CHAPTER 8: CH 8: HUMAN.

Levi weighed the flare in his hands tossing and catching it several times before passing it back to Selene, "So what exactly does this unit do?"

She smiled, "I’m so glad you asked."

she grabbed a rifle from the rack on the wall, smooth, elegant yet dangerous as the letters ’LUX" were boldly inscribed on the mussel.

She continued to walk as they followed behind her before stepping through a device up ahead, a giant circular machine, as its inner wheel spun tirelessly, blinding light flashing from the wheels as it sparked.

The walkway within it was completely transparent as he could see the wall on the other side however it rippled with otherworldly energy.

Selene wasted no time as she stepped through the portal and vanished before his eyes.

’Teleportation, I never thought I’d see the day.’

Levi thought to himself as he counted his steps before stepping through too.

And lastly Zack who followed them.

They emerged on the other side through a similar portal, two guards stood armed by the side.

Levi stepped through as his eyes shot wide open, trying to take in all that was around him, darting his eyes all over.

She spread out her hands, forgetting she was still with the rifle, "Welcome to the Chimera Vault 4."

He stared at the numerous rows of containment vessels, see through and allowing chills to parade his body from sight.

From seven foot giants with black skin, fangs and claws so long that they made vampires’ seem normal to wolf like polar bears with deep red eyes, hides of spike and a twitching snout.

He saw it all, "what is this place?"

Selene continued, "This is the after effect of the Darwin Serum... You see when we made this Serum no one was smart enough to think other people would try to recreate this same serum... And so no one thought about this."

He stopped her, wait wait wait... You’re saying these are all vampires?"

Zack stepped between them, "no exactly, you see these are other variants of the Darwin Serum, so they’re technically vampires..."

He pushed his glasses back to the ridge of his nose, "... But then again, no."

Selene opened her mouth but not before Zack pressed on, "Take for example the wolf in front of us, it couldn’t be affected by the original Darwin Serum because it only affects the human genome sequence..."

He seemed to enjoy talking, "however, the Bulgarian variant of the serum does in fact affect the wolf gene."

Clap~Clap~Clap!

Selene’s applause echoed throughout the room as she glared at Zack, "Are you finally done?"

Zack didn’t reply as he brought his head down.

Selene turned to Levi, "for a practical guide..." She pushed a button next to the containment vessel of the wolf as the seal transparent door hissed open.

"Grrrgh."

The wolf woke up and it unfurled itself—

Just as Selene cocked the rifle and aimed for its snout.

Levi steadied himself as he took a step back stretching his hands for Zack to stay behind him.

Waited for a second, two, three—

It lunged for Selena—

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT!!

The rifle flared to life.

The sound defeaning as Zack used his hands to muffle his ears and tightly shuts his eyes.

Every bullet shook the glass of containment vessels and echoed throughout the room.

Blasting the wolf back down into the containment vessel.

Dodging left and right before Inevitably falling and being rained down.

It whimpered continually until the gun finally let out, the muzzle tip still smokey.

She pushed the button again, closing the vessel, pointing at the wolf again before she said, "see that."

Any regular person would’ve thought she was just a regular crazy bitch but as Levi stared at the wolf he noticed it, "Not a single scratch."

Zack took over again from there, "That’s right... Uhmm, even though its silver bullets cannot penetrate... It’s a hide so thick it’s practically indestructible."

Levi stepped closer to the wolf, "oh my God... What did we do to ourselves?"

~Clatter.

Selene dropped the gun to the ground, "that’s why we deal with not just vampires but all xenothreats."

"..."

They continued to walk as Selene explained,before Levi stopped them.

An eerie feeling crawled all over him like spiders as soon as he crossed a particular pod, the rest were transparent as he could see into them—

But not this one, blacked out, claw marks trickled all over it and a silence from within that whispered softly to him, "RUN."

He pointed at the pod, "what’s in this one?"

Zack stepped up, "Uhmm, tha—

"That’s classified."

Selene stopped him.

Levi tightened his fist, "you said you wanted me to work with you... How can you work with someone you don’t trust?"

Selene hissed, "We’ll manage that."

He continued, "you called this Vault 4... Then where’s 1 to 3 and what are in those?"

"That’s also classified."

"How do you expect me to work with you when I can—"

~BOOOM

A muffled explosion tore through their argument as everyone’s heads turned— through the portal.

Selene turned to Zack, "They found us."

Zack’s glass nearly fell off his face as his expressions froze.

Wasting no time Selene sprints through the portal, back to the weapon’s room as numerous guards were already there arming themselves.

She headed straight for a rack, paying Levi no heed but he followed along.

’What the hell was that explosion?’

She strapped a vest on as she cocked her gun before Levi held her wrist to stop her, "What was that?"

She dragged her arm free before passing the gun to him, "Just like we’re hunting them, they’re also hunting us... And now they’ve found us... So are you with us or not?"

Levi said nothing as he grabbed the rifle and followed right behind her, back into the hall as a giant gaping hole with rubble spread out replaced the wall.

They were fast, too fast as the walls and floor were designed with blood sprays and bodies.

RAT-TAT-TAT-TAT-TAT

They wasted no time hitting anything that moved too fast.

Selene’s shots were military precise, every shot dropped something.

Aggrh.

As one lunged for her.

She pulled the blade strapped to her knee and didn’t longer much before stabbing it severally in the neck and spinning the blade before the spine gave out.

Something secretly crawled behind her as she was still finishing off one.

Levi turned aiming for its head over her shoulder and dropping it immediately.

Back to back as they took down everything that moved before—

BANG.

A bomb was thrown right in front of them as they scattered.

Levi’s ears ringing heavy, his vision swarming as he slapped his head trying to regain control and he looked in the direction of the thrower—

It was a human.