Oh, look! I wrote something here for once. All of the other stories are made with AI Dungeon, because it used to be a hobby back when I was writing Part 1 and Part 2. Part 2 is also the only one I ever finished, and it's full of plot holes (The other parts aren't much better). Because this is my (very original) imagination, some characters are pretty much blatant ripoffs. I hope you enjoy this story anyway.
An overview of the (main) protagonist before we start...[]
Because he literally fucking died in the last part, and it happened very, very unfairly, Jack Scott is now a demon (Watching Helluva Boss literally once was a mistake). He has pink hair, and red cream-colored skin. Just like his father, he is emotionally sensitive and can't really handle stress.
Random warnings (PLEASE READ)[]
This story contains:
- weird shit.
- references to weird shit.
- people who are into weird shit.
- me projecting (This means more emotional stuff!).
- blatant ripoff characters.
- weeb shit (characters with animal ears).
- CONSTANT REINCARNATION (Toned down a bit in this part though).
Chapter 1: What Am I?[]
POV: Jack Scott
Well, isn't this just great? I wake up inside a huge fucking crater probably made by that psycho that wanted to kill my family and then himself.
In fact, I'm almost sure he succeeded. I can't see anyone I recognize. Or anyone at all, really. Maybe they survived and decided to leave without me? No idea, but I'm sure they wouldn't leave me behind.
It takes me just a tiny bit to realize I'm stuck inside a rock, and I can't move my legs. I'm actually familiar with this feeling (You can thank Jeffrey for that). After a bit of flailing my arms around and yelling (I'm a very resourceful guy), someone walks over to me. It's Derek. If you don't know who Derek is, he's kinda like my 4th cousin. Chubby and very annoying, and somehow inherited the red streak everyone in my family has. He grabs my arm, and stares at me. "...What do I do?" He asks.
"Just pull me out." I reply.
"That's what she s- Okay."
He pulls as hard as he can, and the rock I'm stuck in breaks, and I fall to the ground.
"Are you okay?" He asks.
I stare at my hands, and quickly notice they're a cream color. This clearly means that I've been reincarnated as a demon. "Wait... Am I a demon?" I ask, looking up at Derek.
"Yeah, seems like it." He replies, pulling me up.
"How about you?" You ask.
"I think I am." He says, just as the light from the sunset lights up his face, confirming this as true.
I notice a yellow ball, with a red flame emitting from it. It keeps floating up towards the sky, and then bobbing back down, as if it's tied to an invisible string. Slowly, I approach the sphere. I can hear someone's voice coming from it.
I take out the tablet that Giovanni gave me (If you don't know who he is, more on him later, or at least sometime), being glad that I still have the things I had when I was still human.
The high-tech tablet's screen shows a loading bar, which quickly fills to 100%. Text appears on the screen, reading:
Theodore Conway's soul
Age: 61
Stand: False Direction (Requiem evolution nullified by user's death)
Additional notes: I'd stomp on the damn thing, but there's no telling when Jack's gonna get outta that rock.
I walk a bit closer to it, and stomp on it. I try to ignore that it probably let out a scream when I did that. Staring at the ground for a bit, I hear it start to rain. "We should go up there." Derek says. I look up at him, and notice a slope that leads out of the crater. After a full 2 seconds of thought, I decide to walk up the slope with him. It takes around ten minutes to get out of the crater, and at the edge of the crater, there's a wooden gate, connected to wooden walls, which I can barely make out the top of a few guard towers, along with the light of a fire.
Rubbing my eyes, I knock on the gate. It seems pretty thin compared to the walls around it. Because the gate doesn't open, I use my stand's ability to pull it open. Surely the owner of the encampment won't mind. I'm familiar with him, anyway. I walk inside with Derek, closing the gate behind myself. It's almost completely empty, except for a few people by the fire in the center of the camp. "We should stay together." Derek says (I've never noticed how similar he sounds to me). "Good idea." I reply. I slowly walk towards the fire. Once I'm close enough to feel the warmth of the fire, I look at the three people sitting around the fire. One of them is a blue-haired guy with a blue minus symbol on each side of his face. I'm pretty sure it's a minus symbol, and not just two blue marks on his face because the guy next to him has red hair, and a red plus symbol on his cheeks. The third person is an annoyed-looking guy. He has white hair, which has a wide red streak in it. It's not straight nor thin, and it's not even in the middle, so he's definitely not related to me.
I take out the tablet again. "What is that thing?" The blue-haired guy asks. "It's a tablet." The white-haired guy replies, clearly annoyed.
I scan the blue-haired guy. Text appears on the tablet's screen:
Preston Magnes
Age: 17
Stand: Has one? Maybe?
Additional notes: He's... Slow. Makes sense, considering the situation.
Chapter 2: sweet like strawberry syrup[]
I look at Derek.
"Uhh... I kinda forgot where I sleep in this place." I say. (I definitely should've worded that better.) "Over there... I think." He replies, pointing to a big wooden building nearby.
I slowly walk over to the wooden building, and open the door.
There's a row of bunk beds with white bedsheets in this room. Instantly recognizing this room, I continue inside, closing the door behind myself. I walk over to the end of the room, opening the door. This door opens up to a small room with a window on the wall adjacent to the door, a desk to the right, and a bed to the left.
Flopping onto the bed, I fall asleep almost immediately.
I wake up to the sound of a pencil scribbling on paper. Slowly sitting up, I notice that the lamp is on. I definitely didn't have it on before I fell asleep. I look around, and notice a few things that are different. First of all: the chair has been pulled out from the table, there's a paper and a pencil on the table itself, and there's a fluffy pink blanket folded on the chair.
I get out of bed and slowly walk over to the piece of paper on the table. It isn't a notebook paper, it's an official-looking printed paper with a couple more papers stapled to the first one. The first one has drawings on the sides, which is where there isn't any text. One of the drawings is of a furred creature with a sort of white mask that's shaped like a wide upside-down teardrop. I hate these creatures. They look solid, but they can slide through vents like they're made of liquid. Even worse, they latch onto you when you least expect it.
I decide to look at the text on the paper. Above most of the text, it reads:
Do not allow anyone without proper clearance to access this document!
The Cure Process
Curing people of the VF Virus requires fusing with a symbiotic organism, most of which are synthetic.
| Name | Appearance | Host | Crimes committed by host | Symbiotic organism's compact form | Additional notes | Symbiote accepted host? |
| Ringtone | Basic dark gray | T████ L████ | Possession of important Ignis Corporation documents | None | Name censored on host's request | Yes |
| Lifetime Achievement Award | White, human-like face, but lacks a nose and mouth opening | Ryan Baxter | Extortion, bribery | A puddle | None | Yes |
| Dolciastro | Basic, but pink-colored | Dorcas Dolcias | Armed robbery | A fluffy pink blanket | None | Yes |
| Lime | Basic, but bright green | R████ C█████████ | Pickpocketing | A lemon that appears to be a lime at certain angles | Are we doing this on petty thieves now? | No |
| S.C. | Basic dark gray | L██ B████ | Physical assault & theft | None | It doesn't matter if what he did was wrong, he was just trying to stay alive. I'm going up to the council to ask to leave this project. - Dr. R████████ | Yes (symbiote acts as a suit instead of combining with the host) |
Below, taking up the rest of the paper is a segment labeled Escaped Symbiotic Organisms.
| Name | Appearance | Intended host | Symbiotic organism's compact form | Symbiote's means of escape |
| Butterscotch | Similar to melted butter, with an odd face | Blaze Ignis | A vial of melted butter (Containment) | Host and symbiote went missing before experiment could be done |
| Glow Worm | Green kitsune with glowing yellow eyes | G█████ B█████ | None | They just... Walked out. How did it get past security? |
| Name not decided | Very, very odd. It seems to be a █████-like humanoid ███. | Calmar Lupin | None, however, the organism was contained inside a robotic suit. | Unknown, Subject E.S. suspected to be involved. |
I stare at the paper for a bit. Staring at the part with "Dolciastro", my eyes slowly pan over to the fluffy blanket on the chair.
Shit.
Chapter 3: candy gore[]
POV: Derek Superbus
I don't know how I ended up taking care of a demon 30 minutes after running from a zombie horde over a pack of hot dogs. I don't know what makes me worthy of taking care of anyone, no matter if they're a demon or not. Did I mention that this demon is 18? He's 18 but he acts like he's 7 (Sounds familiar to me). Also, his name is Stardust, even though his dad (The owl demon one; he has two dads) insists on calling him Astrum.
Man, magic is weird, especially when someone is born from someone else's severed hand.
I hear a knock on the door. I walk over to the door, and open it. It's Megan, Owen's older sister. I'm surprised she's even on speaking terms with me, after I tormented her brother so much (I don't wanna talk about it).
"Hey." She says. "You've been missing for like a year."
"A year?" I ask.
"Yeah, you've been gone for a year."
"I'm pretty sure most people reincarnate into demons instantly, don't they?" I reply.
"I haven't any idea why it would take so long for you."
I stare into her eyes for a second.
"Dominic wants to go on vacation for whatever fucking reason." She finally says.
"He's rubbing off on you." I reply, ignoring the look in her eyes and changing the subject. "How can he even afford that?"
She stares at me for a moment, readjusting her hair.
"I have no fucking clue..."
"When do we leave?" I ask.
"Go find Jack, and then maybe we will."
I shrug, and walk over to the building where I last saw Jack. As I do this, I hear tiny, quiet footsteps with my own. Looking behind me, I notice Stardust walking behind me.
"I feel scared without you." He says, looking up at me.
I pause for a few seconds.
"Me too." I blurt out without thinking. "Come on, let's go look for Jack."
I turn around and open the door. The entrance room is completely dark, but the bathroom light is on (How the hell do they get power all the way out here?) and I can hear the shower.
I open the bathroom door because I almost never respect anyone's personal space and lean into the bathroom. Jack fully-clothed, in the shower, and is trying to get some pink goo off himself with the water.
I walk over to him and try to pull the goo off, but it won't budge.
"The hell do you think you're doing?" Jack says.
"I'M TRYING TO HELP!" I yell.
"I don't think it's working!"
I end up pulling the goo off. It goes flying out the door and splattering on the adjacent wall.
"How the fuck did that thing get to you?" I ask, concerned.
"Maybe it climbed in through the window." He says, staring at the neon pink splatter on the wall.
"Maybe." I say, pointing to where Megan is. "Go talk to her."
"Okay, if you say so..." He replies, leaving. When he's outside, I search for something the put the goo creature in (I've wanted one of these for my own). I search the nearby cabinets, opening every drawer. While doing this, I accidentally cut my right pointer finger, cyan blood begins to seep from the cut. The only thing I find that could hold them is some fancy-looking glass jar. I hold the jar up to the splat on the wall to scoop them inside, but they slide in of their own accord. I put the small jar in my pocket, ignoring that they'll probably spill out of it soon, and walk outside, closing the door behind myself and letting the moonlight wash over me.
Megan is talking to someone I don't recognize, and Jack is sitting down next to the wall. The person she's talking to looks like a closeted f- someone trying to hide their identity on the internet while also showing other people how they look.
"Shut the fuck up before I shove that joint in your pocket down your throat." Megan says to them angrily.
"What now?" I interrupt, not wanting this argument to escalate any farther (Usually I'm the one who escalates it, but mostly because I start the argument).
"I guess we wait." Megan replies, shrugging. "We're going by plane, and I don't know how easily Dom can get a plane, no matter how much money he has."
Chapter 4: green greens[]
POV: Debbie Puella
I'm in a bad situation here. I'm in the middle of nowhere, in a forest. Billy and I knew where Dominic wanted to go on vacation (Somewhere way out east), and we wanted to beat them to it. That was a bad idea, because now Billy is bleeding out (I have him slung over my shoulder) and we have no idea where we are.
I notice orange light coming from further up the hill I'm on. I slowly stumble up the hill, nearly tripping over some rocks as I go. I eventually reach the source of the orange light. It's a fire, right outside of a large house. It's slowly being extinguished due to the rain. There's no one by the fire, meaning I can't ask anyone to be let inside or anything (I know that isn't very smart, either), so I walk around the house, looking for an opening. I notice an open window on the back side of the house. I walk up the stairs to the porch, and climb through the window.
I end up in a room that looks fancy, yet slightly run-down. The floorboards are broken in places, and the ones that aren't broken, creak when I step on them. However, the furniture looks perfectly clean. I lay Billy down on a couch (I think he's stopped bleeding) and proceed into the next room. The next room is a kitchen. There's a man in a wooden chair, in the corner of the room. He has brown hair, which is partly orange on his right side, a slightly upturned nose, and freckles. He seems unfocused, but he's definitely breathing.
"Hello?" I say. "Are you okay?"
He sits up in his chair almost immediately.
"Oh, I'm grand." He says happily.
"Well, he's not grand!" I yell, pointing to Billy from across the room. He seems to be stirring awake now.
The man walks over to him, and wraps a bandage around his wounded arm.
"Thank you..." I say quietly.
Chapter 5: MONDAY[]
POV: Piro
I just woke up, and it's pretty early. I stare out the window, and notice the bright orange lights in the distance. I see them almost every night. It looks like a fire, but it's so far away that I can't tell, and whenever I do get close enough to see it, the fire is gone. Although, I do notice some wooden building around where the fire would be. I get out of bed, and look for something to pass the time until the morning, as when I wake up early, I can never get back to sleep. I look around the almost completely-white room for something to do.
I quickly take out a book from the bookshelf, before I hear loud knocking on my bedroom door. It's not like the knocking my father usually does. If he were knocking that loud, it would be because the ghost I have caused trouble, but it hasn't done that in a while. No. This is someone else knocking on the door. After a few minutes, while I stay still in front of the bookshelf, tightly clutching a book in my hands, the knocking gets louder, and it sounds more like someone is trying to break down the door. After a bit longer, the door comes crashing down. In the doorway, is the oddest-looking man I've ever seen.
He's wearing a tarnished and torn green jacket, and tattered light green pants. He's also wearing glasses, the lenses of which are cracked in a few places. I notice a camcorder in his hand, which has the same word scrawled on almost every empty space on it, but it's too dark to make out what word it is.
"Lynn?" He says.
I stare at him, noticing the bloody bandages on his hands.
"No, my name is Piro."
He stares back at me, confused.
"Who's Lynn?" I ask.
"She's..."
"She's here?"
I don't even know why I said that. I guess it's just an automatic thing.
"No. No. She's dead." He mutters, avoiding eye contact. "She can't be alive, can she? I saw her die."
"Are you okay?" I ask, but he continues muttering deliriously while switching between staring out the window and at his blood-stained bandaged hands.
"I saw her die..." He whispers to himself.
"What are you even doing here?" I ask, trying to get to the point.
He focuses on looking at me again.
"I'm taking you away."
"Why?"
"We'll get to that soon." He replies. "Just follow me for the moment."
He doesn't seem all that threatening, and I've been stuck inside my room for as long as I can remember, so, somehow, I can't help but trust him as he walks over to the front door and opens it for me. I walk outside and he follows, closing the door. It's dark out, and white flecks of... Something are falling from the sky.
"What is that?" I ask.
"You've never seen snow before?"
"Snow? What's that?"
The answer must be too complex to simply explain, so he just replies with "It's what happens when it gets really really cold." I also notice the slight change in his voice. He sounds like someone talking to their 5-year old son. The two of us walk down the snow-covered street. After a bit, he stops in front of a house, walks over to the door, and knocks. I hear the sound of someone walking towards the door, and the door opens. In the doorway is a man who'd look absolutely miserable if he didn't look so confused. He has a head that's sort of a tall, rounded square, eyes with brown irises along with circles under his eyes, dark hair that's almost black, and a rather large nose.
"Not to be rude, but who the fuck are you?" He asks.
"I'm Piro!" I say happily.
The man that lead me here doesn't say his name.
"I'm... My name is Ned." The man at the door says.
"Can we come in?" I ask.
He looks behind himself for a few seconds, before looking back at me.
"Alright, fine."
He opens the door, and the two of us walk inside, Ned closing the door behind us.
"Sit down," He says, sitting down in an armchair, and pointing to the couch. "and tell me what happened."
"I... I don't want to." The man that brought me here says.
"Could you... At least tell me your name?" Ned asks. At this point, I notice what's scrawled onto the camcorder the man is holding. Every single inch of the camcorder has "OUTLAST" scrawled onto it, which glows brightly green, and is getting brighter the tighter the man grips it. The text changes to what seem to be his thoughts, but they don't make any sense. I stare at the changing text for a moment. There's things like "What radio towers?", "Lynn?", "I don't want to believe anymore.", and "Why can't I help?".
"What's your name, anyway?" I ask the man.
"I'm Jake." He says.
"If you don't have anywhere to stay, you can stay here." Ned suggests.
Jake stares at Ned for a moment.
"T-Thank you."
"You can sleep over there." Ned says, pointing to a couch.
Jake says nothing. Instead, he lays down on the couch and falls asleep almost instantly.
"So, how did you get here?" Ned asks me.
"Jake brought me." I reply.
"Where were you before he did?"
"At my house, somewhere down the street." I say, sounding like I haven't been stuck in my room for almost my whole life.
"You should stay here for right now." Ned replies. "I don't think it's safe to be out there right now."
He leads me into a small bedroom with a bed next to the window, and a lamp on a bedside table. I get in bed, and Ned leaves the room.
I can finally sleep.
Chapter 6: Passage[]
POV: Robert
Falling towards a snowy city, in the middle of the sky. Was this a good idea? Probably not. But I don't really have a choice If we want to find what happened to Jack. Yeah, I said we. My brother Wendell's following behind me, as well as my girlfriend Cherry. I can already see hordes of infected, looking like ants from this view. "I'm scared!" I say, barely audible over the howling winds.
"Robert, You're scared of pretty much everything!" Wendell replies.
"Yeah, but now it's reasonable!"
This is the place I died. If you've ever wondered, The infected are pretty much the entire reason I'm a demon. I was mauled by a horde of infected, but I didn't die immediately. It left me crippled and bleeding, And I died soon after that.
If it wasn't for Jack, I never would've came back here. I've already been a demon for 4 years, so I don't know what state the city's in.
So I've made a huge sacrifice in coming here. But, I can't stand around and do nothing. If Jack is still alive, I'm gonna have to find a way to help him. We finally land on the ground, in a long street, The only infected in the street are sleeping, their backs hunched over.
"What are they do-"
"Wendell, shut up!"
We walk over to a fence, overlooking a gigantic crater.
The scenic view is interrupted by an infected in a hazmat suit.
Cherry slowly pulls out a revolver from a holster, obviously scared.
"Cherry, no, you'll wake them up!" I whisper, somehow convincing her to put it back.
A metal box with a red blinking light shoots out a bolt of electricity towards a nearby generator, causing the sirens above it to start blaring. The area becomes louder as the infected wake up, and start walking down the street.
"Robert, what is that?" Wendell asks.
"No idea." I answer.
Cherry takes out her revolver again and shoots the infected directly in the face, knocking it back, as the other infected slowly shamble towards us. We start running into the building, Wendell smashes open the door, while me and Cherry barricade it. We hear the screams of infected over the deafening sirens.
I run upstairs, Cherry and Wendell following behind. We run into what looks like a hotel's hallway, and run inside one of the rooms. Wendell shoves a bookshelf in front of the door, while I close it and lock it.
"Well, any good ideas?" Wendell asks.
"I have one." I say.
"He asked for good ideas, Robert." Cherry replies.
"Yeah, but-"
I'm interrupted by the door in the room being smashed open, causing the bookshelf to be flung away.
A man stands there, in the door's place.
"Well, it's about time I've found you. He wants you alive, but... He's not here."
He draws a long sword from a sheath on his hip. I barely get any time to move before he slices off my left arm, and charges towards me and Wendell, pushing us out the window. I can't think of anything to do, so I simply let my body fall.
As I hit the ground, the man grabs me by the collar of my shirt. His grip is iron-tight, and his eyes seem to be locked onto mine. "I expected better from the boy who killed an Elite."
He throws me onto the ground, and I can finally get a good look at him.parts of his body are replaced with black metal prosthetics, and his torso has been replaced entirely. A long scar across his left eye only serves to make him even more intimidating. His sword resembles a long, serrated machete, with a glowing yellow edge.
He throws it directly above my head, before dashing toward me and punching me in the face, knocking me out.
Chapter 7: Horizon[]
POV: Jack Scott
I wake up to the sound of a book falling on the floor. I slowly get up out of bed, and notice that Nico is out of his bed, and that the door to the balcony is open. I walk over to the balcony, and as the moon lights up my face, I notice Nico leaning over the balcony's railing.
"Come on, you should go to bed." I say, sounding a lot like my dad.
"Why should I?" Nico asks.
"You could hurt yourself like that."
I grab his hand, and lead him over to his bed. As soon as I let go, he bites my hand, grabs me, and rushes over to the balcony, before jumping off of it. My Stand tries to get him off of me, but he's too strong. "This would be easier if you were the only one falling!" I complain, right before Nico punches me in the face. "Get away from me!" He yells. "You're gonna get yourself killed!" I fall onto the parking lot, making a small crater. I can barely move because of how painful this is. Nico runs off into an alleyway and out of sight.
A few men walk out from the shadows, and slowly approach me.
They're all wearing leather armor and black shirts with red stripes. As I get up, I feel the pain from Nico's bite intensify. It feels like I've been stabbed all the way through the hand with sharp teeth. When my torso feels like it's going to burst, I start screaming. My Stand looks like they're being torn to pieces. The men run away, and my whole body grows slightly larger. I feel hair sprouting from everywhere on my body and it feels like needles tearing through my back. Fortunately, it then stops hurting. The hair growing on me feels like slight pinches now, but my back aches. I gingerly pick myself up off the ground, and limp over to a purple light next to a concrete wall. The only thing I truly know about the world at this point, are that there are zombies everywhere, and they seem to hate these lights.
I stare at my hands and my feet, which have changed quite a bit. I'm covered in white fur, and the fur on my hands are red. My hands have 4 fingers each, and I have two claws between each finger. Not knowing else to do, and additionally not knowing if I can climb with everything aching, I jump up, put my hands on top of a wall, and pull myself up, which is surprisingly easy. I continue walking along the top of the wall, warily looking around. I hear some yelling from a nearby tunnel, and then some gunshots. I run over towards the tunnel, and crawl under a car, barely noticing how fast I'm doing it. Around five men are stationed inside the tunnel. Crawling over towards the end of the car, I notice that they're pointing their guns to a concrete wall that has a gaping hole in it, and quite a few infected are limping through. Some of the infected have split jaws, but they don't seem to be as much of a problem to the men, as the purple light burns their skin and they fall over dead.
A few faster infected run through the hole. The men gun them down, but not before noticing a fourth one in a hazmat suit that runs towards them and explodes, leaving a red mist behind. I crawl out from under the car, and when the mist clears, two of the men are dead, and one is wounded. I run over to the wounded man, and crouch down next to him. He has bright red hair that fades into bright blue. "Hey, come on." I say, picking him up with ease and carrying him on my shoulder. "What are you even doing here?" I hear a roaring noise at the end of the tunnel, and the sound of a pileup of cars being thrown aside. "We were trying to keep the infected from getting here..." He says, as a giant infected blasts through.
"Holy shit!" I yell.
It's a huge infected, wearing riot armor that barely fits from how huge it is, and I'm barely half as tall as it. The only man still standing starts firing at it, but he gets knocked over by the infected's fist, colliding with the right side of the tunnel and falling unconscious. I pick up the gun he was carrying. It takes quite a bit of effort because of how big it is (And also because I'm holding it with one hand). I look at it for a few seconds, registering that it's a gatling gun with 3 barrels. The infected charges towards me and nearly hits me, but I just barely dodge out of the way.
I turn around to face the infected. Throwing the man over my shoulder out of the way, I aim the gun at the infected, and pull the trigger. No bullets come out. My stand appears, turns towards the tunnel, and points their arm out. A few bullets fly into their open palm. I point to the infected, dropping the gatling gun, and my Stand launches the bullets at their head. The bullets hit their helmet, breaking it and revealing a glowing yellow pustule. They charge towards me, and once again, I barely dodge it.
"Get some more bullets!" I tell my Stand. I hear a growl. Slowly turning around, I realize that the huge infected is right in front of me now. They elbow me and I collide with the wall nearby. I get up, now noticing that it hurts to breathe.
"That's quite enough." I hear a voice say. "I was told to incapacitate and capture him, not to kill him."
A man wearing a button-up red shirt walks up to me. A cloth mask covers the lower part of his face. "Who are you?" I try to say, but nothing comes out.
"You're done here." He says, looking up towards the infected.
He raises up his right arm, and makes a fist. The pustule on the hulking infected's head bursts, killing them. They fall over on the road with a loud thud. The ground starts cracking below its body. The man shoves his hand into my chest, and tears something out, splattering blood onto his pants. I try to get up, but he pushes me back down, and I'm too weak to move. He holds whatever it is out in front of himself, and it turns into an ivory sword. He holds me against the wall, and hands me the sword. He takes his hand off my arm and walks away. I raise the ivory sword up above him, and try to slice him in half. In less than a second, he's turned around and gripped the sword with his hand. His arm has turned pale brown with a leathery texture, and there's glowing yellow pustules that look like eyes all over it.
"You'll have to do better than that."
He lets go and I try to slice of his head, but he grabs the sword again. I do this several times before the sword ends up stuck in the ground, which starts cracking. The ground breaks open, and I fall, landing on the top of a moving subway train. The man falls too, and he ends up in front of me.
"Tell me who you are!" I demand.
"My name is Edward." He says. "Not that it matters, but you won't have enough time to figure out anything else about who I am."
"So... Nothing about you, huh?" I say, sneering at him. "Why are you here? That's not something about who you are, is it?"
"Well... Theodore was killed before I could get my payment." He replies to me, grinning. "I'm working with someone else to get my money's worth."
"Goddamn it. So I have to deal with Theodore's flunkies even after he's dead!?" I yell.
"In the event that you survive, you will." He says. "But you won't. He's made sure of that."
"He? Do you mean Theodore?" I ask.
He says nothing. Not noticing that he's now ready to fight rather than talk, I try to hit him with the sword again, but he jumps backwards. I then notice a metal hand keeping me on top of the subway train, and another keeping Edward on. They both have a purple glow. I swing the sword away from him, and then back towards him. I cut off a few of his fingers, but they regenerate somehow. That seems to be part of his Stand's ability. He jumps back and throws a sharp dagger at me. It sinks into my torso and goes out the other side.
I try to hit the metal hand holding him in place. When the sword hits, a few fingers are knocked off the metal hand, which is now just barely holding on. Noticing that destroying the hand holding me in place will be an effective way of killing me, he punches the hand holding me in place with his Stand.
I put the sword into my left hand and punch him in the face with my right, making his nose bleed. He punches the hand holding me again, and it breaks in half, splattering some purple liquid all over my legs. I stumble and swing the sword. The hand holding Edward slices into bits, right before I notice a bright light from up ahead. I then notice that the subway train is trying to stop, as there's some rubble blocking the rails.
Right when I realize the train's not going to stop in time, I jab the sword into the back of Edward's head, killing him. I black out. When I wake up, it's early in the morning, and the front subway train car is on its side. I get up and slowly limp to the end of the tunnel. The crash has cleared up most of the rubble, and has somehow not made more. I stumble and look down at my legs. They're not covered in fur (My whole body is mostly back to normal, it seems), but they look... Bent. Sort of just bent backwards. I'm too stressed out to really process it.
I continue walking, until I'm past the train car, which is when I hear footsteps behind me. I quickly turn around and the ivory sword appears in my hand, but when I realize it's the man with colorful hair from earlier. He looks exactly the same, though I hadn't really noticed how he really looked. He's wearing turquoise scrubs, and has a metal right arm and a symmetrical hand with spiked fingers. He walks over to me and picks me up, before putting me over his right shoulder. Really, the only difference from the last time I saw him was that he now has bandages around his waist.
"I know a place that's safe around here." He says.
"A place can be safe around here?" I say, exasperated.
"If you put a place deep enough underground, it can." He replies. "It's a bunker, of course it's safe."
"I feel like my dad would object to the idea of a bunker being safe."
"Well, the one we're going to is probably a lot safer."
"I'm still not convinced."
"I'm not in the mood to argue the whole way..." He says, walking into the forest with me.
"We probably will." I reply.
Chapter 8: shattered[]
POV: Derek Superbus
I wake up to the alarm on my phone... tablet... thing. It's the same thing Jack has. I pick it up and look at the time. It's 5 in the afternoon. I forgot I set an alarm so late. I know 5 isn't that late, but it's not close to 7 in the morning. I slide off the bed, and wake up Owen, my ex, and the person who hates me the most. His parents wanted him to go somewhere on vacation (Despite the state of the world), but he wanted to stay him. His parents got their way. Since my device won't shut up about some kind of "distress signal" coming from a couple of miles away, me and Owen (reluctantly) are going to go check it out today. I walk over to Owen's bed and shake him awake.
"WAKE UUUUP!" I yell.
"Alright, alright!" Owen says, quickly getting out of bed.
I walk out of the bedroom, and into the living room. Henry, a young, dark-skinned man with bee-like features, is laying down on the couch. He sits up and looks at me when me and Owen walk into the room.
"What took you so long to get up?" He asks.
"Long plane trip." I reply. "Henry, we're gonna go somewhere, because this tablet won't stop reminding me that some place exists." I hold up the tablet, which is vibrating as the notification flashes on-screen again.
"Whatever. Just going to get something to eat out here is dangerous," Henry says. "So I don't give a shit what you do as long as you don't get yourselves killed."
"There's a pretty high chance of that happening, though." I say.
"I'll care if one of you actually gets killed, not if you go somewhere unsafe." He replies.
"It's decided then." I say. "Come on Owen, we're going."
Owen, who is staring at the floor, looks up at me, and follows me out the door. I walk through the clearing with Owen, and into the forest. I turn on the tablet, and look at the map on it. It's a map of the surrounding ten miles. Most of the immediate area is labeled with a slightly transparent bright red and black circle, which has text over it that reads "CLASS 5 DANGER ZONE", and an almost barely noticeable smaller label which reads "ORDER BASE SIGMA". This seems to be where the distress signal is coming from. As me and Owen walk further into the forest, I tap on the danger zone label. A list of dangers appears, reading: "Area 'ORDER BASE SIGMA' has been classified as dangerous, due to infestation of such things as:
- VF Virus infected (horde variation)
- Mutants
- Hostile humans
Why aren't Stands listed? I think to myself. Me and Owen travel deeper into the forest, until we reach a river. I check the map on the device again. We're getting closer. "Why would a distress signal be coming from there?" Owen asks. "The Order's been gone for years."
"That's what we're gonna be finding out." I reply. We continue walking, until the ground starts raising a bit higher, which is when I notice a pair of black metal doors, built into a short cliff face. The doors appear to have been wedged open from the outside. Me and Owen walk inside.
It's dark inside, a single dim light just barely illuminating the middle of the entrance hall. The two of us continue further, as I get out a flashlight and turn it on. I hear a loud clanging noise, and I flinch. Something humanoid, furry and white crawls across the wall and dashes into a large ventilation shaft.
"Derek, if we get out of this alive, I just want you to know that you're an asshole."
"You can tell me that later." I reply. "We're probably not even close to anything that dangerous."
It's now that I remember that the goo creature I put into a jar is now in my pocket, as it shakes around, trying (and failing) to stealthily escape. The next room is some sort of waiting room. There are chairs against the wall, some put there, and some that seem to have been thrown there. This room is also actually lit, and there's a front desk in the far right corner with a laptop on it. I walk over to the computer, while Owen tries to force open the door on the left-hand side of the room. I discover that the laptop is broken, because a metal rod has been shoved into the screen. I close the laptop and pick it up, hoping Giovanni can make some use of it. I walk over to Owen.
"I don't think I'm strong enough to open this door-" Owen begins to say, but before he's finished, I force open the door with my right arm. The door slams open, and whatever was holding the door shatters. The two of us walk into the next room. On the floor is the remains of a rotten wooden chair that was up against the door. This room is a hallway with a single door at the end. A sign above the door that simply reads "Bedrooms". We walk down the hallway and into the next room. The door is unlocked. Me and Owen continue into the Bedrooms hallway. This room has several doors on each side, all with labels above them indicating who the room belongs to. There's full names on some labels, like "Sirocco Notus", and some with titles before a last name, like "Dr. Hastings". The last door to the left has a label that reads something like "Dr. Ko" or something, but I can't make out most of it, due to the dim lights and the fact that the label is pretty scratched up. There's a nail crudely shoved into the door below it, with a string tied to a keycard hanging on it. I grab the keycard and stare at it, turning it around in my hand. It's covered in bloody fingerprints. "What do you think this unlocks?" I ask Owen. "Probably the door it was nailed to." He replies. "That's common sense, Derek."
I ignore him and insert the keycard inside the wide slot next to the door. It doesn't work. I try again, and it still doesn't work. "I think we should find another way in there." Owen says. My Stand appears and slices the door into bits with its claws. "Or... You could do that."
The two of us walk inside, and a robotic female voice says "Welcome, Dr. Ian Kovas. Today's date is October 3, 2040. You have not entered your office in 554 days."
I look around the room. It's dark, only lit by candles and the light from a computer on the desk. Some 1960s song is playing faintly nearby. I sit down at the computer, and look at the screen. It's a bunch of text documents with names indicating the dates they were written. The first is labeled "December 27, 2037". I begin reading it.
December 27, 2037
There's several more of them after that. I move the mouse cursor over to the next one and click on it.
January 1, 2038
Slightly anxious of what the final one is going to be like, I click on the next one.
February 24, 2038
June 5, 2038
They're not my friends anymore.
Confused, concerned and intrigued, I click on the next one.
June 12, 2038
I continue onto the next one. "Why are there so many?" I mutter to myself. I look over my shoulder to see Owen looking at the screen. "Come on, we need to keep going." Owen says. "We don't need to waste time here."
"Hey," I say, lightly pushing him away. "Lemme see what's on here first."
Owen stares at me for a moment, before trying not to look at me while searching around the room as I turn back to the computer.
July 19, 2038
"I found something you could... Maybe insert in that tablet thing you have?" Owen says.
"Sure, gimme a moment." I reply, continuing onto the next one.
November 27, 2038
March 28, 2039
Anxious, I click onto the final one.
March 29, 2039
"The hell's wrong with this guy?" I think to myself.
I get out of the chair.
"I found something!" Owen says. He takes a small flat object out of a bedside table's cabinet. He walks over to me and I find out that it's some sort of small white box small enough to fit inside my device. "PROJECT" is written on it in marker. I take my device out of my pocket and open the slot on the side of it. I plug the white box into it, and something pops up on the screen.
A tab was opened, eerie red text shining on the screen over a black background. It reads "Device 'PROJECT' wishes to be downloaded". A green check mark button and a red X button appear. I press the check mark button and it starts downloading something. Once it's done downloading, the battery begins rapidly draining until the device is completely dead.
"God DAMN it!" I yell.
"Quiet!" Owen says quickly, which is when I notice the sound of something banging against metal. A vent cover above the bedside table falls onto the floor. "You know, these vents are pretty big."
A white furry hand grabs Owen and pulls him into the vent. I jump onto the bedside table and climb into the surprisingly spacious vent. I follow the white-furred creature to the left and further into the vent. I follow it as it turns right. The vent tilts downwards and the creature slides down the vent while carrying Owen. I try to process what I saw on the computer as I follow the damn thing. I slide down, before realizing that the vent exits into a huge pit. I manage to grab onto a pipe that somehow spans the length of the pit. I notice the creature also using the pipe to get across the pit. I notice that the creature is wearing a lab coat, and is also holding onto Owen with its cat-like foot. I climb up onto the top of the pipe and start running. The creature does the same, but not before going back to dragging Owen along with one hand.
I follow the creature across to the other side.
"Go on, give up your past and accept your destiny!" The creature says, running off of the pipe and into a cave. I run into the cave, which is when I get an idea. I take the jar out of my pocket while running further into the cave and pour the pink goo creature onto myself. It wraps around me like a suit.
I notice the white-furred creature running off into a tunnel. I follow them, and find that it leads to another part of the facility. My device vibrates in my pocket. I take it out and it turns on. I turn on the scanner and pan it around the room. It finds two signs of life: Owen and the creature. Owen is slumped against the wall, unconscious, and the creature is in a vent.
I run towards Owen, and pick him up. The lights turn on, and the entrance to the room is shut off by the closing of a large blast door. I walk into a nearby room, and look around. This room has a console and a window that looks into the other room. I lightly put down Owen and walk over to the console. There's several buttons and a screen that seems to display the status of something in the other room. I look out the window in the room, and notice several of the goo creatures, each contained in their own pod. I look back at the console and look for something that will open the door. I look at the buttons. They're labeled from left to right "Release Single Experiment", "Close All Containment Pods", "Return Single Experiment", and "Open Blast Door". I press the last button, and a message appears on one of the console's many screens, reading:
WARNING
Opening the blast door will release all subjects. This function is only intended for an evacuation of the bunker and all its contents. If you are using this function simply to open the blast door, you will be detained. If the blast door is stuck, please wait for the bunker's mechanic to fix the problem! If none of these are the case, press the button again to confirm."Come on!" I yell, slamming my fist down on the button. I hear the blast door begin to open. I look around the room some more. I quickly take notice of a futuristic-looking pistol and grab it off of its place on the wall. Then I pick up Owen. Honestly, is it just me, or have I gotten stronger because I'm a demon? Walking back into the room with the pods, I watch the pods open and creatures leave the room through various exits. I notice that none of them just walk directly out through the blast door.
I'm pretty sure they were formerly human. Maybe being turned into something different changed them somehow.
I slowly walk out of the room, and walk back over to the pit with the pipes. The pipes have fallen down into the pit below, so I should try and find another way out of here. I walk back down, and further into the cave. At the end of the cave, there's another part of the bunker. This part seems to have been left unfinished, as there's metal beams and other construction equipment strewn all across the room. I really wish I knew the way out of here. I continue into the unfinished area. It's completely dark. I point the pistol in front of myself, and a flashlight attached to it turns on. I look around for an exit.
"It feels nice to have a body again." A feminine voice says in my head.
"Quit it, myself." I say to myself, tapping myself hard on the head. I walk further into the room, before noticing a door with a window that has a purple glow coming from it. I look into the window. I only see the purple glow. I put the pistol in my pocket and open the door. The glow immediately stops. I stay quiet, waiting for the source of the glow or whatever caused the glow to come into view. I wait, but nothing comes into view.
I look around the room, and notice that it's a staircase leading up. I almost immediately decide to go up the stairs.
I go up to the next floor, and open the door in front of me. It opens up to reveal an octagon-shaped room with some sort of tall octagon shape in the middle. I put the pistol in my pocket, and walk over to investigate the object. Inside a hole in the object, is some sort of device. It's octagon-shaped, too, and has two antennae on the top. I notice some similarities with the pistol I have. Just like the pistol, it has glowing cyan parts, and it's painted white. I take it out of the hole and look at it. There's text on it that says "DISTRESS SIGNAL DEVICE V2". I notice a switch on the side, which I flip, and the lights on it turn off. I continue walking, but freeze right at the exit when I hear some clanging in the oddly large vents. The white-furred creature slides out of the vent and lands in front of me.
I take the pistol out of my pocket and point it at his head. This doesn't seem to threaten him at all, instead he puts his hands behind his back and slowly walks over to me.
"Do it." He says.
I put my finger down on the trigger. A bolt of what looks like lightning shoots out, and hits him in the head, causing his head to burst. Not very graphic, really, seeing as he's made entirely of goo. His body falls to the floor, and I stare at it. He's somehow still breathing, and his head is slowly regenerating. I decide that I don't want to be here when he reforms (Despite him literally letting me kill him), so I quickly run into the next room, and shut the door behind me.
I lay Owen's unconscious body against the wall, and sit down next to him.
Why am I like this?
After a few minutes, I get back up and put Owen back over my shoulder. "Come on, let's go." I say.
"Yeah, let's go." The feminine voice in my head says.
I ignore the voice and go up the stairs in the next room. "I really hope that voice isn't me going insane." I say quietly to myself. I continue walking, before noticing that I'm in a T-shaped hallway, and the wall in front of me has been torn off, and opens up into a huge chasm. "That is... Really big, like, woOAH SHIT!" I trip over a small piece of shrapnel and nearly fall into the chasm, but something stops me and Owen from falling into it.
The pistol, however, slips out of my pocket and falls into it. "Damn it!" I manage to say quietly.
"You should be more careful." The voice says to me.
"What even are you?" I ask.
"You poured me on yourself, so I thought you'd know." The voice replies.
"You're that goo creature?"
"Yes." The voice replies.
"Why'd you latch onto Jack?"
"Was that his name?" The voice asks. "Well... I did that because I wanted a body. I know I already have one... But I wanted one that was solid."
"Okay." I say. "Can you put us down now?"
"Alright."
She puts me and Owen down, before going down herself. She then wraps around me again, but not before putting Owen over my shoulder again.
"Let's go." I say, noticing Owen starting to wake up.
"Where are we?" Owen asks.
"It doesn't matter, we're leaving." I say. I let Owen off of my shoulder, and we walk to what remains of the right hallway. Most of it seems to have been forcefully torn off by something huge. I notice spiked sheets of metal nailed to the wall on the right. The lights in the hallway turn on one by one. Eventually, once all the lights are on, the exit seems to be miles away.
"What the fuck?" I say, right before large blast door closes right in front of us.
"WHAT THE FUCK?" I yell.
"Quiet!" Owen says. A knob-less metal door to the right slides open. The two of us cautiously go into the room. It leads to another hallway. I notice a table with a few things on it. There's some bandages, another pistol (This time a sleek black one), and some ammo. I load the ammo into the gun and take the bandages.
Then I hear some footsteps further down the hallway. "Stay behind me." I say. Owen nods and does so.
We continue through the hallway, which opens up into a circular room. This room has nothing in it, except a table, and spiked sheets that line the very bottom of the walls. I quickly take notice that the spikes are actually ornate daggers.
"Took you long enough." A voice says from above. I look up, and see a humanoid figure on a ledge wearing black armor with red gloves, along with a cube-shaped helmet with a screen that has glowing red eyes on it.
"I thought Ian would take care of you two, but I guess he's more the type to imagine it than actually do it." They say.
"Stay behind me, Owen." I say quickly and quietly. I walk close to the figure.
"Come on, let's fight!" I say, my Stand appearing in front of me.
The figure jumps down in front of me and detaches one of its hands, but my Stand slices the hands into bits with its claws. Purple blood spurts out of the hand, and before I can question whether the figure is human or not, purple gas clouds my view. I run around aimlessly until I reach one of the spiked walls. Another disembodied metal hand appears from the fog and pushes me to the ground, attempting to shove me into the spiked wall. I push it away and my Stand cuts it in half.
"Owen, where are you?!" I yell.
"Over here!" The figure says, imitating Owen's face. I run over to the source of the voice and nearly run into the wall.
Several more metal hands appear from the darkness, and one of them grabs me by the head, but before it can do anything, my Stand appears and slashes all of the hands in half.
"COME ON!" I yell.
The fog clears, revealing the figure holding Owen. The figure is a woman, as her helmet is now off. She says something to Owen, but I don't hear any of it. My Stand slashes her right hand off. With a jolt, I realize that it's her normal hand, not one of the disembodied ones. Blood splatters onto Owen's shirt and drips onto the floor. The woman manages to still hold onto Owen. I run after her and try to wrestle Owen out of her hands. As I do this, I get a good look at the woman's face. She's not grinning, she's not annoyed. Instead, she looks absolutely terrified.
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" I yell, punching her in the face. I grab Owen and run over to the exit of the room, but another blast door closes in front of me. I look back at her.
She furrows her eyebrows in what seems to be an attempt to look angry. Instead she just looks even more worried.
"I don't wanna do this!" She says, alternating between clutching her now-bleeding nose and her right wrist. She runs over and tries to take Owen from me.
"THEN WHY ARE YOU DOING IT?" I yell.
"He'll kill me!" She says, taking Owen out of my hands.
I try to wrestle Owen out of her hands. Eventually we're both next to the spiked wall on the left. I'm holding on to his right arm and she's holding onto his left. I stumble close to her and punch her in the face again. A grab ahold of Owen, but I stumble again and end up getting stabbed by the daggers on the wall, with Owen right next to me. I wince. I get me and Owen unstuck from the wall, causing maroon and cyan liquid to drip onto the floor. The woman does nothing but cry, tears and blood running down her face. I heal. Owen doesn't.
I quickly wrap the bandages around Owen's wounds.
"What are you doing here?" I ask the woman.
"Not... now..." She says. "We need to get out of here."
"I've noticed." I reply, putting Owen back over my shoulder.
She opens the door to the next room, and the two of us run into the next room, which is a long hallway.
"WHY ARE THERE SO MANY DAMN HALLWAY-" I start to say, before the woman covers my mouth with her hand, which makes me stop.
The two of us run through the hallway. The woman wipes the tears out of her eyes, and says "The Order isn't exactly made up of interior designers... Or something."
I ignore this and continue running. Eventually we reach the end of the hallway. The evening sun is shining through the bent-open door. It's too thin to go through, so I push it further open.
We walk through. The light nearly blinds me. The goo creature retreats back into the jar in my pocket.
"Derek..." Owen says.
"What is it?" I ask, my face becoming warm as I put him down on the ground and stare into his eyes.
"Derek..." Owen says again. "Derek, I don't wanna die..."
"You- You won't." I say, not sure if I mean it. "You're not going to die. Why do you look happy?"
"Maybe I'm just glad you're here..."
He hugs me, and I do the same. I don't know how long I do it for. Eventually I feel his body turn limp. It takes me a bit to process this. When I open my eyes, I realize he's not asleep. His eyes are blank. I sob into his shoulder.
I do this for a while. When I stop, it's almost nighttime. I stand up and put Owen over my shoulder. The woman begins the walk away (I don't know why she's stayed here this whole time), but I tightly grab her wrist. "You're coming with me." I say. My Stand automatically appears and slashes the air with their claws.
A portal with a golden outline begins to form. "What the hell is that?" She asks.
I'm too angry to answer. I drag her through the portal. The portal leads to, you know, Hell. I'm not really in the mood to explain this. I'm also not in the mood to find out if Hell is a planet or a flat plane. I drag her along with me through the red hallway and into the elevator. "W-where are we going?" She asks. I don't reply. If I were in the mood, I'd say "home" or something. Once the elevator doors open, I drag her into the next room, a room with a large circular table in the middle, and whiteboards all over the walls. "Where a-are we?" She asks.
"Hell." I reply.
"W-where exactly?" She says, calming down a slight bit. "Where exactly in Hell?"
"A basement of a hotel." I reply. "Everyone I know that's a demon lives here."
I drag her through into the next room. This room is a long hallway with doors on each side, which all have names indicating who the room belongs to. I'm reminded forcibly of the bunker. There's several more doors, probably because of, well, everyone in my family dying in a huge explosion and turning into demons. There's two new doors, the one on the left is labeled "Owen" and the right "Kitty". I open the right door, let go of the woman, and shove her inside.
"Uh... Thanks." She says.
"Stay in there." I say.
"I don't really have a choice..." She says, but going further into the room closing the door behind herself.
I walk into Owen's room. In this room is a basic pink wallpaper, two beds with red bedsheets, and a cabinet with a TV on top. I lay Owen on the bed next to the far wall. He looks like he's sleeping. I turn on the TV and stare at the blank screen until I pass out.
Chapter 9: In the Dark[]
POV: literally just keep reading the chapter and you'll find out
I get up out of bed. The smell of breakfast fills my nostrils, and it intensifies as I walk into the kitchen. My dad is cooking scrambled eggs, and he looks more stressed out than ever. On the other hand, my mom looks the happiest she's ever been.
She's busy cleaning the blood off of a knife. I'm not fazed by this, because my mom bought some meat yesterday (I was so tired I didn't even bother to ask what kind or where she got it).
"Where's Arri?" I ask. Arri is my brother, and he's been gone for around a day or two. I miss him already.
"I don't know..." My dad says, almost falling asleep before shaking himself awake.
"Don't worry about it, dear." My mom replies. "I'm sure he'll be back in a few days."
"He hates you... I doubt he's gonna..." My dad says, starting to fall asleep again.
I walk over and shake him awake.
"I really doubt he's gonna come running up the steps." My dad continues. "He... He hates you..." I smell an odd odor coming from the stove. I walk over to find that the scrambled eggs are burnt. "God damn it, dad." I say, as he falls asleep while in the process of putting the burnt eggs in the trash.
I walk out of the kitchen, through the hallway, and into the bathroom. I stare at myself in the mirror as I close the door.
"He's not coming back, you idiot." I say to myself, staring at the stupid-looking pink bow I usually wear. I quickly open the door and walk out of the bathroom. I stare at my dad from across the hallway. He's smart, and I expected him to not stay up doing... whatever it is he does. I decide to walk up to him.
"What were you doing last night?" I ask him.
It takes a moment for him to respond. "Just... Working on something." He says. I notice that my mom is nowhere to be seen now.
"Where's mom?" I ask.
He doesn't answer the question. Instead, he just says "I'm going" and leaves. I watch him leave. He now walks as if he had a good night's rest. I go back into the bathroom and look at my face. My nose is bleeding, so I get out a cloth from one of the drawers below the sink, and put it over my nose. Then my eyes start bleeding. Blood starts pouring all over the counter.
I wake up from my nightmare, turning over and falling onto a concrete floor. I hear the sound of a pan hitting the floor. The sound probably came from me falling, because I seem to be wearing a suit of some kind. I get up off the floor, and look around the room. I'm now in a room seemingly made entirely from concrete. A dim light is shining through a slightly open rusty futuristic door. The room I'm in is almost completely dark, save for the aforementioned dim light.
I stumble over to the door, but bump into a table. Something almost falls off, but I catch it. I walk over into the light, and hold the object out into it. It's a sleek black device around the size of a cell phone. It has a rectangular blue screen, and below the screen are 3 buttons. I press the button in the middle, and I hear my dad's voice coming from a speaker on the back of the device.
"If you're hearing this, you are most likely my daughter. If you are not, I recommend you leave immediately, if you have enough remaining intelligence to understand me. Anyway... If you're my daughter, and you're hearing this, then let me explain. I have been working on a project to revive someone for around a decade. And again, if you're hearing this, then it has succeeded. I'm hoping we will be back together soon."
The recording then ends. I put the device back down on the table and stumble towards the door. I manage to get the door open.
Through the door is a hallway, with dim flickering lights. I stare at the suit that I'm wearing, now that I'm in the light. I have on paw-like gloves with glowing blue circles on the back of my hands. Flexible tubes filled with red liquid are in several places on my body, mostly on my hands and arms. What a weird-looking suit. I go into a room on the left. This room is a small kitchen. A woman sitting down on the floor gets up and angrily glares at me. If she had any sort of weapon, she'd probably point it at me. I stare back at her. She's wearing a lab coat, and she has dark blue hair, with a pinkish-red bit of hair on top.
"What are you doing here?" I ask.
"What are you?" She asks.
"Pretty sure I'm a person." I say.
"Yes, I'm sure normal people have glowing blue eyes." She replies.
"It's probably the suit that's doing that." I say. "Anyway, what are you doing in here?"
"I was paid to go look in here." She says. "My shop doesn't pay for itself."
“You have a shop?” I ask.
“Yeah, I do.” She replies.
“What’s your name?” I ask.
“May.”
“Alright, May, how do we get out of here?” I ask. “And what’s even stopping you from getting out?”
“All these damn creatures around here.” She says. “If I had my baseball bat I could take care of them easily, but I don’t.”
“Why not?”
“One of them stole it.” She says. “The one with all the teeth. Just absorbed it. I know it isn’t gone because I saw the damn thing try to use it earlier.”
“Let’s go get it then.” I say.
The two of us walk back into the hallway. One of the flickering lights shatters. We go into a room on the right of the hallway. This room is slightly larger than the other room, and it has desks with computers on them, though some of the computers have shattered screens, are knocked off, or both. We walk through the room, finding mostly nothing of interest. All I find is a baton that’s making a quiet buzzing noise. I pick it up.
“You can have that.” May says.
“Why are you letting me have this?” I ask. “Shouldn’t you have it?”
“My bat is of more value to me.” She says. “And I’d rather you have that baton. If I held it I’d get way too attached to it.”
We go through a door on the left side of the room. This next room is a storage room, with several shelves arranged in a maze-like shape. The light from the next room shines through. We walk around the shelves, and into a long hallway. A humanoid figure is huddled next to the door that leads to the next room. Even with the hallway being lit, they seem to absorb all light in the room. Despite most of its face being covered by its legs, its eyes are glowing. Once we get close, I notice the mouth that it has, which makes its head look like a flytrap plant facing the ceiling. It gets up slowly.
It runs at us faster than anything I’ve seen before. It doesn’t try to kill us, but it blocks the way by causing shining spikes to pierce the walls. Then it slides into the vent.
“What now?” May asks, staring at the spikes.
“We break through it, I guess.” I reply. I swing my baton at one of the spikes. The baton breaks through the spikes with ease.
“You know, I think that was the one that stole my bat.” May says. We continue into the adjoining room. The following room is a brightly-lit lab-like room, with white tables that have all sorts of chemicals on them (Fortunately, most of them seem to be bottled). I sit down on one of the chairs.
“Do you have time to talk?” May asks, sitting down as well. We stare at each other for a moment.
“I guess.” I reply.
“Hopefully you don’t freak out after I say this.” May says. “But you’re a robot.”
“Uhh…” I say. “Okay?”
“Lemme look for a mirror.”
She searches all the drawers and almost immediately finds one somehow. She runs over and puts the handheld mirror in front of me. I grab it and hold it up in front of my face. I seem to be wearing a suit at least, but my face is just a black square, like my brain is blocking out what it actually looks like.
“Well, I’m not sure I am, but I’ll think about it.” I say handing May the mirror.
“Let’s go.” May says, as we walk into the next room. The next room is another hallway. We walk through and open the door, and we walk into a room with four, and two doors on each side of the hallway in front of us. This room also has white floor tiles.
“I think there’s two switches that we have to pull in these nearby rooms,” May says. “but they’re pretty hard to pull without bashing them.”
“Which is why you need your bat.”
“Exactly.” May says.
I go to the room on the right, while May goes to the room on the left. In the room I’m in is a small table, a window looking out into the hallway, and a large rusty switch. The door closes behind me and the lights shut off. I look around frantically for a light switch, or anything that will turn the lights back on. I hear a voice inside my head.
“Hey.” May’s voice says in my head. “Find a place to hide.”
I crawl under a desk and curl up into a ball. I hear the sound of something stumbling into the nearby hallway. The window breaks, and an emaciated, distorted hand puts itself into the newly-made hole. It frantically turns around a few times, and something seems to be pulling it back. It leaves a deep mark in the wall before being pulled back into the hallway.
“Are you okay?” May asks, her voice in my head. “I think you’re breaking up-”
“You shouldn’t be here.” Another voice says in my head. I suddenly feel a splitting headache.
Something slams itself against the door in an attempt to break it open. The lights flicker back on, and the banging stops, along with my headache. Something opens the door. I look at the doorway and see May.
“Just… Pull the switch right there.” May says, breathing heavily.
I get up, and try to pull the rusty switch. It’s too rusty to pull. May hits the switch with her baseball bat, and the lever goes down.
“The creature that stole my bat was in the other room.” She says.
“Did you see anything walk into the hallway?” I ask.
“No, I don’t think so.” She replies. “Come on, let’s go.”
We walk back into the hallway, and turn right. In front of us is now a large metal door, which is slowly opening.
“I don’t think you ever told me your name.” May says.
“Melody.” I say. “My name is Melody.”
“Come on, let’s go.” May says, as the door fully opens. “I really need a fuckin’ drink.”
We walk up a set of stairs, and out through the metal door.
Chapter 10: Biologically Shocked[]
POV: Jack Scott
Just to get you up to speed, remember that guy that helped me? This is a bunker he and his group live in. Currently, I’m in the infirmary, laying down in a bed with pale blue curtains on either side of me. I hear his voice, and then he walks up to me.
“Are ya doin’ okay?” He asks.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I lie, because I don’t want anyone constantly asking. “I’ll be up in a moment.”
“That’s okay.” He replies. “When you think you’re healed up enough, you can go walking around just about anywhere in here. I won’t stop you.”
“What do you mean, ‘just about’?” I ask.
“Well, there’s a lot of dangerous stuff in the lower levels, because we haven’t fully explored them, and there’s also some places people don’t want you to be.” He replies.
“Like where?”
“Let’s just list them off… Don’t go into the basement, don’t go into anywhere marked as a security office, because the mercenaries I hired don’t like intruders in there, and don’t go taking people’s stuff… Yeah, that should be it.” He says. “Just listen to what I just said, and you should be fine.”
Then he leaves. After a few minutes of tossing and turning around in the bed, trying to get back to sleep, I decide to get out of bed. Well, I wasn’t expecting to be doing this today. I leave the room, and walk into the hallway. As soon as I’m out the door, I stumble and trip over something. After I get my bearings, I find out why I tripped. My legs are furry and cat-like. The fur is a golden yellow, close to the color of my skin. I’m really hoping that this is a normal demon thing (I mean, Billy has goat legs or something). I get up and try to walk. Then I trip and fall again, but not before covering my face with my hands.
I get up again and stumble through the hallway. A bored voice says “Food is available in the cafeteria.” over the intercom. I limp through the halls, following the metal arrow signs showing the way to the cafeteria. I open the doors that lead into the cafeteria. No one looks at me as I stumble into the room. It’s the opposite of what I expected, in fact. Everyone just seems to be eating their food and minding their own business. I walk over to a counter where a man is standing.
“Step on the scanner.” He says.
“The what?” I say. He says nothing. Instead he points to something on the floor next to the counter. I look at where he’s pointing. He’s pointing to a slab-shaped purple device on the floor. I step on it. A glowing blue line goes from the top of my head to my toes. The line disappears, and a plate of food materializes on the counter, along with a cup of something. I take the plate and the cup, and sit down by myself. I look at the food that I have. On the plate is three pieces of cheese pizza (Which all look oddly similar to the pizza I ate at Owen’s house a year ago. Why am I suddenly remembering that now?), and a single piece of cheesecake. In the cup is some sort of tea. It looks like tea, at least, but it could be anything. I take a sip of the liquid in the cup, and find that it tastes like syrup and cake.
I quickly eat my food, and then notice a TV on the wall. It’s tuned to a news channel, showing a blurry image which is apparently an image of a criminal that was thought to be dead. I don’t pay attention to it for the most part, so the most I find out is that the criminal is a woman named Augury Linde, who was thought to be dead when she fell off a cliff during a confrontation by two fellow gang members, Jim Marston and Sean Murphy. “I mean, it could be possible.” I think, as the TV displays the same blurry image, where Augury (Or whoever it is) seems to have several mechanical body parts.
I get up, and look for somewhere isolated in the bunker. I eventually find an abandoned storage room, where I try to make a portal. I’ve seen several other demons (Oh, wow, it’s really weird to say I’m a demon now) do it, so why can’t I? I make a motion with my hands as if I’m tearing an invisible piece of paper in half. A large hole with a red outline appears in the area where my hands were. I climb through the hole, and into the place where I now live. I look around the room. There’s a circular table in the middle, and whiteboards everywhere with sticky notes on all of them in random places. I walk over to the door on the right, and open it. I walk into the hallway, and look at the doors. I notice two new doors, labeled “Owen” and “Kitty”. When did Owen become a demon?
I walk up to Owen’s door, and knock on it. No one answers. I turn around and knock on the other door. “I’m up!” A woman says. The door opens, and the woman steps out. She has reddish dark hair, pale blue eyes, and she’s wearing a black metal suit. She has normal pale skin. “Who are you?” I ask, hoping I’m not being rude. I notice that it hurts to breathe again.
“My name’s Kitty.” She says.
“That’s an odd name.” I reply.
She shrugs.
“HEY!” A voice says from the other room. “In here!”
The two of us walk into the room with the circular table. Dominic is standing next to the table. “What is it?” I ask.
A portal appears behind him. “Someone owes me money.” Dominic says. “And you’re going to help.”
The three of us walk through the portal. Through the portal is some kind of city. The same city I was in yesterday. The sun shines through the clouds and onto my face. It looks like it’s going to rain, and none of us have an umbrella (Not that I mind much). For some reason, the roads are painted bright colors, and the people around us seem to be really happy.
“So, who owes you money?” I ask Dominic, staring up at him.
“This rich prick.” Dominic replies, as we turn a corner. “You know that money we had last year? I spent most of it buying a fancy car, and the rest of it on this vacation.” I look at Kitty. She’s just looking down at the sidewalk, as she goes along with us. “So, what do we do about him?”
“Since I haven’t found a way to get the money back,” Dominic replies. “I say we steal his car.”
I shrug and say “Whatever, let’s do it.”
We walk several blocks, before I nearly get hit by a car. It’s a black and red hypercar with black tinted windows. Looks expensive enough. Dominic walks over to the left side of the car and breaks the window with his fist. The man in the car gets out, and Kitty stands behind Dominic’s right arm.
“What the hell are you doing?!” The man yells. He points a gun at Dominic, but I watch him grab the gun out of the man’s hands and throws it aside. “You owe me money.” Dominic says. I notice Kitty slip past and grab the gun.
“What the hell are you doing?” I whisper rather loudly to her. She just shrugs. “Come on, dumbass.” The man says. “What are you doing this for?”
“I told you.” Dominic says, leaning forward.
Dominic punches him in the face. The man runs off, saying something along the lines of “my father will hear about this”. Before Dominic gets in the front seat, I notice his snake-like pupils grow tiny. Oh no.
I reluctantly get in the back seat, along with Kitty. Dominic stamps his foot down on the pedal, and the car quickly speeds up to what’s probably its limit. The car swerves around a corner and just barely avoids hitting someone. Then the car somehow speeds up even more, hitting a stop sign and knocking it out of the way. The car swerves to the right, hitting a sandwich board. “IS HE ALWAYS LIKE THIS?” Kitty yells.
“MOST OF THE TIME!” I reply, as the car swerves to the right around another corner. Dominic turns the car to the left. It’s now heading straight towards a large, tall yellow building with metal shutters over the doors. The car crashes into the building and everything goes black.
Seconds later, as far as I can tell, I have a dream. I’m not in control of anything here. It’s just like a normal dream, but it feels more real, but like a normal dream, I don’t seem to be in control of anything, except for where I look. In this dream, I’m standing outside a school, watching a teen wearing a dark gray shirt sitting down on a bench. There’s no one else around, and it’s almost nighttime, so I can’t fathom what he’s doing here, but then I notice his head buried in his hands. Before I have any time to process anything else, I hear a voice.
“Hey, what are you doing?” A familiar voice says. “Shouldn’t your parents be here by now?” I look over towards the source of the noise, and see my dad, though he’s younger. The teen rubs his eyes and looks up at my dad.
“I don’t have any parents.” He replies.
“Are you sure?” My dad asks. “Everyone has parents.”
“Well, I used to.”
“Come on.” My dad says, clearly keen not to ask any more questions. “You can come over to my house. We’re having pizza.”
“O-okay.” He says, rubbing his eyes again and getting up. As he uncovers his face, I notice that he looks oddly similar to Derek. As I watch them walk away, the dream warps and changes to show a man sitting at a desk in the middle of a darkened room. I’m standing close to a window with curtains covering the moonlight shining through. I can barely see, because the only source of light is a few candles on the desk, which seem to actively avoid shining light onto most of the man’s face. I can only see the bottom right of his face, where there are scratch scars. “Has he been captured yet?” He asks, as the door slowly opens to reveal a white-furred humanoid creature. I also notice that it’s wearing some sort of mask over its nose and mouth, along with a name tag that says “Dr. Ian Kovas”.
A dark-skinned man walks in. He’s wearing a bandolier with several glowing spheres attached to it. “It was a loss.” He says. “Once I got in the bunker, all that was left of Kitty was her right hand, and Kovas’ head was gone.”
“I am fine.” Kovas says, crossing his arms and closing his eyes.
“Yeah, you were afterwards.” The dark-skinned man says.
“Enough.” The man at the desk says, slamming his open palm down on the desk. “Lenny,” (He points to the dark-skinned man) “capture Jack Scott.”
Lenny opens up one of the windows (Which Ian quickly closes) and climbs out. I hear him run across the roof. “Come here.” The man at the desk says quietly. A woman walks out of the corner of the room. She’s wearing a black shirt with three red streaks painted on it over a gray jumpsuit. “What is it, sir?” She asks. I notice that she has white hair (Despite appearing young), where she has several hair clips of several different colors, making her look like a cake.
“You go, too.” The man says. The woman quickly nods, and runs out of the room. It takes me a few moments to notice that Ian is still standing there. “Go.” The man at the desk says. Ian nods as well and leaves the room. Once Ian is gone, the man at the desk gets up and stares me directly in the eyes. There’s no light shining onto his eyes, but for some reason, I can tell he’s staring right at me. He walks over to me, and then sparks fly from something he’s holding in his right hand. Whatever it is, it explodes and blinds me. I wake up next to the burning wreck of a car that crashed halfway through a building.
I look around, and quickly take notice of some heavily-armed police officers, who for some reason are wearing white masks, and the ones who don't, have gas masks. For some reason, the car and the entrance are surrounded by a small barricade. A man, rambling and yelling gibberish, runs out of the door. He’s wearing a jumpsuit that’s been patched together in several places, and a helmet that hides his face. The officers notice him and quickly gun him down. One of them walks over to the door, and I hide behind a concrete barrier that must have been placed there recently.
“I’m going to check inside, see if it’s safe.” The officer closest to the entrance says. The others just look at him and nod as he goes into the building. I wait for the officers to look away, and I sneak inside behind the other officer. Once I’m inside, I look around the entrance room. The officer goes into a room on the left, and I follow him. The room he’s in is surprisingly empty.
It’s just a gray room with a table against the wall to my right. Dust is slowly floating down onto the floor, like pale snow. I decide to try and get his attention. It’s probably a terrible idea, but it’s an idea. I tap him on the shoulder, and he turns around, pointing his rifle at me. Within just a second, my Stand appears, fires a beam from its right hand, causing the rifle to stay in place, and then my Stand hits the officer with the rifle, knocking him out. My Stand disappears, and I pick up the rifle and wear the officer’s outfit, barely noticing that the color of my skin has turned from pale yellow to beige. “Is something wrong?” One of the officers outside yells.
“No, nothing’s wrong!” I say in a passable imitation of the officer I just knocked out. I walk back into the entrance room. Why is this room so yellow? I walk up the stairs, and through the pair of wooden doors. I look around at all the fancy furniture. It’s pretty, but solves nothing about what this building was used for. Suddenly, I notice a beeping noise coming from nearby. I walk around a cabinet, and find a small dark green device with a glowing red light at the top. I then hear footsteps, and immediately look towards the source of the noise. Suddenly, the footsteps are behind me now. I look back, and the device is gone. “Well, shi-” I start to say, but something hits me in the head and I black out.
Chapter 11: Horde Hunting[]
POV: Debbie Puella
I wake up on a shabby-looking bed with threadbare sheets. I’d much rather wake up in a warm fancy bed (As I usually do) than this, but I guess this bed is acceptable for now. As I get out of the bed and step onto the floor, the floorboards creak. Maybe it isn’t acceptable. Never mind that. That’s not important right now. I walk down the stairs, hearing the sound of ceramic plates and forks. I walk into the kitchen, and see several people, along with the man that saved Billy.
“So, what’s your name?” I ask.
“Sean.” He replies. “Sean Murphy.”
“Oh.” I say. I sit down at the table, and listen to the conversation that two men are having. “But like, if I had one, I could turn people into snails or something.” The one on my left says. “That’s a horrible idea.” The one on my right says. “I never said it was a good idea.”
The one on my right gets up and leaves. “What are we doing today?” I ask Sean.
“Those hordes of infected that keep roaming around here,” He says. “you know what those are?”
“What exactly makes you think I don’t?” I say. “Just get to the point.” He immediately sits up a bit straighter. “We’re going to be killing one.” He says, getting up from his chair.
“I’m in.” I say. I start getting my pistol out of my holster, only to find that it’s gone. I angrily stare up at him. “Where’s my fucking gun?” I say quickly. “Did you take my gun?”
“Yeah.” He says. “I don’t know if I can trust you with it.”
“Give it back.” I say, my eyebrows narrowing. “It’s one of a kind, and I can’t handle losing it.”
“No.” He says, his friendly demeanor changing almost instantly. He leads me to a room with an assortment of basic-looking guns. Nothing in here looks like it could take out a horde. I pick up a rifle and hit him in the nose with its stock. “Damn it!” He says. “Fine, you can have it when we kill the horde.”
“So, when are we going to start?” I ask.
“When we get everyone ready.” Sean says, going back to what seems to be his usual demeanor. “First we’re going to wake up Wade. It’s always really hard getting him up.” We walk up the stairs, and into another bedroom. Once Sean opens the door, the man I assume to be Wade is already awake and fully clothed, wearing a yellow and black plaid jacket, black jeans, and an orange bandana around his neck. “Heard what we’re doing today.” He says. “Let’s go do it.”
“How’d you even figure that out?” Sean asks, as we begin leaving the room.
“You talk pretty loud, man. Just saying, I wanna do this.” Wade replies. “I don’t think I have anything good enough to fight a horde, though.”
“Go check the armory downstairs,” Sean says. “And quickly.”
He does so, and me and Sean go into the hallway, and into another bedroom. In this bedroom is a man who is asleep.
“James.” Sean says. “Get up.” He just rolls over in his bed. Sean walks over angrily and shakes him awake. “Ahh!” James yelps. “Okay, I get it!’ James quickly gets out of bed and walks out of the room. “He’ll know where to go.” Sean says.
“Can we go yet?” I ask. “I’m getting impatient.”
“Yeah, alright.” Sean says quickly, likely to avoid angering me again. We walk down the stairs and over to the front door. “Hey, wait for me!” A familiar voice says from behind me. I turn around to see Billy, running towards me with his right arm bandaged. ONE HOUR LATER Me, Wade, Billy, James and Sean are in a car, with Sean driving. “So, are you absolutely sure you’re healed up enough to use a gun?” I ask Billy for the third time.
“Yeah, I think so…” He says quietly.
“I still don’t believe you.” I say. He doesn’t reply.
I don’t say anything. I look down at my rifle and turn it around in my hands. It’s been crudely painted a tan color, with some parts (Like the barrel) colored black. It’s obviously some sort of SilvCorp Weaponry design, with all the glowing bits. SilvCorp was a small weapons manufacturing corporation that we dealt with while Jack was… Dead. A bit hard to believe, actually. I feel like it would’ve been easier to take them down with Jack and Derek, but that’s over now. I missed them so much. Now that they’re back, I actually realized that. I’m sure Billy missed him too. I think Billy liked him a lot, like almost to the point of love. I don’t have anything against it, except that I want him to like me more, and… Not feel like I’m being clingy either. If he likes Jack more, I won’t hold it against him, and I’ll just hope I don’t end up in a relationship like Dominic’s.
My train of thought is ruined by the car suddenly stopping. “The horde should be here.” Sean says.
“Let’s go, then!” Wade says.
The four of us get out of the car and look around. The area is a wreck. We’re in a town with half of the buildings burnt down, and the rest have windows broken. There are also symbols painted on quite a lot of the buildings that are still standing. I walk up to one of the symbols and examine it. It’s a slanted T, with an X on both sides.
“God, I hope that’s not what I think it is…” Sean says quietly. He walks over to the brick wall it’s painted on, and puts his hands on it, as if there’s a secret door there. There’s only silence for a moment. “So?” I say impatiently. “What does it mean?
“It’s an insignia.” Sean says simply. “A mercenary group.”
“Why aren’t they patrolling the area right now?” I ask, annoyed with how vague he’s sounding.
“Someone broke into their main base and killed the lot of them.” Sean replies. “I doubt they would go here even if someone paid them to.”
“Enough talking.” I say. “Can we just kill the horde?”
“Yeah, let’s get going.” Sean says. We start searching for the horde. I walk over to one of the buildings and kick the door open. “Quiet!” Wade says.
“I’ve always wanted to do that.” I say quietly. We walk into the building, and find it completely empty, save for furniture blocking the other entrances. Everything is covered in dust, even the bloody stains and fingerprints. There’s three other entrances: One in front of me, one to the right, and double doors on my left. “There’s three ways the horde could’ve gone.” Wade says. “I suggest we split up.”
“How the hell would that wo-” Sean starts to whisper, but he decides to just growl quietly instead. “How about…” I begin to say nervously, the thought of fighting a horde actually scaring me. “How about we go in groups of 2?”
“That would never work.” Sean says, his voice raising slightly, emphasizing his Irish accent. “We’re gonna do this together and we’re gonna do it right.”
“I…” Billy begins to say, his face turning redder than it already is. ”I’m going w-with her.” He points to me. “I’m coming with you too.” James says quietly, also blushing.
“I guess it’s decided, then.” Wade says. “Let’s go look for it.”
Wade and Sean leave through the doors on the left. Me, James and Billy go into the one in front of me. The next room is rather small. It has a large desk with a computer that’s still turned on, leaving very little space for the three of us. There’s an e-mail open on the computer. I immediately sit down in the comfy black swivel chair and start reading it.
I have made a deal with the ERO. Warehouse 3-A is now being used to house infected persons for the curing process. This decision was likely not known to you until now, but we have been discussing it for a while. You may be wondering if you have lost your job. Do not worry, as Warehouse 12-B is in the next town over. Additionally, one less warehouse means less money to put in, and more money given to you. Be proud to work for SilvCorp. - Wayne Louis, CEO
SilvCorp again. What’s their deal? My train of thought is once again ruined by James saying something. “I don’t think the horde is in here.” He says sarcastically. Without saying anything, I walk out of the room, and to the one entrance we haven’t gone through. This next room is definitely a huge storage room. There’s a lot of bare metal shelves that likely used to hold all kinds of supplies, but now lay almost completely barren. Some of the shelves in the center of the room seemed to have been moved closer to the center. Maybe someone’s barricaded themselves in. We slowly approach the circle of shelves in the center, which are covered in large towels and clothes, hiding whatever’s inside. We continue walking, circling the shelves and looking for a way in. Eventually, I find a small opening, and peek inside. Inside is the horde: A bunch of vaguely humanoid creatures, with pale skin, ragged clothes and no hair. Suddenly, the doors close. “Hey.” James says, looking down at me. “There’s a button in there.” As I blush in embarrassment, once again realizing the height difference demons have, he points to a button inside the circle of shelves, which seems to be conveniently wired to the doors. It’s close, and we could reach it if we stuck our arms in. The only problem is that the horde is right next to it. James and Billy try to stick their arms through the thin gap between the shelves. That’s gonna end well.
“I don’t think we should be doing this.” I say, pulling on their arms. I hear growling noises coming from inside. The horde’s waking up.
“Come on, we need to go.” I say, right before remembering that we can’t. “I mean- Come on, hurry up.”
“I can’t reach it-” Billy says. The entire horde gets up and runs over to us.
“COME ON!” I yell. The horde starts rapidly clawing at James’ arm, screeching the whole time. My Stand, a humanoid drenched in blood with pastel-colored skin, appears to help us. James drops his gun, clutching his bleeding arm right after getting it unstuck. Billy tries to get his arm out, but it’s stuck. Several members of the horde start violently scratching at his arm. “No no no-” I start to say, and the horde starts mauling his arm.
“NO!” I yell. I grab the gun James dropped, tear off one of the cloths on the nearest shelf, and start firing at the horde. A lot of them go down, but the horde is HUGE. The horde ends up tearing Billy’s arm off. I pull Billy and James out of the way as the horde knocks down a shelf.
“Run!” James yells, getting up, grabbing Billy, and then running to the exit. I try to do the same, but the horde is in the way, running towards me. I start firing again, but for the second time, very few of them are actually killed. I climb on top of a nearby shelf, and the horde begins surrounding it. I quickly jump onto a neighboring shelf, and the horde surrounds it again. I start firing at the horde as they start climbing up the shelf. They just keep coming...
The horde is almost on top of the shelf. I jump again, but there isn’t a shelf. It’s a huge pit. Why is there a pit here? I just start falling. I can barely think straight now. The pistol isn’t important anymore. I close my eyes and wait for the impact. What should be just a few seconds feels like an eternity. Then comes the impact.
“Dee, you could hurt yourself doing things like that!”
Chapter 12: guilt[]
POV: Derek Superbus
“Are you ready yet?” Desmond, the burly demon driver asks me, as the car turns around a corner.
“As ready as I’ll ever be.” I reply.
“You told me you don’t have any relatives who have jobs.” He says, both sounding concerned and sounding like he’s stifling a quiet laugh. “But it’ll be fine. You just have to write down people’s orders. I got the most basic one you could do.”
“My handwriting is bullshit.” I say, a bit annoyed.
“You won’t be able to pass this up.” He replies. “It’s really hard to find jobs around here.”
“Sure.” I say to myself, rolling my eyes.
“I saw that.” He says. I ignore him, and just stare at the neon store signs as they speed past. There’s things like “Prosthetic Horn Repair”, “Devil Cake Foods” and a sign that simply says “GUNSGUNSGUNSGUNS”.
For whatever reason, I suddenly feel a tingling feeling in my eyes, and a sinking feeling in my chest. My eyes water but I quickly wipe the tears away. I expect Desmond to say something, but he says nothing. The car turns another corner.
“So,” I say, rubbing my eyes. “What’s with Dominic? I’ve never seen him in a good mood.”
“He’s… He’s depressed or something.” Desmond replies. “I try to help but he keeps changing the subject or just ignoring me. If he could just talk, maybe I could help him. I’ve been with him through almost everything!”
Then he notices my expression. Great. The last thing I want is for someone to tell me how much I fuck up everything. The car stops, making me feel worse.
“Are you feeling okay?” He asks.
“No.” I say. “I feel like I have to constantly eat to feel better. I fucked everything up back there. If I knew why she was doing it before then, I wouldn’t have gotten so angry.”
“Honestly, if you did, I don’t think anything would change.”
I say nothing.
“No offense.” He adds.
A red portal above the seat next to me appears.
“FUCK OFF! I’M BUSY!” I hear Dominic say, before someone is pushed into the portal, landing on the seat. Of course, this someone happens to be Owen, because whatever god exists likely intends on making my day worse. Owen is perfectly alive now, but he’s a demon.
He doesn’t look all that different, except his skin is red, his freckles are white, and his hair is black. The car turns around another corner, and then turns again, before entering a parking lot. The badly-maintained parking lot is right in front of a large restaurant, with a neon sign above the entrance reading “ABSOLUTE DISAPPOINTMENT”.
“That bodes well.” I say sarcastically.
“Come on, let’s go inside.” Desmond says, stopping the car and getting out.
Me and Owen say nothing. We get out of the car as well and walk to the restaurant. As soon as I walk inside, a familiar smell fills my nose. I don’t know where I’ve smelled it before. All I know is that it makes me feel worse. There’s also a nostalgic-sounding song playing over the speakers, which also seems familiar. I notice a chubby pale yellow demon with a few crab-like creatures with round shells on their back crawling all over him. Then, he notices me.
“Hi!” He says. “I’m really glad you could show up! We haven’t had as many new employees ever since-”
His eyes go wide, and he stops talking. In an instant, he goes back to normal. I’m a bit concerned for him, but more confused by one of the creatures climbing up his shoulder. It then pinches his ear.
“No! Bad!” The man says, shaking his body so all the creatures fall off.
“What are those?” Owen asks.
“A Stand.” He replies simply.
“So, it’s j-just…” Owen begins to say. “They’re all just one Stand?”
The man nods.
“So am I getting a job or not?” I ask impatiently.
“Oh, yes! I almost forgot!” He says, walking over to a bland-looking metal door next to the entrance leading to the bathrooms. “First, we need to check for… ahem, anomalies.”
I walk over to him, and he pulls out a device from seemingly out of nowhere. It looks like a purple and dark blue razor, but there aren’t any blades. Instead, there’s a smooth black square in their place. The crab-like creatures skitter over to his feet.
“What do you need that for?” I ask him, only now noticing that Desmond hasn’t said anything.
I look over at him. He’s looking at his phone, but it’s as if he’s looking straight through it.
“It makes checking for them a lot easier!” The man replies, answering my question from just a few seconds ago. He moves the device up and down, just inches away from actually touching my body. Once the device is near my belly, it makes an ear-splitting beeping noise.
“WHAT THE HELL IS IT DOING?” I yell.
The man violently lifts up my shirt to reveal a large, gaping mouth where my belly button should be. “What the fuck is that?!” I say.
“Don’t worry, it’s perfectly normal for ones like you.” He replies. “We just need to make sure it doesn’t end up eating anything. Just put your hand over it or something.”
I do so, and the mouth does nothing.
“Alright, so I have a job for the three of you!” The man says loudly without warning.
“Can I use the bathroom?” I ask.
“Sure.” The man says.
As I walk to the bathroom, Desmond says something to me.
“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you what we’re doing when you get back.” He says. “I’ll be waiting in the car when you’re done.”
“Thanks.” I say quietly. He nods and walks out.
“I- I’ll be going t-too…” Owen says, walking outside as well, looking embarrassed. I then notice that the pale yellow man is nowhere to be seen. I turn towards the bathroom door, look back at the entrance, before opening the door and closing it behind myself. The bathroom walls are a sand-colored and red pattern, and the bathroom itself is surprisingly clean. I slump down next to one of the sinks, and stare blankly at the stalls. My breathing slowly gets shaky, and I become aware of my heart beating inside of my chest. I just… Start thinking. I start thinking about things. Thoughts I wouldn’t even just barely have, if I were in a good mood.
“Desmond probably doesn’t really like me. He’s just doing this for me because he’s such a nice person.” I think to myself. “He’s trying his best to tell me that I just won’t belong. And what about Jack and Owen? Maybe they’re the same way. They’re both good people and all I’ve done is ruined them by just being myself. I would just run off, but someone would probably bring me back and make everything worse.”
Tears run down my face. I just want to fit in. I want to be normal. Then I just start sobbing. I don’t know what else to do. I feel hopeless. I cry so much my eyes start to burn.
After around half an hour, I get up and rub the tears out of my eyes. Disappointed that no one came in to check on me, I leave the restaurant.
Chapter 13: Welcome to Hell[]
I wake up in a dark room, shackled to the wall. For some reason, Kitty is right next to me, unconscious, but unshackled. I look around the room. The room is made of black metal, and completely empty, save for a window to the left of me, a door in front of me, and Kitty. I hear an inhuman screeching noise and I run over to the window, which is as far as the chains will let me go. The window looks out into a hallway, which is empty like this room, except for a dim flickering light overhead. The screeching gets louder, and a barely humanoid creature walks in front of the window. It’s fleshy, with lanky arms and stump-like feet. There’s large gaping holes where its eyes should be. It places its right hand on the window, seemingly staring right at me. Its hand slowly slides down the window, leaving a dark red smear. It lets out another screech, before running off to the left and out of sight.
“Hey, where are we?” Kitty asks, getting up off the floor.
“Still trying to figure that out…” I reply, terrified. “I need a bit of help…”
My Stand appears and tries to tear the shackles off the wall. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work. I really wish Derek were here. If he was, he could probably help pretty easily.
“So, how did you end up here?” I ask her.
“Kind of the same way you did, I think.” She replies. “I was following you and you got knocked out. I saw someone dragging you away and I tried to stop them, but they did the same thing to me.”
The door opens, and a man walks in. The man is wearing a mask that forces his face into a smile, and a jacket with several pockets, all of which contain syringes and small jars of glowing liquid. What happens next is a blur. The next thing I know, I’m strapped to a large chair that has several long metal pincers with lethal-looking tools on the ends. I try to get out, but it feels like I have wounds all over my body.
“Don’t struggle.” The man says, in an eerily happy tone. “It’ll just make the pain worse.”
Like other demons with pale yellow skin, I likely have the ability to regenerate. Why isn’t it working as quickly as others I’ve seen? The man adjusts one of the pincers so it forces my mouth shut. “Don’t scream.” The man says, in the same tone. “It’ll just make the pain worse.”
One of the pincers, which is equipped with a stronger claw than the others, grabs hold of the area between my left wrist and elbow. I look around frantically for Kitty, so I can make sure she’s okay. Then I finally find where she is. She’s slumped against the wall, unconscious, with several syringes stabbed into her right palm, pinning her to the wall. “She’ll be fine.” The man says. Every word he speaks just makes me want to tear him apart even more. Another pincer with a drill bit attached to its end is lowered so it’s near my left wrist. The pincer drills a rectangle shape into my left arm, while another pincer holds it in place. Oddly, it feels like just a pinch. “He told me not to cause you too much pain. What a shame.”
Two more pincers grab the skin inside the rectangle wound and tear it off. Then the two pincers put in a metal device with a screen that somehow fits perfectly. I don’t seem to feel any pain from this, before or after. “Now, I should be going.” The man says, opening a door right in front of me, going through it, before slamming it shut. A screen on the ceiling lowers itself to where it’s roughly level to my face. The screen displays a video, which, after a few seconds, begins playing. In the video, a man wearing golden armor steps in front of whatever’s recording the video. His right eye is glowing yellow, and is covered by the golden armor. His left eye, however, is uncovered, and is a bright green color. “There is no need to panic.” He says. “If you’re seeing this, the procedure has been successful. You are okay. You are mentally well. You are physically well.”
I think he’s full of shit. I doubt I’m any of those things. I continue to struggle with getting out of the chair. It feels like pin pricks are multiplying on my back. The pain grows, as my pale yellow skin turns chalk-white and I start rapidly growing fur. It feels uncomfortable and unnerving, but not painful like last time. My bindings tear apart as I grow ever so slightly larger. I fall out of the chair, getting the uncomfortable feeling that my organs are melting into liquid. Oddly, like everything else, it doesn’t hurt. I get to my feet, and slowly walk over to Kitty. If it wasn’t for all the syringes stabbed into her hand, she’d look like she was peacefully sleeping. I take the syringes out and throw them onto the floor. Then I pick up Kitty and hold her in my arms. I stumble over to the door, and open it. I walk into the next room, which is a long blank hallway with a door in front of me and on the left. I lay Kitty down on the floor, and black out.
Chapter 13½: 2012[]
POV: Dominic Dominare
I’m laying down in my bed. I just feel… Sick of everything. I know Desmond’s trying to help… But I guess I’m just afraid of how he’ll help. I’ve taken off most of my clothes, except for a pair of shorts and the dark gray tank top that I wear under my suit. I just lay there for a while before passing out. I wake up in a large bed with a thin green blanket. No. No. No, not this dream again. My mom walks in, holding a lit cigarette. I don’t do anything. I know I’m not in control here.
“I’m gonna go for a bit.” She says.
“Where are you going, mom?” I ask. “Will you be back?”
“I don’t know.” She says.
I watch her leave. After a few minutes of staring at the balcony, I pick up the music sitting on the bedside table. I turn the crank, and lay it back down as it emits a familiar tune. I lay down, and begin to quietly cry.
Chapter 14: Welcome to Hell, South Empire![]
POV: Kitty Kaye
I get (Or more accurately, flop) out of bed. “Are you… Okay?” Someone asks. I look up, and see a woman with a wolf-like head standing in the doorway.
“It’s really early.” She says. “But everyone’s awake.”
“I think it’s too late to go back to sleep.” I reply, getting up.
I look out the window. The sky is a dark blue, but that’s all I can tell, because the blinds are shut. I walk out of the room, and into what seems to be the dining room. It’s a mess, but it seems cozy. A cat… Person… Were-cat person thing is sitting at the table, with a lit cigarette between his lips.
As I look around the room some more, I notice some sort of device that seems to have been shoved into my right forearm. The device is simple: an on and off button, and a screen above those buttons.
“Hey, where’s Jack?” I ask. The screen immediately answers my question by showing Jack, asleep in the bedroom where I woke up.
“Where am I?” I ask.
“Tierra Debajo.” The woman replies. She has some sort of accent. Is she from here?
“Which is… Where exactly?”
“South Empire.”
“Alright, I’m pretty sure I know where that is.” I reply. I begin to walk outside when I notice a person huddled into a corner. He has dark blue hair, and pale blue skin.
“Hey.” I say, leaning over towards him. “Are you doing okay?”
“Doing okay.” He repeats.
“That’s Echo.” The wolf-lady says to me. “I don’t know what’s exactly wrong with him, all I know is that he just woke up and… He can only speak the words spoken to him.”
“He’ll just imitate me?” I ask.
“Sort of. But no, it’s more like… You tell him some words, and he’ll make a sentence of his own with those words. I’ve mostly found it easier to talk with him by having him write on a piece of paper, but we ran out of paper a few days ago.”
“So, how do you do it now? I mean, how do you talk to him?”
“Just the way I used to.” She replies, grinning. “You know, talking to him, because we ran out of paper. Like I just told you.”
“Ah… Okay.” I say, wanting to quickly change the subject. I wish Jack would just wake up already. “So, is there anything dangerous around here?”
“Well… There might be some things living in the forest, but I’m not stupid enough to go looking for them.”
“Is there anything to eat?” I ask. “And what’s your name?”
“There’s some cereal in the kitchen.” She says. “And my name is Mira. There’s also Casey, Christy… and that guy we rescued who lives in the basement.”
“Do you know his name? Sorry for asking so many questions.” I add.
“Eddie.” Mira replies. “I don’t know his last name. We broke into a lab one day, and after searching for a bit, we just found him sitting in the corner, covered in someone else’s blood. Apparently, who or whatever owned the lab was doing experiments on him. Either way, they were already long gone before we got there.”
“There’s some soup on the table.” A woman with blood-red skin says, walking into the room. She’s clearly a demon. “You can give it to him.”
I walk over to the table, take the warm bowl of soup into my hand, and walk over to a bland-looking wooden door. It seems to be the basement, seeing as it’s the only closed door in the whole house. I open the door, being careful not to drop the bowl, and walk down the cold steps into the basement. The lights are dim, and there’s words scrawled on most of the walls. I just now notice that I’m wearing a pale blue gown, wrapped around my body, along with white shorts. I wonder where my suit went. I know that my helmet’s back in the room in that place where Derek sent me. I’m still not convinced that place is real.
I look around the room for Eddie. I can’t find him. To the right, there’s a table, with several photos on it. I walk over to the table, and look at the photos. There’s a few that depict a man wearing an eyepatch over his left eye. The area around his left eye is colored light blue. I notice writing on the wall next to the table, reading “HE’S A LIAR AND A CORRUPT CHEAT” several times.
“Hello, darling.” A voice says from behind me.
I flinch and turn around, and see Eddie. “I didn’t mean to startle you, but people are so cautious these days.” Eddie says.
“I was… Supposed to give you this.” I say, holding up the bowl in my left hand and trying not to look at his bloodshot eyes.
“I appreciate it.” He says, taking the bowl.
“Thanks… No one’s ever said something like that to me.” I say, quickly leaving the basement.
Chapter 15: Steel Gears[]
POV: Ned Superbus
I wake up in what seems to be inside a large tent. Through the small square holes of some sort of transparent material, I can see it snowing lightly. I roll over and see Piro and Jake. Piro is walking over to me, and Jake is sitting down against the bed I’m laying down on. Piro tries to shake me awake. “I’m up!” I yell.
I slowly get out of bed. For some reason, I’m wearing a blue jumpsuit, with leather straps that have pockets attached. “Where’s Hazel?” I ask.
“Right there.” Piro says, pointing to the bed to my left. Hazel is still asleep. She’s still wearing her clothes from when we were traveling last night. I notice that everyone else is also wearing similar jumpsuits. Me, Piro, and Jake walk outside. No one seems to mind, even the armed guards at the exit of the tent, so it should be fine. I take a moment to take in my surroundings. To the left is a gate, and two wide walls made of logs on either side. To the right and in front of me are more tents. There’s a set of stairs that leads to a platform that’s just barely below the top of the gate. I walk over to it, Jake and Piro following me up. Jake continues staring at his camcorder. I notice something coming through the snow. There’s a few men and women wearing green jumpsuits looking out into the distance.
“Hey, blue guy.” A woman with green eyes and blond hair says. She’s wearing a green jumpsuit as well. “You think you could man this gun? I’m not supposed to order around the people from other groups, but you haven’t been assigned to one yet, and we’re in precious need of outer defense.”
“Sure, I could do that.” You say. ”Uh… Which one?”
I look around at the guns. There’s a large sniper rifle, and a heavy machine gun. Both are mounted to intricately carved wooden stands. “Whichever suits you, I guess.” She says. I walk over to the machine gun, and look through the scope. There’s an odd sort of fog in the distance, but it’s not too bad. I can still see past the gate. There’s something huge, and odd-looking, slowly stumbling over to the gate. It has four legs, and several arms. Whatever it is, it might’ve been formerly human.
“Uh… Do I fire at that?” I ask the woman.
“FIRE!” The woman yells, causing me to wince, but I manage to fire the machine gun at the creature anyway. Several other people follow her command as well, taking out their own guns.
The creature takes lots of bullets, including a shot that took one of its legs off, and someone even fires a rocket at it, but that doesn’t stop it moving towards the gate, now at an even faster pace. We keep firing at it, but it does nothing. It then damages a large segment of the gate. Despite that, after several more shots, it goes down. Everyone rushes down to the gate, so I do that as well.
We all take a moment to examine the body. It’s wearing the ragged remains of a pair of jeans, and the pocket is still intact. “Yeah! We got it, right? …Right?” I say.
“Not yet.” The woman says. She pulls some sort of card out of his pocket. It’s not exactly anything I recognize, but it seems to display a lot of information. “Holy shit… It’s Tommy.” A man with blond hair says.
“Who?” I ask.
“We sent him out a week ago to get supplies.” The man says.
“How do you know that this thing’s him?”
“The card. I doubt anyone out there would take it from his corpse, because it’s pretty much just a piece of paper.”
“Why does he look like that?” Piro asks.
“He took too much Joy.” The man replies. “Joy could look like anything, it comes in syringes, pills and sometimes in bottles. We all know what it looks like, so either Tommy here got desperate, or someone forced him to take it. Joy’s harmless in small amounts, but in large amounts… Well, there aren’t any noticeable effects unless you somehow overdose, or something causes you a lot of distress, which will turn you into one of these things.”
Everyone is silent for a moment. “Yeah… That seems pretty bad.” I say in an attempt to break the silence.
“Yes, it’s very bad.” The man replies. “We’re very strict on this sort of thing, so I’m almost definitely sure he was forced to take some.”
“Alright, now that that’s over, I have some questions.” I say.
“Ask away,” The man replies. “I’m not all that busy.”
“What’s with the jumpsuits? What’s your name? What even is this place?”
“The jumpsuits are simply used to show what division you’re in. The four divisions all have one leader, and you’ll probably meet all four of them soon enough, but I’m second in command in the green division. My name is Sammy, and you’re in the secondary base of the Fellowship of the Gear. It’s a militia formed to fight the infected.”
“Tell me more.” I reply.
“We have just a few more bases around this area, but they’re not as big, and they’re controlled by only one division each. The divisions simply just existing causes problems, because we all have different ways of solving conflicts. You’ve already met Charley, the green division leader, so I should probably show you and your buddies to the yellow division leader, Gally. Just follow me.”
The three of us follow him over to a large yellow tent on the other side of the base. It’s full of science equipment, white tables, and people wearing yellow jumpsuits.
“She’s right over here.” Sammy says. I look behind myself, and see Piro, and Jake, who is recording with his camcorder.
I walk over to her, and she immediately notices me.
“Hello.” She says, revealing her southern accent. “I haven’t seen you around here before.”
“I’m introducing Ned here to you.” Sammy replies.
“And Piro and Jake!” Piro says happily.
“So… What do you do around here?” I ask Gally.
“The yellow division and I capture creatures that we find odd, so we can find out how we can exterminate them, harness their power, or even befriend them.” Gally replies. “For example, those things over there.”
She points to two humanoid creatures, one with snowy white fur, and one with tawny brown fur. They’re both wearing upside down teardrop masks which are white. They’re inside a large box made of reinforced glass. There’s a glass pane being used as a door, which is kept shut by a padlock.
“Pets!” Piro says, upon noticing them. “Can we keep one?”
“I don’t know yet.” I say quietly, before looking over at Sammy and Gally.
“I’ll unlock the cell.” Gally says. “They haven’t done anything to hurt us, but they still don’t like us.”
“How do you know that?”
“I mean, one of them doesn’t trust us, and the other one just refuses to interact at all.” Gally says, as the glass pane acting as a door is unlocked by Sammy.
I walk inside the cell. The white one immediately looks at me with interest, tilting their head and twiddling the cat-like ears on their head. The brown-furred one crosses their arms, and looks away angrily, stopping every few moments to stare at me.
“Do you have a name?” I ask them.
“Spurz.” The white-furred one replies. Their voice doesn’t come from them. Instead, it’s more like an echoing voice in my head, that isn’t mine.
Getting quickly impatient, as it’s been a few seconds and they haven’t said anything, I go and ask “And who’s the other one?”
“Anti.” Spurz says. “I don’t know him.”
“Do you two have any sort of… Powers?”
Spurz walks a bit closer to me and says “I can make spikes appear, and that’s it.”
“Could you show me?” I ask.
“I- U-uh… Sure.” Spurz says. The room slowly gets freezing cold, and a line of white opaque spikes start appearing on the floor, going straight towards me. The spikes get longer and more narrow, getting closer and closer. I quickly run out of the way, as the spikes go straight through the top of the cell and then stop.
“S-sorry!” Spurz says, hands over where their mouth would be, reminding me of my son’s ex-boyfriend. “I can’t r-really control it…”
“It’s fine, as long as you didn’t do it on purpose.” I reply.
Sammy walks in, saying “Come on, it’s time for your first assignment. They can come with you.”
I follow Sammy out of the tent and into a small area devoid of tents, and people. There’s only a barrel with a fire lit inside it, and a wooden bulletin board with a few photos pinned onto it. “Do you mind telling us what this is?” Jake asks. “Is this some sort of joke?”
“No, this is where I give you orders for your first assignment.” Sammy replies. “Most people get sorted into divisions, but I’d say you’re in my division already.”
There’s silence for a moment.
“What is it?!” I angrily yell.
“Sorry, I got distracted.” Sammy says. “So… Here on the board are the people you should avoid.”
I walk over to the board, and notice papers with paragraphs on them, displaying information about each person on the board. The first picture I take notice of is one of an unremarkable man wearing a dark green jumpsuit with a badge on it. The picture itself has a large red X shape over it. I don’t say anything about this one.
“I notice that you have a Stand.” Sammy says out of nowhere. “And I know you’re a demon, because you’re not even trying to hide it. Trust me, I can see the horns on your head.”
“So? What about it?” I say, annoyed.
“I’m just saying, hopefully it’ll make your mission trivial.”
“Whatever you say…” I say, rolling my eyes.
I take a look at the board again. There’s a picture of an older woman with pink hair, labeled “Ruby Waltz”. The paper pinned to the photo talks about how Ruby was a former member of the ERO. But for some reason she decided to leave.
There’s also a photo of someone named “Peach ‘Butcher’ Wilkins”, the leader of a gang of murderers and theives called the Bloody Eyes. I think about my situation for a moment, watching Piro chase around Spurz in a circle.
“You ready yet?” Sammy asks.
“Yeah,” I say. “What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to check on Julian’s weapon shipments.” Sammy replies. ”I despise him, but we’re all probably screwed without him unless we can find another source of supplies. If you do find a source of supplies, go kick his ass for me so we don’t have to deal with him for supplies anymore.”
“Is he really that bad?” Piro asks, as I notice he’s stopped playfully chasing around Spurz.
“He’s living a life of luxury while there’s people out here starving, so I’d say yes.” Sammy says.
“Can I kill him?” I ask (Or blurt out, really).
“Well, I doubt I can stop you.” Sammy says. “Go through the gate you protected earlier, and walk on the path until you find a big storage container with purple lights around it, Julian lives there.”
Me and the group walk away.
“Wait!” Sammy says. “Before you go, I should tell you… It’s not that important, but could you go find Dr. Hernandez and Pulaski for me? They went missing around the area where Julian lives. People keep pestering me about it.”
“I’ll try to find them.” I say, and walk to the gate with the group, as Sammy leaves. We exit the camp through the gate, and walk through the snowy wasteland, looking for purple lights.
“What if another one of those things comes along?” Piro asks.
“Another one of what?”
“The… Joy things…”
“I don’t know if I’m able to protect you with my Stand. I feel like they’ve gotten weaker.” I say, unsure. “But if another one does come along, I… guess we just hide. Yeah, I’m horrible at planning…”
“What if there’s bad people?” Piro asks.
“You hide, and we’ll get rid of them for you.” I reply. “Only fight if you have to.”
“Got it.” Piro replies.
We continue walking, until we find a large camp area surrounded by spiked logs held together with rope. Inside the camp is a blue shipping container, likely the one Sammy was talking about. Additionally, it also has purple lights around it. We walk around the camp walls, looking for a way in. Eventually, we find an area just barely lacking in logs. I just barely manage to squeeze through, but everyone else makes it in rather easily.
There’s some crates stacked around everywhere. There’s a large tank-like robot with four wheeled legs next to the container. Two demons are working on it. They seem to be the only demons here other than me, as everyone else is human. There’s a small group of men surrounding the demons. Everyone around also seems to be wearing masks, and a mix of red and black clothes. The strongest-looking man in the crowd walks over to the two demons. “I see that the machine still isn’t working.” He says, the crowd giggling in their stupid-sounding high-pitched voices.
“We’re still working on it, sir.” One of the demons says. The man grabs him by the neck and raises him up with only one hand.
“Do it quicker. You’re not here for relaxation, Zach. You’re here to fix this machine, until it goddamn works. Now work, or your friend dies.” The man says, releasing the demon.
The man walks away, and towards what seems to be the exit of the base. The men just split up, taking positions. Quite a few are positioned with their backs turned to the demons. I notice something tied to a long, thick string hanging off of one of the spiked logs, with something attached to it. I grab it, and take a look inside it, making sure to look out for the men nearby.
There’s just a driver’s license, with the name Jason Horrigan, and a few dollars. The picture of Jason shows a grinning man with pink hair and pink irises (He might be related to Jack, which I find interesting). Oddly, the top of the image, which would likely show Jason’s bangs and the top of his head, is cropped out. Another thing is that his smile just seems unnerving, as if he were forced to have this picture taken, and he’s terrified. I might ask Giovanni who this man is. He’s always good at that sort of stuff. I pocket it, and look at Piro.
“What do we do?” Piro asks nervously.
“Hide behind one of the…” I begin to say, looking around and noticing crates strewn around everywhere along with the other crates. “One of the crates. Only fight if you have to.”
“Got it.” Piro replies.
“You sure catch on quick.” Jake says.
I wait for one of the men to walk away from his position. But before I can take him down, I hear a loud foghorn-like noise in the distance. The men move away from their positions, and run out of the camp, leaving the demons alone. I walk over to the demons.
“Don’t hurt us…” One of them says, looking up at me nervously.
“I won’t.” I reply. “There’s an open spot you can go through.”
I point to the aforementioned spot, and they go through it and run off. “I hope you didn’t just screw us over.” Jake says.
“I doubt they’ll do anything bad.” I reply.
I walk over to the blue storage container, and look around to check if any of the men are still here. No one but us. “The men are gone. All of them left.’ I say. I look around inside the container. It’s empty, except for a large square shape scrawled in white, with a handle in the middle. I pull on the handle, revealing a hatch that leads to a ladder painted yellow.
“Over here.” I say.
The group walks over, as I notice Jake handing Piro a camcorder. I don’t really care about what he does, as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. That applies to almost everyone I know, to be honest. One by one, we climb down the ladder, which goes down into some sort of abandoned subway station. Oddly, the lights are still on. A bit dim, and they’re flickering, but they’re definitely on. There’s infected here, but they don’t attack me. Instead, they start running (And stumbling) after Jake and Piro. Jake climbs onto a subway car, and helps up Piro. Me and Spurz follow them. Anti doesn’t, as they’re nowhere to be seen. Now that I’m on top of the subway car, I look around for any more infected. Immediately, I notice a hunched-over infected with glowing pustules all over its body. It notices me, and its jaw splits in half, letting out an ear-splitting yell.
Suddenly, there’s the cacophonic noise of hundreds of infected screeching at once. The rest is a blur. Me standing in front of the group, facing the horde of infected. My Stand appearing, and punching through the horde. Me, telling Piro, Jake, and Spurz to run. Jake and Spurz tell me that they want to stand and fight.
And so they do, but it barely does anything. The horde is easily taken care of with my Stand. We get off of the subway car (I have to catch Piro when he jumps down, but other than that nothing goes wrong), and head towards a doorway on the other side of the tunnel. But then, the lights shut off, a few sparks illuminating the room for just a few seconds.
I hear lots of footsteps. “Stay close to me!” I say to my group. The footsteps get closer and closer, until…
Silence.
Nothing except my heavy breathing, and… Someone else’s calm breathing. For a few seconds, as I’m paralyzed by fear, I hear whoever’s in front of me start fumbling with something. Whoever it is lights a match, revealing a feminine face with an oddly wide grin. One by one, the men and women around her light matches as well.
“I’m glad we were able to meet here.” She says.
“Who the hell are you?” I say.
She snaps her fingers, and my Stand disappears. I just stand there, terrified.
“Just checking in.” She says. “Seeing if you’re worthy.”
“Worthy of… What?”
“You’ll see…” She says, taking her hood off, revealing her pink hair. She must be related to someone I know…
She takes out a cylindrical device that, after a few seconds, starts emitting an ear-piercing noise. When the ringing in my ears dies down, I can hear the close, disturbingly familiar sound of a horde of infected waking up. The woman and her men vanish, leaving us to deal with the horde.
“RUN!” I yell. Spurz latches onto my arm, and somehow his body glows brightly, illuminating a small bit of the tunnel as I start running, with Piro and Jake following me. We run out of the tunnel, and through a narrow hallway, as the majority of the horde fills the tunnel. We keep running, and somehow end up in a warehouse, and me and Piro trip over a barely-visible rope tied to two columns. Jake stops and turns around in an attempt to help. He slams shut the doors we used to enter the warehouse, and runs over to me. In an instant, the rope snaps and wraps around Piro, leaving him unable to move. As an invisible force pushes me out of the warehouse, and slams the door shut behind me, leaving Piro inside. I could’ve sworn I saw the woman again, glaring at me from the rafters with that awful grin.
I try to force the door open. I try to force the door open with my Stand. I even try to punch a hole in the wall with my Stand. I slump against the wall, as a subtle feeling of guilt washes over me. We slowly start walking back to the base I woke up in. Fuck Julian. Fuck him and his supplies. We can get them from somewhere else. “If I see Julian, I’m going to beat the shit out of him.” I think to myself, reminding me of who I was when I was younger.
We eventually reach the base, where the members stationed at the gate quickly open it. Jake explains what happened to Sammy, and in response, Sammy says some solemn, dejected words (And giving the most emotion I’ve seen from him) and walks away. He says something else as well, but I just tune it out.
“Wait, where’s Hazel?” I ask.
“Oh, she’s over there.” Sammy says quickly. Is he crying? I walk over to Hazel, who is using some sort of telephone. She looks annoyed.
“Yeah, thanks.” She says to whoever she’s calling. “You too, dad.”
“Hey… I wanna talk about something.” I say to her. She follows me to an empty corner of the base, and we sit down next to each other.
“So, what’s your dad like?” I ask.
“I hate him.” Hazel replies. “He always expects so much from me, and so little from everyone else…” Evidently, she finds this an uncomfortable subject to talk about, so she asks “So, what were your parents like?”
“Horrible.” I reply. “They were always arguing, always fighting… If I ever did something wrong, I’d get yelled at. You know… I used to believe in God, so I prayed and prayed for things to get better, and I’d never get an answer. No answers about if this was some sort of test, if I was unlucky, or if I just made a mistake and sinned or something. One day, when I was 12, I just couldn’t take it anymore and I ran until I couldn’t see my house anymore. A few months before that, Jerry somehow knew me, because he called me. He said I could come over to his house… But it was a couple towns over.”
“But that didn’t stop you.” Hazel says. “I know you’re stubborn.”
“Sometimes I feel like I don’t deserve you.” I say. “You’re too nice.”
“Hey… Keep going.” Hazel replies. “I’m interested. So… What was your life like back then?”
“Jerry was my only friend, and I only got to talk to him for a couple hours every few days.” I say. “Being at school was even worse than being at home. I kept falling asleep in class because I was so stressed the night before. I was constantly made fun of just because I didn’t fit in. Fuck them. Why would I want to be like them? When I was a kid, I wasn’t taught much, but I definitely remember being taught not to judge people. Maybe my parents did care, or maybe they didn’t. I doubt I can find out now. It’s not like I care, either way, since they never showed that they did.”
“I don’t know what to say about that…” Hazel says. In a desperate attempt to change the subject again (Not that she doesn’t care, she just finds it uncomfortable to talk about personal things.), says “Maybe we could go see what they have in the cafeteria?”
“Sure.” I reply, wiping some tears from my eyes.
Chapter 16: My REAL Dad![]
POV: Piro
I wake up in a warm bed, which is rare for me, as my bed is usually cold.
This isn’t my bed. I get out of bed, and look around. The rest of the room is cold, and it’s snowing outside. It’s nighttime, and I can clearly see the streetlights outside, along with a few other houses. I’ve never really had the chance to explore things, seeing as how I was locked in my bedroom almost my whole life, and Ned was protecting me by not letting me explore (Which is fine with me. At least he cared.).
I look around the room itself. It’s cold, unlike the bed. The floor is carpet, and science books are strewn everywhere. I leave the room, and look around. The next room seems to be the living room. It’s also full of books, and the TV is on, even though there’s no one in sight. I move slowly, trying not to knock any books over. I keep walking, and find myself in the kitchen. It’s mostly just a normal-looking kitchen, except for the elevator across from the oven. Next to the door of the elevator is a bright red button that seems to be glowing.
I press the button, and the elevator doors open. I walk inside, and the doors close. After around half a minute, the elevator doors open up to a rather small room made of black metal. There’s a light coming from somewhere in the room. I walk over to the light, and realize that it’s a computer. Maybe someone forgot to turn it off? I slowly walk over to it, and look at the screen. There’s some sort of text document open. I walk closer, and sit down in the chair in front of the desk the computer is on.
I begin to read it. It says: “I can’t believe it. I’m one of them. I just feel the need to write this in case I lose it again. Despite the state of my body, I feel about the same. Mentally, it’s exactly the same as it was. Physically, my body could melt right now and I’d be fine. I keep twitching and I can barely think, much less type this. I feel like I don’t have a purpose. I need to find a reason to live.”
I hear the elevator doors open again. I hadn’t even realized they closed. A man steps out of the elevator. He’s covered in white fur, and has an animal-like head, that is humanoid as well. His irises glow red, and he’s wearing a sort of gas mask that covers only his mouth and nose. He slowly walks over to me.
“Why are you wearing that?” I ask, confused.