CONTAINS CONTENT:
Violence, action violence, blood / gore revolving around a gunshot wound. Character death.
A character is threatened with a creature that resembles a black worm / slug with teeth. The result is never met / seen.
{{Unedited}}
Austin slowly lifted the top of the elevator just enough to peek in.
The man was alone, and the angle was perfect; he couldn’t see anything.
Austin glanced at Marielle, then carefully lifted the panel with his fingertips; both held their breath.
Then, he dropped in behind the man, and snapped his neck before the thug even had time to register Austin.
He knelt, put the corpse’s earpiece into his own ear, and sat, listening for a moment as he rifled through what the man had on him. A knife, the gun he’d been holding. Austin discarded his rifle for this new gun, checking it first; it was fully loaded.
“We think they might be on the fourth floor, someone said they saw some blood up there,” they were saying. Good. The elevator was about to stop on floor three. He glanced up, stood, and replaced the panel.
-What are you doing? Marielle asked from above.
–Just wait a second and don’t make a sound.
Intuition was telling him to leave her up there for a moment.
The elevator doors opened, and Austin’s body flew back against the wall after he caught a bullet in his shoulder, the gun that he’d been checking, dropping among the mess of broken glass, blood, and body.
-Austin! Marielle cried, covering her mouth.
-Don’t…say… a word…Don’t move… I’m still alive. It’s my shoulder.
Gasping through clenched teeth, and grabbing his shoulder with his left hand, he looked up into the shooter’s eyes.
At first, he was confused, because she was wreathed in twinkling gold, just like the doubles… it dawned on him slowly as he saw Barbara.
She gave him a saccharine smile. “Hello, sweetness.” Realization of the words flickered in his blue eyes as they widened in terror. “Yes, I know what your mother called you,” she growled, standing in between the doors. She hit a button, making the elevator stay. “The difference is that you hate it when I call you that. Tundra doesn’t.” She looked around the car, kicked the dead body with her foot, moved one of the guns to the side with the same foot, taking it out of his reach. “Where’s Marielle?” she asked, casually.
“Go to hell,” he growled through clenched teeth.
She aimed the pistol down a little, pausing for dramatic effect and fired between his legs, just inches from anything important. He winced, and jerked his head to the side, but stared back at her, unflinching after the initial blast. “Where’s Marielle?” she asked again, more tenderly. He glanced at the gun that he’d been knocked away from. “Try it and lose your favorite appendage.”
He swallowed but kept his gaze strong on her, silence passing between him and his boss. “So… you’re playing both sides, huh?”
“Actually, no. I’m from Vincent’s world,” she said flatly. “I came here, killed my double, and took her life.” She spread her hand out in the air as if to say tada. “Tundra and I are good… friends.”
“Ew,” he said flatly, flicking his eyes to his blood spilling out between his fingers.
“Oh, what did you think that I was implying?” she chuckled, coldly.
“Ew,” he replied, in the exact same tone.
She smirked and shook her head at him condescendingly, “I’m dying, you know?” She paused again, thoughtfully. “We all are,” she explained, and with the hand still floating in the air, she twisted her fingers a little, and something black materialized and moved through them that resembled a slug, or a leech of some sort, he couldn’t quite comprehend what it was. It looked like a shadow, but one that was alive and inky. “That’s why we need Marielle, and to understand her ability with you… to be able to continue our travels, break in through walls…” the leech – or whatever it was – wove itself through her fingertips, “steal research, and find a cure,” she explained, eyeing her pet. “If she can’t stabilize the dimensional field, Austin, we’re all screwed. We can’t stay here long-term, you know? Or anywhere for that matter. A few months… a year… and we start to disintegrate from the inside out.”
“You’re altered,” he whispered, shakily, and now he was afraid of whatever she was going to do with that thing, because whatever it was, it liked her… but he knew instinctively that it was not going to be so respectful to him.
“Of course I am, sweetness.”
“Call me sweetness again and you might lose an eye.”
“Threaten me again, and find out just exactly what I use Shadow for,” she taunted as the thing slowly pooled in the palm of her hand, and then seeped back into her skin.
She leaned in toward him a little, and pausing inches from his face, she gave him the kind of smile that told him that she enjoyed watching people scream. “It goes in through the mouth,” she said, tipping downward and pressing the tip of the barrel against his bottom lip, which was swollen, and hurt after he’d been knocked during the fight. “It likes to hold around the base of the spine, you see…in the vertebrae.” He glared up at her, hatefully. “It’s just a hug,” she taunted. His arm was numb, he wouldn’t be able to pull the tattoo gun correctly.
She knew about it- which probably explained why she’d shot him in the perfect spot to cause him this agony. Actually, he was uncertain whether she knew about his gun tattoo or not. The two of them had never spoken about it, he’d always talked to the others in command. He kept this at the forefront of his mind as she continued to speak in her pontificating tone. “And he causes powerful hallucinations, intense agony… and makes you open to outside influence.”
He turned a little, getting away from the tip of the gun. “So, you’ve used it on Tundra.”
“I have,” she said proudly. “He’s… different.” She cocked her head to the side, “in so many ways,” she groaned in a way that spoke of her admiration for him.
“I reiterate, ew.”
She made the thing appear again. “I wasn’t finished,” she purred. “It likes the spine… because it forces you to tell the truth… which means that I’ll know where Marielle is soon.”
-What do I do?
Austin swallowed hard. -Stay there, kill her when she comes after you. Just be ready.
“Go for it, I’ve done weirder,” he said unironically. He refused to look at it. He wouldn’t acknowledge its presence, the threat, or what he thought it might do to him.
She chuckled at his attempt at a joke. “Oh, I know… Austin.” She paused, “I’m going to give you one more chance.” He swallowed, and glanced down; tight lipped. “You know,” she said, lifting her parted fingers, and watching the slug weave through them one way, then the other. It made little cooing sounds as it did this, and she smiled softly at it. “You are a unique pair… it makes sense that you’d want her. She’s the only one who can understand you,” she met eyes with him, suggestively, “right?” She let that hang in the air and he tensed his jaw. “She’s the only one who can ever truly know Austin Michael Rancor,” there was a hint of jealousy in her tone. “And the only one that truly accepts you, isn’t she?” For a moment, Barbara sounded compassionate. “You’ve never once known that in your life. Or love…” He tried not to take her words in too closely right now. “And you’re terrified to lose it.” She paused and chuckled. “You have no idea how close to Tundra you really are… And you’re afraid that she’s just going to keep choosing Vincent, aren’t you?” He looked away, hating her words. She smirked, “let me spoil it for you… she is,” she said flatly, her thin mouth twisting into a foreboding smile. “And if not Vincent…” A pregnant pause, he knew what was coming. “Chamber.” She twisted her hand, and gently set the “slug” on the back of the pistol just in front of the hammer. “I know something you don’t know,” she sang in a childish tone. “About yourself, that is. I just can’t tell you. It’s just too delicious.” She seethed as she slowly dipped the tip of the pistol back toward his mouth. He continued to refuse to look at it, again noting the blood spilling out between his fingers. He was getting light headed. He pressed his lips together, and tightened his jaw. He thought, as the slug came closer to his face that he saw teeth, and a thousand little legs like a centipede. “We’re using you, Austin… we’ve known about all of this for quite some time now. Years, actually. You two have more power than you understand… the thing is… it’s nothing without her.” She smiled and put the barrel back to his lips. “You’re nothing without her,” she taunted, and the slug began to slither down the barrel.
“So, if you’re working for Cory why didn’t you reveal yourself earlier? Why not help them with other things?”
“I have my reasons,” she scoffed. “I like you,” she said sardonically. He clenched his teeth again. “Don’t worry, Austin. If Shadow can’t find your mouth… he’ll find another entry.”
At that moment, the ceiling burst open and Barbara’s expression jerked upward. Marielle fell into the car in front of her, thrusting her palm up into Barbara’s nose.
Barbara lurched away, tumbling backward out of the elevator and Marielle lifted her own weapon, and fired twice. The woman fell back, dead; her face as mass of raw meat.
The slug bounced off the wall, hit the floor, writhed, and squealed, and eventually stopped; obviously dead, melted into a pool, and disappeared entirely.
Marielle had been holding her gun on it, not breathing, and she finally let out all her air and turned to Austin.
He was already up and enfolding her against him as he sighed with relief. “A-are you okay?” She heaved through her shuddering.
“I’ll be fine,” he whispered, using his left hand to hold her head against his chest, which sounded like it was going to explode. “I’ll be fine, now.” He shakily reached for the buttons on the elevator door and pressed a few, closing the doors, and telling the car to go the first floor. He held her trembling body the entire way down.
“You’re bleeding,” she said in terror. There was so much red running down his arm.
“It’s easy,” he replied, dismissively. Then he held her again. -I love you. I love you so much. You saved me, darling.
-I had to. I don’t want to be without you. We have to get out together. We have to be together! I don’t want to be without you.
He bit back tears as he rocked her against him, enfolding her in his strong arms, gently crushing her with his strength. Those words were almost better than the others. Because that’s how he felt…every moment of every day.
He’d take her, he’d love her, he’d protect her, he’d die for her; his friend, his partner in crime, his playmate… his love.
It hurt, it ached, it opened a hole inside of him that he feared could never be filled now. Because if he knew nothing else from his brief encounter with Barbara, he knew this… she was right. He knew that Marielle would always choose Vincent, and he knew that she’d never be his.
His heart melted, and calmed as she laced their fingers together, pushed gently into his skin, grabbed hold of his throbbing pulse, and closed her eyes.
For a moment, her heartbeat shot up with his, and then she slowly guided it back down to normal thrumming.
He smiled softly as the elevator continued to descend, and for a moment they were still. They were together.
-You’re like an extension of my arm… a piece that I didn’t know was missing until I found it, Marielle. I don’t ever want to be apart from you.
-I don’t want to be apart from you either. You’re my best friend.
He sighed, exasperatedly. How was he going to deal with the friend zoning after this? After everything that they’d just been through. He knew that she felt more for him… he also knew that she was still terrified of him and how he’d crush her if she said yes to him. Maybe she always would be. He hated himself.
All the decisions that he’d ever made that he thought he loved… he really hated.
***
Sasha, Jamie, Tayane and Kirra had found a tree line along the back of the compound and near the other buildings where men and women were trickling out from in small waves, dressed and geared for battle.
There were four smaller, rectangular buildings that the four guessed were like barracks, and one larger one nearest to them after they rounded the main building.
Staying hidden among the forest at first, they decided to enter the slightly bigger of the five, and upon inspection, the four were mortified to see what they recognized as teleporters… big triangular devices that glowed pink and conducted the vortexes that opened up when commanded.
They were dormant, and no one seemed to be in the building at the moment; the four guessed that it was due to the commotion in the other parts of the compound.
Putting his hand to one of them, Jamie looked to Tayane, and then to Kirra who was watching their backs with her pistol raised. When someone in black popped their head over a railing in the teleporter observation room, she shot at him, and he went toppling over the barrier and crashing to the ground near them.
Sasha touched the other one. There was warmth radiating from both. “I’m pretty sure that they were used recently,” he noted, glancing at Jamie, and gesturing with his head to the soft pink glow that was dying like embers on the inside of the one nearest to him.
“Right, right,” Jamie said, stroking his chin for a moment before they moved out of that building, and back into the tree line, quietly waiting.
“Guys, let’s leave before we’re trapped in here,” Tayane suggested, looking around the space and noting that it was perhaps a bit too quiet. All of them agreed.
“Liam, Vincent, beware… we just found teleporters. It looks like they were used recently. I have no idea how many other… us’s there are.”
“Thank you, Jamie,” Liam replied.
“I’m actually pretty sure that we’re close to wrapping up, here,” Vincent explained. They could hear the pops and bangs through the earpieces; the clear sound of Wei Ling erecting another wall.
“Copy that,” Sasha said as the group made their way out of the building and back out to the tree line where they could get a good view of everything. He kept his bow in his hand. “Any sign of Austin or Marielle yet?”
“Not yet, but I know they’re nearby,” Vincent replied.
“How?” Kirra broke in.
“The constant sound of bullets above us is a good indicator,” Chamber quipped.
Sasha set up his drone and sent it out, moving over the area and shooting reconnaissance darts at anyone trying to find them. It tagged two soldiers before being shot at and crashing to the ground.
“Watch it, they know you’re there, now,” Klara’s voice from their ears. Everyone copied, as a small wave of black clad goons made their way out of building two and headed in their direction.
Tayane took up residence behind a particularly large tree trunk and tossed a grenade at the onslaught just as Kirra shot two different guys approaching from the north corner.
Jamie wreathed himself in flame as he dropped his run it back ability, and moved a little closer to the edge near Tayane to get better shots with his pistol. “Tripple, baby!” He cried, lifting his hands and doing a little dance.
None of them were doing too badly holding their own. However, it became clear quickly that they were eventually going to be overrun by the assault of men coming out of the barracks. Each one of them stood their ground and continued to attempt to keep the lackies from moving to the front of the building and going in after Vincent, Chamber and the others.
One of the men made it into the trees, and Kirra unleashed her tiger after him, striking him in the face and causing him confusion. He ducked behind a trunk, but in his concussed state, Tayane saw him, and fired.
Tayane pulled out her rocket launcher and used it, causing a massive blast in the oncoming wave of six men.
That was when all hell really broke loose, several lackies – men and women – came rushing out from the buildings and moving into positions in and around the area.
“Come on, let’s go!” Jamie cried, taking charge and trying to push them forward. He waved Kirra towards the back, knowing that she was the only healer.
He got one chance, and one chance only to resurrect for the next hour, but no one else had the ability in this group to heal themselves.
So, Jamie put himself in the line of fire, pushing towards the frontline, Tayane close behind. In that moment, his mind only conjured one image… Han. Beautiful, white-haired Han. He knew in those instances what he wanted the moment that he was safe, and glanced at Sasha for a blink, realizing that he didn’t know that Wei Ling felt that way about him.
“We’re about to get overrun,” Kirra explained into the earpiece.
“Well, take care of what you can, make a hole, and get out of there as soon as possible,” Liam replied.
“Copy that.”
Jamie put a wall of flame up, separating the area, and funneling their enemies into a few very specific spots, which bought them about a minute to make a stand.
One of the lackies came around it and met with Jamie…the two began a melee fight. He realized quickly that this guy didn’t seem to have a gun, so Jamie drew his pistol, stepped back and shot him in the face, then backed away as three more darted around the six-foot flames.
Sasha came to his side, and the two began to shoot, and engage the others as another two or three came into the picture. At close range, the guns were becoming useless and they were running out of bullets quickly.
Two men specifically seemed to focus their attention on Sasha, and for a while he wasn’t doing a poor job of keeping them at a distance.
Just as Kirra and Tayane were about to move forward, Tayane took a bullet to the stomach; stunned, neither knew where from. Jamie spotted him and used one of his final bullets to take him down from several yards away. “Love!” Klara cried into their ears.
Kirra rushed to Tayane’s side, putting her hands to her stomach and a vibrant green light moved cooling relief through her midsection as the bullet came out, dropped into the brush of the forest and Tayane’s wound vanished. “Get up now, you’re fine.”
After Jamie had fired, he took his own bullet between the shoulder blades, and he fell to his knees, crumbling into ash and flame, for a moment everyone held their breath; then saw Jamie reappearing uninjured and wide eyed back at his drop point as he silently thanked God that he always had the smarts to put it down.
He dusted his jacket of ash, and stood with the ladies just inside the trees.
This was when all three had the same horrifying realization… Sasha was alone.
They watched him as he spun, driving one of his arrows into the arm of the attacker on his left who jerked back, yanking it out.
Sasha raged, turning, and fending off his other attacker with his knife as he sliced at the air, but the assailant dodged.
He whirled again, this time inward, and managed to get close to the man, plunge the tip in deep, and he fell, dying.
“Oh, thank God,” Kirra whispered, helping Tayane to standing.
Then Sasha’s body jerked in an awkward way, and he stood still for a moment before looking down, and everyone saw what he was looking at… an arrow… his; protruding from his midsection.
“No!” Tayane cried, reaching out for him, but all hell continued to break loose, Jamie was unleashing a hail storm of bullets.
They each watched in terror as Sasha fell forward, and hit the concrete.
“Sasha’s down, I repeat, Sasha’s down,” Jamie was saying into the ear piece as he reloaded, and shot off another two bullets.
Tayane was recovering quickly from her wound, shooting as Kirra helped move her to Jamie. Then she started to dart into the fray after Sasha, even though she knew that she had nothing left. She’d try anyways… she always had to try.
It didn’t matter, there were too many bullets being fired… too many things happening. At one point, Kirra tried to dodge out, anyways, but Jamie pulled her back. “No, love!” He cried.
“I can save him; I can save him!” She wailed, trying to claw out of Jamie’s arms.
Jamie looked at her with welled eyes and shook his head.
Tayane was firing her rocket to the right, and into the swarm of attackers. They scattered, but not enough to give Kirra the opening that she needed.
“Pull back!” Liam was shouting into their ears; they could barely hear him.
“No! No! He’s there, in front of the second building! I can get to him!” Kirra was screaming, continuing to try and break away from Jamie, he held her more tightly against himself, and rested his head between her shoulder blades, crying helplessly as gunfire and Tayane’s grenades exploded around them.
“Kirra, pull back!” Liam ordered.
Jamie yanked her further into the trees, so they could make their way back to the others. “We can’t just leave him there!” Kirra screamed, reaching for his body, clawing at the air. “We can’t just leave him there!” She howled.
And as they were pulling away with her still trying in vain to break out of Jamie’s grasp, to get to him, they saw a figure walk up to Sasha’s motionless body and remove his helmet… long blonde hair, bleeding from the arm, one brilliant brown eye, one fake… another Sasha.
The double put Sasha’s body onto his back, jerked the arrow out, and said with a sardonic smile, “You should have dug a deeper grave, my friend.”
Kirra went limp, sobbing, and let Jamie drag her away. She could feel her reserve for healing slowly refilling.
“John?” Jamie asked, his voice trembling. “John, please go get him? He might still have time left.” He started firing at the Sasha double so his attention would be drawn. It was. The double jerked back several steps and took cover behind a parked van. Jamie glared the space down, daring the double to peek. He did, and the instant Jamie saw movement, he put a bullet between the attacker’s eyes.
John teleported in a swirling cloud of purple, appearing like a hooded shadow to the others as he materialized. He took the lifeless Sasha up into his arms, and teleported back to the front of the building with Liam and Sabine, where he laid Sasha gingerly on the steps at their feet as they rushed to him.
To everyone’s surprise he was still breathing, but it was obvious to all that these were his final breaths. The look in his eyes was terror… he’d looked up into the face of himself… his worst fear.
Sabine fell at his side and yanked the glove off her right hand. “We’re here,” was all that she could get out as she took his hand, interlocking their fingers, and put her other gloved fingers to his face. Thinking fast, she quickly removed her mask so that he could see her entire face and she forced a smile at him, through tears.
Liam fell next to her, and did the same. “We’re here,” he said tenderly. “You fought well. Duty fulfilled, hunter.”
Sasha looked from one, to the other, then back again, the terror slowly falling away from his expression. No one was sure if it was peace, or simply the light at the end of the tunnel, but he swallowed hard and went distant, then limp as his final breath depleted from his body, deflating his chest and taking his spirit to death’s embrace.
Wei Ling had rushed through the building, tearing through the stairwell, through the doors, down the front steps, and fell upon him, putting her hands on him just in time for… nothing to happen. Brain activity ceased. He was gone.
Wei Ling searched his blank eyes, the realization hitting her. “Oh no,” she whispered, her bottom lip quivering, and she fell against his chest.
Sabine leaned in, putting an arm around Wei Ling; she was still clutching his hand.
At that point, Jamie, Kirra, and Tayane rounded the corner, and Kirra rushed to him, and put her hands on him as well, “Please!” She sobbed. “Please!” There was nothing.
Everyone went still as Kirra and Wei Ling exchanged looks, and threw their arms around one another, both understanding… this wasn’t their fault…but it was… but it wasn’t.
Losing someone was never easy to work through for either woman and Kirra had special understanding for what this meant to Wei Ling. She’d loved him, and she’d never said anything. Now she’d never be able to. They clung to one another, sobbing, and rocked gently.
There was silence as they each took a moment. John fired at another attacker, keeping watch for a moment.
“Okay,” Liam said quietly after a beat, signaling that the ordeal was over. “Let’s get him to the van.”
All six of them lifted his lifeless body and helped carry him, albeit with Wei Ling’s hands wrapped awkwardly around his face as she tried to find a pulse, light, anything.
***
Inside the building, the beaten and dinged elevator doors opened, and Vincent and Chamber’s raised weapons were met with a blood soaked, bruised couple holding their own weapons back on them. Once realization dawned all of them, they dropped their guns, and Austin and Marielle fell out together.
Vincent rushed to Marielle, looked at her for a moment- she was almost unrecognizable, blotched in red, swollen lip, bald… and scooped her up into his arms, holding her tightly against him where she disappeared.
Chamber went to Austin. “You okay?” he asked. Austin nodded, listlessly as he flicked his gaze to Vincent, wrapped around the woman he loved.
All four rushed out before another wave attacked.
Kirra saw them approaching and fell out of the van into Austin’s arms, horror spread across her sweet face as she caught sight of his wounds and overall appearance; no hair, bloodied.
It was a hug, but she instantly healed him, and he sighed with relief, but the expression on his face told her everything that she needed to know… she only paused for a moment, meeting his eyes to see that he was fully healed before she dodged into the back of the van, again.
Everyone sat in silence as Kirra and Wei Ling sobbed over Sasha’s body in the very back, both still trying… both still praying… both still begging… both still calling his name…filling his cloak with their tears.
Marielle looked out the window, and watched the passing of cars, and trees, saying nothing. There was nothing. Just trees. Just tears… Just Vincent’s arm enfolding her. Just Liam trying to hide his tears as he drove. Just Austin behind her, silent as the grave. Just a grave in the back of the van.
This was too much.