"Explain yourself!"
Vanderznak stomped his foot like a petulant child but the scalpel in his hand trembled with lethal intent.
Beltrom cowered by the door. He clutched his healed shoulder and refused to meet the madman's gaze.
Beltrom stammered, "The… the batch of children in Storage Area B1800. They are all dead, my Lord."
Vanderznak froze. The manic energy seemed to drain from him, replaced by a cold, deadly vacuum.
"How is that possible? Do you jest? Those were my most promising subjects!"
"I… I wish I were joking."
To confirm the report, Vanderznak reached up to his own face. He jammed his thumb into his left eye socket.
With a wet pop, he pulled out the yellow orb. A long, fleshy stem trailed behind it like an optic nerve made of jelly. He grabbed a glass measuring cup filled with saline water from the counter and dropped the eyeball inside.
Plop.
The eyeball floated in the liquid. It blinked once.
Instantly, the pupil dilated and connected with the Estate's surveillance system. Vanderznak had installed organic cameras throughout the facility; fleshy sacks with bulging eyes that were grafted onto the walls. He could see what they saw.
The eye in the cup swivelled rapidly until it locked onto a specific frequency.
Buzz… Click.
Vanderznak's mind flooded with the image from Storage Area B1800. The room was a slaughterhouse. Blood painted the walls and the floor was littered with the torn remains of young, mutated specimens.
Vanderznak gripped the edge of the table with his remaining hand. With his right eye, he glared at Beltrom.
"What caused this? You better have a good explanation, or you will end up on the chopping board next to that failed pregnancy."
Beltrom shivered and pointed a trembling finger at Zareth, who was convulsing in the corner.
"It was the boy… The one I brought back with the old man. I knew something was off with that brat, but I never expected this."
…
Earlier that day…
The memory played out in Beltrom's mind.
He walked down the dim corridor of the containment wing with the unconscious boy draped over his shoulder.
"Leave the old man here," Vanderznak had ordered. "Bring the boy to the storage area."
Beltrom reached the heavy steel door labelled B1800. He punched in the code and the door hissed open. Inside, the room was divided by glass partitions. Behind the reinforced glass, groups of children huddled together. They were a pathetic sight; one girl had a wolf's arm that dragged on the floor, while a boy in the corner tried to hide a trunk that grew from his face.
Beltrom opened the access hatch.
"Welcome your new member," he grunted and tossed the boy inside.
Thump.
The boy landed on the concrete floor but didn't stir. The other mutant children backed away fearfully.
Beltrom closed the hatch and turned to leave. He nearly bumped into a tall, slender figure.
"Watch it."
Hunter stood there with his whip coiled on his arm. Beside him, the Dog-Man panted and scratched at a flea on its neck.
"Hunter," Beltrom nodded. "And the mutt."
"You're back early," Hunter noted. "Did the harvest go well?"
"Don't ask," Beltrom sighed. "What about those two girls that ran away? The sisters?"
Hunter smirked and the scars on his face stretched taut. "I caught them. I already served them to Carl Blackthorn. That fat bastard is having the feast of his life right now."
Beltrom chuckled darkly. "I hope he chokes on a bone. We do all the work, and that pig takes the credit."
"Careful," Hunter whispered. "The walls have ears."
CRUNCH!
A loud, wet noise from inside the containment room interrupted them.
"What was that?" Beltrom asked.
He rushed back to the viewing window. The scene inside made his blood run cold.
One of the mutant children lay in a heap of ruin. Its chest was ripped open. The other children were huddled in the far corner and they screamed silently behind the thick glass.
"What the fuck happened?" Beltrom breathed.
Hunter stepped up beside him and peered through the glass. "Good god. Vanderznak is going to have our heads for this!"
Beltrom scanned the room frantically. The attacker was nowhere on the floor. He noticed the terrified children were looking up.
He followed their gaze to the ceiling.
There, suspended by a tail that was wrapped tight around a steam pipe, hung the boy. His eyes glowed a menacing crimson in the shadows. In his hands, he held a chunk of grey matter; the brain of the dead mutant, and he chewed on it with a sickening rhythm.
Munch. Munch.
"I knew something was off with that brat. Get down here, you freak!"
Beltrom unlocked the door and charged in. Hunter followed with his whip ready.
"Get him!"
The boy dropped the brain and hissed.
SWISH!
He moved with blinding speed. He didn't attack them. Instead, he was massacring the frightened children. Maybe some innate instinct awakened his thirst for their flesh.
"That little shit is killing them! GET HIM!!!"
The boy evaded a quick whip. He scurried along the ceiling pipes like a spider.
"Cut him off!" Hunter yelled. He cracked his whip again but it only struck sparks against the metal pipe.
The boy reached an air vent. He tore the grate off with impossible strength and vanished into the darkness of the ventilation system.
…
"And that is how he escaped," Beltrom finished his report. He kept his head bowed. "Hunter and the Dog-Man are currently in pursuit."
Vanderznak shook with rage. First, the failed Shark-Human hybrid, and now this. His quest for perfection was crumbling around him.
"Incompetence!"
Vanderznak leaned over the measuring cup where his eye bobbed in the water.
"Find that brat quickly! Bring it to me alive! I must dissect it to understand its power!"
"Yes, sir!"
Beltrom shouted. He turned and sprinted out of the laboratory before the scientist could change his mind and execute him.
Vanderznak wiped spittle from his mouth and turned his attention to Zareth.
The old priest hung in his chains. His skin turned a bruised purple as the Mellontikos Juice ravaged his internal organs. Black veins pulsed against his neck.
"You!" Vanderznak pointed a finger at him. "What is the origin of that brat? What vile experiment created him?"
Zareth coughed. A spray of black blood erupted from his lips and splattered onto Vanderznak's lab coat.
"I… cough… I want to know too."
Zareth looked at the madman through swollen eyes and grinned.
"Looks like your plans are falling apart, Shorty."
"You… you insolent pest!" Vanderznak wiped the blood from his face. "Just you wait! Your death is imminent! The mutagen will tear you apart from the inside!"
He turned his back on Zareth to focus on the eye in the cup. He couldn't afford distractions.
"Where is that brat hiding?"
The eye swivelled and projected images into Vanderznak's brain. He saw corridors, kitchens, and torture chambers. Finally, he zoomed in on a specific feed.
Hunter and the Dog-Man moved rapidly down a hallway lined with plush carpets and gold sconces.
"Find the scent," Hunter ordered.
Sniff. Sniff.
The Dog-Man dropped to all fours. He inhaled deeply and then let out a sharp bark. He bolted toward the large double doors at the end of the hall.
"He went this way!"
Vanderznak watched the feed closely.
"That hallway… That leads to the main residence."
Hunter followed the beast. But internally, the scarred man harboured a dark wish.
'Go on. I hope that devil kid slaughters the fat pig before I find him.'