Isolation-#Wattys2015

Excerpt 18- Stench

"I need to find the generator that powers the labs", I said, "can you access the facility schematics and find out where it is?"

"Not from here", Magellan said, "there's a beefy EMP barrier blocking my signal, we have to move inside."

I sighed and started for the building, keeping the FAL on my shoulder and my finger on the trigger. It was getting hotter by the minute and I could feel the heat radiating from the asphalt through the soles of my boots, even with the cooling system. When I got to the front of the building, there was a large utility door that swung open to reveal a foundry type area. There were presses that were pounding out red hot slabs of what looked like the Iron-Lead combination that Confederate troops used in their bullets and there were clay buckets full of molten metal swinging around above my head. I'll be sure to stay away from those. Another feature that I didn't fail to notice was the REEK that the air carried. It smelled like a dead skunk had taken a bath in stink bugs and then rinsed with slag from lead refining process and did it's hair with pureed dead fish.

"Holy SHIT this stinks!", I gagged warping my Shemagh around my mouth and nose, "Magellan, how do we get from the main generator from here? The quicker the better."

"The only way to reach the generator is via the facility's Internal Transport Nexus", Magellan said, "scanning facility schematics...results are inconclusive at this time, however, I did find an active data terminal in the vicinity, updating map coordinates."

I brought up my PDA and got into the maps that I had downloaded form the 300 a few nights ago. I pulled up the map of Ransol Industries and found a little red dot a few rooms down. It didn't look like a big room and not only was it marked with a red dot from Magellan's scan, but it was also marked with a first aid sign, so It would be a good place to find things to bring back to Biosphere. I stuck my PDA back in it's pouch and started on. Just down a stair case from the office type area that I was in, I began to hear a rather high pitched buzzing sound, but couldn't really tell where it was coming from or what was making it. I glanced up at the ceiling, behind me and to both sides, but didn't see anything, so I continued on.

The heat from outside mixed with the smell of the air, not to mention how heavy the air pressure had to be for the refinement of the Iron-Lead alloy, was more than enough to drive anyone to their knees and shut your body down in just a few seconds. It was already trying to knock me out of the game. My gear seemed to get heavier and heavier with each step I took and it hurt to breathe. My heart was beating so fast that I felt like it could explode at any second.

"Magellan", I said crouching to try and catch my breath, "keep tabs on my vitals, I'm in no mode to die from over exertion."

"Will do brother", Magellan said.

As I stood up, the buzzing came much closer and then the next thing I knew I was flat on my stomach with something enormous on top of me. I managed to get my tail around and knock it off just long enough to roll over and come face to face with the biggest Japanese Hornet I'd ever seen. The fucker had to be at least five feet tall and seven feet long and it had a stinger on it that was the size of a 20mm cartridge. It's four pincers were easily a foot and a half long and serrated with inch long pocket knives, that in turn had teeth that would make a Great White jealous. It's eyes were a soulless black and my reflection in their lenses made it seem like I was in a bad, sci fi insect slasher flick like Mansquito.

"Why are people always making bullshit like this!", I half shouted, half groaned as I reached for my Automag, "what could possibly be the upside!?"

The Hornet hissed at me and tried to bite my head off with it's huge pincer. I squirmed out of the way just in time and managed to get my knife into it's neck. I pressed the button and left the blade embedded inside it as I reached into my vest for a new one. I clicked it into place as the hornet lept at me and tried to bury it's massive, spike of a stinger into my chest. I took my feet out from underneath me and dove prone, rolling onto my back as the lethal spike just barely missed the top of my head. I fired another blade into the creatures back and then emptied 7 rounds of .50 Action into it's abdomen, while the other two hit it's right wing. Not wanting to spend the rest of my life loading another clip into my handgun, I grabbed the High-Power off my back and let a shell go, braking the hornet apart and sending green goo everywhere. Panting, I stood up and cracked the High-Power open, the huge .950 Tyrannosaurs shell flew out and left a wisp of smoke coming from the chamber. I stuck another shell into the gun, shouldered it and then picked up my Automag and my knife blades.