Running towards the showers I spotted the empty desk in front of the door way

Launching upwards I tucked my legs in and flew through the hallway before passing cleanly over the desk before skidding to a stop in the bathrooms hallway

After stopping I turned and ran down to the corner before going into the boys showers

What greeted me was a gruesome sight

Blood splattered over the tiles and stained the grout

Wooden splinters scattered and floating on the pools of blood

A small crater filled with blood in the middle of the room, much like an artificial lake forcefully created through sheer physical strength

The sight caused an uncontrollable hatred and fear to explode from the depths of my heart swallowing everything inside of me as it slowly gnawed at my rationality

"Shit!"

Coming in behind me was John

"Those fuckers went too far"

He walked up and examined the 'crime scene' in detail

Quickly mapping out how everything went down he paused for a couple seconds as he followed a bloody trail

It flowed from the crater all the way out of the showers

The trail was a few drops of blood and yet he had managed to track it like a genius detective

"Did he get up and walk away?!"

His voice was filled with disbelief as he thought about the idea of a normal person moving after getting his head caved in like this

Looking around he immediately came to a conclusion

"Charlotte. We need to find him"

Turning towards me he spoke something

I couldn't understand anything he was saying. My heart had already been engulfed by flames of hatred

"Ctshhh"

A stinging pain coursed through my cheek as my sight completely changed

Slowly turning my head back I saw John only a few steps away from me with a raised hand

"Charlotte! We need to find him!"

"O-ok"

"I'll look upstairs, you take this floor"

"GO!"

Shocked I turned around and ran towards the central stair case with all my might

I didn't even have time to think as I was already focused on sprinting through the cluttered hallways

I ducked and weaved through the few people that littered the hallway before coming to the lobby

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

I ran off to look through the defense section quickly poking my head in all the different rooms that housed weapons, rations and anything else that could be needed in emergency's

After looking through the entire right side of the floor I came back to the middle and searched the meeting areas the cafeteria and bar before moving onto the boiler room and laundry mat

It felt like an hour had passed before I finally made it to the very far left side of the base where the farming area and the dormitories began

While they were big and covered the entire back and outside part of the first floor they had to be accessed from this side as the other end connected to the defense sector only available for those that actually worked there

Coming into the dormitories I immediately went to his room

The door was open and there were a few smeared prints of dried blood on the floor and door

Taking a few steps in I found Lucas hidden in the shadows leaning against a wall next to a large pile of items

Rushing over to him I quickly felt up every part of him to make sure he wasn't seriously injured

It didn't take long to figure out the severity of his injuries after thoroughly checking up on him

He had none

No scars, no bruises and no places for blood to be pouring out of like we had seen in the bathroom

'What the hell happened?'

Hidden from my eyes under Lucas's clothes and tucked away in the darkness his body was ever so slightly changing and warping in impossible ways preparing itself

...

[Lucas POV]

"Err"

My eyes fluttered open revealing a few streaks of bright crimson liquid right in front of my eye

'Blood? My blood?'

Even though I had just woken up my consciousness felt strangely awake and alert as if I had been awake for a long time

I slipped the back of my hands across the ground until they were in line with my shoulders then I put my palms on the concrete floor

Pushing myself up I raised myself onto my knees although everything still felt shaky and my sight was failing to keep up with my bodies movement properly as I was seeing after images

Struggling I crawled across the floor and made it to the middle of the room

Once properly inside I began to think back to what had happened earlier and why I had become like this

'Those fuckers! It's all their fault!'

Enraged I grabbed my satchel and violently threw it against the wall in the corner

"Dooph"

A low thud resounded out as the satchel hit the wall and then slammed into the floor

Still enraged I could hear my violent almost beast like breathing

I didn't think I would be able to calm down for a long time until I spotted a bright glowing liquid seeping out of my satchel

'W-what is that?'

The yellow glowing liquid seemed to slip through the leather and spread out onto the concrete leaving a gentle hissing in its wake

The hissing was like a low hum that would relax someone normally, but it caused me to panic

'My stash!'

The liquid started seeping between the tiles and into my stash of important items

I quickly launched myself over there by pushing off of the floor in my kneeling position

Before I quickly turned and slid the tile out of the way

I began scooping up my scrap and items as fast as I could ignoring how messily I grabbed them

I got the items out of the hole before the viscous yellow liquid could touch them

Instead it splashed onto my bare hands and arms causing my limbs to quietly hiss like snakes as a slow pain permeated through my skin slowly touching the very outside tendons inside my arms and melting the blood that covered my limbs

It was eating away at my body at a pace akin to a snail

Ignoring the pain I continued to save everything before quickly snatching up a wrapped up flannel

Holding it up I winced and fumbled causing the flannel wrapped item to stumble out of my grasp and roll through a deep puddle of the glowing liquid

The sudden turn of events shocked me out of my pain causing me to shoot my hands out and grasp the item even if it felt like little mouths were lightly nibbling at my palms, almost tickling them

Quickly I finished unwrapping the the item, inside the flannel was an intact black crystal

A large drop of viscous liquid slid down the crystal

Panicked I vigorously started wiping it away for a few seconds before I paused turning over my thumb

On my thumb was a rubbed out black smudge

Confused I took the crystal and pressed it against the floor that was covered in the glowing yellow liquid

After a few seconds of soft hissing the liquid started to bubble and began to violently eat away at the crystal

I wasn't sure what it was melting as the crystal wasn't reducing in size but small bubbles of yellow and black appeared beside it showing that something was indeed changing

Lifting it up I shook it off finding weird cuts in the crystal that weren't there before

Some kind of 'filler' that hid the engravings was being melted revealing the weird symbols that had been cut into it