1347 hours
The past hour had been a blur
to me, a hellish nightmare that I couldn't understand and couldn't wake
up from. Ever since I awoke with Wolf pointing a gun at my head, I was
entangled in a mass of confusion, trying to piece together what exactly
I had gotten myself into. Finally, after the test chambers, what that piece
of shit called the "Playground," and seeing the dead scientist in the armory,
all the pieces fell into place.
The empty base on land was just
a front for this Venom bio-weapons facility deep underneath it. Apparently,
a bunch of scientists were trying to develop a gas that enhanced abilities,
to make a super-soldier or something like that. Instead, they got these
deformed monstrosities like the one we just capped. Something went wrong
and the gas leaked out into the base, and voila…instant hell. Throw me
into the mix, and you got a psychotic wolf working with a fox who's pissed
off that he chose death over his vacation.
Understanding the situation
didn't make it any less crazy, and knowing that death could be waiting
right around the corner didn't soften the blow. I took a deep breath to
calm my nerves, reminding myself that I'd been in plenty of tough situations
before, and I'd always made it out. Fate just decided to spice this one
up a little by throwing in Wolf as a battle buddy. With a determined mind,
I set to the task of gearing up for the happy jaunt ahead.
I took off my jacket and threw
it aside, replacing it with a black combat vest, as I had seen Wolf do.
I added a thigh holster to my left leg and replaced my old blaster with
two high-power ones, and slung an assault rifle over my shoulder. Stuffed
up on ammo, I nodded at Wolf's plan and started for the door when my eye
caught something: a gun locker on the far wall with a row of guns that
seemed familiar, but I couldn't quite place. I walked over and pulled one
of the sleek, rifle-like weapons from the rack. The pump on the front grip
gave it away, and the boxes of round cylindrical shells under the guns
confirmed it. "Shotguns? These things are ancient, your funding must really
be low."
Wolf turned and scowled at the
weapon in my hands. "Congratulations, you found a shotgun, want a cookie?
Hurry your ass up. I'll stick with the rifle, it's automatic."
"Your aim must be as bad as
your piloting skills then," I muttered under my breath, checking over the
gun.
"What?"
"Nothing." I looked over the
numerous boxes of shells, noticing that a few were red, others green, and
the rest purple. According to the box markings, the green were normal rounds,
the red were explosive, and the purple were incendiary. With a shrug, I
emptied a couple pockets of pistol clips and filled them with shells instead,
taking more of the purple and red ones than green.
After figuring out the daunting
task of loading the damn gun, I found a neat little feature. I could load
up to six rounds of each shell and there was a selector on top of the gun,
so I could switch between ammo types on the fly. After loading up the eighteen
shells, I switched it to normal shot and pumped it with a satisfying ratchet
sound. Wolf rolled his eyes and turned to leave. "You better hope that
works. Lasers have already proven effective, and I aint giving you any
of my gear if that thing flops."
"Yeah, yeah, it'll work, just
go," I replied irritably. Wolf had that uncommon ability to get on your
nerves within seconds of meeting him, and this free tour of the base was
no exception. Hefting the shotgun up, I followed him back out into the
nightmarish base.
It turned out that our new firearms
would lose their virginity right away. Another monster stood further down
the hall, shambling towards us, apparently attracted by the death of its
comrade. It roared in discovery upon seeing us, but it didn't charge. Instead
it crouched, emitting a low growl, its beady eyes slitted at us. Wolf shouldered
his rifle to fire, but then his eyes went wide and he backed up and shouted,
"Get down!"
I should have listened, knowing
that he'd seen these things in action. Well, chalk it up to my distrust
in him, but in any case, I remained standing and looking at the thing,
wondering what it was doing. My question was unfortunately answered as
the creature gave a nerve-shattering scream and jumped clear down the corridor.
It was the last thing I expected from the lumpy mass, and I froze like
a damn army private as the thing came at me. At the last second, my brain
kicked back into gear and I raised the shotgun. The one shot I got off
was all I needed.
With a deafening blast that
echoed through the decrepit hallways, the monster was halted in midair
and fell heavily to the ground, a black crater in its chest. It roared
and started to get up again, but it was now facing a fully-functional McCloud
again. I flicked the selector to red, the explosive shells, cocked the
gun, and aimed at the creature's head. "Boom, bitch."
The shot was dead center and
released a small explosion that ripped apart the monster's head and blew
it back a few yards. It didn't get up this time. Letting out my breath,
I ejected the spent shells and replaced them while Wolf stood and looked
at my handiwork. I gave him a patronizing little grin, holding the shotgun
up. If looks could kill, his sneer would've plastered me to the wall. Muttering
under his breath, he went back into the armory and came back a few minutes
later with a shiny, brand-new shotgun of his own.
With the successful test of
my new toy, we started again down the corridor towards the cell block,
where I probably would have ended up had I arrived a few hours earlier.
We met one more monster on the way, but his back was to us. At that close
range against two shotguns, he didn't even get a chance to turn around.
Wolf's satisfied nod after the fight told me that he gave the shotgun a
thumbs-up as well.
The heavy reinforced door marked
"Cell Block" wasn't far down the hall, and no welcome party awaited us.
The door itself was a mess. A mountain range of disfigurations covered
it, as if someone had taken an anti-tank gun and fired it repeatedly from
inside…or as if some of the monsters were trying to break through. They
didn't make it all the way through, which meant they could still be in
there. Wolf was probably thinking the same thing because we both just stood
there, staring at the door as if admiring a painting in a museum.
"Well, go," Wolf finally said.
"Open it."
"Yeah right, you open it."
"I'm the one sparing your life,
open it."
"You're only sparing me because
you need me."
"Dammit, will you just open
the fucking door?!"
Bickering like kits wouldn't
get us anywhere, so I scoffed and walked towards the door. "And you call
me a wimp."
The card reader next to the
door, of course, needed a card. I was about to ask Wolf for his, but the
thing was smashed up and just needed the button pressed to work. I did
just that and flattened myself against the wall, shotgun at the ready.
After a few groaning creaks, the large door slowly slid open to reveal
mayhem on par with the test chamber room.
More flickering light revealed
a long corridor with barred cells stretching down both sides. Not many
of the cell doors were left intact…not many of the prisoners were left
intact either, for that matter. The metal grating of the floor was covered
with the same array of flesh, fur, and body parts, the kind of scene that
I had expected and the kind of scene I was coming too disturbingly familiar
with. A sickening dripping sound as blood leaked through the grate was
the only noise as I cautiously entered the long hall.
There had definitely been a
slaughter. Gas had leaked into the room, and those not turned quick enough
were torn apart by their deformed cellmates, never standing a chance because
of their detainment. Whatever had happened was over, and the remaining
beasts had escaped through the opposite door, which lay shredded on the
ground.
"It's clear," I said in a low
voice over my shoulder. "They all—"
My breath caught in my throat
as I spotted something on the ground, a shred of clothing. I kneeled down
on the slick floor and picked it up, swallowing as I wiped away the blood
that smeared across it. The rectangular object was what I suspected…a patch,
the Cornerian flag, worn on the arm of Cornerian military uniforms. The
torn material surrounding it confirmed that it was once worn by an unfortunate
soldier.
Cornerians…
I guess Wolf didn't expect what
happened next…hell, I didn't expect it either. Maybe the nightmarish sights
were getting to me, the horror of the cell block. In a flash, I had dropped
my gun and slammed Wolf against the wall separating two cells, making him
drop his own weapon. It wasn't the smartest move, considering our location,
but I wasn't thinking smart…I was thinking about the Cornerian soldiers
they had used, the Cornerian soldiers that were now disfigured husks of
their normal selves.
Wolf's eye went wide, then slitted
in anger. "Get the fuck off me! What the hell—"
"You used Cornerians! You used
POWs!" I shouted, holding firm to the front of his vest, my muzzle centimeters
from his.
"So what?!" he snarled back,
in a mix between anger and confusion. "Who the hell did you think we were
using, ourselves?"
I opened my mouth to answer,
but I had no answer. Now that he mentioned it, I had never really thought
about it, but he was right…who the hell else would they use? But now that
I saw it, now that is slapped me right in the face, I was pissed.
"Look at that!" I shouted, angrily
pointing down at a blood-smeared nametape among the shreds, the name 'Ecklin'
stitched on it. "Look at it! Does that mean anything to you?! Do you ever
even think about what you're doing?! He was probably no more than twenty,
he had a life, a history, a future…do you even realize what you stole from
him?! And all for what?!"
Wolf angrily knocked my arms
away and shoved me back. "And what about what was stolen from me?! Nobody
cares, so why should I care?! And don't you lecture to me, thinking you're
all high and mighty…you kill for money, just as I do. How many lives did
you take in the war? Huh? How many futures did you steal?"
I stared back at him before
answering, my mind blank. "But that…that was different…"
Wolf scoffed and picked up his
gun. For a second, I realized what a moron I had been to shove him like
that, what with his fantastic mental balance, and prepared to get shot.
Instead he just walked up to me and said, "Now cut this bullshit out, and
don't ever touch me again. We have slightly more pressing business than
debating whose conscience is heavier."
My heart still pounding from
anger, I looked after him as he continued down the corridor. I started
to think about what he had said but stopped myself, shaking my head and
hefting my shotgun back up. I had no room to lose focus now. As in every
battle, there would be plenty of time to think afterwards.
We walked silently to the opposite
door and found abrasions and a blood trail leading further into the corridor,
undoubtedly where the monsters had gone. Neither of us was curious enough
to tempt fate without a reason, so we just moseyed on over to the door
across from the cell block, the emergency stairwell.
"Dammit," Wolf muttered under
his breath, fiddling with the override lock next to it. "This shit storm
must have messed with the circuits, it needs the keypad code. Damn, what
was it…"
As if to answer his rhetorical
question, a roar resounded down the hall where the bloody tracks led. A
heavy thumping followed it, like a quick bass drum, then accompanied by
more pounding and more roars. They seemed to be getting louder…closer…
"Wolf…" I gulped out, noticing
him still trying code numbers, the panel beeping in refusal each time.
"I know," he grumbled back.
"Get it open!"
"I know!"
He continued muttering numbers
and trying codes while the hellish sounds drew nearer. I could see wisps
of shadows playing against the flickering light around the far corner,
where the blood trail turned. That clinched it for me…I snagged a grenade
from my vest and threw it like back in the old days playing baseball. The
little sphere of destruction bounced against the wall just as a monster
rounded the corner. The explosion tore it apart and blew back its buddies
behind it, but they recovered and charged right through the smoke. I shouldered
the shotgun and fired at the oncoming column. There were so many…
"Wolf!"
"One second, dammit!"
"We don't have a second!"
The gun bucked into my bruised
shoulder again and again as I fired off the explosive shells, dropping
three of them by time I had to switch to incendiary. Not only did the sweet
purple rounds blow a crater into them, but it also set them aflame, sending
them shrieking and flailing around. After lighting two up, their dancing
effectively blocked the others from charging.
"Got it!" Wolf shouted as the
door dinged and slid open. He ran inside and I pumped two more shots at
the crowd and followed, slamming and locking the door behind me. I had
barely set the lock when a heavy thump at the door caused me to stumble
back onto the metal staircase.
"Come on!" Wolf said, hoisting
me up by the vest as more thumps sounded at the heavy door. I didn't need
to be told twice. We hauled ass up the metal stairs. Two floors up, the
staircase ended with a door and a sign marked "Central Control." This time,
Wolf did the honors of slamming and locking the door, and we both waited,
panting, listening for the sounds of the nightmares on our heels. But all
was quiet, the thumping had stopped.
"The doors are heavy, able to
hold water out in case of a flood," Wolf said between breaths. "They probably
gave up."
I was still shaking from the
battle, so I took a few breaths to calm down. Air combat was one thing,
ground combat against normal soldiers another…but this crap was in a league
of its own. No amount of training or experience prepares you for something
like this.
After we took a minute of rest,
Wolf led the short distance to Central Control, a huge multi-tiered room,
at least the size of the test chambers. As a change of scenery, it was
still brightly lit and looked fairly new, each tier lined with consoles
and monitors and all that. Wolf went for a computer in the center and started
typing at it after propping his gun against the desk. I waited patiently,
keeping my eyes on the doors, ready to play bouncer to any unwanted guests.
"Good, it still works," he reported
after a minute. "All data is stored in these consoles, and every mechanical
device can be controlled from here."
"What about the map? Is there
another exit?"
"Keep your damn pants on, I'm
getting there." He continued typing at the computer and I continued to
wait. "Alright, there."
The holo-projector at the front
of the room clicked and hummed before spitting out a slowly-rotating model
of the facility, complete with cargo elevator and abandoned topside.
"Ok, this is where we are now."
A red dot blinked near the bottom. "And if I type in the command to highlight
all exits, we get this." The elevator shaft turned red and pulsed, along
with the door at the top of the land base and the hangar. And something
else…
"Wait, what's that?" I asked,
squinting and pointing. At the first sub-level, the topmost floor of the
box we were stuck in, a part of the wall pulsed, but there was nothing
beyond it. "Look, what's that?"
"Hell if I know." He typed some
more and the top base and elevator shaft disappeared, allowing him to zoom
in on the red pulse. "It doesn't matter, there's nothing past it, which
means open ocean. It says "Emergency Exit and Transport", but it must just
be a docking for subs or something."
I walked up to the hologram
and squinted hard at the red part. "Zoom out a little…little more…ok."
Just beyond the red, leading into the ocean, I swore I could see a very
faint extension, flickering. "Turn the contrast and lighting all the way
up."
As he adjusted the hologram,
the base took on a weird, headache-inducing color, but as I suspected,
the flickering extension past the exit on the first sub-level became clearer.
"It must've been a glitch, messed with the system during this whole mess.
There's something there, what is it?"
Mumbling, Wolf went back to
typing, and the extension lit up as if the base had grown an arm. It went
at a 45 degree angle straight through the ocean, out of range of the hologram.
"It's a tunnel," Wolf said with
slight surprise, looking at the readings on the monitor. "It was used to
transport heavy machinery and stuff like that. According to this, it goes
for a few miles straight through the ocean and comes up on an island east
of here. We never used it…probably why I was never told about it."
I looked at the blinking red
tunnel which awaited us a couple dozen floors up. It was out lifeline,
our last chance to get out of this hellhole. "Then that's where we're headed,"
I said, starting to reload my shotgun. "Let's go."
--Chapter
5 coming soon--