ARRIVAL
She couldn't fit in the hidey holes anymore, but Daddy and some of the other girls had helped her make a fort instead. She could hear him coming now!
In a rush Samantha ran out of her fort, leaping over one of the old angels surrounded by rose petals, whom she had gathered from a long, long time ago, and towards Daddy.
She could feel her excitement building; she hadn't seen Daddy for a long time. It seemed like forever and ever since she had seen him. As she dodged around a fireplace, she didn't know why someone would put a fireplace in the middle of a hallway, she heard it.
"Come on Mr. B! You're such a slow poke!"
Samantha stopped in her tracks, tilting her head in confusion. Why did Daddy already have a Little Sister? After a pause she decided that it didn't matter. She'd just have a friend to help her gather from the angels! It would be fun!
Continuing her run towards the Little Sister and Daddy she raised a hand over her head in an attempt to get their attention. To her surprise Daddy didn't acknowledge her and her sister barely spared her a glance. Shrugging, Samantha continued her run toward the Little Sister, reaching out to grab her new friend's shoulder.
"Mr. B! Don't let the meanie get me! Unzip her! Unzip her!" The Little Sister screamed as she jumped behind her protector.
For the first time Samantha paused, and looked at Daddy who was raising his lance and rumbling at her. Where was the baddie? She glanced around and didn't see one. Was she the baddie?
"Daddy? What's wrong? Daddy did I do something?" Samantha didn't have time to scream before Daddy's lance made contact with her head.
()
David dragged himself up off of his boat shard and looked up at the lighthouse. This had to be the luckiest event of his life! He paused to kiss his father's pair of lucky binoculars. Those were never going to leave his side ever, ever again!
Slowly he managed to pull himself up off the ground and stumbled towards the door. Resting his head against the door, he breathed deeply for several seconds, relishing air that wasn't tainted by water.
Limping though the doorway he was greeted by darkness, and the ominous sound of the door sliding closed behind him.
()
Why was this windbag bitching about government and religion at him? Did he actually think that David cared?
"I give you…" How big of an ego did he have to have to actually think that…?
"Rapture!" Holy shit! David felt his jaw drop; nothing could have prepared him for this. This wasn't possible. It wasn't real. It couldn't be. He pinched himself hoping briefly to wake from this hallucination and be back on his boat shard.
Staring awe struck by the incredible view he was seeing, David couldn't help but duck as some kind of shark darted over the bathysphere and towards one of the… skyscrapers? That hardly seemed the correct word. His musings were interrupted by the shark once again, this time as it entered one of the buildings through a window. That meant that the building had to be flooded, right? Was there even anyone still down there? If there was how would they let the city's condition deteriorate so far? Was there food or water down there? Had he given up dieing of heatstroke to die of starvation in some Atlantis knock off?
Jolted out of his less then optimistic thoughts as the bathysphere entered some kind of docking tube, David felt his nervous anticipation rising as he ascended the tube. Anticipation that was greeted by darkness, the type of darkness that could only be found in a place where the sun had never, and would never shine.
Glancing around the bathysphere David identified some sort of radio, and thank god, a flashlight. He grabbed the radio, and after fiddling with the unfamiliar contraption, he managed to turn it on and was rewarded with a burst of static, the noise deafening in the near absolute silence.
"Hello. Is anyone there? Tell me I'm not alone in this hell hole." Static was his only response.
Growling in irritation David began changing the station desperate to contact someone anyone at all.
"ere beyond the sea somewhere waiting for me. My lover stands on golden sands"
"Christ!" The sudden explosion of unexpected sound in the otherwise silent environment caused David to drop the radio.
"and watches the ships that go sailin"
"Piece of shit!" Putting the flashlight down he grabbed the offending devise and shut it off. He briefly contemplated throwing the damn thing away but figured that it might come in handy later.
Glancing up David felt his blood turn to ice. When he had set the flashlight down on the bench it had ended up pointing out of the large window, lighting up the immediate area outside. Bodies surrounded by luggage were littering the floor, left where they dropped because either no one cared enough to give them a proper burial or there was no one left to do it. Men, women, children all left where they had fallen, like some morbid sort of mass demonstration.
Near the submersible was the body of a woman, not much older then him, her dead eyes staring blankly into space, hand outstretched towards the tube the sub had surfaced from. They had wanted to leave; they had all wanted to leave. What was this place? And more importantly why had they wanted to leave?
As he watched the bodies, trying to contain his horror, he saw movement. It had been out of the corner of his eye but it had been there. Swinging the flashlight around all David saw was more bodies. One was particularly grotesque, a man, drenched in blood, leaning up against the wall of the atrium. His face malformed as if it had been crudely carved from clay, the middle, ring, and pinky fingers of his right hand fused together, a mammoth pustule sprouted from his left shoulder giving him a hunchbacked appearance. Shuddering at the horrid corpse David swept the flashlight to the other side of the room.
"Hello! Can anyone hear me?" The thought of what had turned that man into something not quite human sent shivers down David's spine. Had he been born like that? Was it a disease? Worse was it contagious?
Gaining no response from the corpses and feeling foolish for asking, David steeled himself, and slowly pushed the door open. Once more surveying the mounds of bodies David began carefully making his way through the literal carpet of dead. Being careful to step only on open ground, what little there was, David made his slow way through the bodies, trying desperately to ignore the smell.
Right foot poised looking for an area free of the dead; David shifted his weight slightly to reach a promisingly sturdy looking duffel bag, and promptly slipped on the moist ground. Arms flailing he tried desperately to regain his balance, succeeding only after hastily placing his right foot back on the ground.
Too hastily it turned out. Feeling his gorge rising as a smell overpowered the already heinous stench of death accompanied by a slight squelch and the ominous feeling of his boot soaking through; David looked down, and promptly wished that he hadn't. His boot was ankle deep in the bloated stomach of one of the unfortunate victims of whatever happened here. Struggling to hold it together, and fighting the urge to let his stomach empty its cargo, David began to pull his foot from the cadaver.
The squelching noise returned with a vengeance as the body seemed quite reluctant to relinquish its hold on his boot. After what seemed like an eternity David managed to yank his foot free of the desiccated corpse. Against his better judgment, looking down at the body he watched in disgust as something with about the same consistency as a thick soup or custard oozed out of the remains of the man who had been a doormat.
Stomach protesting violently, and all thoughts of respecting the dead gone, David ran as fast as he could towards the exit oblivious to where his feet landed. Finally reaching the alcove near the exit which was fortunately clear of bodies, he found a trash can and let his stomach do what it needed to.
How many had died there? How many were deformed like that man had been? What a horrible way to die, features warped so that you're unrecognizable, limbs malformed and grotesque, growths pulsing in time with your heart beat. Heart beat… oh God no. Spinning around and pointing his flashlight in the direction of the heinous body, David felt the hair on his neck stand up.
The "corpse" was gone. Flashlight casting wildly around the room, terrified beyond belief, David tried to locate the missing corpse.
"H-hello is anyone there? Are you hurt? Do you need help?"
"Answer me damn it!"
"Fresh meat." David stopped, standing completely still. Was he hearing things? Starting to hyperventilate, he began to back away towards the exit. He needed more then anything to leave this room.
The answer to whether he was alone or not was soon answered by a slight whistling noise. Looking up David saw something arcing through the air in his general direction. Sidestepping out of the way quickly, David was able to avoid the projectile. It landed with a heavy thud, and as he glanced down he saw with growing dread that it was a cleaver, a cleaver drenched in dried blood.
"OH HOW I'VE MISSED FRESH MEAT!"The scream as it shattered the oppressive silence was all the pressing that David needed. He ran.
Trying as he did to ignore the sound of the footsteps that belonged to the not-quite-human behind him, a not-quite-human that was gaining quickly.