by M. Lorrox
Breathe. The flow of life everywhere around the world, in the valley, in the facility, in the room, inside her.
Breathe. She opens her eyes with her awareness behind them once again. She looks upon Dr. Melgaard, and she inhales.
He starts to blink, and to July, the action takes moments.
She feels the air flowing into her lungs, and when they’re filled to their maximum, she throws a pulse of energy into every limb and cell. The trees in the valley behind her shiver, and July’s body changes. Her fingers curl into the claws she imagined before, her toes spread and rip into the tiles while her heels pull up her ankles, her back bulges, her chest expands, the bones of her arms and legs grow a half-foot longer—each, the skin on her head pulls into ears, and her jaw punches ten inches forward. Everywhere, silver hair bursts through her skin, and white whiskers protrude six inches from her snout.
As the clothes she wore fall in busted threads to the ground around her, she stands on her hind legs, over seven feet tall. Her six-inch-long fingers are tipped with inch-long claws, and from her growling wolf-like mouth, two-inch long canines curve away from her jaw. The once long silver chain of her mother’s—with her grandfather’s bead strung on it, now hugs her thick neck. It’s so tight now that it’s covered by her fur.
When Lars’ eyelids start their upward movement, July’s breath—and pulse—and change—is complete. She waits until she sees the terror fill his eyes and his stance falter. When he shows his shock, she grabs him with one giant hand around his throat and pulls his face up to her snout.
He drops the container with Eddy’s hands and starts to piss himself. The container sloshes some of the fluid out, but it lands upright.
She looks at her own reflection in his eyes. This is who I am now. She feels his Adam’s apple travel with his nervous gulp. In a deep and raspy voice, she bellows at him, “YOU ARE A MONSTER!”
Then she lets go of his throat.
He stumbles back on his weak legs, and July takes a giant step forward. With both of her arms, she grabs hold of both of his, and she pulls them outward in both directions. He screams in pain as his left arm is torn off. She drops it like a dead fish on the deck of a boat, then grabs his screaming face. Her claws rip into his skin, and she steps forward again, placing her waist under his right armpit. Then she pulls again on his right arm, and rips it off as well.
July holds his arm by the forearm, lifts it in front of Lars’ face, then tosses it aside. “AN ARM FOR AN ARM!”
She lifts him by the face, her claws cutting through his flesh until they -click- against the bones of his skull. She turns around and slams him onto the ground. With one hind leg, she stabs her toes into the crook of his pelvis, then flexes and tears through his leg until she hits the femur. She squeezes her toes together, grips the bone, and pops it out of his hip socket like the bone from a cooked chicken wing.
As he screams against the leathery paw pressed against his lips, July repeats the process and rips his other leg off.
Lars’ eyes are rolling back in his head, and July releases her hold of his face. “DON’T FORGET WHAT YOU DID TO ME! ORGANS FOR ORGANS!”
She watches his face as she deliberately, slowly, pokes her claws into his abdomen. First tearing a single small hole, then five, then she forces them larger.
His eyes twitch, and he looks up at the beast on top of him. His mouth hangs open, and his world dims in the ocean of pain that drowns him.
July has one hand in his belly, and she squeezes her hand into a fist around his liver. She shreds it. “WHOOPS, COULDN’T GET A GOOD GRIP.” She finds his stomach, but again, her claws shred it. She pulls her bloody hand out—only pieces of ripped flesh cling her to claws. “OH WELL.”
His breath leaves his body, and his eyes settle. July sees him die, and she rears up, howling so loud the guards outside the room shudder. Blood runs down from her huge claws and mats the fur on her arms.
She looks back at the man who took her friends, her other life, and she swats his head straight off his shoulders and into the wall.
She licks the blood off her fingers, then looks over her shoulder to Mary.
She sits nearly motionless, the blanket over her shoulder and across her lap quivering with her fast heartbeat. Impossible!
“DON’T WORRY, I WON’T HURT YOU.”
Mary shakes her head. She... But only... Unless... Yes. She must have met the Source.
Hector rushes to a video monitoring station in SeCComm. “What the hell is going on in there?”
The video security specialist shakes her head. “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you.”
Hector looks at the screens. One monitor is split into four feeds from four different cameras in the room, and on each he can make out a large, light-colored shape, hovering over what looks to be blood and body parts. The other screen only shows one of the feeds, but full sized on the monitor. He motions to the screens. “You’re recording this?”
She nods. “Orders were to record from the moment Dr. Melgaard entered.”
“What? Who’s orders?”
“Direct from Command.”
He scowls. I should have been informed. “Play it from the beginning then.”
She finds a data-stream file and clicks it open. “These are all ganged together, I can switch whenever—”
“Yeah I know... How long until whatever happens?”
“They talk for a while. Should I advance to when the crazy started?”
Hector furrows his brow. “Suuurre.”
She scrubs through the video until she finds the spot, backs up, and plays it. She clicks a different angle, and on the monitor, Hector sees Lars from behind and July over his shoulder. Then, the screen flashes white for a frame, and after, Lars faces a giant wolfman-like creature.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. What happened?”
She points at the screen. “THAT happened. These are shooting at 60fps, and on every stream, one frame girl, then one frame white, then the next frame, monster.”
Hector watches as the beast rips Lars into pieces, then licks blood from its hands. “That’s enough.”
The specialist clicks a few times and returns the monitors to a live view.
Hector squints at the screen. “Oh, that’s just gross.” He looks away, then checks his tablet to see if any new orders came in from command. “I’ve got an update.” He reads it. Do not interfere. Continue the doctor’s work.
“Sir?”
Hector turns to her. “Yes?”
“Permission to go vomit, sir?”
He walks away. “Use your waste basket. You’re on duty.”
In a few minutes, Hector enters Dr. Melgaard’s lab. He stands at one side of the large, open room, sighs, and places his hands on his hips. “I’m taking over for Dr. Melgaard; official orders from the top. I expect a full briefing on progress from team leaders in five minutes. Until then, tell me, we’re on track?”
Trinn looks around and sees most eyes looking at her—including Anne, the other team leader. “Sir, everything is on schedule to complete the orders, and we’ve started printing some of the virion and Mithrilin solution, exactly to Dr. Melgaard’s specifications... Where is he?”
Hector clears his throat. “Five minutes. Full report. Melgaard’s office.” He walks away. Melgaard’s OLD office.
Charlie has woken up everyone on the boat except for Eddy, who he lets sleep. He asks Ghost to rest. He brings MREs to his team and assesses their state.
Gabriel is in the best shape out of any of them—uninjured and, besides a few shifts of watch, well-rested. The hole in Owen’s quadricep has stopped bleeding and now only weeps plasma. The flesh wounds on the back of Balena’s legs are healed, but her knee needs surgery. Her lower back is still healing, so she’s still laid out on her stomach. The hole blown out of Hecate’s leg has scabbed over, and she can move herself a
round with a little less pain.
Charlie looks at Eddy, who is laid down toward the cockpit. What do I even say to the kid? It’ll be okay? At least you have your legs? It could be worse? Charlie shakes his head. He’ll need help with everything now, and that’ll kill him.
Ghost grabs some breakfast and joins the others near the back of the boat. “I’m not tired. Let’s discuss the plan.”
Charlie shrugs. “This is what I’m thinking so far. With their weapons, a direct assault on foot will fail. Ghost and Hecate, you both agree that the climbing to reach the facility would be...risky?”
They nod, and Hecate chuckles. “Risky isn’t the word I’d use. Snipers aside, with those drones, they could just blow us off the wall... And that’s if it’s even possible to free-climb the wall. Even if one of us managed to drop a line, a drone could just take it out and send everyone crashing down. Me, Balena, and Eddy certainly can’t climb in our condition, and the three of us that aren’t injured aren’t climbers.”
Charlie resists the urge to glance at Eddy again, and instead he turns to Owen. “What do you think, will this boat...drive, with the damage to the strut?”
Owen shrugs. “Certainly not well. But why would we retreat? I didn’t think that was an option.”
Charlie feels eyes on him. “I never said anything about retreating... Here’s the only thing I’ve got so far: we need a chopter. That’s how they get up to the facility, that’s how we could.”
Balena shakes her head. “Those drones have explosives on them. Helicopters don’t particularly like explosions next to them. They tend to crash.”
Charlie motions to Owen. “That’s why the jammer Major Dubois started will be crucial. Can you make it stronger? Like whatever was in DC that shut down communication?”
“No, they’re totally different designs, and the thing is, the drones’ signals have got to be coming from that tower. It’ll be way too strong for an omnidirectional signal jammer.”
Charlie raises an eyebrow.
“I mean, the directional type that Steph...Major Dubois and I were working on would be the only way to disrupt the signal, but there’s still...challenges with it.”
Hecate sighs. “We’ve got a ton of challenges—we need solutions. But what do you mean?”
“Well, the way the jammer works is it overwhelms whatever it’s pointed at by overpowering the control signal—which in this case, comes from the tower. Think about it like sound. The closer the receiver is to the sound, the louder it is, right? So, the challenge is that the closer the drone is to the tower, the stronger that signal would be, so the closer the jammer needs to be to overwhelm that signal.”
“Mmm.” Balena nods. “You’re saying there’s a proportional distance of effectiveness, and the closer we get to the facility and use the device, the closer the device has to be to the exploding death machines for it to stop them.”
He nods. “Uh-huh.”
Charlie clears his throat. “Well, it’s all moot if the thing doesn’t work. So Owen, you finish it. Now, for the chopter. If we leave with the boat, they’ll be on alert and watching for us.” He turns to Gabriel. “I think there is one other option, but it falls on your shoulders.”
Gabriel sets the MRE packet down and swallows the last bite. “Whatever is needed, I will do.”
“The guy at the air-tower in Milford said there was a sight-seeing helicopter operation there. You’re the freshest of us, you could hike there and rent, or otherwise persuade them to give you the helicopter.”
“I don’t know how to fly a helicopter.”
Charlie grimaces. Right. “Well, you could hijack the pilot then.”
Gabriel nods. “If I’m remembering the map and our trip here, the hike would be…about fifty kilometers. Over mountainous terrain, that would take me about ten hours.”
Balena pushes herself up with an arm, and regrets it—the wounded muscles in her lower back gripe at the movement. “But then we have a helicopter and no real plan of attack.”
Charlie swallows. “But it’s more than we have now, and it might be the only way to reach them.”
Owen leans forward. “Why don’t we just radio to that patrol boat? Have them come and bring a helicopter?”
Charlie squints at him. “A: because our target is certainly monitoring radio bands, and then they’ll know our attack will be by helicopter. We have a better chance if we take them by surprise.”
Owen nods, and Ghost tilts her head. “What’s part B of that?”
Charlie smiles. “Right, sorry. B: Owen, you’ve got an idea there with the navy.” He turns to Gabriel. “In Milford, also inform the patrol boat that we need rescuing. Make sure they bring plenty of blood for immediate transfusions and tell them to be ready to shoot down explosive-carrying, remote-detonating drones.”
Gabriel nods. “Okay... When I get to town, the helicopter might be out… When should I try to return with it?”
“An hour before sunrise, tomorrow. That’ll ensure you can arrange the helicopter and the patrol boat. Have the navy pull in just ahead of the helicopter to provide cover, but not too soon because that’ll raise a billion red flags up at the facility.”
Gabriel stands. “Okay. I’ll prepare some gear.”
Balena sighs. “Sounds like as good a plan as we can manage...but it’s not complete.”
Eddy, awake and listening from the front of the boat, clears his throat. “I agree.”
Charlie turns to him, swallows, then grabs a fresh MRE and a fork. He turns back to the others. “It’s at least a start to a plan, and we have some time to work on the rest… Rest up and keep thinking. Hecate, keep watch.” He looks at Ghost—the knight who saw him at his lowest—and he swallows. “I need some time with my son.”
Mary watches in silence as the half-wolf/half-human/thing, bends over the drawn and quartered corpse of Dr. Melgaard and eats him.
July didn’t intend to eat him, but faced with a warm pile of flesh and an immense hunger, she couldn’t resist.
When she finishes stripping the muscle from the last arm, she tosses the bloody bones to the pile she started with his head.
Finally finished, she burps, then raises a bloody paw to her mouth. “EXCUSE ME.”
She takes another look at the mess on the floor in front of her, and she sighs. Then, in a moment of relaxation, she nods. She stands and lowers her head. “I’M GOING TO CHANGE BACK NOW.”
Mary decides not to blink. I will see this!
July closes her eyes and takes a huge breath to fill her giant lungs, then she pushes another jolt of energy and intention through her body.
Mary sees a blast of green light surround the wolf-transformed July, and then an instant later, a naked girl with scars everywhere on her body instead. July is a foot off the ground, and she drops. She lands off-balance, and she falls over. Let her be, don’t disturb her.
July lands in the blood she spilled from Lars. She lifts herself up and takes a moment to study her own, human hand in the crimson fluid. I did it—I controlled it. She stands and realizes she’s naked and covered with blood. She takes a breath and sucks the blood in, absorbing it through her skin, then she covers herself with her arms and turns around to face Mary.
She swallows. “Wow.”
July smiles. “Can you toss me a blanket? Or a sheet?”
“Oh, of course.” Mary hops off the bed, careful to maintain her own blanket, then she grabs the corner of the bed’s top sheet and extends it out behind her back to July. “You have an amazing power within you.”
She takes the sheet and wraps herself in it. “I know. I’m covered now.” She walks past Mary toward the windows.
After a moment, Mary joins her. “Can I ask how you acquired that ability? I’ve never seen anyone do anything as amazing.”
July points out the windows. “I can feel it—the life all around me.
It’s so powerful... A week ago, I was a normal girl. Then I got bitten by a zombie, and Charlie gave me his blood to make me a vampire.”
Him? Impossible... No, that’s not it. Mary swallows. “Did you have this ability when I first met you? You certainly seem different since then.” She looks at July from the side and from above, and in the girl’s eyes, Mary sees the reflection of the scene outside the window. Shimmering leaves in the distance... No, wait, her irises are swirling! Undulating like a river...
July is watching her irises too. In the glass, she can just make out her own reflection, and although she was looking at the dancing leaves on the other side of the valley, now she’s looking at, and concentrating on, her own green-and-silver eyes.
“July? When did you first start to feel these changes?”
She blinks, and her eyes return to their week-old, new normal. “Ever since that bastard killed the old me. When I woke back up, I was different.”
Mary sighs. He didn’t do this, and Charlie didn’t either... She takes a step behind July and drapes her left arm across the girl’s front in as much of a hug that she dares—and can give. “Well, my dear July, you are truly special... And so is this view. I could lose myself in its beauty.”
July nods. “Me too.”
“Would you mind standing with me here for a moment? This feels really nice... You are feeling more and more like family to me.” Mary closes her eyes to their growing wetness.
“That’d be nice.”
Mary smiles, then takes a breath and starts to hum the same song she sang July overnight. A soothing song—a timeless song.
July blinks, and she twitches in a moment of confusion and recollection, then she closes her eyes as a soft smile grows on her lips.
Gabriel takes a map and a lot of the team’s remaining blood supply, then leaves. While Charlie feeds Eddy breakfast, for a few minutes, nothing is said. When his meal is finished, Eddy sighs. “Thanks, Dad.”