by Kip Hartzell
“Oh my,” Subriasa exhaled, trying not to make noise.
Several humans ran out to the dead Centaur as the Minotaur severed its head, and raised it to the crowd. They went wild as the Cousins took pots, and began collecting the blood. The crowd was in a frenzy and the spectator Minotaur’s would occasionally gore a human who got to close.
John’s stomach was turning as he watched the horrible display of barbarity. “Remember the mission,” he said, tearing himself away from the sight, and began moving further underground.
They were making their way down, when Rhe-A whispered that they needed to go down a particular tunnel. They weaved around hundreds of worker slaves that moved logs into position to reinforce the walls and ceiling. The massive complex was by far more extensive than they imagined. They came to an abrupt stop, before them stood an artificial stonewall with a hole chiseled out.
Rhe-A whispered. “This is the defense grid power point.”
Manatock felt a brush of air as John stepped passed him into the hole. The two torches on either side of the entrance were not needed because of an eerie green glow of light that came from inside. John entered to see the familiar workings of Atlantean technology, but the main Agoam crystal unit was missing. The rest of the group followed John inside. He walked around the large oscillating gyro that lit the center of the room. Its motion was slow, letting the bands of circles barely rotated around each other. It made a low humming noise. He knew a malfunction when he heard one. He slowly moved around to the other side of the centerpiece toward the control station, only to find two red robed hooded humanoids studying the controls. They had the height of an Atlantean, and used handhelds. They spoke to each other in Atlantean, while, one tried to remove another component from the control station.
John backed up whispering, “Back to the entrance.”
They gathered around the shattered entrance.
“They look like Atlanteans, and they’re disassembling the defense grid. Most likely for their own purposes. V’Rella can you use your pheromones to incapacitate them. I doubt they have been inoculated in quite some time.”
“As you wish,” her soft voice said, as John turned toward it.
“The rest of you, ready your weapons. Let’s go.”
V’Rella, and V’Rassa, slipped around the machinery and approached the hooded figures. Without a flinch, they froze in place. John’s hunch was right. He deactivated his cloak as he walked up to the two. He slowly reached up and pulled the hood away from the closest one. John heard gasps from the group, as he stood stunned at the sight of the man that stood in front of him. His skin was pale and bluish, his eyes were so blood shot they looked black. His lips were gray as if he had been dead for several days. There were light blue veins that spread around his neck. His hair was thin and cut close to the scalp.
John was staring at the creature when he felt something brush his mind. John slightly opened the door of his mind, causing a wave of memories to come crashing through. Even Jay flinched at the intrusive feeling. He focused all his mental strength to fighting back the onslaught. He pushed hard against the bashing of memories, and the mental energy that went with it. John put up his mental shield, and began deflecting the mental energy away, as he struggled to push the images back out of the door. He pushed forward as hard as he could until the door was within reach, that’s when he pushed the door shut cutting off the invasion. John slipped to the floor on one knee, and breathed heavily. Rhe-A, and the rest, approached him. She knelt beside him and checked his pulse.
“They…they are Atlanteans,” John said, rubbing his head. “Their mental capabilities are strong when used together. Do not let them in.” John stood up and steadied himself. He reached over and took the odd-looking persons handheld and gave it to Rhe-A, and then he took the other. The handhelds were old and crude, but they did the job.
Rhe-A’s eyes widened as she read the information. “May the Great Creator forgive us. John thought this bad, because she wasn’t prone to believe in an omnipresent being. “The genetic manipulation is very extensive, heightened co-joined mental capabilities, strength, all the senses are exaggerated, immune system, and a few others I can’t identify, just yet. Incredible…to support the new modifications, the body has to have a regular infusion of fresh red blood cells as an energy source.” She stopped and looked at John in fear. “They resemble the old Terrahanian vampire jungle monkey. The ones that supplemented their diet with fresh blood from animals, or anything they could bring down.”
“Just great,” John said, as he starred into the darkened bloodshot eyes of the one in front of him. A blue hue circled the iris becoming only one of a few traces of Atlantean left. “I don’t recognize these two,” he said glancing back at the rest of the group, who by now had disengaged their own personal cloaks.
The two young Minotaurs stood guard at the defense grid entrance, while the others conversed trying to unravel the mystery. John looked back at his Atlantean brother. “Rhe-A, is the fresh infusion of blood, what has kept them alive all these centuries?”
“Yes, the genetic manipulation has all the regenerative properties needed to sustain oneself…as long as you have a supply of blood…forever.”
John looked back at the diseased looking man when he thought he saw his eyes move. John moved in closer starring into his eyes. They moved to focus on John, he didn’t even have time to flinch before the monster grabbed him by the throat, and picked him up off the ground.
“Captain John-Anee-Athain. We were hoping you were dead.”
“Sorry…to disappoint,” John said between breaths, “but…maybe this…will help.” John wrapped his legs around the crazed man, while he released one hand from his arm, doubled up his fist, and drove it into the creature’s face.
The one’s in the group who had weapons, drew them. John was in their line of fire. He pounded the creature’s face, as he screamed, but didn’t let go. He hit him again; this time the creature grabbed John and threw him into the group, knocking Manatock and Rhe-A down. The hybrids moved with blinding speed, as the group fired at them. There were several hits, but it only seemed like bee stings to them. They hung on the walls and dodged the shots. John was helping Rhe-A up when the creature leaped from the wall aiming for John. Before man-creature could reach him, Manatock head butted him, and drove a horn into its side, pushing him to the ground. The creature brought his feet up and shoved Manatock off of him. V’Rella stood their firing her weapon at him repeatedly. This only enraged him more as he backhanded her into the wall, where she collapsed into a heap.
Allerisu Stonebreaker pushed passed Manatock and grabbed the creature from behind in a bear hug. This drove the assailant even more crazy, as it clawed and scratched at its captor.
Manatock was up now, and looked back at the curve of the centralized machinery near the entrance. He saw, with horror, the second creature attacking one of the young Minotaurs, who was now on his back swinging at the incredibly strong being.
“One is trying to escape and warn the others!” Manatock yelled, as he charged the creature.
Before he could get there, Aidan jumped on the creature’s back trying to get him to release his comrade. The creature grabbed Aidan from behind and flipped him over his shoulder, landing Aidan on his back, knocking the wind out of him. The creature then pulled Sorlak’s snout up to expose his throat, and with one fluid motion sunk his overly large incisors into his neck. Sorlak’s scream soon turned to a gurgle, as blood shot out of his neck and mouth. The creature drank with gusto as if in a trance. It didn’t appear to notice, or care, when Manatock approached with the staff in hand.
Manatock was horrified at the sight, but didn’t hesitate to bring the stick up and shove the sharpened end into the back of its head. The creature stopped, and raised its head to show about four inches of bloody stick protruding out of his forehead. His eyes rolled back, and he fell to the side.
The first creature was still struggling to get free, causing Allerisu to start losin
g his grasp. He looked like a ballerina dancing with a desert bobcat in a transit station.
“Rhe-A!” John yelled. “How do we incapacitate them?”
“I don’t know if we can. I don’t think we have the firepower.”
Allerisu was losing his grip from the wounds the creature was inflicting. “We must think of something fast,” he said with a grunt. The creature then reared its ugly head back and extended its fangs and sunk them into the Cyclops’s arm. Allerisu screamed as the creature slipped out of his grasp and dropped to the floor. Subriasa kicked at the flying assailant, but missed. He spied John, and then leaped through the air coming down on John, knocking him down on his back. The creature sat on top of him. John saw nothing but rage and hate, while he struggled to keep the monster at bay.
“Surrender, or die,” John said, looking confidently into the degenerates’ eyes.
The creature hesitated, and then smiled like a predator who was about to devour its prey. He then tilted his head back, extending its fangs. John clicked the setting on his pistol, raised it up, and severed the head from the body of the once proud Atlantean. John rolled the body off of him. When he looked down he saw the surprised look on the creature’s face. Dark blood oozed from the creature’s body, as John sat up.
“Are you alright?” Rhe-A asked, helping him up.
“Yes, I’m fine. Tend to the injured, oh, and take some blood samples.” He watched her take quick samples from the floor, and then went to Allerisu to patch him up. V’Rella was coming around with the help of V’Rassa.
Manatock approached John. “The other one has been subdued, but Sorlak is dead, and Aidan is injured, he will recover.”
“I’m sorry. Is there anything we can do?”
“No, the damage was too extensive.”
“Listen up people!” John said, looking around the room at the survivors. “We patch ourselves up, and then we head back to base. This is going to require more people and equipment than I thought. We’ll have to leave Sorlak and recover him when we return.”
John heard a faint noise of water running over rocks. He looked for the sound’s origin, and then he looked down. His eyes widened at the sight of the first assailant’s blood start to coagulate, and then turn to strings and veins as they wriggled themselves from the body to the severed head. Suddenly, as everyone starred, the blood strings tightened up and pulled the head to the body, and immediately started to rapidly heal. Before John, or the others, could respond, the man-creature’s eyes opened and he was back on his feet. He knocked John down again sending his weapon across the room.
Everyone came alive and began shooting and screaming, again. Rhe-A was pushed over to the control panel the two modified Atlanteans were working on earlier. She noticed the main power crystal had been removed, but the highly volatile matter disturbance containment field was still active. She sent a message to Subriasa, either by body language or mentally, either way she got the message. The half horse person was reluctant at first, but she stopped shooting and pulled the creature off of John. The monster went wild again thrashing and screaming. Subriasa did the unthinkable and turned her back on him. He charged. A two-hoofed kick sent him across the room. Rhe-A pressed a crystal lowering the containment field just as a mass of flesh sailed into the chamber. Rhe-A quickly reinitiated the field and trapped the creature inside. The bands of gyros began circling faster and faster until the angry thing was chopped into single cells, and then disintegrated.
Everyone stood there with shock on their faces, catching their breath. Rhe-A blew some hair out of her face and said, “We may need some radiation inoculations after that.” Then she went back to patching people up, as the rest began to get ready to leave.
Aidan stepped around the machinery and yelled at the group. “Sirs, we have a problem over here!”
John let out a sigh. “What now.”
They moved quickly to the entrance, where Sorlak and the vampire creature lay. John starred down at the second assailant with the stick in its head, it began to twitch. They began to slowly pull out their weapons again, as slurping noise was heard coming from its head. The staff began to be pushed out of his head like a splinter from a finger. It fell out of his head, and he jumped up to borage of stun fire. It had no effect on him. He raced for the entrance that Aidan was standing in front of, and hit the young Minotaur square in the chest, almost knocking him through the entry way. The creature bounced back and yelled at the ceiling as if taking a large breath before charging again.
Aidan didn’t know what to do, except stop the creature from leaving and warning the others. He glanced at the entrance torches on the wall, grabbed one, and then put it in the face of the vampire creature. He squealed, and stepped back as if afraid of the flames. John immediately recognized a weakness, as did the vampire. He made an almost blinding dash for the entrance again, this time he knocked Aidan down on his back, and landed on top of him. The torch flew out of his hand. He was about to deliver the killing blow, when a stick protruded out of the front of mutant’s chest.
The creature looked up in horror, grabbing at the portion of the staff sticking out in front of him. He got up screaming as his chest began to melt away. Manatock held on to the staff for only a brief moment as the vampire’s eyes began to sink into its head. He gurgled while spitting up blood, and then collapsed on the floor, his chest all but eaten away like it had been splashed with sulfuric acid.
Manatock picked up the staff, and prepared himself for another attack, but it didn’t come. The others approached carefully waiting for another surprise.
“Rhe-A. Is he really dead, this time?” John apprehensively asked, as he kicked the body.
She ran the crude handheld over him, cautious as not to get to close to something that should be dead, yet keeps getting up. She stood up studying the readouts, and faced John. “He’s dead. The cells have stopped regenerating.”
“Why didn’t the staff kill him before?” Manatock asked.
“Preliminary hypothesis is the staff is a special wood, perhaps Ash. The chemical composition of this type of wood is toxic to the specially designed heart, it seems to cause rapid cellular decomposition.”
“So, after all their genetic manipulation to be super human, and indestructible, a simple stick to the heart will kill them,” John said, more to himself than he did to the group.
“A design flaw perhaps,” Rhe-A gave an excuse. “It does have to be a specific type of wood.”
“A design flaw, you sound like you admire these things,” Manatock said, a little perturbed.
“The intricate genetic work in fantastic.”
“Fantastic! Do you hear yourself? If I didn’t know…”
“Very well,” John said, interrupting the debate. “Keep looking for weaknesses.” John started for the doorway. “We need to get out of here and…” he was interrupted by the sound of beating drums and blowing horns. “Engage your cloaks,” John ordered as everyone, except the two Minotaurs, faded into the background. “Let’s go,” John said from outside the entrance.
They started back the way they had come, only to be met by a large number of inhabitants. They were massing at the bottom of the cave, where the sound of the drums and horns were coming from. The sheer number of people was driving the Atlantean group further down the cavern. Manatock used his staff to keep them from bumping into the cloaked figures. There was no break in the crowd as they were driven to the bottom of the massive cavern. All the people began circling the outside of an even larger wood fenced arena. This arena was built differently, the wooden sticks to build it were formed in the shape of an X, having both sharp ends pointing in, and outside of the arena.
Along the far side of the makeshift arena was a stage that sat up higher than the fence. It held several throne-like chairs side by side. The drummers and horn blowers were lined up on both sides of the stone throne chairs. The drums beat at a faster pace as the horns made loud animal noises. The Cousins began swaying side to side like they were in a
trance. Manatock, and Aidan managed to keep an area clear for the cloaked figures, but the exit was blocked by a large number of Minotaurs. John moved around looking for a way out when he stumbled into a stone container, he tried not to make noise as he slowly tried to slip the lid back onto the container. The smell of its contents alerted him to a petroleum-based substance, probably to keep the torches lit.
He continued to move around quietly trying to find a way out when the drums and horns reached a loud crescendo, and then abruptly stopped. He turned in the direction of the throne chairs as he was sure the others did as well. The torches started burning brighter as several red robed figures moved out of the shadows and stood in front of the chairs. A single drumbeat caused everyone in the cavern to kneel down and bow their heads. John was now given a straight view of the robed figures. One had an oversized staff with jewels encrusted all over it. He sat down, and was soon followed by half dozen other robed figures. The cavern was deathly quiet as the staff-carrying figure pulled back his hood.
“Aztek-Alon,” John said, loud enough to draw some stray looks in his direction.
Manatock and Aidan were kneeling as not to draw attention. Aztek-Alon pounded his staff on the wooden stage floor. The other robed figures removed their hoods. John immediately recognized Maya-A-Toltek. Sitting to his right. All the Atlanteans there had the same features as the two that attacked them earlier, except Maya’s hair was still raven black, which made her pale features that much more pronounced. Aztek-Alon was bald now and even looked crazier than he was before.
Aztek-Alon pounded his staff two times on the stage floor. Out from the sides of the stage came several humans followed by several larger humans, who had familiar collars around their necks. The smaller humans walked as if they were in a trance. They were mostly female, and they each stopped in front of one of the Atlantean hybrids. The Cousins were barely dressed in animal skins as they faced their superiors. Aztek-Alon pounded the staff, he then got up, and was soon followed by the others. The humans didn’t show fear or try to run, they just stood there. The pale figures opened their mouths to extend their incisors, and then sank them into the necks of their victims.
