Rise of the Dunamy (19 page)

37

T
here was little she could do to recover her drunken alter ego as they approached. She cowered down into her filthy coat as the first man quickly rounded the corner. The apparent leader of the group grabbed her by her jacket and looked directly into her face.

“That’s what the fuck I thought!” He roared as he looked back at his crew. Ripping the skull cap from her head, he brushed her hair away from her face.

“You ‘bout got away with it,” he growled. “Forget about that sweet-ass perfume, huh?”

Sofia had done everything that she could to cover up any trace of a clean smell and thought she had done quite well, but she had forgotten about her perfume. After all of her walking around in that stinking heavy coat, she had begun to sweat quite profusely. The sweat must have reacted with the perfume and rejuvenated its fragrance. She hadn’t noticed its sweet smell as she was so used to it from regular use.

He squeezed her face tightly as he pulled her closer to him.

“I didn’t notice it till you was gone, but after you took that stankin ass jacket away I smelled that sweetness on you. And don’t no piece of street shit smell like that. So, that means you gotta be hidin’ something. And look at what you been hidin’.” As he squeezed her face, his other hand began to make its way around her collar. He ripped her jacket away from her and threw it to the ground.

“Now look at that!” He exclaimed as he looked over Sofia’s sculpted body in her form fitting clothes.

“That’s what I was hopin’ for!” Her heart sank as she looked around at her captors. There wasn’t a remorseful or concerned look among them. Each face held the same ravenous expression. Like that of a jackal that had stumbled across a fresh kill.

The man that held her continued to paw at her and pull her close to him, pressing his crotch into her leg. Complete helplessness consumed her. She was outnumbered and unarmed and there was not a chance that anyone in this part of town was going to answer her screams for help. She knew there was no hope in doing it, but she blurted it out anyway, “You don’t wanna do this, I’m a cop!” She managed to say despite the pressure he was putting on her face. “Do the right thing here; just walk away!” She pleaded. Knowing that this could only go one of two ways, Sofia prayed for the best. Her prayers were not answered in time as the man’s face changed to a look of sarcastic surprise.

“Oh, ho, ho, ho. We got ourselves an officer of the law here, boys.” His breath stank as he mocked her. “Well I guess we need to show this officer the same respect they show us.” The group began to laugh and call out in agreement. This was what Sofia had feared from the moment she realized where she was after leaving Lucian.

She cringed as he repositioned his hand around her throat angrily. His other hand quickly found its way to her breast, which he squeezed violently. Sofia knew that it would only make things worse to fight his advances, but she struck out at him anyway. Using her right palm, she struck him against the side of his left eye socket with all the force she could manage. This freed her for a brief second allowing her grab both of his shoulders as she threw her knee up as hard as she could into his crotch. He screamed out in pain and dropped to his knees holding his face and groin. There was no place for her to go as the others closed in on her.

One of the men grabbed her and struck her in the face slamming her head into the building that she was pinned against. Her head struck the building in the very spot where she had attempted to head-butt her giant captor from the alley fight with Lucian. The pain exploded from her head out to her face. She began to slide to the ground, but was stopped by the leader, who had recovered slightly but continued to hold his aching crotch. Holding her throat he slid her back up to her feet. Replacing his hand with his forearm, he held her against the wall.

“Try that again, and you die!” He shouted inches from her ear.

Sofia’s attack clearly caused him some distress, as he was unable to open his eye. The other boys watched as he blindly fumbled at her pants as he stared her in the eye. They began cheering him on and calling “dibs” on who would be next. Sofia had seen the results of attacks like this too often to have any misconception about how this would end. Without a single sympathetic or concerned face in the bunch, she knew that she had no chance of surviving this.

She tried to clear her thoughts, and be somewhere else in her mind but it was useless. There was no way she could keep her mind off of what was happening. She had done all she could to defend herself. She stood no chance against the group of boys. Her tears could not be stopped. After the strain from the events of the day, Sofia was too exhausted to fight anymore and had no breath with which to scream.

The tears poured down her face as she gasped against the pressure of his forearm against her windpipe. She hated herself for showing weakness and letting them beat her. Crying was a clear indication that she was submitting, and that was something she had never intended to do. Sofia knew this was the beginning of a horrible end.

As the man continued to try to remove her pants, he began to press harder against Sofia’s throat, inadvertently cutting off her oxygen as he did so. With the rest of the boys focused on who was next and what they would do with her body, no one noticed that she was choking to death. At this point, she considered that it might be a blessing. Sofia wished that she could just allow herself to die, but her body and mind refused. She began to fight to move the man’s arm from her throat, but it was useless. She couldn’t make a noise, and her attempts to fight him merely struck him as her resisting his attack. As he continued to press harder and harder, Sofia felt herself slipping into unconsciousness.

Her vision became blurred and she saw the blackness creeping around the edges of the men as it had before. Her head pounded and the sound of the blood rushing through her brain was like a freight train in her ears. That was it, as soon as she passed out her fight would be lost. Sofia almost welcomed the darkness.

38

A
s she stood pressed against the red brick of the building, fading out of consciousness, she heard something over the rushing blood in her ears. The feint sound of hurried footsteps and someone shouting echoed through the street. Someone was coming, but she doubted they could help against the throng of men. The man holding her snapped his head around to see what was happening. When he did he loosened the pressure against Sofia’s throat. Breathing deeply, she could feel the oxygen rich blood surging into her face. Although blurry, her vision returned. The rushing sound eased and her pounding head became bearable. Sofia glanced around in an effort to see what exactly was going on.

She couldn’t make out any features through her tears, all she could see was someone moving very quickly in their direction. The other boys had turned to face him with their weapons drawn. One shot rang out and Sofia saw the approaching figure recoil as if struck in the right shoulder, yet the person continued to move toward the crowd. Seeing that the first bullet hadn’t stopped him, a second shot rang out, followed by a third. While the figure did recoil to some degree, he continued forward.

Seeing him continue in their direction, the others joined in and began firing. A barrage of gunshots rang out. The hard surfaces provided by the surrounding buildings and streets only amplified the ungodly blasts. The combined explosive clatter of the guns being fired simultaneously reminded Sofia of being in the firing range; only now she didn’t have her earphones and the sound was deafening.

Covering her ears as best she could and wincing with each shot, Sofia tried to see what had become of the man through the smoke. She hoped that at the very least that the commotion they were causing would force them to scramble from the scene and they would leave her. Just as Sofia began to question just how long they could continue firing, she heard several of the boys begin cursing as their weapons ran out of ammunition. As fewer guns were being fired, the noise became more bearable and Sofia began to slowly open her eyes wide.

As her eyes began to adjust to the darkness, the first thing Sofia could see was the man that had been attacking her before was now turned almost completely around staring in the other direction. She hadn’t realized until now that he was applying nearly no pressure to her throat any longer. Seeing that his attention, as well as the others, was completely off of her, Sofia began to prepare to make a run for it.

Just as she was about to try and escape his hold, Sofia glanced once again down the street towards where the person had been coming from. Expecting to see a body slumped down in the street, lying in a pool of blood, Sofia was shocked to see the figure still standing. They were now close enough that she could see that it was a man’s figure and he was making no effort to defend himself nor was he reacting to the number of wounds that he must have suffered. He stood in the street motionless, his arms by his side and his head hung low.

One by one, the hoodlums ran out of bullets, and ceased firing. Once the firing completely stopped, everyone, including Sofia, waited for his bullet riddled body to collapse into the street. Mesmerized by the unbelievable act of bravery and demonstration of strength the man had just displayed, Sofia had momentarily forgotten about her idea of escaping. Now, the only thing she was able to do was wait to see how long the man could stay on his feet.

The firing had stopped for several seconds and the man still stood, unwavering a few yards away from the cluster of trigger-happy assailants. Slowly, the statuesque figure raised his head and continued to make his way towards them. At this, the man that had been holding Sofia reached down for his weapon, completely releasing his grip on Sofia’s throat. Sofia quickly snapped back into the moment and turned to run for freedom.

As she leaned into her left leg for leverage to begin running, she was blindsided by a wave of dizziness that sent her sprawling into the asphalt. Looking back at the melee, she prepared herself to be pounced by at least one of her captors, but nothing happened. None of them was even looking in her direction. They were all concentrating on the man that was now only feet from them. He was no longer moving towards them, he was just standing before them, almost daring one of them to make a move.

Each of the men had unloaded their weapon firing at him, and now stood looking at one another in amazement. Their lack of training coupled with their poor technique had caused many of the bullets to miss their mark, although, judging by the tattered remains of what was clearly at one time a shirt, many of them had not. Sofia struggled to move into a position where she could better see the extent of the man’s wounds. As she did, one particularly ballsy individual reached out to strike the man with the butt of his gun, clearly thinking that a man with so many bullets resting inside of his torso would be too weak to resist. He was wrong.

The movement was swift and smooth as the dark figure reached up and stopped the young man’s arm before he could so much as begin his forward motion to strike. He moved so quickly and so precisely that it was as if he was able to read his mind. Pausing just long enough to look into the young man’s eyes for just a moment, he quickly swung his left hand up underneath the unsuspecting thug’s elbow. Forcing both of his hands skyward in a twisting motion, the vigilante ripped the arm completely out of its socket.

The young man squealed out in pain as he reached for what should have been the muscle of his shoulder only to grab a pocket of soft skin that dangled in its place; holding the inner workings of his arm like a gunnysack. As he held his flaccid, useless appendage, tears of pain filled his eyes. The others jumped back instantly, shocked by what they had just witnessed. They stared at their injured companion in awe for a moment as they tried to grasp what had happened, but they did not hesitate for long.

Two of the older members that clearly had a great deal of experience in fighting as a single unit quickly turned their attention back to the juggernaut, as he took a moment to enjoy the pain he had just inflicted. One dove at him from behind, locking his arms around the heroes’ biceps and torso. The other punched him fiercely in the gut, causing him to lean forward. The attacker from the rear rode the champion to the ground as he collapsed to his knees. This was just the opening the others needed to pile on.

They began to beat him mercilessly about his neck and back as he rested on his hands and knees. Sofia was now on the same level as her hero, and the two had a clear view of one another for the first time. It took her a second to realize who she was seeing. The clean-shaven face she had grown so accustomed to, and had seen only a short time ago, was now coated with a thick shadow of hair she never thought he was capable of growing. The remaining air was sucked from Sofia’s lungs as she was no longer able to deny the truth.

As she looked into Lucian’s eyes, there was only one explanation for what she was seeing. He had been telling her the absolute truth, and now she had no choice but to believe it. The amount of shock on Lucian’s face was unexpected. As he looked up at her, his expression had turned from one of concentration to one of surprise, and now his face was gnarled into an intense scowl. The muscles in his jaws tightened as he ground his teeth and his breathing quickened. Looking directly into his eyes, Sofia couldn’t help but notice how intensely the green portions of his irises shined in the darkness.

He slowly began to rise to his feet against the full force of the crowd as they pummeled him, finally standing upright in the center. He seemed to grow stronger with every blow as he stood there; and then Lucian began to retaliate. What followed was the most brutal and unbelievable thing that Sofia had ever seen. Not only had Lucian been shot countless times, but he had been beaten down by the group for several minutes as well, and yet he seemed completely unscathed as he began to dismantle the group.

His first strike was to the man that had been holding Sofia captive. It was a brutal punch to his sternum followed by a powerful strike to the ribs that caused a series of loud snapping sounds. The combination left the man breathless for several seconds. The others stopped their own attacks momentarily in awe at the quickness and power Lucian was able to generate. Considering the amount of abuse he had received to that point, what he had just managed was nothing short of spectacular. The man fell back against the building and slid down the wall until he sat gasping for air next to Sofia.

“I’ll be talking to you in a minute.” Lucian huffed at the man angrily. He then turned his attention back to the others and continued his masterful retaliation.

As he fought, his movements became faster, more precise, and more powerful with each strike; each attack becoming more brutal than the last. At first, based on the sheer number of attacks being thrown at him, Lucian was still absorbing a number of blows. But, within a few seconds, he began to block the vast majority of them. His movements were unbelievably fast and fluid. When the fight began, he was surrounded on all sides, and each member of the group was waging his own personal war on Lucian. Now, the men continued to surround him but the number of successful punches on the behalf of the crowd had been reduced drastically.

Realizing that they were doing no good, many of the thugs began opting for more calculated attacks rather than an unbridled onslaught. This turned out to be a huge mistake. As they waited for him to leave an opening, it allowed Lucian time to strike instead of block.

The first to leave an opening was a man of medium build that was wearing oversized black shorts that hung to nearly his ankles; a crisp, oversized white tee shirt; and a pair of black sneakers that he had left untied. Lucian struck him with a lightning fast kick to his chest with such force that he flew out of his untied shoes, and into the wall on the other side of the first man Lucian had attacked. The sound of his head smashing into the wall was all that Sofia needed to hear to know that he was dead. It hadn’t made a normal hollow bong, like that of a coconut, there was a distinct crushing sound followed by a short splat. Bouncing off the wall, his face smashed into the ground and he remained perfectly still, confirming what Sofia already knew.

Looking up at the wall where he had hit, Sofia could see that several of the bricks in the area where his chest and head had made contact with the wall, were now caved in. By the time she looked back to the fight Lucian had already taken out three more of the boys. The blows that had taken them out were equally deadly, as they lie scattered around in twisted heaps. As the crowd dwindled, things progressed much faster.

The final blows to the remaining men were very similar, and gave Sofia a glimpse at what she had been searching for in her pursuit of the murderous “group”. It no longer took more than a single blow for Lucian to end even the strongest combatants’ life. Six men remained, and Lucian hit each with some variation of the same move; a thunderous downward blow to the side or back of the neck, right near the ear. Death was instant for each of them.

Sofia could do little more than watch as her tormentors were murdered before her eyes. As opposed as she was to the idea of what had just happened, she had done nothing to stop Lucian. This was a very different point of view than she had ever allowed herself to observe such a situation from. She had never truly seen the criminal through the victims’ eyes.

Is this truly the justice what they deserve? She wondered silently. Clearly not in the eyes of the law, but she had to admit it was what she wanted deep down.

The small gang never stood a chance against Lucian once he began to transform and now only he remained standing in the center of the pile of broken bodies. Sofia still struggled to believe it, but everything that Lucian had told her was true.

As he fought, she had seen the blood, which was an extraordinarily small amount to start with given the amount of holes in his body, completely stop oozing from his wounds. His body was healing. His muscles rippled and strained against his skin. His speed had increased every second. His chest heaved as he looked over his conquest. He slowly turned his attention towards the only remaining survivor, Sofia’s would-be rapist.

Lucian walked over and squatted down aligning his face right with the other man’s face. Sofia couldn’t believe how big Lucian looked. This was not the man that she had come to know. This was a full-grown, well-developed, and absolutely ripped individual. His body was exquisite. His muscles bulged as if they were about to tear through the taut, leathery prison of skin that covered them. She thought she could actually hear his skin stretching to accommodate the amount of muscle mass that was being packed beneath it.

She could see the blood surging through veins that ran in the thin space between his muscle and skin. Examining the entry points of the bullets that had made contact, Sofia expected to see numerous huge holes, instead she saw nothing more than a few small pinholes that closed up and disappeared before her eyes. Although the actions that she had just witnessed were disgusting and abhorrent on nearly every level to her, Sofia couldn’t help how attracted to him she was in that moment. Seeing him in this massive form, mixed with how sensitive and wonderful she knew he could be, Sofia felt a raw, animalistic sexual attraction to Lucian like she had never felt before.