Wednesday, July 12, 2006

And so
The room smelled of smoke and charred flesh. Junsei’s nose wrinkled when she walked in. The rifle was starting to get heavy in her hands. Sweat dripped into her eyes as she shined the rifle's light into a corner. So far the floor was unmanned, but that doesn’t mean the enemy wasn’t waiting in a trap. The blackened concrete walls looked to be covered in biowaste. Junsei shock her head as she turned to leave the room; why did I decide to do this; I was warned not to. Lvl 10, Dad felt it was easy and redesigned the program to make it harder. Now the scale goes to 11. A crackling noise came from the comm. on her wrist- the boss, “What’s your status?” Her commander asked over the noise.
Junsei raised the comm. to her mouth, “Nothing so far.” She put the rifle against her shoulder, “Looks as if it was just a clean up. No bodies, just a bit of biowaste.”
“I see,” The man paused, “Return to the rally point.”
“Yes Sir.” Junsei turned off the comm. and sighed. All those stairs, probably more enemy as well. Bringing her rifle back to the ready, she made her way back down the dim hallway to the stairs. Her footsteps echoed in the long corridor, a sound that only made her more paranoid. She was running low on ammo and heat cramps were setting in. The facility’s environmental equalizer was offline; so the air was stale, hot and humid. This is way too realistic.

With a grunt, Junsei opened the door to the stairs. The tall room had over twenty flights of stairs. Twenty three floors, god I’m tired; Junsei wiped her face. Taking a deep breath, she started up the stairs. The low hum of exposed wires and transistors only intensified the creepiness. Junsei laughed quietly; all the other kids at school had their Halos, Half-Lifes, Quakes, and Dooms but I can have the real thing. Well almost. If only they could see me now. I wonder what they would say. I wonder what Dad would say. The darkness of the tower seemed impenetrable with the small light fixed on the rifle. As she got higher, the more Junsei found she was using the railing. I’m not weak, I’m stronger than this.

Junsei stopped to catch her breath on the fifteenth floor. Her legs were weak and her hands were wet with sweat. She jumped at the echo of a scream somewhere above. It was loud and died off in a gurgle. She shot up the stairs towards the dead man; the light from her rifle shook violently as she went. "Kya!" She fell against the stairs barely catching herself with the butt of her rifle. Pushing herself back to her feet, Junsei started up again. There was a problem; something was there, on the wall. Wait, where did it go? Junsei scanned the wall, the shadow disappeared. The creature screeched as it leapt from the far wall at her. Barely dodging the thing, Junsei turned to fire. The creature leapt again catching her by her shoulder. Junsei screamed as it dug its claws deep inside. She shook, trying to throw the creature off; a butt stroke to the head and still the creature held. She twisted her body down to the stairs, the creature cushioning the fall down the flights.

The creature screeched again when it hit the railing. Junsei rolled away trying to get at her rifle which slipped from her good hand in the fall. Dodging the creature's third attempt, Junsei grabbed the rifle and fired. With one last scream, the creature fell limp on the stairs. Panting, Junsei staggered to her feet. She swallowed, "Oh shit." Blood flowed from her right shoulder and into her half closed hand. She kicked the creature just to make sure it was dead.

Back up again, now looking for the victim. That was so not cool, I can’t believe Dad does stuff like this all the time. 13, 12, 11, still no one. Wait, there. It was on the tenth, on the ground holding the door open, the soldier’s body. Junsei used her foot to open the door enough to get in the hall; she could barely hold the rifle at the ready with her failing left arm. There he was lying motionless on the ground; the chest of his uniform was torn and bloody. She knelt to check his pulse, yep he was dead. She tapped the comm., "Major!"
It crackled and a man's voice came over, "What is it, Sergeant?"
"We have a man down on B10, DOA." Junsei coughed, she could feel the start of shock, "The unknown creature is dead on B14."
"How are you?"
"My right shoulder is injured." She took out her combat knife.
"Sorry to hear that," The Major paused, "Well, stick to the original plan. I'll try and get you a medic for when you arrive."
"Thanks, out." Junsei turned off the comm. "Well, I guess you can still help me." She cut a long portion from the dead solder's uniform. She stuck one end in her mouth and wrapped the other end around her shoulder pulling it tight before tying it off with a grunt. She moaned wiping her blood on her pants. This is so gross. She looked down the long hall, it was darker than the one she left. Oh god!

In the distance at the other end of the corridor, another shadow. Junsei stared into the darkness of the dim hall. Oh god, oh no. The shadow disappeared. Trembling, Junsei got to her feet and started to back through the door. There, again. It was moving fast. She kicked the body out of the doorway and slammed the door shut. With a scream she began to run. Up, the only way to go is up. Her breathing was raspy and burned in her chest. Her right arm was numb and heavy at her side. Sweat blurred her vision as she looked behind into the void. It was there, somewhere; she could feel it. It happened fast, no warning, no thought. She didn't know how far or how long she had run, but when the creature screeched it didn't matter anyway. It leapt from the wall bringing Junsei down against the railing, smashing her head against it. All her focus was lost. Her rifle fell from her hand and down into the void of the empty floors below. She screamed trying to struggle free, but it was no use. The creature had her pinned and her shock was taking over. It seemed to give the creature pleasure when he made the first strike. From that point on, bit by bit, he opened her up and threw away the contents. The creature screeched with glee as his victim screamed in agony. Must fight, her vision narrowed, must fight, her head felt light, must... The last thing she saw before dying was the grinning face of her killer. Game Over Man.

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