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A long dark night
Jun. 21st, 2012 08:44 pmDryfield, NV
Second Night
The NMCs had come up with a few new, truly horrifying mutations. Nothing like creatures that sounded like babies crying to get on the nerves, or insane rampaging goats to get the blood flowing. Not to mention humans being susceptible to transformation now. She hadn't seen that since New York.
She hadn't wanted to.
The town was nearly deserted. Only an old man, his dog, and some guy named Kyle were normal. The rest were fled or changed, a fact that made her shiver every time she used the shower or salvaged food from the diner. This wasn't how it was suppose to be. The NMC activity since the initial mutations in New York had been fading so why the resurgence?
Evolution...it means to change. Adapt. To live. Everything wants to live yes?
Maeda had told her that, way back. Yeah, everything wanted to live but the mitochondrial mutations weren't stable enough. They pushed too much, too soon. They burned out. Except in the LA tower, and here in Dryfield. The phone lines were down, her cell was smashed, and she couldn't call home base and try to bounce ideas off people.
That was alright...she wasn't sure she liked where her thoughts were going anyway.
The nights in Dryfield were a lot cooler than the days, and she shivered, finally, as the cooler air leached the heat from her skin. Her own abilities had been stimulated by so many NMCs, making her feel overheated and energetic to point of not being able to sleep. Sitting out on a creaky balcony in socks and a scavenged t-shirt may not have been the brightest idea but at least it had helped. Time for bed...
...only to be woken up by something shivering through her awareness. It wasn't at the motel, not yet, but it was coming. Something big, and painful, and active. She didn't have time for niceties; no, she rolled out of bed, stuffed her feet in boots, shrugged on a leather jacket and grabbed whatever weapons were on hand.
The ground was starting to shiver when she got out of her room and down the walkway that wound around the building.
And shiver it should. The thing was huge. It could have been a man, once. It could even have been a child, once, judging by how it crawled on all fours and the chubby, hefty set of it's body. But then, hard not to be heavy when you were two stories tall. And some bastard had installed a flame thrower in the things mouth.
There was her answer, staring her straight in the face. The NMCs weren't dying out because someone was making them. This was man made. This wasn't evolution, this wasn't the mitochondria getting smarter. No, this was weaponization.
May Dhalmer be merciful.
She was moving before the thing fired, knowing her body well enough to trust it when the cells screamed 'MOVE'. It was big, but it wasn't slow. Luckily it had no concept of tactics, else Aya might have worried. When it was dead and melting, she sensed something else. Another frisson of energy along cellular wavelengths. 'NO NO NO NO NO! NO MORE! MAKE IT STOP!'
It felt young.
It felt like a kid.
Not close, but certainly angry, and suffering, and pushed far past her limits. And then...then there was a cold wind and something else changed.
Nothing on the cellular levels, nothing she could pick up, but there was a whisper on the wind.
"...this world....has been CONNECTED."
To what? By who?
It didn't matter. Suddenly there were monsters and they didn't feel right. In fact, she barely felt them at all. Just whispers and shadows on her awareness. Somewhere nearby a darkness loomed, large and terrible, and digging into the desert far beyond her reach. She could catch glimpses of it outlined against the night sky as things tried to get their hands on her.
Her guns ran dry in under ten minutes. Luckily she had enough nervous energy for an near infinite stream of energy shot, burning plasma channeled through her first, her favorite, gun. Barrier was her friend, Pierce would have loved to see this fight for the abilities. He always bitched that they couldn't get proper results from stress tests. Mitochondrial energy just didn't work that way...the bureau had not allowed him to follow her into the field with a video camera, though he'd petitioned for a whole year. Yeah, he'd have loved seeing this.
It was a light show.
And it didn't matter a damn.
The world ended.
The world ended with shadows scraping claws along her shields and Aya screaming defiance as she fell.
The world ended with a hungry howl and a bright, shining mote disappearing down the throat of the beast in the distance.
It just..ended.
No more whimpers. No more bangs. Just falling with a gun clutched tight and the vague wish that she'd been able to put pants on before she died.
Evolution...everything wants to live. Everything.
"You're just beginning to travel your path, hero."
Cobblestones hurt when one was falling. The sudden stops always hurt.
Second Night
The NMCs had come up with a few new, truly horrifying mutations. Nothing like creatures that sounded like babies crying to get on the nerves, or insane rampaging goats to get the blood flowing. Not to mention humans being susceptible to transformation now. She hadn't seen that since New York.
She hadn't wanted to.
The town was nearly deserted. Only an old man, his dog, and some guy named Kyle were normal. The rest were fled or changed, a fact that made her shiver every time she used the shower or salvaged food from the diner. This wasn't how it was suppose to be. The NMC activity since the initial mutations in New York had been fading so why the resurgence?
Evolution...it means to change. Adapt. To live. Everything wants to live yes?
Maeda had told her that, way back. Yeah, everything wanted to live but the mitochondrial mutations weren't stable enough. They pushed too much, too soon. They burned out. Except in the LA tower, and here in Dryfield. The phone lines were down, her cell was smashed, and she couldn't call home base and try to bounce ideas off people.
That was alright...she wasn't sure she liked where her thoughts were going anyway.
The nights in Dryfield were a lot cooler than the days, and she shivered, finally, as the cooler air leached the heat from her skin. Her own abilities had been stimulated by so many NMCs, making her feel overheated and energetic to point of not being able to sleep. Sitting out on a creaky balcony in socks and a scavenged t-shirt may not have been the brightest idea but at least it had helped. Time for bed...
...only to be woken up by something shivering through her awareness. It wasn't at the motel, not yet, but it was coming. Something big, and painful, and active. She didn't have time for niceties; no, she rolled out of bed, stuffed her feet in boots, shrugged on a leather jacket and grabbed whatever weapons were on hand.
The ground was starting to shiver when she got out of her room and down the walkway that wound around the building.
And shiver it should. The thing was huge. It could have been a man, once. It could even have been a child, once, judging by how it crawled on all fours and the chubby, hefty set of it's body. But then, hard not to be heavy when you were two stories tall. And some bastard had installed a flame thrower in the things mouth.
There was her answer, staring her straight in the face. The NMCs weren't dying out because someone was making them. This was man made. This wasn't evolution, this wasn't the mitochondria getting smarter. No, this was weaponization.
May Dhalmer be merciful.
She was moving before the thing fired, knowing her body well enough to trust it when the cells screamed 'MOVE'. It was big, but it wasn't slow. Luckily it had no concept of tactics, else Aya might have worried. When it was dead and melting, she sensed something else. Another frisson of energy along cellular wavelengths. 'NO NO NO NO NO! NO MORE! MAKE IT STOP!'
It felt young.
It felt like a kid.
Not close, but certainly angry, and suffering, and pushed far past her limits. And then...then there was a cold wind and something else changed.
Nothing on the cellular levels, nothing she could pick up, but there was a whisper on the wind.
"...this world....has been CONNECTED."
To what? By who?
It didn't matter. Suddenly there were monsters and they didn't feel right. In fact, she barely felt them at all. Just whispers and shadows on her awareness. Somewhere nearby a darkness loomed, large and terrible, and digging into the desert far beyond her reach. She could catch glimpses of it outlined against the night sky as things tried to get their hands on her.
Her guns ran dry in under ten minutes. Luckily she had enough nervous energy for an near infinite stream of energy shot, burning plasma channeled through her first, her favorite, gun. Barrier was her friend, Pierce would have loved to see this fight for the abilities. He always bitched that they couldn't get proper results from stress tests. Mitochondrial energy just didn't work that way...the bureau had not allowed him to follow her into the field with a video camera, though he'd petitioned for a whole year. Yeah, he'd have loved seeing this.
It was a light show.
And it didn't matter a damn.
The world ended.
The world ended with shadows scraping claws along her shields and Aya screaming defiance as she fell.
The world ended with a hungry howl and a bright, shining mote disappearing down the throat of the beast in the distance.
It just..ended.
No more whimpers. No more bangs. Just falling with a gun clutched tight and the vague wish that she'd been able to put pants on before she died.
Evolution...everything wants to live. Everything.
"You're just beginning to travel your path, hero."
Cobblestones hurt when one was falling. The sudden stops always hurt.
