by Rashaad Bell
Chapter 22
Till death do us part…
His heart rate flared up slightly. A shadow passed the over the sliding glass door. I barely caught a glimpse of it in my peripheral before it was gone.
That’s when it all clicked.
There was someone in the back yard. There was someone at the front door, yet the only heartbeat I could hear was Connors. There was a crash from the kitchen window; two cylindrical canisters struck the ground just in front of me, rolling past my feet. There was a blinding explosion and everything went white.
I stumbled back, tripping over a crate. It was impossible to see. I could smell something in the air, some type of gas, a paralyzing nerve agent causing my body to seize up.
My vision was shifting back to normal almost as fast as it went out. Flash bang grenade meant to blind opposition. What in the hell was going on? Connor was already on the ground, coughing hysterically. For some reason, the nerve agent was having a much more punishing effect on him then me.
There was a detonation as the front door exploded open and a woman rushed in decked out in all black tactical body armor, yet it wasn’t any type of gear I had seen before. She wore a black gas mask and aimed a shotgun towards Connor.
I tried to yell out in warning, but he couldn’t hear me. He was in the fetal position, coughing nonstop, blood leaking out his nose.
The woman fired her shotgun at Connor, a thick white foam enveloping his body when the shells hit. It spread over his frame like gel, covering almost ninety percent of him before hardening. It then began distributing electric shocks, I could see the currents rippling all over his body.
“Hostile 32 neutralized.” The woman stated. “Primary Target in close proximity.”
I came to my feet as she fired again, rising up from the ground in one fluid motion, the rounds from the shotgun slamming into the crate beside me, coating it in sticky white foam.
“Primary is a possible Hyper-Sensitive.” The woman said. “Requesting assistance.”
She aimed again, but I was on her by now, using my speed to close the distance between us in a heartbeat. I grabbed the barrel of the shotgun as she fired, the blast going off right next to my ear. I felt my eardrum burst then reconstitute itself.
There was a crash behind me as the sliding glass door exploded in a razor blade cascade. I could hear Connor moan slightly, a part of my mind registering that he was still alive, yet unable to move, the foam hardening all around him, constricting his movements while still sending electric jolts throughout his body, yet I couldn’t concentrate on that now.
I kicked the woman in the chest as hard as I could, her body sent flying across the room, slamming into a wall somewhere in the kitchen. I still held the shotgun, gripping it by the barrel when there was another blast from behind and my back exploded. I stumbled forward from the impact, sharp pain racing throughout my entire body.
I turned around and saw a man similarly dressed in the same type of strange body armor. There was a shotgun in his hand. The barrel was smoking. He fired again and my chest exploded open from the impact, blood splattering everywhere. He wasn’t shooting foam. He was shooting the real deal.
The wound on my back had already begun to heal, the pain subsiding. The tissue in my chest was mending itself, little strands of flesh, weaving, reconnecting, becoming whole.
I let out a scream, savage and deadly.
“Primary Target is a confirmed ReGen.” The man said.
I swung the shotgun in my hand like a baseball bat, striking him in the side of the head, his helmet and gas mask shattering on impact as he cartwheeled to the ground.
“HEY!”
I twisted around as the woman fired her small arms weapon, something like a Desert Eagle, yet different, modified, more sophisticated. She continued firing as she walked towards me, emptying out the clip into my chest. She kept shooting until her gun clicked empty. I just shook my head at her ineffectiveness.
She ripped off her gas mask and smiled. “Wait for it…”
My chest exploded, my body flung backwards from the force. I slammed into the back wall, then went through it, crashing out the other side of the house into the backyard. I hit the ground, digging up the earth as I slid backwards on the grass.
I tried to move but I couldn’t. There was so much pain. My entire chest was blown wide open. It was as if someone had splashed liquid metal inside my body and it hardened over most of my organs.
I could see my body trying to regenerate around the metal, but there was just so much of it and it was…everywhere!
The healing process couldn’t compensate for it. Couldn’t grow over the metal to reconnect the damaged tissue into something whole again. It was like watching two fingers desperately trying to touch, but someone parked a big ass Buick in-between them.
The woman was walking towards me, gun aimed in as she reload. “Graul, status report.”
I could hear movement from the house. “Hostile 32 is neutralized, Amastacia. Extraction incoming. ETA two minutes. What about our Primary? There’s nothing in the dossier that said she was a ReGen. Last DNA scan stated that she was Hyper-Sensitive negative. She’s supposed to be human.”
“Something must have happened since the Wolf Packs last check in.” Amastacia kicked my leg, but I didn’t move. I couldn’t. “The Primary Target is neutralized.”
Graul.
Amastacia.
Who the hell are these people?
“Graul, inform the Translucent Man we are on our way to Sanctuary.”
“Roger that.”
She was standing directly over me now, looking down. Slowly Amastacia reached forward and pulled at my upper lip, exposing my sharpened teeth. “And tell him our Primary is now of the Vampiric persuasion.”
Graul appeared, pulling Connor by his hair into the back yard. I couldn’t tell if he was alive or not. “Vampire?”
“Maybe Hostile 32 decided to create himself a little progeny.” Replied Amastacia.
“Or she was in a bad way when she left the Wolves Den is more like.” Graul let go of Connors hair, his head hitting the ground with a sickening thump. “Is she still awake?”
“That’s an affirmative.” Amastacia said.
“Then plug her again.” Graul demanded. “Translucent Man wants all Primary Targets deceased before transport to Sanctuary.”
“I’m out.” Amastacia explained. “She took the whole clip. Nothing left but Regular Rounds.”
“The whole clip?” Graul seemed impressed. “Tough little son of bitch.”
“The Translucent Man didn’t say anything about a second ReGen, let alone another Vampire. All our biological weapons are coded to Hostile 32’s DNA specifically. Everything we have will be ineffective on her. That’s why the bio-agent in that dog’s bloodstream was ineffective. We’re not equipped for this type of operation. Those were my personals rounds.” Amastacia stated.
“RGP Personals? You keep a clip of ReGeneration Piercing rounds on you?” Graul asked.
Amastacia smiled. “Never leave home without them.”
Graul pulled out his Glock. “You always were the baddest bitch.” He knelled down next to me, putting the barrel flush against my temple. “Guess we’ll just have to do this the old fashion way, wont we?”
He pulled the trigger and everything went black.