Authors notes: I quite changed a lot in this chapter. I hope you guys enjoy it and love a little bit action ;)
The sun was now high in the sky. The water near the shore was brightly lit, revealing different marine animals. His many eyes scanned each animal he passed by. Instinctively, he grasped for every animal that came close to his mouth. He would never forget the taste of that one animal. It was so slimy, no arms, no legs, no fins. It was only a mass of 'flesh' with small thin pieces of skin underneath it and it had been horrible. When he had grasped at it, tasting the disgusting mass which burned his tongue, he spat it out immediately. He grimaced, swimming even faster to pass these things. Because of the bad taste he didn`t wonder about the burning sensation in his mouth as well as his throat. It wasn`t easy to catch fishes, they were fast. But now he understood why it was so easy to gasp after these things.
It had been hours since his investigation on land, yet he still couldn`t forget about the gruesome scene. He quickened his speed, swimming through the shallow water, not knowing what he was searching for, why he was swimming faster and why he had the strong urge to go ashore. He lifted his head above water. The reflection of the bright sunlight forced him to squeeze his eyes shut for a short while before he could open them.
He saw the shore with its sand, earth and plants. Was there a forest in the background? He wondered about how far he had swum. Just a few hours ago there hadn't been any forests, only sand, earth and strange boxes with disgusting water. His legs stretched away from his body and he moved them forwards until he could feel the sandy ground underneath them. He remained in the water, looking curiously in the direction of the shore.
He found comfort in the images that the sights on the shore caused to rise in his mind. They were nice to see and the closer he got to the land, the more images he could see. They gave him a warm feeling, almost giving him the answers he needed. When he stopped and placed his feet and hands on the sand he looked once again at his reflection in the water, at his face.
Even though he did see his face only a day before, he still didn`t like what he saw. The mutations didn`t changed greatly, yet he didn`t feel less like a monster. He was used to a face with two eyes, a nose, two ears, hair and lips – always serious and pouting. He had to focus on the reflection of himself, not believing what he saw. He saw pictures in his head, pictures of strange creatures he thought he had fought against.
Big creatures or small creatures with different forms. They were all disgusting and horrific. Normally he would see humans turning into something different, monsters. Like himself. He had difficulties accepting the reality of what his body turned into. That wasn´t him, he was losing himself not only in appearance but in mind too. He wasn`t the kind of person who gave up fast. He was able to count the eyes at first. One, two, three, four, five... Maybe twenty. Ten eyes on each side. The eyes had a different size, there were two main, big eyes which were surrounded by the smaller ones.
The pupil and eye colors were different. His right eye was a bright icy blue while his left main eye had a hazel color. The other eyes were reptilian, green and yellow mixed. Where his ears used to be were strange outgrowths, spikes. Between the spikes of differing lengths were fins. There were small tearsalong the fins. Since he no longer held his head under water, but in the air, he could see blood that flowed from the small gaps. He felt the tears getting slightly bigger, tearing the skin of his fins apart. It hurt a little, but the pain was no big deal compared to the pain he had to go through.
His chest hurt, a strange pressure building within. These twinges of pain rushed through his upper body. His veins felt as though molten heat was flowing through them, causing his insides to burn like hell. Perhaps this feeling was due to his skin not being fully developed. Here and there were open wounds on his body. When he turned his broad head to see the right side of his body he could see the raw muscle tissue of his right thigh.
The spikes, which grew from his sides, had left areas of injured tissue, the skin already growing to close the injuries. The revealed veins were pulsing along with his heartbeat painfully. He feared that the pressure within him would cause them to burst. The swellings under the skin were hard to miss. He wondered how long his changes would need until he finally recovered from whatever was happening to him.
Maybe that was what gave him such strong urge to go ashore, so his body could heal faster and better. Specifically his skin hurt when it came in contact with the saltwater. Without thinking he tried to take a breath, forcing air into his crippled lungs. His throat hurt as he began to cough and he quickly ducked his whole body into the water. He coughed out the water inside his lungs, trying to stop the burning in his throat while he focused on the gills` movements.
After a few moments he relaxed as the oxygen flowed through his body, letting the burning in is throat stop. He once again lifted his head again out of the water. He didn`t even need to turn his head to observe his surroundings. His eyes moved independently to capture every angle of view. He walked on the hot sand, dragging his tail with him as he entered the new world. The tough outgrowths on the bottom of his tail prevented it from getting injured. His legs and arms were long enough to hold his upper body above the land. The plants brushed against his body as he dragged himself further into the small forest. The ground was smooth and moist, soft beneath his paws.
He was lucky that the lungs he still had could help him breathe air. Nevertheless, it felt as if this would no longer be the case. He felt the changes taking place in his large, long body and he couldn't get rid of the feeling that his lungs would soon slowly say goodbye to him altogether - along with the ability to go ashore. A life inside the ocean would wait for him. While walking, he shouldn`t think about it too much as he already felt a headache coming. It seemed as if thinking would become too hard for him….
The information of the new green environment rushed through his brain. It all was so confusing. The new life, the mutation, the new feelings and the memories were hard to understand. He could only hope that his condition wouldn`t get worse. After a short time his legs and arms began to burn from the effort it took to walk on land. He wasn`t used to the gravity of the land with the new massive body that had neither the muscles to walk for long nor the stamina. He could feel himself getting weaker. His skin felt strange as well. The temperature of the air and the sunlight dried the surface of his skin slowly, causing his open wounds to burn, drying out. He could remember that animals could smell their environment, maybe he could smell water? He lifted his nose in the air andused his nostrils to pull in the air for smelling, the memories guiding his actions.
The temperature of the air and the sunlight dried the surface of his skin slowly, causing his open wounds to burn, drying out. He could remember that animals could smell their environment, maybe he could smell water? He lifted his nose in the air andused his nostrils to pull in the air for smelling, the memories guiding his actions. There was nothing but the scent of the forest, the moist ground and the faint scent of animals. While his eyesight was perfectly clear, enhanced even, his sense of smell was far worse. Even his hearing wasn`t as good as it should have been. Now he had two options: he could walk further into the forest, searching for water, or he could walk back into the ocean. The decision wasn`t hard, he quickly chose to walk back where he knew that there was water.
He dragged himself the way back into the saltwater. His body moved instinctively, his legs moved closer to his body while his muscles began to move for swimming. He was frustrated. He was so slow. He wanted to follow his will, yet he found himself unable to do so. He wanted to examine the shore, the land, everything. It felt like something pulled him deeper into the land. It felt like he had a task to fulfill.
As more he saw as more pictures appeared in his head. He couldn`t explain anything but he was determined not to become a monster like he witnessed. It was hard to think, it was hard to remember and it was hard to not lose control. When his head began to ache he decided to swim. His body reacted quickly as he swam along the shallow water of the shore. He didn`t think, he only swam while his body tried to recover for hours.
When the sunlight faded, changing its colors to warm red and orange, he found himself reclining on the seafloor close to the shore. The water didn`t cover the high fins of his back and tail, he could feel the fins getting dry when he tried to move them, a strange and uncomfortable feeling.
But that wasn`t all he could feel. Something touched his dried fins and as he lifted his head to look at that said thing he could see the outline of an animal, reaching its arms to his fins, touching and grabbing them. The picture burned in his brain, a monkey. Bubbles left his mouth when he growled slightly, getting to his feet. The monkey was obviously shocked as the strange giant fish appeared on the surface.
Piers watched the much smaller animal jumping on the branches of a tree, screaming loudly while it jumped up and down on a branch. If he could assess it properly, the creature was just as big as his head. He wondered why it wasn`t afraid of him. He watched it in interest, his tail moving back and forth behind him, stirring up the water. The monkey continued with its jumping and screaming at him from the tree, which he quickly got annoyed with. He knew that he couldn`t catch it so he turned to swim deeper into the ocean to get his dried fins into the water. To his dismay, a whole group of monkey soon appeared and copied the behavior of the previous monkey. They even gripped small branches and threw them towards the big fish. Probably for amusement.
It wasn't amusing for him, though.
The monkey followed him on the branches, jumping at the end of the tree to slap the fins. The touch burned, his new skin still very sensitive. Piers turned his head and lifted it out of the water to snarl at the monkey, showing his sharp fangs. The monkey wasn`t scared at all, it continued the slapping until the long tail appeared to hit it.
The monkey jumped aside and opened its mouth, making these screaming sounds again which caused his head to ache. The others soon followed its example and did the same. Now he got it, they were laughing at him. The moveable outgrowths of his tail wrapped themselves around a big branch and pulled it to the water.
The monkey jumped up and down, jumping at the tail to poke it, jumping on the branch to rustle it and grabbing sticks to throw after him while laughing. The others went a little too far. They jumped on the branches and poked his sensitive fins with sticks they broke off the trees. Piers let go of the branch, causing it to swing into the air. He wasn`t happy to see the monkeys still on the branches, laughing at his helpless and desperate attempts to catch one of them.
His chest burned, the swellings and veins underneath his skin throbbed along with his heartbeat as his body temperature increased rapidly. With his anger the sparks of bioelectricity danced on his skin, the blueish parts of his body glowing as he looked at the now surprised group of monkeys.
Yet, the new appendage of the big fish didn`t stop the monkeys to continue their actions. A few of them jumped near the trees of the surface closer to the large sea creature and continued to throw things at it. A large yelp escaped his wide mouth when one of the monkeys threw a sharp piece of wood at him that pierced the sensitive skin of his dorsal fin.
Furious and without able to clear his mind, he used a large amount of energy to jump out of the water with the half of his body towards the trees. Landing inside the branches of the trees that were thick enough to carry his weight he managed to grab one of the shocked monkeys with his mouth. Snapping his yaws closed, the poor group had to witness one of their youngest being crushed in between those large set of teeth while they fled into all directions.
Blood smeared the leaves as he let himself fall back into the shallow water again, his teeth covered with the red liquid when he choked out the upper half of the animal. His body moved on its own when it caught the half within seconds and swallowed it down before he landed on all fours. He heard the screaming getting more erratic when the monkeys stopped fleeing and jumped up and down in safer distance. No one dared to come closer by now.
His multiple eyes glared at them.
He let out a loud growl, seeing a bright blue light around his mouth as the monkeys finally jumped away, disappearing into the forest. He closed his mouth while his tail flickered behind him in satisfaction. He won, that was all that mattered - he won.
Yet once he saw the blood on the surface slowly fading while it mixed up with the salty water, his mind seemed to work again. His movements of the tail stopped as the bad feeling kicked in in full force. He realized that he didn`t hesitate killing off a monkey – a pretty young one for that matter. He didn`t even knew what he was doing until he swallowed the poor thing had to realize how easy it was for him to completely lose it.
It scared him.
What would happen if he met humans?
What if someone did anger him?
Would he lose control and….eat a person?
He didn`t noticed how strong and fast his heart beat became at those thoughts. He looked around and saw that no mammal was near him anymore. He couldn`t blame any of them, though getting eaten by predators was pretty normal for them. Yet, he felt guilty and lost.
A loud sound snapped him out. Moving his body into the river fork he noticed a large boat at the horizon heading to the eastern shore. A large cloud of smoke left it and covered the sunset. He dove down to cover most of his head and body and kept his eyes over the surface to watch the boat. His tail moved instinctively and helped him to swim smoothly inside the water. His nostrils moved and picked up the faint scent of ash.
As closer he got, as more he could see and as more dangerous it became for him. He had to be careful to not being spotted by one of the humans working on the boat. Fortunately for him, the sea wasn't very rough back then. It was easier to watch carefully in the distance. It turned out that the boat wasn`t a boat - but a cargo ship of gigantic dimensions.
The forward part of the ship cut the small waves of the ocean like butter as it approached the coast at relatively high speed. Strangely enough, the ship did not steer in the direction of civilization - as it was supposed to. On the contrary, it turned away from the coast and continued in a different direction. His multiple eyes concentrated on the happenings of the ship. He didn`t miss the large boxes placed on it.
Constructed of solid steel, they contained something - impossible to see from the outside. Scratching noises came out of the locked cages and could indicate something bigger inside. The people seemed used to those sounds coming from the large cages as they continued their work without even bothered by them.
Curiosity controlled his movements and he found his body moving closer, possibly too close. He narrowed his twenty eyes and noticed black slime coming out of some of the smaller containers. It was then when it hit him right away. That ship probably wasn`t a normal ship. It contained something pretty dangerous. Something that could be used for some very bad things. That feeling made him stop.
The people on board suddenly yelled loudly and started running around and getting armed. He froze in fear. They had spotted him!
His tail splashed onto the surface behind him when his body made a 180 degree turn. To his horror he saw multiple flying things heading right at his direction. How could he miss the loud sounds by those? His eyes widened in shock when they started to fire.
Large rockets – faster than a human eye could follow – were sent towards him. Diving down quickly, he avoided being hit by one of them. Soon enough, a large explosion went off behind him where the ship had been. The water wasn`t deep enough for him to dive down fully as the environment around him lit up with fire and flashes. Keeping his focus, he swam against the current flow coming from the explosions. He avoided burning and exploding debris falling from the sky into the water, missing his massive body by mere inches.
Resurfacing with his head first he realized the big ship crushing and breaking in two large pieces – with the giant front half falling his way. Wriggling his tail and back, he managed to dodge the cages – one at least as big as one of the flying objects - falling off the half. Using the sinking cages he placed his arms and legs on the material and walked on top of them as his tail pushed away the screaming creatures that broke through their cages that broke out during the explosions.
The forward part of the ship fell on the water and shattered cages and other objects in the process. He could hear screams silencing and bones cracking while people and their caged creatures were squeezed by the wreckage in the process. At the very last moment he managed to jump to the side before his rear part of the body crushed together with a smaller cage under the wreck.
The waves from the wreck helped him to swim to the side at a greater speed and avoid the other missiles fired by the attackers. By now, the entire area was covered with fire, burning debris, screams and explosions. He took a moment on one of the bigger cages to rest his burning muscles and looked around to see those slimy creatures attacking the very people that held them captive. The same creatures he saw on the ashore that morning.
He snapped back into reality when one of the creatures attacked his rear end and sank its large teeth deep into his right thigh. An uncomfortable feeling crawled up his spine. Hissing out he turned and his first thought was to use his fangs to finish the thing off. But his mind quickly changed his movements and he used his right hand to dig its massive claws into the creatures head before he tore it apart. Seeing other creatures breaking through their damages cages and heading his way, he quickly jumped back into the water.
As soon he did, he noticed that the greyish slime on the other part of the wreckage grew and covered most of the ship and people. The screams grew louder when more and more creatures emerged from the slime and attacked the living they could find. It was a sight that no one could bear, not even those being used to such gruesome things. Not even a monster like he was could watch without having a problem with their stomaches. Well, not with a still working mind.
An overwhelming pain finally distracted his mind as he felt his body fly aside. He landed on the remaining wreck with a loud bang and had to realize that his side was hit by one of the missiles. A large hole was on his right side, bringing out his mutant white ribs - along with some larger organs. The gaping wound was covered with extremely thick blue and thin red blood.
In pure shock he watched one of the helicopters heading his way with some people inside aiming for the other creatures that slowly covered everything that swam at the surface in their slime. Obviously those attackers saw him as a threat like those monsters. He tried to stand up but couldn`t move his right leg. In addition, his right arm didn`t seem to respond to him either. Growling in frustration, he used his tail to swipe away the oncoming creatures attracted by his blood.
He needed no intelligence to notice that he was in a rather unfortunate situation. More shots rang through the air and hit the creatures right away. He could also feel some of them hitting his dorsal fin and tail. The pain caused his brain to switch on survival mode as the blueish blood started to glow when sparks of bioelectricity danced through his veins. They activated the whitish organs in between his exposed rips, which started to glow and grew against his ribcage painfully. His muscles responded on their own and pushed him on his legs.
A flaming pressure slowly built up in his chest as the blue light from his body turned into a shining white. With one blow, he released the built up pressure in big blueish flames coming out from his throat that burned down the creatures in a short distance. The process of spouting fire burned his internal organs painfully and caused him to stop once the pressure in his chest was gone.
It was then when he had to feel that his mutations still weren`t completed. By the simple act of defending himself, his body did hurt itself in the process. Whitish smoke left his gaping wound and nostrils as he took a moment to collect his thoughts again.
He couldn`t remember what just happened. But whatever he did – it got the helicopter to distance itself more from him as it flew away. But it didn`t worked for the rest of the helicopters. In the opposite – Now he had all attention attracted on himself. The creatures seemed to have no person left which they could attack. They chose to turn their attention to him.
Gritting his teeth together, he ignored the pain of his legs and wound and slowly pushed his body towards the water again. Although his body was very weakened and not yet fully mutated, he was still able to survive and even move, leaving behind large traces of blood and grime. He stopped at the edge of the wreckage where the slime still couldn`t move and prepared for the jump into the burning water below.
In front of him, a much larger red colored military helicopter with the large white letters `TerraSave`moved in eye level of him. He froze and watched as the helicopter turned its side to him to reveal three people inside. One man – suited with a black military outfit, helmet and a shotgun, a younger woman also dressed in a similar way and a woman dressed in casual clothes. Her red hair was wrapped in a ponytail and she had a grenade launcher in her hands, looking at him in a mixture of disgust and fighting spirit.
He hissed and moved himself up in a threatening manner with his outgrowths sticking out from his body and his tail swinging high in the air, its sharp ends spread out for a fatal strong attack. The three persons inside the helicopter seemed to ready themselves as they aimed their guns right at his head.
His eyes narrowed at the red haired woman only a few meters away from him, the wind blowing from the main rotor limiting his movements. The woman gave him a triumphantly smirk before she aimed at his tail and fired her gun. The grenade exploded at the spikes of his tail and tore through flesh and bones. His tail was thrown behind him to the ground in brute force and made him cry out in an unnatural shriek. The pressure of the explosion convulsed through his body and he lost his balance. He landed on his side – the good side – and pulled back his wounded tail to himself in protection.
He couldn`t take the time to observe the damage done by that woman when he heard a click coming from her gun followed by triumphantly compliments of the other two persons that watched her attack. Placing his hands and feet on the material properly again, he felt a scaring fury showing up again. It made his stomach boil and heated up.
He rose to his feet again and made the military people concentrate on him once again. The redhaired woman smirked.
"What a monster…. Watch out and be careful. Aim for the weakened spots" she ordered with a professional voice.
His eyes started to glow dangerously along with the sparks dancing on his scales and wounds. Large bolts of lightning escaped his wounds and burned the air, crackling and hitting everything close to him. He rose his head up and released dark smoke from his nostrils, the anger coming out with loud deep growls. His gills closed themselves fully, the armored plates protecting them from any harm.
"A fighting spirit" he heard one of them say.
He lifted up his tail once more and heard the redhead screaming out to fire. Raising his arms, the intact armored scales protected him from the bullets fired by the guns of the other two while he built up more pressure within his ribcage once again. He didn`t miss the redhead firing her dangerous weapon again and reacted this time. Using his bioelectricity, he was able to hit the grenade before it would touch his scales. It exploded in between them and created a huge shockwave that pushed away the helicopters by mere meters while the claws of his feet kept him on place, ready for his own attack.
"SHIT! You hurt?" the readhead asked as she watched her comrades steadying themselves at the walls of the helicopter that steadied itself in the air.
They had no more time to react as the creature in front of them stood up on two legs and seemingly readied itself to release the pressure that pumped up its chest three times its original size. The three sets of eyes grew wide at the unexpected powerful attack.
With one move, he released the built up pressure in a giant wave of red fire coming out of its widely opened mouth. His back arched while his front legs touched the ground to counter the pressure. The helicopter flew to the side, but not enough to not get hit by the immense heat of the creatures`fire. The people acted quick and jumped off into the saving water as the fire burned the half of the helicopter down.
The helicopter sank to the water and crushed into one of the sunken cages, causing it to explode. The shockwave sent large waves to the people that desperately held onto debris to not being carried away by one of the massive waves which would end in suffocation underneath the trapped wreckage underwater.
His legs slipped as he fell forward and needed a moment to catch air and cool his overheated burning organs. The surroundings around him seemed blurry and he had to concentrate hard not to faint. That would mean his certain death. After a few seconds, he shakily stood up and noticed the people still alive and swimming towards the shore. His main eyes focused on the readhead that glared at him in sheer hatred. She knew that being in the water like this would mean that they were easy prey for the large creature that just killed off their pilot.
Anger rose in him again when he saw that glare of the woman. But something awoke in him. Something new. Guilt and sadness filled his pained chest when he saw the destruction and the near death of that woman. The woman that seemed familiar now. The woman…he thought he should know from somewhere.
His eyes grew wide in shock at what he did. He took in a few shaky breaths and felt his heartbeat quicken at the realization. What if he attacked the ones that were close to him as a human being? The same fury that made him kill and eat the poor monkey came out and almost forced him to finish off a person he was familiar with.
He couldn`t stand this anymore. With closed eyes, he jumped off the wreckage and used the little energy he had left to swim away from the scenery. He did stop once in the distance and saw the people gathering at the shore – together with the three persons that he stood against.
He reached the deeper water and quickly dove down to avoid being located by the remaining helicopters still flying around the area in search for any mutated creature. He already had lost too much blood and the water didn`t help him. Near the brink of passing out he swam as deep as he could like he did when he jumped off the escape pod to hide somewhere deep in the ocean.
But he didn`t came far as the bloodloss forced his brain to shut down and his mind fell into darkness with his body stopping to move and let itself drifted away by the water flow…
End notes: Finally, Claire Redfield joins the fight! And who were the people from the ship? Black market traders for B.O.W. products? Well, those slimy creatures do seem pretty threatening.
Story will be continued, wait and read the following chapters coming out soon!