Myra Fletcher (Barb)

3:13 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020

“This guy just won’t die!” Myra yelled, struggling to climb out the hole made by that giant of man who kept on saying ‘Bob’. The meager armor she managed to hastily grow was chipped and cracked all over. As she clambered to the next floor, she spotted Johann curled up at the corner, having crashed into a large potted fern. “Stand up! He’s coming!”

“Ugh…why did you throw me up so hard,” he groaned. He slowly picked himself up, blood from his wounds dripped on the leaves of the fern and broken pieces of the pot, patches of soil stuck to his clothes.

“Because you’re slow—” The bark armor around Myra's left leg crumpled, its jagged edges digging into her skin and flesh. “Aaah! What the hell?!” She looked down. Their undying pursuer was here. His massive fist had a death grip on her lower leg. Despite the three-foot long spikes piercing his eyeballs, he inexplicably still found them.

“Bob!” His booming calls of what was probably his own name struck fear in Myra’s heart unlike any enemy she faced before. “Bob…Bob…”

“How are you still alive?”

“Bob! Bob!”

She tried to kick him off as hard as she could, kicks that could destroy the skull of a normal human, but Bob held firm. He jumped off the lower floor and hang onto her leg. “Gaaggh!” she exclaimed from the surprising weight threatening to pull her joints apart.

“Bob!”

“Don’t drag me down!” She hung on for dear life as Bob swung freely from her leg. Her fingers buried into the floor, piercing through the tiles, cracking the concrete. Spikes shot out of her arms, anchoring her. “You’re so heavy, you bastard.”

“Myra!”

“Run…run away.”

“No!” Johann tried to grab her hand but got pricked by the spikes that uncontrollably spurted out and receded into her skin, showing how panicked she was becoming.

“Just leave me! I can’t shake him off.”

“I won’t.” He stood over her and fired his gun down at Bob.

“Just run,” she gasped. Weak. So weak. For the first time, she felt she could barely manage to produce any bark. Her strength was also fading, her grip weakening. She wished he would just rip her leg off. Take my leg and just go away. Please.

Johann threw his empty gun at Bob. Then he grabbed Myra’s hands again, ignoring the tiny spikes wounding him, not that he was of any help. “We’re getting out of here alive,” he said. "Don't give up!"

He was right…I have many things left to do!

She still had to find Kelsey, or avenge her if she was already dead. She couldn’t just give up here. She refused to die to an Adumbrae who could only say his name! Concentrating the last of her power into the sole of her free foot, she looked down and timed her only chance to free herself.

“Bob! Bob! Bo—urghk!

A massive spike burst forth from the bottom of her foot, skewering Bob through the mouth like a pig on a spit roast. She felt it didn’t go that deep into his body. Barely down his throat. Bob was unfazed, he even tried to chew the spike.

Myra wasn’t surprised either.

After fighting him for so long, she was sure he wouldn’t die this easily. Even the spikes that should’ve gone into his brain through his eye sockets didn’t do much. But this desperate move wasn’t meant to kill him.

Myra used the spike as leverage to twist her other leg free. “Let me go!” she screamed as she tore her leg from his grip. “GAAARGH!” Pain to top all the pain she ever felt in her life. She nearly passed out. But her will to live pushed back. She shot out the spike from her foot, disconnecting it and letting Bob fall down the hole to the lower floors.

“Yes!” Johann enthusiastically yelled.

“Tired…I’m so tired.”

“Up! Get up here.”

She stumbled into his arms. He flinched when some of her spikes poked him, but he didn’t say anything, continuing to hug her. “Run,” she forced herself to say through her teeth clenched in pain. “Have to…run.”

Johann pulled her up, but she stumbled when they started walking. “Your leg…Mother Core’s grace, look at—”

“Shut up! I’m not going to look.”

“But—”

“It already hurts like a bitch. It…it’ll be worse if I see it.”

“Okay, let’s go.” Johann supported her, and both of them limped away. They walked in silence, only their belabored breathing could be heard. After a few minutes, he said, “I…I can’t go very far.” He gave her a weak smile. His skin was very pale.

“Me too.”

“We need to find…find a place to rest.”

“But not now. A bit further on.”

“The pillar—”

“I got it away from him…but…but he’ll find it soon enough. We need to move a bit further away.”

Johann swallowed then inhaled deeply. He wiped the tiredness from his face and put on a resolute expression. They continued walking until the building slightly shook. A fire alarm was ringing. “What was that? Was that him?”

“He found his toy.”

“It sounds far away.”

“Yes…” Myra said. She forced herself to talk and ignore the pain. There were quakes, but she couldn’t hear the sounds of the building getting destroyed, like concrete crumbling. The fire alarm was turned off. “He’s attacking a different place.”

“I bet he doesn’t know where to point his pillar because you blinded him. But he did find it somehow, so he can probably sense it.”

“Through that room.” She pointed at an ajar door. “Time…a bit of rest…”

Johann turned on the lights as they entered. A small cleaning supply room. The boxes were scattered, thrown off the shelves, spilling their contents. Dried blood streaked the floor. “Bad luck to whoever was hiding here and got found,” Johann said.

“I hope that doesn’t happen to us,” Myra said. He was about to turn off the lights when she told him to stop. She held her breath and slowly lifted up her leg, the one she forcefully yanked out of Bob’s grasp. She gasped upon seeing it.

“Myra…”

“So, that’s why I couldn’t feel it,” she jokingly said. She was about to cry. All this time fighting the 2Ms, even after the fiasco that was their first mission, and this was the only time she felt like crying. Huge chunks of flesh were missing from her lower leg, revealing her bones. She collapsed on the floor.

“Myra!”

“I’m ok…ok…”

“Just sit there,” he shifted her to a clean spot.

“Ok…ok…”

Johann took off his tattered jacket and covered her injury with it. After closing the door and turning off the lights, he sat beside her. “So…”

“I guess it looked worse earlier,” she said in a forced upbeat tone. She didn’t want Johann to think she was weak. She was supposed to be the strongest one in their group. Always on the front line of every fight, not backing down against anything. But she was rattled this time. Especially when that Adumbrae tore off her armor with his bare hands, her armor that could withstand grenades got torn to shreds like it was cardboard.

“Yes,” Johann said. “You’ll be fine. You’re already regenerating. Compared to me…”

She heard rustling. “What’s that?”

“Supposed to be painkillers. We confiscated this from an illegal bioaugs syndicate. I got this from the evidence room. You want some?”

“Is that safe?”

“Probably not.”

“Don’t take it then.”

“My body aches all over. And it felt like I was slapped by a giant cactus when I hugged you.”

“Now, it’s my fault?”

“Uh…no, I didn’t mean—”

“No one told you to hug me.”

“Erm…sorry.”

She felt her body to make sure there wasn’t any piece of armor left. Then she leaned over to him and hugged him from behind. She felt him tense up. She hoped he didn't mind being hugged by someone who wasn't human anymore. “Don’t move...don’t talk. Or...or I’ll hug you tighter until you’re dead.”

He relaxed and started to chuckle.

Myra frowned. “What’s so funny? You think I can’t do it?”

“I’m not moving.”

“You talked.” She nestled her head next to his. “Five minutes of rest, then we’ll go out and find Erind.” Johann nodded his head. She felt the stubbles of his freshly-shaved face brushed against her cheeks. “I hope we do find the woman with the red hood. We’ll need every help we can get if we’re fighting Adumbrae like that one.”

He nodded again.

“I hope Kelsey's still alive.”

He didn’t nod.

“We’re near the security room,” Johann said. “Through this hallway, then the first left.”

“Let me go first,” Myra said, walking as briskly as she could with the crude crutches they made from a broomstick. Although her leg was regenerating rapidly, she didn’t want to put weight on it just yet.

“Why are there a lot of dead monsters here?”

“I don’t know. Maybe Red Hood passed through here? Or someone else.”

“Myra, wait. Check out this body.”

The corpse he pointed to was human with a similar attire as the other men of the 2Ms. “Why is he dead? Don’t they have some way to control the monsters? They had a pretty smooth operation at the parking level.”

“Maybe they did fight Red Hood?”

Johann looted the dead guy of his gun and ammo before moving on. “Here’s another human.” He pushed aside monster carcasses, uncovering a man dress in a bright pin-striped shirt. “A civilian? No…there’s something wrong with him.”

“What do you mean?” Myra took a look at the other body and pulled Johann back.

“What’s wrong?”

“That’s Calder!”

“Calder? The Adumbrae with the illusion power? He’s dead?”

“Yeah…huh? Why is there a hole in his chest?” It wasn’t a hole like a gunshot wound, or even a wound from an explosion. It was just…a hole. The body was hollow. Myra stepped on the supposedly dead body of Calder. It cracked and shattered as if it was a piece of pottery sculpted into a human body. “The hell?”

“An illusion?”

“No. This feels real. Let me check.”

“How?”

She punched herself.

“Myra!”

“Don’t go being all caring for me now,” she said. She tasted blood in her mouth. A few of her teeth were dislodged, but they would heal so she didn’t care. The pieces of the fake body of Calder were still there. “Um, I’m not sure what’s going on here.”

“Hopefully, we’ll see something in the security room.”

They passed more monsters corpses and a couple more of those fake dead bodies that looked like Calder. And they came upon the entrance to the security room, its doors blasted off by an explosion.

A man was inside.

He was wearing the same pin-striped dress shirt as the fake bodies outside. He stood in front of the screens.

“Calder!” Myra exclaimed. She covered her body in whatever armor she could muster. Johann aimed his gun over her shoulder. The man turned to look at them, revealing that the right half of his face was missing. “Oh, another fake,” she said. “Is this another one of your powers?”

“Hello there. Did you say 'Calder'?”

“That’s your name, right? Where the hell is your real body?”

“A lot of people are mistaking me for my brother today. It’s starting to get weird.”

“You’re Calder’s brother? A twin?”

“Yes, my twin. Glad you easily caught on. The name’s Finlay, at your service.” He attempted to bow as a greeting. More pieces of his face and chest broke off and turned to dust as they hit the floor. “Oops,” he said, “hard to keep myself together.”

“Myra, what do we do here?”

“Some bullshit about having a twin. And we have no need for a fake.”

“What are you guys mumbling over there? Come inside here and make yourselves comfortable.”

“Hey, Finlay or whatever the hell your name is.” Myra extended her hand and shot forth spikes, skewering him. “Thanks for turning off the fire alarms.” His body shattered into pieces.

Johann squeezed past her and entered the room, his gun at the ready. “Here's a dead man, a security guard from his uniform.”

“Wow, did he wrap that guy’s head and suffocate him?”

“And another dead body here,” he said, nodding to a chair at the back of the room.

This one was just a head and torso, the head also completely wrapped in hardened plaster like the other corpse, suffocating whoever this was. However, this guy’s limbs were ripped off. Bioaugmentronic limbs by the looks of it. “I…I really have no idea what’s going on here.”

“This guy, Calder or Finlay, he killed them both,” said Johann. “That plaster material. I think it’s the same as those fake bodies.”

“Yeah, I guess. But who is this?” Myra removed the plaster covering the corpse's head like she was peeling a hard-boiled egg. “Holy…it’s Dekano!”

“That’s him? I’ve only seen his pictures on the police database.”

“What’s going on? Why did he…Calder? Why would he kill Dekano? They’re on the same side.”

“I’m not sure,” Johann said. They searched the room for more clues, but couldn’t find anything besides a metallic boxy contraption that was partially destroyed.

Myra went over the screens. “Johann, I think you should take a look at this.”

“What?” He was busy tinkering with the metal box.

She pointed at one of the few screens that still worked. “There’s a group of survivors!”

“I’m surprised those people managed to stay alive.”

“Are those Adumbrae with them?”

“Adumbrae helping them escape? Or are those the 2Ms’ men that captured them?”

“Oh, they’re off screen,” Myra said. “Is there no other way to follow them?”

Johann worked his magic on the control panel and managed to transfer some of the footage on that floor to other working screens. “And there we go,” he said, pressing a button. The survivors were facing off a small group of heavily armed men.

“Uh-oh, that doesn’t look good.”

“So, they weren’t on the same side after all.”

“We don’t even know what sides are here,” Myra said. Both of them watched, curious as to what was going to happen next. The armed men opened fire. “Oh my god! We should help them!”

“What do you mean help them? They’re so far away.”

“What floor?”

“You’re seriously going there?”

Beep.

They looked at each other. Johann shook his head. He had no idea what it was. They both had their phones on silent. They already learned that precious lesson during past missions.

Beep. Didit. Deeet.

Myra turned around, spikes bursting out of her skin, turning her into a human porcupine. Johann scrambled for his gun and aimed, looking for the source of the sound. They slowly fanned out, keeping their eyes peeled.

Beep. Beep. Deeeeeeet.

“Is Dekano’s body making that sound?” she said.

“Seems like it.”

“Do we…do we poke it?” Or was this a bomb? Should she grab Johann and run out? He apparently had the same idea because he was already backing to the door.

Dekano opened his eyes and gasped for air.

“Huh, he’s still alive?” Myra said.

“Phew, I thought he had a self-destruct sequence,” Johann said. “Quite advanced systems to put him into hibernation and provide him with backup oxygen until it detected he was safe.”

“We should kill him.”

“What? No!”

“Don’t preach to me about morality here. If we leave him—”

Johann gave her a look of incredulity. “What are you talking about? I meant to hostage him. We should be able to make use of him in our escape.”

“How can you think of escaping when we haven’t even found Erind? We can’t just lug Dekano’s body around while we search the building.”

“I think it's about time to plan our escape route now.” Johann pointed at the screen.

The armed men had withdrawn, leaving many of the residents dead or injured. Standing in the midst of the survivors was a woman with a familiar outline. She turned her head. Even if the footage was a bit blurry, Myra still easily recognized her.

“Erind.”