WARNING: This chapter of "The Hybrid's Song" contains scenes of strong blood and gore and language. The level of violence in this chapter is not in keeping with the usual style. The faint of heart and those with weak stomachs should use caution when reading.
.o.o.o.
I've decided that this chapter will be the chapter to celebrate getting over one hundred reviews. So please sit back and enjoy the bloodbath- I mean show!
-Bojack727
THE HYBRID'S SONG
Chapter Fourteen: In The Blood
.o.o.o.
Dianna jerked reflexively when something snaked around her ankle. She world around and swore as something shot towards her. Bubbles flew everywhere in the chaos!
The first thing she saw was a giant mouth full of sharp teeth, but the thing that was the most troubling was that the tendril that held her came from within the recesses of the gaping maw.
Disgusting fleshy skin bumped up against the walls of the underwater tunnel and black lifeless eyes starred her down. She pulled her leg loose, only to get hit in the side by another tentacle.
She floated down to the bottom and slid down a shaft into an opening. Her body hit the ground and a murky fog of blood shot up around her. She looked around, trying to see through the wall of blood and tissue surrounding her like mist.
A howling scream cut through the dark waters and something shot out at her. She rolled to the side, crushing filthy bones and waste in the process. A skull shattered under her elbow.
'What the fuck is this thing!' she thought. 'Fuck this!' she swore and pulled out her underwater cannon and aimed at the giant wyrm. "Monsters don't fucking scar me- not the Boogie Man, not the devil- not even the fucking Candy Man- and sure as hell not you, you goddamned Homeric reject!"
She aimed dead center at the monstrosity and smiled. "You want to eat something so fucking much- well swallow this!" She screamed and pulled the trigger.
The creature was too close when she fired and the everything went white.
.o.o.o.
"What the fuck was that!" Macintyre exclaimed as a shockwave reverberated through the structure. "It sounded like someone just set off a bomb in the lower levels!"
"Sir, I can't tell from here." One of the scientists replied, regaining his footing.
Macintyre turned to Clarke, just as the lights went out. "What now, are we under attack?" He screamed. "Get the systems back on!" He ordered and then turned back to Clarke. "Get down there and find out what the hell is going on!"
"Yes sir."
Another scientist approached Macintyre. "Sir, just before the power failed, there was a report of unauthorized movement on the outer structure."
"Well get on it and check it out."
"Yes sir."
.o.o.o.
Hayami made his way down the dark hall till he came to closed door. He checked his map and looked up at again. "The Lab," He remarked. "But how the hell do I get in?"
And with that, the slid open, as if at the behest of his words. Hayami frowned. "Shit, this can't be good."
And with that, he stepped through the doorway. He turned on his flashlight.
The room was dark, but he could make out that it was a long rectangular shape and that rows of tanks lined both sides. They seemed to be filled with fluids and some form appeared to be held in all of them- a row of ten on the right and a row of ten on the left.
He then noticed that one tank was cracked and had a large hole in it- there was also a tell-tale puddle of liquid at the base of it. Further inspection of the room revealed that there was a man lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood.
"What the hell is going on here?" He asked, trying not to step into the blood.
But then he heard a strange hissing sound from the shadows off to the side of him and he looked over. "Who's there!" He demanded and lifted up his gun.
He then shined the light into the shadows, revealing a skulking form. "What the fu—"
.o.o.o.
"Finally, systems are back on line, sir." One of the technicians informed Macintyre.
Another man's eyes widened. "Oh god, one of the 'defectives' got out of its tank!"
Macintyre snapped to attention. "What, how the hell did this happen?"
"The power outage must have caused a systems failure in the suspension chambers- possibly a random power surge to the tank must have triggered its synaptic nerve-endings." He explained. "Cosworth is dead," he began. "And there's someone in the lab."
Macintyre nudged him aside. "Let me see." He blurted out. He then spotted the man in question. "It's him." He said with a smile.
.o.o.o.
The two scientists stood in the room, peering down at the pool in the center, some dark mass was ever so slowly floating up to the surface of the water.
"What the hell is it?" One of them remarked.
"It looks like- no, it can't be it." The other began.
The two of them watched at the mass eventually floated up the top of the pool, partially peeking up out of the water, bobbing briefly, and then leveling back down to simply float.
The water quickly morphed from shimmering blue to deep red, and bits of flesh and debris floated in the filmy red balm.
"Dear god, the Scylla Wyrm is dead!" One of them exclaimed looking down at the dead, battered monster. Its tentacles now hung out from its mouth and down into the murky depths. Its gills were splayed out and blood trickled down out of them.
"What kind of thing can kill one of these?" The other asked, looking down at it. "The Scylla Wyrm is one of the most deadly and indestructible things we have." He added, looking down at the monstrosity floating in the upper level of blood and gore
Then a door swung open and Clarke stepped out of the elevator and entered the room. "What's going on down here?" He asked them.
The two men turned around to face him.
"Oh, Mr. Clarke, something has happened to this Scylla- it's dead."
Clarke frowned and walked up to the thing. He kneeled down and removed his dark glasses and leaned forwards to look at the slack mouth of the beast. "Wait a second. . ." He began and leaned forward a bit more.
As he leaned towards it, the barrel of a gun peeked out from the open mouth. The gun was held by a green clawed hand that was in turn attached to a green arm- all of which was now unseemly smeared with rancid blood.
"What the hell?"
Dianna then partially emerged from the inside of the beast. He body was slimy and covered in the putrid adhesive fluids up the beast, but her face bore and unmistakable smile on it as she aimed the weapon at the human.
"Ainsley!" Clarke exclaimed, reaching for his own gun.
She smiled back at him. "Fancy meeting you here." She said with a smile and pulled the trigger.
.o.o.o.
Hayami stepped back. "What the hell is it?" He exclaimed.
The thing staggered out of the shadows- a hideous mutant, covered in scars and baring disfigured limbs. The skin was stretched and blistered.
Without hesitation or delay, he quickly lifter the end of his gun up and aimed it at the monster as its moth opened- revealing a row of sharp teeth.
The jaws distended and pushed themselves outward as a long tongue shot out at him, he drop to the ground to get out of its reach. "Son of a bitch!" He swore and fired at it. The bullets entered the body but had no effect.
He crawled back away from it as it hissed and looked down at him. "Aghhh!" He yelled out as he fired a grenade at the thing, blowing off its head in a shower of blood and scull fragments.
"Bravo, Mr. Tetsuo." A voice chided from nowhere.
"Who's there?" Hayami exclaimed.
"I must say that you've handled the situation most admirably, considering your predicament- still, I wonder why you'd be foolish enough to come here." The voice went on. "Still, no matter, I have my theories."
"Macintyre?" Hayami asked, standing up.
"Ah, I see that you're beginning to make sense of things." Macintyre paused. "I'm speaking to you through the intercom system- so you can't get at me." There was a brief moment of silence.
"You want the anti-agent to the disease in the hybrid don't you?" Macintyre asked. "That must be it- but why? It's not like the life of one creature grown in a lab is worth all this?"
"I wouldn't expect a man like you to understand." Hayami replied.
"Hahahaha- ah the naivety of youth, you amuse me Mr. Tetsuo- so I'll let you in on a little secret, I have two surprises for you in the next room. One of them is the antidote, and the other is. . . well, you'll see."
Macintyre paused. "I hope you enjoy this little token of my respect for you- not that you'll live long enough to use it."
Hayami was silent. "Thanks, I'll make sure to repay the favor as soon as I find where you are."
Macintyre laughed again. "In that case, I wish you the best of luck."
.o.o.o.
"Sir, are you sure it's a good idea to release one of the subjects?" One of the scientists asked Macintyre.
The older man looked over at him. "Really, don't you know that there are several counter-measures against those things, once it does its work- we can dispose of it as well and gain valuable combat information on it."
One of the security guards entered the room. "Sir, we've lost contact with Clarke and his team in the lower levels, as well as all of the staff down there as well."
Macintyre frowned. "Damn, this is quickly worsening." He remarked, crossing one leg over the other and leaning on one elbow. "The main branch won't want any more information getting out."
He then stood up. "Get the team ready, I want a full sweep of the complex, have all available men on the job."
"Yes sir."
.o.o.o.
Hayami walked into the small room and spotted the glowing cylinder in the center of the room, in it was a phial filled with blue liquid. "I guess that's it." He remarked and walked over to it and removed it from the column.
Just then he heard a click and a door off to the side slowly began opening. He whipped his head around to see what it was. "Let me guess, surprise number two?" He asked.
"If you can hear me right now, then I'll tell you a secret- that thing that is about to come out is very dangerous." Macintyre's voice explained. "We call it a 'Mannequin'- the actually scientific name is far too complicated to get into."
"But just so you know, 'he' just loves company, now I must be going; have to let you two get acquainted." Macintyre finished.
"I hope Dianna is doing better." Hayami remarked as he lifted up his gun.
.o.o.o.
". . .maybe. . ."
". . .maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to fire that gun off out of the water."
There was a splash and a figure swam to the edge of the pool and pulled herself out. She was practically concealed in blood, gore and sinew- and bits of other things.
"Oh god, I don't know if I can even open my eyes, it's everywhere." She thought.
Dianna then vomited out blood- not her own blood, but the blood of the Scylla and the humans that surrounded her. She wiped her eyes off and crawled across the floor. She stopped when she spotted something.
She picked up the broken pair of sunglasses, rationalizing that that they must have been Clarke's. Somehow it seemed funny to her.
She was kneeling, covered in something else's blood and digestive juices, body parts- both human and not- scattered around. She was soaked and dripping all kind of unspeakable things, but it just seemed too funny to holding Clarke's glasses in her hand.
She smiled. "That'll teach him." She laughed weekly and fell over on her side and her eyes slid shut.
"I need a shower. . .and. . .a hard drink."
.o.o.o.
Slow and steady footsteps echoed toward Hayami as a creature emerged from out of the darkness.
"Wait, it looks humanoid?" He remarked as he watched the creature slowly walk towards him. "What!" He exclaimed.
It did in fact look human- though more like reanimated cadaver then a living person, the glassy eyes told the whole story. It began to convulse.
"Shit!" Hayami swore as he backed up against the wall and pointed his gun.
It stopped and screamed as its mouth split open and its teeth shot out- becoming the jaws of a serpent-like appendage. Its back split open next and long narrow segmented limbs shot out. Some of its appendages latched onto the pipes in the ceiling and lifted itself up. Its hands burst apart and masses of tentacles shot out and flapped around.
Hayami simply opened fire on it- black blood spilling out of several dozen spots at once and it shook about and screeched. He continued to shoot it until the gun merely clicked.
The long appendage with the jaws on it shot out at him, but he caught it in the air before it tried to engulf his head. He held it back with intense effort as he felt his back pushed up against the wall.
"Fuck!" He swore and shark spider-like limbs jabbed at him from all directions. He twisted the length around and pulled his knife out ant drove it straight into it.
As the things swung away, Hayami stepped back and ran over to the exit, but it was now sealed shut and wouldn't budge. "Damnit!" He exclaimed in frustration.
He pulled the pin out of a grenade and rolled it towards the monster. The small object exploded underneath it and a ball of flame. Yet, the thing still lived. Now partially burning, it advanced towards him.
.o.o.o.
Kino was totally silent on the balcony. She felt so useless right now, and to add the matter, her cheeks still burned from the contact with Dianna. She rationalized that the woman must have been trying to be affectionate as she claimed she was- still, she wasn't sure just how comfortable she was with being kissed by another woman.
She looked up and saw a large black bird fly across the night sky and shiver ran down her spine. She sighed. "Somehow, I feel as if someone will die tonight." She remarked emotionlessly. Small ripples ran through the cup of coffee she was holding. "But who will it be?" she asked..
.o.o.o.
The door splintered like cheep wood as Dianna crashed into the room. The tile floor stained by the putrid mess dripping off of her.
She was forced to practically tear off her clothing, as the material had become rough and hard.
High-pressure water accosted her from a showerhead above and she sank down onto the smooth tiled surface and panted. Red streams ran down through the drain.
"I'm a Marine Biologist- if I wanted to be covered in blood I'd have birthed horses for a fucking living." She thought.
Once suitably clean, she walked over and grabbed a large towel and dried herself off and broke into the lockers, looking for anything she could wear.
She stopped when she noticed a rolled up chart in the corner. She smiled and pulled out a pair of gray pants and a black shirt. She unrolled it and smiled. "Hehehe. . ."
.o.o.o.
Hayami then recalled the pack of explosive he had with him and reached down for them. He pressed the button on the pack and threw the whole thing at the beast and ran as far across the room as he could before the massive bomb detonated.
He knocked over a desk and hid behind it just as the entire room was covered in flames. He curled up as shock-waves shot through the small room. The walls cracked and pipes broke. Glass and metals started melting.
But when the carnage finally cleared, Hayami pulled himself out from under the reckage and reached into his pocked and pulled out phial. "Well, at least it's in one peace." He remarked, lookind down at his bleeding leg.
He got up onto to his feet and limped towards the door- which he blew off by unloading all of the grenade rounds into it. He knew that once they had realized that he had escape the trap, that they would be after him and he was ready to get the hell out of this place.
.o.o.o.
Someone grabbed onto Hayami as he rounded a corner and placed a hand over his mouth.
"Do you have the antidote?"
Realization dawned on Hayami as he nodded and held up the phial. "Yeah, I've got it Dianna."
The woman release him. He then turned around to face her, noting the loose pants and shirt she was wearing. "What's with the grunge look?" He asked her dryly.
She smiled. "Let's just say it takes more then club soda to get congealed blood out of spandex." She offered. "Now we have to get the hell out of here- I rigged up a little surprise for them in the chemistry labs."
Hayami whipped his brow. "What?" He asked bluntly.
She narrowed her eyes at him and pushed him forward. "I mixed a little of this with a little of that and the ventilation systems are filling up with pure methane.
.o.o.o.
The two of them made it out onto the outer structure when lights surrounded them.
"What the hell?" Hayami exclaimed as he shielded his eyes.
"Bravo, my two little beauties!"
The two of them turned around to see Macintyre and many of his men surrounding them. "So nice of you to join me here for the final curtain."
(- End of Chapter Fourteen -)
.o.o.o.
Wow, there you go. Here it is- the proper centennial review celebration chapter! It's a monster at over 3000 words. This is the biggest chapter I've ever submitted to ANY of my fanfictions. Also, as a bit of trivia- did anyone notice when I began using the correct spelling of Mutio the term "Cats"?
I pumped up the adrenaline for this one, and I pumped up the sheer violence and gore as well. This chapter was an experiment in a way for me- as I had never done proper "horror" before. Tell me what you thought of Dianna in this chapter- was she too violent or just right?
I owe a lot of inspiration for this to the late great British television science fiction screen-writer Robert Holmes (Dr. Who). So I have to give props to him for the gothic influence. John Carpenter is also a bid influence for me as well. (The Thing rocks hard core)
Anyway, thank you to all of you- especially "The Toltec" and "Carlos Angulo"
Also thanks to QReaper, Duo, KuroKitsune-Chan, Q42, God of Epyon, and everyone else who's reviewed and supported this story over time.
-Bojack727
( Final Count: 9 pages, 3,250 words )