by Maxey, Phil
Most in the room leaned in to get a better look at the young soldier.
Clement went to talk but Joel beat him to it. “Where’s he stationed now?” he said to Huxley.
The older man scrolled the screen down, then looked up. “He’s one of the soldiers guarding the otherhumans…”
*****
Anna watched a teenage girl frown at not being able to sleep. Most of the hybrids were awake in the warehouse, but looked tired, their metabolisms still not used to the shift in sleeping pattern. In a way, she envied them. As each day passed the sun’s rays had become heavier on her body, until she welcomed the sunset. But for the hybrids the surge of energy when the stars and moon appeared was still strange.
She got up from her position at the back of the large dusty space, and went to move towards the front exit, when a man who she knew as Henry approached her from the shadows.
“Is it okay I get some air outside? I saw you going to the exit, thought I could join you?”
She nodded and they walked to the door, her pulling it open and embraced the chilled night air. Closing it, she leaned up against the wall nearby and stretched her limbs.
“So… how long you been a doctor?”
“What? Oh—” She knew he liked her and started to regret agreeing for him to go with her. “— quite a while.” She briefly smiled hoping the abrupt answer would send the right signal, but he stepped closer and she did her best to hide a sigh. “Look, I think right now it’s not...” Her brain caught up with what her eyes was telling her.
Henry looked in the same direction. At the lot entrance. He looked back to her. “What is it?”
Anna moved away from the wall, straining her vision to better see the empty space where a Humvee usually was located. “The guards are gone.” She looked at Henry. “Go back—” Her radio sparked into life with Joel’s voice.
“Anna? Are you there? Over?”
“Go back inside!” she said to the man next to her. He turned and walked quickly to the door, doing as instructed. She held the radio to her mouth. “What is it Joel? Over.”
“We think the corporation has compromised some of the guards where you are. Can you go outside? What—”
“I’m already outside. I’m not seeing any soldiers. They seem to have—” She felt the air pressure change, but still wasn’t quick enough to avoid the hammer blow to the side of her head. She spun completely around, landing heavily on the concrete, a momentary buzzing blocking her thoughts. In the dark near the door was a partially formed figure of a man. An arm, part of a torso, perhaps some hair? The scene did not make any sense, but she knew she was in danger. The shadow man evaporated, but this time she was ready and as her hearing picked up the slightest of rustling, she slid to the side, becoming a blur herself and watched as a boot with a leg attached up to the knee materialized where her ribs would have been. She flew forward, her eyes darkening, her hands becoming claws and swiped across her attacker, but only felt the cool air as he was once again invisible.
“Anna! Are you there? We’re on our way!” came from her radio, which was now a few feet away on the ground.
She went to move towards it, when it crumpled under a weight, then skidded across the lot, hitting up against a chain-linked fence.
“I know what you are! Asshole!” she shouted into the gloom around her, spinning around trying to get a fix from where the next attack would come from.
Laughter echoed out, but this sound had a definite location. She pivoted towards her left, where the shadows were even richer, towards the side of the building where the lot became a mass of forgotten machinery claimed by nature. A man was walking towards her, with others behind him. His form and a few around him was human but not so the others. One looked demonic, standing at least seven feet tall. For a moment she wondered if it was Copeland, but then remembered the latest news she had heard about him. Another of the encroaching Alkrons was definitely like Dalton, a snarling dog nosed being that lumbered in her direction.
Have to warn the hybrids.
She moved towards the entrance, but only got a few feet before the air became as thick as gravel and she choked trying to breathe.
He’s… in… I… breathed…
She fell back, then doubled over falling to her knees. She desperately glanced at the hybrids bearing down on her and tried to get back up, but a weight on her shoulders kept her in place. She looked up into the half formed face of a man, maybe in his fifties, smiling.
“Better if you don’t fight it, luv,” said a voice on the wind.
Footsteps a few yards from her came to a stop. “Yes, better for you but not as entertaining for me and my warriors.”
She turned back to a slim, muscular man, wearing what appeared to be body armor, and over his shoulder what looked like a sword with a curved blade. He looked older than his face suggested.
“Who the fuck are you?” she croaked, still trying to get free from the grip of the thing holding her down.
“I am your king.” Rynon nodded to those near him, including the devil man, and they walked to the door, opened it and walked inside. Screams escaped into the night until the door was pulled closed, at which point they became muffled anguished cries.
“They’re innocent!” she shouted, as thuds and groans came from the walls of the building. “You don’t need to hurt—” The weight on her shoulder increased until she felt a bone fracture. She swallowed the pain and looked back at Rynon. “Why kill them?”
A rueful look came to him. “Hmm, to make a point. Sometimes a king has to do that. It is a shame that this had to be done. Each of those that we slay tonight are worth a hundred of our cattle, but we cannot allow them to be used against us.”
Like strands of electricity from a lightning bolt, pain reverberated through her body as the ethereal monster’s hands that were digging into her, shattered the other shoulder blade. Her vision became darker, her head lighter.
Rynon walked closer and kneeled, then held the side of her face. She tried to pull away but it was all she could do to stop from throwing up. “Do not worry young Alkron. We will not kill you tonight, but merely use you and—” He subtly nodded to the door nearby that rattled on its hinges. “— the others to make an example.”
She tried to focus on his face. If she survived, she wanted to remember it. Part of her was pulled as he got to his feet. Then came a flash of silver, and a new pain, far worse than before burned bright in her mind and a scream erupted from her throat.
CHAPTER FIVE
The Humvee bumped and lurched, one of three that were moving at speed along the darkened country road, heading east. Joel’s mind had shifted from terror to a professional level of detachment when he knew he wouldn’t make it to the warehouse in time. He had a job to do. Get to the warehouse and kill whatever enemy were still there. At the edges of his brain though, fear wanted to turn into grieving for a woman he had come to rely on. Someone he couldn’t lose. But those thoughts were no use to him now, as the convoy surged along the dirt and concrete tracks.
“Not seeing any sign of the enemy. Over.” came from Pachmayer’s radio. He was in the passenger’s seat in the front. “What’s IR picking up? Over.” said the captain in reply.
“We’re coming up on it,” said the driver.
Joel gripped his M4 tighter, but he knew he would be doing most of the killing with his hands.
“Nothing. Over.”
“Nothing?” said Joel. “The drone should be picking up heat from the… hybrids.” The final word fell from his lips, and he doubled down on keeping his fear for what they might find, at bay.
The captain looked at Joel, then turned away and held his radio to his mouth once again. “Are you sure? Over.”
The Humvee skidded to a halt and doors opened and closed, with soldiers fanning out into the dark, some moving towards the front of the lot of the warehouse. Joel got out and immediately scanned the building and surroundings. He wanted to ignore his enhanced senses, but the stench of b
lood was almost too strong for him to bear and for the first time since his change he was repulsed by it.
He watched three squads of soldiers run across the lot, two of them keeping to the edges. Pachmayer stood nearby, his night vision goggles down over his eyes.
“They’re dead,” said Joel.
The Captain looked at him. “What?”
Static came from Pachmayer’s radio pulling his attention to it, followed by a voice. “We’re entering the building. Over,” said the soldier.
Joel walked forward then broke into a jog. “They’re all dead.”
Pachmayer joined him and both men quickly got to the open door of the warehouse. Even the human could tell what lay inside the huge forgotten space, from the metallic fumes that hung in the air.
“Captain,” said the same soldier from the radio. “You need to get in here—” Coughing came through the speaker. “— At the back.”
Joel stepped inside, his boot making a splash on a thick liquid. He didn’t need to look down to know what it was, but the captain swore and confirmed the floor was covered in pools of blood. As he walked past blankets, plastic beakers, discarded books and other items guilt was making his legs heavy.
This is my fault. Everyone dies because of me.
Beyond large pieces of unused machinery and a network of pipes, cones of flashlights swung over bare brick walls and the sound of someone retching echoed out. He arrived at the back of the warehouse to a scene which made him waver, his mind wanting to shut down.
Torn heads with wide white eyes, hands grasping, a heap of body parts reaching over his head sat in the center of the area. A soldier continued to try to be sick, while others coughed and cleared their throats.
Is she in there? Has Anna become meat.
“Sir?”
Joel blinked, then looked towards the young soldier standing to his right, near the wall, his own flashlight highlighting some marks. “What?”
“You should see this.”
Joel walked over to the soldier with Pachmayer and both immediately became aware of what had been painted across the pot-marked surface. “A message,” said the captain, his words devoid of emotion.
Dark red words glistened in the flashlight’s beam. ‘Return my brother to me, and I will return the rest of the doctor.’
Joel absorbed the sentence in its entirety and a wave of relief ran through him, before his mind got stuck on one word.
Rest.
He then realized there was a small wooden box at the base of the wall. The soldier went to step forward.
“No!” said Joel, halting the young man’s motion, and instead he walked to it and kneeled, touching the top of the rough surface.
“Joel,” said Pachmayer. “Maybe I should—”
Joel lifted the wooden container. A woman’s hand sat on the grease stained floor.
*****
The conference room was full, and pinkish orange light was seeping through blinds which covered windows on one side. The smell of coffee and sweat hung in the air.
“If they infiltrated us so easily, I don’t understand why they didn’t do more damage when they had the chance,” said Groves seated at the table.
“My guess is there wasn’t enough of them,” said Clement sitting as usual on the edge of it.
“Not enough?” said Galloway with a volume which most in the room hadn’t heard her use before. “Whatever they had was enough to take out sixty something—”
“Sixty-five,” said Joel. It was the first words he said since arriving back.
Marina stood at the back of the room watching him. Despite his calm exterior, she could hear his heart racing. The man was doing all he could to keep his vamp side in check. She felt nauseous when he told her what they had found. Not for the hybrids, but for what must have happened to the woman she counted as a close friend. “She’s still alive,” was all she could think of to say, but she knew it was scant comfort.
Galloway swallowed some other words she was about to say, and the room fell quiet for a moment. She looked between the ex-cia officer and the man in charge of the town’s military defenses. “Did you at least get a chance to see who or what killed the otherhumans?”
“Hybrids,” whispered Joel, his eyes staring off to a place beyond the room, but no one other than Marina and the general heard him and the latter ignored the comment.
Gus shook his head with a sigh. “Nothing on the drone, nothing from the cameras on the walls.”
“What about the soldier? The one who was guarding the warehouse? You said you picked him up?”
Clement nodded. “Got him in a cell at the courthouse. Swears his was given an order by his CO to leave. Same for the party, but the CO denies ever speaking to him.”
Galloway went to speak again when a knock came at the door, which opened and Amos’s head appeared. He went to speak as well, but instead his eyes flicked towards Joel.
“Good timing Amos, come in,” said the general.
He did and stood near the wall, looking between the faces now looking at him. “All the hybrids are dead?”
Galloway nodded. “Yes. I need you to get over to the courthouse. They are expecting you. There’s a soldier in a cell there. Get in his brain and find out what he knows. Can you do that?”
“Sure…” He turned, glancing one more time at Joel then left.
“What about their demand?” said lieutenant Hahn. “Maybe if we give them this Tyror otherhuman. They pack up and leave us alone…”
Most didn’t need to be a mind reader to know that the head of logistics didn’t have much conviction in his own words.
“I’m surprised they didn’t try and rescue him,” said Groves.
“He means too much to the main guys to risk it,” said Joel getting to his feet.
“Where you going?” said Galloway.
Joel walked towards the door. “To see a brother.”
CHAPTER SIX
The pressure of the radiation from the sun almost made Anna forget what had happened to her left arm. She opened her eyes, all of her senses looking for danger in the small and smartly decorated country style living room she was in.
She was laid back on a sofa, the sun dissecting the room through two large windows, thankfully not touching her part of the space which was cloaked in shadow.
She had been conscious when the hybrid which called himself her king severed her hand, and kept on being aware despite the pain. She put it down to being half vampire. As a doctor she knew there was no way she would have stayed conscious if she had only been a human, another thing she envied her previous species for.
She peeled the rags back which had been bound around her wrist, not wanting to see what was beneath them. They were deep red and flakes of blood fell to the hardwood floor.
I have no hand.
It was the first thought that entered her mind on seeing the stump. The second was what was left of her wrist did not look as she expected it too. Rather it looked as if it had been sutured, but there were no stitches, merely layers of skin blending together. Her hybrid healing abilities had kicked in and stopped her from bleeding to death, sealing the wound, but evidently were not enough to grow her appendage back. Something about that notion made her feel better. She was not a complete freak. Once a hybrid lost a part, it wasn’t coming back.
Still mostly human.
The pain though, that she could have done without. A burning, stabbing, pulsing ache which somehow existed where her hand should have been, surged through her mind, and her arm throbbed from shoulder to elbow. Her broken shoulder blades must have knitted back together hours earlier, but the echo of what the man consisting of mist had done to her, lingered.
Alive.
She nodded in support of the thought. Alive was good. Alive meant revenge was possible but first she needed to escape. She knew why she had been kept breathing. The things that were the king’s entourage laughed and mocked her, as she was carried through the woods and into vehicles. She was a hostage
. Something to be traded for a body far more valuable, Rynon’s brother.
Not if I can escape.
She looked at the framed pictures, pottery and books which sat on wooden shelves. She was in someone’s home. Former home, for there was no way they were still alive. She tried to sit up and pushed her stump into the sofa forgetting her lack of hand, and immediately regretted it. She retched as the pain almost became too much for her stomach to keep what little food resided within, and flung herself back against the sofa, trying to still her body, as if that would somehow dissipate the pain.
She panted, her breathing labored as the mind numbing sensation in her arm started to become manageable and this time used her other hand to sit upright. She was more successful. Without further pause she placed weight on her boots and stood, but the room swam around her and she promptly fell back down.
Come on, Anna.
She knew Rynon and the others might be sleeping. Or at least in some weakened state. If she was going to get away, if she was going to have any chance of that, it had to be while the sun was above the horizon.
Find a vehicle. Won’t get far on foot.
She stood, wobbled a bit on both feet, and then focused her thoughts on staying upright. Then squinted against the brightly lit windows. Walking unsteadily forward as quietly as she could, she made her way to the four glass panels, with tied back drapes and looked out to a faded grass lawn, a driveway with one car and beyond that, a junction, with a similar house opposite. Other such buildings lined the road to her left, but to her right were larger, grander structures.
I’m in a town…
The vehicle meant there could be someone else in the house. But where were they? She could not hear any heart beating or smell the odor of the scourge. Her senses were telling her she was alone. Maybe they were outside?
She leaned in closer to the window and looked as far as she could to the left. A pleasant street, with equally nice Victorian houses lined it.