WnW 7.20

Daria hissed and held a hand over the bite wound. “Fucker bit straight through my clothes like butter.”

I moved to press my back against hers so we could watch each other’s blind spots. It didn’t seem like Neve’s boost to my senses was doing me any favours. Everything felt raw and the shadows undulated in the fog. Was it my mind playing tricks on me, or were those fish, swimming in the recesses of the hallway, hiding behind light fixtures and doors?

I had first thought that this was an apartment complex, but it seemed more like enclosed offices, with the room I had first crashed into being a break room. Nameplates were affixed to the walls next to the doors.

“Clarity has improved,” a drone operator said through my headset. “Drones are making out tons of moving, small heat sources. They’re quite fast.”

I felt Daria leave my back for a moment. 

“Gotcha!”

She held out a wriggling organism. It was silvery-black in colour, like charcoal. Daria gripped it tightly, threading her fingers through some of the holes that passed straight through its body like it had been riddled with bullets, yet remained alive. Its eyes were a filmy gray and it had teeth like a piranha. The fins were quite large for its general size, looking like sails, but they could contract to lie flat along its body, as the fish was demonstrating rapidly in its efforts to escape.

I tapped my headset to turn on the mic. “I think we figured out what the heat sources are. They’re fish. Floating fish. They’re swimming through the fog like its water.”

“Nick!” Daria exclaimed sharply and kicked one of my legs. I staggered and adjusted my footing, looking down just in time to see another fish that had just made a pass at me flit away into the dark.

“We should move,” I said. Daria nodded.

“Head downwards, the epicenter of the cloud is beneath you,” Nell said through comms. “I’ll try to mess with the fish but I can’t make any sweeping changes when we don’t know where the hostages are.”

“I think the drones are being attacked, hard to tell,” the drone operator said. “No loss of function so far.”

We headed down the hallway, Daria leading at a brisk pace. She abruptly ducked low as a fish, with its mouth agape, darted past where her head had just been. I swiped at it, but it easily swam away through the air. Pain flared in my ankle, making me stumble. By the time I glanced down the fish was gone, leaving a bloody bite mark. It had mostly gotten bone from my armour, the wound was shallow. I regrew the armour and kept moving. If this keeps up we’re gonna get eaten alive, bit by bit.

The faint green glow of an exit sign pierced the fog, hovering above a closed door. Daria tried the handle and then flinched as a fish attached itself to her forearm, sinking in its teeth. She tore it off with a crushing grip before lifting it to her mouth and biting it back. She spat out the mouthful which floated gently to the ground before she reared back and kicked the door.

The door shrieked and bent in the middle, near the latch, and promptly swung open. Something was dislodged by the kick and clanged loudly down the stairwell shaft. We went inside and I slammed the door shut before filling the gap with a snarl of branches.

I noted that the handle on this side had been snapped clean off. It could have been Daria’s kick but something felt off…

We moved down the concrete steps, descending in a square spiral. Daria paused to scoop something up and toss it behind her as she went. 

I caught it. It was a metal chair leg.

“An intentional jam,” I murmured. “Stuck between the door handle and the railing of the stairwell?”

“Seems like it,” Daria replied.

“Be advised,” the drone operator said, “something big took out one of the drones.”

What could that mean?

“Daria and Nick, take care, we’re almost at the base of your building,” Mac said. “Rejoin us and we can make a plan of attack.”

This time I didn’t try to act contrarian. I felt a little bad for messing with Mac’s plan for a second time. But that guilt quickly turned to anger when I thought about how Mac hadn’t made an effort to listen to my experiences. It made you uncomfortable, so what? It was worse for me.

I was just turning to take the next set of stairs when a fish flew into my face. Needle teeth slid like cold knives into my cheek, finding the bone underneath. I froze with my hands around its body and I had to fight every instinct I had telling me to rip it off. The armour on my face had been too light in order to see better in the murk.

A memory from my youth appeared in my head. An angry dog with its jaws around my arm. That was the first time I’d ever spoken with Mac. After going most of the year without making a friend, it had taken blood to get him to speak to me. Push forward, don’t pull.

So I pressed the fish into my face and let the fire out from my core. The fish melted into my skin and filled the wounds it had made. Two more fish took mouthfuls from my back and shoulder without making the same mistake. I silently admonished myself for getting distracted. The pain told me the wounds weren’t deep, but the attacks were getting more frequent.

Daria was having similar issues, but she didn’t assimilate the ones she got ahold of, only ripping them apart or biting them.

“Let’s drop!” I shouted.

She nodded and jumped over the railing into the middle of the stairwell. Luckily it was a wide gap that made it easy to drop straight down the shaft. I followed her over the edge.

We fell at not quite the speed I was accustomed to, the fog slowing us down just a pinch. Fish bodies whacked into me as we fell. Some were larger and longer so they couldn’t move as quickly, looking like eels and catfish with sharp teeth. Suddenly they were everywhere, scales and fins scraping past us. We were falling through a school of them.

Weird. I was expecting that at least a few would have gotten a bite in as we passed. But they weren’t biting. Suddenly I realized that every single fish was heading the same way. Back up the way we came. Fleeing from whatever we were heading straight towards.

The flashes of silver grew thinner and then I saw it. 

A massive maw encompassed the stairwell beneath me. Rows of teeth smeared with fish guts. I only saw darkness in its ribbed gullet.

Daria’s hands broke through the torrent of fish and grabbed me, hauling me out from the shaft. The giant fish twisted its body, correcting course, slamming its jaws down on us, only to be stopped by the railing and concrete stairs. I got a front row view of teeth the size of my fist and milky white eyes surrounded by small holes that made the shark look like it was somehow rotting while still alive.

Daria hoisted me to my feet and we ran downwards. I could hear the groan of the metal bending from the pressure of the shark’s jaws. We made it to the next landing and Daria reached for the partially ajar door-

Only for the door to slam shut. Footsteps faded as whoever had just done that ran away.

Daria chuckled as she strained her muscles against the handle. “Someone is fucking with us,” she panted. She looked worse for wear than I was, bite marks riddling her body.

Neve’s voice filtered through the comms. “Daria, get out of there!”

I could see the outline of the shark thrashing above us, still biting the railing. The groaning grew louder.

“Out?” Daria said lightly. “Babe, I’m just getting started.” She landed two heavy kicks on the door, cracking it, but it didn’t give way like the first one had.

Neve’s frustration pitched her voice higher. “If you don’t leave right now, I’m withholding cuddles for the next week. I swear to God I’ll make you sleep on the floor.”

Daria looked at me. “Nick, this is getting serious.”

“You’re saying that now?!” I exclaimed.

The groaning of the metal ended abruptly in a screech. I could almost feel the air shift as the shark moved through the fog with alarming speed. Daria darted downwards then quickly changed course, leaping back towards me as the shark slammed its mass into the stairs below her.

I took the lead, heading back up to a higher landing. A quick check told me that this door was also locked. I jammed my finger into the lock and filled the small space with bone. The basics of lockpicking vacated my mind in panic. 

I just Shaped violently inside the lock.

Cmon. Cmon… 

The latch clicked open.

I threw myself against the door, which opened easily and slammed against the wall. I fell to the floor on the other side and Daria collapsed onto me, before twisting around and kicking the door shut. 

The floor and walls shook as the shark hit the door, but it stayed strong.

I felt some of the tension leave Daria’s body, meanwhile I was still as wound up as piano wire.

“Put any thought into our previous discussion?” she asked, not rising from her spot on top of me.

I looked away. “Not now.”

“C’mon.”

“I- I’m just not good at this. Not responding is easier.”

Daria shook her head, her hair brushing my face. “Not good enough. Throw me a bone here, I’m risking cuddle time with Neve ‘cause of this. Tell me the truth. I’m a big girl, I can take it.”

I sighed, sending Nell pulses of annoyance as she silently observed through our connection. Finally I just blurted it out, “I’m not interested in you. Sexually.”

“Ah. Nell? Tom?”

My brain felt like a ball of wet wool. “No. Not anyone. Not ever in my whole life. I’m weird. I… I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

Daria patted my cheek. “Nothing to fret over.” She stood and got off of me.

I felt a little close to tears as I stared into the empty fog. “I haven’t told anyone that before.”

“What better time than after narrowly escaping an air shark?” she joked, in perhaps the most gentle way I’d seen her act.

A pop of static came from my headset, followed by, “Another drone down. Careful, you two, that was close to your location.”

I took another second to compose myself before tapping my headset to respond, “Was it in the stairwell?”

“Negative.”

“Then it’s either another big fish or our mystery antagonist,” I replied.

Daria helped me to my feet. 

“I have an idea,” she said and stepped over to the elevator doors. She gripped the seam between the shutters and wrenched them open with surprising ease. Another dark shaft awaited us.

“Kind of don’t want a repeat of the stairwell,” I said as Daria swatted away a fish that had found us.

“What are the chances?” Daria asked with a shit-eating grin.

I sighed and said, “I’ll go first this time.” 

I jumped, aiming for the guide rails on the side of the shaft. There were enough footholds that descending was made as easy as a series of small downward drops.

No cables, I noticed. That meant that the elevator car was still above us.

The rail shuddered as Daria landed above me. She made a small noise of surprise and I looked up just in time to see her dropping towards me. I caught her wrist, almost losing my grip on the rail.

“Oops. That’s embarrassing,” Daria said. “Blood on my hand made me lose my grip. Thanks darling.”

A rumbling echoed down the shaft and the vibrations in the guide rail only got stronger.

Daria’s eyes widened, looking up past me. “No way. It’s still working?!”

No need to look and confirm. I hauled Daria up to my footing and then jumped down with haste. Daria followed close behind. The rumbling got closer, bearing down on us, like we were running from a train on the tracks.

“Go! Go!” Daria shouted.

I rushed, spotting my next landing before I’d even finished each jump. It wasn’t enough. The roar turned deafening, filling my brain with dread.

Daria crashed into the railing I was still on. She flinched as the elevator came down on top of us. I saw the metal box get closer and closer… Slowing down until it stopped right above our heads, followed by a ding as it reached the desired floor.

Someone had called it?

After some of the numbness had left my limbs, we descended down to the next floor. Daria ripped the doors open, letting in a smidge of light. She looked back and I caught the wild look in her eye. 

“Come on, Nick,” she said, licking the blood from her arm. “Our friend called the elevator from the floor above. Time to go on the offensive.”

“Hear hear,” I said dryly.

We moved with speed, lunging forward, utilizing the floatiness of the environment to vault over overturned desks and past nipping fish. Daria opened the stairwell door without fear, sprinting up the steps. I eventually locked on to what Daria was hearing: a set of footsteps above us. Neve’s powers made it easier to pinpoint exactly where.

There was no sign of the shark, thankfully, and we were gaining on the enemy.

I was navigating better by sound now, and it felt like we were two hounds, hot on the heels of our prey. It was exhilarating to move in unison. 

Then the footsteps stopped and I heard the elevator moving again. We rounded a corner and I used Locust Legs to spring past Daria, rolling and reaching the next corner. I could hear the elevator doors closing, even though I couldn’t yet see them. Diving forward, I lanced branches into the doors shrouded in the smog, triggering them to open again.

But then the branches snapped like straw as something huge emerged from within. My heart sank as I realized we’d been tricked. A shark’s mouth yawned open in front of my face.

Daria reacted quickly, leaping over me and punching the shark in the side of the head, redirecting its mouth, which snapped shut inches from my face. Then she gripped the holes, using them as stirrups to mount the creature.

I heard footsteps again from nearby. Our target, but there were also more sounds of movement that were much further away, coming up from the floors below.

“Neve, stay with the team!” Mac shouted through the comms.

Daria rode the beast as it slammed through the enclosed space. I abandoned pursuing our trickster culprit for now. Daria needed my help. I grabbed a hefty chair and waited for the huge fish to swim past, shoving the chair into its open gaping mouth. Triggered by the object entering its mouth it snapped it closed with a crunch. Hopefully the shards of wood were painful.

The shark carried on into an office space and Daria let go with her hands and seized an office desk that was bolted to the floor. She grunted in exertion as she clenched her powerful legs, altering the course of the shark so it slammed into a wall. The fish slowed, momentarily stunned from the impact and I took the opportunity to get close and find handholds, adding my strength to the mix.

With Daria and I working in tandem, the tides turned. We could barely control the shark as it struggled against us. 

An idea struck me.

“It’s a bit brighter, we’ve gone down pretty far,” I managed to get out between pants of exertion.

“Reckon we have,” Daria replied.

“Near the bottom of the fog sphere.”

“Yup.”

We were on the same page. Straining with our combined effort, we steered the shark so that it faced the window. It fought hard, doing everything in its power to break free.

“One… Two…” Daria counted. “Three!”

We let go in tandem and the shark shot through the glass with barely a pause, disappearing into the outside air… Until we heard a heavy splash a few seconds later.

I sat down as relief flooded through me. 

Daria chuckled. “I wonder if it can swim?”

At that moment, a scream rattled through the building. It was one of pure terror. 

It was Neve.

Daria reacted faster than I’d ever seen her move, becoming a blur in the dark. I sprung after her, barely keeping her hair within my sight. She used the stairwell, throwing herself downwards. The fog noticeably thinned as we descended, as did the concentration of fish. Daria, following her connection to her Witch, exited on a floor where the cloud was only hovering around the upper half of the room, like thick smoke cloying towards the ceiling.

It diminished even more as we got further in. Then I rounded a corner and Daria was at Neve’s side. She was curled up against a wall, her arms covering her face.

“No! No no no! It can’t be him!” Neve sobbed.

Daria shielded her, peering into the smog. I joined their side.

“Show yourself!” I shouted.

A pair of legs walked out from a side room, the rest of their body obscured by the fog. Slacks with colourful sneakers. They strode forward and I heard them chuckle, distorted into strange pitches by my enhanced hearing.

Then the torso came out of the smoke. A pinstripe vest and a torn-up dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up. A knife was held so loosely in their fingers that it seemed ready to fall to the ground. But it never did.

Only the face remained hidden. Another step and a Cheshire smile came into view.

My heart stopped.

“I can’t believe it. Long time, no see, Nick.”

I know that voice.

A final step, taken with the flair of a magician giving a grand reveal.

Chase. It was Chase. The one who had started it all.