The Vengeance of Shadows (The Scourge Book 2)

by Phil Maxey

  When Copeland saw those early results, he insisted he be given the elixir, despite Kee’s and his teams protests. That was five months ago.

  At first, they thought there was no change in his metabolism, but they also weren’t aware of his bloodlust, nor the employees that were going missing. His security team did an expert job in getting rid of the evidence before anyone really noticed.

  Then the obvious changes begun in Copeland. His eyes changed color first, darkening with each passing day, then hardened scales appeared over his skin. Kee and his team did what they could to slow the progress of the virus which was brought about by the elixir, but they could not slow it. Within a few weeks the man who founded the corporation was gone. Replaced with a being from nightmares. The thing’s brain still seemed to be functioning roughly as before. It was still Daniel Copeland, at least in name.

  When it started to hit the local news networks that people were showing up at hospitals with symptoms from an unknown virus, Kee started to suspect the Corporation was responsible. The rest, as they say, is history.

  He tried to tighten his tie, then gave up as the door opened and Copeland appeared. Adrian noticed straight away how awkwardly the large creature was moving. Nevertheless, he walked up to him.

  “Welcome back, sir.”

  “You said you have made progress…”

  “Umm, yes, please step forward to view the first chamber.”

  Copeland walked forward slowly.

  “Are you okay? Are you injured?”

  “I’m fine. What am I looking at?”

  They both stood looking through a wall of reinforced glass, into a fourteen foot square room. Inside, sat a young man.

  “You captured a child. Congratulations.” He looked fiercely at Adrian. “What… am… I… looking—”

  “What… am… I… looking…”

  Copeland looked back at the cell. The young man was looking straight at him. Copeland looked surprised. “Can he see or hear me?”

  Adrian shook his head. “The cell’s walls are three inches of steel and carbon fiber, with a network of conducting—”

  “I know what a faraday cage is, Adrian…”

  “All forms of electromagnetic radiation are blocked by the walls around him, including this window.”

  The boy stood. “All forms of electromagnetic…” He walked forward and slammed a fist on the wall. “I know you’re watching me!” He poked a finger into the side of his head. “I hear you!”

  Copeland looked at Adrian. “He can read my thoughts?”

  “This is A-32. It would seem he can read the thoughts of those around him. We do not know yet the exact range of his abilities, but—”

  “Yes, I can read your thoughts! That’s why I’m in here, right?”

  Copeland looked back at the teen and nodded. “Good… very good…”

  The boy tutted, turned, and sat back down.

  Copeland looked at the next cell, then walked to it. Adrian followed.

  Inside, a young woman sat on the small bench.

  Copeland leaned closer into the glass. “What is happening to her hand?”

  Fingers grew from her right hand, until there was almost double the norm. She then closed an enormous fist, her wrist increasing in breadth, stood, and slammed her hand into the door. The sound of breaking bones filled the air, but she hardly winced, instead she looked at her broken hand as the extra digits receded. Her hand then returned to a fresh-looking appendage.

  “A-17. She can manipulate her body. Bones, muscle, ligaments, everything from what we have observed so far.”

  Copeland looked at Adrian. “They all require blood?”

  “Yes.”

  Copeland lightly placed his giant hand on Adrian’s shoulder. “Old friend. You have done well. Continue your research…” Copeland turned and started to move away.

  “But, sir, we have another. He seems to be able to change to a canine form…”

  “Later, Adrian. I need to rest.”

  *****

  Josh Coffey looked at the innocent few pounds of unknown material sitting in the laser-scanning chamber. He nodded at the younger man next to him, who tapped away at his keyboard. Bright shimmering beams pierced the darkness and started to move across the surface of the ancient tablet.

  They both watched the computer monitor nearby intently.

  “Well, so far, it appears to be an alloy of various metals. Picking up a few rare earth ones, nothing too exotic so far, though.” The man looked up at Josh. “The guy you brought in said the symbols on the surface changed when it was touched?”

  Josh nodded.

  “Well this won’t tell us what’s inside, but it should give us an age…” He stared at the screen as numbers came and went. After a few seconds a date appeared. “Hmm…”

  Josh looked back down at the screen. “That can’t be correct.”

  “This technique is pretty sound. It’s usually correct to a few decades… not… that’s going to make much of a difference in this case. Where did he say he got it?”

  Josh looked back at the tablet. “Stop the scan.”

  A few levels above the laboratory, Shannon threw a pillow against a wall.

  She looked at Evan. “If I don’t get out of here soon, I’ll let you bite me, just so something happens!”

  The young man blushed.

  Bill smiled. “They can’t keep us locked up in here forever.”

  “No, they can just march us outside, line us up against a wall, and shoot us!” said Hardin, lying flat on his bed.

  A flash of concern hit Jess’s face. Marina went to say something, but her daughter’s expression changed to one of defiance.

  “Joel won’t let that happen,” she said to the former mayor.

  “Sure, kid.”

  “I wonder where they took him,” said Anna.

  “Probably more debriefing. Like what we all did.”

  Anna recognized the matter-of-fact tone in Marina’s voice. “You were in the military?”

  “In another life, yeah.”

  Jess looked up with pride in her eyes. “Mom fought in the war!”

  Marina frowned. “Jess, quit it.”

  Anna went to enquire further when the door opened, and Rachel walked in holding a bunch of plastic cards.

  Shannon stood. “Are we free now?”

  “In a matter of speaking, yes.” She held up the cards. “Each one of these is for each one of you. Keep it on you at all times. They will allow you to move from this room, to the mess hall, to the games room, common room, showers, and rest rooms, but no further. If you are found without your card, you will be arrested and placed in confinement. Does everyone understand?”

  Marina stood and walked forward. “We get it.”

  Rachel shifted through the cards and handed Marina hers. She then did the same for all the others.

  Shannon immediately left the room, along with Hardin, Lee, and Anna.

  Rachel looked at Bill. “I would like you and your grandson to come with me.”

  Bill and Evan briefly exchanged glances.

  “We would like your input on something.”

  An elevator ride and four corridors later, Bill and Evan, escorted by Rachel, approached secure double doors with two guards outside. She waved her ID card in front of one, who then typed in a sequence of numbers into a keypad. He then pushed the door open, and a rush of sound escaped.

  Bill and Evan walked inside, mouths agape at the cavern-like room they were entering.

  “Welcome to the dome. Military hardware used to be stored here, now it’s where we try to save the human race from extinction.”

  They both looked up at the concave ceiling some hundred feet above them, with walkways along the edge of the circular space at various heights. The floor was divided into sections, with partitions separating the different scientific disciplines. The scene reminded Evan of a computer convention he went to once when he was younger.

  Rachel walked forward, they followe
d. “Micro-biology, including, of course, virology.”

  They passed a thin wall, moving into an area full of cages and counters full of microscopes and test tubes.

  “Zoology.”

  A door against the side wall had two guards standing either side of it.

  “What’s in there?” said Evan.

  “That’s off-limits.”

  They continued walking. The next section was obvious to Bill and Evan.

  “Archaeology.”

  Dusty faded statues, carvings, and pieces of crumbling tablets fought for space with vellum-covered volumes, all laid out on long tables, with men and women huddled over them.

  Finally, they were across the huge space, passing the last false wall. This section was full of machines, some as big as cars, and most interconnected. This was also the section where Joel was seated, covered in wires attaching him to those same machines.

  Bill looked at Rachel. “What is this?”

  “It’s okay, Bill. I agreed to this, but only if you and Evan were part of it,” said Joel.

  Evan was already looking over the shoulder of one of the many people seated at computer work stations.

  Josh walked forward, his hand stretched out. Bill shook it.

  “I’m Josh Coffey. I’ve seen the work you had on your computer. Most impressive, I must say.”

  Evan looked excited as he glanced at another of the monitors. “Hey, its my deciphering program!”

  Josh smiled. “Indeed. As you can see, we have already decrypted sixty-five glyphs.”

  “Wow…” said Evan.

  Josh pointed downwards. “There’s a football stadium amount of servers below our feet doing all the work.”

  Bill walked to the chair that Joel was strapped to. A device which looked like a large bike helmet covered most of his head. He looked back to Josh. “You’re going to monitor his brain waves?”

  “Yes, but I can’t take the credit for that, that would be—”

  A portly, elderly man, walking with a stick shuffled forward. “Max Higgins. Resident chief physicist. That bundle of wires on your friend’s head is my doing. If he was human, I would be slightly concerned it might fry his brain, but seeing he’s well, not… then…”

  A look of horror came across Bill’s face.

  Max smiled. “Oh, I’m joking! It’s quite safe. He looked at a young man at a computer station next to him. Let’s begin.”

  Bill stepped back.

  A robotic arm swung around and stopped just in front of Joel’s stomach. Within it’s claw was the tablet, hooked up to a myriad of wires across its surface.

  “That alright, young man?” Max said to Joel.

  “Yup.”

  “Remember, we want you to touch the memory glyph again.”

  Joel nodded.

  “Then, whenever you’re ready.”

  Joel looked at Bill and Evan, and everyone else studying him, then looked down at the tablet.

  He wrapped his fingers on his left hand around the left side of the tablet. Instantly, the symbols started to morph. He studied them closely. He realized that most were changing, pausing in a particular state, then changing once again.

  “Good, good. Now, as we discussed, think about what you are and the vamps, and touch the memory glyph with your other hand…”

  As soon as the skin on his index finger touched the tablet, the rubber-band effect of the world around him played out as before, but this time he snapped back into an ocean of sand and heat.

  The sun was setting, turning the dunes to a deep orange. A noise made him whip around to an even grander view.

  A city of biblical proportions sat beneath him, for he was standing on a ridge of a huge dune which dissolved down to flat desert. Just beyond were towering walls which encircled a city.

  From his position he could see narrow streets full of people, and multi-story homes, seemingly built from the desert itself. As the sky grew darker, small spots of light started to appear as torches were lit.

  At the center of the complex of buildings sat a palace, the walls scaled even higher than the height he was at.

  Instinctively, he took a step forward to move down the slope when a rush of putrid air wafted past him.

  Curious he turned around. “What the hell?”

  His view of the desert, which moments before stretched for miles to the horizon, had been replaced by a wall of hazy, yellowy-gray cloud.

  Sandstorm?

  Shadowy forms started to appear in the turmoil of granules of sand and wind, forms which he recognized.

  “Vamps…”

  A part of him wanted to run, to turn, or fall down the steep slope to the gates below and bang on them until someone answered. He could warn them of the nightmare that was about to envelop them from the desert.

  But he also knew this was a virtual reenactment of something which must have happened far in the past. So instead, he stood his ground.

  The first vamps, creatures which looked only vaguely human swept past him. All a mass of blurs which hurtled down the slope.

  Horns started to explode from the city into the night air, and the people that were happy, were now panicking, running for the supposed safety of wooden doors.

  Wave after wave of vamps passed him, until the space between the dunes and the city was a sea of them. Arrows and spears started to rain down from the tops of the walls, but were ineffectual against the attacking pestilence.

  Screams and the clash of swords and spears came from beyond the walls, as dark shadows descended from the darkening skies, swooping down and picking off the poor citizens desperate to stay alive.

  As he watched those fighting to keep death from overwhelming the city, the ground below him started to shudder. Spinning back to the wilderness, he staggered back as a group of leathery leviathans, most standing fifteen feet high, with a hide of spikes and angular heads emerged from the swirl.

  Seated on each of them, proud in their armor, were more vamps, but these looked more human than monster. They looked like him.

  At the feet of the creatures they rode, were a type of vamp he had never seen before. Their heads were elongated and doglike, and even though they stood on two feet, their upper bodies looked too heavy for their legs. Each of them was chained with metal clasps around their necks, and they snarled at their keepers and the battle in front of them.

  Joel noticed one of the vamp rulers, the one seated in the center, was covered in more ornate armor than the others. He carried a spear of some sort, and even from the distance Joel was, he could see he was smiling.

  The scene instantly changed, as if he had switched channels. Gone were the legions of vamps, and gone was the night, for now it was daytime again, and the sun was so bright he had to shield his eyes.

  He looked back at the city.

  What was once a sight to behold, was now a collection of broken walls and upturned streets. Only the palace looked relatively undamaged. Birds squawked above his head as they picked amongst the dead.

  He thought about leaving this memory of the past, but instead he ran forward down the slope, mostly keeping his feet until he got to the flat hard sunbaked ground. He kept on going, weaving around dead vamps, through the ruins that were once the impressive wooden gates, up the central passage which was banked by one- and two-story buildings which used to be a story taller.

  The smell of decay consumed the air around him, but he pushed on, through the city’s squares and further, until he arrived at an iron door to the palace. It was open a few feet, and around it laid human, armored guards and a multitude of dead vamps.

  He moved through the gap into a shadow-infested room, full of broken furniture and redwood-sized pillars which supported the floors above. More bodies lay scattered across ornate rugs, dressed in fine linens.

  He noticed a grand staircase, which he quickly ascended, moving from one grand balcony to another, until he came to the topmost floor of the building. That was when he saw the hybrid vamps in a sea of blood.

>   Human bodies lay in a heap, and a lake of blood ran from it to a large stone and iron throne. On top of that sat the same hybrid that stood out before. He stared forward, motionless.

  Most of the others stood and sat around him, laughing and talking, although Joel couldn’t make sense of the language. Their armor was covered in the blood of whoever ruled there before.

  Joel walked forward, studying each human-looking warrior in turn. Suddenly, a noise made him, and the others, turn to face the way he had just come. Another hybrid ran up the stairs and towards him. His eyes were fierce, and, ignoring the others, he walked directly to the one on the throne and launched into a tirade of unknown words.

  Without warning, the others unsheathed their swords and spears and pointed them towards the newcomer. The would-be ruler raised his hands. They lowered their weapons.

  He then leaned forward and spoke.

  Joel walked even closer to observe the angry hybrid’s reaction. His face was one of shock, but quickly turned to defiance. He turned, brushing the swords and spears out of his path as he walked away.

  Joel looked back to the figure on the throne. A smirk grew across his face.

  The scene around Joel stretched and then snapped back. He waited to see the expectant faces of the scientists, but instead he saw destruction.

  The shock of what was in front of him froze him to the seat for a few seconds. The partitions were mostly broken into pieces, laying across equally ruined desks.

  Light came from lights on the ground and smashed computer monitors.

  A sharp fizzing spark from one of the machines next to him woke him from his disbelief, and he quickly pulled the wires from his body and pulled the helmet off.

  “Hello?”

  His words echoed around the huge cavern without any reply.

  “Is there anyone here!”

  Standing, he walked forward and almost fell over cables and broken pieces of machinery which lay discarded across the floor. There was no sign of anyone, not even their blood.

  He sniffed the air to make sure, but only the smell of burnt wires and dust filled his nostrils.