Saturate✔️

CHAPTER 05: Research

The thing on the other side continued to pound on the door until finally it buckled. A few more punches and the door blew inwards, admitting the cosmic horror that wanted so desperately in. It was solidly built, and kind of hunched forward. Crazily, it kind of reminded him of a tick, at least the head did, or maybe he was thinking of some other kind of bug. Its hands seemed to gleam like metal under the lights of the research bay.

And its mouth...

It was huge, a gaping, blood-smeared maw of awful, gleaming teeth.

As he raised his SMG, Greg suddenly realized what it was he was facing down. He very specifically remembered Trent telling him about it, a thing that he had killed during his campaign on Arctica.

The Carnivore.

Screaming in furious bloodlust, Greg emptied his submachine gun into the thing. The bullets smashed into its tough hide...but seemed to do little damage. That took some of the piss and vinegar out of him. The Carnivore was advancing on him now, its stride sure and full of awful intention, its eyes, the color of fresh spilled blood, staring at him with a terrible intelligence. He quickly ejected the magazine and slapped a fresh one in, then repeated the procedure as he began rapidly backing up. It had about the same effect.

"Fuck!" Greg snapped as he slammed home his third magazine.

He didn't have a whole lot of bullets to his name at the moment. The Carnivore charged for him. He turned and began sprinting away, towards a door dead ahead of him. It was open and he remembered what Eric said about the layout of the labs. As charged through the next door, he saw some Mutants roaming around. Growling in frustration, he quickly put them down with bursts of gunfire to their chests, unwilling to let them trip him up.

He was probably going to need a lot of space to work with.

With a tremendous roar, the Carnivore burst into the room after him. Greg finished off the last Mutant and turned around, then opened fire, trying to get the rest of his magazine into its big mouth. But the creature was fast and now, unfortunately, had its mouth closed. He couldn't seem to hit one of its eyes, either.

Cursing, Greg turned and sprinted again, dodging between examination tables and medical carts, slapping his last magazine for the SMG home and then letting it hang. It was time to bring out the biggest gun he had on him. He switched to his shotgun as he entered the third lab, through a door to the left, and just in time, too. A Shadow was waiting for him. He let out a startled shout, aimed and squeezed the trigger.

The slug shell popped the creature in an instant.

Spinning around, Greg took aim and fired again as the Carnivore burst into the room, closing the gap between them. The shells seemed to do a little more damage, drawing some of its deep red blood from wounds across its broad torso, but it still wasn't enough, and again the creature drew so close that he didn't have time to do anything but run. He sprinted over to the left, heading into the lab that the Carnivore had originated from.

This time, once he cleared the lab, he spun around and waited, aiming where its head should be. The second it appeared in the doorway, he fired. It was a dead on shot, taking it in the skull...and it didn't stop the thing. It blasted off a good chunk of skin, but apparently this monster had an amazingly hard head.

Greg continued running, but he knew he couldn't keep this up forever. There had to be some way to kill this thing, some way to-

An idea burst into his head like golden sunshine after a particularly dark, awful, stormy night.

Letting out a laugh of pure, violent joy he ran the rest of the way back into the lab that he had first been in, the Carnivore hot on his heels. He saw what he was looking for dead ahead, across the room, and aimed his shotgun.