The Fifth Survivor - Epsiode 1

by Angel Ramon

  He casually jogs on the path that goes around Highland Park as he sees the flowers beginning to boom. When he goes up the hill, he walks towards the path towards middle Highland. As he enters the dark forest, George spots several young couples making out and spots some construction equipment ahead.

  He decides to jog up a dirt path up to where he sees the equipment and accidentally bumps into a young Hispanic couple who were making out.

  “Hey man, watch it!” The male says.

  “Calm down baby, are you ok sir?” The young female asks cordially.

  “Yeah, that’s my fault.” George replies.

  “Just be a little more careful dude, alright?” The male says in a calmer tone.

  “I will. Hey let me ask you something, you have any idea what those bulldozers are up to?” George asks the couple.

  “Dude, I got no idea. All I can say is I’m not cool with it. They just came yesterday.” The male answers.

  “Yesterday?” George asks.

  “Yeah, me and my boyfriend were sitting here when we saw all these big vehicles just going up to upper Highland. I don’t even know what company they’re from.” The female says.

  “Hmm… I’m a concerned citizen, so I’ll be sure to bring this up at the next town meeting.” George replies thinking.

  “Good luck dude, those people never listen.” The male says angrily.

  “Well, I’ll see you kids around. Be careful.” He says towards the couple and continues up.

  “I would be careful dude, those people will arrest you if you’re caught trespassing.” The male tells George.

  As he gets close to Upper Highland, he spots a few bulldozers picking up dirt and some guards guarding the area. He sees it is indeed the reservoir being worked on, but who was hired to renovate the area. Another possibility was that the city of New York decided that the reservoir should be placed back on commission after being closed for over 25 years.

  Despite the fact that the workers look innocent enough, George still isn’t convinced that nothing is wrong. His suspicions begin to ring when he sees men in hazmat suits walking out of the abandoned buildings. They are also moving in capsules and other funny looking objects. He studies possible entrance points and sees that the main entrance to the reservoir now has a gate with a padlock.

  The padlock looks easy enough to pick, so he has a point of entrance.

  “Cool, I got a way to enter. Might sound risky, but I feel there is something fishy about this operation and Hybrid has something to do with it. I’ll try to get in at dawn after all there is just enough light and not too many guards around or people in general. I’ll put on my camouflage stealth suit so I can blend in with the forest. I gotta see what’s going on in there.”

  He heads home and begins to gather his equipment including his dart gun, lockpick, mini-camera, stun gas, and his stealth suit. It’s 7 at night and he heads to sleep early so he can get to the park as early as possible.

  May 28, 2007

  Objectives: 1. Enter the construction site and investigate without alerting the guards. Also avoid deadly force.

  It’s six in the morning and the sun is getting ready to rise. He gets into his mustang with his stealth suit and equipment at the ready. He parks his car on Jamaica Ave and Highland Place where the hill to Upper Highland is nearby. Keeping a low profile he waits until there are no people around the area to get out of the car. Seeing the area is clear, he begins to run up the hill as fast as he can to save time.

  When he gets to Middle Highland, George stops for a minute to catch his breath and makes sure no one is around. A guard is coming in to duty and he hides behind a tree. As the guard walks by, he gets away from the tree and sneaks behind the guard. He punches the guard from behind and knocks him out.

  “I still got it.” He says under his own voice.

  After recovering his stamina, he begins to run up the dirt path until he reaches the gate wall surrounding the site. He spots two guards by the gate, he shoots both guards with his dart gun.

  Darts: 10

  Approaching the gate he is able to pick the lock with his lockpick.

  Lockpicking skill improved to Level 3!

  He opens the gate and sees the sun begin to rise. Seeing the reservoir up ahead he goes around to the left side to avoid many of the guards. Seeing many guards in the middle of the site, he plans to stay in the shade to blend in with the scenery. He spots a guard next to an oak tree and grabs him from behind putting him in a chokehold.

  Picked up a D5K Deutsche. This is an average powered sub-machine gun.

  Ammo: 30

  “This might be useful in case I do get caught. However, I should put my mask on just to cover my face. No need for the kids to know I’m a spy.” He says under his own voice.

  Putting his mask on and the machine gun on the back brace, he continues to slowly move towards the reservoir. Spotting a bulldozer, he hides behind the machine as he looks through a hole to see two guards having a conversation.

  “Hey Nikhil, you have any idea what is going to be built here?” One of the guards asks the other with a heavy Slavic accent.

  “Nah mate, this is all new to me. Only thing I heard is that Hybrid plans to reopen the reservoir again.” Nikhil answers.

  “Hmm… so it is Hybrid taking over these lands, very interesting indeed.” He says to himself as a forklift carrying unknown equipment drives by him.

  He sees where the forklift is heading and it seems to be moving towards the building that used to maintain the reservoir during its heyday. The two guards that were talking begin to head towards the building following the forklift. George sees this as an opportunity to cover more ground.

  Seeing the opening, he heads towards the first guard tower and bumps into a guard when he reaches inside.

  “Raise the alarm!” The guard begins to scream before George punches him in the face.

  “I think… not…” He says as he takes out the guard.

  As he climbs the stairs, he spots the guard patrolling the stairs. He shoots the guard with a sleeping dart. He hears another guard below who spots him ready to hit the alarm.

  “We got an intruder!” The guard screams in a Slavic accent.

  The guard runs towards the red alarm button and prepares to hit it. However, George lands a perfect hit with a sleeping dart right into the guard’s neck. The guard falls on his back lying down while George wipes the sweat off his head after nearly being caught. He picks up the clip from the guards weapon.

  Darts: 8

  D5K Ammo: 60

  Once he sees the coast the clear, George goes up the stairs until he reaches the top of the tower. At the top he spots a sniper aiming towards the reservoir bridge. George crouches and heads towards him. The sniper senses him and walks towards him, but George is able to land a jab to the jaw of the sniper knocking him out.

  The sniper nearly falls over the railing, but George grabs him and pulls him back.

  “Oh no, you’re not dying today! Get back here.” He says low.

  Pulling out his mini-camera, he spies on what seems to be an interview between Anthony and the news reporter.

  “Hmm… What’s Anthony doing here?” He says in his head.

  “Taking over the reservoir and rebuilding it is tough job indeed.” Anthony says.

  “And it’s an intense and time-consuming job at that.” The female reporter follows.

  “That’s why we’ve invested in machines like those forklifts and the terraforming machines you see here. We want the water to be as fresh as it can be for the people. So the kids can play in the summer and the old folks can take their clean baths at night. We promise the chemicals we’re bringing in are to clean the water and make it serviceable for the public to use.” Anthony replies.

  “Will you charge the people for the water?” The reporter asks.

  “Well, we would have to, but I promise that the cost of water for the residents of Cypress Hills will be the cheapest in all of Brooklyn if not all of Ne
w York.” He answers.

  “How about the hospital?” She asks another question.

  “My dear, as much as I would like to answer that question I’m afraid I’ve run out of time. Perhaps the next interview?” He answers.

  “Ok no problem, thank you Mr. Clark for that informative interview.” She says cordially.

  “The pleasure is all mines.” He replies and the female reporter along with the camera man leave the scene.

  “Snipers, back into position!” He pages the snipers back into guard mode when the reporters begin to leave.

  George wonders why the high amount of snipers is needed to guard what seems to be an innocent project.

  “Unless there is a threat of a terrorist attack, which I highly doubt something tells me I need to go and check deeper.” He says in his head. Spotting another couple of guards, he shoots them with darts to put them to sleep.

  Darts: 6

  Objectives Updated!

  Objective Added: 2. Enter the main building and investigate. Do not use deadly force on guards.

  When George is able to spot the main building from the top, he takes the zipline down to ground level. A couple of guards have their heads turned as they are unaware of George going down the zipline. When he gets back to ground level he’s able to see red lasers despite the fact they are hard to see during the day. With the sun rising, it begins to get into his eyes. However, he works around that and continues on his way.

  He gets by the first set of lasers and approaches a door that is locked. Trying to pick the lock, he looks behind him and sees a sniper laser heading his way. He rolls to the right as the laser goes by him and he’s able to avoid being spotted by the sniper.

  “Crap there must be something big they don’t want anybody to find out about.” He says catching his breath.

  As soon as the laser is safely away from his vision, he goes back to picking the door. He’s able to pick the door easily and enters. To his disappointment however, there’s nothing inside besides an old obsolete map of the reservoir from back in the 80’s. What he does see though is a back door leading around where the snipers are watching.

  Heading though the back way, he has spotted a back way around the snipers. When he leaves the door though, he spots a strange vine. Picking it up and feeling it, the vine is slimy in nature and has a strange texture to it. He doesn’t think too much about it figuring it was a vine that is just wet, so he puts it down.

  He continues to walk forward and then runs through until he gets to the next tower. When he gets to the next tower, he spots a few guards patrolling the area. Hiding behind a box, he studies the patterns and decides to pick them off one by one.

  One of the guards goes parallel to him and he sees the other two guards are not around. He sneaks behind the guard and chokes him. Heading back to hiding, he hears the two guards scream when they see their comrade down on the floor. They rush towards their comrade and George shoots both of them with his dart gun.

  Darts: 4

  While he picks off the three guards, he notices his ammo for the dart gun is running low.

  “I gotta start being smart on how I use these darts.” He says in his head.

  As he heads away from the tower, he can spot the building ahead. However, he has to cross the bridge and there is only one way through. There are a large amount of troops around though that would catch him fast.

  “Shit, what do I do here? I can’t just cross, they would make mince meat out of me. Hmm… that ledge. It might be my best shot, but I have to tread carefully.” He says as he spots a way around to the other side.

  Seeing a forklift, he climbs up to the top and grabs the ledge. The ledge is only big enough to fit half of his hand, so there is not much room for error. He tightens his grip as best as he can and begins to shimmy along the ledge knowing one mistake will send him swimming straight to jail.

  Press “A” repeatedly to shimmy…

  Now press “B” repeatedly to shimmy…

  He gets to the middle easily, but his hands begin to give way and begin to weaken. However, he knows he must continue to move.

  Press “A” repeatedly to shimmy… Nice

  Press “B” repeatedly to shimmy… Too Slow!

  George loses his grip on his left hand and his right hand nearly gives away. However, he uses his foot to gain his grip. He’s able to regain his grip on the ledge and is able continue on his way. Despite getting back his composure, his hands are becoming numb and the other side is a long jump away. Taking a long deep breath, he prepares to jump to the other side…

  Press “A” and “B” together to jump.

  Taking a leap of faith, he makes it to the other side. However, he doesn’t have much time to relax as he spots a laser close to his location. There is a rather steep hill that leads to the entrance of the building. Not taking any chances of being shot at, he rolls down the hill no matter how painful it might be.

  He rolls down the hill and falls to the bottom of the hole. Despite suffering a few bruises, he is able to get up just fine and sees the door to get in.

  “This old man still has it. I knew the exercise would pay off eventually.” He says catching his breath.

  He sees a couple of men in hazmat suits bringing in equipment into the building. While a guard is standing by the door, the two men enter the building.

  Dart: 3

  “What in the hell is in those capsules?” He asks himself.

  The door closes automatically and he picks the guard off with the dart gun. He sees that the door has a handprint next to it indicating that it needs fingerprints to open the door. While his hand fits into the reader, he doesn’t want to risk leaving his fingerprints or worse setting off an alarm due to a unauthorized handprint being used.

  Instead he makes sure no one is around and when the coast is clear he grabs the guard. He takes the guard’s hand and places it onto the reader. The reader accepts the handprint and the door opens.

  Objective 1 completed! Objectives updated…

  Objective added: 3. Find any incriminating evidence against Hybrid.

  Entering the building he finds himself in a hallway that is in need of repairs. He sees three doors in front of him. One is locked to his left needing a keycard, the door to the right is locked, and the one ahead of him is open.

  George has some experience with overriding keycard readers and attempts to hotwire the keycard reader. The reader proves to be harder to override than he thought.

  Requires Level 7 Lockpicking Skill.

  “Damn I can’t be here all day, gotta keep it moving. Maybe I’ll find a keycard along the way.” George says as he heads to the door to the next to him.

  He attempts to pick the door next to him and is successful in doing so. As he enters the room, he enters the maintenance room.

  Lockpicking skill improved to Level 4!

  A man in a hazmat suit walks down the stairs. Another man is looking at the computers, possibly looking to see how to repair them. He chokes the guard while covering his mouth to avoid any noise. After choking the guard, he sees a pickup.

  Picked up +5 Darts. Darts: 8

  He goes down the stairs as soon as the Hazmat guard enters through the door. Following the guard carefully, he wonders where the man is heading to. At first, he is tempted to shoot the guy with a dart. However, he sees a keypad and realizes he needs the guard to open the door for him.

  Objectives Updated!

  Objective Added: 4. Follow Hazmat Guard without being spotted.

  After the guard inserts the code the door opens. George runs through as quickly as he can before the door closes. As soon as he enters, he spots a box to hide behind. Hearing a noise, the guard looks around and finds nothing suspicious. The guard keeps moving towards the electrical room and uses the keypad to open the door. Once the door is open, George rushes in and punches the guard in the back of the head.

  “Sleep tight, cunt!” George says bluntly.

  Objective 4 Completed!

&n
bsp; Once the coast is clear, he spots a breaker that is off for an elevator. He turns on the breaker by flipping the switch. After doing that, he grabs his mini-camera and begins to take pictures. He sees the boxes. All of them are closed though. They are labeled, “Lab Equipment”. Perhaps they’re planning to build a laboratory here. He sees a set of plans on top of a box that he grabs and keeps moving.

  He heads back to the hallway and heads through the other open door that is ahead of him. When he enters, he finds himself in the pump room. There are numerous guards around and alarm panels not too far from the guards.

  “All those guards, damn it’s gonna be tricky to not get caught. There’s gotta be a smarter way…” He says under his voice as he hides behind a huge water pipe.

  When he looks to his left he sees several boxes stacked up and a grate close to the ceiling that he can use to sneak by to the elevator. Taking a deep breath, George begins to climb up the boxes carefully without attracting too much attention. When he gets to the top box he watches the guards carefully before he climbs up to the grate. Spotting the guards talking to each other, he pulls himself up to the grate.

  George makes it up to the top of the grate and begins to crawl slowly to avoid making too much noise. Crawling slowly he heads towards the middle of the room and watches the movement of the guards. He knows one false move and he’ll be spotted rather quickly. When he gets to the middle, he hits a part of the grate that is weak. The metal becomes loose and he nearly falls through, but the grate doesn’t fall to the relief of George.

  He begins to break a sweat and decides what he should do. He decides to take a risk and get on the side of the grate and shimmy his way around the broken part of the grate. When he gets around the broken grate, he gets back onto the grate.

  One of the guards hears a funny noise and alerts the others.

  “Hey you guys hear that?” The guard says to the others.

  All of the guards look around but are unable to spot anything or anybody. George remains still until the suspicion goes down. When the guards relax, he begins to make his move once again. As he reaches the end of the path, he sees the elevator below him, but the fall is rather far. However, he spots a shaft that is open due to maintenance being done on the elevator.