35 Letting Go (1/2)
He banged the side of the container again, this time with his neck breaking. A vein crawled out of his cheek before sinking under his eyelid. I let out a sharp groan as Michael placed his hands onto the edges of the glass.
Like suction cups, they stuck onto the glass before he banged his head against the tube. With another loud, sickening thud, his head banged against it. The skin on his forehead split with the next thud. His blood smeared onto the hardened plastic with the next thud. Bits of bones mixed with the red slush before a crack appeared on the glass.
A second later, his head smashed through the glass. He crawled through the hole, cutting deep gashes into his arms and body as he squirmed through. He stayed on all fours, his chest facing the ground as his back split open. Two arms and a single eye opened in the middle on his spine. It glanced at me before turning towards Kelsey.
I couldn't even move. I couldn't even think. I'd come back to try and save one of my only friends, and now he was this abomination. It was different seeing people you didn't know transform into spawns from hell. When you watched someone's face melt into a molten soup, it meant facing the reality of the situation. Everything I knew, all the memories and knowledge and understandings, was worthless in one moment.
All those lazy saturdays spent finding something to do, all those times Michael and I fucked around in school, they were torn apart in one second. Michael shambled towards me, my own horror mounting. I shook in objective terror as it neared me. I risked my life so that this could happen. At that moment, everything felt meaningless.
The eye glanced backwards, towards Kelsey. It shambled away and towards her spitting out acid onto the glass. The glass sizzled as Althea placed a hand on the wall. She leaned into the room as she said, ”What's with the noise...”
The eye of the creature turned towards her. They sat still before Althea lifted her arm, reforming it in a few seconds. I stood there, numb from it all until a bone spear pierced straight through the eye on Michael's back. The blood spraying onto my armor and the deafening noise of the rifle snapped me from my stupor. This was happening, and I had to do something about it.
The body collapsed onto the ground as Kelsey convulsed in the tube. The acid had melted the glass, revealing ebon wires crawling under her skin like a black liquid that was alive. Her chest split open, revealing a giant slug. Two tiny arms, on the slug lurched towards me, sending her tube flying at me. The glass tube knocked me over. The slug squeezed through Kelsey's chest, leaving a cocoon of skin behind.
The slug slithered onto me, the acidic slime corroding my armor. I pushed it away from my face as I glanced sideways. The eyeless, hollowed out skin of Kelsey looked back at me. I glanced back at the slug, the endless folds of skin on it oozing as two eyes glanced back. This thing had been Kelsey.
In the pits of my mind, a hatred formed. This was what that fucker Yawm wanted. It was like Yawm had taken my friends and used their ghosts to haunt me. Schema forced us into this world, and now Yawm was turning it inside out. I hated it. I hated him. I hated all this bullshit he was forcing down our throats. He'd made hell into my reality. Even if I broke every bone in my goddamn body, I'd return the favor.
I shoved the writhing slug off me. I stood up before another spear of bone drilled into the ground, through the slug's torso. With a forceful stomp, I smashed the slug's body. The acid covered my foot and splattered onto my armor before I grabbed one of the broken glass tubes. Like wielding an oversized club, I crushed the slug into green slush before turning towards Michael.
The arms and legs of him had curved onto himself, like he was trying to grab his own skin. His insides swelled. Holes opened in his skin, letting him suck in the air around us. They whistled as the body pulsed up and outward.
Kessiah shouted, ”What the fuck is going on in there?”
Sacks of glowing green appeared as the skin on Michael split open. The green boils swirled with energy, pulsing as they searched for a way out. I turned towards Althea as she aimed another bolt towards him. I sprinted forward as she fired the projectile, blocking with my weighted forearms.
The spear impaled me as I grit my teeth and pulled away from the growing skin sack of green. Her spear didn't pierce through me anymore. It stuck six inches deep into my forearm before I turned towards what had been Michael. It was just like I thought. The pulsing had grown chaotic as it shivered, the whistling sound turning into a blistering howl.
I sprinted forward and tackled the green blob. It rolled into the corner of the room as I fumbled on top of it. All became a blast of white then black.
When I awoke, everything blurred as I stared at a white ball of light above me. Kessiah was pulling my armor off me, the spiked tendrils digging into her hands as she pulled pieces off. Torix pulled out green, glowing shards of crystal from me with a pair of blue, steel tweezers. In his other hand, he held a bloody scalpel with black mana on the bladed edge. He cut at me out green crystals shards, his eyes intent and focused.
My eyes closed before opening again. Everything had changed, and Torix and Kessiah talked over me, Kessiah saying,
”How did he survive? That was a plasmic nova with poisoned crystal shards as shrapnel.”
”He is far tougher than almost anyone would be at his level. He did save Althea with his near suicidal sacrifice. I'm surprised he understood what was happening, considering Althea didn't.”
I glanced around, Althea holding her head in her hands as she agonized over something. I shook off the haze before sitting up. They turned towards me before Kessiah put her hand on my chest and said, ”Woah there tank-man. Slow down. You just had a rather extensive surgery.”
I blinked a few times before saying, ”I'm fine now. I've got the perks to keep going.”
With a bit more force, she pushed me down as she said, ”Just because you can doesn't mean you should.”
I let myself lean back onto the soft something I laid on. It must have been a black bed of mana made by Torix. I said, ”Alright, fine. What the fuck just happened?”
Torix glanced at Althea as he said, ”Neither of us mentioned it, but both Michael and Kelsey were dead by the time Althea brought them in. Those weren't holding cells. They were suspension pods. Based on the records in the pods, they died not long after leaving you in the quarry. In fact, they were infected before we even met.”
I raised myself off the table with my arms, ”Is that why they changed like that?”
Kessiah nodded, ”That's why they turned into spawns in the room over there. You injected the tube with a portion of your mana, awakening those fuckers. Before that though, we didn't know how to tell you that they passed.”
My eyes and tone were sharp as a razor, ”Why didn't either of you tell me?”
Torix sighed, ”You had just come back from a long, hard battle. Why would we tell you something before you'd rested?”
I seethed, ”I don't know, maybe to stop me from seeing my friends turn into fucked up monsters?”
Torix snapped, ”I understand your anger, but do not forget yourself. Calm down. I am your master, not your equal. Keep your tone civil, or I will keep it civil for you.”
I swallowed my outrage as Torix continued,
”There was no way of knowing they were infected, aside from cutting them open. I don't believe your compatriots were telling the truth either the last time you met. The steel legion were likely trying to keep them contained. In other words, they were trying to deceive us.”
I rasped, ”Wait, what?”
Althea raised her head and said, ”The pods categorized their history with the legion. Bribery and infection were the two main things mentioned. They had used a dungeon core to get out of the steel legion's barricade. When we sent the dungeon core as payment, the legion started digging around for them. They found them walking on a nearby road towards a different town and then sent them back for study.”
My shoulder's sunk down, my rage deflating. Kessiah shook her head, ”That's why your friend's story was so shitty. It was a lie to cover their asses.”
I glanced at my bed, ”I...damn...Fuck.”
Everything was numb. I couldn't think or move or even breath. Kessiah walked up before saying, ”I know I'd feel pretty bad after all this. Keep in mind though, they knew they were going to die. You of all people know just how damn far people will go to live. They'll even try and use their friends as shields.”
Althea glanced towards the wall, grimacing as she lifted her legs up and hugged them against her chest. Althea said, ”Your friends were as bad as mine.”
I nodded, ”Damn...It's amazing just how shitty people are.”
Torix said, ”And that is why you must forge your alliances carefully. Use this as a lesson.”
I slid myself off the table, ”I’m sure a petal or two landed on me while I was fighting. Am I infected too?”
Torix shook his head, “During the surgery for the crystal shards, Kessiah and I checked in case you were. We found nothing aside from twenty pounds of crystal lodged in your chest. Your armor likely kept you safe during your time there.”
Torix pulled out a portion of the green crystal, ”Amazing isn't it? Your hp didn't even hit critical levels during the entire surgury nor right after the bomb. The poison acted as a sedative, making removing them simpler than it should have been. You used your build well.”