Clyde tried desperately to get it off him. Its teeth were hooked into his flesh, anchored down by its powerful bite. Aaron came up and tried to pull the thing’s tail. This got its attention. It turned around and leaped at Aaron’s face. Aaron used his hands to quickly catch the beast around it's human like throat. The entire time it kept making chomping motions while pulling itself closer and closer. Aaron looked into the thing’s soulless eyes. His own eyes revealed a soul in terror. All he could do was try to hold the thing off from biting into his glass helmet. It had him pinned on the ground.
Droids mustered around Aaron like flies on freshly dropped fecal matter. The did their best to help pry the thing off of him. In the ordeal, the beast chomped down on a droid’s arm, severing it with such force that left Aaron having pause for thought.
Whatever this thing was, Aaron knew it started out as a shark by the looks of it, likely a sand shark based on its brown and black coloration of spots and patterns. Whatever that red stuff was, had allowed it to become humanoid, and clearly had a new set of lungs. Aaron watched it breathe without difficulty when it used its right arm, to claw a droid’s chest wide open, exposing it's wiring.
It moved like a frog would, leaping from droid to droid, clawing at them like a frantic psychopath with no qualms at all in regard to life or destruction of property. All this thing clearly wanted to do was eat. In the fray, it leaped again, landing on a different researcher’s back, biting into her scapula. The sounds of bones crunching traveled up to twenty feet before an HKC droid slung his blaster rifle. He charged the stock of the gun, while pulsing white lights vibrated down the barrel. He fired a single blast the size of a marble which smoldered into the beast's side, causing it to relinquish its grip.
It howled like an injured child would, only with the addition of chirping noises added to the vocals. The shark creature slid itself along the sand, meanwhile Aaron watched as he caught his breath. He saw the things side healing.
Aaron looked at the creature with a clear expression of both awe, and horror. His eyes kept getting wider and wider as he saw it move along the beach. The wound had nearly closed, it was standing upright, hissing and growling. It leaped again at another researcher, this time the blaster rifle was set to level 12 and vaporized the creature’s head. The remains fell to the ground making a thud on the sand.
_____
New Beginnings Zoo.
Hank Jenkins was on the verge of retirement. He had worked at new beginnings zoo as a security guard for ten years now. Committing to any ecological division gave an extra 10% on the retirement check, and a 15% discount on the healthcare tax. The man was white headed, 72 and moved like a snail. He was thin, almost on the border of appearing malnourished, but that was just his build. Hank ate constantly. The going joke was he had contracted a tapeworm from the elephant enclosure.
Hank made his rounds like he usually would. Shining his light and speaking into his commlink on his shoulder if he found anything suspicious. If he did find anything, he hoped the droids were nearby since his night shift partner was on the round side and could barely run faster than a penguin. To this day Hank couldn’t figure out how Roger hadn’t been fined for being as heavy as he was or fired for that matter for his laziness.
Hank made a few turns and came around the corner when he saw the red goo all over the ground. At first, he thought he was seeing things, then realized something had happened. He thought someone had spilled the chum truck that was going to the great white exhibit in the underground portion of the Zoo, but this wasn’t blood, it had no odor what so ever. Nor could it have been sharking chum, there was just too much of it everywhere.
Hank’s voice was weak due to age. He was tired and had worked four sixteen hour shifts back to back, due to some call ins that happened this week. “Roger, where are you?”
He could tell Roger was eating by the sound of the reply. “I’m checking on the primate exhibit why?”
“There is some weird stuff going on down here on Carnivore lane. Get down here and call in a G.N.E.A.T agent, something's going on down here.”
“What?” Roger said while Hank could hear him spit something out.
“I’m telling you, something happened down here on carnivore lane. There’s red stuff everywhere, it's like a chemical spill or something. Call for aid now!”
A woman’s voice, Lois Googlebothem, another security guard working the east side, spoke over the commlink. “ROGER, I’m seeing this stuff too, now we all know you’re near a communication terminal so get on it right now!”
Hank kept a diligent look about him as he shined his light in the different enclosures in this section of the zoo. He could see what looked like brown wolves with tiger stripes on their backs, the thylacine, struggling to breathe. The same sight was observed when he took a gander in the puma exhibit. All nine cats were sleeping the same way. Each of them covered in the red stuff.
Lois’s voice returned. “Hank, I will be over that way in a minute.”
Meanwhile a different woman's voice came over Hank’s commlink, he didn’t recognize it, but knew her security level when she mentioned, “Agent I.D. 900-781.” Anyone with a nine hundred score code was G.N.E.A.T command. “What is going on Mr. Jenkins. What kind of spill?”
“Agent 781, I have no idea what this stuff is, it's red, and it's everywhere. The animals are smothering in it. We need assistance Agent 781, and we need it now.” His weary voice cried out.
Inside the bat house, the building was set up with a viewing room, with jungle decor, overlooking a room the size of a basketball court. The plastic flora in the enclosure was covered as well, while the bats looked like gooey candy melded into the sticky liquid.
One of the bats, an albino that had been recently cloned began to twitch. Her white fur had been stained red. She was laying on a branch, having fallen when the effects knocked the little bat out. The clawed finger on her left wing began to wiggle slowly. A few seconds later, her red albino eyes, opened up. The bat made was lying on her back, struggling to flip over, but finally managed the task. She looked around the enclosure as other bats began to twitch and come too.
She sniffed the air with her nose, then proceeded to licking herself clean. Once she made about fifteen licks, she stopped. She looked forward. The bats eyes seemed to bulge. Her body began to pulsate, as the others followed suit. Her snout stretched, her wings elongated, while her body undulated as her body expanded to the size of a house cat. Within a matter of minutes, each bat in the enclosure had achieved the same growth.
Hank heard the deer making rustling noises. This drew him over to look beyond their gated enclosure. They were starting to come too as well. He tried to count them but couldn’t due to the saturation. He then saw something move. The trees in the exhibit were hiding something. It was large. At first Hank thought one of the vet techs were in there, but what he saw walking towards him, wasn’t no man. The only comparison Hank’s brain could formulate was a minotaur, though this was clearly a buck with far more horns than a minotaur had. The creature had also developed a humanoid hand, with five fingers, each one expressing a long black claw. “Is this some kind of sick joke?”
The beast ran at the fence. It reached outward, causing Hank to fall backwards on the solatex pavers. The creature pulled at the fencing, trying to rip at it. He saw its black eyes, and its elongated flat teeth, chattering as it tried to chew the metal fencing. When it realized it couldn’t bite through it, it simply pulled on the cage wall like a pissed off ape. It growled.
Hank got up quick. “There’s some weird shit going on over here! I need a rifle!”
Hank was covered in the red slime from falling. He tried to walk backwards, keeping an eye on whatever the hell that thing was trying to escape. To his horror, another one emerged, this one a female. She participated in the same behavior.
Growling came from the timber wolf paddock. Hank shined his light over there, to see a similar sight. A humanoid version was gnawing at the gate just like the de
er man was. “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?”
The wolf was larger, it had yellow eyes that seemed to almost glow. This one was more feral, yet seemed to have another quality to it, it looked like it was grinning as another one leaped onto the inside of the metal dome keeping them contained.
A puma was next. Humanoid, and pulsing as the changes inside its body were taking place. The sounds it made forced Hank to turn around and drop his flashlight when he saw it trying to bend the bars. “OH MY GOD….”
Glass crashed in the distance. Hank turned to behold a haunting melody of vicious creatures growling and snarling all around him. He didn’t know which was the most horrific, the wolves, these new cat creatures, or the deer that had managed to pull a bar inward. He heard the glass again.
Hank tried to run without slipping. He got close to the bat house. He heard more glass cracking inside. Then the door to the tiki hut began to vibrate. Something was clawing at the door, and it wasn't alone. The old man’s face was void of blood, he was white as a sheet. He shit his pants the very moment the door to the bat house burst open. Sixty or more of the bats were running at him, using their wings in the place of legs. Their grotesque faces licking their blood thirsty lips. Before he could take a breath, the white one leaped into the air, and wrapped her wings around Hank’s head like some sort of alien trying to impregnate him. She bit down on the top of his scalp, biting through his hat easily. This time when he hit the ground, there wasn’t any chance of getting back up, he was covered in a blanket of brown fur.
_____
The Haze.
Xairin had drank two long island iced teas. He was feeling that giggly sensation. On the rare occasions he drank, he was usually a happy drunk as long as he stuck to mixed drinks or a fruity Smirnoff. Beer would have done him in, and he would have been throwing up from the first sip, until morning.
His eyes kept watching the stage at the center of the club. He figured Topher would be on the stage dancing in one of his tuxedos, or an outfit involving a stylish top hat. Instead the drag queens were out in force tonight. Xairin wasn’t much for drag, but he did admire the artistic talents some of them utilized. His favorite was a queen that went by the name of Lucretia. Lucretia was currently performing. Her persona included an impersonation of Morticia Addams. Instead of a black sparkling dress, she wore a ruby one. One thing he loved about Lucretia, was she never used vulgarity in her shows or in her persona, Xairin usually felt such over the top usages of vulgarity made them seem trashy. The drag shows usually didn’t start until midnight, but tonight it was a special occasion. First act included, four queens, followed by a wet boxer contest, then a wet t-shirt contest, then another sequence of drag shows. The details were on the wall flashing on a screen.
To his pleasant surprise, his friend Rory Winsted was walking his way. Rory was the same age, same build and same height as Xairin. He was a blonde, with neatly cut hair. Rory was also very friendly and usually the life of a party. He was like Xairin, he never hardly drank, and could entrance a crowd of people with his wit and comical nature. He sometimes made Xairin a little jealous at how confident he was, that and he usually had more bedroom escapades to brag about which sometimes got on Xairin’s nerves.
Rory was wearing a red t-shirt tonight, and black jeans. He sat right beside Xairin while bringing his bottle of water to his lips. “XAIR BEAR!” He called him. A nickname Xairin didn’t care for.
“I hate that nickname!” Xairin said playfully.
Rory leaned over and rubbed Xairin’s hair a little rough. “Oh, come on Xair, what's the matter, that droid of yours try to tie you to the bed or something so you couldn’t come out tonight? Have to fight your way out or what?”
Xairin scoffed.
“I knew it. K2 being over protective again huh?”
“It's just his nature Rory. He means well.”
:” That droid is too protective. But hey, I get it. He's like fam, right?”
“Well he does have a true AI with emotion capability Rory. Besides, K2 has been in my family since I was a kid. My parents used him to baby sit and tutor. If it wasn’t for him I would have never passed some of my classes. Besides, he was a former enforcer droid.” Xairin said while his lips pursed the glass.
Xairin’s eyes floated past Rory to take in a thin young man dancing shirtless about fifteen feet away. Xairin usually didn’t go for the thin types, but the man had a nice face. The only drawback was Xairin trying to figure out how old the man was. He knew he had to be at least 18 to get in but couldn’t tell if he had a red barcode laser tagged to the top of his hand or not, indicating he was under 21.
Rory quickly homed in on this. He saw the guy dancing by himself, wearing nothing but jean shorts, flip flops and a glowing necklace that that had LED rainbow lights pulsing. He saw Xairin keeping surveillance. Rory rolled his eyes.
“Xair, don’t even go there.”
Xairin looked over at Rory and shrugged with a grin.
“Xairin I mean it, you don’t even need to be a psychic to tell that guy is faker than a drag queens tit. Look at the way he’s dancing man. If he twerked any harder the ground would be shaking. I’m telling you, don’t go there.”
Xairin’s second drink had obviously tipped his judgement as the sultry man tried to dance provocatively. Xairin was usually a bottom as they called it, a catcher, not the pitcher. By the way that guy was dancing, the only concluded ending of the night would be both bottoms being frustrated, despite Xairin thinking he was versatile. “He’s kind of hot.” Xairin said.
“And what are you two going to do? Rub your asses together and call it a night? Share a two way? Hell, do you even own a two way?” Rory smirked.
Xairin just rolled his eyes. Xairin knew he wouldn’t find anyone tonight worth keeping long term. The last time he thought the bar scene would yield something more permanent he ended up with a one-night stand that required enforcers and an over protective droid holding the punk over a ledge to scare the crap out of him to get him to go away... Even then, Xairin’s ex Cale still haunted him at times, sometimes literally.
“Xairin, I’m telling you, that guy is going to be rude, and obnoxious. Twinks in their late twenties, yes… Twinks in below 25, oh hell nah… That guy is looking for Daddy Morebucks and you know it. Just use your powers man…”
“I can’t I took my meds Rory. Besides, sometimes drinks make it hard to sense anyone also.” Xairin mentioned while taking another sip.
Rory frequented the Haze often. Usually on the prowl or had a desire to try and hustle some currency. He always had his phone on him, and had an app ready to scan someone's I.D. He was a shark at laser pool, and when there was enough blood in the water to make some currency. Tonight, the club was thick with university guys, and his brown eyes were hunting the pool tables. “Come on Xair, come watch me hustle some college guys?”
“Nah, I’m not in the mood.”
“Dude, I will split it with you. You pick out the guy, and I will do the work, if we win, I'll split it.”
“I think I’m going to get another long island man, besides, I’m kind of enjoying just mellowing out and sitting here. Besides, look over your shoulder, did you see that guy dancing in the cage over there?” Xairin smirked.
Rory looked over his shoulder and pursed his lips, then laughed. “Dude, you're such a size queen.”
_____
Isla Verde Quarantine zone.
Aaron was in a round white tent, with three other doctors reviewing the data. Steven Morris was one of Aaron’s right-hand men. The man was tall, stocky, and had a thick black beard, he kept neatly trimmed. He was younger than Aaron, just turning thirty, and had already came up the ranks in the world health organization as one of their best geneticists.
Ali Gupta was another one Aaron trusted. Gupta was fresh out of med school and was handpicked by Aaron at one of his seminars on Mellitus-32. The Pakistani woman usually honored her Muslim heritage by wearing her white hijab with a medical emblem on the side of it whil
e in the field, tonight was a prime example. She was a little on the chubby side, short, 5’6, but overall, a dedicated scientist in virology. Her twin sister, Abli was also on site, though not in the same tent currently.
Aside from Steven and Ali, there was Conner Wade. Wade was older, later fifties, and a little chubby himself. He had brown hair, and a decent smile, though he often was in deep water due to his brisk nature and harsh bedside manner. Aside from that, he was an excellent diagnostician.
Each one, wore the same attire. A mandate to keep them safe since they had no clue if the organism was still airborne or not. Steven had already introduced the theory that it wasn't.
“OK, so according to the genetic analysis, this is what we’re dealing with folks.” Steven said while pulling up a viewing screen in the rear of the room. They turned around to look at the live feed coming from Steven’s geneticsope. While Steven looked down through what looked like a high-tech microscope, everyone else watched the viewing screen. What they saw caused Aaron’s heart rate to speed up, His face twitched.
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