Mia dropped to one knee, clutching her stomach, which still reeled from the point blank roar she’d endured just a few minutes before. Garbarino slipped and fell. His stomach struck the board and he slid to the side. But as he rolled, he latched onto the board with his arms and legs. The board began to tip.
Masters charged across the roof, his heavy feet leaving dents in the tar behind him.
Mia saw the board tipping up and knew that if Garbarino hung from it, there was no way he’d get up in time. She jumped up and put her weight on the board. It slapped back down.
Garbarino pushed himself back up and crawl-sprinted the rest of the way across even as it shook from Masters’s approach. When he jumped onto the far roof, Mia began running. When Garbarino didn’t follow, she shouted back to him, “What are you doing?”
He yanked the board toward him and it fell between the buildings. “We need it!” He grunted as he hung onto it and pulled it up.
Masters was twenty feet away.
Mia returned and helped Garbarino lift the board. Just as it fell onto the roof between them, Masters reached the edge and jumped. His massive body rose up into the air, arching toward them, silhouetted by the heat lightning-filled sky.
They fell back, raising their hands as if to fend off the blow. But Masters dropped out of sight. The roof shook as his body struck the sidewall of the building.
Garbarino stood and took a step toward the edge. A hand reached up and grabbed the brick overhang. The old wall shifted under the weight, but held. Masters was climbing up. When his other hand took hold of the ledge, Garbarino dropped onto his back, turned his feet toward the wall and kicked.
Mia saw what he was doing and sat next to him. They kicked the wall together, and each blow shifted it a little bit more.
Masters’s head rose up over the small ledge and looked down at them. He let go with one hand and reached out for Mia.
“Kick now!” Garbarino shouted.
All four of their legs struck the wall at the same time. It shifted back slowly, bricks grinding as mortar loosened.
They kicked again and this time the wall fell away.
Masters didn’t shout as he dropped. He simply stared at them, his sad eyes and hate-filled face glaring at them all the way to the ground. He crushed a group of killers when he landed. A hailstorm of bricks struck next, slamming down more killers who hadn’t already helped break Masters’s fall.
Garbarino picked up the long board. “There are four more mills to cross. If we can make it the rest of the way without being seen, we might have a chance.”
A roar, similar to Henry Masters’s, but somehow more powerful, tore through the air. They turned to find a second hunter emerge from the mill behind them.
“How did he get back up so fast?” Mia asked.
“That’s not Masters,” Garbarino said.
Mia saw that the giant man had no tattoo on his chest. His face was deformed like Masters’s—missing cheeks, a perpetual grin, and frightening, but sad eyes. The only features on his white, shirtless torso were three scars—one long, curved streak on his side beneath the ribs, and two circular scars on the opposite side.
As the giant charged, Garbarino stood still, unable to move.
Mia tugged at him.
Garbarino took a step forward, staring at the charging monster.
“Garbarino!” Mia shouted.
“Oh God,” Garbarino said as he recognized the scars, that when turned sideways, mirrored the smiley face the man always doodled during meetings. “It’s Austin.”
51
Austin landed short, just like Masters. But the transformed Austin still had all the skills learned over years of Secret Service action. With one arm wrapped over the top of the building, he began pulling himself up.
Mia stared at Austin long enough to confirm his identity, and then took Garbarino by the arm. “Let’s go!”
They ran together, heading for the far end of the mill where they could use the board to continue on to the next building. But between Mia’s battered body and Garbarino carrying the long, heavy board, they didn’t manage much more than a brisk jog.
Austin on the other hand, unhindered by pain or fatigue, pulled himself onto the rooftop and pounded after them like an oversized Olympic sprinter.
The roof shook beneath Mia’s feet. She looked back and saw Austin gaining. “Can you shoot him?”
Garbarino looked down to the holster strapped beneath his left arm. “Only one shot left.”
Both knew that one shot would do little to slow Austin. But what other choice was there? Garbarino dropped the board, drew his weapon and turned. But Austin was already there, raising a hand up to swat Garbarino.
A loud crack rang out, but Garbarino hadn’t fired his weapon. Austin growled as the roof caved in beneath his weight. He slipped down through the hole as though being swallowed by quicksand.
Garbarino holstered his gun, retrieved the board and continued to the far side of the mill with Mia by his side. They reached the edge without further incident, but neither believed Austin or Masters had given up the chase.
As they laid the board across the divide between them and the next mill, Mia was glad to see the ground below free of killers. “I can’t believe it...Austin...”
Garbarino balanced the board between the buildings. “Makes sense.”
Mia gasped at the thought. “What?”
“Austin saw himself as a protector of life. He could be violent, sure. Deadly. But to him, he was saving people. Protecting people. His mission, just like Masters’s, was to save lives.”
Her eyes turned down. “And now he takes them.”
Confusion tore at her mind. The irony seemed too impossible to be chance or the way his genetics randomly responded to some physical change in the atmosphere, or food, or anything else. But the other possibility, that Austin—her protector, who thought of nothing other than saving lives and who brought hope into a hopeless world—could be damned? She didn’t believe it. She couldn’t believe it.
Garbarino crossed first.
Mia followed.
They wasted no time retrieving the board and running for the next rooftop.
“A fire escape leads down the side of the last mill building,” Garbarino said. “If they haven’t realized where we’re headed yet, we should have a pretty good head start.”
Wood shattered far behind them. The sound was followed by a roar. And then another. Both different.
Neither Mia nor Garbarino looked back. They knew Masters and Austin were there. They knew the pair would give chase. Their only hope was to outrun them and cross the divides between the buildings a little bit faster.
When they reached the far end of the next to last mill, Garbarino chanced a look back and saw Masters and Austin climbing up over the far side wall. He lay the board out and dropped it down, nearly losing it over the edge. He pulled it straight and stepped aside. “Go.”
Mia crossed the board quickly. Garbarino followed. “Just run,” he said.
“What about the board.”
He jumped from the board and got to his feet. “Leave it, and hope one of them tries to use it.”
Free of the board, they sprinted across the last mill building roof and reached the edge. A ten foot drop led to the top of an old metal fire escape that looked like it might fall away from the building at any moment.
“Give me your hands,” Garbarino said.
They gripped each other’s hands tight. Garbarino helped her over the side of the building, lowered her down as far as he could reach and then let go. Mia yelped, but landed on her feet after a short drop.
Garbarino looked back. Masters had taken the bait, stepping up onto the wall and then out onto the board. His body dipped down a little bit as the board bent under his significant weight. Austin, on the other hand, seemed to know better. He took several steps back while Masters took a step forward. The board snapped and Masters dropped down the four stories for a second time.
A
ustin charged and launched himself through the air. He landed short again, but had been expecting it this time and latched onto the side of the roof, quickly pulling himself up.
Garbarino rolled over the side of the building, hung down by his arms and let go. He landed with a clang and felt the fire escape shake beneath him. He looked down and was glad to see Mia already half way to the bottom. He gave chase, rounding the stairway quickly. Flakes of rust and paint scratched his hands as he gripped onto railings.
He could hear Austin’s heavy feet above and each footfall shook the structure. He reached the final set of stairs right behind Mia. They hit the pavement running, but a nearby roar sent them to the ground.
Garbarino looked up. Austin had reached the edge of the building and stood above the fire escape. But he wasn’t the source of the blast that had knocked them down. It was closer. He turned to the side.
Masters.
He stalked toward them, knowing they couldn’t outrun him in the parking lot.
“We have to split up,” Garbarino said quickly.
“What? No.”
“He can’t chase both of us, and Austin—”
A loud clang above turned their attention up to Austin. He’d jumped onto the fire escape. Metal screeched and scraped against brick. The top of the metal stairway tilted away from the building. A second screech followed as the top heavy staircase peeled away from the building.
Garbarino scrambled to his feet and yanked Mia up. “Run!”
Masters turned toward the noise above him. The fire escape toppled over, Austin’s weight on top speeding its descent. It struck the ground with a boom, crushing Masters beneath a mess of hard iron. Austin fell away from the fire escape as it fell and landed on a car. He slammed through the roof and disappeared inside the vehicle.
Mia knew this was the last chance they’d get and she poured every ounce of energy she had left into her legs. The city streets next to the mills were empty of hunters and full of alleys and buildings to get lost in. If they could just reach one—
The crunch of metal turned her around. Austin pulled himself out of the car and locked his eyes on her. Despite the despair she saw in them, she also saw intention. Austin wouldn’t let them leave.
The giant man gripped the ruined roof of the car and peeled a sheet of metal roof away.
Garbarino saw two bright orange signs ahead. Just beyond them were several road construction vehicles. The pavement on one side of the street had peeled away and several manholes had been marked with bright orange paint. One of the manholes was open, its cover leaning to one side. “There!”
Mia looked ahead and saw the manhole cover. For a moment, she felt hope return. Austin and Masters wouldn’t be able to fit and she doubted they could force their way in. But when she looked back at Austin, she saw the sheet of metal spiraling through the air like some kind of giant killer Frisbee. It whistled through the air, arcing to one side and then angling toward her. A moment before the shard struck, she shouted Garbarino’s name.
Garbarino turned when Mia shouted and saw the metal slice through the back of her leg. She fell to the ground, unable to move, cringing in pain.
“Hold on,” he said, and picked her up under the arms.
As Austin charged, Garbarino dragged Mia toward the open manhole. When he reached it, Austin was nearly upon them. There was no time to climb down the ladder so he dragged her over the hole until her feet fell in and then dropped her. She disappeared into the sewer.
He followed her, leaping over the edge and catching himself on the ladder. With Austin only ten feet away, Garbarino reached up and pulled the manhole cover back into place. Before he could let go and climb down, the cover was struck from above. The force of the impact knocked Garbarino off the ladder. He hit the concrete eight feet below and struck his head.
The pair lay next to each other, both unconscious, while Mia’s leg bled out onto the dry sewer floor. Austin pounded the manhole lid several times and let out a roar. But then he fell quiet as a sea of voices approached. The killers were coming, and unlike Austin and Masters, they would have no trouble entering the sewer.
52
Mia woke suddenly as a pulse of pain exploded from her leg and jolted up her spine. She gasped at the pain, sitting up. The quick motion made her throbbing head spin. I’ve got a concussion, she thought, feeling a lump on the back of her head. She probed her leg with her other hand and found a warm wet patch of blood. She drew her hand back, not really wanting to know the true extent of her injury. The pain and blood told her enough.
Voices pushed past the pain. The killers. But would they come into the sewer?
The manhole cover above began to twist, grinding bits of stone beneath it.
Of course they will.
Garbarino lay unconscious next to her. She winced as she slid over to him. “Joe. Joe, wake up!” She shook his arm. “Joe!”
For a moment she worried that he was dead, really dead, but then saw his pulse twitching beneath the skin of his neck.
Dust tickled her nose as it fell from above. She looked back up in time to see the manhole cover rise up. A crescent of light streamed into the dark tunnel.
The voices grew louder.
Austin’s horrid face leaned over the hole. “Life,” he growled through clenched teeth.
Henry Masters joined him, the pair looking like deformed conjoined twins cut apart at birth. “Peace,” he said.
Mia began quickly slapping Garbarino’s shoulder. “Dammit, Joe!”
She struggled to her feet. The pain in her leg nearly pulled her back under. Her vision turned black and her limbs tingled. She held on to the tunnel wall. Her head continued to spin, but her vision returned.
As the voices above grew louder and more urgent, Mia took Garbarino by the wrists and pulled him into the tunnel. Each step was agony as the partly severed muscles in her leg twisted and flexed. She felt an oozing warmth spread from her thigh to her calf. She would bleed to death if she didn’t do something soon about the wound. But what could she do? Stopping would mean death, too.
But what held her attention more than the pain, was the continuing thought. I’m not ready. She felt like she needed just a few minutes of quiet to figure things out. She wasn’t sure what she believed still and what she chose might very well determine her fate. Should she decide that the world had become a literal hell and the only escape was forgiveness from a God she never believed in before, she might actually long for death. But if this life was all that she had, and the people trying to kill her were really just mutated versions of their former selves, than she would fight to the end and do her best to stay alive.
But she had no time to stop and think. A loud whump and a crack filled the tunnel. She saw a killer lying on the tunnel floor beneath the open manhole. The man stood, but his leg bent at an odd angle and he fell to the side.
A second body fell to the concrete floor.
The killers were flinging themselves in with no regard for their bodies. The first man had broken his leg. The second, a woman dressed in a tattered power suit, lay unconscious.
But the bodies of the first two cushioned the fall of a third man. He stood immediately, and spun around, looking into the dark, oblivious to the fact that he was stark naked. Mia wasn’t sure if the man could see her, but when he cocked his head to the side and then turned in her direction, she realized he could hear her.
Each step backwards was heavy. Her footfalls echoed. Garbarino’s feet scraped along the floor. Until he woke up, stealth would be impossible. And after that, if there was an after that, she still had to do something about the blood pouring down her leg. She could feel it in her shoe now, squishing with each step.
The killer launched toward them as more dropped into the tunnel like lemmings over a cliff.
“Garbarino,” Mia said, her voice pitched with fear. She shook his arms while walking backwards, unsure of where to go.
The killer gained quickly.
“Joe!”
Garbarino grunted. Mia raised her voice, shouting, “He’s going to kill us, Joe!”
His arms tugged and then yanked away. Mia fell back and landed on her wound. The pain blinded her and she heard sounds of a fight. Garbarino shouted in pain.
She began to weep knowing that the killer would be on top of her any second. When a hand took hold of her she flinched away.
“It’s me,” Garbarino said.
She blinked as the pain faded and her vision returned. She looked beyond Garbarino and saw the killer lying on the tunnel floor, his neck twisted at an odd angle. But the man’s neck moved slowly, twisting back into position. He’d be up and running in no time. Further beyond the immobilized killer, she saw more of them coming. “We’re not going to make it.”
“We will,” he said. He helped her up and pulled her into the darkness.
He led them through a series of tunnels, turning left, then right and repeating at every intersection they came to. The only light came from small holes in the manhole covers and drainage grates leading to the streets above. They stopped a few times, hoping to exit through a manhole cover and hide in the city, but the thundering footsteps of Austin and Masters shook the streets above them, possibly following the voices of the killers that streamed through the tunnels behind them.
They rounded a corner and were struck hard from the side. They fell to the side along with a single killer. Mia rolled over and saw the woman jump onto Garbarino’s back.
“I’m sorry,” the woman said, and raised her hand to strike the back of Garbarino’s neck.
Mia remembered what had happened to White when the killer struck his neck, and she knew that this woman could easily kill Garbarino with a single blow. From her position on the floor she snapped a kick up at the woman and struck her square in the face. Pain twanged up Mia’s leg, but she ignored it and pressed the attack.
As the woman stumbled back, Mia stood and kicked again, this time with her good leg. She connected a solid blow on the woman’s chest and sent her careening back, slamming into a second killer who’d just run around the corner. Mia had never used her karate to attack anyone, but dropping two killers on her own made them seem a little less unbeatable.
TORMENT - A Novel of Dark Horror Page 26