Isolation-#Wattys2015

Excerpt 25-Ghoul

I found myself awake later that night due to thirst. I was laying on my back with the heavy blanket pulled up to my chest, but I was still freezing underneath it. My sight was still a little fuzzy and my head was pounding due to the fact that my concussion had finally receded. I yawned heavily and sat up. The lounge was dark and otherwise quiet except for a few fans that were going in the different rooms Matt was, asleep, powered down, resting, or whatever it was that his type of Synthetic did. The others were asleep too, James was sleeping with his Akadal 1919 like it was a teddy bear and Allen's 240 was loaded, safety off, within arm's reach. The ceiling fans of the lounge were running on the low setting, helping to circle the air that the HAVOC systems were pumping into the room around. Most of the power still seemed to be out and I assumed what was powering the fans were the generators that Mike and I had fired up a few days ago.

I pushed aside the blanket and sat up, turning myself around and leaning back into the couch, yawning again, not only was I thirsty, but I was hungry too. I got up and kicked off my combat pants and pulled a shirt out of my backpack, slipping it on over my bare exo. I slunk into the kitchen, Xenomorph quietly so I wouldn't wake anyone up. I grabbed one of the class cups Sarah had been using a few days ago, filled it with water from the sink and drank it down. I would have rathered a Coke, because it always seemed to help with my headaches, but at the moment it was "use what I have or die", so tap water would have to do. I was tempted to open the fridge and grab something, but then I saw the clock was only 11PM and I was tired.

I sighed, "too tired to form coherent thought, or maybe that's my swollen brain talking."

I filled the glass again and went back to the couch. I set the glass down by the leg of the couch, lay back down and pulled the blanket over me, stretching out as far as I could. I was almost back to sleep when I heard the ,tap, tap, tap of what sounded like claws just outside the door. The sound at first came from right outside the door, but then circled around to behind the wall where my couch was and the tap became a faint scraping sound, like what ever was outside was dragging it's claws across the wall.

I sat back up, listening closely to the sound as it traced around the edges of the walls. There was a low hissing like growl coming from the insides of the walls themselves.

"That can't be good", I whispered to myself as I pushed aside the blanket. I walked to my backpack, intending to get my AK, but then I found that my other weapons and my vest were next to it, still relatively wet. I grabbed my Automag, attached the weapon light to it and grabbed a spare magazine before slinking out of the lounge and into the hallway.

The corridor's were pitch dark, I was even having problems with my natural night vision. Judging from what I was hearing, whatever was making the noise was just around the right corner, headed down the hallway, away from me. I gripped my handgun with both hands and slowly tiptoed over to the corner, edging my gun and head around the corner, inch by inch, keeping as close to the wall as I possibly could.

Walking, hunched over to a height of about 4 feet, was what looked like a feeder, but at the same time, not a feeder. It had bone tight skin, showing off the bones in it's spine, legs, arms and it's ribs were barely visible. In contrast to a Feeder, it's hide was a sick looking yellow color with red veins and arteries clearly visible. Torn bits of what looked like a security uniform and a light plate carrier still clung to it's frail looking body. It was also leaving a trail of what looked like dried blood. I could see that it's hands were severely enlarged and only hosted three, huge fingers with claws big enough to make me jealous. There were two, Decagon shaped marks on it's shoulders and one triangular one near it's waist. There were three groups of two puncture wound looking spots tracing up it's spine and small, pin pricks exactly half way up it's back. The base of it's neck was playing host to what looked like an Cerebral Interface and set in the back of it's head was a small screen surrounded by metal plating with two buttons below it. The screen was blue and reading "Error 205 Host Server Not Present"