Among the Fallen: Resurrection (18 page)

She looked at the cleaver shaken and traumatized, gagging until abruptly vomiting into the paddling pool with extreme shock. As Alex regained posture and stood up, she rubbed her head as it became completely obvious that the suit could neither be controlled nor rebelled against, resistance evidently met with an extreme and painful penalty. Alex tapped the cleaver on her thigh as she shut her eyes tightly and glared blindly at the dark ceiling above. Her thoughts were almost gone in a way; comprehension of being pretty much invincible was proving a hard thing to get her head around, even if she wanted to throw the towel in, the wretched suit would just seize control.

She shook her head violently as she throttled her thoughts from her mind and continued to walk around the Shopping Centre looking for the next sign, leaving the department store and back into the main hall. She wandered pointlessly through the different departments, lost and clueless; wondering just where she was supposed to be and when. The death that had befallen the outside world seemed to have no place here; if it did then it was very well hidden. There was no blood, no bodies; nothing. Everything was where it was supposed be, creepily tidy and unsullied.

Glossy posters and bra wearing torsos simply watched from the windows as she passed from each area to the next, eventually entering a whole new area. She stood gazing from shop to shop; shoe shops; toy shops; cosmetics and clothes, it was all here, sleepless and silent, like a physical ghost from her past and a memory she could touch and smell. She did up her jacket and continued through the mall, noiseless and fleet, looking for the next sign of life; or death as it appeared to be, but there was nothing, not a single hint and Alex was growing impatient.

All of a sudden, she stopped in front of a supermarket, its lights flickering on and off from dark to light, casting shadows into the main hall that reached far across the marble floor. She tilted her head slightly and stared into the shop, not waiting, but actually feeling a presence, as if something was not quite right. Gripping her cleaver, she slowly edged her way into the shop, her trainers silently hugging the floor in careful and deliberate steps. As she stepped past the fridge area she saw flies and maggots feasting and devouring sandwiches and fruit, milk and juices were putrefied and leaking all over the floor. As she crept through the shop she held her face trying to block out the rancid smell of decaying food, its tainted disgusting stench almost overpowering and even worse than the stench of the dead outside. The fridges and freezer compartment windows were red with blood and splashed from within, the seals dripping to the floor as the rims congealed slowly. She stepped back clearly stunned as she could just make out the shapes of heads, arms, legs and other decaying body parts crudely and callously stuffed inside. Creeping down the long and forlorn aisles, her stomach turned over in fear; not knowing what to expect, how to react or even what to do, but she could feel that she most definitely was not alone.

Suddenly, she froze at the sound of footsteps a few aisles down. Huge thumping steps and a dragging squeaking sound echoed through the food aisles. She looked around in panic then hid behind a cage full of rotten meat, waiting for whoever it was to walk past her aisle, the cleaver shaking in her hand in fright. Covering her mouth in terror, she watched helplessly as the flickering lights cast a huge shadow at the end of aisle, aggressive and distorted, the person lumbered slowly and awkwardly into view. Alex’s eyes widened in alarm and instantly tears rolled down her face, gasping silently as her stomach revolted in fear and terror, the cleaver trembling violently in her hand.

It was a butcher, standing at least seven maybe eight feet in height. Wearing a black leather butchers gown covered in blood and ripped flesh, its eyes bandaged up in dark filthy cloth and the corners of its mouth hooked and wired up, stretching his mouth open painfully. His flesh was grey and covered with open wounds and sores, mould and veins. Arteries throbbed under his skin and barbed wire was wrapped agonizingly around his face and arms, his wounds bleeding and smearing over his wet glistening leather apron. Knives and brutal looking cleavers hung from his belt, hooked chains dragged behind him, smearing the floor with a long trail of blood. As the creature stomped past she watched vulnerably as it heaved a body behind it, a torso all wrapped up in cling film and barely recognizable. Suddenly, it stopped. Alex froze as it gazed down the aisle blindly towards her, sniffing and muttering, its painful mouth drooling and slavering blood and spit. Alex shut her eyes tight, hiding herself away in her own darkness, her mouth clamped tight as the cleaver shook in her hand more violently now than ever before. She waited… and waited… blinding herself to the horror snarling in front of her, until suddenly, it walked away cumbersomely, dragging its torso along the floor. Alex opened her eyes slowly as its shadow disappeared once more, the lights flickering and flashing on and off. It didn’t take a scientist to work out that the creature had very little sight if none at all, she weren’t that well hidden at all and any normal person would’ve spotted her a mile away.

She steadily came out from behind the cage and crept up slowly to the end of the aisle, cleaver poised and ready. She frowned as she thought about the markings on its body, eerily the same ones that were scratched and etched into her suit.

Was this one of the judges she had been told about? The same judges she had to kill?

Surly not? But saying that, this thing, whatever it maybe; was the first thing she had seen walking all night, so it left very little to question.

But how? This thing was massive.

She wiped her eyes and peered around the aisle as the creature stuffed the torso into a freezer at the end of shop, slamming and shoving it impatiently as it crunched and bled, forced into a tiny compartment by the brutal creature. She stood watching for a few minutes as it irritably punched and pushed the door shut, not noticing a can of food slip from the shelf she held onto with her life.

The can hit the floor with a clang and rolled off, the Butcher suddenly span around growling and ran towards her ferociously. Alex ran; slipping and sliding in panic on the blood covered floor, scuttling frenziedly as fast as she could, backing up against the cage as the racking in front of her exploded into the air with tins and debris as the beast ran through it. All of a sudden, it stopped and Alex froze, the cans rolling all over the ground and the racking rocking all around her; it stood before her cold and growling as it listened inquisitively.

“Alexandra!” it growled viciously as it sniffed the air like a rabid animal. Her eyes widened with panic and welled up instantly. She jumped to her feet and desperately tried to run for it, clambering over tins and rotten food distraughtly as she scrambled for her life. The Butcher roared and sped towards the noise and she screamed as it trampled her, lashing out blindly and viciously as she cowered on the floor. Suddenly, her suit awoke, bleeding across her face and solidifying like rock, her eyes flaring up in a glowing furious red. The butcher stood to full height and growled impatiently as Alex calmly and silently stood up clutching a tin, her eyes casting a macabre red glow over the tins and scrap metal on the floor. She slowly raised her armoured hand as the creature regained its posture a few feet in front of her, snarling as it sniffed the air blind to her exact position. As the suit whispered in her mind she suddenly felt confident, her fear although not completely gone, was overpowered by something greater, confidence and anger; aggression that she could feel coursing through her blood, her aches and sore limbs now numb and free.

The creature pulled on the barbed wire on its face uncomfortably and snarled; the silence was almost deafening as the pair stood within feet of each other, waiting for a strike or sound. Alex suddenly threw the tin over the butchers shoulder and it clanged loudly, the creature hissed and charged after it as she sprinted out of the supermarket and into the main hall.

She watched mutely from outside as the Butcher tore apart the shop inside, its strength almost unimaginable and driven literally by blind fury. This was ridiculous, she would be here all night and there were still four left after this repulsive thing, she had to at least try and fight it. Suddenly, she felt a pain in her forearm, the suit split and tore and she watched in horror as a giant twisted bone snapped from her arm, a huge guillotine like blade covered in blood, flesh and arteries and she screamed agonizingly. Blood splashed to the floor and her eyes glowed fiercely as she struggled to stand, the blade warping and sharpening as the wound healed around it. The Butcher, hearing her cries crashed through the front of the shop destroying glass, concrete pillars and everything else that stood in its way. Within seconds, it was in front of her and with an almighty swing and splash of blood; it sent her flying through the air with a well-placed swipe. She crashed into a wall high in the air, smashing the marble and hit the ground in the hall with a painful thump, her jaw dislocated and her eyes glowing wide in pain. Her whole body was burning in torture as her ghostly body healed, her body spitting out concrete lumps from her back and her jaw cracked into place with a jolt of pain. She lay there still, quiet, and her breath on hold. Her pain vanished suddenly and she slowly stood to her feet. She gently reached beside her and slowly picked up a shard of glass. She threw it over to the left of the creature hitting the wall and it shattered loudly. The Butcher roared and charged at the wall crashing through it violently. Alex ran up to the hideous creature, hacking into its spine as it tried to pull itself from the wall in desperation, her blade cleaving strips of weltered grey flesh from it. The butcher growled and roared in agony, swinging blindly, it hit her again sending her flying through the air, crashing through market stands and display cases. As she rubbed her throbbing head from under a pile of shoes and clothes she swiftly looked up, the Butcher rapidly charging towards her destroying everything in its path. She threw a boot quickly behind her smashing the newsagent’s window and the creature trampled her and went crashing through shops display. She quickly leapt up and ran for the escalator, running up to the second floor as it burst from the newsagents raging and aggravated, sending glass and papers, racking and debris flying into the main hall.

She cautiously watched it from upstairs as it sniffed the air, its skin covered in glass shards and slavered blood, growling and frustrated it stomped around, its chains smearing the floor in blood.

She looked around in panic, she wasn’t trained for this shit and being able to regenerate didn’t mean nothing if you can’t stop something carving you up.

Looking over at the elevator on the back wall, she noticed its doors jammed open with an
out of
order
barrier in front of it. She crept towards it slowly while her eyes were fixed upon the blind creature below. She looked into the shaft as the lift appeared to be jammed between floors beneath her. In front of her were a thick metal cable and a tool box, open with various tools, the shaft shrouded in darkness and hummed with air conditioning and turbines. She climbed onto the lift roof carefully and peered through the escape hatch, noticing and remembering the two extra basement floors of shops on the lifts control panel. She stood on the lift roof as her head rambled on, voices that she could not hear but feel, thoughts that were not her own. As the suit bombarded her with a plan she merely stood listening, strange whispers of a language she had never heard but curiously, she now understood. She reached for the tool box and picked up a spanner and dropped it deliberately down the side of the lift, she then listened and waited until it clanged on the bottom of the shaft below. The Butcher roared and rushed towards the lift, crashing through its doors on the floor below and plummeted two floors to the basement. In one swift clean strike she severed the cable in a hail of sparks and a twang of metal, her bone blade shattered and she shrieked in agony as cable whipped off high above and the lift dropped. As the two ton elevator screeched down the shaft, she dropped to knees and held on screaming, waiting for the ground to kill them both. A huge deafening crash echoed up the shaft followed by a plume of dust and smoke as the lift instantly folded up and shattered around her, suddenly there was nothing but darkness and distant noise.

Swiftly, her vision returned, her ears ringing as she stood sobbing in agony; her joints ached as they snapped back into place and shards of metal dropped from her body as it spat them out. She coughed and spluttered, spitting blood and vomited as her ribcage unfolded putting her chest back into place.

Agonized and crying, she regenerated after what seemed like a lifetime, shaking and distraught and never gave the Butcher under the wreckage a second thought. She stood up and stretched as her back cracked and the final pieces slotted back into place, the pain suddenly vanishing. She climbed over the wreckage and leant against the side of the shaft, gasping for breath and trying to get herself together. Suddenly, the debris began to heave below her, metal creaked and shifted and without deliberation she mounted the wall, frenziedly climbing to the nearest doors. She pulled apart the doors slightly and squeezed through as quick as she could, scrambling out onto the shop floor. Alex suddenly ran to the nearest shop, hiding as the lift doors buckled and flew out into the hall, the Butcher clawing its way out of the shaft, growling and snarling. As the giant stumbled into the hall, blood poured from its mouth and wounds, its arm bent up and twisted; it‘s head broken and deformed as it painfully bled its way back into the centre of the hall. It stomped and thumped its way along the marble in blind rage, smashing the market stalls and flipping them violently into the air, smashing windows as it frustratingly hunted her down almost invincible and ineffaceable. Alex hid silently in the first shop, holding her breath and paranoid of any sound to give her position away, silent and scared she watched as the monster ripped the department stores to pieces.