All The Lost Souls

Ruby

The first thing I noticed was the smell; it was terrible. The scent of dead fish wafted through the area and I knew it would be permanently merged with my jacket. Just great. I timidly climbed out f the Mercedes and instantly regretted my choice of clothing; the cold air seemed to pass through my clothes and chill me to the bone. So I was going to lose my mind and catch pneumonia; I knew there was a reason I didn’t get out much.

Nathan climbed out after me, still holding the earpiece. “Don’t forget this,” he said and handed me the device. I unwillingly placed the headphone in my left ear and let the cord dangle down the inside of my shirt. I must admit I felt very Secret Service at the moment. Nathan grabbed a black briefcase from the trunk of the car, and I had a feeling it held a lot of money.

I glanced around the area. Giant cargo containers as tall as large trucks were everywhere, piled into long rows. The ground was wet from recent rain and puddles were scattered across the ground. The overall impression of the area was one of intimidation. Oh and we can’t forget the smell.

Nathan led me down a makeshift corridor created by the placement of the storage crates. “Now, just to have you prepared, there will be a few things around this corner that won’t be so pleasing to look at,” Nathan said in a cool manner.

“Well I’ve managed to stay in your company for the past half hour, so I think I’ll manage,” I shot back, feeling a tiny bit of confidence creep into my voice. The mysterious calm that I assumed emanated from Nathan was still there, and I felt myself feel more and more at ease with the situation.

Nathan gave an almost-Satanic smile and the calm was gone. Panic crashed over me like a tsunami and I almost vomited from the feeling. I began hyperventilating as the full weight of what was going on hit me. And not like a tonne of bricks, it was more like a punch in the face then getting repeatedly kicked in the ribs while you’re down. I keeled over and tried to compose myself. After a few minutes I looked up at Nathan. A giant smirk spread across his face. The bastard was actually enjoying this. He was actually enjoying watch my panic attack, but I knew I shouldn’t have been surprised. He was infected after all.

“Please,” I gasped, “give it back to me.” I sounded like a desperate crack-addict. “I need it. I won’t be able to do this without it.”

Nathan simply shook his head. “Now, now. We can’t have you lulled into a false sense of security, can we? Now just do your job and this will all be over.” But I knew it would never truly be over.

He grabbed my wrist in a vice-like grip and led me down the path and around the corner. I did my best to hold back the scream that almost jumped out at the sight the awaited me. A horde of pale-skinned, red-eyed, fanged monsters were scattered all over the place. There were three of them standing guard at various posts and others were working like henchmen, carrying large crates by themselves. One was even operating a forklift. I didn’t need special insight to know that these things weren’t human.

Standing by the water, in front of a rather large cargo ship, stood a man. He wasn’t wearing a suit like Nathan, but he wore stylish jeans, and a black jacket. Despite the fact he wasn’t a very tall person, he gave off an air of confidence and power. And he was infected.

Nathan walked over to the man and handed him the briefcase, while I stood as far back as I could without arousing suspicion. “Nathan, he’s infected,” I mumbled quietly into the microphone of the headset, though it looked like I was talking to myself. Luckily, it looked like the other man hadn’t noticed.

While the two carried on their conversation, I crossed my arms over my chest and looked around. As much as I didn’t want to, I found myself staring at the monsters, wondering what they were. They looked as though they should be savage animals, but they walked like people, upright and with a slight air of sophistication in their stride. My eyes then wandered to the crates they were transporting. Curiosity filled my head as I pondered what could have been inside them.

Everything seemed to be going smoothly; no one had interfered with the process, or even showed up for that matter, except for a group if the weird monsters. Nathan handed the briefcase to the other man, who opened it to inspect its contents, then closed it, satisfied with its contents. But once it was closed, the man suddenly burst into flames. I jumped at the sight and winced at his agonized screams. Even though he was evil, the sight of something that looked human being incinerated alive was quite unsettling. Finally, all that was left was a pile of ashes and the briefcase.

Nathan grabbed the suitcase and turned to me. I gave a meek yelp at his face; his eyes were pitch-black, a sign that the infection had taken control. He gestured to the monsters and they all stopped what they were doing and fell in line behind him. “We’re leaving,” Nathan said bluntly.

Then something strange happened. A dark figure dropped from a nearby roof and sliced one of the vampires’ head of with a sword. The headless body fell to the ground. “Now the party may begin,” the stranger said in a cocky voice.

At once, all the other monsters charged at him at once. He leapt over them and dispatched them with a few swipes of his sword. Nathan was pissed. He turned and faced the newcomer; they exchanged verbal abuse at each other, before Nathan shot a ball of fire at the stranger. He dodged and rolled and flipped to avoid the oncoming assault. The stranger then withdrew two handguns and began firing randomly at Nathan. Not a single bullet hit him, but I felt a sharp blow to my shoulder and fell back.

A bullet had lodged itself into my shoulder and was bleeding quite profusely. Adrenaline had definitely kicked in; as I didn’t feel any pain at all, but survival instincts reared their head and I rose to a crouching position and ran as fast I could to the car. I made it, but collapsed. The adrenaline wore off and the pain seeped in. It was unbearable, it felt like my arm was going to either explode or fall off.

The sound of gunfire suddenly stopped, and footsteps approached. I wondered who had emerged victorious from the scuffle, my money was on Nathan, but sure enough the stranger rounded the corner and saw me. I was expecting him to kill me there, but he didn’t. Instead, he tried to help.

“Get the fuck away from me!” I shouted at him, as I scurried away from him as quickly as I could.

He tried to move closer, but Nathan emerged from behind and threw him with amazing force across the clearing and out of sight behind a storage crate. Nathan grabbed my uninjured arm and lifted me up, opened the car door and placed me inside, climbed in and motioned to the chauffer. The Mercedes sped back towards the city.

I nursed my arm and made a realization. Throughout the whole fight, I was hoping Nathan would lose.