Faster update than before! Woot woot! Still later than I wished, but...whatever. I've felt a new spark for this story as a new idea came to me, and I truly do feel like this story will be finished one day...but that day is not today. Today, we have chapter 5, and thus begins some of my favorite parts of the game, and I'm really looking forward to bringing my incarnation to this story.
So until then, keep your spirits up and your selves hidden under the blanket. Enjoy, and drop a review to let me know how I did this time round. Thanks, fam! I don't own Scooby Doo or Outlast.
"Keep running, Daph!" Fred shouted, as much to encourage his friend as to help drown out the calling of their pursuers.
Never before had he ever been so terrified.
"You're both dead! Whores! Whores!"
"If they get away, I'm going to throw you off the mountain!"
"Come on, hurry up!"
The duo rounded a corner and hustled their mad dash down a dusty hallway. They seemed to be nearing an older part of the facility, where the dust was thicker, the echoes somehow louder, and everything about the architecture out of date.
They passed by several doors, but both nearly had a heart attack on the spot when the door to an old chapel flung open just after they passed by and one more assailant joined the harassing fleet behind them.
Daphne hurtled over a gurney left on its side, and Fred did the same, only tossing the overturned wheelchair behind it into the chaser who came from the chapel. He toppled right back over the gurney and into a second pursuer, but three more were still hot on their tails.
"Up ahead!" Daphne called, "Turn right!"
The next choice to be made wasn't easy, but it seemed Daphne had simply picked one grim option from another. The lights up ahead were out, and they could hardly see that the hallway ended in two directions, both as dark as the other. Anything could be around the corner, more inmates, another survivor, their friends perhaps, or maybe their deaths. It was impossible to say, but faith was all they had, so when the time came, they both ran right.
It was an odd sensation, to run for your life when you have absolutely no idea where you're trying to get to. Under any other circumstance, your body would slow on its own, your mind wouldn't allow you to run with no knowledge of what was ahead of you, but when your life was on the line, instinct ruled, everything else, even logic, became secondary.
Perhaps more disturbing was that their chasers were still behind them. They still shouted and screamed and huffed loudly in their pursuit, and Daphne and Fred would keep on running until there was nowhere left to go, or the chase ended one way or another.
"I'm gonna get you!"
"You'll meet the Groom for this!"
Their words gradually enticed a fifth wind in the pair, and they took off even faster despite their shortness of breath. Fear was very potent.
Up ahead, the faintest of lights was coming from the left, and as they quickly neared it, they saw that a storm at some point in time had broken through the wall ever so slightly, and the moonlight was peeking in.
Conveniently, this light shown down on a pit, intentional perhaps, or more than likely simply an area where the floor had given way; whatever was down below smelled awful, but Daphne and Fred both told each other to jump as the pit came upon them.
Being more athletic, Fred made it safely to the other side, but Daphne only barely latched her hands on the other side. With the same speed as he had mustered in the chase, Fred grabbed Daphne by the hand and hoisted her up as two of their attackers jumped right into the pit, screaming, while the third skidded to a halt and ran the opposite way with cursing frustration.
"That was close…."
"Yeah," Fred agreed, "Let's take a second to catch our breath."
The notions of home and freedom and safety were becoming more and more foreign as new normalities set in on them: terror, fear, instinct. Up ahead was more of the same pitch black darkness, but behind wasn't an option. After deciding that their hearts wouldn't get any calmer, they set off once more, slowly this time, creeping around in the blackness and feeling their way around until they found a section of the facility where the lights were still on.
This area seemed to be a storage room, it had many wooden crates with varying labels painted in black on the outsides. Over of half of these boxes said the same thing:
Transfer from subsidiary site, location, Arkham, MA
Great, more of the same in other places. That was encouraging.
They rifled through some of the boxes, and found some emergency rations, which they gratefully partook in. Two flashlights were also found so that darkness could not hinder them so much anymore.
Other than that, however, the only thing of use was a sign board on the wall indicating the documentation department, archives, and the crematory were up ahead. They set out, hearts filled with as much despair as before.
Shaggy could barely tell where he was anymore. The rains had stopped, but the sky outside was darker. Thunder and lightning were not far away, and the sky would occasionally light up to match the constant low growl that hung over the Asylum. It was as much of an apocalyptic site as you could hope for.
By some miraculous chance, he had landed in a pool of water. The naked twins from the male cell blocks had watched him fall, and as Shaggy swam towards shore, they contemplated going after him.
Dreading what may come next, Shaggy ran away from the Asylum. He had no idea where he could go, but if his direction was opposite the cell blocks, he didn't much care at the moment. He ran into the brush of wilderness that neighbored the mental institution, filled with dark bushes and a few trees of varying states of health. Jumping behind one such gnarled tree trunk, Shaggy peered timidly back towards the window he'd escaped by.
The twins were staring deep into each others' eyes, saying nothing verbally. After an unending fifteen or so seconds, they looked back out towards Shaggy one more time, and walked away.
That was the best thing Shaggy had seen since they arrived. He rubbed his temples and tried to get a hold of himself during this small reprieve.
Escape was his first and only priority.
The Mystery Machine was still parked at the front of the administration building - he hoped. He picked himself up and drew nearer towards the edge of the mountain. Behind the facility there were less fences. Yards and lots and designated places, yes, but no large fences or gates or any such thing to prevent a rear escape. Shaggy saw why that just wasn't necessary as he peered nervously over the edge, gulping.
The fall was almost straight down, and it must not end for minutes. They were quite high up, but the road they came through made the trip deceptively easy. Without it, the trip down would be painful, long, and end in sure death.
Unfortunately, that meant he was leaving via the road, by car or foot. The problem with that, though, was that were was a very large fence keeping him from the grounds of the administrative offices. He'd climb it in a heartbeat if it weren't for the barbed wire, and he also saw a sign that it was electrified.
That didn't mean the fence was live, given the state of things, but it was simply a risk he couldn't take. He was going to get out of this one alive, no matter what, and he'd never, ever come back here or go anywhere like it again. No matter how much his friends -
His friends.
He didn't know where they were. He didn't know if they were still alive. Shaggy lowered himself on the cold ground and tried not to hyperventilate.
Shaggy wanted to escape more than anything - except escaping together with his friends. He couldn't leave them, and as much he wanted to, he couldn't even hide in the Mystery Machine until they found him, there was no guarantee they would get back to the van at all.
He had to go back. The realization came with shaking and tears, but he had to.
Moving forwards, the only viable option to get back into the facility was the sewer system. An open manhole with blood leaking down into it sent a grizzly invitation. He doubled checked every door he found, but they were all locked from the inside.
Climbing down the sticky ladder, the horrifying and disgusting odors of the sewer came to him at once. Lightning struck as he reached the bottom, and illuminated a note attached to the brick walls.
Stepping over the corpse he assumed was responsible for the blood at the top of the manhole, Shaggy flicked on his flashlight and read:
Trager owns the Operating Rooms, the second, third, and fourth floors of the administration building. DON'T BE FOOLED!
The Groom owns the old industrial complex. AVOID EVERYTHING IN THAT LOT!
Chris Walker haunts EVERYWHERE. ALWAYS keep an eye on your back.
You don't want to know what's in the basement. IT'S THE LAST PLACE YOU WANT TO BE!
Shaggy gulped and stuck the note in his pocket. It sounded as though it was meant for people like him, but he didn't know who wrote it, or if anyone like him was left to find it. He took some comfort in the face that none of these monsters were in the sewers….but the part about Chris Walker alarmed him greatly and made him check over his shoulder compulsively about every four seconds.
Off into the stenches of waste and death, Shaggy proceeded.
It felt like an eternity that they were crouched in the darkness, hidden behind brick and waste and blood from the hungry eyes of the hulking monster who had chased Velma and Scooby through the showers and into a hole that led them to the sewers.
His deep breaths and sharp exhalations made the pair shiver every time. He muttered something about "little pigs" and "breakdowns" as he passed them for the last time and went down a ladder, deeper into the trap of old metal and grime.
Of course, it was Velma and Scooby who were trapped, and even if they escaped these sewers, they weren't out, not by a long shot.
"Okay...I think we've lost him," Velma breathed in relief, "but I don't know how we'll ever find Fred, Daph, and Shaggy...not to mention my friend Waylon."
Scooby whined lowly, Velma running her hand over his head and the side of his nuzzle for encouragement. Logically, they should head up now, it was the only way to ensure they'd not get trapped in the sewers...yet her sense of curiosity was alive and well despite the horrors.
They didn't know where Waylon was, nor any of their friends. For all they knew, there might be a legitimate escape in the sewers, and the monster had gone to guard it before they found it. If that was the case, it would take luck and smart maneuvering, but they could probably get out alive.
And so the choice had to be made, certainty or hope? If they went up, they were certain to find more hellish nightmares come to life, if they went down, they could hope to find exactly what they needed.
"What do you think, Scoob? Up or down?" Velma asked when she'd gone in circles a few times.
Scooby realized the depth of the choice as well, it seemed. After a moment of silent hesitation, he gave his answer timidly.
"Rup."
"Up it is then."
They ascended the ladder from whence the monster splashed down only minutes ago, quietly peering through the hatch at the top, and entering into a lowly-lit hallway, steel grating below their feet, hollowed mountain at their sides and above them. There was no worse place to be for a trap. Velma prayed they would make it to the end where a door invited them through, slightly ajar. Velma peered down the other direction, and noticed the tunnel had collapsed upon itself; there was no passage there.
A low whistle was running through the lonely corridor, weaving through the metal and leaping across stone. Their steps were loud, though the whistle persisted. Velma set her mind to studying it, but also made sure she was paying attention to the door and the hatch they had come from.
As they walked farther along, the whisper seemed to evolve. Whereas it only a distant, quiet murmur when they began, it now seemed to speak words, words in shapes she didn't know, words with meanings so sinister, she dared not try to decrypt them.
Yet, the more she focused on the whisper, the more the words became clear, and she could arrange them into rough sizes and portions in her mind, and even convert their intentions into the languages and writings she knew. Still, the exact meanings continued to eluded her, and for that she was grateful.
One alarming word, though, was translated for her, and if she ever had an out of body experience, it had been now. She saw herself, and Scooby Doo, walking through the dreary hall, marching nervously towards unseen things, and behind those unseen things, a thousand more, and behind everything in this Asylum, seen and unseen, known and mysterious, was a power and an evil she could hardly comprehend. A splitting headache found her at once and she faltered, nearly dropping to her knees.
WALRIDER.
She almost toppled over Scooby, and began shaking and breathing raggedly.
"Relma!?" Scooby exclaimed so loudly it frightened her further.
Velma blinked many times and shook her head, seeing and hearing and thinking just fine - and that was the problem. Whatever she'd just observed, however briefly, had given her knowledge she wanted nothing more than to reject. Only she could not. Some things were permanent once you knew them. Some things...could never be erased.
"I...did you hear it? The whisper?"
"Rhisper? Rhat Rhisper?"
Velma sighed and stood up again, shaking but steadier than before, "Nevermind. Let's keep going…"
They reached the door and Velma slid it open and backed away, afraid of what she might find.
It was an open pool of grime, waste, and muck. Festering like a rotted wound under the mountain, it smelled worse than anything before it, in and out of the Asylum. It was dark here, none of the lights were working. She still had the glow stick, but it was of such little help here, she may as well have not even bothered.
The pool and darkness, stacked together, stretched on for eternity.
And just as Velma had decided that nothing was amiss here, a low, gurgling rumble spread across the water, as though something beneath had stirred in its long sleep.
Shaggy had wandered through so many halls and rooms that looked exactly the same, he wasn't even sure he was in the same sewer he had started in. He found one more note on the wall, this one slightly more reassuring than the other, but if anything, it was just more confusing.
There's deeper mysteries here than we thought. Murkoff has a long line of transgressions against the world, but I think Murkoff may be only part of the grand scheme. The more time I spend here, the more I hear it. I feel it. I can understand it when it speaks in the dark corners.
At first, I thought I was going insane. And why not? Anyone would in the same circumstances. But then I found a pattern...an intelligence, rather than a random, chaotic string of action. It was hard to understand at first, it still is, but it goes beyond Murkoff, or anything they could think up. I half believe that, and I know it sounds crazy, this...other, super-intelligent evil...is using Murkoff for its own ends. Is it the specter of horror I've heard so much about in here? This…..Walrider?
I don't even know. But the mere thought of an evil even greater than Murkoff looming over the Asylum and so much more...it makes me sicker to my stomach than anything else here.
God save us. Please.
Now, he stepped into a cavernous place, a long stretch of dark and sewer water, a pool that he was deathly afraid to go into. He had his flashlight, and when he shined it into the water, it was dark, greenish-gray, with black splotches here and there, floating in mists of nauseating odor.
He didn't want to get in, but if he didn't, he was going to be wandering around for who knew how long, and if he ran into some kind of monster back there….well, the pool liked slightly more inviting now.
He groaned as his legs were submerged, and he instantly felt gross and unwholesome.
The trip was too noisy for his liking, splashing around in the water, trying to navigate through the other side. It was tense here too, not just because the foul air and lack of ventilation. He hated to dwell on it, but he felt more and more like something was out there, waiting for him.
By instinct he turned around and flashed the light into the void of darkness; he could barely perceive the door and the stone wall from whence he came, and he wish he hadn't. The door was shut now, and Shaggy had left it open. Instant panic set in, and he hurried himself forwards.
Whether he was racing against something living, dead, in between, or just maybe in his mind, he didn't care. He put everything into running through the sewage, until the first reassuring thing he'd heard since the call of dinner had hit his ears.
"Shaggy!?" Velma called out.
"Zoinks! Velma? Velma!?"
"RAGGY!"
Shaggy spun and the form of his bestest friend, most loyal companion in the world, and the best pet dog he'd ever owned came springing towards him, Velma close behind.
"Oh man am I glad to see you two! What a night!"
"Tell me about it...I hate to admit it, but we really have bitten off more than we can chew. We have to find Daphne and Fred, and see if we can figure out where Waylon is too, and then we have to leave. No unmasking the monsters this time..."
"My thoughts exactly," Shaggy replied, only now beginning to break his embrace with Scooby, and then it hit him, "Wait...you don't know where they are?"
Velma shook her head, "We got separated earlier."
"Well, at least I caught up with someone. I thought I was gonna lose my mind and die alone in the dark…"
"Do you know the way out of the sewers? The big patient followed us in...the one Scooby told me grabbed you and threw you from the second floor of the administration building."
"Zoinks!" Shaggy murmured and looked around him with a trembling hand on the flashlight.
"Shaggy, focus, do you know the way out?"
"The only way I know of that goes out of the sewer is somewhere behind me, but I came in because there's nothing to find out there. Only locked doors and steep falls."
"We could go out the way Scooby and I came in, but there's a lot of dangers that way...I almost want to stay down here a while, see if we can-"
A thundering crash and enormous splash of water signaled his arrival. The brutish monster was back, and he'd got their scent again. His fierce growl rumbled across the entire cavern, and all three exclaimed in horror, running in the opposite direction of the monster.
Shaggy lead them on, having the flashlight, but it was difficult, especially with the intense threat of the monster breathing down their necks, splashing and crashing loudly in the grimey waters.
They were going on adrenaline alone by the time a new light found them. Two flickering bulbs illuminated an alcove in the watery pit that they had been entrapped in, and an old elevator sat, gate swung open.
Running even faster towards their only hope, they dove into the alcove and as Velma and Scooby worked on the controls, the monster roared in anger and frustration as his prey neared eluding him once more. Shaggy shown the light at him, but if it blinded him at all, he didn't show it. With a bloodlust thick as a soldier's duty, he raged onward, hands outstretched.
"It's not working...not enough power!" Velma realized with a screech.
Shaggy slammed the metal gate closed, but it would hardly fend off the beastly pursuer more than a few seconds. He began having a breakdown as the elevator snapped briefly to life, raising them a foot off the ground and then falling back down.
"Come on!" Velma cried.
The beast was close to alcove, so close that when an unfamiliar voice spoke through an old speaker, Shaggy thought it was the beast himself, hands already around their throats.
"None of you are like them, are you? I'll turn on the power, hold on!" The voice called.
Velma continued to mash the controls as Shaggy and Scooby shook in each others hold, the light still shining wildly at their hunter as he rushed into the alcove. An electrical hum signaled their salvation - if the lift was fast enough.
They bounced a foot up again, but instead of falling, they stayed put for an eternity, and then bounced up another few feet so that the monster's giant hands were clawing at the bottom of the cage, rattling it so fiercely they all screamed at the top of their lungs.
But salvation did come, and the lift zoomed up without further issue, and they collectively sighed, once more having escaped from the sure death the wandering monster brought.
Velma chuckled as they ascended to the welcome company of someone who wasn't crazy or out for their skulls. The silence was welcome and the trio leaned against each other for support. A few short seconds of rest. It was long overdue, and over too soon.
The lift began to slow, and the stone it had previously been ascending between had turned to metal; it seemed they were back inside the facility, but as to what department or block, none of them could say for certain. The lift opened up in a shockingly well lit storage area, which was presumable near the kitchens, for a walk in freezer was left open to the far right.
As they exited, the trio met to face to face with a man in street clothes, and Velma gasped.
"Waylon!"
The smiling man toppled over and something whacked them all over the heads. Waylon Park had a hole in his back, almost as big as his entire chest.
"Well, well," The same voice that had saved them just seconds ago said, "What do we have here?"
A thin man, practically a skeleton wrapped in ripe and rotting muscles, with a brown, bloodied apron around his waist and some kind of syringe weaved all around his arm was peering over them. His hair flowed grey and grimy and long everywhere but the top and front of his head. He spoke behind a torn surgical mask, his voice shockingly calm and eloquent for the environment he found himself in.
"Two new patients and a dog. Hmm. Sorry buddy, I don't have a license to work on animals. Not that I have license for people either, but you just don't interest me like your friends. Back to Gluskin you go."
The mad doctor hauled the dazed Scooby back into the life and sent it back down to the sewers.
Velma and Shaggy were lifted onto a gurney and strapped together onto it by the time either had regained their bearings.
"As for you two, well, I'd be happy to take a break with you guys. Let's get together for lunch, shall we? I'll take real good care of both of you."
The mad doctor wheeled them away from the storage area, and they were quickly back in the administration block, in fact, the front doors were now open.
"Hey, you know what, you guys look a little peeky. Who can blame you, being in that sewer and all. Wanna go for a midnight stroll? Go ahead, I'll wait for you here."
Shaggy and Velma wanted nothing more, but they were still dazed, and the restraint was rather tight. More so than ever before, they were trapped.
"No? You sure? Alright, nose-to-the-grindstone kind of folks, I like it. Let's get to it then."
The mad doctor wheeled them away and into an ever larger elevator, pushing the button that would take them to the operating rooms. The entrance left their views, and Shaggy and Velma prepared themselves for the worst yet.