Ajax and the Corpse of the City

[Phoenix]

This is a different story that Ajax is having me post. Hope you enjoy.

I hate this city. There is still wealth and prestige here but it is a city in decline. Entire neighborhoods have been abandoned and crime is rampant just about everywhere. It’s a dangerous urban wasteland.

Probably that means I’m ideally suited to hunting in this concrete jungle. And as any hunter will tell you, the most dangerous prey is that which will hunt you back. Such was my target tonight.

It should come to no surprise to anyone knowledgeable in such things that ghouls infest this city like a blight. Criminals dump their victims’ bodies off in broad day light and they come out to feed at night. Mostly the ghouls are simply opportunistic predators filling a manmade niche in the local ecology.

But there are many types of ghouls and some prefer fresher meats and savor a good hunt. Some can even walk amongst us for a time. The truly clever might throw a hunter off the track by making it appear as something else such as a vampire might be the culprit. So it was with this case. It had nearly fooled us too but not for long.

It had been preying on a particular gang over an extended period of time. Why was somewhat unclear at the time. We didn’t make that determination until later and by other means. It left us blood drained corpses but every few nights a gangbanger would show up missing and the body would never be recovered.

After detailed and prolonged surveillance, we finally caught the beast in action with our remote cameras. Both digital cameras that don’t use mirrors and the more conventional kind were able to record its presence which eliminated the possibility that it was a vampire.

The fact that it ate the victim, bones and all, pretty much assured us that we were in fact dealing with some sort of ghoul. So when Oracle dispatched me to eliminate it, I didn’t bother with the silver loads. This thing could suck on the much cheaper lead.

I arrived on the scene in time for it to suck the last of a young man’s marrow from a femur. It looked up, rather startled to see me. “Who or what’re you supposed to be?” It demanded in a deep guttural voice.

I let .50 Beowulf answer for me. I wasn’t there to chat. I was there to permanently end a threat to human life. Bullets riddled the creatures frame and I dared to hope that this would be over quickly.

Unfortunately for me, all that I accomplished was to force it to shed its outer human layer. You see, that’s what they do. They eat us and then they wear us. Disgusting creatures that they are. They make me want to retch but I’m too professional for that.

Also unfortunately for me, the Beowulf has a very limited payload and some of my rounds missed their mark. I might be quick but I wasn’t quick enough to reload before it had one of its gorilla like hands on me and was slamming me into the wall behind me. My armor held but it complaining. Literally, damage reports were buzzing in my ears.

Now, I like to think I’m fit. I’m no musclebound roid ape mind you but I am toned and I don’t have body fat where I don’t want it. And the exo-skeleton built into the armor helps a great deal as well, enhancing my efforts to nearly superhuman levels. So when I pushed back, I had a very sincere hope of escaping its pending embrace.

It was a false hope and quickly crushed.

“I am going bite your skull open and slurp up your brain like a sherbert.” It promised me before demonstrating its impressive biting ability on my helmet.

If I am not as strong as I would like, my nimbleness more than makes up for it. I was able to keep one arm free and managed to reach into a pouch strapped to my thigh. Then I shoved the flash bang right into its face as it went off.

The thing dropped me and reeled backwards. It didn’t like the noise but it absolutely hated the light. That bought me the time I needed to pull my side arm and start dumping high caliber rounds into it at close range.

It wasn’t interested in sticking around however and trotted off at an impressive gait, using its superior upper body strength to hurl itself up and over nearby bungalow. I reloaded both my fire arms and spoke into my helmet mike.

“Call Oracle.”

It only rang once. “Oracle here.”

“It got away. Are you tracking it?”

“Yes we are. It seems unaware of our eye in the sky. I’m sending your helmet telemetry now.” There was a pause and then a voice of concern. “Are you good to go? We’re showing quite a bit of damage to your helmet and more than I like to see to the rest of your armor.”

“I’m fine Oracle. You don’t have to baby me. Now put me back on its trail.” It was frustrating to sometimes be underestimated by my superiors. I’m a professional and I’ve been doing things like this for years. I thought I’d gotten past certain patronizing attitudes when I went from government to private sector.

“Telemetry should be showing on your screen now.”

Sure enough, an arrow and distance in meters had just popped up on my HUD. Almost like playing a video game, really. “Thanks Oracle. In pursuit.”

[Phoenix]

Here's the end of this story (for now).

I have no special abilities like some others that stalk the monsters in the night. No psionics and no magic (of my own). All I have is my training and technology (and magic as such that is provided and can be used by pretty much anyone). I also have my intelligence which I have always thought was my best asset although there are those who disagree. But I don’t care what the shallow think.

This thing I was chasing was way too fast for me to catch in a foot race. It wasn’t that these ghouls were superhumanly fast, but it was using its strength to bound over cars and ruined houses. Basically it could go in a straight line regardless of the obstacles in front of it. While it would be possible for me to go after it, those obstacles would not be hurdled as easily by me.

Fortunately I was not restricted to either linear motion nor to relying only on my own feet. I had at my disposal a rather sporty little black car with quite a few aftermarket options added in and it was waiting for me not too far away. With the tinted windows, I would hardly seem out of place. Not that there were many people to notice me rip down these abandoned roads.

The tricky part was figuring where it was headed so I could cut it off at the pass. “Any idea where it’s going?”

“It seems to be making a beeline for the river, which is odd…” Oracle’s voice replied. It was a bit muffled which suggested that they were smoking a cigar that they favored. “Ah, there’s storm drain that opens up at the river. Could be the entrance to its lair. There’s a man cover a couple of blocks away you could use.”

A second, green arrow appeared indicating the direction of the manhole cover. “Alright. I’ll give it a try.”

I sped through the bones of the city, confident that the police didn’t come to this part of town, and if they did, Oracle’s eye in the sky would give me plenty of warning.

It didn’t take me long to arrive at the cover. I engaged the security systems of my car and then got out. In the trunk was a tool that would let me open the cover but I would have to rappel down. I wrapped a grapple around a nearby light post and descended down in the darkness.

Down here, even my night vision optics would soon be blinded as they needed the ambient light filtering down from the manhole cover to see with. I bit my lip with uncertainty. Using a light source could be very dangerous.

To make matters worse, I had lost my cellular connection with oracle once I was underground. The tracking arrow was gone and we had only guessed at its destination. Furthermore, its night vision didn’t necessarily rely on ambient light like mine did. It was an unknown.

Last indication was that it was on track for the river tunnel and I had gotten sufficiently far ahead to set a trap for it. That also meant that I had time to use an LED light to get around with before it became an issue. So I made for the first junction that it would encounter after entering at the river. Then I set up a tripwire that would fire off a flash-bang to disorient it for a moment.

I would be waiting down a side tunnel ready to go to full light and assault it like I’d been trained to do. This time I wasn’t going to let it get close enough to me to get a grip. I took up position, and turned out all sources of light. I entered a semi-meditative state to regulate my heart and breath rate. It also helped with the waiting. The waiting is always the worst part. On one hand you have to maintain the razor’s edge of alertness. On the other, your imagination can easily run away with you. Especially in the perfect darkness of that concrete crypt.

The footsteps and sloshing echoed through the tunnels. It seemed to be coming from all directions. Was it right behind me? Was that sudden rush of warm air its breath? Did it know I was here and was it just playing with me? Fear tried to grip my heart but I banished it forcefully. I would wait and take my shot when the time was right. I would not panic. I am a professional.

One thing was for sure. It was getting closer. Just as I felt it should be tripping my trap, the footsteps and sloshing stopped. I could hear it sniffing the air. “I can smell you.”

Its words turned the sweat running down my back to ice water. I pushed back against the panic.

I still had my three greatest advantages. I had my intelligence. I had my training. I also had technology.

The tripwire was the intended way to set off my flash-bang but not my only means. The great thing about technology is that it gives you so many options. I tapped the detonator in my watch and it screamed as the flash went off. The noise covered my rush.

As I rounded the corner, I had full light on which I switched to strobe so that it could never adjust to the dazzling display. Beowulf barked and roared angrily. Round after round tore into its flesh, most of them hitting its center of mass. It flailed, perhaps trying to take a swipe at me but its depth perception was gone entirely. I was much further away than it thought I was.

It dropped to its knees. “They were just vermin.” It said and then its face splashed into the muck.

I reloaded Beowulf and then unloaded it once more. “You’re the one face down in the muck.” I said to its lifeless corpse just before it discorporated as its kind always did.

Only then did I sigh with relief and start to make my way back to the surface.

“Call Oracle.”

Again, it only rang once. “Ajax?” Came an anxious voice.

“Yes. I’m fine. The job is done. I’m not coming back in right away.”

“Why not?” Oracle asked, perplexed.

“I spotted a pack on my way here. There are enough of them that they might start getting bold. Figure I might thin out their numbers a bit before they become a threat.”

There was some hesitation before Oracle answered. “Alright. Good proactive thinking. I’ll realign the eye in the sky.”

And so it goes when hunting in the carcass of a city. There’s no end to the parasites that must be routed out. And the mission wasn’t really over. Not yet.

But the rest of the story can wait for another time.

[Ron Caliburn]

Well done. Taking the fight to them in the darkness has always been a preferred method of mine. Light is a great weapon under those circumstances.