Only Human

First Contact

Warning: Contains Brief Body Horror and Gore

Only Human Chapter 6: First Contact

Miami 1989

The Primus crew, along with Master Chief and Jacket moved cautiously through the rancid dank sewers, checking corner after corner. Deep down they knew the kids would have to face these kinds of situations soon, but they simply weren't ready yet. "These so called threats beyond human comprehension couldn't find a better place to land? It reeks down here." Said Jacket. "Sewers tend to smell like that." Said Takeo. "Yeah no shit." Said Jacket. "Actually there's quite a lot of it down here." "You know Dempsey I would be quite impressed with that Joke if I had the sense of humor of a three year old." Said Richthofen. Jacket quickly realized a conversation wasn't going anywhere with them, so he tried his luck with the Chief. "Hey big guy, you kill people?" Jacket asked. "I try to avoid it, but if I have to I will." Said the Chief. "Good to know" Said Jacket. "I got a feeling there's gonna be a few people we'll have to put in the ground." They continued down the rotten corridors until Master Chief ordered them to halt their positions. "Movement detected to the left of us, behind that door." Master Chief said. They quickly gathered by the right side of it, readying their weapons. Jacket opted to open the door expecting to cut down some vicious beast with his M16. What he didn't know is that he would be pointing his M16 at a child. "Christ, it's just the kids." "Hiiiiii" Luz said as she leaning from behind the door way awkwardly smiling and waving. Once she stepped out the rest followed suit. "What the hell are you doing here!? Asked Richthofen angrily. "Look, you said we weren't ready for what was coming and we just wanted to prove you wrong." Said Sasha. "Who is we exactly?" Said Ray. "We're only down here because Emma is down here. If it wasn't for her we would've stayed at the house." "Well I'm here because I want to help, and you're down here with me so you might as well keep going because I'm staying until the job is done." Said Emma. "We told you to stay at the house." Said Chief. "Okay I know you guys are mad at us for not listening to you but we're already here and it wouldn't make sense to go back up to drop us off and then go back." Said Luz. Richthofen thought for a minute. "Fine, we'll keep going but don't say we didn't warn you. They progressed deeper into the sewer hoping to find clues on what caused the rumbling. For the next few minutes they found nothing until they came across a peculiar sight. On one of the walls there was a chalk drawing of a gun, every one else thought it was odd while Richthofen looked like he had seen a ghost. "Nein Nein this cannot be!" "Hey Doc, you might wanna take a look at this." Said Dempsey around a corner. When they got to him they were greeted with chunks of glowing blue rocks scattered across the floor, the water around them taking on a similar bright glowing blue. "What the heck is this?" Asked Anne. "115, the origin of the inhuman beasts we've been fighting." Said Nikolai. "If this is here that means-" "They followed us." Said Takeo. "We must make haste and exit this place before-" Suddenly, a ghastly shriek reverberated throughout the tunnels, it was a sound the Primis Crew were all too familiar with. Everyone readied their weapons in anticipation. "What was that?" Asked Ray. "That Is a sign that it's time for us to leave. Let's go!" Richthofen said. They all began to run through the tunnels trying a find the way to the surface. "Find us a way out of here." Chief said to his AI. "Working on it!" She responded. They stopped in their tracks when they saw the silhouette of what looked like a person, possibly part of the increasing homeless population. He shuffled with his head down breathing heavily. "Jeez people are that desperate huh?" Remarked Sasha. Marcy attempted to speak to the man to warn him to get out. "Hey man, I know who things aren't looking too great up there but I really think it would be in your best interest to get out of here quickly." He had no response, he simply remained idle not even looking at them and instead at the wall in front of him. "I think she's right sir." Said Emma. "If you heard that sound a few minutes ago, we don't know what it is either but most likely we don't want to find find out, if you want you can come with us and we can help you get up-" Before she could finish her sentence, the man croaked out a low ghastly groan, his breaths sounded shaky and airy. "Hey are you okay sir?" Asked Emma. Slowly, the man turned to face the crew, and what Emma saw would not be leaving her mind for a long while. The man had sickly glowing yellow eyes, his flesh scarred and bloody barely holding on. The teeth on his upper jaw were jagged and sharp, while his lower jaw dangled from the left side of his mouth, his tongue was rotten and limp, and hanged from the center of his mouth. All the kids were mortified, while the rest readied their weapons. "Get ready to run." Said Master Chief. Suddenly, the undead turned his entire body to the crew and started slowly shuffling towards them. He then let out an ear piercing shriek and stretched his decaying arms and tried to leap towards them. Jacket pulled out his M16 and put a bullet into the zombie's skull. His brain matter shot out from the back of his skull and his body collapsed on itself, bringing the creature to a swift end. Before anyone could even process what just happened, an entire crowd of zombies spilled out from around the corner in front of them, eager to feast on their flesh. "Run!" Said Chief firing his assault rifle into the crowd. Shortly after, the Primus crew fired their weapons along with Jacket trying to stall the crowd whilst trying to outrun it. "What the hell are those things!?" Asked Ray trying to both run and speak. "Looks like they're zombies, they're in a lot of entertainment back in our world." Replied Marcy. "You know I've always wanted to kill zombies but this is infinitely more terrifying than I expected!" Suddenly, another large group of undead spilled out from behind a corner in front of the kids, falling over each other. "Shit! We need some help over here!" Shouted Sasha. Jacket responded by turning to them and firing into the horde while the kids quickly got to work. Marcy rapidly fired bolts from her wrist mounted crossbow while Anne and Sasha worked together to cut down any zombie that got too close with their swords. Despite not having a staff yet, Luz was still able to quickly disperse her magic glyphs at a fast enough rate to take down some of the zombies in front of them, all the while Amity kept casting a variety of Abomination Spells to decrease the undead's numbers. Emma Norman and Ray did all they could to help quell the horde, but they could only do so much with their limited weapons knowledge. They simply watched what everyone who had guns did to figure in out. Eventually, they managed to make a temporary gap in the horde and they used it to keep moving through the sewer. So far the team was being efficient, but the zombies outnumbered them immensely and if they didn't find a way out of the sewer soon, it would become their gravesite. Master Chief's AI kept spouting directions to him which he would then repeat out loud to everyone else, but they had to keep rerouting because the undead were everywhere. Eventually they got into a more open part of the sewer that looked like some sort of maintenance area with multiple floors, but things didn't fare much better there because the zombies started pouring in from all areas. "We're surrounded!" Exclaimed Amity. "Maybe if we can get up there we'll be closer to an exit." Said Anne. "It's too clogged up there, maybe if we clear it out we'll have a chance." Said Jacket. They were started to get exhausted from the constant fighting so if they were going to get out of this, they'd have to move fast. Master Chief was up front working the team their way up the stairs while everyone else covered each other trying to move up. Chief reached the second floor shooting down a few zombies and even punching straight through one's head. The rest followed behind him when suddenly a zombie tripped Marcy and grabbed her by the leg and was about to bite down on it. "No no no!" She exclaimed when suddenly Sasha put one of her swords through its skull killing it instantly and pulled Marcy up. Once they got to the third floor they went down another corridor and started to fight their way through. While Richthofen was reloading his smg a zombie surprised him and started to wrestle with him. Luz came up from behind the zombie and used an ice glyph on its head, causing it to become extremely heavy and shatter on the floor when it hit the ground to which he hastily thanked her for. "We're almost there!" Said Chief's AI. "Just a few more turns and we're out of here." A small horde of zombies blocked the way in front of them and they had to stop to fight them yet again. They were starting to run low on ammo, as Takeo had resorted to using his katana and Chief was down to his pistol. While Emma was distracted taking shots with her nail gun at the horde in front of them, two zombies came from behind Norman and Ray and pinned them to the ground. Emma immediately noticed this and became overwhelmed with a feeling of absolute dread at the possibility her friends could be killed, she would not let that happen. "Leave them alone!" She shouted at the two zombies unloaded the nail gun magazine into both of them. They both took quite a bit of nails, but they were eventually brought down. Emma got both of them up and gave them one to the hardest hugs she'd ever given. "Really appreciate Emma but let's try and focus on getting out of here." Said Ray. They were close to getting out, but this horde was so tightly packed that they were having trouble even making a dent in it. That's when Anne remembered she had a grenade she got before they left. This could be the opportunity they needed to push through. "Does anyone know how to get this thing to explode?" Asked Anne amidst the chaos. "Pull the pin and throw it!" Replied Dempsey. "Get back guys I'm throwing a grenade!" Shouted Anne. She did as she was instructed and threw the explosive into the zombie crowd. Emma was helping Norman and Ray fight off the zombies up front, firing her nail gun and even bashing a few with the bigger part of it. Out of nowhere a zombie managed to get her on the ground and she struggled to get it off her. Suddenly, there was a loud bang and blood and body parts went flying everywhere. Emma was confused because now the zombie that was on top of her was now splattered against the wall. It's as if time slowed down as she observed what was happening around her. Her ears were ringing and she was covered in blood. She looked at her shaking hands. Even if these things were trying to kill her she didn't know how to feel about putting them down. She had never killed anyone nor did she want to, she wouldn't even hurt a fly. Yet, here she was covered in the remains of what was once a person. A zombie tried running up to Emma while she was in her trance like state when jacket grabbed it from behind and body slammed it onto the floor, giving it a hard stomp to the head killing it. He then grabbed Emma by the hand and got her up bringing her back to reality. More zombies appeared behind them and while everyone else was going, jacket stayed behind killing as many as possible. "Jacket the fuck are you doing we gotta go!" Said Dempsey, but nothing happened. Jacket didn't even have any ammo and he was using his bat, even going so far as hitting them with his gun, it was as if he was having fun. It took Chief running back in and dragging him away from the horde to get him to stop. "I wasn't done yet." Jacket said sarcastically. "Well I am" Marcy said. "I just ran I out of bolts so we better get out soon." That's when they saw it, a ladder over concrete floor leading to a manhole, their way out. However they went completely out of the woods, the horde raged from behind them, and would probably follow them upward too. As they ran, they thought of ways to quell the horde before making their escape. That's when Luz saw it, a lone gas can. She had an idea "Guys get to the ladder I have an idea!" "Luz what are you doing?" Amity said concerned. "I'll be fine just keep going I'll catch up!" Luz said going for the gas can. The crew did the best they could to cover her. Luz ducked and dodged the living corpses all while holding the gas can. She started to empty it as she ran and put it in one large area a few feet away from the ladder. She was making a trap. "Start climbing when I say to." She said to the crew pulling out a fire glyph. She waited until the zombies got close enough and once enough of them did, she placed it down into the gasoline. The gas immediately erupted in flames, scorching the zombies instantly and burning her hand in the process. She didn't immediately notice this however and was solely focused on getting out. "Go go go!" She shouted and they began to ascend the ladder. A few burning zombies managed to get through, but they died shortly after. Once everyone was out of the sewer and onto the surface, some of them would be coughing due to the smoke combined with the stench of rotting flesh being cooked. They hastily moved into a near by alleyway to gather their bearings. "Y-you shouldn't have joined us." Said Richthofen between coughs. "Hey I just got us out of that mess!" Luz said also recovering from the smoke. "We wouldn't have gotten through if it wasn't for that bomb Anne threw." Said Sasha. "I'll ask the chief since he seems to be a real expert at this stuff." Said Luz. "Hey Chief would things have gone smoother if we hadn't come?" "Most likely yes." Said Chief sternly. "Actually I wasn't asking you I was asking your AI." Luz said condescendingly. "Most likely yes." The AI said. "Forget I said anything." Said Luz. "The point is, we're a lot more capable than you think." "I'll admit, the gasoline truck you pulled wasn't half bad." Said Jacket pulling off his mask still coughing slightly. "Yeah we did pretty okay for our first encounter with those things!" Said Emma. "Those things are zombies." Said Anne. "I'm assuming that as long as you don't get bit you'll be fine." "Your assumption is correct." Said Nikolai. "What happens if you get bit?" Asked Emma. "You become one of them." Said Takeo. "Those zombies were once people, now they're husks of themselves with no control. It's probably best they get killed." "Y-you turn into them?" Asked Emma. "Indeed" Said Richthofen. "But as long as you don't get bit or do anything stupid with 115 you'll be fit as a fiddle. Speaking of which Luz it's probably best you lay off the magic doodles, you messed your hand up pretty good." Luz then noticed the burn wound on her right hand. "Yeah you're definitely right, it actually kinda hurts more than now that I look at it." The crew noticed that the sun was rising. It looked nice, they just wish they had better circumstances to view it. "Hey after we get Luz' hand patched up who's up for breakfast?" Asked Anne. "Sure, I know some good places around here." Said Jacket. "I can't wait to try the food this world has to offer!" Emma said enthusiastically. They all agreed to eat after they went home and got their bearings straight. Right when they were leaving Emma noticed something, her hands were still shaking. She was a bit confused as everything was calm now and they were safe for the time being. She shrugged it off as "nothing to worry about" and she was right. It was just nothing, for now.