The Secondary Saga

[Ruby Rose]

I decided to jump ship to first person, as I felt much more comfortable with it and I felt it was going to be MUCH more entertaining XD

I couldn't help but think that the ghost girl just wanted me and everyone else dead. I mean, we were sent through hell, right? EHH wrong! What came next made what we had just been through look like… heaven, to be blatantly honest. We filed in through the 'tunnel' of sorts that opened up from the Doc's discovery, and IRIS decided to float on ahead to do some recon, until we heard an unholy roar from the shadows. The ball-bot came dashing back and before any of us knew it, she had latched onto the Cap'n's face! It looked like she was attacking him, but soon enough, they seemed to be conversing, only one of them being heard and it wasn't IRIS. The two had merged, becoming one, beastly cyber-pirate. It sounds a lot cooler to say out loud, eh?

Our group marched on, dreading what was ahead, and I swear I saw Richtofen biting his nails, but that might have just been my wild imagination. But the temple thought it would be funny to throw something at me with my back turned, and I felt a massive-arse dart sink into my mid-right back, barely missing the spine. I kept walking, waiting for the paralysis… but to my pleasure, it was only a normal one, and I let out a breath I hadn’t realised I was holding. I really should have picked something thicker to wear, rather than just a bloody singlet and jeans. I was more-or-less the least well-outfitted member of our group, Alice being possibly worse.

Speaking of which, I looked down at her, and her eyes were telling me something… that she wanted to move. I looked to Crow, who had passed me on the way, and spoke, “Hold up a sec, Cap,” I told him, and he stopped, replying with, “What is it, boy?” and BLOODY HELL I nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw how crazy he looked with IRIS attached to his face. Eugh…

In response, I stopped behind him and set Alice’s legs down, “I thought I might take the Doc’s advice and get Alice to move around some, try and get her muscles to relax a smidgen,” I elaborated while I supported Alice at the waist. She was able to move her arms slightly, flex her fingers without too much effort, but she was still finding it a challenge to stand by herself or move her head. The best she could do to show her contentment was a very, very subtle nod of the head, and I scooped her back into my thin, bony arms.

We were off again, coming closer and closer to the light… and then hell began to break loose. Some kind of zombie – not the one from before – reached out and nearly snagged my hair, if it weren’t for Richtofen’s quick reflexes. A bolt of energy soared past the back of my head and tore through the undead’s skull as if it was a rotten melon. I nodded my thanks to the doctor… and he seemed to be rather frightened, but also relaxed. Had he been in a similar situation before?

More and more creatures of the night reached out as we made a mad dash for the light at the end of the tunnel, and each one was swiftly downed by the doctor and Jan. IRIS managed to fend them off of her host’s body well enough, too, using plasma of her own. I was considerably the most useless member of the group, with my precious cargo and all. I was grateful to their efforts to protect one another, and vowed to do the same for them, even if I had to do it by myself.

Our band of misfits burst out into the searing light; with the time we spent in there, the clock hadn’t even turned its hands twelve hours. Or maybe it had spun an entire twenty four? That was a mystery none of us were going to be able to find out. Once we were out though, there was no light of salvation, no stairway to heaven; only the gate to hell. Yes, those undead spattered the green (or was it brown?) area, like ink all throughout a once beautiful forest… no, ink was used to make beautiful things. They were more like blood splattered from a thousand-year old corpse. They smelled just as bad, too, so it wasn’t a bad comparison.

“Shit’s just hit the fan,” I heard Jan mutter behind me. “You don’t say…” I replied, my voice trailing off. Screams were heard all around us, as the rotting beasts closed in like a suffocating cloud of decay. Jan already had his rifle out, scanning the zombies with his ironsights like a machine. Richtofen had is luminous pistol at the ready, a broad (and somewhat sadistic) grin pulling his face. IRIS’s lasers were whizzing up and down, left to right, ready to blast anything while still on her host’s face, and Crow himself looked cool as ever, still with his saber sheathed. Me? Well, I kinda just hid in the middle of them, Alice whimpering in my arms…