CORY

It's been gnawing at the back of my mind ever since we first arrived here. What exactly happened in Dark Falls? Why is there no one around? What caused the incident at the chemical plant and plastics factory?

So far, I've pieced together this: According to Abe, his dad tried hiding the Dead Stone so no one could find it. He buried it deep in the ground, but during an excavation some time later, the Dark Falls people found it.

They experimented with the stone, under the name of The Lazarus Project to test if it could bring things back to life. It could…and the rest is history. But I don't know the full history.

I've checked around town for as many Dark Falls Daily newspapers I could find. But even still, the details are vague. I STILL don't know what caused that accident! So I'm gone to investigate the place where it all started: The Chemical Plant and Plastics Factory itself!

On a secondary note, I have once again mutated. In my Ultimate form, my skin starts to decay. I've begun to smell rotten. My heartbeat seems to stop as well. I have increased stamina…yet also an insatiable hunger. I've been trying to resist the urge to go through our rations…as well as potential flesh.

The dark and eerie corridors seem to echo with the sounds of dripping and my footsteps. Outside, I can see more book sculptures, like the bronze arch of books that a kid sits on reading another just at the driveway entrance to Dead House. A lot of the equipment inside is broken and old. A LOT of volatile chemicals.

Van Helsing's using some to create some new gadgets, like an Undead Detector and an Ethereal Detonator. Leftover parts end up in a Ghostly Smoothie.

A broken ice-cream truck is outside, as well as a real-estate building called Better Call Dawes. Back inside, I see various more contraptions. A Chemical Condenser, a Nitrogen Generator, an Atomic Art sculpture (presumably for field trips), a dead grass topiary of the Earth outside, a Processor, a Water Container with a big hole and empty, and a heavy tank that seems like it had a gas leak and blew up.

I came across a vial of pink liquid labeled Chemical W. Some notes state that it was used in the Lazarus Project. They must've liquified the Dead Stone's energy, just like King Robert's Cult did with the Blood Stone. And look what happened.

There's some Dry Ice, liquid nitrogen, a small tub of bacteria labeled "X-Strange Sample", a Plasma Orb, more notes referencing living ice cream as a side-effect of the stone's power (good thing THAT didn't end up in the Roaches Ice Cream we cooked up for our monster friends), and plans to expand to a coastal zone with the construction of a Dark Falls Seaside Chemical Industry Complex. There's even a statue of a head and DNA with the words Fons Scientia (Source of Knowledge in Latin), and a crystal flask statue in the main lobby. Wow. These guys were REALLY taking science seriously…

But sometimes, you gotta do terrible things in its name. And some sacrifices aren't even worth it.

Finally, I reached the reactor core. Looks like an atomic bomb blew up in here. And Mother Nature has begun to retake some of her ground. Some of the tiles have given way to soil. And I'm seeing…lightning scorches.

But how?! There's no opening or anything! There's no way lightning could get in!

Suddenly, it hits me. This was SUPERNATURAL lightning. And not like the Creation Stone…

And what I hear next sounds like a gunshot. No…like an explosion.

BONG!

I rush to a nearby window in the halls. And I gasp.

BONG!

The clock tower…both hands are at the number 12!

BONG!

My eyes widened. No…oh my god…

BONG!

The sky begins to grow even darker. The moon goes from green…to red!

BONG!

It's like the Eternal Night all over again. I feel the fear begin to come back.

BONG!

No WAY can I make it back to Dead House in time. Abe mentioned something emerging at midnight from this robot called Francine, who told him about "them"…

BONG!

And I'm about to discover just what "they" are…

BONG!

It begins raining. And storming. HARD.

BONG!

Thunder roars. Lightning crashes.

BONG! BONG! BONG!

Silence. DEAD silence. It's almost horrifying.

I don my Monster Armor, whipping out my sword and shield. I enter my Ultimate form for extra luck, the armor changing to match the form. But I don't think it was meant to contain this thing. Some parts can barely fit…

Suddenly, there's a loud scream. And I'm not talking about a teenage girl getting murdered slowly scream. No…this is a demon from Hell scream. Straight out of Call of Duty…

And then, a gray decayed hand BURSTS from the ruined ground of the hall!

I freeze with sheer terror. I'm all alone this time. No one but me heard my scream.

More hands pull up MORE of them! From the core, from outside…even right behind me, as I turn to run but quickly stop when I see it! Ultimately, I see the full forms of the undead horde…

One of them, behind me, is a kid with wavy gray hair, a turned up nose and a serious looking face. He wears a maroon long-sleeved sweatshirt and black jeans and a blue baseball cap. And the guy right in front of me seems a bit older. He's a young-looking man, with short dull gray hair. Both have the same gray skin and pale white eyes. As do all the OTHERS!

I nearly hurl at the faces. One has their face melted grotesquely off, revealing a skull with eyes, gunk, and dried blood! I see exposed bone, rotting flesh, and missing limbs! The grossness level is right on par with Resident Evil and The Walking Dead!

And then, the zombie right in front of me, who seems like a real estate agent, begins to say something, reaching out with a decayed gray arm as lightning crashes!

"IIIIII'M HUNGRYYYYYY!"

"Oh SHIT!"

They can talk! These zombies can talk!

No WAY can I fight them all! OH GOD! I GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE!

I bite the real estate zombie as hard as I can, then throw him away down the hall as he screams in pain!

I then dash away from the zombie, knocking another out of my way! I hear the roars and pleas for me to come back and the angry screamings of being hungry, but I don't stop. I hear my own footsteps hammer against the ground as I pant. The fear overtakes me so much that I can't concentrate or focus. The armor and monster form leaves me, and I'm left as a fragile human being! I guess it's too much fear to handle!

"GRAAAAGH!"

"AAAAH!"

One nearly jumps me, but I slam a beaker of liquid nitrogen right down the throat! It builds up inside as I rush back, and I hear it explode!

I look back, and I scream again. They can RUN!

"HELP! SOMEBODY! HELP!"

No one's around. I make tight dashes across the chemical plant, the horde chanting "HUNGRY! I'M HUNGRY!" again and again right behind me! I feel like I'm running from the Brewer Clone again…only MORE intense!

The roars and screams echo through the empty halls. I duck in one hallway and slam the door behind me. I see a construction worker zombie with a white hard hat only stare…and…

I hear a click. And the handle TURNS!

"NOOOOO!"

The doors! They can open doors!

I take off running again, unable to fight back. They're smarter than normal zombies! OH MY GOD!

"STOP! GET AWAY FROM ME!"

There! On the floor! I grab a nearby pistol and fire like mad at the zombies while running. I score from the headshots…but they STILL keep coming!

"NO! NONONONONONO! DIE! DIE, DAMMIT! WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!"

The bullets do nothing to them. When I run out of ammo, I throw the pistol at them. I see one grab it and try to pull the trigger. Click!

Oh god…they know how to use WEAPONS!

The zombie tosses it aside as I keep running like hell. I try to knock stuff down to slow them, but they jump over and slide! Some even split up to ambush me later on!

If only I had an Undead Nullifier 3000 or something like that! DAMNIT!

At least finally getting that damn treadmill paid off! Magic doesn't work either! What the hell ARE these things?! They're not zombies! And they're not human either!

I turn on my Halogen flashlight and try to find a way out. I manage to see some more zombies ahead, and they SCREAM!

"IT BURNS! IT BURNS!"

The light! It makes their faces melt off! I swing it behind me to try and melt the faces of the horde. It works…for a time! Still more keep coming, and the battery dies!

"SHIT!"

I continue bolting like mad, and when I see the exit, I race forward to try and charge my way through the doors…

Only to feel a sharp PAIN as I slam hard against the doors with extreme pain!

"OW!"

That's when I see a sight that stops my heart. MORE of the undead outside. One smiles and waves goodbye at me…OH GOD! HE'S LOCKED ME INSIDE!

"NO! NO! NOOOOOOOO!"

The horde keeps coming! And I'm forced to run away again. I'm not sure I can keep this up forever!

NO! A dead end!

I turn around, panting heavily. I can hear the horde coming CLOSER! And the door is locked!

"Come on, COME ON!"

I throw myself against the door again and again, trying to use my strength to break the lock down. I keep banging hard, despite knowing it'll attract more. But what choice do I have?! I WANT TO LIVE!

I nearly tire out when I see someone rushing to the door from the other side! A little girl! I hear a click, and the door swings open!

"Get in, GET IN!"

I race inside, and she slams the door just as the horde turns the corner! She locks the door just before they can reach it! I hear it bang as the voices scream.

"LET US IN! LET US IN!"

"Todd, the lights! Turn on the lights!"

I see a boy of a similar age obey the girl, flipping on a switch! The hallway lights flicker on, and I hear the zombies SCREAM! They back away from the door and run away, screaming like mad. Those more crazily-hungered keep banging, their screams becoming dying wails and moans before I see them melt away like a wet wicked witch. And then…silence.

I fall against a wall, panting heavily.

"T…Thanks kid." I pant. "What…What the hell WERE those things?!"

"Something that's never alive NOR dead." The girl says. "My name is Scarlett Martenson. My friend Todd Coates and I found ourselves here, and we have no idea why we're here. All we know is that these…THINGS come out in the dead of night. To feast upon the flesh and fresh blood of the living. They're immortal, and nothing can kill them. Not bullets, not fire, not even knives! The only thing that CAN, however, is direct contact to any source of light."

"But it's always cloudy here…how did these zombies come to be?"

"This entire town." Todd answers. "It's got a high concentration of thanophosphate."

"Thanos what now?"

"It's a toxic compound that puts living beings into a state of Pseudo-Death." Scarlet answers. "Those infected are basically like Schrodinger's Cat: Alive and dead at the same time. They retain their human sentience and intelligence, but they lose the ability to get tired and get an insatiable hunger. They can do things normal zombies can't. They can speak, open doors, climb walls and fences, and do ANYTHING that humans can. We call them Revenants."

Like the Mortal Kombat zombies? Makes sense…

"The Lazarus Project focused on experimenting with a weird stone." She continued. "THAT created the thanophosphate. We call it the Lazarus Virus. It started out as a side-effect of the reanimated dead. They carried that virus within it. The scientists tried killing them all, but one escaped. It managed to infect the reactor core of this plant and factory with the virus. The reactor overloaded and exploded. It infected EVERYONE in this town, and brought all of its undead back to life as sentient zombies. The mayor, the sheriff, Mr. Compton Dawes, EVERYONE."

"It gets worse." Todd says. "Every living being that has entered this town since the accident becomes infected too. Like new victims the undead lured in: The Thurstons, the Carpenters, the Somersets, the Franklins, the Gregorys, even the Bensons."

Everyone in town? Wait…but…but THAT means…

My eyes widened at this. "No…"

"When you die, you'll be brought back as a Revenant." Scarlet adds. "You won't be able to control yourself. You'll have the urge to feast on flesh…"

That…combined with the Ultimate…

Dear God…I'm gonna be an unstoppable MONSTER!

"I-I didn't come alone." I confess. "My friends and I had our home overtaken by this guy called Slappy, so we had to hide here. It must've been his plan all along. Once he kills us, he'll have MORE minions…"

"The living dummy?" Todd asks. "Thankfully, he hasn't added us to his horde. We're immune to this virus. And for a reason."

"Huh? Why?"

"We're already dead." Scarlet answers. "Thankfully, we were turned by a DIFFERENT means. We're just zombies, not Revenants. Yet we're close to them."

"W…WHAT?"

"Don't worry, we've managed to find an alternative to cure our hunger for human flesh." Todd says. "A special monster ration called Canned Meat."

"Normally, the Revenants can't leave Dark Falls." Scarlet adds. "But Slappy knows this, and once he manages to get strong enough to mind-control them, he's bringing them out of town and back to his own Horrorville. His slaves will be their supper."

I gasp.

"You said light can stop these guys, right?"

"Yes, but flashlights don't have batteries powerful enough to last long enough to do the trick. Neither do hallway lights. The only thing that can prove capable of just that would have to be direct sunlight itself."

Sunlight. Like vampires? Abe managed to amplify the sunlight reflected from the moon before, but I don't think he can do that…

again.

"Uh oh…"

"Uh oh what?" Todd asks.

"You know of this thing called the Ultimate, right?"

"It's the monster to end all monsters. All of them combined." Scarlet says. "We heard that Dracula managed to pass it on to someone named Cory Waldhorn through a bite…"

I gulp.

"Uh, okay, there's two things that you should know before we head back to Dead House." I say. "One, I'M Cory Waldhorn. And two…I think I just made the situation a BILLION times worse…"

SLAPPY

What's TAKING so long?! If only I knew a spell to speed up my growing power! If I could cast one, I would've done so already! ARRGH! I hate waiting!

Still…now that those twerps have been exposed to that chemical virus in Dark Falls, all they have to do is bite the dust and…BAM! More zombies under my command!

There's a knock on the throne room door. Oh great…

"*sigh* WHAT is it?!"

Oh, if it isn't Countess Yvonne and my old former-rival brother Mr. Wood! They seem rather pleased…

"My husband Nightwing has sensed more vampires being born." Yvonne smiles. "And not just vampires. Our forces have reported more werewolves, ghosts, and mummies, among many other monsters, all emerging in Dark Falls."

"You know what that means, right?" Mr. Wood adds. "Our spies are saying that they're a hybrid of all monsters! The Revenants there are turning into even MORE Ultimates! Which means that the TRUE Ultimate must've done something REALLY good! For us, but of course!"

"The Ultimate, eh?" I'm rather surprised. "Well…this changes EVERYTHING! Once I get strong enough to control an ARMY of those Ultimates, no one on this world, across the dimensions, or in the entire UNIVERSE will be able to STOP ME! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Our laughter echoed throughout all of City Hall. Oh man, this is turning out to be the best day ever!

Finally, for the first time in a long time, Slappy's getting HAPPY! World Domination and Eternal Chaos, HERE WE COME!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!