Even on normal days the Hivemind was a place of chaos. Too many minds tried to speak at once, too many thoughts were jumbled to overwhelm a normal person's head. They pounded at the door of insanity until its surface was dented and scratched, blackened and scorched, yet while it remained firmly shut, the door of death claimed already many. There was no such easy escape.

At times the Hivemind would grow very, very loud, and very, very demanding. Usually it only happened when the Order was spotted somewhere. When one mind cries out about the sighting, many, many others followed and soon not just the mental vibrations but also the physical location would immediately be swarmed by an army of infected. Within time the Order was on the defense, fighting only to escape before more appeared to devour them. But rarely it was not the agents of the Order which set off the uproar. When the voice known only as the Creator spoke, all quieted. When it issued an order, all obeyed, obeying with an eagerness that each felt to express by their volume in the Hivemind. It made a terrible mess, the voices.

But now it's quiet. So quiet. Places where the old residents roared to their hearts' content remains blank, a void. The massive link is empty, connected only to a few minds now. Occasionally there are tiny little voices that echoed in the vast barrenness, but they are hardly ever heard, and mostly ignored.

ooo

From the wall behind me peeled away a large web of vines. Suddenly the bladed man forgot to hack down. While he swung his blade at the web in a panic, missing as it dodged, I quickly jabbed a sharp spike into his leg. It entered without resistance and, with a mental command, ejected a load of deadly poison.

Poison hardly ever effects infected tissue, as the virus can isolate the poisoned area and ensure the safety of the majority of the body. And it can accomplish this so quickly that the poison does not leak farther than half an inch away from the point of entry. However, acidic poison, on the other hand, not only eats away at the isolation membrane, but also poisons the surrounding tissue, causing extreme pain. Several individuals have mastered the art of secreting acidic poison to temporarily subdue an opponent. An alternative, one that is ten times more effective, is acidic neurotoxin. Instead of burns, it numbs the surrounding area, and then victim will be paralyzed for a short time.

The first evolved collapsed, with his leg spasming out under him. The second evolved reacted quick, but not quick enough to prevent a line from piercing his throat. However, he did manage to fall backwards, and therefore pulling me forwards unexpectedly. The third took the chance to attack me with another blade, chipping away at my sides. Ignoring the pain, I injected my last resort of toxin, and watched in satisfaction as the second evolved slumped to the ground like a body bag.

However, that didn't stop the third man, as he chopped at me again. Awkwardly, I managed to armor myself, which stopped the sword just an inch into my skin. Only he didn't stop there. Instead of pulling the blade out to run me through, he pushed it forward, and like a saw, continued to cut through the armor. Mind already consumed by pain, I lashed out blindly, the extra appendages from my back swinging wildly and cutting through all they could reach. I punched to the general direction of the pain, and was rewarded by a grunt, though not lessened sting.

With a violent jerk, I ripped the whip from the neck of the second evolved, leaving a bloody fountain. He was not dead, but enough that he wouldn't be getting up soon.

I snapped the whip up just in time to deflect the second razor, which came for my head. With the heavy pressure, I was forced to angle my body such that the first blade ran through my side, leaving my left half untouched, but the right shredded. With my free hand I grabbed onto the sword and twisted. He gave a howl of pain, but didn't not let go, still whacking away at me with his other arm, which I had grabbed onto and was bending it away from its natural position.

There was a stir behind me. The first man had managed to overcome to destructive poison. He stood wobbly and stared at me murderously. Out of desperation to avoid fighting two at once, I threw the man I was grappling with against the clear glass wall. He gave a cry of surprise as he tumbled away, the glass not even cracking under his heavy weight. His blade leaving my side torn out a large chunk, a gaping hole, where snakes of biomass were already reclaiming the natural position. The man landed into a writhe of tentacles.

I whacked at the first man, ready to quickly eliminate the weakest threat. He raised both arms to block, but was ultimately unsuccessful, not with his still frail right leg, nor with the quarter-ton weight I put into that arm. He flew away, hitting the concrete wall head first.

Without slowing, I let the arm swing around and over my head, in time to stop the hard approach of the third man. He dodged, so quickly, to the side that instead I only dented the ground. He was definitely not an evolved, not with his strength and speed. However, that didn't prepare him for an extra arm on my back, which poked into his eye with a sharp blade.

He howled once again in pain and danced away. I didn't let him. With the whip, I pierced his calf with an expert throw. He realized my intentions and tried to cut away the whip, but I was faster, pulling it back to me and tripping him. He fell. When I tried to press the advantage, I felt a prick on my shoulder. Both the first and second man had recovered to dice. I didn't give them too much time to think, diving at them headlong.

The first couldn't stop my large blade from running him through like a skewer. Only that I didn't stop there, my forward momentum pinning him to the opposite wall like a lance. He tried to hit me, but only received more pain as the blade in him expanded into a ring of spikes. While he was busy dying, the second man rushed at me. I ducked my head as his arm slamming into the concrete wall, shattering it. With my free hand I was able to grab him, hauling him over me and banging his head against where his arm was only moments ago. Meanwhile, a hungry snake that sprang out of my blade chewed contently away at the first man, who was still struggling. I stopped him by dropping him and pinning him to the ground, this time through his head. The second evolved was pushing himself out of the wall. I smashed his middle into mush with a heavy fist. They were both absorbed quickly.

It was as though feeding a starving man a feast after two weeks of painful hunger. Suddenly I felt strong again, powerful. I could crush mountains, demolish cities. I roared into the Hivemind, feeling the strength of my echo, and enjoying the wave of fear which swept through all others. There was nothing beneath my might, certainly not that pathetic prototype who was struggling to launch a counterattack. I saw him, so slow, even his dash, as though in water. I caught his extended blade with my hand, ignoring the deep cut in my flesh, and ripped his arm from his socket.

He screamed, so loudly that even the heavens heard him. He slashed at me with his other blade, which I ignored, even as it ripped into my shoulder. However, I felt no pain under his pitiful assault, instead pouncing on him.

His forward charge was turned right around as suddenly he found himself falling backwards. While his back cracked the floor, I was on him immediately, snarling, claws digging. He grunted painfully, the blade stabbing holes into me, the hand punching me away. We fought in our own blood and guts, for the fresh taste of the kill. But I felt him tiring. He had lost too much mass already, not enough energy left to counter my increasingly ferocious stabs of claws. Tendrils from me stuck themselves to the floor, the ceiling, the walls, anchoring us to this very spot. We were in our own hell now, apart from the outside world.

I saw his fear in his too human eyes, as he saw the monster behind mine. Through the reflection in his orbs, there was the creature from my mind, brought to life through the virus. Its terrible gaze saw the world through death. Its hunger was unquenchable, only delayed by more and more blood.

"Don't move!" someone yelled. Perhaps it was a soldier who had heard the disturbance, but I could not really care now. Neither of us obey the order, still shredding the other. I scored a long, five slashes to his face, while his blade pierced my chest to come out the other side.

"You can't–!"

"Shut it, Gunners! I'll finish this!"

Footsteps hurried to our spot, though neither of us spared it a glance. I had caught the blade in one claw and was forcing it back to its owner, while the other claw ripped away at the meat in the shoulder. The prototype retaliated by bashing my claw away with his hand and a following stab which cut halfway through my neck. The pain blossomed. I faltered.

"Snow!"

I looked up. Vinson stood so close, just outside the cage of tendrils which I had built around me. In his hand was a pistol, which he aimed at the bloodbath. I was almost touched at his expression of worry. For a second, just a second, the world froze. I was trapped, the cage of humanity! This was the last choice, the last chance for redemption. Was I willing to throw it away? Then there was more pain, and the choice was made. The prototype punched me in the chest. If I had not been attached, I would have flown away by the force. Instead, my entire frame rocked. The walls shuddered. He punched me again. I was losing control.

Suddenly there was a gun shot. The prototype's head sprayed blood. He roared in my face. Another shot rang, and the right shoulder exploded. Another shot, another hole appeared in his neck. I felt his desperation. He saw my victory. In one final attempt, he slashed at my face.

Immediately I was blinded, from sight and smell as my entire face was shredded by the serrated blade. It only lasted for a second before I saw sight again, through the monster's quick thinking to see not through eyes, but sense, as the prototype slashed again at my face, further reducing it into a mush of flesh. I saw the horror on Vinson's face, the paleness of the other man, who held in his hands a smoking gun. There were several others, all masked, their weapons pointed towards us. He cut me again and hit me in the head. I grew angry.

Instead of repairing the damaged features, I absorbed the mass into myself. There was a hole in my hole, now a nest of sharp teeth. Legs of spiders ringed the periphery. The prototype's eyes opened in horror. He again tried to run me through, but my claws jabbed into his arm, piercing the muscles and pinioning it into the floor. There was one final moment of struggle, then I brought my entire face onto his, as though for a kiss. His final scream was muffled in the sound of flesh tearing.

ooo

I sat on a new bed.

Around me was a new cell. It was the same place as before, but now the construction was bolted in with steel. Sensors had been added to both glass walls, designed to raise alarm should either experience heavy pressure. There was no tinted glass for people to look at me through. Perhaps they realized just an observation room was in itself a security risk. I was not bothered. I was no nearer than before to freedom, even if my destination was more set.

In front of me was a tired man, hunched over in a chair. He was the same one beside Vinson in that night the room had been destroyed. He was my first visitor, too, in this new place, and my second ever. I let him sit in peaceful silence for a while before I broke it. I sensed another needing company and felt the need to conclude this one quickly.

"Gunners, I presume?"

His brows shot up in surprise. Perhaps he thought I wasn't capable of human speech. I wouldn't have blamed him after what his first hand witness was. "Yes, Lieutenant Steve Gunners. And you are the Ms. Snow that caused the uproar last night?"

I nodded. "I remember those grace shots were fired by you?"

He tried to smile, but failed when his cheeks tightened. "Yes."

"How did you know not to shoot me?"

His eyes looked dead when he tried to remember, a hand unconsciously to rub his chin. "I remember even though there was this bloody hell in the middle of the room, Captain Vinson bravely went in." At my questioning look, he explained, "You need to see the thing from the outside to truly know how bad it looked. I mean there were tentacles everywhere, and from my experiences each one can kill a man. But still the captain just approached the mess, and when he called your name, you looked up, so I knew there was something about you that didn't warrant a bullet to the head as much as the other thing." He shrugged, and then smiled. "Call it instinct, but I trust my instincts."

I nodded. When he still stared at the ground, I took it as a moment to survey him, like a predator. He looked normal, alright, but something about him was off. Perhaps it was because his uniform didn't quite match up with everyone else's. But then again he might belong to a special operations branch, which would also explain his frequency of introspective moments and constant grim look.

There was a knock on the door, then it opening to reveal Captain Vinson. He looked even worse than the day before, if that was possible. It looked like he aged a decade in a day, his uniform still crumpled. Shadows marred his stone face, fatigue weighed down his shoulders. He stood in the open door like an omen of death, just waiting. Gunners seemed to understand, and excused himself, slipping out carefully. Finally, with the room empty, Vinson came in, the door locking behind him.

"Long night, huh?"

He grunted. With visible effort, he seated himself exactly where Gunners was a moment ago, except somehow he was fuller, and more tired.

"You know, I'd been expecting you. I thought you might want to talk to me after what happened."

He didn't respond. I didn't feel the need to continue the conversation down this particular path, either, and so let him decide.

"Did you know those men?" Such a predictable question, but in a good way. It meant he had a healthy and untainted morale conscious.

"No."

"But you knew about them?" he pressed. I sensed an urgency of sorts that he had never had before. Something about the possibility of traitors in the army set him off.

"I guessed."

"But you knew about them, because you wanted me to spread you existence within the facility to all the personnel, and within eight hours you were attacked." He looked to me for confirmation, but I only gave a blank look to him. "Why did they attack you?"

I tried not to sound exasperated. Sometimes humans were so foolish they could not see what was in front of them. "I was not born into this prison, captain. You should have at least guessed I was somewhere before we've met, and that I have made many enemies, especially with this four-way war going down."

"And I presume these three were a part of your 'enemies?'"

"No need to assume so much, but yes, they were."

He looked amused for a second. "And which of the five factions would they be a part of?"

"Four."

"Excuse me?"

"Four factions."

Now he was confused. "I thought you said there were five."

I shook my head. "No. There are only four."

"Alright," he conceded, though I could still see lingering doubt on his face, but he let the matter pass. "But you haven't answered my question: who were they?"

I kept my face passive. "They belonged to an organization known as the Order of Evolution, and their mission is to turn all humans to their Order, which I find, one, stupid, two, unviable."

"Oh?" I definitely gave something for him to chew on. "And what is their problem with you?"

I shrugged again. "I refused to join their Order."

"That doesn't explain it."

Good catch. He was getting better at this. "They killed a close friend of mine for defying their leader, and now I want to kill every single one of them, as do every single one of them want to kill me."

He stilled at this. I didn't know whether it was something in my voice that set him off, or that he found something in my words to be horrifying. Finally he managed to choke out, "Show me who you are."

I stared blankly at him.

"Show me! I know this is not you. I've seen what you are capable of."

I was rather taken back by the abrupt change in topic. "I'm afraid I can't do that, captain."

He opened his mouth and closed it, opened and closed, like a fish. He wanted to say something, but couldn't. I waited patiently, sitting with my hands folded in my lap, like a lady.

"Good bye, Anna," he said suddenly, at last, after thirty seconds.

"Good bye, captain." I kept my voice neutral.

He did not seem to notice I did not return his closeness, and departed, very much like a ghost. I had the strangest feeling that he was being eaten alive from the inside, by his responsibility and his fear, for his people, for himself. I couldn't help but wistful think about what if we were closer. Perhaps in another world, but this one belonged to the monster and the captain.

A/N

I have to admit I was surprised by my own writing speed. Granted, this chapter has already been started before the previous chapter was posted, but still I managed to write over 1.5k words in as short as 1 hour!