Trials of Survival

Chapter 10: Power Outage

(Big influx of gootraxians all over the shop! Gonna get me some Pseudo Shorks up in here.)

(After this big ol' power outage, all the other goos are gonna start turning up! Were you wonderin where the Catte's, Fed's, Hazzy's have been? They've been hidin! Now, they gonna start showin their faces! Hope you're ready to read about your favourite gootraxians getting eviscerated in the most gruesome ways possible! :D)

(Finally, a chapter that leads a bit further into Jack's past and person! (he's a pain to write in POV though...) Hope you enjoy :])

2:38 PM 

It'd been a good while since I'd actually started looking up! Ever since I'd been trapped down in this godforsaken facility, things had only been goin down... well, it was a bumpy ride, I guess? I mean, my actual job was to roam around, doing jack. 

I would've vouched for a spot down in that crazy little lab they had hidden away! Or... wherever the freaks came from! Just wandering the same empty halls, over and over and over and over was a real bore! At least I'd get to look at some weird little guys on the daily!... Granted, weird little guys, that wanted nothing more than to slice my stomach open and feast on my liver.  

Anyways, I digress. This place was currently chalk full of mutants to brutalize! A fun, fresh breath of air in my dull life!... 

Yeah... that train of thought vanished real quick, barely a few hours after this all went down. Dave was just... so horribly disfigured... when I stripped those clothes off him and got a good look at his body, I almost hurled. He was... melted. Skin dripping off like wax, muscles darkened, blood and puss oozing out from every pore of his body... 

I was never fucking trained in first aid! Well... I didn't pay much attention, at least. Still, what was I gonna do? Fuck... an innocent kid was just gonna keel and die, all because I couldn't protect him... 

Then, by some miracle, both Dave and Tane recovered! I felt a little relieved... then, all the other shit came along. The Kaiju... I remembered their wicked claws tearing my sleeve asunder, scooping out great hunks of flesh from my arm, the feral stare in their eyes, despite their calm demeanor... 

 The fact that no one had came for us... just left all alone down in this little hell. The giant, lumbering fucking behemoths that are waiting just a few steps away from home. 

Then, Dave's disappearance... I felt like everything I stood for, shattered. It was a feeling I never wanted to experience, ever since that day... 

My late friend, Brodyn... I-... The only thing I truly regretted in my life, was not being able to save that man...

The camp was ablaze, tents flaring up into raging infernos. The strong winds whipping the embers about in the sky. Pained screams coming from the evacuated men, women and children. It wasn't anything to do with my line of duty... no, we was just out camping. Brodyn was a real big outdoorsman, loved to hike n' such. 

It was midnight, a couple of guys playing around with a ton of vodka, stumbling about, rambling on and getting wasted beyond belief. I never really cared about any of that stuff, alcohol, cigs whatnot. 

Then, one of the men just passed out, smashing the bottle on the ground as he fell, spilling the contents all over a nearby campfire. The pool burst into flames, raging flames licking the tall grass and spreading with ease. The winds just blew the flames right towards the tents, lighting a big one on fire. 

Then... it just kept spreading. 

I'd done my best to help everyone I could, waking anyone still asleep to get them out to a safe space. I'd seen a few disfigured people, flesh having melted, faces drooping with their skin literally dripping off. 

Many people were saved... except one. 

That one, was Brodyn. He'd rushed into a tent and dragged out a terrified kid, barely the age of 6 from the look of it. Then, the tent collapsed, and he was buried under flaming, blazing cloth. His screams were horrifying, shrill, pained cries... that died down as the fire consumed all the oxygen about him. 

I mean, I'd had a Molotov or two chucked at me, the things really fucking choked you... Fire licking away at your clothes, heat slowly seeping into your skin, as the smoke billowed up into your face. The fire greedily sucking away all the precious air around you...

I was quick to rush in, dousing the flames with heaps of dirt and sand, but it was all no use... in the end, it'd taken precious minutes to smother the flames. By then, he was nothing more than a heavily charred corpse... 

Eurgh... 

After that day, things only went downhill. I began to drown my sorrows in the very substances I swore never to take. Downing a packet a day, trying to keep the stress at bay. Smothering the flames of hopelessness in a torrent of alcohol on the daily. 

I got more and more aggressive to others, lashing out at any given moment. I was under so much pressure, it was just so easy to snap. I guess that explained why I felt an odd sort of satisfaction, splitting the skulls of the freaks down here... 

But... things have started looking better. I mean, ever since the Blackout... granted, there were some god awful encounters, but through it all, I got to actually connect with the two dumbasses I worked with! 

In all honesty, I never really got to know em', just tended to ignore the two. But ever since we were forced together, I've grown quite fond of em' Tane was a bit like Brodyn... just a lot more strict n' serious. 

Dave was an actual, proper good friend! Funny, positive, a good kid overall. I mean, he managed to stay all happy despite being turned half to slag. 

And besides, there was like, the cutest fuckin thing known to man own here! A fluffy as shit, beaming bundle of joy that loved me more than anythin!... Well, I'm pretty sure the lamb loved everything, but still, it made me feel special! 

After having thoroughly tired Shamrock out, we were both just hanging around on the couch. I was laying, there, my body aching a bit, while Shamrock was curled up on my chest, his freakish tail gnawing on one of the plushies, drooling a little... 

That part was uh... a little odd, but nonetheless, he'd never tried gnawing at me... sooooo I was generally ok with it! 

I managed a genuine smile for once in a long time, looking at that innocent little face of his. It looked like he'd just crawled out of a rainbow, never before seeing the horrors of life, nor the threats that lurked everywhere here. 

And so it was settled. I'd protect this fluffy bitch with my GODDAMN LIFE! 

I couldn't afford to lose anyone anymore...