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Part 7 – The Hoard

Splat...

"Where is it coming from?"

Splat...

"I... I can't tell..."

Splat...

"You're the one that's supposed to have the better senses."

Splat...

"Do you really have to needle me at a time like this?"

Splat...

"There!" Jordan called out and everyone turned to face what was making the noise. Exposing the thing to the light of their rifles.

The splat noise was the footfalls of a strange blue creature that sauntered into their lights, wet feet that slapped against the dry floor. The thing was roughly humanoid in shape; long, thin arms and legs attached to a hunched up body. It's the skeletal structure was just barely visible under a blue membrane like skin that looked slimy to the touch. The most striking thing was that the thing's skull was visible, almost human in shape. It was about then when the creature's odor hit the small group.

Kasey had to turn as the impulse to puke hit her, coughing as the smell grew stronger. Jordan and Dusine had to cover their nose with their sleeves as they fought the urge to join Kasey in keeping down their last meal. Kleo and Minuet were the only two who seemed the most unaffected as they stared down the creature.

Jordan regained its composure enough to aim his pistol at it before calling out to it. "HEY!" He shouted at it. "Who are you? Identify yourself!"

The thing turned its head slowly, as if noticing the group for the first time. Two glossy black pools that was sunk back into its head looked right back at them. The jaw open wide as it released a hissing screech as it slowly turned and charged the group, moving now at a run.

"Stop!" Jordan yelled as he fired a round at it. The shot hit the thing in the shoulder, but it did nothing to denature the creature's charge. Jordan cursed as he pulled the trigger again, missing the creature by a hair's breath. A second shot, this time from a pulse rifle sailed into the creature's head and turned it into a splatter of gore. "Fuck!" Jordan turned just as Kleo dropped his rifle down. The wolf face was twisted as he fought with his own urge of keeping down the food he had before.

"I don't know what that thing was." Kleo stated as he looked at the fallen corpse. "But that creature wasn't going to stop by you telling it to."

Jordan frowned before he sighed. "You're right. Thanks Kleo." Kleo just nodded in reply.

"What is it?" Kasey as she approached it, rifle ready to put another blast into it.

"Unknown..." Dusine said as she approached the Cadaver with some hesitation. She knelt down next to it and started to have her bracer computer scan the body. The membrane like skin started to turn a shade of purple as it was affected by the scanner. "Huh..."

"Is that a good 'Huh' or a bad 'Huh'?" Jordan asked as he backed up, scanning the rest of the room in case anything else showed up.

Dusine frowned as she looked at her display. "A confused 'Huh'. I can barely read it at this close range, almost like it has some kind of chameleon like effect with our equipment."

"Probably why we didn't detect it with the Runabout's bio-scanners."

"Right..."

"There's more, isn't there..." Kasey stated as she looked on.

"Yeah... Most of the DNA has been altered." The feline said as she stood back up. "But from what I can tell, this... Thing... Used to be human."

"WHAT!?!"

"According to this computer," Dusine said as she turned away from the creature's body. "Eighty percent of this... Host body has been converted from its base DNA sequence by an unknown organism."

"Fuck..." Most everyone's thoughts mirrored Kasey's blurted curse.

This revelation shook Jordan to his core. To him, things were starting to become well beyond what he thought was their abilities. He looked at everyone who mirrored his grim expression, and that was when he noticed that Min was still looking out into the darkness. Walking over he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"There's more..." The mouse said absentmindedly. "We're still being hunted..."

There was a hissing howl that came out of the darkness and echoed off the walls. Jordan grabbed Min's arm and everyone moved into a defensive circle again.

Splat... Splat... Splat...

They could hear the wet foot falls of the mutated creatures all around them. Kleo's and Dusine's ears tried to dial in to the location of where they were coming from again, but the large empty corridor made it hard to tune into the location as the eerie wet steps echoed around the promenade. Both Kleo and Kasey swept their rifles around, doing their best to light up the area with the small flashlights. Dusine and Jordan held their pistols at the ready as the noise drew ever closer.

"There!" Minuet shouted as she pointed past Jordan's arm. All four armed individuals focused their aim to where the Mauluse was pointing.

Slowly the mutant meandered out from behind a kiosk. The thing was the same as the first one that had charged them. A visible humanoid skeletal structure that was wrapped in a bluish translucent membrane with a murky darkness where its organs were. Soon, that one was joined by a second one. The second one must have been more recently infected, as the mutant still had more distinguishable humanoid features. Its skin still had its tawny pink skin, but it looked much like someone had tried to melt a doll with the way it's skin sagged; and while it still had some hair, there were several clumps missing off the top of its head. A moan drew their attention to the other direction. Thee more walked into the light of the group.

"Val-ruah..." Kleo muttered as he swung his rifle back to the first two only to find that their numbers had more than tripled. "We're starting to get surrounded. What do we do, boss?"

"Uh..." Jordan stood there wide eyed and frozen. It was like they were suddenly thrusted into a horror game and they were starting to get outnumbered and surrounded. "Stay Back!" He shouted at the mutants. "STOP!"

"Fuck this." Kasey muttered and brought her rifle up and fired her pulse rifle into the growing crowd. Gore and bones flew as she started blowing the heads off of any creature that stepped into her line of sight.

"Kasey, What the HELL!" Jordan barked at his teammate. "They're humans!

"Stow it Jordan." Kasey said between shots. "They're gone, nothing more than mindless zombies. You heard Dusine, same as me. They're mutated, probably don't even remember their past lives. And even if they did..." She paused as she mulled over her words. "If it was me that was mutated like them, then I'd be grateful for getting put out of my misery..."

"Fuck..." Jordan cursed as he handed Minuet back her pistol. "Light them up!"

Without any more encouragement, everyone took aim at the ever growing semi-circle of mutant creatures and unloaded into the crowd. Much to their dismay, they were hardly having any effect. Jordan and Kleo were barely making them flinch with their older pulse weapons while the energy of Dusine's and Minuet's was either being reflected off the mucus or just being absorbed by the membrane like flesh of the converted humanoids. The only one truly having any effect was Kasey who was trying not to panic and lining her shots.

"Forget trying to hit the body." She shouted over the thrum of weapons fire and the moan's of the mutants. "Aim for the heads, it's the only way to stop them!" Everyone adjusted their aim and soon the mutants' heads were starting to explode. However, only the older pulse weapons secured from the station were having any kind of result, the smaller energy pistols that Dusine and Minuet remained ineffective.

"We need to get out of here." Min's voice squeaked over the sound of all the noise that was echoing around them.

"Dusine!" Jordan called out as one of the mutants got a little too close for comfort. "Find us a way out of here! A blast door, an elevator, anything to cut us off from them!"

"Uhm... Yeah..." The feline shook the stupor that she had found herself in. She brought the map up on her bracer computer and tried to calm the panic that she was feeling. She was doing her best to focus on the task at hand, but the feeling of fear was growing on her and making her go blank. Stealing a look, she could see that both humans were also afraid, but somehow was keeping their emotions in better check while Kleo had a look of almost pure rage as the Lykain fended off the encroaching mob.

A groan behind her made the feline turn and nearly fall over. One of the half mutated humans was almost in arms reach of her and all she could do was stare frozen. The creature reached out to grab her, its mouth opening wide as it got ready to pounce on her when a steel pipe smashed its skull in. She nearly jumped with a yelp when she felt a paw on her shoulder. Dustine turned to see Minuet giving her a worried look. She wasn't sure why, but even with her questionable actions earlier, it felt like the Mauluse was holding herself together better than even the humans were. Dusine smiled at Min before going back to the task at hand.

"Ok I got something." Dusine announced after a few seconds. "There's a tram station not too far away."

"How far is not too far away?"

"Uhm... Maybe seventy meters then another Forty."

"Great..." Jordan muttered as he spotted another eight mutants come into view, making twenty-five or so that were lumbering towards them and that's not counting the growing mass of bodies that had been dropped to the floor already. While the pulse rifles were considered energy weapons and theoretically could last a while in a firefight, that didn't mean that their ammunition was infinite. Plus it did mean that the mutants could overwhelm them with numbers eventually, especially with only three long range weapons that were effective against them in use. They had already established that Min and Dusine couldn't handle the heavier pulse pistols that they got from the security office. "Not like we have much of a choice. Where is it?"

Dusine's mind went blank again as she went back to the holographic display. "Uhmm..."

"This way!" Minuet piped up as she started to move towards a connecting hallway.

" We are Leaving! Lets GO!" Jordan said as he holstered his pistol and grabbed Kleo's and Dusine's arms to pull them away from the fray.

Kasey began to back pedal away from the mutants following after everyone as she continued to do her best with what suppression fire she could. When they got far enough away, the stupor like state that the two aliens were in seemed to fade and they started to act more like themselves again. Kleo turned and fired his pulse rifle at the following creatures, giving Kasey a chance to turn and catch up. Jordan, Kasey and Kleo alternated between who would stand their ground as they followed Min to the adjoining hallway. Min skidded to a halt with Dusine quite nearly slamming into her back.

"Why did you stop?"

Min's answer was to place a finger over her muzzle and point towards the neon sign that pointed out where the tram station was. At first, a Dusine could see was darkness until something moved. Despite her race's natural night vision abilities, the glow of the neon sign made it hard for her to see past it. But when the thing that Minuet was pointing out came into view, the Caushae had to hold her hands to her mouth from letting out a shriek.

Before them stood a hunched over mass of fur with its skin pulled taunt so you could see its skeleton structure despite its dingy dark fur. Unlike the other mutants, this one didn't seem to be secreting any kind of mucus and had a visible wolf-like skull with two triangle shaped ears that seem to be always on the move as if to dial in on its prey.

If the other things were mutated from humans, this must be mutated from a Lykain...

"Val-ruah..." Dusine muttered under her breath.

"Hey!" Kleo shouted at the two as he approached them. "Why did you stop?"

The creature's ears turn their way before the thing turn towards them, two empty black pools looked across the distance at them. Kleo's first reaction was to bring his rifle up, but Min stopped him and shook her head no. It felt like a standoff as the creature studied them before it lost interest in the trio and lumbered back into the darkness.

Jordan came up to them, unaware as to what had just happened. "What's going on?"

Minuet put her finger back to her lips to tell him to be quiet. "Against the wall and move slowly to the station. That... Thing hasn't left yet. Any sudden movements will draw it back and cause it to attack us."

"How do you know this?"

"I..." Minuet thought for a moment. "I'm n-not s-sure... B-but it's like I had encountered them before."

Jordan nodded as Dusine gave the mouse's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Well.. I'm not going to argue." The four moved to the wall and started to move towards the alcove with the Tram station when Kasey's voice crackled over their wrist communicator.

"Come on guys, we got to move! It's getting too crowded over here!"

Kasey appeared at the end of the corridor firing her pulse rifle at the growing mob out in the promenade before turning to bolt down the hallway.

"Kasey STOP!"

The warning came too late.

There was a piercing howl that made everyone stop in their tracks. The wolf-like creature came running out of the shadows at the human woman like an enraged gorilla.

"What the Hell!" Kasey blurted out as she brought her pulse rifle up and fired at the mutant monster. Unlike the human mutants, this creature dodged to the side and avoided the energy round. Kasey tried twice more to hit the thing running at her at its full speed and both times it dodge her shots. Before she could react any further, the thing plowed into her and sent her flying backwards several yards.

"Kasey!"

Jordan and Kleo started to unload into the creature as it approached the recovering girl. It turned and growled at the two as they tried to circle around it to draw it away from Kasey.

"Dusine, Min, Get to the tram and get us a ride! Hurry!" Jordan shouted as he tried to get a good shot on the creature.

This thing was smarter than the others as it kept its head covered by its lanky arms or low enough so that any rounds hit its back. "Come on you fleabag, back off!" Jordan shouted as he poured as much as he could into it. The remark seemed to work as it turned to face Jordan and with a growling roar it charged at him. "Oh shit!" Jordan barely had time to react as a clawed hand came at him.

The creature used its talon-like claws as it slashed at Jordan, raking the human's arm as he tried to shield himself. The creature then tackled him with a shoulder charge, knocking him flat on his back. Jordan tried to bring his sidearm up to use but the creature pinned his arm down as it brought its head down to snap his face off. Jordan was just able to bring his knee and bloody arm up to keep the thing from getting too close to him, but having a skull snapping just inches away from his nose did not offer any relief.

"Help!" Jordan cried out as he felt his strength start to give out.

There was a war cry soon followed by a hollow sound of a metal pipe hitting the creature. The creature backed off as Min swung the pipe that she had found earlier at the creature like a baseball bat. The creature backpedaled away from the diminutive mouse as she struck it with as much force as she could muster till it finally snapped its jaws around the pipe. With the pipe firmly in its jaws, it shook the pipe causing Min to lose her grip. The creature moved with such a speed that Min couldn't react fast enough and was hit in the head with a loud conk, sending her backwards several feet.

"Min!"

Jordan was back up on one knee and feared the worse as he took aim and finally blew the creature's head apart. Jordan almost dropped the pistol instead of holstering it as he hurried over to where Min laid. "Hey Min, You alright?" He tried to give her a shake to bring her around but she remained unresponsive. He checked for her pulse and breathed a sigh of relief as he felt it. Brushing her black hair away from her face, he discovered a bloody cut on her forehead. "Shit..." Pulse fire drew his attention back to the entrance of the corridor that they were in. He looked up to see Kasey and Kleo back pedaling deeper into the hallway as the human mutants began to crowd the entrance. For everyone that they took down, it seems like another three took its place.

"Hey Guys!" Dusine's voice crackled over the communicator. "Our ride's here. Get over here, Now!"

"Kasey, Kleo," Jordan shouted as he did his best to scoop Minuet's unconscious body up. "Time to go, Double Time!"

The trio turned and started to hurry towards the tram station, moving as fast as their legs could carry them. Jordan rounded the corner first quickly followed by the faster Kleo. Jordan didn't spare a moment to see how far Kasey was trailing behind as he continued to make for the open door of the tram car. He didn't slow down till he was stepping inside and nearly crashed into the far wall. Laying Min on one of the benches in the car he turned to see that Dusine was at a terminal next to the door he just entered, working frantically on her wrist computer.

"Dusine?"

"The tram is on a timer." She said as she typed away on the interfaces. "I'm trying to override it to manual but it's locking me out."

Jordan looked at Kleo who stood at the doorway, both wore grim expressions as Kasey finally came around the wall. "Could have used some help here!" She shouted as she booked for the tram's door. In her rush she neglected to watch her step and her foot slipped on a discarded poster, causing her to fall face first on the floor several yards away.

"Kasey!"

While she immediately tried to pick herself off of the floor, it was enough of a lull that the mutants came around the corner and tackled the down marine. She screamed as the mutants piled on her. They started to claw at her and sink their teeth in her exposed flesh.

"FUCK!"

"Val-ruah!" Kleo muttered as he threw his pulse rifle onto the floor of the tram car.

"Kleo, What are you doing!" Jordan shouted at the back of the Lykain as he charged the growing pile of zombie-like creatures. In the wolf's initial strike several of the mutants were sent flying back into the corridor. The wolf seemed to go into a rage as he caved several of the mutant's skulls in with melee strikes with his pistol and several more became splatters of gore from him firing his sidearm point blank at the creatures.

Just as Kleo picked the battered and bloody form of Kasey off the floor, the intercom of the tram car chimed a warning that the doors was about to close causing the feline to curse and slam her fist on the screen. "Bitca! I can't stop it."

Jordan did the only thing that he could think of and tried to block the door with his body. "Kleo, Move your Ass!" The wolf ran as Jordan tried to hold the door open. It felt like it was a losing battle though as he felt himself get pushed by the door's hydroponics. A hand grabbed at his shirt and yanked him inside as the door hissed to a close and the tram car started to pull away from the platform.

"NO!"

Jordan jumped up and slammed at the door to no avail. He could only watch as Kleo and Kasey grew smaller as the car pulled away from the platform and moved deeper into the research station...