Damned Are We

by Durman, Jason

  Samantha looked to the west, past the rows of wooden pews toward the alter to see a large, gaping

  hole in the wall where a large stained-glass window used to be. The high roof of the church, criss-

  crossed by various wooden rafters, was obscured in darkness.

  "Sweet!" Markus said, picking up a forgotten M-16 that was lying across one of the pews.

  "Lucky bastard," Jacob grumbled. "Trade you my shotgun and pistol for it?"

  "Hel no!" he shot back.

  They turned their heads sharply toward some incomprehensible babbling that drifted from nearby,

  raising their weapons. The sound was coming from behind a familiar-looking red door in the back

  wall of the church, next to a set of stairs that presumably led up to the bell tower.

  "It's a safe-house!" Samantha exclaimed.

  "And it sounds like there's someone already inside," Corvo said, walking up to the door. "Hel o?" he cal ed through the barred window. "Is anyone in there?" He saw a dark shadow shuffling around the

  room, muttering to itself incoherently.

  "Hel o there!" Markus called out, coming up to the door with the others. "Can you let us in?"

  The cowering figure in the room final y looked up at them. "I... I'm not letting you in until I know you're human."

  "We're as human as they come, son," Corvo replied. "I promise."

  "I d-d-don't believe you..." the man stammered. "The last one I let in... I can't believe she bit me. I should never have let her in... But it's been an hour. I must be immune... Better safe than sorry...

  Better safe than sorry... Better safe than sorry..."

  Corvo cast a sidelong look at the others. "This guy is nuttier than candy-bar shit." He turned back to address the nut inside the safe-room. "Son, we're immune, tired, and there's Infected in the woods.

  Now cut the shit and let us in!"

  "You just want to make me like you!" the man blabbed. "I can smel it in your blood. It-It's not going to happen! This is my church, and I have earned my salvation!"

  "I don't believe this."

  "What a dick..." Samantha looked angrily through the window bars. "Hey, jerk-ass, you're not gonna just open the door? Really?!"

  Jacob stepped forward. "Let me handle this," he said to the others. He cleared his throat. "We're cops! Open up!"

  However, the man on the other side of the door was not fooled. "You're not a cop. You don't sound

  like a cop. I'm not opening this door!"

  "Have a heart, we got a helpless old man with us!" he persisted.

  "Hey!" Corvo shot him a withering look. The war veteran turned back to the window, his finger

  tensing on the pistol grip of his rifle. "Son, if any of us get hurt out here, you WILL regret it."

  When there was no reply, Jacob raised his fist and banged on the door.

  "Who is it?" the man cal ed out in a sing-song voice.

  The biker's patience was wearing dangerously thin. "Wel , let's see. I'm Jacob, that's Grandpa

  Corvo, and there's Infected out here! Open the damn door! "

  "Sorry!" the unhinged man laughed. "I can't come out and play right now! But if you come back later after I finish my homework..."

  "That's it..." Jacob lowered the shotgun, strode forward and drew his M1911, pointing the pistol

  through the smal window bars at the cowering figure. "Open the door or I paint the wal s with your

  brains."

  "Jacob!" Samantha scolded. "Forget this guy! Let's just go!"

  However, the damage was done.

  "NOBODY GETS A FREE RIDE!" the man yelled, ducking into a side room. Several moments later,

  the church bel rang thunderously from high above.

  DING DONG. DING DONG.

  Markus looked up in shock. "What the hell is that?!"

  "Ding dong! Ding dong!" the crazed man's voice practical y screamed from inside the safe-room.

  "Dinner is served."

  "You've gotta be kidding me," Corvo growled furiously. "I'm gonna tear that bel down and shove it up your ass."

  Markus started throwing himself against the steel door in sheer desperation. "Mister, if one of us gets

  kil ed out here, I'm gonna shoot my way in there and beat you to death with my gun!" He stopped

  short and looked at the rest of his group fearful y as a din of ravenous growls and howling rose from

  the woods, intermingling with the thunderous ringing of the church bell.

  "Oh, god..." Samantha whispered in horror.

  "We have to get out of here, now!" he cried.

  "We won't get far," Corvo said sternly. "Every infected bastard out there knows our exact location.

  We have to stay here and hold them off." He motioned to the two doors to the outside. "Barricade the entrances. Watch the windows, too." He started to make his way up the staircase.

  "Where are you going?" Markus asked.

  The older man motioned to his sniper rifle. "I'm going up to the bel tower to pick off as many as I can before they reach the church." He gave them al an affectionate nod. "Look out for each other."

  With that, he turned and ran up the stairs while the others began pushing wooden benches, tables,

  chairs, and anything else they could find in front of the doors.

  "If we live through this, I'm gonna fuckin' KILL that guy!" Jacob growled.

  The sound of the ringing church bell could still be heard when Corvo came out at the top of the bel

  tower, cursing every step on the stairs he had to run up. He wasted no time, immediately setting the

  sniper rifle down on the stone ledge and bringing his eye to the scope. He looked down into the yard

  to see several Common Infected already sprinting toward the church at breakneck speed.

  BANG!

  The sharp crack of the sniper rifle echoed in the night. A flash of red burst into the air as an infected

  man's head jerked violently back, and he flipped over, dead. The sniper rifle fired off another shot.

  And another. And another.

  "Goddamn it…" Corvo muttered. "There are too many..."

  Samantha's body tensed at the sound of the sniper rifle going off upstairs. "Get ready," she warned, raising her shotgun.

  The pounding on the church doors began soon after. Samantha, Markus and Jacob backed away

  from them warily. A loud crack of breaking wood could be heard, and holes began to appear in the

  doors as the Infected outside the church smashed their way through. The survivors immediately

  opened fire, shooting through the holes and blasting the Infected away from the door.

  "Go watch the other door!" Jacob yel ed, looking to his right when he heard another splintering crack.

  "I got this one!"

  Samantha and Markus ran down the length of the church to the other door to see a considerably-

  sized hole already being smashed through it. Markus level ed his newly-acquired M-16 through the

  hole and fired off a short burst, kil ing the offending attackers outside. Blood splattered al over the

  door.

  "If Corvo is doing a decent job up top, I'd hate to think of how many assholes we'd have banging at

  the door right now," he commented.

  A shril and horrible scream echoed throughout the church. The others looked in alarm toward the

  safe-room door and realised that the scream had come from the bastard who had brought all of this

  down on them.

  "What's wrong with him?" Samantha asked, to which Markus shrugged.

  "Hey, shut up in there, asshole!" Jacob roared.

  "Window!" Samantha abruptly yel ed.

  Markus swung the assault rifle to his right to see several Common Infected climbing in through the

  shattered main window above the alter. He mowed them down as they appeared, sending bodies

  tumbling to the floor of the church with sickening crun
ches.

  Meanwhile, Jacob and Samantha fired their shotguns through the holes in their corresponding doors

  as more and more Infected attempted to force their way in. Two more appeared at her door, and she

  pul ed the trigger. A loud CLICK informed her that she was out of ammunition.

  "Shit!" she cursed, tossing the shotgun away and drawing her pistol from the holster at her hip.

  The two attackers smashed through the door, completely ripping it off its hinges, and began to attack

  the hastily-assembled barricade in their way. She put a bullet in each of their foreheads and they

  col apsed.

  "I need some help over here!" Jacob cal ed from the other door to their left.

  Samantha looked at Markus, who nodded, and then she ran back down the length of the church to

  help out the biker, while the former business man stayed back to cover the door and window.

  Halfway down the church, she was not prepared for when a loud crash came from high above her.

  She looked up to see that another one of the windows had smashed, and several bodies were

  tumbling down from above. She screamed in horror and threw herself out of the way of the

  showering glass. A number of Infected tumbled to the floor where she had been standing only

  seconds ago. Some of them never got back up. Three did, however, and though they were covered

  in hideous injuries, that did not slow them down. With bloodthirsty cries, they threw themselves at

  Samantha.

  She fired her pistol wildly, taking down two of them in a flash of light. The third one managed to fling

  its arms out, knocking her off her feet and into the pews. She cried out in pain, and wrestled

  desperately with the attacker. She managed to free her pistol aim, level ed it with one of the

  creature's eyes and fired, blowing out the back of its head in a foul explosion of blood.

  Jacob' shotgun boomed as he killed several more Infected in the midst of attacking his barricade.

  Automatic gunfire clattered from further down the church as Markus' M-16 went off in a long burst.

  However, another most-unexpected sound drifted out from behind the safe-room door. It was a loud

  and raspy cough, wet and sickly, and it did not sound human.

  "What the hel ..." Jacob muttered.

  Samantha presently came to his side, panting. "A little help!" she cried, firing her pistol at another group of bloodthirsty people right outside the door.

  The combined fire from the four survivors gradual y stemmed the flow of Common Infected

  assaulting the church, and the sound of gunfire finally ceased. Up in his perch in the bell tower,

  Corvo wiped his brow with a sleeve and sighed.

  "I can't believe we just fought them al off!" Markus exclaimed from down the church.

  Samantha shakily reloaded her pistol, just in case. "I can't believe that we're stil alive."

  "Yeah, wel I know one guy who isn't going to be for much longer," Jacob growled angrily, cocking his shotgun and turning toward the safe-room door. "Hey, asshole – "

  "Jacob!" she cried in protest. "Don't – "

  However, she too fell silent and they both stared at the safe-room in shock. The door stood wide

  open. The man inside was nowhere to be seen.

  Chapter 31

  Samantha and Jacob aimed their guns into the doorway of the safe-house cautiously. Where the hel

  had the guy inside gone? The biker slowly advanced on the door while Samantha covered him. She

  was not prepared for when she felt the horribly familiar sensation of something long, slimy and wet

  wrapping itself around her body.

  "HELP!" she cried out.

  The others looked in shock to see a long, pink tentacle snaking down from the wooden rafters high

  above, winding itself around her. Jacob squeezed the trigger and a flame exploded from the barrel of

  his shotgun, the pel ets piercing the long appendage above Samantha's head. An inhuman squeal of

  pain echoed above them, and Markus aimed his M-16 upward.

  The light revealed a hideous mutation. A tal , gangly figure stood on a rafter high above them, its

  upper body hunched over to one side. Its entire skin was a sickly green colour, and large boils

  covered its hands, and the entire right side of its face. However, the most distinct feature of the

  creature was its unbelievably long tongue, which draped down al the way down from its mouth and

  around Samantha.

  "Holy shit!" Markus cried, firing a burst up at the figure.

  A bullet hit it in the shoulder, causing a spray of dark smoke to erupt from its body with a hiss. With a

  loud slurping noise, it retracted its tongue back into its mouth and leapt away into the shadowy roof

  cavity. The force of the unravel ing caused Samantha to spin al the way around several times,

  before finally toppling to the floor.

  Jacob ran over to help her up. "You alright?"

  She jerkily nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm fine."

  "What the hel is that thing?" Markus hissed, running over and taking cover next to them in the pews.

  Hacking coughs echoed throughout the church as the creature moved again.

  "I don't know, but we've come across something like it before, back at the floodgates," she

  murmured, gripping her pistol tightly. " Ugh! " she said in a moment of realisation. "It dragged me away with its tongue! That's disgusting! "

  "How do you know it's not the same one from the drains?" Jacob asked, aiming his shotgun careful y

  upward. However, the roof arch was too dark to be able to see where the monster had disappeared

  to.

  Samantha motioned toward the open door of the safe-house. "What do you think happened to the

  church guy?"

  "Wait, do you mean to tell me that he changed into that thing?" Markus exclaimed.

  "Wel , he did say he'd been bitten."

  "But what is it?"

  "An ugly, green motherfucker who we're going to kil ," Jacob growled.

  A loud, raspy cough echoed throughout the rafters high above them. Markus angled his flashlight

  careful y upward, but the "ugly motherfucker" was staying just out of sight.

  "At least it's not a mutant octopus," he murmured jokingly, although the situation hardly cal ed for it.

  "It gave off some smoke when I shot at it. Some sort of defence mechanism, I guess," he said

  observantly. "And it sounds like it has smoker's cough – on a good day. It's almost like it's begging us to cal it a Smoker! "

  "Let's name it after we kil it!" Samantha hissed.

  "There it is!" Jacob yel ed, aiming his shotgun upward.

  The others looked up to see the creature perched on a wooden rafter right above them. However,

  before anyone could shoot, its mouth shot open in a wide and horrible expression, revealing a

  gaping dark hole behind its maw. Its mouth was opened so wide, it looked as though it had

  dislocated its jaw. With a loud hiss, a dark green cloud of smoke spewed out, enveloping the three

  survivors. They coughed and wheezed as they inhaled the noxious gases, their vision impaired.

  Jacob suddenly hol ered in distress. "Help! It's got me!"

  Samantha charged through the gas toward her friend's voice. She burst out of the cloud of smoke to

  see Jacob being dragged away along the floor by the tongue, which was wrapped around his left

  ankle.

  "Hang on!" she yel ed.

  Muzzle flashes lit up the interior of the church as she fired her pistol at the fleeting shadow of the so-

  cal ed "Smoker" in the roof arch. One of her bullets caught it in the leg and it screeched, releasing its grip on Jacob as it retracted its tongue.

  "I
'l tel you what, I really hate this guy," the burly biker growled as he picked himself up off the floor.

  Corvo heard sustained gunshots below him, but he assumed that the others were simply mopping

  up any Infected that had managed to break into the church. He viewed the surrounding area through

  the scope of the sniper rifle, and finally gave off a sigh, satisfied that no more were coming to attack

  the building.

  A series of pistol shots rang out below him.

  "What on earth are they shooting at...?"

  Markus cried out, firing his M-16 at flashes of movement in the roof cavity. However, the Smoker was using the darkness to its advantage, staying just out of sight.

  "Fighting this guy is like shooting at a damn shadow!"

  With a sickening THWACK, the long tongue shot out of the darkness above and wrapped itself

  around his waist. With incredible strength, it hurled him across the room, sending him crashing into

  the pews.

  "Markus!" Samantha cried out.

  She and Jacob ran over to help him, but the Smoker lashed out its tongue again in an attempt to

  intercept the both of them. Samantha threw herself over the obstacle, but Jacob was painful y

  knocked over onto his back. He gasped in pain, while the Smoker retracted its tongue with awe-

  dropping speed.

  "Markus, are you okay?" the former col ege girl called, coming to his side. However, he had been

  knocked unconscious from the fall.

  A yel of distress came from behind. "Samantha! Help – augh! "

  She whirled to see that the Smoker had wrapped its tongue in a noose around Jacob' neck, and was

  lifting him into the air, choking him. She fired desperately at the monster, but her pistol was

  ineffective at this range.

  "I'm just borrowing this, Markus," she said, picking up the assault rifle.

  She aimed at the Smoker, but her line of fire was obscured by a rafter. She cursed and realigned her

  aim at the tongue above Jacob' head. The church exploded with gunfire as she peppered it with hot

  lead. The Smoker screeched in anger and used its tongue to hurl Jacob at her. He crashed into her

  and they both tumbled to the ground.

  "Ow!" she cried out. "Get the hel off! You're crushing me!"

  Jacob slowly rol ed over. "Give me a sec..."

  "Dude, you're like twice my size! Get up!"