Chapter 539

Sure enough, Jake first assumed that, upon realizing their plan to lure him into the teleporter room had failed, the third conspirator, Chen, had raised the alarm. Which meant that armed Spartans were about to pour into the tech lab at any second.

But then Jake heard the PDA clipped to Rachel’s belt chime with an incoming notification. Only it didn’t really sound like a regular notification, but rather a sharp alert, the kind reserved for emergencies. Wondering what it could be about, Jake reached the human in a single leap and, in one fluid motion, snatched the device from her belt before she could even react.

It was locked, but hacking into it required little effort for him. A second later, the device unlocked, and all its functions were laid out before him, fully accessible. Plastered across the display was an urgent message informing him that the base was under attack and that some kind of battle was unfolding in the main cavern.

It made him pause. He wasn’t the one attacking the Spartan base, was he? Something else was going on. Who could have launched an attack on the Spartans? The ravagespawn no longer existed, so it wasn’t them. Then who was it? Whoever it was, they had struck hard enough to throw the entire base into alarm.

Then he noticed something interesting. He remembered that, when he had been a human survivor himself, his PDA had initially come with only a handful of basic apps and functions, but with each upgrade, more and more had been added, unlocking features that had once been inaccessible.

Rachel’s PDA, however, had many more apps installed, which wasn’t really surprising, considering the Spartans had existed in the post-Collapse world much longer than the New Hopers. As he swiped through the row of apps displayed along the bottom edge of the screen, his eyes flicked from one unfamiliar icon to the next until he spotted one that immediately piqued his interest.

He tapped the icon, and rows of thumbnails popped up on the screen, each showing the live feed from a CCTV camera installed throughout the Spartan base. He quickly located one of the cameras overlooking the main cavern and tapped it. The view expanded to fill the entire screen, allowing him to watch the events currently unfolding above in every detail.

He immediately realized it was a lone attacker who had launched the assault on the Spartans. And he immediately realized who it was: Owen.

Jake watched as his counterpart carved his way through the Spartans, brutally slaying everyone in his path. Bodies littered the cavern floor in his wake, while the surviving defenders scrambled to regroup amid the chaos.

The sight of their worst enemy in the heart of their base caused some of them to panic and break into a run. Unfortunately, those who attempted to flee were the first to attract the morphus’ attention. He didn’t let a single one of them escape. One by one, he caught up to each of them with terrifying speed and finished them off before turning his attention to the next.

The more disciplined Spartans grabbed their weapons and opened fire on their enemy, filling the cavern with a barrage of energy bolts. But since the morphus never remained in the same spot for more than a second, most of the shots went wide, scorching the rock walls and striking their own tents and belongings instead.

A few stray bolts did strike him, but they did little to no damage to his armored body. He barely seemed to notice the impacts as he continued his relentless advance, tearing through the defenders as though their resistance meant nothing.

As his counterpart dealt with one Spartan after another, Jake couldn’t help but wonder what was going on. Why had Owen come here? Well, it was pretty obvious why he had come to the Spartan base. The more accurate question was: why now? He could have come after the Spartans at any point in the past, but he hadn’t. So why now? What had changed? What had finally pushed him to act?

Then a possible answer came to mind. He remembered the way Owen had looked at him when he was leaving Mick’s base. Jake had told Owen and Mick that he was going to help the Spartans by finishing off the Ravage so the humans could finally be free of that bio-plague. He remembered how Owen had stared at him as he spoke those words, remaining perfectly still until Jake had disappeared from view.

While Owen couldn’t speak, and his face, just like Jake’s, couldn’t express emotion, Jake remembered thinking that Owen wasn’t happy about him helping the Spartans. There had been something in the silence that followed, something that had lingered in Owen’s motionless gaze. They had wronged him, and now that he knew Jake planned to help them, he must have felt resentful.

He must have thought they didn’t deserve the chance to return to the lives they had before the Ravage came. They had made their choices long ago, and in Owen’s mind, they had forfeited any right to redemption. So he must have decided to come after them all and wipe them out before they could escape to New Hope.

Jake’s train of thought ended when, on the screen of Rachel’s PDA, he saw Silvia and Catalina burst into the main cavern from one of the tunnels. They paused only briefly to take in the chaos before quickly locating the enemy. Silvia immediately unslung her rifle, planted her feet, and took aim at the morphus. Sure enough, her first shot went wide, given that Owen was constantly darting around the cavern, never remaining in one place long enough for anyone to draw a proper bead on him.

As for Catalina, she broke into a sprint across the cavern, ignoring the stray energy bolts sizzling through the air around her, several of them passing so close they nearly grazed her. She weaved between fallen bodies and abandoned equipment without slowing down.

From the direction she was heading, Jake realized she was making for the tunnel leading to the freight elevator. She must have seen where Rachel and Fernand had led him, so she figured he was now in the tech lab and wanted to get there to tell him what was going on. She knew he was the only one who could stop Owen from massacring what remained of the Spartan group by that point.

She almost made it to the tunnel entrance when she was suddenly sent crashing to the ground, something heavy slamming into her from behind with enough force to knock the breath from her lungs. It was Owen. Apparently, he intended to slay not just the Spartans but even Catalina, despite the fact that she wasn’t one of those who had wronged him in the past.

The morphus cocked back a fist, preparing to smash it into Catalina’s skull. Jake gripped the PDA so tightly in his hands, he nearly snapped the device in two. He knew there was nothing he could do to save Catalina. Owen would strike long before he could make it back to the freight elevator. And considering how much more powerful Owen was than any human, it was obvious that a single punch would be all it took to kill Catalina.

But he didn’t hit her. Instead, Owen suddenly froze, leaning back as he vigorously shook his head. His fist remained suspended in the air for a moment, as if something had stopped him from carrying out the attack. For a second, Jake wasn’t sure what was happening. He could only stare, waiting for the inevitable strike that never came.

Then he realized it. Owen must have completely lost control of himself. It was no longer Owen controlling his own body. Instead, it was D, his monster side, who had taken the helm. And at that moment, Owen was clearly fighting from within, desperately trying to take it back.

Jake wasn’t sure exactly when Owen had lost control. Had it happened before he breached the Spartan base or sometime after he had engaged the humans? Jake didn’t know, but in the end, he figured it didn’t really matter. The timing changed nothing. What mattered was whether Owen would be able to reclaim control of his own body.

Jake knew Owen had made tremendous progress over the past several days. He had managed to keep control of himself most of the time, suppressing the instincts of his inner beast and preventing it from resurfacing. But now, after being thrown into a brutal fight against the humans, Owen must have found it much harder to keep his emotions in check. The anger, the pain, and the chaos of battle had given D the opening it needed, and his monster side had immediately taken advantage, seizing control of his body.

Still, Jake was sure his friend would be able to fight his inner beast off and regain control. After all, the willpower of Owen’s human side had grown much stronger over the past several days. Jake didn’t know exactly why. He wanted to believe it was because of their growing companionship, because the bond they had formed had somehow given Owen something to hold onto. Perhaps seeing Jake keep control of his own inner urges had served as an inspiring example.

Unfortunately, the Spartans were completely unaware of the morphus’ inner struggle. They saw only a dangerous enemy before them, not the battle taking place inside his own mind. They should have left him alone for a moment, giving him the chance to focus entirely on the fight raging within himself. Had they given him that opportunity, he might have been able to overcome his inner beast, and the massacre could have ended right there.

But the Spartans gave him no such chance. Another energy bolt slammed into his body, quickly followed by two more. The impacts tore through his concentration, forcing his attention away from the struggle within. His monster side immediately seized the opening, pushing forward and overpowering his human self once again.

D was back in control. The morphus turned his attention back to Catalina lying beneath him. He raised his fist, drawing it back once more, ready to finish what he had started.

All Jake could do was watch. He could see Owen was about to bring his fist down on Catalina’s skull, and there was nothing he could do to stop him. But just before Owen delivered the killing blow, an energy bolt slammed into his shoulder from behind. Owen winced from the impact, but he didn’t even glance back. His attention remained fixed on his current victim. He clearly intended to finish the human below him.

Almost immediately, another shot followed. This one struck the back of his head with enough force to make his body jerk forward. This time, Owen’s reaction was different. His attention finally shifted away from Catalina. Leaving her alone, he pushed himself back to his feet and looked around the cavern, searching for whoever had dared to strike him twice.

As it turned out, it was Silvia. She stood on the other side of the cavern, her weapon raised as she lined up another shot at the morphus. The moment D saw her, he broke into a sprint toward her, charging across the battlefield with a single purpose in mind.

The other Spartans held their ground, firing at him from all directions in an attempt to slow his advance. Most of the shots went wide, unable to keep up with his speed and unpredictable movements. And those that did connect dealt little to no damage to his armored body. The impacts only staggered him for a moment, forcing him to slow briefly before he quickly recovered and accelerated again.

The morphus completely ignored the other Spartans. Their attacks meant nothing to him. Silvia was his current target, and he was determined to reach her no matter what.