The Loki Variation
Sabrina James Riley
Copyright 2011 Sabrina James Riley
Kindle Edition
Cover Art © 2012 Black Raven Studios
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to my dad, Yvon Bourque, and my sister, Marisa Giordano for being my first readers and best editors. Thanks to Hairston Williams for being my sounding board and bearing with me through a year of writing. Thank you to my mom, Janet Ledesma, for reading it even though horror usually gives her nightmares. Thanks to Bella Green for helping me with the final draft. And thank you to everyone who has read The Loki Variation. I hope I gave you a good story.
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http://thelokivariation.blogspot.com/
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Introductions.
Hello. I am wondering if anyone is ever really even going to read this. I have been told that science is “cool.” I still have my serious doubts, though. I was never considered cool, even in all my science nerd glory. But I will try to remain hopeful.
I am one of the few people left that believe it is a bad idea to post all your personal information on the internet, but I will tell you that my name is Sanjeev. I am an American, born in India, and I’m in my mid-twenties. I am currently studying for my Master’s degree in microbiology, and therefore have started working at a lab as a technician. That is where the fun starts.
Although I am just a tech/assistant (you would not believe how much paperwork that involves) I am hoping to gain a lot of hands-on experience that is hard to find in Universities.
This past week, a team of biologists, microbiologists, and geneticists have been put together to work on a contracted project the lab just received. I signed enough papers to know that I can’t give away too many details about the lab, the employees, or the project, but the lineup is pretty impressive to me.
The subject of the project is supposed to be parasites. That works for me, as parasites were the topic of more than one of my papers. I should find out, in the next few weeks, what my role will be and what the goal of this project is. I will try to update as soon as I know. If I remember.
Until then!
Posted by Sanjeev at 11:41 PM
Chapter 1.
It’s still too early, Sasha thought to herself. She was sitting upright in bed, heart pounding, somewhere between awake and asleep. The open window behind her bed was still dark, no sunlight yet. She was trying to recall a nightmare, something that would have prompted her abrupt awakening, but there was nothing. She lay back down, trying to relax, fighting an apparently unearned sense of discomfort.
The second she closed her eyes again, a scream pierced the silent night air. She was sitting up before it ended, eyes hugely wide, searching for the source. It had sounded like it had been right beside her head. Sasha spun around, eyes landing on the open window. She could hear other sounds, metallic and scuffling. Sobbing.
Sasha was instantly at the window, pulling aside the flimsy drapes, leaning across the sill. Looking down from her new second story apartment, she could see a little girl clinging to the top of the chain link fence separating the parking lot from the empty field behind the apartment complex. The girl’s long dark hair was moving wildly as she kicked at something behind her. Then Sasha saw the woman below the girl, standing in the field, trying to grab the girl by her bare feet to pull her back down. The girl screamed again.
“Hey!” Sasha yelled, instinctively. Her heart stopped. The woman crouched and looked directly into the window, an animalistic sound coming from her throat. While she was distracted, the girl threw herself over the fence, landing hard on the concrete below her. As the woman ran along the fence looking for a way through, the girl was moving slowly, trying to stand up. Sasha grabbed the cell phone from the nightstand where it was charging, and ran through the apartment, avoiding unpacked boxes on the way to front door.
Sasha reached the last stair and came upon the parking lot. By the time she spotted the girl, still near the spot she had landed, the woman had disappeared. The girl was on her knees, leaning on her hands, long black hair draped around her lowered head. Sasha slowed as she approached, and the girl looked up. She was older than Sasha had first thought, maybe ten or eleven, and her eyes were filled with tears and absolute terror.
“My mom…where’s my mom?” She screamed, panicky.
“Was that your mother?” Sasha asked, swallowing rage. It was the middle of the night, and this petrified girl had been running from her own mother?
“Where is she? Where is she!”
The girl was sobbing now, trying to get up. As Sasha grabbed her arm to help her up, the girl tried to pull away to escape. She caught the child as she stumbled, and started to lead her towards the apartment. The terrified girl may not have known it, but she was safe with Sasha, and she wanted to get them out of this parking lot. She didn’t fight Sasha’s lead any further.
They were making their way to the stairs when the girl started screaming again. Sasha turned her head to follow the girl’s terror filled eyes, and saw the ravenous woman, back at the fence. She was further down this time, near a fencepost, which she had apparently torn out of the ground. Sasha’s mouth gaped, and then she realized the woman was already climbing over the twisted metal of the downed fence, and was headed towards them.
The girl went completely limp, whimpering. Sasha used every ounce of strength she had to try and get the girl standing, but she was dead weight. Sasha was not an abnormally strong woman, and she ended up half dragging her up the stairs. She could hear the rhythmic pounding of the woman’s bare feet on concrete. She was running after them. Sasha was pulling the girl down the short distance to the apartment door. It was standing open, Sasha could almost reach the safety of her home. She heard the footsteps on the stairs as she went through the door. She heard them coming down the short corridor as she slammed the door shut, bolting it. Then silence.
She immediately turned to the girl, who was on her knees just behind her, breathing heavily and looking dangerously pale. Sasha dropped to her knees in front of her, and pulled her hair back to see her face, looking for any blood or bruises.
“Are you okay?” She asked, still scanning her for abrasions. There weren’t any.
The child opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Her face contorted and her eyes brimmed. Her small body started to shake with heaving sobs.
“It’s okay, you’re safe now.” Sasha said softly, wanting to soothe her. “What’s your name?”
While she was waiting for a response, Sasha remembered she was still holding her phone. She dialed 911 and put the phone to her ear. She made a feeble attempt to stroke the girl’s hair, but she was scared she might be making her even more uncomfortable, so she awkwardly rested her hand on her own lap.
The speaker at Sasha’s ear wasn’t making any sound. She checked the screen on her phone. The number had been dialed right, but nothing was happening. She retried it.
“Nora.” The child whispered, becoming quieter.Sasha could hear the Spanish accent, barely noticeable.
“I’m Sasha.” There didn’t seem to be anything else she could say. The phone’s speaker finally made a noise in her ear, but it
wasn’t ringing. It took her a few seconds to remember what the beeping sound she was hearing meant, and when she realized it was a busy signal, she looked at the screen again. She had correctly dialed 911. It was busy. She was still trying to sort that out in her mind when a loud noise startled her back to reality.
The door. Someone had hit the door. She thought she heard wood splintering. She jumped up, pulled Nora up to her feet, and stumbled towards the bedroom. They heard another crack at the door, definitely splitting wood this time. Sasha closed the bedroom door, and searched the knob for a lock, but there was nothing but smooth cool brass. Sasha backed Nora up to the furthest wall from the door, the wall with the open window. The girl was shaking and making small sobbing sounds. The door was hit again. Sasha pressed the send button on her cell phone again, redialing emergency services. She looked around the room for anything she could use to defend Nora and herself with. There was nothing. Everything was still packed into boxes. The front door was hit again. The phone was silent against her ear. She could feel her own heartbeat all through her body. She forced herself to take another breath, and the apartment echoed with an acute crack. The sound of a busy signal registered in her ear, and she dropped the phone. Nothing about this seemed real.
A distinct crash resonated through the walls, and Sasha knew the only locked door between the intruder and them had come down. The only escape was going to be out of the window. Her and this terrified girl, out of a second story window. She took another breath.
She threw her legs over the sill, and touched rough shingle with her feet.
Nora seemed on the verge of hyperventilation, grabbing at Sasha.
“Come on!” Sasha hissed, stepping onto the roof and pulling Nora out with her. Sasha recalled her bad habit of always doing things before she thought them through. This might be one of them. Nora wrapped her arms around Sasha’s neck. Her small feet were barely touching the surface of the roof, Sasha was essentially carrying her. Her balance was severely compromised with Nora’s weight added, but Sasha stayed close to the wall, passing other dark windows, and came to the edge. She kept expecting the girl’s mother to come bursting out of the open window with that cold stare, but she didn’t. It was eerily quiet.
Sasha lowered her center of gravity as the roof sloped, and scooted down the decline to the gutter. There was a considerable drop to a small grassy area below. She sat down, pried Nora’s arms from around her, breathing heavily, and motioned for her to wait. She hung her legs off of the eave for a split second, taking a breath before she pushed off, and then she was falling.
She landed on her hands and knees, a dull pain coursing through her body. She stood and looked up to see Nora peering over the eave, that dark hair hanging around her.
“You’re gonna have to jump to me, Nora.”
Nora’s face changed, panic taking over again. Sasha heard a scraping near where they had exited her bedroom onto the roof. She pictured the deranged woman, grabbing Nora while she watched helplessly from below.
“I’ll catch you! Please, jump!” She cried, sounding more desperate than she had wanted.
Nora’s head disappeared behind the eave again. The bottoms of her dirty bare feet emerged from the ledge, then her legs. She whimpered again and leaned forward to fall. Sasha braced herself, arms outstretched, and caught Nora’s upper body. The impact sent them both back down into the grass, but aside from the wind being knocked out of her, Sasha wasn’t seriously hurt. Nora appeared to be uninjured too, and was standing up. Sasha grabbed her by the hand, saying nothing, and started running toward her car. Neither of them looked back.
Sasha reached into the front wheel well, and found the magnetic box that stored her extra key. She used trembling hands to unlock the car door and push Nora into the passenger seat. The car started, Sasha turned down the startlingly loud CD she had left playing, and tore out of the parking spot. Relief washed over her. She figured she could take them both away from here, to the hospital or a police station, where they would be safe from her mother. As she sped out of the complex in silence, Sasha wondered what kind of drug the woman could have been on, to make her seem so superhuman. She had looked into her eyes for a moment, they weren’t right. Sasha had a basic knowledge of narcotics, but not enough to know if any of them could make a normal woman able to tear out a metal fencepost barehanded, or knock down a sturdy front door on her own.
She made a quick decision to head toward the closest hospital’s emergency room. She wanted to make sure Nora was alright, and report her mother as soon as possible.
“We’re going to the hospital, someone there can help us. Nora, can you tell me what’s happening?” she asked.
“Mama was eating him.” Nora breathed.
Sasha couldn’t swallow.
“Did you say she was eating him?” Her voice sounded like it belonged to someone else. “Eating who?”
“The baby.” It had spilled out of Nora’s mouth, she looked stunned at her own words. She immediately began shaking violently and turned her head toward the floor. Sasha decided not to ask any more questions. She put her hand on Nora’s head, trying to be comforting but felt very inadequate. She put both hands on the steering wheel and pulled off the residential road onto the main boulevard.
It was quiet, as it should be at this hour. All the stores were closed, parking lots empty. The only thing that was not still was the traffic lights, changing on their cycle for no one. After a few intersections, the light ahead turned yellow, and Sasha started to slow down. She was lost in thought, reliving the entire incident at the apartment over and over from start to finish, trying to make some sense of it. The light turned red, and the car came to a stop. Sasha took the extra hair tie off of the stick shift, and started gathering her hair into a ponytail when something moved across the surface of the rear view mirror.
Sasha forgot the ponytail and turned to look through the back window. Nothing was moving. She watched for a moment more, and was about to chide herself for being jumpy when suddenly Nora’s mother leaped up from below the back bumper, both hands on the glass. Her mouth was open in a silent scream, and her eyes were trained right on Sasha. The woman stooped and moved toward the side of the car, leaving blood smeared on the window where her hand was. Sasha screamed.
Nora was screaming too, but she had her eyes closed. As the woman came into view beside the vehicle, Sasha realized it wasn’t Nora’s mother. This woman was moving and acting just like Nora’s mother had, but it was a completely different person. Sasha’s brain fought to reject that possibility, but she did understand that she needed to get away. Now. Her foot slammed on the gas pedal. Astonishingly, the woman tried to hold on to the car as it sped away, but lost her grip and fell, tumbling onto the road. Sasha was exhaling through her mouth, wondering if she was really just losing it, and then she noticed the others. They were all around her. Dark figures slinking in the dark, standing in the road, and off to the side, crouched low and watching the car as it flew by. Each one that Sasha saw was making eye contact and it sent violent chills through her every time.
She continued driving, becoming more terrified at each shadowy figure she passed, but after just a few minutes she stopped seeing them. She was coming up to an intersection that looked busier than the last. There were several cars waiting for the red light to turn green. Before she was close enough to start decelerating, the light turned green. None of the cars moved. She waited until the last second, hoping the group of cars would go, but she ended up having to slam on the brakes and pulling the wheel hard to the left to avoid slamming into the last car in her lane. She came to a stop in the median, amazed that she didn’t crash.
She looked to see the reaction of the driver she had almost wrecked, but there was no driver. The car was empty. The car in front of that one was empty too, and the glass was broken in almost every window in the car. There was blood on the remaining glass, it looked purple in the green glow of the traffic light. The cars on the other side of the intersection were empty
too, there were no drivers, no passengers. From the angle she was looking from now, she could see that a pickup truck had slammed into another smaller car on the other corner. The front end of it was still tucked into the trunk of the car, both of them crumpled together. There were cars further away from the intersection, unoccupied. They hadn’t even pulled up to the traffic light, but had stopped in the middle of the road. Something very bad had happened here, not long ago. But there was not a soul in sight now.
She started forward again, driving around the stone still cars, and had already passed through the intersection when she saw a flash in the rear view mirror again and almost panicked. Her heart leaped when she realized it was a police cruiser approaching from behind, lights flashing. She slowed down. If it stopped at the crash at the intersection, she could go back and get help. If it went through it, she could follow the cruiser, maybe she could make it to a police station and get help. Her car was crawling now, she was waiting to see what happened. The siren got louder behind her, and she watched the headlights dance as the car maneuvered around the same obstacles she just had. She watched it go through the intersection.
Her foot was hovering over the gas pedal, ready to slam it down to keep up as soon as the car passed. Her eyes shifted from the center rear view mirror to her side mirror. The cruiser was going dangerously fast, and was veering toward an unoccupied van ahead of them in the lane. She clenched her fists on the steering wheel, willing the driver to stay on the road. Everything slowed as the cruiser made contact with the van’s front end. The low hood of the van acted as a ramp, and the car launched. Its engine revved as it spilled on to its side, tires turning but gripping nothing but air, and suddenly it was flying through the air. It landed hard on its passenger side, not 20 feet away from Sasha and Nora, sliding with a sickening metallic grind across the pavement of an oncoming lane. It scraped and sparked its way past the window where Sasha was watching, taking quick breaths through her mouth, and fell over onto its roof as it slowed. The back end was facing the driver’s side of Sasha’s door just a few car lengths away and for a moment, the silence was deafening. Then the back door burst open on the upside down car, and someone was crawling out. His dark blue police uniform was glinting with moisture, and it took Sasha a moment to realize it was covered in blood. He was desperately trying to escape the vehicle. Something else moved, and in an instant, another man stealthily pounced on him. Sasha never saw the attacker’s face, because he immediately buried it into the side of the cop’s neck, and she heard a muffled yell.
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