Chapter 4 - Chapter 4- The Birth

Kira was heedless of the stinking puddle of insect and human fluids as she fell to her knees, let her first aid clatter at her side, and clasped her beloved to her chest. “Oh Cassie! Cassie, I’m so sorry, for everything that’s happened. I’m here for you, I’ll never leave you again, I promise!”


Cassie smiled, a smile of joy and relief, though it was weak and completely without energy. “Oh Kira, I’m so glad you’re here… I… it all hurts… I’m… I’m so tired… so… so weak… please Kira… help me” As she spoke she tried to raise her uninjured hand to touch Kira’s face, but she could not find it with her blindness, and her strength soon wavered.


Kira clasped Cassie’s hand when she saw her faltering “Oh Cassie, I’m so sorry, I wanted to rush to your side the whole time. I’m so sorry that you had to endure that, it’s unimaginable; I promise I will never leave your side again. I’m going to get you out of here, everything will be okay, I promise.” Her knuckles grew white she was clasping Cassie’s hand so tightly.


Cassie drew in a sharp breath, the smallest of pained yelps escaping her lips as she pulled her hand free and feebly ran it across her tight, swollen belly. She looked pleadingly with her empty sockets into Kira’s eyes, her voice was dripping with fear and helplessness “What…. What’s inside of me?”


Kira could feel the completely overwhelming fear in Cassie as she spoke.  Kira herself admittedly could not even imagine what Cassie was going through right now, to have her entire body pumped full of unknown liquids, to have her precious sex violated by a mindless monster, the sheer terror of not knowing what would happen must be agonizing.


 “I… I don’t know. But we’re going to get it out of you, I promise” Kira wasn’t lying, she truly did not know what was festering inside Cassie’s bowels, but she had a guess, and it was not a pleasant one. It was obvious that it was a sexual mating practice of some sort, and when insects mated with other species it was usually parasitic in nature. But the fact that the bug had used Cassie’s natural orifices did give Kira hope that the insect’s mating would not be dangerous; it did not appear to be a parasitic implantation in the traditional sense. Hopefully whatever it had pumped into her would not react to her human physiology, it would be absurd to imagine an insect’s semen having any effect on a human ovary.



 Cassie’s body was so overly full of strange foreign liquids that every muscle in her abdomen was taught and wracked with agonizing cramps. Kira began to rub her beloved’s stomach, massaging it with her warm hands to ease Cassie’s pain as she began to examine her body. “There, there Cassie, I’m here to help you now. I promise I’ll do everything I can to help you, to make you comfortable. We’re going to get out of here, and go home, and everything will be alright. Won’t that be nice?”



“Ye-yeah” Cassie sighed, smiling weakly. “I can stay in Saint Ingrid’s hospital where you work, you… you can see me every day”

 As Kira continued massaging Cassie’s stomach, she began to really examine her situation. “L.. let’s try to get this out of you Cassie” she said soothingly, as she looked more closely at Cassie’s gaping anus and pussy, stuffed wide open by semi-transparent resin as she continued. “Cassie, this might be uncomfortable, please bear with me.”


Cassie nodded weakly and let out a small hum in the affirmative, and Kira began to examine the resinous plugs that were clogging her vaginal and anal openings. Kira prodded them a few times, evoking some uncomfortable gasps from Cassie, as she tried to find any way to remove the wretched plugs. She took a knife from her first aid kit and, stabilizing the resinous mass with her hands, gave it a few experimental chiseling jabs. Kira was disappointed to find that the resin was very durable, and due to the overflow both inside and outside of Cassie’s body, removing them was simply impossible in their current situation.


“Cassie?” She finally said.
 
“Y-yes Kira?”
 
“I’m sorry, I… I can’t get this out of you. These… these ‘plugs’ are really solid, and with the overflow it’s a tight seal. I’m so sorry”


The look in Cassie’s eyes broke Kira’s heart, as for a fleeting moment she could see the hope on Cassie’s face flicker out like a candle fighting against a breeze. Seeing some of Cassie’s already feeble hope dissolve, and looking into her ghastly empty eye sockets made Kira want to cry, and to scream, and die all at the same time. “God I’m so sorry Cassie, I promise, do you hear me I promise! we’ll get you to a hospital and we’ll get all of this outside of you as quickly as I can. We, we can try to get it out of your stomach at least, that might help.”
 
“mmm, no.” Cassie quickly replied, a concerned moan accompanying the tone of fear and disgust in her voice. “I… I can’t… it’s … it’s so heavy, in my stomach… it feels so…. It’s all so… I… I  couldn’t possibly th… throw up I… I just can’t” her voice was faltering, tears beginning to well by the end, whatever she was feeling inside of her body, clearly making the idea of expelling her overstuffed stomach the only thing less appealing than her full stomach.


“Oh there, there Cassie. It’s okay, it’s okay. We don’t have to, I won’t make you” Kira replied as she held Cassie’s head tight to her chest, feeling so sorry that she had upset Cassie with her suggestion. As she held Cassie tight, she felt something warm and wet soaking into her shirt, Cassie’s blood, and remembered that the mysterious fluid inside of Cassie was not her only malady.
 

Kira released her grip on Cassie, gently laying her down as she took a moment to survey Cassie’s injuries. Her right arm was clearly broken by the scarred bug’s parting gift, although Cassie no doubt could not feel it for the moment due to her body being flooded with adrenaline. Her ankle was probably sprained, possibly broken, but judging from Cassie’s hobbling earlier it was not overly serious. Bruises and gashes covered her body from the bug’s brutal beatings, its spiked shell had caused even the blunt blows from its claws to be peppered with lacerations. Lastly Cassie’s left breast was mangled to say the least, four large gashes pierced deep into the fatty tissue of her breast each perfectly positioned in the pattern of the insect’s clawed hand. They gouged so deeply that they had torn into her large overfilled breast implants, now limp and mostly deflated, their clear gelatinous silicone filling having leaked out and run down Cassie’s naked body in small rivulets.


“I love you so much Cassie” Kira reassured her as she kissed her forehead, both a sincere show of love, and an excuse to hold Cassie’s face near enough to examine the damage to her face. Even all of Kira’s years of medical emergency training and handling the worst kinds of disaster scenarios could not keep her emotions at bay as she gazed into the ravaged, empty eye holes caked in blood that once held Cassie’s beautiful brown eyes. “Oh, Cassie! I’m just so sorry! I wish I could have done something- ANYTHING to protect you from this!” she sobbed deeply as she kissed Cassie again, and held her as tightly as she could.


“it’s okay Kira” She said, hugging her beloved back with what little strength she had “I know you did everything you could, you’re the light of my life and I love you. Don’t feel bad, I’m just glad you’re safe.”



After a few moments of intense sobbing Kira pulled herself up and wiped the tears from her face “I’m sorry Cassie, I’m so sorry you had to go through that, but we’re going to take care of you and get you out of here, Okay?”
 
Cassie nodded weakly, as Kira began to patch her wounds. Her experience as a paramedic and trauma surgeon had turned first aid like this into an unconscious reflex, her hands darted from wound to wound with practiced precision. It took several minutes of swift bandaging, bracing and disinfecting but Kira soon had Cassie’s wounds cleaned and dressed. The whole time Cassie tried to remain still, but it was clear she was uncomfortable and some of the bandaging was casing her pain. As Kira finished slipping Cassie’s broken right arm into a sling, Cassie let out a yelp of pain.
 
“I’m sorry dear, I know this hurts. Your adrenaline is beginning to wear off, so the pain is going to become worse over the next few minutes, I’m going to give you a shot of morphine to keep the pain down, okay?”


Cassie was biting her lower lip through the pain as she replied “O… okay”
 
When the needle entered her arm she bit down on her lip harder, drawing blood, but within seconds Kira could see the tension leaving her face as the pain began to dull.
 
“Now let’s get you out of here, okay?” Kira said as she began to maneuver Cassie to support the weight of her bad leg on her shoulder and started walking her towards one of the tunnels that led out of the sinkhole. Kira cursed her luck that she could not lift Cassie out with the rope, but her injuries were extensive and the edge of the sinkhole too unstable to attempt pulling her out the way they had come in. Just as they were about to enter one of the tunnels Cassie yelped “stop!” and fell to her knees and began groping about the floor.
 
“What’s wrong” Kira said, worried what could have gone wrong.


“My, my sketchbook, we can’t leave without my sketchbook.” The injured girl replied as she felt around the dirt and mud of the sinkhole floor.


“Cassie now is not the ti-“ Kira was interrupted even as she spoke
 
“It has the last drawing I’ll ever make in it! and… and it’s my gift for you” Cassie’s voice was breaking and tears were welling in the corners of her damaged eyes sockets as she continued “I… I can’t leave it behind I want you to have it. It… it’s the last happy memory of our second honeymoon… it’s… it’s” Her words began to fade into sobs as she struggled to give voice to her feelings.
 
Kira quickly searched the area, saw the book lying amidst some debris from the collapse and guided Cassie’s hand to it as she replied “I’m sorry Cassie, I understand. Here, it’s right here, everything’s okay”
 
Cassie grabbed it tightly to her chest and nestled it in the crook of her arm in the sling, her breathing quickly slowing as she calmed down. “I’m sorry Kira, I couldn’t bear to leave it… I’m okay… we… we can go now” She said as she offered her free arm for Kira to support her.
 
The two of them then set out down one of the tunnels that led out of the sinkhole, Kira was unsure which way to go, but picked the one that had the least downward slope, hoping it would break the surface somewhere along the sloping hills surrounding Lakeview Point.
 
Kira felt her heart sink when, after the first fifty yards the tunnel branched, and branched yet again within sight down the line. She realized that getting out would not be as easy as she had hoped, and that they might have miles of walking to find an exit or worse, to be tracked down by the scarred bug or one of its cousins. Kira did her best to maintain a straight path, but the going was very slow with her trying to support Cassie’s weight, and pausing every few yards to lookout for potential insects. The smell was making things difficult as well, whatever the scarred bug had hosed Cassie down with smelled awful, like ammonia, salt and iron, and breathing it for so long was making her nauseous, and by this point Kira herself was soaked in it as well from mere proximity. It did not help that Cassie was significantly taller her than her, and with Cassie’s painfully swollen stomach Kira guess she was at least 40 pounds heavier, which caused Kira to cringe when she realized that would more than 4 gallons assuming it weighed roughly as much as water. Cassie was slowing down their progress as well, every few minutes she would have to stop, the intense cramping in her overstuffed bowels causing such pain that she had to rest while Kira would massage her belly to ease the cramps. Even with the morphine numbing her pain to an extent, Cassie was clearly experiencing intense discomfort.
 
The tunnels continued to twist and turn, branching and meeting up again, a literal maze of caverns, no doubt carved by the monstrous insects from earlier. Kira checked her phone, still no signal, but it did tell here that they had been walking for over a half hour, and she cursed silently in her own mind. As they continued to trudge along searching for an escape Kira was beginning to lose hope of finding an exit, all of the passaged looked more or less the same, and it was difficult to determine slope underground. Suddenly a yelp from Cassie broke her train of thought. She was holding her side, clearly in pain. Kira quickly set Cassie down on a sturdy root to see what was wrong, and give them both some much needed rest. They were both breathing heavily from exertion, but Cassie’s breathing came in short gasps, clearly in pain.
 
“What’s wrong Cassie? More cramping? Do you need a massage?”
 
“Mmmm no, yes… nnnn I…. I don’t know” Cassie groaned, her legs making circular patterns in the dirt pressing her body into the wall as she tried to deal with the pain and tension.
 
“I need information Cassie, I know it hurts but I need to know if your condition is changing!” Kira said, trying her best to not sound snippy.
 
“I… aaah… I’m sorry it just hurts so much, it, it feels kind of like a cramp but… but I… I don’t kn- eeyah!- d-do-don’t know.” Her breathing began to slow as she continued “I… I think it’s passing.. I… I’m okay now.”
 
 Kira had been watching Cassie the whole time, and thought she had seen a faint hint of movement in Cassie’s taught, stretched stomach, but her train of thought was immediately redirected as her breath caught in her throat when a shadow in the shape of a large insect moved slowly across the wall a few yards down the tunnel.

Cassie had caught her breath and ceased her pained squirming, and leaned over and whispered to Kira “I… I hear something, wh- what is it Kira?”
 
Kira could tell that the insect was coming towards their tunnel, and she quickly began to fish through her first aid kit in desperate search for anything to defend them with if the insect continued its course. A relieved sighed escaped her lips when she located a flaregun, and raised it up to aim where the insect would turn the corner.
 
“K-kira, what is it? I’m scared.” Cassie whispered, clutching Kira’s leg so as not to lose Kira in her blindness.
 
“An insect is coming, don’t worry, I won’t let it hurt you, I promise.” Kira whispered, mustering as much authority and motherly tone as she could, though in her heart she knew a single flare was an unreliable defense at best.
 
Within moments the insect emerged from the tunnel’s branch. This one was larger than the small swarming insects that had first accosted Cassie, but was also significantly smaller than the monstrous scarred bug that had ravaged her. It looked around for only a moment before it realized the presence of the two women. Kira gently pushed Cassie backward to keep her own body firmly between the insect and her beloved, observing the insect as it slowly closed the distance between them. It was smaller than the scarred bug, Kira guessed it to be a little bit more massive than a large human. Its shell was smooth and glossy, patterned with dark earthy tones with bright pink edges where the plates met, and it had an abdomen that was more round than the scarred bug’s, more similar to a traditional grasshopper or ant. Kira let the bug come closer, knowing that she only had a single shot to defend them she was willing to wait for the perfect moment.
 
For the bug’s part it was being cautious, its eyes ran over the two girls’ bodies, and its head tilted left and right curiously as it studied them, slowly walking towards them. Kira didn’t even bother hoping that the bug would leave them alone, she had seen how quickly the scarred bug had turned from curiosity to brutality and trusted this one to be no different. Still the insect closed in on her, each step bringing it closer and closer to the two of them. However when it got within a few paces it suddenly stopped, its body clearly tensed, and it brought its antennae up. Kira put her hand on the trigger, preparing to fire at the insect’s bulbous eye, the only point she assumed a flare would have any appreciably effect on the beast. However she held her fire for the moment, as the insect gently, almost cautiously brought its antennae to bear on her, gently caressing her outstretched arm, but after the first faint touch the bug immediately recoiled. Kira herself jumped, and would have fired if the bug had not immediately backed away several paces before turning around and scurrying off down a branching tunnel.
 
“K-Kira what happened?” Cassie asked in a quiet and curious tone, she had clearly heard the insect scurrying away without any sounds of struggling.
 
“I… I don’t know.” Kira admitted, her face obviously displaying her own confusion at what had transpired. She looked down at her hands, as if her palms held the secret to this mystery, when it hit her like a lightning bolt, the bug’s reaction was identical to when the small bugs had fled earlier. The smell! She thought to herself. The foul smelling liquid from the scarred bug! It was the bug’s urine, its waste, it had marked Cassie for itself! And via association Kira herself was marked as well. The pink trimmed bug had smelled the other bug’s mark and clearly not wanted anything to do with them!
 
“Cassie” She said, trying her best to not let this spark of hope set her up for future disappointment “I think we may have found a safe way out of here.”
 
“Oh?” Cassie said, her voice becoming hopeful.
 
“Yes, the other bugs will leave us alone, we don’t have to worry about them! We just need to find an exit and we can get you out of here!”
 
“R-really Cassie asked.” Beaming with newfound excitement, Cassie being entirely incapable of doubting the power of hope.
 

“Come on, let’s get a move on.” Kira said as she hefted Cassie’s arm over her shoulder to begin their journey again.
 
They continued with renewed speed, the knowledge that other bugs were of no concern meant that their only limit was finding an exit and the pace which they could walk. Kira began to work on a pattern, at every branch she would pour out a tiny amount of water to determine which way the ground sloped, and take any tunnel leading  upward, this also helped them avoid going in circles as she could recognize the water spots if they ever crossed them again. She cursed herself for not thinking of it sooner, but at least they had a plan now. Kira was amazed when the occasional bug would wander past, they appeared to come in quite a few varieties, most of them ranging in size from that of a large dog to a little larger than a large adult human, some even had strange markings like white diamonds on their heads, but without fail no bug would come near them after it got a whiff of the scarred bug’s scent. If it were not for their dire situation and obvious danger, the insects would actually have made a fascinating scientific study, but Kira’s scientific interest was long since snuffed out by Cassie’s brutal treatment, unable to see them as anything but monsters. Just as they reached another junction, Cassie collapsed pulling Kira to the ground, crying out in pain, and clutching at her morbidly swollen stomach.
“Cassie, what’s wrong!?” Kira gasped, as Cassie’s condition quickly got worse.
 
“eeyaah! I-i-it hurts! My-my insides hurt! It-it- AAAHH!­­- s-s-s-something’s different, I-I-IIIAAAH!-I-I can feel it” Cassie screamed, barely able to speak through the pain of what was happening inside of her. Tears streamed down her face as her legs pushed instinctively against the ground, her back arching, and her neck craning as she pressed back into the wall of the tunnel, every muscle in her body was writhing in response to the agony inside of her.
 
Kira quickly pulled out a syringe from her kit and plunged it into Cassie’s neck, desperate to ease the pain of her beloved. Cassie’s screams and flailing quickly died down as the powerful opiate flooded her veins, soon giving way only to exhausted, pained moaning and groaning. “K… Kira… it… it all hurts… p… please… ma… make it stop” She whimpered, her sightless eye sockets leaking a steady stream of pink droplets, as the tears mixed with blood from her ravaged body.
 
“There, there Cassie everything is going to be okay. Sshhhh, sssshhhhh, it’s gonna be okay” She reassured her beloved as the drugs began to take full effect, lulling the poor girl into a warm, foggy euphoria.
 
 Kira knew things were getting serious, and it terrified her. It was two hours’ drive to the nearest hospital, and that hospital was a pitiful little smalltown clinic. They had been walking for over an hour at this point and Kira began to fear that if the timeline on her condition continued as is, that Cassie… might die. Kira fought back the tears, unwilling to consider this option, she would NOT let Cassie die. Kira hated to admit that she was terrified of what was happening inside her beloved’s body, nothing in medical school had prepared her for this and she felt helpless. Cassie might be poisoned, there was no telling what the strange liquids were made up of, her body could slowly be absorbing any number of toxins. Or worse yet, her fears about the parasitic eggs may be true, despite the unlikelihood nay the absurdity of such a thought, the evidence was clearly pointing to something extremely dangerous for poor Cassie. The taste of bile and vomit greeted Kira when she saw a glimpse of movement deep inside Cassie’s swollen stomach. Kira caught herself spiraling into hopelessness, and grasped the only real, functional, true hope she had, getting Cassie out of there as quickly as possible. Kira hefted Cassie onto her shoulders and summoned all of her strength to Carrie her unconscious form at a swift jogging pace. She paused only to find which branches led uphill, and at all other times was moving as quickly as her adrenaline charged body could carry both of them. The tunnels and occasional insect were a blur around her as Kira ran as quickly as she could through the twisting caverns. Suddenly something changed, she could hear the sound of running water, and the air smelled fresh, with the faintest of breezes caressing her sweat soaked skin.
 
Cassie must have noticed the air as well because she began to come around, the fog of the anesthetics was slowly losing hold on her “K… Kira? Are, are we there yet?”
 
“Almost Cassie! We’re almost there, just a few more yards to the surface.” Kira said as she sprinted once more up the tunnel that appeared to be rising towards the surface.
 
Just as Kira turned a corner she saw light, filtering in gently from a hole just a few yards down the line, when suddenly Cassie screamed. “Aaaah! K-Kira, put me down, put me down!”
 
Kira, desperate to escape, to see the light of day and the fresh air that promised hope was loathe to stop now, but she could not ignore her beloved’s pained cries and gently set her down. “What- what’s wrong Cassie is it the same pain from before?!”
 
Cassie held her one good arm to her massive, swollen stomach as tears welled within her eyes and she clenched her teeth from the pain. “y- yes! It’s, it’s coming!”
 
Kira was horrified to think of what Cassie meant “what do you mean Cassie?! What’s coming?”
 
Even as her body twisted in the throes of agony, Cassie’s face bore a look of haunting sorrow and resignation as she looked at Kira. “K-kira –aaah- you don’t have to lie anymore. I –nnngggha!- I know what is inside of me. -Eeyah!- I, I know you’ve known for a long time and were protecting me, you didn’t want to tell me. But… I’m ready now, I’m okay with it, I… ­-nnnngh- can accept death.”
 
Kira’s eyes immediately blurred as a flood of tears she had been desperately holding back burst forth like a reservoir through a broken dam. “No Cassie! You, you don’t have to die, we’ll get you to a hospital, we, we can still save you!”
 
The look of resignation on Cassie’s face was unchanged, save that now it may have shown more pity for Kira. “Kira, I love you more than anything. -aaah!- But p- please accept this, I-i can feel it, I am not going to survive this. Please, please remember our love, don’t waste away in sadness witho –nnng- without me, my one and oh- -oooaah-nly desire in life has been to see you happy, so please, please let me go.”
 
Kira could barely see through the tears, she clutched Cassie’s hand so tightly her knuckles turned white. “C-Cassie I love you so much, what will I do without you?”
 
Cassie was struggling to maintain her composure as the pain quickly became unbearable. “K-k-kira-aaaahh!- p-p-promise me o-oh-oohane, one thing!”
 
Her body felt cold and numb, as if it were as heavy as led, unable to cope with what was happening, unable to accept that she was powerless to save Cassie. Her reply was hollow, like someone speaking to an empty lifeless canyon “y-yes Cassie?”
 
Her body was tense and twisted with the agony inside of her, as Cassie choked out a few more words. “P-p-please do-dooaaahn’t hurt the b-babies! They-they didn’t have any ch-choi-aaaahh, choice in this! This-this-this isn’t their fa- AAAAHH-ault!”
 
Kira couldn’t believe what she was hearing, even as she was dying in agony, Cassie was thinking of other people, caring for the pain of others over herself even the very things that were literally tearing her apart. It was just like Cassie, everything Kira loved about her was embodied in this moment, in her dying wish, her complete lack of concern for herself, her all-encompassing concern for other people and other creatures. With all of Kira’s being she wanted to kill the things, to destroy the monsters that were killing her beloved, but her love for Cassie was stronger still than her hatred for the monsters destroyed her, she could not bear to deny Cassie’s final wish. “Y… yes Cassie..” her reply was hollow, and distant just as she felt inside, watching her beloved die before her eyes.
 
Cassie’s reply was only an agonized scream, as her body writhed in the agony of what was happening inside of it. Her back was arched intensely like a branch bent by a heavy wind, and her fingers twisted into grotesque claws as every muscle in her body tensed in response to the trauma that was coursing through her.
 
“Cassie?” Kira’s face was empty, blank as she stared at her love, unable to accept or process what was really happening.
 
Cassie let out a piercing cry, far louder and more painful than any before as her abdomen undulated fiercely with hideous life. Kira could only stare, her mind and body catatonic, unable to look away as the wretched spawn within her beloved woke to life and began to devour their way through her tender innards. Cassie’s screams of agony were interspersed with wet, squelching, gurgles rumbling from deep within her bowels as every organ in her body was twisted and mangled by the unnatural life within. The sound of it reminded Kira of the sound of a butcher mixing sausage meat she had heard at a carnival once, and the thought of it brought vomit up her throat.
 
Large dark red and purple blotches began to seep across Cassie’s body, Kira knew this to be massive internal hemorrhaging as blood gushed from severed organs and began to pool wherever it found space in her fragile bodily cavities. The tears running down her face began to flow red as blood pooled within her body from the massive internal trauma of her abhorrent young, each one writhing beneath her now purple and red blotched skin, each one racing its brothers and sisters to consume the nutritious meat of its 'mommy'. All the while Cassie was screaming, screaming over and over in her agony, the shrieks that still haunted Kira’s dreams.
 
Kira was so shocked, so completely disconnected from the scene before her she didn’t even notice the vomit that now soaked her and pooled beneath her, an instinctual reaction to the horror she was witnessing but completely unnoticed by her in her catatonia.  Cassie’s screams turned to gurgles and coughs as blood sputtered from her mouth, Kira desperately wished she could look away, but the writhing in Kira’s abdomen and sheer gravity and reality of what was happening forced her to watch, held her spellbound like some mystical force beyond her control. She could not look, not even as the final convulsions of merciful death finally took Cassie, took her beloved. As her fragile, mangled body finally expired from the abuse, there was silence for a moment. Except that it was not silence, beneath the piercing screams there had been a symphony of other sounds, unheard above clamor of her screams. Now Kira could hear it, hear all of it, the sickening sopping, slopping, squishing, squelching noises that echoed from the tight, writhing flesh of her hideously swollen belly.
 
 Kira still could not move, as much as she wanted to be free from this place, this time, this moment, she could not will her body to move even one inch. She could not will herself to move even as a brood of writhing maggots ripped open from the tight bloated belly of Cassie’s carcass severing it in half at the adbomen and scattered across the floor in a sopping pool of blood and shredded bowels, leaving Kira kneeling in a repulsive puddle of organs and writhing oversized grubs, a pool of blood and organic muck that was once her beloved.  Still she could not look away, even as the “babies”, the thought of calling them that made Kira want to vomit, began to breathe their first and continue feasting upon their “mommy’s” nutritious carcass.
 
 A twinge of pain finally brought Kira back into the world, focused her mind on the here and now. She looked down to see one of the hideous things nibbling into her soft thigh, its small grub head the only hard part on its otherwise soft squishy body.  Instinctively she batted it away, and immediately felt a glimmer of regret as she remembered her promise to Cassie, but was relieved to see that the maggot was unharmed despite the force of her blow. It soon began to dig into the pile of torn and mangled guts it had landed in.
 
As she looked up to see where the maggot had landed, she saw something she had not noticed before. A truly massive insect was standing about ten yards down one of the branching tunnels, watching the scene. This bug was at least as large as the scarred bug, but its body was differently shaped, and it had smooth muscular tentacles draping from its large thorax. Kira could feel her anger and hatred for the bug’s welling within her, and despite the fact that bug’s could not understand her, she screamed at the insect. “IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED?! IS THIS WHAT YOU FUCKING MONSTERS WANTED?! YOU KILLED CASSIE! TOOK THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS TO ME! THE ONLY PERSON I’VE EVER LOVED! ANSWER ME YOU MONSTER!” Kira screamed with all of the anger, the pain, and the hatred that was within her, knowing full well that the bug could not understand her. For the bug’s part, it strangely almost seemed sad, though it made no motion to approach or leave, apparently being content simply to observe the scene before it.
 
Kira’s breathing began to even out once more, a tenuous calm settling over her now that she had some small mote of emotional release from screaming her pain to the monsters that  had taken Cassie from her. In the silence, a strange sound greeted Kira’s ears, it was one of the grubs. As she looked up at it she tried to understand what was happening. Of the maggots that were now scattered across the floor, milling about in the guts of their mother, Kira counted five, which confused her because she had clearly counted twelve spawn being placed into Cassie during her ordeal. But her question was soon answered; the grub that had caught her attention was making a chirping mewling sound, almost like a small stringed instrument mixed with cricket noises. The grub was much smaller than its siblings, only just big enough to fit in both of Kira’s hands, whereas its siblings were all as large as a small dog weighing at least ten pounds apiece. This little “runt” was currently being accosted by one of its siblings, its tail end was bleeding and its sibling had a hold of its tail with its mandibles and was dragging it closer, all the while the runt making mewling chirps as its tiny grub legs feebly fought for purchase in the slick, wet landscape of its mother’s spilt organs. It… it’s scared Kira thought to herself, as the runt tried to escape its sibling, and looking at the mess around her, Kira suddenly noticed that peppered in amongst the blood and human organs, there were small tatters and shreds of dead grubs, ­these little monsters eat their siblings Kira thought to herself with disgust.
 
Remembering her promise to Cassie, Kira, despite her desire to leave this horrible place as fast as possible, prodded the larger grub away and gently picked up the runt, setting it down far away from its ravenous siblings near the upper half of Cassie’s severed body. As she set the grub down she noticed something solid in the mass of guts and blood, she brushed the refuse out of the way only to realize that it was Cassie’s sketchbook, and she broke down again. Just when she thought she had at least recovered enough to leave, all of the emotion came flooding back and she spent several minutes crying, clutching the sketchbook tightly to her breast. Even as she cried, the hideous spawn continued their morbid business devouring their mother, and Kira could see that of the four big ones, one was injured and was being devoured by its siblings, but Kira had no pity for this one. It was just as big and mean as its siblings, and its chitinous grub head bore small knobs, no doubt the predecessors to the cruel spikes its father exhibited.
 
Suddenly Kira was pulled from her sorrow and self-pity when a rhythmic, plodding, thumping noise greeted her ears. Every muscle in her body tensed as she looked up to see the telltale spiky shadow of the scarred bug rounding the corner, its heavy footfalls giving away its presence only a moment before its shadow danced across the wall from the cavern entrance. She quickly shot to her feet and grabbed the flare gun from the medical kit, knowing full well that this monster was more than capable of taking anything she could throw at it she silently cursed herself for not leaving sooner, for letting her emotions get the better of her in a crisis. The bug soon rounded the corner and paused for a moment, its massive bulbous eyes slowly scanning the scene before it. The sight of the bug angered Kira, she remembered full well its hideous spiked carapace, the large lobster-like claws that had beaten and broken her beloved, the wide paddle-shaped abdomen that had done unspeakable things to Cassie. A few moments later the bug clacked its mandibles in what Kira understood to be a sign of pleasure or laughter even, this bug was apparently intelligent enough to understand what had happened and was quite happy to see the fruits of its labor, and the pain Kira had been through watching her beloved die in the most horrible way imaginable.
 
 Kira’s eyes grew sharp and hateful at seeing the bug again, and she was fully aware that she for all intents and purposes, doomed. The scarred bug was blocking the entrance, her only known exit, it was enormously strong and impervious to anything she could muster, and it was fast enough even with its size to catch her if she ran. Kira was surprised when she felt a feeling of cold, determined serenity wash over her, the fact that she was out of options was somehow calming. Every thought in her mind came down to how much damage she could do with a flare gun, no thoughts for self-preservation, no thoughts for escape, only a desire for revenge, to hurt the monster that had killed Cassie.
 
With a cold, mirthless smile she looked into the creature’s large empty eyes and said “bring it!”
 
The insect, apparently sensing Kira’s intent, immediately approached her, accepting her defiant challenge as it built up speed frighteningly quick over such a short distance. Time slowed for Kira as adrenaline and anger focused her mind like the keen edge of a knife. As the bug closed within a few yards of her she pulled the trigger, keeping the flare gun perfectly level and aimed directly at the insect’s massive eye. She knew that if anything on this armored beast was vulnerable, it would be the eye, and she was right. Her mind still surging with adrenaline everything appeared to move in slow motion around her. The flare left the gun with a crackling pop, and flew directly into the beasts’ face, wedging along the inside edge of its eye between the hard shelled brow and the softer eye tissue. As the flare hit the monstrous insect quickly felt the pain, its head turned to the right, an instinctual reaction favoring its injured side, and its massive body soon followed its tilting head, altering the course of its charge just enough that Kira could sidestep it.  The monster sideswiped the wall heavily as its course veered, and it let out an insectoid humming shriek, that sounded to Kira to be one of anger more than pain. The next few moments went quickly, Kira immediately took her chance to run for the exit, not willing to let escape evade her once again, and just over her should Kira could see the scarred bug charging further down the branching tunnel, towards the one she had heard the sound of rushing water emanate from earlier.
 
The following minutes were a blur for Kira, she took a deep gasping breath of the fresh air when she emerged from the tunnel. After determining location as best she could, she made a break for their campsite. Running as fast and as far as she could, adrenaline was coursing through her veins and spurring her on to the promise of safety. She had no idea if the scarred bug, or one of its cousins might be following her, and she did not care. Every thought in her mind was focused on running to the car, and getting out of this damn place as quickly as possible. She had no concept of time as she ran, but eventually she found the campsite, ignoring everything else as she got out her keys, jumped into the car and peeled out, kicking dust and rocks into the air behind her.
 
It was only after she had been driving for at least thirty minutes that she finally slowed down. She pulled over on the side of the road, and began to catch her breath. She looked at the seat beside her, there lay Cassie’s sketchbook. She gently picked up and began to page through it, many of the pages were stained with blood from the ordeal, but reading it brought Kira something, perhaps not comfort, but closure. Cassie’s drawings were something deeply and personally hers, little bits of her soul that were laid out on the page by some mystical force. Simply paging through them helped her to process everything that had happened, and she she turned to the final page, everything came flooding back. There on the last used page was a partially finished sketch of Kira, sitting on a large log over Lakeview Point and inscribed on the page was “To my wonderful Kira, you are the light of my world”. It was too much for Kira to bear the emotion to fresh and raw, she began sobbing again, her mind flooded with emotions of the day, of their life turning from happiness to death and sorrow in just a few hours.
But Kira’s sobbing was soon interrupted, there was a loud crashing noise behind her. She looked in the rearview mirror, and was horrified at what she saw. There in the road behind her, having just bowled through some young trees, stood the scarred bug, the flare still stuck in its eye, wreathed in flames. The creature let out a hideous shrieking roar and charged at the vehicle, Kira punched the accelerator and tried to outrun the massive bug. Kira couldn’t understand how the bug had found her, she had been driving for a long time at, more than 60 miles an hour, there was no way the insect could have moved so fast, especially without knowing where she had gone. But to her horror the insect was catching up, it’s whole body was covered in thick red and orange flames, and blood was dripping from its mouth like a steady stream. She rammed the accelerator to the floor and was briefly relieved when it began to fall behind once again. Just as she turned around from checking the bugs progress Kira screamed as she saw the form of a human in the road, and a split second later with a loud thud, the body came tumbling over the hood and through the windshield. The body grabbed hold of her, holding Kira’s arms and looking into her eyes, it was Cassie. Maggots crawled in and out of her empty eye sockets and her intestines slowly poured out and began to pool on Kira’s lap and the floor of the vehicle.
 
“Kira! I’m so scared kira” Cassie said, her voice hollow and echoing like someone speaking into an empty tomb. “Why didn’t you help me? Why didn’t you save me? Were you too selfish? Too concerned with your own safety?”
 
“NO! no I love you Cassie, I wanted to save you!” Kira screamed. The insect was closing in now as the vehicle had ground to a stop after striking Cassie.
 
“Kira it hurts so much. They’re eating me, they’re eating me from the inside out. The maggots! why? Why would you leave me to die? To go through this pain? Why would you let this happen?”
 
“Cassie! I’m sorry, I wish it had been me! I would give anything to save you! I should have tried harder! I’m sorry Cassie!”
 
“CASSIE!” Kira screamed as she sat bolt upright, the force of it throwing her damp covers down the bed to pile up around her knees. “Cassie?” she said again to herself, her eyes wide with terror as she looked around the room, her dark empty bedroom, no bugs, no corpses in sight. “Oh god Cassie” she began to sob, burying her face in her hands as the last of the fog from the nightmare faded, leaving her alone in her dark bedroom.
 
Kira dropped her legs over the side of her bed, rubbed the exhaustion from her eyes as she looked up at the clock. In bright red digital letters it proudly displayed 2:37AM, and there next to it rested a picture frame holding a blood flecked sketch of Kira sitting on a log, and alongside that was a large glass bottle. Kira gingerly, almost reverently ran her finger along the picture frame for a few moments, before reaching for a bottle from her nightstand, and upturned it her mouth, only to be disappointed when but a few stinging drops of whiskey lightly tickled her tongue. With a resigned groan she threw the bottle across the room, where it made a loud clatter as it broke into a thousand pieces, and Kira heaved herself out of bed and began to shamble down the stairs. Her footfalls were heavy and slow, her mind fogged by sleep, emotional turmoil, and strong drink.
 
When she opened the fridge she cursed loudly and immediately closed it, the light burning into her eyes, coursing straight to the throbbing headache in her skull. She went to the cabinet, its glass doors she never bothered to close anymore, and she looked over the selection of hard liquors it contained within. It took Kira only a moment to decide she did not care, and grab the nearest bottle. As she shambled out of the kitchen and into the living room, she caught a glimpse of her phone, it proudly displayed thirteen missed calls, and eight voicemail messages.  Kira groaned audibly, no doubt her boss calling to tell her she was fired not showing up for the fourth time, and her psychiatrist echoing the sentiment about her missed session. But she didn’t care, she couldn’t care anymore. Kira just continued her exhausted, defeated shamble as she trudged through the house, towards the doors to the basement. Faint flickering of light on the wall told her she had forgotten to turn the TV off, and as passed by the room she saw that news was still on. The headlines slowly crawled across the screen “Multiple disappearances in state park”, “large portion of state park quarantined by military, DNR cites dangerous outbreak of toxic algae as culprit.” Fucking algae, Kira laughed to herself, a bitter, cynical laugh that quickly cut off into a hacking cough. She knew full well the real reason for the quarantine, and it sure as fuck wasn’t algae. She laughed to herself once more as she remembered her phone, her stupid boss, her stupid psychiatrist, all the stupid oblivious people going about their lives, the stupid people who didn’t know what was happening at the lake right under their fucking noses. With a disgusted, dismissive grunt she pulled open the door to the basement.
 
She slowly worked her way down the stairs as best she could in her sleepless, half conscious stupor. And when she reached the bottom she trudged her way to the farthest corner of the basement, to stand in front a large black locker. After three unsuccessful attempts at entering the combination in the dark, she pulled the string to turn on the light, and cursed audibly once more as the light burned into her hungover brain. This time she got the combination right, and the massive locker creaked open in front of her. There in the strange container lay racks and racks of guns and ammunition of every shape and size. She upturned the bottle she had been carrying into her mouth, vodka it figures, she thought to herself. She wiped the excess dripple from her lips and chin as her eyes grew cold and hateful as she remembered the monster that still haunted her dreams, that animal that had taken Cassie from her, the demon that caused her to relive the most painful moment of her life ever fucking night. She took another long swig from the bottle, and her eyes focused like daggers on the glistening guns before her as she uttered only one word “Scar”.