"They've begun evacuations," the guard spoke as soon as he returned to them, having stepped outside to speak to one of his superiors. "We need to get all of you out of here, immediately. Any arguments?"
"Evacuations?" Francis growled, glancing over at Bill. "The hell?"
"Something happened, didn't it? At the lab, something's gone wrong," Bill replied, voice soft, Francis' face taking on the familiar look of paranoia that had plagued him during their fight in the city. "Tell me what happened."
"There's been a security breach. Several of the infected they had inside the base have escaped and are now running loose. One of them…" The guard paused, glancing around before leaning in closer. "One of them is pretty big."
"You guys have a freaking TANK in that lab?!" Zoey cried, scowling furiously. "How the hell did you manage to get it in there?!"
"Rhinoceros tranquilizer darts." The guard confirmed, glancing around once more. "Now, come on. They've ordered the six of you on the first plane out."
"Wait." Bill's tone was cautious, and while the guard didn't stop, the rest of them recognized an unofficial order and did what they were told. "Something's not right about this."
"We have rampaging infected inside a safe zone; of COURSE something's not right," The guard protested, looking back over his shoulder and frowning. "We'll use force if necessary."
"They're not trying to get us to safety," Bill addressed the others without actually looking at them. "They're trying to get Ishmael."
The guard's expression flickered with annoyance and surprise, and then he glanced at the door once more, lifting his gun.
"I don't think I need to tell you the rest of you are expendable, Mr. Overbeck," he murmured, Bill smirked.
"And I don't need eyes, really, to tell you ain't no soldier, kid. The way you hold that gun, your nervous glances… You're from the lab, aren't you?" The old man asked, the guard's mouth twisting ever so slightly.
"They discharged me when Jeffries died, but I'm not going to let the doctor's work die with him. There's too much at stake here, and with the lab being torn up, we have a duty to society to preserve all we can of their hope for a future without the infection."
"Jeffries was working to keep Ishmael safe." Jan's voice was quiet, but her face was murderous.
"Jeffries was working to keep Ishmael CLOSE. He didn't want him to fall into the wrong hands; he wanted to keep him here, to himself. There would be a lot to be given if he managed to find the cure before any of the other scientists. Ishmael is different, even more different than those infected we had at the lab. But to keep the others occupied and away from Ishmael, we had to create something that would hold their attention and make them panic." The guard's trembling hands made his gun barrel jump a bit, his voice becoming more strained as he spoke. "The radioactive isotopes combined with the DNA from all the specimens we had gathered… We didn't expect such a reaction. We didn't expect it to take so damn long to set in, either."
"Wait a second," Louis breathed, eyes widening. "You're talking about-"
"Steve," Jan finished for him, Bill holding out a hand to keep her back.
"He was the perfect candidate. He was frequently at the lab with you and Ishmael, and he wasn't immune. We used that to our advantage and ended up with the perfect thing to keep those scientists from interfering with our work. But when Jeffries was killed by our creation, things got sticky. The authorities honed in on us immediately, and we had to act fast while they were trying to get to the bottom of things." The guard swallowed a few times, taking a deep breath to calm himself.
"Does Selene have anything to do with this?" Bill asked sternly, the guard shaking his head.
"She never caught on, too desperate to stay on Jeffries' good side. She thought everything we were doing was for the greater good and never suspected we had a hand in the mutation." The guard grimaced ever so slightly. "She's an innocent bystander."
"An innocent bystander that is currently dealing with the mess that YOU made," Jan snarled. "I have it in my head to call her right now and tell her all that you've told me."
"Except that he would shoot you before you could dial the phone, Jan." Bill scowled at her, and then turned his attention back to the guard. "You do realize that kid will do whatever I tell him? I'm sure he'd be too quick for an amateur like yourself to hit if I told him to take you."
"Are you threatening me, Mr. Overbeck?" The guard murmured, a flicker of fear in his face; Bill could tell part of him knew he wasn't bluffing.
"I'll do whatever it takes to keep these people safe. They're my family, as sure as if they carried my own blood in their veins," he replied, the guard glancing around the assembled group and swallowing nervously again.
"If that thing attacks me, different or no, they'll kill him. They'll kill him and you'll have destroyed any hope any of us have for this nightmare to end." The guard trained his gun on Bill, whose expression remained the same. "Is that something you're ready to live with?"
"They can't kill him unless they go through us first," Francis said matter-of-factly, his shotgun aiming for the lone guard and a smug smile on his face. "And somehow, I don't think they're keen to try."
"They wouldn't need to go for all of you. A group is only as strong as its weakest link. All they would need to do is get their hands on her." The guard gestured his gun at Zoey, whose eyes widened. "And now that Ishmael's had his way with her, I'm sure he'd do anything to save her."
There was no hint of surprise on Bill's face, though Francis and Louis both looked shocked and goggled at her for a moment before the guard continued. Ishmael was growling, crouched low next to Zoey's leg, and his silver grey eyes never left the guard.
"You're all going to come along quietly, while everyone else is running around like crazy people. We're going to take you somewhere we can continue our research away from prying eyes. If you don't comply, we're going to be forced to take drastic measures."
The group looked at one another, then Louis brought out his pistol to join Francis' shotgun and Jan grabbed the rifle Bill had with him on the table, tossing it to the old man. Ishmael let out another warning growl, brandishing his claws in a menacing fashion. Zoey had one hand on the hunter's shoulder, her touch the only thing keeping him from pouncing.
The guard looked at them with wide eyes, panic written all over his features, and he took a slow step backwards.
"If you move any closer to that door, I'm gonna be the first one to shoot you," Louis remarked with a hint of amusement in his voice.
"They're never going to let you get away with this!" The guard shouted, Bill taking the time to light his cigarette with one hand, the other still holding his rifle.
"Son, you're impersonating a soldier. You do realize that's a crime, right? You're also threatening us with bodily harm unless we do what you say. Another crime, if I'm not mistaken. We're simply defending ourselves, and that's what we'll tell the man when he comes for us." Bill smiled coldly as he spoke, smoke curling lazily around his head. "Francis."
The shotgun went off before the guard could do anything more than open his mouth to protest, and even with protective body armor, it must have hurt to be hit with it at this range. The guard went down with a scream, the two that were outside the door rushing in to see what was going on. Zoey hurriedly whispered to Ishmael to be calm, the hunter raising an eyebrow at her but doing as requested. He sat back on his haunches and regarded the guards with a guarded expression.
"What the hell?!" One of them shouted. "This guy's not one of ours."
"He was threatening to kill us and may be involved in a conspiracy at the lab. Are there any evacuations scheduled for today?" Jan pushed past Bill to join the guards, who exchanged a glance.
"No evacuations, this is a safe zone. Even with the commotion at the lab, we've received word that they've got it under control," One of them replied in a confused voice. "Who was this guy?"
"He worked for Jeffries," Bill cut in. "And that dead bastard is the cause of all the commotion."
…
Selene turned to stare down the hallway in shock as one of the walls exploded outwards from the force of something hitting it. Through the dust from the rubble, she saw a huge, hulking shape rise up, the bellow that reverberated off the walls making her cover her ears with a cry.
So, the Tank knew how to feign sleep as well.
Cas moved to leap back through the hole in the wall, another massive fist connecting with his disproportionately small head and sending him flying backwards again. Steve, transformed into the monster she had first seen him become, crawled from the hole with a low growl, his glowing red eyes trained on Cas.
The two giants leapt at one another in the ruined hallway, their grunts and cries enough to cause Selene to flee. She had been standing, frozen with fear at first, but realizing how close she was to being trampled and killed while they grappled woke her up quickly enough to escape.
This was really, REALLY bad.
As she ran, she heard a choking cry behind her, heart skipping when something wrapped around her ankle and yanked her feet out from underneath her. Her chin hit the floor as she fell forward, and no amount of grabbing for a handhold could stop her sliding across the cold floor as the smoker from the lab dragged her.
Screaming as loudly as she could, she managed to grip a doorframe as she passed it, the strain on her arms more painful than anything she had ever felt before.
The smoker gave an angry cough, its shuffling footsteps coming closer now but no slack being given as he did.
Screaming again, Selene closed her eyes tightly, waiting to feel the death surely coming.
Only it didn't come. Instead, there was a shout and a loud bang, the smoker's grip releasing as it gave a gasping yelp, putrid smoke suddenly filling the hallway. Selene lay dazed for a moment, someone grasping her arms and hauling her to her feet.
"Dr. Edwards!" A voice shouted, strangely muffled in the smoke. "We've gotta get out of here! C'mon, it's not safe!"
"You don't have to tell me twice!" She cried in reply, hurrying with the armed soldier up the hallway once more.
"What were you doing down there?" He asked her, frowning down at her once they cleared the smoke. He was one of their younger recruits, one of the ones who had never really approved of keeping infected in captivity in the first place.
"I was with the inspectors, but wasn't fast enough to get out before the fighting began," she explained, the soldier making a bit of a face.
"This doesn't make our lab look very good. We've gotta get moving, quick!"
…
Down below, the two giants continued fighting, Steve clearly having the upper hand as he was a little bigger and seemingly much stronger than Castiel.
Panting for breath, covered in lacerations and bruises, Cas circled Steve in the ruined hall, the mutant pausing only a moment before gathering his bulk on his much stronger legs and launching himself through the air.
Cas pulled back his fist to punch Steve mid-leap, but the mutant caught him off guard by shoving his huge claws through Cas' shoulder and driving him backwards into what was left of the wall. Howling in agony, Cas proceeded to punch Steve a few times in the face, the mutant snarling furiously.
His claws were stuck, too, and if Cas kept pummeling him, he was going to lose control.
Letting out a dull roar, Steve opened his mouth, his tongue shooting out to wrap around Cas' neck. The Tank stared up at him in shock, fist halfway pulled back to strike, and Steve used this as his chance to dislodge himself. He wrenched his claws free, and then seized Cas' shoulders in his massive hands, retracting his tongue and beginning to swing the tank around in circles. Building up momentum, Steve finally released the other giant, sending him through two more walls.
Cas fell limply to the ground, groaning, but before Steve could leap to finish him off, he heard a bang and felt a sharp pain in his shoulder, turning to see what the source of it was.
There were people in the hallway behind him, people in black clothing with guns. His vision was beginning to blur…
As he tried to run forward to attack them, he stumbled and fell into the rubble on the floor, eyes growing too heavy to keep open anymore.
With one last groan, Steve closed his eyes to sleep. He heard another sharp bang and heard Cas yelp in the distance just before blackness claimed him, knowing their fight wasn't over and vowing to finish it when he woke up again.
The men that stood over Steve leapt back in surprise when the mutant's body began to bubble and dissolve, washing the floor of the hallway with blood and slime. When it stopped, Steve's very human, very naked body lay in the middle of the hallway, the dart they had fired at him laying on the floor beside him.
"I guess this is why they call it the Jekyll and Hyde strain," one of the men remarked, two others moving forward to take Steve's arms and haul him away for safe keeping.
…
…
…
Author's Note!!
Thanks so much to BlackRaptor93 for creating and naming Cas for me. He mentioned wanting to see a Tank fight Steve, so he created Cas! ^.^ I hope you all enjoyed this chapter!
More to come soon, I hope.