This is a "checkpoint" to hold the story that won't fit on the first page.
Without wasting a moment <character> steps forward, being almost immediately entombed within the ball of flesh. Several seconds later the grenades detonate, spraying the room with shrapnel but injuring <character> only slightly. As the dust begins to settle a large group of men, 20 or so, charge down the stairs, weapons at the ready. They look upon the fleshball with disgust and fear but not suspicion, believing it to be nothing more then the horribly mutilated remains of their comrades. As they search for who or what did such a thing several eyes bubble into existence on the surface of the ball. The first blow is nearly unnoticeable, a razor sharp splinter of bone fired at near supersonic speed through the skull of one of the men. Three more similar bolts are fired before the men can even turn to see what is attacking them. By the time their rifles are lined up with the boiling mound of living flesh three men are dead and another is attempting to hold in is disgorged innards.
<character> bursts from his cocoon, his body covered in a heavy bone carapace, and catches the closest man by the throat. <character> drives his fist into the captured man's chest, causing the man's skeleton to fragment and spray, shotgun like, out of his body. Several men collapse beneath the withering hail of bone shrapnel, but the rest begin firing, almost instantly shattering <character>'s bone armor. Propelled by inhumanly powerful legs <character> leaps forward, his arms transforming into massive, barbed tentacles which lash out maul several more men. Garbled screams and grunts issue from punctured lungs and throats as the tentacles envelop and hurl men about the room. As <character> retracts his tentacles he is struck by an explosive grenade round and hurled several feet backwards into one of the steel bookshelves. The men move to finish off the bizarre monster but they suddenly find themselves under attack from behind. The soldier in back walks forward jerkily, as though unsure of his own movements, spraying rounds into the backs of his allies. When it is done 17 lie dead, 2 are terribly injured, and the final survivor seems completely incapable of controlling his movements.
<character> pulls himself from the wreckage of the bookshelf, blood quickly running back up from the ground and into his knitting wounds. With a uncaring gesture he commands the fresh corpses to rise and meld with the mound of flesh, creating a ball roughly 7 foot in diameter. With a thoughtful air <character> walks to the side of the one man who was left standing and examines him carefully, slowly nodding his head. After a moment <character> draws the captured man's side arm and with careless disinterest shoots him several times in the chest. Nearly every surface of the room is coated in blood but it seems otherwise secure. <character>'s clothing was destroyed but his belongings were safely stored within the flesh mound.
The room around you is sprayed with blood, bile and various other bodily fluids. Most of the shelves has been overturned or outright destroyed but the walls remain undamaged. There is an overwhelming stench of death with blots out all other smells. You can hear nothing from the floors above or below you. You are naked. Your belongings on sitting a top the flesh pile. Reginald is in his box.You strip the clothing from the man you just killed, fitting his uniform and armor over your still bloody skin. Once you've adjusted the ill fitting uniform as best you can you appear indistinguishable from the other soldiers. Deciding that perhaps you are in need of extra help you return to the ball of flesh and begin to experiment, molding viscera like clay. Within a few minutes you decide on a final design and begin to create en masse. The final design is a creature roughly 7 inches long and 3 wide with a pair of fleshy wings. It's main body is seemingly segmented and resembles a many jointed finger. Out of it's sides spring six needle thin legs and a mane of long, dexterous tendrils surrounds one great human eye which takes up the majority of it's head. You create a dozen of these little beasts which immediately begin swarming about the room, roosting under overturned bookshelves, idly examining bits of rubble and debris and chirping like mad.
You gather your flock of flesh beasts (we'll call them examiners from now on) into a duffel bag one of the soldiers was carrying and head up the stairs into the main lobby of the library. Most of the front half of the library has collapsed and the sky and street beyond are clearly visible through the massive gaps of missing architecture. The sky has grown gray, clouded by smoke and darkened by the influx of night. Fires burn in all directions and the sound of rumbling machinery is omnipresent. You step out onto the street and climb to the top of a small convenience store to get a better look. The city has been crushed and no buildings above 2 or 3 stories remain standing. Tanks with treads as wide as a city street and several stories tall grind across the landscape, reducing whole city blocks to rubble in seconds. Behind them roll construction machinery, mobile steel yards, concrete tanks, fabrication machines. Already homes and buildings are being reformed. In the distance you hear a sound not unlike the twang of a guitar string. The world suddenly blooms into brilliant colors and seems to rush forward toward you. You suddenly believe you've realized the meaning of life, but then understand that you've simply come up with the best cake recipe ever. You black out.
As you open your eyes you notice that it suddenly seems much quieter and much cooler. You're in a hallway made of mildly reflective white metal, lit by a line of neon bulbs recessed into the ceiling. The hall ends in a door behind you and continues forward to a right hand turn in front of you. You still seem to have everything you had before. You head forward, away from the door, and down the hall. You continue on past the turn, past several locked doors and into what appears to be a conference room or public area. There are a two long metal tables which span the room with several chairs arranged beside the them. There are large windows above the area displaying a dark sky dotted with shimmering stars. Theres no sign of anyone else, though there are several passages which lead away from the room. The passage have signs but the signs don't have any words or images, they're just arrows of various colors. The sign colors, from left to right, are orange, green, red, yellow and blue.
You remove your helmet, body armor and rifle, stashing them away in you backpack and duffel bag. You also change your shirt into one which doesn't have three bullet holes in it. Leaving the conference area you return to the hall and choose one of it's locked doors at random. You remove one of the examiners from the bag and reduce it to a puddle of fluid before attempting to push it through the crack between the door and the frame. You are unsuccessful however, because the door is hermetically sealed. The rest of the doors in the hall have similar seals. You reform the Examiner and return it you your bag. You walk back down the hall, through the conference room and into the green passage. The passage continues for several minutes, past more locked doors and down an elevator before coming to what appears to be an open field of grass which spreads off into the distance. Trees dot the field intermittently and standing stones tower over the gently swaying grass but other then these occasional intrusions the field continued uninterrupted to the horizon. Above the field is a blue sky with scattered white clouds.
You step out into the field and bend down to touch the grass. It certainly feels real, as does the breeze blowing on you. The sky looks somewhat odd though, the clouds are moving just a hint too fast and despite it being very bright out you can't see the sun. You hear this.
With a twitch of your preterhuman leg muscles you launch yourself into the air. As you reach the zenith of your jump you feel as though something has pushed you and you look down to see a billiard ball sized hole in the dead center of your chest. You lose all feeling in your lower body and crumple as you slam into the ground. The loud echo of a distictive bang, a rifle shot, finally reaches your ears. Close behind it is the sound of another round being loaded.Using up most of your fat reserves you manage to regenerate the damaged tissue and immediately turn and sprint for the exit. You're about half way there when another round catches you in the right knee, nearly severing the leg. You manage to leap forward with your remaining leg, skidding down the hall before half crawling, half leaping to the elevator. You mash the up button and flatten yourself on the ground, another round tearing through the closing doors before you shoot up toward the upper levels. Using one of the examiners as material you regenerate your leg. The elevator dings and the doors open onto the familiar passage which leads back to the conference room.
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Topic: Temporal Anomaly: I've got a baaaaad feeling about this (Read 26536 times)