//------------------------------//
// Armed To The Teeth 
// Story: Subject 27 
// by Phyrexian 
//------------------------------//

						Chapter 17 - Armed To The Teeth

        My light flickers with life as I hit the switch, the light floods the room that the murmurs lead me to. I slowly rotate as I scan the room I was in, I come to a stop as I find a skeleton propped up against the wall: I inspect it further and nearly fell over in shock to see its misshapen skeletal anatomy. 

        The body barely resembled a human’s, the bone structure looked like it had mutated rapidly; Whatever changed this poor soul’s body looked to be extremely aggressive, there is a lot of scarring around the mutated bones, probably caused by the new expansions to its anatomy. Its raw jutted out from its mouth, its teeth looked like they all been sharpened into canines, almost like if it was animalistic.

        The ribs seemed like they had doubled in size, as if they reinforced themselves to protect its major organs. The fingers melded together to create claws, there was no hand, just some large talons instead; The claws nearly four inches long. I look behind it and see that its spine mutated with spike-like protrusions sticking out from it. Its feet turned into talons as well, whatever caused such an aggressive mutation couldn’t be good.

        I take out my PDA and type in the main passcode and click on pictures folder, another passcode was required to access this folder. I type in ‘Eixirt’ and the folder unlocks itself for me, I click on one of the subfolders marked as ‘Research’; I aim my PDA at the skeletal remains of what I hope is Test Subject Horror and take a few pictures of it, documenting its features. I slip my PDA back into my pocket and head out the room and back into the hallway.

        I walk past a closed door that piqued my interest, I turn around to inspect it further, the door looked like it was made out of steel like the previous ones. I place my flashlight in my mouth as I go to grasp the wheel on the door, its hinges whine as I push the heavy door open. I step inside and find smaller test tubes and beakers next to another large computer with a audio device resting on it, I do a quick glance over the room and see several large metal vats at the far end of the room.

        I take my headset out and plug my PDA into the device and download its files, I’m only able to salvage a few of the audio clips, this device was badly damaged and I’m surprised to see it’s even operational.

        “Entry one, September 4th of 2009, I heard section three got a new recruit, hopefully she’ll turns out better than the last one. But on a personal note though, I wouldn't mind having a go at her myself, some fresh meat could do me some good, heh.”

        “Entry four, September 8th of 2009, we had to scrap the last test, director said there’s no need for a cure for the virus that section three has been making, I took the liberty of placing our only finished vial in the safe, just incase I need to use it as leverage. I’ll like to end this on a good personal note though, I’ve seen the new recruit that section three has, damn I would love to hit that, lucky bastards.”

        “Entry six, September 12th of 2009, our new experiment has been going swimmingly, I have rather high hopes for it. Test Subjects one through four have shown increased brain activity in the Temporal Lobe, causing them to severely hallucinate, Subject one and two both ended up being driven to insanity, subject three testing came to an end as he bashed his head in against a wall, and subject four had to be restrained after she started to chew through her arms like a rabid animal. Oh, before I forget, one little personal note I like to add in is this, the new recruit and I became ‘acquainted’ in supply closet last night, all I can say is this; Dibs.”

        “Entry nine, September 20th of 2009, our new experiment has been showing nothing but great results with every test subject we introduce it to. We had a rather ‘interesting’ result, Test Subject Thirteen started to experience a rather dramatic change in personality: He’s been quite talkative about his mission, he has been going into rather deep detail on mission that he’s been assigned to. He has also mention a few times about having a brother, not much detail about his ‘brother’ but when he does talk about him he only says that he wants revenge for what he did. On a personal note though, Ash the recruit was ‘exposed’ to the virus her section has been working on... I don’t know how to feel about this but I have to see her one last time.”

        “Entry thirteen, September 27th of 2009, our little golden goose, known as Test Subject Thirteen somehow escaped. I don’t know how but some heads are going to roll when the director finds out, hopefully it’s not mine. But our experiment has been fully tested and is ready for mass production, documented side effects include: Hallucinations, suicidal urges, aggressiveness towards others, and some rare cases Death; Side effects aren't permanent but tend to last for roughly thirty minutes. Personal note, I was able to see Ash one last time before they started testing on her... I’m glad that I was able to see her one last time... But I have just the strangest feeling though, like something is crawling around underneath my skin.”

        “Entry fifteen, September 30th of 2009, they had to seal off section three from the rest of the bunker, leaving us to die, fucking bastards. Their little experiment went on a rampage and started to kill everyone on that floor, that’s my girl, give them hell! My body has started to mutate into something different... I don’t know what might have caused this but it could’ve been Ash... The virus might transferable via bodily fluids, hopefully it’s not airborne. If I’m going to die I’m going to take every single fucker down with me, I’m going to release my project into the third and fourth floor, see you all in hell.” The audio cuts off and I put my PDA and headset back into my pockets and made my way over to the safe.

        I kneel down at the safe that was in the corner, quite a simple locking system it had, should only take me a few tries to crack it. I set there and started to think about the audio I just listen to, seeing if I could find the combination that he used for his personal safe. A idea came to mind as I thought over what I just listen to, 12-13-27. I hear a click after turning the wheel on the safe and I opened it. There was the vial he spoke of and a few folders, I grabbed the vial and opened the folders and took pictures of each document that was in them with my PDA. I put the folders back into the safe and spun the wheel after closing the safe. I get up and leave to room.

        I continue to walk down the hallway, I come to the split and look down each one trying to get my bearings. To my right was the staircase I had fallen down, in front of me was a smaller hallway with a closed security door and to my left was another small hallway which leads to the generator room. I take the left hallway and started to head towards the generator room. As I near the door I see it’s slightly ajar, a skeleton arm hangs out from the ajar door. When I reach the I notice arm had a talon-like hand sticking out from underneath the door, I open pull the door and a Horror skeleton comes clattering to the floor next to my feet.

        I step over the skeletal remains of the horror and into the generator room, I spot the controls and made my way over to them quickly. I reach the terminal and started to analyze it, I see a port where I can plug my PDA in it and started to download its schematics. The schematics were all in German... My German skills were a bit rusty, thank god for the auto-translation app. The schematic was translated quickly and I started to go to work.

        The generators was something I haven't seen before, they’re Plasmid based. I dig deeper into the details about the Plasmid Generators, I find out only little about these generators, that they were a prototype made by Chinese. So, the Chinese been running their prototypes on the Germans? I let out a small chuckle after realizing this. I found out how to kick start the generators, I press only a few buttons before I press a big red button, I hope for the best as I wait a few seconds before the generators start to breath new life again into the bunker.

        Lights flicker on and emit a soft yellow glow as they hum with new life, the terminal lights up like Christmas tree, the air vents start to pump in recycled air; I look up at the vents as they starts to work once more and unknown to me a faint pink mist oozed out of the air vents with the recycled air.

        I look over the terminal and see the power levels are holding stable, I take a deep breath as the generators didn’t just simply blow up and taking me out with probably most of Germany. I leave the generator room and made my way towards the crossway, I feel a little light headed as my vision goes purple for a brief second. I come to a dead stop as I rapidly blink my eyes, trying to figure what the hell would happened, I shake the feeling and continue down the hallway. I make it to the crossroads and turn down the hallway leading to the security door, only a few feet in and my vision goes purple again; This time not fading away.

        I stop again as everything now is a shade of purple, I stand there for a about a minute blinking rapidly trying to get my vision to go back to normal, then the voices started. I turn around and see people walking about the purple hallway, I just stand there extremely confused as what the hell is going on, one of the people walked past me and I get a better look at her and who she was hit me like a sack of bricks. She wasn't just anyone, but she was one of my marks, every single person here was one of my marks...

        I stand there paralyzed by a mixture of fear and disbelief as I see every single mark I was given or just anyone I killed was now walking again. One of the marks walks through me, it felt like a cold slimy body just walked through my very soul, I snap out of my paralyzed trance. I walk back to the crossroads and see more of them just walking about, I turn around and saw someone that I wish I haven't seen. There she was, walking around like nothing happened, as if I never stolen her soul from her... It was my mother...

        “M-Mom? I-Is that really you? H-How is this even possible?!” And then I saw my sister walking right next to her.

        “S-Sis? W-What the fuck is going on here! I-I k-killed both of you! H-How can you two be alive and walking around?!” I yelled at them as a tear ran down my face.

        The voices became louder as more and more souls that I stole came flooding back to me, I started to walk towards my mother and sister, stumbling every few steps. As I reach them my mother turned and looked me in the eyes, she just stood there with a blank expression on her face, her stare felt like it was burning a hole through me.

        “H-How is this even fucking possible?! I killed you both with my bare hands! I watch your eyes as life escaped from them!” Trying my best not to lose my grip on my sanity.

        “Why? Why would you kill your own mother and sister?” Her words shattered my world.

        “Why would you kill your own sis, baby brother?” My sister had the same blank look on her face as her words shattered the tiny fragments of my already shattered world.

        “I... I... I DIDN'T! It’s not my FAULT!” My gears in the back of my head slowly come to a stop.

        “You did, you killed us both in cold blood, why?” My mom just staring at me, not even flinching after any of her words.

        “Why you kill me, boy? I was good to you!” T-That voice... I-It can’t be...

        I turn around and see him standing right behind me.. It was my boogeyman standing right behind me..

        “Well boy? Why did you kill me, I took you and your mother and sister into my home, treated you like family and this is the thanks I get?!” It was my first kill, the first blood I spelt, the first soul I harvested...

        “H-How can you all be standing here right in front of me?! TELL ME!”

        “Answer me boy, why did you kill me? Don’t make me go fetch my belt!” After he said this I lose my grip on my unstable reality, I slowly fell into madness.

        “I-I’m sorry Keith! P-Please don’t hurt me again, I’M SORRY!” I fell to my knees, tears now fully flowing from my eyes.

        “Sweety, it’s okay, mommy is here to protect you.”

        “P-Protect me? PROTECT ME?! You were never FUCKING THERE! Did you not see the fucking bruises Keith inflicted on ME?! NO! You just sat there and fucking WATCHED as this fucker beat me every single goddamn NIGHT! And now you want to FUCKING PROTECT ME?!” I stand back up, yelling as loud as I possibly could at this.. This... Thing.

        “Don’t yell at your mother, boy!”

        “Or WHAT?! You’ll beat me again? Is that it?! Is that all you fucking got you son of a WHORE!? Beating a little fucking kid to DEATH?! Oh yeah you’re a big man aren't you!? ‘Oh I can beat a kid and feel good about myself!’, well FUCK YOU!” After yelling that, my heart pounded in my chest like never before, yelling at Keith like this was unbelievable.

        I stand there feeling good about myself after screaming at these imposters, his mouth starts to open but before he could say anything a sharp searing pain makes itself home on the base my of shoulder, right above my left collar bone. My vision comes back to normal and what I see my mind can’t even comprehend what is latching onto my shoulder. It was some sort of misshapen thing biting trying to gnaw off my left shoulder as it wraps its talons around me, gripping my sides to prevent me from escaping. I scream out in pain as my mind finally puts two and two together, I quickly grab my combat knife with my right hand and drive it deep into its neck.

        The knife only causes it to bite down harder as blood flowed freely from its mouth, I quickly pull the knife out and let out another scream of pain as its teeth dig deeper into me. I slam the knife down onto the back of its head over and over again until its body goes limp and falls to the floor. I don’t know what I’m even doing as I stand over its dead body screaming at it as I stabbed it repeatedly. I hear a blood curdling roar echo off the walls, snapping out of my rage-induced tantrum.

        I quickly stand up and run down the hallway towards the security door, there’s a small terminal on the wall next to the door; I grab my PDA out of my pocket and plug it into the computer as blood runs down my left arm. I wipe off the blood and started to frantically try to hack this door open, after the second failed attempt I bang my hand against the metal door as whatever had roared before decided to let out another one; Causing a chill to run down my spine.

        I turn my head around to see a shadow lurking around the corner, I quickly snap it back and focus on hacking this damn door. On the finally try I guess the passcode, it was ‘Ash’; I felt extremely stupid and wanted to bang my head against the wall for not trying this in the first place. The door slides open as a hear another roar coming further down the hallway behind me. I step inside to see the monster charging down the hallway, dragging its talons against the walls, as its talons dragged across the wall it sounded like a rusty nail being scraped against a black board. I quickly ordered the computer to close the door as it was only a few feet away from me.

        My heart was pounding even faster now as I tried to catch my breath, I didn’t realise I was holding it until now. I turn around to see what room I just fled to, my eyes went wide as they lay on a metal cage, housing all different kinds of weapons. I can still feel my warm blood slowly ooze out of my new flesh wound and run down my arm as it drips off my fingers to the floor. I cut off my left sleeve of my jacket to reveal my wound.

        I tied my sleeve around my shoulder the best I could to try to prevent some blood loss, I made my way over to the cage and plugged my PDA into the computerized lock on it, I guess the code on the first try, it was 1-2-3-4...

        “Really? Who the fuck makes a code for a fucking weapons cage 1234? You gotta be kidding me!” I laugh to myself as the tower opens.

        I walked into the cage and I felt like I was teenager in a porno shop, I could barely control myself as I let out a squeal of joy as I jump up in the air clicking my heels together. There were all kinds of different guns in here, all different shapes and sizes. I notice at my feet there was some Dragon Scale body armor laying on the ground, I don’t know how well it will do against talons and teeth, but it’s better than nothing. I put on the Dragon Scale armor and two Desert Eagle pistols and holster them, one on each leg, I grab a Striker Shotgun with extended magazines.

        I’m better at hand to hand combat than I am with firearms larger than pistols, but if this lab is filled with those Horrors then I need all the help I can get. I step out of the cage and walked towards the door, I put my neck before I open the door. There stands one of the horrors on the other side of the door. It starts to open its mouth to roar as it lunges at me with its talons. I raise my Striker in the air and pulled the trigger back tight, two shots ring out from the barrel as they impact its skull point blank range causing its head to erupted with a black mist.

        “BOOM, HEADSHOT!” I smile a little bit as I watch its head explode with a beautiful black mist.

Credits

Editor

frieD195