The Hive i

Jiro slammed the door shut. He had to block out the monster hunting him. This place was turning into a nest of creatures.

He wiped blood and sweat from his eyes. His heart beat fast in his chest. Things had gotten bad very fast. First, the flying disease bags hit their aircraft, making it crash. Then Jiro got taken inside the lab full of weird living gunk that almost ate him. It put some of itself inside him too. He didn't know what that meant. Was he turning into a monster now too?

Somehow he got rescued by a doctor lady named Rei. But before she could explain much, alarms went off. Soldiers grabbed Jiro. He woke up here in a dark place full of dead bodies. Not a good sign.

Then he saw guards get attacked by a man-shaped thing all gooey and gross. It dragged them away to feed. It spotted Jiro and called him "food" in a creepy voice in his head too. He threw a flashing bomb at it and ran away quickly. That thing was scary strong and fast though. Jiro knew it would chase him.

So he dove into the first open door down here. It was some supply closet, full of nice padded suits. Looked warm. He started to put one on but realized...the monster thing could maybe chew through it easily. Jiro needed armor.

THUNK! He flinched, nearly dropping the flashlight. The thing was trying to batter down the door! The metal bent more with each hit. Soon it would rip open.

Jiro frantically dug through cupboards and lockers. Tools, check. Extra flash bombs, check. He found tubing, duct tape, and cleaning supplies too. An idea sparked. He could make his protection gear.

Working fast while the creature howled, Jiro stuffed thick metal tools under his uniform for chest pads. He duct taped foam mats around his arms and legs too, then a metal ventilation helmet. Kind of ugly but better than nothing! Last, he made a bottle shooter that sprayed toxic goo by filling it with sink chemicals. Should burn monster skin hopefully if he got a clean shot.

KA-POW! The door split with a jagged hole leaking shadowy steam. A big oozing claw slashed at the gap, trying to widen it. Inched closer. Panicked but controlled, Jiro lit and threw his last three flash bombs through the crack before it got bigger.

Even through shut eyes, the pulses were blindingly bright in the tiny closet space. The thing shrieked from the sparks burning its bulbous eyeballs. It thrashed away from the ruined door for a second. That was Jiro’s only chance!

He leaped through the small jagged exit with a warrior yell, firing his toxic spray bottle all over the misshapen body flailing around. Smoke and sickly yellow pus-like goo drenched it as the creature writhed. Parts of its skin bubbled. Jiro’s bottle shooter trick worked!

But even blind it thundered towards him faster than he expected, biting madly with dozens of jagged teeth in slotted jaws. It caught his padded arm, shredding foam as he pulled away. No bites reached flesh but a few razor fangs whizzed past his neck, barely missing.

Jiro scrambled back gasping. He fired another gunshot into its face at point-blank range. It ate the stinging fluids and curled like a salted slug! Time to run more!

He sprinted away as fast as he could, rounding corners and jumping over busted medical cots from the rooms back at the start. Gotta find stairs going up. Down led to the labs and cells. Dangerous. Up might mean escape.

Behind him echoed the monster’s crazed shouts. It had stopped thrashing to carefully lick clean its warped head and limbs, regaining strength quickly. The acidic poisons only dazed its weird body for a short time. Soon it would track Jiro again by smell, heat, sound...

There! An elevator! Jiro jammed the button with hope. Nothing. Dead and dark. He pried open the metal doors desperate, peering up the long vertical shaft. Cables hung uselessly far overhead. No climbing out this way. And if he hid inside, the crawling freak would corner him stuck.

Jiro shivered thinking what sick experiments created that thing. Was it born in some lab tube downstairs? Maybe it escaped when sirens blared before. But why not turn people into weird creatures on purpose? What could anyone gain from such crazy dangers leaking everywhere? None of it made sense. And what happened to Rei? If Jiro found her maybe she would explain—

"MEAAAAATTT SNAAAAAACK!" The inhuman cry rebounded from across the hall. Sounded nearer than expected. Jiro jolted in panic but kept still. Had to play smart with the next moves when a big predator was circling. He silently slipped into a wrecked room nearby without lights on. Hid behind some tipped-over tables in the dark and prepared his bottle shooter again with shaky hands. If that freak traced where he was hiding too fast, Jiro might need his last gunk shot to try blinding it once more so he could run.

Quiet minutes passed. Jiro slowed his nervous breath, trying not to make noises it could follow. But his heart thumped loudly in fear and body heat probably glowed hot through walls. Sweat stung his eyes peering under cracks of faint light from the hall. The monster’s oozing melted face leered there seeking trails. It paused sniffing, maybe picking up Jiro’s scent just yards away past flimsy debris. So close, one slip up and...

A skittering sound at the back! Jiro spun aiming his bottle shooter. But it was only some scared rats fleeing through a crude hole gnawed crudely in the bottom corner out of sight. That meant... the room bordered some kind of vent or maintenance tunnel! If Jiro could widen the crevices enough to squeeze inside, maybe he could sneak away unheard while the melted hunter stalked the hall.

Carefully, quietly, Jiro worked to scrape the tiny gnawed entrance, allowing dusty airflow. Once wide enough, he crawled fast into absolute darkness. The walls felt strangely spongy with odd organic softness, kinda gross. His senses went alert realizing he just entered slender earthen tunnels criss-crossing the underground levels, perhaps dug by infectious creatures migrating deeper toward buried secrets. Things could dwell in this tight maze...

But Jiro crawled anyway. The squishy corridors wove on and on. Side tubes barely big around as his chest joined the narrow maze every few feet. Bugs and things slithered around him unseen as Jiro tried picking a path avoiding organic hazard redirects. Like a giant nest or hive. He wondered if any human construction even remained below ground from before. Or had infectious otherness swallowed everything already?

The bugs grew louder, chittering unseen ahead than behind too somehow. Their little clawed feet prickled Jiro's neck. He crawled faster hoping to find some exit point or air shaft soon. But the left wall suddenly shook wetly. Some great mass bumping and sniffing on the other side, aware of his movements!

Jiro froze, gripped with chest-squeezing terror. Was it the melted creature? Could it track him even in these tight maze tunnels? He held utterly still. On the other side of the organic veil sounded a chorus of squeaking things. Small...for now. Peering closer Jiro spotted squirming termite-looking blobs scavenging a few dead tunnel rats. Just baby creatures eating. But what things birthed them?

The brood mother answered his silent question. An enormous shape reared from the squirming mound of babies, knocking Jiro onto his back choking. Four huge crablike limbs scraped backward revealing a dripping whale-sized segment chest body followed by countless pulsing egg sacs anchored to the expansive tail mass trailing off down vanished rear tunnels. Two tiny wing nubs freakishly flapped with the promise of eventually birthing an even larger terror flight...

A misshapen head with curved tusk jaws turned curiously sensing Jiro's intrusion. He screamed as loud as possible before waves of fist-sized spider hatchlings dropped onto him from clustered egg sacks! Their tiny fangs and claws swarmed ripping skin through his uniform. Hundreds of tiny mouths fed...

Frantically Jiro remembered his toxic shooter bottle. He raised the nozzle upwards, spraying directly into the dense wad of spiders biting him. The chemicals burned tiny arachnids immediately, making them fall off cooked or paralyzed. The swelling baby infestation turned to pained squeals retreating from the stinging spray.

But the titanic queen reared back with a piercing cry of her own. She shoved her dripping crab bulk against Jiro's fragile hiding wall. Organic secretions ate away his cover soddenly. The horrible mother creature was melting entrance to her unhatched brood’s chamber! Jiro shook off spider babies and screamed fleeing on hands and knees over their squashed bodies further into the deep hive.

Left or right each tiny passage looked identical in darkness but he chose right, then left, then left again. Jiro crawled until no breath remained while the mammoth birthing beast's rage echoed behind him. Finally a small point of dim light. An exist! He squeezed desperately, pushing through the crusted opening onto the cold tile floor getting sliced up. But the wound didn't matter. Blood was nothing against mega spider hives!

He rolled free scanning the derelict chamber now illuminated by dying green emergency bulbs. Jiro's heart fell recognizing the autopsy lab filled with cracked specimen cylinders. He was back inside the first infested Crypt testing wing somehow. Upstairs must be locked tight from stray infected...or perhaps guards waited daring enough to re-secure even ground zero. Jiro swallowed dust, more afraid of whatever human elements wrestled authority here now.

Footsteps slowly entered the room from behind. Jiro wheeled fast with his last line of toxic defense raised warily. But instead of flesh-eating mutants, a small hazmat-suited figure stood wavering with hands up peacefully. A little girl's voice crackled over suit speakers.

"Hello, mister monster person. Are you stuck down here too?"

Jiro sank to his knees with Olympian relief at this spark of sanity found. Tears poured out before he even registered, all numbing adrenaline-depleted. He couldn't stop sobbing, crumbling before the beacon of normality. The tiny suited medic shuffled closer sounding unsure.

"It's okay, the monsters scared me a lot at first too. But I can help make us both safe maybe."

She showed Jiro a crumpled vent system map revealing less corrupted passages. He shuddered an exhale forcing soldierly composure to re-engage. If this unlikely child proved savvy enough to endure the outbreak coordination nexus thus far, then by damn he would harbor whatever grit necessary to carry her beyond this present evil. No more losses today...

Jiro rose, wiping his bloodied face with resolve. He activated the Crypt level environment monitor stepping closer. "Many thanks for unexpected salvation young healer. I am Jiro-formerly Recovery now mutated fugitive. Let us partner in finding your family above while questions still hold purpose. Surface displacement comes for all eventually..."

She nodded bravely through the scratched face mask. Jiro glimpsed features reminding him of Dr. Rei from before somehow... An immense question for later. Now, they turned together walking carefully from the warped laboratory graveyard toward safer levels indicated on her wrist slate. Jiro knew better than folks her age that safety remained few while darkness still swallowed nearly everything. But step by step, some light ahead seemed to promise hope worth bleeding a thousand little deaths trying to reach somehow. He would likely die down here as penance. But ideals yet pulled him ahead stubbornly insisting one breath further...

Always daring the impossible proved the first refuge still untouchable.