imperfect (41 page)

“
Grr.”

Both girl and guard froze at the growl.
Kristi took a peek behind her and saw a devil-dog come flying
towards them. The guard rolled to one side just in time; the
devil-dog’s powerful jaws snapped around empty space where the
guard’s head had just been a split second ago.

The devil-dog twisted around to face Kristi
with its fangs bared and nose quivering with excitement. She danced
backwards, the devil-dog snapping at her limbs. They continued this
perverted version of a waltz: Kristi stepping just out of reach of
the monster’s teeth with every step she took backwards.

The devil-dog grew bored with her and fixed
its attention back onto the guard. During the few seconds the
devil-dog was occupied with Kristi, the guard had managed to get
back on his feet and grab his gun.

The devil-dog took a flying leap at the
guard. The guard fired a quick shot at the creature’s chest and
sprung aside. The wound only angered the devil-dog without causing
any damage that would hinder its movement.

“
You distract the
devil-dog while I shoot him,” the guard yelled. “If we don’t work
together, we’ll both get killed.”

Kristi knew what the guard said was true;
the devil-dog was bound to kill one of them sooner or later, and
once that happened, the devil-dog would go after the remaining
person. As much as she loathed working with an ally of Zala, she
replied, “Okay. But the bullets don’t seem to be effective against
the devil-dogs.”

The devil-dog spun towards the sound of her
voice and let loose a bark. It advanced towards Kristi and she
evaded its venomous saliva by sprinting to the opposite side of the
hall.

The guard answered her, “I’m sure the
devil-dog won’t be able to survive a bullet to the heart.”

The devil-dog momentarily forgot about
Kristi and settled its gaze back onto the guard.

“
Hey, you fluff-of-fur!”
Kristi yelled at the dog, successfully diverting the devil-dog’s
focus back onto her.

The guard fired another round of bullets
into the devil-dog’s hide. After about ten shots, Kristi noticed
the movements of the devil-dog were getting just the tiniest bit
slower. Sure, the creature was still fast enough to maul her if she
wasn’t careful, but at least its reaction time was slowing
down.

“
Watch out!” the guard
warned her just before he slammed the butt of his gun into the
snout of the devil-dog.

Kristi jerked her hand back as saliva spewed
from its muzzle; a few drops of drool splattered onto her arms,
making the skin hiss when the acid burned through her shirt.

“
What are you doing?” she
screamed. “Are you trying to kill both of us?”

“
No,” the guard answered
in a strained voice. “I figured it’s time to try another method to
kill the devil-dog since bullets obviously aren’t working—that and
the fact that I ran out of bullets.”

The devil-dog swayed onto its feet.
Surprisingly, being whacked by a rifle seemed to have the greatest
effect on the devil-dog so far. The guard accidently stepped into a
pool of devil-dog slobber and the rubber soles of his boots
dissolved into putty.

“
Crud,” he
said.

The devil-dog twitched its ears towards the
sound of the guard and pounced onto him. The guard was knocked
backwards with enough force to break a brick wall. Fortunately or
unfortunately, the guard slammed into a second devil-dog instead of
the wall. If the other devil-dog hadn’t been around to cushion the
guard’s impact, he would’ve died for sure. On the other hand, he
now had another problem to deal with, leaving Kristi to face the
first devil-dog on her own.

Kristi slipped on the floor now slick with
blood, letting out a yell before she landed hard on her butt. Both
of the devil-dogs cast their gaze onto her. Then realization hit
her: devil-dogs were attracted to noise. She spotted the guard
crawling towards his gun and did her best to keep the attention of
the two devil-dogs on her without actually getting herself killed
because, well, being slayed by devil-dogs wasn’t very high on her
to-do-list.

“
Yeah, you’re just a
little puppy,” Kristi taunted the devil-dogs.

Whether they understood the words or not,
she couldn’t say, but they definitely comprehended the tone of her
voice since both of them raised their hackles and began to circle
Kristi.

She looked around for anything that could be
used as a weapon. Except for a smoke alarm hanging by a few threads
of wire on the wall, a heap of broken tiles, an overturned cart and
some scattered paper reports, the hallway contained nothing
helpful.

Kristi rolled off to one side just in time.
The larger devil-dog sprang towards her.

“
Fire!” she yelled.
“Water!”

“
Is that supposed to mean
something?” the guard asked.

“
Can you start a
fire?”

She shoved some paper towards him to use as
tinder. “The smoke alarm will activate the sprinklers if we can set
it off,” she explained, dodging a swipe made by a devil-dog and
throwing a broken tile towards the dog at the same time.

“
And devil-dogs are afraid
of water,” the guard finished her thoughts.

“
Exactly.”

“
Here—use this to keep the
devil-dogs busy while I make a fire.” He threw his rifle to her and
pulled out a small lighter from his pocket.

Kristi caught the rifle and used it to poke
at the devil-dogs, keeping them at a safe distance away. She
snatched up more tiles off the ground and aimed them between the
eyes of the devil-dogs. She didn’t pay attention to her footing
though, and backed into the upturned cart. The smaller devil-dog
was upon her in an instant.

The rifle clattered out of Kristi’s hands
and skidded out of reach. She held her breath and tried not to gag
on the rank breath wafting off the devil-dog. A giant, gooey, glob
of slobber plopped onto her sternum. Tears welled up in her eyes
from the burning sensation.

Kristi struggled to wiggle out from beneath
the devil-dog, but the dog placed one heavy paw on her chest,
stilling all movements.

“
Help!” she
yelped.

Naturally, her voice
attracted the attention of the other devil-dog.
Why am I so stupid? Of course I had to forget devil-dogs are
attracted to noise!

The devil-dog pinning her to the ground
stuck its face near hers. More droplets of acidic saliva splattered
on Kristi’s bare skin, causing tears to flow freely and run rivets
down the side of her face. The muzzle of the devil-dog rubbed
against her tearstained cheeks.

Hiss.

The devil-dog jumped backwards, allowing
Kristi to get back onto her feet. The fur near the nose and mouth
of the devil-dog was gone, and the exposed skin appeared to be red
and raw. Kristi realized her tears—which contained water—must’ve
eaten away the devil-dog’s fur.

Both of the devil-dogs were more cautious
now, knowing she had the potential to harm them. For once in her
life, Kristi wished she would cry more tears. She wiped the tears
from the corner of her eyes and flicked the droplets at the
devil-dogs. The dogs skittered backwards when the teardrops rained
down upon them; but Kristi knew eventually they would overcome the
fear of her tears. Although the droplets did indeed blister their
pelts, the injuries were only superficial.

She risked a glance to see how the guard was
faring with making a fire. He had managed to light the pieces of
paper she had given him by rolling the paper in a torch-like
fashion.

“
Do you think you can
distract the devil-dogs while I try to set off the smoke detector?”
Kristi asked.

“
Yes.” He passed the
smoking bundle of paper to her and then grabbed the fallen rifle
from the ground.

The sprinklers better
work,
Kristi thought. She held up the
makeshift torch to the smoke alarm, hoping it would still detect
the smoke since several of the wires were ripped. The little green
light on the alarm was still blinking, so she had hope.

“
Umph!” the guard
grunted.

He had taken off his shoes and thrown them
at the devil-dogs; his shoes were basically useless at this point
as the acid had melted most of the rubber soles. The devil-dogs
were momentarily distracted by the objects being chucked at their
heads. However, the price for a few seconds of distraction was
high. The guard had to be extra careful as to where his feet
touched the ground—one step in a pool of devil-dog slobber and he
was a goner.

Kristi squeaked and turned her attention
back to the improvised torch she held. Her fingers were slightly
singed.

“
Come on,” she whispered
partly to herself and partly to the smoke alarm. “Please let this
work.”

There was little more than two inches of
paper between the flames and her hand now. She would be forced to
put out the fire soon if she didn’t want to burn herself.

THUD!

The sound of a heavy body hitting the ground
made Kristi lurch in surprise.

“
One down, one more to
go,” the guard announced.

The dead body of the smaller devil-dog slid
towards Kristi along the slippery floor. She stuck her foot out to
stop the body from colliding into her. The devil-dog had been
clubbed to death, from the looks of the wounds on its body.

The blank eyes of the animal stared
unfocusedly back at Kristi and its large, slimy tongue drooped out
from the corner of its mouth. Blood crusted its mouth along with
bullet wounds. She shuddered and averted her gaze from the
corpse.

THUD!

Kristi looked back towards the direction of
the guard and the devil-dog, expecting to see a second dead
devil-dog come sliding towards her. Instead, she saw the devil-dog
slamming the guard into the ground.

The guard let out a bloodcurdling howl that
was quickly cut off when the devil-dog killed him with a bite to
the throat. The body of the guard lay in a limp and crooked
position. The devil-dog sniffed over the guard to make sure its
prey was dead then started trotting towards Kristi.

She dropped the torch and grinded out the
fire with her boots (the torch wouldn’t have lasted another ten
seconds anyways—there was less than half an inch of paper left to
burn). Her chances of making it out of the building alive were
growing slimmer by every second. She needed a miracle.

Whoop! Whoop! Whoop!

“
Thank heavens!” she
exclaimed.

The sprinklers sprang into action at last.
Lifesaving water drizzled down onto the devil-dog. The devil-dog
stopped in its steps, confused by the sudden change in the
environment. Kristi prayed the devil-dog would retreat and leave
her alone.

It didn’t.

Undeterred by the fact it was steaming water
from its pelt, the devil-dog still stumbled towards Kristi, albeit
its steps were shakier and slower. The nearest emergency exit was
two hundred meters down the hall. There was no way she would be
able to make it there before the devil-dog was on her.

Kristi fake lunged towards the left to evade
the dog by dodging to the right. Too slow. The left paw of the
devil-dog hooked around her legs and she tumbled to the ground.

Her head cracked against
the marble floor and silvery stars exploded across her
visions.
I refuse for my life to end like
this,
Kristi thought.
Oh yeah? Well, it sure seems like your life is about to end
soon,
a little voice whispered in the back
of her mind.
SHUT UP!
She ignored the pessimistic voice and focused on getting her
head together.

The devil-dog leaned closer, ready to tear
through her throat. Her hands blindly swept the area round her. Her
fingers wrapped around something small and slim. It was the
tranquilizer the guard had threatened to use on Troop and her
earlier. The small dart must’ve slipped out of his pockets.

The devil-dog’s teeth flashed dangerously
close to Kristi’s face. With all her strength, she thrust the dart
into its gaping maw. In its weakened state, the highly concentrated
sedative knocked out the devil-dog within a few seconds. She barely
had enough time to roll out of the way before the devil-dog dropped
down cold onto the space where she had just been lying.

Kristi permitted herself a few seconds to
catch her breath. Then she dusted some debris off of herself and
took off running out of New Genes Lab without a second look back,
leaving the pandemonium occurring in the South Wing far behind.

chapter
forty-five

[ Troop ]

“
Zala’s definitely going
to actively pursue us now,” Chelsa said.

She hit the brakes of the Cleandows van as a
stop sign loomed into view. Her driving skills were questionable
when she was under pressure.

“
Since Zala knows I’ve
switched alliances, there’s no questioning that she’s not going to
allow us off scot-free. She’ll be promoted to vice commander of the
United Regions Homeland Security if she’s able to turn in the four
Naturals to the current president of the Homeland
Security.”

“
Since when did you find
out about this?” Troop asked.

“
Rosa’s electro-slate,”
Chelsa said. “I picked it up after she dropped it and read over
some of the instafications they exchanged.”