[Yakov]
My eyes opened slightly, and I realized that the sun wasn’t even over the horizon. The sky was foggy, and it was barely dawn. The group was still asleep, and the fire was now bright embers. My ankle still hurt, but I tried to ignore it. I patched it up with the first aid kit as best as
I could. Wood splints helped keep my balance and take pressure off it. It had been so many years, so many lonely years since I had seen a woman. Especially a woman as beautiful as Nikki, her skin was white like fresh milk and her lips were red as cherries. I watched her curled up in her blanket sleeping her troubles away. I watched her tank top curling down to reveal her busty rack. My tongue licked my lips in lust. I felt urges in me yesterday and now I couldn’t control myself. I had to have her, and I hadn’t felt this strong or young in decades. I had to take her, but I knew she wouldn’t want me. What would an attractive girl like that want with a monster like me? I was the Buka of Russia, and I would have to show her what that meant. All my life I had taken love from the streetwalkers of Russia. I was a modern-day Jack the Ripper, and I knew habits wouldn’t die hard. I had to have her, to taste her.
I slowly began to rise from my blanket. The pain in my ankle was shooting up my body.
I ignored it as I crept through the clearing. I saw that Jacob was lying by the fire with his stupid mutt lying next to him. I saw her raise her head watching me. Her brown eyes locked on me as I raised my hands and motioned towards my right. I didn’t want that stupid mutt to warn the others. I began to move towards Nikki as the dog put its head back down returning to its slumber. I moved towards Nikki and crouched through the grass. She was dead asleep, and I didn’t want to wake her. I had to be gentle, well at least in the beginning. I moved her body over as softly as I could turning her on her back.
She began to stir slightly as her head shook. “Wha…” she said sleepily as her eyes began to shake open. I placed my hand over her mouth, “quiet bitch! We’re gunna finish what Yakov started.” Her eyes opened wider as she gave out a muffled, “help!” Her words were garbled as she tried to fight me off. “QUIET,” I whispered loudly at her as I watched her reaching for her
fanny pack. I grabbed her wrist with a “oh no, no, no, no sweetie!” She wrestled with me more violently trying to call for help.
Releasing her wrist, I began to punch her head repeatedly. Each blow shook her and each one seemed to slow her down. She began to struggle less and less. I gave one final punch and she let out a soft sigh blacking out. I gazed up staring over the tall grass at the group. Nobody had moved, but Raska seemed to be stirring over his blanket. I waited several seconds but he seemed to fall back asleep. I pulled off her shorts and could feel myself shutter in anticipation.
It had been decades since I had this moment. Unbuckling my pants, I watched her face cringe as I roughly forced myself inside of her.
She lay motionless taking the brunt of my thrusts. Needless to say, it felt amazing. I felt surges in my body that brought back fond memories. My attention if possible was distracted by another member of our team. It was that loudmouthed black soldier Raska. I stopped thrusting and slowed to a crawl as I watched him move catlike through the camp. He made his way towards one of the white boys in our group. The white boy that thought he was smarter than Garry Kasparov. Raska moved his hands over the dark blue prison jumpsuit. It seemed that he was looking for something. Raska patted him down gently as if not to wake him. I could hear him muttering softly. Muttering to the world, “where is it, where is it white fish?”
There came a loud CLICK as something white emerged from behind several bushes. It was the short Chinese man with his silver pistol pointing directly at Raska’s head. “Well, looky looky,” replied Raska as he stared at the Chinese man motioning him to back away. “Alright, alright,” Raska raised his hands. “I wasn’t going to hurt him or anything.” Chris woke with a stir, “what’s going on? What the hell? Raska, what the fuck are you doing?” Chris pushed
Raska back as he scrambled to his feet. “Hey, hey white fish watch yourself. I’m just claiming what should rightfully be mine. After all, I did ask you for it and I told you that we had unfinished business.”
His words died when I heard a laughing in my ear. It was high pitched and made everybody in the camp rise off their blankets. I gazed up into the barely rising sun. The green cloud was fading fast replaced with a very fine mist. It was like the last remnants of dying candle. I turned back towards my blonde goddess and saw that she was laughing. She was laughing hysterically, “stop it!” Everybody turned and looked at me. They saw me through the tall grass, pants down and between her legs. She was laughing uncontrollably, “shut up, shut up, shut up!” Her hand moved quickly, and I saw for a split second a tiny mason jar. It flew to my face and before I could react smashed over the top half of my face. My eye patch covered my eye, but the fiery sensation burned my cheek, neck, and deep into my very skull. I screamed loudly as I recoiled backwards. Pants still down I grasped at my face in excruciating pain. I could feel my skin melting as I tore off into the trees. My face melted as I tore away from the group. I couldn’t even hear Nikki’s screams anymore. I kept running into the forest until I tripped from my pants. I felt an ice-cold feeling surge through my body. I had run into a river and dunked my body underneath it. I tried to wash away the acid as fast as I could.
[Nikki]
The bottle smashed over his wrinkled face with a loud CRACK! His eye patch helped to protect the only eye that still worked. I watched his cheek singe red but that is not what drew my attention. My hand took the acid too and I screamed as my hand shook violently. The pain was indescribable as I watched a vapor permeating off my hand and arm. I didn’t mean to follow
Yakov, but I ran as fast as I could. I was stumbling as I did unable to keep myself balanced.
Luckily, I found a river and immediately ran towards it soaking my entire arm in it. It was ice cold but immediately felt better when the acid began to wash off. I felt a relief take over me like the final moments of sexual intercourse. I gazed around and saw that Yakov was drifting down the rushing river. He was being carried away and then around the bend disappearing from sight.
I heard a small SPLASH and saw that Kiyoshi was standing next to me. He had taken off his black sunglasses and his sleeves were rolled up. He was washing his hands and putting water over his shaved head. He turned to me with water running down his face. “Don’d tink vou’re etting any phree ooks der Zrimpy!” I watched his lips turn into a smirk and he motioned towards my arm, “da e’m arigt.” I turned and looked down the river again and then back to Kiyoshi. “I tink…I tink e’s jone.” Kiyoshi smirked again and just nodded. The cold morning wind seemed to travel down my bare ass and soon I was starting to feel extremely exposed.
“Ey Kijoshe, kan vou jo rab my zhorts? I’m eeling a liddle…Kijoshe, Kijoshe?” I saw Kiyoshi staring at something across the lake. I watched his eyes widen and his hands seemed to shake. I watched a terror seem to come over him. I turned to look across the riverbank and saw what made him shudder. It was a European man, but it was not Yakov. His skin was gray and dead looking. His eyes were white and milky with muddy hair falling around his head. Clothes torn and raggedy with sprinkles of blood covering over his moldy coat. “Wo de ell es dat?” My whisper seemed to be mutually felt between the two of us. I didn’t know what to say. I felt frozen to the spot. My arm still plunged deep in the flowing river. The mysterious man swayed slightly in the breeze seemingly rooted in place.
“Hey guys,” trampling through the small patch of forest Kiyoshi and I turned towards the sound. It was Chris, “hey you two, I saw Yakov drifting down the river. I don’t think he’ll be back…” I turned back to the opposite bank and saw to my horror that the man was gone. I watched Kiyoshi do the same, “what the hell is wrong with you two?” I seemed unable to explain what we had seen, and Kiyoshi seemed perplexed too.
Chris must have taken our silence as confusion. “Look that green mist is about to die which means our eight hours is almost up. We are getting together and deciding what we should do.” He stared at us both one more time before asking, “are you sure you guys are, ok? You both look like you’ve seen a ghost.” The silence continued so Chris said, “alright hurry up…oh and by the way, nice ass Nikki.” He gave a pompous look and then turned his back heading back towards the camp. “Ve arn’t a lone,” I finally found my voice and Chris turned around, “what do you mean?” “Ve zaw zombode, der!” I pointed across the bank towards the patch of trees where I had seen the man. “What did you see?” Chris seemed extremely interested and I began to explain everything.
The group didn’t take well to the information that Kiyoshi and I had told Chris. Many of them wrote it off as a delusion. “Et vazn’t eluzion Kijoshe zaw em doo!” Shaking his head Raska snarled, “you’re a liar…BOTH of you!” “Jacob, you have seen footprints all over the place, right?” Jacob nodded, “but those could have been from previous groups. We don’t know how many Hunts have been conducted.” “How do you explain the barefoot prints then?” Jacob stood silently, “I don’t know boy!” “I believe Nikki and Kiyoshi. I don’t believe that we are alone out here.”
We all stood silently around the supply dump for several minutes. “Alright fine then let’s just put that to the side right now. We have only a couple minutes left. So, let’s figure out what we are going to do, ok?” Aednat patted Chris on the shoulder, “I think Chris that we should get the hell out of here!” “What about the creature?” Anton’s question seemed to hit everybody with a strange smell. Everybody looked at everybody else and then we all turned to Jacob.
“Why are you all looking at me?” Chris gave an exhausted, “well you’re an animal poacher, right? So, what’re your thoughts?” “My thoughts,” Chris nodded, “do you think it’s still alive?”
Jacob shrugged, “I believe we are all under the assumption that it is either a werewolf or werebear…am I correct?” Everyone turned to each other again and gave very reluctant nods of agreement. “Well, the only thing I have ever heard is that silver bullets kill a werewolf. I would assume the same thing for a…werebear. However, since none of us have any, I guess that answers your question.” “Alright so then we can assume that we can’t kill it.” Raska’s words fell on everybody like a bag of rocks. “I guess there’s no point in continuing this fool’s quest to kill the creature?” Chris had turned to Jacob who gave an angry, “I guess not white boy!” “So, I guess that means that we look for a way out, right?” Everybody waited and then finally nodded in agreement. “Good because the time is almost up.”
Gathering up our weapons and the few supplies that we still had our group was ready to move within a matter of minutes. “So which way to the wall,” asked Raska who double checked his loaded magazine. “If we have just left Pripyat like the note said we should keep heading south towards Chernobyl. We can walk around it and get closer to Kiev. “I agree we go south,”
Jacob stared up at the rising sun. “We followed the creature south all day and what about Yakov’s bow and…”
He stopped when a red light started blinking from the laptop. Aednat made her way towards it wrapping her black scarf around her face. Chris asked, “what’s it say?” Aednat gave a confused, “it’s counting down?” Chris waved at her, “oh it’s just saying the time we have left until the green mist stops.” Shaking her head confused, “it’s not that there’s something odd about it.” “Forget it,” said Anton as he moved away from the group, “go on Jacob lead the way.”
“Lead the way, what do you mean lead the way? You’re not my boss boy!” Anton crossed his arms behind his back “you know, do your thing and lead us south.” “You wanna grab your best friend Mwai over there or are we just going to leave him?” “I thought I told you guys I don’t touch darkies.” “Fine, I will,” Chris said walking over to Mwai who had seemed to recover miraculously overnight. He was sitting with his back to a tree. He sat drifting in and out of sleep. I watched him still clenching his side, but the paleness of his skin had ebbed away. Chris gave him a little kick in his leg. “Hey Mwai wake up, you ready because we’re moving out?
Aednat…Aednat, help me get this guy up! After all you’re the one that’s all about brotherhood…Aednat?”
“GET BACK, it’s a bomb!” Aednat had risen from her knees and began pushing people away continuously screaming, “It’s a bomb, it’s a bomb!” The ground erupted like an earthquake. I watched several people fly through the air as I took cover hitting the ground. I watched Anton, Raska, and Hakeem do a cartwheel in the air before crumpling to the ground.
The supply dump erupted into splinters and pieces leaving nothing behind but rubble. Smoke was the only thing that filled the air, and it covered the area in a thick dark fog.
It took me a while before I started to gather myself together. I wiped dirt from my body as I saw our group scattered over the area. Everybody seemed to be shaken up and taken off guard. I could start hearing groans and moans from the others as they began to stir. I was the
first to start getting to my feet. I continued to wipe the dirt away and I didn’t even notice the trees beginning to part. I didn’t even notice the sun turning slightly black from the giant beast leaping through the air. It crashed onto the rubble with a THUD. I didn’t have any time to acknowledge its presence. I felt its plated paw backhand me and send me flying backwards. It roared loudly and slashed at Raska whose weapon flew like a frisbee from his hands. The beast turned and snapped at Anton who tripped over several pieces of broken wood. Raska had removed his throwing clubs from his back. He smashed one on the beast’s head with a sickening THUD. It broke sending the club head to fly in the air and become lost in the scuffle. The beast slashed its claws, which Raska avoided with a limbo like duck. He sent his other club smashing across its jaws. It snapped just like the first club and seemed to have broken the beast’s lower jaw.
The creature had taken everybody by surprise. I instantly turned to the first shots and realized that it was Mwai. He clenched his stomach like he had done yesterday. I watched him raise his gun with one hand shooting wildly at the creature. The creature seemed attracted to the noise and turned with a roar at Mwai. Mwai began to run from the group pushing off trees in his haste. The creature ignored the other shots and the others scrambling to their feet. It chased after Mwai smashing down small bushes and leaving large gashes in the thick trees. Mwai was running wildly and soon I lost sight of him. I saw a member of our group leap over me. It was Aednat followed by Jacob. Anton shook his head in disbelief, “I’m not chasing that thing!”
Now I had to decide, do I stay with the rest of the group or follow Mwai?
[Mwai]
I ran knowing that my life was about to end. I ran until my legs hurt. The pain in my side was beyond words but I kept running. I couldn’t remember much of yesterday. Frankly, I thought I had died. I heard the creature’s ragged breathing behind me as it was gaining on me.
A rift in the ground was approaching. It seemed to be a deep valley and I was running out of land. It was a dead end, and the other side was too far to be jumped. I reached into my waistline and pulled out my pistol. I stopped and turned as quickly as I could firing wildly at the approaching creature. I fired until my pistol clicked empty, but the creature was not there. It had disappeared. I stared up at the treetops and there it was hanging from a large branch snarling down at me. Its red eye swirled with a mechanical whir as it focused down at me. It bared its plated teeth eerily as I dropped my pistol. I was shaking violently and grabbed a magazine from my belt buckle. I dropped the first one and then reached around and grabbed another one. My eyes never left the creature as I struggled to put in the magazine. I slammed it in my AK and clicked back the chamber. I watched the creature dig its claws into the tree preparing to lunge at me.
I noticed the ravine and then the tree. It only took a second for a plan to develop in my head. I shot wildly at the tree trunk just below the creature. The tree shattered and a loud cracking could be heard. The tree began to tilt and fall towards the ravine. The creature clenched on tighter but finally let go and fell with it. The tree crashed over the ravine taking the beast with it. I watched it disappear from sight and felt a sigh of relief escape me. I reached down to grab my magazine and pistol when I stopped suddenly. A sharp pain shot through my body and the world seemed to have gotten colder. I stared at my hand and saw it turning gray. It seemed as if it was dying. My insides began to burn, and I clamped my wound tighter across my side. My body felt like it was turning to ice. I began to shake violently as my vision began to
grow cloudy. I began to walk thinking maybe if I kept moving the pain would ebb. I began to walk with no idea where, but I kept moving. My breathing began to grow shallower. I felt like I was dying.
I heard a sound behind me that I had never heard before. It was a rustling sound, but it was accompanied by a loud grunting. I peered over my shoulder and to my horror I saw the creature. It was clawing its way back up the side and hopped onto the edge. It popped upright sniffing the air for me. It didn’t take long for it to turn its head and focus on me. I raised my gun, and it clicked empty. I groaned a little unable to find words. My brain seemed to be growing slower as if I had been up for three days straight.
I stumbled as fast as I could and moved away from the creature. I heard a tree smash to the ground and knew the creature would be upon me in seconds. I reached for my pistol and realized that it was gone. I couldn’t remember what had happened to it. I felt my body drop as I tumbled down a hill cutting myself up even more. I fell several feet until I crashed against something metal that stopped my rolling. I rubbed my head as I struggled to my feet. I realized that it was a mining track. I didn’t have time to sit back and wonder what it was doing out here.
I struggled walking feeling my body growing weaker. I made my way through the small ravine weaving through the turns. The creature slamming against the wall making the ravine rocks resemble a moving snake. I thought I was going to be in the clear until my heart sunk. I had reached a dead end. The track line curved and I realized what it was for. A collapsed mine lay to the right of me, and a nine-foot rock wall stood in front of me.
This was it I had reached the end. I turned and saw the large creature emerge from around the bend. Its black fur was thick and mated with dried mud and blood. It roared at me
like a bear would anticipating an upcoming meal. I reached over my body and realized that my AK was gone as well as my pistol. I had nothing else on me, until I felt something familiar.
Something that I had almost forgotten about. My fingers curled around the custom grip of my machete. The reason why people called me “The Butcher”. The machete that had made me a terror in my home country and feared among the people. My brain seemed unable to function anymore. I felt ashamed that I had nearly forgotten about it. I unsheathed it from my pants and withdrew it slowly. I gave it a sloppy twirl as my vision began to blur even more.
The beast seemed to have given one last snarl as it raised its head back and howled loudly to the sky. It charged right at me as I waited for the large creature to collide into me. I saw its enormous claw slash at me as I dodged it easily. His other claw slashed, and I dodged it too. I ducked under it and slashed the machete across the beast’s chest. The creature snapped at me and sank its jaws into my shoulder. I felt my arm break under its titanium plated teeth. My entire body seemed to collapse under the bite. I screamed loudly as the creature tore at me. I inserted the machete into the creature’s gut, and it pulled away howling loudly into the air. It took a step back as I nearly collapsed against the rock wall. The creature slashed again, and I dodged it. Raising the machete with the last ounces of strength I had I sent it slashing towards the creature’s head. It cut through the top of it cutting it at a diagonal. The computerized eye patch flew off the top of the creature’s head sending a jet of dark blood to fountain straight into the air. The decapitated body struggled on two feet until it finally moved backwards and slumped against the opposite dirt wall dying upright.
I took a large breath and felt my legs growing weaker. It felt like I was breathing in a cold wintery air. I grasped my chest as I leaned backwards trying to stand up. “Mwai,” I gazed up and saw several figures standing at the edge of the hole. “Wow it looks like an abandoned
mine.” I realized that Chris had been speaking to me, “fuck…off…white…boy!” My words were struggled as my breathing began to grow raspy turning into a slight wheeze at the end. “I didn’t think you had it left in you, but I guess the big man still has some fight in him.” I watched Raska shoulder his gun and continue, “and right at the end too. You look like you’re a breath away from death. Hell, even Hakeem here looks healthier than you…AND that’s saying something!” SLAM… CRASH, the body of the beast jerked violently and then began to slam against the wall. It was twirling and spinning over the wall as if having an upright seizure. I watched the beast spin violently swinging its claws sending dirt and rock to scatter through the air. I raised my machete to strike but was unable to calculate the creature’s moves. They were random and bent on complete destruction. I eyed the spinning and watched his every move but the cloudiness in my eyes grew thicker and I made a decision.
I took a sloppy swing and missed. I spun in my spot as I felt the steel claw plate hit my back. I felt my body fly towards the mine shaft. I directed my collision and hit the wall instead.
I heard a loud BANG…BANG. I watched as the beast stopped spinning and took several shotgun like blasts. It flew backwards crashing into the back of the mine shaft. I felt its large palm grip the side of the mine which meant I was stuck in the creature’s grip. I tried to slash at it with my machete, but my good arm was pinned. I heard more shots BANG…BANG and then a loud CRASH! The creature’s claws dug into the side of my body. I gave a loud scream as the creature took me down the shaft with it.
[Nikki]
I watched Mwai fall through the mine shaft. The creature was taking him with letting Mwai fall to his death. Raska was yelling loudly pointing a sawed-off shotgun where Mwai once
stood. “WHOO HOO, now that’s what I’m talking about!” I realized that Mwai was now gone.
The first member of our team was dead. Nobody seemed to speak as everyone stared at the mine. It was Raska that broke the silence again. “Well at least that fool took the creature with him, probably killed it too this time.” Chris began to make his way down into the ravine towards the mine shaft. “It will be back just as it did before.” Raska laughed at Jacob, “you must be crazy Dundee, a quarter of that creature’s skull is missing! Nothing could survive that!” Aednat hopped down into the ravine and followed Chris almost tripping over the mining rail line. “And where, the hell have you been this entire time? The creature has come back before, and I’ll bet it will come back again!” Shaking his head Chris began to examine the computerized eye patch.
“It can’t be just for vision. It’s gotta do other stuff, maybe thermal but I don’t know!”
[ THE GETAWAY]
“Thorbjorn, my friend what are you doing up here at the bar all alone? Please come join us all in the Spa!” Ron smiled idiotically as he pulled up a seat next to Thorbjorn. “Come on my friend don’t be so down in the dumps. You knew Mwai wasn’t going to last the whole time…especially, after the injury he sustained. Mwai was too arrogant to make it to the end and win.” Thorbjorn waved his hand at the bartender, “bring me another one!” Ron smiled at the man, “you know what I like boy. You are one of the few that have the privilege of serving the great Ron Reid!” The bartender gave a forced smile and began digging behind the bar.
“What are the Candidates doing now?” Ron stared up at the television, “they kicked the mechanical eye down the shaft… and now there just talking.” “And Creature X,” Ron smiled at Thorbjorn, “returning to Chernobyl to regenerate and receive a new eye patch.” Slapping his back, “the doctors didn’t think about the side effects of the regenerative blood now did they, my
friend? Funny how it has such beneficial effects to Yakov. But when inflicted by Creature X
itself…” “Mhm,” Thorbjorn continued to stare down at his drink solemnly. “Come on Thorbjorn, don’t be so down!” “I lost THOUSANDS of dollars on that piece of shit,” “forget about it my friend! We all lose thousands at one point that’s the whole point of the betting.
Look at me, I was upset before and I see from the odds that Hakeem doesn’t have a chance at making it. But come on Thorbjorn do I still not look worried. It’s the Hunt buddy sometimes the betting doesn’t go the way you want it too. I remember this one time it was…” “That’s great Ron can you please shut up!”
Ron recoiled slightly and took the drink the bartender gave him, a martini with three olives. He sipped it and stared up at the television, “oh look they are heading south again. They are going to end up near Chernobyl soon, probably stay at the hospital. Cheer up Thorbjorn that’s always fun to watch huh?” Downing a glass of scotch Thorbjorn shook his head, “how long until Creature X regenerates?” “Board says couple of hours this time. And look at that there’s a herd of undead heading west. They might end up running into each other too.” “That’s great Ron, you know what I think I will go to the spa after all.” Clapping him on the back again,
“that’s great my friend! Let those ladies work out your worries!”
The Dead Hospital
[Hakeem]
The demon was gone or at least for the moment. I was unsure when it would come back only that it would be back. Maybe the rest of the group could deny it. However, I knew that a demon like that would never be able to die. No, a creature like that would have to be torn apart.
Nobody seemed to care about my opinion or what I thought. That to me was just fine, I didn’t mind. They were fools, all of them. They thought that they could control the situation, but they were the ones that were left in the dark.
The paralyzing powder that I had put on my wounds had done the job. However, I could feel myself beginning to limp again. My wound was starting to ache. I had only one bandanna left filled with a ball of paralyzing powder. I didn’t want to break it unless I absolutely had to. I followed the group south, but I tried to stay towards the back, my appearance frightened them.
They were right to think that. That blonde piece of art walking several bodies ahead of me would not give me the time of day. She was unimpressed with me and wasn’t a simple-minded fool that could be bent with parlor tricks. She was a one of a kind piece of art.
My mind drifted in and out of their conversation. That white boy Chris was insistent on questioning everything. I wanted to teach him that sometimes belief takes precedence over science. “I just don’t understand how a werewolf or werebear can stay in that form the entire time! It defies every and all legends and myths. Jacob, Jacob when you caught the creature did you…” “Let me stop you right there white boy…right there. When I first caught the creature, I didn’t know what it was, nor did I care as long as the money was good.” “I just wish I knew the
answer,” Chris continued. Raska broke his muttering, “oh will you just shut up white boy…questions, questions, always questions! If you really want to know, why don’t you ask your dirty voodoo friend. He might have the answers you want!”
I didn’t think that I would wait so long until the white boy came to me for answers. He acted like he was sucking up his pride as he approached me. “So, um…Hakeem, you have been quiet pretty much this whole time. What is your take on all this?” “You aren’t ready for what I have to say.” “I have explored every option, every answer, and every possibility.” I shook my head, “then you have not discovered all possibilities.” Grabbing my arm, he gave a quick, “then tell me freak, tell me what I’m missing! Is it a werebear or werewolf? It is a werewolf, isn’t it?”
I threw him off of me as I felt my eyes grow wide with anger. “Do not lay your hands on me boy! I assure you that it is a demon from the other side and that it will be back!”
I stormed away following the group who began to trail the track line.
“Demon…werewolf…werebear, how…how can it keep coming back and during the daylight?”
“It is a demon and has always been a demon.” Chris shook his head as he continued with the group, “So, it never changes form?” “Indeed,” I replied as we continued to march south. I watched Nikki continuing to move as I began to catch up with her. I watched her eyes opening and closing as she seemed on the verge of sleep walking. I turned and saw Jacob leading the group rifle raised high with Lefu sniffing ahead of him. “How do you know that it will come back?” I didn’t respond to the white boy’s questions. He was growing tiresome, and I bored with his thirst for knowledge. I also saw out of the corner of my eye Raska. He was eyeing Chris like a hungry lion waiting for the right moment to pounce on a zebra. “HEY,” Chris was yelling at me and just when I was about to respond there came a loud SNAP!
Nikki screamed loudly as she gripped her leg. Blood covered her hands as she had stepped in a rusty bear trap. Her screaming made me place my hands over my ears as I could feel Mumbato curling in his leather satchel. Jacob made his way over to the trap and began to examine it. “GET IT OUT…” Jacob spoke as loudly as he could, “Nikki you need to calm down, don’t pull at it. NO, don’t pull at it you’re just gunna make it worse!”
Jacob continued to exam it before he muttered, “leaf spring trap, very hard to remove.”
Chris was going to speak but Jacob spoke first. “Quiet, I need everybody to be quiet!” Jacob motioned his hand under the plate and began to fiddle with the trap. He pushed down on the springs and plate until the trap’s teeth creaked open. She pulled out her leg and fell backwards resting against a thick tree. Blood was running down her ankle and soaking her shoe.
Her teeth clenched in agony to show the masked pain she was holding in. “Es…ok…I tink…I kan till…valk,” Nikki groaned her statement. She slowly lowered her leg back to the ground and tested it like a calf walking for the first time. She applied pressure to it, but nearly fell over as Raska caught her. She pushed him away immediately. Jacob shook his head, “this is a modern trap. So, she won’t be able to walk on it.” Chris came forward and began to examine her leg, “does this hurt?” She hollered loudly “Vat o vou tink vhite oy?” Chris backed up, “I don’t think it’s broken. Although, she has severely fractured her tibia and fibula bones that’s for sure.” Jacob shouldered his gun, “she is dead weight.” Raska smiled, “I’ll carry her!” Nikki gritted her teeth, “so vou an kop ore pheels on e, nod a kance en ell. Kris kan vou elp me?”
Chris groaned slightly, “I already got a busted arm so no, I can’t. If somebody else wants to that’s fine but like Jacob said you’re nothing but dead weight now.” “I vant obody else vo arry me yust ou.” I watched Chris contort his face in thought. Tearing off his sleeve of his
corrections jumpsuit, he sloppily tied it around Nikki’s wound. “That’ll hold...for a while. At least, until we can use the first aid kit and patch you up.”
Chris did carry Nikki, but he grumbled the entire time. How did she get Chris to do what she wished? All she had to do was flash her puffy lips and bat her eyes leaving Chris to drool over her. We continued to walk eventually breaking through the forest and ending up in an open grassland. It looked familiar and Raska seemed to shout my thoughts. “What the hell Dundee some tracker you are! I wouldn’t hire you to find my missing keys! You have taken us in a complete circle!”
Raska began arguing with Jacob as I watched Aednat walk up to Chris. “Hey Chris, I know you are kinda busy in your head but there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you. How do we get off these ankle bracelets?” Chris grunted under Nikki’s weight, “You’re the explosive expert, aren’t you? Why are you asking me?” Aednat gave an angry, “this is different than a mere pipe bomb or rigging a car with sticks of dynamite.” “I really don’t know Aednat but I can take a look at it again.” Nodding his head but Raska’s shouting voice filled the air. “What do you mean we are not going in circles…take a look around Jacob!”
“Raska, my loudmouth friend do you notice something here that we have not yet seen?”
Raska began to look around and then back at Jacob who gave a little sigh of frustration. “You see,” Jacob pointed down a small hill to reveal two steel rails running the entire land. “Yea Jacob its the rail track.” Jacob shook his head, “no Raska a TRAIN track. We haven’t seen that before.” Raska grew silent and Jacob smiled in a small sense of satisfaction. He turned and instead of heading south he started to follow the tracks southeast. “Jacob, shouldn’t we be heading directly south!” Aednat was running up to Jacob who gave a quick, “no we should
follow these tracks. These tracks will eventually lead us to a city.” “Or to Chernobyl,” Chris’s was pointing towards a set of radiation cooling towers in the distance. Looks like the tracks are heading that way. We can’t go that way, Jacob…Jacob? Jacob, we have to go around it! It’s too dangerous.” I watched Jacob turn and snarl at him, “Listen boy you guys wanna hit the wall, right? You think we should go to Kiev, right? You say Kiev is south of Pripyat, right? Well, that is where we are going! You know the old saying when lost in the woods follow the river.
Train tracks are necessarily the same thing, ok? So, if you want to go a different way be my guest!”
An hour later Jacob’s directions had been proven true. The tracks combined into other tracks merging into an abandoned train railyard. Scattered trains littered the tracks, and some were left lying on their sides. We walked through the train graveyard as Jacob still muttered out to everybody about footprints and bullet casings. I saw red flags scattered over the area, which the group had discovered were land mines. We avoided those at all costs as we continued towards the large buildings standing in the distance. “Where the hell are…” My question faltered as my eyes landed on the hammer and sickle painted on one of the buildings’ walls. “I think that we are in the outskirts of Chernobyl now. I hope that we don’t get radiation poisoning.” I watched Raska push past me laughing hysterically, “white boy you funny! We got one more day to live and your worried about dying from radiation.”
I heard them arguing but I just repeated the name “Chernobyl?” I stared around at the sight of our abandoned surroundings lying like a ghost town. The scattered upright buildings were losing against their mutual enemy, nature. “Look this one must be another apartment complex and this one is a hospital.” Aednat was pointing to a large three story building shaped like a lunch box. “Let’s go there we can rest up and figure out our next move,” Aednat did not
need to speak twice. Chris gave an exasperated, “whatever we’re going to do let’s make it quick.
This bitch is getting heavy.” Nikki was growing slightly pale. Her injured leg was bleeding profusely still.
Everyone seemed to agree about staying at the hospital. Even the racist white boy was pushing ahead of us. His machine gun slung over his back with his hands smugly crossed behind him too. He was acting like a commanding general out for a morning stroll. He stared up at the hospital and said, “we should go up to the top floor and seize the high ground. This will give us the perfect vantage. We can see the creature coming a mile away including if it tries to sneak through the train yard.” Nobody responded to Anton as everyone seemed too tired from all the walking we had done. Even my worm-infested feet were starting to throb with more pain than usual. The stinging in my leg began to intensify. I just hoped there was something still in the hospital that would help me.
We sluggishly moved up the concrete stairs as the sun was now starting its descent in the sky. Aednat called out staring at the large dusty atrium, “yep, this looks like the safest place to stay…” “Well, a hospital would be a great place for us to address our injuries you stupid Irish…” “VOULD VOU BLEASE RAZKA?” Nikki yelled with her arm still slung over Chris’s shoulders. “I svear ef vou eep fiting I vill kill vou bof!” Nikki snarled one last time before we all made our way up the stairs. “It looks like people have been here…and recently too.” Jacob ignored Aednat’s comment as I stared over the blood spattered walls. I turned and watched him bend down with Lefu beginning to trace something on the ground. “There are more footprints here then I have seen before. Lefu is on edge and nervous.” Bullet casings littered the stairs.
Jacob picked one up and smelled it, “it’s old. There was a firefight here.” He picked up another casing, “different rounds…different guns.”
We headed up the stairs as Jacob continued to scan the ground. “There are footprints everywhere, a lot of foot traffic.” Everyone seemed to ignore Jacob’s comments. Jacob raised his hand to stop the group at the second-floor. The dried blood continued to pattern across every walls. The second floor was destroyed with the addition of bloody handprints on the rotting wall. Jacob approached a blood smudge on the wall and traced it with his finger. It took several seconds before Raska broke the silence. “Well, what should we do next Einstein?” We all were silent even Jacob. He scratched off the blood from the wall and then had Lefu smell it. Lefu gave a startled look and growled. Jacob wiped his hands off and turned to us all. “We can’t stay here.” “What,” yelled Chris almost out of breath. “Fuck you Jacob we’re staying here unless you want to carry this bitch!” Shaking his head, “I didn’t say to take her in the first place. This is not a safe place to stay for the night.” Chris began to push past him, “get out of my way…” I watched Jacob grab him,” listen to me boy and listen good, ok? I am a man that knows how to survive and if you want to survive this night, we will go someplace else…now!”
Chris now was looking curious, “why, it’s a hospital? We can find supplies here and patch up.” “You see this,” Jacob was pointing at the largest of bloody spots. “This is a shoulder mark. This blood trail lining the wall is somebody dragging their body across it. This blood here is not normal blood. Lefu does not like it, I don’t like it. I think this place is a trap. We’re made to think we can be safe here, but it ends up being…” Chris cut him off, “LOOK Jacob, let’s just patch up, find what we can, and then get the hell out alright? Almost everybody is injured and…” “FINE…” Jacob was beet red, “but as soon as we are patched up, we are out of here agreed?”
We all marched up to the fourth floor and saw an almost blown out building with dirt, overturned gurney beds, and broken pieces of concrete everywhere. We all headed to the far-
right corner of the large dilapidated wing. “I guess this is as good as it is going to get,” muttered Aednat. The large room had two large windows that spanned the entire room. “We got a near perfect view of everything. Jacob and I can take points at opposite ends of the floor.” Jacob bent down over a large pile of black ashes and burnt wood. He ran his hand over it and then stood back up. “People have used this room before for resting.” Aednat turned towards Jacob,
“can you just take the room down the hall that way we can cover this place.”
Jacob checked his gun over and said, “Lefu and I are going to take a look around and make sure everything is clear. There is no need for any of that just patch up everybody and then we move. You got twenty minutes, so if you’re not done, Lefu and I are leaving.” Jacob took one final look at everybody as Chris set Nikki down on a muddy gurney bed. “Only the Irish would pick the room with a near collapsed roof.” “Just don’t hit those support columns and you’ll be fine Raska.” Walking over to Nikki, Aednat leaned her rifle on the wall and pulled out the few remaining medical supplies she still had. “Chris go around and see if you can find anymore supplies.” “Oh yeah right away, I just dragged that bitch 20 miles with a broken arm while the rest of you.” “Listen Chris, you are prisoner! Raska, Anton, and I have combat experience who do you think should be watching who?” “What about Hakeem or Kiyoshi?”
Aednat stared at us both, “look I don’t want that walking disease anywhere near us, but we need him. Kiyoshi has patience and discipline. Now you go look for supplies!” “Don’t you ever talk that way to me you, stupid Irish bitch. After I’m through skull drilling her guess who I am coming for…” “Hey, what the hell Kiyoshi?” Kiyoshi was tugging on the scarf of Aednat.
“What the hell are you pointing at?” Shaking her head she turned to Anton, “fine Chris don’t’ do anything ok? Listen Anton can you go around and check for any medical supplies that might be in the building?” I was too busy paying attention to everything else that I didn’t even notice
Aednat yelling at me. I turned to her as she scowled, “you deaf too?” I smiled, “I hear more then you could possibly imagine little lady.” She smiled sarcastically, “Oh yeah do you think you could build a small fire for the time being?”
I left the room looking for things to burn in the fire. I walked into the room across from us. It seemed like a nursery a long time ago. The roof was in bad shape and dead leaves scattered the floor. In the middle of the floor sat a model train set probably the most popular toy.
Other toys scattered the floor, moldy teddy bears, and rusted tin toys. There was another room in the far-right corner. I moved towards it realizing that it was a large bathroom. I noticed several urinals and toilets on the right wall and a couple glass showers on the left.
I continued my search for burnable items making my way down the deserted hallway towards the opposite end. I found Chris and Kiyoshi together as he was showing Chris something in the distance. “It’s the wall,” he said loudly. We reached the border.” Kiyoshi nodded and I left them alone in the room. I gathered up broken chairs and wooden boxes and brought them back to the makeshift camp. I started making the fire when Kiyoshi made a motion to where the wall was and then motioned towards his bracelet. Aednat shook her head as she tended to Nikki’s leg, “I don’t know what that means! By the sacred mother, I wish you could speak.” “He says that Chris and him found the outer wall.” Aednat stopped with Nikki and raised her head to me. I saw her eyes open wide, “the border wall?” I nodded and continued,
“so he is going to check something out with the ankle bracelet. Is that right?” Kiyoshi nodded at me and Aednat shook her head returning to Nikki, “He shouldn’t go alone, what if the creature comes back?”
After a couple minutes, I had built a fire for the group. Although, I was unsure as to how to light it. Aednat had cleaned Nikki to the best of her ability especially with the limited amount of medical supplies that Anton could find. A couple strips of gauze, a container of Hydrogen Peroxide, medical tape, clean sheets, and some over the counter pain pills. Jacob had returned and gave a little, “building is clear but there are many entry points. It’s impossible to cover them all. I need to take a breather before we move out.” Jacob pulled up an empty milk cart and sat by my unlit fire. “Why are you building a fire Hakeem?” “I asked him to Jacob. I might need to cauterize her wounds in a minute. I need to see how the bandages hold up. Besides Chris left to go check the wall…” “Check the wall,” Jacob repeated. Aednat was running her hands over Nikki’s calf, “yeah we reached the border wall.” Jacob watched her and then said to me, “how do you plan on lighting that fire?” I shrugged at him, “that’s what I thought, move aside now boy move aside.”
Jacob lit the fire faster than I expected. I joined him and even Nikki was able to hobble her way to the fire. She began pulling up very close to Jacob as Aednat made her way towards the window. She posted up her rifle and stared out across the urban landscape with everyone gathering around the fire. “I guess there’s no point in moving out if we are where we need to be.
What do you think Lefu? Lefu was watching Nikki, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. We all sat unsure of what to do or how to plan are next move. There was no doubt that I saw the confusion in Jacob’s face. He was a man torn between leaving and staying.
Anton spoke what I had been thinking. “So, what’s our next move? We can’t necessarily sit here all night. According to the guy on the video we only have one more day.” Aednat continued to stare out the window, “we wait for Chris to come back. If anybody can figure out anything he could.” “If he comes back,” Nikki continued to stare at Jacob seemingly waiting to
make a move. “He’ll be back Jacob, he’ll be back. You watch for a while will ya?” Jacob shouldered his weapon seemingly happy to be rid of Nikki and her current ditzy manner.
Aednat sat against the wall and began to relax. “How do you know he’ll be back?” Aednat lowered her black scarf and gave a little huff, “because he needs us just like we need him.” The very room filled with scoffs and protests. Raska lying on a dirty mattress said, “I don’t need that white fish.” Staring at Aednat Nikki said almost dreamily, “ow o vou no dat?” Stretching her legs Aednat gave a quick, “because…because he knows he can’t take on the creature alone.”
“And why the hell do we need him Irish?” “He’s smart…don’t give me that look Raska! It’s because of him we were safe last night. We know what the creature possibly is and who may be behind all of this.”
“No, he took a guess! His theory could be just as plausible as aliens abducting us!”
Rolling her eyes Aednat grabbed a red crayon from the ground and twirled it in her hand. “He solved the riddle…and he wasn’t lying about that symbol he saw on the plane.” “How do you know Irish?” Shaking her head at Raska I watched her lower her head slightly and then back up snapping, “I have seen that symbol before! And I thought I told you to stop calling me Irish!”
Everyone who was in the room stared at her, “and you didn’t think to bring this up last night?”
Aednat shrugged, “it really didn’t cross my mind until literally a couple minutes ago.” I saw Raska and Jacob look at her skeptically. “Whatever, I don’t need to impress you two shits!”
[Aednat]
Beginning to write on a spare piece of paper that I pulled from an overturned desk. It took several minutes before somebody had said what we must have all wanted to say. “Well, are you going to tell us? How you know that symbol?” Raska was still leaning on his mattress as he
picked at the paint covering his AK. “I was once paid to complete an assignment for a certain somebody. I will not mention his name, but let’s say there was something suspicious about the man and his request. All I remember is seeing that symbol on a lapel pin the man wore. When he left the meeting, I watched the man bump into another man from parliament. I watched them press their fingers together to make a large diamond or as they probably saw it, a pyramid. They took their other hand and made a circle over their eye.” Raska gave an almost uninterested,
“what was the request?” “He wanted me to kill a man, not only kill the man but display him for the world to see. He wanted to send a message. I hung him from a rope outside his penthouse suite in Portugal. It was the only assassination I ever did that wasn’t to further the cause.”
“That’s it,” Raska smiled widely, “Irish I once stuck a violin spider in a man’s mouth and let him die like that.” “This is not a competition Raska! We’re trying to piece together this puzzle and all you do is shoot off your mouth. You don’t contribute anything to help.” “I don’t contribute, contribute…shoot off my mouth! How about I shoot off my AK here and send you…” “There you go again shooting off your…” Raska rose from the moldy mattress and pointed his AK at me. Luckily, I expected this and quickly removed my mini-crossbow pistol from my boot. We were inches from each other eyes locked. “You think you’re indispensable?
You think that…” “Raska we can stand here the entire time and eventually I can send you to Tir Na Nog. I’ll die, but so will you. My life for the cause…and if I must sit here keeping this group from killing each other to get back to that cause then I will. I have made us a group that is working together! I have kept us all from killing each other! I have kept us all alive this entire time! If it weren’t for me, we would all still be out there in a dick measuring contest! Do you wanna die for your pride? Die like THEY want you too?” We stood there as Raska’s aim stayed true to my forehead. We stared at each other for a bit longer. “You’re a man that lives for the
fight, right? So, let’s go out fighting then! If we’re gunna die, then let’s die for something!”
Raska gritted his teeth as he seemed to be fighting the urge to shoot me. He turned and kicked over a busted coffee table screaming loudly.
[Hakeem]
The fire began to blaze as we all sat around it. Waiting, waiting for something to change, waiting for answers to never come. We were all lost sheep without a shepherd. “Hey, it’s time we switch spots Irish!” “Stop calling me Irish,” Aednat proved to be much tougher than I had anticipated from this group. After the showdown with Raska she returned to writing on that scrap piece of paper that she had found. “What’re you writing there?” Aednat gazed up at him with her black scarf dangling loosely from her shoulders. “It’s none of your business Jacob.”
Dropping the crayon she scowled again, “none of your business. Just let the Irish do all the work after all that is how you see us all, right?”
All our attention had changed to Lefu who now stood on all fours staring at the crumbling door frame. Jacob held out his arm and silenced Aednat’s “what the hell…” A shuffling sound seemed to be coming down the hallway. Raising our guns, we all held are own as the shadow grew closer and then a figure appeared. We all breathed a sigh of relief when Chris showed up.
“Hello,” he said staring at several guns pointing at him. “Were you expecting somebody else?”
The guns lowered and even I withdrew my hand from the coiling Mumbato in my satchel. Chris entered the room and took a seat next to Nikki, whose eyes seemed to light up. “So, what did
‘The Mind’ find out on his little expedition,” Aednat sneered continuing to write. Her eyes periodically gazed up to Chris and then back down to her paper. Chris ran his hands over his nearly bald head and then over his face. “Well, these things around our ankles defiantly activate
when we get close to the wall. You see this red light here? It starts blinking green when we get near the wall.” “Can we get over it,” Raska asked unable to hide his curiosity. Shaking his head Chris gave a defeated, “no it’s too high…and even if we were to make it up that high our bracelets would explode."
Chris fell silent and I returned to stare at the fire. I began to fiddle around with the pouches around my neck. I needed answers and the only answers that I trusted were the ones from the other side. I opened one of the pouches and removed the chicken bones that I had carried for as long as I can remember. I took the bones in my hands and shook them several times muttering the ancient spells of old. I tossed the bones on the ground and watched them scatter in many positions. Everyone seemed to go their separate ways and Chris fiddled with his bracelet again. He stared at my bones and then made his way over to me. He sat down as I examined the angles of every bone. “So, what do they say?” I stared up at him and then back down at the bones. “What does who say white boy?” Chris leaned in closer to me whispering,
“the other side.” Eyes raised I stared at him, “I thought you said Voodoo was crap? You needed facts, right?” “Well at this point I think I’m willing to accept any answers no matter the source.
So, what do the bones tell you?” I glared at him for several more seconds before returning to the bones.
“Why should I even tell you?” Chris gave me a look of pure hatred and then scowled,
“listen and I want you to listen good freak! If you want to live, which by the looks of your skin might not be too long then your only hope is me. You think any of these fools are going to be able to get you out? The ditzy blonde that tries to sleep with any man that will help her get out of here, the loudmouth darkie that wouldn’t survive a real battle, or the World War 2 white boy that learned combat from his rich daddy?” I stared at him feeling my eyes bulging slightly. “I’m
the only one that can grasp the situation and the only one that can get us out. So, if I ask you something you better give me an answer!”
In an instant, a fire rose up inside of me and at that moment I wanted his soul. A brave little white boy thinking he knew what was best. I knew he didn’t have a clue. The minutes seemed to tick by, and a smile spread across my face. I turned back to the bones and gazed down at them. I traced my fingers over them and muttered softly knowing the white boy was waiting.
“The demon will be back...wait,” I paused as I now dropped my smile. Something did catch my attention and confusion settled in my voice. “I see people, strange people.” He waved his hand,
“you’re just seeing us.” I shook my head making my dreads hit the side of my head, “no, no, not us…cursed ones.” “Cursed ones,” he repeated, and I could feel my face fall. “We are not alone in this place.” I glanced over and saw Chris smile, “no shit, what do you think we’ve been running from this entire time?” I shook my head, “no other people.” “You mean other people like us like another team?” Shaking my head, I gave a firm, “no, these men are different. They are coming…they are coming.” “Are you talking about the man that Nikki and Kiyoshi saw at the river?” I nodded, “there are more, so much more.”
I heard several stomps from a heavy boot when a slightly raspy voice bellowed, “WELL
looky looky Lefu, it’s a poem! It seems Irish has a soft side.” I gazed from the bones and saw Jacob jangling the piece of paper in front of his beast. Snatching it from his hands as Jacob was laughing heartily. “I told you drop it!” I traced my fingers over the bones and muttered many things as I read them. I looked up and saw many eyes staring at me. However, I didn’t respond or acknowledge them. I needed answers and the bones were mysterious to me. They simply continued to say, “cursed ones, cursed ones.” Aednat returned to the window and placed her leg on the crumbling wall. “What the hell…”
I raised my head and saw Aednat staring through her scope, “that’s weird.” I saw Jacob stand up almost a little too quickly. Nikki had been rubbing his shoulders and making kissy faces at him. Jacob took up his rifle, “what’re you looking at?” Aednat lowered her rifle and simple replied, “Yakov?” Jacob stared out the large glassless window, “what about him?”
Aednat gave a confused, “he’s just…I don’t know, standing there.” Jacob took a spot next to her. “I don’t think that’s Yakov?” Aednat shook her head, “it has to be, who else could it be?”
They stared for a little bit longer before Jacob broke the silence. “Somebody should go down there and check it out.” Raska leaned back onto his mattress, “don’t look at me snowflake! LRA doesn’t care about deserters!” “But what about…” Covering his eyes with his arm, “did you forget he tried to rape that blonde slut twice? So, I’m not interested…not interested!”
[Aednat]
I scowled slightly turning back to the broken wall. I stared over the courtyard and stood watching the mysterious man. “It’s got to be Yakov we're the only people out here.” “Anton would you go out there and check,” scoffing slightly the pointed noise of the white boy turned up as he returned to the ceiling. “I’ll go,” I watched the dreaded Hakeem stand up and groan slightly. “Um maybe you should stay here Hakeem? After all you’re injured.” He shook his head, “I’ll be fine. I need a little space anyway. I can’t stand the smell in here.” I watched him turn and walk out the door. I couldn’t help but smirk at his lame excuse for an exit. “What are you smirking at?” Anton was staring at me as I shrugged, “oh nothing just surprised that a darkie shows more courage than a supposed battle hardened…”
Anton shot up from his makeshift chair, “I am battle hardened missy! I’ll go oh believe me I’ll go but I am not going out there without back up! Everyone here is either injured or…”
“Fine, fine,” I snapped at him. “Jacob can you please go with him?” Jacob shrugged, “I don’t have close range weapons. I am afraid I would be quite useless…let Kiyoshi go.” “FINE,” I yelled and turned to the only man that I was actually starting to like. A man that never spoke, argued, or disagreed. He stared up at me, “Kiyoshi can you please go just to shut this all up?”
He stood up and pointed to his eyes and then out the large glassless window. “Yeah, I’ll watch your back just go before those two kill each other.”
[Hakeem]
We walked out towards the unidentifiable person standing in the field. “Yeah, that is definitely not Yakov,” Anton removed the machine gun from around his back and snapped back the chamber. We all moved towards the mysterious man. His back was still to us as he stood swaying in the breeze like a long piece of grass. We moved towards the figure cautiously, but Anton broke the silence, “hello?” The man wasn’t wearing a shirt but was covered with mud and his arms hung like limp noodles. His pants were torn and covered in what looked like blood.
Anton stopped in his tracks pointing the machine gun at him. “Hey buddy, identify yourself!” I grabbed Anton’s arm as I pulled out my own weapon. The powerful Mac-10 rose as I caught Anton’s eye. “We must leave it.” “It,” he repeated. I nodded my head and added, “It is not Yakov…leave it be…let’s go back to the group.” Anton turned to Kiyoshi who was watching the man standing unaware of us approaching it. Anton threw off my hand and continued towards the man. “Hey buddy, what’s your problem are you…”
The man turned towards us making Anton nearly drop his machine gun in shock. I backed away as my gun rose higher. The mystery man was missing half of his face and lower jaw. His eye sockets were black and empty. Its tongue hung to the side as a large bug fell off
the roof of its mouth. It raised its rotting hand towards us and gave a loud moan. “Cursed one,”
I fired several times BAM… BAM… BAM! The undead man took every shot in the chest. It continued to move forward completely unfazed. Anton lowered his gun, “impossible!” The undead man took slow steps towards us and then came a loud, SNAP! Its hip bone had broken, and the man seemed to drop several inches. Black goo seemed to ooze from the wounds as the man’s organs seemed to have rotted to a black liquid. As the man moved dangerously closer, there came a loud TWANG! I didn’t have any time to check to see the location of the sound. An arrow had flown through the man’s head. The undead man moaned one last time before falling to his knees finally dying in a crumbled heap. I turned and saw to my surprise Yakov standing on a broken brick wall. Bow in his hand and scowling down at the now dead man. “Yakov,”
Anton whispered in such a surprise. Yakov bellowed loudly, “RUN!”
He hopped off the wall and began to hobble towards the train yard. “Wait, Yakov…our base is the opposite away!” His face was horribly burned and dripping puss. He pushed past me and didn’t even respond because the tall grass began to part. We saw the reason for his panicked flight. It was a mass of undead heading our way. Some were shambling as fast as they could groaning with outstretched arms. They were gaining on us and all we could do was run. I staggered as fast as I could to keep up with Yakov and Anton.
Suddenly I started hearing a thunderous BANG... BANG… BANG in the distance. I realized that Aednat and Jacob were shooting at the “cursed ones”. I gazed over my shoulder and realized that many of the undead were still coming. They were unhurt from the bullets that Jacob and Aednat were firing. Anton and I turned towards them firing wildly until our guns clicked empty. Many of the creatures continued to move towards us. There had to be dozens of them. We had only stopped a couple. I noticed only a gunshot wound to the head would end
their pursuit. “Aim for the head,” Anton began to reload his gun and turned to an advancing man shooting him almost point blank in the forehead… BANG! The bullet blew the undead man’s brains out from the back of his head. Anton fired several more times before we continued running realizing that Yakov and Kiyoshi were already far ahead. We followed as much as we could until they began to veer far to the left of us. We would have followed if it weren’t for another small group of undead cutting off our path. Anton raised his gun, and I quickly grabbed his arm in protest. “They’re too far, we should go this way!” I pulled Anton towards the train yard and luckily, he followed. I was sure that he would protest later. I didn’t want to be alone fighting these undead beings. We hopped over train tracks and around overturned train cars. I grabbed Anton again, “hold up!” “STOP touching me darkie, you’re gunna stain my uniform!”
I smiled at his ignorance and began to reload my Mac-10. “They’re following us.” Anton was peering around the train car as I slapped back the Mac-10 chamber.
“Aaaahoooo,” it was a long howl and seemed to linger in the train yard. It reverberated over the overturned train cars and even wobbled the few still standing. My eyes were open wide as I felt a lingering feeling in the pit of my stomach. The undead were moving closer. We decided to take off hopping over the tracks again and through patches of tall weeds. The undead were swarming on us and we both seemed to have no idea where we were going. I turned my head and grabbed Anton’s arm pointing to the top of a train car. To my horror, there stood the demon perfectly healed with a new red mechanical eye. It stretched its arms exposing its slimy claws and then slashed the top of the train car menacingly. Its roar seemed to shake the very Earth as my fear seemed to paralyze me. Anton had begun to open fire on the creature who took every bullet he shot. A small amount of blood appeared on the demon’s stomach and legs. The demon seemed to wipe them off like mere bee stings. I turned and saw that the undead were
gaining on us. I opened fire on them blowing off the leg of one and dropping two more. Anton’s gun clicked empty, and we began to run the only way that we could through the scattered train cars.
The demon seemed to follow us as we lost sight of it. We continued to run as Anton stopped and ejected his magazine. “I got two left!” I turned and fired my last several rounds dropping two undead that were hot on our trail. “Here we can go around this car and head back!” The ground seemed to shake as the creature dropped between the cars blocking our escape. It reared its head and howled loudly into the sky. “SHIT,” yelled Anton who raised his gun. I stopped him and pointed to the open train car door. He lowered his gun and we both scrambled inside. We shut the sliding door just as the creature had slammed its paw into it. Its claws ripped four large gashes into it. I ejected my magazine and slammed in a new one. The demon began to howl as something was slammed against the train door. I raised my gun to fire at the gashes when Anton gave a quick, “WAIT…” He paused and stared out the gashes, “check this out.”
I stared out the large gashes and saw that the undead were attacking the demon. The demon was fighting them off throwing one of the undead against the train car. “They’re attacking it,” “good,” I said. I saw that a door was ajar at the opposite end. We were standing over a thick carpet of dead hay. “Let’s go, we can sneak out the side there and head back to the group.” Anton nodded as I turned my back preparing to leave when there came a loud CRASH
from the roof of our train car. “What the hell was that?” Staring out the gashes again Anton turned to me, “the creature…it’s gone?” SLAM…the demon was now on the roof tearing into it just enough to get its body through.
We had become metaphorical sardines in a can. I turned my gun up and fired at the demon wildly. Anton began to run towards the door until he slipped. He had tripped on something, and his hat flew from his head. TWANG… SLAM… Anton lay in horror as he saw his hat now caught in a bear trap. “OH…my…god,” Anton rose to his feet as my Mac-10 clicked empty. “We need to go,” Anton looked at me, “you first!” I shook my head as I was already reloading my gun. I slammed the magazine into the Mac-10 and pulled it on Anton before he could lift his machine gun. “You first, or I swear I will step over your dead body to get out!”
Anton stared at it and then back up at me. He turned back and danced through the hay as fast as he could. He made it through safely and gave a laugh of relief. The demon descended through the hole and immediately swung its claw at me. I dodged it but dropped my gun in my haste.
The demon caught my stomach with its other claw and pinned me against the metal wall.
It snarled at me with its jaws dripping with thick saliva, “help me!” I cried loudly feeling my ribs beginning to snap under the increasing pressure. Anton smiled, “your sacrifice preserves the fatherland.” He smiled and hopped out the door. I raised my hand and broke the last paralyzing powder contained in my bandanna wrapped hand. I took it to my mouth and blew it into the demon’s snarling face. Its eyes twinkled slightly, and its grip released as it sneezed loudly. The pain in my leg no longer hurt as I felt my broken ribs tearing at my lungs. The demon slammed into the wall and sneezed again. I made a motion to my fallen gun, but the demon lunged at me again. I reached into my satchel and threw Mumbato at it. My servant caught the demon in the cheek. It pulled off Mumbato who repeatedly struck the creature. Gripping my servant, the demon threw him across the opposite end of the train making him smack against the wall. I had a brief glimpse of Mumbato’s blood smearing the wall before he fell to the ground dead.
I grabbed my Mac-10 and stumbled towards the exit until a loud SNAP echoed in the train. I was halfway out the train door screaming in pain as I had been caught in a bear trap. The demon slammed into the walls of the train unsure of its surroundings and clearly trying to regain balance. I saw Anton smiling smugly at me. I reached out my hand, “please, help!” The demon took a step towards me and gripped its slimy claws into my sides. I screamed louder as I felt blood oozing from my mouth. Anton closed the door more wedging me in it. “Please,” I begged a final time knowing that death was for certain. Anton pulled off from his belt the grenade that he had been carrying the entire time. He turned the handle saying, “The Bouncing Betty...my dear Hakeem you appear to be in such agonizing pain. You need to take a ride on my train. It’ll take away ALL your pain!” He laughed manically and threw the grenade in through the opening. He stared at the black pouch hanging from around my neck. “Well, I guess there’s no sense in letting this go to waste!” He ripped the pouch from around my neck with a loud, SNAP!
[Anton]
I gazed over at the train switch and gave it a forceful kick. The rusty switch lurched forward, and the train car gave a rusty SNAP! The train car had been released from its motionless prison. I saw two large claws grip the side of the train car door. The beast’s head emerged from between them. It snarled loudly trying to make the gap wider as if trying to flee from its impending death. The train moved forward gaining speed as it rolled slightly downhill.
There came a loud explosion from inside the train. I watched the creature’s head seem to explode internally as the round ball bearings contained in the “Bouncing Betty” shot through its face. Holes filled the train walls, and I watched Hakeem’s body go limp. He was dead and the train was dangerously rocking on its track. I watched the train crash into an overturned train.
Dust shot into the air like a miniature mushroom cloud and soon the cloud began to fog the entire
area. I lowered my hand and straightened my uniform wiping off dust that covered the coat. I turned continually straightening my uniform until my eyes landed on a sight that stopped my unnecessary grooming. Hordes of the undead were making their way towards me.
BANG… BANG… BANG… BANG… BANG… BANG…I saw heads beginning to pop as bodies fell to the ground. One body, two bodies, three bodies, an undead man was mere inches from me. It opened its rotting mouth and prepared to bite me until POW! Its brains exploded out the side of its head. Its dead eyes fluttered and then it fell sideways. I knew that my opportunity to escape was dwindling, so I had to make my move. I pulled out my Astra which still contained a significant portion of my ammo. I began to fire at any oncoming undead, BAM… BAM… BAM.
I blasted my way through several of them before doubling back through the train yard towards the hospital. I seemed to have lost them because I arrived to silence at the crumbling concrete steps alone. I took a deep breath realizing how close I had come to death.
I made my way up the stairs and arrived to our makeshift campsite. I saw Yakov pressed against the crumbling wall with Raska shoving his AK into his ancient stomach. “You know what I do to deserters that I find or who come back?” Raska clicked his chamber back threateningly. “I promise you that I will leave you more messed up than your leg and face are!”
Marching forward I watched Nikki slap his disfigured face, “ef vou on’t Razka den I vill!” I watched Yakov try to fight them off as Aednat marched forward. “Guys wait as much as I believe in killing deserters…” Waving his hands, “I didn’t dezert vou…” “VOU APED ME!”
Nikki was charging towards Yakov trying to tear his face off. Aednat pulled her away and returned to the group. “Guys, guys listen as much as I would like to plug this dirt bag and bury him in a shallow grave. I hate to say what I am about to say, but we’re going to need him.”
“NEED EM,” yelled Nikki at the top of her lungs. Raska smiled, “the only thing I NEED him
for is target practice.” “Calm down the both of you, remember that creature will be back.” “The creature’s not coming back this time. I locked him in a train car when Hakeem was killed and turned him into walking Swiss…” “Oh, just save it white boy!” Jacob was staring at the group,
“the creature will be back, and no one can deny it anymore. What we need to do is set a trap…A GOOD TRAP! Not one that is made in haste.” “Well, you got any ideas Dundee because we’ve already lost Mwai and now Hakeem!” Jacob smiled at Raska, “oh I got one. I got one indeed.”
An hour later, Jacob had directed everybody to set the trap. A trap that even I had to admit seemed doable. Although as a wise man once said, “nothing ever goes to plan.” For Jacob’s plan to work everything had to go according to it. I watched the group shove Yakov into a corner. He seemed all too happy to sit down and rest his wounded ankle. It had turned coal black now in his absence from the group. Jacob’s plan relied on too many “this needs to happen,” scenarios. “We’ll lead it down here into this corner and then pop out of our designated rooms. We must try to find some explosives…something that can blow up and we’ll kill it.
There are only two problems that I see. One, we have to find something explosive…” Chris interrupted, “well why don’t we use those large oxygen tanks or N2O tanks.” Jacob nodded to the group, “yeah that sounds good. The other problem is we must draw the creature to the end of the hallway which means that we need somebody or…something to act as bait.” The remaining part of the roof was very unstable, and Jacob’s plan seemed to take advantage of that. However, Chris was the only one that spoke up. “I hate to be the one to piss on all of your parades, but I feel I should point out one miniscule, little problem.” Chris moved into our campsite, “these beams here are holding up this part of the roof, if the explosion happens…well as you say this whole ceiling will collapse on the bait too.”
“We’ll get something to tie together, so when the creature comes, they can climb….” “I don’t understand Jacob, why don’t we just move the camp?” “The camp is where the bait will be, our scent will lead the beast here, and the bait’s gotta end here! We absolutely must draw the creature, here…” He walked over and pointed to the dead end, “to this dead end! We do not have enough time arguing every detail white boy! We need to accept the fact that the creature could be back at any moment. So, we could sit here and try to find perfection or work with an already workable plan now!” “Why are we making this plan anyway Jacob? We only have one more day…” “First let’s kill the creature then we can figure out the rest!” Chris fell silent with a scowl still on his face. It took us awhile to gather up all the tanks we could find. There were four tanks all together, one full, two halves full, and another one nearly empty.
[ THE GETAWAY]
“You know what I love about these contestants…” The steam was growing thick as five people lay on the softest white spa pillows. Everyone seemed in a distant land as the steam room wrapped the group in its blanket like fog. Lord Otto addressed the group nearly losing his grip on the remote to the television. “Here my friends, I can never get the switch the source on those things.” Lord Otto’s hand reached out the remote to Thorbjorn, Ron Reid, Rosenberg, and Ivan.
“As I was saying you know what I love…” Lord Otto started to repeat as Ivan replied snapping in a dreamily state, “WHAT?” “I love that they keep thinking that Creature X will not come back.” “They all don’t think that Otto my friend just that stupid white racist boy.” Ivan rose a little from his bamboo mat. “You do realize that the only reason why he is racist is because he is trying to keep separate from the group. He really doesn’t believe in that racist stuff. He only lives for building a Fourth Reich…to continue the war that Germany lost. Do you not read the Gamer Guide?” “Well, well, well, it seems that our Russian friend has fallen in love with a
racist, and after what they did back in the forties. I would have thought you would feel differently of the Germans.” “I respect him Rosenberg and that is all…same as I do for Raska. I respect the fight.”
“Respect,” questioned Rosenberg his silver hair falling to the sides of his head. “Yes, respect…I know what it’s like to lose one’s country, one’s way of life…” Lord Otto giggled slightly and then said, “Oh here he goes Rosenberg my friend, AGAIN with the Soviet Union.
It’s over my friend the Soviet Union was…” Ivan shouted, “WAS WHAT you giggling puss, too powerful, too mighty? There was a time that every country including the western powers…pathetic Americans!” Lord Otto giggled girlishly and then added, “but where are they now my friend? Where are they now?” Ivan stayed silent and returned his head to the mat letting the steam wrap around him. Ivan grumbled “weak leadership crumbles nations remember that Otto, remember that!”
Silence filled the sauna as Lord Otto glanced around at his companions. “Thorbjorn my friend why are you still pouting? You’re not still upset about Mwai?” Thorbjorn lay on his spa mat with a frown on his scarred face. “It’s alright my friend,” Lord Otto giggled and then continued, “you should have known that Mwai wouldn’t have made it to the last. And you Ron, I don’t think I have ever seen you so down either.” Ron shook his head in anger, “I really thought Hakeem would make it. The stories he told me about his escapes from all those prisons.
He could do such amazing things. I really thought I had it.”
Lord Otto giggled, “my, my, my, I do believe the wind has gone out of your sails my friend. I never thought I would ever see the day. But remember, no one knows what’s going to happen in the Hunt…or how people are going to handle Creature X.” “I guess,” said Ron in such
a disheartened tone. “Look at that,” Rosenberg was wiping his sweating face off with a towel.
The large forty-inch television revealed an interesting sight. “I can’t believe her! She couldn’t hook up with Jacob so now she is moving on to Chris?” Giggling softly, Lord Otto replied “a whore will always be a whore Rosenberg.” Rosenberg wagged his finger, “no, no, she’s crafty Lord Otto! She is a crafty little bitch and playing the field. Don’t you see she is trying to find the best Candidate to help her survive? Jacob didn’t bite, so she’s going after the smartest guy.”
“Makes me sick,” Ivan spit on the ground with disgust. “Look at her draping herself over that white boy!”
“Attention please Attention, it has been reported that three herds of undead are chasing Creature X towards the Candidates approximate time of run in…one hour.” The voice over the loudspeaker fell silent, “good,” said Ivan firmly. Rosenberg slowly rose off the spa mat, “yes very good. It will happen just in time for dinner.” Lord Otto giggled and then clenched his chest, “my word dinner and a show! I love it, Watchers!” Thorbjorn and Ron hopped off the table and began drying themselves off. Ivan was already walking towards the shower room,
“well we better hurry.”
Size of the Fight
[Raska]
Night had fallen and the moon was rising higher in the sky. Jacob sent us all to different rooms on the fourth floor in order to trap and kill the beast. The bait’s blood would bring the creature up the stairs towards our camp. We would suppress it with our firepower and push it towards the dead end. Jacob decided to use the blood of the blonde bimbo since hers was as he put it “the freshest”. She was left in the room with Aednat and Yakov. He made them a rope to escape when the bait was no longer needed. We on the other hand had to wait until he gave us the sign to shoot at the creature. I was stationed in the room at the very end of the hallway. Mr.
Know-It-All was in the room directly across our camp site. Jacob was in the room in the middle watching the stairs. The racist was in the room to my left and Mr. Thousand Words was in the room to my right.
Waiting in the dark I found myself easily losing interest. However, I had found something better to do. I decided to sneak away from the group to have myself a little me time.
I told that white boy many times that I would get what he possessed. I had stolen it when we were organizing our little trap. A simple scuffle between us, and my hand took it right from his pocket. I snuck past Jacob and his mutt finding a quiet corner on the second floor. I shuffled through my pockets until I found the syringe. The syringe filled with a dark liquid that I had known all too well, Black Tar Heroin. The best Heroin money could buy. I tapped the syringe and felt a smile coming over my face. That white boy sure knew how to party I’ll give him that.
I could feel the shakes starting to come in the anticipation of the event. I hastily undid my belt
and pulled it out with a SNAP. I began to tie it around my arm as I tapped my forearm searching for a vein. “Come on you bastard,” I muttered tapping more until I saw something in the moon light. I found the hole that I had grown accustomed too over the years of my addiction. For me Heroin was for relaxing and Brown-Brown was for anything battle related. I popped the cap off the syringe and tapped it squirting a bit. Popping it in my vein I drained the entire contents with an “oh…my…god.”
An hour seemed to pass before my eyes widened, I felt somebody kicking my thigh.
“Wha…what,” I asked in an almost dream like state. My eyes were cloudy, and it took me awhile to adjust to the scene before me. I rubbed my head as I felt sweaty. My eyes fluttered several times before I opened them to see, “Mr…Mr Thousand…Words?” He kicked me again,
“Wha…what?” I stared up at him feeling my consciousness returning to me. I saw Kiyoshi point down the hall and then down the other way. “What do you want, leave me be…go back to your room.” Kiyoshi kicked me again and I began to feel an anger growing inside of me.
“You’re killing my high shrimp! What’re you doing down here anyway?” I watched him point to his ear and then to the spot right in front of him. Realizing that he had heard a sound and was checking on it didn’t interest me in the slightest.
“Well go away and keep doing what you were doing!” Kiyoshi kicked my boots motioning for me to get up. “Stop doing that or I am going to…going to,” waving his hand at me. He stepped back and waved his hand over me. “What are you saying?” He smiled and then waved his hand over me again and then snapped his hand back before turning form me.
“Are…are…are you saying …I’m…useless? I’ll…kill you” he didn’t even look back as he strolled from my sight waving his hand annoyingly. I could almost hear his mocking mind
“blah, blah, blah,” it seemed to shout at me. I gripped the wall as I struggled to my feet. I got up
and tried to balance as it took a minute for my vision to correct itself. The picture stopped swirling and soon everything righted itself. “Come back here you little shit, I ain’t done with you yet!” Still walking away, I reached into my elongated pants pocket and pulled out a weapon I had hardly used. It was the sawed-off double barrel shotgun. I aimed it sloppily at Mr.
Thousand Words trying to take aim at his back. “HEY…MR…THOUSAND…WORDS…see if this is all talk!” I watched the white blur dive into a room as the shotgun blasted a crater sized hole in the wall. “KIYOSHI, where’d you go now? Aw, you don’t like the way I talk?”
I held the gun out in front of me as I made my way towards the room that he had dived into. I moved with the softest of feet as I gritted my teeth in anticipation. “Where are you,” I said with such menace moving towards the door. I held the gun out far and just as I approached the door, I realized my mistake. I had been aiming high for a body shot when I should have been aiming for the legs. Kiyoshi had ducked to avoid any shot. He reached up and smacked the shotgun pinning it against the broken door. It fired into the wall missing completely. His left foot was quick as it kicked me in the side once, twice, three times. I twisted his arm and smacked my elbow across his face. Immediately he retaliated with a spinning back fist. He smacked it across my face as I stumbled backwards several steps, “that’s it!” I popped open the double barrel shotgun and removed both of the empty shells. Kiyoshi reached into his suit jacket just as I reached into my pocket trying to find shotgun shells. I found them but was only able to grab one. Silver objects flew at me as I moved quickly dodging them. I scrambled to my feet trying desperately to load the shotgun. I looked up and saw tiny blades fly at me. I blocked one with the gun stock but the other one caught my shoulder, “Aaahhh!” I felt it pierce deep as I watched him smash his foot into my chest.
I flew backwards dropping the shotgun and the shell. Somehow, I kept my balance with just enough time to block a punch and flying elbow. I was able to grab his neck collar and throw him backwards. He stumbled slightly as I charged at him colliding my shoulder into his stomach. I tackled him into a different room. The room was similar to our campsite, except several desks littered the area. The windows had also been blown out exposing the room to the elements. I had crashed Kiyoshi into a desk, and he toppled over it. As I scrambled to my feet, I realized I needed my machine gun with me. I could spray the entire room and send this man cowering in his shell. Flipping over the desk, he kicked me in the face with a SMACK! He hopped off throwing several punches at me, which I blocked easily. I caught his fist and bent it back slamming my forearm into his cheek. The jingling vile charm that hung from one my bracelets smashed into his face. Now it was my turn to go on the offensive. My fist smashed against his scrawny face and then I gave him a shot to the chest. He twirled around me, and I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder blade. “Aaaahhhh!” It was the same pain I felt when he had thrown the dagger.
There came a swift kick to my knee, and I felt my chin smack the side of the desk. I realized that I had fallen to my knees. I reached for the only thing that I could grab. He withdrew his pistol from the inside of his suit coat. I smashed a broken lamp across that nearly bald head of his with a CRACK! As he stumbled backwards, he dropped his pistol accidentally kicking it under the desk. I saw on his face a dark red substance dripping down that wasn’t his blood. It was the liquid that had come out of the small vile attached to one of my many bracelets. I reached behind my back and pulled out a throwing star. I had never seen one in real life. I threw it to the ground with a snarl. I gazed out the door and saw my AK laying where I had been sitting. My high was gone and all I wanted was that gun.
Kiyoshi was again on the advance, but I was ready. I grabbed his leg which prepared to kick me in the side and threw him to the floor. I made a dash to my gun and finally grabbed it. I turned it at the open doorway and began to open fire. I saw Kiyoshi dive for cover again. I laughed manically as I fired wildly at the desk. I stood up, “you ain’t so tough now are you shrimp?” I fired several more times as I approached deeper into the room, “what’s the matter…”
POW... POW… POW… POW… “You don’t have anything to say now? Oh, I get it, you don’t like the way I talk!” I laughed so hard that it didn’t even matter what I was shooting at or where.
I hit furniture, I scattered old papers, I busted a mirror, “so quiet now aren’t we…”
CLICK... CLICK… CLICK…I lifted up the gun confusion in my face, “what, it can’t be out yet?”
I hit the gun several times and examined it over. Ammo is what I needed.
I raised my eyes knowing I had made a mistake. Twirling around the desk a flying foot came around the corner. The blood that I had smashed across his face was still dripping down it.
I didn’t have time to take into account the detail of the stain. His foot kicked the gun from my hand and then immediately popped back up from the ground forming a crescent shape. I dodged it, but I had not stepped back far enough. His foot lightly touched the ground again and pushed straight forward and sunk into my stomach. I stumbled backwards slightly yelling at the top of my lungs. I was about to charge at him when he reached into his suit coat pulling out a silver rod in each hand. He swiped them at me in an X formation and it sliced across my stomach. I felt deep gashes as my hands ran over them feeling my own warm blood.
He stretched his arm back in a martial arts pose and seemed to snarl at me. I bared my teeth like an animal would. My advisory twirled the sticks in his hands and plunged them into my body. Both sticks penetrated deep into my shoulders. I screamed loudly as I thought the force would bring me to my knees. I could feel sweat pouring down as blood was dripping from
my nose. I struggled to speak as I shivered feeling nothing but cold. I watched Kiyoshi take a step back and cross his arms behind his back as if politely waiting for me to dance. “That’s…all you…got?” My struggled words seemed to bring a smile to his face. His eyes seemed to show a hidden humor almost like an inside joke. They focused on the rods as I stared down at them noticing a red dot blinking repeatedly. “What…the…h-hell is…” BOOOOMMMMM!!!!!
[Kiyoshi Fukudo Sugiura]
I smiled at the dark-skinned fool as I waited for his end. He stood as stupid as ever as he stared down at his fate. His words made me want to laugh, but all I had was a smirk in me. I almost lost it when he looked panic stricken. “What…the…h-hell is…” BOOOOMMMMM!!!!!
I barely flinched when Raska disintegrated into a million pieces. He covered the room and stained the entire front of my suit. It didn’t matter now the suit was filthy already.
I felt something dripping on my shoulders. I wiped it away noticing Raska’s blood covering more than I thought. I had to get back to the group on the fourth floor, but first I had to find my pistol. It was my only weapon now besides one throwing dagger and star. I felt another thick drop of goo fall on my shoulder and I wiped it off again. It was warm to the touch. I withdrew my hand and saw that it wasn’t blood. It was a thick mucus and stretched like slobber.
I turned around and stared horrorstruck into the eyes of the great beast. It towered over me as its red eye focused into my very soul. It stretched out its enormous arms showing off its monstrous wingspan. I crouched down as I quickly removed my final weapons, my throwing star and dagger. I crouched low under the beast and knew that the end had come. It was the dog versus the beast. I had come to the main fight. Raska had merely been a warmup. The creature
stretched its jaw out slowly revealing a long mouthful of razor-sharp titanium plated teeth. It seemed to smile as it bared them all. A long stretch of drool was clinging to its bottom lip.
I dodged the swipe of the beast’s armored claw. I turned up the small dagger sending it through its lower jaw. The beast howled as it threw up its arms tossing me backwards. I stumbled swiping with the star across the beast’s chest. I had barely made a scratch. Its fur was too thick for me to cut, especially with something as small as a throwing star. I barely had enough time to examine the cut when the steel claw of the creature cut across my suit. I felt the steel claws burn as I stared down at my tattooed body. I dropped the throwing star staring up at the creature. Once again it stretched its arms wide. I gripped my gashes and felt the blood running down my hands. I stared up into the creature’s face as it stretched its jaws wide breaking the dagger. I always wondered how my life would end. And in that snarling creature’s face all I saw was the love of my life, Naryuki. His smooth face and radiant smile filled me with a calming euphoria. I almost felt him here with me. He was standing behind the creature anxious for us to reunite. He had been waiting so long for me to join him. And in that moment, when the creature raised its claw to strike me again, I smiled back at him.
[ THE GETAWAY]
CRASH… a glass of scotch had smashed against the wall as Rosenberg stood up fuming.
“I can’t believe your little shit finished off my Candidate!” Pascal was just as upset but seemed to try to keep his calm the best he could. “My word Rosenberg that scotch is not easy to come by!” The Sponsors were all sitting around a table as Lord Otto giggled squinting his eyes smugly, “I dare say not Gordon…fifty years mind you.” He laughed again, “can I just ask…why did you choose him anyway Pascal?” “Always scooping for information are we Jango…so
quiet, yet so noisy!” The table seemed to grow quiet as the rest of the room erupted in arguments at the death of Kiyoshi and Raska. Pascal grabbed his glass of scotch and took a sip waving it in the air superiorly. “I believed that it wasn’t the size of the dog in a fight…but I guess I was wrong.” Pascal tilted his glass of scotch towards Rosenberg. “It was a good fight though, wouldn’t you agree?” Everyone around the table nodded their heads in agreement. Ivan had grown beet red drinking straight from a vodka bottle and not from a glass. Lord Otto reached his glass towards the center and tilted it to all the other members. “Gentlemen, the best of the hunt is about to come.” “Here, here,” yelled Joseph as he sipped his drink superiorly.
Rosenberg returned to his seat as a mousy hand patted him on the shoulder. “A Heroin addict Rosenberg, did you really expect him to make it as far as he did?” “SHUT UP
GORDON,” the rest of the table erupted in laughter as a woman came towards them. She carried a tray of cigars and cigarettes with her, “hello gentlemen, any Cubans or cigarettes before the upcoming event?” Ivan gave a boisterous, “yes, yes, my dear pass them around…there’s a good girl, yes! I didn’t think that much would happen tonight. The third night is always the best, but I guess things do change. I’m sure we are in store for a most excellent second night.”
Taking a cigar, the woman lit the end of it as Ivan puffed on it heavily. He withdrew it with a “magnificent blend…with the way things are going there might not be a third night. Am I right gentlemen?” The table erupted in laughter again as smoke began to cloud the room.
Joseph puffed on his cigar as he motioned towards the television, “Am I going crazy, or does it appear that they’re all abandoning their posts?” “I do believe they are Joseph. Oh, look spectacular they can’t even stick with their own plan!” Lord Otto giggled at his own comment and continued, “they set their little trap and now nobody is watching anything.” Joseph leaned
back in his chair, “well the GPS says that the undead are closing in…one hour my ass!
Although, it should be a great upcoming battle!”
The Final Moments
[Aednat]
I continued to write on the scrape of paper that I had found. Words just kept pouring out of me, and it seemed the only sane thing to do. We had put out the fire for good measure.
“What is the point of this?” “I’m supposed to watch you Yakov and make sure you don’t run away or try to rape Nikki again.” Yakov opened his mouth, but I cut him off “look you both are injured, ok? You’re going to do more harm than good. So, there’s no point in arguing.” Nikki watched him like a dog watching a steak. “Ze moment zhe urns er back on us…” “What the hell was that?” I made way up to the collapsing door frame. “Where the hell is Jacob going? He’s going downstairs…oh no, you stay right there where I can keep an eye on you Yakov!” I continued to stare out, “Hey you guys what’s going…” I felt the light blow out of my eyes as the world seemed to grow dark. Something had hit me in the back of the head. I fell forward and the world disappeared from my sight.
[Yakov]
“What’s going…” I knocked that wretched Irish bitch out and she tumbled to the floor. I felt something press against the back of my head. “Vou ittle dik prik, I’m unna reaking ill vou for vhat vou id. Ow urn round I vanna zee yur face az I blow yur rains out!” I didn’t move as I stared down at the unconscious Irish bitch. “URN ROUND,” the blonde slut shouted as I turned around slowly. I stared into her face seeing rage behind those eyes. “Dat’s it, I ope dat vou ave ade peace vit yur maker.” I smiled as I began to laugh slightly, “Vhat’s phunny?” I continued to laugh, “Vat’s SO PHUNNY!” “If you’re going to kill me, you should take off the safety first
you dumb bitch!” “Zafety, der’s no…” I snatched at the pistol in her hand the moment her eyes turned from me.
POW… the gun fired into the air as I struggled with her. We twirled in the room until I placed my foot behind her and flipped her onto her back. The gun fell from her hand, and I quickly smashed my elbow across her face. I knocked her out cold with one swift blow. In her unconscious state I began to admire her beauty in the moonlight. Her blonde hair was tangled and matted with mud. Her cherry lips were puffy and still had much life left. Her leg was badly injured and resembled a nasty shade of green. I wanted her again desperate to finish what we had started. My face still ached with pain from our last encounter. However, it was masked by my passion and desire to taste her. I laid down between her legs and prepared to have not only a taste but the full meal.
[Jacob]
As I sat in the darkness I wondered if the plan would work. Questions began to race through my mind. Would the creature be unwilling to go the way we wanted it to? Would the tanks blow? Would the tanks not blow? I stood up trying to hide my anxiousness. Even Lefu looked up at me with that puzzling look she gave. I tried to give her a reassuring smile which seemed to ease her tension. I made my way over to the window. I rubbed it with my hand clearing away the caked dust and dirt. The moon was bright and shone like a spotlight. It was at that moment that I missed home. I missed the bush. I heard Lefu stir slightly and growl, but it didn’t withdraw my attention. I remembered the nights when Lefu and I stared at the fire under a full moon. It seemed to smile down at us. I almost saw the image shatter like a window. I spun
in the spot seeing that Lefu had broken my concentration. “What,” I said angrily as I stared out the doorway. I thought I may have seen a shadow go down the staircase.
“What is it Lefu?” Lefu gazed up at me and then back at the stairs. “No,” I pushed her back into the room. “We can’t leave Lefu!” I knew that stance, and I knew it all too well. Lefu was nervous as if something was moving around in the darkness. I returned to the floor not hearing the creature. Although, I thought I could hear soft footsteps in the distance. I shook my head back to reality. “I hope nobody left their post,” Lefu tried to leave the room again. “No,” I commanded to Lefu and pointed to the ground. After several seconds, she obliged and returned to the dusty floor. “We can’t leave the room if we do the trap won’t work.” I rested my head against the dirty wall and repeated, “I hope nobody left their post.” I felt my eyes growing heavy with each passing moment.
My eyes fluttered with a startle as I rubbed them softly. I must have fallen asleep. The moon was still high, but without a watch I was unsure how long I had slept. I rubbed my eyes again and gazed down to see Lefu standing on all fours. “What Lefu, what is it?” I felt the hair on the back of my neck standing on end. I began to wonder if we had missed our opportunity.
Had the creature snuck up on me in my moment of relaxation? I gazed out the door and once again I thought I heard the faint sound of footsteps. “Lefu what’s wrong?” Lefu continued to stare down the stairs. The hallway was quiet and looked abandoned just as I wanted. I groaned slightly, “Jesus Lefu there is nothing ok just lay down…LAY DOWN!”
Sitting with my back on the wall I began to polish my gun with a dirty rag. I was waiting for a sign, for a movement, for the beast to make its presence known. My attention was starting to wane again. I just hoped that our plan was going to work. The beast was unlike any
animal that I had ever seen or known. My attention was soon distracted when I watched Lefu rise to all fours. Something had clearly grabbed her attention. I knew that stance and knew her better than she knew me. It was like being out in the brush again. Whatever dangers lurked in the distance Lefu was sure to spot them. My senses did not stretch as far as hers did. “Lefu,” I whispered as she ignored me continually sniffing the air. “Lefu, what is it?” She sniffed more as she placed her nose on the floor and then back up into the air. “Is it the creature this time?”
Lefu ignored me as I began to feel my frustration intensifying. “Hey,” I gave her a little kick in the hind quarters. She growled threateningly at me and returned to her task leaving me clueless.
She howled softly with a mournful little note before making her way out of the room.
She followed a trail of blood that led down the weathered stairs. I traveled behind her descending three sets of stairs before ending up on the first floor. She was on the hunt and immediately turned around the second corner. I waited for what seemed like hours listening and watching. I wanted to know what had caught her attention. I heard a light crumbling of a wall. I turned to my right and saw down the hallway a sight that I had not expected to see. It was people and they were making their way down the long hallway towards me. The same type of undead people that had chased Kiyoshi, Anton, and Hakeem. They walked like humans I had never seen before.
BOOM… I heard a shotgun blast from the floor above me and Raska shouting inaudibly.
I turned back to the oncoming swarm feeling my body beginning to tremble. “Who the hell are…all…of…you?” They moved in such a manner that was almost inhuman. One man dressed in a white lab coat dragged his foot behind him and another was missing his arm completely. I suddenly realized that these were not humans, they were different. Lefu scrambled on the floor and took to the first exit. A door heading down towards what appeared to be the basement.
I heard scuffling and fighting from the floor above me. “IT’S HERE!” “Lefu, Lefu,” I watched her near topple down the stairs and disappear into the dark. The mysterious people continued towards me with hands outstretched. I turned back to the basement stairs and shouldered my rifle. I had a choice to make, do I stay here and fight, follow Lefu, or blow her off and head back upstairs? I stared at the figures moving closer. Fate seemed to make its decision for me, “Stop…whoever you are stop!” I took aim at one of the figure’s hearts and fired… POW! The rifle kicked back, and I watched the soldier’s heart blow out of its chest.
A figure dressed in overalls took a couple steps backwards. Its head raised back and then returned to face me. I felt my rifle drop several inches as it continued to move forward with the rest of them. More followed behind him and soon I lost count. I returned my rifle back to my eye. They were just like the figures that Aednat and I were shooting several hours earlier. I fired at their heads, POW… POW… POW… POW! I had missed the first, but three heads popped off the three closest figures. I watched them fall to their knees or topple backwards. Although, I couldn’t focus my aim on them fast enough. I heard a whimper from the bottom of the stairs. I turned towards the darkness and whispered, “Lefu?” I bit my lip and returned my attention to the oncoming figures drawing ever closer. I raised my scope again and fired blindly at them. They were piling on top of each other as they moved down the hallway.
POW… POW… POW… I heard gunshots upstairs and Raska yelling loudly again. Who was Raska fighting? I turned back and saw one of the figures already on top of me. Arms raised wide as it appeared to have been dead for years. I didn’t have time to contemplate the inhuman figure. I slapped its face with the stock of my gun. The figure spun slightly but didn’t seem affected by it. I heard a cry from the basement, and I realized it was Lefu. I had to save her. I backed away and retreated down the flight of steps. I saw an empty door frame at the bottom. I
heard the figures beginning to gather around the top of the steps. “Lefu,” I called as I took the last couple of steps in almost a tiptoe.
I made my way through the door frame and snapped back the chamber. I watched the shell casing pop out with a metallic CLINK! It twirled mid-air before rattling on the floor. I clicked out the magazine and placed in another. I didn’t have time to count how many I had left in my vest. I pulled out one and slapped it in the rifle with a CLICK. I entered the room slower than I probably should. I could hear the figures shuffling slowly down the stairs and knew that time was not on my side. I had to find Lefu quickly. “Lefu,” I whispered loudly unsure of why I was even whispering. The room was darker than a midnight in the savannah. “Lefu,” I whispered again as footsteps continued to move down the stairs.
I moved deeper into the room and soon the moonlight couldn’t even penetrate the darkness. I heard a whimpering in the distance. “Lefu,” I whispered retreating backwards when something hit my face. It was thin and at first, I thought that it was a spider. When I grabbed it, I realized it was a thick piece of string. I pulled it and heard a loud CLICK! A dim light turned on providing little illumination for the room. I was surprised that it even worked at all. Dust covered the feeble bulb in a thick layer. I heard the whimpering again and saw the light flicker a bit before my eyes landed on the source. I saw that it was Lefu. She was cowering against the back wall. I had never in my life seen her cower like that, “Lefu, Lefu, what’s wrong? What’s the matter with…” I turned around and saw to my horror at least sixty of those undead figures reaching out towards me, “AHHHHHHHH…” POW… POW… POW!
[Chris]
Jacob had stationed me in the room across from our campsite. It appeared to be some sort of nursery. However, this room lacked any stone pillars, and the roof wasn’t mere days from collapsing. Toys littered the floor as the once bright colors were now fading with time. Dust covered what I assumed was the most popular toy in the room. It was a model train set, complete with hills and trees. It was now filled with broken pieces of dry wall and dead leaves. I traced the caboose with my finger and watched it slide down the wooden tracks. The innocence of it all filled me with an emotion that I had long forgotten. I had spent my entire life craving knowledge and now that I was stuck in this place all that knowledge seemed useless. I clenched my father’s old gun, the Desert Eagle still felt cold in my hand. “If you wanna play with trains I can send you on the same one I sent Hakeem on.”
I shook from the voice and watched the caboose tip off the tracks crashing into a play car.
I gazed up and realized that it was Anton. Standing in his Nazi uniform with his antique looking machine gun. “You know I don’t know if anybody has told you this Anton, but the war is over…Germany lost.” Anton stood leaning against the door frame, “YOU of all people should know the saying that only the dead have seen the end of war. My father taught me that.”
“Shouldn’t you be in your room waiting like the rest of us, not wandering around?” Anton smirked and came further into the room. “Well, I would be one of the few. I just saw Jacob heading downstairs with that mutt of his. Raska and Kiyoshi are gone as well…shouldn’t you be paying attention? What if I had been the creature?” I walked towards the foggy window, “so we’re the only people left at our posts?” Anton smiled, “well, I didn’t look in our camp.
However, it looks pretty dead in there too. Wouldn’t you agree?” “They’re probably just hiding in the corner or something…not be out in the open.” Anton barked, “out in the open!” “Never mind, and I was paying attention until you interrupted my thoughts.” “Ah yes, you’re always
very aware of your surroundings when your back is turned to it. Besides there’s nothing around here anyway…quiet as the dead.”
Pulling the water bottle out from his belt buckle, Anton was about to drink when I stopped him. “There’s something I want to ask you, if you don’t mind since we have a minute.”
“You’re always asking questions but still can’t figure out how to get us out of here?” “Like Jacob said let’s just kill the creature tonight then we can worry about getting out. We’re near the wall anyway, besides I’m working on that.” Anton lowered the water bottle and screwed the cap back on. “What is it you want to ask?” I turned back to the window, “why?” “Why, what…” I turned back at him, “why are you the way you are?” I watched him smirk again, “why are YOU
the way you are?” “It just baffles me, you know? You’re obviously not a normal skinhead or racist. You wish to continue the war, but…the war is over. It’s been…what…over for over sixty years. How can you still fight? Everyone else has accepted it, why can’t you?” Anton lowered his head and appeared to ponder on his response. “Lost land will never be won back by solemn appeals to God, nor by hopes in any League of Nations, but only by the force of arms! You see Chris only war will win our country back. Only war will people remember Germany’s strength and desire to bring about a Fourth Reich. Sure, we can protest and march but the only noise that people listen to is violence… is war!”
“You’re delusional…” “Operation Iron Sky is still on the move my dear boy, and as soon as I have rectified this.” He pointed around at his surroundings with disgust on his face.
“We can get things back on track.” “Did you say Operation Iron Sky?” Anton nodded, “why is there something wrong?” “What the hell is Operation Iron Sky?” Anton moved across the room towards what looked to be a former desk, “top secret plans.” He turned to me, “only top-ranking members of Odessa know.” “Odessa,” I repeated rubbing my head confused. “Wait how can
you even fight for Germany? You weren’t even born during that time! You have no knowledge of it except from History books. You’re like what…18, 19?” “I’m 21,” “That’s exactly my point Anton!” “I was raised a Nazi and a decorated soldier of the Reich. The Fuhrer would be proud.”
“Proud, you didn’t even know the man.” Pounding the table Anton shouted, “My grandfather died in the Battle of the Bulge! My father fought in the Battle of Berlin…received a metal from the Fuhrer himself! He worked directly with Artur Axmann fighting until they were captured!” “Well, I am sorry stories are different from truth. They are tales and tales do not reveal truth.” “My father spoke only the truth!” “Yeah, I doubt that…so tell me, what’s Operation Iron Sky?” “How about we make a trade, you give me an answer and I’ll answer all your stupid little questions.” I paused as I turned to the foggy window again. I saw nothing but waving trees. “Agreed,” Anton smirked, “very good…you’re a smart man Chris, very intelligent. I have seen that throughout our entire encounter. You went to the wall, you saw it, felt it. How do I get out of this stinking place?”
I couldn’t help but laugh, “are you joking?” Anton didn’t budge or move. No smirk appeared on his face as he snarled at me, “do I look like I am fucking joking?” We stared at each other for several seconds in complete silence. Anton was not faintly interested in anything anymore, but to satisfy my boredom I shrugged. “I don’t know, I really don’t know and that’s the truth. We can’t take off the bracelets without them going off. We can’t cross the wall without them going off.” “That’s not an answer!” I shrugged again, “it’s the only one that I got.
I promise when I have one, I will tell you, now you tell me.”
Straightening his glove, it seemed to take him a long time to gather himself together. My answer did not satisfy him, but he seemed indebted to our deal. “Operation Iron Sky was a military operation. The last military operation conducted by the final remnants of the Third Reich. It was approved by Odessa and overseen personally by Councilmen Commander Heinrich Muller. The Werewolf needed to organize and unite all Nazi and Third Reich believers, whether racist, military, or politically motivated organizations under the Odessa banner. We were to bring about the Fourth Reich by any means necessary. In addition locate and secure a blood relation to the Fuhrer to lead the...” “Interesting considering Heinrich Muller is DEAD and that there is NO blood relative.” Anton laughed, “I am afraid that Muller is very alive and well. Well, he was a couple years ago when I saw him last. I told you guys last night about the Battle of the Compound and how…”
“WAIT-wait-wait you…you saw Muller?” Anton nodded sounding upset that I was denying him the pleasure of recounting his battle, “YES, I saw Muller!” “Ha, next thing you’ll tell me is that you personally knew Artur Axmann!” He pointed at me, “funny you should mention that name! I did meet him once right before we broke into the Kremlin. My father and I asked him to join in our quest and that old fool turned us down! You know he said that Hitler was like a father to him, and he had already accepted his death. He-he…he said that he tried once and wasn’t prepared to do it again. What would have been had already come to pass and we needed to accept that. I guess massive fines, victor’s justice, and millions babbling about redemption would take the wind out of anybody’s sails huh?”
I ignored him for the most part as I rubbed my throat. “God I never realized how thirsty I am.” Anton reached for the water bottle that he was about to drink from. He tossed it to me,
“here!” I took it and examined the bottle. I shrugged and then took a swig from it. “Can I ask
you something this time Chris?” I took another swig and nodded, “how did you get so smart?
Where you like born that way or…” Anton fell silent when he saw me shrug my shoulders. “I just read a lot you know, didn’t have television and my parents well…” My mind tried to hide the pain that always seemed to creep up when I thought about them. My father was always out on a Heroin binge and my mother was sleeping with every guy on the block. “The reason that I was asking was because of Hakeem. What do you think is in that black pouch of his? You know the liquid that will make you be his slave and all.”
I shook my head as I began to feel weird like a fog was coming over my mind.
“It…it…probably…is Devil’s Breath…Scopolamine. It comes from…comes from…what’s going on…I feel weird?” “Oh that…yeah that, well its funny you should mention that. For being so intelligent you’re not very bright, are you? That feeling would most likely be the Devil’s Breath you just mentioned.” My vision began to grow cloudy as my words seemed garbled. It became hard for me to speak as I dropped the bottle of water with a THUD! “You know I never would have believed something like this until Hakeem confirmed it last night.”
“W-what…what…” I couldn’t finish my sentence as Anton made his way towards me.
“I’m not sure how this works exactly.” I rubbed my head confused. My reality of this world seemed to be leaving me. “I mean, do I just SAY what I want? Do I have to show you…”
Anton’s words began to grow almost like static in my head. “You will risk everything, even your own life to protect me from any harm that should come.” “Harm,” was the only word I seemed to repeat. I wanted to fight against it, but it was like a man inside my brain controlling my actions. “Do you understand Chris,” “harm…no, harm.” I watched Anton smile, “I guess that’s good enough.”
I made my way out the door, satisfied with my command. Although, I wasn’t sure that it had worked or that I had even done it affectively. However, there was a more pressing matter at hand. It was something so trivial, but I had to use the bathroom. I entered the room adjacent to the nursery. It was a large dirty bathroom and rusted showering area that was fit for possibly the entire floor. The glass paneled shower doors contained evident cracks or were broken altogether.
[Yakov]
It was orgasmic and a feeling that I had not felt in a long time. I pulled out just as Nikki was waking up. Her eyes blinked several times before she shoved me off, “git uff, git uff” she shrieked. I removed my body from her as I started zippering my pants. I felt the wrinkles and scars in my face twitch into a smile. “Shriek now girl, but the deed has already been done. The seed has already been planted and if you live the name Dzhugashvili will live on! I will live…FOREVER! By God I have not felt this young in 30 years!” As I finished zippering, I saw her staring up at me confusion etched in her face. “Dzhugashvili, vou zaid dat right…rom Rusha?” “Of course, from Russia,” I bolstered loudly as she began to laugh. Not only did she laugh, but she was laughing in increasing hysterics. “VAT…Vat, is it? Vat is so funny?”
I watched Nikki laugh as I felt myself growing angrier. “What is it…VAT?” She stopped laughing and smiled at me, “did you…did you…” She struggled to catch her breath, “id vou ave a zister amed Vera?” I felt my stomach drop several inches and an immediate calm in my temper. “How did you know that?” She laughed again and choked out “I’m vour nieze vou ediot!” “My…my…niece, that is…impossible?” “Vou aped vour own nieze!” I shook my head and stared at her hysterical laughter. “V-vou von’t ast ong az iz. I ave a eadly ztrain of Aidz and
ow vou ave it oo!” “Shut up you bitch, you’re a liar!” Nikki seemed unable to speak her words were garbled in hysterical laughter. I leapt on top of her again as she struggled to claw me off.
She continued to laugh, “no atter if vou live rom dis or not, vou vill di!” I overpowered her buckling her arms under my strength. I swatted at her face and my fist connected with it. I felt her skull crack slightly underneath my fist. “Shut up, shut up, shut up bitch you’re a god damn liar!” Her fighting grew weaker as my fist continued to collide with any part of her. She grew quiet and fell into unconsciousness. I stared down at her limp body as blood ran down her nose and out of her mouth. A large gash appeared on the top of her forehead with droplets of blood pooling into her hair.
[Anton]
I remembered I had used a restroom in Mexico when a guy walked in and used the urinal next to me. I was about to leave cleaning “myself” off when the man muttered, “more than two shakes and its playing with yourself.” “Playing with yourself,” I repeated laughing a little to myself. I zippered myself up when I heard a gruff voice behind me, “how about you play with me?” I felt my heart drop as I turned my head towards the voice. A powerful hand grabbed my head and slammed it against the wall. I tried to fight but the mystery man had the advantage.
“Get off of me,” “you cute little son of bitch! You got something Yakov wants!” I tried to fight harder, but Yakov’s forearm pinned my neck against the wall.
My head still felt dizzy as I felt his hands fiddling with my right arm as something scratchy was being tied around it. I felt the cold steel of the urinal pipe growing tighter to my arm. As my vision began to clear up, I noticed the room stopped spinning. I felt a hand fiddling with the back of my pants. He was trying to pull them down. “What the hell are you doing?”
“You and that blonde slut have been peddling around those tight asses in front of Yakov for the past two days.” “What are you some kind of faggot that…” I stopped when he slammed me against the wall again. I reached for my pistol, but Yakov swiped my hand. The pistol fumbled before falling to the floor with a clatter. “Oh no, Yakov likes his bitches feisty!” “Who would have thought a faggot like you goes both ways?” I felt my bare ass appear to the world as he leaned into my ear, “I have been in prison for as long as I can remember. And little boys like you were hard to pass up!”
I felt my untied hand reaching towards the inside of my suit jacket. My body was pressed against the urinal. I pushed my hand through the fabric to the inside of my jacket and found what I was looking for. The shank from my prison cell…my fourth weapon. All my other weapons were now out of reach. It seemed ironic that an old man, who should be on his deathbed would be overpowering somebody much younger than him.
I heard him unbuckling his own pants and knew that an unwanted loving was moments away. “You damn Russian prick!” I flipped my shank over, so the blade was face down.
Suddenly, a soft POW could be heard in the distance. It sounded like a shotgun blast. Yakov became distracted and tilted his head back. “What the hell was that?” I took advantage of his distraction and plunged the shank deep into his left leg. He howled in pain and immediately released his grip from me. I turned still wobbly and saw that he was clenching the shank in his leg. He gazed at me rage clear in his face. Spit flew from his mouth, “I’m oing do ear vou abart vou ittle…” I smiled and saw the danger that lay behind him. “You need to cool down Yakov!
Why don’t you cool off in my shower!” I raised my foot and kicked him square in the gut. He toppled backwards crashing through the glass door of the shower. The glass littered the air as if made of sand. He toppled all the way backwards arms flaying about. He crashed into the back
of the shower exploding the wall a bit. He slid down it and landed in a pile of broken glass. I saw a small blood trail from where his head had collided with the wall.
I reached down for my machine gun resting against the urinal. The Astra was on the floor out of reach. I noticed a shadow move into the bathroom. I gazed up and saw to my surprise that it was Chris. “I’ll kill you,” Yakov tore the shank out of his leg and threw it to the ground. Reaching into his pants pocket I saw him pull out the strangest knife I had ever seen.
The blade handle wrapped around his knuckles. Yakov tried to regain his balance. I knew that he was going to be able to get me before I reached my weapons. I gazed up at Chris and yelled,
“KILL him, Chris!” Chris just stood there staring at me with blank eyes. “I ORDER you to kill him, Chris!” Yakov began to rise to his feet as Chris walked towards a toilet removing the top portion of the tank. He made his way towards Yakov his eyes looked soulless and black. He stepped into the shower towering over Yakov. “Hey, what the hell?” Yakov took a swipe with his knife and cut the forearm of Chris who didn’t seem to acknowledge it. Chris raised the porcelain tank top and smashed it over Yakov. He tried to block it with his arm, CRACK! I heard his arm break and he screamed again. His arm fell as Chris raised the top again and smashed it over Yakov’s scared face. I watched Chris continually beat him as the blood began to shower into the air like a geyser. “Ok, Chris he’s dead, he’s dead,” I yelled. However, Chris continued to beat Yakov never stopping. The sickening sound of the porcelain top continued with a rhythmic THUD…THUD…THUD!
I reached down trying desperately to grip my machine gun. I watched my fingers stretch further as the gun was mere millimeters away, “come on you piece of…” I saw the light from the moon darken slightly, and then to my horror I saw a figure standing feet from me. The man was wearing a black trench coat and had long dreadlocks, “Hakeem?” Hakeem stood watching
me struggle to pick up my gun. He was heaving hard as the cold night made his breath rise like steam. “Hakeem, hey look, I’m sorry about back…” He inched closer towards me, and I realized there was something off about him. He took a couple steps in a stride that I had only seen injured men make. His face came into the moonlight revealing deep gashes in his chest. A huge chunk of his shoulder was missing, and blood covered his face. “T-this can’t be,” I whispered realizing that Hakeem was dead. No man could sustain that much injury and still be walking.
Hakeem raised his arm towards me and gave a loud mournful moan. “No, no, no, you stay back!” I reached as far as I could and finally my fingers wrapped around the barrel. I picked up the gun with one hand. “Chris, Chris, stop it, help me, help me!” Chris was still pounding away at Yakov, whose face had become unrecognizable. Chris seemed like a machine repeating the same action over again. “CHRIS,” I yelled as I raised the gun with one hand.
“STAY BACK HAKEEM,” my shouts did nothing to deter him. I fired but the ferocity of the gun was too powerful. My machine gun needed to be fired with two hands. It was not meant for one. The bullets scattered across the showers and walls. I hit Hakeem several times in the chest, but he moved closer still. The gun clicked empty as he descended upon me. I kicked him back,
“NO, NO, get back!” He overpowered me easily with one hand tied. “NOT LIKE THIS,” I shouted as Hakeem’s teeth sunk into my shoulder. I slumped into the urinal as he began to tear into me. He was eating me alive. Hakeem’s fingers began digging through my suit jacket and into my chest. Soon the pain ebbed, and a certain peace entered my body. I stared up at the crumbling ceiling and could almost visualize him disemboweling me. I just didn’t think it would end like this. I always pictured my death in a glorious battle not in a urinal. I realized that dying comes to us all and it comes when we want it least.
The Requiem
[Aednat]
My eyes fluttered as the world seemed to open to me. It was still dark, and the moon was bright in the sky. I had hoped for a moment that I would wake up in my old bed. Hopefully Da had come to rescue me in my time of need. He had missed his beloved daughter wanting to continue to fight for the cause side by side again. However, there was a different fight that I was in. There was no higher cause or purpose, then a fight for survival. At this moment I hoped that the cause would keep the fight in me. I placed my hands on the ground and began to lift myself off the ground. I shook my head to try and shake my senses back. I saw Nikki lying in a crumpled heap in a small pool of her own blood. It took me a minute to gain my balance and composure. Soon the room righted itself and I made my way towards her.