Cort looked at Sid with a bizarre look on his face. “Tell me this isn’t Wonderland.”
“No, it’s Peter Cottontail on steroids,” she replied. Her eyes narrowed on the third party. “And our old friend Adam Vaughn, who should be dead.”
“True, but seeing how you didn’t know what you were up against then, you didn’t manage to finish the job. Hence”—the wolfman looked at his nails—“I’m back.” Much like Smoke, Adam Vaughn, also known as AV, was covered from head to toe in fur—only his was wolf fur. His face was more human, and his black slacks and grey dress shirt rolled up to the elbows dulled down his bestial appearance. His black eyes burned, however, on Smoke. “I see you’ve made the change, but I owe you one, John. What you did caused me great pain. I’m going to deliver it back to you, times ten.”
Smoke faced AV the wolfman. “You’re a loser, wolfman, and you know what they say about losers?”
“Indulge me.”
“Once a loser, always a loser.”
“Schoolyard banter. Pathetic.”
“Enough talk!” Sid fired at the rabbit straight across from her. It hopped away just as she squeezed the trigger. “Shoot, that was fast!”
AV came at Smoke before he could draw the sword.
That was the first option he’d considered, but battling AV in a straight fight would give him a better feel for what he was made of. He was a shifter now, maybe not entirely, but enough.
Ten feet from Smoke, AV sprang, but not at Smoke. AV turned his sights on Sid.
Smoke jumped after the wolfman. He was too late.
AV plowed into Sid, crushing her beneath his powerful build.
Her head bounced off the hard floor.
AV drew back his fist. “I’ll end you first, pretty.”
Smoke caught AV’s wrist in both hands and yanked the wolfman from his feet. His fist landed hard in AV’s gut. “No surprise that you attack like a coward.”
AV blocked the next punch. “It surprised you. Aw, don’t be so mad. I only wanted to give her a little kiss. After all, she wanted it until you interrupted the last time.” He hip-tossed Smoke over his shoulder.
Smoke landed on his back.
AV jumped him. His fists delivered precision blows, stinging Smoke’s ribs. A split second later his fingers were digging into Smoke’s throat. “I’ve been dying to crush your throat in my claws. I won’t be denied.”
Smoke chopped at the wolfman’s arms karate-style. His efforts were futile.
***
Shaking the stars from her eyes, Sid climbed up to her knees. The crack of a gunshot caught her attention. That’s when she noticed her grip was empty. She spied her Glock lying a few feet from her. She lunged for it.
The bunny man kicked it away then lingered over her, spinning its nunchucks.
Looking up at it, she said, “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
The bunny man bounced up and down with large, glassy brown eyes fixed on her. It seemed more animal than man. The nunchucks whistled with blinding speed. One hard wooden end clocked her in the head. Blurry purple spots burst behind her eyes. She drew her knife. “Screw you, Bruce Bunny!” She lunged. The steel she swung swished through the air. The rabbit man hopped over twenty feet in a single leap. It paired up with the other. The smaller rabbit men teamed up on Cort.
Using the nunchucks in unison, the rabbit men attacked Cort with blinding speed. The whacks, thuks and cloks fell right after the whistling in the air. They smote knees, elbows, and fingers. Cort was screaming obscenities. The vicious tandem beat him down to a pulp.
“Somebody get these things the hell off me!” Cort yelled. A hard shot in his face followed. “Dammit!”
Sid drew her second Glock. Taking aim, she fired at the rabbit man with its back to her.
It hopped away a split second before she blasted off a round. Both of the rabbit men bounced away from Cort. Each hopped all over the room.
Every shot she fired missed.
The rabbit men didn’t dodge, they just weren’t in the same spot when she fired. In a staggered and unpredictable pattern, the rabbit men came at her.
Come on, Sid, you’ve got this. Focus!
She took aim on one of the rabbit men as soon as it hit the ground.
Immediately, it pounced away again. Its long legs sent it twenty feet through the air.
She swung her aim at the airborne creature. Gotcha! She squeezed. Blam!
The rabbit man’s body went limp. The bullet had torn through the ribs and heart. It hit the floor mid-hop.
Sid searched for the other rabbit man.
Nunchucks busted her gun hand. A long furry foot knocked her from her feet. The surviving rabbit man pounced high and fell toward Sidney with nunchucks twirling over its head. It landed right on top of her.
Enough of this! Using the knife she still held in her hand, she gored its heart.
The rabbit man’s foot thumped the ground several times. Its long ears sagged as it died.
Catching her breath, she said, “Wascally wabbit.” She shoved the stiffening thing off her.
Cort was up on one knee rubbing his face. His eyes fell on her. He pointed over her.
She looked around. Smoke was on his back. AV was on top of him, choking the life from his body. “No!”
CHAPTER 17
“You’ve got a weakness, Mister Smoke. You deny what you are. You hold back,” AV said. “Unlike me, you haven’t embraced your savage nature. It leaves you weak.” Saliva dripped down AV’s teeth and over his gums. “It strengthens me! It’s amplified my hatred without limits!” His biceps bulged. His efforts magnified. “What a waste.”
Smoke fought against the stormy sea that raged in his bowels. Self-control was the only way to win. He needed his wits. If he lost them to his inner bestial passions, Kane would win. He locked his fingers on AV’s wrists. He strained to pry the iron limbs apart.
The wolfman laughed.
Sid appeared over the back of AV’s shoulder. She dug a knife behind his ribs. “Fool!” AV unlocked one hand. He balled it up into a fist and struck. The fierce blow spun Sid in a three-sixty. Her athletic form slumped to the ground. Her eyelids fluttered.
A spark fired inside Smoke the moment she fell. It ignited. The dam that held back the dark waters within crumbled. The gloating stare of AV hung over him like a red bull’s-eye. Smoke cranked back a fist and lashed out. The punch rocked AV’s chin.
“That’s more like it! I felt that! Good, Smoke! Good!” Still straddling Smoke, AV fought to fasten his grip again. “But you are still weak, rodent! I’m a wolf, and you’re a bat. Pathetic!”
Smoke kept punching. He alternated fist for fist, pounding AV’s jaw from side to side. It was like hitting a block of cement mounted on a neck of iron.
AV absorbed the first several blows. His brows lifted. His iron chin weakened. Fingers once stronger than steel slipped. With rage filling him from head to toe, Smoke did a reversal. He pinned AV underneath him.
AV’s eyes changed. The confident look of the predator faded. He’d crossed the line. The beast he had goaded was out of the gate. He fought against the river of regret that was about to drown him whole.
Smoke beat AV’s face like a speed bag. Bone loosened in the skull. The boundless strength of the wolfman’s extremities turned to noodles. Smoke sank a blade deep into AV’s heart and twisted.
AV let out a long, bloody, ragged sigh.
With instincts flaring, Smoke sprang away toward an approaching enemy. Cort stood a few feet away with a gun on him. The eyes in his battered face were narrowed.
“Whose side are you on, Smoke?” Cort said. He increased the distance between them. “You don’t look like yourself. You need to show me some control. What’s my name, Smoke? What’s my name?”
The man was speaking, but the words weren’t registering. The language was gibberish. All Smoke saw was a threat. A weapon that could cause pain. The dark blood of AV dripped from his fingers. The splatters on the floor echoed in h
is ears. The man pointed at something on the floor. There was a woman sprawled out on the floor. The heartbeat was strong and the breathing ragged. A fragment of humanity slowed the currents that fed the beast.
Sid.
As he took a knee, he cradled her up in his arms. He brushed the hair from her face. Slowly, the lids covering her eyes opened.
“Smoke?” she said.
The language was still fuzzy. The tide continued to rise.
The intercom clicked on. “That was entertaining. The viewers are happy,” Kane said. “Oh, the savagery! Time is ticking, Mister Smoke. You’re only moments away from fully embracing it. As for the rabbit men, well, that was a special request from a deviant old friend from England. A notorious Monty Python fan. So, dear champions, are you out of bullets yet? Those little jump skippers made you drop a lot of pellets.”
“We really need to put an end to him,” Sid said to Smoke. Her eyes were searching his. “Are you okay? You don’t look right. Stay with me, John. For the love of Christ, stay with me.”
Smoke set her down. Standing tall, he stared up at the ceiling. His thoughts raced. He caught a branch that swiftly floated through the river of his jangled thoughts. It read, “When the rules aren’t working, change the rules.”
“John!” Sid said, holding onto his leg. “John, I know that look. Don’t!”
Letting out a loud bat-like screech, Smoke jumped to the ceiling. His fists punched holes in it. He ripped the tile and plaster out.
He left Sid and Cort behind, staring up at the gaping hole.
CHAPTER 18
Sid turned her attention to Cort. “You’re hurt!”
“No, I just feel like I went fifteen rounds with George Foreman. Probably look like it too. Those rabbit punchers beat the snot out of me.”
Kane was still on the intercom. “Where did he go?” He spoke as if he wasn’t aware that his microphone was still on. “Frank, do you have eyes on him?”
The name rang a bell with Sid. She recalled the gaunt, hollow-eyed giant of a man with whom she’d had a nasty encounter in Las Vegas.
“Who’s this Frank guy anyway?” Cort said, rubbing his jaw with his good hand. “Aw man, I bet I’m too ugly for a casket. Close my coffin if you survive and I don’t.”
“One of the creeps that turns men into shifters, I believe.” She made her way around the room, spotting the cameras on the walls. The room was huge, and there were more than she could make a quick count of. For some reason though, she got the feeling they weren’t the most entertaining part of the story. Over the intercom, glass smashed into a wall. She could see Kane’s enraged face perfectly in her mind.
Over the loudspeaker he said, “Find him, Frank! Find him now!”
There was a click. The cafeteria became oddly silent.
“What just happened?” Cort moved about the room with a limp, his head swiveling on his shoulders. “I feel I just lost my date to the dance and I’ll be dancing all alone.”
“And you’re complaining?” Sid stared up into the hole Smoke had made. It wasn’t too high for her to reach if she stood on Cort’s shoulders. “Boost me up.”
“Excuse me? You’re going after him?”
“Yep.”
“We need to stick together, Sid. I might be able to get you up, but with my arm”—he lifted his busted arm—“I’m stuck. We’d best go at this together.”
“He needs me.”
“I understand where your heart is, but I need you too. Besides, I’m not boosting you up. Where you go, I go, and vice versa. It’s not my fault your husband abandoned you. What did you expect? He’s a wild man.”
“Don’t talk about him like that, you know better. He needs me. He needs us. Come on.” There were other exits out of the cafeteria posted on all four walls. She checked them all one at a time with fierce tugs. The door they came through had now locked as well. She kicked it. “Morning Glory!”
“They’ve got us where they want us, I suppose.” Using one hand, Cort managed to load in a fresh magazine of ammo. “I can’t wait to see what comes after us next. What do you think? A unicorn? Giant teddy bears? I wonder if they have any robots. I always wanted to fight a robot.”
She pointed her gun up at the hole in the ceiling. “That’s the only exit they don’t control. Cort, you have to help me. We can’t just sit here.”
“Okay, okay, I see your point. But before you go up, you have to promise that you’ll come back for me.”
“I can’t unlock those doors from the other side. I can’t unlock them at all.”
Shaking his head, he replied, “No can do then. Tell you what. You know something is coming. When it comes, we blow it to kingdom come and shoot through the doors.”
“They’re watching,” she said, looking at the cameras. “They come in the direction opposite … oh, never mind!” Sid marched over to one of the storage shelves. She scooted it over with a grinding screech.
Cort covered his ears. “Woman, what are you doing?”
Sid shoved the shelves under the hole. She climbed. Standing on the top shelf, she looked down at Cort. “I’ll be back.”
“Shut up.”
“Sid, Smoke, can you hear me?” Guppy was speaking into Sid’s earpiece.
She’d completely forgotten about the device. She saw in Cort’s eyes that he heard it too. Her fingers fumbled for the communication link in her wristband. “Guppy! Guppy, I’m here.” She lowered her voice. She wasn’t sure if the cameras had microphones or not. She made it look like she was having a conversation with Cort. He had a puzzled look at first, but caught on.
“Thank the Lord! I’ve got eyes inside again. I got the laptop, started configuring, and even though it took some time — you know, those firewalls — I cracked in. It really took some doing though, seeing how they knew I was looking, but I think they lost sight of the fact that we’re out here and you’re—”
“I don’t need the rundown, Guppy. We’re locked inside the storage room where the backup generators are located. Can you unlock the doors? We need a route out.”
“Give me a second.”
“Guppy, if you have access to their screens, look for Smoke. He’s gone.”
“No sign of him. I’m searching though. It’s pretty easy because it looks like they’re searching every camera they have in a frantic wave. Heh-heh. Smoke really knows how to give people fits, doesn’t he?”
“He’s giving me one right now. He’s run off again, and Guppy, he’s not himself, he’s…scary.”
“I see. We’ll find him, assuming I don’t get cut off again.” Guppy groaned. “Darn, this is a little harder than it looks.”
Cort gave Sid a worried look.
“He’ll get it.”
A subtle pop caught her ears. A pair of double doors adjacent to the top of the room wobbled a bit. She and Cort had their guns fixed on it. “Or not.”
“I got it,” Guppy said. “You should be able to head out whatever door you want. There’s a lot of square footage, Sid. I’ve got eyes in the halls, but I can’t see them all at once, plus, there’s no telling what’s in the rooms. Anything could ambush you.”
“I know. I just want to find Smoke before Kane gets to him. I’ve got an awful feeling about this.”
“My suggestion is that you go for the main communication room. That’s the nerve center. That will be the fastest way to find Smoke, or anyone else.”
She climbed off the shelf. “Good idea, where is it?”
“Hold on, I’m looking.”
CHAPTER 19
Sid and Cort eased through the double doors. Without a lot of ammo, the two of them crept down the hall, waiting for Guppy to give them a little more guidance. Sid’s patience had run out. She was determined to find Smoke, with or without the use of the control room. She just wished she could have left Cort behind. She didn’t want to abandon the man, but he was slowing her down, and Smoke’s trail was long gone unless the cameras picked him back up.
Cort caught her elbow.
He pointed his chin at one of the hallway doors on the right. At the bottom, a shadow moved behind the gap. She responded with a nod of her own. The office had a glass window, but there was a vinyl blind that blocked the view inside. The blind quavered.
On cat’s feet, Sid darted by. She hugged the wall on the other side of the door, between it and the next door beside it. She gave Cort a nod. He moved by the door with the finesse of a hunting grizzly bear. She exhaled. She didn’t want to draw any attention to them. She didn’t want to waste any ammo either. They’d only be able to fight for so long, then it would be over.
“Sid, it’s Guppy. Good news. I’ve found the control room, and it’s on the first floor.”
“And the bad news is?”
“That corridor is chock-full of deaders. Don’t worry about them until you get there. I’m running loops through the security feeds again. Whoever’s watching doesn’t know where you are, I think.”
“That’s not very reassuring.” Sid bounced the back of her head against the wall. “How many deaders are we talking about?”
“Mmmm, twenty or so, I’d say. Redcoats. What’s the deal with the redcoats?”
Sid shook her head. “It makes no difference. Which way do we go? We’ll just have to figure out something when we get there.”
The sweat from Cort’s chin started to make a puddle on the floor. “Man, I’m getting hungry.” He wiped his chin on the forearm of his suit. “Starving like a pregnant lady.”
“It’s the suit. You won’t get used to it. Where are we going, Guppy?”
“Stay south toward the river. Pass the elevators. Corridor bends right, then left. The command center is in the southwestern corner of the building. But again, it’s packed with deaders, and I’m just talking about the ones I can see.”
“Let’s go.”
Sid led. It didn’t take long before she caught the stench of eroding flesh and musty uniforms. She held off from covering her nose. Not a priority. She squatted down and peeked around the corner where the T-intersection started. The redcoat deaders were crammed at the end of the hall like sardines. The brass buttons on their uniforms clinked against one another. Old sabers in scabbards rattled on hips. It was an undead army with dark fires burning in their hollow eyes. She pulled back.
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