Chapter Fifty-Four – Setting to Boil

Chapter Fifty-Four – Setting to Boil

“One.

So when you go out there, bagging bodies for disposal, you make sure that there isn’t so much as a limp alien dick left out there.”

–Major Hunt to Clenze cleanup team. March 2054

***

The soldiers didn’t seem to react too much to my blowing someone up and splattering us all with gooped human. I don’t know if that was up to their training, if they were just tough as fuck, or if they were reacting but their helmetted heads just hid it from view.

In the end it didn’t matter.

I set Whisper next to the wall by the entrance and had Dumbass scout one of the bathrooms to make sure it was zombie free. After cleaning off my face, I returned to find two of the soldiers dragging some very dead bodies off to one side. They riddled them with holes while I was gone and I hadn’t heard more than a few pops.

Are you feeling better?

I nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine,” I lied. “Hey, can I have one of those juice boxes? Need to clear my mouth.”

New Purchase: Nutri-Pack
Points Reduced to… 890

I stuck the little straw in the little straw hole and tried not to notice the increase in points as I stepped back into the shelter proper.

“We have them all lined up, ma’am,” Monroe said.

True to his word, the people from the shelter were all placed in more or less neat rows across the floor. Some of them were rolling out of position, or were twitching so hard that they were shifting up and down the rows, but it didn’t matter.

Just short of sixty people, all of them alive, but how many of them were still human? “Myalis, want to walk me through this?” I asked before stuffing the straw in my mouth. I’d never really cared much for alcohol before, but I was considering it now.

Your drone can scan each individual and see whether or not it’s too late for them. If it is, I would suggest immediate destruction of their brain matter, followed by liquefaction of their body. It’s a little morbid, but they’re already dead. There’s no point in allowing them to become enemies. Those who are still salvageable can be saved using tools from your Medical Utilities catalogue. The price will vary based on severity.

“Right,” I said. “Monroe, Dumbass will show you those that can be saved. The rest.” I swallowed. “Go for the brain. We’ll take care of the bodies later.”

I left the soldiers to their grisly work, picked up my Whisper, and stomped out of the shelter.

I pretended not to hear the negative sounding beeps from Dumbass followed by dull pops. Instead, I looked around the corridor and hugged my crossbow close to my chest. “You know, I was expecting a bit more heroics and less… this,” I said.

The work of a Vanguard is sometimes rather grisly. I’m sorry.

She actually sounded genuine there. “Not your fault, right?” I asked.

The Antithesis aren’t just a threat to humanity. No.

I frowned into the darkness. “Yeah. Fucking bug bastards.”

Plants, actually.

“Really?” I asked. “I thought that was… you know, internet bullshit.” I blinked a few times as I peered into the dark, then my new eye flickered and the darkness suddenly receded. It was only in the one eye though. Annoying.

It’s accurate. When we first found the Antithesis they were a non-spacefaring ecological creature. A bizarre mix of different phenotypes and what was at-first assumed to be different species. Some study soon revealed them to be one species of plant life. The Models that you have been fighting are all, technically, fruit.

I blinked. “Huh?”

They have seeds within them. Each Antithesis corpse has the potential to become an entire hive given enough time and biological resources.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“I heard of quarantine shit before, but… yeah, that’s not good.”

The enemy is nothing if not persistent.