Episode-20: Blast from the Past

Date: November 25, 3008
Time: 12:00
Location: Somewhere on the Ocean of Ossyria

~Felix~

The Ghoul from hell lay frozen upon the metallic floor. Its flashlight still alit spread a ray of white across the nothingness, providing a fraction of hope for the remaining seven inside the ancient facility. Yet, it would never be held again, never be wielded by its original owner. Michael was dead.

Felix trudged forwards, over the broken vial of antidote that he had found a little too late. He bent down low and grasped the G-35 Ghoul, feeling its cold hilt rough against his gloved fingers. Blinking back a tear, he picked it up and turned back to the group. Maldran then strode forwards into the circle.

“Michael was a brave soul,” Maldran sniffled as he looked down at his former friend’s body. A pool of blackened red was forming around Michael’s head. It would have looked as if he were sleeping if not for the bloody hole in his forehead. “He fought bravely through wilderness through war, and stuck with us when we were lost in the shadows.” Maldran faltered a bit as Felix bit his lip to stop from breaking down. Then, he finished Michael’s epitaph, “May he rest in peace…”

A farewell to a hero. Felix thought back to when they first met, how they had each other by the muzzles of their rifles. Thing had come a long way since then, barely a year ago. And now, everything was taken away, gone in a split second with the metallic shriek of a bullet. There were no happy endings from here on out. There were going to be more deaths, and Felix could only hope they were going to be his, for the thought of losing another loved one tore him apart.

“Come on,” Damiver and Nova came up to Felix, who had realized he was kneeling by Michael’s body, “We have to go.”

“Shouldn’t we cover him up or something?” Maldran replied drearily as he sniffled again.

“He already is,” Nova whispered, and for the first time, Felix noticed just how dark the room was without their artificial lights. Michael would be shrouded in darkness, forever entombed in an ancient research facility, safe from the rest of the world.

Naz strode up while hastily stuffing something into his cloak, “Let’s get the hell out of here.” Without a word, the company left the room, leaving Michael to sleep forever.

They walked halfway in silence, only the dull thuds of their combat boots registering in their ears. Felix tried not to think about it, but everything reminded him of death. Death was inevitable. Nothing man could do could prevent it from happening. In the land of the mortal, the reaper is king.

Suddenly, a hollow, metallic scraping met Felix’s ears. He raised the G-35 Ghoul to his shoulder and turned on the green laser sight. The thin laser beam pierced through the musty air of solitude, landing in the far end of the corridor. The noise was coming from in front.

“What is that…” Maldran whispered as he himself loaded his Spas-12XPL with new shells.

“Michael was right,” Damiver said gloomily, “This place is infested.”

And then, all hell broke loose. The moans and screeches of incoming dead reverberated off of the narrow hallway like an earthquake. As Felix raised his assault rifle a bit higher, he saw the first face appear.

It was pale and deathly white. Rows of jagged blackened teeth bore at them. It shuffled slowly and hauntingly towards them, one hand outstretched, the other missing. To its left, was a female, yet what once would have been attractive about her was gone entirely. The entire left side of her jaw had been blown apart, leaving nothing but empty space and blackened flesh. Her uniform was a discolored yellow. There was a nametag, but Felix could not distinguish the blood smeared letters.

“Come on, we can’t go out that way,” Mikhail roared as he retreated over the din of the zombies. The seven of them found their way to an intersection, where each passage seemed as unforgiving as the next.

The shrieks grew louder yet, and Felix could start to smell their foul stench of decaying flesh. “Let’s go!”

They dashed down the left corridor, for the air down this way was less murky as the others. The company seemed to be moving further and further away from the legions of the undead, but they seemed to be getting closer to their moans. A chill ran down Felix’s spine as they opened a door leading to a staircase that only went down.

“Sh**…” Mikhail whispered to himself in frustration.

All of a sudden, something whizzed through the air. Felix saw his flashlight reflect something lustrous before it hit the wall, inches away from Mikhail’s face. Recoiling, he aimed his gun at it and realized it was a knife blade with no hilt. Blackness oozed down from the blade, dripping to the ground in a sickening way.

Then, Maldran opened fire. His Spaz-12XPL made exclamation after exclamation, with each profound argument releasing another burning hot shell. “TAKE THIS YOU SONS OF B****ES!” As Felix watched on, he could see the first row of zombies’ heads snap back as multiple pellets slammed into them. Jets of black squirted upwards, spraying the lines with the mark of death.

“Mal let’s go!” Damiver screamed over his shotgun’s bursts. Felix rushed forwards, grabbed him by the back of the collar, and dragged him down the stairs. Then, he unbuckled a fragmentation grenade from his combat vest and chucked it back into the corridor. Naz kicked the metal door shut and screamed down the stairs after the rest of the team.

Before Felix could get to the second landing, a tremendous blast seemed to shake the entire facility, and he was sure he did not want to see that hallway ever again. The smell of putrid smoke floated down into his nostrils, making them flare out in disgust. Up above, he could hear the flames start to roar as they consumed the buffet of the undead.

The company made their way down to the next level, and Mikhail kicked the door open with a crash. Their flashlights swept up and down the hall, but revealed nothing out of the ordinary. It was yet another long corridor that led down to an infinite blackness. Felix hesitated before following the group; he had enough of zombies for a life time.

They trudged down the blank hallway, bypassing numerous doors that seemed both foreboding yet inviting. The G-35 was fixated in front of Felix as he proceeded. His finger twitched the trigger nervously. The tension was so high that he almost jumped when Damiver exclaimed, “Hey!”

The seven of them filed into a circular room filled with ancient computers covered in dust. By the looks of their bulky CPUs and 21 inch monitors, Felix was sure they dated back to the early twenty-first century, therefore making them obsolete.

“This must have been a control room,” Maldran said as he swept his flashlight across the room. The black screens seemed to come to life as his light passed, but regressed into death as it went on. Felix was about to sit down on one of the swivel chairs, but bolted up with a cry.

“Sh** there’s blood everywhere!” For the first time, Felix realized the entire room was covered in smears of blood, both black and red.

“Wait,” Naz whispered and strode up to a particularly large pool of blood, “This is still red, which means it’s recent.” He glanced over at Lily, and immediately, both of them unsheathed their katanas. The way they seemed to act as one impressed Felix, and had they not been under the given situation, he would have said something about it.

“What does that mean?” Maldran asked in a terrified voice.

“It means,” Lily spat without looking back at him, “That we’re not alone.”

Then, right on cue, the screeches began again. Closing his eyes for a brief second, Felix cleared his mind, preparing himself for another battle that he may not escape from. Then, he checked the actions of his rifle and turned towards the corridor where the noises were originating from. Their attacks were beginning to seem mundane.

A black uniform crept up out of the shadows. Felix shined his flashlight on it, but then realized the cloth was not back. Instead, it was stained almost completely with dried blood. A name tag barely visible through the black rubbish bore the name of, “Oskar”. Poor Oskar had a hole dug deep into his chest, and parts of his ribs and shriveled up lungs were showing. Unable to see anymore, Felix squeezed the Ghoul’s trigger and severed Oskar’s neck cleanly in two, making it fall back to the floor with a dull thud. What was left of his blood spewed out in a quick burst.

And with Oskar’s death came the bulk of the assault. Their eerie screeches accompanied by their claws scraping up against the metal walls turned into a cacophonous symphony of death.

Just as Felix was about to fire another round, the front row of zombies was suddenly obliterated from behind. Felix’s eyebrow raised in confusion as the zombies themselves turned around at the unexpected attacker. But before they could react, the unknown intruder plugged each of their heads with a single piece of steel. As the last one hit the floor, the figure stepped into Felix’s flashlight’s beam. He raised the light to the person’s face and stumbled backwards in shock.

“Rena!?” Damiver gasped in horror as Felix’s flashlight reflected off of her jade green eyes. In his mind, Felix hoped Rena was not a zombie. She was such a powerful Shadow back in the day, rivaling even Nova’s mental potency. He hoped she was still on the good side, their side. He hoped more than anything else that she was going to offer support, join them like old times. But he knew those hopes were no more than a mere fantasy. She smiled wickedly, revealing her row of sharp fangs. Rena’s pupils were star shaped.

“No…”

She sprang forwards, her S-36 Seraph whipping into view. Felix jumped to the side behind a counter full of computers just in time as a spray of bullets imbedded themselves into the furniture. The seven of them scattered as Rena blazed into the room. Her black hair accented with amber streaks whipped around wildly as she continuously aimed for their heads.

“Rena!” Nova’s voice protruded over Rena’s gunfire, “Rena, please stop!” But the former-shadow paid no attention to her pathetic pleas. She swiveled around on spot and released a burst of bullets into Nova’s direction.

Suddenly, Nova disappeared from view and Rena’s bullets found nothing but the wall. Felix blinked stupidly, trying to figure out what the hell just happened, when a tremendous crash reached his ears. Felix’s eyes jolted to the left and he saw Nova and Rena wrestling with each other on the ground, both of their rifles laying a few feet away, useless.

Without thinking, Felix dashed towards Naz and thrust a hand into his cloak. Within a second, he found a small syringe of green antidote and dashed towards the brawl. Immediately, he stabbed out, injecting the antidote into Rena’s forearm. Her jade eyes seemed to refocus as her throes died down and her heartbeat slowed. Felix couldn’t believe it. It actually seemed to be working.

Then, her head tilted over, unmoving. Felix’s surprise quickly became a sensation of horror. He watched as Nova leaned over Rena’s body and checked her pulse. “She’s gone…”

“What the… Why the hell didn’t it work!” Felix demanded as he slammed his fist down on the metal floor.

“She was already dead,” Lily whispered back, her eyes fixated upon the two Shadows, “Even though you reversed the virus, it doesn’t mean she would return to her normal self. It would depend on if she was dead already at the time of infection.”

Blinking back tears, Felix got up shakily as Damiver rushed over to Nova, who still wore a stunned expression upon her face. Damn that S-Virus…

Felix pivoted around but suddenly found himself face to face with a tall stranger. He felt a sharp pain in his chest, and then realized he had been blasted twenty feet away. The stranger walked forward, the flashlights revealed his black booted feet.

“We’ve been expecting you,” he said in a deep voice that rivaled Mikhail’s, “Pity she did not work out.” He nudged Rena’s lifeless head. Her eyes stared out unseeingly, accusing the world for what she had become.

“What do you mean we?” Mikhail burst out, “I only see one of you!”

“Ah Mikhail Shale,” he seemed to smile, “How does it feel to be on the receiving end of the omniscient?” And with that, he snapped his finger and the room was suddenly engulfed in a bright, blue light. The crackles of electricity filled the room, and to Felix’s horror, numerous numbers of people appeared from out of nowhere, each wielding two blades.

“Oh no…” Mikhail whispered as his horrified eyes darted from one newcomer to another, “No no no!”

“Oh yes, Mikhail,” the deep voice chuckled, “It’s your two Shadow Templars versus my many Shadow Ancients.”

“No…” Mikhail repeated as if unwilling to believe what was happening. Felix himself was wishing it was all just a terrible nightmare, that he would soon awake in his bed in New Leaf City, that it would be morning, the storm would be over, and Michael would still be alive.

“What’s the matter?” the leader exclaimed with profound amusement, “Why so surprised to see your brother?”

It hit Felix like a nuclear missile, no pun intended. The last he heard of Mikhail’s brother should have also been the last of Mikhail himself. Both of them should have been incinerated by the nuclear strike upon Orbis barely a year ago. But one survived, so why shouldn’t the other? Cursing furiously in his head, Felix felt his heart beat faster and faster as his eyes fixated themselves upon Fenris’ cold black eyes.