Crow - The Awakening (77 page)

Migalo brushed himself off as he stood up and Lohet was already looking around. "Track him," Lohet said. Migalo opened a vent on his helmet and tasted the air then started running, with Lohet not far behind. They ran up to another set of massive doors and Lohet ripped them off their mounts and looked in. It was a shaft. They looked down. Migalo shrugged and jumped in and started climbing down the framework rapidly in big falling bounds. Lohet jumped out and fell straight down and Migalo struggled to keep up.

Lohet crashed through the ceiling of the elevator and crushed a vehicle that had just pulled in. A few moments later Migalo poked his head through the hole Lohet created then jumped in. Soldiers were running toward them and Migalo flinched as bullets bounced off his armor, and he roared at them. They stopped, dropped to their knees, and concentrated their fire on him. Lohet felt his partner coiling to pounce on them and he put a hand on Migalo's shoulder.

"Ignore them. Find Steven," Lohet commanded as he stepped into the line of fire. Migalo sniffed the air again then started running toward the agents. The soldiers scattered as Migalo ran by them and Lohet followed. One wasn't fast enough and Migalo grabbed him by the ankle and swinging the soldier in a large arc he slammed him against a concrete support as he ran by. He grinned then looked at Lohet. "What?" Lohet just shook his head.

Suddenly the floor buckled and both of them had to jump to the side to avoid a fissure. Lohet detected a low rumble. "He's having an incident," Lohet observed as he continued following Migalo.

"I knew it!" Migalo snarled. "They just had to bring a deviant into a cave." Migalo dodged a chunk of stone that broke off from the cave's ceiling and crashed down to the floor.

Lohet noticed Sirel and Penipe falling down from an upper part of the complex that was still under construction. He would need Penipe to calm the deviant and hoped they weren't too late. Lohet stopped long enough to wave at them and he saw that Sirel had seen them and pointed them out to Penipe. They were coming down quickly and would meet them coming from the opposite direction.

Lohet and Migalo entered into what looked like a series of offices and Migalo ran faster and faster as the scent was getting stronger. A golf cart got in his way and he snarled and tossed it to the side as he continued his run without breaking his step. The driver stared at him from the crumpled wreckage as he ran by, then he gaped at Lohet.

As they ran through the halls, people were screaming and ducking out of the way, surprised by their sudden appearance. A few tried to take up hand-to-hand combat stances and Migalo just mowed them over as he barged down the hall at full force, leaving body parts flying against the walls. Lohet pushed a few through the wall as he ran by. He really wasn't interested in engaging these people in any form of combat unless he had to. Time was of the essence and, as the walls started forming cracks, it was getting shorter and shorter as he focused on one thing. Get the deviant out of these people's custody and get him out of the cave.

"Careful, Migalo. He reacts badly to us," Lohet warned as he sensed that Migalo was very close to his prey. Migalo had transitioned from a full out gallop to a predatory run, looking far more calculated as he followed the scent, looking in each room as they got closer. He could taste the scent in a way most people see and it even had colors to him as he tracked his prey ruthlessly.

Sirel dropped Penipe on the construction platform near the complex and she jumped off onto the floor. They had both seen their team mates enter the large office complex built in the vast cavern and Sirel flew on ahead as Penipe ran through the construction equipment and entered what appeared to be the hospital wing of the complex. Doctors and nurses scattered as they rushed by, trying to head off Migalo before Steven went into full meltdown. A couple tried to engage Penipe but she deflected their blows and left them laying on the ground in agony as she ran without stopping. As she ran, she passed a few smoking carcasses and had to cover her eyes to protect them from yet another blinding arc flash. Sirel was meeting the resistance head on and without mercy as she flew through the hall looking for the rest of the team.

Migalo slid to a stop. He peeked in through the door and jerked back as a hail of bullets erupted from the room. Snarling and ignoring Lohet, Migalo bound into the room and ripped one of the agents apart and started beating the other agent with those body parts, roaring in indignation. He didn't even bother to pull out his own weapons and simply tore into the agents by hand.

Steven screamed and ducked under Migalo as the agent was being battered and ran into the hallway only to see Lohet, Sirel, and Penipe. Lohet reached out for him when he heard a loud rumble and suddenly he was knocked off his feet, slamming into the ceiling then back into the ground. The multistory complex started collapsing, and a huge boulder crashed through the ceiling blocking, off part of the hallway. The rest of the complex started coming down around them piece by piece and Steven was off running again, dodging falling concrete beams and steel.

The wolfman burst in the door, and Steven took one look at him and involuntarily screamed. This wasn't a dream. He was sure of it. But then he wasn't so sure. He did doze off on the way there. But he also woke up. This place was so real. Jacob was real. Being shot at and chased for two days was surely real. Now he was faced with a character from his nightmares while he was awake.

But the creature looked different. It was wearing some sort of armor. As if pulling apart a piece of bread, it had ripped one of the agents apart and was starting to pummel the other agent with a severed leg and arm while it roared in fury. Steven ducked and ran between the two and bolted for the door. He couldn't believe this was happening. Part of him wondered if they had drugged him or something. But everything seemed so normal up until just a moment ago when Jacob showed him a video of something he was certain was a nightmare, a dream. Then pandemonium broke loose. Was he having an episode?

As he skidded into the hall Steven fell over backwards in surprise. The vampire was standing right there. He felt a strange popping sensation in his head and suddenly the ground became animated. He rode it up then back down on all fours, watching as others were bodily tossed about. The furry woman was there. She was also wearing some sort of armor, but he still recognized her. And a little girl. He recognized her from the tree house. She had no armor on, but didn't appear to miss it. She was ducking as the other two were tossed up into the ceiling.

With his monsters distracted by the destruction that was happening around him, Steven started running. He had to get away or hide. He doubted he could truly hide. They found him here and he was deeper underground than he had ever been before. A huge bolder fell through the ceiling, blocking off part of the passageway behind him and he hoped it would stop them, or at least slow them down. His brain raced, trying to find a solution. He wasn't running away from Laurence and his team. They were human and were avoidable, in spite of the challenge they gave him the past couple of days. But hiding from these monsters that seemed to be able to find him no matter where he went seemed an act of futility. Steven felt like he was going mad.

He looked back to see if anyone was following him. All three had gathered themselves together and the wolfman jumped into the hallway as well, slipping on the now bloody floor and sliding into the wall. They were coming toward him. Fear bolted through Steven like an electric charge, and time slowed down. Even so, the vampire seemed to speed toward him at a terrifying rate. Steven's heart jumped in terror as he knew he'd not be able to outrun him. Everything was in slow motion except for the vampire who was almost upon him. Steven screamed in terror and put his arms up. Suddenly a huge boulder slammed down on top of the vampire with a distinct crunch as the floor below cracked and the boulder broke apart. Time caught up with him with a whoosh, and suddenly things were happening very quickly. Steven kept running, scrambling over and through debris in a panic driven sprint as the other three climbed around the bolder and continued chasing him.

Rubble was falling everywhere now as the earthquake was dragging on. The walls were buckling and cracking and the floor was heaving. Chunks of the cave ceiling were raining down through the structure as if through paper. In several places the floor gave way to expose a basement below. Steven jumped over several gaps as he ran, trying to get to anyone that could help him.

Steven almost ran into a mass of rubble caving in and narrowly squeezed by before it filled most of the hall. He hoped that would slow his pursuers down. As he ran he saw Jacob, who was looking rather dazed and had a large bleeding gash on his head. His golf car was a heap of wreckage and Steven wondered if the earthquake had anything to do with that. He ran up to him and almost dragged him out of the wreckage. "Jacob, they're after me!" Steven yelled. "Where are your soldiers!"

Jacob shook himself back to his wits and looked back the way Steven had come. The aliens were starting to break through the wreckage. "This way." He grabbed Steven's arm and dragged him down another hall, ducking falling chunks of the ceiling and the floors overhead. "We need to get out of this complex."

Steven heard a loud roar and looked back. The three had broken through and they were running after him quickly. The little girl pulled ahead of them, dodging debris from the ceiling as she flew. She got hit by a beam and Steven winced as he saw an arc vaporize part of the beam that touched her. Steven's heart jumped again and a fresh set of tremors shook the building, and suddenly the wolfman was buried under debris from the floors above as the roof caved in on top of him. Jacob suddenly let him go and Steven saw him falling into a room as a piece of concrete swung down and hit him. Steven was narrowly able to avoid it as he continued running. Whole sections of the building were coming down now. He sprinted, ducking another cave in, and looked back to see the rubble fall around his last two pursuers. One of them was able to squirm free and he turned and continued running.

The door was just ahead. He was almost out of the building. However, when he got out he had no idea where he would go. The earthquake was extreme and huge chunks of the cavern’s ceiling continued falling in and crashing through the complex. Steven wondered if there would be anything left out there. He ran faster but peeked back and started in surprise to see the woman almost on him. Suddenly she fell, crushed by part of the ceiling. Steven was about to kick it into even higher gear when he heard her scream out in pain. The scream tore through him like a hot knife and ripped at his heart. Spinning and sliding to a stop at the same time he looked back. "Asherah?" he said involuntarily. The voice was so familiar. And yet not. Was he still in a dream or was this really happening?

But he saw the woman. She was half buried under the rubble and was slowly being crushed in spite of her armor. She ripped off her helmet, trying to get air and gasping in desperation. Steven couldn't bear it any more. He had seen so much death and it was eating him up. He just couldn't stand to see anyone suffer like that, no matter who they were. He ran back to her and knelt down. She jerked back, surprised to see him, her eyes wide with fear and pain. Steven looked around and found a block of concrete and shoved it under the beam that was threatening to crush her. That stopped it but not for long. He had to find a way to free her. He looked back at her. "I don't know who or what you are, but you are not going to die this way!" he yelled at her. She looked at the block that Steven had just shoved under the beam, saving her from immediate death then back at him, looking confused.

Steven saw a piece of heavy piping that had fallen through the structure and shoved it under the beam that was pinning and crushing the woman and put his back under it, reaching back to her. She hesitated, then grabbed his hand. Taking a deep breath, Steven stood up as hard as he could, pushing the bar and shifting the steel beam. Pieces of concrete fell off, making it a little easier and Steven pulled on her until he felt her slide out. She got to her knees as Steven held her hand, then stood up, holding her side. She stared at him, her eyes still wide with shock and confusion. Steven was about to say something when he felt another part of the ceiling break loose. Instinctively he grabbed the woman and shoved her down the hall, and then suddenly he found himself buried.

Trying to breathe under the pressure coming down on his shoulders, Steven started squirming as he struggled to get out. Something heavy was on top of him and started to settle down. He heard someone yelling. The woman? Or Asherah? He couldn't tell which. "Asherah!" Steven cried out reflexively. He didn't know why but she was the only one he could think of at the moment. He was dying and the only person he could think of in his last moments was a fantasy of his. He didn't have time to ponder on that as the rubble shifted and he closed his eyes, knowing that it was about to drop down and crush him.

But quite suddenly, whatever was on top of him no longer was. Steven kicked with his feet and pushed out from under the rubble and felt someone grab his arm and pull him down the hall. He looked up and it was the woman. Looking back, he saw the little girl. She was pinned as well but was grinning at him and she winked at him as he gaped. The heavy parts of the ceiling crashed back down where he just was. Steven just shook his head, not knowing what to make of it. He noticed that the rubble was not crushing her, but it was still wedged tight and she was having trouble getting it unwedged.

Turning, he stood up as the woman tripped in pain and fell over on him. Steven caught her and lifted her back up and looked in her eyes. Just like Asherah's. "You can't be real," Steven breathed as he put his arm around her to support her. "You..." Steven shook his head.

She gasped, trying to catch her breath and glanced up at him. "If you don't think this is real, then I don't know what is, deviant." She sagged and Steven got up under her arm and lifted her up and started to pull her to safety. The woman looked at him in wonder, and she pulled off her armored gloves and put her hand on his cheek. It was soft, like Asherah's. Steven put his hand on hers, breathing in sharply at her touch. He wasn't imagining it. Her soft fur was much shorter than Asherah's, but was distinctly the same. Tears welled up in his eyes as he remembered how hard Asherah had tried to convince him.