Moreno shrugged. “I did nothing. But, Javier gets rough sometimes.”
Sydney glanced at the smaller of the two goons and he sneered at her. “Great,” she muttered. “Well, I can’t take on both of them. So, someone has to hold them down. Or they will kill me before I get a chance.”
Moreno turned to his men and spoke to them in Spanish. After scowling at each other, Javier finally stepped towards the windowed room. Moreno turned to Gary. “You too.”
Sydney’s stomach flipped. Does he know? She couldn’t help but worry that Moreno was sending Gary into the room with Javier to make sure he wasn’t left alone with Gary and Sydney. Maybe I’m just being paranoid. She tried to remember if there was a time when the two of them had been with Moreno when his goons weren’t there but was pretty sure it hadn’t happened. Calm down. You are freaking out. Gary never batted an eye, nor did he look at Sydney.
He followed Javier into the room and when the two men entered, the women backed away snarling and drooling. It only took seconds for them to have the women in choke holds with their hands behind their backs. Once they were secure, Moreno waved her in. She took a deep breath and opened the door. As if the women could sense something, they grew quieter when she stepped inside. They were wild-eyed and their nostrils flared. After a moment, whatever stunned silence she had inspired faded. They began struggling harder and both men adjusted their grips on the women.
Sydney looked at her hands and flexed her fingers. What if it doesn’t work this time? She couldn’t see anything unusual with her fingernails. Is it going to just come out? It always had before, but she’d been in the middle of defending herself. Would this work just because she wanted it to? She stepped closer to the woman that Gary was holding and held up her clawed hand. It was harder than she thought it would be to just reach out and scratch another person. Feeling sick to her stomach she leaned forward, closed her eyes, and slashed the woman’s chest. The woman howled and Syd opened her eyes. Shit. She hadn’t even broken the skin.
“Sorry!” she winced and Gary glared at her.
Taking a deep breath she tried again. This time her nails raked down the woman’s chest like a dull knife through chicken. She felt the release of toxin and the woman screeched and began bucking against Gary’s chest. It was all he could do to hold her. Sydney hurried to scratch the woman Javier held and as soon as she did she backed out of the room. Gary laid his charge on the floor as gently as he could but Javier just dropped his and they both followed her out.
“Amazing!” Moreno breath. “You, my love, are amazing!”
“Yeah, well, I sure feel amazing,” Syd muttered.
“Let’s go,” Moreno practically danced away from the howling women.
“What now?” Syd called after him as Gary put a hand on her back and pushed her forward.
“Now, I want to test your limits of control.”
“What the hell does that mean?” she asked, even though she knew.
“I want you to control both of the berserkers. The ones you have already taken.”
“Taken?”
“That you lead down the path.”
I swear he gets crazier and crazier. Moreno led them to another room at the end of the hallway. It must have been an office at one time, but now it was empty except for the two berserkers that lay on the floor. After opening the door, Moreno stepped back. The berserkers snarled until they saw Sydney behind him. Then they went quiet.
“Go on!” Moreno motioned for her to go inside.
Sydney looked at him warily but stepped past him. “I don’t know what I’m doing.” The first time she had controlled a berserker it had been an accident. She had no idea how to make it happen again. But she had to try. This was her best shot at getting out and at stopping Moreno. She and Gary had not discussed what they would do to the Dyians once they were free. A small part of her hoped there would be a way to save them. She tried desperately to ignore the voice that told her she was being stupidly optimistic.
“Hi.” The blonde and the jogger didn’t respond. But they didn’t attack either. “What do you want me to have them do?” Syd risked asking Moreno over her shoulder.
“Anything.”
She sighed. “Can you guys stand up?” The two berserkers glared at her suspiciously. “It would be great if you two could clap your hands.” Nothing. “I really have no idea how to do this?”
“You will figure it out,” Moreno sounded no less enthused.
Goddammit, she growled to herself. Anxiety boiled in her stomach. She needed to control the berserkers. It was her best shot at escaping. She needed to make this work. Gary couldn’t help her much, but she could help herself. “Just clap your hands!”
The Dyians continued to glare at her. The longer Sydney stood there, the angrier she became. “Just clap your fucking hands!” Her heart slammed in her ribs and her breaths were ragged. This is my chance. She wanted to look at Gary for support, but she knew better. The tension in the small room crawled over her skin like static electricity. Syd met the wild, feral eyes of the berserkers. She hated looking them in the eye. It was too real. Too intimate. She could feel their insanity whenever she did. But she forced herself to anyway. As her anxiety rose, she began to feel like she was floating. The feeling washed over her and took her breath away. The wavering of the air around her mixed with her panic and she nearly fell over as the increasingly familiar orbs floated around her. “Just clap your goddamn hands!”
She broke away and closed her eyes, willing her vertigo to go away. The sound of flesh meeting flesh caused her to jump. She opened her eyes as a second set of hands joined the clapping. The berserkers were staring at her as they clapped their hands together with blank, expressionless faces.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Sydney turned to the people behind her. Moreno was ecstatic and Gary looked grim but determined. She felt relieved and terrified at the same time. The berserkers gave several more half-hearted claps behind her and she turned slowly.
“Stop that,” she told them. They dropped their hands and watched her, looking surprisingly bored. “What are your names?”
“Libby,” the blonde answered.
“Jake,” the jogger said.
Their voices were as bland and emotionless as their faces. They were not quite catatonic, but were barely more than. “Well, Jake, Libby, welcome,” to hell, she finished silently. She hoped they were well rested and had eaten. She—they—would need their strength to take on Moreno and his men.
A pinging sound caused her to turn back to Gary and Moreno. Gary scowled and pulled out his phone. “What now?” she asked as Gary backed further into the hall.
Moreno was staring at her with admiration that almost could be mistaken for awe. “We bring you more.”
Sydney took a deep breath. This was it. This was Moreno’s plan. He would keep bringing her people until he had a small army. He would find her powerful people to…take? As he called it. He would keep going until he had what he wanted. He was a man who craved power and control. And even more scary? He was insane. He believed aliens were gods who would reward him with power and favor. The fact that he would sacrifice himself—had already sacrificed his daughter—to make sure they succeeded was the most terrifying aspect of his personality. Crazy was dangerous to those around it. But maniacal devotion was disastrous for everyone.
If Moreno was even a little successful, he would pave the way for more aliens to find a hold on the world. The lizard-like monster the aliens grew into were a horror-show. But the real problem, she knew, was the brain parasites. Their danger was more insidious. There was no way to tell how many were already implanted into people. Or how they were even getting there. How many fully grown Dyians are there? How many can they implant into humans? The crushing weight of hopelessness pressed down on her. She had to get out of here. And soon. She needed to do everything she could to stop the spread of the Dyians.
Gary’s reappearance cut off the rising panic of her thoughts. She studied
his face and realized he looked worried. She tilted her head but he refused to meet her eyes. “Well,” she began, turning to Moreno. “Can I rest first? That took a lot out of me.”
“Of course!”
She stepped out of the room and watched Oscar lock the door with a simple thumb turn deadbolt. Relieved that she wouldn’t have to find a key before releasing Libby and Jake, she sighed. As she passed Moreno he reached out and wrapped an arm around her. It took a lot of will power to not flinch in disgust.
“You have lived up to your potential wonderfully,” he cooed.
“Who are you going to bring me next?” she asked.
“Everyone we can for now. We need an army.”
“How will you infect someone powerful enough to help? How are you going to find someone powerful that is infected? What if you can’t?”
He grinned at her slyly. “Don’t worry about that.”
What the hell does that mean? A realization caused her to go still. She had been following Gary and Javier towards the elevator. Moreno walked beside her and Oscar followed them. She could feel his hulking presence almost slam into her as she drew up short. “You are infecting people aren’t you? You have a mature Dyian?”
Hesitation flashed over Moreno’s face for a moment. “Don’t worry.”
Sydney swallowed trying to dislodge the lump in her throat. “Can I see it?”
“No,” he snapped.
She forced herself to grin. “Why not? I want to meet my brother…or sister. Do Dyians even have genders?” she wondered out loud.
“In time,” Moreno told her, his voice softening again.
She knew when to stop pushing, so she gave him a playful scowl. “Fine.”
Gary glanced back and barked at them. “Hurry up!”
“What has gotten into him?” she jabbed a thumb at him, still trying to find camaraderie with Moreno. Even if their plan hadn’t indicated they needed to wait until they were alone to set their plan in motion, the look on Gary’s face would have told her the same.
“Who knows?” he shrugged, clearly not caring.
They hurried after Gary and Moreno, Javier, and Oscar held back when the elevator doors opened. “I shall see you, my dear,” Moreno told her.
In the elevator she turned to Gary. “What’s going on?”
The tiniest of glances towards the ceiling of the car told her there was a camera. So she snapped her mouth closed and leaned against the wall. Maybe he was just nervous about what was coming? She steeled herself for what she needed to do. In theory, she knew she could. But in practice? She nearly shuddered. When the elevator opened she followed him out. Trying not to move her mouth much. She knew she needed to do it quickly. It would look more real and it wouldn’t give her time to chicken out. “Are you ready?” she whispered.
At the same time, she pulled the knife from the back of her pants and spun it, more deftly than she would have expected to be able to do, and drew her arm back. She was prepared to put all of her weight behind the blunt end of the knife to knock him out. But, Gary swung towards her as she threw her weight forward. He caught her hand in a vice-like grip and wrapped his rough hand over her mouth. He slammed her into the wall with enough force to rattle her brains.
“Stop,” he hissed.
Her heart slammed in her ribs. Liar! She glared at him as her breath heaved against his fingers. She couldn’t believe he had turned on her.
“We aren’t alone,” he snarled through gritted teeth. She would have asked him what he meant if she had been able to speak. Instead, she wrinkled her brow in question. “Boss has people here. And Jason is with them.”
They were close enough to the closet that when he took the knife out of her hand and stored it in his belt he was able to open the door without taking his hand off her mouth. He threw her inside and slammed the door behind them. He turned on the light and forced her to sit on the cot before he dragged out his chair and plopped down. As he rested his head on his hand he returned her knife without speaking.
“What the hell happened?” she asked breathlessly.
“I don’t know why yet, but there is a crew here. Including my son. That’s what the text was about.”
“Fuck! So we can’t go through with the plan?”
“Not right now. Not if you want to get out alive. If there is any kind of disturbance the others will back Moreno. It’s standing order.”
“Son of a bitch! What do we do now?”
Gary growled. “I don’t know.” He stood up and, resting his hands on his hips, he stared at the ceiling. “I think we just have to play it cool for now. Wait for the others to leave or for us to have enough berserkers that we can take them.”
“How long is that going to take?”
“No idea.”
“Did you know Moreno had a Dyian? That he was infecting people?”
“No,” Gary shook his head and finally looked at her. “If he has one of those things though, why is he hunting for people?”
“Good question,” Syd realized. “But where else are all the berserkers coming from?”
Xander
Xander, Shay, Zak, and ET spent three days trying to find a berserker. After the two arrests in the Humboldt Park area there were two more attacks, so, initially, they concentrated their efforts there. However, it didn't take long for them to realize it was so quiet and deserted that there weren’t even humans around—let alone alien hosts. After the second uneventful night, the four sat around the kitchen table grumbling. Xander was also worried about not hearing from Sydney again. He had to assume that she and Gary had not gone through with their escape plan, but he didn't know why and he was not having fun imagining all the reasons.
"There is probably a good reason you haven't heard from her," Shay's voice interrupted his worrying.
"I know." But he didn't really. Though there wasn't anything he could do but hope for the best. "I just wish I could call her."
"Bad idea," Zak mumbled from the pocket his face rested in between his arms and the table.
"I know," Xander snapped. He fidgeted some more, spinning his phone in circles on the table before it rang and caused him to jump so hard he nearly threw it off the table. He recognized the number and gushed a relieved sigh and laugh. "Speak of the devil."
He answered the phone on speaker. "Sydney! Hey! Are you OK? I have you on speaker. Shay, Zak and ET are here too."
"I'm...I'm OK. Guys! Are you OK?"
"We are!" Shay squealed.
"Mostly," Zak grumbled.
"What?" Syd asked.
"We're just really frustrated. We haven't been able to find any berserkers. We went back to Humboldt but it's quiet. Two nights ago there were two attacks in the Roger's Park area so we went there last night but nothing. What's going on with your end?"
"Well, I was in Roger's Park three days ago..."
Zak finally raised his head. "Is that a coincidence?"
"I can't imagine that it is," Shay scowled.
"Why were you there? What happened to the escape plan?" Xander asked.
"Well..." Sydney filled them in on her successful control of the berserkers and the arrival of Boss' guys.
"Shit," Shay breathed. "What the hell is that like? Being able to control people?"
"Really fucking weird," she answered, matter-of-factly.
"Calling them people is kinda stretching things, wouldn't you say?" Zak asked.
"Do you think you can actually control them enough to get them to fight for you?" Xander asked.
"I think so actually. Moreno had the bright idea to take Jake, the first one I took, with us to catch more hosts last night. It worked. He helped me round up two of them."
ET had shuddered at the mention of Moreno's name and spoke up for the first time. "He's there?"
"Of course," Syd answered. The sound of her voice made it clear that she had no kind feelings for the drug lord.
"He hasn't hurt you has he?" Xander regretted the question as soon as he asked it. If Moreno h
ad laid a hand on her, it wasn't right for him to ask in front of others.
"Oh, shit no. He wouldn't hurt a hair on my head. The maniac thinks I'm a god or something."
Xander was only relieved for a moment. Syd was in precarious situation. It would be easy to dismiss Moreno as a kook, but he was a kook with powerful friends. "Just be careful."
"Of course."
"Back to the matter at hand, it sounds like the berserkers are going where you’ve gone?" Zak returned to his original point.
"It's possible. They seem to be attracted to me. I don't know how else to describe it. Wherever I go can be quite, but eventually they show up."
"So," Zak pressed on. "They could still be showing up in a place because you were there the night before?"
"Maybe."
“How are they finding you?” Xander asked the question Syd had been dreading. “I thought you didn’t have one in you anymore.”
“I…” she started. “I don’t know. I must have been wrong.”
“But…” ET, interjected.
Realizing ET could get worked up again, Shay cut him off. "Why is it they seem more active at night?" she wondered out loud.
"I think they are sensitive to light. I was sometimes before." Sydney didn't have to explain that she meant before she was abducted and missing for a month.
"Where were you last night?" Zak asked.
"Roger's Park again."
"So, I say we try there again," Zak stated.
"Might as well," Xander shrugged. "How many hosts do you have there now?"
Sydney hesitated to answer and it made him nervous. "Ten," she finally answered.
"Damn! And you can control all of them?" Shay asked.
"Right now? The only ones I can't are the ones I just scratched last night. It takes about twenty-four to forty-eight hours before I can control them."
"How long will you have to wait to try to escape?" Xander asked. The fact that Sydney was being forced to help Moreno amass an army made him sick to his stomach. Even if she could control them, so many things could go wrong, he just wanted her out of there.
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