K is for Kamabo (Splatoon)

Chapter 6

Friday, 10:45 p.m.
Kamabo Co., Sector B09

Eight swung her rifle forty-five degrees left, putting her sights on a guard. He was one of the two guards she had met while entering Kamabo, and unfortunately for him, he had his gun drawn—Eight wasn't taking any chances with armed combatants right now. He went down with a single shot through the cheek, pink mist spraying out from behind his head. She stepped over his body and continued toward the exit.

She couldn't shake the feeling that she was being followed. The military had drilled supernatural survival instincts into all of its soldiers, and Eight was no exception. She was getting more than a sneaking suspicion that someone was behind her, that someone was watching her every move. For the third time in mere minutes, Eight glanced over her shoulder.

This time, she saw her stalker, sixty feet back and coming closer. Red goggles, blue hair, green skin—that was the order in which Eight had noticed the colors. The Sanitized Octoling stood on two legs, and it was roughly her height. But everything else about it was wrong. The way the thing moved was unnatural, as if it didn't belong in this world. The Octoling appeared to glide along the floor, with uncannily smooth body motions that looked almost normal but just strange enough to catch Eight's attention. Its glowing eyes, hidden behind a pair of goggles, never stopped tracking her face.

It also seemed to have decided that now was a good time to pounce. Eight spun herself completely around and emptied her last six shots into her pursuer, letting years of combat training override her base desire to flee and flee quickly. One bullet missed, three punched into its body armor, and two pierced its exposed shoulder. That would have been enough to knock down even the toughest of soldiers, but the green freak simply stumbled, as if it had tripped over itself.

And it kept on coming.

"Target acquired," the Sanitized Octoling spoke, its voice startlingly feminine and silvery. "Seek and destroy."

Now only twenty feet away from the abomination, Eight hurled her empty Octo Shot at it and began running in the other direction. The gun struck the Sanitized Octoling in the chest and glanced off of its armor—the thing didn't even seem to notice. She wasn't normal, Eight finally realized, failing to suppress her long-dormant sense of fear. This thing was a freak of nature, and she really wanted to get away from it as fast as possible.

The freak caught up to Eight less than half a second later, grabbing her shoulder. Remembering her last encounter with the green-skinned creature, where her standard counterattack had failed, Eight dropped her weight to the ground instead of turning around. Then, with her attacker thrown off balance, Eight kicked its legs out from underneath. She hesitated briefly, with her fight-or-flight response begging her to run away and her battle instincts telling her to subdue her opponent. But in the end, her training won out. She jabbed the downed abomination in the throat, a quick strike designed to incapacitate the target. With its airways cut off, the Sanitized Octoling began to spasm, mouth gulping for air and hands clawing at its throat.

Eight struggled to her feet, and she hurriedly backed away from the defeated monster as it began rolling around on the floor. Not looking where she was going, Eight backed right into the barrel of a handgun.

"Impressive," a voice said approvingly. "You truly are a one-of-a-kind specimen."

She couldn't see who was speaking, but Eight could see several guards out of the corner of her eye. Slowly, she put her hands up.

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One minute ago
Kamabo Co., Sector B09