Inside the Shelter itself, Fex, Linda and Wevil had decided to head inside. At the moment, Fex was continuing his investigation into what had happened to those that had gone missing. Linda and Wevil had agreed to come along to see if they could help. While, Peter and Layla had remained outside, still helping out all around the Shelter.
The Shelter was pretty large, but they could always communicate with each other through the masks if anything happened. Besides, according to the information they had learnt from Ko, an attack from the beasts wouldn't happen for a while now.
There were only a few people out of those that returned that could still speak. Still, so far, not a single one could remember anything. Until he had managed to come across one person whose mark had hardly developed at all. A young male with a scruffy beard and messy hair.
"I do remember a few things." He said. "I remember we were being led somewhere. I think we were in a group being taken away."
"Do you remember what they looked like?' Fex asked, now using his influence skill. Human minds sometimes recorded things even unconsciously, so Fex thought it was worth a shot.
"No." The man replied and soon went out of the trance. "I do remember hearing a voice, something telling us to come here." The man said.
Fex decided to take note of this. It was interesting to know that he had heard a voice.
'Maybe the beasts are hearing the same thing. I already checked the bodies of the dead beast but can't see anything on them. Maybe if we were to capture one of them alive? Considering they're beasts, the markings could also be in some other place.'
In the middle of his thoughts, a loud scream was heard through the whole room.
Turning around, it took a few seconds until he could see and smell a splatter of blood coming from one of the faction members. He was on the floor, and one of those with a mark had leapt onto the Traveller and dug their teeth into their arm.
What was impressive was the power of the person's jaws. The faction member was wearing beast armour, and still, someone was able to chew through to get to the skin.
"What is going on over there?" Wevil asked as he saw more Travelers coming to aid the person being attacked. They attempted to pull the person off but were flung away, getting hit by a single arm.
"Hey, that's some super strength crap right there," Fex said nervously. "They don't happen to be like us, do they?" Fex asked.
"I don't think so. Otherwise, you would have smelt it." Linda said.
The three of them rushed over and could see the Travellers continuing to struggle to deal with the attacker. They could see that they were being cautious, as they didn't want to harm the person.
Suddenly, the crazed human had been wrapped around in red string, and with a yank, they were pulled up, and their arms were wrapped up like a cacoon. The person continued to struggle and bend their body. Wiggling it towards the others.
"That bastard!" The Traveler said, as his arm was covered in blood when he stood up. "They bit me."
Seeing the string react and bend that way, Fex had an idea of the person's strength. He was right. It was beyond what a regular human could do with no beast gear on. Maybe if they were someone who practised Qi or were like the Blades, it would make sense, but the person didn't look like the fighting type in the first place.
"I think we might need you to tie up a few more people," Wevil said.
When Fex looked up, he could see that those that had the markings, nearly three-quarters of the ones being treated in the room, were standing up. Their eyes were starting to glow in a slightly white-yellow colour.
"What the hell is happening? What's wrong with them all!" The Travelers said as they pulled out their weapons.
At that moment, Fex heard a slight snapping sound that only his ears could pick up, and that's when he noticed that that the person he thought had been dealt with had used their extraordinary strength to break free from his blood strings.
Soon, all those standing with the marking with glowing eyes looked towards the Travellers. The others with markings were even frightened at what the others had become, but it seemed like they weren't interested in them at all.
The sound of fighting down a hallway not too far from them was heard and bursting through the doors, Ko had come rushing in with a few others.
"Something is happening to those that are marked!" Ko shouted. He had been busy escorting more that had returned to the Shelter, and some of them had started to attack his own in the middle of thier return.
Seeing that it was a similar situation here, he had to make a quick decision.
"Remember, they are still people. Make sure that you don't kill them, but don't die either."
"What an easy thing for him to say?" Wevil said as he avoided a powerful punch that hit the ground and destroyed part of the hard flooring beneath him. He then grabbed his daggers and cut the back of their feet to slow down their movement.
Seeing the floor, he could tell a hit from something like that would even hurt him.
———
Somewhere inside the Shelter, Hayley and Wendy had escaped from the room. It looked like no matter how many times they knocked the other two down, they would get back up. The only other option was to kill them, but the words of Quinn rang through her head.
'Keep them alive, and I can help.'
Running through the hallway, she decided to head for the training room where the others were gathered, hopefully looking for someone, but when she took a turn around the corner, that's when she could see the chaos had already started.
Even in the hallway itself, the Orbus faction members were fighting against the marked, and it was the same in the training hall. She stood there stunned, when the sound of the wall next to her started to break as two men came flying through the wall.
Once again, she found herself on the ground, with a marked and a faction member on top of her. Soon though, they were lifted up and flung back into the training hall. The person who had thrown them was Wendy.
It was clear that the faction members could not deal with this mess, especially since Ko had given the order that they weren't allowed to kill them. They were practically fighting against superhumans.
Although the Travellers and faction members were stronger, they were running out of stamina quickly.
The most helpful one of them all was actually Fex. Not all of the marked could break out of his string, so he decided to tie up the ones that he could, leaving them there on the ground.
Seeing this, Hayley thought maybe going to the others would be better in the centre. Taking a few steps into the training hall, another marked stood in her way but was quickly punched and knocked to the side again. Wendy was continuing to protect her, and it looked like she, too had received a power boost.
"Doc, what's going on!" Ko shouted as he went to reach her side, and quickly saw Wendy there as well. "Is she-"
"She's fine," Hayley replied. "I'm not sure. The ones who are acting out have marks that have travelled all the way up their neck. It must be some type of infection or parasite that has taken them over. I've never seen anything like this. Unless we can remove it, then they might continue to act like this."
Ko could see his people were exhausted, huffing and panting. Some of them even had wounds. For some reason, the marked were more like beasts as they bit and scratched them. He clenched his hand as he was finally ready to give the order, the order to kill.
"Arghhh!" Wendy started to scream, she tilted her head backwards, and the marking could now be seen visible on the back of her neck as well.
"I told you she was one of them!" Ko argued.
"No, she fought it so well. She couldn't have turned as well!" Hayley shouted.
When Wendy placed her head back down, her eyes started to glow as well. She had fought the mark for so long, even until the last second, to protect her new friend, but it had finally taken over her.
Something inside Hayley thought that maybe Wendy wouldn't attack her, she stepped close, reaching out her hand, and Wendy leapt up in the air, baring her teeth towards Hayley.
"No!" She shouted.
From behind, black shadows appeared, and the next second, her whole body was consumed by the shadows, and she was gone.
"Shadows?" Hayley said.
Entering the room, Quinn had arrived with his hand held out.
*******
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