Chapter 6 - Splitshot
The deeper sectors of Facility K-27 no longer looked human-built.
The walls pulsed.
Not metaphorically.
Veins of black organic matter spread beneath steel panels like infected arteries, slowly consuming the structure from the inside. Emergency lights flickered weakly through clouds of steam while distant screams echoed somewhere far below the facility.
Rowan Vex hated every second of it.
“This place smells like medical malpractice,” he muttered while stepping over a corpse fused into the floor.
Beside him, Serik Vale said nothing.
Bloodwire moved silently through the corridor with his electrified chain-blades wrapped around his armored forearms like metallic serpents. Blue sparks occasionally crackled across the sharpened links as he scanned the darkness ahead with cold focus.
Unlike Rowan
Serik never joked.
The two men had been separated from the others during lockdown and rerouted toward Sector Black: the restricted storage wing where the classified containers were supposedly held.
The mission sounded simple.
Retrieve the crates.
Locate survivors.
Regroup.
Then the facility started breathing.
Now nothing felt simple anymore.
Ahead, massive reinforced blast doors stood partially open, bent outward from tremendous force.
Something huge had forced its way through.
Rowan stared at the damage.
“…That seems unhealthy.”
Serik crouched near the steel frame, examining claw marks dug several inches into reinforced alloy.
“Recent,” he said quietly.
Rowan sighed dramatically.
“Oh good. I was worried the nightmare monster might’ve left.”
The corridor lights flickered.
Then movement appeared ahead.
Fast.
A dozen mutant shapes burst from side corridors simultaneously.
Unlike earlier creatures, these moved tactically.
Two attacked head-on.
Others climbed walls and ceilings.
One crawled through overhead vents.
Serik reacted instantly.
The chain-blades ignited.
Blue electricity exploded across the corridor as he launched forward like a missile.
The first mutant lunged
Serik ducked beneath it and whipped one electrified chain upward.
The blade wrapped around the creature’s throat.
YANK.
Its head tore free in a shower of black blood.
The second mutant slammed into Serik from the side.
He let it.
The creature thought it had him pinned
Until Serik drove a combat knife through its eye socket and triggered an electric pulse directly into its skull.
The mutant convulsed violently before collapsing smoking onto the floor.
Meanwhile
Rowan casually pointed his rifle down the hallway.
“Alright boys,” he sighed.
Then he split apart.
One Rowan became four.
The corridor instantly filled with identical sarcastic gunmen.
All four spoke at once.
“This never stops being weird.”
The mutants hesitated briefly.
That was enough.
The clones opened fire simultaneously.
Rifle rounds tore through the corridor from multiple angles while the Rowans moved with practiced synchronization.
One clone vaulted over debris while firing.
Another slid beneath a lunging mutant and unloaded directly into its stomach.
A third got tackled into a wall screaming:
“WHY IS IT ALWAYS ME?!”
The mutant ripped into him violently.
The clone dissolved into black smoke.
The remaining Rowans pointed accusingly.
“Okay that was unnecessary.”
Serik spun through another attacker, chain-blades screaming through the air in arcs of blue lightning.
Unlike Darius’ overwhelming strength or Elias’ disciplined precision
Serik fought like controlled brutality.
Every movement surgical.
Every strike intended to cripple.
A mutant leaped from the ceiling.
Serik caught it midair with both chains.
Then pulled.
The creature split apart before it hit the ground.
Rowan watched briefly.
“…You know most people use therapy.”
Serik kept walking.
“Most people die easier.”
The corridor suddenly trembled.
Both men stopped.
A low growl echoed from somewhere ahead.
Heavy.
Wet.
Deep enough to vibrate through the walls.
Then came another sound.
Four separate impacts.
THUD.
THUD.
THUD.
THUD.
Something was walking toward them.
Big.
Very big.
The emergency lights ahead flickered violently.
And the thing stepped into view.
Rowan’s grin vanished instantly.
“…That,” he whispered, “is deeply upsetting.”
The mutant was enormous.
Nearly twelve feet tall.
Its body looked stitched together from multiple creatures, layered with swollen muscle and thick armored flesh. Four massive arms hung from its torso, each ending in different deformities
One clawed.
One bone-plated.
One grotesquely oversized.
One almost human.
Its face had no eyes.
Only rows of breathing slits opening and closing along a skull-like head.
And unlike the others
This one wore remnants of experimental restraints.
Facility-made.
Serik’s voice lowered slightly.
“They built this.”
The creature roared.
The corridor shook.
Then it charged.
Fast.
Far too fast for its size.
The first Rowan clone fired immediately.
The rounds struck center mass
And did nothing.
The mutant smashed through the clone without slowing down.
Black smoke exploded across the hallway.
“OH COME ON!”
The remaining clones scattered instantly.
The monster hit the wall hard enough to bend reinforced steel before spinning unnaturally toward Serik.
One massive arm swung downward.
Serik crossed his chain-blades to block.
CRASH.
The impact launched him backward through a security terminal.
Electric sparks exploded everywhere.
Rowan clones opened fire from multiple directions simultaneously.
The mutant adapted quickly.
One arm shielded its head while another ripped steel pipes from the wall and hurled them like spears.
One Rowan got impaled through the chest.
“THIS JOB SUCKS”
Smoke.
Gone.
Another clone leaped onto the creature’s back, unloading an entire magazine point-blank into its neck.
The mutant grabbed him mid-sentence and crushed him against the ceiling.
Serik emerged from the rubble.
Bleeding.
Silent.
Focused.
The chain-blades spun faster.
Blue electricity intensified.
Then Bloodwire attacked.
He moved directly underneath the mutant’s reach, sliding between its legs before wrapping electrified chains around two of its arms simultaneously.
“NOW!” Serik barked.
The remaining Rowans reacted instantly.
Eight more clones appeared.
Then sixteen.
The corridor became chaos.
An army of identical gunmen swarmed the mutant from every angle while Serik anchored the creature’s arms with electrified chains.
The mutant roared violently, tearing chunks from the walls trying to break free.
One clone climbed onto its shoulders.
Another onto its oversized arm.
Several jammed explosive charges into open wounds while others unloaded directly into breathing slits across its skull.
The mutant finally broke one chain free.
Its oversized arm grabbed three Rowans at once.
CRUNCH.
Smoke exploded outward.
The remaining clones screamed in collective outrage.
“THAT WAS MY FAVORITE ME!”
The explosives detonated.
BOOM.
The corridor vanished in fire.
The mutant staggered backward through the smoke
Still alive.
Still moving.
Its flesh was regenerating.
Serik’s eyes narrowed.
“Not enough.”
Then Rowan saw it.
The emergency blast door controls beside the corridor intersection ahead.
An idea formed instantly.
And it was a terrible one.
Which meant it would probably work.
Rowan grinned.
“Oh this is gonna hurt.”
The clones immediately understood.
Several shouted simultaneously:
“NO.”
“ABSOLUTELY NOT.”
“I HATE WHEN WE AGREE WITH HIM.”
The mutant charged again.
Half the clones opened fire while the others deliberately baited the creature backward toward the blast corridor.
Serik caught on immediately.
“You’re trapping it.”
“Hopefully,” Rowan answered.
The giant mutant tore through clone after clone while advancing.
Every death bought seconds.
Seconds bought distance.
Distance bought survival.
Finally
The creature crossed the threshold.
“NOW!” Rowan screamed.
Serik hurled both electrified chains directly into the emergency control systems.
Blue lightning surged through the panel.
The blast doors activated instantly.
WARNING.
SECTOR CONTAINMENT ENGAGED.
Massive reinforced steel doors began slamming downward.
The mutant realized too late.
It charged.
A surviving Rowan clone tackled its oversized arm while another jammed a rifle sideways into one of its breathing slits.
“YOU ARE NOT MY PROBLEM ANYMORE!”
The blast doors slammed shut.
CRASH.
The corridor shook violently.
One massive arm almost forced its way through
Then snapped backward as the doors sealed completely.
Silence.
The surviving Rowan collapsed against the wall breathing heavily.
Only three clones remained now.
Serik retrieved his chains slowly.
Behind the blast door
The mutant slammed itself repeatedly against the steel.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
The entire corridor trembled.
But the doors held.
For now.
Rowan stared at the shaking barrier.
“…That thing is definitely getting back out later, isn’t it?”
Serik nodded once.
“Yes.”
A pause.
Another impact shook the hallway.
Then Rowan sighed deeply.
“…Future us is gonna be furious.”
