Hybrids: An Indoraptor Story ✓

The Massacre [Pt. 2]

I hadn't seen a human soul in over a minute.

Or anything living, for that matter.

For a place, such as INGEN, crawling with humans almost everyday, this was odd. But not completely out of their nature. Humans were adaptive: they knew a situation when they saw one, and they knew how to act. And, given the status of this one, they either fled to an exit with the promise of escape, or, if they weren't so clever, rode the stairs of the facility in hopes to hide.

So, was it right of me to start worrying? Perhaps.

Or maybe I'm over contemplating things.

They were none of my concern. Blink was priority number one, and I had yet to find his scent anywhere.

That would make more sense to worry.

My nostrils were strained to their limits once I reached the main level, painfully sampling a multitude of pheromones reeking just inches above my skull. From the bittersweet aroma of untouched coffee, to the awful odor of gunpowder and sweat, there were too many things to filter through. I tried once again, trailing after a few particular scents that seemed to resemble Blink's foreign musk. One led me past Wu's office, another through a couple abandoned rooms, and a fifth into a wall severed by claw marks.

Nothing strong came up. And I scowled when I struck every dead end.

"Blink?" I snarled, letting my voice echo through the halls. "Where are you?!"

Just before I could round the lobby corner, a third scent, metallic and warm in nature, suddenly struck my noggin, swarming both mind and body with its nauseating strength. I stumbled backward, sealing my nares and growling in spite of the odd find.

What is that? I clicked to myself. Is that... Blood?

I took another whiff and sneezed. It was heavy, far heavier than anything I've ever sampled. And warm. Keeping my ruined snout low and my tail bent low, I slowly paced forward, talons skidding against the tiles in warning to whomever stood at the other end of the corner.

But it was soundless. Far too quiet for anything living to hide in. Only my heavy breaths and thumping heartbeat were all I could muster beneath the shudders of a muted siren. The eeriness of the moment grew upon me, not just from my solitude or the scent, but by the shadows that clouded every bend, and the flickering lights that restricted my visibility. My jaws tightened, blue pupils dilating around the silver muscles surrounding it. I didn't know what awaited me around the bend, and I wasn't too hopeful that it would be what I was looking for. So I took another sharp breath, finally rounding the corner into the lobby.

And fumbled upon a nightmare.

Dead... my brain whimpered. They're all... dead...

Doctors, scientists, guards, staff laid still across the matted surface of INGEN, sprawled out in directions known and unknown. Most hung over themselves near the bulkheads -- heads drooped, eyes grayed, and jaws slightly hung mid-scream. Most of the bodies weren't whole; some were too disfigured to even call human. And, just above their rotten corpses spelled a canvas of speckled blood, painting the halls from front to back and poisoning the rich-scented corridors of nothing but death.

N-No...

Trembling on the spot, my upper body lifted to two claws, aiming to the upper region of the distant hallway where a bloodied exit sign sat. My stomach lurched again.

They died trying to leave.

Massacred.

"Blink," I gasped. "W-What did you do?"