The 90's
"Shit."
"Report." The voice said from the radio at his side. Frustrated, he removed it and brought it to the side of his face.
"I just lost the target." The man said as he ran his hand through the tangles of brown hair.
"Do you know where she was going?"
"Negative."
"What about the tracking device? Is it still giving you a signal?"
The man pulled the thick device from his pocket and looked at the screen. He muttered a curse under his breath as he saw that there was no new data displayed on the device.
"Negative on that as well, sir. I think the target found the bug and destroyed it."
"Damn it. Report back to base camp. We will try and re-acquire the target later on."
"Wait." The man said as he looked past the droves of people in front of him, going about their normal business. He wasn't sure what he saw at first until the light of an overhead sidewalk lamp reflected off of her raven black hair and her pale skin. Now he didn't have any doubt who it was. "I've re-acquired the target and in pursuit."
"Where's your location?"
"I'm going down Ninth Street. I'm approximately half a mile from Jackson road." He said as he continued to follow the woman, pushing his way through the people that were in his way and ignoring their insults and snide comments.
"Do not follow! I repeat, do not follow! You're following her into a dead end!"
"I've got my side arm."
"You don't know what you're dealing with! Disengage!"
The man turned off the radio and put it back to his belt as he kept his eyes on the woman. He had failed three other assignments before he had been given this one. Come hell or high water, he wasn't going to fail this one. There was a good chance that the woman he was following already knew that she was being followed because of the angry people the agent had shoved. Right now, he didn't care what this woman thought. He was supposed to be helping his employers bring this bitch in and that's what he was going to do. Even if he had to fire a piece of heated lead into her pale bony ass in order to do so. As he continued to follow the woman, he noticed that he had to walk faster, and she was using a serpentine motion through the crowd. She knew she was being followed and she was trying to loose him. Not today.
He was almost running now as he tried to close the distance between him and the target. She was starting to panic, he could tell. She was looking at her surroundings, trying to find a place to hide. He could see her chest heaving from increased breathing which meant she was scared. These were odds in his favor. He knew she was unarmed and he would have a better chance at success. As he continued to follow her, he saw her duck into an alley. If what he had heard on the two-way radio was right, she was heading into dead end and he could have her. Moving quickly, he entered the alley and drew his pistol. The alley was dark, there were no overhead lamps or lighted windows. The only thing that offered any illumination was the light from the moon above him. He could hear his footsteps hitting wet pavement and puddles from the rain that had fallen earlier that day. But the shadows of the two buildings hid most of what was in the alley. Once or twice, he felt his shoe impact against a heap of old stinking garbage or a drainage pipe.
Soon, he found himself looking at a tall piece of cyclone fence that was blocking his path. It was dripping wet from the rain, and it reached to at least the second story. Possibly the third. If she had climbed over this fence, he would have heard her scaling the fence or running away on the other side. No, she was still here. She was hiding in the shadows. He knew it. As he held his gun out in front of him, he tried to make out what was with him in the alley. Trying to find some trace or clue to where the woman was. There had to be something!
That's when he heard something in the darkness. A glass bottle had just moved against the concrete right beside him. He quickly spun around with his gun raised and cocked as he tried to force his eyes to work in the dark again. As he tried to focus, he noticed something he didn't expect. Something that shouldn't be there. Crying. He heard what sounded like a child crying. This had to be a trick.
"COME OUT! If you try anything, I swear I'll shoot you in the face!" he said as he kept his gun aimed toward the darkness.
That's when he heard and he finally saw something begin to form and take shape in the darkened alley. He could see her shape and the moonlight bouncing off her raven hair. Her head was looking down, but he could see her body shudder. Was she really crying? No, he was trying to psych her out. Never trust what you see, that was one lesson he learned the hard way in training. Nothing is what it seems. But that's when she did something he wasn't expecting. She lifted her head and looked right at him. What he saw completely stunned him. She was crying. He could see the trails of tears that had been rolling down her face. But she was only a kid. A kid! She had to be no older than twelve, maybe thirteen years old. He had been hunting a kid? But, why would they send him to track and capture a kid?
"Are you going to kill me?" she asked as she looked at him with piercing green eyes. They almost seemed to glow as he looked at her pale skin.
"What did you do?" he asked her.
"What?"
"WHAT DID YOU DO?" he screamed, making her cringe in fear and cry even more. "DON'T GIVE ME THAT! WHAT DID YOU DO?"
"I don't know!" she screamed as she began bawling uncontrollably. "They've been after me for as long as I can remember, and I don't know why!" she said as she looked at him again. "I-I'm just hungry." She said as her emerald eyes began to slowly change to blood red.
"What the hell?" he asked as he saw her eyes change.
"W-what am I?" she begged. He could hear it in her voice. The desperation that was in her voice, he could hear it. The need, the want to know. But truthfully, he wanted to know what she was too.
"I – I,"
His words were cut short as a metal harpoon jutted from her chest, spewing arterial spray in its wake as the girl's eyes widened in fear. For one moment, there was fear and confusion in her eyes before they faded back to green and became lifeless. With one final exhale, her body collapsed into a limp heap onto the cold and wet concrete ground as blood began to pool underneath her pale form. He stood frozen in place as he kept looking at young girl, not even noticing the men in black riot gear surrounding him.
"When I give an order, I expect you to obey it." A man with dark brown hair and silver sideburns said with a three star general's rank on his uniform. "Are you listening? SOLDIER!"
"Sir, yes sir!" the man said, snapping out of his state of shock.
"When I give you an order, I expect you to obey it. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, sir."
"Never the less, good job on locating the target." The man said as men wearing haz-mat suits entered the alley and began placing the body in a white, sterile body bag.
"Permission to speak freely?" the man asked.
"Granted."
"What did she do to warrant a kill order? S-she's just a kid." He said.
"Despite her appearance, she's part of a dangerous project. She's an escaped science experiment, and nothing more." He said as he took a good look at the young man's face. "You might want to take a shower and wash that blood off your face."
"Blood?" he asked as he dragged two fingers across his left cheek. When he drew them back, he was shocked to see the girl's blood had splattered him. His eyes began to grow wide as the image of the small metal harpoon tore through her chest like a guided missile and how her eyes became lifeless.
"Am I to be transferred, sir?" he asked, wanting to forget about the girl that was killed in front of him.
"Despite your actions tonight, I think I'll keep you on. You have a natural tracking instinct, son. I'm going to need it." The general said.
"Sir! It's HQ on the horn. They demand a sit rep at once." A soldier said from the end of the alley.
"Great. Be glad you're not in my shoes yet, son." The general said to the young man as he walked away and to the black panel van that was parked in the middle of the street. "This is General Awbrey."
"What's the status of project 20?"
"Project 20 has been eliminated, sir."
"Good. Bring the body back for immediate study and testing. What about project 21?"
"You read my report, didn't you sir?"
"Yes, but I need your personal opinion."
"In my opinion, I'm stunned. Despite the fundamental changes she and her surrogate family have undergone, she's perfectly healthy."
"What about the dormant chromosomes?"
"Still dormant. She's a living glow worm, but she's still human. Do you need me to eliminate her and make a fresh start?"
"Negative. Not unless she becomes a threat. I think it is safe to begin phase two of the project."
"After all this time, phase two is a go?"
"Affirmative, General. Do you already have a specimen family in mind?"
"Actually, I do. I know the perfect family."
"Excellent. Proceed then."
As the general hung up the phone, he reached into his pocket and removed a Cuban cigar. He removed one end, and then lit the large contraband as he took in a large inhale of smoke. As he vented the thick smoke from his lungs slowly, he let out a small sigh.
"The one thing I can never stand about this job is all the damn vampires."
D R A K I G O
B L O O D L I N E S
By FAH3
