Skulduggery Pleasant: Outlast: Separate

It went towards the door, and Saracen lost sight of it through the slits in the locker, so he stepped out. It was still in the room, and it had heard the locker open. With a squeak of fear, he jumped into the other locker. The Walrider turned around and he held his breath.

It walked back towards the lockers and pulled open the one Saracen had just vacated. Anton bit his lip, craning his neck and holding his breath, hoping his friend would be okay. It went back to the doorway, stood there for a few minutes, trying to work out where Shudder and Rue might have gone, and finally walked off. They could hear it talking to itself as they both slowly left their hiding places. Anton checked the coast was clear before gesturing for Saracen to follow him. They were heading towards a red light. The exit. They jogged back to the stairwell they had seen earlier, the one that led to the basement. There was a leaking water pipe, and it was a little brighter down here, oddly enough. There were a few inches of water on the floor, bits of ruined paper or cardboard floating along the top. The door that led to the generators was locked, but there was a hole in the wall they could just about squeeze through. They walked down the halls, slightly annoyed with the water now soaking through their shoes. Someone called out in the distance, hearing the movement of the water. They passed into the room with the generator, but no way of turning it on, just another headless corpse hanging by its ankle. They moved to the other side of the room and climbed some old, rickety wooden stairs, passing through a door to solid, dry ground. There was a red light shining in the corner of the room. They had found the button to start part of the generator back up. They went to the door, but the door on the other side of the generator room suddenly shook full force as something big threw itself against it. Saracen hid under a bed while Anton flew out of the room, into the water, and into another little side-room. The second switch for the generator. He ignored that and hid in a locker there. He was breathing rather heavily. If the Walrider were to come in, it would almost certainly hear him.

He waited a long time before he was sure it had gone into the room in which the generator had been activated. He went to the button in the room he was in and pushed it, hoping Saracen hadn't met any misfortune. He slammed the door shut, trying to calm his breathing, not sure what he was so worked up about. The lack of sound around gave him courage and he started hunting around the room for batteries for the camera. He went towards the door he had slammed and hesitated, as he could hear a sound on the other side. Something slammed into the door, trying to force it open. The Walrider. Panicking, he ran past the lockers and hid behind a water boiler instead. So far hiding behind instead of inside had worked for him. He crawled to the edge of his cover and peaked round, but he could not see the Walrider, even though he was sure it was in the room. Perhaps it was checking the lockers. Well, at least he had not gone into those. He moved round a little more, found it wasn't the Walrider he was looking at, but perhaps a patient from the asylum, and he seemed...deformed. He was indeed looking through the lockers, though. Anton suddenly remembered Saracen, and hoped he didn't come looking for him now the man looking through the lockers wasn't in the same room. Surely he knew better. He crawled back behind the boiler, heard the man say something and saw him go through the door. That was when he realised hiding had been a very good idea. The man had a weapon in his hand.

He waited a few minutes more before crawling out from his hiding spot, keeping low and using the night vision on the camera to see. Out he went, jumping into the water and heading to the door, looking round for Saracen. All too soon, he found the man with a weapon instead, and moved quickly back, so he was half-hidden by a pillar. Cursing under his breath, he looped around the back of the generator and found the door out again. He got as low as he could, his hair trailing in the water, and lowered the camera, as it was almost out of batteries. He got to the edge of the generator and found he could see nothing and had to raise the camera again. The man with the weapon was right there. He backtracked a little, wondering how he was to escape. He went all the way round the generator, followed by the man who could not see Anton, until the Adept noticed a little walkway. Dry, oddly enough. The floor was slightly higher than that of the generator room, and it was blocked by an old wooden desk, jammed tight in there. He paused a moment to change the batteries in the camera and then went back the way he had come, knowing if he went this way he would probably get lost. The man with the weapon was coming through the doorway. Anton cursed. He must have tracked him through the sound of the water. He changed direction and hurdled over the jammed desk, crouching down a little further down, just as the deformed man turned the corner. He turned a corner himself and found himself in a small room full of human remains. He tried to look for somewhere to hide as he fought a rising nausea at being knee-deep in intestines. He was half-under a metal shelf and there was a bed he wouldn't be able to fit under no matter how hard he tried. He bit his lip and turned to the door, sighing in relief when the man with the weapon walked straight past. Peaking round the door, he found the man staring right at the doorway of the room he was in, and dodged back immediately, hiding behind the open door. He heard the man  walk away and peaked out again to check the coast was clear before getting up and going further down the hall, where he found another room. He went inside and found a switch, realising this was why the generator wasn't working yet.

He crept out, thinking perhaps there was another one to find, leaping over the jammed desk again and pulling a face, cursing himself. He had made a fair amount of noise with just that jump. Could he possibly have shouted any louder? He continued down the hall, went to turn off to a different path, but saw someone there. He shook his head and continued the way he had been going originally. The first door he came to was locked. Another one leading to what looked like a laundry room stood open. He went inside and crouched behind a desk thing, looking for batteries. After a while of crouching there, he decided the deformed man wasn't coming in and left the room, going back the way he had come and finding himself walking almost right into him. With a gasp, he turned and ran the other way, straight into the washing up area he had been in before. He slammed the door and looked around. There was essentially nowhere to hide. The desk thing would not provide much cover and in the end he hid in the corner that would be hidden by the door once opened. The door fell down and the man noticed him instantly. With a yell, Anton scrambled away as best he could and took off down the hall. He leapt over the desk jamming the hall and hurtled into a room in which he found a locker he could hide in. He rested his head against the back of the locker and tried to get his breath back and be quiet. Where had Saracen gone? The man came in, looked around and...

...and decided no-one was there. Relieved, he left the locker and finally found some batteries. He looked around the room, making a small comment about how fast the batteries ran out, and decided his next priority was to find Saracen. He made his way down the hallway, hoisting himself over the desk again, and found the corridor he had not been down yet was clear. He went into the first room, full of hope, and walked right into the deformed man with the weapon. Despite himself, he screamed. He turned and ran, slamming the door behind him, and went for the next door down, which turned out to lead to the same room, as he found out when the deformed man same barrelling into him, ripping another scream from his throat. He ran, not quite looking where he was going, and found himself sprinting into the room they had found the first generator button in. He tucked himself behind a little bit of wood and hoped.

Finally, the man went away and Anton was alone again. He stood up shakily and went back out to the water, looking around for something. There was a little green light in the centre of the room, so he went to that and found he just had to flick a little switch to turn on the generator. After that, he made his way back to the crack in the wall that had led him to the generator in the first place. He could find Saracen again later. He got through the tight squeeze and took the stairs two at a time back to the little lobby bit. Looking down, he realised he was tracking blood from a puddle at the top of the stairs across the blue carpet in the corridor leading to the security room. He took a detour into a bathroom, finding himself somewhat desperate, but the first toilet had a bludgeoned corpse upon it. The second was filled with blood and had a severed head and arm floating within. He backed out into the corridor again and told himself he could wait. He went opposite, having lost his bearings, and found himself in a room stacked with shelves. The shelves were stacked with body parts being molested by flies. He went round the shelves and found two men, both dead, one on the floor with his intestines torn out, which Anton only realised when he stepped in them. Shaking his shoe clean, he found a computer on a desk and tried to access some information. Naturally, it didn't work. Instead, he found a camera battery and just as he picked it up, the door slammed shut behind him. He jumped, wheeling round and finding his eyes locking on the door. "Who...who closed the door? Saracen?!" Carefully, he made his way back to the hallway, opening the door only a wary inch at first, then, upon finding the coast clear and deciding the door had simply swung shut, he stepped out and continued down the hall. He got to the Security Room and sat at the table carefully. As he reached for the keys, someone grabbed him, fingers knotting in tight with his long, black hair, arms trying to push him forwards. Anton pressed one hand against the desk and used the other to try and get his attacker off him. He looked up and a needle went plunging into his jugular vein. His vision blurred and he collapsed forwards onto the security desk. He looked round and there was the priest. "I'm sorry, my son." He began as Anton tried weakly to push him away. "I didn't want to have to do this to you, but you can't leave, not yet. There's so much more for you to witness." His attempts to push the man away from him only ended up with him falling off his chair and the man grasping his shoulders as he lay helpless on the floor. "Will you see it?" He forced Anton's head so he could see the security cameras, see footage of men who looked like soldiers marching in. "Can you? Are lord, the Walrider, tearing his truth into the unbelievers." Okay, so this man thought the Walrider was God...odd. Suddenly the soldiers were being thrown around by some unknown force. If he hadn't been so drowsy, his eyes might have widened. "The only way out of this place is the truth." The man continued. "Accept the gospel," the screen went out, dissolved into fuzz, "and all the doors will open for you." At long last, Anton's vision failed him and he lost consciousness.

Skulduggery Pleasant: Outlast: The Horror

The following fiction is based off the game Outlast by Red Barrels, and partially the playthrough by Pewdiepie. Not sure if you should expect great things because I'm a good author or terrible things because it follows the storyline of the game...

Mount Massive Asylum was just about visible in the distance, through the rain. Anton wasn't entirely sure what this mission was about. It looked run down. Certainly not the sort of place any of Mevolent's men would hide out. They had been given a camera and told to record their findings, him and Saracen. Anton was driving. The car wasn't a very good little thing as it bounded along the dirt road, suspension rattling. Saracen sat in the passenger seat, fiddling with the camera, a file on his lap containing the details of their mission. He turned up the radio, listening to a news report. Suddenly, the radio signal was lost, dissolving into feedback. Saracen thumped the dashboard angrily and Anton gave him a cold glare. They saw the sign for the asylum and took a sharp right, then found themselves approaching open gates. They passed through and an awful feeling passed over Anton. Binding sigils, he realised. He pulled up at a security booth, empty, with enough space to pass between them and to the barrier. Slowly, he switched off the car engine and turned to Saracen, who handed him the file and the camera. Anton read the file slowly. Someone who used to work in the tech department, witnessing unusual things, not understanding any of it...one of the men on Mevolent's side. When they had captured him, they had been unable to get a sane word out of him. Saracen stepped out as Anton set up the camera, and went to explore the security booth. Anton went to follow, but stopped when he heard an odd noise. He whirled round, getting his hair in his mouth, and was just in time to see the binding gates close behind him. There was nothing to do in the security booth, so they ventured onwards, towards an inner gate. They pushed it open and began making their way up the driveway, around a large fountain.

They tried the main doors, but they were locked. Saracen shrugged and led round the side. As he walked, he nodded to trucks standing at the base of the steps that led to the front door. "Those are military trucks." Suddenly the castle-like structure began to seem somehow sinister. There was a knocking sound behind them, as though someone had knocked on the front door, but once they had both looked back, they dismissed it as nothing. They approached another metal gate, but it too was locked. Saracen gestured to a hole in the bottom, but Anton shook his head. "There is no way I'll fit through there..."
Saracen was already squeezing through. Anton sighed and attempted to climb over. They were in another courtyard, with another large fountain, and another flight of stairs. They walked past the stairs at a speed, keeping low so as not to be seen through the windows, and approached some scaffolding, scaling a ladder on one side. Anton pointed. Open window, light on. He heaved himself up through the gap, followed by Rue. There was a few armchairs stacked in disarray in the centre of the room, and the light flickered before going out. It was pitch dark in the room now. Anton activated a night vision setting on the camera, taking his friend's hand and leading him through the general mess of the room and through a door. Now there was a little more light, and they found themselves in what looked like a hotel room during a power cut. They passed on through to the room opposite, which was empty. A few chairs and tables, a television against one wall that suddenly erupted into static that sounded like tortured screaming. They exited through another door, out into a similar corridor, a book shelf blocking one way, a boarded up door opposite them. They ventured off down the hall. This way was blocked as well, a few filing cabinets and a shelf of heavy equipment, with the tiniest gap between them. Saracen struggled through the gap, then gestured for Anton to follow. With a groan, he tried to force his bulky body sideways through the gap.

"How long do the batteries last in that thing?" Saracen asked as he walked into a new room, empty but for a desk and computer.
"Not all that long. Half an hour maybe?"
He groaned. "Half an hour? How long are we going to be here for?"
"Quite a while."
"Wait, I think I've found some batteries."
Anton was already opening the door to the next room. Saracen hurried after him. There was a phone off the hook and a file that said confidential. As Anton opened and read it, Saracen couldn't help but say "not any more".
"Project Walrider..." Shudder mumbled, putting down the file. "That's certainly something to investigate."
It seemed to be the average creepy building, even with the seemingly self-shutting doors. A bathroom door shut itself, and when Anton tried to open it, it was locked. Saracen tried a glass door at the same time, but it too was locked. They exchanged looks and went into the only door left open and unchecked. There were drinks machines against one wall, the only source of light. On a sink basin stood a few items. Saracen was examining a ventilation shaft, which at the moment looked like their only chance of continuing.
"Battery...note paper, illegible, tray with drink can and...is that an umbilical cord?"
Ignoring a splatter of blood on the table he was now standing on, Saracen pulled himself into the air duct. "Anton!"


It was a tight fit, of course. Saracen glanced over his shoulder. "You know, it would be easier if you weren't recording my butt."
"I'm not, I heard voices."
"Yeah, mine, telling you to quit recording my butt!"
Anton ignored him, turning the camera to look through a grate. "Walrider!" Someone yelled in the distance, before some terrified soul burst into the room, looked around in a panic and ran back out again, slamming the door behind him. "Well..."
"Who the frick was that?"
"Don't know. Didn't see his face." Continuing on, they dropped down into a bright hallway. They opened the first door they came to and were instantly greeted with a bloody body, hanging by its feet. They both gave noises of shock and Anton turned the night vision back on. It was so dark. The body had no head. Anton felt Saracen cling to him, trying to feel his way in the darkness. "We're in a library." Anton told him, loud and clear. They turned a corner and found a pile of body parts and blood under another man, hung by his neck this time. Saracen wrinkled his nose at the smell. "Okay, what is that smell?"
"You really don't want to know."
They stepped closer to the man, and suddenly he gasped for air, reached out, took hold of a handful of Anton's hair. The soldier stood stock-still, not very happy with the bloody fingers in his long locks.
"They killed us!" The man choked out. "They got out! The Variants! You can't fight them...you have to hide...can unlock...main doors from security...control..." He choked and finally died, releasing Anton. The two soldiers moved out, through a different door to the one they had entered through. They were back in the bright hallway, and someone was approaching from the corner. They both ducked back, peaking round the corner to see. They disappeared from sight and the men got to their feet, turning the opposite direction to where they had seen him go. They walked through another door, needing to put the night vision on again, and found themselves in a bathroom, blood leading to the toilet, in which a severed arm rested. The mirror was cracked. There was a functioning hand drier. Those were all the observations made.

They carried on down the hall, giving brief glances to the jumbled messes, finding they had to squeeze through another thin gap. As they started through, they heard an unpleasant, croaking voice. "Little Pig." They were both taken from the gap by some horrific being. 10 feet tall, bald, fat, arms made of pure muscle, mouth covered in blood and filled with razor-sharp teeth. They were both thrown through a window which led to another part of the building, landed painfully and blacked out.

When Anton came to, there was a man in black robing crouched over him. "And who might you be?" He asked in a, quite honestly creepy, voice. He blacked out again. He was still there when he came round once more. "Merciful God, you have sent me an apostle. Guard your life, son, you have a calling." And with that, he blacked out once more.

Someone was shaking him awake. A voice, distant, high-pitched compared to the priest guy. He got to his feet, shaking Saracen off him, and the first thing he noticed was the dead bodies of the security guards. They were at a reception desk, and these men were long dead, flies buzzing around, innards everywhere...Saracen felt a little unwell. Anton went round the desk, finding and reading another confidential piece. "Saracen? I think we've met project Walrider..."
Saracen looked up at the broken window and suppressed a shudder. They were in another security room, more dead bodies. Saracen got the scare of a lifetime by walking into a plant in the darkness. They moved on to a filing room, trailing blood from the floor across the cream carpet. They carried on to the gloomy hallway. A sign said exit, but when they tried the door, it was locked. They went the other way, down the corridor, towards a man in a wheelchair. They walked past, and Anton raised the camera. This man had been disfigured by something, as had the people watching a static television in the next room they visited. The television had a splatter of blood upon it. The other doorway was boarded up, but there was no actual door and the two men could easily duck under the boards. They went through a door, found another corpse, but this one had a badge. It was a keycard to security control. They went and tried another door, which was, of course, locked. They ducked back into the television room. They walked past the man in the wheelchair, who launched himself at Saracen, who promptly screamed "You bitch".
Anton stood by, but made no move to get the man off his friend as he began pleading for help. "Get them out! Please!" He yelled. Anton raised the camera again. "The doctor is dead! Rip them clean! You have to help me!"
All this time it was hard to hear the man over Saracen's wild screams of 'let go of me' as he tried to shake the man off. Finally he threw him into the wheelchair, and the man curled up against the wall. Anton crouched down to check if he was all right. He shot Saracen a look before leading back to the reception area and turning the camera on some red writing on the walls 'PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL'. They moved on to a hallway with lifts and a flight of stairs leading down, blood marking them. Anton turned down the hallway, avoiding the stairs. A man ran across the hall in the distance and tried to break open a door. The soldiers exchanged looks before venturing down the hall and trying doors, hearing a voice argue that he shouldn't have to die for being sick. They continued until they found the security door, which they opened with the card and went to the desk, doing their best to ignore the corpses. 'THEY LIE' was written on the walls in blood. Saracen smirked, despite himself. "The walls never lie."
"Shut up." Anton sat in the swivel chair at the security desk and did his best to hack into the system. It was going well until the man in the robes appeared on one of the screens and turned off the power.
"Oh cock..." Saracen muttered.
"There's probably a generator in the basement. That's where that camera was. Come on." Anton stood from the chair, but once he turned away from the monitors, he heard it, saw its shadow...Project Walrider...He ducked down, below the window bit, so he could not be seen. He tried to cloak himself behind the monitors as Saracen ran to hide in a locker. The Walrider burst in, looked right at Anton but thankfully he was indeed hidden. It went to the lockers, opened the one next to the one Saracen was in. "You were here, weren't you, you little pig?" It growled, turning away. "I'll kill all you whores." It went towards the door, and Saracen lost sight of it through the slits in the locker, so he stepped out. It was still in the room, and it had heard the locker open. With a squeak of fear, he jumped into the other locker. The Walrider turned around and he held his breath.