Signs Of Humanity - Chapter 1
Somewhere on the outskirts of the remains of the old town of Broken Hill sat a massive blade of metal and glass carved into the landscape by man. Completely out of place, this gleaming monument stood alone with figures clad in white armour that milled about in the shadow of the tower. To some, this was an important outpost, where discoveries were made to further the advancement of humanity. Others saw it as a gateway to hell, a realm of nightmares where demons take hope to die, to be studied dissected and disposed of in a furnace.
It was in reality, a research lab, granted one that conducted experiments only those with hardly a scrap of humanity left in them could perform, but a lab nonetheless. The Lab’s test subjects were kept in their special cages, but where else would you keep them? You can't just let beasts roam the halls; someone is likely to get hurt. Some of these monsters needed a little more care than others, they were more dangerous you see, and needed to be kept separate. Sedation was also best, can't have them nipping at the staff, it's all simple safety. The fact that these creatures resemble humans is just a coincidence.
One of these creatures, Subject 24 proved to be very valuable, he was more resilient than the rest. You could carve him up as much as you like, and he could put himself back together. He also seemed to be an endless supply of blood, granted you would have to let him refill but that normally only took a day or two. He could provide any researcher all the supplies they could ever want when it came to the subject of Brutes. But there were bigger plans for him, he was to help prove a very important and pressing theory, the results of which hadn't yet materialised, but hopefully that would change soon.
Soon didn't really come in a timely manner and eventually interest in the subject slowly diminished, with the priority of the research fading and other areas of interest becoming more tantalising Subject 24 was put on ice. This kind of handling of research material was common for Seon, when it looked like something wasn't panning out as expected they found a corner to shove it in. They would never throw it away; just in case they found a use for it later, "Better to let things rot away on a forgotten shelf than not have it when you need it" was the unofficial motto of the Seon researchers.
So it was, Subject 24 sat in a forgotten corner of this Tower of Seon, his care left up to the Automated systems trusted to feed, clean and subdue the man. Normally Subjects that are "Put on Ice" are quite literally frozen and stored, but this is a costly process, and the higher-ups aren’t the biggest fans of the research's unofficial motto and often pushed for less costly storage solutions. Luckily Subject 24 himself, provided an excellent solution to this problem.
Subject 24 was a Shapeshifter Brute, this didn't mean he could take on the form of other people or animals, at least none of Seon's extensive testing could confirm this to be true. It did mean however he could alter his form at will, changing his muscle density, hardness of his skin and creating new appendages as he pleased. The forms he favoured tended to be large, clawed hands and crab-like legs he would sprout from his back. Often, he would transform one arm into a large scythe-like weapon usually during testing in a pointless attempt to escape. These weren't the limit of his forms, there didn't seem to be a limit, these just were a few he always fell back on, like they were a habit he couldn't shake.
The transformation ability wasn't however what would aid with his storage, what helped was how his body produced more cells when old ones died. In a normal human body when cells divide and replace old dead ones, they are a copy of a copy. Completely identical to one another but still lacking in some small way. Over time the cells develop imperfections that show up in their copies, this continues until the cells can no longer create quality copies of themselves and begin to die out. This is known by the broad term of aging and is something that can't be stopped. However, for Subject 24 this isn't the case, because of his ability to rework and change every cell in his body, when a cell divides to fill in for one that has died, they are a perfect copy of the one before them.
This is a trait his body must have developed to make his physical structure as malleable as it is. All this to say Subject 24 either doesn't age or he ages so slowly it's impossible to tell. With his apparent longevity, Seon designed a custom and cost-effective way to keep him in storage.
Instead of freezing the subject, they were to keep him on a constant cycle of sedatives so they could keep him in a comatose state. The proposal stated that if Subject 24 was kept satiated he should be able to stay in this state indefinitely. The cost would be 1-10th of a cryo-pod and if testing were to resume waking the subject would take less time than the unfreezing process.
The plan was approved, but once implemented it did hit a few snags. Over time the subject would develop a tolerance to the sedatives and would wake and try to escape. Greater restraints were needed to hold him in place, while higher doses of the sedatives were needed. This worked for a while until the Subject began to be able to gain a semi-conscious state while under the sedatives, in this state he had enough awareness to increase his metabolism to process the drugs faster and wake himself up. Countermeasures were developed to monitor the subject for any sign of his shifting abilities and administer a powerful electric shock to render him unconscious again.
This power struggle went back and forth a few times until Seon inevitably came out on top. While they were far away from the original plan of keeping the subject in a standard bed behind a locked door, it had been worth it in the end. They were able to squeeze out a little more data and develop a countermeasure that would ensure that even if Subject 24 did escape his retrieval would be almost guaranteed. It was a countermeasure they would use in all their test subjects going forward.
But where did this leave Subject 24 or rather Jericho? Thanks to Seon's insistence on keeping him locked in place he was trapped in a never-ending state of sleep and semi-consciousness. When he was asleep it was an uneventful dreamless state broken up by a few lucid moments. When he was briefly aware of where he was, his body screamed at him in pain from the position it was contorted in, permanently affixed in place. He was held upright by both his arms raised above his head, locked in at the elbows by two massive metal cones that descended from the ceiling. His legs were in equally as dense restraints that sank into the floor, melting into a mess of cables like roots spreading out from a tree.
These oddly shaped cones weren't simple restraints, they were spotted by blinking lights and screens which constantly flashed with data as it monitored his status. The inside was a forest of needles, tasers, shackles and emergency spikes that were set to skewer his limbs if he were to pull at his restraints to viciously. Locked in place Jericho could only hang there, wake briefly and fall asleep when the next dose of drugs was to be injected.
His sense of time was completely distorted Jericho had no concept of it anymore. He was hardly awake, not that this bothered him, after what Seon had done to him it was good to sleep and not think about anything. Time had eaten away at his memory he could hardly recall what had happened to him since he was captured. To him there were the memories from before he was captured, some so clear they felt like yesterday, others faded and mutilated like memories of a dream. Then there was those after his capture, these were just flashes of fear, anger and despair, these were formless in their content, but he knew they represented the horrific treatment he had endured from Seon.
Unbeknownst to Jericho he had been trapped by Seon for far longer than he could imagine, so long that those he knew and loved outside had faded away. One hundred years had passed outside, a century had slipped by while he was locked in his dark cell.
But now he was beginning to stir again, waking up from his drowsy state, still with his eyes closed he took stock of himself.
"Again? Wasn't I just awake? What should I do now? I could try and check out the room. Nothing would have changed... but it could be nice to see the flashing lights again. Or should I just wait for my next dose?" Jericho thought to himself.
The room Jericho was sealed within was a pitch-black box save for the lines of computers, equipment and other odds and ends that ran on electricity. They hummed and blinked away as they maintained the equipment that kept him in his nightmarish stasis, what light they gave off gave them the impression of the stars in the night sky. When Jericho felt like risking a chance of an electric shock, he would metabolise the remainder of the drugs in his system so he could catch a glimpse of them. He would tell himself the sweet lie of "I'm outside, looking up at the beautiful nighttime sky " as the next set of drugs was pumped into him.
"I might give it a pass; I think I'll give up on that silly lie." He had been through too many cycles now; Jericho would rather just remain asleep forever at this point, hope had drained out of him leaving him hollow and void on the inside.
But time passed on and his mind continued to clear, "What's going on? Are they waking me up?"
Panic started to grip Jericho, the thought that they might be coming back to do something more to him terrified the man. Adrenaline was beginning to flood his body, on the verge of waking Jericho squeezed his eyes tighter closed, bracing himself for the blinding pain of the coming electroshock. Sometimes when he woke, he would begin to have a panic attack which the machines would register as an escape attempt activating his restraints... but this time nothing happened.
Slowly and cautiously, he opened his eyes, instead of the dark room speckled with unknown lights, he saw a room bathed in an ominous red light that flashed intermittently. For the first time, he also became aware of the breathing and feeding tube that was snaked down his throat. It seemed impossible to not have noticed such an invasion into his own body, which made the realisation of other tubing in his lower parts even more startling.
Jericho began to cough and choke as his body was now instinctively fighting against the tube pushing its way into his mouth. "I need to get this out... but the electricity." As his eyes scanned across the cones that encased his arms the sudden realisation that the lights that decorated them had gone dark sparked a small flame of hope inside him. His heart was pounding in his chest, beating with a mixture of fear and excitement this could be his last chance to escape, he would not fail this time.
He didn't have the muscle density left to free all four limbs at once. The years of immobility had left him thin, weak and sickly, but with some careful rationing of his current biomass, he should still be able to pull off some handy tricks. As if he was flexing his muscles one at a time Jericho's limbs turned black as tar and in an instant doubled in size, then snapped back to their original shape. The sudden expansion cracked and ripped apart the internals of his shackles. Like a sack of wet meat Jericho slapped onto the ground, tearing all the tubes that had invaded his body free. Coughing and breathing deep through the stale air of the room, he lay splayed out on the ground glad to finally be able to rest on something.
After a few short minutes, Jericho clambered to his feet after he caught his breath, activating his Release he took in the room around him. Like his restraints all the other machinery in the room was powered off, he concluded that the power had somehow gone out, and the outage happened to line up with the drugs in his system wearing off. "That's how I must have managed to wake up..." The silence of the room was rocked as his stomach rumbled to life, he felt he was starving, whatever the feeding tube had been giving him must have been far too little for his needs, although, his sudden shifting probably wasn't helping.
His Release sharpened all of his senses after getting his bearings the first thing he noticed was the smell of mould that hung in the air, it smelt like the room hadn't been cleaned in years. Looking around he began to suspect that no one besides him had even stepped foot in the room since he was locked up. Dust laid thick on the ground sticking like mud to his bare feet, he tried not to move around to much as it was easy to kick up dust that scratched at his nose. The laminate tiles on the ground had begun to curl up and lift off the surface and the paint on the walls had flaked off forming these massive areas of bare wall spotted with mould. Parts of the roof had even begun to sag from some unseen water damage. He had been shoved in a closet and forgotten about, he would have been furious that he had been tossed aside like trash, but this being Seon it couldn't have been better.
Opening his senses to the room the slight hint of a stale organic material floated in the air, following it back to it's source Jericho found his first little win. Bolted onto the side of one of the machines that littered the room was a large bottle half-filled with a brownish-orange sludge. This sludge was what Seon had been feeding him while he was locked up. The smell was pungent, like baby food that was on the edge of exploding into a colony of bacteria, and its consistency was that of something that wasn't quite liquid enough that you couldn't swallow it without chewing first. But it was the only thing in the room he could eat, and the power of his hunger was quickly killing his sense of disgust. So, in a feverish hunger, Jericho snapped the tube off the side of the machine, popped a hole in the bottom and sucked away. He then had to carve off the bottom as the substance was too thick to suck, but now he could shovel the food into his mouth like coal into a furnace.
While Jericho was enjoying his newfound freedom and partaking in his first filling meal for the better half of a century other parts of the Seon base were in disarray. While the power was out for most of the base, emergency power was spinning up warning lights and sounding alarms. The main substation that powered the base had been destroyed by a mob of rampaging Vile emu's who had decided to settle in the area.
"Why aren't the emergency generators coming online?" The Base Commander screamed to the room of frantic admin drones who seemed to blink around the room in the dancing lights.
"I don't know sir; we have a maintenance team trying to manually start them." One of the many faceless figures yelled out in the dark room.
"Why do they need to start them manually? They are meant to come on automatically!" The Commander screamed to the room at large.
"The systems have been offline for some time and the regular Maintenance Team never picked it up." Another frantic voice spoke out.
"Who is in charge of the Maintenance Teams? I want them in my office right now!" He barked again with the end of the sentence puncturing the air like a needle plucking the surface of a balloon.
There were a few seconds of silence as the admin team glanced at one another. Which one was in charge of the Maintenance Team?
As the seconds dragged on the pressure in the room increased, as the anger that radiated from the commander filled the room. "I don't care how but get the generators online this instant! Get teams on every leave to make sure every test subject is secured, any that are not I'm giving permission to purge them on sight."
"But sir the..."
"No, buts, I don't care about the experiments, if they are so important then you should have maintained the base better, the priority now is preventing escapes and keeping the staff safe."
"Do we need a team for the cold storage levels?" One of the more apathetic drones asked.
The Commander thought for a moment, most of the subjects were on life support, the power outage would have killed them. Although there were a few that could pose a risk if they were to wake up. "Send a small team for now, but ready the Pillars to be mobilised once the power comes back. Stand by for any alerts of escape on those levels."
That should have been enough, the team should only find corpses and a few sleeping subjects, no need to divert too many resources to the glorified dumping ground. Besides the Pillars were functionally walking turrets which could be used to mop up any mess that might have leaked out.
"Squad 14, your orders are to sweep the storage levels and look for any possible escapes" a small voice spoke into one of the many open mics in the bustling control room.
Squad 14 was one of the smaller teams on the base, consisting of 19 members, all of which had been labelled at one time or another as "skittish" by other commanders and had received a recommendation that they only be allowed to handle "basic security". This meant they were the ones to normally stand in front of heavily secured doors, that by all rights, shouldn't be penetrable. So, the sudden order to go somewhere and do something had the squad on edge. Most were in muted hysterics as they ran through the dimly lit, red-washed halls scanning for anything that might want to kill them. Muttering.
"Why us?"
"Surely they could have sent someone better."
"It's ok, the commander said, most would have died already... we're fine... please let us be fine" to one another.
As Squad 14 cleared one level after another, they began to gain a sense of confidence, perhaps things were "fine" and much like their normal duties, this one was relatively unimportant and above all else safe. Then the lights flicked back on as the Maintenance Team managed to kick the generators into life, all felt right in Squad 14's world.
That's why their collective hearts suddenly stopping and starting again made an audible thud as the sound of an alarm polluted the air, coupled with the tiny screech of the intercom system now screaming at them "Subject 24 has broken his restraints and is loose in the Base. Squad 14 investigate his holding cell immediately, Pillars 38, 37 and 36 have been deployed for backup, and more Squads are coming to your position. You have permission to terminate the Subject on sight."
Squad 14, like most Squads, had heard the stories about Subject 24, how he alone had been responsible for the many deaths of the Seon Retrieval Unit in the raid that had captured him. How he had also killed many guards, researchers and even a commander during his time in the base. But these stories were so old and had been retold time and time again that Subject 24 had become the Boogie Man of the base. Squad Leaders would often threaten to put disobedient soldiers on "Subject 24 duties" as a threat. Learning that Subject 24 was in fact real and was running around the base sent shivers through the Squad.
The Leader of Squad 14 cleared his throat "Yes well men, you heard the orders, precede to level 15, you three, take point and head to Subject 24's cell and report your findings." The Leader gestured to the three men standing closest to the front of the group. Before they could protest, their leader clicked the safety off on his gun and raised it to the three, "Now boy's no disobeying orders" he said as he shuffled to the back of the Squad, others in the Squad mimic the leader. The Three unlucky men knew there was no way out of this, except to hope that this was a false alarm.
Back in his cell Jericho was finishing up with his meal, even though his stabbing hunger pains had helped him ignore the foul taste of the slurry, it could not help him stop gagging after finishing the mysterious mixture, how could something slimy have the consistency of sand? As he through the container to the side the lights in the room suddenly snapped on. Jericho winced as the light cut into his eyes which felt like shards of class were crashing into them.
The sudden blaring alarm also didn't do him any favours, thanks to his hypersensitivity this gave him an immediate headache coursing him to scream out in pain. He spun and launched out with one arm that melted and extended into a long black whip shattering the lights in the room and ripping the alarm speaker from the wall. This didn't kill the alarm; it was still blaring outside but the large metal door to his cell was doing a great job of keeping the noise down.
Deactivating his Release hoping to give his eyes a rest Jericho tried to make his way over to the door. It was hard, not only was the room pitch black except for a few blinking lights, but his eyes were plagued by bright spots the lights had burned into his vision. Standing up almost caused him to fall face-first on the ground again. His muscles were burning from the effort of just moving around the small space.
"This won't do," Jericho said to himself as he collapsed in front of the door. "I need to fix myself up, otherwise I'm not getting out of here." Jericho leaned his head on the door, activated his Release, closed his eyes and listened, the sound of the alarm outside was still blaring, but there didn't seem to be anything outside the door just yet, he had a little bit of time.
Still listening Jericho began to take deep steady breaths as he focused on the muscles in his body. These hadn't so much as moved an inch since he was strung up, normally these would take months to regain their functionality. He couldn't sit here and mend them with fat reserves either, they were pretty much gone, all he had for energy was the sludge in his stomach, which would take time to break down into something useful. This left him with only one option, he would need to massively stimulate all his muscles while oxygenating them at the same time.
This wouldn't do much for his strength, and it would hurt like hell, but it would limber up his muscles enough for him to run... hopefully. Not that Jericho knew this was what he was doing exactly. It was just a trick he had taught himself for cramps and for working the knots out faster. Now, however, it would have to be his whole body, tearing off a piece of the ratty jumpsuit he shoved it in his mouth readying himself for the pain.
Taking a deep breath, he almost gagged on the stench coming from the cloth in his mouth. The white (at least once was white) jumpsuit was caked in these brown stains which were a mix of sweat and dead skin cells. Suddenly he felt filthy, but before the idea of how long he had been in this state could sink in, the noise of a door sliding open and murmured voices hit his ears. Jericho took a deep breath, filling his lungs to capacity and then past capacity as he allowed his chest to balloon into an unnatural shape.
Shoving the grubby rag back in his mouth he tensed as he forced a ripple through his body. On the outside, it would have looked like a wave had passed through him causing his muscles to writhe under his skin, like he was a bag full of angry snakes. Inside, he was ripping his muscles apart and fusing them back together while forcing his blood to carry as much oxygen as possible throughout his body. Seconds later he pushed out all the breath deflating like a popped ball, gasping for more air as he staggered to his feet. Jericho's body felt like it had been set ablaze, but it didn't feel as stiff and useless as it did before.
As the three members of Squad 14 slowly inched their way to Subject 24's holding cell none of them could stop shaking. They had fought over who would take point when they made it to the floor, nearing the cell door and seeing it still closed, the question now became, who was going to be the one to open it? The one in the lead looked back to the other two, and before he could get a word out, they raised their guns at him.
"You lost already at rock, paper, scissors you're checking inside." One in the middle said to the one in the lead.
"No that's not fair, we should play again!" He whispered back.
"No, we agree, we say you do it." Said the one in the back.
"How quickly we turn on each other." The one in the lead thought to himself.
"Fine, but one of you stand behind me, give me cover."
The two in the rear looked at each other, while they were out for themselves, they did still need to work together if they were going to survive.
"Ok I'll back you up" the one in the middle said, looking back at the one in the back. "You stay to the side, shoot anything that comes out of that room got it?"
They nodded to each other, the plan was set, and they were ready to take on Subject 24.
Jericho could hear the group coming closer to his door, while it would be great if he could have broken down the door himself, he didn't have the strength to break through the massive security bars that locked the door into the cement walls. He would need it to be unlocked before he could make his way out, "But would the guards make their way into a pitch-black room, they know a very angry Brute would be hiding? No, they are more likely to lob grenades into the room, safer for them that way." Jericho reasoned to himself. "In that case, I'll have to move before they have the chance."
Using his scarce biological material Jericho shifted his legs into pointed spikes that he drove into the ground in front of the door. Fusing the joints in his legs together he locked himself into place, then siphoning the muscles from his left arm and his legs into his right arm which turned jet black, and bulged with muscles, while his fist swelled into the shape of a cannonball. He pulled back, crouched low and waited to see what the Seon guards would do.
The guards on the other side of the door took up their agreed-upon positions and with some hesitation, the one in the lead reached up and opened a small window in the metal door. He hoped to see a brightly lit room with Subject 24 restrained in whatever contraption Seon had developed. What he saw instead was a pitch-black room that looked like a void in space save for the few spots of light that flickered away in silence.
"The room is too dark to see anything... I think, I think he escaped" he yelled to the men behind him.
"Did he escape the room or is he still in there?" The one in the middle asked.
"I can't tell the room is too dark to see anything. I can't see any movement though, maybe he got out?"
"Do we go in?"
"No, let's radio the rest of the team and see what they think." the one in the back recommended.
"Well, this isn't going as planned" Jericho thought. "I hoped they would be more reckless, now they are waiting for backup. I need to get out before more guys show up, what else can I do?"
Jericho pulled up his now shrivelled left arm that extended into a long tentacle-like appendage, which he used to poke around the edges of the door. He was trying to figure out how the door was locked, he originally thought that multiple bolts were running down the sides of the door holding it in place. But as he ran his tentacle into and down the door crack, he found there was only one bar that ran across the width of the door. By some form of divine intervention or simply luck it was only latched halfway. Maybe it was caused by the power outage or an error from when it was last closed, but the fact was it was only holding the door closed superficially.
"Finally, some luck, never been a better time to leave" a grin broke out across his face, "I should get their attention before I go, two birds and all that." He began to tap on the door with his knuckles which was followed immediately by the startled screams from the men outside.
"Go See what that was!" the one in the back yelled.
"No... Fine, fine, but I want my cover again" stammered the one in the front.
"What were they doing out there?" Jericho thought when light suddenly filled the room as a window in the door opened again, this was his signal to act.
He pulled back his massive arm readying to throw all he could into the bulky mass of muscle. He twisted his back in an unnatural angle which was made possible as he had transformed the base of his spine into a ball joint, allowing him a greater range of movement.
As the light flickered when the Seon soldier’s head bobbed in front of it trying to see something in the darkness the muscles in Jericho's body bulged. Snapping like a rubber band the top half of his body spun, releasing all that pent up power, bringing the massive fist to bear on the door.
From the point of view of the one in the back what played out in front of him was like something from a nightmare.
"I still, can't see anything maybe he's..." The one in the front began but was cut off as a massive bang rang out from the door. The metal of the door bulged in the middle, curving back on itself as it ripped from the wall and shot across the hallway.
The one in the back was so on edge, so jittery his body was already flooded with adrenaline before Subject 24 made his move, by the time he did, everything seemed to be moving in slow motion.
As the door came away from the wall it picked up the one in the front taking him with it. The one in the middle jumped backward and fired off a shot as the door came down on him. They then impacted on the wall letting out a massive crimson splash, like a water balloon full of paint splattering on the ground. The one in the back couldn't see what had happened to his squad mates under the door, but the deep red flower painted on the wall gave no illusions of what had happened to them.
The feeling of abject fear gripped the man, he wanted to run and hide, but how do you run from something with that much power? It boggled his mind as he tried to make sense of the scene, as the reality of the situation dawned on him, his knees buckled as he dropped to the ground still transfixed on the remains of the men, when a sudden movement above him drew his attention.
Coming down on him was something that seemed like a Specter, even with his slowed perception of time, the thing was still moving faster than he could imagine, it was like he was standing still compared to it. What a horrible sight, a figure with long blue-black hair unkempt and flying around wildly with bleached white skin. Its form only covered with a filthy white jumpsuit, embroidered with Seon markings, something familiar but at the same time wrong. Most haunting were the ice blue eyes that flashed from behind the greasy dark hair, like points of light in a thick dark forest.
The creature's arm was pulled back levelled with its head, the shape of which was deformed in to an unnatural thing, it was pitch black which melted into sickly white skin at the elbow. It looked like a thick makeshift spear that was tipped with gleaming white bone. The of eyes of this beast cut through the one in the back, and somehow, he knew that he was not the target of that demonic spear, rather it was the space on the wall that was located behind his head, "Maybe if I get out of the way…" He thought briefly as the spear found its target. Seconds later the one in the back hit the ground with two new holes in his head.
Jericho rose back to his feet, his body was vibrating from the fear of slamming into the Seon soldier as fast as he could, desperate to take the man down before he could react. He relaxed for a moment allowing his arm to collapse back into its normal state, and his eyes adjusted to the brightness of the hallway. Something was odd about the Seon soldiers, they were all wearing the same uniform, plates of white material, not quite metal and not quite plastic with black lines running up the arms and legs tipped with circles. This was odd, before he was locked up Seon always had inconsistent armour, like metal cages they had cobbled together from scrap.
"Looks like they have made a few upgrades since I've been here. The rest might be just as equipped, I should avoid them as much as I can on my way out." Jericho thought to himself as he ran off down the hallway.
Suddenly a speaker in the roof crackled to life "Subject 24 has escaped his cell, he has killed 3 soldiers, authorisation to kill on sight is granted, all units converge on level 15, 3 Pillars are on route, ETA 5 minutes."
"Shit, someone is dobbing on me." Jericho thought as he sped off down the hallways. "If I can just find a way outside, I can slip away into the night... hopefully its night time." Come to think of it, he had no idea what time it was, was it even night time? He just assumed it was, since the whole complex was lit by artificial lights, however there were no windows to show him the outside. "Wait, what if I'm underground? No, that voice said level 15, I have to be above ground, right?" Jericho's movement dropped from a sprint to a run, then a jog, followed by a walk ending with him petering to a stop.
Taking in a deep lung-full of air he tried to orientate himself, "Where the hell am I?" Jericho had been running around the same floor for the last 5 minutes, every corner he took just led into an identical hallway filled with the same cell doors he had just escaped from, with large numbers painted next to them. The ones in this hall were numbered in their 40s, but that didn't help, the ones he just came from were in the 80's, and there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the numbering.
Perhaps that was done on purpose, to confuse escapees so they couldn’t get their bearings, "Just ignore the numbers, they aren’t helping." Jericho told himself. Luckily this hallway had something a little different in it, large tube-like structures built into the walls, the front of which was segmented, giving the impression that these things could open.
"Maybe these are elevators? I wonder if I can force them open, I need to get off this floor quick, those Pillar things are meant to get here soon." As Jericho approached the tubes, he noticed they were humming quietly "Whatever they are, they seem to be doing something.". As he closed the gap the humming stopped suddenly, and then the front of one slid forward and began to descend into the ground, segment by segment.
Before it could fully open, Jericho spun on the spot and bolted back to the last corner he passed, diving out of sight. He scrambled to his feet and pressed himself to the wall, slowly he shuffled his hand to the corner allowing one of his fingers to pass over the edge. Then he closed his eyes, this would help him concentrate on any new sounds, it also helped him not become disorientated by the new visual information.
The finger that he had peeking around the corner, bulged into a sphere the size of a coin, whose skin parted in the middle opening to reveal an eye gazing back at the tubes. The three tubes finished opening and out skittered three identical monoliths of metal supported by four bulky spider legs, the top of these towers of metal had domes covered in glass lenses. "I guess these are those Pillar things, they're tall, but they don't look so bad..." Jericho's train of thought derailed as the sides of the Pillars snapped open allowing two massive guns with belts of ammo to fold out from inside the metal monsters.
"Ok but, they don't know where I am, I can sneak..." The Pillars started scrambling towards him at a blinding speed for their size. Jericho's eyes snapped open as he turned and bolted down the hallway. He stumbled and almost fell, the sudden vision of the hallway ahead of him coupled with the swaying vision of the floor gave him instant vertigo. The eye on his finger quickly disappeared as he righted himself and continued the dart around corners at random.
"Of course they know where I am, they have cameras everywhere in here, those things can probably see me even now." Desperately he searched for a way out, but again all he could see were the same randomly numbered hallways.
Briefly, he thought about diving into one of the other cells, but he quickly banished the thought, who knows what is inside the rooms and if he did this he would be trapped. Again, the speakers in the ceiling crackled to life "The Pillars are closing in on Subject 24, all units prepare to engage."
"Units prepare to engage? That can't be right I haven't seen anything besides those metal things. They haven't even caught up to me." Jericho thought to himself as he sped down another hallway, quickly changing directions as he picked up the sounds of the metal legs clacking on the ground ahead of him.
"Actually, why is that thing talking again now? It only spoke once when I escaped, why is it broad-casting orders now?' Again, the speaker crackled "Subject 24, has changed course, Troops redirect."
Jericho turned and ducked into a new hallway as he noticed another Pillar ahead of him. "What are they playing at? Surely they have a quieter way of communicating." Again, he made a split decision to round another corner as he heard more signs of a Pillar skittering around somewhere up ahead.
"No, the announcements aren’t for the Seon Soldiers, they're for me... they are trying to trap me." It made sense, the Pillars are well-armed and disposable, so why didn't they try to make a frontal attack? They are just running around out of sight making a lot of noise, they know exactly where Jericho is, so why not attack?
"They don't think they have enough firepower? Or maybe they aren’t as strong as they look? That could be why they need back up?" Jericho reasoned with himself. He was left with a dilemma, try and break apart their strategy now or play into the ambush and take his chances.
Hearing one of the Pillars coming from behind him he made his choice. Instead of darting further down the hallway or taking a turn to his left he spun around on the spot and launched back the way he came. He put so much strength into his legs he cracked the concrete underfoot, flying towards the tapping noises of the robot coming his way.
By some measure of luck, the Pillar was approaching a corner as Jericho narrowed in on it. Whoever was operating the thing didn't have time to round the corner and take aim. As the two caught sight of each other Jericho hit the ground and slid under the mass of metal. The guns on the machine hummed as they tried to follow him, however they were too slow and couldn't aim straight down.
Underneath the mobile tower, Jericho snapped his arm into a spike and plunged it into the complex array of motors and servos the legs of the machine sprouted from. Like his restraints from before, expanding the diameter of his arm shattered the mechanics of the legs causing the machine to tumble to the ground. As it fell the guns began to fire like the operator was hoping to get off some lucky shots, but as it laid on its side firing at the wall relentlessly Jericho thought perhaps the trigger for the Pillar's guns was extremely sensitive, "Can I use this in some way?" he thought to himself.
The crumpled metal tower then began to ring out with an ear-splitting alarm, Jericho jumped back from the thing, a noise like that never meant anything good. As he ran from the remains ducking behind a corner an explosion rocked the ground. Looking back at the remains there was nothing of the machine to be seen, the explosion was powerful enough to collapse that part of the building, unfortunately, it didn't leave enough of a hole for Jericho to get onto another level.
"Damn it, when these things are taken down, I'm guessing they are made to do as much damage as possible. Seon seems to have gotten more paranoid... rightfully so I guess, but I think I can still use this." Jericho ran back to a hallway he had been in before, one that he thought was a bit off compared to the others. This one was a straight line with all the entrances leading into other hallways being on one side with the other wall being completely bare, not even cell doors on it. His guess was that this wall was on the side of the building and with some luck meant it was an outer wall.
Jericho made his way to a point in the hallway that was furthest from any of the passages leading in. For a moment he thought all he needed to do was wait for the Pillars to show up, then another thought occurred to him "No desperation would draw them faster, doing nothing would be suspicious." Shifting an arm into an improvised pick axe shape, Jericho began to hammer away at the cement wall. Which cracked away surprisingly easily, this part of the wall was just painted over bricks, maybe it was just a facade, but it gave the impression that he was doing real damage.
With any luck this would cause whoever is watching to panic… the skittering of the two remaining Pillars began to echo off the walls. Now this would be the tricky part, Jericho needed to create a protective shell around himself thick enough to block the bullets, but he had to do it the second that the Pillars appeared, too early and it could raise suspicions, too late and well he'd be shot. Again, he fell back on the trick of closing his eyes and making new eyes on the back of his head, this wasn't ideal his hair was a long-tangled mess so seeing was hard, but he just needed to catch a glimpse of the massive metal Pillars.
As the seconds dragged on Jericho became more twitchy, more anxious, the noises of the machines were scratching at the inside of his head, but there still wasn't any sign of them. As he cleared away the last of the cinder blocks in the wall revealing a sturdy solid mass of concrete that wouldn't crack to his strikes, that's when he saw the gleam of his metal pursuers.
Both came flying out of two hallways on either side of Jericho, firing as they caught sight of him. Like a bear trap, snapping closed on an unfortunate leg, Jericho dropped down to his knees curling in on himself. Forming a ball as his back erupted with what looked like a massive black hand enclosing himself in a dome and locking him to the ground.
Jericho's timing couldn't have been more perfect, as he hit the ground the first of the bullets washed over him. The pain that followed however was nothing to celebrate, he hadn't made the shell hard enough yet so the first of the bullets almost broke through the shell. Embedding themselves in what was essentially his skin, it was like being stabbed with a white-hot fire poker and not removing it. Jericho focused on making the shell thicker and harder as he was being bombarded, this came with the cost of sacrificing his muscles, organs and skin, whatever biomass he could spare was being poured into the shell around him.
If you could look inside the shell, you would see a skeletal figure with skin stretched tight over the bones that melted into the walls around it. The only sign of life from the thing would be the rising and falling chest and the visible heart slowly beating away. Jericho hated pushing his body into shapes like this, something so far-removed from his normal shape caused his body to throw what amounted to a tantrum, one he had to try to ignore. He referred to it as auto-torcher, your body demanded something, but every time you denied another muscle knotted, joints cramped and your head thumped. Not to mention breathing feels like you’re trying to force molasses into your lungs, it was wholly unnatural, and he couldn't stay like this for long, he just needed the Pillars to come a little closer.
It was hard to tell if they were getting closer or if they were just standing still firing from a distance. All Jericho could hear was the ear-splitting bangs from the massive guns firing and the ringing of the bullets that thudded off the shell, which rang in his head like church bells. Trying to hear the small sounds of the Pillar's legs tapping on the floor was impossible, there was just too much noise around him. Jericho could open an eye or two on the outside of the shell, but one stray bullet hitting an eye could be enough to break his concentration and undo the shell.
He would just have to hold tight, wait and hope that he could withstand the barrage long enough for something to change. Waiting seemed like he would have to endure an endless beating, each bullet that struck the shell, while not lethal, still felt like a punch to the gut. The idea of having to take an attack like this was unthinkable, however this might be Jericho's only hope of escape, that thought gave him the resolve to hold firm. Fortunately, after what felt like minutes, which might have only been a few seconds the bullets stopped abruptly, replaced with the slow tapping of the metal legs of the Pillars as they edged closer.
When the tapping of their pointed legs stopped Jericho chanced a peak at what Seon had decided to do with the Pillars. As he opened a pair of eyes on the outside of the shell, he was startled by the sight of them standing above him aiming their oversized guns at him. While he did expect something like this the sight of the giant beams of metal standing over him was still quite shocking, up close they did look quite imposing.
"I'm guessing, whoever is controlling these things, hasn't gone up against a Shifter before. If they had they would know, you never want to get close to one." Jericho thought to himself, as he dragged in a deep breath that burned in his straining lungs.
With all his strength he forced out massive spikes in all directions from the shell's surface. These shot out so fast it seemed instantaneous, in a fraction of a second the shell went from a smooth black semi-sphere to looking something like a sea urchin. The spikes easily, cracked open the metal casing of the Pillars shredding their insides. The Pillars sparked and screeched with the grinding noise of motors consuming themselves, collapsing to the ground a second later the two fallen metal trees began to fire wildly.
Jericho braced himself in case a weapon or two was pointed his way, but thankfully, both had landed on their backs and were firing at the ceiling. Jericho released his hold on the shell allowing his body to snap back into its normal form. His body screamed at him that it needed to stretch out and rest after being forced into such an unnatural shape, it wanted time to heal the bruising and puncture wounds from the bullets. But there was no time for it, Jericho had to keep moving if he wanted to escape...
"There he is open fire!" A voice down the hall yelled out, on reflex Jericho through himself to the ground as another wave of gunfire filled the narrow hallway. He landed in between the still-firing Pillars that, thankfully hadn't begun to beep yet. His luck also continued to hold out as the Pillars seemed to be bulletproof, protecting him from the troop's barrage.
"Move up!" A voice rang over the storm of gunfire. Thinking quickly Jericho slipped his hand underneath the Pillar shielding him from the advancing men. Muscles straining, he began to lift the heavy mass of metal rolling it over on its side.
As it slammed on its side, it bombarded the troops in the hall with a hail of bullets, some falling to the ground in bloody heaps, others limping back to cover. This was when Jericho's time was up, as soon as the Pillar slammed on its side it and the other one began the beeping that preceded their self-destruction. Judging by how long the first one he took down beeped before it exploded Jericho only had a handful of seconds.
He jumped to his feet and slid one of the Pillars into the carve-out he'd made in the wall. "Best get this as close as to do as much damage."
The guns still fired down the hall, however the Seon troops had built up enough courage to blind fire back at him. His heart was pounding now, the Pillar's beeping was speeding up, the endless gunfire was disorientating to his ears, and the bullets whizzing past him were causing adrenaline to flood his body.
He was ready to run, but at the last second, he chanced lifting the other Pillar and tipping it into the hole in the wall. As he did the bullets ripped through the wall punching their way outside causing specks of light to leak in.
The beeping was now a constant screech, the Pillars would explode at any second, Jericho ran back as fast as he could, his body overjoyed that it could use all its pent-up energy. The instant the beeping stopped Jericho dived around the nearest corner as a crackling boom polluted the air.
Glancing back around the corner, through the cloud of dust kicked up by the explosion, between parts of the roof that had collapsed golden light trickled through. Without hesitation Jericho ran back to the detonation site and began pulling chunks of rubble aside. Luckily most of the rubble fell in front of the hole and left the hallway mostly clear, just one more push and he would be home free.
Then Jericho heard the coughing and yells of the Seon men further up the halls "They are still coming? Just give up, what do you want with me…" memories of his capture flashed in his mind, his village on fire, trapped in a dark room, floating in cold liquid, endless experiments, being carved up, blood drawn, limbs removed… his skin on fire. A feeling of rage poured over him, they had taken so much from him, and the rage compounded, they still wanted more, his teeth ground in his mouth, sharpening into fangs.
"Why can't you just leave me alone" His eyes sharpened, arms turning black, and their muscles pushed at the surface of his skin, threatening to tear it open. His hand hardened, with the fingers sharpening to points, his breathing was now erratic as he turned towards the men.
"No… Escape"
Through the fog of rage, the reasonable part of Jericho's mind pushed itself to the front. He wanted nothing more than to pummel those Seon Troops into sludge, his body was so determined to carry out this desire it was moving on its own. This was the problem with the Brutes Rage, no matter how much you tried to stop it the more it built, even if you knew down in your soul that you needed to stop, you couldn't turn it off any more than you could turn off the sun. The only thing you could do is try and redirect the rage.
Thankfully in this situation, Jericho's desperation to escape won over his urge to kill. Taking a deep breath, he spun on the spot and landed an earth-shaking blow on the rubble covering the hole. The force blew everything out of the way, exploding out from the building.
The harsh light of the mid-day sun, bathed Jericho, and even though it stung his eyes and skin, the breath-taking view of a brownish-green landscape and a bright blue cloudless sky wiped away his anger as if he wasn't capable of feeling such a thing. In its place came a combination of hope, happiness and relief, tears welled up in his eyes as he launched himself into the open and fresh air.
His arms folded open, his skin stretching as new bones shifted under the surface, to an observer his arms were folding out into giant horrific black bat's wings, but to Jericho they had never looked so graceful. He couldn't use these to fly, but they would allow him to glide for a time. Once he hit the ground he would need to run, faster than he ever had before, the more room he could put between himself and the base the better. Once he found a safe place he could rest, let his wounds mend and most importantly eat, but for now he was finally free.
"Subject 24 has escaped." One of the quiet voices in the once manic base administration office squeaked out.
A stunned silence dragged on as everyone waited for the Base Commander to react, they were waiting for the explosion of rage he usually demonstrated when met with failure. The seconds stretched into minutes when the silence was broken with an oddly calm word from the Commander, who stood completely still, eyes locked on a monitor.
"Can you confirm Subject 24's Blight Countermeasures are active?"
"Ye... Yes, sir, the second Subject 24 left the base grounds the Blight protocol activated." A voice in the darkness hazard the answer.
"Good, good, send out a notice to All Seon bases, patrols and military outposts informing them that Subject 24 has escaped. Be sure to provide them with all our notes on the Subject with orders to kill him on sight." His eyes were still locked on the monitor.
"Sir... but the..." A nervous voice from one of the research leads whispered in the room.
Finally showing a hint of the rage the Commander was known for he snapped back "If it wasn't for you researcher’s and your compulsive need to horde we wouldn't be in this situation. I'm doing what you should have done to begin with and throwing out your toys."
The Commander turned and headed towards his office. "I've got a lot of work on my plate now, do not disturb me for anything, unless it’s a message from a General do you understand?"
No one in the room dared to voice agreement for fear of drawing the Commander's attention. Quickly the Commander was out of sight, with the slamming of a door, followed closely by a muffled scream.