Two men sat in a dark room with almost no light save for the hundreds of screens flickering in front of them. Dozens of rooms, cells, and corridors were displayed. Some were empty, some were filled with people, some appeared to have people in them at first glance, but a closer inspection revealed that they were far from human. Though, perhaps the most terrifying ones were the ones that seemed human, but who you would never know what they really were unless someone told you or if something very, very bad were to happen to you.
One of the guards was busy stuffing a sandwich into his mouth, not really paying attention, while the other was staring at the security feed in front of him, completely absorbed in his work. Something finally caught his attention. They were transporting something in. A C-7 transport vehicle was being brought in from the frigid wasteland outside. Imagine something in between a truck and a tank, and you’re not far off from a C-7. C-7s are not very fast or maneuverable so to protect themselves they have thick armor plating and a 125 mm turret. In the field they were usually escorted by soldiers, armored vehicles, and aircraft but in the relative safety of site H it was accompanied by only a handful of guards. They weren’t carrying food, water, or any other supplies, C-7s always meant that some new freak was being brought in.
“Hey Joe,” the attentive guard said without turning to face his coworker, his eyes never leaving the screens in front of him, “They’re bringing in something new.''
“So what?” Joe mumbled, talking through a mouth full of food, “They haven’t brought in anything interesting for months. It’s probably just some more werewolves or a guy that glows in the dark. Dave, this is the most boring and pointless job at Site H.”
“I prefer boring to dangerous, now if you’re not going to help me do our job, shut up so I can pay attention.”
The C-7 drove through one of the larger corridors built specifically for such vehicles to drive through. It stopped in front of one of the larger cells that was empty. This meant one of two things. Either whatever they were carrying was very large, which was unlikely since Site H dealt exclusively with humanoids, or that there were multiples of whatever it was transporting.
It took them a few minutes to unload the C-7, and their security measures were extensive for these new animals. Once the cage had been unloaded Dave could see that instead of iron bars every side was covered with a net of lasers. The floor of their cage was magnetically levitated above the ground and had numerous tears and claw marks. Assumably, there was another net of lasers underneath the floor to prevent them from escaping. They moved the cage into a bare steel room. Except for the fact that it was bigger than most cells, such a room was standard for new arrivals and was enough to keep in most creatures, though modifications would likely be made in order to meet the needs of these animals and to study them.
These new creatures were definitely humanoid, but even a blind man would be able to tell that these things were anything but human. Their heads and torsos were roughly the size of an adult male, but their arms and legs were each about two meters long. Their skin was pale, white as the snow outside, and it stretched tightly around their bones like a scared child tightly holding onto its mother’s arm. Their heads had no eyes, no ears, no hair, no nose, only a large mouth full of shark-like teeth. And at the end of each finger instead of a fingernail there was a small boney claw. They all had red blood stains on their hands and face.
There were nine of them in total, with eight of them pacing around their cell and growling at the world outside their cage. Occasionally one would jump back with a startled shriek if they accidentally got too close to the laser net that covered the cage. The ninth one was laying down motionless in the middle, either dead or asleep, but what really stood out about it was the fact that even though its head and torso was about the same size as the others, its arms and legs were easily twice as long.
Three scientists were arguing over something. They were obviously in the way of the guards and other workers yet none dared to disturb them as scientists were, as a class, at the top of the hierarchy of the on sight staff, with the exception of the site general. One was an older woman, the second was a young man; probably fresh out of the academy, and the third was a short middle aged man with a balding head. Out of curiosity, Dave decided to turn on the audio in that room to listen to what they were saying.
“No, no, no, our field data clearly proves that they have no concept of pain whatsoever,” the older woman said boldly as though her colleagues were little children believing in fairy tales.
“But look how they flinch away when they brush up against the edge of the cage,” the younger scientist said firmly with the same assurity of his stance as the old woman had on hers, “they most definitely do feel pain.”
“Perhaps the answer is more complicated than that,” jumped in the third scientist after waiting for an opening so that he would not interrupt, “pain exists to alert our brain that something is harmful. Maybe they receive that same alert as we do, but they either feel pain in a different way then we do or are highly resistant to it, thus providing an advantage in combat.”
While the scientists were busy having their debate, the large creature in the middle had moved from laying down to standing, though it had to crouch in order to avoid hitting its head on the ceiling, perhaps the reason why it had been laying down. Suddenly it jumped forward, passing through the net of lasers and landing in a pile at the scientists feet. Strange black liquid trickled from its wounds. All the guards had their weapons pointed at the creature.
“Well that was stupid”, said the young scientist.
Nobody else said anything. Something was clearly wrong, the lasers should have minced it into meaty little chunks but in spite of its wounds the creature was still in one piece. Seconds after it had performed this seemingly suicidal act the wounds started to close and the creature rose to its feet. As soon as it had started to move the guards opened fire on it. Chunks of flesh were torn off and sickly black blood splattered from dozens of soldiers firing on the thing, but it paid little mind as its wounds were rapidly healing even as it was being torn apart.
The old woman was the first to die. Both of its arms pierced through her stomach and it pulled outwards ripping her apart. It took a bite out of one half, and threw the other at the younger scientist with such force that he was knocked against the wall unconscious.
Now that there was the sound of screaming and gunfire, Joe’s attention was suddenly on the scene that was unfolding. He set off the alarm in that sector alerting the entire security force that something was wrong. Hopefully they would be able to contain the situation sooner rather than later, or at all for that matter.
The other creatures had followed the example of the bigger one and were now in a winning battle against the guards. The third scientist was frantically trying to run but the creature used its long arms to stab him through the back of the neck. The man choked on his own blood while trying to scream as the monster dragged him towards it. Pulling the doomed man to its face the monster opened its mouth wide and with one bite it consumed his entire head. The man’s headless corpse dropped to the ground as the monster then turned to join the battle against the guards.
It was an absolute blood bath. Their claws shredded apart the soldiers leaving behind a trail of blood like scarlet ribbon. The C-7’s turret fired on the monsters and managed to take out two of the things before one of them jumped on top of it and tore it apart. Whatever these things were, metal didn’t seem to be much of a problem for them. Nor did death for that matter, as the two that had been hit with the C-7’s cannon were starting to get up.
They were starting to break through the guards defenses and spread throughout the base, but the big one stayed in the room. It walked over to the scientist that had been knocked into the wall. It stabbed him in the leg and the pain caused him to wake up. The monster grabbed the young scientist by the head and dragged him towards the cage. The man desperately struggled and begged for mercy in the native tongue of whatever country he was from. In front of the network of lasers the creature lifted him in the air, turned him to face the cage, and pulled him back. The man screamed out one last plea for mercy as the thing slammed his face into the lasers, silencing him forever.
The strange creature then just sat there for a minute, staring into the warm glow of its former prison. After a minute of silence it let out a cry of shrill laughter.
“Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, ha ha ha!”
“Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, ha ha ha!”
“Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, ha ha ha!”
All of a sudden it stood up. The thing slowly turned its head towards the security camera. The creature tilted its head and its smile reached from ear to ear. Or at least it would have, if the thing had any ears. It suddenly bolted off into the hallway paying little attention to the guards it trampled as it moved quickly through the base. Because of its long yet thin limbs it didn’t really run, rather it awkwardly used its arms to grab the walls and drag its body along while its legs pushed against the walls, floor, and sometimes the guards to propel it forward. Dave looked at the path that the creature was taking only to confirm what he already knew.
“It’s headed for-”
The monster suddenly burst into the security room with such speed that it was unable to stop itself and crashed into the wall. Because of the shock of what was going one the two security guards had forgotten to lock down the entrance to the security room. Joe pulled out his pistol and opened fire on the monster, but it ignored the bullets and lunged at him after regaining its composer. Dave used this as an opportunity to rush out of the security room and run for the nearest safe room hoping that they hadn’t locked the door yet.
He had almost made it halfway to the safe room when he felt a sharp pain in his right leg and fell to the ground. He tried to stand but his right leg just above the knee had been entirely torn off. He did his best to ignore the pain and used what was left of his strength to turn on his back and face his assailant. The monster loomed over him with a big toothy grin. It was crouching so that it could fit its freakishly long limbs into the hallway, and blood dripped from its smiling mouth onto the face of the doomed guard.
“Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee, ha ha ha!”
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