This job was turning out to be much more than a simple bug hunt. I had come into this thinking it was just the typical scientist who got careless with a few gene splicing agents, but was now beginning to think that there was something else at play here. Should keep an eye out for anything that looks outta place. 

I brought up my PDA. The new operating system was running a lot faster than the Windows 5 that had been in it. It was a lot more simple too, which was good for me because I liked my things simple. I slid through the different tabs before I found the Lab Data folder. I tapped it to open it and found two JPEG maps, they were named “Lab Overview”, “Biospheres” and  the over view map had  green marks on it labeled “Decon Units”, which I assumed was fancy talk for a sick bay. The first place that struck my mind as a good place to find food was the kitchen obviously. According to the map, the cafeteria and kitchen were a floor up. The stairwell was just down the hall from here. Once I exited the stairwell on the 5th floor then they were just down that hall. But of course, who knew how many mutated baddies were between me and there. Better start walking and keep the guns handy.

I stuffed my PDA back into my vest, grabbed the High-Power from my back and started down the hallway, keeping my head on a swivel and my ears primed for any kind of sound, be they human or otherwise. I walked about 50 feet or so down the dark hallway, searching any rooms that weren't locked, which was quite a few, but they were mostly research stations and contained nothing over than broken beakers and dried blood. At the end of the hallway was a slightly ajar door that had a faintly glowing sign above it that read “Stairwell.” I creaked the metal door opened and peered upwards. The stairwell was lit by oscillating red lights, a little like a police car. I slipped inside and quietly closed the door behind me, keeping the high power at the ready.

I followed the stairs three floors up before I found the doorway that was labeled “5th Floor.” The thing was slightly ajar. Quietly, I pushed it open and was greeted with the same darkness that was festering downstairs. In front of me was a long hallway. On either side of the hallway was what looked like a kind of medical bay. There were glass walls instead of the plate steel that made up the rest of the place. Inside there were a few flickering lights that illuminated the area just enough for me to be able to tell that it was completely destroyed. Strangely though, I didn't see any bodies, nor did I see any blood. In fact, the entire corridor was gore free. That scared me, especially when you consider that the rooms were lined with spent brass, the glass windows were shattered out and the walls were riddled with bullet holes. I don't like it, there should be gore. I raised the High-Power to my shoulder and started down the corridor. At the end was a set of double doors with a glowing sign above them that read “Cafeteria.”

The cafeteria was a large, 60X60 foot room that had ten rows of tables about 10 feet long and 5 foot wide tables in ten rows up and down, leaving small area's of passage in between them. There were three trash cans spaced evenly apart in each of the walkways. Placed around the room were a few support pillars that had posters and bulletin broads tacked on them. There were several industrial lights hanging from the ceiling that would do a lot of good for me if they were lit.

Sighing at my misfortune, I walked into the kitchen, but it was so inky dark that I couldn't see where anything was. I flipped on the flashlight on the bottom of the High-Power and started looking around the room. There was a large serving station very near the entrance. Six vacant food trays with dirty serving utensils inside of them lined the bar like area and at the end there was a small table that held tea and coffee dispensers. Behind the station were two huge stainless steel refrigerators as well as three mixers and an oven along with several deep fryer vats and a brick pizza oven that still had a small fire lit inside of it.

I jumped over the counter and made my way into the back of the kitchen where I found three metal doors. One of them read “Vegetable Cooler”, one read, “Dried and Canned Foods” and the third read, “Meat Locker.” Meat and the veggies have probably gone bad by now from the lack of power, better stick to the dried foods. I unlatched the pantry's door and stepped inside, shining my flashlight on the shelves. They were stocked with all kinds of cans from Tomato Soup to Beefaroni and even Salmon and vegetables like Green Beans, Spinach and Corn. The dry foods ranged from Fettuccine Alfredo to Four Cheese Pasta and even breakfast dishes like Bacon and Eggs. There were jars of sauces, Pizza crusts and even some cheeses.  Also in the back of the pantry were a few bags that by my guess were used to take the food to different places in the lab. Better take everything I can carry.

I slung the High-Power over my shoulder, grabbed two of the bags and started filling them with as many jars, cans and bags of food as I could fit in them. Once they were full, I picked them up and started back out into the kitchen. Almost immediately, I heard what sounded like chewing. Quietly as I could, I set the bags down and grabbed the High-Power, flipping on the flashlight. I placed my back against the wall and side stepped along it's entire length until I was able to peek out of the corner.

In front of the pizza oven, were two men. One of them was dead, the other not so much. The living man was dressed only from the waist down. He was so skinny I could see the bones poking through his skin. There were veins sticking through his skin, showing up as pain blue lines and his body had a yellowish tint to it. There were also two red holes on his upper back as well as a V shaped pattern of small, one inch long and about half inch wide patches of skin missing and a triangular shaped specie had been cut out of the back of his head. On his shoulders were three holes arranged in a triangular pattern. There were also two inch wide circles of flesh cut out of his side, these traced all the way up to his arms and were about 2 and a half inches apart. He also appeared to be feasting on the body of his dead friend. He didn't seem to notice that he had a light on him and a gun at his back. What the fuck?  All of a sudden he turned around and stood up, holding his fingers in way that told me he was going to use them like he had claws. His arms reached almost down to his knees and were so skinny every vein he had was visible to some extent. He had no eyes, where his eyes should have been there was just one long strip of what looked like scar tissue. In the middle of his chest there was a large, 3 and a half inch wide circle of flesh cut out and there were metal bits that looked almost like wiring adapters. For a cryogenics harness maybe? The only facial feature he had was a nasty, disfigured fang lined mouth. There were five fangs on top and bottom that were about an inch long and slobbering with bloody drool and bits of flesh from his meal. 

He stood there looking at me for a minute, then lunged so quickly that I had absolutely zero time to counter. Next thing I knew the High-Power was on the ground and both of my hands were trying to keep this thing from sinking it's jaws into my neck. It was a lot stronger than it looked. With just the muscles in it's skinny torso, it was wining against me. The creature pushed against me until my arms were almost folded flat against my chest and then reached in to bite my neck. I bit first. I grabbed it's neck with both jaws and clamped as hard as I could, but it's foul tasting blood filled my mouth and forced me to let go. I came off the bite and knocked it to the ground with a fist to the face as it stumbled backwards. I yanked my Automag from it's holster and fired off two rounds, both of which struck the creature in the chest. It staggered, regained it's balance and lunged at me again. I cracked off four more rounds, making my handgun's slide lock back. I pressed the mag release, letting the nickle magazine fall out. I grabbed a new one from my vest, shoved it into the handle grip and clicked the chamber closed. The creature jumped at me again, swatting the gun from my hands. I retaliated with a nasty, five clawed strike across it's face. It squealed in pain and jumped back.

“Why won't you go down!?!”, I hissed at it.

It hissed back and jumped at me again. I balled my right hand into a fist and threw it at the creature in an upper cut. I came very close to making contact with it's skull, but it jumped out of the way and struck a hard blow on the side of my head, sending me to the ground. I slid for a minute, coming to a stop right next to the High-Power. I grabbed it up and brought it to my shoulder. As the creature jumped, I let one of the rounds go. 

It was like summoning a thunder storm. The noise from the round put a ring in my ears and echoed like a voice in a canyon throughout the entire lab, I was sure there wasn't a single survivor that hadn't heard that gun go off. The recoil....the recoil was...indescribably heavy. I actually felt the Chitin on my shoulder crack with the gun's kick back and the faint sizzle as the acid that flowed throughout my body made contact with the polymer stock. The scent of gun powder hung over the air, the chemicals in it threatening to put me on a high.

That damn thing STILL wasn't dead! The round had split it nearly in half, the right side of it's body being held together by a few grizzly threads, but it wasn't dead. I gripped the rifle and rose, the acid dripping out of my cracked exoskeleton and sizzling when it touched the floor. I shouldered the massive double barrel, preparing myself for the recoil as the creature turned to face me.

“Fuck. You”, I said aloud.

I pulled the trigger, turning the creature into nothing more than a bloody paste. My shoulder cracked even further, sending a surge of pain through me. My tail swished behind me as I dropped the rifle to the floor and placed my hand on my shoulder. I was leaking a steady stream of blood and other fluids. It wasn't a threat, but if I didn't get patched soon who knows what I could pick up. I took a deep breath and picked up the rifle. I cracked the action open and the rounds came flying out, landing on the floor with two loud clanks. I slid two new rounds into the barrel and closed it with a thunk. It had a sound similar to a grenade launcher when it closed, which I personally liked. I didn't, however, like the fact that every single one of those things was probably on their way here right now. I quickly snatched up the bags, exchanged the High-Power for my sword and ran out of the kitchen. I could hear the mass of foot steps as the mutants closed in on me. I ran out of the cafeteria and through the medical center as the foot steps began to get louder.

I ran into the stair well and slammed the door shut behind me, I needed to stop their advance somehow. If they followed me back to the lounge everyone would be eaten. I looked around the stair well, I needed rope, chains, something I could use to bar that door, but nothing jumped out at me. I heard a slam. I looked out the window of the stairwell door and could see a large horde of mutants crawling over each other to get to me. I needed to stop up that door! Now! Pressed for options, I grabbed a ten foot length of pipe off the wall and started yanking. But it didn't budge. I yanked again, still no movement. Again, just a little bit of give. The creatures were getting closer. I gave a fourth yank, a slight creak. I grabbed it with both hands, placed both my feet on the wall and yanked as hard as I could. The pipe snapped off, causing the area to fill with steam and me to land on my down pipes, which arched my back in a way that I thought would brake my spine. I jumped up, using every bit of strength I had, I tied one end to the door's handle and the other end to the guard rail on the stair case. Just in a nick of time too. I had just let go of the pipe when they slammed into the door. The door moved quite a bit under their combined force, but that pipe was heavy steel. The only way you were gonna brake it was with a plasma cutter, it was just my luck that I had snapped it at the joints.

I grabbed my sword, the food and quickly retreated down the stairwell. Once I was on the second floor, I locked the door behind me and darted down the hall back to the lounge. Once there, I kicked the door.

“Allen!”, I said, “it's Skyline.”

The door slid open, Allen was standing there with a pump action shotgun in his hands. He ushered me in and closed and locked it behind me. I set the bags of food on the table and then sat down in the chair.

“It was a walk in the park”, I said between my gasps.

“We heard the High-Power go off”, Allen said, “I was considering going to get you after the second shot went off. What were you shooting at?”

Remembering that Allen said my PDA would record data on any creature I ran across, I pulled it out and accessed the Lab Data folder, finding new folder named “Specimen Information”, inside of it. I tapped on it and it opened to a single file called “Specimen 0001” It contained a detailed description that was full of DNA data, the chemicals used in it's creation as well as height, weight, gender and things of that nature. But all I needed was the image, which matched what I had shot perfectly. I held it up.

“That's what I was shooting at”, I told him, It took six  .50 Action rounds and didn't even flinch.”

“Skins”, Jacob said, “I thought we killed all those?”

“Apparently not”, Tyler answered, “how many were there Sky?”

“Fifty”, I answered, “at least.”

Sarah sighed an annoyed sigh, “crap. Did you at least manage to contain them?”

“I tied the door shut with a steel pipe”, I answered, “it was just my luck it broke off at the joints. Unless that door gives out we should be safe.”

“Even if it did”, Jacob said as he started going through the bags of food, “they couldn't get in here anyway. For once one of you domeheads did something right.”

I tried to ignore him calling me dome head and helped the others put the food away. There wasn't much of anything we could do now expect have something to eat and figure out where we stood.