Game2

She took a huge gulp of air and sat bolt upright completly disorientated, she couldn't remember her own name let alone what had happened to her. She was trying to keep calm but her brain was screaming and running around wildy with its hands in the air rather than trying to find out what was going on. She stood up and took in her surroundings hoping that it might jog her memory some. Instead she went to the mirror, shocked to find that she was totally naked. In the reflection she had layered purple hair that curved to frame her face and fell just to her shoulders, she had lilac coloured eyes and was annoyingly free of any scars that would identify her as someone. She was just about to give up when she spun round to take a look at her back. There was a huge scar that spread accross her entire back but instead of cuts and bruises it sworled and twisted. There were flowers, waves and beautiful linking circles. Thats when her memories slammed back to her with such force that she rushed to crouch around her toilet to throw up. The scars had been made by one of those damn characters, she had no idea what he had used but she remembered the pain. It didn't matter how many times she had passed out everytime she work up he would start all over again.

She blinked a couple of times as that name came back to haunt her; Gabriel, she snarled and with new found zest stormed back into her bedroom hoping that there were some clothes in her wardrobe. It had been so long since she had to do up buttons that her relief at finding a shirt and pair of jeans was short lived. After doing up the wrong buttons twice she finally managed to get herself looking halfway decent. In all this time she had been wondering where to go and what to do. Of course Mal popped into her head but she wanted him to be her last resort as he would want to know more about this mystery man. It had dawned on her that this gentleman probably was Gabriel which just meant that she had to even more careful with whoe she told about him. In the end she sighed loudly realising that the only person she could go to was Mal. She suspected that if Tank wasn't on her side then none of her other collegues would stick with her.

Kitty sauntered through the reception area of her apartment building too caught up in her own thoughts to take in what was going on around her. It was only when she got halfway down the street did she realise that something was drastically wrong. It was empty, no one was on the street anda ccording to the watch she had found in her wardrobe it was midday. Usually the streats were heaving with people at this time but instead they were eerily quiet. Her footsteps were echoing around her and just like in the horror movies there was random leaflets and pages from papers fluttering past.

She made her way straight to Mal's warehouse, trying not to let the atmosphere get to her too much. As she entered the warehouse she was disappointed to find that it was empty, it was a struggle to keep a check on her feelings and was shocked to find that she wanted to cry.

She was pretty sure that the entire level had been manipulated, there was a feeling of fear and dread thick in the air. It felt like a pressured stranglehold in her chest and even though she knew she wasn't in danger she still didn't want to be alone. She didn't know how long it had taken her to be re-set but something drastic had happened. She was feeling the full effect of not having the advanced programming that she had been given. It was like a hysteria was rising within her and she could barely stop the urge to scream and run.

She fumbled through the drawers in search of some kind of weapon and finally she found herself a pistol in one of the filing cabinets. The second she had it in her hands she knew it was useless to her, instead of fitting comfortably in her hand she couldn't get the right grip. She put into the waistband of her jeans even though when it came down to it she didn't have the skills to use it effectively.

She kicked the desk harshly and mentally pulled herself together so that she could go back into the street again. She had to get out of this level and she knew the only was out was accross the other side of the city.

With alot more confidence than she actaully felt she strode out into the street. She took four steps when she heard that familiar moaning and shuffling sound that she had been dreading. She looked up to see a large crowd of movie style zombies making their way towards her. She rolled her eyes and sighed at the sight of the oh-so-tacky and stereotypical figures. They looked like extras from a film set and with the slightly off graphics she knew that they were just badly created game characters. She unholstered her weapon and considered firing off a couple of rounds but the sheer volume of the bodies made her think again. In true movie style she walked through the streets closely followed by the huge pack of blood stained, ripped-clothed zombies. All seemed to be going well until she turned down the main street of the city; coming down the street opposite her was an equally huge crowd.

"You have got to be fucking kidding me" she muttered under her breath wandering what the hell to do next.

Each side was edging closer and closer towards her causing the atmosphere and hysteria to heighten within her. Normally she would be preparing to fight or finding a building to scale. Right now she was stood in the middle of the group, frozen still and awaiting whatever was going to happen to her when the characters got hold of her.

She was snapped out of the trance by gunfire coming from one of the alleyways. Bursting backwards out into the street he had a gun in each hand and a huge sword strapped to his back. She stared, open-mouthed at him, in shock that someone else was still in this level. He threw away his spent weapons and took a double take when he finally saw her.

"What the fuck are you just standing there for?"

When she didn't reply or make a move he grabbed her by the arm and made a move into a nearby office block. He used the large reception desk to block the entrance to the onslaught of bodies that were now pressing themeslves against the glass front of the building. Once done he turned towards her and considered giving her a slap around the face to snap her out of it.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

Everything was gettinga little fuzzy and she was finding it very hard to function at that moment in time. It was madea ll the worse by her frustration at not being able to do all the things that she had done before hand.

"Just re-entered and im a little slow on the uptake at the moment"

"You re-entered into this hell hole?!" he shook his head sadly "ah i can see you have no points now"

She finally got the chance to have a good look at him while he was assessing her statistics. He was stood there in baggy jeans, CAT boots that were three sizes too big and a tight red tshirt that stretched accross his large chest. He had long scruffy blond hair, the bluest eyes she had ever seen and a handsome face made complete with blond chin fluff.

"You're a character aren't you?" she looked at him suspiciously and wasn't surprised to see his wide grin as he nodded enthusiastically.

"Well, where theres zombies, theres always a slayer. It just makes sense"

"I suppose so. Do you know what hapened here?"

"You give me too much credit. I may be alot more aware than most of those vegetables but you can't expect me to know why i was created"

"So i need to get to another level, i need to find someone who can tell me whats going on here" she wandered over to the nearest telephone and got so far as picking it up before she realised she no longer had authority to call cross-level. She let out an xasperated cry and checked in false hop to see if there weren't bodies pressed against the glass with the intention of eating her "well at least we are safe in here"

"You're kidding right?" he laughed at her "you're in a horror level sweetie, you are never safe"

As if to make his point the nearest elevator door pinged open to reveal a leering, snarling zombie looking like it was about to strike. Without so much as a flicker of hesitation he raised his gun and put a shot clean between its eyes. She watched as if hypnotised as it slumped to the floor and as in most horor games he promptly disappeared. She gave a disgusted snort and they returned back to their original thoughts again.

She looked about herself as if for the first time trying to work out where she was and to gain her bearings. She knew she was pretty cloes to the gate house. It had been quite awhile since she had changed levels. The city was such a main level that all she had to do was stay there and just about every criminal passed her way at some point. Most in the search of Mal which was why she had stuck herself so close to him.

She knew that she was just trying to distract her mind from that niggling voice in the back of her head that was telling her that the gate had probably been cut and she would be forced to stay there, powerless to help what was going on.

"I need to go through to a different level" she reiterated her need to him

"Not to disappoint you but i think they closed that a long while ago" he instantly noted the look of horror mingled with sadnes that came across her face "but what do i know? Im just a character right? C'mon lets go and find out"

"In the lift?" she looked at him as if he was mad as he directed her further into the building and towards the three elevators in a row "i may not have full character specs just yet but i know for certain that this is a bank"

Even though she had reservations about where they were going she still followed him inside, preferring that to the monsters on the glass. The doors slid closed and as he reached over and pressed the button for the top floor he gave her a quirked look.

"You never played horror games did you?" at the shake of her head he continued "theres always a way to get from building to building. Usually quite alot more dangerous than the original route you want to go and we will still get attacked by zombies. Its just this way i should be able to take them out before they get to you"

"This is all badly stereotyped isn't it?"

"Yea, i have noticed this is a really bad rendering" the doors had pinged open and a woman had politely told him that this was the roof.

As she stepped out the win instantly cut through her clothes, whipped up her hair and made her shiver from the cold. She watched as he stood on the roof looking in each direction. She suspected that he was calling on some inner radar he had been given to find out where he needed to go. Once he found his way she followed him over to the edge of the building and for the first time she noticed that boards had been crudely placed over the roofs between the buildings. She rolled her eyes skywards at the sight of the badly nailed together plank spanning accross the street below. He saw her disdain but knew it was probably hiding the fear underneath. Even though he was a mere program he still recognised that before she had died she had been pretty powerful. He could feel her frustration at being put back into a weak body and that she had no intention of doing it all over again.

He stepped up onto the lip of the building and tentatively put a foot on the board to test its stability. When he was finally satisfied that it could take their weight he turned back to her

"I like the idea of going one at a time. I'll go first, you follow. You have a gun?"

She pulled out the pistol from her waistband and wafted it in his direction. He nodded and turned back onto the board slowly edging accross it making good time to the otherside. He had made it look so easy that she stood straight up onto the board and strode out accross it. The wind buffed her as it whipped past but she refused to let it deter her and continued all the same. She was determined to get all of her skills back no matter what it took. He stood on the opposite side of the roof watching her go and if it hadn't been for her shout then he would have allowed two zombies bearing down to get the better of him. She sprinted the last two metres in attempt to get to his aid but by the time she got there he had easily taken care of them.

"You're just a beginner sugar. They dont tend to bombard you straight off" he grinned and headed off accross the roof to the door into the building.

Both now had weapons drawn and he had lost the cute friendly attitud as he not got down to work. It hadn't taken them long to figure out there was no power to the building at ll. They were forced to sweep each floor cleaning out all zombies that lurched in their path in search of the fuse box. Once located, in the basement, obviously, they watched happily as the lights flickered on and they heard the whirring noise of the elvator making its way towards them.

"Stand back" he put his arm in front of her chest and gently pushed her backwards. To behin with she had been outraged at him barking orders at her in such a way but each time his instincts were dead on and she had learnt to trust everything he said to her. As if on cue when the door pushed open four decaying bodies fell forward eagerly. There wasn't quite enough space for him to take care of them all and just as one was about to chomp down on his shoulder she fired her weapon for the first time. At that close a range it would havebeen difficult for anyone to miss; she ended up taking the head clean off as he twisted the neck of the final monster.

"Why thank you" he grinned happily taking her hand and leading her into the small box "this isn't going to be fun darlin' you may want to take a last breath of fresh air"

She gave him a confused look but as soon as the doors closed she understoof what he was talking about. The walls were smeared with bloody hand prints and lost of goo that she flushed from her mind 'less it try to work out what it was. This she could deal with. It was the overwhelming stench of rotting flech that hit her like a smack to the face. She was trying no to let it efect her but by the time the door opeend on their floor she was bent over retching.

"C'mon sweetie, if we don't lock ourselves in this room quick we are going to be over run with the goddamn things!" he took hold of her arm and darted out into the corridor "its the door at the end" he pointed and as soon as she had recovered enough herself they ran side by side, wenching the door open and slamming it behind them.

While he started to push all the heavy objects against the door she headed straight for the control console. The main gate was actaully in the lobby and was huge, beautiful affair. Its only purpose was to wow and impress. Here upstairs was a staff entrance and was a box of a room containnig some filing cabinets, the control panel and a simple wooden door on the far wall.

Her fingers slipped over the numbers in desperation as she dialled every level she could think of but was being denied entry into each one. She gave an exasperated sigh and hung her head admitting defeat.

"The names Byron Gregg, guess you're my new partner"

She looked up at his ever grinning face and she gave in; there was no where for her to go, what would be the harm in partnering up with him for the time being?

"Kitty Purple" she grabbed his outstretched hand and shook it vigerously.

"They are coming from all directions!" she screamed over her shoulder as she fired her guns into the mounting crowd that gathered around her.

"I think i'm noticing that darlin'!" Byron shouted back to her jockingly.

They were stood back to back in the middle of the highstreet picking off all that were stumbling towards them. Over the past year they had made attaining her skills again the main priority. He realised that she needed something to work towards, something to take her mind off the fact that she was trapped there. Slowy but surely she was getting better and he was starting to doubt whether he was good enough any more. Each day they went out and took on all aspects of combat, mixing it up and working hard.

It got to the point where their fighting styles naturally complimented each other and now they barely needed to communicate with one another. Of course they bantered, it seemed like a way to cure boredom for her and so he actively joined in, happy to have some company at last.

The ammo ran out in her weapons so she flung them into the crowd and reached abck to remove them from the holsters at his waist. She had been delighted to learn that his weapons were never ending and as he removed them from his waist they instantly regenerated themselves. It meant that they could never really split up for too long but they both seemed more than happy with the comfortable style they had slipped into.