Renascentia - Savior 3D Render, Digital Artwork by RedSpartan

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Renascentia - Savior

3D Render by RedSpartan

She fled, headlong and heart pounding with fear and exertion, not looking back but concentrating on traversing what obstacles that might lie in her way. The creature screamed again, from the heat of the steam, frustration or just pure bloody rage she couldn’t tell. She didn't dare look back to find out.

The tunnel went on, flitting in and out of the dark and light where the overhead illumination had failed. Filthy water still covered the floor and she cursed it as it slowed her pace, hiding unseen obstacles beneath its grime covered surface. She rounded corners and sweeping bends, no end in sight, aware that the monster was still behind her. From its guttural noises and the splashes of its feet as it moved she judged that she was at least gaining some distance on the thing, but with the corridor seemingly going on eternally she had no place to hide or escape to. What she would give to see daylight, a sky overhead and open spaces to run to.

Eventually she had to stop to catch her breath. The regen tank had left her healthy and relatively fit, but muscles not used over such a long time were becoming fatigued quicker than she would have hoped, especially with the added impedance of the water at her feet. She chanced a glance back the way she’d come, getting some small measure of comfort from not being able to see the creature yet, but aware that it still pursued her. As if to remind her of her terror it screamed again, closer than she’d initially judged. She took a long gulp of air and recommenced her flight.

Suddenly ahead of her were a flight of steps leading up to a well lit open doorway. The sign above it read ‘Control 3’, but she didn’t stop to investigate further, instead leaping onto the first step and charging upwards and into the room beyond.

It did in fact appear to be some sort of control room, but for what wasn’t immediately obvious. Consoles and panels still glowed with whatever information had last been accessed. A large window wall lay directly ahead of her, another much bigger chamber, dimly lit, beyond. But it wasn’t these that immediately caught her attention. No, that was the bodies and the blood that littered the room. Such was the shock of seeing such gore strewn about the place that, as she tried to stop herself she slipped on something wet, lost her footing and went headlong, crashing into a bank of monitors that lined the window wall. Pain tore through her right shoulder as she came to a sudden stop, breathless and gasping. She looked about frantically, noting corpses and dismembered body parts of long dead, desiccated technicians lying were something monstrous had slain them, something she was sure was now climbing the steps that had led her into this chamber of slaughter.

Its head appeared, slowly, its mismatched legs attempting to navigate the stairs, turning this way and that as if searching, sniffing, though with what she didn’t know as no such nasal cavity appeared to exist beyond that awful maw. She stared, transfixed in her terror, her brain momentarily frozen with fear and unable to compute her next move. Then the creature was at the top, filling the doorway in all its bloated, hideous glory. The head of teeth was directed at her and it remained still, fixing her somehow with its eyeless gaze. And then it charged, tumbling towards her with its odd disjointed gait, mouth open in a roar.

She tried to get to her feet, forgetting her injured shoulder for a moment, which gave way with an electrifying jolt of pain leaving her scrambling on the floor in desperation. She realised the creature was covering the distance far to quickly for her to escape. She found herself cursing.

‘Fuck you!’ she screamed raising the useless pistol as best she could with her injured arm, at the same time thinking ironically ‘This is going to hurt’. As the monster reared up on two of its mishappen legs before her she slunk back against the counter behind her in resignation and closed her eyes. She thought of Tali and fired her last remaining round.

Except she never heard it go off as there came a sudden crescendo of gunfire at the exactly the same time. She opened her eyes and stared in stunned amazement. A woman? A Girl? It was difficult to tell as she appeared to be only partly human in appearance, much of her body being replaced by what seemed to be metal and plastic components. She was crossing the room from Mya’s left, from what she saw was a dimly lit entrance at the far end of the room. In the girl’s hands was a large, fully automatic combat rifle, held firmly at her shoulder and spewing at a rapid and cacophonous rate a deadly barrage of ammunition at the creature. The girl moved steadily and with practiced ease towards the monster, driving it back with a relentless stream of fire from the gun. Great gouts of flesh and gore ripped from the things body and it backed away in obvious pain. The huge bloated belly tore open, not from injury but out of some monstrous design which for the life of her she couldn’t ascertain. As a defence mechanism it seemed pretty ineffectual, opening up its insides to allow the bullets easier penetration. It was almost as if it wanted to be killed at the same time it sort escape.

The rifle suddenly stopped, the magazine empty, and with expert and practiced hands the girl ejected it and swiftly pulled another from a pouch at her thigh, rammed it home and continued firing. The monster barely had time to do anything but continue its backwards scramble, the girls re-arming was so fast. Mya couldn’t help but admire her dexterity. She’s witnessed seasoned soldiers on the battlefield move slower than that, and now that she could see the girl closer she realised that she probably wasn’t beyond her teens.

The creature, now missing great swathes of it bulk due to what Mya perceived must be armour piercing rounds, had reached the top of the steps. With one last scream of pain and rage it tumbled backwards, obviously off balance, and disappeared from whence it had earlier come.

The firing stopped and the girl turned to her, her face a mask of determined fury, eyes ablaze with an uncontrollable inner madness. Mya was transfixed, grateful to be still alive and also fearful of this new, unexpected turn at the same time. The girl took a breath.

‘Move!’ she hissed, and began running towards the doorway from where she had miraculously appeared...

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Part 8 and my two main protagonists finally meet.

I'd like to say a big thank you to all those that have favourited my stuff, it really means a lot that people seem to like where I'm going with these.