Infection.

[The Philosoraptor]

The gurneys squeaked as they rolled down the bleached corridor. "Can you believe it? She finally croaked."

"I know. Weird, huh?" They arrived at a massive steel door, decorated only with a small pad with the imprint of a hand, tiny holes noticeable at the fingertips. The first guard pulled out a knife and pricked his fingers, immediately followed by the cacophonous banging rising from the other doors around them. "Jesus Christ!" The other exclaimed. "They need to change that lock, man. The blood drives them crazy."

"Makes sure no one can just walk in mate. Look at this." He banged his free fist into the door, barely making a sound. "Three whole feet of solid steel. What good does it do if someone can just pick the lock and force it open with a crowbar?"

"That would be one big-ass crowbar."

"Ah, screw it. Let's just move the bodies." He placed his red hand into the imprint, which started sucking in the blood, and then scanned for fingerprints, cauterizing the wounds in the process. "Damn it! I fucking hate it when freaking locks do that." The massive door began to shift to the right, slowly speeding up until it opened completely into a room as white as the hallway, composed of titanium-reinforced concrete walls. There was no padding, forcing any occupants to sleep on the stony floor. As it might appear the current two were doing. And then you got close and saw the missing patches of skin of one, coupled with a totally severed head trailing larynx, mashed right arm, lesions, abnormally large canines (about a foot in length; one missing, two chipped), and an overgrown left arm. The lake of black blood extended over to another form, one of a female. She was definitely skinny, malnourished, and had one massive hole in her stomach from which the missing tusk of the other protruded. Black hair flowed down to the base of her neck, and her once-blazing crimson eyes were glazed, staring forever more at the ceiling. "Grab that one's legs." The two lifted the beast onto one of the carts, and then reached for the girl. "Oh, shit! What did this chick eat?"

"Everyone." After a few minutes of readjusting their grips, they managed to heft her onto the gurney, which almost buckled under the weight. "Right. Let's get the hell out of here." The two guards wheeled the bodies out of the room, signaling for the door to close behind them, and the roars and banging ceased. "What's with that?"

"Don't matter, does it?"

"Guess not." The latter pointed towards the door adjacent to the one they just closed. "And in there?"

"The other one. He ain't dead yet. Probably going to try to clone him, make the work somewhat worthwh-" His sentence was cut off as a shard of bone shot through his skull. The other tried to pull a gun only to have a thick tendril of muscle wrapped around his throat and pulled up. His hands stopped moving, and his body stopped squirming. The female tackled the body with a great hiss, closing her mouth around the stump that once supported a head. And Eve rose, blood dripping from her mouth, color returning to her skin and eyes. "Note to self: In the future, do not force back your natural regeneration. It hurts like hell." She flung the body of the guard who she'd killed with the tooth she'd managed to break off of her opponent, carrying him over to the door next to her old room. "So, I prick your fingers..." She pulled the tooth out of his face and poked his fingers with it. "Put your hand here..." She placed his bleeding hand in the imprint, which drained the blood, scanned the prints, and cauterized the wound. "And done. Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" The door opened completely as Eve leaned on the wall. "Security will be here soon. They've got cameras all over the place." To emphasize, she flung her tooth/knife at the camera in the far corner of the room, severing it from the wall. "You coming?"









Standard BioSec paramilitary trooper.

 

[Tanzinite]

Snorting, Adam joined his sister. "You made quite a mess in here," he commented, looking at the dead guards, before following her further into the building. "This'll be fun." They were running down right hallways when the first group of paramilitary BioSec troopers appeared. Grinning, Adam forced calcified spikes of bone out his arms and head. The bone covering his face was for armour, the spikes in his arm were weapons. There were about ten of the troopers, and they weren't giving away any fear, despite being horrendously outmatched. Keeping in front of Eve, Adam took the volley of bullets with nothing more than a grimace. They were piercing him sure, but he was healing so quickly it didn't matter. It wasn't even enough time for him to feel any pain.

Walking calmly, he drew ever closer to the troopers and watched as their eyes, buried in their gasmasks, began to widen. Now they knew what they were up against. Grinning, even as bullets ripped through the ligaments of his face, he drew up next to them and watched as they stumbled back in terror. Now those carefully aimed bullets were going in all directions, some even hitting other troopers. Drawing up his spiked arms, Adam shot off a volley of bone fragments, bringing the troopers down. Only one survived.

Advancing at a careless pace, Adam grabbed the survivor by the seam of his hood and ripped the gas mask from his face. In a fast motion, his teeth dug deep into the man's throat and tore. He needed to replenish some of the nutrients he'd lost by making the bone spikes and armour. He wouldn't say the man tasted particularly good. None of them ever did. But eating them was the best way to ensure he got what he needed.

Just as he dropped the dead man to the ground, he heard the sound of pounding footsteps further ahead in the corridor. Looking to Eve, a massive grin split his face and he raised his eyebrows in an inviting fashion. "Shall we?" he asked, before breaking off at a dead run. As he hit the wall of troopers, he let out an elated whoop.

 

[Crescent Wanderer]

Only a few miles away from the besieged BioSec facility, Suou monitored the progress of BioSec's escaped projects from the M4 CaC vehicle while checking over her PTRD. She was actually quite satisfied with the fact that they were decimating the faculty at the moment despite the loss of the VIPs she had come for. To her the VIPs were a secondary objective. In the facility itself was what she wanted, the VANQUISH suits.

Originally she had sent in a squad to destroy the reactor in the heart of the facility, having equipped them with enough heavy weapons and demo charges to destroy the Empire State Building. A building that in her own opinion was a giant waist of scrap metal. Unfortunately they were killed half way to their objective due to the facility locking down. She was going to send another unit on the same suicide mission to complete the objectives like good comrades. But before this could happen the escaped ADAM and EVE decided to clear out the facility in her stead.

For her now she had only to wait for them to finish up. Though she did wonder how they would get through the gates and blast doors.

 

[The Philosoraptor]

"Careless. If they had flamethrowers or the sense to use explosives, they could have actually hurt you. Oh, and by the way..." Eve's fist slammed into Adam's gut. "I can handle myself." She strolled over to the bodies, checking for the commanding officer, only to notice a different uniform on some of them. "A few of them are Russian special forces. Hmm." Eve pulled off a finger and stuck it in her mouth, chewing slowly to make it last. Finally she found a Ward officer, in charge of maintaining each level of the facility. "Gotcha." She dragged the corpse over to the main door panel, repeating the process to unlock it. Unlike the other, various options popped up. "Fire Alarm, Escape Alert, ah! Master Door Control." Eve opened the main exit first, and was prepared to leave before something occurred to her. "Go ahead. I'll catch up." The screen scrolled down, showing all of the cell locks, from her old cage to Subject 16's. The name of that monster made her shudder. "Good enough." She slid her hand down the screen, turning off the electromagnetic locks and shutting off the electrical field, before sprinting out through the main exit. Behind her there were great bellows and a massive screech as metal was torn apart and flung from its original position, and a single massive shape dominated the hall.

 

[Tanzinite]

"You let it out?" Adam demanded, as they watched the facility get torn apart by the monstrosity. Even for him, that was a bit much. "That thing will go on a rampage!" He drew in a breath, calming himself as the adrenaline wore off. "Although, that may make it easier to achieve what we need to get done, I suppose." Finally, he turned to look at Eve full on. "And I know you can protect yourself just fine, but sometimes you hog all the fun. Don't think of it as me trying to protect you. Think of it more as me trying to get my own enjoyment in before you take over. I'm powerful too, and you don't have to prove anything to me, but sometimes it seems like you want all the fun to yourself, and I resent that." Adam examined his arms as he spoke. Seeing an open wound he hadn't noticed, he quickly healed it over. The skin turned pink and then quickly back to his normal, pale skin tone. "What do we do now, exactly?" As he finished the question, he turned once more the facility they had so recently escaped.

It was being torn apart. Troopers were panicking as they watched the monster that was coming for them. It turned some of them, but mostly it devoured and destroyed. Watching with distain, Adam curled his lip. He disliked his cousins, who killed without thought. They were less than animals, in that sense. Animals at least could consider their actions. They were more like a multicellular virus, nothing more than the endless urge to infect more hosts. Pitiful.

 

[The Philosoraptor]

"It was the idea. 16 would break out, tear apart the others, and the guards would focus on him. Or her. Or whatever it is." She remembered again her first encounter with Subject 16, recalling the massive arms, extended snout, and thousands of tentacles. Aside from Eve, and maybe Adam, 16 was perhaps the worst thing to come out of that hellhole. "And I have nothing to prove to you. As for where we go, into the world." They continued walking down the corridor, much darker and dirtier than the bleached hallways of her old home. When they broke the surface through a manhole, Eve was immediately shocked by what she saw: Cars flashing down the streets, civilians practically screaming on their cellphones and clustering around on sidewalks, and television screens flashing images of potato chips and television shows in a matter of seconds. A passing man in a leather coat happened to kick Eve's head as he walked across the street, followed by her teeth sinking into his calf. "Ah, shit! What the fuck is wrong with you? Let go! Let go!" He shook his leg, tearing the wound even further. She released her grip, and the man sprinted away, dropping his briefcase, screaming obscenities and attracting attention to the two teenagers poking their heads out of the street. "We ought to leave." The looks he gave her told Eve everything. "Maybe he'll get mugged and the bastard will get a blow to the head. No problem." They crawled out of the manhole completely, sprinting into an alley and out of the crowd.