Simple Creature

[Spindarene]

((Julia Raymond continued from The Cascadia Prison Experiment))

Julia walked along the coastline until she found a large warehouse by the docks that looked promising. She shivered slightly as she looked at the large, rusty, metal cranes nearby, one of which had a large metal shipping container dangling from its hook. The sight of such a large, heavy piece of metal suspended so precariously in the air creeped her out. Honestly, the sheer desolation of the entire place was wearing on her, but what did she expect? It’s not like the sadistic researchers who were conducting this experiment cared about their well-being enough to give them a comfortable place to die in.

Julia peered cautiously into the warehouse, holding the rusty kitchen knife out in front of her in case someone jumped out and attacked her. However, after scanning the interior of the warehouse, she gathered that there was no one there and breathed a sigh of relief. She stepped quietly into the large room, taking in her surroundings. It was mostly empty, the middle of the room a large barren space with a few metal crates and barrels that hugged the walls. Towards the back of the room, she saw a staircase, and after taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, she climbed it.

The top floor was also thankfully empty, although it was divided into much smaller sections. While she thought at first about holing up in one of those for a while, she realized that if anyone came up there and found her she would be trapped. That was the problem with small spaces; often, the best places to hide doubled as the worst traps if you got caught.

Julia went back down to the lower floor, thinking. The downside of staying down here was that it was a wide open space, so anyone who came in here could see her. Plus, that monster that had killed the teachers could easily hunt her in here; she remembered with a sharp drop in her stomach that from the footage, it had looked like the monster had murdered the teachers inside a warehouse. She bit her lip, considering whether she should leave and try somewhere else.

However, she remembered that Dr. Sick Bastard had said that the monsters wouldn’t be released onto the island with them until tomorrow. She had already walked for about two hours, and given what she’d seen of the island, she doubted that any place on it would be perfectly safe.

Her eye caught one of the large metal drums that was standing next to the wall at one of the corners of the room, with some crates in a stack next to it. Setting her bag and her knife down on the floor, she tugged at the edge of one of the bottom crates and gingerly started prying it away from the wall. The crates were heavy, and she spread her feet apart to steady herself. As the stack started to move, the top crate wobbled ominously and she glanced up quickly to make sure it wasn’t about to fall. After a couple more attempts, she was able to move it far enough away from the wall that there was a small space in the corner that she could squeeze into between the crates and the barrel. It wasn’t perfect; for one thing it was cramped, and she only had a few inches where she could squeeze in and out of the corner. Again, good for hiding, bad if she got trapped. However, she could see the entrance pretty easily, and she figured that if someone came in and made a move to attack her, she could get out of this space quickly enough to either run outside or, worst case, up the stairs if the main entrance somehow got blocked. That was her hope, anyway. She knew it was a shoddy plan, but she didn’t have any better ideas right now, so it was her best bet.

Panting slightly from the effort it had taken to move the crates, she picked up her knife and set it beside her, and then tugged her bag close enough to her so that she could open it, and rummaged around inside it until she found something that looked like a food packet.

She tugged it open, and found a mixed fruit puree that looked like jam that had crawled into the package to die, shredded beef in barbeque sauce that didn’t look much better, jalapeno cheese spread that looked like stadium nacho cheese sauce with jalapeno bits in it, a cinnamon bun, a small pack of tortillas, and chocolate hazelnut protein drink powder. She sighed. Again, she knew she shouldn’t have been expecting decent food from these guys, but knowing how irrational her disappointment was didn’t make it go away. However, this was what she had, so she was going to eat it.

Looking at the instructions, she realized that some kind of chemical thermal heating device was included, so she stuck the BBQ beef packet in there, because she might as well, right? She knew that Mia would have been horrified that Julia was heating her food up with mysterious chemicals, not to mention that the food was also beef. Mia was an all organic vegan who liked her food as fresh from the earth as possible, and who had given Julia many a side-eye when Julia had indulged in eating any snacks that had artificial colors or flavors in it. Julia was a vegetarian and had generally tried to eat healthy, but she’d never been able to muster the same level of enthusiasm for an entirely organic plant-based diet that Mia had.

Julia didn’t exactly like the fact that she was going to be taking her first bite of animal flesh in six years, but at this point the morality around taking and preserving life was so warped that she didn’t feel like eating part of an animal that was already long-dead would be her biggest sin while she was here. Plus, if she didn’t eat, then it would be easier for her to be picked off by either one of her classmates or one of the monsters. She realized that in a sick sort of way, Julia breaking her vegetarianism right now was symbolic of her larger situation. She also knew that if Mia knew what kind of situation she was in right now, she would have understood. In fact, she knew that Mia would encourage her to eat raw meat from a newly dead horse if it meant that Julia had a better chance at surviving.

Tears clouded Julia’s vision, and she brushed them away quickly. She had to do her best to not think of Mia. Being sentimental and emotional at the wrong time could get you killed out here.

Once the beef was ready, she spread some of it on a tortilla that she had also put some of the jalapeno cheese on. It wasn’t great, it was basically junky stadium food, but it was acceptable. She decided against using the protein powder for anything because thought it was a good idea to ration out her water, but she ate everything else, even the fruit puree that was the saddest representation of fruit that she’d had in a long time. The cinnamon bun looked like it would be the best, so she saved it for last.

After her meal, she settled back against the wall and kept an eye on the front entrance. She knew she would get bored of that very quickly, but she didn’t really have any other options. Already, she had been reduced to a simple creature whose primary function was to shrink into a corner and nervously watch for predators in order to survive.

[Spindarene]

Julia had been dozing on and off when, sometime between the afternoon and evening, she heard a horrible roar. The sound was unlike anything she'd heard before and she jolted upright, the sleeping bag she'd been huddled under falling partway off.

At first she couldn't quite believe what she'd heard, but she had definitely heard it. It sounded like they'd finally released the monsters.

Julia bit her lip nervously as her thoughts turned. Should she stay here? Should she go somewhere else? Where had that sound come from, anyway? Was there really anywhere she could go to be safe?

She knew that the answer to that last question was no, that it was always going to be no as long as she was here, but she couldn't help asking herself that question again and again, hoping for a different answer.

Julia settled back against the wall and stared at the entrance, not wanting to move yet but too scared to go back to sleep. She gripped the pathetic little rusty knife in her hand, knowing that the safety it brought her was probably an illusion, but one she couldn't bring herself to let go of just yet.

[Help_U]

The smell of the new prey led Chimera to the warehouse.

Familiar. It had found them in a place like this before.

Nudging the door to the warehouse open with its head, the Chimera slowly ambled inside. Its six claws scraped against the concrete floor as it entered. With its new nose, it sniffed the cold air, trying to pick up the scent. Unfamiliar stimulation. It still had to learn how to use the new flesh.

Chimera stopped in the middle of the room, and lifted its head. The voice that came from its throat had several varying tones, as if it could not decide which to use.

"Shh... here."

It waited for a response.

"Here... what is that?"

[Spindarene]

Julia’s breath caught in her chest as a large, looming form filled the doorway to the warehouse. It was here. She had made the wrong call, and the monster was real and it was here, right in front of her. It was huge and it was strange and it was going to rip her to pieces. She was going to die.

Through the haze of terror, her thoughts flickered through her mind at quadruple speed, going back and forth about whether she should stay in her hiding place or run. Stay or run, hide or run, run or hide, either way it seemed like that thing was going to kill her. A small part of her mind that was thinking semi-rationally said that she should stay put and stay very, very quiet, because maybe it could sense movement and since it was a predator, it might have an instinct to chase anything that ran. However, as the creature crept closer, every part of her brain except pure survival instinct went offline and she bolted.

Throwing the sleeping bag off her with lightning speed, she half-stumbled, half-lept out of the gap between the barrel and the crates and ran for the closest exit, which was the staircase that led to the second level. She was running faster than she’d ever run in her life, but she felt like her body was moving too slowly, her limbs were too clumsy, and any moment now she was going to feel those teeth sink into her flesh.

[Help_U]

Movement.

The new prey fled. Chimera flinched, all three sets of eyes locking on them as they fled. A low rumble escaped its throat.

It moved rapidly at first, although it did not break out into a sprint. It struggled to advance up the narrow staircase, its six limbs and significant bulk proving something of an obstacle. The Chimera moved cautiously, following sight and sound and scent it had only just learned to process.

In distant sense-memory, it recalled chasing the small creatures through a maze of plastic corridors. The new prey were not yet prey back then, and it could not resist their interference. The spines on the creature's back shuddered in recognition as it picked up the sight of its quarry.

The sound of claws against steel heralded its approach.

[Spindarene]

As Julia reached the top of the staircase, she sprinted to the other end of the room, then turned around to face where the staircase was. She stood still for a moment, the sound of her own heavy breathing loud in her ears. She tried to quiet her breaths down and listened. After a few seconds, she heard it, the scraping of claws against metal. Her eyes widened in horror. It could climb. It was coming up the stairs, and she had trapped herself in this shitty little room.

Panting, Julia sprinted across the narrow catwalk to the other side of the room, until she came up against a wall. She let out a yell of frustration, screamed "Fuck!" and slapped her hand against the wall in anger. That thing would be up here any second now, and she'd seen how fast it could move. She didn't have more than a few seconds left.

Looking frantically around her, she saw that the wall to her right was covered in rough scaffolding. She didn't have any other choice. Hoisting herself up on to it, she started to awkwardly climb it. She didn't know what she was doing or where she was going, she just knew that she had to keep moving.

[Help_U]

The salt-rusted catwalk groaned under the Chimera's weight.

Fur brushed against steel. There was little room to move. It attempted to fit onto the narrow path ahead. Pursuit was slow.

"Don't move." It hissed, calling out at the new prey that was just out of reach.

They could climb. So could other prey. Wrapped themselves around trees. Chimera's tail instinctively curled around a support beam at the sense-memory, before slipping away.

Perched, on the edge of the catwalk. New prey climbing out of reach. It knew its size. Knew it was too large to follow. The translucent quills on its spine stood on end.

With another aggrevated hiss and a rapid whip of the spiked tail, it hurled its venomous spines in the direction the new prey. With little room to maneuver, it appeared to be a gesture of frustration more than anything else.

[Spindarene]

Julia ducked as the creature shot its long, sharp spines at her. If she were more out in the open they probably would have hit her, but she was far enough into the scaffolding that most of the spines bounced off of the outer layer. However, one landed near her left thigh, and another one embedded itself in the wall about a foot away from her right shoulder.

Julia quickly scrambled up to the top of the scaffolding, although she nearly lost her footing and her hands were so shaky that for a moment she had trouble steadying herself.

There wasn’t much up top. There was a broken light that was being held up by the scaffolding, as well as a semi-large window. Julia kicked at it, but unsurprisingly, it wouldn’t budge. She kicked harder, but the force of that nearly threw her off of her precarious perch. She tried throwing her whole body weight against it, but still the window didn’t budge.

“Shit!” she exclaimed, looking back over her shoulder to see if the monster was following her. It was still on the catwalk, but she didn’t know how long it was going to stay there.

As she looked back over to where she was sitting, she saw a loose metal bar laying on top of the light on her left. She grabbed it, and swung it around towards the window. She felt immense relief at hearing the glass shatter. She gripped the rim of the window, barely noticing as the sharp edge of the glass cut her hand, and peered over the edge. It wasn’t exactly a small drop, but she thought she could make it. She glanced backward at the large, white monster on the catwalk, almost as if to assure herself that it was real. Then, she took a deep breath, and jumped.

She started out aiming her feet to the ground, but then she got nervous and twisted herself into a fetal position just before she landed. She landed on her left side, letting out an involuntary yelp as she hit the ground. Groaning, she struggled to her feet. The left side of her body was throbbing painfully, but she was able to move. Glancing over her shoulder one last time, Julia limped away from the warehouse as fast as she could.

((Julia Raymond continued in Something New))

[Help_U]

Chimera clambered over the railing of the catwalk, pausing when it became apparent that there was little space for it to maneuver towards its prey.

It watched as she broke through the obstacle. Unlike the other prey, who had failed at the same task.

Sense-memory overcame the Chimera once again. Its three sets of eyes narrowed on the shattered glass, as it listened to the footsteps slowly fading into the distance. Slowly, it made its way up and across the narrow scaffolding.

It reached out a claw towards the window frame. Remembered beating itself against it, in vain. Felt the sting of spines piercing its flesh. The spines on the Chimera's back quivered slightly.

A tongue shot out and delicately lapped at the blood at the edge of the frame.

Human.

The Chimera let out a low growl.

It had not fed enough on the other humans to sate its hunger. The sense-memory of them was incomplete. There was so much to learn.

"God damn it."

((Chimera continued elsewhere))