She examined my expression for a moment before returning her gaze towards the pavement far below. “I’m glad you scared her off,” she admitted softly. “Pretty sure she was just trying to get under my skin.”
“Yep,” I agreed.
Her head snapped back towards me in surprise. “You knew that?” she asked, seeming especially astonished.
I shrugged again. “In hindsight, yes. Though, I didn’t tell her to piss off because of you,” I clarified. “She was just annoying me.”
“Oh.” She dropped her gaze. “Right. Well, I’m still glad.” She took a deep breath. “I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s in there right now telling everyone how you almost killed her or something.”
“It wouldn’t be a lie,” I agreed.
She stared at me in shock again. “Joking?” she asked hesitantly.
I didn’t respond, trying to suppress the damn smile tugging at my lips. Because I sort of wasn’t joking, and found it amusing that she was hoping I was.
Too bad for her.
Unexpectedly, screaming reached both of our ears, echoing into the parking lot from inside the hospital, prompting two very different reactions. Savannah instantly froze solid, only to look up to meet my gaze as possibly a thousand different betrayal scenarios played out in her mind. I could almost see her visualizing Harper killing everyone she knew while I had her stranded on this roof.
As if I cared enough to personally torture her like that. So egotistical.
Alternatively, my reaction was simple – Harper was perfectly fine, as far as I could tell based on her stats screen, only irritated, so I wasn’t concerned about it at all.
Savannah finally tore her gaze away from mine when the screaming reached the entrance, only to reveal Harper dragging Sarah, of all people, out by her blonde hair. The older girl was at least half-a-foot taller, and probably fifteen years older, and yet she was no match for the powerful little imp.
Harper looked up at me just as they exited, with Sarah trying to free her hair, kicking and screaming on the ground in terror.
“Can I kill her?” she called out, prompting Savannah to instantly look at me in horror again.
“Do whatever you want,” I replied simply, not really caring what the other humans would think.
Savannah instantly bolted to her feet, almost tripping in the gravel. “N-No!” she exclaimed. “Harper, please don’t hurt her!” She then gasped as she watched her younger sister’s bladed tail near the girl’s neck. “HARPER!” she shrieked. “Please, don’t do it!”
Ugh, so annoying.
‘What did she do anyway?’ I asked in my thoughts. ‘Or are you just killing her for fun?’
Harper paused, her response calm and even. “She was saying mean things about you and Savannah,” she disclosed.
“I didn’t mean it!” Sarah shrieked. “I was only kidding! It was just a joke!”
“No it wasn’t,” Harper replied evenly. “I’m not stupid.”
That, and I realized the young Night Stalker had likely heard my thoughts when Savannah was sharing about the fiend in her grasp.
“Please!” Savannah repeated. “Harper, please don’t do it!” However, when it was clear her sister wasn’t going to respond to her plea, instead waiting on me for a more solid answer, Savannah turned toward me as well. “Mason, please tell her to stop. Please.”
“SOMEONE HELP ME!” Sarah shrieked at the top of her lungs – a highly irritating sound.
Unexpectedly, Harper’s gaze flashed towards the entrance, and she spoke coldly to an unseen person. “Go ahead and shoot,” she taunted. “I’ll just kill you next.”
Dammit! Everyone just shut the hell up!
Harper immediately let go of Sarah’s blonde hair, having heard my thoughts, causing the girl’s head to smack against the pavement, since she hadn’t been supporting her own weight. She screamed in agony, her hands gripping her head, not attempting to get back up as she began sobbing.
It was obvious that Harper felt bad for irritating me, but when I reassured her that she wasn’t really the problem, she regained her composure. Bending down, she balanced on the balls of her feet and brought her face close to Sarah’s ear.
“If I ever hear you say anything like that again,” she hissed loudly, “then I won’t ask next time. I’ll just kill you and be done with it.”
Sarah whimpered, nodding urgently, her whole body trembling violently.
‘Are you done visiting?’ I asked in my thoughts.
Harper immediately bolted upright. “C-Can I talk to my sister more?”
‘Then come talk to her,’ I replied silently.
She nodded, growling at Sarah briefly, before dashing in our direction a few feet in order to leap into the air to fly over to us. As she landed, her wings folding behind her back, she smiled up at Savannah, who just stood there trembling, still stunned from what had almost just happened.
I supposed the human girl had forgotten that we were monsters…and was just now reminded of that truth. That fact.
It would be foolish of her to forget again.
Chapter 14: Target Practice
It took Savannah several minutes to calm down, and even then she remained tense. No doubt that our flippant and apathetic attitudes towards seeing a human die, or killing one ourselves, had her extremely uncomfortable.
In the end, she continued to tell Harper stories of what their life had been like before the apocalypse began, as well as how their parents had passed away shortly after, when Harper asked about them.
It was probably the same sap story that many survivors had. Their house was attacked unexpectedly by a newly transformed Night Stalker. And, in the process of trying to get their children into the attic through a hole in the ceiling, the monster managed to kill their father after getting shot by the man a few times, followed quickly by killing their mother too.
Savannah could remember grabbing Harper out of their mother’s arms, just as she was jerked away, screaming at the top of her lungs as the monster tore into her. The nineteen-year-old human also commented that it was one memory she wished she could forget, like Harper had, having terrifying nightmares even months later about the incident.
To me, the fact that the three kids had survived was puzzling, considering it didn’t sound as if the monster had died from the gunshots, and since I didn’t fully understand the mindless behavior of my own kind. I supposed it might have been a combination of hunger distracting it, along with the whole risk-reward issue that most predators faced, not to mention that their indistinct heat vision might make the hole in the ceiling invisible to them, assuming it was covered back over.
And really, that last reason could be the primary one. A newly transformed Night Stalker likely wasn’t too much stronger than a human, so just busting through the ceiling wouldn’t be an option, which meant that there being no visible entrance would have kept the humans safe.
I was only listening absentmindedly as Savannah talked, until my attention shifted to the Radiation Therapy entrance again, seeing a woman with dark tan skin and black hair rushing out with a radio. Immediately, I could tell it was Chris and Tony’s mother, who I had yet to meet, because both guys looked a lot like her, even without taking their slightly darker complexion into account.
Savannah noticed my gaze and looked over too, only to bolt to her feet. “Oh, no!” she exclaimed. “Emma, did Sarah tell them what happened?”
The woman in question immediately shook her head as she continued rushing closer. “It’s not that,” she replied, sounding out of breath. “Your grandfather said he needed to talk to you immediately. He wouldn’t tell us what’s wrong.”
Without thinking, Savannah began walking towards the edge, only to realize the twelve-foot drop was going to prevent her from accepting the radio. She looked at me hesitantly, prompting me to move my bladed tail closer, figuring that allowing her to break a leg trying to get back down wasn’t the ideal way to repay her company.
She wrapped her a
rms around and positioned her hip just like before, allowing me to turn her on her side and deposit her back on the ground, moving a lot quicker this time.
Needless to say, the middle-aged woman, Emma, seemed especially shocked by the interaction, and possibly also by Savannah’s façade of comfort around us. She got over it quickly though, as she handed the radio to the green-eyed brunette.
“This is Sierra19, do you copy?”
There was a brief pause, before the radio crackled to life with an urgent voice. “Savannah!” a familiar old man’s voice exclaimed. “We’re in trouble! There are Night Stalkers all over the place inside the powerplant! Garrett is injured and we have no idea where Tony is!”
Emma gasped, hearing for the first time that her son was possibly missing, or worse. Her hands immediately flew up to her mouth, her eyes frozen wide in horror.
Savannah quickly began responding, assuming he was finished without waiting for him to confirm he was. “Where are you now?” she demanded. “Over.”
“On the road. I’m sorry, but we couldn’t stay to try to find Tony. We barely outran them in the truck, but Mason was right. Our guns barely did shit against them! Savannah…” Randy paused for a long few seconds. “Honey, is there any way you can get him to help? Over.”
Both women instantly froze solid, neither of them looking up at me as they just stared at each other.
“He’s probably already dead,” I commented, prompting both women to flinch, tears filling Emma’s eyes.
Savannah then began trembling slightly, only to slowly look over her shoulder, tears beginning to brim over and slide down her cheeks as well.
Dammit! Stop it!
I scoffed in frustration, looking across the street.
Ugh. I supposed I could use the target practice. After all, I hadn’t yet been granted the opportunity to try out my new fire magic on an enemy, and this would be a great chance to see what I was capable of now.
“Fine,” I blurted out. “But I have no idea how to get there, so you’ll need to show me on a map or something.”
Savannah sucked in a breath in shock, before glancing at Emma as she wiped her eyes and then turned her body towards me more. “Y-You’ll go?” she asked in clarification.
I rolled my eyes. “Isn’t that what I just said?” I snapped in annoyance.
Savannah flinched, before nodding to herself. “O-Okay, let me go get the map.” She then exchanged another glance with Emma before handing her the radio and running towards the Radiation Therapy entrance. Of course, Emma gave me one wary, yet hopeful look, and then followed after her, not about to hang around outside alone with two Night Stalkers.
I couldn’t blame her.
On her way, she spoke into the radio with a trembling voice, telling Randy they were working on it. I assumed they wouldn’t give an official confirmation when I hadn’t even left yet and could always change my mind.
Unexpectedly, Harper was at my side, standing over me since I was still sitting on the ledge. I looked up to meet her gaze, wondering what was on her mind, only for an unrequested message of white letters to begin filling my vision.
Alert!
Task Assigned to Handler: Target Practice
Task Details: Defeat all enemies.
Task Begins in 00:06:41:752
Time Limit: None
My eyes widened in shock as I watched the timer countdown from six minutes and forty-one seconds, the milliseconds rapidly shifting as they counted down from 999 over and over again with each passing second.
What the hell?
This was like a quest in a videogame, except there was no way I was going to make it to the powerplant in six minutes! What in the world was going on?
Unexpectedly, the message changed in response to my thoughts.
Alert!
Quest Assigned to Handler: Target Practice
Quest Details: Defeat all enemies.
Quest Begins in 00:06:34:367
Time Limit: None
The hell?! So now it was a quest, because I had compared it to a quest in a game? And what did it mean by assigned? Did I not have a choice in participating? Was there a consequence for ignoring it? Not to mention the countdown! Surely the powerplant wasn’t that close, not when John had said they would be gone for a couple of hours. So then, why did the hallucination claim the task would begin so soon?
Unless…
My gaze shifted through the transparent message, focusing on Harper’s wide red eyes as we both seemed to come to the same conclusion at once.
Shit!
“I’ll check,” Harper announced, backing up a little as she leapt straight up, her wings pounding at the air.
But there was no way in hell I was just going to sit around. I jumped up too, following after her, the ground rapidly falling away from me as my wings easily fought against gravity. Knowing that I was coming too, Harper let me catch up and we both began flying in large circles around the surrounding area like a pair of massive hawks, looking for enemies.
Of course, we didn’t see any.
‘Go back and warn the humans,’ I told her in my thoughts. ‘The last thing I need is a distraction.’
She complied immediately, folding her wings to dive straight in that direction, before springing them out to abruptly slow herself down and begin gliding towards the parking lot. I watched her run up to Savannah and Emma, who were both just exiting the building, looking confused as hell as Harper spoke to them.
I could see them in pristine clarity from this distance, but I couldn’t hear a word being said while this high up and far away. It made me kind of wish the mental link between us went both ways, so that Harper could communicate with me from a distance too, though I wasn’t sure if the tradeoff would be worth it considering she might be much more vocal in her thoughts.
Unexpectedly, an idea hit me as I looked in the distance towards where I had originally found her, with the tall black spires having become extremely useful landmarks due to the varying distances between them.
I didn’t see any enemies in the street below, but I did know the location of a horde, assuming they hadn’t moved in the last few nights. Maybe if I moved closer in that direction, so the buildings weren’t blocking my view of those streets, then I might find something…
‘Harper,’ I said in my head. ‘If there truly are a lot of them, then you can’t help me with this. I’ve saved up enough resources to have over a hundred and fifty shots, so I should be able to attack entirely from the air no matter what. Barricade yourself with the humans for now.’
Of course, I had no way to get a response from her, so instead I checked her stats.
Calculated Allegiance: 100%
Condition Status: Acceptable
Calculated Obedience: 93%
Condition Status: Acceptable
Huh, her allegiance was still maxed out, but her obedience dropped some. I wondered why? Maybe because she would take an action separate from my command if I was basing a decision off incorrect information? Which, in that case, of course I would trust her to make the best choice given the circumstances. Or was I wrong about that assumption? Had I possibly done something specifically to cause her obedience to drop?
Either way, I felt like 93% obedience should be enough to indicate she would listen.
Alert!
Quest Assigned to Handler: Target Practice
Quest Details: Defeat all enemies.
Quest Begins in 00:01:59:825
Time Limit: None
Warning!
Handler has left the designated Quest area.
Dammit! I didn’t see enemies anywhere and yet I couldn’t imagine the information before my eyes was false.
Making an arc in the air to return toward the hospital, I looked back up at the horizon, wondering if I could be looking in the wrong direction. Could these enemies have wings like I did? However, as I searched the skies, unexpectedly my eyes focused on one of the towers in the opposite direction I had traveled, realizing that
the red cracks climbing all along the alien structure – appearing as if it would shatter at any moment – were glowing just faintly brighter than the surrounding spires.
Surely not…
Quest Begins in 00:00:34:582
‘Harper!’ I called out urgently as I began beating my wings harder. ‘Only thirty seconds left! I’m heading back, but make sure you and everyone else is behind a barricade! That’s an order!’
I beat my wings as hard as I could, attempting to surpass my max speed in an effort to get closer to the hospital. Finally, once I felt like I was close enough, I pulled my wings in slightly to do a similar guided-dive that Harper had done, allowing gravity to pull me at an angle towards the large building.
Alert!
Quest ‘Target Practice’ has begun.
Quest Details: Defeat all enemies.
Time Limit: None
Reward: Variable
Reward Conditions: Variable
Failure Conditions: Avoidance or Death
Failure Penalty: Variable
Reward? Failure Penalty? Shit, I didn’t have time for this. I forced out my wings again to abruptly slow my descent, now twenty or thirty feet above the building across from the familiar ER parking lot.
I still didn’t see anything…
And then I saw everything.
Unexpectedly, the tower that was glowing in the distance, grew noticeably brighter, before several hundred black dots began pouring out of it from just below a low hanging cloud. I immediately began climbing higher, my sharp eyes starting to register what my enemy was, as the horde drew closer.
Reptilian looking birds.
All of them were pitch-black, with wetsuit-like skin and bright red irises – many of them having four eyes instead of two – along with a long lanky tail and bat-like wings. Each one had a different style beak, though most of them were extremely long, with dagger-teeth jutting out.
Rise of the Night Stalkers Page 16