Dungeon Raider System-Chapter 523: Chickens Part 2

Cruelty was the only word that could possibly describe the scene in front of their eyes. A cold heartless machine picked up the day old chicks and surgically removed everything 'unnecessary' without so much as pain medicine of any sort, then a plastic tube was inserted directly inside their digestive system to force feed them until they reached the next growth stage.

It was brutality at its peak, but the worst part was yet to come as the poor creatures were then placed into a dark confined cell where they would know nothing but pain and misery for the rest of their short lives.

"I know this is the most efficient way to keep the citizens from starving but... it feels wrong." Uriel said, now questioning if he wanted to reclaim the factory or burn it to the ground.

"It's a hypocritical thing to say, but I agree. These aren't cryptids, they're just pitiful creatures that don't deserve this kind of treatment. We should... uhm... release them." Luna spoke, but a loud shout or rather, a shriek came from the next room.

"No! Don't set them free!"

"Emma? Is that you?" Uriel asked.

"It's me, but don't come yet!" Emma replied in a shaky voice followed by a crimson glimmer that reflected on the walls.

"Is that Uriel!? Hang on, I'm putting my blindfold on!" Medusa said and the red glimmer disappeared. "You can come now."

Uriel was about to head towards the voice when he felt a tug on his sleeve and he turned back to see Luna pointing at her nose. She didn't say what it was, but that could only mean trouble.

Just because the lights were on, didn't mean there couldn't be hybrids roaming inside the building and Uriel knew better than to walk directly into what could be a trap, at least now that he didn't have Water warlock's blessing.

Luna didn't let go of Uriel's sleeve, not even after he summoned his magnum, especially not after entering the next room and seeing Emma and Medusa covered in blood.

"Medusa!? Are you okay!?" Uriel threw caution to the wind and rushed in to check his friend.

"It's not my blood if that's what you're asking."

"I'm fine too, thank you for asking." Emma said, her disheveled look and pale face evidence to the contrary.

"What the hell is going on?" Uriel asked, but both Emma and Medusa remained silent.

"I think it's best if you see it by yourself." Medusa said as she pointed to one of two doors that lead to different rooms. "Just let me give you a warning, once you see it, there's no way to unsee it."

Medusa's ominous words resounded inside Uriel's mind triggering a kind of fear he never experienced before. It wasn't about his safety since he knew Medusa would never put him intentionally in danger, but judging by the troubled expression on her face he guessed whatever awaited for him in the next room couldn't be good.

His hand trembled as he pressed down the door handle, sweat trickled down his forehead and his throat became dry as a desert in anticipation as different scenarios crossed his mind. 'Will there be cryptids inside?' He shook his head and opened the door in a single movement and his face was struck by the foul stench of a thousand rotting corpses, human corpses in huge containers.

"What the..." Uriel fell on his butt before even taking a step inside and the door closed by itself.

"It seems I was correct," Luna muttered. "They feed the chickens with human corpses."

"But... why!?" Uriel asked before his mind could catch up to him.

"It took me by surprise too, but if you think about it... if you really think about it, it's not like they could spare any wheat, grass or vegetables to maintain any poultry." Medusa explained and then Emma added.

"That's not even the worst part, those things... they're not cryptids, but they're not animals either." This seemed to pique Luna's interest and she shifted her gaze towards the other door, but Emma put herself in the way.

"Don't even think about it, those things are vicious... They were meant to be killed at most at day 28, because..." Emma tried to explain, but Luna cut her short with her eyes glimmering in excitement.

"They're a genetically engineered species that continues growing non stop, when the city fell the workers failed to kill the adults and they continued growing non stop until electricity ran out, then they became cannibalistic eating their own kind and continued mutating into a variety of deformed, mutilated creatures."

"That's... accurate actually." Emma couldn't hide her shock because of how precise Luna was with the little information she was provided with, but it didn't faze Uriel or Medusa who knew her better.

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"And they also hold grudges, it's the worst calamity I've ever faced." Medusa said.

"No, it's not. They must be proto cryptids. It's the confirmation I needed to prove that at least some cryptids can be created in a laboratory." Luna's voice came out amidst eerie cackles.

"Good graces! Luna, you just found out that our main source of food comes from nasty creatures that are basically tortured their whole life and feed on dead humans. The last thing you should be thinking right now is about furthering your research on cryptids." Medusa scolded.

"Well, not that I'm siding up with Luna, but they're not cryptids so, how bad can they be? They're just ugly chickens, right?" Uriel tried to defuse the situation.

"Just chickens!? Fine, let Luna take a peek inside the next chamber then. I'm too tired to deal with this." Emma let out and proceeded to sit on the floor, finally allowing Luna to enter the next chamber.

Not even ten seconds after that, Luna came back wearing her usual aloof face, but her eyes wide in shock.

"They... uhm... have faces."

"What did you just say!?"

"They have faces." Luna repeated herself thinking Uriel didn't hear her the first time.

As expected, curiosity got the best of Uriel and he too decided to take a peek inside and what he saw could barely be put into words. The 'chickens' weren't contained anymore and they roamed freely on that huge chamber. Their size varied from that of a soccer ball to that of a small car and just as Luna pointed out, they had faces but not on their heads.

More than birds, they looked like uncanny meat sacks with exposed skin and beneath that red flayed layer, the semblance of human faces with gaping mouths showed in small protrusions as though they were trying to escape from within the deformed creatures.

It was the single most disturbing thing Uriel had ever seen in his life, which was actually saying a lot since he was a veteran hunter with more combat experience than most people his age.

After gagging for a couple seconds, Uriel turned on his heels in silence and went back to his friends with a single thought on his mind.

"We've been eating those things..."

"And they've been eating us too, it's the circle of life." Luna added.

"I guess coming here was a mistake after all. We should burn this place down to the ground and if we're lucky forget about it also."

"Hang on, we can't rule this out as a food source yet." Medusa awkwardly said.

"You can't possibly be serious, of all of us you should be the most disgusted about this!"

"Medusa is correct. People has been eating synthetic food for years and they've been fine. I highly doubt there's anything harmful about them." Luna insisted, fearing that her precious test samples were at risk.

"The government keeping this from the population is bad enough and you want us to do the same thing? I..."

"Don't blame the government so easily, they just did what they needed to in order for humanity to survive. I get that they're not the same chickens that appear in the pictures in the package, but it doesn't make them any less tas... nutritional."

"You were just about to say tasty..." Emma's right eye twitched.

"Luna, when you told me about the rumors going around about genetically manipulated chickens I thought it was nothing but a conspiracy theory because it sounded too deranged. This is worse, so much worse... those things, they're not animals."

"They're not cryptids either. We need to find out exactly what they are and how to properly... manage them." While it wasn't unusual for Luna to be so persistent about something she wanted to study, this was the first time she was so vocal about it. Usually, she would just repeat the same thing over and over compulsively, but now she was trying to actually persuade Uriel to see things her way.

"What do you propose, then?" Uriel finally gave up.

"I don't disagree with the fact that we need to eliminate all the adults because they're too... uhm... pitiful. However... with some equipment and some help, we might figure out a way to turn this factory into something more... uhmm...

ethical."

"Did you just say unethical?" Uriel asked for confirmation, just to make sure Luna wasn't getting any strange ideas.

"No." Luna replied bare faced which only served to stoke Uriel's suspicions.