CH41: BLOOD TRAP

The hot, morning desert sand lazily flew through the dry desert air as the hot winds carried them around. The dangerous mutated flying creatures circled over prey as they'd swoop down to try and nip or make a kill.

Under these harsh conditions, it would become hard for one to walk, and this was what was happening to Cherry.

After getting close to no information from the Granian fortress, she set off on a long perilous journey to ArkVille in search of her brother. To save valuable time, she decided to journey through the wee hours of the night, and right now, she was still walking under the blazing sun.

However, her body began to slowly give up as she ran out of blood. The last hunt she had was from killing the Granians and unlike her brother, she had an ever-present urge for blood. In this way, Cherry was slowly and steadily becoming addicted to it without even realizing it.

The heat caused her to overconsume what she stored and due to that said heat, the blood would quickly solidify into a thick, pasty form that was close to raw liver. This of course meant she had to eat and not drink, and all that eating made her thirsty.

With no natural oasis' nor man-made lakes, she was left to thirst as the sun sucked up all the moisture from her young body. "F*ck this heat," She cursed bitterly while she rolled her dry tongue against her chapped, dry, cracking lips. "How could red gas cause all of this? It's so freaking hot. I can't feel my legs anymore."

Cherry took off the worn-out shoes she had on and once she stepped on the desert sand barefoot, her feet burned as a sizzling sound danced in her ears. She quickly put her shoes back on again but neither they were doing anything effective.

"I....I need....I need water...." She said as her steps grew weaker and slower.

*SCAWK*

Large shadows of oversized buzzards circled Cherry as she walked even much slower than before. The creatures noticed her slowed-down pace and quickly hovered over her, waiting for a chance to swoop and take her to wherever they slept to eat her.

The first mutated buzzard was as long as a hippo and as big as a bull. Its wingspan was about over twenty inches and its head was weaponized with a large, curved beak while it had curved black talons.

The first of the three buzzards swooped down at great speeds toward the girl. With its claws out and ready to strike, it got closer to her and prepared to grab and run. However, the buzzard had made an error in doing and soon, it was going to find out the hard way.

Being only arm's length away, the buzzard clenched its claws twice. However, Cherry surprised it by forming a blood scythe and immediately slicing off one of its wings. The creature fell down mightily with a great thud as it bled to death.

Cherry smiled as she sensed the other two coming for her as well. She quickly drained the first one of its blood, made thick, nine-inch-long blood spikes, and shot them at the chests of the remaining two.

The two beasts fell down mightily as they two had their last breaths and died from their lungs being filled with blood.

Cherry stood on one buzzard that was only mere seconds away from death and said, "I love how bigger you've become, and yet you've still remained this arrogant." She laughed while some blood dissolved into her body through her skin.

Now that she had consumed to her fill, she gleefully continued her journey to ArkVille, wherever it was.

--------------

The entire ArkVille military base was in an uproar as half of its occupants angrily fused and cussed at Jason. The boy needed some guards to protect him from the wrath of the other Gifted students.

News spread across the entire base, even to General Jake and Chris, the two who were currently in isolation.

However, the General's condition wasn't exactly close to perfect. Ever since he was scratched by one of the red men, he had been isolated while under the supervision and watchful intelligence of the scientists.

Since then, his left leg was completely red with bumpy, leather-like skin and yellow domes of puss. His eyes were completely sunken into his head as he developed dark, scaly rings under them. His hair slowly fell out as tiny red bumps and scales replaced them. His body sweated uncontrollably with every passing minute as the scientists marked how long he had been infected for.

With each passing second, he felt his humanity slowly slip away from his as savage senses took over from time to time.

Now after hearing about Grim's visit to Earth and the manhunt for Ace and Sky, he grew even more violent but worried at the same time. He didn't know about Sky but he figured that Ace's suspicious character and behavior could have something to do with the aliens initiating a manhunt for him.

"What shall we do, General?" General Luke, who stood at a safe distance, questioned his leader while waiting for a response. With the little consciousness he had left, General Jake looked deeply at Luke and said, "Go...find boy....and save... us. Don't...give to...aliens..."

His speech was a little mumbled and his voice was deep and scratchy as he mouthed the little words he said to Luke. Luke nodded in agreement as the curtains closed down in Jack's room.

Luke sadly turned over to the scientists and asked, "How long until he's back to normal?"

"It's hard to say now, Sir." The head scientist replied. "We still haven't fully learned how to reverse the effects of the infectious agents. Their anatomy is unlike anything we've ever seen."

"Then, what will happen if you fail to reverse the effects?" Luke asked but the scientists sighed heavily as they replied, "He'll be no different from the others. Don't worry, Sir. We'll try our best to see what we can do."

While all of this was being said, a certain teenage boy was listening in on the whole conversation but he managed to go unspotted. In fact, he was standing on top of General Luke, and even he failed to notice it.

Chris, the Gifted who could turn into animals, took the form of a fly and rested on Luke's hair as he listened to the whole conversation. From what he heard, he learned that Ace and Sky had a bounty on their heads, the military base was going to go under war in any second and Luke was most likely going to set up a team to hunt the two teens down.

"None of this is gonna happen. Not on my watch." He said as his tiny little wings flapped away into the ventilation system of the base whilst making his way out. Once he was out, he took another form, but this time as an eagle.

"Oh no!!! What exactly do they want from you, Ace?" He said as his eyes gazed upon the large alien spaceship that was only a few hundred yards away from them with the alien forces gathering themselves for war.

With a mighty flap of his wings, Chris flew up high in the sky as he set off to look for Ace. "The only thing I'm relying on is my instincts," He said to himself. "I don't even know where to begin with."