Stray Cat Strut

Chapter Fifty-Four - Setting to Boil

“One.

That’s how many Antithesis bodies need to be left forgotten in order to restart an incursion.

Though I suppose calling it an incursion isn’t right. Still, the point remains. One body left in some closet with enough mass still stuck to it, and you have all the ingredients for a second wave of aliens.

You don’t want your country to pull another Serov, Russia, or a Santa-Cruz de Sierra.

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.

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.” ℞ΆΝǑＢĘṤ

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.

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

The enemy is nothing if not persistent.

Something shuffled from behind me. I spun around, searching for what had made the noise. It could have been anything from the ventilation turning on to a rat passing by, but I’d seen enough horror shit not to just dismiss random noises.

“Myalis. Can I have bolts that don’t make things explode?” I asked.

What an unusual request from you. Might I suggest the Mark I Scatterbolt? The bolt splits in mid-air, releasing a payload of monofilament glass needles. The bolts are equipped with a rudimentary sensor that times the split for maximum coverage.

I nodded. “Sounds good enough,” I said.

New Purchase: Scatterbolt Magazine

Points Reduced to... 888

The new magazine appeared in my outstretched hand. I shoved it in my pocket as I fiddled with the release under my Whisper. Once that was off, I slid the new magazine in place and pulled the bolt back to remove the concussion bolt left in the shamber.

I moved towards the end of the corridor, the same one we’d come from, and felt like I was already missing Dumbass. “Need more drones,” I muttered.

Noted.

I reached the corner, then swept around, crossbow pointing first one way, then another. And there was a whole lot of nothing to aim at, just a bunch of pipes and shadows cast by red warning lights.

I licked my lips. “Myalis, my hydra guns, please.”

Deploying.

I felt my coat shift a bit, then my back-mounted guns poked through the magnetically attached flap over my shoulders and began to scan my surroundings.

“Ma’am?”

I jumped about six feet in the air and spun around to face a Monroe who had his arms up in surrender.

“We’re done, ma’am.”

I sighed. “Can’t you be a bit noisier?” I asked.

“Being quiet tends to keep you alive in places like this,” he said.

“Until I shoot you for scaring me shitless,” I muttered as I returned to the shelter.

Within was a scene of methodological slaughter. Corpses, their heads filled with precise holes, were lined up where moving bodies had been before. The floor was one big pool of mixing blood and swimming white shapes that filled the air with a coppery tang. The remaining members of Monroe’s squad were moving about it all as if it was nothing.

I swallowed past another surge of bile, pulled out the last of my juice box and drank the rest. The sweet taste did fuck all to make the scene better, but it was distracting. “Those seven are the only ones,” Monroe said as he pointed off to the side.

There were, as he said, seven people in a row off to one side, all of them writhing and moving under the glare of the neon lights.

“Can one of your guys help me? The rest of you should probably check on the door.”

“Yes ma’am,” Monroe said. He called out a few orders and was soon joined by two of his guys. They moved off to the door while I moved to the not-yet-zombie people.

“Okay. Okay. We can save them,” I said. “Myalis. Please tell me there’s an easy way to save them?”

Easy? No. But they can be saved if you act quickly. It will be costly though.

“Fuck cost,” I said.

Good! The first step will be stopping the spread of the Model Seven’s roots within their bodies. Then a Neuro-Regenerative to repair any damage to their brains. Following this with a Nano-Regenerative Suite should suffice. They are likely to have difficulties moving for some time, but the effects will wear off eventually.

I nodded and took in the seven before me. Two of them were kids. One an older woman, another a man that was so fat he was past overweight and nearing the obscene. Just normal people. People just like the dead behind me.

“Let’s get to work then,” I said.

New Purchase: Full Body Purge x7

Points Reduced to... 853

The boxes that appeared each held a mask that had a sort of inhaler fixed onto it, one with a big red button at the top. I tossed a few to the soldier that had stayed to help me, then got to my knees next to the nearest not-a-zombie.

There was something boiling in my chest. A sort of loathing for everything the Antithesis had done. It soothed over some of the disgust I felt.

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