by James Somers
•••
Richard and his men had divided up appropriately in order to plant the explosives in the shortest amount of time possible. He had sent them in two man groups throughout the building. The light was sparse inside Genetic Corp, but they each wore headlamps with elastic bands on them.
Richard worked on the second floor with a slim man known to their crew by the name Trigger. He had received the name due to his penchant for always being on the switch when it came time to blow the charges. “It’s awful hot in here,” Trigger complained. He wiped the sweat from his high forehead, then replaced his ball cap.
Richard finished another charge. “Looks like they’re only running on emergency power here. Air conditioning units must be shut down. The air is stale.”
They heard creaking above them. “We’d better hurry and finish this. We need to get to the others and find out what that noise was.”
Richard finished a charge on another support column. The C4 would allow them to bypass some of the setup work normally done on a job like this. “You know what that noise was. It was that thing coming through the police. Mike said it would go to the fourth floor, looking for some kind of chemical. While it’s busy with that, we blow this place sky high and be done with it.”
Trigger looked around them in the dark. “Can’t be too soon for me.” He planted another charge and moved to another support.
“Don’t worry, Trigger, it doesn’t even know we’re here.”
•••
Nemesis watched the color monitor. His enhanced bulk took up most of the available space in the security control room. On nearly ten monitors, he watched pairs of men he had never seen before. The men appeared to be placing some sort of explosive charges on the building’s supports.
He laughed to himself, spotting Detective Stamos among them. The detective had apparently finished with his work in the basement. He and another man walked toward the basement level stairwell, opened the door, and disappeared from the monitor. The pair appeared on another monitor ascending the stairs toward the main level landing.
Nemesis thought about the situation. The men were working feverishly to plant their charges, evidently hoping to blow him up. He had the opportunity to take the fight to them, but if they blew the charges now, the mutagen would be destroyed.
He turned, pushing through the door, out into the main corridor. He walked toward his private elevator. The keypad held a faint glow. Nemesis knew it to be the only elevator in the whole building that was wired to the emergency generator. He tried to tap the code sequence into the pad, but his bloated fingers couldn’t manage it.
Instead, he placed his palms on the elevator doors, pushed, then pulled them apart. The doors groaned, but complied with his great strength. The elevator car lit up beyond. Nemesis ducked his head and pushed his way inside. The maneuver to press the fourth floor button was nearly as difficult as the keypad outside, but he finally got it. The doors closed eagerly, and the elevator began its ascent toward the fourth floor and his mutagen.
The number four appeared on the level indicator, and the elevator doors opened. He pushed his great body out into the hallway, walking toward the lab. He took notice of the damage inflicted through his fight with the police. The laboratory door had still not been replaced. He walked inside.
Nemesis spotted the vault in the half light. He smiled at the open vault door. “That little punk actually got it open.” He almost laughed when he thought of breaking the boy’s ankle in order to get him to open the vault.
Nemesis strode to the vault and peered inside. His mutagen canisters remained safe in the rack where he had left them a week ago. No time for formalities, he thought. Nemesis opened the valves wide open on the two canisters. The green fog of Generation X Mutagen filled the confines of the security vault. Nemesis washed in the vapors, breathing deeply.
The chemical mist penetrated his lungs. Gas exchange took place, allowing the mutagen into his bloodstream and the waiting molecules of Tanner’s Enhancement Serum. The two molecules bonded instantly in Trenton’s blood. The new molecule now began its move, not only through his bloodstream, but into the tissues throughout his body.
Nemesis slumped to the floor. His body began to convulse again, but this time, he rode the painful waves, a kind of new ecstasy. “No pain, no gain,” he muttered through tight lips. His muscles tensed and released. Bulging arms and legs jerked in every direction. He tried not to fight, but Nemesis did notice that something unexpected was taking place.
He had expected the chemicals to bond in his blood, making his earlier transformation a permanent one, but this was different. His body began to mutate again. The organs felt as though they were bursting within him. The pain became excruciating.
Nemesis felt overwhelmed by what was happening. He wondered if somehow this new event might very well kill him. Unconsciousness swept over him—his last thought, a firm hope that he would wake again.
•••
Nemesis awoke. The pain had turned to something…else. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. He felt strangely numb, but rather than dulled senses, Nemesis suspected that his very nerves had become something new.
He shut his eyes, but oddly enough he could still see. Nemesis saw the vault door in front of him, the walls behind, and beside him, the ceiling above, and the floor beneath. His eyes remained closed, and yet he saw everything with perfect clarity.
He raised his hand in front of him. Through the appendage, he saw things as well. It was as though his entire body had become an eye. Every cell in his body had become like an individual organism—each able to feel and perceive the world around him. Yet his body was whole.
For the first time since waking, Nemesis realized his body had changed in appearance, as well. He saw, in the reflective surface of the stainless steel walls around him, the form of Trenton Hallowed. His previously bloated, hulking body had returned to the handsome man he once was.
Nemesis reached toward the reflection and noticed his fingers stretching toward the wall, even though his hand remained stationary. Now he began to understand. His body had metamorphosed into something beyond simple muscle, sinew, organ, and bone. He felt as strong as he ever had. His power had not diminished, but grown, despite his appearance. Now he knew. His molecules had been transformed, somehow, into complete organisms, yet mind, body, and purpose remained connected in one.
He looked at the clock on the computer display in the vault. He’d been down for nearly a half hour. The men and their explosive charges. He had to do something before they completed their business.
Nemesis stood. He went out into the laboratory and removed the shredded clothing he’d been wearing. He changed his entire form. The body became dark in pigment, black as pitch. The face changed to a featureless form, as did the rest of his body. He would become a shadow. And now was the time to strike.
•••
Michael peered cautiously around the corner. The security office stood just down the hall with the door open. He needed to get inside to the intercom system. The door had been left ajar. Trenton had been here. He knew because he had closed the door himself after making sure he could use the intercom to give the team an order to evacuate.
Michael grabbed his submachine gun and checked the ammo reader. He inched along the wall with Bob trailing nervously behind him. The man started to ask him a question, but Michael raised a hand to silence him.
He reached the corner, peered down the hall in both directions, spotting nothing unusual in the dim light. Michael felt more at ease. Trenton couldn’t hide so easily in his present condition. A hulking monster just didn’t squeeze into corners or behind doors in shadows.
Michael leaned back and whispered instructions to Bob. “Stay here for a few minutes while I give the signal to evacuate.” Bob nodded eagerly, pressing himself against the wall. Michael turned back, checked the hall again, then bolted to the opposite side and into the security control room.
When he got inside, Michael to
ok stock of the monitors, searching for his team members. He saw Richard and the man called Trigger working inside an elevator shaft. They stood at opposite sides, quickly wiring charges. Richard had managed to hotwire the elevator controls to a universal remote he often used for just this sort of situation, giving him the ability to place charges along key structural supports while standing on top of the elevator.
Michael checked the monitor and found the vault door ajar. He noticed that it stood in a more open position than it had before. No one was inside. He searched over the screens and noticed some of Richard’s demolition guys lying on the floor where they had been working. He zoomed in on one man, lying partially obscured by shadow. A pool of dark liquid surrounded his body on the video monitor.
Motion on another monitor caught Michael’s attention. He saw one of the men fighting with something that was almost invisible. The man was seized by what appeared to be a living shadow. Whatever it was, it didn’t look a thing like the Nemesis monster.
Michael reached for the microphone button and noticed the panel had been torn completely away from the control board. He couldn’t call for his team to evacuate. He looked at the monitor again. The shadow had disappeared, leaving two men dead like those on the other monitors. Richard and Trigger still lived on their screen.
Michael turned and left the control room, hoping to get to Richard and Trigger in time. He paused to get Bob from his hiding place in the shadows. He was gone. Michael knelt on the carpet and found a blood stain—the only evidence Bob had ever been there. Michael raised his weapon, searching every direction. He paid special attention to the shadows. Nothing moved. He briefly thought of blowing the building now, but he couldn’t sacrifice the remaining men, and he didn’t know if Nemesis was even still in the building. He didn’t have time to wait. Michael turned and ran for the elevator shaft where Richard had been working. He hoped he would be in time.
32 EXPLOSIVE RESULTS
Richard heard gurgling behind him. Three elevator cars operated within this single, wide shaft. Supports ran the entire height of the building on either side. Richard turned to ask Trigger what he was doing, only to find the man hoisted off the ground by his throat.
Richard gasped as he saw something black as night, clinging to the wall six feet above them. It looked back at Richard with eyes that seemed to glow with pure evil. The creature held Trigger up as he clutched its black arm in hopes of freeing his neck from its grasp. The creature bashed him against the wall several times, leaving larger and larger blood stains upon the cement block lining the elevator shaft.
Trigger ceased struggling, became limp as a rag doll in the creature’s hand, and was dropped to the elevator car below. “What are you?” Richard asked, stuttering.
The creature stretched out its arm unnaturally far and took hold of the cables holding the middle elevator car. It swung down to the roof of the car almost noiselessly. It smiled viciously at Richard. “Don’t you recognize a god when you see one?”
A black arm reached out for Richard as he stood dazed staring at it. Machine gun shots burst into the shaft. Richard saw Michael firing from the open elevator roof hatch, next to Trigger’s lifeless body.
The black creature retreated away from Richard as the shells pounded its leathery flesh. He noticed no blood spilt from the beast. Instead, holes opened, then closed in rapid succession as the creature fought to hold its form under fire.
It turned, beholding its attacker. “Detective Stamos, will you never learn your lesson?”
“Trenton?” Michael asked, ceasing his assault. Richard snapped out of his daze and dropped through the open hatch on the roof of his elevator car. He jumped up, grabbing the lid as he landed, slamming it shut. Richard heard the muffled machine gun staccato begin again above him.
Richard pushed the open door button as the lights flickered in his elevator car. “Come on, come on! Open!” He swore at the machine and slapped every button on the panel, as the creature howled in anger at Detective Stamos above.
The hatch on his elevator roof tore away with a screech of twisted metal. The alarm chimed and the double doors crawled open before him. Richard looked behind him as thick, black fluid, like tar, poured into the elevator car through the hole. The puddle oozed upward, the creature taking the form of a man again. The eyes opened and blinked. Nemesis reached for him.
The elevator doors finally opened enough, and Richard spilled out into the corridor. He rolled away from the creature, clawing at the bare ceramic tiles, trying to get back to his feet. Nemesis walked out behind Richard, then flailed away as Michael appeared, opening up on him with his machine gun again. Richard got to his feet and surged down the hallway with his shoulder pack of C4 explosive flapping at his right hip.
Michael kept up the onslaught until the firing pin clicked. He had run out of ammunition. He called out behind Richard. “Blow the charges, Richard!”
Nemesis recovered, knocked Michael out of the way with a shiny, black tentacle, just as he placed a fresh ammunition clip, then ran down the corridor after Richard, and the detonator.
“Why did I insist on coming to do this job?” Richard cursed himself. He looked over his shoulder and found Nemesis gaining on him, fast. He fumbled inside the flapping bag for the detonator, but took hold of a ball of putty instead. He tore it from the bag, grabbed a digital delay blast cap, inserted it into the C4, and triple clicked it for a three second delay. Richard turned as he ran, armed the cap then threw it back toward Nemesis.
Richard turned back, still running clumsily, and surged forward, counting down the seconds. The putty ball hit a column support at the side of the hall. Two seconds ticked off in flight. The third had finished by the time the ball rolled onto the floor, ten steps ahead of the living shadow.
•••
Jonathan paused briefly to examine the bodies of the police officers outside of the Genetic Corp building. None of them had survived. He heard machine gun fire from somewhere inside and took off toward the front door.
Just as he made it inside the main lobby, an explosion rocked the building. The shockwave shattered windows all over the upper landing. The second floor landing appeared to be clear, meaning the explosion had come from either level three or four.
Jonathan rushed toward an emergency exit door. He pushed his way through, running up the fire escape steps. He heard shouts up above. It sounded like Michael Stamos, but he couldn’t be sure.
•••
Michael picked himself up from the floor where the explosion had thrown him. He watched the fluid predator extricate itself from a wall, then charge forward in pursuit of the main detonator. Richard had disappeared down the corridor just before the blast and remained lost in the confusion. He still had the main detonator in his bag.
Michael fired on Nemesis as he dodged past a corner. Several shots hit the creature. The rest scattered fragments of drywall across the hall. He tried to keep up, but Nemesis was too fast.
Michael’s body ached. He might have torn cartilage in his shoulder and knees by now, but he didn’t think anything was broken. He rounded the corner after Nemesis and found Richard.
Nemesis stood thirty yards down the corridor looking like a man made of shiny black tar. He lifted Richard off the floor by his throat. Nemesis forced a black hand into the bag, rummaging for the detonator. Richard spluttered in his grasp. The creature became angry. “Where is it?” He shook Richard like a doll, then tossed him into the opposite wall.
Michael raised his machine gun and aimed, hoping to drive the beast away without hitting Richard. Nemesis stepped toward Richard as he pulled something from his pocket. “Do you mean this?” Richard wheezed, showing the device in his hand. Nemesis lunged for the detonator, but wasn’t quick enough.
Richard pressed the ignition switch. The entire building shuddered. Michael’s hearing failed with the first blast. His ears rang as the floor shook under his feet. He reeled sideways off balance. Though he couldn’t hear them, Michael felt the successive e
xplosions pounding through his body in waves.
His last glimpse of Nemesis and Richard saw them falling as the floor collapsed. Michael was caught up in the storm of debris that followed—a leaf adrift inside a tornado.
Something grabbed him. Michael felt human hands, though he couldn’t tell if it was Nemesis or not. The beast would not survive this chaos. Surely justice demanded his complete annihilation for all the death and destruction he had been responsible for over the past few days.
Michael closed his eyes as the world came to an end around him. He had rarely considered his own mortality, despite his line of work. His partner’s death had been sobering. Cops just weren’t invincible. Michael wondered who had hold of him—an angel delivering him to whatever heaven was, or the devil himself coming to collect a debt long overdue. He didn’t have time to ponder the possibilities.
He and the person pulling him by his clothing fell a great distance, landing on a surface that gave way with the force. Michael felt the cracking of wood and wondered if his bones had shattered also. They slammed into something firm and stopped.
For a long time, nothing else happened. Michael lay there with his eyes tightly shut, hoping he still lived. The ringing in his ears remained constant. His skin felt numb. His fingers ached, and he did not know if he still held his machine gun.
Something shook him. Michael wondered if the explosions would ever end. He dared to open his eyes, finding Jonathan Hallowed covered in dirt, dust and streaks of blood. The younger man smiled at him and spoke, but Michael could not hear anything except the incessant ringing. Still, he was pleased to see Jonathan and to be alive to appreciate it.
