Chapter 53.

Into the Fire

Damien Reyes

Time/Area: August 4th, 2013. Draxon, Manhattan.

8 AM

Screams were even worse up close.

The endless yelling and crying from my bedroom felt terrible, but actually seeing it was…too much.

It felt like I was running in circles, my eyes forced to view the same scenes over and over again as I charged down the crowded streets of Manhattan.

Corpse.

Monster.

Corpse.

Monster.

Corpse…Monster.

It just wouldn’t…stop.

I found that I physically couldn’t stop running, like my instinct was taking over the wheel while I was cramped into the backseat.

Even with Excess coursing through my body like a storm, my brain just…wasn’t ready.

I wasn’t ready.

I- I had-

Just keep moving, Damien.

I gritted my teeth, increasing the pace of my run as I dodged a turned over car.

I knew this part of the city like I knew myself, not having to glance at any street signs to know that the Synth building was just ahead.

BOOM!

“AHHHHHH!”

My head shot upwards as the glass window of a skyscraper was shattered, the silhouette of a man falling out of the building as an eight foot abomination rode on top of him.

The creature’s glowing dagger of bone and flesh was already implanted deep into the man’s chest, a gold wave of electric light washing over the smoke filled sky as the two rained down towards me.

The screaming slowly morphed, pitching down instead of up in garbled waves of sound,

"AHHARAAAGH!"

The shadow of their incoming impact cascaded over me as I felt the first of the broken glass skim my hair, diving forward to avoid getting crushed.

BANG!

I slid next to a random stop sign as my previous position was smashed by two eight foot abominations, the man no longer human as the wound on his chest slowly began pulsing with light.

Both replicas looked towards me, hunger in each of their eyes.

Around us, people still ran by, my situation now not even close to unique as they bolted from their own monsters.

I tried to assess the situation...

Every part of them was identical, from the rips in their skin to the color of their glow.

“RAAAGH!”

“RAAAGH!”

I got to my feet, breathing heavily as I shook the glass out of my hair, “Okay, okay, okay…”

I eyed the original monster, tracing it up and down from the cracked cement beneath its feet to the tip of its head.

“Well,” I thought, “Almost identical.”

It had a glowing wound on the tip of its distorted, pitch black forehead, and the new monster’s wound was on its chest.

Remnants of where both had been infected.

Where both had been stabbed.

Both weak points.

“GRAGH!”

The original gave no thought to its 500 foot fall, releasing a guttural bellow before pouncing towards the nearest crowd of people rushing down the street parallel to me.

Screams rippled like a wave as the crowd melted into bigger swarms of people, one unlucky girl unable to follow as she was thrown onto the asphalt by the beast’s uneven palms.

She was dead the moment her brain splattered against the road, some of the red liquid splashing onto my arms as she joined the hundreds of corpses around her.

Corpse...

"ARRRGH!"

Monster.

The second monster had already decided its target: me.

Its glow increased in intensity before its massive legs kicked off the ground, lunging towards me at the speed of a bullet.

I was faster than a bullet...a lot faster.

I quickly grabbed the base of the stop sign beside me, pulling upwards as soon as I felt the cold of the metal rod around my hands.

RAA-AGH!”

Shick!

I jammed the bottom of the now uprooted street sign into the creature’s pulsing chest, feeling the endless amounts of heat radiating from its bronze glow dissipate instantaneously.

I peered over its cold dead shoulder, grimacing as the original infector finished enjoying helpings of the dead girl’s inner intestines.

It stood up, drenched in blood as it whipped its head towards a family finding shelter behind a truck. There were four of them: mother, father, brother, sister…

“Nnnnn-EXT?!” The monster belched, four feet of the girl’s large intestine still wedged and swinging between its teeth like a long sliver of drool while it stomped towards the vehicle.

I wrapped my hand around the red hexagon nailed into the tip of the bloodied street pole.

It was the only part of my makeshift weapon that wasn’t embedded into the previous monster’s chest- the only part that was still usable.

I ripped off the hexagon, bringing back the shape like a Frisbee before launching it full force forwards.

I just needed to hit the spot on its head…

It twisted and spun like a razor blade, missing the weak point on the beast’s forehead but instead stabbing a bit lower on the neck.

Bang!

Black blood drizzled slightly from the wound… The sign had barely even punctured its skin.

“Dang it!” I clenched my fists, “I need an opening.”

However, the monster had stopped stalking towards its new targets, now turning its head slightly to face me,

“Oh.”

“RAAAA-WHO-?!”

KABOOM!

The body of the monster was sent sprawling into a clothes store behind the truck, smashing through display windows and manikins alike as its dead corpse finally stopped sliding at what looked like a cashier’s counter.

I let down my pointer finger, still feeling it buzz and hum from the electrical burst I had just blasted into the monster’s exposed face.

I stopped glowing, glancing back at the family’s wide eyes.

The father started to speak, “T-thank-!”

BANG!

My jaw dropped as a spike of bone and flesh replaced his head.

“Dad!” The little boy next to him cried, blood splattering against his face.

I shot towards the rest of the family, already powering up a beam in my left hand, “No-!”

CRACK!

I skidded to a stop as five bronze glowing creatures materialized around the truck, blood and…parts flinging from behind their monsterish bodies as my blood ran cold.

I heard the mother’s scream silence…then the brother’s…then the sister’s…within seconds.

Damien, keep-going.

Instinct took over again as more and more monsters materialized from every corner of the street, turning away from the scene before continuing to charge with the rest of the surviving masses.

I found my hands shaking despite my best efforts.

Did anything I do matter?

How many were there?

What…how…no…

Focus…

I ran past Mr.Drake’s bagel shop, relieved when I saw no one inside.

He had to be safe…He just had to be.

BOOOM!

Two monsters that looked vaguely familiar entered my line of sight, pouncing on helpless victims while injecting their bodies with their infection spikes.

There were now four.

These glowed a light blue color, crawling around on all fours like a kind of insect at incredible speeds.

They also…had no mouths... just piles of melted flesh where lips should’ve been.

“MREEERGHMM” one cried, snaking at me as it literally ran over a man running across the street.

I flung my hand out, releasing some kind of battle cry as I forcefully pushed out a large beam of red light from my palm.

ZTZZTZ-BOOM!

I kept running, sliding between the two halves of the monster I had just split in two as I felt a blade of fatigue hit my system.

“I need to feed…” I realized, blasting two more of the spider-like monsters in my path while earning shocked glances from any passerby going the same direction.

My once plain white shirt was now caked in dust and blood, half of the cloth itself gone while revealing various cuts and bruises I didn’t have the luxury to heal.

Seeing all the monsters that were actually on this main road made me incredibly glad Jason had taken some back alley shortcuts. He wouldn’t be able to…survive this.

I looked up, peering through the increasing bog of smoke to read the word SYNTH in the distance.

I was getting really close.

BEEP

BEEP

BEEEEEEP!

I swung my head to the left, yelping as a red truck sped towards me from a road perpendicular to the one I was on.

four of the bronze glowing monsters were on its window, all trying to get inside and eat whoever was driving as the car swerved to stay on the road.

I rolled under a sidewalk shed ahead of me as the truck zoomed by, knowing that I just had to keep goin-

My ears began to burn, something in that car proving interesting to my brain as the sound became clear.

Henwy! Monster on the window-AHHH!

Get down Tristan! Tristan I said GET DOWN!

I gasped, realizing who was in that truck as my heart skipped a beat.

I glanced back at the Synth building.

Then at the Truck.

It was about to hit a street lamp next to the sidewalk shed I was under…

“Estupido.” I groaned, crouching into a running position.

Without thinking, I flooded my legs with energy, kicking off the concrete with my torn sneakers and dashing out of the shed.

I had no idea what I was going to do when I got there,

“Should I catch the truck?!” I wondered, skidding to a stop in front of the street lamp within a millisecond.

Adrenaline soared through my veins as the red vehicle came barreling towards me, the monsters all still crowded on its hood as I gulped.

I shakily held my hands out, redirecting the energy from my legs to my arms instead.

Beep!

Thirty feet away now..

Beeeeep!!

Twenty..!

BEEEEEEEEEEEP!

I gulped, “Ten..”

CRACK!!!

“Agh!! Hold hold hold!” I cried as the headlights of the truck smashed into my hands, red electric arcs bouncing in every direction along with glass as the monsters flew off the hood from the sudden brake.

I slid back a couple of feet, my hands still holding the hood as the car slowly screeched to a stop,

HISSS!

I released my death grip, eyeing the handprints on the front of the truck.

I had slid back with the car, not because I had to, but because I didn’t want to kill Henry and his brother who were inside.

Gosh, I hoped their seat belts were on…

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

I glanced back at the rows of stores behind the streetlamp behind me, watching as each monster crashed into the buildings parallel with the sidewalk.

They wouldn’t take long to get back up…

I looked back at the car.

The windows of the truck had been completely smashed, allowing me to get a view of the passengers,

“L-loser?!” Henry said, blood on his face and Tristan in his lap.

I winced while climbing up the hood, offering my hand out for support, “H-hey...”

Henry wasted no time lifting Tristan up, carefully pushing his small form through the glass to me, “H-him first.”

I locked one arm around his little brother, still holding the other out for Henry,

“Damwein?” Tristan whispered, burrowing his head into my shoulder,

“You super hewo?”

Henry tried to grab my hand but moaned in pain,

“Crap, he breathed, clutching his side, “J-just go!” his eyes flicked behind me, “..those things will be back any second…”

I glared at him, “I did not just catch a truck for you to stay here,” I hissed, beginning to feel dizzy with how much energy I was expending, “c’mon already!”

Henry couldn’t help but smile, blood still dripping from his mouth,

“Alright…” He muttered, fighting past the pain as he gripped my hand,

“And seriously dude...how much do you bench?!”

I pulled him out with ease, sliding back onto the concrete before putting both siblings down,

“Ack!” Henry cried again, clutching his ribs, “So were you like in..some freak accident as a child?”

I frowned when I looked at his wound.

It wasn’t infected, but it was still pretty bad. Blood seeped through his ‘I like fishing’ shirt, dripping down to the concrete,

“A-and could you do this before…or after third grade?” Henry continued with the questions, clearly not in the right state of mind as he leaned against the truck.

Just to be safe, I entered Fear Sight, my eyes beginning to glow a vibrant rose.

Henry blinked,

“What the actual fu-”

“Fudge!” Tristan interrupted, his bright red form pointing at my eyes.

Henry and Tristan all looked normal, so I ceased my glow.

“AERRRRRGRHWGAHERRRRG!”

“DUDE LOOK OUT!”

I spun around to see the four monsters, all charging at us with their teeth glowing in bronze light.

“Guess they recovered..!”

I could feel that I was almost out of Excess to use, but I didn’t really have another option.

I pointed at the Synth building. It was now in basic…human…running distance.

“Henry, Tristan, go in there!” I ordered, flooding my body with everything I had left.

Henry sprang into action, swinging Tristan over his shoulders before taking off across the street.

I took a deep breath, collecting myself as the monsters came closer.

I had to kill them here…I couldn’t let them get to Henry and Tristan.

The fastest one reached me in a couple of seconds, trying to swing its teeth into my chest before I dipped low underneath its jaw.

I felt the sulfur of the monster’s breath right as I rocketed my fist upwards, feeling my hand break through flesh and bone before my arm came out on the other side of the creature’s stomach like a pike.

I pulled my arm out of the dead monster, black mush spilling from my fist as I spun towards the next closest creature.

It didn’t have time to think before I had located the weak point upon its knee, slamming the heel of my sneaker into the mark with the force of a 100 pound weight before its glow faded.

My vision was going hazy, my body struggling to breath as I sloppily ran for the next one.

Almost there.

This one was slightly more aware, releasing an elongated roar from its lips as it rushed to meet me.

It clawed at me with its hands, but I was already behind it, launching the tip of my elbow into the weak point at the base of its spine,

BANG!

It stopped glowing, crashing against a Dumpster wedged between two distant alleys.

Just…one…more…

I was gasping for air at this point, turning rapidly to see the last creature charging towards…oh no.

It was going for Henry, who was now halfway to the Synth building.

The monster was much faster than him though, already within attacking distance as it got ready to swallow him and Tristian whole.

How had I let it slip by me..?

I gritted my teeth,

“Push it, Damien!”

Crack!

The ground split beneath my feet as I used half of what was left of my Excess to close the distance between me and Henry, getting right in the middle of him and a set of barred fangs just as the tip of its teeth were about to close downwards.

I blindly flung my fist to the side, feeling the creature’s mouth run straight into my hand like a bus running into a brick wall.

The entire back half of the beast’s body snapped up from the collision, my fist shattering both its teeth and the roof of its mouth before tearing into the soft tissue of its brain.

SPLAT!

A gust of wind rushed past us as the corpse of the monster lingered in the air for a moment, slumping back down to the road the very next second as I removed my soaked arm from its head.

I had felt muatated organs twice now… and it was disgusting both times.

I fought back the urge to faint, shaking away the mess on me the best I could before slowly facing Henry.

He unshielded his eyes,

“That’s…” he was covering Tristan’s face, gazing at the trail of blood and death that led to me, “That was a-awesome-agh!!!”

“Th…thanks.” I managed to say, frowning at the wound on Henry’s side.

His shirt ripped there, and from the way he was shaking, he needed help fast.

I eyed the Synth building; it was just up ahead,

“Let’s get inside.” I decided, nodding at the skyscraper.

“Y-yeah,” Henry coughed, “B-but why-”

“Just go, Henry.” I muttered, shocked as to how he was able to ask questions at a time like this, “I know Mr.Synth….kind of.”

Explosions still rang in the distance and screams were everywhere, but this…tiny portion of Manhattan was actually monster-free.

It probably wouldn’t stay that way, but it made getting to the door much more pleasant.

Upon reaching the building, I was shocked at the metal sheets that surrounded what used to be glass and an unlocked sliding door.

Now, everything looked to be on some kind of lock down, a camera pointed directly at us from above the thinnest sheet of metal.

I guess I shouldn’t have been that surprised that Synth had something like this. In fact, probably every major company had something like this. I just wasn’t used to…seeing it all out.

I glanced behind us, making sure the coast was clear before shouting at the camera,

“Hey!” I yelled, “Mr.Synth? let us in!”

“RAAAAAAGH!”

“Uhhh, dude.” Henry pointed behind us.

I turned, cursing under my breath as seven more abominations appeared from across the street.

Seven…

They just wouldn’t stop.

I turned back to the camera,

“P-please!” I tried again, waving my arms at the device, “These things are right behind us!”

“GRAHAGH?!”

The group seemed to notice us by the Synth door, all beginning to stomp towards us like a slow moving army.

I didn’t have enough Excess to take all of them on. In fact…I wasn’t sure if I had any Excess period.

When nothing happened, I began to doubt anyone was even looking through the camera,

“Mr.Synth!?” I said, not knowing what else to do.

I didn’t want to try and break the barricades, because on the slight chance we did manage to get inside, it would be good if the building’s defenses weren’t destroyed.

I groaned, clenching my fists before backing away from the camera,

“Fine.”

I turned to face the monsters, “But no one here is dying on my watch…”

I pushed aside the tiredness and headaches as the first of the army began to run for us, raising my fists as they only slightly fizzled with red sparks.

I was going to have to rely on my normal, enhanced strength for this…

BEEEP!

“Well don’t just stand there, Damien. Hurry along inside!!!”

Never had I been so glad to hear Selina’s father speak, turning with wide eyes to the camera.

“Door…unlocking…step back.” An artificial voice sounded from speakers beneath the camera, the thinnest sheet of metal slowly rising to reveal the normal sliding doors of Synth industries.

I glanced at Henry, who just looked dazed as he held onto Tristan.

“Let’s go!” I yelled, grabbing Henry’s arm before running for the door.

The sheets were already closing,

“Wait,” I muttered, “So you saw us here the whole time and you didn’t-!”

“I said HURRY!”

We all slid into the lobby of the building just as the sheet hit the floor, the metallic hiss of the lock ringing through the vacant space as the feeling of working air conditioning and mild safety washed over me.

It felt kind of good.

Great, actually.

Henry was groaning in pain, leaning against the white walls of the lobby as Tristan grabbed onto his pant leg.

I frowned, turning to get a look at this place.

Somehow, the power still worked here, and to be honest…it was kind of annoying.

This place looked…completely normal.

I mean, no one was in the lobby itself, but background piano music could still be heard playing through built-in speakers, the words ‘Synth Industries’ were still illuminated behind the front desk, and wall mounted TV’s still displayed different angles of Synth Morgan’s face on repeat.

If this place was so safe, why wasn’t he letting in other people?

It was just all so…infuriating.

I wasn’t complaining about him letting in us though, so-

“You’re welcome.”

I turned as an elevator door opened from behind the front counter, revealing Synth Morgan himself dressed in a black suit and tie.

We all turned to him.

Why the heck was he wearing a suit?

What possible reason could there have been…

Where was Selina?

His piercing blue eyes scanned over me, Henry, Tristan, and then back to me,

“Hmmm,” he muttered, his expression shifting to that of dismissiveness as he nodded towards Henry.

I didn’t know if he didn’t know that Henry was bleeding, or if he just…didn’t care at the moment.

Synth walked forwards, his footsteps echoing off the tile floors,

“Well then, Damien,” He said, smiling slightly as another explosion rocked the city outside, “I’m glad you are okay.”

Synth hardly flinched at the explosion while my head had shot back by reflex,

“It’s okay,” he laughed mockingly, “You’re safe here.”

He glanced down at my battered and bloodied shirt, eyeing the wounds on me with a hint of undisguised disgust.

He motioned towards the elevator, signaling for us all to follow, “You look awful by the way.”

I blinked at Synth, “A-are you serious?” I breathed, adrenaline still soaring through my body. If anything, this sudden shift in tempo was more unnerving than outside.

Synth paused for only a moment, “Oh,” he said, “Did you want to stay down here?”

I grumbled, going back to Henry to help him walk, “No…”

Synth just nodded, “Then do hurry,” he readjusted his tie, “I wasn’t expecting guests today.”