23

I was floating.

That's what it felt like, in that pitch-black expanse of nothingness; just like swimming, only there was no water to suffocate me. No oxygen to take in, and yet no need to breathe either. Just a blank slate, where not even the likes of Telos could disturb me.

There was a light tingling sensation on my nose at first, which spread to my cheeks after a few seconds. When I finally opened my eyes, I saw a blurry hand flying at my face for another slap, and I grabbed it in mid-air with a sudden burst of life.

Startled, Blessing jolted to the side as I flopped around on the floor like a fish out of water. Finding my footing, I was able to get onto my feet with much more ease than the last time.

The last time...

It all came flooding back to me, and I instantly felt like throwing up. The entire town was on fire, I'd been dismembered by the leader of the TMD... and the most painful fact of all, my closest friends may not be able to trust me ever again.

Instead of wallowing in self-pity, I raised myself up against a splintered wall and began to question our surroundings. Judging from the toppled chairs and books strewn across the floor, Blessing had successfully fled from the Carrier's Flesh pod and sought refuge in one of the nearby classrooms.

"Daniel, your injuries... You can't be moving so-"

"I'm fine... I'll be fine," I repeated for my own benefit. "That thing outside, did you get a good look at it? What are we up against here?" Between cumbersome breaths, I tried to listen for any screeching, squawking or any other unearthly noise I had come to associate with those Flesh monsters.

Blessing took me away from the window and into the dim shadows, shaking her head a little too convincingly. I could see it in her eyes, that she knew exactly what had been unleashed.

"Listen to me... We can't fight it. Our best option is to rendezvous with Elizabeth and the others, hopefully Alisha will stay underground until the coast is clear-"

"Bless, there's no time for that! Enough people have died today... If we just leave that monster to run around-"

Another firm slap brought me back to my senses, although I couldn't hide my bitter scowl from her piercing-grey eyes.

"Seriously?! You only have to look out there to know. It's a terrible thing to say, Daniel. I know it is... but they're going to die anyway. You can't save them, and even if you could get everyone away from here, the opiate withdrawal would finish them off in a matter of days."

I stared at her blankly for what seemed like minutes, and without excusing myself, I shakily made my way towards the door. Her footsteps turned behind me, and I could sense her hand before it rested on my shoulder.

"...Where are you going?"

"I need to do something. I can't sit here with my thumb up my arse, waiting for someone else to come to our rescue... Your brother has that device. Maybe now's the time to use it, after all."

"TB... He told you about his customised cartridge?! I can't believe that he would trust you so quickly!"

"Yeah, well. Looks like his 'trust' came at a price." I tried to shake off what Alisha had accused me of previously, and left through the half-demolished classroom door.

As soon as we stepped out onto the street, a deafening chorus of roars blasted through the air to our left, and Blessing yanked me in the opposite direction. The timing was too perfect... was this Flesh creature able to sense us?

Running side-by-side, my eyes connected with Blessing's before realising just how terrified the noise had rendered her. It should take more than this to rattle someone with her iron-clad mentality, that's for sure.

"Bless! Are you-"

"Don't look at it!" She yelled, closing her eyes as we skidded around the corner of a familiar backstreet. "Please, just... trust me on this one! We need to get to the evacuation site, fast!"

Strange, I thought. She clearly hadn't forgotten about the Lost Suppression Device's cartridge, just after bringing it up... Was she hoping that I would drop the idea?

I could feel the ground trembling beneath me as the monster bounded somewhere behind us. Gripping my bandaged stump, I cursed my own stubbornness and veered to the right as I made a beeline for TB's sewer hideout.

"No! What are you thinking?!" Blessing called after me, but it was too late for her to make the same turn. The shadowing earthquake reverberated into the same junction I had run through, and I counted to roughly estimate of how close on my rear it was.

Two seconds behind. I have two seconds to shake this bastard, without even looking at it.

I slipped between tight alleys, ducked around piles of fiery rubble and kicked my way through abandoned dwellings. Each time, I heard the obstacles break apart and crumble under this unknown threat's command. It tore through buildings like they were paper, and I couldn't stand the growing xenophobia any longer.

Spinning around for a mere second, it was the only second I needed for my brain to shut down, and for my body to stop responding entirely. I didn't know what I was looking at... but I knew exactly what it was composed of.

The bile turned in my stomach, rising up my throat in a thick froth as I spewed into the ground, letting the vomit splatter against a nearby charred corpse. I'd run by dozens of dead people on the way here, but it didn't affect me nearly as much as the freak of nature wobbling before me, slowing to snack on a nearby feast of barbecued citizens.

"Legion..."

I felt the hairs on my neck rise up and shudder, although I was unable to turn around and look at him. Luckily, the man tumbled straight past me and steadied himself on heavily-chewn legs.

Sergeant Riles looked as though he'd been through a blender, rife with bite marks and scratches to his face. I would've found it amusing that his own back-up had turned on him, but I didn't think the situation could be that simple.

"What... is it?" I choked, rubbing my stinging eyes from the woodsmoke billowing into our quiet backstreet of a battleground.

The TMD sergeant huffed to himself, but deciding that there was nothing left to lose, he glanced back at the creature with a pitiful smirk.

"You ever seen a nightmare, kid? I mean, a real one... Not just your regular meatbags or the boogeymen that Telos cook up every day. Sometimes, the most despicable creations of mankind are the simplest ones."

His eyes twitched at the mere sight of the being, and crouched down to avoid causing an undue outburst of aggression.

"Legion is the one area where you and I can agree with each other... that they went too far."

I couldn't even tell where to begin, describing such an abomination. The only imagery that came to mind, was a rubber band ball that had long since been pushed past its limits. The Flesh monster didn't have an exact shape, no start or end point. In a different light, I could imagine seeing it as a 20-ft tall tower with cactus-like thorns.

Except that those 'thorns' were the arms, legs and trailing organs of the recently deceased.

There was no way that this enormous aggregation of corpses could fit into that tiny pod. This 'Legion', it had maybe started out as one Lost body. I don't know how it managed the first few, but the Flesh monster seemed to roll over the living and dead alike, absorbing them into itself.

I watched in horror as seven separate arms dragged its entire mass across the ground and over the burned body in front of us. Almost hungrily, the grubby hands pulled the presumably-female remains apart in the air, swallowing her whole into its blob-like structure.

In a matter of seconds, I saw what used to be her gartered leg creeping back into life, kicking through the entanglement of bloodied limbs for control over the lower half's movement.

What was binding this aberration together? How could the body parts co-ordinate themselves with such awareness? All I could be sure of, was that their hunger grew more powerful with each gory addition. This thing wouldn't stop until it had consumed everyone that had fallen in Patch's aftermath.

"What... This is..." I stuttered, wiping the sweat from my brow before it cloud my vision. "...How can they have so little respect... for the dead? These were people an hour ago! This thing isn't a monster, it's a god damn graveyard!!"

Riles clicked his tongue in response, forcing me to step back a little. Whatever side he was on, I was still wary after the man almost bisected me with nothing but his bare hands. Seeing my nerves, a glimmer of his superior attitude crept back across his face.

"Relax, little rat. If I wanted to rip more pieces from you, I'd have done it by now... but then, I wouldn't have any bait."

"B-Bait?!" I asked a little too late, as he hoisted me over his head with a single hand. Kicking and desperately trying to wriggle myself free, I only realised how futile it was when he gave me an exasperated sigh.

"Ain't nothing personal, kid. It's just, I don't have any defences for this type of absorbing freak. Legions are bio-programmed to target the nearest infected source, and well... I'm like the Porsche of the F.L.E.S.H. Program. No hard feelings, right?"

I felt his large hands flex, and then somehow froze in place. Looking down, I could see a trail of interlocked arms wrapping around Riles' leg, ignoring his yells as he desperately tried to shake the creature off.

"H-Hey, let go of me! Back off, you grabby pieces of shit!! I'm head-sergeant of the TMD, and you will do as I command-"

His eyes flitted off to the left, and right on cue, Blessing dove into the fray with an extreme resolve behind her stride. Her gaze locked with her former mentor's, and a number of calculations seemed to be firing off in her head as the once-dignified Riles pleaded under the swamp of limbs as it began devouring him.

"Darlin'! You gotta stop this thing... Use your ability or whatever, reason with it! Grraaah, hurry!! You are a Queen, aren't you?!"

She looked to me for validation on whether to assist, and realising that I would be next on the creature's menu, she raised her hand and closed her eyes in deep concentration.

"Stop attacking!" Blessing commanded with a thunderous bark, shaking her fingers at the collective beast as though she was establishing a link. "Stop... Stop it, I said!"

She jerked her palm around in the air for a few more seconds, and let out a choke of frustration.

"I... I can't do it any more! I don't know how it happened the first time, it just came out... I'm sorry!"

Grabbing my good arm and yanking me down yet another burning backstreet, we pretended not to hear Riles' curses and tearing noises as Legion added one more to its number. When it had finished, the creature's constant stampede of arms and legs shifting it across the ground was apparent in the vibrating air.

"That Riles..." Blessing huffed almost to herself as we made our way over to the farmhouse.

"Do you think he's dead in there?"

"No, those bodies must be harmless to the already-infected. I'd be more worried about us at the moment..." She nodded down the street, where numerous Lost flared their bloodied teeth back at her as they abandoned their char-grilled corpses for fresher meat.

"Shit... I almost miss dealing with these guys. Is that weird?" I forced a joke through my tensed jaw as we dodged left and right, not taking the time to acknowledge their weak presence. We were getting closer to the farmhouse, but that's not where I wanted to go.

Almost as though my will had conjured him out of thin air, we ran head-first into the blond-grey TB. Behind him, several of the sewer O-Saints scanned their eyes over Blessing and immediately scattered in fear towards the nearby playground.

"Well, that was rude." Her eyes fell to her little brother, frowning as she noticed the Suppression Device locked under his arms. "So... I take it you've heard from Boudica?"

"Yes... The rest of Walker's group has already met at the rendezvous, and Ma'am just secured a chopper to take us back to home base. Blessing, did you hear some kind of-"

A piercing roar confirmed TB's suspicions, and he pointed the device at the street ahead in fear. Blessing almost smacked it out of his hands, scolding him with a cold hiss.

"Idiot! You've loaded your cartridge, haven't you?! We're infected with the virus too, are you trying to kill us along with that creature?!"

"I know, sorry... I just panicked, okay?! While I'm at it, do I need to apologise for not being as brave as my freaking Queen of a sister?"

Blessing bit her lip, shaking her head at the accusation. Knowing where the twins came from, those words were deeper-rooted than they sounded.

"...I was going to tell you, eventually. I didn't know I could control the infected myself, until just then! Wait, how... How did you know about it?"

"Are you kidding me? It's being sent like spam all over the Telos Network! Father knows about you, Blessing... You couldn't have handled this any worse!"

"Father?" She gasped, raising her thumb to her chin in wonderment. "Is that why... he disposed of Riles? Sending the creature that he hates the most, it could be some form of message? I can't think-"

"Umm, guys? Speaking of..." I fumbled with my words, only to give up and point towards a far-off building as it imploded, crushing the bricks under Legion's sheer weight.

After only a single minute, it had somehow grown even larger in size. The spire of flailing limbs twisted and screeched in pain as it spun towards us, bulldozing everything in its path. My eyes raised to the very top of its pile, and I instinctively slapped my hand over my mouth.

"That's...!"

Nestled at the highest point of Legion, I would never have recognised him if he wasn't accompanied by his wife's bleeding tuft of hair. I had only seen them twice, but the guilt of our encounters was not something I could forget so easily.

So they didn't make it either, I thought. I must have realised in passing, but there was nothing that I could've done to help them during the chaos.

My thoughts turned to the poor child Anna, praying that she wasn't stuck inside that monster as well. Wishing that she was out there somewhere, hidden and safe from her dead parents as they became part of a much greater tragedy.

Pedalling myself backwards into the playground, Blessing and TB followed suit as we tried to buy a few extra seconds of precious time. The aggregate beast was so close now, that I could even see Riles' shiny-bald head poking out from its central belt.

"Okay, now what? Do either of you geniuses have any bright ideas?" I spat under my breath, almost feeling it would get me eaten faster if the many ears of Legion overheard any plotting.

"Working on it!" TB pulled out his laptop and started typing erratically, balancing the entire thing on his one free hand. Blessing and I began to crawl inside of the jungle gym, making every moment count.

The aggregate beast was already shredding the play-park's fence apart, somehow smelling us with the innumerable noses tucked inside the pile of corpses.

TB barely even flinched, still focused on keying in random digits, and the mysterious nature of his gadgets grew even more dangerous as he refused to climb in beside us and join our questionable safety.

"Hurry up!! It's coming right for-"

"Done!" His eyes darted upwards in a confident smirk, and Legion let out a chorus of howls as it prepared to go in for the kill. Following his gaze into empty space, I noticed what he was looking for... and I glanced back down to his screen in bewilderment.

Somehow, he'd managed to hack into one of the Telos Carriers, and was now steering it remotely... Bringing it closer to our location, I could practically see the terror on the pilot's face as he promptly ejected himself from the side door, having lost ownership of the helicopter's control panel.

I noted TB's fingers trained on the W-A-S-D formation as he shot a calculated stare back at Legion before slamming the laptop shut with a sense of finality. Blessing's twin brother quite literally leapt into action, diving behind the metal bars of the flaming playground.

"It's coming, brace yourselves!!"

I dared a look up at the smoke-filled clouds, only to see a trail of red streaking across the sky as the helicopter threatened to explode at any second. I felt something tug on my arm, and a mess of rasps and hungry groans pulled me out from under the jungle gym.

Kicking wildly, I freed myself from Legion's united grasp and painfully threw myself backwards into the metal kiddie slide, feeling the heat of the massive fireball creeping up on the back of my neck.

The entire playground cracked as a deafening explosion pierced through the very hearts of the many corpses, igniting them in a blaze of shrieks and convulsions. The ground trembled and banged our heads against the hard material as we watched the monster melt down, separating and desperately attempting to reform.

"Haha... It worked!! Nice one, TB!" I praised, clapping my one hand on my knee in a rare moment of victory. Now everyone contained within the monster would be free... Now they would be able to rest in-

"Daniel, don't!! Watch out!"

I'd barely heard the words before I was hanging upside-down, raised in the air above the sweltering fires of the helicopter wreckage. It wasn't over yet... Legion was composed more of fire than cadaver at this point, and yet its hunger still hadn't been sated.

Restraining me with its many crusted hands, I couldn't wrestle myself free a second time. It was reeling my body in closer, and I caught a glimpse of Riles smirking at me with a maddened smile, behind the mess of fingers and tangled feet.

"Daniel!! No, stop this instant!" Blessing cried out after the creature, running across the playground with severe determination. Her fists clenched tight, she drew her foot across the gravel and screamed at the top of her lungs. "Put him down, or I'll rip you apart! You were never meant to exist, foul abomination!!"

The arms holding me went limp, and I fell through the air only to land in a crumpled heap on the ground. Confused, I scrambled towards TB and we both took in the sight with visible awe.

She had done it again; Blessing's eyes were stained with red tears, her entire posture raised to elevate her status. She had ordered the beast to stop, and it collectively obeyed. The air between the two beings almost crackled with electricity; every one of Legion's eyes were trained on its biological superior.

"Incredible..." TB uttered, although I sensed a hint of jealousy behind his exclamation. After all, it was the power that he was engineered to host... and his twin had stolen it from him, along with most of his lifespan.

The so-called 'Queen' managed three graceful steps towards Legion's resting bodies, and all of a sudden, she stopped in her tracks. Her legs took a wobbly turn, and her face plowed itself into the hard concrete below.

"Blessing! Are you okay?!" The two of us dove into action, running across the playground to help her onto her knees. Her blood-filled eyes were much darker than before, almost pupil-less behind those pools of unadulterated red.

"Help!! For the love of God, help me!!"

I heard someone shouting across the clearing in the most agonised, desperate voice. My eyes darted around in response, but I couldn't see a single soul.

"It hurts! Just fucking kill me already, you slut!"

"Gnnaaaah!! Mommy!! I want my mommy! It's so hot..."

"Am I still alive? No... Where am I?! Oh Lord, I don't like this! Don't just stand there woman, help me! Please!! I don't want to kill again!"

I couldn't get a hold of where the pleas were coming from, until it clicked with a gag of my throat. It was just like before, with Steven... Blessing was peeling back the virus' hold on the infected, giving Legion some kind of temporary humanity. A voice, to all of those mutilated corpses as they burned to death.

She was already at her limit. Holding her throbbing heart with both hands, Blessing shrieked and burrowed herself against the ground, trying to escape the pain of a hundred deaths. I still wasn't sure that I knew what was going on, but her trembling hand worked itself into mine and squeezed tight for support.

"I... I can hear them, Daniel. In my heart... Screaming, they're all in such... terrible misery... They're my people, and I can't do anything to help them! I can't- grrraaaah!! Make them stop!!"

I could see something snap behind Blessing's blank eyes, and her whole body tensed without any form of release. The next thing I knew, she was climbing onto her feet like nothing had happened.

"Bless...?" I placed my hand on her arm, trying to look deeper for any sign of the pain that she was describing only seconds ago. Her rigid stature unmoving, her lips curved into a low growl that sounded eerily familiar. I felt my hand remove itself, and my feet shifted back by a few cautionary steps.

"No... C'mon Blessing, say something. You're not-"

Before I could get the words out, she raised her fingernails as though they were claws and took a violent swipe at my face. Luckily, TB yanked me out of the way and pushed my body aside as Blessing gnashed at him and pinned her sibling down, sinking her bared teeth into his shoulder.

"Aaargh!! Blessing, what the hell are you doing?! It's me!" Clobbering her to the side, the blond-grey boy winced at the blood gushing from his fresh wound. "When was the last time you took your injection?! You strained yourself, and now you're going rabid! You fucking idiot!!"

I'd almost forgotten, that was how Blessing had managed to stay lucid this whole time. She and her brother relied on some kind of serum every couple of days to retain their higher functions. Perhaps this ability was too demanding for her body to handle?

Whatever it was, there was no time to figure out why she was attacking us. Rolling onto her knees with a hiss, she prepared to strike again as she threw a maddened glance between us. She licked TB's infected blood from her lips, and almost recoiling in distaste, she set her sights onto me...

She was more powerful than any Flesh monster we'd encountered, more agile, even smarter than most fully-brained people. Then there was me, her closest friend.

The nearest disabled human, and her main course.

~Author's Note~

Hey guys, hope you enjoyed this week's chapter! I'm going to keep making these notes, it feels a lot better to connect with you all like this :D

What do you think about Blessing's ability? Or how about Legion, the new Flesh terror? Let me know in the comments below! I'm excited to finally move forward, after so much exposition >.>