Lianne ran toward the nearest zombie and flykicked its head right from its shoulders with an impressive force, she took the pole from Travis and swung it heavily, knocking over three or four oncoming zombies, "Don't do that, you'll just get injured again." She said with a little concern in her voice as she fought off the zombies.
"I know who you are and what you did, I also know that you saved my life from falling into peices, you brought back Lianne so that she would be able to revive Travis and that you've done this will all the good intentions you hold in that mind and heart of yours. But when things went wrong you didn't hide, you took to the problems almost face to face. You're still the man I married and I've honored those vows, even when I thought you were dead I mourned your memory until I proved appropriate. No, I can't kill you, I might hurt you sooner than you think but no Malconin, I'm not going to kill you."
Malconin flicked some ash off his cigarette and smiled sadly, sighing. " At least one person..." he stopped and glanced at Drake. "Maybe two people, understand me and, to a certain extent, what I did."
He glanced back at Berina. "I hope you understand how hard it was to let you go, to stay away from you for the good of the company? So many times I wanted to throw it all away for just one night with you, so many times, when I watched you through surveylance, I wanted to go to you and renew my love for you."
He threw away his cigarette and closed the space between them slowly. "I never stopped loving you Berina...never." He lent in and placed a tender kiss upon her lips.
Malconin nodded and grinned. "I guess it does have its uses. Still, if I could take it all back, all of these enhancements, I would."
He stepped away from her slowly. "We have to get every survivor together, Berina. We must stop these things," He motioned to the slaughtered zombies, "Once and for all."
“I'm not too worried about Berina and the rest of the team, they're more than capable of taking care of themselves, if they're still alive then a couple more hours won't change much.”
Chrys nodded, taking in all that he had said. Suddenly, he started to lean into kiss her. She wanted to, but seeing Raine watching she backed away from him slightly. She felt her heart skip a beat as he got even closer, their lips less than inches away from each others. Her thoughts swirled in her head, and she felt herself lose the battle against herself as she put her lips to his. She grew lost in the moment, then a feeling of being on a surreal sort of high.
After a moment of this, he moved from her lips to her neck, from there to her ear, whispering gently. "I'm not leaving you this time,"
Chrys blinked, finding she was...she couldn't explain, but she felt strange, all her emotions across her face, Paul looking to her, as if seeing her for the first time in a long while. She wanted to kiss him again, she wanted that sensation…that dreamlike feeling of them being the only two in the whole world to come back. 'I'm such a sentimental sap...' she thought to herself with a weak smile, her gaze fixed on Paul.
Chrys started to talk, wanting to say what she was truly feeling for once in her life, but before she could open her mouth, Raine intervened. “Erm...Sorry ruin the moment but are we gonna get going any time soon?”
She quickly snapped out of her sentimental mood, turning to Raine with her face flushed. She couldn’t find the words, or rather; she was still a bit dazed by it all. However, Paul snapped out of it first as he shook away the awkwardness from the scene and spoke. “Chrys lead the way, we're going with you.”
At hearing him talk once more, Chrys nodded her head and started to walk down the street, Raine covering the front while Paul covered the back. She couldn’t believe how emotional she’d gotten, how she had forgotten all about their past troubles, ‘How I still love the way I feel around him…’ She felt herself blush brilliantly, and for once, was thankful for the night that had descended onto the city. Despite herself, as she walked, she started to daydream, but it was quickly interrupted when a shot went off by her head.
She jumped to the side and pointed her gun to a now dead licker. Paul and Raine looked to her, their eyes asking if she were okay. Chrys let out a nervous breath. “Sorry, I was…distracted,” She took out her beretta, a little angry at her carelessness.
For the remainder of the walk, she remained attentive, only stopping to examine the gloominess of the University Grounds. The grass was trimmed, painted in shades of forest green and crimson red. The surrounding lights in the area flickered constantly across the grey of the new building, not many a corpse in sight. However, the dormitories to the far left held several silhouettes moving through broken windows, any window intact splashed with blood and at times, body parts.
It was a gruesome sight and more than suicidal to head into that area. At least, that’s what someone must have thought as the doors were tightly locked from the outside, any and all attempt of escape from the outbreak being useless.
Chrys made the sign of the cross in the direction of the area, then turned to the head building where there was a huge library and computer room, along with science area. She poked her two companions in the side as she looked up with a solemn expression. “This is our last destination…”
“Then what are we waiting for?” Raine loaded her beretta and started to make her way up the hill leading to the building. “We got people to warn and things to kill…”
“I do love her spirit…” muttered Chrys under her breath as she and Paul started to walk up after Raine. Chrys scanned the area, catching a brief movement in one of the unusually large, brightly lit windows. She kept her eyes on the window as she tightened her grip on her gun. “How much you wanna bet zombies, lickers, hunters and the sort weren’t the only experiments Umbrella was working on?” She turned her gaze to Paul as she followed Raine through the door of the main entrance. “And how much would you bet…that the University isn’t at all what it seems…?”
Paul was about to answer when a flash of lightning distracted him followed within seconds by the loud boom of thunder. The sky opened up before them and a thick curtain of rain cam down on them as if from nowhere, 'How much you wanna bet, this night has more in store for us than we bargained for?', Paul answered with a raised eyebrow at the sudden rain. They hurried into the building, away from the rain, it was too dark to see anything and Paul suddenly remembered he had packed night vision and flashlights, hopefully they were still in tact, he took of his bag and knelled to the floor, 'Wait a sec, I think I...may...have...ah here it is', he pulled out his night vision headset, 'Dam...', he said tossing it aside, the eye piece was smashed making it useless. He rummaged through the bag a bit more and pulled out two working flashlights, he handed one to both Chrys and Raine, 'There's only two, I'll have to do with your lights for now, I'd rather have both hands on this anyway.'
Paul took his shotgun from his back, it was fully loaded so he stuffed two handfuls of shells in his pocket and replaced his now much lighter bag on his back. Both flashlights switched on and they continued down the entrance hall, 'Do you know where we're going?' Paul asked Chrys as they made a right turn.
Chrys flicked on the flashlight, the white beams illuminating the huge room brilliantly. Everything was in disarray, papers scattered across the area, desks and chairs knocked over, deep gashes visible in areas of the wall. She motioned her flashlight down to a hall, the lights having crashed down to the floor long before they arrived.
She shrugged then started to walk down the corridor, Raine looking around anxiously in the back, Paul only having the light from the two to lead him. She started to make a right when she heard Paul ask a question. “Do you know where we're going?”
“Not a clue,” Chrys replied honestly. She stopped to think. “Well…looking at the area, I take it we’re more in the library section/study area of the University. Considering we need to find something off the computer’s our best bet would be to head to the computer area. The fastest way is a path from here leading underground. Nothing primitive though, just your average hall.”
“Yeah, I’m so sure. Just like this has been your average day in the city,” muttered Raine sarcastically as she started to walk ahead. She turned a second corner, then let out a small scream, dropping the flashlight to the ground. Chrys and Paul hurried after her to see Raine standing with an irritated expression, clutching onto her heart. She turned to the two and waved them off. “Nothing, it was nothing. Just saw a mouse and it freaked me out for a sec.”
Raine walked over to her flashlight, the light having turned off from the hall. She flicked it on to see a pair of olive green loafers suspended a few inches off the tiled blue ground. She started to raise her flashlight up, noting suspenders and a business class shirt. Upon reaching the top, she gasped, covering up her mouth.
Chrys, who had started to look for any approaching threat, turned to Raine with a sarcastic expression. “What, did you see the mouse’s mommy?” She rose her flashlight in the girl’s direction. She raised her eyebrows at the sight, loosening her grip on the flashlight.
Paul turned to look then made a grave expression. “No, just think she saw that.”
‘That’ was in reference to a man, around thirty, hanging from the ceiling by a thick black electrical cord around his neck, a red stain dripping from a hole in the center of his head. He looked more scared than anything, but not even a trace hint of surprise shone on his pale clammy face. Chrys walked over to his corpse, examining the man with her flashlight. She then started to search his body carefully.
Raine looked to her in shock. “What are you-?”
“Suicide note,” grunted Chrys, not enjoying the process of finding a letter. She dug into a front pocket, taking out a bloodied paper in scribbled writing.
‘This whole place has become crazy…overrun…it happened before, in the first city, why didn’t I see it coming again? Why didn’t anyone see it coming? the dorms were taken first, the dead spread like wildfire, their was barely a way to contain it, they were all left to rot. most of the admin had cleared out awhile ago, they knew it would happen, saw it coming. i was ignorant, i foundd it by accident, beat the challenge, i saw the file, i damned myself. should’ve realized it myself, w/ project beta being put to the test, others being placed away, other areas to research being founded. its my…our fault. we should die, we all…we will all die from our life work. the floor flooded…containment escaped…they will come…project…’
The rest of the man’s writing couldn’t be understood, stained with tears and smeared ink. Chrys folded up the letter and placed it into a pocket of her vest, noting several hurried scribbles on the back. She looked to the two and felt herself become hopeless. She was starting to think they couldn’t win, there wasn’t hope. ‘There is…we just have to find it.’
She forced that thought to her mind, not fully believing it herself and her face showing it as well. She started to walk ahead, past the man’s corpse in silence, her morale thoroughly lowered as she walked. She reached a door and perked up slightly at seeing the name. ‘Underground Pass.’
Chrys opened the door and felt her heart drop at seeing one stairwell leading upward, the stairs dry and unscathed. The stairs leading downwards, however…the light shone blurrily in the clearness of the water that had filled it up. She turned to the others as she motioned downward. “Lady and Gentleman, here lies our path.”
Raine looked over Paul’s shoulder. She groaned and ran a hand down her face in frustration. “Tell me you’re not serious. For all we know it could lead to a dead-end or there could be something waiting down at the bottom for us.”
Chrys waded into the water, taking in huge breaths. “One way to find out,” She glanced back to the two with a cold expression. “You two stay up here, if I don’t come back in five minutes, consider me dead and/or drowned and go back to your people.”
“What, no?!” Paul waded in after her hurriedly. She started to dive down but he quickly caught hold of her wrist, pulling her back up. She started to yank her hand from his grip but he was stronger than her. It was no use. She sighed and looked to him impatiently. She started to talk but he cut her off. “Chrys, you can’t go down there alone. Are you crazy?”
“No, it’s called taking one for the team…” she muttered, glancing to the wall. She looked to him with a strange expression. “Listen, all of us can’t go cause if it’s a dead end, that’s the end of our tale. Both of us can’t go down there, someone needs to be here with Raine and I refuse to have you go down there, I’m not going to risk losing you again!” She finally yanked her hand from his grip, breathing heavily as she turned to the water.
Paul looked to her back and spoke in a quite voice. “So how do you think I’d feel?”
Chrys glanced back, saying nothing. She took one final breath before plunging into the ice cold water. She swam down the stairwell, flashlight being her guide towards the dimmer parts of the water, focusing on keeping her lungs from exploding as she descended deeper and deeper into the cold. She blew out several air bubbles, the light all but gone using the flashlight to look around for a source of air.
She aimed downward, realizing she had reached the end of the stairs and looked around for something to breathe with. A single thought crossed her mind as she closed her eyes briefly. ‘I f*cked up…’ She looked upwards to the near endless row of stairs and realizing she wouldn’t make it back to the surface, continued on through the only visible doorway.
Chrys narrowed her eyes as she felt herself grow dizzy and aimed her light upwards. She figured her mind must be messing with her, as she saw a ripple from a pipe dripping liquid into the water. ‘Plop.’
The sound echoed in the water, causing her to widen her eyes. She quickly swam upwards, bursting through the surface and taking in huge gulps of the stale, mildew aroma air. She coughed into the water, wiping her eyes as she looked around the area. She was at the beginning of a long corridor, every other light flickering. It was sort of like an underground cavern, her head two feet from hitting the actual ceiling which was made up of dripping pipes and busted gas manes.
‘Maybe we’re not as screwed as I thought…’
((OOC: Sorry for cutting it off when it looks like so much more could be done, but yeah…it’s late, I’m tired, night y’alls….))
((Hmm, well, I'll try to sum it up. Well, if I'm not mistaken, everyone is back together again w/ the exception of Paul, Chrys and Raine. Malconin let everyone know about what he had done...you know, what with the whole planning the experimentation and making it so only a few survive to create a perfect human race. Berina accepted it, possibly Drake, and Travis is the only one that sees it as wrong...
Could have to do with his reincarnated love...maybe even the fact that a side effect to the plan was Night of the Living Dead in the city...
...eh, beats me. Anyways, lol, sarcasm aside, your character is probably around their area so it all just depends on how you feel about Malconin's plan. If I'm wrong or misunderstood some parts, anybody's free to correct me but I think that's the basic gist of it 🙂 )
OOC: I hate fixing Internet problems...
Paul watched helplessly as Chrys disappeared into the cold water, her light shown for a few moments but then disappeared into the black coldness leaving him alone with Raine. A flash of lightning lit up the hallway behind them and Raine caught the worried expression on Paul's face, she approached him trying to say something but a loud crackle of thunder interrupted her as it rolled loudly splintering into the night. They both stood silently staring at the water, Raine kept the beam of her flashlight in the water but it showed nothing except a few steps disappearing into murky nothingness. Paul looked at his watch, she was only under for a minute, he knew she could hold her breath much longer than him and she was also a much better swimmer but that didn't make the waiting any easier.
Rain turned to Paul who was looking into the water, 'Paul do you think there's any hope for us?', she asked quietly.
'Hope...it sure doesn't seem like there's much hope... for us... for the world... but seriously, would we be here if there wasn't any hope...maybe you're asking the wrong person but I think there's hope.'
Raine grew silent, Paul didn't notice the silence, he was too busy experiencing the longest three minutes of his life. Paul was suddenly shook out of his trance by Raine, 'Do you here that?' she asked in a worried tone.
'There it is again', she said before he could respond and this time he did here it, a scraping noise, 'Sounds like we have company.'
Paul stood up and turned away from the water, the sound was growing stronger but still it was too dark to see anything, 'Shine over there', Paul pointed away into the darkness. Raine shined the light on a body with no legs and only one hand, it was dragging itself along the floor, leaving a mess behind of his internal organs.
'Sick', Raine said, turning her head aside.
'Yea...' Paul's voice drifted off sounding far away, he started walking towards the zombie who was desperately trying to get to him, to taste his flesh, to satisfy its hunger. Paul stopped an arms length away from the zombie and pumped his shotgun, the moment seemed like a lifetime to him, all his thoughts all his memories all his pains, everything that made his life the living hell it was, passed through his mind...'DIE!', he yelled out with such force that it felt like he was being torn in half from the inside. His shout rang through the hallways, his shot was barely noticeable compared to the skin crawling shout he had let out. Raine dropped the flashlight out of shock and Paul was covered in darkness, all alone in a world of his own. A flash of light lit up the hallway but this time it didn't go out, the steady humming of electricity was all around them, bringing the building to life. Paul tuned to Rain and saw the shocked expression on her face but before the sudden light had time to sink in a defining shower of sparks erupted from above them replacing the cold florescent lighting with the dull red glow of the emergency lighting. Paul brushed the broken glass off himself and looked in either direction. 'Raine...you ok?',no answer.'Rai-', A loud gasp for breath confused with splashing water answered him, Paul ran to Raine and pulled her out of the water.
'I was just *Gasp* surprised, what's *Gasp* going on, who turned on the lights?' she said breathlessly, shivering from the cold water. Paul took off his coat and wrapped it around her, 'I'm hoping it was Chrys, that would mean she's alive but I get the feeling that someone els knows we're here...', he didn't want to think about the possibility that Chrys may be dead so for the time being it was Chrys who had turned on the light both he and Raine felt no reason to think otherwise but in both their minds hidden back in the dusty corners, they knew that it wasn't her, they knew that someone had heard them and had plans for them, for bad or for worse they did not know but something told them that even with the best intentions it wouldn't turn out for good. The thought sent a shiver down his spine which seemed to carry on to Raine, Paul stood up pulling Raine up with him.
'It's been eight minutes I'm going after her', Paul said dropping his bag to the ground.
'You can't go...what good will it do, Chrys said to-', but what Chrys had said Paul did not find out because Raine started jerking violently with a helpless expression full of pain on her face. Paul didn't have time to think, she would be dead soon, he grabbed his shotgun like a baseball bat and hit Rain across the shoulder sending her sprawling to the ground. She didn't move for a moment and Paul knelled beside her, 'Ow!', she yelled out as he to touched her shoulder in an attempt to turn her onto her back. 'I'm not sure what hurt more, being nearly electrocuted to death or you trying to break my shoulder with your shotgun!', She yelled angrily with her face to the floor.
'It was the only thing I could do, grabbing you would have gotten us both electrocuted and I wasn't going to let you fry while I found something a little softer.'
Raine turned to her back and looked at Paul with a mixture of frustration, pain and relievement of not being fried alive, 'Next time could you just hit me away instead of trying to detach my arm from the rail?'
Paul squeezed a smile, 'Next time...'
Raine sat up and looked into the water, 'Well I guess following Chrys is out of the question...I hope she got out the other side because it looks like something has electrified the water, lucky it didn't happen when I fell in.'
'Lucky indeed', Paul couldn't help but wonder if someone turned on the electricity to prevent them from crossing the water or if it was just chance.
OOC: You cut it short, I cut it short, what's with us? 😛
Like I said in the other thread, I'm beat, be back finaly tomorow!
OOC: Lol, I have no idea. Though...nice post, really liked it! Now my turn..
‘Maybe we’re not as screwed as I thought…’
Chrys held onto an overhead pipe, rubbing onto her chest to sooth the coughing that came from the little amount of water that entered her lungs. She looked down the corridor and made an estimation. “5 minutes…shouldn’t take me any longer than that to swim through this,” The light flickered into darkness over a section and she felt the total effects of her regaining her emotions.
Fear. It spread throughout her entire being at seeing the dark water and reminded her of things better left in her past. She let out a shiver; she hadn’t felt that way in awhile, wanting to cry out. She let out a shaky breath and glanced back. ‘They’ll…they’ll be fine without me…’ she thought, trying to get her thoughts away from her anxieties.
With a determined face, she started to swim through the water, pacing herself as she went so she wouldn't become to worn out. She ignored the increasing chill factor of the liquid, the increasing murkiness of her surroundings, focusing only on the sounds of her heavy breaths and hard splashes through the liquid. It was only after reaching halfway through the water, her pace growing slower when she stopped and hoped she was wrong at a conclusion she had been coming to.
She had stopped swimming through the liquid and yet...the sounds of splashes could still be heard clearly, echoing in the corridor. Whatever it was making the sound, at noticing her stop, stopped as well, causing an eerie silence to take over.
Chrys, not willing to chance anything, pulled herself out of the water and onto the pair of pipes overhead. She laid down flat on the white, moss covered tubes and looked in between the opening of the two at the water below. She couldn't catch a glimpse of movement, no sign of a creature other than herself swimming through the waters.
She started to think it was her imagination and relaxed, allowing her face to fall in between the middle of the two pipes. She adjusted herself as she prepared to dive back in, but her braid hung down before she could let a leg dangle over.
Out from directly beneath her, a loud unearthly roar was heard, water rising up as something shot up from the water towards her braid. It missed taking her braid, along with her head and fell down into the water, circling her area. She clamped both hands over her mouth, doing everything in her power to hold back the scream from the shock of the creature.
It was like a shark in size...and that's where all similarities stopped. Its eyes, they were missing, looking to be gouged out from some thing a long time ago. It had a set of jagged teeth, each one looking worse than the last and its body looked enhanced, made perfect for the water.
'And killing anything swimming IN the water.' she thought grimly as she started to crawl along the pipes towards her earlier destination. Still slightly freaked out from the beast swimming below and concentrating on not slipping from the moist dew covered pipes, she made slow progress to her destination.
Approximately five minutes passed until she reached her destination. A stairwell opening with only the first three stairs flooded. The rest of it was surprisingly dry and lit brightly from an unknown light source. 'The path must've been on an upward slope...' she thought, observing the area. A grey fuse box stood out to her, connected to it several thick black wires serving to power...somewhere. The wires didn't lead upwards but instead lead through to the wall.
Chrys started to lean a hand over but quickly snapped it back, just in time as the creature jumped up to the meal. It missed, but barely. She looked down to the murky water then to her hand, rubbing it tenderly. "That was too close for comfort...and here in lies my dilemma," She peered back into the water. "I need to access the stairs but beastie over here just can't wait until I dive back in. And yet...it has no eyes so I know it can't see me so it must be relying on only two other senses. Scent and hearing."
She lied with her back to the pipes as she started to think, ignoring the creature below her as she pondered. "It'll work...maybe. And just to be safe, it'll take out the beastie in the process. Thank god for movies..." She made the sign of the cross as she started to take off her Kevlar jacket, carefully balancing it over the pipe as she took off the shirt beneath it to reveal a currently soaked satin white bra. She put her Kevlar jacket over that and checked too see everything was in order before she continued.
Chrys searched a back pocket, taking out a few sticks of beef jerky and tossing it into her shirt. She couldn't eat the stuff without getting sick so she figured she might as well put it to use. She took out a grenade, her very last one. The first two had been used up in the hospital, one to the zombie mob, another...towards her commander.
'The traitor...' she thought, her expression disconsolate, angry, and mixed with a sense of grief. She tied up the last grenade along with the beef jerky into the pack and threw it against the side of the wall and into the waters behind her. The creature quickly swam towards the source whereas Chrys took the opportunity to jump from the pipes and into the water, quickly making her way to the stairs, jumping up the first three stairs onto dry land.
Behind her, an explosion occurred causing her to temporarily lose her balance. She turned around, expecting to see sushi and the blown up remnants of her shirt but was stunned to see only a splash of red in the water, a shadow beneath the waves. She didn’t know why or even how, but it had somehow managed to escape the more powerful effects of the blast and upon realizing Chrys was still alive and breathing, propelled itself towards her location.
“Oh, to hell with this!” Fed up with its persistence, she tossed aside her Kevlar jacket, not willing to risk frying her CD’s as she yanked one of three thick black wires from the wall behind her. Electricity sparked in front of her as she did so but she ignored it. She whipped around to see the creature merely yards away, swimming rapidly towards her in a zigzag pattern.
It circled around the bottom of the stairs, now feet away from her then swam back to the entranceway. It paused in place as if preparing to charge. It pushed forward to her location once more, inches away, jumping out of the water to reveal a horrible deformed face, half of it blown off from the grenade. It roared as it prepared to engulf her whole in one bloody bite.
“Bite me,” she said coolly, in response to its roar. Chrys, with an adrenaline rush from the fear coursing through her, pushed the crackling wire into the creature’s mouth with a vindictive expression of concentration.
The creature caught the wire in its mouth, instantly jumping back from the high volts of electricity that had started to course throughout its being. The lights around Chrys flickered, white orange sparks flying from the now smoking creature. It squealed a high-pitched yelling cry as it fell back into the water on the stairs, floating on the surface, dead before it had landed.
Chrys looked at the corpse apprehensively before letting out her breath, tossing the wire into the water to make sure it stayed dead. She walked backwards and leaned against the wall, sliding down it as she picked up her Kevlar jackets and tossed it on. She lit a cigarette she had kept inside a pocket of her jacket and blew a cloud of smoke into the air before letting out a weak smile. “Thank god for movies indeed…”
*To be continued…