An audible buzzer signaled the countdown to begin as Mathias sat down. The countdown started at thirty. I watched as the red numerals flashed with each decrease. At fifteen, I glanced at Sunnie who was visibly shaken. She was being whispered to by Mathias. At ten, I turned to Veronica who looked away. At five, I realized I was on my own. Before the buzz finished sounding at zero, I was forced to dodge a flying forearm from Liam.
Liam had launched himself across the width of the room with a single explosive movement. His strength was incredible. I ducked at the exact time he tried to make contact. He flew over me, crashing into the door behind me. The reinforced door caved easily under his weight. The door splintered and was ripped from its hinges as he tumbled into the hallway from which I had entered, smashing into the wall. I gave chase only to be thrown back into the pit seconds later. Liam had recovered fast, much faster than he should have.
I landed in the middle of the pit. Liam sprinted from the hallway behind me. He leapt into the air and crashed to the earth where I had fractured the concrete. Rolling from the blow, but not fast enough, my hand was crushed underneath Liam's knee. Pinned by his body weight, I spun my legs around to knock him off my hand.
He deflected my first kick, but not my second as I scissored my legs. The kick that had made contact thrust his head toward the ground. His head hit the surface with a loud crack. Liam was stunned. I followed my scissor kick with another kick which drove his head deeper into the concrete which did not offer forgiveness. The concrete cracked and large dislodged pieces flew into the air. He was flopping around, grabbing at his head, which allowed me time to deal with my shattered hand.
The hand was healing. I could feel the process starting but there were several bones jutting through my skin. The pain was immense. It would be some time before I could use the hand at all. I just decided to count the hand as useless to me for the remainder of the fight.
Veronica yelled above the crowd, "You are wasting time! Finish him now before he finishes you!"
For an instant I made the mistake of looking upward toward Sunnie. Time seemed to slow as I watched her tuck her face in behind her hands, peeking through the cracks between her fingers. Time sped up quickly when I felt the next move from Liam. He came at me fast in my state of weakness with a light combination of right and left punches about my face. The punches from the dazed Liam had knocked me from my feet and opened cuts underneath my eye and along my chin. He followed the punches quickly by snatching me from the ground to a position above his head to the roar of the crowd. I felt myself being thrown in the air, caught, then brought down onto Liam's knee on my side which disintegrated all my ribs along that side of my body. He roughly cast me off onto the concrete. Blood poured from my mouth; my body was wrecked by pain. My entire left side was not functioning. My leg, arm and shoulder had little movement and no strength. I fought to rise from the ground, but all I managed to do was crawl slowly away.
I could see the lingering effects of my kicks to Liam because he was still too confused to finish me. The back of his skull was mush. Large junks of brain matter and fluid dripped from him. He took two steps toward me then collapsed to his knees as he screamed. His hands fell upon me. He smiled through his suffering. Liam was sitting back on his hunches watching me buying time as he tried to heal.
Shit, he is trying to heal enough to kill me properly I thought. We were both broken. It was now a race to see which one of us could manage to get well enough to murder the other.
The feeling was returning to my destroyed hand. I needed an advantage. My eyes scanned the pit. There was nothing to use that I could see except for single metal grate covering the drain in the middle of the floor. The problem was I would have to crawl past Liam to get to it.
My body was more resilient than I had previously witnessed. The broken parts were beginning to heal faster. Liam sat still watching me. I played the injuries to my advantage as I stayed down buying me time to think. The pain was beginning to ease. My body had shifted into a condition of rapid renewal that had thus far been unknown to me. I didn't know if it was the near death state, or the adrenaline fueling the regeneration, but I did not care. I was glad it was happening.
Spitting out a wad of broken teeth and gunk, I wiped at my mouth. It was then that I realized that I hadn't phased naturally. Feeling of my mouth as I rested upon the ground, I realized I had never transformed into my vampire self even though Liam had been transformed since before the buzzer sounded.
The realization must have triggered the transformation. I watched as my claws grew forth from my fingertips. Running my tongue along the upper ridge of my mouth, I could feel my fangs descending. It was then that I noticed that there was an adaptation with my fangs that had not been there hours ago. There was now an opening along the back of the fang. It was small, but it was near the tip and both fangs had one.
My eyes grew darker and my vision changed as I crossed into my other self. The change was one part of my vampire heritage that I thought I had gained at least a semblance of control. This was not the time to be wrong and I had been, but I had made it this far.
I reasoned in my embarrassment of having Sunnie watch me fight, I had most likely subconsciously suppressed my animalistic nature. Now with death a real possibility, my darker sided strived to live it seemed.
My leg and shoulder where fully functional, but I still drug them as I navigated a wide circle around the furthest edge of the pit. Liam was growing stronger as he followed my movements. He was still leaking from his head wound though his expression of pain had lessened.
My plan to use the metal grate as a weapon had a major flaw in it. This was a realization after it was no longer obscured by Liam's body. The grate was in the middle of the room with Liam fifteen feet from it. If I charged the grate, Liam would cut me off and I would have to fight him without the aid of a weapon. His superior strength was the biggest advantage he had, and in close combat it would be the deciding factor. But was I stronger as a transformed vampire and was I strong enough to beat him? I had to have another approach. I decided a real weapon would be my best advantage. Instead of attempting a direct approach, I continued to crawl toward the far end of the pit with hopes that my new plan would work. Within ten feet of the far door, a chorus of boos began to resonate throughout the stadium. I dared not to look at Sunnie or Veronica for that matter. I keep my attention entirely on Liam's reaction to what I was doing. Liam spurred on by the calls of the crowd, rose to his feet. Clenching and then unclenching his fists betrayed his plan. Slowly, he began to walk in my direction. I knew he was getting ready to charge and deliver the final blow. When he began to stagger through his third step, I fled with all of my remaining vampire speed into the hallway.
The zombie guards reacted swiftly to my entrance into the hallway. Surprisingly, these were faster than a human was capable. Especially more capable than Walter who was seated at the far end of the hall with his feet propped on the door knob and the remnants of his cigar in his mouth. These had to be prototypes of the latest generation of combat soldiers since they were better equipped to deal with the detail of controlling the unnatural creatures inhabiting the Farm. Still the zombies were slow to bring their weapons to the target in time to inflict any damage.
I disarmed the first zombie just inside the door with a single thrust to the neck that dislodged the head by slicing cleanly through into the paneling. Grabbing the shirt of the zombie with my left hand before my attack had been carried through, I hurled the decapitated guard across the width of the hall into the two guards who were standing opposite. The guard to the left of the door had been kicked through the paneling as I had hurled the headless zombie at his colleagues.
Liam had stopped his charge when he had seen me sprint from the pit into the hallway. The muscle bound vampire should have finished his attack. His mistake was pausing to determine what I was trying to accomplish.
The zombies were a battered mess. Walter had decided that discretion was truly the better part
of valor as he fled without removing his weapon from the holster. Reaching down at full speed as Liam now cautiously approached, I took possession of two of the zombies’ SIGP516 assault rifles. Liam was too close for me to miss. In the recesses of my mind, I had been given guidance on the nuances of the weapons in my hand so without hesitation I opened fire.
Liam tried to evade the rounds as the automatic rifle in my left hand started burning through its clip with a short burst. He pushed back with considerable force to crack the cement at his feet. He landed ungracefully on his butt twenty feet away. Liam clamored to his feet as I purposely missed wide to his right to direct him back into the fire of the gun in my right hand. As planned, Liam over committed to fleeing the flying armor piercing rounds by breaking to his left.
The first three rounds missed him, but finally a solitary round tore through his shoulder with enough power that it knocked him sideways. The next three split open his chest. Then a couple more entered through his chin. Still he kept coming at me. Liam was no longer running. He was now crawling. As he approached, riddled with bullets, he was no longer able to dodge. Within ten feet of me I finished the last two clips into him.
The wounds were not fatal. He wounds healed though it would take a long time. The crowd grew silent as I cast away my weapons. Taking a handful of his hair, I pulled Liam into the center of the ring. I no longer cared what anyone thought, it was time to make a statement I told myself. As Mathias had stated, it was time to become the legend.
With all the brute force I could muster, I tore loose the metal grating in the floor. Raising it high above my head, I looked down upon Liam who was unconscious and long since phased back to human at my feet. Transferring the grate to both hands, I screamed loud in protest and brought down the metal guillotine with precision. The slamming of the weapon across Liam's neck had been with enough energy to drive the grate three inches into the flooring. The whole room shook.
There was a stillness that had been absent before. The room was aghast at what had become of my foe. Applause started slowly with the human section, I am not sure from whom, but soon it filled the confines of the arena. Spent, I scanned the room for reactions. Many of my GV16s looked away while others of the inhabitants of the Farm scowled at me. There was a sad finality to what had happened.
The humans looked upon Liam's remains and I with indifference while a few smiled with glee. We were the weapons they wanted. I had proved we could take a beating, heal and kill our adversary without regard to life.
Sunnie was still seated in the front row with her head in her lap. She had her hands interlaced covering the back of her head. She looked up as I sought her eyes. Her face was devoid of color as tears poured down. When our eyes met she shook her head and fled up the steps from her seat through the narrow hallway followed by two soldiers.
A chilling smile stretched widely across Mathias's face. The cold bastard had driven the wedge he had wanted between Sunnie and me. He returned my glare. A second later, the human soldiers in the room casually proceeded to the railing as others stepped from the exits inside the pit led by Walter and another man that I did not recognize.
The honored guests and officials were led away under guard as were the members of my society except for Veronica who refused to leave. A soldier tried to force the issue, but shied away when Veronica phased and ripped the weapon from him and returned it in pieces.
There was no need to attempt to fight the soldiers, they were only doing their jobs. I waited to see what was about to happen. Mathias rose from his seat then dismissed the troops along the upper ring with a wave of his hand. He smiled then disappeared into the hallway behind his seat.
The troops on the floor of the arena cautiously progressed toward Liam's lifeless body. As the soldiers surrounded my former friend, a contingent of zombies rushed forth from the opposite end to begin the dismembering process. The zombies were quick with axes raised. On command, each struck repeated whacks that sounded wet intermingled with the crunch of hardened vampire bones. I couldn't bear to watch; the sounds were enough to sicken me.
A heartbroken man, I slouched out the door from which I had come under the watchful eyes of Veronica and Walter.
Chapter 42
"Why the hell was she there Veronica?!" I screamed.
Her eyes blinked open as she rolled toward me. "Not exactly the reason I was hoping you were here. And what is with not knowing how to knock."
Standing in the opening that had once held part of a sliding glass door I said, "I don't seem to possess the delicate touch that Darby and you have when it comes to breaking into homes. My disposition at the moment doesn't lend itself to attempting to cover up that deficiency."
Veronica sat up in the bed. "When will you learn that you have the skills as part of the package? It is a simple matter of you embracing the gifts that you have been given. Now what are you doing here in the middle of the night raving at me about? If you say it is about that damn little human girl, then you are asking the wrong person so either crawl in bed with me or go home because we do have school tomorrow."
"Yeah, it is about her because I want to know the truth," I hatefully answered. "Besides, you know that we technically don't need sleep. I think I will be fine, so tell me."
Veronica flipped over to face the far side of the room. "That is between you and Mathias, and I am sure he had his reasons. I will do my best to find out why she was there, but you can't be so dense that you must realize that there is a message. If it was me, I would have done the same thing."
I was stunned at her forceful response.
She turned to me. The sheet barely clung to her naked body as she spoke, "Ethan, Mathias needed her to see you for the monster that dwells inside of you. How could any human love you when they know the truth of what you are capable of doing? Sunnie needed to be honest to her and you. This is not a fairy tale where you are the innocent love struck vampire who is incapable of harming a creature other than to protect her. We are killers. The virus inside of you is the same as the one in me, and I know that every second of the day I am a fraction of a second away from taking a life. Liam was your friend and she knew that."
Her unblinking eyes stared at me as I sought an answer. There was no defensible retort, so I stumbled from the home and into the night alone. I heard Veronica slide from the bed, shuffle through the glass from the shattered door and step into the damp grass.
I stopped walking at the edge of her yard wondering if she was going to give chase. Hearing her movement grow silent, I turned to see her standing beside her house; her naked form obscured from behind the white sheet which she held in place with a single hand. The moonlight tantalizingly revealed intimate details of her body. Embarrassed, I looked away as she approached.
"Ethan, let her go. Please." Veronica seductively whispered as she approached.
"Stop Veronica. Just stop. I need time to clear my head. I need time to figure out some things." She did as I asked. Veronica started to say something, but I was too far away for even me to hear as I sprinted away from all the horrible events of the evening.
I saw the sunrise from a field that I had lain down in two hours before. School should have been the furthest thing from my mind, but it was the only thing as I sat and stared at the sun. I felt my skin getting harder and watched as I began to darken to gray, but I didn't care.
School meant having to deal with my group and the loss of a member. School also meant that I would have to deal with what Sunnie had seen. Was I really the monster she had witnessed murder our school mate and my friend? The sad reality seemed to be that I was in fact a monster.
Mustering up my courage, I decided it was time to make my way back home and confront the damage I had created.
Chapter 43
The bus ride was quiet. I entered first and exited last. Everybody maintained the same seats we usually sat in on the way to school with the exception of Chloe. Chloe sat in Liam's seat. Her sobbing was the only noise anyone made. No one looked at me or
made mention of my presence. This was a fact that surprised me. I had at least expected an acknowledgement from Veronica or Darby, but there was nothing. Departing from the bus, I used a side entrance while the rest chose to enter through the main entrance. The separation allowed me to escape from one problem and begin my search to rectify another.
I searched the halls at risk of being late for class, but Sunnie wasn't at school. Waiting until after first block, I tried another search for her at the school which yielded no results. I began the process of tracking down a girl I had heard Sunnie make mention of being fairly good friends. It would be with her that I would find answers I prayed.
Lucy Stoltz was a willowy blonde who had penchant for gossip and colorful shoes. The shoe issue always struck me as funny since she did not have much regard for the rest of her appearance. Well, there was also the exception of her nails. The girl was near obsessive about her finger nails. They were always perfect, but otherwise she cared less for how she looked.
Gossip was her claim to fame. As an eleventh grader, she knew everything on everybody, including teachers. Most people treaded carefully around her. Lucy was always the one with the information so no matter how much I hated having to turn to her for information, I found it was necessary, even though my relationship with Sunnie was fodder for her discretion or lack of. Maybe since she and Sunnie were friends we would be exempt, though it was an empty hope.
On occasion, she and I passed pleasantries as we shared Spanish class and our mutual affection for Sunnie. Today was no exception for her choice in shoe color, her love of gossip or even her affection for Sunnie.
I found Lucy assisting with some pictures for the school website. She unabashedly led with a statement, "I hear that the happy couple is having some difficulties. Could that be why Sunnie is not here today?"
Created (Book 1 of the Created) Page 24