Chapter Text
“I’m heading to Mr Freak enclosure, “A walkie-talkie in hollow of his hand crackled static noise. Blue hue was all over him in a control room, like a cold blanket except for burning his green eyes out. “Grace said that she heard some noises and she’s thinking teens broke in again.”
“Agh,” He lets out a grunt, twitching at the sound. “Alrighty then, keep me updated.”
“Bern, Andrew?” Grace’s voice filtered through the speaker, strangled and scared. Andrew’s temples were wet with sweat as he traced their dots across the digital map. “Anyone still in the control room?” Her pitch climbed, raw with distress.
He pressed the button, ready to give the answer as fast as he possible can:
“Ah- I’m here, Bernard just left.”
It didn’t help that he’d been eating at his station. The sandwich had left his fingers greasy, smearing the paper files and making the mouse slip under his touch.
“Thank god…” The relief in her voice choke up his present. “It’s just… I can’t see The Big Guy in the tank…”
Silence swelled between them.
“It’s not like he’s gonna grow legs, right?” He muttered to himself.
“I don’t want to sound paranoid, but…”
“No, yeah, if It somehow crawled out I’m outta here!”
“I’m on it.”
He turned back to the monitor. The screen was black, dotted with white blips—his colleagues, scattered across the facility. He searched for the Red dot. The subject. Grant’s project. A genetic nightmare stitched together from Dunkleosteus, killer whale, tuna. And human DNA. They called it Caine.
Where could it possibly has gone?
On interface Caine’s location was failed to be in his enclosure. His status was alive.
/locate.Caine
Locating Caine…
Locating Caine : TANK.A sector f
Status : Alive
“Oh,” he breathed, already reaching for the button to tell Grace where to look—then stopped. The colour drained from his face. “It… It’s not supposed to be here…”
Woman on the other end made a squeak sound.
“We’re so getting fired.” He grimaced to himself, feeling somehow tired and scared even more.
The Red dot was in the main tank.
“Grace,” he started, looking at the walkie-talkie as if it was she, with sourful gaze. “Think I found the reason you heard the noise and you are NOT gonna like it...”
Bernard was the first to answer, and it was a frighten shout:
“C’mon, to the point instead this vague shit!” He was running—Andrew could hear it in the laboured breaths. “I’d like to know if to expect a teen or a mutated freak MONSTER behind the corner!”
“Calm your tits Bernard;” He growled to the plastic, “He’s in the other tank!”
“The OTHER TANK?! How the FUCK is he in the other tank?” Grace now was spiralling too.
Maybe It tore the tunnel doors open, he thought to himself.
Now… Where is his brother?
He typed the same command with seek location to Abel now.
He felt his heart in his mouth. Stood up and ran out the room to the others.
INPUT
/Locate Abel
Locating Abel: TANK.A sector f
Status: unknown
The Blue dot was in Red.
“Andrew?..”
“We lost the other-“
“Bern! Call Grant IMMEDIATELY!” He shout turning to the other corridor.
“What? Why?”
“What’s happening?” Grace was the one he saw first. Her figure strained, wide-eyed in the hall.
If he turned his head to the further window, he would see it: the water turned pink.
“He’s… He’s gone, Grace.”
“Who? You don’t tell me Caine ran away-“
“The other one…”
Bernard screamed from somewhere behind them—not far, but far enough.
Two shadows writhed in the red water. One of them didn’t look like a mutant fish. It was smaller than before, but Abel had always been compact. They both froze, too afraid to step closer.
Andrew moved forward anyway. He pressed his greasy fingers against the thick glass, straining to see past the haze.
He understood what had happened. But the horror of it was undercut by a sick, distant amusement.
Red water. Thick ribbons of crimson and pink. Scraps of meat, torn viscera, drifting toward him like macabre confetti.
Caine has eaten his blood brother. The latest experiment. The second project of Grant and Scratch.
There was nothing left to see but shadows in the murky swirl. The water churned, struggling against the power of the larger beast—a power so immense it was difficult to imagine how the first attack had even begun.
However, Bernard was shaking violently, now sitting on the floor and sobbing. Sickening sounds. He chocked swear.
Puddle pooled under him, and Andrew turned away.