“Giselle! Toko! Help!” She shouted as she fled.
The large Azrael looked at Samantha and back at Jason again. It grunted, sniffed Jason and shook its head. It tossed him to the ground and chased after Samantha. The other Azrael was staggering and fumbling to the ground as it rubbed at its eyes. It hissed and snorted in anger. Jason quickly stood up and hurried after the large Azrael. He kicked the legs from beneath the blinded one, causing it to fall back and the back of its skull brutally smacked the asphalt. As Jason ran, he realized that the Azrael chasing Samantha was moving much faster than he was.
Samantha reached in her bag once more and removed a mesh bag full of marbles. She tore the bag open and dropped them behind her. She glanced back to see how far away she was from them. To her horror, the large Azrael was only ten feet behind her moving on all fours like a gorilla. Fortunately, the Azrael was too close to course correct from the dropped marbles causing it to lose its footing. Its face collided hard with the asphalt, dazing it and knocking several teeth from its mouth. Jason was amazed at her survival instincts but knew that it would only do so much. Without a weapon and the skills to use it, she would always be in danger outside the walls of Chicago.
“Giselle, Toko!” She shouted again.
*
“Giselle, Toko, Help!”
“Fuck, it’s Samantha. She’s in trouble.” Giselle urged.
“So are we.”
Toko noticed a few heads turned towards them from the group within the fence. They saw them both and attempted to climb the fence despite the voltage being sent throughout their bodies. Two of them bowled over the fence tumbling on their backs awkwardly and became overwhelmed by vicious seizures.
“Damn it, we gotta get inside the house, now. Can you stall them and I’ll get the girl?” Giselle asked.
“I’ll see what I can do.” Toko winked at Giselle.
“Why are there so many out here?” She asked.
“Maybe the hum of the electric fence drew them over or maybe they were led here by something else.” Toko speculated.
Giselle removed her pistol, attached a suppressor and placed three shots in the skull of the large Azrael as it struggled to its feet. She took in a deep breath, focused further and shot two holes in the side of the skull of the blinded Azrael behind Jason. Samantha reached Giselle in a heavy pant and placed her hands on her knees. She pointed behind her with her left hand and huffed.
“Azrael…over…there.” She struggled with her words.
“I got ‘em. Nice trick with the marbles.” She patted her on top of the head as Samantha caught her breath.
“Thanks. Jason…” She saw him running towards them. He scowled at the large Azrael as he ran past it.
“Come on, we got to get inside the house. We’ve got bigger problems.” Giselle jogged away towards the house.
“Wait…” Samantha wheezed. “Let me catch my…breath.” She continued.
“No time, move girl.” Giselle urged.
Jason grabbed her, tossed her over his shoulder and ran towards the house.
“Stop, wait! Put me down!” She fought Jason’s grip while wiggling around sporadically. He kept a good grip on her. She eventually went limp when she knew that it was no use fighting. Giselle held the door open as Jason hurried inside with Samantha on his shoulders.
“Toko, in the house, now.” She shouted.
He came from around the corner covered in blood as he held his katana in his hands.
“What the hell were you doing?”
“Giving us time. I need a dose of the serum when we settle inside. I’ve overspent calories and feel the virus taking over.” He responded. Giselle noticed his heartrate elevate drastically and the sour aroma in his breath amplified. He was telling the truth.
“Hurry then, inside.” She instructed and immediately shut, locked and reinforced the front door with a couch nearby after he walked through. She quickly removed the serum and a syringe from Toko’s bag.
“The neck…put it in the neck.” Toko mumbled as the virus quickly exhausted him.
“Got it.” Giselle fumbled with the serum in her hands and jabbed the needle in her hand by mistake. “Fuck!” She tossed the empty syringe on the ground and removed another just in case her blood could contaminate the serum as it passed through. A loud banging shook the couch and caused the heavy door to tremble. “The door! Jason put pressure on the door.” She hollered.
He hurried over while carrying a large mixing machine for mixing cakes and pastries. It was an old model that weighed probably two hundred pounds or more. He dropped it on the floor between the left side of the door near the handle and covered the wall to its left. The sharp edges on the bottom of it cut into the wood below, digging in deeper with each strike from the door. Jason’s hands were bloodied from cuts to his arms that had already scabbed up from carrying it. He wiped them on his pants and gestured over to Samantha to toss him the fire poker that hung next to the fireplace. She pointed to each item in the area until finally getting it right. He nodded, grunted and beckoned it over to him. She tossed it across the room and it nearly struck Giselle in the head. She sneered at her after she finally injected the serum into Toko’s neck.
“Watch it girl!” She scolded.
“Sorry, I’m just trying to help.” She apologized.
Jason picked it up from the ground near Giselle and shrugged at her as he picked it up.
“Toko’s going to need time to recover. We’re going to have to hold out for a while. What’s with the poker?” She asked.
Jason thrusted it in between the floorboards butted against the mixer to provide more stability. He brought his face up with a massive Jason-like smile.
“Nice one. As for you…” Giselle turned to Samantha and she was in the other room already. “Sam! Where’d you go?” She shouted.
“I’m in here.” She hollered as sounds of drawers opening and closing were heard from the kitchen. Giselle walked over to her.
“You can’t just disappear like that.” She grimaced. “I can’t help you if I don’t know where you are.” She continued.
“You said that Toko needed time. I was just looking for supplies for traps.” Samantha held out a box of nails, forks, knives and some lighter fluid. “All I’ve found so far. The back door is sealed shut and reinforced with steel. Must have been for protection from the cows behind. All side windows downstairs have steel bars across them, probably to prevent theft.” Samantha explained.
“You’ve discovered all of this already?” Giselle was impressed.
“I’ve gotta be quick to survive alone.” Samantha wore a large grin.
“You’re not alone anymore, Sweetheart. Just be careful. We haven’t scanned for Azrael yet.” Giselle walked over and placed her hand on her left shoulder leading her back into the main room.
Jason continued to apply pressure on the door rom constant banging outside. A few shattered windows downstairs caused them all to pause and listen. When no sounds of footsteps followed, they took in air.
“The bars.” Samantha answered.
Jason turned when he heard Samantha’s voice. He furrowed his brow when he saw the assortment of items in a box in her hands.
“Jason, we need to clear the upstairs. Guard the door. Samantha’s coming with me.” Giselle instructed.
Jason nodded and gave Samantha the thumbs up with his right hand as his left applied pressure to the door. She smiled and hurried behind Giselle who was already heading upstairs with her pistol aimed up them. Samantha placed the assorted items on the ground next to the steps and retrieved a butcher knife from the stash. Giselle noticed.
“Gonna take a lot more than that to stop them.” Giselle explained.
“Better than nothin’.” Samantha admitted.
“True, true, stay close.”
Giselle nodded upstairs after sounds of movement up there silenced them both. She put a finger to her lips urging Samantha to stay quiet. Samantha nodded with agreeance while following
Giselle with carefully placed footsteps. Swatches of light lit up the hallway by a large window eight feet up. A silhouette of tree branches provided a film noir décor that gave Samantha an unsettled feeling as they swayed from the gentle breeze outside. A banging noise above them in the attic caused Samantha to lower to a squat. She backed up away from the pull down door that led to the attic.
“Behind me, I’m pulling it down.” Giselle mouthed to Samantha and she nodded.
Giselle grasped the ring that dangled by a rope and pulled down quickly as the springs whined and the latch caught. The ladder slid down an aluminum track quicker than Giselle expected striking her in the face. A wiry figure leapt from the darkness over Giselle and landed on top of Samantha sending her on her back. She instinctively jabbed her left forearm at its throat keeping it from biting her as it gripped its bony fingers around her shoulders pulling her towards its salivating mouth. She thrust the knife in her right hand at its left temple several times killing it in two but continued to shank the lifeless corpse until she was satisfied. Giselle crawled over, grabbed the Azrael by its bony shoulders and flung it off Samantha. It collided with the wall and rolled on the ground like a rag doll. Samantha lay on her back still gripping the knife in her hand white knuckled.
“Samantha, Sam are you okay? I’m so sorry.” Giselle whispered as she studied her face. “Were you bit?” She asked.
“No…I killed it.” She stammered.
“You did, you killed it with that knife. Nice job.” Giselle encouraged while reaching out her left hand to help Samantha up. She took it and pulled herself to her feet.
“It looked sick. Its breath smelled horrible.” Samantha remembered and rubbed at her left forearm.
Giselle walked over to it surveying its condition. It was severely malnourished and was skeletal in its appearance. It was most likely trapped in the attic for quite some time. She rubbed at the knot on her forehead that had scabbed up already.
“Fucking ladder! I’m sorry about that. I could have gotten you killed.” Giselle brought her head down and shook it.
“It’s dead Giselle. Don’t worry about it. It’s not the first time that I’ve come this close to death.” She admitted.
“But this one was on me. I fucked up.” Giselle took it hard.
A thick stink escaped the attic causing both of them to cover their nose and mouth with the collar of their shirts.
“Gross.” Samantha griped beneath her shirt.
“Yup, it’s been trapped up there for a long time.” Giselle took in the odor in its entirety identifying each scent that mixed into the disgusting smell. Against all instincts to avoid the putrid aroma, Giselle ascended the ladder to verify if there were any more threats up there. A massive pile of shit in the north corner carried its own identifying musk while decaying corpses of rats and squirrels gathered in the west side. On the wall to the east, words and lines were carved into the drywall. The last line was in blood.
“I ate them, like a monster. I will burn in hell for what I’ve done. I’m sorry Cookie and Dexter.
Next to the wall were two piles of bones from what appeared to be dogs. Beneath it was another barely legible sentence.
Tryd to make it to th brsmt was bitt
Giselle descended the stairs covering her face with her left sleeve.
“It’s clear. Let’s go downstairs.” She urged.
“What did you find?”
“A pile of shit, a pile of bones and a new appreciation of the word starving.” Giselle explained while noticing a photo of a fat man on his left knee next to two black and white sheepdogs that were licking each cheek. The photo appeared professionally taken and captured a moment that displayed genuine affection towards each other.
“Cookie and Dexter.” She mumbled to herself.
“What?”
“Nothing, let’s check on Toko.” Giselle descended the stairs while placing her pistol in her holster. Samantha shrugged and followed behind.
Toko was burning up and a torn severely soiled wet cloth was on his forehead. A half-empty bottle of water taken from Giselle’s bag was on the floor next to Toko. Jason gestured upstairs towards Giselle.
“Why don’t you ask our little prison shanker?” Giselle nodded towards Samantha with a smile. Samantha wasn’t paying attention. “Samantha, tell Jason what happened.” She urged.
“Me?” Samantha was digging through the box of supplies she left by the stairs. She brought her head up when she heard her name.
“Yes, he wants to know what happened upstairs.”
“An Azrael was in the attic and we killed it.”
“She killed it with a knife.”
“It’s what I said. No point making a big deal out of it.” Samantha returned the box and pulled out a box of nails and the lighter fluid.
“It was my fault. It jumped over me and on top of her.”
Jason stood up tall and gestured biting on his arm.
“No, no she wasn’t bit. Thank God.” She turned to study the young woman. “She’s a tough cookie.”
Jason nodded and pointed to his head.
“Smart?”
He nodded.
“Yeah, she’s pretty bright. She’s definitely quick witted. She kind of reminds me of you, Jason.” Giselle looked back and forth at the two.
Samantha placed the nails and lighter fluid aside and headed back upstairs with the knife and an old lotion jar that once held some exfoliating crème.
“What’s she doing?” Giselle asked.
Jason shrugged.
A few minutes later, she descended the stairs while screwing the top on the jar.
“What’s that?” Giselle asked.
“Pieces of that Azrael upstairs and some of its blood.”
“What the hell’s wrong with you?” Giselle asked.
“I’m not like you guys. I’m doing what I have to stay alive, Giselle.”
“But we can protect you. You don’t…”
Samantha gave Giselle a scowl cutting her off.
“I made a mistake. I’m sorry that it happened to you.”
“It’s not that Giselle. I can’t possibly expect to be saved every minute out of the day. Because that’s what it takes to survive out here. It’s an angry nasty place that wants nothing but to kill someone like me.” Samantha was breathing heavily. She could feel tears coming. She fought them away. “This is what I do to survive.” She lifted up the jar of Azrael chunks. “I don’t expect you to understand being left alone for a year out in this…” She shook her head while gesturing all around. “…fucking world.” She finished.
“I’ve seen some messed up shit too. Don’t play the victim here. We’ve all been through it. I was captured by some redneck cannibalistic Satan worshippers who gutted my sister-in-law to get her ready to cook and eat. I escaped, killed all of them with a knife except for the last one. You want to know what I had to do to kill the last one.”
Samantha quietly shook her head.
“I strangled the son of a bitch with Jessica’s intestines, her God damned oily ass intestines!”
Giselle cried. She fell to her knees and wept about it. She finally got it off her chest in front of Jason. She turned to look at him. His eyes were wide and his mouth was open. She couldn’t tell what he was feeling. She brought her head down and continued to cry.
Samantha stared off towards Jason. She could feel the tension in the air. She imagined how horrible that had to have been for Giselle and wondered if she could have done the same thing to survive. She watched Giselle, the toughest woman she ever met, break down for the first time. It caused her own emotions to surface and tears fell from her too. She turned to hide them but couldn’t stop them from coming.
Jason walked over to Giselle and placed his hand on her shoulder. He rubbed her head gently and she brought up her wet face towards him.
“Oh, Jason I’m so sorry.” She wrapped her arms around him and wept on his shoulder. She held him tight and he did the same. A tear escaped hi
s right eye in response as they shared a brother-sister moment that he believed would never be. Although shocked by the situation, he forgave his sister. He knew that she did everything possible to save his wife. Had she not survived, he never would have known about what happened to them both. Jason could smell the salty tears of a human. He grunted over to her. She turned her face at him while wiping away a few tears with her left hand.
“Huh?” She asked while sniffling.
Jason beckoned her over with his left hand revealing another shoulder free for her to cry on. She hurried over and placed her head on his left shoulder. He wrapped his left arm around her and rubbed her back as she wept. Seconds later she pulled away gagging.
“I can’t…the smell.” She fought chunks that tried to come up and staggered away. “Thanks…but no thanks.” She wiped the tears away and returned her attention on the box of nails and lighter fluid next to her box of goodies. She scratched at her forearm.
Jason sniffed his left armpit and shrugged when he didn’t smell anything too horrible. Giselle pulled her face up laughing.
Jason appeared confused.
“Jesus Jason, you stink something rotten.” She gasped as she sniffled and drug her right sleeve across her nose and face. “You smell so bad you cheered up two sobbing women with it.” Giselle laughed again and walked away.
A banging on the door caused him to walk over and apply pressure on it once more. Giselle noticed Samantha busy with her stuff again. She walked over and squatted next to her. Samantha was on her knees digging through her box.
“I’m sorry I snapped at you. It’s a tough world we live in, which is why we need to be tougher to survive.” Giselle spoke softly as she rubbed the girl’s back.
“I know. I’m sorry I assumed you had it better than me. I’m a stupid girl.” She nodded.
“No, you’re not. You’re a sharp thinker. Because of your actions, you’ve kept yourself alive. Even when we saved you the other day, it was you that put yourself in a position to be saved.”
Samantha nodded.
“Giselle?”
The Azrael (Book 4): Tricon Page 25
