As she got closer, she could hear the group talking amongst themselves.

She wasn't quite sure as to what they were saying however.

Only a few words were clear.

Quiet, Careful, something about not raising suspicion.

But above all, she heard the word Scarna.

She wasn't quite sure what it meant, It sounded like something she had heard of before.... somewhere.

She leaned a little closer.

"Oi, you better keep it quiet, everyone may be in the barracks a little ways down from here so it might be ok, but just in case."

Colby had a coarse, gruff sort of voice. Carried a strange old city dialect.

"A vehicle should be coming by soon to pick up the stuff"

One of the men tripped slightly as he was carrying a large load.

"Hey, hey! Watch where your walkin', that shit is highly infectious."

She could see from the box the man had carried, a hint of a red glow.

It was peeking out of the top almost like the lid of the box was knocked open just slightly, it was hard to tell in the dim light, so all she could do assume.

"Scarna..." she thought to herself. "Like the berries?"

The idea crept into her mind like a virus.

Were they bringing in Scarna Berries? Or something made from them at least?

Why?

One wrong move and their could be a massive mutant outbreak.

She had to move, find a way to call the ASDC.

CLANK!

She tripped on the corner of the shelf, her steel toed boot slamming against it.

"Who's there?!" one of the silhouettes shouted.

She ducked back behind the shelf.

"Fuck fuck fuck FUCK!" she whispered to herself in intensity.

She had to move fast, she didn't know what they would do to her but she knew it wouldn't be good.

She attempted to keep her distance, moving to a further shelf.

The figures began to move, looking for the interloper who dared to interrupt.

Several clicks could be heard, did they have guns?

Several different thoughts swam through her head at once.

A lump had settled in her stomach.

She could hear the steps around her.

Tap, tap, tap. Like the beating of a drum.

She scampered towards a container a ways away from the shutter door.

The container itself was a little different from the others, at least from the ones she had seen before.

A feint red glow could be seen, seeping from the lid.

"Hey!" A voice could be heard.

The dim light shown over her in just a way that she was visible.

The man held out a pistol in her direction.

BANG!

A shot passed by her head.

"Hands in the air!"

His voice was light, seemed a bit young to be doing what he was doing but who knew, times were tough for many in Alpha.

She raised her hands.

"Don't shoot, I mean you no harm."

His hands were quivering.

She tried to step back.

"Don't MOVE."

She didn't know what to do at this point, she didn't have anything she could use to protect herself against a gun after all.

KRACK!

Another shot was fired, this time from an unknown location, it hit the box in between them.

Wood, glass and a blood red juice scattered through the air.

The man in front of her began to rub his eye.

"What?"

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

He kept rubbing at it, not paying attention to the gunfire that just went off.

She could hear the others coming closer now. Their footsteps moving closer and echoing through the corridors of shelves.

Taking the chance, she bolted toward a little niche in between two of the massive shelves.

She wouldn't risk just running, there was too much distance between her and the exit, she would be gunned down on the spot if she were caught.

Colby called out, "Jesus Christ, man!"

His was a red as a tomato.

"You broke the fuckin' Cargo, ya Dipshit!"

The man didn't pay attention to what Colby was saying however, he just kept rubbing his eyes.

"Don't tell me you've got that shit in your eyes."

The man dropped his gun.

"Hey, pay attention to me yo-"

It was sudden, too fast for one to see unless they were paying full attention.

"Hey Colby, you good man?" one of the men spoke.

Blood began to sputter from a gash in his neck, as he collapsed on the floor.

The who was rubbing his eyes had one of his arms outstretched, blood in his nails.

"The fuck did you do!" another man shouted.

He didn't reply, from what Alma could see in the spot she was hiding in, red growths were forming on his skin, almost like welts or boils.

He took a few steps closer, the other men began to brandish their weapons.

He knelt down in front of Colby's corpse, digging his pockets, only to pull out a knife.

"Put the knife down." one of the men said sternly.

A red energy began to coat the knife as he began to bury it into the corpse, moving it back and forth as though he were carving out chunks.

The others in the group were stunned, handguns still pointed at what was once their comrade.

"Put It Down!" the yelled even louder.

But the man kept carving.

The bits that he carved out, rather, due to how rough the carving was, one could say he was practically tearing pieces off.

That is until one of the men, nervous as he was, fired a warning shot.

The bullet grazed the man's cheek as he was feasting.

The usual response would be to jump back, startled by the sound or the or the pain.

but he sat there, taking a moment before looking up, the red growths spreading from his eyes, coating his skin.

His cheeks almost resembled ground beef.

Eyes were bloodshot, pupils carried a soft red hue.

Blood dripped from his mouth as his lips were shriveled, leaving his mouth in a continuous snarl.

He stood up, an energy began to wrap around him like a red aura. The energy that coated his knife grew in intensity, becoming almost crimson.

"You better stay back!" one of the men spoke, his voice cracked under the pressure.

You could barely see the look on the infected man's face, his head was an unnatural shade of red, which was now spreading down his body at an alarming rate. In contrast, you could only make out tufts of orange hair peeking through the red mass.

He took one step.

One of the men fired, a large messy hole was bored into his shoulder.

The Mutant looked at it for a second before it sealed up again, he then looked toward the man who fired.

In the blink of an eye, The Mutant stood right in front of the man.

Staring deep into his eyes.

A sharp pain in his chest, a wet feeling pooled around his stomach.

He looked down to see a bloodstain expanding along the fabric of his shirt, the knife blade burrowed in deep.

The group surrounded the mutant as his victim fell to the ground, holding the wound in his stomach.

The mutant licked the blood off of the knife blade as he began to shamble towards the others.

Without so much as a warning they all fire on him.

Each shot was so close to the other, so consistent that one would not even have the time to move much less scream.

Yet, with each bullet that made contact with the mutant's bumpy red flesh, it would just as soon fall right back out, the wound resealing.

Soon the surrounding area was a marked with blood as he tore through each and every single one of them.

One by one.

1...

2...

3...

4...

And finally he stood, mouth full as he gorged on his bounty.

Soon two others rose, covered in the same red growths as the first.

One of them being the man with the stab wound, the other had a chunk taken out of his cheek.

Though their wounds seemed be healing quickly, bubbling over as the growths expanded.

They began to scan the surrounding area, stepping over the two remaining bodies.

She held her breath the whole time this was occurring, felt like a minute extended over several hours.

She was beginning to give out, but she knew that it most likely would spell her doom.

It was like a pit in her stomach, a pressure that wouldn't release.

She could hear their footsteps, like a scratching at the back of her skull.

Coming closer and closer still.

SLAM!

A hand hit the side of the shelf next to her.

The resulting sound cause her to jump, releasing a single small breath.

She quickly caught herself in an attempt to keep herself hidden.

Silence.

The footsteps were gone, all that was left was dead air.

Four fingers creeped around the corner into the niche she sat in.

And then another.

And two more.

She was frozen in place a couple of heads began to peek in.

The same red bumpy complexion, as though someone used their heads to smash a pile of raspberries.

Eyes as red as blood.

Or was it even redder than that now?

Redder than red itself.

She didn't know where to go, the niche she was in had another shelf directly behind her.

It was filled to the point that it would take just a bit too much time to move it, and the two mutants were right in front of her.

As they crept closer, she realized that the only way to get out was to dive straight into the lion's den.

She looked at them for just a moment.

They weren't carrying any weapons.

It was a very strange phenomenon, the mutants, well at least the humanoid ones, had a habit of carrying around weapons and tools designed for close combat.

Guns would be dropped immediately, same with most other ranged weaponry.

This was fortunate.

They didn't seem to have knives on them like the other one.

And while their speed was top class, their loss of intelligence allowed for their movements to be a lot more pronounced.

The lunged towards her, arms reaching out to rip into her.

She used the time it took to ready their lunge forward to dive out of their reach.

She scooted out of their reach, and began to run.

It was a strange feeling, the fear, the adrenaline.

It was as though she was moving on autopilot.

Running past shelf after shelf, trying to lose the three red figures that seemed to be running on all sides of her, attempting to chase her down.

She was running out of room to run however, the building was only so big.

She was heading towards the door when one of the Mutants jumped out from the side, knocking over one of the massive shelves in front of her.

Not only blocking the exit but causing a sort of domino effect, knocking over a few other shelves, blocking off other paths.

She was truly cornered this time.

The two other mutants crawled out from the mess, and began to close in on her.

She looked frantically for something, anything to help her escape.

There, out from under the debris, a table leg.

She, keeping her eyes on the encroaching figures, scrambled to grab it.

She stood up quicky and with a heavy swing struck the mutant with the knife hard in the face.

It didn't seem to faze it however.

It retaliated, slashing her across the chest with it's knife, a trail of red light arcing behind it.

She pain from the cut sent her reeling to the floor, She could feel more than that however, a sort of festering in her chest.

And it began to grow and scour.

She could see them getting closer, moving slower now due to them noticing the red growths forming on the open wound in front of her.

BANG! BANG!

A few more shots sounded as her sight began to fade, the figures, who were now nothing more than blotches, began to run towards the sound.

"I guess this is it" Alma exclaimed, her breath becoming hoarse and short.

"I made a promise to leave this place, seems I won't be able to keep it."

"Are you sure?" A voice called out in a whisper.