YOU NEED A HERO chapter 6.

0006#

Step after step they walked into the dark building and there they made the first discovery of the night: Outside the building was a decaying old warehouse, barely standing up. But it was noting but a facade, the interior was a cold, modern concrete building.

-What a fuck…? Is it some kind of movie scenario or something?

-You know as much as I do Josh… And brace yourself… More shit on our way…

The entire first floor was a exercise room, more equipped than most gyms, with one singularity that Josh was the first to notice:

-This entire place… it look like it was designed to be used by only one person…

Sammy took a depth breath:

-So our star is a real athlete, I wonder how he paid for all this freaking structure.

The atmosphere was more and more sinister. Outside, the sound of sirens and the mob growling furious, inside, not a single sound but their our footsteps.

Was easy to find the stairs to the second floor, there, another kind of “exercise room”, a much more devious one:

-Holy mother of …Ok, now I’m freaking out…

The walls and even the ceiling were covered of photos, diagrams, hand drawings of the human body, not artistic, anatomic depictions of the human body. And hanging from the walls, skeletons and skulls, real or made of plastic, hundreds of them. Eight large metallic boxes laid in the middle of the vast room.

-Josh, what are you doing?

-Sammy… I have a bad feeling about what is inside those boxes, and I have to check it.

Carefully, and using his handkerchief, he lifted the lid of each metal coffin, and what was inside almost made Sammy throw up.

-Oh shit! Oh shit Josh! Heads!!! Fucking heads, dozens of them! I knew this guy was sick, but this…!

-I don’t think he killed those people. The way they are kept, the cuts, those are corpses like the ones you find in med schools. And let me add, few med schools in the world have this much… material. Also can you smell?

Sammy tries to look at Josh, and take a deep breath:

-I can’t smell shit…

-Right. This is some kind of alkaline solution. Its insanely expensive, but it don’t let the material degrade nor smell. Sammy, no way a wacko would have all that in the middle of the town.

-So we are at the wrong place?

-No, if you look, some of the heads are punctured, others cut in half, in the same places our guy usually stab people. He used those to learn how to kill people. Also there are at least four entire bodies in pieces inside those boxes.

-I liked it more when our guy was a crazy med student on steroids…

-Me too Sammy. Me too.

They went deeper into the strange hideout, and when they got to the third and last floor, what they found only confused them:

Part of the floor was occupied with servers, humming endless. Other part was used as some kind of pharmacy, a large one. The most cryptic part was the center of the floor, where some kind of scenario, like a movie set, was up, a perfect replica of a small, dark apartment.

-Okay Josh. I think I missed the spot where we entered a x-files episode...

-What the hell is going on here? This whole shit is way too fucked…

Suddenly and without warning, the lights go off.

Both cops are skilled and seasoned officers, so they don’t panic: Getting back to back, they grab the portable flashlights and scout around.

-Timer?

-Lights downstairs are still on. Someone is here Sammy.

-Great…

The only warning they have is the sound of footsteps, but it isn’t enough to escape the first attack.

-Damn! DAMN!

-Sammy?

Josh aim his flashlight at the shadow over Sammy and he see who they have been looking for: His face, disfigured, as if something was implanted under the skin to make him look more beast than man. Was hard to look at it and not hesitate, that’s what cost Josh a deep cut in the arm. His knife was something unbelievable, so sharp that cut the skin and muscle almost without any pain. He only felt something when the warm blood start pumping out of his severed arteries. He knew that it was a serious wound.

Sammy was on the floor, she could be dead or unconscious, the fight was his to endure alone. No time for second guessing, he hammered his forehead on the killer nose. He hit hard enough to feel something breaking inside the killer’s skull, like if a pencil just snapped.

A gush of hot blood and the sound of coughing confirmed that he hit the spot.

-Fuck you, sicko!

He used his good arm to punch the killer right in the head, but he defended like a professional wrestler. The darkness look to work in his favor. Feeling the adrenaline, Josh throw his whole body against him.

This time there is no defense, and the killer fly backward, landing on the hard floor. The sound of metal sliding away in the dark is a reassuring sign that now the killer favorite weapon is away of his hands.

He pick up his second pistol, no time to look for the other one. He hold the flashlight in his mouth and try to find his foe, but he only sees a puddle of blood and foot prints…And something else, a dark, sharp knife.