Chapter 28

A series of loud cracks jolted me back to my senses. They had come from the light post I was holding onto. Even as I watched, fissures snaked all the way around its surface and buckled beneath the irresistible strength of my grip. Only instants later, the power cables overhead snapped with a sharp burst of electricity, beginning to come tumbling free. I tilted my head to one side and watched, momentarily dazzled by the colorful burst of sparks as snakes of live electricity threatened to descend howling upon my head.

My former self might have panicked or ran screaming for my life. Now that I felt the power of the orb coursing through my body and demanding release, however, I watched the collapsing power lines as though in slow motion and I wasn’t even thinking about running. It was all I could do not to grin like a feral beast as I wondered how my increased Resilience would stack up against several thousand volts of electricity.

“Kai!”

I turned my head around just in time to see the panic in Victoria’s features as she rushed in my direction. Dexter tried to hold her back but she wrestled herself free of her much bigger partner with surprising ease. The desperation in her eyes was like a knife stabbing into my guts. I was still struggling to dig it out when she reached my side and tried to push me away. Even decisive as she was and with all her momentum, she might as well have been trying to knock aside a locomotive for all the effect she had on me. She certainly hadn’t expected that. When I didn’t even budge under her desperate shove, she crashed against my chest with a high-pitched yelp.

Glancing up at the snapped power lines about to descend upon our heads, I circled Victoria’s waist under one arm and pushed off against the ground. My leap sent us soaring high above, landing at least twenty feet away and clear from any danger. Behind our backs, the power cables crashed against the ground with a thundering crack as concrete splintered under the crackling hiss of electricity.

Victoria shook uncontrollably from where she lay cradled in my embrace. I could feel her breasts crushed against my chest, rising and falling with each of her frantic breaths. Her face lay nestled against the nook of my neck, where her ragged panting spread warmth across my skin. She didn’t seem to realize how tightly her arms were squeezing me against her, so much so that I could feel each of her heart’s frantic beats as though they were my own.

“Uh, Vicky?” I asked, unsure of what to say as I stroked her back reassuringly.

“You dummy,” she whispered against my ear. I could hear her drawing a deep, shuddering breath. “You smell terrible.”

“You smell nice,” I replied honestly, taking a whiff of that achingly familiar lavender scent before I could stop myself, then had to fumble for something to fill the awkward silence that ensued. “Still buy your soap from Samantha’s shop down at Third Street, right? I guess some things never change.”

“And some do,” Victoria whispered, her tone deeply charged with an emotion I couldn’t identify and dreaded having to confront. “Right?”

“Vicky, listen,” I began, but the look in her eyes as she gazed up at me from within my arms stopped me cold. I knew that look, the one with the indifference and dismissal reserved for the few subjects that didn’t even rate an emotional response from her. It was the same indifference-ridden eyes she used to gaze upon abominations such as fruits disguised as vegetables (tomatoes or cucumbers were grave offenders) or loud noises pretending to be music(like death metal or hip hop).

“How did you do that?” Victoria asked, pushing herself away from me and calmly straightening her clothes.

“How did I- wait, you’re changing the topic. Vicky, I know it’s been-”

“How the fuck did you do that?” Dexter repeated as he arrived at our side, his wide-eyed stare rapidly shifting back and forth between the downed power cables and my legs. “There’s something seriously messed up with your legs.”

“The power of the orb, remember?” I pointed out. “I explained the powers it grants to users.”

“Well, yeah.. But damn, I didn’t expect the results to be quite so dramatic,” Dexter said, whistling under his breath. “It’s like you’re Ant-man or something.”

“Hey, why couldn’t you just say Superman?” I protested, annoyed.

Dexter simply looked me up and down before smirking in an infuriating way. “Really? You ain’t got nearly enough to pull off Superman. Maybe a twitchy, nerdy version of Peter Parker.”

“You mean Spiderman?” I corrected.

“No, I said Peter Parker and I meant it.”

“Isn’t he another of those nerdy reporter slash superhero alter egos?” I grumbled.

“Yeah, I know it’s a bit of a stretch but I was feeling generous.”

I scowled at Dexter, eliciting a sparkling grin from the man. His expression immediately wilted when Victoria nudged him aside with an ungentle elbow and he heard her words.

“Agent Kelly, there’s a contingent of military troops patrolling the area approaching our location,” Victoria said.

“Yeah, I see them,” Dexter replied, rubbing his ribs with a frown. “What about them?”

“Against all expectation, a situation has arisen where the circumstances require your expertise, agent Kelly.”

“You mean you need me to employ my magnetic charm and impeccable professionalism to deal with the military presence?” Dexter grinned at Victoria as though he’d just won a Royal Flush against the house.

“No, I meant your innate gift to be endlessly aggravating,” Victoria said, rolling her eyes.

“Hey!”

“Just wave your badge under their noses while discussing your newest collection of Dragon Ball Z mint-condition figurines,” Victoria waved a hand in the direction of half a dozen soldiers rapidly closing on our position. “I’m sure you’ll have them begging you to go away in no time at all.”

Dexter grumbled under his breath but nonetheless held up his FBI badge high in the air as he approached the soldiers.

“Halt where you are and raise your hands in the air. This is a restricted area and you are in violation of curfew law!”

“Hey, relax. I’m one of the good guys. I’m Agent Dexter Kelly with the FBI. We’re currently pursuing an investigation in the area..”

I drowned out the rest of it as I turned to gaze upon the ruins of LA’s Chinatown District. Heavy machinery lay parked by the sides of the road further ahead, with huge reflectors illuminating a scene of utter devastation. It was hard to believe it had been three weeks since the massacre, as the entire area was still a mess of crumbled stone and melted glass. At this pace, it would take months before they could finally dig the ashes of the victims out from under the rubble.

“Quite the girlfriend you got yourself,” came Victoria’s neutral words from beside my shoulder.

I glanced to my left to see Victoria’s side profile as she gazed at the site of the massacre. She unconsciously raised a hand to stroke her chin, seemingly lost in thought. It had always been a habit of hers when she was contemplating an important matter. Suddenly, her hand froze as she seemed to feel my gaze upon her. A slight frown creased her forehead as she coughed into her hand and lowered her hand with unnatural indifference.

“I believe in her,” I said calmly, turning my head back toward the ruined buildings lying before us.

“Faith? Is that the best you can do? Such a pitiful bulwark against the vicissitudes of life and whims of the human condition.” Victoria spoke as though to herself, but it was the muted emotion lurking within her tone that really drove the edge of her words home.

“A dear friend once told me that only within such weakness can true strength be found.”

“More the fool, then. Your friend was in for a rude awakening.”

“I don’t know,” I said slowly, each word pained and dragged out through clenched teeth. “Was she?”

Victoria didn’t answer, but then again, she didn’t need to.

“Shit!”

“Yes, we’re wading ankle-deep in fecal matter. Thank you for the timely reminder, agent Kelly,” Victoria said.

“No, damn rat the size of my cat crawled halfway up my back before I realized it and slapped the thing away,” Dexter cried out, scanning the area around him frantically with his flashlight.

“It was barely the normal size for a mature rodent and it seemed perfectly content to cling to your waist before you began to panic for no apparent reason,” Victoria observed, wading forward and pointedly ignoring her partner’s next outburst.

“You mean you saw it and didn’t even bother to point it out?” Dexter cried out, horrified. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“Given the nearly incapacitating volume of your scream and the large amounts of sewage material propelled outward by your disproportionate reaction to the threat or lack thereof, I’d say the answer is self-evident.”

“It was the size of a freaking cat and it was inches away from ripping my windpipe out,” Dexter protested shrilly, flailing his arms.

“So close, yet so far,” Victoria said with a sigh. “In any case, small rodents lack the motor ability and instinctive prowess to use such sophisticated attacks.”

“Whatever, it wasn’t your neck on the line. Let’s see you calmly splashing about in a fetid pool of sewage with a rat the size of a freaking terrier clawing its way up your back.”

“I see that the rodent’s imaginary dimensions seem to grow larger with each retelling, just the way your stories often go,” Victoria pointed out with a shake of her head.

“I know what I saw, damn it! Next time, just warn me, alright?” Dexter growled, pulling the lapels of his coat tightly against his neck as he waved his flashlight back and forth within the dim confines of the sewer tunnel.

“And miss this edifying discourse we’ve just shared?” Victoria said, raising an eyebrow.

“Bah, you’re just taking out your frustration on me again. Why do I have to be the punching bag when Kaizer’s the one who was dying to crawl through the sewers in the middle of the night and you’re the one who just couldn’t wait to join him.”

I flinched at that, largely because it was true. This whole unfortunate ordeal had been my idea in the first place. I hadn’t asked Victoria to accompany me, however. In fact, I distinctly recalled arguing to the contrary. As often was the case, however, Victoria did as Victoria willed and the rest of the world would just have to live with the consequences - which in this case meant that Dexter’s thousand-dollar Armani slacks would get thoroughly soaked in the sickly green of LA’s sewer system and Victoria would continue to glare at my back as though each of her partner’s shrieks and protests was my fault.

“Please, at least tell me we’re getting closer,” Dexter said with a heartfelt moan and a pasty tinge to his skin. “I thought my sense of smell would short itself out 5 minutes ago and I really didn’t think the reek could get any worse, but I can see life giggling itself out as I’ve been emphatically proven wrong on both counts.”

“We are,” I responded with a grim twist of my lips. “In fact, you should draw your guns and make as little noise as possible.”

“Hostiles ahead?” Victoria said, immediately preparing her MP-5 submachine gun and stepping closer to me while she pointed her flashlight into the darkness looming ahead. “Stay behind me. Can you tell how far or how many there are?”

I shook my head with a helpless shrug. “I can only recognize the smell from the trials, but it’s still too faint for such details.”

“It’s a wonder you can smell anything at all down here,” Dexter said, chuckling ruefully. He still unslung the shotgun from his shoulder though, ready to fire.

“Just remember to aim for the head,” I muttered under my breath, wading forward through the precarious footing of the sewage beneath my feet. “And if you see an 8-feet tall monster, just run away.”

“You’re the boss,” Dexter instantly replied.

Victoria didn’t bother to answer, simply sending a withering look in her partner’s way before drawing closer to me.

“Kai, don’t move too far ahead. You don’t even have a gun,” she pointed out. “Orb or not, you’re still just a civilian. Whatever it is you’re stalking down here, you let us do the fighting.”

I opened my mouth to explain once again that I had evolved far past what could be reasonably construed as a mere ‘civilian’ thanks to the power of the orb, but I recognized the determined set of her mouth and knew I’d just be wasting my breath. Instead, I let the solid steel bar of the parking meter resting upon my shoulders do the talking. I could still recall Dexter’s goggled-eyed shock when I’d casually torn the parking meter off the pavement and waved it around a few times as though it was nothing but a slightly oversized baseball bat. It had been my way of a silent protest after I’d grown annoyed at Victoria’s stubborn refusal to let me ‘borrow’ one of her shotguns - the gun rack in the back of her FBI vehicle had two of them and she had opted for an MP-5 submachine gun in spite of my warnings regarding the prey I smelled. After all, the submachine gun hadn’t done a whole lot of good to the poor SWAT teams back at the mall.

To make matters even worse, the fetid stench of death I could remember from the zombies I had fought at the mall wasn’t the only trail that had brought me to the sewer tunnels sprawling underneath Chinatown. There was also a new smell, one that reeked of corruption and wrongness, as though it simply didn’t belong to this world. Not that zombies really belonged to 21st century Los Angeles City, but the smell that had assaulted my nostrils told of a blight that would bring damnation upon all of humanity. I didn’t know what sort of creature could exude such a feeling of stark evil, and to be honest, I wasn’t very anxious to find out. However, the third scent trail inexorably drew me forward, step by stubborn step.

It smelled of rainy afternoons curled up under a blanket, Sunday mornings spent indulging in late breakfasts in bed, and the thirsty, sweaty lovemaking of young lovers singing to each other, skin to skin.

It was Allie’s scent, and it drew me forward as inexorably as the tide reels the waves in.

Victoria frowned as she watched the expression on my face, but her words were for Dexter instead.

“Agent Kelly, can you delay the timer on your automated message?”

Dexter shook his head. “No, signal’s too weak down here and I can’t reach my private network. I thought you said 1 hour would be plenty.”

“It appears I underestimated the range of our guide’s olfactory senses.”

“You mean you didn’t think we’d be spending half an hour crawling knee-deep in steaming puddles of shit with no end in sight? Yeah, me neither. Like it or not though, my private server will send my request for backup to headquarters in exactly 32 minutes.” Dexter scoffed good-naturedly as he looked down at his shit-stained designer pants. “This is the last time I ever dress up to meet one of your friends, by the way.”

“I did strongly suggest that you wait at the sewer entrance so you could call for backup in case we failed to return,” Victoria pointed out.

“And I strongly refused to let my partner go zombie-hunting with only a parking-meter-wielding washed-up fencer for back-up,” Dexter grumbled, then turned to me with an apologetic smile. “No offense intended.”

“None taken,” I said, amused and not afraid to show it.

It took five more minutes of silent plodding before I paused and placed my hand on Victoria’s shoulder.

She looked at me in askance and I flicked my head toward the darkness ahead. “I can detect a handful of zombies up ahead, but there’s a problem.”

“You mean besides the fact that they’re lifeless corpses that shouldn’t be able to walk, let alone attack the living and consume their flesh?” Victoria asked, lifting her eyebrows.

“Yeah, their most dangerous characteristic was their pack mentality. They’re like beasts of prey that move and hunt in packs, never too far from each other. One loud noise from our weapons or a cry from one of the zombies, and the next moment you can expect dozens of them swarming you from all over.”

“Shit, how many of them are down here?”

I took a deep whiff and slowly shook my head. “I can’t tell exactly, but I can smell at least a few dozen.”

“Oh, that’s great then. I’ll be sure to call pest-control and let them know we have a zombie infestation underneath Chinatown. Now let’s get the hell out of here before we get out faces chewed off,” Dexter said in a mock-cheerful tone.

“Kai, he’s right. We’re not equipped to handle such a threat,” Victoria said in a more serious tone, hefting the MP-5 submachine gun in her hands. “We should retreat to a defensible location and call for reinforcements.”

I quickly shook my head. “You know I can’t do that. I’m being hunted by that mysterious organization I told you about, not to mention god knows how many government agencies-”

“I will protect you,” Victoria began to protest, but I kept on speaking as though I hadn’t heard her.

“But it doesn’t matter. I can smell Allie’s scent but it’s fading fast. I don’t know what’s going on but I can’t afford to let this opportunity slip away.”

“It’s too dangerous, Kai. We’ll find another clue,” Victoria argued, frowning.

“The whole world’s been hunting Allie for the past few months and they haven’t caught a whiff of her. Now that I’ve finally returned, here’s the first real clue of her whereabouts, right under our noses. It can’t be a coincidence and I will never forgive myself if I simply let it go.”

“You’ll do anything, risk everything, so long as it’s for her sake, won’t you, Kai?” Victoria whispered, suddenly looking away.

“Yes, I will,” I said firmly, ignoring the churning in my guts as that familiar knife poked me full of holes once again.

Victoria smiled bitterly as she adjusted the silencer attached to the muzzle of her gun. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go find your girl.”

“I don’t get a say in this at all, do I?” Dexter complained to no one in particular, pumping the shotgun in his hands.

Victoria moved away as she pointed the flashlight ahead of her.

“Wishes and promises are for fools,” she said, striding past me with resolute steps. “Right, Kai?”

I watched her walk into the gloom lurking ahead for a moment before I felt Dexter’s hand land on top of my shoulder.

“I’ve never seen her so fucked up about anything,” he whispered to me, his hand tightening its grip. “Hell, I’ve never seen her fucked up about anything, period. I just hope it was worth it.”

His eyes told me he doubted it, but then he shrugged as though to tell me it was my loss and rushed to follow in Victoria’s footsteps.

Love does make fools of us all, doesn’t it?