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Post by Lunapocalypse on May 1, 2011 4:48:15 GMT -5
The path leading down to the main entrance of the base of the statue had a sort of red awning over the length of it; ripped, battered and in tatters, it still stood to the test of time and flapped about in the wind. What stood apart from the awning were the quarantine walls lining either side of the path. 'This way to processing' a sign read. The way Alex figured it, people came in through the western dock and those who passed examination left via the eastern dock. It were fairly obvious it hadn't worked.
So much luggage lay about the place. Some opened with clothing being tipped out, probably ransacked for any valuables inside. Most of everything was pushed to the side leaving a clear path for them, but it was all clumped; to their surprise a mound of luggage moved, ruffling violently while a deep growl emitted from it.
A dog blasted out of the pile of clothing, decayed an extreme amount, and galloped down the path in through the entrance to the statue. Alex had to pause for a moment to figure out what had just happened, "Why did it have to go into where we're going?" her eyes started paying more attention to clumped up mounds of luggage in case anything else decided to jump out, "If any one is still up for taking the long way around..."
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Post by NotAvailable on May 1, 2011 16:30:04 GMT -5
When the dog bounded into the base of the statue, Anna had furrowed her brows and shined her light inside the dark entrance. There wasn't much to see since the stretch of darkness seemed to stretch farther than the beam of lights from her and Bryan. So apparently, it was a pretty long hall before getting anywhere. Alex seemed a bit wary about entering the base now and to be honest, so did Anna.
Bryan getsured for them to follow. "C'mon, we'll be fine, there's three of us," he began before looking back at some of the small stores across from where they stood. One of them was a bait shop which he knew had sold small flashlight and batteries for the fishermen that fished at night and early morning.
"I'd feel safer if Alex here had a light. C'mon, let's get to the shop first, eh?" he asked, looking back and fourth between both women. Anna nodded and smiled.
"Yeah, good idea, Alex, let's get you a light," she responded, walking forward and leaving the statue entrance. It was a good idea considering it seemed dark in there as well and because Anna noticed the discomfort Al had when the lights were off in the museum. Forcing her into another secluded, dark, narrow hole without light was just asking for a panic attack. She didn't want that to happen again.
As for the dead dog running off into the base of the statue, Anna figured there was probably something or someone alive inside. Which lead her to question just how many living people could possibly be alive on this island?
Walking across the lot toward a rickety old store, Anna felt almost at home. The store was separated from the others, aged, rickety wood painted blue and peeling. There was some old fishi nets and moss hanging off the sides of said store. "Harry's Live Bait" hung on near the worn doorway.
Bryan looked through the widnows and saw it pretty much in tact. There were aquariums with live shirmp inside, lining the walls. A few small shelves with other sorts of dried bait and different sized and shaped hooks gracing them. A small register near the doorway with giant buckets stacked beside and infront of the counter.
Looking towards the far right of the store, he saw the flashlights dangling up above some fishing rods. The man smirked and glanced back at the two women. "Yep, it's safe and there's definitely flashlights here," he informed them.
Anna cracked her knuckled a bit and drew her colt back out of her holster, just incase. "Great, now let's get in and out."
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Post by Lunapocalypse on May 1, 2011 22:47:50 GMT -5
The reflection of the little PI's face squashed and stretched as she looked in on the shrimp; strange crustacean creature floating back and forth in their tank, "I wonder if zombies like seafood," she mumbled curiously, "I can't imagine an undead prawn. The thing would be eaten whole. It'd need to be nibbled, or something, and I don't think zombies are nibblers," her eyes suddenly focused on something moving behind the tank, "Bwah!" Alex stumbled back into a hanger of fishing rods as the giant bug scuttled out of sight.
Snatching the little black cylinder from Bryan's hand and clicking it on, "Okay, flashlight got," she reported as Alex stepped back outside. Looking on the bright side; at least it weren't a velociraptor waiting for her behind the tank or anything.
White incandescence passed over all of the bits and pieces laying about the circular area. It reached pretty far in terms of illumination, and it lit something up behind a row of trees near the entrance to the statue; opposite side of the containment walls blocking the path in. It shined glossy red and as more of it could be seen as Alex stepped over closer across the paved circular area it became more and more clear at what it was.
A pressure lift, the kind in a game she remembered playing once a couple of years ago. Left 2 Die, or something. She'd never really seen one in real life, but it's operation were fairly obvious. Using it would take them to the second observatory level, bypassing most if not all of the cluttered lower area.
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Post by NotAvailable on May 1, 2011 23:07:22 GMT -5
Anna walked out of the shop, behind Alex and looked over at the lift that she'd spotted. By the look on her face, she had already assumed that the gears were turning in her head. Looking back at Bryan, whom was goofing around with the fishing poles, she'd waved at him.
"C'mon Bryan. Vamanos!" she called out in a terrible, spanish accent. Bryan frowned, letting go of the fishing rod and exited the store, closing the shop door behind him.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm comin'....are we ready to venture into the unknown?" he asked, clasping a hand on both women's shoulders.
"Waiting on Alex. Wanna make sure she'll be alright with going in there," Anna replied, with a genuine look of concern.
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Post by Lunapocalypse on May 1, 2011 23:37:36 GMT -5
"I'm ready! I think I've found us a safer way to get through this thing," she swung the light at them, "Y'know, the 'We can't go under it, we can't go over it' thing?" her brow raised, "Well we can go over it. At least for a little bit. We might be able to dodge Rin Tin Tin in there," she ushered with a wave of her light, "C'mon."
This time they walked on the grass outside of the awning/containment corridor, heading to the red blue collar lift, "Can't think why else this'd be here. It must reach that observation point just up there," Alex hopped on board, waiting for Anna and Bryan to do the same.
One thing which was a prominent fact were how much noise the lift had made in the game. Alex let her hand hover over the activation button for a moment to think about it, "Nahhh. That was only a gameplay mechanic," she hit the button with her palm and the lift slowly began to ascend. The only noise it made were a quiet hiss as the pistons filled with air.
It took them to almost the perfect height. They just had to climb up onto the concrete barrier and hop over, "Maybe if we're super lucky another one'll be waiting for us on the other side," she thought out loud while looking up at Lady Liberty, now closer than ever before.
A little bit of Alex wanted to climb up into her head and take a look around, she probably wasn't going to get this opportunity again in a very long time; but they were on a deadline, for a near dead man. There was no time to sight see, not while Keith was slowly bleeding out.
Toward the horizon flashes of lights licked dark clouds as cracks of lightning hit the ocean. Far too far away to hear or notice, but still a solid foreshadowing of the weather to come.
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Post by NotAvailable on May 1, 2011 23:50:34 GMT -5
As Alex climbed up a section of cement and climbed over a railing, Bryan helped give the younger woman a slight boost and then turned to Anna, putting his hand out to her. Looking down at the nice little fall, she'd gripped the bars tightly and felt her knees buckle slightly. She was never good with heights, even when she had to climb up things, it never really bothered her as much as it was bothering her now.
"You alright?" Bryan asked.
"Yeah, fine. Let's get this over with," she told him quick like. She'd walked over to the edge of the lift and allowed Bryan to help her onto his back, while she climbed up onto the railing in a hurry. She'd swung her leg over said railing and pulled herself atop of it and then over, looking back down at Bryan.
"Alright, come on up."
Soon after, Bryan was up there with the two, overlooking the vast ocean and the ever darkening storm clouds. "Alright, so what are we doing now?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck. Anna shrugged, holding onto herself a bit.
"I don't know. Alex?"
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Post by Lunapocalypse on May 2, 2011 0:18:39 GMT -5
"I don't know!" she throw her arms up in exasperation, "I just kinda figured it would be better if we dodged going through the creepy inside area and crazy labrador looking for undead dog food to munch on vigorously, nomnomnom," Alex had even gone as far as to pretend bite her own arm inciting the craziness of it all; she stopped, looking at Anna and Bryan, "What?" mumbling through a mouth full of arm, "I don't like dogs so much..."
Pulling the map back out and shining her torch on it, "We just gotta get down and to the other side. Some more of that mini-forest over here," Alex shined her torch over the open area, "Let's take a look around, see if we can't find a way down."
Several minutes had been spent as the three continued around the perimetre of the first level, maybe a little exposed shining their torches down the outer wall, yet searching none the less. Moving all the way around from the backside of the statue to her front, no other lifts had been setup or anything they could use to climb back down.
"Great," Alex shined her torch up at one of the higher levels, "We'll have to go inside then and find the back door," there were lamps leading up to the third level of the statue's base, massive archways lead into the structure. One spiraling stairway lead up to Lady Liberty's head while another square stairwell went down, "Hopefully Shilo's find a nice meal to completely ignore us with."
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Post by NotAvailable on May 2, 2011 0:46:46 GMT -5
Anna groaned and looked up at the two stories above them. There were no means of climbing upwards but there did seem to be some railing up above. She'd reached into her jacket pocket, pulling out the grapple gun that Alex had handed her previously that night. She could always grapple her way up there, drop it down to whoever stayed behind, which was probably either her or Alex, then repeat.
"Okay, Bryan, do you know how to use this?" she asked, quite excited about using the item to begin with.
Bryan grinned. "Course I do. That is completely coincidental that you have one of those though."
The redheaded woman smiled widely and patted Alex on the shoulder. "It's hers, not mine, just forgot for a second that she had let me use it earlier. Alright, here's the plan, you grab Alex, grappled up to the second level and drop the gun down to me. I'll catch it, don't worry," she said switching glances between Bryan and Alex.
"Then we repeat that to the third level, got it? That work for everyone?" she finished, placing her hands on her hips. The only part that worried her was catching the grapple gun, but she could always take her jacket off and stretch it out, creating some sort of aid.
"I'm good with that, you, kid?" Bryan asked of Alex.
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Post by Lunapocalypse on May 2, 2011 12:57:04 GMT -5
"Don't mind me," Alex said with a grin, "You two just make your way up with the hookshot, less stress on the motor that way. It's pretty resilient too, so don't worry so much if you screw up catching it. I'll take care of myself," she unhitched a spooled up slack of leather from beneath the tail of her coat, unraveling it to reveal the bullwhip. With a mass of anticipation, bringing her arm back and lashing forth, the whip snapped onto the hand rail and she started climbing manually. At the speed everything went, they all surprisingly moved together.
"Right," Alex said, winding her whip back together and taking a deep breath, "A- I think I can see the comms centre from here," she leaned against the rail and squinted spotting a faint light in the distance, "Can't spot anything else though... no telling what's going on over there."
Huge glass doors kept them from entering the statue; unlocked, thankfully. It lead into an area with a high ceiling and bare bones space, only a couple of stone benches placed here and there. Power seemed to be on too with some lights illuminating the inside area. To either side of the room were elevator doors, shiny in chrome; and in one lonely corner were a stairwell leading down. Something was a little... inconsistent about it.
"Gross... urgh. That's not-" Alex had take a couple of steps towards it when something clicked in her head to what it was, "That isn't-" she pointed at it while looking at Anna and Bryan, "It is, isn't it," disappointment in her voice.
A thick veil of spiderweb covered the entrance to the stairs leading down, so much so that it was difficult to see through it, "I... guess this means we're taking the elevators. Huh,"
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Post by NotAvailable on May 2, 2011 14:33:08 GMT -5
Anna had squinted her eyes a bit, wrinkling her nose in disgust as she looked over at the thick, giant, webbing. She'd seen this before and no doubt they had to since they were common threats now-a-days. What worried her were the giant, egg sacks that hung somewhere meshed into said webbing and the ones that hung high up above. Didn't look like they'd hatched yet.
"Elevators sound good, let's find those elevators," Bryan said, walking passed the girls. Anna shook her head and sighed. "The electricity is out. Which means breakers, won't we have to find breakers?" she asked, groaning and reeling her head back. This was a bigger problem than simply walking around the statue.
Pointing his light around a bit, Bryan smirked. "Ah, Anna, don't worry yourself too much. There's an emergency elevator that's hooked up to a back up generator all the time. Usually has enough energy to activate the elevator alone, so we just have to find the emergency elevator," he explained.
"Thank God."
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Post by Lunapocalypse on May 3, 2011 12:36:47 GMT -5
Looking around immediately detailed the emergency elevator wasn't located on this floor. Alex guessed it were due to the fact... "Wait... emergency elevator?" she had a face of malcontent confusion, "Don't they say in case of an emergency, don't use the elevators?" she asked the two.
Bryan shrugged, "Don't hate the player."
The PI shook her head, "Okay, well it seems it's not on this floor. So I guess we go up a bit before we can go down," thankfully, the stairs leading up to the Liberty Restaurant weren't covered in sickening silk, "Let's see what's on the menu..."
It had started blizzarding outside again, massive piles of snow had amassed against the glass doors looking out onto the harbor; the glass had frosted up a little.
"Place looks like it's had better days," rotten food still sat on the plates; chairs and tables were tipped over presumably from victims trying to escape, "Man. It's moments like these I wish I'd visited here before the outbreak happened," the pale girl took it upon herself to never wish the biohazard hadn't occurred; that would be wishing too hard. Her Pappy always told her 'The harder you wish, kiddo, the more you fill with regret.' She'd carried it on her shoulders, even til this day.
A sound of velcro tearing came from behind the bar, "Here we go," Bryan said, looking at the evacuation procedure map, "Elevator's through the VIP suite, near the restrooms."
Gold plated inscriptions made it clear which room was reserved for very important people, "Got it," Alex said, pushing her way through. There were a set of 5 stairs leading to a slightly elevated part of the restaurant, a strange musky sense filled the air, "God, this place is stale, I don't know whether I prefer rotten food over it."
It was very different from the domestic area, not design by purpose; it was clear everything had been made to look the same, but incidentally it had a touch up from someone... not of restaurant staff. A matted bed made of several dirty quilts laid over near the windows looking out. Odd bits and pieces lay around it, junk almost; several bullet casings clumped here and there but they didn't look related to anything. Some of the carpet had been cut at with a knife, chairs and tables re-purposed, "Was somebody living here?"
"I'm not too sure I want to stick around to find out," Bryan remarked, "The kind of survivor with a haven like this? Not the kind I want to meet."
Just as he had finished his sentence a clatter came back from the domestic area; nothing alarmingly loud, but enough to put the three amigos on edge, "I vote the same," Alex said in a half whisper. She had met enough crazy island dwellers for one night, they could dodge at least one random encounter for once.
"Elevators just down this hall," Byran said with his back turned, heading toward the restrooms.
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Post by NotAvailable on May 3, 2011 13:24:19 GMT -5
Anna, meanwhile, shuffled through the random cases of ammo, unfortunately there wasn't anything useful here, but she could still take some for trading, inwhich case, she pocketed a couple of cases into her hip pouches. These could be necessary for any sort of trader that crossed paths with her, incase she needed food or other ammo, water, cigarettes, anything of that like.
In the case with the supposed survivor, she couldn't blame him or her, they were just trying to get by, so long as they didn't show up and try to plant a bullet then she didn't care what they did. When Bryan mentioned that the elevator was down the hallway, she'd followed behind the group, unholstering her weapon in the process. The narrow hall had walls stained with what looked like blood splatter. Different sorts of patterns that was incredibly off-putting for the survivors since they couldn't locate a body or bodies that the blood could've come from.
"Well isn't this creative? I love the red finger paint goin' on here," Anna said, pointing at what looked like smudged bloody, hand prints on the opposite wall.
When they'd passed the set of bathrooms, there was a loud whirring noise coming from below. An elevator little ways ahead of them had a glowing light that blinked on and off and the hollow walls within the statue began to rumble.
"Someone's in the elevator," Bryan incquired, pointing his rifle at the doors.
"Really? What gave you that idea? The blinking elevator lights or the noise coming from it?" Anna asked with a sly smirk. As the elevator stopped, there was a short, silent moment and then growling.
Uneasy, Anna glanced back at the youngest of their group, to ensure that she was alright. As she did, the elevator doors pinged and opened revealing a decaying dog atop of a survivor, ripping into it's chest and stomach. It was a grisly scene, to say the least.
"Isn't that the same dog we saw earlier, Al?" Anna asked, suprised. Bryan didn't stick around to find out, instead, he shot three rounds at the damned thing, nailing it in it's side.
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Post by Lunapocalypse on May 4, 2011 7:03:58 GMT -5
Alex walked up to the dog to identify it, "Same one. American dream Golden Retriever," she grabbed a hold of its leg, happy to have gloved hands, and pulled it out of the elevator. The departed survivor bled out, and hard. His death had been fresh, "It must have jumped in on him," Alex shook her head, "Enter an elevator alive. Arrive dead..." she shot him in the temple before dragging him out too.
"All aboard," Bryan jested as they stepped into the elevator.
Just as Alex turned around and Bryan hit the ground floor key a massive figure draped in born tattered clothing, to the point where their face couldn't be seen, barreled down the hallway. The presumed man let out a roar as he thundered, a glisten of steel marked the rise of a revolver. Firing once.
The round pinged off of the doors just after they closed. Shouts of detest and aggravation could be heard while he banged against the door, fading away as the elevator went down.
Alex checked herself, patting her body down, then looked to Anna in shock, and then to Bryan in awe. None of them had been hit by the bullet, "What the hell was that!?" the PI shouted, "That was a person, right?"
The doors dinged open, "I'm not taking any chances with him," he thumbed the big red 'Stop' button so that the elevator couldn't be called from any other floor, "Unless he wants to break a leg jumping down from where we climbed up, there's no way for him to get to us without the emergency elevator."
"An island resident," Alex shivered, "I... it's some kind of madness. Is that what we'd become if we don't escape?"
"I don't plan on staying here. C'mon. Back exit's down here," he tapped the nose of his pistol against a map sign. They were in a broad maintenance corridor, they just had to get through some souvenir and accessories stores before being able to set foot outside again.
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Post by NotAvailable on May 4, 2011 13:11:49 GMT -5
Anna grimaced as she'd checked herself over for any bulletholes. The disgruntled man had obviously been off his rocker and all that forced Anna to wonder is just how long he'd been on the island? He was far beyond rationality and Bryan was right, it was best just to get the hell out of dodge. Even then, the idea of madness sent chills down her spine.
"Yeah, back exit, let's get the hell out of here already, I'm not about to sit here long enough to have what he's having," she said, half joking, half serious.
"Well then let's head through the souvenir sh--holy hell!" Bryan shouted.
Anna and Alex looked over to see the massive, thick, webbing had covered the entrance to the shop entirely. They couldn't even see into the windows, it was both dark, ominous and covered in spider webs. One thing for sure was the movement that could be heard from within.
"I f*cking hate spiders," Bryan grumbled. Anna squinted an eye and began to squirm uncomfortably.
"So do I."
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Post by Lunapocalypse on May 5, 2011 7:10:20 GMT -5
"Outta the way kids. Let Mama Alex sort this out," the pale girl pushed between Anna and Bryan, apparently the only one of the three who could deal with eight legged freaks, "It's the only way through..." a shadow had just passed by the covered glass windows, "Let's just deal with it."
As the human gradually pulled the door open, webbing tearing away, and she started cutting through silky gooey sheet, hairy legs scuttled away to their hiding places; beady eyes observed from their dark crevices.
What reserve power made it to the lights was quickly blotted out by the webbing covering it leaving only a dim, almost nighttime hospital sterile light. It didn't change the fact that nothing else in the room were identifiable, absolutely everything were draped in web. The souvenir store had a slight elevated area, a small subtle couple of stairs leading up to what was presumed were the book shop area. What was noticed the most though were the huge sacks hanging from the ceiling.
"Straight shot to the door to the outside," Alex whispered feeling a thousand eyes watching her, "Just get across, and-"
"Mphhhmrrrphh!"
A muffled scream cut the silence in the room, "Where'd that come from," Alex said, suddenly thrown on edge.
"Mrrrrrrrrrph!"
It sounded more agitated this time, almost displeased; one of the sacks hanging from the ceiling shook, "Hello?" Alex called, walking towards it with benevolence.
"Hrrrrrlph.... Merrpphhh..."
Somebody was inside, it was more than obvious of that now, Alex didn't hesitate to begin cutting away starting at the bottom and pulling, "Uh..." she had torn away webbing at the person face, a lock of blond hair hanging down, "Myra?"
The women, now without her ski-mask, looked back at her with an near vendetta in her eyes, spitting out some white silk from her mouth.
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