Ark: The Littlest Survivor

Prologue

There it was, that wonderful, wonderful feeling of success! I remember slamming myself into Roe's arms in joy and cheer, holding him as Rockwell was finally defeated. I could hear Noah and Jessie cheering on the other side of the arena, and we all looked to each other as the port to the next world, the real world, began. We were all excited to find each other, but we could see the anxieties and thoughts in eachothers eyes.

"We'll meet up around the same spot on the map," said Roe with a loving look in his eyes. He was a fairly older man, who reminded me of a father. He was the head of our group, the most calm and collected out of our rather young bunch. The boys were both like brothers to me, and of course I was the youngest of the group. He pulled my head close to his chest and ruffled my hair, our armour clanking against eachother."We'll all meet together, especially with HLNA here to help. Dont you worry your little head Shea. We'll be a family, for the last and best time."

He smiled and faded from my sight as a fuzzy white feeling took over.  It was then cold, and dark, and quiet. This had always made me anxious, the process of porting to the next place of progress. The first time it had happened, after we had miraculously defeated the Overseer with a handful of more people and ascended to Scorched Earth, I was anxious about the next ones, but I had gotten used to it since.

The quiet faded as I heard HNLA talking to someone. Was she trying to talk to me? I glanced around to see where she was, and spotted her looking at a tube with a person inside. If she was busy talking to someone else, I should be patient. I decided to have a look around, only to discover that there were some familiar faces in the tubes. There's Jessie, and next to him is that guy we ran into a few times, I think his name is Eric. Oh, and theres Roe! He's up too! I dont see Noah anywhere, but he could be on my wall, which I cant quite see.

Now, Roe had busted out of his chamber, startling HNLA and prompting her to go to him. He pulled cords and needles from himself and rushed to a body on the ground I hadnt noticed. He was sobbing, and he looked up to me in fear. I couldnt quite hear him through the sound of water in my ears, but I didnt care much to pay attention. Instead, my eyes were locked onto the body he was holding. My body. He was holding my limp body. Why did he have my body? Why arent I awake? How can I see myself? If im not in my body, where am I?

I was taken off course as HLNA opened my pod, and I tumbled from the container and landed face first into the ground. "Sorry mate." She said, her screen shifting to depict a tear in her eye. At first I thought she was apologizing for the fall, as it did hurt my nose. When she hadnt changed her appearance to her  normal blue interface, I feared the worst.

"Shea," Roe said, gently setting my limp body in the container, "I am so sorry Shea." He began to cry again, looking at me. He was looking down to me, even while he was kneeling on the ground. Down? Oh, no. I quickly spun around, looking for the nearest reflective surface.

I looked into the biggest and shiniest piece of my pod, and stared in terror. There was a ferox infront of me. Was I the ferox? I lifted a hand to my face. Oh. Oh. I was the ferox. A ferox. I let out a horrible scream, one that was not my own, and frantically ran to Roe. I couldnt begin to recognize the unholy noises that sprung from my muzzled mouth.

"Shhh, Shea. It'll be okay" Roe said, hesitantly picking me up and holding me in his arms. I lifted my head to see Jessie and Noah staring at me in shock. I tried hiding myself away, trying my best to tuck my ears away, hiding myself from the cruel trick that was done to me. Suddenly, a dark and evil chuckle echoed from somewhere onboard.

"Welcome, welcome. I see my little experiment seems to be... functioning." He chuckled some more as they frantically put on the suits HLNA had unlocked. Roe quickly grabbed the helmet that was supposed to go onto my human body, gently folded my ears and slid the piece of equipment over my head.

"Unfortunately for you, that is all I needed to see." That damned Rockwell hysterically laughed as the hull we were in creaked.

While I crawled onto Roe's shoudler, I shouted, or atleast tried to, as a pink fleshy tentacle reached out. It wrapped around Roe, who shouted in response as he got pulled. Before we were yanked from the door, I gave HLNA one final look for help, to which she replied.

"Oh fuck."