Chapter Text
The sliding door was broken and sparking, but that wasn’t anything out of the ordinary now. The bloody trail led to a dead scientist. Or, another one, that is. A flare lay next to his lifeless hand.
Before anyone could stop him, Gordon grabbed the flare and struck it against the wall, the cap flying off, letting the red flare spark to life.
“Woah!” Barney side-eyed the ignited flare with uncertainty. “Easy there killer.”
With the flare in his hand, Gordon couldn’t sign to Barney, so he resigned to nodding quickly and brandishing the flare in a threatening manner. No way he was going to die here, unarmed, so fire was the next best thing.
Barney backed up a little, laughing nervously. “C’mon Doc, you’ll hurt yourself with that!”
Gordon shook his head “no” violently. He could handle himself. After all, it was just a road flare.
Virtue was also eyeing the flare nervously, hiding behind Barney’s back, the pupiless eyes having another ring around its irises. Interestingly, Barney’s eyes shared that trait.
“Mr. Gordon needs to defend himself! He has the right to hold the gun!” Regi moved in front of Gordon defensively.
Gordon almost busted a gut laughing at the weird way Regi spoke the line. Barney also chuckled, but more nervously.
“That’s not a gun, Regi.” Barney tried to explain.
Regi looked at the flare, then looked at Barney, then back at the flare. Gordon held in another bout of laughter.
“Its close enough!” Regi squawked in defiance, sticking its little golden snout up in the air, crossing its fuzzy tail across its chest like it was trying to cross non-existent arms.
Virtue made a noise similar to a person clearing their throat, despite having no mouth, and, by extension, no throat, “While this has been… charming, we should be going.” it tried to urge them onwards, using its bone hands to gesture towards the hallway that stretched out before the… team.
Barney nodded, and Gordon followed him.
The hallway beyond was lit only by the sparking light of the flare and a singular red emergency light. To the party’s right was a lab, multiple glass panes broken out from where someone had tried to escape.
Following the trail of blood, Gordon found another flare, sticking it into one of the few pockets of the HEV suit.
Barney stopped him abruptly before he could take another step by sticking out his arm. Over the sparks of the flare, the sounds of shuffling feet and a low, constant hiss were heard. Gordon pushed Barney’s arm down with his free hand, glaring up at him.
Barney didn’t look down, but instead squinted forward, muttering quietly, “Do you smell that, Doc?”
Gordon sniffed the air. His face scrunched in disgust at the horrible mixture of ash, death, gunpowder, and… rotten egg smells in the air.
“It’s a gas leak.” Barney looked down at Gordon with a look of… surprising gravity. It made Gordon’s stomach sink. Without another word, they both knew that they had to move.
The sound of footsteps had stopped, and Regi came back around the corner, covered in blood, both alien and green and humanly red.
“I took care of the demons!”
G- Barney smacked Gordon’s hand before he could finish signing.
“Don’t sign while you’re holding the flare,” Barney’s face softened to a pleading look “please.”
Gordon huffed, but lowered his hands, flare still clutched in his left hand.
Regi returned to Gordon’s side, but the eel that was Virtue was starkly missing. Barney clearly did not care.
Moving onward, the three came to a stop when they rounded the corner to see… a lot of gas. The hallway was hazy with the sheer concentration of flammable gasses.
“There is no way you’re going through there with that flare.”
Gordon nodded in agreement, thinking of what he could do. It was tempting, to possibly light all that gas on fire, but that would be catastrophic.
…
Everything was going to shit anyways…
He went to go and toss his flare, winding his arm back, but Barney snatched it out of his hand, a horrified expression plastered on his face.
“No fuckin’ way you’re doing that.” Barney hissed as he broke the lit part of the flare off on the wall, then kicked it away.
While it was probably for the best, sure, but Gordon was still a little disappointed. Regi hung its head as well.
“Both of you are insane,” Barney grumbled as he walked past the gas leak, Gordon followed close behind, with Regi at his side.
More zombies lay beyond, as well as an familiar face. Virtue’s mouthless face and wide, blue, ringed eyes stared them down, skeleton arms crossed and its floating body held vertically. Like an impatient mother, waiting for her children in a Walmart. It rejoined them as zombies screeched and shuffled forward.
“So-”
Gunshots rang out and a flare was struck and thrown. Distorted screams of damned souls filled the air, along with the smell of burning, acidic blood.
“What are we doing? What’s the plan?” Virtue twisted towards Barney expectantly, like he was supposed to have a plan. “Perhaps we should take a query at the surface.”
Barney wasn’t paying attention, however, as he pushed forward into the entrance to sector C. Gordon followed after him, but they both soon stopped in shock.
It was a mess.
Crimson red was splattered on the walls, forming a morbid, almost beautiful, liquid mosaic. TVs and computer monitors were ripped free from their cables, which cried out for their screen counterparts with sizzling sounds and bright white sparks. Some of the bullet holes in the walls and screens still had smoke trailing from them from their impact.
Gordon whistled.
“Yeah, you can whistle that again.”
Gordon whistled the same tune again.
Barney looked back at Gordon and narrowed his eyes, a smile just barely visible on his face. “Oh alright, smartass.”
“You two should purchase a room when we get out.” Virtue interjected quickly, resting one of its arms on Barney’s shoulder, eyes half lidded in a smug manner. Barney shrugged the arm off.
Gordon shot a glare at Virtue.
Virtue stared him down.
“So. How are we gonna get out of here? The door is stuck.” The sudden high-pitched voice startled the two humans.
Gordon hadn’t even realized Regi had gone and went to check the door.
…
How did it know to check the door in the first place? Was this not its first time in here? Gordon shook his head. Questions for when there weren’t various horrors around.
“Oh dang, really? That was… that was my whole plan…” Barney holstered his gun and scratched his chin. It was incredibly cartoonish when Barney put his mind to work. There was a reason he was a guard.
The vents? Gordon offered, then pointed at the vent that was on the wall at floor level. The extra gesture sued to make his point clearer.
It took a second for Barney to follow where Gordon’s finger was leading, but, when he got it, he snapped his fingers and smiled wide.
“Doc, you’re a genius!”
That’s what I’m being paid for.
“I don- are you paid to be smart? Are you being paid? I thought you just pushed shit around!”
Gordon snorted. Very funny.
Regi looked between the two, its expression made it clear it didn’t understand anything going on right now, which lent to Gordon’s “I accidentally teleported something here” theory.Virtue, however, looked knowing Gordon frowned.
(If this thing keeps staring at me, I’m swear I’m going to-)
“Do not finish that sentence.” Regi snapped quickly.
Gordon flinched at the sudden change in tone from Regi, and also at the fact that it had just read his mind, again.
Barney also flinched, albeit a bit slower.
Instead of dwelling on it, Gordon shook his head and kicked the vent in, then crouched down to squeeze through the vent.
He only took a second to look at the state of the server room beyond. He turned around to face Barney and Virtue again.
I don’t think you guys are going to like this.