⚙⚙Annelle Caldera⚙⚙
6:45pm, Sunday, April Sixth, 187 A.EThe biting chill of rain assaulted the central sector of Arkheus, the automated weather systems creating a gale force wind to accompany the dark, roiling artificial clouds. Annelle knew it was going to rain, she'd gathered that much from the visual sky display bathed in murky hues of gray, and she still hadn't thought to bring an umbrella. A gust of wind whipped through the small path she trudged along, winding through the mill of bodies pressed shoulder to shoulder and ducking flying debris carried on the wind. She flicked her wristpad back to life from where it slept on her arm, its bright blue display flickering to life—She really needed an upgrade. After a moment, the interface came up, and she synced some music to her headset, drowning out the buzzing drone of hundreds of voices. Despite that, there was still very little comfort to be had on her daily commute to work. An assortment of smells assaulted her senses, from the rank odor of unwashed bodies, to the acrid steam shooting from vents, with just enough warmth and bitterness to sting her eyes. She'd thought about hopping up on the rails, the magnetic splints latched around her shins were plenty capable of hitting good speeds, but at this time of day the rails were likely just as crowded. At least here she was less likely to get crushed, or plummet to her death. She was more likely to get mugged, but she figured she'd take her chances. Overhead, a drone passed by, ever watchful, always looking to report criminal activity.
She diverted down another road, really just moving with the flow of bodies like a fish caught in a current than actual walking. She hardly needed to pay attention to where she was going. She flicked over to the guidance display on her wrist, bringing up an interactive three-dimensional map of the sector. A pulsing blue line showed her current route, and an array of gray off shoots showed alternate routes with estimated travel times. It looked like she'd have to take one of those, less than a mile ahead the Watchmen had a whole block closed off, probably another incident with the Liberata. She changed course, heading for a detour that was a measly two minutes longer, and figured she had enough time to check her messages.
Message from "Dad", sent today at, 4:42pm:
"Annelle? How come you never pick up when I call?" A gruff voice asked, followed by a brief pause, "Listen Annie"—The name caused a snort of displeasure from Annelle—"You need to start thinking like an adult. Come to the force Annie, you can't really be happy making such a shit living doing.. whatever it is that you do. I know you live in the slums Annie, it's dangerous there. Why won't you come back, so we can be a family again? I-"
"Message Erased, Next Message"
"Message from "Dewalt, John", sent today at, 5:37pm:
"Message from "Dewalt, John", sent today at, 5:37pm:
"WHERE THE FUCK IS MY RENT YOU LITTLE-"
"Message Erased, Next Message"
"Message from "Watts, Elliot", sent today at, 7:02pm:
"Message from "Watts, Elliot", sent today at, 7:02pm:
Anne cursed, looking at the time display on her wrist pad—"Hey gorgeous, you're late. No worries, I've already logged you in, don't tell anyone 'kay?" A man spoke, ending with a raspy chuckle.
"No new messages, to return to the main-"
Ann exited out of the system, ignoring the music that faded back in from the background, and texted a quick response to Elliot—'Thanks, I'm almost there, Spooks closed a block on my usual route'. Before her, in among the backdrop of buildings reaching high up into the veil of the sky, her destination loomed. Just over eighty floors, The 'Sys.Admin' building was a monolith of glass and steel. Anne broke off from the stream of people, heading to their various destinations within the Station district, and took the steps two at a time. On the other side of a pair of glass doors, she flashed her I.D to a pair of waiting guards. Cleared for entrance, Anna took an elevator down to the sub-levels, where the field operators worked.
Sub level six was a labyrinth of pristine white walls that seemed to glisten beneath blinding lights modeled after ancient florescent. It was easy to get lost down here, every hallway and door was but a cookie cutter print. Fortunately, here workstation was fairly close, and before she knew it a metallic door was parting before her. The room on the other side was a stark contrast to the world of perfect walls and cleanliness. It held a long steel worktable, bolted against one wall, and a pair of computer stations at the far end. Each station came standard with an uncomfortable chair, a desk space, and three monitors suspended from the ceiling. The array of wires and fixtures seemed rather organized to the rest of the space. Against the remaining wall were two lockers and a set of hooks for their gear and coats.
"Look who made it, guess you weren't on the terrorist list today, huh?" Elliot asked, his form silhouetted by the glow of his monitor screens.
"No shit, you know they took a bunch of people from the upper floors the other week? World's going crazy El, batshit crazy." Anne said, slinging her backpack over the back of her chair.
"Yea, no kidding. I took a look into that blockade you mentioned, check this out," Elliot said, motioning to one of his monitors with currently muted news coverage of a police raid. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes, and after offering Annelle one, produced a lighter for them both. He took a heavy drag as he unmuted the live stream.
A woman's voice chimed up on the feed, though her words were hard to make out over the cacophony of gunfire in the background."—Have already begun the assault on yet another terrorist holdout. The rise in recent Liberata activety has lit a fire underneath the Anti-Terrorism campaign, and this is the second raid today."
Behind her, a line of metallic barricades with flashing displays cordoned off the public. A squadron of Watchmen were breaking off from the defensive line formed behind their personnel vans. The building before them, illuminated from the bright spotlights of two interceptors above was probably around forty stories or so, the lower floors featuring an extensive amount of damage. Weapons poked out of windows and holes, returning fire at the police. A smoke canister exploded, shrouding the scene in a dense layer of cover.
"As you can see behind me," the reporter said, shielding her head from debris as a series of explosions rocked the entryway of the building, "The Watchmen have begun their assault, and I am confident in their victory. Sources indicate that large scales operations are being performed all over the sector, and will likely run deep into the night. This is Clara with—" Her voice cut out as Elliot muted the feed once more.
"They are going nuts over the libbies man, I may just sleep here tonight," Elliot stated, a bit exasperated.
Annelle chuckled, "Yea, but more importantly we've got a job to do," She hinted, putting to one of the other monitors on Elliot's station.
"Aw shit, we've been given a ping down in the slums," El complained, running his free hand through his hair, "Why do we even bother fixing shit down there?"
"Probably something that can't be overlooked, I'd say from the codes it's a camera hub, Watchmen love their eyes," Ann speculated through an exhalation of blue-gray smoke.
"You wanna-?"
"Don't worry, I won't let your pasty ass get mugged, you just stay here and figure out whats wrong with it alright?"
"Can do you beautiful creature, thanks," Elliot said with a grin. Somewhat of a scared mouse, he hated field work, and lived in fear of the slums all together. "Hey, bring back some coffee too would'ja?"
"Yes dear," Anne mocked, snatching up her coat and field gear.
A few minutes later and she was pounding down the front steps of Sys.Admin once more, goggles on her head and a filtration mask snugly over her face. She had to walk less than a block through the slightly thinned horde of bodies to reach an access point for the magrails. She knelt down, clicking on the power for her splints and listening to the familiar whir of energy as they waited to receive a connection. There were three kinds of mag-rails. The large, twisting snake of a highway that bored a path to all of the sectors; The smaller version, dubbed the civil rail, which passed through most main thoroughfares and lacked the middle section for trains; and the personal rails, meant for just people and branched off in a hundred different paths.
One of those personal rails was her destination. The on-ramp resembled every other ramp for the larger magways, just condensed to human sized. It resembled an escalator, consisting of flat metal panels that looped up towards the personal rail. Anne followed the short line of people until her was able to step onto her own platform. A moment later she felt the magnetic lock take hold, a tingle of excitement washing through her. The magways were always exciting, there was nothing that compared to the rush you got. She neared the top and crouched, leaning forward just slightly. The panel slipped beneath to circulate back around, and transitioned Anne onto a small, smooth runway, much like ancient merging lanes. With a jarring pull the ramp-way "grabbed" her, accelerating her forward until the air was whipping her clothes and hair into a frenzy. She shot a glance over her shoulder as the magnetic hold on her slacked, the path looked clear for a merge.
The personal rail stretched out before her, a shining metallic roadway with thick barriers topped with rails to either side, and down the middle. She spend along, tucking further and leaning harder into the wind to squeeze out some more speed. Unfortunately personal mag systems didn't really have speed modules, so she was set at a standard speed. Up ahead the roadway swung hard towards the right, literally turning perpendicular to the ground, before leveling out and merging onto the larger civil rails, which really just added four extra wide lanes for vehicles. There were only two lanes for human traffic, but it was enough for Anna to weave through those moving slower. If you stood up straight, the rails lowered your speed, so as not to break your neck.
From there it was only a handful of minutes of weaving through the people before she merged onto the Industrial rail, where a train sped by at a nauseating speed. Here the personal rail became three lanes, whereas vehicular traffic got four, and the two for trains. All separated by dividers. Anne relaxed her body, checking her wristpad. She had a little over an hour before she reached her destination.
...
Anne was partially zoned out, lost in her own thoughts as she stared ahead when her guidance system chimed to life, "Your destination is ahead." She blinked, standing up and feeling her speed slow as she stretched her muscles. Exiting the magrails was a similar process to getting on them; she merged off onto a strip of roadway that slowed her speed drastically, before transitioning her onto the escalating platform that took her to the ground level. She hopped off with a bit of a wobble, and gave herself a moment to adjust as she clicked off her magnetic splints. Around her the slums stretched, dilapidated buildings in dire need of repair, none of which went higher than ten floors on average.
She checked her route guidance as she moved through the lifeless, trash littered streets. To one side a man slept against a storefront, one with shattered windows and a door so bent that it moved an inch, whirred futilely, and moved back an inch in an endless cycle. "The night comes," He rasped, giving Anne's heart a start. She swore he had been asleep. She trekked the mile towards the sought after maintenance door, pulling her goggles down over her eyes. Instantly her vision became better and slightly blue tinted. Blue vision was all the rage, marketed as an advanced form of night vision some twenty years or so ago.
She pressed her A.I.C to a seemingly plain metal panel. It scanned her card and after a moment withdrew back to reveal a key pad. She punched in her access code and the dormant machinery buzzed to life, retracting the thick door. Beyond that were the maintenance tunnels. Spacious enough for a small vehicle, the tunnels were a winding labyrinth that ran below the city streets, giving access to electronic hubs, piping systems, and so forth. She followed the route programmed for her by the Sys.Admin corporation, down snaking twists and turns until she came to the area in question.
"Hey El... you there?" She asked.
A second passed before her headset crackled to life, "What up babe, I'm here."
"I don't think I can fix this," Anne said with wonderment.
"What do you mean?"
Anne activated the holo systems display, producing a large orange screen that could barely hold its form. It was rife with error codes, and it was no wonder why. She knelt down, looking at a feed of cables that ran up into the terminal, many of which had been torn out. Not just torn out, but cut, and whatever had cut them left jagged tears in the metal behind it. But as she observed closer, the situation seemed to get worse. There were smears of blood splattered against the wall and floor. She followed the evidence, before arriving at a puddle of coagulated blood. She knelt down, reaching a shaky hands towards it—
"Anne? Anne?!"
"Shit sorry El, you have to see this," She said, transmitting a live video feed to him. She went back over the damage and the blood, causing Elliot to let out a low whistle.
"I think you'd better get the hell out of there Anne."
"I think you're right, send in a ticket to the guys up top, they're gonna need a whole crew for this.. and maybe some of Guardians too, fuck, I'll see you in a bit with some coffee," She finished, turning off the video link. She dug into her pocket with a shaky hand, pulling out a cigarette and feeling the sweet burn of smoke in her lungs. She stood for a moment longer, staring at the mess of mangled wires and shredded metal as she ran a hand through her hair.
She turned to leave, but hesitated. A cold chill traveled down her spine. Something clinked from the hallway she had come from. She took another drag, before chuckling at herself. That was just the sound of the door closing.. except, she looked at her wrist pad—8:42p.m. That had been a solid fifteen minutes ago. Perhaps that was just the Ark, changing something up above. She chuckled again nervously. Perhaps she'd take a different exit, just in case.
Anne froze, looking around her wildly. That last metallic screech had shattered her nerves, where had it come from? "El, call the police."
"On it, what's happening girl?"
A malovent screech echoed through the tunnel, immediately sending Anne's body into fight or flight. She chose flight. "EL CALL THEM NOW!" She screamed over the sound of her feet pounding against the metal walkways and that awful clinking behind her. Another scream blasted down the corridor, followed by another, and another, until the howls compounded on top of each other and became one massive, hungry roar.
"ANNE? ANNE?!"
She didn't answer, couldn't answer. She sucked in a breath, the stark terror coursing through her body was making it difficult to breath. Behind her the clinking sounding like a tidal wave of sounds, like hundreds of metal legs tapping an unsteady rhythm. 'Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck,' ran on repeat through her mind. The howls had died down somewhat, becoming a dissonance of hungering grunts and growls. Up ahead of her salvation shined with a pale orange light, flickering unsteadily in the dimness. She skidded to a halt, smashing her badge into the wall panel. An eternity passed by before the panel clicked and withdrew, revealing the keypad. She punched in the code and cursed as it played an error sound. Again, another error. Again, another error. The keys turned red, locking her out of the system.
"Anna what's happening? I'm patching myself into your goggles," Elliots worried voice said, followed by a small overlay letting her know she was transmitting. Anne fumbled with her wristpad, managing to click on the flashlight feature. She used that to light her way as she spun the goggles around on her head. She heard Elliot take a sharp breath.
"WHAT ARE THEY EL?" Anne yelled, panicked.
"F-fuck I don't- Shit Anne just run! RUN OKAY?!"
Anne could literally feel the claws of the beasts her imagination created rending her back open, tearing at her flesh, devouring her. She ran harder, ignoring the burning pain in her side. To stop was death, she knew it was death. She felt she was just about at her end, ready to give up and let death take her. Another access point was just around the corner, just a little further. She dug in deep, pulling at the last reserves of her stamina as she flew around the corner.
And had to squint as a wall of light assaulted her. It was just a couple of flashlights, but contrast to the darkness it was enough to make her eyes water. She didn't stop running however, a white gloved hand motioned her through the line of Watchmen, six in total. They must have been nearby, that was usually fast. Elliot probably told them something Liberata something.
"Wait, what the fuck is that?" One of them shouted. Anna stopped, her foot on one rung of a ladder leading up to the city above. Charging the Watchmen from the tunnel, like a tide of floodwater smashing around the corner, was a horde of.. of.. she didn't have the works for them. Their bodies were dressed in tatters of clothing, faceless beings with pulsing teal veings, and a mouth full of rows of pointed teeth. Those in the front of the coming onslaught reached their hands forward, the long spikes anchored on the ends of their pale fingers leveled like an array of lances.
"Those aren't-" Another began, cut off by yet another to the side of him.
"SHOOT TO KILL!" The third yelled, his words cut off immediately after 'shoot'. Their muzzles opened fire, toppling the creatures like dominoes with flashes of orange muzzle fire. This only seemed to anger them, as the creatures charged forward with a blood curtling howl.
"What the fuck.." Elliot breathed. Anne took that as her cue to leave, flying up the rungs of the ladder wearily. Her momentum was spurred halfway up by the screams of the men below her. The ladder shook as she neared the top, shaking wildly as the swarm of beasts smashed into it and began to pursue her up. Pale light from the city street above pierced the veil of darkness in the tunnel. Anna scrambled up through the hatch, throwing herself to the ground.
She was greeted with a small swarm of activity, more responders who had decided not to delve down into the maintenance tunnels.
"Don't move!" A man shouted, pressing the barrel of his gun against the small of Anne's back. She tried to speak, to tell them to close the hatch, to get her out of there, but uttering anything simply caused the Watchman to jam his barrel against her. She reached out for the hatch, and was met with the butt of his weapon. Anne went sprawling in a daze, her vision swimming with double images.
"Where are the-" The Watchman began, walking closer towards her before one the creatures sprung from the tunnel, cannon-balling itself into the officer. He screamed as the things claws punctured his armor, as its teeth tore at his throat. Immediately the other officers began opening fire, but the stream of creatures from the tunnels was too thick. Anne groaned, pulling herself to her knees.
"Holy shit.. Anne, Anne! Get in the cruiser, right there in front of you."
Anne complied, dragging herself towards the APD personel carrier. She heard a click, Elliot must have unlocked it remotely. He was always good with computers like that, doing things he shouldn't. She opened the door and crawled in, managing to glance towards the scene unfolding just a few feet from her. The Watchmen were trying to hold their line, but the bodies were piling up on both sides, and the faceless beasts didn't seem to be slowing down at all. There was nobody else on the normally packed streets, had they cleared them all out already?
"Dammit Anne close the door!" Elliot shouted in her ear. She blinked, trying to shake away the haze, how hard had that officer hit her? She flopped into the driver's seat and pulled the door closed. Immediately the engine spurred to life.
"Dive Anne, DRIVE! ANNE? ANN?!" Elliot shouted, but the haze was back. Anne tried to sit up, but collapsed in between the driver and passenger seats. Unconsciousness washed over her, her body lulled to the darkness by the sounds of gunfire and animalistic shrieking. The world faded, and the world of nightmares waited for her.
Behind her, a line of metallic barricades with flashing displays cordoned off the public. A squadron of Watchmen were breaking off from the defensive line formed behind their personnel vans. The building before them, illuminated from the bright spotlights of two interceptors above was probably around forty stories or so, the lower floors featuring an extensive amount of damage. Weapons poked out of windows and holes, returning fire at the police. A smoke canister exploded, shrouding the scene in a dense layer of cover.
"As you can see behind me," the reporter said, shielding her head from debris as a series of explosions rocked the entryway of the building, "The Watchmen have begun their assault, and I am confident in their victory. Sources indicate that large scales operations are being performed all over the sector, and will likely run deep into the night. This is Clara with—" Her voice cut out as Elliot muted the feed once more.
"They are going nuts over the libbies man, I may just sleep here tonight," Elliot stated, a bit exasperated.
Annelle chuckled, "Yea, but more importantly we've got a job to do," She hinted, putting to one of the other monitors on Elliot's station.
"Aw shit, we've been given a ping down in the slums," El complained, running his free hand through his hair, "Why do we even bother fixing shit down there?"
"Probably something that can't be overlooked, I'd say from the codes it's a camera hub, Watchmen love their eyes," Ann speculated through an exhalation of blue-gray smoke.
"You wanna-?"
"Don't worry, I won't let your pasty ass get mugged, you just stay here and figure out whats wrong with it alright?"
"Can do you beautiful creature, thanks," Elliot said with a grin. Somewhat of a scared mouse, he hated field work, and lived in fear of the slums all together. "Hey, bring back some coffee too would'ja?"
"Yes dear," Anne mocked, snatching up her coat and field gear.
A few minutes later and she was pounding down the front steps of Sys.Admin once more, goggles on her head and a filtration mask snugly over her face. She had to walk less than a block through the slightly thinned horde of bodies to reach an access point for the magrails. She knelt down, clicking on the power for her splints and listening to the familiar whir of energy as they waited to receive a connection. There were three kinds of mag-rails. The large, twisting snake of a highway that bored a path to all of the sectors; The smaller version, dubbed the civil rail, which passed through most main thoroughfares and lacked the middle section for trains; and the personal rails, meant for just people and branched off in a hundred different paths.
One of those personal rails was her destination. The on-ramp resembled every other ramp for the larger magways, just condensed to human sized. It resembled an escalator, consisting of flat metal panels that looped up towards the personal rail. Anne followed the short line of people until her was able to step onto her own platform. A moment later she felt the magnetic lock take hold, a tingle of excitement washing through her. The magways were always exciting, there was nothing that compared to the rush you got. She neared the top and crouched, leaning forward just slightly. The panel slipped beneath to circulate back around, and transitioned Anne onto a small, smooth runway, much like ancient merging lanes. With a jarring pull the ramp-way "grabbed" her, accelerating her forward until the air was whipping her clothes and hair into a frenzy. She shot a glance over her shoulder as the magnetic hold on her slacked, the path looked clear for a merge.
The personal rail stretched out before her, a shining metallic roadway with thick barriers topped with rails to either side, and down the middle. She spend along, tucking further and leaning harder into the wind to squeeze out some more speed. Unfortunately personal mag systems didn't really have speed modules, so she was set at a standard speed. Up ahead the roadway swung hard towards the right, literally turning perpendicular to the ground, before leveling out and merging onto the larger civil rails, which really just added four extra wide lanes for vehicles. There were only two lanes for human traffic, but it was enough for Anna to weave through those moving slower. If you stood up straight, the rails lowered your speed, so as not to break your neck.
From there it was only a handful of minutes of weaving through the people before she merged onto the Industrial rail, where a train sped by at a nauseating speed. Here the personal rail became three lanes, whereas vehicular traffic got four, and the two for trains. All separated by dividers. Anne relaxed her body, checking her wristpad. She had a little over an hour before she reached her destination.
...
Anne was partially zoned out, lost in her own thoughts as she stared ahead when her guidance system chimed to life, "Your destination is ahead." She blinked, standing up and feeling her speed slow as she stretched her muscles. Exiting the magrails was a similar process to getting on them; she merged off onto a strip of roadway that slowed her speed drastically, before transitioning her onto the escalating platform that took her to the ground level. She hopped off with a bit of a wobble, and gave herself a moment to adjust as she clicked off her magnetic splints. Around her the slums stretched, dilapidated buildings in dire need of repair, none of which went higher than ten floors on average.
She checked her route guidance as she moved through the lifeless, trash littered streets. To one side a man slept against a storefront, one with shattered windows and a door so bent that it moved an inch, whirred futilely, and moved back an inch in an endless cycle. "The night comes," He rasped, giving Anne's heart a start. She swore he had been asleep. She trekked the mile towards the sought after maintenance door, pulling her goggles down over her eyes. Instantly her vision became better and slightly blue tinted. Blue vision was all the rage, marketed as an advanced form of night vision some twenty years or so ago.
She pressed her A.I.C to a seemingly plain metal panel. It scanned her card and after a moment withdrew back to reveal a key pad. She punched in her access code and the dormant machinery buzzed to life, retracting the thick door. Beyond that were the maintenance tunnels. Spacious enough for a small vehicle, the tunnels were a winding labyrinth that ran below the city streets, giving access to electronic hubs, piping systems, and so forth. She followed the route programmed for her by the Sys.Admin corporation, down snaking twists and turns until she came to the area in question.
"Hey El... you there?" She asked.
A second passed before her headset crackled to life, "What up babe, I'm here."
"I don't think I can fix this," Anne said with wonderment.
"What do you mean?"
Anne activated the holo systems display, producing a large orange screen that could barely hold its form. It was rife with error codes, and it was no wonder why. She knelt down, looking at a feed of cables that ran up into the terminal, many of which had been torn out. Not just torn out, but cut, and whatever had cut them left jagged tears in the metal behind it. But as she observed closer, the situation seemed to get worse. There were smears of blood splattered against the wall and floor. She followed the evidence, before arriving at a puddle of coagulated blood. She knelt down, reaching a shaky hands towards it—
"Anne? Anne?!"
"Shit sorry El, you have to see this," She said, transmitting a live video feed to him. She went back over the damage and the blood, causing Elliot to let out a low whistle.
"I think you'd better get the hell out of there Anne."
"I think you're right, send in a ticket to the guys up top, they're gonna need a whole crew for this.. and maybe some of Guardians too, fuck, I'll see you in a bit with some coffee," She finished, turning off the video link. She dug into her pocket with a shaky hand, pulling out a cigarette and feeling the sweet burn of smoke in her lungs. She stood for a moment longer, staring at the mess of mangled wires and shredded metal as she ran a hand through her hair.
She turned to leave, but hesitated. A cold chill traveled down her spine. Something clinked from the hallway she had come from. She took another drag, before chuckling at herself. That was just the sound of the door closing.. except, she looked at her wrist pad—8:42p.m. That had been a solid fifteen minutes ago. Perhaps that was just the Ark, changing something up above. She chuckled again nervously. Perhaps she'd take a different exit, just in case.
Clink. Clink. Scccrrrtttccccch.
Anne froze, looking around her wildly. That last metallic screech had shattered her nerves, where had it come from? "El, call the police."
"On it, what's happening girl?"
Clink... Clink... Clink.Clink.ClinkClinkClinkClink—
A malovent screech echoed through the tunnel, immediately sending Anne's body into fight or flight. She chose flight. "EL CALL THEM NOW!" She screamed over the sound of her feet pounding against the metal walkways and that awful clinking behind her. Another scream blasted down the corridor, followed by another, and another, until the howls compounded on top of each other and became one massive, hungry roar.
"ANNE? ANNE?!"
She didn't answer, couldn't answer. She sucked in a breath, the stark terror coursing through her body was making it difficult to breath. Behind her the clinking sounding like a tidal wave of sounds, like hundreds of metal legs tapping an unsteady rhythm. 'Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck,' ran on repeat through her mind. The howls had died down somewhat, becoming a dissonance of hungering grunts and growls. Up ahead of her salvation shined with a pale orange light, flickering unsteadily in the dimness. She skidded to a halt, smashing her badge into the wall panel. An eternity passed by before the panel clicked and withdrew, revealing the keypad. She punched in the code and cursed as it played an error sound. Again, another error. Again, another error. The keys turned red, locking her out of the system.
"Anna what's happening? I'm patching myself into your goggles," Elliots worried voice said, followed by a small overlay letting her know she was transmitting. Anne fumbled with her wristpad, managing to click on the flashlight feature. She used that to light her way as she spun the goggles around on her head. She heard Elliot take a sharp breath.
"WHAT ARE THEY EL?" Anne yelled, panicked.
"F-fuck I don't- Shit Anne just run! RUN OKAY?!"
Anne could literally feel the claws of the beasts her imagination created rending her back open, tearing at her flesh, devouring her. She ran harder, ignoring the burning pain in her side. To stop was death, she knew it was death. She felt she was just about at her end, ready to give up and let death take her. Another access point was just around the corner, just a little further. She dug in deep, pulling at the last reserves of her stamina as she flew around the corner.
And had to squint as a wall of light assaulted her. It was just a couple of flashlights, but contrast to the darkness it was enough to make her eyes water. She didn't stop running however, a white gloved hand motioned her through the line of Watchmen, six in total. They must have been nearby, that was usually fast. Elliot probably told them something Liberata something.
"Wait, what the fuck is that?" One of them shouted. Anna stopped, her foot on one rung of a ladder leading up to the city above. Charging the Watchmen from the tunnel, like a tide of floodwater smashing around the corner, was a horde of.. of.. she didn't have the works for them. Their bodies were dressed in tatters of clothing, faceless beings with pulsing teal veings, and a mouth full of rows of pointed teeth. Those in the front of the coming onslaught reached their hands forward, the long spikes anchored on the ends of their pale fingers leveled like an array of lances.
"Those aren't-" Another began, cut off by yet another to the side of him.
"SHOOT TO KILL!" The third yelled, his words cut off immediately after 'shoot'. Their muzzles opened fire, toppling the creatures like dominoes with flashes of orange muzzle fire. This only seemed to anger them, as the creatures charged forward with a blood curtling howl.
"What the fuck.." Elliot breathed. Anne took that as her cue to leave, flying up the rungs of the ladder wearily. Her momentum was spurred halfway up by the screams of the men below her. The ladder shook as she neared the top, shaking wildly as the swarm of beasts smashed into it and began to pursue her up. Pale light from the city street above pierced the veil of darkness in the tunnel. Anna scrambled up through the hatch, throwing herself to the ground.
She was greeted with a small swarm of activity, more responders who had decided not to delve down into the maintenance tunnels.
"Don't move!" A man shouted, pressing the barrel of his gun against the small of Anne's back. She tried to speak, to tell them to close the hatch, to get her out of there, but uttering anything simply caused the Watchman to jam his barrel against her. She reached out for the hatch, and was met with the butt of his weapon. Anne went sprawling in a daze, her vision swimming with double images.
"Where are the-" The Watchman began, walking closer towards her before one the creatures sprung from the tunnel, cannon-balling itself into the officer. He screamed as the things claws punctured his armor, as its teeth tore at his throat. Immediately the other officers began opening fire, but the stream of creatures from the tunnels was too thick. Anne groaned, pulling herself to her knees.
"Holy shit.. Anne, Anne! Get in the cruiser, right there in front of you."
Anne complied, dragging herself towards the APD personel carrier. She heard a click, Elliot must have unlocked it remotely. He was always good with computers like that, doing things he shouldn't. She opened the door and crawled in, managing to glance towards the scene unfolding just a few feet from her. The Watchmen were trying to hold their line, but the bodies were piling up on both sides, and the faceless beasts didn't seem to be slowing down at all. There was nobody else on the normally packed streets, had they cleared them all out already?
"Dammit Anne close the door!" Elliot shouted in her ear. She blinked, trying to shake away the haze, how hard had that officer hit her? She flopped into the driver's seat and pulled the door closed. Immediately the engine spurred to life.
"Dive Anne, DRIVE! ANNE? ANN?!" Elliot shouted, but the haze was back. Anne tried to sit up, but collapsed in between the driver and passenger seats. Unconsciousness washed over her, her body lulled to the darkness by the sounds of gunfire and animalistic shrieking. The world faded, and the world of nightmares waited for her.
