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The Cafeteria was actually pretty busy, which, given the weather, wasn't all that surprising. The population was mostly guards and little kids with their parents, but there were some of Ryu's higher ranking official's there as well. They were congregating in the back, discussing the supply situation no doubt. The cafeteria was serving pizza and chicken soup MRE"s and quite frankly I was having a hard time deciding which one I wanted. I ended up just grabbing a piece of pizza and finding an empty table near the back of the room, soon finding myself joined by Chy.

"Hey Skyline", she said sitting down, "how did everything go?"

I shrugged, "as well as it could have I guess. I'd like to know what Mike and the others did to attract all those Zombies though. I suspect that whatever it was that was in those tunnels was holding some kind of telepathic control over them, given how strong the field around them is."

Chy looked at me funny, "'bout 7 feet tall? Looks like a human with mandible jaw and Chitin armor growths?"

"I'm going to put money on the idea you know exactly what I'm talking about", I said.

She nodded, "call them Volatiles, one on one, if you get the first hit in, either with a firearm or a blade, then they can't win. They bleed to death very, very quickly, however, if two or more of them catch you off guard, your pretty much done. They like to hunt alone, which makes them easy prey to anyone with a sniper rifle and a basic understanding of camouflage and how Xenomorph telekinesis works, but any amount of sound, hell even breathing, can tip them off. Their so unpredictable it's best to just avoid them."

"I'm starting to see how they got the name", I said.

"The thing is though, I only know of one nest, a couple miles from the lifeguard tower near the shores", Chy began, "the damn thing was cordoned off by Ryu when the outbreak began and the entire thing is one toxic spill, so they gotta be coming up for air somewhere."

"So they do breathe?", I asked.

She nodded, "couldn't you hear it?"

"Yeah I could, but I wasn't sure if it was actually trying to or not", I answered.

"I can't figure out where their coming up for air", Chy said, "If I had that info in hand, I could place a big ass chunk of C4 inside of that shaft, blow it open and let the sun do the rest."

"The sun?", I asked.

"Their skin doesn't like the sunlight", Chy said, "it blisters and falls off at a pretty disturbing pace, I've killed a few of them by holding them till daylight."

I looked outside, the rain was pouring harder than I'd ever seen rain come down, there were periodic flashes of super bright plasma bolts followed by window shaking thunder.

"Is there a possibility that they could wander out in this storm?", I asked.

"Not till the sun goes down", Chy said.

"You sure? Looks really dark to me", I told her.

"Positive", Chy said, "they can't take sunlight at all."

"What can't take sunlight?", Sarah asked walking up behind Chy with a small shoulder bag in her hands.

"When you'd get here?", Chy asked turning around.

"Just now", Sarah said sitting down beside her, "what can't take sunlight Chy?"

"The Volatiles", Chy said.

"Is that what their called?", Sarah asked, "Volatiles?"

Chy nodded, "did you see some?"

"Skyline showed me a picture on his PDA", Sarah said, "I'd like to have a live one to pick apart."

"Killing them is hard enough", Chy said, "you have to have the drop on them or they'll rip you to shreds, problem two is that while they can dish out the punishment, they can't take it. Knocking one out could easily kill it and dragging it back conscious would only serve to say, "hey, here we are, eat us."

"Point taken Chy", Sarah said, "now, skyline, I have a job for you."

"What is it?", I asked.

"I've got Pre Alpha stage cure contenders in a couple of vials in this bag", she said, "loaned to me courtesy of Ryu's Bio weapons men. None of them have been modified against Agent 41 yet, as I want to test their survival rates in non controlled conditions to find which ones are the best and worst. I've done a few tests already with the strain that works in humans as well as Xenomorphs and all of them had about the same survival rate, but I suspect that under non controlled conditions that this will quickly change."

"How do you expect us to infect a bunch of maggot addicts with the cure virus?", Chy asked.

"A high powered dart rifle, meant for deploying neuron toxin from ranges of up to a mile", Sarah said, "Each dart has a small pump that will empty a dose of virus and an RFID chip into the target. I have enough material for ten shots of each of the six viruses, so it's crucial that you hit all Sixty shots, can you use your telekinesis to retrieve the darts from cover if you miss?"

"As long as I have line of sight", I said.

"Good enough for me", Sarah said.

"Where's the hunting grounds?" Chy asked.

"A Gas station near the shores", Sarah said, "about 5 miles north of here. There's a tunnel Ryu said is full of those Volatiles, so tag some of them if you can."

"That's not a good idea Sarah, but I'll see what I can do", I said.

"If your gonna go hunting Volatiles, I'm coming with", Chy said.

"Be my guest", I said.

"Don't mind if I do", Chy grinned.

17 Hours Later

Weather: Super Storm-150MPH Winds-Visibility: 22%

Time: 40:06

Temperature: 94 Fahrenheit.

Mission: Infect test subjects with Pre Alpha Stage Cure Virus

Thunder sounding like gunshots, Lightning and winds that could challenge a Ford Mustang around a road course, yet somehow it still managed to be damn near 100 degrees outside. This is the only time you'd ever see someone in short sleeves, shorts and a plate carrier and short top boots, all at the same time. Chy and I were posted on the roof of the quick stop store at the gas station, using the darkness as cover. We'd camped in the Hotel most of the day and driven out here as soon as sunset began. The rain had stopped and most everything had dried up, but the wind, lightning and thunder were still going strong with no signs of letting up, Chy and I had to talk with telepathic links to avoid having to shout. We'd been watching zombies come and go from a mass of bodies that by my guess was being used as a feeding ground, taking great care to ensure that only the ones with medium to ultra concentration of Agent 41 in their systems were tagged as per Sarah's orders. We were down to one dose of each virus left, when I heard the tell tale foot steps and heavy breathing of Volatiles below us, judging by what I was hearing, there were a few of them.

"Jeez", I thought to myself, "there must be fifteen of them down there."

"Wait to fire till we can get eyes on", Chy returned, "I gotta know how many of them there are."

I peeked over the edge, my Fal in my hands. From what I could see in the flashes of lightning, there were five of them, standing out front, facing the store. Sounds of more foot steps soon revealed they were all around the store.

"Why are they looking at the....", Chy thought to me.

"Their encircling us", I thought, "either they know were up here...or there's something inside they can't get to."

"God I hope it's the latter", Chy sighed as I peered over the edge of the left wall as covertly as I could, spotting two of them. Behind the store, between us and the Ford were Six of them and there were two more on the other side.

"They got us surrounded", I thought as I turned around to face Chy, who I saw had her weapon in the air.

"DUCK!", she shouted.

I dropped straight down as she fired a five round burst into what I assume must have been a Volatile that jumped up behind me. Chy turned to engage more Volatiles that were climbing up to our position as I got on the radio.

"Ryu!", I said, It's skyline! The Volatiles got us trapped on the..."

I was cut off mid sentence as one of them jumped on my back. I managed to throw it off and right myself, but as I reached for my Fal, it jumped back on top of me. I threw my fist into it's neck, throwing it off and giving me time to grab my Fal and get the shots off. As I stood up and shouldered my weapon, I realized it was now incredibly front heavy and wobbling as I tried to shoot down the ghouls on top of Chy.

'Why can't I aim this fucker for shit!?", I growled at myself, "I'm a better shot than this!?"

I just stood there as everything clicked, not seeing how it could be real. I didn't feel anything, there wasn't any pain, somehow. My left arm was now laying several feet away from me, spilling highly concentrated acid onto the roof of the gas station store. The volatile that had wrenched it off had gotten a mouth full of it as well, which ate through it's lower jaw, most of it's neck and some of it's chest. In the time it took me to realize I was still gushing blood from my stumpy elbow where it'd been ripped off, another Volatile jumped on my back, sinking it's teeth into the area just above my right elbow.

"Get the fuck off me!", I hissed as I whipped my head around and snapped at it, my fangs finding it's skull and crushing through it with ease, but the next thing I knew, Chy was in front of me, my Katana in hand, in mid swing. The cold steel of a blade I'd trusted with my life many times over soon found it's way past the Chitin armor on my right arm and cut through the bone and meat with zero effort.

This time I felt it.

My last good appendage fell to the ground with a horrible sloshing sound as the corrosive liquid that was pumped through my veins spilled out of both, the limb and my stub and I was overcome with a wave of pain like none I'd ever felt. My vision began to blur and my hearing was replaced with a distant echo as my condition worsened by the second. I could hear Chy counting as she caught me and kept me from hitting the ground, but I could tell she had a 9mm in her hands.

"...7...10....", she said distantly, "your gonna be okay...Skyline? Sky!?"

Her lifting me to her shoulders was the last thing I remembered before blacking out.