Korryn
It took a bit of humility for her to finally admit it, but by the time she'd passed the same blood-splatter on the wall for the third time, she was ready to concede: Korryn was lost. The fact that she didn't know where to go for anything--either to catch a creature (a losing proposition that sounded more and more stupid the longer she thought about it) or to get to the safety of the Hangar--only made the feelings worse. The Compound felt abandoned and isolated, yet dangerous and overrun with the Dentolura. She was tired, thirsty, and hungry. And if she never saw another lura again, she'd consider herself thrice blessed. Turning at random, she wandered down another hallway. The lights flickered here--more problems, it seemed. Maybe the emergency power was failing. If that was the case, how long before the entire Compound was undone? The life support systems would fail without power to keep the air circulating. The food would spoil. No medical supplies. No way of communicating to the Desert Peaks commissioners. By the time they realized something was wrong, it would probably be too late. All that was only if the Dentolura didn't kill everyone else, first. She cursed Senton casually, invoking any number of lurid beliefs about him, his parents, and his genitals. The idea that she maybe had started to feel something for him made her skin crawl. The man was deplorable. What had she ever seen in-- A scream drew her attention. She thought it came from her left, but the echo of it wrapped her up, making her freeze in panic. Korryn flexed her fingers. She brushed them lightly against the hypodermic needles that she had bouncing off her hip. Despite her hope to sedate one of the lura, she hadn't had a chance to use any of the tranquilizers yet. She readied one now. The screaming increased, certainly from the left now. Edging forward slowly, she decided that she should peek to ensure she knew what she was running from. Tipping her head around the corner, she bit back a gasp. On the floor, perhaps seven meters from where Korryn stood, a round lura with a long snout was stepping toward a panic-stricken woman. She was scooting backwards, her face tight with terror; blood oozed out of a ragged hole in her midriff. Her tears leaked out of the edges of her eyes, but Korryn was more worried about the lura. Its whip-like tail slashed the air as it stalked forward, but its color was faded and sickly--nothing like any of the other Dentolura that Korryn had seen before--and it moved hesitantly, as if it, too, were injured. Korryn swallowed. The needle was in her hand. She could sneak up on the creature, stab it with the sedative, save the girl. Korryn focused on the woman, noting the birthmark that looked like a bruise against her pale skin. Her brown hair stuck to her sweat-glossed forehead. She tried to think if she knew the woman, but nothing came out. There were thousands of people who lived on Prospero. It wasn't a surprise that Korryn didn't recognize her. "Stop, no," sobbed the woman, scooting again as the lura opened up its two-way jaws. Korryn had seen a couple of other attacks and knew how this was going to end. She wanted to jump forward, to be a hero, but the possibility that the lura would spot her--or hear her or smell her or whatever else these freakish creatures could do--made her stay rooted in place. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" shrieked the woman, trying to get herself up, but being unable to as much because of the blood-slicked ground as the long tongue of the lura slapped her down every time she tried to rise. "I don't have your baby! I don't know where it went! I'm sorry!" Korryn frowned. The baby? What did this lady know about… Then it became clear. The maybe-murderer. This woman had seen the baby lura, she had been in the containment room when Theodore had been killed…at least, that was the most likely explanation. How else would she know that an infant was in the Compound? Korryn kept her breathing shallow, now knowing she couldn't interfere. The fewer people who knew about the infant, the easier it would be for her to deny any involvement when she got off of Prospero. It was a hard logic, especially as the screams escalated until, with a wet splash, the woman's protests were cut off by the snapping jaws of the lura, but Korryn couldn't let herself be bothered by it. Harsh reality dictated that Korryn take care of herself first. It was that simple. As the lura dug into its meal, crunching through bones and rivers of hot blood poured out from its massive jaws, Korryn steeled herself. What a waste it would be of this poor woman's life to not take advantage of the creature's distraction. It no longer gurgled, but made a moaning sound that made Korryn feel like the creature was savoring its food. Stepping out from the corner, Korryn hesitated. The sounds of feasting turned her stomach, and the stench of the creature was sharper than before--more pungent, more coppery, more like a sewer--but what could she do? Run away? This was the moment she'd been waiting for. Yes, she had been ready to leave everyone behind, but that was because she hadn't been able to get her creature. Now, however, she had the chance. Easing forward another step, she breathed shallowly through her mouth, not wanting to breathe in the foul air. Another step. The lura ate, oblivious to her approach. Another step. The dark shadows of the ill-lit hallway made her imagination see more than the lura in front of her, made her hear more scrabbling claws on the tiled floor of the Compound. She swallowed again. Three meters away. The lura tipped its head back, swallowing a bone-rife section of the woman's body--Korryn didn't want to guess which part--and in that simple movement Korryn could see one of its four eyes. It looked at her. She froze. The creature stopped, the bloody morsel halfway down its gullet. She had two thoughts: Run-- --and, How much is that worth? It was shallow, she knew, as superficial as anytime she'd ever slept with a guy because of his great physique or that he looked like he would listen to her chat over drinks before making his move. Who cared what it was worth? If she died, she couldn't spend the money. It was dumb. But if she lived, she'd never have to work again. She'd have enough money to float through life until she died sometime into her fifteenth decade. In the end, that made it enough. Lunging forward, she covered the intervening distance as fast as she could. The lura, in a panic, began to regurgitate the half-eaten mess. That was its mistake. Taking advantage of its delay, Korryn closed the gap and knocked into the Dentolura's body. It only came up to about her midsection, but it was oily and wiry. It felt like she'd struck a package of pre-prepped food that they had in the pantries of the kitchen. It didn't matter. The tranquilizer acted almost immediately. The lura bucked once, making her dance backwards in surprise, but then paused, its eyes--all four of them--blinking wearily in its eerie skull. The whip-tails slapped to the ground like links of sausage. The lura's legs went wobbly and it dropped to one side. A massive disgorging of what it had eaten vomited over the floor. Only luck and an instinctively nimble dance out of the way kept Korryn from being splattered with the remnants of the poor woman who lay dead on the floor. The lura opened up the mouth-shaped holes on the side of its body and ejected a dozen or so small pods that landed with a wet splat all over the hallway. In this, Korryn was less lucky; one of the disgusting things stuck to her coverall legs. The rest landed everywhere--the ceiling, the walls, the floors--and there trembled. All fell still. Korryn looked around, confused. "What are these?" she asked of no one. They didn't move. It was as if the thing had voided its bowels as it had slipped into unconsciousness. She'd heard of that happening to people, too, so maybe Dentolura were similar? A moment passed until Korryn realized what she'd just done, what she had captured. A happy shout burst from her lips and she did a little dance. It was part celebration of success, part exultation at surviving. She had, by herself, taken down a disgusting, massive, blood-besmirched lura. How many other people could say such a thing? Probably zero, if she had to guess. Giggling and smiling, she glanced at the bloody mess of the trapped woman. "Sorry about that," she said, a frown flickering across her face. In the severed hand of the woman, she saw a device that looked vaguely familiar. Picking her way through the bloody hallway, she tugged it free of the dead fingers. It was a handheld. Clicking it on, the face of the dead man from the lab, Theodore, flashed onto the display screen. "Huh," said Korryn. "I was right." Her temple warmed, and her aedee showed that she was getting another mystery call. "Senton?" she asked as she accepted the request for the communication. "Where are you?" he snarled. "Calm down," she said. "I got lost, but look--" "I need you to get me out of here. I'm shick, and I need shome help." Korryn paused, straightening herself. "Wait, are you drunk or something?" "No, I'm shick," he said again. "Poishon." "Ew. How?" "Karl. Look, I need you at the Brig." "Okay, but hey, I caught a Dentolura." "I don't care!" "It sharted all these small pods when it went down, though." She paused. "Does that mean anything?" "Oddsh are they're pheromone shacksh. Will you get here?" "Can you send the location?" "It'sh right pasht the lab where we shtarted." He sounded frantic and immensely unhappy. "Head down." "Oh." Korryn looked around more carefully, then started. She recognized this area. "Hey, I think I'm nearby. I'm going to put my trophy away, then head to you." "Make it fasht. I need help and thish guard ishn't doing anything." She snorted. "Okay. I'll be there in a few minutes." Disconnecting the call, she headed down the hallway toward where she thought the lab door would be. Yes, she could see the familiar landmarks now. The change in lighting made it hard to see originally. Using the handheld, she opened up the lab. "Let's see," she said, scrounging through the cupboard she'd seen Senton use when he pulled out his own containment device. There were three others. One looked big enough to do the job. "Time to get that big boy into his home." Turning back to the hallway, the device in hand, Korryn couldn't help but smile. Things had a way of working out. And she was going to profit off of that whenever possible. Once the drugged lura was safely stowed--and Korryn noted approvingly that it was in the same room its baby had been captured in--she headed through the Laboratory wing to the access of the Brig. Things were looking up for her. |
What is this?This is a NaNoWriMo project that publishes, day by day, the chapters I'm writing for 2017. If you're confused, go to Chapter 1 Ann and start there. ArchivesCategories
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