Leave The Monster Alone

The sirens of emergency signalled a wave of response inside the base. All of a sudden, the empty and quiet halls of the base were filled with people of all shapes and sizes who wanted to get to the safe rooms.

However, there was one order not everyone headed and that was the most important one of all.

"Leave the dead body back here. You will compromise everyone if you take it with you" Mark approached a fast fleeing couple who clutched a small body close to their chest. He knew that this couple did not have the heart to leave their dead child behind.

But this decision on their part was not right since it would compromise the safety of another dozen hundred people who would be stuck with them.

"NO, I'M TAKING HER WITH ME. S-SHE'S NOT DEAD, JUST SLEEPING" the female was in denial and almost falling apart. The man at her side gave Mark an acidic glare and looked ready to fight him over the dead body.

Mark tried to take the dead body away from the pair but they shielded it with an undying will in their eyes. They would likely not relent on their decision at all.

"Give the body here. The girl is already dead and you need to prioritise your own life now" Mark tried to help them out but his words fell on deaf ears. The couple was too far gone in their memories to listen.

"She's alive. NO, SHE'S ALIVE'' Mark did not give them a chance, he just snatched the body and ran away. The female broke down behind him but the man almost seemed grateful that Mark had taken the body away.

The hostility in the glare was not any less but there was also understanding and defeat. The man knew he had to let go if he wanted to save his still-alive wife from herself.

"Curse you. CURSE YOU AND OUR WHOLE DAMN FAMILY YOU FREAKING MONSTER--" the female's loud cries reached Mark's ears but they fell deftly on them too. The lady just did not understand how much danger she was putting everyone else into.

And she was not the only one to do so either. There were dozens of people who were being dragged kicking and screaming while the dead were being torn apart from their hands. The scene was not a beautiful one but it was what would allow them to survive.

"This is such a sorry sight. I wish I could help them but the situation is out of my hands now" Suzy's voice did not convey her regret but her aura did. She had been the sole cause that resulted in this situation and she was also the only one who could provide a solution.

"Make up for your mistake then. Do you know of any way we can stop more monsters from coming inside?" The bodies were just the first step of this problem. The main problem was the wave of monsters that would attack them when they did not get any core.

More and more monsters would come and there will come a time the humans would no longer be able to stop their pursuit.

"Ideally, we can repair my body so that more monsters would not come here but that is not so easy to do. The other solution would be to transplant my core into a new body but it has its own risks" the main one was compatibility.

Was the core only able to be handled by the monsters? Or could other creatures also handle this core? Also, what kind of specifications were there for the core to be accepted or rejected.

"We should start to look-" there was a small shake that caused Mark to lose his balance. Then the shaking got a little worse before getting a lot worse. Even walking was becoming difficult now.

"It's a high beast. We are in no condition to take on a high beast right now. Hurry, we need to eliminate these low beasts before the main one comes and decides to devour them for power" that would be bad, so bad.

They had to hurry out and take care of these pests now but with the shaking, it was proving to be a problem.

And there was another problem - the monsters were not gathering in the halls as they had expected. Many were leaving into the adjustment halls and toward the backroom settlements.

"Someone must have smuggled a few bodies back there. I'll go and retrieve them while you stop these monsters from following. Everyone, try to be as safe as possible" Mark did not like this idea at all but this was their best shot.

Why did some people behave in such a foolish manner? Did they think it would not affect anything if they smuggled a few bodies with them to safety? How can they be so inefficient with their own lives?

Since Mark's mind had turned in wholly to the rational side, he failed to register the emotional side of such an incident. The filter made any of the emotions he felt into useless impulses and made him act faster than he would have otherwise.

"Commander, close all the access gates to buy us time. I'll clear out the area" the base commander had decided to stay behind with her handful of teammates to overlook the whole operation.

"We'll coordinate with you for now. The other team is secure right now" good, the other team was following the plan. It made things easier for Mark to implement and he dashed forward with his whole being. 

Monsters had already infiltrated this far into the base and they were a pain to deal with. However, since the doors behind him were now closed, the limited number of monsters made it easy to deal with them.

The biggest advantage Mark had was that he could feel them. As such, the smokescreen or the smell cancler made it way easier for him to take advantage of things. He could shoot them accurately while they had to guess his location.

However, it was also not a walk in the park kind of scenario since there was a solid number of those monsters to take care of. Most of these monsters were of the common variety and did not drop a lot of loot for Mark either.

From there, a mindless circle of shooting and dodging started for Mark. The monsters also fell into a pattern they could not change now. It was so much easier to make mindless decisions now and think on more important parts.

The section was swiftly dealt with and then it was time to move on to the other one. The gates opened in a coordinated manner and allowed Mark entry to the other section. The monsters were pretty much the same and they seemed to be getting easier to deal with because of their smaller number.

Finally, after three corridors, Mark entered the first corridor with no monsters and then it was time to pick up speed. The rest of the way was smooth and he was in front of the closed-off corridor in a matter of seconds.

The safety rooms were back here and he heard people stop breathing when the door opened.

"W-Who among you brought the body with them here? You should confess yourself or I will be forced to take action on my own" no one spoke but whispers did break out. The atmosphere smelled of fear and death which was irritating Mark a lot.

His breath had stabled by now and his words came out clearer too.

"Who was foolish enough to bring the body here? Are you not going to step up yourself?" Mark gave a last warning to those people but no one stepped forward. Great, why was no one stepping forward at such a crucial time?

Mark did not give another warning to these people, he started the scan. He was confident that the scan would be able to pick up the hidden body. Since no one had snitched on another yet, it was likely that they were not aware of the body.

So it was in a storage device that his system could pick up with ease. And it did.

In a matter of minutes, there were almost 5 storage devices inside his system storage and three of them held a body. Hopefully, this was all there was in this room. Mark took out the other two devices which held nothing useful and tossed it back to their owners.

"Keep them safe" the owner of the other three safety devices protested at his retreat but the people around them did not allow them such an easy passage. Everyone had realised what kind of situation had been just created by those foolish people and a few of those people broke down in despair.

"I-I just wanted to give him a proper burial" but people did not want to listen to these excuses any longer.

"I think they would be happier to know that they were of use even in their death" Mark tried to console the female but that was the last thing she wanted to hear from him.

"Y-YOU, DEVIL. IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT. EVERYTHING. IF ONLY YOU DID NOT COME HERE. YOU ARE GOING TO LOSE SOMEONE IMPORTANT AS WELL AND THEN YOU'LL FEEL MY PAIN. I CURSE YOU TO - " Mark decided he did not need to hear anymore and he closed the door of the safety behind him.