Milo and Natalia never anticipated what lay beyond that door. Maybe if they had, they would've turned around and taken another path, but there was no way to know. The room was set up much like a hospital treatment room, a gurney leaned against one wall, and a monitor positioned not too far away, IVs and other junk attached to it. But they both shuddered and the straps attached to the gurney, thick and strong, covered with dried blood… No one was strapped in, but against the opposite wall a man was coughing, his back heaving with each breath. He was a blonde, a shorter man, lingering around thirty maybe thirty-five, he was in obvious agony.
"Help… it hurts," He coughed, looking up at them with mist covered eyes.
Click! They heard the doors around them lock, a truly horrible sound.
"Oh God," Natalia muttered, given the current circumstances she had a good idea of what was happening. "He's infected…"
"Precisely," sneered a female voice over and intercom suspended in the far corner of the room. "Indeed he is, I'm going to take a lucky guess and say that you have only a matter of minutes before he mutates and starts hungering for human flesh. When that happens, you guys are going to be out of luck." There was some sadistic laughter that didn't seem to belong to the women alone. Two people…?
"Who are you?" Natalia shouted, angry now. She knew whoever this person was that they could probably see and hear them.
There was a short pause before there was a reply, "Let's just say I'm an 'old friend'." More laughter. Then the speaker went off with another click!
"God dammit!" Natalia cussed.
"Uh I think that's the last of our worries," A voice muttered from behind. Approaching them was another younger man with long un-kept brown hair; he was clad in a simple white lab coat with a name tag addressing him as Zachary Smith. He was trying to stay calm but they could see the panic visible in his eyes and movements which were shaky. "I saw what the Virus K can do," he continued, his voice shook with fear. "Once you're infected there's no way to stop it. It travels through the host at quick speeds. I know because I helped invent it…"
"There's no way to stop it, so we're going to have to fight that thing?" Milo asked distressed.
"Hey," the man croaked. "I can still…hear you know…" He coughed.
"Shut up!" Natalia hissed, she couldn't stand this guy for some reason.
"Well…" Zachary pondered. "There is an Anti-Virus but it was stored away in the labs, I don't have a sample on me at the moment."
"Great…" Natalia hissed. I'm stuck in a room with some idiot who is going to turn into a monster… any second now…
"Lord…god…fuck…" Was all the blonde could manage to say before he screamed.
"What's happening?" Milo asked but he already knew so no one bothered to answer him.
The man hunched forward, coughing as his hands opened and curved into claws and he whimpered. His eyes went red and blood-shot and his finger nail slowly outstretched into deadly claws. The color of his skin faded green and his teeth grew into dangerous daggers, feet mutated until they resembled the ones of a large lizard, a patch of scales forming over one portion of his face. Two plaga-like tentacles burst out from his back finishing the transformation but not before his height was raise by three-feet.
He roared the sound of a hungry animal and he focused his gaze upon the three humans staring, mouths open in disgust and horror. Some instinct told him they were prey and the humanity left with-in him was anger, these three never tried to help him.
He barred his dagger teeth and sprang forward, jaws snapping. Zachary rolled out of the way and hid behind a cabinet that had fallen over. Natalia leapt back as the creature's jaws snapped open and almost got a hold of her arm. "Holy shit!" she cried as Milo dodged to the left. Natalia fired one round that pelted the left side of the horrid face which didn't slow it down any; it turned upon her and slowly stepped forward, growling. She took a step back, then back, then back as it came one step closer each time. Milo shot at it, trying to draw it's attention away from Natalia, but as one round met it's mark, the creature roared and knocked him aside with one of the plaga tentacles, smacking him against the wall resulting in a sharp cracking sound from somewhere in his upper-body.
Natalia shot another round from the nine millimeter that hit the creature's temple but didn't slow it any. The lashed its arm forward, knocking the nine millimeter aside, sending it skidding across the floor. Roaring in triumph, the creature pinned Natalia against the wall with one of the plaga tentacles, hold her tight, preventing her from running. It grinned and watched her struggle as she tried in vain the undo the straps that held her AK 47, her fingers fumbling against the Velcro. Taking advantage of the moment the creature were quickly bit deep into her right shoulder, its teeth cutting effortlessly through the human flesh, the blood singing in its mouth.
Natalia screamed in shock and pulled out her S.T.A.R.S knife still streaked in blood from the "Licker" attack, and jabbed it into the creatures flesh in between the eyes. It released its grip on its prey and roared in agony, stumbling back. Milo had risen, after making sure he was seriously injured and he shot one round that hit the creature in the eye that sent it reeling even farther back. It turned its rage upon the other human now. It growled and dashed forward; Milo ducked under its form and fired again, once its back was to him.
"Only pretty girls can smack me around," Milo joked and pulled his other Desert Eagle out and fired them both, his fingers squeezing against both triggers, sending two bullets into the creatures deformed body. It spun around, growled and was ready to lunge again when Milo heard something unlock. Behind him a red box labeled "Emergencies only" had snapped open, unlocked from somewhere far away most likely. Sitting inside like a gift from heaven was a weapon Milo had always wanted to use, just never was able to.
A grenade launcher… I've wanted to get my hands on one of these forever… He dashed over to the open box and pulled out the weapon, the controls didn't seem too advanced for him to handle, and he checked the grenade launcher holder and found out there was only one grenade in stock. Squinting his eyes he took careful aim and fired. The grenade splattered into the creature, sending it into pieces which flew in every which way. Victory…
Natalia limped forward, clutching her shoulder, her eyes alive with pain. "Thanks, Milo, I owe you one."
"No problem," he smiled, but that smile disappeared when he realized she was infected. Oh shit… she's infected… and if we don't do something she'll become one of those things…
A/N: Reviews help Natalia get better :( I know this was a shorter chapter but i'm working on the next