Beyond the Horizon

51. The Monsters

"You did it," Inukashi said. They looked around the hallway, overrun with Lab agents and freed VCs and said, louder, "Holy shit. You actually did it."

          "Yeah," Nezumi agreed. "Guess so." He looked around at the sea of bodies filtering through the hall around him. Most of them were his blank-faced puppets, unlocking glass cages or standing by with their machine guns. Peppered among them were green-clad VCs basking in the freedom awaiting them. More than a handful stepped gingerly from their cages, as if they couldn't quite believe what was happening.

          Nezumi supposed he couldn't blame them. Escape had been something of a fantasy the moment he was pulled inside Horizon Labs. The building around him was an impenetrable fortress that devoured those within. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.

          Except now the beast was rotting from the inside out. Nezumi could see the decay spread with each green jumpsuit that intermingled with the crowd of white lab coats and black uniforms. Like cancer cells spreading through a body, the VCs infested the hallway until it was impossible to ignore them. There wasn't enough room for the small surge of VCs and Lab employees―the hallways hadn't been built for a crowd.

          The mental clock inside Nezumi's head ticked down. He could feel the hands clicking in his skull, counting down the minutes until the serum would abandon him. With each pass of the clock's invisible iron hands, Nezumi felt his body begin to respond to the loss. His muscles tensed, coming down from a powerful surge of adrenaline.

          For a moment, Nezumi stood in the middle of Section P and watched as the promise of chaos swelled around him. He felt weightless and detached from his body, surveying the glass cages from somewhere far beyond, his heart pounding away like a jackhammer beneath his ribs. Logically, he knew he was on limited time. The serum coursing through his veins wouldn't last much longer―two more minutes at best, if he was lucky―and if his control collapsed right now with so many guards mingling about, his escape plan would turn into a slaughter.

          Shou stood idly at Nezumi's side, watching the growing assortment of VCs with idle disinterest. He hated Nezumi. The moment his mind was freed from his control, he'd run off and get the first security guard he could find to put a bullet in Nezumi's skull. Nezumi knew he needed to put distance between them, block his army's access to his escape route.

          But Nezumi found he couldn't do anything other than stand in the middle of it all and breathe.

          For years, destroying Horizon Labs had been a pipe dream. Something Nezumi used to comfort himself when the nightmares kept sleep just out of reach. Something to strive for when he found himself searching for a reason to keep going. A poison that'd settled inside his bones and twisted him so badly he would never be free from the damage.

          Now that the dreamed destruction had finally become a reality, Nezumi felt as if he'd crashed into a heavy wall. He stood in the midst of the loud murmuring and intermittent shrieks of confused excitement erupting from the crowd of freed VCs, gazing lifelessly out at a sea of faces.

          "Uh... You good?"

          Nezumi turned. Inukashi stood behind him, their fists clenching and unclenching. Their beady eyes glimmered in the bright LED lights humming above them, the tangled ends of their long hair clinging to their throat and forearms.

          "Yeah," Nezumi said, and then a moment later, "Actually, I think I'm going to pass out."

          Inukashi's eyes went wide.

          Nezumi could feel his control slipping through his fingers, like dust carried away on a gentle spring wind. His time with the serum was steadily running out; as it began to bleed its way out of his system, he could feel the strain of using his powers again, the piercing headache that came with it. The edges of his vision blurred gray and red.