A/n: here's a fun fact, this story may not be inspired by another one, *cough**cough* 'The Last Man' By lonerangers211, great read *cough**cough*, did I say something? nevermind, without further adieu.
"C'mon, C'mon" A man was desperately trying type in something fast into a computer terminal but making sure not to mess up the code, "yes, Yes, oh god now I need to-"
*BANG*
*BANG*
*BANG*
"Not enough time, uhm oh yes the candidate" the man, now scientist, ran up to a pod containing a specimen, "Yes, are you awake?" the Scientist tapped on the glass to grab the Candidate's attention. The Candidate began to panic and started to squirm in his constricted space.
"I need you to stay calm, there is not enough time on my hands let alone yours if you continue to act like this" immediately the Candidate seized his panicking to slow controlled breaths, "Good, what you are in is a cryo chamber, do you understand what I am saying?" the Candidate nodded, "Great, alright I am going to freeze you and-"
*BANG*
*BANG*
"Running out of time, okay the codes are 3-7-7-3, you got that? Good" the Scientist then hit a large button on the console, "There's nothing you can do for us, just do what comes naturally"
*BANG*
*BANG*
*CLANG*
The scientist looked to the source of the noise to see his death, a group of armed personnel pointed their rifles at the Scientist as the barrel hummed green, the Scientist did not want to go out without a fight. Before their rifles could charge, the scientist pulled out a firearm and shot 3 times, noise rebounding off the walls as his senses were disorientated, but the aggressors were not affected as they shot particle rounds through the Scientist, one through the chest knocking him back, a second hitting his right knee forcing him to crouch and the final shot through the head, killing the Scientist immediately, the Candidate could not help but to see his vision cocooned in ice as the figures walked towards his frozen jail, he couldn't see a single thing, except for green lights until his conscience drifted off, the cryo chamber putting him to sleep.
{/WARNING: POWER IN AUXILIARY GENERATOR HAS REACHED 0%; RELEASING CANDIDATE 5217}
{/DEPRESSURISING CRYO CHAMBER}
{/ADMINISTERING FORMULA 7}
{/CANDIDATE 5217 LIFESIGNS: HEALTHY}
{/OPENING CRYO POD}
Dropping out of a pod, the male dark brown skin with blue eyes in his late twenties hit the floor hard with only fabric softening the fall insignificantly. Blinking for moisturization and coughing for air, the man tried to move his body only succeeding with minor movements. Gradually over time, the man used the cryo pod to stand himself up as he blinked more to adjust his vision, looking at himself he noticed he was in a jumpsuit of some sort, dark red with lining. The Candidate then looked forwards to see the Scientist he saw before he fell asleep only his rotting corpse being his gravestone, the Candidate stumbled forwards towards the body after remembering one detail.
The Candidate stood over the corpse and pulled on the Scientist's right arm to pull up the pistol which was heavy in his weak state but he got used to the weight as he used his second arm to grab the pistol, a Glock 17, recalling his knowledge on firearms, it had 17 rounds minus 3 leaving him with 14 bullets, walking away from the corpse, the Candidate walked over to the broken doorway to where he saw a body with two bullet hole through the chest and one through its eye mask, but the strange thing is that the female body didn't look like it aged a single day, the body only gathered dust and small rubble on its body, he saw the rifle in its hand as he attempted to pick it up but failed due to its weight massively exceeding his strength as he dropped the rifle lightly and ignored it walking away from the body and down the corridor, the only lights flashing red.
The Candidate stopped his pilgrimage when he faced the door with a withered sign that read 'Kiosk', the Candidate gave the sign a weird look at the sign but shrugged it off as he entered what he thought was a small shop filled with cigarettes and newspapers but was wrong, what he saw was a system of shutters with mechanical clamps and actuators.
Walking up to the strange contraption, a keypad was shown and needed 4 digits to be entered the code he vaguely remembered, 7-3-3-7
{/ACCESS DENIED: PLEASE ENTER RIGHT CODE}
The Candidate gave the keypad a look of frustration before forgiving it as he remembered the code, 3-7-7-3
{/ACCESS GRANTED: PLEASE SELECT A SUIT}
The text got the Candidates attention as it came up with 4 variations, Engineer, Assault, Support, and Specialist. Liking the name, the Candidate selected the Specialist.
{/SPECIALIST SUIT SELECTED}
{/LOADING SUIT ABILITIES}
{/ VANGUARD: Has all abilities from suits presented below, further suit abilities can be added at different RIGs: WARNING; ONE SUIT REMAINING}
{/ ASSAULT_ABILITY: Cryo-fist; the Assault Suit's right fist when clenched will create an endothermic reaction that can drop the point of contacts temperature to absolute Zero, if the Subject chooses to open the hand, the endothermic reaction is turned into a projectile to freeze the point of contact that can freeze both organic and inorganic material which can be followed up with any type of force to shatter the point of contact. Requires 3 cells to activate Cryo-fist}
{/ ENGINEER_ABILITY: Gravitational Retraction and Attraction Polarity (G.R.I.P); the Engineer has the ability to support the weight of a minor-class object and medium-class object with a glove slip palm emitter pad located in the left hand the desired object's gravity is presumably nullified and drawn toward the wielder. Small objects will stop about a foot from the pad, suspended in midair, while movable objects like rail pallets and shutters come as close as their connections allow. Deactivation of the Kinesis effect releases the object, leaving it to fall in the direction of the nearest gravitational center of mass. However, reversing the tube's polarity any time after achieving latch-on causes the object to be thrown away from the wielder with a velocity inversely proportional to the distance from the palm emitter pad. Requires 1 cell to G.R.I.P and 1 cell to reverse polarity and launch object}
{/ SUPPORT_ABILITY: Last Stand; the Support has the ability to activate a reaction similar to adrenaline through the subject(s) body and overcharge the user(s) suit battery for 10 seconds, other effects consist of damage reduction by 70%. After activation has ended, subject(s) affected by the Last Stand buff will suffer a reduction in the suit's battery, minimizing the use of abilities, and also damage intake is boosted by 80%}
{/CONFIRM CHOICE}
The Candidate was happy with his choice and so pushed 'Yes'.
{/PLEASE STEP ONTO THE RIG}
The machine hummed to life as small lights were seen in place of the station as the Candidate stepped onto the platform as he was soon cocooned by the contraption as he felt movement all around his body knowing the suit was being equipped.
The Suit Chamber opened up as the Candidate walked forward stepping out of the chamber dressed in the armor, everything in jet black, shoulder pads, a helmet that covered his face acting as a one-way black mirror, armored gloves with two digital chips one his right glove that was icey blue and another on his left which was a crackling white.
The Candidate smiled in his helmet as he grinned at the upgrades, walking out of the chamber, the Candidate returned to the rifle as he picked it up with more ease and used the built-in strap to wrap it on his back but he didn't know about the magnetic locks on his back, surprised by the noise it made him jump, upon landing his foot landed on the leg of the corpse and it is uneven, he fell backward on his ass.
The Candidate tried to swear but nothing came out of his mouth except for air, confused the Candidate tried to speak again and again, and again but nothing came out, he knew it wasn't anything to do with moisture as his mouth was salivated but any attempt to speak was met with pathetic exhales of air.
The Candidate waved his arms in frustration for the inability to speak as he punched the female body with his right fist breaking its skin.
The Candidate noticed one thing about the body's skin breach wires, using the newfound power he picked up the carcass by the neck, froze it and squeezed breaking the neck exploding with improvised shrapnel.
Looking at the corpse, he saw the bundle of wires covered in the artificial blood as he pulled out the circuits confirming it wasn't human as he threw the body in the room the Scientist was situated in as he began to look for the way out.
Eeny...meeny...miny...moe...the Candidate was playing a game of which corridor had the exit but it ended when the flashing lights stopped.
{/LOW LUMENS DETECTED: ACTIVATING HELMET LIGHT}
The built-in microcomputer said and turned on his built-in flashlight consisting of two pairs of lights at the side of the helmet as the Candidate nodded in satisfaction on the activation of the light.
Looking at the giant door, the Candidate assumed that this was the way out and in, looking for the door controls the Candidate heard a noise echo in the hallway, looking at where the source came from as he looked down the hallway the built-in flashlight was illuminating a figure, hunched down as it held its stomach.
{/ENTERING COMBAT}
The Candidate saw the Heads Up Display as it showed a battery in the bottom left with seven segments in the battery it also came up with a green cross in the bottom right with 100 in the cross.
The enemy then revealed itself into the light more clearly, the noticeable thing was the decaying flesh falling off the humanoid as it wore a tattered lab coat and slowly dragged itself closer to the Candidate with slow steps.
The humanoid then stopped and looked up at the light, the Candidate getting a clear view of its face, or what was left of it as it screamed and ran towards the Candidate not hindered by its backward leg.
The Candidate immediately pulled out the rifle he scavenged from the android and pulled the trigger, the rifle didn't fire nor did it charge, the Candidat looked at the rifle visibly pissed by the failure of the weapon.
The Candidate looked up to see the approaching flesh-eater as he held the rifle by the barrel with the intention to beat down the zombie.
[RULE #2: DOUBLE TAP]
The Thing's jaw flew sideways followed by its head as its body flew to compensate for the sudden force, the Candidate then pulled out his reliable sidearm and squeezed the trigger, feeling the pressure, the Candidate looked at the receiver to show it was on safety.
How? The Candidate was visibly confused as he slid the arrow to the one showing 1 bullet as he pointed the barrel to where the Thing was last to see a wall without the Thing present.
The Candidate scanned the room hoping to find the thing but was not lucky. But he soon found it as it tackled him from behind and started to pound on him with its arms as the Candidate blocked him.
Looking for options, the Candidate saw his way out as he grabbed one of the incoming attacks and froze it, still grasping the arm, he squeezed severing the limb from the body as he used his off hand to push the attacker away.
The Candidate heard the Thing scream in pain as he noticed a piece of rebar revealing itself from the wall as he clenched his right fist.
{/INSUFFICIENT BATTERY}
The Candidate looked at the battery with 1 rectangle in the cell as it grew an extra rectangle only flashing one more in red, the Candidate waited as he readied his fist in preparation, the Thing stood up with newfound rage and rushed the Candidate, the Candidate had enough battery for the cryo fist as he clenched his right fist and bent his arm to elbow the Thing making it stagger backward as it sent the snowball toward the wall freezing it, then he reached for some rubble on the floor then threw it at the wall exposing the rebar, even more, using the final cell, he pulled out the rebar using G.R.I.P, he then kicked the incoming Thing to the ground and kept his foot on its center of mass. The Thing then clawed at the Candidates leg as he raised his hand towards its face preparing the final blow. One cell.
The Candidate then stretched out his fingers fully sending the improvised javelin through its head and into the ground. The Thing's head stayed in place for a second before the blood lubricated the stake and its head slid to the floor.
{/EXITING COMBAT}
The suit concluded the battle as the Candidate looked for the Glock he never got to use finding it near a skeleton, not a Thing, as he picked up his Sidearm and double-checked to himself to place it on safety in case of future fuck ups. The Candidate walked over to a console and pressed the big red blinking button with his fist.
The doors screeched as the metal doors were sliding on rusted steel, the Candidate ignored this as the Thing's scream was much worse as he walked to the sliding door, light seeping through the opening as he walked the crack impatient and the first thing that happens was the pain in his eyes after looking at the naked sun over the city.
{/HIGH LUMENS DETECTED: DEACTIVATING HELMET LIGHT}
{/TIP: AFTER SPENDING COUNTLESS HOURS IN LOW LIGHT AREAS, IT IS BEST TO NOT HAVE DIRECT EYESIGHT AT ANY BRIGHT LIGHT SOURCE AS IT COULD LEAD TO LOSS IN VISION}
The Candidate tried to cuff his eyes as the pain was sharp and quick but he failed to realize the helmet was still on his head as he palmed himself, and again the Candidate tried to swear but nothing came out. Dealing with the pain, the Candidate then used his hand to shield his eyes from the sun to see a mass grave, a destroyed city, littered with rusted vehicles, sprinkled with bones and white ash.
The normal healthy human mind would immediately panic at the sight of civilization not present and fall into immediate depression.
The Candidate, however, was overfilled with joy, before being put on ice and signing up to the program, the Candidate was a misanthropist, he hated humanity with a burning passion and introverted himself to avoid human contact, but there wasn't a single living soul in sight as he ran down into the city.
The Candidate then danced in the street, playing an imaginary song in his head as he kicked random objects to the beat to accompany the song he played in his head.
{/DETECTING MOVEMENT OF BODY IN A RHYTHMIC WAY: WOULD YOU LIKE TO ACCOMPANY YOURSELF WITH MEDIA}
The Candidate liked the sound of this, as he accepted the offer to see 3 files with 1000+ songs per, seeing a shuffle button it selected a file and scrolled down to a song.
{/PLAYING: Barns Courtney - Glitter And Gold [Official Audio]}
The Candidate liked the song as he tapped his foot to the beat of the song and used the newfound song to dance properly as he selected two arrows looping with a 1 at its center with the intention to play it 150 times before getting sick of it.
The Candidate developed dance moves, which included slides using the ash to ignore friction and momentum to swing his body to continue his sweet moves as he gets lost in the movement.
The Candidate then shuffled his feet and did a full 360 to point finger guns and mimic shooting to accompany the lyrics moving deeper into the streets unaware of the danger that followed him. The Candidate then swung his arms twice then clapped to the beat of the gong ringing then spinning his fists around each other while doing pelvic thrusts, he broke the repeated spin into an explosion as he did other spin arms still outstretched and accidentally backhanded something.
{/ENTERING COMBAT}
The Candidate then stopped his personal movement as he saw the Thing he slapped, another Thing like the one in the facility he was in except its clothing was less scientific and more casual, but the Candidate wasn't going to let his dancing be interrupted so he bent down one hand on his back and the other spinning then outstretched it towards the Thing inviting it to a dance, which it kindly accepted as he dodged the charge.
The Thing then stopped, turned slowly and looked at the Candidate who did finger guns at the Thing which charged at him again, again the Candidate dodged but this time stretching out his left leg to trip up the Thing, the Candidate used his right leg as a pivot to spin himself as he gave himself applause but the Thing was royally pissed.
The Thing then slammed its forearms on the grounds and screamed at the Candidate as it built up for a final charge, and ran, then the Thing then slipped on ice the Candidate created falling forwards as the Candidate used the rifle to swing upwards.
Homerun.
The head flew upwards as the body fell down.
{/EXITING COMBAT}
{/TIP: YOU CAN USE G.R.I.P TO GET OBJECTS OUT OF REACH}
The Candidate took this advice as he reached out for the head, the white lightning drawing it closer to get a clearer look at its rotten face, the dead skin was peeling off revealing ruby flesh, its eyes already lost its color as it was a pale grey membrane overlapping the eyes, well eye for it had only one in its socket.
Bored, the Candidate pushed away from the head as he continued his dancing down the street, forgetting about what happened with the engagement, kicking the ash and swinging his arms as he used the barrel of the Glock as an improvised microphone.
{/PAUSING MEDIA}
The Candidate halted his movement and paused the song as he heard something out of the ordinary. A loud crack echoed in the atmosphere within at least 3 more in tow. There was another crack in the air. Gunfire. Immediately, the Candidate finally was tired of lugging the rifle and so he grabbed it by the receiver and slammed it to the ground as the thing was only useful for bludgeoning. Destroying the rifle, the Candidate scavenged the rifle barrel tube as a scavenged stun baton for a makeshift melee weapon as he used the pavement to sharpen one end of the barrel with a messy blade.
The Candidate then pulled out his Glock and made sure it was NOT on safety and walked slowly to the gunshots throwing the stun baton spinning in the air and catching it.
{/ENTERING COMBAT}
The Candidate snuck around buildings as the bullet cracks became swooshes in the air and the smacking of concrete.
Peaking, the Candidate saw smoke, just smoke with little flashes of the turquoise muzzle fire.
{/LOW VISIBILITY: SMOKE DETECTED; ACTIVATING INFRA-RED}
All the color was lost before turning to a grew world with white figures in the smoke that pulsed red with two figures close in combat as one figure seemed to scratch the other with a feral swing, the Candidate saw the flesh warm blood leak from the wounded as it succumbed to the cold and disappeared, three more figures soon appeared at the flank of the stand-alone.
The Candidate spun the barrel in the air and caught it with the G.R.I.P, the jagged end facing the 4 figures minus the ones crawling away. The Candidate propelled the barrel in the head of one of the four figures. 3. The 3 figures seem to have not noticed their ally die quietly as the Candidate drew the Glock. 2 shots, 2 left. The last duo heard the sound and ran towards the Candidate using their hearing as their eyes which surprised the Candidate as the primal hunters drew closer to the Candidate.
{/VISION OBSTRUCTION CLEARED: DEACTIVATING INFRA-RED}
The built-in computer announced the departure of the smoke as the Thing revealed its face followed by an overhead swing, without thinking the Candidate curled up into a ball. The momentum of the Thing's swing was the driving force for it to be tripping and stumbling over the Candidate.
The Candidate stood up to get sucker punch from the other Thing, officially pissed, the Candidate then threw his Glock into the opposite hand and charged up the Cryo-fist as the Thing went for another swing, the Candidate blocked it with his forearm and did a counter jab exploding its jaw the Candidate stuck the pistol in the mouth of the Thing pointing upwards. 1 bullet, 1 left.
The Candidate then holstered the Glock as he stretched his arm behind him to grab his melee weapon with the G.R.I.P and stretched it towards the last Thing standing as he sent the barrel into its leg, forcing it to crouch, he pulled it back out and tried to send it but…
{/INSUFFICIENT BATTERY}
The Candidate then grabbed the shank and held it, the blade facing upside down as he approached the Thing. He then kicked the Thing onto the hood of a rusted car, bending its back unnaturally as he held it by the throat and planted the barrel through its exposed eyes, pulled it out and slashed out its throat, with the hand on its neck the Candidate placed his hand on its forehead and bashed in its skull, again, and again and again until the width was half the original size and one end being as flat as a pancake, a very bloody pancake with bits of brain leaking out the opening.
The Candidate then released his grip from the Thing's head and looked upon his abstract art, he then dipped one finger in a hole oozing with blood and writing down the name of the masterpiece above the head dubbed 'FUCKING ANNOYING = )', finished with his art the Candidate wiped the blood off his glove using the Thing's ripped clothing and did a chef's kiss.
Remembering one thing, the Candidate turned around to see the line of blood from its point of origin and dragged around a corner, following the trail, the Candidate could hear the struggles for air, the coughing, and then spitting out blood.
The Candidate turned the corner to see a familiar figure, the android from the facility except with more movement and struggle. The Candidate's presence was detected by the Woman in purple, purple hair tied into a ponytail with a grey mask only covering her eyes with a single green light constantly blinking on and off matching each step the Candidate took closer to her.
The Candidate looked down at the wound being held by her arm and the other hand on her throat, the Candidate saw she was trying to elongate her life, the Candidate just looked at her, no pity on her but he knelt down and held out his Glock flat on his hand while he used his free hand to imitate a pistol.
It took a while for her to figure out that the Candidate was asking for her permission to end her life quicker, her reply was a slow nod as the Candidate stood up and held the Glock properly by the handle barrel pointing to her forehead.
{/EXITING COMBAT}
And then there was none. Except for the Candidate, of course, he knelt down by the body and took her rifle and her two smoke grenades. The Candidate then walked away further from the city still shrouded in silence except with each step he took, most on ash, some on glass and rarely on a bone.
The Candidate was in his winter wonderland, no more people, just him, some Things and two Androids in total and he assumed there was more considering there was that one at the facility and the one he just killed.
But that didn't stop the Candidate from hitting shuffle.
[/PLAYING: e-dubble - Taking My Time (Freestyle Friday #40)]
Like before, the Candidate started to smash the rifle onto the ground and salvage the barrel from the wreck, sharpen it and use it as improvised drumsticks with the beat.
{/ENTERING NIGHT CYCLE: ACTIVATING HELMET LIGHT}
The Candidate danced in the dark with the new rap, with little care in the world, he ran into some more Things but they were dispatched quietly with the G.R.I.P and shank and didn't waste a single bullet.
Everything was alright, nothing happened to him and he didn't long for any action as he was happy killing Things, sometimes he would find a rock and kick it along the way, other times he would practice his throwing in case the G.R.I.P ceased to work, and it was safe to say that he was shit at it, couldn't hit his target 90% of the time and the built-in computer made sure of it.
The Candidate never felt lonely, as he felt like something was watching him because there was.
The Candidate turned around to see whatever was stalking him, but nothing was present, thinking fast, the Candidate popped a smoke grenade and held it to his visor.
{/VISION OBSTRUCTION DETECTED; SMOKE: ACTIVATING INFRA-RED}
Using the split second, the Candidate looked in the dark to see a huge mass highlighted in red, pure muscle, no, it's not a thing, it's a Beast.
{/WARNING LEVEL 4 EFFICIENCY DETECTED; REQUIRES LEVEL 7 COMBAT EFFICIENCY ENGAGE ENEMY: AVOID! AVOID! AVOID!}
Can the Candidate avoid it?
No, he couldn't as it ran at him, seeing this, the Candidate ran (wouldn't you?).
{/VISION OBSTRUCTION CLEARED: DEACTIVATING INFRA-RED}
{/ENTERING COMBAT}
Without having to look at the Beast, he could tell the Glock wasn't going to do shit, but he had a thought, throwing the shank in the opposite hand, he then charged up his cryo-fist with the intention to hit the Beast with the projectile.
Doing a quick jump, the Candidate did a stylish spin to fire the ball of ice towards the Beast hitting it and freezing its leg, and it worked, temporarily as it broke the ice.
Panicking, the Candidate did a quick scan of his surroundings, a forest! Too far away! The Candidate could already feel his legs burn running from the big Beast that was surprisingly fast for its size.
And so the game began with the Candidate doing quick turns to hinder the thing from running but the Beast learned to ignore it. Panic
The Candidate then froze the ground in front of the Thing creating little pools of black ice intending for the Beast to slip, except due to its size and muscle mass its foot created a little divot as its foot got rooted in the concrete.
The Candidate then stopped and turned to look at the Beast waist-deep in the ground as it looked confused while the Candidate smiled.
But that smile turned into shock when the Beast tore up the street to free itself. And the fucker changed its name from Beast to Juggernaut, and it's the Juggernaut bitch.
The second wind hit the Candidate as he ignored all pain in his legs and the exhaustion disappeared and with his newfound stamina. He panicked harder and ran faster.
And without realizing it, the Candidate reached the forest as he ran deeper and TREE!
The Candidate managed to run into a tree, dazed, confused and discombobulated, the Candidate managed to run into another tree. Little did he know, the Juggernaut caught up with him and lifted him over its head, and threw him through three trees.
{/WARNING: YOU HAVE ENGAGED WITH A HIGHER LEVEL ENEMY; ADVISE CAUTION, SEEK AID OR EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY}
No Help. No Escape. No Caution. Just the Candidate and the Juggernaut. Advanced David vs Infected Goliath.
The Juggernaut roared and beat its chest ready for another charge, the Candidate slowly picked himself up and rolled both of his shoulders and prepared for the fight, and surprisingly, the Candidate did not feel a single ounce of pain as he pulled out his Glock and held one of the barrels with the G.R.I.P, and then they ran at each other.