The Azrael (Book 3): Alpha Zulu

by Jesse Gagnon

  “I know now.” He yelled and listened for a response. “I know why the path is nowhere.” Jason continued and searched for the voice. Suddenly the wind ceased and calmed.

  “It is your choice, Jason. Continue your journey through darkness and troubles and remember to follow what you believe is right…until next time.”

  Jason’s body convulsed and seized as it awoke beneath a pile of bodies. His eyes opened and the stench of decay entered his lungs in a strong gust. Everything was dark and unrecognizable. He felt the weight of something on top of him crushing his chest and making breathing almost impossible. He tried to move and felt pinned down. He was trapped. He continued to fight and he slowly felt more capable of moving. A swatch of sunlight broke through the darkness. A silhouette of a face provided a frame to the light. The ground seemed to be moving and a grumble of machinery pierced through the hole of light. Jason continued to shake and fight. The light grew larger and the blue of the sky accompanied the light that warmed his arm. He pushed his right arm through and grabbed onto the outside of what held him down. It felt like a foot. He gripped the foot and tugged slowly, lifting his body through the hole and out. The pile of Azrael bodies stunk like a month old dead fish covered in a year old pile of shit. Even as an Azrael he felt the need to vomit. He did all over a face that lied there with its mouth open. The puke drained into its open mouth. It sickened him.

  Jason searched the area to see what was going on. A dump truck was transporting a pile of dead Azrael bodies somewhere. For some reason, their bodies were being moved. He scanned down the road to where it was heading. The landscape was rural and the road was foreign. Up ahead a sign provided information. It was faded from being exposed to the elements with no attempts at being maintained but it was legible.

  ‘Indiana State Line in Five Miles.’

  He crawled over the bodies and climbed on the back of the truck. He leapt off and landed hard on the hot pavement below breaking his left leg, shattered the bones in his left wrist and rolled for a few yards until finally stopping. Jason lay on his back in enormous pain. He analyzed the crystal blue sky void of any clouds. The aroma of Azrael was faintly latching onto his clothes and his own body. He sat up and noticed the field that the road traveled through. It was beautiful with flowers littering the tall grass blades for as far as the eyes could see. It’s time to go back. Somehow he needed to reach Giselle. Brought back from the brink of death once more, reborn from a pile of Azrael bodies, Jason had found his path once more.

  CHAPTER 33: THE SCOPE

  The smell and consistency of the mud stunk of rotten meat. Mario crawled quickly towards the tree that overhung above the enemy’s hideout. Johnson was already dangling off of the tree and preparing to drop onto the shack. Before Mario could reach the tree Johnson was already falling. Unfortunately, the roof was poorly constructed and when Johnson struck the top of it he fell straight through.

  “Shit. He’s in. He’s in. Moving to the front door.” Mario announced and headed there.

  “Fuck, moving Cortez.” Tank muttered, pulling himself out of the mud and providing backup.

  “Right behind ya Tank.” Flint added while bringing himself to his feet.

  Mario established eye contact with the other two as they placed their backs along the left side of the door. He instructed them to follow with weapons hot. He silently counted three, two, one with his fingers and kicked in the door with weapons ready on one.

  As light illuminated the room from outside visual on three men eating Johnson horrified his senses. One of them turned to look at him with a crazed look on his face. His eyes were gray and unnatural. Johnson looked up at him and growled a wet throaty noise. This wasn’t right? This was before the Azrael. The sound of them eating intensified as the smell of Azrael stung his nostrils in a sour scent. He awoke.

  Mario’s eyes opened revealing darkness. Noises of something feeding caused him to remain silent. A beeping noise resonated beyond his vision but to his right. What was beeping? The sound of chewing and tearing meat intensified. It grunted and slurped up liquid that was inside. The room that he was in shook and slowly settled several times. He felt around beneath him and found seatbelt fasteners. He was in a vehicle. For what seemed like an hour the creature outside continued to eat something or someone.

  Eventually, it stopped, applied pressure on the car as it got up causing it to shake from its weight. Suddenly, it ran off and slowly disappeared into the unknown. Mario waited just in case. The beeping noise continued. A steady dripping outside struck the pavement and whatever lied on it. After ten minutes Mario slowly removed the cover off of his body. He was alone. Where were John, Savanna, and Chris? The beeping noise stole his attention and he sat up looking for it. The window was broken nearby and hanging on the door window frame was Chris’ rifle.

  “Chris!” He whispered and heard nothing. The beeping was coming from the rifle. What was it? He grabbed the weapon and brought it closer. A red light blinked and beeped on the scope. After further investigation, he discovered the recording function on it. He tried to figure out how to play it back but couldn’t. On the side of the scope was a place to insert a sim card. A button next to it ejected the card. He pushed it and removed the card from the scope. He placed it in his pocket and the beeping and blinking stopped. What did he see? He decided it was time to find out whose body was outside.

  Mario climbed into the back seat and crawled out of the back window careful as to not make any noises. He was still unsure what was out there. He quietly dropped off of the trunk, crouched and tiptoed over to the passenger side. A body lied in a sitting position with its back to the door. Its face was covered in blood and all flesh minus the intestines on the ground had been stripped to the bone. Nothing was identifiable in its current state. Mario picked up a torn piece of cloth from its clothes that were somewhat dry and wiped off its face. Half of it was torn off by teeth but it was definitely Chris Murphy.

  “Christ, it’s Chris.” Mario mumbled to himself. He dropped the cloth and walked backwards. Mario had no clue where he was and didn’t know the whole situation. All he could figure was Chris was with Mario and hid him in the car. One thing led to the next and he was being eaten outside the car. He saw something, something important to record with his scope. Mario read about those types. They were used in special warfare units just before the Azrael breakout. His answers were on the sim card in his pocket. He wasn’t safe to stay there nor did he know where to go.

  The area was littered with cars. Cars that shouldn’t have been configured the way they were. The car he was in had crashed into another grouping of vehicles. However, something was vaguely familiar with this area, something important…a dog.

  “Samson, we found Samson right over there.” Mario whispered with excitement as he pointed at a familiar building. He scanned the area. The setup was much different than it was before like the cars were purposefully placed to make it difficult to maneuver while moving fast. It was a trap! He jogged over to where the road continued towards Chicago. It was completely blocked off by cars, weird. He decided to head towards Chicago. Maybe they were coming back to help, he thought. In any case, he needed to get moving before that one from earlier came back. Before he left he searched for any more weapons and only was left with Chris’ rifle. He removed the tripod attachment and found a strap in the box that held the weapon. After attaching the strap, tossing all extra magazines and boxes of rounds in his backpack and placing it over his shoulder, he made his way towards Chicago.

  About five blocks away Mario noticed movement in the streets. He quietly hid behind a parked car. A small group of large Azrael was eating something in the street. He placed the rifle on the car and glanced down the scope. There were three of them. The corpses in the street were in bad shape. Actually, they appeared to be Azrael. He zoomed in closer. One of their eyes was still open. Yup, it’s an Azrael. So they’re eating each other now. Must be getting bad out there, Mario thought. He waited for the Azrael to finish before
moving on. After a few minutes, they were on their way to a more fresh meal. They left most of the Azrael corpse alone only eating the internal organs and the meat on the back. He thought about Chris and how much was consumed from him. He wondered why Chris didn’t turn into one of them. Was he immune? Maybe he was. Shit seems like everyone’s immune these days. Mario wondered if he was immune. He didn’t want to get bit to find out. He wasn’t far from Douglas Park. He decided to stop through to check on Clip and to see if he had something that could play the sim card.

  CHAPTER 34: KYO AND VLADOMIR

  Sent on an assassination mission to finally eliminate the Alpha that was leading a herd to Chicago, Kyo and Vladomir drove towards a large herd overtaking some outpost. Their bikes had to slow due to the vehicle maze designed to trap those that approached. A muzzle flash up ahead followed by Azrael movement alarmed the two and they ditched their bikes. They let the bikes slide forward but they leapt off of them sliding and colliding with the tires of a tractor trailer rig. Kyo managed to turn and slow his collision by placing his feet on the tires and collapsing into a squat. Vladomir was not as graceful and struck his back on the tires knocking the wind out of him. Their bikes collided with a pickup truck piercing the gas tank beneath it. The sparks from the skidding bikes ignited into a large explosion absorbing the motorcycles within its fiery flame.

  One of the large Azrael, drawn to their presence, took a bullet in the back of its skull and fell face first on the asphalt. Kyo was already up helping Vladomir to his feet moments after being alerted to the movement ahead.

  “Our mission Vlad.” Kyo urged Vladomir up.

  “I crush rim with back. Give second.” Vladomir grunted still shaken. Their helmets, designed with cameras, microphones and GPS mapping on the interior visor were damaged in the fall and were delivering error messages back to the Veil’s HQ. Kyo removed his as he arose from the collision. Vladomir still donned his helmet. However, there was no feed to HQ.

  “Veil, Victor you have coms?” Vladomir asked. The silence accompanied a complete interface failure. “This helmet is shit.” He added as he stood up removing the helmet. One of the large Azrael was seconds from contact and he tossed it at it stunning it for a second. It growled and staggered but remained on all fours.

  “The Alpha must have fled.” Kyo admitted.

  “More playtime with shit-breath.” Vlad commented.

  “Hai.” Kyo agreed.

  Vladomir stormed towards the Azrael and tackled it to the ground. It responded with a right elbow to the side of Vlad’s skull causing him to lose his grip. The other Azrael bit into Vlad’s left shoulder as it struck him.

  “Son of bitch!” He hollered.

  “Head down Vlad.” Kyo instructed to Vladomir and he complied. A right sweeping kick struck the Azrael across the face causing it to remove its bite from Vlad’s shoulder. Its neck snapped and fell limp on the ground. Its body seized, its muscles tensed and relaxed in response to the damage to the spine.

  The other Azrael stood quickly and palmed the back of Kyo’s skull with its left hand while pushing down. Kyo was unable to respond and was forced to his knees by its enormous strength.

  “Vlad, assistance please.” Kyo called out.

  “These Azrael have much fight.” Vlad removed a pistol from his vest and aimed it at its skull. It swatted it away with its right hand knocking it from his grip. It reached for Vlad’s neck and dug its fingers deep into his throat. It applied pressure and brought Vlad to a knee choking.

  “Argh…Kyo.” Vlad struggled to speak as blood poured into his throat and into his lungs. “F...uck you…” He spat blood at the Azrael’s face.

  Movement from behind Vlad signified that the other had gotten up from its injury. Its growl and hiss from behind brought chills down his back. It bit into his left shoulder again, shaking his jaw around and tearing in deeper. It wrapped its arm around Vlad’s chest digging its fingers into his stomach. Its left hand gripped Vlad’s left wrist and brought it to the ground.

  “Strong…” Vlad spat blood. “Death, it comes for me, comrade.” His voice weakened and gurgled as it escaped his mouth.

  Kyo managed to remove a small knife from his waist with his right hand as his left hand and his knees kept him from falling to the ground. He sat up on his knees, grabbed the Azrael’s left hand that grasped his skull with his own left hand and jabbed the knife into its stomach behind him. He dug the knife around; however, it kept its grip without pause. Images of the Azrael beside him feasting on Vladomir brought a sense of urgency to Kyo. He spun around knocking its hold on his head with his right arm and charged in connecting the top of his head to the Azrael’s chin. It staggered back and Kyo took the opportunity to slice key locations on the Azrael with the knife rendering its limbs useless. He finished it off by jabbing the knife into the side of its skull several times destroying the brain. It fell lifeless with a loud thud.

  “Kyo...” Vladomir continued to fight for his life.

  Kyo was drenched in blood and it drove him mad.

  “It’s not too late for you Vlad.” Kyo confirmed and threw the knife at the Azrael’s skull, stopping it in its tracks. It fell disoriented and attempted to remove the knife. By this time Kyo was already on top of it pulling the knife out and jabbing it back in with ferocity until it stopped moving altogether. He walked over to Vladomir and rolled him on his back. He lied there calmly slowly breathing.

  “You… fight like tiger Kyo.” Vladomir admitted. His wounds began to heal but he needed time and lots of calories to be mobile again. Kyo removed his backpack and retrieved a syringe from a deeply padded pocket. He sprayed a little while flicking to remove the air bubbles.

  “This will help you recover faster.” Kyo spoke.

  “Good, smells like shit.” Vladomir said while gesturing to the dead Azrael nearby. Kyo agreed, pricked Vladomir with the needle and pushed in its contents.

  “Early dose should get you moving soon.”

  “How many you have left?”

  “Last one.”

  “What?”

  “Others are broken. Should have enough time to get back for more. Don’t worry.”

  “Should have saved for self.” Vladomir urged.

  “What’s done is done friend.” Kyo smiled.

  “Let’s get moving then.” Vladomir attempted to get up.

  “Whoa, give it an hour. Just an hour then we move, okay.”

  “We don’t have hour. You smell rot over there?” Vladomir gazed towards the vehicle that had a muzzle flash earlier. It feeds.

  “That’s the Alpha Vlad.”

  “Not ready for engagement Kyo.”

  “Agreed, let’s move to that building over there.” Kyo instructed. Vladomir slowly arose to his feet and stumbled over to the entrance to the duplex. The door was locked.

  “Is no good. Door locked.” Vladomir admitted.

  “At least we are out of the street. I will keep an eye on the Alpha.”

  “Deal. Eyes heavy like anvil.”

  “Rest up. Let the serum work.” Kyo lowered to a squat as Vladomir lay his back and head on the front door to the building while sitting. Kyo rubbed at his scabbed wounds subconsciously inspiring a faster healing process. The sounds of the Alpha’s gums smacking and muscle tearing caused Kyo’s skin to crawl. After consuming most of the flesh from the corpse it stood up and exited into the shadows nearby. Its presence vanished completely.

  “A worthy opponent.” Kyo whispered under his breath.

  CHAPTER 35: FUNKY CELLS

  For the second time in the week, Jane awoke face planted on the rubber viewing scope of the microscope. She sat up stretching out a strand of drool from her mouth. She wiped it away with her right sleeve. A red line framed her face where the viewing scope stuck to her skin. There was still a sample on the clear tray below and she returned her view through the microscope. She turned the Vernier knobs adjusting the focus until the picture was sharp. The Azrael cells had mutated once more, carrying this new
dominant trait to all the other cells. Several dead cells littered the sample indicating that the new mutation destroyed the weaker version of itself. It was behaving strangely. Jane withdrew her head from the scope, rubbed at her eyes and returned to it. They were filled with blue wormlike matter that danced around to a cadence that she could not hear. She continued to watch and tapped her foot to the rhythm. What were they doing? She sat up and searched for something that could be emitting a sound or frequency. Maybe it was a high or low frequency that she couldn’t hear. Through the vacuum sealed ballistic window that separated her lab from another lab to her right was a worker with headphones. The young woman was nodding her head to a beat. She studied the sample in the scope once more. The samples were reacting at the same interval. Again she looked away and back to compare the two. The cells were responding to a sound almost impossible to hear on a cellular level.

  Jane sought the detailed information on the Azrael blood donor. It was blood donated by an undisclosed individual infected with the HIV virus. Simon had instructed for her to infect those specific samples with the Azrael virus and to contact him with the results. What was he hiding? Did he have HIV? He didn’t appear sick or he hid it well. She decided to stop speculating and gave him a call. She dialed his number and waited.

  “Simon Killbrook’s Office.”

  “Yes, it’s Dr. Jane Barnett with information about the blood samples Dr. Simon left with me.”

  “One moment please.” The woman responded with a nasal voice. Jane mocked her as she waited.

  “One moment…Simon’s Office.” She joked.

  “Excuse me?” Simon interrupted.

  “Oh, yes. I was just…never mind. So I tested those samples you provided me.”

  “And?”

  “Well, the blood infected with HIV produced very interesting results.”