Chapter Six: The Feudal Gesture isn't Empty
Megan rested on the wall of the corridor that Justin had helped her into, it was the nearest place they could find where there was a lot of exits to run for in case of attack. There was a break room down the hall where Justin had found some pain killers to help ease Megan's pain. She was paler than before now, her eyes were low and sagging further still.
Justin was pacing the floor thinking of where they could run now, his hands were buried in his pockets deeper than a body the mob had hidden. He glanced at Megan every so often and shuddered at the thought of her becoming a zombie. He couldn't even say it out loud.
He could tell by the way she watched him, looked at him that he was holding something back. She looked up at him with sad eyes, "Is there something you need to tell me?" Megan asked slowly while holding her wound.
Justin stopped and lowered his head some, "Isn't it irony how we get stuck down here like this—"
Megan smiled, and Justin looked away wanting to kick himself for not telling her the real situation like that, he needed to tell her how much time she had.
He looked at his watch, two hours and thirty minutes left, roughly. He looked over at her again, "There's something else—"
CRACK—THOOM!—
The wall burst in, through it shot the hideous head of the Nemesis, but the body was a new one, it had changed. It's body was long and thin, like that of a praying mantis, it had four arms, and it had twelve tentacles now, that danced and swayed like miniature snakes caught by a charmer's song. On the sides of it's body large sloppy masses of slime leaked off of it.
Justin ran to help Megan up, she was close to the creature, as Justin neared it the thing screeched sending out a dusty gas cloud. Justin got Megan to her feet and out of the way, but the cloud caught him in the edge of its grasp just before dissipating. His eyes started to tear and he ran for the blurry form of Megan, and then he felt the touch of her soft yet clammy hand. She pulled him.
"This way Justin," she hand more of his arm now and she pulled him through a door way and slammed it behind her. It was obvious that the thing had substituted some of its strength with newer attributes. It hit the door, but didn't have the force to push it through or even dent it. Megan laughed, but her smile faded quickly.
"That thing blinded me," Justin mumbled.
Megan just looked around the room and let her head drop.
The creature's pounding of the door came almost as frequently as Megan's own heart beat as she sat huddled in the corner of the closet with Justin. His expression was blank, his eyes just stared off into nothing. She tried to settle herself some, move a little bit and just keep herself occupied. She looked to Justin as she started to mess with the ends of her hair, "Do you think he'll get in?" She asked.
There was no answer from Justin, she let her head drop some, "Dammit." She worried out loud. She looked at him, flashing her baby blue eyes, knowing deep down inside that wouldn't help either, he'd lost his sight. "The door might not hold," she pronounced with a tingle of fear in her voice.
Justin's gaze never faltered from the wall, "If it doesn't, run—leave me."
"No, I—"
"You what? Want to die?" Justin asked sarcastically.
"Don't yell at me…" Megan lowered her gaze.
Justin reached out and touched her arm, "I'm sorry it's just that I—"
She had to get off that subject, avoid it at all costs, "Why would I leave you?"
"You need to hurry," Justin started. "Take the map—" he handed her a sheet of paper after fumbling through his pocket.
"No!"
"He won't attack you, the infection—" Justin didn't get to finish.
"We'll wait till it leaves." Megan said.
"He won't—and if you change before then—"
"Shoot me," she jammed her Beretta in the same hand that touched her arm. Slowly she lifted his hand until the gun was leveled between her eyes. "Now."
"I would let you bite me first." Justin said. Her slender fingers were wrapped around the barrel of the gun.
Her voice broke and there were tears on her soft cheeks now, "Just do it!" Justin shook his head. "Now!"
Expertly Justin felt the gun's weight and flicked the safety on; he lifted his free hand, followed his arm down, ran his fingers across the top of the gun stopping at her fingers. He pried them off the gun and took her lightly by the hand. "This is crazy." He said.
"That video Trent had—the creatures in it were—" Megan hadn't rightfully gathered her thoughts.
Justin let the gun fall and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her close. "I know, and I know how it feels to watch someone slowly change into one of those things." Justin said. Megan looked up at him, she stayed silent, waiting for him to explain it—her eyes held the questions that she wanted so bad to speak loud.
"I won't let you slip away from me—" he touched the side of her face. "I can't let you go."
Megan felt something wet hit her on her upper back, "Are you crying?" She asked.
"Something in my eye—"
"Don't be scared." Megan said.
"Don't give advice you can't follow." Justin said as he reached down into his coat pocket and plucked out a small black object with a pin and long metal chain on it. "This is our ticket out." Megan stared on blankly, "RG34, Russian Impact Grenades," Justin said.
Megan smiled at him, "Thank God you're back." She whispered.
"One more thing," he lowered his face to Megan's and kissed her all at once. The kiss was gentle and exploratory, Megan seemed so surprised she couldn't react before he had stopped and stood up to help her. She didn't say anything. "Slap me when we get out of here if you want—but right now we've got a lot to do." Justin said.
Megan just nodded and quickly got over to the door. She opened it and stepped back, the creature was standing against the corner about to charge in at the metal structure. He started towards them both with a monstrous growl of horrid pain.
Justin could see things a little more clearly now, "Down Meg!" She dropped to the floor Justin ran at her sliding to her side. The Nemesis ran right past her, swinging to high to hit either of them and skidded to a stop against the wall.
Quickly she hoisted Justin up and they charged out the door. The Nemesis turned and began to pursue them—it's feet assaulted the floor with hurricane force. "There's a waterway over here, if we can make it—"
Megan's eyes brightened as they got within sight of the ledge, the water had to be down there. Her feet pounded more quickly than she would have ever thought they could have now. But behind them the Nemesis seemed to pick up momentum with each step—it's red eye growing more and more angry.
At the end of the ledge they launched themselves off into the air. Nemesis slid to a stop, his feet kicking up the dust of a full year off the floor. That was when Justin tossed the grenade back at the creature.
The explosion came too soon, it licked at their backs as they fell and there was no way in hell they would be able to stop Nemesis through the waves of heat and flame the pursued them. Megan screamed as they splashed down into the water. It was only about six feet deep, not that much for him, but it was well above her head.
Megan struggled and kicked as she sunk down and finally her head broke the surface of the water. Justin grabbed her around the waist and held her up above the water, "I got you, I—" He told her as he held her up.
She began to tread water, "I can handle it." She looked back up to the spot where the Nemesis had been, the creature was gone but all around him there was burn marks and ash. "Is he—"
"No. He's alive." Justin assured her. Just then, in the heat of the moment his heart went back to normal pace, he could see again. In the dim lighting of the passage, but it was better than he had seen. The water was dark and clear, small spots of light reflected up off its unstable surface. But before all of that, he noticed Megan, she looked pale—her eyes had lost their luster. Her hair was thick and wet, it clung to her bare skin on her shoulders. And now the wound her shoulder was purple and some of the veins around it could be seen.
"I'm cold," Megan said shivering slightly.
Justin looked down the hall, "The map is useless now, but I think that we should head this way—"
"What's over there?" Megan inquired.
"All of this water has to go somewhere right?" Justin asked.
Megan nodded, "Yeah."
"Well the only place that much water can empty around here is into New York Harbor," Justin said. Justin floated over to her side and threw her arm around him and got her up on his shoulder as high as he could. "We can travel faster with you like this, ready?"
She nodded. "Yeah."
Kerrie and Tiffany had walked what seemed like forever before they decided to take a rest on a small bench in one of the rooms. It was a peaceful room, on one desk there was a typewriter that looked like it might be some kind of antique, to the other side of the room was a barren coffee maker, there were old unclean stains and dirty molding dishes in the sink.
Everything in the room had a thick layer of dust covering it, it appeared that there was no one using this room as of now. As they sat there silent they each worried about separate issues; Kerrie sighed and slowly ran her hands through her own hair, she sighed looking out ahead of her at the blank wall and then slid down some into the bench.
Tiffany looked over at Kerrie, blinking mildly and then she sat up a little more in her chair. She was tired of just sitting there, and she wondered if Justin and Megan had continued the assignment. She gazed towards Kerrie, "You think that PJ and Trent are doing alright?" she asked.
Kerrie looked up, "I couldn't say—that creature hasn't come after us yet," she said. "Try the radio," Kerrie suggested.
Tiffany gazed down at her leg, she pulled at the bottom of her shorts some and then went for the radio that was on her side. She drew it the black radio out and looked at it, on the status reading there were the letters "HR", there were no signal bars either.
"What's it say?" Kerrie asked leaning over trying to catch a glimpse of what the radio looked like.
Tiffany shook her head, "This can't be right, this radio should at least be able to get off a good burst transmission."
"There should be types of harmonic resonance that could be used to block transmissions, maybe someone is trying to disable the cameras," suggested Kerrie.
Tiffany sprung up from her seat, "I think I know what we can do—" she looked back at Kerrie. "Follow me, we should be able to cross in the entry room now."
Kerrie watched as Tiffany darted out the door and ran back towards the room where they had first encountered Nemesis. It was a long jog away and was a lot of turns and twists involved in getting there. Tiffany was out in front of her, but not by much. The two of them had been running practically since they entered the place; and it wasn't becoming easier.
After what seemed like forever they reached the metal door that Kerrie had bolted closed on the Nemesis. She grabbed the bar that was the knob, "Shall we?" she asked smugly. Tiffany nodded her reply. And Kerrie forced the door opened slowly, it creaked as she did.
The room was still in the same state of disorder as they had left it, together they moved towards the rubble pile that had been established in center of the isle of boxes. When they stood at the foot of it they could see there was room for them to climb by on the top.
Kerrie pointed up at something, "There should be a relatively safe path here somewhere," she said.
Tiffany stepped up on a rock expertly and then jumped to next one up from it, catching her feet sharply on its and balancing herself. "I think you should just try to keep up with me, I used to love climbing when I was a kid," Tiffany said.
With a slow low sigh, Kerrie stepped up on the first rock carefully and then inched her way around to the next as Tiffany pulled herself up more. Each of them made their way slowly over the top of the pile concentrating so hard they never saw what waited for them on the ground.
As Tiffany stepped off she looked across to the door that she should have gone through almost an hour ago. On the floor she caught a glimpse of something, a severed Nemesis tentacle surrounded by blood. Kerrie spoke from behind her, "It looks like Megan and Justin didn't have any trouble taking care of Nemesis.
Tiffany continued to stare at the tentacle nearest the debris pile, the puddle of blood around it made her weary—but she shook it off. The two of them moved for the door that stood ahead of them, not sure what to expect when they crossed the threshold.
Kerrie opened the door and let it fall back against the wall as she did. When she stepped in someone grabbed her from the side of the door and pulled her to the wall, Tiffany stepped back but someone came out and grabbed her roughly by the arm.
They were big men, must have been the Vampires. Kerrie tugged away with a loud scream, "Let me go!" she yelled.
As quick as she could, Tiffany planted her feet, "No, stop!" she shouted trying to pull away.
From somewhere further down the hall there was a new voice, one Tiffany knew too well, "Tiffany!" came the voice. "Run!" it was PJ.
Tiffany rolled to one side and dropped against the wall, she slid out of the creature's grasp and made run for it. The vampire had to pursue her now. Kerrie got her leg tangled into with the vampire that held her. She pulled her captor and he fell back into the wall, loosing his grip on her and slipping down. Kerrie ran for the one chasing Tiffany, and grabbed him by the legs.
The vampire went face down into the ground with a loud grunt and Tiffany yelled out, "Catch Kerrie!" she threw a wooden board from the packing materials. Kerrie caught it in the air, twirled expertly and slammed it into the creatures back right where the heart would be.
Almost as fast as lightening the vampire was reduced to a pile of dust with a wooden steak in it. Kerrie got to her feet ready to move for the next one that came at her. Tiffany ran back over to her side holding two more boards, brandishing them like they were the most dangerous weapons ever.
A series of loud gun cocks showed them they were outdone, around them vampires had gathered holding their weapons out, one of them called out, "Drop the steaks," his tone was harsh. Tiffany and Kerrie complied and the one called out once more, "Now hand's behind you, we're going to take you in."
Stroud could see that the Nemesis had already mutated, and that the Vampires were planning something very devious for him and the other's who had entered. None the less Stroud had to get to the end of the drainage tunnel before the Elder Vampires men did.
The small trench was just ahead, and chances were that the Vampires had some kind of trap set up. If Megan and Justin died it was no matter to him, but he was hoping that they would get their hands on those files he needed first.
He moved into the stair well and made his way down, chances were Justin would head down stream looking for an absolute exit from the waterway. Trent came down the steps like a bat out of Hell and he could see the small pumping station with all its knob and controls on it.
He walked over to it and closed the water's path off, with the push of a button. A steel gate slowly rose up and the tunnel started to fill up higher, a female voice came over the intercom and spoke, "The water drainage system has been closed off, flooding will reach the ground floor of the complex in one half hour—"
Stroud looked up and around, then he folded his arms, "Not that it matters," he said to himself. Then he got to the side of the machine and pried it off the wall. With a sharp push he the machine off and threw it into the water.
From behind him there came the sound of footsteps, then a voice, "You're not him," came the voice.
Stroud spun around and looked at the man, a vampire who must have been one of the lackeys under the Elder. A slow smile crept across Stroud's sharp features, "So you got me," he said slowly holding his hands up above his head.
The vampire closed in on Stroud and grabbed him by the hands, forcing them down behind his back, "We'll let the Council decide what to do with you!" he said sharply.
"But I'm not the man you wanted, those two are further up the waterway—" Stroud was cut off by a voice.
"I found them Rufus, the two Agents," off in the darkness the sound of splashing water could be hear along with Justin's protesting. "One of em's infected," said the voice.
"Get them up to the council room," the first one said, "The rest should already be there."
