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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.
