Super Zoo-Chapter 824 - 797: Escape from Death

"Shit, what the hell is this!"

Suming and Su Meng were holding up a huge iron gate and couldn't move, but they could still turn their necks. Hearing the heavy footsteps behind, both instinctively looked back.

In the darkness, a humanoid monster over two meters tall! It's said to be humanoid because it still looked like a human – it walked on two legs, but it had no arms. Well, it couldn't be said to have no arms at all; two things that looked like fish fins which were its arms were hanging limply at its sides.

Its body was covered with twisted but messy muscles, as if the large muscles from several bodybuilding champions had been cut off and randomly stitched together.

The most terrifying part was its face, which bore no resemblance to a human anymore, looking like a giant shark that had mutated and rotted due to radiation.

Clearly, this creature wasn't good news. Suming had no hope that this creature would come over to talk about life's ambitions... Instinctively, he hit it with a blast of spiritual power, but just like those bats, this monster's spirit was already twisted and distorted, making communication impossible.

"Roar... Roar... Roar..." The monster let out a deep roar, its head twitching neurotically as it strode toward the door, its mouth – if it still had one – dribbling a string of pale blue saliva.

The creature was tall and leggy, moving very quickly, and soon it was just a few meters away from Suming and his group. Its eyeballs, void of any whites, stared ominously at the duo.

Suming gritted his teeth, thinking, "Damn it, if it comes down to it, we'll just have to fight this thing, put down the heavy gate, kill this thing first, then think of other ways to escape."

"Beck! Is that you?!"

At that moment, Ludmila's voice came through. She bent down and shouted at the monster through the crack in the door.

Upon hearing Ludmila's voice, the shark monster noticeably paused and looked towards her.

"These damn beasts!" Seeing her once-human teammate turned into this inhuman and ghastly form, Ludmila's eyes filled with rage as she yelled: "Beck, wake up! Don't hurt them, we'll get you out of here..." Although she spoke these words, Ludmila knew very well that even if they could get the monstrous Beck out, he could no longer be returned to human form, and it was questionable if he could even survive a few more days. During the time she had been captured, she had seen several 'subjects' mutate and then die quickly after being injected with the drug.

Even if he survived, he would just be treated as a monster for national research, confined in a laboratory. Such a dignified-less clinging to life was definitely not what a mercenary would wish for.

"Motherf..." Monster Beck mumbled something unclearly, stopped walking, and stood about a meter away from Suming and Su Meng.

In his previously whiteless eyes, there appeared a glimmer of clarity, the pupils slightly constricted, and a faint whiteness emerged around them.

"Beck, I swear, I will avenge you!" Ludmila gritted her teeth, picked up Suming's gun, and slowly aimed at Beck's head; if he showed any sign of attacking, she would shoot without hesitation. Although comrades-in-arms are dearly bonded, Ludmila was sober enough to know that between an unrecoverable comrade and two living beings, she had to make a choice.

You could call her cold, or you could call her rational, but whichever choice she made, it left her bearing the deepest pain.

At that moment, Beck suddenly moved, dashing toward the door with great speed. However, contrary to everyone's expectations, he did not attack Suming and Su Meng, but instead, with a bend of his waist, supported the shaking heavy iron gate with his muscular back, like a giant seal, his limbs touching the ground, bracing the faltering gateway.

"Go quickly..." Beck let out a roar like a human, everyone now understood what he was trying to do – this mutated mercenary was going to use his own body to hold up the gate, helping Suming and Su Meng escape.

"Fuck!" Suming's mind buzzed, his face flushed with blood. If he and Su Meng left now, Beck would surely be crushed to death by the heavy gate.

Perhaps due to the overwhelming weight of the gate, or maybe because the injected drug was not fully developed, Beck was somewhat lucid at this moment. He grinned at Suming and Su Meng, revealing a mouthful of rotten teeth.

"Go, don't dawdle like women!" Beck's back sagged under the pressure, but he struggled to raise his head and grinned at Suming: "If someone has to die, let it be the one who can take revenge! Hurry up!"

Whether it was a triggered mechanism or electronic device, Suming and Su Meng felt the gate becoming increasingly heavy in their hands, showing signs of becoming unbearable, the two exchanged glances, mutually resolved, and almost simultaneously performed the same action – flipping out from under the gate.

"Squeak..." Without their support, the gate slowly began to fall.

Underneath the gate, Beck roared loudly, his muscles tensely holding up the gate, momentarily forcing it upwards several centimeters, but his spine soon emitted a sound of breaking bones, being crushed down little by little.

"These unprofessional beasts actually spared my life, haha, I really want to see their faces when they find out someone escaped, too bad..." Beck said with a bloody sneer.

"Beck, I swear with my life, I'll exterminate these beasts!" Ludmila virtually went mad.

"Fuck, what are you guys doing, performing a tragedy!?"

After Suming and Su Meng flipped out, they hadn't run far because the situation was tense just as in movies where surely Beck would have been crushed to death saving someone, but upon getting out, Suming remembered there was no need as he and Su Meng could've kept lifting the iron gate on the other side until Beck was safe...

"Su Meng, quick!" Suming grinned, already grabbing the bottom of the iron gate, his muscles surging as he shouted, slightly halting the gate's downward motion.

Following swiftly, Su Meng's hands also reached out, and the iron gate finally stopped less than half a meter above the ground.

Ludmila was utterly stunned, her mouth agape at the side.

"Stupid woman, what are you spacing out for, performing a tragedy?! Hurry, pull him out, we can't hold it much longer!" Suming bared his teeth as he spoke.

"Oh oh oh..." Regaining her senses, Ludmila quickly dragged Beck, who was half-dead from being crushed, out from under the door.

With a thunderous crash, the massive iron gate that weighed maybe ten thousand pounds finally hit the ground, seemingly shaking the entire area violently.

A horde of animals, six survivors, and a mutated Beck were gasping for air outside the castle.

...

A helicopter was weaving through the mountains of Romania; on it, besides the sole passenger Nicole, there was only one pilot. This was the only original crew from the castle, if not for needing him to fly the plane, Nicole might not have spared his life.

Not for fear of being chastised by the committee, since killing low-ranking personnel, Nicole, with her nearly core-level LV2 clearance, could easily cover it up. The news of Locke's 'death' nearly drove her mad. Before she left, Nicole, ostensibly for security but actually to vent her anger, even killed most of the castle's crew.

The remaining pilot immediately cowered, unhesitatingly following all of Nicole's commands. Even though Nicole didn't flee Romania immediately, risking encirclement by government forces, she searched between the two castles for the helicopter wreck, and he dared not object.

Very quickly, the helicopter had searched the direct path between the two castles but hadn't found any trace.

"Keep searching," Nicole said expressionlessly.

Unlike others in the organization to Locke, Nicole and Locke shared an indescribable bond. From a genetic standpoint, Nicole and Locke could be considered siblings, or even more precisely, two sides of the same person.

Nicole was the illegitimate daughter, while Locke was born from a gene segment extracted from the same ovum as a test-tube baby!

An illegitimate daughter is still a daughter, but a test-tube baby, born from some gene segments, in terms of human morality and emotions, could be seen as unrelated, at least in their father's eyes. Thus, Nicole could become a core member of the organization with high clearance, but Locke had to constantly go through more mature genetic modifications during his growth, essentially as a high-level experimental subject of the organization.

But this didn't hinder the relationship between Locke and Nicole; in Locke's almost non-existent emotional values, Nicole was the only one he had to obey and protect, likewise, in Nicole's ruthless nature, Locke was perhaps the only glimpse of humanity.

"Follow this river, if I remember correctly, it passes by Eibek Castle," Nicole commanded without expression, even if Locke had died, she wanted to find his body and seek revenge.

The helicopter veered direction, flying along the fast-flowing river.

Sure enough, at a fork in the river, they found a stranded body, a security guard of the castle.

Soon after, in a tributary, they discovered the wreckage of the helicopter.

"Miss Nicole, there seems to be something unusual up ahead!"

Two brown bears stood in the shallow water, seemingly gnawing at something. Nicole instantly saw that it was a humanoid creature, mangled and bloody.

"Damn it, it's Locke!"

Without hesitation, Nicole picked up the rifle, and from the aircraft, she cleanly discharged a triple shot twice, hitting the bears in the head. They bellowed in pain and fell into the water, the surface staining red with blood.

The helicopter slowly landed by the lake. Nicole jumped down and saw Locke's back was terribly rotted, in some places even exposing the spine, and most of the flesh on one thigh had been gnawed away.

"Locke, Locke, are you still alive!?" Knowing full well Locke's formidable survival skills, holding onto the last shred of hope, she tremblingly reached for Locke's carotid artery.

Strangely, the unmoving Locke suddenly twitched a little finger just as Nicole touched him.