I had a decision to make here. I could’ve lied to the bounty hunters, claiming that I had no idea where Trent was, in order to avoid whatever hellish clash they would’ve engaged in. But at the same time… I was thinking that they’d actually be able to take him out, which would've meant at least one huge problem being solved. Also, it was pretty obvious that hiding by myself would only be a temporary reprieve. Something would find and kill me eventually. There was obviously no chance of me defeating the “messiah” by myself. But the bounty hunters… well, I was hopeful.
With that in mind, I began retracing my steps, leading the two towards the corridor where Trent and Kaz were about to throw down, hoping that the latter had at least managed to weaken the former.
However, as soon as we turned our first corner, we came across five middle-school aged kids. They all had a faint, dark purple smoke rising up from their bodies, with blacked out eyes and fang-like teeth. I suppose the assumption could be made that they might’ve been possessed. What made it even more complicated was the fact that they were kids. Could we really just kill them?
“Alright,” I said. “Let’s think of a way to incapacitate and restrain them.”
I acted first, attempting to grab one of the kids and put them in a choke-hold. Like I said, I’m not the smartest guy. As soon as I got close, the kid grabbed me by the arm and swung me into the lockers with beast-like strength.
The bounty-hunters simply laughed in response. After wiping an amused tear from his eye, the man stepped forward, drawing an extremely large blade from his exo-skeleton. He rushed forward at a dizzying speed, slicing each of their heads off in immediate succession.
“Alright,” he said, completely unfazed by what he’d just done. “Let's go.”
“Why did you…” I began stammering out. “They were kids… we could’ve-“
“Could’ve fucking what?” the woman said, stepping by me. “Gotten your ass ripped apart by them?” and then she scoffed. “Don’t tell me you were thinking they could be changed back. It really doesn't work like that.”
I stood there for a second, horrified by their blatant cruelty. But the realization quickly dawned on me… what else could we have done? It wasn’t so much that I was disturbed by what they’d done. That part seemed inevitable. It was more so the attitude they’d displayed whilst doing it.
“Well?” the man asked me. “You coming or what? We’ll ditch you right here if you don’t move."
I forced myself to get over it, under the reasoning that I was going to forget that any of this had happened. Well… try to forget. The idea of a brain-wipe was sounding pretty good at that moment.
When we got to the corridor where I’d seen Trent last, it was empty. No bodies, even. Just a lot blood stains on the ground.
The male hunter sighed. “Well, damn. Really hope that fucker's still alive.”
As we were about to head off to keep searching, a voice called out from behind us.
“What's going on over here?”
It was deep and gravelly, in a tone that was both reserved and implicitly aggressive. We turned around, seeing an older man (maybe mid-40s), clad in dark-green tactical gear. His hair was cut short, and one of his eyes had a gnarly scar running through it. He chewed on his cigar, seemingly analyzing the three of us.
“Are you my targets?” He asked, probably not expecting an answer.
The male hunter shook his head. “Don’t think so. Who the fuck are you?”
“Calhoun,” the man responded. “Class 1 Holy Soldier.”
Another one? I thought to myself.
“Let’s see…” he continued. “I’m sensing no power coming from him,” he said, pointing towards me. “But you two… what’s your business here?” He gestured towards the hunters.
“Our business?” the woman spoke up. “Nothing to do with you.”
Calhoun sneered, before dropping his cigar and stomping on it. “You’re impeding official US military business. I fuckin’ hate bounty hunters. Get a real job.”
The male hunter sneered back as he stepped forward. “What? Like yours? You’re a real saint, you simpering puppet.”
Calhoun's lips curled into a really unpleasant smirk. “Good. Throw the first punch. Makes it even better for me.”
And then, before I could say anything at all, they were fighting. Each of their swings and kicks were devastating, shattering the ground and busting open metal lockers with each missed strike. It truly was a clash between titans. And it was infuriating to watch, given the situation.
“What the hell are you guys doing?” I called out. “Can’t this fucking wait!”
I turned to the female hunter, expecting her to be some voice of reason. But of course, she was also insane, watching the fight with a huge smile plastered onto her face.
“…Oh God…” was all I could mutter out.
While the fight had started off pretty even, Calhoun was quickly gaining the upper hand. He stopped one of the male hunter’s slashes by grabbing the blade.
“You don’t have any experience, do you boy?” He said, before snapping it off and plunging it into one of the hunter's eyes.
Despite the grievous injury, the hunter simply let out an exasperated grunt and persisted forward. He began swinging with his naked fists, managing to connect a few times with Calhoun’s ribs. But the Holy Solider hardly seemed affected, grabbing the hunter by the head and drilling his knee upwards, shattering the jaw. Calhoun finished him off by pulling out an extremely sawed-off shotgun and blasting the hunter’s torso to hell.
I could only watch in abject shock as the inexplicable scene unfolded in front of me. But… I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to being somewhat astonished by the whole thing. I was nearly in a state of morbid awe. I looked at the female hunter, expecting her to be absolutely fuming. Instead, she just sighed, before drawing her own gun and immediately blasting a shot at Calhoun.
Point blank, I thought. *There’s no way he-“
I looked up, seeing Calhoun with his fist outstretched, the veins on his hands pulsating. He opened his hand, dropping a massive, bloody bullet to the ground.
“Fuck… that hurt.” He remarked.
The woman re-holstered her weapon, appearing to be somewhat worried.
“Alright, you old bastard...” She muttered, sounding increasingly unhinged. She removed her goggles, revealing a pair of large, bright-red eyes underneath. She grunted, before releasing what could only be described as a beam of optic energy.
The blast ripped through everything in its path, as she followed Calhoun with it. At a point, it was inches away from cutting me in half, had I not jumped. But no dice for her. The guy was just too fast on top of his overwhelming strength. He evaded her blasts with ease, before he rushed forward, decapitating her with one chop to the neck. Her head went flying, before landing at my feet. It was a sight that caused me to gag.
I’ve seen my fair share of rough stuff… but the state I’m located in is one of the safest in America. Maybe if I was based in a rougher place, my resolve would’ve been higher. But that just wasn’t the case here.
Calhoun turned to look at me, wiping blood from his hands. “SWAT, huh? I can respect it. You’re still getting brain-wiped after everything’s said and done, though.”
I opened my mouth, searching for a response. But there just wasn’t anything I could force myself to say.
“Count yourself lucky,” he said, in response to my apparent apprehension. “It’d be easier for me to kill you on the spot. I’m letting you live out of the kindness of my heart.”
That seems like faulty logic, I thought to myself. But whatever. There was obviously no use arguing with the guy.
“What hell’s going on outside? Is it safe?” I asked him.
Calhoun chuckled, somewhat condescendingly. “You don’t want to see what’s going on outside.”
Obviously, I wasn’t terribly excited at the prospect of some state-ordained brain-wiping procedure, but at the moment, I was just trying to survive. I began following Calhoun as he began traversing through the corridors.
“Where are we going?” I asked him.
“Looking for the messiah,” he responded. “Once I get rid of him, we can go home.”
It was something that seemed far easier said than done. But I really had no other option than to follow the guy. He seemed strong enough, after all. He was shouting up a storm as he walked through the halls, in an attempt to provoke Trent to come out. It was something that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.
We were drawing too much damn attention. Although, it didn’t seem to matter much, since Calhoun either punched or shot a hole through any creature that attacked us.
After a few minutes of this, somebody took the bait and met us in a hallway. But it wasn’t Trent. It was a tall, wiry man with dark, slicked back hair, wearing a leather jacket and tight jeans.
What now? I thought to myself. Another government guy? More bounty hunters?
“You’re causing quite the ruckus out here,” the man said, walking forward. “Looking for somebody?”
“Yeah…” Calhoun responded. “Don’t think it’s you, though. I can tell that you’re no stronger than this guy,” he said, gesturing towards me.
The man smirked. “Cool ability. I can tell you’re pretty strong as well.”
Calhoun scowled, already annoyed at the conversation. “Where’s Trent? You another one of his lackeys? I thought he only recruited the strong. Can't imagine he'd choose fodder like you.”
“Yeah," the man smirked. "Can’t imagine it either.”
As soon as he finished the statement, thick veins beginning to bulging out of his neck. He stuck his arm out to the side, and before I could blink, it’d morphed into a terrifyingly familiar sight. It was the same insect-like appendage that’d grabbed Axwell earlier.
I could see Calhoun’s eyes beginning to widen upon realizing his misjudgment. He took a fighting stance, rushing the man faster and more ferociously than he did the female hunter. The man swung at him, but Calhoun was swift enough to dodge the strike, managing to punch a hole through the man’s torso.
But instead of reeling in pain, the man simply continued grinning.
“Tough guy, huh? Good for you.”
Still with a gaping hole in his stomach, the man extended his other arm, transforming it into some kind of massive fleshy, veiny axe. He swung it forward, managing to slice a portion of Calhoun’s forearm off, who'd barely managed to dodge what would've been a fatal blow.
“C’mon…” the man said nonchalantly. “Don’t force my hand here.”
As he said this, I could see the hole in his stomach beginning to regenerate. It was a fucked up sight, to say the least. But it didn't end there. The man’s legs seemed to revert back into his torso, with a collection of long, arachnid-esque legs quickly popping out in their place.
“This feels as gross as it looks, you know.”
At that point, he’d become far faster than Calhoun. He crawled onto the walls and ceiling, before splitting Calhoun’s head down the middle with his hand-axe. When he landed back on the floor, he’d returned to his “normal” human self once again. And then he turned to face me.
“Look at that. My jacket’s ruined.”
I was running before he'd finished his sentence. However, he didn’t seem to be putting much effort into the chase, whistling as he marched behind me, sustaining a moderate pace at best.
I ran like hell for around ten minutes, evading stray creatures in the process. At a point, I found an empty computer lab and barricaded myself in there. It didn’t take long for the man to find me, though. But for whatever reason… he didn't barge in immediately.
Instead, he's talking to me through the door. Telling me that no matter what I do, I’m going to be “transformed” into one of Trent’s messengers. That he has a quota to fill.
UPDATE:
Fuck, he just broke in.
---
Credits
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