1 Hour, 15 Minutes Post-Sprawl Outbreak
This was it. After miles of pain, Curtis and Karrie neared their destination. One of them, anyway – a checkpoint instead of the finish line. Still, they made progress.
Now out of the mines and into GovSec proper, they walked down a long, barren hallway. Not even the ubiquitous propaganda extolling the greatness of Tiedemann and EarthGov. Then again, people who worked for the government probably didn't need convincing. Curtis couldn't tell whether the place was supposed to be so empty or if the Necromorphs came through. He believed the former, given the lack of blood or claw marks or debris from explosions.
There was, however, Corruption. Not a lot, but the most he'd seen so far. Patches of the pulsating growth covered the floor, trying to absorb the travelers with each step. Karrie squirmed even though he told her it couldn't hurt them, not that he blamed her; the walls being alive was an upsetting notion. This corridor would be impassible in a couple of hours if it kept growing at its current clip, so good thing they came early.
A door awaited at the end. Not anything special, except for what lay beyond.
Karrie explained the basic science of how the Sprawl's fusion reactor during the slog: pressurized, supercooled hydrogen was melded into helium, and the released energy powered the station. Curtis wasn't a physicist, but it sounded like what he learned about the Ishimura's engines on a larger scale. The automated process also took place in zero-gravity to streamline transporting the unfathomable amounts of hydrogen extracted from Saturn. He gas-mined Uranus' atmosphere before, and the process was no picnic.
Curtis shook his head and remembered seeing old sci-fi vids where the cheap, clean energy source was a pipe dream. Well, humanity finally mastered the atom in the fullest sense, just as it wrangled the fundamental forces of the universe and many subatomic particles. It turned out to not be as sating as they expected.
That's why you'll perish, "Nicole" said. Instead of chittering in his ear, it walked backwards while facing him.
You – not just humans, but every race we have made whole – crave excess. It grinned from ear to ear. Enough is never enough for the likes of you, and you look to us for miracles. Everything it said rang true. The Markers were miracles, all right. Bad ones. Was there a word for those?
Curses. That's the nearest he thought of.
"Are you ready for this?" he asked while pressing his back against the wall. No immediate danger, that was just a habit. Necromorphs may not have been able to grab him from behind, but the phantom Nicole and the Shadow Man could. A smoky arm wrapped around his neck as this dark part of him demanded he quench his pain in oblivion. His only response was to grit his teeth and remind himself of the reasons he had to survive. Though few, they outweighed his death drive so much that they broke the scale. The Marker may have animated this dark Thanatos or fragment of his id, but it couldn't stop the people he loved.
"Ready as I'll ever be." Yeah, Curtis felt the same way. He'd never truly be prepared for what waited in the next room or around the corner ahead. Just wanted to see if Karrie felt more optimistic than him. She used her access as an engineer, even one that didn't work directly for the government, to open the threshold.
What Curtis saw on the other side made his jaw drop. Part of his awe came from the sheer size. The Sprawl was the largest space station ever built, and he still hadn't gotten entirely used to the scale even after living there for years. Though it looked small from his apartment, the Shard still had a radius of several miles, and this cavern proved it with how it seemed to stretch forever. Most of his shock didn't spring from scope, though; after all, the Ishimura had plenty of big rooms, and nothing in the universe was larger than the vastness of outer space that waited outside these walls.
It came from the colossal pillars of Corruption crisscrossing the tunnel. They reached from one end to the other, all seeming to breathe in unison as they expanded and contracted. The largest columns or tentacles of the stuff Curtis had seen were about the thickness of ancient redwood trees. These were about the same, though they may not have fully matured.
"This – this can't all be human, can it?" gasped Karrie as they stepped in. Curtis' grav-boots kicked in as he felt his organs bump against visceral fat.
"No, it can't," he muttered. Bent down and inspected a small patch, as if that would tell him anything. The Corruption could spread on its own as it assimilated dead skin cells in dust and other unnoticed chaff. Even with that, though, there was far too much here for that to be the answer. "Is there any other source of biomass around?" Karrie worked in the mines for longer than him, and she knew her way around. The woman put a hand to her helmeted chin.
"I remember hearing about a 'farm' nearby that grows crops and cloned meat for government employees. Even has a few real cows for the biggest bigshots." Wow. It cost Curtis and Nicole a whole day's salary to afford real chicken; beef must have cost an arm and a leg. Not like he had the experience to know, though. Most of the live animals he'd seen were pets or vermin. These last couple years, the only "wild" creature he observed was a small bug that must have hitched a ride on somebody coming from Earth. Few could afford EarthGov's hefty fee on keeping animals in space, since they used valuable life support resources. One reason Nicole had a snake plant instead of a cat or dog to keep her company.
Regardless, that explained how the environment altered so quickly. Necromorphs moved bodies when they wanted to put that flesh to specific uses, such as when they stacked piles of people to fuse together and make Brutes or other particularly large phenotypes. The same could happen with other animals and plants, as he learned from the Ishimura's Hydroponics deck. Still, Curtis wondered if the Corruption hadn't grown here hours or days earlier than the rest of the outbreak. This place didn't seem to have human oversight, and the tumors may not have been disruptive enough to trigger any alarms.
They lifted off and propelled down the tunnel. As they floated past the first Corruption pylon, Curtis noticed the epidermis was frozen solid. He checked the RIG's external sensors on his HUD; sure enough, temperatures hovered in the negative double digits. Pressurized hydrogen needed to be kept at a climate below human survivability to remain easy-to-move liquid, as Nicole taught him on the Valor. So much of it flowing through the pipes on the walls must have sucked the heat out of the air. Interesting to note, but these RIGs handily held off the cold of deep space. This was no hindrance.
"There's the fusion reactor," Karrie said, pointing to a chamber that came into view. "That's where the magic happens, and it's where I need to fix the problem, whatever it is."
"Sounds good!" Helping an engineer fix impressive pieces of technology while monsters swarmed around them was squarely in Curtis' wheelhouse. He hoped their actions helped ordinary people instead of only the government.
They passed through an aperture in the far wall, which had largely been overgrown by the Necromorph biome, and into the core. A massive metal ball hung weightlessly in the center, suspended by cables, organic tendrils and the dozens of liquid hydrogen sluices that fed its eternal hunger. It impressed Curtis, but he was too jaded to care much about this marvel of science if Karrie did what she needed to. Like the rest of the area, it was also overgrown with flesh. Whatever, I can chop it off.
The two landed on a platform which completely circled the sphere, not unlike a ring of Saturn. He noticed that the material was very thick. It probably housed gravity panels, which explained why so many supports held the reactor from one side; sometimes there was gravity in here, and they couldn't have the trillion-credit reactor falling down.
They took a moment to ponder the throbbing flesh orb. Not that they particularly wanted to, but they needed to figure out what angle to attack from.
"I know you don't think much of it right now, but this is incredible." Only when Karrie spoke did Curtis notice the whining drone that split the air and dulled her words. It must have come from the core. "One of humanity's greatest achievements, in my opinion, up there with FTL travel and stasis."
"You grew up around stuff like this. It's special to you," he replied with a shrug, feeling only the faintest sting of pain from the shoulder he fractured. Karrie once told him she was born in a colony ship en route to a planet around the star Borealis. EarthGov wanted to create a shipping lane between Shalanx III and Uxor, and that system happened to be right between them. Modern technology alone kept thousands of people alive on that barren rock, so she had a natural affinity for it and encountered it in ways he just didn't as a child. Wrecked as Earth was, you could go outside naked in most places and not immediately die from extreme temperatures, radiation, unbreathable atmosphere, or myriad other dangers.
In fact, Karrie said she'd never been to Earth, not that she particularly wanted to; the Sprawl was the closest point the homeworld she visited. Curtis supposed that was true of most people living under colony domes on hundreds of distant worlds, but he thought it strange that most humans lived unfathomable distances from where they originated. They had never seen the ocean – one made of water instead of molten rock or toxic chemicals, anyway.
If Curtis survived, he would return to the North Carolina Hubs for at least a short time. Wanted to reconnect with his roots and remind himself of what he fought for. "But enough about that. Let's crack this thing open."
With that, Karrie flew to the meatball. Curtis tossed her the Plasma Cutter; the Core Extractor would be overkill. Then again, we're extracting the core of the fusion reactor. Linguistic coincidences aside, the Cutter was the way to go. No chance of harming what they tried to heal. She caught the tool and put it to work, blasting through the side.
The air quivered. Curtis thought little of it at first. More of the mechanical hum emanating from the same spot. It might have been a positive sign that the reactor became livelier. Then the tremble became a rumbling roar. That's when Curtis seized his Line Gun and spun around, trying to find the surging horde. They needed to hurry!
Leapers? Lurkers? Most Necromorphs weren't adapted to zero-gravity, thankfully! He worried most about Nests because this seemed like their ideal habitat. The cacophony intensified, though nothing emerged from any tunnel. He whirled around to speak to Karrie, and that was when he witnessed the central sphere roiling. His friend backed the fuck away from the malignant mass. One more horrifying sight she never could have imagined when she got out of bed.
That was when it clicked: Necromorphs weren't closing in. One was already present… because they were inside it. The Corruption lattices weren't window dressing; they networked the area to this central hub. As he knew from Guardians and the Leviathan, the monsters and their environment could be one and the same. The abomination peeled itself from its throne, slowly sinking down to meet them. Curtis nearly shat himself, and he heard Karrie scream over the noise of quivering meat.
Like the Leviathan, it only had two parts: tentacles and a gigantic mouth. This time, though, he was much closer – and the maw sported teeth the length of his arm. Mostly cosmetic, of course. It lacked a stomach, and the many tendrils were more effective instruments of death.
That was when it roared. The bellow might have deafened him without the helmet. One use for the organ, he supposed. Must have had vocal cords in there, too.
The next few seconds became a blur for Curtis as time ran together like watery paint. Maybe the Golden Marker used this chance to psychically attack his perception, or perhaps it was a physiological reaction to the shock, especially given the zero-gravity. All he knew was that he dodged the opening salvo through instinct and muscle memory alone. When his head cleared, he found himself buzzing in circles around this thing. Appropriate, since they were practically mosquitos by comparison.
Curtis gaped at the glob of tallow that clung to the core. If he and Karrie were mosquitos, then this freak was a far deadlier parasite. And it was a bloodsucker, for it strangled the life out of the fusion reactor. It clamped the flow of hydrogen, tore up wiring and attempted to crush the core with its vice grip. The Marker put more effort into its plot than he expected.
The Sprawl's primary source of power being snuffed out would cripple the station. His face burned; this might kill as many people as the Necromorphs. It also felt crueler. Being stabbed to death was quick and painless compared to freezing or suffocating while cowering in a closet. One more reason to kill it, though it being a giant turd was cause enough.
"Are you OK?!" he shouted to Karrie, whom he finally spotted through the mental haze. Knew she hadn't died because no high-pitched flatline cut the air, but it was good to see her in one piece.
"I – I think so!" Panic was palpable in the windstorm whipped up by the flailing mass of appendages. He noticed now that they had holes that spat bony projectiles like oversized Lurker barbs, a couple of which shattered on the wall behind him. Made sense for this thing to have that adaptation, since it was sessile. Its tentacles might not have been able to reach all the way across the chamber before it reached its apex.
Can it really get larger?! It seemed impossible, but from what he could tell, there was no maximum mass in Zero-G. Weightlessness allowed this monster grow to colossal proportions, just like the Spider/Slug. In fact, this one may have been bigger.
He and Karrie darted in opposite directions as a lucky spike split the air between them; this one hit the Corruption, where grasping cilia emerged and slowly reabsorbed the homogenous Necromorph tissue. Meant the thing essentially had infinite "ammo", not that he expected it to run out to begin with. The central gullet gave another bellow, twisting around to fruitlessly search for the insignificant invaders that dared to take this fantastic voyage into its giant colon.
It gave him comfort, though cold, to know there was a physical limit to how large Necromorphs could grow with Earth-like gravity. The Graverobber was the biggest one he'd seen in such conditions, and it was "only" the size of an extinct elephant. Wouldn't be able to support their own bulk if they got much girthier.
"How do we beat this thing?!" Karrie shouted as the two took shelter behind a floating steel slab sheared off some devoured piece of tech. A direct hit would likely crumple the barricade, but it provided cover from shrapnel. She held the rampart steady with kinesis while he resisted the urge to slam his head against it!
Curtis may have been an expert, but the question vexed him. The obvious answer was "shoot the tentacles". They even sported the sacs of explosive pus that Exploders and Brutes shared, among others. The problem was that they didn't have enough plasma between them to shave off enough. What about igniting the fuel flowing to the reactor? Hydrogen was flammable. He'd used a similar trick against the Leviathan, yet he saw no way for them to escape if a similar fireball engulfed them.
If only Nicole were here! She would have known exactly what spots to target with her medical expertise. Not just that; her support buoyed him in darkest night. It almost made him laugh that she was his biggest concern while fighting for his life against oversized mutant vomit. Even after all this time, he barely believed one of the smartest people in the universe – a certified genius – fell in love with him. Not like she had many options in her love life anymore, but he sometimes felt he didn't deserve her. Then again, he knew she occasionally felt the same way about him. That was their relationship; they caught and comforted each other when they fell.
Curtis felt his eyes widen as a plan suddenly snapped into place. Between that thought and his earlier reminiscence on Necromorph size, he saw a chance for them to win.
"Karrie, is there a way to turn on the gravity?" he asked as a limb raked the air feet away. She paused an instant before she caught on.
"Yeah! Just keep it off me!"
Easier said than done. Large Necromorphs tended to be more intelligent than small ones. As it spread some of its biomass over various exits to prevent their escape, Curtis assumed the pattern held. Karrie would die if it discerned their stratagem.
Their sole advantage was that it didn't have sensory organs, as evinced by its difficulty locating them. The Marker must not have expected anyone to respond so quickly, or else there would have been backup (and he still wasn't sure whether the rudimentary eyes he seldom saw the Corruption develop on the Ishimura were real or a product of his febrile imagination). There would be no way for it to find them if they didn't touch it. That meant he'd fly around as a distraction while Karrie snuck up and stabbed it in the back.
Curtis darted out from their cover, his thrusters working overtime as he tried to keep a level head – a difficult task when the blood in his brain freely floated around and his heart worked overtime. Resisted the urge to scream at it, since he didn't want to blow his voice this early, and it wouldn't hear him… probably. Necromorphs without ears or heads could still detect loud sounds through the vibration against their "skin". In this case, though, the gale this thing's tenacles whipped up was more than enough to cancel that out, which made him neglect to mention it to Karrie, who didn't need one more worry atop many others. He'd rather speak via a private channel in their helmets just to be extra safe, but comms being down meant they needed to do it the old-fashioned way.
"This is like a boss monster from a fucking video game!" she yelled, having landed on the flesh-free platform they initially alit on. Almost forgot that Karrie was a gamer, too; they'd gone to a couple of arcades before, but it didn't overlap with their jobs. Never imagined he'd fight a giant boss from a sci-fi shooter with her. Some of his other friends, yes, but not her.
The Boss. That was a good name. Curtis hoped they didn't run into any more bosses except the Golden Marker.
Around and around he went, an unwilling passenger on a gyroscope. Brief pauses came only when his vision blurred; he couldn't afford to fly blind when this belligerent meatball did everything in its power to turn him into paste, from swatting appendages to spraying bony shards. Curtis thought several times that he was the size of an insect compared with the Boss, and now it tried to crush him with its hand or douse him in bug spray. Thankfully, he was more agile than the average gnat. All the while, he shot his Line Gun like a bee.
Could bees launch their stingers from a distance? And regrow them? The fuzzy animals had been extinct since before he was born, so he didn't know enough about them to make a good simile. Either way, it kept the Boss' attention off Karrie, who, from what Curtis perceived, typed on a holographic screen with one hand while cracking open a maintenance panel with the other. No idea how long it'd take her to finish what –
Suddenly, he was boxed in by tentacles. The limbs, as big around as his torso, undulated up and down. A hit from them may not have killed him outright, but it'd break bones and knock the wind out of him long enough to be impaled.
Must have figured out the pattern of his shots and plotted ahead. Now, the appendages converged on one another and shrank the "safe" zone as more projectiles flew his way. Forgetting the thing's intelligence got him into a pickle. Not a fatal one, though, for Curtis had his own tricks.
A blue bolt leapt from his hand to one of the tentacles, wrenching it from the flow of time. The stasis field let him slip past without being splattered, which he did with a silent sigh. The azure energy made the frozen meat look colder. The Boss emitted another roar, this one deeper and slower than the last. Not quite drowsy, but a little more tired, if such terms could be applied to Necromorphs. It thought with its whole body, and he'd just slowed part of that body down. Being "stasised" felt like drunkenness, but he momentarily wondered what it'd be like for only one lobe of his brain to lag while the other parts worked normally.
Nicole might know. Not that he particularly cared about the answer. But I have to be alive to ask it. He'd do his best to not get trapped again before the stasis module recharged its supply of tachyons. To that end, he mixed up his flight path. Ducked, weaved, zigzagged and otherwise went in random directions as he nailed the monster with shot after shot. Watching the ammunition count decrease made him twitch. He needed to conserve his bullets to have enough to deal with anything they dealt with in the minutes ahead – this wouldn't be the end of the road, and they needed to remain prepared.
It looked like he didn't need to hold out much longer, though. Karrie feverishly worked, soldering a piece of metal into place as one of the Boss' tentacles swung perilously close to her head. She would have pulled wires with her teeth if she had to!
"Get over here so I can flip the switch without turning your ass into a pancake!" Didn't need to tell him twice. He darted over and landed – hopefully they had a few more seconds of the Boss thinking it knew where he went before it began to thrash wildly. "Press this semiconductor against the control panel; I didn't have time to weld it into place!"
He took the gold circuit board, which was about the size of his palm, and held it against the torn-up electronics. Small amounts gold and other precious metals were no longer as valuable as in centuries past with whole planets being harvested, but it could still be sold for a couple of credits. Still, during the apocalypse, it was dead weight filling one's pockets. Good thing Karrie had it on her, though.
His friend hammered the holographic control panel while the Boss roared just feet away. Curtis' ears rang, and it flecked his visor with… well, he couldn't tell if it was closer to blood or spittle. Nothing he wanted touching him, though; he felt dirty through the armor. Come on, come on.
His organs and body slammed to the ground as he regained weight in a split second. Would have collapsed if he hadn't braced himself against the guardrail, though it felt like his neck rolled in circles with much of the blood in his head being quickly sucked out. Still, he felt himself crack a smile, much to the chagrin of the darker things living up there. Whatever health problems he faced paled against the Boss' new maladies.
It thundered as it dropped farther from the reactor. Dangling helplessly, it reminded Curtis of a uvula. The cables of sinew that attached its main body to the fusion core and walls went taut. Hundreds of tons of flesh could barely endure the unstoppable force of 9.81 meters per second squared. One snapped, then another.
And then the Boss grabbed the platform they were on with every other appendage it had. The stage rocked from side to side, and Curtis lost his footing this time. He slammed to the ground and slid forward; something cracked, and a few of the gravity panels cracked, shooting harsh white light. Going into it meant being shredded by out-of-control gravitons! The Boss figured out where they were, and it tried to take them with it to the grave!
"Fuck!" Curtis screamed, scrambling for traction on the smooth surface while turning on his grav-boots. A muscle popped in his shin while he gritted his teeth, and his HUD announced a little Somatic Gel had been injected into the region. Wasn't sure how long they'd hold him at this angle – they weren't meant for walking on walls or ceilings in gravity! "Karrie, are you…"
He was going to ask if she was all right. Looking to his left, however, he saw her predicament quite clearly.
The Boss seized her in one of its smaller tentacles, as its larger ones were too massive to move now. Still, this example looked to be as thick as his leg. Too girthy to easily cut with the Line Gun or Plasma Cutter. Even if it were, he used those hands to cling to the dais for dear life.
"A little help, Curtis?!" she shouted, clawing at the brittle sinew.
He didn't know what to do. The slightest movement could send him tumbling down, or it could shake the platform loose and kill them both. His fingers trembled as they dug into the metal, and he asked himself how much he was willing to risk for his friend. The human race needs me, he thought as the tendril hauled Karrie away. The Boss could've done that quickly by going limp and letting gravity take its natural course, but it needed to wiggle around the growing grav-panel anomalies, lest it pulverize itself. Does it need her?
Shame made his throat swell as Karrie continued to plead for help. Even if she was a Unitologist, she wasn't insane. She didn't want to die because of this nightmare! If I die trying to save her, everyone else might be doomed… and Nicole will have nobody. While that made sense from a utilitarian perspective, it crushed him from an altruistic one. Curtis had been ignored his whole life, and now he was supposed to neglect someone who needed help because he was "more important" than her?! That'd make him no better than all the people who told him he'd never amount to anything.
It was settled: he'd try to save her. Only a matter of how. He wrenched one hand from the metal and tried to pull Karrie's RIG to him, yet nothing happened. Either the Boss blocked the graviton beam (tactile kinesis only worked objects, not animate flesh, be it living or dead) or the many skewed gravity fields shooting from the floor dampened it. Regardless, he needed to close the gap.
Curtis looked "down" – in the direction gravity pulled, anyway. The guardrail on the platform's edge now looked like a balance beam, and it was all he had to land on. If it broke or he missed, he'd fall several stories. The impact might not kill him, but being crushed by the Boss when its grip failed would!
Fuck it. I've done stupider.
Still almost regretted it as he deactivated his grav-boots and went into freefall. Little to do but stick out his arms and hope his destination didn't move. Curtis' knees buckled even as he caught the beam with his feet. Glad it was with those and not his crotch, which would've been agonizing with or without protection.
Karrie shouted something, but Curtis paid no attention, merely focusing on getting to the other end of the balcony. One foot in front of the other… until he had to get on all fours. A gout of gravitons and white light blasting out from the machinery to his left guaranteed that. He squatted and gripped the beam tightly enough to imprint his gauntlets in the metal. The back of his head prickled at the energy buzzing inches above it, which would blast him to bits if he got any closer.
Speaking of close, Karrie came within feet of him. The Boss' limb nearly snaked through the labyrinth it created. Though ponderous, it was a race to see who got there first. Good thing the Boss didn't know that. Without eyes, it had no idea where he was; if it did, he already would have been bludgeoned or impaled.
"Thank Altman," he heard her mutter. He stuck out his hands, ready to grab her when she crossed the cusp. Another strand holding the Boss to the fusion reactor snapped. The thing would give way any second.
Come on… His fingers flexed as he readied himself to lunge and pull her from its powerful grasp. He had only one shot, and he intended to make it count. Almost there. His friend reached for him, and their hands almost touched.
There was a famous fresco Nicole once referenced to get a pose right in one of her paintings. Some religious work from ancient times, back when people believed in gods other than the Markers. The deity extended his finger to his creation – the first man – and the man reached back. Curtis was no artist, but he saw his wife's interpretation: that humanity sought the divine, yet they could never reach it. Of course, Curtis was not holy, which made the metaphor fall apart.
That wasn't the only thing falling.
The rest of the ropes holding the Boss aloft snapped. It remained silent as it plunged, though Curtis didn't know why. This seemed like the perfect time for a death rattle. Would've made things more bearable if he didn't have to hear him and his friend shrieking. Curtis snatched her hand as she toppled over the cliff. The Boss' tentacle still squeezed Karrie's waist. Its final act was to drag a human down, too.
Fear made her shouts as cold and clammy as the air. The platform shook from the vibrations of the Boss' main mass hitting the ground, and the rest of its tendrils followed. The one he fought against became taut. Something was about to give, he realized. He dug his heels into guardrail, which groaned as his limbs ached from the bulk they tried to counter.
Curtis could let go, he could go down with her or he could get his arms ripped off. Those were the options he saw.
He chose the first.
Didn't dare look as she fell. He couldn't gaze at his friend being smothered in flesh. The Boss had a few seconds of "life" left which it'd use to pop Karrie like a balloon. Instead, he stuck his head between his legs and closed his eyes to shroud himself in darkness. Just him and his hurting muscles. Though he couldn't have remained in that position for more than a few seconds, it felt like longer.
Only opened them so quickly because Karrie might have still been alive. The fact she plummeted after the Boss instead of before gave him a modicum of hope.
He stood, noting the eerie stillness. The gale had calmed, and the only noise was the now-vertical platform's grav-panels freaking out. Speaking of which, he scooted five more steps down the balance beam, finally reaching the control panel that Karrie used to turn on the gravity. Should have been easy to reverse the effect since it'd all been set up.
Curtis grunted as he scrambled onto the podium that the flickering holo-screen projected from. It felt good to have something more solid than a single line of metal keeping him upright. Now on his knees, he was also relieved to find the gold semiconductor he pressed against the exposed wiring now firmly held in place by gravity. Without that, he didn't know what he'd have done.
A surge of pain racked his head, making him groan. The migraines got worse. It wouldn't be long until agony gave way to madness. "Nicole" floated beside him when he regained his senses. It said nothing this time. Didn't need to. Its grin of broken teeth imparted every gloat. The real Nicole's fangs weren't conventionally attractive, either, yet her smiles were lovely… because she loved him. She cared about people.
Still, it didn't taunt him without reason. The Boss being defeated was an inconvenience, not a crippling blow, for the Golden Marker. Curtis' friend being killed or seriously injured far outweighed any loss of biomass. The Necromorphs won this round. He suspected they triumphed in most altercations they now fought. That stabbed him between the ribs.
Curtis dialed back the gravity from 1.0035g (which fluctuated slightly from moment to moment, but not enough for a human to notice) to zero. The threat of obliteration dissipated after the machines cycled down. He became weightless again, but no corresponding sense of freedom accompanied it this time… only crushing dread as he wondered whether his friend survived. He left the specter behind as he flitted to the icy meat pancake that filled one side of the room. The Boss appeared to have no bones except its intimidating teeth and the spikes it shot at him, which made sense for a sessile creature in a world without gravity.
Upon expiration, it lost muscle tone and became a lake of jelly on the sphere's inner surface. Still solid, unlike the soupy liquid that Necromorph tissue melted into when removed from a Marker signal, but less rigid than he expected upon touching down; he sank to his knees in tissue. Loose enough to excavate with his hands, which was good, since he nearly ran out of plasma cartridges. He shoveled through the slop, calling Karrie's name with a creaking voice.
Callous though it may have been, he couldn't afford to spend longer than a couple minutes searching for her. He needed to get to Nicole for his own sanity and for the safety of many others. Only so much effort he could invest in trying to save one person… even a friend. The calculus of war got into his head, and it wouldn't be easy to scrape out.
His hope nearly died when he hefted up another chunk of gristle. It floated up like the others, and he found a hand beneath. Curtis yelped, remembering roaches in some of his foster homes skittering out when their hiding places were disturbed. Then he thought it was part of an unlucky human who got absorbed into the Boss. Wasn't until the phalanges twitched that the obvious dawned on him.
He started digging, delving into the muck to dredge up someone who may have been on death's door. Didn't dare use the Plasma Cutter to carve her lose, lest he accidentally lop off a leg. This wasn't even mining – more like paleontology with how carefully he had to excavate the petrified figure within. Eventually, though, he unearthed her. Karrie was back with the living… barely.
Her form met the chamber's dull, flickering light, and he was able to check her out as she floated. He cringed a little as he thought that, even as the RIG did little for her figure (or anyone's, really). "Checking out" usually meant something different for him, at least until he married Nicole. Yeah, she gave him permission to sleep with other people if her body stopped doing it for him, but he never would. He loved her too much to seek that anywhere else. It was a moot point, anyway; even if he found Karrie hot, she was a lesbian.
And she was anything but hot right now. The rips in her suit were the first things he noticed during his orbit, exposing her flesh to arctic air. Most of the wounds looked superficial, but several drew enough blood that he would've been much more worried if the ichor hadn't already frozen the wounds shut. That was bad, though. Very bad. Couldn't see most of her body through the torn armor, yet he imagined it'd be equally injured.
All he could do was grab the metal frame with kinesis and haul her out of the meat freezer. He wasn't sure which way they came from, since all the passages looked roughly the same, so he picked one and floated through as quickly as he could. Many Corruption trees had been uprooted by the few minutes of gravity. The Boss may have whipped up a hurricane in the central chamber, but this place bore the blunt of a different typhoon.
Karrie started muttering as he landed by the exit, making his clenched fists loosen.
She's not dead. That was a start.
"I used stasis on myself to slow my fall," she wheezed. Her voice was so raspy that he wondered if she punctured a lung. "That probably prevented me from dying on impact." He nodded, though he barely heard her hushed words.
"I'm sorry, Karrie. I had to let go." Come to think of it, his own voice didn't sound great.
"Don't apologize. There was nothing you could've done except go down with me. Then we'd both be dead." Curtis hoped she was right. If she died, he'd spend the rest of his life wondering if he could have done anything differently to save her. He had enough regrets.
The door outside opened, so he gently placed his friend on the ground and dragged her through so that she didn't fall when reintroduced to gravity. No Necromorphs waited for them, which meant they were busy killing other people.
"What do we do now?" she murmured when they got to the other side. The question was followed by a sputtering cough. Wouldn't have been surprised if the spittle mixed with blood.
The answer depended on the vid-log he spun before the Karrie fully asked that question. EarthGov jammed most wireless communications, but he figured the man who called them about the fusion reactor would allow himself to be reached. Curtis' expectations dropped after five seconds of static and vanished completely after five more. He sighed and hung up.
Tiedemann was either dead or busy. He assumed the latter; EarthGov would protect itself to the bitter end. Unless someone fucked up royally (and that was always possible), their stronghold at the center of GovSec would be the last place on Titan Station standing despite being closest to the Marker. Whatever, he expected no reward. Even if he did, there was no way for Tiedemann to get it to them. Besides, Curtis wasn't sure they solved the problem. They didn't fix whatever was wrong with the fusion reactor that Karrie's sabotage allegedly caused, but maybe the Boss choking the core was the issue?
They at least prevented it from getting worse, which might have been the most he could ask for. And despite trying to be optimistic, Curtis admitted that most people on the Sprawl would probably be dead before complications manifested. That thought snapped him out of his funk, and he answered Karrie's question.
"We're going to get to the Public Sector, and then we'll find my wife," he said with as much confidence as he could muster.
If Nicole saved Curtis' life with Isaac's blood and a couple of needles, he had no doubt she could pull a similar miracle on Karrie. All he needed to do was get her across alive.
How am I supposed to do that when she can't stand? He and Nicole carried each other before, but never over such distances. Necromorphs must have now far outnumbered humans in the mines, and they hunted for any last morsels. His mind decayed more every minute. That merely scratched the surface of their problems. Curtis beat long odds before, though. Had to believe he could do it again.
He pulled a back-up Med Pack out of its slot in his RIG and scooped out its contents, slathering Somatic Gel on Karrie's open wounds, which began to thaw. Seemed to stabilize her condition, but she urgently needed proper medical attention. He didn't even want to remove any portion of her suit in case the metal staunched any hidden bleeding.
"I'm going to pick you up," he said, and Karrie nodded. Not like she was in any shape to refuse. Grunted as he took the armor and its inhabitant onto his shoulders. This was about the maximum weight this kind of RIG could comfortably carry, a message in the corner of his HUD informed him (though his arms already did a good job of that).
Curtis shifted her on his shoulders before stepping forward. That was it, then: him, his friend, and miles to go.
…
Nicole crawled up the side of the skyscraper like she scaled a mountain. The lack of gravity made it simpler, yet it was still no cakewalk. She hauled herself more than a mile with her arms, grabbing whatever jutted out or digging her claws into the hull if nothing was within her grasp. Occasionally added a burst of air from her RIG to boost her speed, though she kept most in reserve. She didn't want to be knocked into the void with no way back!
Titan Memorial Medical Center was the most prestigious hospital in the universe (at least before the Sprawl's sudden economic decline a few years ago), and it looked the part. The spire was a strange throwback to the Art Deco architectural style of previous centuries: carved reliefs stretched up the high-rise, which came to a tapered point. A light atop it shone brighter than most stars, signaling the structure's importance to anyone who didn't already know it. The station's luxury and opulence may have faded, but signs of its former eminence were all around.
Nicole had no time to appreciate the art, but she was thankful for the handholds that the enlarged features of history's greatest physicians provided. Alexander Fleming's nose, which she had her claws hooked around, was especially bracing. The masonry must have taken expert craftspeople years to construct.
Her flesh sizzled as the last bits of water near its surface evaporated in the void. It was the only thing she heard in the vacuum, for her eardrums chapped with the rest of her. That could be remedied with a shower and moisturizer once all this ended. Eyes on the prize, she reminded herself as she looked to the top of the tower.
Fortunately, she was unhurt by the tiny amount of solar radiation that ventured this far into the outer solar system. Sol didn't pack the same dangerous kick that some other stars had, such as the twin red dwarf suns of Aegis, which belched an outsize amount of x-ray and gamma radiation. Aegis VII orbited much closer to them than Saturn circled the sun, though their small size made them appear far away. That was why Necromorphs outside the Ishimura "went bad" in such short order.
Almost there. The light atop the tower brightened as every movement brought her closer to her goal. Only one obstacle remained: an electronic billboard. Wasn't quite as intimidating as some of the environmental challenges she'd faced, like asteroid swarms and walls of fire. Still, the perfectly flat surface would be impossible to climb unless she punched through the screen, which might electrocute her if she wasn't careful. The only other way up is using the rest of my air to skim across it… Nicole looked up at the imposing infinitude.
Yeah, she'd risk getting shocked. Pierced the outermost layer with her meat hooks, trying not to dig deeper than she needed to. Cracks spread across the monitor like ice. It's cold enough to be.
The gigantic screens of Titan Station were iconic parts of the landscape, arguably more than any building. The largest splayed a mile high and a mile wide to broadcast to people on the other side of the station. Now, all bore Director Tiedemann's face as his shade repeated the evacuation order for the 500th time. Given that they normally ran Z-Ball games or ads for useless products, it was quite a change. She hoped nobody stood around to watch them, though. People needed to get out. The hospital had a shuttle station in addition to the landing pads on the roof that she crawled to, so the odds of people here were better than most.
She crept across Tiedemann's face, and she thought of small bugs that were sometimes attracted to the light of her computer monitor on Earth. The drops of sweat on his forehead were as large as her whole body. She saw every pore, every wrinkle, every wince of pain on pixels like the sand of the sea. It was almost more than she could bear.
At last, she reached the apex, finding the terrace abandoned. She hoped that meant the emergency transports kept here had already been used to flee. Hauled herself onto the platform and went limp, though that meant little for her posture in Zero-G. If there was oxygen – and if she needed to breathe – she would've gasped for it. As it was, she merely turned around to absorb the cityscape for perhaps the final time. The tableau stretched in an arc across the horizon, forming a third of a circle around the chunk of dead moon.
She knew art, and she knew this was beautiful. Sol's dim light spilled across buildings larger than the ancients could have imagined. Distant stars glowed all the colors of the rainbow. Nature and the works of mankind may have been different, but they didn't need to be in opposition. Right now, they existed in perfect harmony. All except for smudges on the Crossover Tubes. Those made her squint. Brown blobs grew on the filaments. Nicole thought about insects a surprising amount that day, and she did again as she imagined cockroaches coming across. What…
Her four eyes widened as she heard the faintest whispers in the back of her mind. They may as well have been screams. Many thoughts, though all spoke of being made whole. Most of that zealotry – the kind of hatred that cynically called itself "love" – was directed at humanity. Still, she heard her name on wind. Her kith thought her a monster, one who betrayed their entire race. Nicole almost felt flattered. How many people were remembered by an entire species?
Oh no.
Necromorphs. Tens of thousands of them. GovSec's number of workers and soldiers was miniscule compared to the civilian throngs of the Public Sector, but the amount swarming across the Crossover Tubes turned them to rot. The Marker outsmarted EarthGov; the insides of the tunnels were surely protected, but the outsides? They never saw it coming.
Only then did Nicole grasp the scale. The Ishimura's body count was beaten in scarcely more than an hour. And it was about to get so much worse. Some people managed to get out, yet millions remained. She burned through the last of her air supply to reach the airlock and slam her hand against it. Airlocks were never locked from the outside. Why would they be? Anyone outside a station or ship was either supposed to be in the area or desperately needed to get in, lest they run out of oxygen. Government facilities may have possessed safeguards to deny spies or saboteurs easy entry, but those precautions were not shared by most.
The door cycled open, and Nicole stepped through, repeating the process with the other half of the airlock. Atmosphere inundated the chamber, and vital senses like sound and smell returned. Despite all the terrible things that happened, a wave of calm washed over her as the odors of a busy hospital brought her back to simpler times.
The sounds of panic were also apparent. Wherever the shuttles in the launch bay ferried passengers, they were only going to have time for one or two more runs before the Necromorphs got across. She knew from experience – being one – that they moved fast. It might take them a little while to get all the way up the tower, but not as long as it'd take humans!
Lexine. She might have been caught up with the crowd, but Nicole suspected her friend stuck around. She'd see through the "terrorists attacking the station" ruse (which still played on repeat through the building's intercoms), and Oracles surely waited at the evac points like vultures, ready to swoop in when they saw her. Besides, there's no way she'd leave without Gabe.
Now it was just a matter of finding her in the complex, which surely also housed the disabled and seriously injured that had been "forgotten" in the mad scramble to the exit, along with whatever doctors and nurses stayed behind to help them. It tugged at Nicole's soul that there was nothing she could do for them despite her medical skills… that was what she told herself, at least.
What the Hell am I supposed to do?! she screamed inside her head as she began to stalk down the halls, not particularly worried about being seen when most people already fled. If I stop to save one person, that means I'm not helping Lexine. And she might be the answer to all of this. EarthGov certainly seemed to think so, given how hard they searched for her.
Nicole was so torn that it felt like someone cut her in half. She didn't know whether assisting or ignoring those in need was right! Her frustration almost made her lash out at the wall. The Hippocratic Oath wasn't written with Necromorphs in mind; she was unmoored from the morals that guided her throughout her adult life.
Primum non nocere. "First, do no harm…" Not even to the people that hated her for existing, though she made exceptions for when she needed to defend herself or others.
She reached the end of the first hall and took a turn, remembering the layout from her time working in the facility. Her thoughts joined the thousands of other whispers, which became "louder" across space and time. There were already as many voices as at the height of the Ishimura's horror. Soon, they would become far more numerous. Perhaps dangerously so.
The Necromorph hive mind tugged on those linked by it. It compounded thought and emotion, which was one reason why her kith rarely calmed down. What one felt, so did the rest of them, and that remained true even when the only ones bonded were her and Curtis. It also had its own "gravity". The bigger it got, the more influence the gestalt mind exerted. Would Nicole be swept up by the rising tide of bloodlust and be overridden by what her family wanted her to be? That temporarily happened a couple of times, but only because she hadn't quite adapted to her new state of being. It could happen again, especially if her husband wasn't present to anchor her.
It also made Nicole wonder… what happened when the hive mind became more psionically powerful than the Marker? The artificial intelligences exerted control over their marionettes (though they were influenced by even greater force, she knew), yet she imagined the puppets would grow stronger than their masters. Didn't know what'd happen whenever the Necromorphs reached that critical (bio)mass of psychic potential, and she hoped she wouldn't find out.
Nicole tried to shove all that aside and just stick to navigating. The top floor was split between pediatrics and OB/GYN. Both dealt with children, so it made sense to have them border each other. She shuddered as her foot touched cold linoleum. Children had been spared these horrors before, but no longer…
Someone banged on a door or wall ahead of her. The noise echoed down the hall, unnoticed until now with Nicole being distracted by the internal jeers of her erstwhile siblings and abandoned toys in the corridor. She didn't know whether the person tried to get in or out or just lost their mind. Supposed it didn't really matter… but she had to see. It could have been Lexine, after all. She padded forward and stuck her head around the corner.
It was a nice foyer she found herself in. The building was as sumptuous within as without, yet the architects made sure that sick kids got the most impressive space. The highlight was a water-filled tank embedded into the far wall that was home to three or four fancy fish. Not many, but enough to enthrall children who had most likely never seen real animals before. That was special for kids living on a sterile space station. But the fish weren't the reason she cared.
That'd be the girl.
Well, "girl" may have been too diminutive. She was on the cusp of adulthood, maybe 16 or 17, yet pediatricians saw patients up to 18. Otherwise unremarkable, save for being all alone and trying to bludgeon through the metal door with a chair. The area had already been evacuated, and she was left behind. Some of the thresholds had automatic locks to prevent confused patients from wandering off, and this one must've been activated when everyone fled. Not the best time for such an oversight, but accidents happened, and even the best physicians must have been terrified by the unprecedented evacuation order. The hologram on the elevator beside the barred-off stairwell read "DOOR JAMMED, PLEASE TAKE STEPS", which explained why the girl hadn't taken the obvious route.
Nicole could go around. The vents were the same across the station, so she'd be able to cram through those as she did in Titan Heights. It'd be easy. And as she'd thought a dozen times that day, it'd be wrong to help one person when that time was better spent saving millions, if not more. The Marker wanted to drag the whole of humanity into an endless orgy of death.
But as she looked at this teenager, fruitlessly beating against an immovable object with all her strength, Nicole had no doubt about the right thing to do.
That didn't mean she was going to enjoy it.
"Uh, h-hello," Nicole called after ducking back behind the bend, trying to brace herself for a physical interaction outside a circle of three or four people.
"Whoa!" a small voice shouted, making Nicole wince. If she was already startled, this next part would give her a real shock. Wondered how to proceed if the girl fainted or tried to run away. "You scared me. Do you work here?"
"Not exactly," Nicole sighed. "I'm going to come out. Don't be scared."
The girl said nothing, but Nicole imagined the look of confusion that must have been on her face. What could be scarier than being alone in a skyscraper jutting into space with endless audio discussing a terrorist attack? She was about to find out. Nicole bit the bullet and strode out with one big step.
The girl looked horrified, of course. Her jaw fell to the floor, and she shuffled away from the undead velociraptor as quickly as her knocking knees allowed. Nicole didn't take it personally; in fact, she would have been far more concerned if the girl thought this normal. Still, the fact she didn't immediately pass out was a good sign. Even better, she had enough control over her flapping mouth to form a few words.
"What are you?"
"That's… hard to explain," Nicole rasped, trying to sound as "human" as possible. "But I'm friendly. I promise I won't hurt you." With that out of the way, she asked, "What's wrong?"
It took a moment for the girl to open up. Once she did, though, it was difficult for her to stop.
"I – I can't get to my parents!" she sobbed, suddenly bursting into tears. "I was here for a check-up, and they stayed in the waiting room just down the hall. I went to the bathroom and Director Tiedemann's announcement started and I was so wound up that it scared me when he came on over the intercoms and I fell and hit my head on the toilet and when I woke up a couple minutes later everyone was gone and the last doctor or nurse out must've locked the door behind them!"
That sentence may have been the longest Nicole heard anyone speak without taking a breath – and she didn't need to breathe – but she got the gist. Parents gone, door locked, wanted to get back to them. Anyone would, and it became especially important with the wave of undead about to break on them. Then again, the girl didn't have to know about that detail. Either she'd escape or she wouldn't. Answering any of the hundreds of questions doubtlessly bouncing around her brain would only slow them down.
"Would you like me to help you?" she asked when the girl got most of the anguish out of her system. "It might be hard to believe, but I'm a doctor, too." Nicole grabbed the hem of her lab coat/RIG to emphasize her occupation. "We're not just supposed to heal the sick – we're supposed to help people however we can." Sometimes she stumbled, and sometimes she wasn't sure how to best carry out that duty, yet she tried to live up to high standards every day.
The girl hesitated a moment before nodding. Maybe the zombie scared her, but the thought of being all alone here was more frightening. With that affirmation, Nicole started thinking about how to get them out of this locked room.
She gave the door a few slashes with her claws, but it was sturdier than she expected. Sure, she could chip through eventually, but time was not on their side. No RIGs around for them to attempt a spacewalk down the building, and that'd be beyond dangerous for a child. The girl was slight enough to fit through the vents, yet navigating them would still be a lengthy process.
Nicole's four eyes again alit on the elevator. Not a great option, but it was the best they had.
"Are you strong enough to hold onto my back?" The girl crinkled her nose, the idea of clinging to a woman with a partially exposed skull that she only met a few seconds ago clearly not appealing to her. Hey, at least she no longer rotted. Regardless, she gave a nod, so Nicole shoved her talons into the middle of the elevator doors and pried them apart.
Whatever mechanical issues caused the lift to not reach this floor meant nothing to a body strong enough to flip a small car! She wrenched the two halves apart without much trouble and found herself staring down the shaft.
If the structure looked tall from the outside, it seemed even bigger within. It stretched down half a mile, and she saw no semblance of a bottom despite the LED lights studded all the way down. No idea why the inside of the chimney had illumination, but she wasn't complaining. Regardless, she stared thousands of feet down from what she believed to be the tallest hospital ever built. If the drop from the third-floor balcony of her apartment complex intimidated, this downright terrified. One slip, and she'd plunge until splatting atop the elevator car. Much more concerned about the girl, whose grip wouldn't be nearly as strong.
She'll be OK, Nicole told herself as she squatted down and gestured for her to jump on her spine. The girl complied without any fuss. "Hold on tight." Nicole jumped in and grabbed the central cable before she talked herself out of it. The girl yelped, squeezing her neck tightly enough to choke! Again, if I needed air. Good to have a strong grip, though.
The other good news was that she felt the tug of gravity decrease sharply, even with about 100 pounds of dead weight hanging off her. Not a completely Zero-G environment, but being so far away from the bottom of the shaft, which housed the only gravity panels influencing her, made it maybe half as strong as it normally would have been. The elevator itself had normal gravity within, but this environment would also reduce the potential damage in the event the thick wire she clung to snapped – which became more likely than before with her claws digging into the steel. It'd take far more force for the cord to fray, yet she never discounted the worst-case scenario these days.
"You're really strong!" the girl yelped, not have expected her to rip off the bandage so quickly.
"I work out," Nicole chuckled. Never imagined her hours upon hours of walking and calisthenics would culminate in this, yet she had no quibbles about all that extra muscle now being put to work.
One hand got put under the other as they began to descend through the surprisingly well-lit tube. Soon, she was confident enough in herself and the girl's grip to make larger movements for time was of the essence. The wails of the dead reverberated more strongly through her cells with every passing second. Despite all that, the pair had time to talk.
"So… are you OK?" Nicole asked, craning her head back to try and see the girl clinging to her for dear life. "Medically, I mean." Man, I could've phrased that better. People didn't usually go to the hospital for no reason, though. They should have – yearly check-ups were important to detect issues before they became big problems – but that was often not true in practice, even with universal healthcare.
"No," she flatly replied, which made Nicole feel like an ass. The girl didn't stop there, though. "I've been having dreams about you. Not you, specifically, but things that look like you. Monsters. Those bad dreams have been spilling over into reality." She squeezed even tighter, and Nicole finally understood. Really should've expected sooner that the girl was one of many being plagued by madness. These may have been with her for months, but the mental health system was so swamped with cases that she only now saw someone. "That's probably why I haven't fainted by now."
Yeah. She supposed Titan Station had become inoculated to the idea of "monsters". Last week, SNN ran a special report hosted by Maria Regan about the "mass psychosis epidemic" and all the damage it caused: murders, suicides, trauma, frightening dreams and countless other examples of human suffering. Even then, it had been sanitized to avoid questioning EarthGov's narrative that the situation was under control. The censors started to crack under the pressure, and she saw comments on the Transnet saying that even worse things happen. Not that she would know.
Nicole and Curtis were spared the pain the rest of station suffered thanks to her being a Necromorph and being able to filter the white noise from her husband's brain. Lexine and Gabe were similarly spared that trauma thanks to the former's gift, and those were the only people on the station she talked to. Everyone else was haunted by these illusions of loved ones and maybe other things, all encouraging them to do horrible things.
Calling the phantasms mere visions downplayed them, but it was true that they couldn't hurt anyone by themselves (though the Marker must have wished it was powerful enough to psychically lobotomize people). But they drove people to become monsters… and in just a few minutes, the unfortunate people remaining on the Sprawl would see the truest definition of monster before being stabbed to death.
She heard rumbling below her. Glancing down, she saw the car climbing the cable quicker than she crawled down. Good, their target came to them. The girl was halfway to a happy ending. If EarthGov didn't execute all survivors after Tiedemann seemingly jumped the gun on this evacuation, the girl would be reunited with her parents. Assuming they made it. As she'd thought many times in the last hour or so, the evacuation shuttles only had so much space. Hoped children would be prioritized over adults.
When put like that, Nicole realized that a lot of luck was involved. She didn't like leaving things to chance, but there was nothing else she could do.
Loosened her knees to take the impact of the car rocketing up the shaft, yet the impact still made her legs tingle. The girl was about to say something as she plopped off Nicole's back, but she motioned for her to remain silent. Couldn't have the people beneath them learn anyone was on the roof, lest they become more scared than they already were. Given the soft weeping she heard through a layer of metal, she knew they had enough fear to go around. To sate her curiosity, she crawled over to a grate that allowed for air circulation and peered within.
Just a few people, most of them bunched up in corners and softly gurgling. She wished there were something more for her to do. That desire grew stronger when the lift shuddered to a halt and the doors creaked open. She heard people jostling to get in, but that was nothing compared to the stampede that trampled itself for a chance of safety. Nicole retained enough of a self-preservation instinct to paradoxically understand the mob tearing itself apart to save the strongest. She'd have felt the same drive if she were down there, though she hoped she had the discipline to resist it.
No idea what floor this was, but it didn't seem to have many injured on it… or, more likely, the ones not well enough to fight their way onto the elevator were left behind. There came a point where no more could fit, yet that didn't stop the ones outside from trying. An arm snapped as someone within smacked around with an IV pole. The doors trundled shut, and relative silence descended on the crowd. Sure, there were noises (mostly cries of pain or fear), though less than what there had been.
Much as her heart went out to them, compassion was tainted by doubt. Any of them could be Oracles; some must have been in the building, hunting for Lexine. It pained her to think that way, but more lives than hers hung in the balance. EarthGov's top agents would kill all these people to complete their mission. Suspicion kept her alive.
The mechanism shuddered before descending again, hopefully going for the evac floor this time. Nicole rolled onto her back and stared at the rope. Good thing she decided not to sink her claws into it, even if that meant a better grip. The elevator needed all the advantages it could get with how much the chassis whined. If not for the lower gravity, the car may have been in trouble from being so over capacity; her and the girl being on the roof didn't help.
"What are you doing here, anyway?" the girl whispered when Nicole sat up and put her chin on her knees.
"I'm looking for a friend," she answered, figuring the sounds of other humans combined with failing machinery provided enough cover for them to talk. "Her name is Lexine."
The girl put a finger to her temple. "Is she a light-skinned woman in her 20s with short, brown hair?"
"Yes!" Only through sheer luck that someone below them sneezed at the same moment. Now it was the girl's turn to put a hand over her mouth, not fazed by the fangs touching her skin. "Yes, she is," Nicole continued in a murmur. It elated her to know she hadn't somehow gotten the time or location wrong or if Lexine decided not to come for whatever reason. Her friend was close.
The girl clarified, "I don't know her; she was just in the waiting room with me for a couple hours. Her name got called before I went in." The natal unit was right by the children's hospital, so that made perfect sense.
The elevator came to a screeching stop before she had more time to ponder. Everyone who could run out did. The others limped or crawled. The same thing must have happened with a dozen other lifts, and this one would be needed again shortly.
Nicole gripped the metal grate and tossed it over the edge, where it tumbled away. Nobody would think anything of it missing, just like they'd not notice a teenage girl who slipped in behind them.
"This is as far as I can take you," she said, gesturing at the hole. An engine roared in the background. "Sounds like there are a couple shuttles left. You can catch one if you hurry."
"You might not be real, for all I know," the girl mirthlessly laughed. "But thank you." She snorted, and a tear rolled down her cheek. Amazing how much emotions could mix or turn on a dime. Nicole didn't know how to feel, though she supposed "relief" came closest. After all, she gave the girl a fighting chance. "I don't even know your name."
"Nicole." She cracked a smile, already leaning over the side and dropping the girl a couple feet above the elevator's hard floor. "My name is Nicole."
"I'm Audrey." Nicole jumped into the booth. Decided to risk being seen, since she could easily climb the cable for an easy escape. Through the open door and a nearby window, Nicole saw gouts of plasmatic fire as more ships took off, silhouetting the backs of human heads. She hoped this was high enough for the Necromorphs to not reach for a few extra minutes.
Had to believe that everyone would be saved.
"Go live your life, Audrey." For as long as you can. Audrey looked at the doors, which already screeched shut, and then back at Nicole with eyes that didn't quite accept what they saw.
She wanted to ask more questions. She wanted to give her unlikely savior a hug, no matter how unsettling she may have been. Hell, she may even have wanted to stay behind and help Nicole find Lexine, who must have been very important if a zombie put all this effort into locating her. Instead, she did the right thing.
Audrey turned tail and ran through the threshold before it shut, not bothering with a glance back. Smart girl, Nicole thought as the elevator rattled up to retrieve the people who couldn't fit before or inhabitants of another story. Didn't matter to her. She squatted down, springing through the hole and onto the top of the lift.
The last thing Nicole needed was a plucky teenaged sidekick. Unlike in superhero vids, she wouldn't last long. Besides, Nicole already had a few dance partners for the occasion. Just needed to find them. That was why she grabbed the rope and started climbing faster than the rickety machine. Still, her thoughts drifted back to Audrey…
If she was lucky, maybe she could one day convince herself that this had been nothing but a hallucination like all the others. A positive example that helped her find her parents, but a phantasm, nevertheless. She'd know nothing of Necromorphs, and maybe, just maybe, she'd have a happy life.
Of course, that future was predicated on there being a "one day". For that, Nicole had to find Lexine. Of course, needles in haystacks were never easy to find.
She should have been in trouble with comms down and dozens of floors to search. Even her vaunted sense of smell was powerless against so many odors and places to case. There was one ace up her sleeve she never got to play, though. Now she slammed it on the table.
She closed her eyes and opened her mind as she climbed. Tendrils of thought reached out to her cursing kith, who suddenly returned after years of absence. The Necromorph hive mind connected all in a single united front. To them, it was a source of comfort. To her, it was a thorny cage, one she endeavored not to fall into again. She almost forgot the vastness.
Contentment or curse, its size in terms of numbers and distance defied comprehension. Many Necromorphs were on the Sprawl, yet branches of this rotting Yggdrasil snaked to the depths of space and mere miles from the surfaces of neutron stars. These fruits of the Tree of Anti-Life were more powerful than she could imagine, even if they slumbered until the one here ripened.
Nicole kept a good mental distance from all this, lest she be brainwashed and submerged by the crushing crowd. Even if it proved temporary, that was a price she refused to pay… especially when she didn't need to. She sought no knowledge, though the collective consciousness of countless consumed species would be the universe's largest library if she ever became crazy enough to dive in.
Distance and barriers both blocked, or at least muddled, the psychic Bond that held them together. She knew of only one source to create a total dead space, though. One thing killed the tether that tied her to Curtis and the rest of her kind more effectively than anything else. Unfortunately, its radius was only that of a few rooms. That meant she still had to thoroughly search for any hope of finding its axis.
She was so lost in thought that she rammed her head into the ceiling at the top of the elevator shaft. Her skull was meant to take much greater impacts, so she didn't miss a beat as she descended one level down the cable. Then she leapt from it, gripping small area in front of the interior door with her toes and pried them apart again. She already went across the top floor without sensing a hint of Lexine's "aura", so skipped it and sped across the next floor like a speeding bullet.
Upon not finding her – or any life – she found another stairwell (this one unlocked) and tried again another story down. She repeated the pattern of sprinting across a level and then zipping down the steps seven or eight times. Didn't dare to look at the ticking clocks, though the voices in her mind got louder by the second.
Then, suddenly, it all went away. Nicole hit a metaphysical wall that the Link was powerless against. That kept a few lucky people in Titan Heights safe from the entropic madness that infected millions of others. She skidded to a halt before hitting a literal barrier. This floor was the PACU, so she hoped the people here had enough of a chance to recover from their anesthesia to get the fuck out.
"Lexine?" she called, not caring if anyone else was around to hear her. Nothing but an echo. "Lexine?!" she cried louder, and her voice cracked like a teenager's. This was sufficient for the woman to stick her head out from a hall 50 or 60 feet away.
"Nicole, it's so good to see you!" she shouted, running down the hall and embracing Nicole in a hug. Could've used a more protective outfit than a hospital exam gown, but the doctor didn't have much of a leg to stand on when her outfit was little more than a lab coat. Nicole broke the embrace, fearing the hour already grew too late to leave without a fight.
Neither Curtis nor Gabe were here, so the women stood on their own. Them against the universe. In that, Nicole felt content. Despite the two being opposites by their very natures, there were few better teams. Which was good, since they'd need all their wits about them to survive and blast the Golden Marker to atoms
"There's something I need to tell you before we do anything else," Lexine tentatively spoke, tapping her fingers against her thigh. Nicole paused at the trepidation in her voice, and she somehow knew exactly what her best friend was going to say. It would've been great news in any other situation… but for the time being, she only thought of how much this changed things.
"I'm pregnant."
…
The Dead Space remake is finally out! I've waited since it was just a rumor to get my hands on it, and I'm happy to say it's met or surpassed all my expectations. If you guys haven't played the series and only know it from these stories (I know that applies to some of you), there's never been a better time to check it out. I scanned the game high and low for any references to Curtis – I didn't think it was impossible that someone who worked on it was a fan of these stories – but, as expected, I found none. Regardless, I hope this will lead to a revitalization of the brand. But now that I'm done praising the new hotness, I'll address some things that happened in the past.
In Ordination, I tackled the events of Dead Space: Extraction before I got to the meat of the story, which was adapting DS 1. I'm doing the same here, just with Mobile and the Extraction DLC for DS 2. Of course, I'm dedicated to cramming in all Dead Space media possible, but this also turned out to be a great way to give Curtis and Nicole their own adventures before they reunite! We never got to see them operate independently after Nicole became a Necromorph, and I wanted to show that they are competent on their own. Hopefully that continues so the two of them can save their friends.
I should also talk about the Boss. It's the final encounter of Dead Space: Mobile that comes out of nowhere, so I tied it to the Marker trying to sabotage Titan Station. I've had Necromorphs die in a growing number of ways, so I thought adding "collapses under its own weight" was a worthy addition. It also looks weirdly like a Langolier from the 90s TV movie of the same name; I considered having Curtis reference that, but it broke my suspension of disbelief that even he, someone who is familiar with the media of the 21st Century from watching so many films, knew what The Langoliers is.
Finally, I make a lot of comparisons and references to insects this chapter. That happened by itself, but I think it's appropriate that both Necromorphs and humans view each other as a pestilence. Don't know if I'll continue that, but it was a fun convention for one chapter.
Thanks to CelfwrDderwydd, CommissarDaniel, Urbanator and Kaijucifer for reviewing since the last chapter. As always, I appreciate you guys leaving your thoughts. See you next time!