Trapped within the walls of Fina, the
citizens were slaughtering each other to death in savage ways, all across town.
The rabid fever that had possessed the students of Mesta's class had spread
amongst the entire population, not just the students of Fina U. In the shops
and restaurants, patrons and business owners equally succumbed to the virus,
they mauled and savaged each other in cannibalistic insanity, everywhere the sounds of
moaning and screaming accompanied the horrific explosion of guts and
gore. The few most immune to the virus, those who skipped their morning
beverage, could still run but every which way they turned, swarms of rabid savages threatened their lives.
Only
those who knew of the Underworld below the Merchant's Building, had an idea of how
to escape the walled city. A group of Uninvited students from Merchant U,
hurried through the main doors and down the old narrow stairs to the station
below, but to their horror, found themselves trapped by new security gates,
recently installed across the tracks, preventing their escape.
Aside
from violent episodes of vomiting, Karen was still mentally coherent; prey rather than predator. Terrified of the mayhem unfolding around her, she fled the campus and
spotted the group of Merchants hurrying through the front doors of the
Merchants Building. She hurried down the hill and followed them inside, hoping
they knew a way to escape the nightmare consuming the city.
In Lochia, the outbreak was even worse than it was in Fina. In the Meden Institute, the predators were near term fetuses, kicking their mothers with such violence as to erupt from their wombs, aborting themselves, only to be savagely devoured by the mothers themselves.
And
all the hidden jealousies and hate was like nitrous oxide to fuel,
Goddesses in the Ephra Institute were pulling out hair in record breaking
chunks, biting flesh in jawbreaking fury using hairdressing tools as weapons, in
ways that no one could have imagined.
Only those who knew of the Underworld
below the Meden Institute, headed for the stairs. Nurses, Midwives and Counsellors
hurried to the station below, but to their horror, just like the students in
Fina discovered, they were trapped by new security gates, recently installed across
the tracks, preventing their escape. They screamed and hollered down the empty
tunnels, but alas, the only ones who could hear them were the diseased savages
that chased them down there.
Atalon stood on the Villa balcony, watching his prime bloodlines mingle and settle in the glamorous extravagance of the Farewell Celebration he had afforded them below, thoughts resting upon on the young god of the Underworld as he was spotted disciplining some malfunctioning stage hand; proving himself, yet again, to be a good leader. The more he thought about it, the more he realized that Torus had been of greatest assistance in the recent upheavals that had terrorized the city of late. He had turned the whole Culloom Disaster into a smooth operation, he managed the Lab Renovation seamlessly, the last minute gate installation was flawless, in spite of all these added distractions. He would be a valuable player in the New Empire…
Dressed
in their finest gowns and stacked from shoulder to jawbone in jewelry, Medena
and Hedena were eating their breakfast out on the Villa balcony within earshot
of the king.
"I
think we should experiment with some of those Origians again while we're in engineering new race mode" Medena
pitched, loud enough for Atalon to overhear, she could see Atalon’s ears were burning. "If we had raised them like
we do now they would never have malfunctioned. Imagine if we used Origians
for the Crystal Gens?"
"Wow, what a brilliant idea!"
Hedena couldn’t believe her sister could even suggest such a thing. She
gestured to the king, warning, noticing his ears were burning.
"I bet they'd crystallize really well"
Medena ignored her sarcastic innuendo in emphasized ways.
Atalon
clenched his teeth, he didn't like the way his sister kept manipulating her agenda on
him this way, the way she was always trying to find some excuse to breed Origians. It
was irritating beyond a joke now.
"Mighty Medel, you need to stop with the fantasy! Breed more Serpents? Are you out of your mind?" Hedena had had her fill of Serpent bloodlines herself. "You’ve never had to raise them" she reminded. "You only get the best grads, best thanks to me. They’re an accident, an un-salvageable bloodline. Perhaps the Ebar Serpents are suitable but not the ones in Lunie Land, those ones all mentally diseased. Tell her, Atalon!"
"Tell
me what!" Medena snapped, insulted.
Hedena
was adamant. "Every example that you bred with that hideous Serpent
bloodline has been nothing but a headache!"
"We wouldn't even have the Crystal program
if it wasn't for the Serpents!" It was Medena's turn to scold Hedena
now.
"Yes,
but, lest we forget, Origians are mutated
Serpent bloodlines. YOU EVEN TOLD ME
THAT YOURSELF!!!!"
"SHUT UP!!!" Atalon blew. A moment
of silence fell upon the balcony as the fallout from the Origian Serpent
argument perished in Medena’s engineered row. Atalon could see both sides to
the argument. Trying again wasn't a hugely ridiculous notion, they had figured
out the truth about Glow Boy. He was special because he was bred with one
particular branch of the mutated Origian bloodline. And he understood
where Medena was coming from, he could appreciate her desire to try anything,
no matter what.
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