"Inhuman bitch!" The man muttered before falling silent.
She tore his hand away stumbling back and falling out onto the ground. She paused for a moment waiting, listening for a stir, anything from the ambulance. When it was clear she began to check out the clipboard. "Ambrosia Tech. What the hell is this?" She read over the terminal and flight. "They were taking me to Montréal?" She ripped the sheet from the board and folded the papers, shoving them into her new pocket.
Varick stopped the bike, propping it up on shaking legs as he coughed up phlegm and spat it onto the ground. He braced himself once again in a coughing fit. ‘This is fucking ass.’ When he really thought about it, this was the first time he had ever gotten sick before. He was always the one to nurse his brother to health whenever he had gotten a cold. A dented blue van parked nearby and Riddick, who seemed to make it out of the crash almost unscathed save for a few bandages wrapped around his wounded arm, he exited the vehicle once he saw his target approach, in his fist was the bloody shirt his brother wore the day he died. Varick yelled something incoherent, startled by the presence of his enemy, taking off fast on the bike without giving the other a chance to do anything. Riddick ran back to the van and ordered another one of his goons to go after him. But they didn’t have to chase Varick far as he spiraled out of control, rolling into the street.
"Oh yeah white boy." Riddick coughed. "We got you now. Get his punk ass up and get him in the truck!"
On the floor, his back pressed against a bunch of metal materials that poked and prodded at his back. Spread out and chained he struggled against them as the fist pounds into his flesh. He couldn’t tell if it was pure adrenaline or fear but he no longer felt the symptoms which plagued him earlier. Varick knew the score, he had no time to think about who gave him up—what was the point? He would die. He looked at his assailants, just Riddick and two other men who watched from behind. The four men stuffed into the SUV egging Riddick on during the chase must have met a fiery end during the explosion.
"Come on, you can hit harder than that." Varick taunted.
“You got my boys killed, and my brother!” Riddick coughed until a stream of blood poured from his mouth.
"Awe shit, son." One of men in his group stepped back. "You need to go to that fucking hospital to get some help."
"Fuck that! I want to make this motherfucker suffer." Riddick tossed the bloody shirt hard to Varick.
"I don’t want that shit touching me." Varick smirked. "Monkeys carry AIDS."
A hard kick to the chin forced his head up.
"Shit." Varick groaned in pain, he wanted his death to come quick and he was gonna make sure it happened with each jest. He thought of Riddick’s brother, tied up and beaten over the course of a party. He was gonna make sure the same didn’t happen to him if he could help it.
Another member of the gang entered the warehouse, his face sweaty and ripe with the panic that drove him, he looked only sixteen and out of his element, too fresh faced to be a hardened killer. "Listen dog! There’s some crazy shit happening outside. Niggas is going crazy killing motherfuckers out there and they’re getting close. We gotta fuckin' split!"
"C’mon dog, let’s get the fuck out." One onlooker tried to reach for Riddick.
"Not until this motherfucker suffers!" Riddick protested.
"I got a better idea. Let’s leave the mother fucking door open. Let those fucking people in here to kill him." Another replied ready to go.
They pushed and pulled at Riddick until he gave in to his bouts of bloody coughing and they rushed out leaving the door opened and the man inside to his fate. Varick didn’t know if he should be relieved or worried but he couldn’t help but sigh with relief when the SUV peeled away. Varick struggled to look around to find anything that could aid in setting himself free. A loud dreadful screech rang in the near distance of the warehouse. The sound of a woman or creature suffering and calling. It pierced his ears, and he wanted to press his hands against them, he was restless and searched wildly for something, anything!
Hazel ran through the chaotic streets with her gun in hand. She stopped sniffing the air for a moment taking in an odd odor. It was not death nor a bad smell. It was of copper and something else which she could not quite place. Whatever it was, it was strong, and she was drawn to it, rather out of curiosity or what she could not tell. It led to a warehouse. The place must have been an old packing building, but she saw nothing out of the ordinary.
She entered, watching the struggling man in silence. Varick saw her and recognized her almost right away. 'The girl from the explosion!'
"Don't leave me like this!" Varick pleaded out of desperation. "I saved you, but I doubt you would remember..."
She looked at his tats with a mixture of indifference and ran from the room. Several steps approached, but they were far from friendly. Black fungus strings clung to the face of the man who ran into the room.
"No!" Varick protested.
The creature growled displaying razor sharp teeth and lunged for him. He used his legs pushing the creature away from him fighting and struggling for his life. He yelled, and the screeching grew bolder and soon followed by more rushing feet, he couldn’t take on more.
"Fuck fuck fuck!" he panicked.
The struggle ceased when the creature's head flopped up and down and black blood oozed from its head...
"Hold still." She said grabbing the metal cutters, clipping the cuffs at the wrists freeing one at a time. He stood fast on his feet just in time as several more appeared growling and charging.
"Thanks, but it’s time to go!" He rushed to the manhole in the center of the floor removing the cover. The tall creature entered, long thin legs and even longer arms with black claws at the ends of her fingers. What was once hair had fallen, and the skull resembled short tentacles which spiraled upward. It stood about seven feet tall with pallor skin and full breast and extended belly with a black spider web wrapped around. She pointed in their direction and let out a devastating shriek.
Varick and Hazel stood stock still for just a moment. In shock at what they were witnessing. Varick dropped the manhole cover and jumped in with Hazel following fast.
The tunnel was dark and stunk of waste despite being dried out and seemingly out of use, but they had no choice but to trek it and it didn't seem as though that creature will follow.
"What the fuck was that?" Varick caught his breath.
"I don’t know but whatever it is I hope it doesn’t follow us down here."
"If you hadn’t come when you did…"
"Is that a thank you? Cause that would be nice."
"Yeah, it is."
He turned to look at her, the girl he bumped into before on the streets, and then whose life he saved after the explosion in Greek town. A part of him wondered if this was all somehow her fault. "Look, when we get to the surface. That’s all she wrote. I have to get home."
He trekked ahead in the dark and Hazel followed silently walking along the narrow walkway of the circular tunnel, it was then that Varick realized he was feeling much better, he no longer felt the chill which vibrated through his bones, along with the cough, the aches and pains too. Perhaps it was the adrenaline or a miracle, whatever, he would not question it, not when all hell was breaking loose.
"Do you know what’s going on?"
"Monsters are killing people." Hazel replied in an apathetic manner.
He stopped and looked at her, disbelieving. "Monsters?"
"Jaggers. That’s what I’ve heard people call them before I found you. Apparently, they are sick people."
"Sick with what?"
"I don’t know. Maybe from that chemical explosion."
"I was there and I sure as hell didn’t become one of those things."
"Yet…" She replied forebodingly.
Varick shook his head. "This isn’t some fucking zombie movie." he waved his hand in a dismissive manner. "Those fuckers were alive." He breathed deep. "My mother is at work and my brother, he’s probab
ly at school. I have to get to them. You have a cell?"
"No."
Varick rounded her intimidating. "Is that a no as in you won’t let me use it or a no as in…"
"I don’t have one." She fired back in a cool manner.
"What kind of person doesn’t have a cell phone in this day and age?"
"I don’t know, ask yourself."
"Funny." Varick said sarcastically. "I need some way to contact them."
He walked ahead hoping to leave the 'useless girl' behind.
"Did you hear that?" She stopped moving.
"Hear what?"
The shuffling of feet in the dark jolted him and he readied himself for a fight. Several of the torn and tattered Jaggers ran wild in the distance of the dark passage growling and feral, hungry for blood and death. Hazel dashed behind a wall hoping to blend with the shadow and Varick followed. The creatures stopped at the end looking about as if sensing them but unable to see before slinking away.
"I think they are blind. I saw this before." Hazel whispered.
"How can you tell?"
" If you remain silent, they'll search around with no clear direction, which suggests a lack of vision. I have a plan. You can take them from the right and I’ll hold my position. While they focus on you, I can attack from behind…"
"Fuck this." Varick charged from his spot slamming his fist into one and grabbing the other by the head and slamming it to the ground. Growls from the bowels within grew near and more Jaggers poured through drawn to the ruckus. Hazel cursed the 'reckless idiot’ and charged forward kicking one into the other. Varick slammed and kicked, tossed, and beat down all in his path. Before long the two found their backs pressed against the other as they created a center force of destruction. Hazel kicked and swung her arm low to trip some to which Varick put down. The blood became a blackish goo with splattered and stuck to the walls connecting a spreading into a web like pattern.
"Run!" Hazel shouted running ahead, fearful of becoming overwhelmed.
Varick was hot on her heels. A red light shone on a single set of stairs like an ominous beacon and Hazel scaled it pushing open the door.
Varick closed the door to the small room just as a gooey hand reached out for him, she grabbed a hammer which he used to jam the door shut. "Son of a bitch!"
"Thanks a lot Leroy Jenkins!" She fired on him livid of his actions. "You almost got us killed!"
"I don’t like plans."
"Planning can sometimes mean the difference between fighting a losing battle and living to see the next one."
"You get that from some Army commercial?" Varick scoffed.
"No." She replied bewildered. She looked at the trash littering the tiny space; a half-eaten sandwich, books, trash bags full of empty Chinese food containers, pizza boxes, and other junk, along with a porn magazine on the desk. "I think a homeless person lives here. I think it's one of those old stations."
A sudden snarl assaulted them with hands reaching and clawing from the corner of the room. Hazel screamed as she was surprised by the fat hobo. She tripped and stumbled before gaining ground. She kicked him hard but barely made in dent in his advance. He almost gripped her when a hard boot hit him sending him flying against the wall.
"Don't say I never did anything for ya." Varick said gearing himself up for the fight.
Thinking fast Hazel reached for the nearby revolver. "Here!" She tossed the firearm to him which he caught and like clockwork he fired a round straight into the Jagger’s head. They watched him slide to the ground, his white eyes stared vacant, dead.
Varick looked closer at the black fungus. "What the hell is this?"
"I don’t know. Looks like some sort of slimy fungus. Root like but I can’t pinpoint the type."
"Black mold?"
Hazel looked around the room hoping to find an alternative route out. "Perhaps. Black mold can cause neurological disorders and flulike symptoms, but nothing like this. What I do know is that we have to get out of here, there’s no telling how people are getting this." She noticed a hole in the ceiling which provided just enough room to slip out into what could be another tunnel. She climbed the steel pipes.
"Where the hell you going?"
"There's a hole here." Hazel reached the top and peeked over. She could barely see anything in the pitch dark but it seemed safer than where they were. "We can slip over to the other side." She said disappearing through the hole.
Varick took a deep breath before making the climb. He jumped down on the other side and like Hazel he could barely see anything in the pitch black. "Shit, if we're not careful we could get lost down here."
"Right. I don't even know where this is let alone how to get out of it."
Varick gripped the gun in anticipation of another attack. "I wish you would have given this to me earlier." he said referring to the gun.
"It’s not mine, I found it in the station."
He checked the ammo, using his fingers to feel about the chamber, aside from the one bullet used, he had a full cylinder. "It seems like a crap shoot, left, right, or... I think there's an opening ahead, so we got three choices."
"It sucks not having a light." Hazel lamented. "Maybe we should go for the center. It could be the entrance to this area."
"Fine."
They walked undisturbed for a good ten minutes. The tunnel went on and on with no way out until they saw a glimmer of light shining downward. Hazel ran to it like a life line and for the first time she could see something, a marking on the stone wall with an arrow pointing forward. "I think I know where we are. It's one of those old tunnels used to transport alcohol during prohibition. These markers were used to tell the runners where to go."
"Okay." Varick said relieved at the possibility of making it to the outside world. "So we go straight ahead then since the arrow points in that direction."
"Seems like it. I can't tell if it tells us how many miles to the end. For all we know one of the other tunnels could be a shorter route or even the exit itself."
"Great!"
"But I say we keep going, we'll never be able to see if the walls have any other markings."
"What about the light above? Maybe a grate is up top and we can climb out from here."
"Well that is always another idea."
Varick spied a piece of a metal ladder attached to the walls but it was far out of reach. He knew he could get to it if he had a boost but... well, he doubted the girl with the tiny frame was strong enough to keep him up, or if she would do it. And he hated asking for help.
"See a way up?" The girl finally asked after a long silence.
"Yeah... but..."
"But what?" Hazel groaned. They could be on their way out right now as far as she was concerned.
"I need a boost, I see a rung."
"Good." She replied as though it were a simple request, that was until she remembered his height and possible weight. He wasn't fat nor chubby but he was tall and well-built which meant he could still weigh more than she could carry. "Perhaps you can boost me up instead."
"I doubt you could lift the lid."
"Damn." Hazel said bending over. "Hurry up, but lift me up on the rung once you get a foothold." She demanded not wanting to be left behind.
Varick stepped on the wobbly girl before making a quick jump to the rung and pulling himself to the next. Once he had a stable grip on the grimy metal he reached for Hazel pulling her effortlessly up before making his ascent. His efforts seemed to bear fruit once he reached the source of light.
Varick pressed against the lid until it freed and he slipped out only to head on the bottom of a vehicle. He stayed low and pulled himself free and Hazel did the same. The snarl of the creatures drowned any nearby sound, they were under a bus and surrounded. Lucky for them the creatures feasted on the groaning victims who found themselves trapped in the narrow hall of the bus.
"I think I can operate this." She said.
"You sure?" He watched her skeptically.
"Yeah, if
we can get inside of it."
Varick looked around and saw nothing but shuffling feet. "I don't see how that is possible."
"Fuck it, we're gonna have to go back into the sewers." she crawled back inside and Varick followed, leaving bit of fresh air behind. He then stopped. "Wait. I got an idea." he climbed back out.
"Hope this is good."
Varick reached for a rock near the foot of a Jagger and tossed it at the parked car nearby hitting the tire, he then picked up another, angling himself enough to toss it again until the alarm bellowed drawing the attention of the creatures.
"Nice!" Hazel exclaimed. "Now move." She rolled from the bus and tipped around to the side, the doors were closed but it looked like nothing but the creatures were inside.
Varick approached the back of the bus gesturing for her to follow, lifting her high until she reached the roof.
"I’m gonna find a way in and let you inside." Hazel said remaining low and ambling to the front.
"Good. Cause that was the plan."
The screeching appeared from the distance.
"Fuck hurry!" Varick yelled fearing that long limbed creature they escaped earlier.
The fungus infected Jaggers approached running fast toward him, he took out the first few but the long-limbed woman led the charge in the distance. She seemed to appear and disappear into a cloud of black coming closer and closer. Hazel dropped into the bus and clumsily ran toward the front to pull the lever, allowing Varick to enter, which he did. There were only two Jaggers inside reaching out to her, pulling her down between the seats.
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