Outlast

Was That The Walrider?

Thunder boomed as Miles made his way through the courtyard, the night vision on his camcorder not helping very well, but it would have to do. Miles approached a maintenance shed, and scowled when he saw that he'd have to get a key.

"Well, shit. Where the fuck am I supposed to find a goddamn key?" Miles wondered out loud.

Suddenly, a loud whooshing noise filled the air, louder than the thunder and lightning, and Miles looked around for the source of the noise. The only thing he saw was a black cloud that moved with an air of menace, swirling and shifting ominously in the sky above him. Miles felt a chill run down his spine as he realized he may not be alone in the courtyard after all.

"Was that a ghost?" Miles asked slowly, but something told him that it wasn't. Shaking off his fear, Miles began looking for a key to the maintenance shed as well as finding Father Martin. After searching, Miles came across a sign that was written in blood, saying, 'How alive are you?' and a note, which Miles picked up and read. Miles groaned in realization and annoyance.

"He's not even fucking out here. Goddamn you, Father Martin," Miles growled, and he started looking for a way back inside.

Miles ran across the courtyard, entering a toolshed by practically throwing the door open.

"Bam, bitch! Get down, door! Yeah! What's up!" Miles crowed, before looking around for a key, which he quickly found.

"Yes!" Miles cheered, fist-pumping, before grabbing the key, and shoving it in his pocket.

Miles left the toolshed, coming to a halt when he saw the black cloud again, and went back to the maintenance shed when it vanished. Miles began exploring, but he couldn't shake off the feeling that something was going to pop out at him at any given moment. Miles noticed a closed door at the end of a hallway, ran to it, and opened it. Instantly, Miles' vision clouded slightly, and the black cloud came at him out of the darkness.

Startled, Miles instinctively took a step back, his heart racing. The ghostly figure moved closer, its eerie presence sending shivers down his spine. Miles screamed and slammed the door shut, stumbling backwards as he did so. A second later, the ghost started crawling under the door, and Miles ran out of the shed in a blind panic.

"God help me, I think I've seen the Walrider," Miles said in a hushed voice and cautiously reentered the shed, only to see the Walrider had vanished.

Miles went through the shed and back outside, climbing a ladder onto the roof. Miles made his way across the roof before dropping to the ground below.

"Have to get out," a voice rasped, making Miles gasp.

"I can see his ghost," the voice added, and Miles realized that it was just a Variant. Miles shook his head, and moved on. Suddenly, Miles heard something, making him strain his ears to hear it over the rain.

"What?" Miles wondered, confused, hearing the sound again, this time registering it as clinking chains.

"What?" Miles repeated, much louder, and somehow didn't get his attention, even though he nearly ran into him.

"How did he get out here?" Miles hissed, trying to put some distance between him and Chris Walker, which he did by climbing up, and shimmying across a ledge. Miles pursed his lips, suddenly getting to urge to mock Chris.

"I probably shouldn't make fun of him, 'cause he will rip my head off. At some point, at least," Miles muttered as he jumped down to the ground, looking around the different part of the courtyard. Miles noticed a light, and followed it, only to quickly backpedal when lightning flashed across the sky, illuminating Chris Walker, who instantly started chasing him.

Miles looped around, and crawled through a gap before Chris could grab him, and he approached a fountain with bloody water covered in bodies. So much blood in the water, I can smell it. Like putting a penny in your mouth when you were a kid. The whispers are making more sense; I'm looking for static. It's like an itch, Miles thought, but quickly managed to find his way back inside the asylum by climbing through a window. Chest heaving, Miles mentally ran through the places he hadn't been yet.

Have I been to the Female Ward yet? No, but I did go under it, I think, Miles thought and nodded his head determinedly.

"Female Ward it is," Miles said and forged onward. He only made it a few steps before stifling a groan of annoyance when Father Martin's voice rang out from above him.

"You saw the Walrider, didn't you?" Father Martin asked, and Miles grunted in affirmation as his eyes rose to meet Father Martin's.

"You're beginning to understand, but not yet. Even Abraham had to cast his eyes to the ground. But soon, soon. This way. Revelation is at hand," Father Martin said before he turned around and ran off.

"How...in the hell...do I get up onto the upper floors?" Miles asked rhetorically after a few beats of silence before sighing and beginning to search.

The sound in the machine; like the sound in my head when the Walrider appeared. I blink, and I see static, something else. Something oily and dark descending behind my eyelids. Watching me with organs I can't imagine. But the sound is coming from the machine, too. From inside the walls. I know that sound..., Miles thought as he eyed a centrifuge machine as he walked past it, turned a corner, and ended up quickly backpedaling before he hit the Variant that silently appeared from the shadows.