Cassandra, Dagon, Secoria, Voltimand and Leliana had to wade through the crowded walkways. Many of the other people that were sheltered in Fort Ishimura had awoken. Whatever had the guards so scared hadn't alerted any of them it seemed. The five of them pushed through the crowds and reached the stairs to head upwards to the higher levels. The traffic decreased as they climbed to higher levels, leaving the common area to the guard barracks, and currently they were on the level where things such as cooking and smithing were done. Leliana couldn't help yawning and rubbing her eyes because of her poor sleep.

"You were up late."

Leliana turned to see Voltimand walking just a few steps behind her. He had his helmet on again, unlike anyone else. It sounded like he was stating it as a matter of fact, rather than suggesting it.

"I'm just tired because I didn't sleep well." Leliana told him.

It wasn't entirely a lie, but it wasn't the whole truth either.

"Is it because you were peering into other people's rooms just a few hours before we had received this abrupt wake up call?" Voltimand asked, rhetorically by the sound of it.

She kept her surprise hidden behind a fake smile, and she pretended to laugh at being caught.

"I thought you were sleeping..." She said, trying to be friendly.

She gave him a quick glance, and her guise almost fell apart when she saw one of his gray eyes focused on her. The inner dark of his helmet gave the white flesh an almost luminescent appearance. He hadnt just glanced at her, as she had at him, he had been staring at her.

"So what were you doing at such a late hour?" Voltimand asked her suspiciously.

"I was just with my own thoughts. What were you doing awake at such a late hour?"

She saw him blink beneath his helmet and then he turned from her, walking up further. Leliana was relieved, talking to him felt like an interrogation. After a few more minutes of walking they came upon a heated argument between Charon and the door guard Marlin. Francois was also present.

"Why would you leave him alone?" Charon asked Marlin angrily.

"I didn't think something like this would happen!"

"No one could have imagined this, but you still had a responsibility."

"The two of you please stop arguing, the rest of the Seekers are here." Francois told them.

"Charon, what is the situation?" Cassandra asked.

"There's some ugly pile of..." Marlin began.

"I think it's best if we just show you." Charon interrupted.

Cassandra nodded and gestured for everyone to follow, Francois included.

"Francois, where is Byrom?" Cassandra asked.

"He is with the healer, investigating Malik's whereabouts."

"When did you see him last?" Leliana asked.

"Just last night Leliana. Byrom and I made sure that he stayed in bed; but his leg was so damaged, he couldn't have left on his own no matter what."

"Did the healer help him to go anywhere?" Leliana tried.

"No, she came to check on him this morning and alerted Byrom and myself when all she found was some blood and knocked over dishes."

"Maybe he was taken by someone?" Leliana suggested.

"But who would do such a thing?" Cassandra asked.

"Seekers!" Charon shouted.

They all gave the Qunari their attention.

"This is the beginning of why I called you up here..."

He held up a torch to the wall, and the light revealed a gruesome sight. On the walls was some flesh like substance, climbing up the wall like how some plants do, or like a spiderweb. The tall man lifted the torch even higher to show the substance was climbing even higher to the ceiling.

"What is that? It looks like, skin and flesh." Leliana said, disgusted.

"You haven't seen anything yet." Marlin stated.

"Indeed. Please..." Charon started leading them further.

The group walked down the hall, most of them were disgusted. Dagon curiously moved closer to the wall, his hand reaching out to touch it...

"Dagon!" Secoria said, grabbing his wrist.

"What?" Dagon asked.

"Do you really think that is wise?" Secoria asked.

"Aw, you do care." Dagon teased.

Secoria rolled her eyes.

"Just don't touch it." She told him.

"What is the worst that could happen?" Dagon reached again.

"Don't touch it Dagon." Cassandra ordered sternly.

"Yes Cassandra." Dagon said.

The path they walked became more and more, corrupted, by the grotesque substance. It even covered the floors now, and every step they took gave a gross squish.

"By the Maker ..." Leliana exclaimed.

They had walked back to the entrance to the fort. The two great doors were absolutely covered by the corruption, no trace of them could be seen. What caught everyone's attention was the ball of flesh protruding from it at ground level.

"What is that?" Cassandra asked.

"If I had to guess..." Charon began.

He turned to torch toward the thing, and it was illuminated, revealing just how terrible it was. A head, cut and mangled, rested upon its neck, not moving. Aside from that, it had no arms or legs, rather tentacle like growths held it to the door. It's body was also cut and mangled, with what looked like an oversized belly.

"I think it is the remains of one of our guards, Arthur." Charon said solemnly.

"That is a man?" Dagon asked in disbelief.

"Was a man." Voltimand corrected.

"What could have done this?" Cassandra asked.

"I hoped that you would know Cassandra. You encountered Darkspawn out in the wilderness right?" Charon asked.

"Yes, but I never have seen anything like this from the Darkspawn."

Marlin approached what was once Arthur. He may not have considered him a friend, but he couldn't help feeling guilty.

"Damn boy, what happened to you?"

Suddenly, Arthur started screaming in pain.

"Damn!" Marlin yelled, running back from it.

Everyone drew their weapons, not sure what to expect. Arthur was writhing against the wall, yelling and screaming. The sight made some of them more than a little disgusted.

"He is still alive, we need to help him!" Leliana said.

"Wait, don't go near it. "Cassandra ordered.

Suddenly something shot out of Arthur's oversized gut. It landed on the ground, and then a tentacle erupted from it's back.

"What the hell is that?" Dagon asked worriedly.

The little creature fired something at him. It hit in the shoulder, but his armor protected him. It looked like a sharpened piece of bone. Dagon swung his axe down on the creature and cleaved it in two. Two more identical creatures launched from Arthur, still screaming.

"Kill them before they can shoot you!" Charon shouted.

With that they started to slice off the tentacles and then stabbing the smaller creatures. Despite this, more of them popped out of Arthur, still screaming in pain.

"We need to kill it, or we will never be rid of these things!" Francois stated, pointing his great sword at Arthur.

Francois ran towards him, ready to slash him with his large sword. When he was just a few feet away, a clawed tentacle shot forth from Arthur's stomach with incredible speed. Francois's body ran a few more steps, leaving his head rolling in the ground, before it collapsed.

"Stay away from it! Leliana, Secoria, use your bows!" Cassandra ordered.

The two women did as they were told, and arrows started to punch into Arthur. It took ten arrows before the creature finally stopped screaming. Leliana kept an arrow strung in her bow still, fear and nerves keeping her cautious. Looking next to her, she could see Secoria was incapable of doing the same, as she was shaking too much.

"Well...is it dead?" Marlin asked.

Cassandra cautiously approached it, with her long sword held in front of her. When she was close enough, she nudged its head with her sword. It showed no signs of life.

"It is dead, really dead this time." Cassandra said tiredly.

She frowned and sighed when she looked at Francois's decapitated body. She heard Leliana say a prayer for his passing.

"I am sorry about your man, Seeker." Charon said.

"I am too, I am too, but we cannot dwell on that right now. The cause of this...situation is still unknown. And we still have a missing man as well."

"I fear for the safety of the people here. Seekers, I realize that you have your own priorities, but I could use your assistance." Charon said.

"I'm sorry Charon, but I don't have time to.."

"We should help them Cassandra. These people do not know what they are threatened by." Leliana told her.

"And what about Malik?"

"I will go help look for him, but we have a responsibility to help these people."

"Fine, Charon we will help anyway we can. Leliana, find Malik."

"The healer's chambers are just back down this hall, there will be a sign." Charon told her.

Leliana was already running down the hall. Thankfully, the corruption became less prevalent and vanished entirely as she ran farther. Whatever the foul substance, it hadn't spread this far. She couldn't believe what she had seen. She thought Darkspawn were the worst fate that anyone could suffer, but that thing that Arthur was transformed into was so horrendous, so gruesome, so terrifying.

Thoughts of her nightmares returned, and she felt the beginnings of a migraine. She kept her eyes peeled for the sign, and she picked it out just a short run away. She picked up the pace, eager to see if Byrom had found Malik. Suddenly, she heard a loud shriek come echoing down the hall.

"What in the world?" Leliana asked aloud.

She drew her dagger and hugged the wall, sliding to the door. She peered around and almost fell back when a woman fell forward out of the door way.

"Help me, help me please!" The woman screamed, stretching her hand to Leliana.

Before Leliana could take it, two swords stabbed into her back, killing her. Only, they weren't swords. They were sharpened bones attached to spiderlike appendages, which were attached to the shoulders of some crawling monster! It looked like a man, but the body was cut, mangled, like Arthur's. It should be dead. Clearly it didn't think so, because it crawled over the dead womanafter Leliana.

It moved surprisingly fast, using the bladed appendages to pull itself along the ground. It growled at her, and it sounded like a man would, but more beast like. Leliana sidestepped it and tried to look for an opening. She remembered a time when she was a child and she was handling a live fish. She had never touched or held a fish before, or anything even remotely like it, and she was terrified. That same fear hit her now, despite he training. Gripping thenagger tighter, she kicked the monster in it's gruesome head, and then bent over to stab in in the neck. Normally this would have instantly killed almost any enemy, but the monster seemed completely unrated by it.

Leliana took a step back, leaving the dagger in the creatures neck. It swiped at her leg. The blade missed but tripped her up, and she fell over. Before she knew it the creature was on top of her. Leliana held one of it's clawed arms back with some difficulty, and needed to put her forearm to its throat. It was trying to bite her. It's mouth had sharp teeth, and the lower jaw was split in half. Small tentacles hung out of it's mouth.

Leiana couldn't help screaming in terror. She felt something tugging at her stomach, it felt like fingers. She let the creature bite down on her shoulder so that she could grab her dagger in its neck. She yelled as she stabbed it again and again in the neck, but it didn't seem to work. In a panic, she stabbed it in the side of the head, right in the ear. It was stunned for a second, but then attacked her again even more viciously.

"Leliana!" Someone shouted.

She didn't know who had shouted her name, and she didn't care.

"Help me!"

Lslain a saw Byrom come into view, carrying his mace. He raised the weapon and smashed it into the creature's back. The monster didn't stop, so he did so again, and again, and again. Each hit tenderized flesh and bone, but the monster didn't stop.

"Try something else!" Leiana told him.

Byrom smashed one of the arms of the monster, snapping the thin appendage in half. This finaly had some effect, and Leliana was able to push the monster off. She scrambled to her feet as Byrom smashed the midsection of the monster several more times, killing it.

"Are you okay?" Byrom asked her.

"Just...give me a moment."

She leaned against the wall, trying to catch her breath

"Yes I'm fine. Have you found Malik?"

"Yes." Byrom said solemnly.

"You have?" Leliana asked enthusiastically.

Byrom kneeled down over the dead monster.

"We both have." he said, frowning.

Leliana looked at the corpse, and noticed with horror that it wore remains of Seeker armor. She also realized why it had been crawling, it's leg was broken at the knee.

"By the maker!" Leliana said in disbelief.

She looked at its face, and it resembled Malik. Halfway down its body we're two human hands, she had felt them grabbing her.

"The healer and I were searching the room when Malik...this thing came crawling out from under the bed. It chased the healer and, well..." Byrom said, looking at the dead woman in the ground.

"Where were you? Why didn't you save her?" Leliana asked angrily.

Byrom went into the room and came back out carrying something. He dropped it to the ground and it made a squishy fleshy sounlooked was the size of a somewhat small dog. Skin, human skin, was stretched across its back like bat wings. A large sharp talon hung from the front of it.

"That thing came out of the darkness at me. It almost got me to." Byrom said.

He pointed to his forehead, a small gash bled slightly on it. Leliana looked down at Malik's head, it had a gaping hole in the forehead.

"Do you think that..." Byrom started to ask.

"This creature turned Malik into this? I think so." Leliana told him.

Byrom gulped down a knot in his throat.

"That could have been me." Byrom said quietly.

"But it's not. You killed that thing, and saved me. You are going to be fine, but we need to let Cassandra know what we have discovered. We fought another one of these creatures; something bad is happening in this fort."

Byrom still looked at Malik's transformed corpse, showing no signs that he heard her.

"Byrom." Leliana shook him to get his attention.

"Right, right of course. I am with you."

"Good, now let's move."

She pulled the dagger out of Malik's head and sheathed it.

"That is two funerals that must be performed." She said sadly.

"Two?"

"The rest of us encountered another creature, even more grotesque than this. Francois was killed by it."

"Dammit."

"We will mourn them later, now we need to act."


The two of them hurried back down to the lower levels. Leliana noticed with horror that the corruption, the flesh like substance she had found near the entrance, was starting to spread.

"What does that mean?" Byrom asked.

"It can't be good. If the corruption is an indicator of something, then ..."

"Run!" Someone shouted.

The two of them turned to see a group of people running towards, from the direction of the stairs to the dwarven city area it looked like.

"What's wrong?" Leliana tried to ask the fleeing people.

An angry roar was her answer, as another one of those creatures, looking like the same kind as what Malik was turned into, came running from where they had. Leliana pulled out her bow and shot an arrow into its chest, then another. The creature only staggered from the impact, though the damage was minimal. The creature snarled and charged her, the clawe arms sticking out of its shoulders swinging back and forth. Leliana shot it twice more, and Byrom readied his mace. With one more arrow to the body, the monster fall to the ground, sliding, and dead.

"Arrows aren't as effective against these creatures." Byrom stated, trying to pull one from the corpse.

The monster suddenly sprung at him, holding his back with its arms and trying to bite into his neck.

"Shit, help!"

Instead readying another arrow, Leliana pulled her dagger out and sliced one of the creatures arms off. That was the last bit of damage needed to kill it it seemed, as Byrom threw it off of him.

"Keep your wits about you; these monsters may have more surprises." Leliana told him.

"I hope not, but whatever those people were running from can't be good."

The two of them hurried down the pathway to the city ruins. The sounds of screams and snarls intensified. Leliana's headache worsened.

"Oh Maker..." Leliana exclaimed.

Those creatures, more than she was able to keep track of, they were attacking all the people. Men, women, children, they all ran for their lives as these monsters slaughtered them. Leliana saw Charon crushing one of them with a war hammer.

"Seeker!" Charon shouted to her.

"Let's go Byrom!"

They cut a path towards Charon, slicing off the limbs of whatever monster attacked them. A fire broke out, several torches and lamps set houses ablaze. Screams of terror could be heard from inside them, as well as growls.

"Charon, what's happening?"

"I don't know, these things are coming out of the stonework there is no end to them!"

Another monster came running at them. Charon close lined it with his hammer and then smashed it, turning its body into a broken and bloody mess with a few hits.

"I need to get these people out of here. Everyone, head for the surface!" Charon shouted.

Like the monsters had planned on him saying it, scores of them came pouring out of the pathway to the surface. The people that had already made the move there were slaughtered. They heard a loud thump, and then another. Something huge and monstrous came lumbering out of the shadows. It walked on all fours, and looked like it was made out of multiple people. It let out a deafening roar that echoed across the underground city.

"Oh Maker...what is that?" Byrom asked.

"Charon is there any other way out of her?" Leliana asked.

"No there isn't. Well... "

"Charon it's no longer safe here, if there is anywhere else people can go, anywhere, it must be better than here."

Charon was silent for a moment. Leliana remembered Sten, only a Qunari could be this calm in a situation like this.

"I hope I am not damning us to a worse fate...everyone move deeper into the ruins! Run deeper!"


So I've finally shown you the Necormorphs. Kind of following the start of both Dead Space games, the characters end up moving farther into the enviroment following a sudden attack from the monsters. Read, review, and enjoy.