by Charles Rye
When they reached the bus, Caliphar and Koriphus carried the Opossum on board and carefully laid him out on the seat behind the driver's seat.
"Are you sure this guy's alive?" Zandrem asked glancing sideways at Aurelia and Soraf.
"He had a pulse when I checked and I did just save him from a sixth Destroyer," Soraf answered shortly.
"We'll let him rest and keep an eye on him, he might come in handy if we have another run in with any soldiers," Aurelia said looking around at everyone.
They all nodded in agreement with her as they took their seats.
Aurelia took up the seat behind the Opossum to watch over him, curious to know who he was and where he came from, questions that would have to wait until he was conscious.
"I'll take first watch, you all try and get some sleep," Zandrem spoke as she sat down beside Aurelia, who was leaning against the window using it as a pillow.
"Thanks Zandrem, wake me up if our guest wakes," Aurelia replied before nodding off to sleep.
Zandrem reclined in her seat, crossing her arms behind her head as she watched over the others.
As the sun rose over the ruins of the apartment complex, Aurelia stirred in her sleep blinking her eyes open to finding herself face to face with the Opossum.
"Who're you?" He suddenly asked, tilting his head.
"I'm Aurelia, my mates and I rescued you last night from a pack of Destroyers," Aurelia replied, stretching her arms above her head.
"I believe I was doing just fine on my own with those overgrown mutts, because I was playin' possum," He said in a dull tone.
"They were about to tear you to shreds, if it hadn't been for me and Soraf you'd be dead," Aurelia remarked crossing her arms over her chest defensively.
"I had everything under perfect control,"
"Whatever you say," She said standing from her seat.
She walked over to where Caliphar was still asleep on his seat and nudged his shoulder.
"What is it?" Caliphar mumbled sleepily, rubbing sleep from his eyes before looking up at Aurelia.
"Our guest is awake and it's your turn to take up driving," She answered looking down at him.
"This'll be fun!" Caliphar said excited as he quickly positioned himself into the driver's seat, turning the key in the ignition before revving the engine into life as he shifted the bus into drive.
Aurelia took her seat beside Zandrem, who was still asleep and looked around at Soraf and Koriphus who were also still asleep which left her with Caliphar and their new passenger.
"So, what's your name?" She asked glancing up at the Opossum.
"Name's Roy. And I suppose I should thank you for rescuing me, even though I was doing just fine on my own, He replied.
"You're welcome," Aurelia muttered.
"Ya' know, honestly we could have just left you to those Destroyers but we thought it'd be nice to save your hide"; Caliphar remarked, catching Roys eye in the rearview mirror.
He turned his attention to the path ahead of him and sped out of the apartment ruins and back onto the main road, running over the dead Destroyer that was still sticking half way out of the ground, its bones cracking under the weight of the bus.
Aurelia and Roy both looked at Caliphar in the rearview mirror with raised eyebrows, suddenly wishing the bus was equipped with seatbelts.
Caliphar grinned to himself as he gripped the steering wheel and sped along the road, swerving rapidly to avoid the potholes in the asphalt.
Escape artist
"Where's backup? People are dying down here, damn it!"
"North hall on the first floor!" the soldier repeated into his walkie-talkie as he glanced sideways into the medical room, where Mordren was still wreaking havoc for the medical staff.
All he could do was cower behind the wall and listen to the bloodcurdling screams coming from the room as Mordren whipped his tail back and forth, mauling anyone who was stupid enough to get close to him.
Moments later, the emergency response team came running down the hall to where the soldier waited.
"That creature in there is out of control! We couldn't get it to obey any orders. That thing killed my commanding officer and some of the medical staff," the soldier gestured frantically toward the dead nurse lying among the shattered glass.
"We'll take care of it," came the reply.
Two other men from the team lifted the man's body up and laid it down onto a gurney, covering him with a sheet.
The leader looked into the room, his mouth tightening into a grim line when he saw Mordren pinning one of the doctors against the floor.
He was tearing the man's chest wide open, the blood pooling around his body.
"We tried to sedate him, but it wore off too quickly and he went berserk!" the soldier exclaimed frantically.
"I've never seen a Destroyer recover that quickly from a tranq. We'll have to hit him several times to bring him down," the leader replied.
"Position yourselves by the door; we'll get him through the broken glass. I'm not risking getting close enough for him to attack," He directed his team.
They all took their positions outside the door, their tranquilizer guns at the ready.
They trained their guns on Mordren, who was distracted by a nurse throwing medical supplies at him. He was praying the creature was oblivious to their presence outside the door.
"Fire at will!" their leader directed, signaling them.
The tranquilizer darts struck their target with deadly accuracy.
Howling in outrage at being struck with several tranquilizers, Mordren whipped his head around and glared directly at the men outside the room, his eyes glowing an eerie shade of dark red.
He easily shook off the tranquilizer darts, letting them to fall and shatter against the floor as he turned toward the door.
"Fire again!"
"But‚ sir, we only had one shot each,"
"What? Are you fucking serious?"
Before his men could respond, Mordren broke the silence with growl that made everyone cover their ears.
Seeing the creature begin to stalk toward the door, the men panicked and scrambled to escape as quickly as possible.
Mordren charged out of the room, leaping through the broken glass and pouncing on two of the men, pinning them against the glass-covered floor.
"Help us!" one man pleaded, crying out as the glass shards dug into his back.
Paralyzed with fear, the others stood by, forced to watch as Mordren opened his jaws to their full width before snapping them into the first man's neck and ripping out his vocal chords.
"Damn it! Do something to stop this monster!" the other man cried out with desperation, trying to squirm away from the growing pool of blood.
Annoyed by the man's cries, Mordren pressed his paw against the man's chest and dug his razor sharp claws into the man's vital organs, allowing him to bleed out internally.
Mordren looked up from his dying prey to gaze keep watch on the other men in the narrow hallway, enjoying their terrified expressions and the sweet scent of fear emanating from them.
The emergency team's leader snatched a gun from one of his men and flipped it around, striking Mordren in the face with the butt.
Unfortunately, Mordren grabbed the butt of the gun with his teeth and shoved the barrel into the man's chest, cracking his ribs, the fragments of which punctured his heart.
The man scrabbled at the gun before falling limp, the last of his living blood seeping out of his chest.
"You pathetic fools, honestly thinking you can survive me. I enjoy killing you more than your ignorance,"
Mordren' growls sounded like laughter.
He was amused that despite the fact that he had just killed several of their team, they would still attempt what was clearly futile.
The soldier and four of his remaining men made to lunge at Mordren.
Catching the movement, he whipped around lashing them with his tail before taking off at a full run toward the door that led outside.
He ran down the long narrow hallway, glancing back over his shoulder to see if any of the men were idiotic enough to chase him.
The hallway eventually ended at a large steel door that led outside.
Skidding to a stop to avoid colliding with it, Mordren reached up with his paw, catching his claws on the metal handle.
Pulling the door open with the strength of several men, Mordren slipped through the opening.
It slammed close behind him as he made for the fifty foot chain-link fence that encased the perimeter.
"Fuckin' A‚" He thought glancing up at the fence topped with rusty barbed wire.
Shaking away his doubts, he ran towards the fence at full speed, pushing himself upward with his strong hind legs, catching himself on the fence with his claws, quickly ascending the fence, heedless of the barbed wire at the top.
Pushing off with his rear legs again, he landed on his feet on the outside of the fence.
Behind him, the soldier and three other men burst through the door, cursing and yelling angrily.
He stood there for a moment, obviously amused at having escaped death, which left him oblivious to the tremors caused by something burrowing toward him beneath the burning hot sand.
A Destroyer four times his size erupted from the earth, his body outstretched as he leaped high over Mordren's head before coming to land on his other side. Sand cascaded off his large body as he bared his fangs, growling fiercely at Mordren.
Mordren quickly took a defensive stance as he growled angrily at the other Destroyer, noticing this Destroyer was missing three of the large black spikes on his back and the two near his neck had been broken off.
"If it's a fight you're looking for, expect a quick death. I've had a bad day and I'm really not in the mood,"
"Nice try but this is my territory, you'll be the one expecting a quick and very painful death," the other Destroyer's distorted voice sounded in Mordren' mind.
The larger Destroyer suddenly pounced, catching Mordren off-guard, pinning him against the ground with its fangs at his throat.
Mordren kicked his hind legs feverishly in an attempt to catch the other Destroyer with his long, sharp claws.
He managed to hook the claws of his left one into the other's rear left leg, making him yelp out in pain; Mordren raked his claws downward, slashing his opponent's leg open and drenching the sand below with blood.
Growling angrily Mordren hooked his claws on his opponent's leg again and slashed it wide open, revealing the muscle and bone beneath.
"Give in and I'll make your death quick and painless," He thought glaring up into the other Destroyer's eyes.
"I'd rather give you a slow and painful death,"
The other snarled, snapping his jaws against Mordren' neck.
Mordren freed his front right leg, slashing his claws across the other's face, leaving long deep gashes below his right eye, droplets of blood staining Mordren' fur.
The Destroyer snarled, snapping its jaws against Mordren's neck.
Mordren freed his front right leg and slashed his claws across its face, leaving long gashes below its right eye.
Crimson droplets stained his fur.
"You son of a bitch!"
Mordren growled angrily, grabbing the other Destroyer by his shoulders and flipping him over onto his back, pinning him against the ground.
"If you kill me then you'll have less to worry about, but you'll still have to worry," the Destroyer's distorted voice rung out in Mordren' mind.
Mordren growled fiercely as he unexpectedly bit down into the Destroyer's throat and ripped it out, swallowing the chunk of flesh in his mouth hungrily.
He stepped away from the Destroyer, watching him bleed to death as the life slowly drained from his eyes.
"You're dead and I don't feel a need to worry about anything else," He thought gazing upward at the blazing sun.
Several feet away from Mordren something began to burrow up from beneath the ground, catching his attention.
He cautiously stepped forwards watching as a Destroyer much larger than the one he just killed burrowed out of the ground, sand cascading off its body.
"Damn it," He thought growling under his breath.
The Destroyer climbed out of the ground, sniffing at the air.
"Bring it on, you ugly son of a bitch," Mordren thought hoping the Destroyer could read his mind like the one from before.
"Don't test me, boy‚," the Destroyer thought as he growled at Mordren.
Without warning, Mordren pounced, knocking the Destroyer backwards pinning him against the ground.
"Don't test my patience, I've been tortured by those soldier fucks and now you ugly fuckers are trying to keep me from my freedom,"
"I will do whatever the fuck it takes to get away from this Hell-hole, even if it means taking on a hundred of you bitches,"
Mordren glared deep into the other's eyes, his fangs bared as he growled loudly before biting into the other's throat, his fangs sinking into the soft flesh.
Warm blood filled his mouth as he ripped out the other's throat, blood pooling around his head and soaking the sand beneath him.
He then raised his front right paw and dug his claws into the other's open wound, tearing out his vocal chords.
"I hope there are more of you out there, because I won't give the slightest ounce of mercy when I rip out your throats,"
Mordren stepped away from the other Destroyer once he knew he was dead, a satisfied gleam in his black, soulless eyes.
In the distance he could hear the faint sound of Jeep engines revving into life.
"Took those bastards long enough," He snorted as he took off at a full run.
As Mordren ran off towards the horizon he kicked up sand behind him, his tail whipping back and forth.
The sound of Jeep engines faded the further he ran, glad to put some distance between him and the soldiers.
"I may not be able to hide but I can outrun them,"
In Pursuit
"Is anyone else getting hungry?" Caliphar asked, in the rearview mirror.
"We didn't have breakfast, so I imagine most of us are a bit hungry. I know I am," Aurelia volunteered, catching his eye in the mirror.
"I could go for breakfast," Soraf ventured as she stretched her arms above her head.
"I know an easy way to get breakfast," Koriphus grinned, rising from his seat.
He reached into his cape and pulled out his Gauss-powered rifle.
"Come on Caliphar, I'm gonna show you how to catch a quick meal."
"How?" Caliphar once more posed the question to the mirror.
"With this," Koriphus pulled an M39 EMR rifle from his cape with a flourish.
"Holy crap! Where'd you get that?" Caliphar demanded.
"I snagged it from the soldiers that tried to kidnap me; stole it from their weapon safe before I escaped," Koriphus explained.
"Nice!" Caliphar grinned appreciatively.
He pulled off to the side of the road and killed the engine.
"Here, let's go up to the roof." Koriphus handed the rifle to Caliphar, who was all too eager to accept it.
"Man, this is a great-looking rifle!"
Caliphar examined the weapon as he followed Koriphus to the back of the bus.
"You'll get to use it, there's a lone Destroyer coming our way," Koriphus said pointing out the back window.
Caliphar looked up and spotted the Destroyer wandering along the road.
"Where'd he come from?" Aurelia asked, having trailed Koriphus and Caliphar.
"Maybe he's been following us, hoping for an easy meal," Soraf mused.
"Well he's about to become the meal. Let's get up on the roof," Koriphus opened the hatch and clambered through it.
Caliphar climbed through after him, dropping flat onto his stomach and crawling over to Koriphus at the back edge of the roof.
"Ready for this?" Koriphus asked, glancing sideways at Caliphar.
"Yeah," Caliphar replied with a s
hort nod, propping the M39 EMR up on its rifle mount.
"Ok, that Destroyer's a few yards away so make this shot count. You don't wanna scare away our breakfast,"