Bad Jack ((Ascension: Book 1)) (24 page)

Chapter 64: Topside

They simply nudged the warm carcasses aside with their feet when they boarded the elevator. Melanie propped up a dead body
. She and Jessie hid behind it like it was a meat shield. Oliver stole a gun from a dead guy but he fumbled with it so much Jack worried he’d accidentally kill one of them by mistake.

Jack was poised for action with Oliver crouched at his side when the doors opened
. The place was deserted. It was not barren of sounds though. They could hear screams and shouts cascading off the walls as terrifying echoes. It sounded like a haunted house at Halloween except far more disturbing because it was real; it was what agonizing death sounded like.

They waited like that, listening and hoping the fight would wind down before they had to get involved. No such luck.

Jack’s oldest clone, the one without the replica death ball, ran past going the wrong way. On its heels were two guards blasting away as they chased it down. They ran past the elevator without noticing the occupants. Jack instinctively reared his throwing arm back, ready to set the ball in motion.

He stepped out and saw his clone round a corner
to the left. Just as the two armed men slowed down to round it too the werewolf jumped them from the opposite side. Jack’s clone had set up an ambush.

The werewolf tore the men to shred
s until they stopped squirming beneath its furry muscular bulk.

When it was done with
its kill, Jack’s clone ran up to it and the werewolf did the damnedest thing. It reached its paw up and slapped the clones hand as a high five. Then the clone hung his head and remained still for several seconds. He was enveloped in a flash of light and then he was gone.

Jack stepped back inside the elevator to
make way for the werewolf as it ran past. Its job clearly wasn’t done yet.

A few seconds later an older woman went running past the open elevator, going the same direction as the werewolf. She was wearing a lab coat
. Jack recognized her. She was the crazy, ‘you’re all doomed’ woman from the cafeteria. She was running like a bat out of hell.

There
came the sound of gunfire and she collapsed dead ten feet from where they were all huddled inside the elevator. A uniformed man ran past and Jack recognized him as the lab coated woman’s escort. Jack peered around the door just in time to see the werewolf jump the guy.

Shots rang out but they were all in vain.
The attack lasted mere seconds. When the werewolf was done, it ran right out the front door, into daylight.

With that final attack an eerie silence pervaded the front lobby. They took this as their opportunity to make a break for it.
The lobby was bathed in blood. There were bodies scattered around like modern art.

They were only a couple
of feet out of the elevator when gunfire issued from behind the front desk. Whoever was shooting was too chicken-shit to stand up and take aim so he was firing blind over the counter, missing them all. Jack started to usher his group back into the safety of the elevator.

The guard saw them retreating and his courage
surfaced. He was tall and bulky but he was quick on his feet as he gave chase. Jack was too busy getting everyone to safety to use the ball. The guard fired off a short burst as he rushed them. Jack felt like this might be it for them.

Then the pot bellied pig stepped out of the shadows right in the guard’s path. The oaf tripped over it and crashed to the floor, his rifle clattering away from him across the tiles.

Oliver stepped forward and aimed his stolen rifle at the guard. He ran five rounds into him and the guard moved no more.

The pig actually squealed right before it fell over dead. The light took it as with the others.

They walked into the center of the lobby, nervous and hesitant.

The windows were all pocked from impacts but remained intact. That was a good thing because the dozen or so guards on the high walls saw them and began firing
into the glass. The windows shuddered but held.

Jack was about to inch the front door open to let his death ball out but
it turned out that he didn’t have to.

The Karl Marx ant looking creature appeared at the base of the wall
. It started to yell and gesture with its ant appendages and human arms. It was obvious from its movements that it was conducting an attack like a military Commander. It pointed up at the walls and yelled something Jack couldn’t quite hear.

Then
he noticed the werewolf climbing the wall in a frenzy. The guards didn’t see it coming until it was too late. A couple of them were thrown from the walls but the rest were mauled to death up there.

Karl Marx pointed at the recovering fallen guards on the ground and barked a quick order out.
The hyena dashed into view and started biting the fallen guards to death. It was all over in minutes. The gunfire had ceased completely.

There were
three flashes of light as Karl Marx, the hyena and the werewolf vanished.

Melanie
exclaimed, “Shit. Why did the werewolf go? We still need him.”

The sound of helicopter rotors cut off the end of her gripe. A shadow fell across the front entrance as the helicopter lifted off from the roof and swept close to the top of the wall in front of them. It turned about and began firing at the front of the building. These rounds pierced
through the glass like a hot knife through butter. Jack was forced to get everyone behind the guard desk. The high powered rounds were shredding everything to confetti, sending pieces of concrete all over the place as deadly secondary projectiles. The noise was deafening.

There was a whining metal against metal noise from outside that
encouraged him to take a peek over the top of the desk. When he saw what caused it an awkward smile spread across his face.

The bat-mobiles had swarmed the helicopter. Some were inside crashing around while others drove on their wheels around the outside. The helicopter banked to the right. Then it fell a few feet. The pilot was having a hard time keeping control with all the pests inside and out.

Then the swarm moved toward the tail rotor and started flying into it. The rotor broke into pieces against their indestructible bodies and the helicopter started spinning out of control. The bats fell from the sky like hail, pelting the ground, clearly dead. The helicopter crashed to the ground next to the dead swarm. Before Jack could act, three men crawled out of the wreckage with guns in hand. They’d all survived the crash, mostly unscathed.

He
saw movement in his peripheral and was surprised to see his and Jessie’s clones standing in the lobby staring out the windows. His clone was clutching the clone death ball but not like he was going to use it. He held it like a prop. The airmen started to move toward the doors and the clones ran forward on cue. The clones got through the door and ran off to the right as the armed men gave chase, guns a blazing.

It was a switcheroo and it worked.

The bat-mobiles erupted in tiny flashes of light as they vanished.

The path to the front gate looked clear of life now. Jack knew their window of opportunity was small; they’d come across maybe a third of the guards he knew the facility employed and he didn’t know if they had any creatures left to sacrifice for them. He tried to remember if there were any left but too much had happened in such a short amount of time. He just couldn’t concentrate.

Oliver got them moving this time. Jessie seemed shell shocked so Jack and Melanie half carried, half dragged him outside while Oliver held the door. They scanned the parking lot for a vehicle
but they were all shot to shit.

Melanie pulled something from her pocket. It was a key for one of the SUV’s. She took off running
along the wall of decimated vehicles, stopped and turned back to the group.

“This one looks ok. Hurry up.”

Jack saw movement inside the lobby. He squinted, trying to see if he needed to use the ball on more armed guards. As the figures approached he could make out their nudity; it was the gang of naked hotties. They came right up to the entryway and stopped. Then they formed into a line in front of the door, their naked asses pressing on the glass.

Shortly thereafter t
here were shots from inside, Jack could see the muzzle flares but none of the bullets made it past the chick wall and none of the fresh wave of guards could get through either.

Eventually the shots became less frequent and then ceased all together.

Apparently the sight of these beautiful naked women had suddenly mollified the guards. One beautiful woman had that effect; a bunch of the most gorgeous women on the planet fully nude maximized the calming effect.

When Jack turned away
from the great wall of hotness he saw Jessie covering his eyes with his hands. That made him smile.

He took the boy’s hand
. They met up with Melanie at the dented but otherwise roadworthy SUV.

She got behind the wheel before any of the men could volunteer. It made sense though; Jack had the ball and Oliver still had his gun. Plus she was a good driver despite the long layoff.

As she backed out of the space there was a thunk against the side of the vehicle and then another one. They were being shot at.

The G
eneral was crouched behind a broken wreck of a car. It was Jack’s Ford Focus and it was obliterated.

Jack felt an alien anger swelling within. At first he thought that the sight of his demolished car was what upset him but when he locked eyes with the
General he knew it wasn’t the car’s fault. Jack felt at that very moment the anger he’d been suppressing. He realized he hated the General with all of his heart.

He opened the door before anyone could object and let the death ball hover in front of him
as he walked. He felt his insides engorge with elixir.

The General bared his teeth like a rabid do
g. He stood fully erect to get a better shot. He discharged the weapon but Jack used the death ball to deflect the bullets. He didn’t know he could do that until just now. It whizzed in front of him like an angry bee. It moved impossibly quick, darting this way and that.

He
was barely aware he was controlling it as he moved toward the General at a brisk, purposeful pace. The General dropped his empty clip and tried again with a fresh one. This had the same effect. The ball was a perfect shield. The General let the gun drop from his hands as Jack rounded his busted jalopy.

The anger was sudde
nly gone from the General; he’d accepted his defeat like he knew it was inevitable. He hung his head low and waited for death.

Jack slapped him open handed across the mouth. The General staggered backwards a step
. Jack slapped him again.

Then
he turned his back on the defeated husk of a man and came back to the SUV. He didn’t worry that the General might have a sidearm and try to shoot him in the back; the General had no fight left in him. He was thoroughly broken.

They slid past him in the SUV and made for the gate. Jack watched
through the rear windshield as the mini soldiers the toad had crapped out fell upon the unarmed General.

He didn’t watch them
finish him off and he didn’t tell the others about it. They’d seen enough death for one day.

Chapter 65: Escape

Just then the tire spikes
in front of them retracted. As they slowly inched up to the security pillbox they witnessed through the window the weird spider with the mammalian eyes slapping its human dick down on the switch that operated the gate. The gate opened up in front of them.

The female security officer inside the pillbox was face down on the ground.
She wasn’t moving.

The spider looked at Jack and its eyes teared up. Then it went very still, almost statuesque and
he knew it was about to be consumed by the light.

As they passed through Jessie said, “
Look” and they turned around to see what he was pointing at.

The white tiger was standing at the open gate spraying blood out of its blowhole. It was streaming out fast like from a fire hose. Within seconds the road around it was thick with the stuff. The creature must have accomplished its mission for it too vanished in a spark of light.

When the first chase SUV came roaring toward them Jack understood why the tiger had sprayed the road. The vehicle hit the patch of blood and its tires went spinning out of control. It hit the pillbox hard. When it tried to reverse the tires spun as though in midair. Whatever that blood like gunk was it was infinitely viscous.

Melanie floored it.

A minute later a rusty piece of crap station wagon fell in behind them. Jack recognized it as belonging to the people who had tried to abduct him at his apartment; the people who were working with Mel
anie and Oliver to free Jessie; the people who were supposed to help them escape.

“Some help they were”
he said sarcastically to Melanie with no trace of humor.

“It worked out. We didn’t need them.”

“Did they know that?”

Melanie fell silent. She let the station wagon overtake them and she followed behind it.

After a
few miles she pulled over and got out. She reached under the wheel well of the driver’s side tire and pulled something out. She threw it on the ground and by way of explanation said, “GPS” as she got back behind the wheel and roared after the station wagon.

Oliver said to no one in particular, “I can’t believe we made it.”

Jack realized he was still holding the death ball so he stuffed it in his lab coat pocket. His coat had blood splatters on it and his shoes were wet with blood and human gore.

“We all need a change of clothes.”

Oliver said, “Agreed. Let’s get somewhere safe first though.”

Jack’s mind had been racing the entire drive so he had no idea how long they’d been on the road before t
hey eventually pulled up to a respectable two story house with trees lining the front yard. The driveway was wide enough to allow both vehicles to park side by side. From the station wagon emerged the tall black guy Jack had met last week at his apartment, a white woman and a white man.

It occurred to Jack that two people were missing. There was the Hispanic woman who apparently had been excommunicated and then there should have been another white guy.

The black guy said to Oliver, “Sorry we didn’t get in on the action but Jackson took off on us when the fighting started and we spent the whole time trying to persuade him to reconsider.”

Oliver sighed. “That man never had the conviction necessary to do what
was necessary. He was a thinker, not a doer. We will be fine without him.”

“I know that, but w
hat if he talks? He knows where we are.”

Oliver shook his head grimly. “There’s nothing for it, Daniel.
We have nowhere else to hide. If he talks, he talks. We need to forget about him and concentrate on the task at hand.”