Once again I'm really sorry for the delay, I even said to someone I would have posted on wednesday but then I didn't, the things to do have increased a lot and I couldn't work on this well enough, I'm really really sorry! I hope it's worth the wait!
I put some geographic names on because I wanted to be really precise, but if there are some mistakes I'm sorry, I'm from Italy and I could only use Google Maps!
I also wanted to thank you all for your reviews, I'm so glad there's someone who likes this, keep review (obviously if you want and if you like this) because it makes me so happy! :)
Warning: this chapter contains blood and violence.
When Desmond opened his eyes, a huge ache hit him hard in every part of his body: his limbs seemed numb, as if he had been running or fighting all the night long. The pressure on his chest had barely lowered, but it was still there, forcing him to take brief and fast breaths, and that surely didn't help to drive away the anxiety that was lingering around him without any reasonable explanation; to make thing even worse there was the strange confusion that had taken his mind, like he was still dreaming even if he was awake.
With this mixture he had difficulty organizing his thoughts and reconstructing what had happened before he had passed out and it even seemed like he wasn't in his own body, because it didn't respond adequately to his commands. The anxiety was rising and his breaths were becoming faster and faster, he turned his head but a sudden and throbbing stab made him scream and wriggle in pain. He lifted his hand to look for the cause of that pain and he felt the rough fabric of the bandage around his neck.
Alex opened the door, called by the yell, and when the younger man saw him things became clear, but a moment later he had the annoying doubt of why he was feeling like that. What if that monster had transformed him, infected him or who knows what else?
-What the fuck did you do to me?!- Desmond yelled, now visibly terrified at the idea of becoming who knows what kind of creature.
In a fit of madness he tried to rip off his bandage to see what the virus had done to him and he ended up scratching himself in a desperate attempt to remove that barrier, leaving pinky stripes on his own skin. The virus immediately blocked his hands.
-Don't do that, you'll ruin everything this way.- he said in an apparent indifference, holding his wrists with a hand and trying to replace the bandage with the other one.
-Get off me! Get off me, you bastard!- the younger man continued, struggling with all the force he can take on, only messing up the gauze even more.
Alex lost his patience and gave him a sharp tug, facing him down, and he kept him stuck on the mattress with a knee on his back and a hand on his head, pressing his face on the sheets.
-Calm the fuck down or I'll do it, your choice.- he grunted, balancing himself to add weight on his knee and explain him his real intents.
Desmond tried to calm down, focusing the most he could on his heavy breath, because he perfectly knew that it was better to calm on his own and don't piss Alex off. If the shape-shifter really had infected or transformed him, it was useless to get upset, because it surely would have been to late and there would have been nothing to do with it.
As soon as he felt the boy relax beneath him, Alex replaced his knee with the hand that left the grip oh his hair, so he was no longer pressing him but he could still keep him under control.
-Good boy...- he whispered in his ear. -Now turn around.-
The assassin obeyed, fearing the worst, and when he turned with his back on the mattress he found the virus' blue eyes hooked into his own, his face so close that he could even feel the aura of intense heat he released. He wasn't even breathing and that was unsettling as hell, like his appearance was not enough already...
In that moment Alex felt again that adrenaline rush he had sensed the evening before and, annoyed by the fact that he still couldn't understand what was it, finally turned his gaze away from Desmond to place it on the bandage around his neck.
The said male jumped when the virus' hands touched him and their eyes met again, he cursed his involuntarily reactions that were playing bad tricks on him. Luckily Alex did nothing strange this time, leaving him a bit puzzled, as he simply fixed the bandage, doing and undoing the knots. He suddenly stopped when he heard a strange noise coming from beneath him.
The assassin bit his lip so hard he almost draw blood, as he perfectly knew that the noise came from his stomach. The shape-shifter looked him up and down.
-Well...I...maybe I'm...a little hungry...- Desmond said, trying to break the tension that had taken possession of the room.
His stomach rumbled deeply and Alex suddenly stood up as he lost his patience once again, almost scaring the other to death because he thought he was really going to kill him this time. He saw him take a few steps back and forth the room with his fists clenched along his sides.
The virus glared at him with scorn, opened the door and slammed it with violence, going out without saying a word and leaving behind him a scared but relieved Desmond who was surely glad he didn't hurt him more.
Alex couldn't ignore the request of the undermost human as he admitted that he was right: he hadn't been eating for two days and the fasting certainly couldn't help him recover. He kicked the small wooden table next to the unused couch, making it fly across the room and sending it to the other side. That mess frustrated him in an unimaginable way, but he had to do it if he wanted him to stay alive.
He opened the huge windows that dominated the living room and he climbed the sill, breathing the fresh air of the desert Manhattan. He got out, using his biomass to hang on the outside crossbeam, and he carefully closed the window, making sure it was firmly sealed, before letting go and free-falling down the building. He perfectly landed on the ground, causing a blast wave that moved debris and various things left on the road and leaving an impeccable circular crater on the concrete.
He began to run and soon reached an unimaginable speed; after one hundred meters or so he abruptly slowed down, balancing himself with a hand on the ground, to change direction the fastest possible and turn right at the first crossroad.
In less than five minutes he reached the frontier of Queens, now yellow zone, highly militarized: a brigde, the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge, connected Roosevelt Island with Manhattan and Queens. The soldiers were stationed halfway between Manhattan and Roosevelt Island, blocking the passage while holding off at the same time. Alex hid behind a wall, studying a plan.
Jumping off the bridge halfway and directly landing on Roosevelt Island was not the best idea, he would have drawn too much attention: he had to cross it completely and reach Queens. He grunted when he realized the shit he was going into. What for? To get food to the human? The thought frustrated him so much he wanted to kill all the damn soldiers in front of him, but it would have been a bad move: if he wanted to let his prey live long enough, he had to do that crap. He licked his lips as he remembered the juicy taste of Desmond's blood and he decided to go on.
He went back in the main street and he looked around: he grinned euphorically when he saw a yellow half-crushed taxi at the side of a crossing. He approached it and, grabbing the side bumpers with the hands, he lifted it up over his head without many efforts. Hold it in position he ran towards the bridge, reaching high speed in a bit.
As soon as he saw the tanks, he threw the taxi forward with all the strength he had, using the kinetic energy of his running to boost the throw. A moment before the impact he heard a soldier screaming and that yell gave him a diabolic and sick euphoria.
The taxi hit a tank, causing it to explode and kill most of the troopers around with the fragments of the explosion. Taking advantage of the dark smoke, Alex infiltrated in the middle of the disaster, hiding between the bridge's beams: he activated his thermal vision to find the soldiers through the thick smoke and he approached the most isolated one, who was compulsively coughing and pointing his weapon everywhere in an attempt to defend himself blindly.
He grabbed him by straps of his uniform and he trailed him a bit far from there as he yelled startled.
-What the...?! Who the fuck are you?!- the soldier screamed, unable to see the man's face and recognize him.
The shape-shifter smiled maliciously, wrapping a hand around his neck, and proudly spelled his name with his deep and rough voice, enjoying the soldier's shocked expression emphasized by the smoke surrounding them.
He literally knocked his fist in his chest, perforating his flesh and beginning to absorb his body mass, as blood squirted everywhere, smearing Alex's clothes and the ground. The soldier couldn't even let out a noise, as the biomass slowly ate his flesh, the pain was beyond words and thoughts.
The torture went on until Alex hadn't completely absorbed him, only leaving a huge puddle of blood on the concrete. He altered his appearance, modelling his biomass, as far as he acquired the aspect of the just-disappeared soldier. He walked towards the voices of the other troopers until he came out of the smoke cloud, meeting all of them.
-Red Crown, this is Alpha 1-1, we have been attacked!- a soldier yelled to the radio.
"Copy Alpha 1-1, this is Red Crown, estimation of damages?" the radio attached to Alex's uniform crackled.
-We lost Alpha 1-2 and several men.- the same soldier continued.
"Can you describe the accident? Who attacked?" Alex lowered the annoying volume of the radio and went near the man, who was speaking and panting.
-Negative, Red Crown. Something...appeared out of nowhere...like it dropped from the sky. We're still verifying!- the soldier finished, heading towards the virus with such a worried look, and then he placed a hand on Alex's shoulder and shook it to get full attention.
-Listen up! Take Ghost and go call for backup, maybe Red Crown won't be quick enough and I don't want to be attacked by some bloody motherfuckers in this condition! Go check if that jeep there still works! Go!- he said.
-Ahm...yes, sir.- the shape-shifter responded at attention, pleased that his plan was making progress, before heading to the said soldier and making him a sign to follow.
Ghost responded nodding and followed him, both got on board and Alex, calling on all the memories in his head, started up the car, engaged the gear and went toward the Queens.
