Grave Beginnings (The Grave Report, Book 1)

by Virdi, R. R

  There was a clear patch of visibility through the smoke and I saw another emergency staircase up ahead, I banished all the pain from my mind and lurched towards it. The fires around me intensified as I drew nearer and a sharp piercing wail overwhelmed my ears, it was louder than the damned fire alarm! The mass of flames flickered and waned out of existence for a brief moment before they burst back into clarity and a being jumped out of them and towards me!

  I didn’t have the strength to roll or move out of the way, so, I simply collapsed. Not heroic and badass I know, but it’s all I could do to avoid being immolated by a flaming devilish woman. The Elemental soared over my prone form and landed several paces behind me. Before she had the chance to turn around and light my currently crippled ass on fire, I decided to capitalize on the moment. I scrambled back to my feet and unleashed another wave of foamy wrath upon her.

  “Ha ha,” I laughed, which caused me in turn to cough heavily, “where’s your little lizard death squad now, bitch?” I said angrily, reveling in the fact that I just kicked an Elementals ass.

  I got my answer all too soon, about fifteen or twenty feet behind the Elementals writhing form was an entire gaggle of the flaming amphibians.

  “Oh...good, the whole gangs here,” I muttered gloomily. I let out an exasperating sigh and solidified my grip on the extinguisher, I didn’t know how many more rounds I could go with these things. It was starting to look like that even if I did manage to find a way to kill them, I would die in the hotel fire.

  Guns are loud, seriously, really damn loud and I forget that sometimes. I don’t have the good fortune of being able to lug one around so when one goes off right by my ears, I notice and…nearly crap myself. All I know is that one second, I was staring at a mass of Salamanders coming at me and then the next, there numbers began to diminish.

  Bang bang bang, in rapid succession, shot after shot rang out as Agent Ortiz’s pistol was actually killing the Salamanders. The one at the head of the pack didn’t so much drop dead from a perfectly placed bullet to the skull so much as it just burst. And when it burst, man, the thing went off like a cherry bomb, ka frickin’ boom! Round after round she managed to drop atleast eight or nine of them before the Elemental began to regain its composure and the remaining Salamanders were close enough to begin bombarding us once again with their corrosive spit.

  “Okay, good going there but how ‘bout we amscray before they decide to dissolve and or incinerate us huh?” I said a bit too loudly, I couldn’t really hear myself, a gun going off point blank by your ears will do that to you.

  I didn’t make out what she said but I understood her nod as she placed my arm around her and helped me limp towards the stairs.

  I felt like passing out but I knew I couldn’t, not ‘till we were clear of this mess anyways.

  “Do you think I got them?” asked Ortiz, it came over muffled and distorted.

  “I think so!” I shouted, trying to compete over the fire alarm and still being a bit deafened from the gunshots.

  “I didn’t know a bullet could kill something like that,” she said.

  “Me neither!” I shouted back as she helped me limp into the stairwell. We were on the eleventh floor and I was battered pretty good. The descent looked pretty daunting, my legs were damaged and I didn’t think I had a good chance of making it. Ortiz must’ve figured that out as well.

  “Think you can make it?” she asked, biting her lip in a worried manner.

  I snorted, “at this point, I think it’d just be easier to roll me down the steps and meet you at the bottom.”

  “Now’s not the time to be a smartass,” she replied seriously although there was a bit of a smirk edging its way across her face.

  “Nonsense,” I replied, “impending death by immolation is the best time to be a smartass.” I quipped. Not to mention it might be me last chance to be one, I thought morosely.

  Just then, there was a series of splat noises hitting the metal door behind us, seconds later, a sickening hissing noise filled the air. We turned our heads back to the see the door beginning to melt away, the Salamanders must’ve caught up.

  “How about you can the smartassery until I get you down these stairs without being turned into a puddle of goo?” Ortiz said.

  I just nodded in agreement as she quickly helped me descend the first flight of stairs. We made good progress, clearing about three flights easily and without any more interruptions from either the Elemental or the Salamanders. Just as we were coming to the seventh floor our luck ran out.

  “Damn,” cursed Ortiz in a harsh tone as another wall of fire erupted in front of us, blocking off access to the rest of the stairs.

  “Out onto the floor,” I said, nodding at the doorway that would lead us into the corridor of the seventh floor.

  Ortiz helped me through the doorway, shutting it behind just as we heard a very familiar wail, the Elemental was right behind us. As we continued to drive forwards and away from the Elemental on our tails, the air very quickly began to smell of ozone. The sounded of superheated fire filled our ears as the metal door was blown off its hinges and into the wall opposite it. Oh, the door was also streaked with not fire but what looked to be molten lava and was beginning to disintegrate.

  Both Ortiz and I looked on in wide-eyed horror at the kind of power the Elemental had, if I wasn’t so terrified, I would’ve been impressed by it.

  “And how do we kill that thing?” Ortiz asked as she continued helping me limp forwards.

  “We really can’t,” I answered.

  “Can’t?”

  “Well,” I began, pursing my lips whilst trying to figure out what exactly to say. “There’s nothing here for us to kill it with, we’d have to fully smother the Elemental so it couldn’t reignite or—”

  The next instant I found myself slumping, struggling to hold myself upright as Agent Ortiz stopped supporting me. She had spun around, drawn her gun and unloaded several rounds into the Elemental’s body, shooting until her gun clicked and the slide retracted into the open position. Every shot managed to stagger the Elemental, forcing it steps back from the sheer force of the bullets but I didn’t think it actually did much harm. From where I was standing, well slumping, the rounds passed harmlessly through and came out the other end as flaming shrapnel that served to light more portions of the building on fire.

  The Elemental let out an angry howl and raised both its hands towards us, a mass of flames gathering around its wrists and hands.

  “DOWN!” I shouted as loud as I possibly could, the force with which I shouted causing havoc on my sore and damaged throat. I collapsed to the ground and managed to drag Ortiz down with me just as two bolts of fire passed mere inches over us. I could feel the heat radiating from them as they passed over and it was intense, it felt as if I had gotten sunburned on my neck.

  Ortiz righted herself as fast as she could and hauled me to my feet with force and speed, pushing me forwards and keeping me from stumbling awkwardly.

  “You have another clip?” I croaked.

  “Yeah but I don’t think that thing is going to give me the time to reload,” she replied through gritted teeth.

  “Maybe if I ask nicely,” I joked.

  “You try that tough guy.”

  “Just be ready,” I replied. Up ahead was another fire extinguisher, thank God that buildings like this had to have one on every floor, they were really becoming a lifesaver. I rammed Agent Ortiz aside rather forcefully but it got her out of the way of another potential strike as I scrambled towards the extinguisher.

  “The hell!?” Blurted Ortiz angrily as she stumbled into a wall that had somehow managed not to catch fire yet.

  “Reload, now!” I growled as I lurched forwards and swung open the glass case holding the extinguisher. I grabbed it by the top and yanked it out, aiming it at the advancing Elemental and doused it once again in fire suppressant foam. Again the Elemental began to writhe and its flames sputtered as it was fighting off the smothering contents of t
he extinguisher.

  “Reloaded!” called back Ortiz.

  “How good are you at nailing moving targets?” I asked.

  Ortiz caught onto what I was planning and scampered over from where she was to right besides me.

  “Wait ‘till it gets back up,” I explained, “’till then, let’s keep moving but keep an eye out over your shoulder,” I said, Ortiz gave me an understanding nod. “No, no,” I said, brushing off Agent Ortiz’s attempt to help me walk again, Norman’s body was beginning to heal, courtesy of my supernatural abilities. My hand was still covered in bits of glass and bleeding but most of the pain was starting to subside and my shoulder was feeling a bit better. We covered the half the length of the corridor before Ortiz motioned for me to look back.

  The Elemental had gotten back to its feet and released a challenging shriek but before it could launch another superheated blast our way, I hurled the extinguisher towards the creature. “Now!” I shouted, the shout tearing at my throat apart causing me to cough violently.

  Agent Ortiz hit the extinguisher perfectly with a single shot the second it was inches away from the Elemental and the effect was immediate. The highly pressurized container burst with a great deal of force, enough to knock the Elemental on its ass but that wasn’t the best part. The amount of concussive force coupled with the fire suppressing contents wreaked havoc on the Elemental, it was blown back and doused in foam. It landed a good five or six feet back and was screaming in anguish, its flames waning and struggling to remain alight.

  “That’ll keep it down for a good while,” I said smugly but apparently that wasn’t enough for Ortiz. My ears were filled once again with the thundering sound of her handgun discharging. She emptied the entire magazine into the already down and injured Elemental, every shot jarring the creatures body and making it jerk and flail more.

  And then something unexpected happened, the flames that made up the creatures body subsided, they sank away into nothingness. The Elemental just faded.

  I ran over to Ortiz and embraced her in a comforting and tight hug, the building was collapsing around us but clearly she was a bit shaken after all of this. I held her there for a good long moment before I heard her sniffle and she gently pushed me away.

  “You good?” I asked quietly.

  She nodded, clearing her throat a bit forcefully, “yeah,” she said hoarsely.

  I looked at her intently, trying to make sure that she was truly all right.

  She shook her head once, “yes,” she said more firmly.

  That was good enough for me.

  “Come on,” I said gently, gesturing ahead to where another staircase was.

  I decided to take the lead this time, not wanting to put Ortiz in any more danger or expose her to anything else shocking that the supernatural world had left to offer. She had been through enough already, more than any person should’ve had to go through and she was clearly rattled.

  Who wouldn’t be?

  We made it to the staircase relatively quick and began descending as fast as we safely could. The great thing about stone walled rooms and stairs is that it’s exceptionally hard for them to catch fire, thus making the stairs the safest place we could be during this debacle. Well technically, I guess the real safest place would’ve been outside the hotel and away from the fire.

  After making it down to the fourth level, Ortiz placed a hand on my sore left shoulder, it panged a tad bit but I didn’t let her see that. I looked back to face her when she spoke, “Norman,” she began, chewing on her lip thoughtfully before continuing, “that thing, is it really dead this time?”

  I didn’t know what to tell her, Elementals could be killed but it was damn hard to do. Most Elementals lived and rarely left an area that corresponded with their element and was abundantly filled with it. Most Elementals of fire stayed near volcanoes or believe it or not, deserts, some appeared in the aftermaths of forest fires but that was about it. The reason they stayed in such close proximity to such places was because, well, that’s essentially what they were, that specific element given physical form. As long as there was an abundance of that element around, they could, given time, reform. Not exactly a comforting notion to an already distraught Ortiz, or me for that matter. There was plenty of fire left in this building and chances were that the Elemental would be back for us and soon. Our only chance was to escape the building.

  Agent Ortiz was looking back at me nervously; I couldn’t decide what to tell her, the truth or a comforting lie. The truth would worry her more, I was fairly certain that the idea that the Elemental could pop back up would be unsettling to her. But then, would telling her that it was gone for certain only to have it reappear when we least expected it be any better? I decided the truth would be best, better she knew and was worried albeit prepared, than feeling falsely secure and off her guard.

  Never mind that the building was on fire and all, I was sitting here about to engage in a minor conversation.

  Nice to know I have my priorities in check.

  I took a deep breath before speaking, “yes and no,” I said. “Yes it’s gone,” I said, placing heavy emphasis on gone, “but only for now” I continued. “It can reform from any of the fires around us, all Elementals work that way, if there’s enough of their source element in the area, they can reform.” I explained.

  I watched her reaction, she suppressed a small shiver and nodded more to herself than me, I think she was coming to grips with that notion in her head. I gave her sometime to putter around in her mind, it’s not like were in danger of being consumed in a raging inferno or have a building collapse on us, no pressure….

  “Right,” she said hoarsely, she calmly raised her pistol and ejected the magazine she had spent on the Elemental and slapped a fresh clip in.

  I looked at her curiously, arching an eyebrow as I spoke, “uh, how many of those things do you have?” I asked.

  She gave me a wolfish smile but refused to give an outright answer. Fair enough, not like I had given her an abundance of straight forwards answers myself.

  We continued down the next flight of stairs to the third floor when something really unforeseen happened. There was a deep cracking and crumbling sound; I looked up to see that the very stone above us was beginning to give way. I knew that there was still a small group of the Salamanders left somewhere in the building and that they were breaking down much of it with their acid spit. What I didn’t know was that their spit had actually managed to begin breaking down the stone stairs throughout the building.

  I flung open the door and grabbed Ortiz, pulling her through just as some of the stone and metal structures above us gave way. We made it into the hall and heard a terrible crumbling noise followed by a tremendous Earth shaking crash. It was like a small tremor.

  “So,” she said, “looks like we’re not getting out that way.”

  “Guess not,” I replied.

  There were two staircases on most of the floors we had covered so there must’ve still been a way out of there. Ortiz must’ve had the same idea because she took off down the hall without even waiting for me.

  I sighed and ran after her.

  The hotel’s condition was getting worse by the second, now there wasn’t so much danger from supernatural monsters as there was from immolation and or falling structures pancaking us. Both large and small bits of ceiling, pipes and even furniture were tumbling down from above, threatening to flatten us. We spent most of time in that hall running, ducking, rolling, diving and more. It took us longer than I would’ve liked but we did make it to the staircase on the either side of the hallway, bolting through it as fast as we could and racing down the stairs. The stonework was crumbling here as well, we silently decided that our best bet was to make it down to the second floor and back out into the corridor before more stone could collapse on us.

  Both Ortiz and I made it out in the second floor corridor, racing back across it to hopefully the stairway we were in earlier. Both us silently praying that the earlier c
ollapse only blocked off the third floor and not the second floor entrance and passages.

  None of that mattered however because we ran forwards quite literally into another problem. Ahead of us and effectively blocking off our route to the staircases was a massive debris pile that was fustercluck of all manner of materials. There was a flaming mattress pile atop broken piping, stone; kitchen appliances and one of those subzero fridges, which was completely lit up in fiery irony.

  “Damnit,” swore Ortiz, putting her hands on her hips in frustration as she turned to look at me, “what now?”

  I didn’t answer right away; my mind was racing as my eyes were frantically searching for a way out. I did a double take as I passed over a large glass cabinet that wasn’t housing a fire extinguisher but something considerably better. The cabinet held a thick and lengthy hose, the kind that some buildings carried to put our heavy fires, it was similar to a firefighter’s hose. It couldn’t clear the blockage for us, but I was thinking it just might help get Ortiz and I out of here. There was a room opposite of it and I had my fingers crossed that it was in an ideal condition to get us the hell out of the hotel.

  Fortunately the room was left open, I motioned for Ortiz to go in there and see if she could get to the other side safely and crack open a window. She complied and raced over and into the room whilst I ran over to the glass case containing the hose. It was heavy duty enough to atleast support atleast one of us, that was good enough, not to mention that it was long enough for what I had planned.

  Ortiz shouted back from the room, “windows open, now what?”

  “What’s the distance down?” I called as I unraveled the hose and began making a wide and loose lasso of sorts in it.

  “About fifteen maybe twenty feet,” she answered.

  I slipped into the room right behind her, dragging the heavy hose with me.

  “What’s your plan?” she asked, not bothering to look back but instead looking down and out to the scene unfolding before the hotel. A mass of emergency service vehicles and personnel all gathered outside, attending to people and trying to suppress the fire from outside. It was a lost cause though, the building I meant, the amount of damage it had sustained was obvious and it was definitely clear that it wouldn’t be safe to enter until the fire was out.