William watched his friend’s chest heave up and down for an unnecessarily long time. Blood was flowing through Victor’s veins, which was in all sense, a good enough indicator that he was still alive. Things had not exactly gone according to his plan, but at least it had worked for all intents and purposes. He called his soul back to the present and put a finger to his ear.
“Masako, come in.”
There was no reply. William’s heart increased its pace slightly as he opened his mouth to repeat himself, but a crackle in his ear flooded him with relief just in time.
“We’re all in position. No movement yet, though.”
“The plan worked. Victor is fine, but I think Zacharias might be showing up on your side any time soon. Be on your guard and prepare to activate those mini converters the moment he shows his face.”
“Got it, but if I don’t hear from you in time, I’m coming over to help you. Stay safe.”
A soft groan sounded from behind just as William cut the communications channel. Victor had regained consciousness surprisingly quickly, muttering in a foreign language.
“Hey, you alright?” William rushed to help him up as Victor continued babbling.
“H-hey dude! I can’t understand you!”
Victor stopped apologising in French immediately.
“I’m so sorry I did all of that,” he switched back to the global language. “I saw and heard everything, but I wasn’t able to control my body at all.”
“It’s alright, buddy.” William put his hand on his shoulder. “You’re safe now; that’s all that matters. Are you well enough to move?”
“I’m well enough to put an end to this.” Victor’s eyes hardened as he got back to his feet.
“Hold that thought.” William gestured to a dark corner. Screeches began to fill the air and the sound of footsteps intensified like a rush hour crowd approaching a subway on a Friday evening. “Remember that night we came here and destroyed half of this town’s population? I think the rest are here for revenge. Oh dear, and it seems we’ve been spotted too.”
“Are the zombies coming only from one direction?”
“Yes, it seems so. Why?”
“I’ve got an idea.” Victor pointed at the abandoned train sitting inconspicuously on the other side. “How many people do you think can fit in a train?”
William caught on and grinned in response. The two men immediately ran toward the train as the zombies came into view, sprinting after them close behind. William leaned back and slid across the train floor on his knees, avoiding a few of them bursting in through the windows. He whipped out his plasma cutter and started separating limb from limb in a single slice. Victor, on the other hand, preferred using his fists to fling them away from his path.
“Just like old times, eh?” he said, casually slapping a zombie aside with enough force to knock out a gorilla.
“This is nothing… like the old times…” William panted, leaping over a zombie trying to grab his ankles. “The only things you were punching… were holes in signed documents.”
Victor laughed heartily in response before increasing his pace towards the end of the train. The doors flew off their hinges as the two enhanced men exited the train, still pursued by their fellow mutates.
“Ready when you are.” Victor turned around and raised his hand.
“Thought you’d never ask.” William opened the bottles by his waist as his eyes lit up.
“Be swept by the tide!” he roared, pouring out a tidal wave from the impossibly small bottle openings. The mass of water swirled, herding all the stray zombies and pushing them back into the train. Victor stepped forward and slowly clenched his fist.
Glass shattered as the entire train collapsed upon itself under the immense external pressure. William trembled slightly in awe, watching what was easily two hundred and fifty tons of metal get crushed like an empty aluminium can. The sound of metal groaning stopped soon enough, having completed its transformation into a large piece of bloodied, flattened metal.
“There we go.” Victor unclenched his fist and grinned with nary a sense of strain on his face. The grin quickly turned into a childish smirk as he turned to William. “That was one hell of a cliche line to yell. I’m so gonna tell everyone else once we get out of here.”
“If we get out of here,” William corrected him with a wry smile, trying to hide his embarrassment.
----------------------------------------
“Just… a few… dozen more to go…” Marianne breathed heavily and blew fire onto a few zombies running a little too close to her. Her sister stood back to back against her, focusing on those zombies that Marianne’s flames could not reach and expertly manipulated icicles to go through their heads.
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“I hope Masako’s okay,” Vivian said. “I’m starting to get tired. How about you, sis?”
“I… can do this… all day…” Marianne bent over in exhaustion as her eyes illuminated the darkness.
A voice crackled in their earpiece. “Found him! Be careful, he seems to be on the move. I’m trying to keep up with him.”
“Take cover, Vivian!” Marianne yelled to Vivian. “I’m lighting this place up now!”
“My path is blocked!” Vivian backtracked as more zombies surrounded them. “Just do it! Trust me, I can take it! We’re sisters, remember?”
“ARGHH!” Marianne screamed with exertion. A bluish red glow lit up from under her skin for a brief moment, before expelling itself through all her pores in the form of a huge flare. It blew through the entire area, incinerating the rest of the zombies instantly.
The air temperature dropped to approximately that of an oven after a while as the cool air rushed in through the exposed parts of the cave-like structure. Molten metal dripped from the ceiling as rock simmered, still glowing slightly red. Marianne stood up and adjusted her thermanite vest before turning to her sister curled up on the floor.
“Crap, I forgot this would happen…” Vivian shivered despite the blistering heat hanging in the air.
“I’ll get you some clothes.” Marianne stifled her relieved laughter. “So we’re both fireproof; I almost forgot that you can control your body temperature too.”
She reached for her ear, only to realise that her communications device had also turned into a drop of melted metal. Vivian slowly got up as ice began to form around her body, freezing the soil to her skin as well.
“It’s taking half my concentration to keep the ice frozen in this heat.” She turned to Marianne, now properly ‘clothed’ in a dress literally made out of mud. “Let’s get out of here- What’s that humming sound?”
“Humming… sound? VIVIAN!”
A translucent tentacle popped out from nowhere and wrapped around Vivian’s waist, pulling her out of the cave. Marianne immediately gave chase and came face to face with what had been haunting her nightmares ever since their first encounter.
Not this time.
Flames bursted from her hands before the hydra had time to make another sound. It dried up and dissolved almost immediately, dropping her sister onto the ground. Marianne rushed to Vivian’s side to help her up, but she shook her head and pointed frantically behind her.
Marianne was pushed aside from a body tackle, though it was not enough to make her fall. She felt a hand pull her back to her feet, but her body went limp immediately.
“Master, no! Let go of my sister!” a familiar voice screamed. Panic and primal desperation flooded Marianne’s senses as she tried to look to the source of the voice, but her head remained still.
Don’t you dare hurt her! Her mind screamed at its captor, but the dark shadow merely strengthened his grip.
Marianne watched helplessly through a reddish yellow tint in her eyes as flames licked at her sister’s heels, rapidly melting the ice wall she conjured to protect herself. Her body rushed to Vivian, kicking her straight in her chest. Vivian’s agonised scream sent tugs of pain through her heart, but it continued sending waves of heat throughout her body.
No, no, no… How can we stop this?
If William was right, the only way to stop Zacharias’ mind control would be for Masako to activate that special formation of mini source machines to disrupt his concentration. But there was no way to contact her, especially since their communications device was destroyed. And to make matters worse, her body was now running in the opposite direction.
“Marianne?”
Her heart sank as she heard yet another familiar voice.
No! Don’t come closer, darling! I’m-
“You’re not Marianne. Zacharias, you bastard! What did I ever do to you?!” an anguished bellow rang out. “LEAVE MY FAMILY ALONE!”
“William, calm down!” another desperate man’s voice called to him. “He’s riling you up on purpose to override your mind!”
“I FOUND YOU!” the anguished voice continued to scream, ignoring his friend’s pleas. “YOU’RE DEAD!”
Marianne’s shackled mind gasped in shock at the sight of the man running towards her. His face contorted in crazed rage only reserved for someone prepared for a death sentence. He stretched his fingers and lunged towards her.
Except he was not aiming at her.
A sickening realisation dawned upon Marianne as her mind screamed in warning.
William-
“-NOOO!” A shriek burst from her mouth as control returned to the rest of her body. She fell to the ground groggily, but quickly got back to her feet.
No, not my dear. Don’t you lay your hands on him… Please…
But it was too late.
“Oh no…” she breathed. William’s body was spasming in agony, barely illuminated by the telepathic villain’s glowing red eyes as he held him by the scruff of his neck. William stopped moving suddenly and went limp, as though somebody had severed the nerves to his brain.
And his eyes opened without warning.
“Yes… Finally…” his voice croaked in a dry tone. Marianne’s heart sank, barely noticing the platter of footsteps coming from Victor running to her. Her stomach lurched in fear as his terrified voice broke the menacing silence.
“Oh, we’re so fucked.”