Chapter 5- Life within Insanity
The Point Man awoke again only this time he awoke to the sight of a table in front of him. He was sitting in a chair and the room around him had screens for which showed nothing at the moment. On the table before him was an old projector and next to it a gun. The Point Man felt tormented to the point he wasn't entirely sure if he was himself. Was this reality he was experiencing or some sick nightmare? Had he perhaps not awoken from well before? Was he still back at the elevator out cold being tortured by nothing more than a mere nightmare?
The questions poured into his mind and now he just wished it was a bad nightmare. Alma's voice was soon heard from the shadows as she began to speak every amused now more so than he had seen her before. "Hello again, you still seem to have some grip on yourself and I've tortured you so much...what a pity. I would much rather see you turn into the rest of them, lost, discarded, dead, and trapped eternally tortured. Heeheehee...I believe it's time to show you something that I believe will end this quite wonderfully if I don't say so myself."
Alma's voice faded off with only the sound of sadistic and dark laughter filling in around the Point Man. Too drained and spent emotionally and in every way the F.E.A.R. operative sat and awaited in wonder at what possible torture could await him now. Suddenly the projector turned on and all around the Point Man was the sight of soilders dead and fallen. Blood was everywhere and he soon rewatched the deaths of all those he had known in the past. The images were horrifying in their nature, but nothing compared to the sight that was the ways in which they died, horrified, and begging for death.
Then the projector seemed to switch off for a moment before playing again only this time it revealed the images of countless millions each dying in horrific ways and these members seemingly having passed through here also. Some were tough as nails and others faltered immediately however all eventually had succumb to the inevitable...DEATH! The Point Man watched as a soilder screamed in pain as he was stabbed hundreds of times and then drug down a hallway clawing for life. His bones would soon be broken and shattered by a hammer as millions of the dead stood around and cried out laughing merrily as his torture continued.
This sight was made worse only by the fact that he didn't die and continued to be tortured before finally those around him decapitated him and dismembered his corpse hanging pieces of skin around the walls for decoration and putting his remaining body parts, some even skinless and hanging them around the hallways. The grainy black and white film showed the soilders blood being smeared everywhere and the happiness the dead had found in his demise.
Time and time again the Point man watched soilder after soilder meet their inevitable demise and inside fear welled up inside of him like he had never felt before. A sense of hopelessness fell on him and he soon saw what he believed to be his only way out. The gun that layed on the table seemed tempting to him. His grip on reality seemed to be losing itself and all the forewarnings of the possibility of endlessly being tortured after death left him. Death seemed a much easier and happier way out to him. His mind began to rationalize suicide. After all, could God blame him after the hell he had been put through.
The Point Man began to think back on his life and even at times though of how God had not been there for him this whole time. He felt like he couldn't care about him and he must enjoy watching his suffering as equally as Alma enjoyed it. He questioned his beliefs and began to think how could God be so loving if he let him suffer so much? Right now he thought to himself...death had to be an escape, it had to be better than this!
Yes, he thought to himself, that was how he would escape, he would kill himself. If he didn't kill himself surely he would inevitably wind up like the rest of the soilders so why not kill himself now to end the suffering and stop it before it got worse. The Point Man began to think that whatever was on the other side sure as hell had to be better than this and so he put his right hand on the gun and picked it up slowly. Upon gripping it more tightly and beginning to lift it he watched the sick images of those soilders dying continue around him.
The projector stopped playing and the Point Man sat in the dark and put the gun to his throat. He readied the weapon in his hand and having it now fully ready and loaded he prepared to pull the trigger. Putting his trigger finger on he soon began hearing screaming and moaning around him and then the cries of the damned which soon turned to dark laughter and the whispers of millions of the dead which all said at once..."pull the trigger and end your life...death is the way out!" The whispers chanted this over and over urging him to pull the trigger to end it all and his life.
The Point Man now cried outwardly and for all to see and as he did Alma appeared beside him and soon smiled before appearing to sympathize with his position by speaking to him in a sorrowful tone. "You can end this all now, just pull that trigger and it will all end. You have my word, the suffering, everything, it will end. You can die and rest in peace eternally." The Point Man began to ponder that idea even more now it seemed right and he wanted peace, that was all. He turned towards Alma and asked her "You would truly let me lie in peace, never to be tortured again?" Alma put an innocent look on her face. "You have my word." She shook her head while saying this and then stepped back watching him.
Slowly he lifted his head and revealed his jugular. The Point Man was ready to end everything and this was his chance to do just that. Tears falling he pointed the gun to his throat. It was time, for everything to end, the suffering, the madness, the insanity it was all going to end now. Then he went to pull the trigger...
Just before pulling it though a thought crossed his mind. Some semblance in all the madness now trickled into his head. Upon going to pull the trigger he caught a glimpse of Alma for a moment and he noticed in all of that time he had been suffering she had promised him no death but only more suffering. More so, he remembered what he had learned previously about how all that died suffered eternally where he was regardless. So even if Alma were to keep her word and he now doubted more and more as his sanity appeared to be slightly coming back, there was no way he would rest in peace. No, either way he would suffer.
Then again, he saw what became of the other soilders, could he possibly believe in the slightest he would not suffer the same kind of sick fate if he didn't pull this trigger now? The thought almost gave him the nerve to pull that trigger right there but it wasn't enough for if he was still alive in the slightest now there could always be a chance of escape for him yet. He had been put through so much hell so far but he wasn't dead yet and somehow even through all the suffering he had been put through there was some solice in the idea he was still alive.
Inside his mind he appeared to begin to regain sensible thought again and he soon thought of how much he really valued his life. Maybe, just maybe, one day he would find a way to end Alma's life if he could escape and even more so he could escape this tortured existence that was his life. There was still hope yet and it was at that moment a feeling of resistance welled up inside of him. He realized not only would he suffer probably millions of times worse than he was now if he killed himself but Alma wanted that so he would be out of her way. She wanted to drive him to the point of killing himself for she would find so much more pleasure in saying she drove him to killl himself than she had to kill him, yes she would find a great deal of pleasure in that.
This pissed him off that she really thought he would be so weak as to give up. There was a reason he was chosen for the F.E.A.R. squad and it wasn't just his quick reflexes either. He now felt a will for life like he had not felt before moving inside him. A will to escape this nightmare once and for all! Images of suffering were playing again on the projector and the Point Man decided it was time to quickly show his answer to Alma's head games. He had grown tired of it and sickened of it a long time ago but now it was time to show her he wasn't willing to just give up and die.
Quickly he turned the gun away from his throat and shot stood up shooting the projector! It died and Alma appeared from the shadows. She could feel the anger inside of the Point Man and she quickly realized he wasn't going to just die now. This greatly angered her and she quickly turned his arm on him and aimed his gun towards his face. He felt his finger beginning to slowly inch towards the trigger and fought with all his energy to take his arm back. He possessed some form of psychic abilities and although they didn't equal Alma's yet he found the will inside him to live seemed to be enough at the moment to break her psychic grip on his arm and turn his gun towards her firing right between her eyes.
Inside he knew the bullet would never reach her and if it did it would merely go through her and bring no harm to her but at this point he was sending a message and so when the bullet stopped before it reached her and disappated she got the message and he didn't worry much. The room shifted and suddenly The Point Man was in a hallway. Alma stood at the end of the hallway behind him and her eyes now bled black and she appeared enraged!
The hallway shook heavily and the lights around him flickered furiously as Alma appeared distressed. Reality was becoming more apparent to the Point Man now and he was aware now more than ever that although the building he was in existed Alma was playing on his fears and in some ways he was trapped inside her made up world although she used his mind to create it. Escape was possible and he was sure of it now. Quickly he turned and ran towards the other end of the hallway at full speed as the dead rose around him and began to scream and shriek. They rose bloodied and angry and headed towards him full force!
Alma's voice began to resonate through the hallway and it was deep, and fully sounded like someone intent on bringing a death so torturous and suffer filled that it would make everything he had experienced before seem like a kids game. Breathing heavily he pushed forward and even as the dead and damned tried to block his way he felt a new level of psychic ability inside him, perhaps it was merely his will to live and his want for escape but as he progressed forward he began to bring pain upon those that came in his way and the welled back falling to the ground screaming and suffering in pain!
It wasn't long before he reached the end of the hall and burst through the doorway which led him into a morgue and the many spirits of the dead doctors who began coming for him looking to hack him up with the many sick and blood engourged tools they held. Still even they were unable to impede his progress forward and he soon burst through another door and ran forward!
His heart pounded inside and he was forcing himself forward as in the next room was a huge hallway full of double doors that he pounded his way through. If they had a lock he shot it off or just barrelled through it with his new found abilities. Alma began appearing behind him ever more furious in her pursuit and she appeared to be trying to block the doorways ahead as she pursued him with the millions of tortured damned right with her. She couldn't slow him down though as he ran for his life! Every horror filled and terrifying thing one could imagine seemed to come from the walls and yet he stopped for nothing.
Pushing deeper into the insanity filled hellish hallways the Point Man noticed with every door he passed through Alma pursued more furiously and the dead grew more ghastly and evil. The Point Man soon focused his thoughts and as he did the doorways before him burst open but as he passed through them they began to seal behind him until the ones up ahead of him began to shut. The Point Man couldn't have any of them shut before he got through them and he pushed himself faster.
As he did this he slipped through doorway after doorway until he reached the final one and barely leaped inside landing inside an elevator while the doors behind him slammed again and locked. The elevator headed upwards and as it did the doors in front of him as he was going up slammed hard and Alma stood staring her eyes black and appearing furious in nature. The Point Man felt her rage and fury and knew she was serious about ending him and preventing his escape.
Upwards the elevator went and as it did it moved faster until suddenly it stopped in motion screeching in every moment. The doors before him opened up and he soon felt the elevator giving way as though someone was ripping at it pulling it downward. The Point Man jumped forward and as he did the elevator fell downward after the cable snapped and went careening and finally crashed at the bottom. Looking downwards the Point Man watched as Alma smiled while standing on top of the Elevator remains and she laughed as she vanished and appeared before him in the blink of an eye.
"Hm...hm...hm...hmm...hahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The Point Man turned and ran as she reached out for him and grazed his right arm. He looked as he ran away from her at his body armor on his right arm and noticed a hand print burned into it now! The Point Man continued running onwards through the seemingly endless hallways and the lights around him burst leaving darkness save for a flickering in the spots where Alma stood. Looking back as he ran he felt the fear beginning to take him inside as he saw Alma in all her horror. She screamed and it resonated throughout the walls around him and behind as well as ahead of him. "YOU WILL KNOW TRUE FEAR AND SUFFERING WHEN I AM THROUGH WITH YOU!"
At this point the place rang with more screams and at a level he had not heard before. The dead poured from everywhere and continued pursuit of the Point Man until he reached a door and opening it found a narrow hallway with metal and blood soaked walls! He ran forward and saw a ladder against a wall at the far end for which was in an octagonal room. As he got to the ladder though it turned to ash and left only a wall and an open area showing a light of some kind that the ladder once led to. Alma burst through the other doorway behind him and the dead came with her.
Thinking quickly the Point Man turned and focused his thoughts on the dead for which stopped and fell in pain before suddenly Alma stood before him. She immediately reached for him but to her shock was stopped. All around her the very dead that she once commanded through fear and torture were now gripping her body and her arms holding her back and soon they began to pull on her and grow in numbers.
Knowing this would only delay Alma's pursuit the Point Man turned and focused on a way out. Then it occured to him if this was partially an imprisonment by Alma using his own mind then he should be able to make the ladder appear at will while she was distracted or created another way out altogether. It seemed Alma's grip on the Point Man was waning and he was beginning to break free of the prison that was his own mind. The fear was leaving him and although he still feared Alma he was not afraid to stand against her as he had always been before.
The ashen pieces of the ladder soon reformed into a brand new ladder...one made from the body parts of the fallen and the Point Man soon climbed to the top and entered through the space above. He could hear Alma's screams behind him and down below. "NOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" The place shook and the dead could be heard screaming all at once before falling silent altogether.
Alma appeared in the space now and stared at Point Man before speaking again. "Why run? There is no escape!!!!!!" Fire encompassed the area around them and the Point Man stared at Alma who stood a few feet away in hate and anger. This soon turned to pleasure and she laughed again, growing even darker in tone.
"Tell me now, what will you do now that you have nowhere to run!?" The Point Man stood and stared at Alma. He felt fear inside him, for he truly feared her however this time he wasn't going to let the fear take him over or control him. He felt the anger, the malice, the darkness, the great pleasure that was coming from Alma now. Looking around he saw only tall walls and dead ends covered in fire.
The Point Man soon turned back towards Alma and realized now that this time there would be no running, he had to face his greatest fear of all in order to escape the nightmare he was in. He had to face Alma!