Michael hadn't slept since he'd been busted out by Hoplite, and it was scaring him. He couldn't even escape the dark in his own dreams… it wasn't fair. Nothing had been fair about landing on this shithole world, save for finding Cat of course, that and the night he'd spent with Lena back in the Faewood, of course. Man how he wished he could go back there now, back to being human, back to being normal. How long had it been since him and Cat had split from Hoplite, a week, two weeks? It was getting hard to tell, but he had a feeling that they were getting closer to gettin' outta here.
Michael could hear Cat behind him, following just behind as he kept the crate of supplies hefted over his shoulder. It had grown somewhat lighter these past few days, as Cat consumed the supplies within. Michael himself didn't have a hunger for the food, nor even the water… but his fangs ached, and he could feel himself weakening day by day. He knew what he needed to do to stave off these hunger pangs, but the idea of it repulsed him. He just wanted to eat an MRE for crying out loud!
They walked along a narrow path they had found, leading upward. Yellowish fungus coated the cave walls and floors, just like everywhere else in here. It was humid and warm, but strangely the temperature barely seemed to bother Michael. It was Cat that was constantly wiping sweat away from her brow. He was just aware of the temperature, but it didn't seem to affect him, probably because he was a cold corpse right now. He remembered that Megad chump mentioning that he wasn't 'fully dead' or something, that he was on the border between being alive and undead.
It felt less like a 'border' though, he had no body heat, couldn't sleep, pale as snow; he looked terminally ill. Well, at least he hadn't lost his muscle mass, silver linings and all that- ah wait, he needed to find a different lining, silver was off the table now. He wondered how much of vampire myths could apply to his 'life' now. Would he be unable to see his reflection, would garlic make him sick, and most importantly… would the sun incinerate him on contact? Michael didn't want to stay in the dark like this, even if he could see perfectly in it now. If his flashlight turned off, the walls would appear to close in on him, the smell of rot would return, and he'd be back in that pod again. He wanted to live in the light.
He could control his fear a bit better now, but not by much. He needed to be brave and overcome this phobia, if he fell apart in the dark and let Cat die, he'd never be able to forgive himself. He couldn't fail her, and he couldn't fail Nasty Nate either. Michael had accepted days ago that Nate was likely dead by now. He either crashed in the Fiendwood and got Fiendified, or more likely, he died onboard the Sparrow. He wouldn't allow himself to hope for the best, never again.
The best thing he could do now was keep the girl Nate had loved alive. He just wished his fangs would stop aching whenever he looked at her. He needed to find something to chew on soon, preferably something that deserved to get chewed on. They had seen some weird little mole-looking dudes prowling around, among other cave creatures… but he didn't want to feed in front of Cat, and frankly, he wanted to put off feeding for as long as he could. He just didn't want to embrace that part of himself, even though at this point, it was who he was.
As much as he hated being a vampire, he couldn't deny though, there were some perks. Mostly the super-strength, that was all he really enjoyed about it. Everything else about vampirism wasn't ideal, but at least he was strong enough to heft this big-ass crate over his head. He'd gladly go back to normal human strength though, if it meant reversing the vampirism. He continued to mull on this as they continued up the path, until eventually they came into a wide chamber, again covered with fungus.
Michael's eyes scanned over the fungal stalagmites for any of those big ass wasps, not wanting to waste ammo on them again. He and Cat had to shoot down at least five so far, and the loss of every round stung, no pun intended. They really needed to make this ammo count, they couldn't be wasting it on oversized bugs! He supposed that, with his super-strength, he could just try punching the things…but damn man, he really didn't wanna have to wrestle with barn-sized wasps. If he got stung or bitten, he wasn't sure if he could recover from that, vampires could heal, sure, but from how much damage?
Michael would rather not find out. Really it- His crimson eyes widened when he saw a streamer of sunlight emerging from a wide crevice in the ceiling, its light shining down on a blank space on the cavern floor.
Cat pointed to it excitedly, patting him on the shoulder, "Finally, let's get the hell out of here." She told him, moving in the direction of the crevice.
He moved to follow her, but stopped halfway. Cat turned her head, brow furrowed, "What's wrong?"
"I might die." He frowned, lips drawing to a tight line, "I don't know if I can be in direct sunlight any more."
"Right…" Cat said awkwardly, "We can wait until it's nighttime, if you want."
Michael hesitated, before shaking his head, "Let me test something." He said, putting down the crate before removing his glove, "I'll put my finger in, see if it burns off."
"No don't!" Cat exclaimed, "What if it spreads up your arm and kills you?"
Michael shrugged, "I don't think that would happen, but I'll just cut it off if it does." He explained, drawing his tungsteel combat knife, "A quick slash with this baby."
"Then you won't have a finger, Mike." She told him, crossing her arms.
"Fingers grow back." He grinned.
"What?" Cat asked flatly, "You cannot be that stupid."
"I am that stupid, actually." Michael told her, "But I'm pretty damn sure that my fingers actually can grow back now."
"Right, I almost forgot." Cat sighed, "Still, I don't think this is a good idea."
"Marine's don't have good ideas, just ideas." Michael told her, approaching the streamer of light, "Sometimes they're good idea's n' sometimes they ain't. Kinda up to the universe to see which one is which."
Cat simply shook her head as he moved his bare pinky finger toward the light, hovering his black combat knife right over it. He grimaced as the light touched his skin, pain shooting up his finger. It was like he'd just burnt himself on a toaster, hot as hell! He pulled his finger back, keeping the knife over it. Thankfully the effect didn't spread up his arm, staying isolated to his finger… but now it looked completely dried out, near-skeletal, as if all the liquid had been drained from it.
"Ugh." Michael groaned, "That ain't good."
Thankfully however, he saw it quickly begin to fill back out. In just a second it was fully healed, looking just as it had before. Alright, so sun exposure wouldn't kill him outright if it just grazed a little bit a skin. Alright, Michael could work with this, now for the next test. He then put his gloved hand into the sunlight, and was thrilled to feel no pain. It needed direct skin contact to hurt him, so as long as he stayed bundled up, he should be able to walk in the sun!
He fell to his knees with a sigh, unable to contain his relief. Cat however, saw this and ran over to him, "Mike!?" She asked, "You okay?"
"I'm good." He nodded, "I'm just relieved. The sun needs to hit my skin head on for it to kill me. Didn't feel a thing through that glove."
Cat smiled, "Good, alright then so just put on your mask when we head up and you should be alright."
He hadn't felt happy in a long while, and while this wasn't exactly it, he still felt adjacent to happiness. Now that they were here and about to leave… what was the plan? Cat seemed surprisingly content to let Michael lead, so she would likely go with whatever he wanted to do. His main priority was keeping her alive at the moment, second priority was finding other Ternans, if any could be found.
The Fiendwood was screwed, fat chance of any Ternans being alive here aside from Cat, especially after all this time had passed. He could try going after Kazon to get some revenge, but for all he knew, Hoplite had already taken care of him. He then remembered the pod, back in the Faewood, loaded with ammo and provisions. He could go back there and take that stuff for him n' Cat, it was Ternan property after all, and Hoplite was a traitor.
You're hoping he's there, aren't you?
Michael clenched his jaw, frustrated at the invasive thought. Hoplite better not be there, or there was gonna be trouble- His shoulders slackened, he couldn't bring himself to even imagine a fight against Hoplite. Michael would get turned into paste if they came to blows, he wasn't going to delude himself into thinking he had a chance against Hopps. Michael would need to just hope that he wasn't there when they found the pod, that was his only hope for procuring its contents safely.
Then again, there was just a small, hair thin chance that other Ternans were alive out here in the Fiendwood, just waiting to be rescued. He frowned, this was an entire continent, taking the time to search the whole place would be impossible without months worth of supplies, not only that but him n' Cat didn't have any vehicles, they'd be going about it on foot. Cat would run out of food well before they could get that done.
"What are you thinking about?" Cat asked him, concerned.
"I think we gotta get outta the Fiendwood." He said, standing back up "Abandon the op and head back to the Faewood, there's a pod there that's loaded with food and munitions. We'll need it."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Cat asked, "There could still be survivors here, it doesn't feel right to just up and leave."
Michael shook his head, "I think it's been too long. Everyone who crashed here is either dead, or they found a way outta here already. You're gonna run out of food soon, we gotta get to that pod, hell, there are probably some in Akan-Var we can find too. That one in the Faewood though is the motherload, Hoplite loaded it down with everything he could before he evacuated the Sparrow. We're gonna need as much as we can carry."
Cat didn't respond for a moment, frowning before letting out a sigh, "I guess that makes sense. I hate to admit it but you're probably right about our comrades."
"You gotta remember too, there's also Kazon's stupid hate aura thing that was goin' on. For all we know it coulda made 'em kill each other." He explained, his head hanging low, remembering how he had felt back on the Greatbridge.
Everyone had been at one another's throats in that wagon, even Hoplite himself, until Twindil did that peace aura deal to cancel it out. Without that protection, who knows what could have happened to their allies?
"That… that explains a few things." Cat frowned, "In the first day I landed, I was arguing with my squadmates bad. I was so angry with them, and for no good reason, and vice versa." She shook her head, "There were Final Kind troops too, fighting the Fiends and Ternans, but I could have sworn that I saw them firing at each other as well. Our guys too, I thought I was going crazy, but I could have sworn I saw marines shooting at divers-" Her breath caught, putting a hand over her brow before turning away.
"It wasn't their fault." Michael told her, "Kazon did that."
"How are we going to get out of the Fiendwood if that's still going on?" Cat asked him, "We'll start to hate each other too as soon as we get topside."
"We can't stay down here either." Michael sighed, "Let's just try our best to not irritate each other. We could just stick with sign language till we get outta here, no small talk. Gotta mitigate our chances of getting pissed."
"We can try…" She said, sounding uncertain. "Say, do you think Captain Stol landed in the Fiendwood?" She asked, "Or if he evacuated at all?"
"If he did, I hope he didn't land here." Michael sighed, "We could really use him right now, he'd know what to do about Hoplite."
"...Maybe." She sighed, "I'm not sure anyone knows what to do about that. It isn't like anyone from the Sparrow could force him to listen. Unless you think that you-"
Michael shook his head quickly, "No way, I've seen him in action. He'd kill me in two seconds."
"...Alright." Cat said, visibly deflating, "Are you ready to go?"
Before Michael could answer, he heard something approaching, from the trail they had just emerged from. He turned around, crimson eyes widening as he peered into the darkness.
"Mike?" Cat asked, concerned, "What is it?"
"Something's coming," He told her, drawing his Visus rifle, "Get ready."
He and Cat immediately backed away from the cave mouth, using sign language to communicate their plan. They were on opposite ends of the cave, out of sight of anyone coming through the passage, while being able to see the passage themselves. They kept their rifles trained firmly on the entrance, ready to open fire at the first sign of a dwarf.
What emerged though, was not heavily armed dwarves. They were squat, green pot-bellied creatures with long warty noses and black eyes. They were skinny compared to dwarves, but were otherwise the same height, but with oblong, inhuman skulls with nary a scrap of hair to be seen anywhere on them. They were completely nude, carrying clubs of fungal wood, stones affixed to the end.
These were goblins, clearly. Should he shoot them or were these a relatively friendly variety? It was hard to tell, they looked gross as hell- but should he really pop them just based on that alone? He signalled for Cat to remain put, but not to drop her aim as Michael approached them. There were about three in total, all moving toward the crate Michael had put down. They didn't see Michael nor Cat, focusing purely on the crate. They were either dumb, or they didn't think a threat was present.
"Hey." Michael said, keeping his gun raised.
The goblins all let out horrified shrieks, turning around quickly before levelling their clubs at him.
"Meat!" One shouted, "Only one, we eat!"
So they were the bad kind of goblin, that was fine. He wouldn't waste the ammo on these guys, there was no point. One leapt up at him, but Cat put a bullet straight through the back of its skull, the little green body flopping to the fungal floor in a twitching mess. A second one rushed forth with his club, and Michael reacted by kicking it in the face. Instead of being knocked backward though, the goblin's skull exploded in a shower of viscera, painting the entire back end of the cave with spatters of blood and gore. Michael's eyes widened in shock, what the hell!? He knew he was stronger now but that was insane! The headless corpse flopped to the ground, sweet smelling crimson leaking out by his feet. His fangs ached horribly as the smell of blood hit his nose, and it took everything in him not to fall to his knees and start lapping up the stuff.
The other goblin screeched in terror, dropping his club before running off back toward the entrance. He saw Cat taking aim, but he raised a hand, "Save the ammo, I got this!" He shouted, chasing after the goblin.
That was the whole reason he'd kicked the goblin in the first place, he didn't want to waste the ammo and they didn't look like nothing he couldn't handle with his bare hands. He could have caught the fleeing goblin in a split second, but he wanted to chase it out of sight… his fangs hurt to a point where he couldn't control his hunger any longer, the scent of blood had been his breaking point. He was gonna drink this little shit, but he didn't want to do that in front of Cat.
Once they were in the darkness of the trail, he bared his fangs, letting out a growl as he grabbed the goblin by the back of the neck, swiping it up from the ground before immediately sinking his teeth into it's neck. He was repulsed by the flavor that hit his tongue, it was like moldy bread– but he didn't care, Michael needed more! He drained the goblin, until there wasn't a drop left. He dropped it with a huff, twin trails of red dripping down both sides of his mouth.
He stared at the corpse for a moment, it was pale green now, and shriveled up like a dead spider. Sickened with himself, Michael wiped the blood away from his mouth, though all that did was smear it across his beard. He turned around, seeing Cat standing at the mouth of the entrance, brown eyes wide with shock. He turned away, guilty that she had seen him do that.
"It's not your fault." Cat told him firmly, "That's what you have to do to survive, and that's that. Maybe we can cure you one day, but don't you go hiding from me that way."
Michael's eyes widened, "Huh?"
"Mike, you're a victim, not a monster." She said, putting a hand on her hip, "I won't treat you like one, just make sure you keep those teeth away from my neck, and we'll be good."
He hesitated, before nodding, "Well uh… thanks for not freakin' out about it. Still though, I ain't glad that you saw me do that."
"It'll take more than that to shake me after all the shit we've been through. Now come on, we have to get to that pod." Cat ordered, turning away from him.