City of Twilight: Rise of the Hunter (The Vanguard Chronicles Book 1)

by Donald Stephenson III

  He felt the xeno in his mind, and his anger turned into a fury he had not yet experienced. The fury, the rage made his vision go red. A voice echoed in his mind. A voice of someone he didn’t recognize. “You’ll never be free,” it said, “unless you kill them all.” It was whispering in his ear, yet no one was around him.

  ​Everything stopped all around him. Time stood still as the rage engulfed him. It urged him, controlled him. The small data screen that was in his hands, he’d crushed it with his grip. It fell into several small pieces on pavement. He saw he was moving quickly now, running at a speed he did not know he could pull off. He searched for the girl as he ran through the sidewalks, oblivious of all around him. He’d stopped paying attention to streets and addresses long ago, losing himself completely in the mind’s eye.

  ​Suddenly he was climbing buildings, so overtaken with rage that the bricks and concrete would crumble in his claws. He leapt from one building to another, sometimes moving from a roof to a wall. He was a xeno now, tearing his way through Old District.

  ​He stopped and looked down from the top of the building he stood. Across the street was the hideout he’d been looking for. There were a few cars parked in front of it, and two men standing in front of the entrance. It was an old building, but it had power. Each man had an assault rifle hidden in his jacket. He could see everyone inside the building. He knew this was the place.

  ​Without hesitation James stepped off the rooftop’s ledge, landing in a crouched position. The sound echoed through the empty street. He stood up as he felt the xeno cover his entire body. He wanted to kill. He felt himself running towards the two soldiers. His hands became the sharp, steel claws instantly and everything around him was a blur except his targets. He made one pass with his claws and they were both down. He didn’t even stop to look down at them as they fell. Neither one was alive when he hit the ground. With their last dying breath they saw, charging at them, a metallic armored demon with silver eyes and long, sharp claws.

  9

  ​Dante was at the lead of ten Civic Protection armored vehicles. He had received the call from his brother ten minutes ago, and he’d brought as many free men as possible with him. Ares had told him he’d received a call from one of the soldiers. The soldier had said some kind of monster was attacking and killing all of them. Apparently the creature had killed the soldier while Ares had been on the phone with him. Ares had let him know that the last thing he’d heard on the phone was the man's scream.

  ​As they reached the hideout, all the vehicles pulled up quickly, soldiers piling out and holding formation. The hideout was an unassuming building that was structurally sound and well lit in the front and back sides. There were lights that could be seen from the outside, for it had a stable power connection, unlike many other buildings in Old District. No one wasted their time with maintenance in this area any more since nothing important existed in this district.

  He glanced over at one of the men, a high-ranking detective with Civic Protection. Sean Garrett was an excellent detective who had soared through the ranks over the years. He was a squat, muscular man with a short trimmed beard that was once black. Now it had streaks of gray. He could figure out a crime scene within a few minutes of examination. Dante kept him on the high profile cases and hunting dissidents to the city. Det. Garrett stood aside with a small group of soldiers, waiting for the rest to clear the building.

  ​Two squads broke off from the group, moving ahead of the others. They stopped to check the two dead bodies in front of the open doors to the building lobby. It was obvious that they were dead, with blood pooled around them. The dead bodies were soldiers in civilian clothes as a disguise. They were guarding a hideout for the Civic Protection secret police, an abandoned building that had been converted to a small base of operations with equipment, weapons and men. The two squads moved further into the building, followed by several more soldiers.

  While he waited for them to give them the signal the building was secured, Dante walked over to the dead men in front of the doors.

  “Detective,” he said while staring at the bodies, “could you come over here for a second?” Det. Garrett quickly responded, approaching him and the bodies.

  “Yes sir?”

  “Tell me what you can about these bodies.”

  “Well,” Det. Garrett said as he crouched over them for a moment, “obviously they’re dead. They died almost instantly.” He pushed over one of the bodies with a gloved hand. There were long deep gashes in the chest and the head. “Take a look at these gashes, and how deep they are. They don’t just reach the bones, they cut right through them. Not only was whatever sliced these men incredibly sharp, but it would take a great amount of strength to penetrate the body that deeply in one slice.”

  He pointed to the other body, where the neck was slashed so deeply it was inches away from a decapitation.

  “These men never had a chance,” Det. Garrett said. “This looks similar to the dead soldiers from early this morning. The only real difference is that those men were all green, only a year or two in CP service. These men here,” Det. Garrett said motioning to the dead bodies in front of them, “they were seasoned veterans. Been in the CP service for at least ten years each.” At that moment they heard a crack on Det. Garrett’s radio.

  “The building’s secure,” a soldier said, “all clear for everyone else.”

  ​The detective and Dante rushed in, followed by several more soldiers and emergency medics and technicians. They reached the elevator in the lobby, which had two more dead bodies in front.

  ​There was a small trail of blood that led to the elevator. Dante, the detective, and a few other soldiers entered the elevator while the rest took the stairs. The elevator worked; the Civic Protection had probably repaired it sometime in the past for the secret police when they started using this building as a base. He stood there quietly as he watched the dial move to the tenth floor. This was obviously not a creature, Dante thought, no animal uses an elevator.

  ​They reached the tenth floor and the elevator made a ding, the doors slowly scraping open. The walls in the old building were a peeling yellow wallpaper. Dante let the detective move into the crime scene and begin examining it while talking to the soldiers. As Dante walked slowly through the floor, he began counting the dead soldiers. When he reached twenty, he stopped counting, even though there were plenty more all around. It was a massacre.

  ​“Apparently what happened,” Det. Garrett said as he approached Dante again, “is that this creature, or person, killed the men in front first. Then it just went in through the door, and just as quickly killed the men in the lobby. As you probably noticed, their weapons weren’t drawn, so they didn’t even have time to respond when their opponent reached them.” Dante crossed his arms while listening to the man. He was already impressed; he hadn’t noticed that the soldiers' weapons were still holstered.

  ​“It went up the elevator,” Det. Garrett, “but somehow the other men on the floor knew it was coming. They somehow knew their assailant was coming. My theory is that the attacker warned them. Maybe it was taunting them.” He held up a small radio that looked like it had been crushed by a human hand. “They set up a barrier of men with weapons and some tables here in this hallway, and then another one further down. They moved back in groups like they were trained to do when attacked. Apparently they assumed this was some large force, or at least a very effective one. They cut off the lights to this hallway, and waited for the elevator.” He paused at he looked down at the fallen soldiers all around them. Many of them had night vision visors. All of them had similar wounds; torn apart by some strong being with massive claws. Dante shook his head as he looked down at the soldiers’ corpses. They all had high tech equipment and had made the correct tactical decisions in this situation. They were always prepared, he thought, just like we trained them.

  ​“The plan didn’t work out exactly the way they’d hoped,” Det. Garrett said. He then pointed to the wall, mot
ioning for Dante to look. “Do you see those marks? I think they’re from claws. They run along several walls of these hallways. This creature ran along the walls, probably dodging their shots as it closed in on them.” The walls were littered with bullet holes. They began walking again, past the second barricade where there were more dead men. Finally they stopped at a doorway that several other men stood around, some inside the room and some outside.

  ​“Ah,” Det. Garrett said, “this is where the rest of the action took place.” He led them into the room. The metal door had been knocked into the room, broken off the hinges. It had a large indention in it, like the creature just charged right into the door. All the men in the room were dead, pools of bloods splashed on the walls and floor. Dante was actually surprised by the amount of red throughout the room.

  ​“This was their last stand,” Detective Garrett said. “The rest of them all gathered here. You said there might have been a young girl here, but we haven’t found her anywhere. I had some others search the other floors of this building, but there isn’t really any place to hide. I don’t know what could have done this. At some points it looks like it had human intelligence, but I’ve never seen a human physically capable of something like this. Mentally capable either, for that matter.” Dante stood for a moment staring at the bodies. What could have done this? Something smart enough to use an elevator, but savage enough to brutally annihilate over twenty undercover soldiers.

  ​“When it finished,” Det. Garrett said, “it must have jumped out of the window.” The window was broken outward, as if the creature just leaped out; disregarding the glass and the ten story drop. Dante looked at the window, and then looked at the other bodies on the ground. A shiny object caught his eye, and he walked over to it. There was a small, sharp metal object stuck inside one of the dead soldier’s neck, protruding from the other side. This small organic looking knife alone would have killed the soldier, but the man was also stabbed in the gut. Whatever did that penetrated all the way through the man’s back. He took a glove from his pocket and used it to grab the object and pull it out of the neck. A small spurt of blood followed it, running onto the floor.

  ​The organic blade was extremely sharp, but it looked like it had never been sharpened. In fact, it looked as if the metal was cast that way, or at least it had never been touched by a machine or sharpening stone. It was light and small, and it glittered silver in the light. Dante knew instantly what it was. He was all too familiar with this metal.

  ​“This was a creature,” Dante said. All the men listened with interest as he continued. “But it was also a man.”

  ​“What kind of person,” Det. Garrett said, “would be able to do this?” Dante smiled ironically.

  ​“A person who must have already died," he said, placing the organic blade in a bag he’d taken from another soldier collecting evidence, "who apparently wants to die again. We shall oblige him that pleasure. Clean this place, but destroy the bodies. I don’t need rumors that Civic Protection has lost all these men. I have to call a commander. We need to set a trap for this creature.” He left the room and walked down the hallway, stepping over the bodies. Then he crouched in a corner and placed a phone call.

  ​“Yeah, it’s me,” Dante said with concern in his voice, “we have a problem, Ares. The xeno survived, and it found a host.”

  10

  ​James sat quietly in a dark corner. He was on a rooftop in Old District somewhere. He wasn’t sure. Old District was large, by far the largest of the districts in Dirge. He was far away from the violent event that had occurred that evening, but it was so close to him. He huddled in the corner, his arms wrapped around his legs. The events, his own actions flashed over and over again in his mind.

  ​He was watching himself move, watching himself act. The xeno was in control now, covering his entire body. Even his eyes were covered with the organic metal, although he could still see. The scaly metal covered his face like a mask, making him into a creature. The first two men, in front of the building, went down quickly with several slashes. He wasn’t sure how many, but his arms moved fast and instinctive. He pushed the doors, breaking the locks and causing the doors to open inward quickly.

  ​He sensed the positions of the soldiers at the elevator doors before they knew he was there. They weren’t very attentive as to what was happening. He charged them, moving as an animal; with speed and precision. To propel himself even further, he would move on all fours, his front arms clawing into the floors and walls. He hadn’t noticed that each finger had grown almost a foot, ending in a razor sharp claw of silver black metal.

  ​The first man at the elevator went down just as quickly as the others. The other man had seen James long enough to scream, but not get a shot off. As he died, the radio fell from his hands. James picked it up, and spoke into it.

  “Four down,” he said in a raspy metallic voice, “and I’m coming for the rest of you.” He walked into the elevator as it opened for him. He pointed the elevator towards the tenth floor, where he could sense everyone. He knew everyone was preparing for his arrival. He was feeling thrilled, as this strength and power surged through his body. His anger had manifested itself physically. It was under his skin, and over it. It was coursing through his mind, making him feel metal. Cold.

  ​Two more floors. He prepared himself. He squeezed the radio in his hand without even realizing it. It crackled and broke, crushed in his grip. He dropped it as he focused on the men around him. They had turned the lights off, and were using strange visors to see in the dark. He didn’t need technology. He didn’t even need eyes. The elevator stopped, and made a low pitched beep. The doors slowly opened, the men in the dark could see his silhouette in front of the light from the elevator. He was a gaunt figure wearing a long coat, his back slightly cocked to one side. His long, clawed fingers creating frightening shadows in the darkness of the hallway. He stood for only a moment, and then charged.

  ​Five automatic weapons went off as he ran forward. In an instant he was running on all fours, and then he was clawing into the wall with his hands and feet. He ran along the wall, moving from the floor to the other wall trying not to get hit by the bullets. The ones that did manage to hit him, merely ricocheted of his scaly armor. He dodged them but he didn’t need to. He felt no pain. As he reached the first group he leaped off the wall, spinning his claws around to hit every target.

  ​All the men at that barrier were fallen, and he moved onto the next, this time at a slow pace. He felt their fear as he approached them, unharmed by their shots. They never stood a chance. The last of this second group was on a phone, calling for help. As the man fell screaming, James stomped on the phone, crushing with his armored foot. He sensed the men in the room ahead. Ten of them, and one little girl. She was huddled in a corner, fearful but not crying. He charged into the door, letting his shoulder bear the brunt of the force. The metal door crashed through with little resistance.

  ​Immediately the soldiers started shooting at him, expecting to kill him with such gunfire in such a small space. He just started on one end of the room and worked his way around to the other. Before he knew it, there was only one soldier left. The man had grabbed the little girl, and was holding a gun to her head. The man said something about letting him go or he’d kill her. James let his instincts control him, and he felt a small blade sprout from his arm, which he plucked from where it had grown. He threw it as a knife at the soldier, which pierced the man’s neck. As the man was stunned, James pushed the girl from the soldier’s arms. A long blade grew from the back of James’s fist, and he stabbed the soldier through the gut. It pierced him all the way through his back.

  ​The blade disappeared back inside James’s hand, and he turned and looked at the girl. He began to speak, “Are you all right?” he asked her through the armored face. The girl had brown hair and the same eyes as her father. She shook. She backed away from James in fear.

  ​“Please don’t hurt me,” she said. She kept backing away
, until she was at the doorway. She then ran out. James reached out his hand towards her, but stopped as he saw it. It was five long claws, covered in blood. He looked at his other hand. The same. He suddenly looked around himself. The dead bodies everywhere. Bodies he’d killed.

  ​“This isn’t me,” he said backing towards the window, “this isn’t me.” He turned and saw the window. He backed up a few feet, and ran towards it. He dived through it, breaking the glass. As he fell towards the street below, he hoped the xeno would let him end it. It didn’t. It forced him to reach his arm out and grab a ledge. The force of the stop would have broken, or at least pulled his arm from his socket if he was normal. The metal creature was now knitted inside him however, reinforcing, repairing, and holding together his body where his flesh could not.

  ​It gave him the strength and the will, and he leaped up, further than any man had ever leaped before. He leaped to the other side of the street, landing on the side of the building with his claws. He then moved as fast as possible, as far away as he could. The only thing on his mind now was that he wanted to get away. Unfortunately, the thing he most wanted to escape from was the creature. It was himself.

  ​The moment kept on playing in James’s mind. The girl, Alicia Vanguard, was so afraid of him. Seeing his hands, clawed and covered in blood. I lost control, he thought, and I didn’t even realize it. He shivered as he thought about it. There were quick flashes of lightning, followed by thunder echoing from the sky. The entire city was overcast with clouds. James could smell the rain coming, the dew and wetness before anything was even touched by the water. There was going to be another storm. After a few moments, rain started sprinkling down from the night sky. In not too long at all it began to come down hard, a large downpour.