» Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:19 pm THE UNWELCOME
Lloyd noisily clanked down the last few metallic stairs leading to the small, cave-like chamber that housed the obelisk, deep within the bowels of the Dunwich Building. “We have arrived, my lady,” he said, letting his combat shotgun drop to his side.
A woman carrying a dirty canvas bag, wearing nothing more heavy than a long sleeved shirt and jean shorts, came down the stairs behind him and stood still as she looked in awe at the obelisk. “It's definitely...compelling, isn't it?” Alisha murmured, drawing herself next to Lloyd.
He shrugged. “Whatever. I wasn't hired to be an art critic.” He turned his head and gave a hungry look to Alisha. “You know, we are totally alone down here...”
“Would you stop it?” she asked, annoyed, taking a few more steps into the cavern. She stared at the obelisk and dropped her bag. It landed on the ground with a soft thud.
“No,” Lloyd replied. He holstered his shotgun and grabbed her by the hips from behind. “Come on, Alisha, you've been putting me off the whole journey out here from Tenpenny's, now that we've finally arrived, why don't we take a little break?”
“We're not alone,” Alisha began smugly, “she would be watching.” She nodded up towards the woman carved out of stone. The woman fused into the obelisk stared out with eyes devoid of pupils.
“Even better,” Lloyd chuckled, “let her watch, she'd be jealous.”
“Look, I have told you ten times already that I'm not interested, creep,” she growled, pushing him off with her elbows. “I have a husband, and three children. That same husband who hired you.” Alisha turned and glared at Lloyd straight in the eyes. “Stop asking.”
“Fine, whatever,” Lloyd raised his hands in surrender. “Hurry up and do whatever it is you're gonna do, this place creeps me the [censored] out.” He turned and walked back up to the upper landing, where he could watch the doorway, stepping over the remains of a few ghoul corpses on his way. “You'd think, if they wanted this place to be a [censored] tourist attraction, they'd do a little housekeeping.” Lloyd kicked the skull of one of the corpses, which detached easily from the rest of its skeleton. He smirked. He wasn't too bothered by Alisha's repeated refusals to let him [censored] her. You'll give in at some point, he thought, but even if you don't, a sip of a spiked beer is all you'll need, and then I'll get to do whatever I want. If only you knew your husband said it was okay, because he didn't have enough money to fully hire me.
“What are you grinning about?” Alisha asked from within the cavern, pulling out a large pad of paper and some charcoal pencils from her bag.
“Nothin,” he answered. He flicked a piece of dirt out from underneath a fingernail and casually leaned against the rail.
Alisha rolled her eyes. She took a couple steps towards the stairs, but sat down in front of them, facing the obelisk, and began to sketch.
A minute or two passed. Lloyd flicked his head from side to side, making little popping noises erupt from his neck and shoulders. “What kind of drawing are these people even looking for?” he asked, quickly becoming bored with staring into the next room.
“A fairly detailed one, I assume. They're paying a lot of money.” Alisha did not look up or pause her hand while she spoke. Lloyd already knew that Alisha had been commissioned by The Abby of the Road to produce a picture of the obelisk in the Dunwich Building – the task had been described to him as the very reason he was hired. Alisha had made a bit of a name for herself over the years by drawing portraits, and was approached by a member of the Faith.
A draft gently brushed Lloyd's cheeks, causing him to shudder. “Should'a asked for the cash up front.”
“What did you say?” Alisha had relocated to the other side of the cavern.
“Nothin,” he repeated. He took a moment to stare at her as she worked. Alisha wasn't all that attractive, but she wasn't Mutant-ugly, either. Her upper arms were flabby, but her legs appeared toned even though her thighs were huge. She had long, stringy, dull brown hair she kept in a ponytail. Her best features were her stunning green eyes and miraculously straight teeth. Lloyd figured that was why she even had a husband.
Lloyd was desperately bored. Someone, at some point, had come through the Dunwich Building with his guns blazing – rumour had it, some [censored] called the “Lone Wanderer” had done it – and the whole place was full of radiation and the corpses of ghouls. He hadn't had a thing to kill or maim since they had arrived and it made him feel useless. He strongly considered running up the rest of the stairs, firing his gun a few times, and then calling for Alisha to help him...all while hiding just beside the door, to jump out and scare her the moment she stepped through. He chewed his lip while thinking about it. That'd be really [censored] funny, until she [censored] her pants, or worse: she became so upset she couldn't [censored] finish this job of hers. She's already taking forever.
He stuck two fingers into his jeans' back pocket and produced a cigarette and a lighter. “I'm having a smoke,” he declared.
“See you in a minute,” she replied absently.
Dumb [censored]. “I'm not going outside, Alisha, I'm your bodyguard. I have to stand here and wait while your pokey ass takes its time playing artist.”
“[censored] off.”
Lloyd flicked his lighter and inhaled deeply. The familiar taste of tobacco helped soothe his frayed nerves. The place was empty – their stroll through had confirmed it – and yet, he had a continued, nagging feeling that something wasn't right.
It felt as though hours upon hours were slowly slipping by. Lloyd attempted to distract himself by wandering through the adjacent room, occasionally searching the rotting ghoul corpses for whatever they might have been carrying. He came back into the cavern and saw that Alisha was again at a different point in the room. Her sketch pad had four or five pages draping over the edge, and she was still drawing. “Aren't you even gonna, I don't know, take a break to eat?”
“I just want to finish this. I'm almost done.” She looked up as she turned the page and smiled. “I want to get it all down, and get it right the first time. I don't really want to have to come back here.”
Lloyd could agree with that. His held his shotgun up to rest on his shoulder and peered into the adjacent room, once again leaning on the rail on the landing. He was starting to feel a little tired. Lloyd absently scratched his crotch with his free hand.
Another draft caressed his unshaven face and Lloyd sniffed the air. His eyes widened, suddenly becoming more alert. Something had changed in the air, something subtle...but something he couldn't really identify. He strained his eyes and ears, hoping to catch some other sensory evidence that his instinct had informed him correctly, but he saw nothing, and only heard the quiet scratching of Alisha's charcoal pencil.
Your mind's just playing tricks on you, he thought to himself. You're getting tired, and your mind is bored.
Alisha shifted her weight down below. Lloyd's eyes flicked to where she sat, then back towards the adjacent room. Maybe a stupid mole rat, or a yao guai, followed our scent in here. “What time is it?” he asked her.
“I don't know. Midnight, probably.”
If it were that late, it would only seem to make sense that some creature from the Wasteland had taken refuge in the building for the night. The thought of investigating it further made Lloyd feel a little better. “Be right back, darling,” he called to Alisha. She didn't reply.
Lloyd bounded up the remaining stairs to the doorway and into the adjacent room. He had already been up to the top of the staircase, to discover a small room with a door that lead back to the front of the building. It would save them a trip back through the ruins, and through the irradiated mess it had become. He nervously approached the door to the hallway that had led them where they were then, as silently as possible, listening for...something, anything.
His eyes were having trouble adjusting to the darkness beyond. Lloyd tried to compensate for this by cupping his hands around them but it didn't make much of a difference. He listened closely and sniffed the air again.
The air was definitely different. It no longer simply carried the stagnant odour of decomposing ghouls and two hundred year old derelict architecture. There was something new, something...tangy.
Tangy? What the [censored], Lloyd, are you talking about some kind of cocktail? He scrunched his nose and was about to go back into the cavern when he heard it: a shuffling, accompanied by the hissing growls of feral ghouls. They had either been there all along, or had returned. Either way, it was time to go. “Alisha!” he called, unhooking the single fragmentation mine he carried off his belt. “Alisha, get your fat ass up here, it's time to leave!” Lloyd leaned down and armed the mine. Satisfied, he turned and ran back to the cavern's entrance and saw Alisha had made her way to the landing that Lloyd had haunted for so long. She was carrying her sketch pad.
“What the [censored] are you yelling about?” she asked, obviously annoyed.
“We have to get out of here,” Lloyd replied, emphasizing each word heavily, coming down the stairs towards her.
“O-oh, okay, just let me grab my bag --”
“There's no time!” he replied, in a full panic. “We can come back for it if we survive.” He grabbed her by the collar and shoved her towards the stairs leading upwards. “I don't have enough ammo to hold off an army of them. Hopefully there isn't an army of them.”
“An army of what?” Alisha's voice fluttered, giving away her fear.
“Ferals. They must have come back. It doesn't matter, we're leaving now. Go up these stairs!”
Alisha nearly tripped over herself as she attempted to run, clutching her sketch pad against her chest. She began to scramble up the stairs as quickly as she could muster. A hissing growl could be heard down the hallway – they were getting closer.
“Move it, Alisha, get going!” Lloyd hollered, but it was no use – Alisha was panicking and thinking very hard about each step. Every foot fall was deliberate and heavy. He sighed in exasperation and followed closely behind her, his shotgun pointed at the door.
They were half way up. An explosion filled the air with smoke and noise, making Lloyd's ears ring. The body of a feral ghoul had become approximately half a dozen pieces and was strewn about the room. Lloyd took another step upwards but stopped and cried out in surprise when his elbow landed in the middle of Alisha's back. An intact feral ghoul, followed by a roamer, streamed through the door over their counterpart's remains and paused, scanning the room by sight and smell for the humans.
Lloyd pulled the trigger four times. Both ghouls collapsed, gurgling, after some of their brain and body matter decorated the wall behind them. He nudged Alisha forwards, but she stood rooted to the ground. Her face was pale and her mouth gaped open. “Alisha! Alisha, wake up!”
“They...they're...you...” she spluttered incoherently. Lloyd reached up with his left hand and smacked her across the back of her head. “Ow, Lloyd! What the [censored]?!”
“Welcome back to the present. Get up the stairs! Try to scraqe up some hustle!!” He made shooing gestures as he spoke. Alisha turned and finally started running up the stairs. Despite how loud of a clatter the two made with their boots on the stairs, Lloyd could hear the slapping of ghoul footsteps as more came down the hallway towards them. Alisha began to slow down when she heard their approach. “We're almost there,” Lloyd panted. He reached up and put his left hand on her shoulder and pushed. “Just keep going. We'll shut the door and they won't get in.”
He glanced down and saw a roamer at the bottom of the stairs, about to begin to run right towards him. “Go, Alisha!” he shrieked, opening fire. The roamer fell after three shots, but another two ghouls were right behind it and stepping over the roamer's slumped body as though nothing had happened. More ghouls were coming out of the hallway. “[censored], oh Jesus Christ almighty,” Lloyd cursed, firing shot after shot after shot.
“Get in!” Alisha's shrill voice rang out. Lloyd whipped his head around to see the woman had flung the door open and was standing just inside, waving for him to join her. He abandoned his assault on the ghouls and in three steps, had flown through the doorway. Alisha slammed the door shut with a grunt and a heavy shove. Lloyd flung his whole weight against the door and hoped that would help keep them out for at least a moment, while he visually searched the room for a way to jam it shut. He saw a couple of wrecked chairs, and a coffee maker. Slim pickings. “Alisha, quick, pass me that chair.” He held his hand out.
“Which one?” she squeaked.
“Dammit, Alisha, just pick one, it doesn't matter. Hurry up!”
Alisha turned and grabbed the chair that was nearest to her and handed it to Lloyd. The ghouls behind the door were pounding and flinging themselves at the door, causing it to buckle. Lloyd wedged the top of the chair beneath the handle, but the door still had a bit too much give for comfort. He tried to think of a solution as quickly as possible. “Come here, Alisha, with the other chair.” The woman's knees buckled but she didn't move. Lloyd rolled his eyes. “Alisha, please, get with it! If you cooperate we can survive this, otherwise, we should have just let them rip us apart already.”
Alisha wiped the tears that had formed off of her face with her hands. “Sorry, I...I'm just really scared.”
Lloyd nodded. “So am I, but I need you to help me right now. Grab that chair and stand here with its legs facing the door. You should be able to drive them back if you have to. I'm just going to try and find something better to keep the door shut.” He reached out and gently squeezed her arm. “Okay?”
She sniffed, and nodded. Alisha picked up the other chair and did exactly what he told her. Lloyd opened the door on the other side of the room and cried out in delight. Hanging over the edge where the floor had collapsed was a full sized, bureaucratic style desk. He heard growls and shuffling, and looked down to see that there were at least a dozen feral ghouls and ghoul roamers in the room below, and possibly more in the hallway beyond. He sighed. “No easy escape, eh?” Lloyd mumbled to himself. He would think of a way to deal with that later.
Lloyd grabbed the edge of the desk and hauled with all of his strength. The desk moved an inch but was firmly wedged between the wall and the edge of the collapsed floor. He supposed there was a reason why it had dangled there for a couple of centuries. “Alisha, I need your help for a second,” he called. She didn't answer, nor appear. “Alisha? Look, I'm sorry for the fat ass comment. I really need your help, here. Just put the chair down and help me for a sec, the door will hold.”
Alisha still did not reply. Annoyed, Lloyd abandoned the desk for a moment and returned to the next room to find Alisha was standing with her ear against the door. He frowned. “What the hell are you doing?” he asked slowly.
“Mama,” she replied. “It's saying 'mama'. 'Mama, mama, mama.'”
Lloyd's heart sank. Alisha picked the absolute worst time to crack. “It's not saying a [censored] thing, Alisha, it's feral. It's just a blubbering beast bent on killing you.” As if on cue, the door bumped, as the ghouls again tried to force their way in.
“You're wrong, Lloyd,” she replied, her eyes moving to make contact with his, but her head and body didn't move. “He's calling for his mother. The poor thing. Maybe I remind him of his mother.”
Oh [censored] hell. “Alisha, the only thing you remind him of is what he ate last night for dinner. Don't you open that door, because if you do, we are both dead. Do you understand me? Dead!” Lloyd took a step towards her and reached his free hand out to grab her arm. She pulled her arm away before he could touch her.
“You don't have kids, [censored], so you don't understand. He sounds scared, and so alone. Maybe I can talk to him.”
“You can't!” he shouted. “They're called feral for a reason! Don't open that door, Alisha. I swear to God, I will shoot you if you try.”
“Do you [censored] dead people, Lloyd? Are you into that? What's that called...? Oh right, necrophilia.” Alisha's lips pulled into a twisted grin. “I know my husband said you could sleep with me. He told me just before we left. I just thought I would try to make you work for it.”
He was surprised at her confession, but didn't have any time to really think about it. He raised his gun. “I am warning you for the last time, Alisha. That chair won't hold out much longer and I found something better to block the door, but I can't move it on my own. Come and help me right now,” he spoke coolly.
Alisha closed her eyes, pressing her face even harder against the door. “I'm going to try and talk to him. He just wants his mother.”
“Alisha, NO!” Lloyd cried, but it was too late. Alisha had turned and opened the door. Lloyd scrambled backwards, completely at a loss for a way to escape. The ghouls were momentarily slowed by the chairs at the door. Alisha screamed and shrieked as they began to tear her apart.
A few thoughts seemed to stream through his mind simultaneously. Stupid [censored] [censored], now we're both dead. -- I should have [censored] her last night. -- You were wrong, mom, booze wouldn't be the end of me after all. Lloyd sat down and considered the irony of his annoyance with the size of his gun, as he put his lips around the barrel. A few ghouls were ripping Alisha's body apart, and others were pushing past them into the room.
[censored] way to die. He pulled the trigger.
