Red Waters

by Charles Rye

  "Why didn't you come back in the Jeep you took?" Norenia asked.

  "The soldiers that attacked Aurelia and Caliphar planted a tracking device on it, we aren't stupid enough to bring it back and allow those freaks to follow us," Sif explained.

  "Why not just remove the device?" Norenia replied.

  "Would have left us out in the open for too long and we wanted to get back as quickly as possible before any more soldiers showed up," Sif answered.

  "Understandable, just glad you're all okay and unharmed," Norenia said with a smile.

  "How come Koriphus kept asking for us?" Caliphar asked looking up at Norenia.

  "He hasn't told me exactly, he just kept asking if you had returned yet‚ I think it has something to do with that Destroyer he woke up," Norenia responded.

  "Let's go see what he wants then," Caliphar said.

  He stepped past the Jeep and led the others down the stairs.

  "Koriphus, what's going on? Norenia says you were asking for us," Aurelia announced as she and Caliphar reached the bottom of the stairs, the others quickly descending the stairs.

  Koriphus turned around from the cryo-tub containing the Destroyer he had woken up.

  "It took me awhile and I had to go through a pile of paper work, but with some much appreciated help from Norenia I figured out how to release this Destroyer," Koriphus explained as the others gathered around Aurelia and Caliphar at the bottom of the stairs.

  "Before you ask why I waited for you all to return to release him, it is because this is going to be cool as hell," He quickly added, raising his hand to silence the others.

  He turned back around to face the monitor and began to press a series of various buttons, making three distinct lights at the top of the cryo-tube to flash.

  Aurelia, Caliphar, Norenia, Soraf, Sif and the others all watched intently as the strange fluid inside the tube slowly drained into the bottom of the tube, which caused the Destroyer to stand on all four legs.

  Koriphus flipped some sort of switch on the side of the monitor, as soon as he did the glass tube descended into the floor.

  "Holy crap! I'd have never thought about it opening like that," Sif gasped in complete surprise.

  The Destroyer blinked its eyes before looking around at everyone standing around by the stairs, settling its eyes on Aurelia.

  Koriphus slowly and cautiously approached the Destroyer, carefully removing the plastic mask from its muzzle then began gently removing the tubing and wiring attached to its body.

  "Bring Zxeron down here and see how they react to each other," Koriphus suggested.

  The Destroyer suddenly raised itself onto its hind legs and placed its front legs across Koriphus' shoulders, unexpectedly licking Koriphus' cheek.

  "So much for it being a fearsome and bloodthirsty creature, its behaving more like a puppy," Royena chuckled.

  "I just hope he's house trained‚" Sif said with a smirk.

  "I think he's adorable," Norenia smiled happily, watching the Destroyer continue to lick Koriphus' cheek.

  "Well adorable isn't exactly going to be helpful against those soldiers," Sif replied.

  The Destroyer dropped down to the floor and began growling fiercely at Sif, who quickly jumped behind Royena.

  Blowing air out his nose, the Destroyer turned around and walked back to Koriphus.

  "I think you insulted him," Aurelia said looking over at Sif, who was still behind Royena.

  "That's ridiculous‚ How could I have insulted him?" Sif responded stepping away from Royena.

  "He needs a name; we can't just keep referring to him as a Destroyer‚" Soraf announced looking around at the others.

  "I have a name for him‚" Norenia said quietly, biting her bottom lip.

  Soraf, Aurelia, Caliphar and Koriphus all looked up at her with expressions of curiosity.

  "Well, come on let's hear it," Aurelia replied with a smile.

  "Eros," Norenia responded confidently, smiling back.

  "I think it's a great name," Caliphar said looking at Norenia.

  "Do you like your new name, Eros?" Norenia asked looking down at the Destroyer sitting behind Koriphus.

  The Destroyer's ears perked up and began flicking its long, bony tail back and forth happily.

  "I think that's a yes," Koriphus chuckled, scratching Eros behind the ears.

  "When are we going to start training him?" Aurelia asked.

  "I wanted to see how he got along with Zxeron before doing anything," Koriphus answered, looking up at Aurelia.

  "Okay, so that means you don't need me or Caliphar for anything, right?" She asked glancing sideways at Caliphar.

  "Not right now, so go do whatever you need to," Koriphus replied looking between Aurelia and Caliphar.

  "All right," Aurelia smiled suddenly grabbing Caliphar by his hand.

  She practically dragged him up the stairs and towards the prison bus.

  "What are we doing?" Caliphar question as Aurelia led him towards the back of the bus.

  "What do you think?" Aurelia responded looking over her shoulder at him.

  Caliphar smirked, realizing why Aurelia dragged him into the bus.

  Aurelia moved to lie across the backseat, looking up at him.

  "What if somebody catches us?"

  "I say let 'em,"

  "Fine with me," Caliphar grinned as he moved to straddle Aurelia's lap.

  Aurelia slowly pulled off her shirt, revealing her perfectly round and supple breasts.

  "They are even more gorgeous than I imagined," Caliphar said gazing down at her chest lustfully.

  "Do they feel as good as you imagined?" Aurelia remarked placing Caliphar' hands over her breasts.

  "Much better," He grinned gently squeezing them, loving how soft they felt in his hands.

  "I'm glad,"

  She pushed herself up onto her elbows and gazed into his eyes, leaning up to kiss him deeply.

  He grinned into the kiss, returning it just as deeply as he swirled his tounge around her's.

  No home for heroes

  "Captain, we are unable to fully explain,"

  "Then do your damnedest," the Captain replied staring at his Commanding officer.

  "Well sir, we had captured some abominations and they managed to do a bit of damage before escaping the bunker,"

  "You want to explain to me just exactly how they did that?" the Captain questioned, his right hand twitching as the urge to grab his gun came over him.

  "It would seem one of them released the Destroyers in the Quarantine room and they managed to kill several people, at least four of them are still running around somewhere," the Commanding officer explained adjusting the collar of his jacket.

  "Are they still inside the bunker?" the Captain inquired a tone of anger in his voice.

  "We have been searching for them right now; the ones left alive in the Quarantine room have been tranquilized,"

  "Are any of the staff still alive?"

  "No, the prisoners that escaped killed a few men and the Destroyers killed the rest,"

  "Find the Destroyers and find those prisoners, now!"

  The Captain slid his rough fingers over the grip of his Sig X5 Tactical pistol holstered to his hip, the urge to shoot something or someone getting stronger to resist.

  "Sir! Sir! My men found an army issued Jeep a couple Mordren from the bunker,"

  A soldier came running down the long hall behind the Commanding officer.

  "Was this Jeep here before?" the Captain asked, the nerves in his fingers twitching as they curled around the handle of his gun.

  "It belonged to the prisoners, we had placed a tracking device on it but they had others nearby that killed more of my men and escaped with them," the Commanding officer answered avoiding eye contact with the Captain.

  In the blink of an eye, the Captain pulled his gun from its holster and shot the Commanding officer between the eyes watching as the man fell backwards, blood spurting from the bullet wound.

  "An
ybody else feel like telling me shit I should have known before I was called here in the middle of the fucking night out of the comforts of my cramped command post?!" He shouted, angrily waving his gun around at the soldiers and officers in the crowded hall.

  All the men glanced around at one another before all turning their heads to look up at the Captain and shook them in response.

  "Good, I'm returning to my post and if any of you stop me you'll get the next bullet,"

  Everyone watched in complete silence as the Captain made his way out of the bunker.

  Once he was outside and beneath the blanket of stars, he walked over to his vehicle and climbed into the driver's seat, he turned the key in the ignition and revved the engine.

  A rather long and lanky looking Destroyer appeared from beneath the sand beside the Captain's vehicle.

  The creature turned its head to look up at its master, its obsidian black eyes regarding the man with instinctive respect.

  "Go and feed, find those who have hurt your master and killed your family,"

  "I will find you when I need to," He spoke softly to the creature, stroking its bony back.

  The Destroyer lifted its snout to the sky and sniffed the air, catching onto the scent left behind from Aurelia and the others.

  It let out a howl that would send chills down anybody's spine as it bounded off towards the South.

  "Anybody out there‚?" crackled from the vehicle's radio causing the Captain to grab the receiver hanging from the dashboard.

  "Who is this?" He spoke into the receiver.

  "Officer eighty-one‚ I don't know my position, but maybe you can track my signal,"

  "I'm stranded, and lost the rest of my crew, we got jumped by a bunch of rogue Destroyers, please send help,"

  The Captain could hear the sound of howling in the distance over the radio before it cut out.

  He flipped the radio to a different channel and waited for someone to answer.

  "I need all available soldiers to go out to rescue a stranded officer, I'll meet you at my post before heading out," the Captain said as he began driving away from the bunker.

  By the time the Captain approached his post, he noticed several vehicles parked outside, all of them surrounded by four or five soldiers each.

  He drove up to the closest vehicle and killed his engine before swinging the door open as he stepped out.

  As soon as he got out of his vehicle, all the soldiers stood to attention and saluted him briskly.

  "All right, men‚ We have an officer in need of rescue; she is surrounded by rogue Destroyers, so bring your guns and tranquilizers,"

  "I want this rescue done with as little collateral damage as possible, now let's head out," the Captain ordered, grabbing his secondary weapon from his post before getting back into his vehicle.

  He led the soldiers out across the dark desert, the only light coming from the headlamps of their vehicles.

  A thick blanket of dark clouds, signaling an approaching storm, covered the night sky above.

  Over an hour of driving had passed when they finally reached what appeared to be the remains of a C-130 that had wrecked years before the apocalypse.

  The chorus of thunder rumbling above drowned out the sound of the engines.

  Lightning flashed brightly, outlining the shadow of a figure standing where a giant, gaping hole exposing the interior of the C-130.

  "Oh my, my there are so many of you, I wasn't expecting a whole rescue party for little ol' me," the figure spoke in a sweet voice.

  "So many pretty chew toys for my children, they'll be very happy,"

  The Captain stepped out of his vehicle and approached the figure with immense caution, his back-up weapon at the ready.

  "I thought you were in need of rescue," He said with a tone of confusion staring at the shadowy figure.

  "You thought wrong, darling. You just walked into your death,"

  Before the Captain could react, he felt the cold metal of a blade pierce the hot skin on his throat.

  He collapsed to his knees in the sand, gasping and coughing up unusually large amounts of blood as he clutched at his throat in a pitiful attempt to pull the blade out, only to realize it was a gutting knife and the serrated hook had caught on his windpipe.

  "Pull on it all you want, you'll only end up gutting yourself like a fish. Which, to be honest would be pretty amusing to see, so please continue,"

  The figure stepped into the beam shining from the Captain's vehicle, which lit up most of its features.

  The Captain could now see tanned leather hiking boots with grey laces over what looked like blue fur covered legs and the edges of brown shorts surrounded by an army green duster jacket, still struggling with the knife stuck in his throat he managed to look up at the figure's face.

  The figure swung out its hand, striking him over the head and knocking him unconscious before he was able to get a decent look at its face.

  "Your Captain will be dead soon, and it's only a matter of time before I kill all of you,"

  The figure kneeled beside the Captain, the lights from the vehicle illuminating its facial features, all the soldiers gasped in surprise.

  The figure had the ears, eyes and snout of a wolf, but her fur was a distinctive sky blue with violet purple fur covering her right ear.

  She curled her fingers around the exposed handle of her gutting knife sticking out of the Captain's throat and forcefully ripped it out, causing blood to spray out of the gaping wound and fall onto her boots.

  "Salty‚" She murmured softly, licking bits of blood off the blade.

  The soldiers merely stood and stared at the wolf girl, speechless.

  "Nothing to say? No words or actions in defense of your fallen Captain?"

  None of the men replied, many of them didn't even move or flinch.

  She looked around at the soldiers, noticing their blank and vacant expressions.

  "You can't function without your Captain, is that it?"

  "Normal soldiers would have tried to kill me already, but you aren't normal soldiers‚ You're genetic freaks, and yet you think that somehow makes you better than the ones you call "abominations"‚" She continued as she stepped up to the soldier standing in the center of the group.

  She was now face to face with him, her golden eyes staring into his dull brown ones.

  "If you aren't going to fight back, what's the‚"

  She stopped mid-sentence as she felt the cold barrel of a gun pressing into her stomach, forcing her to remain completely still.

  In a heartbeat, she was standing behind the soldier with his arm twisted behind his back and his own gun pressing against his spinal cord.

  The other men had all taken a step away from the wolf girl that was now holding their companion hostage.

  "How did you do that, I could have shot you‚" the soldier stuttered, fear apparent in his voice.

  "You see, being a good eighty percent animal I have much faster reflexes and instincts, making me and my kind the superior species,"

  "No matter how hard you try to make up for it with your high tech toys and little chemistry sets used by your funny men in white coats," She replied placing her knife against his throat with her free hand.

  "You want to hear a secret?" She whispered into his ear.

  He shook his head as a sudden chill crawled up his spine.

  "We are the superior race," She growled quietly, pulling the trigger on his gun.

  A bullet ripped through his back and found its way into his lower intestines, causing him to scream out in pain as it felt like his insides were on fire.

  "It feels like someone's ripping your guts out, doesn't it? Like someone reached inside you and set your intestines on fire and nothing can put it out," She spoke so the other men could hear her.

  Without a word, she slit the man's throat and threw him to the ground, his blood soaking into the sand beneath him.

  "Come on boys, its play time!" She shouted suddenly.

  Several l
anky, yet rather large Destroyers slowly rose up from out of the sand, their eyes glowing in the dark as the pouring rain washed the sand off their bodies, turning it into mud.

  "Surely you lot are up for a challenge," She grinned looking around at the soldiers, swinging her Marlin 336 around on its strap and aiming it at the men closest to her.