Sorry this took so long, but it is a side project so will not be updated as frequently as my main story. Anyway, enjoy the terror.

Whispers

Christa screamed as loud as she possibly could. Not out of fear, but to alert the rest of the team. The volume of her scream rose to an ear splitting pitch, and the thing with Danny's face that currently stood over Logan's unconscious body, recoiled slightly. Its mammoth left hand went to its ears, and it grunted, as though in pain. Whatever the fuck it is, it doesn't have much of a tolerance for loud noise. Christa realised, and would've continued to scream, were her lungs not worn out from all the screaming she'd already been doing.

The thing with Danny's face turned its attention away from Logan, and turned to face her instead. It readied the severed arm it held as a club, and stomped towards Christa.

"I won't go down easy you piece of shit!" She yelled in defiance, before drawing both her SMGs from her belt. The thing didn't back away in the slightest, instead picking up speed. It quit stomping and instead ran towards Christa, roaring some kind of feral battle cry as it did so. Christa didn't back down, instead opening fire. The creature recoiled in what seemed to be pain as Christa unloaded with her twin SMGs. It held up its giant left arm to protect its face, and continued to run towards Christa. As the clips in her SMG ran low, the thing picked up speed.

Christa rolled to the side seconds before the thing hit her, and it collided with the bed on the other side of the tent. It stumbled onto the bed, dropping the arm it held and knocking all the medical equipment on the nearby table to the floor. Christa quickly reloaded her SMGs as the thing recovered, and took aim at its head. Before she could fire however, the thing picked up the bed that it had just stumbled into with both arms. Crap. Was the only thought in Christa's mind as the thing threw the bed at her as though it were made of paper.

Thinking fast, Christa darted towards the table that Logan had been lying on, and slid over it, landing in a crouch on the other side. The thrown bed just missed her, and smacked into the wall of the tent. The thing grunted in what seemed to be annoyance, then picked up the severed arm that served as its weapon and ran towards Christa again. She leaned out from behind the table and opened fire with her newly reloaded SMGs.

This time the thing didn't slow down, instead running straight through the bullets and climbing over the table. Still in a crouch, Christa rolled under the table to avoid the thing. Before she could get her breath back, a swollen fist smashed through the wood of the table above her. She recoiled back in fright as the hand just missed her. It reached down however and found her leg. Before Christa knew what was happening she was being pulled upwards by something with the strength of ten men.

Crippling pain filled the bones in her leg, and she knew that if the thing kept pulling with that much force, it would rip her leg clean off. Maybe that's what it wanted. Ignoring the pain, Christa aimed upwards and opened fire once again with her SMGs. Bullet holes instantly appeared in the table above her, and blood began to pour through the holes before dripping onto her face. The blood smelt...wrong...no human's blood should smell like that.

She managed to ignore the repulsion that threatened to make her vomit, and instead kept firing upwards. In such a small space the gunshots echoed massively, nearly deafening her. Still, her fingers did not leave the triggers of her weapons and she continued to fire. The thing did not have as good a grip as her, and after firing for ten seconds straight she felt it let go of her leg. Then she heard two telltale clicks that told her that her guns were empty, seconds before the table rose into the air.

She looked up to see that the thing with Danny's face had lifted the table. It had dropped the severed arm on the ground and now held the table with both hands, lifting the huge thing with ease. It threw the table into a corner of the tent, before stomping towards her.

"Do your worst you..." The thing never got the chance to oblige her, as its chest suddenly exploded, spraying more of its wrong blood all over Christa. A bullet hole the size of a 30mm round decorated the thing's chest, a hole that passed straight through it. Christa could almost see through the hole. The thing screamed in pain and anger, and turned to face its assailant. Christa couldn't see what it saw, but she heard a familiar voice.

"Christ alive!" Enrique exclaimed, his Spanish accent the most beautiful thing Christa had ever heard. "I've got to tell you my deformed friend...the mask isn't really doing anything for your appearance." The thing ignored Enrique's taunt and instead rushed him. Christa got to her feet just in time to see Enrique blow another hole through the thing's chest. It stumbled backwards, but didn't look close to death by any means. She looked around for a way to help Enrique, and saw a bonesaw lying on the floor of the tent, probably knocked there when the thing collided with the bed earlier. Without thinking, Christa bent down to grab the saw, then rushed towards the thing. If it sensed her presence, it didn't show it, and Christa found no resistance as she stabbed the saw into the thing's skull.

The effect was instantaneous. The thing screamed in pain, and blood began to pour from its head. Enrique took full advantage of the thing's discomfort, and fired another 30mm round. This proved to be the critical shot. It hit the thing right between the eyes...right between Danny's eyes..., and blew a hole right through its skull. The thing grunted one last time before falling face first to the floor.

*Archer*

Archer held his scoped magnum tightly as he ran across the camp. Christa's screams had been so loud people in the Capital Wasteland could probably hear them, and Archer bolted towards the tent from which the screams had originated as fast as his legs would carry him. Finally he saw what looked like a medical tent, and smelt a horrific smell. This is the place alright. Archer thought grimly, before reading his magnum and bursting into the tent.

What he saw wasn't a hideous freak attacking the woman he still admittedly loved, but was that same woman locking lips with Enrique. This didn't surprise Archer in the slightest; the two had begun dating shortly before the trip, and hadn't bothered to keep it a secret. Still, whenever Archer and Christa were alone together, she had difficulty looking him in the eyes. This wasn't normal; she'd been fairly nonchalant about all the other men she'd dated since they'd broken up. With Enrique it was different however. Perhaps she felt that she was betraying him by sleeping with his best friend. Archer didn't feel betrayed, but that didn't mean he felt good about it. He always made sure to be as far away from Christa as possible whenever she started playing tonsil hockey with one of her boyfriends, of which there had been a few. He knew the relationship with Enrique wouldn't last, but still it pissed him off.

He coughed loudly when he realised there was no danger, holstering his magnum as he did so. Christa immediately separated from Enrique, quickly turning red. Enrique on the other hand looked very pleased with himself.

"It looks like you were late to the party amigo." He said with a grin, motioning casually to the 7ft tall corpse that lay face down in the middle of the tent.

"What happened?" Archer asked seriously. "I heard the screams."

"That...thing...came into the tent." Christa said, shaking despite herself. "It..it wore Danny's face." Archer's eyes widened in surprise. "It wore his face like a fucking mask!"

"What is it boss?" Enrique asked Archer, kicking the thing's corpse as he did so.

"I think it's one of the swamp folk." Archer replied, clearly unsure. "When we got off the boat, the captain said to watch out for swamp folk. He said they were inbred freaks."

"This ugly fucker certainly fits the bill." Enrique quipped.

"Are you alright?" Archer asked Christa, ignoring Enrique completely as he saw she was covered with blood.

"I'm fine." She answered, wiping some of the thing's blood from her face as she did so. "None of the blood is mine." Archer felt a small amount of relief. "Logan's seen better days though. The thing got a good hit on him." She motioned to Logan, who lay unconscious on the opposite side of the tent from Archer.

"He's a tough son of a bitch, he'll be fine." Archer said emotionlessly. It wasn't that he valued Logan's life less than that of his other allies; he just knew it would take more than a smack to the face to drop him.

"I'll treat him." Christa said, already going to where her medical equipment now lay on the floor.

"Good." Archer replied. "Enrique, drag the corpse out of here and dispose of it, then head back up to the watchtower."

"You've got it chief." Enrique replied, mockingly saluting Archer as he did so.

"Also, have any of you seen Todd?" Archer asked, unsure as to where the fifth member of their team was.

"Nope." Enrique replied casually. Christa shook her head, then turned back to her medical equipment.

"I'll go and find him. Be careful. That freak somehow managed to climb over the fence, so there's nothing stopping other swamp folk from doing the same. Keep an eye out Enrique." Enrique nodded, and with that Archer turned and left the tent.

*Todd*

It whispered. He had no idea what it was, but it whispered. The whispering was incomprehensible, yet irresistible. He'd first heard it while searching one of the interrogation rooms. The whispering had filled his ears and his mind, and he couldn't help but follow it. The whispering had led him to a concealed underground tunnel, clearly an escape tunnel designed by one of the prisoners.

Despite its age, the tunnel was still sturdy, and Todd had followed the whispering inside. The whispering had led him far underground, and as he'd carried on, it had grown darker and darker. Still he followed the whispering, because he couldn't think of anything else. Whenever he tried to think of another topic, the whispering rolled around in his skull again, and he continued to follow.

Now it was pitch black, but the whispering had grown louder. I'm getting close. Todd thought to himself as he neared whatever was whispering. If he'd been smarter, he would've wondered just what he was getting close to, and would've wondered with apprehension. He wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed by any stretch of the imagination however, and the sensible thought didn't cross his mind. He saw light at the end of the tunnel, and walked into a small chamber.

The chamber was completely empty apart from a ladder, and a corpse. The corpse is what lit the chamber; more precisely the corpse's Pip Boy was what lit the chamber. The dead man's Pip Boy light was still on. The whispering stopped as Todd entered the chamber, and he felt a bit dizzy as his normal mental faculties returned to him, as unenviable as they were.

He looked around the chamber, trying to remember what had made him want to walk down here. His gaze rested on the ladder, which rose up to a hatch on the ceiling. Before Todd could ponder this, the hatch opened, and Archer poked his head through.

"Todd?" He asked, clearly confused. He looked as if he'd just been in a trance, and his brain had just started working properly again. Todd had no idea that he looked exactly the same.

*Archer*

"Hey boss." Todd said casually.

"What the hell are you doing down here?"

"I...I don't know." Todd replied, a puzzled look on his face. "What are you doing here?" He asked in response. Archer tried to answer, but then realised he had no idea what the answer was.

"I'm not sure either." His brow furrowed in confusion. "I think..."Archer paused for a second as he scanned his mind for some reason, some motivation that explained why he was now looking into a hatch outside the prison, into an underground chamber in which Todd stood, with a corpse at his side. His memory of the last minute or two were hazy, but he remembered hearing something. A voice?

"A whisper." Todd remembered suddenly, finishing Archer's thought for him. "I heard someone...or something...whispering, and I followed it."

"I think you're not the only one." Archer replied, confused as to just what was going on.

"The whispering...it came from in here." Todd's eyes scanned the chamber again as he spoke.

"I doubt it was the corpse." Archer sighed, then started to climb down the ladder. "Let's have a look shall we?" The second Archer's feet touched the floor of the chamber, Todd screamed in pain. His hands went to his head, then darted to his ears. As quickly as the invisible affliction had begun, it ended, and Todd looked Archer dead in the eye.

"The corpse." Todd said suddenly, but with complete certainty. "The whispering is coming from the corpse. Something in the dead guy's pockets is what's whispering."

"Are you sure?" Archer asked dubiously.

"I heard it boss, I heard the whispering again. It was coming from inside one of the corpse's pockets." Archer was about to question Todd, then decided not to bother. What harm can possibly come from searching a corpse? He thought to himself, before walking over to the body.

The corpse was unusual, in that there was not a scratch on the dead man's entire body. That wasn't all however. The corpse hadn't rotted in the slightest. This man only died a short while ago. Archer realised. Maybe just before we arrived. Despite his uninjured appearance, the man had a look of complete dread on his face. The look of horror chilled even Archer to the bone, a man who had seen a Super Mutant rip out a wastelander's spine, head and all.

Taking his eyes away from the man's facial expression, Archer began to search him. The man was wearing a brown hooded sweatshirt over a white t-shirt and baggy white trousers: a wasteland wanderer outfit. Archer reached into the pockets of the sweatshirt and found only a 10mm pistol and some ammo. He ignored these finds, and pulled off the man's sweatshirt. Underneath, he found that the man was wearing a satchel around his waist. He opened the satchel, and found himself face to face with the source of the whispering.

It was a book. This was no ordinary book however. The whispering started again, this time louder than before and coming from inside Archer's skull. He didn't hear it, he thought it. Archer felt like his skull was going to split in half, and cried out in pain as the whispering filled his mind.

"SHUT UP!" He yelled at the book, before grabbing it and throwing it across the chamber. The book hit the wall with a quiet thud, before dropping to the floor. The whispering instantly stopped, much to Archer's relief. He felt dizziness overtake him, and leaned against the wall to steady himself. He realised that a cold sweat had overtaken him, and he quickly wiped sweat from his forehead.

"Are you alright boss?" Archer didn't answer, because he didn't know. He didn't know what that book had done to him. There was something seriously wrong with the book, that much was certain. Now that it was no longer trying to rip apart his skull, Archer approached the book, and examined it.

The book looked innocent enough. It was made of brown leather, and looked to have quite a few pages. Some pages seemed to be loose, as if a clumsy oaf had tried to read it and accidentally ripped the pages out. The book had what looked to be a red scar on its front cover. At first Archer thought the scar was dripping blood, but then he blinked and saw that it was bone dry.

"Boss, look!" Todd called. Archer turned to face him, and saw that Todd was rooting around in the satchel. He turned away from the corpse and held a small object in the air, obviously found in the satchel.

"Is that a holotape?" Archer asked no-one in particular. It was. Curious, Archer walked over to the dead man, and inserted the holotape into the Pip Boy. Immediately a male voice filled the room.

"Hello?" The voice said. "Sorry, I've never recorded a holotape before. Alright, if you're listening to this, I'm dead. I won't be alive for much longer anyway." The voice didn't seem too upset by its imminent demise. "Death comes as a relief actually, because I won't have to listen to this damn book whispering to me anymore. But I'm getting ahead of myself." The voice took a deep breath, then continued. "My name is Lucas Pryor. I'm a scavenger, as I'm sure you are. While searching a cave not too far from here, I found a book. I hadn't found anything of value yet, and at this point I was desperate to salvage something. ANYTHING. Against my better judgement, I took the book."

"The swamp folk didn't like that. They'd made some kind of altar in that cave, and seemed to be worshipping the book. They weren't pleased when I took it. I managed to make my way to Turtledove Detention camp, a place I'm sure you've visited already. I found a tunnel in an interrogation room, and made my way inside, trying to hide from the swamp folk who were hot on my tail. I waited in the chamber you stand in right now, listening to those freaks as they looked for me above. Eventually, I heard them walk away, and tried to leave. I couldn't however."

"I heard the book whispering, as I 'm sure you have. The whispering seemed to fill my head, and I couldn't think of anything else. After listening to it for a few minutes, I began to understand the whispering. It told me not to move. It told me to stay in this chamber. I laughed it off and walked towards the ladder, but found I didn't want to climb it. I tried to will myself to climb, but I couldn't. I could've sworn I heard the book laugh as I realised there was no way out.

I've been here for what my Pip Boy tells me is several days. I've exhausted all my provisions, and now I find that I can't even get up from where I'm sitting. The book...it's forcing me to stay here till I either starve or go mad. At this point, I don't know which will happen first. I know I'll die soon, and I welcome it. But this book...it must be destroyed. Left with nothing else to do, I read the book. The insanity within almost destroyed my mind, but I learnt about the book. I learnt its name. It's called the Krivbeknih – I have no idea if I'm pronouncing that right. I also learnt about a stone obelisk in a place called Dunwich, back in the Capital Wasteland. The obelisk contains great power, but if the Krivbeknih is placed against the obelisk, it should destroy the book."

"I'm so hungry, I can barely even think straight anymore. It looks like my sanity is going to end before my life. Please, if you're reading this, go back to the Capital Wasteland, find the place called Dunwich, and destroy this godforsaken book." There was silence, and Archer assumed the recording was over. Suddenly, the voice of Lucas Pryor spoke up again, but it was different. Now it sounded deranged, unnatural and – Archer didn't know how he knew this but he did – evil.

"Ug-Qualtoth!" The voice screamed madly. "Skinless one, I am coming to deep temple! Died, Ug-Qualtoth again. I'll be there soon whisperer, I'll be there. Abdul prays to the sharp knife, prays to cut deep temple. Alhazred! G'yeth!" The recording finally ended after that, leaving Archer to contemplate the madness that he just heard.

This is insane. He thought as he leant against the wall, looking at Lucas Pryor's corpse and remembering what he had said in life. Archer didn't doubt that the book was evil, but the rest of it, about it forcing him to stay in the chamber and starve, was madness. Archer would've dismissed it immediately, had he not heard the whispers and felt that damn book slithering inside his skull. Lucas had begged anyone who listened to destroy the book. Then...Then he went mad. Archer tried to remember the mad gibberish that had come from Lucas' mouth. Alhazred? Ug-Qualtoth? G'yeth? What the fuck? It wasn't uncommon for wastelanders to be driven mad by the desolate world in which they lived, and Archer had heard many a crazy bastard shout gibberish. This had been unlike any he'd heard before however. He'd never heard madness like what had afflicted Lucas Pryor in his last moments. What should I do about the book?

As Archer pondered this, he didn't hear the whispers. He didn't hear them enter Todd's mind, didn't see Todd's hands go to his head as the whispers filled his skull. He didn't notice Todd walk over to the book, and crouch next to it. He only noticed something was wrong when he casually glanced in Todd's direction, and saw that he was opening the book. A bloodcurdling dread filled Archer as the book slowly opened. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew that that book should not be opened.

"STOP!" He yelled at Todd. Todd completely ignored him. He couldn't hear anything, the whispers were too loud. Archer dashed towards Todd but it was too late. The book opened, and he heard a shriek with malevolence of which mankind has never known, and evil so potent that it could make a man rip his eyes out in horror. The shriek was impossibly loud, and it filled the tiny chamber. Not content with that however, it burst through the open hatch and filled Point Lookout, screaming its darkness to the swamp and all of its denizens.

Darkness is free. Doom descends upon our heroes. Will they survive?

Please review, as I need tips to improve my horror writing skill. Pretty please?