[Author's Note: In the midst of chaos, the enemies meet. Thanks for reading and enjoy! =) --Foxmerc]
CHAPTER 3
Worlds Collide
Zoness Facility
1211 hours
At first I thought I had gone
blind in my other eye. As I slowly opened it, immediately feeling the pain
in my head throbbing like hell's own base drum, all I could see was green.
I sat up and waved my hand in front of my face, frantically trying to see
something, anything. If I really had gone blind right there, I knew I would've
put my gun to my head and ended it. Fortunately, it didn't come to that.
As my hand waved in front of me, I could see its silhouette waving away
the green in wafts. My heart almost stopped as I realized I was surrounded
by E3 gas.
The thick shit was all around
me; I couldn't see more than three inches in front of my muzzle. I slowly
stood up and felt around like some retarded moron until I found the wall
and leaned on it. As I stood there to give my aching head some time to
dull down, I began to think about the situation I was in. I remembered
the major fuck-up in the Playground that set the first two things loose,
then I ran over here and got knocked out. How long had I been out? I had
no idea. Obviously long enough for things to go from bad to worse.
The monsters…thinking of the
accident in the test chambers made me realize something else. The gas had
spread through the room from the shattered glass. And if this entire corridor
was filled, that means the entire gas reserves must have been released…and
there was plenty of it to fill the entire base, via the ventilation system
and the cargo elevator shaft. Suddenly, my throbbing head was assaulted
with images of the test subjects being ripped to shreds, of the normal
soldiers being mutated, their skin boiling, the lumps forming. How many
could there be? Sixty prisoners left, plus at least thirty scientists,
plus over a hundred Venom soldiers…I decided to stop my math count there.
Around two-hundred of those things…and they could be anywhere.
My heart pounded as I flattened
my back against the wall and frantically looked around the green fog. The
sound of my breathing in the mask became heavier and faster, and I snarled
through it. For the first time in a long time, I was the position of the
victim, and it pissed me off. There I was, shaking like one of those goddamn
pussy new recruits, and all because those damn scientists couldn't keep
their shit under control. It's a good thing they were all dead already…or
I'd tear apart the first one I saw myself.
When the rage subsided and my
vision turned from red back to green, my heart was beating fast now with
a very unfamiliar emotion to me…fear. My mind raced, trying to figure out
what to do next, but the thought train was constantly derailed by the knowledge
that they could be anywhere…one of those damn things could be two feet
in front of me and it would be having my head for lunch before I even knew.
Not to mention the sheer tenseness of having the gas all around me…one
little stumble, one little shake to bring the mask slightly askew, and
I would become the same show that I was laughing at hours before.
Keeping my thoughts focused,
I finally decided on my next move. I had to clear my vision, and that meant
purging the facility. The controls to do that, I remembered with a grimace,
were back in the Playground. With any shred of luck, these things were
just as blind as I was and I'd be able to do it undetected. With a deep
breath, and my back still flat on the wall, I began back towards the test
chambers.
Things already went wrong after
two damn steps. My foot landed on the same fucking pipe that knocked me
out, and this time the little bastard almost sent me sprawling. I recovered
quickly and was about to frustratingly boot the pipe, but I remembered
that my pistol was back in my room. Instead I picked up the metal rod and
held it firmly in my right hand, ready to give the first thing I saw a
home-run swing to the head. After what I saw in the test chamber, though,
it would be like fencing with a toothpick.
I took one slow step after another,
feeling my way from memory back to the Playground. Every once in a while,
I jumped and stood dead still as a hissing sound pierced the silence. Any
second, one of those long, sharp, rock-solid arms could fly through the
mist and take my head off, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about
it. With that pleasant thought in my head, I would stand, breathing heavily,
until the hissing subsided, then force my legs to continue sliding down
the corridor, convincing myself it was just a leaky pipe. By some miracle,
I finally made it to the Playground with no encounters.
Through the mist I could see
that the door was open a foot or so, which was odd because it had an auto
lock…it had to be either fully open or fully closed. As I neared the door,
my foot nudged against something hard, probably more debris. Upon closer
inspection, though, I found it to be part of what was blocking the door…and
it was no debris.
As I felt the object I kicked
to see if it could be used as a better weapon than the pipe, my hand closed
around something mostly solid, but soft and wet in an area. I brought it
through the fog to my face for a better look and fell back on my ass with
a gasp, dropping it as my eye stared back into another eye. After I got
my heart beating again, I slowly retrieved it and took a better look.
It was a cougar's head…or what
used to be a head anyway. Blood dripped from its open neck as I held it
by the right ear…the left ear was gone along with a good chunk of the entire
left side of the head. His single eye was forever frozen in a wide look
of fear. My stomach turned slightly as I realized it was the exposed gray
matter that I first felt. I swallowed then scoffed and dropped the head
to the floor with a wet thunk.
It didn't take me long to see
that the object stuck in the door was the cougar's body. A pool of blood
stretched for a few feet before I actually saw the open neck, with the
rest of the body half out and half in the door. It looked like he tried
to wedge his way out and one of the monsters pulled on his head, maybe
taking a sample taste first. I roughly kicked the body out of the way and
pushed the door all the way open.
As I expected, I couldn't see
shit in the Playground, but it was just as silent as the corridors. I was
counting on the monsters not wanting to hang around, and it sounded like
they agreed…but I took it nice and slow anyway. I knew the console that
controlled the gas was the third one down the row, so I walked forward
and groped through the mist for the first one. I found it the hard way,
by banging my knee into it. After thoroughly cursing it to hell and rubbing
my knee, I felt my way along the console until I reached the end, then
stretched my arm out to try and feel the second one.
I felt the cold metal of the
second console and shuffled over. As I felt my way along this one, my hand
grazed a strange lump on the console controls. As I felt it further, I
could make out five soft appendages, and it finally clicked…I recoiled
back as I realized it was a hand. To my surprise, the hand came with me
as I stepped back. I held it up to my face and saw the gray-furred wrist
end in raggedy flesh strands and an unclean break in the bone. Gray fur…out
of nowhere, I wondered if it was Enghusen.
I tossed the hand over my shoulder
in disgust, like it was a bad apple I had bitten, and stepped back to the
console. I must've been closer than I thought, because yet again I banged
my fucking knee. In my weary mind, I couldn't help but think of a laugh
track playing over and over. After giving that console its fair share of
damnation, with a punch to teach it a lesson, I eased over and grabbed
the third one. No nasty surprises this time and I kept my knees far away.
Putting my face as close to
the controls as possible, I could barely make out the buttons and commands.
After a few minutes of scanning, I finally found a round red button labeled
"Toxin Purge," with a disclaimer under it warning that all vents and doorways
should be kept clear for personnel safety. I really didn't give a shit
if they were…I pushed the button.
At first nothing happened and
I was ready to give myself up for dead. But then I heard a low humming,
like a generator starting up, and then a loud ratchet as the vents opened.
It felt like I was in the middle of a small tornado, the gas swirling around
me up into the ceiling vents. The same thing I knew, hopefully, would be
happening everywhere else in the base, sucking the green crap out and blasting
it to the surface. And too bad for any poor bastards within a hundred yards
up there.
Fortunately, the purge
didn't reveal a gang of monsters who were grateful at having their vision
cleared. It did, however, uncover a pretty amusing scene…the shit-for-brains
scientists that started this whole mess. It looked like something out of
a horror flick…the floor and most of the walls were practically painted
with blood. There weren't any bodies, no no no… there were bits and pieces
of bodies strewn all over, carpeting the red floor, not a single corpse
fully intact. Through the scraps of white cloth and furry flesh, a dozen
or so faces looked up at me, their unseeing eyes boring into me, their
muzzles open in an eternal screams.
I glared at the macabre blanket
of death and spit at it…bastards. One thing bothered me, though…there weren't
nearly enough of them. Though it was pretty hard, I estimated that there
were only about fifteen total dead in the room…and there were over double
that to begin with at the experiment. The gas must've turned the rest.
Clearing my vision was an improvement,
but not enough…now I'd only be able to see them coming before I was killed,
unless they were more immune to steel pipes than lasers. With that thought,
I contemplated making a stop by the armory, but it was in the opposite
direction from the elevator. This luck streak couldn't last, I'd probably
run into one on the way there. Decided…elevator it was.
Now that I could see the corridors
on the way back, it was obvious that there was fighting. Blood, but still
no bodies, and laser blast scars on the walls. Actually, I did run into
a body, but to my surprise it was one of the freaks, laser wounds stitched
down his lumpy middle. One of the wimps actually got one…will wonders never
cease.
Further towards the elevator,
the corridor started to return to its normal natural crappiness, no blood
or laser marks. Maybe they all went down the other end. As I took a deep
breath to let out the tension, I realized I still had my gas mask on. I
started to get nervous as I pulled it off, thoughts of whether it lingered
or stuck to the walls or any of that crap beating at my head. Finally,
I told myself to shut the hell up and pulled it off, taking in a deep breath
of semi-clean air. It felt better to have my peripheral vision back and
not to hear my own damn lungs in my ears at every breath.
I continued forward, glad about
the unmarred corridor. But just as I let my guard down, I was rewarded
by a deafening crash of screeching metal from down the corridor. Frozen
in my tracks, I stared in the direction of the noise…exactly where the
cargo elevator would be. Fearing what I would find, I started forward again,
staying wary…something caused that noise.
I knew it was too easy to be
true. Whatever shred of hope I had left abandoned me with a frustrated
punch to the wall as I opened the door to the cargo elevator's loading
bay. The heap of mangled, rusty metal told the story…the piece-of-crap
platform had fallen, probably from the age and the force of the explosions
that released the gas to begin with. But who cares why…the fact remains
that I was staring at the shattered pieces of the only way out.
I didn't know what to do…it
seemed that was it. But as I turned and shuffled back towards the door,
I heard something else coming from the open shaft…a soft fluttering sound.
I spun around in time to see something thin and white float and land softly
on the rubble, draping over the metal beams. Squinting and making out the
details, I saw arms and a collar…a jacket. Was someone up there?
I jogged back to the shaft and
clambered up the pile of rubble, staring up into the darkness. I couldn't
see anyone, but I could barely make out a faint rhythmic tapping…someone
climbing the ladder? That was impossible…the entire upper base was unoccupied,
and even if it wasn't, they'd all be dead from the gas going up the shaft.
Scratching my ear in thought, I decided against calling up to the mystery
climber. Instead I took a closer look at the jacket.
Nothing outstanding about it…just
a simple white waist-length jacket, nothing patched or stitched to it.
The elbow sections of the sleeves were coiled and creased, showing the
owner frequently rolled the sleeves up…funny, just like…
I jerked my head up, peering
again into the blackness, but still no one visible. It couldn't be…no way.
Plenty of people wore white jackets and rolled their sleeves up, not just
McCloud. Even so, a white jacket wasn't exactly Venom standard issue, I
wasn't armed except for the pipe…but I had the element of surprise. My
gut instinct told me to lay low. I didn't want to risk being seen by the
climber before he saw me, in case by some twist of fate it turned out to
be someone from StarFox. Wouldn't that just be the perfect icing on this
whole fucking cake?
I silently jogged back into
the loading bay and hid behind one of the large metal containers, my back
flat against it. Whoever it was would have to walk past the container to
get to the door into the corridor, giving me plenty of time to make an
ID and to decide what to do.
The rhythmic pinging became
louder and, a few minutes later, was punctuated by a heavy, and very close,
thump. After a few seconds, I heard the rustling of cloth…whoever it was
had landed and was probably putting the jacket back on. Slow footsteps
began working their way towards me, and I readied the pipe…if my guest
had a gun and saw me, it would be about as effective as a spitball. I held
my breath as the footsteps sounded so close that they could be my own…a
shadow crept its way first past the container, its source following it.
As he stepped forward, I saw him.
It was almost impossible to
believe, like I was dreaming it. I knew it as the first boot crossed into
my view, followed by the green leg, the white jacket, and then the head.
I bared my teeth slightly as the top of my most-hated list walked slowly
past me towards the door, blaster ready in-hand. What the hell was Fox
McCloud doing here? How the hell could he be here?! It must have been that
goddamn Cornerian scout we had captured a couple days before…the raccoon
that had put on such a magnificent show at the first E3 experiment.
I stared after the bastard,
wondering what to do. Either fate was trying to make things harder for
me, or I was being given a very big treat…and considering I had the drop
on him, I would go with the treat idea. Maybe the one good thing that I
could bring out of this was that I had finally killed Fox McCloud. If I
could do that, this entire damn ordeal would be all worth it. With that
in mind, my face frozen in an expression of anger and hatred, I crept slowly
towards him.
One soft step…another…he opened
the door to the corridor, stopping to peek both ways, pistol up. It gave
me all the time I needed. Before he could step into the corridor, I was
right behind him, grinning wide. Taking a nice wind-up, I swung the pipe
and it connected with a glorious thump with the back of McCloud's head.
The gun clattered to the ground from his hands as he slumped wordlessly
to his knees, then fell flat, unconscious. For the first time in recent
memory, I laughed, looking down at my prize. Finally, a silver lining in
this endless storm cloud.
Soon after...
The first thing I noticed when
me eyes fluttered open was the throbbing pain in my head. It felt like
an Arwing had used it as a landing pad, and then exploded. My next thought
was what the hell had happened to me? Was it all a dream? Was I already
sitting on the beach, just feeling the effects of heatstroke or something?
No such luck. As my vision cleared
slightly, I could see that I was sitting on the cold metal floor of a corridor,
my back against the wall. The next pang of fear came moments later, when
I groaned and tried to raise my hand to my head. They wouldn't budge from
behind my back. After a few seconds of pulling and twisting, I saw that
my wrists were tied behind a pole that protruded from the wall.
"Don't get comfortable," a voice
said from in front of me. A very familiar voice… "I'm only keeping you
alive long enough for you to see that it was me…your last sight before
you die."
I knew I should've taken the
vacation.
I swallowed hard at the comment,
finally placing the voice. My vision cleared all the way and it was confirmed.
I stared wide-eyed up at him in disbelief, noticing that he was holding
my gun, his arms folded.
"…Wolf?"
"Surprised?" he replied, a humorless
grin pulling at his muzzle, his single eye boring into me. "Not as surprised
as I was. You're lucky you arrived now instead of earlier, at least you'll
get a clean death."
"Huh? What is this place? What
the hell are you doing here?"
"What does it look like, taking
a vacation?" he said irritably. "You're not the only mercenary out there.
This is a bio-weapons lab, and I was put in charge of it. Looks like my
time here is up, though…along with yours."
I took a quick look around,
noticing the silence and the blood that stained Wolf's hands and much of
his front. "Did something go wrong?"
"No shit, are you really as
stupid as you look? You think I parade around covered in blood and carrying
a metal pipe for fun? I'm the only living person left down here, and you
just ruined the only way out. Even if I wasn't about to kill you, you're
fucked anyway. There're a couple hundred deformed freaks running around
down here right now." He took a few steps closer to me and unfolded his
arms, leveling my trusty sidearm so I was staring right down the barrel.
"But you won't have to worry about that in a second. Goodnight, McCloud."
"No, wait!" I choked out desperately,
breaking out in a cold sweat as his finger tightened on the trigger. "There
might be another way out!"
"There isn't," he replied bluntly.
"I've lived in this damn can for months."
"Think about it! I know Venom
design too…and a facility like this would never have just one cargo elevator
as its only means of entrance and exit. In every one I've seen, there was
always another emergency way out…something that they wouldn't show on the
maps."
I was rambling, anything to
delay that last centimeter on the trigger that decided whether my brains
stayed where I liked them or became a new form of abstract art on the wall.
Something I said must've made sense, because he didn't fire and his brow
wrinkled. Heart pounding, not able to tear my eyes from the black hole
of the gun barrel, I figured I shouldn't stop there. I may not have said
what I said next if I had more time to think, more time to realize that
it was probably the last thing I would ever even think of saying…and the
last thing he would ever consider.
"And if there actually is another
way out, two stand a better chance of making it there."
I was almost as surprised as
he was. His eye went wide and he looked at me as if I grew a third eye…then
he laughed, hard, a sign I took as 'no.' "Good one, McCloud, always the
comedian. Are you suggesting that I let you loose so you can just shoot
me in the back the first chance you get?"
"Then I'd be in the same situation
as you…stuck at the bottom of this place with all those things you're talking
about, alone." Funny…now that I had said it and had to defend it, the idea
was actually starting to make a little sense. Thankfully, I think Wolf
started to see it too, because his grin faded and he looked me square in
the eye, silent for seconds that seemed like hours. It could've been a
stand-off…if I wasn't tied to the wall.
"And what about when we make
it out…if we make it out," he finally said. "Are we supposed to just walk
our separate ways? Or would you wait until then to shoot me in the back?"
"You think I don't have those
same concerns about you?" I said, but immediately regretted it. He already
could just shoot me, and it was obvious I was trying to get out of it.
"Why not just walk our own ways, pretend this never happened? I'm missing
out on my damn vacation right now."
He cocked his eyebrow, probably
wondering if I was joking…I wish I was. I rested my case with, "Besides,
why worry about that now? We still have to get there, and you'll never
have to worry about me shooting you in the end because you won't make it
there alone anyway."
Wolf O'Donnell may be a cold-hearted,
evil piece of shit, but he wasn't that stupid. Neither of us liked the
idea, as was apparent by the cold glares we exchanged, but I liked the
idea far more than wandering the bowels of that damn place waiting for
whatever these freaks were to give me a warm welcome. I knew he would try
to kill me once we were out, but like I said, let's get there first.
I steadied my breathing as he
continued staring down at me for another minute, a scowl on his muzzle.
I swallowed hard and closed my eyes as he stepped forward and crouched
beside me, bringing the gun with him. After a few seconds, I slowly opened
them again as I realized I wasn't dead, and I felt my wrists become looser.
I looked over and let my breath out in relief as I saw that Wolf had put
the gun down and was busy untying me. After the cord he had used fell away,
he quickly snatched up the gun again and stood, pointing it at me.
"You better pray there's another
way out," he snarled, glaring at me as I slowly stood, rubbing my wrists.
"And if you try any funny moves, I won't hesitate to add your corpse to
the piles already here, got it? Let's go."
-Chapter 4 coming soon-