The Immortal Coil (3 page)

“There’s another!” I pointed to the one from upstairs who was blocking our way out.

“Get back down and don’t move, do you understand?” He sounded like he thought I still had something to do with this, but I followed orders anyway.

The handcuffed man was snarling and thrashing on the ground.

“Stop right there. I don’t want to shoot you, but I will if I have to, sir.” He was aiming his gun at the second mutant now.

“Look at their faces. They won’t listen. They’re not even people anymore,” I explained. Sure enough, it dashed right at him. He took a shot and hit it in the leg at close range, but the infected man wasn’t slowed down at all. The officer fired another shot at its leg, but didn’t do anything to stop the mutant from advancing. There was another loud crash upstairs, followed by the sound of running, like when my door broke off its hinges.

“Get up.” The officer retreated toward me. He remained focused on the man in front of us as we backed away. “I don’t want to have to fire another shot, sir, but you’re leaving me no choice.”

After the mutant ignored his warning, the officer fired two more shots into its chest, still to no effect.

“There’s no way,” I heard the officer whisper to himself. He took a final shot between the mutant’s eyes and laid it out right alongside the one in handcuffs. There wasn’t much time to rejoice. The mutant with the broken hand was down on our floor now and coming after us just like the last.

As if things weren’t bad enough, the one in handcuffs also managed to break free. “There’s an open apartment behind us we can hide in,” I pointed out.

The cop fired another shot at one mutant’s head, but it did little more than stagger. The mutant we thought was dead was getting back up now too. “How is that even possible?” the cop exclaimed. “Get to the open apartment, but stay close.”

We flew down the corridor with all three mutants in pursuit. It took both of us to push the door closed with them trying to get in. “I can’t call for help,” he said. “That thing broke my radio, but other officers should be here soon.”

“I know it looks bad, but I swear I don’t have anything to do with this,” I said, pleading my innocence again.

“What are you doing here anyway?” he asked. “This building was under investigation to be quarantined.”

“I live here. Well, upstairs. I came back to get my stuff after I heard my landlord was coming to do the same. I didn’t think it was anything like this.”

“Neither did I. I was on my way home when I heard over the radio that we lost contact with the CDC crew. They were supposed to do a sweep of the building and check in every hour unless they found something. I should have never come in without backup, but I was already in the area and it sounded more like a lazy crew than anything.”

“I’m glad you came when you did. I would probably be dead by now if you hadn’t, or turned into one of those things.” I switched the lights on and looked around the room, hoping for a phone or something to defend ourselves with when the door inevitably got broken down. “What was the CDC expecting to find, anyway? What the hell causes that?”

“All I know is that neighbor of yours they took out of here was said to have looked suspicious. I didn’t get to see her myself, but I heard it wasn’t pretty.” The cop joined me in scoping out the room. “No fire escape. Great. We’re not even facing the street to call for help. Nobody would hear us from here.”

“We should barricade the door.” I let him know all about my encounter with the infected workers while we moved furniture. He was doing a decent job remaining calm during all of this.

I wasn’t sure what kind of training the NYPD went through, but if he was just a rookie then we should be in good shape when the others got there.

“Hey, whoever lives here must collect swords.” I pointed out two medieval swords mounted on the wall. “We can use them to protect ourselves.”

“They’re just decorations.” He looked over from the window. “I’ll check the kitchen for something better, but I’d rather we didn’t get that close again to needing it.”

The mutants weren’t giving up their rabid assault outside. The sound of splintering wood from the doorframe of our sanctuary was almost more frightening than the unnatural howling. At this rate, we had another five minutes at most before we were overrun.

“So, by ‘suspicious’ do you mean terrorism?” I was beginning to think the police knew more about this from the start than they were willing to let on. “There were a lot of police for one sick woman, and the CDC was called in pretty quickly.”

“I told you I don’t know anything, and even if I did I couldn’t discuss it. Let’s just worry about staying alive for now.” His words made me more curious than ever, but I ran out of time to question him. The door finally gave way, letting in the trio of mutants. “Get in the bedroom, close the door, and hide. I’m going to hold them off,” the officer said, taking his gun back out.

“You’re crazy! They’ll kill you. You won’t have enough ammo to take them all down.” He couldn’t have been any more than a couple of years older than me, but he was ready to face a painful death for some stranger. I wanted to believe it was an act of heroism, not insanity, but in reality, it was probably a bit of both. Heroism would sound a lot better at his eulogy, though.

Sirens blared in the distance. We just needed to survive a few more minutes until the rest of the police got here. The mutants clambered over the barricade, completely undeterred by the officer’s last few bullets.

The clicking sound of the gun’s empty clip made my heart sink.

He looked back at me while taking out a knife from his back pocket that he had gotten from the kitchen. I could see his resolve starting to waver. “I told you to hide!”

I didn’t know what to do. All three mutant creatures were on him now. The way out was clear now, but I couldn’t just leave him here to die. Two of the infected men’s masks had come off during the fight. They were doing everything they could to bite the cop, but he was just barely managing to pull away in time.

Using the knife, he stabbed one of them in the side of the head. As the cop twisted the knife a few times, the worker finally collapsed lifelessly.

One of the remaining mutants almost bit into the cop’s wrist, but, on impulse, I jumped in and pulled it off.

“Get out of here! Go find help, the others should be here by now,” he said, looking up at me. He had killed one, but he looked like his energy was fading fast. The last two had him pinned and were doing everything they could to maim him.

I used my body weight as leverage to tear one of the infected away from the officer. A sudden sharp pain in my ankle stopped me from helping with another. I looked down in horror. The one we thought was dead gripped my leg.

“Why won’t you just die?” I screamed and kicked it in the head. The creature’s jaw broke, but it still kept attacking. It knocked me off balance, making me fall to the floor near the cop. This was becoming more and more hopeless by the minute.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the swords up on the wall. Ornamental or not, they still looked sharp. If only I could get one of them to buy us more time. I reached out for the swords, even though they were across the room. “Please, why do you have to be so far away … just come a little closer,” I begged, imagining them flying to me in response.

The swords began to quiver in their fixture. I wasn’t sure if I was being too hopeful, but I kept calling for them in my mind. The officer was still grappling on the ground with two of the infected workers. He had lost the knife during the brawl and was reduced to punching them in self-defense.

I needed both hands to keep the mutant on top of me at bay, but I also didn’t want to lose sight of the swords, which were now shaking violently against the wall. The creature’s face was dangerously close to my own. I could feel its chilling black and gray eyes staring down at me.

“Don’t get up,” I told the cop, not that he was in any position to anyway. A whistling sound cut through the air as the swords flew from the wall. One of the blades plunged deep into the torso of a mutant attacking the officer. The second sword impaled both of the ones remaining and continued out the window with their bodies. “I can’t believe that worked.”

“What the hell was that?” the cop said, staring at me in shock. He threw the last mutant to the floor, took the sword out of its body, and stabbed it through the forehead. Finally, the creature gave one last spasm before crumpling to the ground for good.

My moment of elation came to an abrupt end. The officer recovered his knife and wielded it defensively in my direction.

“What the hell are you? What did you just do?” he yelled.

I was probably more afraid of him than he was of me. I should have known something like this was going to happen, but I thought saving our lives was a good enough reason to reveal my secret. After how heroic the cop had just been I wanted to believe he’d be more open-minded, but he was acting like I was one of them.

“I, I saved us —” I stammered. “I’m a person, not like them! Please, I can explain.”

He kept his eyes on me with a look of distrust, but put the knife in his back pocket. His expression hurt me more than the lingering pain in my ankle. This is exactly what I was afraid of. One day my secret was going to come out and whoever it was would disregard everything else they knew about me and only see my inner demons.

“Let’s get out of here,” he said right in time. The mutant skewered to the floor was beginning to come back to life.

I shut the door behind us and ran down the hall toward the sound of voices coming from downstairs. On the floor below were three police officers, who promptly raised their firearms at the sight of us.

“I’m NYPD. Officer Turner, 23rd Precinct.” The cop I was with held up his badge to identify himself.

The three turned their attention to me next.

“It’s fine, he’s with me.” I was relieved Officer Turner vouched for me after how he acted. I expected him to turn me in and treat me like I was one of those creatures.

“Sergeant O’Donnell.” One of them stepped forward. “What is a civilian doing in a quarantine zone, officer? And why are both of your clothes torn and bloody?”

I let Officer Turner do the talking, since it would sound a lot better coming from him.

“He lives here, it’s a long story. We have to get out of here, Sergeant. This is going to sound crazy, but something mutated whoever was working here into … well, into monsters, sir.”

The three cops looked at each other.

“Officer, we’ve been through every inch of the first couple of floors. The only thing suspicious here is the two of you soaked in blood and the absence of the CDC. Tell me why you didn’t call for help and how that’s supposed to look from my perspective.”

“My radio broke while engaging them. We trapped one in an apartment upstairs,” Officer Turner told the others. “I’ll take you to it, but call in backup. We have no idea how many more there are.”

Going back upstairs was a death sentence, even with guns, but they weren’t going to listen. After everything we had gone through, I’m sure Officer Turner wasn’t looking forward to going.

One of the other officers spoke up. “You trapped a CDC employee in an apartment?”

“He’s more of a nightmare than an employee.” I felt bad listening to him try to explain, but I didn’t want to get involved any more than I already was.

“I’m going to have to ask you to hand over your gun and the knife,” Sergeant O’Donnell said. Officer Turner complied without protest and allowed the sergeant to check his gun. “The clip is empty.”

“Yes, sir. I had to defend myself and the unarmed civilian.” Officer Turner stood his ground even though this wasn’t going well at all. Part of me wished one of the mutants would come running out just to prove him right.

“Escort Officer Turner upstairs. If you find anything dead other than ‘monsters,’ put him under arrest. I’ll be keeping his firearm for now in case it’s needed for evidence,” the sergeant ordered. “I’ll take the civilian down to the hospital to get checked out.”

“I’m fine, really. I’m staying at a hotel not far from here.” The last place I wanted to be right now was a hospital.

“Son, you’re lucky I’m not arresting you for trespassing and whatever else is going on here. The fact is, you are here against the law and potentially contaminated now, based on the CDC’s findings. So you tell me, will you get examined voluntarily or do I have to put you under arrest?”

Actually, jail was the last place I wanted to be. I agreed to go with the sergeant and followed him out to his car. At least I was free from that nightmare, but what about the others still in there?

The ride to the hospital was filled with awkward silence. I thought the sergeant might grill me on what happened at the apartment, but he didn’t speak. Judging by my reflection in the backseat window, I looked as bad as I smelled. My brown hair was usually a case of chronic bed head, but now it was matted with dried blood.

It was taking a really long time to get to the hospital. I knew we had been driving for almost half an hour by the clock, but was scared to say anything. They might have a special site set up to handle this, but why would it be so far away from the apartment?

We were driving alongside the Hudson River and I could see a series of docks ahead. There were no medical buildings around here that I knew of. I finally spoke up. “I thought we were going to the hospital.”

He didn’t answer me. Something was very wrong. The knot in my stomach tightened as we pulled onto the docks. The area was dark except for a few scattered lights along the pier, but I spotted a group of thin men in business suits up ahead. They were standing around watching as we came to a stop in front of them.

Sergeant O’Donnell parked the car and got out, locking it behind him with me still in the backseat. The men greeted him and exchanged a few words that I wasn’t able to catch. They kept looking in the car, which creeped me out.

There was a sudden gust of wind around the group, and out of nowhere another man appeared. This one had a much more muscular build than the rest of them. He was wearing only black shorts and boots that looked like they were armored or reinforced. The others looked taken aback by his sudden arrival. He showed them something that he held in his hand, which sent them into a panic.

I wasn’t able to make out what the object was until some of them moved out of the way. It was a severed head belonging to one of the men in the group. Now I noticed the body it was missing from as it fell over. The shirtless man looked right at me and grinned before punting the head out into the water.

He disappeared as fast as he had arrived. There was another gust of wind and the killer materialized just like before, this time holding two short
katana
dripping with blood at his sides. Behind him, the businessmen fell to pieces in a pile on the dock.

I was a sitting duck in the police car. There was no way to unlock the doors from the back and a partition of bulletproof glasses separated me from the front. Sergeant O’Donnell was the only one left standing. He had his gun out and was taking aim at the back of the man’s head.

The swordsman flipped both
katana
up in the air and sheathed them at his hips in one smooth movement. Sergeant O’Donnell opened fire, but none of the bullets hit. Somehow, the man dodged them all, barely moving a muscle or even turning around. His speed and reflexes were so phenomenal it was inhuman.

Putting his arms behind his head, he stretched dramatically like he was inviting the sergeant to try again. His incredibly toned physique could put any of the world’s top fitness models to shame, let alone an amateur who had just booked his first job. In fact, this guy’s body was so perfectly sculpted he looked as if he had walked right off the cover of an elite bodybuilding magazine.

Sergeant O’Donnell took another shot, but the man flicked the bullet right back at the cop’s forehead, killing him instantly. The man vanished for a split second and was in front of my door before I could blink. I had thought I was home free once I escaped the mutants, but now I was going to be killed by some sword-wielding psycho.

The man ripped the car door off and threw it behind him like it was a toy. All I could do was stare in terror. Now that we were up close I could see he wasn’t much older than me, maybe in his mid-twenties at most. He had dark blond hair hanging almost to his cheekbones, and matching stubble. His angular features were rugged and masculine, yet his tan complexion was as flawless as if he had been airbrushed.

He grinned and disappeared once again. I took the opportunity to flee the car. I wasn’t expecting to get far, but it was better than waiting around for him to end it. For some reason I stopped to stare at where the dead bodies were. But there was nothing there except piles of dust mixed with the suits they wore.

“You’re welcome,” a voice called from above. I hadn’t even noticed him high up on a metal storage unit. His tone was filled with arrogance, and he seemed completely unfazed by all of the carnage he had caused.

I weighed my options as I looked up at the man, who was crouching like a tiger ready to pounce. I noted several sets of tattoos on him that I hadn’t paid attention to before. They were all Asian characters, like he was part of a Japanese gang or cult, except he was clearly Caucasian. He had three symbols on his left pectoral, several rows lining his right flank, and more down his right forearm. One tattoo in particular stood out: a huge claw mark along his left flank that didn’t seem to fit the theme of the rest.

I snapped out of my stupor, let adrenaline take over, and turned to run. My goal now was to get back to a main street where there would be people. I was almost off of the docks when I checked over my shoulder to see if he was following, but he was nowhere in sight. There was an alley between two warehouses only a few yards away that looked like it would take me out to the street.

“What’s wrong? Don’t tell me you’ve never seen a dead body before.” He appeared before me as I turned down the alley. It almost sounded like he was teasing me. I froze in place and just stared at him as he blocked my way. He crossed his arms patiently and leaned against the wall to my left. “Not the talkative type, I guess,” he said, mocking me again. He began advancing toward me with a macho swagger in his walk. It reminded me of a rock star showing off to his audience. I glanced at the weapons hanging at his side and began to back away nervously while keeping my eyes upon him.

“I know what you’re thinking, but I’m not going to kill you. Just make this easy on yourself and come with me.” My head started swirling from the sound of his words. It felt like something was taking over my mind and making it hard to run away.

He was around six-two or three, but seemed giant by comparison when we stood toe to toe. The unnatural hypnotic feeling grew as I stood there paralyzed. I could feel him looking down at me while I did my best to avoid direct eye contact. Grabbing my face, he forced me to focus on him and flashed a devilish smirk.

His deep green eyes squinted intensely as I felt him peering into my soul. My head began to fill with an even stronger, more disarming sensation than before. The inner voice that had been screaming inside, telling me to flee, was silent now. I was drowning in a dangerous sense of complacency as my survival instinct melted away.

The sound of a police siren blaring behind me was followed by blinding light and a familiar voice shouting. I jerked away to look over my shoulder and saw Officer Turner approaching.

I was happy he had survived, but if he wasn’t already suspicious of me, he had more than enough reason to be now.

Regaining a lucid state, I turned back around, but the mysterious swordsman was gone. If not for the headlights of Officer Turner’s car illuminating the dark alley, I wouldn’t have noticed the cop’s latest injuries. His nose was bloody and quite possibly broken.

“What happened to you?” I asked, still anxious to leave the area as soon as possible.

“Where’s the officer that took you here?” he asked, successfully countering my question with a better one of his own.

“Down by the water.” I pointed in the direction of the massacre.

“Is he dead?” I was a little surprised he jumped to that conclusion.

“Yes, but for the record, I didn’t do it,” I answered frantically. “Some guy with two swords killed a whole bunch of people, including the sergeant. We have to leave or he’s going to kill us too.”

Officer Turner looked completely desensitized, most likely from shock. “Take me to the sergeant.”

“We’re going to die! How did you know where I would be anyway?” I asked.

“Police GPS told me where the sergeant’s car was parked,” he explained. “I spotted you without him, so I assumed the worst.”

“The worst for who, me or him?”

“There was no reason for him to be all the way down here,” he continued. “If there was trouble he would have called it in to dispatch, unless he was already dead.”

“Not to push my luck, but it sounds like you think I killed the sergeant and stole his car, so why aren’t you arresting me?” Jail might really be the better option at this point. At least I’d be safe there.

“If there is a dead body where you’re taking me, then we’ll talk about arrest.” I wasn’t sure I followed his logic, but he definitely knew something he wasn’t saying.

The police cruiser was just how I had left it, but something wasn’t right. The pile of men’s suits was gone, as was the officer’s corpse. There wasn’t any blood or signs of a struggle, not that it was much of a struggle to begin with.

I was expecting to be questioned about the disappearing evidence, but instead Officer Turner took out his flashlight and began investigating the area.

“They were right here, I don’t understand.” I swore to myself.

I began to search with him. Not that I wanted to find a dead body, but more to make sure I hadn’t lost my sanity yet.

“Let’s go,” he said after finishing his search of the sergeant’s car and recovering his empty gun.

“You seem like you were anticipating this.” Now I was starting to become suspicious of him.

“The only thing I knew for certain was that it was going to be something weird,” he answered as we made our way back to his car.

“So, you aren’t going to arrest me?”

“No reason to yet. Get in and I’ll explain.”

We sat in silence for a minute as he drove us out to Eleventh Avenue. I looked out the passenger window at the city lights. Seeing normal people on the sidewalk helped restore my sense of safety.

Officer Turner was the first to speak. “Describe in as much detail as you can remember what happened once you left the apartment.”

Recalling the whole scenario was more difficult than it should have been. Everything was so surreal. I must have been in shock myself, because I was having trouble talking about things that happened just a few minutes ago. He did a good job humoring me, though.

“No offense and not to sound ungrateful, but I’m surprised you’re even listening to my side of things. I figured the only thing you would care about is what your fellow officers had to say and how bad this looks.”

“You’re innocent until proven guilty. It’s my job not to be biased. There’s always more than one side to a story and right now something else is bothering me a lot more.

“Once you left I took the officers to the room we locked the man in, but he was gone. When we ran into another one of the CDC workers, the officers didn’t seem alarmed at all. Instead, they jumped me and tried feeding me to it. I managed to get away when more of the mutants ambushed us, and that’s when I remembered the sergeant was with you.

“Like I said before, there was no reason for him to be down here with you and no way he dropped you at the hospital and made it to the docks that fast. Sure, you could have killed him and stolen the car, but if you were a cold-blooded killer you would have left me to die in that apartment.”

He was interrupted by the dispatcher on the police radio spewing official-sounding jargon. The part that caught my attention was as clear as day, though.

“All units — we have an officer down and one wounded from gunfire at the Westfield Apartments on 81st and Lexington Ave. The perp has been identified as Officer Lyle Turner and was last seen leaving the scene in his police car. A warrant for his arrest has been issued. Subject is armed and dangerous. Proceed with extreme caution.”

We both stared at the radio as the broadcast repeated several times before he switched it off.

“Is that true?” I asked, but was already pretty sure he couldn’t have done something like that. He seemed like too much of a good guy.

“No, they must have radioed that in to cover themselves. If I had gone to straighten this out with my captain first, then I would never have known why you and the sergeant were down here. It just didn’t sit right with me.”

“Well, thanks for coming back for me and everything.” He definitely deserved a medal for going above and beyond.

“You don’t have to thank me, but I appreciate it. I’m beginning to get used to people treating the police like the bad guys. I joined the force to protect others and be a hero, but most people don’t see us as that.”

“What are you going to do now?” I asked. “Can’t they use GPS to find your car?”

We pulled over and parked on a quiet residential street. I looked over at him as he rested his head on the steering wheel.

“Uh, Officer Turner?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Just call me Lyle,” he said, though his answer wasn’t reassuring. “We’re going on foot from here. I only took the car to get to safety as fast as possible.”

Lyle got out and retrieved a backpack from the trunk. He got in the backseat, where he pulled street clothes out of his bag and changed while I checked my pockets for my phone and wallet. I noticed he had the same charger as mine plugged into the dashboard.