Chapter 2: The Gathering
Consciousness slowly returned, her thoughts becoming cognitive again. Before even opening her eyes, Katrina knew her surroundings weren't pleasant, although strangely familiar. It smelled damp and mouldy, much like most of the tunnels she had spent so much time in. It gave her some comfort, but not much. She opened her eyes slowly, blinking even against the dim light. She pushed up off the ground to a sitting position and wiped the grime off her cheek. "Ech," she muttered to herself, a look of disgust crossing her features. "En route and already in a heap of. . . something. . ." She hadn't had to put up too much of a fight before the force that had ambushed her overcame her. Kat reached up and rubbed a large, painful lump on the back of her head. "They could have at least asked me to pretend to be unconscious..."
A quick scan of the floor in her immediate area, Kat scooped up a nearby handgun and quickly checked if there were any rounds. "Five, not too shabby...it's something at least..." Turning it over in her hand, Kat finally looked around at the rest of the room. The dim light didn't even illuminate 10 feet around her. The walls were as grimy as the floor and she slowly rose to her feet. Kat backed up against the wall, one hand holding the loaded handgun in front of her, the other hand searching the wall. She looked up towards the ceiling, hoping to spot an air vent of some sort. The air in the room was stale and stagnant, heavy with the grimy moisture; her nose wrinkled at the stench, the stench of...death. She sidestepped slowly around the room, keeping her back against the wall, reaching the first corner and turning with it.
Kat jumped in surprise as a low groan emanated from the other end of the wall she was on. The light didn't reach the other corner. "Advanced and be recognized!" she said loud enough for the other in the room to hear her. She stifled a small nervous giggle; the strange circumstance she found herself in made her very edgy; it was an attempt to lighten the overall mood. She heard heavy shuffling and she trained the handgun at where the noise was coming from. "Say SOMETHING at least!" she said, getting impatient.
Squinting into the darkness, the shuffling came closer and finally entered the halo of light. Kat gasped in horror; the figure was human in stance and stature...but it looked like a decaying corpse; something right out of a really bad B-movie, except it was real and in smell-o-vision: the blood, the gore, the ripped clothing, the scars and oozing wounds, and especially the stench. It growled and its blank eyes looked straight through her. Her eyes were wide in desperation as she fired a single shot straight to its neck. The creature paused, barely registering the added bullet wound to itself. "Holy mother of god," Katrina gulped as she slid along the wall back the way she had come from. It kept coming towards her so she fired a second shot straight into its face.
The bone shattered and its face was now indistinguishable from the rest of its body aside from the half a brain leaking down the bone shards and getting stuck on the dangling nose. "God that's gross," Kat said, but her thought was cut short as the creature waved its arms sluggishly and something glinted in its hand in the dim light. It almost looked like... "A key!?" she exclaimed in surprise, as she hadn't noticed a door in the room. But that was silly, what room didn't have a door? "Get the key, find the door," she ordered herself. She tried to look past the zombie but to no avail. Still against the wall, she continued her journey, the zombie pretty much only turning to face her as he stayed in the middle of the room.
Kat finally backed up in triumph against a large metal door. The zombie, tiring of the spinning game, quickly strided towards her, enraged. Kat gulped and fired the next three shots successively into its face: the first the zombie slowed considerably, the second, it stumbled back a step, and the third and final one successfully dropped the zombie to the floor. Without hesitation, Kat ran over and ripped the key from the thing's hand, then kicked it hard in the head before rushing back to the door. She could almost feel the adrenaline pumping through her blood; her hand shook as she felt for the keyhole. A groan behind her gave new speed to her actions, the key went in, she turned it and the door practically swung open as she put all her weight into it.
Kat risked a glance behind her and saw that the zombie had regained its feet and was once again coming after her. "How many times do you have to die before you're dead!!???" she screamed as she slammed the door, literally on its face. Loud thumping ensued from inside and Katrina noticed, quite a convenient coincidence, a large bar on the side of the door. She swung it down to block the door, effectively containing the zombie within. She heard it moan and groan and howl and bang on the door, but apparently it gave up within a matter of minutes. With her back to the door, it seemed like an hour.
As she waited for her breathing to return to normal, Kat finally took a gander at what awaited her next. A long, dim hallway, pocked by metal doors similar to the one on her room. Without giving it much thought, Kat still held the empty handgun if only to make her feel more secure, even though she knew it wouldn't do any good if she met up with another zombie, before making her way down the hall. She checked about three of the other doors, but when she found they were all locked, she didn't bother checking any of the others. She wished she hadn't used all the rounds; what if another zombified creature was waiting at the other end? Maybe if she asked...
"Hey!" she called down the corridor, "Anyone else down here!??" the walls not conducive to very good acoustics. She walked a little quicker, her eyes darting around. A few moments were all it took to reach where she could see the end, and another humanish figure. She stopped short and levelled the handgun at it before slowly inching forward. "Turn slowly," she said to it, her heart rate once again increasing; 'Have to expect the unexpected', she thought, waiting for the figure to react...
The ominous sound of metal doors opening alerted Saint. Body tensed, ready to act if another zombie was to become visible; he set his feet into the ground. The tension faded a second later though; as the female human's voice sounded though the air. Vincent's heart skipped a beat -there was someone else alive down here... The fact that she was pointing a gun at him never even seemed to register in his mind. Quickly; he blurted out the first response he could think of... "Don't shoot: I'm a bloody human! Hold your fire!"
Walking towards her -arms raised in the air as not to pose a threat-, he got a clearer view of this person. She wasn't exactly pretty, being short; and scarred, her nose was a bit too big as well... but none of that mattered when he confirmed that she was indeed human: At that moment in time; she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Vincent was about to speak again when suddenly one of the doors some distance back along the corridor opened. Another human male ran out; before quickly blocking off his point of entry. 'Holy shit; there's more!' Saint thought silently; upon seeing that this one was armed, Vincent glanced towards the female at his side. "You aint gonna shoot me are you; right...?" Kat nearly sighed in relief when she came close enough to see the figure clearly: human, male, and quite attractive. She pushed the thought from her mind as he asked her not to shoot. The gun still raised, she glanced behind her as she heard another door open and close, and then looked back at the man. .
Kat realized that he thought her gun was loaded, or at least had some ammo left. She almost smirked, but managed to keep a straight face as she stared at his dual-coloured eyes. "I won't shoot if you act straight." She tilted the gun towards the ceiling, her arm resting casually. "You know what the hell is going on here? Cos I sure as hell don't." A small tremor in her voice was the only sign that she was in any way uneasy; although terrified would be a more appropriate word. "I aint got the slightest idea what's going on here... You didn't see one of those... 'things' too did you?"
The words were sincere enough; Vincent really never had a clue about what was happening to them. He looked at the other guy; now moving towards them. He looked young; with long raven black hair draped over one eye. To Saint, he looked a little 'punkish'.
"Yo, kid; you alright!?"
He called out tentatively; as the realisation that every one of these doors could contain a survivor crossed his mind...
"Come over here quickly!"
His voice cracked as the slight feeling of elation became audible; there were three people now, and while only two of them were armed; Vincent suddenly believed that the worst was over... "I'm cool, man," The teenager relaxed and let the hand that held his hair drop. It again fell over nearly half of his face.
"Some rottin' motherfucker gave me a time, though, moanin' like a bitch." It was then he noticed the girl in the corner of his eye, looking tough with all of her scars. "A dog, I mean."
He looked around. "So, um, what is this?" Kat's face belied that the terror she had felt slowly subsided for the moment as more of her fellow men joined them at the elevator. She smirked when the second man corrected his language. "No one's gonna shoot you," she said to the younger man with the long hair. "And I don't think any of us know what's really going on here."
Kat grinned almost sadly at the first man as she pulled out the magazine on the gun and showed him it was empty. "Sorry about that, man," she apologized before sticking it in her left cargo pocket.
She looked at the men surrounding her, and then crossed her arms. "It looks like we'll be spending some time together, may as well tell me who you all are." They all looked like they came from some type of military background, so she figured a more formal introduction was in order. "I'm Katrina Gibbs, Master Sergeant, US Army, and 800th MP Brigade." Watching Kat carefully, the younger man seemed Wary to tell just exactly who he was.
"I'm Ethan 'Lone'. Rangers, Army and Special Forces chopper gunner, mechanic and pilot. Accomplished marksman." He leaned against the wall, able to hear zombies groan from their rooms. The thought of trying his key to open the other doors came to him, though...it would probably not work.
"There're obviously others in the rooms. Should we wait for them?"
Consciousness slowly returned, her thoughts becoming cognitive again. Before even opening her eyes, Katrina knew her surroundings weren't pleasant, although strangely familiar. It smelled damp and mouldy, much like most of the tunnels she had spent so much time in. It gave her some comfort, but not much. She opened her eyes slowly, blinking even against the dim light. She pushed up off the ground to a sitting position and wiped the grime off her cheek. "Ech," she muttered to herself, a look of disgust crossing her features. "En route and already in a heap of. . . something. . ." She hadn't had to put up too much of a fight before the force that had ambushed her overcame her. Kat reached up and rubbed a large, painful lump on the back of her head. "They could have at least asked me to pretend to be unconscious..."
A quick scan of the floor in her immediate area, Kat scooped up a nearby handgun and quickly checked if there were any rounds. "Five, not too shabby...it's something at least..." Turning it over in her hand, Kat finally looked around at the rest of the room. The dim light didn't even illuminate 10 feet around her. The walls were as grimy as the floor and she slowly rose to her feet. Kat backed up against the wall, one hand holding the loaded handgun in front of her, the other hand searching the wall. She looked up towards the ceiling, hoping to spot an air vent of some sort. The air in the room was stale and stagnant, heavy with the grimy moisture; her nose wrinkled at the stench, the stench of...death. She sidestepped slowly around the room, keeping her back against the wall, reaching the first corner and turning with it.
Kat jumped in surprise as a low groan emanated from the other end of the wall she was on. The light didn't reach the other corner. "Advanced and be recognized!" she said loud enough for the other in the room to hear her. She stifled a small nervous giggle; the strange circumstance she found herself in made her very edgy; it was an attempt to lighten the overall mood. She heard heavy shuffling and she trained the handgun at where the noise was coming from. "Say SOMETHING at least!" she said, getting impatient.
Squinting into the darkness, the shuffling came closer and finally entered the halo of light. Kat gasped in horror; the figure was human in stance and stature...but it looked like a decaying corpse; something right out of a really bad B-movie, except it was real and in smell-o-vision: the blood, the gore, the ripped clothing, the scars and oozing wounds, and especially the stench. It growled and its blank eyes looked straight through her. Her eyes were wide in desperation as she fired a single shot straight to its neck. The creature paused, barely registering the added bullet wound to itself. "Holy mother of god," Katrina gulped as she slid along the wall back the way she had come from. It kept coming towards her so she fired a second shot straight into its face.
The bone shattered and its face was now indistinguishable from the rest of its body aside from the half a brain leaking down the bone shards and getting stuck on the dangling nose. "God that's gross," Kat said, but her thought was cut short as the creature waved its arms sluggishly and something glinted in its hand in the dim light. It almost looked like... "A key!?" she exclaimed in surprise, as she hadn't noticed a door in the room. But that was silly, what room didn't have a door? "Get the key, find the door," she ordered herself. She tried to look past the zombie but to no avail. Still against the wall, she continued her journey, the zombie pretty much only turning to face her as he stayed in the middle of the room.
Kat finally backed up in triumph against a large metal door. The zombie, tiring of the spinning game, quickly strided towards her, enraged. Kat gulped and fired the next three shots successively into its face: the first the zombie slowed considerably, the second, it stumbled back a step, and the third and final one successfully dropped the zombie to the floor. Without hesitation, Kat ran over and ripped the key from the thing's hand, then kicked it hard in the head before rushing back to the door. She could almost feel the adrenaline pumping through her blood; her hand shook as she felt for the keyhole. A groan behind her gave new speed to her actions, the key went in, she turned it and the door practically swung open as she put all her weight into it.
Kat risked a glance behind her and saw that the zombie had regained its feet and was once again coming after her. "How many times do you have to die before you're dead!!???" she screamed as she slammed the door, literally on its face. Loud thumping ensued from inside and Katrina noticed, quite a convenient coincidence, a large bar on the side of the door. She swung it down to block the door, effectively containing the zombie within. She heard it moan and groan and howl and bang on the door, but apparently it gave up within a matter of minutes. With her back to the door, it seemed like an hour.
As she waited for her breathing to return to normal, Kat finally took a gander at what awaited her next. A long, dim hallway, pocked by metal doors similar to the one on her room. Without giving it much thought, Kat still held the empty handgun if only to make her feel more secure, even though she knew it wouldn't do any good if she met up with another zombie, before making her way down the hall. She checked about three of the other doors, but when she found they were all locked, she didn't bother checking any of the others. She wished she hadn't used all the rounds; what if another zombified creature was waiting at the other end? Maybe if she asked...
"Hey!" she called down the corridor, "Anyone else down here!??" the walls not conducive to very good acoustics. She walked a little quicker, her eyes darting around. A few moments were all it took to reach where she could see the end, and another humanish figure. She stopped short and levelled the handgun at it before slowly inching forward. "Turn slowly," she said to it, her heart rate once again increasing; 'Have to expect the unexpected', she thought, waiting for the figure to react...
The ominous sound of metal doors opening alerted Saint. Body tensed, ready to act if another zombie was to become visible; he set his feet into the ground. The tension faded a second later though; as the female human's voice sounded though the air. Vincent's heart skipped a beat -there was someone else alive down here... The fact that she was pointing a gun at him never even seemed to register in his mind. Quickly; he blurted out the first response he could think of... "Don't shoot: I'm a bloody human! Hold your fire!"
Walking towards her -arms raised in the air as not to pose a threat-, he got a clearer view of this person. She wasn't exactly pretty, being short; and scarred, her nose was a bit too big as well... but none of that mattered when he confirmed that she was indeed human: At that moment in time; she was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. Vincent was about to speak again when suddenly one of the doors some distance back along the corridor opened. Another human male ran out; before quickly blocking off his point of entry. 'Holy shit; there's more!' Saint thought silently; upon seeing that this one was armed, Vincent glanced towards the female at his side. "You aint gonna shoot me are you; right...?" Kat nearly sighed in relief when she came close enough to see the figure clearly: human, male, and quite attractive. She pushed the thought from her mind as he asked her not to shoot. The gun still raised, she glanced behind her as she heard another door open and close, and then looked back at the man. .
Kat realized that he thought her gun was loaded, or at least had some ammo left. She almost smirked, but managed to keep a straight face as she stared at his dual-coloured eyes. "I won't shoot if you act straight." She tilted the gun towards the ceiling, her arm resting casually. "You know what the hell is going on here? Cos I sure as hell don't." A small tremor in her voice was the only sign that she was in any way uneasy; although terrified would be a more appropriate word. "I aint got the slightest idea what's going on here... You didn't see one of those... 'things' too did you?"
The words were sincere enough; Vincent really never had a clue about what was happening to them. He looked at the other guy; now moving towards them. He looked young; with long raven black hair draped over one eye. To Saint, he looked a little 'punkish'.
"Yo, kid; you alright!?"
He called out tentatively; as the realisation that every one of these doors could contain a survivor crossed his mind...
"Come over here quickly!"
His voice cracked as the slight feeling of elation became audible; there were three people now, and while only two of them were armed; Vincent suddenly believed that the worst was over... "I'm cool, man," The teenager relaxed and let the hand that held his hair drop. It again fell over nearly half of his face.
"Some rottin' motherfucker gave me a time, though, moanin' like a bitch." It was then he noticed the girl in the corner of his eye, looking tough with all of her scars. "A dog, I mean."
He looked around. "So, um, what is this?" Kat's face belied that the terror she had felt slowly subsided for the moment as more of her fellow men joined them at the elevator. She smirked when the second man corrected his language. "No one's gonna shoot you," she said to the younger man with the long hair. "And I don't think any of us know what's really going on here."
Kat grinned almost sadly at the first man as she pulled out the magazine on the gun and showed him it was empty. "Sorry about that, man," she apologized before sticking it in her left cargo pocket.
She looked at the men surrounding her, and then crossed her arms. "It looks like we'll be spending some time together, may as well tell me who you all are." They all looked like they came from some type of military background, so she figured a more formal introduction was in order. "I'm Katrina Gibbs, Master Sergeant, US Army, and 800th MP Brigade." Watching Kat carefully, the younger man seemed Wary to tell just exactly who he was.
"I'm Ethan 'Lone'. Rangers, Army and Special Forces chopper gunner, mechanic and pilot. Accomplished marksman." He leaned against the wall, able to hear zombies groan from their rooms. The thought of trying his key to open the other doors came to him, though...it would probably not work.
"There're obviously others in the rooms. Should we wait for them?"