by Angel Ramon
“Hmm… if only I can find Herbicide, I could kill the plant by destroying its roots.” Danny says.
He looks at the map and sees the garden shed is just west of the flower garden. So he decides to take a detour towards the shed to see if he finds anything to kill the creature.
As he heads towards the west exit of the garden, he sees several zombies that rush towards him. Spotting a flammable canister, he shoots it and causes the zombies to burn. He exits through the west gate and finds the shed for that the maintenance man uses to maintain the garden. Before he can enter though, he spots a few flea drainers.
At first he can see the creatures just fine, but then the light on the outside of the shed goes out. All of a sudden the scene becomes dark and he’s unable to see the flea drainers. The flea drainers are capable of seeing in the dark due to their mutation giving them sight in the dark.
Danny tries to turn on the light on his rifle, but one of the flea drainers get on him trying to bite his neck. He’s able to overpower the creature and body slams it. Another flea runs and tries to jump on him, but he uses his rifle to smack it away from him. Finally, he turns on the light for his assault rifle. When he spots the flea drainers again, he kills them both with his rifle.
Keeping the light on for his rifle he enters the shed and finds an old light switch. To his surprise despite the switch and light blub covered in spider webs, the light turns on and it’s rather bright. He turns off the light for his rifle to save the battery and begins to explore the small shed. On the desk he finds some useful ammo for Maria.
Picked up +12 Flame Rounds.
However, he doesn’t find any herbicide or anything to kill the fountain creature. He decides to look further into the shed until he finds a panel leading to an underground chamber. Going down the panel, he spots some plant food, fertilizer, and even Hybrid Corp. products that are rather controversial. Looking at the other side of the chamber he spots what he needs.
Picked up Herbicide. This is what I need to kill that creature.
So he gets out of the shed and decides to use a herb.
Danny uses a Green Herb.
Condition: Fine
When he approaches the flower garden he hears a gunshot and rushes to the scene. He sees Nicolai and another HCBS teammate named Richard who is hurt.
“Hey Nicolai, what happened to Richard?” He asks Nicolai.
“Richard decided to take his own life… After all it looks like he might have been exposed to the virus.” Nicolai replies while sighing.
“Really? That’s the second man to get exposed to the virus, how can you be sure that’s what happened?” Danny asks.
“Well I would need to study the body and gather the data. However, he shot himself in the stomach.” Nicolai answers with a canned response.
“Nicolai, you sure you’re ok? What’s going on, really?” Danny asks sternly.
“It’s nothing. I’m just trying to get out of here. Just a piece of advice, don’t get too comfortable and don’t trust that Maria girl. She might be on our side for now, but she’ll try to get us later on. The fact you wear the Hybrid logo makes you just as accountable even though you’re just a solider.” Nicolai gives Danny a strange warning.
“Ok, I’ll keep my eyes open then.” Danny replies while Nicolai nods his head.
He goes back to where the water supply is located and sees a slot where the herbicide can be applied. Dropping the herbicide in the water he notices that nothing happens and he wonders why. However, he sees a switch for the spray function and figures to try that out.
Will you turn on the spray feature? Yes or No
You have selected Yes.
When he turns on the spray function the water sprays the creature’s tentacles and after a few seconds it turns red. The red water begins to get on the tentacles and they begin to wither before they die. The path is now clear for Danny to get out of the garden.
When he gets out of the garden, he sees the first-aid station up ahead and kills off a few zombies along the way easily. He keeps going until he reaches the first-aid station. Going into the first aid station he grabs a couple of items.
Picked up a cloth. This should cover Maria’s wounds.
Picked up a Super Restorer. Restores health and speeds up wound recovery.
When he gets back to the Garden, he’s shocked to spot Richard standing up holding his stomach up. Richard holds his pistol at Danny.
“Whoa! Where do you… think you’re going?” Richard says and continues. The HBCS is done…” Richard says weakly and angrily.
“Done? What do you mean?” Danny asks.
“Don’t play dumb with me! Don’t tell me you’re blind to the idea that there’s a traitor within the ranks. Hybrid… our own people set us up… We were sent here to be butchered and I didn’t shoot myself. I know… I know somehow you’re involved in all this you two-timing bastard! You along with that snake…” Richard accuses Danny of plotting against the HBCS.
“Richard no!” Danny screams. Before Richard could reveal the conspirator who shot him, he’s shot from behind by a mysterious person.
Danny checks Richard to see if he has a pulse. However, Richard is dead with blood pouring out of his body.
“Richard no! What did he mean by ‘traitor’? Could Nicolai be the traitor? I’m starting to believe this was indeed an elaborate setup.” Danny asks himself.
He looks around for the possible gunman, but he’s unable to find anyone or any evidence for that matter. Then he realizes that he has to get back to Maria before she perishes. He gets out of the garden and heads back onto the dirt path.
Danny turns on his light for his rifle and begins to head back the way he came. As he goes through the path, he remembers that there are fleshers in the area. So he gets on his knees again and crawls back, but during the crawl the light on the rifle dies out and the scene becomes dark. Not to mention that clouds have covered the full moon that was shining down before.
He keeps going straight and he bumps onto a slippery rock. As he tries to go down the slippery slope, the sound of a moving flesher scares him. He loses his grip and takes a fall down to the bottom. The fall isn’t as bad as he thought it would be, but he still suffers a few bruises here and there.
“Must have been my imagination but I’m ok now. I just hope I’m not too late for Maria.” Danny says in his head.
He enters the cabin where Maria is located…
Chapter 14
Danny enters the cabin and sees Maria still lying down on the bed.
“Maria, are you still up?” He asks.
“Yeah… did you find anything?” She asks.
“Yes, but you gotta get up so I can help you.” He orders her up.
She gets up and Danny begins to heal her back to health.
Danny applies cloth to Maria to cover the wound.
Danny uses Super Restorer on Maria.
Maria’s Condition: Fine
“How do you feel?” He asks her.
“I’m feeling better. That’s two I owe you.” She replies.
“Don’t sweat it hun. However, I think the monsters aren’t the only ones we need to fear.” Danny cautions Maria.
“What do you mean?” She asks.
“One of my teammates was shot and killed. The thing is I thought he had shot himself and so did Nicolai. Moments later though my teammate gave me a grave warning that we been setup by Hybrid and someone is a traitor in our team. It looked like he was about to tell me who it was, but then he was shot from behind. My suspicion is that it’s Nicolai, but of course I can’t say anything because I have no proof. However, I’m starting to believe that we have been setup. Listen, I just want to get out of here.” Danny gives a long explanation.
“I agree with you, let’s get out of here.” Maria agrees with Danny.
“Before we split up, I found a map of the area. The first aid station is actually a longer walk than you think. The reason I came fast was because I took the dirt path as a sh
ortcut. However, unless you have a light I don’t recommend taking that path. That is unless you want to be ambushed by monsters in the dark. Also take this…” He instructs her to take the main path.
Danny hands Maria +12 Flame Rounds
Flame Rounds: 12
“Thanks for the advice. Be careful out there. I’ll check here a little bit more.” She says as Danny heads out.
***
Maria’s Playthrough
Maria checks the small cabin more and doesn’t see much except for spider webs. As she checks the back, she spots a couple of things that catch her attention.
Picked up +15 Pistol Ammo. Pistol Ammo: 133
Picked up a Cabin Key. Danny told me there is a cabin by the First-Aid Station. This key probably opens the door.
Maria gets out of the cabin after finding nothing else inside and follows the main path of middle Highland. As she continues to explore she remembers this is the darkest and scariest part of Highland Park due to the amount of trees along with the numerous amount of hiding spots around. There is a flashlight in the cabin, but it’s broken and useless. The only light she’ll have will be from the park lamps.
Seeing the map she has to go a good half mile to get to the flower garden. She tries to run through the path, but as she would learn, Hybrid is well prepared. They have placed gates in parts of the path to help security catch up with trespassers. Next to these gates are security booths that are normally guarded with Hybrid security, but as Maria explores the guards have been replaced with zombies.
Whipping out her pistol, she begins to kill off the zombies one by one. What she doesn’t know is that dogs begin to pop out of the bushes and one of them runs towards her. She quickly turns around as a precaution and spots the dog rushing towards her, so she ducks under the dog’s attack. The dog slams into the gate and falls to the ground. One of the female zombies grabs her from behind and bites her slightly before she pushes her off.
Pistol Ammo: 123
She runs to get some room and the other two dogs prepare to attack, but she lands a couple of well placed shots killing the dogs in one shot. She kills the rest of the zombies easily and walks to the dog that is down. The dog tries to get up, but Maria shoots it just to make sure it doesn’t get another shot to get up.
Pistol Ammo: 115
She walks into the booth and sees a security guard who has been torn apart on top of a pool of fresh blood. The smell though is already rancid and the physical condition of the guard is enough to send shivers down Maria’s body. Covering her nose and trying to hold in her vomit, she sees a couple of items.
Picked up +10 Shotgun Shells. Shotgun Ammo: 22
Picked up a Red Herb. Can’t be used alone, but it can be mixed with a green herb to enhance the healing properties.
A button is seen and she decides to press it. The gate moves to the right opening access to the rest of the path. After the gate opens, Maria continues on her quest through the path. She continues down the path and kills more zombies as she goes.
September 10, 2013
“As I walked down the long path of pain, I began to wonder how and if I would survive. It seems that Hybrid was going to be harder to beat than even I could have imagined.
I still haven’t found a way to beat that monster. I knew time was running out and I had to keep my eyes open for a traitor. Looks like I was right that the HBCS and Danny were set up. Now for who was behind all this that was a question I would have to dig up as I went.”
She sees another gate in front of her, but this time it’s fleshers that are in the area instead of zombies. A couple of guards try to defend themselves from the creatures. One guard has his heart cut by the deadly tongue of a flesher, the heart is literally dissected. The blood from the heart and guard literally geysers out into the fountain of cement that will hold the pure red blood. The other guard is cut in half by a flesher that jumps and uses its sharp claws to cut through the man like butter.
After killing the guards the two fleshers hear Maria and begin to make their move towards her. She sighs and backs up slowly trying not to draw too much attention as they’re unable to see. She takes out her shotgun. While she takes her shotgun out, one of the fleshers uses its sharp tongue to attack her. The tongue hits her on her legs cutting through her ankle. Luckily for her the tongue doesn’t hit her directly, instead it sideswipes her.
Condition: Caution (Level 2)
Her ankle begins to bleed, but she can care less. She prepares to shoot her shotgun. The two fleshers begin to make their signature screech indicating they’re ready to jump and cut Maria in half. She readies her trigger finger and lets it rip. The powerful shotgun blast is enough to take the fleshers down, but to her shock it doesn’t kill them. She lets out another blast from closer ranger and the blast is so power that the claws on both fleshers both pop out from their bodies.
“Ouch that’s gotta hurt! Then again, let God sort them out.” She says humorously.
She begins to limp towards the booth seeing the cut bodies of the guards. A peaceful scene has turned into the Hybrid Corp. nightmare and one that will be a reality unless they’re stopped. She doesn’t put too much pressure on the cut ankle to prevent anymore damage.
When she gets to the booth she finds a bottle of water that is full. She drinks some of the water to help her quench her thirst. There is also something else.
Picked up a Green Herb.
Maria combines the Green and Red herbs to created a mixture of the two.
With the last bit of remaining water in the bottle, she decides to try out a trick that her husband showed her. She crushes the green and red herbs together and puts water on the mixture. After creating an ointment, she applies it to the cut knee. At first, the application burns her and she tries to hold her scream of pain. After a minute the burning sensation passes and her ankle begins to close up slowly.
Deciding to give the wound time to heal, she decides to stay where she is for about 15 minutes. She would stay longer, but knows daybreak is getting close and Hybrid will launch its missile then. So she gets up slowly and touches the switch to open the gate. When the gate opens she walks slowly not putting too much pressure on the wounded ankle.
Maria uses the mixture of Red and Green Herbs.
Condition: Fine
According to the map she is close to the flower garden and she continues down the path. She can see the flower garden close by and approaches the entrance to the garden. However, she sees something in the garden.
“Oh no! Not this bastard again. I can ill afford to have to deal with him in my condition! I hate to hide from my fears, but discretion is the better part of valor and I’ll live to fight another day or should I fight?” She is unsure of what to do when she spots Nemesis.
What will Maria do?
1. Hide behind the huge tree.
2. Fight to the death!
Maria decides to hide behind the tree.
She runs to the tree and hides. Carefully watching Nemesis, she is prepared just in case the creature somehow finds her. Nemesis walks close to her location and it stands there for a good 2 minutes. Maria begins to sweat like crazy worried that Nemesis knows she’s there and it’s just toying with her. Nemesis makes a groan while Maria continues to keep her cool the best she can.
Nemesis walks by the tree, but doesn’t bother to turn around or look behind the tree. Assuming nobody is around, the creatures goes to the west gate. It breaks the gate like nothing and continues on its way to the relief of Maria.
“Whew! That was close!” Maria says while her heart rate calms down significantly.
She goes through the north gate of the garden and finds the first aid station. Next to the station there is a cabin that is locked. However, she uses the cabin key to open the door.
Upon entering the cabin, she sees a pick up.
Picked up an Iron Pipe. A rusty but heavy Iron Pipe. Besides bashing a zombie’s head, is there another use for it?
She also spots a locked desk n
ext to where the keycard was left. She picks the lock on the desk and finds something inside.
Picked up +15 pistol ammo. Pistol Ammo: 130
After finding those two items, she finds a journal written by a worker of Hybrid who was staying in the cabin.
Bernard’s Journal Enry
April 14th, 2012
“Bok! That means Hi in Croatian.
As much as I love working for Hybrid, but I realize I really don’t like my job. I just love the money. I know it sounds wrong, but I realize that Hybrid is doing a lot of things wrong. Some of which are more than just unethical.
My supervisor told me that the Broken Arrow virus is supposed to improve the lifestyle of mankind. However, I went to the Cypress Hills Community Hospital and took a peek downstairs. I found out that they were spreading a virus capable of producing deadly B.O.W’s or in otherwords, Bio-Organic Weapons.
I got a feeling that they’re using the people of New York, the same people I grew to love as guinea pigs in their experiments. One would say it’s hard to believe that Hybrid is based off my home country of Croatia, but I’m not shocked. Croatia has always been a country filled with greedy capitalistic fat suits and they’re 10 times worse than America’s wealthiest. I know I shouldn’t say this about my hometown, but the truth hurts.
A part of me says I need to expose Hybrid for what they’re doing, but another one says that I’m as good as dead if I’m caught probing them. I hate to say it, but it’s true I will be dead if I snitch. However, I might die anyway if I let Hybrid continue to walk all over me.
This decision is so hard for me. Who knows suicide might be a much better idea. Besides we will all die anyway and taking my own life might prove more worthwhile than watching the world destroy itself.”
The journal entry ends there and oddly enough the rest of the pages are blank…
Maria is puzzled that most of the pages are blank telling her that the author was probably starting a new book and never got to finish. She thinks he either killed himself or Hybrid had him killed once they found his journal. What she doesn’t know is that Bernard was killed in the police station during the second bio-hazard outbreak.
