Necrocide

Chapter 49

TWO YEARS BEFORE THE OUTBREAK...

Back in the surveillance room, Simon, Artemis, and the others continued to watch the chaos unfold. Their mouths were gaping open after they had witnessed a powerful test subject use what looked like explosives crafted from his own blood to obliterate an entire squad. The screens that used to display footage from the hallway where it happened were now engulfed in static.

"Who the hell is that?" Simon asked. "And why is he wearing one of our helmets?"

"Forget the helmet," Artemis replied. "What kind of power was that?" She looked over at Hera. "You don't think it was the Ambrosia that caused this, do you?"

Hera didn't respond. She and Helios were too busy watching Hypnos convulse on the floor as if he were having a seizure. His skin was as pale as the white floor he was laying on, and the veins around the bite on his neck appeared dark green. He kept pounding the ground with his fists to distract himself from the pain.

"Are you all right?" Helios asked.

"Do I look like I'm fu—" Hypnos tried to reply, but he collapsed back to the floor with a gasp. As he continued wincing in pain, most of the veins in his body kept popping out. Beads of sweat covered his brow, and he clenched his teeth like a hungry beast as a burning pain rippled throughout his body. Now he knew how the test subjects felt.

"What's the matter with him?" Simon asked.

Artemis gasped in realization. "The bite on his neck!"

She ran over to Hypnos and knelt down beside him. "My apologies," she said before quickly yanking the gauze off his neck. A crude, dark red bite mark was hidden underneath, the skin mangled yet the wound itself scabbed over. The veins around the wound were dark compared to his pale-green skin, and the closer Artemis got closer to the bite, the more aggressive he became. She also couldn't help but notice his eyes were constantly changing colors, rapidly transitioning between his normal brown eyes and irises so white they were practically nonexistent.

"What can we do for you, sir?" Artemis asked.

Hypnos convulsed a little while longer and violently choked until he finally went silent. His breaths grew quieter and shorter, and his eyes remained a milky white color. Yet he still attempted to speak. "I'll be...fine," he croaked in a raspy voice, pausing in between to exhale. "Once I...get...my hands...on your fff..."

"Her what?" Hera asked. She reached over the table for a gun.

"FLESH!" Hypnos lunged from the floor, mindlessly flailing his arms in all directions in a failed attempt to hit something. He hissed like a snake preparing to strike, and his skin was now almost yellowish in appearance. The lack of color in his eyes signaled his descent into madness.

"What the bloody hell?" Simon asked.

Hypnos charged into the group of scientists, screeching and clawing at them. Simon and Helios tried to throw him back by blocking him with a chair, thrusting at him legs-first like a lion tamer in a circus. However, Hypnos fought back and started ripping apart the chair's cushion with his nails.

"FLESH! FLESH!" Hypnos continued shrieking in a raspy voice. "GIVE ME IT! I'LL RIP YOU APART!"

"Hera!" Simon called out, slamming the chair into Hypnos's head. "Shoot him!"

Hera cocked the gun and raised it toward the ravenous Hypnos. "Head or heart?"

"Whatever makes him stop trying to kill us!"

"Shoot him in the bollocks if you need to!" Helios chimed in.

Hera fired twice, first at Hypnos's heart and then his left eye. He crashed to the floor. A dark red blot grew in size around his heart, and his eye dangled out of his socket by the optic nerve.