Thrive in Catastrophe - Chap 98

The warship was coated in pitch. A distinct feeling of violence wove through the darkness and Xiao briefly sensed Valentin’s presence. He realized that he must be more careful with his thoughts and he quickly pulled away from the system.

His eyes gradually focused and he took a deep breath of relief as reality slowly settled in. Disoriented and shaky, he was met with a river of blood. The crimson soaked scene slowly coalesced in front of him.

“What happened……”

He saw that the passages were closed and Casey was leaning his head against the wall. Both Mark and Winn looked on stunned.

He saw that Casey’s legs were severed below the knee and his heart tightened before bursting into pain at seeing his friends in such a state. His breath caught in his throat and his eyes misted, blurring his sight.

“Casey…your legs!” Xiao Yan rushed over to Casey, feeling his knees, confirming that was he saw was real.

Casey gave him a wry grin and pointed to the node. “They are on the other side of the door.”

“You closed the door…”

Xiao Yan was surprised by this. Valentin controlled the access channels, How did Casey get past Valentin?

“All the nodes have emergency overrides and will automatically shut down when they encounter an obstacle. This is a safety response that the system doesn’t control.I shut it down using this… they won’t open again. There is no turning back, Xiao Yan.” Casey’s lips curved at the corners, his eyes glimmered with a hint of pride.

“We can carry you.” Xiao Yan swallowed around the lump in his throat, he wanted to take Casey with him but he shook his head.

“Taking me will only slow you down. I will be a burden. As you continue, everything will be controlled by Valentin. He will have assassins all around him.”

“So we are suppose to just leave you here?!” Xiao was adamantly opposed.

But Casey’s expression was cold and resolute. Gone was the impish boy and in its place was a full grown man.

“Yes Major. I want you to leave me. You will push forward and likely encounter more problems. I will stay here and use the portable terminal to assist you. I will open the nodes to the channels and guard the edge of your thoughts. You just have to keep moving forward.”

“Casey!”

“Xiao Yan, you are Valentin’s match. Staying here is the only way for me to help you. Make sure you find Jane. His body is his own. It does not belong to Valentin.” Casey closed his eyes wearily and his voice grew even colder and stern. “Don’t lose sight of the goal. If you aren’t willing to make sacrifices you will not succeed. If you hesitate you have already lost. You will fail, not only me and Heine, but everyone who followed you here…the entire Shire. It is all on you.”

Xiao clenched his fists, his nails cutting into his palm.

“You have to remember that your thoughts are your own, no matter where you go. Be it Valentin’s brain, mine…anyone’s. You control reality. Reality is only what we accept to be true. You can create another reality. Go. You understand that if you hesitate, or go soft…once you know your goal you will pay dearly for it…more than you have already lost.”

Xiao Yan clenched his teeth and paced restlessly, his stride gaining momentum.

It is very clear that he can no longer turn back.

It was as Heine said, all suffering must be left behind him.

Winn followed Xiao.

Heine lowered his head and removed his gun from his waist to give it to Casey.

“You cannot die here.”

“Is that an order Colonel?” Casey glanced up and obediently took the gun.

“Protect Xiao Yan, he must not die here.”

“No. You don’t have time to wait for another body.” Xiao slowly moved forward, his cold gaze projected a chilling frostiness that saturated the room. The force of it swept over Valentin like a storm.

“What are you talking about.” Valentin frowned, an unmistakable hint of uneasiness stretched across his eyes.

“You don’t seem to know Jane all that well. Even if I failed, he won…in his own way.”

Valentin’s body suddenly stiffened as a sharp pain shot from his brain and down his spine. Every cells in his body felt as though it were imploding.
Blood seeped through his vessels as his muscles tore and detached. His skin couldn’t handle the pressure and began to strain and crack.

Valentin lowered his head, an incredulous expression twisting his face. He struggled to lift his hand and watched as layers of his flesh peeled off, blood dripping from the open wound.

“What is going on here… this is impossible… impossible…”

“When you transplant a brain, even if the people have the same DNA, you need to use a drug called Pandorane to stop the synapse of the nerves. That way when you implant your brain you can avoid the pain running down the spinal chord. Casey and I created a virus that is activated by this drug, it quickly replicates and attacks the hosts body, causing rapid cell degeneration.”

“Lies. You are lying. This is all an illusion. You are still in my mind!”

Valentin’s eyes were bloodshot with disbelief.

“You said that you entered my mind when I was unconscious. Other than my X-2 studies, didn’t you see how I made the virus ‘Jane’? You are doomed, Valentin. You will die.”

Valentin frantically made his way to the main control station. He shakily removed a terminal and put it on.

“There are many Jane clones here…I can use any one of them…”

“Not possible. From the moment your brain was implanted in Jane’s body, it was infected. No matter which body you choose, you will be unable to escape your fate.”

Xioa Yan’s cold voice rang through the microphone, painfully piercing Valentin’s ears.

“Shut up! Shut up! I can’t die! I won’t…”

As Valentin shrieked in anger, his arm fell off and landed onto the ground with a splat. His muscles sloughed off his body, revealing white bone beneath.

“You…have destroyed…what…is”

Valentin stumbled toward Xiao Yan, leaving a trail of blood behind him. The flesh on his chest disintegrated until all that was visible was his sternum. Xiao could see his heart getting weaker and weaker. His face began to distort, twisting his expression horribly, he resembled more zombie than man.

“What I destroyed is the delusion of something that should never have existed.”

Valentin pitched forward and his forehead smacked against the glass. His skull broke open and his brain slid out, landing heavily on the ground.

Xiao pressed his palm against the glass of the capsule. Slowly his hand passed through the material and his body followed. He looked down at the bits of flesh on the ground. Lifting his foot, he did not hesitate to crush Valentin’s brain.

“In your mind…I have killed you.”

Suddenly the scene shifted and faded. The thick coating of tissue and blood on the ground disappeared and instead an old man sat at the control seat of the main terminal.

Xiao moved in front of him and pressed his blade against his throat.

More than a dozen Surge assassins surround them at the end of the channel. They swing their blades menacingly at Xiao and the group.

Solving the killers is a difficult and agonizing ordeal.

Xiao Yan grabbed the blade of one of the killers and moved to slash toward the killers, struggling to work with Heien and make it to the next node.

These killers care nothing for their lives or bodies. No matter if their hands and feet are cut off, they do not give up their goal of trapping them within the ship. Their lives belong to the ghost of Valentin. Even after death, his violence still weaves around this world.

More and more killers pour in and Xiao desperately tried to close the passage off, but he is just a step too late. He knows that the longer they remain in the frigid water, the more energy they consume. Not to mention that the fighting has taxed their bodies to the limit, the combination has rapidly consumed their oxygen stores.

A killer was cut down by Heine, yet still refused to loosen his grip on his weapon. He grabbed Xiao Yan and tried to hold his hands and pull him deeper into the water. Heine single-handedly demolished a large group of killers approaching him and desperately reached a hand out to grab Xiao’s shoulder. The blade of the killer landed on his wrist and almost severed his hand off at the wrist.

Xiao Yan is startled and filled with adrenaline. He frantically fought against the killer. Without a weapon he must rely on hand to hand combat. He nearly broke their arms and twisted their necks. They still fight against such grave injuries, continually blocking Heine’s blade.

They fought to reach the node, and Jane struggled to push Casey toward the door as he turned to help Heine grab Xiao Yan. Finally Heine is able to extricate Xiao from the savage situation and Winn and Mark protect his side. Jane does not mimic their actions, instead he moves forward and dropped the killers that struggled to reach them.

Finally they all reached the door and Xiao gestured toward them. Jane turned back to Xiao and motioned for him to close off the passage, isolating him on the other end to deal with the killers.

Xiao Yan shook his head and along with Casey reached his hand out, forcing Jane to come back to them.

Jane is not able to reach them easily. The assassins flocked toward them, they grabbed onto Jane’s, legs holding him back. Xiao was frenzied and he screamed internally.

Hurry! Come one!

Finally Jane reached him, just as the group of Surge assassins took a hold of his waist and shoulder, others followed and went to pull Jane’s entire body down before he reached the opening. Suddenly, Jane grabbed the terminal from Xiao and pushed him through the door.

Winn killed the Surge clones as they tried to slip past the node and Liv’s actions were equally decisive and lethal. She swung her blade in focused savagery as Mark protected her.

Xiao saw that Jane was stabbed through by one of the killers, still he gestured toward Heine and used the terminal to shut the door.

With widened eyes Xiao watched as Jane’s smiling face disappeared amid the gap that rapidly shut closed. His eyes and expression seemed to scream ‘Don’t look back.’

More killers made it through before the doors shut and rushed at Xiao and his eyes went blood shot as he cut them down instantly. The rushing waters tinged red and Xiao’s mind fell into an enraged chaos until they all fell beneath his blade.

Heine hurried to his side and cupped his cheeks, kissing his lips with a passionate force and breathed heavily into his mouth, forcing air into his lungs.

Xiao looked at Heine amid the confusion, he saw the lines of Heine’s face set in a ferocious determination.

He had gone through all of this death and sacrificed so much…it could not end with him trapped in this graveyard of a ship forever. He wants to leave this haunted craft with Heine at his side.