by Greg Ramsay
Michael heard it first, the crunching of old brick from a decades’ old wall. He rammed into Black’s side, knocking her away from the claws that sought her neck. Instead they flew by her harmlessly. The creature’s free hand didn’t miss. Black watched those razors bury deep into Michael’s chest. His eyes opened in shock one last time before the creature deftly squeezed his head with its other hand, crushing his skull. Black spun, screaming in rage then emptied her magazine into the creature’s back. It staggered, releasing its prey.
Momentarily, she found herself staring at Michael, tears welling in her eyes. Knowing all hope was lost for Michael, she forced herself to run back to the Humvee for more ammo. Scrambling inside, she was dismayed to find they hadn’t brought any more; they’d only brought one magazine each for a shooting contest at a nearby range. Horrified, she quickly looked everywhere for anything she might be able to use. Her eyes fell on Michael’s lucky katana, the silly sword she always mocked him for carrying around. It sat there on the dashboard, its decoratively inlaid sheath sparkling in the sunlight through the grime on the windshield. Grinning, she grabbed it, drawing it quickly, before charging at the creature. She didn’t get far; it had already recovered in time to stand only a few steps from her.
Roaring a sound unlike anything else, it swung at her. Remembering what Michael had taught her, she reflexively dropped underneath the swing just in time to meet it with the katana’s blade. She spun her wrist, letting the blade run under its arm as it bent inward to deflect her blade. Smiling because it had taken the bait, she drew her blade in an upward thrusting stance. The creature’s hand was already coming for her again like a slap; quickly she ducked back, receiving a gash in her left shoulder that oozed blood into her jacket. Yelling, she buried the blade deep into an open wound in its neck left by Michael’s rounds, leaning all her force into the strike. The creature attempted to charge into her, ready to grab her with its other hand, which only helped push the blade clean through the back of its neck near the base of its head. The creature staggered back suddenly, its arms dropping. Using that to her advantage, Black pulled her blade free with a wet squelching ripping sound before slamming it higher up into its mouth. The blade didn’t seem to encounter much resistance penetrating, once it was past the creature’s armour. Slowly the creature crumpled. With all her strength Black leveraged it to fall backward, allowing her to get her blade free.
Breathing heavily, she didn’t need to hear the growling to know she was outnumbered; she could clearly see them stalking toward her slowly, eagerly, like they were savouring the moment. Black wiped the tears from her dirty face replacing them with a look of pained rage, then firmly planted her feet in a ready stance prepared for the end. She steadied herself as she ran at them with everything she had. Images of Michael and the woman’s faces just before they died flashed in her mind amidst the tears threatening to envelop her vision. One of the creatures appeared in front of her, its clawed hand raised to strike. She blocked it and tried to stab it like the one before. Everything seemed to slow at once while she watched the creature dodge her strike, then everything became painfully clear when it smacked her away like nothing. Seconds after she hit the ground, she could see it above her. The creature pinned her down violently, leaning close to her, so close she could see the lines in its plate-like armour from the tendrils that built it. Black screamed and fought, but she couldn’t move at all. All she could do was watch in horror as its armour seemed to pulse slightly, then tendrils slowly oozed toward her.
The tendrils inched closer like snakes slowly draining the hope from their prey until they had almost pierced her clothes. A tear streaked down her face; she closed her eyes praying she would die, instead of becoming one of them. She could hear one ripping into Michael which brought more tears to her eyes; she fought to remember his smile instead, desperate for that to be her final memory. A loud thump jarred her from her vision and from her waking nightmare; she found herself back in the Humvee.
Gathering her resolve, she turned to Grant, happy to find him nonchalantly watching the screen instead of looking at her concerned; he’d kicked the floor in boredom. Her hand fell to the side of the seat gently grazing the hilt of her katana. Every time she touched it she could see him and his smile; it reminded her that he’d want her to fight on. Black and Grant didn’t speak to each other further; they watched their screens, and waited for their watch shift to end.
At 12:00 AM Black and Grant left the Jeep, and went to wake up Steele and Marks. They traded positions, and the new shift took over monitoring the cameras. Their perspective was as uneventful as that of the shift before them, empty of any shifted. Marks and Steele didn’t speak, short of to ask if the other had any visual, and retained their quiet focused disposition through to the entire shift. John knew there wasn’t any point to asking, but still he wanted to know more about her.
John sat thinking about Lia –– how much she looked just like his girlfriend who was lost to the shifted, how much unbelievable power she had gained from a shifted, and if something/somehow gave her cause to leave them, would she instead stay once she found them all somewhere safe to live? He knew she wanted to check that MiraiCorp building in North Dakota for information, or to destroy it, or both. He didn’t know if she’d let them or rather him, help her or leave them all behind to watch uselessly. He worried about her –– her tough, sometimes cold demeanour couldn’t hide her confusion or frustration at not knowing her own life, let alone being part-shifted. John was observant, he watched her, remembered her story, and with it all, he wondered what she dreamt about when the insane days finally gave way to eerie nights.
Lia sat in the driver’s seat of her Hummer sleeping deeply. Wanderer lay beside Tory in the passenger seat, and she cuddled into him. Lia awoke suddenly, surrounded by the void world, no it wasn’t the void world, but the darkness outside; she could see she was still sitting in the Hummer she travelled in. She sat confused for a minute; she wasn’t sure if she was awake or still dreaming. She decided to check on her companions, turning to the passenger seat. Wanderer still lay sleeping, and Tory was gone. Lia’s eyes went wide, she looked quickly around the vehicle, and she wasn’t anywhere inside it. Panicking Lia grabbed her kynari, released the Leader’s armour, and jumped out of the vehicle. She allowed him to take over, and his mask formed immediately; his dark eyes scanned the surrounding area as though it were fully lit.
I can’t see her, he said.
Do you sense her? Lia asked urgently
No, the Leader replied.
Lia heard the sound of gentle laughter ahead of her, and took off toward the sound, no concern for anything, but finding Tory. She ran for what seemed like an eternity, the dark field around her seeming to stretch on forever, and she felt like she wasn’t getting any closer. The playful giggling suddenly turned into quiet weeping, and Lia began to panic.
“Tory?!” she yelled into the abysmal field, hoping her voice would reach the scared child, and then she would reply so Lia could find her. Tory never responded to Lia’s frightened call, instead her quiet weeping evolved into hysterical crying. Lia put all her strength into running faster toward the horrifying wailing. She kept calling out for Tory as she ran, and assuring the little girl that she would be ok. Lia calmed her voice to try and comfort the child, and called out. “Tory, where are you honey? It’s Lia, if you can hear my voice, come toward it if you can, so we can back to the camp where it’s safe. Can you hear me Tory?” The Leader’s mask receded so Tory could see her face.
The moon seemed to break the dark vial that surrounded her, stray rays of white light fell on a crumpled small figure of a girl enshrouded by dark tendrils, and Lia ran toward her. She ran up behind the little girl and enquired, “Tory is that you?” The figure wept quietly as the tendrils that encased her in their writhing embrace reacted to Lia’s voice. Lia could see the girl’s head turn toward her.
Tory looked up at her, looking hysterical, and she sobbed out, “Run away m...”
&n
bsp; Dark tendrils shot out from Tory’s mouth and body, lashing out for Lia, and she jumped out of their path as she reached for her kynari. She drew it from her side and had a spinning cyclone of tendrils roaring around her before the enemy tendrils could retaliate; her power burnt them all to dust on contact. Lia tried to approach Tory and free her from the tendrils that trapped her, but every time she tried to move more generated from her to replace them.
Lia couldn’t afford to release her cyclone again with being so close to Tory, and the tendrils continued to multiply around her. Lia focused her energy into both tips of her kynari, spinning it in her hand as its new dual red energy blades sliced through the tendrils heading for her. The more tendrils she cut down, the more replaced them, and Lia’s situation was becoming more and more helpless by the second. Lia spun on the spot, creating a mini cyclone with the speed of her body and blades. With her energy temporarily surrounding her, its brilliant red light blocked her sight, and she couldn’t see the millions of tendrils forming around her, waiting. Lia finally stopped spinning. Looking around her all she could see was blackness, and before she realized what it was, the tendrils struck out at her. Millions of them sprang toward her as she stood helpless. At the last second, she felt the Leader’s mask on the edge of release, and she let him take over.
The Leader slammed the kynari into the ground and channelled his energy through the blackening ground. He shot tendrils from his back, and formed a quick version of the dome shield around them, like the one he had created during the MiraiCorp explosion. The millions of tendrils that raged toward them slammed into the shield, ripping at it with the spikes they all formed, and after only a minute, Lia could hear the shield begin to crack on the outside.
It’s not gonna hold! she yelled to the Leader.
I know. I have a plan, just watch, he responded.
The tendrils ripped and tore at the shield, eventually cracking through it toward Lia. The Leader waited until most of the countless tendrils penetrated. Once they all made contact with what remained of the shield, he forced the energy he put into the ground up through it, and into the tendrils. The black energy surged through the cracks in the defeated shield, scorching into the assaulting tendrils, burning through them like black fuses toward Tory. Lia watched horrified and helpless to stop the Leader’s power as it burned its way to Tory’s defenceless body. Lia could hear Tory’s excruciating screams as the black energy burned the tendrils that hid in her body. She continued to scream as the flames burned into her flesh. Lia knew they weren’t going to stop.
YOU’RE GOING TO KILL HER! Lia yelled at the Leader as she threw away his mask, and ran toward Tory.
SHE HAS TO DIE! SHE IS NO LONGER THE LITTLE GIRL YOU KNEW! he yelled back. Images of a familiar little girl screamed through her minds eye as she ran teary-eyed to Tory.
I’M NOT GOING TO LET YOU KILL HER! Lia yelled as she arrived beside Tory’s crumpled body.
Lia pierced her kynari into Tory’s midsection, and tried to withdraw the energy that fed the Leader’s fire. She felt relieved as she saw the fire extinguish, leaving the little girl’s scorched body before it devoured her. She turned Tory to lie on her back, and looked fearfully at her scorched face. She checked for a pulse, and felt nothing.
Lia yelled. “Tory wake up, you have to wake up!!!” She shook the little girl, and hoped that somehow her little companion was still alive. “You can’t die Tory; I promised I’d protect you... Tory wake up!!” Lia collapsed to her knees, grabbed the little girl in her arms, and hugged her.
Suddenly, Lia felt Tory’s midsection move as she took a breath; the gentle breath exhaled, and she quietly said, “Lia...”
Lia’s eyes opened in shock and happiness. She held the girl out so she could look at her, and said, “Tory you’re alive!!”
Tory’s eyes remained closed; her skin was pale beneath the black burns. When she finally opened her eyelids, her piercing grey eyes surrounded by gold stared at her, and a fanged smile formed on her lips.
Tory’s mouth opened and she spoke, “Lia... You should have killed me when you had the chance.” Lia let go of Tory’s body and backed away as fast as she could when she heard his voice emitted from her.
“Barton?!” Lia yelled at the little girl.
A dark laugh escaped from the dead lips, and he said, “That’s right. The game isn’t over until only one player is left.” Lia immediately thought of her friends. Barton’s sadistic smile contorted on Tory’s face, and he said. “Your soldier companions are next.”
“You leave them alone!” Lia yelled at him.
“You should’ve listened to the Prime Subject and killed me when you had the chance. Now they’re done, and anyone else you befriend before I get bored and decide to end you.”
“Prime Subject, what the hell are you talking about?” Lia asked angrily.
Barton smiled cunningly. “The Prime Subject is the experimental alpha who carried the title before, the very one within you!”
Lia slowly aimed her kynari at him while he talked. She knew now the Leader within her was right, and Tory wouldn’t want him to be inside her if she knew he was the one who caused her mother’s death. Lia filled one tip with energy compressed to a slight beam, and fired it at Tory’s head. Part of the little girl’s head blew apart, but his smile remained. To her horror the head reformed with his tendrils. He laughed loudly.
“You already failed this little girl; do you really think you can save them? I’ll let you watch them die agonizing slow deaths before I come for you. Enjoy what time you have left,” Barton said as he made Tory’s body stand. Millions of small tendrils shot from her spine forming into dark wings, and he flew away into the black night. Lia watched helplessly as he flew away in her friend’s body before she crumpled to the ground crying.
Lia heard a man’s voice calling to her and at the sound of a vehicle, she stood to see whom it was. She turned to see John driving toward her in her Hummer. When he pulled up beside her and opened his door, Wanderer jumped out sniffing around the ground.
“How did you know I was gone?” she asked John.
“I went to get you for your shift and found Wanderer left alone in the Hummer barking for you, Tory was gone too. Steele stayed with the others to monitor the cameras, and sent me with Wanderer to try and find you and Tory. We spent an hour just following Tory’s trail of footprints in the ground. Lia’s head fell a minute before she looked up at John.
“I woke up, looked to see that she was ok, and she was gone. I ran toward the sound of crying, and when I finally found her she was covered in tendrils that attacked me. After the tendrils were destroyed, I tried to wake her, worried that the Leader within me had killed her, and she turned into him...” Tears overcame her words briefly.
John looked confused. “Him?” he asked. Lia looked at John grimly.
“Barton,” she sobbed angrily.
“What?!” John asked confused and horrified. “You said you roasted what remained of him with a nuclear explosion!”
“I know I did,” Lia replied. “Some of his infectious substance must’ve survived somehow, and latched onto the birds we found...” Lia shuddered when she remembered seeing Tory’s mother pecked apart, and the eerie gold-silver eyes in one of the crows.
“What did he say?” John asked fearfully. “He said I was now the Prime Subject, his main experimental test with the L strain, at least the Leader within me was, and now because he’s joined with me, I am. Barton also said... he was going to make me watch as he slowly eliminated you guys one by one.”
Lia’s fearful and sad expression concerned John more than the thought of his death. He brushed stray locks of her hair behind her ear, gently caressing her cheek as he did, and said, “You don’t have to worry about us, or him. You beat him once, so you can beat him again, and we’re not going to be eliminated by anything or anyone no matter what he says, I promise you that.”
Lia shook her head as a tear rolled down her cheek, and she pushed his hand away.
“You can’t promise that, you don’t know his power!! YOU DON’T KNOW THE HORRIBLE THINGS HE CAN DO TO YOU... THAT HE WILL DO TO EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU! How can I fight off someone that can survive being nuked into nothing but slime?!” she said with frustration as she tried not to breakdown entirely. Lia stood still while whipping the tears from her face, trying to regain her composure, and said, “Just take me back to the camp so I can tell the others, please...”
Lia turned and walked to the passenger side of the Hummer, climbing in, and sitting with a forlorn expression on her tear-stricken face. John stood where she had left him, looking at her fear; he felt like crying himself. He knew she was right in a way; he couldn’t promise her he’d always be there, that he alone would somehow fight of Barton, and end her sadness, but he truly wished he could. He knew for certain, with all his conviction, that he would fight whatever came, and do his best to keep his promise no matter what it took. Regardless of the fact the entire team was useless compared to her. For now, there was just the sad task of passing on Tory’s horrid circumstance, and warning the others, all while attempting to ignore the nagging sense Lia was more to him than he could remember.
John walked around to the driver’s side; Wanderer had already gotten in the back when Lia opened her door, and John started the Hummer. They drove for forty-five minutes straight, following tire treads tracked alongside two sets of foot prints. Lia watched the footprints sadly, the smaller ones created by the body of an innocent possessed child, one she failed to protect. Lia almost started crying again as Barton’s words echoed in her mind. You already failed this little girl, do you really think you can save them? She looked down at herself, and found no answer; the Leader remained silent. Shame overtook her sadness. Why couldn’t I sense him?!