Dark Creations: The Hunted (Part 4) (20 page)

“They recognized us?”

“Our names and faces were part of their educational downloads,” he said miserably.

“They’re going to kill us,” she whispered.

He looked to her.  Her eyes had welled with tears.  She tipped her chin up, defiantly, as if willing the tears to remain where they were.  Her arms no longer clutched her midsection.  Instead, they hung at her sides, slack.  Within him, an insurmountable wave of wrath had formed, pulled inward, farther into the vast ocean of his core, and gathered force with each threat against her life.  As it drew deeper, it had grown and amassed unfathomable intensity.  Now, that wave threatened to rush outward and crash like a deadly tsunami, a mighty tidal wave that would destroy everything in its path,
for her
.

Gabriel took two steps toward Melissa and gripped her by her shoulders.  He looked into her eyes.  “I will not let them kill you,” he promised.  “You will not die.”

“They won’t let either one of us live,” she said quietly.

He knew she was right.  Terzini had expanded his mission in life from transforming humanity and purging it of emotional impulses to include their destruction in it as well.  Neither he nor his creations would stop until they were dead. There was nothing he could do to change his maker’s plans, no offer he could make.  He had briefly thought about offering his life in exchange for hers, but quickly dispelled such musings.  Terzini would never accept such terms and even if he did, the likelihood of him honoring any agreement was slim.  Not to mention the fact that he already had them trapped in a basement with decaying bodies.  No agreement could ever be made.  Furthermore, Dr. Franklin Terzini was not a man who honored agreements of any kind.  The United States government, along with the Russian Mafia, could attest to that.  Oaths meant little to the genius geneticist, as did rules.  Gabriel knew all too well.  Sacrificing his life for hers would not safeguard her from the creations that still roamed the Earth, or the new ones to come, either.  Without any proposition or leverage of any kind, they would have to find a way to escape Jeff and Carol’s cellar, and live.

“This is my fault.  I should have let him destroy me long before this began, before putting you at risk,” he heard himself say.  “Then you would never have been trapped, with a monster.”

“How could you say that?  How could you even say that to me, Gabriel?” she said as tears fell freely from her eyes.  “Are you saying you wish you’d never met me?”

Gabriel did not know what to say.  If he had never met her, he would have never experienced joy, or happiness, or love.  If he had surrendered at the first stirring of emotion, she would never have been in danger.  Her life would be normal.  Instead, he had been selfish.  He had enjoyed their exchange, had relished in every acceleration of his pulse rate when her skin brushed his.  Consequences had been usurped by a firestorm of feelings, feelings that were blissful.  He knew that she would have been better off had she never met him or had he never allowed a relationship between them to exist, but still struggled to wish away what they had.

“Yes, I mean, no,” he stammered.

He could tell by the hurt and horrified expression on her face that he was being unclear, that he had hurt her.  He did not want to hurt her, ever, and needed to elaborate.

“I am so happy that I met you Melissa,” he began.  “I would never take that away.  But I can’t help but think about how much better off
you
would have been if you’d never met me or had a relationship with me.” 

“I love you Gabriel.  Even trapped in this hellhole with you is better than being without you.  I tried that, remember?  No matter how bad things are, I have no regrets.  Do you understand?  And you shouldn’t either.”

“But,” he tried but she cut him off.

“But nothing.  You are a part of me and certainly
not
a monster.  And none of this is your fault.  Please don’t blame yourself.  I wouldn’t trade you, or any of this
with
you, for the world.  I love you and I do not want to live without you.”

From deep within the bowels of Carol and Jeff’s house, amid the malodorous stink of dead bodies, Gabriel knew he could never live without Melissa either.  It was not a realization he’d simply happened upon.  He’d been certain of it since the day he’d met her.  In that moment, he made a decision.  He would
not
be without her ever again.  Neither death nor his maker would keep him from her.  They would live.  They would live to enjoy a future together and, someday soon, partake of the social convention of marriage.  At the time of his instruction, he had not understood the magnitude of matrimonial unity.  He had not met Melissa Martin.  Now, however, he fully grasped its meaning.  Having Melissa as his wife would mean more than a piece of paper asserting they’d filled out the necessary paperwork to unify their assets and merge their respective existences.  Their union would be a promise to one another, a vow to spend the rest of their lives together until their bodies expired.  And their bodies would not expire at the hands of Terzini or one of his creations.

“I love you too, Melissa.  And I wouldn’t trade what we have either.  I promise I will do everything in my power to get us out of here, out of this, alive.  We will end this and be together without having to look over our shoulder for whatever Terzini decides to throw at us.  What I’d really like to do is spend the rest of my life not looking over my shoulder, with you.  Melissa, I want to marry you, if you’ll have me.”

The words flowed from him easily.  They did not surprise him.  Melissa, on the other hand, appeared to be shocked.

“What?  Really?”

“Of course, I will get a ring and you need to finish college.  It will be hard to wait, but I think your dad will kill me if we don’t keep things in that order.”

“You want me to marry you?” she asked breathlessly.

“Yes. Yes I do, with all my heart, if you’ll have me.”

“My answer is yes! Of course I’ll marry you!” she exclaimed and wrapped her arms around him.

His marriage proposal to her in their imprisonment, and in the presence of dead and rotting bodies, may have seemed poorly timed, absurd even, to anyone else, but to Gabriel it felt right.  He wanted her to know how strongly he felt for her, that whatever lay ahead of them, his feelings had been made plain. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close.  He lowered his face and rested his cheek against her head and breathed deeply.  Despite the sourness of the air, he could still smell her shampoo and the sweet vanilla, caramel and coconut scent of her favorite fragrance.  He closed his eyes tightly and enjoyed the feel of her against him, and her perfume.  She pulled back from him slightly and his body resisted the idea at first, until he realized that she intended to kiss him.  She tipped her chin up and stood on her toes as she always did and pressed her lips against his.  As usual, her lips sent his pulse skyrocketing, and in spite of their unfortunate circumstances, she managed to transfer her strength to him.  He felt enlivened by her kiss, and encouraged.  He did not know if it was foolish for him to feel even the slightest shred of confidence in their survival, if he was being reckless to indulge in such an emotion, but he did.  He felt hope, hope that they would live and be married.

Yoshi scrambled to the rental car Alexandra had driven to the address only to recall that she still had the keys.  He did not know how to drive, but would have attempted it.  By car, he could have caught up with the tan sedan that had sped passed him.  On foot, however, he did not stand a chance.  He could run quickly, but could certainly not contend with horsepower of the engine that roared by seconds earlier.  Terror welled within him.  Its culmination formed a catatonic state of inactivity.  Instead of running or pursuing, he stood in the middle of the street, amid the offensive fumes of Alexandra’s captor’s car that still lingered in the air, frozen.  He willed his legs to move, to give chase.  But panic held him, froze his feet from taking another step.  His mind spun frantically and made up for his inert legs as it tried to decide on a course of action.  Each thought whirled in his mind, distorted and fragmented, and outwardly futile, like a fleet of entangled kites, each vying for flight, for freedom.  When his mind finally managed to detangle and selected one of the many of seemingly hopeless options that swirled and eddied about in his head, he reached into his pants pocket and dug out his cellular phone to call Gabriel.  With each button he depressed, his thought became clearer, his path more obvious.  His clarity was obscured, however, when after nearly a dozen rings, Gabriel did not answer.  He nervously dialed Melissa’s number.  But Melissa did not answer either.  Unsure of what to do next, he searched for the newest name listed in his contact log.  Less than thirty minutes earlier, Jack Downing’s cell-phone number had been added to it.  With the push of a button, Jack’s phone was ringing.  Before the third ring sounded, a gruff voice answered.

“Yeah?”

“Jack?” Yoshi asked to be certain.

“Who wants to know?” the voice barked back at him.

“This is Yoshi.  Is this Jack Downing?”

“Yoshi, what’s going on? Did you guys find Dawn?” Jack asked.  Yoshi noticed the hope that filled Jack’s previously brusque tone.

“No.  And they have Alex, and Gabriel and Melissa are not answering their cell phones.”

There was a long pause on the other end, followed by a sharp exhalation.

“This is crazy, man.  I was just at the house of a psycho killer,” Jack said and sounded flabbergasted.

“At the house I just left, there was a door, a metal door in a hallway with regular doors, and I could swear I heard screaming on the other side.  It sounded faint, but I’m sure I heard it,” Yoshi recalled and felt his throat constrict as the only person he could think of was Alexandra.

“This list Gabriel found, it’s a list full of psychopaths.  Your friends are in trouble.  Stay where you are,” Jack ordered.  “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.”

“They could be dead by then.  Meet me at the house they went to, the one on Maple Street” Yoshi replied and ended the call.

His panic reached new heights and soared as his mind processed what Jack had told him.  The retired Army Staff Sergeant had confirmed what he himself had feared, that the people listed were not just creations, they were killing for pleasure.  One such killer had captured Alexandra.  He would not allow her to become a pawn in their deadly game of gratification.  He would get to Gabriel and Melissa, to her.  As if responding to his steadfast resolve, his body sprung to life.  He began running, harder and faster than ever before, toward the house Gabriel and Melissa were dropped at.   With just a few blocks to close, his legs powered forward.  His friends needed him.  He was certain of it.  He would not fail them as he had failed Alexandra.  Together, they would right his wrong and rescue her.  His legs sped, his heart thundered against his ribcage and he felt the world rushing at him.  

When he reached the street and found the house, he did not slow.  He headed around back at full speed and saw that a door stood open, and a simple wooden framed screen was the only barrier separating him from gaining entry.  He decided in that instant, with each of his feet alternately hitting the earth below and sweat stippling his brow, that he would not creep in and attempt to rescue Gabriel and Melissa by stealthy means.  He would surprise them instead.  Without breaking stride, he charged and crashed through the mesh material.  Flimsy pieces of wood that had had held the screen in place exploded in every direction and the screen split and fell to the floor in two pieces.  No one was directly in his path and the sounds of alerted scream did not fill the air, so he took several bold steps, deeper inside.  His eyes swept the area.  Beyond the newly destroyed screen door was a dining area.  A table had been set with ornate plate sets and silverware.  Dinner was about to be served.  The dining room led to an unoccupied living room.  As he turned his head and looked to his side, he saw a kitchen and felt two sets of eyes watching him.  One belonged to a man, the other, a woman.  And the woman held a gun in one hand.  Their expressions were twisted in shock, but not for long.  The woman’s contorted features relaxed immediately as she raised her arm and attempted to aim her gun at him.  Without any viable weapon on hand, Yoshi quickly grabbed a dinner plate off the table.  He then launched it at the gun-wielding woman with every ounce of his strength like a Frisbee.  The plate hit her in her hand, the hand she clutched her gun with, and struck her knuckles.  She howled out in pain and reflexively dropped her weapon.  Without delay, he grabbed another plate and flung it at her.  The heavy dinner plate landed squarely against the bridge of her nose and shattered on impact.  The force of the blow and the pain she was undoubtedly experiencing sent her reeling.  She tumbled backward and fell to the floor, blood spewing from both nostrils. 

Her male counterpart had not wasted time while Yoshi assailed with the platters.  He was advancing and eyeing a knife from the place setting.  He inched forward, looking from Yoshi to the blade, tentatively approaching like a jungle cat circling and stalking its prey.  From the far side of the table, with the wall behind him, he struck.  The man reached out his hand to snatch the knife.  He grabbed it with such speed that had Yoshi not been watching carefully, he would have missed it.  But Yoshi had been watching, and formulating a plan of his own.  When the man had positioned himself, knife in hand, with the table between them, Yoshi kicked the dining-room table as hard as he could, shoving it at the man’s abdomen and slamming him against the wall.  With the man pinned by the table, Yoshi turned to the kitchen only to find that the woman’s blood was all that remained on the vinyl floor.  The man pinned by the table laughed a sick, sadistic laugh then, with inhuman strength, lifted the table and hurled it at him.  Glasses and plates crashed to the floor and splintered into an array of innumerable shards.  Yoshi ducked in time to avoid being part of the fractured heap and leaped toward the man and drove his shoulder into the man’s midsection.  With the man winded from the strike, he twisted and thrust his elbow up into the man’s jaw.  But in his peripheral vision, he saw a bloodstained face with a sinister smile.  The woman had returned.  And she had found her gun.  He gripped the man by the front of his shirt and spun him, shielding his body with that of the man’s.  Four rounds peppered the man’s body as he used it as defense against the shots and moved toward her.  After several steps, he propelled the man’s body forward, at her, before diving to the floor and rolling as bullets tore into cabinetry behind him.  While on the floor, he spied the fallen blade and scooped it up.  Its blade was razor sharp and he did not hesitate.  He heaved it at her, end over end, and watched as it lodged deep into her chest.  The gun fell first before she collapsed, unmoving and bleeding profusely.  He waited until her wet, ragged breathing had ceased and her eyes had fixed on a distant, intangible future before he began his frantic search for Gabriel and Melissa.