[Redacted], North Atlantic Ocean.
"Hey Joshua, have you entered the school?" Nekona called up to Joshua, who was perched on a tree branch a few feet above the one she stood on. Behind them was a swath of the forest that was in the process of dissolving in to a putrid smelling ooze, the remnants of plant matter whose atomic structure had been sundered by The Witch. Her skin was pale and flawless like a porcelain doll, with piercing red eyes and a filthy mop of dark hair. She wore a torn black dress that must have once been an expensive gothic piece before the previous months of blood, gore, and cytoplasm had ruined it.
"No? Why on would I go there? Place is crawling with spiderlings. Literally." He answered her, shuddering at the mere thought of Arachnea's foul offspring. "Nothing to eat and full of spiderlings. No thanks."
"I didn't know you're afraid of spiders." Nekona cooed, a wicked smile on her face, as she phased up through the tree to join him on the higher branch.
"I'm not. Those things aren't spiders." Joshua replied with a scowl. "The way they chitter and move around is just unnatural. It's nine different kinds of fucked to hell. No thanks."
"Aww, I think they're just adorable!" Nekona giggled malevolently as Joshua wiggled his fingers to illustrate the skittering of the arachnoid undead. "Anyway, I only ask because there's been rumors that a pilot survived and has been hiding out in the school until now. I hear she may have made it to the forest. Speaking of, did you check if any of those humans you caught earlier knew anything?"
Joshua gave her a blank stare, thinking about the two groups of meatbags he had killed in the last twelve hours.
"...Did you even bother to check?"
"She didn't look like a pilot."
"How would you even tell the difference?"
"Feathers?"
"You're impossible, you know that?" Nekona spat as Joshua descended into a fit of giggling. "I'm going to investigate the school and see if I can't find a way off this rock. With or without you." She said, leaping down to the forest floor and beginning to walk towards the ruined school building.
Joshua watched her go for a moment before frowning and hopping down after her, holding his hat to his head as he fell.
"You'd better not be taking me off somewhere to kill me, Witch. And if we find anyone that isn't the pilot I get to eat them!" He called after her as he followed her at a distance. She laughed a bit and the pair walked off towards the building in the distance.
[Redacted], North Atlantic Ocean.
Joshua was slowly climbing out of his rectangular prison, an old elevator shaft coated in spider silk and the splattered remnants of the creatures he had been trapped with for the last half an hour. His claws tore gouges into the concrete wall as he created handholds for his climb while he muttered murderously to himself.
"Leave the forest she says. Humans are fun she says. The spiders are cute she says. The Witch is trying to kill me, I just know it. What's worse, that bastard played me. He shoved me down an elevator shaft and tried to feed me to the Spiders!"
Soon enough, the Hunter was sitting cross legged in front of the open elevator doors, picking spider silk off his clothes. As he cleaned himself off, he found a butterfly knife sticking out of his back and his earlier fury returned. "And that bastard stabbed me too?! He ruined a perfectly good coat!"
He rose to his feet, a predatory smile on his face.
"He hunted me. He tricked me and hunted me. Is this what they call 'love at first sight'?" He cackled as he crouched low to the ground and scented the air, seeking the man who had left the parting gift in his shoulder.
[Redacted], North Atlantic Ocean.
"Nothing to say, Hunter?" Nekona demanded even as she flinched at the sound of Elliot screaming in the other room. The scent of freshly spilled blood wafted into the hallway they were waiting in while Eva performed the emergency amputation of the bitten limb. "What, don't tell me you're afraid?" She stepped forward, holding up a blood soaked hand between the two of them and watched as the dark fluid ran down her fingers and her slender wrists.
"Mirabel has this odd illusion that I am weak, inferior even to the Infected who feed mindlessly. Do you think I am as well? Too human or weak-willed?”
"You are a fool, attached to transient beings that are beneath us. You do not understand your place at the top of the food chain, or even that they do not care for you as you do for them." Joshua responded solemnly, taking hold of Nekona's hand and staring at her, a stern look on his face.
"I've seen already what these hands are capable of, and what the humans think of us. Clinging to the illusion that you can simply become one of them is ridiculous." He released her hand and started off in the direction of the muted screams.
"But I know that you don't listen to what I have to say anyway," He said with a grin, the serious tone and focused eyes gone, leaving only the question of which was the mask, and which was his face, "So lets go have some fun. I'll bet we can even eat the arm after it's been removed!" He giggled, gleefully skipping towards the survivors.
Joshua looked around, observing the splatter of blood and struggle that adorned the makeshift operating theater. The other survivors were busy digging through old supply closets and grabbing what little had been left behind by those who had come before.
"Elliot wasn't the only one the Jackals got a hold of." He said, licking the blood and sniffing it.
"At least 24 hours ago. There won't be much left of him... they may not have inherited my winning smile or my sense of humor, but they have certainly inherited my tactical brilliance," he said smirking, crouching low and watching the event play out in his mind.
"Looks like some idiot was in deep and got lured out by them first, then chased into an ambush." He motioned for the others to follow him, "But this is the first time I've seen them operate in more than two or three." He muttered darkly. Turning about to face the others, a grim look on his face, he gave them the bad news: "We don't have much time. If my Jackals are working together, food is extremely sparse now. You lot may be all the humans left. The rest of the infected population will be making their way here, looking for survivors and hold outs. Especially since we may have been watched as we came here, to say nothing of the infected who have sharp noses just tracking the scent of Elliot's blood."
“Then we leave now,” Nekona declared. “If we move fast enough, we can get to the heliport before the other Infected find us.”
"You heard mommy, children. Time to go!" Joshua ordered, laughing as he does so. "You too stumpy!"
"Don't call him that." Nekona chided, glaring at the taller man.
"Lefty?"
[Redacted], North Atlantic Ocean.
Eva and Lucas were examining a pile of dried blood and stained bones that lay against a wall, still wrapped in the shredded remains of a labcoat bearing the Facility's logo on its breast. The name badge on the coat, coated in the remnants of flesh and dried blood, identified what little remained of the body as the Principle Investigator of the facility.
"...What does it matter? If we get out of here, you can wash your hands of all of this." Lucas asked, turning to face Eva with a frown. She had been ignoring his questions the entire time they had been down in the old facility and it was wearing thin.
“Are you daft?” Eva retorted, her voice rising. “You really think I can ‘wash my hands’ of mess when we leave? I am a researcher who was heavily involved in a governmental project. You can bet your ass that I’ll be dragged right back into this once those Infected wreck havoc on the mainland. Why do you think I’m studying them right now? I need to figure out how to stop them before they go on a rampage and destroy what we have left of civilization!” She began to pace, gnawing on her thumb.
“This was such a good project,” she muttered to herself, seeming to forget about Lucas entirely. “The topic of genetics is interesting in itself, but to manipulate the base fundamentals of life as we know it? To essentially invoke evolution? Brilliant! Dr. Ryman outdid us all with his proposals. But then he had to go nuts and rush the end! If he had just taken time to stabilize the mutagens introduced into our subjects, or put fail safes into the nanites, we wouldn’t be in this mess! Everything would have been fine if he wasn’t so impatient! We had the parameters, the precautions, everything! We could have contained anything but the large scale Outbreak that led to all this. Luckily, we have-”
She abruptly stopped and hurriedly took out her journal, skimming the dates of each of her entries as Lucas watched, confused by her sudden silence. Eva silently mouthed off numbers while counting off her fingers. “Actually…” she starts slowly. “We don’t. Wait…” She looked back at her journal, mumbling to herself. “No… this can’t be right…”
“What is it?”
“I mean, I didn’t do them myself, but I do remember our safety orientation. We were assured that even in the event of a failed containment, aid would be provided as soon as possible. I remember because I asked how they would know if things were amiss. They told us that someone would be appointed to submit monthly reports. If one was not sent, then they would immediately detonate... But… it’s been almost four months. Even assuming that a report was submitted the day before the Outbreak, they should be missing at least three reports.” She looked up at Lucas, bewilderment swimming in her eyes.
“What is happening?”
Lucas frowned and thought about this new development, answering her in a much more measured voice than she had.
"So what you're saying is that either you were lied to at your orientation... Or someone on the island is still reporting the all clear?"
"...We were just wondering why there’s still a coat on Dr. Ryman when you said you took it.” Eva asked Nekona, trying to avoid the topic of the countermeasures on the island.
“I put it back,” Nekona replied, sitting up and crossing her legs. “After I left the control room, his body looked a little sad without the coat so I put it back on him.”
“…what were you doing in the control room?” Eva asked
“Opening the facility door! I thought we already established this? How else would I open that thing?”
“…I thought you didn’t go into the control room?”
“Of course I didn’t go to the control room. I haven’t been there at all.”
“But you just said…”
“What?”
“You said you were in the control room to open the door.”
“You’re wrong. I wasn’t-” Nekona suddenly stopped, blinking in bewilderment. “I… I was never at the control room, but… but I had to have been to open the door… but I’ve never been to the control room…”
An onslaught of throbbing pain tore through her head and Nekona pulls her knees to her chest, her hands curled up by the sides of her head in an attempt to block out the sudden hurt.
“I was not… but I had to have been…”
Awoken by Nekona’s soft cries, Elliot opened his eyes and instantly sat up, his gaze arrowed onto her form. Sensing her distress, he wrapped his arm around her and glared at Eva and Lucas.
“What did you do to her?” He demanded.
"She's suffering an extreme case of cognitive dissonance." Joshua quietly said, glaring at Eva.
A deathly silence filled the room as the survivors turned to look at him.
"When your memories are tampered with, implanting false memories or altering existing ones, it can cause a good amount of pain. Do it enough, and it can turn someone a little... funny..." a Cheshire grin spread across Joshua's face and he began to laugh quietly even as he clutched at his own head.
"At least, that's what I heard the doctors saying every so often. Too bad I didn't ask more questions before I redecorated the room with the entrails. You might want to start explaining to the mere mortals here Doc." His grin began to take on a malicious quality as he spoke.
"I recognize that, and I know you do too. I still remember bits and pieces of the fun games you and your friends played with us. We both know that you're just as responsible for what happened here as any of us." His grin widened.
"You're no different than the criminals you kept here, or the monsters you created. At least we're honest about what we are."
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she hedged. “I have nothing to do with what Nekona has going on.”
"Then who else would tamper with her memory? That's what's going on here, and that was you and your friend's MO." Joshua's grin soured as he snapped back at the scientist, jabbing a clawed finger towards her.
“I. Did. NOT. Tamper with their memories,” she snapped “That was not the point of this project!”
"You're right!" Joshua laughs malevolently, "The point was to make weapons! Wasn't it Doc?! You wanted the ultimate weapons that you could send out to do whatever the fuck you felt like and then just wipe their minds and do it again!" He extended his claws and carved a deep gouge into the wall. "The ultimate assassin! Running down and hunting a target before anyone could possibly react! Too bad all those mind wipes fuck with the brain a little too much huh? Could have really been something wonderful!"
"The best infiltrator you could possibly create!" Joshua laughed, pointing at Nekona's unconscious form, "Literally able to walk through walls and steal whatever she wanted to! Any government in the world would pay top dollar for a few of her! Hell, I'm surprised you only made one each of us!" His giggling doubled him over, and he attempted to collect himself again as he turned to look at Eva, advancing on her as he did.
"You got exactly what you wanted, and honestly, I think you like seeing us out in the open, don't you Ms. Frankenstein? You wanted this to happen, and I wouldn't be surprised if one of you sick fucks set us loose and then fucked with her head one last time to cover your tracks!" He grabbed Eva's face and squeezed her cheeks, digging his claws into her skin as he forced her to smile while he laughed uncontrollably before turning away abruptly and stalking back over to his corner.
Angered by Joshua’s words, Eva nearly tripped as she tore a shoe off of her foot, smirking in satisfaction when the heel of her shoe struck his head. Joshua returns her assault with a frightening glare, but she stood firm with her shoulders back and her chin up.
“Don’t you dare accuse me of these things,” she began, her voice dangerously low. “We wanted superhumans, yes, but we didn’t want mindless killing puppets. You can’t even begin to comprehend the applications of this project!" Fueled by her own tirade, she yanked off her other shoe and threw it at him. Joshua merely batted it away and began to advance on her again, growling as he did so. Despite this unspoken warning, she continued.
"You think I want you out in the open? You’re disgusting! You are less than human, you sub-par, lowlife, vapid imbecile! If I knew you were going to be the way you are, then I would have cut off your oxygen line eons ago! No! The only reason why you are all out in the open is because of her!”
She pointed at Nekona with a finger, still trembling in anger as her voice rose higher.
“You’re so sick in the head that I’m willing to bet that you cannot even THINK about what love is. And so you cannot comprehend the depth of love Dr. Ryman had for his daughter! Why else would he rush human trials?! Why do you think the ever careful Dr. Ryman rushed? He was desperate to find a way to save her. He became a man possessed and worked furiously until he found a viable mutagen that wouldn’t kill its host! A system that could distribute it to every last cell of her diseased body! Fifteen years this project would have taken and that brilliant man managed to do it in three! So don’t you dare insult us and liken us to your sort of perverted mindset! You have no right! None!”
[Redacted], North Atlantic Ocean.
“This doesn’t make sense…” Joshua said, watching Joseph with keen eyes. “I should have-”
“Been able to sense me? Yes, your instinct was quite troublesome. I couldn’t get rid of it entirely, so I shifted your suspicions to Mirabelle.”
“…how?”
“I am not Gepetto the Puppeteer for no reason,” he replied, fondly tucking away his knife. “Now, be a dear and give me the pilot, then wait for my next instruction.”
Joshua suddenly felt an overwhelming compulsion. A drive that forced itself into his mind, and he could not help but drag Kelly forward by the arm to present her to Gepetto.
“Stop it!” Nekona hissed, grabbing Joshua and digging in her feet, halting his efforts. “Snap out of it!”
“Nekona, hands to yourself.”
The Witch hissed and snapped, but her arms fell to her sides and she watched helplessly as Joshua gave Kelly to Gepetto. The girl noticeably shivered and struggled, but a quick command from Gepetto halted her fight. He gently tucked a lock of hair behind her ear, cradling the pilot’s face with careful hands.
“Strange,” he mused. “How a fragile human such as she can be the key to my freedom.”
“Who are you?!” Eva demanded, watching in horror at what was unfolding before her eyes.
Gepetto looked up from Kelly and smiled. “Didn’t I say? I am Ge-”
“I know every Subject created in this facility,” Eva responded angrily, “But you’re not in my records. I thought it was weird that I didn’t recognize you, but I would have remembered someone of your abilities. You were the goal for my project! You would have been designated-”
“Subject 0001?” Gepetto interrupted her, lazily rolling his eyes.
“…that’s right.”
“Well congratulations. You succeeded. If I recall correctly, all of you threw a party in my honor.”
“What? No we didn’t. There was no-”
“But of course you wouldn’t remember. I did erase your minds. Such malleable things minds are.”
As Eva’s mouth dropped, Nekona’s eyes widened. “You…You were the one I met in the control room.”
“Ah yes. I do remember you, little Nekona. I had quite the amount of trouble opening the door, but luckily you came along to do just that for me.” Gepetto sighed, wrapping his arms around Kelly’s shoulders while absentmindedly twiddling with the ends of her hair. “But imagine my frustration when I discovered that we were on an island. I was at a loss, in a predicament. I wanted so much more than this tiny plot of land.”
Eva quickly recovered from the shock of the revelation and started doing what she did best. Ranting. “How dare you! To invade the sanctity of the mind with the powers we endowed upon you! You can’t possibly tell me that you were able to do that! We had you under heavy sedation and we guaranteed that you wouldn’t be able to-”
“Shut your mouth and off yourself. Your babbling is irritating.”
Eva’s mouth instantly snapped shut and she reached into her pocket, her fight against his compulsion resulting in seizure-like shaking, but she eventually produced her pocket knife. She flicked out the blade and a muffled whimper escaped her as she aligned it with her eye. Her breaths came sharp and shallow as she switched her panicked gaze from the knife to Gepetto and back again, her eyes pleading.
“Do it.”
Eva couldn't quite contain her screams as she shoved the knife into her eye. Her eyeball popped in a burst of blood and aqueous humor, and she drew it out to shove it deeper into her socket a few more times before she fell, her eye a bloody mess. Joey watched in horror and backed away, pausing to look briefly at Kelly.
“K…Kelly…”
“Cover your ears, Joey, Lucas.”
They are barely able to clap their hands over their ears before deafening gunshots sound next to them. Elliot emptied the weapon into Gepetto, but the monster remained standing, even rubbing at the holes decorating his chest.
“Ouch…You’ve got spunk, human. I can see why Nekona likes you. Such a shame you have to die. Nekona, kill him.”
“Elliot…run…”
The assassin made a break for it, but didn't get far before Nekona caught him, sinking her hands into his abdomen.
“N-Neko…”
The Witch gasped, her eyes dilating as his blood splattered across her face. “E…Elliot. I…”
Even through her sobs, tears falling onto the open wounds in Elliot’s stomach, she couldn't stop herself when she began pulling out his intestines, plucking out his organs one by one. Gepetto shook his head.
“Ah, young love. As for you, Joshua. You’re free to go.”
“…what?”
As Joshua shook off his previous compulsion, he looked at Gepetto with suspicion.
“Why?”
“Hmm… I’m feeling generous. It’s a pity that I must kill off all of my equals… well almost equals. In fact, I’ll even spare those two humans there,” he nodded at Joey and Lucas. “They can be your food source for the time being. Now, I’ll be taking my leave then. Goodbye. But, before I go… Nekona, you can stop. Do admire your handiwork.”
Immediately, Nekona yanked her bloody hands to her chest, staring down at Elliot in horror. His eyes were starting to lose focus, the light that sparkled in them seeming to dim. The man twitched and drew in one strangled, shuddering breath after another, but each heaving breaths only served to make his wounds bleed more profusely.
“I…I…No…”
Half-insane, Nekona brought her fists to her temples, unable to take her eyes off of Elliot as he reached up his bloodstained hand to her face. A final smile, and he was gone.
[Redacted], North Atlantic Ocean.
Joshua had chased that bastard for over an hour through the forest. He had reached him and been saved from his control by the quick thinking of the human he had carried. Oh the indignity of it all! But now was the worst of the insults. There lay Gepetto, Elliot's knife sticking out of his forehead at the base of the helipad. One of the humans had gotten the drop on the monster and done what he and Nekona had failed to do. He growled his displeasure even as he kicked the son of a bitch on the ground.
"You, girl, quit your sniveling and get this bird in the air. I want out of this hellhole right this second." He said, jabbing his finger at the pilot they had just saved. The humans nodded and piled into the craft, whose rotors roared to life as the helicopter began its pre-flight checks.
"You know you don't have to stay here." He said, not turning to look at Nekona who was crouched low and examining Gepetto's body.
"I promised him we would be together until the end." She answered, standing up and smiling a small smile at Joshua. "Besides, more prey for you on the mainland right?"
Joshua looked down at her face, and the two embraced for a moment before the Hunter climbed into the helicopter behind the humans. He paused one last time to look over his shoulder at her as the helicopter lifted off from the platform and began its journey back to shore. Nekona sighed and thought about the events of the day.
"At least we got revenge for you. I'll just have to explain it all when I get there." She says, setting off back towards the facility where Elliot's body was waiting for her.
Then, a rumble in the deep, followed by a blazing heat as the island erupted in heat and light. The last thoughts that came through Nekona's mind as she was consumed in nuclear fire were three words that echoed in her memories. "I am Joey."
Joshua was practically bouncing off the walls with excitement as the helicopter made its way across the sea towards the shore, singing the praises of everyone involved. “I still can’t believe that we’re getting away! Especially with all the trouble from that Mirabelle girl and that Gepetto fellow. That was well done, for a human that is." He said, laughing as his eyes glinted a faint gold for a moment. The others in the helicopter joined his laugh, though with much less enthusiasm as he had. Then there was a thunderous noise. An explosion of light and heat flashed through the sky outside, and the entire craft shook violently with the force of the shockwave that tore through the air. Kelly gasped from the cockpit and the others rushed to the windows to see what had happened. A mushroom cloud was forming where the island had been mere minutes before, and the waves were already rushing out in all directions from the pressure wave.
"Jesus! What the fuck just happened!?" Lucas exclaimed as he watched the aftermath of the detonation.
Suddenly, Joshua's hair stood on end, and he whipped back around to face Joey, who hadn't gotten up from his seat. In his hand was a small metal button, his thumb was holding it down.
"Everything is alright. The site's nuclear failsafe detonated because it hadn't checked in after four months, remember? Eva told us all about this before Gepetto got her. There is nothing to worry about. I am Joey."
The passengers of the aircraft suddenly realized that there was nothing to be alarmed about, after all, Eva had warned them this might happen. That's why they needed to get off the island so badly. There was nothing to worry about. Joey smiled at them, and his eyes seemed to shine an electric blue.
The helicopter continued its journey to the mainland. There was still so much to do.
