With his partner dead, I don’t see how he has any chance on making it out alive. He’ll run out of bullets soon. And after that, then what? He’s already wasted his fair share trying to save his buddy…and on top of that, he’s human. It isn’t hard to miss when he’s struggling to strong-arm the woman he’s pinned by the neck. She’s knows we’re here to help and he’s having a hard time forcing her to comply. She’s a fighter.
She can see the other side of freedom and she’s not going to let some scumbag ruin her chance.
“That’s enough!” the man barks at the woman he has in his grip. She continues to writhe and he strikes her with the underside of his pistol. She yelps and her legs buckle as a stream of blood begins to paint her hair strawberry blonde. Despite the surprise blow to the head, she manages to hang on to her consciousness. “Calm down. I don’t want to have to hit you again, and if you don’t cause any more trouble, I won’t have to.” He twists his torso in an effort to drag her back, but she takes it as an opening to bite into his arm. His reflexes kick in and he loosens his grip just enough for her to unravel herself and drop to the ground.
“Shoot him!”
The three of us fire his way and his body jolts as our bullets sink into his skin.
She seemed to be a bloody mess before him, but now that he’d fallen on top her, I can honestly say her tank top would have been better off red. And if being kidnapped and screwed with wasn’t enough—now she has the lifeless body of misaligned goon bleeding on her backside.
Damn.
“Are you okay?” Blaze and Abby rush over to assist her while I trail behind, my gun pointed at the double doors as I walk towards them. Blaze tosses the body to the side and the former hostage crawls to the nearest wall. From there, Abby squats in front of her and begins to examine the wound she has on her head.
“We’re here to help you,” Abby explains. “How many other gunmen were with those two? Are there any more up ahead?” She’s shaken up, but she’s coherent.
“…It was just them,” she responds, trembling.
“Sphinx,” Blaze interrupts. There’s a considerable amount in the duffle bag that guy was carrying, packaged in vials. He digs a bit deeper and pulls out a ziplocked bag filled with the powdered form. “And there’s more.”
I acknowledge the news and return my attention back to the hostage. “How long have you been here?”
“I…I don’t know.”
“Do you know where you are?”
“A factory? They’re drugging us with that stuff your friend has to keep us in line.”
No. It’s actually worse than that.
“State?”
“Iowa?” she answers, a bit unsure of my line of questioning.
“Illinois. A little ways from Chicago.”
“Shit.”
“…But don’t worry, we’re going to get you and everybody else back home soon enough.”
“Ow! What was that?” She turns to Abby and then to me.
“Something to clear your head up a bit and stave off the effects of whatever drugs you have in your system.”
“Perfectly safe,” I add, eyeing the crusted blood running down the length of her arm. Presumably from the drip.
“Find somewhere safe to hide. We’re coming back for everyone once we clear the building.”
“It’s best to stay out of sight unless you’re one hundred percent sure it’s one of the good guys. Right now, it’s only us three, but we’re arranging for transportation. Protect yourself, but please don’t shoot anyone trying to help. There’s plenty of guns around.”
“They forced me to help with the manufacturing…made me test and package,” she says to Blaze, her voice battling against breaking as she shivers against the wall. “They’d rotate us from the beds, to the box, and then upstairs. They cycled us…made us junkies,” she confesses while fighting to hold back her tears. “To that…poison,” she bursts in tears. Abby runs her hand across the top of her shoulder and looks directly into my eyes. She keeps a straight face, but it isn’t hard to see the pain she’s hiding.
“We’re going to get you some help,” Abby assures her. “You and everyone else.”
Just when I think things can’t get more screwed up, the world hits me with another dose of madness. My problems aren’t shit compared to her or anyone else taken prisoner here. Inner demons be damned.
“We’re on a timeline,” Blaze interrupts as he stands guard. “Don’t forget. There are others that we need to secure.”
“Yeah.” Abby nods. “Come on, let’s get you somewhere safe.” Abby rises from the floor while helping the young woman stand to her feet. From there, she escorts her to a safe place. It just so happens that the closest safe place on short notice is a storage closet a couple paces back. The bin where we found Janelle would have been more suitable, but after what she experienced, I don’t think she would have wanted to be stashed away on a makeshift torture block…even though if ‘the box’ is how I imagine it to be, being in an enclosed dark space isn’t the best, either. There really isn’t a win-win situation in this one, which sucks. This whole scenario caught us off guard and I haven’t been up to par one bit.
After Abby drops her off, she regroups with us and we continue our sweep. Blaze’s room checks out just fine. We unhook the victims from the drips and break the news to the ones who manage to stir from their drug-induced coma. Abby checks up on the reinforcements and makes sure everything is fine with them. She updates them on the situation and they toss her an update right back. The hunters who were securing the area are now establishing a broader dead zone around us to ensure that any backup from the other side is limited and we have some space to operate. Unfortunately, the dead zone only applies to things on the other side. Anything inside is fair game and our responsibility.
Chapter 6: The Dead Zone
“I think this is what she was talking about…the box,” Blaze says as he analyzes the sturdy, smooth frame outfitted with a rusted lever.
“What gave it away?” I ask with a hint of snark.
“It’s kinda hard to miss with the words ‘not a peep, not even a sound’ smeared over the top of the doorframe.”
“Guys,” Abby interjects. “Focus.”
Nothing like a little snark to get the nerves out.
We near the door and break out into formation, silently orchestrating who does what with a bout of pointing and gesturing. “Cover me, okay,” Blaze whispers. I nod as he passes me and aligns himself with the front of the door.
“Of course,” I mumble to myself before pointing my gun in the window between his shoulder and head. Always.
Abby positions herself to the side of the door, one hand ready to shoot, the other, gripping the lever.
“Hello?” A series of thumps registers from the other side of the door. “Is anyone there? We’re trapped in here!”
Abby glances at Blaze and nods, giving him the okay. Her gaze shifts to me and I do the same. She then lifts her hand from the lever and begins to count down from three, using her fingers. At the last count, she pulls back on it and follows the momentum of the door. Once it’s fully opened, a breeze of noticeably cool air greets us. It rubs me wrong even though I’m fully dressed. Turns out the box we heard about is actually an oversized meat locker…get them hooked on drugs, make them test it, and subject them to hell…all so that they crave it more. It makes me sick.
“We heard the shots. Are you here to save us?” A woman emerges from the closed confinement, covered in scrapes and draped with tattered clothes. She walks towards us, her steps rigid and erratic while she rubs her exposed biceps to keep warm. It looks like she can topple over at any second. Blaze lowers his gun, but I keep a watchful eye. “We thought we were going to be locked in there forever.” I look over Blaze’s shoulder and peer into the room. It’s dark…pitch black, but I can see a few pairs of eyes from where the light bleeds into the room. They’re clumped together for warmth, but they haven’t left the room. Something’s not r
ight and I don’t think Blaze notices it, either. That lady is obstructing his view. “I’m…so cold,” she says as she steps closer to him, trembling. Her wounds are fresh—too fresh. Scratch marks on her bicep, a trail of blood from her crown…but nothing she couldn’t have done to herself. It doesn’t add up. “Can you help us?”
“Blaze, get down!” Just as I yell, the woman lunges in for an attack. I fire off two rounds—the first one misses and the other buries itself into the demon’s shoulder. Blaze raises his gun to retaliate, but the demon continues her forward momentum and locks her fingers over Blaze’s hand to force it down. Blaze manages to fire twice. Despite the fancy footwork, he ends up shooting her in the foot and she howls. From there, he uses her pain to his advantage and gains the upper hand. He pulls the trigger again and a bullet finds a way into her thigh. The demon-possessed woman falls to her knees and begins to reach for something but another gunshot registers from a different barrel—Abby’s, from behind. She shot from the demon’s blind spot as soon as she had the opening.
“Shit,” I mutter as the woman’s body begins to leak out on the floor. I glance at Blaze, and he looks at me, his chest rapidly rising and falling, while Abby holds a straight face.
“…She can’t hurt you now,” Blaze says, breaking the silence. “You can come on out.” Four of them emerge from the chamber, speechless and slow to move. One of them needs the support of another. Something happened to her leg, though it’s hard to tell exactly what. From his jacket, Blaze pulls out a flask of Holy Water and nonchalantly flips the open container towards them. They flinch, but there’s no inclination of them burning or being in any sort of pain. “Holy Water. You guys aren’t screaming, so that means you’re one of us.” Blaze raises his flask towards them before tucking it away. “That person we just killed, wasn’t. It was a human body, but there wasn’t a human in the driver’s seat. It was a demon, just like the majority of the people that run this place. We killed them all, or so we think… Another group of people like us are on the way. They’re going to get you guys and everyone else out of this place. Until then, try to stay out of sight while we finish it up. I’m sorry for what you’ve all been through. Hopefully from this moment on there are brighter days.”
We leave them not long after that and continue our sweep of the facility. Nothing in particular strikes us out of the ordinary. People wise, it’s more of the same, just in varying degrees of brokenness. Thankfully, we managed to get the last of the demons inside the building when we opened the giant freezer. We came across some more Sphinx, too, after we made it to the lab Abby mentioned. It wasn’t the most elaborate setup, but that was to be expected from a smaller target. Either way, there was still a decent amount of shit prepackaged and ready to go and we got rid of it.
After we confirm the area is secure within the dead zone, Abby gives the okay to the other hunters responsible for evac and they come through to do their job; getting everyone out as safely and quickly as they can.
****
“You did good out there, Sailor,” Blaze says as we walk back towards the alley where the night started. Abby decided to stay behind and help coordinate the relocation and stay near the action in case she was needed. Contrary to how it seemed at the time, the night wasn’t actually over. There was more work to be done.
“Glad you think so,” I respond. “It could have been better.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” I say flatly. “Can’t you tell?”
“Sure, you were a little rough around the edges, but in your defense, things didn’t exactly go according to plan.”
I scoff and flick my head towards him. “Since when do they ever?”
“Not often…but it’s more along the lines of a couple more demons or what have you as opposed to stumbling upon a human trafficking circuit.”
“Right.” We turn the corner, my hand still resting on the grip of the gun in the pocket of my jacket.
“Are you going to be okay?” he asks.
“I’m sure I will be. I have a good track record. I’d be more concerned about everyone we found back there. It’s a long road ahead of them.”
“For sure. Abby and the others are working out the logistics as we speak. Once we sober them up and everything, we can return them to their home towns…give them a script to read from…recommend therapy and narcs anonymous.”
“It’s a start, but you and I both know that’s not enough. Their whole world just got fucked and if they tell the truth, they’ll end up in a psych ward.”
“Yeah,” Blaze says after a long-drawn sigh. “Yeah, you’re right. And that’s the worst part. You can go crazy locking all of that inside you. Abby and I were thinking about maybe encouraging them to share numbers…partner them up with people nearby or in the same state. We can handle one or two people at time, but this is…yeah. It’s a lot, Sailor.”
“Having a network or support group can be good. You’re right. After the drugs wear off and the shock settles, they’ll need each other. Even if they have a family or something to return to, it’s always good to have someone who’s been down the same path as you. Life isn’t the same after your first encounter. Even if you witness something, it’ll mess you up…but being locked up like that, that’s a whole different ball park.”
“We’ll do what we can to get them adjusted. Have someone speak on what to look out for and protect yourself. Things like that. Maybe you can give us a hand?”
“Like, teaching a seminar?”
“Something like that. You connected with a lot of folks back there, I can tell. Janelle, Samantha…a few of the others. It’ll stick with them more if it’s from someone they have a history with. Someone they can trust that they’ve seen in action. It won’t be tomorrow…or even the day after that, but it’ll be soon. As soon as we get them stabilized and have a more established game plan. In the meantime, it wouldn’t hurt to show your face for more than five minutes at a time. The other hunters only know what I tell them.”
“Just the way I like it.” I smirk. “But seriously, I’ll consider. I kinda like playing from the outskirts. I’m more accustomed to the way we used to do things—handling cases between the three of us…me, you, and Dad. Others were around, sure, but it was never anything like this.”
“Yeah.”
“But what you guys have is a good thing. I just have my issues.”
Blaze chuckles and glances my way. “Yeah, I get it, Ray. You’re as stubborn as a mule.”
“Yeah, that.”
We continue our walk until Blaze and I reach my car.
“Well, this is my stop.” I pause and look at him, confused as I stand between my door and the body of my Mustang.
“What do you mean? You’re going to walk back from here? It’s late and I have room for one more. I can drive you to your car.”
“No, it’s fine. I’m gonna walk this one out.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah. It’s better for the mind. Helps me think… It’ll give me some time to sort this all out.”
“Okay. Just be careful.”
“You, too. I’ll call you if you if any updates come up.”
“Text it.”
“That I can do. See you around, Ray,” Blaze says and quickly taps the roof of my car, twice, before parting ways.
I climb into my Mustang, shut the door, and sigh. In my rearview mirror, I catch Blaze as he walks, but I lose him once he turns the corner. I sit in my car for a while and lean into my headrest. I close my eyes and pick up on the faint dizzy spell that clouds my senses whenever I keep them shut for too long. Exhaustion. Stress. Adrenaline. Too many things going on at once and not enough breaks. I take a deep breath and open my eyes after exhaling through my nose.
This is shaping up to be one hell of a night.
****
It doesn’t take me too long to pull up at my apartment. Once I’m inside, I lock the door and make a break to my fridge and pull out a shake I stored for later. I’m way too tired to prepar
e something and drinking my calories is a surefire way to get the good stuff without slowing down. It’s efficient.
I shut the fridge and sigh, not from what I’m about to do, but purely as a release. I’ll probably feel better, anyway. I reach into my pocket as I walk into my room. After I fish out my phone, I plop onto my bed, and begin to scroll through my contacts.
“Hello?”
“Yeah, Valerie, I made it in,” I say as I place the bend of my elbow over my forehead.
“How did it go?”
“It went,” I respond flatly. “Things went south pretty quickly. We were in over our heads, but managed to pull out a win. A good one, too.”
“What happened?”
“More than we bargained for. A lot of collateral—people. Good people. They had prisoners that doubled as sweatshop workers. Some didn’t make it, but others were being shipped off to be trafficked or used as vessels. They were hooked up to IV’s, Val. They were trying to get them hooked on Sphinx and break their will. They definitely succeeded with some of them. It was bad, V. In a way it reminds me of when I got captured. Blaze saved me and everything, but if he hadn’t, I don’t think I would have lasted more than a couple hours, if that, once the drugs came into play. Sphinx is dangerous, especially if it’s getting mainlined at the hand of demons.”
“Yeah, I bet,” Val responds. I can practically feel her heart breaking on the other side of the phone.
“But things are looking up for them,” I quickly add. “Everyone is going to help them get up to speed and reconnect with their families.”
“Well, that’s good.”
“Yup. Couldn’t ask for a happier ending…how are things with you? Doing okay?”
“Okayish. It’s only been a few days since I’ve left. Sucks a bit when I move, but it’s getting there. How about you? You doing okay?”
“A little roughed up, but nothing too serious. I did okay, considering that for about half a year I had a demon in my corner. I just have to be more careful, that’s all. I’m still getting adjusted.”
Sailor Ray and the Beginning of the End Page 4