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Plesia II – Conference Hall

It took a while for his pounding heart to calm down, Carter was sure it was going to explode out of his ribcage in any moment. Swears ands curses flowed freely on his mind, jumping into the stream with the rest of his swirling thoughts. He felt dizzy, Big Bert safely clutched in his hands, and so very useless considering what they just have seen, but Carter didn’t have in himself the will to let it go. Perhaps it may have been proven useless, but he still wanted it for his safety, even if it only was his mental one.

He looked over the podium in which he had hidden to the seats in front, rows of chairs beneath an off projector, the lights off and his night vision googles letting him see the door at the very end.

When the dinosaurs, fucking dinosaurs, had chased them, they had broken one of the first rules in situations like this; do not get separated. Honestly, in those circumstances it was like asking to be killed, he had watched enough horror movies to know that.

…But saying ‘killed’ would be a lie, wouldn’t it? Erik Gallaher had not been killed, instead he had his body warped to that of a prehistoric lizard, at least that’s what it seemed like before he had run out of there, by being edged of all things. If they were fucked in the ass, would they transform into titanic mass of scales, too?

The thought was less distressing that he would like to admit.

He remained there where he was, hidden behind the podium, the white projection screen bathed in the green of his lenses just in front of him; his eyes looking at it with a certain suspicion. After all, all those movies Blades had managed to drag them, somehow miraculously including Boss and Little Soldier, taught him that such a thing was just waiting to have a monster pop out, jaws open to swallow him up. And he refused to go down with a cheap jump scare like that.

At least let him have a heroic last stand, damn it!

Seconds stretched beyond the point where they were just barely visible and, when nothing happened or jumped at him, he stood up from the floor, Big Bert in hand, and began to formulate where to go.

The Conference Room was relatively big for a facility in the middle of the sea, most likely to serve as a reunion point for scientists and whatever investors came to check on the goods. Each of the chairs had their personal slots for electronics, and the computers were built in the furniture itself, with only the monitor being really movable.

They were all separated and, as of that moment, they had no plan.

He looked at his comm, the small backup up fused to the small metal circle close to his wrist and the small microphone tucked near his ear. The gadget had five small dots, each representing one of his teammates, which were supposed to change color when communication was required. It was set that way so they could avoid the classic ‘hidden person is given out by a call’, though they could also make it so it would make a noise. All of the dots were red, unavailable, except for Erik’s which had turned yellow; it no longer worked.

His own was a bit separated from the others, and he made it turn a dull green. He was now available to speak, and to make some plans so they don’t re-enact Zombie Slaughter 2 (Good movie, by the way).

Boss’ turned green half a second later, followed by Little Soldier and Mouthy. He waited for Gary’s light to turn green too, but it seemed content to let pass the time with a complete lack of haste. Sweat began to mar his forehead, slowly descending to his mouth, the taste of salt bitter and fearful.

Come on, Gary… When it turned green too after what seemed like hours, he realized he had not been breathing well, almost making him cough before he crushed that motion and looked over at the door again. It was as still and empty as it had been before; he didn’t know whatever to feel worry or relief towards that.

A small beep told him that his teammates were ready to speak with him. As he expected, Mouthy was the first to talk. “Nate here! Pete is with me, all safe and sound.” He could hear ‘Don’t speak over the Captain!’ in the background.

“Captain Hale Johnson here, no damage has been incurred.”

A small rustling sound could be heard before Little Soldier said, “Medic Peter Takahashi here, no damage has been incurred.” A response memorized from drills. If Carter were to be honest, he admired that kind of dedication.

“Carter here, currently hidden from those things. I am unhurt,” he said.

“Gary Caine here, no damage incurred.”

“What the fucking hell was that!?” Took the words right out of his mouth.

“I don’t know, man. Mutants, aliens, some crazy biological weapon?” Honestly, at that point he wasn’t even sure that wasn’t some kind of crazy coma-dream.

Boss’ voice came as calm and hard as a stone, he wasn’t even sure how he had managed to do that in all of his missions. Did he practice how to sound like that in front of a mirror every day? “We have encountered non-identified hostiles; we have had training drills about this.” His voice came so resolute even Carter had to admit he found himself thinking that their current situation, surrounded of all sides by sea in a facility overrun with mutant dinosaurs that will fuck them in the ass, was not completely out of their area of expertise.

“Boss,” Nate’s voice carried an undercurrent of disbelief, “that one was for mercenary teams or something like that; you know, human enemies. Not dinosaurs.”

“It matters not. We will proceed as usual; per the instructions we have received.”

“Are you for real?” Nate’s voice was laced with offence. “H-Man, we are in a really bad position here. Shouldn’t we call for backup?”

“If Captain says we continue, we continue.” Peter’s voice came immediately after, as it always did when Hale was questioned in a any way, shape or manner.

He could see Nate’s unhappy frown from there.

“Positions,” said Boss.

“Tch,” Peter’s offended squawk was heard clearly from the line. “Some kind of lab, I think we are near the east side of the main building. Whole thing is torn up. A white dinosaur chased us here.”

“I am at what appears to be a laboratory,” said Hale. “There are signs of a struggle here. I am unaware if a hostile chased me here, however. I have seen no signs of one.”

“I am at an auditorium. No sings of enemies close by,” Carter said with a lot more confidence than he was feeling.

“I am out of the building,” said Gary. Fuck. “One of those dinosaurs chased me out, I managed to lose it, and I am currently on route to seek cover in another building. I saw some signs pointing to the living quarters before getting out.”

Nate’s voice came, bright and cheery but with an undercurrent of tenseness that gave it and edge. “Well, no need to be so grim, everybody. After all, the best two-man team has found a survivor to aid us in the exploration! Say hi to one and only Team Regina, distressed scientist and/or staff!”

Well, it appeared things had gotten better after all.

A nervous voice emerged from the headphone, reminding him of frat parties and the eagerness of a gym. “Well… Hi, I am Sean. I am glad to meet you, but I am not from here, bros. Our boat crashed here.”

Well, it appeared things had gotten a lot fucking worse.

Nate gave a nervous titter. “You are a civvie?”

“Yeah, bro.”

“Shit.” Good answer, Mouthy.

They had already failed at one of their directives, and an important one too.

“You said ‘our’, is there anyone else here?” said Gary, concern on his voice.

“My best bro, Wally! He is white and has black hair and nice eyes! Has a crocodile shirt! I- I can shoot a gun and Wally knows how to do it too, we will not get in the way,” said the jock, for it had to be a jock, with alarm and worry seeped into every word. His voice had gotten louder as well, likely from both his palpable anxiety and the fact that it was probable his mouth was hovering just over the microphone. “Please, you must help him! He is sick and can’t do much effort, he needs his medicine!”

Besides being a civvie, he also was a medical liability. This day has been just fucking great.

Nate’s answer was immediate. “Sure, buddy! Team Regina is here to help.” He hadn’t though about what he said at all.

“Our orders-” Little Soldier was using Nate’s communicator, as evidenced when he heard a small rustling sound, most probably being Peter moving Nate to get close.

“Are to rescue survivors, are they not?” Nate’s voice held no playfulness anymore, the firmness of steel having replaced it in its totality.

“Command ordered to not let civilians-” Despite what appearances dictated, Peter always was innocent in that regard. Too trusting of authority.

“And I don’t see civilians here, just my bros Sean and Wally. And if they were to be dropped somewhere else before arriving at base, well, it’s not like we can show precious Command empty space, no need to bother their holy asses with such a thing, right Captain Hale Johnson?” Now there was the vitriol Nate seldom used with them, he could count the occasions he had actually gotten angry enough to do so.

“I don’t like what you are implying,” said Peter with the resolution only loyal soldier could have, “regardless of what you think of them, Command dedicates itself to the protection of the citizens. They wouldn’t do anything bad to them, Captain wouldn’t.” Oh, Little Soldier. If only he knew what some of the teams really did. ‘No government is clean’ was the first lesson Hale taught them, but wanton feelings always had a way of obscuring even the most perfect logic.

The nice missions Peter lived for also made hard to see error.

“They haven’t seen much, really. And neither of them were turned,” said Gary. “We can just make them sign an NDA.”

Despite everything, Bestie had managed to retain some of the optimism they both had when they first entered the army. It made him shine in a way Carter always found comforting, but sometimes it was out of place, jarring in the face of the wants of the suits that ordered them from on high.

“We can do that!” said Sean with a scared tone. Good. It meant he knew what was at stake there and had connected the points already. “Wally is rich, pretty rich and important. His parents, the Patheimers own a company, and he knows when to be silent, he wouldn’t tell anybody and neither would I. Nobody will believe me, anyway.”

“The Patheimers? From Lepta Inc.? Rivals of Sillex Inc.?” said Nate.

Again, Carter would be grateful if the mission got easier just one time.

“Yeah!” Some strength had imbued his voice. “You can ask them to vouch for Wally!”

That won’t be enough. Command had ways of getting the necessary data without things like ‘legality’ getting in the way.

“We will help you two get off this island,” declared Hale, eliciting a surprise of Carter. He didn’t expect acceptance of such a plan to come so easily.

“Captain!” Mouthy had abandoned his hostility, letting forth a relieved and hopeful tone seep into his words.

“Captain…!” Little Soldier was smart, but he was also loyal, if Hale ordered something he will follow it without question, but Carter knew that order alone was enough to make him consider things he didn’t want to consider.

“Telling Command anything is impossible at the moment. Our intercoms seem to work properly, but any attempt to call anyone on the mainland is not yielding results. As such, we must find other means to get off Asvista Island.”

His hands shot towards his gear; he hadn’t thought to see if the communication line to Command worked. Shit.

“Any actions taken after finding such a thing will be discussed then.”

“I can work with that,” said Nate.

“Of course, Captain,” said Peter.

“The plan will go as stated before, with the added objective of retrieving Wally Patheimer and finding a transport out of the island.” Hale already had adapted quickly to the situation at hand; it was to be expected, really, Command did not put anyone on a position they didn’t earn. His words were delivered with clarity and strength, granting him a sense of calm. “Takahashi, Winston; you will seek the security room on this building. Hack into the mainframe and seek for survivors, you must also disable security measures so we could move through the facility and warn us if any hostiles are approaching our positions. Guard the civilian and properly equip him.”

“Right on, H-Man!”

“Understood, Captain!”

“Caine, you will seek survivors and useful data in the living quarters on the island. Be on guard for any hostiles. Rodríguez, search the main building for anything that could help us get into the Antlion or the closed laboratories.”

Both he and Bestie saluted.

“I myself will investigate the facility and aid Caine in his endeavors. We will succeed in this mission.”

“Of course, Captain!” they answered in a chorus.

“Good. Now, go soldiers. Do not fall.”

“I will protect the civvie from being fucked in the ass and being turned into a gay dinosaur with the zeal of a presbyterian mother!” An astonished ‘What!?’ was heard from the other side of the line. Carter could not help but laugh and feel some of the tension ebb away. “Our cakes will be watched by me to prevent their plunder, from the vanilla to the coveted chocolate!”

“Fuck you too, Nate,” laughed Carter.

To his astonishment, Hale said, in what could be a smile, “You do that, Takahashi.”

He could see Nate’s ear-splitting grin from the other side of the line. “Copy that, Captain.”

“Good luck,” was the last thing he hard before Hale disconnected the line and the others followed suit.

He was left alone in the dark, albeit this time with renewed vigour.

His feet moved to the other side of the auditorium, taking his night googles off, so the outside didn’t blind him.

The door opened.

The building was claustrophobic and cold, the artificial light bathed corridors in an eerie glow, shadows danced outside the windows, the sway of the laves and clouds like clawed hands reaching towards him. His combat boots stepping on the corridor and Big Bert ready to attack anything that moved.

He walked until he hit another laser beams, he eyed the console on the right side of the wall, a red light shined from the bulb on top. Frowning, he got near and pushed the lever down. Nothing happened. So that’s what happens when its red, huh…

The blue shine was an eyesore to him. In any other situation, he would have considered such a thing kind of cool. Now, however, it was nothing more than a supreme annoyance and another cage, a very futuristic one.

He was beginning to doubt Martens. When he got closer to examine the small console, there were signs of wear and tear, not too much to be decades old, but enough to see it had to be years active. Yet, Martens had not mentioned anything of the sort in any of his reports. He may have given him the benefit of the doubt if the lasers where a stand-alone thing; the points where they fired were indented in the walls and floor, incrusted in a bed of concrete and metal; he couldn’t see if there were any sliders that covered them when not in use, thus hiding them from view. The console was what was off in all of this: it was on the wall, there was no way to hide it and he didn’t believe for even a second that Martens would miss it or simply ignore it completely.

Were they betrayed? He didn’t know. There was a limit to how much a mission would differ, and this had long since burst out of the building and into the North Pole.

He had long abandoned the notion that Command didn’t hide anything or had eggs in another basket and he had also discarded the idea that they were charming enough to not have enemies that could lure one of their own to their side. However, he also reminded himself that they only had seen one report from Martens, the rest had been read only by Command.

Their superiors were, after all, men who preferred to give them information as they deemed necessary. They were soldiers, weapons, and a rifle didn’t need to know why it was shooting. Still, as far as organizations like theirs went, they were on the cleaner side of things; a lot of their missions were to counter terrorist groups or curtail the development of biological weapons. While he may not share Gary’s optimism, he believed they have done good serving Command all those years.

Despite that, something was gnawing at the back of his head.

These are all just conjectures, he reminded himself. He had nothing to go on. And, most importantly of all, his team needed him. He would deal with it later, for the moment, he needed to find something that would help Mouthy get into the system and find that other survivor, along with Martens and Collins.

He abandoned the laser wall, opting to go up using the nearby stairs.

There were bullet holes on the wall leading up, deep gouges on the concrete that left parts of it on the floor besides a torn-up metal sign; he could make ‘Visi– ll’ but not much more, as it lay scorched on the ground.

Carter gripped Big Bert a little harder.

The second floor had potted plants, those potted plants were shining with colors he had seen before, their vines had reached towards the roof, digging into it and letting some of the outside cold in. Carter cursed without sound; he didn’t want to take the risk that those things could hear. They were not ‘blooming’ as it were, the bulbs that sported those horse-like cocks were not fully open, he could still se the flared heads but they were just peeking out of the base of the vines, which were not hanging off the top part, instead, they were coiled along the walls.

He had no option but to go on.

His steps were measured and slow, carefully trying to not step on any of the roots, flinching when he failed to do so. It didn’t always was useful to be so big, not that he disliked his size. When his shoe met a root, he almost ran, but nothing moved, not even the smallest stir.

Perhaps they only move when they are fully grown. Saving that tidbit for later, he left the strange plants behind and entered a carpeted area, the simple grey rug extending to the end corridor, surprisingly luxurious to the touch of his bots and the appraisal of his eyes.

There was a completely untouched vending machine on the wall, which now Carter thought immensely out of place there, even when he knew it was probably for the staff and visitors, it didn’t make it any less jarring to him.

He shook his head and continued to walk, his steps now even quieter tanks to the cushion the rug offered to him. A small mercy in that place.

The facility slowly transformed with his steps into a luxury hotel, the walls were a rich purple and filled with paintings and polished brass sculptures. Count on the higherups dressing up for the visitors, no matter the place. Even when labs were on the fist floor, and arguably the most important part of all of this, leave it to them to find a way to make themselves superior. However, as he walked, he had managed to notice small pathways that ran to the other side of the building, with the sign proclaiming it to go the laboratories and other rooms for the staff. They must have divided the visitors’ and staff areas. He hadn’t noticed due to his rush to flee the dinosaurs, but he had left the sector the scientists used.

He took that route, as he hoped an area frequented by people who actually stayed on the island would give him more clues that the small cordoned area for fancy guests.

As he expected, the area for the inhabitants of Plesia II was very much less elegant than the one dedicated to their sponsors. The walls had turned to simple gray, and there were no decorations. He advanced carefully, alert to any noise that would signal the presence of prehistory in that area.

He reached a room without a door. Coffee Room, read a small plaque on the side. The chill air greeted him, as when he entered the small room dedicated to the staff, he noticed it was missing a wall, a big hole on the side allowing the cold night air to enter the room in disarray; there were chairs with gashes on them, and the big sofa was bent and had all of its legs broken, splaying it on the floor.

Carter had a hunch about what happened to that sofa.

The cupboards were open and pieces of broken porcelain were on the floor. A small refrigerator had fallen to the side, yet, there wasn’t food there, just an open door showcasing and empty interior.

Oddly, the small coffee maker was left intact, and there was a single bag of brown beans near it.

To the left of the missing wall was a notice board, several notes pinned on the light brown surface, ranging from announcements for the food at the cafeteria to the proclamation of new experiments in the different wings of Plesia II. Carter got close and read a note that caught his attention.

General Notice, December 30th - 2022:

To all on Plesia II, this is a reminder that all must be ready for the Showcase of Marianas’ Project to be held on January 20th. Instructions have been relayed to every member of the research teams and staff on site; these are to be followed to the letter, and failure to do so will be severely punished.

Another mock-up test will be conducted on January 10th, and the same measures will be taken, which carry the same amount of importance and consequences. Do not think this will allow you to slack off.

This is what Plesia II was founded for, I will not let it go to waste due to mismanagement or laziness on our part. Any concerns can be directed at my office in the second floor of the Main Building. I expect everyone to put with these ‘inconveniences’ for the sake of the facility. Furthermore, I want to put a stop to all these ridiculous rumours that are flying around, it is not conductive to the mission at large. Concentrate yourselves on better alternatives that useless gossip.

Do not fail.

Director Thomas Preston.

_ _

Carter chuckled to himself; this Preston guy was noticeably snottier than most, he could feel the upturned nose through the letters alone. Quite the achievement, really.

The notice board was left behind as his feet began to seek the office described in that letter. That Preston guy was now his best shot at finding something about what had happened in that place. There had to be something that would let them know more than the painfully little information they had at that moment. Logically, being a director of this place meant he had to had access to some data regarding that Showcase, the thing that had to be the catalyst or at least related to the blackout that Asvista had.

His gut told him in that day lay the key to all of this, and his gut had never led him wrong. It led him to Gary and the others when he accepted the offer to be part of Team Regina. He should trust it.

The instant he was one step out of the coffee room, which he luckily had looked back at the hole in the wall one last time to make sure he didn’t miss anything, something jumped from the first floor, landing on near an upturned chair without noise. Following it were three more shapes, and Carter slammed himself against the wall to hide himself from view from the group of dinosaurs that had jumped all the way from the first floor to his position in a single leap.

Shit, shit, shit. Nate, if you jinxed me, I swear I will find a way to leak all those videos on your hard drive! That was the most threatening thing he could say to him, even if he had to put a lot of effort to do so; Nate Takahashi was their computers’ expert, it was likely he had put protections in place.

But that was a problem for theoretical Carter, present Carter was hoping none of them had seen him.

They were a group of dinosaurs; the one who jumped first was light blue with a long dark green mane, one he hadn’t seen before, and there also was a copper one with golden feathers on his arms and head. He hadn’t seen any of them; but he recognized the third shape as the green dinosaur from before, accompanied by a yellow lizard with a red mane, both sharing the same cream coloration on their chests.

The blue one was taking the chairs’ cushions out and digging clawed hands into their folds that were revealed therein. Growls of frustration emerging from a teeth-filled maw whenever those spaces only revealed dirt and clumps of dust; the reptile even upturned the chairs and shook them, oddly reminding him when he forgot where he had left the remote for the TV.

The copper dinosaur huffed in what Cater thought was amusement when the blue one ran out of chairs and gave a distressed whine, if whines could be made of grating stone, before jumping to the other side of the bar and hiding himself from Carter’s view when he crouched to the floor, only the tail visible to him, agitatedly moving back and forth.

The other two were content to just watch, the green one had crossed his arms and was staring at the blue dinosaur, occasionally stealing glances to the copper one in what he could swear was disbelief. The yellow one’s eyes flitted randomly to various parts of the room, occasionally cocking his head a bit.

Fuck, fucking damn it! He was trapped there, he was sure that if he moved just a bit, they would notice him. Furthermore, he didn’t have any idea what they wanted there, and time wasn’t on his side. The more he dallied, the more chances his team had of being captured and turned, they needed to stay moving, stay doing something.

He checked the room again and found himself staring at slitted orange eyes, the yellow dinosaur had seen him. Carter didn’t know if that was just an unlucky coincidence or if the reptile had suspected something and pre-emptively looked at the other side of the corridor. A rush of adrenaline flooded him as he readied Big Bert to fire and run. The next instant, the dinosaur made a hand sign and a myriad of emotions hit Carter Rodríguez.

He recognized that sign. It was what his team used to communicate; a whole dictionary of codes carefully memorized over years of studies in the forces that served Command. Drilled through dozens of sessions, each one dictating how and when to use them, and what codes indicated different teams and such. That one was for ‘Friendly’.

The one that followed was for ‘Ready for Sausages and Donuts’.

Erik. Relief warred with uncertainty, hope and fear.

As the code itself suggested, it didn’t belong to Command nor were they taught it in any class or training drill. It was a special one, one that Nate had managed to convince the others, mainly by somehow convincing Boss to do so -he still didn’t know how he did it, Captain Hale was, after all, a man who lived and died by the rules and had the sense of humor of a rock, or at least his perpetually frowning face seemed to indicate so- and then the entire Team Regina had adopted it as their personal code.

He still remembered the day when Nate had told them. Very predictably, Little Soldier had risen in protest against such disregard for the rules. Nate had patiently waited until Peter had finished the entire section of the Soldier’s Manual pertaining the proper usage of codes to say that Boss had approved it, and that any comments against the new and improved code were really directed at him, not his ‘perfectly innocent self’. Little Soldier had looked horrified, though whenever it was because he had invertedly insulted the Captain or the fact that Mouthy had managed to convince Boss was lost on him.

‘It means that we will be together again; a promise that we will get out of this.’ That was Mouthy’s explanation for it. When asked by Gary why it sounded so much like an inuendo Nate had cheerily responded that it was because it was fun. That answer had not enthused Peter, and when Nate had suggested to create a new code to detail a ‘night of promised passion’ he had been vetoed immediately. He hadn’t looked sad, though, and they had a nice night that day, laughing together like friends. For a moment, he could see a small smile shine on Boss’ face when he had observed Nate and Peter throw ribs at each other; it had vanished quickly when he noticed Carter observing him, but he remembered how kind it had looked.

That meant the yellow dinosaur was Erik. He was still there. His friend was not a zombie.

He willingly went with the dinosaurs.

Maybe he was coerced.

Maybe he wasn’t entirely there, just a pantomime that had risen from his friend’s corpse.

Maybe-

The blue dinosaur jumped back from the counter, a small rectangle -a smartphone-, in his hands, it looked comically small in such big clawed things, but the reptile didn’t seem to care.

He showed it to the others and the green dinosaur, after stealing one last look at the copper one, who gave a rumbling sight, looked directly at him. And the rest did the same thing, unprompted.

He froze, his feet were unable to move, thick slabs of concrete glued them to the floor, the coppery tasted that filled his mouth informed him that he had bitted his lips to much. Four pairs of glowing slitted inhuman eyes looked at him, their piercing stares burning all the way to his brain and heart.

Erik, it had to be Erik, used his tail to impede the progress of the others, even when they hadn’t moved. The blue and copper reptiles gave him a look before shrugging, and the green one stared at him and said something in that strange language of theirs, before Erik answered back. The gigantic mass of reptilian muscle nodded once before jumping from the hole, shortly followed by the two dinosaurs.

Erik gave him a smile filled with knives before licking his altered mouth with a tongue blacker than coal. He opened his mouth and some strange language came forth from it, halfway between a bird’s song and the grave sounds of rocks. Erik himself seemed surprised by this, as his face recoiled a bit in apparent shock before shaking it and trying again.

The voice that came out was undeniably his, yet it was different somehow, the tone too deep and with an increased bass, along some other quality that he couldn’t correctly place. “Hey, Carter. Good to see you well.”

Carter tried to speak, but his words didn’t make it past his throat.

“Listen, I know this is weird, but I am fine.” He flexed his arms, now with biceps that surpassed Hale’s, something he had desperately and monumentally tried to obtain. “Better than fine.” His voice turned rather grim. “Be careful, Carter. Command has a lot it did not tell us. And more that it would like to bury.”

He smiled at him, and somehow, despite that smile now containing shaper teeth, it still had the same camaraderie it always had. “I will Hunt, but I will help you, too.” His face morphed into a mournful tone. “Love you, guys. Tell them that. Also… tell my family I love them, too. Goodbye, Carter, it’s been an honor.”

Carter knew that he had ran to him when his hand failed to catch him before he jumped to the waiting group of dinosaurs below. He observed them go as a unit, his sight never leaving the retreating from of his friend until it disappeared on the corner of a building.

He knew that Erik was still there, whenever he was coerced turned irrelevant. All he knew was that he wouldn’t abandon him, he didn’t even entertain the idea. But that in itself was a problem; he held no aspirations of what would happen if they brought him back to Command, they would study him like a rat and treat him with the rights of one. Erik Gallaher would be tortured without a care in the world, and his only mercy was the hope that they would have the dignity to give him anesthesia.

He rustled his dark hair, wondering what the hell was he supposed to do.

---

Asvista Island - Forest

Gary’s eyes jumped at the shadows every chance he got, madly scanning for anything that may jump at him while his shoes steeped on a paved road, thankfully without making much sound. Lamps illuminated the path and nearby vegetation in yellow light, the rest was fused into black shadows that resembled claws more and more each passing second.

Get it together, Caine, he said to himself. You are a soldier, damn it, not a scared teenager.

The… dinosaur-man had chased him all the way through the building and, by some miracle, he had managed to lose it near the exit, and had not seen it since. But Gary had not made it to a Special Unit on brawns alone, he had stayed alert for any signs of it or any of its friends getting closer, his hand always on the trigger, his legs ready to run for it.

If the signs he had rushed past had told the truth, most importantly if he had read it correctly, the Residences were that way. The possibility of finding survivors or clues regarding what had happened there was high. He could even find the civvie there, perhaps he could enlist his help in searching for key cards and other stuff that could let them off this dammed island before any of them ended up like Erik.

Erik… His mind began to get lost in itself, he didn’t know what to think or do about that. His friend had turned into a dinosaur not from being bitten, infected with a parasite that incubated in the stomach or a giant insect but by being fucked by a cock bigger than a horse. The idea was ridiculous, yet it was developing in front of his eyes. But the part that worried him the most was what would become of him, Gary didn’t want to leave him alone, but could he even recognize them? Did he still have any mental faculties?

What would Command do if they brought him back? Images of a long metallic operating table flashed in his mind, along with scalpels and blood. No, he would die first rather than let that happen. Maybe they could hide him, the world was big after all; lots of spaces where one could disappear to, especially the remaining wilderness…

He sighed with a swear, he wasn’t even sure they could get to him and he had already begun to plan for a hypothetical escape. His priority should be to secure an escape route, their chopper was a bust and he had tried their long-range communicators, but the line was dead, not a single of his word were heard. Logically, they should call Command and let them know of their situation, maybe omitting the part about Erik, then, they would be rescued. If that were to fail, they could use something on this island, as it had its own means of transportation.

But Captain Hale had spoken, they needed to get Martens off first. In those moments, Gary wished his boss wasn’t such a stickler for protocol.

But that was what has allowed us to get this far. And indeed, it was, a lot of their missions had gone wrong, not quite like the current one but enough, and it was Hale’s drive that had managed o see them trough, to let them taste another sunrise. He would trust his Captain’s judgement; he was sure the safety of his team was paramount to him, too.

His team was a good one, of that, he had no doubt. It would be a disservice to them to do so.

His feet went a bit faster after that resolution.

Something brushed his neck; his gun gave a spin as he aimed at empty air. There was nothing besides him, just the night air brushing against him. Damn it, jumping like an idiot, he was sure Nate would laugh and Carter would tease him for the rest of the day if he knew that. He gave a small chuckle at that, lost in the darkness and cold. He didn’t need that, he needed to help his team.

Ignoring that mistake, he went on.

The almost endless road now had something resembling a golf cart fallen near a tree, the wheels clawed and parts of it torn off, the metal snapped like plastic that had too much force applied to it. Those must be what the scientists used to get from the Residences to the labs, but it was the first one he had seen. Where were the rest?

The big buildings were now in view; two gigantic western mansions rising from the ground surrounding a smaller red square building between, almost burying it in their presence. To his surprise, the left, the Maple Residence if he remembered correctly, was missing its center, in its place there was a scorched hole where it had had burned away the wood and blackened the ground, thick vines he knew had filled most of it, only letting him in what happened due to the small spaces between them not completely hiding the burnt wood, and the small fact half of the building was missing. The remaining parts were separated by a glowing mass of green, creeping all the way to the russet red roof.

Gary wisely decided to avoid that and go to the Ivy Residence, where the scientists made their home; with any luck, there would be something of use there.

His eyes scanned for any hostiles but he found none, just the bifurcating path that led to a big brown mansion with a dark green roof, and the other edifices in the area. Also, he found the cars; they were piled up in a mountain taller than he was, the elevation somehow still standing despite the precarious balance its materials offered. When he got closer, he noticed they all had their fuel tanks open, sometimes the covers were even ripped, and their tires completely destroyed, some had claws and some had been torn up. That spoke of sufficient thought to make a solid strategy, and he didn’t like it, not one bit.

Double doors made of mahogany with metallic doorknobs were the entrance to the mansion, they were in good condition, a complete contrast to the pile of metal not too far away from them. His left hand grabbed cold metal as the right readied to fire were this to be some sort of trap.

They opened easily and without sound.

Luxurious was an adequate way to describe the place, wooden floors carpeted with a deep red rug had chandeliers hanging above them, paintings periodically lined the walls; ranging from picturesque nature to animals, a wallpaper that he had seen on millionaires’ homes on TV covered the sides of the corridors. It eclipsed everything they had at the base by a mile.

This place is fancy, too fancy.

As he advanced, he saw soft chairs and sofas near a small rest area, broken cups littered the ground with some of the furniture sporting gashes and missing legs, some of them were upturned. The walls slowly gained more damage as he walked more and more, deep gashes appeared, disrupting the geometric patters that existed there. There was silence all around, a pervasive one that seeped into his bones and mind, worsening his already existing paranoia.

There were small numbered plaques leading to open rooms with nothing seemingly wrong inside them, rooms with clothes in the closet and made beds, their order jarring in that place, like bouquet in the middle of a murder scene. He investigated the insides of those but found nothing of note, just assorted personal belongings. Still, what he noticed were that they all were male personal belongings, there was not a single piece that belonged to a woman, only guys’ things scattered there and there.

Another mystery that gave no answers only increased his questions. Or maybe that was his paranoia speaking? He saved that for later.

The kitchen was clean, a rack of dishes neatly done in the counter, the fridge full of meat and fruit that had to be brought from off the island were still well preserved and fresh. One apple was half-eaten and wrapped in plastic. He quickly left that place.

The expanse of the first floor gave him nothing, except a renewed desire to take his team and leave that hellhole, giving the mission the middle finger while they were at it.

The second floor awaited him.

He almost shot his weapon when one of the stairs creaked on the way up and he turned to his back again.

Come on, Gary, you are imagining things. He could not shake that feeling born from instincts honed from years and years of experience. But no matter where he looked, there was nothing there. His hands gripped the weapon a little tighter, the cold metal a caress on his hands.

The upper part of the mansion was in a similar state to the first, pristine parts melding with claws and destruction. Now, however, he could see windows becoming obstructed by foliage, green covering up the moon and stars.

The winds are still whole, they have not gotten in.

There was a tap at the window.

The silence of nothingness was still there. An insect, that had to be an insect.

Nevertheless, his steps were a bit quicker from then on.

The room he entered was no different from the others, sure, there were small details, some different posters on walls -this one had Lucha Libre ones- and the various belongings that were unique to the room in question. When he sought the desk and its drawer, it came up with some stationary and few memos, referring to the dates of conferences and when to enter the various labs -Antlion wasn’t among them- and where the guy had saved his notes on biology.

Gary saw that the drawer was slightly shorter than the others of the mansion. The tactical advisor grabbed it and pulled the wood until it popped out of its place and neatly put it on the nearby bed. There was a ringed notebook attached to a small hook on the bottom of the desk.

Bingo.

It was full of notes on the various events on the island, from fights to gossip, and it was more adequate to call it a collection of letters between the scientists, with some of the janitors, cooks and other staff chiming in now and then. He quickly got to the time frame he was interested in and began to read the ink of different colors.

_ _

October 8th:

Hey, guys! Thanks for letting me write here! I think I pissed off Director Preston last night. Should I do something to make it up to him? I didn’t really want to ruin his shirt; I was just distracted.

By the way, Camille sent me something! A bottle of some expensive Dutch wine, can’t remember the name, but it seemed like a nice drink! Don’t like it that much, but my girlfriend gets angry if I don’t do as she commands! Anybody want to open it with me?

D.

_ _

Just a tip, newbie, never ever try to make it up to Preston. He will be so condescending you will only want to punch him. And nobody likes him or his bootlickers. He is just somebody who does paperwork, if you want to advance you have better luck with Collins, and unlike Cuntson, he isn’t an ass.

PS: Don’t brag about your girlfriend here, dude. There are just dudes here, be considerate to those who aren’t normies.

T.

_ _

October 9th:

Oh right, him. I think he dislikes me; I didn’t give him a good first impression.

D.

_ _

Ha, I remember that. You got so freaked up when you saw him, didn’t you begin to yell for a priest when you saw him at lunch?

M.

_ _

That was you? I hear somebody crashed into Preston while screaming, bowled him over and his lunch into the floor. Nice, man!

O.

_ _

It wasn’t my fault, I thought he was dead!

D.

_ _

You are my new favorite newbie, newbie. ‘Accidentally’ kick Preston in the balls next time and I will buy you a drink from the bar.

PS: Thanks for the wine. M likes that kind of fancy shit.

T.

_ _

He had found Martens. The code was a simple one, but one they had used before to identify fellow agents that had infiltrated hostile territory. Nate always said they could just try something like saying how he remembered how his bodybuilder boyfriend bended him over the sofa after playing Guns and Muscles. That evening had quickly transformed itself into a lecture by Peter on the appropriate codes and passwords as told in the manual, with Nate suggesting more obscene ones each time. He himself had tried to calm them, but Carter had adopted his usual non-intervention policy and just observed while Hale tried to order them which only got Nate more incentivised, and Erik fiddled with his cellphone with the look of a single father who is just done and wanted to see football.

He chuckled at the happy memory until he remembered the part about Erik. His lips pursed and he shook his head to clear it.

He just needed to kept reading.

October 10th:

Collins is nicer that I thought. I kinda expected him to be like the others Ants, you know, with that air of self-satisfaction clinging onto them, but he is surprisingly nice. Paid for drinks and everything, glad the newbie introduced him to us.

O.

_ _

Yeah, he even comforted the newbie when his girl broke up with him. Two days later and she tells him off for ‘not enough gratitude’, sounds like a bitch.

T.

_ _

Standard message for when the mission objectives changes, as Command ordered. He skimmed over many messages, some of them complaining, some of them inviting others to drink and such. It seemed Martens had spent a good portion of his time mingling with the researchers.

November 28th:

Let’s party while we can! I heard that the Antlion is readying some sort of test, so the geniuses will lock themselves up in the coming days. Time to break those records at the Game Room.

O.

_ _

Maybe the newbie could help us get some of the nice stuff the Ants have. He is Collins’ new bestie, after all. Don’t know how he managed to befriend the guy, but he has been spending a lot of time with him. You hear, newbie? Convince him to give us some of the nice stuff the VIPs have.

T.

_ _

I will do my best! Eddy is nice, he will share if we ask.

D.

_ _

November 29th:

_ _

With nicknames already? You must be using that ass hard, or it’s the other way around?

T.

_ _

Jealous? I don’t think M will appreciate that.

D.

_ _

I like you, newbie.

T

_ _

December 1st:

_ _

Hey, has anyone noticed how buff are the scientists at Antlion getting? Saw one of the guys yesterday flex and tear off his clothes at lunch. Eddy said he hasn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary, but I swear some of them are looking like they go the gym every day and they looked normal before.

D.

_ _

Steroids, man, steroids.

T.

_ _

We have steroids here?

O.

_ _

December 2nd:

Dude, we have enough chemicals to break the Geneva Convention twenty times over. We can make mustard gas and white phosphorous; of course steroids would be easy. It’s the only way those eggheads could get so buff.

T.

_ _

Think they can share some? By the way, you have a PhD in biochemistry, you have no right to call someone and egghead.

M.

_ _

Ha. As if those Ants will deign themselves to speak to us plebs or give us their ‘very important time as the true breadwinners of Plesia II’.

PS: I’ll have you know; I am the jockiest jock to ever jock.

T.

_ _

Stop picking up fights.

PS: Of course, I wouldn’t dare to imply otherwise.

M.

_ _

They started it.

PS: You better not.

T.

_ _

December 5th:

Shit, they have been driving us to the wall with all these requests. Are the Ants filling up a pool with chemicals or something?

T.

_ _

Yeah, the Ants have been holed up for the demonstration on January. Haven’t seen Collins for a while. Nor the newbie, when I think about it.

P.

_ _

Probably fucking Collins.

T.

_ _

December 9th:

Didn’t see the newbie these days. He is with Collins most of the time. Hope he isn’t getting too snobby.

P.

_ _

Nah, he is good.

T.

_ _

December 14th:

Yeah, give us five more days of overtime, you fucking fucks.

T.

_ _

Ugh.

M.

_ _

Ditto.

O.

_ _

December 19th:

Wow, you guys are really going for the kill, huh?

T.

_ _

December 20th:

An inspection of our rooms, Preston? Really?

M.

_ _

Don’t you know that food wrappers spontaneously disappear from our rooms and appear in the labs producing biohazardous materials? Truly, he is only helping us all, wayward lambs that we are.

T.

_ _

December 21st:

I swear I will punch Cuntson if he makes another comment at how I held the fucking cutlery.

P.

_ _

I will pay to see that. Will bring the newbie, he seemed down recently. Refused to write here, maybe he is worried Preston will find it like the other one. (Good one, O.)

T.

_ _

I forgot I had it in my room!

O.

_ _

December 22th:

Guys, Preston has been impossible lately. He exceeded everyone’s expectations of being a cunt and seemingly has no intention of stopping any time soon. Why is he such a piece of shit? He is so self-important and he isn’t even a scientist like us! He is a bureaucrat, a glorified secretary! What does the bastard think he is!? He contributes nothing to the island! I get that the test and showcase are coming soon, but he acts as if the stickups rich will care the scientists’ rooms aren’t clean. Does he expect them to come to us plebs and evaluate our rooms? Screw him!

Fuck, old bastard should retire already.

T.

_ _

Yeah, I get you. But don’t say it to his face. I had to begun hide this at night so they wouldn’t find it like they did the other. Swear that guy popped a vein when he read it.

I think that we would have to throw him into the sea to make him quit. Plus, we only have to last until the 21st when the showcase is over, he has to relax a bit after that. All the guys working at Antlion haven’t left the place in the last two weeks, Markus lasted a week in there, came back and sleep for a whole day. Missed the new flowers (Kinda nice, but I have never seen them before).

Didn’t tell me what’s so important about that showcase, but when have the Ants said anything to us?

P.

_ _

December 25th:

Hey, has anyone seen Kirk? Haven’t seen him since yesterday. He owes me a drink after I saved his ass from being caught fucking in the guard house with Toby. Could at least waited until he was at Maple.

S.

_ _

They called him for research or something, think he went to the Antlion. Boy is growing in the ass, I mean ranks. And what did you expect? We are all guys here, there is no babe to cuddle and we still have needs, man, have a little compassion.

Merry Christmas, by the way. Will drink in the Game Room tonight. The newbie got us some fancy French wine.

L.

_ _

December 26th:

Hello, I just wanted to ask if anyone has heard anything about Zack. I haven’t seen him in a week. Can anyone help? I asked everywhere but no one tells me anything.

B.

_ _

Probably got off island for something if Cuntson didn’t fire him for not licking his shoes.

T.

_ _

December 29th:

No news. They told he had a schedule to see his sister but I have known him for eighteen years, he hasn’t talked to her in ten! I know I just clean shit and mop floors, but he is my best friend! He isn’t answering any of my calls and the higherups don’t tell me anything. Please, anybody, help me there. Just tell me if he is okay.

B.

_ _

Will see what we can find.

T and M.

_ _

December 30th:

_ _

Guy is gone.

Fuck.

L.

_ _

December 31st:

Kirk and Sal aren’t anywhere, their rooms are clean. Did they call Sal to Antlion too? A lot of people had gone there recently.

O.

_ _

I asked around, no word from B’s guy, but I managed to discover he didn’t leave the island. No idea where he is though.

Dudes, he is not the first to go. I asked around and some at the guard house are gone too, they brought others earlier from their shifts and some new hires to replace them. The Ants have not left their nest.

The newbie tried to talk to Collins, but he hasn’t gone out of his lab in a week.

T.

_ _

Hey! Sorry for disappearing like that. Found my buddy, we Sang together and everything. I realized how much I valued our friendship, and had a good cry for it. Went swimming to the sea, had a blast feeling the cool waves on me.

Thank you for helping, but don’t worry, we are just fine.

Happy new year!

B.

_ _

Fuck that! The guy was different, looked younger somehow. And fuck that swimming crap, the guy’s fifty-something! He shouldn’t be swimming and be so cheery, I haven’t seen his buddy either. Something’s wrong.

T.

_ _

January 1st:

He outsprinted one of the guys -Ray, twenty-something- like it was nothing! Will search his room. Something is not right there.

I.

_ _

Two more rooms empty besides mine. Does anybody know a way to get out of here?

L.

_ _

There are the boats, but those are guarded, and the choppers are for VIPs. The guards have their patrol ones, though. Won’t be much space but those will last enough to reach shore. Newbie told us he thinks we are two or three hours from the coast in one of those boats.

M.

_ _

January 3rd:

They called O to the office yesterday, didn’t ever get back. Preston said administration fired him, but the guys at the guardhouse didn’t escort him off. Where are they taking them?

E.

_ _

Isn’t it obvious? They are all at the Antlion! Bastards doing something to them.

T.

_ _

January 4th:

M’s gone.

Fuck you, you fucking bastards I will get answers out of you, fucking cunts.

You will regret this.

T.

_ _

December 5th:

You okay, dude? Don’t do anything rash, the guards know something’s up. We have to be careful. We have no weapons; we will be cannon fodder there. Let’s talk this out, I will bring something from the bar.

P.

_ _

January 6th:

I found something, one of the Ants talked with Sal and kept mentioning something.

No idea what it was but they called it the Monolith, it is in the nest. Sounds creepy.

Truth is, I am scared. Managed to get something; the computer on Annex 2.

Heard it is used by the suits to grant access to the Antlion. Biometrics scans or some sort of shit, the register your data and grant you temporal access. You need a key-card from someone working there and a code to do so. I have procured both and have hidden the key-card.

E said he heard that permanent access is given inside the building itself.

With any luck, I will find what is going on there and where everyone went. I will disguise myself as some of the many that had been called there and infiltrate the damn thing.

As of this writing, I have everything ready.

Lastly, do not forget about me. I will go down fighting.

Let everyone now that I went like a man.

Ian Raileigh – Maple 212.

_ _

January 7th:

He didn’t come back. I can’t find the newbie either.

P.

_ _

That’s it. I grabbed a gun from one of the guard’s stations. People blab when a muzzle is in their mouth. I will fucking shoot the info out of them if necessary. Preston will sing like a canary.

Mark, buddy, I’m coming.

Trent.

_ _

Night – He is gone, never made it to Preston’s, nobody saw him near his office.

What do we do?

P.

_ _

January 8th:

Day - All of them just kept talking about the test in two days. They said some scientists cracked under pressure, took a boat and drowned trying to reach the shore. We are trapped like rats.

We have to get out of here.

L.

_ _

Midday – I will get a key from one of the guards, I have a good ass and know how to use it. Somebody get supplies and something for the heat.

P.

_ _

Afternoon – I am in charge of the guard’s supplies, will smuggle something.

Be careful.

E.

_ _

Night – I got a fist aid kit and a flare. Both from this building. They will notice it; we have to do it soon.

_ _

January 9th:

Day – Preston is gone. Didn’t come to the pre-test reunion. He would come even if he had to swim from the Artic. It was never him. We are so fucked.

L.

_ _

Midday – Got the keys, meet me at the pier at night. Today’s chili day, guards will be drunk. Got an invitation for us. The test is tomorrow, they will be guarding that instead of the pier. We have a chance.

Pierce.

_ _

Midday – Got the supplies, see you there.

Ethan.

_ _

Afternoon – Please let this work.

Lloyd.

_ _

There was no more writing after that.

That was not good, so very not good. This island had gone to hell long before they had arrived. People went missing and they came back wrong. Were they in the process of becoming muscular gay lizards? Despite the grim news, he had something to go from this, that little hint in the message told him where to go next, even when he disliked the idea of doing it. His feet once again carried him to the entrance of the building, there were more rooms to explore, but he ignored them, too much to do and very little time. He needed to prioritize.

Martens had discovered something and gotten too nervous to write there; to avoid incriminating himself, he supposed.

He knew nothing except that he needed to move.

The stairs had added steps and the corridor doubled in size, the doors were heavy and the road was crushed under the sky and the car tower, such were the thoughts of Gary Caine. As he made way to the Maple Residence, his weapons gripped firmly in his hands and his headgear making his head feel heavy.

He will do this for his team, for his friends, for the ones he loves, for their bonds.

He will get this right.

Twin doors greeted him again, they opened silently.

Those guys tried to escape; did they make it? He wasn’t sure, but what he managed to discover indicated that Martens had most likely been taken into the Antlion and never came back, which coincides with the timeline they had of events. Was he trapped there, managed to flee, getting the distress signal off and got caught? It seemed like a probable option, but, like everything else, he lacked enough data to make an accurate reconstruction of the events.

The inside was in a worse state than its twin on the other side. There were cracks in walls and most of the furniture had been broken, wooden pieces and glass scattered on the floor, carpeting it in small shards likening snow. There was a strange smell hanging in the air, something musky mixed with a certain sweetness. It entered his nose and he found himself breathing more deeply before stopping and composing himself. It was the odour proper of plants, and he knew better than to try and get close to the ones that had attacked Peter.

But the giant missing piece of the mansion told him it was very likely he would find himself near them at the very least. He just hoped the room was in the section he was in, or better yet, he hoped that it was still whole, and not collapsed in the ground like most of the mansion.

As he walked, he though of the other thing that had been bothering him; a single comment from one of the scientists there stating that there were only men on the island, and that no women were present. Was such a thing possible? He knew there were areas with skewed gender ratios, but to the point of complete dominance? He doubted that they could make it so only men came to the island. Furthermore, what purpose would it serve?

The only dinosaurs I have seen had been obviously male. Yet, he had only seen three, not a big enough number to make a strong assertation on the gender population of anthropomorphic prehistoric animals -and wasn’t that a statement he never thought he would say-; maybe they had their nurseries and females somewhere else. The island had an area in the wilderness, didn’t it?

But… if they turned others into one of them by fucking them, would they even need to reproduce like the animals on Earth did?

He stopped his thoughts when he reached the stairs.

The smell had gotten stronger.

His finger checked the trigger, his hands checked the ammo, and his head turned to look behind him.

There was nothing but silence.

His feet led him up to the second floor.

He could see the same cock-shaped plants that were in the entrance shining at the very end of the corridor, when wood had splintered and fallen in heaps to the earth. Their soft shine sending strange light into the corridor. The vines extended to the other side of the hole that lay ion the middle of the construction, forming a sort of bridge between the two broken parts of the mansion, albeit one extendedly blocked and with ruble being held midair by the thick green matter.

The vines had also begun to spread over the roof, the roots and leaves embedded in the upper parts of the corridor, spreading down on the walls, burying the lamps there in their embrace and half-hiding some of them in darkness. Bulbs contained immature plants that had begun to blossom.

Gary gulped and advanced.

As he walked, he paid rapt attention to the numbered plates on the doors, hoping that the one he sought wouldn’t be so close to the epicenter of the plants. He also took care to keenly avoid any of the cliches they had seen in the movies, he refused to go out like some of those, who died in such stupid ways that he often wondered if everyone lost their senses when it came to these things.

One of the rooms was missing a door; it wasn’t even on pieces on the floor, the space in which it had resided was empty, only the torn metallic hinges gave any indication of what had happened. The room itself had been largely untouched, if one ignored the hole in the wall having taken all of the window letting trough a view of the other building.

Finally, he had arrived at the correct room, too close to the horse bulbs for comfort, but it would have to do. His steps were measured as he made sure not to disturb the plants, opening the door slowly and closing it as gently as he could.

It was the same as he had seen before, a layout obviously copied over and over for the sake of convenience, with personalized items lying al around. It still was one of the most intact rooms he had seen in the place, with everything in there where it would have been on a normal day; from the bed to the wardrobe and the small desk in the corner. He was thankful for that small mercy, as it would have been a very bad thing if what has been hidden there was lost; it would complicate this mess of a mission even further.

His eyes searched the walls for any signs of something out of place, no matter how small. At first glance, nothing seemed amiss, no drawings, marks or damage indicating anything out of place. His hands began to feel the texture of the wall, moving furniture when necessary, until he found something behind the wardrobe.

It was a small patch of paper, the texture very different from the surrounding plaster that covered the wall; it was the same color, likely glued to the material and painted with the same coat of paint that the mansion used, when he peeled it off by jamming his finger in and pulling the broken pieces off, a small hole in the wall was revealed. Gary smiled to himself, that was a very smart trick, likely facilitated by the fact that, as a janitor or something along those lines, that Ian guy had access to the materials and expertise necessary to do something like that without making much of a fuss. Somebody accidentally taking some tools to their room was no biggie, after all.

In that hole was a small recorder and a neatly folded piece of paper. The tactics expert unfolded the small page first.

To anybody who reads this:

The Antlion works by scanning retinas and fingerprints, the scientists there are permanently registered so their data is always on the computers there. When visitors need to go to the building, they use a computer on the Annex 2 to temporarily register themselves. They need a special key-card to do so. I hid it there, in the same room that the computer is.

To use it, you need to put the card in and input a user and a password, then a scientist working at the Antlion will have to say something on the mic, another password, then you just need to give it your biometrics and its done.

The pass lasts only for a day before needing to be renewed, so you have to enter as soon as you can.

I don’t really know what’s inside or if they have another security measures there, but I have to go in, too many people have gone missing in that place for anything good to be happening there.

The recorder is an electronic one, the scientists here use it to save notes and stuff. There is a conversation that you must hear there -Track 01- and the password, edited from that conversation, is also there -Track 02-.

The username is ‘Henry Tavrian’ and the password is 070199_._

I have done all I can.

Good Luck.

Ian Raileigh.

He put the note in one of his pockets and pressed play on Track 01 of the recorder.

‘…almost ready,’ said a man’s voice. ‘They are already growing, so it shouldn’t take too much.’ Something rustled for a moment. ‘We are very close to the test day, the Monolith will be used then, and the Song will spread.’ An exhale. ‘Fuck, I’m getting horny just thinking about it.’

Another masculine voice piped up. ‘Yeah, I know, I still remember how good it felt when I heard it.’ A small pause. ‘Don’t you think we are being too forceful? We could just convince them; it isn’t that hard. I mean that Sal guy just jumped at it, didn’t he?’

The first man gave a noncommittal hum. ‘I get where you are coming from, but it’s for the best. You know what the suits were going to use it for, what his facility was going to do. It’s just self defense at this point. It’s not like we can just say ‘Marianas’ Star’ and let everyone know they can now go where they want, they will never believe such obvious bait. Furthermore, you know they will never let anyone leave this island alive if they have the slightest idea of what’s in there.’ The voice was laced with bitterness and contempt. ‘We have to help them, and the Song is the best way to do it. It’s not like it is a bad thing.’ Gary could hear the sound of straining clothes. ‘I know I can’t complain.’

A small laughter. ‘I suppose so. Hey, you think we could make them a welcome cake or something?’

‘Sure, but I will pick the flavor, you always choose such bizarre things. I still remember that meat avocado one. Took days to wash off the flavor.’

An indignant squawk was heard. ‘You bastard, it took me hours to make that thing. You should be more considerate to the chef, and also-’

The recording stopped there, opening a new can of worms for him to unravel.

Well, that was why he was the Tactical Advisor, to solve mysteries and help his team, even when they made it hard sometimes. He had seen enough bickering over the most asinine things to know that, even when part of them seemed to enjoy talking back and forth like that. Not too strange, considering all what he and Carter had done over the years.

He could guess what the voice key was and found out easily when the phrase ‘Marianas’ Star’ emerged from Track 02. He had no idea what that was, though the reference indicated it was related to the main project there.

He had to stop overthinking it and call his team already. They could decide on a course of action later. Together.

The lights on his wrists indicated that only Nate and Peter were available. The Captain and Carter exploring and better left to be.

He connected USB port of his mini-computer to the recorder and sent the archives to the Computers Expert.

“Found something, Gary?” Nate’s voice came out of the receiver a second after the archive was forwarded.

“Yeah. I got some info for you and a request.”

He told them what he had discovered from that journal, careful to not omit anything that could be of use.

“Wow, that’s fucked up.”

“Since you answered quickly, I assume you got into the Security Room?”

“Yeah, what do you take me for?” came the cocky response. “We are all here, I am accessing the systems, I still don’t have video, the civvie is armed with my back-up gun, and Pete is in the bathroom.”

Peter?

“I was surprised too, but that means not even the Manuals’ staunchest admirer is immune to basic bodily functions.”

He could help the laugh that blossomed from his mouth. Nate has always a knack for making the team smile, no matter how fervently Peter denied that.

“Plus, I think is good that he flushes his stomach out. He hasn’t grown either.”

Ah, yes, that, The mountain the room. What did that- No, he will deal with it later, Peter had not grown a tail. He was fine.

He was fine.

“However, I was deeply betrayed. I had been lied too.”

Gary arched an eyebrow. “While you tell me, continue hacking into the system, and when you do, can you tell me if the list of personnel contains only men?”

Nate gave an inquisitive hum. “Okay. Oh, and not everyone poops.” The non-sequitur made him blink. “Some guard hid here and used the monitors to try and find when it was safe to leave the building. Apparently, the dinosaurs fuck a lot, a lot lot, and never once went to the bathroom. Went to the showers or out of the buildings instead. Such terrible lies that we have been fed. Such deceit. And I had to discover them in a small note with no name or date.”

Gary frowned, that was certainly the odd information and behavior, but it’s not like he knew a lot of the biology of dinosaur-men to properly give an answer to that.

“Must you use such dramatics every time?”

“Pete! You done in there? Did you eject everything out of your system?”

There was a pause on the other side of the line. “…Yes,” Peter said in a soft tone.

“Hey, if you have anything-”

“There is no need.”

Gary couldn’t contain his voice anymore. “Guys, listen, I know we are stressed here, but I need you discuss things when you can.” Carter would have disliked his direct interference, but he always wanted to help them; they were his team, he would not let lack of action hurt them. “Nate, Peter, I know you and Captain can get along. We are all comrades here.” He took a deep breath as he looked over the room, with the knowledge that everything out of its cramped confines was in pieces. “You don’t hate each other, do you?”

“Well… I mean, Hall-Boy can be annoying, but he isn’t bad, just a little stiff-”

“Blatant disregard of instructions aside, Takahashi is a good teammate, I just think that with a little more property-”

Both talked over the other and fell silent when they noticed the other speaking.

“Hale likes you, too, both of you. He is just bad at showing it. Talk things with him, you can even have a party afterwards, I doubt he would complain.” He took a deep breath. “I know how you feel about him, and you need to get it out, not crush it and leave it to ferment and rot. Trust me, I am the guy that has more failed relationships than all of you put together.”

The other side made no sound.

“I love this team and I don’t want it to fall apart, all right?” There, small and to the point. Even Carter wouldn’t be able to complain when they got results.

Peter nervous laugher came from the communicator, but he made no sound otherwise.

“You are certainly sappy today, huh? Did you see too many soap operas?”

“Nate.”

“Okay, okay, I get it.” He could see the gears in the technician’s head turn_. “I will speak to them later. When we are on a better place, okay?”_

Relief flooded him. “That’s all I ask.”

“You must really hate cliches, huh?” said Nate. “You are really on the ‘don’t leave such things for dying messages’ angle, aren’t you?”

“What can I say?” he chuckled. “I learned a thing or two from all of those movie nights.”

“Heh, we must see romance movies next. That would turn you into a love machine,” said Nate. “By the way, you didn’t forget to look up, did you? Hate to lose you to a cheap horror movie cliché, my dude.”

Gary Caine looked up and the laugher died in his throat; strangled by the deep purple dinosaur latched on the roof by strong arms and legs. One of those had been stroking his gigantic cock with a clawed hand, coming up and down the light purple-tipped cock in lewd motions.

Scarlet eyes looked at him with the savage hunger of a predator and, when a smile full of teeth shined in the room, a thick glob of white cum shoot all the way to his gaping mouth. The taste invaded it quickly; a salty and thick thing that seeped into his tastebuds and slid down his throat in a burning trail. It quickly reached his stomach and heat filled his body, extending from his abdomen to his limbs, fogging his head and hardening his cock in rolling heat.

“Fuck!” he coughed and began to run, his legs taking him out of the room, he slammed it opened, feeling the hinges crack as the dinosaur landed behind him, a rumble shaking the floor with much more silence than such a being should be capable of.

“GARY!” He heard Nate’s terrified scream blaring on his ears.

To his horror, the road had been blocked by furniture. Stacks of sofas and beds sealed the corridor, leaving him with only the strange plant bridge to cross. Did that dinosaur do this without me noticing? It was absurd, but it also was the only explanation available. Just how silent could those things be?

Something thick and strong wrapped itself around his abdomen and threw him across the corridor into the waiting vines; he realized, as the plants rushed at him, that those tails were a lot more flexible that they appeared to be.

He screamed at the others, “Shit, shit! Guys, use the codes and get out of here! I believe in this team! I believe in you, Carter!” The cock plants coiled like snakes around his arms and legs, exuding liquid all the way. “Remember what I said!”

The dinosaur came closer; a titanic mass of muscle and sinew that rippled with each step he took, and eight pack below a hard set of pecs with black nipples that could comfortably fit in his hands. His eyes roamed all over him, chops were licked in anticipation and the tail wagged behind him.

“Love you, guys!”

Hands came and, with surprising gentleness, removed the ear piece off him, placing it in the stool of a nearby window.

Gary was surprised by that gesture, but didn’t have time to dwell in it for long, as a glowing red horse-cock came near and jammed itself in his mouth, flattening his tongue to the bottom of his tongue, and flooding his tastebuds with flavor so similar to the cum he just swallowed he wondered what exactly was the liquid the plants feeding him.

His already churning stomach exploded in heat and his precum made his underwear wet, as he fought to contain the orgasm the had threatened to spill out of him. He found himself sucking more and more of that plant’s juices, as he paradoxically fought with all his might to stop his cock from shooting its load, no matter how good his brain was telling him that would feel.

The vines slowly dragged him further back, never ceasing the pistoling of his mouth, until he was atop that strange natural bridge, surrounded on all sides by glowing cocks. The dinosaur following close, never taking those deep red eyes off him; its shine so intense he almost thought they were drowning his peripheral vision in the same shade of color, pulsing like a heart.

Soon after, his reptilian hands came and slowly began to undo his pants, fiddling with the belt and dragging them down, exposing his underwear as the wet mess it was. He had never seen so much precum before; it was like someone had splashed a glass of warm water in there. The dinosaur gave him a look and smiled even further, letting his hard cock get exposed to the cold night air, bobbing up and down when it was freed from its confines. The dinosaur put a hand on his ass and lifted him up, the plants responding by pulling him until the purple reptile’s mouth was in front of his aching member. Gary frantically shook his head and tried to put every year of training at his disposal at the forefront of his mind, but it was all for naught, because the dinosaur opened his mouth, a glowing purple tongue stilled millimetres near his cock, and wrapped surprisingly soft but firm lips all around it, swallowing it all in one go.

Gary exploded like never before, shooting ropes of cum into the dinosaur’s eager mouth, who sucked him off and whose tongue lapped his cock like it was the most delectable candy in the world. Each time that tongue slathered over one of the parts of his cock, his brain was flooded with so much pleasure he was sure it was melting. The tongue danced on his meat like an expert ballerina, leaving no trace of it without that delicious and wet heat that had begun to seep into his very bones.

His hips buckled against that wonderful tongue as his mouth opened up more and more to receive more of that liquid that made him sweat with heat. That tongue reached his mushroom-shaped glands and began to lick it with wild abandon, making sure to seek the undersides to take care of them too.

Gary cummed once more.

His brain was on overdrive, the pleasure he was receiving making it malleable, as he found himself craving the heat he had been offered. Regardless, he still had enough control to wrestle some of his instincts back in a desperate attempt to try and regain some control over his situation.

He tried to remove his cock from the mouth that caressed him like no one ever had, when the dinosaur did it for him, but so torturously slowly he could feel every centimetre that passed in excruciating detail. When his cock was left by that mouth with a wet pop, he saw that it was bigger and black in parts almost like it had been horribly bruised. The plant also retired from his mouth, even when his lips had found themselves acting against his wishes and holding onto it like his life depended on it.

He was burning from the inside and had begun to feel really uncomfortable, his own skin trapping him in like shoes two sizes too small. He could hear his clothes strain and tears appear on his arms and legs, the struggling fabric unable to contain his growing body, pulsing each time with his heart beat. His mouth was only able to put moans out of his lips, whatever words he could have made lost in a haze of lust that covered his entire being in spasms.

The dinosaur amusedly observed this, before going all in again and getting his balls in his mouth this time.

His resolved hadn’t worked and he had cummed again.

His entire masculinity was held in a warm cave, each ripple of it sending waves of delight through his body, as the heat inside him mounted even further and his clothes continued to lose the battle against his expanding musculature, inch by inch. His feet were no better, the boots too small and like a prison to his toes, he even could see black claws breaking through his footwear. Each time the reptile sucked and lapped at his balls, he could feel them expanding with a small push, as his cock did when the mouth seemed to retreat, taking more time to do so with each repetition.

His member, who had seemed so very small in such a big mouth, now seemed to be more at place in that cavern, steadily growing, breaking the limits of his human physique. His hips buckled to that, the continuous almost never-ending jolt that shot at his system whenever his cock grew addicting in its own right.

It continued like that for who knows how long, until, with a long ripping sound, all his clothes gave up and fell, tattered and in pieces, to the floor, spreading relief through him. His body had grown dramatically, his abdominals now defined enough to rival any bodybuilder or movie star he had seen on TV and all of the other guys back at the base, and they were dark, so very dark, black as tar. When he looked at them, that same obsidian coloration seemed to be spreading up to his head, it was like an army of ants was crawling up his chest to his pecs. At the same time, he saw his hands and feet lose color, becoming even more pale than he normally was and were entering the territory when they looked more like snow or clouds than skin. His boots had also lost the battle against his feet, who were still growing, pulsing and lengthening until he was sure there was no store in the world that had his new size.

The dinosaur stopped his ministrations, and his changed cock and balls were let free. The balls had become completely black and with a texture similar to leather, and his equally black cock slowly turned red when reaching a flared head lined with barbs. It twitched sporadically, letting thick globs of precum fall onto the floor, where they were absorbed quickly by the vines, who drank it eagerly.

The dinosaur licked his lips with a coy smile and went behind him, positioning himself near his ass, the thick dino-meat sliding over his cheeks with quick movements, smearing hot precum all over his aching backside.

Two more vines descended from above, their glowing forms dancing in his eyes inching closer and closer until they reached his pecs and, with a fluid motion, both flared heads squished themselves on his nipples. It was amazing, he drunkenly thought, it was almost like a pair of hot mouths had wrapped themselves around the areolas and those same mouths sucked them at the same time scalding fluids were injected in them in a pleasurable sting. The most affected by those vines, however, were his pectorals themselves; they began to jut out, like balloons who had begun being pumped full of air, just a lot at once in differing times. Each time he felt that ecstatic stab, the cocks retreated a bit pulling the nipples with them, and each time his pecs filled more and more, growing into soft mounds that were also hard as steel.

The black scales had covered all of his chest and cock, with the white ones growing all around his legs, arms, feet and hands. The colored scales growing in tandem with the members they expanded on, in a pulling sensation Gary could liken to a massage, slowly molding his body into something completely alien to a human.

The area in which the purple lizard had smeared all his pre had something explode from it; a swishing white tail with a black underside. At the same time, the cock that was behind him penetrated his ass in a single motion, burying itself to the hilt in him, despite all he knew stating that something so monumentally large shouldn’t have been able to fit in his body. His new appendage lashed against the scaled chest of his captor, not in aggression, but in wanton need.

The content of his balls erupted once more, as he cummed much more than he had ever done as a human, his cock continued to lengthen with the spams. However, his nuts remained at and enlarged size but didn’t grow any more; that’s it, until a single vine descended to his slit.

*I fucking love this part.* The voice was deep and masculine, and seemed to bounce around in his feverish and pleasure-addled head, he immediately knew were it came from, and found himself unable to give a coherent answer back. *Don’t worry about that, just enjoy the next part, dude.*

The vine, who now was smaller than his own prehistoric meat, danced around the slit for a few seconds -Gary felt his own eyes widen- and jammed itself in his slit with a forceful thrust, getting half of its body in his cum tunnel.

He had never thought that would happen, but it had, and it felt incredible. It was unlike anything he had felt before, it was a stimulation that he could approximate to cumming in reverse, with the intense separation of his urethral canals, that distended to accommodate the foreign object with a tingling and pleasurable stretch, had his body itching for more, of a deeper reach to fully fill him.

The Saurian, who had remained still, buried deep in him, began to move with wild thrusts, the savagery proper of an animal in rut propelling his dino-cock all the way out before jamming it all in a single motion, crashing his hips with his growing ass, the slap of heated flesh on flesh resounding in the destroyed mansion; two sets of bodies crashing into one another as the pleasure mounted beyond his wildest dreams. The horse cock on his own member began to push too, in and out, in and out; it was like a rippling orgasm that was pulled out before being pushed back in, a mounting explosion that was delayed each time; just before he could release all his pent-up need, it was dragged back to his balls.

The two vines on his nipples redoubled their efforts, rivers of white fluid that couldn’t be contained flowed from his enormous pecs that grew more and more with each passing second, as they seemed to be filled to the brim with molten delight that had his tongue lolling in joy. Said organ was changing in tandem with his eyes, the first to obsidian and the latter to a deep crimson red, flooding all the white out of them and becoming slitted, glinting with primal ferocity that yearned to be let out.

More, more, MORE! His body demanded that to continue, for the pleasure to mount even higher and all that he had kept in, so carefully wrapped in the excuses of civilization and decorum demanded by people who wanted everything into a box, to be finally let free.

*Fuck yes, big guy, that’s why I love you humans!*

As soon as he finalized that line of thought, his body responded to it by growing in a violent spasm that shook whatever remained of his dignity and restrain off him, his size increasing until he was sure he towered over any other human, pulling itself up until he had reached four and a half metres, each centimetre sending electric jolts to his melting brain. He tried to cum in an eruption accompanied by the jamming of the dino-cock on his ass, but the obstruction kept it all in; the rippling orgasm more akin to a painful cork that barred him from blissful release.

He realized that his hands were free when he saw two big white appendages reach for the intruding vine and, instead of retiring it so he could mercifully cum, jammed it further in, causing another seedless orgasm to wrack his body in white-hot waves. He had put the entirety of the vine in there, yet he still craved more, he still wanted for more. The thin part of it, reminiscent of a rope, thickened in response, growing bumps in it that went in his needy flesh; it felt even better that he imagined, those tiny mounds massaging his malehood from the inside in a way he loved.

*Woooohoooo!* Came the ecstatic response from his fellow Saurian. *I chose correctly! You are such a riot! I can’t let a newbie outdo me. Ready yourself!* The slithering of vines alerted him of what the Saurian was planning; he could not see it, but he could feel several vines approaching the backside of the purple dinosaur, his tail lifting up to reveal an inviting black ring, and penetrating it all at once, fighting for space inside those plump cheeks. The reptile moaned with bliss as they pumped in him like maddened industrial machinery, the recoil increasing the speed of his thrusts, each time somehow digging deeper in him with wanton lust.

His mouth lengthened into a reptilian snout, filling itself with sharp teeth that could bite through metal like a pancake, his ears disappeared into his head and his blonde hair turned into a single line of black feathers that ran to his neck. as another set of plumes sprouted from his tail, where it formed into an arrow pointing inwards, frantically swishing back and forth.

His brain was overloaded with sensations, the pleasure of the pounding and the thrusting, all conjoined with his delayed shot and the roaring Song connecting him to the other Saurians drowning him into a sea of sex. He was at the best orgasm of his life.

And then the vine in his cock fired.

He blanked in pleasure, his balls were being filled to the brink with searing liquids, they were pumped with rich nutrients and distilled manliness, the flesh that covered them expanding to accommodate its new boiling load, growing in size until they were more like basketballs that something belonging to a living organism. The pressure contained in them was too much, too much to be kept inside. With a single pull that fried what remained of his humanity, the vine pulled out of his turgid length and Gary Caine erupted with a force that would put volcanoes to shame. He shot the instant the obstruction was lifted, his torrent of virile cum reaching all the way to the roof, splattering against that mass of green that eagerly lapped it all up, and his roar echoed all around him. The vines on his bone white nipples giving a last powerful jab before retreating, elongating his pecs until they were let go of the vice grip and bounced back to their posts.

The Saurian was not left behind; he roared with him and unloaded thick white seed into his stomach, distending his newly minted abs with the sheer amount it was pumped in him as the vines jamming at his back also shot their contents and flooded his purple stomach with warmth. They lasted long in that state; even when their roars died down, he still continued to shot his massive load and continued to be filled in turn.

When his cum finally subsided, he was let onto the floor, as the cock slid out of his abused ass with a wet sound.

He had never felt better, it was like he had just run a marathon and ached for more. His muscles now exceeding any bodybuilder and pecs so full and delectable that could get any man’s mouth to water, all framed by arms with biceps that burst with unrestrained might and legs that could skip the watermelon and go straight for a wrecking ball and reduce it to dust.

He licked his lips as he savored the Song that had spread through the island.

“Welcome, brother,” said the Saurian with a smile. “You can call me Rekan.”

He thought for a moment and the decided. “Hey, Rekan, I’m Gary. Since I am new at this and all that…” Teeth glinted in the night. “Could you help me find my team? I need to teach them how to kick your scaly ass.”

A hardened cock was his answer, along with a deep rumbling laugher.