He tugs me into the cell beyond and I fall on my back.
I feel the pull on my arm and realize Davis got the cell open. I can hear it lumbering toward me, its metal fingers rending the walls, but I know I am dead. It rears up like a bear and roars, shattering the lights and casting us into darkness. It is watching me with vague eyes, a sense of recognition, ancestral memory. The beast squats down, shovelling a heap of gore into its mouth. I know I will die so I just watch with curious acceptance. But I've never seen this beast so close, without the shield, without restraints. I have crafted then rejected countless like it. I have given it pain and measured its response. I have cut its shell and eviscerated its brothers. A gate opens inside me and recognition floods in. The beast surges forward and the security men become crimson mist and gore. Its skin changes, flowing like mercury when I'm blinded by the sudden muzzle-flashes. The hulking mass, flickering red, glinting like steel and fresh blood. I turn away from Davis down the hall and I see it.
I can't hear him, the sirens, anything, only the muffled throb of terror in my head. I don't recognize this place.ĭavis and I slam pinned against a cell door and he shouts at me. The fear gives me a strange perspective - I'm out of my body. Davis is running ahead of me, dropping his notes. Red lights flashing on stark, white walls.
