The Americans: Apex Trilogy, Book 2

by Jake Bible

  “Stop!” the Doctor warned. “If she gets near you she will attack! She doesn’t know who you are anymore!”

  Melissa tried to shove past the Doctor, but he slashed out with the scalpel. The blade slid harmlessly off the protective suit Melissa had created and she grabbed his wrist, snapping it as she yanked back and down. The Doctor cried out in pain and stumbled backwards into the room and against the operating table. He instinctively reached back to brace himself and Heather’s jaws clamped down on his bleeding hand, ripping the flesh and crushing bone.

  “GOD! NO!” he screamed, struggling to get his hand out from Heather’s grinding teeth. “She’s killed me! I’ll be dead within twenty four hours!”

  Melissa looked at her aunt and tears welled in her eyes. “What did you do to her?” She grabbed the doctor by the throat and shoved his face into Heather’s. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?”

  Heather instantly let go of the hand and bit into the doctor’s cheek, thrashing her head back and forth, ripping the flesh right off. Stilig screamed and tried to push away, but Melissa held him tight, letting Heather get bite after bite of the doctor’s soft flesh.

  “Mel! Stop!” Beth cried, grabbing Melissa and pulling her away. The man collapsed to the floor, screaming in pain as he tried to clutch his shredded face with his mangled hand. Heather snarled and grunted as she hungrily chewed on the chunks of flesh she had torn away.

  “You fucking monster! What did you do to her?” Melissa kicked out, slamming her boots into the man’s midsection. She struck again and again, connecting with his chest, his neck, his face. Beth struggled to pull her far enough away so she couldn’t do anymore damage.

  “Stop! He can get us out of here!” Beth yelled, slapping Melissa’s face roughly, trying to bring the girl back to her senses.

  “I’ll fucking kill him!” Melissa shouted, but no longer lashing out, some of the fight gone as she watched Heather’s gore smeared face snarling at her.

  “I...can’t…let you…leave,” Dr. Stilig struggled to say. “Not…with her.”

  “He’s right,” Ms. Solosky said from behind them, her face white with fear and bloody from Melissa’s attack, as she slowly pushed herself to her feet. “She can infect everyone. You can’t let her leave.”

  “Infect? What are you talking about?” Beth asked. “What did you infect her with?”

  “We didn’t,” Ms. Solosky insisted. “She came to us with, um, something inside her. We were just…studying her when she died. We didn’t expect her to come back like the other things.”

  The images of the creatures that had attacked the bubble sped through Beth’s mind. “What are they, those things?”

  “We…don’t…know,” the Doctor said, his eyes darting to Ms. Solosky quickly.

  “Oh, I think you do!” Melissa shouted, yanking the man to his feet. She reached out and grabbed up some of the BC instruments nearby and quickly fashioned a pair of manacles. He winced and cried out as she roughly secured his hands together. Shoving him towards the hallway, she made another pair and handed them to Beth. “Put those on her.” Beth did so quickly. “Okay, if either of you want to live, you will do two things. First, you’ll get us the fuck out of here. Second, you’ll answer all of our questions.”

  “Not with her!” Ms. Solosky said, her voice cracking with fear. “She’ll infect everyone!”

  “How?” Melissa shouted. “How can she infect everyone?!?”

  “The…saliva,” Stilig gasped. “They…have to…bite you.”

  Melissa turned back to her aunt, barely recognizing the woman before her. “Sorry about this,” she said quietly. “But we can’t have you chomping on us while we try to save you.” Melissa grabbed onto the table and concentrated. The top of the table stretched and warped, the movement causing Heather to fight harder, her neck stretching towards Melissa, teeth gnashing brutally, chips of enamel mixing with the bloody foam. The warped BC became a small cage and closed about Heather’s head, shrinking slowly until it immobilized her completely. Melissa double-checked the restraints on Heather’s legs and arms, reinforcing all with BC. She kicked the brakes free on the table and began to roll it towards the door.

  “No!” Stilig shouted, trying to block her way, but he stumbled and collapsed, his body convulsing violently.

  “What’s happening?” Beth asked the assistant. “What’s wrong?”

  “Oh, no. No no no no no no,” she responded. “He’s turning already! It shouldn’t be this fast! A day, sometimes two, but not minutes!”

  The girls watched as Dr. Stilig’s body heaved and jerked, his back arching terribly, the sound of his spine cracking and breaking like gunshots, until finally he lay still, his eyes unfocused and glazed, his last breath wheezing from between his lips.

  “Kill him!” Ms. Solosky shouted. “You have to destroy the brain!”

  “Didn’t he just die?” Beth asked, shoving the doctor’s body to the side with her foot and helping Melissa wheel Heather into the hall.

  “Yes, but he’ll come back,” Ms. Solosky wailed. “They always come back! Kill him!”

  “Not a problem,” Melissa said, casually stomping on the man’s forehead once, twice and then a third time before the skull caved in and bloody grey matter oozed onto the floor. “That oughta do it.” She looked at the assistant. “I’m guessing you want to live? So if you would please point us to the lift, we’ll get the fuck out of here.”

  “You can’t,” the woman sobbed. “The Shop is in full lockdown. There isn’t any way out. It would take either Dr. Stilig’s override—” They all looked at the man’s crushed head and shivered. “—Mr. Zverev or the Empress herself.”

  “I think we can count them out,” Melissa said. “What do you think, freak? Can you get us out of here?”

  Beth looked at Melissa and then at the table carrying Heather. “I don’t know. Getting us down was easy. Gravity did the work. But getting us up? I don’t know.”

  The heavy sound of boots echoed down the hallway. “Sounds like thinking time is about up,” Melissa shouted. “Get us out of here.”

  Several guards rounded the corner and came to a halt, their rifles ready.

  “Surrender immediately!” the lead guard yelled.

  “Fuck you!” Beth yelled back, her hands slamming together, bringing all the BC out of the walls, crushing and chopping the guards into a pulp, leaving the hallway a mess of broken bodies and plaster.

  “Holy Christ…What are you?” the assistant gulped.

  “That’s the question,” Melissa said. “Looks like we go the other way until we can figure out how to get up and out.” Melissa turned the table around and began to run with it down the long hallway, speeding past closed and secure doors. Cries for help and pounding on the closed doors assaulted her ears, but Melissa couldn’t worry about that at the moment.

  Beth shoved the assistant after. “Go,” she barked. “You’re coming with us.”

  The three made it only a few yards when a sound from behind them caused Beth to glance over her shoulder. What she saw brought her to a dead stop. “I thought you said destroying the brain would kill him?”

  The assistant stopped also and looked behind her, the sight bringing her to her knees. “That...can’t...be.”

  They all watched as Dr. Stilig’s body pushed itself upright, the skull reforming, the scalp slowly knitting back together. The thing that was Stilig grunted and growled and Heather immediately answered in kind, drawing Stilig’s full attention to the girls and Ms. Solosky. Stilig bared his teeth and shrieked, running full speed towards them, his hands still bound by the BC manacles.

  “What the fuck do we do now?” Melissa screamed.

  “Run!!!” Beth shouted, grabbing one side of the table and helping Melissa push as fast as they could.

  Ms. Solosky continued to kneel in the hallway, her hands raised up and prayers streaming from her mouth.

  “Come on, you crazy bitch!” Melissa shouted after her. “Get up and move!”

&nb
sp; The woman didn’t respond, just continued to pray. Melissa turned away and was glad she had when the woman’s shrieks filled the hallway, then brutally cut short as her throat was ripped out and the crazed Stilig began to feed off of her, shoving chunks of flesh into his mouth as fast as he could.

  The girls came to the end of the hallway and turned the corner, only to face more guards.

  “Fuck!” Melissa swore. Her arm blades slid quickly into place as she shoved Heather’s table towards the guards, grabbed the end and flipped herself underneath, going along for the ride.

  The guards opened fire and Beth watched in horror as bits and pieces of Heather’s body exploded everywhere, spraying the walls with red-black goo as the table and Melissa slammed into the front line.

  “What are you doing?” Beth shouted, rushing towards the fray, yanking chunks of BC from the walls, shielding herself from the bullets flying at her.

  Melissa pushed herself from the table and executed a series of sweep kicks, knocking half the guards off their feet. She had their jugulars sliced open and spouting blood before any hit the floor. The remaining guards shifted their aim and Melissa was soon being pummeled by slugs. Her suit kept the bullets from penetrating, but the impacts knocked her off balance and she was unable to press her attack.

  Seeing Melissa was down, Beth changed from defensive to offensive, shattering the BC shields and sending the splinters and fractured pieces flying towards the guards. Only two were able to avoid the shrapnel, while the rest were ripped apart, their bodies dancing and jerking until the last piece of BC had hit them and then their corpses collapsed to the floor, many on top of Melissa.

  The last two guards stared at Beth for a moment, then turned and ran, realizing they were in over their heads.

  Suddenly, the alarms ceased and the resulting quiet made the sounds coming from Heather even more unsettling.

  “What the fuck were you thinking?” Beth shouted, shoving corpses away from Melissa and jerking her to her feet. “Most of those bullets hit Heather!”

  Melissa looked at her aunt. “I figured she’d fix herself just like psycho doctor did back there!” she shouted back, shoving Beth away. “Look! There isn’t a mark on her and she’s just as growly as before!”

  Beth began to protest further, but stopped when a howl behind them made both girls turn around. There, covered in blood and gore, stood Stilig, his eyes manic and teeth bared. He took one step, then another and another until he broke into a run, his arms outstretched, fingers bent like talons.

  “Not this fucker again,” Melissa sighed, her body exhausted. “Can you do something about this asshole?”

  Beth sighed with her and flicked her hands. BC shot from the walls and wrapped itself about Stilig, immobilizing him. He roared with frustration, then overbalanced and crashed to the floor, various fluids flying from his enraged mouth.

  “Thanks,” Melissa said. “Now let’s find a fucking way out of here.”

  They each grabbed the table again and pushed.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Zverev stood at the edge of the massive hole in the floor created by Beth’s dense BC bubble and glared. “Are you saying no one was able to get a shot off?”

  “No, sir, that isn’t what I’m saying at all,” one of the guards countered. “I’m saying we hit them several times, but they were in some type of shield. I’d never seen anything like it.”

  Zverev moved closer to the hole and pointed below. “What about the containment area? Has it been compromised? Have any of those things gotten out?”

  The guard leaned over for a better look and Zverev gave him a shove, sending the guard flailing and screaming as he fell. The impact could be heard from above and Zverev shone his halogen down for a better look. When none of the creatures pounced on the fresh meat, he looked over at the remaining guards. “Did any get out?”

  “No, sir,” a new guard answered, taking a step back. “All creatures are accounted for. However…”

  “Spit it out,” Zverev growled, pulling his sidearm.

  “Sector 17 has been breached. Men were dispatched to deal with it and the few survivors…”

  “Few survivors?” Zverev asked. The guard watched the sidearm carefully.

  “Yes, sir. The intruders seem to be highly trained. They have killed nearly everyone we have sent at them. But as I was saying, they report that the intruders are attempting to remove one of the creatures from the facility. They have it strapped to a gurney.” The man visibly flinched when he finished.

  “I’m not going to shoot you,” Zverev said. “Where are they now?”

  “Surveillance is limited, due to the destruction that sector has sustained, but we believe them to still be in 17.”

  “Good. Purge the level. Prepare fire suppression teams so it doesn’t spread to other levels, but make sure those fucking girls are found and killed,” Zverev growled. “If they aren’t…” He made sure to catch the eye of each guard standing before him. “…you will be.”

  ***

  “Where are they?” Billy asked, pacing the BTT’s cabin.

  “Sit down, William,” Alex moaned. “You’re making me nauseous with all that pacing.”

  “Sorry,” Billy said, pouring a large tumbler of whiskey and downing it in two gulps. “It’s just driving me nuts not knowing if they’re alive or not.”

  “Yes, it is frustrating,” Alex said. “But there is nothing we can do. I am in no shape to help. You are a Ghost, but your special talent is vehicle design, not combat. We know what happened last time you tried to push that point.” Alex ignored Billy’s glare at the remark. “And we certainly can’t just start firing into The Shop. A: because we don’t know where they are and we could kill them and B: The Shop has, well, certain items that don’t get along with explosives.”

  “So we just sit here and wait?” Billy whined.

  “Yes, if you would actually sit the fuck down!” Alex groaned.

  ***

  A series of clicking noises issued from the floor and Beth and Melissa looked at each other immediately.

  “You heard that, right?” Melissa asked.

  “Yes,” Beth answered as they each looked down to see small holes opening, spaced three centimeters apart.

  “That’s a lot of holes,” Melissa said. “Might be time for another Beth bubble.”

  “Except we don’t know what is going to come out of those holes,” Beth exclaimed. “Making a bubble that can stand impacts is one thing, but what if it’s acid that can eat through BC? Or heat that would cook us up?”

  “Jesus, you’re all optimistic,” Melissa sniped. She looked about them, seeing the lift doors. “I might be able to override the code and get us in there. I’m guessing the lift won’t be affected by whatever is coming.”

  Melissa stepped to the code panel and placed her right hand over it, trying to read the BC components that made up the mechanism. She shook her head back and forth quickly as she concentrated. Within seconds there was a series of bangs and the lift doors partially slid open, just enough for the girls to squeeze through, but not enough for the gurney to fit. The clicking from the floor stopped.

  “Fuck,” Melissa cursed. “We’re gonna have to take her off the table.”

  “You take her off the table!” Beth shouted. “She’s your aunt!”

  “Shut the fuck up, freak! Help me get her off the table! Melt that BC into a helmet or something so she can’t bite us and we’ll shove her in the fucking lift!”

  Beth grimaced, but focused on the BC, making it separate from the table and fully encapsulating Heather’s head. Beth released Heather’s arms and legs and Melissa used her blades to cut the straps that still held her in place. Heather immediately reached for the girls, trying to claw at their faces, but Beth gave her a shove and a kick into the lift. They dashed in after her and Melissa struggled to get the doors closed, but finally was able to.

  ***

  What was once Dr. Stilig, but then something much different, continue
d to thrash about, stopping suddenly when the hallway began to fill with gas. The thing choked and gagged on the mist that grew thick from floor to ceiling.

  The creature’s ears heard one last click and was then engulfed in flames that quickly reached well above 500 degrees Celsius.

  Within seconds, the former Dr. Stilig’s body was reduced to fine ash.

  ***

  Even through the shielded doors of the lift, the intense heat could be felt from the other side.

  “Okay, now get the lift moving,” Beth said, wrapping BC coils around Heather’s body, trying to keep her from attacking them both.

  “Not quite so easy,” Melissa complained, trying to get a feel for the lift controls. “The door mechanisms were right there, fairly easy to override. But, the lift drives are locked down in a whole other part of the building.” Melissa looked apologetically at Beth. “I’m sorry, but I’m too new at this. I don’t know how to make us move.”

  “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Beth swore and Heather’s growls grew louder. Beth eyed the transformed Ghost and smiled. “I bet I know who does. Call Styles again.”

  ***

  “Shit, girls! What the fuck is going on down there?” Styles answered the com. “I just saw a temperature spike that could cook the yellow right outta the sun!”

  “Styles! Shut up!” Melissa barked. “Please tell me you have Alex on board?”

  “Got him in the back. He’s pretty fucked up, but conscious.”

  “Put him on the com. We need his royal privilege!”

  Styles transferred the com signal to open speaker in the cabin and leaned back, shouting through the open cockpit door. “Melissa is on the com. You’re a go.”

  Billy looked puzzled. “Who’s a go?”

  “Alex is, you moron! Why the fuck would I want to talk to your scabbed-out ass?” Melissa shouted, continuing before Billy could respond. “Listen, Alex, we’re stuck in a lift in…looks like…Sector 17. I need your royal override code to get this thing moving and out of this mother fucking hellhole!”

  “Um, I haven’t been given the code in years,” Alex stated. “I couldn’t even guess. They probably change it daily.”