Will. Time. Fate.

by Andrew Yake

  I quickly look around again. No one else seems to have noticed what has just transpired. Mysterious Matt is gone. There is no trace of his scent and I am left with a chill and portent of doom.

  I sit down in a nearby coffee shop to collect my thoughts. I order an overpriced coffee and sip it as I think. The answers are out there. Hailey is out there, alive. Benny is using me. There are non-human things out there and the world is crazier today than it was yesterday. So, where do I start? I gather myself and decide that the first place to look is going to be finding this girl that Benny wants in order to see what my next step should be.

  I consider calling my mother to let her know that I am alright, but quickly decide against it. Either she is fine and the call will be traced because the cops are going to use her to get to me or she was attacked by that thing in the hospital and there is nothing to find out. I want her to be safe, but I find that I am more concerned with my own safety. So, I get up and leave the coffee shop.

  I take a deep breath and start walking. Keeping my senses sharp for the scent of my mystery woman. I know that she was driving away from the hospital and I roughly remember the direction the car was driving. I take a guess and head toward that direction. It takes a while, but I do end up catching a weak scent and find the car that nearly hit me abandoned in a back alley. I continue to follow the scent. It leads me to a closed Army surplus store. The door looks like it has been broken. It is slightly ajar. I look around to see if anyone is looking. I see people milling around, but I see nobody actually looking my direction. I sigh and push the door open.

  16

  Missing

  I wake up. The room is still. I have slept peacefully for the first time since I can remember. I do not recall any dreams, but I remember the previous day’s strange events. I stretch and feel the pinch of pain. I am displeased by the sensation, but I am happy to feel warm and safe. I look over to see if Allison is awake yet. I do not see her.

  I sit up and rub my eyes. I look again. Her bunk is vacant, but the book I had placed on her bunk is still there. I look around the room and see a clock hanging on the wall. The time is just after 11 and I assume that she has simply gotten up and that I will find her with Alex in the main room. I get up and ready myself for whatever kind of day this will be. Can’t be worse than yesterday. I chide myself for even thinking something like this. I take the revolver from the table next to the bunk and put it back into my belt. I decide then that arming myself with better weapons is in order and start making my way to the other room.

  I enter the room. Alex is sitting at the computer desk staring intently at one of the screens. I look over the different weapons that are readily available and pick up a semiautomatic handgun with a tactical holster and belt. The belt also contains extra clips for this handgun. I am not trying to mask my movement as I check out the gun and make sure it is loaded and that the four extra magazines are full of rounds.

  “Morning JJ.” Alex addresses me. I look over at him.

  “Morning.” I continue looking at the different weapons and decide on a blade that looks very similar to the one that Alex has on him. I thread the sheath onto the belt and then clip the belt around my waist. I am sore, but it does not stop me from securing the belt to my person. I adjust the belt to hang just below my injury. I then connect the strap for the bottom of the holster so that it is around my right leg and adjust this strap so that it secures the base of the holster to my leg in a way that does not allow for extra movement from the holster. The bottom of the sheath has a similar strap and I make sure that it is secured to my leg. It is surprisingly comfortable and does not restrict my leg movement in the least.

  “Getting ready for battle?” Alex asks me and walks over toward me.

  “Don’t know, but from what you told me I should be ready for anything.” I do not look over at him as I start letting my eyes wonder to the various shotguns that are available. “This place makes me feel like a kid in a candy store.” This causes a chuckle from Alex.

  “Interesting.” Alex is now standing next to me. His eyebrow is raised.

  “Oh?” I look at him.

  “Yeah, you always seemed more interested in those old books.” He pointed to the well-lit rows of books, all of them very old looking.

  “Well, I don’t know about all of that, but I know how to use this stuff.” I motion to the weapons in front of me. This earns me another smile from Alex. He places his metal hand on my shoulder.

  “You have no idea how pleased I am to hear that.” There is a sound of relief in his voice and I remember how he had told me that my touch of the supernatural had always made him nervous. I consider this for a moment and decide that I should probably investigate this further when I have the chance. I figure if I was able to make him nervous, there has to be good reason and I must have some skills in that area.

  “How is Allison?” I pick up a short double barrel shotgun and belt of rounds that I sling over my shoulder. I pick up an empty holster that looks like it is made for a gun the size of this shotgun. It is easily clipped to the belt and I put the shotgun into it.

  “I thought she was with you.” Alex looks around the room for a moment to see if he sees her milling about. “Is she in the bathroom or something?”

  “I didn’t see her. I thought she was with you.” I turn toward him. He is continuing to look around the room. He takes a step away from the rack and looks at the wall.

  “Damn it.” He takes a short sword with a simple wooden handle and the scabbard that goes with it from the rack. He starts to take a step toward one of the heavy metal doors that I had seen the night before. One of them is slightly ajar and that, I am guessing, is where Allison has gotten off to. Alex attaches the sword to the belt he was already wearing without looking. He has probably done this numerous times before.

  As he gets right up to the door a flashing red light starts going off along with a buzzing noise. Alex looks over at the computer where he had been sitting. “What now?!” He goes to the screens. I follow him.

  I see the entrance to the store above. Apparently, whomever was there the night before had left with the body, but someone else had just entered and set off a motion detector. Alex is studying the screen. There is a man in a black hoodie and brown cap looking around. When the man finally looks up at the camera I recognize his face.

  “Hey, I know that guy. I nearly hit him with a car.” I muse. “What are the chances, eh?”

  “Exactly.” Alex seems to be studying him, or more specifically his movements, very closely.

  I return my gaze to the screen. The young man seems to almost sniff the air for a moment before he starts walking toward where I know the secret door is. “He can’t get down here, can he?” I ask as I watch his movements on the screen.

  “Don’t think so, but I don’t like what I am seeing.” He continues to stare at the screen.

  “Why?”

  “That’s a wolf or someone who is acting like a wolf.”

  “Wolf?”

  “Yeah, kind of like a higher functioning feral, only they look human most of the time, that is until they get pissed and rage out.”

  We watch in silence for a moment longer as the man looks at the wall and studies the recess that Alex had put his metal hand into to open the door. We watch as this man then goes to a shelf to retrieve one of the nicer survival knives and a hanger from one of the other racks. He breaks the hanger and forms a strange five-pronged device with the plastic pieces and takes the device and the knife back to where the doorway is. We see him take another sniff of the air. He places the device into the recess and stabs into it at the same time with the knife. We watch as the secret door opens.

  I see Alex tense his body and his jaw line becomes hard. The way Alex tenses, makes me tense my muscles too. Alex shifts his gaze to another screen as he types in a command. We watch as he enters the first room and sniffs the air once more. He walks over to a, now empty, operating table. He inspects it and looks up momentarily and then
inspects Allison’s backpack that had been left behind. We watch as he pulls out her clothes and then looks directly at the camera. He then looks at the metal door and walks over and pulls it open. He looks in the room, but this time he seems to know what he is looking for. He crosses the room to the desk and finds the recess in the wall. We watch as he looks at the weaponry on the walls of the office and picks up a larger blade. He looks at the monitor on the wall and we see him slump his shoulders slightly as if he knows that he is being watched.

  “Go find Allison. I will deal with our guest.” Alex turns to me. “There are lots of very bad things back there, some of which you helped us capture. Be careful.” Alex then grabs a remote from the desk and hands it to me. “You’ll need this to get back here.”

  I nod and put the remote into my jacket pocket. I start heading back to the metal door that was ajar. I open it further and walk through. I do not look back right away, but after I take a few steps I turn and no longer see the doorway. I exhale and turn back to the hall I started walking down. I am armed and confident that I will know how to react based on instinct.

  ******

  Zach prepared himself mentally and used the device he had fashioned to open what he believed would be another secret passageway. There was a series of clicks and the hiss of an airlock as the wall moved. He entered into the well-lit cavernous room. He smelled the man before he saw him and raised his newly acquired short sword in front of him and walked slowly forward.

  “It’s not every day that I get company, especially your kind. What do you want wolf?” Zack turned and froze momentarily by the sight of the massive one-mechanically-armed man. Zach seemed stunned by the shear imposing nature of the Pilipino.

  “I’m looking for someone.” Zach spoke slowly and looked around the room to gather in his surroundings.

  “You are in luck. You just so happen to have found someone.” Alex took a step forward and raised his shotgun and pumped a round into the chamber.

  Zach looked at the gun and wondered if he would be able to seek shelter in the racks of guns before the man would get a successful shot off. He edged himself along the wall down the length of the room. “You don’t have to use that.” Zack spoke to Alex calmly as he moved. Alex simply raised an eyebrow and kept the muzzle of the shotgun trained on Zack as he moved.

  “I don’t like your chances. I would stop moving and start talking if I were you.”

  “Like I said I am looking for someone, a woman. I think she is a nurse.” Zack stopped moving, but continued to search for her. He saw the top of the open metal door. Alright, well I know where she went. Now I just have to get there in one piece. Zack thought to himself.

  “And what do you want with her?” Alex asked. He could be talking about either of them. Alex considered as he waited for his answer.

  “I want to know why some guy is trying to use me to get to her.”

  “Who is trying to get to her?”

  “Some guy named Benny.” Zack searched for any reaction from Alex, but none was forthcoming.

  “Don’t know him and I don’t know any nurses. It’s just me and my copious collection of firearms down here. This is not a situation that is conducive to you staying healthy.” Alex made a small motion with his eyes toward the guns.

  “I am getting that.” Zack says, as he lowered the short-sword. “There was also some other person who told me that… well, he said lots of strange things.” Alex raised an eyebrow once more. Zack continued, “He told me that I would be used one way or another and… then he disappeared.”

  Alex raised the shotgun so that the muzzle was even with Zack’s chest. “Who was that person?”

  Zack swallowed nervously and thought for a moment. “Matt.” This caused Alex to lower his shotgun.

  Can’t be. Alex thought to himself before speaking again. “What do you mean he disappeared?”

  Zack wasted no time with the pause in speech. He bolted toward the racks of guns and ducked behind a row of guns. Alex immediately raised the shotgun again and fired. The sound was like a cannon in Zack’s ears. He could hear the impact of the round on an area not far from him. Zack quickly grabbed a rifle and a few clips that were handily nearby before going around the other edge of the rack to the next row.

  Alex quickly moved to the nearest row and carefully maneuvered around the corner barrel first. He saw where the rifle had been and narrowed his eyes. He crept forward silently as he hunted the intruder. He came to the edge of the rack in short order and did the same clearing maneuver, barrel first and silent, to find that his prey had fled this area also. Alex saw a clear line of sight on the doorway. Well, damn. Alex thought as he rounded the next rack of weapons with no intruder in sight.

  Zack raced down the hall. He turned the corner and came to an abrupt stop.

  ******

  I find that I am conflicted with leaving Alex, but I am confident that Alex is more than capable of detaining our new guest. I come to the first turn and see that the hall extends for a distance. The walls are a smooth white tile and they look and feel familiar. This does not surprise me. From what Alex has told me, I probably spent a bit of time down here for one reason or another.

  I can see that a portion of the wall is lit up ahead of me. I walk toward it and take out my blade in preparation for whatever is waiting for me. I move silently and feel calm and steady as I approach the room. I come to an empty room. I see that there are four thick broken chains bolted to the floor. I step into the room and inspect them. I see that the metal of the chains has been ripped through as if they were trying to hold something that is far too heavy, or strong, to be held by them. I also see that the wall of this room has had something impact it hard. The tiles along the back wall are broken and the concrete wall behind it is exposed. The broken tiles lay on the floor. I can see whatever impacted this part of the wall was roughly the size of a grown man. I can also see that whatever hit the wall was living. There is blood impact spatter on the wall.

  I do not bother to ask myself what could possibly do this. At this point, I would not be surprised if I found a clone of Alex. An evil Alex, of course. This thought makes me smile slightly and turn to leave the room. I look down the hall and see that there are other halls that crisscross through this hallway. I have no idea where to start.

  I am considering my options and decide to go down the first hall to my left. It seems as good a choice as any of the others. It is the one I would run down, if I were fleeing from someone or something, because it is the nearest to this room. I hear a gunshot ring out. I suppose that Alex has met our guest. I am tempted to go back and see how it played out. I hear footsteps running down the hall. I decide to move quickly to the hall to my left and see if I can get a line of sight on the person quickly approaching from a safe vantage point. I see the man that Alex called “wolf” running down the hall with a rifle in hand.

  17

  Peace Summit

  “…ck!” I can feel that my eyes are wide with surprise. I do not know what to do. I can feel myself breathing heavily. I reach over to my bandaged arm and squeeze. The pain shoots through me and makes my very aware that I am alive and not in some hallucination. The man is still there staring at me and chained to the floor. I reach into my pocket and retrieve my pills. I take two pills out of the bottle while keeping my eyes on the chained man, who should be dead, but just asked me for a drink.

  “Please. I won’t hurt you. I may even be able to heal you, but first I need to drink.” He moves his manacled arm and points to my arm where the blood is seeping through. The realization hits me as stunningly, completely, and as surprisingly as a graduate level physics pop quiz when I haven’t studied for a month. I look at my arm and then back at the man.

  “Blood. You drink blood and you want me to come over there so you can, what, consume my strength or essence or something? I don’t think so, freak.” I pop the pills into my mouth and swallow hard. I return my gaze to the chained man. He smiles at me.

  “My name is Eli
yahu.” I find that I enjoy the slight English accent that he has as he speaks. “You may call me Eli. See, now we are no longer strangers. You can trust me little girl.” The more he speaks, the more I feel myself want to like him and trust him. I can also feel my own reserve of mental capacity working against his words.

  “Are you trying to use compulsion or thrall on me or something?” I am annoyed at his ‘little girl’ comment and feel defiant toward him. I find that I am annoyed that I am even considering this, but I have seen enough monster movies to know that I have stepped into my personal nightmare. Apparently, my nightmares include spooky men without faces who offer me power and knowledge as well as vampires. Why do I always have to be so freaking curious about the occult?

  “Ah, you are knowledgeable of my kind?” He raises his head in an attempt to make eye contact with me again.

  “Ah, whatever E. You think I’ve never seen a movie or TV show before?” This seems to upset him. I avoid eye contact with him and lean against the wall. He puts his head back down in defeat. I think about all that has happened. I consider what it would be like to have an undead owe me a favor. “Why are you down here anyway?”

  “I was taken because of my political connections within the city. I surmise that I am only alive because my captors wish to experiment with my blood or that some deal was struck to keep me out of the way.” His voice becomes more agitated and he pulls against his restraints, to no avail. “What is a little girl who is so jaded to the supernatural doing down here?”

  I look at him. “Why do you want to know about me?” I am in disbelief that he has any interest in be beyond my nutritional value.

  “What, like I am going anywhere? I have been alone in a hellish dream state for what feels like an eternity. I am not what I once was. Please tell me of yourself.” He again tests his chains using his other arm as if it is an absentminded way of stretching.