Safe.
Up in the darkness of the elevator shaft.
Down below, light still came through the entrance to the shaft. From where I had leaped to the cover of darkness. Even further, subtly swaying amber light gave rise to an ambient smell of smoke. The destroyed elevator.
Unpleasant. Uncomfortable.
My talons and claws had ripped into exposed machinery upon impact, heavy frame now stably anchored to the wall left exposed by the missing elevator. Bloodied remains of League soldiers still gave off a lingering scent. Their parting gift numerous wounds oozing blood all over my body, slowly healing.
Itching.
Tensing, my legs exploded into a leap across the elevator shaft, further up into darkness. Metal screeched as pipes gave way to talon and claw. But the healing wounds tore open again, pain searing through. Particularly that gaping hole pierced through me by the heavy rifle round. I could feel it now in the quiet. That heaviness in my limbs.
Closing eyes.
Just for a moment's rest.
When I came to, the amber fire in the elevator far below had almost disappeared. So did the heaviness in my body. Only replaced by gripping emptiness, hunger.
Weaker.
I had to keep moving, I had not eaten since…
Leaping across again, my wounds had healed. Sliding down slightly against the wall, before finding a point where talons stuck. No pain. Just further above, the outline of a door could be faintly seen. Sight had become a problem in the omnipresent dark, lingering smoke in the air still clogging up any possible scent. But it was close, the upper floor. Only a leap away.
When I pulled myself up and into the doorway, the air became fresher, free from smoke.
Clearer.
Numerous smells drifted through the air.
Faintly acrid. Sweet iron. And some unknown musky one. The last smelled worse.
The white corridors of this seemed as scarred as below. Basked in dusky amber light, familiar scars of bullets and scorched impacts dotted the walls. Accompanied by new ones. Long drawn out scratches along the floor and some parts of the walls. A single green line extended on the floor from where the elevator would have stopped. Further into the corridors.
Still, a chill ran down my spine. As it had before.
I started to follow the line. There seemed to be no other option. I didn't remember how I had navigated this facility before going down to the lower floor. Rhythmic steps pounding the floor. The click of talons and faint swish of a tail swaying through the air.
But it was not long before I slowed. The faint echo of footfalls disrupted the slow rhythm of my own. The acridity in the air becoming stronger. A still distant and separate musky scent.
The short strides. The dull impact of boots on the ground.
Fast. Human.
The quickening heartbeat and warmth. Skin rippling as it disappeared.
Swaying beam of light. Running.
Headed straight towards me. Gripping emptiness.
A bit further. Closer.
Did it wear black? Or dark green?
Too dark. Can't see.
He hadn't seen me, I could move out of the way.
Too late—
In that split second when he ran into me, the camouflage deactivated. Before he fell down back from the impact, my claws were already upon him, gripping tight, tearing the arms of his combat suit. Raised scythes plunged down from above, skewering through from the shoulders further into soft tissue. Head swooped down, and bit with a wet crunch.
I didn't want to think anymore.
Sweet iron.
…
…
Heavy steps echoed in the dark corridor. Still following that green line. Leaving it behind, that dark crimson stain. Blood still smeared on claws. Stuck between fangs. At my sides, a lumbering figure kept advancing, reflected in the blank walls. Obscured in shadow, only a nonhuman outline could be seen in the dusk light.
A sickening sweetness lingering in the mouth.
In the air, a faint musky scent becoming stronger as I kept getting closer. The green line would lead to the ecosphere. Scratches on the floor of the corridor kept becoming more pronounced, dragging along the middle of the corridor. Taking a knee down, my fingers ran along the scratches, claw points catching at times fine crevices. What seemed single scratches were a multitude of fine impressions carved into the floor.
Something caught my eyes. A small flat piece of keratin stuck in one of the scratches — a scale, light orange in the dim light. These were track-marks. Something heavy dragging its body along the ground, hard scales scratching the floor in a long swaying pattern. A hint of iron started to mix below the now overbearing musk.
There were a few bodies further along. Smashed and maimed in the midst of dense marks and dents left in the aftermath. Yet oddly intact. Perhaps this was where he came running fro—. They lay just near a doorway. EC-5-4. Inside, the room had been trashed. Displays broken beyond recognition, only static and shattered images came through. Terminals scorched, holes pierced through them into the desks. Two men wearing white coats stacked in a corner. Red stained shredded papers.
The room was cast in a gentle light, much brighter than the previous back-up amber lights of the corridors. A small crater at the edge of a wall, now gaping open as shattered panels and dented fragments from the blast had given way to a different view altogether. Beyond some rocks, brown dirt and green vegetation. Clear cloudy blue overhead. The ecosphere, bathed in a bright and warm light. Unnatural, for where dirt and rock met the exposed room, fractured panels revealed digital artifacts.
The trail went deeper, onto a small path leading into the forest. Past a dented door laying by the side, dented outwards from the explosive used to open it forcibly. Clear prints marked the ground, stride lengthening as they picked up pace, scratches on the ground disappearing as it lifted off the ground. The prints had a size a bit bigger than my own in the dirt, sank deeper, five toes in front and four rear. Still, both were more than double the size of bootprints that accompanied them.
—BANG!
The distant rifle discharge startled some small creatures to lift off from the canopy further away. A survivor. Chased by whatever had found their group on its way back to the habitat.
I too started to build up pace, every stride lengthening until it exceeded by far both of the trails.
The rhythmic footfalls that had accompanied me from the beginning were now dampened into dull thumps.
—BANG! —BANG!
Closer. Warmer.
Stray branches broke off, snapped by the impact with my body.
Others sliced by scythes sweeping down to clear the way.
—BANG!
Body warming as the trees began to sparse.
Heartbeat pumping blood to limbs.
—BANG! —BANG!
Then in the small clearing.
Not far from a stream of water.
A small figure rolling across the ground.
Evading snapping jaws almost the size of its torso.
—Clack! —BANG!
The bullet harmlessly deflecting off back scales in a burst of sparks.
Black combat suit.
Covered in dirt and dust.
Visor lost in the struggle.
Swaying tied black hair.
Rolling drips of sweat.
Pursed lips.
Her trembling pupils wide open.
…
I don't remember.
Before the predator could snap once more, I started to tilt forwards, eventually my forelimbs now aided my run. Scythes pointed like spears above. Then the lunge, powered by triple jointed hind legs acting in unison. Talons gouging soft dirt and soil, sending my mass soaring through the air. When it raised its body to try and snap at the person, I impacted. The resounding shock knocked the breath out of me. Sending us both rolling. Hard scales met scythe and claw. Jaw closing on an exposed neck but not drawing blood. Then it struggled, great maw trying to close on me.
Danger.
—Clack!
Missed.
With distance opened we both stared at each other. Slowly circling. Long scaled body, around four humans in length. My gaze angled down, staring into yellow eyes slashed by vertical pupils, twitching as they tracked scythes, claws and a tail swishing through the hair. Disappearing behind armored scales as it blinked, scales that densely covered its entire body. Thinner and sand-like under — thicker and larger black and gray on its back and rest of the body.
Tough.
The long paddle tail slapped down on the ground, top of it edged like a saw by rising scales. The open jaws drew breath between dagger fangs marred by red residue, before a long hiss, slowly fading into a low vibrating growl, throat rippling. I stared at it from higher, fully displaying the frame previously constrained in the corridors. Twice the size of a man high at the shoulders, split into a pair of double jointed arms tipped by long sharp scythes raised high and two forelimbs open wide ending in hands and claws.
It too saw me.
Heard the vibrating deep roar escaping my own teeth. The length of my breath. Ravenous hunger was starting to rise, looking at the dense muscle hidden under armor. The strong jaws that gave me chill before they missed. But it was too tough.
And so did it realize. As we kept circling until it reached the edge of the water-bank. Then it slicked away under the surface into the murky depths, taking its musky scent with it.
Buying me time to look back — to where she'd been.
Gone.
…