Terror Hell: by Nick Venom (great books for teens .txt) 📕

She stood up, walking to the door. She opened it, peering down the spiral stairs. She looked over her shoulder at Red---whose back was turned----and nodded to herself. She was like the monsters outside. 

“Goodbye,” she muttered before closing the door and heading down to the basement. She laid her head on the near-flat mattress, staring at a blank concrete wall. 

“Am I the monster?” She randomly blurted out. She looked bewildered at her thought. “I couldn’t be… right?”

She nodded to herself. She knew what she was doing. She treated Red as if he was the Muscle Monster and Sprinter; monsters. Monsters that killed and slaughtered their neighbors and friends. Monsters that killed Roseanne and everybody in the Town Hall. 

“I am a monster.”

“No service?” Jane Eastwood asked.

Doris shook her head, pressing buttons on her phone’s dial pad. “Nothing, I can’t call the police or anything. Everything’s out of service.”

Jane turned towards her husband, demanding a reaction from her. “What can we do? Everything’s down and we’re stuck in here. We already lost two people, so…” His voice trailed off. The death of Doris’s husband didn’t hurt him as much as his son’s death. Freddy was his cherished son, somebody that he filled with his hopes and goals. However, this came crashing down with his death.

“Honey, we need to keep pressing forward. Mae’s still okay, so…” Her voice became teary. “... we’re still fine.”

“Yeah, she’s right. We’re still alive and kicking, so let’s not self-destruct here. Red and the others are doing what they can to survive in this new world. Come on!” She exclaimed. “You can’t tell me you---a proud firefighter---will let a teenager out achieve you.”

“My time has come and gone. I was born in Solaris and invested everything I have into this community. However, it appears that it’s all over.” He looked at his wife’s worried expression. “Don’t worry, I don’t intend on offing myself, but it’s about time us old-bags hand over our goals to the next generation. Red’s a good kid, so let’s hope he falls in love with Mae and gives us grandchildren before we leave.”

Jane smiled, hugging her husband. She liked that he was still himself, no matter the conditions they suffered through. “We’re still a family. No matter what.”

“No matter what.” He told her. He glanced at Doris.“We will always be family.”

Red sat cross-legged by the window, monitoring the monsters roaming around. He watched them, taking mental notes of their actions. If he wanted to destroy these monsters and free everybody, he needed to know their behaviors and way of attacking. 

Because of Mae’s interruption, he wasn’t able to kill Sprinter but he now knew that she was able to hear him. Who knows if one of those monsters is deaf, he thought. Maybe we’ll get lucky and the Muscle Monster turns out to be deaf.

“Incorrect,” The parasite boomed. “We hear more than you could ever imagine, mortal.”

“Well, there goes that idea.” He thought out loud. “Now, the question is… what are your weaknesses.” He continued to monitor the monsters with mere minutes of sleep. His mind couldn’t sleep, pushing him to engage in other activities. He wanted to be free of this nightmare as soon as he could. He wished to dream in what was, otherwise, a huge nightmare that he couldn’t wake from. However, he believed that one day he would be free. If he could make that day arrive sooner would be his plan. Even so, would everything work out in his favor? 

Rarely.

TBC…

“Miss, the Scavengers arrived,” Chloe told Lynn, who sat at her table in her room. Lynn took her eyes off the paper sitting in front of her and focused her gaze on Chloe. 

“How are they? Did we lose any?”

Chloe shook her head. “They brought people!” She exclaimed. “People from Town Hall.”

Lynn furrowed her brows. “Town Hall? What happened? Did the monsters attack or was it… other survivors?” She didn’t enjoy allowing the idea of survivors attacking each other to be alive. However, she understood that humans are cruel creatures; prepared to do unspeakable acts if tempted.

“Zane said it was a monster. Muscle Monster was wrecking the building and killing many. The survivors they brought escaped from the backdoor of the place.”

Lynn stood up. “Good, bring them to the first guest room.” Chloe nodded but didn’t leave to act on the order. She lingered, showing Lynn a worried expression. “What’s wrong?”

“Uh… Brad’s missing!” She blurted out.

Lynn’s eyes zeroed in on Chloe. Chloe flinched, her muscles tensing up. “Sorry,” Lynn muttered, realizing what she was doing. She was glaring at Chloe as if she’s responsible for Brad’s disappearance.

“Sorry, tell me what happened.” Chloe nodded, turning around and opening the door. She called in Zane, asking him to spill everything.

“When we arrived, we witnessed the chaos. The Muscle Monster was slamming corpses into the concrete, making their blood and guts flinging around like feathers from a pillow. He was slaughtering survivors.” Zane said as he walked into the room.

“Make it short, Zane. What-” She walked up to Zane, grabbing his cheeks and squishing it to make his lips puff up. “-happened?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He escaped her grip, massaging his cheeks. “Okay, we stopped at the backdoor, watching the mess. That’s when people began flooding through and Brad ordered us to take them here. He didn’t follow us. He went into Town Hall. That’s the last thing I saw.”

“You didn’t go back?” She asked, glaring at him. He gulped hard, acting like a kid being punished by his mother harshly. 

“I was going to, but Brainy attacked us. We had to sprint here to escape it. Otherwise, we would’ve all died. Well, one person was killed.”

“Who?” Lynn questioned, glancing at Chloe. She nodded and left the room to act on the previous order.

“One of the survivors from Town Hall. A woman I don’t recognize. Seeing how a little kid cried about her death, I think she was a mother.”

“A kid lost his mother, yet you’re acting nonchalantly.” She deduced, her eyes zeroing in on him.

Zane shook his head violently. “No, no, no! It’s not that, it’s…” His voice trailed off as he looked away from her. She took a step forward, snapping his attention back to her. “... I lost my girlfriend like that. She was hooked and…” His voice trailed off. He gathered up the strength to continue his sentence. “My girlfriend, parents, and my younger brother were all killed in front of me, so I’m kind of… desensitized to death.”

Lynn stored her glare, taking her eyes off him. “I see, I apologize that I forced you to bring up that rough memory. Go back to your quarters and get some sleep. The gentle warmth of daylight has found its way back to Solaris, but… these monsters persist. We need to kill them, so I need everybody who can fight to be well-rested.” She ordered. Zane nodded, scurrying off. He didn’t want to stay an extra minute in her presence. 

On his way out, he passed by Mace---Roseanne’s second-in-command---with his teary eyes on full display. Mace looked at him strangely before passing it off as a new normal occurrence in this monster-infested town.

Mace approached Lynn’s door, rattling his knuckles on it. She opened the door, examining him. “Who are you?”

“I’m Mace, a foreigner here.” He said, introducing himself weirdly.

“Mace? Foreigner? I see, what do you want?” She asked, squinting at him.

“I am Roseanne’s second-in-command. I happened to hear about the incident with a man named Brad.”

“So?” She asked.

“I want to help with finding him. I also want to see if Roseanne’s still alive.” He told her, showing her a medal he earned through his service. “I was in the infantry, a Private First Class, but was forced to leave due to issues.”

“Issues?” She questioned.

Mace awkwardly rubbed his nape while chuckling to himself. “Well, I was accused of assaulting a woman and almost dishonorably discharged because of her. However, they soon found out that she was lying and wanted to ruin my life because her brother was killed by me during a battle. I’m not sure how she deduced that I killed him; hell, I don’t remember the kid. During a battle, everybody’s a silhouette to me. Plus, how would she know who’s bullet killed her brother or who was participating in the battle.” He stopped himself, looking at Lynn’s confused expression. “Anyways, the truth came out and I was cleansed of the charges. However, the brutal treatment given to me by my superiors scarred me, so I left. The higher superiors agreed with my decision and my resignation was swiftly completed. I migrated here, deciding to live a normal life until this happened.”

“How does this relate to you being able to help me? I know you’re a soldier, but are you able to fire a gun? Hell, I know a soldier who polishes his guns and brags about them but would never fire. He says PTSD, but I doubt that.”

“Oh-” Mace said, startled to hear about another veteran. He never heard about another veteran living in Solaris. “-I can fire a weapon. I just need a weapon in my hands. Roseanne was too strict on her gun laws that I couldn’t own a single firearm. However, if I’m armed then I won’t hesitate to press the trigger. Most of your ‘Scavengers’ are inexperienced or outright physically weak. You need me, an experienced rifleman, to help train and lead them.”

“Hmmm, you are right to say that they’re inexperienced, but-” She was interrupted by a loud bang on the door. She turned around and headed to the window, cracking open the curtains ajar to peer outside. 

Mace watched as she peered outside before falling to the ground, emitting a loud shriek. He rushed to her side, glancing up at the window. It was a corpse staring at them.

“What the-”

Lynn composed herself and went to the other window, peering at the Muscle Man who flung a corpse into the air, watching as it splattered on the ground.

“You got it, train them and recover Brad. If you can, kill that monster. It dares to disrespect our dead.” She turned to him. “Make it feel terrible pain; the same type we feel when our loved ones die.”

He nodded, saluting her, before racing off. Lynn turned back to the window, scowling. “I will kill you if you touch Brad. That’s not a wish… it’s a promise.”

Hello All!

For those wondering why season one is being remastered for the second time, it’s to have more lore and characterization to these characters. I also wanted to beef up the word count of these episodes, remastering them to fit my new vision for this series. Of course, this means that the second season will face the same treatment, so don’t be surprised that different events occur in that installment.

As for the third season, it will arrive sometime in the future. That season will be the first unreleased season under this new vision of the series. 

Thank you for reading this short rant. Season one has been fun to write with an actual idea of where these characters will go. The storyline of Outpost has been a fun addition to this series (which sometimes acted to beef up the word count) and has been necessary for the second season---where they