Percussion Strike Team (Part 3)
Chapter 6 - January 6 2020
Level 1:
Class 1
Safe
Secure
Minimal Entity Count
Hayden opened crates voraciously. He used a brick to taper the end of his metal staff into a wedge. He took any supplies that he found useful: tape, knives, clothing, and especially food.
Most things he found were useful and made a lot of sense, but he found a lot of random and nonsensical items: burnt pieces of paper, live mice, and shoelaces.
He was ravenously hungry, eating everything he came across. He found a bag of beef jerky, a bar of chocolate, a bottle of Gatorade, and a honey bun packaged in plastic wrap. Food was a blessing.
One thing he found was a drink called "almond water," it smelled slightly of vanilla and rose water. He drank it, it tasted subtly of sweet almond butter and vanilla. When he drank it, it seemed to clear his head. After drinking this he felt more alert and focused and ready to loot. Hayden kept all the bottles of almond water that he saw.
. . .
This level was vastly different from the first level. For one, the walls and ceiling were made of white concrete: streaked with gray in some spots and lined with pipes, but still clean nonetheless. A white fog filled the rooms, falling down to the ground as condensation. There was no foul smell, no electrical droning, and no uncomfortable dampness of the ground.
Hayden found him walking through several different areas: some areas seemed to be like vacant multi-level parking lots without cars or parking lines. Some areas were long brightly-lit hallways, and some areas were storage rooms full of crates.
He walked down the hallway with his staff in hand and carrying a black canvas duffel bag which he found. He made sure to loot every room and check every box. Occasionally, he would find something useful and hold onto it, but most of the stuff he found in the crates were car parts and bricks.
Hayden found a first aid kit at the end of a hallway behind glass. He took his staff and smashed the glass. He found bandages and wound dressing, and also a purple antiseptic labeled "potassium permangenate" and also different sets of pills. He immediately took an aspirin and pill for a nagging headache.
When it came time to sleep, Hayden turned off the lights in a room and fell asleep. He climbed on top of a storage rack and slept on the top shelf, and also barricaded the door so that nothing could come in. It wasn't that comfortable, but it was better than sleeping on a desk, and certainly better than anything in the previous area. This place was far what he'd consider the "ideal place", but he appreciated what it had to offer.
Chapter 7 - January 8 2019
Level 1:
Class 1
Safe
Secure
Minimal Entity Count
Hayden heard what seemed to be high-pitched sounds of pain echoing through the hallways, it couldn't have been very far off. He was on alert- he held his metal staff with a knife taped to the end of it as a weapon: basically a shitty makeshift spear.
He killed two enemies in this new level so far: another one of those pitch-black contorted humanoids crawling on all fours, and a new enemy: a bloated nude humanoid with crooked teeth and red skin, it was a lot like fighting a zombie.
He assumed every noise to be a hostile creature, so he approached with caution.
"Show yourself, I won't ask again!" he declared, carefully hugging the wall with his back. He raised his spear and pointed at someone, it was a tall girl with long black hair wearing a dirty white dress, her hair obscured her face. He noticed that she was bleeding and she was covered in all sorts of gray stains.
"...Oh my bad I'm sorry," said Hayden, bending down. He took the medkit out of his bag and began washing her wounds in water. He applied the purple antiseptic, wound dressing, and then the bandages.
"I took first aid training from my Taekwondo instructor," said Hayden, patting the bandaged area. "You're a quiet one aren't you, what's your name?" he asked, moving her hair out of her face. She was very pretty, but she didn't have a left eye- it was just a blank spot of skin. Her right eye was there, but she had no pupils.
"...Gah! You're not one of those creatures are you?" he asked, standing back. She just sat there looking at him. They took a good look at each other for at least ten seconds.
"Well you aren't human, but you aren't gonna attack me either, so I guess not." he said, standing up. He reached out his hand as if he was helping her up. She stood up, and she was tall: at least two heads taller than him.
"Well, I'll be in that room looting boxes. If you need me I'll be right there," said Hayden, going back into a room. "Just knock, ok?"
Chapter 7 - January 9 2020
Level 1:
Class 1
Safe
Secure
Minimal Entity Count
Hayden wrote about his experiences in this strange space. He wrote with the notebook and pencil he found in the first area. He had filled in 9 entries on different pages so far, with doodles of the creatures he saw and of the room that he was in: the empty office building, the warehouse room, and the hallways. He made sure to mention "her" in his journal, whoever the hell she was.
"
Thursday 1/9/20
I'm doing better now. I've spent less than two days in this new concrete hallway area, yet I am still infinitely grateful to be here. I still haven't had a decent cooked meal this year: closest thing I've had is a bag of beef jerky and ramen and Doritos and had some almond water to drink, also a honey bun after all that. Still, I prefer this over starving to death in a sickly-yellow empty office building.
Just yesterday, I met this girl. She was hurt, and I helped her up- I used some of my first aid skills and bandaged her leg. But she's weird, like, definitely not human weird. She can't speak, and she only has one eye on the right side of her face, the other side is BLANK! The one eye she does have doesn't have a pupil in it, what is she?
My goals are to survive in here for as long as I can and possibly get out, and I'm assuming that others want to survive as well, obviously. I'm going to help them any time I get the chance.
Anyways I don't care that she isn't human, I helped someone who was hurt and that's that. Hopefully I see her again, Hayden out, I don't know what else I'll find."
He stopped writing and put away his book. He ate his jumbo bag of trail mix for lunch and went out to loot again.
. . .
He had looted crates for a few hours. All of a sudden, the lights turned off. He immediately raised his spear as if to prepare for an attack.
"..God damn it, I should've gotten my stripe for spear technique first," said Hayden. "Oh too bad so sad," he said. "COME AT ME!"
He heard a loud guttural roar in the hall, it was so loud that it nearly shook him off his feet. Three sets of glowing white eyes appeared in the hallway, they turned red and charged even faster. He was sure without a doubt that they were those pitch-black crawlers: they had the same faces, only red.
"Oh for fucks sake! You assholes again!" said Hayden. "I killed five of you back in the first level, and two more here!" He stayed right where he was, one of them lunged at him and he dodged. As it regained its footing, he looked straight into its eyes. He underestimated its strength, he lost his footing for a second but stood right back up.
"I GOT YOU, BITCH!" he roared. He stabbed the creature and kicked it. He forgot about the two others, one of them was right behind him. He slapped it aside with his staff, but it headbutted him hard. He was thrown back and slid on the ground. The roaring continued, he was too hurt to stand up.
A high-pitched shriek echoed throughout the hallways, hurting his ears. He turned on his flashlight and was pleasantly surprised to find out that something was killing them: it was the same girl that he rescued, she was fighting those creatures and she was WINNING.
She grabbed one of the creatures and threw it on the ground. She kicked it, killing it. The other one charged her and she punched it in the face. It died instantly, she roared a victory roar and settled down.
"You saved me," said Hayden. She walked over and picked Hayden up by his hands and helped him up. They walked off in the darkness.
. . .
"So, what's your name?" asked Hayden. "Wait, do you even have a name?" he asked again. He limped by her side and held her hand, the lights were back on again.
"mmm," she muffled, she shook her head, indicating no. She didn't have a name.
"Well, since we're travelling together, I have to call you something." said Hayden. "You seem like a ghost, so does Lilith sound good?" he thought. "No..." he said, rethinking it. "Actually you seem like the girl from Demon Slayer- you're also quiet and you also kill stuff- no you have no idea what I'm talking about. You're a lot like that Hisako Arato girl from Killer Instinct, but nah."
"Wait wait, I think I found a name you'd like," said Hayden. "It was my dad's favorite song before he got cancer, and it also started trending on Tiktok. It goes like:" Hayden began to sing.
"She ain't got to money
Her clothes are kinda funny
Her hair is wild and free
Oh my love goes where my Rosemary grows
And nobody knows like me."
"So, are you ok with me calling you Rosemary?" asked Hayden. "Or, just Rose for short." he added. She nodded and muffled, "mmhm," yes.
"Alright!" he said. They both walked into a storage room, and Hayden leaned against the wall limp next to an outlet while Rose took his staff and ripped open boxes. He played on his phone and watched videos for the rest of the evening. The both of them drank Hayden's bottles of almond water.
Chapter 8 - January 10 2020
Level 1:
Class 1
Safe
Secure
Minimal Entity Count
Hayden swung as hard as he could. He whacked a fire sprinkler and cold water fell down. He began scrubbing down. He didn't have anything to shower with other than a rag with dish soap, but it was the best shower of his life. He hadn't had one since last year since he was too busy trying not to die.
As he was scrubbing down, Rosemary walked in. Hayden shouted, surprised.
"Gahhh! What are you doing?" stammered Hayden. "Actually, come here, I need to show you how to shower, since you're a ghost and all." he said. Rosemary took off her dirty white dress, Hayden covered his eyes.
As he scrubbed her down, the gray stains on her body washed off and her hair grew more smooth. He was after all a teenage boy, and he couldn't help but notice her body. He tried to focus his mind onto something else. He must've focused too hard, because he thought of the pitch-black humanoid crawling creature, and the red bloated man. He froze.
Rose put her hand on his cheek as if to check if he was alright. He looked over.
"Oh, I'm fine, let's dry up." said Hayden. The water flowed everywhere, flooding the level.
. . .
"Alright, so I have a bag full of first aid supplies..." said Hayden, pointing to a smaller green handbag full of first aid supplies. He had his knife, his flashlight, and his spear. He also had three canteens: one water canteen for him, another for him full of almond water, and another canteen for Rose.
He had a smaller bag for food supplies, spare clothes, and another bag for nonsensical items: all of which could fit in his big black canvas duffel bag.
He actually used shoelaces and yarn to stitch together lengths of black fabric. It was extraordinarily difficult, as he didn't have a needle or his knitting tools at home. He had to poke through the fabric with a knife and force the yarn or shoelaces through manually using a knife.
All while he was stitching, Rose was taking the tops off of boxes and looking for loot.
. . .
As Hayden alternated between writing, organizing, and working on the outfit, Rose came beside him. She wore a long loose-fitting black shirt that Hayden found.
"Hey what'd you get?" he asked, scrolling on his phone. Rose had a bag of food, and Hayden was pleasantly surprised.
"Cheetos, Doritos, instant ramen- the spicy kind! Some cheese, and some spam! Good job!" said Hayden. "We can eat these for dinner- won't be much, but thank you!" he said. "I'll make this really cool snack I used to eat back at home when my mom was out and I had nothing else."
He took the snacks, crumpled them up together with the seasoning packet, and tore in pieces of cheese. He also cut some spam with a separate knife, not the one on the spear. The humanoids he stabbed could've been carrying a deadly disease for all he knows. He mixed everything together, making his go-to meal. He couldn't cook it, but it still had to do.
They had two chip bags which were laid inside-out as plates, and they are with their hands. They drank two cans of soda along with their meal. This was a go-to dinner that Hayden ate when he was too lazy to cook.
. . .
"I came here from a place called Earth, ten days ago." said Hayden. "I think it was ten days, I'll check my journal in a bit. Earth is a really... different place than this. It has forests and cities and oceans, not an infinite maze. I really need to take you there one day," he said.
"...Do you have any idea what I'm saying?" asked Hayden. Rose just shook her head.
"I'll show you some pictures," he said, scrolling through his phone. "I used to live in a city called Philadelphia. Here are my friends at the Taekwondo place, and here is Dimitrius and Ivan, and here is my dad before he passed away." he said.
"Of course, this isn't the whole thing. If I find more pictures, I'll show you for sure." said Hayden. "One day, I'll have you see Earth in person, but I'll have to escape this place first."
Rose nodded and continued to eat.
Chapter 9 - January 15 2020
Level 1:
Class 1
Safe
Secure
Minimal Entity Count
"I got this one!" said Hayden, roaring and entering a fighting stance. There was a man made out of polygons- he was blocky, as if he was a character in an old video game. He had the texture of plastic and made a crumpling sound as he moved. Hayden stabbed him to death with his spear.
Rose punched her way through all the others and ripped through them with her bare hands. She was extremely powerful, killing each of these faceless polygonal men in one hit. Soon, the entire mob was dead.
This commotion attracted others. The bloated red wormlike humanoids came forward. Rose killed them with ease. Unlike the polygons, these creatures were zombie-like and easy to kill. They were like slow punching bags- they were tough, but they weren't a match for Rose or Hayden for that matter.
Hayden tossed Rose his spear. She took it and began tearing them to shreds. She moved onto the next one, then the next one. She gave Hayden back his spear, the entire area was strewn with the corpses of creatures.
"Come on, let's loot this room," said Hayden, swinging and shaking the blood off of his spear. One of the polygonal men were still alive, he stabbed it as it tried to stand up.
. . .
Hayden had the same organized duffel bag. Rose, being much stronger, had two bags. They both looted this room together.
"Hey Rose, what did you get for me?" asked Hayden. She found a thick knitting needle, she held onto it knowing that Hayden would use it.
"Oh nice, thank you Rose!" said Hayden, excitedly. "Now I can knit! I'll make something for you," he said.
All the boxes were opened, and they took everything that was useful. They found another creature in the hallway outside, it was alone. It was a bald human male who seemed to be in his thirties, but he was naked and had white sunken eyes. He ran after Hayden.
"Rose, we have to kill it!" said Hayden. He stabbed it with his spear as it charged him, it swiped at him twice, but Hayden ducked. He kicked it in the groin, it did nothing.
Rose took over. She punched it in the face and kicked it. Hayden stabbed it in the neck and translucent blood leaked out. It looked hungrily at Hayden and slapped him back.
Rose took the spear and stabbed it through the creature. She pulled out the spear and punched it in the face, this knocked the creature down. She then stomped on his head, killing it.
The creature was disgusting. As soon as it died, its skin sagged off. Under the skin was what seemed to be octopus suckers, the creature's translucent blood pooled on the floor.
"Let's go, this hallway," said Hayden. The two picked up their bags and walked into a dimly-lit hallway.
