With the main horde held up behind them, the four remaining survivors charged through the ward,
blowing away any straggling Common Infected that got in their way.
"There's the elevator!" Markus shouted.
He and the others ran to the elevator and pushed the button to cal it. He saw the number display at
the top tick down as the elevator hurtled down the shaft toward their floor.
"Come on... come on..." he hissed through gritted teeth, pounding the button several more times,
just as a large crowd of maniacs began to spil around the corner.
"They've caught up!" Corvo yelled, opening fire with his assault rifle.
The others joined in, taking down the leading Common Infected. Bodies tumbled over each other
and were trampled on as the horde clawed their way down the hal way in a desperate bid to reach
the survivors.
"Come on, you fucking elevator!" Jacob yel ed, his shotgun blowing away an infected woman in mid-
air as she leapt at him. Her blood sprayed down his front. "DAMN IT! NOT THE VEST!"
"Elevator's here!" Samantha yel ed as the doors behind them opened. "Get in!"
The four survivors piled into the elevator and quickly punched the button for the roof. They continued
to shoot through the doorway at the horde until the metal doors finally slid closed. The sound of
many fists pounding on the other side came a moment later. However, the noise faded as the
elevator ascended.
Samantha and Markus leaned against the wal s and slumped to the floor, breathing col ective sighs of relief, while Corvo reloaded his rifle.
"I hate elevators," Jacob said as his gaze wandered. "I hate hospitals." There was a moment of awkward silence. "I hate helicopters."
Markus shook his head in a mixture of shock at just seeing his new friends die, and exasperation at
Jacob' stupidity.
"Before he died, Roger told me that the helicopter was supposed to be reaching the roof at 0700
hours." Corvo looked down at his watch. "That's an hour from now. Once we reach the top, we make
for the helipad."
"In case you've forgotten, there's a horde right behind us," Jacob said sul enly. "They're probably climbing the stairs after us right now."
Samantha spoke up with renewed determination in her voice. "I promised the others that we'd
escape. So we are going to escape. We have to defend the helipad until the helicopter arrives."
Chapter 16
Corvo took up position on the roof of a maintenance shack just above the helipad, while Jacob
crouched behind him, covering the ladder they had just climbed up.
The veteran pointed over to another smal service shack nearby. "Markus, Samantha, get up the
ladder onto that rooftop and watch the stairwel door!"
"What about the ventilation ducts?" she yel ed back.
"We've got them covered!"
With that, the four survivors took up their respective positions on the rooftop of Jameson Hospital as
the sun rose over the horizon, giving a not-so glorious view of the ruined city.
"That helicopter pilot had better show up," Markus cal ed over nervously.
Jacob grunted. "If he doesn't, at least we'll die with a nice view of the city."
The stillness of the morning was shattered as Corvo squeezed the trigger on his M-16, gunning
down a couple of Common Infected that emerged from the stairwel . Their bodies convulsed for a
moment, and then crumpled to the ground.
"Nice shooting, Corvo!" Markus called out.
"There'll be plenty more where that came from!"
The cold, still air penetrated Samantha's jacket, and she shivered. She longed to get up and move around to get the blood flowing through her body. However, with the horde on its way up, she had to
remain diligent for them to make it out of here alive. Everyone had to. For Joe...
"Look alive, people!" Corvo yel ed, as he gunned down several more Infected that rushed through
the doorway. Blood splattered across the concrete, followed by bullet-ridden bodies moments later. "I
can't be doing al the shooting, you know!"
The clatter of gunfire echoed in the cold morning air, and Jacob began to laugh as he kil ed two more
Common Infected that emerged from the stairwell doorway. "Like shootin' fish in a barrel."
It was then that the loud, col ective howl of countless infected people pierced the air, chilling the
survivors to the bone. Samantha gritted her teeth and aimed her shotgun downward, mental y
preparing herself for the onslaught.
"Oh, I know this is gonna get bad..." Corvo muttered.
"Hey, look on the bright side," Jacob remarked. "Even if you don't make it, I'll stil be really handsome."
The old man chuckled as he reloaded his rifle. He gazed across the rooftop at the smal shack that
Samantha and Markus were perched atop, and fervently hoped that he had not made a terrible
mistake separating them like this.
"Here they come!" Markus yel ed, fire dancing off the tip of his Uzi as he fired into a steady stream of people emerging from the stairwel .
Animalistic cries of agony and frustration split the air; sickening wet splats fol owed as heads burst in
foul explosions of blood and bone, shattered by rounds from Samantha's shotgun. Corvo and Jacob
consequently added their fire to the kil ing ground, liberal y painting the hospital rooftop in front of the
stairwel red with blood.
The Infected turned their heads, desperately seeking out the places from which death rained down
on them from above. A number of them hurtled across the roof toward Corvo and Jacob' post, while
others began to claw and climb their way up in a bid to reach the perch of Samantha and Markus.
"Aw, shit!" he yel ed, ejecting a spent magazine and desperately grasping for another.
Samantha saw bony, decaying hands scrabbling over the edge of their roof. She quickly lowered her
shotgun and blasted the foul appendages asunder, hearing inhuman shrieks of pain as the attackers
fel from the roof.
"Keep an eye on the ventilation ducts too!" Corvo yel ed to his compatriot, expertly gunning down the offending Common Infected dashing across the roof before they could even reach their maintenance
shed.
The roar of the horde grew louder as more and more Infected spil ed from the doorway in a
bloodthirsty rampage. Fortunately, the pile of dead bodies in front of the door partial y blocked the
way, and the attackers literal y had to claw their way through a small mountain of corpses just to get
out onto the roof of the hospital.
"I tell you what, after this, I am done with hospitals!" Markus exclaimed, firing off a quick burst that sent a smal group of people tumbling to the ground in a hail of fire. "A dislocated shoulder? No
problem! A cancer cel ? Give me a knife, and I'll cut the mother out myself! "
"I don't think you pul of the 'badass' attitude as well as Jacob," Samantha said lightly, her brow furrowed in concentration as she took down several more attackers below them.
"A man can try, right?" Markus laughed.
Samantha was about to reply, but the words caught in her throat and she felt the blood drain from
her face. A burly, blood-covered man had climbed up to their level from the side, and was now
eyeing her down hungrily. She swung the butt of her shotgun, striking him in the face and sending
him stumbling backward. She then took hasty aim and blasted the man in the chest, sending him
flying clear off the rooftop of the hospital. The wail of his death-cry faded as he fel far below, and she
shivered.
A loud yel
from Corvo and a continuous staccato of gunfire across the rooftop caught Markus'
attention, and he looked in alarm to see the veteran sending a hail of hot lead across the ventilation
ducts. The Infected emerging from them howled with agony as bul ets slammed into them.
"Jacob, I told you watch the air-ducts, damnit!" Corvo growled, sending the last attacker tumbling to the ground with a final shot. He ejected the spent magazine and crammed a fresh one in just below
the barrel.
"Sorry, I'm just a little preoccupied shooting motherfuckers! " Jacob roared back between the deafening booms of his shotgun.
The continuous stream of maniacs flooded the roof from the stairwel without any indication of letting
up.
I don't know how much longer we can keep this up... Corvo thought worriedly.
Jacob' frantic voice cut into his thoughts. "SHIT! They're climbing up the elevator shaft too! Are you
fucking serious?"
The grizzled old man directed his gaze toward the new danger to see a massive crowd of Infected
flow unhindered onto the rooftop of the hospital. Without any hesitation, he reached to his belt,
pul ed the pin off his last grenade and hurled it into the crowd.
"FIRE IN THE HOLE!"
A bright flash of light and smoke reduced the head of the pack to a pile of bloodied remains that
splayed across the rooftop, just as Samantha lifted her head to the sound of whirring helicopter
blades. Her heart pounding in her chest, she looked toward the sound and spotted a news helicopter
coming in to hover beside the helipad.
"CHOPPER'S HERE!" she screamed.
"GO! Make your way to the helipad!" Corvo yel ed back at her and Markus. "Jacob and I wil cover you from here!"
She and Markus grateful y leapt down from their post and began to run across the rooftop toward the metal ramps leading up to the helipad, firing at fleeting figures bearing down on them as they ran.
Samantha lingered slightly behind to cover Markus' retreat, his movement speed slightly hindered by
his injuries. The feisty young woman blew away two attackers at once with a blast from her shotgun,
sending blood spurting into the air. However, she felt a rough force tackling her from behind, sending
her crashing to the ground. She looked up in terror to see an infected woman above her, snarling
with inhuman rage.
"HELP!" she cried out.
SPLAT! A burst of rifle rounds slammed into the infected woman's head, blasting her away from
Samantha, who quickly climbed to her feet and gave Corvo a grateful nod. As soon as she and
Markus made it up the ramp onto the helipad, they turned back around, crouched down and
resumed firing into the infected crowd tearing across the rooftop. They covered Corvo and Jacob as
they leapt down from their perch to join them. With a final sprint, the four survivors crossed the
ruined helipad and threw themselves into the back of the helicopter.
"GO! GO! GO!" everyone screamed, and the pilot immediately manoeuvred the helicopter away from
the building.
Several ambitious Infected leapt at the helicopter in a desperate attempt to board, but their plans
were foiled by a control ed burst from Corvo's M-16, sending them hurtling downward to their demise
in the streets far below.
"I can't... believe it..." Markus gasped between grateful gulps of air. "We made it..."
Samantha gave him a high-five and broke into a wide smile as the helicopter flew across the city.
Jacob threw the compartment door shut, separating them from the morning sky.
"You al okay?" the pilot's voice crackled through a speaker.
Markus looked through the door into the cockpit and gave him a thumbs-up.
"Thank you!" Samantha called out to him. However, the pilot motioned to the headphones covering
his ears, and then pointed to a similar set lying on the backseat of the helicopter.
Corvo picked up the headphones and placed them on his head. "Thanks for coming to rescue us,"
he said into the microphone of the headset.
The pilot turned his head back to the windshield to focus on his flying. "You're welcome. Is it just you four, then?"
The veteran nodded sadly. "Yes. There were four others in the hospital before us, but we got
attacked by the Infected."
There was a sombre silence, through which only the steady thrum of the helicopter blades could be
heard overhead.
"Wel , at least someone made it," the pilot final y said. "Get some rest. I'm taking you folk to the north-east safe-zone."
Corvo nodded and sat back wearily against the seat. The four survivors sat in silence for a while, letting the reality of the situation sink in. They had been rescued. It was final y over.
Jacob and Markus drifted off into sleep as the sun rose in the sky, partially obscured by some dark
clouds. Corvo gazed over at the others, and final y discovered some sort of peace. He had done his
duty. They were al finally safe, against al odds.
Samantha, however, could not sleep after everything that had happened. She lost track of how long
they had been flying in the helicopter, as she gazed out the window over the city that had once been
her home. She wondered if she would ever be able to return. Something in the back of her mind told
her that she would not be coming back any time soon.
Her thoughts were interrupted, and her head shot up when she felt the helicopter begin to jerk
around erratical y. She glanced over at Corvo to see him look up in surprise as well.
He picked up the headset again and spoke into the microphone. "Hey, everything alright up there?"
However, the pilot did not respond. Samantha looked toward the cockpit in alarm to see him
standing up, facing away from the doorway. What the hell was he doing? The helicopter jerked
violently again, startling the others awake.
"Wha's goin' on..." Markus mumbled sleepily.
Samantha squinted ahead into the cockpit, just as the pilot turned to face her. Her blood ran cold
when she saw the look of pure, soulless rage in the eyes staring back at her.
"Shit!" she cried, fumbling for her gun.
With an insane roar of anger, the pilot leapt through the doorway into the back compartment, bearing
down on the frightened woman. A gunshot rang out, and a smoking hole appeared in his chest. With
a pathetic squeal, he crumpled to the floor.
"Samantha, what the fuck!" Jacob bel owed. "You just shot the pilot!"
Blinking lights began to flash, and an urgent-sounding alarm screeched throughout the helicopter as
it lurched again, steadily losing altitude.
"Shit, shit, SHIT! We're gonna crash!" Markus shouted.
Corvo stumbled ahead into the cockpit and eased himself into the pilot's chair. With a sinking feeling,
he saw that the helicopter was hurtling down toward an outer industrial district of the city. He gripped
the control stick tightly and pul ed up with al of his might.
"Come on, come on, pul up..."
"Corvo, you know how to fly one of these things?" Markus cried out in shock.
"Not a damn clue!" he shouted back. He pul ed harder on the stick, fighting desperately to stabilise the descent. "Come on, level out..." If the helicopter crashed at its current angle, none of them would survive.
Samantha, Markus and Jacob quickly buckled themselves tightly into their seats and braced for
impact. The ground was coming up to meet them at an alarming rate. Corvo wrestled desperately
with the control stick and final y felt the helicopter begin to stabilise in its fal . However, it was too
<
br /> little, too late.
With a sickening CRASH, a horrible shudder tore its way through the helicopter. An ear-splitting
screech of rending metal and shattering glass exploded in everyone's ears. They were violently
thrown around in their seats like ragdol s; their seat-belts straining against the impossible tension on
them. With a final, shuddering CRASH, everything went dark.
Chapter 17
Corvo groggily opened his eyes as a flash of pain swept through his body. He groaned awkwardly
and looked around to find himself lying amid a twisted shell of metal.
What the hell... Where am I?
He looked through a shattered windshield to see a grim concrete courtyard fil ed with wreckage and
debris. Suddenly, with a shock, it all came rushing back to him. The battle on the rooftop of Jameson
Hospital. The rescue. The pilot attacking Samantha. The helicopter crash...
"Shit!" Corvo swore, tearing himself out of his seat.
Pain shot through his leg, but he dismissed it. It was not that bad, probably just a flesh wound. He
was more concerned about the others. And if the engine had caught fire...
"Help..." a weak voice cal ed feebly from the back compartment of the helicopter.
Corvo entered and looked over to see Markus struggling in vain with his seatbelt. "Markus! Are you
alright?"
The black man's face was covered in cuts and bleeding in several places. "I'm fine. My seatbelt's
stuck though; do you still have that knife to cut through it?"
Corvo ignored his request and went to check on the others. They were stil unconscious in their
seats, but luckily their seatbelts had remained intact during the crash. He stumbled over to
Samantha and placed his index and middle fingers on her neck, whooshing in relief when he felt a
pulse.
"Corvo!" Markus exclaimed. "Get me outta this chair! We've gotta get out of the chopper before it blows!"
The war veteran quickly made sure that Jacob stil had a pulse, before coming over to Markus' seat and cutting him free. "You can relax. There's no fire; the helicopter isn't gonna explode. Now help me
wake the others."
Markus stil looked nervous as hel , but he complied with the older man's instructions, bending over
Jacob and shaking him by the shoulders. "Hey man! Wake up!"
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