Compassion

Rob travelled through the Mess Hall, doing his best to not let the sights around him affect his mind.

Sanguis had strung up all its victims with cord to the ceiling, to create a grotesque spectacle of death.  Body parts were nailed to the walls and the mangled corpses dangling above dripped blood onto the already thick pool covering most of the floor.

***

The metal feet of Sanguis clicked on the ground as it steadily walked onwards.

Heartbeat detected
Locating source…

Sanguis gradually came to a stop outside the door to the maintenance office.  He knocked…twice.  No one answered.

The door was ripped away by four metal claws and tossed aside before Sanguis eased its way through.  It scanned the room, locking on Simon the dog dozing in the corner.  Simon’s eyes drifted open, glanced at Sanguis and he then went back to sleep.

Source located
Mission Objective: DELETE ALL HUMANS
Invalid target

Sanguis turned round and left.

***

Grant was running down a corridor while dragging Linda by the wrist.

What about Mariella?” she said.

“Rob’s gone to get her.”  They passed by a couple of slain janitors and Grant came to a momentary halt.

“What?” Linda said.  “What is it?”

“We can use this,” Grant said, picking up a communicator from one of their belts.

The pair approached a doorway with the sign, GARDEN, printed above it.

“We’ll have to go through here,” Grant said.

Linda and Grant made their way through the garden.  What once seemed to be a slice of paradise away from home was now, with the lights deactivated, a grim forest of death.  Butchered gardeners lay scattered about the path they had to traverse and the multitude of plants now cast shadows in the shapes of monsters.

Passing by the bodies, they heard one groan.  They looked to the ground where a man lay with a gash along his belly and his intestines exposed.

“That’s one’s still alive,” Linda said before rushing over to examine his wounded gut.

“It hurts…” William the gardener moaned.

“That’s a nasty wound,” Grant said.  “We’ve gotta get him to sickbay.”

“Can’t we just take him to the escape pods with us?” Linda said.

“I don’t think he’ll make it,” Grant said.  “We need to stabilise him first.  Come on, help me with him.”

Grant and Linda supported William to his feet and began to help him along as he did his best to keep his insides where they belonged…inside.

***

Mariella crawled into the cargo bay through a narrow vent and wandered forwards, looking around for anything interesting.

A large shadow swooped behind her and she turned rapidly, looking confused, as she saw nothing.  Sanguis slithered down from above and landed silently behind her.

Mariella turned back to see Sanguis looming over her.  She crawled backwards in fright and was soon cornered against a wall as she ran out of escaping space.  She was looking up at it with a mixture of fear and awe as it leant closer.

Now almost face to face with Sanguis, Mariella could see cameras moving behind the green orbs of its eyes.

As Sanguis’ tentacles emerged from its back, Mariella called out, “Daddy!” just before one of Sanguis’ tentacles penetrated her skull as it was shoved through her eyes.

Sanguis removed his blade and stood up to full height, with the small corpse still being displayed in his vision accompanied by the phrase: DELETE ALL HUMANS