by Thomas Shaw
“A thank you wouldn't have gone amiss” Seven grunted under his breath, “I just saved her and her child when I could've easily left them alone!”
I looked down at the dead body, “You just killed someone”
“He's not a someone, he's a parasite” Seven said with no remorse, “All people like that deserve to be wiped out. Only the strong survive” He said and without another word he turned and climbed the wall and jumped over and out of view. I stood staring at the mugger on the floor. The deep red blood poured out and dripped off the kerb and into the road. For a brief moment I had the idea of contacting the police, to let them know. But Seven was right, he was a parasite. He didn't deserve life, he was willing to take it from someone else over the sake of a handbag. I walked away and headed back into the city.
I arrived back at the construction site, I clambered up the scaffolding, thinking about the woman's reaction. How she just screamed at me and Seven, rather than thanking us. Granted our faces weren't the most appealing but at the same time, we had saved her and her little girl. We weren't normal, so therefore, we were different and scary and not heroes. I pulled myself up to my floor and found that the makeshift bed hadn't been touched. Luckily no one was working on this floor. The sky was dark now, had been for some time now. I was exhausted and my head still felt like it was in a vice, which was getting tighter by the hour. I climbed atop the wooden boards and curled up, trying to sleep.
But once again, I couldn't. I laid for what felt like hours. I was determined to sleep though so I didn't get up. Not until the banging started. It started as a knocking on wood, then a crunching sound, then deep metallic banging on the floors below me. I got up and hid behind a concrete foundation. The banging was on this floor now, a few rooms away. It got louder and louder until it stopped, at the other side of the wall I was behind. Thoughts rushed around in my head. Was it the police, was it the army? Or was it the soldiers we had encountered when we broke out, here to put a stop to their escaped project.
“One?” Came a gruff voice. I recognised it straight away and my heart rate started to slow down.
I stepped out, “Six. What are you doing here?”
He towered above me. He was dressed in what I could only describe as armour; a metal breastplate made from a road sign, thick metal wire was wrapped around his forearms. He was wearing large black boots with large pieces of, what looked like, aluminum sheets as greaves.
“I thought it was you. I saw you in the city today, I've been following you”
“Did you see what happened with that…”
“Scum? Yes, I saw. I've come because I've found something I need to show you”
It sounded ominous, “What?”
“It'd be better if I showed you” Six said and turned to leave. I thought of staying as I was so tired. But the look in Six’s face told me I wouldn’t be able to stay.
3
I could hear a clock striking one as Six lead me through the backstreets closer and closer towards the centre of the city. We walked out into the main road and was stood outside of a small cafe. It was, of course, closed. I stood staring at the building, like it meant something. I remember the ding of a bell as the door would open. I must’ve visited here regularly. I smelt coffee and had the sudden craving for some.
“Why have you brought me here?” I asked Six. I looked over to see he wasn't looking at the cafe. Instead he was looking across the road at a large glass building. On the ground floor was the reception but there was no one behind the desk, which was situated to the left of the door. There were a few rooms lit up on the fourth and top floor, but nothing on the two floors below. It was the only building that was illuminated on this street. I looked all around for some indication of what the building was for. Then my eyes fell on the main door. Etched on the glass was the logo we had seen on the wall of the laboratory building. A black pentagram with a star in the middle.
“Is that- “
Six nodded, “Yes, it is”
“Six, what are we doing here”
He turned to me, “Revenge” and he ran off across the road. I didn't know what to do, I felt compelled to follow though so I hurried after him. I was expecting Six to be subtle, and go through the door. I was way off as he, he dived through the window, shattering an entire pane and blowing shattered glass across the atrium floor. An alarm bell began to ring throughout the building.
Six pounced on a security guard who ran around the corner with a baton brandished. He dug his claws into his chest, turning his white shirt crimson red. The security guard yelled in pain as Six lifted him up off the ground and tossed him over his head like he weighed nothing. Another guard was at the end of the corridor and he started yelling into the walkie talkie attached to his shirt.
“We have unknowns in the atrium. Man down. Request back up”
Six snarled at him and started running. The guard screamed and turned, fleeing back around the corner. Six followed him and out of view, the guards shouting echoing around the room. A few seconds later and the alarm stopped ringing.
The atrium was tall, the ceiling was all the way up to the roof. Balconies of every corridor looked down over the room. Large glass tiled windows covered the front of the building in its entirety. The paint scheme was black and white; white painted walls and doors, black marble floors and black leather furniture. The reception desk was both, however, in that it started black from the bottom and was white by the countertop. There was a door at either side of the atrium which had W/C written on both, and the corridor that Six had run down. The corridor was wide and on the right of it was an elevator door. I started to walk down the corridor to find where Six had gone when I heard the crunching of glass behind me. I spun round and was face to face with Seven.
“What's going on?” Seven asked, wide eyed as he saw the dead body on the floor.
I held my hands up, “It wasn't me, it was Six!”
Seven rolled his eyes, “Shame, was kind of hoping you'd grown some balls”
“What?”
Seven placed a hand on my shoulder and grasped firmly, “Listen One, we need to be taking advantage of our strength, using it to its full potential”
“Why are you so-“ I was cut off as the elevator dinged and I spun around. The doors slid open and six men in smart black suits poured out with pistols all aiming at me and Seven.
“You two! On the ground now!” One of them shouted.
Seven stood by my side, “Do it. Kill them” He muttered to me.
“No, I can't”
“What are you afraid of? Their guns can't hurt you”
It wasn't the guns that was stopping me, they hadn't done anything wrong, they were just doing their jobs, “It's not right”
The man in the suit was getting impatient. He took a step forward, “On the ground or I will shoot!”
Seven looked at me and smiled, “Do as he says” and crouched down. He had no intention of giving up as he sprung towards the middle of the group, knocking one man onto his back. He grabbed a hold of his neck as he lay under him pinned, and twisted his head so it snapped. There was a gunshot and Seven snarled. He stood and grabbed two men at either side of him by their shirts and threw them both outwards. They landed on their backs with a loud thud. Seven grabbed another guard as he was about to shoot and clawed at his face, gouging him deeply. The man fell to the ground, attempting to shout but just gargling on his own blood. Seven tackled another and picked him up, then he threw him across the room. He hit the corner of wall turning down the corridor, his spine cracking on impact. Seven ran over to the final man and stood right against him. The height difference was clearer. The man was probably, at the least, seven foot. But Seven stared down at him. The guard looked to be the leader of the others. It was the same one that had shouted at us to get on the ground. He was between me and Seven and he looked up at him then back to me. In the corners of my eyes I could see the two men Seven had tossed earlier were now both stood and aiming their pistols at him. I was about
to call out, to tell him to move, when Seven stepped back on cue from the sound of gunshot. The bullets whipped past him and into the opposite shooter, killing them both. Seven looked at them with a smile as they fell to the ground. The leader raised his gun, ready to shoot an unassuming Seven in the neck. Acting without thinking, I sped up, so I was behind him, reached my hand around his face and clawed deeply into his neck, opening his throat so blood spurted out over both me and Seven. The man fell to the ground. I looked down at my dripping red hands, my claws had bits of skin and flesh hanging off of them. Seven took a step forward, his smile was disturbing, “Well done. I knew you had it in you”
I looked around at the other bodies. My heart was racing, I didn't know what to say or what to do. I wanted no part in in this madness, but now I had just killed someone. And now thinking about it, the gunshot probably wouldn't even have hurt him!
“What have we done? This wasn't right”
Seven shook his head, “Why not? We’re better than they are anyway. And after all, they made us like this, shouldn't we show them exactly what they've created? Show them the fruits of their labor?” Seven had a proud grin on his face, like he was enjoying himself. I didn't know what to think. He turned away and stomped off down the corridor.
“Where are you going?” I called after him.
Seven stopped in front of the elevator door and pressed the button. He looked back at me as the doors opened, illuminating his face and highlighting all the blood on his body, “To find Six” He stepped inside, “And who ever’s in charge of this place” as the doors closed.
I was stood in the atrium, alone with the six dead bodies. I crouched down next to the man I had killed and looked inside his black suit jacket. I pulled out an ID card with a picture of the mans face. His name was Agent Myres. It also stated he was part of ‘Site 4, New London watch’ and that he was head of security.
I heard footsteps behind me and I looked back towards the door. Two, Three, Four and Five were stepping through the glass-less window Six had leapt through and were looking around with shocked expressions.
“One, what have you done?” Three asked, looking down at my hands, and then at the body next to me. I stood bolt upright, dropping the ID card and started wiping my hands on my thighs.
Five looked back at the opening they had stepped through and coughed, “You been busy I see”
“It wasn't me, it was Six and Seven”
Two raised an eyebrow (well, it looked like he did, it was hard to tell with no facial hair), “Six and Seven?”
“Yeah, they've gone further inside to find out who did this to us”
“What do you mean ‘they've gone to find out who did this to us’?”
“This is a DarkWatch building, the people that turned us”
“And the others killed all these men?” Two asked.
“Yes!” I could see Three looking at me strange, like he was trying to get inside my head, so I thought it was better to be honest, rather than him to expose me, “Well, no not all of them. I killed in self-defense, or rather- “
“It's ok One” Three said, raising his hand, “Let’s just go get Six and get out of here before someone comes and tries to kill us”
“There's a lift here” I explained, I ran down the corridor and pressed the button. The door instantly opened, Seven must've sent it back down for me. I looked at the others as they walked over. We looked at the small lift then back at our large muscular selves.
“Maybe stairs better idea?” Five suggested. We all agreed and headed off around the corner. There was a door to a stair well, and the door was opened further than it should've been. The hinges were snapped so the door was now permanently stuck open. I assumed maybe Six had opened it too hard when he was chasing after the guard. I walked through and started ascending the stairs. I passed the first door and Two and Five agreed to search the first floor and when passing the second, Three and Four broke off to look around that level. I continued up and was going to go through the door to the third level when I heard shouting coming from above. I quickly ran up the stairs to the top floor and burst through the door. I was stood in a dark corridor. At the end of it was Six and Seven, and stood between me and them was a group of men in suits, holding much bigger guns than pistols. They were shouting at them both to stand still. I stepped up behind the soldiers. One of them must've seen me out of the corner of his eye as he turned around and aimed his weapons directly at my face! Two more of the five men spun around guns all pointed, ready to fire.
“Kill them!” I heard Seven call, “You or them remember!”
“Drop the weapons, and we leave peacefully” I attempted to negotiate. Seven shouted at me again to just kill them, but this wasn’t the path I wanted to take.
They looked like they hadn't heard me. Two of them aimed at Six and Seven, and three at me. As soon as the man cocked his rifle, I dived out of the way. Gunfire started flying off in both directions. I couldn't see what happened to the other two, but I managed to dive into a room, one that looked like a classroom; with a single desk at the front and lots of others all facing it. I saw another door across the room and ran across, opened it, went through and closed the door behind me. Across the corridor was another door, one with a frosted glass window. I could see a white light flickering inside. I opened the door and crept in. As I closed the door softly, I could still hear shouting and the occasional pop of a rifle being fired. The room had three desks situated in the middle, arranged in a triangular formation. Around the four walls was a partial map of Earth, with little dots pinned on them. I walked close to one and pressed one of the dots. The wall image changed to that of a close up of the city that the dot was located on. It had a huge (literal) wall of text, with information regarding multiple ghost sighting and weird circumstances occurring. I pressed the wall again and the text disappeared, and the image changed back to that of the quadrant of the world map. I heard a faint banging, coming from a room next to me. The door had the words File Room painted on the front. I stepped over and leant against the door. I could hear muffled speech from inside, so I started turning the door handle slowly. I pulled the door open, carefully so as not to attract any attention. I stepped in and stood behind a filing cabinet that was situated next to the door.
The room was full of filing cabinets, all lining the walls of the cramped room. Stood in the corner, not facing me was a man and a woman. She had long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail and the man had short black spiky hair. I could see he had a small scar above his eyebrow. The woman had stains of mascara under her eyes, like she had been crying but had cleaned up in a rush. She was trembling and was quite young. They were both wearing the same suits that the others with guns had been wearing. It seemed that this company had a single dress code, not one that I would like.
“Just phone them!” The woman was saying as the guy just stared at his blank phone. He had his thumb hovering over the blank screen, as if he was hesitating to choose something, “What are you waiting for just- “
“We have to keep this contained!” He shouted, but trying to keep his voice hushed. She grabbed the phone out of his hand and started typing. The man looked panicked, “Stop, please, this won't end well”
“It's done, now we just need-“ She turned, and our eyes met. She reached for her gun and I stepped across the room and grabbed her wrist, so she lost grip of her weapon. The man tried to run past me, but I grabbed him with my other hand. I pulled him back and pinned them both against the wall.
“Now you two are going to explain a few things to me!” I sneered. I thought it best to intimidate as I didn't think they'd explain if I asked politely.
“What are you doing here?” The woman asked. She had backed herself so far against the wall, she looked like she was trying to merge with it.
“I'm the one asking questions here. What has your organisation done to me?”
“We don't know” The woman sobbed, “Please, just please let us go”
I stepped back a
slight bit, she looked like she was going to run so I grabbed her by the throat and pinned her up against the wall, like my hand was a collar. I kept my hand loose enough for her to still talk and breath.
I was stopped by the mans pleading, “Please, let her go! She's telling the truth. She doesn't know anything…but I do”
I looked him straight in the eye, “Tell me” I snarled.
“Let her go first”
Begrudgingly I pulled my hand back and stepped in front of the man. She was coughing on the floor but stayed down on her knees. The man started confessing, “I assume you're from the Medi-Research department? At Site 3?”
I just stared at him. He paused but realising I wasn't answering, continued, “DarkWatch was initially working on a drug to cure most ailments, called a Cure All, but the project was shut down mid-way”
I stepped closer to him, “Go on”
The man looked uncomfortable, “Once it was shut down, Agent Cole took over the research team, wanted to get his Guardian Project started”
“Why can't I remember anything about before?”