by Jake Bible
“I doubt Nat has the attention span to memorize a new one each day,” Billy offered. “What would she want it to be?”
Alex thought for a moment, trying to figure out his sister’s warped mind.
“Don’t have all fucking day, Al!” Melissa screamed. “Code me the fuck now!”
“Hold on!” Alex shouted, regretting the force he used. “Ow. Try 13289955.”
There was brief silence on the com. “Wrong one! Hit me again!”
“Okay….um, let’s see,” Alex mumbled. “Try 13289554.”
“That’s almost the same number!”
“Just try it!”
Silence. “No! Give me another!”
“Hmmmm…no, she wouldn’t be that stupid…,” Alex mused. “Try 13288231.”
“What’s with the 1328’s?”
“Inside family stuff. Don’t ask.”
Billy and Alex waited.
“That’s it! We’re moving!”
“Okay, put the same code in again!” Alex said. “That will keep Zverev from trying an override until you get to the top floor! Watch your asses, they’ll be waiting!”
***
“Sir! We have a lift coming up from Sector 17!” a guard shouted.
Zverev, donning his combat armor, rushed to the closest control panel. “Shit! I’m locked out! How did they do that?” He grabbed up his auto-rifle and stormed from the equipment room. “I want all available guards on the main lift doors now! Ground floor! Weapons hot and kill on sight in effect!”
The man shoved past confused guards and fleeing techs, his eyes narrowed to slits, a murderous growl in his throat.
***
“What’s the plan, BC wizard?” Melissa asked Beth, shoving Heather into a corner for the fourth time as the crazed woman tried to slam into her again and again.
“Plan?” Beth asked. “I don’t have a plan. You’re the one with the training, not me!”
“Great,” Melissa grumbled, grabbing Heather by the shoulders and tossing her to the floor. “Maybe we can sick Heather on them?”
Beth thought for a moment. “That’s not a bad idea. They won’t know what to do with her. It’ll be chaos. Plus, she apparently can’t be killed.”
“I was fucking joking!” Melissa snarled.
“And I’m not,” Beth said sternly. “I’ll tether her to me so she can’t get away. We can take all the BC off except for the head and let her loose. I’m guessing if any of them know what she is, they’ll keep a wide berth or try to shoot her in the head, which we both know is useless.”
Melissa grumbled under her breath for a moment while Beth just stood there staring at her.
“Fine!” Melissa finally relented as they were only one floor away, mere seconds from the door opening.
Beth focused and loosened the BC restraining Heather’s body, ready to let her free as soon as the lift doors slid apart.
“I’m getting behind you both since I don’t have a fancy suit like yours,” Beth said.
Melissa looked at Beth’s clothes, seeming to notice them for the first time. “Shit. Sorry about that,” Melissa apologized. “Freak.”
Beth smiled and the two girls braced themselves for the unknown onslaught.
***
The lift doors slid apart and the small window of opportunity the guards had to launch rockets, throw flames and shoot bullets was lost as they all looked in terror at the bloody, foaming, enraged Heather rushing towards them, arms free, hands like claws, and the most inhuman screech any of them had ever heard emanating from her mouth.
“What are you looking at?” Zverev screamed at them. “FIRE!”
But, it was too late as Heather hit the first wall of guards, her nails ripping into armor, shredding it like cotton bedclothes. Men and women screamed in agony as their flesh was flayed off their chests, arms, legs, throats, anywhere Heather could expose skin.
No one even paid attention to Melissa and Beth exiting the lift until they joined in the fight.
Beth brought BC to her, mentally pulling pistols, rifles, knives, batons right out of the guards’ grasps. The BC began to spin about her, creating a whirlwind of metal, protecting her from the few guards that did focus on her and pummeling those that were in her way.
Blades extended, and her own rage building as she watched Heather mutilate guard after guard while still taking a beating, Melissa roared at the guards in front of her, making many stop to assess whether she was another like Heather or not. In their hesitation, Melissa relieved them of limbs, guts and heads, her BC blades sharp enough to cut through the strongest protective gear.
Beth felt one, then two bullets whiz by her head, the latter taking a piece of her ear with it. She fell to the floor, her concentration drawn from the BC, the whirlwind collapsing quickly. She put her arms over her head and covered herself as the weapons fell on top of her.
“Just a fucking girl!” Zverev shouted, yanking Beth up and onto her feet, his rifle pointed at her chest. “A fucking dead girl!”
He squeezed the trigger, but was a moment too late, his shot going wild as several of his guards slammed into him, panic in their voices, as they tried to escape what was coming at them. Heather, free of all BC once Beth’s focus was lost, stood before Zverev, chunks of flesh and sinew hanging from her open mouth. The man had only a second to look about him at the eviscerated bodies covering the floor before Heather leapt. He tried to protect himself, bringing his rifle in front of him, but was only able to block two swipes before she overpowered him, bringing him to the floor with the others.
Heather’s growls and snarls were muffled by the wetness of Zverev’s blood as she ripped his throat open and drank the hot liquid with an unquenchable thirst. He tried to scream, but only a pitiful, wet gurgle escaped his lips, then nothing as Heather tore into his voice box.
“Come on!” Melissa cried, helping Beth to her feet. “Get control of her and let’s get the fuck out of here!”
Beth pushed what she was seeing to the back of her brain, not letting the gruesome image before her shock her into inaction. BC shot out from everywhere, wrapping Heather about the legs and torso, pinning her arms to her sides. Beth didn’t have the focus to cover Heather’s head properly, but she created a brace that kept the snarling woman’s neck rigid, limiting the reach of those deadly teeth.
A massive explosion nearly caused Beth to lose control once again, but she held on, keeping Heather immobilized.
“What…?” Beth exclaimed, but quickly knew when she saw Melissa toss the rocket launcher aside, the front entrance a gaping hole, their way out.
***
“Holy shit!” Styles yelled, lowering the lift cage the second he saw the front of The Shop burst outward in a shower of concrete and metal. “Here they come!” Styles gasped at what he saw. It wasn’t the sight of Melissa and Beth that surprised him, even though he didn’t quite understand why Heather was wrapped up and being pulled along by both girls, it was the sight of what was coming after them that shocked him. “Fuck me! What the hell are those things?”
Below the BTT Melissa and Beth fought and struggled to get Heather to the descending lift cage, their struggle made doubly hard as they saw what used to be guards, now turned bloodthirsty creatures, scrambling over debris and corpses that hadn’t changed yet just to get at them.
The girls made it to the cage and Styles watched as Beth yanked open the door and shoved Heather inside, somehow getting the BC of the cage to meld with the BC that held Heather.
“Come on!” Styles could see her mouth to Melissa, who was having her own struggle as two severely messed up guards closed on her. Blades extended, Melissa gutted one and decapitated the other before returning her attention to the first and ramming a blade through the thing’s forehead.
“Are you seeing this?” Styles shouted, activating a holo of the scene in the cabin. “What the holy fuck is going on?”
“Jesus Christ!” Billy called out. “Get them the fuck out of there!”
Th
e moment Melissa was inside the cage, Styles brought the thing up as fast as he could. Three of the creatures leapt at it, one able to grab on and keep hold as the cage lifted towards the BTT. Melissa stabbed the thrashing monstrosity over and over until she finally pierced its skull. The creature fell, its body impacting below, exploding in a mass of guts, blood and bone.
The lift cage had barely been secured, and the bottom hatch closed, before Styles hit the thrust, sending the BTT flying through the sky and away from the hellish scene.
“Hang on!” Styles yelled over the com, but everyone already had their bodies braced against the sudden acceleration.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Empress Natalya struggled to activate The Shop’s security holos from her private rooms, but the system wasn’t responding. Frustrated, she tried her com several times, hoping to reach Zverev, but to no avail.
“Incompetent fools!” she screamed, storming from her private wing and towards the exit leading to The Shop. “I’ll have them all boiled in their own excrement for not responding to me!”
In minutes she made it to the door, threw it open and froze instantly.
She watched flames licking the sky, spouting from the entrance and roof of The Shop. She could see guards running about, trying to put out the fires, but there were other guards, guards not quite right, that seemed to be attacking the ones coming to help. Screams and bloodcurdling cries filled the air.
“What is going on?” she shouted at them all. “I command all of you to stop immediately! Get control of yourselves!”
From out of a cloud of smoke, Zverev stumbled and staggered and the Empress stomped towards her head of security. “Zverev! What in God’s name is happening here? Have you lost your mind? Get these idiots in line and put out those fires! Now is not the…” She trailed off as Zverev got closer. His face was ravaged, strips of flesh hanging like string. His entire uniform was coated in red-black, sticky blood and his throat was nothing but a gaping hole. The Empress covered her mouth and backed away. “Zverev? What’s happened to you? Zverev?”
She began to panic when instead of responding, Zverev bared his blood-stained teeth and roared, breaking into a run, hands with half eaten fingers extended toward her. Empress Natalaya Tartarov felt the cold metal of the palace door behind her, but that was the last thing she felt before Zverev pounced on her, his teeth ripping into her soft shoulder, tearing a massive chunk away, spitting it out and going back for the throat. Blood gushed and spurted, soaking her regal dress as she feebly beat at Zverev until the life left her and her arms went limp.
Once the body cooled Zverev lost interest and shoved away from the corpse, looking into the haze of smoke, trying to locate a new victim, a new meal. He rushed away, his undead legs leaping over rubble and other feeding creatures, his ears and nose leading him to a group of living guards that were surrounded and hopelessly outnumbered.
While the screams of the living were choked off, the Empress Natlaya’s corpse lay glassy-eyed on the ground, shreds of flesh scattered everywhere. Minutes ticked by, the last few cries for help dying out, then Natalya’s body twitched and her jaw clacked open and closed repeatedly until she bolted upright, the sound of pure hunger, rage and death shrieking impossibly from her open throat and swollen, cold lips.
***
“Well, that wasn’t what we had planned, but it will do nicely,” Mr. Brown Eyes said, watching the hacked security holos from the safety of the Three’s HAV as it sped away from the overtaken palace.
“Yes, we can work with this,” Mr. Plain agreed. “Has Ms. Isely responded yet?”
“Yes,” Mr. Continental answered. “She has the first wave of troops ready for deployment. They can be here within 24 hours, and if all goes well, to the Chinese border in another 24.”
“Then tell her to deploy them,” Mr. Brown Eyes said. “Let’s get the ball rolling, shall we? No need to wait any longer.”
“And what about the ‘special project’ she was working on?” Mr. Plain asked.
“Mr. Stone? He is ready as well,” Mr. Continental smiled. “His modifications seem to be in perfect order.”
“Excellent. Will he be joining the troops?” Mr. Plain asked.
“Yes,” Mr. Continental answered. “This will be the true test of his new skills. If he can succeed here, then taking on the Jacks will be nothing for him or others like him.”
The Three grinned at each other, satisfaction dripping from their smiles. Each turned back to the holos and watched the dead creatures move from squirming body to squirming body, desperate to fill their hunger for flesh.
***
Billy stared into the bloodshot and insane eyes of Heather Walton and his breath caught in his throat.
“She’s dead, trust us,” Melissa said. “She was dead when we found her.”
“But…but…but…,” Billy stuttered.
“We don’t know what happened to her,” Beth said. “The doctor that was torturing her seemed caught off-guard that she had come back, although he wasn’t too surprised.”
“What do you mean?” Alex asked weakly, leaning against the door jam of the cargo hold. “He knew this would happen?”
“No,” Melissa replied. “He had seen this before, but was shocked it was happening to Heather.” Melissa began to strip off her gore-matted suit, stepping out of the BC outfit, not caring as both Billy and Alex turned away from her naked body. “Don’t touch my suit. I haven’t figured out how to clean it yet. Where’s the fucking shower on this thing?”
“Back of the cabin,” Alex answered. “Full shower with everything you’ll need to scrub clean.”
Melissa stopped, her soot covered face right in Alex’s “Nothing will scrub me clean of this. Nothing.”
She walked off towards the stairs leading up to the main passenger cabin and both men turned to Beth.
“What the fuck happened in there?” Billy asked.
“Are you alright? You’re bleeding,” Alex asked right after.
Beth didn’t answer, her attention focused on the struggling Heather.
“That will hold her for as long as it takes to get us where we are going,” Beth said, acting as if no one had spoken.
“Beth,” Alex asked warmly. “What happened in The Shop?”
The girl slowly turned towards Alex, her face a mixture of shock and fear. “I don’t know,” she answered quietly, looking back at Heather. “But I know what Hell will be like if I’m doomed to her fate.” She stepped back from the cage and looked each man in the eye briefly, before walking after Melissa, leaving a trail of her own torn and soiled clothing. “Burn those please,” she called back when she was halfway up the stairs.
Billy just stood there, while Alex leaned against the wall, both stunned, not sure if they should go after the girls or stay and watch the creature that used to be Heather Walton.
***
For a brief moment, Mr. Stone believed his entire body was on fire, but as soon as his eyes opened the sensation went away and he wondered if he had dreamed it. Then he saw where he was, and the wires connected to his body, and knew it wasn’t a dream.
“Mr. Stone,” Ms. Isely said, leaning over the exam table. “Welcome back to consciousness. How do you feel?”
He tried to speak, but all that came out was a harsh rasp.
“My apologies,” Ms. Isely said. “I’ll have a technician fetch you some water. I’m going to ask a couple of questions, if that is okay? You’ll just need to nod your head. Alright?” Mr. Stone did just that, nod his head. “Wonderful. First question, do you know who you are?”
Mr. Stone nodded.
“Excellent. Can you feel your fingers?”
Mr. Stone nodded and wiggled the fingers on both hands.
“Fantastic. How about your toes?”
Same result.
“Now, can you roll your head fully to the side? Great. How about the other side? Fine, just fine. Any pain? No? Excellent. Ah, here’s your water.” Ms. Isley took the cup of water from th
e technician and helped Mr. Stone sit upright to take a sip. He felt a bit light headed, but it soon passed.
Mr. Stone studied his surroundings carefully as he took many slow sips. He was in a small room, pure white walls with zero equipment to speak of except for the table he was on. The wires attached to him fell to a hole in the floor and disappeared from there. As far as he could tell, there wasn’t a door.
“Thanks,” he croaked.
“Of course, Mr. Stone,” Ms. Isely smiled. “Now, I do have some unfortunate news.” Mr. Stone narrowed his eyes and Ms. Isely laughed. “Nothing horrible, I assure you! It is just that the training we had hoped to give you will have to be uploaded directly. While this saves time, and we have found only decreases efficiency by about 15%, it can be a might uncomfortable.”
“Upload?” Mr. Stone asked. “Upload what?”
“Your training, Mr. Stone, like I said. You don’t expect to just be able to magically know how to use your new gifts, do you?”
“Gifts? What have you done to me?” Memories of the past couple days began to filter back through his brain. The image of Reginald being killed the most predominate. “Who are you?”
“I am your new boss, Mr. Stone. Any other questions will be answered by the upload,” Ms Isely replied, a mind spike in her hand. She set the spike into a waiting receptacle on the table and several small lights began to blink. “So, let’s begin! Oh, and don’t worry, you won’t be alone.” Ms. Isely clapped her hands and Mr. Stone’s world went black.
“I can’t see!” he exclaimed.
“Yes, we can’t have any external stimuli getting in the way of the upload.”
With that Mr. Stone lost his sense of hearing, smell, touch. He was just a mind floating in nothingness. Until the excruciating pain slammed into his brain.
Pain and a voice.
***
“That was incredible back there,” Melissa said as she toweled off. Beth stepped into the small shower stall. “I don’t know what kicked your ass into gear, but you have some crazy new skills.”