Infected Hunter - Research Subject 10706

Alissa looks back at Stross and then back at Chip

"We were doing fine. We got everything back in order after the disaster… Our planet finally got overrun by those monsters and mutants."

Stross grits his teeth on that remark

"Hell. Hell happened."

The scout sat up, clutching his calf in his hands. His vibrant green eyes were narrowed somewhat in thought as he mentally assembled all of his memories from the place.

"Once I got cut off from the rest of the party, everything went to shit. My rifle ran out of charges after about two days. Those zombie-people were everywhere, and I could swear their numbers were growing exponentially by the hour. I managed to get food... sometimes... from old stores and caches that people left around. I could have sworn I saw some weird person in a hoodie walking around with tentacles and shit coming out of his back. I'm lucky he didn't see me, because I'm pretty sure he tore one of those giant Hunter things in half-"

Chip cut off with a hiss, and fell back onto the mattress, his expression strained from the pain of his broken limb slowly and painfully healing.

He watched the other snag its meal and wander off with an unhappy expression.  So not even a monster wanted his company.  Well, fine, then.  He would just sit there on the ground and wait until he had enough energy to Jump out of this hellhole.

He was getting ready to sit down when his stomach gave a loud growl.

Damn, he was starving!  Like he’d ever be able to work up the strength to get out of here on an empty stomach!  He turned back to the departing monster, and was about to say something, when he simply sighed, shoulder slumping again.  

The beast clearly wanted nothing to do with him.  So he guessed he should start scavving.  With another sigh and a grumble, he started off in the opposite direction the beast had taken…

The looming structures also blocked most of the sunlight, shrouding the streets and narrow alleyways in darkness.

Down one of the routes, several pairs of glowing red lights moved about, and there was a wet chomping sound as meat was torn and devoured.

As the man walked, the sound of his stomach growling was matched by another, deeper growl. A pair of the red lights was close, and they were narrowed, slit pupils focused on him. They towered high in the air, much higher than those of the average Hunter, the bulk of the new beast much greater.

The Leader with the scar across his face snarled and opened his jaw.

----

Back at the factory, Stigr feasted on his meat, letting his pet magpie steal a few pieces of the feast.

The buffet of rotting flesh was once again interrupted. This time, by a loud, echoing roar that reverberated with power and rage.

The blue-eyed Hunter whimpered and crumpled on the floor, clutching his head and kicking his back feet.

It had been a while since he had experienced the Voice. He thought he had been freed from it since leaving the pack.

But one doesn't simply leave a pack. It still hurt. And it was close.

His head whipped around in the direction of the sound.

The Leader. The pack was close.

......no.

The human couldn't have-

.....shit. He did, didn't he.

He might not have understood the words, exactly, but the body language was more than enough to tell him he was being sassed.  His ears lowered again as he glared down at the other.  ”You know, I’ve still got plenty of ammo.”  There was a loud, ominous KA-CHAK from both weapons as he primed them with a deadpan expression.  

Then his shoulders slumped, and the weapons vanished in much the same manner as they had appeared.  ”Aww, what’s the point?  You haven’t tried to take a chunk out of me yet.”  He leapt from the fire escape and landed on the ground near the Hunter, before going to investigate the corpses.  He nudged one with a boot.  ”Eugh, they reek.  So this is what the Walkers look like.”

He knew a little bit about what sorts of things roamed NYZ, but not much; he’d only ever been here on brief visits, and never in a Red Zone.

Stigr snorted. His blue eyes narrowed and he hissed lowly when the other cocked the strange weapons in a threatening manner, but stopped when the other lowered them, the metallic objects dissipating back into shining particles before vanishing with another flick of the wrists.

The man spoke in a lower tone than before, so Stigr gathered that the other's anger had diminished for the most part. With a sigh, he stood back up when the man kicked one of the corpses with his boot. Stigr padded over, and knelt down, hooking the shoulder area of one of the Walker corpses in his strong, jagged jaw. Effortlessly lifting the limp, infected body off the ground, he turned around and carried it back to the factory, trotting with the rotting meat like a dog carrying a fresh kill.

"You picked a bad time, you zombies!"  And he let loose with a hail of the energy projectiles, taking down the advancing walkers with shots to the head.  Every shot was a bullseye, and he backed up slightly, before glancing to one side.  He could see a partially destroyed fire escape that looked like a likely sniper’s nest.  

He took out a few more of the shambling creatures, and then ran at the wall— then up it, running like he was running on flat ground.  He jumped and landed on the blasted, twisted fire escape, it groaned and shook ominously…

…but held his weight.  He took aim and started picking them off as they appeared, cool and collected now, and feeling more than a little better about things.  It was good to take his anger out, to get to his Zen place with his marksmanship.

And he had to admit he was not expecting the guns.

The weapons suddenly came into being, the only warning being the swift and short arcing motions of the man's wrists. Stigr leaned back slightly, no longer sure if the human was indeed off of his 'threatening' list.

The other killed all of the remaining undead corpses within seconds, with a cold and brutal efficiency. How clean and quick they all just fell to the ground was almost scary, if Stigr wasn't accustomed to an atmosphere of death on a daily basis. But, it was still intimidating, and made him regard the man in a slightly more cautious light.

With all the Walkers dispatched, the Hunter sighed and sat back down, still refusing to leave. When the other commented to him from the broken fire escape, the Hunter snorted.

"Stigr just not stupid enough to make lots of loud noise in Red Zone."

"That’s much better."  His tone was flat, no longer yelling.  He turned his back on the beast, whether in arrogance or in ignorance was unclear.  He tried to think of what to do next.  Where to go?  It would take him a little bit to get the energy necessary to Jump again, so it seemed he was stuck here.

At least for now.

"Stigr not eat HUMANS. Stigr only eat-"

A distant gurgling growl interrupted his twisted speech, and Stigr sighed, the sound akin to a tire deflating.

Welp. Guess the man would see for himself.

The loud and foreign noise of the man yelling, coupled with the previous explosion, had attracted the attention of the Walkers in the near vicinity, and the undead virus-ridden corpses came shambling around corners and through alleyways toward the source of the noise.

Stigr stood back up on all fours, a steady hum of a growl building in his chest as they approached. Dammit this was the second time a 'visitor' had brought unwanted company to his doorstep. He didn't object to free food, but it was a huge pain in the ass to have to take out a horde all at once.

Well, that didn’t sound too friendly.  But goddammit, it wasn’t his fault he’d wound up here!  He was lost, he was alone, and everyone he’d known was gone, as far as he could tell.  It was all just too much to take- he lost his temper.

His pupil contracted into a razor thin slit as he bared his teeth at the menacing creature.  His long, pointed ears laid straight back in a manner clearly indicating ire, and his one remaining eye seemed to burn with an unholy anger.

"Now you listen here, I didn’t mean to show up here!  You think I’d come to this place on purpose?!  It was an accident, okay, an ac-ci-dent!  Do you comprende?!" He ranted at the beast.  He was far from imposing at a rather diminutive 5’6", but he radiated pure anger.  And something darker, just beneath it.

The stink of madness.

Stigr snorted. He could smell the brewing insanity, and wasn't terribly bothered by it. Even an angry human wasn't on his 'threatening' list until they had armor or a weapon in their hands.

But this one didn't have either, and had yet to pull one on him. So he decided to humor the angry human. For now.

So, with a glare, he sat back on his haunches, eyes never leaving the man.

He didn't advance. He didn't attack. He didn't even growl.

Well, that hadn’t gone as expected.  He’d meant to go somewhere else entirely, but even a veteran ripper like himself was prone to mistakes once in a while.  He was dazed for a few long moments before he got his bearings back— 

—and an all too familiar reek hit his nostrils.  He made a face, single remaining eye narrowing, as he recognized it.  He groaned and looked around.  NYZ- and a Red Zone, by the look of things.  He’d heard there were nasty monsters here, but maybe he’d get lucky and not run into any.

Yeah, right.

He sensed something behind him, and turned around slowly, to come face to face with a—

…what was it exactly?

He blinked.  It looked almost like a Dimension Ripper Beast, but runty.  And.. it had eyes.  And no heat sensing organs, that he could see.  No, its mottled hide was relatively smooth.  But those claws looked pretty deadly… and as far as he could gauge its flat nosed expression, it didn’t seem too happy, either…

The sound of the voice was more than enough to get Stigr's attention. The Hunter's sunken iris slid over to look at the human-sized form on the pavement, half-concealed by a nearby dumpster. Stigr had almost missed him, but the congregation of the new scent in his direction was enough to determine that the other was the reason for the explosion and the cloying scent of rotten flesh mixed with the unknown odor.

The Hunter growled and took deliberate, threatening steps forward, getting within pouncing range, but not any further than that, stopping and glaring firmly. Even from about 15 feet away and on all fours, the Hunter clearly towered over him by about a meter or more.

On closer inspection, the Hunter was more... humanoid than one would expect. The bent limbs, which were designed for powerful jumping and speed, still gave the odd sense that they were meant for a bipedal creature rather than a quadruped. The claws were long and wicked-looking, but they were attached to what looked almost like hands, albeit with a lower number of fingers. Even the eyes were strange - the irises were round and a bright, clear blue.

Stigr hissed once, hackles raising like a disturbed feral cat. He spat out a few short lines in Infected tongue. A warning.

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