Tainted Blood

by Ferrel D. Moore

  They moved on in silence until they heard an impact explosion, like someone had just driven a truck into a brick wall. Hauck looked back at the Instructor.

  “Still down ahead a ways. Hard to tell how far the way sound travels through these old tunnels.”

  “Get that gas gun of yours ready now. Get up on the ledge where there’s that little dent in the wall there. There’s another one back about twenty feet there on the other side where I’m going to set up.”

  “But we’re not even there yet,” protested Hauck.

  The Instructor grinned behind his face mask. It was an eerie sight in the green light and Hauck thought he looked like an evil goblin.

  “We don’t have to get all the way there. Can’t you feel the ground shaking? It’s coming straight at us.”

  Hauck scrambled up onto the ledge and unhooked the compressed gas gun from his shoulder strap. He looked down at the surface of the water, and saw small tremors shudder the water as though someone were shaking the underground waterways.

  Chapter Thirty

  “Yuri, you there?” asked Evgeny.

  Rain still misted down, and droplets ran off the edges of his pancho.

  “I can’t get hold of Hauck yet,” Yuri’s voice came back.

  “Never mind that. I’ve this guy in my sights on the ground outside of the building. He looks weird, like some kind of an albino. You got anything on him?”

  “Albino?”

  “Yeah, looks like it.”

  “That would be … Ivan, the old woman’s spooky bodyguard and counselor or whatever you want to call him. A stone cold dude. Into some weird religious shit.”

  “I’m going to take him out.”

  “Wait. Let me try to get Hauck one more time.”

  “Son of a bitch.”

  “What? What’s going on?”

  Evgeny swung his scope back to where the man Ivan’s sniper was trying to kill was standing in time to witness a terrifying transformation. Tufted ears shot out from the side of his head. His jaws shot forward and sharp teeth sprang from his gums. An agonizing scream rent the night as the man arched backward. His shirt split open as his musculature expanded. Evgeny could hardly process the sight of the man’s arms shooting out and sharp claws formed where he once had hands. In the gathered light of his star-scope, the metamorphosis was a black and white horror show.

  It was the face of the monster that caused Evgeny to do what he had never done before that night. He pulled his eye from his scope in terror. But he had to look. He pressed the scope to his eye again even as he focused on controlling his fear.

  Shreds of cloth clung to its torso as it writhed in agony. Dark fur covered its face. He watched as it bent over in pain. Then, it straightened and tore off its remaining clothing, like a snake shedding its skin. Evgeny saw it hold its clawed hands up before its face, clenching and unclenching them. As suddenly as it began, it was over. The monster stiffened and looked straight at Ivan.

  *****

  At the sight of Vasily’s murder, Ivan felt the combined rush of rage and fear. His pale eyes narrowed as he scanned the area for the executioner. He did not duck or draw a weapon. He was a khylsty, a divine warrior whose anger was sufficient to confront the demons of hell. Under the protection of the old gods, no one could harm a khylsty doing their will. And their will was that he find Drogol and drink his blood. No man could stop him.

  “Coward,” he shouted. “Face me or flee.”

  The khylsty dagger appeared in his right hand, a slender sliver of silver. He had survived Anna Kazakova. No man could frighten him.

  Nothing moved to up or down the darkened street. The houses stood lifeless and still in their desperate abandon. The distant lights of Detroit silhouetted the flat rooftops, but he could see no movement, no hint of the enemy.

  “Run with the rats,” shouted Ivan.

  Truly, he had survived Anna Kazakova. He feared no man.

  Movement and a curse.

  Sasha. He had forgotten Sasha.

  The young man squirmed and cried out as though he, too, had been shot. Ridiculous. If the Hauck’s sniper had targeted him, Sasha would be dead, not wounded.

  “Silence,” hissed Ivan.

  Sasha cursed again and arched his back so hard it ripped his shirt.

  “Fuck, oh fuck, something’s wrong. Help me. Somebody help me.”

  His torso twisted so fast Ivan thought his spine would surely snap.

  “I said silence.”

  A step towards Sasha, the khylsty blade rising in front of him. All thoughts of Hauck’s sniper forgotten, overwhelmed by disgust. What an affront this young piglet was to the magnificent and worthy enemy that his mother had been.

  “You drop to the ground like a schoolboy screaming for his mother. You are not worthy of her memory.”

  Sasha covered his head with his arms and wailed.

  Ivan looked at the clean, sharp edge of the khylsty knife that had bled so many of the unclean.

  Will I never meet a worthy opponent? he thought.

  *****

  Aiming the rifle to the right, Evgeny brought Ivan into view. He stood transfixed, spellbound by the monstrous transformation he was witnessing.

  Evgeny’s finger squeezed the trigger, but stopped.

  The albino’s mouth was moving, chanting something as he lifted a long dagger into the air above where the man-creature lay writhing.

  Evgeny re-sighted on the monster.

  You first, he thought

  But he was too late. The beast leapt up toward the albino with incredible speed. He re-sighted in time to see it leap on the other and sink its jaws into the man’s face. Even though he was on the roof of a building halfway down the street, Evgeny recoiled at the ferocity of the attack.

  “It’s out here,” he whispered into his mic. “It’s eating the albino.”

  “Shoot it,” said Yuri.

  And Evgeny did.

  Through his scope he saw the beast spin and snarl, looking for the source of its pain. It looked different than the animal they were chasing. Smaller, only a little bigger than its victim. But when it opened its jaws and howled, Evgeny shot it three more times square in the chest. It fell backward, hit the ground and sprung up. He almost pulled the trigger again, but the beast turned and roared at the building where a group of men rounded the corner and began firing at it.

  Without any hesitation at all, it ran straight toward the shooters, snarling and snapping. The men continued to pump round after round in it but it still came at them. Panicked, the men began screaming and fell back, running for their lives. The beast was on one of them and bit off the man’s arm with one bite. It caught another with its claws and ripped his throat out. More shots.

  “What’s going on?” said Yuri.

  “Some of the Kazakova soldiers heard the noise, came running around the building and started shooting.”

  Evgeny wondered if Hauck and the old man were dead.

  “And?”

  “It’s killing them.”

  “Did you hit it?”

  Evgeny said nothing.

  “I said to you hit it?”

  “We all hit it,” said Evgeny, “but it’s still moving. It moves so damned fast I can’t keep it in my scope.”

  “Shit.”

  “Yeah.”

  It was over in a few more seconds.

  Torn bodies littered the ground.

  Evgeny ran his scope around the area, looking to reacquire the beast. It was gone, blending into the night. He kept searching.

  “I’ve lost it,” he said finally.

  “I just tried Hauck again. They’re still out of reach.”

  Tilting his head slightly upward, Evgeny looked at the faint red moon. There was a name for it. Yuri had told him what it was, but he had forgotten it. Whatever it was called, it was a very bad omen.

  “I’m going to stay in position in case Hauck and the old man show up.”

  “You’re probably safer on the roof.”

>   He was positioned against a crumbling brick chimney on an abandoned two story house. An old, tall tree grew on its east side, and he climbed it to get to the roof. The tiles were wet and slippery, but Evgeny had waited in worse spots.

  Time passed. Heavy, dark clouds moved slowly through the sky, sometimes blocking the moonlight. But there was enough ambient light for his night vision equipment to give him a good view of the building and the area around it. Nothing moved, so Evgeny waited.

  Patience was the sniper’s way.

  “Anything?” came Yuri’s voice.

  “Nothing.”

  “Still can’t raise Hauck.”

  “Give him time.”

  “I—”

  “Quiet.”

  He’d heard something. A scratching. He listened, but heard nothing. Yuri would hold radio silence until he spoke again. His scalp began to tingle. The urge to turn, and look behind him grew. After a full two minutes, he inched upward and back to gain purchase with one hand on a section of the rope harness he had put into place to keep himself from falling. It was secured around the chimney for stability, and he used it to turn and get to his knees.

  The roof-peak was four feet away, but he would have to risk it.

  With his rifle strap wrapped around one arm he slowly moved up, sliding his knees along the wet roof. The rope would hold him if he began to slip, but with his back to the street, he felt like a range target. He stopped halfway there, listened and heard nothing, then risked a look back at the vacant street below.

  It took a long time for him to finally get one hand on the roof’s peak. For a moment, he stopped again, listening. With a sigh of relief, he slid his rifle strap over again so that it was supported on one shoulder, placed the other hand on the roof’s peak alongside the other, and pulled himself up so that his chin rested there.

  Two clawed hands clamped onto his head and pulled him up so that he was face to face with the beast. Evgeny did not have time to scream before it was at his throat.

  *****

  There was a limit to how long Yuri could wait.

  No contact with Hauck. No contact with Evgeny. Crue dead. Sveta on the run. This kept up, there wouldn’t be anybody left.

  “Evgeny? What’s happening?”

  No response.

  “Hell with these assholes,” said Yuri. “Nobody wants to pick up the phone. Nobody wants to call in. Everybody just leaves me sitting in this stinking cushy chair, spinning around with one broken arm and a bottle of pain pills in front of these big screens with no information. Find this, Yuri, what about that, Yuri. Well at least fucking talk to me.”

  “Quit yelling,” came an irritated voice from across the room.

  Two of his five bodyguards—he liked to think of them that way—were playing cards.

  “You’d yell, too, if nobody called you.”

  “You got all those computers,” said the man, “why don’t you try an internet dating site. They got chat rooms. Pretty cheap. That’s what I hear, anyway. Right, Igor?”

  From across the wooden table, his concentration buried deep in five cards he held in his massive hands, Igor grunted.

  “Oh, Jesus,” shouted Yuri.

  He slapped himself so hard on the forehead that he almost fell out of his chair.

  “Thank you, thank you, amen.”

  “The fuck is wrong with you?” said the first card player. “You’re nuts.”

  But Yuri was already working with his touch screen to bring up Evgeny’s nano-cam. He was so stressed and so bugged out on painkillers that he’d forgotten Evgeny wore a camera like everybody else.

  “Got you,” he said triumphantly. “You don’t’ want to talk to me, I’ll just spy on what you’re looking at.”

  Yuri froze. He felt his pulse slowing down as the fear iced his heartbeat.

  The nano-cam screen was filled with the beast.

  His mouth felt dry. The creature was chewing on something. A big bone maybe. Chewing the meat off it. Yuri was going to be sick. Yet he couldn’t turn away. Instead, without thinking, he took his bottle of vodka from his backpack and started pouring himself a shot in the glass he kept near his keyboard. The bottle clinked nervously against the glass as the clear liquor flowed up the glass and over the rim. A small pool of alcohol formed on the desk.

  “Hey,” called the first card player, “pour me one, too, will you?”

  Yuri nodded, then tilted up his bottle and set it on the floor near his chair. He took the glass and began drinking as tears welled in his eyes.

  At first, he had hoped that Evgeny was hidden, looking at the monster, watching it eat while waiting for a shot. But after a moment he realized that the camera angle was all wrong, that it was looking up and when the beast reached down to tug on something, Yuri saw the image shake. He knew then that Evgeny wasn’t waiting for a shot while the creature ate. Evgeny was what was being eaten.

  Yuri didn’t know how long he sat in place, drinking and crying. He was about to shut off the remote camera, when in that peculiar blend of horror, pain killers, booze and trauma that ran through his brain, he realized something that he shouldn’t even been able to think about in the circumstances. He took a snapshot of the beast’s terrifying face and slid it on to a bigger screen.

  I’m going to get you, he thought.

  With a gamer’s detachment, while Evgeny’s remains were being devoured by the beast on the camera screen to his left, Yuri pulled up an image of the beast that had attacked his van. It was taken by one of the cameras on the van roof. He almost reached for the vodka bottle next, but instead arranged both beast images on the screen before him. In a moment, he had re-sized them, adjusted the image brightness and such, and had them up side by side to study them.

  Another drink and he spun on his chair to shut off Evgeny’s remote camera. The beast was gone, and Yuri saw only empty sky.

  Never enough information, he thought, and never on time.

  He drained the rest of his glass in an easy gulp, and turned back to the screen with the two images displayed.

  “Well now, he said, we didn’t know there were two of you,” he said.

  He had to make contact with Hauck.

  *****

  Sveta counted the minutes from her perch. She was safe for the time being where she was, but she could not stay on the maintenance platform forever. Looking over the edge of the sheet metal again, she saw that, although the beast had torn through Mishka’s troops like a cyclone, destroying everything in its path, a few men survived. They were between her and the stairway exit, but better she shoot it out with them than run into the beast in the exit that he had blasted through the wall.

  She was halfway down the ladder when she heard yet another explosion and swung around to see flames shooting out of the hole the beast made.

  *****

  It came hurtling down the tunnel toward Hauck.

  In the light of his night vision, the monster’s eyes glowed like hot green coals. Hauck felt again the same fear he’d known in the prison where the beast had killed his men. It was running on all fours like a wild animal. Water sprays shot up around it with each slap of its paws.

  Hauck chocked the compressed air gun and fired when it was only twenty feet away, then pressed back hard into the wall’s recess. He’d set the firing selector to full auto and fired all of the canisters in one assault. But the creature was coming so quickly it ran past him before it realized it’d been hit.

  Poisonous corrosive gas filled the tunnel like deadly steam.

  The tunnel was silent.

  Inside his suit, Hauck prayed the seals held tight and his filtration system worked. He decided not to take a chance and switched to his breathing tank. After that, he risked looking out.

  The creature stood fifteen feet down the tunnel surrounded by white mist, staring straight back at him. It roared and took a step forward. Hauck saw shiny, metallicized claws and a long, slavering set of jaws filled with massive fangs. Without thinking, he threw the compressed
gas gun in the water, swung loose his automatic rifle and reached for the trigger.

  Before he could finish the pull, he saw the Instructor come out of hiding. The rocket launcher was mounted on his shoulder.

  “No,” screamed Hauck. “The gas is flammable.”

  Too late. The Instructor had already fired. Hauck closed his eyes.

  The missile hit it square in the back and the force of it set the beast flying toward Hauck just as its firing ignited the gas and the entire tunnel burst into flames. The blast was so powerful it flipped Hauck over in the air and sent him flying end over end until he landed face down in the water.

  He blacked out so quickly he didn’t have time to realize how lucky he was that he’d switched to his breathing tank.

  *****

  Hauck woke to the sound of someone knocking at his door.

  “You alive in there?”

  “Go away,” he said.

  “You wish,” said a familiar voice. “Now come on, get up ‘cause we don’t have much time.”

  “What time is it?” asked Hauck in a distracted voice.

  “Who the fuck cares? You want me to bang on your face mask some more? It’s time to wake the fuck up before that thing comes back and rips us to shreds. How’s that for what time is it?”

  He felt himself being flipped over, heard water splash, and then was hauled up and dumped in a sitting position on a hard seat. There were water droplets in front of his eyes like rain on a camera lens. Everything came back to him.

  “Did we wound it?”

  “We didn’t even slow it down. Blast took down part of the ceiling. I almost got hit in the head with that piece of concrete over there when it dropped, but last I saw our buddy it was hauling ass down this tunnel burning like a Christmas tree. Before it hit the first bend the flames were out and it just kept going. Whatever it is, I think it’s fucking fireproof.”

  Hauck slid off the tiny ledge and stood up. He almost fell, but laid a palm on the concrete ledge for balance.

  “My ears are still ringing,” he said.

  The Instructor slapped his helmet so hard Hauck’s head bounced inside like a bell-clapper.

  “I’m moving, I’m moving.”