Far away.
The distinct echo of voices, bouncing around the sleek walls and floors of the corridors. Disembodied. From beyond where the scent led me.
As I started to follow it once more, I stood upright.
The rhythmic pounding of clawed feet resonated around me, every step making scythes hanging above my shoulders tremble and jerk. The tail swaying left and right with every stride longer than I had been used to.
But before long, I came upon a crossroad as several corridors met in a slightly larger open area. The lights kept flickering here, where I could see several corners of the openings were densely dotted by the impact of rifle rounds. Scorched floors pitted by the use of weapons. A few trails of now dried blood stretched out from the crossroad into three corridors, including the one I arrived from.
But the final piece of this crossroad included a dark open shaft of exposed machinery and pipes, extending high above into the shadows. And down below into a glowing amber light.
It smelled of smoke.
The scent I had been following was no longer clear. Obscured by the mix of various blood trails, smoke and residual ion fumes from weapon discharges. It was lost to my senses.
Confusing.
But still, I could hear that faint echo of voices. Standing before the two remaining corridors, one allowed me to hear the faintest bit clearer the voice. Left, opposite to what seemed to have been an elevator.
Turning my back on the crossroad, I kept moving. The dried blood brushed against the ground in a long meandering trail. But there were no bodies.
Yet the voices kept becoming clearer.
Closer.
Until they seemed to come from just beyond an open doorway marked SEC-6 at the end of the corridor. Conversing and coming to a pause. Then shouting just out of sight.
—BANG!
I had no time to think as I dropped low to the ground, seeking cover next to the doorway as silence took hold for the next few moments. Hunched over, I could feel a slight rippling in my skin as form started to disappear in front of my eyes.
Yet I was still there, as when I tried to move one of my hands, I could see a subtle shimmer in that space. Like the cloaking devices we had been trained to use for recon operations, and the slight distortions to spot. But this form of camouflage… Only fleeting shimmers of light accompanied rapid movement, no distortion.
As the voices began again, I began to enter the doorway, going ever slower, watching the shimmers cease to appear.
A great open space, lined with desks and various screens. Many displayed signs of lost signals and scrambled visuals. The blood trail I had followed kept extending into the room, into a corner where bodies had been piled. Sweet aroma drifted in the air, finding its way to me.
It wasn't the only thing there in the room.
People.
In this room.
Some were occupying themselves with controls and monitors, another group standing over a body, a pool of red slowly expanding across the white floor. The black combat suit it wore didn't match the others. They were a dark green, spotted in patterns of brown and gray. Only a single man wore white, long coat draping down almost to the knee.
League forces.
The occupants of this research facility.
Our enemy.
But then who did I chase down?
"It doesn't matter, he wouldn't have given us anything worth the effort anyway."
One of the soldiers took off his combat visor, showing his now bare face to the air. The graying hair was parted by a long scar running down his face, narrowly missing the right eye. He was still holding the pistol, an oversized mag-rifle on his back. He spat at him.
The black combat suit mirrored in the blood.
"They condition their dogs well, even you couldn't break it."
He was gesturing to the man in white who dropped low to the ground. Deep blue eyes were still, fixated on the dead man below. He was growing bigger in my view. Slowly.
At that moment, the scarred soldier looked to the side, where his men were still struggling with the monitors.
"Update on containment?"
Only faint buzzes came to me from his earpiece.
"Some specimens escaped, Doctor, most on the upper floors."
"No matter, they won't get far. I will help you find them."
The man in white sighed as he stood. Wiping a few droplets of blood off his fingers. I could almost smell them.
No. I could. Paused mid-step.
"The floor above was completely ransacked, the biosphere enclosure was also damaged. We can't get any of the controls to work. Communications above ground were destroyed."
I had been creeping closer. Close enough to find the blood trail I had followed.
The doctor stopped for a moment, looking to the monitors. The video feeds were still mostly disabled. But a few had come back to life. Blank white corridors sparsely marked by doors. A few rooms, equipment destroyed. The crossroad, with the dark void extending up above in center view. A central panel, larger than the surrounding screens showed more. Dense forest, deserted rocks, even running water. I had only read about the last.
"The elevator was destroyed. Hold down this floor, and prevent them from getting to the vault. Support will eventually come. We will repair the enclosure once they clear out any interference. Dismissed, Captain."
With that, the soldier gave a small salute. But as he turned, he frowned.
One of the men sat at one of the controls began to move erratically. Deafened by the combat masks, only quick bursts of buzzes came through the captain's earpiece.
"Doctor, one of those… things escaped containment."
"Where?"
"They can't find it on any feed, it's gone."
Now the doctor frowned as well. Both were still, staring at the broken feeds. There it was again. That faint acrid and sour smell.
"Which lab?"
Blood was starting to pump once more, as the captain took the rifle off his back into his arms. Dampened whirring noise came from his body, as the long barrel first dropped before stabilizing. The doctor reached into his coat.
"6-73"
"Close the door!"
He went pale as he turned on the spot. There was an odd gleam in the doctor's eyes, as he now faced the entrance.
Faced me.
Still a bit too far away.
—BANG!
The impact sent me reeling a bit. Whispers of smoke rising from the barrel of the gun in the doctor's outstretched hand. Small droplets started to ooze out of the wound.
"There!"
Unexpected. Exposed.
When the captain dropped to one knee taking aim, long barrel already cycling in a silent hum, a tingle went down my spine. Trying to dodge, jerking to the right. A glowing flash of blue.
—BANG!
Not fast enough. The impact was different. High caliber piercing right through, splattering blood behind. Knocking me back.
Pain.
The piercing screech resonated through the monitoring room as the camouflage was dispelled. Scythes and arms displayed wide. But the high power required to fire that rifle had a drawback. The fuel cell was spent, ejecting out the back in a burst of fumes from vaporized ions.
An opening.
If not for the remainder of the men.
Despite the brief moment it took to be exposed, they had already taken position. Mag-rifles ready to fire.
Deafening.
The smaller rifles couldn't pierce the thick carapace. But did so the softer flesh exposed. Drawing trickles of blood as their combined impact forced me back a step. There were too many, too far.
Retreat.
The entryway was closer. But the door was coming down. Still, talons gripped the hard floor, leaping into motion with the screech of metal in the moment before they fired again. Catching myself on my arms before leaping out again.
When the second volley of small caliber rifles came bearing on my back, the door was already in front. About to close. There was enough time to slide my claws underneath. Tensing all muscles as I had done before, the mechanism slowed to a stop.
The door was thicker, heavier. Pain seared through the muscles where the bullet had pierced through. It was harder to break and the inner mechanism started to groan in stress.
When next volley of bullets hit my back, they deflected off the carapace, denting the wall around the door-frame. Roaring and planting down the scythes into the floor, the door started to go up from combined use of all my six limbs.
Before giving in a dull click, as the door lifted. Stepping through I saw the captain take aim again, a new fuel cell loaded into the anti-material rifle. Just as I let go and the door fell, the doctor's lips started to move.
"Kill—!"
With a deep clank, the door fell down shut, free from its mechanisms. And a dull thump as metal bent out before my head.
It was quiet for a moment, all sounds in the monitoring room blocked beyond the thick metal. Before the amber lights took over the white corridor and sirens echoed once more in the dim light. Doors further along the walls were starting to open, League soldiers streaming out, rifles drawn.
As they raised them, I started to backtrack. Back to the crossroad, the elevator. Slicing and tearing through it all, scythes, claws and talons.
————————————————————
In the monitoring room, Captain Lance had put down his earpiece onto a desk as he sat, watching the monitors. He had seen over the course of a few minutes a bloody trail being painted onto the floors of the facility. Screams had made wearing the earpiece unbearable. Taking long drags from a cigarette held in his right hand, mechanical as the steel muscle of the bionic arm.
Glancing to the left, Reid Sullivan was still taking notes as the creature finally leaped into the elevator shaft, beyond their range of monitoring. When the latter turned his gleaming gaze to him, he averted his eyes. Things had not been the same since he took over.
Psycher bastard.
But his superior, Director of the facility.
"You should not have let it escape to the upper floor."
Reprimanded. As he put on the earpiece again, gritting teeth, scattered groans of a few survivors came through as medics were being dispatched. Looking back to his hand when he tried to take another drag, the cigarette had been crushed by an iron grasp.
"Get the ecosphere surveillance online, it will find its way there."
First the Succession, and now an escapee.
"You are dismissed, Captain."
Taking out another cigarette as the doctor left, he sighed.
Rest would come later.