Breaker

Running felt weird and awkward. Almost like I was running at a human speed. After so long, I’d become accustom to doing everything very slowly. I let my senses guide me to the nearest prey, but I could only smell the carcass of a decaying animal and scrunched my nose at the vial stench.
    Then, I picked up another smell — blood. And very, very human. Trying to keep control of myself, I walked to find the source of the aroma. I gasped when I saw a young boy on the ground, no older than sixteen. I could tell he was in immense pain, but he didn’t cry. His eyes were slammed shut and his teeth were clenched together. When he saw me, he backed away, wincing at the pain in his arm, and letting out a low groan. He never took his deep blue eyes off of me.
    “What do you want?” he hissed
    “I’m going to help you. Just stay still.” I just barely touched his arm, but it was enough for him to lose his breath in pain. “It’s shattered. I can tape it back up — it’ll hurt. A lot. — if you’ll come with me.”
    “I don’t trust you.”
    “Then you’re suicidal. If you stay out here, pretty soon I’m not going to be the only one that smells human blood. And they’re not going to help you.”
    “And you will?” He scoffed.
I leaned down closer to him. “So you’re willing to take your chances out here?”
    He eyed me for a long time.
    “Then come with me.” He didn’t move. “Can you walk?”
    “No.”
    “It’s going to hurt if I carry you.”
    “I know,” he said hesitantly.
    “If I run, it’ll hurt worse —”
    “Then no.”
    “— but it will take much less time.”
He deliberated on this for a second.
    “Run.”
    I felt my heart tug whenever he let out a pained moan for each time I hit the ground a little too hard. Finally I reached the old woman’s home. She was in the living room, tending to a few house plants.
    “Ada! Ada!” I screamed. “Come quick!”
    She dropped the watering can she had in her hands, allowing the water to spill all over the floor and came running outside. Her hand flew to her mouth when she saw the boy, bleeding, bones broken, all but dead in my arms.
    “What happened?” she said, trying to sound calm
    “I think he was attacked. His arm left arm is shattered, and he’s losing a lot of blood.”
The boy struggled to speak. “I think —” pant “— that some ribs—” pant “—are broken —” pant “— too.”
    “Well, come Amanda! We must fix him up.”
    She waved me back inside and I rushed into the living room, clearing off everything off of the wooden dining table.
    “Put him down — gently now!” I obeyed quickly, and looked at her for further instructions. “Go look in a small armoire upstairs, and you’ll find some medical supplies. Get . . .”
    “Get what?” I said, trying also so stay calm.
    “I’m thinking. Actually, what are the odds you could bring the entire thing down? Just in case?”
    “I can. I will.”
I ran upstairs, looking for the armoire she was talking about. Just as I was about to pick up the large chest, I heard creaking footsteps behind me, and I froze. Just as quickly, a cold blade was pressed to my throat and a ironically soothing voice whispered into my ear.
    “Don’t move,” he said, a very slight Middle Eastern accent slipping into his speech. “Step back.” I racked my brain, trying to put a face to that voice, but came up with nothing. “You better hope the old woman knows how to fight.” All of the blood drained from my face. “Blame yourself. We’ve been looking for him for a long time. You just quickened the process.”
    In the flash of an eye, I raised my leg and kicked him in a place that would only hurt a man, and watched as he crumpled to the ground, half curled into a ball. I kicked the knife out of his hand, accidentally breaking his wrist with it, and darted down the stairs as I ran to save Ada. But when I got into the kitchen, I stopped short. On the floor, lay Ada’s broken body. I flew into a vicious rampage. I saw red while fangs grew from my teeth and claws sprouted from my fingernails; it was time to hunt.
    The two men and one other woman stood their ground, clearly oblivious to what I was capable of.
    “It’s her!” the Caucasian men yelled. I slit his throat, before he could say anything else. For just a moment he choked on his own blood before his head fell to the side, and he died. Then I saw fear in the eyes of the other two. They knew my power now. I smiled tauntingly, letting them see death standing right before them.
    “Who killed her?” I hissed through my teeth. Neither of them said a thing. “I said. Who. Killed. Her?!” again, they were both silent. I looked at the boy on the table, still immobile. “I’ll deal with you later,” I snapped. He flinched, and then recoiled from the pain it caused him. “Then you’ll both die.”
    The woman pulled a gun from a sling around her side. A gun.
    “Where’d you get that?” I asked, not scared, but not too confident either.
    “Brought it with me when I was transferred here to his wasteland.” Just the slightest hint if Irish. “I figured it would come in handy when I was facing off with animals.” She hissed the last word. “There’s hundreds of thousands of these just like this back on base. Go ahead. Kill us. There will just be another wave, ten fold.”
    My lip curled back over my teeth, and I growled at them. Then, out of nowhere, I began to laugh.
    “What are you laughing at?” The woman snapped. Her strawberry blonde hair was coming out of her ponytail., and her pale skin was turning red underneath.
    “You!”
    “Shut up or I’ll shoot you!”
    “Okay.”
    “What?” she said, confused.
    “Actually, it’s rather insulting that you think that you could kill me with something that’s so, so . . . So human. Shoot it. Watch what happens.
    I heard the click of the gun, but the bullet hit the staircase directly behind me. By the time the sound reached her ears, I was already behind the girl, a kitchen knife at her throat.
    “Now what were you saying?”
    “That you’re going to die.”
    “Oh? And I guess you think you’re going to live?”
    “There has to be balance. We must lost to win.”
I rolled my eyes. “Don’t try to sound and smart brave with your stupid proverbs. I —” click “— damn it!” Behind me, the wooden door had clicked shut, and from the window I could see the man running through the trees. A split second later, I saw another dark figure jump from the second story window and start running alongside him.
    Not wanting to get any more blood on the nice kitchen floor, I hiked my knee up and severed the woman’s spine. She fell to the floor and didn’t move. I would have believe she was still alive if I wouldn’t have heard the absent beating of her heart. I felt particularly bad for this one, but pushed it to the back of my head and chased after the two men.
    I jumped through the trees, trying to be as silent as possible as I tried to stay hidden just long enough for them to show me the base the woman had been talking about. They ran for a long time in the darkness, until, a couple miles in the distance, I saw lights, and plenty of them. I raced ahead of them, letting my legs carry me across the branches and leaving them in my wake. The base was surrounded by an electric fence with barbwire in huge loops on top. I scoff and took the short jump from the nearest tree to on the other side of the fence — nice security by the way — and jumped into the shadows. Once I caught my breath I slowly looked around the side of the building. Instantly my jaw dropped and my eyes widened.
    In front of me was the most advanced technology I’ve ever seen all in one place, even back on earth. Weapons that could obliterate entire cities were poised and ready for practice shots. I nearly passed out when I saw the cage of people they had in a hangar. One of the prisoners looked directly at me, just before the guard closed the door. I slipped behind the next closest building to the hangar just before two more guards saw me. I had to set those prisoners free.
    Building by building, tent by tent, I inched closer to the hangar with a little 4 above it. At least six men and two women were guarding just that door. I wouldn’t be able to get past without someone noticing the sudden screams and gunshots. I needed a different approach. Obviously they would have ‘round the clock guards stationed at the entrance, so that was out. What I wouldn’t give to be Earth right now. I debated on tunneling underground to reach the inside of the hangar, but figured someone would see the ground moving ever so slightly, or the hole I left behind. And what if I was off, just by a few feet? I would dig myself right up in the center of a bunch of guards and get myself shot.
    I knew how I was going to get in.
    Taking one last big breath, I jumped back over the fence, purposely stepping on one of the hidden tripwires that glistened ever so slightly in the light of the moon. An annoying alarm sounded, and I was instantly surrounded by half a dozen troops, and let them subdue me. They edged me forward into the base camp — hands and feet tied — and threw me to the ground. I tried to block out all of the military guns pointed at me as they spoke.
    “Mark her.”
    Instantly I was jerked up and held facing at least a dozen different faces, all solemn. For the first time in a long time, I was truly scared. Three of them led me to a post in the middle of the base, and tied me up with ropes and chains, squeezing the breath out of me. As soon as I was securely tied up, a man pointed his gun at me at the perfect angle to where I could see down the barrel, and all of the blood drained from my face. My heart skipped a couple of beats and I thought I was going to pass out.
    The sensation was like being slapped in the face with a hot skillet with grease in it. I screamed — they laughed. The pain of it . . . My screams pierced the night, scattering birds and shaking my vision. And then it was gone. The flaming hot spot on my neck stayed though. Out of breath and nearly about to collapse, they untied me from the post. I fell to the ground, gasping for breath that wouldn’t come. Some of the troops dragged me into hangar 4, and literally threw me into the cage with all of the other prisoners. I hit the metal bars with such an impact it could have easily broken a bone, and then fell to the floor, still gasping for my breath.
    I propped myself up weakly on my hands, and a girl crawled over to support me. Three guards laughed in my face and slammed the doors shut.
    “Are you okay?” she asked. “Is anything broken?” I looked at the girl holding me up. She had dirty blond hair and dark brown eyes that shone with worry. And under her right eye, was a peculiar scar, shaped exactly like sideways heart.
    “No, I don’t think so. What did they do to —”
When I looked around, I saw that every one of the prisoners had a very intricately stamped R’s branded on their necks, just above the collar bone. The girl that had helped me looked down towards her own scar in shame.
    “It’s a terrible thing they do to us. For each new prisoner, they receive a brand and are thrown in here. We’re considered ‘unneeded’. From time to time they’ll come in here and pick the oldest of us to be subjected to experiments or . . .”
    “Or at target practice.” A man interceded. “I’ve seen too many people die like this.”
    “Haven’t you tried to escape?”
The man boomed a laugh. No one else joined him. “We’ve tried many times and have failed each. No prisoner of this hell has ever escaped.”
    “But I —”
    “— have come to help? No thanks. The last time one of you came in here, he got fried, just like the rest of us will eventually. Just stay here and wait for your chance for your quick and mostly painless death.”
    And with that he sat in the corner and pretended to sleep.
    “I’m different. If what the man says is true, then it wasn’t anyone like me. Someone like me could have taken on at least a dozen of those guards at once and killed every one of them before they had the time to react. If it was someone as strong as I was, those chains and ropes would have been nothing. There has only once been a male of what I am, and he’s on Earth, trying to help us as we speak — all of us. I’m not going to say that everyone will make it and that we’ll all live happily ever after in some far away land with pixies and unicorns, but I am going to say that most of you will, if you’re just willing to listen to me.”
    “Okay princess,” the man said. “Get us out of here first, and then I might consider listening to whatever half-baked scheme you can come up with.”
    “But of course ‘Boss’,” I said, letting plenty of sarcasm coat my words. “Would you like a front, side, or back exit?”
    His eyes narrowed. “Just get us out of here.”
With ease I bent the iron bars surrounding us into a gaping hole big enough for a full grown man to walk through. When I looked back, everyone was in awe, except the rude man, who stood unfazed and unimpressed.
    “Now what?”
    “Now we escape.”
    “So a hole in the wall is going to fix all of our problems? Honestly girl, you believe that we’ve never tried just running away? Too many deaths in those ten seconds to even think about it again.”
    “No, I don’t expect us to just run. How ‘bout you listen before you speak.” then under my breath I said, “Oh how many my mom has said this . . .” And then to the man. “God gave you two ears and one mouth so you listen twice as much as you speak.” I waited a moment for his inevitable crude comment. It never came. “Okay then. What I was going to say was this. No one is going to run until I say so, because I have a plan that isn’t like anything you’ve ever seen. Before I get too far into details, I will say this. Not everyone is going to live through this, but no one is going to be sacrificed.”
    “Regardless, I’m with you.” someone said. A chorus of agreement went along, for a moment, and everyone was in except for the one man, who stood with his arms crossed, his expression unchanging.
    “So what do you have in mind?”
    I smiled. “I’m going to light a building on the other side of the camp on fire so when they’re all distracted, we’ll make a run for it.”
    “That’s stupid. You won’t be able to get to the other side of camp before someone sees and shoots you. Think of something else.”
    “Why? Now who said that I was leaving?”
    “Not to be rude or anything,” a girl said, “but I’m seriously questioning your sanity.”
    “Just watch.”
I snuck up to the door of the hangar and pressed my hand against the metal. Slowly, my energy built up in my arm and I commanded the fire to course through the camp, unseen so it could set something ablaze. Moments later I opened my eyes, and waited. I didn’t have to wait long before I heard people screaming commands to put out the fire. An arrogant smile crossed my face and I turned towards the people. They were in complete awe. I took a deep breath.
    “In exactly . . . “ I calculated quickly in my head “fifteen seconds, near every guard and troop will either already be giving this their full attention or will be trying to put out the fire. That will be our chance to escape.” After six seconds I added, “Don’t hesitate. Once you’re free, run until your lungs can’t take it anymore.”
    Four . . . Three . . . Two . . .
    “Go!” I yelled, flinging the doors all the way open in one push. None of the guards looked back as every single prisoner spilled out of the hangar.

We ran until we reached the fence. That's where out troubles started. No one touched it — they were smarter than that — but climbing an electric fence would be impossible, and it would take too long for me to get thirty-something people over, no more than two at a time. By then, at least one person was bound to notice us.
    “Stop!” a guard yelled. Too late. It was time to take action.
    I reached the guard almost before he finished his single word, and covered his mouth, dragging him into the shadows. I was delaying his death so I could speak to him.
    “Say one word more and it’ll be your last,” I whispered into his ear. “How do you turn off the fence?” he opened his mouth to speak, “Ah! Not too loud now.”
    “Vile creature.” He spit on me.
    “Bad choice.” His eyes grew wide. “But I’m going to give you one last chance. How do you turn off the fence?” I said through clenched teeth. “Speak. Now,” I got just inches from his face, trying to look as menacing as I could.
      He got even closer. “No.”
He fired a few bullets into the air before I could stop him, and immediately I heard voices and footsteps, getting closer every second.
    “Hide!” I said as loud as I could without yelling. I waited until no one was watching me before I killed and abandoned the guard. After taking a few steps, I stopped abruptly, and turned around to take his gun, and the ammo slung around his shoulder and across his body. As quickly as I had turned, I followed the others.
    Faster than they could run, the guards started to surround all of them — all of us. I was scared, but I tried my hardest not to show it. Within seconds we were trapped like animals, surrounded on all sides. Dozens of guards and troops took aim at us, while hardly any tried to put out the fire that was slowly spreading. They spoke to each other in at least three different foreign languages that I couldn’t understand.
    “Sie zwei! Ergreifen Sie sie!” was that German?
    “Don' t liet hen uit uw gezicht!” I didn’t even have a guess for that one.
    “Particulièrement celui-là.”
A boy, no older than ten, was murmuring behind me. I listened closer.
    “The first one was German.” The boy was speaking to me. “He said, ‘You two! Seize her!’. I think they mean you.”
    “They don’t have a chance,” I said though unmoving lips.
    The boy continued to speak. “The second is Dutch. I think he said something like ‘Don’t let them out of your sight’. They’re referring to all of us. The third one, the woman. She speaks French. She said ‘Especially that one’.”
    “How do you know all this?” I asked as they were still yelling at each other.
    “I have the gift of tongues. Kind of a lame gift, since most people speak English. I’m the only truly gifted one of us, aside from you.”
    “You two!” a man yelled — he sounded American. “Quit talking!”
The boy obeyed obediently. I had no choice but to follow his lead. Two men advanced toward me, threatening to take me away.
    “Put down the gun!” I listened. “Take the ammo off too!” Again, I listened.
    The two men grabbed my arms and pulled my to my feet. I kicked the gun back to the boy, acting like I was struggling. But the guards didn’t see me give the boy a quick smile before they turned me around and started to lead me away.
    “No . . .” I said under my breath. “No!” this time a little louder. “No! No! No!” The scream was bloodcurdling, even to my own ears. “I’ve come to far for this to happen! I’ve seen to much! You will not take me away like a prisoner!”
    Every gun clicked, ready to fire when necessary. I didn’t stand down. “You have exactly two seconds before I kill each and every one of you. I’m faster than you are. Not to mention entirely more gifted.” My eyes began to glow bright in the likeness of the fire that pulsed through my body. My hair lifted with the heat of rage that radiated from my skin and the fangs sprang from my mouth and fell to a defensive crouch as they dropped me, showing them that I meant them harm. I was a monster.
    “Spilling your blood will leave no mark on my conscience, nor a stain in my memory.” My words were raspy and harsh, adding to the terror I intended them to see. “Too many have died by my hand and a few more will do nothing to my record. Stand down, or every one of you will die.”
    None of them moved an inch.
    In the blink of an eye I lunged at the closest person to me, sinking my sharpened fangs into his throat, and stabbing my hand under his rib cage as I  head his agonizing screams rip throughout the forest. People behind me, the ones that I was fighting to protect, were crying from fear, while others held their loved one close to them, shielding their eyes from the monstrosity I had become. One by one my new found enemy dropped to the ground while others ran in fear.
    I bounced back, growling at the few who remained. They shook with fear, but knew the commands they had been given. They were stupid.
    More and more came at me, dozens at a time. Blood was soaking into the ground and staining the dirt and grass along with it.
    I should have expected it, but it still came to a shock. One blast was all it took for me to recoil in pain. But he was a poor shot. From the ground, I couldn’t move, but I was still capable of long range attack. Fire shot from my hand while I held the other over the bullet wound in my leg. All at once, five of them were engulfed in the flame as they ran, screaming. When I laid back on the ground, exhausted and in pain, I saw a metal box attached to a pole. I shot at it instinctively, and the buzzing noise from the fence immediately stopped. I closed my eyes, breathing hard as my fangs retracted and the glow in my eyes faded. I expected the humans to hate me now. If they were smarter they would have. A few of the men had torn down a large section of the otherwise weak fence, and I expected them to run an abandon this killer they had witnessed. But instead, they carried me. The man that, when we had first met, instantly hated me, cradled me in his arms while my leg bled from the bullet, and I shook like a leaf in the wind.