Chapter 4
Friends or enemies
I forced myself to get out of bed earlier than my body wanted to. Another trip to the bathroom for a good shower to was the stink off ahh yes smell the roses uh Pine trees. Shortly after I found myself in the kitchen eating pancakes sausage and scrambled eggs I glance at the clock 12pm I needed to log back in to EON (Eternal online network) after rinsing my dishes and putting them in the dishwasher and remembering to put the pizza box from last night in the trash can. I made my way downstairs into my man cave, a blinking notification light was begging for my attention on my monitor a message I hesitate for a moment than reached over and tapped on the voice message it was from Kira I Smiled.
Hey Dexter, that’s great to hear glad you finally got that ship. I know you have been after it for a long time can’t wait to see it maybe you can swop in and rescue this pore slave girl winkie emoji.
Things are going ok here all things considered they treat us fair, but my day is fairly boring they got me farming can you believe it this city girl living another life in this amazing VR game world and I’m stuck farming for a URSC colony on the outer edge of the galaxy so ya feel free to do that swoping in any time you want. Hope you got some sleep. I know you probably stayed up till five or six doing something epic but please get some rest I don’t need you getting sick form lack of sleep and eating too much junk food take care Dex XOXO PS got any plans for the weekend?
Well than I will have to see about getting to her starter planet asap and did I have any plans for the weekend I had to think about it for a moment no not really probably be playing EON hopefully flying around the galaxy with her but there was still a lot to be done I don’t know if can fly straight there or if I needed to make severely jumps would have to ask Slate or Astra man that girl knew more than what she let on there was definitely a story there.
But back to the weekend plans I’m not a complete moron Kira wanted to hang out in IRL ( in real life ) remember I said she was more grounded than the rest of us looks like I would be spending my time in the real this weekend maybe we could play mini golf putting those thoughts aside for now I slipped into my VR chair and logged back in.
The world metallized in my vision Slate was asleep on the bed Astra was not on her bed I panicked until I heard water running from the shower and singing, I couldn’t make out what she was singing but at least I knew she was ok.
I sat back into the sofa and just relaxed for a bit until Astra came out. She nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw me. I just gave her a shrug she got herself together then sat down at the table by the window overlooking over the landing pad she grabs something off the table and put it in her mouth.
“Hey what you got there she looked at what she had in her hand then looked at me and shrug.
“I don’t know what they call it here, but it tastes good. Want one? “
I did not need food in game but why not I walk over and took one form her it looks like a strawberry pop tart it tasted like one to I looked out the window glancing at my ship it was still there the transport was gone though than I noticed there was quite bit happening a lot of soldiers where moving in from the city and heading for the research building huh wonder what. I stopped mid thought as someone knocked on the door.
Slate jumped out of bed coming up with a plunger. I looked at him then his weapon of choice than back at him he looked at me and sat the plunger down by the bed.
"Who is it" I shouted loud enough for whoever it was outside to hear me as I snatched my new Gun a bit big for this but if it was someone that wanted us dead, I think they might change their mind when they saw it.
"Its doctor, Bryon" the voice shouted from outside, I pointed the gun at the door and motioned for Slate to open it he gave me a strange look than opened the door.
“Holy moly don’t point the B24 spindle gawk at me the doctor put his hand up in front of his face as if it would save him, I slid the gun over my shoulder.
“Sorry doc can’t be to safe these days never know who might be on the other side of a door".
“Is someone after you" he started to ask but then changed subjects just as fast. “We are in need of your assistance “ he said proudly as he eyeballed the plunger by the bed however his face change to that of bewilderment.
“Come in, Doc why don’t you tell me what’s going on“ I closed the door behind him as Bryon being to tell us what happened.
“Well you see Jeff and I were working on an experiments I came up with a way that could make some adjustments and get results faster I tried it on the 1st test subject and it showed promising results so instead of waiting to make sure I injected it into the rest of them now the test subjects have turned into aggressive mindless beast using brute force to destroy anything they can they have killed some of a staff“
“And the guards here said they refuse to go in and retrieve the data and rescue Doctor Jeff claiming we should just blow up the whole felicity “.
“Blow it up with jeff still inside you got to be kidding me that’s all I need to hear tell me where to go I will rescue Jeff and save your data if I can“.
“Jeff is important of course but that data is irreplaceable.”
The way he said data and irreplaceable did not sound right to me but if Jeff was trapped, I would make an effort to save him he did give me this awesome gun maybe time to put it to use I walked over to the table and picked up the pop tart like pastry shoving the rest of it in my mouth a few seconds of chewing “all right I’m ready lead the way“.
Slate looked at me “if you die what am I supposed to do than“
He seemed a bit agitated I looked at him and pointed at Astra “if I don’t come back Astra can fly you home, I winked at her the kids got talent this seemed to make him more upset listen Slate there is defiantly something up your butt about her flying and when I get back we are going to talk about it but right now I’m going to save someone’s life the same thing I did for you“ resettling the massive gun on my shoulder I walked out the door only to relies I walked into the bathroom the doctor opened the hotel door and gestures I ruined a perfectly good exit.
Bryon and I walked over to the research side of the complex I haven’t been here yet same colors as all of the other Bluetronics buildings the 1st floor looked like a normal business building with a receptionist at the desk we walked past her and straight to the back where there where elevators we walked into one that had just opened Bryon used his key card and pressed the button for the last floor down it was number as 48 how deep did this complex go I briefly wondered.
“So the data your after will be on the main computer in the research and development computer here insert this into the computer and once prompted hit transfer as far as Jeff goes if he is still alive I last seen him running into the holding and containment not too far from testing and research and development just follow the signs you will have to kill any of the beast that come at you I am afraid there’s no helping them at this point“.
He handed me a small dongle. I slipped it into my front pocket “and what do these beasts look like I asked“.
“Hideous monsters are nothing like their original forum “. He started to say something but the elevator dinged.
We reached are floor walking out I saw a few guards posted over by door this room was kind of small a few bench seats along the walls than a big double door straight in front.
The doctor just nodded at the guards as we passed through the next room it was a bit bigger with a control room off to one side overlooking a corridor with locked doors on both ends a quarantine chamber of some kind.
“Ok this is where we part ways I will go in there and buzz you through the quarantine corridor once the inside doors are open, please make you way inside quickly I will close the doors behind you once you get the data come back to the door and hit the panel just to the left it will buzz me in the control room I’m giving you one hour after that we will use the neutron purge“.
One hour was not a lot of time but if all I needed was data and find and save Jeff that should be enough “ok let’s do this“ I hefted my big gun and grabbed it with 2 hands Bryon opened the 1str door I walked inside it closed behind me he then opened the 2nd door I quickly made my way inside looking left than right not seeing anything like a monster that honestly made me more nervous than I already was.
I was in a large 4-way corridor the right corridor was research and development the left was holding and containment straight was testing I thought I could hear some noses from testing but maybe it came from holing I couldn’t be sure.
I know Bryon wants me to get the data but if Jeff was still alive, I needed to find him asap looks like I was going left.
The noise coming from that way got louder the closer I got to the next door it was hanging on its hinges something smashed into it or a lot of somethings I was honestly I bit scared of what I would be going up against in the next room.
I slipped into the room I was looking at several bipedal creatures they kind of had a human resembles two arms two leges two hands but their skin was a dark red cooler and their heads where big nasty looking things with no hair they were snarling and clawing at a cage over in the corner of the room I spotted Jeff inside the cage setting at the back of it.
Time to see what this new gun can really do it began to spin up by this time the monsters heard the noise and turned to face their new dinner not today you ragghoul looking thing they started to charge me I started mowing them down with extreme preadjusted honestly was having fun wish I had this gun back on the mining station. They couldn’t even get close although they were starting to pile up.
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Over the pile I seen Jeff Standing at the cage yelling something, but I couldn’t hear him over the gatling gun I stopped firing so I could hear what he was saying and what he said made me sick.
“Stop shooting them they are human“ I looked at one of the ugly things climbing over the pile and started to see it they use to be human but got turned to this abomination by Doctor Bryon I promptly throw up.
I couldn’t stand there they were coming right at me I have probably already killed 20 or more of them the thought made me want to throw up again, but I kept it down this was a game after all albeit a realistic one.
I slipped the B24 spindle gawk on my shoulder and grabbed a fire extinguisher and started bashing the things it was kind of brutal but if they were human and the doctor thought he could turn them back I had to try not to kill them if I could.
It defiantly was not easy. After a few seconds they would get back up this did not look like it was working.
I needed some way to contain them like a trap or a cage huh well the room was full of cages just needed to open them than ask the ragghouls to kindly walk into the cages somehow.
In between knocking the ragghouls senseless I started to formulate a plan but because I got distracted one of the thigs got to close IT BIT ME pushing the thing away, I decided I needed to move and find a safe place to think I jumped on a nearby container and then scrambled up on top of a cage.
Good news they can’t climb but they sure know how to bash things around though.
“Jeff are you all right in there”?
“I’m good for now uh how did you get in here.
“Bryon asked me to help well he asked me to get the data then see if I could find you but ya”.
“That disgrace of a researcher couldn’t wait for test results, so he doomed this project and almost killed us both”.
“Maybe we can have this conversation once we get out of here any ideas on how to contain these guys? also only have one hour to get the data and you out of here before they use the something called a purge”.
“The neutron purge oh my we don’t have long you need to get it over to research and development deactivate the cage locks get the data because Bryon probably won’t let us out without it then come get me”
“One small issue there you forgot to mention how I’m supposed to get these ragghouls to stay put while I take a walk next door”.
“Ragghouls? Is that what Bryon was calling them”?
“No that’s just a name I came up with on the fly focus doc how do I get them to stay put”
“Yes of course ok so this might be tricky run over to research and development and release the cage lock overrides so I can get out and control the locks run back over here and run through the big cage in the middle of the room I will shut the front door once all the things are inside than you can walk out the back door of the cage and I will shut that one.
“That was the plan I was trying to get Bryon’s help with but instead he hit the lockdown and ran for the exit”.
“Ok short version run over hit override than run back all the while dodging ragghouls than run into and out of the big cage without getting umm got or stuck in the cage”.
“That sums it up nicely, good luck”.
Well ok then here we go I lined up my path with the door I jumped over the heads of the ragghouls and did a quick roll than darting into the corridor.
I could hear the ragghouls behind me. I put the speed on and ran for the main room good thing it was not to far of a run or IRL I couldn’t keep this up for long otherwise.
Main room was circular quickly finding the main computer I slipped the thumb drive into it and hit transfer just to the left was the override.
Dumb doctor he could have grabbed the data before leaving that’s when I saw the transfer timer start 60 seconds well that explains it and that’s not good for me.
Ether, I needed to run them around the room or run them back to the cage.
I made a quick loop around the room to open the path back to the holding area looked like there was about 30 ragghouls after me I dodged a few grabby hands or claws not sure. Hopefully that was all of them quickly zipping back into the corridor, I begone to run back to Jeff hoping he was ready.
Running into the holding area I saw that Jeff was out of his cage and the door to the big one was open quickly dashing into it I seen the exit on the other end for a split second I had this bad feeling that the trap was for me and that I would be the one stuck in the cage but no I made it out the other side and the door slammed shut I stopped and turned to watch sure enough all 30 or so of the ragghouls crammed inside to try and get to me not thinking to go around the cage but it was too late Jeff shut the other door.
I went to wipe the sweet from my forehead only to realize there wasn’t any. I was pretty sure there was or was that just my imagination.
Jeff came running around to the other side of the cage “you did it wonderfully did you get the data”?
“No, it was transferring so I ran these guys back it should be done let’s grab it and get out of here I think I been in here for about 40 minutes give or take to be honest I did not look at the time when I came through the door lets motor”.
“Motor” Jeff asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Forget it let go”.
The walk back to the computer was without any issues Jeff warned that there may be more of ragghouls down the in the testing area as I had killed no murdered 40 or so and there is about 30 in the cage that left about 100 or so left plus or minus a few.
We made it to the computer I pulled the thumb drive out and was about to hand it to Jeff but decided to hang on to if for the time being this might verry well be my only way out of here I still was not sure if I could trust Jeff or not, I mean he could have trapped in the cage but he didn't.
“Hey jeff where did all the monster I mean um humans come from for the experiment”?
Jeff looked at me a bit dumb founded he said his next sentence slowly as If I was and idiot. “Dexter the ragghouls as you call them where the humans you saved from the out-of-control ship”.
I was an idiot. I saved those people just so these insane so called doctors could use them for experiments. I wanted to shoot something and throw up at the same time.
I can see you’re upset, I assure you that the outcome was not planned, and they were slaves not citizens.
As if that made it any better, I was tempted to put a bullet er laser bolt? in jeffs forehead and Bryon once I was out of here.
“Lest just get out of here” Jeff nodded and we headed for the exit we reached the quarantine chamber or whatever they called it and I hit the call button.
Bryon picked up immediately “Captain you get the data” he asked.
“Yes, and I was able to rescue Doctor Jeff”.
“Ahh Jeff so glad you managed to survive a honest mistake I forgot to carry the one in the formal”.
“You are lying I read the reports from the test you had to of know the numbers where off, but you decided to do it anyway something tells me if I look through the data, I bet I will find something verry incriminating”.
I stared at Jeff knowing he had done said to much there was little to no chance Bryon would let us walk out of here, but he kept throwing fuel on the fire.
After Jeffs rant Bryon finally responded “well now that we are being honest with each other yes Jeff I made a deal with URSC science division one that would set us umm well set me up for the rest of my life, but it looks like I will have to start over because it’s clear that I can’t reason with you unless the captain will end your life I will be rewarded of cores captain”.
Jeff looked at me realizing that he messed up and was not sure what I would do.
“Not a chance DOCTOR Bryon I spat out his name when I get out of here, I will hunt you down and make you pay for what you did to these people”.
“People laughed he laughed they were slaves their lives where already forfeit initiate the neutron purge. Not likely goodbye captain” The Speaker went dead.
A female voice came over the loudspeaker neutron purge activated countdown two minutes.
Jeff looked at me “come on Captain we might be able to get out follow me”.
We ran toward the testing area there was a few ragghouls milling around I hated to shoot them but the purge would do them in anyways I pulled my out my B24 and lit them up it was not as fun as it was when I thought I was mowing down mindless monsters but it had to be done Jeff just nodded at me once the way was clear he led me to the back of the large room and opened what looked like a garbage shout.
“Ok listen this it is actually what you think it is it will come out in the waste disposal from there we make are way to door that leads to the testing dumping grounds keep in mind there could be any number of mindless and dangerous creatures it's not safe, but the alternative is death right now”.
“So death or possibly death” no more time to debate we only had a minute left as the loudspeaker let us know.
I chose life and jumped down the garbage shout.
I fell feet first into you guessed it garbage well there where defiantly other thing in here that I did not know how to describe it was a very large room not sure where the garbage after it came down here went.
As I was pondering this because I forgot to move, I broke the good doctor’s fall he landed right on top of me with a thud.
I cried out in pain as I struggled to get up good thing you are not 300lbs doc or you might have killed me.
He started to go into some kind of diet of his, but I quickly cut him off focus doc time its ticking.
“Yes of course this way” he led me over to a pile of trash. I did not see a door just I big pile of trash he started to grab whatever he could bags boxes strange looking things I did not want to even begin to describe. Ohh the door is behind it
I helped him as fast as I could until we seen a door with a keypad next to it, no lights “”
The Good Doctor put his hand over it and the thing powered on.
It went from red to green and the door slid open.
Quickly getting in Jeff closed the door behind us and then he sprinted away at a lighting speed for an old man he was making tracks.
I hit the turbo figuratively speaking and took off after him as I was running, I tried to look around and see what was In the room It was dark with some light coming from the celling the walls looked to be rock floor was dirt with some rock in random places than I noticed several dead looking creatures of different types there looked to be a few live ones that after seeing use begone chasing us wonderful and how much time until the neutron purge.
That was when everything behind me begone to light up at an alarming pace the whole room turned a greenish color what was neutron purge my science was a bit rusty but my thoughts ended there as a gust of power rocketed through the tunnel the doctor grabbed my arm from behind a bolder with a deep inset the purge would for the most part go around it because of the force it was pushing outwards down the tunnel one of the bear like creatures seen us duck into the hole in the rock and it too tried to crawl in but the force of the purge begone to eat away at its skin the thing finally lost grip and disappeared down the tunnel.
It finally ended, everything was quiet, and I had all my limbs and no new ones I inwardly laughed. Doctor, are you ok? No responses he was passed out I checked him he still had breath to much action for the little guy I guessed.
I picked jeff up and threw him over my should in a fireman’s carry realizing I couldn’t curry him and use my two-handed gun I did something I been wanting to try for some time now I put the gun in my inventory all I had to do was think about it boom there it was I remember trying it on my starter planet and I never could get one to come up or put anything it my thought is that you can’t use it until after you leave the starter planet sure enough that was the case. Also there was a few things in my inventory the gun of course was in there now but also a basic pistol a basic energy sward some very cheap looking armor worse than what I had on and what looked like some kind of communication device and the last thing googles or a visor I mentally hit equip on the visor looking thing it appeared on my face it looked more like sun shades it powered on the dark room changed to a semi lit room a msg displayed in my FOV night vison activated warning unable to connect to hard suit warning unable to calibrate GPS please move to an area that has intergalactic communications I waved the messages away with a though.
It was kind of like the googles I used I can’t remember what I did with them.
I than pulled out the communication device as expected it couldn’t get a signal but it did link up with my new visor HUD even after putting it back in my inventory there was a small icon letting me know it was out of intergalactic coverage I briefly wondered if I could use it to communicate with Kira but no we won’t be able to try that until she left the starter planet I would have to tell her about it though.
But I could use it to get in touch with Livy if I could get some reception.
It was time to go I been standing here way too long as is. I pulled my blaster from its holster and started walking down the tunnel.