Aj fell through space and time for what felt like an eternity. Having no abilities to manipulate energy, he simply hurtled along the trajectory the portal had set. Despite moving at a mind-numbing speed, Aj had eventually fallen asleep several times due to exhaustion. He had no food or water and was parched beyond belief as the portal carried on.

Eventually, a distant grey appeared before him, his eyes wearing out from the massive assault of blinding colors. His ears rung from the high-pitched sounds emitted from the portal. Despite feeling nearly dead, Aj focused, his hate and anger guiding him. As he fell through the portal, he had considerable time to reflect on the worst day of his life.

He had married Sammy, nearly discovered the gender of his unborn child, and then lost both due to Lion’s complacency in a single day. A mistake Aj swore to never forgive Lion for. The day had replayed over, and over in his mind as Aj watched galaxies and worlds flash past him. A never-ending loop of sobbing and anguish, memories flooding back to him from the very first time he had seen Sammy, to the last time he had held her, before she had gone into the clinic.

As the dark grey aura grew into a larger more defined shape, oddly resembling a dimly lit Zion, Aj wished he had died. He yearned to hold Sammy again, to tell her how much she meant to him. He had been robbed of watching his child grow, to see them walk for the first time, to hear their first words. To watch them grow and learn, to live a life free of pain and suffering. Aj would never watch them get married, or have children, or succeed in life. He wouldn’t sit by the fire and share stories of adventure and glory to his children’s children, passing on the legends of the dunes.

Aj wept so much he ran out of tears, his body spasming and cramping from his pain as he screamed into the void surrounding him. Finally, another red circle appeared before him. Aj gritted his teeth and braced himself as he shot through the other side of the portal. A dark room appeared around him, and Aj flew through the air, smashing into something.

Whatever he hit fell with him into a hard surface, the sound of breaking glass and metal instruments falling around him. Aj opened his eyes, and saw a flickering light above him, lodged into the white ceiling. A gasp caught his attention, and he looked over to see a terrified Shrike replicant in a white lab coat. The replicant was pressed against the far wall, his eyes wide and sweaty face pale.

Warm red liquid gently oozed onto Aj as he stumbled upward. He looked down and realized the thing he had crashed into was a woman with white hair, a dozen surgical tools sticking out of her body as Aj had cushioned his crash into the medical tool storage cabinet with her body. The Shrike on the far side of the room inched away as the portal closed.

Aj cracked his neck, and stomped over, grabbing the Shrike.

“Wait, wait, please!” the Shrike pleaded.

Aj headbutted the replicant, smashing the man’s nose as he wailed. Aj then kneed him in the groin as hard as he could. The Shrike doubled over in pain, vomiting as Aj grabbed the back of his shirt. Aj looked around and saw a medical bed on the far side of the room.

Aj threw the Shrike towards the bed, then walked over with an emotionless expression. The Shrike had collapsed on the floor. It was crying, pleading, but his words didn’t register with Aj. Aj stomped on the man several times, then picked him up and threw him on the bed.

As the Shrike bled and sobbed, Aj grabbed medical restraints from the silver metal tables. He tied the Shrike down, making it as tight as possible as the man’s flesh went purple. Aj then slowly pulled out his knife.

“Where are we?” Aj snarled.

“Please, we can make a deal! I can make you a god!” the Shrike pleaded.

Aj sighed and inserted the tip of the knife at the very top of the man’s left temple. He then steadily pulled the knife down, cutting the man’s face open as the Shrike screamed. With a bear paw like hand, he clamped down on the Shrike’s mouth, stifling his cries as the knife continued. The tip reached near the man’s left eye, then stopped.

“Where are we?” Aj whispered.

“Barouge!” the muffled Shrike whimpered.

“Where is the original Shrike?”

“We’re all fucking original!”

Aj nodded, then slammed his elbow into the man’s stomach. The man gasped and choked, as Aj clamped down on the Shrike’s jugular with his other hand.

“Where is the one who makes you?” Aj asked softly.

“He’s, here,” the Shrike gurgled.

Aj nodded, letting go of the man’s throat. He studied the room and saw several tubes of glowing grey liquid.

“That XM-801?” Aj head nodded.

The Shrike shook his head violently.

“It’s called Carnage, it’s our specialty,” the Shrike sobbed.

“Explain.”

“It’s better, more potent!”

“So more unstable?” Aj sneered.

The Shrike’s eyes widened as Aj grabbed a vial, then smashed the rest. Aj put the vial in his pocket, then went back to the restrained Shrike.

“Where is he?” Aj asked.

“I don’t know! I just turn whoever they send through the portal!” the Shrike yelped.

Aj slowly nodded.

“What makes Carnage so special?” Aj asked.

“It’s still in the trial phase,” the Shrike murmured.

“So, you were trying to kill me?”

“No! No, this is our latest batch, and it is perfect. We were just waiting for some new test

subjects to come through the portal when you smashed into my lab!”

“What makes this better than XM-801?” Aj asked.

“It feeds off of emotion, rewrites your DNA, and requires far more hardier subjects,” the Shrike whimpered.

An uneasy feeling bubbled up inside Aj as the replicant’s eyes widened.

“You would be perfect,” the Shrike whispered.

Aj nodded, then grabbed a surgery scalpel from the metal tray.

“No! No, please! You are exactly what we need! You could be the very first successful Carnage recipient!” the Shrike pleaded.

Aj grabbed the Shrike by the hair, and pulled his head back, exposing his throat. He cut the man’s throat, then lodged the scalpel in the Shrike’s chest. As the scientist death gurgled, Aj pulled out the vial, studying the glowing grey liquid. He remembered when Nameless had taken the dosage on Mars, the godlike power he had exuded. Would Aj take this, and enact the fury of the gods unto Shrike?

Aj sighed and put the vial in his pocket, he had other plans. As his adrenaline simmered down, his stomach roared. It felt like he hadn’t eaten in days. Aj scanned the medical room and noticed a small box on the metal desk. Aj cautiously went over, and gingerly opened it. Inside the insulated box with a handle, were two sandwiches, and a bottle of water.

Mental pictures of the sandwiches Aj had made for Sammy came back to him, as he stifled tears. He ripped the sandwiches out, and scarfed them down, choking and thumping his chest as he tore them apart. He then chugged the water bottle and forced himself not to throw up. As he huffed and thumped his chest, odd noises rung out from beyond the closed metal door. Aj brought his rifle up as the lights flickered, screams and gunshots ringing out from beyond the room.

Cautiously, Aj crept up to the door, and opened it slowly, revealing a sliver of the hallway that lay beyond. Shrikes and people with white hair all wearing a myriad of different clothes and tools were fleeing down the hallway. One Shrike turned around, his pale face glistening with wide eyes and sweet. He opened fire, running backward from the way he came.

His fire was cut short as some kind of creature pounced on him, tearing him apart. Aj nearly jumped away from the door, his heart racing with fear, but he couldn’t move. The creature looked like a human who had been cooked alive, their pitch-black skin cracked and bleeding. But embers were drifting off of the poor creatures cracked skin, it’s veins glowing bright red. It’s eyes were gone, as it chattered its teeth, ears and nose burned off, hair falling out, it’s clothes barely still on. Yet despite third degree burns that would kill a normal person, this thing was moving with ten times the agility, it’s long fangs and claws ripping the screaming Shrike apart.

Having successfully ripped the Shrike’s chest cavity open, the creatures reared its head and let loose a horse shriek that pierced Aj’s ears as he winced. A volley of fire erupted from the end of the hall as several Shrikes had rallied and were firing their guns frantically. The bullets tore through the creature’s body, but the burnt person shrieked again, and charged forward on all fours towards the wall of guards. As the creature charged, five more just like them followed behind, all charging on all fours towards the Shrikes.

Aj slowly opened the door a little more and saw the dozen or so guards torn limb from limb, or in two as the creatures shredded them. A horrible sensation filled Aj as realization hit him: these where recipients of the Carnage serum, failed specimens doomed to live out their presumably short lives in rage and pain. Just like him.

Soon, the gunshots and screams died down as the Shrikes lay dead in bloody pieces. The creatures chattered, clicking their teeth together like morse code. They grew deathly still, their heads cocked. Aj stayed rooted in place, holding his breathe. Suddenly, a loud bang from a gun erupted from down the other hall. The five creatures where kneeling on all fours at an intersection in the hallways.

The creatures all snapped their heads towards the sound, shrieked, and bounded away as one. Aj sighed heavily, fully opening the door. He kept his rifle up as he crept down the dimly lit hall illuminated by flickering lights. As he walked down the hallway, he saw doorways on either side of the hallway, each separated by a few feet, leading to a similar clinic like the one he had portaled into.

As he went along, he cautiously scanned inside, the horrors within twisting his stomach. Burnt bodies were clamped down to medical beds. Charred corpses of all ages, genders, seizes, and species. It seemed as if most of the dead bodies were not human, while the empty beds seemed to have once held some kind of humanoid. Was the humanoid anatomy more compatible with the Carnage serum?

Aj slowly made his way to the intersection, carefully stepping over the mangled bodies of the Shrikes. He scanned left, then right. Each way led down more dimly lit, flickering hallways. Seeing as the herd of burnt creatures went right, Aj decided to go left.

The smell was gut wrenching to say the least. Burnt human flesh is one of the most potent smells Aj had ever experienced. The distinct and pungent odor seeped into the nostrils, stinging the eyes. There were hardly other smells worse than freshly burned skin, hair, and clothes that had melted into the pores of the victims.

Aj’s hands were shaking, and his chest heaving as he went deeper into the hallway of horror. This hallway was different from the last, as each side of the wall was comprised of large glass bay windows, revealing large open spaces with benches. It almost seemed like there was some sort of dining area on either side of the hallway.

Chattering made Aj freeze. He slowly shifted his gun to the left and saw two small indistinct forms in the far corner of the left cafeteria. Since a wall of glass and concrete separated them, Aj slowly crept forward, never taking his gun off them.

In the far corner, a long slender burnt creature, was clutching a much smaller body. Both seemed alive, as the small creature was nestled in the arms of the bigger one. As Aj moved forward, he nearly vomited, realizing what they were. A parent and their child it would seem from their barely recognizable physiques.

Aj’s rifle shook violently as he choked back tears. He picked up the pace, hastily moving past the window, into another intersection. Here he fell back against the wall, clutching his chest, heaving violently. He started sobbing when vomit forced its way up. Aj retched harshly, covering the floor with the food he had found. He gritted his teeth, wiping his eyes.

“Psst. Human!”

Aj wrenched his rifle up, nearly slipping on the puddle of his own vomit as he scanned hurriedly. Whoever had said that sounded like a female.

“Over here.”

Aj slowly moved towards the small voice and noticed a pair of glowing yellow eyes staring at him from the corner of a glass window in a metal door in the left side of the hall. Aj kept his sight directly between the eyes as he pied off the door window, skirting the right side of the wall.

The glowing yellow eyes followed him, framed by a mop of dark raven black hair.

“Who are you?” Aj murmured.

“Who the fuck are you?” the eyes challenged.

“I asked first!” Aj spat.

“I’m the one locked in here, you owe me an answer human,” the eyes narrowed.

“I’m Aj,” he sighed.

“Decree.”

Her voice was horse, and gravely with a low tone for a female.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“What kind of name is that?” Aj tilted his head.

“Mine. You with them? You don’t look like Dark Axium,” the glowing yellow eyes said.

“Hell no,” Aj growled.

“You one of those Zion humans?” Decree asked.

“Not really. Not anymore,” Aj sighed.

“Good. Lemme out!” Decree spat.

“Why?”

“Cuz, I’m locked in here, that’s why!”

“Why are you locked in there?”

Decree rolled her glowing yellow eyes.

“I like puzzles. Dark Axium has a good puzzle. I tried solving it. They didn’t like that. So, they’ve been torturing me in this stupid fucking room for the last fucking month. Let. Me. Out!” Decree spat. Small thumps sounded from behind the door, as if she was pounding the door with a fist.

Aj weighed his options. He didn’t trust this person, why hadn’t the Shrikes tried administering Carnage to her? Why was she the only untouched person in this whole place? And what did she mean by puzzles? Then again, an enemy of his enemy, was probably his friend. Aj sighed, then went up to the door.

“Try anything and I shoot you. Stand back,” Aj called.

Decree’s eyes disappeared from the door, and Aj smashed the handle a few times with the butt of the rifle. Once the handle was properly broken, he kicked in the locking mechanism with the bottom of his boot. The door’s lock flew backwards into the room, as the door slowly swung inward. Aj kept his rifle half raised, as a scraggly female crept into view.

She was impossibly skinny, with dirty bone white skin, glowing yellow eyes, and an unkempt bird nest of black hair. Her bare arms were covered in scars, and legs shown abuse from bruises and burns. Yet her sharp face burned with defiance as she studied him. It was now Aj realized he was facing a Laydren in human form. Expect, her form didn’t flicker like other Laydren. It was as if, the human form was truly her skin, despite her clear and glowing eyes definite of a Laydren.

“Gonna take a wild guess by that look on your face that you don’t like my people?” Decree scoffed, wiping her nose.

“Have yet to meet a reliable Laydren,” Aj darkly muttered.

“Well, that makes two of us. C’mon, they’re gonna purge this level soon, gotta get out of here.”

Bewildered, Aj followed as Decree swept down the hallway. Despite looking as if she was on death’s door from starvation, and un armed, she moved with a fury and intensity similar to Lion on Talabor.

“Don’t look at them, don’t acknowledge them. There’s nothing you can do for the Foul,” Decree said over her shoulder as she led the way.

“The Foul?” Aj blustered.

As they crossed another intersection, Aj froze in place. On his right, twenty dark burnt creatures were eating the corpse of a Shrike. Decree huffed, turned around, and pulled him by the shirt as they pressed on.

“First time seeing em I guess,” Decree scoffed.

Aj shook his head. She had said she had been here for a month, but still, there was no way anyone could get desensitized to something like this so quickly.

“How are they still alive?” Aj asked hotly as they moved deeper into the maze of corridors.

“They aren’t. The Carnage serum kills them and runs theirs corpses via energy coursing through their nervous system. Kinda like Sylos, but more brutal. That’s why the Dark Axium let the Sylos queen in here. Carnage is the unholy fuck child of XM-801 and Sylos parasitic qualities. Twisting life is Shrike’s specialty,” Decree snapped.

They continued deeper into the level when the walls shook.

“You bring friends?” Decree barked.

“No,” Aj sighed.

“Well, somebody is raising hell up there,” Decree spat.

Aj’s head swam. Sylos, Carnage, Dark Axium experiments, this place was chock full of horrors he could never imagine.

“What’s Sylos?” Aj asked.

“Parasites. They take over whole planets and use them as jumping boards to invade more galaxies. My people spent thousands of years culling them, but I guess the Great Lie is at it again. Why wipe out every pocket of Sylos, when you can keep them on the edges of the universe to fuck up people you don’t like,” Decree shrugged.

“You mean the Great Truth?” Aj asked, remembering Lion’s stories.

Decree halted in place, causing Aj to nearly to run into her. She turned and looked him in the eye.

“You sure you ain’t a Zion human?” she tilted her head.

“Positive,” Aj growled.

“Well, only idiots from Zion call it the Great Truth. Every banished Laydren knows it’s a load of shit.”

“Like Lion?” Aj asked.

“Who?”

Aj shook his head.

“Lythdorian something-something,” Aj huffed.

Decrees eyes widened.

“He’s in Zion?!” Decree gasped.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Aj growled, pushing past her.

“Lemme guess, my idiot brother got someone you loved killed,” Decree snarled.

Aj stopped in his tracks, and slowly looked at her.

“Don’t gimme that look,” Decree spat.

“Go the other way, I’ll go this way,” Aj said darkly.

Decree crossed her arms.

“Look, I’ve been following my dumbass brother from galaxy to galaxy cleaning up his messes. And I’m done, okay? I only said that cuz that’s what he does. He gets good people killed. Hell, he came to Zion chasing after that King and the Witch fairy tale. Not my fault he drank the cool aide, I’m just here trying to stop the Axium. If we don’t stop them, Alpha Centurion arrives, and he’s gonna kill a metric fuckton more loved ones. Now, you can help me, or we can separate, and you can go get eaten alive by the Foul. I don’t fucking care either way, I’d just prefer some help in killing Shrike Prime,” she said.

Aj shook his head. The more she talked, the more she seemed like her brother, albeit more sensible.

“You’re trying to kill Shrike?” Aj asked slowly.

“Shrike Prime,” She corrected.

“What does that mean?”

“Shrike Prime, the one who makes them. He’s powerful as shit, the first banished from our empire. Our father has had a death warrant signed on him for millennial. Problem is, so far he’s only really hurt non Laydren, so my people give him a look over. I’m here to correct that,” Decree sighed.

“You said you came here to solve a puzzle. What puzzle are you talking about?” Aj asked.

“The puzzle of Alpha Centurion. A god that needs mortals to do his dirty work? A being so powerful he can dissolve solar systems, but needs fuckers like the Dark Axium to create things like the Foul? It makes no sense. There’s something deeper going on, and I wanna find out what.”

“I’m here to kill him myself,” Aj snarled.

“Go right ahead, so long as you let me into his records. I want to find out what he’s doing, and why,” Decree shrugged.

“I still don’t trust you,” Aj snapped.

Decree arched an eyebrow.

“And you think I trust some muscled up human who just smashed in here with some portal? I’m stuck with you bubba, same as you are with me,” Decree said hotly.

“Fine,” Aj snarled.

“Fine,” Decree shrugged.

Aj and Decree trudged forward when an explosion overhead shook the floor. Aj looked at Decrees whose eyes had widened.

“Know how to get out of here?” Aj asked.

“Yeah, you know who’s causing all that trouble?” Decree asked.

“Nah, but the distraction is nice,” Aj sighed.

“Let’s hope they last long enough for us to make it out of here,” Decree nodded.

The two sprinted down the hallway, then several more. The further they went, the more destruction and chaos they past. Aj saw piles of corpses, wolf packs of foul, and many bloody and burnt rooms littering the level. How long had the Axium been experimenting on people here?

Finally, they reached the end, a dim light showing at the end of the hallway. Aj and Decree emerged unto a balcony, a dismal yet grand sight before them. The level of the space station spanned out before them, miles of open space before them as the space stations walls climbed up and down on the left and right. The walls were comprised of buildings and balconies. The ceiling was pitch black, riddled with the catwalk like structures of support beams, pipes, and numerous life sustainment systems. Far below them, Aj could see many skyscraper-like buildings rising from the bottom of the level.

In front of the buildings, a battle seemed to rage. Aj and Decree watched a convoy of massive treaded war machines push deeply into a dark sea of seeming bodies, beyond which an army fought desperately to hold the line.

“The hell are they thinking? They’re outnumbered fifty to one, who the fuck would order such a suicide charge?” Decree spat.

“You’re the crazy traveling Laydren. Recognize them?” Aj asked.

“No clue. But soon as they arrived, the foul went nuts, turned the whole place upside down,” Decree sighed.

Aj nodded, studying the terrain. It was a sniper’s wet dream. Little illumination, dark corners, murder holes with good sectors of fire, thousands of roof tops, catwalks, balconies. One could traverse the entire level moving from roof to roof without ever walking on the ground. Perfect for him.

“Where’s Shrike Prime?” Aj asked darkly.

Decree silently pointed to a mansion built into the far wall of the space station. Aj studied it carefully, noting the long columns and levels built into the wall, as the mansion itself clung to the side of the station’s side, rising through the ceiling into the next level.

“I got so close, till they caught me,” Decree spat.

“What were you trying to do?” Aj asked.

“I hacked their network and was gonna sending a million volts from his power outlet to his fucking face as he shaved, but their security found me in the server room before I could zap his ass,” Decree growled.

“You’re a hacker?” Aj arched an eyebrow.

Decree snorted as she laughed.

“I’m not some hacker, I am the hacker. Ain’t a single piece of tech I can’t crack. You can thank particle manipulation for that. I can meld my conscious to anything mechanical or programmed,” Decree smiled.

Visions of Captain Spider flowed through Aj’s mind as he pondered. The two would probably get along great.

“Well, I’m a sniper,” Aj shrugged.

“How good a shot are ya?” Decree arched an eyebrow.

“Get me the proper gear, and within two miles of him, and he’s a dead man,” Aj said.

“Mmmmm, so certain! Okay, big boy, let’s put that to the test,” Decree purred.

Decree swung herself over the balcony railing, planting her bare feet on the outside wall lip.

“I know the perfect place to suit up,” Decree winked.

“After you,” Aj shrugged.

Decree smiled, climbed over to the nearest pipe, and began to shimmy down it to the lower buildings. As they went down, Aj studied her. He didn’t trust her, especially since she was Lion’s sister. But so far, she seemed sensible. However, the moment she started acting like her brother, he’d leave her. Or kill her. She wasn’t important, killing Shrike Prime was.

Aj begrudgingly swung his legs over to the balcony railing, went over to the pipe, and began climbing down. After a while of climbing down pipes, and descending ladders, they landed on the top of an apartment building. Aj held up his rifle and scanned ahead as Decree went over to a metal box sticking out of the apartment wall. She opened the circuit board, and her body glowed with yellow light. Aj watched in wonder as every light in eyesight flickered.

Decree’s eyes rolled into the back of her head as her body twitched.

“No Sylos or Axium in a two-block radius,” Decree said, her voice buzzing with static.

“How do you do that?” Aj asked in wonder.

“What part of I am the hacker, do you not get?” Decree sneered.

She disengaged from the circuit box and dusted sparks off herself.

“Where can we suit up?” Aj asked darkly.

“Right below us,” Decree shrugged.

Decree led the way, pulling the door open that lead to the stair well that descended into the building, Aj following. As he neared the door, he saw multiple explosions below, as the army faltered. A faint hint of pity rang through Aj. He wanted to help, but he saw the millions of bodies streaming towards the army. It was a lost cause, better to avenge whoever they were by killing Shrike. Aj closed the door and went down the stairs.

They followed the stairs down into the bowels of the apartment building, at high alert. There were no bodies, simply pitch-black darkness. Aj would scan the area with the flashlight on the rifle, illuminating the abandoned homes, all doors open, clothes and everyday items littering the floor. The building was completely devoid of all life. Not a single sound as they went further down the floors.

“What happened here?” Aj asked softly.

“Sylos. The Axium unleashed them unto the people who lived here. Barouge got overran within a week, all the pirate crews and mercs abandoned the station. Only survivors left where some people left behind on the docks. The Sylos wouldn’t go near them for some reason,” Decree whispered.

“Superior firepower?” Aj arched an eyebrow.

“Nah, the Sylos could of easily killed them all. Just didn’t. That’s why I’m here, I’ve never seen Sylos work with anyone like this before, and I’ve been around for a long time.”

“I thought you were here to kill Shrike?”

“You really think this isn’t the first time this has happened?”

Aj’s eyes widened.

“You’ve been following the Dark Axium as they unleash the Sylos,” he whispered.

“Yep.” “How many worlds have they done this to?”

“This place would be the seventeenth area I’ve seen it happen. That’s the puzzle. I want to know why the hell Shrike is working with the Sylos and deep space to bring back a dark god that could easily waltz into our domain if he so chose. Either Alpha Centurion isn’t as powerful as they say, or Shrike is softening us all up for when that iron fist comes crashing down,” Decree huffed.

Aj shook his head.

They arrived on the bottom floor, the dismal illumination of the flickering streetlights casting the lobby in an eerie light. Aj and Decree moved forward, through the ghostly scene of destroyed furniture and torn apart walls. Aj studied the bullet holes and claw marks everywhere. There had been a last stand here. Perhaps the local police and residents had put up some kind of last-ditch effort to fend off the Sylos before help arrived. Except, it never did, and now all the residents where brainless husks in a horde killing whoever had been stupid enough to answer the distress beacons.

Broken glass crunched underneath their boots as both exited the lobby, and sprinting across the abandoned street into the adjacent building. This building was an empty bar, moldy drinks, and foods still on the counters and tables, furniture thrown about. Decree led the way to behind the bar, bent over, and pulled open a trap door. Aj hesitantly watched her descend a ladder into the basement, not wanting to follow. Distant chattering met his ears, and he instantly jumped into the hole, grabbing the ladder, then softly shutting the trap door shut, making sure it was locked.

Down the ladder led to a cellar, where Decree ignited her yellow energy, the lights flickering on. Aj’s mouth dropped. It was a survival bunker, with shelves of food and weapons. But the shelves had been ransacked, and most of the weapons had been taken off the racks. The boxes of ammunition had been hastily opened, with several spilled onto the ground. A pull-out couch sat across from the reloading station and gun benches.

Lying on the couch, was a family of three, a middle-aged man and wife, with a child. Aj saw the child had puss oozing from her skin, her dead eyes staring at the ceiling. The daughter reminded Aj of the old Earth Zombie movies. A gaping hole in her forehead indicated someone had put a pistol to the back of her head and had fired.

Next to the daughter was the woman, the mother’s veins faintly glowing, and slightly less puss exuding, her eyes still human like. Most likely she had been halfway through turning. The mother was holding the daughter, across from them was the father. His body was normal, aside from clearly putting the pistol in his mouth and firing after killing the turned family.

Decree held her hand to her mouth, silent tears falling down her gaunt cheeks as she fell to her knees. Aj sighed and turned to the walls. He spotted a sniper rifle and pulled it off the wall. He racked the bolt back and inspected the chamber.

“I’m so sorry,” Decree sniffled, gently pulling a blanket over the family.

“Where you close with them?” Aj asked gently, shoving ammunition into a backpack.

“This is their bar, they let me set up down here. I had them come down here when people started turning. I told them to wait! God damnit! Why the fuck would you leave the basement! You stupid, stupid, stupid assholes!” Decree wailed.

Aj huffed, leaning on the gun bench.

“A shrike replicant killed my wife, and child,” Aj grunted, staring at the bench.

“I’m so sorry,” Decree said softly from over his shoulder.

Aj looked up and grabbed a pair of binoculars. He turned and looked at her.

“You know how to spot? Windage, range estimation, all that?” Aj asked.

Decree silently nodded. Aj tossed her the binoculars.

“Let’s go kill this son of a bitch.”