It was a dusky, cold night.
Inside the dusty attic, the only light was coming from a blinking lamp over a very scared ten-year-old girl. She was crying, alone. “Mommy, where are you? ...Mommy!”
The full moon was shinning over the eerie manor. It was a two-story building, standing isolated near a cliff by the shore. The place was completely dark except by the faint light shimmering from the attic’s window.
A commando squad of six mercenaries took position by the trees outside. They were all wearing full black uniforms, night-goggles and armed to the teeth with submachine guns, shock grenades, C-4 demolition charges, .45 pistols and combat knives. The commanding officer was a former NAVY SEAL in his late forties. “Team, this is Hawk,” he spoke on the radio. “Intel indicates that the target is alone in the house. But assume nothing. This is a search and destroy operation.”
Falcon was a tall, muscle-bound hard ass. “The light from the attic, sir.”
“It could be it. Or maybe that’s where it’s keeping its next ‘meal’,” Hawk said. “Remember, our employer doesn’t want witnesses. Eliminate everyone.” The men acknowledged. “Let’s move then,” Hawk ordered.
They split into three teams. Hawk and Dove ran toward the front door; while Crow and Owl headed for the basement entrance in the back; and Falcon and Robin used grapples and ropes to climb to the second floor.
Hawk and Dove took point. “Team one ready,” Dove spoke on the radio.
“Team two ready,” Crow said.
“Team three ready,” Falcon acknowledged.
“All units, go,” Hawk ordered, kicking the front door open.
Falcon and Robin crashed each one through a window into a wide bedroom with Victorian style furniture and spider webs all over the walls. They searched around in the darkness.
In the mean time, Crow and Owl were checking every corner of the basement, which was in fact a sinister tomb-like wine cellar.
“Hall clear,” Dove said.
Hawk was uneasy. There was no one in sight, but he was feeling as if being watched. “All teams, proceed. Nice and easy.” Hawk and Dove cautiously moved to the living room.
As Falcon and Robin walked toward the exit, they started hearing fast footsteps outside the bedroom. “Falcon here. We detect activity approaching our position. Possibly the target. We’re going in.”
Hawk sounded on the radio. “Roger, Falcon.”
Falcon and Robin burst the door open as they exited, firing their submachine guns. To their surprise, they found no living soul at the corridor. There were six more doors in sight and a set of stairs at each extremity: One leading down and the other leading up to the attic.
The antique ornamentation in the living room had a classic flair. Hawk was checking a corner when he stepped on something near an old, filthy couch. It was an opened can of baked beans and an empty box of corn flakes. Both bearing the label of Montecristo Industries. At that moment, Falcon’s voice sounded on the radio. “Second floor appears to be clear, sir.”
“All right, Falcon. Proceed to--“ Hawk was interrupted by a shrieking noise that irrupted on the radio.
“It’s the--“ Falcon’s sentence turned into a scream of agony.
“Falcon! What happened? Falcon?” There was no response to Hawk’s call. “Team two, what’s going on up there?” Hawk insisted. “Robin, do you copy?” Again nothing.
Hawk called his other men. “Crow, Owl, where the hell are you?”
“We’re in the wine cellar, sir,” Crow answered.
“Proceed to the living room immediately.”
“Roger, sir,” Crow said, turning to Owl. “Let’s go, man.”
At that very second, Crow heard a whoosh and a thump coming from behind. As he turned around, he found no sign of Owl. He got terrified.
“He’s gone, sir! Owl is gone!” Crow shouted on the radio.
“Gone?! What do you mean gone?” Hawk asked him.
“He disappeared out of thin air. It can only be the thing, sir.”
“I thought it was at the second floor,” Dove said.
“This place is huge. There could be alternative passages we’re not aware of,” Hawk speculated.
“Or maybe there’s more than one of them.”
Hawk nodded.
“Sir, should I proceed to your--“ Crow was interrupted as a whoosh sounded. His communication was cut.
“Crow?! Come in Crow!” Hawk tried to reestablish contact, but it was useless.
Crow had been thrown to the ground. His radio had been destroyed. He sensed something approaching from behind. He stood up right away and turned around ready to fire.
A slim humanoid form, six feet tall, claw-like hands, with long hair covering its face, and wearing a black overcoat, was just a few meters ahead, and coming fast at him.
As Crow targeted the creature with his laser aim, he realized it was holding a potent flashlight. Before he could shoot it down, the flashlight was turned on to blind him. Out of reflex, he removed the night goggles as he fired randomly.
Again, he heard the whoosh, now followed by a growl.
Crow panicked. He ran without direction until he stumbled into something that made him fall to the ground, his weapon slipping away from him. As Crow’s vision began to clear, he noticed it was Owl’s body.
Crow then heard the beast coming upon him. Horrified, he drew his side arm, but the creature’s claws were faster and chopped off his head.
Back in the living room, Dove was anguished. “What now, sir?”
“You heard those shots,” Hawk answered coldly. “If Crow didn’t terminate the creature, then he’s surely a goner.”
“So it means we’re the only two left... Shouldn’t we come back with reinforcements?”
“No. Our employer might think we can’t handle the job. And it’s just too much money to walk away from. Agreed?”
Dove’s fear turned into greed. “You’re right, sir. Let’s get the bastard!”
“That’s the spirit,” Hawk smiled. “Now, let’s move on to the second floor.”
“Shouldn’t we go down to the basement instead, sir?”
“Negative. If it’s only one creature, it can easily move from place to place so we better choose our battlefield. We’ll be less contained up there.”
“But what if there are two of them?”
“Then it won’t make much of a difference, will it?” Hawk said, sarcastically.
Dove was tenser. “Aye, sir...”
Hawk and Dove moved upstairs. They advanced very carefully through the corridor.
The two commandos encountered the bodies of Falcon and Robin outside the bedroom from where they entered. As Dove came closer to check them, he noticed that both their throats and large portions of their torsos were eaten.
Suddenly, the creature’s mighty arm crashed through the bedroom door, pulling Dove inside.
Hawk was totally caught by surprise. “Jesus!”
Hawk broke into the bedroom, ready to shoot. He found the creature standing by a window, lifting Dove as easily as a puppet, eating the flesh off his face. The commando was still alive and screaming insanely out of pain until the monster managed to devour his tongue in a single bite.
As the creature calmly turned to Hawk, he finally got the chance to see its face. The pale, stretched up, red-eyed, long- fanged devilish face of a manmade mutant.
Hawk opened fire, but the beast dodged the swarm of bullets, throwing Dove’s body away and jumping on Hawk. As it hit him, his night goggles slipped away. In the middle of their struggle, Hawk managed to fire a point blank burst, wounding the creature and forcing it backwards. He knew its injures would heal in a matter of seconds and that only a shot in the head could kill a mutant. Unfortunately, out of ammo, Hawk saw no other choice but to run away.
Hawk spotted a faint light coming from the top of the stairs by end of the corridor. He went up, reaching the attic. He found the little girl sitting on the floor, right under the circle of light. “At last.”
The little girl noticed the beaten soldier. “What...?”
Hawk moved toward her. “Time’s up, monster,” he said, drawing his side arm and aiming at the girl.
She panicked. “No! No! Stay away!”
As the little girl squirmed, crying in fear, the mutant came crashing up through the floor. Hawk tried to fire at it, but the creature was faster.
The mutant cut his left arm off with a single blow of one claw. With another blow, it shredded Hawk’s chest open, throwing him violently to a wall. He was barely alive. The monster then moved to the little girl, who’s still crying. She ran toward its arms. “Mommy, mommy!”
The mutant held the girl, gently. It spoke to her with a soft voice. “It’s all right, sweetie...”
The mutant shrunk in size to a five feet tall figure. Its gruesome face became human, revealing a very beautiful young woman. “Mommy’s here”.
The little girl stopped weeping. “But the bad men, mommy... They came after me again. They’re gonna take me away.”
“No, they won’t. Mommy took care of the bad men, honey. Look,” the woman pointed at Hawk. “He’s the last one. I told you, nobody’s EVER gonna take away my little pumpkin.”
“But other bad men will come,” the child murmured.
“I know, baby,” the mother acceded. “I’m afraid we’ll have to move once again.”
“But I like it here...”
“Me too, sweetheart. But you know there’s no other way,” she said, smiling at her daughter. “I’ll tell you what, mommy will let you choose our next home. What do you say?”
The little girl was beginning to feel better. “Anywhere?”
“Anywhere. Now let’s get our things ready, okay?”
“Okay,” the little girl said, with a bright smile on her face. “Mommy?”
“Yes, dear...”
“I’m hungry.”
“I think we can spare a few minutes,” the mother said, looking at Hawk. “Go treat yourself.”
The little girl became a monster herself as she moved toward a terrified Hawk. She was a third generation mutant.
It started back in the eighties when Montecristo Industries quietly began to distribute its transgenic food to the American people. Their original products were made from genetically modified corn, wheat, tomatoes, apples, beans, rice, and potatoes, among other fruit and vegetables. The technology dramatically increased the productivity of the crops and shortened the time of sowing. But it came with a terrible price. Consumers started to develop all sorts of diseases like cancer and diabetes. Pregnant mothers gave birth to deformed babies and mutations. Most of those were born dead, but a few endured. Those carried a strange addiction to transgenic food... and human flesh!
To protect their profits and hide their crimes, Montecristo Industries decided to hire assassins to eliminate the mutants. In spite of their best efforts, the mutants had been able to breed, making the truth increasingly harder to conceal.
“Just don’t eat too much, sweetie,” the mutant mother said. “You know how sick you get when we travel.”
The little girl ate Hawk alive.