"what do we do?" Asked Anastasia with a shaky voice as her eyes did not leave the count down counter in front of her. probably in her mind, when the counter reached 0 it symbolized her doom. Peter had the same feeling. even with this first encounter he got badly wounded. another Wave? was it going to be the same 4 RatKin like before? 8 of them this time? maybe something stronger? it was all questions he had no answer for, so just like Murphy's law says "if something can go wrong it will". Main objective right now? prepare for the worst.
As peter yelled orders everyone seemed to ignore him while in panic fore sighting what was about to happen.
"ugh. fuck this" peter gave up on the bunch of them. he ran to the dressing closet and grabbed his biker gear. he put the gear on on record time, at least it would protect him from claws and bites better than a regular shirt. also the gloves had some neat knuckle reinforcements made out of carbon fiber, after punting on his helmet he returned to meet the bunch.
to his surprise Mark was proactive and now had sharpened two sticks some 6 feet long and gave them to the girls.
"just wave them around and try to keep the things far away, we will try to deal with most of them..." as he turned to see peter in full gear he was shocked for a second but gave him a thumbs up as if agreeing with the choice.
Peter looked like a clown to be honest. his full biker gear did not match the tools belt he had strapped on top of it, and even worst, the improvised plywood shield and hammer made him look like a low leveled character in an MMO that has mismatching gear. and its only wearing it for the stats.
1:23
they had around one minute before the second wave started. Peter knew that trying to contain what ever was coming for them in the Filming set would be impossible, to big of an open space. the big office was even a worst idea, the walls that faced the film set where made of cheap Drywall and some beams, maybe some fiberglass working as an sound aslant but not much less. they needed some place they could hide, but also sturdy enough.
A light bulb turned on inside his head as he raised the visor of his helmet to be heard better by the three of them.
"we go to the regular Office, all the cubicles are made of metal frames fixed to the floor, and its a fucking maze, all of us know what is where and how to get from one point to another. we will use that to our advantage" without letting them decide he hurried them up even though the two women where reluctant to leave the room. Mark agreed with his judgment
"the hallways between the cubicles will work as a bottle neck in case of big numbers and we can always just duck down disappearing behind the walls, then we ambush them" Peter even thought that his colleague... His friend was starting to et excited.
He would consider Mark now as a friend, he did risk his life coming to help him out with the RatKin. and he appreciated that.
with less than 30 seconds left they decided to set post at the beginning of a dead end in the cubicles, they had space to retreat, and if they found themselves against the wall they could just use a table and jump over to the hallway next to them, the cubicles walls where not that high.
Peter saw that Anastasia still carried the Fire extinguisher with her as she lowered next to her and held her crude spear. more like spiked stick in her hands, he did not disapproved, girl had potential.
Lisa on the other hand was all nervous and having panic attacks, they been ignoring her for the past minute but now it was almost impossible to tolerate
"guy we are going to die, we should have left the floor and try to find some help on the street as i said!" she half cried half screamed as she curled up under a table, she hugged her knees and buried her face in them. not a smart thing to do when you are wearing a summer dress. for a glimpse of a second peter noticed she was not wearing any underwear, but snapped out of it as the count down reached the single digits. KILL now, think about SEX later. he told to himself as they all prepared for their inevitable doom
5
4
3
2
1
And nothing happened.
No explosions, no giant swarm of monsters rushing them.
"a bit anti climatic don't you think?" said Mark half laughing
"don't jinx it man" Peter's voice sounded muffled from inside the helmet. but he did not cared, right now with the dead silence around them he could be heard clearly
"Ana, i did not have a chance to ask, how did you meet the RatKin?" sadi peter while turning slightly to the woman that was crouching next to him.
She was from eastern Europe, tall, skinny, straight silky raven black hair that dropped a bit lower than her shoulders, she had a cute face but lacked the curves that Peter personally liked. on the other side she had some marvelous hands, the props she made always amazed him. from extremely realistic manikins to silicone masks that would envy the most skilled makeup artists in the industry.
"I... I don't know i was working and then i heard some noises as i inspected the storage shelves where we keep all the raw materials i saw them there, 4 RatKin?" she was not so sure to call them that yet "i panicked, and pushed one of the shelves on top of them, i think i caught three of them under it, but the 4th one managed to escape, he chased me down" her eyes started to tear up but she held herself together "there was no way they could have entered the storage closet without me noticing, so i guess they just appeared there" she concluded before sobbing slightly for a few seconds.
"ok. so a wild guess would be that they appear randomly in the floor. now we don't know where the enemies are, but the message was clear, the second wave is here" somehow all of them seeing the same things made the situation less crazy and easier to accept... except for Lisa who was not rocking back and forth like a traumatized child while whispering something on the lines of "i wanna go home"
Peter frowned, nobody could see it since he had his helmet on, but he had to make a decision, since he took out the RatKin there was created an unspoken hierarchy, and it seemed like he was the one calling the shots. something he disliked much. for the past 10 years he been doing what he was told, not more not less. Being in a position of Command was outside his comfort zone.
"ill go and investigate. Mark, stay here and try to protect them. if something BAD happens activate the fire alarm" Said peter as he pointed to the wall, a few paces away a small red rectangle had a glass protecting a small lever, if broken and pushed down the entire floor would be engulfed in flashy red and white lights and very loud sounds.
This was good and bad in a way. good because more than likely the monsters would not understand what was going on, bad because it would make it almost impossible to communicate even in short distances without shouting.
"if i find them and get overwhelmed I'll try to drive them here to the bottle neck." he made a pause and a breathed deeply. he could not show weakness now. if his determination crumbled he doubted the 4 of them would make it out of here alive. "if I'm not back in 5 minutes... don't go looking for me, i would most likely be" before he could finish Mark spoke
"don't worry, you'll be back, you are a FUCKING BEAST MAN!" said Mark as he shook Peter slightly while holding his shoulders, it hurt because of the recent wounds, a small Smile appeared in his face, nobody saw it because of the helmet but he appreciated Mark trying to encourage him.
"I'll be back" Doing his best impression of Gernold Schwatzentiger a famous actor from the movie Exterminator.
he walked slowly watching around corners to not get hacked up like in the famous videogame franchise Dark Spirits, which made it clear that the enemy you don't see are the ones more likely to kill you.
Half way through the office and on his way to the Filming set he saw a small mirror on one of the cubicles, more than likely used by the worker that sat there to adjust their hair or makeup... he had an idea.
Taking out some duct tape from his tool's belt he fixed the mirror to the front right corner of his shield. this way he could peek over corners without having to expose himself that much.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
he advanced through the maze of cubicles, and did not find a single monster. as he reached the hallway he peeked with the mirror and saw something strange, the pile of dead RatKin they had stacked up in the corner at the end had disappeared, the drop cloth covering them was thrown to the side and the bodies where gone.
"that is not good" Peter thought as he silently advanced down the hallway trying to hear everything around him. even though the helmet impaired his hearing and vision a bit he still would take the protection. getting KO'd would mean death.
As he approached the no longer there pile of corpses he saw a trail of black blood, something or someone had dragged the corpses deep down inside the filming set.
he used the mirror to check around the corner only to get surprised, horrified and disgusted at what he was witnessing.
< ReanimatorBot > Level 6
As the robot was cutting parts from the corpses of the dead RatKin and adding them to himself, it had 2 RatKin arms, walked on 4 RatKin legs, the center core was or some strange machine, almost cubic like, small pincer like arms lifted one of the arms of the RatKin, a scalpel cut the articulation at the shoulder level with surgical precision, as it implanted and assimilated the new arm Peter saw something that made him scared
< ReanimatorBot > Level 7
the more parts it added the strongest it's level became. it was not clear right now what levels meant, but for now Peter assumed it was the strength of the monster.
He had no time to back off and call for help, by the time the would be back the monster could be level 15 for all the know. He had to act and quickly.
While guessing that the monster had his back turned to him he started to creep up on him, trying not to alert it of his presence. It did not work, the ReanimatorBot had sharp "senses" if you could call it that way, more like sensors.
The moment it started to turn around to Face peter he charged in shield in front of him, he was positive that the cube weighted far more than the RatKin, so he did not have a size advantage. what he had is knowledge about the RatKin body.
As the ReanimatorBot was halfway turning around Peter slid underneath while aiming a hard hit with his hammer to the RatKin leg attached to the Bot.
To his surprised it did not break, he heard a crack, but the leg seemed to be still functional. this was bad. Not only it gained new body parts from the dead it also reinforced them. expect the worst. peter thought as he backed away and let some space between him and the Bot.
it mechanically started to turn back towards Peter, he had calculated that it was slow and clumsy because of the state that the parts it attached where, most of the RatKin where pretty beat up, so agility was not its strength. What it lacked in speed it compensated by being a metal tank, with reinforced limbs, and god know what kind of weaponry.
for now he saw that the Three RatKin limbs attached to the ReanimatorBot had two knifes and a club. the knifes where not such a big deal since they where dull, that is why they did not picked them up and his Motorist gear could protect him from them easily, the club on the other hand could break a bones. as he circled around trying to find a weak spot he realized what the Bot was doing, his front was keeping him at bay while in the back he kept collecting body parts, this was a race against time. the longer it took Peter to take down this thing the stronger it got.
"Bot" he thought. it had to be electrical in nature.
He had an idea.
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The Hallway they where staying was dead silent, only the mumbling of Lisa could be heard from under the desk. Anastasia had recovered, and her emotions where now controlled, she seemed composed and focused, waiting for Peter to appear in the distance followed by a swarm of monsters. Like Mark suspected, Lisa crumbled under the pressure, but Anastasia was strong. Real life people react differently to life and death situations. Fight Flee or Freeze. It was clear what attitude each of them had chosen
Mark still could not really believe what was happening, but it was not like a dream or drugs, his head was clear, vision sharp. he could feel and experience everything without the fogginess that he would have if it was those two cases.
The clock ticked and they waited.
2 minutes passed
3 minutes
still no signs of Peter or the monsters.
The sprinklers activated without warning making Mark jump on his feet, looking around. Lisa screamed and covered her ears, while Anastasia also seemed scared for a second.
"he said fire alarm, why the sprinklers?" Anastasia screamed trying to get Mark's attention.
"i don't know. but we should check" as they where about to leave and head the way Peter left Lisa begged them to stay
"just drag her along" said mark as he rose his shield, Anastasia pretty much had to drag Lisa, she resisted passively, but kinda complied. her crying now masked by the water flowing down her face. her makeup all messed up.
Soaked wet they made their way down to the hallway, now clear sounds of fighting could be heard. Metal hitting metal, and other mechanical sounds.
"stay here, protect each other" mark made sure that both women had their pointy sticks in their hands as he rushed down the hallway again. Late again he though, hope to make it in time...
as he reached the corner and turned around he saw Peter on top of a mass of metal and recycled limbs that where trying to stab him. he was using his Shield to wend off and block some of the limbs trying to catch him while he was using a drill to perforate the top part of the "ReanimatorBot Level 10?"
Mark immediately caught up to what Peter was trying to do, he rushed in and with a swing of his spiked club some of the nails landed in the elbow of one of the Reused RatKin arms, the bot now had two enemies to be weary of.
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Peter saw that the reanimator bot was not interested in to following him so he retreated quickly to the Big Office room. his tool bag was still there, after changing the wood drill bit for a metal one he emptied the trash bin and wrapped the plastic bag around the impact drill and hung it from his tool belt. the ladder he used before to check the fake ceiling was there to, by using it he reached a sprinkler and smacked it hard. this created a chain reaction, activating all the sprinklers in the filming set.
Without losing a second he picked up the ladder and rushed outside, while reaching the place where the ReanimatorBot was working he climbed up on top of one of the fake walls they used, they did not reach the ceiling, it was an 10 feet tall wall.
Before the Bot had time to see him he jumped. landing on top of the Mechanical abomination, he took out the drill and started to make holes on the top of the metal hatch it had. he mostly focused on the two hinges that kept closed the top compartment. he felt a sharp pain of being stabbed in his right calf but he ignored it. out of nowhere Mark appeared to his aid. He started to like the kid more and more.
While his hits did not do much to hurt the monster, it kept it entertained.
after drilling what he considered enough holes he dropped the drill and picked up his hammer, using the nail removing part of it he used it as a crowbar to open the hatch.
After a few attempts it started to loosen up, all the arms quit attacking Mark and focused on Peter desperately. As the hatch flew open, Peter saw a creature, not taller than 10 inches, sitting inside the ReanimatorBot, skin of grayish color and a wide head that was more eyes than any other recognizable feature, it looked scared and tried to scream as Peter pulled it out and broke It's neck like if it was a chicken, the creature went limp.
The ReanimatorBot on the other hand did not stopped, his movements now more clumsy and even more Telegraphed attacked the closest enemy it could see, in this case Mark, who tanked it all with the shield.
"it has an internal computer, brake it" screamed Mark as he was pushed back by the attacks.
Peter did not even needed to hear that With the name "ReanimatorBot" he would destroy all the inside just in case it could reconstruct itself. Without losing a second and swing after swing mixed with all the water pouring inside the cabin making sparks and short circuits the ReanimatorBot had a *deceased* tag under its name and collapsed on the floor in front of them while leaking oils or some other hydraulic fluids.
After Peter got down, he just sat with his back against the bot exhausted.
"just shut down the sprinklers, and bring them here, I'm fucking dead" Peter said while breathing heavily.
Mark gave him a concerned look
"dead as in exhausted. go!" said peter while he waived him dismissively.
as he had a moment to think a a thought crossed his mind.
-sick fuck that is doing this:0
-Peter & company: 2