World Domination
Ch. 12
Everyone stared up at the lights, wincing. They were blinding, and then they slowly dimmed. Logan had swiped his knife from Heston before Heston realized he made a motion for it. Heston paid no attention; cause there was an odd, raspy and rather annoying laugh coming from down the halls. The white lights died to a glow, and down the hall stood a human ANMC.
"Boo guy-sh!" Ha ha ha ha! I scared the army people!" The awkward creature chuckled more.
"Dylan?" Aya uttered under her breath. "It can't be."
A gun fired, and hit the creature directly in the face. It began screaming a high-pitched scream, and then ran out of an open door.
Everyone looked back to see Logan with his outstretched arm holding a pistol. "I win guy-sh." He smiled, even as everyone glared at him with the same accusing eyes. "Trust me, you guys didn't want to mess with that thing." Logan pulled up his sleeve and revealed a faded scar, from where the same creature had bitten him.
"Explain to me how your knife got into the abs of one of my men." Heston demanded of Logan.
"The first time I went up against these terrorists I implanted that knife into a man who is dead and eaten by creatures similar to the one you just saw. I figure somebody took a look after the place was cleared and found it."
Aya backed up this story. "It's true. Logan and I both owe our lives to that man, and the knife was in his leg last time I saw it."
"You stabbed a man who saved your life?" Private Benjamin asked, with an astonished look on his face.
"It's a long story," Logan assured. "We should get moving while the light is on."
"Where's the radio Phillips had?" Heston made notion for everyone to look. It wasn't to be found. "Fuck it. Let's move."
They headed towards the open door in double file, through the way the creature had run. They instantly encountered 3 different doors, all heading the same direction. One was a thick steel hatch that was cold to the touch. The other 2 were electronic doors. The steel door was to the left, and the door on the right was quickly found to be locked.
"Let's take the middle one," Heston commanded. "I'll follow up the rear." At this he moved to the back, as Benjamin and Hillman led in front through the doors. The doors abruptly closed behind them. "Get the door open now!" Heston ordered.
Harding, who was closest to the door, repeatedly hit the button to open, and it didn't work. There were screams filling the hall on the other side of the door. Paulson and Harding pressed their ears against the door. They jumped off when they felt a burning sensation. The door had begun to get incredibly hot.
"Guess that has to suck." Logan said without any tone of sorrow or excitement in his voice. "I guess it's door number one."
"You first." Heston gestured his hand.
Logan walked over to the hatch, turned the wheel, and pulled with all his force. There was a hiss of steam and the door swung open. Cool air swept out of the room. Logan stepped in, and stood in the doorframe.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Golem Soldiers."
Inside was row after row of hanging corpses, all hooked up to machinery, all ready to be brought back to life in a matter of minutes. Everyone stepped into the room behind him, and gazed at the hundreds of golem soldiers. She never saw so many, and it frightened her.
"Should we go ahead and disable the machinery?" Harding suggested. "It would keep them from fighting against us."
"That would be pointless." Logan stated. "This is just a portion of what this place is holding. The new golem leader banned all work on mitochondria creatures and focused it all on improving these flesh-covered machines. If we survive this mission, we will all eventually be obeying and serving these partial men. Many will later become like the leader himself, more mobile, fluent, smarter, and overall deadlier. He can act out nearly every ability a regular human can, yet he is part machine."
"Nice speech but we have to get out of this cooler before we get locked in and freeze to death." Heston walked along the frosty floors at a quick pace.
"Don't worry about that." Logan said to Heston. "Freezing to death would be boring. He wouldn't let us die that way. At the very least he would activate a few golem soldiers and watch us on camera."
Private Joe Price, who had been quiet the whole time with along with Private Russell Johns, had decided to speak up. "9 to 1,000 or more doesn't sound like good odds. I suggest we go back."
"No need to go back." Logan said. "You act as if you believe we have a chance to live either way."
The troops marched on, Johns and Heston carrying Heiland, who was floating in and out of consciousness. He left a trail of blood down the freezer halls. Aya was the first to see the frosted door. It opened without any trouble, and the troops entered the prison hold.
**
The golem soldier leader focused on the monitors in front of him with his good eye, and his eye surrounded by implants watched Peterson enter the surveillance room with a look of urgency on his face. He turned his full attention to Peterson.
"Sir, we have a problem. I just received a message from men down in Arizona, Maine, Puerto Rico, and South Africa. Everyone is beginning to test on live cells again." Peterson took a long breath.
"Who started it? Somebody had to authorize the okay to start it, and it sure as hell wasn't me." The Leader took a deep look into Peterson's face. "How did you receive this message anyway? Communication is down."
"E-mail sir. Simple as that. Arizona sent the original message, and others were just spreading the word."
"Pack your things, we're going to Arizona for a while."
**
Darwin Senior High School. It wasn't hard to locate a deserted High School in Phoenix, because most of them get demolished after being shut down. Melissa Pearce was with her own squad of Marines, all ready to enter. They moved swiftly down the empty halls, and to the bottom floor.
They spotted a stairway heading down to the boiler room, and began to descend.
"I wouldn't go down there if I were you." A soft, youthful female voice stated bluntly.
The marines turned their attention to the teenage girl staring all of them down.
"Eve?" Melissa recognized the blonde. "How did you get here?"
"I'm here on my own free will. It's unnatural what they are doing down through the trap door in that boiler room. They are playing God."
"Eve, you have to get away at once." Melissa begged.
"No, it is you all who are leaving." Eve smiled in an unusual fashion. Melissa instantly thought of it as evil.
"Ah! I'm getting hot!" A marine yelled out.
"Me too!" called another.
Soon, they were all shouting, all but Melissa, who felt the heat, but she could easily bear it. She couldn't bear the site of every man and woman around her bursting into flames, and Eve just standing there, smiling.
"You don't burn, do you?" Eve said, now in a deeper, more defiant voice.
"Why did you do this? Why?"
"You of all people should know Melissa, you are the most recent bringer of a new era, well, until now." Eve sent a blast of green light and bolted it into Melissa, who shot back down into the Boiler room.
Melissa grabbed her pistol, but her sight went black when she tried to lift it, and everything fell silent.
Eve went down into the boiler room, and found the trap door, and went in, slightly laughing to herself as she descended down some more stairs.
**
Logan was obviously on edge in the cell holds. He wouldn't let anyone stand less than 3 feet away from him, and he gripped his knife and pistol till his knuckles turned white. Everyone gladly respected his space.
"Paulson, go make sure nobody blocks our escape." Heston commanded, and Paulson silently agreed, and went down to the far end of the corridor, where another solid steel hatch was placed. It was slightly open, almost inviting him to step out.
Paulson peeked out, and down to his left, down a narrow hall, he saw the creature again. Smiling with surprisingly white teeth. "Hey, It's that damn creature again. I'm gonna go check it out."
"Like hell you do!" Heston yelled at him, but it was too late.
Paulson walked out the door, and a mechanical device forced the door closed, then an automatic locking system set in.
"Roberts, can you get the door open?" Heston called over to the man closest to the door.
"No, it will only unlock from the outside. I don't have anything to get it open with."
"Don't worry," Paulson called through the steal door. He was barely audible. "I'll find a secure place to go." Paulson saw that the creature had gotten much closer. Paulson saw it staring at the rifle in his hands, so he set it down as a sign of peace.
"Hi guy-sh? Who you?" The creature, who was obviously Dylan, asked.
"Hi, I'm Bryan. You must be..."
"I am da Easter Bunny guy-sh." The creature began hopping clumsily around the narrow hall.
Paulson chuckled to himself. "I gotta go, so I will see you later." Paulson reached for his rifle, but the creature was quicker.
"Mine!" Dylan yelled and snagged the rifle in his teeth, then ran off with it. Paulson got up to follow, but there were sounds of approaching men down that hall. He saw the creature stare at the on comers, then drop the rifle, but still get shot a few times by a technician before he could duck into an open vent.
Paulson ran the opposite way, down a twisting maze of solid metal halls. He gripped his pistol tight in his hands, and made his way to an open room. This room was entirely made of metal too. It only had a few vents; otherwise it seemed to serve no purpose. As he looked back to the door he came through, he walked backwards across the hall. A door opened towards his back, and before he could turn around he bumped into a large, sturdy man.
Paulson twisted and backed up a few steps, pointing the gun at the golem soldier leader, while his hands holding the gun shook uncontrollably. Sweat ran down his forehead and he backed up a few more steps. "You... you're under arrest for terrorism. C...c... come quietly and I won't have to deal any injury to you."
The leader laughed, and then stared into the eyes of the frightened marine. He made no effort to go for the gun strapped across his back, or the ones on his belt. "You couldn't shoot me if you wanted to. Look at yourself, you're shaking like a 12 year old girl."
"Don't test me." Paulson warned, still shaky on the voice.
The leader took one step forward, and Paulson fired the pistol. The bullet missed, then ricocheted a few times, and implanted its self into Paulson eye socket. Paulson dropped limply strait to the floor, blood pouring out of the wound in his eye.
The towering figure walked up to the body, scanned the walls of the room, laughed to himself, and then kept walking.
Ch. 12
Everyone stared up at the lights, wincing. They were blinding, and then they slowly dimmed. Logan had swiped his knife from Heston before Heston realized he made a motion for it. Heston paid no attention; cause there was an odd, raspy and rather annoying laugh coming from down the halls. The white lights died to a glow, and down the hall stood a human ANMC.
"Boo guy-sh!" Ha ha ha ha! I scared the army people!" The awkward creature chuckled more.
"Dylan?" Aya uttered under her breath. "It can't be."
A gun fired, and hit the creature directly in the face. It began screaming a high-pitched scream, and then ran out of an open door.
Everyone looked back to see Logan with his outstretched arm holding a pistol. "I win guy-sh." He smiled, even as everyone glared at him with the same accusing eyes. "Trust me, you guys didn't want to mess with that thing." Logan pulled up his sleeve and revealed a faded scar, from where the same creature had bitten him.
"Explain to me how your knife got into the abs of one of my men." Heston demanded of Logan.
"The first time I went up against these terrorists I implanted that knife into a man who is dead and eaten by creatures similar to the one you just saw. I figure somebody took a look after the place was cleared and found it."
Aya backed up this story. "It's true. Logan and I both owe our lives to that man, and the knife was in his leg last time I saw it."
"You stabbed a man who saved your life?" Private Benjamin asked, with an astonished look on his face.
"It's a long story," Logan assured. "We should get moving while the light is on."
"Where's the radio Phillips had?" Heston made notion for everyone to look. It wasn't to be found. "Fuck it. Let's move."
They headed towards the open door in double file, through the way the creature had run. They instantly encountered 3 different doors, all heading the same direction. One was a thick steel hatch that was cold to the touch. The other 2 were electronic doors. The steel door was to the left, and the door on the right was quickly found to be locked.
"Let's take the middle one," Heston commanded. "I'll follow up the rear." At this he moved to the back, as Benjamin and Hillman led in front through the doors. The doors abruptly closed behind them. "Get the door open now!" Heston ordered.
Harding, who was closest to the door, repeatedly hit the button to open, and it didn't work. There were screams filling the hall on the other side of the door. Paulson and Harding pressed their ears against the door. They jumped off when they felt a burning sensation. The door had begun to get incredibly hot.
"Guess that has to suck." Logan said without any tone of sorrow or excitement in his voice. "I guess it's door number one."
"You first." Heston gestured his hand.
Logan walked over to the hatch, turned the wheel, and pulled with all his force. There was a hiss of steam and the door swung open. Cool air swept out of the room. Logan stepped in, and stood in the doorframe.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the Golem Soldiers."
Inside was row after row of hanging corpses, all hooked up to machinery, all ready to be brought back to life in a matter of minutes. Everyone stepped into the room behind him, and gazed at the hundreds of golem soldiers. She never saw so many, and it frightened her.
"Should we go ahead and disable the machinery?" Harding suggested. "It would keep them from fighting against us."
"That would be pointless." Logan stated. "This is just a portion of what this place is holding. The new golem leader banned all work on mitochondria creatures and focused it all on improving these flesh-covered machines. If we survive this mission, we will all eventually be obeying and serving these partial men. Many will later become like the leader himself, more mobile, fluent, smarter, and overall deadlier. He can act out nearly every ability a regular human can, yet he is part machine."
"Nice speech but we have to get out of this cooler before we get locked in and freeze to death." Heston walked along the frosty floors at a quick pace.
"Don't worry about that." Logan said to Heston. "Freezing to death would be boring. He wouldn't let us die that way. At the very least he would activate a few golem soldiers and watch us on camera."
Private Joe Price, who had been quiet the whole time with along with Private Russell Johns, had decided to speak up. "9 to 1,000 or more doesn't sound like good odds. I suggest we go back."
"No need to go back." Logan said. "You act as if you believe we have a chance to live either way."
The troops marched on, Johns and Heston carrying Heiland, who was floating in and out of consciousness. He left a trail of blood down the freezer halls. Aya was the first to see the frosted door. It opened without any trouble, and the troops entered the prison hold.
**
The golem soldier leader focused on the monitors in front of him with his good eye, and his eye surrounded by implants watched Peterson enter the surveillance room with a look of urgency on his face. He turned his full attention to Peterson.
"Sir, we have a problem. I just received a message from men down in Arizona, Maine, Puerto Rico, and South Africa. Everyone is beginning to test on live cells again." Peterson took a long breath.
"Who started it? Somebody had to authorize the okay to start it, and it sure as hell wasn't me." The Leader took a deep look into Peterson's face. "How did you receive this message anyway? Communication is down."
"E-mail sir. Simple as that. Arizona sent the original message, and others were just spreading the word."
"Pack your things, we're going to Arizona for a while."
**
Darwin Senior High School. It wasn't hard to locate a deserted High School in Phoenix, because most of them get demolished after being shut down. Melissa Pearce was with her own squad of Marines, all ready to enter. They moved swiftly down the empty halls, and to the bottom floor.
They spotted a stairway heading down to the boiler room, and began to descend.
"I wouldn't go down there if I were you." A soft, youthful female voice stated bluntly.
The marines turned their attention to the teenage girl staring all of them down.
"Eve?" Melissa recognized the blonde. "How did you get here?"
"I'm here on my own free will. It's unnatural what they are doing down through the trap door in that boiler room. They are playing God."
"Eve, you have to get away at once." Melissa begged.
"No, it is you all who are leaving." Eve smiled in an unusual fashion. Melissa instantly thought of it as evil.
"Ah! I'm getting hot!" A marine yelled out.
"Me too!" called another.
Soon, they were all shouting, all but Melissa, who felt the heat, but she could easily bear it. She couldn't bear the site of every man and woman around her bursting into flames, and Eve just standing there, smiling.
"You don't burn, do you?" Eve said, now in a deeper, more defiant voice.
"Why did you do this? Why?"
"You of all people should know Melissa, you are the most recent bringer of a new era, well, until now." Eve sent a blast of green light and bolted it into Melissa, who shot back down into the Boiler room.
Melissa grabbed her pistol, but her sight went black when she tried to lift it, and everything fell silent.
Eve went down into the boiler room, and found the trap door, and went in, slightly laughing to herself as she descended down some more stairs.
**
Logan was obviously on edge in the cell holds. He wouldn't let anyone stand less than 3 feet away from him, and he gripped his knife and pistol till his knuckles turned white. Everyone gladly respected his space.
"Paulson, go make sure nobody blocks our escape." Heston commanded, and Paulson silently agreed, and went down to the far end of the corridor, where another solid steel hatch was placed. It was slightly open, almost inviting him to step out.
Paulson peeked out, and down to his left, down a narrow hall, he saw the creature again. Smiling with surprisingly white teeth. "Hey, It's that damn creature again. I'm gonna go check it out."
"Like hell you do!" Heston yelled at him, but it was too late.
Paulson walked out the door, and a mechanical device forced the door closed, then an automatic locking system set in.
"Roberts, can you get the door open?" Heston called over to the man closest to the door.
"No, it will only unlock from the outside. I don't have anything to get it open with."
"Don't worry," Paulson called through the steal door. He was barely audible. "I'll find a secure place to go." Paulson saw that the creature had gotten much closer. Paulson saw it staring at the rifle in his hands, so he set it down as a sign of peace.
"Hi guy-sh? Who you?" The creature, who was obviously Dylan, asked.
"Hi, I'm Bryan. You must be..."
"I am da Easter Bunny guy-sh." The creature began hopping clumsily around the narrow hall.
Paulson chuckled to himself. "I gotta go, so I will see you later." Paulson reached for his rifle, but the creature was quicker.
"Mine!" Dylan yelled and snagged the rifle in his teeth, then ran off with it. Paulson got up to follow, but there were sounds of approaching men down that hall. He saw the creature stare at the on comers, then drop the rifle, but still get shot a few times by a technician before he could duck into an open vent.
Paulson ran the opposite way, down a twisting maze of solid metal halls. He gripped his pistol tight in his hands, and made his way to an open room. This room was entirely made of metal too. It only had a few vents; otherwise it seemed to serve no purpose. As he looked back to the door he came through, he walked backwards across the hall. A door opened towards his back, and before he could turn around he bumped into a large, sturdy man.
Paulson twisted and backed up a few steps, pointing the gun at the golem soldier leader, while his hands holding the gun shook uncontrollably. Sweat ran down his forehead and he backed up a few more steps. "You... you're under arrest for terrorism. C...c... come quietly and I won't have to deal any injury to you."
The leader laughed, and then stared into the eyes of the frightened marine. He made no effort to go for the gun strapped across his back, or the ones on his belt. "You couldn't shoot me if you wanted to. Look at yourself, you're shaking like a 12 year old girl."
"Don't test me." Paulson warned, still shaky on the voice.
The leader took one step forward, and Paulson fired the pistol. The bullet missed, then ricocheted a few times, and implanted its self into Paulson eye socket. Paulson dropped limply strait to the floor, blood pouring out of the wound in his eye.
The towering figure walked up to the body, scanned the walls of the room, laughed to himself, and then kept walking.