The Regulators - 02

by Michael Clary

  The door to the locker room opened.

  I was led through some hallways to a long dark corridor where I was abandoned. At the far end of the corridor, I could see the football field. The stadium lights had been turned on and the place was awash in a bright light. He was waiting for me out there. I could feel him, but I couldn’t see him yet.

  It was freezing cold and I had goose bumps all over my body. I was opening and closing my fingers as I walked through the corridor in an effort to warm up my hands. The walk was long, and I was alone. As I got nearer to the stadium, I could actually see the snowflakes falling against the stadium lights.

  I could scarcely believe that everything was happening so fast. It seemed like only minutes ago that we had entered the city in an effort to rescue survivors. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how things had gotten so fucked up. Then I realized that I was afraid.

  The rage came back.

  I was no longer shivering because of the cold. I was shivering due to the massive wave of hatred that was flowing through my veins. I despise being afraid. Fear isn’t something that I’m at all comfortable with.

  I walked on with murderous intent. I felt the power in my limbs. I breathed deeply and took one step into the stadium. The Master was waiting for me on the fifty yard line. He was only wearing his black pants. He seemed rather skinny, like somebody that would normally be a cakewalk, but I didn’t really believe that. I had seen how fast he could move. I had felt how strong he was. He had been holding back then and made his daughter look weak in comparison. He wasn’t going to hold back tonight.

  On my left side, closer to me on the field, were the survivors. They made up a large group. Every single person from the church was in attendance. On my right side, were all the foot soldiers. There were only about fifteen of them. They probably weren’t very important to the vampires.

  Along both sides of the field were wide PVC pipes. There must have been at least two rows of them inside the field, but it was difficult to tell with the light dusting of snow. All in all, it looked like a badly rigged irrigation system, the kind that should be below the ground instead of lying on top of it.

  Mind you, I didn’t really focus much on the pipes or the people. I just sort of saw them out of the corners of my eyes. My attention was focused on the Master, but I noticed when all the survivors began to salute me. They didn’t make a sound; they just all moved at once and crossed their right fists over their hearts.

  I felt my upper lip begin to twitch, and I walked towards the Master. That’s when I heard the little girl begin to sing. I don’t know if you heard about her, but she drew me a picture before the battle at the church.

  “Yes, her name is Mona.”

  Well, I guess she got through the first verse or so on her own before the others joined in on the chorus.

  “Others?”

  The survivors from the church.

  “How many of them began to sing?”

  All of them.

  Instantly the tears began to well up in my eyes. It’s just one of those moments. I felt more than a little embarrassed to be crying in front of the man. After all, he was the one going through everything. I couldn’t even begin to imagine how he must have felt.

  I don’t know how to explain it, but I think it has something to do with all the support. Jaxon was going out there to fight for all of them. He was facing insurmountable odds and there probably wasn’t a single soul among the survivors that actually thought he was going to win. Still, they sang him on. They let him know that they were there for him. He wasn’t alone.

  That was also something that I learned from Mona when I tracked her down and asked her why she began to sing. She told me that Jaxon looked lost and alone. She wanted her song to guide his way back to her and the others.

  “I apologize. Please continue.”

  I was about ten feet away from the Master when their song ended. He began to talk. He was addressing everyone in the stadium. I have no idea what he was saying. I think he may have been asking me a question at one point, but I didn’t come there to talk.

  When I was about five feet away, I charged.

  He didn’t expect it. He wanted to play games for the crowd before we got down to business. I wasn’t about to stand for that. I wasn’t going to exchange back and forth banter with him. I charged him with my full speed and power. When I reached him, I ducked down and wrapped both of his legs with my arms.

  I lifted him straight up into the air, carried him a few more feet and slammed him down on his back. The look of shock on his face was almost comical. He couldn’t believe that a human had just put him on his ass.

  I didn’t laugh at him though. I wasn’t in a jovial type of mood. Instead, I immediately began to pound at his face with both of my hands. The left hand was the deadlier of the two. It was holding my unopened folding knife and therefore, the impacts were more damaging.

  I broke his nose in an instant. I saw the black blood run freely for just a moment before the injury was healed. So I broke it again and after it healed, I broke it once more before the vampire backhanded me into orbit.

  I actually sailed through the air. I remember thinking that I was in some serious trouble before I landed hard on my back. I struggled to bring air back into my lungs, but the vampire didn’t give me any time.

  “YOU DARE!” he shrieked as he closed the distance between us, picked me up off the ground and brought my face to within an inch of his own. “You will pay for that.”

  I slashed his neck from ear to ear with my knife. The vampire threw me aside as if I were a ragdoll. His hands flew to his neck as he attempted to staunch the spray of blood that was darkening the light snowfall.

  I stood up quickly and charged at him. I wanted to hit him while he was injured and in pain, but by the time I got there, he had healed. He was a lot stronger than his daughter. I didn’t even see the slash of his clawed hand, but I felt my head snap back and I saw stars begin to dance at the edges of my vision.

  His claws cut me all the way to the bone. He had opened up my face and the blood was freely flowing. I almost managed to avoid his next attack, but he still caught me on the chin with his fist. I’m pretty sure that the blow shattered most of my jaw.

  I fell to the ground. I was hurt, but I wasn’t out of the fight. When he came for me again, I slashed open the inside of his right arm. The blood spurted out once again, and I rolled away from him as he shrieked in pain.

  I charged him from behind and was able to open up his femoral artery on his left leg before the wound on his arm healed. Then, he struck me in the stomach so hard that I felt something burst in my abdomen. As I rolled on the ground in pain and attempted to rise to my feet again, I noticed that there was black blood all over the ground. I also saw that the Master was standing right beside me.

  He grabbed at my neck with his clawed hands and dragged me to my feet. I tried to cut him again, but his grip was so strong I couldn’t breathe. Instead, he rained blow after blow upon my face. I could feel the bones break. Everything went numb. I didn’t have the strength to give him a serious cut so instead I put my knife in front of my face and let him slam his fist down upon the blade.

  The vampire screamed out his rage and again threw me away from him. I flew through the air and came to a rolling stop. I rubbed my face in the snow in an attempt to clear the blood from my eyes. The falling snowflakes were hissing into little puffs of steam as they landed on my body. Even the snowflakes were trying to heal me, but they weren’t enough, not nearly enough.

  My face was ruined. I didn’t even want to guess at how bad the damage was, but still I climbed to my feet. I walked on unsteady legs to meet the vampire as he in turn walked towards me. He was rubbing his injured hand as it healed.

  I ducked his clawed strike, reopened the artery on his left leg with a forward cut and made sure that his right leg matched before rolling away from him. His hands flew to his injuries and he doubled over in an attempt to stop his precious blood from lea
ving his body. I jumped on his back and opened his throat once again.

  In a blind rage, he reached behind himself and grabbed a hold of my left arm. He yanked me off of him easily and slammed me into the ground. The impact once again drove the breath out of my lungs. As soon as he let me go I tried to stand back up, but my legs were having a difficult time cooperating with my mind. I looked over at the Master to see why he wasn’t pressing the attack while I was at a massive disadvantage. He was rolling around on the ground in pain. His blood was spraying everywhere. No human could geyser out blood like that. I don’t think the average heart is strong enough to pump it that far.

  I felt my lips pull back in a smile.

  I finally got to my feet just as the vampire stopped rolling in agony. The slam on the ground had damaged my hip, so I limped over to him. He stood up before I could slash my knife.

  He was smiling back at me.

  He understood what I was trying to do. I could see it in his face. I wasn’t necessarily trying to cause him pain. I wasn’t trying to finish him off with one cut. I was trying to drain his blood and he knew it.

  The wounds I had given him were still leaking. His neck was still torn open in places and black blood was seeping from the wound. He wasn’t healing as fast as he had been when the fight started.

  I tried to cut him again, but he was too fast. He dodged my attack easily and slashed open my chest. More of my blood began to flow freely from my body. The wound felt as if it were electrified. I heard a collective gasp rise up from the crowd so I knew it must have looked pretty bad.

  The chest gash was followed by more slices and cuts. Two could play at the bloodletting game, and he was showing me just how good he was at it. I dove for his legs, but I couldn’t budge him off his feet. I felt his clawed hand pierce my back and tightly grab my spine.

  I can’t even begin to describe how badly it hurt when he lifted me into the air by my spine and held me over his head. I heard him shouting something to our audience, but the words were lost to me. The wound was fatal. That much I knew. I could tell that by the pain. I could hear it from the crunching noises coming from inside of me.

  But that didn’t mean that I was finished.

  I spun around and slashed his wrist open. The blood didn’t spray out this time, it just oozed. And the wound gaped and stretched open in the cold night air. In reaction, the vampire dropped me and clutched at his wrist. As I fell, I sliced open his stomach and when he doubled over, I once again cut his neck open.

  The Master retaliated by kicking my stomach with his bare foot. I felt something else burst inside of me from the blow. I watched him with cloudy eyes as he stuffed his internal organs back inside his opened stomach. His entire body was covered in the black blood and his wounds bled horribly. The organs wouldn’t stay put. The wounds would no longer close. I had finally drained him.

  Still, he fought through the pain and approached me. I could no longer get off the ground and judging from the numbness in my legs, I probably had damage to my spine. He easily grabbed my left hand and crushed my fingers as he tore the knife from my grasp.

  I think I may have cried out as he crushed my fingers. After that almost everything was a blur as he stomped and pummeled by body. I tried as best I could to defend myself, but I was just too slow and too injured to stop him. He easily broke most of my ribs and cracked my hip bone with the violence of his attack, but he wasn’t doing very well himself. He still had some serious strength, but his movements were also slow and he seemed rather clumsy as if he couldn’t fully control his body.

  It wasn’t long before he actually exhausted himself with his efforts and his organs began to slip from his body cavity. I could barely see through the blood, but I could hear his ragged breaths as he stood there swaying back and forth in front of the bright stadium lights. He fell heavily to the ground right next to me.

  I watched him slowly climb back to his feet, and I willed myself to move against him. Pain was etched across his features as he held his wounded stomach. He was looking down at me. He wanted to finish me off, but he was too injured. He was too weak. He could barely stand. He couldn’t heal. The bloodletting had done its job. My plan had worked. I stayed alive long enough to drain him.

  I wiped blood from my right eye with a numb hand and saw him turn his gaze away from me and cast it instead upon his foot soldiers. He motioned them to come forward as he swayed on his feet. He cursed aloud when they refused to move. He took a shaky step in their direction and managed to stay upon his feet. That step was followed by another one that was equally shaky. I knew what he was doing. He wanted their blood. If he fed upon them, he would heal. If he healed, I was a dead man.

  I played my ace in the hole.

  I reached my right hand down towards the bottom cuff of my shorts and pulled free my Cold Steel Ti-lite folding knife.

  “Is this the same knife you used to finish off the former Guardian?”

  Yeah. I used the needle and thread to sew it onto the inside cuff of my shorts. I figured that the Master would eventually attack my hand if I kept cutting him so I made sure to keep the blade in my left hand. I’m actually right handed. As soon as I had the blade in that hand, I threw my entire body to the side and slashed the vampire’s Achilles tendon.

  The vampire fell to the ground instantly. I crawled slowly over to him as he looked at me in fury, and I slashed the Achilles tendon of his other foot as well. The Master could no longer walk, but he slowly began to crawl away from me.

  I was finished. I could no longer move. Cutting his Achilles tendons took the last of my strength. My breathing was wet and sloppy. Something was rattling inside my chest. I wanted to crawl after him, but I just couldn’t will myself to do it. I even wanted to scream out my frustration, but I lacked the ability to do even that. I was dying.

  In the end, I followed my plan and used my last available option. I raised my arm and pointed my index finger into the sky.

  Chapter 10

  Dudley

  I felt that the final interview on the Battle of the Sun Bowl should be conducted by someone other than the General. I wanted to hear what it was like to watch the fight between Jaxon and the Master and not be able to interfere. I also wanted to know what happened to the rest of the team after they had left the church. I chose to speak with Dudley.

  I wasn’t disappointed.

  It sucked.

  “What sucked?”

  Every single bit of it. From the fight at the church, all the way to the end; it just sucked.

  “Tell me about it?”

  Where do you want me to start?

  “Start at the church, if you’d like.”

  The dirty bastards started throwing in zombies to set off the traps and attack us. It was a cheap move, but it worked. Before any of us knew what was happening, the battle was being fought inside the sanctuary. They had broken through our defenses and were putting a serious hurt on us.

  I remember the screams.

  I remember all the blood. We were fighting zombies, then vampires, then zombies. It was too much. We were losing. We were failing, but we never gave up. There was no reason to give up. One way or the other, we were all going to die. So we may as well go out fighting.

  I still get the shakes when I think about that night. Every now and then, I would catch sight of a team member. They had that look in their eyes. You know that look? Probably not, but it’s a nasty look. When you see it, you know the situation is hopeless.

  Then the voice came.

  Everything came to an abrupt stop. That was fortunate, but then the voice began to ask Jaxon to come outside. He didn’t want to. I don’t blame him for that, but when the voice promised to spare everyone’s life if he agreed to its demands, well, Jaxon had no choice at that point.

  He gave me a look when he walked out. He didn’t think he was coming back, but that didn’t stop him. Nothing stops my uncle.

  The funny thing is, I don’t think the Master wanted to come inside the church. I a
lways heard that vampires had an aversion to churches. I think that there may be something to all that.

  “Didn’t the other vampires enter the church easily enough?”

  I’m not sure how easily. They seemed to move pretty sluggishly. We were even able to kill the first three that tried pretty easily. Then again, maybe I’m just imagining things. We still don’t know a great deal about vampires, but I did find it odd that all the survivors were sent to the Sun Bowl. My guess is that the Master wanted them away from the church to make slaughtering them easier.

  “What happened after the General came back inside?”

  He told us how the Master wanted to fight him and then we helped patch up all the wounded and gather up all the bodies. I was against Jaxon fighting the Master from the very beginning.

  When we went into the office, Javie, Nick and I tried to come up with a plan, but we were pretty much screwed from the get go. We didn’t have enough cars to drive everyone from the church out of the city and walking out of El Paso is way too dangerous with all the zombies. We also couldn’t abandon them because the vampires would continue their attack with a vengeance in our absence.

  As we talked, Jaxon sat alone with Merrick. When he finally spoke up, he had a plan. I hated the plan. It involved him fighting the Master. There didn’t seem to be a way to avoid that, but I stopped bitching when he reminded me that the vampires still held Hardin, Miriam and Ivana.

  Shortly after Georgie came back and Jaxon began to sew his Ti-lite inside his shorts, Jaxon revealed his next idea. It was a pretty decent idea, but I wasn’t really sure we could make it work. Fortunately, Javie had some experience in plumbing.

  After the plan was set, everybody got really quiet. It was almost like we couldn’t really believe that we were going to go through with it. To me, it felt like I was throwing my uncle to the wolves. He had to survive long enough for the plan to work.

  “Tell me about the guitar.”

  It was funny to see the smile of embarrassment on Dudley’s face.