𝓛𝓮𝓸𝓷 𝓚𝓮𝓷𝓷𝓮𝓭𝔂| ɪᴍᴀɢɪɴᴇꜱ ʙᴏᴏᴋ 4

The Regenerators

As if the eerie village full of infected parasitic medieval people wasn't scary enough, the island where Krauser has taken Ashley is worse. It's like a nightmare come to life, shrouded with darkness and the faint buzz of discarded equipment, Leon and I make our way away from the room Ashley's held in with heavy hearts. Her unconscious body is oblivious to the horrors around her, and I'm glad she doesn't have to witness all of this. I follow Leon's lead as we search for the key card we need to get to Ashley, but I can't help but to feel like we're being watched. I scan the messy kitchen area and corridors, the silence heavy as our laboured breaths fill the rooms. 

"Leon, this place..." I whisper, clutching my flashlight tighter as we approach the hum of a power generator. Leon glances at me, his face tense as he nods in understanding and takes a deep breath, seconds later he pulls a lever and from down the corridor I hear the familiar buzz of electricity. At least now we can explore properly and get into the rooms what we couldn't before. 

"I know, it's weird." Leon mumbles nonchalantly after a while. I'd usually joke or tease him to make the situation easier to deal with, but in this place that feels like death itself I can't even bring myself to smile. Leon shrugs off the sniper we picked up not long ago, holding it out to me as he grabs his handgun. I take it, adjusting the strap and making sure the biosensor scope is still on as we walk back down the corridor we came from. Leon enters the previously locked room first, he stops in the doorway, I'm too short to see but as I reach onto my toes I see something monstrous arched on some kind of table. "These people are fucked up." Leon says more to himself as he shakes off the shock, he steps into the room with me following. I glance at the purplish figure, with wires coming out of it and a face contorted in pain, it's unnerving yet sad. 

"What were they making here?" I whisper rhetorically, my eyes scan the walls of pictures and scientific notes, I don't understand much of it but Leon's brows seem to furrow as he rummages through drawers and tables, moving papers and notebooks around as he looks for the key card. 

"Regenerators." Leon's voice startles me as I lean closer to one of the eerie looking diagrams. I turn, spotting a black key card next to the notebook Leon's leant over. I'm about to ask what he means until the motion activated door hisses open, revealing a bloated and terrifying figure resembling the one on the table. Leon's reflexes are quicker, he swings up his gun and shoots the figure three times in the head, but it's like shooting bread dough. The Regenerator doesn't flinch as it begins to hobble towards us, its arms outstretched towards us as I back up and knock into the table, bruising my hip in the process. "Get out of here! Now!" Leon shouts to me as the monster's arms somehow grow. I yelp, throwing myself to the floor just in time as the thing makes a low sound, I roll, army crawling under its legs as Leon snatches up the key card and plots an escape plan from the room. 

Once I'm out of the room, I stand in the corridor and grab the sniper from my shoulder, since it's got a biosensor scope I can see the parasites within the flesh, they stand out like bright orange signals. A noise to my right disturbs my focus, and in the dark I can make out the grey bloated shape of another Regenerator. My instincts scream at me to run, but Leon's inside the room shooting and wrestling with the first one. I block out everything as I hike up the rifle and aim it at the parasites, beside me the heavy dragging footsteps grow closer and closer, my window is closing and I know once I've fired the shots I'll have to be quick to move. I take a deep breath, holding it as I aim and fire exactly three times. The second I'm done and the Regenerator near Leon stops, screams and twitches as it explodes, I make a run for it. It's so dark and I've lost my flashlight somewhere, so I just follow my feet, skidding around corners and jumping over rusty fallen equipment. Sweat falls down my back as a whimper escapes my lips, I've been so brave so far, but these things are too much for me to handle.