by Ben Ormstad
Moved closer. Squinted to make out any silhouettes in the corridor with all the strange symbols on the walls. I couldn’t be sure, but it looked perhaps like something huge was passing through. Something that filled the entire corridor. Each of the torches on the walls extinguished as the dark shadow passed them. With each step, the ground rumbled. I felt the shaking all the way out here.
The sense of dread grew more intense. “This isn’t good,” I whispered. “This isn’t good at all.”
I had to make it back to Frida and Darius before whatever that was could get to them first. But that meant I’d have to run towards it, pass the stairs and turn the corner to reach the other hallway. What if I came face to face with that thing right at the stairs, all alone?
Fuuuck…
18
Anxiety clamped my chest as I ran toward the flight of steps leading up to the corridor where the thing approached. Again the ground vibrated when it stepped closer.
I passed the last cell on this side of the floor and entered the area with the stairway. At first I promised myself to not even look at the huge thing up there and merely turn the corner and get my ass over to Frida and Darius.
But of course I couldn’t stop myself. Like the gravitational pull of a humongous star, my neck turned and my eyeballs rotated in their sockets. I literally felt my pupils shrink from the terror I experienced as I glimpsed the beast making its way here. Just before another torch was whiffed out by its immensity, I perceived some details.
The daemonorg guards had been ugly, yes. And perhaps a little creepy at first, okay. But this thing. Oh, laaawd have mercy! Fuck me with a popsicle and call me Lolly, my wife said in my mind, shaking her head and basically throwing in the towel.
Its head alone was probably as big as a refrigerator. Beige skin stretched thin over the rugged, bulging skull underneath. Tiny, deep-set, red eyes above two holes posing as nostrils. The mouth… Oh, God, that mouth. The stuff nightmares were made of. Like a mix between a hyena’s evil grin, a T-rex’s razor-sharp teeth and a hippopotamus’ deadly, lower teeth. Foaming at its fleshy lips, strings of spit clung to its massive chin. Horns protruded along its jaw on each side. The width between its shoulders were so enormous that each shoulder blade almost touched the opposite walls in the corridor. Massive straps across its chest supported the huge weapon it wielded. It looked like the BFG from the old Doom classics. Or at least a rocket launcher. Darius wasn’t kidding when he said this place wasn’t meant for noobs like me.
Yet again the ground shook.
I forced myself to withdraw my attention, passed the stairs, turned the corner and saw Frida and Darius further down the hallway. He sat with his back against the wall. She kneeled in front of him. He had said nothing, but I assumed Darius was the highest leveled of us. He being incapacitated at a time like this felt like a cruel joke. Had I gone through all the struggle of saving them, just to end up dead by a gigantic demon-monster now?
This isn’t happening.
“Dex,” Frida said as I arrived. “What’s making the entire floor shake?”
“It’s a–” I began, but had to stop to catch my breath. The low stamina was killing me.
Darius looked up at me, a grim smile on his cracked lips. His face contorted in pain as he lifted his hand and pointed a finger in the direction I’d come from. “Don’t tell me it’s one of the big ones?”
“Remember the torch-lit corridor we passed after the white, sterile hallway?” I said. “The one with all the weird symbols?”
Darius nodded.
“A demon is coming, and it’s the size of the entire corridor’s width.” I shook my head. “I don’t know how it fit through the doors – maybe it actually spawned right there.”
“In other words,” Darius whispered, “it’s one of the big ones.”
The ground shook again. Deep rumbling vibrated through the brick walls. Dust puffed out from cracks in the ceiling.
“What happened to you?”
Darius groaned as he straightened himself up, then removed the top part of his uniform jacket. Blood dripped from the soaked fabric. A deep cut went diagonally across his chest and down to his lower abdomen. “A sneaky motherfucker with a machete came outta nowhere,” he said hoarsely and sighed. “This just isn’t my day, man. Actually, this hasn’t been my fuckin’ week.”
“Holy shit…” I looked at Frida. “But, can’t you fix this?”
“I could fix it,” she said, raising her hands apologetically, “but I exhausted the last of my MP to save you.”
Hope sparkled in the back of my brain. “But I have MP! I don’t need it at all yet. Take mine.”
Frida shook her head. “Unfortunately, no. Doesn’t work like that. It’s impossible to transfer MP in its pure form. Same goes for HP. I know Warrior-Medics have a special ability enabling them to extract it from people and store it in vials, but I can’t do that yet.”
The ground rumbled again, followed by a deep, nerve-crushing growl reverberating through the atmosphere. Instinctively, I ducked my head from fear spiking in my chest. Frustration coiled inside me like a feverish snake.
Another spark of hope tickled my brain. “But I’ve got consumables. They can heal you, at least!”
“Naw, man,” Darius said. “Neither consumables, scrap or even cash can be shared with anyone other than your team members.”
“We’re a team!” I pointed at both of them. “Aren’t we?”
Darius and Frida exchanged looks, as if I was being cute.
“What’s so funny?”
“We might be a team in spirit, so to speak,” Frida said, “but in order for us to share consumables, scrap or cash, which doesn’t function like regular items, we’d have to officially join forces.”
As the hallway vibrated anew, I said: “Then let’s do it right now! Are you with me or not?”
Frida crouched by Darius, put his arm around her neck. “That’s not how it works, Dex. Come, help me carry him.”
I grabbed his other hand, swung it around my neck. Together we lifted him. “I don’t understand why this stuff has to be so complicated, for fuck’s sake!”
“Rules make the game, son,” Darius said. “No rules, no fun.” His hoarse laugh turned into a rugged cough. Blood continuously ran from his drenched uniform, trickling onto Frida’s and my clothes. As quickly as we could – which was slow as hell – we assisted him one step at a time.
“Have you ever fought one before?”
When his cough calmed, he said: “Until we see it, I can’t be sure it’s actually the same beast, but I have battled big daemonorgs.”
“And… how did you beat them?”
“Never beat them alone. We were always a team of battle-marines, and always had the aid of equal-sized war-machines to rival them.”
I swallowed non-existent spit. My head spun. Knees shaking from all the running, fighting and now carrying this big man, I pushed forward another step. Looking at Frida, I posed her the same question: “Have you ever fought any big ones?”
“No,” she said, her face twisted from the strain of supporting Darius. As expected, she struggled more than me. She barely had the strength to move at all, even if her HP was full. “I’ve mainly dealt with other types of aliens in my limited time here.”
“Other aliens?” My mind instantly flashed to the Celestial cloakers. Was this the moment when Frida’s real affiliations would be uncovered? I stopped as it looked like her legs would crumble beneath her from Darius’ weight.
“Yes,” she said, “I’m training to be a sort of inter–“
The demon’s roar interrupted her sentence. For a second, it paralyzed me. It’s here. It had entered the hallway and was approximately fifteen meters behind us. Rubble fell from the ceiling with its every move.
“What do we do?” I said, doing everything I could to keep the fear in check.
“Fight or flight,” Darius said. “Kill or be killed. Is there ever any other way?”
Then, a click whic
h undoubtedly came from a large fucking weapon sent shivers through my spine. I met Frida’s crystal blue eyes.
We both knew.
Simultaneously, we pushed off with our feet, lifting both of us and Darius from the ground and plunged ourselves into the cell we were passing by. As we landed on the inside, an explosion which made the Ball-Buster grenades seem like child’s play blasted the cell wall to smithereens. The doorway, the surrounding framework and brick wall collapsed into uncountable flying fragments and deadly pieces.
In the following seconds, my ears rang with a high-pitched tone. I shoved rubble off me, elbowed my way up in a sitting position. More parts of the broken walls crumpled as the world trembled. The demon didn’t stop.
“Here,” I said, took Darius’ arm and dragged him out from the stone pieces covering him.
Frida got back on her feet. Carefully, she peeked past what remained of the doorway. Quickly turned back to us. “This won’t work. We must run.”
I agreed, but fought the panic and said: “We’re not leaving him like this.”
“Dex, come on, man,” Darius said. “This isn’t a place for noobs like you two.”
“It’s not a place for someone in your condition, either.” I placed the Daemonorg handgun in one of my jean’s item slots and equipped the Celestial pistol. Shining blue, I knew only about half the energy remained, but it was more powerful than the handgun. “Maybe we can hide you somewhere.”
Darius laughed hoarsely. “Dude, relax. I’ll spawn right back somewhere safe. I don’t even have anything to lose anymore, other than the days already passed rotting away in that hanging cage you saved us from. Oh, and while I remember,” he said, found both the handguns I’d given him. “Frida, take these.”
She was about to object, but he continued: “Even as a Warrior-Medic, you can’t survive in this world without at least a basic knowledge of handling guns. Get over yourself already.”
She looked at me. “They’re yours.”
I nodded. “Take ‘em.”
Even closer now, the demon roared a gut-wrenching, inhuman howl that made my spine prickle.
Darius grabbed both our arms. “Listen. Soon as that big motherfucker arrives, I’ll activate a Personal Specialty – Self-Destruction.” He pulled us closer. “When that happens, you make sure you’ve removed your low-level asses as far away from here as possible, cuz when I blow, this entire floor’ll probably collapse and bury and kill any living thing still hangin’ around. Got that?”
Wide-eyed, I nodded. What kind of morbid ability is that? His freakin’ specialty is to kill himself and anyone else in proximity. What?! Still, for the right person, it was the perfect way to go, I supposed. Like now.
“Yes,” Frida said. She didn’t look half as shocked as me.
“Hope to see you again sometime, big man,” I said. “Bet I could learn a thing or two from you.”
“Sure!” he said and coughed. Blood plastered on his lips. He wiped it with the back of his hand. “It would be great to get someone with your fighting spirit on the team. I’ll inform the commander and let him know you might join us. The godmadrigan army’s main base lies north-west of the Dead-Rock Highlands.”
AVAILABLE QUEST
LEARN FROM DARIUS
Meet up with Darius Hunter at the Godmadrigan Main Operating Base to ‘learn a thing or two’.
Rewards
XP: Unknown
Cash: Unknown
Items: Unknown
“Uhm, don’t know where that is, but I’ll find–” I said, but the heavy rumble that shook our cell stole my attention. Debris clattered against the floor.
He let our hands go. “Get out while you still can. I’ll delay the self-destruction for as long as possible, but when it’s time, it’s fuckin’ time.”
Frida swiped her hand over his blond hair. “For what it’s worth, I appreciate knowing you. Thank you again for saving me from that horde the other day.” She kissed his cheek.
“My pleasure,” he said, then pushed us away. “Now go, goddammit!”
She was by the ruined doorway in the blink of an eye, pistol in one hand and machete in the other.
“Fuck, Dex, I forgot,” Darius said just as we were about to leave. He waved his hand in the air. Something in his palm reflected light.
My leg muscles twitched and wanted to run like hell, but I managed to stop. “What?”
“Take this key!” He threw the shiny key ring with a single key clipped on.
It must’ve been a miracle, because I actually caught it in my free hand. “What’s it for?”
“Second floor, locker room next to the biotech lab,” he said incredibly fast. “I’ve placed a hidden stash inside the ventilation system. It’ll help ya! Run!”
+1 Darius’ Hidden Stash Key
Unlocks the hidden stash Darius has placed in the biotech locker room ventilation system.
We kicked away pieces of bricks and jagged stones and exited the cell – almost tripping over each other as a shadow swallowing most of the light in the hallway whirled over us like a tsunami. The demon’s giant feet trampled the ground right beside us, cracking open the floor’s stone tiles. A stench that reminded me of rotting corpses in a shit-stained barn wafted around it.
My Celestial pistol crackled as a bolt of electric current sped through the air and bit into the beast’s enormous stomach. Its beige, hairy skin got charred over its bulging six-pack. Multiple blasts came from Frida’s gun as well. The bullets dug into the demon’s chest, without drawing as much as a single drop of blood.
“Hopeless,” she said, tightened her fingers around my jacket and dragged me away from it. “As a level 9 enemy, these mediocre handguns won’t kill it unless we pepper it with loads and loads and loads of bullets.”
“HEY, ASSHOLE!” Darius yelled from the cell.
I fired one more bolt at the beast. This time the current connected with its face. The skin scorched, blackened and cracked as its eyes narrowed. The grotesque mouth opened in a snarl of nightmare-inducing teeth.
Darius made loud noises by kicking stuff around in the cell. “I’M THE ONE YOU WANT, SHITBAG!”
The click sounded once again, and we both knew we had mere seconds to find temporary safety. We sped down the hallway, jumped over the door that had blown off its hinges when the guards threw a grenade at me earlier, and j u s t reached the adjacent cell as the demon fired another rocket.
In a frenzy, I curled my arms around Frida’s waist and hurtled her into the new cell – then, as my feet left the ground after her, time slowed. Still mid-air, as she fell hands-first onto the floor inside, I heard the demon’s rocket swoosh behind me. The next nanosecond it hit the opposite corridor wall and exploded. The force of the impact sent me flying into and through the cell, over Frida. My forward momentum didn’t stop until my head smashed against the wall.
-40 HP
I blacked out.
19
I came to my senses with Frida hovering over me. Her white hair hung down and tickled my face. She pulled my arms and dragged me off the floor. Immense pain throbbed in the top of my head.
“Dex, we need to go right now,” she said, helping me back to my feet.
Knees shaking, I steadied myself on the wall. Wherever I placed my eyes, the blurry vision blended with smoke and dust twirling around us. Through my palm I felt the vibrations from the demon’s footsteps. Had Darius lured it into his cell yet?
“You okay?” she said, shoved away more broken wall pieces and stepped out.
I cleared my voice. “Yeah, think so.”
Back in the hallway, through the smoke, I glimpsed the enormous demon silhouette. Darius screamed and yelled while the beast clawed its way into him, pulverizing the broken door frame with each of its powerful kicks and strikes.
“We have two options,” I whispered. “One, run around the entire floor until we are back at the stairs by the entrance – or take the shortcut past the demon. If we don’t make it before Darius self-de
structs, we’ll at least have a surviving chance if we’re on the opposite end of the floor. On the other hand, if we run past the demon and don’t make it, we’re dead for sure.”
She glanced in both directions. Bit her lower lip. “But the shortcut increases our chances of making it at all.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “Shortcut, it is.”
Once again we ran, this time back toward the demon and the soon-to-be extremely lethal bomb known as Darius. My thigh muscles threatened to cramp up and I heard my lungs whistle in my throat as I gasped for air.
We passed the demon right when it ripped open the entire cell wall. Pieces of the ceiling loosened and crashed against the floor. The hole exposed Darius inside. I glimpsed him, pressed up against the inner wall. A lunatic’s grin on his face, eyes wide like a madman.
“Wait a little longer!” I shouted as we passed, then fired a few electric bolts at the beast’s horn-riddled, muscular back to distract it. The electricity latched on to the straps assisting it in carrying the weapon. One strap snapped. The demon roared in frustration, threw its massive rocket launcher on the ground and turned to us.
“You made it angry,” Frida said through heavy breathing.
“Yeah, right,” I said. “That jackass was born angry!”
We now saw the beautiful stairs up to the even more beautiful exit. The corridor with all the strange symbols awaited like a heavenly tunnel.
“We’ll make it,” I said. “We will make it, god fuckin’ dammiiit!”
As we bolted past the last cell, a huge piece of broken brick slammed into the wall next to us. It cracked into smaller stones that ricocheted in all directions. Some rained down on us, and a large piece of the wall broke free and crumpled over the lower steps of the stairs.
Feeling as if my body was on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion, I pushed myself to the limit. Dug my fingers into Frida’s blouse and helped her quickly climb over the rubble from the wall. We got to the top of the stairs, and flashbacks from when the guards had dragged me up here like a piece of trash appeared in my mind. Their corpses still sprawled at the other end of the corridor.
