Chapter 6 - Traps and Mysteries of the 1st Floor
With the separation of the 4 trapped in the mansion the S.T.A.R.S members stuck together and they left heading out back while the other two journeyed upstairs on to the mansions 1st floor. The stairs seemed to go on forever, they had a long red carpet leading all the way to the top landing. At the top landing was a path that lead all around the main hall, the first door was directly at the top of the main stairs, this door lead to the first out section of the mansion, in this area was nothing more then a graveyard. Past this door was a split point, both left and right with each leading up to the main hall landing. Atop this section was 2 doors either side, the two decided to go on the left section of the landing, they went through the 1 door they encountered and through the double doors was the landing section of dinning room. The two continued, they slowed their pace and walked with caution; as they continued they noticed that the lighting darkened as the landing went further from the doors back to the Main Hall. This however didn't discourage them from their goal, their task was a simple one; to search for other forms of life, to make sure that the mansion was a safe location.
"I'll go first" the youngest said. He started to walk at a faster pace then the other, he took lead and went into the ever growing darkness. The other followed slowly but steadily "be cautious and stay alert" The voice came from behind the youngest, from the leader of the group; Pein. The landing was almost completely dark, it was barely lit but with the glow of the moonlight through the huge windows and the dim candle light from around the landing walls the two could see well enough to get closer to the other doors at the end of the landing. The one in lead came across a door "I found a door, but its locked" while looking at the door he noticed that the door handle had the carvings of a shield on it. He then looked to his left and saw another door "I found another one, this ones unlocked" Pein then looked at the youngest and began to speak "Now then Liam, we shall see what this mansion's 1st floor has in store for us", Liam turned the handle and opened the door.
With the door open the two journeyed inside the open room, at first the glaze of the light from inside the room blinded them. Once inside the room they stood still, they looked around and saw a large mirror in the corner of the corridor through the mirror Liam saw a body laying on the floor "Over their, a body" Pein looked towards Liam and then saw what Liam had alerted him to, Liam walked over to the body and kicked it, it lay still and motionless. Pein walked towards Liam and knelt at the body, he stretched out his hand and touched the corpses neck, feeling for a pulse. "He's dead" Pein Stood back up and stepped over the body, completely unnerved by the dead body at his feet, he looked into another mirror and saw another two bodies on the floor "Stay here while I search the others" Pein started to walk away from Liam towards the other bodies leaving him standing with the corpse at his side.
A foul smell came from these other two bodies, their appearance was ragged almost like they had been ripped apart by a wild animal… or a crazed man with a wild bloodlust. Pein stopped walking, he didn't want to be to close to these ones "Pein, what's wrong?" Liam said from across the corridor "Nothing, these bodies are just… disturbing" He turned around and started to head back towards Liam. Unknowing to Pein however one of the two bodies twitched, its hand started to move and form a fist pushing itself up to its feet, Liam couldn't believe his eyes. This body was dead, how could it move? Words escaped him, he wanted to warn Pein but couldn't. Pein however wasn't oblivious to what happened, he slowly turned recognising Liam's facial expressions as not good and worrying. Keeping a stern and in control manor he saw with his own eyes what had happened. The body was now on both his feet, it raised its head and let out a low grunt then standing directly in front of Pein it opened its eyes, its eyes were a cold white showing no sign of life. It let out a loud moan and raised its arms pointing them in Pein's direction, with a slow stumble it moved its legs, one then the other until the unmanageable happened, the dead was walking. Pein raised his hand an telekinetically pushed the "Zombie" away, it hit the wall with a loud bang.
"Ahhhhhh! What the fuck is going on?" the yell came from Liam's direction, Pein turned around with great speed to the sound of his voice. Liam was standing by the copse, but it wasn't dead anymore, it had its hand around Liam's ankle trying to drag itself up and drag him down, he was kicking his leg around trying to lose the grip of his attacker but to no avail. Pein raised his hand towards the floor and telekinetically pushed it in to the ground, with its skeletal structure completely crushed it was once again dead. Liam then kicked its hand from his leg and took the moment of relief to catch his breath. "What was that?" he asked Pein gasping for air "I would call it a Zombie" he replied. "That's not funny zombies don't exist, what was it really?" giving a none amused facial expression. "If you think that was a joke your sadly mistaken, it was dead and then came back to life, it groaned and stumbled, showing no sign of intelligence and tried to attack us. Call it what you will, but everyone with any sense of realism would consider that a Zombie" to this Pein walked past Liam and stood by the Mirror in the corner of the corridor. Liam however didn't like the lecture that Pein gave him, making him feel like an idiot, changing the subject he began to speak "So now what? We need to dodge the dead? Should we tell the other two?" Pein's response was slow "You think we shouldn't?" "I didn't say that" Liam Objected instantly "We will go back to the main hall and inform our temporary allies what we've discovered, we will reform and regroup, come up with a battle plan to combat this odd but deadly turn of events" Pein turned to the door leading back to the dining room landing and began walking, Liam didn't hesitate to follow instantly, he didn't want to be around things that could return from death. They walked towards the door and headed out. Little did both of them know however is that the third body that lay on the floor started to twitch as they left.