Author’s Note: Another fun-filled chapter full of action, violence, and gore. Hope you guys enjoy the fight scenes!

Episode-15: The Virus Reloaded

Date: November 25, 3008
Time: 06:00
Location: Somewhere on the Ocean of Ossyria

~Michael~

His radio crackled faintly as his footsteps echoed off of the steel walls and ceiling. The storm outside had lost none of its frenzy, the lashing rain at the circular portholes as evidence. A rumble of thunder resounded above, shaking the cold cage of a ship he was in. The waves crashed on the hull, making the abandoned ship sway slightly in the pounding gale.

It had been almost two hours since radio contact had been broken with Nova, Naz, and Felix. Michael felt a lump rise in his throat as he heard Nova’s last words before being drowned out by primeval roars. And here they were, two hours later, not a soul met. Wherever they were, Michael could only hope they were still alive.

The corridor stretched on into an infinite black expanse. What little light that came through the window covered everything in a gloomy mood. The sun was starting to rise, but was unable to penetrate the thick storm clouds. A grayness in the horizon warned Michael of the advent of dawn.

Suddenly, a muffled explosion reached his ears. The ship rocked unsteadily, making Michael stagger to the ground. Regaining his ground, he shakily scurried to a porthole to try to see what had happened. In the graying day, Michael could barely distinguish a puff of black smoke arise from the bridge.

“What the hell was that?” Michael muttered under his breath.

“I don’t know,” Maldran replied in an uneasy tone. Michael turned around and noticed Maldran’s eyes were becoming increasingly shifty.

“Hey, you ok?” Michael asked in a concerned tone. He put a hand on Maldran’s edgy shoulder.

“Yea, I’m fine, I’m just… a bit tired that’s all…” Maldran trailed off and turned his back on Michael.

Shrugging it off, Michael continued to follow Mikhail and Lily who had started to advance down the hallway once more. Though the day was coming, the inside of the ship grew more and more ominous. Every hallway looked like the pathway to death. Every porthole revealed a storm ridden sea with a heart to destroy. To top it all off, a cold draft seemed to be seeping through the ship’s ancient plating, chilling Michael to the bone.

Someone whispered something behind Michael, but he ignored them. Keeping his eyes forwards, he tried to make sure Maldran was alright. His loyal ally seemed to exhibit increased signs of paranoia or claustrophobia. Either way, it was bad news for the squad. A whisper behind him floated into Michael’s ears again. He got ticked off.

“Will you shut up?” Michael snapped as he whipped around. His eyes dilated, for there was nothing, no one before him. An empty hallway void of life stretched in front of his shocked eyes. “What the hell…”

“Michael you ok?” This time, it was Mikhail’s voice that brought him back.

Michael turned around with a look of confusion, “I thought I… never mind…” He stalked off after Mikhail, wondering if it really was his imagination playing tricks with his mind. He had read once that prolonged exposure to straining and stressful conditions could make a human mind think of unusual things. But the whispers seemed to real and familiar.

Help me…

This time, Michael whirled around instantly, and raised his G-36A2 Ghoul Assault Rifle to his shoulder, getting ready to fire. It was too real to be nonexistent.

“What is it?” Maldran asked, but Michael cut him off with a wave of his hand. The last whisper was actually distinguishable. Someone was asking for his help. The question was, was that someone a friend or a foe?

Immediately, the line was answered with a deathlike moan. Michael’s fingers froze on the trigger. From out of the shadows, a lone man staggered out. He seemed to be dragging one of his legs behind him as if it were broken. Michael had half a heart to lower his rifle, to rush forwards to help him, but as the man’s face came into view, his heart skipped a beat.

In the pale lighting, Michael could see the flesh hanging off of the man’s face. One of his eyes was grey and murky. The other one was gone, leaving an empty brown-stained socket showing the inside of his skull. Instantly, Michael fired a round into the zombie’s chest.

It staggered back from the force of the blow, but quickly recovered and started advancing again, leaving a trail of black slime flowing steadily out of the exit wound in the back of its chest. Of course, you can’t kill the dead. Michael panicked and took a step backwards before a white flash blinded him.

Lily dashed forwards, past Michael, directly towards the incoming zombie. It screeched in a low voice, making Michael’s teeth chatter. However, Lily seemed to be unaffected by the thing’s chilling cry. She dashed towards the wall and forced herself into the air. As she flew towards the zombie, Lily unsheathed both of her katanas and slashed out.

It exploded. Decaying flesh and blackened blood streamed out in every direction, staining the walls and ceiling with the zombie’s corrupted remains. As Lily landed behind the mutilated body, the zombie’s head fell to the floor with a sickening thud, a spurt of blood splattered out upon impact.

Michael felt his stomach churn unpleasantly as Lily seemed to float over the gory debris. Her clothes were still pure white, untarnished by the horrid slaughter. However, Lily’s face was grim, worried about something Michael could not foresee.

“What the hell was that… that thing?” Maldran stuttered behind Michael’s own frozen expression.

Michael heard a deep sigh before Mikhail responded. “Looks like the virus is still alive. We have to be extra careful now. If you come in contact with infected blood, you will become one of them.” Shaking his head in dismay, he continued, “Be on your guard. Infection means death.” He hunched over and continued, leaving Michael quite aghast, his heart pounding furiously in his throat.

He had heard of the plague that had wiped out terrific numbers of the MapleStory population. It had spread from Victoria Island quickly over to Orbis, then El Nath, then Ludibrium, and in the course of a few weeks, the entire planet seemed to be infected. Michael remembered all of the history lessons on how the Shadows were sent forth to destroy the dead and administer the anti-toxins to any survivors. Then, something went wrong and a few Shadows were infected themselves.

Michael eyed Lily suspiciously as he followed Mikhail down the ship. Lily was a Shadow Templar, one of the surviving Shadows that had somehow become immune to the virus. She was the one that had finally delivered the antidote and cured the entire world’s remaining population of the uninfected. Apparently she did not complete her job. Fate, it seemed, was not without a sense of irony.

Then, a shiver crept down his spine as something rebounded off of his eardrums. More indistinguishable voices called out to him. They seemed to be beckoning to him, wanting help…

“SH** RUN!” Michael roared as they emerged from behind them. The four instantly broke into a sprint. Looking back, he saw the dead faces gnash their decayed teeth at him, wanting nothing more than to bring him into their own forces. Amidst the low moans and unearthly groans however, Michael thought he could hear a familiar human voice.

His G-36A2 Ghoul rocked to life, adding a desperate howl of its own into the chaos as it spewed out steel bullets into the pursuing crowd. The horde of zombies seemed to gain ground; their speed horrified Michael as he realized they would eventually catch up. He didn’t want to know what would happen once they did.

“Heads up!” Michael faced back around and ducked just in time as a frag grenade sailed over his head. Urging his legs to run with all of his might, Michael sped up just as the explosion tore the zombies apart, again splattering the passageway with a black sodden mess.

“Over here!” Mikhail’s voice hollered from up ahead. Michael saw him standing by a hatch door waving towards them. One by one, they jumped in and Mikhail slammed the metal hatch shut. Michael slid to the floor in exhaustion, his back to the door. He had never been more scared in his entire life.

“OH SH**!” Michael screamed out as something heavy rammed into the door, making a large indentation in the metal sheeting. He scrambled up and aimed his rifle at the door once more. Apparently, Maldran’s grenade had only blown up the first wave. Eerie shrieks seeped through the cracks of the door, making the hair on Michael’s skin stand straight up. Though decayed and virtually fleshless, those zombies were a stubborn bunch. The consistent pounding in the steel door was like someone driving a metal spike in Michael’s brain.

“When they get in,” Mikhail roared over the tumultuous pounding, “make sure none of their blood gets on you!” And with that, the door fell open, revealing a snarling zombie, blood flowing out of a blackened stump that used to be its arm.

Thanking Maldran’s initial grenade, Michael squeezed the trigger, quickly imploding the lead zombie’s head. As it fell to the floor, the rest swarmed in, filling the room with nail-curling screeches.

Michael dived behind a table and shot out from underneath its legs. His bullets caught a few zombies in the shins, splitting them apart as the steel tore through at hypersonic speeds. They stumbled to the ground in angry roars, blackness flowing out of their split veins.

Jumping back on his feet, he ran over to Mikhail and joined him behind his own table. Mikhail’s FF-20 Fair Frozen was mowing the zombies down like a flamethrower. As Michael reloaded, he thought he could see a maniacal grin etched upon Mikhail’s battle-hardened face, lit up in short bursts of his weapon’s muzzle flashes.

But the flood just kept coming in an endless tide, filling into the room like a storm surge. As the storm outside lashed on, the fury inside increased to a whole new level. Michael released his Ghoul again, felling a few more monstrosities.

“Michael!” Maldran suddenly shouted over the roaring gunfire. Michael whipped around and saw him being pressed back as he tried to stem the flow of the undead. Cursing under his breath, Michael jumped out of his cover and ran across the room to Maldran’s own overturned table.

Without warning, a zombie shrieked in front of him. Immediately, Michael unpinned a grenade and stuffed it into the abomination’s mouth. Then, he kicked it squarely on the chest, sending it sprawling back towards the doorway. An instant later, a massive bang echoed off of the room’s steel walls and ceiling as a mass of black and gray exploded in a uniform, sickening rip. Knocking another zombie’s head around with the butt end of his rifle, Michael finally reached Maldran, who had stopped firing to reload.

Giving him a-little-more-than-futile cover fire, Michael jumped over the table and hid his body from the zombie’s grasps. But as Maldran rejoined Michael’s Ghoul’s chattering, a pang of panic shot up Michael’s skull. A zombie roared defiantly, stretching its broken jaw amazingly wide before a stream of bullets severed it completely. The storm grew wild with lust as the inhabitants of the ship fought desperately for their lives.