Postmortem Ch11 || Underground Sunlight

Tobias gazed at the suchomimus’ calm form. Ragged inhale, weak exhale. Ragged inhale again, then again he breathed out. Rhythmic, but slow and forceful. Like it was an effort to continue breathing. It was almost peaceful. Click was unconscious, he wouldn’t know what great pain he was in thanks to the wounds he had sustained.

Tobias tilted his head. His breathing was slow, the steady in-and-out matching Click’s.

When savage teeth had pierced his hide and rent his flesh, crushed his bones and thrown him to the ground. When sharp claws tore through him and exposed flesh and sinew to the cold, open air of the uncaring night as the stars stared down and the sounds of crunching bone and laughter-

Tobias blinked. That wasn’t what had happened, not to Click. He sighed quietly, drawing himself back from his thoughts. There was so much death here. The ones who had been trapped here for so long, they killed to eat, killed to live. It wasn’t so different from living outside the facility, but at least there...there were other options, even in the lean times. At least outside, hatchlings didn’t often go to sleep with cavernous stomachs with the fear that they might wake up to their parents turning instead to them for sustenance.

Hatchlings were more mouths to feed. It was hard to watch them starve. Better to eat them, put them out of their misery. Parents could always just make more to replace the ones that had been consumed, anyway.

What a horribly painful place this was.

At least...it would not claim Click. He felt sure of that, at least.

He glanced up to the sound of two sets of footsteps - one slow and even and quiet, the other awkward and jerky. The second bore the sounds of pain.

One of the shadows had returned, with her companion in tow. The facility would not claim either of them either, as much as the smaller utahraptor feared that that would be the case. Petrichor’s ankle was healing, and would continue to heal. She would have no problems with it in the future, no mark to remind her that the lobby was the furthest she had gotten into the Alpha Labs.

She was afraid of him. She thought there was something wrong with him. He could see it in her eyes as she glared at him. She would not have to put up with his presence for long, though. Once Petrichor was well enough to travel, the pair would leave. He wasn’t sure if their paths would ever cross again. He couldn’t see it, there was no pull. There was only now. He could only feel that he needed to be here, in this moment, and that was precisely where he was.

Petrichor was less wary of Tobias than Callahan was. She was curious. She wanted to know more. Who was this strange cryo? Why did he travel in the company of a scrawny, dying suchomimus? He could see this, too, as her cool gaze lingered on Click’s unconscious and bloody form.

“He fought the Twisted Beast,” Tobias said, breaking the silence with his flat, inflectionless voice that Callahan hated so much. Petrichor heard something different - there was an edge of danger to his voice, something that made a chill trickle down her spine. Still, she was drawn to listen.

Callahan murmured something under her breath when Petrichor showed interest. She wanted to sit away from the strange pair, somewhere safe. Petrichor couldn’t climb the stairs, but they could still shelter under them. But Callahan, as she often did, relented to what Petrichor wanted. Her companion had such a soft and pleasant voice, Callahan found it difficult to argue - particularly when it meant that Petrichor would rest sooner and get the weight off of her ankle.

Petrichor eased herself to the ground, resting with her legs kicked out to the side. Callahan crouched beside her, fluffing her feathers and pressing the tip of her muzzle along Petrichor’s hide as though preening her. She was perfectly content to pretend to ignore Tobias, but still kept an eye on him. The pair were just out of reach - far enough away that there was no possibility of contact, but close enough that Tobias would not have to raise his voice for them to hear him.

Tobias tilted his head, turning to look at Petrichor with a cold, flat stare. “Your ankle will heal faster if you elevate it on something soft.”

Callahan snorted. They didn’t need his help.

She offered her tail to Petrichor for her to rest her ankle over. Petrichor shifted, and did just that. She nosed the feathers under Callahan’s jaw in thanks.

“What’s this ‘Twisted Beast?’” Petrichor mused, her voice as light and lilting as ever.

“A fa’, obergrown bully wif an ugly fafe,” came another, muffled voice.

Callahan’s feathers spiked between her shoulders as she whipped her head in the direction of the voice, only to find that the other utahraptor she’d seen had reappeared - carrying with her a satchel stuffed full of herbs.

The stranger set the satchel on the ground, planting a foot on it to ensure that the inanimate object wasn’t going anywhere. She looked markedly unimpressed by Callahan’s posturing.

“Smooth your feathers out, shorty. You don’t wanna try me.” The vibrantly coloured utahraptor glanced between Tobias and Click as Callahan opened her jaws to fire back.

“What are you even doing here?” Callahan hissed. “We don’t need any more help!”

The stranger ignored Callahan without so much as even a twitch of her tail. “The dacen’s gonna want this when he gets back. Stuff in here to help your weird-faced friend.” Though, come to think of it, the cryo had a weird face too, now that she really got a good and up-close look at him. His crest went too high up, not like an alberto or an acro. It just...kept going. Went all the way over his head. Weird.

Tobias dipped his head in thanks.

“Go on. Tell us all about the great and terrible monster that lives in the bowels of this place.”

Tobias gave a short, forceful exhale. It was almost a laugh, or as close to one as he was likely to get. This utahraptor...Prototype. A creature from the Alpha Labs, just like Hazard, Sunflower, Ginseng, Basalt, Rime. She was made here, as they were. But unlike them, she had no kin here. She woke up, she wasn’t hatched. Experiencing a hatching for the first time would be painful and confusing for her. She was fortunate that she would have someone to comfort her.

“Nidhogg,” he started, then paused. Prototype scratched an itch behind her head, catching her balance as the satchel beneath her claws shifted its contents.

She noticed he was waiting, then scoffed. “Well don’t stop on my account. Your audience is waiting to hear all about his rotting hide.”

“Rotting?” Petrichor asked, turning her gaze between the cryo and the odd...rather uncouth utahraptor.

Tobias paused. He’d never met Nidhogg, never seen the great beast with his own eyes. He had gotten a feeling for them now, though, having spent so much time in the depths. Nidhogg’s presence in the Alpha Labs was hard to ignore. The effects of their existence were felt across each and every zone. Even the albertos, who were largely confined to Zone A, had heard of the name.

“They might appear that way, yes,” Tobias agreed. “Mottled markings ripple across their hide, his scales twisted by scars and gives the appearance that their hide is sloughing off in the dark depths of the deepest reaches of Zone D. The wound that ripped through their leg twisted and mangled the meat permanently. They have a horrible limp…”

Tobias stared off into the distance for a moment. He felt...poorly for Nidhogg. Alone in the dark depths. It was their home. It wasn’t their fault that the reactor had become unstable and threatened to destroy the island. The islanders had invaded their home, attacked Nidhogg when they tried to defend their den. Space was such a precious commodity here, in the Alpha Labs. It was little wonder that Nidhogg had reacted so strongly. So many had sought to destroy Nidhogg in attempts to save themselves.

“Living in the depths of the earth...changed them,” Tobias continued after a moment. He blinked, turning his attention from the darkness of Zone D back to Callahan and Petrichor, who were still cuddled together. Prototype remained further away, standing over her hostage.

“The skin under their neck sagged and stretched thin, and mounds of flesh grew up around their eyes. It would have blinded them if it, too, hadn’t begun to sag under the weight of itself.” The pain Nidhogg must have been in. In their head, in their body, in their bones. The air itself was poison down there. It must’ve driven them to madness.

“And along their body, spots of...light. Like little suns, smooth and flush against their hide. They burned from the inside out, light pouring from their eyes and nose and mouth. In times of darkness, they were all that was light.” And sometimes...unfortunately, it was the last light that the unfortunates that found themselves in Nidhogg’s lair would ever see. Nidhogg was a creature in pain, but they were not innocent. They, too, had to eat. The acros, who feared nothing, not even death, feared them.

After a moment of silence, Petrichor snickered. “That is an interesting story,” she mused. “A beast with suns on its hide. Is that what passes for a story to tell to hatchlings in here? At least it passes the time, I suppose.”

“It’s true, actually,” Prototype snorted. “But it’s not suns, they’re just...like that. Same with a few others here. All messed up from living like this too long. Lights and spikes where they shouldn’t be, bones growing out of feathers and bleaching the colour from their hides.” Most of the dinosaurs that lived within the facility were what could pass as “normal.” Some...were not.

Tobias dipped his head in acknowledgement. He didn’t have any other words to explain Nidhogg’s condition, not in a way that the two utahraptors who had never seen bioluminescence might understand.

“You!” The single word was somehow both full of surprise and accusation at once. “What are you doing here! And give me my saddlebags!”