Beyond human

Citadel of Kraelion, south wall.

"Sir, our surveillance drones picked up a flare in the distance and after further investigation we found a group of people currently engaged in a fight with an aberrant!"

A young man dressed in dark grey jacket, combat pants, and a black pair of boots, addressed a middle aged man that spotted a dark black hair.

" Tell the vanguards to suit up, we head out immediately"

"Yes sir!" the young man saluted before heading out.

After the young man left, the middle aged man stood up, revealing his huge figure, he stood at a height of 6 feet tall, he wore a silver jacket, same colour with his pants, he also doned a black long coat, with thick furs around the neck, at the back of the coat a sigil of two swords crossing each other behind a shield could be seen, on the left side of his chest the words, 'SL. Clark' could be seen embroidered with silver intricate patterns.

***

After the hound crushed Sam, killing him instantly. Adam had a horrified expression on his face, he wanted to move but he couldn't, he looked towards davion, seeing the young man on his knees, staring at the only man that ever cared for him in the mouth of the hound, sadness took ahold of Adam's heart.

'If only I kept on running... Lisa would be disappointed in me, I led the old man to his grave, trying to defend me...I'll make sure Davion's safe, even if it's the last thing I'll do!'

Adam blamed himself for the death of Sam, he wanted to stay on the floor and grief but he couldn't let davion die too, he gathered his thoughts and stood up, in the next second, he sprinted towards Adam.

The hound noticed the human that hurt it soo much trying to run away, hate flashed across the hounds eyes as he flinged Sam's body to the side, and pursued after Adam.

Davion wished this was all a dream, he wished he was still deep in his sleep and that he would wake up to meet Sam and the others, well and alive, but the truth was cruel, he hated the creature that brought this cruel fate upon him, he wanted to see it in pain, he wanted to make it feel what he was feeling-, 'but I'm weak... He told me to run, but I stopped... I can't even run, I'm sorry Sam.. I was a coward till the end, I should just... give up'

Davion slumped on the floor, his head touching the hard ground, images of how they ran appeared in his head, they were always running, running and running and running, again and again and again.

'I hate it, I hate running, we all hated running... But we couldn't fight either, I wished I had a chance to fight them back...that!'

Realisation dawned upon Davion's face as he hurriedly raised his head and reached for the bag that layed by his side, unzipping it, he pulled out an object from the bag. It was a small black box the size of his palm, he opened it and revealed the contents within.

A syringe and a small vial that contained a dark purple glistening liquid, the contents seem to be moving even while he remained still, as he looked at it, his mind wandered to what an old man said.

**FOUR DAYS AGO**

Inside a dimly lit room, three silhouettes could be seen, test tubes, pods, tables and medical tools littered all around. The placed seemed like a makeshift laboratory.

One of the figures walked towards the wall to the side, and clicked something on the wall, resulting in the brightness of the lights in the room to be increased, revealing the figure inside the place. Standing side by side was Davion and Sam, the third person positioned in front of them was an old man, standing 4 feet tall, with a long white beard, he wore a long white coat that wrapped around his lean stature.

"I heard yall at planning on going to the citadel? Will it be safe?"

The old man questioned while looking at Sam, Sam sighed and replied.

"We are, but we still have to make some few repairs on the vehicle we found, and find more gas that'll last us, and I'm not sure if it's safe, the map I have showed a detailed route of a safer path to follow"

Sam explained to the old man with a stressed look on his face.

"And yet, no one wants to come with you... Well it's not there fault, even I would lose hope if I witnessed what they went through"

The old man explained, the old man wanted to open his mouth and say something, when Sam uttered.

"Adam and Lisa said they would come with me" Sam said.

"Of course they would... They owe you there lives, now, enough chit chat, I have something that'll help with your gas problem, follow me." the old man gestured for them to follow.

They walked to the side of the lab, until they reached a small room, it looked more like a storage, the old man placed his hand on the door knob and twisted, opening the door.

Shocked expressions appeared on both Sam's and Davion's face.

"How did you get this!" Davion uttered.

Inside the room was four gallons of fuel and other things, but Sam didn't pay heed to any of them, his eyes glued to the gallon of fuels.

"They were here when we turned this place into our lab." a look of loss flashed across the old man's face as he finished taking.

Sam looked at the old man and smiled,

"I'm sure one gallon would be enough, for our journey" Sam said with a smirk on his face.

"And who said I was gonna give em for free? Hmph!" the old man snickered.

"Eh!" Sam exclaimed.

"Do we have to pay for it?... How?" Davion chimed in.

"Fear not child, follow me, there's something I want you to take with you on your journey, might come in handy... Hehe" the old man chuckled.

The old man turned around and walked deeper into the lab, after a few minutes of walking, he stopped before a table, and on the table was a small black box, the size of his palm, he opened the black box and inside was a syringe and a small vial, and inside the vial was a dark purple liquid.

"What the hell is that? Some kind of drug?" Sam questioned.

The old man pinched the bridge of his nose,

"It's not just some drug, I call it Nova - X. The Nova-X is a revolutionary serum created to genetically alter humans, transcending biological limitations, turning them to superhumans, with this, fighting against the aberrant won't be an impossible task, but it also comes with risks!" the old man explained.

**BACK TO PRESENT**

Davion didn't know what would happen to him if he took it, but he didn't care, it was either he took this and have a fighting chance, or die. He picked up the syringe and used the needle to puncture the vial, drawing the contents into the syringe.

Hesitation appeared on davion's face, the fear of not knowing what the serum would do to him lingered, but the fear of dieing to the aberrant was greater. Davion slowly injected the syringe into his right arm, emptying the contents into his body...

'Is that it? I don't feel like I'm getting stron-'

"AAAAHHHRRRRRR!!"

Davion let out a blood curling scream, his body felt like he was pricked with thousands of needle all over his body, he wanted to scratch his itching skin but he couldn't move, the pain was too excruciating, he kept on twitching on the floor till he lost consciousness. Even as he lay there unconscious, his body was still writhing in pain.

Adam, saw Davion pull out a small box from his bag, but Adam didn't pay it much heed, because he could feel the hound was just a few meters away from him. Before he could think of what to do,A chill ran down his spine, his instinct screaming to him to move, or elso he would die. Without any delay, he swiftly moved to the side, slightly turning his head to see if he avoided the danger, only to notice that his left arm was flailing in the sky. He escaped death, but he paid the price with his arm.