Whoosh!

Again Smoke Pac transformed into a vaporous, phantasmal appearance as he continued up the slope towards his destination. A few seconds later, he arrived at the clinic ahead of his pursuers. He went inside to the heart of the clinic where the gestation cocoons were hibernating.

The floor was covered in blood and guts. Smoke Pac didn’t let this bother him one bit. He walked on through the disgusting puddle and stopped at the very core of the infestation.

“I have just the right thing to annihilate you fuckers.” He started charging up a massive amount of combustible Rage Vapours between his palms while waiting for the Smokepire horde to arrive. The moment they entered in range, he directed the compressed Rage Vapours back into his chest.

When it made contact with his Rubik’s Cube, his entire body generated blinding sparks. Also, he started seeing multiple flashes of alerts popping up.

Smoke Pac smiled when he read the last message. Glancing at the incoming horde, he said, “I won’t allow a single one of you pests to breathe another life. Say goodnight to reality!” He firmly clasped his hands which unleased a terrifying burst of energy.

KA-BOOM!

A dreadful surge of nuclear shockwave obliterated everything that was in range of the blast. The clinic was levelled to the ground; Smokepires were vaporized. People felt and also saw the rising smoke from miles away. If they didn’t know any better, they would have thought that a volcano had erupted.

Smoke Pac’s self-destruction came with a cost. His Blood Bank went all the way down to 2%. He was in a terrible condition and could barely stand. Luckily for him, he had a Blood Rubik’s Cube left over. After using it, his health was closer to being stable.

He crawled out of the burning mess and hurriedly fled the scene before the emergency squadron showed up.

***

Later that evening, Denise awoke from her unconscious slumber. Moving her eyes about, she realized that she was lying on a surgical bed in what seemed like an operation room.

“Am I at the hospital?” Just as this thought popped into her head, she noticed a familiar face coming into full view from beside her. “Huh, it’s you…?” She was startled to see Smoke Pac in a doctor’s get-up. His identity was concealed with the prosopagnosia ability.

Sitting up, Denise stared at him with her eyes wide open in shock. “What are you doing dressed like that and where the heck am I? This place doesn’t look like the hospital.”

Perceiving her alertness, Smoke Pac tried to calm her down by saying, “You are correct. This isn’t a hospital. I brought you back to my place to do emergency surgery on you. If I was to bring you to the hospital, you wouldn’t have made it with your injuries, believe me.”

“What are you talking about?” Denise was baffled by this. “Are you saying that you operated on me?”

“That is corrected.” Answered Smoke Pac confidently.

Demise questioned, “Weren’t you supposed to be a garbage collector? Since when are you a doctor.”

“To be honest, I recently entered this profession. But I am pretty good. Why don’t you see for yourself?” He handed her a mirror that she used to view her shoulder and her back.

“This is…?” Observing closely, Denise saw that her wounds have been expertly stitched up, additionally, her pain had subsided. She even moved her arms around a little bit to know how badly she was hurt.

“This is incredible.” Learning that she was still able to manoeuvre her arms properly, Denise stared at her saviour and said, “I thought I was going to die back there but you saved my life.”

“It’s no big deal. I like helping people in need.” Smoke Pac frowned internally when he voiced this statement. His inner voice was saying, ‘Acting nice is so goddamn tiring. The only reason why I’m doing this is because she is infected. The Smokepire that mauled her released a virulent compound in her bloodstream. If I can understand the in-depth process of how they changed their victims, maybe I could use the data gathered to reverse engineer a curative. What pisses me off the most is that this chick is a fucking cop. She probably has a tracker embedded in her body somewhere. She woke up before I could find it.’

Denise took her time dismounting the bed. The lameness in her legs almost caused her to fall over.

“Be careful.” Smoke Pac had to help her stand for a while, just until she could balance on her own.

“Thank you, mister…”

“Please call me, Jester.”

“Jester.” Now that she learnt of her saviour’s name, Denise thought it common courtesy to share hers. “I am Detective Sleuth but you can call me Denise.”

“Denise, that’s a lovely name.” Smoke Pac smiled at her to keep up the façade. “You look parch. Do you want some water to drink?”

“That would be great.” After she downed the cup of water that Jester brought for her, she remembered the gravity of the situation that she was in earlier. The visit to the clinic, the confrontation with the Smokepires and also the hellish chase sequence downhill. All this came rushing back into her mind.

“Those monsters…” Her expression shifted to a serious state as she lowered the cup onto a counter. Giving Jester her eyes, she inquired with urgency, “What happened back at the clinic? You saw those creatures too, right?”

Although she had a physical wound to prove it, she was still in disbelief about what she saw. Jester clarified to her that all that she saw and experienced was real.

“But how did we escape? Did you outdrive them?”

“Ahm…” Jester took a while to formulate a suitable answer. “We were able to escape their pursuit by sheer luck. A rock tumbled down the mountainside into the road and delayed them. It bought us enough time to escape. If you don’t mind me asking, what do you think those creatures are? They looked like men but they were very vicious. In all my years of dissecting bodies, I’ve never come across bipedal creatures like them before.”

“I’m just as clueless as you.” Responded Denise. She looked around for her belongings but didn’t see them. “Where is my gun and my phone? Were they destroyed back there?”

“No, my little sister is guarding them upstairs.” By sister, he meant Razi.

“Oh. I need to get going right away.” Denise moved about the lab but couldn’t find a perceivable exit. Thus she faced Jester and asked, “How do I get out of here?”

“This way.” Jester took her to the laboratory’s exit then up the stairs into the main living quarter. She noticed her belongings sitting on a nearby coffee table close to where Razi was standing.

“Hello.” Denise kept her pleasantries short because she was in a rush to get back to the scene of the crime. She didn’t even notice how luxurious her environment was. She picked up her vest along with her gun, radio and phone then darted off to the exit.

“I’ll be going now.”

“Hey, wait a minute.” Jester chased after her and caught her at the exit. “Where are you going in such a hurry? Need I remind you that you are still healing? You can rest some more at my place. I don’t mind.”

“Thanks for the offer, Jester. You’re a kind man but I have to notify my division and get back to that clinic.”

Jester became worried when he heard this. He was concerned about Denise’s safety. “You can’t be serious about going back there. What if those creatures are still around? You’ll be in danger. I can’t let you put yourself at risk. Even though we’ve just met I feel like it is my duty to keep you safe.”

“Thanks for caring but it is my duty to keep my city safe. I am a law enforcer after all. I’ve been in numerous dangerous situations before. I admit this time is a little bit different but I have to do my job and get to the bottom of this.”

“Ok, I won’t argue with you. If you have to go so badly then I understand. Come with me. I’ll lend you one of my cars to make your journey easier.” He led her to the garage where he loaned her one of the sports vehicles.

“Thanks for all your help. I promise to bring your car back as soon as I get the time.”

“There’s no need to rush. You can use it for as long as you please. Do you see how many cars I have stored in here?”

“I do.” Denise’s mind was too preoccupied with the Smokepires to even care about how many cars Jester had. She hurriedly got into the vehicle and prepared to drive away.

“Hold on a sec.” Before she drove away, Jester pushed his head through the window and gave her a piece of paper. “It’s my number. You don’t have to call me if you don’t want to but I would like to hear how your investigation goes.”

“Ok.” Denise accepted the piece of paper then quickly drove out of there.