Adam Pavell

1:18 a.m., Wednesday, February 5, 2020.

 

How I wished I didn’t go to work today, Adam Pavell lamented as he watched helplessly while the hellish bloodbath continued to unfold on the screens of the condominium’s surveillance security room. He had seen plenty of videos of gruesome Adumbrae attacks on the internet but it was another thing to watch them on the screen knowing you were in the same building as them.

Their security cameras captured the scenes of a number of their residents turning into monsters, the monsters in turn devouring those still human, some of them were even combining and merging to birth even more abominable creatures.

And he couldn’t do anything except to stay and watch, bound to his seat by hardened plaster. His head was also held in place, glued to the chair’s headrest, forced to face forward at the panel of screens. Even the luxury of being able to scream and call for help was denied him by the patch of the same plaster covering his mouth.

But I could say I am the lucky one.

Adam tried to turn his head to the seat beside him where Brummer his partner, sat. He couldn’t, the plaster holding firm. He strained his eyes to look as far left as he could. In his peripheral vision, his partner’s body wasn’t moving.

Brummer’s really dead.

What did he expect? It had been more than five minutes since the terrorist Adumbrae covered Brummer’s entire face with plaster because he was yelling profanities, trying to get a rise out of him. And it had been a couple minutes since Brummer stopped struggling, no doubt dying from suffocation.

Call me a coward if you want, but after his partner died, Adam didn’t entertain any thought of attempting to escape—he couldn’t even if he wanted to—or antagonizing in any way the terrorist who took control of the surveillance room of the condominium.

Brummer was new. Adam has worked with him for only three months so there wasn’t much in the way of camaraderie between them, yet he felt guilty to be relieved that he was the one who survived. He wasn’t religious in any way, but he prayed to whatever god that would listen to him to forgive his selfish thoughts.

But then again…if any god was truly out there, they allowed all of this to happen, so fuck ‘em!

Gods might not be real, but demons were.

“I’m back! You guys really got some messy cabinets.”

Here was one of the demons. A terrorist, was what he’d call him. And he seemed to be an Adumbrae given the powers he displayed—for what vile person would think about turning humans into monsters? He was sure that was what they were doing for it was unthinkable that a large number of people in the same building spontaneously became Adumbrae at the same time. It was more likely there was an Adumbrae who could turn people into monsters.

What were their aims?

He didn’t know. It was enough that they were spreading death, destruction, and terror.

They are Adumbrae…that was their nature.

Adam’s hunch was that these demons were the reason of the massive explosion that caused dozens of deaths last Saturday—the group the BID was fighting. They weren’t some run-of-the-mill syndicate smuggling illegal Adumbrae body parts as what the news wanted the people to believe.

They were an Adumbrae terrorist organization!

What shitty luck he had they chose to attack this building.

“Did I miss anything?” the man said.

Adam grunted as he struggled to make an acceptable response even if his mouth was covered. He wanted to placate the terrorist so he wouldn’t get killed. Or worse, turned into a monster too.

The man who spoke took the empty seat to his right, almost jumping on it. He lazily placed his feet on the console, flecks of dust from the soles of his boots showered the keyboards. He opened the bag of CheezyBlitz he got from one of the cabinets, grabbed a large handful of the chips, and stuffed them in his mouth.

Adam couldn’t see the expression of the terrorist watching people getting killed by monsters because he was leaning back in his chair, but he could hear the nonchalant crunch of the chips. “You guys are cool. Really cool,” he excitedly said. "You have snacks stashed here."

Adam tried to nod as much as the plaster around his head would allow him and made sounds of agreement.

“Need to have snacks while we watch this awesome show.” More sounds of munching.

How could all of this have happened?

It was all a blur…as if everything was a nightmare. Yet it was all real.

Why tonight? Why here? Why him?

Adam closed his eyes to the horrors that was happening in front of him, thinking back at everything that happened since he entered the building for his shift...if he could’ve seen it coming, if he could’ve done anything to prevent it, if he could’ve escaped beforehand…only if…

He had eaten an early dinner—a large tuna salad wrap from Salad-To-Go—as I always did before his shift, and was hanging out at Johnson’s desk as I always did before going up, listening to him blabber on about a hot blonde woman that he saw. It was like every other night until people carrying various equipment entered the building. Christa told them there was nothing to worry about as the management informed her they were supposedly upgrading the security system.

Why didn’t I sense there was something wrong that time?

He was watching those people on the screens of the security room as they installed cameras and god knows what else all over the building, and he didn’t think there was anything fishy. Some of them even entered the security room and tinkered with the computers. And he just sat back and let it all happen. He was even the one who informed all the other guards that tech people were coming in to do some work.

He also recalled that Gilbert and the guys from the prior shift mentioned to him that the new cleaning personnel were doing bizarre things such as placing various canisters in the vents and piping, but they reasoned it must be fumigation ‘or some shit’ and didn’t do anything about it.

It didn’t ring any alarm bells in his head back then. No one told them beforehand about this ‘system upgrade’. What was worse was that he didn’t think there was anything wrong that they were doing the installation at night.

After Christa told them that the management ordered it, he didn’t give it any more thought.

Adam was just ready to spend the long night watching the NBA games he saved on his phone…as I always did.

He had become too complacent. He even waved away Brummer’s complaints; the kid was the only one talking sense but he didn’t listen.

It was too late now. Too late…

“Yow!” The terrorist kicked his chair and he fell over. “Why are your eyes closed? I told you to watch this.” He pulled Adam’s chair back upright. “Sorry, sorry for that.” His temper and tone changing so abruptly that it was unsettling. He patted Adam’s head. “I got too excited because this is a once in a lifetime experience,” the man said.

Adam knew what the man was implying, so he opened his eyes and went back to watching as more and more people were getting killed.

“Here! This. Watch this one.” The man pulled Adam’s chair closer to him and angled it so he can see what the man was pointing to. “This is a scene worth getting snacks for.”

It was the mysterious silver metallic man, or maybe woman since it had a more feminine shape, but he couldn’t really tell. It looked like one of those metal human sculptures from those fancy modern art galleries, the ones that looked like highly stylized dummies, and it had red symbols painted on various places of its body.

At first, he thought it was just another one of the monsters made by the terrorist Adumbrae, or even an actual Adumbrae, but based from the terrorist’s reaction, it didn’t appear to be the case.

This metal man wasn’t part of their organization.

But it was also making its own monsters.

From what Adam could pick up from the ramblings of the terrorist, they were observing one of the residents of the condominium, a certain Erind Hartwell. This man beside him was ranting about losing her earlier, and then he was elated when she returned. He wasn’t certain, but Johnson had also mentioned something about Erind earlier when he was chatting with him. Wasn’t she the friend of the hot blonde he was raving about?

He was sure the terrorists were waiting for someone to show up that was connected to Erind. Then this metal man was spotted near Erind’s room. However, it turned out this wasn’t the person the terrorists were looking for.

The terrorist who bound him was extremely surprised at the appearance of this strange new entity.

“Holy cow! He just ripped that guy in half!” the terrorist said, clapping his cheese powder crusted hands while the monster the metal man made tore up another monster that looked like a giant mouth.

Adam was sure the hulking reddish mutant brute protecting the metal man was formerly one of their residents, Mr. Cesar Pintor, a financials guy with a loving family.

Where was his wife and daughter? Did the metal man kill them both before enslaving the father of their family? Or it may even be that Mr. Pintor was turned into a monster and killed his own wife and child.

Both of them watched as the metal man and its slave monster tore through the 22^nd floor, fighting the other residents that also turned into monsters. They wove in and out of the camera’s view, fighting inside rooms, fighting in the hallway, ripping flesh and walls just the same.

Adam predicted the metal man was trying to clear a way to the elevators. Residents, awoken by the commotion, either fled or were forced out of their rooms, several of them dying as they got caught in the melee. The ones who escaped the rampage of the monster Mr. Pintor ran into other monsters and were promptly eaten.

Unable to take the gut-wrenching violence, he stole a look at the other screens since the terrorist was still engrossed in watching the metal man. It appeared that the fierce battle on the 22^nd floor attracted monsters from other levels.

A skeletal centaur with a scorpion tail and scythes for arms galloped up the stairs from the 17th floor, seemingly headed to the fighting. In its haste, it crashed into a headless willowy ghoul that was dragging a pack of corpses connected to it with heavy rusty chains up the stairs. The centaur and the headless ghoul faced off while another creature with too many spindly limbs climbed on the ceiling to avoid them, hitting the security camera and knocking it down. 

Another screen showed a large worm that burst into the 23^rd floor, chewing through the floors of the upper levels. It started to dig its way to the 22^nd floor. Through the hole it made followed a few zombies that fell through it.

He must be losing his mind because he found himself mesmerized by the otherworldly scene. If a man found himself in hell with no escape, what else to do but gaze upon the horrors it brought?

“What is it doing this time?” the terrorist said. He elbowed Adam, who jerked in surprise, to get his attention. “Man, look at this. What do you think of this?”

Adam turned his attention back to the screen displaying the metal man, nervously grunting an apology.

The former Mr. Pintor was holding back the new onslaught of monsters, looking worse for wear with one of his arms nearly severed and several deep gashes on his body, while the metal man was behind it pointing at a couple of cowering residents; a husband and wife by the looks of it. They were familiar faces, Adam recalled they often rented the conference rooms of the condominium for their business seminars, but their names escaped him. The husband shielded his wife and, by the looks of his gestures, was offering himself to the metal man.

The metal man pointed at the husband with a finger of its left hand.

And then the man began to bleed and convulse in his wife’s arms.

“It’s healing that other guy,” observed the terrorist. “Wait…no. It’s not healing.”

Who did he mean by other guy? The monster? Adam looked more closely, somehow interested. Noticing it, the terrorist pushed him closer to the screen. He was right, the monster protecting the metal man was getting healed.

“See? Weird, huh?” said the terrorist. “It’s like it’s transferring the injuries from that guy to this guy. Looks like he’s dead,” he said referring to the husband. “The hell?”

With proof before his eyes of the absence of god, Adam still prayed fruitlessly that the metal man would leave the woman alone after killing her husband. But the metal didn’t move away. It approached her, raising its arm to strike her as she grieved for her dead husband.

No! Adam thought.

As if hearing him, the metal man stopped and then walked away. To Adam’s surprise, the woman stood up and followed the metal man without any resistance.

With its monster good as new, or even stronger and fiercer than before, the metal man continued the push through the hordes of monsters blocking the way to the elevator. They made impressive speed, reaching the stairs beside the elevators.

“Look out!” the terrorist said.

From the stairs came charging the skeleton centaur, hacking the other monsters in its path. The metal man noticed and ran back down the corridor. The centaur followed it, flailing its arms, nearly slicing the head of the wife that was standing nearby in a daze. Its eyes were dead set on the metal man, ignoring the woman.

The metal man slipped and fell on the floor. The centaur tried to slam the metal man with its hooves, but missed. Before the metal man could stand, the centaur followed up its attack with slashing blades. The metal tried to fight it off, but was helpless as the centaur monster used its blade-arms to hack its body into pieces. Or not exactly. The metal body was dismantled at the joints but the centaur couldn’t cut the individual parts no matter how hard it tried.

The terrorist laughed. “It’s like a doll!”

The Mr. Pintor monster rushed to the metal man’s aid, diving at the skeleton centaur, crushing its bones.

In this chaos, the woman following the metal man presumably had a moment of clarity and fled down the stairs.

Adam tried to shout, Don’t go down! but he only managed a pathetic whining sound.

The other screens showed the horrors awaiting her at the lower floors.

He closed his eyes. This couldn’t be happening. This couldn’t be happening. He kept repeating it to himself until he remembered that the terrorist might get angry at him for closing his eyes again. He hastily opened his eyes, but the terrorist didn’t notice as he was distracted with something.

“Should I answer this?” he said. Adam could hear a phone vibrating. The terrorist sighed. “I might get my ass chewed off if I don’t.” He cleared his throat. “Hi, miss Stella. How’s it going?

Was this their boss? Adam heard the name ‘Stella’ mentioned a few times when the terrorist was rambling to himself.

“Nah, nothing much happening. She’s holed up in her room and just fighting off the ones that tried to attack her. Uh-huh, uh-huh. Yeah, she’s not a normal human as the intel said. She got super strength and all that. Probably an Adumbrae too yeah.”

Were they talking about Erind? But what the terrorist was saying to his boss wasn’t true at all. They hadn’t seen Erind since she went back to her room after buying something from the vending machines. And what was he saying about her being an Adumbrae?

The terrorist continued talking on his phone, “No, haven’t seen any of that wolf woman. Yeah, I’ve seen the picture, I know what I’m supposed to be looking for.” He paused to listen to this ‘Miss Stella’. The terrorist impatiently tapped his foot on the floor. “By the way, Miss Stella,” he said, “like are we even sure that wolf girl will come here? Erind ain’t got no signal in here. How’s she gonna call for help? Unless she got a special phone like ours—”

Adam could hear the person on the other end was yelling.

The terrorist raised his phone high above him so his boss wouldn’t hear him sighing in exasperation. He looked at Adam and grinned. Then he answered her, “Right, right. Rofirio fried her phone when we first got her but the wolf girl still came.” He sighed. “Yes, I’ll report if there’s anything weird. Have fun testing the freakshow we got here.” The terrorist pointed to another screen, showing the event hall which was usually rented out for weddings and parties. “There they are,” he whispered to Adam.

The main group of terrorists congregated inside the event hall. A couple of them, obviously Adumbrae, battled some of the monsters they lured inside while the others captured the battle with cameras. It was a weird tableau, as if they were shooting a movie.

“One last thing, Miss Stella,” the terrorist said. “We’re looking for a wolf girl yeah? And she transforms into a giant werewolf? So kinda like you transform into a—the fuck?” He threw his phone against the screen. “The bitch dropped the call. You think she’s a bitch, right?” He patted Adam’s head.

Adam eagerly grunted in agreement.

“Yep, you understand me.” He pointed at the screen with the metal man. “Does that look like a wolf girl to you?”

He tried to shake his head ‘no’ but the plaster prevented him and he ended up only rattling the headrest of his chair. Was that the correct answer? Wolf girl? Another Adumbrae? What was a wolf girl supposed to look like?

“You’re right, my pal. That doesn’t look like a wolf girl to me too. That’s why I didn’t tell Miss Stella about it. Was I right to do that?”

He slowly nodded his head, unsure of how to answer.

“Thanks, pal. I know you’re on my side. I hope they meet this metal thing walking around. Look, it put itself back together again. Is that even an Adumbrae? That has gotta be a pretty fucking evolved one. Could that be Erind?” He looked around his chair in a rush and nearly fell off. “Where’s my chips? There it is. Anyway, where was I?” 

Adam flicked his eyes towards the screen with the metal man and the riot of monsters.

“Oh yeah! Thanks, bud!” He leaned in closer at the screen. “You think that’s Erind?”

He shrugged. He wasn’t familiar with Erind. And he didn’t know if she was an Adumbrae as this man assumed.

“You’re not much help are you? I’m not sure if that’s her. The info we got was that she was a weak one, just basic Adumbrae stuff with no manifested specific ability yet. There’s no way this is her unless she pulled a Leandro. Hey, bud!” He was whispering to Adam’s ear. “You know what Leandro did?”

He tried to shake his head and shrug at the same time, desperate to give any sort of signal that he had absolutely no idea about the things the terrorist was talking about.

“Leandro’s an ass who couldn’t control himself. BID blew him up. Don’t tell your friends about this okay? It was the BID that blew up part of the city because Leandro was being stupid and called something over he shouldn’t have. Probably desperate to fulfill his duty of protecting the arena. Dumb motherfucker.” The terrorist looked back at the screen. “That metal dude is done clearing up the monsters. It’s going to get boring again.”

Adam held his breathe. This man might do something impulsive again if he was bored. Was he going to play with him? Torture him?

As if confirming his thoughts, the terrorist spun his chair so that they would be face to face. He wore a mischievous smirk. “Hey, my man. Tired of sitting there? Want me to let you go?”

A trap? He tried to shake his head, then also tried to nod his head. His ears were ringing, he could sense that something bad was coming.

The terrorist took out a small vial from his breast pocket. He held it close to Adam’s face. “I nicked this from Slinky earlier. I wonder what thing inside it does. Do you want to know?”

“Mmnnhhh! Mnghh!” Adam attempted to shake his head with all his might as he stared at the small worm swimming in the green liquid contained in the vial. He wanted to push his chair away from the terrorist, but his feet were also bound to the chair with plaster.

“What was that? You do? Good…”