“When are you going to bring him over to meet the team?” John asked.
“Tomorrow, he’s packing and saying goodbye to his parents.”
“Parents? How young is this kid?” Mario scoffed.
“What do they think?” John added.
“Supportive, he’s in his twenties. You and Savanna actually saved them from a small outbreak south of Chicago a year ago.”
“Oh, yeah? Patterson...Patterson...doesn’t ring a bell.”
“It was a whole apartment complex. I doubt you would remember their individual names.” Simon explained.
“Which one?”
“I don’t remember. I’d have to take a look at his file again. He’s actually asked me if he’d get to work with you.”
“Really? How about that!” John smiled.
“That’s one more in the John Masterson Fan Club.” Mario stated.
“How many does that make?” Simon asked with an inquisitive look.
“One.” Mario tried to hold a serious face but an uncontrollable urge to laugh took over.
“Fuck you Mario.” John joined him in a good laugh.
The meeting ended with all parties on board with the original plan and with all personnel involved knowing their specific roles. In three days, the plan involved a breach of the Tricon facility from an underground tunnel with the intent to extract Savanna and Taliah. Over the next two days, Timothy Yuen and Luke O’Donnell handled the desired load out per Highwaymen, rations and transportation. Location familiarization training for all personnel involved was held at the Highwaymen station over the following two days led by Justin Patterson.
The only positive by-product of the whole situation was that it had brought the community together in the efforts of retrieving their kidnapped citizens. The guards killed during Taliah’s kidnapping were honored with a monument that was erected for them in front of Lake Point Towers.
Chapter 3
Jason and Giselle
Escaping a paradise island, Jason returned to the awakened world dominated by his Azrael body. It continued its pursuit along the Mississippi river line in search of a way across. It was among the same small herd since his body took complete control weeks ago. However, time had become a muddled existence due to his irregular sleep patterns. He had witnessed about thirteen attacks on humans while awake and speculated another twenty while his mind had slept.
On this fine morning, the herd smelled especially ripe and it lessoned their chances of catching the humans by surprise. The taste of raw human flesh sat in between his teeth like a cavity slowly eating away at Jason’s humanity. Before he slept, his body was munching on an ear as if it was chewing gum. As he imagined it, he noticed an earless member of the herd, wondered if it came from that individual and if it would grow back.
The Alpha that led the group was a great deal larger than Jason was and traversed on all fours when it slowed its run. Each member of the herd appeared lean and strong. His body hunched over slightly, acquiring new muscle development in areas that he did not use as much before. He wondered if those infected normally had use of their mind as well. There was no way to tell and the question faded once movement a hundred yards into the woods excited the Alpha. It grunted and charged in for the attack. They entered an open field, still chasing movement towards the edge of the tree line.
Suddenly, hundreds of floodlights activated blinding the herd all while making them an easy target. The sound of numerous automatic rifles echoed throughout the landscape causing the herd to head towards the river. Most were killed while Jason and a few others were driven down the bank and into the rushing river. The current carried Jason under for almost a minute while his body struggled to reach the surface. Muffled gunshots and diving projectiles surrounded his body. At least six found their mark, inspiring a red fog of blood to saturate the river. Once he finally surfaced a few hundred feet down river, his body gasped for air and that air was brought out almost immediately as he struck a large rock that split the stream. Pulled back under, due to the current, his body shut down to save brain function from lack of oxygen. A tingling sensation overcame Jason as neurological chemicals were released into his brain preparing the body for an impending death. In spite of this, the virus intervened and brought Jason into a state of suspended animation until the body was brought into more stable living conditions.
Jason returned to the colorful field and felt wonderful about life, death and all gifts in between. In the distance, his mother’s house stood radiating a welcoming aura. He walked towards it as his hands grazed the petals of flowers that danced in the breeze. He could smell their sweet aroma as he passed by and enjoyed the beauty that they possessed.
Sitting on the porch, his mother and wife watched as he moved towards them. Their faces wore a joyous smile that gave Jason a warm feeling. He repaid the greeting with his own grin and added a wave.
“Hi Mom. Hey Jessica.” He beamed.
“Having a tough go at life I see.” His mother declared.
“Yes ma’am. Somewhere I lost my way. The Virus is winning. I’m not in control anymore.” Jason admitted with his head hung low.
“Your body needed a reboot son. Your mind grew incapable of maintaining positive functioning power over the body, so the virus seized control.” His mother explained revealing medical knowledge nobody could know, living that is.
“Take it back Baby. You’re not done yet.” Jessica insisted.
“The voice said that you’ve moved on...I thought...”
The breeze stirred their hair and their dresses danced in response. The sun caused them to squint and shield their right eyes with their right hands.
“Time’s running out son.” His mother admitted.
“I...killed that woman. Her name was Sophie and she needed my help.” Jason stammered.
“That wasn’t you dear, it was the virus.” His mother comforted.
“You can’t blame yourself for that, Honey. Treat it like the drinking. Don’t let it ruin your life. You’re a strong man.” Jessica added.
A stronger gust stirred their hair and a cool breeze brought goosebumps on Jason’s arms.
“Can’t I just come with you?” Jason asked.
“Giving up already?” His mother inquired with a scowl.
“I don’t want to wake up another day eating another human being. I don’t enjoy watching it while awake. Why would I want to go back to that?” Jason questioned.
The sky morphed as the sun set quickly. Clouds enveloped the sky in a gray blanket. A swift gust of wind violently plucked the flowers from their stems and carried them beyond the horizon. A chilling cold suffocated the landscape as rain daggers speared the ground below.
“Hurry son. We’ve used up our time.” His mother demanded. The wind blew her hair wildly and her dress clung to her tightly.
“I believe in you Baby.” Jessica wore a concerned smile while also being assaulted by the violent weather.
The rainstorm transformed into a chaotic monsoon dropping buckets of water everywhere. Jason’s vision blurred due to the curtain of raindrops everywhere. His mother and wife were no longer on the porch and once again, he was deposited into a violent world alone. In the distance, a massive wave travelled straight towards Jason. There was nowhere to run and he met the massive tsunami head on. It slammed into him knocking the wind out of him and drowned him within icy cold water. He fought the current of suffocation for what seemed like hours until finally becoming at peace with his situation.
Eventually, Jason’s eyes opened revealing a blinding haze that saturated everything surrounding him. He vomited several liters of water and rolled over on his side. He pushed himself off his left arm with his right. It was broken and twisted in an unnatural position. He sat up, realized that both legs were shattered, and facing the wrong direction. He straightened them out with his right arm and untwisted his left arm. Wait...he controlled his body. He steadied his breathing, pulled himself to a rock on the bank so that he could lean on it.
He knew that his body would eventually recover but was glad that he had control over it once more.
Jason was at the southwestern edge of Illinois and over a hundred miles away from his last known location. Fortunately, he recognized the area from a fishing trip that he took with his father over twenty years ago. It also reminded him of the ass beating he received when he accidentally dropped his pole in the water. He remembered wishing that it happened a few hours earlier, before his father drank a twelve-pack and a fifth of Jack. Giselle stopped their father from going any further when she threw her body in front of her brother in attempts to stop their father’s drunken assault. She claimed that she bumped into Jason by mistake causing the pole to fall into the river. It was a lie but it stopped the beating. His father had always been soft on Giselle. He meditated on his younger sister and wondered if he’d ever see her again. He also remembered a safe house not too far from where he was. It was the furthest safe house from Chicago. He forgot it actually existed until he imagined the fishing trip. It was the old cottage that they stayed at every summer as a kid. He established it just for memories sake. He wondered if there was even anyone stationed there. He would find out when he arrived, he thought.
Chapter 4
What’s On Those Cards?
After several weeks of experimenting with Azrael infected saliva, Dr. Barnett was exhausted mentally and physically. You could see it on her face. She peered down at her shoes. They were old dirty tennis shoes that she favored wearing for comfort as opposed to the six-inch heels that she usually wore in to work. It reminded her of the sneakers that she took from that Azrael cadaver’s feet. They were in better shape than the pair she was wearing. Yet, there was a strange odor about them that she couldn’t get out.
She needed a nicotine break and dug through her bag for the e-cig she acquired the week before. It held its charge longer and was more feminine looking than her last that she left in the Field Museum. Her hand grazed an item that she forgot about in the process. She removed the SD card and examined its condition. It appeared in good order and she placed it into her computer. A newfound desire to explore the footage caused her to perk up. Unfortunately, after witnessing her apprentice viciously attacked on the face and the look of her own expression gazing into the camera in horror destroyed any joy with the research. She sped up the footage and studied each attack briefly. She watched the Field Museum outbreak and the Soldier Field catastrophe followed by several obscene words hollered to it by Giselle as she taunted it. It was no wonder it mauled her the way it did when it eventually got its hands on her. After viewing it once and examining key moments in its journey to its death, she decided to view it in its entirety. She knew that it would take a long time, but it is the little things that happen between A and B that could prove the most useful.
After hours of witnessing the frightening Chicago Lab Outbreak from the source, Jane discovered regular habits that the Azrael possessed as they hunted. She took notes and wrote out several theories that could be true about the Azrael hunting strategies that differed from current Highwaymen theories. Her Ph.D. in Animal Behavior and Ethology came to play once more in her research. Although she pursued a Masters in Microbiology, Jane abandoned the lab prison for the freedom the animal behavior degree offered.
A small package within her inbox, sitting on top of a stack of papers, labeled ‘SD card from Chris Murphy’ remained unopened but found new interest following the Outbreak footage. Jane opened the package, placed the SD card in her computer and attempted to view it. An invalid file format error graced her screen when she tried to play any of the video files. It must have been damaged or something. A letter that came with the card instructed that it had been formatted with military grade encryption and required specific software in order to view any files within the card. Luckily, Jane had access to Simon’s account while he was away in order to leave sensitive experimental data on his personal account about Taliah that she was working on. She remembered Simon explaining to Timothy or maybe it was Luke about decrypting some heavily encrypted data given to him by some Dagger Five or Veil of Daggers or whatever it was, she couldn’t remember. She quickly logged into his account, located the decrypting software and made an effort to open the video afterwards. The footage displayed crisp and was narrated by someone, probably Chris Murphy, whoever that was. He was shooting Azrael in the streets as he talked about each one as if he knew them personally. It appeared that he was on the roof of some high rise in Chicago. The only shot that he lingered on was that of an attractive woman in a blue dress. He must have known her intimately, she assumed.
The footage abruptly changed to a dirty city environment. A woman was dragged out of a recreational vehicle surrounded by men and moments later, she was being tossed into a van with some men in black suits. The narrator muttered the name Savanna as the van sped off to the northwest. A compass on the top left of the screen indicated what direction the scope was aiming. Not much longer afterwards an Azrael herd sacked the camp infecting everyone.
Shortly after, Chris fired at an Alpha but another Azrael had been struck by mistake. After a few play backs it appeared that, the other Azrael leapt in front of the shot right after hearing it.
“Is their hearing that sensitive?” She mumbled. She fast forwarded twelve minutes and twenty-seven seconds and noticed the screen settled on a large Azrael quickly eating someone.
“Whoa! Back...back...” She spat out and quickly reversed the footage until it went back to the view she was watching for twelve minutes. She played it in real time and watched intently.
She heard Chris holler the word “Fuck!” and the screen jerked to the left. The screen flashed as it struck the frame of the passenger side car window. It jerked down and settled with a view of the top of a man’s head with a massive Azrael studying his face.
“Fucking do i...”
Chris’ voice was silenced as the Azrael tore out his throat with its massive hand. A knot in Jane’s stomach caused her to lean in and hug herself. Its head tilted left and right and wore a wicked grin. She could hear the man choke and drown in his own blood. Chris’ head slowly leaned forward and shuddered back occasionally as he choked to death. Once it appeared that Chris succumbed to his injuries, the Azrael viciously bit into his body. Jane looked away in horror but could still hear the monster eating the man. The sound of its teeth chewing and tearing the flesh brought her into a brief moment of shock. She reimagined the sound of her apprentice screaming as the Alpha mutilated his face and infecting him with the virus. A tear escaped her left eye and ran down her face. She returned her gaze upon the video and the creature had a chunk of flesh dangling from its lips. She felt the knot in her stomach again and quickly turned to vomit into a wastebasket nearby. She sat up wiping remnants off her lips with a tissue. By this time, the Azrael had fled the scene. The sounds of blood hitting the pavement below was the only noise left.
Jane wondered something and decided to rewind the video. She turned off the sound but watched intently at about the time of death of Chris.
“Fucking Christ!” She pushed the rolling chair behind her with the back of her legs as she stood up. She held her right fist in front of her mouth. She replayed the scene again in slow motion and she studied the Azrael’s face.
“It waited for him to die...so it could eat him. This...this is crazy!” She stammered.
She deliberated over the shot when the Azrael leapt in front of the Alpha. She wanted to confirm something so she rewound the video back to when Chris made the shot, but killing the other Azrael by mistake. She watched the scene in slow motion frame by frame and zoomed the video in. The same Azrael was eating Chris.
“That beard...it’s the same guy.” She mumbled to herself. Maybe it wasn’t a mistake, she thought. She watched it several times over and noticed that the Alpha with the beard responded a fraction of a second after the shot looking directly at Chris. A frame or two later the other Azrael stepped in front of the shot.
“It fucking hear
d it! It caused that other one to...no...that’s ridiculous.” Jane doubted herself. It’s getting late. She had been up all night viewing the video. That could not have been the case. She played the video frame by frame again. It heard the shot and responded accordingly.
“These things are more intelligent than any of us could imagine.” She speculated aloud to herself. She rubbed at her eyes and released a mighty yawn. She sat back down, continued to study, took notes, and theorized about the Azrael and its limitations. Throughout the night, she had documented three journals worth of information and had fallen asleep face down into the third book.
Simon entered the lab around eight in the morning to check on Jane since his account had been logged in on her workstation, which locked him out of it at his office. Simon traced his account to Jane’s computer and decided to see what she was working on. He found her drooling face snoozing on top of a stack of books. He grabbed her shoulder.
“Dr. Barnett, wake up!” He urged.
She pushed his hand off her shoulder while keeping her eyes shut and head still planted in the book.
“Go away.” She scowled.
“Dr. Barnett, we need to leave soon and I’ve changed my mind about you.”
“Changed your...what are you talking about?” She asked with confusion but still kept her eyes closed. “Go away. I’ve been up all night. I need sleep.” She added and waved him away with her left hand.
Simon caught a whiff of something sour in the air. He shielded his nose and mouth with his right hand and searched for the source. He found the wastebasket Jane vomited in.
“Are you sick?” He asked beneath his breath and walked back over to her.
“Sick? No, I’m not sick. I’m tired. Come back later.” She groaned. Simon picked up one of the journals not beneath Jane and leafed through the pages.
“Looks like you’ve been quite busy these past weeks. I appreciate your work but your expertise is needed elsewhere.” Simon explained, shut the journal he was reading through and placed it beside Jane with force causing her to sit up.
The Azrael (Book 4): Tricon Page 2