I swung my arms, feeling freedom once again, and looked at Boyband.


    He felt the release of light and sprinted with a feral prowl.


    I dashed after him, passing him as I burned the rest of my Bite reserve, utilizing the speed modification.


    Despite the rush of the situation, I saw him go for the closest Techvax rep, not worrying about the guards whom I pursued before anyone else. I reached them both as they were raising their light rifles.


    I jumped with inhuman acrobatic precision, landing on their raised hands with my feet at the same time. I slammed the rifles down onto their legs, flipped to maintain my balance, and pounced again as they stumbled and dropped their weapons.


    Utilizing my Bite felt so good, knowing that I could satisfy my appetite immediately.


    I jabbed two straight hands into their throats before they could stand straight. The tips of my fingers protruded out of the other side. My strikes broke through their spines as if they had been mere pebbles in the way of a plowing truck.


    Having forgotten caution, a shot in the shoulder quickly reawakened me to our circumstances. It felt no harder than an opportunistic punch but had torn a hole through the jumpsuit. Beneath the fabric, my pale skin was without blemish. I wouldn’t have been surprised except I saw the light hit me in my wide periphery. Someone had shot me with pure violet light, yet it meant nothing.


    Zeg me, Deleon. Your upgrade might have saved my life. Is that what it was? The last blue light shot I had taken before the upgrade had torn through flesh and blackened my rib. What is the anti-spectrum?


    Boyband screamed as he bit the mouth out of the female Techvax rep. Only the top of the male’s head remained as blood spilt from the neck like a spilt water bottle.


    Worry about everything else later.


    I looked for the person who had shot me and hunched over to prepare for an evasion. Almost everyone was running back to the sky shuttles. If my attacker remained, they were smart enough to invest their hope in a stealthy shot. Regardless, it would do them no good.


    I made a quick check back to see what Naoma was doing.


    Zegging idiot. She was sprinting towards the center of the Red District. I could understand that our tactics were intimidating, but at least we had some human morality left inside of us, no matter how little. The Red District was absent of such hope. The demons within only wanted to satisfy their–zeg. Sometimes I can be such a hypocrite.


    I wanted to run back and steer her away, offering solace in my bloody hands, but Boyband was my priority. We would finish the rest of Reef and Techvax, then I could chase after Naoma and—


    I felt another shot hit my thigh. It stung, but left no mark.


    The zegging girl was killing my focus.


    It wasn’t the first time.


    I slapped my leg, amplifying the pain from the shot to center my focus.


    “Come out, you zegging coward!” I shouted as I walked towards the debris along the way to the shuttles. They were close but still had time before they reached them. Time. Mere seconds. If the poor marksman hit me, so be it.


    “Boyband!” I shouted without even looking at him and pointed towards the escapees. “Take ‘em all out or Deleon will have our balls!”


    I heard his chuckle and an exhilarated shout. It was a relief to hear him leave his feast, all the while disheartening to hear his joy over an oncoming massacre.


    Two shots hit my back. I heard the clicks synonymous with a crime against nature.


    “Give me back my zeggin’ girl you shac!”


    I spared a glance back. I had expected Bank to be the one with enough bravery to remain back, but it was Anton Jackson who walked towards me with a light pistol pointed right at me.


    “Zeg em’ all! They used us anyway! Just give me back Naoma!”


    I chuckled and continued to run.


    “Zeg you and your–”


    I barely felt the shots hit my back as I continued. Many flew past, with a few taking down some of the Techvax team. Rage blinds almost as much as hunger.


    Boyband ran towards Bank.


    I burned through the last bit of speed I had in my bite to meet him there, but Bank beat me to it. The Finian freak seized Boyband by the throat, lifted him up in the air, and shook violently. The kid clawed at Bank’s arms, but to no avail. Whatever unholy strength had been implanted in us was a match for his hybrid body.


    Bank barely turned his head in time to see my fist slam into his face. The impact was intense, but I felt like my fist slid right off of his dolphin skin.


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    Boyband kicked his feet up at Bank''s arm, causing the Finian to drop in a second of distraction.


    As the kid stood back up, I went for another punch into Bank’s cybernetic core but barely dented the metal casing.


    He chuckled and kicked me with a foot that felt like it was charged with a violet-powered piston. He stole my breath and launched me back several feet.


    “You freaks really did single hand Firstlight, didn’t you?”


    I felt like the ground shook beneath me as he walked closer. Deleon’s bites had taken us to a level above typical human existence, even when pitted against those with top-of-the-line strength implants.


    I was terrified. I couldn’t run away, but I had a kid to keep alive. And a girl to stop from killing herself. The rest of the company pounded on the skyshuttles to open their doors. Their lights turned on.


    “Zeg you!” Boyband shouted as Bank was three feet away from me as I moved back like a cowering crab.


    Bank shook his head and whistled through his blowhole. Bloody mucous flew out and dripped down the side of his head. My effort was not fruitless. Still, it required more.


    He pointed at Boyband with his snout, but his left eye continued to stare at me. “The kid wants to take the fight into his own hands. Should we let him? How stupid are you two to turn on all of us?”


    “Come kill Bank!” Boyband shouted. I felt the power in his voice, though it had no sway on me.


    Bank laughed out loud. Even if he felt the power in Boyband''s tone, I doubted he believed it would work.


    Two, three, then four people from the Techvax crew left the shuttles just as the doors were opening.


    “All of you! Now!”


    Those who had entered spilled out from the doors and ran towards Bank with the ferocity of the glowbones that had assaulted us.


    His inhuman smile lost its glee as the sound of pounding feet neared him from behind.


    I stood as he looked away from me but held back my attack.


    Boyband jumped after the first approaching members of the horde and ripped their jaw free to satiate his immediate need to feed. Coercing one person burned enough of his reserve. I was lucky he wasn''t stuck in a feral mind after such a bold move.


    Bank punched and kicked the first few crew members that reached him, but even the greatest system disintegrates under an accumulation of seemingly harmless viruses.


    Without any weapons on them, they took stones, pieces of forgotten debris, even camera equipment and used them to pulverize Bank. His hands reached up for mercy. The tide overcame him and his stretching arms fell down with the blood that pooled below the pile of thrashing bodies.


    One of them kept trying to climb to the top but continued to slip and fall. Each landing left a gash in exposed skin as he fell like a drunkard.


    I pulled him back from the pile on Bank and ate his teeth.


    Boyband approached me with a mouth covered in red. He looked at the others, then at me.


    “He has to be dead by now,” I said.


    “Enough.” He spoke with a voice that stilled them to the quietness of his calm voice.


    They climbed down and filed into a perfect square formation like an army of unprogrammed shacs.


    “You good?” I asked him.


    “Yeah, a little lightheaded, but eating right after that call helped.”


    I smiled and shook my head. “By the light, you could have killed yourself right there. I appreciate what you did, I mean… we needed it, but don’t deplete yourself that much.”


    He nodded.


    I’d never done it, but Deleon had demanded that we remain away from such an extreme. Perhaps that was another lie, but I was not willing to risk it with him.


    He nodded towards the others. “What do we do with them now?”


    I checked back for Naoma, not seeing her violet glow anywhere. We would still make it to her. We had to. She was as much a prisoner as we were. I did not forget Naoma. We’ll make it out of here.


    “Eat as many as we can.”


    He looked back at the rest of them. “I–”


    “I don’t care if you think or say you are full. You can’t have anything left after that mass-coercion. We’ll eat as many as we can and kill the rest. We can worry about the bodies later.”


    “Why worry about the bodies? What freaks would care about a bunch of dumped bodies in the Red District? Like they said, this is where they dump jelly fiends.”


    “Even if some people dump bodies, it will be pretty easy to figure out that these are all from Techvax.”


    “And? Techvax isn’t primitive. Their people will know this crew is missing and there is only one place to find them. Maybe they’ll blame it on Reef. If they blame it on us, who the zeg cares? That''s Deleon’s problem, right?”


    I looked back for Naoma. Another futile attempt.


    “You don’t plan to go back to him after this, do you? We’ve escaped. Might as well continue.”


    “I have a deal with Deleon.”


    “Then we’ll find a way around it. My parents may be dead, but they have resources. What was the deal?”


    Not enough resources to change the Republic. Still, maybe there is another way. “I’ll tell you later.”


    “Something to do with your past life?”


    “Something like that.”


    “You think we can take one of these skyshuttles to my old place? Fulfill Deleon’s mission or go against it, we need to head there.”


    “Maybe, but I want to find someone first.”


    He followed my gaze back to the abyssal center. “Really? She’s got you zegged up like every other desperate shac.”


    “You remember what happened when she freed us the first time? I want to explore what that was.”


    “Then let''s set that aside and eat these shacs before they come to.”


    I looked back for a different target and saw a scarred fin poking up behind some debris. He would die a coward.


    “What is it?” Boyband asked as he walked towards the others.


    “Hold off a moment longer. Jackson is still alive back there. He shouldn''t be as strong as Bank.”


    Boyband called to the human husks. “Six of you, go finish him off.”


    Jackson poked up his head and ran. I would have chased after to help slow him down, but he limped and hopped. The poor Finian had probably tripped in haste while trying to shoot me. I hadn''t even touched him.


    The six crew members reached him in seconds.


    I slapped Boyband on the back and smiled. “Now we can eat.”