Chapter 4:The Lab Of Shady
900 Words
The survivors trudged through the ashen wasteland, their breaths visible in the frigid air. Damon walked at the rear, his hood pulled low to hide his glowing eyes. The factory was miles behind them now, but the memory of the Harbinger’s roar still echoed in his bones. Eli stayed close, his blade-arm tucked under a tattered blanket. Ahead, Anya led the group with a map scavenged from the factory, her machete glinting in the pale sunlight.
“The lab should be here,” Anya said, stopping at the edge of a crater. Below, half-buried in rubble, was a steel door marked with a faded biohazard symbol.
Damon’s claws twitched. The door pulsed with a faint, sickly green light, as if the building itself were alive. “This place… it’s wrong,” he muttered.
“It’s our best shot at answers,” Eli said, though his voice wavered.
Anya pried the door open with her machete. Rusted hinges screamed, revealing a staircase descending into darkness. The survivors lit torches and filed in, their footsteps echoing off cracked tile walls. Damon lingered, staring at the symbol. Biohazard.He wondered if the lab had created the Beast God—or if it had tried to stop it.
The lab’s interior was a maze of shattered glass and overturned equipment. Flickering emergency lights cast long shadows. Cabinets hung open, spilling files labeled Project: Eclipse. A chalkboard nearby was covered in equations, the words Genetic Threshold circled violently.
Eli picked up a photo of scientists in hazmat suits standing beside a massive, shadowy containment chamber. “They were studying something big.”
“And they failed,” Anya said coldly, nodding to a skeleton slumped at a computer, its fingers still on the keyboard.
Damon approached a monitor, brushing dust from the screen. A video file auto-played: a grainy recording of a man in a lab coat, his face gaunt.
"Day 217. The specimen is evolving beyond our control. It speaks to us now—calls itself the Beast God. We thought we could harness its power, but…” The man glanced offscreen, trembling. “It’s rewriting our DNA. The staff… they’re changing. I pray this facility’s failsafe—”
The screen went black.
“Failsafe?” Eli asked.
Damon’s claws dug into the desk. “They tried to kill it. Didn’t work.”
Anya rounded on him. “This place is a death trap. We destroy it and leave.”
“Wait!” Eli held up a file labeled *Gene Suppression. “This says they developed a serum to stabilize mutations. It could help Damon!”
Damon’s pulse quickened. Stabilize. The word hung in the air like a promise.
Anya snatched the file. “Or it could turn him into another Harbinger. We burn it all.”
“You don’t get to decide that,” Damon growled, scales rippling up his neck.
The group tensed. Eli stepped between them. “There’s a storage vault downstairs. Let’s at least look.”
Reluctantly, Anya nodded. “But anything dangerous gets torched.”
The vault door was sealed with a retinal scanner. Damon ripped it open, the metal screeching. Inside, rows of refrigerated vials glowed blue. Gene Suppression Serum – Trial 12
Eli grabbed a vial. “This could save you!”
Damon hesitated. The serum taunted him—a chance to be human again. But the Beast God’s voice slithered into his mind. Weakness. You need my power.
A crash echoed from the hallway. Screams followed.
“Flesh-Tenders!” a survivor shouted.
Damon shoved the vial into his pocket and ran.
The lab’s main chamber was overrun. Flesh-Tenders, their skin sloughing off to reveal writhing tentacles, herded survivors into corners. Anya fought back-to-back with Eli, her machete slick with black sludge.
“Damon!” Eli yelled, dodging a Tender’s strike.
Damon’s claws ignited, red-hot and hungry. He carved through the Tenders, their bodies dissolving into ash. But with each kill, his scales spread, his vision blurring crimson.
More. I need more.
He barely registered Anya’s shouts as he chased a fleeing Tender into a side room. The door locked behind him.
The room was a containment cell. In the center stood a glass tank, cracked and leaking green fluid. Inside floated a creature—a humanoid mass of eyes and teeth, connected to wires. The Beast God’s voice boomed in his skull.
You see? They caged me. They feared me. Now, I am eternal.
Damon stumbled back. “You… you were theirs?”
I was a god long before their petty experiments. They merely opened the door.
The creature’s eyes snapped open. The tank shattered.
Damon fled, the creature’s laughter echoing behind him. He found the others in the vault, barricaded.
“We have to go!” Anya barked.
“The serum”
“Forget it!” She tossed a grenade into the vault. Flames erupted, consuming files and equipment.
The lab shook, ceiling collapsing. The survivors scrambled up the staircase as the walls caved in. Damon glanced back once, the Beast God’s voice a whisper.
You cannot escape what you are.
Outside, the group collapsed on the ashen ground. Eli gripped Damon’s arm. “Did you get it?”
Damon pulled the vial from his pocket, the liquid glowing faintly.
Anya glared. “That thing will get us all killed.”
Damon stared at the serum. Stabilize or surrender.
He slipped it into his pack, unanswered
- Writer
