07-23-2016, 12:09 AM
Abner rubbed his head as he entered the room he’d left Colonel in. For some reason he had a splitting headache. It had shown up not long after Kristen had been sent back to Syntech, along with a dry throat and some general fatigue. He assumed that it simply came from his lack rest. Or, really, he hoped that was all it was.
The soldier navi had moved from the console that played the recordings left by the radio DJ, and instead was towering over a man with a definitive bullet wound in his head. Colonel looked to Abner as the former trooper approached, then joined him in looking at the corpse before them.
“Did he tell you anything interesting?” Abner asked as he took a drag of his cigarette.
Colonel had begun to understand the former Stormtrooper’s odd way of communicating. “I believe this is the one who left several recordings on the station’s archives, just over there. He spoke of strange behavior and deformed people. He specifically mentioned they were worst in three places on this island.”
“Three places we ought to avoid, then,” Abner was quick to offer his thought on that matter. Colonel didn’t respond immediately, so Abner shared his bit. “We got ahold of Syntech. They even got Kristen out by teleporter.”
“They can get the rest of us out?” Colonel quickly asked. All the information he’d gleamed would be rendered wondrously irrelevant if they were able to depart that easily.
“Well, that’s the thing,” Abner removed his ball cap for a moment, so he could scratch his head. “The whole network went down. Did the power flicker in here?”
“Briefly,” Colonel remembered.
“Yea, we can’t get Syntech back on the line,” Abner said as he replaced the hat. “We got local communications working, though. I got Christa on the line, thank Omni. Hopefully we can link up with her.”
Colonel nodded. He remembered Abner mentioning that the woman who he’d followed onto the plane. Strength in numbers would definitely be a benefit, but the real interest to him was the fact that Syntech was unreachable. “Do you know what the problem with the connection is?”
“To be honest, I was hoping you could…plug into it?” Abner awkwardly suggested. “Maybe you could tell us? Does it work that way?”
Colonel let Abner bask in his stern glare for a moment before answering. “It does not.”
“Well, will you take a look, anyway?” Abner asked after another uncomfortable silence.
“Yes,” Colonel was again concise with his response.
With their work in this room done, Abner dropped down to the corpse before them. He patted the deceased man over a few times, searching for anything that might be useful. Unfortunately, his pockets were empty, devoid of even a spare magazine or loose rounds for the pistol that lay beside him. Abner grabbed the gun and tucked it into his waistband for the moment, so that he could pass it on to Trent. It made sense to keep everyone armed.
Abner stood up and noticed Colonel seemingly stretching one of his arms. The soldier navi noticed him staring, and lowered his arm to his side, slowly. Abner wondered if even this machine was feeling as crappy as he was. Something was amiss, for sure. Colonel had even reacted similarly when he and the three secondaries simultaneously vomited, back in town. As concerning as it was, it was also a lower priority, for now.
They made their way back through the hallway and into the room where Trent was still backed far away from the machinery. Colonel approached the computer and it’s many screens, while Trent walked over to Abner. The ex-trooper looked to the young secondary, then wordlessly placed the freshly looted pistol in his hands.
Trent stared at the gun in shock, but held it up to look it over. “I’ve never used one of these, Abner.”
“You might have to learn how, if we can’t get through to Syntech,” Abner said, while also reaching out and grabbing Trent’s wrist, to lower the gun so the inexperienced secondary wasn’t pointing the muzzle at anyone.
Not more than a couple seconds after Trent tucked the pistol into the back of his own pants, there was a harsh pounding at the downstairs door. Abner turned and looked down the stairs, cautiously tilting his head as he listened. There was obviously more than one person banging on the front door, and however many there were, they were certainly making a hell of a racket. He had a bad feeling about this.
There was a distinct crash. Abner could tell the door had been ripped from the hinges, and whatever was outside was now indoors with them. He grabbed his hanging blaster rifle and aimed it down the stairs, taking slow breaths to keep his aim steady while he waited. The good news was that this staircase was the only access to the upper level. He could hold a bottleneck for a short time, at least.
“Colonel!” Abner called out, briefly using his non-dominant hand to wave Trent back into the room with the soldier navi.
“The system can’t be repaired!” Colonel’s voice responded, sensing the urgency. “Not in any expedient time frame!”
The horde arrived like a cascading wave. One second they were unseen, and the next, they were everywhere. Ghoulish, deformed zombies filled the staircase and tried to storm up, almost like a singular hive minded entity. Their coordination was greatly thrown off when Abner blasted the lead being in the chest, killing it instantly and sending its corpse back into the crowd. While they struggled to move past the deceased body holding them back, Abner continued to pick off individuals. It was working for now, but it wouldn’t last.
“We gotta go!” Abner shouted, though he never removed his eyes from the bottlenecked horde, and continued to fire into them. “Broadcast over local coms that this station isn’t secure anymore!”
Colonel appeared out of the doorway a moment later. Abner prayed to all the deities he’d ever been under the thumb of that Colonel had acquiesced to his request, but he certainly couldn’t run back to the communicator to make sure. As important as it was to make sure Christa knew not to seek out this compromised location, it was equally important to get the hell out of this station before they lost what flimsy control they had.
Glass shattered down the hallway, and Abner took a glance to see Colonel had utterly destroyed a window leading to the roof. Not the most practical exit, but it was certainly better than pushing back against the horde that was rapidly gaining ground against his continued blaster fire.
Colonel climbed through the window, with Trent in hot pursuit. Abner took one final shot into the crowd with his blaster rifle, then charged after the two of them. He jumped out the window with no hesitation, and was thankful to have no descent to solid ground. He ran after Colonel and Trent, and when they leaped across an alleyway to a different rooftop, he followed without question.
The roofs were loosely connected, by either platforms or adjoining buildings. It would make transit quicker in theory, but this energy exertion had Abner in a cold sweat. He tried to push it aside, but the fact was that he simply felt like shit. Trent was broadcasting similar symptoms, and even Colonel looked uncomfortable. This wasn’t good.
He looked ahead to see another small crisis. Two deformed individuals shared the rooftop with them. While one was creeping towards them on its hands and knees, looking read to pounce, the other stood upright with a long tongue touching the ground and a haze of smoke around it.
Trent’s horror contrasted with Colonel’s stoic gaze. Abner tossed his cigarette aside and raised his rifle with a heavy sigh. Even before these abominations, his primary emotion was still annoyance. After all, if they could pressgang Trent into being a combatant, they certainly could have utilized Kristen.
“Really missing that fourth, right about now.”
The soldier navi had moved from the console that played the recordings left by the radio DJ, and instead was towering over a man with a definitive bullet wound in his head. Colonel looked to Abner as the former trooper approached, then joined him in looking at the corpse before them.
“Did he tell you anything interesting?” Abner asked as he took a drag of his cigarette.
Colonel had begun to understand the former Stormtrooper’s odd way of communicating. “I believe this is the one who left several recordings on the station’s archives, just over there. He spoke of strange behavior and deformed people. He specifically mentioned they were worst in three places on this island.”
“Three places we ought to avoid, then,” Abner was quick to offer his thought on that matter. Colonel didn’t respond immediately, so Abner shared his bit. “We got ahold of Syntech. They even got Kristen out by teleporter.”
“They can get the rest of us out?” Colonel quickly asked. All the information he’d gleamed would be rendered wondrously irrelevant if they were able to depart that easily.
“Well, that’s the thing,” Abner removed his ball cap for a moment, so he could scratch his head. “The whole network went down. Did the power flicker in here?”
“Briefly,” Colonel remembered.
“Yea, we can’t get Syntech back on the line,” Abner said as he replaced the hat. “We got local communications working, though. I got Christa on the line, thank Omni. Hopefully we can link up with her.”
Colonel nodded. He remembered Abner mentioning that the woman who he’d followed onto the plane. Strength in numbers would definitely be a benefit, but the real interest to him was the fact that Syntech was unreachable. “Do you know what the problem with the connection is?”
“To be honest, I was hoping you could…plug into it?” Abner awkwardly suggested. “Maybe you could tell us? Does it work that way?”
Colonel let Abner bask in his stern glare for a moment before answering. “It does not.”
“Well, will you take a look, anyway?” Abner asked after another uncomfortable silence.
“Yes,” Colonel was again concise with his response.
With their work in this room done, Abner dropped down to the corpse before them. He patted the deceased man over a few times, searching for anything that might be useful. Unfortunately, his pockets were empty, devoid of even a spare magazine or loose rounds for the pistol that lay beside him. Abner grabbed the gun and tucked it into his waistband for the moment, so that he could pass it on to Trent. It made sense to keep everyone armed.
Abner stood up and noticed Colonel seemingly stretching one of his arms. The soldier navi noticed him staring, and lowered his arm to his side, slowly. Abner wondered if even this machine was feeling as crappy as he was. Something was amiss, for sure. Colonel had even reacted similarly when he and the three secondaries simultaneously vomited, back in town. As concerning as it was, it was also a lower priority, for now.
They made their way back through the hallway and into the room where Trent was still backed far away from the machinery. Colonel approached the computer and it’s many screens, while Trent walked over to Abner. The ex-trooper looked to the young secondary, then wordlessly placed the freshly looted pistol in his hands.
Trent stared at the gun in shock, but held it up to look it over. “I’ve never used one of these, Abner.”
“You might have to learn how, if we can’t get through to Syntech,” Abner said, while also reaching out and grabbing Trent’s wrist, to lower the gun so the inexperienced secondary wasn’t pointing the muzzle at anyone.
Not more than a couple seconds after Trent tucked the pistol into the back of his own pants, there was a harsh pounding at the downstairs door. Abner turned and looked down the stairs, cautiously tilting his head as he listened. There was obviously more than one person banging on the front door, and however many there were, they were certainly making a hell of a racket. He had a bad feeling about this.
There was a distinct crash. Abner could tell the door had been ripped from the hinges, and whatever was outside was now indoors with them. He grabbed his hanging blaster rifle and aimed it down the stairs, taking slow breaths to keep his aim steady while he waited. The good news was that this staircase was the only access to the upper level. He could hold a bottleneck for a short time, at least.
“Colonel!” Abner called out, briefly using his non-dominant hand to wave Trent back into the room with the soldier navi.
“The system can’t be repaired!” Colonel’s voice responded, sensing the urgency. “Not in any expedient time frame!”
The horde arrived like a cascading wave. One second they were unseen, and the next, they were everywhere. Ghoulish, deformed zombies filled the staircase and tried to storm up, almost like a singular hive minded entity. Their coordination was greatly thrown off when Abner blasted the lead being in the chest, killing it instantly and sending its corpse back into the crowd. While they struggled to move past the deceased body holding them back, Abner continued to pick off individuals. It was working for now, but it wouldn’t last.
“We gotta go!” Abner shouted, though he never removed his eyes from the bottlenecked horde, and continued to fire into them. “Broadcast over local coms that this station isn’t secure anymore!”
Colonel appeared out of the doorway a moment later. Abner prayed to all the deities he’d ever been under the thumb of that Colonel had acquiesced to his request, but he certainly couldn’t run back to the communicator to make sure. As important as it was to make sure Christa knew not to seek out this compromised location, it was equally important to get the hell out of this station before they lost what flimsy control they had.
Glass shattered down the hallway, and Abner took a glance to see Colonel had utterly destroyed a window leading to the roof. Not the most practical exit, but it was certainly better than pushing back against the horde that was rapidly gaining ground against his continued blaster fire.
Colonel climbed through the window, with Trent in hot pursuit. Abner took one final shot into the crowd with his blaster rifle, then charged after the two of them. He jumped out the window with no hesitation, and was thankful to have no descent to solid ground. He ran after Colonel and Trent, and when they leaped across an alleyway to a different rooftop, he followed without question.
The roofs were loosely connected, by either platforms or adjoining buildings. It would make transit quicker in theory, but this energy exertion had Abner in a cold sweat. He tried to push it aside, but the fact was that he simply felt like shit. Trent was broadcasting similar symptoms, and even Colonel looked uncomfortable. This wasn’t good.
He looked ahead to see another small crisis. Two deformed individuals shared the rooftop with them. While one was creeping towards them on its hands and knees, looking read to pounce, the other stood upright with a long tongue touching the ground and a haze of smoke around it.
Trent’s horror contrasted with Colonel’s stoic gaze. Abner tossed his cigarette aside and raised his rifle with a heavy sigh. Even before these abominations, his primary emotion was still annoyance. After all, if they could pressgang Trent into being a combatant, they certainly could have utilized Kristen.
“Really missing that fourth, right about now.”
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