Apriltober 2020 26 Drip drip drip
a/n: Cross' team is sent to shape up a group of slackers partying at the Biahno Water Plant.
Spoilers to the Lakeside Getaway quest. Slightly changed as to how it went. OR YOU COULD GO READ "MISTAKES WERE MADE" BY LANCA226 WHICH IS THE BEST RETELLING OF THIS QUEST AND ONE OF THE BEST XCX FANFICS GOING OMG IT IS SO GOOD.
All the good stuff belongs to Monolith Soft, and the main line quests can go hang if they give us side quests like thiiiiiiiis!
She hadn't returned yet. The team had been happy to let her leave the control room. She had insisted, but Cross probably would have found an excuse to get her away from the banks of video screens. Doug had nodded behind Ajoa's back when she'd asked to take a quick shower, but Cross hadn't needed confirmation. Whatever the security recordings showed, it was going to be bad.
Time was ticking however. She'd said she wouldn't take long, that they could call her through the flimsy door if they needed her to answer a question, that they could even barge in if they needed to. Cross hadn't started fired up the recording until the sound of streaming water could be heard from the locker room. Now the sounds of showering had stopped and they'd only gotten through about two-thirds of the material. Cross leaned on the fast forward button to speed through the identification messages.
Standing in the control room was uncanny. Even the flaring red alarms didn't change the everyday setting. None of the monsters from outside had touched the industrial setting. Everything was as it should be. Chairs, empty coffee cups, paperwork in untidy stacks, testing levels still recording on several panels. Cross couldn't reconcile this humdrum environment with the chaos of the grabbing fists of the hideous mutated cantors lurking outside. The video fragmented on the screen, steadied, skipped, steadied itself again, and started to run. Cross steeled themself to watch what was might be the last seconds of one of the missing water treatment technicians' lives.
It wasn't horrific at all. Cross regretted letting Ajoa leave but figured she could skim it, sad as it was, when she got back. Sure, the guy on the video, Ian, looked shocked. He should. The rest of the team had already been killed when he was recording it, eaten by the monsters outside. A fate that would soon be Ian's, although the man didn't know it. Cross knew it. The only reason they could review these images was because they'd retrieved Ian's ID card from the belly of one of the creatures they'd fought.
The images were intermittent, but Ian's voice was clear, clinical if rushed as his time ran out. When he had reached the half way point of his explanation, Doug was already positioned by the locker room door, weapon drawn. The video cut out entirely, but not the last agonized screams as the technician met his doom. The recording ended. The animal howling continued from behind the same door that Ajoa had gone through a few minutes before.
Two kicks was enough to get through. The crash must have surprised whatever had made that sound. Only the soft drip, drip, drip of water could be heard. Cross looked around, seeing rows of lockers, two deep, leading to a plastic folding curtain. Something dark, hulking, and too large to be human was wavering behind it.
"Ajoa?"
The reply was a mockery of a human voice. "Wa... ter .. waa ...ter ... I'm ... ssomethiiiiing isss ... aaarhhghhh!"
The sound of gunfire on tiled walls rang in Cross' head for days.
a/n: Have I mentioned how EXTREMELY GOOD "MISTAKES WERE MADE" IS? SO GOOD OMG! By Lanca226. The battle sequences! The team of OCs! The tension! People being intelligent and stupid, i.e. very human! SO GOOD! Unfinished, but that doesn't make it any less amazing. SOOOOO GOOOD!
Next up: Drop me a prompt or we may get cooking lessons...