Without missing a beat, he took a running start at me and was setting up for some hand-to-hand, so I braced myself. For every punch, I blocked, again and again, faster and faster. He stood in the ready and attacked with strike after strike. I refused to back down, but even blocking his blows hurt tremendously.
I finally had to change the pace. Ducking, I swiped my leg under him in an effort to trip him. He jumped over my attempt, landed smoothly and kicked me square in the jaw with his powerful leg.
I flew (for the second time in five minutes) and hit the doctor’s granite desk.
Looking around for something to use as a weapon, my eyes caught the glimmer of a gold letter opener on top of Williams’ desk. Gavil was circling me, positioning himself for the next strike. With a well-trained flick of my wrist I threw the knife-like object directly at his chest, hoping it would find its mark.
In a blink of an eye, Gavil reached up, caught the knife in mid-flight, and in the same motion threw it right back at me. I jumped, but not fast enough to get out of the way. The weapon, thrown by this ultimate Metahuman, dug deep through my blue jeans and into the meat of my left thigh. Oh, dear God, what was happening?
I could hear sirens in the distance and knew the city fire department and police were coming, but that wasn’t going to be soon enough for me or my mom.
Williams scurried out of the room toward the elevators and yelled behind him, “Kill her. She is of no use to me now.”
Darn it, I thought. There goes evil, out the door and here I am bleeding around a six-inch gold knife stuck in my leg. If I weren’t such an optimist, I’d feel pretty screwed right about now.
I allowed myself to let out a hurt whimper. I wanted the boy to come closer to me. I wanted him to think I had given up and was resigned to dying at his hands, just as the doctor ordered. If he got close enough, I would yank the knife out of me and stab him with it.
“Do you have any idea who I am?” Gavil growled as he approached me. “You may have been the first Meta, but I am the best. My generation is far more advanced than you. I’m stronger, faster and better trained. Dr. Williams has developed an entire army of us. We are the superior race. You were just a guinea pig that escaped your cage. You’re a mutant rodent that begs to be put out of your pathetic misery.”
Rage etched across his face and spittle hung from his thin lips. He was leaning inches from my face. Allowing myself to try to sense him, I felt nothing but his raw hatred of me. He saw me as an embarrassment. How dare the doctor call me the same word he called him. I was no Meta, I was a biological mistake.
Suddenly, Gavil took hold of the knife’s shaft as it still jutted out from my leg, and twisted it, hard. I couldn’t hold it in. I screamed till my voice echoed off every corner of the room. He twisted the knife again and again ripping my wound wider and deeper.
White hot searing agony exploded from that muscle and burst throughout my body.
Gavil was grinning wickedly through his drool-filled mouth. My blood was covering his hand as he played with my pain. This wasn’t supposed to happen, I thought as shock started to set in. He was still whispering disgusting filth into my face when I felt the weight of his body suddenly gone, and a loud thump a few feet away. I was lying in a pool of my blood and more was pumping from the gaping wound, but I had just enough strength to open my eyes and see my Maze tearing that beast apart.
Chapter 53 Marco? Polo?
The blow to his head hurt much worse than he let on to Evan. But he wasn’t allowing himself to think about that. Right now he had to find mom.
He pulled up, in his mind’s eye, the blueprint of this building and zeroed in on the part where he and his siblings had been held all those years ago. He had to get to the third floor. The stairs were to his right, but he wasn’t sure he could maintain his balance for those, he was still too dizzy.
Wonder if this is what it feels like to have a concussion, Alik thought to himself. His head was pounding painfully with every beat of his heart.
He decided instead to use the elevator. Not exactly the safest thing to use in light of explosions and such, but in this case, he was sure this building wasn’t going to sustain any more damage. That wasn’t part of the plan, so the elevators should be fine.
Halfway down the hall stood the metal doors with the recognizable UP button. He pushed it and immediately one set of doors opened.
Stepping inside the vacant space, and feeling a horrible sense of déjà vu, he pushed the button labeled three and waited. As the machine climbed, Alik prayed.
A thought occurred to him. What if Williams moved his mother since their surveillance yesterday? He may have decided he didn’t want to take a chance leaving her on this campus knowing we were coming to get her.