Dark Creations: Hell on Earth (Part 5) (23 page)

“Go!” Amber ordered and Gabriel took a deep breath and dashed off with Kyle and his sisters behind him.

He stole across the backyard.  The grass appeared to glow an eerie silver shade in the moonlight and low fog had begun to slither atop it, snaking among each blade with serpentine stealth.  The unnerving light and the wraithlike fog did little to still nerves that teemed inside of him.  He tried to calm himself, but his efforts were useless.  The frantic beat of his heart and the flood of adrenaline combined for impending conflict kept every part of him charged and humming.  His blood roared in his ears and his limbs trembled as if a current of electricity were being generated from his core branching out to his fingertips as he approached the back door.  He saw that the rear of the house held a sunroom of some kind and was dark.  He tried the handle expecting it to be locked as any other would be, but remembered Amber telling him that members typically did not bother to lock their doors.  He turned the knob and crept inside.  A quick peek at his watch revealed that Amber would be ringing the doorbell in three minutes.  Crouched, he pulled his gun from his waistband and held it out in front of him as he moved quietly through the darkened room.  Ahead, he saw a doorway with faint light seeping from it.  He crept through it and found himself in a small room that housed a washer and dryer.  Beyond it was the source of the faint light, the kitchen.

In the kitchen, a man sat at a round table and sipped from a mug with a cheeky ex
pression printed on it.  “Lordy, Lordy, Look Who’s 40!” it read and Gabriel felt his stomach churn.  The mug was a grim reminder of another who’d been killed, someone who’d had a loved one with a sense of humor, only to be replaced by one of Terzini’s drones. 

He raised his gun and took aim at the man with the mug’s head. 
After the doorbell rang, he would fire his shot.  He hated taking lives, even if they were enemy lives.  It never felt right.  And the interim before his finger actually squeezed the trigger was nightmarish, especially now, as he waited, poised to kill.  He had time to think about what he’d do, too much time to think. 

Sweat beaded on his forehead and his palms slicke
ned as well.  He felt nauseous and for a moment, he worried he’d be sick.  He looked to his watch.  Two minutes remained.  Every tick on the dial felt as if it were an eternity.  His mind somersaulted, tumbling to a dark and loathsome place.  But the hate he felt was directed at himself, for bringing the members, Lord Terzini and the Hunters to the world.  Had he never been created, the turmoil everyone was in would never have existed.

As he was about to spiral out of control with self-contempt, the doorbell sounded and jerked him back to the task before him.  The sound of Amber’s voice returned his sense of duty.

“I was dispatched to check your position,” he heard Amber say.

“My position?” the member asked.

“Yes, I was sent to confirm you and the others are stationed as you should be.  After the blast, Lord Terzini said I am to check each house in a ten-mile radius,” he heard her lie and peeked from his hiding place. 

Amber looked beyond the member to him.  The member turned and followed her eyes, but it was too late.  The instant her eyes left Gabriel, her gun was in her hands and trained on the man’s back.  Her motions were so swift, he nearly missed them.  She fired her weapon and the man before her fell to the floor, dead. 

Gabriel fired his gun seconds after she’d fired hers.  The man at the table had stood and drawn his weapon, but he did not even have time to shoot before Gabriel’s shot slammed into his forehead.

Ceramic shards scattered in every direction after
the mug fell from the man’s hand, shattering against the tiled kitchen floor.  The member at the kitchen table simply slumped forward, blood pooling around his head, and stared hollowly in Gabriel’s direction. 

With one
more member in the house, neither he nor Amber was safe.  Kyle and his sisters were no better off, either.  A pack of perpetually hungry Hunters could be returning at any moment.  He froze and reached out with all of his senses for any indication of the remaining member.  One was dead in the kitchen and the other was dead at the door.  He slunk from the kitchen to a dining area that opened onto a den.  In the dining-room area, a television was on, but the volume had been turned off.

“Where is the other?
” Amber started to ask as she stepped over the threshold, but was interrupted by a spray of bullets peppering walls and furniture all around them. 

Gabriel dove to the floor and scrambled behind a low bureau that now displayed ruined knickknacks as
round after round rained from above and whizzed past him.

“Can you see him?” Amber shouted over the shots.

He was glad to hear she’d survived, but did not know how much longer either of them would.  Between the sound of gunfire and his heart pounding in his ears, he could barely hear the sound of his own voice as he called back, “No.”

Visions of Melissa crying at news of his death made a lump gather in his throat.  He swallowed hard against it as a bullet pierced the wood by his head and sent splinters
flying in every direction.  He was sure he would die in the coming moments.  And though he did not fear death, he did fear its repercussions.  Melissa would suffer, and that was an unbearable thought.  All he’d ever done was bring her pain.  That would be what she’d be left with.  That would be her memory of him. 

He took his head in his hands, a pathetic attempt at self-preservation, and resolved to survive when s
uddenly, the firing ended and the sound of loud thumps echoed over the high-pitched ringing in Gabriel’s ears.  He released his grip on his head and stuck out a hand from behind the bureau tentatively.  When he retrieved it and saw that it had not been dotted with bullet wounds, he poked his head out and saw the shooter. 

At the bottom of the steps, a man lay with several gunshots
wounds to his body and one to his head.  A high-powered automatic rifle rested beside him. 

“
Holy shit,” a male voice that faltered with emotion said. 

Gabriel’s eyes followed the voice and saw Kyle perched at the top of the staircase clutching his handgun.
He had killed the shooter and saved their lives, but his complexion was a ghostly white.

“
Are you okay?” Amber asked.

“Yeah,
I think so,” Gabriel said not knowing to whom she’d referred.  He patted his body then looked at his hands. He breathed a sigh of relief when he did not see blood.  He stood slowly on legs that wobbled and brushed figurine remnants from his clothes.  To Kyle he said, “How did you get in?”

“I came in through a window, thought you guys might need help.  Turns out I was right,” Kyle replied and seemed to be less traumatized than Gabriel would have expected. 

“Where are the girls?” Gabriel asked.  “You didn’t leave them outside did you?”

Kyle looked between Gabriel and Amber, “I put them in the shed right by the house.”

Gabriel closed his eyes and imagined the worst.  He wanted to grab Kyle by the collar and punch him for leaving them like bait.

Kyle sensed Gabriel’s growing anger and said, “I didn’t think.  I thought you needed me,” he said in a pressured
, panicked way.

“No, you didn’t think,” Gabriel growled and stalked past him.

Amber remained with Kyle for a moment before catching up with Gabriel.

“You didn’t have to be like that with him,” she said and
jerked his arm, spinning him so that he faced her. 

Gabriel looked
at her hand then to her face.  She released his arm.  “The only reason I’m here is because of them.  Not for you and not even for Kyle.” He ran a hand through his hair then rested it on his hip.  “Two terrified little girls saw their parents murdered in their house then had to hide from man-eating monsters only to have their brother leave them right where the monsters could find them!” he fumed. 

“He saved their lives to begin with.  All of them would have been dead if it weren’t for him.  He’s not what you think he is.  He’s better.”

“Really, so he’s not a moron?”

“No,” Amber said and looked offended.  He is not.”

“Think what you want.  All I know is those girls had better be okay,” Gabriel warned and marched through the kitchen and laundry room to the sunroom with Amber following. 

When he opened the door, he
froze and found himself staring at a formidable chest coated with chestnut fur.  He raised his eyes slowly.  A golden mane trailed down past the beasts shoulder and was moistened by several strings of saliva and a pink substance Gabriel could only guess was blood.  Cruel tawny eyes glowered at him and he knew he was looking at the face of pure evil.

Chapter 19

Zogg paced anxiously about the smoldering heap of rubble, carefully sidestepping pieces of smoking debris.  With each step he took, his unease grew.  His belly rumbled loudly, demanding that he feed, but he was far too worried to pay mind to his rumbling belly, and too bothered by the stench of gunpowder and hot metal burning his sensitive nasal passages to eat.  Impossibly, Zogg could not think of food.  He could only think of Lord Terzini.  He had warned his master of potential problems, had shown him the map and gestured to where he’d seen men spying on them.  But he had been dismissed, and called a dog.

Remembering Terzini’s belittlement of him made his blood boil.  His master was a fool, a fool who did not have the sense to know when an attack lurked on the horizon.  And an attack had occurred on secured land,
their land
, at the warehouse, an attack that could have been prevented if his maker would have heeded his warning.  But no one had.  Instead, they’d mocked him, members and his maker had ridiculed his inability to speak, his unique construct, his purpose.  An involuntary shudder shook his body.  Rage and resentment rose dangerously inside him, tempered only slightly by fear.

Zogg, like every other being created by Lord Terzini, dreaded
his maker’s wrath.  They knew him to be a vengeful man, an irrational, vengeful man.  The combination made him a threat to each of his creations, not just the Hunters.  Zogg knew that despite his warning, he would be held accountable for the destruction of the warehouse, and possibly the rest of his pack, as well. 

He’d seen the person responsible for it. 
He knew he was one of the men at the camp he tried to show Terzini.  But none of that mattered now.  His maker would never concede fault of any kind.  And he’d certainly never credit a lowly Hunter like him with anticipating what had happened.

He felt the anger that had been welling begin to subside and be replaced with defeat as he moved through wreckage.  Shrapnel and bomb casings littered slabs of concrete like lethal confetti.  The members’ arsenal had been obliterated.  He supposed he should have found that fact amusing.  After all, how much threat did they pose without their guns?  Not much. 
He
did not need a gun to kill.  Only the members did.  True, they were stronger and faster than the average human being, but only marginally.  And not all humans were average.  He and his pack surpassed every human being, average and well above average, where speed and strength were concerned.  The only area his kind lacked in was their inability to speak.  If they possessed the ability to speak, he was confident they would overthrow anyone who stood in their way. 

Dreaming of an upheaval prompted fantasies of devouring each and every member, along with the herds of plump, juicy human beings.  The image distracted him from the daunting task of meeting with Lord Terzini.  It also supplanted the stink of explosives with the succulent scent of flesh.  He imagined it so vividly, he could actually smell it.  

He closed his eyes and lifted his chin, savoring the aroma as he walked, when he felt something other than metal and concrete beneath his paw, something pulpy and yielding.  He snapped his eyes open, the feel of meat beneath him too irresistible to ignore.  With saliva oozing from his chops, he scanned the rubbish feverishly, but did not see what he’d expected to see.  He did not see pale flesh.  He did not see brown flesh either.  What he did see was a limb coated in light-brown fur.

In the instant that he saw the leg, the severity of what had happened did not register, not right away.  Instead, everything stopped.  The unending growl of his stomach, his keen sense of smell, thoughts of eating,
everything
, failed him.  His every awareness screeched to an abrupt halt.  His mind struggled to understand what his eyes were seeing.  Before him, was a fallen Hunter.  One of his own had been killed in the blast. 

Zogg staggered backward briefly.  The air in front of him wavered as it would when radiating off pavement on a hot day.  He felt ill.  He panted though his nose, panicked, before he made a conscious effort to calm himself. 

When he felt confident he would not spew the gastric juices roiling in his stomach, he forced himself closer to his dead comrade.  He inched toward the smoking heap, saw the paw that protruded from it and began digging frantically. 

He scooped scorching metal, shoving and pushing it to either side of the paw and felt his own paws blister from the heat.  When finally the rubble had been cleared and he saw the charred remains of Zeus, a pack mate he had hunted with and fed alongside of for his entire existence, his every sense came rushing back.  And with it came rage unlike any he’d ever felt.  Anger stormed violently within him. 

Zeus must have seen something he did not like and went into the warehouse to investigate.  He would not have gone in for any other reason, and alone, no less.  He was a devoted member of the pack.  And his devotion led him to be burned to death,
murdered
. 

Ripples of ire heaved from his core, a savage need for revenge beckoning.  A howl sounded from his throat, a cry of pain, of ferocity, of bloodlust.  Within moments, Hunters in his pack
, as well as the pack from the neighboring town of Caveat, gathered at his side.  The explosion had drawn them, and now, they stood, sharing his horror.  He watched as each viewed the body, first with eyes wide from shock.  The wide eyed look was quickly replaced, though, with one that craved violence, retribution.

Those at his side began t
o pad back and forth agitatedly.  Their tortured yelps were calls for revenge.  Zogg knew who was responsible for the atrocity before them, and knew where to find them.  The men across the lake had done this.  The man he’d seen speed down Main Street wasn’t a member of Lord Terzini’s new race.  He was probably one of the same men who’d watched them earlier.  They had killed Zeus.  And Zogg would kill them.

Lord Terzini had said that no one was at the house across the lake.  He’d been wrong, of course.  It would not matter if Zogg led his pack there to eat them.  In his maker’s mind, no one was there.  They could not be punished for an unauthorized feeding. 

He exchanged deliberate glances with the Hunters at his side and they seemed to read his mind.  He tore off in the direction of the farmhouse.  His pack mates followed.  They would skirt the lake and visit the farm.  There, they would feast, and have their vengeance. 

Chapter 20

Tears rained down Melissa’s cheeks as a raging fire still blazed on the horizon.  Massive clouds of smoke, highlighted only by the flames that had generated it, rose and billowed, eclipsing the moon.  Though nearly a half-hour had passed, little clearing had occurred.  The sight of it pained her, she could not look away from it.  She refused to look away from it. 
Gabriel was inside
. 
He was in the explosion
, she thought over and over again and cried silently. 

Of course, she did not know for sure that he’d been in the vicinity of the explosion, just feared the worst.  And she did not trust the mysterious girl, Amber, who’d appeared out of nowhere.

Amber
.  Just thinking her name made Melissa’s insides prickle angrily. 

“It’s okay, sweetie,” Daniella said soothingly as she rubbed Melissa’s back.  “Gabriel is fine.  You’ll see.”

Melissa wished she believed Daniella, and appreciated her friend’s attempts to calm her, though they were a complete waste of time.  She would only feel solace when Gabriel returned,
if
Gabriel returned.  She did not feel confident he would.  The explosion had rumbled the earth beneath her feet and had rattled her faith along with it. 

“I don’t know,” Melissa muttered as she wiped away her tears with the back of her hand. 

“That’s right.  You
don’t
know,” Alexandra said in a shockingly gentle tone, but Melissa remained unconvinced.

“Yeah, Alex is right,” Daniella added
sweetly.  “I’m sure he wasn’t wherever the blast took place.  I’m sure he’s fine.  The blast was probably farther away, probably in the next town over.”

Daniella and Alexandra, with their furrowed brows and concerned expressions, nodding continually with their heads cocked to one side, were beginning to grate on Melissa’s nerves.  They were both treating her like a mental patient, speaking to her in sickly sweet tones.  She found their pacifying manner
isms maddening.  To them, she supposed she looked the part: red nose, red eyes, crying for no apparent reason other than sheer worry.  From their perspective, she probably looked and acted foolishly.  But they were in a better position than she was.  Their boyfriends hadn’t ridden off with some random woman who just so happened to look like a model and also worked for the enemy.  The men they loved were standing right beside them, not with Terzini’s bombshell killer, Amber.  Melissa had not trusted her from the moment she’d laid eyes on her, and the feeling had only intensified. 

Her intense distrust for Amber
, combined with the blast, did little to buoy the sinking feeling inside her.  In her mind’s eye, she kept picturing Amber, oozing with her genetically perfected sensuality, luring Gabriel into an explosive trap of some sort.  She’d always trusted him and hadn’t wasted time with jealousy and irrational suspicion, but doubted any man would be able to resist Amber.  Their shared origins only compounded her extraordinary looks.  He’d likely walked willingly into whatever trap she’d set for him. 

“Melissa,” Alexandra snapped her fingers in front of Melissa’s face.  “Hello!  She’s zoning out on us,” she said to Daniella.

“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here!” Melissa exploded.  “I’m not a freaking mental patient so stop treating me like one!”

“No one said you were a mental patient,” Daniella said quietly and did the annoying head tilt.

“Yeah, we never said that,” Alexandra added with identical gestures. 

“That!” Melissa pointed to both of their faces.  “That right there, the you’re-so-pathetic head tilt thing!  That is making me nuts!”

“Okay, calm down.  We won’t move our heads when we speak to you,” Alexandra placated.

“And the stupid sing song-y voices!  They’re too much!” she fumed.

Alexandra’s brows lifted in surprise.  “Then how the fuck am I supposed to talk to you?  Do you mind telling me, or should I guess?” she said through her teeth.

“Alex!” Daniella chastised.  “Don’t be like that with her!  She’s been through enough.”

“What do you mean
enough
?  We’re all going through the same shit.  We’re all stuck here together, remember?”

“Yes, but,” Daniella moved her eyes to Ryan and Yoshi.  “Not all of us have been affected the same way,” she said and enunciated the words
all of us
exaggeratedly.

“What are you talking about?  You think I’m supposed to walk on eggshells around her because Gabriel rode off into the sunset with Little Miss Hot Ass?”

“Alex!  What the hell has gotten into you?” Daniella tried.

“No, don’t bother, Daniella,” Melissa raised her hand to silence Daniella.  “This is all very enlightening, you know.  You really learn a lot about people, about who your friends really are, when they vent.”  Melissa rose to her feet and began pacing.  “So please, Daniella let her be her cranky-ass, unsupportive self.  Don’t forget, it’s easy for her to sit and judge me and dish out the advice.  Yoshi is with her.  And she’s right, Yoshi didn’t ditch out on her for some hot chick, what did you call her again?  Miss Hot Ass, was it?”

Alexandra looked stricken and did not answer right away.  Instead, she stared at the hay by her feet and kicked it from side to side before she spoke. 

“You’re right, okay?  You’re right,” she said in a voice that cracked with emotion.  She cleared her throat and smiled embarrassedly.  “Ah dammit,” she said and swept her fingers under her eyes.  “If you make me cry off my makeup Martin, I’m going to kick your ass.”

Melissa regretted her rant immediately and knew that Alexandra’s halfhearted threat was the closest thing to an apology she would get from her. 

“I’m a dick, what can I say?” Alexandra shocked her by saying. 

Suddenly, she stood corrected. 
That
was the closest thing to an apology she would get.  Now it was Melissa’s turn to reciprocate.

“You’re not a dick, Alex.  You and Daniella were being good friends.  You guys were trying to make me feel better and I, well, I just freaked out.  I’m
still
freaking out,” Melissa said contritely.

“And we understand why you’re freaking out, but I think I speak for both of us when I say that Gabriel is not a cheat.  He’s not your typical guy who drags his tongue around and thinks below his belt.  He’s a good guy.  And I truly believe he is okay.”

Alexandra nodded her head in agreement with Daniella.  “Yeah, he thinks with the head on his shoulders not the one,” she started and pointed to her crotch.

“Okay!  She gets it!” Daniella cut in.  “I think I made my reference clear.”

“All right, all right, I was just helping,” Alexandra said and held her hands up defensively before mumbling, “I guess it’s open season on Alex.”

“No pity party!” Daniella said and shot her a stern look. 

Melissa nearly laughed as she thought about what an excellent mother Daniella would someday be.  She already had the firm look of disapproval down pat.  But the laughter caught in her throat, stuck behind the lump that had formed there.

“You really think he was in the explosion?” Yoshi’s clear voice sounded from behind her, from inside the barn.  In it there was no judgment, no sarcasm and no condescension. 

“I do,” she said and turned to face him.  His face was the picture of tranquility and his eyes were dark pools, mysterious and bottomless.  He held her gaze as if trying to share with her some of the serenity his demeanor exuded.  For a fleeting moment, she felt it, felt the calming influence of his presence wash over her like small waves.  But all too soon, it ended.  The heaviness returned to her chest, the worry that the man she loved had been ripped from her life.

“How can you be so sure?” he asked her humbly.

“I don’t know, Yoshi.  I feel it in my heart.  He was there,” Melissa said somberly.  “And I’m going there to find out.”

Yoshi’s eyes widened, and his mask of serenity was replaced by one of genuine surprise.  He opened his lips to speak, but Alexandra’s voice sounded instead of his.

“What?” Alexandra asked.  “Have you lost your mind or something?  You can’t!”

“And why not?” Melissa asked defiantly.

“For one thing, there’s the issue of those monsters Gabriel told us about,” Alexandra started.

“She’s right,” Yoshi said and nodded to Alexandra.  “And not about the losing your mind part.  I would go after Alexandra, too, if I were in your shoes.  But those creatures, they’ll kill you.  And we can’t drive a car in.  The members would stop us before we advanced a single block,” he thought aloud.

“Then I’ll go on foot,” Melissa said simply.

“Over my dead body you will!
” Alexandra erupted.  “I mean, God Melissa!  Do you hear yourself?”

“I’m with Alex,” Daniella chimed in.  “Going there, on foot or by car, is just too dangerous.  Gabriel is fine.  He’ll be back soon.”

Melissa stood and began walking down the gravel driveway. 

“Stop being a fool!” Alexandra called out but Melissa ignored her.

Whether she was being a fool or not was irrelevant.  She was sick of sitting idly by as if she were a bystander in her own life.  Those days were over.  And if Gabriel had been hurt, or worse, in the fire as she suspected he’d been in, then she did not care what monsters awaited her in Taft.  Without Gabriel, they could have her.

She’d made it to the end of the driveway where the gravel gave way to a dirt road when Yoshi’s hand gripped her elbow.  He turned her gently so that she faced him.  His features were obscured by shadows, the night darker than it had been moments earlier.

“Melissa, I’m sorry, but I can’t let you do this.  You proved your point and blew off some steam, but it’s over.  We have to head back now.”

“You too, Yoshi, you’re going to be like this now?”

“Like what?”

“I don’t know, like my keeper?”

“No.  I’m being your fiancée’s best friend.  I’m being the voice of reason.  I’m speaking for your father, too, by the way, who would be lost without you.”

She hadn’t thought about her father.  That realization stung; the guilt stark and aching.

“Didn’t think about him, did you?” Yoshi said levelly. 

She shook her head
no
.

“Come on, let’s go back,” he said and began to lead her.

She had turned and taken two steps toward the farm when the bushes at her side stirred.  She heard the shuffle and crunch of brush and snapped her head in the direction of the sound.

“Did you hear that?” she asked Yoshi quietly and felt every hair on her body rise and quiver. 

She looked out into the blackened abyss.  Mist clung to the tree limbs and brush like spectral beings, lurking, waiting, and watching.  The landscape was filled with hostile looking shapes.  She could not tell what they were, whether they were trees and plants merging to form animal-like forms, or something more nefarious.  Warning screamed through her as she waited for him to respond.