Damned Are We

by Durman, Jason

  "What the hel 's goin' on down here?" a gruff voice rang out from across the church.

  "Corvo, look out!" Samantha yel ed. "There's a – "

  Before she could finish her sentence, Corvo felt a painful slap across his face, sending him sliding

  across the floor on his side and into a wall.

  "What the hel was that?" he cried in shock.

  "You just got bitch-slapped by a giant tongue," Jacob said, smirking.

  "A giant what? " Corvo felt something tighten around his ankles. He looked down in shock and saw a long, rubbery appendage wrapped around his legs, seconds before he was being dragged along the

  floor. "Argh! Get this thing off me!" he yel ed.

  Samantha took up Markus' assault rifle again and aimed up into the dark roof arch. "Jacob, throw

  some more light up there," she ordered. "Your shotgun's useless at this range. I'll take the shot."

  Together, they both aimed their lights, tracing the tongue back to its source.

  "There!" she shouted, firing off a burst.

  The muzzle flashes illuminated the gangly figure, which quickly turned toward the source of gunfire.

  It released its grip on Corvo to retract its tongue and, with frightening speed, leap into the shadows

  again. This time, it bounded along the wooden rafters, landing directly above them, and spewed forth

  another blinding cloud of smoke. Jacob put a hand to his mouth, coughing profusely. He heard a

  loud THUD directly to his right, and swung his shotgun around –

  A clawed arm slashed him across the shoulder, and then backhanded him in the face, sending him

  crashing into a wooden pew behind him. Samantha swung her rifle around nervously, but did not

  shoot for fear of hitting Jacob. Al she could see in every direction was the dark, Corvoowing gas.

  Suddenly, a hideous face appeared through the smoke, a few inches from hers. It opened its mouth

  in a shril scream. Past its gnarled fangs, Samantha could see the phlegm rattling around in its

  throat.

  She raised the rifle – only to have it knocked from her hands, and then smacked across the face in

  the backswing of the same disarming blow. She stumbled and fel backward, but felt her fal arrested.

  She realised that the Smoker's tongue had wrapped itself around her chest, and was slowly

  tightening. She gasped desperately for breath.

  A gunshot rang out, fol owed by a roar of pain. The tongue released her and she fel painful y back to

  the floor. She was vaguely aware that the smoke cloud had dissipated slightly, al owing Corvo to line

  up his sniper rifle with the back of the creature's head. However, the Smoker's instincts had saved it,

  moving its head out of the way and letting its shoulder take the bul et instead. It turned to face Corvo.

  "Come on over here and gimme a big kiss, you limp-dick, ugly-ass son of a bitch," the old man

  growled.

  The Smoker let out another ear-splitting scream and began to leap across the pews toward its prey.

  The veteran cast aside the sniper rifle in favour of his pistol. However, whenever he fired a shot at

  the Smoker, it dove to the ground to take cover behind the wooden pews. They continued their

  standoff in this manner for a few moments, with the infected creature gradual y closing the distance.

  In a panicked moment, Corvo heard a loud slurping noise and glanced down to see the long tongue

  whip out from under the pews and side-sweep his legs, sending him crashing to the floor. He looked

  up to see the Smoker leap up onto the back of the wooden bench right above him and bear its teeth

  in a savage hiss.

  An abrupt and heavy staccato of gunfire erupted throughout the church. Several rounds pierced the

  creature's head and torso, and Samantha lowered the smoking M-16 in satisfaction. The Smoker

  gave off a final screech of pain, before its entire body imploded. An obscene cloud of dark green smoke Corvoowed out from the corpse, enveloping the entire room.

  Corvo, Samantha and Jacob al coughed and spluttered for a few minutes, and the oppressive gas

  was enough to wake Markus with a start.

  "Everyone alright?" Corvo cal ed through the fog. "Make your way over to my voice."

  After a while, everyone was reunited, and the gas was beginning to dissipate through the broken

  windows of the church.

  Jacob gave a savage kick to the crumpled remains of the Smoker angrily. "Stupid thing."

  "Show some respect for the dead, Jacob," Corvo said sharply. He looked over at Samantha. "Thanks for savin' my ass yet again. That's twice in one night. I reckon I owe you a beer."

  Samantha chuckled. "Looking forward to it."

  "Don't mean to be party-pooper, but we should get inside the safe-room before we get attacked by

  something else," Markus cut in.

  "Good idea."

  The survivors recovered their various weapons and then made their way across the church to the

  safe-room that they had fought so hard to gain access to.

  "After what we went through to get in here, this place had better have some beer," Jacob grumbled,

  closing the red metal door and lowering the bar into place.

  Samantha gingerly stepped past the dead body of a young woman lying slumped against one wal , a

  single bul et-hole in her forehead. She grimaced, and then turned to Markus worriedly. "How's your

  head?"

  "I'm okay," he replied, rubbing a nasty-looking bump. "It's just a bruise."

  "Don't pick at it." Corvo said gruffly, sitting him down on a wooden stool near the wal . "Do you feel like you're going to vomit?"

  Markus shook his head.

  "Fol ow my finger," Corvo said, holding up an index finger and moving it back and forth past his eyes.

  When he told as he was told, the war veteran nodded in satisfaction. "I'm no expert son, but I think

  you're gonna be okay. It's just a nasty bump on the head."

  "No beer," Jacob growled angrily from the back of the room. "But there are some bottles of water."

  He threw a smal plastic bottle over to everyone. "Bottoms up."

  Samantha looked around the room and saw that it was quite empty, with the stool and a bare

  wooden table being the only furniture. Aside from the dead body, the only real noteworthy feature of

  the room was an insane message covering an entire wal .

  BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY.

  Corvo fol owed her gaze and shook his head. "Like I said, nuttier than candy-bar shit." He lay down on the floor, propping up his jacket as a pillow. "Alright Jacob, it's your turn for the first watch.

  Everyone else, get some sleep. We'll move out at first light."

  The man in question picked up his shotgun and walked over to the wall near the door to get into a

  comfortable position for his watch, grumbling al the way.

  "What about food?" Markus asked.

  "We're out," came Corvo's simple reply.

  The young man's face fel , almost in unison with a loud rumble from his stomach. However, he was

  elated to see Samantha proffer a small, crumpled bag of peanut M&M's. He greedily grabbed a

  handful and tossed them in his mouth.

  "You, girl, are a lifesaver. I owe you one."

  She smiled in response and turned to offer them to the others.

  Chapter 32

  "Wel , here we are. The 'historic' town of Riverside," Jacob said sullenly. He was in a bad mood as usual.

  Probably because Corvo woke us all up too early, Markus thought, shaking his head.

  The four survivors made their way into the dreary town of Riverside and found themselves amid a

  scene of devastation. A mixture of abandoned and wrecked cars was scattered throughout the
r />   streets, among piles of rubble and dead bodies. Some were riddled with bul et-holes, while others

  had been clawed to death. The stench was terrible.

  "You know, for once, it'd be nice to visit a city without dead bodies everywhere," Markus

  deadpanned, crinkling his nose.

  "Get used to it," Corvo said crisply as he lit up a cigarette. As he exhaled, he noticed that there were a number of APCs (armoured personnel carriers, he clarified for the others) and various other

  military trucks amid the civilian vehicles. "Looks like the army was here at some point."

  "So where are they now?" Jacob pointed out.

  "Maybe they're further inside the town." The war veteran flicked the cigarette to the road and lifted his sniper rifle. "Only one way to find out."

  With that, the team made its way careful y through the silent streets. They cautiously kept watch for

  any signs of danger, but the area was dead quiet. The town was disturbingly empty; there was not a

  living soul in sight.

  "Where the hel is everyone?" Samantha muttered.

  "If I had to guess, I'd say that most of the infected ones came to the party at the church last night,"

  Corvo grunted. "That nutter sure invited a lot of 'em."

  "But where is the army?"

  Corvo did not respond. From his experience, if there were not any soldiers out on patrol in the open,

  then the area was not secure. There could be hostiles watching them right now. He maintained a

  vigilant grip on his rifle.

  "The main street should be around the corner," Samantha said after a while, breaking the silence

  that had fallen over the group. "Hopeful y there's a – " Her words died in her throat as they came to the centre of Riverside.

  The scene of destruction was heart-rending. Countless bodies, many of them in military fatigues,

  were strewn al over the street, expressions of pain and desperation frozen on the ones that still had

  faces. Craters, pot-holes and scorch marks attested to the abundance of explosives that had been

  deployed. In the middle of the street stood some sort of command centre, made up of several

  vehicles, all reduced to burnt-out shel s. The command centre was completely encircled by a ring of

  corpses, military and infected alike. It was clear that the army made a stand here, but had failed to

  hold the line.

  Markus hoped that some of the poor bastards had been able to fal back and escape from the town

  with their lives.

  Samantha gazed over the devastating scene of the failed stand against the Infected and sighed

  heavily. "I guess Riverside couldn't hold out. The Infected must have come in through the same

  sewers that we used."

  Corvo grunted, as though recal ing a bad memory. "Just like Charlie. Little bastards had a whole

  damn network of tunnels throughout the countryside to pop up right under our feet."

  " Now what do we do?"

  The older man was looking northward. "We're gonna die if we stay in Riverside. If we get to the river,

  maybe we can find a boat."

  "Sounds good to me," Markus replied, glad to have a plan again. "Let's do it."

  "Hold yer horses, son," Corvo said, sitting down atop a smal pile of rubble. "We need to stock up on supplies first. We're completely out of food and running low on ammunition. We should take the

  opportunity here to scavenge what we can."

  Samantha and Jacob walked down a grocery store aisle, with Jacob covering the front with his

  shotgun. Samantha trailed along behind him, cramming non-perishable food items into every

  available orifice in her backpack. The store was trashed, but there were stil some discarded food

  articles that had been left behind.

  "This was a bad idea," she said presently.

  Jacob said nothing and continued to walk ahead. She struggled to keep up with him.

  "We shouldn't split up like this," she continued. "What happens if Corvo and Markus run into another Jaguar? Or a Leaper?"

  "What happens if we do?" the biker said over his shoulder.

  "Exactly!" Samantha exclaimed. "Corvo's idea to try and find a radio outside was stupid! The army's not in Riverside anymore. We all need to stick together."

  Jacob reached into the shelf next to him and grabbed a chocolate bar. He tore it open and started

  eating without answering.

  "I mean, I know we're on the clock here, but I stil think that we can afford to take a little extra time to watch each other's backs," Samantha continued.

  They passed a cooler on the right, and Jacob began to prod cuts of steak aside in an attempt to find

  a piece of unspoiled meat.

  "Come on, Jacob," the col ege girl persisted. "Don't turn this into a monologue."

  "I didn't make it past high school, Samantha," he said over his shoulder. "Usin' big col ege words don't mean shit to me."

  "Jacob," she said sternly.

  He paused to look at her for a moment, gave a dismissive sigh, and then turned his attention back to

  the meats. He suddenly felt something hard hit him on the back of the head.

  "Ow!" he yelped, turning back to see Samantha grabbing yet another chocolate bar projectile from

  the shelf next to her.

  "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realise I was cutting into snack time!" she said, fuming. "And I also didn't realise that me caring about the other people in our group was cramping your, oh so cool 'lone wolf'

  style!" She hurled the second chocolate bar at his face in frustration.

  Jacob put up his hands defensively "Hey," he said warningly.

  "Just know that you're not impressing anyone with your 'don't give a shit' attitude. There are no

  dumb, blonde bimbos around here!"

  "Hey!" he snapped sharply. The force of his tone brooked no argument, and Samantha fell silent, staring up at him with angry eyes. "I ain't tryin' to impress anyone. I'm just being me. If you don't like what you see, maybe you should find someone else to cover your ass-cheeks."

  "Very funny," she shot back. "None of us would have made it this far without each other. I think that warrants a little respect, don't you?"

  "Whatever," he replied, turning back toward the cooler. He heard a rustle of moment behind him and instinctively ducked his head, just in time to see a granola bar go flying overhead. " Goddamn

  it! Knock that shit off!"

  "We're not done."

  The biker's lips were pressed into a tight line as he ran a hand over his head, obviously trying to

  suppress some less-than-gentlemanly behaviour. "Fine," he finally sighed, leaning back against the

  cooler and crossing his arms over his chest. "I'm just kinda sick of goin' along with these plans that

  never pan out."

  "And I'm getting real sick and tired of you doing nothing but complaining," Samantha shot back

  indignantly. "We'd be happy to hear your suggestions. But I'm sorry, at least seventy-five percent of

  the people in this group don't want to be fighting for the rest of our lives! We need to find an evac centre, before there are none left."

  "Like Riverside, huh?" he snarled. "What makes you think anywhere else is gonna be any

  different, huh? "

  She was silent for a moment, her eyes downcast. "I guess... I just want to believe that there are stil

  other survivors out there," she murmured.

  She moved off down the aisle and began to absent-mindedly pick more items off the shelves. Jacob

  sighed and fol owed her. They walked in silence for a while.

  "Listen," he began.

  "Oh, peanut butter. Can't forget that..." Samantha said a monotone.

  "I'm sure there are other people out there," Jacob continued. "Humans are tough bastards. We'll find a way to pull throu
gh."

  She looked at him, her green eyes had softening as she calmed down from their argument. She

  turned her attention back to her food scavenging. "Let's see… Peanut butter for me… Kit-Kats for

  Markus… What do you think we should get for Corvo?"

  "He was in the army, right?" Jacob snorted, swiping an armful of cans from the shelf into his

  backpack. "There."

  Chapter 33

  Corvo was taken aback when he saw Samantha and Jacob emerging from the supermarket, the

  latter carrying a six-pack of beer under his arm. "Are you crazy?"

  The biker dumped the alcohol on the ground and opened a bottle, taking a swig with a grimace.

  "Mmm, nothin' like warm beer... But I guess it's better than nothin'."

  "Did you hear me, son?" Corvo repeated. "I've got enough problems, without having to worry about whether some drunken idjit's gonna blow a second hole in my ass!"

  "Relax, Corvo! It's just a beer! Besides, I figured we could use them to make more Molotovs."

  "...Hm, that's actually not a bad idea," he mused. His look of thoughtfulness quickly turned to a scowl when the other man leaned back against a car, shooting him a smug look. "Alright, smartass. Since it

  was your idea, you can make 'em."

  Jacob fumbled and nearly dropped the bottle in his hand when the canteen of petrol was thrown over

  to him. "Alright, but I'm havin' a few first."

  The old man rol ed his eyes and walked over to where the others were sitting cross-legged on the

  ground, an impressive spread of granola bars, canned fruits and vegetables set out before them.

  Markus was eagerly scooping handfuls of Milo cereal straight from the box. Corvo accepted the

  tinned tomatoes that Samantha offered to him and prised the can open with his knife.

  "Did you have any luck finding a radio?" she asked between mouthfuls of a granola bar.

  He shook his head. "'Fraid not, kid. They're al either busted, or gone. I figure the army must've taken the good ones with them when they pulled out of town. By the way, I found this in the back of an

  APC." He produced a battered-looking M-16 and handed it down to her. "Merry Christmas."

  She shoved her pistol back into the holster at her hip and lowered the assault rifle into her lap. "Aw,

  gee, thanks!" She shot him a playful look. "But I didn't get you anything!"