Page 99 of Call of the Fathoms

Good. She needed to let off some steam.

The first person who rounded the corner was one of the Originals. She thought his name might be Donatello, although she’d had little interactions with him. He always traveled with two guards, as he was a paranoid individual who went through more reborns than the average person. She took that rifle in her hands and blew a hole straight through his chest.

There was a stunned moment of silence as he looked down at the gaping wound that oozed blood and then staggered to the side. Considering he had a hole in his chest the size of a goblet of water, she had no idea how he was still standing.

One of his guards reached for a weapon and the other ran for Donatello. She shot the one who reached for his weapon first.The energy pulse hit the massive man straight in the forehead, and he went down hard enough to shake the floor. The other had already gathered the Original up in his arms, likely heading for the med bay where they would sacrifice another person to keep this ancient being alive.

“He should have died a long time ago,” she snarled at his retreating form as he made his way away from her down the hall. “Let him die.”

The guard hesitated for the briefest moment. He even looked over his shoulder at her and then heaved a long sigh. “I cannot let him do that. You know it as well as I.”

She shot him in the back, a killing shot that would make sure he didn’t feel too much pain before he went into the afterlife. It weighed heavily on her shoulders as she stepped over the first dead body, and then the other. She looked down at the Original’s face, seeing the man in the picture on that island. He had been so young, and still appeared so young now. He’d been nervous then too, though. She’d seen it in his eyes on the picture.

Nervous like he was now, with those wide eyes telling her he was terrified to die. But he wouldn’t die for too long. Soon enough, someone would find him. As long as there was the merest chance that electrical activity in his brain could continue, they could bring him back. She’d seen it happen herself.

Taking a stun gun out of her pocket, she leveled it on his head. “You should never have lived this long. Humans weren’t meant to survive hundreds of years. That is why we were given an expiration date. Look at what you and your people have done in all this time. Nothing of use, and everything just to satisfy your own needs without caring about anyone else.”

She shot him in the head so no one would be able to piece him back together. The first real death of an Original, at least that she knew about. He was dead and gone and no one was going to piece together those splattered bits of brain.

Unless they could do a brain transplant.

Fuck.

She hated this. But for good measure, she shot him six more times in the head until there was no way to even tell who he had once been, and where that head had gone. She knew for a fact that they had never successfully managed a full head transplant. She’d been there when they had tried, and she was quite certain this man in particular had been the one leading the charge on how to do that.

Finally, she ran through the halls, keeping out of the way of anyone else. She didn’t want to fight more people until she absolutely had to. Like in the control room.

Reaching that room, Alexia pressed herself against the wall and took a few deep, steadying breaths. She could do this. They had built her to kill, after all, and now that was exactly what she was doing.

They just had never thought they wouldn’t be able to control her. Taking another deep breath, she turned her head to look at the control room.

“Mira?” she asked quietly.

“Still here. I heard gun shots.”

“You’re about to hear a lot more. There’s fifteen people in the control room at all times. I will clear it out and start opening what I can until the alarm blares. Then I need to get out of here, and I’ll start opening the other doors that are manual overrides. Send them in now.”

“Now?” She could hear clicking, like Mira was trying to type at the same time as talking to her. “The shield is still up, though.”

“It won’t be for long.”

A ghost of longing shivered down her spine. Fortis would rush into this room with her, all teeth and claws. He would have loved to have seen this moment where she would destroy all the people who had haunted both of them for such a long time.

He deserved to know that she had done the right thing. And beyond that, he deserved to know that she had made them bleed for him.

Baring her teeth in a very undine-like snarl, she slapped the button to open the automatic door and ran into the room, guns blazing. She knew this room well. There were six massive monitors, all lined up in three neat rows. There would be two people at each of them, and that was twelve accounted for. The other three would be stationed on her right and left, and then directly ahead of her. Though the one ahead would be looking out at the water, because the guard liked to watch the lights and the fish.

As expected, there were fifteen people all at their stations making sure the city ran like a well-oiled machine. She shot the nearest two at their desks, watching as they slumped over the control panels. But that was all the time she would get to make it easy.

The two on each side of her were already holding guns. Shots flew, and one of the massive monitors was caught in the crossfire. She dove for cover, taking out another one of the scientists at the monitors as she fell onto her side and hit the floor.

Sparks flew over her head, landing on her shoulders and in her hair. She smelled singed flesh where it was already burning through her skin, but that didn’t matter. She didn’t matter.

Glancing over the top of the monitor, she watched as one of the guards tried to get three scientists to head to the door while he opened fire on her. She didn’t care if she got shot, though. She wasn’t trying to hide. Alexia shot all three of them until one of the guard’s blasts caught her in the shoulder.

Dead. The arm went limp. He’d cut right through the tendon in her biceps and the rifle dropped onto the floor.

That wasn’t good. She really needed to use that more. She’d only killed six of them so far.

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