Aven continued to scream and became frantic. The figure had stopped and wasn't coming any closer. Aven built up enough courage to at least say something. "What the hell are you?" he yelled and continued to string off a few loosely connected ideas, "Those centurians, and the people.. and.." Aven was cut short.
"Now is not the time for questions," the creature before him replied. "They're on their way, and they know I'm here." It's eyes widened then reduced to verticle slits and it urged closer to Aven.
Aven darted sideways along the wall. "S-stay back," he stammered.
Mildly amused, the bizarre creature grinned at the fearful Aven and took another step forward, heading towards the door. "Are you scared of me?" it asked in a somewhat pleasant tone. "You should be." It grabbed the edges of the door and slid itself through the hole and into the light. Aven paused, but then continued to follow. Behind him, Aven heard the sound of a large object smashing the ground. The centurians had gotten through the floor and were on their way. Aven quickly slipped through the hole and vanished into the light.
The outside was cool and dry; the sun was impaired by a series of clouds. They were somewhere between the 10th and 11th residential floors. The dome-like structure of the complex became ever apparent as Aven loomed down the edge and his eyes followed it all the way to the ground. The surroundings looked barren, the ground caked with dried out, cracked earth and gravel. Aven had never been to the outside and was taken aback by the view of it all. He struggled through the hole as noises stirred behind and approached. Just as Aven was about to slip his way to freedom, something caught hold of its leg and pulled. Aven twitched and let out a cry of anguish before he realized it wasn't a monstor grabbing his leg. He felt the hands of a young girl grabbing at his foot and trying to squeeze her way through. "Help me!" she screamed in a high pitch repeating herself furiously. "Help me! Help me, please!" Aven shook his foot free and reached in the hole and grabbed the girl by her hands and helped lift her to the outside.
Aven struggled, his whole body ached, but he continued to pull. Aven stared at the girl he had just rescued. Her bright cheeks streaming with tears. Aven wasn't surprised of the beauty of the girl with her long flowing hair and perfect complexion, an all too common site within the complex; Aven transfixed his gaze upon her ears. Her ears were placed irregularily high and were in the form of triangles. "She has cat ears!" Aven thought to himself suddenly. The girl reached out and hugged Aven and began to cry some more. Aven blushed in embaressment and the girl let out a few sniffs before she let go and stopped crying. The girl wasn't much smaller than he was, and probably wasn't all that young.
Aven was about to ask if she would be alright, when the girl broke into a smile. "I'm Alice," she said cheerfully. "Alice Chrisman. I was so scared!" Her ears purked up innocently. Shocked at her sudden turn of behavior Aven almost smiled.
"Enough," the creature, the figure in the white cloak, interjected. "Right now, were getting the fuck out of this mess." The two looked over to him and knew he was right. They hurried down the side of the complex edging closer to the ground. Pounding could be heard behind them at the door. The centurians were having to pry their way through much like before.
"Where are we going?!" Aven yelled as they ran down the slope. Alice tripped behind him and began to tumble forward. Almost sliding to a stop Aven stooped to help Alice up. The beasts behind the door were slowly breaking free. He could only look on in fear as one pulled itself from the door in the complex walling. "Shit!" he yelled and began to chase after the creature in front of them, a much better option than staying put and getting slaughtered. Aven saw the figure of the creature ahead growing distant and now nearly to the ground. "Wait for us!" he called, it abruptly haulted.
The creature looked back at him coldly. "We're not going anywhere." The blades on its arms slid out of its bulky wrists a bit further accompanied by a wet suction noise and a fanged grin spread across its face. Its eyes opened wide, the eyes of a feral animal. Aven had reached the ground with Alice still behind. A troop of centurians was close behind, there were about five or six, and two carried large fire arms, the rest relying on melee bladed weapons, and they were closing in. One of the centurians kneeled on one knee and fire its weapon, the recoil pulsing through its body. The nature of the incline was all that saved Alice as the metal lining of the complex below her was pelted with metal slugs, the impact sending her sailing forward to the ground below. She felt the ground hard but frantically recomposed herself and continued to run.
Aven met with the white-cloaked creature before him and continued to run along side the edge of the complex away from the centurians and Alice did the same. "Can you use this?" it asked Aven holding a smaller more-modern-looking firearm than it used before in its right hand.
"I do-on't know," Aven managed to stutter.
Alice responded, "I can do it!" She grasped the weapon with both hands and examined it thoughtfully. Looking up the slope, Aven duely noted the centurians were almost upon them.
"Let's go already!" Aven exclaimed as the two ran along the base of the complex away from the immediate danger.
The white-cloaked one leapt into the air with ninja-like speed and strength and was met with an onslaught of blades and claws. It met its first victim with an cross slash from its arm blades, serating one of the centurians heads into four pieces, blood splattering across the complex wall. The creature in white was met by another of the gargantuan centurians in mid attack with an axe-like weapon, much like the one Aven had been attacked with. Its right arm and blade slice through the air in an arch and traveling through the axes head sending the blade sailing through the air and onto the ground. Without hesitation, the creature in white swung with its other blade, impaling the centurian upward through the chest, the edge of the blade jutted out from the nape of the centurians neck, dripping red. The centurian screamed, and blood errupted from its mouth. Its arms jerked out and grabbed at the smaller figure before it only the blade ripped from its chest and through half of its neck first, sending it sprawling to the ground before it could finish the attack.
Aven continued to run with Alice away from the battle, that's all that mattered at the moment. Glancing over his shoulder he saw two centurians after them leaving four to take out the creature they had left behind. One carried a serrated sword and a circular shield with spikes running along its center, the other held the fire arm used on Alice once before and the barrel was aimed at them once again. "Shit!" Aven screamed as they grew closer. Alice spun around and fired, the creature holding the gun, reared back in pain and dropped the gun. It slided down the slope, striking the ground and coming to a rest taking two of the centurians fingers with it. "You little bitch!" it roared and started running faster, froth dripping from its gaping mouth lined with teeth resembling rasors.
The creature in white lifted its arm blades slicing the third centurian's head in half with a squelch and little more than a gurgling groan escaped its throat as it to fell. The last centurian before the creature held its fire arm and shot point blank. The white-cloaked creature reacted and slipped aside the blast as if it were merely child's play with the trail of its cloak gently blowing in wind slicing the gun in half with a striding arch of its blade before another round could be fired, the strike not stopping with the gun, but also continuing to the centurians head and stabbing it in the lower jaw. The creature in white leapt and came shoulder to shoulder with the centurian, hammering its free hand and blade into the creatures forehead forcing brain material splattering across the slope.
Alice aimed behind her as she ran with Aven close beside. She hammered three shots, two piercing the skin of the closest centurian's chest, the other missing it alltogether. Completely unphased, the centurian grew closer and began to loom over them. Alice began to fire again when a shot from the creature in the white cloak left a gaping hole in the centurians's chest. It continued to urge forward, but at a slower pace. Aven and Alice were going to make it out of this alive. The uninjured centurain ran towards the creature with its spiked shield held in front and its erratically slicing through the air, ready to taste the blood of its prey. The white-cloaked creature lurged forward, its arm blades fully extended and sliced at the centurian charging it. The centurian's shield struck the creature sending it realing backwards, and landing in a crouching position without a trace of injury. "What are you?" The centurian roared as it charged again. "Some kind of tough guy?" The centurian lifted its shield to strike the creature, who still crouched, waiting for the perfect moment.
Alice fired another two rounds, striking the centurian behind them in the thigh and in the pelvis, and still it hadn't stopped its attack. "What the hell!?" Alice cursed as she aimed to fire again. A series of clicks emitted from the barrel.
"It's empty!" Aven cried, "We're fucked!"
The centurian hurtled the shield downward with the full force of its weight aiming to put an end to its enemy. The figure in the white cloak shifted to the outside completely severing the centurians right arm with its right arm blade and its left hand with its firearm putting the barrel against the centurians neck and squeezing the trigger. The centurian's skull ripped open in a fountain of gray brain matter and dark red blood, killing the beast instantly.
The last remaining centurian continued to chase Aven and Alice who had strayed considerably far from the figure they had followed to safety. "Let's split up!" Alice suggested, her ears continued to perk.
"Is she enjoying this!?" Aven thought to himself and dismissed the thought, he wouldn't need to be told twice, taking the suggestion and bolting into the desert. The centurian shadowed Alice having shot it several times; it had a score to settle. Aven paused and watched as it grew closer to her and came within arms reach. The creature in white had too caught up and was on the tail of the centurian. It raised its gun and fired twice, hammering the creature in the chest twice more beside and below the first hole, leaving two more gaps in its torso. The centurian wrenched in pain and collapsed, blood gushing from its comatose body and into the cracks of the dried mud.
Aven limped his way to Alice and the creature boldy strided to meet them. "What the hell is going on?!" Aven whined. Alice's ears drooped soberly and she nodded in agreement, tears now developing in her eyes. The creature studies them both and a grin caresses his hardened face.
"You really want to know," it asked, "that your whole lives are a lie?" Confused Aven looks to Alice and then to the creature before him. He turns and examines the world around him, the sun beginning to peak from behind the clouds shining its hazy green light with whatever warmth it could muster.
"A lie?" Aven asks concerned and frightened at the same time.
The creature in white nods accordingly, "That's what I said. Don't make me repeat myself."
Aven stairs back up at the sky and the wind carress his face and gently blows his hair. "Does it even matter anymore? You might as well tell us everything."
The creature nods solemnly. "Alright then!" he exclaims suddenly in a mellow attitude, "but we can't stick around here. There will be more of them, but not like the ones I just fought. They will know 'I'm' here and then things will get a bit more interesting and all the more dangerous.."
"Just what's that supposed to mean?!" Aven interjects. "I can't leave my home behind, and besides, we can't survive out here! The complex is all that's left."
Studying Avens face for a quick moment the creature saw that he was serious. It bursts into a fit of eerie laughter. "That place was never your home." Turning to the desert, it began to walk at a swift pace. "I believe its this way," it said with a grin and continued on into desert.
"What?!" Aven cried out in shock. He stood there unsure of what to do. Aven looked back at the bloodied corpses of the centurians and felt nausiated. Alice and the creature were already fading in the distance. Aven became unfrozen as fear and adrenellin began to pump through his veins. He wasn't being left behind, despite the aches he had he ran to catch up to his new companions.
"Just a bit further," the creature broke the silence. He looked to Alice and then to Aven. "We're almost there. When we arrive, I can tell you what you should have known from the beginning."
After traveling another half an hour, Aven noticed the sun fading into the west becoming a dark brownish red and casting green shadows upon the clouds. The creature stooped down and sat on a flat rock and motioned for the others to do so. "If you guys are going to be traveling with me," he grinned, "you need to get in better shape." Aven and Alice looked eachother over; they were both exhausted. The creature laughed; Aven noticed its arm blades had retracted to mere stubs no more than a few inches long. "We are now in the outskirts of the Orcus; I suppose its better known as Hades. We will be safe here overnight and tomorrow it will be possible to travel into the Orcus, and once there it will be less of a possibility that we will be found or even followed for that matter much acredited to the spores. No more than a few miles from here, spores will be everywhere spawn of a fungus. The spores clogg machinery not specialized to operate within the heavily spored area; radio signal and anything similar are refracted within the mist of spores and are ultimately useless. Our handguns will be useless in much of the Orcus, so you must rely on my abilities. The spores blot out most of the light, so even in the brightest of days, the atmosphere will appear dark; hence it will be easy to get lost or separated, and why you must follow me. They are a creation reminiscent of wars long past centuries ago; I know because I was there when it happened and before. I am of over 600 years in age, and my name is Liam Fauster. Once I was human and I've still considered myself human for all these years. I've seen many fears fo b and have watched the fates of so many pass. What am I really, you ask?" the creature, Liam, paused in his monologue. "I am what is called an Arch Angel, a fabled being created during the first of the wars. I was alive during the 21st century, although I don't expect you to know this history." "Too make a long story short," he added, "All of the complexes were created in the expanse of these wars. Many people were lead with the arch angels as their leaders. The wars had rendered the world hazardous and contaminated with disease, pestilence, and the plagues. One of the most potent military tactics in that time were plagues of genetically enhanced soldiers and creatures of unfathomable power, many with abilities stronger than mine and some of those still exist. There also exists an order amongst the beings of this world, and that is held loosely together by a caste system, and Arch Angel tops the list in power and ability. Not many are left to this day, many of which I came to know in the mystery of my past and there are few that I do not. My goal is simply to kill them all, to wipe them from the earth and into the dust from whence they came."
Aven looked on in fear and awe at the man sitting before him. "Has he really been alive for over 600 years?" he thought to himself. Aven's curiousity began to surmount. "There are other complexes?" Aven asked. The news of other complexes, other people was a discovery to him, a discovery that startled and amazed him.
Liam solemnly replied, "Yes, there are many other complexes, but there used to be more, bringing us to the present conversation. What you witnessed in Odin was a harvest, a harvesting of bio-materials. The wars are soon coming to an end, and Odin is recreating its army."
"Are you saying are lives were meaningless?" Alice asked, her ears twitching uncontrollably. "Are you saying we were better off never even being alive?"
"In a way, your lives were spent for the motives of another, one of high regard and pride who used you like marrionettes as he pulled the strings from the darkness," Liam declared spitefully, "and I shall make him pay with his life. He is the being who made me like this. He lost his humanity before ever altering his body." Liam stared at the ground with a provoking stare. "He also gave me the name Broken for I became a broken man in spirit and body." He changed his gaze to the star-less sky. "There is much of the past which I want to forget, which I'd like to change.." He began to drift. "But I was too late!" he surged with anger and his arm blades extended fully. "I thought I could make a difference and take end him before he massed his forces, before he played his trump.. Those centurians you saw were bred from the beginning to further his cause and harvest your people, but they weren't designed for skilled battles. They were nothing compared to what I've seen and faced myself. You won't begin to understand what can happen until you've seen it with your own eyes and heard it with your own ears and spilt your own blood." Liam's face twisted into a grimace and he returned Alice and Aven's gazes. "That is why we ran and what has brought us here today. I'm finished with my stories for today," Liam retorted. "I'll tell you more later if you are to survive." Liam's grin reappered on his face; it was becoming somewhat of a trademark with his guests.
Aven nor Alice spoke a word as they lay uncomfortably on the solid ground and somehow they managed to find sleep, haunted with nightmares of the bloodshed they witnessed earlier in the day and what was to become of their future in this new world.
The Genetic Shift