Symbiosis: Chapter 3

Chapter 3: The Lamb

-x-

The Hunter was so very, very close. All he had to do was make it to his nest, and then… and then everything would be okay.

No. It wasn’t going to be okay. He was terrified . At the thought of dying, afraid that he didn’t have enough strength left in him to take what he needed. He pleaded with his failing body to at least give him that. At least let him die with one more rush, food in his stomach and blood on his claws.

From down the passage a couple of the weak ones began looking too closely at him for comfort, becoming partly alert with low noises. By now he could barely muster up the energy to growl threateningly enough to let them know that he’d be a challenge to them. If he stayed out here for too much longer, they if not another one like him would kill him.

He let out a breath of relief when he reached the outside of the place that he’d made into his nest. Once he’d gotten into there and finished the prey that had invaded, he’d be safe from them. He could-

He’d been blocked off from his nest. For a second, the thought actually stunned him. Just to be certain he pressed a hand up against the crawlspace where he’d normally enter (and nearly fell back down, just barely able to support himself like this), only to find that something stiff and hard was indeed covering it up.

Kill. Kill. Kill her -

How cruel could she possibly be after all of this to trap him out of his own nest?! She had to have been purposely trying to infuriate him. It was working. He let the burning in his mind drive him, gathering every ounce of energy left in his body. He was screaming as he shoved his shoulder into the barrier. It shattered into pieces on impact which, unexpectedly, left him slumped halfway into the room. He hardly noticed as the sharp parts cut into his exposed hands as he hauled himself the rest of the way in, tumbling to the floor.

Where was she?! He could smell her all over this place. Ragged strips of coverings were even scattered onto the floor soaked in her blood. Teeth bared, he whipped from side to side in search of her.

Click.

Immediately he was focused on the sound and turned towards it with a sharp growl. There she was, standing in the doorway. Her firestick was pointed directly at his face, but she seemed briefly stunned. He couldn’t have run if he’d wanted to besides. He’d been right; she looked pale, weak. She seemed to have covered her injuries up with something, and even then he could still smell blood faintly oozing through.

He could do this. All he had to do was get on top of her before her firestick could bite him. It was time.

Hate her. Kill her. Kill her now!

His mind reduced to that single thought, a guttural snarl left him. The last remaining will left in his body gathered into his tensed limbs and with that, the Hunter sprang towards his shocked and immobile prey.

-x-

“SON OF A BITCH!”

This is what she got for being an idiot and hesitating on the trigger because it looked like the thing couldn’t jump! Skyler let out a harsh yell as she was knocked to the ground by the Hunter’s weight crashing into her. “No no no no no-!”

The clawing that she expected… didn’t come. What the hell?

The creature was, in fact, totally still on top of her. Holy… holy shit. Had it just died on top of her? Well no. Not quite. She could still feel its chest moving in and out with shallow breaths. More than likely just passed out from its obvious injuries.

Blue and (at least she thought) white sweatshit. Obvious stab wounds to its stomach and side. Yep, this was definitely the same fucking Hunter, because of course it was. They just didn’t give up once they had a murder-on for somebody, did they?

“Persistent little bastard,” she grumbled as she pushed her way back to her feet, staring down hard. Just in case it moved she kept her assault rifle trained on its hooded head. “What, you came back all this way just to finish me? Huh?”

From the looks of it, there wasn’t much way that was happening. Wow. This was actually kind of pathetic. Still vaguely amazed that she’d managed to avoid being shredded again by pure luck, she hesitantly prodded the Hunter with the end of her rifle. Its breath might’ve hitched a little, but it didn’t regain consciousness. Maybe she… maybe she should make sure it wasn’t playing possum or something about to spring at her face. She made a mental note that it definitely wasn’t just out of a morbid curiosity to see what it actually looked like close up. Very slowly and keeping her weapon trained Skyler crouched back down close to its side, investigating as closely as she dared.

This felt bizarre. The things really did look a lot different when they weren’t tearing the shit out of someone. It… fuck. He wasn’t a big boy. Hardly bigger than she was, as it turned out. It had just been hard to tell while he’d been trying to murder her face . Rough estimate, he was maybe eighteen or so. She hadn’t thought of it before, but she was pretty sure that this was a campus town and the odds were good that she was looking at some little freshman here. She did her damndest not to feel maybe some little spark of pity seeing him here now, panting raggedly in what pretty much anyone could tell you was pain and apparently on death’s doorstep.

There seemed to be something still stuck in the pocket of the filthy jeans he was wearing, if she was actually nosy and adventurous enough, but, well. The fact that she was kneeling there practically poking the Leaper with her rifle might’ve answered that question already. Absently her brain drifted to the Crocodile Hunter, may god rest his soul. Keeping her remaining eye glued on him the entire time, she cautiously kept her rifle under one arm, still ready to react at a moment’s notice, until she could slide out whatever it was. Out came a pair of keys, a wallet, a small, worn pamphlet, and what did indeed seem to be a student ID.

“Huh. Well would you look at that. Fascinating.”

Since she might as well go the whole nine yards she leaned back against the wall and perched her rifle in her lap to leaf through what she’d found. The leaflet she recognized as CEDA-issued instructions, and contained directions to the nearest evacuation center from the main campus building and instruction to bring legal documentation. That had to be at least a few months old; she knew for a fact that they weren’t doing much evacuating anymore. As a matter of fact, her base was the one that had gotten the refugees, and there had been three groups of them at the most.

The card identified a “LAMB, ANNA E.”, issued the previous year, with a date of birth on 2/19/1990. Closer inspection revealed that the other side had the name “Adrian” written onto it with a metallic blue sharpie with an honest-to-god smiley face and a blueberry-shaped scratch and sniff sticker next to it. The dark-haired kid in the photo seemed to have been caught in the classic, awkwardly grinning moment of, 'Wait, are you taking it now?’ Skyler frowned slightly, turning her head to the side.

“Adrian,” she absently mused before she stopped herself, immediately going to her feet. This had been a bad idea. It was a lot easier to remain detached from a situation when she didn’t know someone’s name and that they stuck scratch-and-sniff stickers on their belongings.

Shit, she… it’d be a good idea to finish this quick before he woke up. There really wasn’t time to think about these things.

“Whelp. Sorry about this, Adrian. Sucks to be you.”

Skyler cocked her rifle. The Hunter raised his head.

-x-

He… he didn’t understand what had happened. Barely understood where he was . It was all running together, but he vaguely remembered being angry. Finding his nest. Attacking the prey inside. Being alerted by something that sounded somehow dangerous , and…? Blearily he blinked, trying to take in what was going on. Unconsciously he let out a miserable groan. There was something- something in his face-

Firestick.

Panic reflex overtook him, yanking him into alertness. His thought process was delayed a few seconds behind his actions and it only really came to him in flashes. He let out a shriek that was much too close to frightened rather than fearsome. Felt but hardly even saw his claws just barely come into contact with skin. Fell hard onto the floor and scrabbled blindly. Somehow he wound up on his back, until he was stopped short by the explosion of pain through his gut. Unable to do anything else he curled inward, sucking in a sharp breath.

Usually the rush of adrenaline through him was thrilling, invigorating, gave him a kind of pleasure like almost nothing else did. Now it was just nauseating.

What did he do? What did he do? What did he do ?! The urges both to attack and to flee from the danger were overwhelming. He swiped at the air, a phantom copy of the woman prey swimming in his vision. Gave a slurred growl. Backed up towards… Yes! That was what his dizzy, overworked brain latched onto. He had to get into his actual nest. Then he would be safe. Then everything would be okay.

He just had to make it back into his nest. Then everything would be alright.

-x-

After watching the Leaper seemingly launch himself into a panic, give her a fresh cut across the bridge of her nose not much deeper than a cat scratch, and knock a shelf of cheesy plates off of the wall knocking into it, Skyler was pretty perplexed. She would have shot already, but. Shit, well this was something new. She’d seen these things jumping out of immediate danger before, but never once when there was a living, uninfected person so close. It had to be because he was so weakened. He had to be on the defensive.

Did he even know that she was there? The creature only seemed “conscious” in the most technical sense of the word. Testing it, she took a step back towards him, keeping her stance confident and almost aggressive. The sharp jerk and muffled yelp that he responded with seemed to indicate that yeah, yeah he did.

Skyler almost smirked a little. Heh. Now wasn’t that something, having one of them be afraid for once. Or maybe she was still just a little pissy that this one right here hadclawed out her eye .

“Yeah. That’s right,” she grumbled, crossing her arms down at him. “Bet you’re not used to your meal not being scared of you, huh?”

The Hunter panted and edged farther back, towards that back room. Where the hell did he think he was going, anyways? What did he even expect to find back…?

Ah, fuck.

And right then she got it, remembering what was in that back bedroom: That crude blanket nest under the bed frame. It was his. Of every place around she could have chosen to hide in, she'd managed to pick this Hunter's house. No wonder he was pissed off at her. He was probably trying to crawl back there to die or something. Now that was depressing.

“You’re killing me, kid,” she groaned, cringing at the soreness as she wiped away the exhaustion from her eyes and nearly forgot about the mess where the right one was supposed to be. “You are literally killing me.” Fucking feelings . These sucked and weren’t safe at a time like this. She had a suspicion it had something to do with the fact that she was still groggy from all the bleeding she’d been doing besides.

He didn’t seem to be going anywhere too fast, anyways. At that point in his little journey across the carpet he'd managed to back himself into the wall and was in some apparent distress that something was in his way like the world's saddest water bug. His desperation was apparent though or else he would have just given up already,

Just… just serve him his eviction notice already so that she could get some sleep.

Skyler crouched down close to the prone form of the creature. And hesitated . Actually hesitated. The warning flag popped up in her brain of, whatever it is you're thinking, don't . She recognized the look that the kid was giving her, though, despite the fact that he was still growling and snarling. She’d seen it at least once before, on the face of an unfortunate young man she’d fought with who’d been gutted by a Witch; he was waiting for death.

“Is that what it is, Adrian?” she mused, hardly aware at first that she’d used the name and paused with a grimace when she realized she did. She got a mouthful of dirty teeth bared in the general direction of her face in response.

You really don’t have to do this, you know, the back of her mind continued. In fact I’m pretty sure it’s the stupidest idea anyone’s ever had. Ever. A few seconds went by in which she considered this before she snorted through her nose. Well that was perfectly good advice that she was entirely too good at ignoring.

The leaper let out another flimsy growl at her. Skyler shrugged her shoulders and let out a long sigh.

“Whatever, kid. I just hope that your little leaper brain knows that you’re not dead yet by my good graces, and you damn well better be thankful.”

-x-

Why was she doing this why didn’t she just kill him already why wouldn’t she stop why why why why why -

His thoughts being muddled and confused was nothing new, but this endless swirl of screaming rage and hazy questions was even worse. The aching in his head felt like it was going to split his skull open.

Hate it, have to make it stop, how?! Have to kill her. Can’t.

He rioted internally at his own weakness and wanted to at least swipe out, to fight, but the exhaustion wouldn’t allow even that. His body wanted nothing more than to give in to that fuzzy blackness and it was getting harder and harder to deny. N-no. This wasn’t how he’d wanted this to happen, this wasn’t right…

By the time that he felt something grip him hard by his coverings unconsciousness seemed almost too warm and inviting to resist but it startled him partially back into wakefulness. Instinctively every muscle in his body tensed. This had to be the end. Urges welled up deep in him, stirrings of the bloodlust that was always there, mingling with a strange, fluttery combination of panic and some… relief?  Yes, he thought so. This drawn-out torture was going to be over, at least. He’d face this without… without showing this prey he was afraid.

Just when he was starting to accept that he really was going to die defeated, without even getting to feel the tearing of flesh beneath his claws and the weight of food in his belly again, he was yanked backwards. The motion was so unexpected that he couldn’t help but gasp and then, once he had time to realize that he was being dragged , shriek.

No. No no no no! Not more of this! The Hunter threw every ounce of strength left in his body into blind, desperate thrashing to get away. It wasn’t enough. WHY?! Why was she toying with him like this?

Why couldn’t she just let him die already?!

His claws carved gouges into the floor underneath him and he felt fresh blood seeping from his wounds, but every instinct in him boiled down to “resist”. Stars exploded in his vision but his body wouldn’t rest. He didn’t understand what was going on, wasn’t lucid enough to even begin to try to sort it out, so all he could do was fight. Barely, at the edges of his consciousness, he did manage to realize that the woman prey was heading into his nest room and snarled. She didn’t belong in there! This place was his , it was meant for him to be safe, and-! And…!

And as suddenly as it had started, the dragging ceased and he came to a stop. What…? Still caught up in the rush and disoriented from what he’d just been through, it took the Hunter a few seconds to blink his eyes and see where he was, panting and feeling rather short on air. There was…

His nest! The second he saw his worn, familiar pile of soft things the want to crawl into it and retreat struck him again. But wait, the woman prey…

He raised his head to snarl at her, at least trying to force her out. Some angry sort of muttering sound came from her, but to his surprise and confusion she was already backing off. That… that didn’t make any sense. She had him weakened, more or less trapped. There was no reason for her to just leave. His head ached trying to make sense of it, but soon he decided that he was just too hurt and exhausted to do anything about it.

Still wary at her presence lingering close to the entrance he kept his eyes constantly on her but, driven by his deep-seated need to conceal himself, he managed to summon up just enough energy to pull himself inch by painful inch underneath the crawlspace. There his strength ran out and more or less against his will he sagged, sinking deep into the mess of softness saturated in his own scent. Even with the woman prey still in there the effect was soothing, utterly so. His eyelids had already started to feel increasingly heavy when the harsh sound of the entrance slamming made his skin jump. She was gone. From his nest room, at least.

A shaky sigh passed through his nose. He was still uncertain, his body itching with the leftovers of anger and stress. Some kind of thought was irritatingly trying to surface itself through the pounding in his brain and the tired haze.

Woman prey. And then… nest?

It was only half-formed and he didn't have the energy or ability to really pursue it. For the moment at least he felt like he was… safe. For now. Pressing his nose up against the heavily-scented soft things and huddling up around his injured midsection, the Hunter finally allowed himself to drift into a daze that wasn’t quite sleep.

-x-

Skyler’s feet dragged over the carpet that the leaper had just torn a new one like she was wearing lead boots. She didn’t even bother really surveying the damage, this place could get fucked after she was done with it anyways. At this point, she only had eyes for the couch in the middle of the living room-ish area.

She grumbled as she made her trudge over, “Hi. I’m Adrian Lamb, and welcome to MTV Cribs. As you can see, I’ve got this… ugly-ass couch that looks like someone decided to use puke as a fabric swatch. And in the other room, I have this nice, perfectly good bed … that no one can use because something in my leaper brain decided it would be a good idea to just sleep… UNDERNEATH it.”

Again, she reminded herself that she really hadn’t had to do what she’d just done. Christ, what had she just done? She really didn’t even want to think too much about what she’d just shut up in the room next to her, but there wasn’t much avoiding it. Well. She’d already gone and done it and there wasn’t much changing that. Wearily she cast one more glance back at the door, half-expecting it to come flying off its hinges as the pissed infected inside decided to bust out at her. Predictably and fortunately though, nothing happened, which she should have figured. He wasn’t likely to go from not being able to get himself off the ground to that in the span of a couple of minutes.

Once she reached the couch she hit it face-first with a groan. Okay. It was time to think.

On the one hand, staying locked into an apartment with a leaper didn’t sound like a very appealing concept, whether or not he was mostly dead. Besides that she had a brand-new swat across the nose to prove that even that didn’t exactly mean “harmless”. She was marginally less likely to pass out trying to find the safe room now that she’d patched herself up and made herself drink, and she could possibly even find it before morning.

On the other, she was just so done. So entirely, completely done with absolutely everything that the day had thrown at her. There probably wasn’t a word to describe just how tired she was at that point. Even the hell couch felt about fifty times more soft and comfortable than it should.

Skyler hauled herself partway up, contemplating her escape route. Before her gaze could reach the barricaded door though it rested on the long smear of blood over the carpet into the bedroom, punctuated with the signs of the Hunter’s frantic struggle. She’d almost felt bad for the infected, he’d seemed so distressed. And almost… resigned. Like he’d been sure that he was about to face his death. That was probably the worst of it.

This was terrible for her. She couldn’t let learning the kid’s name or whatever turn her into some bleeding-heart type who cried over every zombie she happened to kill, which by then was a considerable damned amount. Still though. She couldn’t help but wonder if he was actually going to last through the night…

“Fuck it,” she finally moaned, stuffing one of the couch pillows under her face. This could… it could wait until morning. That sounded like a much better time for dealing with this. Besides, she was sure that the Hunter would be dead by then anyways. Well… half-sure. Probably. She could not even believe herself.

The complete silence that followed this decision dragged on for quite a while. At the moment her perception of time was pretty screwed. Eventually though, a low whimper rose up from the bedroom, a sort of broken whine. She just grimaced at the sound and blindly groped for the other couch pillow. She then nailed the door with it solidly enough and with a solid whump that the pathetic sound cut off into a startled yelp. She buried her face back under the remaining pillow and shook her head.

“Shut the hell up, Adrian.”