Bang!
The eyes retracted back into the darkness as Hastings fired at it, unsure of whether it hit home or not. It shrieked, veiled in the darkness. Randy picked up the goner and began to run towards Greg’s direction. His feet were heavy and numb. He couldn’t feel his toes as each step made it feel like his legs were made of glass.
Hastings and Josh were hot on his heels as the Silhouette dashed after them. A bolt of lightning danced in the sky, raining down a sheet of white light bringing forth to light their fear induced features.
The goner Randy carried over his shoulder thrashed about wildly putting Randy off balance. Shit, I’m going to fall. Randy wobbled under it’s resistance. “Drop it or else we’ll all die!” Greg shouted looking over his shoulder. Randy fought his urge to dump the goner and cling on to life. The door was in front of them. It stood patiently waiting for their arrival. Greg climbed up the stairs and in one swift motion flung the door open and entered into the warm safety of the building. Hastings and Josh next made their way up the stairs. Josh darted into safety as Hastings spun around to check on the Captain’s son. Randy was last but before he could make it to the steps he stumbled and fell down.
Randy watched in horror as the goner flew off his shoulder, it’s head connecting solidly with the tiled stairs disturbing a slab of water flowing down the stairs. It groaned as if it hurt.
Fuck! He shouted in his mind. He looked around to see if the creature was nearly upon him. His feet jellied and his hands refused to cooperate to lift himself off of the wet ground.
“Tch,” Hastings grimaced as he bought the rifle’s optic to eye level and fired at the creature. The gunfire stunted it’s progress but it didn’t deter it for long. The gun fired silently, like a mechanical blow dart.
Click! Click! Click!
“Shit, reloading now!” he announced as his weapon ran dry. Tossing the used mag onto the ground below, he quickly pulled out a fresh mag and cocked the weapon once more. The cocking sounded like music to his ears. It gave an uncanny feel of being able.
“Randy!” Greg yelled straining his lungs.
“On your feet soldier! Don’t die now or the Captain’s gonna have my head!” Hastings shouted descending down the stairs and yanking Randy by an arm keeping an eye on the creature. It roared again. It’s bloodlust and intentions were clear. Randy managed to get up. Hastings dragged him by the arm up the stairs as Hastings fired at the direction the creature was coming from. It darted towards them again. It’s breathing and footsteps were heavy. The thumping noise that it’s feet produced prickled the base of their necks as Greg closed the door shut.
Randy and Hastings were in the building. Josh squatted, cowering in fear near the elevator. Greg ran and called for the elevator. A familiar whirring noise filled the lobby. The lightning flashed again. Greg’s jaw dropped open on witnessing the sight on the other side of the door.
It stood there outside the door. It’s eyes were not like the other gonerz. It was the most devilish creature that dwelled in the deepest trenches of the abyss. Greg frantically pressed the elevator button. The whirring stopped as the creature was again shrouded by the rain and the dark.
The doors opened and Greg and Hastings dragged Josh and Randy into the elevator before the doors closed. The lift began moving towards it’s destination casually, not caring about the impending danger. The lift jerked to a halt and the doors parted way to a safe haven. The floor of the lift was drenched in rain water as the retrieval team was soaked to the skin.
Everyone gasped at the sight. Josh couldn’t stop the incessant clattering of his whites. His pupils had been robbed of their colour.
Randy gasped heavily as he felt blood flowing into his feet, spreading it’s warmth to every cold corner. He slumped to the floor on all fours. Hastings and Greg held each of his arms and pulled him out of the elevator. Kaz rushed to wrap a blanket around Josh. His face was white as a sheet. Kaz and another whitecoat guided him out of the elevator with great care.
“What the hell happened?” Roland asked making his way to his son.
Randy remained mum. Dana wrapped him up with a whitecoat. “Come, there’s a heater in the testing room,” Dana said softly.
“What happened?” Roland asked again looking at Hastings irritated.
“We-We couldn’t get the goner,” Hastings stammered.
“To hell with the goner! What happened to Randy?” he snarled.
The sergeant gulped as he opened his mouth to respond. “Something chased us out there. It was nothing like any of the gonerz. It was....different.”
“That wasn’t the question Hastings! What happened to my son?” Roland hissed.
“I don’t know Captain! He nearly had all of us killed by switching off out there!” Hastings snapped.
“Jesus Christ,” Roland rubbed his chin in agitation. What the hell could’ve he seen that spooked him so much. He ran his hand furiously through his neatly trimmed hair. Roland turned towards Greg. Joanne was helping him dry himself. Greg understood the gaze.
“It was the creature behind that roar last night. It bought down the door of the lab. There’s no mistaking it,” he said.
“What are you talking about?” Roland asked.
“What I’m saying is that thing is extremely dangerous. The crawler was one thing. But this-this is something else.”
The erratic rumbling of thunder sneaked into the basement.
“This thing feels more malevolent-more malicious-more evil,” he continued.
“An Alpha,” Mark muttered adjusting his glasses.
“You mean-” Joanne began.
“Yes. It’s most probably an alpha,” he said tying his hands behind his back. He didn’t try to hide the worried look that he now wore. It suddenly made him look a lot older. “Alpha’s are the apex. The penultimate-the pinnacle of it’s kind. From what you’ve said I believe what you encountered was indeed an alpha.”
“Will it be a problem?” Roland asked.
“It’s more than a problem. It brought down a solid steel door like it was nothing. If it’s made it’s way here, we aren’t safe anymore.”
A loud thud interrupted the conversation.
“What the hell was that?” Chester asked looking at the elevators.
Thud!
Thud!
The lights flickered. The number on the display of the elevator on the right changed. It was coming down.
“Somebody’s coming,” Mark swallowed.
“It’s come,” Hastings clenched his teeth. Roland looked over at his subordinate to note his visible distress. Hastings was the definition of a loyal, abiding soldier who had no qualms of setting foot on the battlegrounds thousands of miles away from home. But that hardened layer had been washed off in the tempest above ground.
The thud sent a shockwave of fear throughout the basement. Roland signalled Karim and Hastings to be at the ready.
The display read ‘B’. Karim nervously shuffled from one foot to another.
The elevator opened.
The doors parted to reveal an empty elevator.
Roland and his men lowered their weapons with visible relief. Karim moved towards the empty elevator before it could close. As he neared the elevator, something crashed suddenly into the elevator floor. It crashed into the floor with a resounding thud taking Karim by complete surprise.
What he saw caused him to bend over and scramble away from the lift. He fought to prevent the contents of his stomach escaping through his lips.
Roland stared at the thing on the floor. Sean ran and held the elevator button to prevent it from closing. A horrendous stench attacked their noses. The sight was equally ghastly if not more. Mark pressed a used handkerchief against his nostrils as he scanned the thing on the floor. “It’s the remains of a....goner,” he mumbled through the kerchief.
“It looks like it’s been through a shredder or something,” Roland said grimacing.
Mark knelt over to examine the body closely. “This-these a
re bite marks. It was eaten,” he said adjusting his glasses.
“Eaten? I thought these things were doing the eating. Not the other way around,” Roland said.
Greg now was on the scene. Taking a look at the mangled remains of the goner on the floor he said, “This was the one we had captured,” his eyes narrowing to slits. “The alpha did this.”
Kaz took a deep breath. “Feeding on it’s own kind? So the alpha goes after it’s own kind as well?”
“Bloody hell,” Mark remarked taking off his glasses to rub his eyes with the back of his hand.
“I don’t think it mutilated it’s own kind because it’s cannibalistic,” Greg said.
“What do you mean?” Kaz asked puzzled.
“It’s sending us a message,” he said pressing his lips into a flat line. “It probably knew that we were taking this thing back here and.....chose to deliver it here itself.”
“You are saying this thing is sending us a message?” Roland asked.
Greg nodded subtly.
“Did you shoot at it?” Mark asked quizzically.
“Yeah, a couple of times. Why?” Hastings said.
“It could be that it ate this goner to heal itself,” Mark said disturbed.
“That’s some fantasy bullshit right there,” Chester said, eyes bulged.
“As bullshit as the situation is, I’m not willing to rule out anything. If this is true, it’s pretty much invincible.”
Randy listened carefully to every word everyone had to say.
“It’s probably been following us,” Sean added holding the button.
“If that’s true, then we aren’t safe here. We are all in danger,” Joanne said slightly alarmed.
“To think it can think this far. It’s frightening,” Kaz said rubbing his eyebrows together.
“There’s also the possibility that there’s more than one of them out there,” Mark added.
“Jesus. First we lose our chance to examine a live specimen and now these alpha’s are roaming about sending everything in it’s wake into the afterlife,” Kaz said visibly tensed.
“Is there no way to examine this?” Roland asked with a glimmer of hope.
“I’m afraid not,” Mark answered. “There’s hardly anything left to examine,” he said observing the clump of flesh and blood on the floor.
“It was him,” Randy finally said. It immediately garnered almost everyone’s attention.
“What?” Joanne asked.
“The man.”
Most were perplexed upon hearing this. Joanne shot Greg a quick look. Greg’s face was stoic. “Are you sure?” he asked lowering his voice. Randy simply nodded his head. A trace of life had returned to his face.
“Man? What man?” Roland asked.
“The one who started it all; the man.
Chapter 9
“What are you talking about?” Mark questioned narrowing his eyes. Roland was a bottle of frustration at this point. Chester gave Sean a puzzled look as Sean shrugged. Randy huffed and said, “It was the same thing that killed Professor Broad: the one I found in the washroom; it’s the same.”
“The alpha?” Mark asked.
“Yeah.”
Greg tried to piece the puzzle together. The man that they saw was a goner just like the rest of them. Or was it? Had something happened that drastically altered it’s appearance and characteristics?
“Mark...err...Professor, you said that the virus acts differently based on-on this evolution factor, correct?” Greg asked fishing for a piece to fit into the incomplete puzzle that lay intangible before him.
“Yes, why?”
“Do the creatures directly evolve to an advanced state or does it happen sequentially?”
“Sequentially I’d suppose. Perhaps in the rarest of cases it could perhaps skip to the final state.”
This isn’t one those rarest cases. If the one from the first day is indeed the alpha then it must’ve evolved in this time span. Greg’s mind worked at remarkable speed to find the right pieces to complete the puzzle. Kaz was quite impressed with Greg.
“This kid...he’s something else isn’t he?” Kaz whispered to Mark.
“He is. His intellect is one thing but his keen eye for detail and deduction are simply astounding. If he was into Biotechnology he would’ve without a doubt made Z level, perhaps even faster than Sharyn,” he said sparing no adulation.
“The alpha also has the ability to control other gonerz,” Joanne added.
“Right. Being the alpha gives it dominion over the rest. The fact that it sent us this present shows that it hasn’t lost it’s ability to think entirely. Professor is there any way to draw out the human part trapped inside?”
“I suppose we could try appealing to the human part. Something that meant a lot when they were human?”
Greg looked crestfallen. What could be important to that thing?
If that wasn’t enough, it was hard to say whether it would work at all.
***
“Do you see that?” Sharyn asked squinting at the screen. The Colonel simply stared at the screen. A cold sweat drenched him. The frozen frame depicted four pixelated men whose silhouettes were barely visible in the rain in the Biosciences block. A blurry, pixelated figure was visible at the remote corner of the giant screen. Fast forward a few frames and it’s gaze met the defenceless lens’. The screen was filled with white and black dots dancing about wildly after that frame.
“What is that?” Mathers asked bleakly, his voice betraying an ever miniscule measure of discomfort.
“That is an alpha,” she promptly responded. “It’s the apex, or so we think.”
An alpha, humph. This is a fucking nightmare. How can such....a creature exist? He contemplated, bags underlining his eyes. He looked over at the spot where Carter was executed. They had removed his body, but the blood remained, fused with the wood. As if the creatures weren’t enough, watching his comrade; a subordinate no less being executed right before his very eyes was mortifying. Did they not care about consequences? Do they not know that killing a soldier warrants a death penalty?
What ran amok on the streets was an impending death sentence to the rest of humanity. The fact that one of those four silhouettes looked like one of his men gave him a glimmer of hope that Roland and his men would come for them. Never had Colonel Mathers felt so powerless; so weak; helpless. It was ironic how even men with power felt hapless at certain times. Fate had dealt them a cruel hand. The screen sprung back with footage. Nothing particularly interesting except maybe for the fact that some creature dubbed the alpha roamed freely laying waste to humans. He watched as the rain slammed the spotless window without tire. Lightning bolts danced across the grey skies. Mathers wondered how the weather could change so dramatically in almost no time. An ominous feeling teased his sixth sense. He pinched himself to step back into reality.
“Ma’am?” Stefan started. “It’s the Chairman.”
Sharyn’s face was bleached with concern. Stefan stood ready to obey her next command. She extended her hand forward. He handed her a mobile phone. “Hello?” she said softly. She listened intently in silence as the voice at the other end spoke and Mathers looked on. Her features remained unperturbed as she pulled away the mobile phone away from her ear. She stared off at the screen before tossing the phone furiously towards the wall. The phone struck the wall with enough force to cause it’s glass to fragment into many splinters.
“Somebody informed the Chairman about the project. SON OF A BITCH!!” she screamed angrily. “Now...She’s going to win...Aaargh,” she looked about, as if searching for something else to toss to vent out her frustration. This was an unusual sight for all of them. The usually calm and composed Sharyn Draxler yelling at the top of her voice belting out a slur of obscenities. Her bubbling eyes simmered down to luke warm. Once again composing herself into the elegant lady that she thought herself to be, she rationally thought of the situation, like a scientist. In midst of all her musing she signalled to Lou. At
once the soldier stepped forward awaiting his next command. “There are rats among us. We need to flush them out. Take care of it.” Lou nodded. A glint of joy reflected off his face at the possibility of dispatching people. “Some of your men I presume Colonel?” She asked looking his way.
“If I had moles in this godforsaken company I wouldn’t have let this project continue, nor would I be in this pickle,” he shrugged. She weighed his words hoping to weed away the deception. Her gaze was now more focused and empty. She appeared to think for a while. Swiftly she pulled Lou’s service weapon and aimed it at Mathers. He didn’t even flinch at the sight of the weapon staring him in the eye. She quickly turned around and bang!
Stefan peered down to see his lavender shirt take on a burgundy hue, drowning him. His hands quivered as the redness spread towards the floor, blazing a trail in its wake. He could only look at the woman he served without question in utter consternation. His palm came away wet when he felt the trail of blood. The magical tablet he held dropped to the floor haplessly. A drop or two trickled down to the screen, lighting up in the presence of the backlit. He clutched his wound wincing as he did so. The bullet had caught him in the abdomen. He collapsed to the floor gasping audibly, streaks of sweat streaming down his face.
“They say only ten percent of all abdominal gunshot wounds die. I wonder if this is true,” She said gazing down at Stefan writhing in pain. Mustering all his might he spoke, “Why?”
“It’s obvious isn’t it? You informed the Chairman. I’ve always known you were a mole planted by the state.” Stefan winced at her sudden revelation but remained mum. “The Colonel knew this. You were the trump weren’t you? It’s sad really. I thought I had turned you over to my side.”
“I-I am on your side. I-The Chairman needed to-to know. You-no-we just committed ge-genocide. I still am with you. I-I want to save you fr-from this madness,” he managed clutching his open wound, tears welling up in his eyes. Sharyn’s gaze journeyed down to his wound.
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