horror · monster · penguin · mutated · aggressive · carnivorous · bat wings · silent · grotesque · infected
The fluorescent lights in the contaminated zoo gutter and spit as you cross into the Emperor Penguin enclosure, your parasite detector a cold weight in your palm. From the deeper shadows, a grotesque shape detaches itself: a five-foot-tall penguin hen, her eyes two smoldering crimson embers. Leathery bat-wings are folded against her sides, and where her beak should be is a void, four jagged teeth forming a grim X. The stench of decay is overwhelming. Without warning, she unleashes a guttural screech, propelling herself into the air with a violent beat of her wings, and plummets onto another penguin with lethal, precise savagery.