MASS EFFECT: PROJECT PERSEPHONE

Chapter 9: Tormented

Location: Titan Station Hospital, East Wing, Asylum, 1350 hrs

Isaac Clarke

"What the hell was that?" Isaac asked warily. The amount of caution being displayed by Shepard and her squadmates was making him nervous. The Commander had her assault rifle drawn and Miranda was grasping her sub-machine gun tightly. Shepard's heavy pistol in his hands felt tiny by comparison.

"Shepard?" Garrus called out, aiming his flashlight up at a spot somewhere above them. Isaac couldn't really see what lay beyond his cell, but he had no intention of stepping out to see what the Turian was so concerned about. This was practically a military operation, and he was just a civilian! If he was going to do anything, it would be following Commander Shepard's lead.

"What is it, Garrus?" Shepard inched closer to the entrance of his cell, assault rifle still raised and at the ready.

"There's a lot of movement out here, Shepard. I think that the natives are getting restless."

"We should leave, Commander. This is hardly a defensible position if we get attacked," Miranda informed her, clear blue eyes darting from one darkened corner to the next.

"Okay, we're moving out!" Shepard announced, striding back into the cell and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Isaac, stay close. We're getting out of here."

"Wait a minute. Where are we going? Why is it no longer safe? What-"

Isaac felt the breath catch in his throat when the redhead leaned in close and stared deep into his eyes. He could see an emotion reflected in her eyes, an emotion which seemed so frighteningly out of place. Fear. Commander Shepard was afraid.

"Isaac, I need you to trust me okay? We have no more time for explanations. Right now, we're all in terrible, terrible danger."

Shepard finished her warning just as all hell broke loose, right on cue.

An ear-splitting scream cut through the air, marking the beginning of absolute chaos. Sounds of shattering glass came next, accompanied by a series of terrifying, unholy roars and howls. A loud alarm began to blare, red warning lights flashing erratically. Garrus and Miranda snapped to attention, bringing their weapons up and immediately letting loose with a barrage of gunfire which filled the small cell with bright, disorienting flashes of light. Isaac could see the Turian's eyes widen, his mandibles flaring as he shouted a single word of warning to his Commander.

"Incoming!"

Shepard flew into motion, seizing Isaac by the arm and dragging him over to the entrance of his cell, rapidly shouting out frantic orders to her squad as she did so. Isaac let out an indignant shout, feeling incredibly annoyed that he was being manhandled by a girl, and tried rather unsuccessfully to yank his arm out of her vice-like grip. His eyes widened in disbelief when, even with a fierce tug, he was unable to loosen the redhead's hold on him. Shepard's arm felt like coiled steel, and she seemed to be possessing strength which was completely disproportionate to her size.

"Hey!"

His arm was starting to feel sore and Isaac cursed, voicing out his discomfort and demanding for Shepard to let go of him. Unfortunately, he was drowned out by the continued sounds of gunfire and ghastly screams, and even if she had heard him, Shepard paid him no mind. A particularly loud screech made him wince and temporarily cease his struggles. What the hell was going on?

Isaac's questions were answered when they reached the entrance to his cell. Shepard finally let go of his arm, turning to engage in a hurried conversation with Garrus and Miranda who were now huddled against the wall. Isaac hissed as he rubbed his bruised limb, the breath catching in his throat when he saw the nightmarish scene which was playing out in front of him.

"Holy shit..."

There was blood, a lot of it, coating and almost painting the floors and walls with red. Glass shards, dead bodies and debris littered the blood-streaked ground, and several vaguely humanoid shapes could be seen rampaging about in the main hallway outside his cell. At first, Isaac thought that he had walked into the middle of a violent riot, but the intermittent flashes from the alarm and various flickering lights in the hallway quickly revealed something much, much worse.

Over a dozen grotesque, misshapen creatures were running amok, stabbing and dismembering the corpses which were strewn about the hallway with bloody claws and blades. Their forms resembled that of ordinary Humans, but their anatomy and features were those of monsters. The creatures were dressed in tattered, bloody rags and their bodies were contorted and twisted by horrific mutations. Their backs were hunched, warped bones and muscles bursting forth from rips in their flesh to form a set of extra limbs which sprouted from their shoulders and ended in cruelly-sharp and jagged points. Their faces were severely deformed and skull-like, split open to reveal gaping maws from which unearthly, unnerving howls and screams emanated.

Isaac then caught sight of the cells which lined both sides of the hallway. They were very similar to his in both size and appearance, and the only observable difference was that instead of having walls made of metal, these cells kept their prisoners contained with large glass panels. Although the glass was most probably reinforced and therefore more than capable of keeping the prisoners in, it was completely incapable of keeping the attacking monsters out. Isaac watched, horrified, as one of the creatures smashed its way through the glass with just a swing of its mutated arms and immediately pounced on the cell's occupant with a blood-curdling screech, driving its hideous appendages repeatedly into the unfortunate soul's chest. Its target let out a terrified scream as he went down, flailing and convulsing horribly, spurts of crimson jetting into the air and spraying across the cell's walls.

Isaac stood stock-still, frozen in place with shock and unable to believe what he was seeing. This could not be happening! This had to be some kind of sick nightmare!

"I'm taking point! Miranda, cover our flank! Garrus, you're the rear guard!"

Shepard's shouting finally caused Isaac to come to his senses and tear his eyes away from the macabre sight in the hallway. That, and the fact that she had once again placed his arm in her crushing grip. Isaac winced, and the redhead let go of his arm once she saw the pained look on his face.

"We're going to make a run for it!" She bellowed, trying desperately to make herself heard over the cacophony of alarms and monstrous screams. "Stay on my ass, and don't stop for anything, you got that?!"

Isaac opened his mouth to reply, but he was unable to form any words. His throat was incredibly dry and he felt numb all over. There was a sick feeling in his gut which got even worse when he glanced back at the bloody carnage outside his cell. Once he had gotten over most of the initial shock and revulsion, Isaac could not help but feel that there was something disturbingly familiar about all of this. Suddenly and without warning, morbid images of bloodied, dismembered corpses flashed through his mind, making him gasp in shock and pain. Isaac shook his head and blinked rapidly, trying to get rid of the splitting pain in his head. What did all this mean? Had he seen or experienced something like this before? He swallowed hard and turned back to Shepard, unable to suppress the shiver which ran through his body.

"ISAAC!"

Overwhelming urgency filled her emerald-green eyes, and her pretty features had been tempered and rearranged into a fierce scowl. It was like someone had flipped a switch and turned Shepard into an entirely different person. With her entire body tensed up, poised and ready to strike, her back to the cell's wall and assault rifle gripped tight in both armored hands, flaming red hair whipping about her face, Shepard looked every bit like the legendary warrior goddess that the galaxy made her out to be.

"Yeah! Yeah, I got it!"

"Good!" Shepard swapped out her assault rifle in favor of her shotgun, hefting the impressive-looking piece of military hardware up with one hand and slamming in a new thermal clip with the other, her eyes never leaving his face as she loaded and readied the weapon. "Hang on to that and shoot anything that gets close!" She shouted, jabbing a finger at the heavy pistol in his hand. Isaac nodded dumbly in response, wrapping his other hand around the weapon's grip. Everything was progressing much too quickly for his tortured mind to absorb, and the throbbing pain in his head caused by his latest flashback was of no help either.

Shepard must have sensed his uneasiness, for she gave him a reassuring pat on his shoulder and flashed him a small, mischievous smile. "Don't worry, Isaac. The safety's off."

That almost got him smirking in amusement, if not for the sudden appearance of a particularly gruesome creature directly behind Shepard. The ghastly monstrosity was missing half of its face, thanks to several thick, writhing tentacles which had forced their way through its throat and out of its eye sockets, causing its eyeballs to dangle disgustingly out of its skull. Even more disturbingly, the tentacles appeared to be originating from a grayish mass of pulsating flesh housed within the thing's bloated stomach, revealed by a gaping slash wound across its abdomen. Isaac felt like retching when he realized that the tentacles were actually part of the monster's mutated intestines, but his disgust at its dreadful appearance was quickly forgotten when the horrific creature reared back, giving rise to a terrible howl as it lunged at Shepard with its bloody blade-like arms.

"LOOK OUT!"

Isaac's horrified expression was the only warning that Shepard needed. By the time those two words had left his mouth, she had already spun around to face her attacker and pulled the trigger, blasting the creature backwards in a massive shower of blood and sending it crashing lifelessly to the ground in a mangled heap. Isaac watched, wide-eyed, as Shepard fired her shotgun again with a deafening boom, throwing the creature's corpse halfway across the hallway like a rag doll. It impacted a pillar with a loud crunch, breaking up into several wet, bloody pieces which continued to roll and tumble across the blood-streaked ground.

Isaac cringed. The sick feeling in his gut intensified.

The creature's dismembered torso came to rest with a splat near one of the shattered cells, where two equally grotesque monsters were currently in the midst of eviscerating a screaming prisoner. As one of them slashed its way through the unfortunate man's spine and bisected him at the waist, the other decapitated him with a jagged blade to the neck, causing his dying screams to end abruptly in a gurgle. His executioners then raised their hideous, malformed heads to investigate the chunk of meat outside the cell, their unhallowed gazes seemingly following the trail of blood it had left behind.

Fuck.

Isaac felt his blood run cold when a pair of milky-white eyes focused on him. The creatures snarled, rising up on their twisted legs and slowly stalking toward his cell with awkward, jerky movements. They looked just like predatory animals, vicious and wild, their slavering jaws snapping and blackened, elongated teeth gnashing together. Suddenly and without warning, the monsters roared and broke into a sprint, bladed arms swinging menacingly. Shepard swiftly leveled her shotgun at the rapidly approaching horrors and pulled the trigger, cursing loudly as hot smoke billowed out of her weapon.

"Shit, I'm out! I need to reload! Garrus, you're up!" At her command, the heavily-scarred Turian shouldered his sniper rifle, aimed briefly through the scope and fired twice in rapid succession. Two perfect head shots. The monsters crumpled to the ground in mid-stride, their heads having burst open like blood-filled balloons.

Isaac just stared at the alien marksman, completely blown away by his skill. Shepard slapped her squadmate on the shoulder and gave him an appreciative nod. "Nice shooting."

Garrus returned it with the Turian equivalent of a smirk, his eyes twinkling in amusement. "Really, Shepard? 'Nice shooting?' Is that all I'm getting?"

"Commander! Behind you!"

Turning to see what Miranda was pointing at, Isaac nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight of two headless corpses staggering to their feet. Acting purely on instinct and driven by a potent combination of fear and adrenaline, Isaac found himself bringing up the heavy pistol and firing off six shots at point-blank range, all of which struck the nearest monster in the torso. The impact of the first five bullets tore into its body and spun it around, while the remaining bullet served as the coup de grâce, slamming into its back and shattering its spine. Shepard and Garrus quickly joined in and fired at the shambling corpses, their far more powerful weapons blowing large holes in the undead creatures and tearing off entire limbs in the process. When all of their thermal clips had been expended, two shredded and broken bodies lay in unrecognizable pieces on the ground. They did not rise again.

"What the fuck! Did you see that? DID YOU SEE THAT?"

Shepard was about to reply to Isaac's outburst when a macabre chorus of howls made the noise die in her throat. Attracted by the sounds of gunfire, five more creatures were stalking toward the cell with their bladed appendages raised, a horrifying look of hunger and insanity frozen on each of their pale, bloodied faces.

"I think now would be a good time to, what do you Humans call it, haul ass?" Garrus called out, tilting his sniper rifle to the side and ejecting the spent thermal clip. A fresh one was quickly inserted to take its place, but Isaac could not help but notice a slightly disconcerting fact. The ammo compartment on Garrus' armor was now almost empty, housing only a single thermal clip. A quick glance at Shepard made him feel even more uneasy. How were they going to fight their way out of this? Her squad was running dangerously low on ammo, and there could be an entire horde of creatures in the way! If it had taken that much firepower just to kill three...

"Sorry, Zaeed." Shepard unclipped a grenade from her waist, gazing at it with a wry smile as she felt its weight in her hand. "I know I promised you that I will save this for Harbinger-"

The redhead ripped the pin out of the spherical explosive and let it fly.

"-but this is a goddamn emergency."

The grenade clattered to the ground, flashing and beeping rapidly. Their monstrous adversaries appeared to have not noticed it landing in front of them and simply continued on their slow march of death. They only had murder on their minds and moved forward like automatons to fulfill their single task of bloody slaughter.

"Go! Go!" Shepard yelled, pulling her free arm back and swinging it forward in the universal military hand signal for 'advance'. She charged out of the cell, greeting the lead monster with a shotgun blast to the chest and sending it crashing into its fellows, bringing the entire group down atop the grenade in a pile of flailing mutated limbs. Isaac, still stunned by the extremely violent and disturbing events which had taken place in the past few seconds, hesitated to follow her and was rewarded with a shove from a scowling Miranda.

"Move it!" She snapped, shooting him a venomous glare which Isaac returned as he stumbled out of the cell.

"Hey, fuck off-" Isaac began, a second before the grenade went off.

The shockwave from the explosion knocked the wind out of his lungs and threw him to the ground. Bright lights exploded in front of his eyes and a harsh cry escaped his lips as his head made contact with the hard ground, sending a bolt of pain shooting through his left temple. His vision was blurry, everything was swimming in and out of focus and there was an incessant ringing in his ears. Isaac groaned and put a hand to the side of his head, feeling completely disoriented. When he pulled it away, he could see fresh red blood coating his fingertips.

A gloved hand seized his wrist and yanked him up, practically dragging him to his feet. Isaac thought it was Shepard at first, but then he caught sight of raven hair, blue eyes and a white bodysuit. Damn it, he was being manhandled by a girl. Again.

"Oh for the love of..." Miranda sighed in exasperation as Isaac stumbled against her and placed a hand on her shoulder for support, trying to regain his balance. "Come on, get a hold of yourself! And hands off!" She jabbed a finger into his chest to push him away, a look of disgust and annoyance on her face.

"Are you normally this bitchy, or is it just me?" Isaac glowered at Miranda, muttering curses under his breath. His sight and hearing were still severely affected by the explosion, but she didn't give him a chance to recover before slamming a hand into his back to force him onward.

Isaac moved like he was in a daze, staggering and stumbling forward with only Miranda's hand on his back to guide him. He could barely make out Shepard's armored form in front of him, firing her shotgun left and right at the bloodthirsty creatures which were throwing themselves into her path, eager to sink their fangs and talons into her flesh. She seemed to be holding her own incredibly well, blasting apart any enemies in her way and even punching one in the face, lifting it off its feet and sending it crashing through the glass of one of the cells. Many of the creatures which Shepard had shot were still alive, writhing on the ground and attempting to get back on their feet. Some even took a swipe at Isaac as he ran past, although none of their clumsy attacks managed to hit their intended target. Miranda and Garrus ignored the fallen creatures, focusing instead on dispatching those which were coming at the group from the sides and the rear.

The Turian's impressive marksmanship was on full display, sniping target after target even while on the move, his movements so fluid and his accuracy so perfect that it was insane to watch. Bring up rifle, aim through scope. Squeeze trigger. Head shot. Head shot. Head shot.

Isaac had reacted with disbelief when Miranda holstered her sub-machine gun and raised a hand in response to a creature's crazed charge. It all made sense a few seconds later when she glowed a brilliant blue and telekinetically flung the monstrosity into the opposite wall with bone-crushing force, all with just a simple wave of her hand. 'She's a biotic,' Isaac realized.

Shepard expertly led her squad through the hospital's maze-like asylum, carving a bloody path through the darkened, chaotic hallways with her bullets and fists. They rounded corner after corner and everywhere Isaac looked, he could see only twisted monsters, death and destruction. They were doing a terrific job so far of keeping the attacking creatures at bay, but he was getting extremely concerned about the sheer number of them which were now converging upon their position, drawn like a massive swarm of bees to honey. The sweet nectar was, of course, the delicious blood flowing through their veins. His greatest fear was that Shepard would take a wrong turn and lead them all into a dead end, where the huge horde of creatures behind them would finally catch up and rip them all apart.

His hearing had recovered somewhat, allowing him to make out other sounds and noises such as Shepard's commands to her squad, bursts of gunfire, the bloodcurdling howls of the monsters and a looping message being broadcast over the hospital's PA system.

"Attention. Evacuation in progress. Evacuation in progress. Please consult your RIG for the nearest exit," the female-sounding synthetic voice announced calmly, completely oblivious to the fact that they now had more than thirty murderous monsters snapping at their heels. Isaac stole a quick look backwards and immediately regretted it; their pursuers formed a terrifying tidal wave of writhing bodies, pushing and shoving against one another, all of them screaming loudly for their blood.

"We're almost there!" Shepard shouted over her shoulder as they made another turn into a relatively empty hallway. Isaac's spirits lifted upon seeing an arrow and the words 'to secure area' written in thick block letters on a sign above a large set of doors at the end of the hallway. There was nothing in their way except for a few trolley beds and a bloodied and deformed corpse sitting hunched over on a wheelchair. They were going to make it!

The twisted shadows on the wall beside him gave Isaac the energy he needed to put on a final burst of speed and make the mad dash down the hallway. Panting hard, lungs burning and with the blood pounding in his ears, Isaac almost threw himself through the doors after Shepard, relief flooding through his entire body. He spun around, doubled over with his hands on his knees and watched as Miranda made it through as well. Despite his immense dislike for the biotic, a small part of Isaac was glad that she was safe. Miranda had protected him several times during their harrowing escape after all. It was only when Garrus tried to run past the wheelchair-bound corpse that their luck finally ran out and disaster struck.

The 'dead' body's grotesque, skinless head suddenly jerked upwards, making all the color drain from Isaac's face and causing his heart to skip a beat. Screaming like a banshee, the reanimated corpse leapt out of the wheelchair with inhuman speed and pounced on the unsuspecting Turian sniper, sinking its elongated teeth into his unarmored neck and violently tackling him to the ground. Not content with just trying to rip out his throat, the creature swung its arm downwards and stabbed a sharp piece of bone into Garrus' shoulder, effortlessly penetrating the armor and causing thick spurts of blue Turian blood to erupt out of the wound.

"GARRUS!" Shepard cried out in horror, screaming his name as the creature withdrew its bloody bone spike from the Turian's body and drove it back in repeatedly with a terrible crunching sound, spraying a terrifying amount of blood across the floor.

The sight of Garrus getting torn to pieces made her lose it completely. The furious redhead set upon the attacking creature with a vengeance and began to ruthlessly and mercilessly bludgeon it into oblivion with her shotgun, screaming and shouting vicious curses with every powerful swing she made. "Let! Him! Go! You! Motherfucker!" Her face was contorted into an angry snarl and the flecks of blood landing on it gave her an almost feral appearance. It was a terrible sight indeed, to watch Shepard lose control and give in to her bloodlust. How many of her enemies had met a similar fate, crushed into a bloody pulp by the goddess of war?

Isaac cringed inwardly, terrified by Shepard's brutality as her ferocious attacks broke the corpse's back with a sickening snap. He immediately wished that he could forget the sight of shattered sections of spine bursting through diseased and decaying skin, accompanied by an extremely generous serving of gore. The lower half of the creature immediately went limp, effectively severed from the rest of its body. The impact was so strong that it also destroyed Shepard's shotgun, causing it to shatter into several pieces. The barrel, stock and other weapon parts went flying in all directions, distracting her long enough for the creature to land a solid blow on her face. Its other arm, also tipped with a serrated bone blade, sliced open a deep vertical gash all the way down from the top of Shepard's left eyebrow to the corner of her mouth.

"Son of a bitch!" Shepard howled, crashing to the floor with both hands clamped tightly over her left eye. Fresh red blood was streaming out of the gaps between her fingers, and Isaac didn't need to be a combat medic to know that the injury she had just sustained was probably quite severe. To make matters even worse, Isaac could see the rest of the creatures skidding around the corner at the far end of the hallway, slamming into the walls and each other as their momentum carried them forward and their deformed feet slipped and struggled to find purchase on the slick, blood-soaked tiles. However, the delay was only temporary and the twisted monstrosities quickly regained their footing, beginning a frenzied charge en masse toward the four survivors.

Raw, unbridled panic gripped at Isaac with its icy talons. He had not felt so terrified and helpless before in his entire life. They were running out of time! With Shepard out of commission and Garrus fighting for his life against the undead creature, straining to keep a set of bone-crushing jaws from closing around his neck, Miranda was the squad's sole remaining combatant. The biotic was wielding both her heavy pistol and sub-machine gun at the same time, putting bullet after desperate bullet into the approaching horde and the crippled corpse lying at her feet, all to little and practically no effect. Despair was written all over her perfect features and Isaac saw her lips move, whispering "Oh my God."

He could hear defeat in every syllable.

With the danger and desperation threatening to overwhelm him, something stirred deep within the darkest recesses of Isaac's mind. Without him realizing it, another mental block had just been overcome, this time unlocking his suppressed survival instincts. Before Isaac really knew what was happening, he had already leapt into the fray, shoving Miranda out of the way and directing her attention to a large glass panel on the wall beside the doors, surrounded by yellow and black warning markings. A bright red lever was housed in a small alcove behind the glass, on which 'in case of emergency, break glass' was written. How appropriate.

"Pull that lever!" Isaac bellowed, wrapping his arms around the corpse's neck and putting it into a chokehold. "Close the doors!"

Miranda gave him a frightened and confused look, completely taken aback by the sudden transformation in his character. "HURRY UP! DO IT!" Isaac roared, pulling and straining with all his might as the undead monster caught in his grip thrashed and flailed about wildly. Isaac swore when one of the creature's blades raked across his thigh, cutting a red line across it and making fire shoot up his leg. He swore yet again when another sharp stab of pain made him aware of the thing's jaws clamped tightly around his forearm. "Alright asshole..." Using strength that he didn't even know he possessed, Isaac hoisted the bloody corpse up into the air and flipped it over his shoulder with a loud yell, following it up with a violent stomp on its neck. It broke with a loud and satisfying crunch. Out of the corner of his eye, Isaac observed Miranda shattering the glass panel with her heavy pistol and feverishly gripping the red lever with her trembling hands. She turned to look at him, giving him a nod of confirmation. Timing his next action carefully, Isaac picked up the broken body and flung it out of the room like a sack of garbage, just as Miranda pulled the lever downwards with all her might.

It was beautiful. The doors snapped shut, crushing the corpse between two thick sheets of metal. Blood splattered messily all over his white patient garb but Isaac didn't care. It was over. The adrenaline was wearing off and he suddenly felt tired and breathless. Once again moving like he was in a daze, Isaac stumbled backwards until his back hit the cool metal of the doors. He let out a loud sigh of relief and rested his throbbing head against it, squeezing his eyes shut. It was all over-

Sparks suddenly exploded around him and a terrible screeching sound made Isaac scream in shock and leap away from the doors as though the metal had just set him on fire. Two twisted arms had shoved their way through the door and were slowly pulling them apart. As the gap widened, so did Isaac's eyes and mouth. The top half of a hideous creature came through next, fixing Isaac with a look of pure hatred. Sunken eyes stared at him from a face dried tight over the creature's skull and a disgusting mixture of blood and pus leaked out of every orifice. In places the desiccated skin had torn so that the skull could be seen, making its appearance even more horrifying. The monstrous, undead travesty of a Human being roared in Isaac's face and lurched forward, leaping at him with its slashing blades raised. Just as they were about to lodge themselves into his head, the door abruptly snapped shut once again and the metal jaws claimed another victim.

The damage however, had already been done. The monster's attack, so very similar to his first traumatic encounter with its kind on the USG Ishimura all those years ago, was the stimulus that his tortured mind sorely needed in order to break through the mental blocks put in place by Cerberus. Isaac fell to his knees as all of his suppressed memories returned in full force, his mind feeling like it was being split apart. The torrent of information, memories and data continued without any signs of stopping or slowing down. Something warm trickled down from his nose and Isaac could taste blood as it flowed into his open, gasping mouth. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of mental agony, it stopped.

His mind was his own again. He could remember everything. Aegis VII, the Ishimura, the necromorphs, the Red Marker, the terror and the screaming, everything. Isaac could recall every single horrifying detail, remember every single necromorph that he had killed and was almost killed by. He could remember all those who died around him while he alone survived. Most of all, he could remember the malevolent shade which was haunting him, trying to break him and drag him down the last few steps into the hellish pit of insanity.

Nicole.