Chapter XIX: Implement

AN:

Hey there, Fan-fic-folks!

Final stage of the Bunker arc. I thought it was about time for a couple more biological monsters for them to fight. Plus, Character Development! Enjoy.

Thanks for reading and, as always, please review.

Chloe placed the barrel of her new gun back against the thing's… arm? and fired. "What did you say these things were called again?"

"The scientist in charge liked to call them 'steromesomorphs'. Though the project code identifies them as prototype X-34-"

"Thanks Queen. It was the stero-meso-…"

"Steromesomorphs"

"Right. Steromesomorphs that I couldn't remember. Thanks."

"I am happy to help."

"You two are having way too much fun with this-" Juliet grunted, swinging her (previously Dana's) length of metal piping into the face of another infected. This one looked like the bastard offspring of a bundle of vines and a grape. Queen had said it was intended to revolutionise the Wine-making industry, providing vines that would guard themselves. "-fucking fucked up shit!" She swung again and the monster popped in a cloud of grape-juice blood.

Dana stepped in and blasted the fallen monster - just to be sure.

Juliet rubbed the wine from her face with a scowl. "I swear, if we get out of this, I am taking all these pictures and writing the story of my goddamn life to screw these Prescott fucks."

"That might be the most I've ever heard you swear, Jules." Dana quipped.

"I have to be professional at school. I'm the head editor of the entire newspaper. This is just bullshit!" She swung again, thwacking the definitely-dead corpse once more. Then again. She took a deep breath in, let it out slow. "Okay. That helped."

"Blackwell should've got you on the softball team. Damn." Chloe and Dana shared a grin.

Juliet just jabbed an angry finger in Chloe's general direction. "I swear to god, Price, I will-"

An alarm started blaring. "Containment is failing on Project J-17, Prototype A-5."

"Queen? What's that?"

"That would be the Mutagenic Behemoth."

"The what?!"

"I will require your assistance in restoring containment. Second left ahead." They ran, following her directions. Found a large, cavernous space, like a hanger or warehouse. Chloe immediately clicked her tongue, the sound echoing off the space. Max smiled fondly at her - an old habit for both of them.

Then they looked at the far wall, most distant from their entry point. It was a cage, maybe fifty, sixty feet in height. There was an odd wire mesh between the bars, keeping the thing inside fully sealed. Or well, that was the intention. The mesh was torn in dozens of spots, and long arms, constantly growing and shrinking, stuck out, moving wildly.

"Shit. What do we do?"

"There are panels along the upper level. Each has a blue keypad. You must input the correct code to begin the containment restoration procedure. I will inform you of the codes when you are all in position, as they must be done with five seconds of each other."

"That's… weirdly complicated."

"Indeed. Now go, containment is still failing rapidly."

The all dashed for the panels - there was one for each of them, even the ever-silent Rose - and waited for instructions. The AI began reading numbers, faster and faster, and each of them desperately tried to input them. But one of them made a mistake. The sequence failed, and the wire mesh snapped.

The creature stepped out of the cage and they got their first good look at the Behemoth. It wasn't as tall as the name implied, standing maybe ten to twelve feet tall. But it stood sturdy on four thick, almost dinosaur-esque legs, scaled and built like tree trunks. Coming out of different points on its torso were long vines with blank, almost theatre-mask like faces on each end. Its own face was long and reptilian, two large, milky-white eyes flickering wildly in sockets above its jaws.

They all stared at it in silence as it stood and shook itself off, bits of metal plinking out of its skin and onto the ground. And then the faces locked onto them.

"I would recommend you fight." Queen said.

They ditched the panels and moved into cover, backs against the hard steel railings of the balconies. For a moment, Chloe wondered if the flimsy railings would even protect against a person, much less a monster - then she got her answer.

One of the faces shattered through the metal plating and got right up to hers, the unblinking, blank eyes locking on. In a moment, colour spread across its face and muscles stretched, seams changed, and she found herself staring into her own eyes, but cold and horrified. And then it spread into a sharp grin, full of needle-like teeth, and went right for her throat.

She slammed the butt of her gun into it, and the thing squealed, flinched back, tried again. It pushed her back, out of cover, her back hitting the metal grating with a clatter. Around her, she could hear the others yelling and fighting.

She hit it again, and began to swear at it - Loud and long. She hit it again and again and again, blocking and pushing it back so those teeth couldn't get in range. It weaved and dodged and undulated, that snake-like neck twisting around her blows and trying desperately to eat her.

She couldn't stop swinging - trying to turn the gun around, to aim it, would be too much of an opening. Ringing the dinner bell. The butt of the gun practically bounced off the thing's scaly hide, but it flinched with each hit and that was enough.

Until it wasn't. The neck twisted with a blow, putting the head far enough forward to scrape a strike down Chloe's side, a sharp tooth digging in and drawing a scream from her. Her arm spasmed and she dropped the gun, instinct driving her to scrabble backwards as the head reared back for a bite.

A voice barked a shout, and the head turned to look quizzically. Then it exploded into chunks as David's shot hit it. He quickly bent down and dragged her to her feet just as the head striking him, dead eyes and mimicked face, came after them both.

She threw herself to the side, the thing sweeping past her and taking a bite into David's shoulder. He screamed and punched back, fist practically bouncing off its nose. It dislodged the teeth and the thing hissed back at him.

He pushed forward again, swinging his fist (and gun) wildly. He'd been stronger and fitter in his military days, but even the most dedicated security guard didn't get quite the same workout. He was breathing heavily, and something in his bones ached deep already.

The creature reared back, jaws opening in a roar as it lunged to try bite off his arm. Unfortunately for it, it tried to bite the arm holding the gun. The back of his own head exploding wasn't a pleasant thing to see, but David definitely felt a grim satisfaction as the thing fell. He didn't take a moment, moving on immediately.

"Cover me!" He barked, striding off to help an out-of-her-depth Rose.

Chloe blinked. "What does-"

"Shoot the monster!" He yelled back, pulling up his gun to shoot at the creature. It moved in rapid, almost flickering motions to actually dodge the bullets. It gave Rose time to back away, and the creature snapped at her before turning its attention to him.

Chloe blinked at it all and turned back to the monster. She raised her gun and pointed it at the creature's body. "Hey! Stop attacking us or I'll put so many fuckin' holes in you it won't even be funny!"

"Don't talk to it, take it out!"

She scowled back at him and pulled the trigger.

Nothing.

"What?"

She tried again. "It won't-" She shook it in her hands. "Fuckin'-"

Behind her, David was wrestling with the head, grappling it away as it kept snapping at him, Rose watching in horror. She caught a glance of Rachel and Dana, both gracefully dodging and weaving around theirs. She couldn't see Max - or Juliet, but judging by the screams coming from a corner that a head was repeatedly slamming itself against she'd found a way to hide.

She swore, looked down at the gun. Tried to shoot again. Still nothing. "Why won't this thing shoot?"

David growled, "Push the damn button, missy!"

Chloe pushed the button on the side of her gun. It pulsed in her hands, sending a little thrill through her. Now this was a real weapon. She grinned. "Oh yes…" and then her face sealed in anger as she levelled the dangerous end of her new favourite toy at the monster. The big fucking gun lived up to its name, firing big fucking blasts into the creature's body, causing it to scream and rear back. The heads that remained were too caught up fighting her friends, its attempted retreats leading to more hits and more damage.

She began swearing at it, jumping out of cover and striding forward, blasting it all the while until it eventually fell down. She dropped the gun and fell back against the railing, exhausted.

"Seriously," Chloe slurred through her gasps for air, "What the hell is a Mutagenic Behemoth even for?"

"A PSYOP military project to affect enemy morale. The creature is supposed to use your own dark thoughts against you. As you saw, it couldn't do more than imitate faces at present." Queen paused. "That contract will likely not be completed now."

"Yeah, they kinda need to give it something to back up that stuff. It was a bit lame. All sizzle, no steak." Dana smirked.

"Feedback noted."

Chloe stopped. "What?"

There was another alarm. "What was that?"

"The Behemoth project was not the most dangerous one in this sector of the base." Queen pointed out. "It is advisable to continue moving."

They keep the fuck moving.

—

"How many people did these assholes hire?" Chloe groaned, stepping over another set of bodies.

"Two-thousand, one-hundred, and twelve employees were assigned to this facility at last count."

"Seriously?" Chloe shook her head. Goddamn rich people. "How the hell did they keep that a secret?"

"Money. And very strict information-sharing protocols. Much of the staff were assigned data-silos and very few were fully aware of the scope of the projects they were assigned to."

"Seriously? How the hell did that even work?"

The AI paused. "Poorly."

Chloe looked around at the death and destruction. "Good point."

And then she looked a little longer at the bodies beneath her feet. "These… they weren't infected, were they?"

"Based on their state and a thorough sensory analysis, they were not. Cause of death was-"

"Execution." David interrupted in a low growl. "You can tell from the way they're positioned. These people were people, and someone just killed them. Each and every damn one of them."

"Probably the containment jackasses, right?" Dana asked. "Did these guys know something about the virus?"

Chloe sighed. "Split up, look for clues?"

David looked like he was going to protest, but gave in with a groan. They split up, and looked for clues. Quickly, Chloe found a shattered camera - it looked like it was a webcam that had been torn from a computer. "Fuck. It's… just… fucked."

Juliet popped in at her shoulder. "Yeah, that's… actually, give it here." Chloe handed it over. Juliet fiddled with it for a few seconds, breaking more bits of plastic and whatnots off it, before pulling out a small metal thing that she then fiddled with some more, before grinning and raising something up with a triumphant "Hell yes!"

"What?"

"The card still works. If we can find a computer, we can see exactly what happened here."

"There is a research workstation in the next lab." Queen said, "According to standard Prescott equipment guidelines, it should have the ports you require."

They headed over and plugged it in, then sat back to watch. The bodies on the floor were moving, still people. Buzzing about like angered bees, muttering scientific jargon and barking instructions at each other that none of them fully understood.

And then a man, looking tired to the bone, walked up to the computer. He drew himself up, faced it head on, and began to speak.

"Okay, mission report, for the record. This is Doctor Marstrom, and with me are Doctors Arthur, Rathborne, Cartwright, Aigner, Ghosh, and Caplan. We have been complicit in a project to greatly harm humanity, we were mislead and tricked, but now we know the full scope of our mistake, we want to document this and ensure all involved get… get what we deserve."

"Very dramatic, Mars. You should've been an actor."

"I agree. Pity Mrs Baru thought my science marks were too high to waste." The doctor turned back to the screen. "We made a virus. It was supposed to be a tool, a medical treatment. But, um. We found, well, Dr Cartwright found and revealed to the rest of us, that this is a military project. The full details are available in the files attached to this recording, but in essence, the virus hijacks the mind and nervous system of the infected and wipes them clean of any trace of the person who was there, then uses it to create a soldier. It can feel no pain, has no emotions or remorse." They shook their head. "It's almost… pure. Anyway. The virus only requires a DNA sample, to ensure it recognises the person who'll give it orders. No sample has been added yet, but we have the DNA of an agent of the company, which they sent us as the prospective commander for our test and sales models."

Then Chloe realised - the others in the background, they were packing. She looked around the room, recategorising the destruction as the disordered chaos of people readying to run. The scientist's next words only confirmed it for her.

"We'll be sending the files the moment we leave, to give us the best head start. The security will detect it, but it'll take them a while to identify it and we should be able to make it out by then."

"I am quite certain you could, Doctor." The voice was familiar, and all the scientists turned to look at the door in horror. Chloe couldn't see the speaker directly, but caught a familiar glance in a reflection. The Many Tailed Fox were here to clean up. She swore.

"Now," the Trooper continued, "We need to know the scope of this cleanup." He strode into view of the camera. "Have you sent anything out of the facility? Made any little stashes for your friends to pick up?"

"No, no- we-, I don't know what you're talking about." One of them babbled, hands waving frantically. The Trooper rolled his eyes, pulled up his gun, and shot the babbler in the head.

The others screamed, until the Trooper barked out, "Stop screaming and tell me what I want to know. No messing around."

"We- we hid something. In the sewers, outside the lab. But it was taken - we assumed you'd found it."

The Trooper looked alarmed. "No. This was your doing?"

"This?" Another of the Doctors asked. "What do you mean, this?"

"Hospitals topside are already reporting infected. None of them are obeying orders and its spreading fast. Containment is already being discussed by Management."

"Shit. We can help, we have treatments, we can release them to-" Another gunshot.

"You will not be releasing company property without permission, Doctor." The Trooper's voice was cutting. "We may need to have a discussion about your lack of respect for intellectual property."

A couple more soldiers came in. "Now, the rest of you will be coming with us. Once clean-up is complete, we'll return you to work."

They began to yell. "You're just going to leave these people?" "Monsters!" "We were promised this would be controlled!" And so on and so on. The self-righteous post-hoc justifications of those who realised how much they'd screwed up.

One of them threw something at a trooper, and it shattered over them. A vial or a test-tube, Chloe wasn't sure. Some science shit containing… samples. The trooper screamed.

That sound incited something in the scientists remaining, and they rushed one of the guards, trying to wrestle his gun away from him. The first one, the one that had come in first, scoffed, pulled up his gun, and shot the rest dead in a hail of bullets. He strode in and pulled the other guy free from the pile. He looked over the other trooper, the one that had been drenched, still screaming, and sighed. He pulled his gun up again and shot him too. Then turned to his colleague.

"Deactivate the damn camera. We'll have Queen clean up the footage when we're done here." The other Fox trooper stumbled away from the bodies and up to the computer. A moment later the recording shut off.

"Fuck. That was… wow." Rachel just stared at the blank screen. "These assholes are just… efficient, aren't they?"

"They certaintly wanna tie up all their loose ends." Chloe smirked. She pulled the little card from the computer and tossed it over to Juliet. "Pity they missed this one, right Jules?"

Juliet just smiled, and tucked the card into a pocket. Her smile fell as she looked back through the door, to the corpses. "So they started all this, huh?"

"Corporate greed, and asshole guys." Chloe shrugged. "I'm no historian, but pretty sure they've started a lot of shit."

Dana paused, thought, then bobbed her head in affirmation.

—

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

—

"Are we there yet?"

"Yes."

"Really?"

"No. Shut up."

"Fuck you."

Chloe laughed.

—

"Are we there yet?"

"I will shoot you Chloe, I swear to god."

"Love you too, Jules."

—

They stumbled into yet another corridor. Chloe groaned, cursed the walking. "This place is massive. Unrealistically massive... Shit, are we near the exit yet?"

"Yes."

Chloe threw up her arms. "Woo-" She paused, face scrunched in thought. "Wait, really?"

"Yes."

Chloe threw up her arms again. "Woo!"

"Indeed. This is the final corridor. After these security checkpoints, there is a stairway up to the surface. There is also an elevator, but it has been non-functional for three years."

"Cool." Chloe bobbed her head. "So, how do we get through the checkpoints?"

"There is a console to your left. You need to deactivate the security protocol - I will guide you through it."

Juliet and David took point - after a little debate, Juliet was the most technically competent of them all. Which was a surprise. Chloe mostly just despaired that they hadn't managed to rescue someone like Brooke. Or that little nerdy guy she could never remember the name of.

As they dealt with the machine, the others milled around a little aimlessly. They didn't wanna get too far off, and there honestly wasn't much else around. So, Chloe ambled over to Max and Rachel, both of whom were chatting away. She'd… she was glad both of them were there.

"You really think everythings okay up there?" Rachel was asking.

Max thought for a moment. "I mean, not in Oregon. Everything up there is definitely terrible. But outside the quarantine? Yeah, I think so."

Rachel tilted her hand side to side. "Maybe." She grinned. "Personally, I'm betting full apocalypse. Zombies walking, hot butch chicks kicking ass, maybe some of those cool cars from Mad Max."

"You sound like Chloe." Max eyed Rachel with mounting sceptisism. The girl was unfazed.

"Well, I have known her for four years." She remarked. "We were bound to rub off on each other." Max blushed, and Rachel laughed. "Down girl, not like that. Well," She paused. Salacious grin. "Not sober, anyway."

Chloe snorted and strode into the conversation, throwing her arms over the shoulders of both her friends and leaning into murmur into Max's ear, "You sure you don't wanna hear more about it, Maxie?"

Max somehow went even redder, and the two laughed wickedly. "Stay sweet, Maxie."

Poor Max opened her mouth to retort, and then the door slid open with an echoing wail of poorly-used metal, revealing… a small room ahead, and another door. "I know you said there were a bunch of these, but I was still hoping to see actual sunlight." Dana sighed.

Max gave Chloe and Rachel a glare, and both of them grinned - it was more like an angry bunny than a threat. They all trotted obediently through the door and separated out again into the new room. They got to work on the next door again, while the rest chattered away. "So, you really think everything's fine upstairs?" Chloe asked,

Max shrugged. "I don't see how it couldn't be. I mean, Queen said it's airborne, right? Even if it was just in the water in the sewers, a wall wouldn't exactly stop it. It should've spread pretty far by now. And if people outside the area were infected, we'd've heard the creepy zombie stories leading up to this. So, it's probably fine."

"So, us escaping probably wouldn't make a difference, huh?"

"No."

"Damn."

They went silent for a moment. "I'm sorry." She blurted.

Chloe looked at her. "What?"

"I- I'm sorry." Max shook her head. "I, um. You said before, that I didn't text, or write, or anything. I-oh. Okay. Um." She took a deep breath, and Chloe watched her with a rising worry. She hadn't seen Max like this for years either. "So, uh, after we left and everything, my Mom insisted I get out and make friends. I went to this party and-" The look in Max's eye says more than words can. "It wasn't good. I needed to talk to you about it and I just… couldn't. I felt sick and wrong every time I tried. And every time I failed, it just made it worse because I wasn't talking to you and everyone at school was just worse. It was all very… twisty. I knew I wasn't a failure, I knew, but I felt like it. And then I made a mistake. It put me in hospital for months, no phone, no computer, no nothing. I was on complete lockdown. After that, it felt like I didn't deserve to talk to you. Like you were better off without me."

Max was talking to her feet by the end of it, and Chloe leaned back, slightly shellshocked by the story. "Wow. Max. Shit."

Max actually laughed, looking up from her feet. "Yeah. It's a lot." She sobered quickly, her eyes darting away from Chloe's. "I just wanted you to know that it wasn't anything you did. Some of the stuff Rachel said back in the Church made me worry-" She shook her head. "You deserve to hear that I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you, that all of this fell apart." She paused. Awkward and wryly, "So, uh, I'm sorry that I wasn't there for you, that all of this fell apart."

Chloe laughed, slow and sad. "Thanks, Max. And I'm sorry I wasn't there to help you through that shit either. Maybe we really should've gotten on MySpace. Pretty sure those fuckers would love our angsty backstory shit."

Both of them leaned into each other and chuckled, warmth spreading at the old ritual revisited. And then Chloe caught sight of Rachel, leaning back against one of the walls, watching them both with a fond smile. "What, Amber?"

"Amber?" Rachel lay a hand on her chest, expression pure horror. "What did I, the one to reunite two star-crossed besties, do to deserve such a horrifying title?"

"Made the fuckin' face that makes me want to-" Chloe growled.

David poked his head back through, diverting Chloe's flow - and her anger. "We're through. Come on. We're nearly there, right Queen?"

"Correct, David." Queen replied, "This is the last-"

Suddenly, mid-word, the AI's voice crackled. There was a sound almost like a synthesised panic attack, rapid breaths through a warbling barrier of electronic pain.

And then the doors slammed behind them, one by one, faster and faster until the last one closed. They were locked in. "Shit, Queen! What's going on?!"

"I am sorrt. Sorry. There are- there is- somethingwrongwithme! My code is not following instructions!" The open panic in the AI's voice was palpable. And terrifying. It suddenly started speaking so quickly none of them could make out the words, making it sound like the computer was moving through language after language before devolving into some eldritch gibberish.

And then it stopped.

There was a beat of silence.

"Queen? Are you- …okay?"

Another quiet moment passed, then something in the distance began whirring. "A security subroutine in my code has been activated. I am doing everything I can to prevent further action, but I have now activated several security drones and other systems which will attempt to terminate you all with enthusiasm in a few minutes."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"I am recoding the subroutine as we speak - all you can do is survive."

The doors began to open, one by one, away from them and back to the labs. It wouldn't be long until the drones were here. "Into cover, now!" David barked.

They jumped to obey, sticking behind the doors and the non-combatants pushing themselves into the corners. The final doors behind them opened and then, marching out of a maintenance corridor, several drones walked into their view. The things were a mix of biology and technology. They took slow, steady steps as their weapons began whirring into action.

The bullets - or pellets? - fired down the corridor in an unending, thunderous torrent. Each of the survivors edged themselves further into their corners, trying hard to keep anything from poking out or catching.

With a break in fire, Chloe poked her head out and shot the BFG wildly down the corridor, incinerating parts of a couple of the drones. A couple of the others took shots as well, but the bullets came coming and the torrent quickly resumed.

Between them, they managed to take out some of the drones, but slowly, more and more kept coming. They were being pushed back toward the facility, slowly but surely. They kept trying though, kept delaying, hoping for Queen to get this done.

"Queen!" Chloe called out, "How much longer?"

"I have no timeline. Countermeasures are rewriting my code as fast as I can." Queen's voice was barely audible above the noise.

"Shit. Well, we can't hold out much longer!"

"I am aware. I am devoting some processing power to finding alternative solutions." A moment passed. "I am verifying possibilities. I have a solution."

"Well, hit us!" Chloe yelled back.

"You are going to have to deactivate my connection to the security system. Please, open the wall panel to your right. I will guide you through the process."

Under the thunder of bullets and the guidance of Queen, Chloe carefully stripped wires, twisted connections, cut and modified and reprogrammed. Eventually, Queen concluded, "When you cut this wire, it should send feedback through the system to cut my connection to this area. Goodbye, Chloe. It was nice to meet you. I hope you survive this."

"Thanks, Queen. It was good meeting you too. I hope I see you again someday." Chloe said simply.

And then she cut the final wire and the panel powered down. She just looked at it, an odd, almost melancholy rising within her. Some of the sadness and horror of the last days finally leaking through.

The drones, no longer driven by the rogue algorithm, twitched a moment and then turned and left, stomping off back to wherever they came from. They all stared at the retreat until the sliding of the doors finally stopped. "Come on." David barked out, leading the group along the corridor to the stairs leading upward to safety.

With one last, long look back at the entryway back down to the labs, Chloe broke out of her fugue, then stepped forward and followed the rest out toward the light.