Superhero by Night Omnibus

by Jeffery H. Haskell

  “Really, it’s okay. I’ve killed three of them already. I can take the rest, but if you want to get out of here, you need to come with me right now.”

  “You killed them?” the same girl asked.

  “Which ones?” Another asked.

  That was not the response I expected. “Does it matter?” I asked.

  She burst into silent tears holding her face. I was so confused. I walked to where the first woman was and made sure they were free to move around.

  “Listen, you seem like you’re in charge. We need to move and I mean right now.” I could give them the full “Wraith” treatment, and I would if they didn’t start moving, but I wanted them to cooperate, not be too scared to listen.

  She nodded. “I knew they lied to us,” she said. “There was no coming back.”

  I didn’t have time to question her about what the hell she was talking about.

  “My name is Sheila,” she said with a sad sigh. “I’ll get them to listen.”

  While she worked on her friends, I ran back out to the main door to see if the beasts had figured out where I had gone yet.

  I checked the big door leading to the stairwell; unfortunately, even if I could close it there was no way to lock it. It was a fail-safe, which was the exact opposite of how a door like this should operate. I heard growling from downstairs.

  My time was up.

  I ran back to the girls and waved them forward. “They are in the stairwell,” I said pointing at the door to the elevators. “We’re going to go down the elevator shafts.” I led them past the cells and through the decontamination area into the lobby. More choked sobs came from them as they passed the remains of their friends. I shut the inner door and used the bloody chair to hold it closed. To their credit, they didn’t make a sound at seeing the guard’s ripped up remains.

  Once the door behind us was shut, I ran to the lift. I wedged my fingers into the center and pulled the doors apart. It was hardly a strain.

  “Damn,” someone whispered. “She’s strong.”

  Once the outer doors were parted I took a shotgun shell and wedged it in the bottom to hold it open.

  Inside, a ladder extended down the length of the shaft, with a small lip to step off at each floor.

  “Sheila,” I whispered. She appeared beside me a few seconds later. “I have a friend in an armored vehicle downstairs. She’s waiting for me to return. I want you to have the girls go down the ladder and wait for me on the top of the elevator. I’ll come down last and make sure everything is clear behind us.”

  She nodded, worry fluttered across her face. “Your friend… was she bit?” she asked.

  Now it was my turn to worry. “Uh, no, I don’t think so, why?”

  “It’s how they transmit the changes, like a bad zombie movie. When I first arrived they were trying to make superpowers manifest, injecting us with drug cocktails, killing us...,” her voice choked up for a second and I put my hand on her shoulder. I couldn’t imagine the kind of fear they were living with. “When that didn’t work they started tinkering with genetics. About a month ago was when they created these things,” she said looking back the way we had come.

  “They were feeding us to them. But one of the girls managed to escape after she got bit... within an hour she turned into one of them. It was Misty’s sister; that’s why she was so upset when you said you killed one of them. Of the eight beasts, only one of them is the original. Once the doctors knew how that worked they dangled us in cages like a rack of meat, trying to get a bite.”

  “All of you?” I asked.

  She pulled up her shirt revealing a large bite mark. “I’m immune. They were keeping me for study, trying to figure out why I hadn’t turned. Everyone else was for turning… or for food.”

  I nodded. Oh crap, crap, crap!

  “Okay, get the girls in line and moving down. I’m going to check our six.” I tried not to seem stressed as I ran back to look through the door I’d barricaded. I pulled my mask up to help muffle my voice. I needed to speak to Spice.

  “Spice?” I whispered.

  She appeared next to me, which in itself was weird. She usually only answered when she wanted too.

  “Did you hear that?” I asked her, nodding toward the lift.

  “Yep.”

  Her indifference infuriated me. “And?”

  “And what?”

  If I could choke the life out of her, I would have. “Am I going to turn into one of those things?” I asked with exasperation.

  She shrugged. “Maybe. You’ll certainly kill a lot more people as one of them, won’t you?”

  I stared at her in disbelief. It’s what she would want; a ravenous beast to take life indiscriminately. Killing for sport and fun, feeding her the whole time. One delicious soul after another with no concern for innocent lives.

  “I can’t tell if you’re joking or not,” I said.

  “Madi, all I care about is that you don’t die and you keep killing. Beyond that... I said not to trust anyone.” Then she vanished.

  I checked my shoulder; the wound was gone, as if it were never there. Which was great. Maybe whatever they infected me with was already cured. Regardless, I couldn’t help but break out in a worried sweat.

  I’m fine. Better than fine. She’s just yanking my chain... right?

  Chapter 29

  It took longer than I would have liked to get the girls down the shaft. They were tired, scared, and malnourished. Some of them could only go a few rungs at a time before they had to stop and rest.

  I waited opposite the door with my back to the wall, shotgun shouldered and pointed at the makeshift barricade holding the lab door shut. I didn’t know how stealthy these things could be, but I had my senses dialed up to eleven.

  Even so, I almost missed the slow and steady scraping of claws on tile. I leaped up just as the door exploded inward. Whatever intelligence these things had must have led it to shuffle quietly, like it was stalking prey.

  This prey had fangs. I fired off two rounds right at it while I dodged to the right. It came straight for me. I ducked and rolled and it slammed its big head right into the wall where I had stood a moment before.

  I came up in time to see another one, a female from the shape of her upper body, follow through the door, it went for the open shaft where the last girl was just stepping on the ladder.

  “No you don’t,” I yelled as I ran after it. I grabbed a handful of tawny hair behind her head and pulled. The beast jerked her head up but kept going, pulling me forward as her back claws scraped the tiled floor for purchase. I slammed one foot into the wall next to the elevator door and heaved. She snapped her mouth shut two inches from the frightened ex-prisoner. The girl didn’t even scream.

  My muscles bulged and my whole body ached as I pulled her back from the door. I shifted my hands, leaned, then lifted her up. She twisted, making her hard to hold. I lunged forward and tossed her at the other one still recovering from head-butting the wall.

  She collided with the other wolf in a jumble of arms, legs, and claws. They snapped at each other for a moment while they tried to stand. I took that opportunity to toss a grenade at them and ducked inside the shaft as six and a half ounces of explosives detonated and sent its steel body out in a shower of death. The pressure slammed my ears but it wasn’t anything my current power level couldn’t handle.

  I pulled out the shell that held the doors open and let them close. A clawed hand grabbed them just as they would have shut—it was my tawny friend. I punched her in the nose, which made her snap back in surprise and bought me a second to whip the shotgun around and stuff it in her mouth.

  Click-Boom!

  Her body jerked back as the force of the blast pushed her. She shook her head once, then collapsed, taking one last breath before dying. Invulnerable on the outside, not so much on the inside.

  I slammed the doors shut before the other one could get to it. Strength flooded through me as Spice’s own powers grew from feeding on the dead
wolf-thing.

  I still had girls on the ladder below me. About half of them were down—the rest were making their way far too slowly.

  Then I heard the growls. More than one from the other side of the door. One at a time I had no doubt I could take them. Maybe even two, as long as I kept killing them. But if I got bit... there was no assurance that Spice would heal me from whatever infection they spread with their saliva. At the same time, I couldn’t really let any of these things live, nor could I let the building stand. I had to level this place to the foundation.

  Somehow.

  I jumped to the other side of the shaft opposite the door, hanging on to the lip above with one hand and the shotgun in the other. Any second and they were—

  A clawed fist the size of my head punched through the doors, grabbed a handful of metal and rubber and pulled, ripping it right out in a cacophony of screeching metal.

  I switched the shotgun to semi-auto, braced the stalk against the inside of my elbow, and fired. The boom of the gun deafened me in the tiny area as I fired round after round until the gun clicked empty.

  He shook his head, snorting from the blast and pawing at his face. No time like the present!

  I threw the shotgun at him and leaped after it with all my strength, flying like a bullet, right at the not-wolf, slamming my shoulder into his gut and barreling him over. We slid into the far wall with a dull thud. Before he could shake himself free, I yanked another grenade from my pouch, pulled the pin, and shoved it down his throat. He gagged as my fist disappeared into his mouth. I let go and kicked off his chest, flinging myself in a backward flip.

  His torso exploded in a shower of gore.

  A clawed hand grabbed a handful of my hair and swung me around, slamming me into the far wall. Ribs cracked and one of my lungs collapsed. I didn’t have time for pain, though. A giant foot with claws longer than my fingers came down on my torso. I heard the tile crack under me from the force. With the power Spice loaned me, I could regenerate almost as fast as I was wounded, but it still hurt like hell.

  He lowered his upper body, muscles rippling across his furry torso, and opened his maw to chomp my head—which was what I needed him to do. I triggered the shadow step and vanished from under him. He stumbled forward as I came out of the shadows above him and fell to land on his back. I wrapped one arm around his neck, and grabbed my wrist and pulled, snapping his head up in a choke hold. He was tough, but right now I was as strong as I could be. I hooked my legs around his waist so he couldn’t buck me off. His head snapped up and threw himself backward, slamming us both into the wall.

  The building shook and bones broke in my shoulders, but I held on. He slammed me again, but without as much strength. I could feel his heart pounding through my chest, his massive lungs expanding trying to gather life-giving air. I pulled harder. He may have been bulletproof, but he still had to breathe.

  He stumbled forward, slowly stepping toward the wall and lamely slamming me one last time before he fell to his knees.

  He struggled, realizing he should claw at my hands, but it was too late. Razer sharp bone sliced through my forearm but he didn’t have any strength left. We fell forward on his chest and he shuddered. When no rush hit me, I pulled my Walther, stuck it in his ear and emptied the magazine.

  A few seconds later the wash of power flooded through me. My aches vanished along with my wounds.

  Thank God for small favors.

  I pulled myself up, breathing hard as I ran for the lift. The doors were hopelessly ruined. I leaned over the edge and watched the last girl step off the ladder onto the crowded roof of the elevator many floors below.

  Swinging out, I grabbed the ladder sides, braced my feet against the poles, and slid down. I clenched my teeth as friction burned off the top layers of skin on my hands. Hitting the lift with a thump, I went down to one knee to absorb the energy of the impact. It took a few seconds of me shaking my hands out before they healed. The shaking didn’t speed things up but it made me feel better.

  “You’re her, aren’t you?” A girl with short brown hair asked me.

  “Who?”

  “The Wraith. I’m from Detroit... it was all rumor and hearsay... but the red scarf—that stuck with everyone,” a young black girl said. I stared at her for a second. She wasn’t much older than I was when I went into modeling. I shook my head to break the reverie.

  I nodded. Kneeling down I grabbed the lock on the roof hatch and yanked it off, sending pieces skittering. “I’d prefer if you keep your descriptions of me vague. Black woman, red scarf, killed a lot of things dead,” I said. It sounded funny, but it wasn’t a joke. The world already knew who Madisun Dumas was; I needed to remind them who the Wraith was—in the scariest way possible. Blue light flashed off of their faces as my eyes flared with the energy inside me.

  They nodded almost in concert. Good enough.

  I leaped down into the elevator; it wasn’t the one I had escaped from. Pistol out, I went to the door, pressed my fingers into the seam and pulled. It took a second but I got them open. Using my shoulder, I held them in place and waved for the girls to come down. Sheila was the first down and she came to stand next to me.

  “Listen. That door right there,” I pointed past the desk toward the garage entrance, “go right for it. Don’t stop. There are a half dozen armored vehicles. Pick the closest one that will fit all of you and get in. They’re unlocked.”

  She nodded and started waving for the girls to come down.

  “What are you going to do?” she asked.

  “I’ve got to find the keys,” I said, looking down the opposite hall. “And kill the rest of these things. And burn the building to the ground.”

  She looked shocked at my calm revelations. “You really are a superhero,” she whispered.

  “Don’t,” I said pointing at her, “say that. Heroes have rules. My only rule is ‘kill the bad guys dead.’”

  She nodded. “Well, you’re a hero to us.”

  I smiled, though she couldn’t see it through my scarf. “Good enough for me.”

  I bolted down the hall to where I left the makeshift bag of keys, relieved to see they were still there. I scooped them up and tied them to my waist as securely as I could before moving to the back of the level. The halls were quiet and I wondered where the rest of the beasts had gone.

  “Probably hunting you,” Spice said from behind. She blew a bubble from the gum she chewed and let it pop.

  “Ha-frickin-ha. I didn’t get bit, just so you know,” I told her as I moved to where I thought the basement entrance should be.

  “Never say never,” she replied.

  “If you don’t have anything useful to add, can you leave me alone? This isn’t exactly a walk in the park.”

  “Clearly, you’ve never been to Singapore.”

  I turned to say something scathing but she was gone. I hustled as fast as I dared, keeping silent as I moved. I found the maintenance entrance a few minutes later, nestled between the repair facility and a large bathroom. The door opened with minimal effort and I descended the stairs into the darkness. If there was a furnace of some kind, or a power generator, or anything I could set to overload, that would help me destroy this place.

  The problem was the maze of pipes and passages. I could really use Krisan. I checked the phone; still no signal... but... if I could find the main communications panel for the building, maybe I could hotwire the phone’s antenna?

  All I needed to do was go into a maze of blind corners with ravenous werewolves hunting me. Oh, I almost forgot; only one entrance.

  Yeah, I was home free.

  Chapter 30

  One dark corner after another played havoc with my nerves. Any second a giant beast could reach out and end me; there was no safe place and it made my adrenaline pump like a water fountain on a hot day.

  “C’mon Madisun, get it together,” I whispered to myself.

  A sigh from behind spun me around and to one a knee, pistol aimed… right at Spice’
s face. I dropped the gun down to my side and breathed out my anxiety and annoyance.

  “What do you want?” I asked.

  She smiled coyly at me. “I know where the communications panel is.”

  I perked right up. “Tell me?”

  She shook her head. “I want something first.”

  My head jerked back in surprise as I pursed my lips. “What could you want that you don’t already have?”

  “You kill too fast, Madi. You don’t let me feel it. I want you to kill something slowly, painfully, to let me really savor it.”

  Even at her creepiest she had never been this scary. My heart hurt hearing those words come out of my little sister's mouth.

  “I thought we settled this. We do things my way. I’m not into torturing someone before killing—”

  “Sure you are. You did it in New Orleans and it was glorious. You can do it again.”

  I turned away from her, hating that she was right. I had done it, and it had left a bad taste in my mouth. I’d justified it with Intel I’d gained from it, but really, it was wrong; I don’t care how evil the person was.

  “You need to drop this whole mantle of moral righteousness. You’re a murderer, Madi. Embrace it.”

  “No. You might think the path I’m on will turn me into the killer you want me to be, but it won’t. It can’t. If it does, I’m no better than the people I put down. You’re going to have to just be satisfied with the deaths I serve you. I’m certainly not going to start carving people—”

  The fist came out of a side tunnel I had missed. It was a pathetically weak blow, glancing off my jaw. However, the woman followed it up with a pain-stick to my abdomen.

  She drove me to the ground, the stick making a snapping noise like a Tazer as it dropped. My knees stung from the impact. It was her—the woman who’d callously overseen my torture.

  “Get out here,” she screamed over her shoulder. Two men, older than her, in fact, older than anyone I’d seen so far, came out with a rope.

  It was hard to breathe with the excruciating pain rolling through my stomach. Every muscle clenched in agony as her friends slipped the rope around my neck, threw the other end over a pipe and pulled.