Chapter 59: Evolution
As they made their way back to Rusty Den, somewhere far away, at the heart of Calais, with the darkness of night still ever present, an ominous gathering of Predicaments occurred — a Poison Jar.
The Predicaments wandered through the streets orderly, like ants, and arrived at the city centre of Calais, where they were met with a grotesque monument of gore — a black and crimson hill made of their own kind.
The bodies of the deceased were mangled and decapitated, riddled with harrowing wounds that would leave even an experienced soldier to wince or retch.
The blood of the deceased gushed out in streams, trickling down to join the river that formed below, which had begun to flow in all connected and neighbouring streets.
It was clear there was no finesse in how these Predicaments were dealt with, only pure savagery.
Slowly trudging over, a Predicament at the base of the hill began its ascent towards the top.
With the help of its bulky legs, it was able to overcome the stray bodies that tumbled towards it. Unfortunately, the only thing holding it back was its lanky arms.
It continued to climb and climb, and when it reached halfway, something leapt down at it from above.
Something drenched in thick blood. Something covered in harrowing wounds that were soon healed within seconds.
And something...
BITE.
... Something out for blood.
Due to its poor eyesight, it failed to realise that what had attacked it was another one of its kind — which had latched itself onto its face.
Before it could respond to this sudden ambush, its skull cracked and shattered inside the savage Predicament’s jaws, leading to its gruesome death and decapitation.
After what remained of its head was devoured, it was soon let go to tumble down to the base of the hill, joining the rest.
The savage Predicament that had attacked it gulped down what it had bitten off and unnoticeably grew a centimetre.
Compared to the usual Scoundrel, this one was visibly large and had thicker muscles, especially in its arms. Its skin had also begun to develop into a greyish-brown hide and small raised patches on its body that resembled plates.
The savage Predicament returned to the peak before descending to engage with Predicaments that were after its head. The way it fought was fierce and ruthless, like it had lost its mind and could only quell its Impulses with blood.
It killed, and it killed, devouring more and more. In turn, that quickened the progress of its evolution.
The plates on its body became more prominent, tougher, and as hard as metal. Its limbs were now thicker than logs, its muscles bulging with immense strength.
It grew another pair of eyes, which had also undergone a change. Improved eyesight and a change in colour — black to dark brown.
The savage Predicament was a beast amongst the surrounding Scoundrels; its body was now near-impervious to their jaws and claws.
Though these changes were not without a loss, for in exchange for improved eyesight, thicker muscles, better regeneration and defences, it had lost the clawed aspect on its hands, resembling gorillas’.
Its evolution was now complete.
The Scoundrel had now transformed into a Soldier.
In need of testing its newly evolved body, it climbed from the hill of bodies. And while it was clear that it had yet to fully adapt to the changes its body had undergone, it managed to get to the base of the hill with minimal difficulty.
It was clear that it was going to take a day or more for it to completely get used to this body.
When the savage Predicament eventually reached the ground, it immediately charged towards the nearest Scoundrel and tore it apart, its speed surpassing the average Scoundrel.
The way it tore apart the Scoundrel was exactly like how a sadistic child would to a stuffed toy. Starting from pulling apart its limbs to its innards; a gory and horrific sight to behold.
CRUNCH.
After witnessing the savage Predicament devour the skull of the Scoundrel, the surrounding Scoundrels that still remained slowly bowed their heads in submission, as if they were welcoming it as some kind of "pack leader".
The savage Predicament felt jubilant when it saw this; the voracious and crazed Impulses in its mind subsided slightly.
When it was about to take another step to truly claim its title of "pack leader", it sensed an unusual presence make itself known.
Trudging through the river of blood, a Predicament arrived from a neighbouring street, having been called to the area by its Impulses.
It had thick limbs, two pairs of dark brown eyes, was covered in thick plates, and had meaty fingers — the exact same as the savage Predicament, except just a few inches taller than the newly-evolved Soldier.
It...
It was another Soldier.
...
Night soon came to an end with the break of dawn.
Hours later, the humans residing in Calais began to open their eyes; their eyes filled with anticipation and relief.
Today was the last day in this god-forsaken city.
Nadia’s eyes twitched sluggishly, sensing a faint warmth on her face, which bugged her irritably.
For a split second, she opened her eyes and discovered that the faint warmth she felt was the cause of a narrow stream of sunlight that managed to land on her face.
She let out a quiet groan as she turned on her side, pulling on the blanket that was draped over her body.
"..."
Blanket?
Nadia immediately sat up, ignoring the dizziness she felt from her abrupt movement, and looked down at the thing on her body.
It was a dark-blue, worn-out piece of fabric, large enough to cover her entire body; something that would’ve been nice to have on the first night.
Nadia pinched the edges of the blanket, inspecting it curiously with a puzzled look. Although she did like the makeshift blanket, finding it surprisingly warm, she didn’t actually recall getting it before heading off to sleep.
Had someone gotten this out for her?
At this thought, her eyes became half-lidded, grateful to the mysterious person who did this. She then got up from the ground and stretched her limbs before looking around the inside of the warehouse.
Everywhere she looked, there was at least someone shuffling around, doing something with anxious fervour.
And judging by how on edge everyone looked, Nadia deduced it was probably due to Hilda’s actions from last night.
She sighed, then thought about the woman.
Now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen the woman once upon waking up.
Nadia furrowed her brows at this realisation.
’Judging by how she acts, she should be walking around somewhere acting like a fool.’
Obviously, Nadia didn’t see her that way. With the recent events, she knew that Hilda was anything but a fool. And from last night when they were out at the quayside, she realised the woman had a lot more wisdom than she expected.
Was wisdom something you gained a lot of when working in the military?
As she pondered that thought, she heard someone call out her name from behind.
"Nadiaaa...! How’d you sleep?!"
"Hm? Oh, Seraphine."
Turning around, she watched as an orange-haired woman rushed towards her, clearly happy about her being awake for some reason. Could she have gotten attached to her that fast?
’Not like that would be a bad thing...’ Nadia internally rubbed her chin.
Having an extra set of hands was going to be useful, especially one that could handle firearms as well as Seraphine.
Although now that she thought about it, Seraphine did appear more biased towards her, for some reason. Not like it mattered all too much.
"I’ve slept well," Nadia answered curtly. "It was better than the first night, at least. How about you?"
"Definitely! Maybe it’s because there’s not a big hole in the windows to let all the wind in," Seraphine chuckled wryly, still remembering her unfortunate encounter with the crippled Predicament. "As for how I slept... it wasn’t too bad!"
Nadia nodded.
"I suppose you’re right. And that’s good to hear."
She then looked around.
"Where’s Callum? Is he not with you?"
"Him? Eh... I think he’s with Ross. Since those two have some kind of like creative mind, I think they’re putting together something," Seraphine answered with slight uncertainty.
"I see... and what about Hilda?" Nadia asked coyly, getting slightly uncomfortable with the woman’s lack of presence. "I haven’t seen her around, do you know where she is?"
"Hilda...? Ehm..."
Seraphine scratched the side of her cheek.
"No one has seen her, actually."
Nadia blinked blankly at the response given and quirked an eyebrow.
"What do you mean?"