Venom of the Gods

by Sebastian Chase

  "The door!" Lori said, recognizing where Karen must have gone at the same instant I did.

  "Jesus, she is stubborn! Come on. I can't leave you here by yourself." We started jogging to the opening that had swallowed Karen, when the double doors leading to the break room cracked open and the muzzle of a rifle peeked through. They had overcome my delay tactic. "Get to Karen! I'll find you!" I shouted to Lori.

  She continued forward, while I veered off to hinder the soldiers. Just as we separated, a shot rang out. My senses surged into overdrive, sending me into a hyper-speed state. I could see the bullet soaring away from the gun barrel, sending shockwaves of air out as it broke the sound barrier. Its trajectory would cause it to fly a few feet to my side. A warning shot I hoped, because if it wasn't, then the soldier was targeting my daughter since she was also a few feet to my side. Most likely, the shooter hadn't seen her there. I lunged into the anticipated path, but the bullet was coming so fast that I didn't think I would have time to place my body between it and Lori. I stretched my arm out hard, threatening its continued attachment to my body, and opened my hand wide. The bullet impacted and collapsed into a crushed slug of lead in my palm. Landing on my feet, I turned around to be sure Lori was okay. She had stopped and was staring at me in disbelief.

  "Run!" I yelled, and dropped the slug. She took off and with newfound anger, I refocused on those who had shot at her.

  The double doors were opening wider, the soldiers preparing to surge into the hangar. My choice was to either kill them or delay them. I chose the latter, as I still didn't want the United States to become my permanent enemy, which tends to happen if you kill their soldiers. The only thing I saw that could delay them was huge overkill for the job, but I had no choice. I flashed forward to the far side of a nearby Blackhawk, placed my hands on its cool metal surface, and pushed. It slid sideways at a faster and faster pace, to where soon I was at a slow jog. I hoped the incoming soldiers realized that they needed to get back into the break room, and well away from the door.

  The impact was monstrous and shook the entire hangar. The rotor blades splintered against the tan-painted cinderblock wall, and then the body of the aircraft slammed into it, sending a jarring shudder through my hands. The metal bent inwards, splitting open in the process, and inertia carried me through the ripped fuselage and into the craft. Still the Blackhawk slid forward, destroying the door and pulverizing the wall. Metal screeched, chunks of concrete fell, soldiers yelled in shock, and finally, the bird that would fly no more eased to a halt. It rested half in and half out of the break room.

  I picked myself up and looked out the shattered window facing the destroyed room, but couldn't see anything due to swirling dust. The smell of fuel hung heavy in the air, which would make them think twice about shooting. Satisfied that I had gained a few minutes, I stepped outside the cracked fuselage on the hangar side. Just as my feet hit the floor, I heard the sound of heavy motors whirling into action and the large hangar door began to slide open. Through the ever-widening crease, headlights came into view, telling me that reinforcements had arrived.

  With escape by land no longer an option, I ran to the door both of the women had gone through and stepped in. A narrow, dimly lit staircase led up to a second floor. I took to the air and roared up, and then the upstairs door opened. Lori stood there, and if I didn't stop fast, I would blow a hole right through her. I arched my back up, feet down, and rammed my claws into the cinderblock walls on either side of me. Bricks shattered absorbing my momentum, leaving ten-foot long scars in both sides of the wall. I jammed my feet into the last step and planted them firmly, causing the dying momentum to transfer higher. My torso swayed gently forward, with my face coming within an inch of Lori's. She kissed my nose.

  "Hi, Daddy. Done playing vampire?" she said with a smirk.

  "Very funny," I hissed through my fangs while pulling my hands out of the walls. "Let's go." She stepped back and I walked into a hallway, closing the door behind me. Karen stood to the side, holding a cardboard box.

  "We can't get out down there, can we?" she asked.

  "No. More of them have arrived. I hope whatever that is, it's worth it."

  "Me too," she replied.

  "We need a room with windows," I said.

  "Follow me."

  Karen turned and jogged down the hallway, and then disappeared into a door on the left. We followed her into what appeared to be an electronics lab, but my focus was on the far wall of windows with a view of outside. I quickly walked to the most accessible one and shattered it with my fist. Glass rained outward and down, attracting the attention of the troops on the ground outside. I stepped back and looked at Karen and Lori; their faces dripped with worry.

  "We have to get out of here fast. I need one of you on each side of me." I pulled Lori to me and wrapped my arm around her waist. "Come on," I said to Karen.

  "You're going to fly us out?" she asked incredulously.

  "What other choice do we have? Hurry up!" Karen grabbed her jacket off a chair back, donned it, and came to my other side. I put my free arm around her waist. "Face out, with your backs against me. I'll try not to squeeze too tight. We have to go fast so they don't get a clean shot."

  "Don't you dare drop me!" Lori said. We heard soldiers enter the hallway outside the room.

  "Never. I think I can manage a mile or two. Ready? On the count of three. One. Two." I didn't bother with three.

  Like a bullet speeding from a hot-steel barrel, the three of us launched out of the broken window. Both of them screamed, but the sound became lost in the roar of the wind. I felt their bodies being pulled away by the wind and gravity, so I tightened my grip just a little, with a strong fear that I would accidently crush them. I also had to limit our speed due to the frailty of humans, but knew we had to vanish fast, so pushed it to the edge of what I thought they could handle. I glanced at them both, not hearing the screams anymore. Lori's mouth and eyes were shut tight, but Karen's were open and she grinned like a little kid. I hoped our path would not cross a big juicy moth's for their sake. I realized I should have warned them of the hazards, but it was too late. Two miles and sixty seconds later, I eased us to the ground.

  We landed in the playground of a suburban neighborhood, quiet now with all the children tucked into bed. I released my grip and Lori instantly collapsed to her knees, while Karen swayed as if she had just rode the merry-go-round at full speed for hours.

  "Never again!" Lori exclaimed. She spat. "A bug went into my mouth!"

  "I have always wanted to do that! Fly like a superhero!" Karen yelled gleefully.

  Ignoring them, I retrieved my disposable cell phone and activated the GPS application, realizing that I only had one person to turn to for help. Once I had our coordinates, I stepped out of earshot as they continued to marvel over the recent adventure, and dialed the number I had memorized in prison. A woman with a French accent answered. I told her my name and she stated they had been waiting for my call. Lori and Karen found me and listened in silence.

  "Where is your location?" the woman asked. I gave her the GPS coordinates. "Andre has resources nearby. Are you safe to wait up to half-an-hour?"

  "I believe so."

  "Okay, they are being dispatched now. I would suggest you use your abilities, and relocate both the cell phones in your possession in case they track them as we are."

  "Both phones? I think the two women with me had theirs confiscated. This is the only phone. They are welcome to come also, right? One is my daughter, the other a good friend."

  "They are welcomed as long as both phones are lost. We don't want them tracking where we take you."

  "Okay. We'll find the other one. Thank you."

  "My pleasure, Michael. I've looked forward to this day for a long time, and there is so much we have to tell you. See you soon." She ended the call.

  "Help is on the way," I informed my audience.

  "Who?" Karen asked.

  "My son."

  "What?" Lori asked
with harsh scorn. "You were cheating?"

  "No. My son, Andre, is in his seventies by now." She just stared at me in confusion. Life gets complicated when one is immortal.

  Chapter 23

  Standing under dim streetlamps in a grassy area next to the playground, I noticed for the first time how well dressed Karen was. Not well dressed in the business sense, but dressed as if prepared for a rugged, difficult outing. She wore hiking boots, new-looking blue jeans, a durable L.L. Bean jacket, minimal makeup, and had her hair hidden under a tan stocking cap. She had purchased none of this on our trip to the store before my prison stint, yet it all fit her perfectly. My daughter, on the other hand, was still dressed in the t-shirt, sweatpants, and sneakers she wore when I picked her up from Shane's house.

  "Did Blackwell take you shopping again?" I asked.

  "What? Oh!" She looked down at herself. "Yes, we stopped on our way to the base."

  "You have a nice sweater on, I saw at the base, could you lend Lori the jacket? It's getting a little chilly out here." Karen hesitated for a brief second, but it was enough to make me wonder, exactly about what though, I wasn't sure. Her demeanor had changed, but maybe it was due to the risk of the situation, I decided.

  "Sure, yeah. No problem. I should have thought of that," she said, slowly pulling the jacket off and handing it to Lori. My daughter put it on quickly, obviously tired of being a trooper about the chilled night air.

  "Thanks," Lori said, zipping it up to her chin.

  "I was told to get rid of my cell phone so it couldn't be tracked. They also said another phone was with us."

  "Captain Thomas took mine on the way to locking me up in the classroom," Lori said. "He said it was base policy."

  "They got mine also," Karen said.

  "Hmm…they insisted we had two signals. Can you check your pockets, just to be sure?" Karen rummaged through the pockets of her jeans.

  "Nothing," she said.

  "Lori, the coat," I said. Lori reached into the pockets on either side, looked momentarily confused, and then withdrew a cell phone with her right hand. She handed it to me.

  "I forgot that was there!" Karen blurted. "It's Agent Blackwell's. He asked me to hold it while he was driving in case someone called, specifically, in case you called."

  I didn't know how to respond. We had agreed to use the throwaway phones, not the agent's possibly compromised cell. Why didn't Blackwell ask for it back when he left? Why wasn't it found when they searched Karen? They found her disposable phone after all. Perhaps they left it there on purpose, for insurance in just such a case as this. One couldn't put anything past the genius of Navy SEALs. Activating the screen, I was disheartened to find it password locked. Feeling certain that its GPS application was tracking, I developed an urgent need to get rid of both phones fast.

  "I'll be back in a few," I said.

  Pocketing the phones, I flew a couple miles away and landed on the roof of an apartment building. Hoping Karen's disposable phone was in the hands of the military, I took a chance that someone would be monitoring it. I dialed and Captain Thomas answered.

  "I'm sorry for the damage, and hope no one was hurt," I said.

  "Everyone is fine, but being bitten by a vampire was not on my agenda for the day," he replied. "Will I turn into one now? Do you have any diseases I should worry about?"

  "Captain, you will be just fine. I cannot turn anyone into what I am, thankfully, and I carry no disease. You have my word."

  "Fair enough. Turn yourself in and we won't charge you for the attack on the base."

  "I'm sorry, but I can't do that. Your government is not only operating as if I am the enemy, but is also infiltrated by the true enemy's spies. I must settle this on my own."

  "Mr. Spencer, you can't do that as a private citizen. It would make you a vigilante, a terrorist."

  "This goes beyond your understanding. I have been fighting this war since humans clustered together in caves. Samael has turned you into pawns of the gods. Only I can rectify that travesty."

  "The president feels different."

  "She's wrong. I called you hoping you will urge the president not to launch nuclear weapons. They will not work on Samael. He will fly out of the ashes and make it appear as if the United States is the bad guy. World opinion will turn against the U.S., which will help Samael take over everywhere, including here. Can you warn the president, Captain Thomas?"

  "How can a man survive nukes?"

  "He's not a man. He is pure energy born of another dimension, capable of annihilating anything in your reality. Your nukes are child poppers compared to the energy we used to call home—to the dark energy of our being. Please, relay that to the president."

  "I will, just to be safe, but..."

  "Thank you. And, Captain; yes, I do consider the United States my country. I will not betray you." I hung up and, out of curious caution, dialed Lori's cell phone number. I expected the captain to answer that, too, but was dismayed when Special Agent Richards answered, yelling to overcome noise on his end.

  "Give yourself up! You can't win!" he screamed.

  Just then, a dark shadow of a Blackhawk appeared low over the buildings several blocks away, the noise of its stealthy blades just now reaching my super-human ears. I dropped both phones and was considering my options when, from the opposite side of the helicopter, the deep rumble of a jet engine echoed. I turned in time to see the white trail of a missile light up and arc towards me.

  It approached at twice the speed of sound and I had but a second to leap into the sky, hoping the missile would follow me away from the apartment building. It tried to turn up, but too late. The weapon crashed into the industrial-sized air conditioner on the roof below, bursting into explosive death for whoever lived on the upper floors.

  Before I could register that the government was willing to harm innocents in their pursuit of me, a small fighter jet whizzed by my head, its canon showering me with a storm of projectiles as it passed. They ripped at my clothes, but fell crushed by impact to the fiery scene below without harm. Catching a fleeting glimpse of the plane during the maelstrom of bullets, I recognized instantly the XF-24 drone that Captain Thomas had raved about.

  I watched as the plane made an incredibly tight turn and approached me head on. I knew that if I fled back to where Karen and Lori were, it would follow either visually or by sophisticated radar. My only choice was to stand my ground. Another missile ignited from the belly of the mindless plane and hurtled towards me. I whirled around and launched myself away from the damaged building below. The missile followed, forcing me forward at incredible speeds. The wind roared, and then a turbulent bubble developed in front of me, shielding me somewhat from the violent air—and the bugs. I knew that below, the loud crack of the sound barrier being broken rattled across the town.

  I willed my body into a hard turn, suffering g-forces that would rip the best of aircraft apart. Forced into a wider turn, I was sure the Sidewinder missile lost me, but when it leveled out, it quickly positioned itself once again behind me. With the XF-24 incapable of maintaining the tightness of the turn at such a high speed, I found myself now on its tail. Coming upon the plane, I slowed and grabbed one of the dual tailfins. The plane jerked sideways, its computer trying to compensate for the unknown flight interference. Turning my head back, I was glad to see the missile still on my trail. It approached at a speed in excess of Mach 2, and then its nose cone was in my face. There was a brilliant flash, followed by darkness. I heard something in me snap. I yelled, but no sound came out. And then there was light, faint and spinning.

  It was the crescent moon above that I looked at, and it wasn't spinning, I was, while also falling. I felt warmth below me and tried to rotate around to see what it was, but found it difficult so gave up. My energy level was nearly depleted, and I knew that if I didn't reserve what was left, I would end up catatonic.

  A flaming piece of metal floated up past me, falling slower than I was. I vaguely heard a crashing explosion and fel
t a wave of intense heat hit my back, followed by a shower of burning cinders. I hit the ground, thudding to an abrupt halt that drained yet more energy from my weakened body.

  Opening my eyes, all I could see were the flames of the destroyed drone that I had followed to the ground. The fire quickly engulfed my clothes, but the body still seemed to function, although it felt extremely heavy. I stood slowly, burning like a demon from Hell, and walked forward, stumbling occasionally on debris.

  The flames started to swirl as if caught in a strong wind, but I forced myself ahead, feeling that any minute I would shutdown and that would be the end. Game over. Congrats, Samael.

  How stupid of me to think that I could win while playing nice guy to humans. Before battle, centuries ago, we would drink gallons of blood, not snack carefully as I had—sipping like a baby, as Samael once called it. He was right; starving soldiers are the makings for a lost war.

  I stepped out of the ring of fire and welcomed the cool darkness. Sitting in the parking lot, not far away, I recognized the outlines of the Blackhawk with rotors still turning. Men approached, weapons drawn. With my clothes rapidly burning away, I fell to my knees on the edge of shutting down. Several soldiers formed a half-circle around me.

  "Is he dead?" one asked.

  "I don't know. His eyes are open, but they look dead to me."

  "Shoot him, you fools!" It was Agent Richards, standing safely behind the soldiers. Gunfire erupted, pinging off my body, each bullet drawing a little more energy out of it. I fell forward, my nose smacking the ground. The shooting stopped.

  "Check him." A soldier approached and prodded me with the barrel of his gun. I lay limp, using my last bit of energy to summons a few seconds of patience. Another soldier joined the first, and together used the long barrels of their weapons to roll me over.

  "Looks dead to me."

  "So they can be killed," Agent Richards said, coming closer. "Someone get a body bag before the press shows up."