U.S.S.A Alice

Chapter 11 What goes bump in the dark

An oddly familiar voice came from the figure who stood above me but I couldn't quite put a name to who it was. "Hey, you look familiar, are you Ali...?  - "Alice? Yep, That's my name. What was yours again?"  He stumbled around awkwardly as if trying to find the words to say.- "Tobey, Private first class."  He said more confidently.- "Okay Private Tobey, aren't you stationed with Damien? Was he with you?"  I almost threw myself at him in excitement.- "Whoa! Calm down, we don't want to attract any of those things to us."  I stepped back to compose myself.- "Sorry. I just need to know if he's alright?" -"I wouldn't know, he wasn't with us when this all went down, he was on patrol."  Damien never said he was on patrol today, maybe he didn't know before he left.- "Where?"  He paused for a moment.- "I can't remember all the decks he was going through, though I always found it weird how he got most of those assignments. Anyway, his last stop would've been Deck 13. Unlucky bastard."  He said solemnly.- "He's told me about it, is it that bad? Yeah, the reports about it have been pretty uh. Gnarly let's just say, we should get moving. I'll tell you more once we can see."  I nodded in agreement. We then went the way he came from and took a turn down another hallway.

Tobey held his hand out to stop me, then he turned with his finger in front of where his mouth would be. He turned his light off. There was a faint snapping sound, I heard it more as it got closer, there was more than just one source of it. We just stood there in pitch darkness as figures were blacker than the absence of light around us. They shuffled their way past us, traveling in a group. It seems they have some pack mentality, so were they still intelligent in some way, or were they being controlled by some unseen force? When they were well past us, Tobey gave me the signal to keep going. I silently continued through the black corridor, with only the person in front of me to guide me safely. I felt a chill in the air as if we stepped inside a sample storage room. This wasn't normal, I felt a gust blow past me. "What was that?"  Tobey asked confused. Before I could answer. A hand gripped my ankle, I looked down with my flashlight to see a bony hand rise impossibly through a shadow on the floor. I screamed at the sight of it, which alerted Tobey to look down at what was causing me distress. He fired his rifle into its head, then grabbed my arm and sprinted ahead. Those things rose from the umbral- shroud like they were undead rising from a shadowy grave. I only saw their faces between the muzzle flashes of Tobey's gun as repeatedly fired behind and in front of us. Even then I only saw their whitened eyes and teeth against the black portrait of their faces.

I covered my ears with my hands as I ran behind Tobey for safety, the area around us was becoming more illuminated as we came across emergency lights that were still on. I looked back to see that there were no more of them behind us, as I could see anyway. Tobey had his weapon trained on the way we came from, he seemed like such a friendly and relaxed person when Damien introduced me to him and his squadmates. It was strange to see someone who had pulled a prank on me just a few days ago; protect me so professionally. "Ok, I think we're in the clear. Phew, I'm beat, let's rest a bit."  We went inside a room that had a working light to take a break. "Hey, are you alright?" -"Kind of, why do you ask?"  Was I hurt? I guess he was just checking on me.- "Look at your coat, it's all ripped up."  I looked down at my lab coat and saw that there were finger-sized tears all around it, those things were tearing at me.- "Well crap, guess there's not much point to wearing this anymore."  I took it off and dropped it on the floor. Tobey pulled out an energy bar, opened it, and took a huge bite. He saw me staring. He looked at it and offered me a bite while still chewing. "No thanks, I'm good." - "Well if you're hungry; just ask. I've got plenty."

After we recuperated from that stressful experience, I asked him a question.- "So where is your squad?"  He looked somewhat sheepish.- "Dunno, we were on the deck below. We got separated by a whole horde of those things, I've heard people call them Splinters." - "Splinters? What kind of name is that? These are people, not movie monsters."  I couldn't believe they would dehumanize them so fast, we could still help them.- "Trust me,  you haven't seen what I've seen these things do to people. Alice, they're not human anymore. I know you want to help them, trust me, I want to help them too. There is only one way to help them now."  He said while loading his rifle. "We should get going now, we're not gonna last long with just the two of us."  We left the relative safety of the room and I just followed him to wherever his destination was.- "So where are we going exactly? The maglevs barely work as is."- "We're going to take the ladder down, it's not like there are any fire stairs in space. Or stairwells really, which sucks."  We eventually made it to a ladder without any further encounters from the infected or whatever they are now. "Here, I'll open it, these things can be a bit tricky," Tobey said handing me his rifle. "You ever use one?"  I looked at the large rifle that was now in my hands, it was sleek but had a heavy clip...magazine in the back.- "I've shot this kind once before, Damien showed me around the time we first met."