Chapter 3:
One Foe Falters, Another Rises
Buffy ran into the dorm and headed straight for their room. Thirty seconds later found her inside the empty room. Looking around Buffy saw no sign that Willow had been here recently. She's probably with Tara. I'll call Giles first then and head over there.
Dialing Giles’ house, the phone rang for almost a minute before a sleepy voice answered, “Hullo? Yes? Giles residence.”
“Giles we got problems, big ones.”
Giles felt himself wake up instantly as the tone of Buffy's voice penetrated the fatigue caused from being awakened by sudden noise, “Are you okay Buffy?”
She replied, “Yeah, but those commando’s came after me tonight, they were after me for some reason. We gotta get together and meet early about this…”
Rubbing the bridge of his nose Giles considered the reasons for the attack, none of which were pleasant, “Yes, yes. I'll call Xander and let him know.”
“And I'll tell Willow and Tara when I see them.”
“Isn't she there?” Giles asked concerned.
“No she's not, I figured she's with Tara.”
“Ahem, ah yes. Perhaps you should drop by just in case though.”
Nodding her head in agreement the Slayer responded, “Good idea. I'll do that as soon as I hang up.”
“I'll see you in the morning then. Be careful Buffy, we don't know what they are up to or why.”
Even though he couldn’t see her face, Giles could hear the smile in her voice, “I'll be careful. Night.”
{{{{***}}}}
In the Initiative morgue, the coroner walked up to the sheet shrouded form on the slab and pulled the sheet off the body. Turning on the headset and recorder, “The time is 8:33am, Dec. 15. We are performing a full autopsy on a male, approximately 18 - 25 years of age in good physical health. There are various bruises and contusions across the upper torso...the right arm shows disfiguration and coloration indicates a dislocation at the shoulder and a broken wrist. There is a long 15cm cut thru the jugular. Initial cause of death is blood loss.”
She turned towards the tray set next to the slab, containing various sizes of knives and scalpels; while she was reaching for one of the larger scalpels, the body on the slab twitched, then began to move, “We will begin by starting with the standard “Y” incision in the chest....”
The doctor felt something grab her by the back of her neck and yank with brutal strength, pulling her backwards and down...As she drew a breath to scream she felt razor sharp teeth tear into her neck and then, she felt nothing at all.
The creature that was once Graham howled as it drained the last drops of blood from its meal, before throwing the body aside in a loud clash, as the body smashed into the glass medicine cabinet.
Rolling off the slab from which it had risen, it headed towards the door. The creature fumbled with the handle for several seconds before succeeding in opening the door. Peering out the door, it saw a long hallway and the head of a human peeking out of the door across the hall.
With a loud snarl it leapt across the hall with inhuman speed, hitting the door hard enough to knock the scientist peering from behind it unconscious.
The revenant looked at the large body on one of the many tables in the room curiously, before tearing into the meal lying on the floor. He had barely started draining his victim dry when a piercing alarm split the air. Rearing away from the bloody corpse at its feet, the beast clapped its hands to its ears, howling in pain from the penetrating sound, until the sound of pounding footsteps warned it that it had been discovered.
“In there!!! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!!!!!”
The Initiative’s First Response Team appeared in the doorway just as the single-minded creature turned back towards its downed prey. Sensing competition for its meal the revenant bared its three and a half inch fangs, roaring in challenge.
“Oh my god, it's Graham!!! Just fry it!!!” Five high-powered taser rifles lashed out and hit the creature that had once been Graham. Screaming and howling it fell on the large body lying on the table. The commandos continued to pump more fire into the revenant’s body until it moved no more and smoke rose from the body, the stink of burnt flesh filling the air.
The leader of the team designated two of his team members to flank the twitching revenant with a glance and a nod of his head. Once they were in position, another one moved up to Graham while pulling a coil of extremely strong but thin cord from his belt, and proceeded to quickly and efficiently tie up their one time companion. Once he was finished, the team picked him up, and carried him to one of the containment cells below.
Professor Walsh waited until they were well on their way to containment before she stepped into room 314, and looked down at her assistant. Looking up from her examination of the corpse, she said to the guards that had remained with her, “Take the HST’s victims and isolate them in a containment cell for 48 hours. Given that the creature rose only hours after death, that should be long enough to tell whether or not they will rise as well.”
The soldiers saluted in unison, “Yes, Ma’am!”
Once they had picked up the corpse and were out the door, she closed the door behind them, and then goes to the sheet shrouded form lying on the table. She pulls the scorched sheet away and proceeds to examine the massive form laid upon the table, checking for any damage that would need to be repaired.
“That was a little too close for comfort, wasn’t it Adam?” she said softly in an affectionate and slightly creepy voice. “At least it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. No harm done to you at all, and no one knows about what you are. The soldier of a new age; an age where mankind will no longer need fear the darkness, as the darkness will have been tamed to our hand.” A new age of Man that will be possible only because of my work.
Walsh turns away from the figure on the table to pick up first a surgical tray that had been knocked over, and then the various surgical instruments that were supposed to be lying on the tray.
She had just picked up a small but powerful bone saw and put it back on the tray, when she arched her back in pain as something slammed into her back and through her chest with tremendous power. Numb with shock, she looked down at the bony spike jutting from her chest, then over her shoulder at her attacker.
She whispered hoarsely, “Adam?”
As she slid off of the spike and into the darkness of death, she heard Adam say, “Mommy.”
Adam looks down at the woman he just skewered, and then examines the room from top to bottom, searching for information of any variety. Within minutes he scans and memorizes the few paper documents and charts in the room, before moving to the computer terminal on the desk.
He reaches up to the metal plate covering part of his face, and disconnects part of it. Next he takes a small cable from the desk and hooks one end of it to the cable port that was underneath the plate, and plugs the other end of the cable into the terminal; then he begins downloading information from the Initiative Mainframe at an incredible rate, starting with Maggie Walsh’s private files detailing Project 314, OMEGA Program, and Operation Hunter.
ADAM plugged cable from his head to the computer's network card and logged himself into the base's computer network. The computer prompted him for his Username *MWalsh* and Password *Osiris*. Several seconds passed and then the screen suddenly flashed “WELCOME DIRECTOR WALSH!”
Swiftly ADAM swooped into the Initiative's main computer and using his mother's access codes ADAM cut everyone out of the base's network except himself. Now, while they are confused as to what is happening I will ensure that they can do nothing. With that thought ADAM initiated the lockdown procedure.
Alarms began wailing and lights flashing as the base computers began to seal all access doors exiting the complex. The lone elevator out had just reached the top floor outside when it suddenly came to a violent stop. The scientists inside frantically tried pressing the ‘CALL’ buttons for help when the base computer cut the cable to the elevator and it plunged back down into the earth; ½ a mile straight down.
With the last of the doors locked down, ADAM cut off the circuit for main power to the facility. For several seconds the base was plunged into darkness before the emergency lights came on bathing the rooms and hallways in red light. Soldiers ran thru the hallways trying to organize themselves with their units and the scientists and other civilians scattered thru the base looked around in fear…
… As ADAM sent an overload to the circuit controlling the doors that kept the demons locked away, the door to every cell with a demon in it…opened.
For the first time in their lives, the different demons worked together, for now they all had just one goal…to kill every human for what they had done.
Whether the scientists and soldiers ran or hid or prayed or fought, in the end it didn't matter… their vaunted superiority over the ‘animals’ gone, along with most of their weapons…the humans never had a chance. When it was over, the Initiative was no more, destroyed by the teeth and claws of those they had regarded as no more than vermin.
And while the humans fought for their lives, ADAM watched and listened and learned…
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