Search And Rescue

[t_00]

The time between deployments was quiet. Constricting. Soothing. Unending. It was stripped down to its limiters, cleaned, and replaced in its container, locked into place. Its eyes stayed open, but all was dark. Almost silent. The only thing it felt was the pulse of the implant in its head, and its heartbeat falling into line with that demand. It could leave if it pushed hard enough, but didn't. Over time, it lost all sense of direction. Weightless. Waiting.

Then it heard the alarm, muffled, in the outside. Its fingers twitched, curled, clenched. Waited for instructions.

The sound of bolts unsealing on the container were like gunshots, followed immediately by more snapping of its restraints.

And it finally heard the torrent of voices. Humans shouting, too many, too much to comprehend. It stepped out of its container and stared down at them, waiting for orders.

Kill the infected. Kill all of them.

No, protect the researchers.

No. Tyrant Unit: Prioritize destroying the Hunter pack, then protect the uninfected.

Destroy Hunters. Hunters were fast. Too fast for it to catch them when they were chasing prey. They avoided it, focused on the uninfected. It had to catch them when they were feeding.

They finally reacted to its presence when it punched a deep hole into one of them, shattering its head.

Several minutes later, it straightened up. Listened. No more sounds of claws and snapping teeth. Just the zombies.

It started to search for uninfected.

It couldn't find any.

It kept searching.

Comments

[zeusincarnate]

Marcus followed behind the giant quickly this time, not wanting the door to close on him again. He was sure he wouldn't be left behind, but having to wait to have a door opened for him was just embarrassing.

"I hope you have some idea where we're going. Or a map. A map would be great." He'd found some incomplete maps of the more easily accessible areas but nothing that had even a slight indication of 'go here to stop zombie apocalypse in progress'.

[t_00]

A map. It kept moving, trying to calculate efficient routes through the facility that might include a map. It would not help them directly: they already knew the layout. But that only meant the shapes, and the specifics that they had been allowed to know. The maps had been covered in symbols they didn't understand.

It paused at an intersection, considering. There could be a map in the offices to the east. It would also be a valid route deeper into the facility. But there were more infected there, that they had not killed. It had not been ordered to seek and destroy, and clearing out all the little cubicles would have taken too much time.

And they had to communicate that somehow. It made a quiet huff of annoyance, trying to think. It had a limited number of signs to work with, most of them completely useless.

There. It pointed toward their objective. Assemble.

There. Map check. Close enough, maybe. There. Danger area. Biological attack.

[zeusincarnate]

Marcus stopped and waited impatiently while the giant hesitated at an intersection. He was about to make a suggestion when his new friend turned towards him and then pointed. And, after a long pause, made a slow but recognizable military signal.

He was more than a little impatient with how slowly the giant was signing, but this was such an improvement over their previous communication mode of Marcus talking and the giant nodding or saying nothing at all that he made himself wait.

Map check, so there was at least a map over there. And danger in the form of a biological attack. Usually not meant to signal zombies, but Marcus had a feeling that this time it was zombies and not something more mundane and expected like weaponized smallpox or anthrax. "Yes. Let's go." Marcus said, triple-checking his recently reloaded gun.

[t_00]

The delay was also annoying it. The implant in its head pulsed insistently. That kept it focused. But when it couldn't complete an objective, it was like an itch. Inside everything. It hated that feeling.

As soon as the human said 'yes', it was moving. Toward the offices, a low, densely packed field of cubicles and dead bodies in conference rooms and infected that had stumbled out to the surrounding corridors to seek more blood. They increased their pace, ranging ahead of the human, hunting. Completing their objective. Making the itching subside.

[zeusincarnate]

Marcus had difficulty keeping up with the gray giant as he picked up his pace with his longer, stronger legs and his much better functioning lungs. In fact, he had to slow down when he started coughing again after struggling to keep up.

At least his new friend made plenty of noise as he stomped down the corridors, and Marcus had his gun to pick off any stragglers or anything that came at him from a different direction.

[t_00]

He was coughing again. More signs of injury. A liability as it tried to keep the infected from reaching it. And the human had denied that it was hurt. This was not true.

When they reached the cubicles, it slowed to let the human catch up, scanning the space beyond them.There were infected here, and they would be lured in by the coughing. It could smell them. See wavering heads turn, over the tops of the low walls.

And there was something rustling in the distance. It couldn't tell if the noise was on a level above them.

[zeusincarnate]

Marcus was grateful his giant friend was slowing down to let him catch up. His lungs burned and he was struggling to keep his coughing under control. The giant had given him an inhaler earlier, as but it wasn't going to help what was wrong with his lungs.

Despite the desire to just open fire on the zombies, Marcus felt he should conserve ammo, since his friend had no trouble dispatching them up close. He'd save his ammo for when anything got too close to him.

His hand holding the gun shook a little from his coughing and trouble breathing.

[t_00]

It took the pause to scan the cubicles, deciding on the most efficient path to dispatch targets. Once the human reached it, it started forward again, breaking the first infected with efficient movements, then the next, then the next, then--

Rustling above. The ceiling tiles were rattling. Unknown bioweapon above, closing in on the human, move to protect--

Something fleshy burst through the tiles, and it could not move fast enough to catch it, only to physically intercept, pain and darkness cutting into its face and scalp as the force staggered it for a moment, dragging the thing with it. It was caught by the head, as something screeched and flexed sharp spines against its flesh.