Created (Book 1 of the Created) (33 page)

Liam had launched himself across the width of the room with
a single explosive movement. His strength was incredible. I ducked at the exact
time he tried to make contact. He flew over me, crashing into the door behind
me. The reinforced door caved easily under his weight. The door splintered and
was ripped from its hinges as he tumbled into the hallway from which I had
entered, smashing into the wall. I gave chase only to be thrown back into the
pit seconds later. Liam had recovered fast, much faster than he should have.

I landed in the middle of the pit. Liam sprinted from the hallway
behind me. He leapt into the air and crashed to the earth where I had fractured
the concrete. Rolling from the blow, but not fast enough, my hand was crushed
underneath Liam's knee. Pinned by his body weight, I spun my legs around to
knock him off my hand.

He deflected my first kick, but not my second as I
scissored
my legs. The kick that had made contact thrust
his head toward the ground. His head hit the surface with a loud crack. Liam
was stunned. I followed my scissor kick with another kick which drove his head
deeper into the concrete which did not offer forgiveness. The concrete cracked
and large dislodged pieces flew into the air. He was flopping around, grabbing
at his head, which allowed me time to deal with my shattered hand.

The hand was healing.
 
I could feel the process starting but there were several bones jutting
through my skin. The pain was immense. It would be some time before I could use
the hand at all. I just decided to count the hand as useless to me for the
remainder of the fight.

Veronica yelled above the crowd, "You are wasting time!
Finish him now before he finishes you!"

For an instant I made the mistake of looking upward toward
Sunnie
. Time seemed to slow as I watched her tuck her face
in behind her hands, peeking through the cracks between her fingers. Time sped
up quickly when I felt the next move from Liam.
  
He came at me fast in my state of weakness
with a light combination of right and left punches about my face. The punches
from the dazed Liam had knocked me from my feet and opened cuts underneath my
eye and along my chin. He followed the punches quickly by snatching me from the
ground to a position above his head to the roar of the crowd. I felt myself
being thrown in the air, caught, then brought down onto Liam's knee on my side
which disintegrated all my ribs along that side of my body. He roughly cast me
off onto the concrete. Blood poured from my mouth; my body was wrecked by pain.
My entire left side was not functioning. My leg, arm and shoulder had little
movement and no strength. I fought to rise from the ground, but all I managed
to do was crawl slowly away.

I could see the lingering effects of my kicks to Liam
because he was still too confused to finish me. The back of his skull was mush.
Large junks of brain matter and fluid dripped from him. He took two steps
toward me then collapsed to his knees as he screamed. His hands fell upon me.
He smiled through his suffering. Liam was sitting back on his hunches watching
me buying time as he tried to heal.

Shit, he is trying to heal enough to kill me properly I
thought. We were both broken. It was now a race to see which one of us could
manage to get well enough to murder the other.

The feeling was returning to my destroyed hand. I needed an
advantage. My eyes scanned the pit. There was nothing to use that I could see
except for single metal grate covering the drain in the middle of the floor.
The problem was I would have to crawl past Liam to get to it.

My body was more resilient than I had previously witnessed.
The broken parts were beginning to heal faster. Liam sat still watching me. I
played the injuries to my advantage as I stayed down buying me time to think.
The pain was beginning to ease. My body had shifted into a condition of rapid
renewal that had thus far been unknown to me. I didn't know if it was the near
death state, or the adrenaline fueling the regeneration, but I did not care. I
was glad it was happening.

Spitting out a wad of broken teeth and gunk, I wiped at my
mouth. It was then that I realized that I hadn't phased naturally. Feeling of
my mouth as I rested upon the ground, I realized I had never transformed into
my vampire self even though Liam had been transformed since before the buzzer
sounded.

The realization must have triggered the transformation. I
watched as my claws grew forth from my fingertips. Running my tongue along the
upper ridge of my mouth, I could feel my fangs descending. It was then that I
noticed that there was an adaptation with my fangs that had not been there
hours ago. There was now an opening along the back of the fang. It was small,
but it was near the tip and both fangs had one.

My eyes grew darker and my vision changed as I crossed into
my other self. The change was one part of my vampire heritage that I thought I
had gained at least a semblance of control. This was not the time to be wrong
and I had been, but I had made it this far.

I reasoned in my embarrassment of having
Sunnie
watch me fight, I had most likely subconsciously suppressed my animalistic
nature. Now with death a real possibility, my darker sided strived to live it
seemed.

My leg and shoulder where fully functional, but I still drug
them as I navigated a wide circle around the furthest edge of the pit. Liam was
growing stronger as he followed my movements. He was still leaking from his
head wound though his expression of pain had lessened.

My plan to use the metal grate as a weapon had a major flaw
in it. This was a realization after it was no longer obscured by Liam's body.
The grate was in the middle of the room with Liam fifteen feet from it. If I
charged the grate, Liam would cut me off and I would have to fight him without
the aid of a weapon. His superior strength was the biggest advantage he had,
and in close combat it would be the deciding factor. But was I stronger as a
transformed vampire and was I strong enough to beat him?
 
I had to have another approach. I decided a
real weapon would be my best advantage. Instead of attempting a direct
approach, I continued to crawl toward the far end of the pit with hopes that my
new plan would work. Within ten feet of the far door, a chorus of boos began to
resonate throughout the stadium. I dared not to look at
Sunnie
or Veronica for that matter. I keep my attention entirely on Liam's reaction to
what I was doing. Liam spurred on by the calls of the crowd, rose to his feet.
Clenching and then unclenching his fists betrayed his plan. Slowly, he began to
walk in my direction. I knew he was getting ready to charge and deliver the
final blow. When he began to stagger through his third step, I fled with all of
my remaining vampire speed into the hallway.

The zombie guards reacted swiftly to my entrance into the
hallway. Surprisingly, these were faster than a human was capable.
Especially more capable than Walter who was seated at the far end
of the hall with his feet propped on the door knob and the remnants of his
cigar in his mouth.
These had to be prototypes of the latest generation
of combat soldiers since they were better equipped to deal with the detail of
controlling the unnatural creatures inhabiting the Farm. Still the zombies were
slow to bring their weapons to the target in time to inflict any damage.

I disarmed the first zombie just inside the door with a
single thrust to the neck that dislodged the head by slicing cleanly through
into the paneling. Grabbing the shirt of the zombie with my left hand before my
attack had been carried
through,
I hurled the
decapitated guard across the width of the hall into the two guards who were
standing opposite. The guard to the left of the door had been kicked through
the paneling as I had hurled the headless zombie at his colleagues.

Liam had stopped his charge when he had seen me sprint from
the pit into the hallway. The muscle bound vampire should have finished his attack.
His mistake was pausing to determine what I was trying to accomplish.

The zombies were a battered mess. Walter had decided that
discretion was truly the better part of valor as he fled without removing his
weapon from the holster. Reaching down at full speed as Liam now cautiously
approached,
I took possession of two of the zombies’ SIGP516
assault rifles. Liam was too close for me to miss. In the recesses of my mind,
I had been given guidance on the nuances of the weapons in my hand so without
hesitation I opened fire.
 

Liam tried to evade the rounds as the automatic rifle in my
left hand started burning through its clip with a short burst. He pushed back
with considerable force to crack the cement at his feet. He landed ungracefully
on his butt twenty feet away. Liam clamored to his feet as I purposely missed
wide to his right to direct him back into the fire of the gun in my right hand.
As planned, Liam over committed to fleeing the flying armor piercing rounds by
breaking to his left.

The first three rounds missed him, but finally a solitary
round tore through his shoulder with enough power that it knocked him sideways.
The next three split open his chest. Then a couple more entered through his
chin. Still he kept coming at me. Liam was no longer running. He was now
crawling. As he approached, riddled with bullets, he was no longer able to
dodge. Within ten feet of me I finished the last two clips into him.

The wounds were not fatal. He wounds healed though it would
take a long time. The crowd grew silent as I cast away my weapons. Taking a
handful of his hair, I pulled Liam into the center of the ring. I no longer
cared what anyone
thought,
it was time to make a
statement I told myself. As Mathias had stated, it was time to become the
legend.

With all the brute force I could muster, I tore loose the
metal grating in the floor. Raising it high above my head, I looked down upon
Liam who was unconscious and long since phased back to human at my feet.
Transferring the grate to both hands, I screamed loud in protest and brought
down the metal guillotine with precision. The slamming of the weapon across
Liam's neck had been with enough energy to drive the grate three inches into
the flooring. The whole room shook.

There was a stillness that had been absent before. The room
was aghast at what had become of my foe. Applause started slowly with the human
section, I am not sure from whom, but soon it filled the confines of the arena.
Spent, I scanned the room for reactions. Many of my GV16s looked away while
others of the inhabitants of the Farm scowled at me. There was a sad finality
to what had happened.

The humans looked upon Liam's remains and I with
indifference while a few smiled with glee. We were the weapons they wanted. I
had proved we could take a beating, heal and kill our adversary without regard
to life.

Sunnie
was still seated in the
front row with her head in her lap. She had her hands interlaced covering the
back of her head. She looked up as I sought her eyes. Her face was devoid of
color as tears poured down. When our eyes met she shook her head and fled up
the steps from her seat through the narrow hallway followed by two soldiers.

A chilling smile stretched widely across Mathias's face. The
cold bastard had driven the wedge he had wanted between
Sunnie
and me. He returned my glare. A second later, the human soldiers in the room
casually proceeded to the railing as others stepped from the exits inside the
pit led by Walter and another man that I did not recognize.

The honored guests and officials were led away under guard
as were the members of my society except for Veronica who refused to leave. A
soldier tried to force the issue, but shied away when Veronica phased and
ripped the weapon from him and returned it in pieces.

There was no need to attempt to fight the
soldiers,
they were only doing their jobs. I waited to see what was about to happen.
Mathias rose from his seat then dismissed the troops along the upper ring with
a wave of his hand. He smiled then disappeared into the hallway behind his
seat.

The troops on the floor of the arena cautiously progressed
toward Liam's lifeless body. As the soldiers surrounded my former friend, a
contingent of zombies rushed forth from the opposite end to begin the
dismembering process. The zombies were quick with axes raised. On command, each
struck repeated whacks that sounded wet intermingled with the crunch of
hardened vampire bones. I couldn't bear to watch; the sounds were enough to
sicken me.

A heartbroken man, I slouched out the door from which I had
come under the watchful eyes of Veronica and Walter.

"Why the hell was she there Veronica?!" I
screamed.

Her eyes blinked open as she rolled toward me. "Not
exactly the reason I was hoping you were here. And what is with not knowing how
to knock."

Standing in the opening that had once held part of a sliding
glass door I said, "I don't seem to possess the delicate touch that Darby
and you have when it comes to breaking into homes. My disposition at the moment
doesn't lend itself to attempting to cover up that deficiency."

Veronica sat up in the bed. "When will you learn that
you have the skills as part of the package? It is a simple matter of you
embracing the gifts that you have been given. Now what are you doing here in
the middle of the night raving at me about? If you say it is about that damn
little human girl, then you are asking the wrong person so either crawl in bed
with me or go home because we do have school tomorrow."

"Yeah, it is about her because I want to know the
truth," I hatefully answered. "Besides, you know that we technically
don't need sleep. I think I will be fine, so tell me."