Chapter 5: An Old Dog New Tricks

You find yourself in a courtyard cold defenseless and most importantly not alone.

Chapter 5: An Old Dog New Tricks

The clicks can be heard throughout the courtyards walls as the soldiers set up their guns up on the balconies above. Tossing you a gen pistol from her pack the assassin rolls to the next pillar as the gunfire crackles in the night sky above. Shells burst against the thick white pillar behind you as the hunters push around. Feeling your pant leg you realize the vial is still sitting in your pocket. Pulling it out you turn toward the assassin while she falls behind one of her last standing pillars. Tossing the vial she catches it as the gunfire nearly smashes the bottle in the air. Rushing out you fire up onto the balcony above taking out two soldiers that were concentrated on your ally, quickly the other soldiers above take aim but as they spray they are hit in the head with your pistol. One collapses while the last still tries to hit you, sprinting up to the column beneath him, taking a step off the side of the column you elevate grabbing his rifle's strap. His body slams straight against the rubble scattered across the ground. The assassin makes her way across the courtyard in her red and black boots with a certain gravitas in her step she walks up behind you. The gunfire in the distance sounds off once again as the night sky shifts to an autumn red. Grabbing the serum you quickly put the needle into the crease in your elbow with some help from your only ally. The rush pushes your body to the ground like a boulder falling upon your shoulders. Your mind shudders before utterly dispersing across a plane of darkness.

A shove and a plead carries your mind's eye back to the surface of reality. Blurry figures fill your vision as a warm glow bursts upon your face, darkness relinquishes to the corners of your plane of reality as the glow strengthens. Pushing up from the icy ground you're sitting on you look about. the surroundings around you look familiar but different the shadows haunting you seem to have ended. Rising you break the snow that has fallen onto your shoulders before observing the courtyard around you. Blood seems to begun running from the pillars across the yard since you have seen them, You push your way through the thick layers of wintry snow laying among the decrepit corpses. As the the sun becomes disarrayed by the ashy clouds protruding the atmosphere you hear the shriek of a terrified woman. Charging up a fallen portion of the balcony you chase the echo of the shriek through the fallen portions of the building you awoke in. As You push through a flimsy wooden door a large bang sounds above. Ash pushes about the air as the vibrations push throughout the achromatic room. The building seems almost completely In twilight as you push through.

The door in front of you barely stands on its hinges as you drive your heel through its spine. As the dust settles you analyze the room in front of you in awe. A once grand dance hall stands in front of you, the rails and stairs that collapsed pour into the center of the floor. Looking over the shattered railing in front of you the fall seems about 10 meters to the ground. Grabbing the edge you lower yourself down to just above the floor before letting go. The sound of your boots hitting the floor shatters the silence around you. Dust settles as you make your way across the hall to a large set of double doors. The holes in the ceiling allow light to diffuse into the dim interior of the hall around you. Walking forward you push rock and debris aside with your feet, slowly you push on the door in front of you to test the strength of the hinges.

With one rapid kick the door nearly shatters along the gray shaded wall, the sound ricochets around the walls of the hallway in front of you as step inside. The room slowly becomes visible as the ash settles back along the floor. You notice the walls are littered with bullet holes and gashes almost like the room was a scene of battle long ago. Pushing through the thick ash along the floor, you analyze the covered flooring beneath your boots. Sliding the ash off the floor, you see the true color of the flooring beneath you. As the red color seeps into you eyes the realization dawns on you. The hall, the scream, the blood, this place isn't a old hall its a lurker hive! Another scream shatters the silence in room and it sounds only a room or two away. Running through the hall, you pass several vacant rooms filled with medical equipment and furniture. The cries continue as you make your way around the hall's corner. Turning the corner the shouts sound only a couple meters away. Bursting through a double set of doors at the end of the hallway, you stumble into a large hall like the one before yet the color is off. Slipping from your momentum you slide on black slime covering the floor beneath you. Looking around you, you notice that the walls seem to be solid black unlike the rest of the building.

 “Hello is anyone in here” you shout into the darkness as push the buttons on your head light.

The air becomes colder as you struggle to turn on your head light. The light flickers as it turns on revealing that the darkness around you is shifting, moving in a whole. The light glows along the walls which seem to be almost glossy. Suddenly the cry from early echoes in the hall but this time it almost sounds like a siren or a signal. Suddenly the wall in front of you shatters as the creatures covering it scramble to get to your location. They crawl with their spiky appendages as they rush your stance. You dash for the double doors where the light pours into the room but the dark mass around you seems to have swallowed the entire entrance in its grasps. Searching the room you see another doorway beyond the darkness which has nearly absorbed the entire room. The sound of the spikes behind you increases as you make your way through the fallen debris scattered in between you and the exit. Breaking the door off its hinges with one swift jolt, you roll into the hall in front of you with the momentum of your charge. Quickly the darkness eats the hall away behind you making up all the progress you made from breaking the door in mere seconds.

With all of your energy left you stride forward through the halls toward the unlit exit sign ahead of you. A lurker breaks ahead of its kin as you charge the doors ahead. Quickly you look back to see its teeth only a foot behind your ankles, but suddenly the room's darkness is shattered and the lurker crumbles to the floor as a round shatters its forehead. Shots burst into the air as you slide past the soldiers in the doorway. As you slide out the ground comes from under you and you start to roll but suddenly something stops you while you are upside down. Shaken up you look up to see a pair of dark red and black boots standing in front of you.

Author's Note

Hey guys would love some suggestions, or corrections. Also if you like it and have any ideas for next chapter i am always open for suggestions.