by Jesse Gagnon
“Give minute or two, eyes adjust.”
The group gathered around the Alpha and grunted to each other. The hairy one exited moments later shielding his eyes from the sun and hurried over. He joined in with the grunting.
“Ah, group meeting. This is good. We discuss tracking of dangerous Azrael.”
They paused and studied Vladomir. The Alpha nodded yes and they continued to point, grunt and gesture towards the others.
“You take minute for meeting. I eat second breakfast right here.” Vladomir sat down on the stool and retrieved another MRE from his backpack. They all paused and watched him eat. The sounds of stomachs growling entered Vladomir’s ears.
“Would you like MRE? Taste like shit, although is good nutrition.” He dangled a pack in front of him.
The Alpha shook its head and scanned the area focusing on movement in the field.
“I have question. You had dog friend before. I saw it when I walked away. Where is it now?”
The Alpha turned to the hairy one and grunted. The hairy one patted its stomach and smiled.
“You ate the dog? Wasn’t it your pet?”
The hairy one turned to the lead of the group. The Alpha shook its head disapprovingly at the hairy one and the furry manbeast shrugged in response.
“So that’s why you were alone when I arrived last night? Put in doghouse for eating dog, ha!”
The growling of their stomachs returned even louder. The Alpha scanned the field again and licked its lips. The others did the same and they scattered. Vladomir began to eat as he sat with one leg across the other.
“Oh, you hunt breakfast. I wait. Just don’t bring back dead girl. This no good.” Vladomir glanced up from his meal and he was alone. All of them were already deep into the field across from the gas station. The high wild grass hid their presence. Movement of the blades indicated their location.
An hour later they returned coated in fresh blood. Their bellies were fat and they had smiles on their faces. Vladomir was reading a book. A few more dead Azrael were added to the parking lot. One was hanging from a light pole. Each furrowed their brow as they passed below it wondering what was holding it in place.
“I get creative when bored. So you eat, yes?”
The Alpha answered with a nod and a grunt.
“Smell like wet dog. You eat dog?”
The female pointed at the hairy one.
“Ah, make sense.” Vladomir sniffed the air again. “Bear? You eat bear?”
The others nodded and smiled while rubbing their bellies. The large one burped.
“Azrael strong like ox. Awakened Azrael also smart like fox. This is good. We leave now.”
The Alpha agreed, grunted towards the hairy one and it started to jog towards the northeast. The others followed. Vladomir stood up and followed the group.
“When find celebrate with Vodka. Russian Vodka, not American shit.”
CHAPTER 44: DRUGS ANSWERS AND DOCTORS
The orange haze from the window decorated the room and everything else meant to reflect light. John’s vision slowly focused on his surroundings. He felt restrained and attempted to move with no result. The sound of a heartbeat monitor gradually increased its intensity as his mind escaped a dreamless sleep.
“What the fuck is this? Nurse!” John hollered. After further investigation, his entire body was encased in a full body cast. “Mario!” He hollered but the cast around his head kept his jaw from moving but a quarter of an inch, so his words were stifled. A warm tingly sensation along with a numbing feeling all over indicated that he was on heavy medication.
A nurse approached while reading some information on a clipboard.
“Nurse.” He mumbled.
“Oh, good. You’re awake. Let me ask you a few quick questions and then I’ll get the doctor, okay?”
“Okay.” John answered and saliva started to drool out of the left corner of his mouth.
“Woops, let’s get that.” She retrieved a tissue from a box nearby and wiped his mouth. “There you go.” She added. John noticed the name Nancy on her nameplate.
“Thanks, Nancy.”
“You’re welcome, John. So, are you in any pain today?”
“No, I’m numb.” He responded and she made a note on the clipboard.
“Good. Can you tell me your name?”
“John Masterson.”
“Awesome.” She made another notation. “One last question. Do you know what day it is?”
“Hah, I don’t fucking know that. It’s been a long week.”
“Got it.” She made one last mark on the clipboard. “The doc will be in shortly. Welcome back to Chicago Mr. Masterson.” Nancy smiled and exited the room. John followed her with his eyes until she was beyond his view. He thought about Mario and hoped that he was in better shape than he was in.
A few minutes later the doctor walked in. He was also reading a clipboard, probably the same one the nurse had written on. The sudden urge to pee came over John.
“Good morning Mr. Masterson. Welcome back to Chicago.” The man smiled revealing a perfect set of white teeth. His hands appeared as if they hadn’t seen a day of manual labor.
“Doc, I’ve got to piss.” John insisted.
“Well, it looks like you are doing it already. The bag is filling up.”
“The what? Shit, I’m wearin’ a catheter. Well, never mind then.” John tried to see the bag with his eyes but the cast prevented any real head movement.
“Looks like you’ve been banged up pretty badly. A few breaks and minor bruising on internal organs, nothing a little time and medicine can’t fix.”
“How much time? I need to get Savanna back.”
“In your current condition, I doubt you’ll make it out that door my friend.”
“But Savanna needs me.” His words were slow and lethargic.
“I’m sure she will be fine. She’s a tough young lady.”
“I know but…what about Mario? Is Mario okay?” Drool started to develop around his lower lip, dribbled out of his mouth and down the cast. The doctor retrieved some tissues and wiped up the drool.
“Mario is resting as you should be doing. With a number of narcotics in your system, I’m amazed that you’re even awake.” He studied John’s information on the clipboard and shook his head.
“Mario, will he be okay? Is he going to live?” John stammered.
“Mario received pretty severe head trauma. We’ve released the pressure that was built up within his skull and has only discovered minor bruising of the brain. He currently is sleeping and his vitals are stable. Still, we are unable to determine the full extent of his injuries. He shouldn’t’ have been functioning in his condition. The will of some of us defy science sometimes.” The doctor took a few readings from the monitor, shined a light into John’s eyes and timed his breathing pattern.
“So Mario is okay. Great, that’s grea…” John surrendered to sleep.
“Get some rest, Mr. Masterson, you deserve it.” The doctor stepped out of the room. “Can I get someone to change this bag, please? There’s urine everywhere. Who installed this? It’s got a hole in it.”
“I did sir. Was the last one we had.” A nurse answered and walked in. “Oh, my!”
“There’s a new box upstairs in the storage room. I saw it there yesterday.”
“Got it, forgot to look there. I’ll bring a few more down.” The nurse answered and quickly left the room.
“Okay. Get someone to clean up this mess too. It’s disrespectful to Mr. Masterson. He deserves better treatment.” The doctor handed the clipboard to Nancy and walked out disappointed with his staff.
CHAPTER 45: LOSING CONTROL
The sweet taste of iron brought a tranquil feeling in Jason’s dream. The starry night melted away as reality bled its way through his vision. His body was eating a person in the street. The back of her ribs was poking through the bone. The woman’s body was seizing from shock. Her screams entered his ears as he entered reality.
Jason released a long violent howl shutting the scream out completely. The sound of trees rustling in the wind pulled to the front. The scream stopped. Now he had to make sense of what happened. How did he end up there? He followed a trail of blood leaving the corpse of the woman. It led to a ca… inside the car. The trunk! He was in the trunk. Why was he in the trunk? The woman…Sophie! Was it? He ran over to the corpse. It was her. Her eyes were still open and her face appeared horrified. How did he get out? He walked back over to the car and peered inside. The back seat was pushed down revealing the trunk.
She had trusted Jason to protect her. The first moment his body had to attack, it succeeded at killing her. The scream gradually returned deafening his ears. He deserved this torture. He murdered this woman. He wiped his face to remove the blood and felt two sets of scabs on each side of his cheeks. She had fought back, scratching his face. She still clung on to life even in the face of death. She fought.
Jason sat next to the car mortified at his situation punishing himself by watching her mangled body bake in the sun. To make things worse a small group of Azrael arrived to eat the remainder of her flesh that Jason failed to consume. He was lost in a dreamlike gaze stuck on a silhouette of a tree that swayed in the middle of the field to the rhythm of the breeze. He observed in his peripheral vision as they cleaned the corpse of any edible meat, still bathed in shock of what just happened. Sophie’s mission had been a failure from the start. Jason only delayed the inevitable.
The name Tricon replaced the scream that faded as soon as the Azrael started eating the corpse. What was Tricon? Where was Tricon? Why was it so important that they kill those children? What if everything was connected in some way? Jason found himself spiraling into a deep pool of what ifs.
Regardless of when he reunited with Giselle, Jason needed to figure out what’s going on with Tricon. He owed Sophie that much. When the others finished eating they came over and sniffed Jason’s body. One of them looked into his eyes attempting to break his gaze. It was a female Azrael maybe in her mid-teens. Her skin was a dark color and some loose meat still clung to her tight curly matted afro. She found it and stuffed it in her mouth. The Alpha of the group ran off causing all of the others including the teen Azrael to follow. Jason felt the urge to join them but decided to sit there and bake in the hot sun a bit longer. Only bone, torn elastic from underclothes and shoes decorated the pile of bones on the street in front of Jason.
He’d come to realize that he is not the hero that he wished he could be. He wondered if a bottle of whiskey would help him forget that all of this even happened. It was only a thought and the moment he tried to taste it in his mouth, the woman’s taste returned in it. The scream resumed in a slow buildup in the back of his mind. It screeched loudly, causing his vision to blur and ears to ache in pain. What was going on? He placed both palms over each ear subconsciously to shut out the noise. Its intensity continued, originating within his own mind. He was losing it.
Jason’s vision began to darken and images of his past flickered in and out as if it were a random still frame placed within a reel of film. His ears began to ring and completely masked the scream. His vision restored to normal however, his body had gotten up and begun to sprint. He watched without control as it joined the other Azrael that finished eating Sophie.
With every motion, Jason attempted to do the opposite with no luck. He tried to grunt and his body resisted. The others appeared distant in their gazes. Their bodies sniffed, grunted and followed the Alpha without question. Jason’s body was no different. Would he spend the rest of his days trapped in this body, to watch it hunt down and infect humans?
They moved further and further from Chicago. The skyline faded into the horizon and he found himself to the southwest heading towards the Mississippi. There were very few safe houses left beyond the grid that the Highwaymen established in those areas. Days passed with the same result as he awoke. Why did he lose connection? Why was he trapped? Is he being punished for betraying and killing that woman? Was it that he lost his way and all hope for his humanity to return? Regardless, Jason had become lost with no foreseeable way to be found.
CHAPTER 46: APARTMENT STRUGGLES
An expensive vehicle, by the old world’s standards, drove up in front of Lake Point Tower Condominiums and waited for Taliah Banks. Taliah and Simon were scheduled to visit Mario and John at the hospital. Both needed to see some familiar faces to help them recover. It had been a week since they arrived and their condition progressed enough to entertain visitors. Taliah was excited to see Mario awake and had trouble sleeping the night before because of it. Her doorbell rang and Samson barked.
“Who uses doorbells? Waste of electricity.” Taliah mumbled as she approached the door. She opened it and noticed a man in a nice suit.
“Are you my ride?” She asked.
The man smiled and gestured towards the elevator. A familiar tattoo was on the man’s neck and something seemed off. Where were the guards? She scanned the entire floor and it was empty. It’s never empty.
“Excuse me, I forgot something.” Taliah attempted to close the door and the man put his foot in the frame before she could close it. She sprinted towards Samson’s room and attempted to open the door but was grabbed from behind with force.
“Samson!” She cried out inspiring him to bark and growl ferociously. She fought dragging her heels into the carpet and lowered her posture to make it difficult to take her. He continued to pull her along and grabbed her hair with his other hand jerking her to the ground.
“Shut up girl. You were supposed to be the easy one.” The man threatened with a foreign accent. It sounded German.
“Let go of me! Help!” She cried out.
“Your friends are dead and you will be too if you don’t shut the hell up.”
Taliah knew that was a lie. They went through a lot of trouble to get to her. They needed her alive, whoever they were. She scanned the area for a weapon and couldn’t find anything of use. She was dragged down the hall kicking and screaming towards the front door. The door Samson was behind was bending from contact and scratching was heard at the bottom of the door.
“Almost got your little doggie. He’s lucky you didn’t let him out. It wouldn’t have been the first pet I had to put down.”
“Not this one.” She spat out and continued to kick and scratch the man. On the floor, a hard rawhide bone struck her heel as she kicked. She reached down to it. It was Samson’s. She got a good grip on it and swung it at the man’s face when he turned towards the door. It caused him to lose his grip on her and she managed to escape to Samson’s door. She opened it.
Samson charged out in a fury and lunged at the man’s throat. He attempted to retrieve his pistol to shoot him but Taliah had it in her hand. She smiled at him as Samson tore into his throat ferociously. He made a mess of the man and caused him to drown in his own blood. Once he stopped fighting Samson released his grip and trotted over to Taliah. She was leaning against the wall sitting on the floor. He licked her cheek and lied in her lap. She petted him and wiped the blood from her cheek.
“Good boy Samson, good boy.”
As she sat there she examined the man’s tattoo further. Although blood and torn flesh distorted the design it was still recognizable, Tricon. During her work with Dr. Schwinn, a few folders separate from Highwaymen logs contained an entire segment of this organization. She stood up and walked over to her office near her bedroom. She found the folders labeled VFD. Apparently, this information came f
rom their intelligence. She found the segment about Tricon and about the tattoo. It was branded on the necks of those who belonged to Tricon, like property. They were discovered in the area about 6 months ago. They were seen capturing humans and Azrael and bringing them to their facilities. A recent document that was added to the folder dated just a few days ago described an Azrael breach in one of their facilities. Very few humans escaped and those that did were extracted by their own military type team. Nothing more about them was found.
VFD also went on about awakened Azrael and on a type of serum that could give non-immune human Azrael-like abilities without allowing the virus to kill them. She wondered if something like this could happen to her. However, she didn’t know if she was immune to the virus or not. She wasn’t immune to HIV that’s for sure. She did do a little research on HIV like Simon asked and noticed that it compromised the immune system. If she was immune at some point then it’s unlikely she is now. Taliah filed the folders back into the cabinet, walked back into the room and examined the corpse on the floor once more. Samson stayed close by her side as she moved and growled at the body when she neared it.
“Was he here to capture me?” She thought out loud. She should probably call someone, she thought. She ran into the kitchen, placed the pistol on the table and picked up the receiver. It was a corded phone that could still be used if power was lost. She dialed Simon’s number and walked out of the kitchen holding the phone as the spiraled cord stretched out. She stared into the dead man’s eyes and wondered when the dead stopped bothering her. It troubled her and she had to look away.
“Simon Killbrook’s office.” Simon’s secretary answered.
“Hello, Theresa. Is Simon available?”
“One moment please.” Theresa instructed. About thirty seconds passed.
“Am I late? I’m sorry. I thought we were leaving in an hour.”
“There’s a dead guy in my apartment.”
There was an awkward silence.