The cells and walls no longer confined them. Despite their common anger at their imprisonment, there was no group purpose, no unity among the demons and vampires that had been held in the Initiative cells. They did not have an organized strategy.
Several of them followed the quieter hallways, seeking the fastest way out of this place. They would find exits, and then either flee to somewhere far away from this place or attack the humans outside, the ones who weren't soldiers and wouldn't be armed and watchful. The ones who would be unsuspecting and terrified victims.
Others followed the sounds of people, wanting to find the soldiers and scientists. The soldiers wouldn't have the advantages of surprise this time, and they might not have their weapons ready.
A pair of vampires stalked down one hallway, fangs bared as they heard the vices of soldiers.
"… can't delay them forever. They are going to get down here, and God only knows what they're looking for."
With a roar, the pair of vampires attacked the soldiers. In the one who had been in the Initiative's keeping for three days, a chip activated, attempting to prevent the vampire from harming any human targets. Despite the pain, he tackled the darker soldier, teeth ripping at the soldier's throat. Blood splattered over the wall, almost as much spraying the corridor as going down the vampire's throat. His hands seized at the soldier's arms, the bone cracking under the force of his grip. Pain kept burning in his skull from the chip, but he ignored it. Hunger and rage burned stronger than the pain, and he had the chance to give in to them.
The second vampire had only been brought in the night before. They had hurt him with their electrical guns, and he'd been measured and inspected, but they hadn't had time to implant him with a control chip yet. He slugged the soldier, the man's jawbone cracking from the blow.
"I've heard what you boys are doing to your captives," he hissed at the stunned soldier. "Cutting them open and poking at their insides until they die. I can admire the advancement of science as much as the next Doctor."
The soldier tried to reach for his jaw, the other hand sliding closer to his pistol.
The vampire caught the both wrists and grinned as he snapped them, "Now, none of that. It's my turn to indulge in a little scientific curiosity. Time to open you up…"
A broken jaw was no impediment to screaming.
btvsXbtvsXbtvsXbtvsX
Major Joseph Danvers glared at the wall of the elevator as it carried them down into the research area. A base hidden under a college, for God's sake! He wanted to know who had authorized it, and then he wanted just twenty minutes with them, alone, with no cameras. Several young soldiers were escorting them down, having attempted an impressive number of delaying tactics. His suspicion was that the young men either didn't think they'd like what would be uncovered or feared that they would be blamed for letting the inspection team down to the facility.
Neither attitude boded well. If the soldiers feared getting in trouble after letting a group of properly identified higher ranking officers into their facility, then there were problems with the command structure. They could sort those out, though it would probably involve a long, tedious investigation and more than a few court-martials. If there were problems with what they would find down below…
He'd read the Sunnydale briefing that had been presented by Director Fury. The geographical information had been boring but ensured that he'd brought sunscreen. The population statistics had at first seemed unremarkable for California, until he got to the figures for deaths and disappearances. He still didn't understand how those numbers hadn't sent someone on the warpath about crime, murder rates, animal control, missing persons… something. The unexplained and violent deaths were five times as high as the natural causes and accidents, and once you added in the disappearances? The only word that seemed fitting was obscene.
Then he'd found the pages on vampires. He'd hoped that it was some sort of sick joke. But there was too much for a joke; pictures, photographs of wounds and scars. Transcripts of eyewitness reports. And the Director was of the opinion that there were 'other things' causing problems, and that something was wrong with the administration.
Frankly, if Director Fury said there was a rat, he believed him. Now that he was here, the question wasn't 'was something wrong in Sunnydale', it had become how much was wrong and could they fix it.
As the elevator opened, he could hear screaming echoing against metal walls.
Behind him, Joseph could hear one of the others mutter, "Houston, we have a problem."
End part 95.
Other newly liberated demons found some of the Initiative's access tunnels. Swarming up the ladders, they reached locations on the surface. Near the hospital, a leathery demon in burlap robes scurried towards a small building where several people had gathered to smoke. He could snap their bones, let their blood run over the pavement, and get a cigarette – it had been almost a week since he'd had a smoke. Letting his wide mouth stretch into what could be termed a smile, he prepared for the slaughter.
The first one fell easily, ribs snapping and a high scream emerging. The smoking cigarette fell from her hand and bounced before rolling under a bench. He growled as he moved to attack the second, irritated at the bright colors of the body hugging garments the humans wore. There were screams now, high and filled with fear. He kicked at the next human, eager to see them fall before him, eager to be the one inflicting pain again after his unwelcome stay with those wretched soldiers.
But Donna Chang had spent thirty years married to a Marine, and she hadn't been a helpless victim for a long time. She kicked at the thing's leg, hoping to catch the knee. Across from her, Scott from X-Ray punched at their attacker's torso. The leathery skinned lunatic had far too many teeth, but if he could force the air out of it, then it wouldn't be able to attack as well.
Half a dozen nurses and medical specialists beat the demon to the ground, ensuring that it couldn't hurt anyone else. As soon as they were sure it was down, they turned their attention to poor Julie Anders, checking to see just how injured she had been when that thing hit her from behind.
Emerging behind him, a pair of grey demons scurried away, eager to hide from all this chaos. Grabbing the occasional unwary hitchhiker or runaway was one thing, but being held prisoner was more than they cared to handle. They could get out of here and back to the simple life.
"Mexico?"
"Nothing good on television, but no soldiers," the second agreed.
Darting away from the access ladder, they hissed, "Mexico!"
Near one of the elementary schools, a brightly feathered demon emerged from a ladder. He swiveled his head around, examining the area before darting towards the building. He debated the merit of running while he had the chance as compared to waiting here until the succulent younglings emerged from the building to play. Yellow and orange feathers fluffed outwards as he crouched beside a shrubbery, biding his time.
More demons took an access ladder that took then to an area of the college campus. They emerged and moved away from the ladder, not wanting to make it easy to be recaptured.
Seeing scaled and clawed creatures emerging from a tunnel, someone screamed. When one person screamed, that drew the attention of most of the students in the area, though not all of them could see what had prompted someone to be shouting like that. One brawny student charged at the first monster, figuring that anything that bony and thin, even if it did have claws and scales, had to be fragile.
The second demon emerged into a tangle of flailing limbs and foul language. After a few moments to ensure that there were no guns, he leapt into the fracas with fists flying and a gleeful, fanged smile. Four dark eyes shone as he punched a brawny human, knocking down a long haired female with the fighter. Ignoring the fallen, he moved further from the ladder, enjoying his freedom.
Resembling nothing more than a scaled Chihuahua, the next creature scurried out of the hole. This demon wasn't much more intelligent than the scrawny dog that it resembled. It began growling and snapping at ankles, yipping when someone stepped on it in the confusion.
When the Fyarl demon emerged with a roar, the crowd scattered. Several people screamed, and someone shouted for campus security. Of course, the one member of campus security who had been close enough to have some idea of what was going on had no idea what he could do about that.
He didn't know what had started the screaming and brawling. From the sounds of it, someone had a small dog caught in the midst of the confusion. The relative heights being what they were, he had no idea that the brawl contained two demons already.
But the Fyarl stood a foot taller than everyone else, and easily twice as wide, with mottled green skin, curling horns on the top of its head and tusks that would make a boar envious. And the massive figure had fists the size of basketballs.
"Mutant!" Someone shouted, before adding "Run!"
The massive figure snarled out something in a guttural language, accompanied by wild gestures. There were more frightened near-screams as the people who had been brawling just moments before now fought to run away. The lone security guard made his way closer to the looming figure as the people scattered, certain that there had to be some sort of explanation.
There was an older woman standing there, her cheek bleeding. She just stared at the massive mutant, her mouth moving without a single sound.
"Ma'am? Come with me, please. You're bleeding, and someone should take care of that," he spoke to the woman, recognizing the signs of shock.
The mutant took a step closer, scowling down at the woman before snarling a few more words. When she just stood there, he reached out with a hand almost as large as her torso and pushed her towards the security man, making a gesture that could only mean 'shoo'. He said a few more incomprehensible words that sounded ominous before stomping off towards the football stadium.
In the distance, the campus security guard could hear more screaming, and some sort of sirens. Feeling a headache coming on, he towed the woman towards the nearest building, hoping to find a first aid kit. "I should have stayed in bed this morning. I really should have stayed in bed…"
"No human has that many teeth," the woman whispered, still staring ahead with a blank look. "Too many teeth. And when he bit his lip, it wasn't red, not red blood at all. It was orange. People don't… humans don't have that many teeth. And humans bleed red, not orange."
After fighting with the first aid kit and pinching his finger in the latch, he managed to get the metal box opened. "Hold still while I get your cheek, ma'am. You're bleeding."
For a few moments, she was quiet before looking at him, her eyes still tiny pinpoint pupils from shock. "He wasn't human."
"Probably not", he agreed. He'd learned more than a few horrible truths since he'd started college in Sunnydale.
"And he wasn't a mutant. Not with orange blood. Mutants are still human, and humans don't bleed orange," she continued, her hands cold.
"I know," he closed the first aid kit and sighed. "You're blouse is probably ruined, ma'am."
"He wasn't human," she whispered, still staring blankly. "And the second wasn't either. God only knows about that big one."
"You're in shock, ma'am. Is there anyone here at the college that can come help you?" He tried to get something simple out of here, hoping that there was someone he could call. A child, a husband, even a business associate.
"My daughter, Willow," the woman stammered. "She's a freshman here. Willow Rosenberg. I… I don't know where she is right now. She has a class at three. I saw her just a little bit ago near a coffee shop."
"I'll have her paged," he promised.
End part 96.
Below the campus, the research facility was in chaos. A group of soldiers had gone to investigate the screaming, finding a pair of escaped vampires. One soldier was already dead, his throat torn open in one of the goriest displays they'd seen outside of a horror movie. The second vampire had been crouched over a screaming soldier, having opened up his abdomen with a knife, revealing quivering organs.
The two vampires were now fighting with the squad of soldiers, though one of them seemed to be doing little more than growling with eyes that seemed far more red than normal. Between the narrow corridors, the still screaming soldier opened up on the floor, and the fact that none of them had their tazers this time, things were going poorly.
Two more vampires had made their way almost to the central control room before being intercepted by more soldiers. Already two of the soldiers had fallen to the floor, dead. Drywall partitions had been broken, and technicians were screaming and cowering under desks. A computer had been kicked over, cords ripped from the wall, the end still connected sparking on the tile.
Major Joseph Danvers, hearing more screams and thuds echoing along the halls, glanced at the shocked young soldiers. "Oh yes, everything's just perfectly in order down here, isn't it?"
"Fury's briefing said that shooting them in the joints would drop a vampire, though it wouldn't kill them. Those fangs suggest vampire to me." one of the other officers spoke loud enough to be heard over the screaming. "I say we get them out of the way, and figure out who's supposed to in charge of this nut-house."
Pulling his weapon, Joe fired at the nearest vampire. Blood sprayed over the nearby monitor, and the vampire spun around, the one arm now hanging limp. He fired again, this time shattering one of the vampire's knees.
"I think your facility is going to fail inspection!" someone shouted over the screams and gunshots.
Another vampire snarled and darted down a corridor. Taking advantage of their guns, they managed to drop the vampires, though one particularly close shot destroyed the vampire's neck. As the blood sprayed over the wall, the vampire's body fell to ashes.
Down the hallway of offices, Dr. Karl Lykos fell to his knees, hands clutching at his skull. He didn't know what had caused all the screaming and gunfire, but it couldn't be good. There was so much shouting, he could taste the fear and confusion… His head throbbed, and he could feel the Other shifting inside of him. "No, not now, you can't…"
But it was a losing battle. Karl Lykos lost control, and he could feel his body changing as the Other surged forth. His skin turned green and his arms lengthened into wings as Sauron burst forth, drawn by the thick emotions.
Sauron was not as foolish as some of the local demons. While contemptuous of the abilities of mere human soldiers, he had a keen awareness of the range of firearms and the Initiative's electrical weapons. He also had some idea what had been done to some of the inferior creatures captured by the soldiers, and felt no desire to experience any form of vivisection on his own green flesh.
The best thing to do would be to get out of this place, out into the open air. Then he would be free, and there would be nothing to stop him from feeding. From what his weaker other-self had learned, there were many predators that hunted in this town. They would distract any possible would-be heroes, and probably take care of the bodies of his victims. Oh yes, this would be a good place.
Shrugging out of the tattered remnants of the lab coat that Lykos had worn, Sauron darted down the hall. The corridors were too narrow to permit him to fly, but if he remembered right, there was an access garage for their jeeps and capture vans. Once he reached that, he could open the doors and the sky would be his once more.
It was that easy.
On the other side of the base, a vampire opened a door, seeking to hide from the many now-armed soldiers until sunset. Until then, he wouldn't be able to go outside, and the soldiers had already figured out that their guns, while not fatal to a vampire, could still do a lot of damage.
The room looked quite similar to the morgue where he'd first awakened, with cold drawers along a wall and a surgical table in the center, complete with a covered body. Curious, the vampire pulled the sheet away from the body.
Make that most of a body. There were several deep gouges over the face, including one that had destroyed the left eye. The arm was amputated at the elbow, and the right leg stopped at the knee. There had been several sections of different hued skin grafted over portions of the left arm and the torso, and what looked for all the world like a disk drive was located near the heart.
Staring at the incomplete patchwork, the vampire whispered, "Well damn, what the hell is that supposed to be?"
Maggie Walsh never could leave well enough alone. It was fortunate that the ADAM-2 unit was still too incomplete to be functional. Things were already bad enough for the Initiative facility. This one could still be destroyed without any danger.
End part 97.