Damned Are We

by Durman, Jason

  He looked over at the floodgates and considered this course of action, impressed with the student's

  intuitive thinking. "You know... that just might work."

  With that, they climbed up a steel ladder to a higher catwalk, and then made their way over to the

  control panel. Corvo stepped forward and flicked the master sJaguar. The panel came to life, lights

  flickering on al over the display.

  Wel , looks like those generators are stil up and running… He looked over at the others. "Here goes nothing..." With that, he pul ed the lever.

  A loud rumbling reverberated throughout the room as the floodgates began to lower into the ground.

  Samantha saw the water level immediately begin to lower as it was released from the room.

  "It's working!" she cal ed out.

  At that moment, the loud rumbling was accompanied by ominous roars and howls echoing

  throughout the sewers.

  "Oh, SHIT!" Markus shouted over the deafening noise. "They can hear the floodgates!"

  Samantha gripped her Uzi nervously, while Jacob pumped his shotgun in anticipation. He took up

  position near the ladder, to make optimum use of his shotgun's effectiveness at close range while

  minimising danger to himself. Markus and Samantha got themselves into positions that gave them a

  commanding view of the room, and checked their submachine guns. The din of bloodthirsty growls

  drew closer, seemingly emanating from al around them.

  Corvo jogged over to her. "How are you for ammo?"

  "I stil have an Uzi and some M1911 clips left," she replied.

  The old man offered her his combat knife. "Here. Just in case."

  She blanched. "Oh, I... don't know. I already have enough trouble shooting them as it is. I don't know

  if I'd be able to..."

  "Take the knife, Samantha," he persisted. "They have no qualms with getting in close-quarters with you, and you have to be prepared for that."

  "What about you?"

  "I'l find another one."

  Markus was the first to open fire on the hordes of Infected that began spil ing out of side tunnels, drains and pipelines, murder on their minds. The others followed suit as the Common Infected drew

  nearer. Jacob blasted the top half of a man's head away as he attempted to climb the ladder, and his

  limp body toppled back down, knocking down several people below him.

  Gufire rippled throughout the large room, accompanied by wild, bloodcurdling screams. Samantha

  looked down in alarm to see several hands clawing over the edge of the catwalk. She redirected her

  Uzi downward and riddled the attackers with a hail of bul ets at point-blank range, sending them

  shrieking from the platform. A loud CLICK informed her that she was out of ammunition.

  "Crap…" she muttered irritably as she drew her M1911 from its holster.

  She fired her pistol wildly, taking down several more Infected and consuming another clip. She had

  just finished reloading when she felt something slimy and wet wrap itself around her, pinning her

  arms to her sides.

  " Shit! " she cried, struggling against the tentacle-like appendage. It started to pul her away from the others, toward a side tunnel. " GUUUUUYS! HEEEEEEELLLLLLP! "

  However, the others were fighting for their lives, and did not notice that one of their own was being

  dragged away.

  "HELP!" Samantha screamed again.

  The disgusting, wet tentacle dragged her into a dark pipe and around a corner. Barely managing to

  stay on her feet, she struggled with all her might, but could not break free. Suddenly, she

  remembered the knife that Corvo had given to her earlier. She fumbled her hand around her belt and

  grasped desperately for the knife-hilt. With an awkward twisting of her wrist, she managed to

  manoeuvre her hand upward and then sawed through the slimy appendage.

  Samantha heard a loud shriek of pain from somewhere nearby, undoubtedly the owner of the

  tentacle. It was stil wrapped around her body, but she had now managed to free one of her arms.

  She twisted her body around and brought her knife hand down viciously, slashing through it again.

  Another howl of pain echoed throughout the drain, and Samantha managed to free herself

  completely. She looked around fearful y for the monster to which the appendage belonged, but the

  creature was stil out of sight, around the corner.

  Just how damn long is that tentacle…?

  The rubbery appendage tJaguared, visibly wounded. However, it was still dangerous. It lashed out at

  Samantha again, tripping her. She landed on her back and gasped as the wind was knocked from

  her lungs. She looked up to see it lunging at her again. She rol ed to her feet, gripping the knife

  tightly with both hands and slashing at the tentacle whenever it came near. She engaged in a

  desperate fighting retreat against the snaking appendage and final y, when she felt that she was far

  enough, turned and ran headlong into the pipe system in a desperate bid to get away.

  She could have sworn that, in the wild swinging of her flashlight, she saw the monster emerge from

  around the corner – a tall, gangly figure, its upper body tilted over to one side. But there was no way

  in hel that she was sticking around. The tentacle chased her for a short distance, but then stopped

  short – its owner must have been out of range.

  Samantha kept on running for at least five minutes after that, ignoring the searing pain in her side and her shortness of breath. She did not dare to stop – terrified that the moment she did would be

  when the tentacle shot out of the darkness at her again. It was only when her lungs felt like they

  were about to burst from her chest did she stop, taking a moment to catch her breath and regain her

  wits.

  The direness of the situation hit her like a brick wall – she was separated from the others, and

  completely alone in a dark sewer system, filled to the brink with the Infected. She needed to find her

  friends as quickly as possible.

  She cupped her hands to her mouth. "CORVO! MARKUS! JACOB!" There was no reply, but she

  tried again. "GUUUUUUUYS! WHERE ARE YOU?"

  The only response that she received was dead silence

  Several more gunshots rang out in the floodgate control room, and the last few Infected toppled

  over, their blood seeping into the thin layer of water that was left covering the floor of the large room.

  The rest of the water had flown away into the side drainage tunnels.

  "Everyone alright?" Corvo cal ed out, shaking his head and trying to catch his breath. "Sound off if you're stil alive."

  "Over here," came Markus' voice from across the room.

  "Psssh, they never had a chance," Jacob said cockily, coming up behind Corvo.

  After a few moments of silence, the old man looked around. "Samantha?" There was no reply.

  "Hey, Samantha, this isn't funny," Markus said nervously.

  "Samantha!" Corvo cal ed again, feeling sick to the pit of his stomach.

  The three of them searched every inch of the room, and even took to checking the dead bodies to

  see if she was among them. However, they came up empty-handed. She was gone.

  Samantha crept through the drains, cal ing for the others. A quaver of fear crept into her voice that

  became more and more pronounced each time she did not receive an answer.

  "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

  She snapped her gaze toward a horrible scream from behind her to see an infected woman running

  at her, covered in slime and muck from the sewers, and loosely resembling Samantha's mental

  image of the "Boogi
e Man" that had tormented her when she was a little girl. Three panicked shots

  fel ed the beast and silence descended upon the drains once more.

  ...Except that this time, it was not completely quiet. Samantha heard a muffled sob nearby, which made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. More sobs fol owed, causing her to

  involuntarily recall the similar crying that she had heard in an al eyway back in Fairfield. The same

  crying that had drawn her, Corvo and Markus into a room with a wraith-like woman who had nearly

  torn them all to shreds.

  Her sense of déjà vu proved correct. With a trembling hand, she slowly turned her flashlight toward

  the sound to see the dark outline of another gangly, thin and menacing figure crouching hunched

  over, crying. Samantha recal ed the other woman they had encountered back in Fairfield, who had

  looked very similar to this one. The extremely thin figure, greying skin, white hair and cruel-looking

  claws. The Blair Jaguar Project was one of the first horror movies that Samantha had ever watched,

  and for some strange reason, the figure she saw hunched before her was how she had always

  envisioned what the Blair Jaguar would look like.

  Samantha sJaguared off the flashlight and crept away down the drainpipe in the opposite direction,

  hearing an occasional sob from the "Jaguar", before she heard footsteps in front of her. Terrified, she turned her flashlight back on to see a pale, blood-covered man approaching her rapidly. Without

  thinking, she raised her pistol and splattered his brains across the side of the pipeline. Dead silence

  descended over the drain system.

  Samantha's skin crawled as she took in the silence around her. With a shock, she realised what was

  so wrong. She could no longer hear the Jaguar crying. Samantha found herself nearly paralysed

  with fear. She slowly turned the flashlight back around to where the pale wraith had original y sat,

  weeping. There was nothing there anymore. The Jaguar had disappeared.

  Chapter 28

  Samantha stood rooted to the spot in fear. The Jaguar was gone.

  Where is she?

  The former col ege student presently remembered how agitated the last Jaguar had gotten when

  Markus had shined a flashlight in its face, and she reluctantly sJaguared off the light, plunging the

  area into complete darkness. Her skin was crawling – the darkness felt alive around her.

  She's stil in here with me.

  SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRK...

  Samantha's train of thought was broken by the horrifying sound of nails – or claws – being scraped

  and dragged along the side wal of the drain. It was like fingernails on a chalkboard, only a thousand

  times worse. The sound came from off to her side, tracing along the wal and coming closer. She

  braced herself and readied her pistol.

  The terrible sound abruptly stopped, and silence fel over the sewers once more. Samantha gripped

  her pistol tightly.

  Without warning, the horrible scratching started again, this time on her other side.

  SSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHRRRRRRRRRK...

  Samantha shook violently with fear, and struggled to hold back the tears that were on the verge of

  flowing. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and bit her trembling lower lip to stop herself from

  screaming.

  Corvo huffed forward through the drainpipe, not bothering to slow down for Markus or Jacob, even

  when they asked him to.

  "SAMANTHA!" he shouted again.

  In the panicked minutes immediately fol owing the discovery that she was missing, it had been

  decided to enter the drainpipe closest to where they last remembered seeing her. They cal ed her

  name, desperately hoping that she would be able to hear their voices and find her way back to them.

  Without any semblance of a real plan, Corvo felt incredibly anxious. What if she been dragged away

  into a tunnel and something had got her –

  "Samantha!" Markus cal ed from behind.

  "Is that the loudest you can yel , son?" the veteran snapped, slowing his run. "I was under the impression that you had a pair." He stopped and cupped his hands to his mouth once again.

  "ZOOOOOOEEEEEEEEEYYYYYYY!"

  The silence was abruptly rent by ominous inhuman howls. The search party stopped dead to hear

  the sounds of running feet coming toward them.

  "Um, I don't think that's Samantha!" Markus cried.

  Corvo shined the light on his shotgun further down the tunnel to see three Common Infected

  charging at them. "Ya think?"

  He and Jacob opened fire with their shotguns, while Markus hung back, firing his Uzi.

  "Die, you ugly bitch!" Jacob hollered, blowing away the side of a woman's head and sending greyish-

  pink brain matter arcing through the air. Silence fel over the sewer system once more as their

  attackers crumpled to the ground.

  Without wasting a second, Corvo cupped a hand to his mouth again. "SAMANTHA!"

  "Corvo!" Jacob said sharply. "All that yel ing is just gonna keep bringin' more and more Infected to us!"

  "I don't care," he replied stubbornly. "Unless you have a better idea, I'm gonna keep on shouting, and I'll shoot my way through a hundred people, if it means that Samantha is able to find her way

  back to us safely."

  "But she might not even be alive – "

  The biker's argument was cut short as Corvo grabbed him by the shirt and shoved him hard up

  against the wall again. Markus watched the scene unfold in a shocked silence, and the fiery look in

  the war veteran's eyes prompted Jacob to keep his mouth shut.

  "Don't talk like that," he said, his voice low, calm and dangerous. After a moment, he released his grip on Jacob and continued on into the sewers.

  Samantha stood irresolute, her haggard breathing being the only sound she could hear. It had been

  five minutes, but she had not since heard anything else. Was the Jaguar stil around? Was it

  watching her? She fumbled with her flashlight. Should she turn it back on? Start cal ing for the

  others? But she did not want to aggravate the Jaguar any more than she already had.

  She lifted her head when she heard something in the distance. It was faint, but it sounded like... a

  voice. After a few more seconds, she heard it again.

  "...Samantha...!"

  Her heart soared. Corvo! Thank God they're okay!

  She pointed her flashlight down at her feet, careful y turned it on, and slowly raised it to look around.

  She knew that if the Jaguar was stil around, and she startled it again, she was dead meat. She

  slowly shone the flashlight around the tunnel, and final y gave a heavy sigh of relief. Her tormentor

  was nowhere to be seen.

  "...Samantha!"

  She careful y set off down the tunnel toward the voices, fervently hoping that she would not run into

  any more Infected. The voices cal ed her name a few more times, before gunfire erupted from

  somewhere in the tunnel up ahead. Samantha broke into a run, the sounds of battle coming closer.

  Finally, she rounded a corner and saw lights, only to be shot at for her trouble.

  "Shit!" she cried throwing herself back around the corner. "It's me!"

  Corvo's sharp voice rang throughout the tunnel. "Markus, you fuckin' idjit! Hold your fire!"

  "Whoops! Sorry, Samantha!" he cried.

  She slowly came around the corner, and felt her spirits soar when she saw her comrades standing

  there, amid a pile of freshly-kil ed Common Infected.

  "Samantha, thank god you're okay!" Corvo exclaimed. "When you disappeared, I thought..." His voice tra
iled off.

  She walked right up to him and hugged him happily. "I've never been happier to see you guys," she

  whispered.

  Corvo and Markus smiled, while Jacob gave her a brief nod. Although he did not admit it, he was

  glad that she was okay.

  "What happened to you?" Markus asked.

  Samantha shuddered at the very recent memory. "Something grabbed me, and dragged me into a

  tunnel. It was some kind of tentacle."

  Corvo's frown deepened at her words. Just like that thing we saw back in the road tunnel…?

  "I managed to use the knife to cut myself loose and get away," she continued. "It chased me for a while, but I outran it."

  "A tentacle, huh?" Markus said in a worried tone. "What the hel ? Do we have a mutant octopus on our hands?"

  "Let's not stick around and find out," Corvo chimed in. "Let's keep moving. Samantha, you'd better hang onto that knife. I don't want you ending up like that poor bastard we saw back in the tunnel."

  With help from the blueprints Corvo had recovered, the survivors were able to find their way back to

  the floodgates without too much trouble. They were not attacked by any more Infected, but everyone

  was rather anxious to escape from the sewers after Samantha had mentioned that, in addition to the

  tentacle monster, there was also a "Jaguar" wandering around (or, as Markus colourful y put it, a

  "creepy Snow White crying bitch").

  "Through those pipes," Corvo said, pointing at the now-visible tunnels on the west wal of the room.

  They followed one of the narrow pipes westward for roughly a hundred metres, until they found their

  way obstructed by a steel grate blocking the entire length of the tunnel.

  "What the fuck!" Jacob growled angrily. "I thought this way was supposed to be clear!"

  "I thought so too..." Corvo mumbled, pul ing out the map once again. It was then that he noticed the red lines on the diagram that Samantha had pointed out before, back in the pump-house. "Ah,

  damn... These red lines must be indicators for these grates. The army probably had them instal ed to

  keep the Infected from getting through."

  "That's just fantastic. They did a wonderful job fortifying themselves inside the town, while not

  letting anyone else get in!"