My heart beats so loud, I wonder if the monsters can hear it in the flickering darkness. I'm even holding my breath, frozen against the wall.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

Each drip from the nearby leaky pipe echoes around the silent tunnel, which moments before was being routinely bludgeoned with rocket fire. The rocket fire had turned to screams.

The blonde chick next to me, trembles. She knows what she's looking at, I can tell. She's afraid but not running. She's seen this before. It's her calm that keeps me rooted to the spot and not panicking. She's been trying to talk to me for the past few minutes but my hand has been clamped tightly over her mouth as I strain to listen. I don't know who she is, and I don't care. 

My whole unit is gone. In one moment there were jests, cigarette trading, men bonded by the fight; the next each and every one of them turned into the monstrosities that are now chasing us down through this ruined city.

I'm a merc, a mercenary by trade, a killer for hire. But even this has me rattled. I've seen plenty of death. But most of those monsters were human. These... These are demons built from the bodies of my unit. This is new.

Footsteps echo nearby, we both tense. I don't even dare to breathe, holding my breath until my chest starts to ache, let alone dare to hope that someone else made it. We all took those injections, a fact that I ignore for the moment. Out of my entire unit, I'm the only one who looks the same.

My gun clenched tightly in my right hand, I ease the other hand off of the blonde's mouth and edge forward slightly. Just enough to see around the corner. Miraculously she stays silent.

It's dark, nothing moves. The running footsteps fade into the distance. I let out the breath I'm holding, hearing my companion do the same. Gunshots sound again in the distance.

I have to get out of these tunnels. Moving towards the gunfire sounds like a good idea. I have no idea if they are friend or foe at this point but the chances are good at least some of them will be human.

"What the hell are those things," I whisper, pushing myself to my feet without a backward glance. I can't work out why this girl is here. But again the feeling she knows more than she's letting on won't go away.

"They are j'avo," comes the timid whisper. "Made from the C-Virus, the same virus you injected yourself with earlier."

My hand automatically grabs my neck, rubbing the spot. Supposed to be some kind of energy booster. We're mercs, we do what we're told. None of us cared. God, we're a stupid lot.

We've been sold out.

"Why are they trying to kill me?" I chance a glance at her, she's studying me. Choosing her words carefully before she speaks. She's too calm under the circumstances. I fight the growing urge to pin her to the wall and demand answers with my fists.

She looks up at me and then checks her watch again. "You've got the antibodies. They want to study your blood, they don't care if you are dead or alive. We've been trying to make a vaccine--" She stops, taking a deep breath and listening.

She knows my name. The situation has taken a weird turn, but now one thing is certain. She's not here randomly, observing my unit or anything along those lines. She's for me specifically. I've met a lot of people who tried to use me, kill me, you name it, and I can tell she's in earnest. Hell, she's a believer in what she's talking about. Sometimes those are the worst.

She pulls a wallet out of her pocket, flashing a badge "Sherry Birkin, United States--"

"Good for you, now's not the time," I snap glaring at her. I don't care at the moment where she's from. She's going to get me killed. She doesn't add up. None of this does.

"We need you, Jake."

"Not me," I mutter. "Just my blood."

A bullet ricochets off the wall near my head.

I feel my fear returning as more of the J'avo round the corner, machine guns in hand. But they aren't what scares me. Behind them, a creature out of my worst nightmare walks in. A scarred face, with a patch over the mouth, covered by a small patch of hair on top of its head, standing at least 8 feet tall. It's crouching in the sewer tunnel so it's hard to tell how big it is exactly.

"Shit," I mutter backing up.

"Run!" Sherry takes off and I don't need a second warning. She is surprisingly fast for as small as she is but fear gives us wings.

I spot a light at the end of the tunnel and make for it, hearing the crashing of gigantic footsteps and the yells from my former comrades-in-arms turned j'avo. Even their voices sound different as if their warped faces are hiding warped vocal cords behind bloody visages.

It's daylight and we're blinded. How long were we in that fucking tunnel? There is no time for introspection or thought. My eyes clear. There is a roadblock in front of me and I jump, catching a movement to my right. Sherry is still with me, making it over the barrier seconds after I do. She hesitates when I don't keep running.

I need to see what the hell is chasing me.

To the left of the entrance is an oxygen tank. Again, my brain puts two and two together faster than I can rationalize. As the creature emerges into broad daylight, surrounded by j'avo, bigger than I thought it was, and he's carrying a metal cage on his back. Part of his arm is missing ending in a large wicked metal set of claws. But it's the cage that draws my attention. He's here for me too. Dead or alive.

What the hell?

"Eat this," I say out loud, firing at the oxygen tank.

The explosion sends a shockwave of debris over us as we both duck behind the concrete barrier.

"Thanks for the warning."

I glance over at Sherry next to me, amused by her terseness. It's a battlefield, bitch. Not a ritzy hotel.

Flicking back to the sewer entrance, my heart sinks. The gigantic creature is still alive, still standing, covered in blood. A j'avo struggles on the ground at its feet.

It locks eyes with me as I take in every inch of the mangled face, the mouth is just a gaping hole unable to close properly as the skin stretches back to make way for the monstrosity in front of me.

He's human, or he used to be. I see the same promise of vengeance in its eyes. He'd have no problem taking me back dead. A chill runs down my spine. I don't find Sherry quite as annoying as I did five minutes ago.

"Let's go with your plan," I say as we break into a run.

Making our way through the narrow, destroyed, streets, the creature roaring behind us the whole way we sprint as fast as we can. I hear debris crashing as we move, not daring to slow down.

We hit an edge, below us a chasm opens up. It's the guts of a destroyed building. Sherry doesn't hesitate but leaps across. I admire her tenacity but I can't make that jump and she's not going to either. Miraculously she manages to grab a line of rope hanging out in the middle of the ruined building.

"Jake!" She cries out in fear swinging back and forth.

Always something.

The ground shakes as the deformed monstrosity is suddenly all around me, fists moving, grabbing, I can barely avoid the strikes and tumble off the ledge landing on a wooden platform ten feet below. Before I can comprehend my good luck, the creature is leaping down after me, roaring, shaking the platform.

I'm on my feet, Sherry is in my line of sight, with an open window behind her. Again, I don't think, I just act.

Sprinting to the edge I dive, snatching Sherry off the line, launching us both through the window, amidst a shower of shattered glass. We land, rolling, as my combat training kicks in. I'm on my feet in an instant, gun out, my head pounding as I strain to listen.

It doesn't take long, the creature lands at the window, shaking the building as it solidly connects, dust kicking up around the half boarded up window. It lets out a frustrated roar before pausing and locks eyes with me again.

It doesn't need words to convey the promise of pain across its warped features. It's an all too familiar expression. Out of all the monsters, I've met the most terrifying were always human.

This is no different.