The Tales of Sorath (part ten)
"Zachary get in here." yelled Bill from his room. "Do you have to yell? My head feels like it got hit by a sledgehammer." Zachary quietly as he walked into the room. "What did you take for your personal collection from that mission? Jack said that he didn't see you take anything." "I took a Smith and Wesson 500." "Wow, that's a very powerful gun. You have a mission in an hour." Bill said tossing a piece of paper onto the floor in front of Zach. "I won't be able to do anything with this damn hangover." Zachary said as he picked up the folder. "Take one of these." Bill said as he threw a bottle over to Zach. As he picked up the little bottle he realized that there was no label.
"What's in it?" he asked pulling out a circular pill that was only about 1/8th of an inch around and a strange purplish color. As he turned it around a little he realized that it was iridescent. "That doesn't matter. What does matter is the fact that it will get rid of the effects of your hangover for about two hours. It takes an hour to take effect so take it right now and then give me back the bottle." "TAKE THAT FUCKIN PILL." "I didn't know that you were effected by my hangovers." "I'm not, it's just annoying to keep hearing you complain about something you brought on yourself." "Whatever." As Jack took the pill he felt like it broke open once he swallowed it and the inside liquid was crawling down his throat like molasses. He then threw the bottle back at Bill.
"Delilah will be escorting you and reviewing your performance. We decided that since you have experience in firefights and sniping we should give you experience in stealth so that you will have experience in every field." "But you still haven't taught me anything." "I will not go with you to any missions for a while. Believe me, you don't want to see me fighting." Bill said as he looked up to the ceiling. "That's all I called you in here for so get out now." As Zachary walked out the door he looked into the folder and stared in shock. He recognized this man as a childhood friend that he hadn't seen in years. As he read more he couldn't believe that this man had murdered twelve people and got away with all of them. "Holy crap." he said as he leaned up against the wall. "This is your biggest challenge yet." he heard said from beside him. Delilah then came out of her room and closed the door behind herself, taking care not to get what tail she had left caught in the door.
"How's your tail feeling?" "It's growing back, slowly but steadily." "I see you have grown the fur back on your arm." "Yeah. It also grew back on my leg." "Why do I have to do this specific mission? Did you guys know that he was one of my old friends?" "Your old life is dead, and it will stay that way. To us he is nothing more than another target that we get paid for killing. Who you once knew is long gone. To answer your question though, yes we did know he was an old friend." "But why do I have to be the one to kill him?" "It is the only way we can tell if you really are, mentally, cut out for this. If you have the mindset that you don't want to kill somebody from your past then you will be useless to us. You must be able to kill anybody, anywhere, with no distinction between targets. Grab your gun of choice and meet me in the hangar area." "This whole place is a hangar." "Would you rather I say, the place where we store our vehicles and aircraft?" "Hangar area's good." Zachary said as he walked off to the weapon room.
"I'm gonna need something silenced. I know, I'll use this." he said holding up an AK47 with a silencer on the end. "Do you even know how a silencer works? All that it does is make a gun sound like a smaller caliber. That gun is still gonna make a pretty good amount of sound. If you want silence then go with a silenced .22 handgun." "What are you trying to pull? This gun is better than any puny little .22. "You don't need power, you need silence. He's going to be in an apartment complex. If you're going to be stupid enough to take that in there and shoot it then you're stupid enough to be shot by the cops when they get there." "Why don't we go outside and see the difference in sound?" "Whoever wins takes control of the body for the mission." "Why the hell would I agree to that?" "Because if you win, then I won't speak for a whole year." "Sounds like a good deal to me." he said as he walked outside. "First, the AK." Zachary said as he took the AK, leveled it at the gel target, and fired. He then went and observed the damage, a through and through shot. "Now the pistol." Gordon said as Zachary repeated his earlier movements. "I told you it was more silent." "It still had to kill the person it hit." Zachary said as he walked to the target. As he looked he saw that the pistol had not gone through but it had done ten times the damage that the AK round did on the inside. "I win." "Just get it over with." Zachary said as he surrendered control to Gordon. "Man it feels good to be able to feel things again." he said as he flexed his fingers individually and stretched out. "Yeah yeah yeah, just get it over with so I can get control of my body back.." "Whatever." Gordon said as he went to put back the AK.
"Hello, this is Bill, how may I help you?" "I need you to obtain me a certain biological item." "I apologize but we are almost exclusively an assassination company, our rates for raids vary considerably from a little for petty thievery to thousands for company raids ." "I don't believe you understand what I am telling you. I wish you to obtain a very dangerous viral strain. I have hired many groups before you and none of them survived past the infiltration stage. I am willing to pay you very handsomely for your assistance." "How many people inhabit this facility that you want us to raid?" "The personnel count tops out at around three thousand. Half of those are highly trained guards. I want you to kill every single person there, grab the strain, completely destroy the facility, and then bring it to me." "I see, and how much are you planning on paying us for this anyway?" "I am willing to pay upwards of one million." "I believe that I could possibly arrange this. However, I need to know how many stories this building is." "It has two stories above ground and thirty eight stories underground. I would like all of the floors destroyed completely." "The price must rise since we shall need to use our C4 charges." "If you can get me this viral strain intact then I will raise the price up to two million." "I suppose I can accept that payment, in cash. I will need a little more information, though, on the building structure, what the rooms contain, and especially where it is located."
"It is located on the edge of a lake in the middle of Utah. It's building structure is fairly sound except for the very bottom levels where it is holding the weight of the structure and the earth around it's sides. Starting from the top, the first fifteen floors are simply composed of rooms for the personnel, the next thirteen floors are composed of many different personal areas where the personnel entertain themselves since they are not allowed outside of the facility, the eight floors below that are used for research and testing, and the final four floors are for storage. The strain that I want you and your group to obtain is located on the final floor."
"Okay then, I will get started on this mission in a couple of days." "How many of you will be attempting this mission anyway?" "That is none of your concern madame. You shall see the results on the news within the week. We shall speak of the payment location once you see the results." Before waiting for a reaction from her he hung up. "It seems like I will be going all out for this one." he said to himself as he walked out the door to prepare lunch.
"Everybody, I have an announcement to make." Bill said as he stood up from his chair. "I am going to be taking Zachary with me on my mission." "What?!" Zachary said as he choked on his stew. "You're lucky that I gave you back control of your body." "Oh yeah, real lucky." he said as he rolled his eyes. "I thought that Delilah was coming with me on my own mission." "You aren't the type of person who would be good at stealth, that and I remember that you wanted to see me in action." "So it seems that the one man army rises again." Sorath said as he took another bite of the meat in his bowl. "I remember that, the first time I saw you in the secret wars I thought you were a demon." Delilah said with a light chuckle and a grin. "I feel sorry for whatever bastards you're going against." Jack said as he drank the liquid in his bowl.
"What the hell are you guys talking about?" Zach said with a puzzled look on his face. "The easiest way I can think to explain it is that there are wars going on out of the public's eyes. The one that Delilah and the rest are referring to is my little excursion to Bolivia." Bill calmly said while he picked up everyone's plates. "There is no danger that you should be in as long as you stay with me. If you try to run away then I might mistake you for an enemy." Bill said from the kitchen. "Trust me, you won't be in any danger from enemies when you're with him." Delilah said as she held out her own glass for Jack to fill. "Why should I fill up your glass?" "Because you're the one with the bottle in your hands." she said with a slight grin. Jack started mumbling as he filled the two glasses with wine. "Do you guys always drink alcohol here?" Zachary asked.
"Pretty much. It has different flavors to each of us since our sense of taste has been altered. Why don't you try some of the wine? You might like it." Jack answered holding up the bottle. "No thanks. I'm surprised that Bill's pill took away my hangover so fast." "He gave you one of the hangover pills?" Delilah asked with a serious tone in her voice. "Yeah. Is that a problem?" "When did you take it?" she asked ignoring his question. "About three hours ago."
"Three, two, one." they heard Bill yell from the kitchen. Zachary keeled over in sudden pain and fell out of his chair. He passed out from the pain before he even hit the ground. "Why didn't you tell him that all the pain his hangover would have caused would suddenly hit him when the pill wore off?" Delilah screamed through the door. "It would have distracted him. Aren't you supposed to be on a mission right now?" Bill yelled from the kitchen. "Yeah, I know, I'm going. See you when I get back." Delilah said as she left the room.
"Ugh, what the hell happened?" Zachary asked as he sat up on the floor. "You passed out from pain." Bill said handing Zachary a glass. "I don't want any vodka." "It's not vodka, it's only water." "Okay, thanks." Zach said as he grabbed the glass and drained it quickly. "Hurry up and go grab a couple guns. We gotta go get this mission done." Bill said from his chair. As Zach looked closer he saw that Bill was wearing what looked like a pair of arm length metal gloves with claws at the ends.
"I see you noticed my gloves. I'm more of a hand to hand combatant by nature. I only took some guns with me to rescue Sorath so I could give him some. I didn't know he had a friend who grabbed him one already." "What are those things?" They're a pair of arm length gloves that the military gave me, with a few of my own modifications. The best way I can think of describing them to you is that they took metal wiring and wove it into another glove and put some metal claws on the end of the fingers and thumb." "Why are your hands drooping down?" "Try them on and you'll know." Bill said as he slid them off. Zach grabbed them and tried to put one on. He realized that, not only was it heavy but it also was weighted mostly at the tips.
"I took off the claws that came with the glove and replaced them with my own. I just put some lead into the metal shell I made out of the hollowed out original claws and then put diamond tips on them. If it hits you then it will slice you without any effort." Bill said as he saw Zachary about to touch one of the claws tips. Once he applied a very slight amount of pressure the claws sank right into his skin. "Damn, that's definitely sharp." Zachary said as he handed the gloves back to Bill and instinctively put his injured finger into his mouth. As Bill put the gloves back on he opened the kitchen door. "I'll go warm up the jet while you get your weapon of choice. Don't get to much though, you're going to be the one carrying the case back here." As Zachary walked to the armory he thought about what he'd take.
"You need something light but powerful. I suggest you choose something that is very reliable." "No shit. If it's not reliable then I might die. I guess we're thinking the same thing?" "Unless you're thinking an AK that has been made into a pistol, I doubt it." "They have one of those?" Zachary asked in surprise. "Yeah, didn't you look at the armory inventory?" "These guys keep inventory of all their guns?" "Yeah. They also keep inventory of everything else to. They gave you a copy to look over, but you only took a look at it for a minute and threw it onto your bed."
"How did you read the whole list then?" "I only read the page you looked at. I can look back at anything you have seen and analyze every possible detail if I have enough time." "You're full of tricks aren't you?" Zachary asked as he opened the armory door. "Yes I am. Thank you for finally noticing it." Gordon said in mock satisfaction. "Oh yeah. If you're so smart then tell me where the hell they are in this huge ass room." "Top shelf, three rows down, and one across. It's the one that has the MG42 on the lowest rack." "MG42?!" Zachary asked in shock. "Yes, the same kind of MG42 that was also known as Hitlers chainsaw." "Damn they've got a shitload of guns in here."
"You brought in about thirty nine guns from your last little mission. I also decided to read up on this 'companies' policies when it comes to personal items. It seems that in any hit involving more than ten targets, gang members, or other third party deaths one weapon may be kept for ones personal collection." "Yeah, I already know that." Zach interrupted.
"I wasn't finished. These weapons may be of any make, model, caliber,etc. However, vehicles may not be kept for personal use. This excludes aircraft that are meant for subsonic flight. Any violation of this rule will be met with serious punishment or discharge. By the way, the only way to be discharged from this business is by death. Any and all weapons must be kept in personal storage. Any weapon found outside of the personal storage area will be considered a non-personal weapon and will be treated as such. Multiple guns may be taken for personal collections pending the approval of a higher ranked member of the organization. Any and all weapons in personal collections must have maintenance done by the company armorer who may do minor modifications if she is of a higher ranking. If a lower ranked member of the company is the armorer then he/she MUST request permission from the owner of the weapon in question before doing any modifications. These minor modifications may change the weapons appearance, strength, firing rate, or weight. Personal collections may only be accessed by the owner or with permission of the owner. Under no circumstances may another member's bladed weapons be used or taken. This is punishable by either a demotion down to the lowest member of the organization or with immediate discharge."
"How much did you read from those damn pages?" "I only read that from the one page you looked at. I also know the newest ranking system. From the highest ranking member to the lowest it is Sorath, Bill, Jack, Delilah, you, and then Veronica. However, Delilah and Jack continuously switch their rankings with each other. Also, never look any higher ranked members in the eye." "Why not?" "Because, if you haven't noticed this companies ranking system is based on that of a traditional pack of wolves. If a wolf looks a higher ranked member in the eyes that means that he/she is challenging him/her for his/her rank. A fight would ensue, the winner gets the higher rank and the loser either stays at the same rank he/she was, gets a lower rank, or gets killed. So unless you want to die, never look Sorath in the eyes." "Thanks for the warning." Zachary said as he picked up the guns he was looking for.
"Damn. These are some badass handguns." Zachary said as he looked through the sights. "Yeah they are, but you might wanna stop that." "Why should I?" Zachary asked as he did a 180 and pointed the guns forward. Once he looked through the sights he saw Veronica in front of him. "Sor-" he said before she hit him in the chest, knocking him back into the wall, leaving a huge dent shaped like his body. "What the hell Veronica?" he yelled at her before feeling the fur on the back of his neck stand up. "Run!" Gordon screamed. "My fur's only rising because I'm mad." Zachary said before he thought. When he paid attention to the fur on the back of his neck he could tell that it was raising out of fear. 'What the hell is up with her?' he thought to himself as he coughed up a little blood, stood up, and watched as she slowly walked towards him. With a rush of speed she charged straight at him and pinned him to the wall by his neck and started lifting him up. "You will not kill me." he heard her say in a voice that was a deeper tone than normal. "What the hell is wrong with her?" he asked as he saw the door open up. He watched as Delilah ran in and saw Veronica holding him up by his neck.
"Stop Veronica." Delilah yelled. Veronica turned her head to face Delilah and she saw that Veronica's eyes had turned red. She grabbed a gun from her hidden holster, pointed it at Veronica, and shot her in the legs behind the knees. As Zachary fell he saw that a couple of darts were sticking out where Delilah shot Veronica. She fell on her side and quickly went unconscious. "Thanks for the save." Zach said as he held out a hand for Delilah to shake. She promptly slapped him across the face, knocking him back on his tail. "The next time you decide to play around with guns in the armory, make sure you're alone. Once you get back I will expect you to go outside and fix this dent in the wall. Grab those guns you chose, go get some ammo, and get your ass out to the jet. Bill's starting to get impatient waiting for you." Delilah said as she walked back out with Veronica hefted over her shoulder.
"Next time, listen to me. You would be dead if Delilah hadn't come in here and saved your ass." "Yeah, I know. I think I'll get some explosive rounds." Zachary said as he walked next door to the ammo room. "Why not use hollow point ammo instead. It's much cheaper, less dangerous to you, just as deadly, and it is way more plentiful in here." "Where is it?" "Magazines for it are in the bottom drawer of the fifth desk. In all there are about six clips in there. Don't forget that Bill also told us to get plenty of C4 along with the things needed to detonate it." "I remember that." Zach said as he grabbed the magazines and put them in his pockets and headed to get the explosives.
"I'm glad that you're awake so fast." Delilah said as she stood over Veronica, who was laying on a table in the lab. "What happened?" Veronica asked groggily. "You had a relapse because of Zachary and lost control. I had to shoot you with a couple of tranq darts so you didn't kill him." I want you to follow me for a moment." Delilah said as she stood up. After Veronica stood up the effects of the tranquilizer darts almost immediately left her. They both headed out the hangar, with Veronica trailing behind Delilah a few feet. "Here we are." Delilah said as she stopped. "There's nothing here." Veronica said. "It's underground. We're going to use your ability as an armorer to our advantage." Delilah said as she slowly moved her right paw over the ground before lifting up a panel that was the exact same color and appearance as the ground around it.
"After you." Delilah said as she waved her hand over to the passage. Veronica slowly lowered herself down the ladder about nine feet before Delilah followed her and replaced the cover over the entrance. Once they got to the bottom Delilah turned on the dim lights. "Why aren't these lights bright?" Veronica asked while looking around and following Delilah. "All of us have very good night vision so we don't want the lights to damage our eyes. We use regular lights in the hangar is because it is bigger and the light is needed to illuminate everywhere. If we used regular lights in here we would have a very hard time seeing once we got back up top." Delilah explained as she opened the door in front of her. "This is your work station." Delilah said as Veronica looked around the room. Every tool that she had ever used and would ever need hung on the walls. "Thank you." "Your workstation is located at the very end of the hall. Sorath's is the first door on the right, Bill's is the second one on the right, and mine's on the left. "I make and alter bullets, Sorath makes, sharpens, and details the blades, and Bill makes the sheaths for Sorath's blades. If one of them is down here then the other one isn't very far behind." Delilah said as she picked up a Colt M1911 and handed it to Veronica.
"There's a problem with the slide and the firing pin, so I want you to fix the slide and replace the firing pin. The replacement firing pin is on the table in front of you. I will time you so start when I say go. Go." Delilah yelled as she depressed the button to start the timer. With Delilah watching in amazement Veronica had completely replaced the firing pin and fixed the slide in less than three minutes. "Damn, that was good. Let's see if it works." Delilah said as she loaded the pistol and emptied the clip into the target in the back of the room. "Great job Veronica. I suggest that you get started on that pile of guns in the corner before we need them." "How many guns are there in that huge pile and how the hell did they get messed up so much?" Veronica asked as she stared with an expression of shock on her face.
"Jack gets overenthusiastic, Bill has a habit of using his pistols like a shield for knives when he decides to use one, and Sorath occasionally decides that he wants to take a sniper rifle into a close quarters fight and ends up overheating the barrel. The sniper rifles only need a checkup for the barrels, the assault rifles need to be taken apart and rebuilt while replacing any broken parts, and the pistols need to have their slides replaced and any internal damage fixed." "I've got a lot to do, don't I?" "Yep. Also, you can modify all the non personal weapons without a problem but ask before you modify any weapon from someones personal collections." "Okay Delilah. If I run out of parts what do I do?" "Tell somebody and we'll get the parts in about six days from one of our outside sources." "Okay then, I'll get started on work." "If you need me I'll be in my work room so don't be afraid to ask me anything. But make sure you knock on the door before coming in because I will be dealing with a few materials that are very dangerous." "Okay Delilah." Veronica said as she grabbed an M16 from the pile and started to take it apart.
"We're landing now." Bill said to Zachary. "But this isn't the facility." Zachary said while looking down. "I know but we need to walk the rest of the way so that we don't attract to much attention to ourselves." Bill said as he carefully landed the jet in the bottom of a valley. "Are you sure it's a good idea to land right here?" Zachary asked as he jumped out to catch up with Bill. "Of course it is. If anybody in the base saw us heading towards them in a jet then they would have prepared their defenses for an attack. Since we landed here they did not suspect us to attack them. That and the fact that it is almost morning so we should camp here for the night." Bill huffed as he climbed up onto a ledge beside a cave. "Why are you so tired Bill?"
"We just climbed up a three hundred foot sheer cliff in less than twenty minutes." "I thought that we only climbed about one hundred feet. I'm not even tired yet." Zachary said as he set up a tent. "Of course you aren't tired. During your transformation a few things happened inside of you that we decided to let you figure out for yourself." "Like what?" "Your lungs now exchange oxygen at a greater rate than any humans can so you will have a harder time tiring out. I think that explanation is good enough for now. You can figure the rest out on your own." "Okay. We have a little problem." "What is it?" Bill asked while laying on his back.
"There's only one tent." "I know that." "Why did you only pack one tent?" "Because we only need one." "I am not going to share a tent with you." "I wasn't talking about that you dumbass. Besides we're right next to a cave. You go to sleep while I am out hunting. After half the day is over then I will come back, wake you up, and then sleep while you're out hunting." "How are we going to cook the food we catch though?" "Ugh, you are so annoying sometimes. We don't need to cook it. If you eat something that has just been killed then it is somewhat safe, depending on what you catch." "There is no fuckin way that I am going to eat anything that will move in my mouth." "You need to stop thinking like a human. If you don't eat then you will be weak by the time that we get to the facility." "I don't care if I am weak. I am not going to lower myself to acting like a common animal like you are." Bill ran at Zachary and kicked him in the midsection. Once Zachary started to stand back up Bill swept his feet out from under him and placed his foot on Zachary's chest.
"Listen to me you arrogant little bastard." Bill said emphasizing the word bastard by increasing pressure on Zachary's chest. "If you ever say that I am being a common animal again, then I will end your existence in one strike. Am I making myself understood?" "Get the fuck off of me." Zachary said as he grabbed Bill's foot pushed it off his chest to the side. Bill did a front flip and flung Zachary into the wall. As Zachary stood up he coughed up a little blood. "I am tired of you being such an asshole to me. You need to learn how to respect people." Zachary said as he charged towards Bill. "Respect is earned you weak little mongrel." he said as he grabbed Zachary's fists and threw him onto the ground. "Whether it is earned by age, rank, or power respect is never given. You must never expect anything to be given to you by others unless you earn it." Bill said as he threw carefully aimed punches at Zachary. "Duck to the lower right and grab his arm." Zachary did as he was told, surprising Bill and catching him off guard. "Now pull his arm and sweep his legs out from underneath him." Zachary did as he was told and wound up looking at Bill lying on the ground. "Now, put his arm in between your legs and yank it up to your chin." "Why the hell are you telling me to do that?" While Zachary was distracted Bill grabbed his arms with one hand, pulled his other hand out of Zachary's grip, and then flung him into the cave's back wall. "Let me guess. Your brother told you to put my arm in between your legs and pull it." Bill said as he stood up and dusted himself off. "Yeah. Why the hell did he tell me to do that?" Zachary asked as he stood back up and tried to get the blood out of his muzzle. "Had you done that you would have, most likely, pulled my arm out of its socket. You should have listened to him. He has access to all of your memories, even if you can't access them." "What's the big deal about that?"
"He has access to your hand to hand combat training that you received. That was one of the moves that will disable an opponent without killing them. You are merely resorting to street fighting techniques. If you want any chance of defeating me then you better listen to whatever he says during a fight. I bet you also forgot that he can analyze an enemies fighting style." "Yeah, I did forget that. Why the hell didn't he analyze yours?" Zachary asked as they net at the entrance of the cave. "He obviously couldn't. I alternate between my eight different fighting styles every few minutes. I could have killed you at the very beginning when you grabbed my foot, but I decided to see how good you were compared to me. I now realize that you are very weak, nothing more than a mere kit."
"You son of a-" "Zachary." "What the hell do you want?" Zachary growled. "Give me control." "Why the hell would I do that?" "So that I could fight him and show him my own level of power." "No way." "Unless you want me to take over by force again then give me control right now." "If I give you control will you let me have my body back right afterwards?" "Sure." "Bill give me a few minutes and lets try fighting each other one more time." "Sure, I never get tired of kicking your ass." "Why did you pack a clear tent anyway?" "Just in case it started to rain and one of us still wanted to see the clouds. I usually like watching rain clouds." Bill said as he sat down to catch his breath.
As Delilah finished putting the last couple drops of molten lead over the top of the bullet she leaned back in her chair and breathed a sigh of relief. "I don't see why I'm still so shaky when doing that. I always put something into the bullets but I never shake except when I'm dealing with this damn explosive powder. It might not be activated by heat but every single time I fill a bullet with it, I'm afraid that it's going to spray the lead right back up and onto my fur. Might as well go see how our new worker's doing." she said as she walked out the door and took a left.
She knocked on the door and was surprised to find out that it opened when she touched it with her knuckles. "Are you here Veronica?" Delilah asked as she stepped into the dimly lit room. When she got to the middle she felt something tackle her onto the ground from behind. She flipped onto her back and was trying to grab her knife before she saw that it was Veronica. "Hi Delilah, I caught you." "Yes you did, now please get off of me." "I thought that cats were supposed to be stealthy and very good at telling when somethings watching them. I caught you by surprise easily." "Felines are good at stealth but I don't know where you got the other thing from." Delilah said as she brushed her fur off. "I got it from another one of us that I found." "What are you talking about? Nobody else survived the injections." "It wasn't from an American facility at all. It was an otter and he sounded like he was a Russian. He kept on talking about how warm America was." "So, you're telling me that the Russians also created beings like us."
"Kinda. They only made three by what the otter said, and he's dead now." "That means that there might be two other people like us out in the world." "He said that they came together on a stolen submarine but separated once they got onto the land." "Do you know where they landed the submarine?" Delilah asked as she pulled a pen and a piece of paper out of her pockets and started frantically writing down information. "Yeah, he said they landed in the Gulf of Mexico, but they started moving north as soon as they got out. It was too hot for two of them and the third one thought it was too dusty where they had landed." "Did he say anything else?" "He said the word Utah before he got shot in the head." "Great, it seems that all we know is that there are two others like us and one of the only people who might be able to find them is in the same state that a dead otter mentioned. How are the guns coming along anyway?" "I finished fixing all of them about five hours after you left." "Do they all work properly?" Delilah asked while pointing a rifle at the wall. "Yes, they all work properly. I also added a bonus to that scopes and sights. Flip the switch on the right and you'll see." Delilah flipped the switch and waited for something to happen. "What's it supposed to do?" "It does all the calculations for you so you just have to put your target in the middle of the crosshairs and shoot. It will never miss unless it hits a solid object on its way to the target." "Nice." Delilah said as she shot at the target across the room.
"Are you ready Bill?" Gordon asked. "Just hurry up and get this over with." Zachary complained as Bill walked into the cave and got within arms reach of Gordon. "I assume that you are Zachary's twin." "Yes I am, but it isn't a good idea to assume something. It makes an ass out of you and me." "Man that's an old joke. Enough talking though, let's fight." Bill said as he threw a left jab. Gordon just dodged it and took a quick swing at Bill, missing him by about three inches. Bill tried to throw a left jab and then a right one but was interrupted by Gordon going around to his back and yanking on his tail. "OW. Watch it back there." Bill said as he kicked back and turned around just in time for Gordon's flying knee to catch his lower jaw. Without hesitating Gordon landed, swept Bill's legs out from under him, and stood over him. "I believe the fight is over." Gordon said as he held his paw down for Bill to grab a hold of. "Thanks, but I can get up on my own." Bill said as he stood up. "You have earned my respect, but your brother needs to earn it for himself. Also,"
"What is it?" Bill swept Gordon's legs out from under him and kicked him in the chest once before he slammed into the ground. "I was taking it easy on you, if you paid attention to my movements then you would have seen that." "Well, I didn't." Gordon said as he stumbled to his feet. "I never thought that racoons could have such ferocity unless they were cornered." "None of us are purely one species, except for Jack. The scientists were planning on sending us into war so they decided that we had to have a bit of predatory DNA put into our DNA. Our forms weren't dictated by the injection, it was dictated by our personalities, so they didn't know what we would become, all they knew was that if they put some of a predators DNA in the injection that we would have some ferocity from the chosen predator."
"So what are you?" "I'm not sure, all I know is that every one of us, except you and Veronica, has a chemical filled capsule that will enhance our ferocity to its limit. That's why I am known as the one man army amongst our little company." "So you have a pill that will turn you feral? Speaking of which, what do you do when your hangover pills run out?" "I guess you could say that, but I don't use those hangover pills at all because I don't need them. I can't get drunk anymore without getting alcohol poisoning." "Damn." Gordon said as he gave Zachary back control of his body. "If you'll excuse me, you two, I am going to go find myself something to eat." "Goodbye." Zachary said as he curled into a ball and tried to go to sleep while hearing a strange sound emanating from the other side of the cliff. 'Must be some kind of test from that facility.' Zachary thought as he fell asleep.
"Sorath, are you there?" Delilah yelled as she opened the doors to the hangar. "Yeah, I'm right here." Sorath said as he turned the lights on. "We might have a problem." "Yeah I know, some human called and wants a job with us." "First of all, this problem is on a much bigger scale. Second of all, what the hell did you tell that human?" "I told her no. What's your big problem?" "We might have two others like us in America." "What's the bad thing about that?" "They're from Russia." "We were in a war against them, sure, but do you hate them so much that you're scared of them?"
"I don't care that they're Russian, but I am scared of what one of them might be." "What are you talking about?" "Do you remember the dragon they found frozen in ice in Romania?" "Yeah but that was fake." "Not exactly. I went there a couple years ago when I was on my personal vacation, as a human, and I came across what I thought was an abandoned building. When I looked in through the window I saw that same dragon that they found in the mountains. It was dead but, otherwise, completely preserved. They where taking samples of it and examining it very thoroughly. I can tell you, from my point of view and level of experience, that it was a real dragon."
"So you think that there might be a bipedal dragon around here?" Sorath asked as he looked directly at Delilah. "Yes. I also believe that it is up close to Bill and Zachary." she said as she changed her gaze to the ground. "Okay then. Once Bill and Zachary get back we will set off to find these other two." "Yes sir. Where's Jack?" "He's out on personal business." Sorath said as he walked into the kitchen. "You want somethin' to eat?" "No thanks, I've gotta get back to making bullets. We run through a lot, as you know." "Yeah yeah yeah, go on then." Sorath said as he shut the door behind him.
"Zachary, time to get up." Bill said as he nudged Zach with his foot. "I'm getting up. Just give me a minute." Zachary said as he stretched out a little bit. "He's alive." Gordon jokingly said. "No shit. If I wasn't alive then you wouldn't be either." "Great job at ruining the fun of it." "Just shut up." "Do you have your guns ready?" "Yeah, why do you ask?" "Our target is on the other side of this mountain." "Did you hear something weird during the day after you left?" "Like what?" "It was kinda like a howl or a scream. Hell it might have been both at the same time." "Yeah I heard it. I have no idea what it was, but I do know that a few bullets to the chest and head will definitely kill it." "Okay, I guess. How long will it take to reach the peak?"
"We're only about two hundred feet from it so we should be up it in about five to ten minutes." Bill said as he grabbed a hold of a good rock on the side and hoisted himself up a few feet. "Hurry up, we need to do this before the daylight comes back." he yelled back at Zachary. "I'm coming." he said as he started climbing.-"Damn you're fast." Bill said as he climbed over the edge of the cliff. "Yeah, I know. It only took me six minute to get up here. It took you eight." "Shut up and start jumping down." Bill said as he leapt onto the part of the cliff below them that was jutting out. "I'm coming." Zachary said as he jumped after Bill. "Holy shit!" Bill yelled as he looked into a cave beside him. "What is it?" Zachary asked as he landed beside Bill. "We might have a problem." Bill said as he pointed at the carcass of a mountain goat lying in the back corner. "Why? We both know that there are mountain lions around here." "A mountain lion wouldn't be able to take that thing out on its own." Bill said as he walked into the cave. "What the hell are you doing?" Zachary said chasing after Bill.
"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM HERE NOW!!" Gordon yelled in Zachary's head. "Why?" "There is something very dangerous that lives here. If it took out that huge mountain goat then what do you think it'll do to you?" "We'll be out in a minute." Zach said as he walked in the cave and looked around. He saw something in the corner and moved over to it. As he looked at it he realized that it was a necklace with a pendant on the end. "I wonder what this is?" Zachary said as he looked closer at the pendant. He saw that it was a dragon clutching a ruby to its chest. "Wow, look at the level of detail in this thing." Zachary said as he admired the individually carved scales and the eyes with emeralds in them. "Zachary, come on out. We have a job to do. We can come back and look around on the way back to the jet." Bill yelled from the entrance. "I'm coming." Zachary yelled back as he put the pendant and necklace in his pocket before running to the exit and jumping down to the bottom of the mountain. "This is going to be easy." Bill said as he slid his gloves on quietly and looked at the guard at the front entrance. He quietly moved up in front of the guard and then thrust his hand straight through the mans chest cavity. Bill threw the man off his arm and licked one of the claws with a grin on his face. Zachary just stood back in the shadows, horrified at what he was watching. "Hurry up Zachary. Bring me that bottle I told you to hold onto." Zachary did as he was told and gave Bill the bottle. Bill opened up the top and grabbed the capsule that was in the bottom. With a smooth motion he swallowed the pill and threw the bottle aside. Zachary watched and waited for some kind of physical change to happen. "Come on buddy." Bill said as he turned around towards Zachary and looked him in the eye with a grin. Zachary was frightened when he saw that Bill's eye white turning black and his normally brown eyes turning predatory yellow.
"Let's go." Bill said as he broke the iron gates off their hinges and ran through the front door, stabbing through guards an visitors alike with deadly accuracy. Zachary followed him and just watched in horror. A guard stepped in Bill's way with a shotgun pointed at his muzzle so Bill thrust both his hands through the mans chest and then pulled him in half. "I am NEVER going to fight him again." "I agree." Zachary said as he saw Bill rip through a woman's skull and throw the body at a man in the corner, crushing him. Bill ran to the elevator and held the door to keep it from closing. "Leave us alone!" screamed a visiting woman as she pointed her pistol at him and hit him in the chest, making him pull his hands out from between the doors and letting them close.
"You wanna play that game huh. Fine with me." Bill said as he ripped the doors out of the elevator shaft, exposing all the wires. "How the hell are you alive?" Zachary asked as he came up to Bills side. "Bulletproof vests are miracle workers, aren't they." Bill said with a smile as he sliced the cables with one flick of his wrist. As he heard the crash of the elevator hitting the ground Bill grabbed one of the cables and climbed up to clear the few floors that were above ground.
"Okay then." Jack said nervously as he felt his sawed off shotgun on the inside of his trenchcoat. "I hope I don't need it but, if the shit hits the fan, I have something to help me out in here." he quietly said as he pulled the hood over his head and walked into the back door of the abandoned house. "So many memories here." he sighed as he looked around. He then heard a small twang and felt an arrow go into his leg below the knee, causing him to fall onto it. "Who the hell are you?" yelled an accented voice in the darkness. "I should be asking you the same thing." Jack said as he pulled the arrow out of his leg and looked at the training tip on it.
"This used to be my house, so why the hell is a stranger in it, much less a foreign stranger." he felt another arrow pierce his left arm. "This house is abandoned, it belongs to nobody." "I said that it used to be my house. At least let me see the face of my attacker." Jack said as he pulled out the other arrow and took a hold of the shotgun. "Fine." the person said as it turned on the lights. Jack was astonished to see the rabbit anthro standing six feet away from him. "Now I wish to see the face of the man I am about to kill." he said while pulling back the bowstring and aiming the arrow at Jack. Jack used his left arm and pulled the hood out from over his head. The rabbit stared in disbelief at Jack's face. "There were more." the rabbit said as he lowered the bow. Jack took his opportunity and pulled out his double barrel sawed off and leveled it at the rabbits chest.
"Where are you from?" Jack asked as he got a better grip on his gun. "I'm from Russia, aren't you?" "No, I was turned into this, thing, here in America." "Then die." the rabbit said as he pulled the bow taught and aimed it at Jack's head. Before the rabbit shot Jack pulled both triggers and blasted a grapefruit sized hole in his chest. "So much for not needing the gun." Jack said as he reloaded both barrels, clicked it shut, put it back into his coat, and walked through the house. 'I've only got a couple minutes so I better hurry up.' he thought as he grabbed the gas jug he hid under the kitchen sink and started to pour it everywhere, especially on the rabbit. "I cannot let you be discovered for what you are. At least this way you will have a sort of funeral." Jack said as he walked out of the front door and lit a match. He threw the match into the house and took off in his car. "I can never go back, and this is to make sure I don't try."
"Aren't you coming to see the fun?" Bill asked as he ran through the hall. "I have to set up the charges and you know it. Just go ahead." Zachary said as he put the prepped C4 charge onto on of the corner support columns. "I was planning on it." Bill said as he ripped through another persons chest and started licking the blood off of the arm section of his glove. "For the love of god will you stop that?" Zachary yelled as he finished placing the charge. "Unless you want to do something about it I shall do whatever I please." Bill said as he glared at Zachary. "Dammit you dumbass. Why did you have to piss him off?"
"Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit, oh shit." "In all honesty I'm surprised that you're not shitting bricks." "Lets just get this over with. We're on the bottom floor, and the plans say that the viral agent is being kept in here." Zachary said as he opened the door to his right. "I'll see you topside Zach." Bill yelled as he climbed up the elevator shaft with his claws easily digging through the metal. "I swear he's insane." Zachary muttered as he walked into the room. "It's the pill, not him." He saw a fume hood in the middle of the room and looked inside. He saw a case with a biohazard mark on it. "This is it." Zachary said as he broke the glass, grabbed the case, and walked out of the room while ignoring the sirens. "How the hell am I going to get back up there when there aren't any stairs?" Zachary asked himself with a sigh as he hung his head down.