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"Flesh"
Cedres stalked through the snow, only slightly numb from the biting chill of the arctic wind. His protective synthetic fiber suit locked in what little heat his body could generate, and partly generated its own, at the cost of a small amount of power from a pack that he carried in his left hand. He had just returned from a two-day journey into the dark, often terrifying world outside of the base. Although he was the crew’s doctor, his primary service was that of a soldier. As such, each took turns venturing out on search missions for Cybrid activity. Their function as a squad was mainly to gather intelligence, not to engage in combat. Often, to avoid enemy activity, a soldier would find himself forced to take days to move around incoming forces. Continuing to trek through the thick, icy slush that surrounded his base, the doctor found himself nearly lost as he ventured outside of the range of the base lights. He had not had the foresight to aim his Talon’s searchlights into the snow before him. In this region, night would last for what seemed like forever; how long Cedres could not say – he was a doctor, not a professor. He had initially exited his now crouched Talon to investigate a large black mass he had seen in the snow. The fear of it being a body had rushed through Cedres’ body, blinding him towards rationally thinking out a plan. Although he felt certain that the dusters had not betrayed them, he still had not dismissed the possibility of another murder. Falling, his face collapsing into the invisible ground, he felt his hand lay upon its objective. Stroking the object and trying to pull it closer, he found that it was far too heavy to be a person. Nonetheless, he pulled it back into the light. As he finally reached the outskirts of the base’s lights, which were severely dimmed to minimize detection, he realized that what he found was a piece of equipment. It appeared to be a central component to one of the vehicles in the HERC bay. Cedres was the least qualified amongst the men at the base to correctly identify what it was, he felt. The act of pulling the strange piece of equipment into the light had exhausted him. Leaving it, he decided to simply ask Keys or Nathan to come investigate it with him. As he turned, he noticed more black masses in the distance on the other side of the base, barely visible in the diminished light. “More equipment...” he thought, beginning to panic once more. “Has something happened?” ----- The inside of the base was pitch black, with the exception of a few backup lights, dimly shining their haunting red light on the now freezing walls of the base. Cedres felt the external guiding lights had been dimmer than usual – apparently, the main generator was malfunctioning. This had happened before, but the presence of the mechanical components on the snowy earth outside led him to believe something horrible had indeed happened in the two days he was away. There was no need to remove the suit he wore for external use – the base was now horrendously cold, although not nearly as frigid as the frozen wasteland outside. The doctor roamed through the endless corridors of his base, making his way to what used to be the main generator. It too, like Daniels, now lay in ruin, utterly destroyed with one of the tools normally used for repairs. This indeed was arson. A hand twirled the doctor around, giving him a face full of a HVG, pointed directly at his face. The doctor’s biological systems instantly kicked him, sending a stream of adrenaline pumping through his body. He had no time to react, however; his fate was in the hands of whoever held this weapon. “...Doc? Christ and Hunter, you scared me.” The weapon lowered, revealing an unplaceable, yet beautiful female face. “We really haven’t met yet. I’m Kerra, one of the Martian crew.” “W-what’s going on here?” he managed, still affected by the chemicals that still stirred within his brain. “Where is everyone? The generator...” “Yes, we know. Come on, I’ll fill you in on the way.” The woman turned and walked away, still eyeing around corners for some yet unseen enemy. “...So?” “Yeah,” the woman began. “...Things have definitely gone to hell while you were gone. All the vehicles and communications equipment is down, so we don’t have any way of getting out of here or calling for help. We’ve all been sitting around praying that you’d come back in that Talon, so we’d have a way of getting to help. The Talon is okay, right?” “Oh... yes, it is,” Cedres replied. “Great... at least something is going our way. Obviously, no human here would have done all this to himself unless he’d gone crazy, so our guess is that we’ve got a Cybrid infiltrator on our hands. Everyone’s spread out across the base looking for it, but we haven’t had any luck yet. ...Really, your timing was great, since we’ve all got to meet back in the kitchen in a minute or so.” “So one of their infantry has found us?” “Looks that way...” Kerra said. “I suppose it was only a matter of time. It’s not like this base is undetectable, even though it is a little hard to spot.” “...Especially in this black night. I could barely find my way around out there.” “...Right. Keys hasn’t seemed too pleased with how we’re handling things, but he’s fairly confident that we’re not responsible.” “That’s surprising,” Cedres said with a hint of a laugh. “Well, he wouldn’t have believed it if Nathan hadn’t suggested we’d be found himself.” “Nathan always has been level-headed,” the doctor thought out loud. “Yeah, he’s a great guy...” Cedres was partly taken aback by this comment, but thought little of it. ----- When the two arrived, they found most of the others sitting on the kitchen counter, awaiting Kerra’s return. Upon noticing the doctor, most of them thanked their various dead relatives and slapped their hands together in gratitude. “I’ve already filled him in,” Kerra interjected. “Talon’s fine.” The woman moved to one side and reclined against the wall, whispering something to Nathan, who nodded his head in agreement. Nathan still seemed troubled, although he seemed to have recovered since last Cedres had last seen him. “Great, now we can get out of here,” Keys spoke up, nearly shouting. “We’ll go ahead with the plan as soon as Vicks and Biggs get back. Did you ever send off that report to let them know what was happening?” “Plan? And no, I never had the time...” Cedres questioned. Keys swore and turned his head, giving a snort. “Yeah,” Nathan spoke up. “Since all the vehicles are down, and that Talon isn’t exactly made for hauling cargo, we decided to just create a makeshift train out of broken parts for the Talon to drag behind. You know, just enough to manage to carry the vitals and us all. Otherwise we wouldn’t all be able to survive.” “We’re abandoning the post?” the doctor said with a note of surprise in his voice. “You see something worth saving, doc? Only thing here is a few raw supplies; nothing worth protectin’.” “Yes, but I don’t think that it would be prudent to just abandon our station. After all, a supply train will come through here in a couple of months and-“ “And we don’t even have a couple of weeks, damn it!” Keys shouted. “Whatever is stalking around out there has already torn out and wiped out all of our equipment all over every snowfield from here to Nova Alexandria! It knows how to get around unseen, and it’s probably already contacted its buddies for reinforcements.” “Fine!” Cedres shouted. “I’m sure you’ve all been over this anyway, so let’s just get down to it.” Everyone turned as they heard something slam into the ground. Vicks had arrived, and had thrown his weapon onto the floor. “Everybody on my team get out here...” With that, he left; Kerra and the other Martian, Jeras, left soon afterwards. “...What was that about, I wonder?” Nathan said. “Who cares? Let ‘em worry about it. We’ve gotta get down to the bay and get things ready before that Cybrid bastard gets to the Talon too.” Keys left the room, and Nathan shrugged and followed. Cedres was far from happy about finding himself jerked around ever since his return, but he had little choice in the matter. He often had found himself in compromising or annoying situations before, especially in the military, and had learned to simply bear it. Following Nathan, Cedres heard sobbing in the next room. No one mentioned it, but Cedres knew that Biggs, the only unaccounted for member of the Martian squad, was dead. ----- Cedres arrived at the vehicle bay to find Keys fiddling with a lock. The connecting point to the main grounds of the base was one-way, but there were a few rooms that split off from the bay from this point on. He and Nathan had decided on the way that it would be best to seal off the area once everyone had arrived, so as to funnel the Cybrid into one area if it indeed decided to attack or meddle in the plans of its enemies. “...What do you think about this?” Nathan began, nervously twitching as he waited on Keys to open the door. The twitch had been one of the many mannerisms Cedres had picked up on since he had met Nathan years ago. “I don’t like it... something just doesn’t seem right.” “A lot has happened to you in the past few days, Nathan... don’t get too jumpy about it. We’ve dealt with this sort of thing before.” “Yeah, I know...” Nathan responded, “but it just doesn’t seem like something... I don’t know.” Cedres could not quite pick up on what Nathan was getting at. He had never been able to communicate his feelings very well. Even at the age of twenty-nine, he still was intimidated very easily. In retrospect, Cedres realized that Nathan and Keys had never gotten along very well. “Well, just don’t worry about it. As soon as everyone gets together and we block off the exits, there’s no way one Cybrid is going to have a chance.” Nathan nodded and gulped. As soon as the door opened, at the expense of Keys’ patience, Nathan hurriedly made his way inside. Cedres found himself passed by a slightly frantic Kerra, who disappeared after Nathan. Vicks angrily stomped by as well. “Hey,” came a voice from behind. “Don’t think we’ve met.” “No, we haven’t,” Cedres said, nodding to the man before him. “Jeras, right?” “Yep,” he said with a smile. “Pleased to meet you.” Cedres stared for a moment, surprised. “...Biggs is dead, isn’t he?” “...Yes. Yes, he is.” “You seem pretty calm about it.” Jeras faced the floor for a moment, then looked back up, towards the doorway. “Kerra and Vicks handle things their own way. I guess this is how I handle it. ...I’ve been through so much that I can’t remember feeling sad anymore.” The two walked through the doorway. “That doesn’t frighten you?” Cedres asked. “Sometimes. But I guess when you’ve got dying friends and relatives to worry about all your life, you just stop caring. Or rather, you don’t let your heart take over your mind, or something like that.” “That seems almost... inhuman, Jeras.” Jeras laughed. “I guess so. In some ways, I guess I’m sort of like a ‘Derm. I don’t really have a memory... I just sort of ignore it.” Cedres frowned. He had known many men like Jeras; none of them had led healthy lives. Their humanity stripped from them by war and sadness, they had become soulless vessels of aging flesh and worthless, false emotions. With no memories or joy or sorrow to guide their decisions, they became mindlessly fanatical about combat. Often, as a doctor, he would have to reason with them as patients, albeit unsuccessfully. Whether or not Jeras was too far-gone he could not say; it was possible that he was being pushed over the edge even as they spoke. The doctor wondered to himself for a moment whether a human being could truly become totally apathetic. To be so, he felt, would mean they had become no better than a living machine. ----- The work on the transport had gone well, although all of the remaining members of the two squads were not fully trained engineers. Biggs had been the Martian mechanic, and Daniels, the imp engineer, had been the first to die. The calculated strikes had not gone unnoticed, although no one spoke of it, with the occasional exception of Keys, who was more focused on escape. Everyone had sealed off the only entrance from the main area of the base with both welding and a static field. Rotations in shift for guarding this entrance came every few hours – just enough for a small amount of rest. The only other entrances were the huge bay doors meant for vehicle use. There was no way to open them except from the inside. It had been a day since work bad begun. At first, there was difficulty in repairing anything, as everything but the simplest of tools was gone. Cedres, who had never really built anything from scratch in his life, found the process annoying and distasteful. He remembered now why he had chosen his profession. “Have you noticed... anything strange about Kerra and Nathan?” Vicks laughed at the question. “You could say that, Cedres. I caught them a couple of days ago, involved in some ‘after-hours’ activities, if you know what I mean.” Cedres opened his facemask and lowered his tools. “You’re joking?” Vicks shook his head. “Think they’ve found strength in one another, since... you know.” “Yeah, I see.” “Well, to be honest... she’s a strong person on the outside, but she’s pretty innocent once she drops the false exterior.” “Sounds like Jeras,” Cedres said bluntly. Vicks remained silent for a moment. “He started that crap a few years ago. He used to be a rule nice guy, but in a wholesome sort of way. Now, he’s just... well, you saw it. Can’t dislike him for it though. We all grew up together, like I said before.” “I understand,” Cedres said, beginning to put his facemask back up. He jerked his entire helmet off, however, as he heard a scream emit from one of the adjacent rooms from the vehicle bay. The rooms were distant, but the sheer vastness of space of the bay created an echoing howl that resonated through the entire area. A single shot followed. Everyone immediately flew from their seats, or from off of the floor, and leapt over the sheets and bars of metal between themselves and the noise. The scream had obviously been Kerra’s; she was on guard duty at the moment. Images of Daniel’s body raced through Cedres’ mind, filling him with an anticipated horror he did not expect. A weapon was thrown into his welcoming arms, probably by Keys, whom Cedres could hear nearby, drowned out by the doctor’s own thoughts. Not until he realized why they needed weapons did Cedres really grasp what that scream meant – the enemy had broken in. It was in there with them. All of the men arrived, having already realized they would have come too late. A simple, lower body lay sprawled out across the ground, the entirety of everything above the waist completely eviscerated. The basic skin and armor remained, but nothing else. All that was left of Kerra was a mass of shredded entrails and burnt organs. The doctor recognized the wound: it was one caused by a handheld shock cannon, the same weapon that Kerra had held, now lying across the floor against a wall. Vicks bent down on one knee and swore in a rambling and incomprehensible manner. Cedres simply continued to stare. “Damn it all to hell!” Keys shouted, beginning to turn to search for the murderer. He ran into Jeras as he turned. “Out of the way!” he shouted, pushing the Martian to the ground. Cedres discontinued his daze and noticed the static field and welded door still intact. His thoughts blurred for an instant as he heard Nathan cry out in terror. He felt pity for his closest friend, having lost two of his companions in the span of less than a week. However, he felt compelled to ignore this as he realized that there had been no way for this to occur. “Vicks... Vicks!” he shouted, trying to get the attention of his grieving friend. “What, damn you...” “How did Biggs die?” Vicks stood and stared at Cedres with a look of hate and disapproval in his eyes. “How can you ask me that, you bastard? Can’t you see-“ “Vicks!” Cedres shouted. “This is important! How... did he die.” Vicks growled under his breath and closed his eyes. “He... he had been electrocuted. There were a couple of active wires jammed into his body. Damned horrible...” “Vicks... there’s no infantry unit.” “What are you talking about?” Vicks said, turning away from the body of his dead squadmate. “The door is still intact. The other doors were right where we were, so we know it didn’t come through there. Besides, why would a Cybrid infantry unit need to use a cutting tool, electrical wires, and now a human weapon to kill us?” “What are you saying?” “It’s one of us, Vicks. This thing... it’s inside one of us.” |
