by Tom Cain
"Let's do this properly, and get these hostages out of there".
An evil laugh was heard from one for the dark figures at the end of the hallway.
"There isn't any hostages Marko Gibbs" one of them said slurping.
"We killed them already, you are all going to die here tonight" the second said calmly stepping into a glimmer of light.
"I guess you are one of the Eight then?" Said Marko.
"WRONG!" said the second again slurping and stepping forward to reveal his face, which was a mess of wires and metal.
"We are two of the Eight, Three and Four to be precise".
"We heard what you and John Test did to Zero" the second, a dark skinned man with an abnormally large mouth said.
"We got the same in store for you two" Marko replied.
"Now would be a great time to recharge that shadow skill of yours Hatcher" Marko whispered.
The group lined up Marko and Hatcher at the rear, Arthur, Chrissie and Grip up front and Forrester, Masie and Tuck in the middle. They started moving forward, guns pointing straight. Chrissie let off a few shots at Three and Four who did not move confusing the front line. They reached the first rooms, the doors suddenly opened and Grip and Chrissie were pulled into the left and right rooms by guards hiding, fight ensued in both rooms. Arthur felt a huge thumb in his chest, the lines stopped and looked shocked as Arthur struggled to breath. He looked down as the object pulled out from between his ribs, a hand unclenched and another laugh came from Three. Threes arm retracted all the way back down the hallway to where he was standing, leaving Arthur to fall to the floor dead.
"No! Arggh you son of a bitch" Shouted Tuck as he broke formation and ran towards Three.
"You going to die for that", Tuck ran passed another set of doors only to be grabbed by another guard and pulled into a room.
Masie clambered over Arthur and into the room where Tuck was taken, another guard appeared from the opposite room to join the fray, Forester jumped in to help with the struggle. Gunshots were heard from all the rooms. It was pandemonium. Another door opened on the right this time and guard ran straight across the hallway to jump on Forrester's back, it was three on three in one of the rooms. Batons swinging, arms flailing, knives, guns and mutations going off in all corners. Marko and Hatcher were left making a beeline for the bosses. Marko looked at Hatcher and gave him a knowing nod; both were seemingly in acceptance of their fate. This was do or die time.
"Ok, you fuckers, I can promise you if I am going down I am taking one of you with me. I got the one on the right." Marko snarled still pressing forward.
"You got it partner" said Hatcher summoning some weak shadows from under his feet. Three and Four stood scarily still and Marko and Hatcher let of a number of rounds in their direction. Dropping their guns Hatcher used his shadow hands to grab Three who immediately responded by lashing out his right arm in Hatchers direction, swish, Three missed and retracted his arm, Hatcher got a good hold of Three arm on its way back and plunged into him with a hearty right cross sending Three and Hatcher who was still holding him with his shadow hands flying into and through the door at the end of the hallway. Marko got within a meter of his target before Four's legs hissed and he jumped, crashing through the plasterboard ceiling. Marko stopped to look into the hole Four had made confused.
"What the hell? Coward!" Marko shouted. Another crash was heard and Four smashed through the ceiling again, this time downwards and landed behind Marko grabbing him from behind and smashing him through one of the partitions. Four's arms this time hissed and pushed out a plume of smoke as he was flung up from the ground back to his feet. Marko pulled out a large knife from the rear of his belt and slowly got to his feet smirking.
"You think you are going to take me out?" Marko snarled switching the blade to his right hand charging it with green energy.
"That's what I am hoping yeah" Four hissed in response.
Four jumped forward arms out only to be greeted by a fully extended arm and a knife tip directly in his gut. Fours body produced a mist which quickly filled the room rendering Marko partially blind.
"Ah you got tricks then" said Marko.
Four remained silent pulling out the knife from his stomach it still glowing with energy. Fours eyes lit up with a light green hue, Marko holding the knife tightly and resisting Fours extraction leapt forward with a straight left to his face, one of Fours eyes cracked and let out some more smoke. Four took the punch well and pushed forwards trying to rotate the knife to Marko's direction. Another left, hit the same eye, and again, and again. Finally Four let go of the knife hand and threw a few punches of his own, his joints hissing before letting out extremely powerful blows in Marko's direction. Marko ducked a swinging hook and grabbed on around Fours waist taking a few devastating body shots.
"Argh, you son of a bitch" Marko shouted in pain taking the hits.
Marko pressed his legs firmly into the ground and picking Four off the ground charging into another wall, this wall, this time was solid concrete, a thunderous crash was heard as the mist poured from Fours back. Four continued to punish Marko's back and kidneys with devastating punches. Marko, still hugging Four around the waist backed of for another charge. Marko, now bleeding from the mouth ploughed into the wall again.
"Arhhh" Four screamed as his back took another slam.
Marko backed off again and charged, taking in deeper and deeper breaths. This time Marko slammed Four into the wall and immediately followed up by jumping and slamming him into the ground. Four landed there clearly in pain, Marko took the seconds he had to begin punching Four in the elbow joint. Smash, smash, crack, hiss. Fours right elbow cracked and let out a long hiss. Four cracked Marko with a strong left knocking him over. Both clearly exhausted even from only a few minutes intense battle.
Three, held Hatchers throat tightly propelling him towards a wall, Hatchers shadows softened the impact.
"Those things are getting annoying" Three said in his creepy voice.
"Yeah well, fuck you" Hatcher replied struggling to breath through Three's grip.
Three launched another attack at Hatcher face from six meters away. Hatcher took the hit which broke his nose, he managed to retrieve a small blade from his jacket pocket, he thrust this knife upwards into Threes hand releasing his grip and sending Hatcher to the floor. Three screamed in pain retracting his hand.
"Well, well, you do have some more cards up your sleeve" said the snakey Three.
Hatcher got back to his feet, and brushed himself off, he threw the knife to the side, clenching his fists and bringing his shadows in front of him also with clenched fists. They both heard a rumble from the previous room and a figure stepped through the broken door.
"Holy shit, that guys kicks out some steam" Marko said looking in bad shape.
"I'm glad it's you Marko" said Hatcher looking back at Three. Threes face turned soured, he launched both his hands at both adversaries. Marko grabbed his hand and rolled, the other caught Hatcher on the shoulder pulling him over, Three took a step forward still having his arm twisted by Marko but he couldn't move his left foot. Just as he noticed a shadow creeped up his leg and struck his face sending him hurtling into a wall partially breaking it. Marko had cut Threes arm several times with his knife and released it leaving it limp and long. The dust settled from the hole in the wall that Threes impact had made, in it, a face staring. A dark face, menacing eyes gleaming. Expressionless face, stood motionless.
"Who the hell is…" Hatcher was interrupted.
"You failed" a low commanding voice boomed.
The wall cracked and broke inwards as if scared and getting out of the way of the figure. Three got to his feet and approached the figure.
"Please, I was just getting started, you weren't supposed to be here" Three begged.
The figure grabbed Threes head with one hand, his grip crushing. Three shot his right hand at the head of the figure hitting a steely face but doing nothing, Threes hand grasped at the strangers throat.
Marko and Hatcher looking on in confusion. The figure stopped dead.
"What's your number?" he said looking down at Three.
"Three, Three, Three it's Three" Three struggled under the pressure on his skull and yelped.
The figure leaned in breaking through one of the flickering lights and showing his face.
"And what number am I?" he said in a low and calm tone.
“S..s..Seven" Three blurted.
With that Seven used Threes head like sledge hammer and crashed it into the floor, then dragging his lifeless body, head still pressed into the floor to within meters of Marko and Hatcher who where now both getting ready for a fight.
"You both have no chance" Seven said getting to his feet, towering over them both.
Marko pulled out his knife and spun it in his hands, it started to glow green. Seven took one step forward. The floor cracked. Marko smirked and threw the knife.
Tuck was down, shot and beaten; Grip had joined Chrissie in fighting a few guards. Forester was down, lying under some rubble. Masie was tired, and bleeding but alive. Grip and Chrissie had finished off the guard in their room with their bare hands. The shots had stopped silence fell on the ears of all that remained. Grip held Chrissie up as she struggled to exit the room.
"Ah shit, where's my gun?" She said limping, barely holding on to Grip.
"I will get it" Masie said joining the others then going back into the room they just left.
The gun was trapped under a large piece of roof that had fallen through during the struggle. Masie managed to pull it off using the last of here energy.
"Oh wow, guys you will want to see this". Grip and Chrissie came back to the room to see what Masie had revealed under the broken floor. A large network of wires, cables and connected black boxes, stretched under the floor as far as they could see.
"Grip, this looks like this place is going to…" the black box clicked and beeped.
"Blow?" Chrissie asked skeptically.
The second box clicked and beeped twice. The third clicked and beeped three times.
"Let's get outta here guys, get a move on". The three of them made for the door. They heard the clicking and beeping as they ran as fast as they could. They all heard a large crash and a male scream.
Mia, grabbed the radio.
"Marko?! Marko!? What's going on in there?".
She had placed herself a hundred meters from the building to get a good view of the surround.
"Marko?". Marko’s voice came over the radio. In a quiet voice she heard Marko speak.
"Mia, run, quickly" he let out a long breath, Mia gasps and holds her womb. A click and a long beep are heard from way behind them under the floor.
Chapter 15
The Return to Little London
It was late morning, Bandoleer kicked a rusty can lying on the dusty floor of the gutted bakery the team had slept in the night before. Kairi, Huck and Ruf were out looking for useful items, food and water.
"We didn't get enough John, that tower didn't have enough" Bandoleer said to John who was sitting on a half broken partition wall.
"Yeah well, they all went somewhere didn't they. We will find them sooner or later. Either way we got what we needed so now got to keep it safe" John replied standing up and letting out a sigh.
"When you going to get me those heads John?" Bandoleer quizzed feeling frustrated to get back to his ship and crew.
"Hey, get off my back Captain, you could have gone back after the tower, its already taken us hours to get here, anytime you like, you can leave" John squared up to him.
"Woah, calm down John, you don't want an accident before the big fight do ya?". Bandoleer grizzled.
"You go right ahead and make your move boat man" John snarled.
Lisa stood up and got in-between them.
"Hey, we are fighting the same fight here gentleman. Why don't you break this all up and let's get back to the mission". Bandoleer took a step back and looked at Lisa.
"You are lucky you got your girlfriend here else there could have been trouble" he said.
"After this, you are gonna get what's coming, but right now I ain't losing any one else" John said staring Bandoleer in the eyes.
"Ain't no one's girlfriend doing nothing, we don't need infighting if we are going to get back to Little London and find the next part" Lisa said annoyed with the insinuation.
Burke came in from outside.
"I have checked around the area, I found an old shelter bout a mile up, and it's got a few motors in there, I reckon I could get a few going but I need the place cleared out" he said.
"Then we will get it done, how far are we off London?" said John finishing his stare.
"Probably about a days walk cas of the rubble, traps, greeners etcetera or a few hours drive depending on the vehicle and speed blah blah" Burke replied clinging onto a wrench he found on his way back.
"Alright let's wait until the others get back and then we will make our move" said John.
The team returned with a backpack full of goodies.
"Roll up, roll up, get your junk here" Kairi shouted.
"Arh it's not all that exciting really, just a few odds and sods we found here and there" said Huck pulling out some tools they found.
Burke was immediately interested. He sifted through some engine parts from a small car, a few discarded pre-war rifles, bullet casings, a desk fan motor and some mechanics tools, spanners, hammers and the like.
"You can't do much with this shit can you Burke?" Kairi asks with a confused expression.
"Can't do much" Burke mumbled and laughed under his breath, "You have no idea what I can do with this miss. For example I could use the desk fan motor and the pre war rifles to…".
John interrupted Burke mid sentence.
"No time for examples Burke, bring the stuff, we might need them at that shelter, lets all gear up and get outta here, we got a mile or so to cover".
Bandoleer picked up his pistols and anchor blade and started to make his way out up front grumbling to himself.
The team was soon packed and following suit, making their way through abandoned buildings and following the now swift wind blowing northeast. They came across several other odds and sods along the way. A few lone survivors were met along the mile trek huddling in building corners. They were invited to make their way to Little London where they would be welcomed.
After a while they had reached the shelter. It was a small but wide grey and green building. A solid concrete exterior with steel beam supports on all sides. Grey concrete covered the outside and small reinforced window frames remained while the glass that was there was blown from the inside out and laid on the floor underneath. Two wooden doors were hung on the outside, but oddly had now rusty chicken wire mesh nailed onto them. Huck and Ruf grabbed a door each and pushed them inwards. The doors scraped along the ground as the hinges had bent over time and possible overuse. The team were cautious. Huck and Ruf moved in slowly keeping an eye on the secondary doors on the inside of the shelter. These unlike the front doors where made of grey plastic and had two large window holes in the top. Inside the room where several large objects under grey dust covers sheets. The doors creaked open after they peeked through the window holes.
Next to a number of the covered objects were the remnants of life. Old dilapidated mattresses, bowls, used rusty cans, cooking spits and fire pits. John and Valeria scouted the room for inhabitants but found none. The place had been used as Burke had mentioned, a shelter. Looked to be home to several groups. Burke uncovered one of the objects to reveal a quad bike but jumped in horror as lying next to it was two sets of human remains, one of a child and the other of an adult clinging onto it.
"Ah damn" Ranch held her hand to her mouth.
"Whatever happened to them, it was some time ago" said John taking the sheet from Burke who was still frozen and laid it over the bodies.
"Burke" John said placing a hand on his shoulder. Burke snapped out of it.
"Yeah, y
eah, I got it, sure yeah" Burke still taken back by the sad sight.
"Burke, the other vehicles, a quad can't get nine of us back to Little London" said John.
Bandoleer pulled off another sheet getting covered in dust, revealing a hollowed out sedan. A sharp ting was heard from outside the room followed by several more, then a flood of sound smattering the floor outside.
"We we ain't leaving here for a while then, not with rain" said Burke finally recovered.
"I can change up a couple of these and try and make something from them. Looks like we have a couple of bikes over there, a quad and a car here, nothing as big as the roller we had back when. The car has three good wheels, God knows how they survived this long, doesn't look like its seen action in a decade."
"Just do what you can Burke, we will have to wait out the rain, I watched a guys skin fall off under some of that" John said pulling out the last remnants of glass from one of the mesh covered window frames.
The rain, since the green flash had become contaminated with various pollutants and harmful microbes. No one apart from crazy greeners and those unaffected based on mutation by it's burning went out in it. The rain would vary in burning intensity, usually based on how long since the last storm; luckily they were few and far between. No one would carry an umbrella, as it would often melt the plastic within ten minutes. The shelter the group was in had a few leaks, the droplets hissed as they hit the floor.
Burke got to working on taking apart the old car, bikes and quad with the limited tools he had on him and a medium sized dilapidated toolbox he found crunched in a corner under some oily newspapers. The engine of the car seemed intact, but a wheel and a few parts needing repairing, also if they were to travel in the rain they needed some protection. Burke had some ‘Gunk’ in his bag he had saved from the wheel of the stock roller. He squirts the mysterious goop into the tire which starts to expand. Bandoleer comes over to help Burke.
"Just leave that to get working, let's check the bikes and quad, I ain't going back over there though" Burke said getting to his feet.
"Alright, matey, I will get the quad" Bandoleer moves over to the quad to check it out.