The Perfect Specimen

"I should be able to make it to cover now."

He sees that his leg is still in the process of healing but it's connected enough that it will give him the d.e.s.i.r.ed movement. He then hears a deafening scuttling of small feet against asphalt.

He looks up from his leg to see the rest of the young rats all charging over towards him. Without a chance to think anymore on his plan he smashes his remaining fist into the support beam while using [Knuckle Burst] and then he springboards himself with his only leg towards the stable cover.

He is able to get the d.e.s.i.r.ed affect, with the only downside being that the leg tore off completely again after propelling himself. He rolls from the inertia and stops underneath the beam. While he does all this, chunks of debris and concrete are falling down all around him.

The a.d.u.l.t rats that were watching on the roof and the infant rats that were charging at him were all taken by surprise at the sudden situation and tried to scurry to safety.

Alistair did not expect the magnitude of the damage he causes though. The support beam was not only holding up the rats base, it was holding up that section of the sewer tunnel. On top of that, the flooring that the heavy concrete has smashed down on became more fragile with age.

The floor fell right out from under Alistair and the rat nest causing a domino effect, creating a deeper and deeper hole down into the sewer and even below that. Alistair's cover for the debris became useless as it, along with himself, kept falling and crashing into random objects.

He finally gets down to the bottom of the tunnel and is surprised that his head isn't completely destroyed. His jaw was torn off halfway down and his eye is hanging out of the socket. His head got off light though since he was consciously trying to protect it.

His body, on the other hand, would be better described as a popped water balloon. His legs were lost in the fall, his arms are completely shattered and a deep gash starting from his right armpit to the right shoulder has his shoulder almost completely cut off and bones sticking out all over.

Contrary to the gory scene though, Alistair does not portray the look of death that would accompany his condition. He instead is resting impaled from the middle of his back to his c.h.e.s.t on another metal pipe that was a piece of debris that dropped faster than him.

When he sees the state his body is in, he immediately starts to feel the hunger in his stomach recede like a tidal wave before it crashes with intense force. Knowing that he could end up losing control of himself at any moment he looks around to try and find any dead rats that could have fallen down with him.

All he is able to see though is the light pouring down from the top of the hole. The damage from the fall damaged his spine, preventing him from moving at all. All he is able to do is stare at the light coming from the top of the tunnel, the cave in caused the top of the sewer to collapse in that area as well.

Alistair thinks of this and hopes that someone will come find him and help save him from his situation, until he remembers that the rats nest was located outside of the city boundaries in the sewer. It was never a cause of concern to anyone before because there were no entryways from the outside in to the sewer that weren't already destroyed.

He becomes frustrated with himself as he sees his vision take on a more dark red tint.

He thinks about the chance of someone actually finding him down here and if they might be people he knows. They will see him as a zombie and then what's the chances of them killing him on site or even worse, trying to help him and only getting eaten by him.

He felt an indescribable terror to falling into the state once again as if he would lose something important to himself. He suddenly heard a strange whisper that seemed to emanate from within himself.

"Hungry..."

He quickly tries to look into himself with the ability he got from the eye and he sees the swirl in his stomach reaching out towards his brain with two dark spiraling clawed hands.

"Hungry!"

He feels a chill run throughout what's left of his body and he shouts in a panic at himself.

"No, I can't go 'ack into that state! I don't 'ant to kill anyone again! 'lease, there has to 'e so'ething I can do, anything!"

He screams and does not care that his words don't sound right without his jaw. The claws wrap around Alistair's neck multiple times seeming to be strangling him.

"HUNGRY."

"I won't gi' in! You're the one who 'akes 'e do all those horri'le things! I'll never su''it to you!"

He moves his good eye around frantically in search of anything he could try to heal himself with. He then sees a string of flesh hanging just out of reach from a giant rat corpse. He struggles with all of his might to try and move any part of his body to inch him closer towards it.

His vision grows darker red with each passing moment and he does not make much progress towards the flesh.

His body stops shaking from him trying to inch closer. The eyes that were once looking so desperately towards the piece of meat for salvation now show a blank look, similar to a dead fish instead.

He opens his mouth and a suction force drags the meat that was hanging just out of reach directly into his mouth. Without chewing or making anymore movements, Alistair sits and waits for his body to recover enough.

His spine recovers at a fast pace and is the only thing that does recover on his body. He easily shimmies his way off of the metal spike and falls to the floor. He then sees the rest of the giant rat and devours it whole with the same suction power it used previously.

With a body full of fresh energy, the spiral sends tendrils out from inside of his body and squeezes between nooks and crannies to attack to the severed parts of Alistair's body. Then, as if the spiral inside of him were a fishing rod, it reels the limbs back to his body and begins repairing them.

He looks up and lets out a groan that creatures all over the world are familiar with. A groan that indicates a zombie is about to go searching for its next victim.