Nadya’s Nights: Road to Vengeance
Night One: A Hard Night’s Work
Chapter Five: Victory
by Indy McDaniel
Copyright © 2009 Indy McDaniel
At first, Nadya thought she’d neglected to kill all of the guards after all. Her windpipe was choked closed and her mouth gaped, trying to suck in air. Her feet were lifted from the floor and a moment later she was being pulled through the air. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the monster she’d encountered earlier in the alley.
Only this time it was much larger.
The center mass looked like a kind of dark grey blob with no real features. A few other tentacles were swirling about it, in what Nadya could only assume was some sort of distress. The tentacle around her neck released and her momentum carried her further into the room. Her body slammed into the far wall and pain screamed from her wounded side as it struck the hard surface. She slid to the floor, breathing heavily from her semi-asphyxiation and the blinding pain running through her. She cringed her teeth and shoved herself to her feet, swaying a bit before steadying completely and turned to the creature. Surprise filled her face when she heard it start to speak.
“Yyyyyyyou killllllled mmmmoooommmmyyyyy…” the slurred, deep voice bellowed, almost child-like in the way it spoke. Sadness tinged the words.
“Mommy?” was all Nadya could reply. The shock of hearing the thing speak was still overwhelming her. She broke her gaze from the creature to look back to the closet where the dead woman was propped into the corner. It had to be whom the monster was referring to. It would definitely explain the half-smirk frozen on the woman’s dead face.
But the thought of the woman spawning this creature just didn’t make any sense. “She birthed you? What the fuck ARE you?”
“Mommmyyyy mmmaade meeee… summmonnned mmmeeee…” the thing slurred. “Tooo prrrootect mmmoommmmyyy…” It grew silent for a few moments. “Faaiillled…”
Nadya smirked. “I guess you did.”
“YYYYOUUU KILLLLLLED MOMMMMYYYYY!” the creature bellowed again. This time anger flooded through the words.
Nadya’s attention was drawn back to it just as it lashed out at her with one of its tendrils. Ducking low, she felt wind brush through her hair as the tentacle just missed her head, swinging past her. The Russian girl spotted one of the dead guards laying not too far away, a rifle at his side. She ran for the weapon, bending down to scoop it up in her unwounded arm.
Spinning to face the creature again, she saw that it was attempting to swipe her feet out from under her. Nadya leapt into the air, lifting her feet over the tentacle as it passed under her. Dropping back to the ground, she raised the rifle, situating the butt of the weapon into the crook of her arm and aimed it at the mass, pulling the trigger. She released several short bursts of rounds into it and heard the thing emit a cry of sorts. The mass swirled and seemed to grow larger from the impact of the rounds and it lashed out at her again, attempting to crush her under another tentacle.
Nadya darted to the side, strafing around the creature. She continued to unload bullets from the rifle into it. The only effect she saw was the continued swirling of the mass and further bellowing. She might have been hurting it in some way but she wasn’t slowing it down. It seemed to be growing ever angrier. The rifle clicked empty so she hurled the useless item at the monster.
She watched as the weapon hit the center mass and stuck, slowly being sucked inwards until she could no longer see it. Her attention distracted, she almost had her head pummeled by another tentacle, which she ducked under at the last moment. She neglected to notice the second tentacle coming right behind the first and it successfully knocked her feet out from under her.
Nadya hit the ground on her wounded side and let out a pained yelp. She looked up and saw another thick tendril attempting to slam down onto her body and she rolled to the side, feeling the hard impact just to the side of her. The wooden floorboards splintered and broke from the force. Rolling onto her back and then flipping to her feet, Nadya looked franticly for some other weapon to use.
She spotted the dead guard that had shot her lying on the table on the other side of the room, the pistol that had put a hole through her still in his dead hand. She charged forward, ducking and leaping over the monster’s attacks until she reached the desk, rolling over it and ducking down behind it. She pried the pistol free and took cover momentarily.
Another tentacle slammed down into the desk, shattering the wooden furniture in half. It also cleaved the guard’s corpse in half. Blood sprayed Nadya and she rose, taking a step back and firing even more rounds into the creature at a rapid pace, starting to strafe it again. Attempting to jump clear of another tentacle coming in at her low, she was caught off guard when it changed course in mid-attack and snagged her ankle.
Nadya felt herself being yanked upwards by the tendril, hanging from her single leg. Blood rushed to her head and she saw she was being pulled over the creature. For the second time that night, she saw the thing’s maw protrude from the mass of the rest of it. Again she got a good look at the ivory teeth gnashing together, desperate for its squirming Russian meal.
Nadya pulled the knife out again and started to carve through the thick tentacle. A few feet from being directly over the monster’s hungry mouth, she sliced through the tendril and fell to the floor, managing to spin herself in mid-air and land more or less on her feet.
Spinning around, she faced the creature just in time to see a tentacle thrust forward, slamming into her gut and sending her flying backwards. Her ass hit the floor and she rolled backwards before landing face downward. She lay still for a moment, trying to regain her breath. A swipe of another tentacle along the floor sent her skidding to the side and slamming into the wall.
Fight past the increasing aches and pains, Nadya pushed herself up. She saw the thing moving towards her, extending even more tentacles to pummel her with. To her right was the second, unopened door, so she twisted the handle and dove inside.
As she suspected, it was the bathroom. She shoved the door shut behind her and tried to think of something to do. She went over to the medicine cabinet and started to go through the contents, trying to find anything that would be useful. Behind her, the bathroom door shattered to pieces and tentacles came barreling in towards her. Nadya gripped the sink in front of her with her single workable hand as the tentacles wrapped around her ankles and started to yank her out through the doorway. Her muscles strained painfully as she was stretched. Her fingers began slipping on the smooth ceramic of the sink.
Nadya’s eyes happened to fall on a can of hairspray sitting on the sink. Releasing her hold, she reached out for it and just managed to snag the can before she was pulled out of the bathroom.
The Russian girl flew through the air again, dragged by the tentacles. More pain struck her as she was battered into another wall then dropped to the ground. Somehow, she managed to keep a hold on the hairspray. She set it on the floor in front of her and pulled the knife out, smashing the handle of it into the spray tip. The tip smashed off and aerosol started to shoot out of the top of the can. Pulling her lighter out, she lit it and let the aerosol catch fire then turned and hurled it at the creature.
Nadya smirked as she saw the makeshift Molotov cocktail catch in its mass. Diving down and covering her head again, she heard and felt the hairspray can explode. The creature made an even louder cry of pain and she pushed herself back up and turned to it. A good chunk of its blob-like center mass had been destroyed, splattered across the room and melting into something that looked like muddy water.
“Hey, there, Billy Blob,” Nadya quipped. “Pull yourself together, huh?”
Nadya’s feeling of triumph was short lived as the monster responded with a snarl of rage and sent more tentacles charging towards her. She ran, strafing the creature again, moving around the room. They came at her so fast that she had no time to form a new plan of attack. It was simply evade until she caught a break or got killed.
Confusion filled Nadya’s face when the tentacles stopped and she paused to see what the monster was doing. Realization hit her when she saw it had herded her around behind it and was now stretching what remained of its form across the length of the room, trapping her inside and severely limiting the amount of space she had to dodge its attacks.
“Fuck your mother…” Nadya muttered in exasperation. She glanced behind her and saw a set of three windows in the wall leading out onto the street. They were big enough to jump through but she wasn’t looking forward to a two-story fall. She turned back to the monster and absently started to feel along her body, trying to find any neglected weapons. She’d dropped the knife after smashing the hairspray tip. Her hand fell across a string of roundish items and she looked down.
The bandolier of grenades.
She’d forgotten all about them.
A wide grin crossed her face and she pulled the bandolier off. It looked as if she’d be making that jump after all. She just hoped there was something relatively softer then a brick road to break her fall.
The creature was slowly coming towards her, apparently deciding to trap her as much as possible and then either pummel her to death or maybe just chomp through her.
Like hell, Nadya thought, lifting the bandolier of grenades up. “Hey, Billy! Know what these are?”
She brought one of the grenades to her mouth and clenched its pin between her teeth. She yanked the pin clear and spit it to the side.
“Fuck you, Jelly Boy!” she yelled before hurling the bandolier at the creature. Like everything else, it struck, stuck, and sunk in.
Knowing that once the first grenade went it would trigger the others and probably bring the whole building down, Nadya had little time. Pushing all fear of heights and worry of smashing her skull on the road out of her, she turned and ran towards the center window.
Leaping into the air, she brought her knees up to her chest and covered her face with her arms. She felt herself hit the glass and smash through, some shards cutting into her.
Then she was out of the building.
Behind her, the creature let out a final bellow of rage before the first grenade blew. The building shuddered and another large chunk of the creature splattered against the wall. Moments later, the other grenades went. A fireball burst from the windows just behind Nadya. The force of the explosion sent her flying even further from the building. Her body spun in the air and as she came down and she landed flat on her back on the hood of a parked car on the other side of the street.
Pain shot up her back and her breath was knocked away. Then she was bouncing up off the hood and the next thing she knew she was doing a face plant onto the sidewalk. She lay there, groaning and listening to the collapsing building on the other side of the street.
Finally, after Nadya decided she wasn’t dead yet, she pushed herself up. She leaned against the car for stability. Once she’d recovered a bit more, she found a decent sized rock and smashed the driver side window in. She unlocked the door and slid into the seat. In a minute or two, the car roared to life and she put it into gear and pulled out onto the road.
Driving away from the burning building, Nadya took a look in the rear view mirror to make sure no pissed off amorphous blobs were chasing after her. When none did, she glanced at herself in the mirror. She had a cut along her forehead, shallow though. It probably wouldn’t leave much of a scar. The worrying thing was her complexion.
Deathly pale.
She looked down at her gunshot wound and saw that her shirt and jacket were soaked in blood. Her blood.
Using her knee to steer, Nadya fished her cell phone out of her pocket and dialed a number she knew by heart. She held it to her ear and listened to the ringing.
Once it answered, she spoke. “Mission accomplished. Target eliminated.” After a pause, she added, “Medical attention required.”
On the other end of the line, Vladimir Belikov’s concerned voice replied. “Serious?”
Nadya took another look at her wound. She was starting to feel light headed. A side effect from the blood loss. Looking back to the road, she gave a half shrug. “More or less.”
Vlad told her where to go and she was thankful that it wasn’t far. She hung up and focused on her driving, not wanting to get in any fender benders along the way. When she reached the place she was heading, she didn’t even bother trying to parallel park. She pulled the car halfway up onto the sidewalk and shut it off. Reaching across herself, past her wounded arm, she opened the door and slid out.
The adrenaline of her fight was wearing off and leaving nothing but pain all over her body. She shut the car door behind her and looked through the broken window, noticing all the blood she’d left on the seat. Someone would have to move the car. The shitty parking job would draw attention. The blood would draw even more.
The bad kind.
A wave of dizziness flooded her and she decided it was someone else’s problem. She made for the apartment building she’d parked in front of.
Looking down the list of names and numbers, Nadya found the one she was looking for – Ulbrecht Reinhardt – and hit the call button.
A voice responded with a simple, “Yes?”
“Nadya,” she replied, her voice weak.
A moment later, the front door buzzed and she reached over to open it, going inside. She rode the elevator up to the third floor and stumbled out. She seemed to be growing weaker by the moment. Finding the room number she was after, she gave what could barely be called a knock.
The door opened and Nadya caught half a glance of the young man who answered. He was wearing clean, nice looking clothes.
Too bad I’m going to ruin it with all my blood, Nadya thought as her vision went black and she fell forward.
She was unconscious before she even felt herself press against the young doctor.
