Project X 5

Chapter 3: First Ecounter.

Hibana snapped the lighter closed at the base of the covered stairs and took a deep breath, trying her psych herself up for whatever came next. The chill of the dark corridor behind her pressed at her back like an icy hand, but she still hesitated, the knife half sweaty beneath her fingers as she slipped the warm lighter into her jacket pocket. She wasn't particularly looking forward to ascending into the unknown, but she had nowhere else to go, not unless she meant to go back to the cell. She could smell oily smoke, and she guessed that the flickering shadows at the top of the wide cement stairs meant fire.

But what was up there? This is an Atlas facility.... What if its like Hong Kong, what if the attack on this island had released a virus, or some of the creatures such as the Chimera Virus had created? Maybe the other prisoners had rioted, maybe things had only been bad from Salvador's point of view...

For god sake, just walk up the damn stairs and find out rather than just standing here.

Her heartbeat was thumping, Hibana forced herself to take the first step, vaguely wondering why movies always made it seem so easy, to bravely throw oneself into probable danger. After Hong Kong, she knew better. 

She climbed the steps slowly, opening her senses as new adrenaline flushed her system, replaying the brief glimpse she'd had of the small graveyard when the guards had let her through. No help there, she'd only seen a few headstones, remembered them as bizarrely ornate for a prison cemetery. There was definitely a fire close to the top of the stairs, but apparently not a big one - there was no heat filtering down, only a cool humid breeze that that carried the pervasive smoke smell. It seemed quiet, and as she neared the top, she heard drops of rain hissing as they the flames, an oddly comforting sound.

As she emerged from the stairwell, she saw the source of the fire, only meters away. A helicopter had crashed, a large portion of it merrily burning amid a thick, smoking haze. To her left was a wall, another just past the flaming wreck; to her right, the open space of the cemetery, gloomy and shrouded by the increasing rain and the oncoming night.

Hibana squinted into the rainy dusk and made out a number of dark shapes, through none of them seemed to be moving.

Hibana: More headstones.

A whisper of relief edged through her anxiety; whatever had happened to be over.

Thank goodness, she thought, that she could possibly be relieved to be alone in a cemetery at night. Even after the pandemic in Hong Kong, her imagination would have conjured up all sorts of horrible things. It appeared ghosts stories did not cut it on the scary meter anymore, not after her run ins with Atlas.

She took a right on the U shaped path, moving slowly, remembering how she was being pushed through the stairs. She thought she could make out what looked like a gate past the line of graves in the centre of the yard, or at least an open space in the far wall-

-and suddenly she was sent flying. the sound of an explosion behind her assaulting her ears, a wave of broiling heat throwing her into the mud. The wet twilight was suddenly brighter, the reek of burning chemicals stinging her nose and her eyes. She landed without grace but managed to not stab herself with the combat knife, all of it happening so fast she barely had time to register confusion.

Hibana: Gah....kuso....the fuel tank must have blown-

Unnnh....

Hibana immediately rose up to her feet, the soft pitiful unmistakeable moan inspiring near panic of action, the sound joined by another, and another. She spun around and saw the first one stumbling toward her from what was left of the burning helicopter, a man, his clothes and hair on fire, the skin of his face blistering and black.