Heartless could feel the cold metal teeth of the handcuffs
digging into his wrist. His head was still ringing from the explosion, but his mind
was clear enough to realize the cold ring pressed against his neck was the
barrel of a gun. The man escorting him through the decrepit hallway was well
armed and wearing an old fashion SWAT suit scared by Vacant claw marks. The
building reminded him of an elementary school as faded paintings of jungle
animals and bright colorful strips underlined the filth caked on the walls. He
felt a twinge of sadness as he watched each animal painting pass. It reminded
him of Maya, a beautiful young girl he failed to save, but that seemed like
another lifetime now. The man stopped in front of a door barricaded with industrial
strength chains; obliviously designed to keep the occasional scavengers and
Vacants out. Two more soldiers came up from behind, one dragging Clubs’
unconscious body, and began to undo the tangle of chains on the door. The door
swung open into darkness but the echo of the metal clank told Heartless the
room was large and open. The solider pushed Heartless into the room and kicked
him in the fold of his knees forcing him to knell. Some sort of restraint was
pulled from the ground and secured around his neck as if chaining a dog to a
post. Heartless was no stranger to being a captive and knew things were only
going to get worse. His mind raced of possible dangers when a bright flash
filled the room as two spotlights flicked on washing the room with their immense
brightness. A looming figure stood between the lights absent of any features
beside the silhouette of a fairly large man. After securing Clubs to a chair behind
him the other three soldiers joined the silhouette becoming nothing more than
shadows themselves. “We have been
searching for you for some time now, Heartless. Did you know that you have
become a legend of the waste, the man who isn’t dead or alive?" Heartless
tilted his head back as he roared in laughter. “I’m just a man, nothing more.” The large silhouette slammed
against something in anger, sending specs of debris dancing in the light.
“You’re hurting my feelings Heartless. Lying to your old friend.” The
silhouette leaned closer to Heartless revealing his aging face. “It seems like
only yesterday that you and me were guinea pigs for that crackpot scientist,
Oscar.” Heartless smirked to hide
his fear. “Hello Gabriel. It has been too long.”
Diamonds wrestled his aching body out of the mangled driver
seat. He tried to aim his fall so that he would land on the passenger seat a
few feet below. Spikes of pain drove deep into his nerve endings as he landed
on the hard plastic of the armrest. One of his ribs was shifting with each tiny
movement making him wish he never woke from that dream. Diamonds watched the
closet Vacant that looked like a man who had been living inside of a sewer for
the last ten years. The clothes it was wearing was nothing more than rags that
had become infused over time with the monsters gore encrusted wounds. Its grey
skin drooped nearly off of its face exposing rotted tendons moving its jaw
slowly open and shut. It leaned down to try and feed on the unconscious Spades
scraping broken yellow teeth on the armor shielding his legs. Diamonds pulled out his PX4 Storm and
shot the decaying Vacant through its temple. Flames danced around the truck’s
carcass illuminating the approaching horde giving Diamonds only a few minutes
to gather the things he needed. Searching the inside of the cab, he salvaged a
small tool kit along with the bag Spades was carrying his guns in. Diamonds
slid out the broken windshield and dragged Spades out the rest of the way. The
horde was about a hundred yards away. Diamonds pulled apart the tool kit and
took out a small transparent cylinder with a tip and a modified staple gun.
Spades coughed up little flecks of blood as Diamonds pulled and forced the
gapping armor closer together. “Alright Spades, hold on for me, damnit. You can’t
die now.” Once the armor refused to budge any closer Diamonds broke the cylinder
of 16 lb. density urethane foam filling the chasm. As the foam dried, it pulled
the armor together like an artificial suture and became nearly indestructible. The
horde was only sixty yards away now. Diamonds placed the staple gun below
Spades neck and a metallic clank rang as a heated metal band projected into the
broken armor, binding the crack more permanently. Diamond slide the gun down a
few more inches and shot another metal band. The force pressed down hard on
Spades’ chest forcing out a gasp of air. Diamonds placed the last metal band near
the base of the crack repairing the armor the best he could with the horde
being only thirty yards away. Spades’ eyes flicked open as he gasped for air.
“Hold on, brother. We are almost done here.” Diamonds reached inside Spades’ bag
and retrieved the final piece of his armor. The mask with the Spade etched into
it. “Wher…..where…are…we?” Diamonds ignored him and slide the mask on to Spades
with a click. A soft robotic
female voice chimed “Powering up. Armor at 79%. Exterior damage to the chest
plate. No other M.A.C system in range. Spades is now active.” A blue haze
washed over the readout inside his mask and the world lit up around him. The
half dazed Spades looked at the sky for rain as he listened to the crashes of
thunder. It was then he realized that there was no storm and the booming sounds
of thunder was Diamonds shooting everything he had at the horde of Vacants that
were nearly on top of them.
Gabriel took a long drag off the cigarette dangling the hot
cherry dangerously close to Heartless’ face. Silver ribbons of smoke swirled
around the two men as the other soldiers stood watch. “It only seems like
yesterday, doesn’t it? Just you and me finding subjects for Oscar to test
his serums on. Honestly, he was probably the best hope for humanity after this
plague broke out, but his name was already too tarnished to be taken
seriously.” Gabriel blew the words in a puff of smoke, looking around the empty
room with a gaze of nostalgia. “ Still, we tried to help the old man and look
how he repaid us. You're immune to the plague and me…. I get to feel every
molecule in my body scream as my cells reproduce at a far too rapid rate. I have
super strength, but the red serum has made me the disfigured old man that stands
in front of you now. I need to find her, Heartless. I know she can fix me.”
Heartless tried pulling against the handcuffs, testing their resilient. “That’s
a heart warming story you have their, Gabriel, but I have no idea where she is. I
wish I could hel…” Heartless was cut short as Gabriel swung the end of his
pistol into his jaw. “Don’t fucking play me for dumb Heartless. That is what
they call you now right? I know you and your Bartle Four are tracking down
Spades’ little girl and you're going to lead me there. I know the serum has to be
turning on you by now. Oscar never was good at catching the long term effects
of his cures.” Blood trickled out of the corner of Heartless' mouth giving him a
blood stained smile. “Why do you think I would ever help you find Sage? Even if
I did find her, Spades would kill anybody to protect her. He already lost her
once and I know he will make damn sure he doesn’t lose her again.” Gabriel
crouched in front of Heartless and grabbed the man around the neck. Heartless
could feel the unnatural strength of the old man crushing his windpipe. “I see
this casual conversation is nothing more then a dance of false civilities and
is going nowhere. So listen up, Heartless. You’re going to take this holotape
with Sage’s message on it and give it to Spades. She has encrypted her message,
but I know Spades will be able to decipher her location. I will be watching.”
Gabriel slide a black bag over Heartless’ face and undid the restraint around
his neck. “You two come over here and take out this trash.” Heartless felt the
barrel of the gun press against the back of his head. The soldiers escorted the
blind man back through the hallway. There was a loud scraping of metal as a
heavy door swung open on rusted hinges. A scene of distorted familiarity
greeted Heartless as the black bag was pulled from his face. A once thriving
town reduced to nothing more than a setting for a nightmare. The solider undid
Heartless handcuffs and pushed him off the ledge and down the hill into the
twisted town. As Heartless tumbled down the steep grade he noticed Clubs being
thrown off the ledge behind him.
Spades could feel their broken fingers dragging across his
armor. The horde had surrounded him and Diamonds, but luckily their armor was
preventing the Vacants from causing any real damage. “Diamonds is now active.
M.A.C. communication has been established.” Spades slide the end of his combat
knife through the bottom of a Vacants mouth that managed to grab hold of the
weak spot in his armor. “Diamonds I don’t know how long this suture is going to
withstand against this horde. You see that grocery store about two hundred
yards northwest?” A soft static could be heard over the Vacants’ haunting
moans. “Yeah, we could hold up in there until we come up with a plan to find
Heartless and Clubs. I just pray they are still alive because I know it wasn’t
the Vacant that tried to blow us up.” The horde shambled around as the two cut,
shot, and beat there way through the masses. No sign of humanity was left on
these time-tested monsters. Vacants with missing jaws walked with their swollen
black tongue hanging against their necks. Some of them had their intestines
hanging out of their split abdomen, trembling with each robotic step they took.
These broken shells of body received no remorse from the two men covered in
gore. Their armor was slicked with rotten flesh and chunks of coagulated blood
when they reached the grocery store. “ Holy shit, man. I don’t think we have
ever killed that many Vacants before.” Spades was breathing heavily, the rich
oxygen being cycled through his suit. “Let's just focus on the next task.
Barricade this door and let's try to figure out why we haven’t heard from Clubs
or Heartless yet.” Diamonds wasted no time as he flipped over an old coke
vending machine in front of the entrance. Spades started taking inventory of
the ammo left when a soft female voice chimed in. “Two weak M.A.C. signals have
been detected. Trying to triangulate.” Spades dropped the ammo as Diamonds
froze mid motion, trying not to miss a single thing. “Incoming message from
Heartless.” Cracks and pops distorted Heartless’ panicked tone. “I think…. are
hearing us Clubs. We have… press on a …. further I think we are…there.” Spades
ran to pry the wood off the boarded up window in hope of catching a glimpse at
where the other two could be. “Heartless!! Heartless!! Can you hear me?” “Well
it’s good to hear your voice, friend. We are beat up, but we still have the fight
in us. I have some good news, Spades.” Panic was replaced with relief, hearing
that they both were still alive. “Heartless, it is Diamonds. We are barricaded
inside the Corner Mart grocery store if you can make it.” “No problem. That is
just down the hill from here. The place is crawling with Vacants, but we should
be there in the next few minutes. We are running low on ammo, but what’s new?”
The transmission was becoming clearer as Heartless and Clubs got closer to
the store. “Oh yeah Spades about that good news. I found her. I know where Sage
is.”
- Chris
- Chris
No comments:
Post a Comment