Monsters! [Ch. 2]

Hi Matthew,

We humbly apologize, but your employment with Sahara Therapeutics Corp. is terminated. Our decision was based upon your unethical and inappropriate use of company property. Please turn in your security card upon leaving the building.

Thank You,

Eric LeBlanc

Head of HR for Sahara Therapeutics

06/22/1992

Joseph set the printed termination email down on the table. There were various other documents scattered on the tabletop. All documents, some classified and redacted, and others that weren't. Talen and Woody also looked down at the documents and pictures. Joseph picked up a black and white photo. In the picture, were the exact cannibals they'd encountered earlier. Flipping the picture over, names of the types of cannibals and mutants were written in the top corner. Under the names were dates of when the picture was taken. This one was dated 07/13/1959.

"The Albino's," the man said, "a stronger variant of their counterparts. Over seven feet tall with an average weight of 210 give or take."

"These were the ones who killed Jeremy," Joseph said as he glanced over to his right at Talen and Woody. He held the picture up so they could see it.

"No," Talen said.

The cave they had followed Eric into was small. It had a musty smell. Drops of water echoed throughout as they dripped from the ceiling of the cave. Hanging skull lamps lit up the room. There were dozens of boxes and wooden crates. Leaning up against a big crate, was a black ax with a yellow handle. It was bloody, with chunks and pieces of flesh and guts sticking to the blade.

"Who's Matthew Cross?" Talen asked.

Eric walked over to the table, shuffling the papers and documents around. He did that until he uncovered a picture. It was face down. Written in the corner where the name and a year. No specific date written down:

The Red Man

2003

"Dr. Matthew Cross was his name. Is he the Red Man? Don't know," Eric said, "what I do know is that he was once a brilliant scientist employed by Sahara."

Joseph glanced at the only picture of this mysterious Red Man. From what he could make out from the fuzziness of the picture was that the Red Man had a well-fit body. He's bald, of average height, and was only wearing short ripped pants. The tall grass in the area where this picture was taken was tall, poorly maintained grass and weeds. Shrubs of dead bushes were all over.

Behind the Red Man, Joseph also made note of a fallen tree. Its roots were ripped from the ground, leaving a massive hole where its roots once were. The sun was shining just overhead by what he could tell. Some light was bleeding through down onto the forest's floor.

"Unethical and inappropriate use of company property?" Talen questioned, repeating what Eric had said a moment earlier to them.

"That's right," he said.

"What'd he do?" Woody asked.

"His termination was related to an artifact we had discovered upon expanding the facility," Eric explained.

Joseph frowned, setting the picture of the Red Man back down on the table. He then noticed another paper under the printed termination email. It was a news article on the front page of the Manhatten Chronicle front page. He picked up the newspaper, unfolding it to get a glance at the full article. It wasn't very long but straight to the point.

| Manhatten Chronicle: Sahara Therapeutics Shutting Down Island Research Facility; Stock Plummets To All-Time Low |

By: Amy Pasco

April 3, 2004; 08:23

Sahara Therapeutics' C.E.O, an established leader in the pharmaceutical industry, Tom HolkenBerg, announced that the company would be shutting down its island research facility. Known for pioneering in the development of drugs to combat deadly diseases, its stock took a major hit. Plummeting from $203.45 to $94.57 in a record hour's time.

It is unknown why the decision was made to close the facility. Classified documents the Manhatten Chronicle had received from an anonymous source claim to have discovered shocking information on what went on behind closed doors at their island facility.

Eric slowly pulled the paper out of Joseph's hands. He couldn't finish reading the article. Joseph didn't fight with Eric to keep the paper. By the look he had on his face, it wasn't good. Something was up. Something was wrong.

"Stay quiet," he said crumpling up the paper and throwing it onto the ground. In the corner, there were stacked wooden crates. The lids had been taken off, revealing the contents inside.

"What's going on?" Talen asked.

"I said shut up!" Eric whispered loudly in a hostile tone.

Woody turned around, looking back down the way they had come. It was dark, unlit, and cold. Even with the skull lamps, they weren't bright enough to see down the entire way. He took a step closer, squinting his eyes and tilting his head slightly to the right. He had heard some sort of shuffling sound.

Talen, Joseph, and Eric hadn't noticed what he was doing. It was only when he grunted suddenly that they all turned around to see what happened. A long harpoon spear tip was sticking out of his back. Blood was dripping from the tip of it. Woody turned around slowly, holding onto the spear. As he raised his head, blood began running out of his nose. His eyes became bloodshot and turned a dark red.

"He–help… me," he said as he fell to his knees. Barely conscious, Eric turned around to grab his bow and a few arrows from the arrow basket on the ground. Loading an arrow into the bow, he aimed it over at the dark corridor where Woody had been attacked from.

"Get behind me," Eric shouted as Joseph and Talen ran over to where he was standing and stood behind him.

Out from the shadows, came two albino cannibals. Both males. But they weren't alone. One of the male cannibals ran on all four over to Woody. They tilted his head back and opened his mouth, all while giggling and laughing. They jammed a stick of dynamite into his mouth, liting the fuse with a lighter. Eric had shot one of them in the head, killing the one instantly. Its body fell to the ground, enraging the other cannibal.

As the fuse burned, Eric quickly reloaded another arrow onto the bow. The cannibal charged after him, swinging his arm frantically at them. He fired the arrow, but missed. The cannibal grunted and was dazed for a moment. It looked down at the arrow lodged in its chest, grabbing it and yanking it out.

BOOM! The dynamite exploded, blowing Woody's head up. Bits and pieces of his brain, skull, and flesh with hair on it discharged. Everyone was covered in his blood.

"Take this," Eric shouted as he handed Joseph the ax.

Everyone was disorientated by the blast from the dynamite, and their hearing was impaired temporarily. All anyone could hear was ringing and faint, echoing voices. As their hearing slowly returned to normal, and they regained their stance, they got back up onto their feet. Joseph looked over at Eric. Eric was talking but he couldn't hear him. He could only see his mouth moving.

Eric had shoved the ax into his chest. Joseph grabbed it and looked back up at him. A female albino cannibal, who was naked just like her male counterparts, raced into the room on all four. She saw the blood and gore, slowly turning her head to face Eric and the others. When she saw her dead male cannibal, she screamed loudly. She saw Eric holding his bow and an arrow. Leaping towards him, ready to swing her arm at him, he fired the arrow. This one, unlike the other one, hit her right in her neck. She grunted and fell to the ground. A puddle of blood started growing under her. She landed face first, pushing the arrow through to the other side of her neck to where it was popping out.

"Go!" Eric shouted, "break that barrier and run! I'll buy you some time to escape!"

Joseph didn't hear what he had said, but he read his mouth and figured it out anyway. Talen grabbed his arm, forcing him to turn around. He pointed over at the planked barrier leading into another corridor.

"More are coming," Eric said, "you must hurry. Take this map and flashlight. Oh, and take this too."

He handed Talen the map and flashlight, then grabbed his rustic short-range flintlock pistol off of his belt holster. It was a weapon not common these days but was used around the world back then. Pulling a couple of iron balls, which were smaller than a golfball. He gave them to Talen, telling him to keep them in his pocket.

"Go now, you fools!" He shouted and pointed again over at the planked wooden barrier.

Turning around, Joseph ran over to the barrier. Talen was right behind him. As he took his first swing, another cannibal came charging into the room. Eric had lit a flare and thrown it down the corridor from which the cannibals were coming.

Joseph wasted no time in swinging to break down the barrier. It took longer to break than he had predicted it would. But after swinging and hitting it eight or nine times, it finally cracked and broke apart.

"I'll be right behind you, I promise," Eric reassured, "now go!"

Elsewhere, on the beach where the guys had set up camp, the Red Man emerged from the foggy dark forest. He was accompanied by his titular Cowman mutant and two skinny, malnourished cannibals. The tents had been blown down from the rising wind speeds. Bigger waves were crashing up onto the beach.

The body of Jeremy, a victim of the ruthless Armsy, was still on the beach. But it was under threat of being washed out by the incoming waves. The Red Man wasn't going to let that happen. Even though Jeremy was long dead, he had plans for the carcass.

Vultures had swooshed down from above once they discovered the carcass. The Red Man turned around to look up at the Cowman.

"Scare them away, and you can have the head… well what's left of it," he said.

The Cowman huffed and puffed, preparing himself to charge toward the vultures. It then charged forward toward the vultures. He roared loudly to scare them away. Upon landing on the body, they quickly flew off when they saw what was coming their way.

Looking down at the two skinny cannibals, he smiled. They both looked back up at him, breathing heavily.

"Fetch," he said, "bring it back to the lab."

They giggled and laughed as they took off running on their hands and feet. The Cowman stood over by the carcass to keep the vultures from landing back on it. When the skinny cannibals got over to it, they lifted up what was left of the body. His legs and arms had been ripped clean off, and his head smashed in and crushed. The body was barely recognizable. They both picked it up and began walking back over to the Red Man.

"Eat?" one of them said.

"No," he told them, "not this one. This one is special."

"Friend?" the other one questioned.

"Sort of," he said.

"Not food?"

"Right, not food," the Red Man responded. "Come."