Nine :::
Influenced by Madness
The atrium is large and all but abandoned in what looked like a frantic escape from whatever had happened here. Trash and debris litter the floor, chairs and tables flipped over… doors blocked with stretchers. Isaac takes it all in while following his new pals who are supposedly stuck together in the same predicament as he is. Even though he has his doubts, Isaac doesn't bother bringing up his suspicions. He knows it's key in maintaining a positive relationship with these people. As far as he knows it, they're all fucked two ways sideways. Each of them, from what they told him, were employees of the Concordance and were also held captive and experimented on by the Asari. Surely there has to be a reason behind their torment? Isaac can't help but wonder what part he plays in it all… and why he keeps seeing her.
For the time being, the group is holding up surprisingly well as they navigate the second floor of this atrium. There are five floors altogether but the third on up can only be access by elevator and emergency stairways, and with the power out, reaching them will be a problem. So far, most of the stairway doors have been locked.
Trailing behind Stross, Isaac does his part in keeping the crazed man on target with their objective in finding a way out of here. So far, Stross is cooperating, following behind Nick who is walking alongside Isabel. Through the low lighting provided by the numerous emergency lights scattered about, Isaac can't make out what the two are saying. He can only hear the distant, inaudible dribble of their words numbing out into the acoustical atrium. Occasionally, Nick looks back at Isaac, probably keeping tabs on him since Isaac said he helped his daughter escape from whoever took her. Even though Isaac has no relative memory of the matter—besides being locked in a featureless cell—he continues to play along with the man's fantasy. How long will he have to play this charade until the punchline? Isaac ever wonders.
After surveying the second level of the foyer, Isaac begins to piece together that this atrium may be a main lobby for a hospital. The ground and second floor are just office wings whereas the actual hospital is above their heads on the next few levels. There, Isaac believes it their way out… if they can get to it.
"Damnit!" Isabel exclaims, nosily banging her hands against yet another locked exit doorway. "Why're all these damn doors freakin' locked?!"
"It's a power outage," Nick says to her. "Doors might have some sort of protocol to lock whenever there is one."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Isaac says, gathering their attention. "Emergency doors don't lock themselves during a power outage. Someone did them remotely."
"Remotely?" Isabel recalls with a hint of suspicion in her tone. "And you'll know this how, exactly?"
Isaac shakes his head, "I don't. But something tells me this wasn't just some routine outage—I mean, haven't any of you been paying attention? Something happened here. Back in my cell… I heard gunfire—guard's shitting themselves in panic over something."
"You think this some attack?" Nick queries. "Like dem terrorists who attacked them ships we were on? The real motherfuckers behind this shit?!"
"Yeah, let's not get carried away, shall we?" Isabel says. "Now there's gotta be a logical reason for all this…"
"There is," Isaac interjected. "Vague, but some pieces are coming together… like how our cells were opened and how we were all lead to the same place at nearly the same time. I think whatever is going on here on the Sprawl may be linked to us—somehow…"
Isaac feels his skin crawl when a cold hand rests upon his shoulder. Startled, Isaac turns his attention to Stross now standing shouldered to him. The man stares deep into Isaac's eyes—their faces so close Isaac can see his own upside down reflection in the craze man's watery-red eyes.
"There's a connection between us—yes—that's what it wanted all along," Stross dribbles out. "This… this! It's just the beginning of our end, and its salvation."
"Keep talking and you might meet your salvation sooner," Isabel mutters to herself, though Isaac and maybe Nick and even Stross heard her.
"Yeah well," Isaac begins to say, shaking Stross' hand off his shoulder. "All coincidences aside… the hard fact is that someone tripped a protocol which locked these doors, possibly preventing us from escaping… or something else from getting out."
Isaac takes a short step away from the group, approaching a low guardrail overlooking the ground floor of the atrium below. He steers his gaze up to the upper floors, scanning his eyes across the ambient dark in a hope of finding a service ladder or something to get them up there. As he's searching the atrium with his eyes, an idea comes hurling towards his mind.
"The elevator shaft," Isaac says aloud, turning to face the group. "It's the only way to the upper floors."
Isabel slowly bobs her head, "It might work," she says.
"It will, as long as we work together," Isaac proclaims. Though his confident statement takes a dent when Stross starts to pace in place, gripping his head with both hands and stuttering a slew of nonsense. He's totally losing his fucking marbles, each passing second, and there's no telling how far his insanity will go and if he'll erupt and try to attack any of them like he did Isabel.
"Like I said," Isabel begins to say, folding her arms. "It might work."
Regardless of Stross' shattered state of mind, Isaac refuses to let it hinder their chance of escape. "Look, let's just look for something—anything to get the elevator doors open," Isaac tells them.
Wordlessly, Isabel unfolds her arms and proceeds to do as planned. Nick soon follows suite while Stross… well Stross is being his usual self. So long as the man doesn't try to fling himself over the foyer railing then he should be fine. If he does though, well, Isaac won't have to worry about keeping track with him. Then again, all the possible secrets crammed in that head of his may be the key in unraveling the reason for them being here now. That's if he's even sane enough to convey them.
Shaking his head clear of the things he can't control, Isaac focuses on the aspects at his disposal. Echoing loudly through the airy foyer, a series of crashes, glass shattering and wood splintering tells Isaac that Nick and Isabel are taking his instructions way too seriously. There are plenty of offices to search, all of which might not have anything of usefulness to get the door open. Though Isaac believes the two are blowing off overheated hate trapped inside of them. He can't blame them. Every waking second he spent in that cell—every time those guards dragged him out of his sleep for another mind rape from that Asari… he wanted to kill one of them. He fascinated hurting one of them—all of them… make them feel the way he felt…
Noticing his hands are tightly balled into fists, Isaac relaxes. The ear-thumping noise of Nick and Isabel's searches pulls him back into the stark reality of his existence. No more screwing around, Isaac gets moving and his brain working. He walks pass Stross, dodging the sudden flaring of the man's arms by inches, Isaac approaches the powered off elevator on the opposite end of the foyer.
Isaac glides his hands over the smooth, metallic face of the elevator doors, his fingertip slipping into the crease tracing down the middle. With just the tips of his fingers, he doesn't have enough leverage to slide the doors aside, not even if all four… three of them combined could do it. Not that they have the strength to do so anyway. They have to find a tool, something—anything. Isaac can't believe something as trivial as this keeps them from progressing.
"How we looking with a… crowbar guys?" Isaac asks out as he continues to struggle to open the door with just his fingers with no avail.
"Naw man I don't got shit!" Nick hollers over.
"Pretty much the same over here," Isabel follows soon after.
Isaacs's fingers slip across the metal chipping a jagged nail in his index finger. "Son of a bitch!" He swears out waving his hand to ease the pain; anger snakes up his spine overpowering his mind. "Can't… fucking… believe this!" Isaac shouts, kicking the elevator door repeatedly.
Resting his forehead on the cool metal surface, Isaac closes his eyes and purges the anger out of his system. He isn't accomplishing anything by being mad at himself, if this plan isn't going to work then he better come up with a plan B.
"Come on… think of something you idiot!" Isaac mutters to himself, slamming a balled fist into the elevator door. If it was one thing that stuck in Isaac's shattered mind in remembering who was before all this, he noted he had a knack of seeing things out the box. While locked in confinement for months on end, his mind randomly generated complex math problems, musing on physics equations and conservation of energy laws. In other words, he was some sort of mathematician or engineer or something across that line. But his new self… this Isaac is nothing like his old self. His mind forever suppressed by numbness, by thoughts that don't make a lick of sense and hallucinations of things he knows aren't there. The old Isaac is dead, but that doesn't mean a remnant of his former self doesn't reside in him now.
Holding faith to that notion, Isaac opens his eyes and exhales a deep breath through his nostrils. Backing away from the closed off elevator, he turns around facing the openness of the atrium. Trying to stimulate that outward thinking part of his mind, Isaac begins musing alternative ways of reaching the next level. Just by examining the distances between the floor he's currently standing on to the next, he speculates it's about five meters apart—roughly fifteen feet— with an additional three feet due to the declarative banister. A series of support beams maintain the above floors, though Isaac doesn't believe they could scale them up, given the weaken state of their bodies.
So climbing's out of the equation. Now if only they could fly…
Fly, Isaac contemplates on the silly, outrageous thought. But the more he ponders on it… the more it settles in his mind as a possibility. Not flying of course, but rather defying the artificial gravity of this atrium… using some sort of a device—
"A kinesis module… of course!" Isaac slams his hands on the railing in excitement. He has a plan B—a plausible plan that could—no, will work this time. They don't have to get everyone to the next level, just one person who can unlock a locked emergency exit door from the other side. Now the only thing is to find a kinesis module laying around…
Rubbing the back of his neck, Isaac takes stock of his surroundings where he makes out a mapped directory plastered on a nearby pillar. Running over to it, Isaac squints to make out the map's features in words since it's so dark. He finds his location in relation to the map and discovers that there is a maintenance room just down the hall.
"There we go," Isaac muses aloud to himself. He takes his gaze off the directory and stares down the length of the foyer to where he eyes the double doors leading to the maintenance room.
Quickly stepping down the hall, Isaac's path is intercepted by Nick who steps out of an office doorway, "man there ain't anything here to get those doors open."
"It's okay, just come with me," Isaac says passing Nick by.
The man joins him at his side, matching his quicken walking pace, "you found a way outta here?" Nick asks.
"Something like that," Isaac replies. "The elevator isn't an option, we weren't ever going to get it open… but I have another idea…" Along the way down the foyer, Isaac briefly explains to Nick his radical plan.
"Really man?" Nick recalls with a raised eyebrow. "Don't know how you came up with a plan like that."
"Desperation," Isaac simply replies. "There isn't any other way… it's the only card we have left to play."
The two men reach the flimsy maintenance doors where, not surprisingly, they're locked.
"Right here," Nick says, pointing out to Isaac a nearby sitting bench lined adjacent to the doorway against the wall. "We can use it to bust down the door."
Isaac nods his confirmation to the idea, getting on the opposite end of the bench. "On three," Isaac says bending at the knees, getting a firm grip on the bench. "One… two… three!"
Pushing off with the little strength in his legs, Isaac's lifts his end of the bench, finding it much heavier than it looked. The wimpy muscles in his arms instantly sting with pain. The rough edges of the bench underbelly dig into the palm of his hands, drawing blood. Isaac grits his teeth, trying to counter act the pain assaulting him.
"You good man?" Nick asks easily holding up his end.
Gathering his wits, Isaac nods then urges out a, "yeah."
He and Nick position the bench at a lengthways vertical angel in front of the door and begin ramming it into the slight opening set between the two doors. Over and over they try, gaining some purchase as the lock holding the two doors lurches and binds under the force.
"Com'on! We almost there!" Nick encourages.
Isaac, sweat streaming down his face already, admires Nick's determination and tries to latch on to it.
"Com'on! One—two—three—PUSH! One—two—three—PUSH! One—two—three—PUSH…!"
Over and over they strike the door. Isaac's arms run numb with fatigue. He has nothing else to give, though he struggles on, until finally… the lock gives way and the doors blasts apart granting them entry into the maintenance room.
Isaac drops his end of the bench and inspects his hands. They aren't as bad as they felt, just a bleeding minor cut in his left palm and nothing more.
Nick comes up from behind tapping a hand on Isaac's shoulder, "you straight?"
Isaac only nods taking his gaze off his hands and looks up at the space in front of him. Like the atrium, the maintenance room is chocked in shadow, even more since there aren't any emergency lights in here at all. Besides that, Isaac is able to tell that the room is small. Lined against the wall are a set of lockers, probably belonging to the numerous engineers that upheld this section of the hospitals.
"So you think there's a kinesis module in here?" Nick asks.
"There's gotta be," Isaac replies approaching one of the lockers. A few are padlocked, but to his fortune, Isaac runs across a locker without a lock and instantly opens it. Franticly searching the inside of it, Isaac finds nothing of value—most importantly a kinesis module.
"Shit!" He swears, slamming the small locker door shut. Crouching low, Isaac runs a hand across the series of padlocks along the middle row of lockers where he discovers another unlocked locker. His heart thumping with anxiety, Isaac reaches a hand through the darken space where he feels the rouged contours of a kinesis module.
"Yes—yes—yes!" Pulling the wristband device out, Isaac confirms that it is in fact the device he has had his mind set on. "Oh, this is perfect!"
"You got it?" Nick asks from behind, standing by the doors.
"Yep," Isaac replies, fitting the device onto this skinny wrist. Tightening the wristband so that it fits snuggly. "Moment of truth," turning around, Isaac faces Nick. Eyeing the bench they used to gain entry into the room, Isaac aims the prongs extending from the kinesis module, he presses the button resting in his palm of which activates the near-visible beam of the module. He hardly sees the beam reaching out and grabbing the bench, though he feels that familiar lurch of the device as it begins dragging the bench across the floor and near him.
"Okay…! That's what I'm talking about!" Isaac cancels the field, releasing its invisible hold on the bench. "Now we're getting somewhere."
Leaving the maintenance room, Isaac and Nick regroup with Isabel and Stross, the latter of which has somehow managed to calm down dramatically. No longer prancing and talking nonsense, Stross is abnormally quiet, standing with his arms folded, back leaning against the railing of the foyer. When Isaac and Nick near, the man actually looks up with a pondering look chiseled on his face.
"What the hell were you two doing?" Isabel asks approaching the two as they came walking down the foyer. "All I heard was shouting and banging."
"We had a little trouble getting through a door down the hall," Nick begins to explain. "But Isaac here has another plan on us reaching the next floor."
Isabel's eyes land on Isaac, more specifically the kinesis module strapped around his wrists, "and I'm guessing that has a part in it?" She asks.
"It's going to sound crazy, but hear me out," Isaac begins to say. "We're going to need to lift someone up to the third floor. From there, we can get the emergency door open from the other side. These things have a max range of about nine meters—I did the math… that's plenty of reach for us to reach that floor."
Isabel blinks perplexingly to where Isaac is going with all this, "so this plan of yours requires you to send one of us up there using that thing?"
"Actually… it's going to have to be you," Isaac says.
For a moment, the woman just stares at Isaac with a mix expression of shock and confusion. And then, she releases a nervous laugh then says, "you… you're joking, right? Right?"
"You're the smallest of the three of us," Nick's deep voice pitches in. "Now I don't even know how this kinesis…thingamajig, even works. And besides, you'll be the easiest for Isaac to lift and we sure as shit ain't sending Stross."
Upon hearing his name, Stross shoots his head up and stares at Nick. Surprisingly, the man doesn't lash out or does something irrational. Instead, he folds back into his eerie quiet state of being.
"Okay so… say I do this," Isabel says. "How exactly are you getting me up there—because, I've never been kinesised before."
"I won't be using it on you… rather an object," Isaac explains. "Organic flesh is tricky when it comes to these things, if I can remember correctly. You'll have to sit or stand on something. It'll make the entire thing easier on the both of us."
Nodding nervously to the plan, Isabel says, "alright, I'll… I'll do it. But you have to promise me something."
Isaac shrugs, "what's that?"
"Don't fucking drop me!"
Nick went in search for a stable enough platform of which Isabel can stand on, while Isaac continues to tinker with the kinesis module at his wrist. Stross remains in his reserved shell, not speaking—rather shouting, at anyone at the moment. Though Isaac can hear the man muttering something under his breath, occasionally shaking his head and saying, "no—no—no…" over and over to something playing out in that messed up head of his. Though Isaac believes if the man maintains this attitude than things should pan out fine further down the line.
"So you've done this before?" Isabel asks joining Isaac by the railing.
"I have some experience—yeah," Isaac replies, giving her some reassurance. He glances in her direction for a moment, catching the frighten look written across her face. Why wouldn't she be scared?
Sighing, Isaac continues to say, "I mean I'm pretty sure I know what I'm doing. Before coming here on the Sprawl, I believe I served as an engineer or some kind… I don't know."
Isabel only nods to all he said, she's still in a nervous wreck. For a moment, an extended pause ushered its way between them, whereas the only sound came from Stross' distant mumbling. The silence is cut by Isabel's voice.
"I lied about not knowing Kuttner that well," she begins to say, folding her arms on top the banister. "He and Stross… I served with them onboard the USG O'Bannon. We were a part of some artifact retrieval team. I still can't remember what for or why," she sighs arching her head up. "Guess it doesn't matter anymore now."
"It matters," Isaac insures her. "Our pasts are the reason we're in this very spot. Once we get out of here we're going to find out why."
"Not sure if I want to find out," Isabel replies, her voice quivers a bit. "Sometimes I… I see things," she starts to say, earning Isaac's full attention. He can tell, by the look in her eye that she wants him to know she isn't trying to sound crazy but speaking the truth.
"I hear these voices in my head… thoughts that aren't my own," she pauses for a moment, shaking her head. "It's like I've contracted schizophrenia or something."
"Trust me, I know," Isaac tells her. "Just a few minutes ago I thought I saw…" he stops himself short, starring down at the ground floor where he remembers seeing Nicole's sudden appearance. Right now, the floor is barren of any life or activity.
"I remember when we were onboard the Abraxis," Isabel says, changing the subject. "Kuttner told us that he was seeing his daughter, Vivian. Only that she died in a freak incident some months ago, back on Earth."
"I figured much," Isaac says, but now that he knows, he feels even worst for lying to the guy about seeing her himself. "I don't think he can see pass the illusions like you and me."
"Or he just chose to accept them as real," Isabel insights. "For a second, when I was locked up here… and the illusions were the only thing I could actually talk to… I was ready to give in to my madness as a means to escape this hell."
Isaac dips his head low, starring at the floor. Every detail she shares is like a reflection of his own thoughts and experiences. He feels a little bit at ease knowing that someone else shared his suffering.
"Still, he isn't as far gone as some," Isabel nods her head over in Stross' direction.
"What's his story?" Isaac asks.
Before Isabel can offer some insight on Stross, Nick gathers their attention. The man is holding a small four-legged desk. "I found this," he says. "This good enough?"
The desktop is small, it can only hold one person at that. Though it isn't Isaac's say to use it for he won't be the one standing on it and levitating thirty five feet above the ground floor.
"It'll do," Isabel says. She looks up at Isaac and gives him a shrug, "let's just get this over with."
Her legs visibly shaking as she climbs onto the desk, Isabel grabs hold of the banister for support.
Isaac stands nearby, prepared to take her up. An equal amount of nervousness runs through him too. Her life is literally in his hands… he can't mess this up.
"Ready Isabel?" Isaac asks.
The woman can only nod her head. She slowly removes her grip from the railing until the only thing supporting her are her own two legs.
Swallowing an edgy lump in his throat, Isaac aims the kinesis module at the desk then activates the beam. Isabel yelps at the sudden shift of the desk, sticking her arms out for balance.
"It's alright—you're alright," Isaac reassured. "I got a hold of ya… just hang on and try not to move too much, okay?"
"Uh-huh," Isabel utters nodding her head.
His heart in his throat, Isaac begins to lift Isabel and the desk off the floor. He motions his arm upward, having to over extend his reach in accordance to the slight bending delay in the kinesis beam.
"Okay…" now getting the gist of the device, Isaac manages to lift the desk a few inches off the ground. With a little more effort, the desk clears the top of the banister.
Now for the fun part, Isaac contemplates taking a deep sigh.
Trusting in his ability, Isaac slowly brings Isabel over the railing until nothing but air is beneath her. The only thing supporting her now besides the desk is Isaac's concentration and nerves of steel. Isabel is holding it together quite well too, so Isaac begins the daunting part of this endeavor…
"Alright, we're gonna start going up, you ready?"
"Y-yeah," Isabel replies.
"Okay then," Isaac says, taking a split second glance at Nick standing at his side with arms folded. Isaac gave Nick a task to keep an eye on Stross and make sure he doesn't try anything to interfere with this. So far Stross is keeping his crap together.
Settling himself, Isaac begins taking Isabel up. Higher and higher she goes at a steady pace until Isaac loses sight of her due to the ceiling of the foyer severing his view. Quickly, he races to a new vantage point, rounding around a support pillar until he regains sight of her. His goal is to keep her aligned straight up, like an elevator, through the kinesis module begins having a mind of its own. The beam tries sending Isabel out further over the openness of the atrium, though Isaac counteracts the devices urge in doing so by stepping himself back a few paces. Each time he does however, he loses sight of Isabel.
"You're doing good," Nick says spotting for Isaac. "just keep doin' what you doin'."
"Is she almost there?" Isaac asks, his finger numbingly pressing down on the lift button keeping the beam active.
"Halfway—yeah," Nick informs, now leaning forward against the banister, arching his head upward. "I'll tell you how to keep her straight."
With Nick acting as his eyes, Isaac relies on the man's input. "Ight… just a little to the right…" Nick instructs. "Hold it right there… keep her goin up, just like five more feet and she'll be there."
Everything is going smoother than Isaac could have ever thought. In a matter of moments, they will surpass this detour and hopefully find some answers behind what happened to them and what's going on now. Suddenly, Isaac feels the vibrating lurch of the kinesis moduel on his wrists, indicating that it has reached its reach limitation.
Jumping him out of his cheerful thoughts, Isaac here's both Nick and Isabel shouting for him.
"Oh! Wait—wait—wait—stop!" Nick flutters out.
Isaac takes his finger off the lift button and hurries over to Nick's side. A horrifying feeling overtakes Isaac, "what happened?"
Nick waves Isaac over to see for himself. Joining Nick at the rail, Isaac bends his neck upward where he sees Isabel maintaining her balance on the floating desk… but she's just barely leveled with the third floor.
"Was that you? That shaking I felt?" Isabel says.
"Sorry, that meant the beam maxed out," Isaac explains.
"Maxed out?! You mean this is how far I can go?"
Isaac nods his head apologetically, "yeah. I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to try and jump for that railing."
Isabel manages to casts a hostile look down Isaac's way, "are you fucking kidding me—there's no way I can do that!"
"Yes, you can," Isaac encourages. "You've already made it this far, Isabel. Now if you don't jump than we'll be stuck here forever, is that what you want?"
"Yeah, and if I jump and miss—which is going to happen—then we'll be stuck here and I'll be dead!"
"I'll catch you," Isaac ensures her. "Just trust me on this—trust yourself!"
An extended pause emits soon after where Isabel finally comebacks with, "if I die… then your girlfriend won't be the only ghost you'll be seeing."
Although her words came out sternly and her sarcastic melancholic, Isaac actually manages a thin smile.
Without further words or preparation, Isabel leaps off the desk. Her body collides into the banister of the railing where she manages to hook onto. Her legs dangle freely over the open space, where Isaac believes she is beginning to lose her grip. Though amazingly, Isabel manages to pull herself up and over the railing until finally making it safety on the other side.
Isaac utters a huge sigh of relief earning a hard pat on the back by Nick. She made it, the hard part is finally over.
"Can't believe that half-assed plan actually worked," Isaac chuckles out, disabling the kinesis beam and allowing the desk to come hurling down to the ground floor where it crashes with a thunderous bang.
"Who you tellin'?" Nick says, "there's no wonder why Vivian trusted you so much."
Isaac's smile instantly evaporates when Nick said that. Just when he thought the man had enough sense in his head like he and Isabel, Nick always reminded him otherwise. That man who pushed him against a wall and threaten to kill him is still there, it's just masked over this shroud of confusion that has crippled Nick's mind.
"Hey!" Isabel hollers down at the two getting their attention, "I'm going to open the door over there," she points across the atrium on the other side. Both Isaac and Nick nod their confirmations.
Now it's time to get a move on. They've wasted more than enough time hanging around this atrium and Isaac is itching to get to newer ground fast. There is no time for high-fiving one another, Isaac fears this is just the beginning of their troubles.
Emerging from the stairwell to the third floor, the first thing that captures Isaac's eyes is the amount of trash and debris littering the floor. Stretchers tipped over on their sides, random sheets and blankets sprawled about. It looks just as destroyed as the floor they just left. Yet, unlike the second floor, the third level foyer is absent of offices or any other accommodations. Just a singular doorway, similar to the double doors Isaac and Nick crashed through leading off somewhere deeper into the hospital.
Nick tries passing through the doors where the group discovered that it's chained locked from the other side. However, when pushed back far enough, the two sets of doors jut open just enough for each of them to squeeze through one at a time.
"Right… I'll go first," Nick volunteers clicking his flashlight active. Isaac and surprisingly, Stross help push and hold the doors open for Nick to crawl on through the slight opening. Once he was through, Isaac beckons Isabel to go next.
"Alright, your turn Stross," Isaac says to the man.
"My turn, is yet to come, Isaac—you'll see," Stross says randomly.
"Whatever, just move your ass."
Without a fuss, Stross crawls his way under the chains and through the opening and then lastly Isaac.
Arriving on the other side, Isaac turns around where he sees the three of them abruptly standing still, looking at something on the floor. Coming over, Isaac sees what holds their collective attention: blood. A whole lot of it stains the floor.
"I guess we gonna find out what happened here," Nick says.
"Looks like a massacre took place," Isabel says. "Now I'm beginning to wonder why they had that door chained up."
"To keep something out," Isaac speculates. He shines his light beam for the wall, "those look like bullet holes."
"Yeah, I got some thermal clips right here," Nick points out shining his light further down the blacken corridor. The red streak of blood continues to flow on and out of reach of Nick's light. Just by looking at it, Isaac believes someone was dragged down the hall, bleeding like mad. "What the fuck happened here?"
Taken aback by the carnage, no one—not even Stross utters a sound. Isaac is the first to speak. "There's only one way now," he says taking the first step into the blacken corridor. He glances back at them. "This way."
A/N: I know... not as crazy and chaotic as the other chapters, but trust me, there is plenty crazy-chaotic coming down the line... ;-p
