New Genesis

Superpower 9

Mark stood in the elevator as it went down farther into the facility. He was next to Jessica, Josh, and Pham. They had split into three groups. Everyone had an earpiece. They could communicate with Chewy and the other teams. The second team comprised of Blake, Zach, Michael, and Jake, and the third had Matt, Tyler, and Steven. The plan was to move through the facility as fast as possible and try to get to the antidote. They were all scared for what was coming. They only had the one video of some dark creature dragging a dead body across the ground. None knew what they were going to face when they entered the seventh floor.
The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened. The room that they faced was well lit. It was filled with two beds. The team walked around not knowing what to make of this stuff.
“What is all this stuff, Chewy?” asked Josh.
“I don’t know. The levels might be divided up or something by importance.”
“Why would someone build it like this?” voiced Matt.
“I guess they thought that it was safest that way.”
“How many rooms does the seventh level have left before it is totally compromised?”
“Each row has five rooms left.”
“And where exactly is the armory?” asked Steven.
“It is the room in the middle of this row. Hurry, the thing is starting on the fifth room now.”

They had discovered that the fifth floor had an armory at the middle of it after Jake asked how they were going to protect themselves. Chewy had run a scan of the base and found that the fifth floor had an armory in the middle of it.

Mark and his team began to run for the armory. Mark had never fired a gun but Matt, Josh and Jessica had fired real guns and Blake and Steven had used paintball markers.  They went through two more rooms that were a lounge and a kitchen before they got to a closed door. Mark pulled on the door handle but it was locked.

“Chewy we need help here.”
“OK…… There it should be open.”

The door clicked and Mark pulled it open. An assortment of weapons appeared in front of them. There appeared to be different rifles and machine guns. To Mark’s enjoyment there were also knives. Mark had taken karate and weapons training. He had never used knives but those would be better for him than guns. They entered and began to examine the weapons.

“Make sure whatever you grab, it’s light enough where you can still run.” advised Mark.
There were different sizes of knives. Mark looked through them until he found two that fit his hands. The blades were about eight inches long and the handles fit perfectly into Mark’s hand. He looked around and grabbed a belt that looked like it could hold the knives. He also grabbed a pistol and a few clips of ammo. He did not know what he would do with it but it made him feel better to have it. Mark looked around at what Jessica, Josh and Pham had grabbed. Jessica had what looked like a shotgun and a pistol. Josh had a sub-machine gun and a knife, and Pham had grabbed two pistols.

“Can you guys handle those weapons?”
Pham looked at the pistols in his hands and shrugged.
“How hard can it be?”
“Pham, you’ve never fired a gun before.”
“So….. People do it all the time. I’ll be ok.”
“I’ve used shotguns before.” replied Jessica “How different can this be?”
She hoisted the shotgun into a holster next to the rack of shotguns.
Josh examined the sub Machine gun he had and holstered it.
“Eh, I’ve fired rifles. All I need to do is fight against the kick….. and I will make sure to fire in burst and not wildly.”

He added the last part in after Mark had stared at him with raised eyebrows. They were all set to go so they ran back to the elevator.

“Chewy how far along is the creature?” asked Mark as they got back on the elevator. “
“The creature is still on the seventh floor but is had only three rooms left till it gets to the room that leads to the sixth floor. You guys need to hurry.”
“How come we can’t here the other teams anymore?”
“I switched it so that you guys won’t have to hear each other yell as you guys fight the creatures.”
“Have you found any new clips that show the thing that we have to fight?”
“Steven just asked the same thing, and no. There’s a file that I can’t open. I’m searching for a way around it, but in the mean time you guys need to hurry.”

The elevator opened to the sixth floor and they ran. Mark made sure not to get to far away from the group. Chewy was opening the doors as they reached them and locking them after they passed. He also brought the elevators back up to the top floor and locked them in place to ensure that the creature could not use them. They only had each other until they meet up with the other teams on the twelfth floor.

They reached the room with the chute. The chute consisted of a ladder attached to the wall descending down to the next room. The gap was dark. The group decided through rock, paper, scissors, that Jessica would be the first one to go down. With Pham after her, then Josh, and Mark at the end. The group climbed in silence. The room at the bottom was red with the only light coming from an emergency light near the door.

Chewy’s voice came across their earpieces.
“I can’t open the doors down there. You guys are just going to have to find some way to open them yourselves.”
“Thanks Chewy.” replied Josh.

They looked at the doors. From behind it, they could hear a banging coming from far away. The door seemed to slide open. Mark jabbed one of his knives into the crease and tried to pry the door open.

“Uh, a little help here.”

Josh grabbed the little bit that opened and pulled. The door slid open slowly. The room beyond had the same red lighting, but it was filled with computers and work stations. Nothing stood out as different or alarming.

Jessica walked up to the next door.
“Well…. On to the next room. Geez this is gonna take a long time.”
“What about these computers?” asked Pham?
“Those don’t matter. We need to get to the twelfth floor. The faster we get there the fast we can get to the fourteenth.” replied Josh.

Mark was about to restart the process of opening the door when Chewy came over the intercom.

“Wait! Don’t enter the second room. Whatever creature is breaking through the doors just broke through to the second room.”
BANG!!!
A large dent appeared on the door.
“What the hell do we do?” cried Mark. “How do we kill the thing?”
“I’m almost done hacking into the file. Let’s hope that the file has the information that we need.”
“Chewy?!?!”
“Okay, okay. The creature looked like it has a head. Aim for that?”

Mark could not move. His mind was over working with what he should do. He did not know if his power would work or if the thing could be killed. He knew he had persuaded everyone to stay and try to kill the creature but now he wished they had ran and never gone down.  Mark stood rooted to his spot until Jessica finally took charge.

“Ok here’s what we need to do. Guys grab the tables and flip them over. We need to make some kind of barrier between us and whatever is comin.”

They went to work instantly. They dragged the heavy work tables in the room to the middle and flipped them over. They crouched and brought out their weapons and aimed them at the doors. Mark gripped his pistol and aimed at the door. He noticed that his hands were shaking. Mark looked at Jessica with pleading eyes. Mark’s heart jumped as Jessica placed her hands on his to settle his hands.

“It’s ok. Just breathe and squeeze, Mark. It’ll be ok.”
“Thanks.”

Good job Mark. You drag all your friends down here and now you can’t do anything. You always thought that you could be a hero when you need to be. Looks like you’re wrong.

Mark grip steadied and stared at the door. Everyone else was ready to go. Jessica had to show Pham the proper way to hold two pistols at once. They were as ready as they were ever going to be. By this time, several more dents had appeared on the door. It was going to give soon.  They waited as the door was continually attacked and more and more dents appeared. Suddenly, something that looked like an arm ripped through the door. There were three claws at the end of it. Another arm ripped through the door. The claws gripped the door and pulled it until it was ripped off its hinges.

The four jumped to the sides as the door was thrown into the room. As the door smashed into the tables, they spun around and Mark moved his head as a leg of a table smashed into the wall next to him. Mark looked around for his friends. Josh and Pham were behind a desk holding their guns and Jessica was crouching to the side holding the shotgun. Mark realized his gun was not near him and looked to find it on the ground where he had been before he jumped. He was about to move until he noticed the creature walking through the doorway. Mark stared as the creature walked into the room. It was at least seven feet tall with jet black skin, but it looked like the creature had no mouth or eyes.

“Fire!!!”  yelled Jessica.

Mark covered his ears as the three opened up on the creature. The room was filled with gunfire. The creature’s body recoiled as the bullets hit it. After what seemed like an hour, the gunfire stopped and only clicking coming from the pistols could be heard. The group stared as the creature, after taking all those bullets, still stood. It had a v-shaped head which lead to a muscular body and solid frame. Mark also saw that a long wire lead from the back of it and into the room it had come from.

The creatures head began to shake and a thin line appeared on what could be called a face. It opened revealing long teeth. The creature gave out a yell and threw out an arm that wrapped itself around Jessica. Mark stood stationary as the creature picked Jessica up and smashed her against the wall. Mark looked on as the creature stuck a tongue out and licked her. It seemed to be tasting her.

Josh and Pham attacked at this time. They fired their weapons at the creature. The bullets embedded themselves into the creature but the creature did not seem to notice. Instead, its free arm grabbed a table and shot it at Josh and Pham.  They were pinned to the wall and could not do anything. Mark was still crouched behind the table, staring at the creature, unable to do anything.

Do……. something.
Mark could not move.

Do Something.

Mark’s body began to shake as he tried to move.

DO SOMETHING!!!!!!

Mark’s body shot up and he dove for his pistol lying on the ground. He stood up and fired into the creatures back. The bullets stopped as they hit the creatures back. Mark had almost emptied the whole clip until he saw movement to his left. It was the wire. As Mark fired into the creature the wire pulsated into the creature’s back. Mark stopped shooting and moved over to the wire.  He took out his knives, crossed the blades around the wire, and tried to slice the wire. The blades could not even scratch the wire. Mark drew the blades back and stared at the creature. It did not seem to notice him. Mark took another look at the wire. He placed his blades back around the wire, but as he closed them in, he activated his power.  The wire seemed to fight back for a second and then exploded as the knives cut the wire in half.

Instantly, Josh, Pham, and Jessica were dropped to the ground and creature whipped its arms around at Mark. Even with his powers working Mark barely had time to move out of the way. As he jumped back he quickly reloaded his gun and fired at the creature. Sure, enough the bullets ripped into the creature. It yelled out in pain and shot its arms out at Mark. He easily ducked and drew his knives and raced towards the creatures. He raced past the creature and dragged a knife along its side. As the creature turned to grab him, he continued to run around it dragging the knife. The creature stuck out a foot and Mark tripped over it. Mark’s body rolled and bounced across the ground, but he quickly regained his balance. The creature ran at Mark, but fell as bullets ripped through it legs. Mark looked to see Josh and Pham sitting up with their guns. As the creature fell, Mark shoved one of his knives into the creature’s neck and the other one up into the creature’s up jaw. The creature fell to its knees with Mark struggling to not have it fall on top of him. The creature’s arms fell to its sides and did not move. It was dead. At least it was not moving anymore.

“You guys ok?” Mark asked.
“Yeah,” Pham answered, “Not too much damage.”
“Speak for yourself.”

Josh walked over to Jessica. She sat crumpled next to the floor. Mark pushed Josh back and knelt next to her. Jessica’s face was covered in slime where the creature had licked her. Mark carefully touched her body to see if she had any broken bones.

“Waahh!”

Mark jumped back as Jessica woke back up.

“Oh my god what is on my face!?!?!?!”
She wiped the slime of her face and stood back up. She stared at the creature and back at Mark.

“What happened?”
“Josh and Pham fired at the creature but then they were pinned against the wall.”
“Where were you?”
“I was behind the table watching it all happen. I lost my gun when the creature threw the door. I…...” Mark looked around at them,” I’m sorry guys. I should have moved but I couldn’t. I tried to force my body to move but it wouldn’t. “
“It’s ok Mark.” Josh put his hand on Mark’s shoulder. “Sometimes people just need the right incentive to fight.”

Mark looked at Jessica and then quickly looked away.
“But what if it happens again?”
“Just remember what gave you the reason to fight in the first place.”

“Okay, before we go. Chewyy?”
“Yeah?”
“First tell the teams that in order to kill the creatures they need to sever the wire in the back and then they can actually do damage to it. Second, have you cracked into that file yet?”
“Yeah, the other teams seemed to have figured that out too. They just called in to tell me that too, and no I haven’t gotten into the file yet.”
“Wait, so you mean we all figured it out how to kill the creature at the same time?”
“Yeah, pretty much.”

That’s weird. Oh well. We all have played a lot of games.

“Guys get a move on. The other teams are already starting on the eighth floor.”
“Okay, thanks Chewyy.”

Mark looked around at his friends. “Let’s go.”