Alrighty, Chapter 8! This one is without a doubt one of the LONGEST chapters I will ever produce. But that's cause so much interesting stuff happens in this one. =D It's got some of my favorite parts of the actual game here which sure freaked me out first time I played this through. Hope you guys enjoy this one, for it took a lot of hard work to put it all in this way that I, alone, have done it! Ok, now I'll stop bragging. Oh yeah, I don't own the F.E.A.R. series. It would be sweet, though, if I did.
Have fun!
F.E.A.R.
FIRST ENCOUNTER ASSAULT RECON
INTERVAL 04 - INFILTRATION
WATCHERS
The "Point Man"
From where I was, I appeared to be in a large waiting room of some kind with barely any lights on. There were several chairs lounged around, small traces of blood scattered across the carpeting with no bodies I could see. Several security shutters were in place, one of them malfunctioning by going up a foot and back down slowly. With no way to open them, I had to locate another way around.
"The ATC network is offline. I need you to find the server hub and reset it so I can get into the system. It should give us a better idea of what's going on in there." Betters said.
With my objective clear, I just had to figure out where to find this server was. A door at the end of a hallway wouldn't open, probably with stuff leaning against it from the other side. However, I did find a desk counter that I could hop over. Bullet holes on the walls, with papers and phones littered on the floor. A light bulb over the counter suddenly broke, almost causing me to jump. Turning on my flashlight, I looked around to see that there was a door right here, only it was completely destroyed, possibly due to an explosive charge. Going past it, I ended up in another room with several cabinets.
There was a stairway on the other end of the room I could take. Before I went down, I saw a flashing blue light from the corner of the room that the stairs led to. Cautiously moving forward, I stopped when I saw that there was a large screen showing images of a satellite. It appeared to be an auditorium, for there were a podium directly in front of the large screen and several chairs built to the floor. The only light working was the images coming off from the widescreen, with a recorded voice speaking over the speakers in the ceiling in a low, quiet tone. The projector on the ceiling was slightly broken, for it was tilted to the side causing the images to be a little disorganized.
Moving on, I stopped when I noticed a set of double doors and a dead body by them, belonging to what might've been ATC Security. This poor guy was shot to hell, bullet holes scattered everywhere leaving a pile of blood. There were even handprints covered in blood on the wall, possibly trying to get away from his attackers. He was in front of the logo of Armacham, which consisted of three diamonds tied together side by side, and a small dot placed in the center of the middle diamond.
Leaving the dead body behind, I opened the doors carefully to a wide hallway, with thick stained glasses on a wall placed in the center from here to the far right. Barely any of the lights were working, which left me to still require the use of my flashlight. That was when I heard a small yell of a man behind the glass windows. I saw the individual run to the left as fast as he could to a door that was opened. I tried to get his attention, only for him to still run off. He went into the room and closed the door quickly behind, with the sound of objects falling from the other side. Whoever it was, he didn't look like he was with Fettel and his soldiers, or belong to security here. Maybe it was a civilian?
I went down the other part of the hallway where the man ran off to. As I thought, the door was barricaded on the other side, preventing me from following him. Sighing in disappointment, I turned off the flashlight and turned back around to find another way out of this place. With another shutter preventing me from going down one area, I saw that their was another hallway around the corner to the right that might lead somewhere. I went down to see another hallway with soft glass walls to the left that led to a meeting room and another set of the thick glass windows. also with small packets of blood on the floor. As I moved forward, some of the tiles on the ceiling started to fall down, the sound of running footsteps above me. Blue electricity was by the door at the end of the hallway, ending with the door slamming shut quickly.
My mind was puzzled over what happened. It didn't help that a good portion of lights just went off in an instant, either. This blue electricity I saw was similar to the warehouses at the docks where we started chasing Fettel. Could there have been a connection?
Treading slowly, I went down to the end of the hall, while noticing to the right there was another set of double doors behind a wall with more of the thick glass. I was at the door, my hand placed on my weapon and the other on the knob. As quickly as I could, I opened the door and looked around the small room to see that there was nothing but garbage bags and a cabinet. There was nothing here. I turned around to continue on, and froze when I saw Paxton Fettel behind the glass walking slowly to the doors.
"Stay out of my way."
That was he said before he disappeared. Fuck, I just missed him. But where did he come from? Or was it really him? Maybe this search is causing my brain to imagine that he is right there, so I can put the son of a bitch down. Hopefully that will be soon. I followed where I "saw" Fettel down the hall and opened the doors to find a meeting room. There was another body of a dead ATC guard in the middle of the table with blood beneath him. More tiles from the ceiling came down, causing me to jump up in surprise. Is there something moving above me? Collecting my thoughts, I saw a laptop that was still working by the dead body with some documents pulled up. I accessed the information and sent it all to Betters with him responding "The data's uploading."
"There's a reference to something called "Icarus." Says here that it was a bioengineering program that started in 1973. Something about health issues to microgravity. Loss of muscle mass, bone density, shit like that."
Never heard of something like that. Made me wonder if the information was talked about during one of the meetings. Whatever their reasons, it was none of my concern at the moment. I opened the door by the table up ahead and saw that I was on the other side of the malfunctioning gate that I saw earlier. I guess that counts for some progress. There was a small office in front of me with another dead guard, as well as an intersection to the left of where I was. By the far end of the hallway lead to to two rooms, one another office that was empty and no power and the other that probably lead to another meeting room. Nothing in the office and the door for the hallway was locked, so I went the other way down another hall. Walking slowly down the hall, I stopped in fear when a body flew across the meeting room to the wall on my right.
My God, it scared the shit outta me. It was another dead guard, only this one did not have bullet holes. How he did die, it was not pretty. That was when I saw a figure covered in gray run across to another office up ahead on the right. Now this "person" I saw wasn't just my imagination. I had to follow this... thing. But all I saw in the room was just more tiles on the carpet and a broken computer. Maybe it was this thing that's been running amok in the ceilings. Back to the job at hand though, I went to another room across this office and found a phone on the wall. It's answering machine was blinking, so I pressed the Play button. The machine said it was a new message, and that it was an outside number. A female voice probably in her late 20's spoke on the recording.
"Peter, it's Carla at Hudson Avionics. Where is everybody? I can't reach anyone over there. I need to talk to Brett about this draft he sent over, but he hasn't returned my call. It's really important that he gets back to me as soon as possible. Okay? Thanks."
Guess I didn't learn anything important from that one. Moving on, I opened a set of double doors up ahead that led to another large hall. I ended up in a large open area with glass windows leading to lounge rooms, and another floor above me with stairs to my right leading up. There was also a large prop tied to the ceiling. It was a Armacham satellite, obviously for show.
But before I even went to the stairs, the shutters behind me came down from where I came from. No turning back that way, I went up the stairs and reached the upper floor of this open area. There were multiple offices scattered all around the circle balcony. I froze for a second when I heard... something in the office to the left. Reaching over there slowly, I stopped when I saw some sort of creature clinging to the walls with its hands and feet.
Whatever this thing was, it was about 4 feet tall, covered in silver plating and body armor on its chest. It had metal bracers on its wrist, and covered in almost the same type of balaclava as the Replicas army. It even had the same insignia as the Replicas sewn to the side of their arms by the shoulders. There were two poles sticking out of its back, their purpose I couldn't figure out. But what freaked me out about the thing was its... mask. It completely covered this things face in gray with a set of goggles in front of its eye. But the goggles were covered in complete yellow, making look like it was looking through my soul. For the split second where time stopped for me and it, it just stared at me with its blank, possibly emotionless expression. Finally, my mind was able to keep up to the shock of seeing this thing jump from the wall and rushing toward where I was.
Refusing to let this thing get close to me, I backed up by rushing backwards and fired as many bullets out of my rifle to this thing as possible. I don't know how many bullets connected or how many had missed, but the ones that did must've killed it. It fell to the ground, blood pouring over the path it took to chase me. What made it strange is that it gave off the same blue electricity as from where I had seen it earlier today. The electricity was going through the two poles at its back, and then covered its body before it eventually went away after a couple of seconds or so. Even after its death, this Replica monster still gave me the creeps, with its blank mask looking at me still. Almost as if it wanted to curse me for its death. My mind went back to the area around me when I heard rushing footsteps behind me.
There was nothing behind me, until I realized that there was some blur lines moving through the air. However, the blurring matched to something similar to arm movement. Whatever made me do it, I was glad to have dodged to the side, for there were claw marks across the floor as I looked back. Cursing my self for not reloading, I pulled out my pistol and fired carefully back at where I saw whatever it was that attacked me. When the shots made contact, it revealed that the transparent figure was another of the same thing I just killed earlier. These things must've been the cause of some of the dead ATC security guards I saw when I entered Armacham. Whatever these bastards were, I just finished off this second one as the bullets took care of it.
After reloading both my primary and side arm, I treaded carefully through this balcony of the upper floor, hoping that these things wouldn't sneak up on me again. And speak of the devil, another one burst through the glass of another office near the one where I just checked earlier. The device they have that must've made them invisible possibly died out, for it's technology faded out as it was on its way to my position. These things were easier to kill compared to the Replicas, but they are also faster and more versatile than the soldiers. After firing more rounds, its dead body fell to the ground just merely inches to my feet.
Even knowing that they are dead, their appearance still scared me. It's as though they could still come after me with my back turned. For some reason, I had a good feeling there weren't anymore reason to get all tensed up. Continuing on, I stopped when a closed shutter prevented access to the room up ahead. On the plus side, there was another office by the shutter that had some broken windows I could enter in.
There were more windows that lead to the other side of the gate I could cut across from. There was another phone with a answering machine with a blinking red dot by the Play button. I pressed play for the machine to say "You have three new messages. First message from:" with a voice of a man in his late 50's saying "Chuck Habegger." I believed it was the same man that we found back at the abandoned site.
"It's Chuck Habegger. I've analyzed the readings and I'm recommending we suspend Perseus until we can figure out what's causing the synchronization. The patterns are identical to what we saw last time, but obviously the consequences would be a hell of a lot worse."
Wait a minute. Icarus and Perseus... I recognized both of the names. They were characters in ancient Greek mythology. The data I found earlier talked of a project called "Icarus", so maybe this "Perseus" Chuck mentioned could be related to that. But what did he mean by "synchronization". The answering machine said next message with another voicemail by Habegger.
"I got your message. Maybe you've forgotten that when this happened before, Fettel was only a child. And the fallout of that fuckup was that Origin had to be permanently shut down. This time we're talking about a highly trained military commander with a telepathic link to hundreds of soldiers that don't think for themselves. If you're worried about being behind schedule now, imagine what'll happen if we end up with a full-scale revolt."
What he said about Fettel had me worried. Something that happened when he was a kid? Only information we were able to get about him before the mission started was just what Betters told us before this operation. When Chuck mentioned something about "Origin", it made me think about what Bill Moody said before he died. I doubted it was just coincidental that they would mention something about it. And this phone call must've happened a lot earlier today, for he was saying something about a revolt that the Replicas would be responsible for. The last voicemail was by another man in his late 40's calling himself "Marshall Disler."
"Hi, it's Marshall. I just got off the phone with Chuck Habegger. I'm really worried about his findings. He said he talked to you about suspending the program temporarily and I've got to agree. If there's even the slightest chance of another synchronicity event, we've got to take it seriously. I'm going to head over to the Perseus Compound and check things out myself. Why don't you give me a call and let's discuss this."
There's more to this than just some hostile terrorist takeover. What Fettel and his army are doing just has no logic. Trying to look at it from their perspective, I could only guess this assault at Armacham HQ as a form of revenge on Fettel's part. I also then wondered where this Perseus Compound was, since Chuck and Disler both mentioned it over the phone. As much as I would like to know all of what's going on, I had to keep going. Maybe I can squeeze some answers from that Fettel before I kill him.
Busting through the windows, I made it around to some small steps that led to another hall up ahead. When I saw some of that blue lightning, I took cover by the wall. Peeking my head around the corner, I saw another of those things hunched over the dead body of another guard before it quickly jumped up to the ceiling. Good thing I just missed it, and I hope that I'm not the next victim. After all this weird shit that's happened to me lately, I think in any other circumstances I would become too paranoid to keep moving. I went down another hall that led to several empty cubicles. The only other way out of the room was in a break room that had some cabinets and shelves blocking the entrance. Another dead body of a guard was lying on top of a table with another at a corner, blood everywhere. There was a radio on the counter that sounded like the male news operator.
"Police have set up roadblocks all over downtown in response to the incident. No one is being allowed into the area except for emergency personnel. We've been unable to confirm the precise nature of the crisis, although at least one official has suggested that it may involve terrorism. Let's go to Diego Rodriguz live on the scene."
"Thanks, Phil. We're being told that just before 5:00pm today, gunfire was reported at the downtown headquarters of Armacham Technology Corporation, a major defense contractor. What followed is unclear at this point. U.S. Army helicopters were seen approaching the building, but we've heard nothing since. Police are urging citizens to remain at home and say there is very little danger of the situation spreading outside of the cordoned area. Phil, back to you.
"That was Diego Rodriguez coming to us live from the police blockade downtown. Today's crisis at Armacham comes on the heels of a report that one of its vice presidents was kidnapped at gunpoint this morning on his way to work. Police are refusing to speculate as to whether the events are connected."
The news segment had ended when they went on break for now. Seems that things outside are pretty close to getting out of hand. Police, news, and blockades all about the good Replica Army's reputation. That's just what needs attention. Guess I had to hurry. But with no other way around the building from where I was because of this damn security lockdown, I had to find a shortcut. I looked up to see that tiles of the ceiling were gone, right above one of the vending machines with a shelf knocked to the side of it. With all this setup, I had myself a convenient path up to the ceiling.
Climbing up the shelf and machine, I made it up to the cramped ceiling, with vents going through the area. Making my way through, there was more blood on the tiles above, with a ventilation system on the other side I could crawl through. But as soon as I reached the entrance, the tiles came down underneath me, with me falling to the floor. What sucked about the landing was that there were two more bodies of ATC security right there. I quickly got up from this mess and looked around from where I landed. I seemed to be in a large open hallway with several offices scattered across the hall.
Now this just started looking familiar. The sound of glass breaking caught my attention accompanied by footsteps put me back into action. With instinct, I waited for the right chance to figure out where these creatures would come from. There were two of them coming to me, their stealth camouflage turning off just before me.
Jumping back, I fell on my back as I fired off several rounds to these things. The bullets connected to both of them, taking care of that problem. One out of the two still flinched with lightning surging through its body before the poor bastard probably died of shock. After getting back up on my feet, I walked slowly through the hall with my guard up in case there were still more around. At the end of the hall was another laptop on a black couch that had some documents displayed. After hacking my through it, I had a call from Betters on the comlink responding "All right, it's uploading."
"Looks like the Icarus program got shut down in favor of something called Perseus, which from what I can tell is funded by DOD. I'm guessing that's where Fettel and his soldiers came from."
So that's what Charles meant over the phone. It sounded like Icarus was the predecessor to what they now call "Perseus." Then this Perseus Compound Disler talked about must've been the main cloning center for where they sent Fettel to train the soldiers they bred there, with the Department of Defense being its main funding source. Hopefully I can find some more information on the way.
I went up to another room with multiple counters and tables scattered along the way. and some more areas blocked off by security. There was a door up ahead that led behind another counter I could probably take. But as I started to reach to the door, something just fell down from where I could see behind the counter. Some of the tiles came down, and from what I saw it was a person. The individual gave off a high-pitched scream as a large thud was heard.
"Don't shoot! My name is Norton Mapes. I'm an engineer!".
The person, who sounded like a male, waved his hand around from where I could see before he stood up. He was an overweight fellow, with an almost equally large head. He had short orange hair, wearing a burgundy button up shirt with a Hawaiian style to it and blue jeans. He had large green shoes, and the belt he had on to keep his pants on had a belt buckle that said "RTFM." He looked terrified out of his mind, for he was sweating heavily. And it definitely showed in more places than just his armpits. Betters got a hold of me over the radio.
"Shit, it's a civilian! Give him a comlink."
All F.E.A.R. operatives that are sent to missions where there was a chance of rescuing civilians are given extra comlinks. The purpose obviously was so we could keep in contact and that the higher-ups can extract on-site information of the crisis. I guess this guy was lucky that he's the first so far. I took out an extra comlink from my belt and handed it over the counter for him to grab. He took the device and put it onto his left ear. He responded to Betters over the radio line.
"Hello? Who are you people?" Mapes had asked him.
"The good guys. Are you all right?" Betters asked him.
"Oh, sure. I'm having a hell of a time." Mapes said sarcastically.
"You said you're an engineer? Can you help me get into the network?" Betters asked.
"What am I? An I.S. lackey? Tell you what, you disable the local security system and I'll see what I can do about the server." Mapes told him.
"I can disable it remotely once I'm logged in." Betters responded.
"No you can't. It's on a separate network." Mapes explained to Betters. He came to the door that separated from where I was, unlocking it and opening the way to me. He shrugged over the direction to his right.
"It's back that away." Mapes told me.
"Why do you want us to bring down the security system?" Betters asked.
"Never mind why. You want my help, that's the price." Mapes finished as he took out a bag of "Cheezy Pooz" he was carrying and started stuffing his face.
I didn't trust this Norton Mapes. For someone who seemed shocked to see me at first, he sure calmed down pretty quick when he talked to Betters. And for not telling us his reasons for security to be shut down, that didn't help either. Maybe there was another place he tried to get through from the vents, but now can't and needed my help. Whatever his motives are, we will have to question him as soon as we get the chance. The room where we were at had several halls that lead to more rooms. Leaving Mapes behind, I continued on hoping that this guy doesn't just run off and get killed.
I hoped I was close to where the server of the security network, for all of this places started to look the same. Either there was a security lockdown or just more offices. But I did end up in one office that stood out. There were about three computers scattered around for three workers, with one of them practically littered with bags of "Cheeze Pooz", magazines, and soda cans. No doubt this used to be Mapes' working space. There was a phone with a recording on the table. I pressed play with the machine saying it was a message from "Iain Hives." I remembered the name. It was back at the Water Treatment Plant, where he left a message for Moody. I wonder what he had to say to Mapes.
"Norton, it's Iain Hives. Look, uh, Alice Wade stopped by my office this morning. I feel a little awkward saying this, but I really need you to tone down the innuendo around her. It's not that I personally give a rat's ass, but the last thing we need right now is a sexual harassment case drawing unwanted attention to this task force. It is supposed to be secret, after all. Okay? Thanks Norton."
Apparently Mapes was also a sleazy pervert too. What was this task force that Hives mentioned? Maybe it was to check up on something that some people aren't supposed to know about. Guess I'll have to keep my eyes open. Moving along slowly, I went pass the office and stopped when I heard the sound of Replicas talking. This must've been the first sign of Replica activity I've found since I got inside the building, not counting those invisible freaks.
"This is Bravo 12. We're in position."
"Copy, Bravo 12. Check in at 10 minute intervals."
"Will do. Bravo 12, out."
I looked over a glass railing that was above a main room with several plants in the center. Also, I noticed about three soldiers scattered around. One of them was by the end of a hall from the front of where I was looking at, while two of them were by a room that was difficult to see what was inside. I think that must be the place I have to go to. Now to figure out how to get there.
Holding onto a grenade, I threw it over to the two soldiers and opened fire at the lone Replica at the hall. As soon as the grenade went off taking those two out, the other Replica was already dead by gunfire. There was another yelling out "I've got three men down!" from where those two soldiers were at. He ran out and started opening fire at where I was. I took cover and waited for him to reload before going back out and returned my own fire. From where he was, there was no cover for him to go to, so it was easy to get some shots at him.
I went over to the left of where I was where there were some stairs. They lead down to the lower floor, along with some elevators to the side of me. They had a control panel, but they must not have been working, for there was a red icon over the buttons signifying that the elevators were offline. Going around, I ended up where the squad was, with one of them shouting "Closing!". Moving along to the other hall from where the other soldiers were, I slowly took cover and looked behind where the hall lead to. There were two Replicas rushing to my position, with one of them noticing my head and started to shoot me. I turned around before I was swiss cheese, pondering on how to pass them.
Hoping that this would work, I grabbed my last grenade from my belt, took it out and threw it over to where I last saw them. The two Replicas were jumped to the side and dodged the small object before it blew up a good part of the office next to them. Using my reflexes, I rushed over to both of them and laid gunfire on their defenseless corpses. As it turned out, there was another Replica by a desk that was near the explosion that I failed to notice. But before he could get back up, I shot him down. After reloading with barely any ammo left, I pilfered some of theirs and moved on.
Going further ahead, there was a small hall with a door at the end. I opened it, and saw that I hit the jackpot. There were spare grenades, rifles, and proximity mines on a couple cabinets. A little extreme for this part of the building, but I sure wasn't gonna complain. After grabbing what I needed, I turned next to the controls for what looked like the security system. I flipped the switch, with one of the closed shutters up ahead opening a new area up ahead. There were also a couple monitors on the screen next to me that showed more of them open. Betters then contacted me.
"That should do it. Mr. Mapes, do you copy?" Betters said with no response.
"Mr. Mapes?" he said again with silence as his answer. "Where is that idiot?" Betters responded with slight frustration.
"Fuck it. We'll just have to do this the hard way. Okay. Find that server and reboot it." Betters finished as the line went off. Hopefully, this part of the objective was gonna be easier.
Making my way back around where the gunfight took, I made it back to the where the closed shutters was next to some steps. Along the way, I was contemplating why Mapes didn't respond to our comlink. Maybe my paranoia was right and that he isn't what he says he is. But until we find him, I couldn't make any quick judgments. Going through some more rooms, I ended up back where I left off to find the security switch. Mapes was nowhere in sight. There was no sign of blood or a struggle. Just bags of junk food on the ground. He probably had the shits. My mind was focused with the sound of a Replica saying "Find him!".
I ducked behind the counter and looked off into the distance of where that came from. It was back on the other side of the large room where I originally came from. There were was a small squad, with about two taking point slowly. I laid a small proximity mine near where I was laying low, just around the corner where they wouldn't see it. Backing up, I waited until they had gotten just close enough. And then boom, the mine went off. I did not get all of them it seemed, for one yelled "I got two men down!". Looking slightly out where I was, I did indeed get the first two in line, but with another two just about 10 feet away. Bringing back out my rifle, I fired at the two unlucky soldiers, ending their lives. Moving back to the hall where I walked earlier, I stopped when I made it to a shutter that was closed previously and with more Replica activity.
"We've got enemy movement near the server hub in admin."
"Roger. Sending reinforcements."
I was now starting to hate the phrase "Sending reinforcements." It felt like I was gonna get a tumor every time I heard. And just as quickly as I did hear that, there were three more of them coming out from where the locked area was. They fired at me, with me obviously hiding out from their bullets around the corner. Taking out one grenade, I threw it over back to where the squad was. Lucky for me, too, as the explosion went off, along with the sound of them screaming in pain meant that I got at least some of 'em.
Looking back down the room, I saw that two out of the three were dead, with one more lying on the ground with his arm blown off. "Fuck!" was all he could say before I fired a bullet through his helmet. Going through the areas the soldiers came from, I was now finally in the room where the server for this section of the building was. Me and Betters got a message from Jin over the radio.
"This is Jin. We're on the roof. Heading inside." She said with a calm tone.
"Copy. Rendezvous inside." Betters instructed as they finished.
Just around the corner further down the large room, I went around and walked up to where the switch was. It was on a giant machine, a few feet taller than I was. Pressing "activate" on the side of the machine caused it to make some type of noise. Maybe I should get paid instead for pressing buttons. I guess I hit the payload, because Betters got a hold of me again.
"Okay, I'm showing that the network has been rebooted. Good job. It'll take a minute for the system to come back online."
I turned around to head back to the other side of the room, where I saw a brown door that I didn't open earlier. Didn't have to now, for 4 Replicas burst into the room immediately. I guess I had something to do for that minute, Betters. I fired at the squad quickly, only getting one of them because he was the closest and the others took cover. Not wanting to waste time, I kickstarted my reflexes again and hurriedly made my way to where two of them were hiding behind a pillar in the middle. They were surprised at my sudden offense, which I quickly returned the surprise with bullets. Three down, one to go. The last one tried to melee me from the back, probably not to waste ammo, only for me to turn right back around his back and shot him in the back. With all of them dead, my reflexes were back down to "normal", as I guess was the best way to describe it. I had gotten another message from Betters.
"That Mapes guy was right about security being on a separate network. I can monitor the camera feed, but I don't have any direct access to the system." He said before he went offline.
Moving along, I went through some hallways and turned right at a fork, with the left blocked off by security. I was now at a large main office area, with several cubicles scattered, and one of them even had another body of a dead regular office worker. That was when I noticed that were footprints on the carpet. Footprints made of blood, almost like a child. Looking up, I saw that there was blood scattered on some large windows for a hallway on the upper floor. Next to that blood was the little girl in the red dress. I couldn't see her eyes, due to the black hair covering her eyes. But deep down, I knew she was looking at me. She vanished, as well as the footprints that were on the ground.
As much as I should've seen it coming, I was really hoping that all of this would be over after leaving the Treatment Plant. But I soon comprehended that this would not end right away. I had to get to the source. Walking slowly through another hallway, I seemed to have reached parts of the building that are still under construction. The walls were not finished, with wood and plaster lying around. Betters contacted me instructing me of my orders.
"You're heading toward the last known location of that Delta Team. Secure the site and wait for Jin." He said before he logged off.
I was still going through more unfinished areas of this part of the complex. Some areas looked perfect for an ambush, but surprisingly none did happen. Maybe the enemy was waiting for me up ahead. Some of the lights were on while others were not functioning, flashing every couple seconds or so. I stopped when I turned around the corner for a second. For during that time, at the far end of the hall, I saw a figure slowly walking away. I knew who it was right away. It was Paxton Fettel. My body froze, for I heard his cold voice talking to me. It was as though he were standing right next to me, whispering to me in my ear.
"You've seen her, haven't you? She is the Original." he said in a low, frightening tone.
What he said shocked me. This reminded me of back at that abandoned building where we first met. Could he have been talking about this "Alma" that him and Bill Moody mentioned? My thoughts raced through my mind in question as I tried to understand what he meant by "Original." I finally came back to my senses when Betters talked to me over the comlink.
"I just picked up Fettel's transmitter somewhere ahead of you. Be careful." he had said with a voice of worry. Back to reality, I brought my weapon up in defense going to where I last saw him. He was gone, and the sound of his voice felt closer than ever.
"I was made from her. And I was born from her. We are separate, but we are one."
Looking back, I saw that no one was there. Maybe I was just confusing his voice as closer than it possibly could be. I went up ahead slowly, this time prepared that I don't get whacked across the head with another object. There was a lone light to the side illuminating part of the hall, with its source probably behind some unfinished material. There was a shadow of Fettel walking across where the light was shining from.
Holding my breath like my life depended on it, I quickly looked over where the light was and saw that no one was there. But that didn't make any sense. I know I saw a shadow of him, and he had to have been right here. So where could he be? Continuing, I was going through more unfinished rooms when I saw an orange blur by the hall around the corner. Something started to smell... almost like smoke. I made it to where the origin of this was to a set of doors that did not match anything I had seen in this place. There was fire on the other side of the door. Opening the door with caution, I was engulfed in a flash of bright light. Next thing I knew, I was in a completely different place.
I didn't have time to register right away what happened, for a floating figure was flying towards me. I fired off some rounds before the thing withered into black smoke. It looked exactly similar to the floating figure I saw back at the Treatment Plant, where I was imagining being back in that hall with the ceiling of blood. Is this... is this real? Whatever is happening now though, there was fire all over the place in a room that looked vaguely familiar
The sound of a girl crying caught my attention from a corner of the room. It was that same little girl, only she was just standing there next to the flames. I couldn't tell if she was looking at me or the floor, for she too disappeared into black smoke. What does this mean? Turning around, there was only one place to go. A set of doors at the top of some stairs. Even though I was in a burning building, I could feel no heat coming from the fire. Just what the fuck is this place?
My thoughts were put aside, when two more of those "things" came from two separate corners of the room. Coming at me with long open arms, blank faces and wide yellow eyes, I retaliated with gunfire as they dissipated into thin air. I had made it to the top, where I stopped when some one was on the other side where I could see from the glass windows of the doors. It wasn't Fettel or the little girl or another one of those "creatures." Instead, it looked like a grown woman. She had long black hair, but I could not see her face for she was turned to the side. I tried to open the doors, but was once again filled with white before my eyes.
I was in another room, only there was no fire or darkness around me. It looked like another area of construction of where I was just a moment ago. Fettel's voice took over the silence of this place. I stopped to look around where he might be, only he was nowhere in sight again.
"She is a prisoner. Floating in darkness. Like the unborn in the womb. Soon I will find her. And I will set her free."
Fettel was not in this room. No matter where I looked in this place, he was nowhere in sight. My mind was take over for what I just experienced. Was I really in a building full of fire? Goddammit, I didn't know what to say about all this. Nothing was making any fucking sense anymore. Only the communication with Betters snapped me out of my little trance.
"Shit, I lost him again. Fuck!" he shouted.
Beginning to think if telling him what I'm experiencing now would complicate matters, I put that question to the back of my mind. Had to finish the mission... I have to. There was a part of this area I could use to go through more construction of tools and paper. Kept going on and on when I stopped and saw that I was now back in familiar room structure as the offices earlier. Only to find a trail of blood leading off somewhere. I followed it to an unknown area. And what I had seen horrified me.
There was blood everywhere. Large, large amounts of blood lying on the large open area of this place. It wasn't just like at the harbor with the "remains" of the Delta squad. No, it was easily ten times more than that. Blood was coming down from the walls, and just as much of it on the ceiling as on the floor. It was like walking into a nightmare... There were bones lying across the larger puddles of red scattered about. Looking back up, there was even more of it on the balcony overlooking where the carnage took place. And so was that little girl in crimson. She faded away after looking at me, as if "sparing" me from the same fate. The sound of something clicking went off behind me. I turned around with my weapon drawn to see that it was an elevator. Jin Sun-Kwon and a single Delta soldier came out, with me slightly happy to see them.
Jin and the Delta's reaction to what they had seen was most likely more shocking that what mines was. She had one hand by the side of her mouth, practically speechless to what she saw. As for the Delta, well one arm was shaking in fear slightly with his weapon, and the other on his stomach as if he was about to throw up. All Jin could say to this was a simple "My God...". Betters contacted her asking "What do you think, Jin?".
"There was a lot of anger in this room", the closest thing to a good answer she could say.
"That's great. Got anything useful to add?" Betters asked, adding emphasis on "useful."
"I don't see any bulletholes. There's no brass lying around either. These guys didn't fire a shot." Jin surmised, looking around with a camera in one hand. She was right. Their weapons were nowhere I could see.
"Then what killed them?" Betters asked. I noticed that the lone Delta fiddled with the device for a security shutter up ahead, and got it to open up.
"I don't know." was all Jin could say.
"Well figure it out!" Betters yelled to Jin. I could've defended her, saying that maybe he should come here and see what happened. But for some reason, I didn't. Betters then begin to speak to me over the radio.
"All right, buddy, get moving. Fettel's gotta be close." he said and then went offline.
Jin was taking some pictures with her camera for evidence as the Delta was waiting by the device he was working on. Only other exit was where I could now go, so I went that way. The Delta operative yelled out "Watch your back" to me, nodding his head. He said it with a voice of someone that just lost a friend at a funeral, but trying to sound tough and not show it. Nodding back to him as I was making my way down the hall. There was a lone area of chairs, with a balcony looking over another room. It looked like I could take this path and continue into hopefully another part of this place that Fettel could be. I jumped down to the carpeting below me.
Only thing I can do for myself now is wish that I am prepared for what can happen next. Both for the situation... and for my mental state.
Whoa! What a chapter! Can't believe I did all that, believe it or not =O. Well, reviews would be cool. I seem to only get one per chapter, so I guess I should say "review" instead. Hope you guys (or gals) enjoyed this one! Still got quite a ways to go from here!