Chereads / Nox Primus / Chapter 3 - Where am I?

Chapter 3 - Where am I?

No movement, other than the nervous feeling traveling across K's body. The sound of the creatures were getting closer, as if there were many moving their way. The soldiers took crouched positions as to better stabilize themselves with their automatic weaponry. K could stand as he had only the weird bone pistol. He wasn't too sure what it made from or what inspired its appearance, but it fit his hands really well. But he couldn't think on that now as they began to see their first set of humanoid monsters.

Their chest mouths moved constantly, the teeth seemed to move in a way that seemed unnatural. The tendrils on their bodies moved in slow waves as if trying to sense something in the air. While the eyes were all darkened and moving about. When they spotted the group the three that came into view all hissed. Their mouths opened up and roared at the soldiers and K. The began to run at them, as K could see that they didn't have any kind of glowing spot on their body so their head was the possible vulnerable spot.

The head of the original person's body hung off to the side as it bounced and moved about when the creature ran. Completely gone of any sense of self as it had been completely consumed by whatever was creating these creatures. Two shots came from the two rifles as it first caused the creatures to drop to their knees as the bullets passed through their legs. Then another two shots rang out as the shots ran through the heads that slumped forward for an easy hit. This killed both creatures instantly as they began to dissolve.

Now it was K's turn, he aimed the gun the best he could as he looked down the sight rail. He fired the gun and felt the powerful kick from firing the gun. The bullet tore a hole in the creature's side causing it to stumble but continue to run at them.

"For God's sake, just aim for the legs and shoot the head!" The man to his left said as he fired a shot which brought the creature falling to the ground. Even though K's hands felt the shock of the first shot, he tried to aim again and watched as the head exploded and left a hole in the chest of the creature. K watched as it began to dissolve like the others which made him feel a little excited but by the time it appeared, it quickly vanished. As he saw more moving their way. One by one, the creatures quickly fell, but K was not doing as good so the soldiers had to pick up his slack. Which meant more bullets were spent by them and not killing the creatures coming towards them. Slowly but surely he was getting the hang of aiming down the sight rail and actually hitting his shots. Like something in his mind was beginning to click and make the proper adjustments for him.

"2 more minutes," the man behind them called out. As they saw the big creature begin to round the corner. The sound of the gunshots made it easy for it to find them as well as the horde they had just dealt with. But this time the creature seemed to be slower as if the hallway they were in was just too small. It crawled and used its arms to protect itself from the bullets. He noticed that the bullets seemed to bounce off the arms as if they were plated with something stronger than the walls of the surrounding area. All K knew was it was a bad idea going with them.

He tried to fire but it just clicked and didn't release the strong pushback. He realized he was empty and popped the front of the gun forward and down. Dumping the cylinder Mag and taking a fast reload mag to replace the bullets. Though he missed it a few times as the bullets didn't match up at first, but twisting it slightly caused the bullets to slide in. Pushing the mag in, he watched as the bullets were released from the mechanism that held the bullets in place. While they easily slid into the cylinder magazine.

The creature roared as he could again hear the words, "Kill me!" These were shouted in his head causing him to hold it and flinch. The soldiers looked at each other and the one on the left ran forward to get a little closer. He pulled out a grenade and chucked it at the creature's mouth. The creature didn't know what it was and just ignored it as it felt the object just hit its fleshy body. Then the soldier turned around to run back. But from its body, large tendrils shot forward and stabbed the man in the arms and legs.

He screamed bloody murder as he could feel the tendrils in his body. It brought him close to the creature as it then began to turn the man around. He cried out for help as the creature shoved another tendril into the mask covering the man's face and started to inject whatever it was that was traveling down the tendril's length. But before it deposited the object, an explosion from within the creature threw the man away from it. The tendrils were dislodged from the man as he flew back towards the door.

Both soldiers turned around as soon as the door opened and dragged the man inside, while K could hear the monster screaming in pain. "Ahhh!" It's blood curdling scream seemed to draw more sounds to their location. As K could see the humanoid creatures running and tumbling over one another trying to come to the thing's aid.

"Come on, let's go!" The soldier behind him called. K ran towards the door and dove through it as the other man closed it. Locking down the door, a red light appeared on the top of the door. They all sighed with relief as they had barely escaped death. But the question that was all on their mind was, 'is the man infected with whatever the creature did?'

The soldier that called out to K began to inspect his comrade. Going from feeling his chest, removing his helmet to see his face, and checking his wounded limbs. The man's face was a peachy white color, his eyes a dark brown, and blood from having his mask busted inward covered his lower face. He looked to be dead as his chest never seemed to rise and fall. Placing a hand over his eyes, the soldier checking him drew his comrades pistol and fired a shot into his head.

K was shocked at the extreme measure the guy had to do to his friend. That's when he said, "It's better to destroy the brain before they get to the body. Every first stage relies on the brain to function properly." He crossed the man's arms to lay him in a resting position, taking a necklace with dog tags and taking one of the two on it. "Rest in peace John, you won't have to become one of those things."

After that he stood and removed his helmet, "My name is Paul Gordon, Captain of the Terra Colony Military." He looked to his other friend who also removed his helmet, "This is Ryan Keys, our tech specialist." Pail had a scar across his cheek that was a pretty prominent feature of his face. Other than the blonde short hair he had and green eyes. While Ryan and blue eyes with brown hair, a more thin face than Paul's who was more bulky in a way. Paul looked at K and asked something he was dreading to ask, "What is your name and rank soldier?"

K panicked inside his mind, trying to recall anything about his past. His mind began to get fuzzy as a ringing sound appeared. Cupping his ears he could begin to hear sounds instead of seeing images.

"Kyle... Kyle Raymus... Sargent First Class from Earth, sir!" The sound of his own voice, much more robotic than he thought he had of his own voice. Then another voice appeared in the fog.

"We welcome you to the Vaultan System, this is our research station above Terra, the future home for humanity." The voice sounded familiar but he couldn't place it.

"Thank you sir, I will do my part in protecting the future of humanity on this station." Then the ringing and fog began to clear as he let go of his head. Hearing Paul was calling out to him as K regained his awareness of his surroundings.

"Hey, you okay? That concussion must have really messed you up. Ryan get him some medicine from John's satchel." That's when he heard K speaking quietly.

"My name... my... my name is... Kyle... Kyle Raymus. I am a Sargent First Class, but my memory and knowledge seem to be lost otherwise. I don't know why I am here other than to have protected this facility... but..." Paul looked at Kyle as he was finishing his sentence.

"But? You mind telling us what is on your mind Sargent Kyle Raymus?" Paul looked at Kyle like he was now under interrogation. The man didn't have an easy response. He didn't know enough of what happened for the months he'd been used as an experiment. Nor the fact he could hear voices of those things other than the humanoid things. Looking at Paul, Kyle took a deep breath.

"Honestly, I don't know. I can't remember much other than being here as a protector of Earth's future. But," he paused and looked towards the door, the elevator's digital number climbed to floor 135. "But I think whatever happened, I ended up being used as an experiment by the scientists here for several months before this whole event happened."

He was scared by telling the truth, that he might get shot, but Paul looked at Kyle seriously. "So you're saying that you have been experimented on by the doctors here and don't remember your past before this?" Kyle nods, making Paul scratch his head. "Well, since that is the case I can tell you what their aim was for you then. They were trying to..." just then the elevator shook and wobbled causing everyone to fall to the ground while John's body fell to the ground and slid about.

"What the hell was that?" Ryan asked, as he ran over to check the window. "Paul... you have to come see this..." Paul went to look at whatever Ryan was looking at, which Kyle did the same. What he saw was not something he thought possible. Outside the elevator, was the space station, and just outside the space station was a growth beginning to form as it pushed out a hole in the station.

"That is not possible? How could the growth spread that fast?" Paul asked out loud, while Kyle turned to stare at him. "We were told it was contained and wouldn't have a rapid expansion for a long time." Kyle couldn't help but ask what he was talking about. "These creatures, they are the product of the Othoke. A dangerous alien life form that can evolve and change the very physical makeup of an organism's body. Only if they have Ghergo implanted in them from one of the Othoke themselves, or by their queen, the Dask Othoke."

Kyle looked at the massive growth as it moved and reached out into space. He could see the planet below the station as its massive size was almost double earth's. But when looking back at the mass, he found it odd that it was reaching towards them. He squinted his eyes a bit trying to see what it was doing. As he did, he saw small specks floating in space, he wasn't sure what they were but they were moving towards the elevator. As the objects got closer and below the elevator, he saw that it was space debris, it was small pods. The pods slammed into the railing below the elevator as it caused the station to rumble and shake a bit.

He looked down and then to the elevator, "we need to get out of here." Paul looked at Kyle and then to the large mass outside. Whatever it was doing he didn't want any part of as he saw Kyle heading for the door. "What floor should we stop on? Anywhere these things haven't gotten to yet?" Ryan pulled out his PDA and tapped away at it a bit.

"We should find that the floor 5 floors up are secure for now. It says it isn't occupied by anyone on board as it's a part of the storage area. If we want to find a good place to hunker down for a short bit that would be..." He stopped speaking as felt something was off. Looking at his feet he saw something with glowing black shiny eyes looking back at him. He shrieked in surprise as he ran forward and held out his gun. "They're in the elevator!"

Kyle and Paul quickly pulled out their weapons and aimed at the grating of the elevator. All of them were wondering how they got inside it from the outside without causing any escape of air Paul hit emergency stop button on the elevator's panel as it came to a screeching halt. The humanoid Othoke pushed up the panel as it was trying to crawl out. But Ryan fired at it as the creature screamed in pain as the bullets collided and passed through its flesh.

Coming to a stop on floor 129, Kyle turned to look at the door as it lit up blue. That's when saw the door open before any of them got to the door. As it was opening, a woman in a white lab coat came running for the elevator from around the corner. Kyle could hear her crying out for help as she was running towards them. When he saw what was chasing her, Kyle took aim down the hallway.

Paul and Ryan were busy dealing with more creatures trying to push their way through a few more grates. This was all Kyle as he saw the creature, on all fours clinging to the walls and running for the woman.

It was gaining on her as she was hopelessly slow and frantic. Begging for someone to save her, pleading with god to save her from the monster. Kyle wasn't sure if he could save her, but he needed to do something. Maybe she could provide answers to why he was here. As he took aim he felt like a wave of focus overcame his shaky arms. Calming them down, he took a breath and waited.

All the while the creature was still chasing her, leaping from wall to wall trying to catch her. Her face was flooding with tears and her hair whipping behind her. It leapt for her, it's claws reaching out as suddenly, a loud bang erupted in the elevator. The bullet traveled quickly as it slammed into the creature's skull and shoved it back behind the woman. It squirmed and whined a horrible sound.

Paul and Ryan looked behind them as they saw Kyle exhale and pant a bit. Seeing the creature was still alive Kyle called for her to get out of the way.

"Paul, Ryan, let's go this way, we don't want to fight on two sides!" Kyle ran out the door with the two soldiers in tow. They knew it was a bad idea to fight in a small space and with the other creature disabled they could escape. Kyle reached the woman and helped her up. "Come on, get up and run!" He helped her up and dragged her back the way she came. The woman pleaded not to go back, but his gut was telling him if they didn't find a place to lay low they would surely die. As Paul passed the creature, he looked at it and saw that it's face was completely destroyed. But the wound wasn't fatal, as it was already repairing its body. The flesh pushing back out and it's bones resetting. They didn't have long as they ran back down the hallway the woman came from. It was their only chance to leave alive, as Kyle was feeling something bad was coming.

His gut told him it wasn't from just an outside source, but something was wrong. He couldn't tell what it was. All he knew was that if he didn't get answers soon, he may not have the chance to get them himself. As within his chest, something twitched.