The Fall of the Society

Chapter 23: Unexpected Consequences

Dodging to his right, a clawed hand passed silently through the fog, creating a swirl in its wake. How had it gotten so close so quietly and quickly, its intelligence was formidable. Another claw came from the opposite direction, and he barely managed to roll backwards out of the way of the attack. The creature's next attack raked across his back as he dodged away from it, cutting long claw marks across the back of his suit. Rolling forward he drew out both of his blades and quickly parried the next attack, which pushed him slightly off balance from the force. As the next attack made its way silently through the fog, Sid crouched and then smoothly slid both of his blades around the creatures armored wrist, allowing it to pull him up and out of the mist.

Soaring through the air, he passed out of the mist and gained visibility of the beast from his peripherals. Its eyes remained locked on him, claws clamped to the walkway with the workstation, and it began to move to its right to try to intercept where he was going to land. His feet hit the wall first and he jammed his knives hard into the steel, sinking them halfway up the blades. Pulling himself up above his blades, the creature shot past below him, leaving deep grooves where its claws had dug deeply into the steel. Another roar split the air around him as the beast's frustrations increased at not being able to land a clean hit. The beast positioned itself below him now, looking up at him with black hollow eyes, half of its body obscured by the mist.

The mist began to swirl, and Sid could see movement within the fog. Dark shadows began appearing all around the back of the creature as a realization struck. The monstrosities within the mist were swarming the massive creature, attacking in whatever ways they could. Some had built in weapons that they were using to pummel the beast thick hide; others simply morphed their bodies around its extremities to restrict its movement and allow the others to keep attacking. Quickly, it spun its massive head around to glare at the creatures now moving across its armored hide, leaving trails of oily discharge.

The creatures devastatingly loud roar echoed again in order to dissuade the monsters now crawling all over. It kicked its legs hard, sending multiple of the beast flying into the air. A few of them landed and moved back to the fray but the others remained motionless. Taking advantage of the situation, Sid drew his blades from the wall and began to silently drop toward the back of the creature's head. Unfortunately, he had read the situation wrong, and a massive clawed hand swatted him in the air as if he was merely an annoying gnat. The concussion from the blow dazed him as he flew through the air and slammed hard into the wall. He crumpled to the ground, the room spinning, more pain shooting through his body than he had ever felt in one moment in his life.

The pain did not last long as his body quickly repaired itself in a matter of moments. His blades had clattered to the ground on either side of him and he could not make out where they were laying through the thick fog. Getting to his feet, he moved silently to his right, hoping to retrieve one of his knives. The commotion had stopped and there was an eerie silence now enveloping the room. Bending down, his fingers closed around the hilt of his knife and he took a defensive stance. A massive clawed hand shot out of the fog and slammed into the wall where he had been standing a moment before. Sid swung his blade hard and connected with the armored wrist of the creature, but to no avail, as his weapon slid off ineffectively, not even leaving a mark. Out of nowhere, the creature attacked again, leaving Sid almost no time to react. All he managed to do was move his blade in between his body and the hand of the monstrosity. With his strength and movement, he had been unable to pierce the hide of the beast, but with its strength one of two things was going to happen. Either the sword would break, or the creatures armored palm would give.

A moment later, Sid was slammed against the wall, pinned by a massive clawed hand that was now digging deeply into the cement behind him. He could feel blood running down his torso and that his right arm had been crushed by the attack. Fortunately, he had seen this attack coming and prevented the pain from being as severe as it should have been. At first, he thought his blade had failed to puncture the creatures thick hide, but a few seconds later it pulled back, shrieking in pain. His knife was buried up to the hilt in the monster's hand, and the hilt had planted itself into his abdomen, but had pulled free from him when the creature retreated into the mist.

Sid's body healed quickly once more, and he was back on his feet staring around into the mist. Suddenly, black eyes appeared as near to the ground as they were able, innocence having returned. He held out his hands so that the creature could see he was unarmed, anxiety spreading across the creature's massive face. Moving closer, the beast held out its injured hand to show him the wound. It suddenly struck him that the beast had likely never felt pain before and probably had no idea what was going on. Also, seeing as they were using a trigger program to implement the creature attacking, there was a chance it did not even remember the incident.

"I am sorry," Sid told the creature softly. "This is not what I wanted to happen." It stared at him tentatively, not sure of how to react to his words. "Will you let me help you?" he said pointing at the blade stuck in the creature. The beast looked down at its own hand before slowly pushing it out toward him. "This might hurt." Placing his hand around the bloody hilt of the blade, he began to pull slightly. The creature growled menacingly at him as the blade stayed stuck in place. Its mandibles pulled to the side flexing as it bared its horrible teeth at him. "It will all be over in a second," Sid told the creature as he locked eyes with it. Keeping his gaze locked intently on the beasts, he pulled swiftly with all his might and the blade came free. Black blood oozed onto the floor as the creature shrieked and backed into the mist once more, clutching its wounded hand.

Sid tore off his tattered coat and removed the devices he had stashed in the various pockets. Tearing one of the pockets away from the inside of the jacket, as well as a strand of cloth and quickly turned the pocket into a pouch that he hung around his shoulders. Stashing his items inside the pouch, he tore two more strands off the coat and tied them together. Moving slowly, he crept into the fog, cautious as he went. A glint to his left caught his eye and he moved over and retrieved his lost blade, quickly slipping it back into its sheath. The blood and viscera from the monstrosities that had been lurking in the dark was spread across the ground, smelling of ammonia and iron.

Soon the faint sound of licking drifted from the mist, so he changed direction and followed the sound, careful not to move to quickly and startle the beast. He found the creature, coiled in on itself like a snake, legs folded along the edge, protecting its underbelly. In its current position, the beast looked much smaller and much less threatening. Its eyes portrayed sadness as it continued to lick its badly wounded hand. Still moving slowly, Sid held his hands up. The piece of cloth he had tied together hung over his left shoulder as well as the remainder of his coat.

"May I see your hand?" Sid asked calmly as he inched closer still. Holding out his hands he remained still, waiting to see if it would oblige him or not. After a few moments of the beast watching him intently, it held out its wounded extremity and allowed him to look to do a quick examination. He pulled the remainder of his coat from his shoulder and folded it tightly, pressing it against the wound. The creature flinched slightly but did not pull away. He then used the strands and tied the coat into place, creating a makeshift bandage. "It's not perfect, but it will have to do."

The beast pulled its hand back, staring intently at the bandage, as if taking in everything about it, trying to learn what it was. Sid took the opportunity to look the creature over and see what he could learn about it. As the creature turned its massive head back and forth, examining its own hand, Sid noticed something. There was a small line on the back of the right side of the creature's head. Getting as close as he could without alerting the beast, he examined the mark intently. It looked as though it was a surgical scar from an incision. His actions now caught the eye of the creature that moved its body to further protect itself from harm.

"Does that spot hurt?" he asked softly. The creature just stared at him. "Can I feel it?" He could tell that it was thinking about what it should do and seemed to be weighing the pros and cons of what he had asked. Suddenly the beast leaned forward and turned its head to the side so that he could have a look at the incision. Placing his hand over the scar he could feel that something was inside, which posed a serious problem. The hide of the beast was much thicker here, which meant he would have an incredibly hard time recreating the incision that was used to implant the device.

Crackling speakers pierced the silence, causing the beast to wince and withdraw further into its coil. "It would appear my creation still needs some work. Do not worry though, you have no way out and he will soon be doing my biding again. Farewell." The crackling of the speakers faded as the ear-splitting shriek reverberated off the walls once more, this time sounding for a much longer time. Looking back at the beast, the innocence in its eyes had retreated once more and had now been replaced by malevolence.