Chapter 18: The Meat

I ran as fast as I could, but each room and tunnel looked completely different than when I had seen them before, and I was forced to constantly double back or risk becoming hopelessly lost. The siren provided me with a suitable excuse for my terrified flight, but I won't lie to you now,; not on the eve of my greatest challenge. I was mortally afraid of what Turk had referred to as 'the meat'. When the siren rang, I'd already soaked myself with both piss and sweat. Had I eaten more recently, my fear would have caused even more embarrassment. But the siren did add to my mania, and without it I may have found my way upward on my own; without the aid of... the meat.

I must admit that several times now I've regretted my decision to pen down these early days. I was easily startled, delusional about my abilities and importance, falsely read and prone to bouts of abject stupidity; usually spurred by misplaced pity. When I saw the meat, it looked to me a hapless mutant, not unlike a rotting tyfloch, bereft of a dermal layer by some sad chance of birth. Then I remembered Matoya, and felt a rush of anger towards her as I looked down into the meat's weeping eyes. Without its shell, the massive creature was reduced to a state of constant agony as the raw air grated over its exposed nerves. It's wet stratum glistened, and it sat completely still, afraid to writhe and brush itself against the ground ro walls. The cell Matoya put it in was very small. When I heard the thunder above, heralding the death of the archon, I grew deeply sad, and was taken by the pitiful look on this creature's face. Anassa, the unnamed giant under the arch, the archon, and now this poor brute, along with all the excrutiants in the westing house... It was too much. I went to work on the door's locking and closing mechanism, and somehow I was able to find a thin shard of metal on the ground and navigate the tumblers and interpret the blinking lights. l opened the door, and for a moment the meat sat still, looking at me with those sad, pained eyes, before he stood to his full and immense height, and his piteous look turned to one of hunger. I managed to duck and hide, but it left the cell before I closed it, almost knocking me unconscious with the door, and went on a wild run through the tunnels.

I hurried after it, overtaking it eventually, and tried my best to stay ahead so I could warn the others. But I would get lost and fall behind, and was completely dependant on its howls of pain to find it again. Other than my shame over my stupidity, and worry for Kendra and the others, I felt the acute terror of the meat. Its footfalls left behind a viscous, slippery print, and its voice reminded me all too much of the strange, half bestial speech coming from the Dolomites's procedure room on the day I met Turk. Turk. I knew there would be no chance of him inviting me into his fold after this. I was determined to come up with some sort of lie, as if I could think of a falsehood he could not see through.

But those thoughts soon fled my mind. The meat found a tunnel that climbed steeply upward with very few turns, and I ran like mad to keep ahead of it. Getting in front of the monster was no easy task, as it saw me and almost caught me in its huge hand. I was forced to turn and slap my hands on its sensitive dermis, causing it to howl in pain and fall back. It then writhed and flailed, screaming in agony as its backs and sides rubbed the rocky floor of the tunnel. I was able to put some space between me and it then, and ran so fast I nearly doubled over when I came through the mouth of the tunnel.

I screamed Turk's name. A foolish act, as I had no reason to expect him there. Dolores was, though, and Matoya. The Vandals were all a flurry. They'd armed themselves with weapons from Matoya's stores and were heading towards the upper levels. Dolores leapt over me, a spear in her hands, and with a wrenching yell buried the spear deep into the meat. I sat frozen on my hind end, unable even to cry out as it tore the spear free and skewered Dolores through her stomach. Matoya then rushed forward and pounded her pronged fist onto a node near the tunnel mouth. There was a rush of stagnant air followed by a loud rumble, and I wept for Dolores as a hidden door slammed shut.

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