One thing I can't stand about this place is the noise… Or to put it better, the lack of it. No wind blowing through from cracks, no water dripping on the ground… nothing. The only sound is our footsteps on the cold stone flooring. The same tap tap tap over and over. At one point focusing on that sound kept me from thinking to a certain extent, but you grow used to sounds you hear repeatedly. So far there's nothing out of the ordinary. This floor is a similar structure to the ones on the upper layers. We go into one of the rooms to check for anything useful. This… is indeed interesting.
"Is that a chest?"
"Looks like it."
It looks like there's a lock on it, but I still go over to try and open it just in case.
"No luck huh."
"Nah. let's look around, maybe there's a key around here."
Looking around the room we find a few useful things… this will really come in handy, a smoking pipe. I can finally smoke that tobacco when we have time. No key though.
"Find anything."
"No, you?"
"No but I did find a pipe."
I look over to show him, when I notice something. There was something odd about where he was standing. I walk over to him and examine the floor, I grab the right spot and lift it up.
"Shit nice."
"Probably wouldn't have found it if this place weren't so old. Where you were standing, there was an indention in the floor."
The key is here along with some more plates of arm protection.
"Here put this on, it'll protect you from some damage at least."
I take the key and open the chest
I grab the handle of the most eye-catching thing inside the chest and hold it up.
"A revolver."
I open the chamber to see if it's loaded. All six bullets are in the chamber. There's even more ammo in the chest too.
"Here, you take this. I'm better at fighting close up. This will come in handy for you."
He takes the gun from my hand and puts it inside his pants. Along with some ammo which he puts inside his pockets. What's leftover I put inside my bag.
"You know how to use that right."
"Yeah I do. Never had to use one before though."
"Well be ready…you will need to here."
"Right."
I reach back inside the chest, the gun and ammo were on top of something. Chainmail. That's gonna come in handy. I struggle for a moment to get it on before I succeed. It's light, I like it.
"Nice new attire"
"Heh thanks."
The door swings open… I pull my knife from my pocket and aiden aims the gun.
"Wait! Don't shoot, I'm human!"
Aiden lowers the gun, and the man begins to lower his hands.
"I can't believe there's actually more people here."
"Come inside before you get seen."
The man comes inside and all of us begin talking for a bit.
"I've only ever killed one of those things before, what the fuck are they. I thought things like that only existed in movies and shit you know."
I'm not entirely sure how to answer him but I say what I can.
"Better not to think about it for the time being, but with all of us together we should make short work of the weaker ones at least, they're not that hard to fight, it's really only the risk of getting injured."
His face widens in shock
"You know how to fight those things?"
"To an extent, all of them are different in some way but I've killed a few."
My response seems to reassure him a bit. It'll probably be beneficial to stay together.
"Alright let's get going."
We leave the room and continue to move throughout the floor. With an additional person on our side I have another level of confidence. I'm sure the others feel the same as well. It didn't take us long to run into one of those monsters, one of the weaker ones from the looks of it. It turns its head to look at us, I pull my knife and run towards it. It swings its arm at me but I dodge while slashing across its stomach. It lets out a shriek of pain as it holds its side. Even if this is one of the weaker ones they're getting easier to fight. Its body structure is reminiscent of the very first one I killed. I've improved quite a bit. It turns towards me.
Grahhhhg RAHHHHGGG
It charges towards me, but before it can get far the man hits it over the head with a metal pipe. It stumbles but I can tell that it won't fall. I move in quickly while it's off guard. I plunge my knife upwards into its skull through the chin. I pull the knife out as it falls to the ground, wiping it off and putting it back in my pocket.
"That wasn't so bad was it."
He looks at me impressed
"You weren't lying, it really looks like you know what you're doing."
"Don't overestimate me, had it been a stronger one we might not have won. Let's keep moving."
Why do I feel somewhat good about a small victory? Maybe it's the fact that it wasn't done alone.
Alone…
In that moment I noticed something about the "silence" around us. If this place had any background noise at all I probably wouldn't have noticed it. Very faintly. Very lightly coming from behind the man
tap… tap… tap
I tried to figure out what it was coming from. Nothing was there… No… its blending in with the patterns of the wall… once I see it, it's hard not to. how long had it been following us. It bends it's knees like a predator, it's gets into position to pounce on its prey.
"BEHIND YOU!"
the man looks back as soon as I yell and stumbles over while trying to move out the way. Its claws are close to him… inching closer… but i'm closer to it than it is to him. I grab its arm and yank to the side, i throw it to the ground and put my hands around its throat. I tighten my grip and press down to strangle this thing to death. it reached out its hands and starts cutting at my arms. I pull my head back and try to avoid cuts to my face and throat but it managed to leave a few gashes across my face. The pain from the cuts only amplifies my power.
I tighten even further, until
crack
I hear a snap in its neck. It stops moving shortly after.
"Fuck… thats new."
Aiden rushes over to me
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine."
The man comes over to me next.
"You saved me! Thank you so much."
"No problem."
I start looking over the body of that thing. A pale white figure with a slim body, as if it were malnourished. Its body looks similar to the walls. It has razor sharp teeth and claws. It doesn't seem to be really strong, but these claws… One swipe in the wrong area and you're dead. Just how long has it been stalking us. Stalking hm? Stalkers… maybe that's a good name for them. Maybe I'll think of a name for the common weaker ones.
"We might be running into more of these, we have to pay closer attention. If you listen closely you'll hear them. They don't seem to be really strong, but those claws are deadly."
I heal my injuries and we continue walking throughout the floor, we check most areas and it seems like there's no creatures left. We skipped past most of the rooms because we wanted to clear out the area first. We go back to one of them to have a break. We all sit back and do our best to relax.
"So, looks like you also won against a stronger one after all"
"Heh, hey I never said if I'd win or lose but we did get lucky after all."
The three of us talk and even somewhat laugh a bit. This atmosphere… is quite nice.
I stand up and look at the bookshelf I was sitting against, one book stands out. I pull the book and as I take a good look at it I recognize what it is quickly.
"Shit Aiden. Loo-"
CRACK!
My head hurts, I feel an intense throbbing. I can feel that I'm on the floor. I slowly open my eyes. My face feels odd but I soon recognize the feeling. Dried blood. I slowly pull myself off the ground and sit myself upright…
What…
The man was laying down on the ground, with his metal pipe by his side. 5 gunshots in his torso… Aiden standing above him… for some reason, the thing I was focused on the most, was the sound of the gun rattling… his hands… shaking.