Rachel flung her head backwards, escaping the horrendous cold that now filled the air. She swung a high kick and caught Lance in the side of the jaw. She heard it crack, and felt the jolt through the end of her boot, but Lance just pushed past her, striding towards Markov with his jaw hanging slack on one side.
Markov held his lightning shard out in front of him. He glanced down at its small status display and cursed under his breath. 'These damn things take too long to recharge,' he said.
Thrusting his hand into his pocket, he searched for another weapon as he backed out into the corridor, keeping his eyes on Lance. Lance followed with long strides, lunging suddenly towards him.
'Stay back,' Markov said, dodging out of the way.
Rachel saw a group of security forces gathering in the corridor outside. She realised that Lance was now between her and the door. If he turned on her now, she would have to fight her way out. The gaping wound in his head had already stopped bleeding, and his broken jaw hadn't fazed him at all. She wondered what type of opponent she would be facing if she had to fight him one on one. She could no longer see him as a man. He'd gone way beyond that. She had to accept that Lance had become something else entirely.
The security forces moved back, giving Markov room to manoeuvre in the corridor. Lance followed Markov with blood dripping from his mouth. A tooth dropped onto the floor as he walked but he didn't seem to notice or care. His eyes were completely black and the skin around them had tightened to form many overlapping folds. It made him look even more disturbing than before. Rachel wondered why he hadn't attacked her. Why was he pursuing Markov instead?
One of the troopers took a step towards Lance but Markov waved him away.
'Stay back until we know what we're dealing with,' he said.
Lance tilted his head backwards, and his whole body began to shake. Rachel thought his injuries might finally have caught up with him, but then she noticed that his right shoulder had shifted upwards at an odd angle. It was tearing his jacket apart. She didn't understand what was happening to him. He seemed to be falling apart.
His jacket ripped open down the length of his arm, and the skin underneath turned black. His arm was becoming unnaturally thick. The arm shook as the bones cracked beneath the skin, and the flesh extended towards the floor. The remains of Lance's sleeve fell to one side in shreds. His swollen arm rippled with a series of disturbing movements. Rachel couldn't help but stare.
'What the hell is that?' Markov said, speaking for them all. 'What's happening to him?'
Several soldiers added curses of their own. Rachel had no words to describe what she was looking at. She stood motionless with her impact pistol hanging by her side. She could hear Lance's bones cracking. His arm was still growing. It became loose and unfurled across the floor. His rough black skin was now covered in scales that split open to reveal sharp metal hooks underneath.
'Get back,' Markov said to the security forces that had gathered around him.
The soldiers stood with eyes wide, pushing each other to get away from the thing that had once been Commander Mark Lance.
Lance threw his arm outwards, dragging the sharp metal hooks across the torso of the nearest trooper. The trooper cried out, grabbing his bleeding stomach with both hands. The hooks tore through his jacket, ripping through the soft white flesh underneath. His fingers tangled in the hooks as Lance pulled his thick arm away.
'Take him down,' Markov said.
Shots fired from all directions. Some struck Lance in the chest while others hit the walls on either side of him. Lance swirled his arm back and forth in front of him. More soldiers went down, groaning in agony as savage hooks tore at their flesh.
Lance swung his arm towards Markov, smashing a chunk of stone out of the adjacent wall. The wall absorbed most of the blow, but the arm's momentum continued onwards, striking Markov across the shoulder. The blow sent him tumbling across the corridor until he bounced off the opposite wall. Markov tried to regain his balance but the blow had stunned him. He fell sprawling onto his hands and knees and shuffled across the floor.
Rachel looked at the small display on the side of her impact pistol. She selected multiple impact, maximum dispersal pattern. She aimed through the open doorway, and when she pulled the trigger, she felt the increased recoil as the upgraded ammunition left the barrel in a bright yellow flash. The round split into twelve thin rods, dispersing to form a spiral of flying metal that punctured Lance's back in a rapid series of impacts. Lance grunted and staggered forwards. A wide red patch appeared across his back. His left shoulder slumped and his legs bent a little as though he might fall. His body trembled as he struggled to remain on his feet. Rachel looked at her impact pistol. The ammunition upgrade had made it a lot more powerful, but there was something very wrong with Lance. She was relieved that he had felt anything at all. She suspected that any normal man would have been thrown onto his face by such a shot.
'You nearly took my bloody head off,' Markov said, shuffling backwards across the floor on his hands and knees.
'I aimed high,' Rachel said.
Lance shuffled forwards, dragging his feet and sucking in gurgling breaths as he tried to follow Markov down the corridor.
One of the troopers ran towards him and pressed an Electrovolt Gauntlet against his neck, releasing a sudden burst of power into his body. Lance jerked around and the trooper struggled to hold the gun in place. When his hand touched Lance's rising arm, the current flowed into his own body too, and he fell forwards, landing hard on the floor. The trooper's body was already limp before Lance slammed his arm down onto his head, cracking his skull. Lance dragged his arm backwards, and the trooper's body slid along the floor, punctured by a hundred metal hooks. Blood soaked his uniform and left a slick red stain across the floor. Rachel turned away from the grizzly sight. The Trooper should have been wearing the gauntlet's protective insulation sleeves, but she guessed he hadn't had time to put them on.
Lance opened his mouth, letting out a deafening howl of white noise. He looked as though he might be trying to smile. His black eyes had sunk even deeper into his head, and he turned to look at the other security forces as he dragged his arm back and forth across the floor.
'Stay down, General,' Rachel said, running out into the corridor. She leant against the side wall, aiming away from where Markov was crawling backwards across the floor. Markov nodded in her direction as he struggled with his lightning shard.
Lance noticed the gesture and turned to face Rachel with a deranged grin. His arm twitched and writhed across the floor in front of him.
Rachel fired her impact pistol again. Lance's head jerked back from the impact. His legs buckled, and he slumped onto his knees in the middle of the corridor. She fired twice more, hitting him in the chest and arm.
Vanmarek came running along the corridor from the opposite direction. He looked out of breath as he opened fire, striking Lance twice in the back. Markov was finally back on his feet, leaning heavily on one leg. He fired his lightning shard, striking Lance on the shoulder with sufficient force to rip the joint apart entirely. Lance's mutated arm dangled from twisted sinew then fell onto the floor in front of him. More security forces had arrived with Vanmarek and they all started firing their impact pistols at once.
Lance crouched in the middle of the corridor, jerking back and forth under a hail of bullets before falling onto his back. The security forces continued firing at him as his body bucked and jerked across the floor. Several troopers exchanged relieved glances when he finally stopped moving.
'Okay, stop!' Markov said in a loud, clear voice. 'Hold your fire!'