New Title 4 (9 page)

The back door of the Snake s Sanctum opened up onto a long alley full of garbage dumpsters going the length of a whole block, and by the time Gloria was out in it there was no immediate sign of either Tuffy or Muffy. She ran to the open end of the alley and looked both ways. It came out onto Fourteenth Street and ran east/west. East led out of the Hill and into the industrial district, and there was no sign of either of the thieves in that direction. When she looked west deeper into the Hill, however, she thought she could just barely see the two hauling ass at an inhuman pace. If Wylma s pill didn t work there was no way Gloria could possibly catch up.

Making sure the duffel bag was thoroughly hooked over her head and shoulder, she started off after them at the fastest she could possibly go. She d never been the athletic type. In high school she had hated everything to do with sports and absolutely despised the cheerleaders, but she had always been in decent shape. She had excelled in academics, but she hadn t been able to go to college and in the end it had been her looks, even if they weren t much, that had kept the rent paid between all her other dead end jobs. So she had to work out to look good when she was topless at the Sin Depot, but what exercise she did during the week was not enough to condition her for this. At top running speed she could probably beat Caleb, but that wouldn t be hard.

She d only run a block and already she was starting to think this was a lost cause. She wasn t sure how long it was supposed to be before Wylma s little miracle drug kicked in, but it had to be quick if it was going to do any good. As a pill it would probably take some time. She almost gave up before she really began.

Then she started to feel the tickle in her head. It was like a low buzz, and it seemed to her like all the color of the darkened city streets was becoming sharper. The tickle buzz started to spread, first to her stomach, then her limbs. It was like a caffeine overdose, or maybe like she had snorted a whole pound of sugar.

The sidewalk began to speed by faster beneath her. She looked down to find that her legs were starting to move too fast for her eyes to register, and the pumping of her arms was moving to match. The Road Runner she was not, but she was at least moving as fast as the two cyborgs.

That wouldn t be enough, of course. She had to move even faster if she wanted to catch up. But they at least weren t getting any smaller in her vision.

All right, let s do this shit, she muttered, although she instantly regretted it. Her lungs were pumping oxygen into her body at a rate they weren t used to, and she could already feel a dull burning in her chest. Every breath not used to propel herself forward was a waste, and the effort of actually forming words made her chest hurt just a little bit. Oh, she was going to be in some pain after this, but she no longer doubted that she could do it. She was positive that she could run these bastards down.

The first two blocks flashed by her in only fifteen seconds or so. She would have been exhilarated, maybe even felt a little high from the drug s effects, if she didn t have all her concentration on the two people ahead of her. She had a sort of tunnel vision and she wasn t sure if that was because of the drug, but she couldn t get herself to care at the moment. She barely saw all the other things around her- the street signs, the lamp posts, the occasional denizen of the Hill peaking cautiously out from side streets as she streaked past. She thought maybe she was gaining some ground, and if she had to estimate she would say the two thieves were only about six blocks ahead of her now. It was only then that it occurred to her that she had absolutely no idea what she was supposed to do when she actually reached them. Obviously the fact that they were cyborgs had given them extra speed, but they could very well have extra strength as well. She couldn t just run up behind them, grab the bag, and then call herself the winner. They would try to fight for it.

Before she got to that point, however, she had other problems to deal with. Maybe she was making too much noise as she ran or maybe the cyborgs had more senses than she realized, but they both looked back at the exact same time and saw her. Tuffy was still the one with the bag in her hand, and from here it looked like she was the one calling the shots. She made some unrecognizable hand gesture at Muffy, and with uncanny precision they each made a sharp left turn and disappeared down Logan Street.

Although her body moved at an alarming rate, her mind seemed to have slowed down. She was almost upon her turn by the time it registered in her head that she had to change direction. She tried to take the turn with the same precision they had, but she was only barely able to keep her footing and almost wiped out. Had they chosen to turn at any other street she might have ended up crashing into whatever building was on the corner, but thankfully for her there was only a parking lot. Three parked cars were directly in her path as she tried to veer around, and rather than try to stop she let her instincts take over and she jumped. She got enough air to land on the front hood of the first one, but she apparently didn t have the footing as she tried to make a second jump and landed shoulder first on the second hood. The side of her face hit next, and she tried to scream at all the sudden pain, but again her lungs refused to let her make more than a pained gasp. She fell off the hood of the car, only vaguely aware of the annoying screech as the car s alarm went off, and landed on her hands and knees. When she looked up she could still see Tuffy and Muffy racing down Logan, but she had already lost valuable ground again. She stood up, took only a fraction of a second to lament the stakes that had fallen out of her duffel but she didn t have time to pick up, then took off once again after them at full tilt.

The blocks running north/south on the Hill were all designed twice as long as the ones running east/west, so Tuffy and Muffy had only gained half a block on her again, and she could still see them. And this was an area of the Hill she was more familiar with, too. The OneStop would only be a few blocks to the east of her, and they were heading in the general direction of the Sin Depot. She wasn t sure if the cyborgs were just running in random directions in an attempt to lose her or if they actually had a specific destination in mind, but around here she felt she had an idea of what to expect. This area was more residential, with only a few businesses and a whole lot of apartment buildings, but a few of the streets were still busy even later at night. As the cyborgs crossed Tenth Street she saw them both pull up short and swerve to avoid getting hit by an oncoming car, giving her a valuable few extra seconds to gain on them. They were also in an area where quite a few people she knew lived. If she saw any of them roaming around

She thought her luck wasn t going to be that good, but as she gained another half block on the pair she saw a group of young people not too far ahead. She could tell by their wary sort of pack-like grouping and their perfect hair, visible even from three blocks back, that they had to be werewolves. They were just in front of Senator s Park, a small grassy enclosure that took up a good half of a block, but it took her too much thought to realize just who exactly they were. If she were closer she was sure she would see their characteristic plaid bandanas. The Senator Park Lunatics, the best known (and probably only) street gang of werewolves on the Hill.

She gritted her teeth and risked trying to reach into the duffel bag flopping behind her left arm. She knew exactly what she needed from it, but it was small and it would be hard to search for it without slowing down. It would probably have settled to the bottom of the bag.

The cyborgs were only two blocks ahead of her now, and they were too busy looking back over their shoulders at her to notice the group a block in front of them. The Lunatics, however, didn t have the same problem. Maybe they had just been lazing around moments earlier, but as they saw the two cyborgs coming they all stood up straight and watched the oncoming strangers with interest. If they saw Gloria coming up behind them or recognized her at all they didn t show it.

She felt her fingers brush the small metal cylinder she d been looking for and grabbed it, almost fumbling it in her hurry to bring it to her lips. Glancing ahead, she didn t think the cyborgs saw what she was doing as they were suddenly aware of the shaggy group of young punks standing on the sidewalk in front of them. It again took them some fancy footwork to dodge around the gang, and all the gang members- Gloria counted five of them- started yelling threats at them. The cyborgs ignored them, however, and as soon as they were past the park they zigged left again to go down Seventh Street.

There was less than a two block difference now, even with the shorter blocks that would be going down Seventh, and if she cut the corner by running through Senator s Park she was sure she could catch up with them. Now was when she would need to make sure she could take them down when the chance came. Despite how tortured her lungs felt as she tried to draw air into them, she put the dog whistle she had found in her duffel to her lips and blew.

The effect on the Lunatics was immediate. Even in human form they still had all the sensitivities they would in wolf form, and despite a complete lack of sound to Gloria all five of them bent over in pain and covered their ears. Two actually howled in pain, and even in human form their howls were utterly inhuman. Gloria ran into the park, jumping over a series of shrubs and having to dodge a tree, but she was prepared for the obstacles this time and kept from wiping out. She let the whistle fall from her lips- despite trying to grab it she missed, but she supposed she could replace it easier than the stakesand tried to listen for any sounds that the Lunatics would be following her. For a few frenzied breaths she didn t hear any sounds of pursuit, and she thought that her gambit had failed. Then there was the rustle of grass and bushes as five werewolves, probably partway through a transformation into wolves in order to speed up their pursuit, started to give chase.

She came out of the park onto Seventh, and she saw that, despite picking up speed again, Tuffy and Muffy were only about a block ahead of her. Still, she was going to have to be more careful now if she was going to take them on here. Although still part of the massive strangeness that was the Hill, this area was a little more residential and had more individual homes than apartments and businesses. Behind those closed and darkened doors there would be families, many of which probably didn t have the slightest clue what went on in their streets after the sun set. If this was where the fight ended up being it would have more chance of being noticed as something strange. Still, she had to do whatever she had to do.

She heard the dog-like panting of multiple werewolves coming up close behind her. If she had the time she would have stopped and tried to explain what she was trying to do before they jumped her, but she didn t. She had to hope that they would recognize her before they did anything drastic.

Hey, bitch! the lead werewolf- Fido, if Gloria was keeping all their names straight- said from behind her. She sounded like she was only a matter of feet away from Gloria s ear. Just what the fuck do you think you re doing fucking around with Then Gloria heard the sounds of sniffing, and Fido s words abruptly cut off. Her panting increased, and the sounds of her movement changed towards Gloria s right. She looked over to see Fido come running up right along next to her. Fido would have been Caucasian with light brown hair when she was in full human form, but there was enough hair covering her face now that it would have been hard for Gloria to tell if she hadn t met Fido before. She had overgrown fangs and her arms were stretched out of proportion, the typical look of a werewolf trying to change forms without the benefit of a full moon. She loped along beside Gloria on all fours, and she chuckled when she saw Gloria s face.

If she hadn t been in the middle of a race to save the world, Gloria probably would have given Fido a piece of her mind for that. She hadn t been joking earlier when she d told Caleb that she wasn t ashamed of her job. There was good money in it, and there was something powerful in being able to command the attention of a room full of horny men. But it pissed her off when that was the only way that people defined her. After all she had done on the Hill she thought she had earned a reputation as something other than just that stripper chick. Caleb was known around here too, but people didn t go calling him that loudmouth clerk. He had a cool nickname, at least.

Hey, Fido said to her, you better have a damn good reason for pulling that shit back there. Those whistles fucking hurt.

Gloria started trying to say something back, but the two cyborgs ahead of her jagged left on Emerson Street. Gloria was close enough now that she had to make the turn almost instantly, and the werewolves followed. Fido looked her up and down, then looked ahead at the two cyborgs. Gloria had never thought of her as the quickest brain on the Hill, but she seemed to understand quickly enough.

The Lunatics, all in their half-human/half-wolf forms, surged forward around Gloria as the cyborgs turned right at the end of the block. Even with the enhanced speed of both Gloria and the cyborgs, the werewolves were even faster. Gloria continued to run, but already she knew she could start slowing down. She turned the corner just a second or two behind the Lunatics, cutting across an apartment building s front lawn, but the cyborgs had gained again. Maybe they had added one last burst of speed when they realized something even more dangerous than Gloria was now after them, but it didn t help in the end. Gloria could see as the werewolves pounced, two on Muffy and three on Tuffy. There was a screeching of metal as the two cyborgs hit the pavement of the sidewalk, and Gloria even thought she saw a few sparks. Metal, even when it was covered in thin layers of flesh, would tend to do that when it hit concrete at fast speeds. Gloria winced as the Lunatics all howled in unison at their triumph. In this area attention was something she would have rather avoided.