. This is not a world for the perfect beings. They must be destr-"
"Stop it! You can't do this! You can't just-..." Daniel blurted out, hands clutched in to fists. This silver being kept talking about perfect beings but Daniel couldn't understand it. What did it mean when it said 'perfect'? More importantly...what made it think that it can do this? "What are you?!"
The being glowered. The lights in the chamber seemed to flicker and the entire chamber got warmer within seconds. The dead guard looked scared as it backed away from the containment. That was unlike Robert.
The being identified itself. "I am the creator of the new world...The endless cycle of life and death...The hope of all perfect beings...The overseer of every life form that walks on this planet...I am the Wheel of Fate."
That name was familiar although Daniel couldn't tell where he heard about it. Suddenly, many hidden screens from the walls flipped open, showing each section in the facility and revealing what was happening to the world. Daniel glanced from one screen to another...and realized that it had been watching the world and this entire facility the whole time. It was playing God...taking away lives and making new ones from those corpses.
"N-no..." Daniel froze. The whole world turned in to a new level of nightmare. It turned in to something else that he didn't recognize at all. Perfect world, the Wheel of Fate claimed... Perfect Hell. "W-why?...Why did you-" he stammered. The Wheel of Fate blinked. "Why?...For you, of course." it replied. "What?!" That caught Daniel off guard. It continued "The world's current problems are beyond control. Destruction is the only way to erase all of them and let the perfect world rise from its ashes. You...belong in the new world that I will create."
"You're making a new hell on earth. I won't stay in it." Daniel hissed at it. A glimpse of anger flashed in its eyes. "You will not survive with out my help. You need me, Daniel." "...and who says I need you? You're no different than the other creatures in this place. I should have realized that." Daniel turned away from the being.
"You will not leave this facility, Daniel. There's a reason for you being here and I will not let you to simply walk away." "Yeah?! Watch me leave!" Daniel walked towards the door...but Robert suddenly blocked the way out and snarled menacingly. Daniel took a step back. The Wheel of Fate stared at Daniel with fury. "Oh, I highly doubt that. You can try but I am certain that you can't run from a dead guard..." The Wheel of Fate smirked. "...or to be precise...you can't outrun Death..."
Death. That was probably the most terrifying name around and it fitted Robert's grim appearance. He stared at Daniel with plain white eyes. The Wheel of Fate was right. He couldn't run away from a dead guard. He knew every inch of this facility so there was absolutely no way to outrun him.
"Don't even try to contact anyone outside like others...any attempt to make contact is futile." The last hope from getting help from the outside world was taken away but it wasn't quite surprising since the world is in chaos. Those words rang a bell. "You...jammed the signal in Allan's cellphone, didn't you...?" It just stared at him. Daniel just presumed that means 'yes, it did'.
The screen flared red and the Wheel of Fate seemed to be very disappointed.
SUBJECT: MAGICIAN type 0. STATUS: DESTROYED. HOSTILES: AGENT KATE GREEN and AGENT "G". HOSTILES' STATUS: MINOR INJURIES. OTHER HOSTILES DETECTED...CONFIRMED. AMS AGENTS. INITIATE ALL SUBJECTS IN 2 MINUTES...
While the Wheel of Fate was still distracted by the hostiles known as AMS, Daniel slowly moved towards the panel to disable its commands when Death grabbed his neck and pinned him against the wall. The Wheel of Fate stared at Daniel. "What a shame. I did you a favor...yet you are not even grateful about it." "By...k-killing everything on...s-sight?! Y-you call that a...favor?!" Daniel choked out as Death tighten his grip around his neck. An electrical wave ran through the floor and shocked Death making it howled in pain. It released its grip from Daniel. "If you harm him again, I'll disintegrate you in to a pile of ashes." The Wheel of Fate hissed.
"You cannot stop me, Daniel...and you never will." Daniel couldn't agree more on that. He can't stop the Wheel of Fate with Death around. Even if Death wasn't around, he had no idea how to destroy it if he disrupted its program. In short...he couldn't destroy it alone. He pressed himself against the wall...the feeling of hopelessness was killing him slowly.
There was nothing he can do...
...Year: 2019
Many years passed and Daniel began to lose hope. The last time he saw the sun was ten years ago. Thanks to those darn vultures that kept flying around the facility, Daniel couldn't go out to even have a glimpse of the sky. Heck, they even waited for him in front of the door. It was a torture to be in this place like a prisoner.
There were times that he wanted to kill himself...but he didn't. Who would stop the Wheel of Fate? ...but then, no one will anyway. Death never let Daniel out of its sight anyway so it can stop Daniel from killing himself. No one would come here to help. Nobody knows that he was here. He doubted there are any human left at this point with those monsters walking around the world, killing everything on sight.
Speaking of monsters, the Wheel of Fate seemed to change them. They didn't attack Daniel when he was spotted in the hallway. In fact, they even backed away from him when he passed by but he could tell from their eyes that they wanted to devour him, especially the cryo-lifs...those scrawny blue creatures that butchered the survivors.
The Wheel of Fate didn't change that much. It still have that same humanoid features with silver complexion and spikes from its elbows. There were metallic spikes hidden around the chamber. He saw them a few years earlier. It was making something sinister no doubt. It stared at Daniel whenever he passed by. Daniel had been watching it since then. It never showed Daniel what happened to the world again after 2003. What appeared on those screens were mostly about the previous monsters that were defeated by a group of agents called...AMS. Daniel just assumed that they are all dead now.
Daniel didn't know why he always comes back to this room in the hallway... The same room that the survivors hid from the horrors around the facility. Even though he knew that they died years ago, he still went back to that same place where he found them. Those researchers... Terrance, Sarah, Stephen...and Allan. He kept telling himself that they're gone but he didn't know why he always went there. There was that feeling that he expect to see them there, waiting for him... It must be loneliness. The blood stains on the floor faded away as years passed but the echoes of their screams were still there. The room was almost empty. There were a few chairs and a dusty desk at the corner of the room.
Daniel sat at the corner of the room. He thought he saw Allan covered in blood at the other corner, staring at him. He must be going crazy... Daniel sighed and shut his eyes.
...bang...bang...bang...
At first he thought that he was just hearing things but then...he realized that those noises are real. Guns.
They were getting louder and louder until he heard the scream. 'There are people in here?!' Daniel got up and ran down the hallway. When he passed the hallway, he saw dead monsters. A short glance on their body showed that they were shot. He also saw a dead commando that he didn't recognize. Daniel followed the trail of dead bodies and realized that they led to the Wheel of Fate's chamber. He ran back to the chamber as fast as he could. That person didn't know that Death was guarding the chamber.
When Daniel finally reached the place, he was already too late. Another commando lied on the floor, presumably dead. A man in brown jacket was knocked unconscious by Death. Death was about to hit him again with the club. There was only one thing that Daniel could think of. He rushed in and stopped in front of the man. The club almost hit Daniel. Death stared at Daniel, confused.
"Stay away from him." Daniel said with a stern voice. The Wheel of Fate was fumed. "What are you doing?! Step aside, Daniel!""No!" "STEP ASIDE...NOW!". "Make me."
The tension in the room made Death growled menacingly and it raised the club up high, ready to hit Daniel. Daniel didn't run away. "You can't hurt me." he spoke. Death stared at Daniel for a long time. Finally, it backed away and left the chamber. Daniel turned around and looked at the man. He was badly injured. "Why are you helping an inferior being, Daniel? He's no use to you and I." The Wheel of Fate sounded mad when he asked. "He is NOT an inferior being. You are." Daniel hissed. The Wheel of Fate glowered.
Daniel moved closer to the unconscious man. He slowly came to conscious and saw Daniel in front of him. His eyes went wide in surprise. "...You!" he gasped. "You're-". He seemed to recognize Daniel. "It's alright, sir. You're sa-" Daniel stopped dead when the man aimed the shotgun at him. "Back off, Curien!" he barked. Daniel blanched. "W-wait! I-I just wanted to help-"
The man pulled the trigger.
(Back in 2000 in Goldman's office...)
"First off, I just wanted to congratulate you. Don't worry, it's not my wish to destroy the world with nuclear missiles. I don't want to kill all humans. I merely wish to revert them to their natural state... However, Pandora's box has been opened. There's nothing I can do to stop it." Goldman stood up and turned to the window behind his desk. "If you were able to make it this far, there is yet still hope..."
He watched his beloved world and the city in ruins and sighed. Humans have done so much damage to this beautiful world... They'll soon pay for what they've done. The recording was almost done...but there was something he need to tell those meddling agents...If they survive the Emperor's wrath and the coming event that he had set...He hoped that they would understand his intention.
Then he remembered... There was somebody trying to call him a few weeks ago but the signal was lost. Took him a while to track it but he finally found the location where the call was made... The EFI Research Facility... He was glad to know that the rest of his researchers are still alive in there along with Dr. Curien's main project and his precious little boy... safe and sound. That...was what he will tell them...to give them hope after the 'new' world.
"Ah, yes, there's one thing I almost forgot. The human race has not been eliminated." Goldman turned to the recorder on his desk. He knew that the end is coming. The AMS agents couldn't be far. Goldman smiled to the recorder as he gave the final message.
"Travel north... Hope is such a splendid thing..."
Author's notes: I know that the recording is in the fourth installment but come to think about it...I think Goldman recorded that in 2000. Well...he said that 'everything is set' all the time and 'all he has to do is wait'.
I have no excuses...This story was way longer than expected. Sorry to keep you guys waiting. I might write something about Curien's notes later...I 'might', since everyone seemed to wonder what's in there...
Thanks for the views and reviews as always.
