Project Butterfly

Chapter 45

As he heard Aradia's footsteps fade into the distance Vladimir hoped Dr. Walker would keep her safe. He'd been acting strange as of late. Maybe the pressures were getting too much for him but Tatiana was convinced that the Doctor wasn't a weak link. He could be relied upon.

Too late to turn back now, Aradia was on her way to him and Vladimir still had Andrei in front of him, seething like a rabid, wild dog.

"This confirms everything, old man." Andrei challenged, talking with his hands the way he always did when maddened. He spat on the floor, expelling to the right of him onto the wall of the narrow corridor, sparring up and down like a boxer.

"Andrei, who have you told?" Vladimir asked as he collected his fears and controlled his voice. Maintaining a quiet tone. He hoped no one would overhear.

"You think I would grass you up?" Andrei sneered. "No, I wanted you all to myself. I wanna take the credit as the man who single handily dealt with the moles my own way. I know about your cahoots with Tatiana. I'm much smarter than you think. I'll go further than you ever went here. I'll be fully trusted, rewarded."

Vladimir calmed himself, thankful for Andrei's arrogance and over-confidence though he was beyond neutralising the situation. He'd seen Aradia and he knew about conspiring with Tatiana yet they'd been so discreet, so careful.

 Andrei lunged towards Vladimir. His head snapped back as Andrei punched him square in the jaw.  Vladimir was disorientated but was far from knocked down. His first reaction was to lash back, smacking Andrei hard on the nose. 

Andrei wiped the blood from his face. He brought his fingers close to his eyes inspecting the red on them. A crooked smile distributed upon his face.

"Is that all you got, old man?!" Andrei mocked, cackling through clenched teeth. He spat on the floor.

Vladimir didn't reply. He was occupied observing Andrei's movements. His footwork jumped up and down as though he stood on a hot floor. His nostrils flared. Andrei had always possessed a short temper, but Vladimir had never seen so much fury fastened on his face.

He charged towards Andrei aiming to hit him in the nose again, but he put his arm around Vladimir's neck. He pulled him in closer, beating his left kidney with his other fist at the same time with such a hard force that if Andrei wasn't holding him up, Vladimir was sure he would've fallen.

A burning sensation engulfed his ear as he heard a gut-churning tear and then a final, painful twist as his ear came away in Andrei's mouth. With a surge of strength, he pushed away the crazed guard.

Andrei spat his ear on the floor, falling near Vladimir's feet. As he smiled he revealed Vladimir's blood staining his teeth making him look savage and demonic. Had Serbsy Centre turned Andrei into such a monster or was he always this way?

Vladimir staggered as he attempted to regain his balance, putting pressure on the gushing blood seeping from where his ear had been just a few seconds before. Adrenaline flowed through him, silencing the pain. This was life or death. Fight or flight. Andrei was a dirty fighter. He shouldn't have expected anything less. Vladimir knew he had to stoop down to his level if he was ever going to beat him.

He kicked aside his own ear, bouncing off the wall of the narrow corridor. Andrei was much younger, but Vladimir had experience on his side. All the years of pent-up anger working alongside this monster came to ahead. 

He pounced on Andrei putting all his bodyweight, all his force into knocking him down. He punched him hard in the stomach, winding Andrei who made a sharp wheezing sound. Andrei moved his leg, swiping Vladimir's from under him. He crashed to the floor. 

Andrei was on top of him in a second straddling his chest. He placed his huge hands around Vladimir's throat and squeezed hard. Vladimir could feel his eyes pressing against their sockets from the pressure of Andrei choking him. His lungs hopelessly tried gasping for air.

Vladimir's head pressed in an awkward way against the constricting walls of the hallway. He clawed his hands at Andrei and thrashed his legs in a vain attempt to get him off, but his muscular body weighed more than Vladimir would've suspected.

A primal, lashing instinct took over Vladimir. He wanted to live. He needed to live. Almost without thought he brought his hands up to Andrei's face and shoved his thumbs into his eyes. He wielded more pressure onto them until Andrei made a curdling scream.

He released Vladimir's neck, allowing him to take a deep breath, clearing his fogged mind. He kept his hands gripped round Andrei's head, driving his thumbs deeper into his skull. His eyes squelch and pop until he knew that Andrei would never see again, his eyes a bloody paste.

He would have kept going, kept pushing what was left of Andrei's eyes right into his brain until he stopped screaming, but Andrei had locked onto Vladimir's arms, managing to overpower him. His hands were pulled away revealing two dark red holes where Andrei's eyes should have been. Blood poured profusely from them.

Vladimir thought quickly and drove his knee up with full force in between Andrei's legs, punching him simultaneously in the stomach. 

Weakened from blood loss and the double blow to his crotch and stomach Andrei keeled over gasping for breath. Vladimir climbed on top him. Repeatedly he beat his head again and again with both fists as hard as he could until he realised that Andrei wasn't breathing anymore. He didn't know why at that moment in time, but Vladimir kept on hitting his face. He couldn't stop himself. Andrei was no longer recognisable. His face just a bloody mess, shards of bone poking up towards the ceiling.

"What is the meaning of this?!"

Breaking out of his primitive trance, Vladimir was strangely calm as he rose off the bloody body of Andrei to face the accuser. Another guard, an acquaintance of both his and Andrei's stormed towards him, a gun in his hand.

If Vladimir wanted to live, he had to think fast.

 "This man was a traitor! He was conspiring to release patients! We got into a heated discussion, I was onto him and he tried to attack me before I could report him to anyone. He ripped my ear off!" Once the man was close enough Vladimir turned his head to show the guard his bloody wound.

The guard nodded, seeming happy with his account. He hid the gun in his holster to Vladimir's relief.

"We have found a few other traitors too." The guard said walking up to Andrei kicking him hard in the ribs, almost as though he was assuring himself he was really dead. Though from the state of him he couldn't survive such a beating. "An Alpha patient is on the loose. It's not a lockdown yet but we're having a hard time locating her. Come with me."

Vladimir gave a deep breath and followed the other guard. He could only pray that Aradia was safe now with Dr. Walker.