Chapter 16 - Welcome To The Jungle
The teleportation spell hits my chest, my stomach felt like it was full of butterflies flew carelessly throughout me as a warm fuzzy feeling traveled through my body. I feel weightless as my vision goes dark, last thing I see is a worried look on Luna’s face as my world escapes from me.
My vision comes back to me quickly as I see a continent below slowly growing bigger by the second. My eyes go wide as I was free falling from the sky and plummeting to my doom. I look around me and I can see the bright blue sky for ever expanding across the horizon, big puffy clouds hang in the air like they didn’t have a single care in this world. The warm sun beating the back of my falling body, the warmth from the sun gently licked my body as I fell. The wind brutally beats against me as I fell faster and faster towards my inevitable death.
My mind started to race as I realize that I didn’t have a plan B: no parachute, no spell, nothing; I was royally fucked here. I close my eyes retreating to the darkness.
- - -
“Faster and faster we fall, when we stop only the ground will tell! HAAHAHAA!” Friend laughs hysterically as I was helpless to do anything.
“My Mistress did warn you that her magic could backfire, and it looks like she was right...” Fade’s cold words chilling the air in the darkness.
“Yeah, but I wasn't expecting to fall to my death! Hell if anything I was expecting to be sent to the moon!” I yell out in the darkness as Friend continues to laugh madly.
“This is fantastic lad! Being lead to your death and not being able to do anything about it! What fun!” Friend started to say as he starts to dance inside my mind.
“Friend... You do know if Subject 27 dies, you die?” Fade stating out the obvious as she facepalms.
Friend stops dancing and drops his skull cane, it bounces off the black floor and echos out, his face now has a even bigger grin.
“You have a fabulous point there lass! Oh what fun this is! We fall to our doom and there's not a single damn thing we can do!” Friend’s cane quickly stands on end, sitting perfectly still as he places his hand on it.
“Friend... Why does Subject 27’s death bring you such joy? Isn't he your friend? And don’t you want to keep on living?!” Fade glides to my side, wrapping her icy arms around me, hugging me from the side.
“Because lass! Death is such a fun thing to experience in life! Like eating icecream on a frozen day in hell! Or was that singing to turtles while they mated? I can’t remember.” Friend twirls his skull cane in one hand and scratches the top of his head with the other.
“S-Subject 27... Friend is truly mad, isn't he?” Fade rests her chin on my shoulder, whispering in my ear.
“You’ll get use to it Fade.” I let out a sigh as I just stand there in the darkness.
Friend throne erupts from the black floor, he sets down as he lets go of his cane and it still keeps on spinning in the nothingness.
“Sorry lass, there’s nothing you or I can do to save our good friend here. Only he can save himself, if he dies he dies; I had a hell of a good ride while it lasted.” Friend snaps his finger, his cane implodes and my arms started to twitch.
I raise both my arms up and simply just watch as they spasmed, my fingers started to bend in unnatural ways, letting out a bone shattering cracks. I turn my arms over and watch as the vein started to appear, but this time it wasn't red, but black. I look up at friend as he leans forward in his throne with an even bigger grin now plastered on his face.
“You know what you’re supposed to do lad, but remember though, there’s still a cost to using my power, your little Cloud isn't here with us so why not have some fun?.” He snaps his fingers one more time, kicking me out of the darkness and back to reality.
- - -
I opened my eyes, the continent was now much closer than before, below me I can see what appears to me a small flock of rather large birds flying towards my path. My arms still spasmed as the new blackened vein starts to morph my arms into new misshapen limbs.
My claws become jagged as teeth start to grow from them, the muscle mass in my arms increase slightly in size as the black scales erupt from my skin, covering my arms quickly. Four spikes grew near my wrist; two on each side, and one on top and bottom of each arm; Each one only a few inches long, all of them curved slightly, the points facing outwards. Another spike grew out from my elbow, only sticking out a few inches as well.
I finally reach terminal velocity as I fall towards the ground. The small flock of the large birds became bigger in size the closer I got to them, then I saw them for what they were; They weren't large birds, but gryphons. Sure why not, if this crazy world can have talking ponies and why not gryphons too? But there was one tiny problem though, if they kept on flying in this direction, I will inevitably collide with one and probably kill it at this speed.
“GET OUT OF THE WAY!” I yell at the unsuspecting gryphons, catching their attention as my body slams into one.
We both tumble down to the world below as the gryphon desperately tries to regain control, the other four gryphons start to dive down at us, they try their best to grab their falling friend but only fail as we continue to fall.
“Guys help me! I think my wing is broken!” Her voice cries out in pain as she tries stabilize herself.
“We’re coming S.K!” One of the gryphon yells out to the nosediving gryphon next to me.
One of her friends was able to grab ahold of her and slow her descent enough before they both fell to their deaths like I already was. We’re near the canopy of the tree tops as I reach both my arms out trying to grab onto something as I break through the sea of leaves. I see a massive tree trunk next to me as I fall, I sink my claws deep into it trying to slow myself down; The vein in right arm starts to wind itself up, creating a great deal of pressure as it coils up near my elbow, forcing the spike to increase in size as it moves outwards.
My jagged claws ripping through the trunk of this massive tree with the utmost of ease, like it was made out of paper; Large splinters shot outwards at me the more my claws dug into the tree. The vein stops compressing itself and release the pressure that it was creating, causing the spike like elbow to shoot in my arm in the blink of an eye; The four spikes around my wrist shot into the tree like they were pylons.
I was still rapidly descending to the ground below at critical speeds, I take my left arm and sink it into the tree, my claws causes the top of the tree to shatter and fall towards me. I push myself off from the tree, hoping I can reach another tree to slow myself down as well as dodge the falling tree.
I was able to grab a nearby tree and I sink my claws into it as my veins start to coil themselves up to shoot the spike like pylons once more. Splinters shoot past me, cutting my face and my shirt up as my claws dug deeper into the tree. The falling tree snags itself on the nearby trees, stopping itself from falling to the ground and possibly crushing me in the process. My speed decreases a little more before a large branch hits my underarms, knocking my grip loose from the tree.
I lost control as I fell, unable to stabilize myself in time before my body slams into the floor of the jungle, creating a small crater. The impact kicking up massive amounts of dust and other small things as it knocks the air out of me, causing me to pass out.
- - -
I come to inside a small private aircraft. We’re on the tarmac of a small airport in the middle of nowhere. I was just debriefed on my next mission that Ice’s ‘friends’ contacted me to complete. This time I wasn't here for another mark but merely a recovery mission. I was to go into an old abandoned military bunker that was shutdown after the second Cold War.
The debriefing didn’t specify why it was shut down, just when. The man who handed me folder was talking about his time in the second Cold War and how quickly it ended.
“Yeah, I heard the reason why the war ended so quickly was because Artyom Volkov was assassinated by a non-governmental contracted team.”
“What clearance do you have, soldier?” I turn to him, asking him this question.
“Sir?” The soldier sounds a little uneasy after hearing me ask this in a monotone voice.
“At ease, soldier. Now, what security clearance do you have?”
“Sir, my security clearance is Delta ranking sublevel White, why sir?” He now has a even more puzzled look on his face.
“Delta White, what I’m about to tell you is highly classified; You barely make the clearance. There was no team sent to kill him, just me.” I said this as disbelief and surprise fills his face as I exit the small private plane.
As I set foot onto the runway my back flares up with pain, my vision goes blurry as I’m snapped back to reality.
- - -
I wake up in the creator that I had created. My head was throbbing like never before, my back felt like someone hit me with a freighter. My mind started to spin, like I was on a merry-go-round. The sounds of wildlife filled the air. I try to move but my body won't respond to any commands, I’m only able to lift my head and barely able to look around.
Small blue flowers filled the creator that I created, their sweet aroma filled the air around me as I grunt in pain. The more of their pollen I breathe in the more my head spins, faster and faster it goes, when it stops, nobody knows! I black out once more as the pollen overwhelms me.
- - -
I come to standing outside what appeared to be a rusted metal door leading down to a old bomb shelter. I grab the cold metal wheel and start to turn it, screeching a little as it slowly turns. It slowly opens and I step in, the light from outside illuminates the staircase leading downwards.
I walk down the old cement staircase, my boots echoing off the steps with each one I walk take. I reach the bottom of the stairs and I began to open another door, the gears weren't as rusted as the first door, but still a little difficult to open. The hinges scream as I pull open the large steel door, I step into the bunker and I was bombarded by the odor of mildew.
I turn on my flashlight and run it down the dark hallway, several doors and other hallways branched off from this one. I walk down the main part of the dark hallway while my flashlight illuminates most of it. Water stains covered the walls as as my I look up to see metal pipes with light bulbs coming off of them. I was sent here to retrieve some data and to find out as much as I could about this place.
I take the first hallway to my left, it has a flight of stairs leading downwards, I walk down the stairs and made my way to the second level; The air felt cool and stale in this bunker as I made my way through it. I was given very little detail for this contract. The debriefing I was given was to collect the data and see if I can find out anything about this bunker or why it was closed after the second Cold War.
The war ended quickly, only lasting for roughly two years, Russia’s ruler Artyom Volkov was brought to his end by my hands. It was U.K. and U.S. trying to stop Artyom from finishing his race to create his prototype limited range micro-black hole bomb. The leaders of China and Germany had been fully backing Artyom Volkov and his plans.
Germany had to evacuate this research bunker and stop all their experiments because the front lines were far past Hamburg. Denmark surrendered to the U.K. forces only a few months after the war started; We didn’t find this bunker until after the war ended. Germany tried several times to retake what the U.K. took but only failed. My ‘employers’ recently found enough information about this bunker to find it. They believe that whatever research they did down here was mainly towards Black Hole technology.
I come across something that piqued my interest, it was a map that hanging on the wall; A red dot sits on it showing me where I was in the bunker. I study the map carefully as I drag my left index finger across it trying to find the generator room, after looking for it for about two minutes I find it; The generator room is on the fourth floor of the bunker, I study the map a little longer to find the easiest route to it.
As I back away from the map it feels like something or someone ran there frozen finger down my spine, causing goosebumps to cover my skin. I quickly turn around only to see just a concrete wall covered in water stains. My eyes start to rapidly scan the area trying to find a logical reason for this strange event, but still only nothing in the hallway but me. I shake the feeling off and I walk down the hallway to the staircase leading downwards.
I make my way onto the third floor, and something felt off, the air felt heavier than before; And the air was noticeably colder than the other two floors. I shine my light throughout the dark hallway. My light drags across a split in the hallway, revealing something that I didn’t notice till my light was off it; I quickly bring back to the spot where I thought I saw something but nothing was there. I ignore this illusion that my mind is obviously playing tricks on me and I continue on with my contract.
I felt a little uneasy in this place. Something was very off in here and I wanted to get to the bottom of this. I continue down the dark hallway, I walk past a room and stop and look into it. There were rather large tubes at the back of the room; A massive computer was hooked up to the four tubes. I inspect the room, just a couple filing cabinets and a few desks. The computer looked like it hadn't been touched in ages. I inspect the computer further and see a keyboard with layers of dust resting upon it. Without any power in this bunker I couldn't do anything in here yet. There’s a audio tape setting on the computer itself, my curiosity takes the best me and I plug my PDA into it and download the file in only a few seconds, I plug in my headphones and hit play on the audio file.
“Entry one, September 3rd of 2009, test subjects one through four are failures; No surprise there. There's a new rookie who joined in our little experiments and guess who gets to train her, lucky ol’ me.”
“Entry two, September 10th of 2009, the new rookie did something that, to the surprise of no one, got me in trouble. She mixed up the blood samples from the new batch with the corrupted samples, which caused a setback of nearly a month's-worth of work.”
“Entry three, September 15th of 2009, the rookie was exposed to some corrupted tissue samples; She didn’t fully check her safety gear before entering a testing zone, her suit wasn't fully sealed and the mutated virus we’ve been creating seeped into her suit and infected her.”
“Entry four, September 21st of 2009, we’ve been keeping a close eye on our new ‘guinea pig’. The virus seems to take a different course than we expected and mutate the rookie’s body into some new, well keep on testing her the further she mutates.”
“Entry five, September 30th of 2009, we have to lock down the third floor. Test Subject Horror escaped from her restraints, she has been ripping through the guards like they were made of nothing. We’re locked ourselves in the birthing tube room. Subject Horror is a remarkable discovery for us. She is everything and more than what we hoped for, she is a beautiful killing machine, she leaves not a single scrap left of her pray after she is done with them.”
Some of the entries were corrupted, either due to damage from what ever Test Subject Horror was, or just faulty or damaged parts of the audio device. I was only able to get the first five entries that was recorded on this device, hopefully I can find more audio files in this bunker. What ever experiments they’ve been doing while down here now has my full attention. I want to find every single little secret they been doing down here and find out what caused the scientist to evacuate the bunker before concluding their research.
I take a closer look at the tubes, each one filled with some sort of liquid that seemed to turn green. Some kind of algae covered the tanks, leaving green blotches on them. I place my hand against the tank and lean in close trying to see through the green liquid that filled the tanks, only able to see small bits of unknown chunks floating in the large tubes. My breath starts to fog up the glass as I lean in closer, something about these test tubes seems unnatural; My nose only a few inches away from the tank until a claw like hand slams against the glass. Causing me to jump back and quickly and draw my pistol, aiming it at claw in the tube that slowly disappears back into the green unknown inside the testing tube.
I stand there breathing heavily as my aim stays steady at the tube, I regain control of my breathing and start to calm down as my heart returns back to its normal rate. I slowly return my pistol to its hostler as I stand only few feet away from the unknown life form inside the test tubes.
“Note to self, destroy whatever is in these tubes before leaving.” I turn around and leave this room and make my way towards the forth floor.
I make my way towards the last flight of stairs, I reach the top of the staircase and felt light headed, I brace myself against the wall as the air became harder and harder to breath. My vision starts to blur as I try to make my way down the staircase, only a few steps down and I’m nearly choking on the thick air. I lose my footing and start to tumble down the concrete staircase.
My ass bounces off each step as I desperately try to grab onto something to stop my decent, my head hits one of the steps as I come to a stop at the bottom of the stairs; The back of my head starts to burn with pain as I lay on the cold concrete floor of the bunker. The cold air was still hard to breath, I slowly start to get to my feet as my head still burns with pain. I pick my flashlight up off the ground as I slowly made my way to my feet.
I look down the hallway as I prop myself up against the wall of the bunker, my vision is now a little fuzzy around the edges. I walk down the hallway towards the generator room, each step took more effort than it should have. The stop as I hear whispers and murmurs start to come from down the dark hallway. The murmurs sounded like someone or something was speaking gibberish, the whispering sounded like someone was whispering enchantments.
The murmurs slowly became louder as I stand there, my heart started to race with each second the murmurs became clearer. I can’t make out what they’re saying, they sounded so foreign but yet so familiar. I stand there just listening to them, my mind became flooded as the murmurs penetrated it. My feet started to move without me commanding them too, I turned away from the hallway that lead to the generator room and down a different one.
The whispers still keep on saying their enchantments as they lead me further down into the unknown. I can’t break the trance that the murmurs put me under, like if they were playing off of my curiosity. I slowly walk into the dark unknown, my heart started to beat faster as the murmurs became clearer and clearer. My flashlight flickers off as the murmuring comes to a stop, I come back to my senses as the murmur’s grasp around my mind loosens and lets go of me.
I merely just stand there as my heart rate increases with each second, I turn around to only see darkness, my eyes still trying to adjust to the dark. I start to walk aimlessly in the pitch black hallway, hoping I don’t bump into any of the walls. The whispers come to a stop as a feel a sharp pain drive itself deep into my chest, causing me to scream in pain as I drop my flashlight. It clatters against the ground as I grasp my chest.
As the pain spreads throughout my body by the second, something in my mind feels like it was ripped out by force. I drop to my knees as I scream in pain. The pain in my head is unbearable, feels like someone shoved a knife deep into my head and started to twist it. My screams of anguish echo off the walls. I kneeled there as the pain in my chest starts to fade, the brutally sharp pain in my head still burns hot. I don’t know what caused this but it feels like something very important was just stolen from me.
The sharp searing pain starts to dull. I can’t place anything together that might’ve caused this. Perhaps it was me just hitting my head against the stairs when I fell. There’s a giant black spot when I try to think of what might of been stolen from me; whatever I do I just can’t think of a single damn thing that could’ve been taken from me.
I get back to my feet after the pain finally starts to subside, my vision now fully adjusted to the dark. I’m only able to see a few feet but that’s better than not seeing anything at all. I slowly turn around to see where I was. I start to walk and my foot hits my flashlight, I bend over and pick it up; I click the switch to turn it on and was relieved to see it was still working.
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Editor
frieD195