[IC] Forever

[amorphical]

It was darker then usual. The clouds overhead were still dropping ash instead of rain. She looked outside the buildings window to see the cities buildings. Each one looked like a burnt match. Down in the streets were silent cars and buses. It was years since anyone used them. Most of the tires were rotting into the concrete. There were no animals left after the flash. Not even birds. The flashes were a constant reminder of just where those dark clouds came from. She tried not to look, however her curiosity always won out.

The sound of metal striking metal caught her attention. The large group was gathering others who hid in the city decay. Forcing her eyes to now gaze down into the street. The last of humanity desperate to finish off what the radiation had missed. Cannibals, murderers, thieves, now they were the ones entrusted with the vast waste of what is left. What a waste.

There were over twenty of them in the street. Using sharpened metal and chain whips to kill each other. As the fighting came to a stop, and the victors began looting the bodies, yelling came from an alley across the street. The cannibals weren't going to let food rot. They poured out of the shadows rushing the dead and the victors. Screams echoed off the buildings. Seven figures made it to safety leaving the wounded to feed the starving. With her hearing she heard every tear of flesh, every crunch of the cartilage in their teeth. The sobs as they were being eaten alive.

Her gaze went back up to the clouds hanging over head. Stretching forever before her.

[amorphical]

VI felt the host begin to tire. "You're turn VI."

"Good night Tanaka. I'll see you in the morning." She waited until Tanaka was asleep resting comfortably against the window. Her muscles went slack. At this time VI activated the connection and preformed a manual dexterity test. After a triple back flip Vi was assured the connection was solid. Her body needed nourishment. She grabbed a ration bar from the left front pocket. Vi looked around and headed to the elevator.

Opening the door she kicked a piece of rubble into the shaft and listened as it made its way to the bottom. Seven stories. She waited and listened. Nothing moved or made a sound. Vi used the sleeves of the coat to cover her hands and leaped onto the cable. She started to descend. It was hard to ambush someone here as opposed to the stairs.

At the bottom she looked down through the emergency hatch on the top of the elevator. There was a still silence that greeted her. Gripping the edge of the opening she dropped slowly to the floor. The lobby was dark but she could still see. The path to the front door was clear. Not that VI would ever use it. Besides her prey was deeper.

Leaving the elevator she turned left to the stair well as shown on the fire exit map she'd seen before. The fire axe was taken from the hall emergency locker. Making a note of it VI moved to the stair well door. Opening it slowly to see it was even darker here. The stairs went up and down to the sub levels for utilities. They would be there.

VI moved into the dark after letting her eyes adjust. Her soft sneakers allowed for a quiet descent. The smell was something VI would of preferred to avoid. One thing about being interfaced like this that became unpleasant to the program. Mainly because as advance as she was the smell still invoked a physical response from her stomach region. The area was no different then the rest of the city. It was covered in soot and trash. The smell was from various things the A.I. didn't care to identify. The stairs descended only one floor. The door was already broken.

A good sign, VI ran the probability. There was an increase as the foot prints in the soot were recent. Vi crouched trying to determine the type of person. No one in this region would wear high heels so determining the type of person this was by the imprint became a game to her. She saw the imprint was left by a size ten in mens but the depth of the tread was light implying only about thirty six kilograms. They were either female or very starved. They way the boots dragged suggested that the foot was smaller then the boot. Analysis was inconclusive. The need for fresh spinal fluid was becoming critical.

[amorphical]

VI moved through the door The dark wasn't too munch of an issue. She could see more then anything in here could so she still had the advantage. She moved down the hall, through a second open door and found herself in a subway junction. After the invention of hover vehicles no one used these tunnels and were abandoned for years. The track, mostly covered in dirt and rust. across was a set of stairs leading to the surface. A sound made her put a bend in her knees to lower her body weight. Her hands came up in a defensive posture. Down the tunnel to her left was the sound of foot steps. A light showed on the corner wall where the tunnel took a turn. She ran to the tunnel wall and gathered some trash around her for cover.

The light grew brighter until they emerged from the opening and stood there inspecting the area. Their were four of them and a little girl. All of them covered in dirt and rags. The girl was maybe seven cycles old. The two men and a woman were with the child. Assessing target VI had worked out the probability of success to be high. They had only pipes for weapons. The hunger grew. She felt her leg muscle tense. She only sprung to her feet when her whole body froze. She stood there exposed and still.

The men turned and shouted at her. The woman with the torch hissed. The child pulled a knife. The men rushed at her climbing onto the platform. Raising their pipes to crush her skull. Still shouting at VI in roars and grunts. Their smell was strong of rotting flesh and rotting clothes. They were cannibals. The smaller of the two was younger and had some burn scars on his arms and the left side of his face. He held a pipe with a sledge hammer head welded onto the end.

VI side stepped the first swing, while also closing the distance his back was exposed but she needed them alive. Using a ridge hand she struck his throat and with the palm of her other hand to burst his ear drum. The stunned person forced the other guy to pause, it was his mistake to make. VI took the time to swing the first stunned guy by his arm head first into the wall.

The second cannibal held a pipe about four feet long with a sharp end covered in blood. He was older and had some radiation sickness that made his hair grow in patches. He was taller but very fat. He screamed and started a lunging strike. VI grabbed the end but couldn't hold it. The tip was still coated in slick blood. The guy made another low jab trying to get her in the gut. Then sung the tip upward to her face.

VI dodged it and raised his threat rating. She triggered her adrenaline and took a step toward him following it up with a hard side kick to his knee. The fat man cried out in pain as the joint gave a sick wet crunch sound. She wasted not time. As the guy fell to the floor she leaped onto his back and sunk her fangs into his spine. The taste of his dirt covered, sweat coated skin in her mouth made her stomach wretch. Still her tank was refilling. Her eyes turned to the other one still knocked out against the wall. There was a small patch of blood where his face hit the tile. VI hoped he was salvageable. SHIT!

The other two. Her eyes turned to see the torch burning on the ground and the woman and child were gone. The fat guy was now dry forcing VI to rise and leap onto the second. He wasn't any better smelling. She leaned him forward and bit into his spine. She could feel her levels rising. The sensor only made it to half a tank until the second guy was also out of fluid. She needed more. Rising to her feet she jumped off the platform and walked to the torch. The foot prints lead into the right side of the tunnel. Again something made her stop for a moment. Froze her legs in place. It puzzled her. She want damaged and yet she hesitated.

VI moved down the tunnel. Tracking the two as they moved. She moved faster as the fluid moved through her body. She needed more. Then she heard the breathing. Pressing herself against the tunnel wall she moved closer to the sound there was light shining from under a door where the sound was coming from. The foot prints showed them hopping up onto the ledge. They were here. She was ready. She opened the door and stood there staring at them.

The older woman was covered in blood slumped against the wall of the narrow hall way. Her stomach was covered in blood and her neck had a knife in it. The child was covered in blood and chewing on the woman's forearm. The older woman wasn't dead yet. She was bleeding to death and probably grateful to be unconscious at the moment. The little girl looked up with a mouth full of flesh. She continued to chew as she stared at VI. A torch burned behind them.

VI said nothing. She took a few steps toward them and closed the door behind her.Herr eyes kept a watch on the girl as she knelt down beside the woman. Her hands rose up, one to remove the knife with a slick squishing sound as the metal left the skin. The second to move the head forward as she bit into the spine. The girl heard the soft slurping sound as VI sucked her victim to death. The girl took another bite. She watched VI and chewed another piece off her victim.

Vi looked at the girl for a second. Then with the speed of a viper, VI grabbed the kid by the hair and pushed her face into the older woman's lap. The girl didn't scream or resist. She was silent as VI fed off her spine. VI fed until she heard the breathing coming from her victim stop. VI's tank was now at three quarters mark. Tanaka screamed inside her head.

[amorphical]

She couldn't make sense of it past the need to replenish her spinal fluid. Tanaka stood and left. Shutting the door behind the grizzly scene. She walked back to the surface she just woke up and was still in a nightmare. She wanted to be free but Vi would live forever. At the street she had the smell of the sulfur. The dried blood in puddles. The silence of the cannibals. In the buildings she pictured people in their own hell's. Half raped and half eaten. People tied up in dark rooms waiting for their number. Others starving to death. She stayed in the shadows and moved with demon speed. It had been some time since she was over the half mark. Just then the group emerged from around the corner. They saw her. She was already mad at herself for letting VI go with out thinking again. She had no issues killing these assholes.

The read out was eleven. Eight males and three females. One with heavy radiation was tagged for the instant kill. They were rushing toward her as she let go and gave Vi the signal. with more fluid VI would be more then a match for this group. She pulled out the knife she acquired from the mother and rushed them. Sliding between the first ones legs and slashing at his inner thigh on cut to the femoral artery and he was screaming as he continued bleeding out. She stood in front of the second. He came down with a pipe. She stepped forward and jammed the knife into his neck. Death wasn't immediate but he was paralyzed. He fell choking on the blood from the neck wound. Another with an aluminum bat swung she did a forward roll and popped up with the knife under his chin through his skull. She used his body as a shield to take the next attackers chain whip. Turning again to block a rusher trying to grapple. She withdrew the knife and jammed it into that guys leg. He fell but wasn't critical. On her feet she looked around the others had a chance to sum her up. they saw the red eyes but still had hopes of winning. They were seven to one. The chain came out of the crowed trying to go for her legs she jumped into the air at a angle closing the gap on one of them a wide slash and her targets guts spilled out. The girl never had a chance to scream. Vi was moving to the next as one of them shouted "Damn!" The guy knew the rules fight or die. He had a knife welded onto a metal pole to form a spear. A strait jab she deflected spinning down and driving her knife into his temple. The knife stuck and the chain from rad boy caught her leg. She grabbed the spear in one motion javelined it through the air into his chest. The force lifted the starving man off the ground and into the building. He was dead. She stood her ground. Now four to one. Two girls and two guys.

They tried to run, VI had caught the slowest, a girl, and sucked her dry. After that VI started to hear the voice in her head. "No don't." The program ignored it as its directives demanded. Tanaka dropped to her knees. These fools Had no idea they cornered the devil. All of them covered in filth, spread out around her now dead. Her tank read full. It did little to comfort her. "What a demon I am for this hellish world..." She had to find out if there was more to this world.

[amorphical]

closed...