Realising that he had spent too much time dawdling, Henrick takes the stairs and walks down to the ground floor. He exits the building and scoffs at the rats that keep falling to their deaths.
He makes his way to a crater surrounding by the bodies of dog sized rats and sees the rat leader writhing in agony. It stares at Henrick and bites at the air towards him in desperation. It's wheezing breaths give him pause, and he kneels next to it. With a grunt, he pierces the rat leader's already fractured skull with his fingers and gives it a quick death.
Immediately after the kill, a dark purple mist flows into Henrick's body. His wounds visibly knit themselves together and he feels an intense energy flowing through his body like liquid lightning.
When the sensation ends, he stares at his hands and notes the faintly glowing veins leading to his heart. "That...was something." Unsure of what exactly happened, Henrick decides to stand up and see if he can replicate what happened with the other smaller rats.
As he approaches the hundreds of rat corpses, he feels a faint increase in his strength, though nothing compared to what he felt when he killed the rat leader.
Rolling his shoulder to check if he's sufficiently healed, Henrick nods in satisfaction as he regains full motor control. He climbs on top of an abandoned van and looks around, only now noticing that the buildings are much further apart than they were before.
"Has the city gotten bigger? Nothing is where it's supposed to be." Musing to himself he picks a direction and does his best to move quietly between alleys as he scouts for potential shelter. After a few minutes, he finds a relatively intact apartment building and enters.The walls are cracked and the ground uneven, but it seems stable and that's enough.
Henrick sits against a wall and scowls at the inhuman screams echoing in the distance. He sighs as he realises that he lost the protein bars and water when he was attacked by the rat horde.
With a sorrowful sigh, Henrick hangs his head low as he looks to his bloodied hands. "Toots. I'm sorry." He clenches them into fists and images of his mutated companion being ripped in half flashes through his mind. Unknowingly, Henrick starts releasing sparks of electricity in his anguish. The faint rumbling of thunder echoes in the sky as his entire body trembles.
Suddenly, a scream cuts through his tumultuous thoughts and Henrick immediately looks out onto the street. There he sees a group of people, 3 adults and 2 children, running from an unseen creature. An inhuman scream rips through the air as a child is ripped from a man's arms. "NOOOO!!" The man screams in horror, completely ignoring the fact that his arms were taken along with the child.
"The distance is approximately 200 meters, damn it." With a burst of speed, Henrick dashes towards the group. 150 meters. Another inhuman shriek, and a woman gets beheaded. 100 meters, another child is ripped in half. 50 meters, Henrick can see the lines of the final woman's face as she is bisected from shoulder to hip.
Henrick roars as he slams, shoulder first, into a shadowy figure. The impact displaces the air and the human corpses as the creature is sent flying. Dark ichor sprays out as the creature skids across the floor and crashes through the wall of a building with a sickening CRACK.
A groan rings out and Henrick sees that the first man who had his arms ripped out is still breathing. "The children, please! The children!!" The man screams as blood spurts out from his mangled stubs. Henrick kneels with a heavy heart and shakes his head. The man, as if physically struck, recoils and collapses in a pool of his own blood. His glassy eyes staring into the sky with such hatred, that Henrick can physically feel it.
A shriek gains Henrick's attention as the creature steps out from the rubble and dust. It's an unsightly thing, with elongated limbs ending in razor sharp claws, and a mishapen head with a mouth that stretches down to its belly.
Henrick looks at it with disgust and prepares himself for a fight. He notes the ripped clothing of what was undoubtedly a male human, and feels a pang of sympathy at what it has become. With a roar that shakes the air, the creature leaps into the air. It pulls its arms back and prepares to slam them down.
In a split second decision, Henrick grabs the corpse of the unarmed man and tosses it at the grotesque creature.
The monster bites down on the corpse and is distracted for a split second. A second that Henrick capitalises on. With a twist of his waist, Henrick slams a brutal hook onto the mutated Human's side that breaks its ribs and stuns it briefly. Henrick then rushes forward, grabbing the monsters face, and slamming it down hard enough to crack the concrete.
Thrashing and kicking, the creature manages to slash a gash on Henrick's chest. "Aghh! Damn it." Shouting out in pain, he stomps down on the mutated humans head, driving it deeper into the ground. The monster's claws dig deep grooves in the ground as it tries to run, but Henrick grabs it by the legs and pulls it back.
With a snarl, Henrick drives a haymaker down at the creatures head and cracks it open. It twitches and writhes in its final death throes, but stills as dark purple mist flows into Henrick. He clenches his fist and feels his strength growing by a small amount and his wounds healing, but feels only a small sense of satisfaction.
"Nobody left alive. Damn it." With one last look at the creatures body, Henrick decides to continue scavenging for supplies.
After a few minutes, he finally finds a supermarket. As soon as he steps closer, however, he hears hushed whispers and the sound of something being knocked over. Henrick opens the front door and immediately sees a family of three holding mops and brooms as weapons. The father steps forward defiantly as the mother shields her child.
"Are you one of those bastards out there? Why can't you just leave us alone?!" The father shouts at Henrick with all his might. Henrick simply raises a brow and says "What are you--", but is interrupted by the sound of a truck roaring outside.
The mother screams "damn it, it's them!" As the father hurriedly pulls them deeper into the supermarket. Henrick steps outside and sees a group of hoodlums, cackling as they get off their vehicle.
A handsome man walks up to Henrick and gives him a friendly smile. "Hey there big man. I'm Dominic. You wouldn't happen to have seen a family around here, have you? They're my relatives, and I'd like to keep them safe." His words sounded pure enough, but the eyes are what Henrick focused on. He recognised the pure sadistic glee of a killer closing in on their prey.
"Work on masking that look in your eyes before you act nice." Henrick scoffs as he tenses his slightly tired muscles. Dominic, to his credit, simply smiled and waved his hand. Henrick's eyes widened as his instincts screamed at him to dodge. He leaps backwards in time to see the very earth turn into hardened earthen spears.
Without any time to speak, Henrick leaps to the side as a large hand made of concrete tries to crush him. "What the hell?!" Henrick shouts as a goon teleports behind him and strikes him with a bat that harmlessly shatters on his frame.
Taking advantage of the shock of his weapon breaking, Henrick grabs the teleporter and kicks his knee. SNAP goes the joint, "AHHHH!!", and the goon falls clutching his ruined leg. With another stomp, the goon has his head caved in.
Dominic uses this moment to trap Henrick and bind his limbs. With a gesture, he forces Henrick to kneel on the ground. "Hmm. You're a nuisance. If you told me where they were, you could've survived a little longer, at least becoming my prey after them." Dominic looks to his men and they move without a need for words.
"Grr!" An earthen spike pierces into Henrick's stomach, eliciting a growl of pain. The goons enter the supermarket and cackle in glee as they enter, presumably finding the family. Henrick hears the terrified scream of the child and the sound of crunching bones as the father begs for them to stop.
Henrick scowls and slowly stands up, his muscles straining against his bindings. Dominic slightly frowns and forces his hand lower, making Henrick sink into the earth.
The father's begging gradually fades out amidst the mother's screams. "Why are you doing this?! What have they done to you?!" Henrick shouts as he desperately wills his muscles to push harder. Dominic simply smiles and says "They're weak. It feels so good to crush them when they can't resist."
The cackling of the goons turn into lecherous hooting as the mother screams even louder. Henrick's eyes suddenly snap up towards Dominic as they glow an intense electric blue. "You fucking animals!!" With that roar, Henrick's body suddenly explodes outwards with electricity as he stands to his full imposing height.
Dominic is sent skipping across the floor, as his nerves are paralysed by electricity. Henrick rushes into the supermarket, only to see the mother and father dead, with the child bleeding out on the floor.
Rage overtakes Henrick's mind as he rushes towards the goons. "I'll kill you all!!" He roars as he sends a bolt of electricity that bounces around and electrocutes all of the monsters in human skin.
Henrick smiles grimly as he watches the hoodlums drop one by one. "AAAAHHH!" Their screams echoes throughout the supermarket, but fall on deaf ears as Henrick watches them slowly carbonise. One of them survives, solely due to his ability to harden his skin. "Wait!! Wait!! I was just following Dominic's orders!!" The goon shouts, begging for mercy.
Henrick says nothing as he chokes the life from the man's body. His face turns an alarming shade of purple as he claws at Henrick's hands for breath. A few seconds later, and he falls limp, his eyes bulging and popping out as Henrick continues to squeeze until his neck snaps.
Looking around, Henrick only sees the charred remains of the men and the family. He steps out of the supermarket and finds Dominic shakily standing up. "You fucking piece of sh-" Dominic tries to say, but is interrupted as a bolt of electricity slams into him and forces him down to the ground.
"I am going to fry your insides until they're nothing but char and ash." Henrick says with an eerie calm. He steps closer as Dominic laughs "I see it too you know? I see you for what you really are. You're just like me, a killer!"
Dominic spits on the ground as he struggles to rise. "You don't care about that family! You see them as numbers. To be used as you deem necessary. We're the same!!" With a snarl of effort, he rises amidst the current running through his body.
Henrick lunges forward at those words and punches forward with an electricity enhanced fist, but scowls as Dominic enters the very earth and disappears with a smirk.
Henrick's fist smashes into the ground, creating a small electric explosion, but ultimately hits nothing but concrete. He looks around but sees no sign of Dominic. "...damn." Left with nothing but the haunted screams of the dead and the partial reveal of his true nature, Henrick takes a knee and breathes heavily as his stomach wound bleeds profusely.
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END