[Fiction] Going Home (a story)

[Metropolis]

Double-encrypted with sigma Babylon 2; dated 9/9/13; 0400 am

From: Dr. Timon Deathridge

To: All Security Personnel

Re: Project Horus

All units stand down. The situation is in hand. Repeat, all units stand down and await further orders.

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It was a mistake to use the ball gag. Apep thought as she focused the darkness inside her prostrate body. You almost had me, she wanted to say but her tongue was forced beneath the thick rubber ball that sat on the edge of her gag reflex, so instead she let her mind wander through the shadow of memory until she knew the smell and taste of her late masters ball gag. He had never wasted his time on rubber, knowing her fangs capable of piercing vitrium would easily tear through something so soft. Instead, he used his own invulnerable tissues, muscles and ligaments fashioned to hold her head in place. She knew her masters bonds well. This man monkey was not her master. It was a mistake to use the ball gag.

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Double-encrypted with Sigma Babylon 2; dated 9/9/13; 0408 am

From: Delta Security Commander

To: All Security Personnel

Re: Project Horus

Delta troops are to assemble at sector B, all units are to be carrying nova class ordinance. Command recommends either rapid fire flechette rifle with triple mox dosage or high power gyro rifle with explosive rounds. Units are to hold ranks until further orders are given.

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Officer Zeb Harris had been with the program for 6 months and even the N.B.C. training didn’t give him the cold dead feeling dropping from his neck to his balls that he had right now. The staccato rhythm from behind the door he was guarding reminded him of his grandfather’s big band music. Zeb tried to ignore the fact that he kept hearing wet noises and girlish screams, even though the walls were at least 6 inches of titanium steel plates. Good God, he wondered, is she as bad as they say?

Zeb had never been the type to let rumors bother him, being from “the show-me-state”, Missouri, one only believes half of what you see, and none of what you hear, but 24 hours ago he had seen 8 body bags filled with miss-matched pieces of other Utopia security officers and he heard the doctor say “more handiwork of Apep the Destroyer.” Now he couldn’t believe he was on the verge of soiling his pants from the threat of a 16-year-old girl. He had also heard rumors that once she was with the program. He thought to himself, “God what am I involved in?” The increase in the hazard pay was motivation alone to sign on with the program, with grandma needing a new hip and dad’s farm falling behind on the mortgage. So now he sat staring at a closed steel door counting seconds between the loud banging noises keeping one eye on his scope watching metal slowly deform with each resounding clang.

The gunfire had stopped over 45 seconds ago and he wondered how the guys on the inside were doing. That’s when the cold thing in his balls began to rise for his throat. Mitchell was on the inside team. He and Mitchell made the program together and had been in dormitory from the beginning. Last night they had put down a case of beer, sitting out by the lake talking about the right woman. Zeb remembered saying he had a feeling he would meet the most important woman of his life soon and he remembered Mitchell saying that he would never lose his head over some girl.

That’s when the nails on the chalkboard sound of rending steel filled the air as the door flew 8 feet straight back plowing through the point rifle men with the resonance of snapping bones. Before Zeb realized it, his own finger squeezed hard on the trigger. Gunfire filled the air with sound and fury, as darkness powered through the broken door, Mitchell, Zeb thought, as he emptied his clip and something soft rolled into his feet. Looking down, Zeb felt the cold pit of his stomach pour out of his mouth as Mitchell’s hollow eyes looked up at him, and then Apep stood before him.

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Double-encrypted with Sigma Babylon 2; dated 9/9/13; 0343 am

From: Director Thetis

To: Caestus Pax

Subject: Security Breach at Bahrain Facility

What the Hell is going on?

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Her breasts heaved as she channeled her breath, and let her juice flow through the marble sized node burning at the base of her brain. She could feel the rising and falling fluxuations, like the strobing of a red race light, right before the final flash to green. Green means go and now was definitely the time for go. From her time working security here at the Bahrain special holding facility, Apep knew even the best agent took four tenths of a second to change the recording relay apparatus and it had been doubtful if they would ever find anyone good enough to replace her. A cruel smirk took the place of her fanged lips as Apep thought, “Maybe I’ll run into Chiraben, won’t that be nice.” The steel strong muscles writhing her legs coiled and then she sprung from the shadows, a blur of movement rising soft into the air sailing over the perimeter fences of Bahrain.

[Metropolis]

09/09/13 03:47 am

From: Caestus Pax

To: T2M Members

Subject: Belay last order

All members of T2M are to stand down. Belay all orders involving the Bahrain facility. The situation is our of our hands. I will not risk a single person on any of my teams.

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Shelby Eisenfaust knew the nature of risk. As leader of T2M central, Caestus Pax had to be able to approximate any risk and produce a solution that fully minimized that risk. “I hate full moons” he said as he furrowed his brow and turned towards the state of the art computer muttering the words “Viper, Viper, I saw you in diapers.” As his finger flipped the receiver switch and the opnet screens filled with the image of one spooky old lady.

“Pax, our most important facility has come under attack” the crone hissed out.

“I know.” Shelby nodded.

“It’s Apep!” The hissing continued.

“I know.” Nodding again.

“She’s already inside the complex, what do you intend to do about it?”

Caestus Pax stared long and hard at the flickering computer screen, taking a moment to perplex over the old nasty enigma that pulled his strings. He smiled. “Nothing” Shelby said.

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Special encoded opnet message 09/09/13 03:45 am

Thank you for running interferance, you know what this means to me, and possibly to the movement. I'm inside now. This should be a quick wrap up. Good boy Alex, you've earned your special reward, I think I fancy a japanese steak house tonight.

Love and Shadows,

-A

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Then her body became an acrobatic weapon of destruction as she sprang into an upside down pirouette. Her skillful hands finding the throats of six different men in one smooth action as she brought in her legs and rolled under the spray of six jugular veins now open to the world. Apep turned to the agent closest to her removing a hand at the wrist even while the finger had yet to squeeze the trigger, while her left struck out to shatter the entire ribcage of the soldier covering him. As the last six guards opened fire on the corridor, Apep dropped into the shadows at her feet, rising a split second later behind them. One lost his head as another learned the sudden pain of disembowelment and the four men in front fell to the flood of misfired bullets from men she just brought down.

She turned, nostrils flared as she picked up the scent of her prey. She could smell the raw naked fear of him. He must have realized by now that she was coming for him. Apep knew that she wouldn’t have much more time until T2M arrived so she reached out through the abyss to the rainforests of the Amazon and from the shadows went the call to snakes and lizards and all scaled things that slither and crawl. One hundred men meant nothing to one thousand snakes she thought as she took off running down the corridor at speeds that would rival a cheetah, on feet that left but the slightest footfalls. She tracked her prey until she realized where he was going. Then with a killers smile, she turned to step into the shadow.

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Outgoing message from Project Utopia

09/09/13 03:51 am

My Dearest Camille,

I don't have much time, so these short words will have to do. I know I have not been the greatest husband, away working so much, but I thank you for always being there. I still remember how beautiful you looked that day I met you in Johannesburg. Tell the children I love them. The money in our 3 accounts and my life insurance will be more than enough to take care of you. I have to go now. Apep is coming home.

Lovingly,

Timon Deathridge

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Professor Timon Deathridge hated running. He had always hated running. It stemmed from the 6th grade gym class when puberty had caused his legs to stretch past nomnal proportions to consume two thirds of his body. This caused him to suffer from an awkward lumbering gate that had the other kids pointing and laughing. He always hated running, but now his legs pounded along the steel grate of the secret escape utility shaft towards the special security room that only the professor and 2 dead constructors even knew about. The throbbing of his heart threatened to tear forth from his ribcage and that burning sensation in his lungs told him he was still alive. The droplets of sweat falling form his brow into his eyes stung a red pain through him that only intensified the stress of the moment. It was Apep. He knew that she had come home. She had come home to kill him. Professor Deathridge had never known true fear until this moment. As he passed the guards at the door of the staff room he couldn’t help but to feel sorry for these men with looks of confidence on their faces. They were all going to die. She wouldn’t stop until all of them were dead. Timon Deathridge knew this for certain.

Officer Zeb Harris patted him on the back as he passed through the door. “No worries sir, we’ll take care of you. We’ll all get through this sir.”

Professor Deathridge calmly looked Officer Harris in the eyes and said, “You don’t know what you’re dealing with. She’s trained not to stop. She’ll overcome any adversity. She’s the perfect killing machine, and damnit, we made her! We created our own death. We’re all going to die” as he passed through the reinforced titanium steel door. Officer Zeb Harris began to feel a cold thing drop from his throat to his balls.

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[Metropolis]

Security orders/ Bahrain Broadcast 03:56 am

All emergency and security staff report to sector 13. Our facility has come under attack by a titan class Teragen nova. The target seems to be heading to the 13th sector. All security and emergency units are to respond.

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Apep punched kicked and clawed until there was no more gunfire, no more fighting and no more movement except for the quivering mass of man that professor Deathridge had become, shrinking into a corner of the room, witness to carnage of the last ten seconds. In ten seconds Apep could kill thirty men. Professor Deathridge knew that. What he didn’t know was how she knew about this room. The walls were soundproof, air tight,and lined in quantum perception bafflers.

“How did you know?” was all Timon could stammer out. Apep coldly stared back and for a moment, he could swear he saw a glimmer of some emotion in her yellow cobra eyes.

“When I was a child,” Apep began in a quiet voice that carried a power beyond that of a sixteen year old girl. “I remembered them building something late at night in the 13th sector. They were using muffled tools, but I could still hear them from my cage, hammering.”

“But How… How did you learn…”

“The exact nature of the construction was revealed to me by the foreman. He was a pederast, and when I was ten years old, I seduced him… well, you’d be amazed at what secrets a person will devulge when acting on their greatest evils.” Apep smiled and Timon Deathridge smiled back. He had forgotten about the cage and the twenty-three different submission programs she had undergone by the time she was seven years old. He wasn’t scared anymore. He focused his stare, modulated his voice and spoke “Eclipse Omega.” Apep stepped back.

“On your knee’s bitch!”

Apep fell to the ground pressing her face down to the steel floor, thrusting her ass almost inviting towards the master. His hand fell hard upon the cheek, the thumb finding the edge of the tight cleft.

“You’re mine you dirty little whore” the master said as he grabbed a hold of her red tresses pulling her head back. Apep was helpless to resist as her master strapped her arms in steel binders behind her back, pulled a black ball gag around her face and pressed a cold gun barrel against the back of her head.

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Intercepted radio dialogue. Bahrain security files 03:58 am

Security officer Trevor: Man, I love you, man

Security officer Blevins: Reality check man, We are going to be OK. Don't queer out on me

Trevor: We're going to die man, didn't you see Charlie teams corpses?

Blevins: We aren't Charlie team, we hold position until T2M arrives.

Trevor: That's what I'm trying to tell you man. It just came through on Sat-Com. T2M isn't coming.

Blevins: Oh man, oh shit, I...I...I love you man

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“What do you mean you will not do anything? Explain yourself immediately” the old crone commanded as she tightened her eyes into a stare that could kill even over an optnet viewer.

“It’s simple director, we don’t have enough people available to make this a viable option. And it’s not project priority” Pax said confidently.

“How would you consider this facility getting broken into not a priority?”

“Well,” Pax hesitated, he knew he was talking to the most powerful baseline alive and a particularly humorless one at that. “Director, we both know that if Apep wanted to expose the project, she would have done it already. Now intelligence tells us there is a certainty that she is there only for her handler, professor Deathridge, and frankly, isn’t he a loose end anyways?” There was a cold silence, Pax could tell the director knew he was right and he knew she hated being wrong. “Besides” he added, “T2M A/P is dealing with a n earthquake in Jakarta. Euro is taking care of flood damage in Amsterdam, and I won’t risk my people against that killing machine.”

“Fine” She said pressing a button "there are other alternatives."

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Central Bahrain Command04:02 am

To: all security and emergency staff

All units are to return to standard posistion. The situation has been averted. All units stand down.

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Apep’s muffled laugh through the ball gag was disconcerting to the professor and all the guards in the room. Six fingers gripped six triggers, six barrels aimed at their mark. Prof. Deathridge didn’t understand. Apep had been conditioned. He had said the control word. He had followed the humiliation protocols, so why in the hell was she laughing? His hands shook as he removed her ballgag, after all he had to have answers.

“Why are you laughing?” The professor yelled in her ear, trying his hardest to show a confident demeanor. There was nothing to be afraid of, he told himself. Her arms had been bound in hi-tensile strength wire. Her feet soaked in clot and the high power lights over head erased any trace of shadow, but Prof Deathridge knew that Apep was never helpless. “Why? Why are you laughing?” he demanded.

Apep coldly looked at him and smiled. “You have a big nose you silly little bug” she said as the shadows dancing on his top lip began to move, swirl and then harden into spikes that pierced up his nose, straight through the nasal wall and deep into his brain. Prof Deathridges body stiffened, his eyes rolled back and Apep escaped into the shadow of his falling body. Before the guards could even react, her hands moved like chainsaw blades between the shadows that were cast within the guard’s legs. In two seconds, five guards fell to the ground, relieved of their most private possessions. One guard, Mitchell, squeezed the trigger, letting fly a barrage of explosive armor piercing bullets spraying towards Apep. She leapt, spun and danced in between the spray of hot lead, until she stood in front of him. She paused as he fumbled to reload his gun, watching him. Then her hand flashed like lightning and Mitchell’s head went rolling for the closed steel door.

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Double-encrypted with Sigma Babylon 2; 09/09/13 04:04 am

To: Chiraben

From: Thetis

Subject: Your ex-girlfriend

The viper has reurned to its hole and the show ponies will be no help this time. You know what to do, don't get sentimental, don't fail me again.

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As Apep’s fists pounded against the steel door over and over again she couldn’t help but to be caught up in the feeling of self-satisfaction. The man who molded her, tortured her, programmed her, and twisted her into the monster she had now become was dead at her feet. But a slight scent in the air told not all was well.

Without stopping her barrage of fists that could splinter stone, Apep yelled out “All right Chiraben, you can come out, I smell you now.”

A small bank of computers began to move, twist and shape into the ugly green-eyed man Apep knew so well. No words passed as he rushed into her. Her foot planted itself against the door as she sprung backwards over his head, landing and pivoting into a kick that caught squarely against his blocking arm, his own fist lashing out to be swept aside by her spinning arm. Chiraben smashed his head forward to butt her, yet she bent impossibly backwards bringing a knee up to contact solid in his ribs.

The force of the blow hurled Chiraben back against the steel door.

“First contact” Apep said, “I win again.” Chiraben sneered, growled and his hands shifting into wicked looking one foot long claws. Their eyes locked across the room and a current of rage, hatred, passion, and lust filled the room. For three solid minutes they just stared, exchanging something unknowable between them.

“One question” Chiraben’s harsh voice broke the silence. “What did you come here for, it wasn’t just revenge, you could’ve killed him at home, so why?”

Apep smiled. There was another reason, Chiraben knew it, and that was good enough. He smiled back and said, “Next time.” He turned with one slash of his claws, rending the steel door in two as Apep covered his escape with the shroud of night.

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Security Diretive 04:10 am

All units retreat. It's all over now.

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Zeb’s head felt as if it would split open, his vision blackened and he could barely see the little girl killing machine severing head from shoulder, rending arm from socket, and the pain of his head made him insensible to the gore that seemed to be spreading across the floor.

Zeb had felt like this for weeks, but this really was the worst one, worse than all the hangovers in his life rolled into one. All he could think was That Nicole Brody, I sat behind in 2nd grade math class a surge of energy began to tear from his eyes… I used to slide her answers to tests, she liked me because I was good at math His body began to change as It used to be so simple then, like mathmatics!

A final flash of energy swept the room as mathematical theory unmade every baseline in the room, leaving only Apep standing in front of Zeb. “God said go forth and multiply!” Zebs headached with power and knowledge, but he could feel Apep’s soft touch on his brow.

“I’ve come to take you home” she whispered, and then there was shadow.

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[ 02-01-2002: Message edited by: Metropolis ]