The Corruption

Chapter 13 - The Snake

Nate clenched his metal club tightly at the sound of the shriek as did Liam. Derek looked at Kaleigh and pointed at the desk, and she understood so she took cover behind it and prepared her rifle. Derek, with his khakri knife, stood behind Liam and Nate but in plain sight, who hid behind the walls of the entrance, ready to strike at any moment. What was making the shriek presented itself and shocked the entire group. It was Jaime, only his skin was paler, his eyes were venom green, and he had no pupils. His hands were deformed to make claws and his back had a hump that made him hunch over. He constantly flicked his tongue at the group as if he was taunting them. Little did Kaleigh know, a Snake is hard to hit from afar. The Snake is a different kind of corrupted, faster and quicker, doing more damage than a Smoker, and a master when it comes to dodging. Survivalists call it the Snake because of it's forked tongue, three times as long as a giraffe's. They can grab you with their tongue, pull you in, and inject venom into your veins or rip your flesh with their claws, killing you in a matter of minutes.  The Snake seems to slither back and forth while charging at it's prey, making it a difficult target. "SNAKE!" Liam shouted, making Jaime -- or, what was left of Jaime -- look over at him, and slither over to him slashing his claw in an upwards motion. Liam dodged by spinning on his heel and turning back around to deliver a devastating blow to the Snake's rib. The Snake simply hissed at this as no green blood gushed out, but what surprised Liam was that the bruise that he had given the corrupted instantly regenerated in a matter of seconds. How do you kill a corrupted with super healing?

"Aim for the hump on his back, that's his heart!" Derek said, which made Nate and Kaleigh slightly disgusted, meanwhile Liam was playing bull-lure with the Snake, dodging his attacks just barely. Being the husky, round redneck that he is, Liam was not one for running, and never this much. So Nate took the attention from him and started clashing his metal club on a bench making an annoying thump, well, annoying to the Snake at least. The Snake turned and slithered over to Nate who held up his metal club horizontally in front him and blocked the Snake's slashing claws. Kaleigh knew she had to take the shot, so she readied herself, aimed, and fired. It missed. The Snake heard the shot before it even exited the rifle cylinder and quickly moved away, staring at Kaleigh in a combination of fear and anger. It slithered over to her and unleashed it's giant tongue, trying to wrap it around her like a rattle snake and pull her in. Derek knew he had to move in and stop this Snake from reeling her in like a fish on a fishing rod. The Snake's poisonous tongue was about to touch Kaleigh until Derek threw his khakri knife like a boomerang at the Snake's tongue, cutting it in half. The khakri knife twirled and came back at Derek, who dodged the knife as it landed on the ground behind him and he went to pick it up. The Snake screamed in pain as it's tongue, one of it's most powerful weapons was now gone. Kaleigh looked at Derek in awe, not knowing how he managed to do that, as did Liam and Nate. "Gotta work on catching it though.." Derek said, picking up the khakri knife off the ground. The Snake was now stunned for a moment, as Liam and Nate exchanged glances and nodded to each other, both charging in with their metal clubs from two sides, and they both hit the Snake's hump as if it was a baseball. Two metal round balls against the beating heart of a corrupted was enough to let the Snake know that he had been beaten. Jaime the Snake fell to the ground as the hump on his back exploded like a balloon being squeezed in someone's hand, green goo gushing out everywhere and everyone staying behind cover not to get hit by the poisonous goo. The Snake, now greeting death on the cold hard ground, was presenting itself once more in front of the CPG.