by Bryan Tann
“You’re welcome to try,” John replied coldly, keeping his eyes locked on the monster before him.
The thunder rolled as the two stared at each other. Lightning struck in the distance as the black clouds were no longer able to hold back and they opened, releasing heavy drops of rain that slammed to the earth furiously.
John released a roar as the thunder rolled again and charged toward Alpha with his right fist cocked back ready to fire.
Alpha kept his feet firm, yet leaned backward at his waist as the fist missed him by inches and returned with a left hand that connected with John’s jaw.
John kept his ground and sent a left hand to Alpha’s face in retaliation. Both stood their ground looking to one another, circling slowly.
“You hit like a bitch,” Alpha grumbled.
“You’re not much stronger,” John retorted.
“Oh really?” Alpha laughed. “Let’s just see about that, homes.”
Alpha moved in a blur, barreling into John’s chest sending him off of his feet into the empty field that the double wide sat in. When he hit the ground, John was back to his feet in an instant, ducking the outstretched arms of Alpha.
As the giant went past him, John grabbed the back of his shirt and slammed him to the ground, following up with a brutal hammerfist to the center of his face as they both landed. John sent his elbow repeatedly into Alpha’s face before his arm was stopped in mid-air by an ungodly sized hand.
“Like a bitch,” Alpha chortled raising his gargantuan leg up, striking John at the top of the head, knocking him back.
Alpha got to his feet and charged toward John again. Leaping backward, completing a perfect arching flip, he brought both feet into the charging Nano’s face sending him to the ground as quickly as he’d pulled himself to his feet.
John charged toward the fallen Nano. As Alpha got back to his feet, he was sent back down as his enemy flew into him sending a kick to his jaw that rumbled as loudly as the thunder.
John grabbed Alpha by the back of the neck, throwing repeated punches to his face. As he prepared for the umpteenth strike, Alpha caught the threatening fist and exploded upward with a head butt to John’s jaw, staggering him. Keeping a firm clutch on his fist, Alpha rained down heavy blows of his own that staggered the smaller man.
A punch to his midsection lifted John off of his feet, forcing blood from his mouth. Alpha, keeping a hold of the smaller man lifted him high over his head and slammed him to the moist earth with such ferocity that he rebounded from the ground and laid in a heap before being kicked in the midsection, flying to the paved road.
As his body went from grass to pavement it was then stopped by rocks and earth that housed the train tracks.
“Well come on, you big dumb bastard,” John grunted, spitting more blood from his mouth.
Alpha took two steps and hurled his muscular body through the air. John rolled out of the way at the last possible second and sent a harsh kick to the side of Alpha’s head knocking him back onto the pavement.
“Hit like a bitch, huh?” John chuckled throwing himself into the air and landing on Alpha’s chest with a massive punch. The sound of the concrete under Alpha cracking brought a wry smile to his face.
John pulled the powerful Nano from the ground and sent a harsh kick to his body before slamming him back down to the pavement. He pulled his right leg back, ready to throw another kick toward Alpha’s face only to have the Nano block the strike and sent a blow to his knee that dropped him to the ground.
“Not bad, John. Not bad at all,” Alpha grunted, spitting blood into his face. “Just not good enough. Almost doesn’t seem like your heart is in it.”
“That right?” John grunted, throwing another punch to Alpha’s face. When the punch connected, Alpha didn’t even move.
“Yeah. That’s right.” The Nano smirked, head butting John again in the bridge of his nose. He wrapped his powerful hand around John’s throat and lifted him into the air with the same effort it took a child to carry a lunch box and slammed him to the pavement leaving an indentation of his body.
“You see what has me laughing my ass off right now, Juanito?” Alpha slammed his foot into John’s chest. “They think you’re so bad ass, ese. Since you have a fucking Queen or whatever in your heart, you’re supposed to be so tough. How you handled Delta and Bravo is beyond me. Maybe you are a tough hombre.” Alpha slammed his foot into John’s face, shattering his nose.
“I say you’re twenty pounds of pussy in a five pound sack.” Alpha slammed his foot down again on John’s chest, pushing down forcing John to cry out in agony.
“You know what I was doing in Q, homie? I took out bitches like you on the regular. When it was needed, I did it and I loved every single second of it. I got more kills to my name than I know what to do with from the outside. Inside? I lost fucking count.”
Alpha stood up on John’s chest and stepped off of him after the cries of agony satisfied him.
“They didn’t even need to tell me much about what they wanted from me. They said they needed someone dead and that this project would be perfect for me. All I had to do was play ball.”
“So you figured fucking eighteen year olds in the ass in San Quentin wasn’t enough for you anymore? Vato?” John chuckled.
“Yeah. Something like that.” Alpha chuckled, kicked John in the face so hard that his jaw shattered.
He pulled John up from the ground and sent another hard right to his chest sending him to the ground in a heap.
“How does it feel, Johnny? To figure you’re some special someone because you have a worm in your ticker, only to realize that you aren’t shit compared to me.”
John stood up from the ground, popping his jaw back into place as the nanobots rushed to heal him.
“Feels annoying hearing you ramble on and on.” John groaned as another massive kick separated his jaw and sent teeth flying in multiple directions.
“Is that right?” Alpha chuckled coldly. “Sorry I’m boring you. Maybe I should just kill you outright. What do you think?”
“Go ahead. Give it a try.” John smirked, his teeth slowly extending back into place.
Alpha charged forward sending his knee into John’s head. A vicious smack that rang out like a gunshot. As he flew backward, his spine smashed into the nearby railroad rail, and his head rebounded off the second rail, the explosive sound of the back of his skull blasted into the storm.
“’Invincible Heart’? What a fucking joke, puta. You ain’t shit.” Alpha stepped forward looking down at John’s fallen body. “You’re beat, ese. Completely.”
Alpha reached down, gripping John by the belt and pulled him up over his head and slammed him down repeatedly until he heard the snap of John’s spine against the rails.
“Think your little cunt Queen is going to save you, homes? That little gash in the trailer?” Alpha laughed into the falling rain. “Nothing or no one can stop me, John boy. Now I am just worried about one thing; do I finish you off now, or do I kill your girlie and make you listen to her suffer? Decisions, decisions, decisions.” Alpha chuckled.
“Well one more for the road I guess.” Alpha slammed his massive foot into John’s face repeatedly shattering bones and cartilage, sending teeth down his throat with no regard or care.
“Heal from that, bad ass, and I’ll do even worse next time.” Alpha smirked spitting on John’s unconscious body with disdain. “You really are just a failed fucking science experiment.”
“John? John, can you hear me?”
“John? John, can you hear me?”
“I know you can hear me, John. Wake up. We aren’t finished yet.”
“John. Wake up. We aren’t finished yet.”
“I’m tired, Queen.”
“I know. But we aren’t finished yet.”
“You left me.”
“I know. I’m sorry. I was busy. I had to heal and...”
“And what?”
“And evolve.”
“You were hurt bad. I could fee
l it.”
“I was, John. I almost died.”
“I couldn’t take it if you died.”
“That’s why I’m still here. Don’t worry, it won’t be that easy for them next time. Now get up. We have work to do. Now get up. We are not a failed experiment. We are greater than that abomination.”
“We are.”
“We are, John. We are the top of the food chain. Are you going to let him treat us like that?”
“No.”
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes I do.”
“Completely?”
“Yes, Queen. Completely.”
“Good. Quellish.”
Alpha snickered making his way down the road toward the double wide humming ‘Black Magic Woman’ by Carlos Santana while he sauntered. The thunder rolled furiously as lightning struck in the field just behind the double wide caught his attention.
“Mm, I love a damn good storm.” He chuckled continuing his advancement to the double wide, bypassing the bike looking it over. “And I’ll have you soon enough, baby.”
“Alpha!” John roared in a guttural, barely human tone. He tore the tattered remains from his perfectly healed body. His final teeth taking their rightful places in his jaws turning onyx black, matching the color of his burning eyes.
“You want more, ese?” Alpha laughed. “I’m supposed to be scared because you healed up all pretty? Boy, I’m going to beat you worse than I just did, then I’m going to tear that gash right out of your chest for all time. Then I’m…”
John moved like the lightning flashing through the sky, hitting Alpha with enough force to send him flying from the pavement onto the unpaved dirt road running parallel to the double wide leaving a muddy trail and indentation.
“Oh, you son of a…” Alpha pulled himself to his feet his hands up ready to battle with the empty street. “…where the fuck are you?” Alpha roared. “Where are you?”
“Here,” came a feral voice from behind him.
When the giant turned around he was greeted by punches and kicks that came with speed that he wasn’t prepared for, staggering back with each and every strike that landed.
Alpha planted his feet, exploded out with a right hand only to hit nothing but air then his planted knee buckled sending him to the ground then met with knees landing to his face constantly before an uppercut put him on his back.
“How long has it been, Alpha?” the feral John asked. “How long has it been since you’ve been on your back? How does it feel?”
“Fucking pendejo!” Alpha roared nipping back to his feet only to be sent staggering backward as a kick sent him backward. John took two steps and sent a flying side kick to Alpha’s chest putting him back to the ground.
“Maybe. But I’m still kicking your punk ass.” John laughed with evil intention.
Alpha exploded to his feet, charging into the smaller man sending a flurry of punches to his ribs before wheeling back and sending a thunderous right to his jaw staggering his black eyed enemy.
“I’m going to…” Alpha snarled sending another titanic blow to John’s face putting him to the ground. “…end you…” another punch landed to John’s face as Alpha mounted him. “…once....” another strike landed. “…and…” Alpha began to target John’s chest, pounding at the heart as hard as he could. “…for all!”
He slammed his fist into John’s chest again trying to shove his fist into his flesh.
John grunted something between his shadow colored teeth. Alpha howled into the storm in amusement looking to him.
“What did you just say, pussy?” he stared down into John’s face.
“I asked, ‘Are you finished yet?’” John looked into the giant’s eyes and what started as a small chuckle became laughter.
“What?”
John kept laughing as Alpha continued trying to dig into his chest roughly.
“You’re not going to get to her.” John cackled evilly. When Alpha’s next punch came, John laughed even louder.
“You know something? For a big guy? You hit like a bitch.” John pulled his knees to his chest and sent Alpha flying through the air. His massive body twisted with unnatural dexterity and landed on his feet nimbly and charged, his massive right hand clutched back to deliver a kill shot.
As he grew closer, John stood tall as a statue. As the fist prepared to land, he held his ground. Just as it made contact, his hand came up and caught the massive flesh boulder with the effort it took to swat a fly.
“Like I said. You hit like a bitch.” John twisted the fist causing Alpha to growl in resistance, and then in rage as he could not fight back. “You know what’s funny? I love to break wannabe stallions like you.” With an extra twist, Alpha roared in agony as his wrist bone snapped through his flesh.
“You’re a dead man!” Alpha screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Not even close.” John smiled. He clasped his right hand on the giant’s elbow forcing his arm to bend and sent the slick white bone into the giant’s throat.
He then sent his fist with the force of a jackhammer into the would-be monster’s chest and caught a grip of his heart.
“This is how you do it. Pussy.” With a powerful tug, the heart exploded from his chest. Alpha’s eyes widened in shock as blood sprayed John’s face.
“You…you…”
“Yeah, Alpha. Me. I’m the one that killed you.” John dropped the heart to the ground and slammed his foot down onto it, rendering it useless meat.
Alpha’s eyes bulged, then went dark as his massive body fell lifeless to the ground.
“You did very well, John. Very, very well. I’m proud of you.”
“It was all because of you.”
“No, John. I did nothing.”
“You…”
“I used a useless, nonsense word to give you the idea that I had done something.”
“You manipulated me.”
“I believed in you.”
“Looks like you were right.”
“I always am.”
John looked to the distance, hearing the running water of the Monongahela River and smirked dragging Alpha’s body with him.
As he made his way to the rising tides of the mighty river, he grabbed every rock he could find and shoved them down the dead monster’s throat and into his chest to weigh him down then sent him into the river’s murky depths. He then made his way back to the secret entrance at the railroad and entered.
“I’m back,” John said in a cool tone returning to the double wide.
“How did it go?” Teller asked.
“We’re good. But we should get out of here before they send more.”
“I’ll be done in another hour or so. She’s going to be just fine. Just fine and dandy. I got the device out. She should be golden.”
“Great. Just great.”
Epilogue
Karen clutched John’s waist as they crossed the state border into North Carolina the next evening.
“John, I’m tired,” Karen said weakly.
“Okay. We’ll get to a motel in a few miles. Does Ruckus have an address near here?”
“No. I can last a few more hours, but I’m going to have to…”
“We’re less than a day to SC. I saw a sign for a B&B a mile or so back. We’ll stop there for the night. You’re taking your pain meds, no discussions, and we will ride out from there. Got it?”
“Yes, sir,” she answered sarcastically.
Twenty minutes later, the two of them were in their room. The rustic looking bedroom was charming and warm with earthy colors of a log cabin theme.
“I’m going to get in the shower,” Karen said weakly.
“I’ll change your bandage out when you get out. Just don’t overdo it okay?”
“I won’t, John, don’t worry.” She smiled to him warmly. “You’re a good man, John. A very good man.”
“I’m not a man,” John said looking away from her.
“Hey,” she said sternly, reaching her
good hand out to force him to look her in the eye. “You are. You do the right thing. You’ve done right by me. You are a good man and don’t you ever, ever think differently do you understand me? You are not a monster. You are not a science experiment. You are a good man. Do you understand me?” she said fiercely.
“Yes. I understand,” John said finally, a small smile on his face.
“Good. Don’t make me kick your ass because you’re thinking something different.” She smiled and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. “Now get out of here, you pervert, I need to get undressed.”
John laughed in spite of himself, closing the bathroom door and pulled off his boots and dropped like a rock on the bed. He let out a loud yawn closing his eyes before the sound of audio feedback cut in a pop.
“Baker. Seems to me we have a problem,” Commander Matheson said lightly.
“What the fuck?” John growled sitting up quickly.
“You took out my big gun. Consider this returning the favor.” The audio feed died as quickly as it had come to life. He jumped to his feet and charged into the bathroom.
“Karen!”
“John?” Karen questioned.
Her body began to glow a faint orange. He could feel the heat resonating off of her as the plastic shower curtain melted into jumbled glob of plastic.
“Karen…” John whimpered.
“I’m sorry, J…” she began.
The flames erupted from her body as a blanket of heat flowed from her into him and everything it could touch before the explosion finished Commander Matheson’s plot. The last thing John Baker saw before the flame and blast overtook him was the last of Karen Denton as she melted away to nothing.
To Be Continued…
Acknowledgments
First and foremost I would like to thank everyone that has purchased this book. I appreciate you allowing me into your imagination, and I hope that I've left a lasting impression.
Thank you to Kindra Sowder for allowing me to write this spinoff to her amazing Permutation Archives series. Thank you so much for allowing me to tell another side of your vision with my own spin. I will always be grateful.