[Book 2]
"The only ways to kill a Crawler are to sever the head or remove the heart. If any muscle remains in the body, the heart will regrow. If the head is touching the neck at all, it will fuse back."
I've died several times in my life. Being sho...
His eyes narrowed, before he shook his head, and his face turned to a faint, prideful smile, "The apocalypse was a work of art, Ollie. The virus was created by Michael Davis, a brilliant man that saw how dangerous humans really were. We were too cocky, too confident. We needed humbling. So he engineered a predator that would top humans, he thought, 'what better predator than the smallest creature we know, that many kill without second thought?'. So he created the Crawlers to be insect-like, the problem is, he could create a virus that would administer these traits, but the virus would only effect humans, and he needed more than just a few weak subjects to humble the world.
"He infected the batch of flu vaccines for that year with his creation, people were paying to be infected! The best part, was no one would trace it back to him. The first subject was given extra abilities, abilities Davis never explained in his notes. No one knows how these abilities were given to the subject, but they made them a formidable force. The ability to breathe fire, manipulate temperatures, sense creatures within miles of himself, and even sanity. This subject was dubbed, The Crawler King.
"Sadly, he could not create an immortal being. But I spent years studying his notes, and I soon discovered that the King was told that if he were ever to die, he would freeze himself so his body could be uncovered. I found the spot where the King froze himself, but sadly, he was truly dead. However, I was able to use his DNA, I singled out what caused his powers, and I used those abilities in my own creations."
"You...added these powers to the Lurkers...?"
"No, no. They are not important enough for such abilities. Such abilities...need to be reserved to one. And with their King dead, there needs to be a new ruler. I thought there was only one worthy of that."
My heart dropped, dreading what he meant. My mind was still racing, how could my own father have done this? I thought I could trust him, but he was trying to destroy all of humanity! If my limbs weren't numb, I would be bringing him out to the military at this very moment. I thought more about what he had said, one thing stuck out to me.
"Wh-What did you mean...'fixing a sane'...? What does that mean?"
He smiled, almost genuinely, as if he was proud to talk about what he had done, "Well, you see, Sane Crawlers can be powerful, yes, but not when they insist on humanity. Crawlers are their own species! They should embrace that. I found a way to fix them, make them act properly. I used this for my Lurkers, and their new Ruler. After all, it is only fitting that the overlord of Crawlers has an intelligent following."
"Who."
He tilted his head, "hm?"
"Who is the new Ruler?"
He smiled again and began walking to the door, "I thought you would never ask, Ollie."
No...no he didn't...he couldn't have.
He walked to the panel and punched in an eight digit code, I struggled to turn myself around to see the door, but he was blocking the code from my view. The door suddenly hissed. It began to slide open with a grinding sound. It slid back into the wall until it was no longer visible.
Inside the room, the figure slowly stalked its way out. The scent of blood saturated the air. Crawler legs clawed at the sides of the door, smearing blood across its frame, a low snarl echoing through the dim room. To my horror, the figure that emerged was like the Lurkers, but even more mutated.
Two pairs of ant-like pincers jutted out from their jaw, blood dripping down and off them on the floor. Their tail lashed and dented the titanium wall with sheer force, several of the thick spikes getting caught in the metal. Similar spikes dropped blood down their arms, as they tore from their flesh from their elbows down their forearms. A pair of giant, glassy bee wings buzzed and twitched in anger, coming out their shoulder blades and almost matching the span of their arms.
They turned to lock eyes with me. I jolted back in fear, they had slit pupils, visible past their inky black eyes. The pupils were a piercing red, and nearly seemed to glow in the darkness.
The snarl ceased. Riley stared at my motionless form, before releasing a screech that caused the monitors to crackle and the vials to shatter, the light fixtures above flickered and some even got jostled out of place, I covered my ears and screamed at the splitting pain. My father stood there, unharmed.
He had turned her into a monster.
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