by Quil Carter
Perish had a look in his eyes that I found very unsettling. It reminded me of the cold, dead gaze that Reaver had had for the last several days.
Surprisingly he handed me handcuffs and turned away.
Then in a sudden motion he shoved the dog noose through the bars and over Jake’s head. He pulled the noose back, slamming and pinning Jake against the bars. He twisted the snare so it stayed in place. Jake made a grab for his neck, but the loop was too tight. He had to push his face between the bars to keep it from strangling him.
Then Perish opened the door. I looked to see that Martin was already handcuffed and… I swallowed hard, he was missing one of his legs. Perish grabbed him and dragged him to the second door.
“I didn’t touch him!” Martin screamed. Perish pushed him ahead and he stumbled into the doorway. He turned around and made eye contact. “Come on, man, tell him I didn’t fuck you.”
“You tried to buy me,” I said. My voice sounded dead too. My emotions were conflicting, fighting between me wanting to watch him die, and just wanting to put him back in the cage. I was scared, and I was scared of Perish right now.
The door opened and Perish brought all three of us into another room. Then he turned around to get Jake.
Suddenly Martin started screaming. I looked to see what he was hollering at, and then I saw the room I was in.
Hooks holding naked bodies were strung up from the ceiling. Dangling on wire and chains, their blotchy feet, blackened from pooled blood, swaying on dead air. Most were decapitated, all of them were missing at least a few of their limbs, though the stumps looked like they’d had time to heal.
There were slabs in the room too; some of them were holding more arians, some of them just held severed limbs. A pile of arms, a pile of legs, then torsos. All sorted neatly for food like we did with the rat meat. A row of freezers were behind all of us, probably stuffed to the brim with meat.
Martin was still screaming when Perish brought in Jake.
Perish threw him up against the wall, and as he fell the scientist started beating the living shit out of him. Perish slammed his foot down again and again on Jake’s body, with such force I could hear the bones breaking under Perish’s boot. When Jake was groaning on the floor, writhing in pain, Perish paused.
Perish’s ice blue eyes stared forward before they shifted to Martin. As soon as the legionary saw the scientist he let out a scream and tried to back away. But there was no escaping the mad scientist, Perish stalked over to Martin and started viciously stomping on his chest.
I stared. My body backing up until I hit the wall behind me. What else could I do? I could only stare and watch the drops of blood sticking to the wall behind the legionaries, splatters and splatters of blood. More grey and red.
But not mine this time.
When Perish was exhausted, he turned to me.
“Finish them off, Killian,” Perish said through ragged breaths. His eyes were crazed and glassy. “Want to fuck them? Or just kill? Come here, Killian. I’ll fuck one, you fuck one, we’ll do it together.”
“I… I’m not a really that type of person,” I said quietly. My body was clenched and trembling. In all my time here this was the first time I had ever been this terrified. “Just kill them, Perry.”
“I got you a present, Joel found them. Don’t you like your present?” Perish said, his chest heaving. Behind him Martin and Jake were curled up like cowards, their faces blackened and bloodied. My anger for them had disappeared, they were pathetic. Just a heap of cowardice and fear.
“I do, hunny,” I said, my hand finding the door knob. It rattled in my hands as my grip shook “Thank you, you’re so… nice to me.”
Perish walked over to me and pressed something in my hand. I looked down to see that it was a combat knife… shit, it was Reaver’s combat knife. I took it from him, and he nodded at me and grabbed my hand. He made me walk towards them.
When they saw me coming they just stared. Like a scaver in flood lights, they looked at me.
I looked back. We locked eyes for a moment before I looked at Perish. “You kill them for me… I’m… I want you to do it.”
“You are a coward,” Perish snapped. He whirled around and grabbed both Martin and Jake by their collars, then hoisted them up and started dragging them back to their cages. I followed them, but Perish didn’t put them back in their cells. He left them out in the open, only shoving them both into a corner, and walked out. I followed.
“Sweety… let’s go back up, you should sleep a bit… Perry?” I forced my tone to be as kind as I could get it. I just wanted to get out of here. Get back to Reaver in his room, plan our escape… go home. I just wanted to go home.
The door to the abominations opened again and the whipwolf lunged at the Plexiglas window. Perish stalked over to him, noose in hand.
I ran into the dead gnasher’s cage the moment Perish started opening Gianni’s enclosure. I shut the door and watched as he let the thrashing animal out, the noose around its neck. I noticed he had something in his hand, a switch similar to Reaver’s detonator. He pressed it and the whipwolf went rigid and yelped. It calmed down after that and let Perish lead it.
As soon as the door to the hallway closed, I ran out of the cage and watched as he led the growling and drooling human-deacon into the room with the arian cages. My mouth went dry as he pushed the animal in and closed the door behind him.
I stepped back as he walked towards me, a smile breaking his face that radiated madness. Before I had a chance to say anything he flicked a switch.
Suddenly there was a flash in front of me and a window appeared.
I gasped realizing the large mirror on the side was two-way.
The whipwolf was ripping Martin’s head from his body. A string of bloodied spine coming with the legionary’s lacerated head like the whipwolf was de-boning a fish. He threw Martin’s head into a corner, and started trying to pull the rest of his spine out with his teeth.
I couldn’t hear any sound coming from the room and I was thankful for that. All the prisoners in their cages were going completely insane. Arians… greywasters like me.
The whipwolf dug its nose into Martin’s stomach and started nipping at his innards. I looked to my left and saw Jake, huddled in a corner. His face was green and with the blank look of someone who knew death was imminent.
He must have made a noise because the whipwolf got up and walked towards him, still with the ape-like walk. Jake didn’t move. He didn’t move until the animal grabbed onto his neck and flung him.
The legionary was thrown through the air like a doll. As he fell he slid into the corner. The whipwolf ran after him and picked him up again. He flung him a second time, like a cat with a mouse.
This time the whipwolf dove into his stomach like he had done Martin. I could see Jake’s mouth open and close, his chest compressing and convulsing as he screamed.
The kidneys flopped out with his large intestines, and more red organs I couldn’t recognize. The whipwolf started eating him, pulling at Jake’s innards until they shredded apart in the beast’s mouth. Jake gave one last shudder before he died.
I looked at Perish, the smile on his face a deranged and content look that seemed to encapsulate the crazy chimera. It looked like he had enjoyed every bit of that. I was just too horrified to enjoy it. They were dead now, that’s all that mattered.
“Could you release the arians, Perry?” I asked quietly. I put a hand on his shoulder and rubbed it. “They’re not condemned are they? Why are they caged?”
“They came into my city, took my things.” Perish’s voice was cruel and dark. “And I needed them for food, to feed my… my splices.” As the scientist said this, he looked behind him. The expression on his face changed from menacing to devastated. The temporary distraction from what Nero had done to him faded like the legionaries’ lives.
As his broken and devastated face fell, he turned away, clenching his bloodied fists.
“He killed them!” Perish cri
ed. He walked over to his gnasher, but shut his eyes as soon as he saw it and turned away. He started to pace around, rubbing his hands together. I could almost hear his teeth grind as he gritted them back and forth. “Nero killed them he killed my gnasher, he killed my boras. I have to kill Gianni. He… he…” Perish rubbed his hands together again, then started to wring them. Another angry cry stung the tense atmosphere in the room.
He went into one of the enclosures and to my horror he came back with two of the whipwolf babies.
He grabbed each one by their legs and smashed their heads against the floor.
I screamed, clasping my hands over my mouth. I stood there frozen, my back against the mirror. The mutant babies twitched, their heads broken shells of red and pink. Blood and brains were everywhere.
Perish gave out a scream heavy with despair. He clenched his hair again and kicked one of the bodies across the room.
I had to calm him, I had to let him know I understood, that I really did care.
“I’m sorry he raped you, Perry,” I said quietly. I immediately regretted it.
Perish looked at me, his expression changing from shock and surprise, to anger. “I SAID NO TV!” Perish suddenly shrieked. He lunged at me and pushed me to the floor. He grabbed his hair again and pulled on it before turning around and pacing again. I had never seen anyone have a breakdown like this. I wanted to leave but I was stuck in here with him.
“Perish, calm down, please.” I tried to put my hand on his shoulder but he whirled around. He took a swing at me but I dodged it.
“You want the arians free?” Perish snarled. He walked past me to a small control panel with a dozen black switches. He looked at me with anger burning in his eyes. “There… free, okay?”
He flicked a switch and I heard a loud mechanical clang, then a second one. I turned as I saw movement in the two-way mirror.
The prison bars flung open, exposing every single arian to the whipwolf, now gnawing on the chewed up lower leg of Jake.
The creature looked up. Its snout was stained red. I could see bits of flesh falling out of its canine teeth. He was hunched over the carcass, the black hair on his spine sticking up like spikes. He did look like a werewolf.
The arians were screaming and crying, all backing to the edges of their cages, some making breaks for the door. Their eyes were wide like saucers, their faces drained of colour.
I watched helplessly as they pounded on the two-way window and clawed like maniacs. I could see several amputation wounds split open as they desperately hammered the door. Bloodied stumps against concrete walls, grey doors, and cages. All on a sea made from the whites of terrified eyes.
There was a flicker of black out of the corner of my eye, my vision automatically fell to it. Gianni was on his hind legs, walking towards the door. The man with the open stump took one look at him and started shouting. Then mass panic. Like a plague of mice they scurried and ran, tripping over each other as they sought a dark place to hide.
As I dropped my gaze from the panicked furor, I saw a woman crouched in the corner of the last cage. She couldn’t see me, even though she was looking right at me. All she saw was her reflection but I was looking directly into her eyes.
Then I looked down and saw that she had her hands wrapped around her child’s neck.
He was limp and blue, his lips were black and his eyes dull. Just then a black mass shot into my vision. I jumped back as Gianni grabbed the lady by the neck and flung her against the cage.
“All free,” Perish said behind me.
I turned away. Perish didn’t, he watched. I could see the reflections in his glasses, a flurry of activity dancing around the lenses. I swallowed my fear and put my hand over his. I squeezed it.
He looked at me, his face suddenly went blank, devoid of any emotion.
I watched as he slowly turned around to where his dead animals lay. The gnasher, the boras, the pups.
Perish let out a strangled sob, fell to his knees and started wailing. A heartbreaking, desperate noise that only someone who had lost everything would make. As quickly as his sanity had escaped him, it had come back. I could feel the weight of reality on his shoulders as he sobbed. My heart still hurt for him. I hated myself for it but it did. Only I could make it better.
I threw my arms over him and held him.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry… I’m sorry.” His voice was rapid and pleading. I shushed him and rocked him like Reaver had done me. The anger dissipated, just pity now and guilt. My poor lost scientist, I was all he had. Only I understood him, only I could save him from himself and his family. From pain and misery. It was on my shoulders now.
“It’s okay, Perry, shhh, it’s okay.”
“I’m a failure, I’m worthless,” he screamed, almost deafening me. I looked behind him, and saw the whipwolf tear the head off of the old man with one leg. Several of the arians were banging on the mirrors. The whole wall seemed to pulse under their desperate blows. “Silas hates me, no one misses me. Nero… Nero… what do I have to do to get someone to say good job, just once? Or for someone to love me?”
“I love you, Perry,” I whispered.
“You’re all I have, you’re all I have, Killian,” Perish whimpered. I stroked his hair back and held him tighter. “I love you. You make me happy, you’re the only one who makes me happy. You’re all I have.”
“I know.”
Reaver
I had found my bulletproof vest, the key, my M16 and my bullets, holster, and I had found my grenade and small knives. I was still missing my combat knife though. I was going to miss the ol’ boy.
I was feeling much more like myself again. I think as soon as I found my gun I started to feel myself come back. I was still hallucinating like you wouldn’t believe though, and I had a weird twitch in my eye, but I was armed and ready to get the fuck out of this crazy house.
I ran into the surveillance room as quietly as I could. I turned on the cameras to Donnely and looked for Leo and Greyson. It took me a few moments to find them, but eventually I saw Greyson emerging from a building. He was shouting something, I’m assuming to Leo.
I nodded to myself and tried to memorize their surroundings, before turning the TVs off and making my way to find Killian.
It didn’t take me long to find them.
Perish had his head on Killian’s lap, and Killian was stroking his hair back, his eyes staring at the floor. He was whispering things to Perish but in my haste I hadn’t caught them.
When Perish noticed me, he didn’t even bat an eye. I held my gun to his face.
“4001-PD.” No longer hyper rapid tones, his voice was defeated and low. “That’s the password out. Just leave us, please? Take anything you wish as my apologies for holding you. I’m sorry.”
I stared at him blankly, then my eyes found Killian’s. He hadn’t stopped playing with Perish’s hair. I needed him to say something, do something. Fuck, I knew he wanted the asshole alive.
“Killian?” I said, taking a step back so if I did have to shoot the scientist I wouldn’t hit the kid he was half lying on.
Killian closed his eyes tight. “Leave, Reaver.” I stared at him in shock, he sounded… serious. I watched as his lips moved, but no sound came out. “Bring the quad here.”
You little fuck why were you asking me this? So you could spare his life? Keep him alive? I knew that fucking little coward wanted to keep him alive.
I felt too fucked up to deal with his delay. I would kill Perish myself, I’d bring the quad around and go back inside. I’d laugh as Killian wailed.
I turned away from the two lovebirds and slammed my fist against the doorway.
Such weakness, first the old lady and now this? This one was dangerous though, this guy was a psychopath.
I walked down the hallway for the last time, free as I’ve ever been. I stood in front of the door and spoke. “4001-PD.”
It was almost orgasmic when I heard the pssshhh of the lock and the door push itself open. I shoved it op
en with both hands and put a brick in front of it. My boots crunched up against the curled linoleum and broken gyprock as I headed towards the open doors.
The sun welcomed me with open arms. I opened my arms and welcomed it back. It felt wonderful, it felt free. I filled my lungs with air and sighed loudly, before stepping into the road.
Fog had rolled into Donnely. I suppose it was nearing the spring rains, a month or so, I wasn’t sure. The whole town was draped in a mist. The buildings around me looked like faint drawings in the background, drawn with a light pencil on a grey canvas. I had never seen anything like it, I found myself admiring it like an idiot before I carried on down the road. I was sure I knew which direction the quad was in. Killian better hide Perish well. I was looking forward to playing hide and seek with him. I could play hot cold with Killian’s own heartbeat as my guide.
I shook out my limbs, I was free. I tried to run but my body was tired and too sore from being chained. My wrists wept pus freely, it felt like a band of fire had wrapped themselves around my wounds. I found myself lifting my shirt up and bringing my cuffs back just to get the cold air on them.
I was able to manage a jog for a while, and as I paced down the streets I listened out for Greyson and Leo and looked for any street signs I recognized.
This fog had rolled in quickly. I hadn’t seen it on the video feed. It smelled like pollution and stale blood. I hoped the rains would be coming soon. Perfect time to try and start growing those seeds Killian swiped and the peach pits.
Suddenly I stopped in my tracks and watched a shadow crawl, its mid-section bobbing up and down as it moved. With every contraction of its body it seemed to grow and grow, until it was a long snake.
Then it started to melt. It drooped down into a puddle and absorbed itself into the cars, becoming only their shadows. I stepped closer and it vanished into the paved road, misted and wet from the dew of the fog. Everything was glistening, just bright flares and sunbursts accumulating in the corners of my vision like metal shavings to a magnet.
I turned from it, only to see another.
