Fifteen Years Ago
Failure.
A momentary flashback inside his father's enormous study; a throng of sharp-dressed men nursing their drinks and stoning him with black pits for eyes.
Just like your parents.
An article in the paper; an 'accident' in the streets of Jerusalem; his parents, highly esteemed researchers and artifact hunters, as dead as he was alive. Darcy and himself were just eight years old.
You'll never succeed. You'll be just like them…nothing.
David set down his cup of cold coffee- the stale taste contributing to nothing of the bitterness soaking his tongue. He had been brooding over the body that lay flat on the gurney before him for almost three hours at this point. Just as long as he had been sleeping these past few years.
X-16…the only other subject to share the same glorious outcome of success with the first strain as X-17 had…now nothing more than an icy corpse for him to routinely dispose of. David's eyes lingered on the face of the thirteen-year-old boy for a few minutes, before he stroked his equally cold fingertips along the eyelids of the experiment's dead eyes, granting them their eternal sleep at last.
The incinerator was fired up, and the body was licked by flames until there was nothing more to lap upon. David returned to his own study, much less ornate than his father's…and certainly not as warm.
It was just him, now.
Ironic as it was, X-16 had survived to be the last experiment they were initially provided for. There were no more test subjects, no more living beings wandering around the vault beside the automated robots going about their programmed daily routines. Carol had never come back, all those years ago.
…they had been right.
Your parents died for nothing.
…maybe…maybe Darcy, had been right.
The Present
"Is everything ready?" Thomas spoke into the ham mic.
A garble of static. "Yes, sir."
"Excellent. So far, so good." The handset was replaced, and he turned to the younger woman entering the room with a pack in her hands. "You may set it there, thank you." He indicated to the corner of the table, and Lydia answered his request. When she had returned to Campbell's side, Thomas grabbed a strap and set it before himself. With an almost habitual motion, he disrobed his jacket, laying it neatly over the backside of a chair and rolling up his sleeves before rummaging through Evelyn's things.
The wiry merc shook his head as Thomas began to litter various articles on the crinkled parchment of the rolled-out blueprint. "I know you and Cazador go back, and all, but is now really the time to be snooping through her stuff? I hope you know I'm telling her we had nothing to do with this."
"She will not mind," Thomas spoke with reassurance. The spine of a book was held under the light, and then gently set aside. Always the avid reader…some things, never change. It was one of the traits he had loved best of her.
Why did you come here? What exactly are you looking for?
Near the bottom was a carefully concealed pocket, and he reached inside, his fingertips meeting with the spine of another book wrapped in cloth. For all of the time they had spent with one another, Thomas had learned many things about Evelyn…and a liar, was something she was quite terrible at being. He placed Darcy's journal on the table. With a flip open, he scanned the pages of her beautiful penmanship, swiping along for anything that may hint at her being in this city.
The radio crackled to life. "Sir, we have multiple gunshots in the police department."
The glowing ghoul sighed tersely before picking up the handset. The bounty hunter must not have appreciated his bold move, after all. No matter, just as was expected. "We are going Bravo, then."
Evelyn gave a wide owl stare down at the fresh spray of brain matter washed over the tiles, then closed them and buried her head inside the merc's jacket, giving an anxious squeeze around his middle. Charon checked his stock for a moment, then holstered his smoking barrel; this was a much more reasonable course of action.
"What the fuck were you thinking?!" Penny gaped at the corpses of Braxton's previous finest at their feet. "They could have been of use to us! They have insider information we might need." Notwithstanding her electrified nerves from the dramatic change of events, she readied her pistol and peered around the corner leading to the jails. Someone was bound to come running at the sound.
Cross grunted. "What the fuck can they tell you that I can't?"
She whipped her head around, her milky eyes simmering. In another period of his life, Cross would have found her temper cute. "The vault, for one."
The merc was thoughtful for a second. "…touché." He then looked over at Charon with a hundred varying shades of rage. "How the fuck did you think all this shit was okay?"
Charon's return stare was so ruthlessly hostile that Cross widened the space between them.
Penny side-eyed him. "Thomas wouldn't have considered it unless she was willing to do it- that was the stipulation." Another glance as a fluorescent light flickered in the empty hallway. No footsteps wandering down their side…yet.
"If he knows her that well, then it was never a stipulation." Cross maneuvered around the gore. "Fuckin' cunt."
He took a seat on the edge of a desk, settling Evelyn's weight into his lap. One hand rubbed her kneecap, almost distractedly, while his other fished for a cigarette. "I can't fuckin' believe you expected me to just play along with this."
A grunt, and he flicked open his lighter, settling the small flame under the unlit tip for a moment; a habit of buying some time as he collected his thoughts. "You expectin' me to drag her to Boston? Just how far does that cunt think he's takin' this?"
Evelyn's fingers suddenly dug into his sides, as though she was trying to worm her body underneath his own flesh and bone like a thick, wet blanket. "Ow, baby, that hurts."
"Don't go," she mumbled shyly.
Cross angrily roiled his cigarette around his mouth, blowing a billow of smoke down at her through his nostrils, earning a foul explicit from her pretty pink lips. "Why the fuck couldn't you have said this shit before?"
"We need to find that other entrance into the vault-" An interrupting raucous of gunfire hailed from the streets outside. "Shit."
Charon strode to the window, peering through the blinds. They were going to leave this city, and they were going to leave it now. Evelyn was deliberately tanked up; her poisoned judgment left the ferryman free of any issued orders. It was expected of him to proceed as he saw fit to ensure her survival.
The bounty hunter grunted, redirecting Evelyn's exploring fingertips from undoing the belt buckle of his pants. She was lightly kicking her feet, murmuring happy, unintelligible words into his bloodstained shirt. "So, we goin' to- will ya fuckin' stop that?!" He growled at her immature antics of rummaging through his gear while babbling complete nonsense that no one could make heads or tails of. "Like a damn child."
She wiped her snotty nose with the backside of her hand, the silly persona beginning to crash under a lament of tears.
"Jesus Christ, she's goin' to fuckin' kill me." Cross gave a nod of his head to the crimson ghoul leaned against the wall. "I'm expectin' you to keep us clear of this shit- they got this place tighter than a virgin's asshole."
The ferryman nodded curtly in agreeance. "Stay close behind."
"You're leaving? Now?!" Penny half-spun from her spot, jaw dropping in disbelief.
"To be fair, I told Thomas I honestly don't give a flying molerat's ass what happened to this city, so, yeah…we're kickin' fuckin' rocks." He took a long drag, burning the ashy tobacco straight down to its filter. "Come with us. No need to waste your life away here."
It was not necessarily the right frame of words she would have rather heard. If that simple us had been replaced with me…well, she wasn't completely sure she wouldn't have ditched this entire effort and eloped after him.
She waved the business end of her gun down another hallway. "The armory is three doors down on the right- it's already opened, and not everything was dispersed. I'm sure you can find use of something."
Charon snapped his eyes to the merc, who nodded for assurance. "Bring me back somethin' nice."
The ferryman strode away with purpose in his step. Penny chewed on the thin line of flesh that constituted the remainder of her upper lip. "We're going to need Roman…where is he?"
Evelyn's arms tightened around the ghoul's waist as he vainly tried to peel her from his body. "I'll be right here, I swear. Holy fuck." She was much stronger than he was. "Baby, let go!" He sighed in aggravation.
"No!" she whined.
The merc then stood, his smoothskin clinging to him like a starfish would a rock against the crashing waves. If the situation wasn't so dire, it would have provided comic relief to watch as he ambled over and opened the double doors. He inserted two fingers into his mouth and blew a sharp, gun-cracking whistle. Roman manifested from the crawling shadows beyond the fingerlings of light seeping through the shuttered windows, stepping into the main lobby under the contrast of harsh fluorescent.
"Did you know about him?" Cross sidestepped around the mountain of a man; Evelyn had her head tilted back, washing the dark blue ghoul in the tide of her stare. He blinked at her.
"I did." Penny averted her eyes as the contracted ghoul's blackened irises snapped to the sound of her speaking. "…it's complicated." She glanced back down the empty corridor. "She probably won't remember most of this after she fully comes around. But she will have a panic attack before she declines- shiner wasn't meant for humans…it won't be very pretty."
Cross had an unreadable look on his face. "Sounds like ya know from experience."
"There was a reason I was a double-agent for so long." There was no hiding the guilt in her tone. "…you should probably grab your friends back at Tweedy's, if you don't want to leave them behind in all this. Roman and I will keep her safe until you come back."
The merc stood still for a few moments, and then reattempted detracting his human leech. "Easier-" A grunt of effort. "-said-" Hot air tickled the soft hairs along the base of her neck as he breathed laboriously from his herculean feat. "-than done." A vibration coiled from the pit of his stomach as he growled, his ire seeping into his nature. "If you don't let me put ya down for at least five seconds, I'm goin' to fuckin' smack ya in front of all these people."
The curl of her fingers along his spine hardened their resolve.
Penny's eyes widened as the ghoul's hand raised in the air. Was he really going to strike her over something like this? "I'm sure we could-"
That gloved goliath of a hand sailed down with practiced aim. Slap! A squeak, and the hot blooming of blood spoiled Evelyn's cheeks as his flat palm met with her ass.
Penny turned around, feeling ever so foolish at the misplaced concern she had previously cast. "Oh dear lord."
Roman didn't appear uncomfortable at the perverted exchange, but something along the far wall had suddenly become extremely interesting, and he turned his head away to the side.
Cross raised his hand expectantly. "Ya want another one?"
Evelyn shrugged, the smarting sting of the slap was dulled by the drug. "Charon does it harder."
"I'll-he what?"
A beaming smile clashed against his tempered snarl. "He left his handprint…wanna see?"
The said ferryman's booming footsteps came to a pause back inside the lobby; the crinkling package of Fancy Lads Snack Cakes in his left hand a laughable contrast to the missile launcher strapped to his back. In an instant, Evelyn dropped from the bounty hunter as though she couldn't get away fast enough, wiggling her fingers towards her newly desired with a please hold me implication.
Charon bent down to her childish demand, scooping her up in one arm while handing her the sweet. He overshadowed the grey ghoul's wrath with a dismissive snort. "I left her a few." A twitch of a smirk teased the edge of his mouth.
Penny nabbed at the bounty hunter's tailcoats of his duster before he could close the distance. "You guys don't have a lot of time. Go quickly." She then blinked up at Evelyn nibbling contentedly on her frosted cake. "I can give you more of those, but you're going to have to come with me for a few minutes, okay?"
Evelyn was set back down on solid ground, and she reached her hand out to clasp the rosy ghoul's.
Charon grasped at something behind himself, offering the bounty hunter a modified gauss rifle with as dry an expression as he could muster. "Something nice."
"There is no logical reason for Darcy to have written this." Thomas's critical stare flayed over the scientist huddled quietly in the corner. The journal lay wide open before him on the table, the flipping of pages coming to a halt as he found his required evidence. "It may look like her handwriting, but these are not her words."
Carol betrayed no buried reaction he may have been hoping to dredge up.
Lydia removed her thumb from her mouth, the anxious chewing of her hangnail a pacifier for her nerves. Her eyes flit to the cursive handwriting belonging to another age; it may as well have been Greek to her. "What's it say?"
Thomas planted his hands flatly along both sides of the book. "…something isn't right." He ignored the question and swiped at the hand mic instead. "All squads: status report."
There was nothing but static, and the glowing ghoul cursed quietly. After a split-second decision, he reached for his armored vest, snugging the straps tightly around his torso before donning his trench coat. "If you wish to remain here, then by all means, be my guest."
"Hold on now, where are you going?" Campbell was already staring down the sight of his gun aimed towards the floor.
"To the police department." Thomas made a move out the door, giving orders to those few he opted to remain at his side. "One of you watch the scientist until I get back, and keep trying to relay communications with the other squads. Rest with me."
Campbell gave a reassuring squeeze on Lydia's shoulder. "Stick close to me, kay kid?"
Lydia nodded, fighting the fatigue that made her bones feel like sopping, limp noodles. They hurried out from the shell of a hotel known as Tweedy's, stepping through the remainder of a once beautiful glass revolving door; its panes long since shattered and swept to the streets. The air was cold, and the sky was dark with rolling clouds of promised rain, a hint of a moon peeking out every so often. Thankfully, the night was dry as they traversed down the empty avenue.
There was the sound of gunfire and curled screams bouncing around the shuttered buildings and to their ears- it was hard to pinpoint exactly where the carnage was taking place. It echoed as though it was everywhere.
"Hell is going on?" Campbell muttered under his breath, the warm hum of his laser rifle held tightly in his hands.
"Like a goddamn walkin' nightlight." The gruff voice was distant but unmistakable. The group paused in step to the advancing ghouls lumbering side by side down a shadowed alleyway. Cross beckoned at the two smoothskins with a hand. "'Bout damn time Thomas did somethin' useful round here. C'mon, we're leavin' this shithole."
"Where is Evelyn?" Thomas stepped forward, the panic rising from his throat throwing the merc for a turn. It was unlike Thomas to get riled so easily. An accusing look was thrown at Charon, who glowered as a warning. "Why is she not with you? Where is Penny?"
"Don't twist your balls, they're back at the station. I'm here for these chuckle fucks, so don't flatter yourself." Cross felt a thump on his chest as Thomas pushed past. "I just promoted you to Mayor, so, you're welcome."
Thomas spun abruptly on his heel and snapped his jaw open to speak. An explosion from inside of Tweedy's peppered the air with glass and debris; thick, black smoke curled upwards to join the rolling storm above.
The detonation of the old-world hotel building could be heard from inside the police station. Roman immediately went to set foot outside the door, a thunder of his boot stomping against the tile as he moved forward; a ripple of lightning down his spine, flaring the ends of his nerves as Penny held his contract up for him to see. With a frantic shove of the flimsy paper into her pockets that chained his entire being subserviently, she nodded her head to Evelyn.
"Kill anything that tries to stop us," she ordered. Another explosion sounded in the distance, and she turned to the drugged smoothskin sitting deathly quiet in the chair. "Shit, I hope she can make it that far." A smooth hand was touched by the flayed skin of her own. "I'm going to take you back to Cross, do you understand? It's a bit of a walk, but you'll see him again soon, okay?" The lie came out as sweet as the flecks of frosting on the underside of Evelyn's lip. "I know the world feels a little funny, but it won't be soon."
Evelyn lolled her head back and slowly blinked; all of a sudden, her body felt like a wisp of smoke, so light and unmalleable. Wait…what did this ghoul just say to her? She struggled to rise from her seat. "I want Cross."
Penny intervened with an arm tucked underneath Evelyn's shoulder, keeping the woman steady enough on her feet to begin walking forward. "Just come with me, and I'll take you to him." She then dropped any hint of sympathy as she addressed the other ghoul. The ticking from a set timer urged her to evacuate with haste. "Let's hurry."
They ghosted Roman's footsteps with their slower ones as he made to disappear through the double doors- carrying out his new employer's will in the form he most saw fit, which would most likely be bloodshed. Penny breathed in the clear night air tinged with suffocating smoke as they turned a bend and continued down an alley, away from the growing mass of chaos alit in the city center.
