by Lee Sau Woon
Kleinberg stared at the nearest dead beast with morbid fascination. It was not the direct result of his experiments, but he was involved in their creation, in a way. Man, into beasts fit enough for battles. The scientific significance, and the horror hit him at the same time, and he was unable to tear his eyes from the corpse.
"Stink," Martin observed, wrinkling his nose at the smell of blood and gunpower.
"Are we supposed to clean up this mess?" Vanessa asked. "Or are we supposed to just leave them here?"
"Don't worry, someone will come and clean it. They canot risk having anyone, especially reporters, to come and find out." Jordan told her matter of factly.
"But would they know that the beasts are dead?" Vanessa asked the team leader.
"Too bad if they don't. I cannot imagine anyone of us dragging the corpse to the nearest dumpster."
"I would like to read tomorrow's frontpage featuring an autopsy on one of these," Jim said as he kicked one of the corpse. Sandy whined, as if she was the one being kicked. Kleinberg patted her on her head.
"Its all right, Sandy," he told her. "Its all right."
"I guess that's it. Let's get out of here before anyone else come along," Leo said as he began to walk out of the tunnel. The rest followed.
Sandy and Kleinberg fell back behind the group, with the scientist talking to the his companion is low, hushed tone. Zenya slowed down her pace, and walked together with the two of them.
"So what do you intend to do next?" She said the scientist.
"I really don't know. Get out of there, I supposed. All this is enough to last me a lifetime. Scientific breakthrough or not, pampering with human beings to create choice beasts is too much, for me at least. I know of a friend who is intending to sell his mountain lodge in one of the rural states. Maybe I will buy it from him and bring Sandy there. If I can find a way to change her back, that will be for the best. Otherwise, who said a man and beast cannot be together for the rest of their lives?"
With that statement, Kleinberg looked at Sandy and smiled. Zenya could not be sure, but she told she saw Sandy smiled back.
In front, Jim patted himself all over the body and swore.
"What's wrong?"
"My badge. Its missing. Damnit, I must have dropped it when that animal landed on me. You guys go on ahead. I'll go back and look for it. I'll see you where the cars are parked."
"I'm coming along with you, " Vanessa told him and the two of them jogged back into the tunnel.
It took them about 5 minutes before they went back to the place. Jim looked around. To him, all the animals looked the same. It is going to be difficult to find the one that landed on him earlier on. He looked at Vanessa, seeing if she, by chance, could differentiate them. She shook her head.
"I guess we had to check one by one." He shrugged his shoulders.
The dead bodies are heavier than they thought, and it took a considerable amount of energy as they individually turned each of them over and inspected the pool of blood for a sign of the badge.
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By the time she reached the scene, all the animals were dead. Deader than dead actually, with some of them looking more like a mess of blood and brain and flesh than anything else. She hid in the darkness, waiting. She knew that she was new, and she had to take precaution. It would not do if one of them suddently came alive again and attacked while she was near it. They were newly dead, which means that meat will still taste good. Her stomach growled. She was hungry.
As just she thought that she had waited long enough, she heard the approaching sounds of footsteps. Two , she knew. She retreated into the nearest tunnel she could find, and watched them as they approached. A Man and a Woman. Both of them looked familiar, especially the Woman.
She looked at the Woman. There is something different about her. She had come near other Women before, but this one is different. There is a smell emitting from her, that was almost delicious to her scent. She searched her brain for the word to describe it, and it took her a while before she finally found the word from a language which was almost forgotten.
Baby.
Oh yeah, this is good. The Woman is nearer to her and smaller in build. Attacking her would be much easier than attacking the Man. The beast that was Jessica could already feel herself biting in the smooth tender flesh of Baby.
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"Did you find it?" Jim asked Vanessa, as they turned over the last of the creatures.
"I'm afraid not. Are you sure that you had it before all this carnage started?"
"I'm sure. I never leave my badge anywhere. You know how strict is the bureau regarding lost IDs."
Vanessa nodded. According to her, red tape was the FBI's motto.
Turning away from Jim, Vanessa walked further away.
"Hey, where are you going?"
"Just looking around. The badge might have landed somewhere nearby."
She saw the reflection of plastic near the edge of a side tunnel.
"I think I've found it," she shouted over her shoulders, as she quickly walked towards the light.
Jim had his back against her, and when he turned, she had already bended down and picking up something from the floor. She turned and faced him, waving the ID in her hand. And then she turned towards the side tunnel and her hand stopped waving.
"Is everything all right?" Jim asked his partner, as he jogged towards her.
He was about fifteen feet away from her when he saw something shooting out of the darkess at Vanessa. Even before his brain recognised the shape of that figure, he knew what it was.
As the impact of the heavy animal hit her stomach, Vanessa felt a sharp pain spreading from that point up to her lungs, and down to her legs. The two landed on the floor, and the animal looked up at her, and promptly went for her neck.
Vanessa reached for her gun.
Jim reached for his gun.
The sound of two guns being fired simultaneously at almost the same place echoed throughout the tunnel. The beast that was on top of Vanessa twitched, and then went limp. Jim approached Vanessa, his gun still aimed at the creature, and was relived when he saw her pushing the body aside.
"I don't belive this. It hit me below the belt," she joked as she tried to stand up, her hand around her stomach. The pain was too much, and took her quite a while before she could stand up straight. Jim, as a precaution, pumped a few more rounds into the animal.
"Forget it, its already dead," she told him, pointing at its head. Jim looked at the head, and then realised that there was no head at all. All that was left above the neck of the animal was a mess of red, fur and clots of different colour.
"I only have time for one shot, and whats better than to aim at the brain?" She explained. Then, "oh my god."
"Whats wrong?"
Vanessa bent down and inspected the animal. Jim followed suit. This beast was abit strange. The fur was not fully grown, and the shape of the animal was abit out of shape, with the legs slightly too long, and a tail that was too short. Vanessa buried her hand into the wet fur, and gave a yank. She stood up with something glittering in her hand. She showed it to him.
"What's this? A necklace?" He asked.
"Choker. It belonged to Jessica. That's her." Vanessa gave a sigh. "This is getting ridiculous," she added as she dropped the choker onto the ground.
Jim's eyes followed the accessory as it fell to the ground, and it was only then that he noticed a trail of blood running down Vanessa's pants and staining it red.
"You're bleeding," he exclaimed as he tried to hold her.
She looked down at her pants.
"That's not my blood," she protested weakly, and then she fainted into his arms.