I know it has been a long time since I updated anything, and well, being an animation student is hard work, especially when professors don't know what the hell they are doing. I'm doing my best, and now that I am on vacation I will be getting more done faster, though with work and a couple online classes, maybe not as often as I would like.
Chapter 10: The Key is Speed
I followed Billy as we entered the deserted building that was the old headquarters for Sig Harrison's operation. My eyes were already adjusted to the dim light that flowed from the cracks in the wood above our heads. I could hear the squeaks of mice and rats under the floorboards and the hoot of owls through the thin walls to rooms that must have had windows that broke overtime. Billy crouched down to the ground, her emerald-amber eyes not glowing as much as my own in the dim light, but it didn't change anything in my mind as I stepped forward to take my place next to her. We had traveled the desert for two months before we were able to find this place, abandoned and rotting from lack of people even being near it, but both my comrade and I believed that there may have been some clues as to where the new headquarters were. A snap sounded in back of me and I spun around, my father's old gun aimed at whatever was to come, but I couldn't help but glower at the owl that had perched itself on a leaning beam. A growl sounded from my chest as I tuned back around, Billy's eyes meeting mine for a second before she spoke.
"Yur relyin' on yur eyes too much," her voice was sßoft, a whisper that still seemed to echo around the abandoned place "use your other senses." I nodded, a sigh coming past my lips before I did as I was told, my nose catching the scent of a mouse scurrying under the floorboards that I stood, my ears catching the soft fluttering of owl feathers in back of me. "Let's go,"
We walked in silence, sending mice scurrying away and owls to look at us, almost indifferent at our presence. I could hear the hissing of other snakes through the building talking amongst themselves; they could smell the rattlesnake blood that ran through our veins and most seemed indifferent, even a bit dumbfounded that humans were similar to them. A few actually approached us mostly talking to Billy rather than myself, calling her something along the line of 'semis anguis', half snake if I remember what Billy had taught me of that stupid dead language Latin. She would speak with them, asking them for help and usually they wouldn't know anything of what we were speaking of, though there was one that did. A male timber rattlesnake, his scales darker than my own by a good three shades. He had said that other humans - not half breeds like us - were constantly moving through the previously abandoned building, and we were currently following the path he had described to us.
"Shit," I heard Billy swear, her partially gloved right hand twitching as she and I both laid eyes on what was ahead of us. A shaft, running down into the ground was a good ten feet by eight feet wide. It was an easy fleet from what we were training to do, but a single look down made even me gasp. The height of the tunnel like contraption was, by the looks of it, over two hundred feet high, bats hanging from the rusty beams that held the dirt back.
"We can find another way," I whispered, my hand grasping Dawns shoulder with enough force to make her know I was compromising for her; she had a fear of enclosed spaces, especially anything underground. My hair tussling in the wind that was making its way through the cracks in the walls around us, it made Billy run a hand through her own, the black bandana around her neck shifting as she cracked it and took a step back, her stance ready to jump.
"We don't 'ave time fer that." Was all she said as she launched herself into the tunnel, her skin tight clothes getting ruffled in the harsh wind that was caused by her free-fall, though she easily grabbed onto one of the rusty beams just a quarter of the way down and flipped to stand onto it, her boots making a soft thud when she landed and signaled for me to follow. I paused for a moment, finding a nice place to land before I jumped. The wind caused my shirt to flap as I dropped, my feet connecting with a beam with a thud that surprisingly didn't reverberate through the tunnel, Billy looking down from her perch above me before she swung around one of the main vertical poles and slid down the side well past the halfway point, I myself doing the same until we were on the same level. I heard a soft click come from Billy's direction, and I knew she was taking out one of the many revolvers that were on her belt, her hand pulling back the hammer before she looked toward me and jumped. Her form hit the ground in a loud thud, arms spread in opposite directions as she looked around, lowering her arms only a second later and looking back up at me. "Coast is clear Dusk,"
I jumped from my post and landed swiftly next to her in a crouching position, the ground stone and dusty, though clear footprints were in the dust. Dawn followed the prints as I grabbed my father's revolver from my belt and making sure it was fully loaded before following. Billy seemed to know where she was going, but then again the visible heat coming off of the walls ahead of us were enough to make her walk that way. I increased my pace to stand next to her as we continued down the hall, my eyes clearly seeing a door in the distance, and a stairwell next to it. "Found our way out," I chuckled, Dawn smiling as she placed one of the guns back in the holster it came from, keeping her left hand free as we reached the wooden door, my hand trying the knob immediately. "It's locked-"
Bang! Bang!
The shots from Dawns revolvers echoed around the entire corridor, my ears ringing and my hand feeling the heat from the bullet that had passed less than an inch from it. Billy holstered her other gun and kicked the door down just as I let the knob go. "Over kill much?" I asked, the female next to me chuckling as she entered through the clear doorway, the dust around the room clearing and making my already racing heart beat faster. My mind almost wishing that I would suddenly need to fire as fast as my fingers could, duck behind a desk or a support beam and then dodge bullets before they hit their targeted spot. But then the dust settled, and my heart dropped.
The room was empty, spider webs around every corner and rats running across the floorboards. Next to me I saw Billy's face drop, I hadn't seen her cry since before she became the hybrid that she now was. But tears started to brim around her eyes, we were so close, there were evidence of everything we needed here, but it was for nothing. I placed a hand onto her shoulder, offering what comfort I could as water-droplets made their way down her cheeks. Her reaction surprised me; she turned, arms flinging around my neck as she buried her face into my chest. A quiet sob sounded from her as I felt her tears touch my skin, and I wrapped my arms around her, resting my chin on her head as I let everything sink in. I held Billy closer to me as I let myself sigh, disappointment and anger filling my system as a growl filled my chest. Billy was one of the strongest people I knew; yet here she was, crying against me as we stood, practically rooted to the ground unable to move away from the empty room. I closed my eyes and ran a hand through her short hair, attempting to sooth her in the only way I knew. A coo found it's way from my throat, a sound I didn't know I could even make, but it quieted Billy's sobs enough for me to brush her tears away with my thumb. Emerald and amber eyes dimmed as she looked to the ground, disappointment over-riding her emotions.
"Dawn," my voice was a whisper, "we'll find 'em." Another unintentional coo sounded from me, but that did the trick to finally calm Billy down. She wiped her eyes and took a deep, shuddering breath before she nodded her head and looked up at me. She smiled softly and mouthed a 'thank you' before she walked back to where we had come, her boots making soft thuds as she went. I sighed, knowing that she would still be killing herself on the inside but didn't say anything more as I followed her, taking the stairs instead of going back to the elevator shaft. We had only taken about twenty steps when my instincts made me grab her hand. Surprisingly she welcomed it, squeezing it softly as we continued to make our way up the stairs. I couldn't help but smile at the action, my mind knowing that it was probably as a thank you but I didn't care. I was off in my own thoughts when I realized that Billy had stopped, my hellfire eyes turning to look back at her form. She had all but frozen, her eyes wide as if she had realized or found something that we had missed. She let go of my hand, a sigh of disappointment escaping me but going unheard as she jumped down the stairs running back into the room in which we had come. I followed her lead returning to the dust covered room and watching her as she stood in the center, lips parted slightly as her eyes darted around the walls.
"Billy what-"
"Can't you smell it?" Her voice rose a bit in pitch, her hand on the hilt of her gun. I opened my mouth to respond when a taste hit my system, my senses going wild as I recognized it almost immediately. It was a scent that I learned to hate.
"Jay," my voice was a growl as I recognized the scent as that of a hawk. Billy nodding her head as she continued to wander the room, occasionally licking her lips to help her other senses figure out what was going on. I unclasped the revolver that I had put away not even minutes earlier, pulling back the hammer and getting ready to fire when necessary. Billy stopped suddenly, her left hand against the dusty stone wall, feeling her way around the cracks with expert skill.
Click.
I jumped slightly at the sound, watching as the wall pulled away to reveal another passage way lit with dim torches. Freshly swept bricks layering the ground instead of the dirt that was originally there, my eyes widening as I took a step forward to stand next to Dawn. A grin was plastered on her face as she took one single step and then another, her boots tapping on the stone as she walked. I cast a quick glance back before following her, easily catching up to her with my longer strides. This time my ears didn't catch the sound of scurrying mice or the flutter of wings. I could hear other humans.
"This way," I said, taking a sudden right to hide in a smaller hallway just as a door opened to reveal a group of scientists leaving. Billy sighed and nodded her head, her pace quickening as we now almost ran down the long halls of the underground company, dodging other workers, scientists and guards that wandered the empty building. Not being caught by any personal as we reached one of the main offices, Billy easily picking the lock to the door and slipping inside before anyone walked past. I sighed in slight relief as I slumped against the door, whipping the back of my wrist against my forehead to get rid of the sweat that had started to bead from stress. I watched Billy's feet as I rubbed the fatigue from my eyes, the spurs spinning slightly as she took small steps on the stone floor, the soft clicking making an almost soothing sound in my ears. Wait, when did the clicking stop? I looked up from the floor, eyes immediately going to Billy's face, which was looking down at the two guns stored within glass containers.
There they were, there they fucking were. I couldn't help the smile that came to my face as I stood from my leaning post against the door, a smile that reflected on Billy's face. Her green and amber eyes seemed to ignite as she looked over the golden colored Peacemaker Rail Gun, the weapon that her own father had made while I ghosted a hand over the glass containing my fathers creation. My hands cold enough to not set off the alarm as I allowed my heartbeat to slow, making my body temperature drop. I took a deep breath, resting my hand on the thick plate of glass that rested between me, and the last momentum that my father had created.
"Time to take back what's ours, ay Jake?" Billy snickered, a deep and dark chuckle of my own joining hers as I watched her clawed hands tap at the glass covering our inheritance. A smile spread over my face as I felt my canines lengthening, venom dropping from the tips onto my tongue, I allowed my own claws to grow out and scratch at the glass, and I didn't need to look into a mirror to know my eyes had turned almost completely red.
"Let's do it," Glass shattered beneath our fingers, scratching our skin and scales as we grabbed the guns from their posts. Alarms blared, though we did not jump from the sudden introduction of sound. We grabbed the extra ammunition that our fathers had made from our belts and loading them as fast as we could into our weapons. Our feet hit the ground as fast as they could as we ran for our lives, pushing past the door and down the hallway in a blur. My strides slightly longer I pulled ahead of Billy, the Gatling gun still in my left hand as I sprinted as fast as my feet could carry me.
"JAKE LOOK OUT!" Billy shouted, guards appearing from around a corner, guns pulled and aiming toward us. I could practically feel my eyes slitting thinner than a piece of paper as my instincts took over. Time almost seemed to slow, but my movements remained the same, my hand whipping the Gatling gun around, every shot precisely where I wanted it to be. The guards went down as I skidded to a stop, Billy no longer right behind me but half a hallway down, her footsteps getting faster as I just stopped, staring down at the dead guards at my feet.
"How da hell did I do that?" My voice was a whisper as Dawn came up closer to me, my hellfire eyes looking toward her. My mouth ran dry at what was behind her, eyes widening as his scent filled my nostrils. "BILLY BEHIND YOU!" A shot rang out, my shout too late as the bullet grazed her side, blood splashing the walls to her right as she turned to look at her attacker.
Jay. He stood proud at the end of the hallway, pistol in his hand as he fired another shot, one that both Billy and I were lucky to avoid in such close quarters. I gripped the Gatling gun in my hand tighter, ready to fire when Dawn swung out her right hand, ignoring the wound on her side as she pointed the gun back at the other man.
"I'LL KILL YOU!" The pain and anguish that filled Billy's voice made my eyes widen, Jay snickering as both he and Dawn took aim at each other. Jay fired first, his shot racing toward Billy before I had a chance to even shout, but a sudden blast of golden-white blinded me for a mere moment before I gasped. Billy's right arm danced with lightning, barreling down her arm to the Rail gun in her hand which sent her bullet racing down the hallway with a deafening scream and a blast that sent Billy flying back into me, nocking us both to the ground. The bullet missed Jay, instead slamming into the wall just in front of him making the hallway cave in from the sudden blast and shockwave, leaving me and Billy alone, for now.
"Dawn," I reached over to my comrade who laid on the stone ground next to me, turning her over. She was unconscious, side still bleeding, a cut having found it's way to her forehead, and her right arm burned all the way from her shoulder to her hand, the only thing left untouched was the rattlesnake scales that wound around her elbow, protecting her major veins and arteries from harm. I sighed, slinging my Gatling gun over my shoulders while allowing Billy to remain clutching the Rail gun in her injured hand as I picked her up from the ground, carrying her bridal style out of the demolished underground company and back to the stairs that we had previously seen. I had reached the surface in less time than I had anticipated, the sun still shining overhead as I exited the dusty old building, though sunset would be on the horizon in less than an hour. No one else had escaped the tunnels underneath the sand, it would take them a while to dig themselves out or get back to another entrance sight, and for that I was thankful.
"Jake," Billy's soft voice brought my attention back to her, the bleeding at her side had stopped, same with the cut on her head.
"We're out Billy," I whispered softly, adjusting her weight as I approached my horse. Fully intending to make her ride with me.
"I can ride Strike, ya don't-"
"I know full well that ya can ride, but you should know I ain't gonna let ya." My voice was soft but stern, enough for her to know not to argue with me as I helped her up onto Viper, following quickly behind. Once on the saddle Billy allowed herself to lean back onto my shoulder as she turned to ride side-saddle. Her arms finding their way around my neck as she finally seemed to get that I wasn't allowing her to go anywhere.
"Head toward the mountains Jake," her voice was so soft I almost didn't hear her, "we'll be safe there for a while." I smiled as I grabbed her horses' reins as I rode away from the sun toward the east. Placing a soft kiss on her forehead that I knew she could feel as Dawn's eyes fluttered closed. Her breathing evened out as I looked over my shoulder at the Gatling gun that laid there, a small smile gracing my lips as I tugged the edge of my hat back down over my eyes.
As always I would just like to say thanks to everyone who has supported me and reads this fanfic, please read and review 3
~ Keltic