Gods and Monsters

VII

Inside the hangar

The team were pacing around inside as they heard the eruption of gunfire from the runway, curious as to what had caused the friction between Anderson and Ewan with this new hunter. From the way the Scots had been taken down it sounded as if this new hunter had more than enough firepower, and certainly the confidence to take the team down making him extremely dangerous.

"What did the guy say his name was again? Jared Brody, wasn't it? Why does that sound familiar?" Scarlett asked. Mike and Charlie looked at each other having instantly recognised the hunter.

"His brother is Eddie Brody, the man responsible for the Embankment Incident a few months ago." Mike said. "Jared had suffered from motor neurone disease and Eddie was working on a cure which resulted in the virus on the tube. Eddie taunted us as he had tested a later version of the formula on Jared, but he had disappeared before we were even aware of him. We hoped that if the cure had been successful he wouldn't be a problem."

"Guess we were wrong," Charlie added.

The megaphone outside made a high-pitched, squealing sound as Jared attempted to use it again, the crimson stain of his victims blood smeared around his mouth making his menacing grin appear even wider. "Testing, testing! Mr Quinn and Miss Parker, hello!" Another cackle as Jared pulled himself up onto the bonnet of one of Ewan's cars. Whatever that serum had done to cure Jared's disability certainly had an adverse affect on his psyche. "Now there are two ways we can do this whole shebang. You can either step outside now, I'll put you down with a swift bullet to the back of the head and be on my way. The alternative is that if you stay inside, in five minutes we will storm the place, killing each and everyone of you in the slowest, most painful way possible. Oh, and I will also feast on all your corpses too, just for good measure."

Inside the hangar the group looked at each other. "Did he really stay he'll eat us?" Rachel asked as she moved closer to the main group by the hangar door.

"I believe the exact wording was that he would feast on our corpses but -" Clarke was cut off as Charlie shot him daggers, "but I think I'll go back and check on Peggy now."

The group set their watches for the end of the five minute deadline as they began to discuss solutions. One thing was for certain though, whilst she was progressing well with the treatment, Peggy wasn't going anywhere soon.

"If I go out there myself, I might be able to by us some more time." Charlie began, although neither Scarlett or Rachel were particularly happy with this option.

"Yeah," Scarlett said. "Cause that went so well the first time with Ewan and Anderson."

"That was different, I had history with them."

"And what about Jared? You helped send his brother to the Ravenscar Institute, I don't think he's taken that too well."

More thinking now. "Well, what if I make a run for it. Draw a few of his men away making it easier for you and Mike to pick the rest off."

"No way!" Rachel said. "I'm not letting you go out there and risk your life like that, there's too slim a chance you'd make it back."

Clearly getting annoyed at this back and forth dialogue between Charlie and the two women, Mike decided to step in. "Rabbit, rabbit, rabbit. Stop the bunny and let's work out a proper plan!" He shouted. "Now, the way I see it is our only proper option is to take the fight to them."

"With three old hunting rifles between us?" Scarlett said.

"Hang about," Charlie said as he ran over to some of Clark's shelves. The small man squirmed as he Charlie rummaged through his perfectly ordered products, but was still wary of saying anything else. "Look how much of this stuff is highly flammable. We've basically got a stockpile of grenades back here."