Bad Jack ((Ascension: Book 1)) (23 page)

Chapter 61: Unconventional Weapons

Jack slowly walked over to the liquor cabinet, careful not to excite the General. He grabbed a bottle of vodka as a decoy. He then opened the fridge, grabbed the shot glass artifact he’d hidden in there and popped off the top. He knocked it back, hoping the General hadn’t caught on to his trick.

The elixir started working immediately. Everything slowed to a stop and the very air became thick and laden. And then that familiar clarity swept it all away and left Jack standing there like a raw nerve
feeling everything. This was what he needed more than anything now; the ability to know everything. It might help him get out of this jam.

He tried to remove the shot glass from his lips but it wouldn’t budge. It had melded to his
lips and it was refilling far faster than before. There was no way to hide it from the General. This was another stolen artifact and it was interacting with Jack.

The General squinted, unsure of what he was
witnessing.

The liquid was gushing like an open faucet down Jack’s throat sending his emotions and thoughts higher and higher. He felt the glass move inward incrementally until it was at the back of his throat, touching his tonsils and then it slid down into his esophagus. He tried to pry it loose the whole time but it had a purpose.
He knew he wouldn’t be able to stop it but he had to try.

The General took a quick step forward and said, “What do you think you’re doing?”

Just then Jack heard a commotion out in the hall. The General couldn’t hear it but then again, he wasn’t running on the go-juice like Jack was.

So when Melanie came running in with
armed guards hot on her trail, Jack was ready. His heightened senses ran a quick list of scenarios through and the only one that didn’t involve Melanie getting shot was one of madness. But he didn’t have time to dwell on it. He had to act. A shot rang out and the General began to pivot his weapon toward the approaching footsteps.

Jack needed the death ball. He could kill everyone in the room in seconds with it.

His elixir heightened mind said, make it come to you.

He could feel the tether between the ball and himself intensifying in strength. The ball somehow knew it was go time.
He held his hand out and willed it to him.

There were several cracking sounds
that grew louder as the ball traveled through walls and doors and anything else that stood between it and its master.

It was in his hand before any of the armed men could react.

Chapter 62: First Strike

Melanie was on the floor now, crawling toward him but the sight of the death ball didn’t register on any of the guard’s faces. They didn’t know that Jack was now a bigger threat. He saw trigger fingers move so he acted without thought. Melanie was going to be killed.

The ball
zipped through the air with astonishing speed and accuracy, bouncing and rebounding off each guard in turn. They dropped to the ground like marionettes without puppeteers.

Not a single shot was fired at Melanie. Jack saved her life. He’d always secretly wanted to do something like that
; save the damsel in distress and be her hero.

But then reality h
it him like a freight train. He’d just committed multiple murders.

The General took off at a run
but Jack let him go. Where you going tough guy? He thought. No wonder his superiors never promoted him, he was a stinking coward.

Melanie stood on shaky legs. “They were out there joking around abou
t how the General was going to kill you. I had to do something.” She didn’t mention his ball skills.

Jack
nonchalantly tossed the ball in the air and caught it. He loved it. It felt right.

He said, “
I know. It wasn’t your fault. I guess it’s time to get to work.”

She
pointed at the microwave clock and even with the elixir pumping into his stomach it took him a second to understand. Then it hit him. The digits read that it was twelve minutes after five in the morning. They’d been asleep much longer than he’d have guessed. Tomorrow had come and the prophecy had come true.

She
said, “The rest of the guards will be alerted any second. We need to move fast if we’re going to get Jessie out.”

Jack agreed. They had no choice but to take action now. Jack had j
ust committed murder and he’d be executed post haste; Melanie would meet the same end for helping him.

He sprinted down the corridor and stopped whe
n he reached the elevator door. He hit the call button and waited. Melanie caught up, breathless.

“How did you do that? You’re way too fast. I mean really fucking fast.”

He said, “I drank the elixir.” He neglected to mention that it had attached itself to him like a greedy parasite and now rested at the bottom of his stomach pumping him full of its power. “It slows the world down and speeds my mind up. It must do the same thing to my body.”

The doors pinged and slid open. They were halfway down when the sirens erupted.

Shit, thought Jack, Brett will be ready and he’ll be eager, especially since he already wanted to perforate me with bullets for what I did to him.

The elevator was a kill box. But h
e knew what to do.

The elevator pinged again and the doors started to slide open. They were about six inches open when Jack launched the death ball
through. At the exact same moment there was the rat-tat of gunfire. Melanie grabbed him and they fell to the floor as bullets whizzed overhead, clinking against the back wall of the elevator. The gunfire halted immediately. The sound of an object striking the floor followed by a heavy thud meant Jack’s plan had worked. He had killed again. This time, like the last, he knew it was the only option.

He was pleasantly surprised by the total lack of guilt associated with it.
Maybe it was because he knew deep down that Brett was a cruel, vicious piece of shit.

He
helped Melanie up and then beckoned for the ball that was hovering silently over Brett’s dead body. It shot to his hand like it missed him dearly.

Melanie didn’t ask questions, she ran
past Brett’s prone form, rounding the corner toward the clean room door at the end of all the snaking corridors. Jack almost picked up Brett’s rifle but he decided against it; the ball was his best option for defending himself. He followed ten feet behind Melanie to keep a watch on their rear.

When she arrived at the door she
banged on it hard with her palm. The door opened a few seconds later and Oliver met them. Jessie was with him, still in his pajamas. He looked terrified and Jack wanted nothing more than to hug him and tell him everything was ok but that would have to wait.

Everything was not ok.

Oliver wheezed, “As soon as I heard the sirens I knew you were coming. I locked the Doctor and the guards up in the surveillance room. They aren’t getting out for a long time. I had to be quick to disable the gun turret above the door before you guys got here.”

Thank God thought Jack. He’d completely forgotten about that. They’d be dead right now if it weren’t for Oliver.

Oliver continued, “I disabled the elevator overrides too.” By way of explaining how he’d gotten so much accomplished in such a short amount of time he added, “I’m spry for an old goat.”

Jack knew there was more to it than that. How much of this scenario had Oliver played out in his head over the course of the past year? There was just no time to dwell on it.

Oliver said, “You guys get topside first and I’ll meet up with you.”

Melanie
pleaded, “You can’t. Jack can protect us. You need to come with.”

Oliver’s eyes twinkled when he said, “I’m going to throw them a curve ball. I’m going to open all these cages down here and see what happens.”

Jack smiled. “They won’t be expecting that. I’m not so sure they are geared for combat though. Maybe the werewolf, but yeah, give it a shot. Maybe that’s what they were brought here to do, help us escape.”

Normally he wouldn’
t have agreed to something so reckless or dangerous but the elixir hinted that it might work. He might have questioned why he was taking instructions from a magical elixir that had taken hold of him like a hostage but there was no time. They had more important things to deal with like staying alive and getting away.

Oliver jimmied the safe room doors open with screwdrivers and
then started opening cages one at a time.

Melanie took Jessie by the hand and they followed Jack back to the elevator
. None of this daring escape was going to be easy but he knew this next part might be the hardest. Once the elevator doors opened up on the research level there would be a cluster of guards waiting for them. He tossed the ball in the air and smirked. He was up for the challenge.

“When these doors open you two hit the deck.”

Melanie nodded and Jessie was already starting to crouch. Jack reared his hand back and got ready.

The doors started to slide open and
he immediately saw the folly of his plan. There was a human wall outside the doors, heavily armored and armed to the teeth.

He
prepared for the inevitable. He was about to die but Melanie and his son stood half a chance if he could take out some of these men.

The ball shot forward
from his palm and at the same time he felt an invisible presence brush past his shoulder.

He felt a quick dab of moisture on his cheek.

He was so startled he almost forgot about the ball.

The men opened fire and Jessie started screaming
. But the bullets didn’t make it into the elevator. They hit an invisible barrier, smashed flat under their own power and then dropped to the floor four feet in front of Jack, making harmless tinkling sounds.

The men didn’t catch on right away that their aggression wasn’t achieving the desired outcome
so they kept up the shooting.

Jack realized that the invisible barrier was the invisible creature that liked to pull pranks, the one that had a thing for him. It was using its impenetrable body as a shield.

It must have quietly ridden up in the elevator with them.

He
didn’t have time to feel grateful. He started twisting the murder ball in the air and smashing it off one guard and then the next. Not every hit was fatal because these men were heavily armored so he had to really concentrate. Get a finger here and a mouth there, anywhere that skin showed through.

Eventually there were only four guards left and that was because they were armored head to toe. They must have been on duty outside or something when the sirens went off.

He moved the ball with all of his willpower. He crashed it into the helmet of the first, putting a crater in it and sending the guard to the ground. He broke the right leg of the next guard.

The other two started to retreat
, firing intermittently.

He
couldn’t let them get away. He had the upper hand here. If they got away and regrouped and then caught them by surprise later on it would be Jack’s fault unless he stopped them now.

He sent the ball into the faceplate of one guard
. The remaining guard freaked out and ran away full sprint. Jack pulled the ball free of the bloody faceplate with his mind and sent it at the last guard with all of his might. It crashed into his back and disappeared from sight. When the guard fell Jack saw the hole it put through him.

He saw blood dripping from the ball as it floated down the corridor so he spun it rapidly in midair and used the centrifugal force to whip it dry. He called the ball back when he knew it was
mostly clean.

His invisible friend must have dodged out of the way because it came right to him.

Jessie was sobbing but physically he and Melanie were ok. Thank God, he thought and immediately chastised himself for it; thank the invisible creature, was what he should have thought.

He
felt a wet kiss on his mouth and could have sworn he heard a girly giggle. Then he heard footsteps moving away as the creature left them. The guard with the broken leg, the last one alive, suddenly started sliding down the corridor away from them and then he floated a few feet into the air. His body pivoted quickly as he crashed into the wall with a thud. The creature had taken him and killed him. As the guard fell to the floor it sounded like the creature took off running, looking for more guards no doubt.

Melanie
breathlessly asked, “Was that the invisible one that shielded us?” She decided she didn’t care to wait for an answer, “We need to get out so that Oliver can use the elevator.”

Jack helped them both to their feet while thinking, shit there’s still one last elevator before we’re topside.

Now he wished the invisible creature had stuck around.

Chapter 63: Unleash Hell

They stood in the corridor as the doors of the elevator shut. Oliver must have already called it because it was moving.

Jack strained to listen for approaching footsteps but so far all was quiet. That was about to change. When the doors opened the werewolf, the alien looking screamer, and all the green and yellow bat-mobiles rushed out like a monster tsunami. They ignored Jack, Melanie and the boy and took off down the corridor. It was the strangest thing Jack had ever witnessed. It was probably the strangest thing ever witnessed by man. A minute later the goatraffe that says ‘fuck off’ all the time, the white tiger with the bloody blowhole, the hyena and the pig emerged. They pursued their comrades, the pig rounding the corner at the end of the corridor last. Before the doors closed again, the spider with the human eyes and dangling dick wandered out. It looked disoriented until it saw Jack. Then its eyes became deadly serious and it scurried after the others. Jack laughed at it but it paid no attention. The next load carried just the Karl Marx look-alike. It strode out of the elevator alone with its head high and proud. Jack assumed it had insisted on traveling alone. It just seemed like something the creature would take pride in. It followed in the same direction its comrades had gone with an air of security and strength. The last load arrived with the disgusting toad, the hot naked chicks, his two clones and Jessie’s too. Melanie shielded Jessie’s eyes against the perfect butts of the naked women as they ran away. Oliver stepped out and joined them after the manifestations cleared out.

The toad was
the last creature in sight. It was slowly hopping, shaking the floor each time it landed. The little naked dude he liked to eat was nowhere in sight.

“Where’s the toad’s little
chewable friend?” asked Jack.

Oliver said, “When I opened the cage door it ate him
but it didn’t crap him out this time. I think it only did it to amuse itself or pass the time. Maybe it was practicing for what’s to come. As if to affirm Oliver’s theory a single guard bounded around the corner. He looked like he’d just run a gruesome gauntlet. The toad flicked out its tongue at alarming speed and snatched the armed man. It reeled him into its mouth in a fraction of a second. The guard didn’t even have time to get off a shot.

The werewolf scudded to a halt on the tiles where the guy had just been before the toad grabbed him. It growled and bared its teeth at the toad and then rounded the corner again out of sight. If the toad hadn’t got him the werewolf would have. But when Jack saw the toad grinding the screaming man to mush he wished the werewolf had got to him first. It would have been quicker.
Melanie had her eyes shut tight and she had a hand over Jessie’s too. The toad swallowed hard, not used to eating a meal so large.

Then it started shitting
all over the place.

Jack gaped and Jessie let out a nervous
noise like a giggle mixed with terror and nausea. He must have been watching through Melanie’s fingers.

The toad was shitting out miniature versions of the guard, all identical. They were about a foot tall. They had on the same clothing and armor and they were each armed the same way too. The toad must have squeezed out a dozen of these tiny copies before it was done.

When the last one plopped out, the tiny guards all huddled together in a semi-circle, possibly formulating a battle plan. Then they all yelled ‘hoorah’ but in squeaky, downsized voices and took off jogging down the corridor. When Jack and his group approached the toad it was obviously dead. Its large bulk was unmoving and its eyes were locked in a death stare.

Oliver said, “
It did what it was meant to do,” by way of a half assed and totally guessed at explanation.

The toad became a brilliant flash of light that Jack had to hide his eyes from. The light was intense enough to shine through his arm and for a second
he thought he could see his bones and blood vessels. When the light dimmed and he dropped his arm away, the toad was gone. He had to blink a couple times to regain his sight fully.

“Back to the land of make believe I suppose
,” Oliver mused. It came out as a question rather than a statement. They stood still, no one saying a word until Jack realized they were in some form of mild shock. He said, “Let’s keep moving.”

When they rounded the corner, the corrido
r ahead was empty. They heard an ear splitting scream coming from up ahead, just around the next corner.

Melanie was the first to drop to her knees. Oliver fell down next to her.
Both of them had their hands over their ears, their eyes shut tight.

Jack and Jessie stared at each other, aware that they should both be on the ground in agony as well.

The scream intensified for a few seconds and then stopped abruptly.

Melanie and Oliver were standing up when the scream came
a second time. Oliver went down hard but Melanie caught a hold of Jack’s pant leg. He put an arm around her shoulder to steady her. When the screaming stopped he helped her to her feet. He knew it was the odd alien look-alike that had made the noise. You don’t forget something like that. The difference this time was that it didn’t affect him at all and he could tell it was far more powerful than the scream it had issued when he first saw it in its cage. It was as though it was just practicing when it was caged up.

When they peeked around the next corner his suspicions were confirmed. It was the alien and it was on the floor in a heap. It was surrounded by dead guards with blood still running from their eyes and ears. That same brilliant flaring of light appeared in the space the alien occupied. Luckily they just had to duck back around the corner to avoid being blinded by it. When the light extinguished the alien was gone just like the toad.

Jack asked Oliver, “Why did it die? It could have kept helping us.”

“I don’t really know. Maybe it used up all its power or something. Maybe it did exactly what it had to do and nothing more. I can only guess.”

It gave Jack hope though. The invisible creature hadn’t died yet even though it had already contributed to their escape. Maybe it would help them again at the next elevator. He could only pray that it would because if it didn’t they’d surely be killed on the ground floor.

They
got ambushed around the next corner. This forced Jack to consider whether the shot glass in his belly was benefiting him anymore. How these guards hadn’t been killed was a mystery. Maybe they came from some side entrance Jack hadn’t seen before. Maybe they were goofing around in one of the vacant offices when the sirens went off. It didn’t matter, what mattered was that they got the drop on them before Jack could deploy the ball. Luckily only one of the three guards prematurely fired off a shot and he missed everyone.

One of the guards star
ted yelling over and over for them to get on the ground. The others joined in on chorus; deep, manly voices overlapping.

One of them stopped shouting long enough to say
into his walkie, “We have them sir.”

The General’s voice was clear enough through the static
and over the yelling. “Kill them all,” he ordered.

All three men were plainly going to do as
instructed when behind them someone said in a highfalutin English accent ‘Fuck off.’

It said it again and
then spat.

The first guard to turn and see the goatraffe standing there yelling fuck off, screamed like a
teenage girl at the freakish sight which made his buddies turn toward it too. They all froze in terror, their brains crashing like freeware.

The goatraffe started to spit at them
all, each guard was ducking and juking the spittle like it carried cooties. This gave Jack the time he needed to get the death ball moving without the fear of being shot at.

The men all had exposed skin so it was an easy succession of kills. Before the ball was back in his hands the goatraffe was
already being swallowed by the bright light.

“I was wondering how that th
ing was going to be of any help,” Melanie said.

Jack nodded grimly. There was a distant voice in his head that was trying to tell him that this was all wrong. How many sacrifices and dead guards would there be when it was all over?
He’d just added three kills to his resume. Was it worth it? He didn’t hear the words as plainly as he felt the sadness of them.

The death ball twitched in his grasp and snapped him back to reality. It was eager to consume. It willed him onward and he
obediently obliged. He felt his abdomen twinge and guessed that the shot glass had sprayed a fresh geyser of go-juice into his belly.

He led the way to the elevator at a jog
, with renewed purpose.

The other creatures were nowhere in sight.

Oliver thought aloud, “I wonder which one figured out how to use the elevator buttons?”

Jack assumed it was one of the clones
or maybe Karl Marx.

He was pleasantly surprised when something invisible brushed past him
. The elevator call button was depressed seemingly of its own accord. The invisible monster had waited. That was good news.

Something pressed gently against his crotch. Jack smiled awkwardly and took a half step back. It didn’t deter the invisible b
east though. It groped at him for another ten seconds, the whole time Jack tried his best to pretend nothing was going on.

Melanie didn’t see it. That was good.
He didn’t think the others would understand.

Finally the doors slid open. The shots rang out before Jack knew what was happening. Luckily the beast was the closest to the doors so none of the bullets hit their target, instead bouncing off its
transparent body. One of the four armed men inside the elevator got hit in the face with a ricochet and went down. The others barely noticed, seemingly intent on expelling every bullet they’d been issued.

Melanie and Oliver cowered and Jessie put his back against the wall; none of them figured out that the invisible creature was protecting them.

Jack swept the ball into the air and sent it careening around inside the steel box. Everyone inside went silent; dead instantly.

There was that now familiar flash of light
. It took everyone by surprise except for Jack. He was a little saddened by it.

When it was over Melanie said, “What the hell?”

Jack answered, “It was the invisible one again.”

“How do you know that?”

“I just know.”

Oliver said
petulantly, “Maybe next time a little warning?” He was talking about the flash of light that caught them all off guard.

Jack rolled his eyes. If they got out of this facility with only blindness to show for it they’d be fucking lucky. Then
he felt the death ball jitter in his palm and he thought, we’ll make it out no problem, just feed the ball and let the creatures do their job. It’s in the bag.

Each thought was so
diametrically opposed that he didn’t really know what to think. It didn’t matter. The time for worrying was long gone.