Author's Note - So here we go another chapter, another step closer to the release of Gears 4, no pressure... We may have a slight overlap. Hang on in there.

Chapter Eleven - The Creature Within

"Yer an idiot," Cam commented sharply to Wilks as he watched Angelo scamper off into the darkness.

"Yes but I'm an ingenious idiot," Wilks strapped his armour plates back on, "either way we need someone on the inside to help us get out of these cells. Those Nightmares are too loyal to their leader to stray, the boy too dedicated to his cause. Which leaves..."

"...the creature." Cam finished.

"You can't trust it Ol, the thing is going Lambent, look at it," Miles added from his cell.

"He was human once and I think he partly believes it as well, why on Sera would he come to me if there wasn't some part of him that recognised me."

"Maybe he thought you were his next snack," Archer opted for his input.

"You're all very funny, Aidie would have believed me,"

"Which begs the question, where is she?" Archer asked glancing at the empty cell beside him.

"I'm assuming they've put her with the women," Wilks answered, "Which is where she needs to be, if she's with them then at least they know we're here."

"In cages though Ol," Miles kicked at the bars in frustration, "we're not going anywhere behind bars and those 'things' downstairs are not going to be giving us an easy run. Especially after the number you played on their leader."

"Which is why we need Angelo,"

"How the mighty have fallen when we need to rely on the Lambent," Cam grunted.

"How else are we gonna break out Cam? They covered our heads so we couldn't see our way in or out, took away our weapons and locked us in cells. I am running low on suggestions here so I'm willing to consider the absurd right now."

Cam nodded thoughtfully, staring out into the darkness, deliberating over their next step.

"Yer think he can get our weapons?"

"It'll be a tall order but if I earn his trust it might be a possibility,"

"His owner friend had keys, I wonder whether we can persuade him to break us out as well?" Archer suggested.

"The boy won't do it unless he has incentive, which is why we're relying on Angelo,"

A sound of footsteps on the stairs alerted the squad to the approach of the Nightmares, the one called Thaw gave them a look.

"I heard voices, what's going on?"

"We were just discussing knitting patterns," Wilks answered sharply, "didn't realise that it wasn't allowed."

"That wasn't what it sounded like," Thaw held his lamp light up to Wilks to assess the cell, he then walked the line to check the others stopping at Aidie's open cell, "where's the girl?"

"We thought you knew, she left with your scientist friend,"

"Not again," he muttered, "that boy keeps stealing all the decent ones."

He whirled round to the prisoners in their cages, clattering the hilt of his knife against the bars as he walked past.

"Keep your voices down, we're trying to sleep down there. If you persist in making noises I'll have to house you with the Formers, that'll keep you quiet for certain."

He scaled the stairs in the darkness and left them alone.

In the early hours of the morning Camille went into labour and there was nothing the women could do to slow the process. A few hours later a small bawling baby was born into the world, leaving a weakened Camille clinging to her child with a renewed fear.

The Formers had picked up the scent of new human deliciousness and had started screaming and charging hungrily at their cells, bending the bars the more they charged. Their screeches filled the tunnels as it echoed down into the darkness.

The women had become hysterical, scrabbling together in fear. The baby howled and mewled, discovering its lungs as its mother wept uncontrollably in terror.

Aidie stood watching the whole thing, trying to work out how to ease the situation. Both Camille, her child and her mother had been pushed aside as some of the women had turned aggressive towards one another. They were struggling and writhing against each other to hide from the monsters nearby, scratching and biting and clawing.

Then Aidie realised that it wasn't the fear that was turning the women violent, it was the reaction they were having to the serum they had been injected. The Imulsion fumes weren't helping either.

She made her way to Camille and dropped to her knees opposite her.

"Camille, how are you feeling?" she asked her calmly.

"She's not good," Emma explained placing a hand on her daughter's head in concern, "she's got a fever."

"I feel sick," Camille wept twitching away from her mother, "my head hurts. It feels like there's something still inside me."

"Okay," she glanced down at the naked baby in her arms, surprised that no one had offered to wrap the child up. Although Emma seemed preoccupied looking after her daughter over the baby in her arms. She slipped her holster over her shoulders so she could take off her own cardigan, "Camille do you mind if I wrap your baby up?"

"Take her!" Camille all but threw the child into Aidie's arms. She grabbed hold of the baby and wrapped it with her tattered cardigan quickly, using the arms to tie it around her securely. Camille had dropped into a ball and had started clawing at her stomach. Emma dropped beside her talking to her quietly

Aidie stepped back slightly only to find Sofie standing nearby watching the scene.

"She's hungry," she said matter of fact, "she needs to feed her."

"I don't think that's even possible right now," Aidie commented, glancing down at the crying baby, "how are you feeling Sofie?"

"I'm okay, considering,"

"Don't feel like clawing at your body or ripping me apart at all?"

"No more than usual," Sofie gave her a look, "are you insane?"

"Possibly," she then offered the baby to Sofie, "Can you look after her for a moment whilst I see if I can bring Camille round."

"Sure, but if her mother isn't successful I doubt you will be," Sofie's maternal instinct instantly kicked in as she drew the baby close to her.

"And Sof, stay away from the Imulsion fumes,"

"Why?"

"Just humour me, okay,"

"You even sound like him now," she grumbled as she moved away with the baby, cooing to it gently.

Aidie sat down close to Camille, "Camille, can you hear me?"

Camille grunted as she pulled up her top to scratch at her swollen belly, "It's inside me."

Emma frowned at her, "what is darling? There's nothing there."

"It's okay, you've just had a baby, it's natural to feel that way." Aidie attempted to offer some kind of reassurance

It was times like this that Aidie wished that she had more experience to help her or that one of the midwives were of a sound mind to ease the poor girl.

"I'm gonna be sick," Camille retched, dropped on all fours and vomited, the result made Aidie leap to her feet in horror.

Camille was throwing up Imulsion.

"No!" Aidie gasped she backed away only to hear a voice behind her in the tunnels.

"She's ready,"

She turned to see the Professor watching the scene from the tunnels, face mask on hiding his features.

"You!" she shouted, "You did this to her?"

"Interesting, she held off the transformation until the baby arrived," he pondered as he unlocked the cell door.

Lem appeared awkwardly behind him with Angelo by his side silently watching.

"You're a monster!" she kept her distance as the Professor entered the cell to retrieve the heaving body that once belonged to Camille. Her mother fought against him to protect her, screaming at him in anger, but he pushed her backwards like she was nothing more than a weak child.

Camille screamed and thrashed around as the Professor hooked a chain around her neck and dragged her out.

"Come on sweetheart, it's time for your treatment."

Angelo dropped behind Lem's legs to watch as the woman's screams turned more and more violent.

"I'd be careful if I were you," the Professor addressed Aidie as he locked the cage, "it won't be long before those other women start expressing the same tendencies. Nothing worse than a horde of monstrous women."

He chuckled to himself as he led the screeching Camille behind him. Lem and Angelo remained momentarily.

"Lem," Aidie called to him, desperately trying to seek some sort of compassion, "what else did you do to them? How long before they're all like her?"

"What's to say that they aren't already like that." Lem commented, "maybe they hid it better than her."

"She was pregnant Lem," she clutched the bars, "her father is our village leader, you know that."

"Look Aide, it's something we have to do, okay,"

"She's my age Lem and you just...just destroyed her," she then addressed Angelo, "Is this really what you want Gelo? Do you really want to rip apart these humans to find your cure?"

"He won't answer you," Lem stepped in front of Angelo to prevent him from catching her glance, "he doesn't have a say in this."

"How long before the fumes start to affect me Lem?" she asked, "how long before I'm vomiting Imulsion and tearing my hair out?"

Lem turned away from her to face Angelo who sat staring loyally back at him, he mumbled his response guiltily, "I don't know."

"If this is payback for Frost, you really have reached an all new low."

"You volunteered remember,"

The women in the corner of the cell had unfolded themselves from their protective huddle, every single one of them now showing the indications of Lambency. They snarled and growled as they caught sight of Aidie, Sofie and Emma.

Aidie turned to Lem, trying to hide the terror in her voice as she gripped the bars tighter and offered out her tags to him, pressing them into his palm.

"At least tell Wilks, Lem, you owe him at least that,"

"We'll see," he slowly plodded away refusing to acknowledge the danger she was facing, "c'mon Angelo."

As they left, the sounds of panicked women screaming filled the tunnels finishing with a desperate howl of a new born baby.

"We need to talk," Lem addressed the Leader as the Nightmares gathered for their hunting session.

"I'm busy Lem, you can see that," the Leader had been sharpening his blade on a grindstone situated in the courtyard.

"It's about Aidan,"

The Leader paused briefly, "I'm listening."

"You never told me that you found her,"

"It was unintentional trust me. The plan was to kill the lot of them, should have done it before I knew who it was."

"Does she even know?"

"Of course she doesn't, what do you think I am, stupid,"

"There's something else,"

The Leader looked up at him from behind his mask, he seemed to be wearing it more and more these days which was starting to concern Lem.

"The women have all turned Lambent,"

"Which means what exactly?"

"I don't know really, it depended on the individual, but I had never seen it happen that quickly. We've all been exposed to those fumes, but we're all mutating at a different rate. You for example..."

"I'm perfectly aware of the effect on me Lem," the Leader interrupted him sharply.

"The Professor thinks he's almost there for a cure though, he has a serum he plans to use to see its effectiveness on the mutation. If it works we can cure Angelo, if it doesn't..."

"So you're saying that I should be notifying the prisoners that their women are all dead."

"You brought them here to help us achieve a purpose, it's not my fault that Aidan was mixed up with them."

Lem dropped Aidan's COG tags to his companion's feet, the Leader stared at them silently for a moment before nodding thoughtfully.

"I'll have a word after we return from our hunt, I don't feel like talking to them with the need for blood filling my senses."

Whilst the Nightmares were out hunting and Lem had returned to the Professor, Angelo had opted to stray back to the captives. The sunlight struggled to shine through the grimy windows but it was enough to light up the room and the half human. He yipped as he plonked himself down opposite Wilks' cell to await their next meeting.

Wilks had been sitting silently for a while listening to the chatter of the Nightmares in the room below, picking out certain voices amongst them. It took him a while to realise that Angelo was watching him. He turned slowly to see the part Lambent human, who was glowing slightly in the sun, stare back at him.

"Angelo," he acknowledged him with a smile, making sure that his movements were concise and clear so that Angelo wouldn't misread him, "I hope you are okay."

Angelo tilted his head and gave him a smirk of agreement.

"Angelo are you able to tell me whether the girl that arrived with me is safe."

He squinted slightly as if in thought then shuffled close to the bars, "No."

"No she isn't safe or no you can't tell me?"

"No,"

Wilks balled his fists slightly in frustration and on noticing Angelo flinch suddenly at his movements he unclenched his hands so they were open to him.

"Aidan is my family, I want to make sure she's safe,"

It was at this moment that Angelo wished he could vocalise the words that were flowing around his brain. But the synapses in his head had been messed up so much that all he could do was mumble a string of nonsensical gibberish.

"Baby," was the only word that allowed itself out of his lips that made any sense.

Wilks frowned at him, "what?"

On realising that something he had said actually made sense he sat back with a satisfied smile and reaffirmed Wilks' fears.

"Baby,"

Cam cleared his throat from the neighbouring cell as if in reminder that Wilks should be concentrating on the important matters. He glanced back at him and gave him a nod.

"Yes, yes I'm getting to it Cam," he responded sharply.

"We don't have all day Wilks,"

"I'm perfectly aware," he dropped to his knees again so he was level with Angelo and shuffled closer to the bars of the cell, "Angelo."

The boy tilted his head in recognition.

"I'm gonna be honest with you kid, we need you to get us out of here. We're gonna rescue the women we came for and we're going to escape. We need our weapons and we need a way out of our cells. I really need you to help us,"

Angelo frowned, "Lem?"

"We won't hurt your friend, I promise," Wilks placed a hand on his heart in oath, "I cannot say the same for the creatures that took us prisoner however."

Angelo nodded thoughtfully.

"So we're going to need a key to get us out and our guns. Do you think you can help us?"

A voice downstairs alerted Angelo, it was Lem calling for him. Without even acknowledging the Gears he scampered off down the stairs.

"Do you think it worked?" Miles asked after they sat in silence.

"I bloody hope so," Wilks responded.

The Leader ascended the stairs with a Locust carcass over his shoulder. He dropped it at the foot of the cell door and waited till all captives had his attention.

"Gentlemen, your lunch has arrived,"

"I'm afraid Locust doesn't appeal to my palate," Wilks was the first to rise to the bait, as expected.

"Oh it isn't?!" he feigned shock, "Oh well, we have a nice roast going over the spit at the moment, no ounce of Locust on her. You're welcome to share."

Wilks watched the Leader carefully, holding back his temper.

"But she's a little on the lean side personally, so not much to share, here have some," he threw a human arm through the bars and watched as Wilks took in the features and leapt backwards in horror.

"Fucking Hell!"

"Oh I'm sorry are you not a brown meat kind of person?" he unhooked something from behind his back and rolled it along the line, "whoops!"

A disfigured bloodied head rolled to a stop outside Archer's cell.

"Camille?" Archer cried out, "No!"

He lunged at the bars in anger, screaming at the Leader.

"What have you done!?"

"Hey I've done nothing, you can thank the Professor and his sidekick for that one. I'm just passing the message,"

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Wilks snarled.

"It's not my fault she turned Lambent before you could get to her. That's right, too late to save your women because you're trapped in a cell."

"All of them?" Miles asked quietly, eying up the stump outside the cell.

"The women we took were all infected, your little blonde whore was just collateral damage,"

"I refuse to believe it," Wilks defiantly stood his ground.

"It's true," the Leader chuckled to himself, "she was thrown in with the beasts and they ripped her apart. What wasn't bitten was burnt with Imulsion. They shot the women so not to incite the other Formers. My men are burning the bodies before the Imulsion travels."

"No..." Wilks stepped backwards slowly.

"That's what you can smell, the bodies burning, smells so good mind. Shame it's so inedible,"

"How do we know you aren't lying?"

"Well I can show you burning bodies if you want, but if you want proof, there's always this..." he threw in a blood splattered COG tag at Wilks' feet revealing the words 'Private Wilks. Aidan, E'

Wilks picked the tag up and ran his finger over the engraving, rubbing the blood away. There was a sickness in the pit of his stomach.

"Cute, by the way," the Leader commented, "giving her your name. Were you just filling in the blanks? You could have just used her adopted name, no need to be so desperate to feel needed."

"It's legal, there was no need to use the name that signified the season she was taken into the Compound," Wilks mumbled staring down at her tags. Something clicked suddenly in his head making him realise that the Leader knew a surprising amount about Aidie's past, he looked up at him with so much defiance that the Leader felt unnerved.

The Leader stood his ground trying not to be drawn into Wilks, "There was nothing wrong with the name they gave her."

"She took another, a name she was allowed to choose," He angrily pushed back.

He laughed at the Gear, "so she chose yours, how unimaginative. What did you do, pay her?"

"No," Wilks responded simply, revealing a ring looped onto her tags, "I married her."