Your Job Bites!

Chapter 8 Mine Shaft Hide and Seek

Madraeus watched the two policemen approaching up the tunnel. He motioned Rami and Malcolm back down the side tunnel they had been hiding in. The three men faded back from the searching cops. Madraeus' mouth began to water. His nostrils flared as he caught the scent of live prey. He was starving. His body was still trying to repair the wounds from the fight with the werewolves and without intaking fresh blood his body was starting to consume itself. The only reason that he had lasted this long was that small amount of blood that Whitney had cornered him into taking. But the days had stretched on and without food...

His gangs elongated instinctively. With food so close his hunger was taking over his brain. As the distance between the police and their hiding place decreased he began to take a step forward only to feel Rami's hand on his chest. The giant pushed him back against the rock wall and held him there. In Madraeus' weakened state Rami barely had to exert any effort to hold him still.

He held him until the cops moved off down the tunnel. Madraeus reached up and patted Rami's hand in thanks.  They had been stuck in these mine tunnels for almost a week. With the constant search parties exploring the tunnels they couldn't find a hole to escape through. It was getting increasingly hard for Madraeus to avoid attacking anyone he saw. Playing hide and seek in the darkness dodging the searching police force was starting to seem like a hopeless cause. Cecelia had really trapped them this time.

At least Whitney was safe. He closed his eyes and conjured up her image. He could still taste her. The sweetness of her blood and the softness of her lips. Pain stabbed through his chest as he thought about how close to death she had come again because he had allowed her in to his world. The pain spread as he realized that once she found out about what he had done with all those prisoners he would lose her forever.

Suddenly he didn't care if they caught him. She would never want him after this. Something in his head whispered that he should just embrace his evil curse. He pushed away from the wall and started for the tunnel where the cops had disappeared. Malcolm grabbed his arm and spun him back toward Rami. The giant grabbed him and pushed him against the tunnel wall again.

"Are you insane?" Rami hissed.

"Let me go."

"No. You can do this. You just need to hold on a little longer. They won't keep searching forever."

"It doesn't matter anymore, Rami."

"Don't say that!" The giant pleaded. "We have to make it out of here and stop Cecelia, you know that. You've dedicated your life to keeping the Races safe. Don't tell me you are just going to give up now?"

"You don't understand." Madraeus groaned thinking of the sheer numbers that had joined Cecelia's army. "I saw how many have gone over to her side. I don't think the Races want to be saved anymore."

"They are like teenagers. They don't know what is good for them," Rami grinned.

"Don't they? Maybe I don't know anymore. Perhaps Cecelia is right. Perhaps we should just run wild over the mortal world." He looked down the tunnel. "They just hunt us like dogs and force us to hide. Why shouldn't we be free to do what we like? We are superior in so many ways."

Rami let go of his friend as if he were made of fire. He stepped back.

"This is not the Madraeus that I know." His deep voice rumbled with anger.

"You're just saying that because you're so hungry." Malcolm said over his shoulder before turning back to watch for the cops.

Madraeus looked away. They didn't understand. He had been a monster for almost two thousand years. There had always been the little hissing voice in the back of his mind urging him to indulge his dark side. It was so much easier to take what he wanted. Following the rules was exhausting and what did he really get out of it? He go to hide in the background and skulk around trying not to be seen. During the years that he had run with Cecelia had been the freest of his life. But then...

Madraeus sank to the floor as he remembered how his life with Cecelia had come to and end. Mary. Her mangled lifeless body nailed to a post outside of their door. He buried his face in his hands. Guilt and regret warred for domination. It was hard to breath, the weight of his life was crushing him. He longed for death once more just so he could quit feeling.

"Rami, they're coming back." Malcolm retreated from the tunnel entrance. Together he and Rami picked up their trembling friend and hauled him farther back into the tunnel in case the cops turned in their direction.

"We need to get him out of here." Rami whispered.

"I know." Malcolm sighed. "I've never seen him like this."

"Did you hear that FBI guy?" they heard the voice of one of the cops echo from the adjacent tunnel. "He said that this isn't the first mass grave they've found like this."

"Really?" His companion was surprised.

"Yeah, he was saying that they found one similar to this in Utah, but the bodies hadn't been burnt. Everyone of them had starved to death." A light flashed down the tunnel in the directions of the fugitives. "Have we been this way?"

"I don't know." The voices stopped for a moment. "It's not marked on my map yet."

"So how do they know it's the same group?"

"Forensics, I guess."

"Well, it's creepy either way." The voices sounded nearer.

Malcolm and Rami hefted Madraeus' arms over their shoulders and hauled him off down the tunnel in the opposite direction.

"I know I don't feel safe letting my kids out to play even if it's just in the back yard."

"That's why I never had kids. After all the scary crap I've seen on the Force there's no way I'm bringing a kid into this world."

"Nah, you can't just stop living because of stuff like that. No matter how bad things seem there's a lot more good in the world."

The cops' words chased them down the tunnel. Madraeus couldn't shake the last comment made but the optimistic cop. Good things. Years ago Brother Edwin had said similar things. Mary too had urged him to live for the good things. Whitney would have said the same thing. Even in the mine prison cell she had been looking for silver linings. Even if she was lost to him forever he didn't want to disappoint their memories.

"I'm sorry," Madraeus raised his head slightly. "You're right, Rami. We have to make it out of here and stop Cecelia."

"Especially if there are other pockets of people starving to death in abandoned holes all over the place!" Malcolm glanced over his shoulder trying to gage how close the police were.

"I think I have a way of tracking that." Rami rumbled. "All those discrepancies that I found in Whitney's Dreaded Filing Project, they must be connected. I thought that they looked like someone was moving a large amount of people around. It must have been her army."

"And there is probably a cache of people in every location." Malcolm groaned.

"Damn."

"This is going to get a lot more complicated before it gets better." Madraeus snarled as he stumbled along between his two friends.

"Well, we can't get any of it sorted out until we get out of this damn mine." Malcolm glanced over his shoulder again.