Rune #6

3/3 chapter 2

A shadow. No footsteps. The silhouette was so quiet, Everette strained to hear even a breath. Everette, a man in his forties, was on his way home from late work and he saw an unusual sight. There was a dark figure, stealing their way towards the dark grocery store.

The man strained his eyes and ears; the person was so quiet and they wore dark clothing, Everette could barely see them. He slowed his car under the light of a streetlamp, squinting into the shadows. The figure disappeared for a minute in the shadows of an alley.

Slowly, heart pounding, Everette reached into his back pocket and fished out his phone. He turned on its light and shone it towards the alley. “Hey!” There was no one there. On the wall was a large spider, watching the man, its many eyes glinting in the phone’s light. Everette shuddered. He hated spiders. He turned, about to clamber back into his truck, when there was a quiet clatter behind him. Everette’s breathing sped up, his heart pounding. His palms were slick. He slowly turned back around. Ten meters away, was the silhouette again. Everette whipped out his phone again, the light shone on the shadowy figure, who flinched and for a moment, Everette could see their face.

It was a teenager, probably twenty. His eyes red and his face pale, so filled with grief and fear, Everette actually flinched. Then the young man was gone, his dark hood fell and his long, dark hair fell in his face. He disappeared into the shadows of a large building and silence ensued. Shaken, Everette stumbled back to his truck and drove away as fast as was legal.

Rune watched him go. He sighed. Another person he had frightened, just by standing still. He did not fit in with humans. Trying again, he crept toward the grocery. The lights were off, but he could see clearly in the dark, he changed to his sarsh form to see in the dark of the store. He stole quick glances around him to make sure there was no one watching. He crept closer. His dark fingers touched the cold metal door. He lifted his cyber arm, focused and slowly, his pointer finger melded into a small key. He had discovered a few new things about his cyberlimbs.

He slid the key into the door and the door pushed open smoothly. The lights began to turn on as he entered. Rune froze. That was bad. He couldn’t have the lights on, that would attract unwanted attention.

He dashed past the isles, purple eyes searching. Half the lights were on now, the freezers humming. Rune’s heart pounded, changing his appearance back to human. No one could see him as a sarsh. He now had strawberry blond hair, his freckled face was flushed. His green eyes wide with fear. He glanced up at the black orbs on the roof. Security cameras. He had learned about human security when he was back on Zenith.

He flipped up his hood and sprinted for the back room. Without stopping to unlock the door, he turned his right shoulder to the door as he charged at it. The door flew off its hinges, crashing loudly on the wall, then falling to the floor. Instantly, a loud alarm blared. Rune doubled over, holding his ears. Bright, red lights spun on the walls. Rune was frozen. Glimpsing a lower down security camera, He jumped and smashed it with a rock-hard, metal fist. Then he ran.

He clipped his shoulder on a shelf as he ran; he ignored the pain and sprinted out of the store. All the lights were on now, white blinding lights. The alarm pierced Rune’s ears. The red lights flashed in the corner of his vision, driving him crazy. The door had locked again. Rune still ran full tilt at it. He was unaware that the doors had locked when the alarm went off. Putting both his hands out to open the door, Rune connected with the metal doors.

Officer Fallyn received a call at midnight. He was working night shift with half a dozen other men. The caller, an older man sounded frightened. He said there was a man hanging around the local grocery store, a shady guy wearing dark clothes. The police officer called to his companions. “we got a 10-66 at the local grocer!” he called. His companions jumped to their feet.

A few moments later, three silent police cruisers sped down the road. There was no need for sirens, plus it would disrupt the night. They had red and blue swirling lights, but they sped silently past the dark homes.

The half a dozen officers saw the lights and heard the store alarm as they came into the parking lot. There was no visible sign of anyone, but the officers stepped from their cruisers, hands on their guns. As officer Fallyn neared the entrance, he saw the front doors had been knocked completely off their hinges, there was a massive dent in them. Then he saw it. There was a man. Lying face-down on the floor, unmoving. Fallyn stepped over the warped door, his companions behind him. Fallyn touched the still figure. As the man on the phone had said, he was wearing dark clothing. He rolled him over. There were the beginnings of a large bruise on his cheek, his hoody was torn in many places and underneath, his shoulders and chest were cut up. His eyes were closed. “Did he run into the door?” asked one officer from behind Fallyn. The man shook his head. “I don’t know. Do you think this is the guy? If he was robbing the store, why is he unconscious on the floor?” Fallyn touched the young man’s neck. “He’s alive. We’ll get him to the ER, but we are going to have to question him. Call an ambulance.” One officer nodded and split off from the rest, pulling out his phone.

A few moments later, an ambulance whipped down the road, sirens wailing. They turned into the grocer’s parking lot, now the alarms had been shut off in the store. The paramedics jumped out of the ambulance, heading for the waiting police officers. As Fallyn spoke with one of the paramedics, the rest gently lifted the young man onto a gurney and slid him into the ambulance. Fallyn clambered into the back, beside the young man. His companions would go make a report and sort out things with the owner of the store. Fallyn would go with the paramedics to question the young man when he woke.

Rune woke. He was lying on his back. He could still hear the store alarms, but they were odd. They sounded different. He heard low voices. Now he realized there was something tight against his chest and leg. His eyes snapped open. Instantly, he was aware of the presence of another man next to him. It was a police officer, his head turned away from Rune. Rune watched him, trying to figure out where he was. With a jolt, he remembered.

The alarm, stupidly running into the thick, metal door, falling and hitting his head on the doors corner. He had been caught. He sighed, the officer’s eyes instantly snapped to his face. He smiled a little when he was Rune’s open, green eyes. “How are you feeling?” He asked softly, probably supposed to be soothing, but it only freaked Rune out even more. His fingers closed around the strap holding him on the bed. With a mighty pull, it ripped off. The police officer flinched, his hand going to his gun. “Whoa, it’s okay. You’re safe.”

Rune ripped his legs free of the other strap and rolled off the gurney, standing erect. He grunted at the pain that lanced through his head. The officer was watching him with wide, wary eyes. “you okay?” he asked quietly. Rune stared at him with wild, fearful eyes. His head swiveled to the back doors, then back to the officer. Catching on, the man shook his head. “don’t you-” too late. Rune jumped for the door. He drew back his right arm and slammed the door. Both doors flew off clean of the ambulance. Rune felt a strong grip on the back of his sweater. He glanced back, the officer had a grip on his hoodie. Rune grabbed the material of his hoodie and tore it with a loud rip, leaving the officer with a handful of cloth.

Rune turned back to the speeding road. “Don’t!” the officer shouted. He did. He leapt from the ambulance and disappeared from sight.

By then, the paramedics had heard the commotion and brought the ambulance to a stop. They rushed to find both their doors twelve meters away from the ambulance and Officer Fallyn running away from them. On the floor was a piece of torn material. The same color as the hoodie the patient had been wearing.

“1-29 needed downtown, south of the local grocery immediately. Repeat, 1-29 south of the local grocery! We’ve got a 1-35 patient, potentially dangerous.” Officer Fallyn called for backup as he followed the escaped patient. He suspected the young man was on drugs. That didn’t explain how he was so incredibly strong, though. He had smashed through the ambulance doors and Fallyn was suspecting he had smashed the grocery doors as well, somehow knocking himself out in the process. Now the young man had disappeared. He was extremely swift on his feet and had gotten a head start on the police officer. He was limping, though. He had injured his leg when jumping from the speeding ambulance.

Rune’s breath gasped from him. As he ran, he discovered something horrible. He couldn’t morph properly in stressful situations. This was actually common in sarsh, their mind became befuddled under stress and this caused problems with their morphing. So Rune was stuck as a fugitive human who had done things impossible for a normal human and now he could hear police sirens in the distance. He had overheard the police officer calling for backup behind him and he was still coming. Rune heard his clomping human feet behind him, twenty meters back. Weak from the lack of food and aching from running into a door, Rune was not as fast as he could have been. The man was gaining on him slowly.

Fifteen meters. Rune gasped for breath, his chest heaving.

Ten meters. The sirens grew louder.

Five meters. Rune stumbled. The police cars rounded the corner, speeding towards the two figures running through the muggy night air.

Two meters. Rune fell to one knee, his breath coming in ragged gasps. The dark of the night shrouded his vision. He fell forward, catching himself on one trembling arm.

Fallyn caught up, standing over Rune, his gun pointed at his back. “Don’t move.” He commanded. The rest of the police arrived.

Twelve police officers stood over Rune’s still figure, his back heaved up and down with his breath. By the time they lifted him off the road, he was unconscious.

“He has a concussion. He must have hit his head back at the store.” Fallyn swept young man’s strawberry blond hair off his forehead, it was matted with blood. There was a gash along his hairline, blood trickled down his forehead. He was a mess.

“Get him in a cruiser. I need to report to General Cendrillion.”

The police jumped into action and Fallyn slid into his cruiser. He let out a long breath. This had been the most eventful night he had in a long time. Quietly, his car slid away from the others and down the road.

General Cendrillion was the leader of the squad that kept an eye on the small, hot town of Conleth. He was speaking with one of his majors when he heard the doorbell. That hated doorbell. Cendrillion detested the sound of it.

He dismissed the major and stepped over to the door, pulling it open. Standing on the other side was a middle-aged police officer. He was tall for a human, but still two feet shorter than the general was. “What could possibly be so important at this time of night?” Cendrillion asked roughly, irritated that humans couldn’t go one night without bothering him about something. “May I come in, sir? I have report of a young man I dealt with tonight.” The General allowed him in and the heavy door shut behind them, cutting off the beam of light that had flowed into the street and plunging to street into darkness.

Darkness. Green eyes flicked open. Shifting of sheets and quiet clatter of teeth. Rune was cold, his body ached. They caught him. He remembered now. He had collapsed, too tired to do anything. He felt the same way now.

His siblings. They would be wondering where he was. He shook his head and groaned. He felt he had been through a black hole.

The hissing of a door opening. Footsteps. A shadow fell over Rune. A woman’s smiling face came into focus. “How are you doing?” she asked, her voice piercingly chipper. “I heard you had quite the night yesterday.” Rune glared at her, then turned away, swearing as pain ripped through his head. The nurse watched his back, smile gone. “I’ll get Officer Fallyn.” she hesitated, then left.

Rune sagged against the bed with a mighty sigh. He had to get out of there.

Fallyn pushed open the door. Lying still on the bed, back towards him, was the escapee. When he heard the door open, the sheet-covered figure stirred and turned over. His green eyes glared fiercly at the police officer. Fallyn walked to him, looking down on him. “What were you doing in the grocery store?” He inquired. The young man’s mouth screwed into a frown. “Go away.” He grunted. His voice was rough and had a dark quality to it, oddly similar to General Cendrillion’s.

Still, he had no right to speak that way. Fallyn reached down, his fingers closing around the young man’s shoulder, but instantly jerked away. Slowly, the boy’s features melted away.

His skin darkened, his hair sky blue. His eyes narrowed and his pupils thinned. Fangs grew over his bottom lip, his whitish lips curled up in a grin. His whole body grew as he swung his legs over the bed. There were white scars standing out against his dark skin, one running with his angular cheekbone and a mass of them on his neck. His right arm and leg morphed into black metal, gleaming in the overhead lights. A sarsh.

Fallyn reached down to his radio, the sarsh’s purple eyes followed the motion and narrowed. “You wouldn’t dare.” the sarsh growled, his voice deeper now.

Click. Fallyn pressed the transmission button. “I need hel-” The sarsh snatched it from him, snapping the cord. For an instant, Fallyn felt the sarsh’s cold metal fingers brush his skin.

Snap. The sarsh crushed the radio in his hand as if it was paper. “None of that.” he growled. Without further words, he studied the officer, shrinking to Fallyn’s exact height. His eyes softened into Fallyn’s bright blue eyes, his hair shone black. Realizing what the sarsh was doing, Fallyn tackled him and broke his focus. However, his plan backfired as his head cracked against the linoleuim floor, leaving him stunned. From beneath him, the sarsh said in an amused voice; “it seems you’ve done my job for me.”

A few moments later, Fallyn lay stunned in the hospital bed, wearing Rune’s hospital clothes and Rune walked out the door as Fallyn.