Believe

[Silversnow]

New story (with quite bad beginning...) written by me! Read if you'd like to...

PROLOGUE
Report,
By morning, everything was normal as always. But, not expected, the egg started to hatch. By the first smallest crack in the shell, Ezial, Lyw and I was ready to take notes, pictures and start judging its mental and physical health. Guess how surprised we became when we saw that it wasn’t a slig we’ve just created… It was a mudokon subspecies; called a Crucifician by those who knows a bit about biology and the mudokon history. I’ve read an interesting book about Crucificians once. I’m happy it’s healthy, it was the least we could expect. We’re now ready to receive your word about this… complication…
Sincerely,
Dr. Claybrain

Hlir looked up from the paper the vykker scientist just had given him. His slig helper quickly pulled it away and tried his best not to laugh (he read from the paper too).
“Are you serious?” Hlir asked Claybrain. The vykker Claybrain nervously scratched one of his arms before he replied.
“Er, well, you zee, boz, we had some… Problems with the instruments in that minute and…”
“NO MORE EXCUSES!” Hlir yelled so both Claybrain and the helper slig jumped a little.
“I haven’t been wasting my precious moolah on this project so you can make the wrong species!”
Claybrain shook his head.
“But, bozz, mow that we’re on it, can’t you let uz continue with the zame project? One of my collegez will make the zlig you want, I zwear!”
Hlir seemed to think real hard about what Claybrain just had said. After a while he nodded.
“Alright! You and your friends may continue on your little projects, but don’t think your getting extra paid.”
“No, sir. We wont.”
Claybrain turned around and tried to get out, but Hlir stopped him with two sentences.
“You get six years! Got it? Six years, then my fellow sligs will take over your hard work…”
“He... Yez zir…” Claybrain said and closed the door when he was outside.

“Well?” Lyw asked when Claybrain entered the laboratory. Claybrain shook his head. “Nope…”
//Darn…\\ a voice (which belonged to Ezial) in his head said.
“I agree… But I have some good news!”
“What?” Lyw asked eagerly.
“If we keep him, we raise him. We still get paid for our regular work.”
//Er, guys, don’t count me in, I’m an intern, they’ve got stuff to do you know…\\ Ezial said, hurrying away.
“And I’ve still got to make other things. Inventions don’t invent themselves.” Claybrain said and got back to studying the records of the eggs hatching moment.
“It’s bad to waste such much work…” Lyw said and took the child up in her arms. “After all, I can understand him. No one wanted me either, did they?”
Claybrain turned around, sighing in a desperate tone.
“No scientist wants to create a mudokon. You were just lucky no one ‘got rid’ of you…”
“Yeah…” Lyw thoughtfully said and watched the child move around in her arms. A small mudokon child with brown eyes, dark green skin, two clawed (and pretty useless) arms on
his back and no feather yet.
“I think I’ll call you… Rhan. Yeah. Treespirit…”

[Silversnow]

*sings* Are you only playing games...

CHAPTER 1
The silence laid like a cloak over the halls. Just the steps of the guards were heard. A guard stopped in front of a door and looked around. It was a broad text on the door, ´Chamber 8`. The guard made an attempt to open the door and found that it was locked. He picked out a small box from a special socket in his pants, took out from it a couple of needlelike pieces of iron. He started a try to open the lock with them. Some steps from feet that didn’t belong to slig guards scared the guard away. A mudokon in a gray suit came stumbling down the same hall. He stopped outside the door and looked at it. After a couple of minutes with staring on the door he smiled and tried to open it.
“But for the lofve of…” he mumbled and started to kick the door. “Open up! I warn you, dammit!” he screamed while doing it. He stopped when he heard that someone struggled with the lock. He saw the slig face of Quarter in the door. Quarter stared on him.
“Hello, Ace. High as a house, I presume?”
“I… ‘hick’ I… Of coursche I am… It’s no work tomorrow…”
“No… Of course not… Wanna get in and sleep it off?”
Ace nodded.
“Fine…” Quarter nodded and opened the door. Ace stumbled in.
“Haya! The king isch back on hisch throne onche more…” he said and barely made it to his bed before he fell asleep on it. Quarter shook his head, locked to door and went back to his own bed. He saw that Jekketh bent down.
“He’s… drunk again?” he asked Quarter.
Quarter nodded.
“Oh.” He said as if it wasn’t a big surprise. He went back to bed and didn’t care about what Quarter had to say. Quarter went back to his own bed, laid down and stared up in the bottom of the bed over him. It reminded him of the thing that happened to him long ago, that horrible thing the unidentifiable creature had done to him. He raised his hand to his face and let his finger run down along the scar on it. The flashbacks returned, of the screams and the sounds of the claws ripping flesh apart.
The sound of a alarm clock woke him up of his thoughts. His arm shot out and crashed down on the "Snooze" button. Énial mumbled something in sleep above him. The word "nicer" was involved. Quarter smiled to himself, took his hand away from the "snooze" button and looked at it. It was just half past 3. He turned over in his bed and tried to forget about the memories that just had awoken in his mind. He closed his eyes and in the very next second, sleep had overpowered him.

[VykerSawBones]

Not bad silversnow keep up the good work

[paramiteabe]

This is a very interesting story so far I like the issue's in this story . I can't wait for more chapters. keep up the good work dude!

[Silversnow]

Thank you all! And as a small gift, a new chapter... is it two or three?

CHAPTER 2
Ace groaned.
“My head hurts…” he complained.
“It’s really not like a surprise, right?” Jekketh asked and kept poking Ace. “You still have to get up, ya know. Work don’t do itself.”
“Eh? What are we gonna do then?” Ace asked and slowly sat up in his bed.
“Just… train. Yeah, we’re gonna train today. I’ve heard they’re gonna send us out on this mega-mission. Something big is comin, I’ll wager. Something… ugly.”
Jekketh left Ace to his complaining and walked out of the door. Rhan sat in the bed above Ace.
“Don’t believe him. It’s no mega-mission, rather just a simple complication. We’re gonna sort it out.”
Ace groaned and didn’t care to reply. Rhan jumped down. Énial looked at Rhan as if she asked if he was serious.
“All things those morons send us out on is rather deadly. Don’t expect anything else now.” She said, finished making her bed and walked out of the door. Ace groaned again.
“Oh, shut up…” Rhan said as he dragged him out.

Jekketh finished his push-ups, stood up and stretched himself.
“Ha ha!” he laughed. “I beat the record! 150!”
Rhan gave him a look.
“That’s your own record …22… the almighty …23… serious record is around …24… 400.”
“He was on steroids.”
“It’s still …25… a record.”
“Hm.” Jekketh mumbled and gave up his recent thoughts of beating the record. “Just 25? I thought it was 50 a moment ago.”
Rhan made another push-up.
“I’ve …27… restarted.”
“Ah. Where do we get info about the mission?”
“I …28… dunno. Ask someone …29… with knowledge …30…”
“Ok.” Jekketh said, shrugged and walked over to the hall. A guard leant against the wall. At the sight of Jekketh he hurried away. Jekketh looked after him. Another guard came down.
“Do you know anything about ‘The big event’?”
“Yeah… But just a little… As far as I have heard, those elum butts in the so-called council or whatever ‘s about to send some poor bastards into their death. Investigate somethin. Yeah, right… They’ll never get back alive… Thankie to Odd I’m not comin…”
“Oookkk, so when do we find out about when we’re going?”
“You’re one of ‘em?! Wow… Well, they’ll tell ya. Nice knowing ya…”
He kept going down the hall. Jekketh stood as frozen and thought of what the slig had said.
He couldn't wait to go.

[Silversnow]

CHAPTER 3
A slig entered Hlir’s office. Hlir was old and barely had some lounges left, but he was still capable to give some decent orders to his workers. The slig put a paper on his desk. Hlir’s help slig quickly grabbed it and put it up so he could read it. Hlir studied the paper for a while.
“Is it really so many?” he asked the slig. The slig nodded.
“Yep. It’s a entire group of freaks there…” he said and laughed. “Wonder how many that’ll miss em…”
“Let’s hope it’s not gonna be too many, I can’t afford to loose anything.”
“Except?”
“Yeah. Except.”
The slig looked puzzled for a while, then shrugged and waited for orders.
“Tell them about the orders. They’re leaving tomorrow night.”
“In the middle of the night? Is that really necessary?” the slig asked. Hlir looked a bit annoyed.
“Yes. It is.”
The slig shrugged again and left the office.

“Really?!” both Rhan and Jekketh said on the same time. They were the only ones left in the training room. The slig nodded.
“Yep. Quite important too, if ye ask me… Ye better tell the rest of your group, I might just forget about it…”
Jekketh exchanged a surprised look with Rhan.
“Hey man… this is big!”
Rhan laughed and went away to tell the others.

“You can’t be serious!”
“Why? Something’s wrong…”
“We’re gonna do what?! That’s impossible!”
“I have a headache…”
“Man! People are gonna be all over us when we get back…”
That was some of the phrases heard in the ‘free time room’ when Rhan and Jekketh told them about what was about to happen. Only Quarter sat still on a chair and studied the group’s different reactions of the news. Rhan and Jekketh were busy answering questions. There were a lot of voices shouting and arguing around the two tables and they received many looks from other people in the room. When the buzz had laid down a bit, Quarter suddenly said some words.
“Who said we were supposed to get back?”
Everyone stared at him.
“Aw, come on, Quarter! Stop being so…so…”
“Pessimistic?”
“Yeah!”
“I’m not pessimistic. I’m realistic.”
No one said anything for a while.
“But anyway… I guess that we can’t say no. After all, Hlir is a mad son of a…”
His arguing became a mumble. No one said anything. They just looked at each other.
They knew that he was right.

[Silversnow]

CHAPTER 4
The sound of all the trains that left the station was extremely loud and drowned all the other sounds. It tuned down after a while, and people could finally hear what the others were saying or shouting. Rhan, Jekketh and the others from their group were sitting down a bit away from the workers in the train station. Elum was humming a song, Jekketh tapped on the bench, and Jozil stared up in the roof… None of all of them seemed too entertained by three hours of waiting.
“What was the number of the train again?” Jozil asked.
“55…” Elum replied while catching breath.
“When was is coming again?”
“It’s around 15 minutes left…”
That was just about all they said. Frosty snoozed. His arm twitched now and then. Zero looked at him. It was like that for two minutes. Then Zero punched him in the chest. Frosty made a gurgling sound and stared at Zero.
“What was that good for?” he asked, rubbing his chest.
“Good for me. You’re annoying…”
“Me?! Annoying?! You should just…” his words drowned in the whistle of a pipe. The train 55 had just arrived. The group of special trained soldiers got up, took their bags and made way to the train. Jekketh turned around in the end of the line and gave his favorite place to be a loving look. Then he also took a place in the train. A slig stood in there, waiting for them to sit down.
“Alright then, ladies and gentlemen!” he shouted. Everyone turned his or her head to him.
“I am the one that will lead you now! We’re going to investigate an abandoned base a couple of days away. This train will take us half the way, the rest we’ll have to walk. Our mission is to see what or who made the employees leave the base, if there is a who that is responsible we’ll take him home and we’re to take back a disc in there. That disc contains info about what conclusions their research led to, and what we should do to use those conclusions.”
He paused and looked around.
“Is that clear?”
“SIR, YES SIR!” the group shouted. The slig left the room and let the soldiers do whatever they wished to. Rhan took up a small book and a pencil and started to write.

/Day 6
Month 4
Today our group started the mission. We’re on a train, heading for nowhere. I’ve found out about what our mission really is, and I don’t like what I’ve heard. We’re apparently supposed to take back a disc with info. But, I can’t help it, Quarter’s words still rings in my ears. Why can’t that pessimist leave his damn thoughts to himself?! He said that we’re probably not supposed to come back alive. What if that’s the way it is? I don’t feel like dying, I’ve already decided to die on a rainy day when I’m 45 years old! Hmm… That makes me think… Damn it, I can’t even think anymore. Oh well, away to death… Goodbye dear journal, goodbye!\

He smiled to himself and put the book back in his pack.

[morphius]

Great chapters, and creativity! keep up the good work...........

[Silversnow]

Thankie Morphius. I just realized I did a mistake *slaps forehead*... I told myself "Don't put a scarred being with mysterious past in this story!", but, check Quarter out... *sigh*

CHAPTER 5
“OOW!” Jekketh shouted as he smashed the hammer against his hand again.
“I can’t take this shit anymore! You raise the tent, if you’re so good, and I’ll sit over there and laugh at YOU!”
He sat down on a rock and stared angrily on the guys laughing at him.
“Aw, leave it guys. It’s getting dark any moment.” Elum said and let the hammer fall down on the stick once more.
“I hope you’re afraid of it!” Jekketh said as he walked over to Rhan the guard.
“How’s it going?” he asked, breaking his concentration.
“Well. I’m still alive, am I not? And I’m the best darn guard you’ve ever had!” he answered, laughed and loaded the gun before going back to staring out in the little he could see. Jekketh went back to the others. The slig commander sat by the fire and warmed his hands. Jekketh sat down a bit away.
“So…” he started. “Are you gonna be with us in that place?”
“Yeah.”
“Will we survive?”
“Depends on you guys. You die if you don’t keep your eyes open. I’ll survive. Since this birdie has tricked a lot of scrabs in the years.”
“Er…”
“I’m gonna get you up early tomorrow so you better get to bed.”
“But…”
“Are you stupid or just plain dumb? Go to your tent and sleep!”
Jekketh got up and walked away.
“And you don’t dare to snooze!” he shouted after him.

Rhan’s eyelids were becoming really heavy. He stood on the same spot, desperately trying to keep awake. Nothing had happened during the night and Rhan was bored as well. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. Someone laid his hand on his shoulder. With a gasp he quickly turned around and pointed the gun at the person there. Énial stood there with her arms raised.
“Wouh!” she hissed. “Rhan, damn it, you scared me!”
Rhan lowered the gun.
“What are you doing up? You should get back to bed, now!”
“I can see that you’re tired. I can take the guarding instead.”
“Um… I don’t really know…” he started.
“I’m not gonna kill you all. I had a opportunity back a few months ago, did I do it?”
Rhan thought for a moment.
“Fine.” He said and gave her the gun.
He didn’t have so much against going to bed.

Hrrm... *goes away*

[Silversnow]

Meeh, I'm bored...

CHAPTER 6
No one likes dreams. They’re always confusing and misleading. Rhan turned in his bed, mumbling in sleep. Before his eyes was a chain of strange pictures showing.

Rhan was all alone on a field of the flowery kind. He looked around, searched for other people. But no one was there. The dream that began so nice was with every second turning into a nightmare. Rhan got a strange feeling in his stomach and turned around. There, a bit away, stood a mudokon dressed in a clothing that symbolized a shaman in the colors black and red and another one, dressed in a white top and green loincloth. The shaman stared at him with his dark eyes. He looked as he was judging him for something. The other one looked at him with amazement in her eyes.
“Hello! Could you tell me where I am?” Rhan shouted and started to walk against them. No one of them took their eyes away from him, but they changed expression. They looked worried. Rhan kept walking. Suddenly he bumped into a wall. It was like a wall of glass that kept him away from safety. He felt really cold. Something dark sneaked upon him. He started hitting the glass, desperate to get to the mudokons on the other side. The female reached her hand out and started walking against him. The shaman grabbed her arm and pulled her back. Rhan got more afraid by the second, panicked he kept hitting the wall. The female twisted herself out of the shaman’s grip and started running at Rhan. Rhan felt warmer as she approached. He realized she would run right into the wall and tried to warn her. Either she couldn’t hear or didn’t care. Rhan backed away from the wall. The female ran right trough it and on to him. He welcomed her with an embrace. The shaman on the other side stared at them. He turned around and ran away. Rhan looked down on the female. She looked up. Rhan took the chance and lowered his face down against her…

“Rhan!” Jozil said and shook his shoulder. He looked up.
“What?” he mumbled.
“We’re just about to make some breakfast. Wanna get some?”
He smiled at Rhan.
“You interrupted my dreams, bastard…” Rhan mumbled and turned around.
Jozil ignored the last and turned him back again.
“We have coffee!”
Rhan got down and thought for a while.
“I’m not gonna be able to get back to sleep again anyway…” he said and got up to get breakfast.

There... *walks away*

[Silversnow]

See this? *points at my face and looks bored* This is a happy face. Whee.

CHAPTER 7
The party of special trained soldiers cut their way through bushes, trees and wines. They breathed quickly, killed biting and bloodsucking bugs, listened to the sounds of the wilderness and was really exhausted already. The wilderness reminded them more of a jungle than a normal forest. They couldn’t believe someone would be stupid enough to put a science base right here. The commander held up his hand and ordered halt. He looked around.
“Fine place to rest. We’ll rest here for an hour!”
Jekketh sat down and angrily scratched a place where a bug had bitten him. He looked around. Others where chatting, drinking water, smoking or just relaxing. But everyone was sitting or lying down. The commander was smoking a long pipe, staring thoughtfully out in space. Jekketh walked over to him.
“What is your name anyway?” he asked. The commander looked up.
“None of your business…” he replied and knocked the tobacco out of the pipe.
“But really, tell me. Why would I be controlled by a slig I don’t know?”
“Because it’s your orders.”
“Should I guess my way to your name?”
He didn’t reply. Jekketh thought he never were going to reply and looked on Ace. Ace was discussing something with Zero. He suddenly jumped a little, smacked his hand against his neck and muttered something.
“Yeah.” The commander mumbled. “Guess.”
Jekketh sat silent for a while, thinking.
“Noro?”
“No.”
“Ykkel?”
“No.”
“Is it…”
“Look kid. I don’t know what your problem is, just go torment someone else! My name is Elix, happy?!” the commander growled, got up and walked away, still muttering. Jekketh stared after him.
“Man…” he said and shook his head.

/Day 8
Month 4
So. I survived two days. I have just three things to say. I HATE bugs, I HATE the forest and I HATE the new commander. Why am I here anyway?! I should have become a guard instead, not a soldier! Stupid, stupid, stupid!!! Oh well, when I’m aged, I’m gonna be the only one that’s able to lift the wheelchair over my head… Hehehe… What am I doing? I’m joking with myself in a journal! That belongs to me! Oh my Odd… I’m mad already! Just shoot me!\

[Silversnow]

CHAPTER 8
The high abandoned base appeared in their sight after a few days of marsh. It wasn’t a very welcome sight. The party seemed a bit angrier at the appearance of the base. Elix, on the other hand, seemed a bit relieved. Like if this was something he’s been longing for.
“Ok, buddies! Set up camp, tomorrow we’ll go into the place and whack some butts… If there are some…”
They all started setting up the tents (all except Jekketh, who still was mad at the guys who’d laughed at him the last time.), but stopped when something extremely weird appeared. Up on the very roof of the base, flickered a light. Like of a giant fire.
“What the hell?!” some people said when they stopped the work and looked up. Rhan and Jekketh looked at each other. They knew. It meant big trouble. Something came crushing through the bushes, screaming:
“YES YES YES! FREEDOM! FREEDOM!”
The screamer suddenly halted and looked around, realizing he was surrounded by various races, all carrying very big or very many guns.
“Oh, **** it…” he mumbled. They saw it was a vykker holding a large bag that was open in various places. Inside it they caught a glimpse of metal. Elum walked forward to him. The vykker stared at him.
“Wha’? Have I done somethin?”
“Oh, not at all.” Said Elum, smiling. “We’re just gonna ask a few, no, a lot of questions, and then keep you as a hostage. We like pain, you see…”
The vykker stood as paralyzed for a while and then his face broke into a grin.
“Oh, yeah? Well, it can’t be worse than what I just left. My real name is an embarrassment, but you guys can all call me Needle. I’m a…” he paused. “…Er… A vykker… scientist.”
“Oh, yeah?” Elix said and lowered his gun. Everyone else did as well, and started to wonder where Needle actually came from.
“Where did you come from?” Elix said and started the questioning. Needle carefully laid down the bag on the ground. He looked up and pointed at the building.
“From there! I’ve been hiding in there for a freaking week! Do you know how hard it is to be this much overweight, have three stupid legs, have bad eyes, run half the time, not being able to sleep, jump over massive holes, being this close to death at least twice a minute and on the same time protect my babies?!! No, I suspected that you didn’t…”
Needle crossed his arms and looked pissed. Elix didn’t seem to care…
“What’s in there? Nothing? A animal? Murderer? Killing viruses?”
Needle glanced at him.
“All I know is that it is a she. She usually sits and has fun with the speakers, so I suspect it’s a murderer and not a animal.”
“Has fun?”
“You know, screaming, hissing, growling, hurling curses or just plain breathing. I think she’s got a little cuckoo in her brainy…” he said and pointed his finger at his head. Elix was silent for a while, thinking.
“Do you know how to navigate in there?”
“Pfft, no problemos!” Needle said, nodding. “Mesa been working there for 8 years! Imagine! I know quite much…”
“Would you have anything against going in again.”
“Oh no, not at all. I think it’s a pleasure to face death. Oh yeah. I have an idea. Why don’t we go pick some flowers and give them to other people for them to put on our unmarked graves? OF COURSE I have something against going in again!”
“Then you’ll draw us a map.”
“Fine. If you help me back to normal people, I’ll help ya.”
People went back to their small chores.

[Silversnow]

I'm actually getting a bit tempted with posting more than one story at a time... Alright, this chap is LOOONG, mainly since I was bored...

CHAPTER 9
“Alright, ladies and gentlemen. I’m only gonna say this ONE time so you jarheads better listen up!” Elix shouted. The people in the row pointed their attention to him.
“We’re mainly gonna get in there and take the disc with ‘Beautiful’ on it out.”
Apparently he noticed the confused faces on the troops and added:
“’Beautiful’ is the nickname of the info on it. Anyway, Needle has informed me that the one in there that made the scientists run away is not an ordinary thing. So keep your eyes open and if you see it try not to kill it. Only do so if you’re in mortal peril. We’re just about to take it back to the base, where it will be executed.”
Some in the row snickered. Elix paused for a while and looked on the abandoned base before them.
“And if anyone gets trouble, like being seriously hurt, return here immediately and Needle will take care of you. I’ll be with you in there, so you guys better protect me well!”
He smiled a bit. No one else did. The smile faded.
“So let’s go!”
They headed for the base.

Warren stormed into Hlir’s office. Hlir looked up from the papers on the desk, got a surprised look on his face and coughed.
“What in the name of Oddworld do you think you’re doing?! Storm into my office like this?!” he yelled afterwards. Warren stopped right before Hlir’s desk. He quickly smashed his hand against the wood.
“What the hell you think you’re doing, ya ****ing idiot?!! Sending my guys into that place?! Some important people will find out, and when they will they’ll be coming for you!”
Hlir smiled in a evil way. He leaned over the desk.
“But, Warren my little puppet. You’re dead! Since when did people start listening to dead people?”
“Oh, they will now!”
“Wow… Really?” Hlir said in a teasing voice and sat back in the chair. “Look, Warren. It’s nothing you can do. I’ve got the mightiest glukkons and overall leaders in this part of Mudos that’ll help me out when I need it. And you’re through. You might just start a new life with a new identity, but then the highest position you’ll have is a floorwaxer in the ‘mysterious disappearance’ room. Face it, Warren, and give up.”
Warren stood quiet for a while.
“So, my little wrecked puppet, wouldn’t you get out of here now?” Hlir said. Warren pulled out a gun of his suit. Hlir got a even more surprised look on his face than before and his helper slig screamed high and ran away. Warren pointed the gun at Hlir’s head.
“Last warning. Cancel the investigation order or the payment wont be of so much value.”
“Why?” Hlir asked and gulped.
Warren leaned over the desk.
“I know your plans.” He said threatening. “I know them all. Rhan and Jekketh are two of my best friends. And that entire group are my best friends. I wont let you have them so easily. Cancel the order NOW!” he said and pressed the gun at his head.
“Hand me that little phone.” Hlir said with a shaking voice. Warren took the small back box, pressed the orange button and held it out right before Hlir’s face.
“Is anyone there?” Hlir said with as calm voice as he could. It came some sparking sounds.
“I hear ya, boss.” A voice replied.
“Cancel the mission with the name ‘Beautiful abandoned slog’.”
“Gotcha, boss.”
More sparking sounds came. Warren took the box back, pressed the button again, put it away but he didn’t take the gun away.
“What are doing, Warren?! I’VE DONE EVERYTHING YOU TOLD ME!” Hlir screamed, panicked.
“Just something for safety…” Warren said and was just about to shoot. Someone opened the door. Warren’s movements froze for a second and then he pulled the trigger. He realized that he couldn’t move it.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” A cold voice said from the doorway. The gun was pulled out of Warren hands. I fell to the floor and through it. Warren stared at the place where the gun should have been. Something took a tight grip around his neck. His hands flew up but couldn’t find anything else that his throat. A robed mudokon appeared in his sight, he seemed to hold something between his fingers and his thumb. Warren knew it was him. The robed mudokon and Hlir watched Warren die before him. The mudokon let go.
“Aah, thanks so much.” Hlir said, relieved. “It was your voice that replied me there, wasn’t it?”
The mudokon looked at him and a exact copy of the voice of the box was heard.
“I hear ya, boss.”
They laughed, a raw and cold laugh. The mudokon poked Warren’s body with his foot, having a sandal on it.
“I’ve kept my part of the deal. The soldiers is off to the base.” Hlir said.
“Ah, yes.” The mudokon said and threw some moolah on Hlir’s desk. “As we agreed about. 5000 moolah.”
Hlir stared at the moolah.
“Thank you, dear friend.”
“Although…” the mudokon said and looked on Hlir. “I’m not one that keeps promises quite good...”
10 minutes later he was on his way out of the office. Still possessing the moolah. Hlir’s body was behind the desk. No one found him until the robed mudokon was far away from there.

[Silversnow]

The only reason I write this is mainly to give you that read this some info, but also to keep it at the surface (annoying?). As I think you know, we've had some trouble with worms and viruses and had to remove our comp, so my stories are on a disc somewhere in this pile. It's gonna take a while to dig it up, and I have no new chapter yet, so...

And no, I haven't downloaded MSN messenger yet since stupid internet wont let me on the site...

[Silversnow]

Yes! Computer and story up and running! But as I think you can figure out, I simply isn't happy with this...

CHAPTER 10
Needle whistled as he put up the equipment in the tent he’d been provided with. He started up the instruments and laid out scalpels, needles of different sizes, some string for stitching up wounds, and some other special surgery tools. He took up some mechanical things out of his bag and laid them on the table as well. He studied them with a smile.
“My little babies…” he purred and patted one of them. He heard steps from the bushes and looked at that direction. A heavily armed slig appeared. Needle was just to ask where it hurt when he saw that it wasn’t one of the team.
“Where are they?!” the slig asked. Needle nervously pointed at the abandoned base and the slig hurried past him. Needle sighed in relief.
“I can’t believe I’m supposed to be afraid of my life out here as well…” he mumbled and went back to placing out tools.

The pack of soldiers stood in a large room filled with boxes and sacks and went through the instructions.
“This must be a storage room of some sort. What’s in these sacks anyway?” Rhan said, and poked one of the sacks. His finger hit something soft.
“Who knows, leave it…” Elix said before starting to shout out the orders.

Rhan, Ézial, Elix, Jekketh, Quarter and a BBS named Behemoth was in the same small team investigating the storage room and labs. They went through the storage room, searching every corner and small place they could find. Rhan and Jekketh got a bit separated from the others and got a bit nervous. Two small soldiers against a monster. Probably with quite a bad case of hunger and bad mood as well. They started to whisper to each other, all they could do to keep each other calm. Jekketh took a quick look at his heat sensor and the list of glowing buttons which showed lifesigns of partymembers. He felt the blood run away to his face as he understood what he saw.
“Rhan?”
“Hm?”
“How many is investigating the storage room right now?”
“With us counted, 6.”
Jekketh felt the room gently start spinning around him. He was close to fainting but Rhan shook some life into him.
“What is it, Jekketh? What’s wrong?”
Jekketh gave Rhan the heat sensor. Rhan understood directly. It was 7 dots on the screen. The seventh dot wasn’t so long away. They heard clicking sounds. Rhan took a quick look on the lifesign-detector. All dots were green. The clicking sounds grew stronger. Rhan quickly loaded the gun.
“Jekketh, give the others a warning, it’s closing in.”
The clicking sound ended. Rhan took a deep breath.
“Stay here.”
Before Jekketh got a chance to protest against his decide he walked away. He checked the heat sensor. The seventh dot was 6 meters away. Right behind the boxes. Rhan quickly jumped out of his hiding place and held up the gun. He gasped when he understood what he saw. Probably a result of the vykker’s projects, a rather large being. It looked like a slig, moving like a mudokon. It was grayish-blue to the color, had really large claws at its hands and had large red eyes. The eyes reflected the light, and glowed in a ghostly way though the storage was lit up. It had ripped a sack completely apart and was consuming the things inside it. Rhan stared. That meat was over 2 years old and probably very rotten. The creature looked at him. Its eyes seemed to grow when it fixed at him. It screamed a high, frightening scream and jumped up on the boxes, disappearing out of sight.
Rhan could barely breath.

[Silversnow]

I know, I've taken some inspiration from the alienmovies but who can resist them...No comments please...

CHAPTER 11
“Around 3 meters tall?” Elix asked, sounding rather doubting.
“Yeah! It was huge! And it was eating some meat out of that sack!” Rhan yelled and pointed at the torn apart sack. Behemoth took it up and looked at it. He dropped it after a while, looking disgusted.
“What a horrible stench! Thing smells!” he said, walking away from it.
“Precisely! The beast must smell even more!”
“Mhm. Well, then we better find her and kill her, claiming that it were attacking us.” Behemoth said, grinned and patted his gun. “I’ve got plenty for it.”
“Sure.” Ézial and Quarter said on the same time.
“Kill… Rather easy right? I mean, it’s just a giant killing machine with all kinds of stuff that…”Quarter began but was interrupted by a beeping sound.
“Stupid technology…” he mumbled and took up the lifesign-detector. He stared at it for a while.
“****!” he shouted and stamped in the floor. Ézial took the detector away from him and looked at it. On the screen, over the blue text saying Elum was a red text saying DEAD. They looked at it for around two seconds before DEAD appeared over Ace’s text as well. The small lamps beside their names were now glowing red instead of green.
“No…” Rhan mumbled. They stopped their little conversation and ran away towards the place they thought the others would be. Two more beeps was heard before they reached the place they were. It was a rather awful sight they saw. Bodyparts were quite much all over the place. All they could see on them was if they were mudokon or slig.
“I don’t feel so good…” Jekketh started.
“Quarter. Is there any things on the heat sensor?”
“No.”
“Nothing except us.”
“No, nothing.”
Behemoth made a strange sound.
“Where are their heads?”
There was a few minutes silence.
“That isn’t a animal. This isn’t animal behavior. Something’s wrong.”
“Of course something is wro…” Rhan began when something bumped down beside them on the boxes. The blood that after a while ran down the side of the boxes was enough for them to know what it was.
“Let’s just get out of here!” Jekketh screamed. Silently but quick they made their way to the elevator. After a few floors it stopped and opened the doors against the labs.

[Chris the Slig]

Your right. That is a bad beginning.

[Silversnow]

Aw, gee, thanks Chris the slig. I'm touched. Deeply. This chapter is written when I was on a funny mood so it sucks even more than the beginning. Have fun and enjoy.

CHAPTER 12
The labs were empty. It was a smell of various chemicals in the hall and some other strange smells. The remaining group were standing there, right outside the elevator, and gathering their thoughts.
“Should we… take a silent moment for our friends?” Jozil said after a while. No one replied. But no one actually understood that Jozil just had interrupted the silent moment.
“Well…” Elix started. “Somewhere around here, there must be some sort of information…”
“Haven’t you figured it out yet?! No one of you?!” Quarter suddenly snapped, which was unusual for his silent and patient nature.
“Huh?”
“No, I thought so. I thought that it would be best to shut up and let you figure it out by your own, but apparently I was as stupid as you! If someone at the base knew that the creature was this dangerous, and someone probably did, they would have sent more people! Damn it, we’re not even as many as a minor school class!”
“Quarter…”
“Something has happened! We are not wanted back at the base! You got it?! NOT WANTED…”
Ézial sighed.
“Quarter… What choice do we have by now then?”
He didn’t reply for a while.
“Then let’s just do the best of the situation and keep fighting.”
“Precisely… Let’s split up.” Elix said and loaded the gun with a challenging look on his face.

Ézial and Jozil searched through a place with important documents in big piles, crashed computers on every desk, some pictures and a prison like chamber in a corner. They were tense and a bit jumpy when they searched through the room. The beeps from the heat sensor calmed them a bit, when it secured them.
“I wonder if there is any info about that in here.”
“Hmm… Maybe, it’s possible…”
Ézial peeked into the chamber.
“It looks like something’s been living in here.” She said and opened the door. “It smells kinda strange. Why is so damn dark everywhere? It’s so… UGH!” she screamed when something big pulled her in.
“Ézial!”
The door slammed and Jozil tried to open it.
“Ézial! Are you alright?!” Jozil shouted and looked into the chamber. It took a while before he saw her face. She was extremely pale.
“Ézial?”
He saw that she cried.
“It’s… it’s right behind me, Jozil…” she said.
“Well, then shoot it, damn it!”
“Please. Jozil… open the door…”
“I’ve tried! Ézial! Try! Kill it!”
She stood there for a while, the tears was the only thing on her that moved. She suddenly turned around and emptied the guns shots into the chamber. After a while she ran to the door and started to hit and kick it.
“NO! JOZIL! OPEN THE DOOR!!”
“I’m trying!”
She took a deep breath and seemed to calm down.
“Damn it…” she said and smiled a joyless smile. “Well, I’m gonna die. Wont ya give me a smile?”
“Ézial, no, we’re simply gonna to…”
“I just want you to know that, the time two years ago, when you were drunk and tried to kiss me, and I hit you? I’m sorry and I have always loved you…”
“Ézial…”
“Remember that…” she said, let her fingers run down the glass in the door and backed into the darkness. Jozil stood there for a while, keeping his fingers on the glass, forming his lips to her name all the time. Then his head started to work again.
“Ézial? Éz… no… NO!”
He started to cry and fell down to his knees.