Yo guys new chap throw some stones or whatever
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The rhythmic pounding of my feet hitting the floor echoed through the narrow halls I found myself in. Fortunately for me, the guy in the scrubs hadn't been bold enough to even make an attempt at stopping my stride, on account of the barrowed dismemberment tools I had on hand.
Unfortunately for me, I for one, had no clue how to get out of here, and as for two,
"GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE YA FUCKIN ZOMBIE!" A duo of brick-built Russian men were chasing me through the corridors and turns of whatever fraud hospital this was. I mean no patients that weren't laid down in a gurney already?
Each of the fuckers chasing me had to be at least two hundred freedom units judging by how they thudded after me, throwing Slavic slurs because I kept rounding corners and going in loops to avoid them lining a shot up. They had only barely caught a glimpse of me and it seemed if as if they had my scent or something, never letting me get more than two halls away before the constant thud of footsteps was upon me again. Most probably armed based on how many of their threats involved bullet holes.
And well, the missed shots they had first fired before I could create distance.
I continued running unashamedly, darting passed confused and concerned nurses as well as doctors who looked about as qualified as a frat boy at a law firm. None stood in the way of the frantic sprinting of a bloody man coming from their backrooms, and armed with a large scalpel.
At this point the bone saw had lost its value, only serving to slow my advance and becoming more cumbersome than helpful. I wasn't getting any where near two security officers definitely armed and no one was stopping me anyway on account of me charging with the intent of a full back looking to clear someone out, plus the hands and forearms being splattered with blood, so I tossed it behind me and kept going.
After what felt like a full lap round the whole floor I had mapped it out in my head somewhat decently and also realized a pivotal problem with me getting out of here. The only way out was through an elevator to the ground floor.
Which wouldn't have been a problem on its own had it not been in a wide open lobby, strangely devoid of people actually waiting and only harboring a nurse that ducked behind the counter when I sprinted past.
But, regardless of the fact I'll be out in the open like a sitting duck with bullets flying at me, it's not like I got another lane to drive in here. I hadn't seen a single staircase outside of the one I had came from earlier and I was starting to lose steam, the security duos boots echoing louder and louder by the second.
Fuck, I don't even know how the fuck I got here and it's do or die already, who the fuck is built for this shit man?
I steadied my thoughts and focused on how best I could maneuver to avoid the inevitable barrage that's going to fly across the lobby without looking like target practice. I was now two halls down from the lobby and remembered the desk with the nurse who was too scared to do anything.
Like a lightbulb had flicked on, I now had a plan of action, one I wasn't very proud of but if I want the luxury of self reflection I have to live first. I was scared, I was tired, and above all, I was pissed at this fucked up situation I was thrust into that left me no room to think, I still hadn't the faintest clue how I even got here in the first place.
So yes the desperation made this necessary.
As I rounded the last corner that led to the lobby I gripped the scalpel in my hand until my knuckles were white before accelerating in the direction of the now terrified nurse who flinched and tried retreating seeing as I hadn't been caught yet. Her screams were sharp and piercing to my ears but I couldn't stop lest I wanted to be turned into Swiss cheese waiting for the elevator.
I apologized to her in my heart and began swiftly closing the distance. Grabbing her by the shoulder, then locking my arm around her neck in a headlock and holding her at knifepoint, scalpel point ? Whatever didn't matter much now.
Against her screams and pleadings, which I ignored due to self preservation, I dragged her with me toward the elevator. She kicked and flailed wildly, not at all helping the ball of guilt I felt in my chest, and slowing my tired legs significantly on our trek to the door.
"Shut up damnit, I'm not gonna stab you I just need some time for the elevator to get here!" I muttered into her ear as I swiped up on the blue pad or whatever it was that replaced normal elevator buttons and was also vaguely familiar.
Her retort came in a booming screech,
"Says the psycho drenched in blood with a blade to my face, get off me you crazy bastard!!! "
She tried with even more fervor to break free, hurling insults the whole time, as I saw the security guards finally turn the corner into the room, both with iron drawn. I'm the psycho here? You guys have people cut into chopped chunks in the basement, but that went unsaid.
I could hear the wining of the elevator cables behind me as it descended and the thudding of my own heart pounding against my ribs.
I don't think I've ever experienced this amount of adrenaline ever.
"Drop the bitch, NOW BEFORE I BLOW YOUR HEAD OFF!" He leveled a large navy blue revolver toward my head which was being blocked by the poor desk worker. The design of the weapon caused a spark of recognition in my head, unfortunately dampened by the adrenaline of the scenario I couldn't recall a name.
I didn't say anything back, simply trying to use the meat shield I had acquired as effectively as possible while hoping to god these doors would open soon. A gun to my head, a hostage I didn't want to take, all I wanted was a second to think, find where I am and get everything back to normal.
My blood felt like it was adrenaline itself, dancing through my form, begging me to bolt out of here.
The duo started to try and make way across the room forcing me to speak, well more like snarl,
"Stay back you motherfuckers, I ain't ending up like those guys in the basement," doing my damndest to stop my hand from trembling I brought it right up to the absolutely petrified woman's eye. "TAKE ANOTHER FUCKING STEP AND WE SEE HOW WELL I CAN FREE HAND A LOBOTOMY!"
The already petrified woman now scared to the point of pissing herself thrashed wildly against my hold. Luckily my bluff seemed to hold as both stopped the march and reassessed the desperation on my face. Knowing it would be a bad look for "security guards" at a hospital to let one of the workers there be lacerated in front of them they held their ground.
To my prayers and short lived relief I heard the ding of the elevator hitting the floor behind me, I slowly crept backwards hearing the sliding doors open, entering the lift.
However in the excitement of the moment, a chance at not having people that play fruit ninja with bodies chasing you down, I used my knife hand to try and close the door. A stupid mistake.
The second that I had the nurse bit down on my forearm like a frenzied animal, the momentary distraction giving the man with the revolver ample time to get off 2 shots. One getting me in right shoulder, a searing pain and found purchase in my trap right above the collarbone. Both spots throbbed in a fiery echo, like scalding pebbles laid in my flesh.
I hissed in pain, wanting to scream but too focused on getting this fucking door closed and this cunt off my arm.
"Bitch!" I gripped the back of her neck in a vice grip with my good arm, tossing her out like a possum you found in your house as the doors finally slid shut and I tapped ground level furiously on the terminal, hot crimson trailing down my colossally fucked one.
With the same steady buzz of the cables I was finally drafted upwards to temporary safety.
But it was definitely temporary, it would be dumb for security not to have a different exit to their own building.
"Well fuck what can I even do for the welcome party?" The question gnawed at me, I had just somehow sprung back up from death in some miraculous manner, I definitely didn't wanna test if I had another revive in me.
Panicked for solutions I fell back to old habits, patting my pockets furiously feeling for anything remotely useful when a blaring spokesman voice began
" HELLO NIGHTCITTTYYY ITS YOUR MAN STAN…" he continued on for another minute, spieling about a 'body count' and naming various neighborhoods in night city and how many corpses had been found that day within them.
Fuck. That explains a lot actually. The bodies, the crazy box of tech harvested from people, the elevator, and the gun, it all clicked now. I was in hospital being used as a scav haunt somewhere in night city. Why? Not a clue but now that I know where I am I still have to get the fuck outta here, I don't think the adrenaline that's keeping me from passing out at the pain'll last much longer.
My eyes widen as I remember the med syringes I had grabbed from the lowest floor.
A Maxdoc mk.4 was the one I slid from my pocket muddled with blood and mirth. I didn't think about simply stabbed myself in my damaged arm and squeezed down on the injector, hoping for the best and squinting the through the pain of stabbing an already torn section of flesh.
However relief followed soon after, not visibly mending anything, but slowing the bleeding considerably and giving the arm a little strength back, sci-fi tech wasn't half bad.
"Speaking of sci-fi tech," I muttered holding the chip that had caught my eye up; cyberdeck, I corrected mentally. It seemed familiar almost like the elevator earlier, but more like I had felt it in my grasp before just like this.
Do I even…? I lifted my fingers, grazing my neck and feeling bare skin, until I skimmed what felt like a ridge of cold metal. Maybe this body wasn't all the same after all, maybe I wasn't.
I mean I get I was desperate, but I just held a woman at knife point. Holy shit I just held a person and threatened to slice them open.
No, not the time to dwell right now, now was the time to act.
"Well shit ," I looked down at the cyberdeck with a small engraving in the corner reading,
|G.H.O.S.T| , then smoothing over the alien feeling of the USB grooves in my neck.
" I hope I don't get cyber aids, hell this might not even help me, but it's not like I can muscle multiple armed guards," I glanced at my shredded arm, still throbbing but much number after the stim.
"I gotta do something. Can't just wait for my lead dosage appointment."
I leveled the deep ebony and purple shard to the port, and slid the shard in the port just as the elevator started to slow, the ground floor most likely less than ten floors away. However, I saw one crucial problem with my plan.
I have no coding experience, what the fuck do I even do with this thing? Just yell at it in my head or…
Fuck I hope they don't blow my head off before I figure this shit out.
It's do or die I guess. Fuck.
"I hate this city already." I mutter with a sigh of acceptance.