The substation was freezing. My hand rested on the main console, its surface icy and lifeless. Eight minutes and twenty-two seconds until total system failure. Eight minutes until Jin-sama's breath would falter forever.
With steady fingers, I traced the primary reboot sequence.
The console flickered to life.
I turned around.
It was standing in the doorway I had just sealed off. Not a hunched beast or a scuttling creature with claws and chitin. No, it stood tall, an athletic figure with pale, scarred skin. Six feet of tightly packed muscle, completely naked, its form disturbingly perfect. Except for where its legs should have been. There was just a smooth, featureless expanse of flesh.
And its eyes. Not the blank, pupilless orbs of a Shambler. These were human eyes: dark, intelligent, and unnervingly calm.
It stepped into the room.
Its head tilted slightly, as if curious. It studied me, then glanced at the console behind me.
"Who... are... you?"
