Brave
Waking up never felt this hollow. Even my dreams are blank not even recalling the events that took place yesterday. Usually when I wake up the feeling I get would be being tired and happy to face a new day. But I cannot avoid the feeling due to the deaths and sacrifices of my comrades. All the events that took place just yesterday, about the zerg and the terrans. And also the larvae I spared.
I recalled that I caught a glimpse of it coming towards me yesterday. As if on cue I felt something shift beside me. I went stiff the moment my eyes adjusted and focused on the creature beside me. It was the zerg larvae I had just spared, lying next to me and curled up while resting. I tried to back shift away from it but it just kept on curling up next to me. "Great now this thing is sticking with me." I did not manage to think about it when my stomach started growling indicating that I should probably eat rather than stressing on my current situation with the little zerg.
My rations were already depleted so I need to go search for food back at the facility. I shuddered when I got the feeling that something bad was about to happen if I go back inside the place. My stomach had dissipated my fear and I felt my body stand up on its own with renewed confidence. Once I had a good look at the larvae I saw that it was bigger than before and it had wing-like appendages prodding on its back. "You are starting to mutate." I should probably kill the thing but somehow I was more worried with starving than this creature's weird mutation at the moment.
I checked my suit for anything I could use should I use it for whatever it is waiting for me inside the facility. My pistol had a few rounds left and I had two remaining blinding grenades. Basically if I came face to face with a hydralisk I am screwed. I brushed the thought away and made my way inside the facility with the tiny zerg beside me. "Weird something doesn't feel right." I regret sleeping through the whole orientation. I was not able to download the interior map of the whole place thus making me groan in frustration going from door to door just to search for a kitchen or cafeteria.
The place still showed signs of struggle and death. I noticed that the little zerg beside me kept on following me not minding the death of his fellow zergs. I halted when I heard something like a heart beating but it was faint and I took out my pistol just in case something would jump out and attack me. I don't know if there are other zergs beside the usual ones we just faced that survived the conflict before.
I noticed that there were some kind of flesh like substances and veins were on some walls and parts of the floor. Some of the veins were even pulsing which had made creep out a little. I failed to notice that I had stepped on something pulsing and something jaw like emerged from the ground and snared me preventing me from going on further. "What the-!" I noticed from a distance that something from the ground was coming right towards me I felt a strong pang of fear and panicked soon kicked in. I used my pistol to shoot down the trap that had ensnared me and I felt its grip loosen just a little. Soon spikes or better yet spines we emerging from the ground and it seem to come closer to me.
I griped the thing and tried forcing it to open time was running out and out of a sudden I felt like something was thrown at me with sheer force. I had escaped and missed the spine by a meter close. I glanced on what the weight was on my chest and saw that the larvae had thrown itself at me to save me from the spine creature. "You just saved me." When I looked at the larvae face to face it just stared at me. I had thought that the zerg did nothing but kill us humans but somehow this tiny zerg had somehow saved my life.
I stood up and made a mental note of the creature that had almost killed me. I sighed and took another route which had fewer veins like things on the walls and floors. After a few number of doors we came across the kitchen. The place seemed to be fine aside from several blood splatters on the wall. The power was not out on this floor so the refrigerator was still running. I walked to wards the fridge and hoped that nothing would come out and try to kill me. I used the binoculars that I just remembered just now. "why didn't I use this earlier?" was I really this gullible? The larvae just stared at me waiting for my next action as if saying what now? Clear it seems nothing was waiting for me inside the fridge and I opened it. I saw that it had some raw patties in a plastic and a few other treats on the lower part of the fridge. I thought that I should use a bag to put it all in and I saw some kind of gym bag which surprised me on how it got inside a kitchen. "Whatever, it is here and I am going to put it to good use." I managed put all of it inside the bag and remembered that I should probably take some other supplies that I could manage to find.
Using the binoculars to evade the traps on the walls and floors I had managed to find three good grenades and a few blankets and ammo. " I wish I had muscles though." I laughed to myself as I had such a small body and a lithe frame. That would give me the ability to wield those cool guns the marines have.
A few minutes passed before the larvae and I went inside the cave and I began on preparing the meal for us to eat. I took out everything I needed to cook the patty. I created a fire using some blankets and stones and placed the pan on a stone covered with blankets on fire. Once I had finished cooking the meal I handed one patty to the tiny zerg and it backed away and hissed indicating it did not want it. I figured it must prefer it raw so I slightly heated it to remove the ice on the patty and made it slightly softer than what it was before. I threw the patty towards the little guy and it gorged on it once its mandibles touched the raw meat. I began eating my own cooked patties and as began my first bite I saw the larvae staring at me as if saying it wants more.
I laughed a little as I began chewing and got more patties to heat. Once we finished eating I began on reloading my pistol when suddenly I heard something through my radio. "Hello is anyone there?" I increased the volume and activated my microphones to answer the message. "Hello this is Private Hernando and I hear you!" I tried not to shout gladly when I managed to reply. "This is Corporal Maria from the Hercules mark two. We here you needed rescue over?" I beamed as the Corporal finished speaking and gladly replied while the larvae were out of my sight. "Thank Goodness." I seemed to chuckle at my response. "Commander David Patterson requested for immediate rescue we deeply apologize for the late response may I speak with your commander?"
I fell silent and thought on what I should say. I felt slightly depressed as well. "Hello? Are you still there private?" I jolted in surprise and answered. "Everyone is dead." I said in a hushed voice as the Corporal gasped in surprise. "I'm sorry private but I believe that you were all sent in a top secret mission to recover a certain flash drive, do you have it?" I was surprised that it was top secret as everyone knew that it was just a simple extraction mission; just take the imprisoned zerg specimens to another facility. "Yes I do." I said grimly. "Roger that, evac will arrive within two days, over and out." I turned the radio of and sighed in relief.
Once I turned around I jolted in surprise as I saw an egg like sack was on the spot where the larvae should have been. I gripped my pistol and went towards it. "This is bad." As scared as I am I was also fascinated by it thus making me touch the shell which felt hard to the touch even if it looked soft. I accidentally scraped my glove and broke the tip of one the fingers making one of my fingers bleed. A few drops of blood landed on what I confirmed as a cocoon. I used my suit to instantly close the wound and tried not to fall asleep and wait for the zerg to emerge. If I was not careful I would die the moment I fall asleep. Then I remembered the flash drive the commander handed to me.
I opened my one of my gauntlet's compartment and saw the bloodied flash drive and took it. "I guess it couldn't hurt to take a quick peek what we risked our lives for." I plugged the flash drive on my gauntlet's usb port and a few images and files were shown at the screen of my helmet. I was surprised that the images shown a facility similar to this one but it did not contain any zerg it was something different. It did not contain any protoss weapon either. What I saw was a live protoss.
I was disheartened by the images showing some experiments that were done to the poor alien. I had to remove certain images away from my eyes at some of it showed the protoss being dissected alive and being tested for combat which was gruesome and no man could handle that much torture. I never came face to face with a protoss before but from what I learned in the academy it looked like it was a zealot but with darker skin and a slightly larger frame. "What the heck were they doing? If the protoss were to find out about this, we would surely be fighting against them right now and not bounded to our races alliance.
I made a copy of everything on my own flash drive just in case I needed this information. "How could they do that to a fellow soldier?" No one deserved that kind of brutality human or not. That was what separated us from our enemies the zerg. Once everything was copied I hid the flash drives on my gauntlet and noticed that the cocoon had slightly expanded. "Great I rescued this thing just to get killed in the end." I took out one of the grenades from the bag and prepared myself for what was waiting for me once the cocoon opened. "Why do I make poor choices?" I still had hoped that once the tiny zerg finished evolving it would still remember me and not act like it brethren and try to kill me. I busied myself with counting the rocks around the place but it was a big mistake it made me sleepy and I fell asleep with the grenade falling from my hands. I was glad that it didn't explode or else the whole cave would be falling down on us.
I groggily shifted my body up and opened my helmet to rub my eyes slowly. "Seriously I'm getting myself killed with my own stupidity." I stood up and tried to focus my eyes at the cocoon that began cracking. I grabbed the grenade from the ground steeled myself for what would come out of it. I jumped in surprise as I saw a shadow of a hand inside the cocoon and fell on butt which thanks to the armor did not hurt much.
"Someone is inside that thing!" I panicked reason and logic going out of my head and conscience and worry replaced them as I rushed towards the cocoon and began shouting and trying to force open the cocoon. "Hey can you hear me?" I took out a knife and tried to peel the cocoon but its shell just broke it instead. "Darn it!" I tried to grab my pistol but suddenly the cocoon began breaking and an arm came out of it. "What the heck." I was speechless as a child came out of the cocoon and as I stared it stared back at me. The child had dark skin with scales as well as bonelike wings coming out from his back. Yes it was a he as I would not like to give much detail as to how I found out. The kid had bright golden eyes fixed at me with no expression at all.
I slowly stood up and gained no reaction from the child before me. "Are you the zerg I rescued yesterday?" The child did not reply just blinked and continued to stare at me which gave me Goosebumps on how creepy he acted. I waved my hand and tried to say hello but just then the child grabbed my hand and slowly examined it with either curiosity or an appetite. I hope it was just curiosity not hunger. The child was clearly a zerg since it still had retained most of its features like the scales and the wing the only thing new was the tail and his body. "Yeah that is my hand and my name is Jake Hernando by the way."
I was slightly aggravated that this kid is almost as tall as me and I'm nineteen years old and my height was just five foot one. The kid noticed that one of my fingers were exposed from the incident earlier and began sniffing at the wound. "Holy cow!" I snatched my finger away when the child tried to bite it off. "Are you hungry or something?" The child just stared at my hand like it was expecting me to hand it back to him so he could eat it. "No this is not food but I could fix us up with some patties from yesterday."
I walked towards the bag and grabbed the whole plastic with patties inside it and began heating some of it to feed it to the young hybrid with me. "Here take it." I handed a raw patty to the kid but when he took a bite out of it, he spat it on my face which I realized he may not like it raw anymore. "You could have warned me you know." I grumbled and wiped the meat out of my face. I cooked the patties and began eating myself as I handing a patty on a paper plate. The tiny hybrid did not know how to differentiate a plate from food so he almost ate the plate when I stopped him and helped him eat the patty by feeding it to him.
"So what the heck do I call you?" I cannot seriously call this kid zerg or hybrid it was partly human so I decided that I should give him a name or something. "I can't really call you zerg it just stands out a bit." The child was munching on his third patty and was too well focused on his meal rather than the one who was talking to him. "wait a minute you are naked, are you not getting cold from being naked?" The kid was now listening to me and just continued to chew but was now staring at me like it did not know anything about what I just said. "Wait a second." I stood up and checked the bag if I had grabbed any clothing with me but alas I only found blankets so I made use with what we had.
I wrapped the blanket around the little boy's waist and he complied while chewing on his fifth patty man is he hungry. "I wish I had your appetite." I slightly chuckled maybe if I were to eat just as much as he does maybe I would gain a few pounds and be able to would my very own rifle.
"Back to the matter at hand." I stared at the child and closed my eyes to focus on what to call him rather that kid or child. As I was too distracted with thinking on what to call this kid I failed to notice that he began playing with my hair and sniffing it and I only took notice when he yanked my hair with him. "Hey!" the kid sure did have immense strength I'll give him that. "Quit it!" I grabbed the kid and put him in front of me as I focused deeply on what to call him. "How about dark?" he did have dark skin and his eyes seems to remind me of the sun. He sniffed the air suddenly and stared at the bag and began on searching for something it probably smelled.
I managed a smile as the child managed to grab a chocolate bar and began chewing on it once he tasted the plastic he began spitting and had the expression of disgust. "You have to open it you know." The kid just stared at me and then back to the chocolate bar. I sighed and walked towards him and grabbed the chocolate bar and earned a growl from the child. "Easy I'm just opening it for you." After I opened the chocolate bar I handed it back to him. The child snatched at me and he sniffed it again and began biting it. The child momentarily gazed at the chocolate and purred happily. "Did you just purr?" he ignored me and gorged the chocolate down like no tomorrow.
After he finished eating it he stared at me as if he asked me if there were more brave chocolate bars. "Sorry buddy that's all I got." Wait a minute brave. That was perfect. "How about I call you brave?" The child tilted his head to the side as if it was trying to understand me. "Brave." I smiled and saw him smile at me when I repeated the word brave this time he seemed to beam at his new found name. "You like that?" Brave stared at me and yawned as he stumbled towards me. I took a glance at my gauntlet and checked what time it was and it was already midnight.
"Okay I get it you're tired and maybe I am a little and I've been sleeping a lot lately." I failed to notice the child falling asleep falling down dragging me with him. "Man your strong!" I managed to laugh at Brave's expression as he curled up beside me and started snoring. "You sure were brave to follow me here. "What the?" I felt his bonelike tail coil around my leg and it seemed to tighten when I tried to take the tail away. I was forced to lean on my back against a rock and bear with the snoozing hybrid that was curled up next to me. "How can I explain you back at the base?" I yawned and dozed off as well as a lot had happened today, at least I'm not alone anymore.
