Chapter Two
Death and RebirthThomas sat up and swung his legs over the edge of the couch. He stretched his arms out yawned loudly. He'd fallen asleep the night before on the couch and hadn't bothered to change so he was still wearing the clothes from the night before. Thomas scratched the back of his neck as he looked around, focusing on the digital clock he saw that the sun had been set for only about 30 minutes. Thomas stood and approached the bar, swinging one of the doors to the refrigerator open he found some chilled bags of blood and tore one bag open, pouring have the contents into a coffee mug he sipped it.
Looking up he noticed Marie had fallen asleep cured up in his bed. "Sheesh, you'd think an old hag like here would get her own place." Thomas proceeded to pour the other half of the blood into a second coffee mug and walked over to the bed. Setting the cup down on a night stand he lightly nudged the young looking blonde girl awake. Her tiny emerald eyes slowly opened trying to focus in on the world.
"It's you." She said flatly. "Not exactly the best thing to wake up to." She sat up; she was wearing one of Thomas' old large white T-shirts that looked almost like a huge dress for the tiny girl. Thomas handed her the mug and she took it sipping the blood. She licked her lips and suddenly she seemed more awake. "That's good!" She beamed.
"I'm glad you like it." Thomas yawned and walked back over to the couch, flipping the TV on he was surprised what he found. There was a news flash report on; Thomas quickly turned the volume up.
"I repeat, this just in." The Asian woman on the news spoke urgently. "A mad man entered the city blood bank and opened fired, he has reportedly bitten several of the nurses and has moved on to the main blood bank. He has barracked the front doors and taken several hostages. The police have lost all contact with everyone in the hospital, however snipers claim to see several of the nurses and employees walking around however they all seem to be bleeding, and they seem rather pale. They won't answer to any of the hails from the police and the mad man seems to have disappeared from sight. No demands have been made and the police are preparing an assault team to..." Thomas turned the TV Off.
"You know what that means." Marie said softly.
"Aye." Thomas replied monotone.
"He's broken the rules."
"Aye."
"Will you go?"
"..."
"Thomas?"
"Aye."
"Report!" A medium height and build man ordered, he had white hair, cut square, around his head, he had a square mustache, and wore the Chief of Police Uniform. Several squad Captains where assembled around the Chief.
"We have the Media and public blocked off in every direction for 2 city blocks, traffic is being diverted no real problems there." One man reported.
"Still no ransom demands." Reported a woman.
"Snipers can't get a clear shot at him." Another answered.
"Assault teams Alpha, Beta, and Delta are ready sir." A forth spoke.
The Chief closed his eyes and scratched his chin. He made a few odd sounds to show he was thinking. "Well I guess we'll have too..."
"Sir!" Suddenly a man came running over holding a two-way radio. "Sergeant Benson is inside, she apparently was giving blood when the incident occurred, she quickly saw she was out numbered and out matched, she is currently hiding on the 7th floor, where she found an emergency radio."
"Let me see that." The Chief ordered grabbing the radio. "Sergeant?" He called and waited for a reply. "This is the chief, report!"
"Chief, this is Sergeant Jonna Benson, I am currently rapped on the 7th floor, I am not quite sure what's happening. But some how the man has bitten several the employees and somehow they... changed."
"Changed?"
"Well sir... they're like Zombies. They don't seem to get hurt and they attack anyone who wasn't bite, but they seemed to have drastically decreased in intelligence. The infected and the original suspect have taken to gorging themselves on the blood reserves of the bank."
"I'm sorry, did you say they are like Zombies? And they are drinking the blood?"
"Yes sir. I they seem to be unable to be reasoned with and I suggest a high level Assault team to take them out before they escape and bite others."
"Shooting civilians would look very bad Sergeant Benson."
"They are no longer Civilians."
"We'll you tranquilizer bullets and sort this out later, you sit tight." The chief ordered and tuned the radio off and tossed it to the man. He turned to his squad leaders. "Team Alpha and Beta will enter in 10 minutes, Delta will be back up. Move!"
Jonna sighed heavily; she held her gun in her left hand. "If regular bullets won't slow them down, tranquilizers won't do jack." She sighed again. "What the hell is going on around here?"
Atop a roof across from the blood bank, Thomas stood; he'd changed into a black muscle shirt and black cargo pants. Still wearing the black army boots, he now had on black sunglasses and on his left a Katana tied to his belt. On his right shoulder Sat Marie, perfectly balanced on top Thomas' broad shoulders. She was wearing a rather fancy blue dress with white stockings, black dress shoes and again the black strip strap purse with white gloves.
"She's on the 7th floor, and he's in the basement with the blood and..." She closed her eyes for a moment then smelled the air. "51...no 52 Nightmares. The Humans are about to send their own teams in, but that will do nothing but add to the bastard's Nightmares. Be careful."
"You worry to much." Thomas smirked and the two faded into the shadows.
(Editors note: Think black storm troopers.)
"Team Alpha Go!" Ordered the Squad Captain. 12 men all dressed in black body arm from head to toe, with tiny slit visors and large powerful assault riffles entered the lobby of the blood bank, however no one was there. Some blood was smeared across the walls and floor but it looked like people had tried to lick it off. Team Beta entered soon after; the two teams seemed at a loss.
"They must be in the basement, head for the stairs."
"Roger."
The two teams headed for the stairs, and started to descend, half way down they came in contact with the infected civilians. At first the assault teams attempted to help them however when they got to close they leapt and attacked them Ripping off the body arm with pure strength and biting and clawing at the tender human flesh below. Blood splattered against the cold stone stairs as the Assault team open fire. Quickly realizing the tranquilizers were having no effect they switched to live ammo. However no matter how many rounds they seemed to empty in the swarming civilians, they kept coming, clawing, slashing and biting. With in a few minutes the elite assault squads where reduced to whining terrified little men running for there lives.
"Retreat, retreat!" Shouted the Squad Captain. "They're fucking insane, just blow the fuckers, fuck the civilians." The Captain screamed into the radio. He was in a panic and one of the few left alive, they bolted up the concrete stairs to the main floor almost crashing into Jonna who'd come down to investigate.
"Run lady!" They shouted, pushing past her and bolting for the door. However before they got with in a few of the door a man appeared and snapped the remaining Assault team's necks. His hair was short and blonde with spikes. He was fairly pale and wore white long sleeve shirt and pants with a black belt and black shoes. He grinned at Jonna; the only one left as the infected civilians and now infected assault team members pushed open the door to the stairs and filled into the lobby.
"Ello lil lady." He grinned; he had a rather heavy Australian accent. "Care ta play a game wit me?"
"You disgust me." She snarled at him.
"You got spunk, I like that." He smiled and licked his lips. He moved closer when suddenly the lobby was filled with screams. The screams were emanating form the infected; someone was ripping through them from the back. The infected were having their heads slashed off and at the moment their heads flew off their entire bodies and heads turned to dust or ash like mixture and fell apart. Within moments nearly all the infected were dust.
Quickly the blonde man grabbed Jonna and pulled her in front of him, wrapping one arm around her neck and placing great pressure on her throat almost cutting off her air.
Thomas stood in the pile of, what were once infected civilians. His sword was drawn and he was glaring at the blonde man.
"You..." He glared back at Thomas. "You're one of my kind, why do you try to stop me."
"You've broken the rules, you've let Nightmares roam freely with out collars, and you're on the human news. It is my duty to destroy you." Thomas spoke with an authoritative voice.
"Take one more step and I'll kill this girl." He pressed harder on her throat making her cough and struggle.
"Police girl." Thomas looked at the woman who stared back. "You don't understand what's going on here, but you know this man needs to be stopped. You have three choices, we let him go and you live, I attack and you both die, I attack and you come with me. If you come with me, you can never live a normal life; but then again, you don't want to die here. Do you?"
Jonna couldn't comprehend what he was trying to say or mean. She just knew that this man had to be stopped. He could not be allowed to leave. She also didn't want to die. "Three " She softly squeaked out.
"Shut up girl!" The blonde man was getting very angry. "Don't you dare try anything!"
"To late, she's agreed." Thomas kicked off the ground and in an instant, before Jonna or the man could move, the sword and pierced Jonna's chest just above her heart and entered the man's heart. He instantly turned to the same dirt and ash like mixtures and feel to the ground in a pile. Thomas pulled the blade out from Jonna's chest. At that moment a green like energy shot out from the pile where the blonde man had been and shot at Thomas, taking him in the chest. Thomas screamed and fell to his knees. All the lights in the building suddenly went out. Thomas glowed green for a few seconds and then it faded.
Thomas picked Jonna up in his arms, her chest was bleeding badly, and she only had another minute of life left. "This was your choice." Suddenly Thomas' incisors extended and he bit down on her neck. After a few seconds of feeding he then pulled out a tiny knife and slit his down wrist. "Drink." She nodded slightly and sucked on Thomas' wrist.
Five minutes later Delta squad entered the lobby to find no one left. "Chief, no one is hear."
"Do an entire sweep of the complex, they must be there somewhere!"
"Roger!"
A few roofs away a tall slender woman with long black hair down past her waist stood. She was wearing a dark blood red tank top revealing a decent amount of cleavage of her C cup breasts, and she was wearing a rather tight leather skirt that went half way down to her knee. Her 4-inch high heel boots were made of leather and went all the way up to her knees. She had a few ear piercing and a belly button piercing, her nails were painted black and she was wearing black lipstick and eye shadow. Her over all height with the boots came to 6 feet.
"Still playing the hero Thomas? Well this time you can't run from me." She smirked, "No one escapes The Black Rose, Micky Rosewood."