79: Star Child: A Keepers Past V

"WE'RE GONNA DIE!" The worker howled as I booked It around the corner of the central warehouse. He held on tightly to my shoulder as I ran, which wasn't easy. I wasn't the most physically fit person but over the years I learned how to run to from threats with the best of them, it was a first however running while carrying someone over my shoulder.

I looked over my other shoulder and saw the group of thrads that were chasing us turn the corner as well. I spun on my heel to face the thrads, letting the worker slide off my shoulder and tumble to the ground behind me.

"Get up and run! I'll stop them!" I shouted at him. I didn't have to tell him twice, he scrambled to his feet and ran off without a second thought about me.

I started channeling energy into my crystal and sent it toward the group of evos. There were five of them this time, while seven was the largest number of evos I've controlled at one time it drained me keep it up for longer than a few minutes. As my energy wrapped around each evo I could feel their minds start to struggle, I forced more energy into them and they soon submitted.

"AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" A man screamed behind me.

I spun around and saw the worker that I had saved being devoured by two thrads. He was still alive and flailing helplessly as the evos tore into his body.

"NO!" I roared and sent the thrads under my control to fight the other two. By the time they reached him however it was already too late. The largest of the thrads tore the workers head off and crushed it effortlessly between it jaws. My thrads descended on the other two, tearing them to shreds before they had a chance to react. They probably died thinking the ones I controlled were part of their pack.

Once the other two were dispatched I had the five under my control fight amonst themselves until only one was left alive. I contemplated making it slit it's own throat with its claws but the sounds of screaming in the distance changed my mind.

'I'll need a body guard…at least until this thrads are all brought under control…' I thought then ordered the thrad to follow close behind me.

Before I turned to go and see how bad the evo containment breach was I glanced down at the mauled corpse of the worker.

'Sorry…' I thought then ran back around to the other side of the warehouse.

When I rounded the corner I could hardly believe my eyes. Hundreds of thrads were running amok and attacking anything that moved. There was no way that many evos would have fit inside the transport trailer.

Several gunshots rang out from the guard towers that lined the walls of the complex. A handful of thrads fell but nowhere near enough to start making a difference but it was a start. I ducked behind a large crate nearby and ordered my thrad to do the same. Against that many evos there wasn't much I could do besides hide. Thrads might not be the smartest evos but they were strong, territorial, and very good at working in large groups.

Not too far from where the steed transport crashed I noticed a woman wearing a scientist's coat cowering under some debris.

There were at least fifteen thrads circling around her hiding spot sniffing the air and hissing hungrily. Our eyes locked and I saw the fear and desperation in her. She pleaded silently for my help. I gritted my teeth then looked to my thrad and ordered it to attack the other.

It let out a ferocious roar and charged the closet thrad. It tackled its breathrn and started tearing into its throat then quickly jumped to the next. The group looked confused for a second, as if they were unable to understand why one of their own was attacking them. Then in a split second they were over that delima and attacking my thrad in mass.

I took advantage of the confusion and rushed over to the woman and quickly pulled her out of the debris and then lead her back over to my hiding spot behind the crates.

"Thank you, thank you Chase!" The woman said graciously.

"We need to get inside somewhere, preferably the central warehouse. Do you know another way in?" I asked then pointed to the blocked security door. She nodded enthusiastically.

"There is a secondary entrance, in case of a massive security breech and scientist like myself are locked out. It's around the back of the warehouse. This way." She said then dropped to the ground and crawled back around the side of the warehouse.

'I just came from that way…' I thought as I followed suit. By this point the thrad horde had made short work of the thrad I managed to get under my control.

Once we were around the corner and out of view of the thrads we stood up and she ran over to this large evo containment uit that was being stored back against the warehouse. For as long as I could remember coming to the factory that container has been there with a giant sign that said out of order. I used to wonder why but seeing the scientist head directly towards it I quickly realized why.

She walked up to the sealed door and pulled a set of keys out of her lab coat pocket and put the largest key on the ring into the key hole. Lock clicked and the door slid open revealing a flight of stairs.

"Come on!" She said then hurried down the stairs. I started after her and then stopped.

"Hold on, let me go and see if I can't help some more people." I said then turned and started back up the stairs. The scientist grabbed my hand to stop me.

"Chase are you crazy? There is nothing you can do to help anyone right now and bring a large group of people here will only attract thrads" She snapped.

"I can't just leave everyone out there to die!" I exclaimed.

"And if you try you would only get yourself killed and possibly everyone inside this warehouse killed including your parents!"

I froze and looked back at the scientist. She was right and I knew it but some of the people out there were the only people in the world that treated me like I was a actual person. I gritted my teeth as I turned and walked down the steps after the scientist. The door closed behind us a few seconds later.

"Sorry…" I muttered as the scientist and I reached the bottom stairs and stood in front of a second door.

The door slid open to a supply closet and a couple of mops fell into the passage, nearly hitting us. I stepped over the brooms and opened the closer door. The secret passage led us straight to the basement of the warehouse.

The central warehouse was different from the other four for the simple fact that it was the only warehouse that had a basement. It used the basement for storage, mostly storing the lysdale scripts of the evos that the company made and the DNA samples of animals that they used as bases for splicing. The basement was half the size of the warehouse but even that was 50,000 square feet.

As we stepped out of the closet we saw workers running up and down the aisle trying to secure scripts and specimens while alarms blared in the background. They paused for a second when they saw us step out of the closet but then quickly went back to their tasks.

I took off towards the stairs at the back of the basement that led up to the main floor. The main floor was were all the magic happened, metaphorically. Every evo that the company creates and sells were created on this floor. It was split into two sections called wards by everyoje that worked there. The Splicing ward and the incubation ward. Each ward took 50,000 square feet of the warehouse equally.

When I reached the top of the staircase I saw that the main floor was in utter chaos. There were scientist and workers running between the various pipes and tanks all over the floor. I tried to stop someone to figure out what the extent of the thrad breakout was but everyone was too busy running like chickens with their heads cut off.

I turned then ran toward the main office of the warehouse, dodging around scientists and workers as I ran. The main office was where all the big wigs and decision makers in the company had offices, that included my dad since he was head of techno-splicing development. Like in the western warehouse all of the offices were located in the gangplanks above the warehouse floor.

It took much longer than normal to make it to the offices but I managed to make it eventually. The inside of the main office was in as much of a panic as the rest of the warehouse. Office workers and scientists were rushing around trying to secure as many files as they could. One of the workers tried to rush past me but I blocked his path.

"Hey, what's going on? Why is everyone freaking out so bad?" I demanded. The worker looked at me like I was crazy.

"Dammit Chase! I don't have time to explain shit to you!" He yelled then shoved me out of the way. I crashed into the guardrail and nearly fell over the edge. The worker rushed off without even looking to see if I was alrigght. I groaned then stood up and frowned at the worker.

"Chase!" A familiar voice exclaimed from inside the office. Standing in the doorway was my father, he had a worried look on his face.

"Dad!" I yelled as I ran over to him. He pulled me into a tight hug, which was uncharacteristic of him, and sighed.

"Thank the gods! I saw the western warehouse crumble and thought you were in there…" Dad said, his voice quivered as if he wss barely holdingg back hos emotions.

"Wait, what do you mean the western warehouse crumbled?!" I demanded. Dad released me from the hug and led me into his office at the back of the office space and pointed out the window. My eyes widened and I struggled to comprehend what was going on outside.

The complex grounds was flooded with a sea of scales and fur as thrads poured in from over the wall and attacked everyone and everything that moved. The guard towers that were visible from here were destroyed as well and a few dozen thrads were feasting on the corpses of the guards that were stationed in the tower. The most surprising part was the western warehouse was on fire and crumbling in large sections.

My heart went into my throat as I watched a worker jump from one of the windows to escape the fire only to be snatched up by a couple thrads and torn to shreds while he was still alive. My stomach dropped and I fell to my knees.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON!"