[PM] [Earth] Week ---: Derelict

[K3]

The spy continued his trek, the labyrinthine hallways locking and turning every which way. Exiting the room left him faced with a grotesque sight. A body lay splayed across the wall, at least what remained of it.

The torso looked to have been eviscerated, a number of internal organs missing from the open cavity. There was no head, and only the left arm remained attached, severed at the knot of the elbow. The legs similarly remained, a small pustule throbbing at its left hip. As Caleb turned to leave, a vague sound echoed behind him.

When he turned back, the body remained as it was. Even through nerves, as the Lieutenant left it there, he wondered if he had heard anything at all...

A screeching whine pierced his thoughts, and he turned the corner to witness the alight form of Zakki Shihara. The air warped around the Chairman, bright green peals of energy streaking from his body as the orbs slammed into the pair of shambling husks.

Low groans echoed once in agony, before silencing. The female lay still, burn marks searing away flesh to leave nothing of her once-pretty features. Bone, blackened and warped from radiation, stuck disjointedly from the empty space that once held an arm. The tumor remained intact, swollen.

The male had fallen on his stomach, revealing a similar tumor on its upper left back. The third figure was struck but once, and Caleb fell back behind the corner as the plasma singed the hairs from his head. Steadying itself as the corpse dropped from its hand, its jaw parted to reveal a set of mostly-missing teeth.

The sound it emitted couldn't be human.

A screech echoed long and loud, but only for a moment. Another orb took its head off, and it slumped against the wall. A dripping pustule leaked a viscous liquid from its upper right arm, and Caleb stepped gingerly around it to catch up to the Chairman. Looking down at the corpses, Caleb could almost swear he heard that same inaudible sound again.

Then, another sound. Recognizable, the one they'd heard but an instant ago. With strength and mass they hadn't realized such ruined things could make, an answering scream bounced around corners, more eventually joining it.

As the threnody of screams and yells faded, the sound of shuffling seemed to engulf the base. Ambient scratching and dragging and for an instant, both the Lieutenant and Chairman saw one of the corpses twitch.

[ 411 / 839 ]

 

[OssumBunz]

Holding her rifle at the ready, Sachiko rounded a dark corner with apprehension. Each foot step planted with thought as she crept along the complexs derelict corridors at a speed that more closely related to a child trying to navigate their home after a bad dream.

Was it just her, or did her breathing sound unusually loud at this moment? With a shaky sigh the onyx haired woman attempted to calm herself while taking a moment to press her back against the wall of a hallway. Lifting a gloved hand to her face, Sachiko pulled her scarf back down from her mouth. When had the artic become so damn hot? Her nerves were getting to her, the creepy darkness mixed with corpses...not to mention that message that had been played, it was all sounding too much like a horror film to her right now.

Blue eyes hastily took note of their surroundings, a long hall with a pair of steel double doors at the end, the type that pushed open when you applied weight against the bar across its surface. A small shatter proof window was in each of the doors and a flickering light could be seen in the room which they led to, illuminating the panes just enough that she could see the heavy amounts of blood coating them. More troubling than that was the shadow that the failing lights casted on the back wall. Its form was hard to make out, but something told her it was a person hunched over with its head down, hard at work on something.

Had Sachiko been a braver person like those she'd arrived with, then maybe she would have investigated further, but instead she found herself staring down at the map in her hand. Two large rooms stood in her way, both were most likely occupied by whatever still lurked in the chilled base. Turning back and taking another route was an option possibly, but she risked keeping the others waiting if she did that. It wasn't looking like she had much of an option if she wanted to make it out of this situation in one piece, however.

Pocketing the phone, the young woman stepped away from the wall, unsure of her next move until something caught her eye. Positioned low to the ground only a few feet away was a white air vent. Typically such a thing would've been dismissed and she would have continued on her way if it hadn't been for its size and accessibility. The vent was two feet wide at least and just over a foot tall, it'd be tight but she could easily slip into the passageway.

With on last glance around, Sachiko got onto her knees and undid the two latches holding the metal vent cover in place. A surprisingly clean filter fell out before the new recruit crawled her way into the ventilation system and awkwardly reached behind herself to close the entrance.


(Going Gordon Freeman here...it'll be loud)

 

[MoonlitRain014]

In the silence that followed the strange whooshing roar of thousands of particles being forged into deadly plasma, there was another sound that, in its own way, was just as terrifying as Zakki's powers in action. It was the sound of what could have been thousands of shuffling feet that belonged to the corpses which appeared to be animated by some arcane force. The two he'd just dropped were showing signs of horrible life and his attention was drawn to the odd tumors that sprang from their slowly decaying flesh. There was little time to speculate because those footsteps were getting closer.

Turning to the Orpheus agent beside him, the lanky youth spoke in hushed tones, rapidly.

"I figure we've got two choices right now. We can either make a stand here and try to drive whatever the fuck these things are away or we can try to evade them and reach our target. What's your suggestion? I'm all for keeping on moving under the circumstances."

In response to the danger that drew nearer and nearer, Zakki manifested the shield of mephitic radiation that he was capable of generating. He had to be prepared for whatever eventuality came their direction. This wasn't going to be one of his better days, that much was obvious.

[214/1,448]

 

[Nargles]

The reiatsu around Caleb immediately dissipated as Zakki turned to talk to him. The main expression on his face was a look of annoyance. As powerful as his ability to hide in plain sight was, it only really functioned when people weren’t having direct conversations to him. After all, nothing signaled his presence like someone talking to the air.

“My first piece of advice is to stay quiet Chairman,” he whispered with a biting tone of voice.

He paused for a moment, weighing his further options. He worked better without others around him, as very few could match his speed and control. Realizing his stealth was no longer useful, reiatsu flooded from his body. Every being in the maze could feel his presence, even Sachiko, Masato, and Zakki could feel the all-seeing eyes of Caleb’s Awakening.

As the map information flowed in, his mind picked up hundreds of biological signatures in the base. “Making a stand here would be suicide, there’s far too many for you to take alone here. We have a mission Chairman. It doesn’t matter if we wall off this corridor, we won’t make it to the servers in time then. We need to keep moving.

“My server is on the lower floor, but my skill set is better suited to individual operations. I’ll leave this work to you,” the double-agent explained. He turned his head towards the signatures to the north. His eyes lingered on the still twitching corpses, a sense of anxiety growing.

With another blur he disappeared.

 

[MoonlitRain014]

After his rather abrasive encounter with Caleb, Zakki found himself contemplating the map that Masato had provided. Under the currently terrifying circumstances he decided to make his route to the servers as short as humanly possible. Leaving his radiant shield firmly in place, he rounded the corner and moved cautiously down a westward-facing corridor, every hyper-acute sense on alert for more of the shambling animated corpses. He kept thinking he heard those footsteps surrounding him but so far, nothing could be seen.

Now he turned to the south and found himself standing in a larger room that echoed with the thousands of different sounds amplified in the concrete hallways. He saw, to the west, the set of doors that would lead him towards the seemingly short path to the stairs that would take him down a level. He paused at the doors, his heart pounding, he was sure that he’d heard more footsteps and these ones sounded like they were closer. Shuddering, he put his hand on the door and prepared to push it open, expecting something to leap out at him with every breath.

[185/1633]