Chapter.2:1 Old man...
“Aagh”… I moaned with my eyes trying to open as I soothed my dizzy head with my non wounded hand confusingly.
“Where… where am I… And what’s this stench?” I quietly asked.
“The stench of death and the place where everyone will die” an old voice said in a cold tone from somewhere I couldn’t make out because of my previous headache.
After a few more tries to open my eyes so that it could adjust to the bright light, I could finally look around after a few seconds.
Taking a few seconds to look around the vicinity, I found out that I was in one of the train station that lead to the central part of the Ashinova or just another sector, it was also infested to add.
That wasn’t the end of it, after having a few more looks around I could see a lot of wounded, unconscious and dead people sitting with their back to the walls. Some were also conscious crying until their eyes turned red. Others just sat there speechless while staring at the floor as if they were waiting for something. A few were children that sat there lifeless, while the other cried for their parents, slept quietly around a corner or shivered heavily while holding in their cry. They all had something in common, all of them were wounded as they struggled to live their last moments.
Looking at everyone just made me heavily depressed, but luckily their SMB’s had their flashlights on, which illuminated the station or I wouldn’t be able to see anything. Actually, maybe it’s better to die without seeing anything?
Counting most of them at front of me and the groans behind me there must be around 150 people.
Having enough of checking the surroundings, I now looked at the old man who tried to catch my attention this whole time, by waving his hand at front of me back and forth with his SMB.
“So, what’s your story?” the old man asked.
“I.. I remember having my lower abdomen pierced with a hole and…” I answered while feeling around my body to observe my wounds.
“Doesn’t seem so to me” he quickly interrupted as I felt around for the missing hole in my lower abdomen…
“Yeah… But my clothes is still tattered...”
Now confusingly looking at him for some kind of answer to the mystery, I noticed that he didn’t have any wounds at him at all unlike the other people here. Yet, he still sat there on the slimy floor with that bloodied clothings.
“Why are you still here then?” I asked.
He looked away and nodded to a direction signaling me to do the same and said “You’ll see”.
Doing the same as the old man, I saw a man wake up from his slumber in confusion for a few seconds just like me recently a while ago. Afterwards he stood up and started to jump with one leg to somewhere with the help of his SMB.
Having my eyes locked at the limping man who made his way a few meters until he reached a door, which said “Maintenance room” it looked like he was about to escape, but suddenly the infested wall next to him started to open as if it was a mouth with sharp teeth and a shriek was let out. The man who tried to escape noticed it and quickly tried to open the door that didn’t budge, panicky he even kicked the door a few times, which made him stumble because his other leg was wounded and couldn't hold it anymore. A second after a claw could be seen trying to crawl out of the weird hole and a spider like creature appeared right after.
The man fell on his knees, weeped for mercy as the creature walked slowly to him and raised both of its front legs with a claw on each.
“Splatter”
“Aaaaaargh!” The man screamed and passed out as his body got cut in half by the waist from the creature and blood could be seen on the wall like a straight line of a cut. But it didn't stop there, the creature immediately went for another cut from head to the bottom half like a cross, which killed him instantly as his body parts fell onto the floor. His blood, brain and cut intestines could be slowly seen rolling out of the body parts. Soon after the creature picked up his parts and threw him into the mouth where the creature came from. The weird wall like mouth started to crunch and eat the dead man as the creature started to look around if anyone else made any trouble, but then went back slowly into the wall.
Having seen the brutal scene play out near the blood splattered wall, I only hoped that my fate was not the same. I bet that everyone conscious here, thought like that.
“See?” The old man said with a sarcastic smile.
“Right…”
...
“Wait a minute… Are you Vayne?” He suddenly asked.
“Uh.. no that’s my father?”
The old man shocked from what he had heard for a second, lightly laughed a bit right after that brightened the mood and said “ Damn bastard… Never told me he had gotten a son”
“Do I know you?” I asked not knowing what was going on.
“What, he didn’t even tell you about your father’s master?”
“Ah… I forgot, I have never gone outside from the maintenance room for years” he said while rubbing his gray hair.
“But did he hate me that much?” he added while rubbing his mustache and pondered to the ceiling.
“Is he still alive?” He then asked.
..”I hope he is, but he is more likely dead, from what I had seen” I answered with a sulk.
The old man now had a few tears while staring sorrowfully to the floor…
“Ah.. I see, I am sorry…”
“It’s okay, knowing my father he probably died a happily with my mother…” I tried to cheer him up.
But the old man kept quietly crying and after a while he looked intently at me and said “Don’t act strong stupid boy, I know you are holding it in… Just let it out and mourn for them, or you make me embarrassed for being the only one...”
I cried until my eyes turned red for the first time ever since my parents died. My parents might not have given me a lot of gifts… But I still loved them deep inside of me. Whenever I needed help, they were there for me. Whenever I wanted to buy something, they did for me. They were the greatest parents who was like a friend to me even though they didn’t show it, since they were kinda shy. Not only that, even the guests in the party and everyone who worked for USEE I mourned for… They were like foster parents that helped me and gave me candies each time I went to the workshop.
I miss them, I miss everyone, I believe everyone does, I wept next to the cold and infested wall...
...
A few minutes after that felt like hours, the old man and I looked cheerfully at each other after shedding our tears to death. Quietly of course.
“I have decided…Here, Catch!” He said and threw a key to me who confusingly tried to catch it.
“You will survive… No… you must survive”
He then pointed at the key on the palm of my hand and said “That’s the key to the maintenance room where the other limping guy tried to escape”
“In a few minutes I will give you the signal to run over there to open it and escape”
“Don’t forget to lock the door” he added.
Looking at the key and then at the old man confusingly I asked “What about you? And the others and those children?”
“Look at us” He said while waving his hand everywhere for me to check.
“Everyone is either old or too young and at least wounded, while either being unconscious, conscious and dead from blood loss, we will only cripple you if you want to escape”
“This is life, you can’t be too optimistic or greedy and expect that you can get out alive in it, especially in these current events.”
As he said that, it only made me sorrowful to think about the short lives of the young ones, who will die by an unknown attack by an unknown creature out of nowhere.
“Besides, my plan will not work for everyone either…” he added.
“I have been here for a while” the old man calmly said.
“That man who needlessly died a second ago made those creatures aware of the exit out of here” He said with a sulk.
“To tell you the truth, I could have easily escaped with the others, but I needed to know what that mouth on the wall did. If it had the same projectile weapons like those bats, I didn’t want to die with others when we didn't have to… If you have seen them of course”
I nodded to show that I did.
“Now that I know that it serves just like a tunnel for those creatures, I know the perfect plan to get out of here, but sadly… The wait and test to find out what the mouth was, were a greater loss than I had thought.” He said depressingly.
“I don’t know if you can hear them. I can hear their ugly footsteps moving and gathering around here. I know why they are gathering, which is why I know that I can’t get the most of us out of here anymore”
“You have to trust me, you are the only one who can survive now. But now, we wait until I can initiate my plan.”
“Lets cut it short, ask me any question and I will try to answer them for you.”
A few minutes had passed and he told me about how he had met his father, what he had been doing and why he trained my father, what he did after they parted and so on so forth. I believe it was now time to change my questions to the current events instead.
"So, you said you knew why they are gathering humans to one spot?" I asked the old man.
He then pointed to a corner with a few dead bodies stacked together. Observing them more closely, I noticed that the lifeless bodies had pitch black holes in their head. It didn’t look like that something pierced right through them to the other side, but rather only a hole so that it would be easier to drink out if like a coconut.
Don't tell me....
"Brain suckers?" I answered as if it was expected.
"Yes, sooner or later a few large mosquitos will fly to this place and suck our brain out, that is also when the creatures I can hear will start to feast on that hill of dead bodies. Which also means that their security will thin down."
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"I don’t know why they are sucking the brain out. But I miraculously survived by laying at the bottom of those corpses though, which is also why I have tons of blood on my clothes" He added with a shrug so that I wouldn’t ask the obvious question. Well that would also explain the stench...
"Besides, how did these ugly creatures get past our defenses unnoticed anyway? The turrets and cannons is one of the best, even against a few Corsairs..." He said angerly while clenching his fist harder to the air.
“Ashinova is like a fortress…” he silently added.
As I watched the old man rant at front me, I too could only wonder how the creatures actually did it. Our intercom system barely had any time to warn us, not only that, so far I haven't seen one soldier nor have I heard any other sources of gunshots that wasn't from my group.
Decided that it was about time to ask another question, he quickly interrupted me with a quiet signal and started to pretend that he had fainted.
Knowing that this old dude knew his stuff, I too did just like him.
…
“Wriggle...Wriggle…”
The sound of the movement like the snake that dragged me here could be heard moving somewhere closer to me. Soon after the wriggling was so close that I am so sure that it is at front of me and the old man.
“Grrrrrr” “Gyaaa….”
“huh?” “eeek!”
“KYAAAA!” “STAB! STAB! STAB!”
“Splatter”
“AAAAAHHH…..”
“Nom, nom, crunch, crunch, nom, nom….” “gulp”
“Wriggle...Wriggle…”
…
Amen, someone who just woke up next to me got brutally stabbed, which made the person splatter blood everywhere near him including on me, afterwards he also got eaten...
“All clear…” The old man said after a while with a sad expression.
Opening my eyes slowly to see if that creature is nearby I then gave out a heavy sigh of relief and cleaned my cheek from the blood. Taking a look to the left of me soon after, I saw a pool of blood left by the person who died being drained into the infested area. As if the weird slimy purple threads needed nutrients to survive.
“So, what was it you were going to ask before that… thing, disturbed us”
“Ah, have you seen any of our soldiers anywhere?”
“No… But considering how the soldiers just got warned out of nowhere and that it looked like the command center was under attack. They probably went immediately to the Weapon Storages to arm themselves with stronger weapons than pistols and batons, but instead found themselves stuck in them”
“Why is that?” I asked since I had never been to the weapon storages before.
“The doors are run by electricity and since the main power cell is down, so is the doors”
“Keeping unused batteries in a flowing current, isn’t a good idea afterall”
“Meaning we will never be able to get them out to help us defend against the attackers. Also those soldiers at the command center is probably having a nightmare right now” he added.
“Ah…” I answered.
He then looked at me with a grin “That is unless you somehow get a power cell and inject it to the doors manually”
“It will take a miracle, but this is also the reason why I want you to survive… No, it is a miracle that you are here in the first place with those bags of yours” He said as if he knew what they could do.
“Inside the maintenance room there is a crate filled with emergency power cells, if you get to them, just put as many as you can hold onto those bags” he said with a smile.
“I designed those bags, but I never knew that Vayne would be able to make them, hehe... This make me proud of him” He said while blushing. The old man must have really cared for his apprentice even though he told me a few minutes ago how brutally his engineering training was.
“Shhh!”
“It’s time…”
Hearing a buzzing sound closing in, I could see large and black mosquitos coming out of the vents, hallways and the wall.
They started to hover above the head of some unconscious people to the utmost left of me. Looking at them I could see that they had large translucent needle. They looked exactly like any normal mosquito but larger. After hovering for a while, they quickly accelerated and penetrated the skull of the person at front of each of them. The person started to spasm everywhere with his arms and legs, twitching as the mosquito sucked their brain goo, blood and the brain itself out, through the translucent needle… It was a disgusting scene and a heavy atmosphere could be felt because I was not the only one watching them, the wounded people quickly started to panic and shiver.
Some who still had their conscious even started to limp away with their only leg since they were close to the mosquitos. But was quickly stopped by the spider like creatures who cut their legs off. The screams could be heard echoing everywhere, some even tried to crawl away before it was their turn, even banging their head on the floor if they had to. After all… No one wants to die with their brain being sucked alive consciously…
Not only that… It included the children who wet their pants because of fear and started to shiver heavily or follow those that tried to escape. Those young ones who tried to escape were treated the same as the older ones, like ragdolls in the air.
After a while the mosquitos turned a bit larger from each time they drank, they kept hovered to the next bunch and kept going closer to us… The brainless ones got piled up at the stack nearby of dead people, spider like creatures started to pour out of nowhere and slowly feast on the huge pile of dead people.
Looking at them, I could do nothing… I want to help them… But I cannot, those power cells will decide the future of Ashinova. Each time a human, even children with their school uniforms got pierced by the mosquito on the head helplessly and placed on top of that hill, I depressingly cried inside me.
This went on for a while and soon after it was only me, the old man and a few others left alive in this the train station.
…
“Get ready boy, I’ll distract as many as I could. The moment I run, they will they chase me, that is when you must run to the maintenance room”
I nodded and readied myself with the key at hand.
The three mosquitoes now hovering at the next bunch next to me, slowly pierced the head of those who was now dead from blood loss while passing out like the group before them. As they were sucking, the old man quickly stood up and ran the opposite direction from the maintenance room while shouting for attention.
Quickly tons of spider like creatures with 2 eyes and 6 legs stopped feasting on the pile of dead humans and ran after the old man as he ran for his life to the outside of the train station. When they closed in on him, I took my chance to pass the hovering mosquitos that tried to suck the brain out of those next to me, to the maintenance door. While I did, I could feel pain. Even though on the outside I had somehow healed my wounds, I could still feel pain with the each step I took towards the door.
“AARRGH!” could be heard behind me as I unlocked the door without looking back.
“Good bye old man and everyone” I whispered to myself and went inside with an uneasy feeling of leaving everyone behind as they honourable sacrificed themselves.
…
As I entered the dark maintenance room, which looked like to be uninfested since it had a barely lit light from the emergency lights. I took a rest to think about what had happened before until today. But soon after I searched for anything that would be of use for my quest. It was really dark though, so I did have a few problems like stumbling onto a few devices as I walked around because I couldn’t really make out what was at front of me.
I let out a heavy sight after hitting my head on some kind of shelf and said “I really need to find a flashlight…”
…
Sigh… After searching for a while, I couldn’t find anything other than the orange glowing power cells that had a tube like appearance. Putting around 40 of them into my pockets while emptying every tool I knew I wont need for what I was about to do, I then noticed that I still had the present from my father wrapped in paper.
I sat down on a table nearby and took my last present out with tears pouring out of me eyes… Staring at the box for a while I then brushed my eyes off and unwrapped it, which revealed a glowing like cube object with weird markings that illuminated the surroundings with a strong light.
“Looks like I solved the problems with light at least… But I still need something to protect myself though, something that I can use with one hand...”
Jumping down from the table, I then suddenly realised that I didn’t know where the weapon storages were...
“Ah shit…”
Since the elevators are didn’t work, going down the stairs and up to search for a door I had no idea where it was will take a while. I believe it should be near the soldier’s quarters… But, I don’t even know where that is!
…
Walking around and looting after a few minutes with the cube at hand as a light source. I found a welding torch attached to a large power cell tube with the diameter of 15 cm and the length of 30 cm.
With a grin I knew what I had to do with this. Attaching the tube to the back of my belt.
I soon after went to a bench with tools and modded the welding torch so that it became a flame thrower powered by the power cell.
Testing it out a few times with a satisfied smile, now I had something to defend myself at least. But before I head out, I needed to plan a few scenarios in my mind, what I should do if I get to a slump and use the flamethrower to my advantage, etc.
After a while of planning, I checked my SMB for the last time with the “Loading” screen, I then decided to head out of the maintenance room through another door that wasn’t to the train station.
…