"All residents be advised the city is in lockdown following viral outbreak all residents should stay inside lock all doors and wait for authorities."
"Wait for authorities my ass!" I swore as the raid siren and warning repeated, Looking down I see that the dark veins in my hand have reached my elbow. "I'm so fucked." Barking and heavy boots sound in the distance behind urging me to hurry down the street, Half a block later a group of Infected stumbles out of an alley across the way. "Fuck" I swear to myself.
Looking around I see an alley on my side of the street as well, ducking in and finding it empty I break into a run. At the end I found an already disengaged fire escape, I climb quickly then pulled it up once I was on the second floor, I dive through an already busted window and work my way through the seemingly abandoned apartment.
once out into the hall I follow the signs to the stairwell and head up to the four and highest floor. Not willing to risk one of the rooms I hunker down near a window overlooking the street, trying to relax and catch my breath. As I relax my mind can't help but get drawn back to the state of things,
Day one we called them zombies, now I realize that was a woefully inadequate designation. These things are not the walking corpses from the movies: The regular ones seemed zombie-ish but not undead no rotting flesh, sure some were covered with scrapes and bites, But they were alive.
They seemed to have only one goal to transmit the virus, Groups of them would pile up on a victim immobilizing and biting. Then they would let them up and an hour or two later viola one more shambler. The real nasty Cronenberg shit started roughly twenty-four hours after infection, A small amount of the infected would suddenly they would stop and take a crouched fetal position.
Within moments their skin would fuse and shift till they looked like a body in a skin-colored sack. Other infected would collect them and arrange them in stacks that fused into Satans idea of a beehive.
After that, we just started calling them drones.
Gunshots start me out of my daze guess they caught up while I was fucking monologuing to myself, several shots later thing quiet down guess they took out the swarm must have been small no Alphas.
"AL I KNOW YOU'RE HERE SOMEWHERE, DOGS MAY HAVE LOST YOUR SCENT BUT THAT BILLION DOLLAR PIECE OF HARDWARE IN YOUR SPINE IS STILL PINGING YOUR LOCATION."
Shit fucking Jax why did they send that ass-kissing prick, My name is Alister and he fucking knows it not Al. Not that it matters I may despise him but I can't help but admit he's fucking relentless I don't think I'm getting out of this one.
" I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME DONT MAKE ME COME LOOKING, FIVE MINUTES THAT'S ALL YOUR GRACE THEN I STOP WORRYING ABOUT HOW DAMAGED YOU ARE WHEN I DRAG YOU IN."
"Double fuck, Why does Amalgam want me back so badly it can't be because I'm infected, cause there's no way they could even know I am? And the shit in my spine is just a low-end AI nano swarm designed to repair my spinal cord and stop new tumors. Oh... OH!!! OH SHIT that's it!"
"That's, why I haven't lost my cognitive function the AI is keeping the virus from affecting my nervous center, It must see the virus as a threat and is quarantining my upper spine and brain."
I look down at my left-hand dark lines span up my arm from the now healed bite on my hand, I've been avoiding looking at; or thinking about it, "Now though now that I don't think I'm dying well this just might be useful."
I've seen the drones survive lethal wounds and the Alphas just mutate through them, cut off a hand it grows back more dangerous: maybe claws, mantis-like scythes, even seen barbed tentacles.
"Shit this is a bad idea" before I can give myself a chance to chicken out I stand up and punch through the window, thanking the stars that it's as shitty as the apartment complex I snag out a large glass fragment.
Knowing there's no way in hell Jax missed that I quickly raise the window sill up, I set the shard in a groove in the window frame, "It's going to be easier to go through the wrist than my hand." Setting my wrist on the shard I let my breath out "Fuck!" then slam it down with all my strength.
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The world goes fuzzy for a moment and I slump to my knees, I try and ignore piercing agony and stand back up. I drag myself upright with my good arm and survey the damage.
my hand is still partially attached by about half an inch of skin and sinew but strangely barely bleeding, I brace myself and just jerk my arm back tearing my hand the rest of the way off. I collapse again this time not trying to get back up.
"It's working" I stare at my wrist as I watch a scaffolding of new bone extending out of my wrist veins start to stretch out seconds after squirming like little tentacles. all soon obscured as the flesh and muscle quickly wrap it up followed by skin.
All in all, no more than a minute and I have a new hand, That looks nothing like my old one, Greyish Reptilian skin covers my hand: Not scaled like a snake but rough and craggy like a gator or a birds foot, fingers ending in wicked three-inch spikes that curve slightly.
My arm starts itching the skin shifting and splitting till my whole forearm is now armored. "Shit I wasn't expecting that, guess that proves I am both infected and seem to have the strain, gene, or whatever the fuck mutation that makes Alphas."
Clenching my fist I can feel the power contained in my now transfigured arm, No way in hell am I going with Jax, no way in hell am I handing something like this over to Amalgam. "I'm Amalgam's end game a controllable Bio Weapon". I gave them my life, my health, and now even my city, my family... Renee.
I pull myself up off the ground new hand digging into the wall like its tinfoil, I grab my bag and pull out a black hoody that I had scavenged a little too big but it will make covering my hand easier. I yell out to Jax "coming down.'"
" No response, not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing." I pull on the hoody and pocket my left hand. Then I head back down the way I came once I finally reach the fire escape I see Jax, all six and a half feet of Dreadlocked ebon murder machine.
He aims his AR at me, "Come on down Al." He tells me before whistling, two Dobermans pad up flanking him. I raise my eyebrow " I got a question first, You're a cop: part of the special response unit. Why are you still working with Amalgam? After the outbreak, I can't understand why you're not trying to take them down."
"That's the question your dying to know? C'mon Al get with the program, Amalgam owns this town. Owns me, the cops, That piece of fancy hardware in your spine, You. You're the only one who doesn't seem to have gotten the memo, Now be a good little science boy and get tHE FUCK DOWN!!
"Fine" His eyes go wide as I pull out my hand and jump off the fire escape. I see the muzzle of his gun flash and the feeling of hot iron as the bullet passes through me, then I am elbow deep in his guts and we slam into the pavement.
One of his hounds drags me off him by my ankle so I roll over and grab its face my fingers digging into its skull, it lets go yelping but it's too late. With a grinding pop, one of my claws pierces its eye socket and it falls spasming. I turn expecting the other dog but it's standing over Jax growling menacingly.
I look down and see the bullet hole sealing up leaving another armored patch on my chest near my heart. "That was close, lucky he was using AP rounds or I would have probably missed him." I hear Jax groan, my eyes dart over to him as he sits up. "Tough son of a bitch!" I think.
"Welp I'm done" He coughs out. "You got me good Alastair." He coughs, blood this time. "You're right not to want to go back." He points at my arm. "But they're not gonna give you a choice now, They won't let something like that slip between their fingers." he taps the chest of his combat vest and I see the camera.
"That's a live feed isn't it," I ask. "Yep." He nodded, pulling it out and smashing it onto the ground. "Why?" He pulls out a pack of smokes and lights one then tosses me the pack, I follow suit, taking a drag waiting for his response.
"No point helping them now, Just don't go after the rest of the SRU most of them are decent. Except for Walther he's" His face is suddenly gone and I can see through his head. I hear the hammer blow of shell ricocheting down the alleyway, on instinct I turn and book it.
Seconds later I hear another sharp crunch and a plume of concrete dust to the left then I'm out of the alley and around the corner. I ran till I couldn't anymore, I collapse against a wall catching my breath I feel an itching in my chest and within seconds my breathing slowed, I take a deep breath and find that lung capacity seems greater than before.
I let myself slide to the ground. "I'm changing faster since I cut off my hand, The virus can't somehow understand my desires can it?" I look at my hand and notice that the blood is gone, No on closer look, it is not gone it's no longer red just a murky sludge, "The iron has been leached out."
I hurriedly pull out my phone and sync it with the AI.
Welcome Back Alastair 10 logs
2022.1.3. 10:33 Detecting foreign organism Virus ignored.
2022.1.3. 10:40 Signs of DNA alteration. Wall of Jehrico protocol enacted.
2022.1.3. 10:50 Host stable despite changes to DNA. Running full bio scan generating Table.
2022.1.3. 13:07 Table generated. fluctuations in parameters detected. Host physical parameters improving at an estimated rate of .00001 per hour as change seems beneficial no further action taken.
2022.1.3. 16:00 Host has not checked logs since infection, Host shows signs of increased cortisol and adrenaline. Action is taken to decrease stress, blockers administered.
2022.1.3. 16:07-1 Massive damage to left extremity. infected cells near the area enter a cycle of rapid growth, virus DNA rewrites become accelerated.
2022.1.3. 16:07-2 Formation of microtumors detected rapid mobilization is authorized tumors destroyed. DNA extracted from Host shows 89% similarity to Crocodylinae.
2022.1.3. 16:12 host receives an injury to the chest. Results identical to Logs 2022.1.3. 16:07-1 and -2. No further actions.
2022.1.3. 16:15 Nano swarm insufficient Action taken iron reclamation, host determined to low to target, alternative left forearm covered in foreign blood. Target acceptable procurement enacted. Swarm exceeds 700% determination new baseline.
2022.1.3. 16:26 Detecting Modification to lungs Host breathing capacity now 130% table updated.
Before he has a chance to take it all in his Phone buzzes, he checks his inbox finding a message with a link to a video.
A blond reporter faces the camera. "Today Amalgam released a report to the press determining Alastair Seigmend to be the perpetrator behind the Hive Virus outbreak. Amalgam states that they are greatly ashamed to have one of their researcher implicated, A reward of 100,000,000 dollars has been fronted by Amalgam for his capture. He is believed to be very dangerous. In a clip received from Amalgam, it can be clearly seen that he is an Alpha infected but shows signs of independent thought as he can be seen smoking and speaking with someone off-screen.
"Fuck"