by Charles Rye
Certain that his opponent was dead, Mordren let go of him and stepped away slowly, keeping an eye on the Destroyer's dead body which made him obliviously to the second Destroyer that had snuck up on him while he'd been killing the other.
The wiry fur on the back of Mordren' neck stood on end when his instincts alerted him that he was not alone, which made him cautiously turn around only to find himself face to face with a Destroyer much larger than the one he had just killed.
"Just fucking great‚ Bastard snuck up on me,"
This Destroyer however was different from the previous one; this one had spikes sticking out from its back that ran all the way down to its tailbone.
"What the fuck? There are different types of you ugly ass sons of bitches?"
"Great‚Well, let's get this over with so I can kill the rest of your pack mates hiding around here,"
The larger Destroyer narrowed its eyes at Mordren, the spikes on its back flexing back and forth, as it growled fiercely at him.
"That's‚ new‚" Mordren thought his eyes wide as he watched the spikes move as if being controlled by muscles in the other Destroyer's back.
Distracted by the bizarre display, the Destroyer was able to catch Mordren off guard with a sudden attack that had him pinned against the ground, growling at the sharp pain in his back from being knocked backwards.
"That was pure stupidity on my part, never let the enemy distract you. Damn it Mordren, you know that‚"
Reacting quickly, Mordren maneuvered his hind legs up beneath the other's stomach and kicked him forcefully, managing to knock him backwards into the sand as he quickly sprang to his own feet before pouncing on him.
"Got to admit, that was a neat trick but I'm still going to kill you,"
Angry now at the fact he had let himself get distracted by his opponent's trick to catch him off guard, Mordren let his instincts take over as he slashed his claws across the other's throat, leaving huge gashes that began to drip with blood.
He continued to slash at the Destroyer's throat, tearing it open as more blood spilled from the wound to pool around his head and into the sand beneath him.
Certain his opponent was dead, Mordren stepped away from the body and sat down in the sand as he curled his long skeletal tail around his hind legs, staring down into the other Destroyer's lifeless eyes.
"Something isn't right‚" He thought as he cautiously glanced over his shoulder.
Out of the corner of his eye, Mordren watched yet another Destroyer begin to slowly rise up out of the ground looking like something from a Stephen King movie, sand falling off its head and shoulders.
"Was the dramatic entrance really necessary?"
The Destroyer that had just emerged from beneath the sand stared at Mordren curiously with its head tilted slightly as it raised its muzzle and sniffed at the air, catching a whiff of Mordren' scent before growling loudly.
Mordren stood to his feet turning around to face his new opponent, flattening his pointed ears against his head growling defensively as he suddenly leapt into the air coming to land behind his opponent.
"Stop!"
Mordren snarled at the soldier for stopping him from attacking the other Destroyer that instinctively lowered its body to the ground in submission to the command given by the soldier.
"That's right, submit like the good little demented attack dog you are," Mordren thought sarcastically.
"The first part of your training is complete, its time for the second part," the soldier spoke to Mordren, slipping the collar and leash around his neck again.
The soldier tugged on the leash roughly as he led Mordren back inside through the large door and into the long hallway, following the soldier until they reached a set of windowed doors.
"I've brought our newly turned recruit for his tests," the soldier announced walking through the doors with Mordren behind him.
This room was similar to the room Mordren vaguely remembered being in before they transformed him into one of their attack dogs, white tiles covered the floor; the walls were painted a pale white.
The rest of the room reminded Mordren of a hospital, the only thing missing were all the strange surgical tools from the previous room.
"Ah, I finally get to meet our newest recruit. I'm the commanding officer that hunted you down like the animal you are,"
A man wearing a military regulation uniform came to stand before Mordren, his arms behind his back and a look on his face that told Mordren this man has never seen the slightest bit of action on any type of battlefield, unless you counted video games.
"Now now, don't look at me like that. I know good and well you can understand me thanks to the little chip my men planted in your brain during surgery, its how I communicate with all my precious attack dogs," He explained, reaching to pat Mordren' head.
Mordren growled viciously at the man, snapping at his hand but unable to bite down on it as the man was quick to react and pulled his hand away almost immediately.
The soldier that had dragged Mordren into the room jabbed his ribs with his cattle prod, which sent a surge of electricity through Mordren' body that only agitated him further.
Growling even louder now and snapping his jaws at the two men, Mordren stood up on his hind legs which allowed him to tower three feet over the commanding officer, who looked to be a good five foot ten.
"What the fuck are you waiting for? Incapacitate him!" the commanding officer yelled at the soldier, who was unable to move from shock.
"You're useless!" He exclaimed grabbing the cattle prod from the soldier's hand, suddenly thrusting it against Mordren' stomach.
Mordren swiped his paw down with force knocking the cattle prod out of the man's hand, sending it sliding across the floor to the other side of the room, which caused the small crowd of people in the room to all freeze and stare at Mordren standing over the officer.
Sensing fear from the officer, Mordren growled as he threw himself down on top of the officer knocking him to the floor with enough force to crush his ribs that made a satisfying cracking sound.
"You'll pay for this," the officer choked, coughing up blood from his broken ribs stabbing his lungs.
Without hesitating, Mordren opened his jaw as wide as possible before suddenly biting into the man's throat, his sharp fangs sinking into the soft flesh as warm blood filled his mouth.
Mordren jerked his head up as he tore out a decent sized chunk of flesh from the officer's throat, swallowing hungrily before he turned to face the soldier who was still froZandrem in fear watching Mordren having just ripped out his officer's throat.
"Get control of this monster right now!" someone behind Mordren shouted.
Before Mordren could react, he felt a sudden sharp pain in his neck just above his backbone.
"Fuck‚"
Mordren blinked his now heavy eyelids as he collapsed to the floor, his legs folding underneath his weight.
Everyone in the room quickly surrounded Mordren, who was unconscious thanks to the tranquilizer he had been injected with, and lifted him up onto one of the medical tables before strapping him down to it.
"Somebody get rid of that body," the soldier demanded once he regained his composure as the shock began to wear off.
"Yes sir,"
The soldier glanced at Mordren strapped down to the table as he made his way out of the room, slamming the doors shut behind him.
He leaned against the wall hanging his head, letting out a long sigh as he rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"This isn't going to be easy to explain," He thought to himself closing his eyes briefly.
He began to make his way through the hallway to the main office, walking as slowly as possible trying not to think about the pile of paper work he would no doubt have to fill out involving what he witnessed.
The sound of a loud thud followed by shattering glassed echoed through the hallway, causing the soldier to suddenly stop in his tracks and run back to the medical room.
He haltered when
he reached the doors, broken shards of glass covering the floor and the body of one of the staff members slumped against the wall across from the door, dead from the impact of hitting his head against the wall.
Mordren was no longer unconscious and causing havoc in the medical room, whipping his tail around and snapping his jaws at anyone attempting to get close to him.
The soldier grabbed his walkie-talkie off his belt and shouted into it.
"I need assistance in the north hall, first floor medical! Now!"
Crouched behind the wall looking into the room, only able to watch in horror as Mordren kept the others at bay.
Rescue mission
"How long has it been?" Zandrem asked tiredly, squinting at the back of Aurelia's head.
They were passing the ruins of what used to be an apartment complex.
"It's been at least two hours since we got rid of that Destroyer pack, and probably an hour of driving so maybe three hours," Aurelia replied.
"Any chance we could stop somewhere and rest?"
"We're in a bus. You have plenty of places to rest. Aurelia should be the one asking that since she's been driving for the last five days," Soraf reproached her.
"Well, that's all the more reason to find somewhere to rest for the night. It will be getting dark soon and I would rather not have another run in with Destroyers or those asshole soldiers. Would you?"
"She does have a point. I really don't want to deal with any more Destroyers," Koriphus agreed, nodding at Zandrem.
"I think we should ask Aurelia what she wants to do," Caliphar inserted, catching Aurelia's eye in the rearview mirror.
"I say we stop here for the night, get our rest and someone else can take up driving tomorrow," Aurelia decided.
She steered the bus off the road, driving it through the ruins of the apartment complex.
"We're not really staying here tonight, are we?" Zandrem asked nervously.
Aurelia quickly killed the engine and signaled everyone to be quiet as she slowly rose from her seat.
In the distance, she could see a pack of four or five Destroyers that appeared to be surrounding something,
"Shit‚"
She snatched her gun from beneath her seat.
"Soraf, care to do the honors?"
"It would be my pleasure," Soraf said with a grin as she unsheathed her dagger.
Aurelia hit the button to open the doors, and she and Soraf stepped off the bus, wielding their weapons.
Caliphar, Koriphus and Zandrem all gathered around the windshield to watch the girls cautiously approach the group of Destroyers.
They still had half an hour of daylight left to give them an advantage.
They would not have much of a chance in the dark.
Crouched low to the ground, they got as close as possible while remaining concealed.
Aurelia caught Soraf's eye and halted her with a raised hand.
Then she lowered herself to the ground, aiming her rifle at the Destroyer closest to her.
A pull of the trigger caused the Destroyer to yelp in pain, a bullet tearing through its leg.
The other Destroyers spun from their prey to spot Aurelia and Soraf lying in the dirt.
Appearing unconcerned, Aurelia shot the Destroyer in the leg again; it collapsed as the bullet ripped through the muscle.
The others began to approach them, growling fiercely and snapping their jaws.
Their eyes were glowing a reddish gold in the dying sunlight, which only made them look even more intimidating.
"Ready?" Aurelia grinned sideways at Soraf as they both straightened up and turned to look at the Destroyers.
"Always," Soraf grinned back, spinning the dagger around in her hand.
The Destroyers closed in on them even as they moved to confront the pack.
Aurelia noticed the Destroyer she had shot lying beside the prey, doing its best to guard it what with its leg being useless.
One of the Destroyers approaching Soraf lunged ferociously.
Unfortunately for the beast, she was quick to react, forcefully shoving her dagger into its throat and slicing it wide open.
Blood rained down onto her as she ripped the dagger away.
Aurelia spun around, firing her gun as a second Destroyer jumped straight over her.
She hit the mark perfectly, and it crashed to the ground, blood leaking from its chest.
Soraf and Aurelia whipped around in time to see the other two Destroyers charge them, snapping their jaws angrily and growling loudly.
Soraf jumped out of the way just in time as the Destroyer nearest her tried to rush her.
Thrusting her dagger into its side, she sliced its hide wide open, causing it to howl in pain.
Its blood and intestines spilled out around it as it collapsed.
Aurelia crouched down as the other Destroyer leaped over her, training her gun on its chest.
She pulled the trigger, firing a bullet with impeccable accuracy.
Blood rained down on her face and chest as the creature fell in the dirt beside its dead pack mate.
"Is it just me, or was that messier than I had anticipated?" Aurelia grumbled, wiping the blood off her face.
"Nothing wrong with a little bloodshed. At least, that's my opinion," Soraf chuckled, offering Aurelia the rag from her pocket.
Aurelia used it to rub the remaining blood from her body, watching as Soraf cautiously approached the lame Destroyer.
The Destroyer growled at her in an attempt to protect its prey, narrowing its eyes at her trying to scare her away.
"Don't bother, you'll be dead soon enough," Soraf spoke to the injured Destroyer as she kneeled down beside the creature, slicing its throat wide open.
The Destroyer slowly died from blood loss in a matter of minutes.
"Hey Aurelia‚ You might want to see what those Destroyers were trying to guard," Soraf called when she noticed what had the Destroyers so excited.
Aurelia finished wiping blood from her chest as she walked over to join Soraf by the Destroyer's dead body, looking down at what appeared to be an Opossum in torn jeans and a white shirt lying in the dirt.
"Is he dead?" She asked turning to look at Soraf.
Soraf reached over and pressed two of her fingers against the Opossum's neck, she could barely feel his pulse but he was still alive.
"He's got a pulse. Go get the others, we'll need help carrying him to the bus," Soraf replied glancing up at Aurelia.
Nodding to her, Aurelia quickly ran back to the bus where Caliphar, Zandrem and Koriphus were all still watching from the windshield.
Spotting Aurelia coming back, Caliphar quickly hit the button to open the doors for her as she reached the bus.
He, Koriphus and Zandrem all gathered on the steps to greet Aurelia.
"We got rid of the Destroyers and found someone, he's alive‚ barely. We need help getting him back to the bus," Aurelia explained.
Caliphar and the others followed Aurelia off the bus and towards where Soraf was.
When they reached her, Aurelia and Zandrem gasped in shock at the sight of the torso of a freshly killed Destroyer sticking partially out of the ground a few feet from Soraf.
"Bastards are sneaky, this one was trying to take me by surprise when I noticed the damned thing coming up out of the ground like some kind of zombie," Soraf explained, realizing they were all staring at the Destroyer's body.
"Remember those Destroyers that seemed to have come out of nowhere at the junkyard? I think they did what this one attempted, they were just better at it because they had an advantage,"
"I don't think this one realized how close it was to getting a dagger in the chest," Soraf continued kicking the Destroyer onto its side to show them its chest practically ripped apart.
"Sorry I left you alone but I'm glad you were able to get it before it got you," Aurelia said to her with a half smile.
"No worries, I mean it's not like I was totally defenseless before I met you," Soraf replied with a sm
all laugh.
"Let's get this guy to the bus before any more Destroyers fond of horror movies try to surprise us," Aurelia said turning to Caliphar and Koriphus.
They nodded in agreement before scooping up the Opossum, Caliphar lifted him under his arms and Koriphus grabbed his legs.
Armed with their weapons, Aurelia, Soraf and Zandrem acted as watch out as they all made their way back to the bus.