The Azrael: The Reckoning (11 page)

Muffled screams, gunshots and broken glass stirred the occupants of the lobby.  Mario hoped the other floors would have barricaded themselves in better.  He felt that this was his fault, a repeat of a failed mission back in Syria where his entire team died.  It’s been a few hours since they arrived.  Savanna was already out from the medication the doctor gave her and John was sitting at her side.

Movement in the corner of his eye drew him to the window.  He walked over calmly as to not alarm the residents.  He glanced down at the pavement below and a man was lying there, dead on impact.  Blood steadily expanded and pooled beneath his body.  Three more bodies dropped in front of Mario, startling him, and struck violently on the pavement below next to the man.  It looked like a woman and two children followed the man to their deaths.  It reminded him of 9/11, when people chose death by falling than by burning.  He turned away and noticed other people from the lobby gathered near the window as well.  They watched in horror inspiring most to quietly mourn the deaths of the family.  It is likely that they knew who they were.  He knew that he needed to do something fast.  It was only a matter of time before more floors fell victim to the Azrael attacks. He needed to get them out of the building and find a way to seal up that hole, if it was possible.  He walked over to Jason and grabbed his attention.

“About time.  Let’s go out there and bitch slap some Azrael.”  Jason insisted and grabbed his gear.

“I don’t have a solid plan yet.  Not sure we have time to make one.  We’re going to have to wing it.”

“Winging it is fine by me.  What about the others?”

“John needs to be with Savanna.  I’m sure these people are safe with John watching over them.  He won’t let anything happen to his woman.  I’ve seen that first hand.”  Mario shook his head.  “Just not sure how to tell him.”

“Let me give it a shot.”

“You sure?”

“No, I’ll wing it.”  They laughed and Mario started to gather his things.  Jason managed to talk it over with John and he understood.  Mario and Jason headed for the door.

“Where are they going?  Where are you going?  Don’t leave us!”  The ugly woman from earlier appeared even uglier at that moment.  She pleaded walking over towards them.  She was frightened and for a good reason.

“We’re heading outside to see if we can stop this from getting out of hand.”  Mario gestured to the building.  “If we don’t stop it now then we’ll have one big nasty herd banging on our door.”

“Well, what if they come for us while you’re gone?”  She continued.

“John’s staying behind.  He’s one tough son of a bitch.  Seen him tackle a guy out of a two story window.  He’ll do anything for that woman.”  Mario pointed towards Savanna sleeping peacefully.  “When I leave, he’s in charge.  He’ll keep you alive.  I promise.”  Mario caught John’s eyes and winked.  John smiled and returned his attention back to Savanna.

“Need me to relay anything to the other floors?”  The soldier asked.

“Tell them to stay quiet.  We’ve got a plan to pull them away.”

“Roger that.  I’ll let them know.”

“Make sure you guys place this furniture the exact way it is situated right now.  A poor barricade will get you all killed and that’s a guarantee.”  Mario poked the soldier on his chest.  “Don’t worry Private, I’ve left you in good hands.  John’s killed more of these things than is in the building right now.”  That was a lie.  He didn’t know how many Azrael John’s killed or how many were in the building.  What he did know was that confidence in your chain of command produces better soldiers.

“Yes, sir.”

“Now get a few people to help us remove the barrier and replace it once we are outside.”

“Are you coming back?”

“No, don’t worry about that.  We’ll figure a way to let you know it’s clear.  Just listen to what I say and you’ll be just fine.”

“Roger.”  The soldier turned around and addressed the frightened patrons in the lobby.  “Listen up people.  We need to help remove the barricade and then replace it as soon as Mario and his buddy leave.”  He yelled and the people perked up and started to help.

“So I’m your buddy now?”  Jason inquired and punched him in the arm.

“I guess so.”  Mario grinned at Jason.

“Oh, I made alterations to four more noisemakers converting them to piss-mist noisemakers.”

“Where did you get the…”

“I guess I’m charming.  I don’t know.”  Jason popped his collar and smiled.

“What did you say to them to get… You know I don’t want to know.”  Mario noticed an attractive young woman looking entirely too interested in Jason.  “When did you have the time?”  Mario asked puzzled.  Jason shrugged.

Once all of the furniture was removed, Mario and Jason leaned against the door and put opposite ears to the door facing each other.  They heard nothing.  They nodded at the same time, opened the door and pulled it closed quietly after entering the stairwell.  They heard furniture moving and being pushed towards the door.  The door pushed towards them slightly indicating pressure on it.  Good!

“You said you had a plan.  What is it?”  Jason whispered.

“I kind of have part of a plan.”  Mario admitted lifting his left hand while shrugging.  “The echo in here is pretty loud.  If you toss a noisemaker, the regular ones, down to the bottom where the hole is, once we’re outside the hole of course, then we can lure them to the opening.  After that, well, we wait for it to fizzle out and then lure them back towards the alley and away from the building.”

“Makes sense.  Then what?”  Jason was starting to like the plan.

“I don’t know.  We keep doing it until we get far enough away, then use the piss-mist ones to consolidate the herd and BOOM!”  Mario pointed to a red tipped bolt and made an explosion gesture with his hands.

“Lots of holes in the plan.  Lots could go wrong.  We could die at any slight miscalculation.”

“I know.”

“I like it.”  Jason revealed an exaggeratedly wicked grin.

“Still haven’t worked out a way to plug up the hole in the building.”  Mario confessed while checking out the massive hole downstairs.

“Maybe there isn’t a way to fix that.  I’m guessing we’ll have to evacuate the building.”

“That’s a lot of people.  How can we keep that many safe?”

“I don’t know.  I don’t make plans.  I wing it.”

“We’ll wing it then.”  Mario agreed and they both headed down to the opening in the back of the building.

“That’s a big fucking hole Mario.”  Jason observed.

“Evacuation?”  Mario inquired under his breath.

“Yup, looks like it.”  Jason acknowledged patting Mario on the back and walked out of the building through the hole.  Mario followed.  Once they stepped outside over thirty amputated Azrael began to snarl from beyond the smoking husk of a food truck.  They were crawling towards them.  All cuts and bruising had healed and they moved with unnatural athleticism for disabled Azrael.

“We should take care of these first.”  Mario ordered removing a knife out of a sheath in his boot.  Jason did the same but his knife was much larger.  Jason commented on the size.

“Nice butter knife you’ve got there buddy.”

“It’s not about the size; it’s how you use it.”  Mario walked over and jabbed his knife in the eye of an approaching Azrael that neared his foot.  Jason laughed and began to stab into other Azrael that were nearby.  They may have been amputees but they were still dangerous and they both were well aware of the hazards involved.  They took great care in knowing their surroundings as they finished off the remaining disabled herd.

“That about does it.”  Jason reported and removed his blade from the back of an Azrael’s skull.

“I think we got em all.”  Mario remarked as he stepped on the back of a large legless amputated Azrael and jabbed his knife in the top of the neck where it connected to the spine, severing the connection to the body.  He wiped the blood off on its shirt and placed it back in the sheath in his boot.

Jason reached into his backpack and felt around for a regular noisemaker.

“That took longer than I wanted it to go.  Go ahead toss it.”  Mario instructed pointing at the hole as Jason removed a noisemaker from his bag.  He activated it and tossed it towards the opening in the building.  It landed and rolled deeper inside.  They heard nothing.

“Did you turn it on?”

“I did.  You watched me.”

“Toss another one.”

“Only one more regular noisemaker left.”

“Toss a piss-mist then.”

“I’d hate to waste them.”

“It’s safer if you do.”

“I can fix it.”

“No, you won’t.  It could activate the moment you get there.”

“I’ll have enough time to get away.”  Jason insisted and ran towards the grenade

“Shit.”  Mario made sure his crossbow was fully armed and ready with three silver tips attached to each one.

Jason searched within the rubble that littered the opening of the hole, located the grenade and inspected the issue.  It was a piss-mist version.  He forgot to label this one.  Fuck.  He managed to remove the small piece of concrete that was wedged into the triggering mechanism.  Before he could drop it, the grenade began to wail while spraying warm piss at his face, shirt, pants and shoes.

“Fuck!”  He yelled as the noise of the screaming woman nearly made him deaf.  He turned to run spitting out urine that dripped on his lips and into the corner of his mouth.  He slid down loose concrete pebbles and yelled “Run!”

Mario’s eyes grew wild as he noticed Jason sprinting towards him while pulling out a blinder from his backpack behind him.  Jason gestured for Mario not to shoot.  Mario held his fire but observed what followed with concern.

A massive horde of Azrael came into view of the noisemaker and began to sniff the air.  They followed the aroma until identifying the source running away.  They released a raspy roar and began to chase.  As Jason ran past Mario he spoke.

“I’m winging it.”

Mario smelled the piss on Jason and he started to run.

“Shit.”  Mario noticed the following Azrael and turned to join Jason.  “What happened?”  He yelled as he caught up.”

“Threw the wrong one.”  He paused to stabilize his breathing.  “A piece of concrete…”  He paused again.  “wedged in the triggering mechanism.

“We’ve got a following.  They’re going to catch us.”  Mario glanced back and could feel them inching closer.

“Not if they can’t see us.”  He turned, tossed the blinder and proceeded onto the main road pulling Mario the direction he was running.  “Don’t look back.”

The grenade activated lighting up the street and blinded the Azrael.  They covered their eyes, staggered into each other and fell into a massive dogpile.  The two continued to run down the street.  Their boots slapping the sidewalk alerted nearby herds that were searching for another person to infect.

“This isn’t going to end well for us.”  Mario admitted noticing the Azrael approaching.

“What, you don’t like winging it?”  Jason asked while panting.  He slowed down.  His endurance took a detour into shit once he started drinking.  However, Jessica brought him out of the rut he was in and pushed him back into the gym.  His endurance wasn’t wat it was when he first joined the Highwaymen but it was light-speeds better than it was when he was drinking.  He noticed that he was falling behind and sped back up.

“We’re going to have to circle back to the building to see if it’s clear.  First we’re going to have to deal with these.”  Mario commanded shooting three consecutive bolts at three Azrael that approached from the right and killed them instantly.  He pointed towards another group that was closing in from the left.  “Piss-Mist!”

Jason removed one, identified it as a piss-mist noisemaker, activated it and tossed it towards them.  As it connected, the wail of the scream and mist released immediately drew in all of the pursuers.  Mario darted right down the next road available and lowered his posture as he hid behind parallel parked cars from growling and snarling Azrael in the street that were following the screams around the corner.  Jason was moving low too.  The Azrael in the road smelled the air and caught a whiff of the piss on Jason.  They slowed, but the screams beyond excited their senses more and continued after the screams.  Mario noticed that the Azrael smelled Jason.

“You’ve got to get out of those clothes.”  Mario whispered to Jason as he caught up to him.

“But we just met.  I feel like our relationship is moving too fast.”  Jason joked as he began to remove his shirt, pants and used the inside of them to wipe off the urine that lingered on his skin.  “That girl needs to stay away from asparagus.  Not a good smell.”

“And normal piss is?”

“In comparison, yes.”

“You’ve got issues Jason.”

“Keeps me sane Mario.”  Jason rubbed his arms and blew into his hands to warm them.

“You didn’t bring any extra clothes?”

“Just grenades.  The other bag has guns. Didn’t think I’d need them.”

“Take these.”  Mario extracted a hoody, some sweatpants, and a t-shirt from his pack.  He handed them to Jason.