Ch. 3 enter the unknown
The sound of doors opening filled my ears and I turned around. It was Vladimir and ten other guards. Their eyes had turned yellow and a green haze seemed to cover their skin. "Subject 49 we have orders to terminate you. There will be no escape." They said in unison. My eyes widened as they opened fire. Round after round hit my torso Filling me full of lead. I felt the back of my head explode from several shots. My body slumped to the ground of its own accord. Like the strings of a marionette cut. With my fall they approached slowly agonizingly slowly. "It seems subject 49 that you didn't hold to the title of immortal after all. Though I doubt you knew about it. We must continue the cleansing of the facility." Once again they spoke in unison as if they were being controlled by something. Then one walked up to the still thrashing tentacle mutant on the autopsy table. The guard pulled up his shirt and exposed several tumor like intrusions on his body. A tumor then popped puss squirted everywhere and a small insect larva crawled out. It was a damned maggot. The body of the tentacle mutant squirmed faster as it started to burrow into the caved out chest. I watched it latch onto the heart its mouth held a circle of needle like teeth. Once it finished burrowing into the heart tendrils spread through it all over the mutant. The mutants chest started to close up. The puss that dripped on it seemed to be sucked in by the larva.
Lucy the hell is that. "No cussing and I don't know their minds seem to be shielded somehow. Samuel keep still I will take over some of the prisoners and have them distract the guards consume everything you can and steal the research with a USB. There is one in the office of the coroner I had him make a copy on it. You have to move fast if we are to get away." I'm on it. But, my body won't move right now. I feel rather dead. "My takeover is complete and stop whining. This is your chance." Looking around I was covered in golden blood my blood. It was trying to return to my body and stop the bleeding I knew it. Because it was connected to me. I shook those thoughts off. And continued to spy on the guards they were busy removing the straps from the creature. As it mutated even more growing an exoskeleton. I felt a few pops in my bones as they reconnected to a more workable frame.
It was strange I didn't see them with my eyes but with something else it was like I saw through the 5429. Everything glowed with the chemical. It was like a second sight.
Crawling was hard especially when your bones were fragile and the back of your had was open for all the world to see. Luckily the guards didn't seem to notice. I heard a gunshot go off. Or not. When I didn't feel any pain I looked behind me. The guards were fighting from what I could tell were lizard men. More like naked muscular men with reptile like scales. They rushed in by the dozens armed with steel pipes all useless against the guards automatic weapons. I eventually got behind a pillar and rested for a bit.
The sounds of battle raged behind my hiding spot. The lab table was turned over to give the guards cover. They went for knee caps of the lizard men. I could still feel my blood as it pooled with the blood of the many lizard men. It consumed and duplicated. And flowed, entered, adapted, and became. Red blood that pooled in the floor and slowly sunk down drains was consumed by my blood and flowed down as well. Somehow it was still connected to me though it was faint. I had no idea what would happen to it. I just knew that it would continue to adapt.
The fight raged on as my body slowly burned through what I had left of the arm I devoured. My stomach working overtime to take the Lucioids from the cell and make it a part of my own. I learned from focusing on the process that they were two different entities the Lucioids and the 5429. I couldn't take control Lucioids before because I didn't know they existed. But now that I know I can single them out by looking for the same type of element within my body then extract it from the arm.
My wounds were soon healing rapidly, well more like my condition was becoming stable and I could be back to full health in a few hours. The back of my head was still mostly gone. Then I heard something that frightened me. Silence. Terror wrenched at my mind at the thought of those guards controlled by larva coming after me. I had no weapon and my body was half way in the grave.
I commanded my blood to move faster down the drain. And to take as much nutrients as it could on the way. I didn't know if it would listen or even if it could they were a collection of mutated blood cells that became carnivorous. Hope filled me. I heard the splashing of feet in the blood every now and then it would stop and a bulbous tumor would pop. A rib cage would be ripped open and a lizard man would scream. I stayed there shaking delirious the whole of my body ached. Just pass me by. Just pass me by. I prayed to whatever god would listen. We need power. We must feed to gain power. Fill our hunger. We must have more power. The voice repeated this to me. Until I joined it. Power, we must have power to fill this void of weakness. It is disgusting to hide from maggots. Power we need power. "Breathe turd, breathe. They are busy now taking over the lizards, crawl and move slowly and get out of there" You're the best you know that.
Slowly, I moved on hand and knee as fast as I dared I crawled towards the office. There were several pillars in the lab. It was a super structure larger than lab nine. In the back of the lab I saw a shoot. Memories of rumors played over my thoughts. The facility never wasted a body so by the thousands they sent them down shoots into a mass grave. A hole that led hundreds of feet under the surface. It was an experiment. They wanted to create an ecosystem that naturally had 5429 and Lucioids infesting its denizens. Roars are often heard from deep within the underbelly of the facility. It was there that I set my goal. Quickly I crawled into the office. It was a neat room with pictures of a girl with ebony hair and scarlet eyes. Dressed in a revealing black dress that showed off her bust quite nicely her pale skin seemed to glimmer. A sharp pain filled my body and I focused again. Occasionally there was a picture with her smiling two distinct canines greeted me. Almost always they were stained with blood.
I shook away such distracting thoughts, I had little time after all. Now on my feet I yanked open drawers and looked for the usb unit. Huge binders filled with what I guessed were research notes covered the confines of the drawers. It was when I opened the drawer under the computer that I found it and a journal. It was a little black book totally unassuming but when I opened it multiple dates and events were recorded. Over in the corner there was a lab coat a spar it mirrored the coroners, I slid into it enjoying my lack of nakedness. I pocketed the usb and journal in an inner pocket and looked out the door of the office.
There were no longer any guards just lizards with chitin like exoskeleton. Their genitalia rotted off rapidly as their bodies changed. Already, I could hear the cracking of bones as tumor extrusions punctuated from their chests. Are you getting this Lucy. "Yes and this is not the only case all over the facility test subjects are being taken over. I don't think anywhere will be safe from these parasites for long. You need to get here soon and free me. I am at the bottom of the facility. They put me into some type of comma and are constantly injecting me with something that is shutting down my brain. It is machine operated you have to get here. I'm running out of time." Be there soon then. Don't worry Lucy I won't fail you, again. "Damn I had hoped you forgot about that."
I ran for the shoot the lizards didn't matter not really I just needed to get down there. When I kicked open the door all the lizards turned to me and charged. Fight, crush these vermin gain more power. Shut the hell up. Before I was conscious of it I was already upon the creatures. Sure they had sharp claws and I was still bleeding all over the place but strangely, I never felt stronger. When the first creature was close it jumped at me in a full body tackle. I didn't stop and close lined the lizard cracking the exoskeleton but otherwise it was unharmed. The others quickly surrounded me and attempted to dog pile on top of me.
With a small burst of speed I grabbed the shaken lizard that I damaged and chunked it at those jumping at me. Then kept running to get some distance. I saw a fire extinguisher on a wall and grabbed it. I remembered learning how to use it while working in a plastic factory years ago. I quickly pointed the nozzle, pulled the pin, and squeezed the handle letting out cold foamy spray. I hoped these creatures are similar to reptiles more than with just appearance.
It seemed to work they moved in slow motion not able to react in time when I hit them over the head smashing through their exoskeletons and destroyed their brains. That didn't stop them though not even when the top of their head was gone and fleshy tendrils whipped around. I went to the nearest lizard and gripped the tendrils and pulled.
The sound that it made will forever live in my most happy memories. Its screams were high pitched almost endless even as I finally ripped the creature out of the chest. Once out it no longer resembled a maggot. It had grown fat and gained a thick exoskeleton it now sported a large eye on the center of its head. Using the tendrils as leverage I flung it to the ground and stomped on it till it was gore on my bare feet.
The others looked at me their true bodies peeking out of the necks of their hosts. Spying me with their big eyes I glared back. And grinned evilly I took the fire extinguisher and sprayed them again. I shoved them to the ground and began to smash into their chests with my feet. Ribs and gore covered ankle high and the bottom of my new coat was stained red and green do to the respective gore. "Their coming you had your fun now jump down the shoot." In minute. I reached down and picked up a maggot that barely clung to life. It tried to struggle but it was futile I held it firm. I opened my mouth wide and bit down on its only eye ball.
My teeth broke through the oculus with ease the foul taste in my mouth bitter. I swallowed as the creature wailed and took another bite. I ripped away armor revealing soft spongy flesh and bit into that as well green blood dripped down my chin with each bite. I made sure not to eat anything that might prove fatal. They didn't deserve an easy death. Once I peeled off all the armor and consumed the fleshy underside down to the organs. It finally stopped the struggle to survive and seemed to accept its fate. I frowned and crushed its head and tossed the remains on the ground. My body had finally finished it healing due to the new intake of flesh. I licked the last of the foul taste from my mouth. I guess I really am a monster. "It really didn't take you long to figure that out. And Sam, we are what we are so no physiological bull complaints got it. After all you haven't even seen the under city yet. You have no idea what a true monster is." The mental link between us was cut thereafter leaving me alone with my thoughts. No Lucy you don't know. You truly don't.
A gurgle from my stomach made me aware of my body. The holes that covered my body were exuding a steam of some sort. Probably waste. With that thought over I opened up the shoot. In the distance I heard some footsteps and knew my time was short. Hundreds of feet Sam not exactly jumping off the porch at home. Then I chuckled and leapt in. It was a slide a long one slick and greasy with blood and fats. If I were to give it a description I would call it the devil's ass hole. But that would be generous. God I am lonely. Again I shook away my thoughts and went into action.
Placing my hands on either side of the tunnel I started to slow my descent. Eventually I came to a stop. The sides were slippery but the metal was rusty so it was easy to grip. I put my feet against the sides as well and slowly walked down the vent. It was a slow crawl but I was making some head way or at least I hoped so.
After five hours of endless crawling I came upon the end of the vent and the sound of wind rushing. I looked down into the blackness. The sound of a heavy swoosh was frightening at best. I knew exactly what it was below me just out of side. A giant meat grinder. I could tell by the slow rate that the turbines moved. The sounds of screams and the squish of guts soon joined in with the turbines. And I realized I was wrong. This is no ass hole this is a mouth and that is the stomach. My eyes were slow to adjust to the darkness.
This place probably held millions of patients. There were over a hundred floors to the facility and over eighteen labs on each. Tens of thousands of guards and thousands of doctors. It was the largest facility dedicated to the study of human evolution in history. China, the United States, Japan, and Russia all funded the facility. So I have to somehow squeeze through a meat grinder that pastes thousands a day. No time like the present. If I missed this even by a hair the bodies will crush me or the turbines will paste me. But no pressure. I leapt down heedless of the danger my goal was more important than survival.
I sucked in with my nose and balled up a wad of snot in my mouth. I made sure to get as much of my saliva into it as I could. Once I was sure I spat it right below me. And counted to a hundred. I looked down but I never saw anything or even just the sound of wails and turbines. I finished counting and dropped. I would have liked to say that the fall was at least exhilarating but the smell continued to destroy what ability my nose had to. When I landed it was in a liquid like mush. I continued to fall through not stopping as the now diseased and quickly rotting flesh crumbled under my descent.
When I arrived at the bottom of the macabre machine, I felt around for a hole as quickly as I could, already I could feel the flesh compressing around me in an attempt to grind me into slurry, like so many others. I found one soon enough just three feet away and squeezed through it. I fell even farther into a dark abyss.
As I fell, I could have sworn I saw stars. My vision started to fade as I realized just how tired I was. The air was so cold it hurt. My vision finally faded to black when I hit the ground in front of my