Brew City- Underground
Chapter 1- pilot.
"OOH-RAH!" Duncan roared, charging down the stairs, hopping over the bottom and diving at the ground. Rolling on the hard wood of the floor until he was in the center of the room and jumped to his feet. Duncan grew a fighter's grin as he scanned the dark space and found no hints of life. "Marine sound. Semper FI."
After a few empty jabs at the air, Duncan slumped off his backpack and pulled out a small fist sized camping lantern. Clicking it on, the ruby red light shined in the formerly pitch black room just enough to show the place really was as advertised. The room had no furniture, nothing but cracked and loose floorboards, the old flower wall paper was torn and ripped, showing exposed brick. The windows Duncan could spot were boarded up with only small slivers of silver light shining through. It was dark. It was dirty. It was probably crawling with all sorts of pests, but as far as Duncan could tell there were no people.
"Boom!" Duncan thundered, stomping his foot on the ground and all but snapping through a few of the floorboards. After peaking to the side to make sure, Duncan switched the light from red to green. Necessary visibility is nice and all, but once you were certain of security why not have some fun and it was Duncan's favorite color. "Alrighty leprechaun, take me to the pot of gold."
"Hiyah!" Duncan shrieked, jumping in the air, his legs spinning in a flailing kick before he landed on his feet at the window furthest from the stairs. "Karate sound."
Grabbing the top of the far right board, just under the nail, Duncan tried prying it loose only to have the part he gripped rip off. The rest of the board on the window staying in place. Putting down the lantern, Duncan squinted at the boards nailed to the window and started pulling handful after handful of the old rotted plywood until he ran out of patience and just started punching through the rest.
Looking out the now open window, Duncan saw the outside pretty much matched the room. The street was old and crumbling with cracks everywhere. The apartment building across from the one Duncan was in was little better. The bricks were just as sun torched and chipped, with some of them looking like they were barely holding on to the foundation. A large condemned sign was nailed over the front door, same as the one over Duncan's. The only real difference was that not all of the windows were boarded up.
Tilting his head at the last detail, Duncan pulled out a small camping scope from his pocket and saw no signs of life inside the windows across the street. Duncan smiled at this as he grabbed one of the handful sized pieces of wood and hurled it, crashing in the center of the window directly across from him.
"Steee-rike!" Duncan cheered, picking up another piece. "Here comes the windup."
Toss after toss, every throw hit its mark. Even after switching to other windows for fresh targets Duncan's aim never missed, his arm wasn't even feeling tired. After hitting the center square in the window in the floor above his own in the other apartment building, Duncan grinned as he reached for more lumber only to hit the deck as he saw a commercial drone flying over the building.
Crawling toward the wall, Duncan inched his head up to peak out the corner and saw the drone hovering in the street, its camera gazing at all the freshly broken windows. Duncan cursed at himself before he noticed the light from his camping lantern was still on… and how it was just in front of the window. The only window in his apartment building that wasn't boarded up anymore. Duncan kicked his lantern to the next room, with a loud rolling sound after it hit the floor and the light quickly fading.
As he sat, leaning against the brick wall, Dunk rolled his eyes as he heard the drone hovering next to the window. From the sound of it, just outside. If the window was any bigger it probably would have tried getting in. After a while the sound of the drone's tiny propellers faded. Peaking out the corner, Duncan saw the drone cruising down the empty road.
"Finally. Who buy's those things?" Duncan spat, jumping to his feet. "Time to get to work."
Duncan took one last look around the decrepit place, the light from the open window was barely enough for just the room he was in, let alone the rest of the apartment. Turning to the left, it was like a wall of blackness where the door was removed. The lantern either broken or rolled behind something. Duncan smiled at the darkness.
"Eh, one more. Cowabunga!" Duncan laughed. He jumped headfirst into the air, arms extended into the darkness and ready, landing on his hands and using his momentum Duncan pushed off the ground, twisting his legs and stomping as he landed. Swinging his scope by its lanyard Duncan smiled. "Ninja turtles."
Peaking around in the dark room for his lantern, only to find no signs to its emerald light, just the weak gray overcast sunbeam from the window, which his eyes were slowly adjusting too.
"Come on. One little kick and you break? No wonder you were so easy to shoplif- Holy hell!" Duncan yelled as he flickered on the mini-flashlight of his scope, finding that he was indeed not alone. The man was taller than Duncan, but not much. His face was horribly deformed with a slashed, crooked scowl as his eyes glowed silvery green back at the intruder in his home. Duncan Jumped back, his fists up and ready only to discover that the disfigured squatter was just his reflection in a broken mirror nailed over a cabinet bolted into the wall. He disfigured face and gray web design in his black hoody was just the cracks in the glass of the mirror. "J-jesus. Dude, should'ah seen that coming."
Duncan shook his head, shining his mini-flashlight around his room, finding that it was even more decrepit than the rest of the apartment. Finally, Duncan found his tiny plastique lantern tipped over next to the cabinet, just a few feet from his foot. Its light indeed went out. Picking it up, Duncan flipped its switch a few times but it stayed dark, rolling his eyes, Duncan swatted it with his scope, its mini-flashlight still on, and his last source of light in the darkness. After a few hits it flickered back to life, bathing the room in emerald light.
Pulling out his knife Duncan jammed its blade into the drywall before pulling out a large chunk. Looking inside with the mini-flashlight while his lantern lit up the room, Duncan soon found what he was looking for and started pulling out the wires.
"Okay." Duncan said, rolling up the wires and putting them in his pack. Zipping it up, Duncan pointed at the other walls. "Eeny. Miney-"
Duncan stopped as he heard movement from inside the cabinet under the broken mirror. Looking over he could see it wasn't very big, but if he really wanted to, Duncan could squeeze himself inside. It made sense, a number of buildings in the neighborhood were abandoned and condemned. Perfect place for squatters. If Duncan heard someone screaming bloody murder gunning down the stairs like a storm trooper, he'd hide wherever he could too.
"Come on out. Not gonna hurt ya." Duncan said, inching closer to the cabinet. After a few moments of silence Duncan pulled out the last piece of wood from his hoody and tossed it at the cabinet and heard more movement inside. Gritting his teeth, Duncan crabbed the handle. "Its oka-"
Like a bat out of hell a huge fur covered beast the size of Duncan's knee shot out of the cabinet. Jumping back on his ass in surprise as the beast darted past his legs, Duncan pulled out his knife and stabbed hard into the ground, barely missing the beast's tail. Before the animal ran off into the darkness, Duncan saw the stripes in its fur.
"R-racoon, nature's ninja." Duncan breathed, his heart thumping in his chest. Taking a deep breath, Duncan wiped the sweat off his brow only to notice his hand was surprisingly wet. "Damn it."
Duncan cursed while he shined his light around him, as not only did he break his switch blade, having snapped off at the handle, but he cut himself doing it. Rolling his eyes, Duncan got up and pulled out a small first aid kit from his bag. Using the light from his lantern, Duncan bit down on his broken knife's handle and held in a scream as he splashed the open cut with rubbing alcohol. Duncan let out a grimace as he wrapped medical tape around his hand.
"I'm bleeding. Pest infested. Mold covered shit hole." Duncan muffled, the knife's handle still in his mouth. Duncan sighed as he noticed blood still on his his face in the broken mirror's reflection and wiped it off. "Yeah, I think I'm done for the day."
Packing up his gear, Duncan found his way to the bottom stairs of the apartment, spotting the raccoon crawl into a hole in the drywall as he went down. Jumping over the last few caved in steps, Duncan discovered that the bottom floor was actually worse than the second. The emerald light of his lantern showing not just the same decrepit failings of above, but also that parts of the ceiling had actually collapsed. Leaving holes that lead to piles of broken wood, nails, and wires. Taking a closer look, Duncan was very glad he rolled into the left pitch black room instead of the right.
Then he heard the doorknob turn.