Chapter Twenty: Betrayal
Everyone stood shocked, surprised or whatever the hell was to describe how they felt as they all stood looking at their teammate that they thought was dead."Oh, my God." Orchid said, "Speed?"
"Yes, it is I, your team member called Speed." He answered.
Surge looked at him in disbelief as if something told him that Speed was not supposed to be here, he was supposed to be dead. "Wha-wh-what the hell happened after you were shot?" he said stuttering in the beginning.
"Well, you may not believe this but I thought that I was too, going to die," Speed started, but the way he talked didn't sound right, like it wasn't his nature in speaking like this, "They took my weapons; my armor or protection and then did something to me. I didn't know what it was, probably drugged me and brought me down here, but when I awoke, I was in the elevator. To tell you all the truth, I'm not feeling quite like myself right now."
"Nor do you sound like yourself," Crash commented as they all got into the lift. A few seconds later the doors closed and the elevator descended, "but now that your here, we can go as planned. Orchid and I will make our way to the lowest level and plant our charges there. Surge and Speed; you two plant charges on this level; after that radio us and we'll all get the hell off this death trap."
The doors opened and Crash and Orchid went there way leaving Speed and Surge alone. He looked at Speed and then at the door they were to go through and opened it. Stepping into an enormous hall, which was like the last one which Orchid, led them through. He stepped in and motioned for Speed to follow. They both were now in the hallway and began to continue down it when Speed suddenly stopped.
"Speed what the hell is wrong with you? Come on." Surge commanded.
Speed looked at him, with a now growing pale face, "Well, I would. But in a crisis like this you just never know when something might just come up and kill you after one mishap of going the wrong way." He said smoothly, "but then again, to prevent from being killed from just taking the wrong step, you would need some kind of force to stop the thing that is going to kill you. So I'm just saying that I need a gun besides this metal pipe to make it easier for me to not get killed so fast. So if you would be so kind Surge, you would just lend me one of your guns for my protection."
Surge looked at him for a second after that weird ass speech he just made; "Okay..." he said taking one of the G34s out, "I mean, you're going to need that weapon." He then added sounding uncomfortable, "for your protection as well as mine." He then finished handing the gun to him.
Speed looked at him with keen eyes and took the gun from him and looked at it, "why thank you. And you are right; I am going to need this gun for my protection."
He looked at him coldly and Surge took the team radio out. But then, Speed knocked the radio out of his hands and quickly placed him in a head lock and pressed the small weapon against his neck. Surge dropped the radio and tried to move his hands to his neck but Speed's other arm held them firmly to his side.
"I knew you would give me the weapon so I could protect myself, with or without my consultation." Speed said quickly growling through his clenched teeth as he spoke into Surge's ear, "I knew that you would give me the weapon intentionally, designedly as you knew something was wrong with me but didn't care intentionally, designedly ."
"I knew it!" Surge shouted, coughing hoarsely, "I knew something was wrong with you."
"Let me finish," he said tightening his grip speaking faster and coldly. "You really don't care on how a person acts because of what you do. You go by the way people look, that's how you identify them. You're all to lazy to go beyond the way they look to the way they act, it is within your nature to do so, that's what makes people like you blind, that's why you follow something called orders. I wish I could stay and chat but you must be reported to the top person of this ship."
Surge was now confused, or not confused. Speed was dead, but something had taken over his body. "You psychotic bastard; if you look like Speed and sound like him, and he's dead. How would he still be alive." He then said. Surge thrust his feet against the wall and pushed back sending Speed into the wall behind him. Speed's grip loosened up and Surge was able to move his hands freely and landed on his feet and confiscated the weapon in Speed's hand and picked up the radio and ran down the hall.
"Crash! Orchid! It's Speed!" he shouted into the radio as he ran, "He's crazy."
He was about halfway there when he was then kicked in the back and was just sent ten feet forward and hit the wall as the hall turned right. He landed on the ground and turned around seeing Speed running towards him. He slammed the butt of the gun across his face causing him to fall backwards. Speed jumped to his feet and tackled him to the ground and began to punch him in the face. Surge struggled to block as each blow was intentionally aimed directly at his face.
Speed was about to punch him again when Surge finally caught the flying fist midstream and sent his own fist into Speed's face. Speed stumbled back and Surge tackled him to the ground and repeatedly pistol- whipped Speed with the same gun back and forth. Somehow Speed's knee pressed against his chest and he forcefully launched Surge back into the wall. He looked up seeing him jump to his feet, his face now bloody with two long sliced cuts on the left side of his face.
Speed spit out some blood, "You're going to regret that."
"No; I'm not," Surge said aiming the G34 at his forehead. "I'm not going to regret this at all."
"Yes you will," said a voice from beside him. Surge turned to look seeing a man standing before him in a long coat. "You are going to regret this. Because I'm going to use you as bait." The man said bringing his hand up.
Surge felt something wrap around his neck cutting off his air supply and he was lifted into the air, but no one was holding him. He hovered for a few seconds and was then launched into the wall violently and forcefully, once, then twice. Pain swept quickly throughout his body and he started to see black outlines appear on the outside of his vision and slowly engulf his seeing. He tried to shake his head but was then launched into it for the third time. Surge felt his entire body just go numb and felt tingling under his skin. His vision wasn't getting any better as he struggled to stay conscious. He looked at Speed as his vision doubled and exchanged looks with the other man, who was now speaking to him. Surge didn't register to the man's voice as the voice to him sounded like a low rumbling noise.
Surge blinked slowly, and then more slowly, beginning to feel tired; his body was giving in. He could now only see a tiny blurry image of the wall in front of him as he went unconscious in midair.
Crash and Orchid had made it to the level B2 control room, or what had used to be the control room. On their way, they went through an identical hallway like the one Orchid led them through to get to the elevator, through a zombie infested hallway and now here.
Crash looked around the room scanning the area at the trashed computers and gory walls. He began to walking towards a door marked B-3 entrance while Orchid guarded his back cautiously. He opened the door and peered inside.
The room was just empty, except a sealed metal hatch with a valve handle blocking their way to the B-3 level. Orchid walked in front of him and sat down and observed the hatch and looked back up at him. "I was expecting this to be a lot harder then I imagined."
"Yeah, I know. It's weird. The Osiris said it was going to be much more difficult." He replied turning around and gazing at the room once again. "I just hope he wasn't hiding anything."
"Yeah-" Orchid replied stopping mid sentence while turning the rusting handle. "But- "another turn, "what if he was- uh- hiding something?" she questioned, and finally getting the hatch open with another forcing turn.
"Well, if he was. We just have to get this ship rigged and get the hell off of it." Surge replied, he-
The radio suddenly blasted, "Crash! Orchid! It's Speed! He's crazy-" there was a loud thud and the radio didn't respond after that.
"No..." Orchid then said in a shocked tone. "Well, our mission just got more interesting. Not that it is interesting; I'm just saying-"
Crash cut her off by kicking a nearby computer, "I knew it!" he sneered. "He was out of his fucking mind. Goddamn it!" he kicked it again. "I should've beaten the hell out of him after we saw him in the elevator, Goddamn it!"
"What do we do?" Orchid asked walking up from behind him.
"I don't fuckin' know." He then spat, "how should I know?"
Orchid walked in front of him, "What do you mean you don't know. You're pretty much our captain. We were handpicked by the Osiris; The Osiris for fucking sakes! Listen, if you don't know what to do next, then, we're pretty much dead on this hell hole."
Crash turned away from her and sighed loudly, "Alright. You go plant the charges and I'll go get Surge." He turned back to face her. "There, are you goddamn happy?" he said sarcastically, "let's move! We'll keep in contact."
They both turned away. Orchid went down into the hatch while Crash went back from we're they came from.
Crash got back into the hall and ran towards the hall were they both departed from Surge and Speed. He crashed through the metal door and zigzagged to the next door, jumping over zombies and dodging lights. He stumbled through the next door and was now in the insanely large narrow hall. He ran down it and turned left and found absolutely nothing.
"You'll have to try harder then that if you want to find your friend." Someone said.
Crash spun around and spotted a black man in a body coat, standing next to the door he just came from. He raised his weapon and aimed it at the man, "Stop the fuck right there!" he shouted angrily.
"You'll have to catch me first." The man laughed and ran through the door.
"Shit!" Crash shouted suddenly bolting after him. He crashed through the door and heard the next door shut with a metal clang. He ran through the turning hall and slammed his body into the door and tried opening it. It was locked. Crash aimed his machine gun at the handle and pulled the trigger, sending about ten to twenty bullets into the door. He put his weapon down and kicked the door open.
He was in another hall, which was also long in length but a little wider. He ran down it and saw the man again running down the hall. Crash ran after him and raised his weapon again and fired. He saw some of the rounds hit the back of the man, but nothing happened. The man turned into one of the rooms and laughed out loud again.
Crash ran to the room and bumped into a big metal door. He pressed against it and the door slowly opened up. He peeked in the room and saw nothing. 'What the hell?' He was looking at nothing. He saw the man enter the room but he appeared to not be in there. There were no other doors and besides, he didn't even hear the door open. "How in the hell..."
"Looking for me?"
Crash jumped out of the room and saw the man again standing at the end of the hall in.
"Don't worry about me, worry about your friend." The man said.
"How did you-"
"Confused? Mr. Ocampo?" the man gestured, "If I were you I would be confused. But, I'm not you."
"Where's Surge?" Crash questioned raising his weapon again.
The man laughed, "I never get tired of that. You raise your weapon, demanding an answer. And now you expect me to tell you were your friend is, but instead, I say, shoot. Go ahead shoot me. Kill me, watch me die."
Crash looked at him and pulled the trigger and started to drain the entire magazine of the G36 into the man. To his astonishment, nothing happened. The rounds hit the man, but sent small ripples across his body, like he was water. The magazine went dry and Crash looked at the man.
The man rose his hand and waved his index finger back and forth sending him a message of saying 'nuh uh uh.' A door quickly then went between Crash and the strange man and sealed shut. Crash ran to the door and pressed a small green button on the side of the door and it slid open again. He ran in and was in a hallway with windows on the right side of it which revealed a viewed a giant chamber. A giant metal silver-white pod was in the middle of the chamber. Crash pressed up against the glass and looked through it.
It seemed the hallway that he was in, stretched around the giant chamber. Crash looked away and saw something move out of his sight. He looked through the window and saw the same man running in the oval hallway he was in. Crash chased after him and shouted at the man as he disappeared into the chamber containing the giant pod. Crash began breathing in exhaustion as he reached the door. He pulled the heavy door open and made his way inside the chamber.
"Mr. Ocampo, please look towards the direction of my voice and tell me what you see." Said the man, but obviously he was no longer in the chamber. Crash looked towards his left and spotted the man standing on the other side of the windows, looking at. He lifted something up to it and pointed at it. "Look, Mr. Ocampo, this is your friend, I think his name is Surge; actually it is Henry Cotton."
Crash saw Surge's body hang limp in the man's hands. He was still alive, but needed medical attention.
"Who are you?" he said to the man.
"Me?" he said smoothly, "I am merely your enemy. I go by the name of Corin Pearson." He chuckled lightly. "Well, as I love to stay and chat, it is time for me to say goodbye due to short circumstances of your slowly painful death. Goodbye Mr. Ocampo." Corin dragged Surge's body through a set of doors into another room.
Crash sprinted towards to the door he used to enter and tried opening it. Now, it was locked. "What the hell is going on over here?" he questioned himself. He turned away from the door and walked towards the pod to take a closer look at what it was. He stepped up to the pod and placed his hand on the white metal casing. He starting walking around it and spotted a little sign. He crouched down and gave the sign a closer look, it said 'Leach Project: Prototype.'
Stepping away from the giant pod, he heard the door open and close. He turned around and saw Speed walking up to him.
"Crash, I hope to don't have any hard feelings about what happened to Surge." Speed said, "But he's doing fine by the way."
Crash stood his ground clutching the G36 in his hand. His Cannon was strapped to his back. He didn't have the G34s; he lost them while blowing up the canister after finding Surge fidling with the locking mechanism. "You traitor." He shot back.
Speed gave a stifled laugh as he stepped forward, Crash didn't see any weapons on him, but he didn't want to take any chances of tackling him to the ground. Oh what the hell!
Crash jumped forward and tried to tackle him to the ground. Speed smoothly and quickly out of his way, like it was nothing. He got up and held the G36 up like a bat and swung at Speed, aiming for his upper body. Speed blocked the blows with his forearm, He swung again and Speed caught his weapon and pulled Crash towards him punched him in the stomach and then in the face, and then backed up still holding the weapon by the barrel and slammed his foot into his chest. Crash flew back and slid across the white metal floor. He got up and looked up just seeing the inside of a gun barrel pointing at his face.
"This looks familiar." Speed said, "This is kind of the same thing that I did to Surge. I'm really going to enjoy watching you die, 'Crash.'" He pressed the gunpoint at his face, as Crash looked up at him.
Click!... Nothing happened. The gun had no rounds in it. Crash gave a sigh of relief for not changing the magazine. Now's not the time to get girlie. Crash smacked the barrel out of his face and jumped forward and slammed his left shoulder, hard into Speed, sending him to his back.
He was now on top of Speed and began choking him with his hands. Speed began to flop like a fish as he tried to break free. Crash pulled his hands up still clutching his neck and slammed Speed's head on the ground. Speed then somehow brought his hands between his and pulled his hands away from his neck. Crash's arms broke free of his neck but he couldn't move now. Speed let go of one of his hands and quickly punched Crash in the chest.
Crash flew off him and hit the pod with his back. He then felt the Cannon slip out of his holder. Crash got up and was about to send a blow to Speed but stopped.
This time the Cannon was aiming at him and was slowing charging up. This time the weapon was loaded. Speed laughed as he stood a few feet in front of him holding the Cannon. "This is the part were you die." He said slow and coldly. He then smiled slightly as he looked at him. "Goodbye, Mr. Ocampo."
Crash heard the charging then stopped. Now this was going to be his end. NO! Crash jumped out of the way as he heard an explosion suddenly sound from the Cannon. He then felt the roughness of air fly into his face as he was barely missed by mere inches by the giant round.
The round hit the giant pod and the round was then stopped by the sound of something gooey. Crash looked up at the canister and then back at Speed. Speed lowered the weapon and looked at him, "Well, well, well. I've been here before, like what I've done with Surge; yes, most depressing in your point of view, but I seem to enjoy it."
Crash looked at the barrel of the Cannon and slowly turned his attention to the pod. He spotted some liquid like substance shift in and out of the giant hole that Speed created with the Cannon.
The weapon began to recharge once again with a soft humming but still, he continued to stare at the shifting object sinking in and out of the pod. Good God. He then shifted his eyes back to Speed when the charging finally stopped. Speed gave a look of pleasure, "Now it is the end of your pitiful life... Crash."
Rahh! Speed quickly turned around as Crash got to his feet and reloaded the G-36. The object suddenly gave a roar and slowly slid out of the pod and landed heavily onto the ground. It had a figure of hundreds of oval shaped objects attached to every part of its body. But, the ovals happened to be leeches.
Speed backed away as the giant mass of leeches began to take shape, growing taller every second, forming appendages. As it finished it had the resemblance of the most horrible thing Crash had ever seen with his experience with Umbrella. The leeches had now made a shape about fifteen feet tall with four arms and two legs; there was no head.
It stood over Speed like a wall as it began moving near him, wobbling about as it tried to sustain its shape.
Crash armed his weapon as the leech kept its attention focused on Speed. Speed looked up at the towering creature and began to back away slowly.
The leech took one giant step, quickly enclosing the space between them.
"How will you get out of this one Speed?" Crash said with a grin on his face. Speed looked at him with cold bitter eyes. He didn't care about the leech, he cared about killing Crash; he had the bigger gun and he was the one to win. He did a one eighty and aimed the Cannon at Crash when something swam past his right leg. He quickly looked down seeing hundred upon hundreds of leeches flowing into his leg as if they were water. The leeches finally made it past him when they reanimated their shape again, this time in front of him.
Ignoring the creature once again he started towards Crash, who was now leaning against the white wall. Speed then stopped, feeling a sharp sting of pain in his leg. Looking down, his pants fell into pieces exposing his whole right leg which now had thin red lines ripping around his leg very quickly. Small rivers of blood began to spill from those cuts and he then had a strange feeling that his leg was going to crumble. He touched his leg with his hands and found out that he was right. His leg fell apart into clean cut cubes of meat collapsing onto the floor. Crash looked away in disgust as he witnessed Speed's leg just fall into pieces. The leech creature then began to edge toward Speed again, shifting its large tree trunk legs, loosing its shape in some parts of its body.
Speed still probably had his dumbass agenda in killing him but should pretty much give up due that he couldn't sustain his balance. The leech creature then took one of its large arms and held it in front of Speed's face. Speed looked at the giant shape shifting appendage in front of his face, "this is getting too outta hand when you showed up." He fired the Cannon at the giant arm and lost his balance (due to one leg) and fell to the ground. The weapon then flew outta his grip as he winced in horrible pain, and slid across the room. Looking up at the appendage he just fired at, it held something big and round and dropped it next to him as it appeared to be the Cannon round. It had no absolute effect on the creature.
He slowly got up, struggling but managed to do so anyway. Looking at the arm again, four long talons slowly slid out in front of him and quickly grabbed him by the head and lifted him up. "This can't be happening," he shouted, "I'm supposed to win."
With the claws still clutching his head, the leeches lost their entire structure and flew into his entire body, he felt nothing but the stickiness of slime they emitted. With the talons still holding his face, the creature restructured again, but this time behind him and dropped him to the ground.
Speed was dropped and landed on his 'foot' as Crash stood near the wall.
"No harm done this time Crash," Speed shouted as he lifted his arm and stopped abruptly.
Crash watched as again, thin red lines ripped through and face and entire body. A juicy squishing was heard, and the top of his head slipped away exposing his brain as his entire structure gave away, and his whole body fell to pieces, slamming against the ground with sickening wet slaps.
Crash looked away at the horrid pile and looked at the leeches now sliding over Speed's cubed body. It engulfed his entire body and began changing its form again, two arms disappearing as the other two became more human sprouting fingers and joints. It formed a head with no features, and clothing appeared all over the body. It happened to be an imitation of Speed, but every feature on him was the same color. It was like a juicy brown color, like shit.
It had completely finished after adding in the face features and hair. The good thing that was coming rather comfortable to Crash was that it wielded no weapon, and the goddamn Cannon happened to be behind Speed at the other side of the room. "Damn, why couldn't I become a teacher." He said to himself.
Speed then ran forward, loosing its shape in its arms and legs as it bended its joints and as its feet landed on the ground giving a splatter and leaving gooey marks on the floor. Crash arched the gun and strafed to his left following the wall and sent burning led into the creature. Well, it didn't go into it. It went through it, and slowing it down by a goddamn little bit, like one-millionth its speed. He was getting closer to the weapon as the thing was now closest to him then the gun as he kept firing away, losing his cool and started growling through clenched teeth.
Firing at the head seemed to do nothing, arms and middle body a little, but the legs were giving off the most signs of slowing down, as firing he pretty much completely forgot that the thing or shall he put it as 'things' acted as if they were one, shooting it in the head, wasn't stopping it because it had no brain.
Closing in on the Cannon, Crash formed the most awesome plan in his head; practically the only one he could think of which was so far as: get gun then shoot thing and hope it dies.
This bastard was fucking hard to kill, like a tyrant. When he was stationed back in Raccoon, he had to deal with a few of them when he infiltrated the abandoned training facility, after the Ecliptic Express was attacked. He remembered, the Marcus man, walking as if it was doing the robot as it came towards him; he never figured out how everything happened with the leeches when it was tested with the Mother Virus. Over seventy men were sent there, he had to take out his buddy who was infected with the virus on a cable car, and left the murder weapon which was a magnum. Out of all seventy men, only three survived.
But that was then, this is fucking now and the mother fucker wasn't dead yet. He was nearly ten feet away from the gun when his own went empty on him. Acting fast, Speed morphed into a puddle and went between Crash and the Cannon again. Pulling out a grenade, Crash pulled the pin and launched it at the thing. Thinking that the grenade will only distract it by going right through it, the imitating caught it by the chest. "Shit!" Crash jumped backwards as the grenade exploded blowing the imitation to kingdom come. "About time." He ran to the Cannon and armed it as he uploaded another clip in the chamber of the G36.
Something then caught his attention. Turning around, he saw another shape rising slowly from the ground. It happened to be the leeches again turning back into Speed again. The dumbass wasn't dead it was just stunned. "Why won't you FUCKING DIE!" he shouted at the top of his lungs and let the weapon charge as the imitation finished shaping up for round two. Then thinking that it would be a while, that audible ding sounded from the weapon just as the thing jumped forward, bursting into a swarm. "You LOSE!" he shouted once again, and fired.
The round flew out and hit the swarm in the middle causing it to go back inward, catching it and then going inside out as it failed to catch the round and slammed into the window. The plastiglass window exploded sending shards of glass everywhere, as the thing was stunned again. Crash knew it wasn't over yet as he watched the leeches group back again, he ran towards the window as he purposely stepped on them by twos with his boots, causing some vomit colored guts to explode out.
Hopping out of the window, he ran towards the door he last saw the mysterious man and ran into a hallway turning left after about twenty feet later. Crashed turned and shut the metal door and ceiled the deadbolt and ran down the hall turning left as he saw and then burst through another door, which happened to be filled with monitor and storage, a grilled ceiling plate was above him as he spotted Surge laying against a pile of boxes.
Before going he shut the door behind him which was much more thicker and sealed it by turning a silver valve handle, it would hold the thing, but not for long. That's when he heard it slammed into the deadbolt door, then a few seconds later, now this door, slightly denting it. Damn, it won't give up. He ran to Surge and tried waking him, only to be answered by a grunt. This wasn't going to work, the room was ceiled and he couldn't haul Surge's unconscious ass fast away fast enough from something that could easily outrun them. Looking up at the ceiling he, spotted the ceiling panel and quickly hopped on one of the boxes and slid it open. Peering inside, he saw a long repair vent with pipes strewn down all over the place.
He got his head out and picked Surge up from under the shoulders and sat him on top of the box he was on, when the door dented again. He then got in the shaft and lay on his stomach and lifted Surge up again and into the shaft. As he closed the grate the door blew open and he stayed absolutely silent.
"Oh, man." Crash then looked at Surge who was now awake laying on his back. He looked at him and put his finger to his mouth telling him to shut the fuck up.
Ding! No! The Cannon had recharged without him knowing and let out that same audible ding. Now the creature knew. "Go! Surge, go fuckin now." he shouted.
"I can't get up, go without me." Surge responded, struggling to move; but prevailing.
"Shit!" Crash shouted going down the shaft and giving Surge the G36, "hold this." He dragged Surge down the shaft by his shoulders as the grill flew open and the thing came through. "YOU KNOW WHAT TO FUCKIN' DO! STOP THE FUCKING FUCKER!" he continued shouting.
He dragged Surge down the shaft as the creature darted forward slowing down then stretching out to move quicker, as Surge screamed as he fired wild and randomly at the mass of shit.
"AHHH!" Surge shouted at the top of his lungs as whatever the fuck it was came towards them having no affect on the bullets. "Do you have anything stronger." He suggested to Crash, when he heard a giant explosion, happening to hit the thing with a flash of light. It was the Cannon, knocking the creature away about ten feet or to the start of the shaft. With the adrenaline rush, he was beginning to slightly feel his legs warm up with blood flow.
"You got any more fucking Cannon rounds on you."
"Just one, why?" he questioned. He pulled a round out from his pocket and gave it too Crash.
"Do you have a piece of loose clothes or something to hold this fucking trigger down?"
Surge looked down and tore a piece of his shirt off and handed it too Crash, "here!" he was then pulled down into a room and landed on the floor, he looked at Surge as he tied the cloth down the trigger holding it down, and placed it pointing at a gas pipe. "Get the hell under that table in the corner." he said pushing him to the corner and turning the table over.
Ding! The Cannon fired off and sent a flash of light into the gas line. The room flashed a bright blue as the ceiling erupted in a blue giant flame. The creature then fell down in the room trashing about on the floor in blue and orange flames and then stopped abruptly and died.
"Come on, can you feel anything?" Crash then asked.
Surge got up and began wobbling around, "A little limp, why?"
"Come on, Orchid is waiting for us on the lower levels."
Note: Computer: $500.00
Virus Protection: $30.00
A new keypad after the other broke: $10.00
The chapter that took the longest to write: priceless
A review from a fan reader: makes me write more.
Next chapter will be up, sorry I couldn't get this one up sooner, went to a Slipknot concert on Wednesday. L8er!