Chapter 18

Flames

Death hurt. Everytime he was shot, torched, pushed off a building, blown up, chopped up, or just expired, Anderson ended up back here. It was a sort of limbo between unconciousness and conciousness, life and death. It was stark white. Just a plain of blinding white. His black suit stood out like a beacon against the blank, and his sunglasses were deep holes.

"Ow," he said, his voice getting swallowed by the emptiness. He fixed his collar and cuffs.

" Guns please," he said. Racks and racks of guns filling up the entire white world whooshed past him like freight trains, blowing his suit. The racks halted and Anderson stared at the shelves of death. Every gun in existence hung on the shelves, from muskets to Tommy Guns to M16's and Abraham L2K experimental shotguns. The Abraham was so new it was still in the planning stages. He walked down the rows, stopping at the pistol section. He grabbed his Desert Eagle off the rack. Holstering that, he continued along. He was going to need some serious firepower to stop Wolf. He grabbed an AA12 full auto shotgun from the rack and cocked it, strapping it to his back. Next he grabbed a satchel charge and strapped it under his coat. And, finally, a Glock 18C machine pistol finished off his arsenal. He clapped twice. The guns disappeared and the floor turned black. He was looking over the earth as if from space.

" San Diego, California," he said. The earth rushed up to meet him and he was looking over the streets of San Diego.

" Hanso Foundation Building," he said. The building came up to meet him. It was in flames, spewing black smoke into the sky. The building then turned into a green grid, as if he were looking at a hologram of the building. He could see the individual people inside. Wolf was currently rushing down a flight of stairs towards the ground floor. The elevators had been knocked out in the explosion. He went down two levels from Wolf and saw a scientist rushing down a hall. He touched the scientist with his finger. His vision went blurry and he took over the scientist's body. He was ready.

The building was a mass of chaos. People were running everywhere, and choking black smoke filled the halls. Anderson took a right, kicking open the stairwell doors. Wolf and his little gang were descending the stairs right in front of him. Anderson was quick to draw his magnum and fire three quick rounds. They dodged out of the way and ran down the stairs, two at a time. He sighed and jumped down the flight, landing right behind them. They kicked open a door into an office block. The glass was shattered here and the roof was caving in. Fire was everywhere, and it was reflected in his sunglasses, making him look like some freakish hellhound.

They split up, all taking different hallways. He put a finger to his earpiece and a second later, twenty Andersons poured into the room from the stairwell. They went in pairs, combing the burning office for the winged kids. Anderson swapped his pistol for the AA12. The AA12 was basically a machine gun loaded with buckshot, with no recoil. It was a very deadly gun. He glanced to his right and caught a glimps of Wolf running by a cubicle. He let off a burst from the shotgun, creating at least forty little holes in the cubicle. And that was from three seconds on the trigger. He took some time now to prime the satchel charge. The explosion would surely bring the building down. Looking up, he saw the bird kids rushing at the windows.

That was when he realized what was happening.

" The windows!" he screamed, rushing towards the glass. " Block the windows!" The Andersons formed a solid line by the sheet of glass. Two had stayed behind to guard the stairwell door. There was no escape. The building was collapsing around them. All they had to do was prevent the hybrids from escaping. Anderson heard a whooshing noise behind him. He recognized it was the flapping of wings. He turned to see the entire Flock speeding towards the window. His eyes widened beneath the sunglasses.

" Kill them!" the Andersons screamed in perfect unison. The drew their Desert Eagles all at the same time and let loose a wall of lead. The noise created by that many Eagles firing at once was usually reserved for several grenades exploding at the same time. It was enough to set your hearing back two years. The glass exploded outwards. Only then did Anderson see that Fang was leading the pack.

" No..." he growled. The silver wings snapped out of Anderson's back and he launched himself into the air, heading right at Fang. His Desert Eagle was in hand, but Fang had a gun as well. He was beggining to like guns apparently. It was a Berretta 92FS. They slammed into each other in mid-air, arms locking to try and throw off his opponents aim. They finally had the guns pointed at the other's head, but they had used up all the ammo. Both of them let their guns plummet to the ground. Anderson took the first strike and grabbed Fang's wings. He brought them together behind the shoulders and watched as Fang plummeted. He snickered at the falling figure and turned to face the full rage of Max. She flew right at him, launching a flurry of blows. He dodged and blocked every attack.

Backhanding her, he drew a switchblade and drew her into his deadly embrace. It would have looked like some demented hug if not for the blade in Max's gut. Anderson drove the blade in over and over, 30 stabs in 30 seconds. She looked dazed if anything. Letting go, he watched her drop. He took a second to wipe the switchblade clean before looking down.

Fang had caught her. The Fang that he had killed twice caught the Max that he had stabbed. Just then the satchel charge exploded, blowing out the entire floor of the building. The building had had enough. It collapsed, the top few floors slammed down into the bottom floors driving through them like a immense elevator to hell., bringing the entire building down. He was sure the original Flock had escaped, but he didn't know what happened to Wolf. He would just have to wait and see.

A/N: So, how many people did I kill in this chapter? Or try to kill? Well, I'm gonna take a break for a bit and let Dreamer write the next chappie. See ya soon!