Chapter 50
The Tavern
After few days after Nina’s army retreated, Veron’s army bases were undergoing reformation. During the time, they became sluggish, thinking that Nina got scared of them. In one tavern, where the owner had gut to open the store even during the war time, the Veron’s soldiers gathered. One side of the wall was damaged badly by the bombshells, there was huge crack from top to bottom; windows were shattered and covered roughly by the piece of woods.
The soldiers were drinking heavily, beating up some old man for staring at their loyal faces. Some guy in the bar saw this, and looked at the old man screaming. He walked up to the soldiers who were beating the old man and bowed down to them. He said he was the old man’s friend and took him out of there.
The soldiers looked proud, laughing, saying “That bitch needs to be tortured and beheaded!” “Veron is a true king of the universe, descendent of gods!” some were crying out for their victory and toasting about lost soldiers to Nina that cold-hearted witch.
They started quarreling among themselves after the series of insults among each others. Saying that they have a greater contribution to the army and calling others a coward.
And something slowly crawled into the tavern. It was big like a crocodile but looked more like some degenerated frog. It fumed a horrible smell. The girls at the bar started a hysterical screaming and started running away. The soldiers were shocked at the beginning but soon they watched it as if the circus came to town. One soldier with a highest rank at the table threw a nasty look and scorned at the thing.
“What the fuck is this?” the soldiers sniggered and approached the creature, taking out their guns.
“Maybe it is that bitch’s pet!” said one of them. They burst into laughter and they started shooting at the thing. The thing made a squealing noise, vibrating intensely and fell dead on the floor.
“The smell…” the people in the bar pinched their noses, some of them ran outside. And a sound of growling came from outside, the soldiers looked at the door, clutching their guns. Suddenly one bloody corpse was thrown from outside. The soldiers gazed at it and started shooting at the darkness beyond the door.
“Stop stop!!” one of them shouted.
The soldiers were sweating. They looked at the half eaten corpse which the whole body was ripped open.
“Reload the ammos!” bellowed the man. “Now!”
Some of them dropped the gun, was on their knees, puking. The little creature, which looked like a little girl yet somehow resembling a moth, came in. She was a lot smaller than the dead one which entered first. She had yellow eyes with red veins surrounding it. The look was so horrifying they all froze. The little girl flicked her head and started screaming, and the bunch of others gushed into the bar. There were screaming and yelling; the soldiers fired at them, but there were too many. The tavern was filled with the sound of crashes and caterwauling, but it slowly died.
The institution where Karl worked was the original location of the underground lab. Until they closed it down due to the constant breakout of the disease and actual incidents concerning creatures. Fearing the potential massacre of students, they moved the lab location in the field between the institution and the town where Alvin Caravel lived. They surrounded them with mines. The occasional mine explosions in the field made the dwellers in the city reluctant to go near the institution.
The tunnel which Tasha and Jake passed to get to the institution was the tunnel which was used to move the creatures secretly. The underground facility was now being used as a shelter, where all the professors, students and other dwellers were hiding in now.
During this time, Karl warned people to get out of there as he knew the creatures were living right under them, and soon they will gush through the tunnel. But as they refused, Randolph mocked him and called him a crazy person. Karl grabbed Tyler and got out of there. He knew Veron will soon release the creatures.
Karl knew about the creatures because of the strange encounter he had with a baby corpse he found at the barn. The baby’s head was ripped out completely. While he was examining the baby, the farmers broke into the barn and ran away screaming. This earned him a notorious fame for some period.
Since then he tried to track down the clues, and happened to look carefully at Alvin Caravel and his secret relation with Simard Polchinski about his research of massive regeneration of cells. Karl got curious so he tried to extract information from Alvin.
The attempt failed however; Karl tried to capture him while he is walking in the back alley. He hired local gangs to track his movement. They were planning to hit him with a truck to disarm him and take him to the abandoned building to interrogate. But the truck driver and the entire gangs who were hiding were slaughtered as Alvin noticed and opened fire at them.
The worse thing was that Alvin assaulted Karl’s office and fired machine gun at his wall, to warn him to stay away. Few bullets pierced his shoulder but he was alive.
After this incident, Karl almost gave up hope on digging the mystery, until he heard about Herbie Madison, the mercenary, talking about the strange letter, which contained the information why Alvin left the command of Nina Polchinski. Before Veron executed the youth group, the Rodents, Karl visited Robert and threatened him to hand over the letter. Robert thought he was sent by Nina Polchinski and gave him the letter. Robert was completely devastated after this incident and made him hate the country. So, when Veron executed the youths in the abandoned building, Robert just left Cassandra without looking back.
Herbie thought the letter was merely for an espionage purpose but it was more than that. It was the plan set up by Alvin Caravel to convince Nina to escape from Cassandra. Alvin knew that Nina wouldn’t listen when he forced to drag her out from Veron’s presence so he waited for the right moment. Karl knew this has to be true because not only the mail consists of the fact that Alvin left Nina’s command, which Nina already knew at the time, but there were puzzling comment under it which made traffickers to presume that Alvin was working as a spy, but at the same time, gave a different message to Nina.
“They see because they do not see,” it was written, it was the phrase which only makes sense when Nina realizes that those creatures exists and it can see through her cloaking device.
It turns out that Alvin left Nina’s command to figure out the secret planning done by Veron and Titto, which ended up adding more tension to Veron which revealed more of his secret because, when they accelerated the project it created the uncomfortable situation for the professors in the institution and made them complain concerning their compensation. Initially he couldn’t even tell Nina as he was concerned that the words might get into Veron’s ears, although Nina had her own suspicions after the ship sunk in the southern sea. Alvin stayed undercover and waited for the right moment to rescue Nina before the mess.
Karl, while contacted by Veron to capture Nina Polchinski, had accepted the task not to capture Nina, but for the purpose of confirming the existence of the creatures. He entered Veron’s database in headquarter, and bingo, he found the record of the genetic technology called Ephemera.
So he escaped as fast as he could, bringing Tyler, his favorite student, with him. Now he is running away to the Island of Riddles. Abruptly, they were stopped by the creature on the street. It was their first encounter, Karl and Tyler froze, he saw the thing moving which looked at them with a red, deformed eyeballs. It looked like some mixture of rooster and the worm. It growled and made a weirdest noise. Karl and Tyler stepped backwards. The creature’s gooey saliva dripped down to the ground.
Karl gripped his gun tightly, taking a deep breath. The thing was clattering its teeth. He yelled and started shooting with his machine gun. It got hit by bullets, it bled and screamed and its big body fell down on the street. Karl was shaking a little but calmed down. Tyler struggled not to pass out, soaked with sweat. The thing didn’t move, but Karl put out his big revolver and shot it few times. He shuddered, catching his breath
and put his gun back to his pocket. Its blood was thick like a jelly and smelt like some chemical.
From a distance, they heard gunfire and people screaming. “Shit…” Karl cursed. “Let’s go, Tyler, the chopper is near!”
Mysterious murders were continued in a dim twilight of Cassandra. Dozens of heads were rolling in a middle of the square, houses, parks, and sewage, like fresh cut grasses. Blood vapor rose, rats and dogs joyfully joined flock of crows for a feast. It was a frenzy animal party; the public panicked.