May returned home. She was shaken by the fact that she had been arrested illegally, but otherwise okay. Once home, she immediately ordered her Hatchery to morph into a Lair. She was ready to be done with this madness. The meetings were annoying, and being followed was unsettling, but being arrested and interrogated was enough for her to commit to her expantion idea.
The Lair would take just under two and a half days to finish, and the Nydus Network would take a day and a half to complete. She was determined to find a new home for her brood within that time. She started searching online for an island or piece of desert somewhere on earth that nobody occupied. Her search was surprisingly unsuccessful as most of the world was under some form of oversight by an independent nation. Every know island had been claimed, and even the most remote areas of jungle were under the control of an established government.
She searched for hours before she stumbled across the Marie Byrd Land. The Marie Byrd Land, May found, was the largest piece of unclaimed land in the world. It was located in Antarctica and was slightly smaller than Alaska: the largest state in America. May found that the bitterly cold environment and the difficulty of reaching the Marie Byrd Lands made even the craziest of people shy away from the unclaimed expanse.
May had found her Brood's new home, and all she had to do then was wait. As always, the anticipation was difficult to work through. Days passed, and May was a mess. She couldn't sleep, a problem that was becoming increasingly common, and she was rarely in the mood to eat anything. In spite of this, May did not venture to seek help. If she were to see a doctor, she ran the risk of being revealed as a freak, and she did not know anybody that she trusted. Normally she would be content to read her books, but she could not focus with the constant anticipation of freeing her Zerg.
After days of sleepless nights and little food, the Nydus Network finished, May immediately ordered it to surface at the center of the Marie Byrd Land. She had not really thought about it until now, but she began to wonder how the creature would get so far.
"Matilda?" May asked telepathically as she tried for the upteenth time to sleep.
"How may I serve you?" came the usual reply.
"How will the Nydus Worm make it between where you are and the Marie Byrd Lands?"
"It will dig." Matilda answered.
May frowned.
"I figured that much. How will it get there though? It can't just dig straight down can it?" May asked.
"It could if you wanted it to surface on the other side of this planet." Matilda responded.
"And die in the magma?"
"It can survive the pressure and heat of this planet's core." Matilda said casually.
"Oh, okay. Thanks."
"It is my pleasure, my queen." Matilda responded.
May sent a wave of disapproval at Matilda, and May could feel Matilda shy away from her telepathic signature.
The tunnel took just over twelve hours to dig, and when it was finished, May sent three Drones down it. One to morph into a Hatchery, one to morph into an Extractor, and one to gather what the Extractor collects. May expected the trip to take at least as long as the time it took for the Nydus Worm to get there, but she was proven wrong when the Drones arrived less than a minute later. When she asked Matilda about it, Matilda explained that Nydus Worms use psionic energy to propel things at blinding speeds through their bodies. This energy is what allowed the Zerg to communicate over long distances without trouble. May then waited until her drones back home had collected enough resources to build a Hatchery.
By the time May's next meeting with "Matt" came, May had a fully functioning base in the Marie Byrd Land. Even though the place was so remote and cold that it was deemed uninhabitable, the Zerg had no issues. "Matt" asked about the three Drones that had gone into the Nydus Network, and May said that they were finishing some things that could not be done by the bio-building itself. It was an answer that he seemed to accept.
May continued working on expanding her Antarctic base, and had to create Overlords for the first time when she had to many Drones to handle on her own. After a while, May found that calling her new base "the Marie Byrd Land base" was annoying, so she decided to refer to the Marie Byrd Land as Broodland.
Three weeks after her interrogation, May's base in Broodland had grown significantly. She had a Lair, a new Hatchery, a Roach Warren, a Hydralisk Den, a second Nydus Network, two new Extractors, two Evolution Chambers, and a couple hundred Zerglings and Roaches. There were also a few dozen Hydralisks waiting to finish growing inside their eggs. Her Zerg was far from struggling, for she had an excess of biomass available for immediate use.
Life was looking up for May. She got a job at a local grocery store as a cashier, and, although the SUV still followed her everywhere, she was having little trouble from Big Brother. The FBI even started testing Zerglings for military purposes the day before; it turned out that they can run up to seventy miles per hour (about 113 kph). The FBI was still very far from letting the Zerg expand further than the three bio-buildings that were in America, but it was a start.
May got off of work at 9:00 at night. She had been at work since noon, and was more than happy to be going home. As she made her way to her car, she noticed something missing from the parking lot: the black SUV. She scanned the parking lot twice, but her SUV stalker was nowhere to be found. May chuckled to herself as she got into her car and pulled out her phone to text John.
"It looks like the guys you sent to follow me decided to take a night off." She sent the message to John.
She then started the car and made her way to her apartment. She parked her car in the dark and lonely apartment complex parking lot, and gabbed her purse, phone, and keys. She stepped out of the car, but before she got a chance to close the car door, an arm reached out from behind her and shoved a rag into her face.
The owner of the arm pulled her close to his chest and held her until the chloroform on the rag did its work subduing May's mind as her body fought. Once May was unconscious, her attacker picked her up and placed her into a black van before driving off with a black SUV following closely behind. Once in the van, May began regaining consciousness, but someone had tied her hands behind her back, and her legs were tied together at the ankle. Instinctively, May reached out to Matilda.
"Matilda?" She called with her mind.
"How may I serve you?"
"I think that I am being kidnapped."
Her thoughts were foggy from the drug, and she had a hard time focusing.
"Are you in danger my queen?"
Matilda replied with anxiousness in her mental voice.
"I...don't...know. No, no I am not... I might be."
"I don't understand."
"Just...come and get me. Do what I would do. I don't think...I am not thinking...straight. I..I...was at home."
"Yes, my queen, I can feel your presence. I will send Zerglings to assist you."
"Thanks."
Now that she had the comfort of knowing that someone was trying to find her, May adjusted her position to get a better view of the van. When she did, someone noticed her movement and spoke. She could not tell what language the voice was speaking, but she did not like his tone. She turned herself in time to see a man hover over her. The man was wearing all black and had a ski mask on. He was bent down over her, and when May looked at his hand, she saw that it held a needle that was quickly approaching her arm. Before she could react, she had already been injected with whatever was in the syringe. For the second time that night, the world went dark.
"Matt", AKA John Dillinger, was sitting in his car, which was parked just out of sight of the Lair that swarmed with people taking tests, and finishing up his review of the operation behind the trees. His phone buzzed in his pocket, but he waited until he finished the last few sentences before checking it. Once finished, he pulled out his phone. The message was from May, and he read it several times before replying.
"Nobody was sent to follow you. Where are you?" He pressed send.
Confused, and somewhat worried, John called a security detail and instructed them to go to May's apartment and see if she is there. After that, he sat and pondered who could know enough about the Zerg to discover May's importance. John was startled out of his thoughts by M16 fire coming from the Lair. He quickly got out of his car and began making his way towards the bio-structure. If someone had misfired, he was going to have their head. Before he got to the other side of his car, he stopped.
Unearthly screams once only heard in nightmares began to echo from the forest. And they were getting louder. The thundering of feet grew to accompany the screams. John stood his ground and drew his pistol as he stared into the dark woods. Suddenly, a creature burst from the forest. It jumped over John and his car so fast that John could not get a shot at it. It was quickly followed by five other creatures who jumped over or around his parked car and into the woods on the far side. John popped a few shots in their direction, but was doubtful that they found their mark. A few moments later, five white SUVs with red stripeson their sides came speeding down the road to the Lair. The last one stopped by John and rolled down the window.
"What happened?" John yelled with anger in his voice.
"Six Zerglings just escaped. We fired on them, but they got away." The driver replied.
John pulled out his phone and called the FBI Deputy Director.
"Mr. Ledgett."
...
"We have a containment breach at the Acorn site, Sir. I am requesting that a helo be deployed to track the creatures."
...
"I'm afraid that won't be an option, Sir."
...
"Because they can run over seventy miles per hour, Sir."
...
"Yes Sir."
He hung up the phone and addressed the driver of the SUV.
"What are you waiting for? Those suckers are fast. Go get them."
With that, he turned around, got in his car, and sped off towards headquarters.
Morning came and went. John had lost the Zerglings, and May had disappeared. When the security detail arrived at the apartment complex, they found May's car door open and she was not in her room. John tried calling her several times, but it was becoming clear that something had happened to her.
When the Deputy Director heard of May's disappearance, he ordered the scientists to take as many samples as they could of bio-buildings before burning everything other than the Lair. John's world had been shaken over night. He had one job, and had seemingly failed at it in all accounts. He would probably get put on temporary suspension while an investigation was done, and he was worried that he would get demoted. He had also let an innocent civilian disapear on his watch.
John wearily stepped out of the helicopter and walked to the roof entrance of the FBI headquarters. He had been searching for the Zerglings all night, but the creatures seemed to be as elusive as they were fast.
After a short elevator ride and several turns, John reached the office of the Deputy Director. He knocked quietly on the door frame of the open door before entering.
"No luck?" The Director asked.
"No Sir. It is like they disappeared Sir."
The Director sat at his desk stroking his chin for several long seconds.
"I can't blame you for this John. It was more important to keep May a secret than it was to keep her safe."
"Yes Sir." John replied.
"Go find May. If she doesn't turn up in fourty eight hours, I will have to suspend you pending further investigation. You know the drill."
"Yes Sir."
John left the Director's office and made his way to the coffee machine. He had already had a long night, but it didn't look like the next couple of days were going to be any better.
May awoke from her drug induced sleep. Her head was pounding, and the world was spinning. For several minutes she did not move, waiting for the dizziness and accompanying nausea to subside. When it did, she opened her eyes and lifted her head slowly.
She found herself in a room with dirty cynderblock walls and a grimy concrete floor. It was dark outside, there was a wooden door in the front left corner, and in the center of the room was a thick wooden pole that reached from the floor to the roof. Her arms were tied behind her back with a rope and the wooden pole stood between her back and hands, thus keeping her in place; her legs were tightly secured to the bottom of the pole by a rope around her ankles. May tried to squirm her way out of the restraints, but she found that the ropes were more than a match for her. After rubbing her wrists raw, May gave up. Thinking again about how she could escape, she unfurled her wings and tried to cut the rope with the sharp tips that extended from them. She came close, but only managed to scratch up her own hands and arms. Realizing the hopelessness of escape on her own, May contacted Matilda.
"Matilda, are you there?"
"Yes, my queen. Are you alright?"
"I am fine. Where am I?" May asked.
"I do not know how to tell you in words as I am not familiar with the geography of this world, but you have traveled east about a third of the way around the planet."
"A third?!"
"Yes."
"Have you sent for anyone to come for me?"
"Yes, there are three Overlords heading your way. They contain four Roaches each. I also sent an Overseer into orbit to locate you visually."
"How long until they get here?"
"About three days. The Overlords are not designed for long distance travel."
"Okay, what about the Overseer?"
"It is in position."
With that, May searched for the mind of the orbiting Overseer. She found it, looked through its eyes, and ordered it to find her. Its eyes flicked slightly to the right and zoomed in on the Earth. The overseer zoomed onto a building in an area May did not recognize from the brief glimpse she had while the Overseer's eyes focused. She then ordered it to zoom out slowly. As the Overseer's vision encompassed more area, May, to some extent, recognized where she was: in the Middle East.
May gave the Overseer its mind back and focused on her own surroundings once more. For the next several hours, May tried to free herself, but that resulted in nothing more than scratching her arms and rubbing her wrists further.
Her struggling ceased when she heard footsteps outside of the door. She quickly retracted her wings, and a man with a black scraggly head of hair and beard stepped in through a door in the corner.
"I see you are awake." The man said in a thick accent. He was slightly less than six feet tall, and had jet black hair covering his head and face.
May glared in response to the man's statement as he paced around her.
"And you are trying to get away." The man said as he passed by May's bloody hands
After he went one full circle around May, he spoke again.
"What is your name?" He asked calmly as he stopped and stood directly in front of May, who continued her glare. He waited several moments before speaking again.
"I asked you a question. I suggest you answer it." The man said, his calm tone now replaced with an angry growl. May remained silent as her glare continued.
Suddenly, the man backhanded her with a heavy hand. The blow was enough to make May's teeth cut deeply into her cheek. Before she could shake the dizziness that now clouded her head, the man grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him.
"Do I need to ask again?"
May said nothing as blood began to fill the scratch made by the man's hand.
Getting angry at being ignored by a woman, the man kicked the top of May's shin at a steep angle causing the blow to scrape down the entirety of her shin. This earned a scream through clenched teeth, an May hunched over in pain. When she did, the man grabbed her hair and pulled her back up, slamming her head into the wooden pole and keeping it there.
"It is getting late, and I want you to have plenty of time to think about this little bit of pain you think you feel. From now on, when I ask a question, you will answer. Got it?"
May remained silent.
The man punched her in the stomach, causing her to double over and nearly vomit on the ground.
"You will answer next time."
He then let go and walked out. As soon as the door shut, May burst into tears. She had blood running down her cheek and a throbbing and bleeding shin that she could not console. She did not know how long she cried, but when the tears stopped, she desperately tried to think of a way to escape. No new ideas came.
Whether out of habit, boredom, desperation, or some mixture of the three, May began going through the minds of her brood; the emotions of each of the members of her swarm reflected her own: stressed. She then began looking at the DNA of the Swarm and trying to find something to improve, but there was nothing that could be done. Then an idea struck her.
She went from looking at the Swarm's DNA to her own. What she saw was incredible. She saw her own DNA. It was very condensed to make room for the DNA of the Zerg, and the two had a small amount of overlap. Part of the DNA regulating Mutalisk wings had combined with her own. There were other bits and pieces of Zerg DNA that had been mixed in with her's , but nothing other than the Mutalisk DNA was connected deeply enough to change her appearance. Curious, May began to disassemble her DNA. Piece by piece, she removed strands, inspected them, and sorted them. Through this process, she removed all of the Zerg DNA that connected to her own. Then, she rebuilt her DNA with what she had left. It was difficult at first but, like a puzzle, what was meant to go where became easier to understand as she worked. May examined her newly reconstructed DNA when she finished. It was very different than the Zerg, but is was very similar. At the same time It was as if she was somehow connected to the Zerg on a genetic level.
May did not dwell on this oddity for long however, for it came to her attention that there was more DNA in her than in the Zerg she had seen before. A part of DNA entirely cut off from the Zerg, similarly to the way that hers now was. As she inspected it, she found that this DNA was as far from Zerg as she could imagine. The Zerg DNA was flexible and adaptable, it allowed changes to be mad easily. Any part of Zerg DNA could be changed without affecting anything other than what that DNA was for. This DNA, however, was the opposite. Instead of being made of replaceable parts, it was one united whole. Any changes made to the DNA would cause the whole strand to become useless. It was not possible to add to it or change it. This unexplored DNA had about the same amount of information as the Zerg DNA.
Deciding that it would be unwise to be practically unconscious for to long, she brought her mind back into the world. When she opened her eyes, she saw a wall of dark green directly in front of her. She looked around and found that the wall curved around her and encased her entirely. She went to touch the wall and realized that her restraints and the pole she had been tied to were gone. The enclosed space began filling with a clear liquid. Something suddenly wrapped around her ankle and made its way up her body until she was covered in it. Then, for the third time since she had been taken, the world went dark.
For anyone wondering why May was kidnapped: May has some more important stuff to take care of first.
This chapter has even more words than the last...by about 70 words...
It has been a pleasure reading your reviews. It makes me want to post more often, so the more reviews, the more I post. (and hopefully, my grades will not be affected. lol)
My replies to some comments:
Johathin Stuart says "It is the morning, where are you?" - When I posted the last chapter, it was around one o' clock A.M. The best way for me to answer your question without giving out personal information is to say that I am under Central Daylight Time in the Americas. There may have been a delay between the time that I posted and the time that it showed up on FanFiction.
Justreidabook says "Ok, I really didn't like this story when chapter one came out. I love it now." - I did not like the first chapters very much either. lol
