The Corruption

Chapter 14 - Scorpedos Hotel

Kaleigh looked at her rifle as if it was a book with no words, useless. She shook her head and put it back on her back in it's holster, looking at Liam who was panting, bent over since he'd never swing a blow that hard before. Liam looked up at Nate who looked up at Kaleigh. "Don't worry, a thing such as that is specialized in dodging bullets. But exposed to these things," Nate explained, holding up his metal club. Kaleigh looked over at Derek to see if he agreed and Derek nodded giving her a "he's-right" look. Derek flicked his knife again on his thumb, as it was starting to become an addiction, and he twirled it like a jump rope. Liam and Nate were practicing combat by play-fighting each other, and were starting to get along which obviously shocked Kaleigh and Derek. The four of them, minus one, left the Blackwell Library and went on their way to the next building, an old hotel, a Westin to be exact, about as old as Derek was. They entered through the motion activated door, or tried, but it wouldn't budge. Nate and Liam used their metal clubs to pry the doors open and walah, they opened. It seemed as if the metal clubs were a way for the two to get along, and everyone was all for it. They walked in and the lobby was an utter pig sty, the ceiling wood was falling out of place, the windows were almost all cracked and the floor was covered in garbage disposal. It reeked of dead rats and corrupted, but the CPG were used to this kind of thing. Half of a regular corrupted, legs cut off, was trying it's hardest to survive, crawling over to the CPG for food, but Liam put it out of it's misery and bashed it in the head with his club. Rats started chewing at the pants sleeves on Nate and he pushed them away with his club. Derek looked on the lobby desk where the concierge used to sit, and surprisingly one of the computers were still up and running. He looked if anything was on it, and a notepad was open with the code "243." Derek squinted to make sure he read it right and took a piece of wood from the ground and carved 243 into it, putting it in his pocket to remember, a survival tactic he learned back in Blackwell training camp.

Kaleigh found a flashlight with a half empty battery, and she shined it on one of the darker rooms to see that it was a locker room for staff, where they would get into uniform. A sword was hanging on the wall, the tip facing the right and the guard on the left. She called the other three over to come look, but Liam and Nate were busy hitting one of the vending machines to force snacks out with their clubs. The food could probably be stale but they didn't care. Derek went over to the locker room and thought of his code, so he tried each locker with "243." There were five lockers, but none of them worked with 243. Derek was stumped, and Kaleigh thought of something genius. "There are five lockers, and this sword is pointing to the right. Maybe they go from left to right in order, and you have to change the second one to two, the fourth to four, and the third to three." Derek sat there in awe and slowly turned to do just that. Suddenly, the entire wall lifted up revealing a secret entrance to the next sewers. Liam found a satchel and he claimed it his new crafting bag, so things were looking up for him. He put his metal club inside it along with his snacks. Liam and Nate rushed over to the sound of rumbling which was the entrance opening, and at first they were confused as to how they found it so quickly, but they didn't question, looked at each other and simply followed Derek and Kaleigh into the sewers.

Rats, rats, and rats. It was as if the entire sewer was a rat reunion and they interrupted it. Nate saw something shiny on the ground and he went to pick it up. The shiny object started levitating, and Nate stepped back slightly confused, as it leaped at him like a frog on a lily pad. Kaleigh quickly turned and unholstered her rifle, shooting the shiny object in mid-air, watching it fall to the ground. "Watch out for Scorpedos," she said, casually. "Scorpedos? What?" Nate looked terrified and confused. "Scorpedos, they're like scorpions, except they constantly spin around.. so they look like nothing, just shiny objects," Derek explained. Kaleigh nodded and said, "Like a torpedo." Nate simply shook his head and kept walking, but as they walked it was getting extremely dark. Kaleigh took out her flashlight and shined it while Nate took out his camera and turned on his flashlight, but what they saw they did not like one bit. Thousands of shiny objects, all sitting there, like spinning tops you play with as a kid. Kaleigh said, "Don't move-" but the shiny objects immediately charged at her and the group, and Derek yelled at the top of his lungs, "RUN!"