Reunion and goodbye (S2)

A large tentacle rushed in the nurses’ station, quickly crushed almost everything, including the freezer stored with blood bags, before striking at the duo. However, it didn’t attack Sam with the fangs on sight but wrapped around her waist tightly to pull her away from Dustin. Sam desperately screamed while struggling in vain.

“Sam!” Dustin growled with concern, stood up as quickly as he could and went on to chase them.

In panic, Sam was taken to the rooftop, where Sara Takahashi, while engaging a kiss with Irons, was commanding the injured tentacle monster to drain every moving thing in the hospital to regain its strength. While struggling, Sam noticed that there was a large wound, which has almost healed up, on the monster’s left shoulder.

Instead of obeying Sara’s order, the monster bound Sam’s both hands with two tentacles and brought her closer. It seemed like it was, for some reason, inspecting her.

“Why are you not draining this one?” Sara was confused and broke the kiss before giving her order, “Just finish her.”

Sam struggled harder when she saw the last fanged tentacle came out of the Prototype’s mouth. But that tentacle was twitching, “licking” Sam’s neck, like the monster was still **** to harm her. Sam felt a strange connection between the Prototype and her through its caress. It felt hauntingly familiar, but she couldn’t figure out why with her deteriorated mind.

“Obey me!” Sara hissed and yelled aloud with anger.

The Prototype finally submitted and stung on Sam’s neck with its tentacle, bit her with the pair of fangs. Sam’s vision quickly darkened when her blood flowed into the monster through the long tube. But oddly, the connection between them was getting stronger and stronger. At the brink of her eternal sleep, she understood.

Steph... So it is you... I finally found you...

“Sam!” Dustin reached the rooftop and cried out anxiously. He grabbed his combat knife and was about to cut off the tentacle to save Sam, but he was stopped by a loud noise.

Bang!

To be more precise, he was stopped by a bullet through his chest. A silver bullet, shot from the pistol in Chief Brian Irons’ hands. Not only did it destroy multiple arteries in his torso and caused massive hemorrhage, incapacitating him immediately, but it also scratched his heart.

“Sam! Dustin!”

When Claire reached the rooftop, she just saw Dustin collapsed, Sam nearly drained and the large wound on the monster’s shoulder, which was not inflicted by her during their last encounter, has completely healed up. Chief Irons pointed the pistol at Claire at once, but before he could pull the trigger to kill the teary, furious girl, a flame round has already landed by his foot and exploded. Fire consumed him in mere seconds and he painfully screamed.

“No!” Sara yelled in horror. There’s nothing she could do to help her lover but to watch him burn. The sadness soon turned to anger as she gave her next command to the tentacle monster, “Kill them... Kill them all so that you’ll be strong enough to fight that thing!”

But something’s wrong. When the Prototype had enough of Sam’s blood, it started to quiver more badly and threw the almost **** Sam away. It was getting bigger every second and spreading the vines from its chest to its limbs. Eventually, it opened its chest and revealed the giant yellow bubble, its core, in it.

“What the hell is going on!?” Claire witnessed the horrific mutation and quickly reloaded the launcher.

“How is it possible? Could it be...” Sara was also shocked. She looked at Sam on the other end of the rooftop and wondered, “Similar DNA? Biological sisters? That’s-”

However, before she could finish her words, she was grabbed by the strengthened tentacles of the enlarged Prototype, and lifted up in the air. When her body were squeezed by the monster, Claire noticed that a small thing has dropped from her hand.

“I command you to put me-” The crazy scientist struggled for a while before she remembered that it was supposed to listen to her, but she was immediately silenced as the Prototype stung a tentacle on her neck and started to drink from her indifferently.

This is the only chance, Claire thought and without hesitation fired the grenade launcher at the standing still monster. A flame round exploded precisely on its open core, and destroyed it completely. The tentacle monster painfully screamed, threw the half drained Sara over the edge of the rooftop and quickly withered.

Steph... See you on the other side... Sam watched the monster turn into a pile of ashes within seconds in sorrow.

It could surely not regenerate from that, but what it’s done was done.

“Claire... Are they...” Sherry came up from the corner of the staircase when the fight was over, and stepped close to Claire.

Claire quietly knelt next to her friends. Dustin lost most of his blood from the large hole on his chest and became dormant. But that’s not the worst part. The silver shrapnel was slowly burning his heart. His body was turning black from the wound, and faster every second. Claire couldn’t do anything but just sobbed quietly and watched her friend turn into dust.

“Dustin...” Sam didn’t even have the strength to cry. She wasn’t much better as she was almost drained by the tentacle monster. She could barely open her eyes to look at her friends now, and her consciousness would fade away soon. She would require a large amount of fresh blood to heal the wound and to gather enough strength for her to wake up again. And Claire suspected that such an amount of blood was unattainable in this hospital now that the nurses’ station has been destroyed.

“Claire... I’m sorry... for hurting you... for everything...” Sam whispered with a sad smile on her pale face, “This... is what I deserve...”

“Please, stop talking...” Claire gently held her hand while wiping the tears off her own face.

“Just leave me be... and move forward... Goodbye, Claire...” Sam struggled to say her last words, shut her eyes and became totally silent right after.

Goodbye, Sam... Claire stood up with her hands shaking. Sherry didn’t say anything and just hugged her from behind. Claire grabbed the little hand of hers and had a moment of silence on the rooftop.

But time was not on her side as she felt Sherry shaking and twitching again. The thirst was coming back to haunt the little girl already, and wouldn’t stop until it was temporarily satiated. She needed to hurry to the underground lab to synthesize the vaccine, or Sherry’s condition would deteriorate over time. If with a bit of luck she could find more blood bags down there, she might be able to revive Sam, too.

It seemed like Lady Fortune has finally favored her for once. Claire was surprised that the little thing Sara dropped on the rooftop was actually a key with a tag that said “Underground Storage”. That could be referring to what was behind that “forbidden door”.

“Sherry, I know it feels bad, but we have to leave Sam here.” Claire held the girl’s shoulders and said in a low voice, since she was uncertain about their chances, “We’re going to the NEST 2 first, and we’ll come back to help her later, OK?”

Sherry just obediently nodded. Her mind was too occupied by the thirst for blood for her to actually talk. Holding Claire’s hand tightly was one of the only things she could consciously do right now. Claire was sad to see Sherry like this, and deep down she knew that this sadness would push her further down the road to hell.

But there was no return for her now.