The Gathering

by Michael Timmins

  When the bullets had ripped enough of his flesh away from his leg, they began chipping and shattering away at his femur. Near the foot of the tower, his leg broke under his weight and he went down.

  As soon as he rolled to a halt, something slammed into his head, it hit him like a rock and his neck snapped sharply, his head knocked downward from the impact. Another slam, but this time from the side. Again, and again he felt the pounding against his head. Sharp pain and flares of white behind his eyes followed each hit.

  Their shooting at my head, Elias realized, but found nothing he could do about it. His limbs didn’t respond, except to jerk and shake like a seizure. He could feel pieces of his skull bursting apart and his vision left him.

  His body fought to heal itself as it continued to take damage, like trying to patch up a leaky boat with paper. He was losing this battle, he realized. At some point, his body would cease being able to heal itself, and the damage would be too severe to heal anyway. The claim the man had made about being unstoppable had been a lie.

  As bullets continued to perforate his skull, Elias felt life slip away.

  Zach waited with the other members of E.A.R.t.H who had chosen not to become Weres but still wished to be a part the war. They waited outside an abandoned industrial park. Large, bulky buildings had been left idle from a time when this area had flourished. Now, with paint fading, and windows broken from an occasional rock throw, it looked run down. Zach frowned, what a disgusting waste. This had been, at one time, a lush forest with beautiful trees and thriving wild animals. Now it was a testament of what humans do, leave a blight upon the land.

  He leaned back against the van they had procured for this mission. A dozen more were placed strategically around the neighborhood which rested outside the park. Tight, two story homes with faded siding faced off against the dying warehouses. The house across from him had peeling strips of siding from its façade, like lengths of banana peel hanging limp.

  Weedy and sparse lawns and poorly cared for landscape spoke of the apathy of their owners, or, more likely, the overworked individuals with little time or energy to spend on caring for their home.

  More blight. Zach tsked. He would see it all torn down if he could. A return to what it should have been. With Kestrel’s help, it will at long last come to pass.

  At the first sounds of gunfire, Zach straightened. Unhooking the radio at his belt he pressed the talk button.

  “They’re coming.”

  A series of ‘copy’ came over the radio as the other members checked in. Zach pulled his phone out of his pocket and called Kestrel.

  “Yes?”

  “Fighting has begun. We can’t see them yet, but it shouldn’t be long.”

  An alarm pealed in the distance. That’s when the gunfire began in earnest. Zach went to the side of the van and opened it. They had gutted the thing and now, it was simply an open space. He figured he could fit maybe a twenty people in there, plus one up front. His would be the last to fill as he was closest to the park.

  Gunfire continued to ring out and people were starting to emerge from the surrounding homes to look out over the park. Many of them gave him strange looks at his nonchalant demeanor. He ignored them. Zach saw phones come out and pressed to ears as they undoubtedly were calling the police.

  Zach knew the police wouldn’t come. The government had to have this place set up as their jurisdiction, not to mention, this looked like the type of neighborhood in which gunshots were a common occurrence. Just another Tuesday.

  Zach admired their bravery though. The amount of ammunition being unloaded this close, should send most people into hiding, and yet, there they stood, on their porches, craning their necks as if they might somehow see over all those buildings to catch a glimpse of the firefight.

  Zach knew their bravery, like paper, would shred soon enough.

  A scream cut through the sound of bullets and Zach smiled knowingly. They’re here.

  The first of the Weres flowed out from around the buildings. Like souped-up race cars, they tore through the gaps in the buildings. Boar-like men and women intermingled with Crocodile humanoids. Zach’s breath caught. It was one thing to see one Wereboar and one Werecroc, it was another thing entirely to see dozens of them. And they kept coming.

  As they approached the outskirts of the park, Zach brought the phone back up to his mouth.

  “They’re here!” He tried to keep the fear from his voice as he told Kestrel before hanging up. Even knowing they were on his side he couldn’t hide the terror at the sight of them. He could hear doors slamming, people screaming, yelling and running from behind him in the neighborhood.

  Then it happened. Those Weres closest to him began to shift and change back to their human form. Zach turned away, feeling his stomach lurch and the tang of bile and acid rising.

  Taking his mind from the screams of pain and the sounds of breaking bones, he brought the radio up.

  “Be ready, they will be coming your way. Fill up as many as you can and go to the rendezvous.”

  He didn’t wait for a response. Instead, he steeled himself to turn back around. Men and women flooded out from the park and into the streets of the neighborhood. Zach didn’t understand how they knew where to go. As he understood it, a link existed between these new Weres and the ones who had made them, but he didn’t understand it.

  There were several vans within his viewing range, and he could see members of E.A.R.t.H helping the newcomers in. One van had already filled, and he watched it speed off.

  More and more people and Weres came out from around the buildings. Kestrel had told him to expect many, but he had not expected this many. He felt a welling up inside of fear and excitement. There will be no stopping us!

  He hadn’t bothered counting but as the reports came from over the radio as each driver left, he began to get some inkling of how many new Weres were now joining their ranks. Six vans had already left. Six vans with at least twenty people in them. And more to come.

  The sound of gunfire had moved closer. Soon, the last of the Weres would be emerging and entering his van. His heart started beating faster. When the last of them came, so too would the men with guns.

  Zach moved around the van, got in and started it up. They wouldn’t need him to show them where to go, so he needn’t stand there waiting to get shot at.

  At last, some of the men and women veered to his location. The last of them broke from the buildings, they were still in their hybrid forms. Three Boars. Men came behind them holding assault rifles. Gunfire ripped through the air and Zach could see blood spray from the bodies of those three.

  They’re shielding us!

  Bullets continued to riddle the Boars as they came at the van. Zach couldn’t help but wince as the bullets shredded flesh and muscle. He knew, even though they would heal from those wounds, it didn’t make the pain any less.

  They shifted as they reached the van and bullets began pelting its side. Zach didn’t hesitate, he slammed on the gas. The Boars were now three men who dived into the open side door of the moving van.

  “Close it! Close it!” he shouted at them as he banked the van onto the nearest side street away from the shooting men. The door slid shut, but Zach could hear the ping, ping, ping of bullets piercing the van’s walls, followed by cries of pain as they found their marks.

  Bullets continued to strike the van as Zach weaved around parked cars. He made another turn and the gunfire ceased. Gasping for breath as if he had been the one running through the industrial park, he spared a glance behind him.

  The faces looking back at him held a mixture of fear, excitement and some confusion. He couldn’t blame them. One minute they had were being held at some undisclosed facility by the government and the next they had shifted into Were-creatures and had broken out.

  All because someone, in their head, had told them to.

  Zach let out a little laugh, bordering on hysteria.

  Someone else barked a laugh as well in response. Then,
before he knew it, the rest of the van filled with laughter. He knew there wasn’t anything funny, about any of this, but he couldn’t help himself and joined in.

  Since the attack on the hospital two days before, Kestrel had been filtering out members of E.A.R.t.H in twos and threes. As soon as they had survived the rejection process, Kestrel had given them instructions and money and they had left.

  Samuel had managed to procure a generous plot of land, not too far out of Houston and they were each to make their own way there. That land is where Zach and the others were headed to now.

  It would take them hours to reach there and he hoped his bullet riddled van would escape too much notice. He didn’t wish to get pulled over.

  Much to Zach’s relief, the trip was uneventful. When they arrived at the property, the changes which had occurred since he had come here last, impressed him. What had once been an open plot of land, surrounded by forest was now covered with buildings.

  Dozens of long rectangular buildings could be seen, which Zach knew from the plans were barracks for those who would come to join them. When they had entered the property, he had seen men and women within the forest itself, as sentries. And now, as they pulled into the clearing, he could see others as well, keeping watch on the surrounding forest.

  The rest of the vans were parked and those they had help rescue were getting out and marveling at what they saw. Zach had spent the trip explaining as much as he could.

  At first, he tried to sway them with the E.A.R.t.H mission and how they could play a part in that mission. There were some whom he saw nodded their head along with his impassioned speech. Others, he saw, frowned or listened with disdain clearly marked on their faces.

  Once he had spoken to their hearts, he spoke to their heads. They were all now wanted criminals and threats to the United States Government. They would be hunted, and they would be killed, or captured, once again. Their only hope to survive and stay free meant joining with the others and doing what must be done. There had still been a great deal of uncertainty in the looks they had given them, but he could see they had begun to mull over what he had told them.

  He knew, in the end, they would see the wisdom of his words. Not that it would make any difference. Those who disagreed or thought they would be better off on their own would be made to do what they wanted. They would not have a choice.

  He saw those with him to their living areas and gave them a brief tour of the complex. There were still buildings being built and he explained to them they could use the help of any who were willing.

  Over the next few days they would be given time to get used to the idea of being part of this organization. This . . . army. Then, Zach knew, Kestrel would arrive with the others and they would be getting their orders.

  Zach already knew his. His involvement, they believed, remained unknown. E.A.R.t.H had been an early addition to Kestrel’s war. Long before anyone understood the threat she posed.

  The world would realize soon enough.

  Zach bid the newcomers and the members of E.A.R.t.H who were going to stay at the property for now, goodbye and left. He expected Kestrel to arrive the following day or so. Once she did, those here would be taken into hand and made to understand their new roll in the upcoming conflict. In many ways, for those who didn’t share Kestrel’s beliefs, they had escaped one prison to only be put into a new one.

  Zach needed to return to Houston. He had an interview to prepare for. He was about to announce the beginning of a new world.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Bodies lay sprawled out around Eric Moran as he surveyed the enclosed warehouse. The guards had managed to capture and detain most of the unchanged ones who had tried to escape.

  Luckily for them, those who had yet to go through the process had been too frightened of their fellow captives who had shifted to follow them when they had made their escape.

  Eric’s team had been monitoring this little holding facility ever since the government had moved the victims of the attacks here.

  There had been nothing he could do about those who had escaped. At least, not yet, anyway. These, he looked at the men and women, dead around him, he could do something about.

  His experiments and observations had been right. None of these men and women had reached the point where their body had either rejected or accepted the, for lack of a better word, disease, which had been introduced into their body, and so, had been easy to dispatch.

  Dozens of people and guards lay dead. The guards had been unfortunate casualties of all of this, but they had refused to admit his men onto the facility and his men knew their orders. To eliminate all of those who remained who hadn’t changed. Kill them now before they could.

  He had explained the necessity to Colonel Simpson.

  He had surprised the colonel by waiting within his office when he had returned from lunch. Though he had surprised the man, he had recovered well, shut the door, moved around his desk and sat down, steepling his fingers and stared at Eric.

  Eric smiled ruefully at him. “You don’t seem surprised to see me.”

  The colonel frowned. “I had expected someone to show up at some point. I had hoped it would have been sooner than this, since, obviously, things are starting to get a little . . . difficult, out there.”

  Eric nodded slightly. “I apologize. We usually don’t make our presence known. In fact, as far as I know, this is the first one on one interaction a member of my organization has ever had with the leader of the DHS.”

  “And which organization is that, exactly?” The Colonel did not seem at all pleased with this conversation.

  “Who we are is not important. What we need to discuss, is . . .” Eric leaned forward in his seat. “You need to eliminate everyone you have at the holding facility. You need to do it now.”

  The colonel visibly reeled. The holding facility, of course, was top secret. Few people knew anything about it, let alone who it held.

  It took a moment for the man to recover himself.

  “We can’t just kill all those people.” His disbelief in Eric’s suggestion evident in his voice.

  “We can’t afford not to, Director.” Eric told him flatly. “Let us not dance around what we both already know. You moved those people there because you understand what we face is an epidemic unlike anything we have ever faced before. Those people will, in fact, become the next wave of that epidemic if they are not eliminated — now.”

  “Those people are citizens of the United States and they can’t just be killed because of a perceived threat they might hold. We have laws. We have rules and regulations. We have morality.” The man’s face became flush, his voice rising as he spoke.

  “Cut the bullshit, Director,” Eric cut him off. “We also can’t put people in holding sites without contact to the outside world or without charging them with something, and yet, you already did.”

  “That is very different from killing them.”

  “And yet, just as necessary.” Eric sighed. “I don’t like this just as much as you don’t.”

  “I doubt that,” the man said bluntly.

  Eric ignored the jab. The director had a point.

  “But don’t be a fool. Every single one of those people is a threat to our national security. No. A threat to our very lives.” Eric slammed a fist down upon the man’s desk. “Think! How many people can each of those captives infect? How many can those infect? It will be exponential. We must do everything we can to stop this threat, Director!”

  The director stared hard at him for a long time. When he spoke, the cold authority of one who has ordered men for most of their adult lives, crept into his voice. It brokered no argument.

  “You listen to me, whoever you are. We will not kill civilians who have not committed any crimes. Those people are innocent, and while we are unsure of the possibility of the spread of the contagion they might be carrying, we can, under the law, quarantine them, which is all we have done.”

  He sat back and straightened h
is shirt with a tug. “I don’t know who you report to, or under whose authority you operate under, but know this. Those people are under the protection of the DHS. I will not have any harm come to them. Do you understand?”

  “You are making a mistake,” Eric informed him.

  “Do you understand me?” the director growled out.

  Eric stood. “The men you have at that facility are as good as dead. And as far as I’m concerned, their death is on your hands. Good day, Director.”

  With that, he turned and left.

  Fool man. He wished the director had listened to him. Now, he had been forced to eliminate the captives himself, and as he had said, the men the director had posted here were dead.

  Eric turned to one of his men. “Download and wipe all of the computers. Then burn this place to the ground. Use an accelerant, I don’t want the fire department to be able to recognize this was even a building by the time the fire burns out, copy?”

  “Yes, sir.” The man replied and left to see Eric orders were followed.

  He scanned around one last time. The cat was truly out of the bag now. He had seen the news on the drive here. They were starting to report on this, though still hesitantly as if dipping a toe into a pool to check if it was cold or not.

  There was plenty of video evidence out there. Videos of what went down in Chicago all those months ago. Videos of what happened in Sydney as well. Those had been isolated instances. Curiosities and most likely internet hoaxes. But now, they had become part of a larger story. Too many eyewitnesses. Too much devastation. Too much death to be ignored.

  He had done his best to shelter the world from this as long as he could. He knew he could no longer succeed. The world would grasp this threat soon. Eric could not help but wonder how the world would react.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Stephanie brought her arm up to block Carver’s swing. She took the hit on her forearm, deflecting the attack. Unfortunately, Carver brought his knee up to his chest and extended his leg out, planting his clawed foot to slam against her chest. Bones and cartilage snapped. Thrown backward she managed to roll over the matted floor before springing back to her feet.