by Jesse Gagnon
“Sooner we get shit done, the sooner we can get back to the safety of the safe house.” John whispered back.
“I guess. Mario, what do you think about Chris?” Savanna asked in a low voice.
“Hardly know the guy, but he seems alright to me. He’s quick at picking up and retaining Intel. Seems like a good candidate for a Highwaymen recruit.” Mario suggested.
“He’s on a whole different level.” Savanna admitted.
“Give him a few years out in this shit. He’ll slow down and end up just like us.” John speculated.
“If I was that enthusiastic about gathering intelligence then I would be dead already. Being too involved in your work can get you killed out here.” Savanna assumed.
“This is why you have me.” John flirted.
“We’ll keep an eye on him. Thing is, I see him saving our lives more than him getting himself killed for no good reason.” Mario suggested, secured his gear and lightly jogged to catch Chris.
“Let’s move then.” John instructed and Savanna agreed. They trotted over and joined up with Mario and Chris.
“You’re right.” Chris said to Savanna.
“About what?”
“I am all business.” Chris laughed to himself.
“You heard that? This guy’s insane.” John laughed.
“It’s what I do little lady, listen.”
“That’s good to know.” Savanna said and punched John in his side. “You should take notes Asshole.”
“I listen. I just choose what’s important and forget the rest.” John belted out loud along with Mario and Chris.
“Real funny dickhead. Guess who’s not getting any tonight?”
“But Sweetheart, I was just fucking around.” John whined while trying to hug Savanna. She kept pushing him away.
They travelled for two more hours without a single Azrael sighting. Chris eventually noticed a group up ahead.
“Shhh, quiet. Twenty-three hundred, behind that blue van. Maybe eight to ten Alpha Zulu’s.” Chris muttered.
“Alpha Zoo-what?” Savanna whispered to John.
“Alpha Zulu. Must be some weird code word for Azrael. Probably picked it up at the Eagle’s Nest.” John suggested.
“That’s right. I’ve heard the phrase before on those handheld radios.” Mario remembered
“What are we going to do?” Savanna asked.
“Maybe we can get around them without engaging.” Mario whispered.
“Sounds good. Maybe we can detour down the street there. Shit…” Chris paused.
“What is it?” Mario asked quietly.
“Another group with roughly twenty Alpha Zulu’s is converging on our position.”
“Do we engage?” John asked.
“We might have to. How many rounds you got with your pistol?”
“Maybe enough if I don’t miss and every shot is a kill shot.” John admitted.
“Your crossbow isn’t fast enough for that many and it looks like those point detonating rounds will do nothing but draw more on us. I need to get somewhere high. I may be able to take out the group by the van quietly before the big group reaches us. Mario, come with me just in case some come behind me. I need you two to stay low and quiet.” Chris commanded.
“Got it.” John acknowledged and lowered his posture behind a tight grouping of cars in the street.
“Got it? Got what John? Got nothing. Where are your ideas?” Savanna asked.
“This ain’t no pissin’ contest Babe. Calm down. We’ll see what Mr. Spy can do.” John calmed Savanna.
Chris kept low and quietly opened the door to an old antique shop. He took great care to palm the bell at the door as he entered to keep it quiet. Mario followed suit and the two entered the dark building alert for any hidden threats. The sound of running halted them both. It sounded like short steps, maybe from a child. Seconds later a bolt whizzed past Chris’ side and struck a small Azrael boy square in the head.
“Damn man. How did you see that?”
“I didn’t, just a good guess. I was aiming for its chest. Was smaller than I thought.”
“Keep that luck up then, Christ!” Chris said while calming his own heartbeat.
“Sure thing. Up there see the stairs?”
“Where? Oh, over there. Got it. Heading there. Good spot. Your night vision restores pretty fast.”
“It’s what my field trainer told me. Said I had the best night vision transition he’s ever seen. I don’t know why. I don’t do anything different.”
“Genetics bro. Good genes.” Chris confessed. They climbed the steps and the room opened up.
“I guess. Wait, listen. What’s that?” Mario paused and listened to a faint sound of something past the steps and in the back of the room. The room was even darker than the bottom level.
“Sounds like something or somethings are eating.” Chris whispered to Mario.
“I agree. You got a knife?”
“Oh, do I?” Chris smiled wickedly, but Mario couldn’t see it. He removed an eight inch combat knife from his vest sheath. “Kristen here hasn’t tasted Azrael blood yet.”
“Kristen?”
“Long story.”
“Another time then. Shit, they stopped eating. They must have...” Mario was knocked down and instinctively held his crossbow between the mouth of a large Azrael and his body with his right hand. His left hand was trying to reach his knife. The Azrael grabbed the crossbow and tried to wrench it from Mario’s grip so he abandoned the knife and reinforced his hold on the crossbow with both hands. He was lying on his back and tried to kick the Azrael off of him but it didn’t budge or react to it at all. Chris heard the commotion and came over to help but was also tackled to the ground by an Azrael about his size. It caught him off guard and caused him to drop the knife. He heard it slide away. He reached for it but it slid under a desk.
“Fuck, my knife. Mario, you okay?” Chris hollered.
“Not looking good Chris.” He struggled with the Azrael. “Can’t get to my knife either.” Mario continued to tussle with the massive Azrael.
The Azrael picked Mario up off the ground and slammed him back down hard on his back. He held his grip but slammed his head pretty badly. It continued to smash Mario on the ground while wrenching back and forth attempting to pry the crossbow from his hands.
The smaller Azrael grabbed and dug its fingers into Chris’ left shoulder with its left hand and penetrated into his right ribs with its right hand. It attempted to bite Chris’ back but it bit into his pack. He pulled away but the strength of the Azrael was overwhelming. He continued to try to reach his knife to no avail. Eventually, he remembered the smaller folding knife in his left pocket. He reached for it, extracted it, flipped the blade out and spun around jabbing the knife into its skull. It fell limp on top of him. He continued to shank its skull until he was satisfied that it wouldn’t get back up. He removed himself from beneath the Azrael and brought himself to his feet.
“Mario, you still there buddy?” Chris inquired with exhaustion in his voice as his heartbeat raced. Mario was silent but Chris still heard a struggle going on around the corner. As he rounded the corner he caught a faint shadow of a behemoth of a man on all fours struggling with something beneath it.
“Mario!” Chris spurted out after finding Mario pinned to the ground struggling to stay conscious as the beast slammed him to the ground effortlessly. Chris lunged at the Azrael aiming the small knife at its skull. It shifted over to dodge the attack and head-butt Chris sending him off of his feet and he knocked over a bookcase. His head was spinning. The Azrael slammed Mario one more time and he lied there limp but maintained his grip of the crossbow. Seeing an easier meal the Azrael tossed Mario into the wall by sliding him violently with its massive arms.
Chris was moments from going unconscious and held the knife up over his body lying over a bookcase awkwardly. He was on his back and hoped that he would get lucky. It charged at him on all fours like a gorilla snorting and grunting. Chris kn
ew that his knife would do nothing but piss this one off but it was all he had to give. Two sounds of suppressed rounds invaded the silence of Chris’ impending death sending the Azrael off course and it dove through the window tearing and pulling the dark curtain with it. Faint blue light from the fading daylight lit up the room slightly. It was still bathed in a darkness that had its occupants squinting.
“Is that it? Are there more?” John and Savanna whispered.
“I thing that’s it. Mario’s on the ground over there. Check on him first.” Chris painfully spoke and rolled off of the bookcase with a loud thud startling Savanna and John. He was in the half of the room with Mario that was still shrouded in blackness. “I’m alright, I’m good.” Chris admitted while barely having air in his lungs to speak. He brought himself to all fours and shook his head trying to clear his thoughts.
John went to the window to see if the Azrael was still on the ground down below. The blue tint of the sky lit up his body as he neared the window. The large Azrael wasn’t down there nor was the others...
“Fuckers gone along with the others.” He said.
“Mario? Mario, are you okay?” Savanna searched for Mario. All she heard was a weak grunt. She activated a blue-lit flashlight to see Mario’s condition. He was lying on his back and blood was pooling up beneath him.
“Mario, can you hear me?” She continued and reached to shake him. John grabbed her hand.
“Don’t, not sure if he’s bit or not. I don’t want you getting torn up again.” John insisted.
“I…I guess you’re right. Shit!” Savanna aimed the flashlight directly at his face. She couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not. “I heard him grunting.”
“I’ve heard the Azrael grunt too Babe.” John suggested.
Mario had a tight grip on the crossbow with both hands. Savanna couldn’t find any bite wounds. The blood looked like it came from beneath Mario.
“Fucker was slamming Mario on the ground.” Chris spoke softly.
“Do you think it bit him?” She asked.
“Not sure. Was too dark and I wasn’t close enough to tell if it happened. I guess he would have turned by now.” Chris guessed.
“We don’t know that for sure.” John was overly cautious.
Suddenly Mario began to move. John aimed his pistol at Mario.
“Ugh…where did it go?” Mario spoke faintly. “Why…are you pointing that at me? Was…I bit?” Mario continued speaking slow and softly.
John lowered his pistol. “No, thank God you’re okay. We thought you were one of them for sure.” John supposed while holstering his pistol.
“I…don’t feel…okay.” Mario spoke almost in a whisper and the last word faded out softly.
“Mario? Mario! Hey, buddy we can’t sleep right now. Not sure what kind of injuries you have. Let’s take a look at you.” Chris urged and quickly removed his pack and unzipped one of the large pockets. He removed a medium sized gauze wrap. “Hey, can you guys lift him and turn him to his side so I can wrap up his head?”
“Yes, we can do that. They lifted and turned Mario. Blood stopped escaping his skull. It clotted. There was no way to tell if he had any inner cranium swelling without an x-ray. Chris decided to wrap Mario’s head to keep blood loss to a minimal.
“Is there anywhere in the city where we can get him an x-ray?” Chris asked with concern for Mario.
“Back in the Central District, we have one. Out here? No clue if any of the hospitals have enough power to them to run an x-ray machine.” Savanna suggested.
“We could take a vehicle back from the Paul Simon Center.” John said.
“Okay, we need to make some form of stretcher to place him in and maybe a cart unless you want to carry him.” Chris proposed.
“I’ll see what I can find downstairs. I think I saw some kind of cart down there.” John stated.
“Oh, I almost forgot. Thank you for saving us.” Chris spoke sincerely.
“Hey man, out here we’re a team. Gotta work together.” John mentioned.
“How did you know that we were in trouble?” Chris asked.
“Outside some freaky scream called the others, all of them. It was pretty frightening.” Savanna admitted.
“A scream of pain?”
“No, it was calling for them. Maybe the same Alpha that we encountered back at the park.” John added.
“Wait, what?” Chris was puzzled.
“Out here they are evolving. Not like it used to be. So we came inside to tell you guys and found that thing running past. Didn’t even know that you were on the ground. It was too big to be one of you two.” He glanced down at Mario. “Hey, I’m gonna go check on that cart for Mario.” John continued. He hurried downstairs and squinted as his eyes adjusted to the darkness.
Chris turned to Savanna and continued. “Well, that makes sense, kind of. You said it called them. Are you sure they weren’t just being redirected by another unfortunate event?” Chris asked still dismissing the evolving idea.
“There’s no way to tell for sure. I’m not going towards that sound to find out.” Savanna griped. “Hey, what’s that over there?” Savanna aimed in the corner by the window with her finger. There was movement and small feet were dimly lit by the glow from the window...
“I don’t know.” Chris walked over to the window and caught a glimpse of something moving. He withdrew his knife and slowly stepped forward. “Savanna, the light, shine the light on it.” Its feet shuffled back into itself hidden from the glow of the window once more.
She aimed the blue-lit flashlight towards the figure. A small child was huddled in the corner shaking in fear.
“It’s a kid Savanna. It’s some kid out here hiding in the dark. Hey, are you okay?” He asked. It didn’t respond.
The closer he got to the child the more he noticed something different about it. Its skin was pale and its muscle definition was hard and defined. It was hiding its face behind its bloody hands while shielding its eyes from the flashlight beam.
“Woah! Wait Savanna, I think it’s one of them.” Chris warned and backed up slowly hoping not to startle the small creature.
“One of what? Yeah right. It’s not attacking us and Azrael aren’t afraid of anything. They hunt and kill. That thing is afraid.” Savanna ignored Chris’ suggestion and walked over trying to reach out to the frightened child. Chris grabbed her arm firmly.
“Don’t!”
“Let go of me.” She said firmly.
“I don’t know about this. That’s blood on her hands, look.”
“LET GO OF ME!” She shouted and wrenched her arm free.
“Something’s not right about that kid.”
“He or she’s scared and you would be too if you were alone out here.” Savanna spoke up.
“I don’t think it was alone, look.” Chris directed towards a lump of something about ten feet from the child away from the window. Savanna shined her light on it. It was a female Azrael. Its head was removed and half of its body was eaten into.
“Running out of people to eat so they’re eating each other?” Chris speculated.
“This is too much. So that makes.” Savanna trained her light back on the child and it was gone. “Fuck, where did it go?”
Loud footsteps came upstairs and John entered the room and was immediately blinded by Savanna’s flashlight that she instinctively aimed in his direction. He was holding his pistol and placed his hand up to block his eyes.
“You okay Babe? I heard you say ‘let me go’.” He panted.
“I’m fine.”
“This thing ran past me. I thought it was an Azrael but it just kept going out the door. Probably some dog or something.”
“No John, it was an Azrael.” Savanna spoke. The hair on the back of John’s neck stood up and he got goosebumps thinking about it.
“Shit’s getting weird man. Let’s get Mario out of here and we’ll fill you in.” Chris ordered.
CHAPTER 11 THE ESCAPE
After a few days
of observing the men appear and take other Azrael back into the tunnel, Randall realized their pattern and their intentions. However, it was still only speculation until he himself was brought down below. According to his interpretation, Azrael like himself were brought down below as a measure of strength. Only one so far hasn’t come back. They’ve taken three down, three a day. If they continue their pattern and the numerical sequence then he should be brought down sometime tomorrow. So he has one day to prepare himself for whatever is down there. Yet, he is also noticing that the sedatives that they were using were having a weakening effect on them. The guards were surprised when they transported the last one. It awoke still on the cart. Its hands and feet were shackled but its full body was able to move. They stuck it with three more syringes to calm it down. Whatever they were using was becoming useless and this created an opening. What is puzzling is how debilitating the effect of the drugs has become after each use. It’s not like they were using the drug on the same Azrael each day. They took great care to cycle through the entire group before administering the drug again. In that case, there should be a much slower resistance to the drugs. What if the virus itself is hive minded, sharing information via pheromones. It would explain the pull towards a dominant member of a group. This would make the Azrael even more powerful than humans could ever imagine. Visualize, an ever evolving species sharing immunities while contaminating and spreading the virus to the entire world. Randall knew that his four years studying biology would pay off one day. Inopportunely, fifteen years later as an Azrael wasn’t quite the moment to have a breakthrough if this, in fact, was true.
Without warning, alarms began to wail while flashing red lights spun around in their casing. A female voice joined the alarm giving instructions in a Russian sounding dialect and then followed in English.
“Warning! Warning! Contamination in Cell Twelve. Cell block breached. Proceed to the decontamination area. All exits are sealed for containment.” The voice over the speakers advised and then repeated in another language. Sounds like the drugs wore off faster than they could handle. They have lost control over the facility. The message recycled but slightly different moments later.
