The Post-Humans (Book 1): The League (33 page)

Athan crawled from the divider to the lounge on his right and the other two men found their own cover.

A voice from at the wooden staircase ahead told Athan that at least one of them was giving orders.

“Now, how’d you cheeky bastards get in here then?” The big guy called. “I got my boys crawling all over like ants and you still get by. What’s the deal with that? Are you Post-Humans, like the boss says? Or are ya just bloody clever?”

There was the familiar bang of gunfire as someone, probably Steve, broke cover and shot in the direction of the booming voice.

The fire was returned, and Athan listened to the bullets punching holes in the leather lounges, and taking chunks out of wooden dividers.

The thunder of footsteps came from the stairs behind them as the security guards from down stairs reached the top and drew their guns.

“You should probably give up. We have you surrounded.” The man called, sounding rather pleased with himself.

Athan dared to peek through to where the three men stood.

Suddenly his stomach was in his throat, the security guard on his side had lowered his weapon and was staring vacantly, and behind him stood a grey skinned figure with no face.

The Blind!

Dereck Lucas had succeeded, and now the creatures of the deeper plane were coming through.

The opaque grey being stood looking unmoved by the fire-fight taking place in front of it. Its lanky grey arm seemed to be inside the back of the security guard. It stood a good head taller than the guard and it must have been feeding on his emotions, like the secretary and Dan Dangerous had said.

Another one of the beings stalked down the stairs toward the three men and stopped, its head twitching as if it could smell something. Then it stalked across the room toward the place where Steve was hiding. Its movements were deliberate and graceful. It moved through the furniture as if it was made of air. Athan heard the dull thump of the pistol Steve had been carrying as it hit the polished wooden floor.

It was feeding on him.

Athan closed his eyes. Was he too late? Were the others going to destroy the receivers in time? It didn’t look as if they were going to win this one. Dereck Lucas had made his hole in the universe and now his monsters were feeding on the first people they could find.

“
There!
” one of the security guards pointed to where the sound of Steve’s gun had come from. They began to maneuver around to where Steve and the grey being were.

It occurred to Athan that these people couldn’t see The Blind, and that such a disadvantage could save him. There was a crack as the guard shot Steve, although he probably didn’t see the guards coming while the creature was feeding on him.

Athan peeked through at the group of guards near the creature, and was surprised to see how predictable The Blind were.

The creature immediately turned to the man who had shot Steve and thrust its invisible arm inside him.

The guard lowered his gun and looked serene.

So they do feed directly off heightened human emotion
.

Dempsey lifted his silenced pistol and fired twice in the direction of the group of guards. One guard collapsed to the floor with a thump and another dropped to his knees with a red stain spreading across his shirt. The other guards raised guns and looked about frantically for the shooter.

One of the guards fired two shots in Athan’s direction, both of which came a little too close for comfort.

“The boss ain’t gonna like this ya know, all the running an hiding. It wastes time, and like they say, time is money.” The big man taunted as he fired into the back of one of the lounges. “You’re not goin anywhere, so ya may as well take it like men. Unless you’re not men, in which case, I apologise.” There was another gunshot, as the man shot another lounge. “Come on you pussies, come out an…nnnnngh.”

Athan thought it was a strange way to finish a threat, but as he peeked through the maze of lounges and dividers, he saw the big man holding his stomach, doubled over in pain.

The guard that was not being fed on was looking at him in shock. “Mr Shepherd? Are you alright sir?”

“Can’t breathe…” the big man said as his face began to look flushed.

Athan thought it must have had something to do with the grey beings that were feeding in the room, but they were patiently standing where Athan had seen them last.

The guards were distracted by Shepherds pain, and Dempsey saw the opportunity and took three shots at the five guards to his rear. One dropped straight to the floor while another took a shot in the arm and returned fire, hitting Dempsey somewhere in the torso, forcing him to drop into his hiding spot groaning.

There was a massive roar from the big man at the stairs.

“Come out! Come and get it!” Shepherd yelled.

He seemed like he had recovered.

“You come and get it, Fatso,” Athan called back, immediately regretting his comment.

“There you are…” Shepherd stomped across the hardwood floor.

What? That sounds…

Athan had to peek again at the big man, who was now far bigger. The muscle on Shepherd’s body bulged and glistened, his clothes hanging from his frame in tatters.

Shepherd was like a deranged monster.

He marched across the room, hyperventilating and throwing couches aside like they were scattered debris.

“I’m gonna crush you boy!”

Oh crap.

Athan stood up and looked the beast of a man in the eyes.

They were tiny underneath the engorged muscles of his face.

The guards stood stupefied, one even turned and ran back down the stairs.

Athan used the lounge as a spring board, running and jumping off it, launching himself at Shepherd. He thrust out his shock glove to give the creature a punch it wouldn’t forget, but he was swatted to the floor like an annoying fly.

Athan picked himself up and readied himself. “What
are
you?”

“What do
you
think?” Shepherd muttered through gritted teeth and dripping saliva.

“You don’t look like you are having any fun. How does your body recover from that?”

“It doesn’t. I only get one shot, so I’m gonna make it good.” It made an expression that Athan thought must have been some kind of smile, but he couldn’t tell through the bulging muscle in its face.

“Should we shoot him boss?” One of the guards said with a wavering voice.

“No! Damn it! It’s my turn!” The beast named Shepherd yelled.

The guard looked at his colleagues and stepped back.

“Ya know,” the creature said. “They called me Easy, them doctors that cut me up. I was Easy because anything they put inside, my body accepted. Every operation they gave me was easy, it was a ball. I was their lab rat, and I hated every second. Now I get to perform some surgery of my own.”

Athan stepped back as Shepherd took a step closer. “You could be fixed you know? I know people who can make you better…” Athan lied.

I’m not going to win against this thing.

“I am better, I am…” Shepherd buckled over again and grabbed the back of a lounge for support.

His muscles were growing bigger; some were beginning to sag to the floor. Athan suspected that this was not the surgeon’s intention. Soon ‘Easy’ wouldn’t be able to move.

Athan heard vomiting from behind him and saw another guard run down stairs, He was the only one left with the biggest threat in the room, the growing blob of muscle, which was now nearly three metres across, with no skin intact.

“Kill…kill…” The thing grumbled from somewhere in the rolls of meat and split skin.

“I’m leaving,” Athan heard Dempsey’s voice from not far away on the floor. He looked pale from the sight of the bloated thing, and he was holding a wound on his chest. The last bullet he had caught was close to his heart, but the flak jacket stopped it, leaving him out of breath and aching from something like a heart attack.

Athan had to deal with the thing himself.

He was the hero afteral.

“
Run,
” Athan said as he watched the thing growing even bigger.

A long tendril of tangled bloody muscle reached out towards where Dempsey was hobbling, like the tentacle of a giant octopus.

Athan punched it aside with his gloved hand, and it recoiled from the shock. Then the growth happened faster, like an immense pile of living spaghetti and meatballs. The sight was grotesque, but the smell was worse, like an abattoir combined with the smell of drain cleaner.

Dempsey disappeared down the stairs leaving only Athan, The Blind and the blob that was once a man named Shepherd.

He had to get past this thing to get to Dereck upstairs who was letting the demons in.

The kitchen bar was easy to jump over and Athan took a moment to climb over it and assess his options. He needed a backup plan, he was now alone and he needed a very real threat for Dereck’s plan.

Gas.

There was a gas bottle plugged into a small stove and deep fryer.

Deep fryer oil. Bingo.

He had a plan, he just needed to get it underway. A wet red tendril of muscle snaked its way over the bar seeking him out.

“Get off me!” Athan hissed as he tried to hit it aside.

Then he saw the lighter.

He grabbed the lighter and pulled his thumb down on the flint sparking it to life. Then he grabbed the menacing tentacle and held it over the flame. It crackled and hissed like bacon.

The creature wasn’t immune to fire then.

Athan opened one of the deep fryer’s oil taps and began to drain it into a plastic bucket he found under the sink. When it was half full, he tossed the smelly contents over the growing pile of meat that was dominating the room. He repeated the process till the oil ran too low to drain, and spread it on Shepherd’s squirming flesh. He used a tea towel dipped in this oil as a way to set the meat alight.

He sparked the lighter until the tea towel erupted into flame then tossed it into the oil-covered muscles of Shepherd.

The result was sickening.

The oil exploded into flames and the meat started to sizzle and squeal.

A wail came from somewhere inside the meaty pile where Shepherd’s head would be.

The fire was started, now it had to keep going.

Athan turned the gas bottle on, and dragged a second one out of the cupboard beneath the coffee machine and turned that on also. He tossed oil-covered tea towels at lounges that weren’t covered by the fleshy mass.

Time to leave.

As the room heated up Athan watched the gory mess begin to burn.

What disturbed him the most, was not the squirming fleshy mess, it was The Blind. The pale grey creatures stood motionless for a moment, and then began to slowly lope towards the staircase that led down to the city streets. They were completely immune to the fire and the fleshy beast that formed the squirming mat beneath their feet.

Nothing affected them.

Athan took one final deep breath before the room filled with smoke.

He jumped over the bar and headed for the stairs.

He had to step over a pale guard lying on the floor at the bottom, holding his stomach crying.

Athan would have put him out of his misery, but he had left the pistol behind the bar.

“Sorry,” he muttered.

A lot of lives were being lost tonight, and he felt responsible.

He looked to the stairs; he was so close he could feel it.

Something familiar… The hooded figure is close.

Athan charged up the wooden steps two at a time to the top.

And there he beheld the machine.

The whole top level of the building was filled with all kinds of computers and coils of cords and wires, and in the centre were two giant metal things with a rippling blue glow between them.

The room hummed and throbbed, and there were scientists and other staff running about performing different duties. A few stood motionless with the grey Blind feeding off them.

In the centre of a dais, admiring the proceedings was a tall man in a dark grey suit and black, white collared shirt. He had dark shoulder length hair like Brad, but he wore a white faceless mask.

The man glared back at Athan through the white mask, and Athan met the glare.

The figure from the metaphysical landscape.

Athan’s opposite.

The other half of the Gemini Anomaly.

The feeling of two magnets repelling each other was what Athan felt. This was Dereck Lucas.

“I put this on so you’d recognize me, Sleepwalker,” the man said, sounding like an echo.

A few of his personnel looked at the two of them briefly, before continuing their work.

“You didn’t need a mask, Dereck, I know I’ve met you before,” Athan answered.

“Are you going to run from me again, you meddling Post-Human scum?”

“From what I’ve been told, you are the same as me, Dereck. Were they mean to you at school? Is that why you want to enslave the human race using The Blind?”

There was a laugh behind the mask. “I just know a good opportunity when I see one, Mr Harper.”

THE WAREHOUSE HAD been staked out for two months by cameras monitored by a friend of Brad’s.

They were sure tonight would be the night.

Ian Land squatted behind an industrial bin next to Athan and Cynthia. They had been waiting for Brad’s signal for two hours, and they were getting impatient.

Ian chewed on the cord of his hooded jumper and rubbed at his shaved head.

“Seriously guys! He’s got his calendar muddled or somethin’. We’ve been here for ages,” Ian said, hoping to rally some sympathy within the group.

“Brad’s contact said tonight at eleven,” Cynthia said, remaining strict as usual. “You lose faith in things too quickly, Ian. You are impatient. You just need to chill out and follow instructions once in a while.”

“Instructions are for pussies.” He laughed, as he stood and brushed off the back of his pants.

“Yeah, well you do seem like the kid that would have cried after throwing away his own Lego instruction book,” Cynthia said sarcastically with a smile.

“I used to do that,” Athan added, “but I never liked the things I was told to build.”