Virus
Continued
10. Prey
By this time all four of the pilots' eyes had adjusted to the darkness enough to be able to see what happened without the aid of their flashlights. A long seem formed down the front of the pod then split open. Dark liquid gushed out onto the floor and a figure fell with it. But before any of them could see what it was the pod unlatched from the ceiling and fell on top of it.
"Somebody should go check it out…" Quatre whispered. Of course, nobody wanted to go examine the broken chrysalis, but Quatre was right; it was necessary for someone to do so. Heero decided that he would be the one to check the mess for signs of life. He walked purposefully toward the pile of goop and ooze and leaned forward. Not being able to see anything, he reached out a hand to try to move some of the slimy stuff out of the way. It melted at his touch and slid into the puddle already formed on the floor. Once all of it had fallen away, Wufei was right in front of him, kneeling on one knee and balancing himself with one hand. His head was lowered and remained that way even after Heero's slightly surprised gasp. Heero backed away, rather quickly in some of the other pilots' opinions. When he had gotten a few feet away, he noticed that Wufei was completely naked. The way he was partially curled up, however, he couldn't see anything compromising. The puddle of dark fluid began to engulf Wufei's body and he stood slowly. As he reached a complete standing position, only his arms, neck and head remained uncovered. He tilted his head back and inhaled deeply. The slime dropped to the floor leaving his perfectly clean clothes behind. Letting out the breath he had taken, he brought his head back down. He breathed through his mouth and they could see that he now had fangs on the bottom row of his teeth but they were shorter than those on the top row. Both pairs of his eyelids snapped open without warning. Heero backed all the way up to where the rest of the pilots were. A slender, forked tongue flicked out of Wufei's mouth briefly.
"Wu-Wufei?" Quatre ventured. Wufei's yellow-green eyes moved smoothly from Heero to Quatre. His voice echoed eerily through Quatre's mind.
"I am not the creature trying to take over this body." Wufei said. His telepathic voice was slow and clear but still had a hint of instability in it. "But I will not allow you to call me by that name." He looked away and up at the ceiling. Dr. J was still attached to it and still unconscious.
"But it's your name, why can't we call you by it?" Quatre demanded. Wufei didn't glance back down at Quatre as he spoke. He continued to stare at Dr. J.
"That was my name, when I was human. But that person is gone. There is no Wufei anymore. There remains only me, a nameless creature destined to destroy humanity." A small, snake-like hiss sounded from within him as his tongue flicked out once again.
"You don't want to destroy humanity! That's that thing's goal, not yours! You're letting it control you, Wufei!" Wufei shook his head then turned back to Quatre.
"No, I am in full control of my body and mind now. I have decided to carry out the organism's plan for reasons of my own, reasons you would not understand." Quatre opened his mouth to argue but he stopped himself. After a moment of deep contemplation, he spoke. His voice was soft and neither accusing nor questioning.
"You loved her, didn't you?" he said. Wufei's head snapped to attention. His golden eyes burned holes into Quatre but he said nothing.
"Yeah, you loved her and they took her from you. I know you want them to pay for it, but this isn't the way."
"Shut up, human! You have no right to speak of that! You have no idea how I feel! How could you possibly know!?"
"I know how you feel, Wufei. I know how you feel because I can feel it too. I can feel the pain inside of you and that thing in your body. Both of you are being blinded by your rage. You think the only solution to your problems is to kill. But what will that do for you? That won't bring your wife back. That won't bring the organism's mate back. That won't solve anything." Wufei was now shaking visibly. His hair was still down and it swayed slightly from his movement as he took a step forward. He pointed a trembling clawed finger at Quatre.
"Just for that," he hissed. "YOU will die FIRST!!" He charged at Quatre. Trowa, who had been standing sideways so that both he and Quatre could see, now turned all the way to the front, putting himself between Quatre and Wufei. Wufei stopped short.
"Move or die!" he snarled. Trowa stood firmly where he was. Seeing that Trowa wasn't going to let him get to Quatre, Wufei drew back his arm and splayed his claws. Someone caught hold of his arm. Before his could see who it was, he found himself on his back. The culprit stepped forward. Wufei narrowed his eyes and hissed.
"Yui…I should have known…" He leaned back then jerked his legs forward, yanking himself into a standing position. "You're no match for me, Heero. I advise you to back down." Heero stayed where he was. A smirk crossed Wufei's face. "Fine by me…" He moved with unfathomable speed. The other pilots watched as Heero sank to his knees and Wufei moved his fist away from his stomach. Heero was violently ill. After wiping some excess regurgitation from the side of his mouth, he lifted up the bottom of his shirt and examined his stomach. It had already begun to bruise. Shooting an enraged glare in Wufei's direction, he picked himself up off the floor.
"Still want more, do you?" Wufei asked in mock surprise. "Well don't worry, there's plenty more where that came from." Heero punched with his right arm. Wufei's left arm blocked quickly and was followed by a sharp uppercut from his right. Heero stumbled back a few steps then steadied himself. He pulled out his gun. Wufei moved in a blur. He kicked the gun out of Heero's hand, punched him hard enough to spin him around, grabbed his arm then caught the gun in his other hand and pushed him to the floor with his foot. He finished off by pressing the gun barrel to the back of Heero's head. Heero lay face down on the floor with his right arm stretched behind his back, still in Wufei's grip.
"Well, I wanted to kill Quatre first. But killing you first is just as good." Heero heard Wufei pull the hammer back.
"It's empty…" he panted. Wufei pulled the trigger and Heero rolled over, nearly crushing his arm beneath his back but dragging Wufei to the floor at the same time. He clasped his hands together and hit Wufei over the head. While Wufei was down, he scrambled to his feet and ran back to the other pilots. Duo started to say something but he cut him off.
"Run." he ordered. Duo and Trowa followed after Heero and Quatre, who had no choice in the matter, watched Wufei getting up.
"Hey, Heero, if you knew that gun was empty, why did you take it out?" Duo asked.
"I didn't know it was empty until I took it out. He kicked it away before I could put it back."
"Um Trowa, can you run any faster?" Quatre asked.
"Yes, why?"
"Because you need to run faster!" Quatre watched in horror as frost formed in the whole hallway. Wufei was right behind them. Then Quatre remembered something. He had asked Dr. J why he could hear water dripping in that area. The answer had been that this area of the building was under a lake. The water pipes had already ruptured because of the pressure. Should they freeze, they would burst completely. The whole foundation of that area would collapse. And that's exactly what happened. Jet streams of water shot into the corridor. Wufei jumped to avoid one but never came back down. Quatre waved his flashlight wildly, trying to locate him. Trowa halted suddenly.
"What's going on?! I can't see!" Quatre cried, trying to turn enough to get a glimpse of what had made the other pilots stop. Wufei was hanging upside down from the ceiling. He glanced up sharply as a loud crack sounded from it. Quatre and the other pilots stared at the floor as huge fissures spread around them.
"The whole floor is gonna collapse!" Quatre shouted. They started moving again but they weren't fast enough. The floor gave out beneath them and they fell. Wufei watched them fall for a moment before curling back up to the ceiling and high-tailing it to safety. The floor below them was already flooded so they didn't have a hard or painful landing. Their heads broke the surface violently and their gasping could be heard. Brick fragments and other debris plunked into the water all around them.
"The ceiling's coming down, too!" Duo yelled. The ceiling of the floor they had just come from splintered and dropped. They ducked below the water and swam as far down as they could, hoping the dense liquid would slow the fragments enough to keep them from being hit. After everything had fallen the pilots rose to the surface.
"Are you okay, Quatre?" Trowa asked. Quatre pulled his damp hair out of his face.
"Uh…yeah, I'm…I'm okay…"he replied shakily.
"Don't get too comfortable," Heero warned. "Once all of that sinks to the bottom, the weight will break the floor."
"You mean we have to fall through another floor!?!" Duo demanded. Heero had no time to respond. The floor split open and they were sucked down into the opening along with all the wall and ceiling fragments. That time, they had to struggle to get back to the top of the water.
"PLEASE don't tell me we have to do that again!!" Duo cried. Heero shook his head.
"This is the bottom floor. There's nothing below here but dirt and metal." Duo let out an exaggerated sigh of relief.
"Well…I guess we're on the right floor now. All we have to do is go straight forward to get to the cold storage area." Quatre smiled weakly at his statement. Then his head dropped forward into the water.
"Whoa, Quatre, stay with us!" Duo swam over to Quatre and yanked his head up by his hair. Quatre's eyes snapped open in surprise then closed again partially.
"What, I wasn't asleep, I was just resting my eyes!" he cried. Duo tapped his cheek repeatedly, trying to get him fully awake.
"Wake up buddy, we're on our way, you can make it. Can you hear me, Quatre?"
"I'm awake, I'm awake! I'm just so…cold…it's so cold…" Duo felt his forehead.
"He's burning up…I don't know if he's gonna make it…"
"Of course he'll make it." Trowa said.
"I hope you're right."
"We have to keep moving." Heero mumbled. He pushed off of some near by debris and dog paddled for the far side of the room. They all saw him go. The bottom floor had been completely lit to prevent Wufei from tunneling out if he was capable of that. The entire top floor had also been lit to prevent him from getting out the main entrance and all the walls separating the lab from the outside had also been lit. Fortunately for them, most of the lights on the bottom floor were water proof since that floor was beneath a lake and so were not affected by the flood. Thus, they now had more or less decent light to see by and weren't so vulnerable. When all of them had reached the far wall, Heero pulled out the blueprints. They were fine because they were laminated. Quatre stared in the direction they had come from instead of looking at the map. His eyes widened as he remembered that Dr. J had been stuck to the ceiling.
"What about Dr. J?" he cried. The other pilots looked up from the blueprints. "He was stuck! What if he got crushed under the ceiling?! What if he's drowning?!"
"The ceiling where he was didn't fall." Heero reassured him.
"How do you know that for sure?! We have to go back!" Quatre started splashing around violently, trying to swim back to the room Dr. J had been in. He didn't even realize that they were two floors below that room. Duo swam around Trowa to stop Quatre from thrashing and making noise.
"Quatre, stop!" he yelled. Quatre struggled harder. Duo grabbed his arms. "Quatre, snap out of it!" Quatre ceased his movements. He squinted at Duo.
"Duo…is that you?" Duo backed away slightly.
"Heero, what's wrong with him?" he asked. Heero grunted and pulled out the first aid kit. He took out a tiny flashlight and swam towards Quatre. Tilting Quatre's head upward, he shined the light into his eyes one at a time.
"His pupils aren't closing all the way. Something's wrong with his brain." Quatre tried to push Heero away.
"There's…nothing wrong…with my brain…Heero, I'm perfectly fine."
"The poison is making him delirious."
"I am not delirious! I'm…just concerned…Dr. J…and…I'm cold… I'm so cold…cold…so…cold…" Quatre passed out a third time.
"We have to go underwater to get to the next room and he has to be able to hold his breath." Heero said. "Wake him up, Duo."
"Who died and made you king?" Duo mumbled. A loud hiss echoed around them.
"Wake him up now, Duo!" Duo splashed water on Quatre's face until he stirred.
"What's going on?" he murmured.
"Hold your breath, Quatre." Trowa ordered.
"Trowa…I can't see you…" A piece of brick plunked into the water nearby.
"Hold your breath!" Quatre blinked slowly. His head rolled from side to side. In the far corner on the other side of the room a figure moved in the shadows. Another hiss bounced off the walls. In a desperate attempt to wake Quatre up, Duo pinched both Quatre's mouth and nose closed. Quatre snorted and choked and Duo released him.
"Duo, what are you doing?!" he demanded.
"Take a deep breath buddy!" Quatre did so and before he could let it out again Duo pushed both him and Trowa underwater. Although a little surprised, Trowa started swimming immediately. Heero led the way to the submerged door. None of them heard the tiny splash on the water's surface. None of them saw the creature swimming after them with incredible speed. Not even Quatre, since he had closed his eyes. Once they were all through the door, Heero closed and locked it.
"Do you think that'll hold him off?" Duo panted.
"Not for long…" They continued on to the next room. This room was fairly bigger and not as well lit as the last two. Debris as well as office supplies floated haphazardly in the water. Duo and Heero climbed onto a desk. Duo slumped onto his back with an exhausted sigh while Heero started examining the map again. Trowa pulled himself and Quatre onto a door that had fallen from the previous level. Glancing up, Trowa could see a rim of the floor above that hadn't fallen. Even higher was the floor they had been on. It too had a rim of material that had been too steady and too strong to fall. There was a door positioned in the left wall, the wall they had just passed through themselves. But the door they had come through was near the back wall. He wondered if Wufei could get to them through that door. They had locked all the doors on this level in hopes that without proper leverage Wufei wouldn't be able to break them. But all he would need to do was climb the wall to get back on the level above them and he could walk right through that door…
"He's close…" Quatre whispered. The sound of Quatre's voice tore Trowa from his thoughts. "He's coming for us…he's very close…"
"Focus, Quatre. Stay with me."
"I…I can feel it, Trowa. I can…I can feel his hunger…his thirst for blood…I can feel all of it…"
"Is there anything we can give him, Heero?" Trowa called. Heero gave him a slightly annoyed glance then stopped looking at the blueprints to fish around in his sack. Not finding what he was searching for, he set everything aside and dove back into the water. He came up near Trowa.
"Here," he said, handing Trowa a bottle of pills. "They're caffeine pills. They'll make him more aware." With that he swam back to the desk and resumed his examination. Trowa slipped his arms out of the harness straps and slid around to Quatre's front.
"He's hunting us, Trowa…" A smile spread across his face. "We're his prey…" Trowa opened the bottle and took out a pill.
"Open your mouth." Quatre tilted his head back and closed his eyes. He inhaled deeply. "Come on Quatre, you need this." An almost inaudible clicking sound reached his ears. He jerked his head up to see the door knob on the floor above turning. Quatre lowered his head. His eyes snapped open. His voice whispered into Trowa's mind.
"He's here." Trowa jumped slightly. There was splashing all around him.
"He's here, Trowa!" Duo repeated. Trowa tried to gather his thoughts as he watched Duo and Heero swimming past him into the shadows. After glancing down at Quatre one last time, he slipped back into the harness straps and pushed off into the water. He followed Heero and Duo behind some shelves that still held enough equipment to hold it to the floor. Fortunately, it was so tall that it stuck out of the water, nearly reaching the area where the ceiling would have been. The door opened and Wufei stepped calmly through it. He stood still for a moment, scanning the room below him. Then he started to walk along the ridge of remaining floor. The water gave off an eerie glow because of the lights under it. The bluish light shone on Wufei and cast a shadow on the wall behind him as he moved. The shadow was huge and tentacles waved from it in every direction. Its gigantic, reptilian head matched Wufei's as he swept the flooded room with his gaze.
"Hello?" he called. His voice echoed around them since it wasn't directed at them. "Is anyone there?" He laughed quietly. "I know you're here. I can smell your blood. I can hear your hearts beating." His eyes locked with Heero's. "I can see you…" Heero didn't move. The others followed his example. Wufei dropped off the ledge and caught it with one hand.
"Haven't you ever heard…" he began, swinging toward the wall. His feet stuck to it. "…that if a wild animal chases you…" He released the ledge and let his upper body fall. He stopped himself from slamming into the wall with his hands which also stuck. "…you shouldn't run…" They watched him climb slowly down the wall and stop just above the water's surface. He smiled in their direction, showing off glistening fangs, and then dropped into the water. Even though the water was slightly lit, they couldn't see him. There was a huge spray of water as he broke the surface right in front of them.
"You should play dead!" Using the wall as leverage, they pushed the shelves over onto Wufei, pinning him momentarily.
"I'll hold him off. You three keep going." Heero said.
"Are you crazy?! You can't hold him off by yourself! And you've got all the supplies!" Heero took off the pack and threw it to Duo.
"Go." he ordered. Duo shot a resentful glare at Heero. Trowa started for the door and he followed. Heero dove under the water. The first thing he saw was the top of the shelves. It was ripped and bent in a way he didn't think was humanly possible. A flickering light caught his attention. Upon glancing at it, he laid eyes on Wufei. The light went off and all he could see was Wufei's figure floating peacefully in the water. He was upright with his arms partially spread to the sides and his legs hanging lifelessly below him. His head was lowered. Then all at once the light came back on and Heero could see the innumerable amount of tentacles swirling around him. He looked almost angelic in the light as he threw his head back and spread his tentacles out in an enormous gray halo. Time seemed to slow down for Heero as Wufei attacked. Wufei's tentacles thrust backward, propelling him forward. He wasn't sure if it was his own thought or if Wufei said it but he heard a voice in his head whisper,
"The hunter becomes the hunted…prey…"