Request Series

The Hive Mind's Incubator (Dead Space: Kendra/Hive Mind/Necromorphs)

Kendra couldn't escape her fate. She would become the crowning jewel of the Hive Mind's creations.

-----

Escape was within her grasp. Escape. Survival... If he wouldn't have interfered... If Isaac would have just died like he was supposed to, it would have ended differently. Kendra was so close... close enough that when victory- escape and survival- were snatched from her hands it was all the more bitter and painful, though she would be lying if she denied the sense of justice the universe- or karma, or whatever higher force out there- was levying against her in this very moment.

Against it all- against everything that has happened to him and the abandonment he's faced- Isaac didn't leave her to die. He tried- Kendra saw how hard he tried- but it was all in vain. Even that resourceful engineer that had killed an entire planet cracker full of Necromorphs couldn't stand against the might of the Hive Mind.

Kendra couldn't even scream when a muscular and meaty tendril wrapped around one of her legs and yanked her off the escape ship's gangway in a single, fluid whipping motion. The air was knocked from her lungs as she collided with the metal ground. Black bespeckled her vision and her ears rang as she struggled to remember how to breathe. Breathe- Breathe! How does one breathe?!

"-ELS! DAN- KENDRA!" Isaac's screams refocused Kendra's scrambled mind. She manages to lift her head, mouth agape as bile threatens the back of her throat. She blinks, dumbly, as a gloved hand is outstretched towards her prone body.

"MY HAND- TAKE MY HAND-!" He scrambled to regain his footing. The Hive Mind's every movement caused the ground to tremble and shake with enough intensity to cause even the escape shuttle to shift in place audibly.

Though all her strength was sapped from her upon impact, Kendra felt reinvigorated from Isaac reaching out to her. So close... Her arm feels like it's made from heavy lead but still she raises it, gritting her teeth as tears welled in her eyes.

"I-Isaac- Please- I'm-" The words died in her throat before she even knew what she was saying.

Isaac shouted as he was yanked off his feet. Kendra didn't even feel it let go of her leg. She didn't even know if her leg was still attached to her body... All she could do was watch in horror as her only hope of salvation was torn away from her. Literally...

She couldn't see what happened to him, but she could hear it. Isaac didn't go out without a fight. He never would... Shots were fired but in the end there was nothing he could do to stop the Hive Mind from ripping him limb from limb. Slowly... He screamed at every crunch, at every tear... until-

There was a deafening roar of triumph.

And Kendra knew that she would then be next.

Only... it didn't end how she imagined it would.

Devouring.

Bisection.

Quartering.

Crushing.

....?!

She screams even though there's no one else alive to hear it. Even if there were, the Hive Mind's own bellows and screeches drown out any and all noise other than its own. Kendra vainly digs her nails into the smooth metal floor-plating. Several of her nails caught on partially exposed bolt heads and tore either partly or the entirety of her nails off. She can barely feel it over the sense of impending doom that had an ironclad grip on her waist.