Hello and welcome to what is (I think) the first-ever TU fan-fiction.
Before I get to today’s story, let me clear something up.
It might suck.
It might suck real bad.
For me, grasping and rating my own literature is much harder than rating my own videogames. While I think of my first creation rather highly, it. might. suck.
The first tale is based on Virus, and if it proves to be successful (or at least not cringeworthy terrible), I’ll write more. I already have ideas for a longer series based on Virus, as well as Little crusaders. Tackling the lobby would be more difficult, but doable as well.
With that out of the way, thanks for stopping by and try to enjoy my first short TU story. Also, tell me what you think and how I could improve.
Or if the thing just sucks horribly.
If that’s be the case, I’ll just look into doing something else.
Oh, also, cursewords!
##Virus: The three (mostly) men
Frederick, wearing the official white lab coat, was standing in front of a large monitor and its associated control console. He was quietly reading through the incoming streams of data, occasionally taking a note or two, while the subject of his research- a weirdly thin, naked bald green caricature of a man- sat motionlessly behind a thick one-way security glass, its body burning with a sick green flame. The creature came from the latest group captured alive by the base’s military force. Frederick spared it a quick look- it looked quite sad, its infected fire slowly burning away the last remaining energy reserves of its body. Other than it, Frederick, a small metal table, many monitors and the control console, the room was empty. Just a scientist and his dying, doomed toy. Frederick nodded and once again wrote something down, then turned around to watch another display.
The doors of the room suddenly opened and in came Moore- a somewhat tall, tough-looking sergeant with a bald head and a scar across his face. He was wearing the standard hermetically sealed combat suit, designed to keep soldiers safe from the INF3 virus while they were cleansing the numerous outbreaks that’ve been sprouting up recently. However, while the suits worked reasonably well, they weren’t perfect and required large amounts of energy to function. That explained the sergeant’s helmet hanging from his belt, indicating the suit’s protective functions were turned off.
Frederick nodded. He knew Moore, who, in his experience, wasn’t really that bad of a person. Just a man that tried carrying the world’s weight all by himself and failed horribly.
“What brings you here, sergeant?”, asked Frederick.
“Work, what else?”, Moore responded, seemingly not happy to be there.
Frederick just shrugged. “Perhaps you wanted to learn more about the virus. How it functions, looks, spreads.”, he added.
“Fuckers touch you and you get infected. It’s not exactly rocket science.”
“Well, to be exact, it’s the flame that carries the infection, you see-”
“Schwarz.”, Moore interrupted the scientist.
“Ah, of course. My apologies. I tend to get carried away.”
“Noticed.”
Frederick adjusted his glasses, then looked directly at Moore. “So, how /can/ I be of assistance?”
“You can get me a nice chair. ‘m here to make sure you get that report finished today.”
“Today? Are they out of their minds?”
“Hey, don’t blame the messenger.”
Frederick sighted.
“Su…sure. Anyway, I’m afraid I don’t have any chairs here. At the moment.”, he said.
While Frederick expected another snarky remark, Moore was already occupied with another activity- he was standing in front of the glass, watching the infected.
“What an ugly little shit.”, he said and knocked on the glass.
Frederick tried to ignore him, taking the time to think about getting the requested chair.
As the creature lifted its head and slowly rose on its feet, Moore chuckled.
“If I was in charge, I’d kill every single one of them. No exceptions.”, he remarked.
“What would we then conduct research on?”, Frederick asked.
“Nothing. There’d be no research, and no virus.”
“I’m afraid that’s not how INF3 works, you see-”
“Schwarz.”
“Yes, yes. I’ll go get your chair.”, Frederick said and left the room.
As the doors closed, Moore once again looked at the green creature. The sight filled him with disgust. Its brothers were out there, infecting good men and women and further spreading the deadly disease. And he, a soldier capable of killing hundreds of these things, was stuck there, in the most boring research facility imaginable, overlooking a single bloody scientist doing his boring bloody work.
As he was lamenting his crappy assignment, the creature suddenly and unexpectedly turned its head towards him. It proceeded to stare him down with its dead, lifeless, white eyes, filling him with a strange and terrifying sensation. He did kill hundreds of these things before, yet not a single one ever looked at him that way. He was sure this one wouldn’t be any different, sure, it’d go down just as quick as its siblings, yet… seeing it face-to-face, looking at that empty husk of a man… staring… dead… gone…
Just as Moore was about to break the eye contact, Frederick returned to the room with a somewhat cheap-looking plastic chair. The sergeant finally looked away from the creature and turned towards the scientist.
“How do they see?”, asked Moore.
“Pardon?”
“How do they see?- I mean, the infected.”
“Ah. An excellent question, you see-”
“Schwarz. Get to the point.”
“They don’t.”
Moore was shocked.
“What?”
“They don’t. They can sense those nearby with a some sort of a… combined sense.”
“So, it knows we’re here?”
“Yes. It knew the entire time.”
Moore began feeling even more uneasy. The creature was… taunting him. Despite not being able to see… it STARED at him. He stood there in dead silence, cold sweat running down his neck.
Frederick spoke.
“Sergeant, are you feeling well? You seem… pale, for a lack of a better word.”
“Uh, do I? Nah, I’m fine. Give me the chair, not gonna stand here all day.”
Frederick nodded, seemingly relieved. He then passed the chair to Moore and returned to his work. The creature, probably bored, sat back down.
Some time passed. Sitting Moore was fighting off drowsiness, while Frederick kept watching the monitors and taking notes. The infected once again sat motionlessly. The sounds of humming monitors, rustling papers and Frederick’s pen filled were the only sounds breaking the silence.
“Schwarz… it’s dead.”, Moore exclaimed suddenly.
Frederick turned his head in surprise.
“Pardon?”
“It’s dead. The green asshole.”
Frederick looked behind the sergeant. The infected was really lying there on the floor, its flame extinct. He couldn’t believe what he saw.
“But… it was supposed to live… for another three days!”, he proclaimed.
“Yeah? Tell that to the corpse.”
Frederick sighted. That individual was a prime subject, almost unharmed and infected with a very fine strain of INF3. It displayed above-average levels of intelligence as well, making it a very promising subject, to say at the least. Could have pushed the INF3 research to a whole new level.
Moore saw the scientist’s sudden mood swing and tried to cheer him up.
“Hey, it’d die soon anyway. Want me to clean it up?”
“Yes, please. Go ahead.”, muttered Frederick defeated, Moore’s newly found optimism not helping at all. “I’ll fill in the papers.”, he added.
“That’s what I want to hear! I do the hard stuff, and you do the /hard/ stuff.”
While Moore unlocked the door of the subject keeping area and went in, Frederick started looking for the right form. Among the quanta of reports, forms and sheets, one paper caught his attention. A field report with some new juicy information on the behaviour of INF3 carriers. He quickly went over it, then spoke to Moore.
“This is interesting. Did you know they could utilize…”
Moore was already standing by the corpse, ready to remove it for further studies.
“…bait tactics…?..”
DEAR GOD
Suddenly, the infected came back to live and let out a terrible, ear-raping screech.
OH NO JESUS
It latched onto Moore’s leg, its body once again embedded in sick greenish flames.
CALM DOWN CALM DOWN CALM down… calm… down….
Frederick fought his instincts in an attempt to stay calm. He was sure Moore would be able to contain the creature. He was wearing his virus-proof combat suit, after all.
Moore, shocked and mortified, started searching his belt for his taser. A somewhat mundane task made insanely difficult by the soldier’s frantically shaking hands.
But as terror ran across sergeant’s face, even Frederick started having doubts.
Wait…
Face?
His helmet should be covering…
FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK
“He… helmet!”, Frederick yelled.
Moore realized what he meant. Suddenly empowered, as adrenalin flooded his body in much greater amounts, he shoved the flaming creature back with all his might and reached for the suit’s headpiece.
YES YES YES
The infected, sent flying, hit the back wall of the containment area with an audible “crack”.
YES DEAR GOD YES YES
As both men thought the struggle was almost over, the infected opened its mouth and let out the most terrifying sound Frederick ever heard. It sounded like souls spilling from the kapala, like worlds shattering from god’s rage.
In a fraction of a second, the sick creature thrusted itself forward, covering the distance between it and its target in no time at all. As it impacted the sergeant, its left hand reached for his face and scratched the delicate flesh.
The green flames crossed its hand and found new fuel in the form of Moore’s face. As his entire head went up in the sick inferno, he held it tight and shouted from pain and agony.
Frederick was mortified. The creature just watched, knowing Frederick had no way of defending himself and thus couldn’t harm it.
The shouting Moore fell to the ground, still clutching his face with his fists and shaking frantically. As the fire kept spreading, however, both his sounds and his motions stopped.
Frederick’s heart skipped a beat.
The sergeant rose back to his feet, but he was… different. Weirdly thin, a bald green caricature of a man wearing the standard hermetically sealed combat suit, only his exposed face burning with a sick green flame.
Frederick, horrified, reached for a big red lever on the wall.
The creature’s eyes widened- it understood.
Frederick grasped the lever.
It charged forward.
He pulled the lever.
Loud sirens filled the room, as the metal security door shut close just centimeters away from the monster’s face. It had no time for shock, however, as actual fire, coming from the built-in emergency flamethrowers, covered it and its infected ally.
Soon, only the molten combat suit remained of the two infected. Frederick fell on the floor and stared into the ceiling, unable to move or think.
