Fear and Rot

Phobos should not be here. 

 

The Albertosaurus was large, full of muscle, armed with sharp teeth, and he should not be there. 

 

The theropod was standing on shore, staring down the hulk of the shipwreck in front of him. It was a massive wreck, used to be something called a cruise ship? A Ferry? Something like that. He was familiar with man-made structures but this monster of metal was something else. This ship had grounded just off of Isla Pera many years ago and was left abandoned, now the seas beat at it day after day slowly destroying it piece by piece. It's white hull tainted orange with rust. 

 

Phobos was here because he had heard a rumor about a strange walking corpse. It was suspected to be an Anteosaurus but no one really knew. He was curious if there was fact to the rumor, as he knew what it was like to be the subject of one. With his swishing abyssal coloration accented with rough and cut black and void-calling spotting he had been the subject of many rumors when he resided in the Alpha Labs. Very few of those rumors had been true and he hoped that was the same for this Anteosaurus other dinosaurs were calling "Rot".  The only way to find out, of course, was to go inside of this shipwreck and see for himself. 

 

To board the shipwreck was tricky, it sat too high and out too far to get aboard from the beach so Phobos needed to swim out into the sea and let the current drag him back to the ship where he could then board from a crushed out hole in it's hull. Doing so was fairly harrowing and he was relived once he was on the solid flooring of the top cargo hold.  He looked around at the broken, sloshed around cars and trucks and wondered where he should go from there. He could go up, or he could descend further into the wreckage. Deciding if there was a need for an escape, he figured that up was better. The Albertosaurus would carefully stalk his way through the spotted darkness to look for a stairwell, hoping to find one large enough he could ascend. To his luck he found the rear main stairwell and he would take the tight pathway up to the next floor. 

 

It was there that it hit him; A horrible stench that smelled like death or sickness.

 

Phobos' lips curled back a bit with disgust and he squinted into the darkness. Death could be a good thing, it could be a meal, however sickness was no good. This floor was mostly economy seating set between restaurants and shops, a lone hospital set almost midship. With his height he could see far down the sheer of the ship, if something was on this floor he would most likely see it before it saw him. 

 

See it, he would.

 

Once he came to the on-board hospital Phobos had to halt in his tracks, becoming as stiff as stone as he found what he was looking for. Admittedly the sight of it send a chill through his body from snout to tip. In front of him laying heavy on the bed of the hospital was the corpse of an Anteosaurus. It was an ugly, sickened grey in color, devoid of fur.  From it's back sprouted ugly, withered and broken thorns, spikes of bone, the same of which poked out from the chewed off tip of it's tail. Was that a mutation? It resembled something from the Alpha Labs and that bunker of horrors. Yet.. it seemed so organic and wrong, like it's bones forced through it's flesh. It's claws were the color of bone, with toes that looked constricted, red, with blanched tips as if they were diseased. It was very noticeable that the corpse was missing it's right rear leg, the leg taken halfway from under the body. The stump scarred ragged as if the limb was ripped horrificially off. The corpse was on it's right side so he could not see the full extent of which, but he imagined it was gnarly. Strips of flesh were missing from the full of the corpse as if many things had grabbed it with sharp claws and dull teeth, ripping into it with vigor.The corner of it's mouth of the left of it's face  was nastily mauled and it was that which caused Phobos to realize the strips of missing flesh weren't such but instead were scars. This was no corpse, the coloration of it just made it seem as such. On it's dome was a pale blaze, hardened against the soft red he mistook for blood. What he thought was a corpse wide open was just a frame around a brick sable and unders, a midline breaking through a haze. The colors and shapes morphing together to make the Anteosaurus look like something it wasn't. The markings making it seem to have sunken flesh around it's eyes were just an optical illusion. Eyes that now looked to him, pale almost like blindness. He could see now it's right cheek was ripped, it's right fang slit into and exposed. The way it's head had lifted and turned to look to him was almost like a stiff corpse that forgot how to move. It was uncoordinated, and sluggish. 

 

Phobos felt his breath stutter, he raised himself up some to appear taller. He was unsure now that he found the fabled Anteosaurus. He didn't know where he stood with it or where it stood with him. He didn't know if he could take this thing on if a fight were to happen. Or, maybe it was a walking disease? Was he safe? 

 

"Hello?" He would question, trying to break the ice. 

 

The Anteosaurus seemed to move it's mouth but no words came out, it was as if the beast had forgotten how to talk but still tried to remember the way to make the syllables. 

 

As if getting angered with it's own inability speak to the Albertosaurus, the Anteosaurus closed it's mouth into a twisted sneer, lips pulled tight around yellowed teeth. 

 

"Are you the one they call Rot?" Phobos would try again, wondering if the Anteosaurus could talk and if they would know about the rumors about them. 

 

In response to this second attempt at communication the Anteosaurus started to move. Down a leg it couldn't easily get off of the hospital bed so it seemed to grab at the edges and pull itself down to the floor, belly sliding to fall to the linoleum below. It let out a guttural sort of moan from it's mouth, raising up to stand on it's feet as it slunk towards the Albertosaurus. 

 

It was now Phobos made a noise in his throat and took a step backwards towards the door.

 

His eyes couldn't leave the Anteosaurus and it's eyes didn't leave him as it looked up to him, drool spilling from it's mouth.  It inhaled a wettened breath as if the air had to share space with blood and that sound send Phobos rocketing backwards. The Albertosaurus used his long legs to stride back, retreating the way he came. He spun once he had the room in the tight seating area and he ran for the rear stairwell. Behind him the Anteosaurus let out a feral snarl and charged after him. It was surprisingly fast but it was uncoordinated, it crashed through the rotten old seats, clawing and thrashing as it tried to gain on the solo Alberto. Phobos threw himself up the stairwell, taking the stairs as many as he could as quickly as he could, bottlenecked and forced to slow by the tightened space. Rot started to catch him, biting at his tail, shaving scales and flesh but not getting a solid grip.  Phobos hit the next floor running, using the wider space of the lounge to gain distance on the walking, on the running, corpse. Rot crashed through glass behind him, trying to scramble to catch up once more as if it was desperate to satiate an endless hunger. 

 

Suddenly Phobos was forced to slide to a stop, glass stinging his feet as he came to a blockage in the path caused by a collapsed ceiling. He let out a panicked noise and he shrieked, jumping backwards against the rusted, rotting wall as he moved out of the way of Rot and let the Anteosaurus throw itself into the pile of debris. The Anteosaurus let out a sickening shrill of a noise and scrambled about, limbs flailing as it tried to reorient itself so it could continue it's chase. 

 

Phobos was gone as quickly as he'd bounced off the wall, fleeing towards the rear. He followed the signs he recognized from the Alpha Labs. Emergency Exit. Emergency Exit. Exit this way. This way to deck. 

 

On his heels once more was this so called rotten corpse. A very much alive Anteosaurus, but he guessed now it could only be called Rot for it's mind seemed to be gone. It snarled behind him, closing once more as it pulled itself over counters and between seating. 

 

Phobos soon enough was darting between the two rear stairwells, time still going too slow for him as he ran past the deck bar and charged head-first through a busted old table. He didn't bother with the next set of stairs, he jumped from one floor to the next and then threw himself over the rusted railing of the stern. It was a dangerous risk he didn't even think about, he just acted as he ran on fear and adrenaline. The abyss colored  Albertosaurus jumped straight off the stern of the broken old ship and into the ocean below, escaping the Anteosaurus behind him. 

 

Rot didn't follow him, crashing against the railing of the ship with a defeated and longing snarl. 

 

Phobos also didn't return, he swam to shore as quickly as he could and ran from that walking dead.