Aquatic Darkness
Chapter 03
Into The Jungle

Jen lead her new group down the hall of level 3. She pulled out the extra handgun and handed it to Z. The Yellow S.P.D Officer took hold of it and kept it close to her as she just nodded. Then Jen took a few steps ahead and stopped at the edge of the corner. She began to hear moans around the corner. She turned her head to her fellow teammates. "Okay." She whispered, "Were going to quickly take him out and run down the hall. Go through the door in front of you. It'll lead to a bridge that will cross us into Sector C." Everyone just nodded quickly. They watched Jen's lip movement as she counted to three. "One.. Two.. Three.." She formed the proper mouth movement.

Everyone dashed around the corner and straight down the halls. Jen aimed her gun into the back of the crazed killer's head and fired a shot. Doors in front of them suddenly sprang open as the sound of Jen's handgun fire. Merrick dashed down the hall, wall jumping off the side and kicking one of the killers in the face. He turned and ducked right as a large butcher knife went flying past his head and into the wall behind him. He raised his gun and fired a few rounds into a second craze killer's legs. He then made his way over and fired a few shots in his head before resuming forward.

"Were almost there." Z picked up a bit more speed. She slammed into the door, backing away only a few inches before grabbing the handle and opening it up. She turned to see six more killing tourists running right after them. Merrick shot through the door, then Cam and Dustin a few second behind. The yellow ranger brunette turned his body and fired a few rounds from the rifle before tripping over his foot and sliding through the door. Jen made it through soon after and Z quickly closed and locked the door. She turned around to see them standing in a large see through dome tunnel that lead through towards the next sector of the Aquatic Hotel.

Dustin stood up and cleaned the dust off of him as he glanced around. He walked to one of the windows and felt up against the cold glass. "Look." He pointed out the window. Everyone glanced around to see nothing but endless miles of water.

"What?" Cam adjusted his glasses, "What are we looking at? I don't see anything."

"Exactly." Dustin complied soon after, "There is not a single sea life out there. Something drove them away."

The door began to rattle, reminding everyone that there are still some psychos that are trying to murder them. Jen raised her gun and pointed down the tunnel. "We keep moving." She shouted, "I don't want to stick around to wait for the door to snap open."

"How far do we have?" Merrick started to walk forward.

"All we have to do is go down two floors and were there." She responded, "Hopefully we wont run into anymore problems."

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"I'm tired." Syd pouted as they walked down the stairs from the 3rd floor. "Can we please rest for a bit."

Sky shook his head, "No. We wasted enough time as it is." He snarled back. He kept his hand on the rail as he made his way down. Passing the 2nd floor door, he was going to turn when he noticed the next set of stairs had gave way a few feet ahead of him. "Crap. Now what, Joel?"

"There's another set of stairs on the other side of this floor. It's a bit far though." Joel made his way over to the 2nd floor door. He pushed it open and looked at him, "Are you sure we want to go?"

"Why?" Adam arched his brows, "You sound hesitance."

"This is the level we keep the green house in." Lucas explained, "Were not sure what has happened to it."

"Only one way to find out." Syd pushed past Joel and out into the hall. The lights in the ceiling had all shattered causing the entire place to stay dark. They walked down the eerie hall and towards a giant metal door. Vines and other varies weed plants were sticking out from the cracks off the door, running all up and down the hall.

"Looks like we have a garden problem." Lucas pulled at one of the vines, "Do we have another way around, Joel? What about the elevators on the south end of this hall?"

Joel just shook his head, "No power. The emergency generator doesn't feed power to the elevators. Only the stair lights." He paused for a second before sighing, "We should keep moving. Be warn. The green house is huge."

Sky and Lucas put aside their weapons and grabbed hold of the door. With all their might, they slowly pried the door open. A huge gas of steam came pouring out a bit, causing the two of them to back away. They pulled out their guns and headed straight in. "Wow." Lucas shook his head, "This place is extremely humid."

The five of them walked down a small path and around a huge bush. Right in front of them showed a huge tropical like jungle. The weeds and plants expanded virtually everywhere. Even the small trees they placed in the greenhouse grew to enormous size. The dirt path was half covered by vines and other varies of plants. The humidity dripped down their skin as they slowly brushed there way through the dirt path. "Check it out." Joel glanced above him. Plants were pressed hard against the greenhouse glass. The power had gone out, so the eerie ocean light reflected through to give it a nighttime feel. "I'm not sure where the path leads off too." Joel stopped to see the set path fade off into the jungle plants.

Adam just pointed down a random direction, "Let's just keep going this way. I'm sure there will be something that we can find that could direct us."

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Jen and the others had not stopped running since the tunnel. They made their way down through the 3rd level of sector C and towards a set of stairs. Rushing down the steps, Jen began to hear the sound of a faint growl. Not taking a single chance, she bursted through the 2nd floor door and back into a hall like every other hall. The sound of the growling was heard again but this time in front of her. She paused and turned to Cam. "Is there another way to the set of stairs?" She asked him, "There are more of those bear like creatures lurking around this area."

"The movie theaters." Cam pointed to the double doors, "Remember? Those lead through to the other side."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Dustin broke through the door and entered the dark lobby of the theater. "This way, right?"Dustin held tightly onto the rifle. He stopped and peered around the corner to see another one of those bear like creature digging through the concession stand. "How many of these are there?" He asked.

"The zoo level is on the 4th level." Cam responded, "I wouldn't be surprised if they had broke out of it."

"I bet we can sneak past it." Merrick suggested, "Save some ammo but keep going." He pointed to the exit door, "Come on."

Z scrambled to her feet soon after Merrick bolted towards the door. The others followed quickly and Merrick smashed open the door to see two brand new mutated creatures they haven't seen before. They were a bit smaller then the bear mutants, but had grey fur. They're claws at each end of their paws were gigantic and the four main teeth inched out a few feet from their snouts like a sabertooth. "." Merrick turned and pushed everyone out of the way.

Everyone went wide-eye and turned to run. "I think those are wolves." Cam yelled. The five were halted by the brown bear monster that had jumped out from behind the concession stand. Dustin spun his body around and fired a few shots from his rifle. He knocked back both wolves as Jen and Merrick fired into the other creature in front of them.

"This way!" Z shouted the double door that lead into the main theater room. The others followed quickly after, going through the doors. The hinges snapped off as the creatures broke through seconds after them. Jen glanced around and noticed black stairs on the side of the wall that lead to a huge balcony up above.

"Up the stairs!" She called out. She literally jumped off the ground and onto the stairs. Climbing up fast, she made it to the top and pulled out her weapon to fire down below. One of the mutated wolves jumped in the air at one of the rangers but Jen's fire shot it straight back down. As soon as Merrick hit the top, he assisted Jen at keeping them away. Dustin was the last to climb up. "Come on." Jen shouted, "We keep moving."

The five bolted across the black balcony. One of the wolves had successfully climbed up the stairs and continued in pursuit. They barged through the door and into the second theater balcony. Merrick turned around and fired a few shots, the bullets ricochet off the metal chains that were holding up the balcony, causing them to instantly snap. The place rocked and began to tip, causing everyone to grab hold of the side. "Watch where your shooting." Cam snarled in frustration.

"I have to hit the other one." Merrick aimed the gun at the second chain. It snapped, causing both sides of the balcony to collapse towards the ground. Dustin held tightly on the side as the wolf fell towards the edge and hit the ground below.

"Dustin!" Z screamed out, "Hang on." Dustin lost his grip and started to slide down the balcony. He grabbed a hold at the edge of the balcony with one hand, holding tightly with the rifle in the other. His entire body was dangling above the ground.

"Drop the weapon." Cam shouted, "Before you lose grip."

"We can't lose the weapon." He protested, "Were going to need it."

"Just drop it, Dustin!" Merrick barked back, "Don't be an idiot."

Dustin let go, letting the rifle fall and hit the ground, breaking into two. The wolf that had fallen to the ground went straight over and sniffed it before looking back up into the air. Jen and Z pushed themselves up the slanted balcony to a more elevated part of it. They turned and watched as Cam and Merrick made an attempt to slowly make their way down and grab hold of their comrade.

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Sky and his friends had been walking for hours. Syd's complaining to rest had finally got to them and the five decided to take a break. They found themselves in a large stoned circle area with benches all around. Of course the vines and weed had covered a good part of the area. Lucas and Adam had grabbed a bunch of firewood and piled it all in the middle. Soon enough, they had a camp fire going.

"I wish we had food." Syd yawned, sitting on one of the cold benches. "I'm starving."

"There's a first aide room somewhere in this green house." Joel glanced around, "I bet the nurses had stored food there."

"First Aides room?" Adam arched his brows, "Within this greenhouse?"

"Not entirely in the green house. It was built around and connected with it." He stood up, "Do you want to go check it out, Syd?"

She nodded. "Yeah!"

"Don't take too long." Sky muttered, "I don't want to wait here forever."

Adam handed his handgun to Syd and watched as Joel and her vanished into the thick brushes. Sky turned his attention to the fire and gazed into it. "This was a bad idea."

"It was unexpected." Lucas commented, "How were we supposed to predict this was going to happen?"

Adam just sighed as he stood up and looked out into the jungle like woods. A giant python, a lot larger then ususal, danged from the tree, lowering its neck down next to Adam's. The sound of hissing caught Sky's attention from the corner of his eye.

"Adam." He called out, "Don't move."

Adam shifted his eyes and finally noticed the creature. Lucas turned, taking a few steps back and raising his gun. "Holy cow." He aimed, "Stay still, Adam."

Adam closed his eyes, if Lucas missed, the bullet could hit him in the back of the neck. "Just don't hit me." He scowled.

The Blue Time Force Officer remain silent. He concentrated as the snake slithered and continued to hang. Lucas moved to the trigger and pressed it, sending a bullet flying into the head of the snake and knocking it off the tree. "Got it." He exclaimed.

Sky pulled out his weapon, "What kind of animals do you have in this environment?" He looked around.

"Oh the standard." Lucas reloaded his weapon and started to glance around in caution, "Snakes. Spiders. Birds." He started to trail off. The sound of Syd's screaming with gunfire following soon after caught their attention.

"Syd!" Sky shouted. He threw himself into the jungle and broke through all the vines, making his way over to the screams. Adam and Lucas followed behind closely as they broke through into another opening. "Come on Syd. Where are you?" He whispered. The scream echoed again, coming from the west of where they were standing. He jogged through the bushes once more and found Syd and Joel against the First Aides Room with a huge snake blowing their path out. The snake like creature was massive, towering over them like a huge anaconda. It smashed it's head through the glass and came out onto the other side.

"Hey snake!" Sky shouted to get it's attention. "Why don't you screw off."

The snake titled it's head before hissing. It opened it's mouth to reveal it's large fangs before unraveling himself and aiming straight towards Sky. The Blue S.P.D Officer began to fire bullets at the snake. It penetrated the monster but it did not even come close to phasing it. Sky rose his hand and slammed himself forward, forcing a blue shield to be summon. The snake smashed right into it and knocked back.

"Watch out!" Lucas ducked as the Snake whiplashes his tail into the side of Sky. He went flying into the air and into the bushes. Adam rolled out of the way and made his way to the First Aide Room where Syd and Joel had slipped out.

"Are you guys okay?" Adam whispered to Syd, "Anyone hurt?"

She shook her head, "No. Where's Sky?"

Adam shot a look over to see the snake slowly creeping over to Sky. Lucas ran forward, firing from his gun and screaming to get his attention. The snake turned and lashed out, grabbing a hold of Lucas' leg and lifting him into the air.

"Arg!" Lucas yelled, letting go of his gun and watching it fall into the brushes. The snake flailed him around and threw Luc into the air. The Time Force Ranger hit the ground hard and rolled, grabbing hold of his bleeding leg.

Sky groaned as he stood up. He looked over to see his gun laying off in the distant. Grabbing hold of it, a yellow flower appeared in front of his face. It moved a bit as Sky just looked on in curiosity. Suddenly the flower sneezed, releasing the strange green toxin. Sky coughed for a bit before standing up and rushing back into battle.

The snake smashed its tail into the ground inches away from Luc. He pushed himself up, and limped away from the snake as it crept closer to him. Joel and Syd fired on it to keep it at bay. "We need a better plan." Syd fired a few more shots, "Were going to run out of ammo."

Joel lowered the shotgun he had found next to a dead secruity officer in the room and just nodded. "This only had a few rounds left." He muttered, "I can't waste it

Adam rushed into the dark room and searched through the half-tipped drawers. Pulling bandages and cotton swabs out, he found a huge glass bottle of rubbing alcohol. Taking a dirty rag, he opened the cap of the bottle and stuffed the rag in to soak. Pulling part of it out to hang, he dried his hands and pulled out a lighter from the back of his pocket. "This should take care of it." He rushed back out. He lite the rag, watching as it instantly burst into flames. Throwing it, the bottle smashed right into the side of the snake and shattered, causing the liquid to fall and burn on the snake's skin. "Lucas!" Sky dived into him, and pulled him out as the snake flailed and caught everything it touched on fire.

"Let's get out of here!" Joel pointed to a path. Sky helped Lucas as he limped across. Blood was oozing down the security guard's leg. He glanced back, knowing that he forgot his gun, but kept pressing forward. "Were almost to the door." Joel shouted, "I know it."

The screeching sound of the snake bursted through the leaves of the tree and continued to chase after them. Lucas looked above him and noticed a giant fan hanging right above them. "Give me your gun." He sneered at Sky. "Quickly."

Sky complied, handing him the weapon. Pushing Sky out of the way, he quickly turned and aimed right above him, firing like crazy. The bullets deflected off the metal, chipping the chains that were holding the fan up. A few more bullets finally caused it to snap and fall straight down. The snakes lunged forward right at Lucas, jaw open, and wrapping right around him. The teeth sunk right through his chest, as the fan crashed right onto of the snake, crushing it to death. The head hit the ground, causing Luc to roll right out of the mouth and back onto the dirt. His clothes was partially on fire, Joel and Adam moved in to smother it out. The snake hissed before it's eyes finally stopped moving.

"Come on." Adam lifted Lucas onto his knees, "Don't give up now."

Bite marks were deep in both from the front and back of his body. He was lucky that the snake didn't pierce towards the heart, but was still feeling the pain either way. They five of them broke through the door and into the stair well. "Wait." Luc leaned against the wall, "Here." He handed Sky back the gun, "Just go on without me."

"Wait. No." Syd begged, "Were almost there. Just one more floor." She exclaimed, "Don't give up now."

Luc slide against the wall, the blood traced where his body was up against, "I don't think I have that energy to keep going. I'll just wait here."

Sky just handed back the gun, "We'll be back. I promise."

He sighed heavily, "Just don't take too long. Okay?"

The others nodded and bolted down the stairs as quickly as possible. Luc held tightly on the gun as he just glanced around in the stair well. Syd and the others made it to the bottom floor when they heard the sound of gunfire. The blonde jumped in surprised, looking back at the stairs. "Keep moving." Adam pushed her, "We can't stop now."

Sky paused for a sec, shaking his head and keeping focus. His sudden eyesight became blurry. "Are you all right, Sky?" Joel turned around to get his attention.

Sky just nodded, "Yeah. I am."

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End Chapter.
Group A
Destinations: Basement
Members

Sky - Armless
Syd - HandGun
Adam - Armless
Joel - Shotgun

Group B
Destination: Main Breaker Room
Members

Jen - Handgun
Cam - Armless
Z - Armless
Merrick - Handgun
Dustin - Armless

A/N: A little slow but it'll defiantly pick up next chapter. Its going to be so sweet!