Outlast

04 | Regain

For the first time in the trip, Doyle felt excited. It was more of a nervous excitement rather than a looking-forward-to-something-excited. He felt a rush which he hadn't felt in years. Richard and him both ran in the same direction. So Doyle was with him. He didn't know where the others went but Dylan's last command ringed in his ears.
'Hey Richie, where are we going?' Questioned Doyle in what he thought was the direction of Richard. It was still pitch black and they couldn't see a thing.
'Don't call me that.' Said Richard
'Ok fine, what do you want your new nickname to be? Char? Rick?' Doyle liked being humorous, it helped hide his sadness. Thinking of this reminded him of his past.
'Seriously be quiet dude! The thing might hear us.'
Doyle liked the fact that Richard was an easy guy, doesn't get annoyed, knows when to joke around and when to stop. And he actually knew what he was doing. Unlike the actual captain. Doyle thought. He much preferred Richard as the leader rather than Dylan. He didn't mean to look down on him, it's just that Richard seemed better fitting as a leader.
'Ok Doyle, we're heading towards the engine room. Once we're in there, I'll get the back up generators running and we'll get our energy back.'
'Our what?'
'We get energy back. I don't think anyone else has realised this yet but our ship is no longer on auto pilot and our power is down. So right now we're just a floating piece of metal in the middle of nowhere and-'
'And with the tracking system down, we won't know whether we moved 5 meters or 5 miles from our path. Interrupted Doyle. He was the pilot. He knew exactly how dangerous of a situation they were in right now. If they waited any longer, the system wouldn't be able to pin point their location and they would waste fuel trying to find their way back. And if they run out fuel before that. Well, things would get bad. He scolded himself for not realising sooner.
'Exactly, that's why we need to go now!' Said Richard softly to which both of them ran. Realising that it was a terrible idea to run around in the dark, Doyle tried to stop when he conceived that there was most likely an object in front of him - one second too late. He smashed his body onto a closet which crashed down as the bolts on the door snapped at Doyle's weight.
'God dammit!' Doyle screamed. His leg was sprained, twisting in an awkward angle. He tried to strand but immediately lost balance. 'Richard help me!' He pleaded.
'Don't worry bud I'm right here.' Richard tried to help him up but stopped half way through.
'What! What happened?!'
'Don't move.' Richard whispered.
Doyle only just noticed the now beady red eyes staring directly at them.
'Richard, go get to the engine room. Leave me here, I got this.' Doyle tried to put on a confident act but he knew he was just buying time. He had to at least save the rest of the crew.
'Ok,' Richard sighed heavily, 'ok, don't worry. I'll be back. I ripped of its eyes earlier, missed the ears though so be quiet. There's no way it can actually see you but it can feel your presence. It's what those red sensors are for. If you don't move. It will pass you off as an object.'
'Ok, ok thanks.'
'I'll be back.' Whispered Richard as he slowly backed away into the exit. And with that, Doyle was alone. He didn't know how he was going to get out of this but the robot was clearly here because of the loud noise he made. That gave Doyle an idea. He decided to throw a piece of the closet in the entrance which the robot moved its eyes to. For a second Doyle thought it worked but the the robot slowly twisted its head to look back in Doyle's direction. Dammit! Why did I have to get injured now! He thought. He didn't want a to stress his newly sprained ankle so he decided to just lay there and look at the robot. Gone. It was gone, just a second ago it was standing still staring at Doyle but now it wasn't there. Suddenly he felt the ground vibrate to the right of him. He could feel heat and steam on the right side of his face. He didn't want to move his head and beads of sweat rolled down his face. The robot was looking right at him. It was right next to him. Why wasn't it doing anything? Immediately as he thought that, a gust of wind flew and Doyle barely had milliseconds to jerk his face back. The robot had his hands extended out. It obviously just attempted to blow his head out. Seeing this as an opportunity, Doyle decided to retaliate. He grabbed the sleek, metallic arm and yanked it putting the robot off balance and causing it to fly over his body. He grabbed another piece of the broken closet, this time a much heavier and sturdier piece and smashed it on the robots head. He was in no condition to fight. But he felt like he was doing something. The robot tried to get up but he kicked it backed down with his left leg. No use. The thing had some sort of protection on its back. It continued to rise and finally stand. The robot gave off an angry hiss. It grabbed Doyle by the throat with its smooth, polished arm and slowly lifted him up on to the wall. This is it He thought. No way I'm getting out of this. And in that exact moment. Cade came bustling through the door.