Legacy of the Birds: Book One of the Spark(A MPHFPC Fanfiction)

Chapter Nine

The first dawn of light in the universe brought pain.
Then the sensation soared through spine. Her entire body were screaming, in pain.
Another sensation came in. A sound. A real screaming coming out of someone's mouth.
Someone was screaming.
It took Blanche almost a minute to realize the noise came from herself.
She's screaming.
"She's awake." A figure in white lab coat said.
Blanche tried to get up, but her limbs were tied to the metal table on which she laid.
She opened her mouth, trying to summon a wave of acidic venom to burn the lab person's face off. But before she could do anything, her captor ingested something into her veins.
Darkness swallowed her world once again.
*
To anyone listening, this was an orchestra of death.
Gunshots came first, followed by the sound of glass shattering, furniture toppling, and men falling to the ground.
Someone shouted warning, some cursed, and some were calling out for help.
There were even voices begging for mercy, but the invaders weren't showing any.
Tonight is a night of slaughter.
*
"First floor clear." Emma said, surrounded by corpses in uniforms or lab coats.
"According to this map," John said, pointing at a map on the wall, "The basement is the farm, the second floor is the office."
"The prisoners must be in the basement," Emma said, "You go there and try to find our target and your friend. I'll go up stairs to make sure they can't call for help." Then Emma went up stairs.
John climbed down the stairs, and was immediately greeted by a gunshot.
"Stand right there!" Someone yelled.
"Are you blind?" John made his voice sounds as bossy as possible. "Point that bloody gun somewhere else! And what are you doing here? Go up there at once! We are bloody under attack!"
Before are the guard realized this man in front of him wasn't really an officer, John had came close enough to stab Blanche's knife into his heart.
Then John pushed the body aside and opened the door in front of him.
He was greeted with a scene of horror.
About twenty people lay still on metal tables, ducts attached to their feet dripping black liquid into the plastic bags below.
And John knew, somewhere, laying among the victims, one of them was Blanche.
*
The sight the second floor offered Emma wasn't much better than what John saw in the basement.
The floor is covered in shattered glass and blood. Corpses in messy uniforms or rigged suites lay scattered on the floor. Some bodies were even torn apart, or faces unrecognizable, or with limbs missing.
She heard something move behind her. Emma turned and fired but hit nothing. Only three deep claw marks were left on her gun.
Then it came at her again. Emma finally caught a good sight of it: a pair of wing like arms covered in feathers spread wide open, it looked like some sort of combination of human and a bird of prey.
It lunged at Emma, claws slamming at Emma's head. Emma raised her gun instinctively to block the attack. The sharp claws slashed into the metal and cut it into pieces. Before Emma could reach for her pistol, it lunged again. Emma dodged its claws, but lost her balance. The creature came after her. Emma flicked her wrist and a burst of red hot flames shot at her attacker. It stumbled back, giving Emma the time she needed to regain balance. And then it slammed an arm at her, but Emma caught his hand before the claws could touch her face. Emma's hand glowed red and radiated immense heat. The creature groaned in pain. It tried to pull away, but Emma's grasp was too tight. In a matter of seconds, its feathers caught fire.
The creature reached out another hand, slashing at Emma's side. Emma dodged and let go of its burning arm.
Emma stepped back, hands wide spreading, flames dancing on her palms. The creature did the same thing, claws reaching out, blood dripping from their tips, while the feathers on one arm were still burning.
They gazed at each other, like gladiators of ancient times, ready to engage in a battle to the death.
*
John walked around the room, drawing needles out of the motionless victims wherever he went, while his eyes searching for familiar faces.
Then John heard the smash of glass. He threw himself to the ground, and heard the sound of someone's skull shattering. Something warm and sticky dripped onto his back, but John didn't have time to feel disgusted. Someone else entered this room with a silenced gun.
John pulled out his gun, and fired at the door. He heard the bullet smashed the glass on the door and the sound of someone moving.
John risked raising his head above the metal tables for a look. A bullet missed his head by inches, smashing another motionless victim's rib cage. The man groaned loudly in pain, then lost consciousness again due to the shock.
John fired another shot, but his opponent dodged sideways. A lamp on the wall shattered. John immediately fired another one, but his opponent disappeared under the tables. John's bullet crashed into an empty metal plate.
He moved along the tables, shooting from the gaps, hoping at least one bullet would find its mark while dodging gunfire from the opposite side. Until, finally, they reached the edge of the tables. John fired without thinking, but his gun didn't react. He quickly went back behind the tables. A metal bin exploded next to him, then the gunshots silenced.
John checked his gun. The magazine was empty, but he didn't bring any backup mag. So, he took out Blanche's knife, and listened.
John heard someone moving closer. He heard the sound of a gun being reloaded.
Then he saw the tip of a gun emerged. John grabbed the gun, redirecting its shot toward the table in front of him. The bullet pierced the flesh and bone of the unfortunate soul stripped on the table. Before the attacker can react, John sliced his throat open.
*
The creature charged at Emma, so she summoned a fireball to counter its claws. But the creature didn't directly attack. Instead, it took flight.
Emma threw herself aside, the claws missed her spine but still left a long slashing wound on her back.
She groaned in pain and grabbed a bottle of alcohol on the floor and smashed it at the creature. Enraged, the creature lunged at her again, but upon touching her hand, its whole body caught fire. It panicked, and stumbled backward. Emma punched it in the face and pushed it against a desk. The creature struggled to get up, but Emma held a burning finger to its face, and it stayed still.
"Who sent you? And how did you find me?" She asked. Behind her, among the pile of corpses, a figure rose up and aimed a pistol at Emma's back.
"I payed a visit to your friend Aullis in Alligator Lake, Miss Bloom. That normal scum is tough, but he eventually gave up." The creature answered with a sadistic smile.
"What did you do to him?" Emma shouted in horror and rage.
"Well, you know what it takes to crack a normal's mouth open. Really isn't that hard."
"No!" Someone shouted from behind Emma. Emma turned to look, and the creature took its chance to push Emma off balance. It attempted to strike, but before its claws could make impact, the man, now standing in front of him, released a series of gunshot. The creature threw itself at the window, breaking the glasses and took flight. It disappeared into the night sky.
Emma got up, and looked at her rescuer. He's face seems strangely familiar. "Are you ....Liam Brown?"
"Yes, Aullis Brown is my father. I believe he sent you here to retrieve me, Miss Emma Bloom?"
"Come with us please...." Emma nodded and said.
"No, my father is in danger, no one knows what that thing did to him." Then he ran down the stairs.
"Wait!" Emma shouted, but Liam didn't look back.
A few seconds latter, Emma heard a truck's engine started.
*
John picked his attacker's gun, and looked around with caution. When he finally made sure no one else was coming, he went back to his search. The gun fight earlier had woken up most of the people stripped on the tables. Some of them had regained consciousness and struggled to be free. John draw the needle out of the feet of a man and cut the rope restraining him.
"Thank you," he whispered.
"John?" Someone called him. He turned around and found his eyes locked with a pair of amber colored ones.
Her expression was both weary and relieved.
"Blanche!" John hurried to her side.
"I knew you will came back for me," she said feebly. Then she closed her eyes again.
"Did you find her?"
John turned and raised his gun.
"You would be dead if it wasn't me," Emma said. "You need to be more careful."
"Sorry, I was... preoccupied." John said.
"Just be careful next time. Now, let's get her out of here." Emma replied.
"What about the others?" John asked.
"We don't have time for that." Emma said.
"But we can't just leave them!" John argued. "Their souls are being drained!"
Emma hesitated, but then she gave in. "Fine, we free them together."
So they went to cut the ropes and pulled needles out of those people's feet.
Together, they freed everyone there.
Then John pushed a desk aside, revealing a man cowering under it.
"Please have mercy..." he begged.
"Who are you?" Emma asked.
"I was just a normal person, nothing special..." he answered with shaking voice.
"You are running an ambrosia factory, not better than wights, why should we show you mercy?" said Emma.
"I was forced! We normals live a difficult life, we just want to taste power, like those above us." He answered.
"You sell ambrosia to normals?" Emma couldn't hide her disgust.
But the man seemed to have found his courage and continued, "yes, and one day we will bring your bullshit regime down, and burn you freaks on sticks like ancient times!"
"You are complete nuts!" John said.
"Not every peculiar is like wights," Emma tried to explain. "Some of them don't agree with how they treat you!"
"And where were your noble peculiar saints when normals are being treated like slaves? Where were they when our people are slaughtered like animals? Where were you people when my families are burned to death by peculiars for fun?"
"We...," Emma tried to said something, but she couldn't find the words.
She didn't even know what she really wants to say.
She had been hiding from this world for too long. Now that the unjust and cruelty of reality came back at her, she didn't even know how to react.
"The peculiars who lost their soul deserved it. All of you deserve it!" The man went on, louder and clearer, as if the thought alone brings him strength.
Then he collapsed.
The gun on John's hand was smoking.
"There's nothing he can tell us." John said to Emma. "Let's go."
Then he picked up the bag containing a fragment of Blanche's soul, sealed it, and placed it carefully into his bag.
After taking care of the extracted soul, John carried the unconscious Blanche in his arms.
"Let's go." He called Emma again.
Emma kneeled beside the man John just killed, and close his eyes gently.
These people were not her enemies, not really. They were just the unfortunate souls born into this world, forced to do evil by the wights in an endless cycle of violence.
Emma stood up and turned back to John.
"Let's go."